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iStock/Thinkstock(DOHA, Qatar) -- The world's major oil producers have failed to come to an agreement to freeze crude oil output.

Meeting in Doha, Qatar on Sunday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries members, and other exporters like Russia, were not able to come to an agreement to help ease the oil glut and address falling prices.

Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, Qatar's energy minister, said the oil producers needed "more time."

"The general conclusion was that we need more time to consult among ourselves in OPEC and non-OPEC producers," Sada said according to BBC.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, reportedly would only agree to freeze output if all OPEC members agreed, including Iran. Iran did not attend the Sunday meeting.

The next scheduled meeting for OPEC is in June.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
SARAH Champion met former servicemen and women with sight loss as she backed a military charitys campaign.

The Rotherham MP attended a reception held by Blind Veterans UK, which helps former services personnel to lead independent lives.

Around 6,000 veterans in Yorkshire are battling severe sight loss, the charity has estimated.

Ms Champion said: Im pleased to pledge my support to Blind Veterans UK and its No One Alone campaign to ensure that no veteran in Rotherham will have to battle blindness on their own.

Blind Veterans UKs services and support provides the life-changing help needed to ensure veterans can discover life beyond sight loss and we need to make sure that every veteran in Yorkshire knows this is available to them.

Mark Lovatt, Blind Veterans UKs director of welfare, said: This event has been important towards showing how important a role MPs, local authorities and blind associations have in signposting veterans to support, and how they can make sure every veteran with vision impairment knows about the specialist support available to them.

Were pleased so many representatives from Yorkshires local authorities have come along today to pledge their support and by launching this video today.

For more information, visit www.noonealone.org.uk or call 0800 389 7979.
YOBS threw stones at a train as it passed through Mexborough.

British Transport Police (BTP) said the outer skin of a window of a train travelling from Manchester Airport to Cleethorpes was damaged on April 7 at around 8.30pm.

The stones damaged a front side window of the train as it passed close to the Ferry Boat Lane footbridge in Mexborough.

PC Alek Marinkovic, of BTP, said: The stones smashed the outer skin of the front passenger side window. Fortunately, no-one was injured but the driver was left extremely shaken by what happened.

This type of reckless behaviour is criminal and dangerous and we would like your help in tracing those responsible.

If you have any information, please contact us.

Anyone who can help should contact British Transport Police on 0800 405040 or text 61016, quoting reference 402 of April 15.

Information can also be passed to Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
(businessoffashion.com) - The president of LVMHs watch division has always been a disruptor. But with the Tag Heuer Connected watch, has he got the solution to a Swiss watch industry in decline? The industry is not in trouble, the world is in trouble, he says. While hes currently charged with running TAG Heuer (of which he is chief executive), Hublot and the lesser-known Zenith, outside watch circles, the name of Jean-Claude Biver carries little weight. But inside those circles, the JCB initials alone induce reverence. At times like these, the industry looks to Biver for answers. What is he doing to reverse the trend? Last year he slashed the prices of TAG Heuer watches, repositioning the brand for a younger audience after a decade spent pursuing the super-rich with low-volume, six-figure complications. At the same time, he signed Cara Delevingne, Cristiano Ronaldo and most recently Formula 1 upstarts Red Bull Racing. Then in November last year, TAG Heuer released its TAG Heuer Connected, Switzerlands most aggressive answer to the Apple Watch. He claims its flying off the shelves. If you have never worn a watch, the effort to wear a watch is much bigger than if you have been wearing an information tool on the wrist since you were 15 years old. The Connected watch is the best promotional tool for the mechanical watch, Biver says.
In a joint session between a Chinese trade delegation and Irans Gold, Jewelry, Silver and Precious Stones Producers and Exporters Association was held recently, the two sides agreed to sign MoUs to launch joint cooperation, given Chinas vast gold reserves as well as its capabilities in technologies associated with jewelry manufacturing, reports Mehr News Agency.

The Chairman of Gold, Jewelry, Silver and Precious Stones Producers and Exporters Association, Abdollah Mohammadvali noted it was agreed during the session that China will collaborate with Iran on importing machines available for cutting precious stones and certain actions will be taken in the short run."

China possesses good mines and massive gold reserves, highlighted Mohammadvali asserting importing of raw materials was also dealt with as a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed after conducting necessary studies.

The official deemed investment in establishing joint gold factories in the two countries as yet another axis of talks adding the preliminary arrangements need to be made before signing agreements.

Mohammadvali stressed that Iran has no diamond reserves and continued enjoying a good jewelry market, China is eager to boost ties with Iran in areas of artworks and handcrafts.

Mohammadvali reiterated that jewelry production could create great job opportunities in the country.



Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished




Top Chinese banks will be among 18 members to join a new yuan-denominated gold benchmark that signals China's biggest step towards becoming a price-setter for the metal, as per a Reuters report.

China, the world's top producer, importer and consumer of gold, is unwilling to depend on a dollar price in international transactions; and believes its market weight should entitle it to set the price of gold.

The yuan gold fix, to be launched on April 19, is not expected to pose an immediate threat to the gold pricing dominance of London and New York, but it could ultimately give Asia more power, particularly if the Chinese currency becomes fully convertible.

According to the report, the Chinese benchmark price will be derived from a 1 kg-contract to be traded by the 18 members on the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), which will act as the central counterparty. The price-setting process will include China's big four state-owned banks, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank, the SGE said in a statement on its website.

Bank of Communications, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Minsheng Banking Corp, Industrial Bank Co, Ping An Bank and Shanghai Bank will also participate.

Bank of China (Hong Kong), retailers Chow Tai Fook and Lao Feng Xiang, Swiss trading house MKS, Chinese miners China National Gold Group and Shandong Gold Group will also be members, SGE said.

The benchmark price, to be quoted in yuan per gram, will be set twice a day based on a few minutes of trading in each session.



Aruna Gaitonde, Editor-in- Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished




Lucara Diamond said its first exceptional stone tender of 2016 from its Karowe Mine in Botswana earned the company $51.3 million or $33,632 per carat.

The tender was completed on April 13 and consisted of 10 single stone lots, totaling 1,525 carats.

The company said seven diamonds were sold for more than $2 million each, including four stones, which sold for over $5 million each.

A 296.7 carat Type IIa diamond went up for $12.19 million, while the 245.4 carat diamond was sold for $10.49 million.

Lucara also said that its 119.0 carat diamond was sold for the highest price per carat of $58,931/ct.

"The results from this tender continue to demonstrate the strength of the exceptional stone market. We are very pleased with the quality of the diamonds being recovered which is evident in the consistent average value per carat achieved," said company chief executive William Lamb.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




At the time, an Arabic-speaking Southwest employee came and escorted him off the plane and asked him why he had been speaking Arabic. After he sustained he was a victim of discrimination he was told he could not get back on the plane. Southwest Airlines said in a statement Sunday that Makhzoomi, was taken off the flight for questioning and the plane took off while that was happening. Even the FBI was involved in this case. The FBI in Los Angeles said in a statement that it investigated the situation and found no further action was necessary. Human dignity is the most valuable thing in the world, not money. If they apologized, maybe it would teach them to treat people equally, Makhzoomi said to the media. The incident in Los Angeles was followed by a similar removal of a Southwest passenger from a flight in Baltimore on Wednesday.
BNSF recently announced that its engineering team and other partners have successfully completed the new second main line track, now in service, across the Emporia Subdivision, which runs from Kansas City to Wellington, Kansas. This is part of the railroads multi-year work on its Southern Transcon.
The Georgia Ports Authority closed out Fiscal Year 2022 with its busiest June ever, handling 494,107 twenty-foot equivalent container units. GPA is handling the highest volume of ad hoc and new service vessels the Port of Savannah has experienced to date.
The mayor of Quebec City, Mr Regis Labeaume, in the presence of Quebec province's premier Mr Philippe Couillard and the president of Capital Transport Network (RTC) Mr Remy Normand, has unveiled a $C 2.9bn ($US 2.22bn) plan to expand the city's public transport network, as the existing bus-based system is at maximum capacity in several locations.

The plan has four components:

construction of a 23km (14.29 mile) light-rail line of which 3.5km (2 miles) would be underground

construction of a 17km (10.5 mile) rubber-tyred trambus

provision of 16km (9.9 miles) of dedicated public transit right-of-way, and

provision of 110km (6.2 miles) of a hybrid-power metrobus network.

The U-shaped light rail line will run from Le Gendre via Sainte-Foy West, and Laval University to Louis XIV. It will have conventional overhead electrification, and a maximum gradient of 8 percent. The LRVs will be bidirectional with a capacity of 260 passengers and will run at 3-5-minute headways during peak periods. Services will operate between 05.00 and 01.00.

The objective is that 65 percent of the population, or 344,000 people, will be within 800m of one of the new public transport components, with at least 80 percent of neighbourhoods served by at least one component, and 85 percent of companies served by the network.

The cost of the project includes both infrastructure and vehicles, while another $C 300m (US$231.5 million) will be needed for related work.

By 2019, Quebec City wants to sign a financing agreement with the provincial and possibly the Canadian federal governments, finalise the business case, and complete design studied for the infrastructure and rolling stock.

Plans and specifications will be completed in 2020-2021 along with approval of the environmental aspects. Construction of the light-rail line and depot is expected to start in 2022 with a view to opening the line in 2026.

For more detailed data on urban rail projects, subscribe to IRJ Pro.
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Editors Pick

Pfizer Inc. expects to increase the price of its COVID-19 vaccine after the United States government's current purchase program expires, Reuters reported citing Pfizer executive Angela Lukin. The drug major is likely to quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine to about $110 to $130 per dose.

Integrated payments company American Express reported on Friday the net profit for the third quarter grew three percent from last year, driven by double-digit revenue growth across all its operating segments, partially offset by higher provisions for credit losses. Earnings per share topped analysts' estimates, while quarterly revenues missed it by a whisker.

Department store chain TJX Companies Inc. is recalling 108,000 units of Mittal International Baby Blankets citing risks to children, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. According to the agency, the threads in the recalled woven baby blankets can come loose and detach posing choking, entrapment and strangulation hazards.
Aggression jets, hirelings still breach truce in Yemen





SANAA, April 18 (Saba)  The Saudi aggression warplanes and its mercenaries continued on Monday, for the eighth day in row, to breach the ceasefire in the capital, Sanaa, and in a number of provinces.



A military official told Saba that the aggression surveillance planes hovered in the sky of the capital.



The Saudi-led coalition war jets continued to fly at low level in Saada province and dropped sound bombs on the province border district of Munabih, the official said.



He added that the hostile warplanes flew intensively over the sky of Hodeidah province, al-Amri area in Taiz and Jawf province with opening the sonic barrier.



In Mareb province, the aggression war jets waged an air raid on Serwah district and continued hovering in the sky of the province, another military official said.



The official pointed out that the aggression hirelings tried to advance toward Hailan mountain in Mareb under the intensive flying of the warplanes.



The mercenaries violations to the truce continued in Dhale province, where they pounded Yaeis area in Damt district.



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[19/April/2016]
50% of Indian mobile users wish to upgrade to new device in 5G era

About 50 per cent of smartphone users in India plan to buy a new device within the first year as 5G ...
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Here's what the new Docking State Office Building could look like
Actor George Clooney would like to get big money out of politics  so he doesn't have to raise it.

Clooney hosted two weekend fundraisers in California on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Donations for attendees at an event in San Francisco topped out at $353,000 per couple, which Clooney acknowledges is an "obscene amount of money."

The event even drew pro-Bernie Sanders demonstrators, Clooney recounted in an interview airing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." When he went to talk with them, he said, they called him a corporate shill.

"That's one of the funnier things you could say about me," the Oscar-winner said, though he conceded that some of the protesters had a valid point regarding a different matter.

"Their T-shirts said, you know, 'You sucked as Batman,'" said Clooney, the star of 1997's "Batman & Robin," one of the least memorable films in the superhero franchise. "And I was like, 'Well, you kind of got me on that one.'"

Asked on CNN Sunday whether Clooney was siding with the wrong candidate, Sanders replied, "I think he is. " But he praised Clooney with being honest enough to name the problem of big money in politics.

Sanders has financed his campaign by relying on millions of small individual donations, averaging about $27 per contribution.

Clooney said he likes many of Sanders' ideas and would gladly raise money for the Vermont senator if he became the Democratic nominee. But the actor said he is supporting Clinton because of his admiration of her work as secretary of state, and he praised her for her efforts to avert a humanitarian crisis ahead of South Sudan's independence.

Clooney faulted Clinton for not better explaining where the money she is raising goes. Most of it, he said, would end up being spent on down-ballot races including those for the Senate, which will confirm the next president's picks for the Supreme Court.

If the right justice is confirmed for the spot now open on the court, Clooney said, political campaigns could "get this obscene, ridiculous amount of money out so I never have to do a fundraiser again."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday his country will never withdraw from the Golan Heights and the strategic plateau bordering Syria will forever stay in Israeli hands.

In a ceremonial Cabinet meeting in the Golan marking the one-year anniversary of his current government's formation, Netanyahu said he doubts Syria will ever return to what it was before the devastating civil war that has gripped it for more than five years.

He said he would not oppose diplomatic efforts to stabilize Syria as long as they didn't come at the expense of Israel's security. Netanyahu added that, regardless, the border would not change and it was time for the world to finally recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan.

"I chose to have this festive Cabinet meeting on the Golan Heights to send a clear message: The Golan Heights will forever remain in Israeli hands," he said. "It's time, after 50 years, that the international community finally recognizes that the Golan will forever remain under Israeli sovereignty."

The remarks drew quick condemnation from Syria, which lays claim to the territory under international law.

Syria's Foreign Ministry lodged complaints with the U.N. Secretary General and Security Council over the Cabinet meeting, calling it "reckless" and "provocative." It called on the international community to push Israel out of what it called the, "occupied Syrian Golan."

Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981. An Israeli withdrawal was long seen as a key to any Israel-Syria peace agreement.

But as Syria began to disintegrate, the odds of Israel giving up the Golan  never a popular prospect among Israelis  have dimmed.

Since the aftermath of the 1973 Mideast war, the Golan has been the quietest of Israel's front lines, a place of hiking trails, bird-watching and winery tours.

Constantly looming in the background was the prospect of the Golan eventually returning to Syria as part of a peace accord. A plateau that looms over northern Israel, the Golan is considered by Israelis to be vital to their security and, unlike the West Bank, has carried far less political baggage.

Israel has largely stayed on the sidelines of the Syrian civil war and refrained from directly intervening. However, Netanyahu last week confirmed for the first time that Israel, as long suspected, had in fact struck a number of advanced weapon shipments from Syria to Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.
Dear Editor,

Re: Chiefs not satisfied, complaint elevated

The whole concept adopted by the government to invigorate economic growth by subjecting to outside banking initiatives is down right wrong.

The founding fathers of Samoa when we got our independence from the Imperialist were wise in their decision to control outside influence.

They knew very well that this was going to happen when we open up Samoa to the globalist agenda.

Sacrificing our indigenous rights of land ownership for economic growth will lead us down to a road of self destruction of our Matai system, our cultural heritage and our social well being as Samoans.

Looking at ones identity is like whitewashing ones history from the face of the earth. The globalist agenda to enslave the people of the world by enticing them to borrow to stimulate their economies and using their assets (land) to collateralize these loans is unacceptable. There are so many examples in history that we can draw from to verify our concern.

The well thrived Egyptian culture came to an end when the Greeks invaded Kemet, changed their name to Egypt and took over their land. They created the first white Pharaoh in Egypt and declared him as Serapis Christus. The fictitious character they sold us when they came in 1830 with their Corporations. Do some research then you will find out the truth. Im at awe that only a few of our people are aware of this monstrosity of deception by the government to undo the lock and key custodial law that was in place to protect our land.

O fea o iai le tofa mamao ma le utaga loloto, le moe manatunatu e pei sa iai tuaa ua momoe mai tia. Ona ou manatua ai lea ole tagi talatala a si loomatua Savaii e faapea, E talofae, e fasi ane lava si au tama ao fea o i ai Lilomaiava, e fasi ane lava si au tama, ao fea o iai Le tagaloa,e fasi ane lava si au tama ao fea o iai le Tapaau ole Alataua....ao fea o iai le Laulu. E faapena le tagi uu ale loomatua Upolu. E fasi ane lava si au tama ao fea o iai Papa e fa. Ona momomo ai lea ole loto aua ua galo ia Samoa mea sina a si o tatou atunuu.

I am in full support of these wise men of Samoa that are standing in solidarity to question the law and to protect the sanctity of our Samoan heritage.

The law of Cause and Effect will prevail. The equatorial balance has to maintain to quantify the truth, which is the divine presence of universal principles.

Ia manuia si tatou atunuu pele o Samoa.

Leiataua RB




A man and a woman found guilty of running a money-making scam in Samoa have asked the Court for permission to leave the country  and return when the Court of Appeal sits.

Nicolas Giannos and Rosita Stanfield, who are appealing their jail sentences, made the application through their lawyer, Leota Raymond Schuster.

Giannos has been handed a three-year prison term while Stanfield has received a 12-month jail term. Their sentences were handed down by Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu.

Yesterday, Leota told the Court his clients wanted to return to the United Kingdom where they are originally from. He said they have been away from their families for a long time and they want to see them.

But Prosecution lawyer, Lucy Sio, of the National Prosecution Office, objected to the application. She added that her Office had not received the application.

According to the Courts records, however, the application from Leota was filed on 24 March 2016.

Patu then adjourned the matter until Monday 2 May 2016 for the prosecution to respond to the application.

Outside Court, Leota said the application was made because the defendants want to see their relatives in the United Kingdom.

He said the Court of Appeal does not sit until October and his clients are asking to leave jurisdiction and return when the Court resumes.

The accused are out on bail.

Giannos and Stanfield were stopped from leaving Samoa and arrested at the Faleolo International Airport last year.

Giannos and Stanfield were jointly charged with Faatoafe Mati Silao with eight counts of obtaining by deception pursuant to s.172 of the Crimes Act 2013.

Giannos was also charged with two individual counts of false accounting pursuant to s.198 of the Act.

At the conclusion of the evidence for the prosecution, defence counsel made a submission of no case to answer on behalf of the three accused in respect of all the charges.

The Chief Justice ruled on 8 October 2015 that there was no case to answer in relation to the accused Fa'atoafe Mati Silao in respect of the eight joint counts of obtaining by deception with which he was charged.

Those counts against Faatoafe were therefore dismissed and he was discharged.

The Court also ruled that there was no case to answer in reference to the accused Giannos and Stanfield being jointly charged with two counts of obtaining by deception.

That left six joint counts of obtaining by deception against Giannos and Stanfield and two individual counts of false accounting against Giannos alone.
The Police Commissioner, Fuiava Egon Keil, issued a brief response yesterday to a report by Ombudsman Maiava Iulai Toma lambasting him and his officers in relation to the wrongful arrest of a member of the public.

The Samoa Police has great respect and reverence for the laws of Samoa and sensitive to every persons Constitutional Rights, Fuiava said in a statement.

The Samoa Police will continue to do whatever it takes within the law to keep our country and our people safe.

The Commissioner declined to answer any further questions.

The response from the Commissioner follows criticisms in the findings of an investigation by the Ombudsmans Office over a complaint made by a member of the public, Suitupe Misa, over an incident at the Fugalei market on 18 August 2015.

Described as a watershed moment in the history of Samoa, the incident saw the Police use firearms in a public place to carry out a pre-planned arrest of an individual.

Mr. Misa was arrested at gunpoint by a contingent of armed plain clothed officers in front of a shocked and distressed Fugalei marketplace.

It transpired that Mr. Misa had committed no crime and the arrest was carried out based on insubstantial and second-hand evidence.

Mr. Misa lodged a complaint against the Police, which was investigated by the Ombudsmans Office. The findings of the investigation raise serious questions about the actions of the Police and the Commissioner.

The Commissioner of Police failed to meet basic investigation principles and placed undue consideration on second hand evidence, leading directly to the wrongful and unlawful arrest of Suitupe, one the reports findings reads.

The Commissioners decision to arm and allow the use of firearms by his officers contravened the Use of Force policy, was irresponsible, and could negatively impact the overall safety and security within Samoa.

The Commissioner failed to take appropriate steps to identify the actions of his officers as being part of a police operation, leading to widespread distress and in one case serious health issues.

The investigation also found that the Commissioner does not have an understanding of the basic laws regarding arrest and detention in Samoa.

Incidentally, the report says the arrest was unlawful and improperly undertaken and therefore violated his fundamental human right to liberty.

According to the Ombudsman, the findings clearly demonstrate a series of errors of judgment and unlawful actions that are nowhere near what we should be able to expect from our Police force.

It is without question that the more serious of these issues must be addressed, Maiava concludes.

The unlawful nature of the arrest, the Commissioners lack of understanding of the law and the failings in the investigation. Whether this happens in the public domain or behind closed doors, it does not matter.

What matters is that it happens sooner rather than later to prevent Samoa going further down the path towards a style of policing that will undoubtedly undermine our culture and lead to a more fearful and less secure society, as has been demonstrated in many other jurisdictions.

This very sorry affair has highlighted a dangerous trend towards greater use of firearms by the Police, a tendency towards an American style of policing (America has its own set of circumstances) and a disregard for the law within our law enforcement agency.

However, it is now up to the relevant people to ensure that this type of incident does not occur again. It is also up to each and every one of us to work towards greater community engagement with our Police officers.

Without trust and support, law enforcement becomes reliant on use of force rather than communication. Guns, rather than words. There will be times when fear makes it tempting to call for greater use of firearms by the Police but let us draw strength from the faasamoa and from examples around the world such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom and be resolute in our commitment to peaceful and respectful law enforcement.

The report was published in full in the Sunday Samoan (http://sobserver.ws/en/17_04_2016/local/5045/Police-slammed.htm).
They say the older the grape the sweeter the juice and thats exactly how things are for a sweet old lady from Afega, Saleaula and Safai.

Mitavale Levaopolo Sione, born 18 April 1907, celebrated her 109th birthday yesterday, making her possibly the oldest person in Samoa.

When the Samoa Observer contacted the Samoa Bureau of Statistics, an official said they could not confirm the age of the oldest person in Samoa.

She said it is very difficult to find out who the oldest person alive in Samoa is but she said it is very likely that Mitavale holds that title.

For the birthday girl though, that doesnt matter. Every day is a blessing.

Her 55-year-old grandson Levaopolo Pauni spoke on behalf of Mitavale.

The old lady had only four children with three boys and one girl, he said. The three boys passed away and my mom, who is 78, is the only child left.

Her husband Titae Aga also passed away a while back.

We are on the 5th generation of children right now which is great because she (Mitavale) gets to see her great grandchildren grow up and they can spend quality time together.

Levaopolo along with other family members have done so much to look after Mitavale so that she may live peacefully.

I have lived with the old lady as far as I can remember and I just moved away recently, I dedicated a lot of time to look after her in her old age, he said.

She worked as a caregiver for the old back in the days and she loved to bless people.

Shes (Mitavale) a dedicated Methodist church member; she is very strong in her faith and I believe thats one reason she has lived all these years.

From the first time she received her pension she would tell us all not to use a single bit of it but to give it all for work of the church; even till this day every cent of her pension goes into her offerings at church.

The birthday lady was described as a non-picky person when it comes to her meals.

Right now she doesnt eat taro but she loves to eat bananas, she is not picky with her food which makes her easy to take care of because there are a few old people out there that are so demanding, Levaopolo said.

Shes thankful for any food given to her and she happily eats it all; as for beverages, she loves to drink koko and lemon leaf tea.

Her grandchildren feel very blessed that Mitavale has stuck around all this time.

We always give thanks to the lord for blessing her with so many years, we know that her strength comes from the source of all strength and that is God, Levaopolo said,

We continue to pray for many more years to come and so she could continue to bring joy to our family.

As the birthday girl was preparing for her photo, she insisted that she combs her own hair and began to dance and sing songs showing so much strength. She believes that you are only as old as you feel.
Sacramento, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2016 -- The representatives of the 24Biz company have reported that 36% of college students in Kansas apply for payday loans on a regular basis. This fact could not but surprised the government of the country, taking into account the economic development of the state. This is what one of the representatives of the government told in his recent interview: "Kansas is one of the most economically developed US states nowadays. As of today, it occupies the 8th position in the country for oil extraction amounts. This is not to mention such successful industry branches as agriculture, mineral mining, aviation etc. That is why, we are so surprised to find out that more than 1/3 of college students apply for cash advance services today and believe that this problem should be addressed the sooner  the better". More info on this issue is now available at http://24biz.biz/payday-loans/KS/.



24biz.biz is one of the leading US companies that offers round-the-clock professional help in obtaining same-day cash advance services to the residents of those states, where the procedure is officially allowed. The company strives for meeting the needs and requirements of their clients and, thus, makes everything possible to analyze and improve the level of servicing they provide day and night. "Cash advance is a convenient way of obtaining credit in a fast and that's totally online 24/7. High Approval Rate (up to 98%) and instant transfer of money to your bank account are main benefits of payday loans. This is really "fast money" with the minimum requirements,"  underline the 24biz experts.



According to the results of the recent research conducted by the company in Kansas, around 36% of some college students have applied for a loan both online and offline during 2015-2016. This is quite a high figure, taking into account the overall profitability of the economy sector of Kansas. The amount of high school students, who are over 18 years old and meet the requirements set by the company to get a short-term loan, was quite high as well, constituting 33%. Speaking about the entire Kansas population, 24Biz managed to find out that 5.4% of the state's adult residents availed cash advance services in 2015-2016, with the average loan per one person $380.



As of today, 24Biz.biz grants payday loans in two ways, namely at their website and in local off-line credit stores that are situated in each state. The contact data of each office are provided at the official website of the company as well. For Kansas residents, local representatives are found in Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Olathe and Topeka.



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Boston, MA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2016 -- Colombia's energy sector is nearing an inflection point. While the past decade saw strong production growth due to improvements in the business and security environment, we caution the country will experience downward pressure on oil and gas production over the next decade. The tendency toward smaller finds, as well as continued pipeline attacks will decrease private investor interest in Colombia's resources. Further, sustained lower oil prices have threatened the development of upstream and downstream projects by national and international investors.



Latest Updates And Key Forecasts



Colombia narrowly met its 2015 oil production target of 1.0mn bbl per day (b/d), averaging 1.005mn b/d, a 1.8% increase versus 2014. The 2015 target had been reduced from 1.03mn b/d in June. Natural gas production averaged over 6.0% lower in 2015 reflecting the suspension of the Riohacha gas field in August.



Get More Details on this Report and a Full Table of Contents at Colombia Oil & Gas Report Q2 2016



Colombia's oil sector has reached a critical turning point as lower oil prices weaken upstream prospects. Although the government cut its own production target for the year to 944,000 barrels per day (b/d) on January 25, we believe there is growing risk output will underperform. Continued downside weakness in benchmark oil prices will render many existing projects uneconomic and undermine upstream development in 2016.



Following its credit downgrade on January 18, Ecopetrol announced a series of cost-cutting actions in February with hopes of saving USD471mn. These include the sale of non-core assets, a 10% reduction of its workforce and a freeze in operational expenditures at 50% of 2015 levels. This was followed by a USD300mn loan from Bancolombia on February 23.



The modernised Refineria de Cartagena SA (Reficar) is expected to reach full capacity in March 2016. This will add 85,000 b/d of downstream capacity which will service growing domestic demand over the next several years. Although reports surfaced in February regarding USD4.0bn in cost overruns, the increase in downstream capacity will support growing domestic demand.



On January 4, Venezuelan national oil company (NOC) PdVSA indefinitely postponed its plans to export natural gas to Colombia via the Antonio Ricaurte pipeline amid stronger domestic demands. This leaves Colombia's power mix reliant on alternative feedstock to service its growing power demands until LNG imports commence at the end of 2016.



The Colombia Oil & Gas Report has been researched at source and features BMI Research's independent forecasts for Colombia including major indicators for oil, gas and LNG, covering all major indicators including reserves, production, consumption, refining capacity, prices, export volumes and values. The report includes full analysis of industry trends and prospects, national and multinational companies and changes in the regulatory environment.



BMI's Colombia Oil & Gas Report provides professionals, consultancies, government departments, regulatory bodies and researchers with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on the Colombian oil and gas industry.



Key Benefits

Benchmark BMI's independent oil and gas industry forecasts for Colombia to test consensus views - a key input for successful budgeting and strategic business planning in the Colombian oil and gas market.

Target business opportunities and risks in the Colombian oil and gas sector through reviews of latest industry trends, regulatory changes and major deals, projects and investments in Colombia.

Assess the activities, strategy and market position of your competitors, partners and clients via our Company Profiles (inc. SWOTs, KPIs and latest activity) and Competitive Landscape Tables.



Coverage



BMI Industry View



Summary of BMI?s key forecasts and industry analysis, covering oil and gas reserves, supply, demand and refining, plus analysis of landmark company developments and key changes in the regulatory environment.



Industry SWOT Analysis



Analysis of the major Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats within the upstream and downstream sectors and within the broader political, economic and business environment.



BMI Industry Forecasts



Historic data series and forecasts to end-2024 for all key industry indicators, supported by explicit assumptions, plus analysis of key downside risks to the main forecast:

Pricing: Oil price (USD/bbl, WTI, Brent, OPEC basket, Urals); oil products prices (unleaded gasoline, gasoil/diesel, jet/kerosene ? USD/bbl) at global hubs.

Production, Consumption, Capacity & Reserves: Proven oil reserves (bn barrels), production, consumption, refinery capacity and throughputs (?000b/d); proven gas reserves (tcm), production and consumption (bcm) and fuels trade.



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Deerfield Beach, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2016 -- Global and China Vascular Plethysmographs Market 2016-2021 Market Research Report



The report on the Global and China Vascular Plethysmographs Market 2016 Industry meticulously addresses the various drivers, restraints, and opportunities that exist in this space. Compiled by a team of expert analysts, the report offers an overview of the all the key performance indicators of the Global and China Vascular Plethysmographs Market 2016 Industry.



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The study analyzes the Global and China Vascular Plethysmographs Market 2016 Industry in terms of revenue and volume, where applicable. By doing so, the team of authors working on this report have been able to offer a complete and realistic picture of the future course that the Global and China Vascular Plethysmographs Market 2016 is expected to adopt.

All internal and external factors influencing the growth trajectory of the Global and China Vascular Plethysmographs Market 2016 Industry are taken into account. With a firm focus on the companies that compete for a share of revenues within the Global and China Vascular Plethysmographs Market 2016 Industry, the report is a valuable resource that supports competition mapping and strategy development.



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Furthermore, the report takes into consideration all the major stakeholders in the Global and China Vascular Plethysmographs Market 2016 Industry and analyzes their standing in the grander picture over the forecast period. For instance, it strives to offer an understanding of the bargaining power of buyers based on the degree of competition as well as the availability of options in the Global and China Vascular Plethysmographs Market 2016 Industry.



The Global and China Vascular Plethysmographs Market 2016 Industry report also maps the technological landscape to understand where the Industry is headed in terms of innovation. This allows clients to foresee imminent shifts in the regulatory, demand, as well as competitive landscape in the Global and China Vascular Plethysmographs Market 2016 Industry. Overall, this Industry research report is poised to answer all critical questions that a business faces in a bid to sustain and fortify its Industry standing.



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New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2016 -- Ferrochromium, also known as Ferrochrome, is an alloy of iron and chromium containing 50 to 70% of chromium. It is produced by electric arc melting of chromium ore and chromite. Ferrochromium is consumed extensively in the manufacturing of steel to achieve the qualities such as corrosion resistance, tensile strength, heat resistance and yield strength. The global ferrochromium market is anticipated to be in deficit to cater the increasing global steel market in near future. Ferrochromium is mostly produced in India, China, South Africa and Kazakhstan because of large chromite resources found in these countries. The global ferrochromium market is witnessing a modest single digit CAGR growth up till now and is expected to continue in future.



Ferrochromium is having its maximum share of consumption in steel industry and due to the ever increasing construction and demand of steel the global ferrochromium market is forecasted to flourish. In order to get a continuous supply of raw material for ferrochrome, China has established its operations in the countries like Turkey, South Africa, Philippines and Zimbabwe which would boost the global ferrochromium market in future. Due to the favourable conditions like lower electricity price and lower labour cost in upcoming markets like China, the production cost reduces comparatively. This will boost the production of ferrochrome to suffice its increasing demand and will contribute in global ferrochromium market.



The global ferrochromium market can get hampered because of the increase in the export tax and fixed export quotas imposed by South Africa on chrome ore, owing to the concern of losing ferrochromium market to China. South Africa is having a significant market share in global ferrochromium market but there are concerns of power supply and higher production cost which would lead to the closure of small competitors and is estimated to slowdown the global ferrochromium market.



Based on the carbon percentage, the global ferrochromium market is segmented as -

Extra low carbon ferrochromium powder

Low carbon ferrochromium powder

High carbon ferrochromium powder

Extra high carbon ferrochromium powder



Based in the available form, the global ferrochromium market is segmented as 

Ferrochromium slag

Ferrochromium powder



Interested in report: Please follow the below the links to meet your requirements; Request for the Report Brochure: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/10046



Based on the application, the global ferrochromium market is segmented as 

Ball bearing steels

Acid resistant steels

Cast irons

Powder metallurgy

Others (civil engineering, refractory materials)



The global ferrochromium market can be divided into five regions, namely North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific is having the maximum market share in global ferrochromium market, China and India are the countries having an excellent steel market, so these countries are significant in the consumption of ferrochrome. China is expanding its capacity to import chrome ore for the production of ferrochrome from the countries like South Africa, Turkey, Zimbabwe. Middle East and Africa are also marking a significant growth in the global ferrochromium market, Especially South Africa is having plenty of chromite resources for the production of ferrochrome. Europe is an emerging market in the field of ferrochrome and is anticipated to have a considerable market in future due to the flourishing automobile sector in the region. North America and Latin America is at a nascent stage in the global ferrochromium market.



Request TOC (table of content), Figures and Tables of the Report: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/10046



Some of the key players in global ferrochromium market are, Nava Bharat Ventures Limited, VISA STEEL, Balasore Alloys Limited, Aarti Steels Ltd, SR Group, Vyankatesh Metals & Alloys Pvt. Ltd



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Key points covered in the report

1) Report segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable)

2) The report covers geographic segmentation



North America

Europe

Asia

RoW



3) The report provides the market size and forecast for the different segments and geographies for the period of 2010 to 2020

4) The report provides company profiles of some of the leading companies operating in the market

5) The report also provides porters five forces analysis of the market.



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PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients' business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMR's engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.
An international team of entomologists has described a new species of dragonfly from Annamense Mountains in eastern Cambodia and southern Laos.

The newfound species, named Asiagomphus reinhardti, is about 2.4 inches (6 cm) long.

It lives close to mountain streams in a remote border region between Cambodia and Laos.

So far, only male specimens are known: a black body with yellow spots and green eyes, the scientists said.

As a larva they live for numerous year dug in the mud bottom.

The species is named in honor of Prof. Klaus Reinhardt, a biologist at the Technische Universitat Dresden, Germany.

Having a newly discovered animal or plant species named after oneself is one of the most beautiful awards for a biologist, Prof. Reinhardt commented.

Im extraordinarily honored, for sure, but there are a lot of other dragonfly researchers who would have deserved this award before me.

Research describing the new species is published online in the journal Zootaxa.

_____

Oleg E. Kosterin & Naoto Yokoi. 2016. Asiagomphus reinhardti sp. nov. (Odonata, Gomphidae) from eastern Cambodia and southern Laos. Zootaxa, vol. 4103, no. 1; doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4103.1.3
Vaccine programmes can trigger fears of conspiracies and oppression. Its time they got more collaborative.

The world is becoming more crowded. People flock to cities, millions flee smouldering conflicts in refugee camps, and some countries experience population booms.

As peoples space for living, building and farming shrinks, the challenges go beyond providing shelter, infrastructure and job opportunities: health becomes a serious issue as diseases spread quickly in cramped conditions.

Vaccines against some common and contagious diseases are widely available, meant to be making epidemic prevention easy. But fear of vaccinations is a real problem.



Vaccine resistance

Take the attack on a polio vaccination centre in Quetta, Pakistan earlier this year. A bomb attributed to the Taliban killed 13 policemen and two others, causing the government to suspend polio vaccinations in the region until more security could be organised.

Each individual case of vaccine reluctance needs its own individual response  be it an explanatory website or a conjoined international diplomatic effort. Inga Vesper, SciDev.Net

The attack was widely condemned  but some claimed it was a justified defence against a Western conspiracy to sterilise Muslim children. Many people believed them.

Even people fleeing oppressive and fundamentalist regimes like the Taliban or the Islamic State (ISIS) often retain such suspicions. In the cramped Calais refugee camps, Medecins Sans Frontieres is running flu and measles vaccine campaigns to prevent outbreaks. But they have a hard time convincing residents to visit the clinic. In fact, many residents are actively dissuading others from getting vaccinated, spreading rumours on what the jab is all about.

Some people think its sterilisation, or that we are infecting people with HIV/AIDs, an MSF nurse working in the camp told SciDev.Net. They say its the governments way of controlling the refugees.

The rumours are so persistent and widespread that MSF has resorted to vaccinating anyone who volunteers in full view of the community to show that the jabs are safe.

Fear of vaccination is one example of difficulties that arise when modern healthcare meets customs, beliefs, experiences and traditions  and it is not limited to the developing world, as the case of the MMR vaccine and fear of autism has shown.

Language barriers also hamper education campaigns. And, for many Africans, incidences of horrific abuse from the past cloud the image of modern medicine.

In the 1990s, scientists recruited Zimbabweans for HIV/AIDS research without properly informing them of the risks, and many participants became infected with HIV/AIDS. Up until the 1980s, forced sexual reassignment surgery was conducted on homosexual black people in South Africa as part of medical experiments.



Health fallout

So, it is no wonder that modern vaccination programmes are regarded with suspicion in many parts of the world. But the health implications of such misperception are evident.

While polio was nearly eradicated in many countries in South Asia in the early 2000s, it is now making a comeback. And circumstantial evidence suggests deaths from hepatitis and tuberculosis are skyrocketing in ISIS-held areas of Syria, where the diseases were previously under control thanks to widespread vaccination programmes.

Some people think its sterilisation, or that we are infecting people with HIV/AIDs. Nurse in the Calais refugee camps, MSF

Fear of vaccination is a longstanding problem. In Sub-Saharan Africa, programmes to combat measles and tetanus only progress slowly, and no doubt lingering suspicions towards the supervising Western doctors play a part. In Nigeria, a polio vaccine was widely boycotted in 2003 because local officials so mistrusted the government they believed rumours that the vaccine spread cancer.

What this suggests is that international health organisations and national health authorities are struggling to adapt their vaccine campaigns to address lingering concerns and meet cultural expectations. The problem of immunisation reluctance is widely known, yet few health authorities are making concerted efforts about it.

This is because the issue goes beyond merely providing better information. According to Unicef, people resist vaccines for many reasons. Culture and belief play a part, as does history. And sometimes its about how the vaccine is delivered. During polio vaccinations in India, for example, people from Uttar Pradesh did not want doctors from New Delhi to do the vaccinations for fear there would be no one to turn to in case of complications.

And in Pakistan, militant groups in North Waziristan said they condoned attacks on polio vaccinators to flag up what they termed Western hypocrisy: American health workers were administering vaccines at time when many children were killed by sustained US drone attacks against Pakistani targets.



Stronger programmes

Each individual case of vaccine reluctance needs its own individual response  be it an explanatory website or a conjoined international diplomatic effort.

Modern media and communication technologies can play a part in dispelling myths about vaccines. Health providers need to team up with local opinion-shapers, such as religious and community leaders, education authorities and even celebrities, to dispel rumours and encourage people to get vaccinated.

One success story is the tetanus vaccine programme in Kenya. Shortly after its launch in 1994, the programme attracted misleading news reports stating that the vaccines ingredients were sterilising women. In this case, the World Health Organization teamed up with the Vatican to reassure local faith leaders and spread the message on the vaccines benefits.

Future vaccination programmes need resources to research reasons for potential resistance and develop strategies to counter it. This need not be expensive  mobile apps and press campaigns are cheap compared to other campaign costs such as medicines, equipment and sending people to remote areas.

But it requires a sustained, long-term effort to ensure that populations are not just at the pointy end of a needle. The classic top-down vaccination approach was developed when information channels were limited and communities were seldom included in planning and communicating campaigns. Recently, the picture has changed. Collaboration is crucial to creating vaccination programmes that take peoples needs into account, and dispel their concerns before these morph into resistance.

Inga Vesper is news and features editor at SciDev.Net.
Tiger numbers have been on the rise since 2010. However, despite efforts, Cambodia's population has not been faring well, which is why India will lend a hand.

Tigers from India, whose population has been on the rise, may be relocated to Cambodia to increase their global population in a decision that BBC noted came during the 3rd Asian Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. Thirteen Asian nations with tiger populations think the best course of action to save the species is to move some of them from thriving countries to where they are almost extinct.

The global tiger population now comes at nearly 3,900 compared to the 3,200 in 2010. Out of all these, more than half are in India, with a population of 2,226. These numbers aren't stellar, but is on the way to the global of doubling the big cat's population by 2022.

Besides the Bengal tigers, Amur tigers from Russia can be relocated to Kazakhstan, a country which has lost all of its big cat population.

The New Indian Express said that this alignment of the conservation will be done with the help of locals. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that they believe this is the best course of action, as they are "the real protectors" in this scenario.

The conservation efforts will not be easy, though. According to secretary general of the Global Tiger Forum Rajesh Gopal, relocation will take place only after the necessary preparations -- for the habitat and population of prey species -- are complete.

The Indian government, as stated by Minister Javadekar, is "ready to cooperate with all countries" for these majestic species' conservation and protection. Still, despite India and Russia being open to relocating some of their cats to different countries, they will not rule out the possibility of relocating in-country to better distribute the species.
The virus that has been creating havoc to expectant mothers in Central and South America, the Pacific and the Caribbean is feared to hit the United States this summer, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said on Sunday.

Dr. Fauci said that Americans should be prepared for local transmission of the mosquito-borne virus. Fauci, along with other public health officials from the National Institute of Health, guessed that there will be dozens of people who will be infected with the virus. Newsweek reports that there have only been travel-related cases of Zika reported as of the moment. However, although there have been a lot of people who fear at the thought of the Zika virus spreading on American soil, Fauci believes the outbreak will not be widespread.

"It would not be surprising at all - if not likely - that we're going to see a bit of that," he said. "We're talking about scores of cases, dozens of cases, at most."

The Zika virus outbreak was first detected in Brazil last year and has spread through the Americas lately. According to the Guardian, the virus has been linked to a large number of cases of microcephaly, which is a rare birth defect that causes an abnormally small head size that usually indicates poor brain development. It was also confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the virus also brings about other birth defects among infants born to women affected by it.

When the outbreak in Brazil first began, there were more than 4,000 infants who were born with serious birth defects. In February of last year, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency because of the growing number of women affected by the virus. Health experts also believe that the virus can cause stillbirths and miscarriages while other infected adults develop Guillain-Barre syndrome and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, which are both autoimmune diseases that affect the central nervous system.
Scientists have recently discovered three species of mouse lemurs in Madagascar. They can be found in the southern and eastern islands of the country and are said to have increased the number of known species to 24.

Mouse lemurs are small, nocturnal primates which can only be found in Madagascar. They all look very similar with their brown fur and large eyes. News Everyday reports that mouse lemurs have just been recently discovered because of the way they look and their ability to only be distinguished by means of genetic methods. Peter Kappeler, Head of the Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Unit at the German Primate Center, said that using new, objective methods help examine the genetic difference between both individuals.

Keppler also added that they have found evidences confirming three new species of mouse lemurs in the area. "The genetic techniques we used could facilitate species identification, thus also contributing to further new descriptions in other animal groups," he said.

According to Science Daily, the same group of researchers was responsible for describing two new species of mouse lemur 3 years ago. The 30g Madame Berthe's mouse lemur is the smallest primate in the world, which was discovered in 1993.

"To know the exact distribution area of individual species is necessary to identify functioning protected areas," says Kappeler. He has been conducting research for the German Primate Center in Madagascar for more than 20 years. "Furthermore, this new information is an important element towards better understanding how biodiversity on Madagascar arose," he added.

The IUCN's "Red List" revealed that there are over 100 known species of lemurs being threatened to extinction. They are now known to be the world's most endangered group of mammals that have been reduced because of the changes in the environment.

This study now shows that mouse lemurs are more different than scientists have expected and states that more species will be discovered using the genetic techniques.
FLORENCE, S.C.  The gym at Florence Christian School was transformed into a hair salon Monday morning as 13 students received haircuts from local hair stylists.

The girls and one parent, Denise Spurling, had been growing their hair in order to have it cut and donated to Children with Hair Loss. The organization provides human hair replacements free of charge to children who have medically-related hair loss.

Florence Christian School has hosted the Hair Loss Chapel for five years with 100 participants and over 1,106 inches of hair donated over the course of that time.

Students of all grades filled the school gym Monday morning to watch as their peers received haircuts.

Ninth-grade student Katheryn Barber was one of the girls to receive a haircut. She said she had been growing her hair for about four years.

Ive always had long hair, but somebody told me that there were kids with cancer, and they didnt have any hair and it made me think, 'Why have long hair and you cant give it to somebody else?' Barber said. So I wanted to help somebody out.

Barber had 16 inches of her hair cut Monday from a stylist with Reflections Hair Salon in Florence. Before it was cut, Barber said her hair was nearly 3 feet long.

Its very light, Barber said describing her new haircut. It was very heavy before. It was like carrying around something on your head that just never goes away.

Several Florence hair salons participated in the Hair Loss Chapel Monday morning, including The Salon, Just Teasin and Reflections.

Brittney Wise of Just Teasin has participated in the Hair Loss Chapel for two years now. She and Kaila Turbeville represented Just Teasin', and they both said the schools efforts go to a good cause.

We love our job, and we love volunteering our time, Wise said.

Among the females who participated in the chapel was a mom, Denise Spurling. Spurling and her daughter Alyssa are regular participants of the Hair Loss Chapel.

We always do a lot of community work and donations and stuff, Denise Spurling said. Were training them (the children) to be selfless and think about others. Its gotten real easy for us to donate because weve got the heart for it.

Denise donated 10 inches of hair Monday, and Alyssa donated 8.

The one thing I like about Children with Hair Loss is they dont charge for their wigs, Denise Spurling said. I had been donating to Locks of Love probably about 20 years but they charge for the wigs, thats why I really like how the school does this.

In addition to the 13 children who received haircuts Monday morning, two students had haircuts to be donated prior, and two others are set to have their hair cut in the coming weeks.
BENNETTSVILLE, S.C. -- A 25-year-old man was sentenced to 10 years in prison following a shooting incident that occurred in March of 2015.

According to a release from the Marlboro County Sheriff's Office, Lokheim Jeralle Campbell of Bennettsville attempted to rob a victim of $300 at gunpoint on March 28, 2015.

When the victim tried to flee, Campbell shot the victim and struck him twice. According to the release, "Campbell was on federal probation at the time of the incident and had been released from federal prison a few months prior to this incident."

In 2009, Campbell was arrested in connection with gang activity for the Down West Boys gang. That case was investigated by the Marlboro County Sheriff's Office and the FBI.

"The Marlboro County Sheriff's Office and FBI collaborated again to investigate this shooting and Campbell was indicted again by the United States Attorneys Office in Florence and sentenced last week," the release stated.

Campbell was sentenced to 120 months in prison for charges of felon in possession and supervised release violation.
MARION, S.C.  It is often said that seemingly small things can make a tremendous difference.

For instance, increasing the temperature of water by a single degree can mean the difference between something that is very hot and something that generates enough force to power an engine. Embracing Sam Parker and Mac Andersons philosophy in their book 212 The Extra Degree, the Marion County School District is taking action with commitment.

The district has partnered with the economic development board in creating a Marion County Workforce Development Center. This training facility will be on the same campus as the districts Academy for Careers & Technology. It is planned to have the center serve as a hub for all workforce training and development. It will house training programs, adult education programs and customized training for existing and new industries. The district is also teaming with local industry and chambers of commerce to offer an in-depth job-shadowing program for high school seniors.

Past actions and commitments have paid off for students in the Marion County School District, with the graduation rate increasing to 86 percent. That was the 12th-highest graduation rate in South Carolina in 2014, an increase of 12.2 percent. All three high schools are actively preparing their students for the new WorkKeys test by offering Career Readiness programs to all 11th-graders. The school district will also model the WorkKeys program by aligning all non-certified jobs in the district with the WorkKeys certification groupings. Each grouping indicates a number of skills needed for a person to be successful in a particular position. The district is working with an agency to define the skill groups needed for each position.

The Marion County School District is also moving forward in exploring new programs and initiatives for the countys public schools. A pilot Montessori class will be implemented next year for the 3- and 4-year-olds in Mullins. The district is also actively researching a one-to-one initiative that will put technical devices in the hands of every student. Members of the district staff are visiting school systems in the Carolinas who have successfully implemented such an initiative to learn from their endeavors.

Knowing that the extra degree of effort can make all the difference, the Marion County School District is taking action with commitment.
The SCFI rates for the worlds busiest Asia-Europe lane stood at $271 per teu in the week ended 15 April, down by a sharp 78% from $1,232 at the start of 2016.

The Asia-Europe rates last Friday fell by 6.9% week-on-week, the second consecutive week of falling freight rates.

Since the start of this year, the Asia-Europe rates have been falling for consecutive weeks until a single rebound in the week ended 1 April, before the past two straight weeks of decline again, the SCFI index showed.

The Asia-Europe rates had fallen to a low of $205 per teu in the week ended 18 March this year, a level last seen in the week ended 19 June 2015 also at $205.
Press Release

April 18, 2016 Cayetano: We will just do it, we will get things done for the people "Let others present their plans. We will just do it." This was the promise made by vice presidential candidate and Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano during the "Harapan ng Bise" vice presidential debate hosted by ABS-CBN on Sunday (April 17). During the first part of the debate, the candidates were given two minutes each to present their proposed platform to address the country's most pressing issues, including corruption, education, health, employment, and peace and order. The senator, who runs alongside Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, said that their tandem's platform consists of three main agendas: federalism, anti-crime, and anti-corruption. Cayetano said that if elected, he and Duterte will implement bold solutions to suppress crime and corruption within six months of their term. He also stressed that only a federal form of government can create inclusive growth in the country. Cayetano, meanwhile, pointed out that while their rivals continue to promise real changes for the people, he and Duterte already made these possible in Davao and in Taguig. "May plano po kami, may programa po kami. Sila pinapangako pa lang nila, kami nagawa na namin sa Davao at Taguig," he said. The senator also stressed that a promising platform is futile with no political will and good leadership qualities. "Ang problema ay hindi ang plataporma. All the master plans are there. Ang problema ay leadership. We need leadership with political will," he said, adding that out of all the candidates, only he and Duterte can offer these to the people. During his opening statement, Cayetano reiterated their tandem's pledge to end the cycle of disorder brought about by corruption, crime, and illegal drugs. He said if elected, he and Duterte will effect bolder solutions and swifter actions to restore order in the country. "Dalawa lang po ang pagpipiplian natin sa eleksyon na ito, magbago tayo o mapako. Mapako at makikinabang lang ang iilan... O magbago tayo at manaig ang interest ng lahat, hindi lang ng iiilan. Mga kasama ,baguhin na po natin ang Pilipinas," Cayetano said.
Press Release

April 18, 2016 BONGBONG MARCOS SAYS DUTERTE 'JOKE' INAPPROPRIATE VICE presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr. today expressed lament over the utterance of presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on the rape of an Australian woman missionary in his city in 1989. "Nagulat kami. It seems unfortunate and I can only describe it as inappropriate. Biktima 'yung tao 'tapos dinagdagan pa natin," he said when asked by the media in Bulacan for his reaction. Marcos was in the province to accompany his presidential tandem, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santigao who was the speaker of the commencement exercises at the Bulacan State University in Malolos City. In a separate interview in Makati during a luncheon hosted in his name by former Court of Appeals Justice Manuel Lazaro, Marcos said he it looked like the tough-talking mayor took the joke too far because the life of a victim of a crime was involved. "He took a step too far. Kawawa naman yung biktima. Let's be sensitive to someone who has already suffered as a victim of a crime," he said. He said he has always known the Davao City mayor to be an outspoken mayor. "The mayor is an outspoken person. Yung sinasabing walang filter e yun na siguro si Mayor Digong," he said. When asked if the remark will affect his standing, Marcos said this is precisely the reason why the electorate should study each and every candidate. "That's what the election is all about considering the record of all the candidate. It is not only those running for the presidency, the vice presidency, the senators, every single candidate. Dapat tingnan kung karapat-dapat na sila ay umupo dun sa matatats na posisyon," he said. But Marcos said he knows Duterte understands the predicament of the victim and her family and he is confident that the mayor will make up for it. "I'm sure he understands that and he will make it up to those affected," he said.
Press Release

April 18, 2016 MIRIAM: VOTE, WORK IN GOV'T TO END CORRUPTION Presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago on Monday urged young Filipinos to participate in the elections and to join the government workforce to help change the culture of corruption. "Be critical, vocal, and involved in the political process. We are a democratic country and it is our duty to keep our government in check," the senator said in her speech before a crowd of 3,000 graduates and their parents at the Bulacan State University. Santiago, the presidential candidate with the widest online following, also encouraged tech-savvy voters to use Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to voice their anger and frustration against the politicians who are driven by greed. "Do not allow the rich and the powerful to be given special privileges. You have every right to be furious at all these corrupt politicians; because after all, it is our money that is being used to sustain their expensive lifestyles," she added. Asked at the sidelines of the graduation rites about another candidate's controversial joke on rape, Santiago said her tough-talking rival "may have crossed the line," but added that the voters ultimately have a choice. "If the people do not like the remark, they can express it through the ballot, but otherwise, he has the right to free expression. That's the way he expresses himself," she told reporters. The senator also warned millennials against the defeatist notion that the Philippines is a "a nation of helpless people," adding that such a mindset is tantamount to surrendering the country to corrupt leaders. "If you refuse to work in government because you think it is so corrupt, no one else will be left in government except the corrupt," she said in Filipino, to cheers from the crowd. She instead advised the graduates to "change the system from within." Santiago has been recently been more actively campaigning with her running mate, Sen. Bongbong Marcos, in university campuses all over the country a month before Election Day. She has also confirmed that she will join the third and last presidential debate in Pangasinan, and is scheduled to deliver a speech at the University of the Philippines Mindanao in Davao City on Wednesday, April 20. In a week, the Santiago-Marcos tandem has visited three campuses: the University of the Philippines Visayas in Iloilo City, the Saint Louis University in Baguio City, and Bulacan State University in Malolos. The pair drew thousands of supporters in all venues.
Press Release

April 18, 2016 Villar: Intensify info drive to inform indigents about Philhealth benefits Senator Cynthia Villar called on the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation to intensify its efforts and reach out to indigent members so that they can benefit from free medical services. Villar made this statement during the Information and Education Awareness Campaign on Philhealth Programs and Benefit Availment program at Villar SIPAG, Pulang Lupa 1, Las Pinas City. While Philhealth is there to take care of our health by providing us medical assistance, Villar said many Filipinos, especially the indigents are not aware of Philhealth and the benefits they can get from it. "Filipinos should be covered by Philhealth, but only a few know about the services being offered by Philhealth," said Villar, adding that Filipinos should be educated on how to access them. "We must also ensure they are aware of their benefits and entitlement from Philhealth. We must ensure also that country's universal health care system can reach all intended beneficiaries," she added. The senator believes the information drive about Philhealth should be intensified and the people should be abreast on the updates of its services like additional health packages. During the program, Villar also spoke on the significant role Philhealth, the country's biggest state insurance, plays in the lives of the Filipino people. The activity is in line with Philhealth's Universal Health program-- 'ALAGA Ka'-- Alamin at Gamitin Kalusugang Benepisyong Philhealth Program. "We must guarantee that the poor are not burdened with high cost of hospital care as they can seek treatment in public health care facilities," Villar added. The activity, attended by about 1,000 participants, provided information on the benefits of Philhealth. Also present were medical doctors, barangay health and barangay nurses who are at the forefront of giving medical help to our people. Senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and barangay leaders and officials were also present. Villar noted that RA 10645 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act amended RA 9994 and expanded and made automatic PhilHealth benefits to all senior citizens especially and including indigent or poor senior citizens who were incapable of paying the monthly contribution to PhilHealth to become members.
Spencer Platt / Getty Image/Getty Image

A 31-year-old man suffered critical injuries after he was chased down, beaten and stabbed in San Franciscos Tenderloin neighborhood, authorities said Monday.

Officers responded to reports of the stabbing near the corner of Turk and Leavenworth streets just after 10 p.m. on Friday, said Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced late Monday afternoon he has signed a disaster declaration for the Houston area because of powerful thunderstorms that led to several fatalities, damaged hundreds of homes and paralyzed the region.

The declaration covers nine counties: Harris, Bastrop, Colorado, Fort Bend, Grimes, Montgomery, Waller, Wharton and Austin. That will allow local officials to implement state emergency-assistance plans and order curfews, if necessary, as the heavy rains continue in the forecast through at least Tuesday.

If property losses are excessive, a federal disaster declaration is expected in a few days after detailed damage assessments, officials said. They said Harris and Waller counties are the most affected so far.

Abbott also announced that the IRS has agreed to grant extensions for tax filings for those Texans who are directly affected the flooding.

Authorities said at least five people drowned as a result of the storm. Earlier Monday, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett confirmed two fatalities were near U.S. 59 and Interstate 610. Emmett said surveillance camera footage showed a car drive around a barricade into high water in that area.

Sgt. Herbert Martinez of the Harris County Precinct 5 constable's office said two fatalities were reported at Greenspoint Drive and the Beltway and at West Hardy Road and the Beltway.

Martinez said the toll road authority had responded to the West Hardy Road death and said authorities had witnessed the man drive an 18-wheeler into high water. He said a medical condition may have been involved. It's unclear what led to the other death.

In addition, Royal Independent School District in Brookshire tweeted that one of its teachers, Charles Odum of Royal Junior High, died in rising floodwaters on Monday.

A flood-related fatality was reported in Waller County, which was hard hit by the storm. A man of an unknown age was found by rescuers around noon Monday in a submerged vehicle near the intersection of Wilson and Adams Flat roads, said Brian Cantrell of the Waller County Sheriff's Office. Investigators believed the vehicle had been caught in rushing water.

Houston Police Department spokeswoman Jodi Silva said officers responded to reports of bodies found in flooding at the feeder road connecting 610 and I-59 near the Houston Chronicle building.

Silva said responders could not yet offer any further information.

Harris County officials said the high water rescue number had risen to 1,222, with 897 in Houston limits and 325 outside.

County Judge Ed Emmett said "timing means everything" when evaluating the impact of a storm. Much of the last 24 hours' rainfall came during the night time, which made it both difficult to predict but also allowed people to make choices about going out, as opposed to last year's Memorial Day floods.

Emmett said the officials' preparation for the floods and rains on Monday went "as well as they can go," but said heavy, concentrated, sustained rains will have consequences despite any amount of preparation.

"Some things you can't avoid," he said.

School districts and colleges across southeast Texas canceled classes Monday as a flash flood watch remained in effect due to heavy rainfall. More than 121,000 customers were without power in the Houston area at one point, but the figure had dropped to 47,000 as of about 3 p.m., according to CenterPoint.

RELATED: Some schools will be closed or delayed on Tuesday

Forecasters said that on Tuesday, up to three more inches of rainfall may be possible.

RELATED: City responds as rain pounds Houston

Heavy rain leaves Houston, other areas underwater

The storms hit overnight and are expected to continue throughout the day and into Tuesday, according the National Weather Service.

RELATED: ABC 13 reporter saves man from flooded Houston car

"This is a major rain event," Emmett said. "I hate to use the word 'Allison' but it's got all the similar features."

Emmett said 13 of 22 of Harris County's creeks and waterways were out of their banks and heavy rains from the north and northwest would continue to flow down and cause swells.

Chaos in Greenspoint area

Mayor Sylvester Turner sought to assure what could be hundreds of residents stranded on the upper floors of flooded Greenspoint-area apartments that the city is moving to help them.

News footage through the afternoon has shown residents hauling children out of the flooded complexes in everything from plastic tubs to air mattresses to, in one case, a refrigerator. Turner said he has deployed 10 Metro buses and nine fire department rescue vehicles to the area to move residents to Aldine ISD's M.O. Campbell Education Center, which the city is using as a shelter.

"There's no question we're getting a number of calls, people stranded and in need of rescue, and we're deploying assets to that area to meet the immediate need," Turner said. "We know there's many individuals who are stranded. I know people are wanting to get out of that area. I've directed all of our resources that are available to move expeditiously into those areas. I want to assure people that's being done."

"Do not think the city is not seeing you," Turner continued, addressing Greenspoint residents. "It's a situation where all throughout the city, and quite frankly all throughout our region, we're dealing with high water."

City personnel reached roughly 1,000 units this morning, Turner's spokeswoman Janice Evans said, with some residents being helped to higher levels of the apartment buildings and some being moved to the Greenspoint Mall. The city must now move those at mall to M.O. Campbell, along with those who did not leave the area this morning and any residents who may be stuck in another 500 units nearby that may not have been reached in the first response this morning.

"I don't want people to leave a unit on the second floor. Shelter in place," Turner said. "We are responding and we will continue to respond until every single person is in a safe and dry area."

Turner said he understands why Greenspoint residents  hungry and stressed, surrounded by floodwaters  would say they feel abandoned, but Turner said a command center was set up in the Greenspoint area at 3:59 a.m, so personnel have been working in the area for hours.

Leaving the city emergency center for a joint press conference with County Judge Ed Emmett, Turner said he plans to visit the Greenspoint area afterward.

Shelter-in-place orders

Turner said reports he's getting suggest more people in the area are being relocated to the M.O. Campbell Education Center, a shelter now housing about 300 people, but he said other residents have resisted first responders' offers to help them leave their dwellings.

"There have been many individuals who have waived the rescuers on and said they're fine, they don't want to go," Turner said. "But I want to go out there myself and assess the situation."

In addition to Greenspoint, city personnel are focusing on the Meyerland area and parts of northwest Houston that were hit particularly hit by flooding.

Those needing assistance to reach a shelter are asked to call the city 311 help line at 713-837-0311.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Shelters in place were:

Meyerland area: Johnston Middle School, 10410 Manhattan.

Northwest area: (Bingle, Little York, TX 249, Alabonson, Victory): St. John United Methodist Church, 8787 N. Houston Rosslyn.

Westside: Jersey Village Baptist Church, 16518 Jersey Drive.

Northside: M.O. Campbell Education Center, 1865 Aldine-Bender.

The mayor sounded a cautiously hopeful tone during a 12:30 p.m. update on Houston's latest flood, saying the National Weather Service believed most heavy rainfall would stay to the city's south, leaving the city limits to receive perhaps half an inch of rain through the rest of the day. However, he said, conditions can shift quickly, and the area remains on a flood watch until Tuesday morning.

Nearly 100 intersections were closed due to high water, Turner said, and the city had received reports of flooding in 72 homes or businesses, though Turner said the full tally likely was far higher, as he has heard suggestions that 200 homes in Meyerland could be affected. The flooding comes less than a year after sudden downpours caused major flooding on Memorial Day weekend.

"I regret anyone who's having to go through the flooding of their homes again," Turner said. "For some individuals, they've just finished the repairs and moved back into their homes, and then less than a year later here we go again. I know it's very difficult. But I will say that there were areas that flooded this time that haven't flooded in years. And this is happened not just in our region but throughout the state. This is just one of those things that no one can control."

Flights canceled

At Bush Intercontinental Airport, 224 flights had been canceled, and 54 more had been scrapped at Hobby Airport; the nearby intersection of Monroe and Airport also was underwater, with several stranded vehicles there, Turner said.

Metro still was not operating, Turner said, and 44,157 homes inside the city limits remained without power.

Turner acknowledged the event was difficult to forecast, but said city officials would not have prepared any differently than they did. City personnel were on alert last night, as he and Emmett decided to close the city and county court systems and tell only public safety personnel to report to work. All school districts were able to close before thousands of residents left their homes, he said.

"I don't think anyone expected the rainfall to come as soon as it did and persist as long as it did, and it just got worse," Turner said. "That's a lot of rain to be coming in a very short period of time. There's nothing you can do whether you're in the city or the county or any other governmental entity that can stop that amount of rainfall."

Houston Fire Department responded to 610 emergency calls after midnight, the mayor said.

About 100 residents of apartments in North Houston had been evacuated from three apartment complexes and were being sheltered in the Greenspoint Mall, Turner said, noting that the Red Cross also had opened a shelter at 16518 Jersey Drive.

More than 70 subdivisions in the Houston metro area were flooded as of 6:55 a.m. Metro suspended bus operations Monday because of the flood watch, which will remain in effect through 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Some homes in hard-hit northwest Harris County, where 8 to 16 inches rain fell overnight, reportedly had several feet of water inside, rising up to kitchen sinks, Sanchez said.

Sanchez said residents inside Beltway 8 along Brays Bayou may also see flooding inside their homes. Officials fear, he added, homes inside the 610 Loop could also get flooded.

"This will definitely be an historic event," Sanchez said.

The flash flood watch covers Harris, Brazoria Fort Bend, Galveston, Montgomery, Waller and other counties in the region. Flooding is especially possible along Greens Bayou near the Eastex Freeway as well as areas along Buffalo Bayou near Piney Point Village and Cypress Creek near Westfield.

In Montgomery County, where 4 to 8 inches of rain had fallen over several hours, the Red Cross opened three shelters for people forced from their homes.

The shelters are located at First United Methodist Church 4308 W. Davis in Conroe; the East Montgomery County Friendship Center, 21679 McCleskey Road in New Caney; and South County Community Center, 2235 Lake Robbins Drive in The Woodlands.

A coastal Flood Warning was in effect until 4 p.m. Water has already moved over Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island's roads.

>> Is it flooding in your area? Show us conditions in your area by sending photos to photos@chron.com. They could appear on Chron.com.
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Scores of hardy San Franciscans and history buffs came together Monday to commemorate the anniversary of the great earthquake of 1906 with period costumes, a moment of silence and the traditional wailing of the sirens at the moment the quake struck 110 years ago.

Bob Sarlatte, the master of ceremonies for the day, walked the assembled throng through the events of April 18, 1906, that changed the face of the city forever, from the moment the magnitude 7.9 temblor struck to the raging blaze that followed and the stand firefighters made at Van Ness Avenue to stop the advance of the fire.

Mondays ceremony was different from the 108 that came before it, as it was the first commemoration since the last known survivor died earlier this year.

Were here to honor those who died, but also those who survived and rebuilt this city and continue to rebuild this city, Sarlatte said to the crowd, many of whom came dressed in 1906-style attire. It can and will happen again. The San Andreas Fault never rests.

Last survivor is gone

William Del Monte was just 3 months old when the quake struck. His father, a restaurant owner in North Beach, drove his family in a buckboard wagon to put them on a ferry to Oakland and then returned to set up a tent on Broadway and began cooking meals for survivors.

Del Monte, the last known living survivor of the earthquake, a shaker that is said to have lasted for nearly a full minute, died in January at a retirement home in Marin County.

We miss him terribly, said Jan Barroca, Del Montes 86-year-old niece. It was a horrible thing that happened, but my grandparents survived. There were a lot of people that didnt, though, and we have to remember them.

As the moment drew close, Sarlatte hushed the crowd gathered at Lottas Fountain  known as a meeting place for survivors after the earthquake  for a moment of silence to remember the roughly 3,000 people who died in the quake and fire.

Then, at precisely 5:12 a.m., the otherwise quiet buildings on Market Street echoed with the sounds of sirens as the moment the temblor struck was marked.

Mondays commemoration also served as a reminder of the enduring risk faced by those who live in earthquake-prone regions as it came close on the heels of major earthquakes in Japan and Ecuador over the weekend.

Recent quakes

Anne Kronenberg, executive director of San Franciscos Department of Emergency Management, flanked onstage by Police Chief Greg Suhr, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White and San Francisco Sheriff Vicki Hennessy, said the ceremony was also in honor of the victims of both of those quakes.

Over the past few days, weve seen examples of this kind of destruction in Kyushu and Ecuador. San Francisco stands in solidarity with you, she said before wreaths were hung on the fountain to honor the dead in Japan and Ecuador.

Lisa Aguirre, a 54-year-old Pleasant Hill resident and first-timer at the ceremony, drove in from the East Bay to honor her grandmother, who lived through the quake.

Its a time to commemorate the city rising from tragedy, she said. Its bittersweet, but its wonderful.

As the commemoration came to a close, many made their way to the ceremonial gold spray-painting of a fire hydrant at 20th and Church streets. The hydrant, one of the few working in the city after the 1906 natural disaster, is famous for its role in helping to save the Mission District.

A dedicated regular

For C.L. Horton, who came dressed in full 1906 regalia, there was no question as to whether she would rise in the wee hours to come out to Lottas Fountain  named after Lotta Crabtree, the actress and vaudeville performer who commissioned it in 1875.

As a San Francisco native, I see it as a moral obligation, she said.

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale
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A group of mostly African American women, who were kicked off the Napa Valley Wine Train for allegedly being loud and boisterous, have settled their race-discrimination lawsuit for a confidential sum, their lawyer said Monday.

The settlement still needs to be approved by the Wine Trains governing board. But the womens attorney, Waukeen McCoy, described the agreement as amicable and said he hopes the case serves as a learning experience for all businesses in the need for diversity and sensitivity training.

Representatives of the Wine Train did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

How trip derailed

The 11 women, members of an East Bay book club called Sistahs on the Reading Edge, boarded the train in Napa on Aug. 22 for their first trip through Wine Country. They said they were laughing and having a good time, occasionally chatting with other passengers, when a train manager, Anna Marquinn, approached and asked them to lower their voices.

The women said they told Marquinn they werent behaving any differently than other passengers. But they said she repeated the warning later, and they were then ordered off the train at St. Helena, halfway through the trip, and were made to march past passengers in all six cars, some of whom snickered at them.

Police met them and led them to a van that took them back to Napa. The Wine Train refunded their $62 fares and later apologized and offered them a free trip in the future, which they rejected.

Their lawsuit, filed in federal court in October, said they were singled out because of their race  10 of the 11 are black. They also said they were libeled in an online message, posted by a company employee on a Facebook account, that accused them of verbal and physical abuse toward other guests and staff.

The company quickly deleted the posting. But McCoy said at a news conference after filing the suit that the allegations were widely circulated and generated many hostile comments on social media. As a result, he said, two of the plaintiffs, a bank manager and a hospital nurse, lost their jobs.

Discrimination denied

Wine Train owners denied discrimination and said the train evicts guests for their conduct about once a month.

The book club is still going strong, said plaintiff Lisa Johnson, 48, a writer who lives in Antioch.

Were just looking forward to moving on and getting back to reading books, she said Monday.

The Wine Train, founded 26 years ago by the late Rice-a-Roni executive Vincent DeDomenico, was sold in September to Noble House Hotels & Resorts of Seattle and Brooks Street, a real estate development and investment company with an office in Walnut Creek.
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From Californias redwood groves to the jungles of the Amazon, the push to stop deforestation has become a global fight for the health of the planet. But few places have posed the kind of danger that environmentalist Leng Ouch encountered in the rain forests of Cambodia.

The son of a pedicab driver in the countrys rural south, Ouch went on to work undercover as a timber dealer, taxi driver and tourist in order to expose the mass logging that devastated his homeland  destruction sponsored by a government that sought to punish Ouch and his family for outing the pillage.

Two soldiers came to my house to do something to me. But luckily I wasnt there, Ouch said. They want me to stop speaking about the corruption in the government.

Ouch, 42, has continued to speak out. For his fearlessness, he is one of six recipients of this years Goldman Environmental Prize, the worlds largest award recognizing grassroots activism. The prize was established in 1989 by the late San Francisco philanthropist Richard Goldman and his wife, Rhoda.

This years winners include a a Slovakian attorney who battled to keep her nation from becoming Europes dumping ground for trash, a Puerto Rican man who fought to save a pristine stretch of coastline on his native island, and a Baltimore woman trying to keep a potentially harmful trash incinerator out of her neighborhood.

This is recognition and understanding of our struggle, said Destiny Watford, the Baltimore activist who stood up for her community. It shows that the work that were doing matters.

The recipients will be honored Monday night with $175,000 prizes at a ceremony at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House.

Ouch, who arrived in the city Tuesday, is credited with drawing attention to the Cambodian governments role in clear-cutting forests and, in many cases, getting officials to stop.

Deforestation in places like Southeast Asia is not only prompting the loss of habitat for millions of species, its also driving climate change as less greenhouse gas is absorbed by trees. Although deforestation worldwide has declined in recent years, it remains a problem.

Cambodias rate of tree loss is the fifth fastest in the world, according to the Goldman Environmental Foundation.

The logging there, Ouch explained, has been fueled by a government program that leases out land in the name of agriculture. What really happens, he said, is that corporations step in to clear the trees and sell the wood to China. An estimated 300,000 rural residents have been displaced in the process.

Despite a childhood marked by extreme poverty, Ouchs memories of the destruction motivated him to attend law school and later found the Cambodia Human Rights Task Force.

The organization has since documented government-sponsored logging through videos and photographs, which spurred protests in Cambodia and helped turn public sentiment against the nations land-leasing program.

Ouchs work has put him at immense personal risk, the Goldman Environmental Foundation wrote in a statement on this years prizewinners. Today, Ouch lives in hiding following numerous threats to him and his family. Despite this danger, he continues fighting rampant government corruption to save the Cambodian forest for future generations.

Ouchs efforts led to the cancellation of 50,000 acres of leases inside the Virachey National Park, home to sun bears, otters and dholes, a wild canine, according to the foundation.

Im very, very scared, but I have to continue my work, Ouch said. I want the world to know.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander

Other recipients of Goldman prize

Luis Jorge Rivera Herrera, 43

Herrera is recognized for his work preserving a wild stretch of coastline on the Atlantic tip of Puerto Rico.

The environmental scientist used his legal know-how and grassroots organizing to build community and legislative opposition to two proposed seaside resorts, according to the Goldman Environmental Foundation. His effort is credited with saving the Northeast Ecological Corridor, a 3,000-acre swath of coastline between Luquillo and Fajardo that is home to a host of wildlife, including the massive leatherback sea turtle.

Destiny Watford, 20

Watford is honored for her four-year fight to stop a potentially hazardous trash incinerator from being built in her native south Baltimore neighborhood of Curtis Bay.

After residents failed to convince policymakers that the project would spew toxic heavy metals and pose a health risk, Watford and her classmates lobbied the businesses and organizations that had agreed to buy power from the planned incinerator, according to the Goldman Environmental Foundation.

We were just high school students. We didnt know what action we should take, Watford said, noting that their activism took a distinctive form. We were musicians, poets and writers. We wrote poems, sang songs and wrote speeches.

The group successfully convinced 18 of 22 organizations to rethink their agreements, cutting needed revenue for the project. While plans for the incinerator havent been officially canceled, the plant hasnt moved forward and now risks having its permits nullified for missing construction deadlines.

Maxima Acuna, 47

Acunas environmental success was stopping a potentially hazardous mine from being built in a Perus remote northern highlands.

The subsistence farmer and unlikely activist was thrust to the fore of a national debate about whether Colorado-based Newmont Mining Corp. owned a large swath of land in the Andes, including Acunas property. Acuna pursued a lengthy legal battle to hold onto her plot, which kept the mining from moving forward  at least for the time being.

According to the Goldman Environmental Foundation, Acuna has been relentlessly harassed and even beaten by local officials who work in cahoots with the mining company. Her fortitude has kept the regions freshwater from being tainted by mining contaminants.

Edward Loure, 44

Loure, a native of Tanzanias Maasai community, is credited with preventing the government from stripping land from the countrys indigenous people.

As director of the nonprofit Ujamaa Community Resource Team, Loure spent a decade documenting the land rights of native communities. He secured more than 200,000 acres of land for the Maasai and Hadzabe people, according to the Goldman Environmental Foundation. Part of his negotiation was making sure the native residents would be good stewards of the land, which is home to wildebeests, gazelles and rhinoceroses.

Zuzana Caputova, 42

Caputova is recognized for her efforts stopping foreign trash facilities from being built in her native Slovakia.

The environmental attorney waged whats considered one of the countrys first fights to stop landfill construction in her hometown of Pezinok. Her success carried over to other projects where she similarly worked to stymie a longtime practice by European countries of moving their potentially hazardous waste to Slovakia.
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Littering might be most people's biggest problem with Dolores Park, but one local religious group hates those new urinals so much that they're suing the city to get them removed.

In a civil complaint filed last Thursday by the San Francisco Chinese Christian Union, the urinals are called an "illegal and wasteful expenditure of public funds" as well as "offensive to the senses" and "grossly unseemly."

As the SF City Attorney notes in a very snarky press release, the San Francisco Chinese Christian Union has been identified as an "anti-LGBT hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"If I had to predict the top 100 things in Dolores Park likely to offend these plaintiffs, I wouldn't have guessed that this would make the cut," City Attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey says in the release.

Most importantly, we learn via the complaint that the official name for these pee holes is a pissoir, which is truly delightful.

The suit alleges that the pissoir is not compliant with plumbing codes, has no hand-washing amenities, is not wheelchair-accessible and discriminates against women because, well, it's a urinal.

"Women and girls would be subject to extreme embarrassment in a measure not experienced by men or boys who merely unzip their trousers and aim at the whole [sic, this is their amazing typo] when urinating," reads the suit.

Also  and they repeat this point a lot  it makes them feel icky.

"The open-air urination hole violates the privacy of those who need to use the restroom but would be required to expose their bodies and suffer the shame and degradation of urinating in public view," the complaint reads.

The pissoir was a highlight of the recent renovation of Dolores Park, intended to help with the long lines and constantly disgusting bathroom facilities that often drove people to "go urinate on the neighbors' houses."
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SACRAMENTO  As procrastinators race to file their taxes by Mondays deadline, a majority of California voters say the amount they pay is too high, according to a new Field Poll that reveals just how divided liberals and conservatives are on the issue.

Overall, 54 percent of voters surveyed said their family pays too much in state and federal taxes. The poll, released Friday, comes after the tax deadline was extended to April 18 this year because of the Washington, D.C., Emancipation Day holiday.

The poll found that 40 percent of voters believe the amount of state and federal taxes they pay is about right, while 2 percent say it is too low.

Republicans were almost twice as likely to say taxes are too high, with 80 percent of GOP voters saying they pay too much, compared with 42 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of those with no party affiliation.

Republicans are very sensitive to tax issues and are generally supportive of smaller government, and here is another example of that sentiment, said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo. Its a huge gap. If you look at it by income or other variables, there is no bigger difference than party affiliation.

There was little variance between voters who make $40,000 to $100,000 and those who make more than $100,000 when it comes to whether they think they pay the appropriate amount of taxes. Four in 10 voters from both income levels said taxes were about right, while 57 percent said taxes were too high.

Voters who made less than $40,000 were more likely, at 47 percent, to say taxes are about right. Forty percent of this group said taxes are too high.

Almost half of voters said they are doing better financially now than they were last year, compared with a quarter of voters who said there were worse off financially. Another 27 percent said they saw no change from last year. Thats a stark improvement from a 2008 Field Poll in which 14 percent of voters said they were doing better year over year.

Voters with household incomes of at least $100,000 were much more likely to say their finances were better than last year, with 61 percent reporting an improvement. Thats compared with about 40 percent of voters who make less than $100,000.

When it comes to the states pocketbook, 46 percent of voters felt California was in bad economic times, versus 39 percent who saw good times.

Still, the numbers represented a 15-year high for positivity, according to Field Poll data. Almost 70 percent of voters said the state was in good economic times in 2001 before that number plummeted to 20 percent in 2002 and down to a low of 2 percent in 2009.

Bay Area voters were the most likely to say California is in good shape, with 54 percent expressing that sentiment. Los Angeles County, other Southern California areas and the Central Valley recorded between 32 and 39 percent of voters saying the states economy is doing well.

If you look around, San Francisco is booming, DiCamillo said. This is a mini gold rush for the city with all the construction and high tech coming to the city, so its not a surprise that San Francisco is feeling more optimistic. The rest of the state doesnt look at the world the same way, such as the Central Valley, which has been slow to recover.

The Field Poll questioned 800 registered voters in California between March 24 and April 3. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.
Eighteen months after an accident claimed the life of a 24-year-old Sacramento man taking a Lyft ride home on a rainy night, his mother and boyfriend are suing the San Francisco ride company. They claim that Lyft is dragging its heels on taking financial responsibility for a crash that the California Highway Patrol says was the Lyft drivers fault.

Losing my son is a black hole I live with all the time, said Donna Dinapoli, 55, a Folsom resident. And Im angry because it was so senseless and didnt have to happen if the driver had been more careful.

Lyft, despite its vaunted $1 million insurance liability policy, has not offered her compensation or even condolences, she said. I think its a disgrace for a company as large as Lyft to try to duck responsibility, Dinapoli sa id.

Our hearts go out to the victims of this tragic accident, Lyft wrote in a statement. Lyfts $1 million liability policy, which includes uninsured/underinsured liability coverage, is designed to provide coverage for Lyft drivers to protect passengers and third partie s.

A source familiar with Lyfts position on the case said the company has not disclaimed responsibility for the accident, which was the young companys first fatality. The delays stemmed from the investigation of the crash by Lyfts insurance carrier  James River Insurance Co., which also insures Uber rides  a process that is still ongoing, the source said. The legal case, which is still in the discovery process, also is likely to have a lengthy timeline. Dinapolis attorney said he hopes to go to trial by the end of the year .

In the early hours of Nov. 1, 2014, Dinapolis son, Shane Holland, 24, and his boyfriend, Brady Lawrence, 27, summoned a Lyft car to take them home from a Halloween party. Holland had promised his mother that the couple would be safe and not get behind the wheel.

Heading westbound on I-80 near Citrus Heights in Sacramento County, Lyft driver Shanti Adhikari, then 31, abruptly swerved to avoid a disabled vehicle up ahead, lost control of his Toyota Camry and spun out onto the shoulder, where the car smashed into two trees, killing Holland and injuring Lawrence and the driver, according to the CHP report on the incident.

(Adhikari) caused this collision by making an unsafe turning motion, said the CHP report, adding that the Lyft drivers actions were the proximate cause of Hollands fatal injuries and amounted to involuntary manslaughter without gross negligence. Moreover, the Lyft driver had no proof of insurance, the CHP said. Adhikari said he was struck from behind, rather than having swerved, the report said. After inspecting (the Lyft car) on scene, I was unable to locate damage which would substantiate (that) claim, the investigating officer wrote. Adhikari, who could not be reached for comment, has not been charged.

Over speed limit

Kevin Morrison, the attorney for Dinapoli and Lawrence, said data from the Camry showed it was going at 75 mph at the time of the crash, over the legal speed limit and particularly unsafe in rainy conditions.

Morrison said Adhikari, who had been driving for Lyft for about a month at the time, had a speeding conviction from a year before the accident. That wouldnt have disqualified him from driving for Lyft. Its website states that a driver can have up to three moving violations in the past three years and up to one major moving violation.

To a layperson, Lyfts legal responses to the lawsuit may seem harsh. Its affirmative defense appears to blame the victims. Injuries or damages to decedent, if any, were proximately caused by negligence, recklessness or intentional conduct of decedent in that he failed to exercise ordinary care under the circumstances, says its answer to the case filed in San Francisco Superior Court.

While heartless-sounding, such wording is commonplace, said Andrew Bradt, assistant professor at UC Berkeley School of Law. They have to put that language into their early filings in order to avoid waiving the possibility of contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiffs, he said. For instance, if the passengers were found not to have been wearing seat belts, Lyfts and its insurers liability could be reduced, he said. Failure to assert a possible defense can result in losing it forever.

Still, he said, Lyfts responses are unlikely to play well in the court of public opinion  and could hurt the companys reputation. It seems like misdirection if one of their main selling points is protection by an insurance policy, but the realities of recovering under that policy are extremely onerous, Bradt said.

Lyfts response also uses the drivers status as an independent contractor as a defense, another commonplace legal placeholder for a possible future defense. The driver was an independent contractor responsible for their own means and methods, making the doctrine of respondeat superior inapplicable, Lyfts response said. That doctrine holds that an employer is responsible for wrongful actions an employee performs within the scope of his or her work.

At the time of the accident, both Lyft and outside experts said its insurance would cover any claims.

While the lawsuit doesnt seek a specific amount, Im sure its more than a million-dollar case, by a lot, said Bradt, the Berkeley Law professor.

Ubers similar battle

Lyfts arch-rival Uber notoriously prolonged a battle over a fatal accident. After an Uber driver struck and killed a 6-year-old girl in San Francisco on New Years Eve in 2013, Uber allegedly disclaimed responsibility because the driver was in between ride assignments. That case was finally settled in July 2015 for an undisclosed amount before it was to go to trial.

The other passenger in the Lyft accident, Lawrence, who spent three days in a hospital intensive care unit after the accident, said he racked up $92,000 in medical bills. A massage therapist, Lawrence said he was unable to work for almost a year after the accident as he healed from internal injuries and multiple contusions. Hes still emotionally traumatized from losing the man he expected to spend his life with.

I grew up in a fundamental Christian family and had issues with accepting my sexuality, Lawrence said. Shane was the first person who made me feel loved, accepted and understood.

Holland, who had struggled with Tourette syndrome, was attending Sierra College, a community college in Rocklin, full time as a physics major with the goal of transferring to UC Davis, then pursuing medical school to be a radiologist, his mother said.

Both Lawrence and Dinapoli said it adds to their pain to have to pursue a legal battle.

Its hard to keep having to relive and replay everything I went through that night, Lawrence said. It makes me sad and it makes me angry.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @csaid
NEW YORK  Calling it an issue of victims rights, the Manhattan district attorney urged Congress to pass legislation that would require tech companies to give law enforcement a way to access information on encrypted phones and other devices.

Cyrus Vance Jr. says that while the debate over encryption has centered on issues of privacy and national security, the implications go far beyond that. The Manhattan district attorneys office currently has 230 phones involved in cases that it has warrants to search, but cant access the information inside.

There are victims of crime, survivors of crime, that are waiting for the Senate to lead and find a way forward, so we can access key evidence that now resides on smartphones that cannot be opened, Vance said Monday on the steps of New Yorks City Hall.

A Senate bill now being drafted would effectively prohibit unbreakable encryption and require companies to help the government access data on a computer or mobile device with a warrant.

The bill is being finalized by the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and the top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco. But it remains unclear when the bill will be introduced.

Tech companies, civil liberties groups and some members of Congress, have railed against the draft, saying that it would effectively require them to create backdoors into encrypted devices and undermine security for everyone.

Standing near Vance were the mother and sister of Brittney Mills, 29, who was gunned down in her Baton Rouge, La., home in April 2015. Mills was pregnant at the time and the fetus died days later.

The case remains unsolved, but investigators say clues to the murder might be uncovered from the womans iPhone.

Vance spoke Monday just ahead of a hearing on encryption before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. Attorneys for Apple and law enforcement are expected to testify.

The Justice Department and the tech industry have sparred over encryption for years. The recent court battle over access to an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shootings, which left 14 people dead, pulled the issue into the spotlight.

The Justice Department dropped that court battle after an outside party came forward with a way to bypass Apples security and access the phones data.

FBI Director James Comey said the method used to break that phone works only on an iPhone 5C running version 9 of the Apple operating system.
Kim Bishop is a retired executive in the financial services industry. He lives with his wife of 52 years in Marin County. They have two sons who now have families of their own. Both boys learned to drive a stick shift in their Porsche 912E, and perhaps the grandkids will as well. Kim volunteers as an English language teacher to immigrants and enjoys playing tennis, cycling and sailing.

In 1982, my 9-year-old son talked me into buying a fun car. That new member of our family turned out to be a 1976 Porsche 912E. The E stands for einspritzung, the German word for injection, in this case referring to fuel. In 1976, Porsche discontinued the four-cylinder 914 and had a few 2-liter engines left over. They installed them in 911 bodies, shipped the cars to the United States and thus the 912E was born. Only 2,092 were ever built in 20 different colors. Mine is Grand Prix White with a sunroof.

The 912E has a four-cylinder, air-cooled engine with overhead valves and is naturally aspirated. It develops power and torque of 86 bhp at 4,900 rpm. The five-speed manual transmission is the same as on a 911. The car weighs only 2,400 pounds, and with a passenger who isnt too heavy it will cover the 0 to 60 mile dash in 13 seconds. It gets about 23 miles to the gallon on regular gasoline.

My son was incredibly proud and excited about the car. We had just moved to the Bay Area from Colorado, so he wrote to all of his buddies back there about it. When he was a little older, I let him drive along Bolinas Ridge, while I sat in the passenger seat glancing down anxiously at Stinson Beach a thousand feet below. It was a little scary. He is grown now and has become a serial Porsche owner himself.

CHECK CAR PRICES:

My Porsche has been my one-and-only beloved and dependable daily driver for 33 years now. I had the engine rebuilt by a local German-American Porsche mechanic at 152,000 miles. The car now has 184,000 miles on it and is going strong. I added a CD player, side view mirrors and painted the headlight rims which were originally chrome. Otherwise it is stock.

One downside of owning a 40-year-old one-off car is finding parts. My resourceful mechanic has fortunately identified small, often mom and pop outfits who re-manufacture such items as the air box and the drive mechanism for the afterburner. Although it is a 911 body with a 914 engine, it is still technically a 912E, and many of the parts are unique only to this model. In most states smog control is determined solely by the engine emissions, but in California the car must also be 100 percent stock to pass inspections. That means finding parts which have not been manufactured for decades.

One Thanksgiving when the kids were small, the four of us took a road trip to Irvine in the 912E to visit the grandparents. We were stalled on the freeway trying to get through Los Angeles for hours. All that time I was very apprehensive that the air-cooled engine would overheat just sitting there, but the German engineers evidently had figured it all out and we were just fine.

Even though I bought the car in Oakland, it seldom leaves Marin County these days. We did make one memorable trip to the East Bay a couple of years ago. With the sunroof open on a glorious California day, we crossed the new section of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge, and looking up we marveled at its signature design.

Attention Bay Area drivers

Were looking for submissions to the bi-weekly My Ride feature. We want to know what you drive and why. Send story ideas to cars@sfchronicle.com with the subject line My Ride.
LOS ANGELES  Javier Lopezs 84 mph fastball is no different than Jeff Samardzijas at 95 in one important regard: If Lopez cannot command his sinking fastball, he will fall behind in the count and get in trouble even against left-handed hitters whom he usually dominates.

Lopez said Sunday that is the root of his bad 2016 start. He has allowed runs in four of his six appearances and hits to five of the 10 lefties he has faced. That includes Corey Seagers two-run, eighth-inning homer Saturday night.

Seager was the third left-hander to homer against Lopez since the Giants acquired him in 2010. The other two were Pedro Alvarez in 2012 and Freddie Freeman in 2014.

Obviously, Ive put myself in a hole here, Lopez said Sunday. I dont think Im far off. Obviously, the home run was uncharacteristic. Its just one of those things where Im falling behind and not working the sequences I want. It comes back to fastball command.

The disadvantage of being a one- or two-batter specialist is no opportunity to adjust mechanics on the fly as full-inning pitchers do. If Lopez is off from the minute he takes the mound, he is in trouble.

Lopez had pitched just once in the prior week before the Seager homer tightened a 4-1 game, but the 38-year-old said he cannot use rust as an excuse, because this has been his role for his entire time in San Francisco.

Shortstop coming? The Giants were adamant this spring they wanted Mac Williamson to play every day in the minors. Manager Bruce Bochy hinted Williamson could return to Triple-A Sacramento if he cannot get big-league at-bats, and Bochy does not foresee an outfield start for Williamson anytime soon.

The Giants promoted Williamson after infielder Ehire Adrianza broke his foot because Williamson was on the 40-man roster and provided right-handed pop off the bench. The club did not want to make a hasty 40-man move to make room for a nonroster infielder.

The Giants could create a 40-man roster spot by moving pitching prospect Ian Gardeck to the 60-day disabled list after his Tommy John surgery. If the Giants decide they want a more experienced shortstop to back up Brandon Crawford, they are confident enough in the defensive abilities of Sacramentos Hak-Ju Lee.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

On deck

Monday

vs. Diamondbacks

7:15 p.m. CSN+

Bradley (0-0) vs.

Peavy (0-1)

Tuesday

vs. Diamondbacks

7:15 p.m. CSNBA

Ray (0-0) vs.

Cain (0-1)

Wednesday

vs. Diamondbacks

7:15 p.m. CSNBA

Greinke (0-2) vs.

Bumgarner (1-1)

Leading off

Wrong Cueto: At a sponsor event in spring training, Jeff Samardizja mistakenly gave a ballplayer fanny swat to Johnny Cuetos lookalike brother, who also fooled a TV crew during the 2015 World Series.

 Henry Schulman
1 Missing couple: Authorities are searching for two brothers who were involved in a property dispute with a missing Washington state couple. Neighbors reported Patrick Shunn and his wife, Monique Patenaude, of Arlington missing on Tuesday when their livestock were left unattended. Police say that they have evidence linking John and Tony Reed to the couples disappearance and that surveillance video tied them to the disposal of the Shunn and Patenaudes vehicles. The search for the couple began after their vehicles were found in a wooded area of Oso on Thursday.

2 Police shooting: A former police officer in Virginia accused of fatally shooting a man who had his hands up during a 2013 standoff pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors said. Adam Torres, 33, struck the plea bargain just before his murder trial was scheduled to begin in Fairfax, nearly three years after Torres shot and killed John Geer, 46, of Springfield. Commonwealths Attorney Ray Morrogh said he agreed to the plea, in part, to spare Geers daughters from testifying. The plea calls for Torres to serve a 12-month sentence. While Geer was killed in 2013, Torres was not indicted until 2015. The delay led to allegations that Fairfax County was stonewalling the investigation.
WASHINGTON  Democrats are pressing top Senate Republicans to stop dragging their feet and act immediately on President Obamas request for $1.9 billion to combat the Zika virus.

More than 40 of the chambers Democrats on Monday signed a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., demanding a Senate vote on additional Zika funds. The White House says the money is urgently needed to fight the spread of mosquitoes that transmit the virus, develop a vaccine and help other countries battle Zika.

For more than two months, Congress has failed to respond to the administrations Zika request. But more importantly, Congress has failed to address a disease that has infected nearly 700 Americans in 40 states, Washington, D.C., and 3 U.S. territories, including more than 65 pregnant women, the letter read.

Zika can cause severe birth defects, including microcephaly, a condition in which a babys head is far smaller than normal.

Obama has redirected more than $500 million in unspent Ebola funds, but the White House says its only a temporary solution. Republicans are signaling that theyll provide some Zika money, but they havent said how much or how soon.

Last week, House Appropriations Committee Democrats sought to attach Obamas Zika request to an unrelated spending bill but were denied by Republicans controlling the panel. In the companion Senate panel, the possibility that Democrats might try to attach the full $1.9 billion request prompted Republicans to prepare for a smaller alternative in the $700 million range.

On the Sunday talk shows, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Zika should not be a consideration for women in the U.S. who are considering getting pregnant. He said its hoped that the number of cases of Zika would remain limited.

I dont want to get into the politics of it, but I can just tell you, from a public health and a research standpoint, we do really need that resource in order to be able to get the job done, Fauci said on CBS Face The Nation.

It would be shortsighted and dangerous for Congress not to act quickly to give the Administration the resources it needs to fully fight the Zika virus and protect Americans, the Democrats letter stated.
You might have heard this week about Revolutionize Haight, the big new idea for a different kind of Haight Streetone that's largely closed to private vehicles.

Created by Upper Haight resident Reed Martin, Revolutionize Haight aims to blow the doors off existing plans for improving the Upper Haight corridor (namely, the currently bogged-down Public Realm Plan) and provide a bottom-up, neighborhood-based alternative to revamping Haight Street.

Most controversially, it envisions closing the street to most private vehiclesbut providing a net parking space gain elsewhere, via the creation of perpendicular parking on all side streets within a block of Haight. Three designated Muni stops at Stanyan, Belvedere, and Masonic would allow buses to continue to run, and designated loading and unloading areas and bus-only lanes could be used for commercial vehicles during specified times.

The tradeoff, Martin argues, is better outdoor space for pedestrians, and a healthier, more organic transit corridor that better serves neighbors. Eventually, he says, F-Market trains could even split at Van Ness, running up Haight Street all the way to Golden Gate Park.

Martin's proposal has already been making the rounds on Reddit and Nextdoor, where it's generated quite a bit of controversy. So we sat down with him to learn about the genesis of Revolutionize Haightand potential next steps for making his vision a reality.

You might remember Martin, a San Francisco Transit Riders board member, for his run last year as a mayoral candidate. While he didn't expect to win, he said, he was interested in learning about city government from the inside out, to understand its "stagnation."

"It's been a fun ride," he said.

Martin, who grew up in Paris, is an artist and designer, but has no technical training in urban design. He holds a graduate degree from MIT's Media Lab, which, he said, is about the intersection of technology, art, and liberal arts, using technical solutions "to actually make people's lives better," he said.

Reed For Mayor

The idea for Revolutionize Haightspecifically, to turn the Haight into a pedestrian corridor that emphasizes people, human interaction, and the Haight's native idiosyncrasiesactually stemmed from Martin's experiences in Paris, both as a child and a few years ago, when he lived there for the summer.

"I was really surprised" there, he said. "There was this growing movement of people that wanted more street space for people."

The city started closing what were effectively highways that had been built along the Seine. These spaces became "a canvas for people to make it what they wanted it to be," Martin said.

"The coolest part of [Haight] Street is the stuff that happens there," Martin notes. Yet all the neighbors he's spoken to about the project routinely avoid walking down Haight, choosing adjacent, parallel corridors because the sidewalks are too crowded and difficult to navigate.

Martin argues that Haight is currently more oriented towards vehicles than pedestrians. "That's not a good thing," he said. "You want this to be a community space. San Francisco is so community-oriented, but there's so little community space."

The impulse to create Revolutionize Haight was also born out of the currently bogged-down Haight Ashbury Public Realm Plan, Martin said. He said he was involved with that project during its early stages, and had high hopes for it, but "it eventually lost everything it had going for it"including what people asked for in the first place.

Part of that was because of the variety of invested community members, he said, and part was because change was being forced down by various city departments, all of them at odds with each other. "I think you get bogged down in that process," he said, and end up focusing on inconsequential details: whether sidewalks should be six feet wider or eight feet wider, for example.

Despite all of that, Martin said, "people are really not that far from agreeing with each other. I'm looking for a thing that people can rally behind. It felt like the ultimate opportunity wasn't in exact measurements and details, but that the street was sort of a canvas for people ... It's always been a street that's about people."

His goal with Revolutionize Haight, he said, is to back the process away from city bureaucracy, to "get out of the way" and let it grow organically, based on the community's needs.

"Our opportunity is so ridiculously great in this city," he said. "The coolest part ... is that everybody has an opinion. I love that."

Martin said the next goal is for Revolutionize Haight to continue to grow the number of people involvedneighbors, residents, business owners, historians, maybe some architectsand to find common ground between them. He's currently working on community outreach, fostering cooperation among different organizations, connecting various stakeholders, and attempting to gain some consensus on what would make the street great.

While Revolutionize Haight was initially a long-term vision, Martin said, it's looking increasingly like a shorter horizon for some real change to happen. "It feels like there might be more opportunity here than I thought," he said.

If it goes well, "I really would love for this to be a model for how we do things in the city," he said. "Let the community be more involved with high-level planning. Let the city offer their expertise, and then we can hold them more accountable through the process."

This article originally appeared on Hoodline.
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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)



A San Francisco man who was severely beaten by two Alameda County sheriff's deputies in November pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court today to federal gun and drug charges.



Stanislav Petrov, 29, was beaten with metal batons by two deputies on a San Francisco street on Nov. 12 at the end of a car chase that began in unincorporated San Leandro.



A video of the beating has circulated widely online. Petrov, who says he suffered permanent disabling injuries, has filed an administrative claim of excessive force against Alameda County.



The unrelated federal criminal charges against Petrov follow his arrest at a house in San Francisco's Visitacion Valley neighborhood on April 1.





An affidavit filed by an FBI agent on April 1 alleges that agents searching the house on March 8 discovered a Ruger pistol, five ounces of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in a room in which Petrov was found sleeping.



Petrov pleaded not guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Sallie Kim to four counts in an indictment issued by a federal grand jury on Thursday.
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Gov. Greg Abbott announced late Monday afternoon he has signed a disaster declaration for the Houston area because of powerful thunderstorms that led to several fatalities, damaged hundreds of homes and paralyzed the region.

The declaration covers nine counties: Harris, Bastrop, Colorado, Fort Bend, Grimes, Montgomery, Waller, Wharton and Austin. That will allow local officials to implement state emergency-assistance plans and order curfews, if necessary, as the heavy rains continue in the forecast through at least Tuesday.

If property losses are excessive, a federal disaster declaration is expected in a few days after detailed damage assessments, officials said. They said Harris and Waller counties are the most affected so far.

Abbott also announced that the IRS has agreed to grant extensions for tax filings for those Texans who are directly affected the flooding.

Authorities said at least five people drowned as a result of the storm. Earlier Monday, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett confirmed two fatalities were near U.S. 59 and Interstate 610. Emmett said surveillance camera footage showed a car drive around a barricade into high water in that area.

Sgt. Herbert Martinez of the Harris County Precinct 5 constable's office said two fatalities were reported at Greenspoint Drive and the Beltway and at West Hardy Road and the Beltway.

Martinez said the toll road authority had responded to the West Hardy Road death and said authorities had witnessed the man drive an 18-wheeler into high water. He said a medical condition may have been involved. It's unclear what led to the other death.

In addition, Royal Independent School District in Brookshire tweeted that one of its teachers, Charles Odum of Royal Junior High, died in rising floodwaters on Monday.

A flood-related fatality was reported in Waller County, which was hard hit by the storm. A man of an unknown age was found by rescuers around noon Monday in a submerged vehicle near the intersection of Wilson and Adams Flat roads, said Brian Cantrell of the Waller County Sheriff's Office. Investigators believed the vehicle had been caught in rushing water.

Houston Police Department spokeswoman Jodi Silva said officers responded to reports of bodies found in flooding at the feeder road connecting 610 and I-59 near the Houston Chronicle building.

Silva said responders could not yet offer any further information.

Harris County officials said the high water rescue number had risen to 1,222, with 897 in Houston limits and 325 outside.

County Judge Ed Emmett said "timing means everything" when evaluating the impact of a storm. Much of the last 24 hours' rainfall came during the night time, which made it both difficult to predict but also allowed people to make choices about going out, as opposed to last year's Memorial Day floods.

Emmett said the officials' preparation for the floods and rains on Monday went "as well as they can go," but said heavy, concentrated, sustained rains will have consequences despite any amount of preparation.

"Some things you can't avoid," he said.

School districts and colleges across southeast Texas canceled classes Monday as a flash flood watch remained in effect due to heavy rainfall. More than 121,000 customers were without power in the Houston area at one point, but the figure had dropped to 47,000 as of about 3 p.m., according to CenterPoint.

RELATED: Some schools will be closed or delayed on Tuesday

Forecasters said that on Tuesday, up to three more inches of rainfall may be possible.

RELATED: City responds as rain pounds Houston

Heavy rain leaves Houston, other areas underwater

The storms hit overnight and are expected to continue throughout the day and into Tuesday, according the National Weather Service.

RELATED: ABC 13 reporter saves man from flooded Houston car

"This is a major rain event," Emmett said. "I hate to use the word 'Allison' but it's got all the similar features."

Emmett said 13 of 22 of Harris County's creeks and waterways were out of their banks and heavy rains from the north and northwest would continue to flow down and cause swells.

Chaos in Greenspoint area

Mayor Sylvester Turner sought to assure what could be hundreds of residents stranded on the upper floors of flooded Greenspoint-area apartments that the city is moving to help them.

News footage through the afternoon has shown residents hauling children out of the flooded complexes in everything from plastic tubs to air mattresses to, in one case, a refrigerator. Turner said he has deployed 10 Metro buses and nine fire department rescue vehicles to the area to move residents to Aldine ISD's M.O. Campbell Education Center, which the city is using as a shelter.

"There's no question we're getting a number of calls, people stranded and in need of rescue, and we're deploying assets to that area to meet the immediate need," Turner said. "We know there's many individuals who are stranded. I know people are wanting to get out of that area. I've directed all of our resources that are available to move expeditiously into those areas. I want to assure people that's being done."

"Do not think the city is not seeing you," Turner continued, addressing Greenspoint residents. "It's a situation where all throughout the city, and quite frankly all throughout our region, we're dealing with high water."

City personnel reached roughly 1,000 units this morning, Turner's spokeswoman Janice Evans said, with some residents being helped to higher levels of the apartment buildings and some being moved to the Greenspoint Mall. The city must now move those at mall to M.O. Campbell, along with those who did not leave the area this morning and any residents who may be stuck in another 500 units nearby that may not have been reached in the first response this morning.

"I don't want people to leave a unit on the second floor. Shelter in place," Turner said. "We are responding and we will continue to respond until every single person is in a safe and dry area."

Turner said he understands why Greenspoint residents  hungry and stressed, surrounded by floodwaters  would say they feel abandoned, but Turner said a command center was set up in the Greenspoint area at 3:59 a.m, so personnel have been working in the area for hours.

Leaving the city emergency center for a joint press conference with County Judge Ed Emmett, Turner said he plans to visit the Greenspoint area afterward.

Shelter-in-place orders

Turner said reports he's getting suggest more people in the area are being relocated to the M.O. Campbell Education Center, a shelter now housing about 300 people, but he said other residents have resisted first responders' offers to help them leave their dwellings.

"There have been many individuals who have waived the rescuers on and said they're fine, they don't want to go," Turner said. "But I want to go out there myself and assess the situation."

In addition to Greenspoint, city personnel are focusing on the Meyerland area and parts of northwest Houston that were hit particularly hit by flooding.

Those needing assistance to reach a shelter are asked to call the city 311 help line at 713-837-0311.

Shelters in place were:

Meyerland area: Johnston Middle School, 10410 Manhattan.

Northwest area: (Bingle, Little York, TX 249, Alabonson, Victory): St. John United Methodist Church, 8787 N. Houston Rosslyn.

Westside: Jersey Village Baptist Church, 16518 Jersey Drive.

Northside: M.O. Campbell Education Center, 1865 Aldine-Bender.

The mayor sounded a cautiously hopeful tone during a 12:30 p.m. update on Houston's latest flood, saying the National Weather Service believed most heavy rainfall would stay to the city's south, leaving the city limits to receive perhaps half an inch of rain through the rest of the day. However, he said, conditions can shift quickly, and the area remains on a flood watch until Tuesday morning.

Nearly 100 intersections were closed due to high water, Turner said, and the city had received reports of flooding in 72 homes or businesses, though Turner said the full tally likely was far higher, as he has heard suggestions that 200 homes in Meyerland could be affected. The flooding comes less than a year after sudden downpours caused major flooding on Memorial Day weekend.

"I regret anyone who's having to go through the flooding of their homes again," Turner said. "For some individuals, they've just finished the repairs and moved back into their homes, and then less than a year later here we go again. I know it's very difficult. But I will say that there were areas that flooded this time that haven't flooded in years. And this is happened not just in our region but throughout the state. This is just one of those things that no one can control."

Flights canceled

At Bush Intercontinental Airport, 224 flights had been canceled, and 54 more had been scrapped at Hobby Airport; the nearby intersection of Monroe and Airport also was underwater, with several stranded vehicles there, Turner said.

Metro still was not operating, Turner said, and 44,157 homes inside the city limits remained without power.

Turner acknowledged the event was difficult to forecast, but said city officials would not have prepared any differently than they did. City personnel were on alert last night, as he and Emmett decided to close the city and county court systems and tell only public safety personnel to report to work. All school districts were able to close before thousands of residents left their homes, he said.

"I don't think anyone expected the rainfall to come as soon as it did and persist as long as it did, and it just got worse," Turner said. "That's a lot of rain to be coming in a very short period of time. There's nothing you can do whether you're in the city or the county or any other governmental entity that can stop that amount of rainfall."

Houston Fire Department responded to 610 emergency calls after midnight, the mayor said.

About 100 residents of apartments in North Houston had been evacuated from three apartment complexes and were being sheltered in the Greenspoint Mall, Turner said, noting that the Red Cross also had opened a shelter at 16518 Jersey Drive.

More than 70 subdivisions in the Houston metro area were flooded as of 6:55 a.m. Metro suspended bus operations Monday because of the flood watch, which will remain in effect through 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Some homes in hard-hit northwest Harris County, where 8 to 16 inches rain fell overnight, reportedly had several feet of water inside, rising up to kitchen sinks, Sanchez said.

Sanchez said residents inside Beltway 8 along Brays Bayou may also see flooding inside their homes. Officials fear, he added, homes inside the 610 Loop could also get flooded.

"This will definitely be an historic event," Sanchez said.

The flash flood watch covers Harris, Brazoria Fort Bend, Galveston, Montgomery, Waller and other counties in the region. Flooding is especially possible along Greens Bayou near the Eastex Freeway as well as areas along Buffalo Bayou near Piney Point Village and Cypress Creek near Westfield.

In Montgomery County, where 4 to 8 inches of rain had fallen over several hours, the Red Cross opened three shelters for people forced from their homes.

The shelters are located at First United Methodist Church 4308 W. Davis in Conroe; the East Montgomery County Friendship Center, 21679 McCleskey Road in New Caney; and South County Community Center, 2235 Lake Robbins Drive in The Woodlands.

A coastal Flood Warning was in effect until 4 p.m. Water has already moved over Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island's roads.

>> Is it flooding in your area? Show us conditions in your area by sending photos to photos@chron.com. They could appear on Chron.com.
Keep your dogs on a leash in parks, and if you live near open space, keep your cats inside, recommends wildlife expert Brian Murphy of Walnut Creek.

A leash on your dog right now can take on a new meaning, Murphy said. It can prevent your dog from being an easy meal.

Murphy, who often contributes photography to The Chronicle and runs programs for wood-duck nesting boxes, bats, pollinators and wildlife-habitat restoration in the foothills of Mount Diablo, this month found the remains of a small dog that had been eaten, he believes, by coyotes.

Predators continue to adapt to living in our urban environment, Murphy said, and so do their feeding patterns and food they eat.

Earlier this month, Chronicle readers Jeff Rafnson and Jodell Scott reported being stalked and charged by coyotes while walking their dogs in San Francisco near open space and parks.

David Cruz, Natures Lantern

Recently in Los Angeles, wildlife officers darted a mountain lion that had wandered onto a high school campus and then ran into the backyard of a nearby resident.

Many people might wonder, Why would they do this? The answer is they do it because they are hungry.

There is a six-week window now when spring conditions and warm weather kindle the hunger of lions, bobcats and coyotes, but its a period when their favorite prey, the fawns of deer, are not yet available. This years crop of fawns will not be born for another month, most from late May into June, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The lions, bobcats and coyotes instead will try to catch squirrels, gophers and other rodents. Failing at that, Murphy noted, they could turn to pets.

In Tice Valley near Walnut Creek, coyotes discovered outdoor cats as easy meals, Murphy said. Over the years, I believe they ate all of the outdoor cats they could find.

This spring, with that easy meal hunted to extinction and no longer available, small dogs are on the coyotes list of easy meals in urban areas near parks and open space, he said.

In Southern California last month, a mountain lion, believed to live in Griffith Park, was blamed for entering the nearby Los Angeles Zoo and eating a koala.

Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicles outdoors writer. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom
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Add up the years and they total 50. The three retiring San Francisco Ballet principal dancers  Joan Boada, Pascal Molat and Gennadi Nedvigin  feted by the company Sunday evening, April 17, at the War Memorial Opera House, can boast a half century of service to the troupe. When the world heralds the superb male dancer roster assembled over the decades here by Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson, it is this trios brand of artistry that inspires those superlatives.

On this occasion with the help of company colleagues, Boada, Molat and Nedvigin offered their fans (who isnt one?) one last sampling of what we will miss with their departure. An attempt was made to revive ballets in which these men created roles, a kind of living history that paid off when Boada and Nedvigin (joined by Molat) re-created their roles in the klezmer trio from Yuri Possokhovs 2000 Magrittomania. Molat returned to his original role in the male quintet from Tomassons 2003 Concerto Grosso and the years fell away.
A worldly and sophisticated Islamic culture flourished in Cordoba more than a millennium ago, when the city was the capital of Islamic Spain and was Western Europes biggest and most cultured city. Modern-day Cordoba is ideal to explore on foot, viewing old buildings centered on verdant patios, lingering in old wine bars and feeling history with every step.

The narrow streets of the old Juderia (Jewish quarter) and Muslim quarter stretch out from the great mosque, and its easy to spend a day wandering through them, sometimes retracing your steps to see that the same spot looks very different in sunlight and shadow.

 Jill K. Robinson

Morning

From Las Casas de la Juderia, walk northeast to the Mezquita, also known as the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba. Considered one of the worlds greatest works of Islamic architecture, the Mezquita was constructed over two centuries, starting in A.D. 784. Since then, the structure has had one major alteration  a 16th century cathedral smack in the middle of the mosque. Walk inside from the Patio de los Naranjos, and pause first among the red-and-white striped arches and more than 850 jasper and marble pillars. Dont leave without spending a few moments in front of the mihrab  the prayer niche. The portal glitters with gold mosaic cubes.

A few more blocks northeast, on the Plaza del Potro, is the Centro Flamenco Fosforito. The m useum s e xhibits, film and information panels are in Spanish and English, and tell the history of the guitar and the flamenco greats. Live performances are here, too, so check the schedule.

Midday

Back near Las Casas de la Juderia is Casa Mazal, the only kosher restaurant in Cordoba, serving Sephardic as well as Moorish dishes. Sephardic cuisine has diverse roots in Andalusia, Italy, Turkey and North Africa. Afterward, wander the network of narrow lanes in the old Jewish Quarter ( known as the Juderia) , and drop in at the Casa de Sefarad, a museum devoted to the Sephardic tradition, covering food, ritual, music, domestic crafts and the Inquisition. Once connected to the Casa de Sefarad by tunnel, the small Sinagoga (constructed in 1315), is one of the few testaments to the Jewish presence in medieval Andalusia.

Afternoon

Transport yourself to ancient Cordoba at the Hammam Al Andalus, and relax in the hammam-style baths among the fountains and filtered sunlight from star-shaped windows. Visits last 90 minutes, during which you can move freely through the hot, warm and cool baths, and the steam room (bathing suit required). Get the complete experience by adding the traditional kessa and massage  the masseur lathers and scrubs you with a kessa glove and red grape soap, then massages you with essential oils.

Evening

Duck down a tiny alley to get to La Fragua, in a 15th century building. Inside the stone walls, brick floors and ancient wooden doors, it feels as if youve found an exclusive restaurant hideaway. Order a few traditional Andalusian dishes to share, such as salmorejo (akin to gazpacho) and deep-fried eggplant with honey, and relax to flamenco music.

After dinner, wander to Caballarizas Reales (Royal Stables), built in 1570 by King Philip II in an attempt to create a pure thoroughbred Spanish horse. Catch an e vening show featuring dazzling Andalusian dancing horses.

If you go

WHERE TO STAY

Las Casas de la Juderia: Calle Tomas Conde 10, www.lascasasdelajuderiacordoba.com.

WHERE TO EAT

La Fragua: Calleja del Arco 2.

Casa Mazal: Calle Tomas Conde 3, www.casamazal.com.

Learn More

Andalusian Tourism and Sport: www.andalucia.org.
JERUSALEM  A bus exploded in Jerusalem on Monday, wounding at least 21 people in what police said was a terror attack, raising fears of a return to the Palestinian suicide bombings that ravaged Israeli cities a decade ago.

There is no doubt that this was a terror attack, Jerusalem police commissioner Yoram Halevy said. He said it was too early to know the identity of the attacker or if it was a suicide bombing.
BEIRUT  Conditions are desperate inside a Palestinian refugee camp for about 10,000 civilians in Damascus, the U.N. said Sunday, as civilian casualties mount elsewhere from indiscriminate attacks across the country.

The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said violent battles between extremists have left residents of the Yarmouk camp without food or water for more than a week.

Civilians in Yarmouk are facing starvation and dehydration alongside the heightened risks of serious injury and death from the armed conflict, said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness.

The camp, a built-up neighborhood once home to an estimated 150,000 people, has been ravaged by fighting between the Islamic State group and al Qaedas Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, while government forces regularly shell it from outside.

Syrias warring factions have returned to violence in recent weeks, spoiling a period of relative calm brought about by a partial cease-fire that went into effect in late February.

In the last two days, ten children, including three siblings, have been killed by indiscriminate shelling on government-controlled areas of Aleppo, Syrias largest city, a monitoring group said Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels were responsible for the shelling, while air strikes killed six in the opposition-held parts of the citys old quarters.

Air strikes near Jisr al-Shughour in opposition-held Idlib province killed three civilians, the Observatory reported, and pro-government forces intensified their shelling and bombing on an opposition-held pocket north of Homs, the countrys third-largest city, according to the activist Local Coordination Committees network.

Government and opposition delegations have been engaged in indirect peace talks in Geneva since Wednesday as the U.N. looks for ways to bring an end to the countrys five-year conflict, but the oppositions chief negotiator has urged insurgents to strike at pro-government forces.
QUITO, Ecuador  At first, it seemed normal, like the dozens of earthquakes that strike every year in Guayaquil, a coastal city on the seismically active zone known as the Ring of Fire.

But then things started to fall, the doors slammed and windows broke. The tremor never seemed to stop, and we started hearing screams, said Caroll Cedeno, 33, who lives in a fourth-floor apartment in the city of 3 million, Ecuadors largest. We ran out of the apartment and all our neighbors were already outside.

Cedenos apartment building withstood the 7.8-magnitude quake, which struck just before 7 p.m. Saturday. But others in cities on Ecuadors Pacific coast werent as lucky. The quake destroyed hundreds of buildings, killed at least 262 people and injured more than 2,500.

On Sunday, as emergency officials assessed the damage and rescue teams raced against time, television images showed pancaked apartment buildings, crumbled roads and the bodies of victims left on sidewalks. After walls of a prison in the town of Portoviejo collapsed, 100 prisoners escaped, authorities told news media.

Cedeno and her daughter slept outside under a tent in a park Saturday night, fearful that the tremors would continue. My daughter didnt sleep at all, she said in a telephone interview. We felt many aftershocks and were afraid that our building would collapse.

Although Guayaquil sustained significant damage, the hardest-hit cities were along the coast farther north. In Pedernales, population 48,000, local media reported that 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.

In Manta, the countrys second-largest port city after Guayaquil, the airport control tower collapsed. In Chone, a hospital floor crumpled. A hospital in the coastal city of Caraquez reported that it ran out of room and medical supplies for the injured.

In Guayaquil, the quake caused several deaths and the collapse or ruin of apartment buildings and bridges. Chaos reigned in much of the city as communications and traffic came to a near standstill.

Ecuadorean officials were still assessing the damage, but repairs are expected to cost in the billions of dollars. Government officials said 10 coastal roads had been closed, with resulting congestion made more acute by relatives from the interior of Ecuador clogging highways to try to reach loved ones.

The government announced Sunday that it was sending 10,000 soldiers to the zone to assist in rescue and security operations. Scattered instances of looting were reported. Vice President Jorge Glas arrived in Manta to direct rescue efforts, and President Rafael Correa cut short a trip to the Vatican to return to Ecuador.

Glas said untold numbers of Ecuadoreans were still trapped in collapsed buildings. We havent been able to use heavy equipment because it could have tragic consequences for the injured buried in the rubble, he said. Were here first to attend to the injured and then will come reconstruction.

The quake, the most powerful to strike Ecuador since the late 1970s, was also felt in the capital, Quito, and in the southern city of Cuenca, home to many U.S. retirees, but officials reported only minor damage there.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
1 Brussels attacks: Thousands of people rallied Sunday in Brussels for a march against hate in the wake of the suicide bombings in the city last month that killed 32 people. People of several religious faiths turned out for the peace march, which went by the Molenbeek neighborhood where many suspects in the March 22 attacks on Brussels and the Paris massacre in November lived or had contacts. The rally was supposed to take place on March 27 but was canceled over security fears.

2 Temple blast: Police in Germany are investigating an explosion at a Sikh temple in the city of Essen that injured three people late Saturday. A masked man reported to have fled the scene has not been apprehended, police spokesman Lars Lindemann said Sunday. Lindemann said police are investigating all directions, but there are no indications of a terrorist motive. A 60-year-old man suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries in the blast and remains hospitalized. Two other men suffered slight injuries.
1 Holy site: Jordans prime minister on Monday said his government has decided to call off a plan to install surveillance cameras at Jerusalems most sensitive holy site, derailing a U.S.-brokered pact to ease tensions at the volatile compound. The spot is revered by Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount, and Muslims, who call it the Noble Sanctuary. It has been a frequent scene of violence in the past. In a deal brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Jordan offered to install the cameras last fall after clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces. Jordans prime minister, Abdullah Ensour, said the plan was called off due to Palestinian objections.

2 Deadly floods: Flash floods in northern Afghanistan have killed at least 38 people, officials said Monday. The flooding struck the provinces of Takhar, Badghis and Samangan, and heavy rains also hit the capital, Kabul. Takhars natural disasters director, Abdul Razaq Zinda, said 13 people died in Kalafgan and Bangi districts and scores of houses were damaged.
BAGHDAD  The U.S. has agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year, U.S. defense officials said Monday.

The increase in American fighting forces  and the decision to put them closer to the front lines  is designed to help Iraqi forces as they move to retake the key northern city of Mosul.
Layoffs Pending

Many communities around the state continue to face

, and now Rio Rancho and Albuquerque are bracing for what looks like more layoffs at Intel.

Film Industry Boom

At least the film industry, which banks on

, is still booming around the state.

Prison Health Care Lacks Oversight

If you missed their report in the New Mexican on Sunday, youll want to read Phaedra Haywood and Justin Horwaths investigative report on

, where suffering often goes unchecked.

Women's Health Care

Officials in San Miguel County are setting up a workgroup to figure out how to

there. The closure of a regional hospital has forced pregnant women to drive to Santa Fe to give birth.

Cannabis Scheduling Decision Due

A New Mexico psychiatric nurse practitioner and longtime medical cannabis advocate is anxiously awaiting to see if the Drug Enforcement Agency will finally

this spring or summer.

Accreditation Yanked

If you get skin care at UNMs School of Dermatology, you may want to

until the department gets reaccredited.

Explosion Explained

So it turns out that a lit cigarette near

for the explosions in Espanola that had people running for cover on Friday.

Tapia Targeted

Someone is apparently upset with Johnny Tapias widow.

parked outside her kids' room. Surveillance cameras recorded the explosion, and police are looking for two suspects.

Chemicals Found in Fast Foods

A new study proves that fast food isnt particularly healthful. In fact, people who consume more fast food may be ingesting

. According to Bloomberg, the research provides evidence that fast food is a major source of a category of industrial chemicals called phthalates.

Isotopes Struggling

Holly Holm had fun

at Isotopes Park on Saturday. Still, it wasnt a very good weekend for the team. They

and are now 1-2 at home this season and 5-6 overall this season. On Sunday, they lost to Tacoma 10-7 in 11 innings.

Video Proof

Remember the adage, Never wake a sleeping tiger? Well, this

proves it.

Tax Deadline Looms

We usually end the Morning Word with a good news item. Today, its a reminder that you have to

by midnight. Wait, what's good about that again?

Santa Fe Reporter
Growth in New Zealand's services sector, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy, eased in March, echoing a slowdown in the pace of manufacturing.

The BNZ-BusinessNZ performance of services index fell 1.9 points to a seasonally adjusted 54.8 last month, the lowest level of expansion since November 2014. All of the five sub-indices were above the 50 reading that separates contraction from expansion.

"When the data is smoothed, it becomes clear over the last few months that momentum in the PSI has slowed since a high point late last year," BNZ senior economist Craig Ebert said in his report. "Yet it's far from being slow as March is still running above the historical average of 53.9.

The PSI comes after its sister survey, the performance of manufacturing index, showed a second month of slowing industrial production activity leading to a five-month low, while also remaining above its long-term average. The performance of composite index, which combines the two measures, dropped 1.7 points to 54.8 on the GDP-weighted basic, and shed 1.9 points to 55.0 on a free-weighted basis.

While all five sub-indices were positive in March, that expansion slowed across the board. New orders/business and stocks/inventories fell 3.9 points to 57 and 2.3 points to 52.9 respectively. Supplier deliveries dropped 2.1 points to 51.3, employment shed 0.6 of a point to 53, and activity/sales edged down 0.4 of a point to 59.6.

BNZ's Ebert said weakness in inventories didn't seem to be preparation for weak demand as the new orders component had remained solid at 57.

"The PSIs employment index largely repeated its February positivity, with a result of 53.0," Ebert said. "This is particularly encouraging considering the jobs index of the PMI has turned slightly negative over recent months."

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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Augusta Capital, the listed property investor and fund manager, has bought NZME House in Auckland for $115.8 million with plans to bundle the property into a syndication investment offer.

Auckland-based Augusta bought the building from New Zealand property developer Mansons TCLM, with the deal to settle on Aug. 15, it said in a statement. The firm will pay for the building through a planned $70 million syndication offer, which will open in May, with the balance funded by debt. The syndication is fully underwritten, of which Augusta will provide a $25 million backstop.

NZME House is tenanted by NZME/APN, Pernod Ricard and Meredith Connell, who occupy five floors. As a pre-condition to settlement, Mansons is looking to find a new tenant on a nine-year lease, and is in talks with potential parties, Augusta said.

Augusta diversified into funds management to generate more income from its property investments, and last month said it reaped $2.7 million in fees from two recent offers.

The shares last traded at $1.09, and have gained 9 percent this year.

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AsureQuality, the state-owned food safety and biosecurity services firm, has teamed up with French testing and inspection group Bureau Veritas to buy out its partners in Australia's Dairy Technical Services for an undisclosed sum.

Auckland-based AsureQuality will own 49 percent and Bureau Veritas 51 percent of Melbourne-based DTS under a joint management approach, the state-owned enterprise's chief executive John McKay said. AsureQuality already owned 25 percent of the Australian food and beverage testing company, and had previously declined to comment on reports it was looking to buy out DTS's other shareholders Fonterra Cooperative Group, Murray Goulburn Cooperative, and Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory (WCB).

McKay declined to comment on the sale price citing commercial sensitivity, although in separate statements WCB said it would record an A$8.4 million gain on the sale of its 13.3 percent holding and Murray Goulburn said it would reap A$18 million for its 25.3 percent stake. Fonterra didn't say what it would get for its 36 percent share.

Last December, the Australian Financial Review reported the buy-out talks valued DTS at between A$80 million and A$100 million.

"We've been an investor in DTS for some time and it's always been on the cards to increase our investment, so it's been signalled in our strategy and we're following through with that," McKay said. "We think it sits very well with us in terms of meeting the needs of our customers and it increases our position here in the market, strengthens our position, and helps us build capability and capacity in Australasia."

McKay said the deal will be funded through a mix of cash reserves and debt, and that he was "very comfortable" with AsureQuality's mix of debt and equity. As at Dec. 31, the SOE held cash and equivalents of $4 million with borrowings of $19.3 million, or 47 percent of total equity.

AsureQuality valued its stake in DTS at $10.4 million as at Dec. 31, when it reported a first-half profit of $1.7 million on revenue of $89.6 million.

DTS reported a profit of A$4.1 million on revenue of A$50.1 million in the 12 months ended April 30, 2015, up from earnings of A$3.6 million on sales of A$45.6 million a year earlier, according to financial statements lodged with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission in August. The report said revenue and profits "very significantly exceeded targets" with "significant premiums" from emergency testing.

At the time, the Australian company said it expected increased competition and pressure on customers to cut costs would weigh on the broader market, and that its 2016 budget reflected tougher conditions and increased investment in business development.

McKay said all three dairy groups who sold their shares in DTS would remain customers.

"If you look globally, consumers around the world look at New Zealand and Australia as a source of safe and high-quality food, so it's important that we continue to work with these customers to increase that and build on that," he said.

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Tim Kelsey, strategy and commercial director of Telstra Health, told a conference in Wellington that wi-fi must be free as a public utility in order to ensure everyone can reap the benefits of digital health-care changes.

Speaking at the Powering Up Our Future event, Kelsey conceded it was a "ridiculous" thing for someone working for a telecommunications company to say. But he told his audience that "somehow or other we need to come to a new accommodation where wi-fi is free as a public utility so that all parts of the community are respected with access to these services. The future of health care I think requires equity of access to wi-fi as a matter of course in order that not just specific services can be accessed but more broadly people who can't have access to information get it".

Kelsey is a former director of NHS England, which spearheaded access to data under the 2010-2015 coalition government in the UK. He took up his role with Telstra Health at the start of the year. The Australian telecommunications giant aims to turn its health division into a billion dollar business by 2020 and has been buying up small e-health providers to generate growth. In March last year, Telstra Health bought Dr. Foster, the health-care analytics company Kelsey founded in 2000.

Kelsey was speaking about the importance of telehealth which enables clinicians and patients in remote areas to communicate via the broadband network. New Zealand health minister Jonathan Coleman referenced this in the launch of the government's new health strategy, which took place at the conference this morning. Coleman said that the strategy for the next ten years would ensure "Telehealth services enable patients and clinicians in remote areas access to the services and training they need".

Kelsey envisaged a system in which communication with health professionals would take place via computer and TV screens.

"The ideal thing in my view is to move quickly away from proprietary networks, towards a world of 'chrome cast' in which people are able to very simply broadcast conversations with their nurse or doctor or clinician onto their TV screen and there are already very effective streaming technologies that, if broadband can support them, work well in that space. And I just think it's a no-brainer, it's all about wi-fi, and it's all about the quality of wi-fi access in remote parts of New Zealand and Australia. And that's going to be an important push."

He referenced the result of a trial in Yorkshire in which introducing telehealth screens in care homes had dramatically reduced emergency admissions to a local hospital.

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MIRZAPUR: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said India is poised to emerge as a global economic power and the efforts initiated by the Narendra Modi government will start bearing positive results in the days to come.

"India will be a global economic power," he said in Mirzapur at a BJP function.

"The world has started recognising India's power. No country can avoid us and they have to keep India in their mind," Mr Singh said while highlighting India's economic importance.

Referring to the initiatives launched under the stewardship of Prime Minister Modi, he said these will start bearing "positive results" in the coming years.

At the event organised to felicitate more than a hundred veteran BJP workers who have been with the party since its Jana Sangh days, Mr Singh, a former BJP president, also exhorted the party cadre to start preparing in right earnest for the Assembly polls next year in Uttar Pradesh.

Praising Apna Dal leader and Mirzapur lawmaker Anupriya Patel, he said, "You people have chosen a very good woman who has talent, which was needed in Parliament. She is among the few parliamentarians who are good speakers."

Mr Singh said Ms Patel, however, cannot do much on her own as they are in the opposition in Uttar Pradesh and appealed to locals to back her.

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NEW DELHI: National airports operator AAI is expected to report an all-time high revenue of 10,000 crore, with an estimated flat profit growth in the fiscal ended March 31 this year.



The estimated eight per cent growth in the topline which stood at 9,285 crore in 2014-15, is driven by the surge in passenger traffic as well as aircraft movement, particularly from Ahmedabad and Leh airports, a senior AAI official said.



The state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) was accorded 'Miniratna' status in 2008, granting it the right to exercise its powers of autonomy in terms of investment in projects and forming joint ventures.



Of the 125 AAI airports, currently 95 are operational, with 70 of them having scheduled flights.



"While the accounts are still being finalised, we estimate the revenue to touch an all-time high of 10,000 crore in the last fiscal. The net profit during this period is also estimated at 2,000 crore," the AAI official said.



The public sector firm had posted a net profit of 1,959 crore in the April-March fiscal of 2014-15.



Attributing the estimated eight per cent jump in topline to the surge in both passenger traffic and aircraft movement across airports, the official said, "Ahmedabad and Leh airports in particular fuelled this growth."



"Growth in February was much more than our expectations where March numbers are being culled out," the official said.



According to International Air Transport Association (IATA), India's domestic air passenger traffic grew by a whopping 20.2 per cent in 2015 over the previous year, aided by higher economic growth and increase in number of flights across domestic airlines network.



Industry estimates suggest that passenger traffic at Indian airports is expected to grow to 421 million from 190.1 million in 2015. The growth in domestic air traffic was over three-folds of the global average of 6.3 per cent.



Of the total 475 airports or airstrips in the country, 125 are owned and managed by AAI and the draft civil aviation policy, expected to be finalised soon, envisages revival of un-served and under-served airstrips by AAI, state governments or through PPP mode depending on feasibility.



"The growth in revenue has come despite the combined share from Mumbai and Delhi airports remaining flat at around 2,500 crore in the last two fiscals," the official added.



The GMR and GVK -run Delhi and Mumbai airports, in which AAI owns 26 per cent stake, account for almost 60 per cent of the AAI's total revenue.



AAI gets a revenue share of 45.99 per cent and 38.7 per cent respectively from Delhi and Mumbai airports.

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India To Boost Investment In Iranian Oil And Gas Sectors
TEHRAN: India and oil-rich Iran today decided to significantly expand engagement in their overall ties, particularly in boosting Indian investment in joint ventures in oil and gas sectors in the Persian Gulf nation where foreign investors from major economic powers are rushing in to get early footholds after lifting of nuclear sanctions.



In talks between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarajand her Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, the two sides agreed that pending agreements such as Preferential Trade Agreement, Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement and Bilateral Investment Treaty should be concluded on a priority basis to spur trade and investment.



Enhancing energy cooperation and development of the Chabahar port were the centerpiece of talks which was mostly dominated by economic issues.



"The talks were very successful and would give new energy to our centuries old ties with Iran. In particular, the economic partnership will get considerable fillip as a result of today's forward looking talks," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swarup told PTI.



Sources said the issue of Kulbhushan Jadhav was not at all raised by the Iranian side.



Jadhav was reportedly arrested in Balochistan after he entered from Iran and was accused by Pakistan of planning "subversive activities" in the country.



Both sides discussed the progress on the Chabahar project and agreed that the commercial contract on Chabahar as well as the modalities for extending USD 150 million credit for Chabahar Port should be signed in the "very near future".



Decisions on this line of credit, as well as USD 400 million credit line for supply of steel rails from India have already been taken by India.



Swarup said both sides discussed the energy partnership and Iran invited greater Indian participation in its oil and gas sector. "Iran said it would be happy to participate in the refinery sector in India."



On Farzad - B oil field project, both sides took note of the constructive discussions held during the recent visit to Iran of Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.



"The Indian side welcomed the Iranian decision to keep the Farzad - B field outside the auction basket.The concerned companies have been directed to complete their contractual negotiations in a time bound manner.Iranian side had earlier communicated their gas pricing formula and expressed their desire for Indian investment in the Chabahar SEZ," he said.



"In terms of connectivity, Iran said it supported India's desire to join the Ashgabat Agreement. The two ministers reviewed the progress made in the International North South Transport Corridor.IRCON from India would be visiting Iran for discussions on the Chabahar-Zahedan Railway link," said the spokesperson.



On Trade and Investment, the two sides agreed that with the lifting of sanctions, the potential for expanding these ties was immense.



"They agreed that pending agreements such as Preferential Trade Agreement, Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement and Bilateral Investment Treaty should be concluded on a priority basis," said Swarup.

India is keen to enhance its investment in Iran as there



has been impressive prospect of the country's economic growth.



The size of Iran's economy is around USD 400 billion, the second largest in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia,and the country is being seen as one of theworld's hottest investment destination as it has opened various critical sectors including oil and gas for joint ventures and foreign capital.



Countries likeJapan, China, the US and a number of European nations are scrambling to take advantage of opportunities in the oil-rich nation after the sanctions were lifted in January.



India has been eying deeper energy ties with Iran and has already lined up USD 20 billion as investment in oil and gas as well as in petrochemical and fertiliser sectors there.



India is also keen to increase oil imports from Iran from current 350,000 barrels a day.



Both sides decided to enhance cooperation in Counter-terrorism and maritime security as they agreed that concerted global effort was required to combat the menace.



They reviewed bilateral relations, in particular the progress in implementing the decisions taken at the last Joint Commission Meeting held in New Delhi in December 2015.



"Both sides took note of the good cooperation between the National Security Council structures of the two countries and agreed to intensify this engagement," said Swarup.



In terms of cultural cooperation, both sides agreed to promote and strengthen the existing cultural exchanges, inter-alia, by observing "Weeks of Iran and India" in each other's country, publication of manuscripts, organizing conferences and events related to language, literature and religion.



They also agreed on the establishment of a Hindi Chair in Tehran University sponsored by ICCR and to renew the Cultural Exchange Programme.



Both leaders expressed satisfaction at the recent exchange of visits and called for more high level exchanges to give fresh impetus to India-Iran relations.



The two ministers also reviewed global and regional issues, in particular the situation in Afghanistan.



Earlier in the day, the External Affairs Minister visited an Indian Gurudwara and the Kendriya Vidyalaya.



She met the members of the small but vibrant Indian community in Tehran and assured them that she would take up issues of concern to them with the Iranian leadership.

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BENGALURU: Barely a few months post the ban lift on Maggie, it is reported that the popular noodles manufacturing brand has returned to the top position in the country, with close to half the share of the market estimated at a little over Rs 2,000 crore. Post examining of the data by market researcher Neilsen, it is evident that the share of the instant snack was over 48 percent in February but still lower compared to the 77 percent shares it possessed at the same time last year.

Nestle India Chairman Suresh Narayanan has said that variants such as, oats and atta noodles would be back on the shelves in the coming few days and the same will be available from Maggi in over 2 million outlets. Following the ban by the nations food regulator, Nestle re-launched the three decade old instant snack brand in November. Before the controversy following the ban, Maggi used to contribute sales of about 30 percent of Nestles portfolio of products. According to data from Nestle, it can be seen that the sales of Nestle India declined to Rs 7,794 crore in 2015 from Rs 9,485 crore in 2014. A slowdown in the growth among consumer companies for the past five to six quarters has been observed where most of them have only shown growth in single digits. Narayanan acknowledged that there was a bit of loss of momentum but with the recent budget announcements the company expects to bounce back to achieve 7.5 percent to 8 percent GDP growth.

In other categories, Nestle had started revving up in chocolates, beverages and dairy market and that a fairly robust set of launches and relaunches were under way in coffee under the Nescafe umbrella, under Nestea in beverages, in the chilled dairy portfolio and a few global products from the Switzerland-based wellness and health-related portfolio, which were being customised for the Indian market, comments Narayanan.

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NEW DELHI: Amid the hoopla over the electronic trading platform eNAM for agri products, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and touted as a "big game changer", commodity watchers and experts say the mechanism has inherent limitations and conflicts are bound to arise between states and the central government.

"The basic purpose of eNAM is to ensure transparency in buying and selling of agri-commodities. But this may not happen anytime soon," Binu Alex, Editorial Director of Commodity Online, told IANS here.

"Most importantly the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) remains a state subject. So conflicts are bound to happen. First, the government should have centralised APMCs and put a cabinet rank minister to cater to commerce part of agriculture," Alex added.

Others are, however, more optimistic than Ahmedabad-based longtime commodity watcher Alex, and say the National Agriculture Market (eNAM) launched on Thursday will benefit farmers immensely.

"This is a big game changer certainly. We are glad eight states have the mandis and some more have already amended their APMC Acts and are ready to come on board. eNAM will actually be an answer to price volatility farmers often face," says B. Basavraj of Karnataka Pradesh Gram Growers Association.

The union agriculture ministry says eNAM is an online platform but should not be mistaken as a parallel marketing structure.

"It is a tool to create a national network of physical mandis which can be accessed online," explained Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.

eNAM will leverage the physical infrastructure of mandis through an online trading portal, enabling buyers situated even outside the state to participate in trading at the local level.

The mechanism proposes to integrate 585 regulated wholesale markets or APMCs under one electronic platform by 2018.

It will allow farmers to sell their produce to highest bidders.

It will initially aim at integrating 21 mandis in eight states - Uttar Pradesh (six), Gujarat (three), Telangana (five), Rajasthan (one), Madhya Pradesh (one), Haryana (two), Jharkhand (one) and Himachal Pradesh (two).

According to Nikhil Prasad, a commodity trader at Delhi's Azadpur mandi "more than anything else the biggest challenge will be to bring in uniformity and rationalisation in taxes as agriculture and the marketing thereof is a state subject."

He adds, "Essentially the farmers cannot do away with the procurement agents whom the government wants to cut off from the ecosystem by having a transparent system."

In some states, he argues even APMC is only a "political platform of powerful and connected traders".

"These traders own large tracts of land themselves. This nexus needs to be knocked off," he says.

Officials in the agriculture ministry say they are aware of some of the challenges, and one issue that needs to be tackled is about the middle-men.

"The government initiative will end the middlemen role and bring transparency in pricing. The government is keen that we should put a benchmark price across the country," a senior official told IANS, declining to be named.

Market watchers tend to endorse this.

"You don't need to teach the farmers to sell their produce. They just need information which they are severely short of," says Alex.

Officials explain that the response so far is very encouraging as 17 states and union territories have included the provision of single point levy of market fee in their APMC Acts, and 15 other states have made provision of single unified licence to validate trading.

"Things may take sometime, but it will happen," the official said.

Krish Iyer, President & CEO Walmart India, finds the eNAM initiative forward looking and says his company "will continue to strengthen our direct farm programme to complement government vision to make a difference to the lives of farmers".

But there are other challenges too, says Krishnendu Pal, another trader in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

"I welcome the eNam platform. But there are a few questions. When a farmer sells his produce through e-market platform will the government give guarantee to sell his produce at the price he wants, and in case there are no buyers what happens to his produce," he asks. Those questions need to be answered.

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BEIJING: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today kicked off his first visit here by holding talks with Chinese counterpartGen Chang Wanquan stating that India attaches highest priority to its relationship with China and is committed to further develop the ties.

"India attaches highest priority to relations with China and committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China," Parrikar told Chang in his opening remarks before the two delegations started the talks.



Parrikar was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the headquarters of the Chinese military here by a contingent of PLA soldiers.



Welcoming Parrikar, Wang said, "Hope your visit improve strategic mutual trust between the two armed forces".



After his meeting with Wang, Parrikar will hold talks with Gen Fan Changlong, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, (CMC).



In Chinese military hierarchy Gen Fan is ranked higher, as CMC is overall head of the 2.3-million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA).



He is also due to call on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visit China's recently integrated western command military headquarters in Chengdu which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.



During Parrikar's talks today with top Chinese military officials, recurring incidents of incursions, implementation of an agreement to reduce tensions between border patrols and Sino-India strategic concerns are expected to figure.



While Indian officials said the talks were expected to review the whole gamut of bilateral ties, India's concerns over aggressive patrolling by Chinese troops especially in the Ladakh sector remains high.



China denies any incursions, asserting its troops patrol areas within its territory along the 3,488-km disputed border.



The two militaries also have strategic concerns over each other's military tie-ups with other countries.



Ahead of Parrikar's visit, China hinted that it may take up the recent decision by India to open up military bases to the US for logistics and efforts to conclude a pact to share aircraft sharing technologies.

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UNITED NATION: With the shroud of secrecy partially lifted for the first time from the process of electing the next UN secretary general, the nine candidates are taking their case to the world and seeking out influencers like India.

Each of the nine candidates spent two hours presenting their vision for the UN before the 193-member General Assembly over three days beginning last Tuesday and subjected themselves to a grilling from not only diplomats but also from ordinary citizens picked by civil society organisations.

Under the spotlight of democracy, the candidates vying to succeed Ban Ki-moon, who completes his second term at the end of this year, are reaching beyond the Security Council's five permanent members (P5) to meeting with diplomats individually and in groups.

According to diplomatic sources, six of them have so far met with India's Permanent Representative, Syed Akbaruddin, some of them visiting him at the Indian mission.

A diplomatic source said they are meeting Akabaruddin individually and have been in touch with officials in New Delhi because they think India is a "significant influencer" of opinion at the UN.

With the Security Council expected to begin considering the nominations in July, it is likely that some more candidates may join the fray. If they do, another round of candidate meetings will be held.

In the 70 years of the UN, all the eight secretaries general were essentially picked by the P5 - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - and the General Assembly merely rubber-stamped the choice. Although the veto-wielding P5 will continue to have the ultimate say, it could still be different this time.

"The Security Council will now have the public to answer to if it fails to put merit before political convenience in its decision later this year," said Natalie Samarasinghe, the executive director of United Nations Association - UK and the co-founder of 1 for 7 Billion, a campaign for opening up the election process.

"It was easy to select the lowest-denominator candidate when meetings were taking place behind closed doors, but the element of public scrutiny that has now emerged ...has thrown a spotlight on to the proceedings," Samarasinghe added.

"The General Assembly will no longer be simply a rubber stamp for the P5 governments' very, very flawed selection process," explained William R. Pace, the executive director of the Institute for Global Policy.

"The P5 and the Security Council will make their recommendation; but for the first time in the 70 years of the United Nations, the General Assembly will know who have been nominated, what are their qualifications, what are their visions of the job, how they respond to open hearings and questioning," Pace added.

And the world is watching: according to the UN more than 222,000 people have watched the candidate meetings online. The opening up of the process is an achievement of General Assembly president Mogens Lykketoft, who described it as a potential "game-changer" for the way the elections are held.

Diplomats IANS spoke to said that having the candidates face the entire UN in election campaign-style meetings did put some limitations on the Security Council by restricting the choice to them. It cannot ignore the candidates who performed really well and it cannot at the last minute bring in "a dark horse in the race" who hasn't gone through this process, they said.

"To that extent most diplomats feel that this is a process that has been good, it is open and transparent, it has provided every member state some role or the other," said one ambassador.

Some of the candidates also participated in public fora in New York organised outside the UN by the International Peace Institute and by a group made up of the United Kingdom UN Association, the Guardian newspaper and the New America Foundation, where they spoke to citizens and answered their questions.

At the General Assembly candidates meetings, the members of the G4 - Brazil, Germany, India and Japan - which campaign together for Security Council reforms and mutually support each other for permanent Council seats - rotated questioning the candidates.

Akbaruddin raised the terrorism issue with two of the candidates when it was his turn. Antonio Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said that terrorism is a major issue on his agenda. The UN has to focus more on terrorism, he said, particularly preventing violent extremism before it metamorphosises into terrorism.

Guterres said that one of the reasons that the UN has not been able to effectively tackle terrorism is the absence of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT). India has been pushing for such a global treaty to fight terrorism, but the initiative has languished for about 20 years because of differences over defining terrorism and terrorists.

Srgjan Kerim, a former president of the General Assembly and a former foreign minister of Macedonia, was asked by Akbaruddin about the CCIT. He replied that it should have been there when he was the president of the General Assembly in 2007 and that he had been keen to have it adopted then.

When Akbaruddin asked Guterres about Security Council reform, the other subject of importance to India, he would not be pinned down on specific changes saying it was for the members to decide.

When other candidates were asked about lt by other G4 members or in public forums they either ignored it or were evasive. For example, Natalia Gherman, the former Moldova foreign minister, said at the International Peace Institute forum that the secretary general's role would be to help the member nations make an informed decision on Council reforms and facilitate unity in the General Assembly and the Council.

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who is now the head of the UN Development Programme was the keynote speaker at B.R. Ambedkar's birth anniversary celebrations at the UN on Wednesday in the middle of the candidate sessions. Sources familiar with the event organisation said that it had nothing to do with her candidature as it had not been announced when she was invited to the meeting as a development expert and an advocate of empowerment of women and the downtrodden.

The nine candidates - four of them women - represent a wide range of experience. In the overlapping offices that they hold or have held at various times, two have been prime ministers, three have headed or now head UN organisations, six have been or are now foreign ministers and one has been the president of the General Assembly.

Seven of them are from Eastern Europe. Under the tradition of geographic rotation of the secretary general's office, it is now the the turn of Europe and East Europeans have staked their claim because all the three previous Europeans have been from the West.

There is also a groundswell of public opinion for electing a woman to the office and for the first time women are contesting.

The other candidates are former Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian who is the director general of Unesco; Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic; Montenegro foreign minister Igor Lukcsic; former Croatian foreign minister Vesna Pusic, and former Slovenian president Danilo Turk.

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Earlier this month, Harinder Sidhu presented her credentials to President Pranab Mukherjee as Australia's High Commissioner to India. She thus joins two other western Heads of Mission of Indian origin in New Delhi - Ambassador Richard R. Verma of the United States and High Commissioner Nadir Patel of Canada.

It was not always like this. A western power being represented in India in any capacity by a non-Anglo Saxon/Celtic was unthinkable just 20 odd years ago -- until the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs broke the mold by appointing me, India born, as Australia's Deputy High Commissioner to New Delhi. The mosaic of reactions both at home and in India to this path-breaking move gives some idea of the prevailing social climate then.

Reservations about my appointment were discernible enough in the corridors of foreign policy-related establishments in Canberra. But political correctness kept them muted. Though New Delhi was nowhere near as sought after as Washington or London, the post-1991 reformist India was beginning to bud in official consciousness as a posting to make a mark in.

My selection did not exactly endear me to other contenders. There was restrained amusement too at the Department's naivety in assuming that sending a 'native' to his original habitat would somehow improve bilateral diplomatic relations with a 'difficult' country.

Overall, my selection was perceived at best as presenting a new visage of Australian diplomacy on the Asian stage and, at worst, as the Foreign Secretary currying favour with the ruling Labor Government, which was unequivocally committed to multiculturalism in public service.

On my part, I was just plain worried. It is one thing to have served in Beijing, Moscow and Hanoi among others, but quite another to be the first ethnic in the halls of western diplomacy in Delhi. After all, in the broader geo-political context, I had to work closely with other western missions there.

And then there were the unknowns of working in the Indian environment. I sought counsel from both local and foreign observers of the local scene. The unanimous advice was to reject the appointment. Reason? Given the petitionary mores of Delhi's political, bureaucratic and business elite in a still closed economy, I would be inundated with demands for "assistance" with visas, foreign alcohol and other objects of desire, invitations to dinners and events. Why? Because I would be seen as one of them and expected to behave the Indian way -- and all that it implied.

Still, reassured of support at the highest levels, off I went.

On the ground at the Australian High Commission, it was par for the course in working with Australian colleagues (apart from an Australian spouse who kept introducing me to Indians, well-meaningly but disconcertingly, as "believe it or not, this is our DHC"). The notable difference from serving in other Australian missions was the reaction of the local (Indian) staff, long used to taking orders from Caucasians. I learnt later of their anxieties at being saddled with an Indian-style babu, but these dissipated within weeks.

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WASHINGTON: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley feels the failure of Vijay Mallya-led defunct carrier Kingfisher had more to do with the individual company's business model than the aviation industry, and that every step is being taken to recover the money it owes to banks.

"The airline's (Kingfisher's) problem is not a sectoral problem. This is for the simple reason that most of the other airlines lasted the challenging period, turned around and are now making profits," Jaitley told reporters here.

"Jet is making profit. Indigo has made huge profits. SpiceJet is making profits. GoAir is making profits," he said.

"I'm not giving a final opinion. But it could be attributed to the business model of a particular company," Jaitley said, even as India suspended Mallya's diplomatic passport for four weeks and the Enforcement Directorate asked a special court to issue non-bailable warrant against him.

The finance minister is here for the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, along with Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian.

Jaitley said his government also had nothing to do with Mallya's case.

"I don't think it had anything to do with our. A lot of his cases were also locked up in courts. When he was in India, I understand from the banking sector that almost every recovery and every step was challenged in the courts," he said.

"As far as recoveries are concerned, in this case, banks are taking all the possible steps. And whether there are violations of some penal provisions, the investigating agencies are looking at it," Jaitley added.

Mallya is wanted by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of misappropriating 9,000 crore he received as bank loans. He left India on March 2 and tweeted a week later that he is not an absconder.

"On the advise of the Enforcement Directorate, the passport issuing authority in the Ministry of External Affairs has suspended the validity of Mr. Vijay Mallya's diplomatic passport with immediate effect," the foreign office spokesperson said in a statement.

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The world was moved by recent news that Pope Francis took 12 Muslim refugees back to Rome with him on his papal plane. A simple gesture, yet profound when you think of the message it sends to religious bigots everywhere. Those who have been brandishing their Christianity to attack Muslim refugees hopefully have paused to reflect on their actions.

A few days earlier, Pope Francis had called on the Roman Catholic Church to show more empathy and acceptance of people in irregular situations. This is a first opening of the door to welcome divorced, unmarried heterosexual couples, single parents, and gay people into the embrace of the church. Again simple, but profound in terms of taking the churchs support away from bigotry.

A popular refrain we hear is that something or the other is the Christian thing to do.However, many positions adopted by the Catholic Church and some other strands of Christianity have not been tolerant of people who look or act different than what was a stereotypical image of who/what a Christian is. Many of their actions dont fit the label of the Christian thing to do since they demonstrate a complete lack of empathy. Shutting the door on the vulnerable and the suffering is hardly a good thing.

Pope Francis probably recognizes the changing demographic of Christianity. Let us look at some of the populations around the world that dont fit the Christian stereotype:

Brazil: 180 Million; Mexico: 108 Million; Colombia: 43 Million; Peru: 25 Million

Philippines: 86 Million; China: 60 Million; Indonesia: 25 Million

Congo: 63 Million; Ethiopia: 52 Million; India: 30 Million

This may explain his recent talk about a devolution of power so that local churches can adapt their teachings to respect and incorporate local customs. What better way than tie all these disparate regions and cultures so that we create a more global brotherhood, even if it is only the Christian religion. After all, this is where Islam has been the most potent, exhibiting an ability to transcend racial and regional affiliation to a more global view of religion.

We have not seen a religious leader like Pope Francis in many decades. Perhaps going further, we have not seen a leader, religious, political, or otherwise, like this in our lifetimes. While the airwaves are dominated by hate mongering and bigotry by our presidential candidates, or at least one orange haired one, it is refreshing to see messages of tolerance and empathy. Unfortunately for our ad$$ driven media, this is one boring message. Why bother covering the pope when you could cover The Donald? Amen.
CHEYENNE: Ted Cruz today won all 14 delegates in the Wyoming State Republican convention, a resounding victory for the Texas senator ahead of Tuesday's crucial New York primary against the controversial presidential front-runner Donald Trump.



Trump picked only up a single delegate in Wyoming county conventions on April 9 while rival Ted Cruz got nine. In the weekend's state convention, Cruz won all the 14 Republican National Convention delegates up for grabs. Florida Senator Marco Rubio has one delegate and the other four are uncommitted.



"If you don't want to see Donald Trump as the nominee, if you don't want to hand the general (election) to Hillary Clinton, which is what a Trump nomination does, then I ask you to please support the men and women on this slate," Cruz said in his victory speech, holding up a piece of paper of 14 recommended delegates.



Twelve members of that slate won. They are bound to the senator on the first ballot and have also made a non-binding pledge to stick with him as long as things go in Cleveland.



For Cruz, the win in Wyoming is another signal that demonstrates how his campaign has organised party insiders and activists to make it difficult for Trump to capture the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the Republican Party nomination.



With Saturday's sweep, Cruz can count on at least 24 of the 29 delegates from the state. The delegates were chosen by party members rather than ordinary voters.



69-year-old Trump - who did not actively campaign in the state - remains the Republican front-runner overall.



However, the real estate billionaire could fall short of the number of delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination for the November 8 presidential election.



That would mean a contested convention where voting for candidates starts again from scratch.



Trump is concentrating on New York, which holds a key primary on April 19.



New York will award 95 Republican delegates while the two Democratic candidates are fighting over 247 delegates in the city.



A number of senior Republican leaders have backed Cruz, a Conservative Texas senator, fearing that Trump's controversial comments make him a weak candidate in the November election.



The result from the Wyoming contest brings Cruz's tally from 545 to 559 delegates compared to Trump's 743.



In the Democratic race, Clinton with 1,758 delegates is still ahead of her only remaining rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has 1,076 delegates.

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Source: PTI
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association has taken out ads in the Staten Island Advance and other media to promote its claim that income inequality in the NYPD is linked to racial diversity.

The media blitz follows distribution of leaflets to riders of the Staten Island Ferry at the St. George Terminal and other transportation hubs, plus mailings to homes in other boroughs.

The full-page ads to run this week and next in various mainstream, community and ethnic platforms ask New Yorkers to contact Mayor Bill de Blasio's office to voice their concerns about "income inequality" in the NYPD.

"New York City police officers used to be the highest paid in the nation," said Patrick J. Lynch, PBA president, harking back to the 1970s when the force was predominately white.

"Now we're falling farther behind other officers in the New York City area and across the country. What's especially troubling is the NYPD has become a more diverse department, but the gap in pay has only grown wider. This needs to be fixed, and it needs to be fixed now."

After going through an independent arbitrator, the union was granted two one-percent increases last year. City Hall contends the union would have gotten an 11 percent raise over seven years if it accepted a deal and not opted for arbitration.

"Our door has always been - and continues to be - open to the PBA to negotiate a long-term contract, as we've done with nearly the entire city workforce to date," said a statement from Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for de Blasio.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. --A top-ranking member of the NYPD from Staten Island was among members of the force on board a plane during a wild junket to Las Vegas that is linked to the federal police corruption probe, according to the New York Post.

Police Department officials had sex with a prostitute dressed as an attendant on the flight that took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, according to the report, which cited information from sources.

Deputy Inspector James Grant of Annadale, who was placed on administrative duty earlier this month, was on board at least one cross-country trip, sources told the Post.

The Post is linking the incident in 2014 to the ever-widening FBI probe of alleged corruption within the NYPD because the flight allegedly was paid for by a central figure in the investigation, Jona Rechnitz.
Worlds largest Earth science organization to continue accepting ExxonMobil sponsorship despite calls from 250+ geoscientists

Posted on 18 April 2016 by Guest Author

Geoffrey Supran is a PhD candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. Ploy Achakulwisut is a PhD candidate in atmospheric chemistry at Harvard University. Ben Scandella is a PhD candidate in environmental science at MIT. Britta Voss earned a PhD in Earth science from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Last week, the President of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) - the worlds largest association of Earth scientists - announced the AGU Boards decision to continue accepting sponsorship from ExxonMobil, despite calls for an end to this relationship from more than 250 geoscientists owing to ExxonMobils past and present climate science disinformation.

The AGUs 2015 Organizational Support Policy states that AGU will not accept funding from organizational partners that promote and/or disseminate misinformation of science, or that fund organizations that publicly promote misinformation of science, and that Organizational Partners are bodies that share a vested interest in and commitment to advancing and communicating science and its power to ensure a sustainable future.

MIT climate scientist Kerry Emanuel sees the AGUs decision as a mockery of its own bylaw, stating that, If the AGU cannot turn down a mere $35K from a high-profile disinformer like Exxon, then it is hard to imagine it ever adhering to its bylaw. I am considering withdrawing from the AGU.

Emanuel was one of the 108 geoscientists who sent an open letter to the AGU President on February 22, 2016, urging the association to end its sponsorship deal with ExxonMobil. Since then, more than 170 geoscientists worldwide have signed on. The AGU President initially responded that The AGU Board of Directors will take up the questions raised in this letter at their upcoming meeting in April. At this meeting, the AGU Board passed a motion approving the continuation of its current engagement between ExxonMobil and AGU including acceptance of funding from ExxonMobil.

In light of the AGUs decision and reasoning, Former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Harvard Professor James J. McCarthy, another letter signatory, commented, "My jaw dropped when I read that Ultimately, we concluded that it was not possible to determine conclusively whether or not ExxonMobil is currently participating in misinformation about science, either directly or indirectly. A new report just this week show that ExxonMobil is still spending tens of millions obstructing climate legislation. How much more is on the indirect ledger?"

Indeed, the AGUs decision appears to ignore the consilience of evidence demonstrating ExxonMobils ongoing support of climate science misinformation. Originators of the open letter submitted a report documenting ExxonMobils present involvement in climate misinformation for the Boards consideration (a copy of the report is available for download here). The report provides specific examples of how ExxonMobil is in violation of AGUs Policy because it remains a leading sponsor of think tanks, advocacy groups, and trade associations that promote climate science misinformation. Moreover, ExxonMobil financially supports more than 100 climate-denying members of Congress and continues to generate its own misinformative comments about climate science. Such examples include:

(1) During ExxonMobils 2015 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson casted doubt about the reliability of climate models by remarking: we dont really know what the climate effects of 600 ppm versus 450 ppm [of atmospheric CO2] will be because the models simply are not that good.

(2) At the ExxonMobil-sponsored 2015 Annual Conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Stephen Moore, a member of ALECs Private Enterprise Advisory Board, asserted that: The biggest scam of the last 100 years is global warming...Its no surprise that when you give these professors $10 billion, theyre going to find a problem.

In addition to Emanuel and McCarthy, many other signatories of the open letter voiced their disappointment and concern over the AGUs decision. Cornell Professor Charles Greene stated, At what level does the behavior of a corporate sponsor become sufficiently reprehensible for AGU to refuse its support? I guess that a corporation like ExxonMobil, which has deceived the general public for decades while placing human society at great risk, has not achieved that level. The only conclusion to be drawn is that AGU will accept money from just about any corporate entity, no matter how unethical its behavior. I certainly will not attend an ExxonMobil-sponsored Fall Meeting, and I hope that every AGU member who feels the same way about this lapse in judgement will consider sending a similar message.

What was called for was an exercise of judgment. Instead, the AGU avoided taking a principled stand by claiming it is not possible for it to make a judgement. The leadership seems prepared to accept some loss of membership, but what it may not be prepared for is the redoubled commitment of members who won't relent in shining an even brighter light on the inconsistency of the AGU's mission of a sustainable planetary future with its endorsement of ExxonMobil's past and current activities, said Nathan Phillips, Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University.
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Two weeks ago in Glastonbury, CT, I had a conversation with veteran race director Tom Wilkas at the Slowtwitch Road Show hosted by Cycling Concepts. When I mentioned Major League Triathlon, he considered how hard it might be for a startup to put on races outside of its local jurisdiction. In particular, Tom presciently gave the permitting process as an example, which turned out to be an obstacle for the Major League Triathlon team at its first race here in Temple, TX.

For want of a permit, Major League Triathlon (MLT) had to move its event from the scenic Temple's Lake Park to the landlocked Mayborn Convention Center, which set off a cascade of changes. In an effort to salvage the swim, MLT rented a portable Olympic-size pool (inside the trailer pictured below), but to no avail because the parking lot here, deep in the heart of Texas, was not flat enough. In the end, MLT had to pare down its event from a three-day festival with multi-distance triathlons to a single Saturday afternoon with a super sprint duathlon.

There are two sides to every story, so it's hard to say with any certainty what led to this outcome. As well as I can tell, MLT had a healthy respect for the process and took the time to dot the i's and cross the t's. However, according to Lead Park Ranger Bradley Ellis of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the agency that oversees Temple's Lake Park, with a schedule change that moved the event up six months from October to April, there simply wasn't enough time for USACE and supporting agencies to process the permit.



I met with MLT CEO Daniel Cassidy and COO Daniel Imperato the morning after the race, in the lobby of their hotel as they were handing out prize money checks to the winning teams. Ironically, they said that after visiting sites in 30 cities, they chose Temple, TX because of Temple's Lake Park. The entire pro race would have been contained in the park and the athletes would have been visible the whole time, said Cassidy. When asked about the most important lesson learned from this experience, Imperato said, Live in the details.

Major League Triathlon is a pro supersprint-style race alongside age-group all-comers races. After the age-group morning event, Teams of two professional women and two professional men face off in a Super Sprint Mixed Relay in the afternoon. There are three remaining events on the 2016 calendar, and the next is in Sarasota, Florida June 17-19.



As to who won this race, there are no results available as of this writing. But in the end I suspect the sport of triathlon will win. These newly-minted race directors paid their dues this weekend and put on a well-organized, exciting, and spectator-friendly race in spite of all the obstacles they faced. I'll wager they will turn this stumbling block of a start into a stepping-stone to their upcoming race in Sarasota.
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
San Mateo, CA (94402)

Today

Clear skies. Low near 50F. NNW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low near 50F. NNW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0200e98)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0256eb0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0200e98)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0256eb0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f025fdb8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0256eb0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0256eb0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e71e3898)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f02c6248)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f02c6248)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe4c120)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0242a90)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe4c120)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0242a90)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe4cac8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0242a90)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0242a90)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e71e3490)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612eff99ec0)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612eff99ec0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0218038)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f01cfe00)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0218038)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f01cfe00)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f01d0070)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f01cfe00)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f01cfe00)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e71e2ee0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f01f78c8)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f01f78c8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f01db120)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0293290)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f01db120)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0293290)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f011ac28)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0293290)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0293290)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e71e3138)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0237340)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0237340)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
Two members of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's external advisory panel say the government can give the regulator new powers over the design of financial products, and impose new duties on banks to ensure products are suitable for customers, without a period of extensive consultation because the financial system inquiry gave both moves its unequivocal support.

Under pressure from Labor to protect bank customers following a series of scandals that has elevated bank misconduct to an election issue, the government is expected to announce a boost to ASIC's powers against banks on Tuesday. These will include giving ASIC a new "product intervention power" and may also include placing a "product design and distribution obligation" on banks as recommended by the financial system inquiry.

Such laws would bring Australia in line with international jurisdictions such as the UK and protect customers from banks seeking to profit by selling them inappropriate products. The banking industry supports both of the new laws in principle, but says the government needs to take care on their design to ensure excessive costs are not imposed on the industry.

A range of bank products could be targeted by the new laws. The final report of the financial system inquiry, released in December 2014, pointed to contracts for difference, hybrid debt instruments, add-on insurance and consumer credit insurance as areas where product design and distribution controls were unsatisfactory.
Aldi Australia's sales are forecast to rise almost 90 per cent to $15 billion over the next four years - challenging the Woolworths/Coles duopoly - as the discounter opens stores in new states and consumers become more willing to spend more of their grocery dollars at the discount retailer.

Aldi's sales rose 60 per cent to $8 billion between 2013 and 2016, according to broker Morgan Stanley. Sales are expected to reach $15 billion by 2020 as Aldi lifts store numbers from 373 to 628 and as its market penetration (the percentage of grocery shoppers who visit each month) rises from 36.8 per cent nationally to 54.9 per cent.

Coles food and liquor sales are expected to rise 15 percent to $37 billion and Woolworths to rise 10 percent to $46 billion.

Aldi's share of the national food and liquor market is expected to rise from around 6 per cent in 2016 to 10 per cent, eclipsing that of Metcash's IGA network and placing more pressure on Woolworths and Coles to cut prices to defend their turf.
The Americans had ordered that the entire border region be locked down. But it was left to Egyptian and other Arab troops to enforce their writ. Our thinking, which proved correct for some of the time, was that a couple of non-Arabs in a semblance of military uniform, travelling in a greenish car driven by a guy with an American accent, could go wherever they wanted to go - but still, we couldn't find the war. George Bell was the first Herald photographer. His heavy, full-plate camera was an added challenge on outback assignments. Photo taken in 1910. Credit:Fairfax Archives It didn't occur to me that we might have looked a bit silly, until I had a chance meeting with a real American officer. Or at least I thought he was real  crisp and creased uniform, shiny boots and if I recall correctly, even a swagger stick. Let me introduce Chris Hedges  then a staff correspondent for The New York Times. Hedges explained he would travel north into Iraq early the next morning. When I asked if I might join him, he agreed  but I'd have to improve my sloppy soldier's appearance. At the very least, he said, I needed the authenticity of a combat hat. Rising well before dawn, I walked to the entrance of a nearby Saudi military base and offered a guard $100 for his hard hat  he stubbornly refused and ordered me to wait. Sydney Morning Herald war correspondent Harry Summers dispatching copy at Morotai on the 15th September 1944 the day that allied forces landed. Credit:Fairfax Archives

Finally I was escorted on to the base and ushered into the presence of the Saudi commanding officer, with whom I went as far as I might in bending the truth. I told him I was an "Australian observer"; I was scheduled to go into southern Iraq that morning; but the previous evening I had "briefed" some foreign journalists, and it seemed one of them had purloined my hard hat. Might he provide me with a replacement? With a brief order that was issued in Arabic, the Saudi officer dispatched an aide and during his absence from the room, which felt like an eternity, I decided six times I was about to be exposed as a fraud  and surely would be detained. I was in a cold sweat; and I wanted to run, but somehow I was glued to the braided sofa on which I sat. Finally, the aide returned, carrying a new combat hat on his outstretched palms as though it was a trophy  which, for me, it was. The two men who did most to turn the exploits of the Anzacs at Gallipoli into the stuff of legend. English poet John Masefield. With him is Charles Bean. a Herald journalist who became Australia's official war correspondent. I hotfooted it back to the hotel, but Hedges had gone north. This was my first assignment as a foreign correspondent. It was not an auspicious start to what might have been my first combat reporting.

Sydney Morning Herald photographer Kate Geraghty. Credit:James Brickwood Returning to the hotel dining room, I struck up conversation with an Egyptian officer who offered to drive me to the front line. As we drove north into Iraq we heard a BBC World Service report  Saddam had surrendered. My chauffer was a man of bold ideas  he wrenched the steering wheel and suddenly we were heading east as he was exclaiming in great excitement: "Lunch in Kuwait City?" Roderick MacDonald war correspondent 1939 - 1945. Credit:Fairfax Archives Through the decades since, I've been one of an ever-changing Fairfax team of correspondents, who reported from all corners of the globe as news broke, either because there was a particular Australian angle to a story, or because a story was big enough to warrant our attention, as in 1997, when I was ordered to Kinshasa, the capital of what was then Zaire, to report on the demise of Mobuto Sese Seko, the last of his class of "big man" leaders of Africa.

This was a pivotal assignment, on which I had a visceral sense that foreign reporting, as I had known it since 1989, was in a dramatic flux. Captain Charles Bean, legendary World War I war correspondent. Credit:Fairfax Archives In the Balkan conflict which flared in the aftermath of the Kuwait drama, we were able to cover both sides, sometimes on the same day. But as we hunkered in Kinshasa, no journalist dared head out to meet the advancing rebel army of Laurent-Desire Kabila, because of the stories of unspeakable violence. Fast forward to the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and what might have seemed to be a one-off, in the capture and beheading in Pakistan of The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl; but then to today's conflict in the Middle East, in which foreign correspondents are high-value hostages. Perhaps our earlier belief in the Geneva Conventions was a tad romantic. But there was reason to believe that in displaying the word "PRESS" on our bulletproof vests and cars, we were buying protection; not creating targets.

Reporting from Kinshasa back in 1997, I had no real sense of the likely impact of the internet on journalism. I still dine out on the story of a well-lubricated dinner with colleagues and friends in Perth in 1994, during which I assure the gathering that we'd all have long retired before "this thing called the internet" would affect our profession. And others still dine out on stories of some of my more outlandish expenses claims from a bygone era, when editorial budgets were presumed to be as elastic as we might need them to be  I deny the one about the $300 shower; but I'll cop to buying a pistol (for my Baghdad fixer); and to the purchase of half a dozen live sheep (which I ferried across Baghdad by taxi in 2005, to appease a tribal sheik whose home, bizarrely, was raided by Australian forces after the Herald published my interview in which the sheik had offered to help recover the kidnapped Australian engineer Douglas Wood). More seriously, the internet and an associated social media revolution have delivered a triple-whammy blow to journalism as we knew it. The advertising revenue on which we depended has shrunk dramatically  and in every budget review foreign correspondents become sitting ducks; all our hopes for the future are vested in new "platforms" that have yet to prove their own economic and reader-interest sustainability; and groups like IS no longer need foreign correspondents to get their story out. Social media gives them incredible reach and control. Previously, there was always the risk they'd kill a journalist to stop a story, now the reality is they kill journalists to make a story.

The Herald's correspondents have had a colourful if dangerous run. Charles Lambie was the Herald's first staff war correspondent. He went on to work for The Age in Melbourne  and died in an ambush in the Boer War. Two of the Herald's 23 World War II correspondents died in action  Bill Mundy was killed in a German counterattack after allied invasion forces landed near Naples in 1943; Roderick Macdonald died along with a British colleague the following year, when one of them trod on a mine in Cassino, 100km north of Naples. I was luckier  I don't have a clue how, but in 2011, I survived a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, in which three of my international colleagues died, two as their bodies were within centimetres of mine. I still get a rush every time I hit the "send" button to file my reports by satellite from some inhospitable wasteland  in a flash, they arrive on the foreign desk in Sydney. By contrast Guy Harriott, mentioned at the start of this piece seemingly was not so lucky  in Egypt in World War II, a special motorcycle courier carrying one of his dispatches to censors in Cairo was killed by German fire and Harriott's report was captured; but in an allied counterattack, his report was recaptured and again bound for the Cairo censors; and whatever remained after their blue pencil treatment, went on to Sydney. Jack Percival, another WW II predecessor, was imprisoned in Japanese-occupied Manila from May 1942 till July 1945  on his release he had lost about one-third of his body weight. By contrast I have only been jailed, briefly, by Israeli forces; and detained briefly by the military in various countries, but most offensively by Australian forces in Afghanistan in what was an orchestrated effort by the ADF and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to block myself and photographer Kate Geraghty from reporting from Oruzgan province.

And that's why we need foreign correspondents  and why they should be dispersed across the globe. The media might get it wrong from time to time, but premeditated lying by governments, as a justification for war, or on the progress of wars, especially when they go badly, warrants independent, on-the-ground examination and reporting. In the case of Australia, the weight of its contributions to such adventures, driven by Washington and others, gives Canberra only minnow status in overall decision making and denies it any capacity to influence events as they unfold. But because, if in name only, Australia did sign on as an "occupation power" in Iraq and Afghanistan, Canberra becomes morally and legally responsible on behalf of all Australians for the conduct of their joint venture partners  such as the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses in Iraq; the denial of the rights of prisoners from Afghanistan and other countries who were, and still are, held at the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba; and the appalling practice of "rendition", in which the US would snatch terrorist suspects from countries in which they had rights and protections, and airlift them to countries where they would be interrogated by regimes that engage in abuses that would never be accepted in the US or in Australia. Since Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, I've reported on war and conflict and its aftermath in the Balkans; Ireland; Indonesia and East Timor; the US; most countries in the Middle East; a fair swathe of central Asia; and a bit of Africa. Each assignment had its mix of frustration and satisfaction. But in wondering about measuring the rewards, I was taken with a line by my friend and colleague John F. Burns when he retired in 2015, after 40 years as a correspondent for The New York Times.

Burns quoted his Italian colleague Tiziano Terzani, who in reviewing his own illustrious career with Der Spiegel and other European mastheads, had counselled: "Never forget, it's not how far you've travelled, it's what you've brought back." Burns says he came back with an abiding revulsion for "ideology, in all its guises". I can relate to that, but something I hold even more dearly is a belief in the human spirit, in the ability of the dispossessed and the denied, of the invaded and the overrun to sustain themselves in the most appalling circumstances and for years on end. I also have a special place in my heart for those I think of as the seriously accidental victims  like the 298 passengers and crew, 38 of them from Australia, minding their own business on board Malaysia Airways flight MH17 when it was shot down in July 2014, while flying at 33,000 feet above eastern Ukraine, which was being torn apart by separatist war. Geraghty and I reported from the ground in the aftermath of the crash  the impossible overlaying of a separatist war on a frustrating international effort to gather the remains of the victims. The link to the Aussies made it very personal and as we left the area weeks later, we returned to a field of ripening sunflowers in which MH17's cockpit section had crashed to harvest by hand enough of the saucer-sized sunflower heads to fill a big suitcase. When I wrote a piece offering the seeds to families and friends of the Australian victims, the response was staggering  people all over the world wanted some of the seeds. And, while at first I was deeply suspicious, Australian quarantine officials were fantastic.
A special relationship has developed between a seal named "Johnson" and Sophie Wiersema who operates Narooma Bridge Seafoods.

The male Australian fur seal has hung out at the Narooma Bridge and the waterfront shop for the past four years. He has formed a bond with Sophie coming over when she calls him by name and entertaining her customers and other passers-by.

"Johnson" the seal and Sophie Wiersema at Narooma Bridge Seafoods. Credit:Stan Gorton

He comes and goes like clockwork arriving in Wagonga Inlet every April and then mysteriously disappearing around October.

The bond between fishmonger and seal was strengthened when Johnson showed up last year with serious injury to both his eyes  one was completely gone and the other badly scratched or bruised.
Sitting at his desk at work, Oliver Shawyer would get so anxious he thought he was having a heart attack.

"I'd get uncontrollable perspiration, an increased heart rate and then horrible chest pain," the 30-year-old Sydney advertising executive said.

"The only way I could deal with it at the time was by inflicting pain to distract my mind. To stop myself from crying, I would just dig my fingers right into my legs".

Mr Shawyer is one of up to 2 million Australians who have anxiety, the most common mental health condition in the country.
A Sydney tow truck driver is facing life imprisonment in Fiji after what he claims was a dream holiday gone terribly wrong.

The lawyers for Joseph Abourizk, 30, say his decision to take a charter boat cruise off the west coast of Fiji has resulted in the unimaginable.

Sydney tow truck driver Joseph Abourizk, 30, who is facing a drug charge in Fiji.

He has spent the past nine months in jail and missed the birth of his first child  a girl named Penelope.

Mr Abourizk was arrested in July last year after he was allegedly caught with almost 50 kilograms of cocaine packed in two suitcases in his car at Vuda Marina.
"Rogerson said, 'let's go up to Grays Point. It's nice and quiet up there and we can drop him [Jamie Gao].' Glen McNamara in a lift at his Cronulla apartment holding a fishing rod. Roger Rogerson is in the red shirt top of screen. "[Rogerson] said, 'He's going out to sea, he's never f---ing coming back.'" On the morning of May 21, the pair took Mr McNamara's boat out at Cronulla and drove it for about 40 minutes before stopping. Glen McNamara's boat leaves his Cronulla apartment block on the morning of May 21, 2014.

"Mr Rogerson said, 'give me a hand to push him in'," Mr McNamara said. And so, he lent him a hand. Mr McNamara then told the court he was driving his boat back to shore when Mr Rogerson said "Stop, stop the boat". Mr McNamara said Mr Rogerson was holding a gun and he fired it twice. He claims Mr Rogerson threatened to harm his family if Mr McNamara said anything to the police.

"[He said] 'Remember, I'll know before [the police] know, just think of your family'." The following day the pair returned to unit 803 at Rent a Space, Padstow  the storage shed where Jamie Gao was shot dead. "[Rogerson] had rags and water from the bucket and he scrubbed that area of the floor [where Mr Gao's body had been]". Mr McNamara told the court Mr Rogerson later ordered him to search a white Ford station wagon for the drugs that Mr Gao was supposed to have brought to his fatal meeting. Mr McNamara said he searched the car, which was parked in his Cronulla unit complex, and found a bag with two bundles of white crystals.

"I immediately guessed it was drugs." He said he then went for a drive to figure out what to do. "I resolved that [the drugs] should be sealed and made safe  because I feared that it could catch fire, explode, cause an injury," he said. So he went to Kmart and bought two pillow slips which he later used to shovel the drugs into. The following day, May 22, Mr McNamara claims he only went to the Crown Hotel at Revesby because Mr Rogerson had requested he bring the car and the drugs.

"I was terrified about being involved with drugs, I couldn't do it," he told the jury. The pair have been captured on security footage, socialising with a group of men at the hotel. "I said to [Rogerson], 'I can't do it, I can't be involved in this sort of thing'." The prosecution's case is that Mr Rogerson and Mr McNamara were part of joint criminal enterprise to kill Mr Gao and then steal the 2.78 kilograms of the drug ice he had brought to sell them. After Mr Gao was shot dead inside the southern Sydney storage shed, he was wrapped in a blue tarpaulin, stuffed inside a silver surfboard bag and dumped at sea.
But an attempt to snatch them from a suburban Beirut street by a "child recovery team", caught on CCTV, was ultimately unsuccessful. Sally Faulkner travelled to Lebanon to recover her two children, Lahala and Noah, from their father. Credit:Facebook The children were returned to their father and the 60 Minutes team in Lebanon to film the recovery - Tara Brown, Benjamin Williamson, David Ballment and Stephen Rice - were arrested. The two others involved are believed to be members of the child recovery agency hired for the operation - Britons Craig Michael and Adam Whittington. The 60 Minutes team in custody in Lebanon: Tara Brown, David "Tangles" Ballment, Stephen Rice and Ben Williamson.

All involved are facing charges of kidnapping and being members of a criminal gang, which can attract maximum sentences of up to three years and 10 years respectively. Mr Elamine said outside court he was not willing to drop charges against his estranged wife because he believed it would lead to the release of the Nine Network news team who filmed the operation and those who carried it out. Sally Faulkner with her children, Lahala and Noah. Credit:Facebook "The way they are trying to push for this is that if Sally goes out on bail, they all get out," Mr Elamine said as he prepared to meet the judge Rami Abdullah on Monday. "That is how I am seeing it as an outsider. ... They are pushing for Sal's release and everyone else gets a green card."

Ms Faulkner with daughter Lahala. Credit:Facebook Nine had "dropped the ball by getting involved in family matters" and now "everyone is blaming the other for what happened", he added. Earlier, the lawyer for Channel Nine told Fairfax Media the company did not pay for the child recovery operation. "Channel Nine paid for the story," Kamal Abu Zahar told Fairfax Media, apparently indicating the media outlet paid to cover the custody battle not the actual child snatch. Mr Abu Zahar said Ms Faulkner had already contracted Adam Whittington, the child recovery agent involved when she approached 60 Minutes.

"This lady came to them after contracting Adam," he said. A British Embassy official and an Australian Embassy official are observing negotiations between lawyers for Nine, Mr Whittington and Ms Faulkner currently underway at the court called The Palace of Justice. Mr Abu Zahar said there had been no financial settlements offered in the talks. "We didn't receive any offers from Ali," he said. Mr Abu Zahar said Nine's priority was for the children and not for anyone else, including Mr Elamine or Ms Faulkner. He said negotiations between the parents had been progressing until "all of the sudden Ali's lawyers said 'we are not in a hurry'".

But Mr Elamine said negotiations over the custody dispute had not broken down as they had not started. "All that's happened is the judge asked us to talk." 60 Minutes presenter Brown is due to appear before the court along with Ms Faulkner and the child recovery operatives on Monday. Ms Faulkner's lawyer may apply for her release on bail. Under the Lebanese legal system, the matter would be dismissed if the parties reached an agreement asthere had been no serious harm caused. News Corp reported on Monday that Mr Whittington was ready to testify that Nine paid him to abduct Sally Faulkner's two children from Lebanon.
Nairobi: Somalia's government said on Monday between 200 and 300 Somalis may have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross illegally to Europe, based on information it has gathered in the past two days from the Somali diaspora and its embassy in Egypt.

"We have no fixed number but it is between 200 and 300 Somalis," Somali Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir told Reuters by telephone when asked about possible Somali deaths in an incident first disclosed by the Italian president.

"There is no clear number since they are not travelling legally."
Victor Hugo once wrote, "England has two books, one of which he has made, the other which has made her  Shakespeare and the Bible". The 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death is on April 23. A cornucopia of Shakespeare exhibitions and publications in 2016 will celebrate the writings of the "sweet Swan of Avon", as Ben Jonson described him in the introduction to the 1623 first edition of Master William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies  as the "First Folio" was originally known.

Mapping Shakespeares World, Peter Whitfield

The Making of Shakespeare's First Folio, by Oxford University Professor Emma Smith, documents "the human, artistic, economic and technical aspects of the birth of the First Folio", which was published in November 1623, some 7 years after Shakespeare's death. Two actors, who edited the plays, John Heminge and Henry Condell, did not acknowledge Shakespeare's collaborators, nor is it clear why they left out poems and certain plays such as Pericles. The cost of printing the 750 copies, however, might have been a consideration given the First Folio runs to 950 pages.

Nonetheless, posterity is grateful to them, and printer Isaac Jaggard and publisher Edward Blount, who carried the financial burden. Without their collaboration, 18 of the 36 plays, including Macbeth, Julius Caesar and The Tempest, would have been lost. Previously, Shakespeare's plays had only been sold in ephemeral quartos, the equivalent of today's paperbacks.

Shakespeare's appeal in 1623, moreover, was no greater than some of his contemporary playwrights. Jaggard and Blount had no certainty of commercial success. They could not have known the First Folio would become one of the most valuable books in the world. A copy of the First Folio sold at auction in New York for $US5.6 million. In 2003, Oriel College, Oxford, controversially sold its First Folio. It was purchased by Sir Paul Getty for a rumoured 3.5 million.

Smith reveals the complex economics of the production of the First Folio. Only 244 copies, most of them incomplete, have survived. The Bodleian Library, the publisher of Smith's authoritative work, itself has a remarkable First Folio survival story to tell. Its copy, in sheets, was received in late 1623 shortly after publication, but the subsequent bound copy was discarded in 1663 when the third edition of Shakespeare's plays was published.
Grazier Ron Hardy says Sutton village north-east of Canberra must grow to survive, even though hostilities stemming from the last, failed sub-division attempt still simmer in the community.

One of a dwindling number of sheep graziers in the Sutton district, Mr Hardy says investors are buying up land in the area for sub-divisions. A new bakery and cafe will open this month, employing up to five bakers and 25 other staff.

Grazier Ron Hardy says Sutton village must grow. He says investors are buying up land in the area for subdivision. Credit:Jay Cronan

Yass Council is aiming to reduce minimum lot sizes for rural blocks outside the village from 80 to 40 hectares to entice people and their animals to the district, already popular for horse stabling.

About 13 years ago, Mr Hardy's cousins had been among landholders who sold to property developer Alex Brinkmeyer, who subsequently proposed 2000 lots.
The Etihad Stadium board has "no plans" to begin a search for a long-term replacement for Paul Sergeant, despite his resignation from the venue's chief executive post nearly two months ago.

Veteran operations manager Michael Green was appointed to replace Sergeant in an acting role, and Etihad Stadium chairman Tony Hallam told Fairfax Media that Green was set to remain indefinitely.

AFL action at Etihad Stadium. Credit:Getty Images

"The board of Etihad Stadium remains fully supportive of Michael Green in his role of acting CEO and at this time have no plans to commence an extensive recruitment process," Hallam said.

The decision not to look widely for a new CEO comes amid a period of uncertainty surrounding the ground's future.
The administrators of steelmaker Arrium have entered talks with Morgan Stanley in an attempt to stop the US bank from scuppering a rescue deal for the collapsed group.

At a brief hearing at the Federal Court in Melbourne this morning lawyers for KordaMentha said it was trying to broker an agreement with Morgan Stanley over its demand Arrium immediately repay a $US75 million ($98 million) facility provided to Arrium and its subsidiaries.

"Some progress has been made. I cannot tell you an agreement has been reached," Philip Crutchfield QC told Justice Jennifer Davies.

Mr Crutchfield told the court an agreement between KordaMentha, Arrium's other lenders and Morgan Stanley may be reached later this morning.
New online business lenders are beginning to dent the outlook for banks' business divisions, with close to 40 per cent of small businesses considering using alternatives to the banks.

East & Partners' March quarter survey of senior business managers shows a quarter of the 1000 businesses it polled had applied for loans at non-banks.

About 39 per cent of micro and small-to-mid-sized business said they had considered using non-bank finance in the past six months, up from between 23 per cent for micro and 26 per cent for SMEs three years ago.

East & Partners head of market analysis Martin Smith said the difference is almost entirely due to the new breed of lenders that have appeared in that time.
Luxury brands Chanel, Hermes and Prada are among the least transparent when it comes to reporting their social and environmental standards, according to a new index ranking the world's biggest fashion labels.

The Fashion Transparency Index, a joint project between UK not-for-profit Fashion Revolution and research co-operative Ethical Consumer, includes brands from sectors including sportswear, luxury and the high street. All have an annual turnover of at least 36 million (AUD$66 million).

"The transparency index is essentially giving a broad stroke approach to looking at how transparent these top 40 companies surveyed are," said Melinda Tually, Australia and New Zealand coordinator for Fashion Revolution.

"Keeping your head in the sand is no longer an option for brands."
Real estate spruiker John McGrath has blamed an unforeseen low volume of listings and sales in the first half of April, particularly in the north and north-western suburbs of Sydney, which has led to an earnings downgrade for the 2016 year.

McGrath, which only listed in December, has seen its share price fall by as much as 31 per cent when it came out of a trading halt. The share closed down 40 to 90. They last traded on Thursday at $1.30.

As part of going public, McGrath bought the Smollen Group, which focuses on Baulkham Hills, Castle Hill, Eastwood, Epping and Kellyville. Since December, the number of listing in those areas have declined by as much as 25 to 30 per cent, reflecting the skittish nature of the underlying housing market.

This decline, in the final quarter of the current 2016 financial year, was greater than was expected for this period when the float documents were prepared.
In 1998, a special session of the United Nations General Assembly agreed to set a 10-year deadline to make the world drug free. After an embarrassing failure to achieve this goal, the deadline was extended a further 10 years, setting the world up for another inevitable failure in 2019.

In the intervening years, the use, availability and variety of illicit drugs have escalated exponentially. It is estimated by the UK charity Transform Foundation that 300 million people worldwide used illegal drugs in 2012, contributing to a global market with a turnover of $US330 billion a year.

The use, availability and variety of illicit drugs has escalated exponentially.

The vision of a drug-free world has faded. We are instead presented with a nightmare scenario, where a multi-billion dollar black market funds organised crime and terrorist organisations.

In pursuing a drug-free world, national governments have unwittingly been responsible for the incarceration of millions of non-violent drug offenders; heightened HIV and hepatitis epidemics; restricted access to morphine pain relief for 75 per cent of the worlds population; human rights abuses; and avoidable loss of life.
Customs officers take a keen interest in some flights, if contraband is suspected, but otherwise low-risk passengers, such as Heard, are often waved through passport checks.

But the business aviation industry has been calling for dedicated quarantine inspection service at all private jet bases for many years and has offered to pay for it. The industry wants consistency of service. Melbourne has an impressive new private jet base, but too often has to bus its wealthy passengers to the regular international terminal.

Sydney and Brisbane fare better, but provision is still at the discretion of the border agents. Arrive at peak hour or in summer and the chances of completing your paperwork in the hangar are slim.

Companies that run private jet terminals, or fixed base operations (FBOs) in the jargon, are more than willing to pay for the permanent stationing of customs, immigration and quarantine staff. The Australian Border Force is open to the idea and agreed in principle two years ago to introduce a new charging mechanism.

The 2014 Review of Border Fees, Taxes and Charges even recommended a user-pays model for private jet off-terminal clearance. A new charging mechanism had been expected in last years federal budget. Yet the process has been stymied by the Department of Agriculture. Any new model would require Agricultures biosecurity officers (formerly quarantine inspectors) to work alongside Border Force officers in FBOs.
Later this month, staff of one of the world's leading concentrations of expertise on the Asia-Pacific region, so central to Australia's future, will learn whether they themselves have a future.

The brutal cuts slated for the school of culture, history and language in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University have received wide coverage in Australian newspapers, and have evoked numerous submissions from professional associations across the globe, representatives of embassies in Asia and the Pacific, and dignitaries of government and non-government interest groups.

ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt. Credit:Elesa Kurtz

These submissions to the ANU's vice-chancellor, Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt, have expressed grave concerns about the loss of expertise on Asia and the Pacific, the ruinous effect the cuts proposed will have on ANU's international reputation, its ability to teach languages of the region, and on Australia's future capacity to meaningfully engage with its neighbours.

Media coverage has also highlighted the resemblance to the school of music debacle when the university cut 23 academic and nine administrative staff in 2012, and expressed repeated puzzlement about how a globally renowned school could be so poorly treated over the past 18 months.
Governments Labor and Liberal ignored this craven advice. Labor under Julia Gillard agreed that Australia would host a rotating deployment of US Marines. The Liberals under Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull have objected firmly and publicly every time China took action that destabilised the Asia-Pacific  when it abruptly declared an Air Defence Identification Zone, for instance, and when it built islands on atolls also claimed by other countries. Chinas reaction? Relations thrived, even as Australias relations with the US continued to go from strength to strength. China has invested more money in Australia than any country in the world, other than America. Last year, direct Chinese investment in Australia increased by 60 per cent to $15 billion, according to a report by KPMG and Sydney University. The US response? To compete for attention.

Last week the US ambassador to Australia, John Berry, gave a speech pointing out that American firms have invested as much in Australias LNG sector as the US spent on the moon landing project - $US100 billion in todays dollar equivalent. The return on this investment will be Australias emergence as the worlds largest LNG supplier by 2020, said Berry. He also drew attention to the fact that, looking at the total stock of foreign investment accumulated over the last century, the US remains Australia biggest foreign investor. In trade, too, China has granted Australia more privileged access than it has to any other country, as former Trade Minister Andrew Robb has noted. The China Australia free trade agreement gives Australian firms unparalleled access to everything from wine to healthcare. Of course, Australia has had a free trade agreement with the US for a decade. The eminent US anthropologist Samuel Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilisations, predicted that Australia would be a torn country, forever wrenched between its Western history and its Asian geography. Hows this prediction looking a couple of decades later?

Australia continues to intensify its defence alliance with the US and, under Labor, even added a new clause to the ANZUS treaty, a clause which declares that the treaty not only covers conventional defence but also cyber attacks. Has this constrained Australia from deepening its relations with China and, indeed, the rest of the region? Of course not. Australia conducts annual defence manoeuvres with Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia and, last year, for the first time, China also joined annual defence exercises with Australia. On another key measure  trade  Australia is actually more deeply entrenched in the Asia-Pacific than most Asian nations themselves. The economist Tim Harcourt of the University of NSW points out that of Australias exports, 80 per cent go to countries in the APEC group. For comparison, only 40 per cent of Chinas exports go to countries in this group, and 65 per cent for Thailand and 75 per cent for Singapore.

Even on the evidence of the past week, China continues to show every favour to Australia. Malcolm Turnbull became the first foreign leader to be hosted at consecutive banquets by both the Chinese Premier and the President, officials said. Why is China so ready to cater to Australia? Australia has committed to assist China as well as the other big economies of Northeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, in maintaining food security, energy security and mineral security. This is a vital point. Another reason is that China is a country with few real friends in the world. It is at odds with most of its neighbours over territorial claims. It has no clash of vital interests with Australia and every reason to be on close terms. And it has no expectation that Australia will back away from its US alliance. A leading Chinese strategic analyst, Yan Xuetong, has even gone so far as to predict that the core of competition between China and the US will be to see who has more high-quality friends. Its possible that Australia could one day be forced to choose, but only if China and the US break out into open war, which could be catastrophic.
If you choose to believe the diplomatic communiques, what's about to become the most vital symbolic issue in our relationship with China wasn't even discussed when Malcolm Turnbull travelled to Beijing last week. It's not the South China Sea, internet spying, or even the balance of trade. It's which company will be responsible for building our new submarine fleet that will be the country's largest defence contract ever.

Officially, publicly, Beijing's leaving it entirely up to us. If we want to choose Japanese submarines to equip our fleet well, that's supposedly fine. But if you believe that's true and you think that China really doesn't care who manufactures the vessels; well, you haven't been paying attention.

The time has come for our ageing submarines and consortia from three countries are bidding to build our new fleet. Credit:Able Seaman Joanne Edwards, Department of Defence

Let's get the technical issues out of the way first. Consortia from three countries  France, Germany and Japan  are bidding to build our new fleet. The French have the most experience constructing large, ocean-going submarines, but their design needs to be converted from a nuclear boat to conventional propulsion. The Germans have built the more subs, but they've never built to a design as large as that required by our navy. Both also have considerable experience building boats in partnership with the other nations.

That's not the case with the Japanese bid. In fact the Imperial Navy has always preferred to work alone, utilising indigenous combat systems rather than the US ones we use. The Japanese vessel is also a radically different design; double-hulled and built for cold-water operations. Operating for long periods in tropical waters would both seriously degrade battery life and demand a complete internal rebuild. So the point is that we can't choose the "best submarine" for the very reason that none of the bidders are offering a ready-built, existing design. Instead they offering pathways into the future; all technically plausible, and yet none with a decisive advantage.
The Keir Choreographic Award is an arts competition with a difference. For one thing, its judges have taken a robust attitude towards the competitive element of the event.

"Awards are a little bit like executions in the 18th century. They bring in an audience," declared Marten Spangberg when he was one of the international members of the inaugural judging panel. And for one of this year's judges, Pierre Bal Blanc, "Giving a reward is the same as giving a punishment  they are part of the same system," he says.

Inaugural Keir winner and now judge, Atlanta Eke. Credit:Gregory Lorenzutti

What interests them about the Keir is what lies beyond the substantial prize  $30,000 for the winner. The Keir Choreographic Award was established in 2014 to support innovative, experimental and cross-disciplinary practice in contemporary dance. Eight finalists are commissioned and financially supported and given resources to develop works for presentation in front of audiences in Melbourne and Sydney. In both cities there is a public program that draws on the expertise and ideas of visiting judges and other guests  a program that reflects the award's commitment to exploration and innovation as much as to adjudication.

The Keir is designed to alternate with Dance Massive, a biennial contemporary dance event in Melbourne that showcases new work from all parts of Australia. One of the aims in establishing it, says its founder, Phillip Keir, "is to continue the discussion of what choreography is, in an international sense". The competition itself asks the question, "What is choreography and what is its future?" and so do the events around the award. He does not see the Keir as an emerging artist's award.
It's becoming something of a tradition for Arts Centre Melbourne to bring out a Broadway luminary each year.

Following in the footsteps of Kristen Chenoweth in 2014 and Audra McDonald in 2015 comes Megan Hilty, who will perform at Hamer Hall in June alongside a four-piece band including husband Brian Gallagher on guitar and musical director Matt Cusson on piano.

Broadway diva Megan Hilty.

Hilty's lauded roles have included Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Doralee Rhodes in 9 to 5: the Musical but she is perhaps best known locally as Ivy Lynn in the TV musical drama SMASH. Her career has seen her nominated for Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards and she has garnered a National Society of Arts and Letters Award for Excellence in Music Theatre. She makes her Melbourne debut on 8 June. artscentremelbourne.com.au
He said few in his experience have asked more questions on more complex subject matters than Brown.

"Tara is a friend. She is a colleague. She is a mother. She is a brilliant journalist. She has asked those questions over and over again. She has consistently broken stories, and forensically exposed wrong doing in society all around the world. She has religiously and without favour fought for the truth."

In recent years, he says, Brown's stories for 60 Minutes have highlighted the plight of female soldiers in Syria, exposed the hypocrisy of Cardinal George Pell, and followed notorious paedophile Peter Scully into the most dangerous parts of the Philippines to help bring him to justice. "Tara won a Walkley for that story," he says.

"But in my opinion Tara's most incredible story of recent years involved the four daughters of an Italian father and Australian mother, who were sent home to Italy. You might remember at the time all of the public sympathy was with the Australian mother as she used the protection of anonymity afforded by the Family Court to convince an entire country she was being wronged," he said.

"It took Tara's tenacious investigative journalism to expose the mother, grandmother and great grandmother for the people they were, and show all of Australia that in fact the Italian father was in the right, and should have custody of his children. It was a complex story that Tara was determined to tell, and in doing so she revealed the truth of the matter."
1. 60 Minutes 'kidnapping not custody' case postponed

We begin in Beirut where the 60 Minutes case involving presenter Tara Brown, Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner and her estranged husband has been deferred by a judge again.

Brown and Faulkner were both handcuffed as they were led into the judge's chamber for a short session on Monday where they were told their case would resume on Wednesday at 7pm, AEST. A local reporter told me that the pair looked fresh and well-presented compared to their last appearance.

You can read my story here and note the remarks from the Nine Network's lawyer on who was paid and for what purpose.
Just when you think you've got it packed tidily in a box, out it leaps, waving its arms, waggling its tongue and running off in another direction.

If we have learnt anything over the past six years, it's that Australian politics is an unpredictable beastie.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had wangled this atypical arrangement with Governor-General Peter Cosgrove to deal with two industrial relations bills. Bills that are so important (so the story goes), a double dissolution election is needed if they aren't passed.

President of the Senate Stephen Parry speaks after the ABCC legislation went to a vote in the Senate. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

What could be more eyeball gripping?

But as debate began on the bill to re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission, one could be forgiven for thinking it was just some piece of minor government legislation gurgling its way through the system.

When crossbenchers - critical to passing the bill - rose to give speeches opposing the industrial changes, they did so to an almost empty chamber.
"Freedom itself has been attacked this morning by a faceless coward." President Bush addresses the nation in 2001 "I say bomb the hell out of them," said Democrat Senator Zell Miller. "If there's collateral damage, so be it. They certainly found our civilians to be expendable." The old political agenda is swept aside for the moment. The Democrats and Republicans call a truce as both parties prepare resolutions supporting war. On the streets, people who scorned Bush as an accidental president after the bitterness of the November election look to him for leadership. "We want somebody to say `I'm the president'," said Joseph Battle, a 56-year-old taxi driver who rolls his eyes at what he calls Bush's "deer in the headlights manner".

"But he's all we've got, so we've got to stand behind him and say `he's our guy'." With normal life suspended, and America's role in the world redefining itself almost hourly, the pressures on Bush are huge, say analysts. Effectively, his presidency starts now. "Out of this hideous event has come an opportunity for the president to start afresh," said Thomas Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution. "His first eight months showed more limitations than potential. He did not respond to the nature of his election or to the changing economy. He basically stuck with old policies. "[Now] everything's changed. This president, who's been smaller than life in office, has a real opportunity to show some mettle. After a shaky start in the first 24 to 48 hours [after the terrorist attacks], there are some signs that he's finding his sea legs."

The presidency is a complex blend of political leader, military commander and priest. It swirls with myths that are as sustaining as the faith to which Americans now clutch that the best of the US, its freedom, idealism and democracy, will prevail against the worst terrorist act in history. The 55-year-old former Texan governor is vastly unprepared. Privileged as the son of former president George Bush, he admits he drank too much and wasted too much time until he found God at aged 40. In contrast, his father was a war hero and Ronald Reagan's vice president for eight years before he took the decision in 1991 to attack Iraq over its invasion of Kuwait. Politically, it didn't help Bush snr. Judged unsympathetic to ordinary Americans living through a recession, he lost to Bill Clinton in 1992. Facing a crisis miniscule in its impact compared to this week's devastation, Bush snr forged a coalition of nations, including Australia, to strike at Iraq. His son is doing the same. Bush snr told Americans at the time in an address to the nation that there was the "opportunity to forge for ourselves and for future generations a New World Order, a world where the rule of law, not the law of the jungle, governs the conduct of nations".

It is his son that is confronting, and shaping, a New World Order. "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them," Bush said in his address to the nation, a radical departure from previous policies of dealing with terrorists through the criminal justice system. Even when Clinton ordered cruise missile attacks on suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden in 1998 after American embassies were bombed in Africa, they missed their target. Americans forgot about it and went on with life. No more. The Bush administration vows to launch a "broad and sustained" campaign against terrorists who hijacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. But they pledge much more than that. Reports suggest Bush will order bombings against bin Laden in his hideouts in Afghanistan. If that plan fails, there are plans for broader attacks on the Taliban regime, which controls Afghanistan and has backed bin Laden. The broad international coalition Bush is gathering could target other terrorists groups in Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Pakistan and Algeria, according to The Washington Post. The fear is a New World Order, soaked in American rage, could resemble the nightmare outlined by Harvard professor Samuel P. Huntington in his 1993 book, The Clash of Civilisations.

Huntington outraged many when he suggested that after the Cold War, the new conflicts would be between civilisations, not nation states. "Islam has bloody borders," he wrote. "Blood, language, religion, way of life, were what the Greeks had in common of all the elements which define civilisations. However the most important usually is religion." The West won the Cold War, and anti-Western sentiments particularly hatred of America has soared since. America stands for globalisation, Western dominance and ignorance of cultural differences. What would Islamic nations do if they saw impoverished, civilian Afghans suffer in a sustained attack from the West? "One of the great fears is that this almost puts us back into tribal mode pick your team and stay with it," said James Lindsay, a former member of Clinton's National Security Council. In these black days, Bush and his foreign policy team are presenting each country in the world with a simple choice where do you stand? The mood in America is uncompromising.
A young Aboriginal man has published screenshots of racist slurs he was subjected to on a gay dating app in a bid to draw attention to discrimination in the gay community.

Medical student Dustin Mangatjay McGregor said he regularly received racist abuse from potential dates on Grindr, including being called a "petrol sniffer" and a "wog abo c***".

Mr McGregor said gay men who were not white were more likely to be rejected in the online dating world and that he was fed up with users disclosing their racial preferences in derogatory terms, such as "no rice or spice", meaning they have no interest in Asian or Indian men.

"There's a hierarchy in the gay community," said Mr McGregor, who is from North East Arnhem Land and also has Greek and Scottish heritage.
This article first appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on February 4, 1954

Her Majesty the Queen landed at Farm Cove at 10.33 a.m. yesterday and received the most tumultuous greeting Sydney has ever given any visitor.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip during the 1954 Royal Tour of Australia.

It was an historic occasion, because this was the first time that a reigning monarch had visited Australia.

More than 100,000 watched the impressive ceremonial landing at the picturesque cove, where, 166 years ago, Governor Phillip and a handful of settlers laid the foundations of a new southern nation.
This article in appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on October 14, 2002.

The bomb blast that ripped apart Bali's entertainment precinct late on Saturday night has killed 187 people and injured 309, stamping terrorism's bloody fingerprint on Australia's door.

The devastating attack has also raised serious questions about the stability of Indonesia, Australia's nearest and most powerful neighbour.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, said: "There are many Australians unaccounted for many. We must, therefore, prepare ourselves as a nation for the possibility of a significant number of Australian deaths."
A "killer for hire" allegedly claimed he was paid $200,000 to shoot a prosecution witness in Sydney who had "snitched on things he shouldn't have snitched on".

Three years after the alleged murder of Gemahl Maika at Glen Alpine in 2011, the accused gunmen Googled the shooting and showed it to an undercover police officer.

Anthony Saliba leaves the NSW Supreme Court on Monday April 18, 2016.

"I have my credentials...the last one was a message...left for everyone to see," Maximillian Mazzilli allegedly told the officer at a meeting at a Tweed Heads hotel in May, 2014.

"No drama is too big for me...."
Last cry for help

Hostage wanted to stab Monis in neck

'If you wait, someone is going to die'

Monis agreed to let Katrina Dawson leave

NSW Police have backed away from an effort to have its crucial actions during the Lindt cafe siege heard behind closed doors.

An inquest into the 2014 Martin Place siege moved into the police management phase on Monday, with the first in a series senior police witnesses.

The force was reportedly expected to argue to have a majority of the evidence surrounding their handling of the fatal siege heard in closed court.
Doctors fear a young Melbourne woman is dying from a complication of measles  a preventable disease that higher rates of immunisation could eradicate.

Over the past two years the woman, in her 20s, has gone from being a fit and healthy student to somebody who cannot walk or talk. She is bed-bound and suffering regular seizures at home, where her family is caring for her 24 hours a day.

Dr Eloise Williams, an infectious diseases registrar, said the woman presented to the Western Hospital in Footscray last year suffering from involuntary jerks in her arms and legs, visual disturbances and reduced speech which had developed over nine months. The mysterious symptoms were causing her to fall over and wet herself.
European supermarket giant Aldi is set to challenge the duopoly in WA, when it simultaneously opens four stores in the metropolitan area in June.

Aldi stores will throw open their doors in Mirrabooka Square, Kwinana, Belmont and Lakeside Joondalup on June 8, backed up by another 16 stores later in the year.

The supermarket's Jandakot airport distribution centre will begin receiving stock from next month and aside from consumers, the other big winners are set to be WA suppliers and job-seekers with some 400 jobs already created.

"This is an exciting time for the Aldi business and for local shoppers," said WA managing director, Damien Scheidel.
WA's own studies for a high-speed rail network, however, remain in a file gathering dust and going nowhere fast while the state's budget wallows in the doldrums.

A 2013 feasibility study put a price of $114 billion on an eastern states high-speed rail link, more than twice the cost of building the NBN. Mr Turnbull raised the concept of "value capture" has as an innovative way to raise money for sections of the track that could involve links between Sydney and Goulburn, and Melbourne and Shepparton.

The last time the potential of high-speed rail was looked at was in 2008, specifically a link between Perth and Bunbury.

Then-premier Alan Carpenter outlined a feasibility study into a potential new fast rail service from Perth to the Bunbury CBD.

"The study will look at a modern diesel train that would use the new electrified line from Perth to Cockburn Central, then proceed down the median of the Kwinana Freeway and the new Perth-Bunbury Highway," he said at the time.



"The new and more direct route terminating in the Bunbury CBD could reduce travel time by at least a third, to about one and a half hours, based on train speeds of up to 160km/h.



"This compares with about two and a half hours for the current Australind train, which is restricted to maximum speed of 110km/h and terminates about three kilometres outside the Bunbury CBD at Wollaston."

He said there was potential in the longer term to expand the service southward as population and demand grew.

A high-speed Perth-Bunbury link



At the time, planning and infrastructure minister Alannah MacTiernan said past consideration had focused on a faster service on the existing Perth-to-Bunbury line.



"However, previous studies show that very little time improvement could be achieved on that route, even with considerable capital upgrade," she had said.



"The existing Perth-to-Bunbury line was designed to accommodate heavy, relatively slow traffic and is growing in importance as a freight line.



"Another alternative, which would be to extend the electrified metropolitan passenger network south to Bunbury from Mandurah, would not be the most cost-efficient way to provide an intercity service."
She later pleaded guilty to child abduction charges and received a suspended sentence. Martysha Swinarska heard her child screaming, when she was grabbed off the street. However, she says she still has legal access rights to the two children she has with Mr Michael. Speaking from Poland on Monday, she said she was sickened when she heard Mr Michael was arrested in the Beirut incident, but said it was not surprising as she was aware of his support for Mr Whittington. Ms Swinarska alleged Mr Michael had been posting on Facebook, praising the operations of Mr Whittington's agency after he helped get their daughter back to Cyprus.

"Every now and again, there was a post by Craig, saying CARI did this or CARI did that," Ms Swinarska said. She said Mr Michael had no background in military, police or any other sort of training that would have equipped him for this type of operation. He just did some tattoo work in his father's shop in Cyprus, she said. "He didn't have a job; he was lazy." Ms Swinarska said that, from viewing the CCTV of the Beirut abduction, one of the people involved putting the children into the car "moves like Craig".

Ms Swinarska said she had seen the video of the moment her daughter was snatched and heard her screaming. "I would never want to put any child through that, let alone my own," she said. Ms Swinarska said her parents were returning from dropping off her dogs at the groomers when they encountered a group who grabbed the child. Ms Swinarska condemned the act of filming the incident, saying if it was being done with a film crew, then it was not about child safety. "It is about the film," she said.

"I have seen the video [of her daughter's abduction]. It is absolutely vile to hear my child scream like this and my mother. It is heartbreaking. "In the first place, putting children in danger is just wrong and disgusting and I can understand parents want to see a child. But why film it? It's not about child safety then; it's about a story for the media," she said. Ms Swinarska said her lawyer in Cyprus would be making an application to the court on Monday, Cyprus time, for her to regain custody of her children. "I don't want them caught up in this," she said. Mr Michael and Mr Whittington and two women of Dutch nationality were alleged to have travelled on a yacht from Cyprus to Beirut before the recovery, and Mr Whittington was allegedly picked up on the boat.

Both men are being held in a Beirut jail although Mr Michael was reportedly ill and had been transferred to hospital. Ms Swinarska said she did not know who owned the luxury yacht, but Mr Michael could have borrowed it from some friends in Cyprus. She said it was not surprising that Mr Michael was sick. "Whenever he is in trouble or not feeling well, he has a panic attack. Whenever he does something wrong, he is sick," she said. She said that, if Mr Michael was jailed for a long time, he "would flip out".
Britain's new 200 million ($370 million) polar research vessel is unlikely to be christened RRS Boaty McBoatface, despite the name being voted the runaway winner in a public poll.

In a bid to publicise the creation of Britain's largest and most advanced research ship, the Natural Environment Research Council asked the public to vote on a name for the state-of-the-art vessel, challenging people to come up with an "inspirational" title.

But when the internet poll closed on Saturday, Boaty McBoatface was streets ahead, with 124,000 votes, more than four times that of its nearest rival, Poppy-Mai.

Universities and science minister Jo Johnson signalled that ministers were unlikely to endorse the result.
Brasilia: Brazil's lower house of Congress has voted to back the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff for breaking budget laws.

Ms Rousseff's opponents reached the 342-vote mark needed to send her impeachment to the Senate for trial, a major step towards potentially ending 13 years of leftist Workers Party rule in the divided nation.

Brazil's ruling Workers Party conceded defeat in the fiercely-contested lower house vote to impeach Ms Rousseff and said it would focus on blocking the move to remove her from office in the Senate, the party's leader in the chamber Jose Guimaraes, said. "The fight continues now in the Senate," he told reporters.
Jakarta: Indonesia's chief security minister said the country must make peace with its past but ruled out a government apology to the victims of the 1965 anti-communist purge at the first ever state-sanctioned discussions on the mass killings.

Luhut Panjaitan - one of President Joko Widodo's most trusted ministers - said the two-day symposium reflected the government's intention to resolve past human rights abuses.

Chairs of panellists are shrouded in black in protest at censorship of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival last year. The festival was told to abandon plans to discuss the 1965 massacres. Credit:Sonny Tumbelaka

The massacre of at least half a million people with suspected leftist leanings in 1965 and 1966 remains an intensely sensitive and controversial topic in Indonesia.
Tokyo: Survivors from a series of deadly earthquakes in southern Japan spent a cold night in cramped shelters or camped out in fields as 30,000 rescue service personnel rushed to provide food and to search for those still missing.

A 7.3 magnitude tremor struck the region early on Saturday, killing at least 33 people, a little more than 24 hours after nine people died in another quake in the same area.

More than a thousand people were injured, with widespread damage to houses, roads and bridges, including at least one mountain highway severed in two, concrete tumbling into the valley below.
Jerusalem: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has travelled to the occupied Golan Heights to declare that Israel will retain full control of the mountainous plateau forever and never return the strategic highlands to neighbouring Syria.

As talks on the future of Syria are underway in Geneva, Mr Netanyahu convened a symbolic meeting of his cabinet on a mountaintop in the Golan Heights on Sunday, which Israel seized from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, centre, poses with his ministers on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday. Credit:AP

In a lead-up to the Geneva talks, representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad signalled that they wanted the discussions to include a possible return of the Golan.
Beirut: Syrian rebel groups have announced a new battle against government forces, a sign of escalating violence that has undermined a ceasefire deal and threatens to derail United Nations-led peace talks.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels had launched an attack in Latakia province, and that there had been separate rebel advances in Hama.

The groups, which included factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and the powerful Islamist militia Ahrar al-Sham, said in a statement they would respond "with force" against any government forces that fired on civilians.

The ceasefire deal has been strained to breaking point by escalating fighting, particularly around the divided city of Aleppo, with each side blaming the other for the escalation that has underlined the huge challenge facing the peace talks. Heavy air strikes have also been reported north of the city of Homs.
Maroua, Cameroon: A trip by the US ambassador to the United Nations to Cameroon's frontlines in the war against Boko Haram has started horrifically as an armoured vehicle in her motorcade struck and killed a seven-year-old boy who darted into the road.

The incident occurred on Monday near the small city of Moloko, in northern Cameroon, where Samantha Power, her aides and accompanying journalists were headed to meet refugees and others displaced by the years of brutal attacks across west Africa.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, meets refugee children in northern Cameroon. Credit:AP

All of those meetings included small children.

Ms Power said she learnt of the death with "great sorrow", and returned to the scene of the bloody accident several hours later to meet the boy's parents.
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PHILIPSBURG, The permanent Committee of Parliament for Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (TEATT), will meet on April 22nd with representatives from Ava Airways. The Committee meeting is set for Friday at 10.00am in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelmina Straat #1 in Philipsburg.

The agenda point is a discussion with representatives from Ava Airways concerning the business plan; the Sint Maarten Aviation Open Sky Policy; the private public partnership proposal with WINAIR; the intension with FAA IASA Cat 2 aviation rating and the circumvention, slanderous statement, discrimination and protecting of a monopoly in Air Transport within the Dutch Caribbean by the Government of Curacao.

Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations. The House of Parliament is located across from the Court House in Philipsburg.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Ad Hoc Committee New Parliament Building of Parliament will meet in a closed door session on April 19th.

The closed door meeting is set for Tuesday at 10.00 am in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg.

The agenda point is a discussion on procedural steps to be taken to come to a location, requirements and general conditions for the construction of a new Parliament Building.
ChristianMingle Partners With Megachurch The Potters House in Dallas to Help Single Members Find Lifelong Partners

LOS ANGELES, CA  (Marketwired)  04/18/16  announced today its newest partnership under its co-branded church initiative with one of the fastest growing churches in the nation, The Potters House in Dallas, TX. Since launching this initiative in late February, ChristianMingle has been enabling single Christians within congregations to easily connect with one another on ChristianMingle through dedicated search capabilities, discounted membership fees and exclusive personalized customer service offerings.

With four large campuses and a growing swell of on-line members and weekly attendees, The Potters House is one of the largest churches in the U.S., and we do all we can to meet each and every one we touch at the point of their need, said Pastor, Bonne Moon. This one-of-a-kind singles program from ChristianMingle will expand the opportunity for our singles to build a strong sense of like-minded community with others, and may even spark some love matches!

With this new program, ChristianMingle provides partner churches an exclusive virtual community for their members, allowing them to find other members of their church as well as participate in the broader ChristianMingle community. Through badges on members profiles, they are able to highlight their affiliation with their church and search for others in or outside their church. Additionally, members receive exclusive support from the trusted Relationship Experts at ChristianMingle.

ChristianMingles mission is to promote healthy, happy Christian-inspired relationships and we are proud to be working alongside The Potters House to provide their congregation with our services, said Michael Egan, Chief Executive Officer at Spark Networks. Having worked with numerous church leaders across the country to shape this unique initiative, were excited that we continue to expand our ability to help single Christians meet others that share their faith while also strengthening their ties to their church.

With over one-third of couples meeting online in the U.S. today, ChristianMingle distinguishes itself by offering the comfort and convenience necessary for meeting like-minded people in todays dating environment. Thanks to its faith-based content and effective and proven dating advice, ChristianMingle is responsible for more Christian marriages than any other dating website, per an independent survey recently conducted by Survata on married Christians attending church at least once per year.

ChristianMingle will have a presence at this years International Pastors and Leadership Conference, hosted by The Potters House in Orlando, FL April 21-23.

As the worlds largest Christian dating site, is a trusted online dating leader with over 15 million like-minded members creating meaningful matches and lasting connections. ChristianMingle is owned and operated by , whose mission is to create iconic, niche-focused brands that build and strengthen the communities they serve. Spark Networks shares trade on the NYSE MKT under the ticker symbol LOV (NYSE MKT: LOV).
Brexit Would Have More Impact on IT Spend in the U.K. Than in Europe, Says IDC

Posted by Publisher Internet

The impact of a Brexit (the scenario in which the United Kingdom left the European Union following the referendum in the U.K. on June 23) would be mildly negative for IT spend in the U.K., but neutral for the rest of the European Union, according to IDCs European analysts.

IDC Europe recently polled its analysts on the potential impact on IT spend as a result of a Brexit, without making any direct forecasts of the overall economic impact. IDCs European analysts view is that a U.K. exit from the European Union would likely have a mildly negative impact on U.K. IT spend, while the impact on IT spend in continental Europe would likely be neutral.

We would expect a Brexit to impact U.K. IT spend, but the effect will not be dramatic because IT spend is governed by multiple factors which include demand drivers (such as the transition to 3rd Platform technologies) that are relatively independent of the local economic cycle, said Philip Carter, Chief Analyst for IDC Europe. 3rd Platform technologies include cloud, mobile, analytics and social media technologies.

Many organizations are also locked into multi-year software licensing agreements and outsourcing deals that would be unlikely to be cancelled or radically restructured in the short term as a result of a Brexit, said Douglas Hayward, Associate Vice President at IDCs European Services team. Much of the Europe-wide impact will only be determined in the longer run, depending on the renegotiation of EU directives and legislation, and cannot be fully predicted at present.

Among vertical markets, financial services, manufacturing, and retail and wholesale would be the industries whose IT spend could be more negatively affected by a Brexit decision, said Andrea Siviero, Senior Research Analyst for the IDC European Industry Solutions team. Restructuring the financial single market on one side and the impact on the U.K. current account on the other could potentially lead these three industry sectors to struggle if the U.K. exits from the European Union.

For more information about IDC Brexit internal poll results and potential impact of a Brexit, please refer to this IDC Flash or contact Philip Carter at pcarter@idc.com.

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDCs analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a subsidiary of [url=http://www.idg.com/]IDG[/url], the worlds leading technology media, research, and events company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at [url=https://twitter.com/IDC]@IDC[/url].
Watchfire Unveils Ignite OPx 2 at ISA 2016, Allowing Multi-Screen Management From the Cloud

DANVILLE, IL  (Marketwired)  04/18/16  Sign operators responsible for controlling content on multiple LED screens now have a single, cloud-based content management solution to simplify the process for networks with both indoor and outdoor digital signs. Ignite OPx 2 from Watchfire Signs () enables multi-screen content management without the need for installed software. .

Watchfire will be showcased at ISA Sign Expo, Booth 1211, April 20-23, in Orlando.

Ignite OPx 2 brings seamless management of multiple signs by eliminating the need for each sign to be managed by a dedicated computer. Content can now easily be scheduled across a signage network  even if screens of different sizes are in use  whether indoors or out. Further, customers with very large signs can create content zones that effectively allow them to segment the display and simultaneously show different types of content.

Designed for creative teams, large signs and signage networks, Ignite OPx 2 also features smart playlists with tagging to manage content to ensure the right screens show the right content. For example, a theater chain with signs at each location can set a playlist using tagging to drop IMAX promos from the playlist for non-IMAX locations.

The application also includes widgets that allow users to display information in real time  including time, temperature and social media updates  using RSS, XML, and other feeds. Watchfire adds new widgets frequently and customers can create their own.

Ignite OPx 2 supports a vast array of file types, including mp4 video files, transparent images and animated GIF files.

Enhanced reporting provides content playback statistics for a single player or for the entire sign network. Configurable user permissions make Ignite OPx 2 a great solution for teams.

Because Ignite OPx 2 is a cloud-based application, there is nothing to install. It works with any modern browser on all major platforms, allowing users to access their signs schedule and content library from any device with internet access.

The live training available with OPx 2 is incredibly helpful, said Josh Miethe of SURFACE 51, a design firm located in central Illinois. Our trainer walked us through the program, answering all of our questions and even offering tips and tricks for making the most of our experience. We discovered that using the software is easy and intuitive. We were able to set up highly-specific conditional rules for content. Anything you can imagine really is possible with OPx 2.

Ignite OPx 2 is a game changer for sign networks, providing a streamlined way to manage content and monitor the performance of the system, said Dave Warns, Watchfires vice president of On Premise Sales. Now organizations can flexibly and easily manage their sign network content from anywhere and using any device.

Watchfire is conducting demonstrations of Ignite OPx 2 at the ISA Sign Expo, Booth 1211 in Orlando.

Watchfire Signs designs, engineers and manufactures the best looking, most durable outdoor LED signs and digital billboards to help businesses and organizations increase visibility and drive growth. Headquartered in Danville, Ill., Watchfire has manufactured outdoor electric signs since 1932 and LED signs since 1996. The company has more than 50,000 Watchfire LED signs in operation and more digital billboard customers in the U.S. than any other manufacturer. For information, go to .

For information contact:

Linda Muskin

847-432-7300

Mara Conklin

678-825-2000
Nilit Implemented SoftWatchs Applications Usage Analytics to Optimize Its Microsoft License Spending

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL  (Marketwired)  04/18/16  SoftWatch, a leader in Application Usage Analytics, announced today that Nilit, a global provider of customized nylon solutions, has implemented SoftWatchs OptimizeIT Premium cloud service to analyze its current usage of Microsoft applications and reduce its Microsoft license spending.

Nilits purpose in implementing Softwatch was to analyze the real applications usage by all the company employees and understand the actual employees needs before renegotiating a new enterprise agreement with Microsoft. In order to obtain this, OptimizeIT Premium was distributed to all Nilits offices in North America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany and China. Following a 6 month period of collecting usage information, detailed analyses of actual usage and users segmentation were generated.

The analyses enabled Nilit to build the right licensing model towards the renewal of the new enterprise agreement with Microsoft. In addition, Nilit was able to use their current licenses smartly by re-assigning licenses to current employees and matching the right license to each employee. Also, a pool of free unused licenses was created to support the needs of new employees and limit further purchasing of licenses.

We find SoftWatch to be a remarkable eye opening service that revealed to us the real use of our software assets by our employees, said Idan Barak, CIO of Nilit. SoftWatchs analysis puts us in a much better position when negotiating a new enterprise agreement with Microsoft and the purchasing freeze is expected to yield 25% savings on our Microsoft license budget by substantially reducing the level of excess licensing.

We are very excited to assist Nilit with their software license optimization initiative, said Dror Leshem, VP sales at SoftWatch. This is yet another demonstration of the value of our Application Usage Analytics to customers throughout the globe who are facing growing challenges in controlling and optimizing their IT resources, and to our ability to help large enterprises to eliminate the wide spread phenomenon of excess licensing.

SoftWatch is a leader in Application Usage analytics. With its SaaS solution, it enables enterprises to effectively manage the transition of business applications to the cloud, optimize their hybrid cloud environment and reduce software spending. The Israel-based company has patents pending for its software usage and user segmentation solutions. For more information, visit .

Founded in 1969 by Ennio Levi, NILIT is committed to creating innovative, customized nylon (polyamide) 6.6 solutions. With expertise in polymerization and compounding, as well as spinning and texturing, NILIT offers a comprehensive range of quality products and services for apparel and engineering thermoplastics applications. Operating in more than 70 countries, our motto is no customer is too small, too big or too far away.

Media Contact:

Erica Zeidenberg

Hot Tomato Marketing

925-631-0553
Wandera and AirWatch Partner to Provide Seamlessly Integrated Mobile Threat Prevention

Posted by Publisher Hardware

SAN FRANCISCO, CA  (Marketwired)  04/18/16  Today, Wandera the leading global provider of security and management for mobile data announced new integrations with its partner AirWatch, the leader in enterprise mobility management. VMware AirWatch customers are now able to effortlessly deploy Wanderas Secure Mobile Gateway across any number of enterprise mobile devices directly from the AirWatch console. Administrators simply select the desired group of devices and Wanderas threat prevention services are silently pushed over-the-air to the mobile device with no interruption to the employees enjoyment of their device.

The new Wandera over-the-air deployment through AirWatch has made deployment seamless and significantly faster, said Jim Bryant, Enterprise Mobility Management engineer, Grupo Santander.

The Wandera Secure Mobile Gateway protects enterprises mobile devices with real-time threat prevention, compliance and data cost management. Wanderas multi-level architecture includes the worlds first cloud gateway for mobile. Wandera analyzes billions of daily inputs to detect emerging mobile attacks and protect sensitive company data. The on-device app integration with AirWatch enables administrators to identify and block threats such as data leaks, malware and man-in-the-middle attacks, and respond with real-time policy enforcement.

Weve worked closely with Wandera, as a part of the AirWatch Mobile Security Alliance, to give our mutual customers a simpler way to deliver threat prevention services, said Erik Frieberg, vice president, Marketing, End-User Computing, VMware. This additional integration builds upon an already strong partnership with Wandera and delivers on our goal to simplify the mobile security lifecycle for our mutual customers.

Integrating with VMware AirWatch, the worlds foremost enterprise mobile device management solution, delivers on our promise to our global customers, said Stijn Paumen, VP Business Development at Wandera. The product integration can significantly reduce administrative overhead and allow our mutual customers mobility teams to gain increased security, visibility and control over their entire mobile fleet in seconds.

In support of this new integration phase, Wandera is launching a special mobile security offer for new customers using VMware AirWatch until 30 September 2016:

30-day free mobile security audit powered by Wandera, allowing customers to enroll 20 to 500 devices to receive an audit report highlighting mobile threats and risk exposure

Three months free Wandera service if the customer moves forward with a standard Wandera order following the audit

One-day free trial of Wandera Professional services for any customer over 1,000 devices

Wandera is also pleased to support a number of AirWatch Connect Local events hosted in April and May this year. Participants can look forward to a full day of technical sessions, networking and group discussions focused on enabling end-users, empowering IT and implementing the latest solutions from AirWatch. Register for an event near you.

Wandera is the leader in mobile data security and management, protecting enterprises with real-time threat prevention, compliance and data cost management. Wanderas multi-level architecture, which includes a pioneering cloud gateway for mobile, offers unrivalled visibility and control. With the industrys largest mobile dataset, Wandera analyzes billions of daily inputs across its network in real-time to detect emerging mobile attacks and protect sensitive company data. Founded in 2012, Wandera is headquartered in San Francisco and London. For more information visit the website .

VMware, AirWatch, and AirWatch Connect are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions. Use of the word partner or partnership does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

Media Contact

Mia Damiano

703.390.1502
Stingray Wins Competitive Bid to Provide Music Service to LCBO

MONTREAL, QUEBEC  (Marketwired)  04/18/16  Stingray (TSX: RAY.A)(TSX: RAY.B), a leading business-to-business multi-platform music and in-store media solutions provider, today announced that it was selected through a competitive bidding process with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) and has signed a contract to provide custom in-store music to the more than 650 LCBO locations. Stingray has been an LCBO vendor since 2009.

Through Stingray Business, its in-store media solutions division, Stingray will be creating 13 themed music channels to be broadcast in all LCBO locations throughout the year.

The LCBO is an Ontario government enterprise and one of the worlds largest buyers and retailers of beverage alcohol. Through more than 650 retail stores, catalogs, special order services and more than 210 agency stores, the LCBO offers nearly 24,000 products annually to consumers and licensed establishments from more than 80 countries.

We have built a solid relationship with the LCBO over the past six years and are thrilled to continue providing them with expertly programmed music that has been customized to their specific requirements to enhance the customer experience, said Eric Boyko, President, Co-founder, and CEO of Stingray. Stingray Business is dedicated to helping its commercial clients reach their business objectives through the use of expertly programmed music channels and immersive digital experiences.

Stingray Business mission is to create welcoming environments for commercial clients, which align perfectly with their brand image and contribute to reaching key marketing objectives and increasing sales. Its expertise has been leveraged in 74,000 commercial establishments across Canada such as hotels, restaurants, retail stores, banks and other lines of business. For more information:

About Stingray

Stingray (TSX: RAY.A)(TSX: RAY.B) is a leading business-to-business multi-platform music and in-store media solutions provider operating on a global scale, reaching an estimated 400 million Pay-TV subscribers (or households) in 152 countries. Geared towards individuals and businesses alike, Stingrays products include the following leading digital music and video services: Stingray Music, Stingray Concerts, Stingray Brava, Stingray Djazz, Stingray Music Videos, Stingray Lite TV, Stingray Ambiance, Stingray Karaoke, and iConcerts. Stingray also offers various business solutions, including music and digital display-based solutions, through its Stingray Business division. Stingray is headquartered in Montreal and currently has close to 300 employees worldwide, including in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Israel, Australia and South Korea. Stingray was recognized in 2013 and 2014 as a finalist in the Top 50 of Deloittes Technology Fast 50 list, and figures amongst PROFIT magazines fastest-growing Canadian companies. In 2016, Stingray was awarded best IR for an IPO at the IR Magazine Awards  Canada. For more information, please visit .

Contacts:

Mathieu Peloquin

Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Communications

Stingray

1 514-664-1244, ext. 2362
Environment, Social Movements  April 18, 2016  Umair Muhammad

Bold and imaginative activism is difficult to find precisely at a time when we need it most. However, it is not the case that activism in general is in short supply; one finds, in fact, that activist ideals and vocabulary have securely made their way into everyday life. However, this leaves society fundamentally unchanged when the messages communicated by activists are distorted and then used to reinforce the social realities that they were originally devised to change.

Perhaps the most blatant example of the co-optation of activist ideals can be seen in the supposed embrace of the concept of sustainability by the corporate world. Oil companies long ago discovered the public relations benefits of describing their operations with the use of phrases such as sustainable development and sustainable growth. Following the extraordinary rise in the consumption of plastic

bottled water, the soft drink industry used the same PR technique to advertise eco-friendly bottled water  or so companies like Nestle, which eagerly promotes the fact that its bottles now contain 25 per cent less plastic, would have us believe.

The watering down, emptying out, and distortion of activist ideals has been helped along by activists themselves. For one thing, they have been willing to ignore the social dimensions of the problems that confront us, believing instead in the idea that the actions of autonomous individuals have led us to our current impasse. Confronting Injustice offers a corrective to this faulty outlook. In the book, I argue that social realities, in particular those created to meet the needs of our economic system, constrain and direct the actions of individuals. It is these social realities, therefore, that must attract most of our attention when we struggle to create change, even when the reorientation of individual behaviour happens to be our ultimate aim.

Changing the World Through Changing Your Lifestyle?

It is no coincidence that so many of us have adopted an individualist outlook while living within a social system dominated by the market. The routine of market exchange between individuals driven by self-interest conditions us to see human society as a collection of disconnected and primarily self-interested individuals. What is troubling is that so many activists have reconciled themselves to this vision of society and are now working to reinforce it through their activism. They have come to champion the values and features of the existing arrangement. In other words, those who have set out to change the world are instead helping to keep it from changing.

The most common way in which people try to address social problems is through changes in their individual lifestyle choices and by encouraging others to do the same. By making changes as conscious consumers, we can make positive change in the world. Along with lowering our overall levels of consumption, we are encouraged to consume organic, fair-trade certified, and locally-produced goods. We are told that this will benefit the environment, farmers in poor countries, and our individual health and spiritual wellbeing.

Be the change you want to see in the world is a statement often invoked in support of lifestyle-centric activism. Although these words are regularly attributed to the wise Mahatma, there is no documentary evidence to support that they are in fact Gandhis. Even if the statement could be attributed to Gandhi, however, it is easy to demonstrate that it was not meant to be a prescription for activism.

While Gandhis lifestyle choices were a large part of who he was, he understood that the adoption of a minimalist lifestyle would not bring about the change he wanted to see in the world. Creating social change, Gandhi recognized, requires social struggle. In his autobiography, he exhibits keen awareness of the fact that an individual on her own cannot make a difference. He gives special attention to organizing. For instance, while studying for the bar in London, Gandhi started a vegetarian club in his community. He writes that this brief and modest experience gave me some little training in organizing and conducting institutions. He sent telegrams, wrote and printed literature, and toured. He took his first meek attempts, and saw eventual improvement, at giving speeches to gatherings of people. In his book, he offers advice on managing the finances of organizations, and throughout he stresses the need for agitation.

Conscious Consumerism Plays Into the Hands of the Market

Agitation is impossible through individual consumer action within the marketplace. We are asked to vote with our wallets. We are told that the demand we generate will cause producers to offer more and more ethical products over time. Such exhortations misleadingly use popular language associated with democracy to talk about an area of life which is fundamentally undemocratic. In the marketplace, some people have bigger wallets than others, and hence, there is an unequal distribution of votes among consumers; but perhaps more importantly, producers are not accountable to consumers in any way that resembles democratic institutions. Consumer sovereignty, the idea that independently derived consumer demand drives production, is inconsistent with reality.

In Looking Backward , the 1887 novel by Edward Bellamy, the main character makes his way to a utopian future where the profit motive no longer exists. He

surmises that the new arrangement must save a prodigious amount of lying. He explains this to an acquaintance from the future: when ones livelihood and that of his wife and babies depended on the amount of goods he could dispose of, the temptation to deceive the customer  or let him deceive himself  was wellnigh overwhelming.

There is a word we use to describe this kind of lying and efforts to deceive the customer: marketing. Producers are vastly more powerful in comparison to consumers. A tremendous amount of effort is expended in order to convince consumers to purchase goods and services. In 2010, global spending on advertising amounted to more than $500-billion. The process of production is strongly tied with the process of marketing of what is produced. Producers bring into existence a large part of the demand which they then fulfill. Writing on the myth of consumer sovereignty, the economist John Kenneth Galbraith asks whether a new breakfast cereal or detergent [is] so much wanted if so much must be spent to compel in the consumer the sense of want?

Justice, unfortunately, is not something that comes in the commodity form. Campaigns focused on ethical consumerism have managed to achieve as much success as they can hope to find: the creation of niche markets for especially-conscious and wealthy consumers. While strategic uses of boycotts and other consumption-based initiatives as part of wider campaigns can help bring about progress in certain circumstances, they must be part of a bigger vision of change to matter.

Rejecting Individual Approaches to Social Activism

On its own, there are many good things to be said about cutting back on what we consume and living in a way that is not grounded in petty materialistic values. Living a clutter-free life is a wonderful thing, but it is not in itself the same thing as working to create social change. Indeed, it should be recognized that those who have the ability to make token changes in their lives while retaining, or even enhancing, their standard of living is the result of their position as a privileged minority in a system which overtaxes the environment and exploits the poor. We cannot simply look inwardly and change our individual consumption choices while continuing to benefit from the overall social arrangement.

When faced with this critique, lifestyle-centric activists often counter with the argument that conscious consumerism is a good first step. In my experience, however, those who endorse that idea have a hard time moving on to anything else. Year after year I have seen those engaged in promoting lifestyle changes remain stuck in place. Their object has become to convince more and more individuals to become vegetarians, purchase fair-trade coffee, carpool to work, etc. And for most of those who sign on to this approach, the only next step they seem inclined to take is the intensification of their engagement with conscious consumerism  finding endlessly greater ways to reduce their individual carbon footprint, compost and recycle, eat less meat, etc.

It seems to me that there is a qualitative difference between embracing the individualism that defines lifestyle-centric activism and recognizing the social dimensions of the problems we face. The former is not a bridge to the latter, but a distraction away from it. It is a step in the wrong direction. If anything, the first step to social activism should be an open rejection of individualist approaches. 
Letters: My teachers mean a lot to me. Why are they paid so little?
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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(Image credit: From "What's It Like in Space? Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There" by Ariel Waldman, illustrations by Brian Standeford, published by Chronicle Books)

A new book called "What's It Like in Space?" (Chronicle, 2016) is fairly self-explanatory: It's a book filled with short anecdotes from astronauts about, well, what it's like to be in space.

Simple as that may sound, many of the stories in the new book cannot be found on NASA's website or in other books and papers that describe the experience of spaceflight in a technical way. "What's It Like in Space? Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There" reads less like a collection of facts and more like a candid conversation with an astronaut. And that's exactly what the book's author, Ariel Waldman, said she was going for.

"I think a lot of times we hear more buttoned-up stories about what it's like in space, and so I wanted to do something that was more silly and entertaining and fun," Waldman told Space.com. [The Human Body in Space: 6 Weird Facts]

The stories Waldman shares in "What's It Like in Space?" include factual information; for example, it is basically impossible to burp in space without also throwing up. The lack of gravity means gas doesn't rise in the stomach; it's just mixed up with everything else. But Waldman's book also shares a story from astronaut Jim Newman, who figured out a way to get around this problem by pushing himself off a wall, creating a sort of artificial gravity in his body that allowed him to belch without also losing his lunch.

"If you ever have the opportunity to talk to an astronaut  they're delighted to tell you these funny stories that, you know, they might not say on a huge stage, but they're happy to tell you in person one on one," Waldman said.

Astronauts have reported that sleeping in space can be a challenge. (Image credit: Credit: From "What's It Like in Space? Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There" by Ariel Waldman, illustrations by Brian Standeford, published by Chronicle Books)

Space is a humbling place

The weightless environment of space puts a lot of stress on the human body, so it is understandable that many of the stories in Waldman's book involve bodily functions (and it does seem unlikely that an astronaut would ever speak these tales into a microphone in front of a crowd). There's a story that explains how vomiting in a spacesuit (a regular occurrence) causes the upchuck to ricochet back into the astronaut's face; another claims that multiple astronauts have attempted to propel themselves in microgravity using their own farts.

In another story, Waldman said multiple astronauts have confessed to eating the freeze-dried shrimp cocktail for every meal for weeks because it's the only food that retains its texture and flavor through the freeze-drying process. The added horseradish also helps with unclogging sinuses (a common problem for astronauts).

The book, which is about 6 inches (15 centimeters) square, has an illustration by artist Brian Standeford paired with each story. The size of the book and the addition of illustrations have made some people assume the book is for children, Waldman said. She didn't have a specific audience in mind when writing the work, she said, but was just trying to answer what she found to be the single most common question people ask astronauts: What's it like in space?

"For a kid, they might want a different answer [to that question] than an adult might want, but everyone has the same question," Waldman said. "Certainly, I think some people think stories about bodily fluids clearly must be for children, but in my experience adults are just as fascinated with it."

Some of the stories in the book are somewhat antithetical to the extremely dignified image of astronauts that NASA typically portrays. These people are presented as the epitome of professionalism  and they are. But space is a humbling environment. It's a place where the comforts of Earth  showers, laundry, a regular day and night cycle  are gone. Meanwhile, the body undergoes incredible stress, and the astronauts are locked together in a series of trailers. Waldman's book is a great reminder that the people who go to space are incredibly smart, strong, talented and, most of all, human.

On her first trip off the planet, space tourist Anousheh Ansari left something floating in the area around her and lost track of it. Worried it would clog up the expensive ventilation system, she confided in a crewmate about her supposed mistake. The astronaut showed Ansari a fan that acted as a "lost and found" by slowly sucking up loose items. Even the most experienced travelers would have to go fish something out of it from time to time.

"I think I like the stories where we want to say, 'Oh, there's all these things that we don't know about space,' but sometimes there's just things that we don't know about ourselves," Waldman said.

Astronauts are monitored very carefully in space  even their vomit is of interest to scientists on the ground. (Image credit: From "What's It Like in Space? Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There" by Ariel Waldman, illustrations by Brian Standeford, published by Chronicle Books)

The growing space population

Waldman said she got the idea for the book in late 2014, shortly after she finished up a stint serving on the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Committee on Human Spaceflight. Job-wise Waldman may best be described as a professional (and extremely productive) space enthusiast. She's the founder of Spacehack.org, a directory of projects and other ways that people can participate in space exploration. She sits on the council for NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts, "a program that nurtures radical, sci-fi-esque ideas that could transform future space missions," according to her book bio. These are just a few of the ways she's connected people to space.

Working on the NAS human spaceflight committee, Waldman said she had the opportunity to talk to astronauts in an unofficial capacity, and gradually accumulated a trove of those won't-be-told-on-a-big-stage stories. Waldman said she would tell these stories at parties and social gatherings, where they were always a big hit, and she decided to put them out to a wider audience. She interviewed a dozen astronauts for the book, and also sought out appropriate stories from archived interviews and talks by astronauts.

"So far there's only 550-ish astronauts in the world, which is sad, [and] not everyone gets the same privilege to meet them and get these stories," she said. "So this little book is a way of sort of getting those stories out there, making [them] more accessible to everyone."

Waldman said the book is also her way of acknowledging that, hopefully, many more people will travel into space in the coming decades, as commercial companies prepare to do what only government space agencies have accomplished in the past.

In Waldman's book, astronauts share what it's like to be in space. (Image credit: From "What's It Like in Space? Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There" by Ariel Waldman, illustrations by Brian Standeford, published by Chronicle Books)

"Hopefully, there will be more astronauts in the coming years, and we'll have more really funny stories like this, and books like this won't be so unique anymore," Waldman said. "[That] is sort of my hope."

"What's It Like in Space? Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There" is now available online (opens in new tab), and will be on bookshelves May 1.
A new generation of muon telescopes has been built to detect the presence of secret structures and cavities in Egypt's pyramids, a team of researchers announced on Friday.

Built by CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) the devices add to an armory of innovative, non-destructive technologies employed to investigate four pyramids which are more than 4,500 years old. They include the Great Pyramid, Khafre or Chephren at Giza, the Bent pyramid and the Red pyramid at Dahshur.

The project, called ScanPyramids, is scheduled to last one year and is being carried out by a team from Cairo University's Faculty of Engineering and the Paris-based non-profit organization Heritage, Innovation and Preservation (HIP Institute) under the authority of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.

Cosmic Rays Help Search Pyramids: Photos

International researchers from Nagoya University and KEK (High Energy Accelerator Research Organization) in Japan and Laval University, Quebec, Canada, have also joined the project, which is separate from the search for the secret room in King Tut's tomb.

"Now we welcome new researchers from the Irfu, a CEA fundamental research team," Mehdi Tayoubi, co-director of the ScanPyramids mission with Hany Helal, professor at Cairo University's Faculty of Engineering and former minister of research and higher education, said.

Irfu, which stands for Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe, gathers almost 800 researchers on astrophysics, nuclear physics and particle physics.

4,500-Year-Old Boat Found Near Pyramids

"These scientists have built dedicated muon telescopes for our mission. They are actually under construction and being tested in the CEA laboratories at Saclay, France," Tayoubi told Discovery News.

"It is really exciting to see how a technology that just came out from a fundamental research laboratory can help us understand 4,500-year-old massive monuments with non visible physics particles," he added.

The new muon devices rely on micro-pattern gas detectors called Micromegas. Extremely precise, they are used to reconstruct particles tracks in high energy physics. For example, CEA's Micromegas have been installed in the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.

Scanning Pyramids Reveals Mysterious Anomaly: Photos

Such muon telescopes will be used in addition to the infrared thermography, muon radiography, and 3-D reconstruction technologies that have already been employed to investigate the pyramids.

So far the researchers have detected striking thermal anomalies on the eastern and northern side of the Great Pyramid at Giza, which could possibly indicate an unknown cavity or internal structure.

A team led by specialist Kunihiro Morishima, from the Institute for Advanced Research of Nagoya University, Japan, installed 40 muon detector plates inside the lower chamber of the Bent pyramid at Dahshur in an attempt to capture cosmic particles.

The technology relies on the muons that continually shower the Earth's surface. They emanate from the upper layers of Earths atmosphere, where they are created from collisions between cosmic rays of our galactic environment and the nuclei of atoms in the atmosphere.

Video: Why Did We Stop Building Pyramids?

"Just like X-rays pass through our bodies allowing us to visualize our skeleton, these elementary particles, weighing around 200 times more than electrons, can very easily pass through any structure, even large and thick rocks, such as mountains," Tayoubi said.

Plate detectors placed inside the pyramid allow researchers to discern void areas  these are places where muons cross without problem  from denser areas where some muons are absorbed or deflected.

While the Japanese muon detectors are used inside the pyramids, the new moun telescopes, using gas detectors, will be used outside the pyramids.

Pyramid Hieroglyphs Likely Engineering Numbers

"In this way, we can for example better understand some thermal anomalies that have been spotted," Tayoubi said.

"We are not in a hurry to make discoveries as we rather want to build this project step by step. Our goal is to inform about all the actions we take. We hope that other labs with very innovative technologies will join us," Tayoubi said.

The researchers have detailed their findings so far in this video (opens in new tab).

The next step will be to announce the first results from the moun detectors placed inside the Bent pyramid at Dahshur.

"They are still under analysis," Tayoubi said.

Originally published on Discovery News.
Jennifer Lawrence (center), with astronauts Scott Kelly, Samantha Cristoforetti, Butch Wilmore, Kjell Lindgren and Terry Virts at the IMAX premiere of "A Beautiful Planet" in New York City on April 16, 2016.

NEW YORK  Astronauts and cosmonauts joined a star on the blue  like Earth  carpet Saturday night (April 16) at the premiere of "A Beautiful Planet," the latest IMAX 3D film to be shot in space.

Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, who lends her voice to the movie as its narrator, joined the crewmates whose camera work aboard the International Space Station filled the eight-story tall screen at the AMC Loews theater in New York City's Lincoln Square.

"I just really happen to love anything that has to do with space," Lawrence told collectSPACE.com and Space.com in an exclusive interview. [Photos: IMAX Cameras in Space]

Directed by Toni Myers, the celebrated filmmaker behind IMAX's eight previous space films including "The Dream is Alive" (1985) and "Hubble 3D" (2010), "A Beautiful Planet" turns the focus back towards Earth to paint a breathtaking portrait of our home planet and the effect we humans have had living on it.

"The astronauts are very careful with conserving resources on the space station, because they have to," Myers said. "The lesson there is that we ought to be doing a little more of that on the Earth to preserve what we have and achieve some sustainability."

"I hope in making the film to inspire people of all ages, but especially young people, [to notice] what a beautiful planet we live on," Myers told collectSPACE.com, "and what you can learn by looking at it from this vantage point, taking a step back."

Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko, home from their recent year-in-space mission, attended the premiere together with their fellow expedition members Terry Virts, Butch Wilmore and Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA), and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Anton Shkaplerov.

"It is a beautiful planet we have," said Kelly. "We have to take care of it, no question."

"Just standing and watching the colors go by," recounted Wilmore. "You go all of the way around the globe every 90 minutes and see the variety within such a short amount of time. To be able to transfer that to the big screen, as this does, it is special."

Other astronauts walking the blue carpet included "Hubble 3D" stars John Grunsfeld and Michael Massimino, space station veteran Cady Coleman and Don Pettit and Marsha Ivins, who worked with IMAX to devise the camera settings and on-orbit coordination needed to produce the 46-minute film.

"A Beautiful Planet," which opens on April 29 in IMAX and IMAX 3D theaters, differs from Myers' previous films by its choice of cameras. With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011, IMAX lost the ability to send large 70mm film camerasand land its bulky film rolls. Instead, Canon digital cinema cameraswere used on the space station.

"The big difference is with the digital capture, you can see things that film cannot capture  it's too slow," said Myers. "All of the views of the Earth at night, the auroras, the stars in the sky and the cities [below]. Going over the Bahamas in only moonlight, you can see the colors of the reefs. That blew me away. It was absolutely exquisite." [My Planet From Space: Fragility and Beauty (Gallery)]

Many of the views of Earth in "A Beautiful Planet" highlight the visual results of humanity's activities across the globe, including deforestation in places like Madagascar and the Amazon, fracking fires in the Gulf of Mexico and the glacial melting in Greenland.

"A Beautiful Planet" director Toni Myers (center) with cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko (far left), Oleg Kononenko (third from right), and Anton Shkaplerov (at right) and astronauts Butch Wilmore (second from left) and Terry Virts (second from right) at the IMAX films premiere in New York City on April 16, 2016. (Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Although the movie also features scenes of what life is like for the astronauts aboard the space station and where the next life-supporting planet might be found orbiting a distant star, it is the Earth that needs our attention, said Lawrence.

"I think right now we need to focus our efforts on keeping this planet  that has nurtured us and kept so good care of us for all of these years  let's focus on trying to fix her before we try moving on to try to destroy another one," she said.

Watch a clip from "A Beautiful Planet" and stay tuned to collectSPACE for video from the premiere of the movie.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2016 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Either way, it seems like we're heading into a nasty fall campaign.

Grisham: The divisions are getting deeper. Most of my friends are Republicans, my family is split 50/50. And we never discuss politics because if we did it would get really ugly really fast. We all have such strong feelings, and their feelings are just as strong as mine. So we learned. Don't get anywhere near politics. It cannot be discussed. It's been that way for the last 20 years, and it's not getting any better today.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why is that?

Grisham: Maybe because the haves and have-nots are getting further apart. There is so much wealth in this country concentrated in the hands of so few people, and there are so many people who have lost their jobs, who are out of work, who are terrified of the future. That drives a lot of the unrest and dissatisfaction.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Unrest and even violence.

Grisham: Look at the violence at the rallies, and Trump urging his people to take up arms, and the Republicans all want to carry guns to the convention in Cleveland and actually fight. But I do fault the Democrats, too, for some of the trouble. If Trump is going to have a rally down the street and draw a big crowd of people, let him do it, don't go start a fight. Just mind your own business. Why do you want to show up and start trouble? I don't get that. And I think some of the Democrats have been doing that. Just go vote.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: A crucial part of what's bubbling up here, also, is racism. Racism still permeates politics and, as you seem to have predicted in your legal thrillers, the US justice system.

Grisham: It's such a part of the nature of so many people in a position of power. Police, homicide detectives, prosecutors, judges, even jurors. In so many cases we see that a black suspect is getting treated differently from a white suspect. Because almost all the cops are white, the prosecutors are virtually all white, the judges are virtually all white. And that type of racism is proven to be so difficult to get away from.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But isn't there a backlash happening? Take, for instance, the growing rejection of capital punishment and its often racist application.

Grisham: I'm on the board of the Innocence Project. We're now seeing juries all over the country return fewer and fewer death penalty verdicts. We suspect it's because there have been so many high-profile exonerations in the past 15, 20 years. Folks are not as willing to trust the cops and prosecutors anymore. The jurors have become tougher. Hopefully we will slowly make a change. We do know for a fact that there are fewer death penalty verdicts and fewer executions. Executions have just plunged in the last five or six years.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And they're now reduced to a handful of states.

Grisham: The Southern states, the old Civil War states, where I'm from, where they believe in killing. I never understood that. There, race is still such a factor. It's just so deep-seated and complicated. I wonder if we're ever going to get past it.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You have a black president.

Grisham: We looked at Barack Obama and said, well, didn't we do something great, we elected a black president! But in other ways, I wonder how much progress we actually made.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Weren't you skeptical of Obama yourself in the beginning, politically speaking?

Grisham: We didn't know who Obama was. He was a rookie senator from Illinois. Then everything fell his way, and he got the lucky breaks, and he won.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Lucky breaks?

Grisham: I do think that the media embraced Obama and the American people embraced Obama because he was young and smart and attractive and happened to be black. That was something unusual. A lot of people voted for Obama and felt good about themselves, voting for a black guy. I voted for Obama because I'm a Democrat. I would vote for Obama again this year if he ran. I like Obama a lot. I thought he was kind of green when he got elected. I think he's done a pretty good job -- not great, not bad. He inherited a very difficult situation. The Great Recession, and then he had a Republican Congress. So he's been very well handcuffed in what he tried to accomplish. What has been shocking to me and to a lot of people is the way racism has surfaced.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Racism was a theme in your very first book, "A Time to Kill," and it's still valid today, 27 years later. That's pretty sad.

Grisham: I'm sure I'll be writing about it when I'm dead.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: If people still buy books then.

Grisham: They are buying in declining numbers. The publishers are making more money with e-books because they don't have to print anything. That's the big fight now with Amazon. Amazon takes 30 percent off the top, they made the market, they deserve it. Which leaves 70 percent between the publisher and the writer. And that's where the infighting is going on right now.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So why would someone still want to be a writer?

Grisham: It's always been difficult to break in as a new writer. At the same time every year you get a whole bunch of first novels, and a fair number of them get good reviews.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You had a hard time yourself once.

Grisham: " A Time to Kill" didn't sell. Couldn't give it away. So I said I'll write one more, and if this doesn't work I'm done. So I wrote "The Firm" and that kind of changed everything. But I had no idea I'd write 38 books and be 61 years old, and still have fun.
Abbas: We are not encouraging our youth to commit violence. But if someone dies at the hands of Israeli security forces, we call that person a martyr. This is our tradition.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You have repeatedly accused the Israeli government of planning to change the status quo on the Temple Mount. This is a very sensitive issue that triggers strong religious emotions. Aren't you heating up the conflict with such statements?

Abbas: This is not about religion. The problem is that Israel is occupying our land and attacking our holy sites. The Al Aqsa Mosque is ours. It is part of our capital city East Jerusalem, which has been occupied since 1967. The Israelis should stay away from Al Aqsa. Instead, they are provoking us on a daily basis with their visits and violating the status quo by praying there.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But what we are dealing with here are extremists and not the Israeli government.

Abbas: Among the visitors are members of the Knesset. And the Israeli government has the responsibility: They have to stop the extremists. They have to respect their obligations regarding the status quo.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Many chances for peace have been missed over the past 20 years. Can you only see failures on the Israeli side, or did you also make mistakes?

Abbas: I am constantly asking the Americans and Europeans: What are my mistakes? They confirm that I made no mistakes. It is the Israeli side which misses all the chances for peace.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Instead of negotiating with the Israeli government, you are now taking unilateral steps as well as addressing the international community directly. Do you think this is a good strategy?

Abbas: We support the French initiative, which calls for a multilateral instead of a bilateral approach. We want an international conference and an international support group to be established to reach peace. We will talk with the Europeans, the Americans, partners in Asia and moderate Arab states. We would also like Israel to join, but they are refusing this international approach.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What is the Palestinian side offering for such talks?

Abbas: We will reaffirm our recognition of the State of Israel living side by side with the State of Palestine in peace and security. I am asking Netanyahu to sit with me at the table and negotiate. I do not have any preconditions. We only want a temporary building stop in the settlements while these talks are taking place. The Israelis are telling us it is not the right time for a two-state solution. But when is this moment? The right time is now and not tomorrow or any time in the future. We want to coexist with them. But the Israelis don't want that. They want to separate themselves from us and prefer not to see us.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are you prepared to recognize Israel as a Jewish State?

Abbas: We recognized the State of Israel in 1993, and we are prepared to reaffirm our recognition of the State of Israel based on the two-state solution. But they have to reciprocate as well.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Israel is very concerned that radical groups could gain more influence in the West Bank. Hamas is popular, especially among younger people, as elections at universities showed.

Abbas: These results were individual cases.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: According to the polls, you aren't very popular among your people at all. Your government lacks legitimacy. There haven't been any elections in the West Bank for the past 10 years. Do you fear that Hamas could win a possible election?

Abbas: I am willing to have elections at any time, but Hamas refuses it. Currently, we are negotiating the creation of a unity government with Hamas in Qatar. We can conduct elections as soon as we have a unity government.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Will you seek another term as president?

Abbas: I do not want to run again.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In the West Bank, an increasing number of militant Hamas cells are active -- with some planning terror attacks against Israel. Do you still have control of the situation?

Abbas: Our security forces are working very efficiently to prevent terror. Just a couple of days ago, three young men were tracked down and arrested. They were planning an attack. In this context, our security cooperation with Israel is functioning well. Hamas is trying to sabotage things, but we have the situation under control.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You recently stated that the Palestinian Authority is on the brink of collapse.

Abbas: It is a matter of fact: If the Israeli Defense Forces are operating in our cities in Area A, this is bothering us and violating the agreements. This area is supposed to be controlled by the Palestinian Authority alone. If Israel will not end these incursions, then it should take over the responsibility. But then there will not be a Palestinian Authority anymore. If Netanyahu sits in this chair, I will not be needed anymore.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. President, we thank you for this interview.
Djanet (Algeria), April 18, 2016 (SPS) - The head of the delegation of the Algerian National Committee for Solidarity with Saharawi People in Djanet (province of Illizi), Boudjemaa Souileh, urged Sunday the UN Security Council to get serious about Western Sahara issue, stressing that it is first and foremost a matter of "peace and security in the region."

"Security and peace in the region are threatened by Morocco's attitude, hence the need for the United Nations Security Council to get more serious about Western Sahara issue, as it is first and foremost a matter of peace and security in the whole region," Souileh told APS in the opening of the regional conference on Western Sahara in Djanet.

Souileh denounced Morocco's attacks against UN security general, saying that Rabat "seeks, through such an attitude, to get the United Nations to review the legal status of Western Sahara territories," which it is decolonization issue.

The world must know that decolonization in Western Sahara should be carried out in accordance with the international legality, especially Resolution 1514 about peoples' right to self-determination.

062/090/700
His two-year term is effective

from Monday 18 April 2016. The MLCSL is best known for its independent carcase classification process and dressing inspection service to the red meat abattoirs throughout the UK, against which beef, sheep and pig producers are paid deadweight for their stock.

Coming from a cattle breeding and farming family, Andrew Loftus has extensive experience within the agriculture and red meat supply chain. As the Farming Operations Manager of Woodhead Bros, the wholly-owned meat manufacturing subsidiary of Wm Morrison Supermarkets, Andrew was responsible for livestock farming, the procurement policy and supply-chain innovation within the business. His success in this role led to his subsequent appointment as Agricultural Manager for Wm Morrison.

George Lyon commented;

I am delighted to welcome Andrew to the board. He brings important experience of new technology as well as his in depth knowledge of the supply chain from a processor/retailer perspective.
Published by the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV), the guide  entitled Hydraulic Fracturing for Shale Gas - explores the legal and environmental impacts of fracking alongside planning considerations, surveys, and taxation issues. As an independent organisation representing rural professionals who advise on every aspect of countryside management, it is vital that we lead the way when it comes to understanding the implications of new technologies and markets, says Sarah Chorlton, rural policy adviser at CAAV.

Although Wales and Scotland currently have a moratorium on fracking, the English government offered 153 blocks for shale gas exploration in December 2015. With potentially 150bn cubic metres of shale gas in the UK, declining fossil fuel supplies and pressure to cut carbon emissions, it has provided a number of encouragements to assist shale gas operators.

There is plenty of interest by developers in exploring these blocks so if landowners are approached they really need to understand the details. We are not here to take sides in the argument, simply to research the challenges and provide assistance with the practical implications, says Miss Chorlton.
T he private equity director who was acquitted over the collapse of City Link has left its former owner Better Capital just months after his controversial court case ended.

Tom Wright, who was last year found not guilty of criminal charges linked to the collapse, left the company on March 31, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Wright was charged last year alongside two former City Link directors with criminally breaching employment laws when the parcel-delivery firm went bust in Christmas 2014, with the loss of 2700 jobs. All three were acquitted by a judge last November.

Wright, 32, has since left the private equity industry for an unnamed new career. He told the Standard that he left Better Capital on good terms and his departure was not linked to the case. I wish them all the best, he added.

The company, led by veteran investor Jon Moulton, confirmed Wrights departure. The split was amicable and not tied to the City Link case, it added.

The controversial collapse of the company on Christmas Eve sparked recriminations in Parliament and drew criticism from trade unions. Alongside the job losses, scores of creditors were left out of pocket when the delivery company went insolvent.

The Government took Wright, a former non-executive at City Link, to court over allegations that he failed to notify authorities about the redundancies.

Under arcane laws dating back 20 years, businesses have to give at least 45 days notice to the Business Department if more than 100 people will lose their jobs. The Department for Business Innovation & Skills argued that City Link failed to notify authorities and should have informed the Government.

The judge in the case said the three directors believed insolvency was not the only option and thought the business could be sold. The case was the first attempt to prosecute executives under the law. Wright joined Better Capital from accountants PwC in 2011.
T he oil price tanked as talks among major producers aimed at curbing a global supply glut hit a dead end in the Middle East.

The break-up of the Doha summit between members of the Opec oil cartel, and non-members including Russia and Mexico, without an agreement to freeze production at January levels sent Brent crude down as much as 7% to $40.10 a barrel.

The talks were fatally undermined by tensions between Opec leader Saudi Arabia and Iran, which failed to attend. Iran, free of sanctions after an agreement with the US, has committed to raise production levels by a third to almost four million barrels a day but Riyadh wants Iran to sign up to the freeze.

The two nations are also fighting a proxy war in the Yemen, with the Saudis bombing rebels armed by Tehran.

The failure of the talks may offer some relief to drivers confronted with a 6p rise in average petrol prices since the turn of the year, when unleaded fell to 1.01 a litre.

However, the benefits have been limited by the fall in the value of the pound and the end of the supermarket price war on petrol.

But it represents the first serious blow to an oil price which has steadily recovered since hitting 13-year-lows below $28 a barrel in January.

Oil prices have taken a battering since June 2014, driven by factors including worries over demand and oversupply as the Saudis keep pumping to push out US shale oil producers.

The fallout from the decision immediately reverberated in stock markets, hitting the likes of BP and Shell and boosting big fuel consumers like airlines and cruise ships operator Carnival. John Hall of oil consultant Alfa Energy said of the Doha talks: The whole thing was a dead end.

Saudi Arabia wants to keep the market share it picked up from Iran when sanctions were in place. I expect oil prices to hover between $35 and $40 a barrel for the rest of the year.

US production is likely to fall from around 9.5 million barrels a day to eight million a day next year but if the price gets much above $45 then US shale will come back into the market.

Barclays said that Brent would probably average $36 per barrel during the second quarter of this year.

It said: This meeting and its outcome should have built... trust among producers for possible future co-operation and coordinated action. In this regard, the meeting was a complete failure.

An even deeper fall in the oil price was prevented by an oil workers strike in Kuwait in response to wage and benefit cuts, which has slashed production from 2.85 million barrels a day to 1.1 million.

While we do not expect this outage to be long lasting, it highlights the fine margins involved in the market, UBS analyst Jon Rigby said.n and thought the business could be sold. The case was the first attempt to prosecute executives under the law. Wright joined Better Capital from accountants PwC in 2011.
A lmost half of Englands housebuilders are unconcerned about the possibility of Britain leaving the EU, the findings of a new survey have revealed.

Of 389 owners and directors from property companies questioned, 49% said they were not worried about the impact Brexit would have on their business in terms of restricting their ability to recruit from abroad through EU freedom of movement rights.

Just 31% were concerned, while 20% were unsure, they study by Morar Consulting for property consultants McBains Cooper showed.

But it also highlighted that of those that were concerned, firms in London were among the most anxious.

Michael Thirkettle, chief executive of McBains Cooper, said: London firms may be among those more worried about Brexit because, more than the rest of the country, the capital is in the middle of building and infrastructure boom which requires skilled workers from the rest of the EU.



The report comes after Deputy Mayor of London, Stephen Greenhalgh last week warned that the capital risks losing the large numbers of European construction workers it needs to build new homes if Britain leaves the EU.
S o Standard Chartered has tapped up the former Bank of England Deputy Governor, Sir Paul Tucker, to be its next chairman.

A civil servant whos had no private-sector experience, what does he know about running multinational companies, one might ask.

But Tucker is no naif, particularly when it comes to banking.

For years, it was his job to speak daily to the Citys CEOs about the financial system. That was why he got so much grief during the Libor scandal, where he was (wrongly) accused of leaning on Barclays to lower its Libor submissions.

And it was Tucker who raised the alarm in early 2007 about the growing liquidity crisis in UK banks. Then-Governor Mervyn King was later accused of failing to act early enough on Tuckers warnings.

The taint of the financial crisis  albeit undeserved  will probably scare off the Standard Chartered board and theyll plump for a safer, more-boring candidate.

Thats a pity. Tucker shouldnt be seen as damaged goods forever.
T he billionaire Reuben Brothers have shrugged off clouds gathering over the capitals luxury flats market, and confirmed they plan to go ahead with a redevelopment of the Labour Partys former headquarters.

The riverside skyscraper where Tony Blairs New Labour plotted the 1997 and 2001 general election victories will now be converted into luxury flats.

David and Simon Reuben won planning permission from Westminster council to develop the 32-storey Millbank Tower, that was once synonymous with Blairite control freakery and spin. Labour left the site in 2002.

The Grade II-listed skyscraper will be turned into 207 flats with a skybar. A 150-bedroom hotel will also be built.

A spokesman for the Reuben Brothers told the Standard: We believe that we have devised an exciting project.. We are convinced of the fundamentals of the residential market, particularly in this great location with its commanding views of the Thames and the rest of London.

Their decision to stick with the proposals comes despite some property industry concerns about a slowdown in the luxury homes market.

Last month investment bank Morgan Stanley warned that the price of upmarket flats could fall by as much as 20% this year, adding to concerns over a glut of homes in some parts of London, and worries about the impact of stamp-duty hikes.

The redevelopment will not take place however in the near future because the buildings are fully let for almost three years. Some office space could be retained subject to planning permission.
T he British yacht company Spirit Yachts have decided to showcase the 54ft yacht that appeared in Casino Royale.

The yacht, named Soufriere, will appear at this years London on Water show at St Katharine Docks.

Having appeared in Daniel Craigs first Bond film Casino Royale in 2006, the yacht has since been competing in boat races, and is now docking up in Tower Hamlets.

Spirit Yachts CEO and head designer Sean McMillan commented on coming to London, Soufriere was designed specifically for Casino Royale following the production companys search for a classically elegant, unique, British built yacht. The scene in which Daniel Craig and Eva Green glide into Venice onboard Soufriere granted her a place in British film history. What better place to re-launch her to the public than London; the home of James Bond?

Having just been repainted and cleaned up, Soufriere will appear among other beautiful boats that boast sleek designs and elegant shapes.

London on Water takes place at St Katharine Docks from May 4-7. Visit londononwater.com for more information.

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Review at a glance









I n this years customarily eclectic Deutsche Borse shortlist, three artists deal with geopolitics, even if theres no straight reportage.

Laura El-Tantawys book In the Shadow of the Pyramids captures in intense, visceral imagery the Egyptian revolution of 2011, accompanied by the artists poems. Its presented here as a multi-screen installation with images from the book, from an innocent child on a swing to blood on tarmac. These images sear into the soul.

Tobias Zielonys images of African migrants in Germany are shown on large surfaces, like newspaper layouts without words. Every image, they suggest, is manipulated by media lenses.

Trevor Paglen pictures the hidden apparatus of the surveillance state and electronic warfare  the headquarters of intelligence organisations, combat drones. These images are beautiful yet mysterious, and all the more unsettling for it. Erik Kessels, meanwhile, presents a personal take on his fathers passion for restoring Fiat Topolinos and the stroke that prevented him from continuing. His fathers photographs of his loving restorations sit alongside the unfinished car to form a touching portrait of the man.

El-Tantawys book is extraordinary but let down by this presentation. While Zielony and Kessels are worthy nominees, Paglen is the best artist here.

Until June 26, The Photographers Gallery (020 7087 9300, thephotographersgallery.org)

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A n advert for a Great Fascist Rally held at the Royal Albert Hall in 1934 is on display alongside stories of concentration camp survivors in a new exhibition about Britain and the Holocaust.

The show has been curated by a group of young people who work with the Holocaust Educational Trust to ensure future generations are aware of the events of more than half a century ago.

Lucy Hamwijk, 20, who got involved when she visited Auschwitz as a teenager in a project run by the HET, said the curators all believed in the contemporary relevance of the Holocaust.

None of us has a direct Jewish background  these are lessons which can be taught to anyone, she said. It is more about mans inhumanity to man than anything else. We are British students, this is a British library and we wanted to talk about the story of Britain and its relation to the Holocaust.

Profoundly disturbing: the exhibition features examples of disgusting and outrageous anti-semitic propaganda

The rally  addressed by British Union of Fascists leader Sir Oswald Mosley  was held the year after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Among other exhibits at the Wiener Library in Russell Square is a copy of a magazine made by refugees who had fled Germany and were interned on the Isle of Man.

Ms Hamwijk, who lives in north-west London and studies at Leicester University, said: The exhibition is not just about what Britain did but what it didnt do, and how when people came here it did not mean they were accepted.

HETs Lessons From Auschwitz project has taken almost 30,000 teachers and students to visit the Nazi camp, where more than a million people were killed.

Dilemmas, Choices, Responses: Britain And The Holocaust runs at the Wiener Library until June 15.

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Review at a glance









T he three-year reign of the Nationals Temporary Theatre, ne Shed, is drawing to a close. The much-loved, upside-down red wooden cow structure, conceived as a pioneering solution to building work-related closures, was envisaged as a home for rough, urgent contemporary drama  exactly the sort of drama, theoretically, as this verbatim documentary piece exploring one of the biggest current threats to worldwide security.

Yet this venues output has been showing dwindling returns for some time now and Another World isnt the vital and incisive work it presumably intended to be. The subtitle suggests the personal stories behind all those hideous headlines, but writer Gillian Slovo and director Nicolas Kent only partially fulfil that promise. We start and end with moving testimony from a group of Belgian mothers whose teenage children have gone to Syria, but its what lies between that is problematic.

There are lengthy, dry testimonies from a somewhat indiscriminate bunch of variously expert talking heads  its unsettlingly like listening to a newspapers op-ed pages being read aloud. What benefit this section of Kents awkward production derives from being presented as a piece of theatre is unclear. Welcome relief is provided by lively words from an eloquent group of Muslim sixth-formers from Tower Hamlets. Overall, its a worthy but misfiring 90 minutes.

Until May 7, Nationals Temporary Theatre (020 7452 3000, nationaltheatre.org.uk)

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T he moment Hollywood royalty Jane Fonda confronted her past  and veterans furious about her apparent backing for the enemy during the Vietnam War  is the inspiration behind a new play heading to London.

Fatal Attraction star Anne Archer plays Fonda in the production, which is inspired by a meeting between the actress and American soldiers disgusted by her 1972 visit to Hanoi, then the capital of North Vietnam.

Fonda, daughter of Hollywood legend Henry and a huge star in her own right, was dubbed Hanoi Jane after she was photographed at an anti-aircraft battery with North Vietnamese soldiers.

She became a hate figure for many and in 1988 faced threats of a boycott by residents of a Connecticut town where she was trying to shoot a film, Stanley & Iris, with Robert de Niro.

Figure of hate: Jane Fonda on her visit to Hanoi in 1972

Archer, 68, said: She was making this movie with de Niro and he suggested to her that she speak to these men.

She ended up in a room with them for four hours and she told her story and they told theirs and it was a cathartic experience I think for both sides.

Archer, who was nominated for an Oscar in 1988 for her role as Michael Douglass wife in Fatal Attraction, will appear in The Trial Of Jane Fonda at the Park Theatre from July. It was written by her husband, Terry Jastrow.

This is not just an American story  it is going to resonate, said Archer. It is a tough play and it is about things that are still going on today, about wars we fight and the reasons why we fight them.

The actress, whose career also includes hit films such as Patriot Games and Short Cuts, made her West End debut in 2001 as Mrs Robinson in The Graduate. She has already played Fonda in a brief run of the play at the Edinburgh Festival and said it has since been tightened up. She said the story reminded her of the 1957 classic 12 Angry Men, in which one juror  played by Fondas father  persuades the other 11 of a mans innocence as they are preparing to condemn him.

She said: I think a lot of people went into that meeting with quite fixed ideas about each other and came out quite surprised by what they had heard.

Archer, whose husband interviewed Fonda, 78, and veterans of both the war and the anti-war movement, said she had met the actress only a few times.

She said: She isnt the easiest character to play and has no obvious mannerisms or exaggerated ways of speaking but people seem happy when they see the play that Jane is there.

The Trial Of Jane Fonda runs at the Park Theatre from July 13 to August 20.

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Y ou spot a pop-up vending machine selling white t-shirts for 2 in your high street.

You insert your money, and select your size. Then a short film appears on the screen, revealing the true cost of the t-shirt: a grim snapshot of the appalling working conditions of the person who made it, who is earning less than the minimum wage.

You're given the choice of whether to continue with the purchase or to donate your money to a charity supporting exploited workers instead.

What would you do?

Today marks the beginning of Fashion Revolution week, a response to the catastrophic collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Bangladesh that killed 1,134 people and injured 2,500 more, on April 24 in 2013.

The 2 t-shirt experiment: unsuspecting shoppers are shown the 'true cost' of a cheap t-shirt / Christian Hasselbusch

The pop-up vending machine was set up in Berlin as an experiment last year - and a powerful video of people's rections was released to raise awareness of the cause.

Fashion in numbers 2 trillion: annual turnover of the fashion industry 100 million: value of used clothing that goes to landfill in the UK each year 2: average daily wage of a garment worker 25p: amount that, if added to an item of clothing, would cover the costs of a living wage for workers and for factories to meet safety standards. 170 million: estimated number of child labourers around the world, many for textiles industries

The experiment was hugely successful. Eight out of ten people decided to donate their 2, which was given to a garment factory in Bangladesh that employs survivors of the disaster. It went viral on YouTube (it has had over seven million views to date), and was shared by Ashton Kutcher on Facebook.

This year people across the world are being asked to show their support by taking a label selfie, tagging the brand, and asking the simple question #whomademyclothes on social media.

Founder of Fashion Revolution, Carry Somers says that for every person who asks #whomademyclothes, the brands take it as representing 10,000 other people who think the same way, but cant be bothered to do anything about it.

Somers believes that transparency is the first step to changing the exploitative fast fashion industry and says there are plans to repeat the experiment.

She says: We have incredible power as consumers, if we choose how to use it.



Lizzie is the author of London's ethical food website, bicbim.co.uk. Follow her on Twitter @LizzieRivs and @bicbim

Find out more about: Fashion Revolution
W ith less than two months of Presidential Primaries left to run and campaigns well underway, this is a big year for Washington DC. After recent years basking in the showbiz glow of a slew of US television shows set in the political underbelly of the capital  from Scandal to House of Cards to Veep  the city feels familiar even to the uninitiated. But as a travel destination, theres more to it than Kevin Spacey and a questionable Southern accent. Beyond the privileged inner circle of the political elite, poorer areas of the city once tarnished by a bad reputation are benefitting from regeneration projects that have allowed creative districts to flourish and the gourmet scene to filter out.

Bed in: contemporary style in the historic centre

Washington DC is a relatively small city with most sights easily reached on foot, but for a central location, the DuPont Circle Hotel, part of the Irish family-owned Doyle Collection, is just 15 minutes walk from the White House located near DuPont Circle in the historic centre (001 202 483 6000; doylecollection.com; doubles from $274 room only).

Because nothing can be built higher than the Washington Monument, the views from the hotels executive floor (15 suites and a dedicated lounge) are impressive despite only being nine storeys high. Communal areas are decorated with art from the owners private collection while rooms are luxurious with underfloor heating in the bathrooms, walk-in showers and huge, and exceptionally comfortable, beds. The on-site restaurant Cafe Dupont serves a vast breakfast and a French brasserie-style evening menu.

Fed & watered: market forces and southern comfort

Washingtonians love their brunch and a perfect Saturday morning is spent browsing and tasting at Union Market (001 301 347 3998; unionmarketdc.com) in the north-east of the city. The wholesale market area dates back to the late 19th century and sits in a once dilapidated quarter. After burning down in 2011, it has been rebuilt with a stellar gourmet food hall that should satisfy the hippest of hipsters. It features 40 local traders including artisanal cheesemongers Righteous Cheese, which offers a $13 posh grilled cheese sandwich and beer combo (001 202 716; righteouscheese.com).

Succotash (001 301 567 8900; succotashrestaurant.com) in the National Harbour area has created a buzz since it opened last September. Louisville-based chef Edward Lee serves up classic Southern food with Asian spicing. The tasting menu is $39 per person and includes moreish crispy local blue catfish with jalapeno-mint aioli and the special Dirty Fried Chicken with spicy Gochujang honey.

Chesapeake Bay oysters in DC are fat and meaty. Try a platter down on the waterfront at Tony & Joes Seafood Place (001 202 944 4545; tonyandjoes.com). The family-owned restaurant has great harbour views and daily changing freshly caught produce.

Fig & Olive (001 202 599 5004; figandolive.com) launched in New York in 2005 and made it to DC in June last year. Specialising in olive oil, the restaurant is a chic spot for a more up-market dinner with a top-notch wine menu and excellent mixed crostini starters to share ($24 for six).

No trip to DC is complete without a visit to Bens Chili Bowl (001 202 667 0909; benschilibowl.com) on U Street where the chili is plentiful and the staff are endlessly jolly. Since its opening in 1958, it has become an institution. Join the crowds trying to take selfies in the booth where Barack Obama enjoyed a half smoke chili dog after his inauguration in 2009.

Righteous Cheese / Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post

To get away from the political area of the city, the historic Georgetown neighbourhood is buzzy and cosmopolitan. After dinner, the late night Piano Bar keeps the party going until 3am with sing-alongs around the grand piano (001 202 337 1871; georgetownpianobar.com).

In the bag: bohemian gifts and indie boutiques

Back in Union Market, take an after-brunch stroll around Salt & Sundry (001 202 556 1866; shopsaltandsundry.com) which is perfect for picking up gifts. It is beautifully curated and stocked mainly with bohemian homeware products with an emphasis on design. Another great option for home goods and furniture is Trohv DC (001 202 829 2941; trohvshop.com). The original store is in nearby Baltimore but this second outpost is vast and located in an old grocery store where you can easily get lost among the new and vintage pieces.

Historic Georgetown is the citys main shopping destination, home to well-known chains such as J Crew and Coach as well as independent boutiques.

There are several popular weekend markets in DC, from the Sunday neighbourhood farmers market at Dupont Circle (001 202 362 8889; freshfarmmarkets/org) to handicrafts and antiques at the Eastern Market in the Capitol Hill market when hundreds of local designers and vendors set up stall (001 202 698 5253; easternmarket-dc.org).

Cultural agenda: a day at the museums

The capital is not short on culture; the two-mile long National Mall is home to some of the nations most important museums, including the Smithsonian, National Gallery, Botanic Gardens, National Air & Space Museum and more. However, there are some more recent additions to the scene.

The Renwick Gallery (001 202 633 7970; renwick.americanart.si.edu) recently re-opened after a two-year renovation. The building was nations first purpose-built art museum and today it houses the Smithsonian contemporary collection. The inaugural exhibition WONDER runs until May 8, with nine visceral and thought-provoking sculpture installations including Janet Echelmans 1.8, which consists of a multi-coloured twine canopy suspended from the ceiling, inspired by energy maps of the earth in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami which hit Japan.

Another new, but very different, recent opening is Inside Todays FBI at the Newseum (001 202 292 6100; newseum.org). The excellent museum of news and journalism has been at its vast current seven-storey premises since 2008 but this examination of how the bureau handles terror and cybercrime investigations, and how the press coverage responds, is especially pertinent.

Details:

Rachael Sigee travelled as a guest of Aer Lingus (0871 718 2020; aerlingus.com), which flies to Washington Dulles from Heathrow four times per week, connecting and clearing US Customs at Dublin City Airport. Single fares from 229.

Washington Dulles is served direct from Heathrow by United Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

A Metrobus from the airport to downtown DC costs $6 and takes around 50 minutes. Washington Flyer taxis operate exclusively from the airport; rates start at $50.

More information: destinationdc.com
H eartless thieves have stolen a specially adapted buggy belonging to a young cerebral palsy sufferer who is waiting to undergo life-changing surgery.

Four-year-old Bailey Walters-Lawrence was in Disneyland Paris on a special trip organised by the Make A Wish Foundation when thieves struck at the family home in Gorefield Place, Kilburn.

Her mother, Shermel Walters-Lawrence believes the family was deliberately targeted by crooks who knew they were in Paris and knew the victim was a disabled child.

Bailey is due to undergo Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) treatment at Great Ormond Street next month, after a community fundraising campaign secured the 30,000 needed to pay for the operation.

But Ms Walters-Lawrence, 26, suffered a set back when she was told the family would need to find a further 15,000 to pay for Bailey's aftercare, which she is still in the process of raising.

Stolen: Bailey in the missing Simba chair / Shermel Walters-Lawrence

And now with the loss of the pushchair, she has had another 2,000 added onto her fundraising bill.

She told the Standard: "We were granted a wish and some family members put some money for Bailey to go to Disneyland to meet the Princesses.

"When we got back the shed had been broken into and they'd taken it.

"I was disgusted because it's evidently a wheelchair, not a high street brand buggy.

"The NHS won't give me another one, so we'll have to buy it."

Support: Bailey used the chair as an alternative to her walking frame / Shermel Walters-Lawrence

Ms Walters-Lawrence said the cost of replacing the buggy, which was a Simba brand chair, will be just less than 2,000.

A Met Police spokesman said: "Police are investigating the theft of an electric wheelchair some time between 8am on Tuesday, April 5 and 7pm on Saturday, April 9.

"An electric wheelchair was taken from outside an address in Gorefield Place, Kilburn. The Simba make chair is black and red in colour with a red seat.

"No arrests have been made and enquiries continue."

Anyone with information should call police in Brent on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 08000 555 111.
F ears are growing for a missing children's author who disappeared a week ago while walking her dog.

Helen Bailey, who started an emotional blog after the death of her husband five years ago, was last seen at around 2.45pm on April 11.

Hertfordshire Police are appealing for help to find the Royston author, who is believed to have taken her miniature Dachsund dog Boris with her.

The 51-year-old, who has written around 20 books for teenage girls, is best known for her Crazy World of Electra Brown series.

In 2011, her husband John Sinfield drowned during a holiday in Barbados, the same island where the pair had previously married.

Her blog Planet Grief, later turned into a book called When Bad Things Happen In Good Bikinis, described how she was "a wife at breakfast, but a widow by lunch".

In the most recent post on Planet Grief, she marked the five-year anniversary of Mr Sinfield's death, writing: "It was a perfect Caribbean evening, and we felt incredibly lucky. At that moment, life felt perfect.

Missing: Ms Bailey was last seen walking dog Boris / Helen Bailey

"Twelve hours later, my husband was dead, drowning in the very sea we had dined beside the night before."

Ms Bailey, described as slim, with long black hair, has connections to London, Kent and Northumbria, police say.

Since 2013, the author had been living with her new partner and his two sons.

A Hertfordshire police spokesman said: "Concerns are growing for her welfare and police are urging Helen to make contact to let them know she is safe and well."

Anyone with information should call police on 101.
A City compliance officer who faces jail for fraud told a judge Im gobsmacked when his attempt to prevent the press covering his case was rejected.

Adam Lancelot, 39, was convicted in 2012 of receiving hundreds of pounds in benefits while employed at Barclays Wealth and Bank of America.

He then made bogus court papers claiming he had been cleared on appeal in order to dupe Worldwide Currencies Ltd into hiring him in 2014.

Lancelot also used the fake papers to try to persuade The Daily Telegraph to remove news of his conviction from its website, the Old Bailey heard.

As he appeared for sentencing today, Lancelot applied for a gagging order.

However, Recorder Brendan Finucane said: Im afraid that simply saying, I dont want the press to report my case is not going to work.

Lancelot said: This is the top court in the UK and its still letting reporting [of] incorrect facts. Im gobsmacked.

Lancelot, from East Sussex, has pleaded guilty to one count of fraud.

Recorder Finucane adjourned the sentencing hearing until May 12 for the prosecution to provide proof that he was convicted in 2006 of obtaining property by deception and handling stolen goods.
A pensioner who decapitated his wife and flushed her head down the toilet after discovering she had been sleeping with other men has been jailed for at least 21 years .

Dempsey Nibbs, 69, murdered his partner of more than 30 years, Judith, in a jealous rage when she confessed to the affairs and tried to leave him.

Fearing that she would leave him penniless, Nibbs strangled the Meals on Wheels worker in their family home.

He then cut off her head with a kitchen knife out of "pure hatred at the sight of his wife's face" before breaking it into pieces and trying to flush them down the toilet.

Nibbs had planned to kill himself as well, but he was interrupted by a police officer who found him stabbing himself in the neck while lying in the bath.

Murdered: Judith Nibbs / Metropolitan Police

The crane driver for Balfour Beatty denied murder, claiming he had killed his wife accidentally during a violent struggle and then was "out of his mind" when he cut off her head because he believe she was a snake.

However, a jury at the Old Bailey today found him guilty of murder after a two week trial.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of London, jailed him for life with a minimum term of 21 years.

Nibbs carried out the horror killing on April 10, 2014, days after she had told him: I've had sex eight times.

The couple, who had never married but regarded each other as man and wife and had two children together, had been together for 30 years but by early 2014 their relationship was crumbling.

Nibbs had already discovered his wife had been flashing other men over Skype and found bank statements showing the Hackney Council worker had been secretly raiding their joint savings.

He admitted hitting his wife on the head with a metal bar during the violent confrontation that led to her death, and said he had pushed it into her mouth to stop her from screaming.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said it is possible Nibbs decapitated her while she was unconscious but still alive, telling the jury: "Nor does the horror end there; having decapitated his wife, the defendant began to break her head into pieces with a mallet and a chisel", he said.

"He then flushed the pieces down the lavatory.

"Quite why the defendant decapitated Judith and then disposed of her head is not entirely clear but it may well be that he did it out of pure hatred at the sight of his wife's face."

Nibbs spent a year in hospital recovering from his own self-inflicted injuries before finally being charged with murder.
T wo protesters have been arrested after a stand-off outside Boris Johnsons London home while the Mayor was inside.

"New Fathers 4 Justice" activists Bobby Smith, who wore an Iron Man costume, and fellow dad Michael Matthews, 48, used a ladder to scale Mr Johnson's Islington property at around 10.40am.

Both men were arrested at 3.30pm on suspicion of aggravated trespassing and criminal damage.

A 48-year-old man, who was nearby, was also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespassing and criminal damage.

The group "New Fathers 4 Justice" has no connection to the long established fathers' rights group, Fathers for Justice Limited, which no longer carries out direct action.

The protesters unfurled two banners, with one reading: Stop the war on dads.

Mr Johnson was at home when the protest began but has now left the property.

Speaking from the balcony, Mr Smith, 34, told the Standard that a fire engine had arrived at the scene along with around 10 police, who cordoned off part of the road.

Selfie: Bobby Smith takes a snap from the balcony / New Fathers 4 Justice

He said: Boris left at 12.30pm. He didnt speak to us, he just looked up and got in his car.

Boris is coming to the end of being the London mayor and hes going to be Prime Minister at the end of the day.

Thats why weve come here because hes high-profile.

Police: Emergency services were called at 10.40am / New Fathers 4 Justice

But after eight years of being London mayor he hasnt done anything about fatherlessness.

The HGV driver, who has been denied access to his two children since 2010 and has carried out a string of similar stunts in the capital, compared his protest to those of the suffragette movement and anti-apartheid groups in South Africa.

He said: Even if we dont have a chance ourselves we have to try and protest and change the law.

Balcony: The pair unveiled banners / New Fathers 4 Justice

Mr Smith added: Well be here quite a few more hours at least.

Sources at City Hall said they were aware of the protest and that it was a matter for the Metropolitan Police.

Police confirmed they were called to the property at 10.40am this morning to reports of protesters.
U p to 250 jobs face the axe after Kodak Alaris announced plans to close its north-west London factory.

The company has told staff a drop in demand for its printing paper has made the Harrow operation unviable.

Kodak is set to end manufacturing there by November with a view to closing the facility by the end of the year.

Any final decision is subject to a 45-day consultation with employees and union representatives which started last week.

Brian McGowan, head of operations, said: Its very disappointing news for people here in Harrow and for us, but it is in the best interests of Kodak Alaris as we strive to position ourselves as an independent company.

He added that employees had worked diligently and tirelessly to meet our customers needs and the company would ensure that people are appointed to other positions and that those leaving are well supported.

The company said its HQ would remain in Hemel Hempstead and the other branches of its business would be unaffected.
R esidents who stopped Tesco from opening on their high street are preparing for battle again after Sainsburys announced plans to build a store.

They are seeking renewed support to block a Sainsburys Local from setting up on the site of a former toy shop in Haverstock Hill, Belsize Park.

Last year the Standard reported how they were furious after Tesco applied to open a convenience store. Actors Tom Conti, Emma Thompson and Dame Janet Suzman, and comedian James Corden, all backed the campaign to stop it.

Thousands rallied to the cause and, last May, Tesco backed out of the plan  although it insisted the decision had nothing to do with the campaign.

Now locals have set up a petition at change.org calling for the Sainsburys scheme to be stopped.

Dame Janet said: This is part of an endlessly repeated saga of local people trying to stop the tsunami of corporate intrusions. Locals are keen to keep some individuality in the neighbourhood.

"The cloned fonts of superstores that come to drain our pockets and our patience is, frankly, depressing.

Jessica Learmond-Criqui, chairwoman of the Hampstead Shops Campaign, said: We did not object to the plans for retail but we object to Sainsburys being a tenant as it will be overkill for our high street.

"We already have a number of independent shops and other supermarkets in close proximity. In 2013, company Sasha Traders was given planning permission to develop a six-storey block of five flats along with the retail unit.

Plans have been submitted for a revised scheme which campaigners say will harm access to a narrow road leading to Russell Nurseries housing estate.

Ms Learmond-Criqui said: The road is used by children and elderly people and if there are delivery lorries it could be dangerous. There is also the matter of noise pollution.

Andrew Thornton, who runs Belsize Budgens, said: Its not that we are scared of competition. Local stores care about the community and large chains do not.

Sasha Traders said: The tenant is Sainsburys Local. The layout has been developed with their architects. Sainsburys added: Weve submitted plans for a convenience store which will replace an empty building, create 30 jobs and provide greater food choice for residents.

Camden said it could not comment on planning matters.

During the campaign against Tesco Thompson wrote to the retail giant: Belsize is a villagey area. It has no need of a Tesco and its very nature will be threatened. People who live there do not want it.
P rotesters from environmental campaign group Greenpeace have scaled Nelsons Column in a protest over air pollution in London, leading to eight arrests.

The group gathered at the Trafalgar Square statue at around 4.10am before starting its ascent, police said.

Greenpeace said two of its activists, Alison Garrigan, 29, and 30-year-old Luke Jones had scaled the 171ft statue to fit it with an "emergency face mask".

Ms Garrigan was one of six women who climbed up the Shard for the protest group in 2013.

Greenpeace protesters scale Nelson's Column

The protester climbs the side of the central London landmark / Greenpeace

Images posted on the Greenpeace website showed the climbers appearing to use a huge ladder to reach the base of the landmark before starting their climb.

Ambulance crews and police officers stood at the bottom of Nelson's Column, which was roped off as the activists stood at the top.

Masked: A protester at the top of Nelson's Column / Greenpeace

Also this morning, other protesters eluded security to put a dust mask on the statue of Oliver Cromwell at the Houses of Parliament, with another fitted on the Winston Churchill memorial in Parliament Square.

Later, a similar mask was put on the Eros monument at Piccadilly Circus along with a football-themed one on a statue of Thierry Henry at Arsenal's Emirates stadium.

The activists also put a dust mask on a statue of Oliver Cromwell in Westminster / Joe Murphy

The Queen Victoria statue opposite Buckingham Palace was also hit and the group say it is targeting 17 statues in all to highlight areas where air pollution is "dangerous".

Greenpeace tweeted pictures of its stunt with a link to information on their website about air pollution in the UK.

It tweeted: Nearly 1/4 school children in London breathe air so filthy it breaks laws.

Protest: A mask fitted at the Thierry Henry statue / Greenpeace

Greenpeace campaigner Areeba Hamid said: Monitoring shows that if these statutes were real people, many of them would often be breathing dangerous, illegal air.

"Thats why weve given them face masks. Of course many millions of Londoners, including kids, are breathing that same air.

Churchill: Greenpeace is targeting 17 statues / Greenpeace

"Kitting everyone out with face masks is not the solution, instead we need to see real political action from the new Mayor.

"We need a Clean Air Zone covering a large part of the city. Whoever wins the election has to stop the talk and start the action.

The Met Police said they had arrested eight people in total over the protests.

Two people were arrested at Nelson's Column on suspicion of criminal damage at 9am, with another four arrested earlier in Parliament Square and two more people at Hyde Park Corner.

A Westminster City Council spokesman said the protest came on the day they were submitting a bid for funding to create a "Low Emission Neighbourhood" in Marylebone.

He said: Our city inspectors are working to remove the masks from sites in Westminster.

However, this does not include Trafalgar Square or Parliament Square which are the responsibility of the Greater London Authority.

Last week a new poll showed more than half of Londoners want diesel buses banned from the capitals centre to cut air pollution.
M ore than 400 people were forced to leave their homes after a large gas leak at a building site in Hackney.

A block of flats in Queens Drive was evacuated shortly after 3.30pm on Monday after the leak at a neighbouring building site.

Firefighters from Holloway and Islington fire stations were called and some specialist appliances were also taken to the scene.

London Fire Brigade said it was awaiting the arrival of the gas board, who will isolate the gas supply and make the area safe, before residents were allowed back into their homes.

There were no initial reports of any injuries.

The Vince Murrain Community Centre was opened for residents before they were allowed back to their homes shortly before 6pm.
A n advert for a Great Fascist Rally held at the Royal Albert Hall in 1934 is on display alongside stories of concentration camp survivors in a new exhibition about Britain and the Holocaust.

The show has been curated by a group of young people who work with the Holocaust Educational Trust to ensure future generations are aware of the events of more than half a century ago.

Lucy Hamwijk, 20, who got involved when she visited Auschwitz as a teenager in a project run by the HET, said the curators all believed in the contemporary relevance of the Holocaust.

None of us has a direct Jewish background  these are lessons which can be taught to anyone, she said. It is more about mans inhumanity to man than anything else. We are British students, this is a British library and we wanted to talk about the story of Britain and its relation to the Holocaust.

The rally  addressed by British Union of Fascists leader Sir Oswald Mosley  was held the year after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Among other exhibits at the Wiener Library in Russell Square is a copy of a magazine made by refugees who had fled Germany and were interned on the Isle of Man.

Ms Hamwijk, who lives in north-west London and studies at Leicester University, said: The exhibition is not just about what Britain did but what it didnt do, and how when people came here it did not mean they were accepted.

HETs Lessons From Auschwitz project has taken almost 30,000 teachers and students to visit the Nazi camp, where more than a million people were killed.

Dilemmas, Choices, Responses: Britain And The Holocaust runs at the Wiener Library until June 15.
T ributes were paid today to a successful businessman who drowned while out paddling his kayak on a river after work.

Father-of-two Dale Vivian, 46, from Eltham, was experienced on the water and had worked as a lifeguard in his native South Africa before moving to the UK with his family four years ago.

A full-scale overnight search involving police, coastguard, helicopters and lifeboats was mounted after his boat was spotted floating adrift on the River Medway at 10.15pm on April 5.

A boat owner walking his dog found his body two miles away at the riverside near Rochester in Kent at 10am the following morning.

Mr Vivian was general manager for windscreen repair firm Glasweld Systems, which has offices near the spot where he set off on his regular after-work paddle.

He was married to Lisa and had a 16-year-old daughter and a thirteen-year-old son. The family had moved from Eltham to Sidcup just a week before the tragedy.

A post-mortem examination revealed Mr Vivian died of natural causes and an inquest will not be held.

Alan Button, managing director of Glasweld, told the Standard: Hed moved to Sidcup the week before he died and it was just his second day back. He went out regularly on his kayak as a form of relaxation.

Hed been a lifeguard in South Africa and he not only had the ability to swim to the shore, but the technical ability to judge the conditions of the water.

He was being treated in hospital for an irregular heartbeat and Im certain he had a heart attack.

He added: Dale was a very sporty person, and if South Africa was doing well youd be certain to hear about it.

He was a Christian, caring and generous and was hugely liked and respected. His wife came to the office two days after he was found and it was some comfort to her that I was able to show her the dozens of personal emails Ive been sent from colleagues from all over the country.

He will be sorely missed by everyone.

Former colleagues at the lifeboat crew in Durban held a memorial in Mr Vivians honour last week.

The day after his body was found, his niece Claudine Lee posted on Facebook: I woke up at 4am wondering why there was a huge black hole in my middle, reeling from the news. My uncle Dale Vivian taken way to soon leaving behind a family that loved him to bits and pieces, a family he stood so solidly behind and in front of all at the same time. The gap is just so much bigger than I ever could have imagined and really just does not make any kind of sense.

Andy Phillips, 61, who found Mr Vivians body, said: I was praying he was still alive, but deep down knew he was probably dead.
T he London family business that has supplied umbrellas to the royal family for decades has described their James Bond efforts to design bulletproof and parachute versions of their brollies.

Nigel Fulton, chief executive of Fulton Umbrellas in Park Royal, said company boffins made a prototype with a Kevlar canopy that successfully blocked bullets in tests. However, it was so heavy it would have been totally impractical for everyday use.

The parachute version was designed as a possible escape mechanism for people trapped in tall buildings, but also had to be rejected after analysis showed the canopy would need to be 20 metres wide to stop an adult plummeting to the ground.

Fulton is marking its 60th anniversary this year with a new top-of-the-range collection called Diamond. It is the Queens brolly supplier of choice and she uses her trademark transparent Birdcage umbrellas at public events to keep the rain off while still being visible to the public. She and her family sheltered under Birdcages during the rain-lashed Thames pageant to mark her Diamond Jubilee.

Months before an event a Buckingham Palace equerry is despatched to Fulton armed with swatches so the canopy can be trimmed with the same colour as the Queens outfit.

The official royal connection dates to the Nineties when the Queen Mother asked for a Birdcage.

The line had been discontinued but the enquiry prompted company founder Arnold Fulton  father of Nigel  to start making them again.

The firm was awarded a royal warrant from the Queen Mother in 1993 and the Queen in 2008

Younger royals have used Fulton umbrellas on occasions such as the 2012 film premiere of War Horse, when the Duke of Cambridge held a black-trimmed Birdcage over his wife on the red carpet in Leicester Square.

The royal endorsement has sent sales soaring abroad and Fulton, which makes umbrellas for labels such as Cath Kidston and Lulu Guinness, exports to 31 countries.

Nigel Fulton said We are delighted to be celebrating our 60th birthday, and it comes at a pivotal point in our history as we expand into international markets. Our royal endorsement has made a big impact on our reputation and we are extremely grateful.
A young child has been seriously injured after being hit by a car in north London.

Londons Air Ambulance and police were called to Bullsmoor Lane, Waltham Cross, shortly before 6.20pm on Monday.

A Metropolitan Police Service spokesman said the child was seriously injured but was not believed to be in a life-threatening condition.

The child was taken to an east London hospital for treatment.

The driver of the car stopped at the scene and no arrests have been made.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the collision to contact them urgently on 101.
S adiq Khan faced new questions over his willingness to share platforms with extremists today as it emerged that a fellow speaker claimed Osama bin Laden died an honourable death.

The extraordinary comment about the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks was made by Yasser al-Sirri, a London-based Islamist who was sentenced to death for terrorism in Egypt and given asylum in London.

Mr al-Sirri, who ran the Islamic Observation Centre, and Mr Khan, then chair of Liberty, spoke at a conference in London in 2003, staged to support suspects held in Guantanamo Bay.

Mr al-Sirri regularly gave inflammatory anti-US comments to news media during the Afghan conflict.

Reuters quoted him in 2003 defending Taliban propaganda videos of a US vehicle being blown up.

He reportedly said: The Americans are hiding their losses ... so the mujahideen decided to show these images to embarrass the Americans and also to put a spotlight on their victories against the infidels.

After bin Laden was killed, Mr al-Sirri was quoted as saying that the al Qaeda leader met his God willingly but in an unplanned manner and that he died an honourable death. In 2002, he said America was suffering huge daily losses in Afghanistan and Iraq and is menaced everywhere in the world.

Mr al-Sirri came to the UK in 1994 after being sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt for an alleged plot that left a 12-year-old girl dead. He was also charged in America with assisting a figure involved in the World Trade Centre bombing of 1993.

London Mayor Election 2016: Sadiq Khan

Mr Khans spokesman rejected criticism of his attendance at the conference and said: Sadiq has always been totally honest about his time as a leading human rights lawyer. He said al-Sirri was not a client of Mr Khan and that he attended as a lawyer and as chair of Liberty.

Asked if Mr Khan attended as a lawyer or a campaigner, the spokesman said: He was invited as chair of Liberty. He spoke at the conference in general terms about his experiences as a lawyer and his aim was to explain the law.

The Khan campaign said the media reports were desperate stuff and said: Sadiq has always condemned all extremism  and has suffered death threats and protests as a result."
S adiq Khan pledged to stand up for Londons NHS today in a bid to win over more women voters from Tory rival Zac Goldsmith.

Labours mayoral hopeful warned that the NHS was in crisis in London and argued that only he could provide the leadership needed.

He claimed that Mr Goldsmith would stay silent on issues including increased waiting times and hospital closures while patients continued to suffer.

Labour aides believe health as an issue is particularly important to women voters and as a result Mr Khan has made it one of the key planks of his City Hall campaign.

He is ahead of Mr Goldsmith overall in the polls but his lead is much narrower among women voters than men.

The Labour MP cited figures, first reported by the Standard, which showed a deterioration in ambulance response times, with more missing the NHS target of 75 per cent of life threatening calls being responded to in eight minutes.

London Mayor Election 2016: Sadiq Khan

He also highlighted a 28 per cent rise in the number of Londoners waiting more than two months for cancer treatment  up from 17 per cent in February 2014 to 22 per cent today.

Mr Khan released a new campaign advert contrasting his NHS plans with increased waiting times and hospital closures under the Tories.

A spokesman for Mr Goldsmith said: Its only by working to get the best deal from Government that the Mayor can deliver for Londoners health.

London Ambulance Services Director of Operations Paul Woodrow said: Since February 2014 we have seen a 19.4 per cent increase in Category A incidents however, we continue to prioritise our most critically ill patients and get to 75 per cent of them in 10 minutes.
T he Chancellor went to war with Boris Johnson over Europe today and warned of a 36 billion tax receipts blackhole if the UK quits the EU.

George Osborne targeted the Canadian model of links with the EU, which Mayor Boris Johnson has favoured as a possible option for the UK.

Mr Osborne told business leaders in Bristol: You cannot pretend that we would be somehow better off outside the EU, we would be worse off. If you think that is a price worth paying then make that argument. But dont pretend that we can have our cake and eat it.

This phrase was seen as a direct attack on Mr Johnson, who has said: My policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it.

Mr Osborne said Mr Johnson had talked up the idea of a Canadian-style deal and he warned of its disadvantages as a 200-page Treasury analysis said Brext could lead to an annual 36 billion tax shortfall by 2030, a blow to the Square Mile and Tech City.

George Osborne warned of a 36 billion tax receipts blackhole if the UK quits the EU / PA

He said the figure equated to 8p on basic income tax and condemned Leave campaigners who argued that Brexit would boost the economy as being economically illiterate and not honest with the public.

A section in the analysis on the consequences of Brexit for financial services warned of a significant disadvantage, leading to jobs and tax revenue moving away from the UK.

It said British influence over international rules could also be diminished and the loss of specialist firms would be difficult to reverse.

Losing full access to the single market and influence over EU rules would significantly disadvantage the financial sector. A substantial loss of EU market access would erode the UKs competitiveness as an international financial centre and could damage the UKs cluster of financial services. Once destabilising forces have taken root they can be very difficult to reverse.

Mr Osborne said the lower tax revenue would mean public spending would have to be slashed, taxes raised or borrowing increased.

But he faced questions after the document appeared to admit that if the UK stayed in, the Government would fail to meet the Tory pledge to cut immigration to below 100,000 a year. There were claims that the Treasury forecasts were based on net migration of three million more people to the UK over the next 15 years.

Mr Osborne was also challenged over an official claim that, with similar trading arrangements as Canada, the national income could be six per cent smaller, the equivalent of 4,300 a year per household, by 2030.

Leading Out campaigner John Redwood, a former Cabinet minister, dismissed the 4,300 figure as absurd and claimed there was a conspiracy to try to get Britain to stay in the EU.

Mr Johnson declined to respond to the criticism from Mr Osborne.
T he government is set to sink hopes a 200 million research ship could be named Boaty McBoatface.

RRS Boaty McBoatface steamed to victory in a competition staged by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to name their new vessel.

But Science minister Jo Johnson, who has the final decision over the naming of the boat, has played down the idea, stating he wants a name that "captures the spirit of scientific endeavour".

He told the Daily Telegraph: "You won't be surprised to know that we want something that fits the mission and captures the spirit of scientific endeavour.

Revealed- What Boaty McBoatface ship will actually be called

"The public has come up with some fantastic and very imaginative suggestions. We are reviewing all of them."

Boaty McBoatface received 90,000 more votes than its closest rival, RRS Poppy-Mai, named after a 16 month-old girl with terminal cancer.

They were followed by RRS Henry Worsley, commemorating the Antarctic explorer, RRS It's Bloody Cold Here and the RRS David Attenborough.

The name was suggested by former BBC presenter James Hand and even crashed the NERC website as people rushed to back it.

NERC has always stressed the final decision about the name does not lie with the public.

The research ship will be the largest and most advanced in the UK when it becomes operational in 2019.

The 128 metre long ship will sail in the Arctic and Antarctic with a crew of 90 scientists and research staff.

The NERC said the name of the new research vessel would be announced "in due course".
T his was the scene after a Ferrari worth hundreds of thousands of pounds ploughed into a row of terraced homes.

The white supercar, believed to be worth as much as 240,000, appeared to have been completely written off after it crashed into the front wall of a house in Burnley, Lancashire.

The two-seater 458 Spider can reach speeds of up to 199 miles per hour.

Lancashire Road Police tweeted two images of the badly-damaged car with a crumpled bonnet.

Miraculously, the driver escaped without injury.

Lancashire Road Police tweeted the pictures with the caption: "Damage only car crash in Burnley."

Damage: the front end of the car was crumpled / @LancsRoadPolice

The car was reportedly on loan from a Birmingham-based luxury car hire company, Platinum Executive Travel, and had apparently been hired by a couple for their wedding.

Lord Aleem, whose family appears owns the the car hire firm, tweeted: "At least people in Burnley have something to talk about for a few weeks."

He also confirmed that nobody was injured in the crash, saying: "Thanks for all the kind messages. I wasn't at the wheel, and nobody was injured that's the main thing, have had a lot worse in business."

He added: "I'll have that car back on road in 3 weeks Insha'Allah."
T he Queens 90th birthday has led to a predictable wave of support for the monarchy. Indeed, the institution, often criticised for being out of touch in the past, has rarely been more popular in its long history. This is largely due to her and the emergence of the younger scandal-free members of the royal family.

But as commentators rightly sing the praises of our dutiful monarch, dubbing her The Peoples Queen and praising her as a beacon of stability, behind the scenes, high-ranking courtiers at Buckingham Palace have been preparing for the possibility of change for some time.

Every eventuality has been factored in  after all The Boss, as they call Elizabeth II, likes it that way. She doesnt like surprises when it comes to the business side of her life.

As one senior former member of the royal household put it: Even at the height of the so-called annus horribilis in 1992, Her Majesty expected to be told everything.

"It didnt matter how distressing the information she was being told was or how uncomfortable it was for the person having to tell her. She is somebody who believes that forewarned is forearmed.

For Her Majesty, prior knowledge of possible dangers is something she not only prefers but also expects.

While our monarchs great age is now the cause of celebration not only in this country but around the Commonwealth and wider world  with thousands of street parties planned and documentaries aired on television  courtiers have been doing their pragmatic sovereigns bidding for some time.

Make no mistake, this is a monarchy in transition; a monarchy poised and ready for a change in management at the blink of an eye.

The Queen turns 90

This was evidenced two years ago when Her Majestys most senior aide, her private secretary Sir Christopher Geidt, was awarded his second knighthood in the New Years Honours List. The citation read that it was for a new approach to constitutional matters... [and] the preparation for the transition to a change of reign.

It was a remarkable public admission and the clearest official sign yet that Her Majesty was getting ready to pass the mantle on to her son and heir, the Prince of Wales, currently 67.

I agree with constitutional commentators who say the Queen has no intention of abdicating

I agree with constitutional commentators who say the Queen has no intention of abdicating. She saw the deep pain that abdication caused her beloved father, and the instability that threatened the country, when his brother Edward VIII gave up the crown in 1936 and became Duke of Windsor.

Then there is that famous broadcast on her 21st birthday in 1947 when she said: I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family, to which we all belong.

The Queen - her family in pictures 1 /24 The Queen - her family in pictures Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince George, Prince William, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, and Kate Duchess of Cambridge appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant outside Buckingham Palace in London, Sunday June 5, 2022 AP (Left to right) The Duke of Gloucester, Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra, Duke of Kent, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence , the Princess Royal, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales , Queen Elizabeth II , Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, the Duke of Cambridge, the Countess of Wessex, James Viscount Severn, Lady Louise Windsor, and the Earl of Wessex on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, to view the Platinum Jubilee flypast, on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Picture date: Thursday June 2, 2022. PA Photo. See PA story ROYAL Jubilee. Photo credit should read: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire PA In this photo released by Kensington Palace on Monday May 21, 2018, shows an official wedding photo of Britains Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, center, in Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, Saturday May 19, 2018. Others in photo from left, back row, Jasper Dyer, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Doria Ragland, Prince William; center row, Brian Mulroney, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Rylan Litt, John Mulroney; front row, Ivy Mulroney, Florence van Cutsem, Zalie Warren, Remi Litt. (Alexi Lubomirski/Kensington Palace via AP) AP Royal move to Windsor Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, and the Duke of Cambridge, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, to view the Platinum Jubilee flypast. PA The new generation Prince William holds George as The Queen waves during the Trooping of the Colour this year, flanked by the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry Chris Jackson/Getty Images Looking upwards Lord Elphinstone (left) speaks to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, along with Princess Margaret, Princess Elizabeth and King George VI (far right), at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh in July 1937 Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Daddy's girl Princess Anne reaches up to her father as he holds Prince Charles OFF/AFP/Getty Images Fledgling family The Queen and Prince Philip with a young Charles and Anne at Balmoral AFP/Getty Images Changing times And with later generations at Balmoral with Sarah, the Duchess of York holding Princess Beatrice, Princess Diana, Pince Philip, Peter Phillips and Prince Charles. Seated are Prince Harry, Zara Phillips and Prince William Rex Features Trooping of the Colour The Queen holds Prince Andrew in 1961 at Buckingham Palace AFP/Getty Images In training Queen Elizabeth with Princess Margaret, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew in the royal train en route for Christmas at Sandringham Reginald Davis/REX United royals The crowned heads of Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Monaco surround the Princely Couple and Great Britain's Royal Family after Charles and Diana's wedding OFF/AFP/Getty Images A new era Prince William's christening in August 1982 PA Wire Strength of the Crown The Queen, Prince Charles and Princess Diana share a joke with Geoff Capes during a break in the field events at the Braemar Games REXMAILPIX All smiles Diana, the Princess of Wales, and The Queen smile to well-wishers in London on August 4, 1987. AP Photo/Martin Cleaver A happy start Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, wave to crowds on July 23, 1986 from the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London while Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Mother look on AFP/Getty Images Familiar face Prince Harry smiles during the Sovereign's Parade at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, in April 2006 Dylan Martinez/AFP/Getty Images She's a Great-grandmother The Queen stoops to talk to Prince George at the christening of Princess Charlotte on July 5, this year in King's Lynn Chris Jackson/Getty Images

However, at this moment in time she is the not only the longest serving monarch but also the oldest, and we are undoubtedly in uncharted territory. Her consort is 95 in June too.

The Duke of Edinburgh said when he turned 90 that he was winding down and reducing his workload as a senior member of the royal family (although he still undertook more royal engagements in the last year than Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry combined).

In the same interview with the BBC, the Queens husband said: I reckon Ive done my bit, adding significantly: Its better to get out before you reach the sell-by date.

There is no suggestion the Queen feels the same way, but senior royal household sources both past and present have told me nothing has been ruled out.

Going forward, allowances will be made for Her Majestys age. The Prince of Wales and other members of the family will be expected to step up and represent her at public events more and more. That, after all, is the nature of monarchy.

But could she ever be persuaded to accept Prince Charles as a regent?

A senior figure who worked closely with the Queen for many years said: That would really be a matter for the Queen, the Prince of Wales and Prime Minister. But I assure you if the Queen was so advised and felt she could not continue in her role in the way she wanted to, her sense of duty would kick in. She would only want what was is good for the country and the institution of which she is custodian.

Abdication, according to those I have spoken too, would be a step too far. But a regency  where a prince rules in the absence or incapacity of a sovereign, as experienced under George III when he was too ill to reign  has to be a possibility at least.

After all, in a decades time, if the Queen were to live that long, could we really imagine a centenarian holding weekly audiences with her prime minister and working on her red boxes every day?

According to law, a regent can only be appointed if the sovereign is considered unfit to rule, by the written testimony of three or more of the following: their spouse, the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Lord Chief Justice of England and the Master of the Rolls.

These can also declare that they are satisfied by evidence that the sovereign is for some definite cause not available for the performance of those functions. That offers more than enough wriggle room for the constitutional lawyers, if needed.

Until 1937 our constitutional law had no permanent provision for a regent to cover the situation of a monarch being incapable of performing his or her duties.

It was the debilitating illness of the Queens grandfather George V, who suffered chronic bronchitis from 1935 until his death the following year, which led to the updated Regency Act. Since then no statutory regency has been created.

A regent could be appointed if the person inheriting the throne is under 18 or if the monarch is by reason of infirmity of mind or body incapable of performing the royal functions.

Queen Elizabeth II: 90 years in pictures

An intriguing addition is that phrase within section 2 of the Act which says a regency arises if the sovereign is for some definite cause not available for the performance of those functions. It is not clear what situations this covers.

European kings and queens abdicate routinely, slipping happily into the background and a quiet retirement. In 2013 even a pope, Benedict XVI, caused a storm when it was announced he would step down. It led to a familiar chorus: It will never happen here.

Only time will tell.
U p to 400 migrants were feared to have drowned today after trying to cross the Mediterranean by boat in a bid to reach Europe.

Most of the victims were thought to have been fleeing Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea and had hoped to land in Italy.

The countrys president, Sergio Mattarella, confirmed this morning there had been an incident in which it seems several hundred people have died.

It came exactly a year after 800 died in a similar tragedy and raised concerns that more migrants would try the risky crossing with the spring bringing calmer seas.

The latest incident came to light when social media posts from some of the migrants families were shared widely online.

Some suggested a single boat had capsized, while other reports suggested four vessels were involved.

Italys foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters he was waiting for more details.

But he added: What is sure is that we are again with a tragedy in the Mediterranean, exactly one year after the tragedy we had... in Libyan waters.

"This is another strong reason for Europe to commit itself not to build walls.

Photographs of a handwritten list of victims names was being distributed on websites by Somali-speaking users.

The Somali ambassador to Egypt, from where the migrants were believed to have departed, confirmed the reports.

Somali media outlets said rescue workers had so far only managed to save 29 passengers from the water. Some had reportedly been taken to one of the Greek islands.

In a separate incident today, Italys coastguard recovered six bodies and rescued 108 migrants from a sinking dinghy.

Almost 6,000 migrants and refugees sailed from Libya to Italy last week in what appears to be the start of a major wave, the International Organisation for Migration said.
A university student has claimed he was removed from a flight in California because a fellow passenger overheard him talking Arabic on his mobile phone

Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, 26, said he was taken off a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Oakland after he phoned his uncle in Baghdad before take-off.

He phoned his relative to discuss a speech he had attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

He told the New York Times a woman sitting in front of him on the plane began staring at him during the conversation and alerted employees.

He told the newspaper: I was very excited about the event, so I called my uncle to tell him about it."

Mr Makhzoomi said he was escorted off the plane by an Arabic-speaking Southwest employee before he was asked about speaking in the language.

He claimed an official spoke to him like an animal, adding he felt afraid while being questioned during the incident on April 6.

The University of California student said he was not allowed back on the flight when he told him this is what Islamophobia got this country into.

FBI offiicials were called after Mr Makhzoomi claimed an airline employee of anti-Muslim bias.

A Southwest Airlines spokesman said the company was unable to comment on the conduct of individual employees.

In a statement it said: We regret any less than positive experience a customer has onboard our aircraft.

Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.

The FBI said it had investigated and found no further action was necessary.
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A man was arrested after the truck he was driving crashed into Phil's Food Mart on Sunday night, injuring a customer, authorities said.

Matthew Redmond, owner of Phils Food Mart on Wilkesboro Highway at Damascus Road, said the customer, Paul Clanton, was expected to recover from his injuries.

Clanton, 84, was sitting in the restaurant portion of the store around 8:15 p.m. when the truck hit, destroying a wall.

Clanton's granddaughter, Amanda, said Clanton was stunned for a couple of seconds after the impact, and he was evaluated by a Central Fire Department firefighter before going to Iredell Memorial Hospital.

The driver of the truck fled the scene on foot, according to the Iredell County Sheriffs office, but he was captured and charged with driving while impaired and felony hit-and-run.

Zachary Hinson, 22, received a $10,000 bond on each of the charges.

Hinson was released from the N.C. Department of Correction on Feb. 7 and was wearing an ankle monitor as part of his parole, authorities said.
Monday, 18 April 2016 00:08:15 (GMT+3) |

Mexican steelmaker Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA) told SteelOrbis it will provide 73,000 mt of plates to a gas pipeline project located in the county of Webb, Texas.





As previously reported by SteelOrbis, the project is being developed by Howard Energy Mexico, and is comprised of a combined 190 miles of minimum 30-inch pipeline, from which 17 miles are in Webb county, in Texas, and 171 in Mexico. Construction of the pipeline is scheduled to begin in mid-2016.





AHMSA said it will provide Tubacero, a Mexican steel pipe producer also involved in the project, X-70 grade steel plate from its Steckel rolling mill and tinplate produced at the steelmaker's hot rolling mill, the Mexican integrated steelmaker said.


Monday, 18 April 2016 15:27:52 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

Australia 's Antidumping Commission has announced that it has initiated a review regarding the antidumping (AD) order on certain hot rolled (HR) structural steel section imports from Taiwan and Thailand. The review will be limited to examining whether the variable factors relevant to the taking of antidumping measures as they affect Taiwan-based Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corporation and Thailand-based Siam Yamato Steel Co., Ltd have changed. The antidumping duty was originally imposed in November 20, 2014.

The review launched following the application lodged by Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corporation and Siam Yamato Steel Co., Ltd will cover the period between January 1 and December 31, 2015.

The products subject to antidumping review currently fall under Customs Tariff Statistics Position Numbers 7216.31.00, 7216.32.00, 7216.33.00 and 7216.40.00.
Monday, 18 April 2016 00:06:25 (GMT+3) | San Diego

A worker was killed at the Nucor-Yamato beam plant in Blytheville, Arkansas Saturday while doing maintenance work on a roll mill stand.





Jon Bishop, 34, had worked at the facility for two years. The mill temporarily suspended operations after the accident, and the death is still under investigation by OSHA. The company issued the following statement:





On behalf of all our Nucor-Yamato teammates, I want to express my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Jon Bishop. We are deeply saddened by this event.


Hundreds of teaching staff have started a protest before the Government House in Bucharest. They are brandishing placards reading "You have buried us in red tape," "We want 50-pct rise in pay to starting teachers," "Quality 10, pay 1," "Iohannis, your government only does us harm," "Before asking how much education costs, ask how much valuable it is."

The Free Trade Union Federation of Teachers (FSLI) has announced that 800 trade union members will be picketing, Monday and Tuesday, between 15:00hrs and 17:00hrs the Government House in Bucharest to express their dissatisfaction over the situation of the education system. The protesters are claiming that the Government has failed to pass a framework law for the public pay based on a memorandum approved by Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos on January 12, 2016. FSLI says the draft put forth by the Labour Ministry following talks between an inter-ministerial group and officials of public organisations was supposed to iron out pay inequities and imbalances in public pay.

FSLI represents the rights and interests of nearly 178,000 teaching staff, which is more than 60 percent of the total pre-university teaching staff.

Agerpres
Jim Plamondon seemed a good bet to become a member of the legal profession's elite back in 1995.

A Notre Dame grad and George Washington University law school alum, he was a federal prosecutor when he chucked it all to sell roast beef sandwiches and fried chicken.

Quite a pivot. Or maybe not.

Jim, 52, and his brother, Pete Jr., 56, are the third generation of their family that has been in the hospitality business. Their father ran the Roy Rogers chain for what is now Marriott International and eventually owned 15 of the restaurants.

The sons grew up, joined their dad's company and would eventually buy the restaurants from him. Later, they purchased the rights to the Roy Rogers brand and are in the midst of a slow resurrection of the chain.

Plamondon Cos., as they call themselves, oversees a brand that encompasses 50 restaurants across six Mid-Atlantic states. Not bad, but well off the chain's peak of 648 in its heyday.

Of the 50 existing Roy Rogers, 23 are owned directly by the brothers and 27 are owned by franchisees. Six more are opening this year.

"Dad was successful with these restaurants and did very well," Jim said. "We had that bug."

I am fascinated by the science of selling fast-food. As a junkie growing up in Upstate New York, I loved 55 cent Club Burgers and Big-R roast beef sandwiches at Carrols, which was the Syracuse-area version of McDonald's.

Jim said his business is all about what he calls "the holy trio" of roast beef, fried chicken and burgers.

"People ask what sells the most. . . . It's about a third, a third and a third for the main entrees," he said.

Roy Rogers's customer sweet spot is between the ages of 25 to 54, with a slightly above-average income that fits nicely in this market. There are no $1 coupons or kiddie playgrounds at RR. The average check in 2014 was $9.22, and about half the business is drive-through.

Jim is certainly mindful of the demons stalking the fast-food industry: sugar, obesity and cholesterol. He said a salad, roast beef sandwich and bottle of water keeps the calorie count under 500. My feeling: What's the point of going to Roy Rogers without indulging?

He said the brand's differentiator is real roast beef and a personal touch that includes a roving hostess (who keeps the trademark Fixin's Bar fresh).

"We are somewhere between typical fast-food and fast-casual, like Panera, Chipotle and Bobby Flay's Burger Palace," Jim said. "We have a very loyal customer base."

Plamondon Cos.' Frederick, Md.-based hospitality empire also extends to hotels. The company and its investors own six of them, with three more on the way, stretching from Pennsylvania to Georgia.

The combined restaurant and hotel businesses employ 1,000 people and gross more than $100 million a year, with about $85 million of that coming out of the restaurant end. The brothers' share of that gross from their nonfranchised, corporate-owned restaurants is about $39 million.

I estimate that the brothers net a profit of more than $1 million off the restaurant trade alone, based on industry standards. Much of that goes back into the business. The brothers pay themselves a salary. The hotels are lucrative, as well, although they share those profits with numerous partners.

"You can set your own hours," Jim said, but he added: "You are always working. We are visiting our businesses. We are hands-on owners, not absentee owners. We are in our restaurants and hotels every day."

They learned that from their dad.

The Plamondon family's love affair with the hospitality industry extends back to the 1940s, when their grandfather owned the Windswept Hotel in Vero Beach, Fla.

Their father, Pete Sr., now 84, worked summers at the Florida hotel and eventually worked for Marriott, the eponymous hospitality empire founded by a Washington-area family. Pete Sr. became the head of its restaurant division and was on the team when the company created the Roy Rogers chain in the 1960s.

I wanted to know how the Roy Rogers name came to stand for fried chicken and roast beef sandwiches.

According to Jim, who checked with his dad, Marriott wanted to launch a national restaurant chain back in the 1960s. It bought RoBee's restaurants in Fort Wayne, Ind., but Marriott was unable to nail down the national RoBee's naming rights. A Marriott board member suggested naming the chain after the television and movie cowboy Roy Rogers, whose agent was a friend of the board member's.

Roy Rogers saddled up (he received licensing fees for lending his name), and the first Roy Rogers restaurant opened in Falls Church, Va., in April 1968. The brand expanded through the conversion of Marriott-owned Jr. Hot Shoppes restaurants and the acquisition of other restaurant chains. (Trivia note: The Plamondon family appeared in a Jr. Hot Shoppes television commercial.)

When Peter Sr. left Marriott in 1979, his package included financing for Roy Rogers restaurants that he planned to develop. He became a franchisee of Roy Rogers, opening the first store in August 1980 in Frederick, eventually building it into 15 franchises.

The Plamondons kept the franchises even after Marriott sold Roy Rogers to Hardee's in 1990. (Hardee's ultimately converted or sold off the 650 Roy Rogers in that deal.)

The Plamondon brothers joined their father's business in the 1990s and eventually bought out their dad in 1998 through a 15-year financing deal. In the meantime, Pete Jr., a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, suggested that they use their capital to diversify into the hotel business.

In 1996, they built a Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel, a Marriott brand, in a corporate office park in Frederick.

"We didn't know the future of Roy Rogers, and we were looking for a growth vehicle," Jim said.

The brothers got a reassuring glimpse into RR's future four years later. The "aha moment" came Dec. 22, 2000, when they opened a Roy Rogers in an old Burger King location in a strip center in Montgomery County, which had not seen a Roy Rogers restaurant in years.

"The lines were out both doors and were 30 people deep," Jim said. "You would have thought we were giving the food away.

"My brother and I said to each other, 'We need to buy this brand.' "

So they did, acquiring the rights to the brand in 2002 from the holding company of Hardee's. With it came 70 restaurants, many of which were tired and had not paid royalties in years. Some of the owners were encouraged to try another brand.

Within a few years, they lowered the number of branded restaurants to 40, including the 15 owned by the brothers. They remodeled, reinvented service, and created a do-over on the image so the franchisees would start paying royalties and become fresh.

And as a bow to their cowboy namesake, the brothers called their reinvention "Project Trigger."

That was the name of Roy Rogers's horse.
Updated at 7:15 p.m.

WASHINGTON  The U.S. government is poised to approve two long-delayed sales of Boeing Co. fighter jets to Qatar and Kuwait, and could announce the multibillion-dollar deals during President Barack Obama's visit to the Gulf this week, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The decision would mean more job security for thousands of workers at Boeing's sprawling plant in north St. Louis County, where the F-15 fighter and F/A-18E/F Super Hornets are made.

Both deals have been stalled amid concerns raised by Israel that equipment sent to Gulf states could fall into the wrong hands and be used against it, and by the Obama administration's broader decision-making on military aid to the Gulf.

However, the Pentagon and the State Department both have signed off on the sale of some 36 F-15 fighter jets to Qatar and 24 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to Kuwait. The White House is expected to follow suit shortly.

The sale to Kuwait is worth about $3 billion and the one to Qatar is probably close to $4 billion, sources familiar with the matter said.

"The last hurdle now is getting approval from the National Security Council and the White House," said one of the sources.

The Pentagon had no immediate comment on the expected approval of the arms.

A senior Obama administration official said it was the administration's policy not to comment on potential arm sales until it has formally notified Congress of an intent to sell something.

But, the official said, the United States is committed to the security and stability of the Gulf region and defense sales "fit into the overall U.S. regional diplomatic strateg

Expected approval of the fighter jet sales comes as the White House seeks to shore up relations with Gulf allies as they increase their military capabilities amid growing fears that Washington is drawing closer to Iran in the aftermath of the nuclear deal with that country.

Senior U.S. officials, including Navy Secretary Ray Mabus have publicly urged approval of the weapons sales, which will help maintain production of the fourth-generation Boeing fighter jets, while the newer and more advanced Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35 fighter jet enters service in coming years.

One senior U.S. defense official said the Pentagon is keen to see the Boeing F-15 and F/A-18 production lines in St. Louis County continue and does not want to "foreclose any options on fourth-generation aircraft at this point."

Boeing already is spending "hundreds of millions" of dollars to buy long-lead materials such as titanium to prepare for a possible Kuwaiti order for F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and a separate U.S. Navy order for 12 jets put on the service's "unfunded priorities" list submitted to Congress.

The Navy is hoping that Congress will provide the funding to pay for the Boeing jets in fiscal 2017, although the planes were not included in its base budget request. It already has earmarked funding for more F/A-18E/F jets in fiscal 2018.

The Qatari orders would keep the F-15 line running beyond 2019, when its current production for Saudi Arabia will be completed.

Boeing has enough orders to keep the F/A-18 line running into 2018. The Kuwait orders, plus planes that the U.S. Navy is requesting, would carry the work into 2020.
"Stories of Honor" coordinated by H.E.R.O.E.S. Care on behalf of St. Louis Regional Alliance for the Troops. Select stories are chosen by a board of appointees. Each selectee is recognized with a plaque, a prize pack and night of honor at Ballpark Village.

Harry "Butch" Nichols will never forget the first impression he had of Vietnam. Nichols was assigned to the Army's First Cavalry Division after being drafted. Following training, he left San Francisco on a four-engine prop plane. "It was a 21-hour flight with a stopover in Wake island to refuel," Nichols said. "I've never been in a plane so long in my life. All I could hear was the roar of those props. I'll never forget for as long as I live, the pilot got on the radio and this was a civilian plane and he said, 'All you soldiers look over to the right side of the plane,' and we all squeezed into the little portals and he cocked the plane to the right side. All you could see was rockets and bullets. He said, 'Welcome to your new home.' That's when you say, 'What in the hell am I doing here?'"

The First Cavalry was an air mobile unit, meaning they got to fly in helicopters for any long moves and usually hot meals, a couple of beers and cigarettes were flown in every night. Nichols was assigned to Charlie Company, which was sent out on a sixweek mission and they were dropped in the middle of the jungle.

The usual assignments would include village sweeps, investigating gunfire and helping out other companies or platoons. As the new guy, Nichols ran the point at first checking for traps and hacking through the jungle with a machete. "I was in five or six real battles, where there was nothing but digging in and gunfire for two to three hours," Nichols said. "Going into jungle at first, [you] thought you were just on a hike, but when first bullet goes over your head, you get the point then."

Things changed for Nichols on March 21, 1967. His unit got a call at 4:30 in the morning to grab their ammo belts and hand grenades only. "Usually we took all our gear, but when that call came in we knew that there was trouble," Nichols said. The First Infantry was under attack and Nichols' unit was one of six called into help. They loaded into seven helicopters with machine guns on both doors. Nichols was in the lead copter and he could hear the gun fire as they got closer. On the first attempt to land, the pilot pulled up as soon as the bullets hit the windows. On the second attempt, Nichols and the rest of his crew were out the door as soon as the copter hit the ground.

The unit was told to go over to a dyke to get organized. "They say you never hear the one that hits you," Nichols said. "I never heard any explosion. Next thing I know, I'm four feet up in the air and hit the ground." One of his fellow soldiers had set off a booby trap grenade. Nichols was on top of the dyke, so he took the big fragments of the grenade in his legs and chest. "I start crawling trying to get my rifle," Nichols said. "Our medic hit me with morphine and told me to lay still we've got you. Five minutes later, the first infantry medic runs by - he hits me with morphine so I was feeling no pain. I'm in la la land for the next 25 minutes until the gunfire went down."

Nichols' squad leader called in a Medivac copter to get Nichols and the soldier who set off the grenade out. But the gunfire picked up by the time the Medivac copter arrived and the pilot refused to land. At that point another copter pilot radioed in and said he was coming in to get the injured. "It was one of our choppers," Nichols said. "He dove right in and took us to a hospital. I'm not taking anything from the Medivac, they were just doing what they were told. But I think it was pretty neat that one of our guys risked his life to help us."

Nichols was flown to a field hospital in Vietnam. He had a broken left leg, shrapnel in his right leg and a piece of shrapnel two and a half inches in diameter that was pushing on the walls of his heart. Doctors said he was lucky the shrapnel broke three ribs going in, which slowed it down before it reached the heart. While he would recover from those injuries, his ordeal was just beginning. The doctors at the field hospital forgot to give Nichols medication to prevent Malaria and he was diagnosed with the disease two weeks later after being flown to an army hospital in Yokohama, Japan. Nichols had an allergic reaction to the medicine for Malaria, which killed all of his white blood cells. He couldn't shave for fear he would bleed to death and visitors had to wear masks. His condition was so serious, that his wife and mother were flown to Japan to see him because they thought he might die.

Nichols was eventually flown to another army hospital in Fort Campbell, KY, and after nine months he was finally released in December of 1967. After his army days, Nichols went back home to Athens, IL, and had a career in the fertilizer industry. He currently works at an auto collision repair center in Springfield, IL.

Nichols, 68, celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary with his high school sweetheart Wanda on Jan. 2. They have two children, two grandchildren, two step grandchildren and a great-grandchild on the way. Nichols considers it an honor to have served his country. "That was instilled in me by my parents and living in a small town there was pride in America, pride in the flag," Nichols said.
ST. CHARLES COUNTY  Russell Faria, acquitted last year of his wifes murder, filed suit in court here Friday to recover $150,000 that her life insurance company paid to her friend. It is the second suit seeking the money in a long and tangled case.

Elizabeth Betsy Faria, 42, was fatally stabbed at the familys home outside Troy, Mo., on Dec. 27, 2011.

Prosecutors charged Russell Faria with the murder and, shortly thereafter, State Farm Insurance paid the $150,000 to Pamela Hupp, Betsy Farias friend. Hupp was listed on a change of beneficiary form mailed days before the death.

A jury convicted Russell Faria in 2013 and he was sentenced to life in prison. But that conviction was overturned in 2015 after his lawyers argued that they should have been allowed to suggest to the jury that Hupp really did it. Hupp has told the Post-Dispatch she did not kill Betsy Faria.

A judge acquitted Faria and criticized the investigation, saying it was rather disturbing and frankly raised more questions than answers.

Betsy Farias two daughters sued Hupp for the money, but a judge turned them down this year.

Russell Farias suit filed in St. Charles County Circuit Court says the change of beneficiary form was incomplete, as it was not received until after the death, and that State Farm conducted an inadequate investigation before erroneously and prematurely paying Hupp. It says the company was told by prosecutors that Hupp was not a suspect, and that State Farm relied on that information at its own risk.

A State Farm representative reached Friday said that he had not yet seen the suit and that the company generally does not discuss pending litigation.
A parolee and a woman he lived with in Ballwin are both charged with sodomizing a 10-year-old girl who lives nearby.

St. Louis County prosecutors on Wednesday filed four counts each of first-degree statutory sodomy against Terry Roderick and Brittany H. Golden.

Roderick, 42, and Golden, 29, invited the girl into their home in the 300 block of Quail Village Court on March 7, 2015, police say. They took her upstairs and sodomized her, police say.

Two days later, the girl told police what had happened. Ballwin police handled the investigation.

Statutory sodomy in the first degree is deviate sexual intercourse with a child younger than 12.

Court records show Rodericks current address as the 1100 block of Airglades Drive in Arnold. Goldens address is listed in court documents as the 400 block of Down Hill Drive in Ballwin. Neither Roderick nor Golden had an attorney listed in court files Thursday.

Bail for Roderick is $250,000. In 2010, he pleaded guilty in Jefferson County of assault, drugs and weapons offenses, resisting arrest, burglary, and leaving the scene of an accident, according to state prison records. He was sentenced to a total of seven years on those offenses.

David Owen, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Corrections, said Roderick was in prison from June 2010 until May 2012, when he was paroled. His parole was revoked about three years later, on May 13, 2015, after the Ballwin allegations surfaced, and he went back to prison. Owen said Roderick was paroled again on Dec. 10.

Bail for Golden is $100,000, with 10 percent cash allowed. She also has pending cases in St. Louis County for drug possession and driving with a revoked license.
ST. LOUIS  A federal judge ruled in a trial in September that Missouris treatment of civilly committed sexually violent predators was not constitutional.

In her opinion, U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig noted there was a pervasive sense of hopelessness at the Department of Mental Healths Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services program, or SORTS, which has facilities in Farmington and Fulton.

Seven months later, the remedy phase of the class-action lawsuit slogs on.

A March 30 status report hearing didnt happen and has been extended to April 25.

Attorneys on both sides of the case have been privately negotiating a resolution, with agreement from the court to do so. There are indications of a logjam between plaintiff attorneys and those for the state, which lost at trial.

Here are the losers at this stage telling us we are done negotiating, Eric Selig, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said March 31 in Kansas City at a Missouri Association of Defense Lawyers awards banquet.

Nanci Gonder, a spokeswoman for the attorney generals office, said it wouldnt comment as the case is ongoing.

The lawsuit started in 2009 as a complaint from patients who didnt think they should be charged for care and treatment at SORTS that they didnt want.

The Eastern District of Missouri assigned the case on a pro-bono basis to a lead litigator at the Clayton-based law firm Armstrong Teasdale.

The attorney, Richard Scherrer, who typically would bill clients more than $500 an hour, broadened the case to a class action lawsuit that accused SORTS of being a prison disguised as a mental health hospital because nobody was being released for completing treatment.

Before the trial ended last April, Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, supported the SORTS program as a needed public safety tool. He said judges weighed annual reports to determine when patients deserve to be released.

But plaintiffs attorneys, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, sifted through hundreds of thousands of pages of the programs documents and found a damning memo. The former chief of operations wrote in 2009 that 16 patients could be moved to the St. Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, a less restrictive facility at 5300 Arsenal Street. The patients werent moved.

Scherrer, who is no longer the lead litigator of the plaintiffs case, said at the recent awards banquet in Kansas City that Armstrong Teasdale intends to bill the state for its work.
ST. LOUIS  The motorcyclist killed Wednesday on Interstate 70 has been identified as Justin Little, 29, of the 3400 block of Russell Boulevard.

Police say Little was on a 2008 Suzuki motorcycle that crashed in the eastbound express lane of Interstate 70, near Adelaide Avenue.

The crash happened at about 6 p.m. Wednesday. He was traveling at high speed when he lost control and hit a concrete median wall and bridge support, police say. He died at the scene.
ST. LOUIS  A St. Louis police sergeant who was president of an organization that represents black St. Louis police officers has been indicted on multiple fraud charges after misappropriating more than $80,000 from the group.

Sgt. Darren Wilson, 41, was suspended without pay in March 2015, amid ongoing internal and criminal investigations into financial irregularities discovered by the Ethical Society of Police in December. As much as $200,000 went missing from the organization.

A federal grand jury indicted Wilson on Thursday on nine felony counts of wire fraud. The indictment remained sealed until Monday when he turned himself in, according to a press release from the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Wilson has been a city police officer since March 1997. He is not related to the former Ferguson police officer of the same name, whose shooting of Michael Brown sparked nationwide attention.

Wilson was president of the Ethical Society of Police in 2013 and 2014, which gave him signature authority over the groups bank account and access to funds in the organizations account with checks and an ATM/debit card, according to the indictment. The money came mostly from monthly dues from the groups members.

The indictment alleges that between July 2013 and December 2014 Wilson used the money for his own purposes, and transmitted some of the misappropriated money byFed Wire, PayPal, and Western Union wire transfers. To conceal his fraudulent activity, Wilson presented false information to the groups officers and members.

Each count of the indictment carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and/or a fine up to $250,000.

The Ethical Society of Police discovered irregularities in December 2014. They were reported to police the next month, and the department launched internal and criminal investigations. St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said Wilson has been on unpaid leave.

Criminal conduct by any employee will not be tolerated, Dotson said in a statement. The actions of Wilson are not representative of the hard work and dedication of the men and women who serve the St. Louis community. We hold our officers to the highest standards and when they fall short of what we expect, we take action.

Dotson has said that no public money was missing and that all of it came from dues of members of the Ethical Society.

Wilsons attorney, Timothy J. Smith of Maplewood-based Rudman & Smith, characterized his client as an outstanding citizen with a long history of being an outstanding police officer.

He said he expects his client to be released on his own recognizance and said a hearing has been set for April 21.

I would caution anyone to a rush to judgment regarding this, he said. Certainly if theres anyone who deserves the benefit of the doubt, its certainly someone of Mr. Wilsons character.

NO OFFICER IS ABOVE THE LAW

Sgt. Heather Taylor was appointed as president of the Ethical Society of Police after the organization removed Wilson from his position. She thanked the department for its investigation.

We came forward to Internal Affairs to report one of our own officers for what we believed was wrongdoing, and they initiated an investigation which we believe was fair and comprehensive, she said. Were in agreement with the indictment.

What was done was wrong, and no officer is above the law, she added. We must adhere to the same laws we enforce.

Taylor said the group has instituted changes to how its finances are handled to ensure this never happens again.

We dont see any long-term ramifications as far as the morale for our membership, she said. Our financial standing is excellent now and we continue to spend very little money.

The Ethical Society of Police says it was founded in 1972 to monitor and rectify the racial and ethical challenges that confront the Metropolitan Police Department. Many department members also are represented by the separate, predominantly white St. Louis Police Officers Association.
UPDATED at 4:15 p.m. with information from medical examiner.

ST. LOUIS  St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said the department has turned over its investigation of a fatal 2015 police shooting of a St. Louis man to prosecutors for review.

The department did not publicly release the findings of its Force Investigative Unit in the Aug. 19, 2015, shooting of Mansur Ball-Bey. Dotson said information will be released after the Circuit Attorneys Office reviews the findings and decides whether charges any charges are warranted.

The Force Investigative Unit has worked diligently to ensure a thorough investigation of this case, Dotson said in a statement. All of their findings have now been turned over to the Circuit Attorneys Office for an independent review.

Police have said that Ball-Bey, 18, ran out the back door of a home on the 1200 block of Walton Avenue around noon as officers were serving a search warrant seeking drugs and guns. Authorities said two officers fired when Ball-Bey pointed a handgun with an extended magazine at one of them.

The shooting, coming about a year after the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson and exactly a year after the police shooting of Kajieme Powell in St. Louis, triggered protests.

Dr. Michael Graham, the city medical examiner, said that an autopsy revealed that Ball-Beys spinal cord was severed. The finding surprised investigators, given that officers and witnesses said Ball-Bey was shot behind a home, then dropped a weapon and ran through a gangway to the front of the home before collapsing. He struggled there with officers as they tried to handcuff him, authorities said.

The discovery prompted Graham to consult with at least four national neuropathology experts, who specialize in the central nervous system, to try to determine when Ball-Beys spinal cord severed. All concluded that Ball-Beys spinal cord had been damaged by the fatal shot, but actually severed at some later point, Graham said Monday.

The gunshot went right beside the spine, and looking at all the evidence, it didnt sever immediately, Graham said. The cord was injured but did not preclude him from moving, and it subsequently separated.

Thats the only explanation that matches witness testimony and physical evidence showing where Ball-Bey was shot and where he collapsed, Graham said.

He said he is unaware of any other cases in which a spinal cord has had a delayed separation.

The St. Louis Circuit Attorneys Office launched its own review of the shooting running parallel to the police investigation. The move was criticized by a police union official at the time, but Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce says that will be standard procedure for officer-involved shootings.

A spokeswoman for Joyce said she will release the findings of her review soon.
The new superintendent of Hazelwood schools will make an annual salary of $235,000 when her contract with the district begins on July 1.

Nettie Collins-Hart, currently the superintendent of Proviso Township High Schools in Forest Park, Ill., was announced last week as Hazelwoods new superintendent.

Her salary is in line with what previous superintendents at Hazelwood have earned. Interim Superintendent Ingrid Clark-Jackson is making $220,000 this year; the previous superintendent, Grayling Tobias, earned $230,308 before he abruptly retired in 2015.

Collins-Hart, 61, will also be paid for any time spent in the district prior to July 1 for transition and consultation purposes at a rate of $903.84 a day plus any expenses incurred, according to the contract obtained by the Post-Dispatch through a open-records request. The contract limits those days to a maximum of 10.

The new superintendent will take over as parents have been protesting budget cuts, criticizing the districts many administrators who make six-figure salaries.

The three-year contract allows for increases in salary commensurate with the increase given to professional staff for the second and third year.

In addition to health benefits, additional compensation includes a $100,000 life insurance policy and $650 per month for vehicle expenses.

The district also will pay for a cellphone, computer and other electronic devices for her use.

Each year, she will receive $10,000 in a retirement savings account. The district also said they will reimburse her up to $5,000 for moving expenses.

Collins-Hart announced last year that she would be resigning from her position in Illinois.

In Missouri, she will be on the higher end of the salary spectrum for public school superintendents. Kirkwood Superintendent Tom Williams was the second-highest earner last year in the state, at $264,000.
WASHINGTON  Challenger C.J. Baricevic slightly outraised incumbent Rep. Mike Bost in the first three months of the year, refocusing attention on an Illinois 12th congressional district race.

The seat, once thought to be a possible Democratic pickup in 2016, recently has been largely ignored by the national party.

Baricevic, a lawyer, raised $279,669 in the first three months of the year, relying heavily on lawyers in and around the Metro East district. Bost raised $273,373, but because he has been raising money for much of his first 15 months in office, he began April with a more than 2-1 advantage over Baricevic.

Bost had $867,135 in his campaign account, according to records filed to the Federal Election Commission. Baricevic had $323,564.

Baricevic said his first-quarter success clearly shows voters are looking for a change from Mike Bost who has failed to fight for middle-class and working families.

Bost campaign manager Evan Handy pointed out the incumbents cash-on-hand advantage, saying that we believe Mike's substantial cash-on-hand advantage and district-wide grassroots support will ensure we can fully respond to the Nancy Pelosi-style attacks coming our way.

The 12th district was on early Democrat hit lists, but they had trouble recruiting a candidate they thought could beat Bost in a presidential election year in which Democratic turnout is expected to be higher, and in a district previously held by a Democrat. Bost, R-Murphysboro, easily defeated former Rep. Bill Enyart, a Democrat from Belleville, in 2014. Bost had previously served for 20 years in the Illinois legislature.

In stepped Baricevic, 30, the son of a prominent St. Clair County judge and former county chairman, John Baricevic.

Despite Baricevics fundraising success, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Monday would not say whether the new FEC reports had made the DCCC reconsider its views of Baricevic's chances. DCCC spokeswoman Sacha Haworth Bost is especially vulnerable because of the Republican implosion were witnessing at the national level and Gov. Bruce Rauners struggles over the state budget.

We would never take this race off the table, she said.

"We look forward to working with the DCCC," Baricevic spokesman Barzin Emami said.

Before the first-quarter FEC reports became public, Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said he considered Bost to be in a strong position for re-election, and that there were no plans for the NRCC to spend money in support of Bost.

The Bost-Baricevic fund-raising story was just one of several in House races in the St. Louis region over the first three months of this election year:

 Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, entered April with an 11-1 cash advantage over his Democratic primary challenger, State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal. Clay had more than $437,000 in his campaign accounts, to Chappelle_Nadals $39,590, according to FEC records.

Clay raised about $53,000 during the first three months of the year, most of it from Political Action Committees, and he has built his fund-raising advantage on a combination of local and national business, labor and ideological group PAC support. Among his PAC donors this campaign cycle have been the PACs for Anheuser-Busch, Enterprise Holdings and Emerson Electric.

Chappelle-Nadal raised just under $27,000 during the first three months of 2015, more than 91 cents of every dollar coming from individuals.

 Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, continued to build a huge campaign account, raising more than $208,000 in the first three months of the year and beginning April with more than $2.1 million in the bank. Democrat State Rep. Bill Otto, her opponent in November, raised just over $41,000 over the same period and had about $85,000 in the bank. About 52 cents of every dollar Wagner raised came from individual donors. Wagner is frequently mentioned as a potential challenger of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., in 2018.

 Rep. John Shimkus, who won a Republican primary last month against Illinois state Sen. Kyle McCarter, was by far the most prolific regional House fund-raiser during the first quarter of 2016. Shimkus, who is one of the top Republicans on the House Commerce Committee, raised more than $942,000 from January through March, while McCarter raised and spent about $415,000.

Shimkus spent more than $1.6 million during the primary and began April with more than $657,000 in the bank. He has no opposition in the fall election. About 77 cents of every dollar Shimkus raised in the first quarter came from PACs.

 Other St. Louis area incumbents have huge financial advantages and little or no competition, at least in fund-raising.

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, began April with more than $1.7 million in the bank, after raising more than $229,000, all but $32,000 from PACS. Luetkemeyer's campaign continues to carry a $1,050,000 loan from Luetkemeyer himself.

Rep. Jason Smith, R-Cape Girardeau, raised about $180,000 over the same period and he began April with about $694,000 in the bank.

Dave Allen Cowell, a Democrat, is listed as a Democratic challenger to Smith on the FEC site, but no first quarter report had been posted on the FECs Web site by Monday. Constitution Party candidate Doanita Simmons is listed as a challenger to Luetkemeyer, but no finance report was available for her, either.

 In Illinoiss 13th congressional district, Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, also easily survived a primary last month. He ended the first quarter of 2016 with $980,000 in the bank after raising more than $253,000 from January through March. His primary challenger, Ethan Vandersand, spent just under $20,000, most of it his own money, according to the FEC.

Meanwhile, a Davis general election challenger, Democrat Mark David Wicklund, put $10,000 of his own money into his campaign accounts and had $11,375 in the bank as of April 1. An independent challenger, David Gill, had $5,697 in his campaign bank at the end of March.
It was the late 1980s and the mysterious deadly disease striking gay men had become a four letter word.

Beyond a name however, little was known about AIDS. Doctors could only offer comfort and tell those with the new diagnosis to get their affairs in order. The disease also brought isolation, with friends and family falling away.

Those facing imminent death took comfort in their pets, loyal companions through the dark times.

But those pets would often outlive their owners, leaving an animals care and future in jeopardy. Those with AIDS would often get so sick they could no longer care for their pets. The financial burden of treating their illness forced owners to give their pets away.

Longtime gay rights activist Michael Mullen remembers story after story of those with AIDS being hospitalized for extended periods, coming home to find their pets had starved to death.

Something had to be done to care for the pets of those with HIV, Mullen said.

He came upon a magazine article about an organization in Marin County, Calif., where volunteers stepped forward to foster pets or help care for them so that the owner could stay with his companion to the end.

Mullen talked with his friends. One put up $500 in seed money. They created a network of volunteers to help walk dogs and provide whatever other assistance was needed. In 1991, their efforts became a nonprofit, Pets Are Wonderful Support, better known as PAWS.

The program now serves about 70 people a year, with an additional 85 on a waiting list. With the advances in HIV care, what was once certain death is now treated as a chronic disease. As a result, owners are now outliving their pets. The focus of PAWS had to shift.

Since HIV has evolved, so has the program, said Kaytlin Reedy-Rogier, coordinator of the PAWS program, now a part of the services provided by St. Louis Effort For AIDS. Instead of trying to find homes for pets, the agency provides assistance with vet bills, pet food and cat litter  whatever it takes to ensure that owner and pet can live long lives together.

But with that shift has come a need for more funds and donated services. So the waiting list grows for PAWS, with a budget of just $37,000.

Id be lost

Hyrum Griffin found out about PAWS 15 years ago from his doctor. At the time, he had two Weimaraners and a new puppy, a pug named Pixie. Griffins health wasnt good, and he was on disability.

I was afraid Id have to get rid of my dogs, Griffin said. If you cant love them and take care of them, youre abusing them.

PAWS came through with vet care and food.

Griffin, now 60, lives in the Central West End with two dogs. Toby, a poodle and Maltese mix, begs for attention and serves as an alarm system, barking at the slightest noise. Then there is Pixie, who Griffin thought he would have to give away when she was a puppy. She moves slowly, avoids stairs and holds court from the couch.

Pixie recently had to have some teeth pulled. PAWS paid for it.

Without them Id be so lost, Griffin said of his dogs, Toby cradled in his arms. They give me so much joy. Im having a rough time of it. Thats why my pets are so important to me. If I didnt have them, Id probably be a lot less healthy.

St. Louis veterinarian Ed Migneco, with Hillside Animal Hospital, has been a longtime partner of PAWS.

Theres a lot of research out there that having a pet has benefits, Migneco said, including lowering blood pressure and stress.

Knowing that a pet can make someone with HIV feel better is something I like to think about, Migneco said. But he also knows that when someone has a compromised immune system, its important they have a healthy pet. There are diseases that can be transmitted from dogs and cats to their owners such as intestinal parasites, ringworm and rabies.

This is my small way of helping. Im really fortunate with the way things have gone in my life, said Migneco.

Christopher Arnold was 18 when he was diagnosed with HIV 20 years ago. Its been a struggle, but he always thought assistance from agencies such as PAWS should be reserved for those in a worse situation.

However, during a health setback in December, his orange tabby, Baxter, got sick.

I couldnt do anything for that little cat. He had an allergic reaction to something in my house, said Arnold, of Pevely. The idea of a vet bill seemed out of reach. Arnold is on disability after back and neck surgery to treat a degenerative bone disease. PAWS took care of the vet bill.

When I come home, I can say Baxter and he will come running to greet me. Every time I get sick, he sits on my lap while I cry it out, Arnold said.

Needed and loved

Griffin found out he was HIV positive in 1984. A diagnosis then usually meant death in a few months. He saw that with his friends.

All of them are gone, he said. I had planned my funeral for years. But I got tired of thinking this is my last Easter, this is my last Christmas.

Now, Griffin focuses on his dogs. They remind him he is needed and loved. The loud snoring of Pixie. The shrill barks of Toby. What is noise to others is creature comfort for Griffin.

PAWS continues to add partners so that it can expand its reach. Clients are referred to Bi-State Pet Food Pantry and Carol House Quick Fix Clinic, among others. Migneco, the veterinarian, said he has helped pet owners who are not in the PAWS program, knowing there is a waiting list but not all animal health care can wait.

For Mullen, he finds it hard to believe its been more than 25 years since he started PAWS with a small group of friends out of his house. He is heartened by the advance in HIV care and grateful to all that have helped pets stay with their owners.

It just makes me beam to think about it, Mullen said.
LONDON MARKET CLOSE: FTSE 100 ends higher; Mordaunt makes UK PM tilt

Friday, October 21, 2022 - 17:22

The pound regained some poise on Friday afternoon but remained in precarious territory, after falling below the $1.11 mark in afternoon trade.

The pound was quoted at $1.1203 at the close on Friday, down versus $1.1294 at the London equities close on Thursday. It hit an intraday low of $1.1063 not long after midday.

Sterling was hurt by continued political uncertainty. Speculation about who will join Penny Mordaunt in throwing their hats in the ring in the race for Number 10 continues. Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, one-time neighbours at Number 10 and 11 Downing Street - but now bitter rivals - have pockets of support from Tory MPs.

Adding to the pressure on sterling, disappointing UK retail sales data showed a bigger-than-expected decline in September, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Retail sales fell 6.9% annually in September, with the decline accelerating from a 5.6% fall in August. It also was worse than FXStreet-cited market consensus, which had expected a fall of just 5%.

The pound had initially found some support on Thursday after Liz Truss called an end to her disastrous tenure as prime minister - poking above $1.13 - but has since been dragged lower.

The FTSE 100 index closed up 25.82 points, or 0.4%, at 6,969.73 - closing out the week up 1.6%.

The FTSE 250 lost 182.38 points, or 1.1%, at 17,206.55, but still managed to gain 1.0% this week, and the AIM All-Share ended down 1.04 points, or 0.1% at 785.40 - but advanced 0.8% over the past five days.

The Cboe UK 100 closed up 0.4% at 696.31, the Cboe UK 250 ended down 1.0% at 14,694.15, and the Cboe Small Companies lost 0.3% at 12,240.46.

In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.9%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt gave back 0.3%.

The Tories have begun to declare their allegiances in the party's second leadership contest of the year as speculation mounts over who will seek to replace Truss at the helm of the party.

Supporters of Johnson are backing the former prime minister to make an extraordinary political comeback, while ex-chancellor Sunak and Commons Leader Mordaunt also have the public support of several MPs.

Mordaunt become the first to declare her candidacy, with a pledge to re-unite the bitterly divided party.

The leader of the House  who finished third in the last leadership election  said she had been encouraged by the support she had received from fellow Conservative MPs.

There has also been no declaration yet from Sunak, who did not answer questions from reporters as he left his home on Friday morning.

Whoever does win will face an immediate test, choosing whether to go ahead with the planned Halloween statement setting out how the government intends to get the public finances back on track, Downing Street has said.

Work is continuing in Whitehall, led by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, in preparation for the medium-term fiscal plan to be announced on October 31 along with an updated set of economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.

However, a Number 10 spokeswoman said it would be up to Liz Truss's successor to decide whether to proceed with that approach and with the same timetable.

In London, blue chip miners helped push FTSE 100 higher. Glencore gained 3.6%, Anglo American 3.1%, Antofagasta 2.7%, and Rio Tinto added 1.6%.

Retailers, however, were showing weakness after the disappointing UK retail sales data. A profit warning from Adidas did nothing to help the mood either.

JD Sports closed down 6.1%, Frasers 4.0%, Burberry 2.2%, and Next shed 2.9%.

On Thursday, Adidas lowered annual guidance as it struggles with "deteriorating traffic" in China and high inventory levels.

The sports apparel maker said it has needed to turn to "higher clearance activity" to try and shift stock.

It lost 9.0% in Frankfurt.

Deliveroo gained 3.6%.

The London-based online food delivery service said gross transaction values rose 8.3% annually in the third quarter to 1.70 billion from 1.57 billion, though orders fell by 1.1% to 72.8 million from 73.6 million.

Deliveroo said the decline in orders was due to a difficult consumer environment. With economic data on Friday showing that UK consumer confidence remains near record lows, this seems unlikely to change anytime soon.

InterContinental Hotels gave back 2.2% but reported strong revenue growth in the third quarter to September 30, saying that high global employment levels are boosting occupancy levels.

Revenue per available room, or RevPAR, rose 28% year-on-year and now exceeds its pre-pandemic level, being up 2.7% on the third quarter of 2019.

In the third quarter of 2022, the average daily rate increased by 13% compared to a year ago and was up 11% on 2019.

Chief Financial Officer & Head of Strategy Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson will leave the company in six months time to become CFO of Flutter Entertainment in the first half of 2023.

IHG has started the process of finding a new CFO.

The euro stood at $0.9802 Friday evening, down against $0.9822 at the close on Thursday.

Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP148.03, compared to JP149.77 late Thursday. The yen was staging a fightback after the open on Wall Street, after nearly hitting JP152 during the Asia session.

Stocks in New York opened higher on Friday, with the DJIA up 1.1%, the S&P 500 index up 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.6% higher.

Brent oil was quoted at $92.84 a barrel late Friday, down from $93.29 late Thursday. Gold was quoted at $1,643.70 an ounce Friday, up against $1,641.90 from Thursday.

In the international economics events calendar next week, Monday will be dominated by a slew of composite PMIs, with Japan overnight followed by Germany, eurozone and the UK in the morning then the US in the afternoon. A quiet Tuesday will be headlined by a US house price index.

On Wednesday, there is Chinese GDP, retail sales and industrial production overnight, then on Thursday attention will be on the European Central Bank interest rate decision at 1315 BST. Friday will be headlined by a Bank of Japan rate decision.

In the local corporate calendar on Monday, there are half-year results from Dr Martens, while education publishing firm Pearson will issue a third quarter update.

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
GAGA director Sarah Hodgson with students Ntombi and Pretty, who the charity helped to arrange funding to pay for their studies.

THE legacy behind a colourful yarn-bombed tree, in Stratford-upon-Avon town centre, at Christmas, has been living on thanks to the international childrens charity Goodwill and Growth for Africa (GAGA) UK.

Sarah Hodgson, the director of the charity, which is based in Timothys Bridge Road, has just returned from a trip to South Africa and is planning another trip there in June.

The organisation works hard to fight poverty in various parts of Africa, through supporting a range of projects, and Sarah went to see how some of them are getting on.

Sarah Hodgson with Russell ,who runs a project called The White House in rural South Africa. This project cares for elderly, disabled and vulnerable people; theyre currently looking after 48 people, ensuring they are safe and well looked after. GAGA provide funding for a feeding programme and the Stratford Remembering Tree raised funds for this project.

During her 16-night trip, Sarah, who lives in Clifford Chambers, visited all the projects supported by GAGA UK, including a primary school, a clinic, a baby home, an early childhood development organisation, and a feeding programme for the elderly.

Sarah, who made the trip with a volunteer from Scotland, said: It is always a challenge to see the conditions that some people are living in, but these trips provide me with a sense of hope and encouragement. I see so many people working so hard, for the benefit of others, to improve other peoples lives, and you cannot help but feel motivated to carry on supporting such projects.

On the trip, Sarah was also able to donate blankets made up from the squares on this years Remembering Tree.

She took out ten blankets to various projects where the need was great.

This photo was taken at 1000 Hills Community Helpers, a clinic in rural South Africa. Pictured are Nozipho, a nurse at the clinic, Sarah Hodgson, GAGA director, another nurse from the clinic, and Molly, a self-funded GAGA volunteer from Scotland.

She said: Although you may not think it, in areas of South Africa winter can be extremely cold, especially without proper insulation and heating. It was fantastic to see the squares from the GAGA Remembering Tree being put to use, and being really appreciated.

The tree raised more than 2,000 for GAGA UK, with businesses and individuals in Stratford and beyond supporting the event.

Sarah added: The squares for the tree and blankets were knitted by a wide variety of people, a huge thank you to all who contributed, including local knitting groups, such as the Click and Chatter ladies at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

South Africa is still battling with the effects of HIV, Aids, and other diseases, as well as incredibly high unemployment rates, causing food security issues, and contributing to the cycle of poverty.

GAGA UK has been working in the country for more than ten years.

To find out more about the charity, the Remembering Tree, and the recent trip to South Africa visit www.gaga-uk.org

Children and staff at First Step Right School in South Africa. GAGA are the primary funders of this school, which has over 145 children, from ages 18 months to 9 years. Sarah Hodgson, GAGA Director, is on the left with some of the teachers.
Tektronix Unlocks End-to-End ABR Monitoring

New Adaptive Bit Rate Decryption for Sentry ABR Delivers Real-Time QoS, QoE and PVQ Monitoring for Multiscreen Services

Beaverton, Ore.( )

Tektronix, Inc., an industry-leading innovator of video quality monitoring solutions, has unlocked end-to-end ABR monitoring with todays unveiling of decryption and decode functionality for the Sentry ABR video quality monitoring platform. The new Sentry ABR capabilities will be demonstrated in Booth #SU5006 at NAB Show, taking place April 18-21 in Las Vegas.

Adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR) is the underlying technology used with multiscreen, on-demand streaming services for PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets and TVs. Also called TV Everywhere or OTT (over the top), multiscreen video services use ABR to break content into small fragments of compressed content for transmission to viewing devices. With the increased amount of content delivered via ABR, service providers need to be able to pinpoint errors in the network quickly to reduce operational expenses related to trouble calls and mean time to detect and repair (MTTD, MTTR) issues.

Tektronix Sentry products are widely deployed and are used to provide vital QoE (Quality of Experience) and PVQ (Perceptual Video Quality) information to network operators concerned about the experience they are providing their customers. With the addition of decryption and decode functionality, Sentry ABR gives service providers the breadth and depth of monitoring they are accustomed to with linear-based services. After transcoding in a typical ABR workflow, a video stream is fragmented into fixed time duration fragments, encrypted and Digital Rights Management (DRM) applied. Sentry ABR is now capable of viewing this encrypted content to evaluate the actual viewing experience, or QoE as well as determining PVQ.

With the future of video delivery switching from linear to ABR, it is critical that service providers get the same level of monitoring with ABR services as they do with linear to truly understand the customer experience, said Charlie Dunn, general manager, Video Product Line, Tektronix. Given the complexity of ABR content delivery, there is a lot that can go wrong, and service providers need to know about it before they start getting calls from subscribers. Our solution now offers end-to-end QoE monitoring throughout the ABR workflow so operators can quickly identify, troubleshoot and resolve issues.

An End-to-End Solution from File-Based QC to Delivered ABR Content

As the industry moves more towards ABR for delivery of all services, the amount of video content that must be tested and verified is growing quickly. Testing a high volume of small fragments and files at multiple bit rates is especially challenging. For this requirement, Tektronix offers Aurora, which provides fast and scalable file-based QC and has tests specifically designed to catch the most common causes of ABR streaming problems. When used in conjunction with the frame accurate Hydra Player operators have the ability to visualize their content and any issues detected. Operators can then add review information for those responsible for producing the ABR content.

From there, the Sentry platform is used to detect QoS (Quality of Service) anomalies in the network at the IP and MPEG TS layers as well as in QoE, identifying issues that represent the bulk of trouble calls from subscribers including frozen video, tiling/macroblocking and audio disruptions or audio-level and loudness issues. Within an ABR network, Sentry ABR is then used to ensure the availability of content and provide comprehensive QoE analysis on each stream at each bitrate in real time.

Availability

Sentry ABR with decryption/decode is available now. For more information please visit: www.tek.com/video-quality-monitors/sentry-abr

Wondering what else Tektronix is up to? Check out the Tektronix Bandwidth Banter blog and stay up to date on the latest news from Tektronix on Twitter and Facebook.

About Tektronix

Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, Tektronix delivers innovative, precise and easy-to-operate test, measurement and monitoring solutions that solve problems, unlock insights and drive discovery. Tektronix has been at the forefront of the digital age for over 70 years. Join us on the journey of innovation at TEK.COM.
Australian artist Ian Strange recently spent some time in lovely Poland where he has created a new site-specific installation, covering a former residential building in over 600 square-metres of golden wallpaper. Titled ZOTY- Polish for Golden- this work responds to the Zaeze districts history and decline following the collapse of the local mining industry.

Commissioned by the Intytucja Kultury Katowice, the talented artist worked alongside curator Micha Kubieniec and the Katowice Historical Museum to research his latest architectural intervention. Over 3-weeks, Strange and a team of volunteers meticulously applied over 600m of a golden wallpaper to the exterior of the home, using a design that replicated what was typically found in the rooms of many local homes.

The wallpapering places the homes safe interior on the exterior, leaving it vulnerable to the elements. This gradual deterioration forms an integral part of the work. Just as Zaeze own fortunes slipped from flourishing industrial mining town with the closure of its last mine in 2004, so to will the installation lose its shining veneer with time.

The installation is a continuation of Ian Stranges ongoing body of work exploring the home. Highly regarded for his conceptual and architecturally charged practise, he has staged large-scale architectural interventions and exhibitions around the world. Strange has exhibited his works at the Canterbury Museum, National Gallery of Victoria and built full-scale sculptural installations of homes in Sydneys Turbine Hall and on the forecourt of the Art Gallery of South Australia for the 2014 Biennial of Australian Art.
Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), the New Zealand Governments international business development agency, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to formalize discussions for strengthening trade between China and New Zealand and support the growth of New Zealand brands in China.

The signing ceremony of the MOU was witnessed by New Zealand Prime Minister, Rt Hon John Key, and Alibaba Groups Founder and Executive Chairman, Jack Ma, soon after their keynote speeches at an event held by the China Entrepreneur Club, the premier business leader platform in China. The cooperation between Alibaba and NZTE will foster greater trade opportunities for New Zealand businesses seeking to enter the vast Chinese consumer market, by leveraging services and platforms offered by Alibabas ecosystem.

The MOU aims to broaden Alibabas existing partnership with NZTE and is a significant step in establishing a closer cooperation to promote trade and online commerce between China and New Zealand. Under the MOU, the parties will explore different collaboration opportunities, including Alibaba providing support for New Zealand companies to enter the Chinese consumer market through its various e-commerce channels, while NZTE will assist local companies to understand and optimize the opportunities Alibabas ecosystem offers in terms of business growth in China.

We are excited to extend our cooperation with the New Zealand Government by collaborating with NZTE to support local businesses to enter China through Alibabas platforms, said Maggie Zhou, the newly appointed Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, who also represented Alibaba at the MOU signing ceremony. With our strong networks in China and expertise in e-commerce, we will enable Chinese consumers to benefit from the premium products and fresh foods that New Zealand businesses can offer.

Peter Chrisp, Chief Executive of NZTE, said: New Zealand businesses are already using Alibabas channels to sell a wide range of products including dairy, meat, seafood, fruit, wine, beverage, cereal, skincare and health supplements. By providing dedicated services for New Zealand products, this new arrangement offers significant opportunities for New Zealand businesses to reach more consumers as well as advocating New Zealands reputation as a place of open spaces, open hearts and open minds.

Alibaba and its wider ecosystem will offer New Zealand businesses a wide range of services to help cultivate opportunities in China via its major e-commerce platforms. These key services will enable merchants to sell into China through retail (B2C) or wholesale (B2B) platforms, cross-promote tourism between China and New Zealand, and provide seamless payment solutions to both consumers and merchants. These services include:

Tmall.com ( http://www.tmall.com ), Chinas largest third-party B2C platform for brands and retailers;

( ), Chinas largest third-party B2C platform for brands and retailers; Tmall Global ( http://www.tmall.hk ), a cross-border solution and an extension of Tmalls B2C business for overseas imports;

( ), a cross-border solution and an extension of Tmalls B2C business for overseas imports; Tmall Fresh Food ( http://miao.tmall.com ), a vertical dedicated to fresh foods sourced from around the world;

( ), a vertical dedicated to fresh foods sourced from around the world; Alibaba.com ( http://www.alibaba.com ), Chinas largest global online B2B wholesale platform;

( ), Chinas largest global online B2B wholesale platform; 1688.com ( http://www.1688.com ), leading online B2B wholesale marketplace in China;

( ), leading online B2B wholesale marketplace in China; Alitrip ( http://www.alitrip.com ), leading online travel service platform; and

( ), leading online travel service platform; and Alipay ( http://www.alipay.com - via its associated companies), secure, trustworthy, and convenient online and mobile payment services.

NZTE will work closely with New Zealand companies to promote local specialties and fresh produce in China. With New Zealands reputation for producing exceptional quality fresh food including dairy, meat, seafood, fruit and wine, there are significant opportunities for this sector as Chinese consumers increasingly demand high quality fresh products.

To better support Australia and New Zealand markets, Maggie will be leading a team with the addition of a New Zealander, John OLoghlen as Director, leading business development for the two regions. John has extensive cross-border trading experiences and knowledge to support the companys developments focusing on assisting Australia and New Zealand businesses to connect with Chinese consumers via Alibaba platforms.

In honouring the new partnership with New Zealand government, Tmall.com, Tmall Global, and Alitrip are jointly hosting a New Zealand campaign from April 17-19, showcasing primarily honey, cosmetics and personal care products from New Zealand. For more details, please visit: http://newzealand.tmall.com

See video on Alizila.com, Alibaba Groups corporate news website, of how Tmall helps New Zealand seafood reach rural China at: http://bit.ly/1SF4CY0
CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE: CBG) announced that it has closed the acquisition of its affiliate company in Norway, Atrium AS.

Atrium was founded in 1993 and provides investment, leasing, occupier and valuation services to local and international clients. In 2000 Atrium became CBREs Norwegian affiliate and both businesses have since successfully worked together on numerous investment, leasing and outsourcing mandates.

John Olof Solberg, Managing Director of Atrium, will remain with the business as head of Norway for CBRE.

Martin Samworth, CEO, EMEA, CBRE, commented:

We are delighted to welcome our Norwegian colleagues, with whom we have had a collaborative relationship for the last 15 years. We have seen significantly increased demand from clients targeting commercial real estate opportunities across the Nordics and, building on Atriums exceptional reputation and client base, together we can now enhance and expand the services we provide our clients.

Norway has a strong, open economy with abundant natural resources, and enjoys one of the worlds highest living standards with the fourth-highest GDP per capita globally. This has also enabled the country to build the worlds third largest sovereign wealth fund. Norway attracted a record 13.4 billion of commercial real estate investment in 2015, overtaking Sweden at the end of the year to become the largest Nordic property market.
CHICAGO & WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- IRI, the global leader in innovative solutions and services for CPG, retail, media and health care companies, today announced that it has aligned with Microsoft Corp. to host IRI Liquid Data, the CPG and retail industrys leading big data analytics platform, on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. By making Liquid Data available on Azure, IRI clients now have an additional option for how they can deploy their Liquid Data Private Cloud solutions beyond IRIs existing hosted offerings or their own internal data centers.

Through the alliance, IRI is taking Liquid Data Private Cloud to a new level by bringing its groundbreaking analytics technology to Azure. IRI clients will be able to take advantage of the cost-effective and elastic cloud computing infrastructure of Azure, for high performance analysis workloads.

In addition to the cloud computing capabilities of Microsoft Azure, we are excited about bringing new benefits to IRI clients who can also utilize additional Microsoft Azure services, such as Microsoft Azure Machine Learning and Microsoft Cortana Analytics, said Ash M. Patel, chief information officer, IRI.

Azure provides IRI clients with an on-demand, scalable cloud environment that can grow to meet data capacity demands  securely, said Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of Developer Platform & Evangelism and chief evangelist for Microsoft Corporation. Our relationship with IRI empowers Liquid Data customers the opportunity to exploit Azures world-class cloud infrastructure and services for moving faster and achieving more.

The Liquid Data platform is the industrys most advanced, utilized and imitated end-to-end consumer insights to activation solution. It comes with hundreds of integrated data sets that can be further enriched with client data in a tailored, private cloud deployment.

About the IRI Partner Ecosystem

IRI fundamentally believes that delivering differentiated growth for clients requires deep, highly integrated partnering with a variety of best-of-breed companies. As such, IRI works closely with a broad range of industry leaders to create innovative joint solutions, services and access to capabilities to help its clients more effectively compete in their various markets and exceed their growth objectives. IRI is committed to its partnership philosophy and continues to actively enhance its ecosystem of partners through alliances, joint ventures, acquisitions and affiliations. The IRI Partner Ecosystem includes such companies as Adobe, The Boston Consulting Group, comScore, Experian, GfK, Gigwalk, GuestMetrics, Ipsos, Kantar, MasterCard Advisors, MaxPoint, Microsoft, Millward Brown Digital, Mu Sigma, Oracle, SPINS, Univision and others.

About IRI

IRI is a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights that help CPG, OTC health care organizations, retailers and media companies to grow their businesses. With the largest repository of purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data, all integrated on an on-demand cloud-based technology platform, IRI helps to guide its more than 5,000 clients around the world in their quests to remain relentlessly relevant, capture market share, connect with consumers and deliver market-leading growth. A confluence of major external events  a revolution in consumer buying, big data coming into its own, advanced analytics and automated consumer activation  is leading to a seismic shift in drivers of success in all industries. Ensure your business can leverage data at www.iriworldwide.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160418005975/en/

IRI Contact:

Shelley Hughes

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: +1 312.474.3675

Source: IRI
CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ettain group, the leading talent solutions company dedicated to matching the right people to technology solution opportunities in IT, healthcare IT and digital creative, is celebrating 20 years of success with a refreshed brand, new website, and unprecedented growth. From faxing resumes in a rental home office to becoming the 32nd largest staffing firm in the country, ettain group has grown exponentially to include more than 1,300 employees and contractors, and revenue growth of 15 percent over the past three years.

The companys most recent successes include the November 2015 acquisition of Timberhorn IT Solutions, a well-known IT staffing company in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The acquisition supports several existing national customers and positions ettain group to take advantage of the regions strong business opportunities. Further expanding its geographic footprint, ettain group now includes active contractors in 30 states, and offices in Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, Frisco, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Washington D.C. and Winston-Salem. Strategic client support is now also offered in Minneapolis, California and Arizona.

In addition to its rapid growth, ettain group is launching a revitalized company brand and new website designed to better convey the passion, flexibility and certainty ettain group offers clients and candidates, while providing site users with an improved, seamless user experience.

We are proud of how far weve come over the past 20 years and cant wait to see where our passionate team and dedication to providing the best match for talent will take us in the coming years, said Jeff Harris, chief executive officer of ettain group. As we continue to evolve, ettain group maintains the utmost focus on giving our clients unparalleled service and a market edge by connecting them with the best talent solutions.

Looking ahead to the next 12 months, ettain groups team will focus on growing its managed services offering to fulfill its clients resource demands while providing flexible management and oversight on specific programs or projects. This includes offering leadership and expertise in areas like application development, digital and creative services, agile project management, and infrastructure services.

About ettain group

ettain group is the talent solutions company dedicated to the best match for people to technology solution opportunities in IT, healthcare IT and digital creative through an unparalleled recruitment experience. When highly-skilled talent and top employers value both strategy and certainty from their recruiting partner, only ettain groups culture of business and passion delivers with the utmost market evidence and flexibility. ettain group is headquartered in Charlotte and has more than 1,300 employees and contractors nationwide. As the 32nd largest IT staffing firm in the United States, as ranked by Staffing Industry Analysts, ettain group consistently receives accolades for its success. Recent distinctions include the Best of Staffing award from influential industry rating firm Inavero for five consecutive years, and being named to the Inc. 5000 for four consecutive years. For more information, visit www.ettaingroup.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160418006399/en/

ClearEdge Marketing

Allison Kaplan

[email protected]

312-315-9855

Source: ettain group
Members of the media stand outside the Mossack Fonseca law firm office in Panama City April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

YEREVAN (Reuters) - The chief of Armenia's service in charge of enforcing court rulings resigned on Monday after being named in the Panama Papers in connection with several offshore companies.

Major-General of Justice Mihran Poghosyan, officially titled the Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer, tendered his resignation to the president.

He said in a statement that he was ready to answer any questions later "as an ordinary citizen and without access to any official levers".

Leaks from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca have embarrassed several world leaders and shone a spotlight on the shadowy world of offshore companies by revealing the financial arrangements of prominent figures.

Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped down earlier this month after documents linked him to an offshore company.

Spain's acting Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria resigned last Friday following allegations of links to offshore dealings which emerged after he was named in the Panama Papers.

(Reporting by Hasmik Mkrtchyan; Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Dmitry Solovyov)
By Lanre Ola

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - The Nigerian army, backed by the country's air force, on Monday repelled an attack an attack by Boko Haram fighters near the border with Niger in the jihadists' northeast heartland, the military said.

The group allied to Islamic State had been fighting for at least seven years to carve out an Islamist caliphate in the region in a conflict which has displaced more than 2 million people and killed thousands.

The militants struck as the troops were on their way to the border town of Damasak where they wanted to set up a permanent base, a military source said. The army took the area back from Boko Haram last year, but has struggled to hold it.

"The Nigerian troops have successfully repelled an attack by Boko Haram terrorists who attempted an incursion into (the) 113 Battalion," army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement carried by PR Nigeria, which releases government statements.

Kareto is the army's next base in the area.

"So far our troops had two officers and 22 soldiers wounded in action," he said without giving further details.

No further information was immediately available from the remote area which is largely disconnected from mobile phone networks.

Boko Haram controlled a swath of land in northeast Nigeria around the size of Belgium at the start of last year, but was pushed out by Nigerian troops, aided by soldiers from neighboring countries.

The group has since stepped up cross-border attacks and suicide bombings against markets, bus stations and places of worship.

(Reporting by Felix Onuah, Ulf Laessing and Lanre Ola; editing by Dominic Evans and G Crosse)
Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano arrives for a confidence vote at the Senate in Rome February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy said on Sunday it hoped Libya's U.N.-backed unity government could restore control of the country's borders to limit migrant flows from north and south and was ready to help in any way it could.

The French and German Foreign Ministers visited Tripoli on Saturday to show support for the government and said they were ready to offer training for the country's security forces and border guards if asked.

"We hope Libya blocks both its northern border, from where (migrants) leave to reach us, and its southern border, through which people coming from places such as the Horn of Africa enter the country and use it as a hub to reach Europe," Italian Interior Minister Alfano told TV channel Sky TG24.

Alfano said some 90 percent of migrants arriving on Italian shores came from Libya. Rome was proposing European Union financial aid to African countries in exchange for help in controlling migrant flows.

Alfano said he would meet his Libyan colleague soon, adding he would offer the Italian government's support to Tripoli.

"I will tell my Libyan colleague that Italy is ready to give any help and cooperation," Alfano said, adding that Italian police could offer support to Tripoli.

Italy, Libya's former colonial ruler, has played a prominent role in rallying international support for the new government.

Western powers hope the new government can unite Libya's warring factions, end its political chaos and request foreign help to tackle Islamic State insurgents and migrant trafficking across the Mediterranean.

(This version of the story was corrected to delete erroneous reference to Italian minister in Tripoli on Saturday)

(Reporting by Francesca Landini; editing by Ralph Boulton)
By Jim Drury

A 40 meter long photovoltaic computer which provides clean water, while generating electricity to recharge external devices, has been designed by an Italian company for use in the developing world. Watly, set up by entrepreneur Marco Attisani, has started an Indiegogo campaign to fund the third version of its solar technology. "What you are looking at is a big machine, it's an infrastructural machine. It's 40 meters long, 15 meters wide, and 15 tonnes," Attisani told Reuters. "Primarily it's a computer, a big computer that deals with things that computers do normally. They calculate, they broadcast, they collect, they send them to the cloud, they interact with humans." The Watly 3.0 thermodynamic computer uses solar energy to sanitize more than 5,000 liters of water a day, as well as generating electricity and connectivity. The machine combines photovoltaic and thermal solar technologies. Solar heat collected by vacuum-tubes is used to vaporize and sanitize water fed into the machine. It can clean contaminated water, including ocean water, within two hours. The photovoltaic panels located on the roof generate off-grid electricity to power the internal electronics of the machine, and also for recharging external devices such as mobiles phones and portable computers. "Watly purifies water from any source of contamination - chemical, bacteriological, or physical - without the need of filterings," said Attisani. "It also generates electricity because it combines also photovoltaic technologies and through photovoltaic technologies we actually generate electricity off the grid that can be used for empowering the machine itself, the electronics inside the machine but as well for recharging external devices - thousands of them, such as portable phones, computers." According to Attisani, similar products use reverse osmosis - otherwise known as filtering - which requires expensive maintenance. The company says that a single unit will last for 15 years and, because it is emission free, can save as much as 1,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2), equivalent to 2,500 barrels of oil, while purifying millions of liters of water and generating 1GWh (1,000 megawatt hours) of free electricity. Each unit communicates with a Central Network Management Platform, and also other units via radio-link, 3G or 4G networks, or satellite connections. Individual units can be adjusted to changes in climate or environment. Attisani says that while one Watly is a stand-alone machine, using two or more Watly becomes a network that can power cities. The company successfully trialled its second, far smaller, prototype, the Watly 2.0, in Abenta Village, Ghana last October. Attisani, Watly CEO and founder, told Reuters it transformed Abenta, providing what he calls the three pillars that modern society needs to prosper: water, power and connectivity. He believes the technology will prove empowering for impoverished communities. "This technology does not patronize them with water wells," said Attisani. "I'm not at all criticizing this solution but you can't uplift a community around the world in the 21st Century by digging wells. People are made of water, but they need much more than water. You need to bring the 21st Century technology. You need to bring there water, yes; electricity which is the fire of the modern era, and connectivity because if you are off-line you are not in the present." A single unit will cost 400,000 euros (450,000 USD), but Attisani expects the cost to be borne by outside investors. "These are investments that normally are carried out by big investors, public sectors," he said. "This is establishing a technological paradigm. The users will pay as they go. That means they pay for the water they collect and electricity that they use, but the entire infrastructure big corporations and public sector will pay for that. And the point is that this machine is a vending machine. It pays back its own investment in six months, 18 months." Watly won two rounds of the prestigious European Union (EU) sponsored award, Horizon2020, which helped fund the first pre-industrial version of Watly 3.0. The device will be presented in September 2016.
Peter Munro, retiring professor at Massey University's Riddet Institute. He is mixing a 100 per cent whey protein drink, a product he helped to develop and bring to the market.

Peter Munro is about to retire after spending most of his working life in the dairy industry.

The professor, Fonterra chair in food materials science at Riddet Institute, started his life on the family's dairy farm in Northland and has gone on to develop new dairy products for New Zealand.

"What I am proudest of is creating value for the New Zealand dairy farmer."

Throughout a long career Munro has worked on milk protein manufacturing and its use, whey proteins and other products.

Fonterra often gets stick for exporting commodities, but at least 30 per cent of its products is sold in a specialised form, usually for food ingredients, says Munro.

He began life at Whangarei Boys' High School and did a chemical engineering degree at Auckland University. He won a Commonwealth Scholarship to the University of London and did his PhD there.

Munro came back to an academic job and did that until 1993 when he ditched teaching and went to research dairy products fulltime.

He went to the then Dairy Research Institute (DRI) in Palmerston North, which was the beginning of his working life managing dairy research fulltime. DRI has evolved to now be known as the Fonterra Research and Development Centre, employing about 400 people, with at least 100 of them holding doctorates.

Munro's career focus is the development of separation and extraction technologies to create new milk protein ingredients. The work has opened up many opportunities for products made with dairy ingredients and goes in foods such as yoghurt, cheese and drinks.

Another innovation he helped develop is whey protein ingredients. The highly functional dairy proteins can be incorporated into different bar components, caramels, nougats, and dough layers and also into beverages to deliver high-quality protein with great taste and texture.

Munro says whey protein is the best protein for slowing muscle loss as people age.

"DRI has developed more dairy ingredients than any other site in the world."

Munro played his part by helping develop them to be more functional.

He became general manager of the ingredients innovation branch and in 2006 it had a $28 million budget and 120 staff.

In 2011 he became the food materials science professor for Riddet Institute at Massey University's Palmerston North campus. Riddet is a centre of research excellence focusing on food structures and digestive physiology, with the institution a partnership between other universities, and research institutes.

Munro says his chemical engineering has held him in good stead.

"I was top of the class at chemical engineering and academics said I could be part of the academic world and teach at the university."

Rather than teaching or the oil industry, he was attracted to the dairy industry.

Dairy researchers are often the unsung heroes of the industry, he says.

Munro has published about 120 refereed research publications and 40 confidential dairy industry reports.

He believes the Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) scheme is a great model, with half the funding coming from the industry and half from the Government.

"It is the best use of government research money, because it forces an industry to look hard at what it wants to do so that it gets a good return on its own investment in the co-funded research and development."

Munro says he hopes it is not ditched by any government.

"Generally, the PGP is set up in a good way. From talking to other scientists, it seems there is nothing like it anywhere else in the world."

He says if someone was looking for a good model that worked outside of PGP, then he thinks the model of Plant & Food Research and Zespri works.

"Along came PSA disease and the two of them got together. Now the kiwifruit industry is going from strength to strength. If they hadn't worked so closely together in the past, then PSA could have been a much worse disaster."

Munro thinks the meat industry was, for such a major industry, behind the eight ball when it came to research and development.

"But the gap in research in New Zealand is by and large an industry issue. It is industry which is not putting enough money in. It is not the Government."

When he started his career about 50 years ago about 50 per cent of New Zealand exports were food-related and there was concern the economy was not diversified enough in spite of all the emphasis by various governments on non-food exports.

"But food is what New Zealand does well and what we are competitive at."

He thinks Fisher and Paykel healthcare is a great example of a non-food exporter that invests well in research and development to grow its business.

"It is almost a billion-dollar export business now and increasing each year. It has about the same number of staff doing research and development as Fonterra."

Munro retires at the end of the month when he completes his five-year contract at the Riddet Institute.

He will spend more time on his hobbies of working around the house, photography, reading and supporting his church.

Time will be set aside to to sort out his 'at home' files.


Police have launched an investigation into the incident and have a cordon in place between Stokes Valley Rd and Glen Rd..

Witnesses have told of hearing a bang, then seeing a teenager jumping fences as police gave chase in a suspected hit-and-run in the Hutt Valley.

A worker controlling traffic was injured by a car fleeing police in a Stokes Valley neighborhood on Monday afternoon.

The car hit the man, who was working as part of Wellington Electricity power lines team in Stokes Valley Rd just before 1pm.

SUPPLIED/ FACEBOOK Police inspecting the scene of a hit and run in Stokes Valley this afternoon.

Hazel Brooks was oil painting in her living room at the corner of a cul de sac, opposite the line workers' site, when she heard the impact.

"I heard a loud bang  a massive bang  and saw people running," she said.

Wendy, a few houses along, also heard a crash. "I had the door open and I heard a bang ... I was just sitting here and all hell broke loose."

ROBERT KITCHIN/ FAIRFAX NZ The damaged car is taken away.

Once the vehicle came to a stop, the three occupants fled the scene, police said.

Wendy's neighbour, who did not want to give his name, rushed outdoors and saw a teenage boy in a white hoodie running up the cul de sac's lane.

The teen headed for his backyard, the man said.

"I went out the back door and thought I could catch him, then he jumped a fence. He was too fast, he was going over the second fence.

"I just yelled at him, I was like, 'Hey' in a loud voice."

The teen carried on, and soon police with dogs were chasing him, the witness said.

An officer helped the injured man, while another tried to pursue the fleeing occupants of the car, police said.

A man was found and was helping police with their inquiries.

About 2.45pm a tow truck took a red car with a mangled bonnet away from the scene, after it overturned road cones lying around where the lines crew had been working.

The injured man, who is in his 20s, was flown to Wellington Hospital, where he was in a stable condition on Monday evening.

Police have begun an investigation into the incident and had a cordon in place between Stokes Valley Rd and Glen Rd.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority would be notified, police said.
A snake was discovered in a car that was imported to Auckland from Japan. File pic.

A stowaway snake found in a Japanese imported car at an Auckland yard has been caught and killed.

The surprise passenger was discovered hiding inside a Nissan Leaf electric car parked at U-Sell car yard in the North Shore suburb of Glenfield.

Ministry for Primary Industries were called to the yard on Sunday afternoon and spent several hours on site before managing to "apprehend" the creature at about 7pm.

It was found coiled around the engine, MPI manager of cargo operations Stu Rawnsley said.

READ MORE:

* Thai snake found dead in Lower Hutt container

* Huge 8m snake captured

* Chinese tourist discovers why you should never try to kiss a snake

Rawnsley said they found about two or three snakes in imported cars each year and it was "one of these things that happen".

"Our systems are designed for reality, every now and then things will slip past the barriers that are in place. For that reason we train a large number of staff that can handle snakes."

The snake was euthanased on Sunday night and tests were to be carried out on Monday to determine its species.

Rawnsley said they would review biosecurity checks as a result of the snake discovery.

"It is a layered system, there are checks involved at the ports and the importers themselves are a really important part of the biosecurity system.

"Frankly a snake being found was part of a system, that it was found before it was distributed to a member of the public."

U-Sell employee Luke Godwin told NZME the snake was discovered by a customer.

"A customer came inside and told us there was a snake inside of a car on the yard. He was just sticking his head out there, once we all came out he kind of slithered back inside.

"It seemed like he was stuck for quite a while but then he moved around a little bit and went back inside the car."

U-Sell director Graeme McPheat said he did not want to comment.
Stuff reader Jack Thompson at the scene of the fire supplied these pics.

Stuff reader Jack Thompson at the scene of the fire supplied these pics.

Stuff reader Jack Thompson at the scene of the fire supplied these pics.

Stuff reader Jack Thompson at the scene of the fire supplied these pics.

Smoke billowing from the fishing vessel on fire.

Smoke billowing from the fishing vessel on fire.

The crew of the fishing vessel.

Emergency services at the scene of the fishing vessel fire.

Two people have been taken to hospital after a blaze on a fishing vessel in Lyttelton Port of Christchurch.

The cause of the fire is being investigated but the Fire Service said it may have been started by a spark from a grinder or welder.

Emergency services were called to the blaze on the west side of wharf seven shortly after 8.15am on Monday.

DION PAXIE/SUPPLIED Fire crews are responding to a large fire on a ship in Lyttelton Port.

Black clouds of smoke could be seen billowing from the ship.

The ship is a factory trawler called the Desert Rose, which is owned by Christchurch company Independent Fisheries. The ship was built in 1989 and has a home port of Kingstown, the capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Fire Service shift manager Riwai Grace said four people had been treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Two had been taken to Christchurch Hospital for a "more thorough check up".

MICHAEL SMITH/SUPPLIED Fire crews are battling a blaze on fishing vessel The Desert Rose.

At the height of the blaze, which has since been brought under control, 13 fire trucks and dozens of firefighters were at the scene.

Grace said there was a lot of maintenance work going on at the wharf, which could have caused the fire.

"We believe it might have been started by a spark from a grinder or a welder."

SUPPLIED A screenshot of the blaze, as shown on the Lyttelton Port of Christchurch's Wharf 7 webcam on Monday morning.

It was too early to say what the extent of the damage was, Grace said.

A St John Ambulance spokesman said two people had suffered moderate injuries.

A Lyttelton Port spokeswoman said the fire was on the west side of wharf seven.

TARA ROSS/SUPPLIED Smoke can be seen billowing from a fishing vessel in Lyttelton Port.

Independent Fisheries director Kevin McDonnell said he was waiting to hear from staff at the scene about what caused the fire.

The Desert Rose had been in New Zealand for about four months, McDonnell said. It was in Lyttelton having a "refit".

He declined to comment further until more information was available.

Constable Ken Marriott, from the Canterbury district command centre, said police were also responding to the incident.

"There's a ship with black smoke coming out of it.

"I don't know who or when or why," Marriott said.

Police would liaise with the Fire Service and help where needed, he said.
A New Zealander is in a Mexican hospital after he was allegedly drugged, kidnapped and beaten at a tourist hotspot two weeks ago.

Tahne Godkin-Burke, 30, was supported by the Red Cross in Tijuana as his Timaru-based mother waited for her son to make it home.

Speaking from his hospital bed on Monday morning, Burke described a "nightmarish" ordeal in which he was beaten in a faeces-covered "torture cell".

"There was open sewerage on the floor, people were dying in the corner."

Tahne claimed he was handcuffed to a rail and viciously beaten by men who he believed were police officers.

During one of the rare moments when he was left alone, he used his phone to message his loved ones to say what happened - and to say goodbye.

SUPPLIED Tahne Godkin-Burke, 30, is recovering in a Mexican hospital after he was allegedly beaten by police in Tijuana.

"I thought this is it, I'm going to die."

It had started as the trip of a lifetime. After saving for several years, Tahne left Timaru for Los Angeles for the first leg of his first solo international holiday at the end of January.

He bought a car and drove to Mexico, setting up base on a beach about 20km from Tijuana.

His first weekend was "really great", but things took a turn for the worse when he headed to Tijuana to "get a feel for the nightlife".

"I got pretty drunk, and then realised I was too drunk to drive back.

"I got into the car and went to sleep, but about two hours later a light shone through the window and woke me up."

That flashlight belonged to men dressed as police officers, who told him to get out of his car while they checked for drugs.

They found none, but it was only after they left that Tahne realised they had stolen his wallet, he said.

He said he followed their car in a bid to get his money back, but was stopped by another police car. This time, the men took the last of his remaining money, which equated to about $USD1000 ($NZD1447).

With no money to carry on his trip, Tahne headed back to the beach where he started selling "small amounts" of marijuana obtained from some American friends.

He did so to recoup the loss of his money, he said.

"Stupidly, I didn't leave."

He was unaware he was encroaching on the turf of a drug cartel, he said.

A few days later, he claimed he began to have heart palpitations after he was given a marijuana joint by a friend.

The friend told him he had laced the joint with another drug on the orders of cartel members.

Fearing he was dying, Tahne jumped in his car and sped into Tijuana to go to a hospital.

Struggling to breathe, he drove his car onto a footpath, where it became lodged between a shop and a lamp post, he said.

He stumbled out of the car and police cars began to arrive. The men that arrived slammed him into the side of his car and began to beat him, he alleged.

"They smashed me into the tarmac and began beating me brutally."

He believed the men were working with the drug cartel.

"One of them said 'we warned you to get out'."

He claimed he was then bundled into what he believed to be a police car and taken to what he described as "an impromptu torture cell".

He was unable to confirm if the cell was at a police station.

He said he was beaten on multiple occasions, leaving him bloodied and bruised.

The men did not take his phone and passport, which were in his pockets. He was able to use the phone to message family in New Zealand, he said.

A short time later, Tahne said his head was smashed into the concrete floor, knocking him out.

He regained consciousness in the back of a van, where he overheard his captors talking about their plans for him.

"They were going to burn me alive," he said.

He started "hammering" at the doors of the van with his feet. The noise attracted the attention of nearby police officers. They opened the door and found Tahne, who they bundled from the van to their waiting police car.

He was taken to a municipal jail. "There were rats in the blankets, it was freezing. It was just nightmarish."

He was released 48 hours later, badly bruised and unable to walk.

A cleaning lady at the police station called the Red Cross. He was transported by ambulance to a Red Cross hospital before being transferred to another medical facility.

He has been there for the past week.

A staff member at the medical facility confirmed Tahne's injuries and that he was picked up from a police station.

The whole saga was like "something out of a movie", Tahne said.

"After my lovely wee life in New Zealand, it's blissful out there, to go into this belies belief."

The ordeal had also taken a toll on his mother, Cheryl Godkin. Prior to leaving for his holiday, Tahne had spent six months living in Timaru with Cheryl while he helped her to renovate her house.

She has spent the past two weeks trying to determine how her son was doing. That had proven to be difficult, and most of their contact had been via email, she said.

Cheryl considered flying to Mexico, but Tahne told her it would not be safe.

"It was a nightmare. It's mad, it's insane."

The moment she heard about Tahne's ordeal was "really terrifying", she said.

"I thought he was dead. He's just so lucky to be alive."

She was hoping her son would be able to fly back to New Zealand soon.

Tahne's focus has turned to recovering fully and getting out of the country. He was hoping to recover his car, which was impounded and which would not be surrendered without a cash payment.

If he was unable to get his car back, he was planning on asking the British Embassy to help him get a flight out of the country. He had dual British and New Zealand citizenship, and said he had also been in touch with the New Zealand Embassy.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said the ministry was following up on Tahne's situation through the New Zealand and British embassies in Mexico.
What remains of the campervan that exploded into flames.

The woman who died when a campervan exploded into flames on a Waikato highway has been identified.

Lydia Kiri, 52, died inside the back of a campervan that caught fire while travelling along State Highway 24 at Te Poi, near Matamata, on Saturday evening.

Her partner - a 72-year-old man from Opotiki - jumped from the driver's seat in flames and was rolled over the road by his brother who was following in a car behind.

He has been transferred from Waikato Hospital to a specialist unit at Middlemore Hospital with burns to 50 per cent of his body.

Waikato road policing manager, Inspector Freda Grace said the Serious Crash Unit was working with fire services to identify the cause of the blaze.

"The vehicle has caught fire, as to why or how we are not sure. There was nothing to indicate there was a collision prior to the crash.

"As we encourage motorists to prepare for their journey by ensuring they are well rested and drive to the conditions, we must also make sure our vehicles are ready for the road by having a current warrant of fitness and are safe to use."

The pair were understood to be travelling away from the Bay of Plenty but Grace was unsure where they were heading.

Kiri leaves behind a daughter.

"Police express their sympathy to Lydia's family and continue to offer their support at this time."

As for the actions of the men that took the burnt driver from the crash scene and submerged him a bath at a nearby property, Grace said it was "unbelievable".

"That they knew what to do and they did it, so swiftly, is just unbelievable. It's fantastic what they did.

"There is no doubt their actions contributed to a potentially better outcome."






Tauranga's tight-knit volleyball community is reeling after the death of one of its own.

Melanie Floyd, who grew up in Tauranga and went to Otumoetai College, succumbed to severe head injuries in the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital on Saturday after her family made the decision to switch off life support.

The 28 year old's death came four days after her boyfriend, 24, called emergency services to her home, saying he woke up to find her unconscious on her bed.

FACEBOOK Melanie Floyd died in hospital four days after being found unconscious in her apartment.

She was admitted to hospital with minor bruising to the face, but her brain was swollen.

The man has since refused to co-operate with police, who are now treating the case as a murder investigation.

Otumoetai College teacher and head of girls volleyball Stewart Henderson was "gob-smacked".

FACEBOOK Melanie Floyd died in hospital on Saturday night after suffering critical head injuries.

Floyd played volleyball throughout her high school years as a setter and Henderson got to know her and her family, who were all involved in the sport.

"It's very difficult to talk about for one so young to have died like this," Henderson said.

Her cousin Kylie Rae-Bidois, who played volleyball for New Zealand in the 1990's, called Henderson just before leaving for Brisbane to tell him the news.

"She was just a loving personality, she was really friendly and got on so well with everybody ... It's a huge blow to our [volleyball] family.

"In the past couple of days, I have seen a lot of glowing tributes to her on Facebook. She deserved every one of them."

Friend Mandy Onassis, who met Floyd when they worked at Brisbane bar The Met in 2010, described Floyd as one of the nicest people someone could meet.

"She was a vibrant, strong and very popular person, very good at her job, well respected, everybody loved her," Onassis said.

"I don't know of anyone who didn't absolutely enjoy her. She was very awesome to hang out with."

Onassis has started a Go Fund Me page, which had raised over $12,000 by Monday afternoon, to help Floyd's family with the costs associated with her death.

A post-mortem was due to be completed on Monday, a Queensland Police spokesman said, and police hoped they would have further insight into what happened when the results were known.

Police had spoken to her partner of 18 months because he was so close to her, not necessarily because he was a suspect, the spokesman said.

"He didn't say much."
Lion dancrse gathers a big crowd on Queenstown streets for Chinese New Year celebration.

Southland and Fiordland tourism figures continue to climb, with reports showing another increase in visitor numbers for February following Chinese New Year celebrations.

Venture Southland tourism team leader Warrick Low said the high numbers across Southland and Fiordland could be attributed to the Chinese New Year celebrations when many Chinese tourists travelled through the region on their way to Milford Sound.

Total guest nights for Fiordland for February increased by 11,605 nights compared to last year.

Invercargill guest nights for February increased by 3858 nights compared to last year and Gore guest nights for February increased by 845 nights compared to last year.

READ MORE:

* Chinese New Year influx a boom for south

* Queenstown is a must-go for Chinese during Lunar New Year

* Nearly 50,000 Chinese tourists arrive in NZ for February's Golden Week

Low had received feedback from operators throughout the region saying those visitor numbers had spread to other areas in the region.

Southland was continuing to grow as a destination in international markets such as the United States and United Kingdom , Low said.

While the increase in guest nights for Gore could be attributed to the Southern Fieldays and other events during February, the town was holding its own as a destination, Low said.

Although it was a stopover point for those travelling through to Te Anau from Dunedin, Gore was also a micro-destination with attractions like the moonshine museum and vintage aircraft, he said.

The average length of stay differed only slightly between Fiordland at 1.94 nights and Southland at 1.77 nights.

Tourists both international and national were under time pressure and travel times were a factor in Southland, Low said.

"We want to extend that but we have to be realistic about their [tourists'] priorities."

Gore District Council communications and promotions manager Sonia Gerken said February had traditionally been a strong month for the town in terms of tourist numbers.

The district hosted a number of events which included the Southern Fieldays and the Mandeville Fly In, Gerken said

The town had been increasing its profile and had a strong promotional presence, she said.

"We're getting noticed by those doing the more established scenic routes around the area."

The Gore visitor centre handled 471 enquiries in February this year compared to 361 enquiries in February last year, Gerken said.

BY THE NUMBERS:

Total guest nights for Fiordland for February 2016 - 83,072

Total guest nights for Invercargill for February 2016 - 32,395

Total guest nights for Gore for February 2016 - 5029.

Average length of stay in Fiordland was 1.94 nights.

Average length of stay in Southland was 1.77 nights.
A Taranaki worker who was fired after she fell asleep on the job has been awarded $5488.20 for unfair dismissal.

Devon Hotel employee Mereana Taylor worked as a night porter for eight years but was sacked on June 6, 2014 after she was found sleeping on a hotel couch.

Taylor told The Employment Relations Authority that after finishing laundry, cleaning the toilets and the vacuuming, she sat down on a couch to rest her stiff and sore back, and said had been feeling generally unwell.

She said her back had been playing up for about a week and she intended to sit down for a brief period to take the weight off her feet and to relive her back.

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Taylor, who was the only staff member on duty, said she did not remember falling asleep at around 3.40am, but her nap was captured on the hotel's CCTV system.

She was later woken by two kitchen staff at 5.35am.

The two kitchen staff were meant to be let into the building by Taylor, but instead they had to wake one of the hotel's managing directors, Peter Tennent, to be let in.

Tennent later sent an email to the general manager of the Hotel, Robert Davies, explaining what had happened.

In the email he said the situation was unacceptable and the kitchen staff's time cards should not be penalised based on Mereana's "incompetence".

After two meetings Taylor was dismissed, with hotel management saying it considered her actions compromised the security, health and safety of hotel guests and this amounted to serious misconduct.

However, the Employment Relations Authority found there was no adequate investigation into Taylor's claims her back was sore and she was unwell.

"A fair and reasonable employer could be expected to have requested that Ms Taylor obtain medical evidence, and to have considered that evidence, before deciding to dismiss her," the authority said in its findings.

The authority also said Tennent's email on the morning of the incident could have compromised Davies' investigation of the matter.

Taylor was seeking $13,294 in reparation, for lost wages and for hurt and humiliation, however the authority ordered $5488.20 be paid to her.

"I find there was contribution by Ms Taylor and it was significant," the authority said in the findings.

When calculating the final amount, the authority took into consideration the fact Taylor had acknowledged she had slept on the job and the fact it was not the first time she had done that.

On Monday Tennent said he thought it was a "interesting" decision by the authority and he would be pleased to put "the sorry mess" behind him.

"We employ staff 24/7 to look after the needs of our guests, and we expect that to be done," he said.
In the latest airspace incident in the United Kingdom, an Airbus A320 was hit by a drone in airspace over London.

A plane with 137 people on board hit a drone on its approach to Heathrow Airport, according to the Metropolitan Police in London.

The British Airways flight from Geneva landed safely after a pilot reported an object had struck the front of the aircraft, an Airbus A320, on Sunday.

Aviation police have launched an investigation, the Daily Mail reported.

British Airways A British Airways flight from Geneva to London hit a drone on its approach to Heathrow.

No arrests were made.

READ MORE:

* Kiwis face anxious wait in Ecaudor after powerful quakes

* Raglan-based drone company raises $5m

* Kiwis caught up in quake reminded of Christchurch

In a recent report the UK Airprox Board (UKAB) reported 23 incidents classed as near-misses between aircraft and drones in the six months to October last year.

In one incident, a Boeing 777 narrowly missed a drone, which passed along the side of the aircraft.

Rules in the United Kingdom are comparable to the airspace regulations in New Zealand, although in the UK there have been calls for a centralised registration scheme to track pilots and owners.

Drone operators can be difficult to trace.

The Civil Aviation Authority in New Zealand introduced new regulations relating to drones in 2015.

Operators need to have safety plans and permission from private property owners to fly and an operating certificate, if they plan to fly a drone beyond line of sight or at night.

The AirShare site, run by Airways, details the regulations for recreational drone pilots and the 12-point civil aviation rule governing the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

Drones are also being used for innovative commercial applications, including crop monitoring and mustering on stations in Australia and, in February, Transpower announced drones would be used to inspect power lines, pylons and plant during national grid work.

However, airspace rules have caused some confusion, including waiting five days to get clearance to fly a model helicopter because the relevant rule also applies to model aircraft.

In September, the pilot of an Air New Zealand A320 reported a "sizeable" red-coloured drone passed close to the aircraft at an altitude of 1800 metres (6000 feet) in air space at Kaiapoi.

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In praise of the humble Malu paan By Gyan C. A. Fernando View(s): View(s):

On a recent, long and boring flight, idly browsing through the in-flight magazine I came across an article about Sri Lankan cuisine. Boring, so I thought, till I spotted a picture of a golden and delicious Malu Paan. The years then rolled back to the 1960s when I was still in school: It was then called Muss Paan and we were forbidden to eat it as it was then sold in rather unsavoury bakeries with dark-sweaty and bare-bodied-sneezingncoughing bakers in dirty sarongs and they, the bakers, generally made them out of leftovers. We ignored parental policing, tasted the stuff and got hooked!

For the benefit of the Ignoramii: These typically Sri Lankan filled rolls are triangular shaped buns incorporating a spicy filling of fish, mashed potatoes, chopped onions all spiced up with the usual Sri Lankan spices. It is not a filled roll but a stuffed roll.

Going back to the 1960s and to Kalutara, where I lived at that time; one day a new and hygienic-looking bakery opened opposite the central bus stand. The waiters were not sweaty and not bare-bodied, which was a start. It was called the Salgado Bakery and they served the best Malu Paan ever. We schoolboys pooled our resources and tucked into these lovelies. The bakery is still there and, yes, they still make the stuff!

Mc Malu paan Corporation

In later years and living in GB, with a strong sense of nostalgia about and with inbred loyalty to the Old Republic, I decided to start a new enterprise: that of promoting Malu Paan. I set up a web-page, called my company the Mc Malu Paan Corporation and promoted crazy ideas. Triangular soft rolls, sliced in half horizontally like McDonalds, were to be layered with the Mc Malu Paan burger of fish, potatoes, etc, lightly heated and served with some local fizzy drink like Portello. Cheese could be added making it a Mc Malu Paan tm with Cheese and instead of the usual French fries offer banana chips or even Del fries and so on. All that I needed were young men and smart girls in backward facing caps who could say Can I help you, Sir?!

Unfortunately, the nasty, humour-less Johnnies at the big brother McDonalds Corp wrote to me saying that I was infringing their rights. I pointed out that my product was far superior but then a New York lawyer sent me a letter.

Fish Bun Ekak!

On a recent visit to The Old Republic everything was not OK for Malu paan. There still were the usual unhygienic-no-frills-joints. These were in The Pettah and in and around Colombo Fort Railway Station, as usual. Then there were the posh-sounding places for the Nouveau Riche, mostly food marts in supermarkets. In the latter places this item was now labelled as Fish Buns!

Fish Buns! Can you believe that? Little but grossly obese kids were throwing tantrums and screaming Mummy! I want a fish bun!I want a fish bun! I want a fish bun whereas marginally better behaved-and-less-obese kids were saying Ammi, I want a Fish Bun ekak! rather submissively.

To me this new nomenclature was a travesty as Malu paan can only be called that and nothing else.Things got to a head when I nearly smacked the head of the Head of the Bakery Section of a well-known supermarket who called it a Fish Bun in my presence. I longed for the 1960s and the Salgado Bakery!

Protected Status

Malu paan needs regional identity protection. Never heard of it? I said Regional Identity Protection. For example: Champagne can only come from the Champagne region of France and Scotch whiskey can only come from Scotland. Parma ham, Camembert and other sort of exotic stuff can only come from a particular region or country. Even the uninspiring and stodgy Cornish Pasty can only come from

Think of Ceylon Tea, which has a sort of semi-protected status and can only come from Ceylon. Yes, I know we foolishly changed the name of the country but Ceylon Tea can only come from the former Ceylon! And we still call it Ceylon Tea. So there!

My mission now is to protect our Malu paan. We do not want our big-headed-and-nasty-neighbour India, mass-producing Malu paan and claiming it was their idea in the first place, nor do we want the Chinese on it. On my part, I have started a campaign of sorts going. I have sent off several missives to the Ministry of Culture and to the President himself. Malu paan is Malu paan and it is our Heritage is my campaign slogan. I am in the process of producing large Malu paan Cut Outs sort of pandals to spoil the landscape with.You know the sort of pandals that proliferate just before elections? With large images of oily politicians? I propose to have a large image of myself eating a large Malu paan on mine!

There will also be a low-level poster campaign on all available spaces like bridges and embankments, and of course posted illegally. This is normal in Sri Lanka. We will stick Malu paan stickers on all buses forciblyand on trains. We might even spray paint our logo on the houses of dissidents who refer to this Holy Grail as Fish Buns!

We will fight them in the Bakeries!

If any one were to infringe our rights, we will fight them in the bakeries, we will fight them in the restaurants and we will fight them on the beaches! So there.

I might even contest the next Presidential Election on the Malu paan ticket. My party will be called the Movement for Unified National Cuisine Heritage (MUNCH).
Tauranga Rooster Teeth followers are desperate for more fans to book tickets for the upcoming RWBY Season 1 screenings later this month.

If the screening doesnt reach the minimum number of reserved tickets by April 20, the screening will be cancelled.
Around 217 customers were without power when a car crashed into a power pole on State Highway 2, at Aongatete.

Police were called to the crash on SH2, near Morton Road, about 2pm.
Tributes are flowing for a Tauranga woman as police investigate the circumstances of her death.



Melanie Floyd, who grew up in Tauranga and went to Otumoetai College, succumbed to severe head injuries in the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital on Saturday after her family made the decision to switch off life support.
Rosario Dawson

Rosario Dawson forms a heart with her hands at a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at the Oncenter in Syracuse, Tuesday April 12, 2016.

(Michael Greenlar | mgreenlar@syracuse.com)

"Daredevil" star Rosario Dawson was arrested at a political protest in Washington, D.C., days after campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in Syracuse.

Us Weekly reports the 36-year-old actress was arrested for crowding, obstructing, or incommoding after crossing police lines at the Democracy Spring demonstration at the U.S. Capitol on Friday. She was not handcuffed or taken into custody, but did receive a ticket for a $50 fine after being processed on location.

She told media afterwards that she had been warned by authorities before her arrest, but thinks her celebrity status may have protected her from more serious consequences.

"I think there was maybe a desire to not particularly maybe have me arrested because they didn't want that to be put out there," Dawson said. "So we got up when they walked away and we sat down and we were arrested... the police were really great with us and really lovely. I have to say that is not the case for so many people."

According to ET, the Democracy Spring organization planned the nonviolent protest to "end the corruption of big money in our politics." Sanders has addressed the issue in his campaign, most recently criticizing a $350,000 campaign fundraiser for Hillary Clinton hosted by George Clooney.

"This is a tremendous issue and I'm really grateful that I could be here and be a part of it," Dawson, who wore a jacket painted with Sanders' face on it, told media after her arrest Friday. "I wanted for me, personally, to be in solidarity with the people who put themselves on the line."

Dawson, who was also arrested in 2004 for protesting former President George W. Bush, appeared in Syracuse on Tuesday to support Sanders:

Sanders and Clinton face off in the New York presidential primary on Tuesday. Donald Trump, John Kasich and Ted Cruz are vying for Republican votes.
LIVERPOOL, N.Y. -- A Liverpool man was charged Sunday evening after he crashed into a telephone pole and a building on Old Liverpool Road, according to Onondaga County Sheriff's deputies.

Matthew Desimone, 42, of Midwood Drive, told deputies he passed out before crashing at about 7:30 p.m.

Desimone was charged with driving while intoxicated, driving under the influence of drugs, criminal possession of a controlled substance and failure to keep right, deputies said. Detective Jon A. Seeber said Desimone was under the influence of heroin.

Desimone crashed into the building at 645 Old Liverpool Road, a nail salon called Magnolia Nails.

Desimone was transported to Upstate University Hospital with minor injuries and charged, Seeber said.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Every time he read a news story over the past 20 years about an innocent prisoner being freed, Joe Fahey thought of a man sitting behind bars since 1995.

Gary Thibodeau should be one of them, Fahey said.

"I believed his verdict was a miscarriage," he said. "It has always, always troubled me."

Fahey has similar misgivings about a judge's decision last month to deny Thibodeau's request for a new trial in the 1994 kidnapping of Heidi Allen, 18, from her job as a cashier at the D&W Convenience store in New Haven.

Fahey told Syracuse.com an appeals court will also likely take issue with acting Oswego County Judge Daniel King's finding that prosecutors did not withhold evidence that would've benefited Thibodeau in his 1995 trial.

Former Onondaga County Judge Joe Fahey in 2013.

"I'm just a little bit perplexed and somewhat baffled by the analysis of that," said Fahey, who retired in December as an Onondaga County Court judge after 19 years on the bench.

Fahey was Thibodeau's lawyer in the 1995 jury trial that ended with a kidnapping conviction and a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Fahey had been unable to publicly comment on the case until he retired as a judge.

He testified at a hearing last year before King to determine whether to overturn the conviction. Fahey testified that he never received reports and other documents related to Allen's work as a confidential drug informant for the Oswego County Sheriff's Office.

King found that then-prosecutor Donald Dodd did turn over that evidence.

The disputed evidence includes the sheriff's informant file on Allen and reports about a deputy accidentally dropping her index card and photo in the parking lot of the D&W two years before the kidnapping.

Five months before the 1995 trial, Fahey asked about Allen working as an informant, but was told by police and prosecutors that she never did any work for the sheriff's office, he said.

Dodd testified last year that he disclosed all reports about Allen's work as an informant to Fahey.

In denying the withheld evidence claim, King cited Fahey's "understandable inability to recollect certain documents which he had in his possession 20 years ago."



Fahey took issue with that.

"I certainly didn't forget, because I never received them," he said.

He noted King's contradictory rulings about Allen being an informant. In November, the judge said her status as an informant "has already been established" at the hearing. Last month, King called the claim that Allen was an informant "misleading and inaccurate."

"That one truly surprised me," Fahey said. "How do you reconcile the two positions?"

If he'd known about the evidence of Allen working as an informant, Fahey said he would've been able to show that Allen was far more at risk of being abducted by drug dealers than by Thibodeau and his brother Richard.

Richard Thibodeau was acquitted in a separate trial in 1995.

Gary Thibodeau also sought a new trial based on newly discovered evidence. At least 14 witnesses said they heard one of three new possible suspects admit their involvement in the kidnapping or disposal of Allen's body.

"There's a lot more compelling evidence about the people they uncovered in that hearing than there is about Gary Thibodeau," Fahey said.

If he were the judge at the hearing, Fahey would've let all the defense's evidence in, he said. Since there was no jury, the judge could've considered it and rejected it if he didn't find it relevant, Fahey said. King would not allow evidence implicating Michael Bohrer, one of the three new possible suspects.

Thibodeaus' current lawyer, Lisa Peebles, has asked the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court to hear an appeal of King's ruling. Oswego County District Attorney Greg Oakes is expected to respond to that request.

Allen's kidnapping in a small town put intense pressure on the sheriff's office to solve the crime, Fahey said.

"At some point, everybody gets frustrated, then they start getting frustrated with law enforcement," he said. "Then they start looking at, 'Who can we pin this on?'"

The Thibodeaus became the focus of the investigation only because Richard came forward on the day of the kidnapping to say he'd bought cigarettes and a newspaper at the store that day, Fahey said.

"Then they discover that Richard has a brother with a minor drug charge out of Massachusetts, and it becomes kind of a prosecutorial feeding frenzy," he said.

That pressure to hold someone accountable likely carried over to Thibodeau's jury, Fahey said.

"I was worried that it was going to be difficult for people from that area to resist that pressure," he said.

One of Thibodeau's jurors told Syracuse.com two years ago that she felt the community pressure in 1995. She said she and the jurors didn't think there was much evidence against him, but that "there had to be something or they wouldn't have gotten that far."

Fahey and Thibodeau exchanged letters for a short time after the verdict. Thibodeau always signed his "Gary the Innocent," Fahey said.

When he showed up to testify last year, Fahey didn't recognize the scrawny man he passed in the Oswego County Courthouse. It was Thibodeau.

"That's the degree to which he's deteriorated over the years," Fahey said. "When I realized who it was, it just jolted me."

Thibodeau had the look of a man who'd become institutionalized, Fahey said, like he'd given up on life.

Contact John O'Brien anytime | email | Twitter | 315-470-2187
Michael Jones

By Elliott Jones of TCPalm

VERO BEACH  A man charged with murdering his girlfriend in 2014 will spend five years in state prison for violating his probation in an unrelated stalking case from 2012 in Broward County, court records show.

But first, Michael Jones, of Vero Beach, will be transferred to Indian River County to be tried on charges of first-degree murder of his girlfriend, Diana Duve, 26, of Vero Beach. That case is scheduled for a status hearing June 23 before Judge Cynthia Cox, according to court documents. A trial date hasn't been set.

Tom Bakkedahl, chief assistant state attorney for the 19th Judicial Circuit, along with Assistant State Attorney Brian Workman, will prosecute the Duve case.

"As that case grows older, it moves to the forefront," Bakkedahl said. "It's more likely to end up in trial sooner. We've been actively working on Mr. Jones' case since the date of his arrest. ... We're always preparing for trial."

He hopes the case will come to trial within six to eight months. He estimates four to five weeks to prosecute the case.

Jones was sentenced Friday in Broward County for violating probation in the 2012 aggravated stalking case, according to the 17th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office that serves Broward County.

In June 2014, Jones left Indian River County without state permission, according to court records. That was while the Vero Beach Police Department was looking for him during an investigation into Duve's disappearance, according to arrest reports.

Three police officers found him at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Fort Pierce. He was in "willful and substantial violation of his probation," according to a statement by the Broward County State Attorney's Office.

Within days of Jones being found in Fort Pierce, Duve was found dead in the trunk of her car in a parking lot in Melbourne. Jones is accused of fatally strangling Duve in his Vero Beach town house. He was charged with first-degree murder.

After Duve's death, another Broward County woman came forward, accusing Jones of strangling her in 2013 in Broward County. In March, a Broward County jury acquitted Jones of that charge, according to the 17th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office.

Workman said the acquittal in Broward County won't affect the murder case. He said the state had hoped to present evidence from Jones' 2013 arrest in Fort Lauderdale in the strangulation case, but it isn't known whether an Indian River County jury will be allowed to hear the allegations because of his acquittal.

Friday, a judge signed an order allowing the Broward County Sheriff's Office to release Jones to the Indian River County Sheriff's Office. Details of the transfer have to be worked out.
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Cartriel Gibbs, 36, 1600 block of Hampshire Lane, Port St. Lucie; destroying, tampering with or fabricating evidence.

Jay Seibert, 32, 3700 block of Kaiser Street, Port St. Lucie; warrant for out-of-state fugitive, Delaware County, Ohio, theft.

Jacques Azemar, 31, 1000 block of Martinique Avenue, Fort Pierce; robbery - no firearm or weapon; obstruction of justice  tampering in third degree felony proceeding.

Francisco Cruz, 25, 4300 block of Southwest Calah Circle, Port St. Lucie; warrant for failure to appear, possession of fictitious driver's license/I.D. card, driving without a valid driver's license.

Brandon Latalladi, 21, 1400 block of Southwest Medina Avenue, Port St. Lucie; destroying, tampering with or fabricating evidence.

Larissa Gonzalez, 26, 900 block of South Lake Drive, Fort Pierce; possession of a controlled substance (diazepam) without a prescription.

James Williams, 27, 1700 block of Grand Club Boulevard, Fort Pierce; driving while license suspended, third or subsequent offense.

Linda Fletcher, 50, 1000 block of South U.S. 1, Fort Pierce; warrant for court order to revoke release on own recognizance, possession of cocaine.

Jessica Dakin, 38, 2800 block of St. Lucie Boulevard, Stuart; driving on permanently revoked driver's license.

Tolisha Martin, 34, 1200 block of 15th Avenue, Vero Beach; warrants for trafficking in hydromorphone, solicitation to traffic in hydromorphone, conspiracy to traffic in hydromorphone, unlawful use of a two-way communications device.

Bradley Bova, 22, Bellevue, Ohio; possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine).

Anthony Zeigler, 36, 300 block of North 12th Street, Fort Pierce; destroying, tampering with or fabricating evidenc; possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted felon; carrying a concealed weapon; warrant for violation of probation, DUI.

Ronnie Buckins, 36, 2200 block of Avenue D, Fort Pierce; possession of marijuana with intent to sell within 1,000 feet of a college.

Brandi Brown, 34, first block of Southwest Blackburn Terrace, Stuart; driving while license suspended, third or subsequent offense.

Guy Rao, 48, 10000 block of South Indian River Drive, Fort Pierce; warrant for failure of a sex offender to report to the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Christopher Mathis, 36, 500 block of North 21st Street, Fort Pierce; warrants for battery, false imprisonment.

Ashley Hodges, 33, 100 block of Caprona Street, Sebastian; driving while license suspended, habitual offender.

Ronnie Williams, 28, Lauderhill Lakes; warrant for violation of probation, burglary of a conveyance, grand theft.

Tony Williams, 35, Pompano Beach; warrant for aggravated stalking.

Christopher Dobeck, 36, 300 block of Southeast Gasparilla Avenue, Port St. Lucie; warrant for violation of community control, burglary of a conveyance, grand theft.

Robert Taylor, 31, first block of Caribbean, Port St. Lucie; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill; aggravated battery; obstruction of justice - tampering in a third degree felony proceeding.

Edgar Sales, 39, 1200 block of Essex Drive, Fort Pierce; warrants for failure of a sex offender to report vacating residence, failure of a sex offender to report to the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Jerrell Alexander, 23, Albany, Georgia; warrants for grand theft, uttering a forged bill, check or draft.

Tateram Bachan, 52, 200 block of Southeast Kaspar Drive, Port St. Lucie; warrant for food stamp fraud.

Christine Hogan, 33, 4100 block of Southwest Endicott Street, Port St. Lucie; warrant for violation of probation, criminal mischief - property damage.

Darry Chaney, 35, 700 block of North Ninth Street, Fort Pierce; battery, second or subsequent offense.

Jeremiah Mercer, 19, 1100 block of Avenue D, Fort Pierce; destroying, tampering with or fabricating evidence.

Lianna O'Bry, 21, Inglis; larceny/grand theft.

Calvin Johnson, 30, 2900 block of Avenue K, Fort Pierce; hold, state D.O.C., burglary of a dwelling/occupied conveyance, trafficking in stolen property.

Donald Christy, 29, Lexington, Kentucky; possession of a controlled substance.

Jamell Adamson, 31, 400 block of Southwest Fifer Avenue, Port St. Lucie; warrant for failure to appear, criminal use of personal I.D. Arrested in Martin County.

Tolisha Martin, 34, 1200 block of 15th Avenue, Vero Beach; warrants for trafficking in hydromorphone, solicitation to traffic in hydromorphone, conspiracy to traffic in hydromorphone, unlawful use of a two-way communications device. Arrested in St. Lucie County.

Ashley Hodges, 33, 100 block of Caprona Street, Sebastian; driving while license suspended, habitual offender. Arrested in St. Lucie County.
By Laurie K. Blandford of TCPalm

MARTIN COUNTY  Two Stuart men were sentenced Friday to prison after they were convicted unlawfully possessing firearms and ammunition at an indoor firing range in Jensen Beach, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Aldrick James Lott, 30, pleaded guilty Jan. 26 to being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, according to the release. Lott was sentenced to 15 years and five months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

John Robert Rucker, Jr., 46, pleaded guilty Jan. 20 to being a felon in possession of firearms, according to the release. Rucker was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

On Nov. 7, Lott and Rucker were recorded on video surveillance entering a gun shop and indoor shooting range and shooting targets with multiple firearms. Two of the guns were left at the store for cleaning, examined by law enforcement and determined to have been stolen.
Boats navigate toward the narrow channel of the Indian River Lagoon waterway while heading south. (FILE PHOTO)

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By Tyler Treadway of TCPalm

The Treasure Coast Regional League of Cities will decide Wednesday whether to join with other East Coast municipalities in an effort to preserve the Indian River Lagoon.

The Treasure Coast group, which represents 13 municipalities in Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties, will consider forming the Indian River Lagoon Regional Compact with the Volusia League of Cities and the Space Coast League of Cities.

The compact will work closely with the Indian River Lagoon Council, an organization formed last year to oversee about $2 million a year for research and restoration projects along the 156-mile lagoon.

Four of the five counties along the lagoon  Martin, St. Lucie, Brevard and Volusia  have commissioners on the lagoon council.

Indian River County commissioners voted to stay out, but three of the county's municipalities  Vero Beach, Sebastian and Fellsmere  voted to collectively share a seat on the council.

City representation

"Counties along the lagoon, well, except for Indian River County, are well-represented on the IRL Council," said Richard Gillmor, a member of the Sebastian City Council and president of the Treasure Coast league. "The idea is to get municipalities along the lagoon on board, and the best way to do that is through the League of Cities."

The Space Coast league, which represents 16 municipalities in Brevard County, approved the compact April 11.

The Volusia league, which represents 16 municipalities in Volusia County, is preparing its own compact dealing with an array of issues, including the lagoon, springs "and water quality and quantity," said Marilyn Crotty, the league's executive director.

The Volusia league "is supportive of what the other leagues are doing," Crotty said. "We're taking a broader approach; but it's likely our efforts will come together, especially when we're looking at funding for lagoon projects."

According to the proposed compact, municipalities would work with the lagoon council in such ways as:

Streamlining the permitting process for lagoon restoration projects.

Seeking increased funding for projects to put homes along the lagoon with septic tanks, which can send pollutants to the lagoon, on cleaner sewer systems.

Promote projects to store and clean stormwater before it reaches the lagoon.

Same road map

"The idea is for everyone to have the same road map," said Stu Glass, deputy mayor of the Town of Indialantic in Brevard County and president of the Space Coast League of Cities. "We've worked together in the past, but with the compact we'll be tied together better than before."

The lagoon council was formed last year to oversee the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, which provides about $600,000 each year from the federal Environmental Protection Agency for research and restoration projects.

The council enhances that funding with $500,000 each from the South Florida and St. Johns River water management districts; $250,000 from the state Department of Environmental Protection; and $50,000 from each participating county. In exchange, each entity gets a seat on the council that decides how to spend the money.

The Indian River County cities split up the $50,000 county charge to share a seat. The federal EPA has a nonvoting representative on the council.

If all three municipal leagues get on board, the compact will become official at a signing ceremony tentatively planned for April 30 at the Marine Resources Council's Lagoon House in Palm Bay.

Compact case

The Treasure Coast League of Cities will meet:

When: 10 a.m. Wednesday

Where: St. Lucie County Chamber of Commerce

Address: 2937 W. Midway Road, Fort Pierce

On the agenda: A proposal to form the Indian River Lagoon Regional Compact with the Volusia League of Cities and the Space Coast League of Cities, which would cooperate with the Indian River Lagoon Council in projects to clean up the lagoon.
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By Portia Scott

Although we've heard the candidates for president say some unpredictable things in this weird and wild campaign season, we're still hearing that familiar warning about "not throwing your vote away."

But what about those whose right to vote was taken away? Not Florida's 1.5 million convicted felons, who lose their right to vote even after serving time. Rather, law-abiding citizens  who've patriotically exercised this precious right  can find it revoked by Florida's courts. Too often, it happens to seniors.

This is personal for me. My father, W.R. "Bill" Scott, 95, lives with me and my husband, Stuart City Commissioner Troy McDonald.

A brilliant and beautifully kind man and father of five, Dad was a church deacon, Boy Scout leader, state legislator, private-practice attorney and attorney for the city of Stuart, Martin County and the school board. He's achieved so much. But now, he needs some help. It's an honor to return, in part, the care he and my mother gave me. We're lucky our family can be here for each other in our time of need.

Not everyone is so lucky. As a probate and family law attorney with an advanced degree in elder law, I'm concerned that cracks in the system for determining incapacity can leave seniors particularly vulnerable to loss of due process. The rights they can lose  even before an official declaration  are sobering, and require awareness, guidance and preparation to prevent.

Like many states, Florida law enables the disenfranchisement of voting rights  and more  when deeming someone incapacitated. They could lose the right to marry, travel, their driver's license  even which movie to attend.

Here's how it works: If anyone with an "interest in your welfare" feels you're unable to make informed decisions about your health, finances or other matters, that person can petition probate court for a judge to determine your actual capacity. If you don't have an attorney, one is appointed to you.

Also appointed is a committee, usually including a doctor, psychologist and layperson, that meets with you individually to examine your mental and physical state. Your court-appointed attorney may brief you beforehand or afterward. If afterward, you'll likely be wondering why in the world these strangers are coming around to ask you questions. This can enhance any confusion you may have, and make you hesitant about participating.

Whether you participate or not, a hearing follows. The judge reviews the examining committee's reports. You can counter with evidence of your own, but if declared incapacitated, the court must appoint a guardian to manage your personal needs, estate needs or both. If considered an emergency, a temporary guardian could be assigned to govern your life  even before you can object.

Fortunately, the Florida Legislature recently enacted safeguards to reduce abuses, establishing a waiting period before guardian appointment. Unfortunately, a loophole exists. If the person filing the action swears you could suffer "substantial harm" if left alone, the guardian is assigned.

Then, there's no way to avoid a temporary declaration of incapacity.

The best protection is prevention. Get your affairs in order. Appoint someone you trust to assist with your finances and someone who will honor your health desires.

You can pre-empt the appointment of a questionable guardian by clarifying exactly who you'd want in the role should the situation arise. You can even specify who you don't want  should you have concerns about someone in your circle.

Yes, the entire prospect is scary. So preparation is everything. Like voting, difficult choices are best made when you're as informed as possible.

Stuart probate and family attorney Portia Scott has a master of laws degree in elder law.
SHARE Ken Keaton, John's Island Club's Director of Aquatics and Water Safety along with the Hobie Cat Wave 13' catamaran.

By Erik Toomsoo, Your Newsweekly Contributor

Recently John's Island Club graciously donated one of their Hobie Cat 13 foot catamarans to the Vero Beach Lifeguard Association.

"We think the VBLA is doing a great job with educating the public about our beaches and water safety. We want to help out in any way we can," remarked Ken Keaton, Director of Aquatics & Safety for John's Island Club.

The VBLA will use the catamaran during public appearances and fundraisers to further its mission to promote beach and water safety in Vero Beach and the surrounding communities.

In May, two members of the VBLA will be participating in a catamaran race from Vero Beach to Coco Beach using the newly donated vessel.

"The boat VBLA had needed some work so for John's Island to donate this beautiful Hobie Cat gives us a fighting chance to actually make the 50 mile race without sinking," joked Tim Capra,Vice President of the VBLA.

The Florida 300 sailboat race will be held May 17-21. It originates in Islamorada making stops in Key Biscayne, Palm Beach Shores, Vero Beach, Coco Beach and finishes in Daytona Beach. The Vero Beach to Coco Beach leg called the Dogfight is open to catamarans of many shapes and sizes who race the 50 mile leg with a two hour head start.

For more information visit VBLA.org.
A benefit most of us are not aware of
Optical discs like Blu-ray are losing favor, but Sony and Panasonic dont seem to care. The companies have cranked up the storage capacity on optical media to a stunning 3.3TB.

Thats a big advance in Sonys optical storage, which is based on technology used in Blu-ray. The 3.3TB disc is targeted at studios, filmmakers, and broadcasters that store large volumes of video, and at large companies that store infrequently modified data.

For example, video streaming companies could hold a large library of films in storage arrays with many optical drives. Instead of using PCs, servers in data centers could then pull out movies from the drives and serve them to users via the cloud.

The jump to 3.3TB is also a big jump from older optical media. The first CDs came out in 1982 with a capacity of 650MB, and DVDs came out in 1996 with a capacity of 4.7GB. Todays Blu-ray media can store up to 100GB of data, and earlier this year, Sony and Panasonic said they will ship 300GB media for optical archival systems in data centers.

Optical storage is keeping up with SSDs and hard drives in the race to cram more storage into drives and media. But unlike magnetic drives or NAND flash, optical storage isnt designed for regular reads and writes, limiting its use.

However, support remains for this form of optical storage because of reliability. Sony says the media will have a 100-year shelf life, longer than other storage technology.

It remains to be seen whether the new development would translate to an advance in capacity for Blu-ray discs. The current capacity is considered adequate for 4K films.

The 3.3TB media is part of Sonys second-generation Optical Disc Archive System, a successor to the original system launched in 2013. Sony also announced optical drives to support the new media. The new drives are faster than predecessors and generic Blu-ray drives, which have notoriously slow read and write times.

The optical drives will be available in the form of a USB drive unit that can plug into a computers USB port, a fiber-channel library drive unit for storage systems, and Optical Disc Archive Cartridge for data centers. The drives will ship in the summer, Sony said.

The new media will work with Everspan, Sonys robotic storage system that can store up to 181 petabytes of data. Sony is offering Everspan as an alternative to tape or hard-drive storage in data centers.

Sony is encouraging companies to support the Optical Disc Archive System, which is being pitched as a new system to store archived data. Sony said 42 companies have created interfaces for the storage technology.

The 3.3TB media and drives were announced at NAB Show in Las Vegas, where Sony is also previewing several 4K video-related products.
Following Apples announcement last week, I noticed a number of reports on how disappointed customers were that there was nothing they wanted to wait in line for hours to buy. I personally thought they should have been excited about that, because I hate to stand in lines. Ive never really figured out an Apple fanatics penchant for pain.

Still, it is very clear that todays Apple is a very different company than it was just six years ago. That got me thinking. Dell, HP and Lenovo also are very different. They all have nearly completely different personalities  and only Dell is run by the same guy (and almost wasnt).

Ill point out the big changes  some that I think are kind of insane  and close with my product of the week: a little gadget that can make your car smart (well, smarter anyway).

2000: The Decade It All Changed

It was apparent, soon after Steve Jobs return to Apple, that hed not only studied Louis Gerstners turnaround at IBM, but also had decided to go one better. He set what is now the gold standard in turnarounds. Jobs did that by cutting Apple to the bone, massively simplifying its product lines, and convincing Bill Gates to invest in Apple (which had to be incredibly painful for him).

Dell, on the other hand, appeared to be at the top of its game, tied at the hip to Microsoft and doing very well. All was not well under the covers, however. Michael Dell wanted to retire, and Microsoft was well into making what likely was its biggest mistake: pivoting from a focus on users to a focus on companies. Microsoft also was reeling from an antitrust action. On top of that, and likely because of it, Bill Gates wanted out.

HP was sick, in need of fresh blood, and basically treading water. It wasnt clear if it knew who its customers were. It was in far too many businesses, with little resources to fully fund any of the efforts. It looked a lot like IBM did before it collapsed in the 1980s, and if one word could have summed up the firm, it might have been geriatric.

Lenovo largely was unknown in North America. It was a powerful company in China, but China had yet to become a true world power in technology  and like most Chinese companies, Lenovo was having trouble breaking out of the region. It desperately needed an edge, but it wasnt clear where it could get one, and few outside of China took the company seriously.

2010: The Decade It All Changed Again

This decade found Apple as the most valuable company in the world and Steve Jobs the CEO of the decade. He had done something amazing at least twice  first in seeing the opportunity of the iPod and pivoting the entire company to it, and next in cannibalizing the iPod for the iPhone.

He nearly singlehandedly created the impression the PC was dead, which is kind of interesting since Apple really launched the modern PC.

Dell had been through a number of changes and was in the midst of a major transformation. There were doubts that Dell would survive. Its attempts to follow Apple in both MP3 players and smartphones had failed spectacularly, leading some to doubt the firm had long to live.

There wasnt a death watch, as there had been with Apple, but Dell was in trouble  largely because Microsoft had lost its way, and its pivot from users to enterprises had gone very badly for the PC business.

HP, which was headquartered near Apple and followed IBM closely, had observed both successful turnarounds  but it ignored everything it learned. It seemed there was no mistake it didnt want to repeat.

Then it brought in an industry expert, Mark Hurd, and he was making solid progress. HP seemed to be out of the weeds, and it even bought Palm and had a solid plan on how to pivot the company to compete better with Apple. Everything was looking pretty good.

After acquiring IBMs PC business, Lenovo had become a force to be reckoned with. It reversed a bad decision to divest phones and was back in that business, but still mostly in China. It was the only company heavily in the PC business, other than Apple, that could showcase success in phones as well.

Lenovo was making it clear that a Chinese company could execute out of China. Its headwinds increased animosity between the U.S. and Chinese governments, which created a drag on business but not execution.

2016 Status Report

Apple is weakening, but its far from being in trouble. It doesnt seem able to lead anymore, however. Rather than following Steve Jobs model of focused, simple products, it now offers products that are starting to look like the industry standard. They are relatively difficult to use (compared to earlier Apple offerings), and theres an increasing number of products to choose from.

Tablets are in decline, smartwatches have yet to take off, and the companys risky pivot to cars has yet to materialize. The move away from phone subsidies appears to be killing its unusually high market share for a premium product (its typically closer to 10 percent than the near 50 percent it once enjoyed) and forcing it to bring out cheaper phones. Instead of leading, it appears to be following  at least with tablets.

Dell did the impossible and went private, realizing that a big part of the problem with every company in this segment is the forced focus on quarterly results and expensive efforts to prop up valuations.

For once, Apple seems to be following it into business with a tablet line (iPad Pro). However, Dell still lacks any smartphone presence, and that is likely its biggest client exposure.

Microsoft has a subject matter expert running the firm, and it appears to be recovering as a result, though its move into hardware with the Surface line has introduced a new exposure for Dell.

Dell currently is in the process of buying EMC  and if successful, that could make it the most powerful company in enterprise technology, with a blend of software, services and hardware that could be unmatched. That potential has yet to be realized, though, because the merger isnt complete.

Having seen the Apple turnaround, the IBM turnaround, Lenovos growth after buying the PC business, Suns failure to pivot to software, and Mark Hurds success, HP came up with a new plan.

After being proven right in deciding that keeping PCs was a good idea, it first decided to pivot to software with a new CEO who didnt even last a year. Then it brought in a CEO who had even less industry experience than Carly Fiorina had, and she decided to ignore everything  most recently spinning off the PC and printer business.

What remains are two companies  both now far better focused, but also with reduced economies of scale. HP Inc. has the stronger management team, but it is saddled with both massive debt and printers. HP Enterprise is relatively debt-free, but it lacks experienced leadership.

HPs last 16 years  with the partial exception of Mark Hurds time there (he did showcase why office affairs are dangerous)  provide a strong example of what not to do.

Lenovo is now a world power, on paper. Having recently acquired both Motorola and IBMs server business, it now is the only company with credible presence not only in every major market, but also in every major computing arena.

It has a significant world presence in smartphones, tablets, PCs and servers. It is light on software, preferring partnering to owning, and it is light on services. However, in terms of computing hardware breadth, it is unmatched.

Lenovo currently is experiencing financial pain as a result of two huge simultaneous mergers, but it actually appears to be pulling the move off, and it has been making major staffing realignments to finish the process.

Looking Forward

Apple appears to be pivoting from consumer to enterprise, and it likely should take a look at how that screwed up Microsoft to see what not to do. Its choice to partner with IBM and Cisco rather than do it all is a good indicator that it actually may avoid repeating some of Microsofts mistakes.

However, tight partnerships arent Apples strength, and the firms will need to become closely coupled  at least with regard to their joint business efforts  in order to work. Still, the market hasnt adjusted to looking at Apple the way it is rather than the way it was. When it does that, the result could be economically painful. Still, I expect that will leave Apple in a better place with more reasonable expectations.

Dell has to complete the EMC merger and address, either through product or partnering, its lack of presence with handheld devices. It could pivot the market, like Apple did, but it cant continue to act as if smartphones dont exist.

However, once it completes the EMC merger and both firms are private, it will have a flexibility that no other firm in its segment has, as well as resources that match or exceed all other players. If it plays its cards right, Dell has the best chance to emerge at the end of 2020 as the most powerful U.S. tech company. Whether it is the most powerful in the world likely will depend on what happens between the U.S. and China.

HP well, HP as we knew it effectively is gone. It has been replaced by two smaller, more focused companies. The PC firm is back where Dell was in 2000 but with printers. The enterprise firm is a weak clone of IBM.

Focusing on the PC side, HP needs some kind of an iPod breakout product. 3D printing could be it, and it could flip printing from a liability to an asset again. I actually see some good things out of the printer unit in product and marketing execution, and it has a strong leadership team. However, Im seeing more folks angling to get out of both companies than Im seeing at any other firms in technology, and that makes HPs future less certain.

Lenovo has to lock down the Motorola and IBM server mergers, and it appears to be nearing the end of that process. Once done, it has to be able to show some kind of end-to-end synergy for the market to truly get excited about the result.

It remains the only firm trying to replicate Steve Jobs with Ashton Kutcher, a strategy that still has unmet potential. It also has one of the strongest product marketing people (David Roman) Ive ever met.

Lenovo is now the strongest technology company in China, and it has a shot at becoming the strongest technology company in the world in 2020. That depends on what happens between the U.S. and China. Lenovo is more of a multinational, though, and that may give it a unique edge.

Wrapping Up

Now there are a number of other major and fringe players that could disrupt the hell out of all of this. Amazon in particular, with its heavy focus on cloud services  even though it bounced with smartphones  could be the tech company to watch.

Samsung, LG, Huawei, Alibaba, and others from overseas also could disrupt this entire process by the decades end. Thats not even considering the impacts of war or massive natural or manmade disasters that could change dramatically what people buy.

Finally, robotics, 3D printing and artificial intelligence could change the tech landscape massively by decades end. As a result, the only thing we can be sure of is that 2020 will be very different from 2016.

Unless its a Tesla, my advice on the cusp of the era of self-driving cars is to not buy a new car right now. The reason is that Im told that once self-driving cars hit critical mass, insurance companies will change fees dramatically, and cars that arent self-driving will become too expensive to own.

That said, a lot of the smart connected stuff is just arriving on new cars, and some of it is pretty cool.

Automatic is the best tool to bring some of this smart technology into an older car that Ive yet seen.

Automatic Connected CarAdapter

Its big value is that if you get into an accident, it automatically will use your phone to call for help. Also, it will give you Fitbit-like reports on your driving, helping you to drive more safely and economically. It will connect to an increasing number of third-party apps to provide other functions connected to your smartphone.

What makes Automatic nice is that it costs just US$99, and there is no subscription. It will give you a feeling for what is coming without buying a new car (it worked fine with my 2008 Audi A3), and it is very easy to install.

Be aware that it pulls power, so you dont want to leave it attached if you are away from your car for a long time.

Because Automatic makes a dumb car a tad smarter  oh, and it works with Amazon Echo  it is my product of the week.
Last week it was reported that the owner of a small web hosting company had deleted his entire organization with a single line of accidental code. But it turns out the whole thing was a hoax - an internet marketing effort to promote his firm.

Marco Marsala took to the Server Fault forums to ask how he would go about recovering his lost data after alleging that he'd accidentally ran the 'rm -rf' command line, erasing his entire company and the 1500 websites of his customers.

As you would expect, forum users lambasted Marsala for not having safeguards in place to stop this apparent error, and told him that retrieving the deleted data would be extremely difficult.

Things started to look a little suspicious when Marsala added an update to his Server Fault post that claimed all the lost files had been recovered. "We consulted a data recovery company who analyzed one of our 1,500 server disks for a reasonable fee, and after diagnoses, sent ... a list of recoverable files. All files are here. Now we're finding the money to pay [them] for all our servers," he wrote.

On Friday, Stack Overflow, which runs the forum, revealed that the story "was actually just a hoax in some kind of viral marketing effort." In an interview with Italian publication Repubblica, Marsala said the promotion stunt was "just a joke."



"The moderators on Server Fault have been in contact with the author about this, and as you can imagine, they're not particularly amused by it," Stack Overflow said in a statement.



Marsala did add, however, that his story does have some basis in reality; someone he knew really did delete his entire company with one line of accidental code, but this was "before 2006."

He also pointed out that Ansible - the configuration management software he claimed to be using - prevented the kind of mistake he was describing. Marsala said that despite being widely used, few people realized that his made-up incident wouldn't be possible with Ansible.

Hoaxes that turn out to be viral marketing campaigns are nothing new. But the fact that this one used a scenario where all the clients' websites are deleted as a way of promote a web hosting company seems a bit weird.
A police investigation is underway in the UK after the pilot of an Airbus A320 claimed his plane was struck by a drone as it approached Heathrow airport. The incident is believed to be the first time a UAV has crashed into a commercial jet during landing.

The British Airways flight from Geneva was hit as it came in to land at the London airport at 12:50 BST on Sunday. The 132 passengers and five cabin crew on board were unaware of the collision, which was reported to the Metropolitan Police's aviation security unit by the pilot after the plane safely landed at Terminal 5.

"A pilot on an inbound flight into Heathrow Airport from Geneva reported to police that he believed a drone had struck the aircraft," said a Scotland Yard spokesperson.

British Airways said engineers thoroughly examined the aircraft and cleared it for the next flight after the incident was reported.

There have been numerous cases of near-misses between drones and commercial aircraft in recent years. Steve Landells, a flight safety specialist at the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), said a collision was inevitable.

"Frankly it was only a matter of time before we had a drone strike given the huge numbers being flown around by amateurs who don't understand the risks and the rules. It appears that no serious damage was done on this occasion, but what is clear is that while most drones are flown safely, sensibly and within the limits of the law, much more education of drone users and enforcement of the rules is needed to ensure our skies remain safe from this threat."

In the UK, a UAV cannot be flown above 400 feet or "beyond the direct unaided line of sight" of the operator. Failure to do so can result in six months imprisonment.

Anyone flying a drone near an airport risks a sentence of five years behind bars, which could be extended to a life term if a pilot is forced to take evasive action that results in the operator being charged with endangering an aircraft.

The UK's Department of Transport said it will be publishing a strategy on UAVs later this year; with this latest latest incident in mind, it's possible that the UK could follow the US in introducing a compulsory registration program for drones.

Despite the chance of a plane hitting a UAV being extremely small, industry experts are calling for more research into the scenario. Landells said that while there have been plenty of tests carried out to discover the effects of bird strikes on planes, the same level of funding should be applied to drone strike research, as "birds don't have a big lump of lithium battery in them."
Are you a seafood lover? If yes, take heed: fish such as tuna can absorb pollutants dumped into the sea, and when eaten, can potentially disrupt your body's defense against toxin, new research suggests.

Awareness about the negative effects of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is nothing new. Health advocates have long sought to take away POPs from the environment.

However, it was not until now that experts from the University of California, San Diego have understood exactly how environmental pollutants harm humans.

Negative Effects Of POPs To Humans

In order to find out the effects, researchers tested the ability of a protein called P-glycoprotein to fight against POPs. This is a protein originally meant to defend the body from toxins by removing them.

The team focused on POPs found in human urine and blood, as well as in the muscles of wild yellowfin tuna. All in all, they studied a total of 10 POPs.

Experts previously thought POPs simply passed by the P-glycoprotein in the same way a sneaky customer would slip pass a bouncer in a club.

The findings of the study, however, revealed that POPs actually interact with the protein in order to lessen its power.

One pollutant called PBDE-100 negatively latched onto P-glycoprotein, causing it to fail in doing its job to combat toxins.

Marine biologist Amro Hamdoun, study senior author, said environmental chemicals produce intimate reactions.

But instead of the reactions getting expelled, the chemicals interfere with P-glycoprotein and prevent it from functioning.

Implications

Postdoctoral Research Scientist Sascha Nicklisch, lead author of the study, said the concentrations of POPs in the fat of the tuna they studied were high enough to distrupt P-glycoprotein in the body.

Hamdoun said that when we eat fish that are contaminated with POPs, we could be decreasing the effectiveness of our defense system against toxins.

With that, both Hamdoun and Nicklisch said it is crucial that we consider the possible risks of eating food affected by POPs.

Hamdoun further said this issue is something policymakers and scientists will have to think about very critically, and it is important to ensure that these fish do not end up in the food supply.

"I eat fish and I consider fish to be a very healthy food," added Hamdon. "The issue we are raising is there are some fish that are quite contaminated."

Meanwhile, the team's findings are featured in the journal Science Advances.

Photo : Taro Taylor | Flickr

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Parents should start kids young when it comes to sex and fertility education and initiate the big talk before their children reach primary school age. This is to avoid future risks of early parenthood, experts said.

The child could be as young as age 3, according to some leading fertility experts in the United Kingdom attending the Fertility Health summit of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. They pushed for a German or Swedish style of parenting, applied at an early age and employing gaming and social media to engage children on the matter.

Summit organizer and British Fertility Society (BFS) chair Adam Balen said people should look at 3- and 4-year-olds being introduced to ideas about where babies come from.

We need to start at primary school  maybe even younger, echoed Professor Joyce Harper from University College Hospital London, citing her two sons as an example. Yes, kids are going to ask about their anatomy.

A new survey conducted in time for the summit found that many people ages 16 to 24 have worrisome gaps in their understanding of reproductive health and fertility. While fertility rates for both men and women gradually dropped from ones late 20s because of several factors, four in five of those polled thought a womans fertility only began declining after age 35.

The study, too, found that much of the surveyed young adults obtained their knowledge on fertility from the Internet, social media and friends and family.

In recent years, the age when women have their first child has slowly increased, with the BFS highlighting how female fertility starts to decline from the late 20s as the number of eggs that women naturally have are progressively lost over time.

Sex education also tends to be strongly focused on how to avoid pregnancy.

[I]t has frequently presented a very negative image of childbearing  and some, to their cost, are leaving it too late, warned Norman Wells from the Family Education Trust.

For Balen, women are delaying pregnancy partly because they are hit hard by social pressure: seeking a career, being economically disadvantaged, or suffering a lack of commitment from men.

In the United States, the average age of first-time mothers are also steadily increasing  climbing 1.4 years from 2000 to 2014 or from 24.9 to 26.3 years old, according to a recent CDC report.

Harper highlighted the role of YouTube and social media in teaching kids online about the matter. The trouble, she added, is that really bad information exists on these channels and other digital forums, making it crucial to counter them with good information.

Photo: Farhad Sadykov | Flickr

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For other countries, it is unusual to see a dangerous animal strolling around the city, but in Granada Hills, a prowling mountain lion -- causing campus lock-down -- was chased and tranquilized by authorities.

According to school police the mountain lion luring around John F. Kennedy High School was first seen by the cafeteria employees. Children's who left early said they knew that the animal had been lingering in the campus but they did not actually see it.

The incident was reported at about 10 to 11 a.m. and the response team from the Los Angeles Police Department, Fish and Wildlife officials and animal control promptly went to the site where the mountain lion was seen.

The 4-year-old fierce cat, which is estimated to weigh about 90 pounds (41 kilograms), was cornered in the neighborhood, southwest of Los Angeles Unified campus. It ran through the fences of homeowners Dora and Armando Villanueva at 16400 block, Donmetz Street.

The couple believed that they were in danger due to the live mountain lion in their front yard.

Dora Villanueva said that his husband just closed the door due to the wind blowing and suddenly they saw the mountain lion.

"It looked at me through the window. I thought it was going to break the window and come in. I was so scared." Mrs. Villanueva added.

The wildlife officials then had the chance of shooting the wild cat with tranquilizer darts. Lieutenant J.C. Healy from California Department Fish and Wildlife shoot the cat at the back.

Healy and his team needed to give the mountain lion additional shots of tranquilizer as it struggle to move even after the first darting. This helped the animal to completely pass out and be safe for the rescuers to place it in the vehicle.

"He was a tough cat," Healy said.

The mountain lion was placed on a pickup truck and transported into the wild.

"He's on his way back to the Santa Susana Mountains, in what we call suitable habitat," said Andrew Hughan, state Fish and Wildlife spokesman

According to officials, the cat is thin and might be scavenging for food the reason it went to the city.

This happening is not that unusual said Hughan.

"In the state, it happens every day. But it's pretty unusual for it to be right in the middle of day in Los Angeles near a school," Hughan added.

Photo: Eric Kilby | Flickr

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Google has opened a pop-up restaurant called Small World in New York City's Lower East Side to promote the Google Translate app.

The Small World Pop-Up Restaurant features delicacies from around the globe and is described on a contextual menu using the food's original language. How should interested customers understand what's on today's menu?

By using the Google Translate app, of course!

On April 15, the menu for the day consisted of Mexican cuisine by El Rey's former head chef, Gerardo Gonzalez. His restaurant's "creative use of flavors and simple, hearty meals" has received praise from the New York Times and Bon Appetit.

Gonzalez will also be working with Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper from Russ & Daughters, Atsushi Numata from Ni Japanese Delicacies, and Andy Baraghani from Estela. The mixologist for the day would be Mission Chinese's Sam Anderson.

On April 16, the menu consisted of Afro-Asian-American cuisine by Joseph "JJ" Johnson, former executive chef at Minton's and The Cecil. His cooking style is inspired by flavors from around the globe including recent visits to West Africa, Jerusalem, and Tennessee.

JJ has also been highlighted in Zagat's "30 under 30" because his "mission is to further introduce the world to cuisine that's inspired by the food ways of the African diaspora." He will be working together with BOS BBQ's Andre Lima de Luca, Jeepney's Miguel Trinidad, and Chefs Club's Aaron Arizpe and mixologist Pamela Wiznitzer from Seamstress.

On April 17, Danny Bowien is featured for his "singular take on Asian cuisine [which] catapulted him to the status of star chef almost overnight." Bowien owns Mission Chinese and Mission Cantina for which he'd been awarded People Magazine's "Best New Chef" and the James Beard Foundation's "Rising Star Chef" titles.

Bon Appetit has also recognized him as "founder of one of the best new restaurants." Bowien will be working with Inaki Aizpitarte from Le Chateaubriand, Andy Ricker from Pok Pok, Angela Dimayuga from Mission Chinese, and Paolo Laboa from Bistro Don Giovanni.

Finally, on April 18, New York City's chef and owner of Balaboosta, Bar Bolonat, Taim, and Combina restaurants, Einat Admony will be closing the event with a "modernist take on traditional Israeli cuisine." Admony's style has been shaped by her experiences with the Israeli army, Germany and "a million venerable kitchens" in NYC.

Admony is also the author of Balaboosta: Bold Mediterranean Recipes to Feed the People You Love. Additionally, the final day will include The Bailey's and Hudson Hound's Donal Crosbie, Noma's Mads Refslund, and White Tiger's Liz Kwon. Sam Anderson from Mission Chinese will be returning as the day's mixologist.

Small World will be located in New York at 10 Kenmare Street (between Bowery and Elizabeth), NoLita. The day's first seating will start from 6:00pm to 8:00pm while the second seating will start from 9:30pm to 11:30pm.

The Google Translate app marketing event will only last for four days and has a "reservations required' policy. Unfortunately, reservations have been closed.

However, Google will be serving Dough donuts "inspired by flavors from around the world" on Friday through Monday from 3:00pm to 7:30pm for customers who still want to pop in and drop by.

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President Barrack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama earned $436,065 last year and paid $81,472 as total tax which forms 18.7 percent of their earnings, reads the 2015 tax return released before the filing deadline on April 11.

The return details also showed falling income for the Obamas, mainly due to slowing sales of the president's books. This also led to lower charitable donations coming from the White House this year.

The president is entitled to a yearly income of $400,000. The rest of the first family's income comes from royalties on the two books: Dreams from My Father and Audacity of Hope. His other book, Of Thee I Sing, is for children and the proceeds go to charity. This year the president made a net amount of $56,069 from his books, less expenses, which is almost $40,000 less than what he made in the previous year.

The 2015 tax report also shows that the Obamas paid $64,066 to charity, which is about 15 percent of their income. Most of the donation amounts ranged between $1,000 and $2,000, but the highest check of $9,066 went to Fisher House, a Chicago-based establishment that provides housing for the families of service members undergoing medical treatments at military hospitals.

They also paid $5,000 to Beau Biden Foundation, the organization that pays tribute to Vice President Joe Biden's son, whose sad demise last year was due to brain cancer.

The Obamas' total tax amount also included $7,743 as Alternative Minimum Tax along with $1,766, a surtax approved by the president himself under the health reform law. The couple also ended up paying $49,000 in state and local income and property taxes. They are currently due for a refund of $22,859 this year, which the Obamas are not refusing like they usually do.

Apart from a lower income in 2015, one more reason for not refusing the refund can be the fact that the first family is looking at a lot of expenses this year, especially once the president switches jobs and moves out of the White House. Last year, the couple reportedly took out $ 1 million from their investments, which hints at their preparation for capital expenses like home purchase and college tuitions for their daughters.

While not mandated by law, Barrack Obama follows the footsteps of a long string of presidents and even presidential candidates who release their tax returns for the public eye. A detailed report on the Obamas' 2015 Tax Returns is presented here.

Photo: Ben Stanfield | Flickr

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In an attempt to understand the dynamics of a sleeping, yet dangerous volcano, reclusive North Korea finally opens its doors to Western scientists.

North Korean scientists collaborated with Western experts in examining the underground of Mt. Paektu that lies on the Chinese-Korean border. It is also known as Changbaishan on the Chinese side.

The study highlighted the geological makeup of the volcano's underbelly that allowed scientists to gather useful data, which can be used in possible eruptions in the future.

Kayla Iacovino of U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, together with Ri Kyong-Song of the Earthquake Administration in Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) used previous seismic information to locate the molten rock underneath the sleeping mountain.

The volcano is described as one of the most hazardous in North Korea. Mount Paektu's most powerful eruption that dates back to the year 946, spewed ash that reached Japan.

Based on previous activities of the volcano, its eruption can reach 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from its summit, said Haiquan Wei, a resident volcanologist at China Earthquake Administration.

"The volcano is quiet at the moment, but it's definitely got potential," said seismologist James Hammond of Birkbeck, University of London. "We need to keep an eye on it."

At present, more than 1.6 million residents are within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the volcano.

Sleeping Giant

Mount Paektu's last eruption was in 1903. In 2002, the volcano showed seismic activity, which are thought to cause magma to shift underground. Even though the shaking eventually stopped after several years without any untoward incidents, researchers knew that they needed to do something to prepare for eruptions.

Six state-of-the-art seismometers were placed in the volcano from August 2013 to August 2015 to analyze seismic waves and how it travels under the volcano. Researchers found that part of the crust was partially molten.

"Whether or not that melt is going to turn into an eruption is a bigger question," Iacovino said. "But at least we can now start to draw a picture of what's happening."

Iacovino said helping emergency officials in preparing for a possible eruption is still difficult at this time because they need to fully understand its past activities.

Iacovino added that if Mount Paektu erupts again, it could send clouds of ash skyward or send water to rush downhill from the summit lake.

Collaborative Study

The scientists believe that the collaboration would allow more insight into the volcano's activities and potential for eruption.

Since it is straddling two countries, previous knowledge about the volcano is fragmented. Iacovino said that those studying it from one side have no idea of what is on the other side.

With diplomatic support from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC and the Royal Society in London, Hammond began the study in North Korea.

The scientists express gratitude that they were given the chance to study the volcano, which is significant to Korea as it is the highest point in the country and is believed to be the birthplace of both the founder of first Korean kingdom and former DPRK leader Kim Jong-Il.

Hammond is currently working on proposals to further the study. He said that the Chinese and North Koreans can work together, but hopes to be part of it still.

"We'd really like to work with together with the Chinese and North Koreans to study that volcano as a whole volcano, using instruments on both sides of the border."

The paper was published in Science Advances.

Studying eruption potential of volcanoes is important in understanding and preparing for disasters. Earth is presently in a period of extreme volcanic activity, said scientists from the European Science Foundation (ESF). Supervolcanoes, like the one in Yellowstone National Park, can erupt and cause global calamity.

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in consultation with Fisher-Price, announced on April 14 the voluntary recall of three models of the Fisher-Price infant cradle swings.

The recall was prompted by two incidents of the loosening of a peg under the seat that can cause the seat to fall, posing a risk of injury to the infant. There were no injuries reported.

About 34,000 units of the cradle swings will be affected, with approximately 4,300 products already sold to consumers in the U.S. from November 2015 to March 2016, according to the Fisher-Price web site. The recall includes the following models:

- CHM84 Soothing Savana 'n Swing

- CMR40 Sweet Surroundings Cradle 'n Swing

- CMR43 Sweet Surroundings Butterfly Friends Cradle 'n Swing

The cradle swings can rock from side to side and swing from head to toe with six different swing speeds ranging from low to high. The model number is located on the seat under the pad.

Initial investigations found no defective parts, but consumers are advised to follow the instructions carefully. If unsure, they should stop using the product, call the company for clearer assembly instructions or bring the item to the nearest Fisher-Price outlet.

The products are being sold online at Amazon and other web sites as well as at Target, buybuyBaby and other stores at $170.

Many observers are happy at how Fisher-Price handled the issue.

"In this case, reports were made swiftly and no children were injured. It's also very reassuring when a company responds quickly to complaints and rectifies any problems immediately," says Maria Guido, senior news editor for Scary Mommy.

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A new phablet will join the Xiomi's smartphone lineup very soon. Dubbed as "Xiaomi Max," this is possibly the largest device the company's produced so far.

The Chinese phone maker zeroed in on the name "Xiaomi Max" after launching an online poll on Weibo, a social networking site. There were other names like Xiaomi Big, Xiaomi Pro, and Xiaomi Plus on the list, but Max won hands down with almost 51.62 percent votes, while Big secured the second position.

Sadly, not much details are out in the open yet, but if rumors are to be believed, the phablet is bigger than Xiaomi Mi Note which has a 5.7-inch display, with speculations hinting at a 6.4-inch display. Sporting a metal unibody, Xiaomi Max will possibly run on the Snapdragon 820 64-bit quad-core chip. A fingerprint scanner is also said to be one of its prominent features, but until the company officially rolls out the details, the rumors need to be taken with a grain of salt.

The company has recently launched the Mi 5 and the Redmi Note 3 in India. Their affordability combined with high-end specifications are garnering quite a bit of attention from the Indian smartphone market. Given this popularity, Xiaomi President Bin Lin announced his plans of rolling out about 140 million devices this year.

The timeframe for the official launch of the phablet Xiaomi Max is not known as of now. It may take a few months or may be rolled out in a matter of few weeks if the Chinese OEM has its devices ready and were only waiting for a name. Whichever the case is, we'll keep you updated, right here, as soon as the date gets released.

Photo: Vernon Chan | Flickr

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The 44th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva kicked off on April 13 at the Palexpo in Switzerland. Here are the best and weirdest innovations we found this year.

Lee Ae Youn, an inventor from South Korea, debuted a pair of children's shoes that has a QR code printed on the strap. This QR code contains information on how to contact the child's parents or guardians. The QR code can be read using any smartphone device. It is an inconspicuous, easy and inexpensive way of ensuring a child has the right information to the authorities in case the child gets lost.

Italian inventor Mauro Cavagna designed a more passionate version of the so-called love seat. Quite literally, Cavagna's "Desire" sofa is an adjustable couch dedicated to improving the comfort levels of those who have back pain or people with disabilities during sex.

The sofa has adjustable hand grips and supports. Interestingly, the "Desire" sofa comes in a salmon-pink, smooth finish that reminds people of the act it was designed for.

Unlike the so-called love seats, Cavagna's "Desire" sofa is quite enormous that it might require a dedicated "love room" because, with a design like that, you really can't keep it in the living room.

Durian is a pungent fruit that remains popular in several Asian countries such as Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. A team of inventors from Thailand created a microwave sensor that can check if the durian fruit is mature enough for eating.

This maturity test can be done without opening the fruit and unnecessarily unleashing the unwanted smell. This invention can help producers with their operations, particularly in quality control.

German inventor Anton Stoehr created a line of bristle-free cleaning brushes called SpuelWunder. Stoehr said these multi-colored bristleless and antibacterial brushes can be used on many kitchen items including pans, glasses, plates and cutlery.

This year, the inventions conference has more than 750 exhibitors from 48 countries. Every year, nearly 60,000 people attend the event where some inventions land patent deals worth millions.

In 2015, the 43rd International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva awarded the Hong Kong-based Vitargent International for creating an in vivo toxin detection system without using lab animals.

"[The inventions] represent all areas of human activity, whether it be a practical every day object or a very high-tech product," said (PDF) Inventions Geneva.

The 2016 exhibit ended on April 17.

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Nearly two years after petitioning to include West Coast fishers under California's Endangered Species Act (ESA), wildlife officials denied federal protection to the furry, mid-sized forest carnivores on April 14.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) was poised to officially declare West Coast fishers as endangered species but withdrew the proposal, saying that the animal's population is not in danger of extinction.

The agency's move follows "voluntary agreements" between regulators and timber holders in the industry, saying that the regulations will be enough to return territory for West Coast fishers and prevent population decline.

Moreover, the agency believes that research reveals no threat to the population of West Coast fishers.

"We arrived at our decision following a comprehensive evaluation of the science and after a thorough review of public input," said Ren Lohoefener of the USFWS. "Listing is not necessary at this time to guarantee survival."

However, wildlife conservationists are insisting against the USFWS's decision, saying that there are overwhelming scientific evidence pointing to the threat of logging and poisonous chemicals to the rare animals.

Attorney Tanya Sanerib of the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) said fishers may be strong enough to prey on porcupines, but these animals still need the ESA protection to survive.

Ecologist Ben Solvesky said the USFWS's decision was very disappointing.

"If we are going to save the fisher for future generations then it needs range-wide protection," added Solvesky.

The fisher, a short-legged, bushy-tailed member of the weasel family, was once endemic throughout forests in North America, but has seen a dramatic drop in its West Coast population due to timber harvesting, trapping, as well as the use of rodenticides.

In fact, a study by Dr. Mourad Gabriel revealed that rodenticides from illegal marijuana farms pose serious harm to the West Coast fisher.

In 2014, the population of West Coast fishers reached an alarming number. Now, the CBD estimates that there are only about 300 individual fishers in southern Sierra Nevada and 250 to a few thousand in North California and Southern Oregon.

The USFWS has said there has been a significant boost in the interest and support of federal, state, tribal and private stakeholders in conducting proactive measures to prevent the decline of the animals.

For instance, to halt the population decline of West Coast fishers, lumber maker Weyerhaeuser Company vowed to adopt measures that will manage 3 million acres of its Washington and Oregon timberlands.

The company wants to reduce the impact of timber harvesting on the habitat of fishers. Additionally, it will fund efforts to reintroduce the fisher to parts of its original range.

Meanwhile, Lohoefener is optimistic regarding the state of West Coast fishers in the country.

"We look forward to continuing to work with our federal, state and local partners to help ensure future habitat for this population," added Lohoefener.

Photo: USFS Region 5 | Flickr

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Verizon Communications Inc. remains to be the bidder to beat because it has the heft to ensure itself a win, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Verizon's heft comes from its estimated market cap of $210 billion and cash of about $4.5 billion on its books. Back in February, the company announced the sale of its wireline assets to Frontier Communications for $10.54 billion in cash and cell phone towers to American Tower worth over $5 billion to raise cash for investments.

Months before the scheduled bid, about 40 companies had initially expressed interest to buy parts or all of Yahoo. Days before the preliminary bid, expected bidders like AT&T Inc, Comcast, Time Inc., Disney and Google parent company Alphabet have shown little or no interest.

With major bidders backing out, Verizon's biggest rivals may come from private-equity firms like Bain Capital, TPG and Advent International.

KKR & Co. has expressed interest but it was not known if it would join the bid. So has the British Daily Mail & General Trust, which is still in talks with private-equity companies.

The Perfect Fit

Following Verizon's recent purchase of AOL, another Internet giant, Yahoo would be a perfect match for the company's thrust for a broader advertising platform. Verizon's eye for AOL focused on the Internet company's wide portfolio of media brands, such as Huffington Post and TechCrunch. Verizon hoped to use data from its vast mobile networks to help AOL target more ads.

Buying a company with a similar portfolio of technology, media and advertising products would be a compelling next move, wrote Timothy Lee of Vox Technology. Scale has become a crucial aspect of online advertising, with advertisers preferring larger media companies over smaller ones. A Yahoo/AOL marriage would be able to command premium prices.

The future of Verizon has to include a very robust media technology company, so Yahoo would fit very well in the strategy, said Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, in an interview with Emily Chang of Bloomberg.

Yahoo Board Revamp: A New Twist

Yahoo and Starboard Value, an activist and minor investor, have similar intentions for a future sale of the company. Both want to sell the company for an attractive price, but if that fails, both agree to refocus its operations and the value of its Asian assets.

In a bid to prepare for a proxy battle with Starboard Value, Yahoo added two new directors to its board in early March. This and Marissa Mayer's failure to live up to her promises prompted Starboard Value to decide to overhaul the Yahoo board by nominating nine new directors at the company's shareholders' meeting this summer, the report said.

A possible upheaval at the Yahoo board could derail the sale and cast uncertainty around negotiations with potential acquirers. But Verizon seems to be unfazed as it submits its bid on April 18.

Photo: Alan Levine | Flickr

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Ecuador's most powerful earthquake in decades has claimed 272 lives and left more than 2,500 injured. Authorities warn that the death toll is likely to soar, with many victims still missing and possibly trapped under piles of rubble from collapsed buildings.

The earthquake's epicenter is located 27 kilometers (16.8 miles) southeast of Muisne, a remote fishing village that is popular among tourists. Manabi Province was the hardest-hit area, where 200 people were reported dead.

Ecuador President Rafael Correa has declared a national emergency and urged his countrymen to remain calm and stay strong amidst this tragedy. State of emergency alerts were issued for the provinces that were greatly hit including Santa Elena, Guayas, Santo Domingo, Los Rios and Esmeraldas.

According to President Correa, the government's immediate priority is to rescue people in the rubble.

"Everything can be rebuilt, but lives cannot be recovered, and that's what hurts the most," he said. Correa also thanked the world for sending their help and prayers for the people of Ecuador.

In a statement released by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, he praised the quick and adequate response of Ecuadorian responders and medical professionals.

"We remain in close contact with Ecuadorian authorities and will continue to monitor the situation closely," the statement added.

Ecuador deployed 10,000 soldiers and 4,600 police officers have been deployed to the affected areas to facilitate rescue efforts. Additional K9 units were also brought in to help locate more survivors. Military personnel are currently building temporary shelters and makeshift hospitals in the worst hit towns of Pedernales and Portoviejo to assist the residents.

Red Cross has also sent out 800 volunteers to the affected communities. Diego Castellanos from Ecuador Red Cross said that a lot of these areas can only be accessed by helicopter, making the work of the volunteers extremely dangerous and difficult.

In an interview with Ricardo Penaherrera of Ecuador's national emergency management office, he said that many highways are in bad shape due to bad weather, thus slowing rescue efforts.

"The lack of water and communication remains a big problem," Penaherrera added.

With no electricity and many roads blocked, affected residents camped out in the streets while others ran to higher grounds in fear of a possible tsunami. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, however, said that tsunami threat has "mostly passed."

The Ecuador earthquake follows two deadly quakes in Japan last week. Nine people were killed and hundreds injured when a 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook the Kyushu region on Thursday. Another earthquake hit the same area Saturday.

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One woman in Toronto jumped into a tiger pen in a zoo just to retrieve her hat, a new viral video shows.

The footage, posted on YouTube, shows a woman climbing over a tiger exhibit fence at the Toronto Zoo. A Sumatran tiger, enclosed by an interior fence, is seemingly agitated, walking back and forth and perhaps preparing to attack. The woman, after retrieving her hat, is able to climb back to safety.

Jennifer Tracey, a senior director at the Toronto Zoo, said the woman may not have been in danger from a tiger attack because of the interior barrier, but the zoo visitor still should not have jumped in.

The staff in charge of the tiger pen were away when the incident happened. Tracey, however, advised visitors who drop an item into restricted areas to look for other authorized personnel to assist them.

"The barriers are there for a reason. They're not only there for the visitors, but they're also there to protect the animals in our care," Tracey said.

The tiger, named Hari, may have been startled when someone other than the zookeeper was approaching the pen, but it is now said to be fine after the "excitement."

Toronto Zoo officials are now investigating the incident but have yet to identify the woman in the clip.

Tracey is calling on all those who witnessed the incident to come forward and help them in the investigation. They should immediately inform zoo officials of such acts. Anyone who is caught breaching or violating rules on animal enclosures could be charged with trespassing or be banned from the zoo.

Setting a Bad Example

Aside from possibly endangering her life, the woman also set a bad example to other visitors. Some onlookers were enraged by the woman's actions. In the video, witnesses can be heard scolding the woman for her reckless behavior, saying: "You're a bad example for everyone else's kids."

Zoo Accidents

Concerns over a possible tiger attack in a zoo may have been fueled by a previous incident in Florida, where a 13-year-old male Malayan tiger mauled to death zookeeper Stacey Konwiser as she was preparing the night house.

Watch the full video of the Toronto Zoo incident below:

Photo: Brian McKay | Flickr

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A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake has rattled Ecuador over the weekend, killing 272 people and leaving 2,500 injured.

As a way to help customers find and connect with their loved ones in Ecuador, major U.S. carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint are making all international calls and text messages to the country from the United States, including Puerto Rico, free.

T-Mobile announced that Simple Choice prepaid and postpaid customers can make free calls and send free text messages to Ecuador starting today through April 24. Additionally, T-Mobile is waving the fees for affiliated Mobile Virtual Network Operators such as GoSmart Mobile, and Walmart Family Mobile Customers. The network's subsidiary, MetroPCS, is offering free calls and messaging as well.

Sprint also said it is waving roaming charges and fees for Virgin Mobile USA, Sprint Prepaid, and Boost Mobile customers calling and messaging to Ecuador from the U.S. and voice and text while roaming in Ecuador, until April 23. This will allow customers and subscribers who were traveling in Ecuador when the earthquake hit to call and connect with their loved ones at home.

"During this difficult time we want to show our support for all Sprint, Boost Mobile, and Virgin Mobile customers who may have friends and family in the region by allowing them to connect without worrying about fees," says Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure.

AT&T is also offering free calls and text messaging through April 22 for customers calling landlines and mobile phones in Ecuador from the U.S. The carrier also suggests that customers should try and reach loved ones through messaging, as international phone networks can become congested during natural disasters.

In the wake of terrorist attacks or natural calamities, it has become customary among major carriers, as well as data-only services such as Skype and Google Hangouts, to offer free call and messaging services to customers.

Following the terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris, U.S. major carriers have recently joined the long list of companies and organizations that aim to connect families and friends especially during these tragic times.

Aside from telecom carriers and network providers, popular social media sites such as Facebook has recently launched a "Safety Check" feature that allows users to mark themselves as "safe" when tragedy strikes. Twitter is also a powerful platform used by users to retweet emergency numbers and safe locations during disasters or attacks.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Nature's touch is recalling its Organic Berry Cherry Blend from the market due to possible Hepatitis A contamination, Canadian health officials announced.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issued a food recall warning saying that the affected product was sold in 3.3 pounds packages with best before dates up to March 16, 2018.

The products affected were sold at Costco warehouse locations in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec.

The bags were marked with a UPC code of 8 73668 00179. For consumers who have bought the product, they should throw it away or return it to the store it was purchased from.

Food products contaminated with Hepatitis A may look normal without any unusual smell. When people consume contaminated food, it may lead to a self-limited disease that goes away on its own in a week or two but it may last up to 6 months.

Hepatitis A is a viral liver disease that can lead to mild to severe illness. It could be transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or water. It could also be acquired through direct contact with an infectious person, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported.

Unlike other types of Hepatitis that causes chronic liver disease, Hepatitis A is rarely fatal but can cause debilitating symptoms and in some cases, could lead to a fulminant hepatitis or otherwise known as acute liver failure.

It will take about 14 to 28 days before the symptoms of the infection would surface. The symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, diarrhea, nausea, abdominal cramps, muscle aches, dark-colored urine and jaundice or the yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes.

"This recall was triggered by findings of the CFIA during the investigation into a foodborne illness outbreak. The CFIA is conducting a food safety investigation, which may lead to the recall of other products. If other high-risk products are recalled, the CFIA will notify the public through updated Food Recall Warnings," the agency said.

The CFIA will verify if the company will remove the recalled product from stores across Canada. So far, no illnesses were reported caused by the potentially contaminated product.

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Like any other museum, the Brooklyn Museum can be challenging to navigate for those who've never visited before.

In an effort to provide directional assistance to the public, the venue has launched the ASK Brooklyn Museum App. Available for download in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, this smartphone companion does more than guide visitors through the venue.

While it helps navigating through the Egyptian artifacts and European paintings, ASK Brooklyn is also designed to act as a tour guide, providing further insight into the works of the museum. Visitors can ask the app questions and share photos of objects in real-time to gather information on what they're seeing. The ASK Brooklyn Audience Engagement Team provides answers within 45 seconds. Users are authorized to ask questions anonymously through the app, which only operates within the Brooklyn Museum.

"People like the anonymity of it," Shelley Bernstein, vice director of digital engagement and technology at the museum, told AM New York. "They don't feel like they're asking a stupid question."

Team members who are qualified to respond to ASK Brooklyn questions typically specialize in certain areas of the museum. Their answers usually refer users to a wide range of resources, including the museum's internal wiki, Brooklyn Museum publications and artist statements.

As app users walk through the museum, they are tracked with location-aware Bluetooth sensors to identify exactly where they are in the facility. The goal is to provide the Audience Engagement Team with more information on what a visitor is referring to in his or her question.

Since the launch of the app, there have been some instances in which team members could not answer an app user's question. In these particular cases, Audience Engagement Team Member Megan Mastrobattista told AM New York that they usually offer to get back to the individual at a later date.

ASK Brooklyn was developed after a pilot research program revealed that visitors were looking for a more personal connection with the museum's staff, according to Museum 2.0. Its solid five-star rating in the App Store may be indicative of whether its developers have satisfied museum visitors thus far.

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Instago: A Travel App That Is Helping Delhi-ites Curb Pollution | TechTree.com

Now there is an intra-city travel application that is set to massively benefit the people of Delhi. The application brings all the intra-city modes of transport on one single screen; be it cabs, autos, bike-taxi services or public transport. While the option of booking cabs, bike-taxi services and autos is already live, the option for public transports will be up on the app really soon. All the information will be available centrally at one place, including price, estimated time of arrival and duration of the trip on the app. Earlier, people had to struggle to choose amongst multiple apps for booking a cab, checking the metro route or fare, or checking bus route numbers and stops. With Instago - as it is called, this ordeal of seeking and comparing information is reduced to an effort lasting only a few seconds.

Instago is an intra-city travel application that will massively benefit the people of Delhi. The application brings all the intra-city modes of transport on one single screen; be it cabs, autos, bike-taxi services or public transport. While the option of booking cabs, bike-taxi services and autos is already live, the option for public transports will be up on the app really soon. All the information will be available centrally at one place, including price, estimated time of arrival and duration of the trip on the app. Earlier, people had to struggle to choose amongst multiple apps for booking a cab, checking the metro route or fare, or checking bus route numbers and stops. With Instago coming into the picture, this ordeal of seeking and comparing information is reduced to an effort lasting only a few seconds.

The application is an outcome of the combined efforts of its three co-founders, an Ex-Googler, an FMS MBA alumnus, and a Silicon Valley techie, who saw the ever-increasing congestion on Indian roads and the corresponding increase in pollution. Simultaneously, they also saw the growing variety of options to help ease this congestion, from affordable cabs to bike taxis to ride sharing platforms. However, with the explosion of options came increased complexity in planning, and the concept of Instago was born.

They felt the need for an intra-city travel solution not only in multiple cities of India, but also in many major cities across the world. In countries such as USA, UK, Australia and Hong Kong, they found themselves switching between various applications to reach their desired destination, which was cumbersome and time-consuming.

"Taking a cue from Travis Klanick (the founder of Uber) at the Startup India launch about what technology can do to solve global problems, we created Instago. Growing up in Delhi NCR, we've seen pollution and congestion become an unfortunate part of daily life. Instago aggregates information and allows commuters to make effective and efficient use of public as well as other modes of private transport available to them. By plugging information gaps and facilitating smoother planning of day to day travel, we believe Instago can help to effectively tackle the pollution and congestion problems currently facing India," said co-founder Anmol Ahlawat.

In the words of co-founder Nakul Khanna, "People have an inherent desire to save not only money, but also time, and the current process of comparison is very tedious, because it involves switching between multiple apps and platforms. Instago simplifies this process, and helps commuters to economise on both time and money, thus ensuring maximum efficiency in day to day travel planning. The cost of not having information proves to be expensive in cities across the world; for instance, in London, Anmol and I were spending 66% more on the tube than on the bus with similar trip durations, but we had to figure this out for ourselves. Instago's concept is applicable everywhere, not just here in India."

Instago is a one of a kind transport application that spares you any intra-city travel hassles, and optimises your trips both in terms of time and cost by allowing you to choose the best mode of transportation from amongst multiple service providers. The duration of the odd-even scheme is one in which such a concept will be extremely beneficial to commuters, especially in a city like Delhi.

Application is live on Google Play Store currently with cab, auto and bike taxi services. It would be up on IOS as well with the public transportation options in few days



TAGS: Startup, Delhi Government, Apps For Travellers
A reorganization at the Department of Technology along with a new job posting at the Governor's Office are indicators the state could hire a new position to oversee a range of data-focused projects.Although an official announcement hasn't yet come from the Governor's Appointment Office, a job posting is inviting candidates to apply for the position of Chief Data Officer, which would report directly to the secretary of the Government Operations Agency.The Chief Data Officer "is the primary steward of the data portal for the states public data," and would be tasked with developing statewide data standards and expanding the state's inventory of data, according to the job description.The Government Operations Agency is currently in the second phase of a project that's creating a statewide open data portal that will leverage other open data websites currently maintained by individual state agencies and departments. The statewide portal could go live as soon as this summer. In May the state also plans to unveil a revamped CA.gov website will be tailored to the user's geographic location.With a recent reorganization at the Department of Technology, there could be more of a need for a state-level data officer. The state's chief geospatial officer, Scott Gregory, has been moved over to manage the department's newly created digital innovation office. The Office of the Statewide Geographic Information Officer is being transformed into the new office.Last year, legislation was proposed in the California Legislature that would've required the state to create a chief data officer position. The bill failed to advance.There appears to be a need for more robust open data in at least some segments of California state government. On April 8 California received an F grade for government spending transparency for the second consecutive year from the California Public Interest Research Group Education Fund. Last month state lawmakers lamented that California needs better open data on state spending.
Get to know the life of an ethical hacker at IBM

As an ethical hacker for IBM, Charles Henderson gets paid to think like a bad guy. His job is to break into networks, applications, or physical locations to find out how a real attacker would carry out their work, uncovering errors and the effect those errors might have on an organizations security.

IBM says that there has been a continuous change in corporations appointing their own hackers to pen-test (penetration test) online systems, networks, and physical locations, considering the increase in cyber-attacks and the need to strengthen cybersecurity.

In fact, Henderson is just one of the 1,000 security specialists the tech giant hired in 2015.

In a candid conversation with Business Insider, Henderson, 40, described what is like to be a hacker for IBM.

He said he has always been curious as a kid. He grew up in Austin, Texas where he still resides has now become a haven for young technologists with its lively computer security scene. Henderson attended the University of Texas and studied Computer Science.

When I was 11, my father brought home our first computer. Within a week, I had become an active participant on the Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). Using these bulletin boards introduced me to other like-minded individuals and hackers across the world. All of a sudden the world became more accessible to me.

I quickly decided that I was more interested in taking things apart than putting them together.

By the age of 12, Henderson started taking interest in networks, which at that saw the emergence of phone system. After legally getting a phone booth in his room, he took it apart. Today, we have websites and videos that tell us how things work and how to take them apart and put them back together. However, while Henderson was growing up, none of it existed, which is what thrilled him. With inquisitiveness triggered by the unknown, he decided to take things apart so that he could learn how they operated. He says that he would have probably never done it, had there been a book on how these things worked.

Ive always been bound by ethics, he says. That is not to say that kids dont do stupid things.

For example, when I was in elementary school, I discovered that I could use my parents cordless phone as a scanner to listen in on our neighbors conversations. Did my parents love when Id take apart their expensive electronics within just a few days of purchase? Probably not. But being a hacker, I had to know how everything worked.

Henderson says that his curiosity led him into security research and penetration testing over the last 20 years, which has helped him make his career.

About seven months ago, when he was looking to switch jobs, IBM offered him a very interesting and challenging position that he couldnt resist. He was fascinated to the wealth of information and resources available here.

For him, it has been really exciting working for IBM from the time he joined the company in October of 2015, as he gets to work with some of the largest brands in the world.

Coming from smaller security teams, we just didnt have access to the kinds of tools we have at IBM. We often had to create adhoc tools, which took time. At IBM, we have more firepower, thanks to tools like BlueMix and Watson, among other resources. I have access to basically anything I could ever imagine  which is really exciting for a researcher. The sky is really the limit here.

The first thing I do every morning is catch up on what happened when I was sleeping

The cool thing is, since I run a global team, when Im sleeping there are teams conducting research and working engagements with customers.

So in the morning I start by asking, Did we find any critical flaws? Do I need to tell a client we found a vulnerability and begin working to fix it? From there, I am working with my team to plan penetration tests and make sure we have the resources we need to address the issues we have found. There isnt an hour that goes by that I dont find a cool, new way of doing something, which means my days are both unpredictable and exciting.

While Henderson does a lot of research himself, he does like to look at consumer electronic devices that range from planes to trains to automobiles to mobile devices. He always find methods to break into or break apart these devices, to find new errors and susceptibilities. Also, he is always interested in knowing how devices connect to one another and what vulnerabilities might surface as a result. Thanks, to the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Henderson travels the world to meet with clients when not in Texas, in order to help him better understand their security issues and the security landscape. During these meetings, he gets to work with some of the worlds biggest and most exciting companies that help him find out how their company handles security concerns. While the companies share their needs, requirements, and the trials they face, they work together to come up with solutions to fix them.

Sharing some examples of what Henderson and his team does, he says:

One time, with the authorization of a previous client, I was hired to conduct a physical penetration test, which resulted in a stolen corporate vehicle filled with confidential information.

The goal of the engagement was to have my team see how much damage we could do by using tools such as social engineering to infiltrate the clients building and see how much confidential information we could get our hands on. Turns out, we could take it a few steps further, and stole the data and then drove away with it in a company car  but of course, we had permission.

When it comes to hacking physical locations, we typically execute what I call tiger teams (think ninja style/secret ops) to break into buildings on behalf of clients, to test their physical front-door security.

We dont use bars to get in the door  rather, we organise highly orchestrated attacks to get into client buildings by any means necessary, which often includes hacking into unsecured systems, copying employee badges, etc., with the clients prior approval.

Henderson says that the best part of his job is to find and fix key security susceptibility before attackers get a chance to abuse it.

Explaining the excitement of the chase, it is one less possibility for a criminal to abuse every time they help a client fix major security vulnerability, which also extends to the customers customers, the people they do business with.

He says, Every day Im faced with a new brain teaser, a new challenge, and thats really exciting. The worst part about my job is telling a client they have a major vulnerability.

Often, their initial reaction is fear, but the good news is, no matter how bad the vulnerability is, there is something we can do to fix it to protect the customer. But often, that initial delivery of bad news is difficult.

Whenever Henderson tells people what he does for a living, he is often faced with one question which is Can you hack into my bank account?

To which his reply to the question would be, It depends on what bank you use.

He is also asked by people if he has ever done any spy stuff.

Henderson says that the biggest misconception that people have about hackers is that they are all criminals. Ironically, the word hacker has been regarded as malicious computer hacking, which is why it very necessary to understand that the word is not a synonym for criminal.

To me, being a hacker means you have an unbridled curiosity about how things work. Whereas many people look at a new technology and think about the possibility for creation, hackers look at a new technology and want to understand how to deconstruct that technology. We have an insatiable appetite for understanding how the world works  and we take it as a personal challenge to find flaws in technology before criminals have a chance to.

Television shows and movies depict hackers as simply knowing how to do something. In reality, hacking is about taking something apart physically or virtually and understanding the inner workings.

Explaining the difference between good hackers and bad hackers, he says that a criminal hacker is someone who abuses susceptibility for monetary gain or hidden motives, and is not interested in helping to fix the flaw they used to gain access. Criminals take the path of least resistance, while non-criminal hackers choose their targets based on a challenge or the learning process.

As an ethical hacker, we are driven to understand how things work. When we find a vulnerability, we share that information and we work to responsibly disclose it and help fix the problem we found. Ethical hackers have a moral compass guiding them to help protect people from the flaws they find.

There is also a preconceived notion of hackers that we are people who choose to hack because we are maladjusted or full of angst and anger.

Most people assume if youre hacker, you had no friends growing up. But honestly, hacking has nothing to do with that. There are perfectly well-adjusted hackers in the world, were just curious people, looking for a deeper understanding of how the world works. Im a father of two and Im happily married.

Also, my expertise in hacking has lead me to become a world-class practical joker within my team. I think that practical jokes foster critical thinking.

Giving his piece of advice for aspiring hackers, Henderson says that the one thing they should always do is to question everything, be curious and never take anything at face value.

He further adds on to say that you should always keep sight of your ethical compass and practice responsible disclosure. It is easy to upset a promising career by doing something stupid. Ensure that you are guided by your values while you research vulnerabilities. Always keep in mind that a company cannot protect their users from a flaw found by a hacker unless they responsibly reveal it to the company, as a flaw cannot be fixed if the affected company has no knowledge about it.
United States aviation authority says drone shooting is a federal crime

The drone industry and drone lovers in United States will love this news. The aviation watchdog in United States of America has said that shooting down drones is a federal crime. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed last week that it is federal crime to shoot down aircraft, which includes drones too. At least, 12 drones have been shot out of the sky in five U.S. states

John Goglia from Forbes confirmed this with the FAA. According to the FAA, regardless of the situation, shooting at any aircraft  including unmanned aircraft  poses a significant safety hazard. An unmanned aircraft hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air. 

Goglia explains the FAA offered this ruling in response to his questions on the topic, citing 18 USC. 32, which makes it a felony to damage or destroy an aircraft.

However, for his own part, Goglia asks why the FAA hasnt yet acted on 18 USC. 32, particularly given the increasing frequency of human-on-drone violence. Its time the United States put an end to these dangerous acts and criminally prosecuted those who shoot at unmanned aircraft, Goglia writes. Justifying his point: Back in October, a judge exonerated a Kentucky man who had shot down a drone that flew over his backyard.

So what does this mean? This means that unless the FAA changes their minds about the law in question, shooting down a drone could likely see the culprit face up to 20 years in prison. However, if this opinion holds up in court, it raises questions about how will people protect themselves in the event that a drone threatens their privacy? Well, it looks like those decisions may have to wait until theres a case that creates legal precedent.
A trio of web security services from Red Herring winner High-Tech Bridge promises to make the web a safer place. Lets take a look.

We all know that web security is a very hot topic today. Last week, a technical investigation by Forbes suggested that 3.2 terabytes of data from Panamas law firm Mossack Fonseca local network were stolen via vulnerable and outdated websites of the company, causing one of the largest data breaches in history.

Many people still remember the Ashley Madison breach, when data of millions of clients of the largest dating website were exposed and sold online, pushing some of them towards suicides. And yes, the breach also occurred because of insecure website. Statistics is also scary: Verizon Data Breach Report states that above 27% of all banking data breaches in 2015 occurred via compromised web applications.

Meanwhile, website owners dont really have an ultimate solution to test their website security. Tripwire research says that traditional security methodologies, such as Manual Testing and Web Application Firewalls (WAF), have been rendered irrelevant due to evolving hacking techniques. Indeed, any Web Application Firewall will either block some legitimate users (so-called false-positives) or overlook some advanced attacks (e.g. application logic manipulation) against the web application (so-called false-negatives). While pure Manual Penetration Testing is prohibitively expensive for the majority of website owners, leaving them alone with cybercriminals.

Several weeks ago, we mentioned High-Tech Bridge, an emerging Swiss startup that are disrupting the web security industry with their hybrid web security testing platform called ImmuniWeb. High-Tech Bridge attracted our attention again last week when they were selected as a winner for the Red Herring Europe 2016 startup contest, which has been organized since 1996 by ex-board member of Qualys and VC investor Alex Vieux. High-Tech Bridges team, led by their founder Ilia Kolochenko, pitched some innovative services that are making security easier for the masses:

Free online SSL testing service

High-Tech Bridges free online SSL testing service allows anyone to test quality of data channel encryption of any server. Unlike competitors, the service is not limited by HTTPS testing and can check email (SMTS, POP3S, IMAPS) or any other SSL or TLS based services. When everyone is using insecure public Wi-Fi networks to check their emails and buy goods or services online, the service is a must-have element in your bookmarks. Over 350,000 tests have been performed during the last six months.

Free web server security test

The second free service, allows anyone to test web server security and compliance with OWASP secure HTTP headers guide. Taking into consideration that proper configuration of a web server can significantly reduce the scope and the vectors of web attacks against website visitors, it also makes a lot of sense to check how secure your web server is. Both services provide free APIs, so anybody can leverage the services for their internal or recurrent security needs.

Web security testing platform

Last but not least, their ImmuniWeb web security testing platform allows you to hire professional penetration testers online in few clicks to test security of your website or web application. If could sounds utopic, but they do have packages oriented for small SMBs that allows you to test your WordPress or Joomla website for a price less than SSL EV certificate would normally cost you. Their amazing hybrid technology reduces their own expenses and they make you benefiting from it.

Lets continue monitoring High-Tech Bridges further growth and development to see what else they can bring to make the web a safer place. If we were Gartner, we would call them Cool Vendor.
Telepresence robots are now firmly in the mainstream. We have all seen the videos of roving robots wandering the halls of major corporations or, more comically, stuck in elevators. Even more exciting, people are now being introduced to a new class of affordable tabletop telepresence robots that are making waves beyond the boardroom. These products are making a huge impact in the education space, improving student outcomes, extending the reach of teachers beyond the physical classroom, offering new tools for psychologists and trainers and quickly becoming an important tool for all ages and levels. This process is only going to speed up as the tech becomes more affordable. The cost of telepresence robots has dropped significantly in recent years - from over $15,000 to $8000 to $3000 and now below $1,000.

SOLVING THE ABSENTEE STUDENT CONUNDRUM

These more cost-effective machines are drastically improving a difficult problem for schools - hundreds of thousands of people fall behind or drop out of school each year for unavoidable reasons. 1 in 285 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer before the age of 20. In more granular terms, 1200 children are diagnosed with cancer each year in Texas alone. Many of these students miss weeks or even months of classes because they need to travel to hospitals out of state. Thanks to these new, affordable telepresence robots, real-life students across the country are working through this issue, attending classes when they wouldnt be able to before. A student receiving chemotherapy in Philadelphia can continue to attend their classes in Round Rock, Texas, or a child with mono can stay up to date on their coursework from their bedroom down the street.

SPECIAL EDUCATION BENEFITS

The same is true for the 17 percent of American youth deemed by the CDC not to be in good health. For example, psychologists are observing special-ed classes in rural Utah, looking around the class and helping teachers achieve better outcomes for autistic kids. Likewise, in rural Ohio, therapists are observing interactions between autistic pre-K kids and their parents to help improve their entry into school and beyond. In both of these instances, the additional intimacy and interaction which robotics provide is critical.

ACCESS FOR EVERYONE

Telepresence robots build on established distance learning methods like standard video conferencing systems with large displays and take them a step further. These systems are extremely important in rural areas, where subjects like American Sign Language or AP Latin cannot be taught at every school. Traditional video conferencing grants access to teach on a screen that can remotely teach these subjects, but telepresence robotics allows the student to exhibit discernable attention and be recognized by the class as a true remote participant. We can now bring STEM experts into schools to give engaging classes in which the class visitor can literally look around and address students individually, instead of from a flat display.

HIGHER EDUCATION AND HYBRID LEARNING

In higher education, universities are utilizing hybrid learning, a concept pioneered for graduate classes at the School of Education at Michigan State University. In these settings, telepresence robots allow students to collaborate in person and remotely, literally inventing new ways of learning. Oral Roberts University has gone so far as to offer international students to enroll without VISAs. Their vision is to open their campus to everyone in the world.

Much like speakerphones several decades ago, and video conferencing in the past 10-15 years, telepresence robots are fundamentally changing the educational landscape. This technology increases engagement, for both the remote and local participants. Visiting a class, you can look around and address classmates and the teacher, instead of being a disembodied voice or an image in a square in a display on the wall. And if you want to help the US students who are not in good health, tell your local school - or just start a fundraising campaign at Wish.org or DonorChoose.org to get them a telepresence robot.

Jeff Goldsmith, VP of Marketing at Revolve Robotics, is a marketing executive focusing on purpose driven technology. He has created advertising campaigns for a wide range of clients, and has written for Wired, Details, and Conde Nast Traveler among other publications.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi
A 40 anos de Malvinas

"Revisar el pasado es pensar el futuro". La frase de la presidenta de Telam, Bernarda Llorente, resume el espiritu del documental coproducido entre la agencia de noticias y el canal publico de TV sobre la cobertura que los medios de comunicacion hicieron del conflicto, plagada de censura y mentiras. Una autocritica necesaria para mirar hacia adelante en un (ya viejo) contexto de fake news y negocio informativo.
Lucas Mayo, Gecko Legal Services Mojacar





On the 23rd of June the UK poll will take place so that those who can vote will be able to decide about UK and the EU, a decision that affects many that will not be able to voice their opinion at the polling station.

The information regarding the Brexit is in most cases not very helpful and of the sort that the more you look the less clear the reasons to come or to go become.

However the purpose of this is not to debate the pros and cons of each individual reason but more of a handful of thoughts mainly regarding those of us that are already living in another EU state, in my case Spain so I will be basing on things here although much will apply throughout the EU.

At the moment those living within the EU as pensioners are able to do so because of their hard worked for pensions and the medical cover based on the reciprocal agreements (S1 forms), Spain got much stricter a few years ago on how they were going about registering new EU resident applications and the need to prove you have both sufficient income (the pension) and medical cover (the S1 form) and for all members of the family. Non pensioners are just as welcome but the requirements were the same so you have to prove regular income and private medical cover or your proof of legal registered employment in Spain.

Looking at the pensioners, if the reciprocal agreements are stopped how are the pensioners supposed to continue?

And for those in employment, what will happen when their contract comes up for renewal?

Up to now, those that have registered have obtained there Green EU member resident Certificate and were told initially that it would need to be renewed in five years and then were told that the need to renew no longer existed, your registered and thats it.

Where will these stand if the EU exits as we would no longer be EU members?

Will they apply different rules for recent arrivals say less than five years and other rules for long term or Permanent residents?

Further than just looking in a possibly selfish manner at what WE who are already here and legal might have to deal with, what about people that are in the process of coming to live or those that have holiday homes?

Would importing their UK car be permitted? And if so, at what cost? We have seen in the past how RHD cars have not been allowed to be registered in Spain, even with cars that were already in the process. If UK is not in the EU neither will their cars be. Would they be like Andorra cars with an import duty but simplified type approval status or like something from the USA or Russia, with both customs clearance and import and then an individual and costly type approval?

Cars might sound mundane or small fry so what about real estate property. Until recently in the event of a bereavement if the heirs were not Spanish residents they were having to pay much more IHT, this was changed as Spain lost in the EU and were forced to change, there have been other taxes that were at different rates for Residents and Non-residents, now Spain applies different rules for NON Residents that are also Non EU Nationals and shall we say better rules for EU nationals and Residents, so again if the UK exits families living in the UK with parents or family living in Spain may once again find much higher taxes to be paid.

In a similar manner there have been recent changes regarding the writing of the last Will and testament issued by EU nationals living or with interests in different EU states, allowing application of personal Law, would the UK still be part of that?

Now things are starting to affect people with an indirect relation to Spain.

There is talk and discussion about acquired rights, I would be a strong defender of those acquired rights, but how far or true will this be? The Vienna Convention would appear to not cover the man on the street as much as we would like to think or more certainly require in the event of the Brexit, this again is for both sides of the pond, people in UK and people in EU with interests in the UK.

Would the UK nationals living in the EU withhold their rights to vote in local elections?

What about those UK nationals holding posts as councilors in local Town halls? I am one of them; would I have to step down? Would have an acquired right until the end of the political term?

UK pays the EU so much for this etc.

Its true that the UK pays large amounts for the medical cover (the reciprocal agreements) of those living in other EU states and also receives but less because there are less EUs living in the UK than UKs living in the EU, but what happens if these agreements no longer are in force? Many hundreds or even thousands of Brits may be forced to have to return to the UK, possibly in worst conditions of how they live in Spain as they would most probably be forced to sale in a rush and find that the money from a sale is not sufficient for property and life back in the UK so would the UK not find that the money previously sent out of the UK now needs to be used for these returning? Also consider that any UK pensioner in Spain has their pension because they worked for it and medical cover in a similar manner as they would in the UK, they are not getting a freebie or something they did not pay for during there working career. The UK is paying nothing to Spain for me to be here, I like hundreds of Brits, work and pay my taxes and social contributions here and if I continue like this it will be Spain that pays my pension and it would also be Spain the would have to make payments to another EU state if I moved there.

Possibly the UK should be looking into its welfare programs, here in Spain you get nothing if you didnt pay in first. Now I am not suggesting radical changes or that Spain is brilliant etc because Spain is not brilliant but maybe there are things to be learned, if you are on unemployment benefit you cannot leave without permission, at the end of the day you are working for the government so you are not taking your dole to spend a six month holiday back home with the family. Also things like not being eligible for benefits if you are not a legal resident, if you need extra for your spouse or kids it is because they are here.

The British man on the street is talking and is worried regarding the immigration, and needing to close the borders. Obviously here I am not going to address or suggest the possible solutions to immigration but the closing of the borders may have a much bigger impact, this not only keeps things out it can also keep things in, things that previously had no problem coming and going, here I am clearly referring to free the movement of goods. Has there been a true evaluation of this possible huge loss in trade?

For those of us here, out of the UK; would we still find on the shelves of the local supermarket or Brit food store our good old favorites from back home? At an affordable price? Or would these now be levied with an import tax and limited amounts like most articles from out of the EU.

The consideration that the loss in EU trade for the UK would be covered with new trading agreements and demand from further overseas, Canada, USA, Russia, China? Is highly debatable and would not happen by any means fast. Would a UK with almost no weight or say within the EU still be an interesting partner for the USA, and the many other out of EU business, international Companies etc., some that have formed UK Companies and or trading bases on UK soil so as to be in the EU for free trade, these products and services would no longer be an EU product making their UK business structure a lot less attractive and possibly for some totally useless and would opt to move to a different EU base for example Ireland or Germany making their current UK staff redundant. The financial trade in The City that has grown and grown since being part of the EU could find itself going the other way.fast.

If the UK finally decides that the Brexit is the best option for its interests who knows that the EU will not act like an upset spouse and become very difficult, consider that the EU will have to be careful with its reactions and, using a simile, avoid it look like walking away can be easy for the unsatisfied spouse and still maintain marital rights without marital obligations.

In my opinion some possible errors that have been the cause of EU problems have been in the EURO as single currency, carried out to soon for all the members to be up to speed and the inclusion of additional members also too many, too quick, of course with no disrespect whatsoever to any of the later members, some of the later members may have better prepared than members already in, my point here is the management of too many different mentalities and ways of life.

In my particular case I have been out of the UK for just over 32 years, so obviously being over the 15 years there is no chance for me to vote in something that will affect me in a big way, and feel damaged by this. I am a born British Citizen, holding no other nationality, living in Spain, I think that my voice and the voices and all of the British expats that cant vote should be heard and not only heard, we should be listened to.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded an unprecedented number of apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border in a fiscal year. | Read More
News / Africa

by Agencies

Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa - Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) the KZN branch hosted the HWPL WARP (World Alliance of Religions' Peace) Office, Dialogue of Scriptures event at the Bellair Hotel (Durban North) on April the 12th 2016. The meeting aims at the inter-religious harmony and the unity of religions.HWPL WARP Office is the fruit of the WARP Summit which was held in Seoul, South Korea in September 2014. According to the host Mr. Man Hee Lee, over 80% of wars are religiously motivated, so he suggested that "the unity of religions is the resolution of the achievement of peace."Speakers of the meeting included Shaykh Siddiqi (Muslim), Rukmini Devi Dasi (Hare Krishna- ISKON National Minister), Leon Greenberg (Sai), Rabbi Friedman (Jewish- Regional Chairperson), Yaa Ashantewa Archer Ngidi (Indigenous Religion) and Deon Groupe (Christian). The meeting aims to resolve religious misunderstanding as well as address issues regarding peace building in the South African nation.With the discussion topic, "Who wrote your scripture and when? Why is your scripture considered one when it is composed of many books?" religious leaders could know about the origin of their religious scripture. The representative of the Islamic perspective Shaykh Siddiqi spoke according to the Quran that, "If you ask in science what is light? It cannot be changed, it creates and we are creations from the light of god we are the children of the light",Yaa Ashantewa (Indigenous Religion) shared that, "The most important thing each religion's scripture is to practice ones scripture and also she was quite inspired to see that, her fellow speakers spoke from the truth that they understand.At last, Hara Krishna representative Rukmini Devi said, "Peace is so much more than a pen mark, it comes from the individual on the street , it becomes deeper and it beings with a pledge."If all religions could be united as one, there will be no more conflict or war. With this belief, the WARP Offices, started by Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL, are constructing a close relationship with youth and women organizations as well as peace activists worldwide.At present, HWPL has established 142 WARP Offices in 70 countries. Every month, speakers actively participated in the discussion which aims to the unity of religions.On 14th of March, Mr. Lee hosted the Proclamation Ceremony of the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War that was held in Seoul, South Korea which attracted attention from politicians, legal experts and the media all around the world. The declaration consists of 10 articles prohibiting wars. One of the articles urges states to foster religious freedom by allowing members of religious communities to practice their religion.
News / Local

by Staff Reporter

A Kambuzuma man in Harare has been fined $30 for assaulting a woman whom he accused of not greeting him.Victor Manuel (37) was found guilty of assaulting Pamela Musambizi when he appeared before Harare magistrate Tilda Mazhandi. He was sentenced to pay $30 fine of spend 40 days in jail.The court heard that on March 31 this year at 3pm Musambizi was seated in the company of her friends as the accused was passing by.Manuel greeted them but Musambizi did not respond in the manner he wanted. This did not go down well with Manuel and he accused her of not responding to his greeting and took her bag before throwing them into the drainage and assaulting her. She reported the matter to the police leading to his arrest.
Rana & Kajal Coming Together For Teja

Yes you heard it right. According to industry insiders Baahubali actor Rana will soon be working with maverick director Teja who known for delivering superhits like Chitram; Nuvvu Nenu and Jayam. Gorgeous beauty Kajal Agarwal shall play the lead alongside Rana in this film.



As per reports the director is taking good care of the script to make sure he makes a hit film, and gets back to his trademark old days. Currently Rana is shooting for two unique films- Ghazi & Baahubali- The Conclusion and this film's shoot may start in a couple of months from now



Incidentally, this will be Kajal's second project with her mentor Teja, after making her Telugu debut with Lakshmi Kalyanam in 2007. Teja is currently giving the finishing touches to the script and an official announcement will reportedly be made soon.









News Posted: 18 April, 2016








Syrian rebel groups launched a new battle against government forces on Monday and the armed opposition accused the United Nations of bias, imperilling peace talks already threatened by fighting.

The opposition's coordinator at the Geneva talks said it was unacceptable for negotiations to go on if the government and its allies pushed on with sieges and bombing civilian areas, echoing recent criticism of government offensives elsewhere.

Both sides have accused one another of breaking a Feb. 27 partial truce deal, which does not include Islamic State or al Qaeda's Nusra Front and which began to unravel as fighting escalated near Syria's second city Aleppo this month.

On Monday, rebels launched a fierce attack against Syrian government forces in Latakia province, which lies on the Mediterranean coast, and made separate advances further east in Hama, while there were heavy government air strikes in Homs province to the south.

Rebel groups early in the day announced a new battle against government forces which they said was in response to ceasefire violations.

The Latakia and Hama assaults appeared to be that battle, with some of the groups that made the announcement involved in the fighting, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. A Syrian military source confirmed intense fighting in the area.

"Today they attacked in the northern Latakia countryside in several areas, in violation of the cessation of hostilities agreement, and also in the northwestern Hama countryside," the military source said.

The Observatory reported that in northern Homs province heavy government air strikes killed four people, and said the death toll was expected to rise, with more people wounded.

"Half-solutions"

Groups including factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham, said in their battle announcement that they would respond "with force" against any government forces that fired on civilians.

They announced the "formation of a joint operations room to begin the battle ... in response to violations by the army".

Senior opposition figures who have asked not to be quoted have said pressure is growing for a speedy decision to leave talks being convened by U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, with no sign of progress toward discussion of a political transition sought by President Bashar al-Assad's opponents.

The Geneva talks aim to end a war that has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world's worst refugee crisis, and allowed for the rise of the Islamic State group. Russia's intervention in the conflict swayed the war in Assad's favor.

A letter signed by unspecified "armed revolutionary factions" urged negotiators to "take firm and decisive stances towards the half-solutions being propagated ... by the regime's allies, and de Mistura".

It also said international pledges to deliver aid, halt the bombing of residential areas and free prisoners had not been met. "We follow with great concern and outright rejection the moves of de Mistura, some of which show a total bias towards ... the demands of the regime and its allies," the letter said.

Role of Assad

In a meeting with the main opposition High Negotiations Committee on Friday, de Mistura floated the idea of Assad remaining in power symbolically in exchange for the opposition's nomination of three Syrian vice-presidents.

Diplomats and opposition officials sought to play down de Mistura's suggestion, saying it was not his idea but rather one from unidentified experts and not considered serious. The proposal was subsequently dismissed outright by the opposition.

But the mere suggestion of Assad staying in power has further distracted from the crux of the talks.

With both sides already trading barbs in Geneva and fighting escalating anew in Syria, the focus appears to be shifting to simply keeping the opposition at the table rather than entering into substantive debate on transition.

"The opposition is split 50:50 on whether to stay or go," said a senior Western diplomat.

"We're telling them that they must not fall into the government's trap because if they walk away, they will be held responsible and it will be difficult to return soon."

The opposition says Assad must leave power and cannot be part of any transitional period.

Assad has rejected the idea of a transitional governing body, saying instead he could broaden the government to include what he described as opposition and independent figures.

"The transitional government will be a difficult task for both the government and the opposition parties," Chinese special envoy Xie Xiaoyan told reporters. "But that doesnt mean they should ... leave the discussion and go back to the battleground."
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

The residents of Bindura and Plumtree on 15 April 2016 at the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) Bill public hearing demanded that the bill must clarify the compensation of victims of violence.This was revealed by the Heal Zimbabwe Trust. Parliament of Zimbabwe is conducting the public hearings in order to solicit public views on the NPRC Bill gazetted on December 18, 2015.The hearings ending on the 20th of April were rushed and the Bill's consultative process falls short of thorough public scrutiny as many citizens did not have an opportunity to read the draft legislation."Central issues that dominated both meetings were revolving around the sweeping powers conferred to the Minister, distrust among citizens about the potential effectiveness of the NPRC, need for compensation and standard remedies," said Heal Zimbabwe.The public hearing held in Bindura was led by Honourable Senator Mumvuri while in Plumtree, Hon Jessie Majome led the process. Both meetings had fair attendance of approximately 180 and 120 people in Bindura and Plumtree, respectively."However, participants complained about the non-availability of the draft legislation copies. In Bindura the horrors of the 2008 elections emotionally affected participants who narrated torture experiences from Tendai Hall where the hearing was being conducted. Participants clamoured for restorative justice mechanisms to be clear in the Bill," said Heal Zimbabwe.Participants reportedly demanded that the Bill must clearly stipulate compensation as part of restorative justice remedies, with specific standards, the government was also considered a chief perpetrator of human rights violations who should provide compensation to victims, Minister has sweeping powers that takes away the independence of the Commission, NPRC investigations should have investigations time frame beginning from 1980, that the government should consider consulting the grassroots when rolling out the NPRC programmes, the NPRC should be decentralized from the national to the ward levels and reports of the Commission should be submitted directly to Parliament without having the Minister getting involved.The participants also stated that church leaders, survivors and victims of violence are part of the NPRC programme processes, that advertisements should be avoided in the Bill and the Minister should not have powers to issue a certificate of non-disclosure, that police officers who corroborated with perpetrators by abusing their offices should be prosecuted, the media should play a critical role in publishing the work of the Commission and investigations conducted, the NPRC should have additional functions such as providing counseling and education among other demands.In Plumtree the hearing started off well but the only challenge being the shortage of copies of the bill. The Parliamentary team highlighted the role the NPRC in healing, reconciliation and gave a brief summary of the bill. Well-wishers in Plumtree provided copies of the Bill to the participants. In addition, Gukurahundi reminiscences engulfed the Plumtree meeting atmosphere."Participants also blasted the Parliamentary team which had failed to provide copies of the bill before the hearing. The Parliamentary team however urged participants that they could write to Parliament and request for a repeat of the hearing in case they were not satisfied with the process. Below are some of the contributions from the Plumtree hearing: Parliament failed to raise awareness on the bill and this will compromise views on bill," said Heal Zimbabwe.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has called for transperancy in the deployment of of biometric voter registration systems in Zimbabwe.In a statement ZESN called for transparency in the various stages of the deployment of Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system in Zimbabwe."ZESN notes that there is continued silence regarding the steps being taken in the adoption and implementation of the BVR system apart from print media pronouncements," said ZESN. "The implementation process requires careful planning and preparation as well as transparency in processes such as tendering and procurement in order to enhance confidence, integrity and credibility of the process. There is therefore need for sustained engagements between ZEC and electoral stakeholders."
Bishop's charge For all the delusional huffing and puffing about our role as a China-US go-between, our foreign affairs efforts have been ineffectual at best and, more often, counterproductive. It was the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who led the charge against joining the AIIB. In a rational world, states realise that trade is a win-win business, but the economic reality is that Australia needs China and China doesn't need Australia. It's nice for us to have a fat trade surplus with China, but China doesn't much care. For a little while there, before iron ore production went through the roof, China did indeed need to be confident of access to our ore, but now its wants are easily met by global markets. It matters more to us that we sell services and stuff to them than it matters to China where it comes from. Thus Prime Minister Turnbull's pitch in China was primarily that of a mendicant, Australia trying to get money from China one way or another.

Xi Jinping wasn't begging for anything from Australia. It's rather strange then for the mendicant to be lecturing about military escalation when the mendicant has been a particularly willing party to starting the escalation. Ties to America We are collectively conditioned by history, culture, language, shared values, media ownership and, dare I suggest it, ethnicity to toe the American line against China. The pivot declaration still amounted to a shot across China's bows. It's no wonder China responded. One reason for the force of Paul Keating's warning against encirclement the week after Obama's November 2011 "pivot" speech was the rarity of a major political figure, even a major former political figure, being prepared to so publicly question American strategy.

So locked-in are we to the American view of China that Australia's political class and commentariat seem unable to consider the sources of conflict from China's perspective. Try wearing Chinese shoes for a while and think what the "pivot to Asia" looked like. Border disputes in the South China Sea are old and ongoing  we should have a little understanding given our inability to sort out our border with East Timor as priority is given to securing oil and gas at the expense of one of the world's poorest nations. But amidst the usual border tensions of a big power elbowing its smaller neighbours, suddenly an overwhelmingly superior military force says it's turning its focus away from the Middle East to concentrate on you, the Middle Kingdom. Show across China's bows "Pivot" is well short of George Bush's disastrous "Axis of Evil" name calling, but how did that pan out? It presaged escalating tensions and the Iraq war with all its unintended consequences. The pivot declaration and the escalated diplomatic and military policies that followed still amounted to a shot across China's bows. It's no wonder China responded.
Before her are dozens and dozens of items of precious jewellery: rings and cameos, brooches and bracelets, lockets and earrings.

"To be going off and use your gold to be made in to jewellery and to send away is kind of like buying a Ferrari with your first pay cheque."

Goldfields brooch with leafy border, c. 1855, maker unknown. Brooches of this type were made in Victoria and descriptions fitting this configuration have been assigned to brooches made in Bendigo. Notice the pistol at the bottom of the composition. Credit:MADE Ballarat

"It's a bit bogan, isn't it?" says Cash Brown, curator of the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka in Ballarat where a new exhibition diving into the unexpected world of 19th century mining bling has just opened.

Goldfields buckle ring, 1856, maker unknown. A rare piece of Australian colonial history, this ring is inscribed "From the Break-O-Day Gold Mine, Bendigo, May 2nd, 1856 C.J. Brown". It is a hefty half an ounce of gold. Credit:MADE Ballarat

"The ostentatiousness is really there, and it's part of Victorian society too  conspicuous consumption. The more you can show off your wealth, the higher you can go up and the more respect you get. So it's kind of a pathway to respectability," she says.

Some of the pieces are fine, delicately wrought numbers with doves and other symbols of Christian faith intricately nestled among ivy leaves and semi-precious stones. Others, like the heavy, early gold brooches of the 1850s, are more clearly tied to the work of mining itself: scenes of miners winching buckets out of mineshafts, surrounded by the tools of their trade, occasionally the name of the mine itself etched in banners above or below.

These early brooches, mostly from when Victoria was in the first blush of its mining boom, are beautiful in their own garish way. But behind these pieces is the story of a nascent "digger pride" that would go on to influence the social history of Australia, says historian Linda Young.

"They are weird because you just don't find the tools of labour, made in precious materials, presented as jewellery. Something pretty or glamorous is usually what jewellery is intended to mean," she says.
One pay-off for Papua New Guinea's agreement to resettle Australia's unwanted refugees was the construction of a glittering new $400 million hospital.

Now, amid a shortage of cash in PNG, that hospital development in the country's second largest city, Lae, has stalled, and the government in Port Moresby is hinting that Australia should increase its funding.

Implicit in this is a threat that if Australia does not inject hundreds of millions of dollars more into the hospital, it may threaten the future of the Manus Island detention centre.

Under the deal between Kevin Rudd and PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, Australia would half-fund a state-of-the art hospital in a brand new building to replace the existing termite and asbestos-ridden facility in Lae.
The government plans to push ahead with its controversial "chain of responsibility" environmental legislation, despite concerns it will have "unintended consequences", with Environment Minister Steven Miles hoping to have it passed by the end of the week.

The bill, aimed at Clive Palmer following the issues with his Townsville refinery, is designed to give the government the power to ensure resource companies meet their environmental responsibilities, even if they go into administration.

Environment Minister Dr Steven Miles says the chain of responsibility legislation is crucial to ensuring resource companies meet their responsibilities. Credit:Chris Hyde

But the parliamentary committee which reviewed the legislation could not reach a unanimous decision on whether it should be passed.

Stakeholders including the Queensland Law Society also took issue with aspects of the legislation, and who would be responsible when things went wrong.
Ms Faulkner claims her husband took their children to Lebanon in May 2015 and did not let them return to Australia as promised. Earlier this month, two men abducted Noah, 3, and Lahala, 5, while they were walking along a busy street in the Hezbollah-controlled district of Hadath in Beirut's southern suburbs. A Lebanese plainclothes policeman prevents Tara Brown from looking towards journalists as she was taken from the courthouse while under arrest in Lebanon. Credit:Hussein Malla The incident was caught on CCTV. A local shopkeeper said her son witnessed the entire operation. "He said he saw people grabbing the children into a van, and the grandmother running after them pelting them with her handbag," she told Fairfax Media. Sally Faulkner with her estranged husband Ali Elamine and their daughter Lahala at birth.

Mr Elamine said his mother had suffered three internal head injuries in the altercation but was getting better. "We went to the doctor on Thursday, the bleeding in her head kind of stopped, so now it's just a matter of time before it dries up, she should be good." He said the children had complained about their mother's "rough" friends. "What do the kids want? I don't think they wanted all of this, I'll tell you that. They were happy that they saw her. They were a bit bummed that mummy's friends are strong and rough. I just told my biggest they work out a lot," he said. Mr Elamine confirmed his children wanted to see their mother and "probably" wanted to visit her in Australia but added: They're kids, they always want what they don't have at the moment, I mean you take kids to a toy store, they want the whole store." He ruled out letting them travel to Australia claiming he would not get a fair hearing in the Australian courts or media.

"Why not? I mean, are you kidding? What would you think? They have new passports, the media's on it, I'm pretty sure someone from the government's also involved," he said. This means Ms Faulkner's access to her children would likely be restricted to visits in either Lebanon or a third country, in the event a negotiation is reached. Who paid for what? One matter in dispute by the parties involved is whether Channel Nine paid for the child recovery operation to take place. Earlier on Monday, Nine's lawyer, Kamal Abu Zahar, confirmed the network had made a payment in relation to the story but insisted it was for the story itself and not for the operation.

"Channel Nine paid for the story," he told Fairfax Media. "This lady [Sally Faulkner] came to them after contracting Adam [Whittington]," he said. He said Nine's priority was the children but Mr Elamine was not actively pursuing a swift resolution. "Sally's lawyer talked to him and they were reaching something but all of a sudden Ali's lawyers said 'we're not in a hurry,'" Mr Abu Zahar said. Mr Whittington, who runs a self-styled international child recovery organisation, told News Corp he had two receipts to prove Nine paid him directly for the operation and would testify against the network. A source rubbished this and said he "was talking shit". Mr Elamine said the group appeared to be turning on each other after the operation was foiled when police arrested Ms Faulkner, her television crew, Mr Whittington and his accomplice Craig Michael a short time after the abduction and before they could make their getaway to Cyprus on a luxury yacht. "Everyone's blaming the other person for what happened," he said. Embassy officials observing negotiations

Officials from the Australian and British embassies were observing but not taking part in the negotiations, Mr Abu Zahar said. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she was still in constant communications with her Lebanese counterpart "to receive updates, to make suggestions". "The law in Lebanon is quite different to Australian law. It's based on a French system, so there have been arrests, then an investigation and then an investigating judge determines whether charges will be laid and I understand we're at that stage of the proceedings," she told Network Ten. Ms Bishop directly addressed the custodial dispute, which preceded the events in Beirut, and said Lebanon was not signatory to the International Hague Convention which deals with child abduction. "In this case Lebanese law gives custody to the father. Australian law has given custody to the mother," she said.
Two people have been taken to hospital in a stable condition after their car rolled multiple times and landed upside down on the Federal Highway near Sutton.

The other two people in the car were treated at the scene by paramedics.

Two people were taken to hospital in a stable condition after their car rolled multiple times on the Federal Highway near Sutton. Credit:Graham Tidy

It marks the third serious accident on ACT roads and surrounding NSW roads on Monday, in which one person was killed, six people were injured and four sent to hospital.

ACT ambulance service duty officer Chris Barry said witnesses reported seeing the grey Toyota roll several times before coming to a stop across one lane.
Qantas shares have plunged after the airline and its low-cost spin-off, Jetstar, said it was cutting back planned flights on domestic routes in response to reduced demand from Australians worried about the economy and the upcoming election.

Qantas shares tumbled 14 per cent to be at $3.49 at midday, AEST, before recovering slightly to $3.58 at 12.30pm - down 11.8 per cent.

The airline said it had revised plans to increase seat capacity in April, May and June because customers were flying less.

"Some softness in demand, related to the upcoming federal election and a recent drop in consumer confidence in Australia, began to emerge over the peak Easter and school holiday period in late March and continued to be seen in forward bookings," Qantas said in an update to stock exchange.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Zanu PF controversial youth member Fidelis Fengu has started campaigns against President Robert Mugabe on social media as he posted that in 2018 Zanu PF will need a new leader as well as the government.Fengu posted that in 2013 Zimbabwe and Zanu PF needed Gushungo to lead the party and government against the onslaught by the opposition ."The strategy worked and Zanu PF got its majority back , and full control of the country , and the economy," he said."In 2018 Zimbabwe needs a new leader of Government and Zanu PF will need a new leader who will take the party and grow it in the direction and vision of the founding fathers of Zimbabwe and Zanu PF."He said it is the time they started looking at possible options for successor to Gushungo , and these options should be people who have the same patriotism as that of Gushungo."Gushungo has done his best, and whoever takes the baton from Gushungo should develop the country and the economy 2018 is a new day in the growth of Zimbabwe," he said.
The RACQ is set to become a new player in banking, with a proposed merger with QT Mutual Bank expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2016.

The proposed merger would create a banking subsidiary within the RACQ Group, which along with the automobile club also included services, such as insurance.

The combined assets of a merger of RACQ and QT Mutual Bank would be $3.9 billion. Credit:Josh Robenstone

The combined assets of the merged entity would be $3.9 billion and it would have about 1.6 million members.

QT Mutual chief executive Steve Targett said the merger would require a vote of at least 25 per cent of its members, of which 75 per cent would have to vote in the affirmative.
Netflix's stunning growth phase in Australia appears to be over.

Now it has entered a period of mere "steady" growth, and for investors, it's a problem.

The streaming video company reported its quarterly results in the US this morning. Shares have tanked by as much as 10 per cent in after hours trading, after it forecast weaker than expected growth in subscribers in the current quarter - and it turns out Australia is a key part of that.

Netflix said it expects to add 2.5 million subscribers globally in the June quarter - 500,000 of them in the US, which is in line with previous quarters; but just 2 million in "international" markets - down from 2.4 million a year earlier.
It took something special to lure former Worley Parsons executive Peter Meurs away from the board of Fortescue Metals Group.

"It is not a [salary] package that is attracting me to leave Fortescue," he said on Monday, after announcing plans to work full time for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Fortescue director Peter Meurs was not lured away by money. Credit:Philip Gostelow

Meurs will shift to Salt Lake City in the US for the role, which comes six years after he joined Fortescue as the man most likely to replace Andrew Forrest as chief executive.

That role was ultimately taken by Nev Power, but Meurs stayed and became one of the most important figures in Fortescue's recent history by driving the expansion project that has allowed iron exports to more than triple over the past five years.
Under the strategy three crucial organisations were set up to collect and analyse the health and primary care data for millions on Australians: the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, the Primary Health Care Research and Information Service and a network of Centres of Research Excellence.

Operating since 2000, the Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development Strategy has the sole aim of providing evidence to support decisions made  by government  about primary health care.

At a time when the health system is undergoing intense rationalisation, it seems bizarre to close down all means by which we can determine how healthy we are.

In a country as big as ours where at least 85 per cent of the population has at least one visit to a Medicare-paid GP a year, primary care is where we go when we have diabetes, feel depressed, suffer from domestic violence or simply have a crook tummy.

GPs are the gate keepers to Australia's health. At a time when our GPs are under pressure to provide better care, faster and at a lower cost  the federal government has quietly dismantled almost all programs involved in primary health care research.

Despite their critical role in the scrutiny of how Australians' health is looked after, all of the infrastructure supporting these organisations has, or is, being dismantled. APHCRI was defunded from the end of 2015. We learnt last week that PHCRIS will not be funded beyond June 30, 2016. And, although the Centres of Excellence will be allowed to complete their contracted work, only one of them will still be functioning by mid 2017.

And, also last week, we discovered that there will be no further funding from federal government for the world's longest running study of general practice. Operating since 1997, the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health program is the only continuous nationally representative study of general practice in the world. The BEACH database includes details of almost 1.7 million encounters from 16,639 participants, representing about 10,300 individual general practitioners (GPs).

So where do we go to find out how successful, or not, our primary care health programs are? At a time when the health system is undergoing intense rationalisation it seems bizarre that the government would close down all means by which we can determine how healthy we are.

It's not that traditional sources are likely to step up to the plate. The National Health & Medical Research Council has, for many years, allocated barely 1 per cent of its total allocations towards primary care specific projects, and has not provided primary care-directed career support for some time.

In 2014 the NHMRC funded only seven project grants and two partnership grants related to primary health care nationwide. In 2015 there was no NHMRC grant review panel which specifically had responsibility for reviewing primary health care applications as part of its role and the outcomes of the funding rounds were dismal for primary health care.
As new transport initiatives go, the car-sharing trail announced by Transport Minister Meegan Fitzharris on Monday is the equivalent of political small potatoes. With the allocation of 22 government-owned car-parking spaces located in the City, Dickson, Russell and near the Federal Treasury building in Parkes, the government hopes the two-year-long trial will encourage Canberrans to sample the joys of motoring without having to endure the bother and high cost of car ownership. Creating transport options for Canberra is how Ms Fitzharris puts it.

Apartment-dwelling, inner-city Canberrans who've forsaken car ownership but who occasionally have need to drive across town or to Sydney for the weekend will welcome the plan. But close on their heels (in terms of jubilation at least) will be Greens MLA and Labor coalition partner Shane Rattenbury.

In 2008, when he was but a mere Greens candidate seeking election to the Assembly, Mr Rattenbury was championing the desirability of car-sharing so that Canberrans could, if they wanted, avail themselves of a car from time to time without the "hassles" of ownership. Reid, Braddon, Turner and Ainslie residents would be ideal candidates for car-sharing trial, Mr Rattenbury pronounced at the time  mindful no doubt that these suburbs were and remain redoubts of Greens support.

Though he won election to the Assembly in 2008 (along with fellow Greens candidates Amanda Bresnan and Caroline Le Couteur), Mr Rattenbury must have figured that his chances of actually being able to implement a car-sharing trial  let alone fulfil the Greens' other major policy commitments like light rail  were negligible. Labor's electoral setback in 2012 changed that, however.
Every generation likes to think it is special, so a sense of deja vu is hardly surprising when reading about the unique threats confronting Generation Y.

Their concerns about student debts, housing and employment should not be dismissed, but are not unique to one generation. People with longer memories will remember the violent protests over unemployment during Malcolm Fraser's years as prime minister in the mid-1970s and early '80s, and his neat reminder that "life wasn't meant to be easy".

Let's not get into another shouty debate about what other generations think of Gen Y (people born during the 1980s and early '90s), which, given the origins of these generational tags, is nothing more than arguing about someone's marketing strategy anyway.

There are real concerns for Gen Y and its successors and it isn't these fairly predictable behavioral markers. Rather, we should worry about a kind of cultural smothering that has been occurring in our tertiary education system, with well-intentioned governing and student bodies reducing personal resilience and the ability to engage with diverse and occasionally disagreeable viewpoints.
She was part of Australia's most storied artistic milieu, a member of the Boyd family and later wife to one of the country's most celebrated painters.

Lady Mary Nolan, who is remembered by many for her tenacious work preserving the legacy and estate of her late husband, Sidney, died last week in Wales. She was 89.

A 1937 portrait of Mary Nolan by Arthur Boyd. National Gallery of Australia/The Arthur Boyd Gift, 1975 Credit:National Gallery of Australia/The Arthur Boyd Gift

Born Mary Boyd in 1926, she grew up in the Murrumbeena community of Boyds that championed art above all else. Her father, Merric, was a pioneering Australian ceramicist and her brother, Arthur, a famed painter.

Her dedication to Sidney Nolan's career, especially after his death, can be traced back to the humanist values she grew up with, said art historian and friend Sasha Grishin.
Sydney Swans chairman Andrew Pridham paid $2.5 million for a fake painting by Brett Whiteley after being told it had been hanging in the Sydney apartment of a movie producer who had met the famous Australian artist, a court has heard.

Art dealer Peter Gant - who is on trial in the Supreme Court with art conservator Mohamed Aman Siddique accused of creating and selling fake Whiteley paintings - claimed the Blue Lavender Bay painting had been commissioned directly from the artist by movie producer Robert Le Tet.

Blue Lavender Bay was sold for $2.5 million to Sydney Swans chairman Andrew Pridham in 2007. Credit:Jason South

Mr Gant told art consultant Anita Archer that Mr Le Tet had attended the Brett Whiteley Bird Series exhibition in 1988 but did not see anything he liked so he asked the artist to paint Blue Lavender Bay for him.

But Mr Le Tet told the court on Monday he had never met Whiteley, who died in 1992, or bought the Blue Lavender Bay painting or ever signed a letter of authenticity confirming the painting's provenance or history. The letter of authenticity had been given to Ms Archer by Mr Gant.
News / National

by Mashudu Netsianda

THE High Court has dismissed an appeal by a former Edgars Stores Limited worker who was challenging eviction from his ex-employer's house in Mpumalanga suburb in Hwange over $754 rent arrears. Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi said Nelson Mangena's eviction was obtained through a lawful order."The eviction was obtained through a lawful court order. Where an evictee has appealed against an eviction order such an appeal would suspend the operation of that eviction order thereby preserving the right of occupation."Unfortunately, that is not the case with the applicant as he did not appeal against the eviction order, but against the directions given by the magistrate which were merely interlocutory and not definitive in determining the matter," said Justice Mathonsi.He said Mangena's appeal left the eviction order intact, lawful and binding.According to papers filed at the Bulawayo High Court, Edgars Stores Limited evicted Mangena from its house following last month's judgment by Hwange magistrate Rose Dube.This was after Mangena allegedly failed to pay rent arrears of $754.Mangena capitulated and paid the requited money on eviction. He argued that Edgars Stores executed the order despite his appeal against Dube's ruling.In his founding affidavit, Mangena sought an order to have occupation of the house and all goods attached and cash paid in lieu restored to him."On the night of March 31, 2016, the messenger of court came and evicted me from my house basing on a judgment I had appealed against," said Mangena, through his lawyers, Dube, Mguni and Dube legal practitioners.He said Edgars Stores acted outside the law by ignoring his appeal and evicting him.Mangena said the ruling by Dube was misdirected and irregular. The judgment was granted in default and Mangena argued that he did not attend because he was sick on the day.He wanted the judgment rescinded and the matter referred back to the lower court.
THEATRE

BRIGHT WORLD 

Elise Hearst & Andrea James | Arthur,

Theatre Works, until April 30



Bright World is a collision between Jewish and Aboriginal history that invokes two traumatic legacies: the industrialised murder of six million Jews, on the one hand, and the horrors inflicted on Indigenous Australians (during and after colonisation), on the other.

Kevin Kiearnan Molloy, Andrea James and Elise Hearst in Bright World at Theatre Works. Credit:Sarah Walker

It isn't as depressing as it sounds. The kind of cultural blindness that goes hand in glove with our nation's treatment of its First Peoples extends also to Indigenous heroes, so you might not have heard of William Cooper, the man who inspired the show.

Cooper was an indefatigable campaigner for Aboriginal rights, establishing the Australian Aborigines League, arguing with passion and eloquence for land rights and parliamentary representation for Indigenous people.
"I hadn't heard of Game of Thrones. I hadn't heard of HBO even," Turner says. "It was me and like 20 of my friends in the drama room at my high school. Next thing you know, I was in the final seven. Callback after callback, and then I got it. It was crazy." Thrones has led to film roles, including next month's X-Men: Apocalypse. For Sansa, Thrones has meant more anguish than joy, but it didn't go to waste. "She watched the master manipulators (who) were giving her a firsthand education in how to rule," Turner says. Some fans revolted after Sansa's wedding-night rape. Turner says she was not surprised there was a reaction. "I expected controversy, just because Sansa is still seen as like - , I think she's 15, 16 - so I expected it, but Daenerys went through the same thing. Of course, it's going to be a sensitive subject to broach, but we don't distract from the harsh realities of that time," she says. "It's happening every day in our world, and no one speaks about it. Maybe it was important for that scene to make people talk and it gives me a platform to speak about it now." Sansa is not deterred by that horrific event.

"In terms of coming into her own power, Sansa is gathering people who will do right by her," Turner says. "She's trying to get revenge, to get back at the people who have done her wrong." Assassin in training ... Maisie Williams as Arya Stark in Game of Thrones, season six. Credit:HBO Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) Faceless Men mentor Jaqen H'ghar (Tom Wlaschiha) blinded Arya at the end of season five as punishment for putting the killing of foe Meryn Trant ahead of subverting her identity and will. "Arya is now learning to use her ears and other senses," Williams says, which ultimately will "make her a better assassin. But the beginning will be spent as an underdog and will be a real struggle."

The situation also finds Arya using a weapon other than her trusty sword Needle. Arya met Jaqen in season two when she was in disguise and on the run after her father's execution. She later learned of her mother's and brother's Red Wedding murders. "She definitely experiences more than any 12-year-old, more than any human, should have," Williams says. "She's got this (kill) list and she's carried the pain of losing her family members. It changes a person. This season, we see her get lost in someone else for a bit." Williams, 19, who made her acting debut on Thrones, drew attention during a casting search for Arya, an unconventional girl more interested in sword-fighting than social niceties. "I was Arya when I was 12. As I got older, I've become a very different person," Williams says.

She appreciates her burgeoning career, which includes The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, but growing up is difficult enough without having to do it in the spotlight. "Teenage years are the time you make your mistakes. It's what shapes you into being a good adult," she says. "It's very difficult to make those honest mistakes that every teenager makes when you're in a position that you can't make mistakes." Williams admires Arya's "pure intelligence and individual drive," noting Arya observes her elders but is selective about what she picks up. "She doesn't think The Hound is very smart, but she knows he's a good killer because he's brutal and gets straight to the point," she says. "So, I'm going to leave his wit behind me. But the way that he kills, that's really beneficial." She may have similar thoughts about Jaqen.

"Arya starts this season getting a little bit sick of his whole third-person" type of speaking, Williams says. "At the beginning, it seemed mysterious, but the more she learns about the House of Black and White, the more she starts to realise it's not as all-knowing and scary as she thought." Paralysed but gifted ... Issac Hempsted Wright as Bran Stark in Game of Thrones. Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark) At the end of the fourth season, Bran reached the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven of his dreams after a draining trek that claimed his friend and mentor, Jojen. Wright's physical growth during Bran's absence underlines a dramatic transition for the character, who has spent the time harnessing his magical powers under the auspices of the Raven (Max von Sydow).

Disabled after he was pushed from a window by Jaime Lannister, Bran has a unique combination of supernatural gifts: the ability to warg, or see through the eyes of animals and humans, and greensight, which offers visions of the past, present and possibly future. "I like to imagine it's as if he's watching the show, with the idea of seeing what's going on all over," Thrones' vast terrain, Wright says. Wright, 17, didn't mind being away, as he had a busy year of school exams, but began to miss the show when he read stories about his friends filming Season 5. As Thrones won numerous Emmys and became a bigger global phenomenon, he worried it might have "gone Hollywood" and evolved into a less welcoming place. "But within a couple of hours of being back on the set, it was just like being home again," Wright says. Bran may be more grown up, but he still has adolescent sensibilities to corral.
Australia is poised to enter an unofficial election campaign that will run for 75 days, with the Senate expected to vote down a bill to restore the construction industry watchdog as soon as Monday evening and hand Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull the trigger for a July 2 double dissolution poll.

Mr Turnbull said as recently as Sunday that defeat of the Australian Building and Construction Industry bill would mean "there will be a dissolution of both houses and an election of the 2nd of July", with the government's May 3 budget to form a key element in the Coalition's re-election pitch.

The Coalition and Labor traded blows in question time on Monday about their competing promises to tackle unions' bad behaviour on construction sites and to hold a royal commission into the banks.
A tribunal wrongly upheld a decision to cancel the visa of a Chinese student accused of child prostitution offences, a court has ruled.

The student had also been involved in a case in which a car hit a house causing a brick to fall on the occupant's head.

A ruling on the cancellation of a Chinese student's visa has been found to be flawed.

The judgment has fuelled fresh criticism of tough migration laws introduced in December 2014 that allow a person's visa to be cancelled if a bureaucrat decides they "might be" a risk to society.

It has also raised concern that detention centres are being used as proxy prisons for people freed on bail who are awaiting trial.
But following a backlash in which many customers threatened to cancel their contracts, Mr Penn seemed to concede his announcement had been an error of judgment.

Last week, chief executive Andrew Penn announced the company would no longer "publicly participate" in the debate over same-sex marriage. It followed revelations by The Australian newspaper that Telstra had quietly dropped its public support for marriage equality following pressure from one of its major clients, the Catholic church.

Australia's largest telco, Telstra, appears to have backflipped on its support for marriage equality, vowing to renew its "active position" on the issue.

"It is clear that rather than Telstra stepping back we should in fact step forward and support our view for marriage equality and so that is what we will do," he wrote in a statement on Monday.

Telstra faces a Cayman Islands court action.

"By renewing our active position, we acknowledge that we are at equal risk of inflaming a new debate but it is the right thing to do. It also remains very important that we continue to recognise and respect the right of the individual to hold their own view on this issue."

What exactly Telstra means by "renewing our active position" is as yet unclear, and was not addressed in Mr Penn's statement. But it is understood the company stands ready to participate in future campaigns run by Australian Marriage Equality, organiser of the corporate campaign Telstra joined last year. That would include events such as the CEO breakfast AME hosted with corporate leaders last year.

The telco has also sponsored major LGBTI events such as the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Melbourne's Midsumma festival. It is understood those sponsorships were not under threat from last week's fleeting change of heart, and are set to continue into the future. The company also ranked 20th on the 2015 Australian Workplace Equality Index for LGBTI employers, published by Pride in Diversity, a program of the AIDS Council of NSW (ACON).
So what if we took that idea seriously? Could we replace some of our elections with selection by lot, also known as sortition? Sortition has considerable advantages over elections. Equality and fairness are baked into its selection process. Unlike elections, public lotteries cannot be readily rigged or bought. The members selected by lottery would owe nothing to special interest donors or party leaders. They would be free to focus on making good policy, instead of fighting each other for power and playing to the media, which now feeds on the permanent election cycle as voraciously as politicians themselves. Americans from all walks of life would see people like themselves in a "Citizen Assembly" selected at random. Women, for instance, would make up roughly half its membership, and a plurality of its members would probably identify as political independents. Though this Assembly would be representative, skeptics might doubt its ability to govern effectively. Would the random rabble prove competent at drafting laws, holding committee hearings, weighing expert testimony and evidence, and deliberating in the public interest? A handful of the Assemblys lawmakers might prove to be rascals or incompetent, though perhaps at a lower rate than among an equivalent body of elected legislators. What matters, however, is the collective capacity of the whole group, when supported with professional staff and resources. A randomly selected body of citizens, free from special interest control and partisan electoral imperatives, could well be more capable at finding optimal policy solutions than an elected body at war with itself.

Social science supports this idea. A randomly selected legislature would be more likely than an elected one to harness the wisdom of crowds", whereby a large number of diverse individuals can arrive at better solutions than a small group of comparatively homogeneous experts. Its not just a social science dream. Sortition has precedents. It was part of the earliest recorded history of democracy. In the reformed democracy of ancient Athens, panels of citizens chosen by lot (not the mass Assembly) made remarkably good laws for a hundred years. Aristotles Politics stated that the appointment of magistrates by lot is considered democratic, and the election of them oligarchic. Sortition is also already at work in the United States. Small bodies of randomly selected citizens, in the form of civil and criminal juries, serve a vital democratic role. Through the jury system, we ask fellow citizens to resolve cases that could result in life imprisonment or a billion-dollar judgment. On the whole, they do an excellent job, and a growing number of nations, such as Argentina, Japan and South Korea, are now establishing jury systems of their own. The role of a randomly selected legislature in the US could begin as a modest one. It could start with the special authority to resolve those questions where legislative conflicts of interest are greatest: drawing district lines, setting salaries, and watching out for corruption.

The next step could give the randomly selected body the power to draft, revise or review legislation. Or it could have the final vote on key legislation and budgets. This could lead to the full-fledged Citizen Assembly referenced earlier. One blueprint would use this body to replace one elected house in a bicameral legislature. With full legislative powers, the Assembly would introduce bills that force the elected house to vote on hot potato proposals that electoral pressures would have caused them to avoid. (How long has Congress sidestepped the most difficult policy questions posed by climate change?) The Assembly would likewise consider bills from the other chamber. Some proposals suggest eventually moving to a sortition-based democracy and dispensing with legislative elections altogether. Imagine how refreshing it would be to watch the Citizen Assembly in action. Picture this body of everyday Americans speaking and acting out of a genuine desire to develop good policy, rather than playing partisan power games. One could see honest dialogue in committees and vigorous debates on the floor. Without the predictability of partisan scripts, such events would have real drama. The legislators would bring to the nations toughest problems perspectives informed by a wide range of occupations, ages, ethnicities and viewpoints. As incredible as that vision might seem, serious national conversations are already under way about randomly selected upper houses in Australia, Belgium, Canada and the UK.
The war on terrier is over.

It may have cost them countless travel hours and, in the end, hundreds of thousands of dollars, but Amber Heard and Johnny Depp have had their day in court over the war that was declared against them almost a year ago.

Ms Heard, a 29-year-old actress, was sentenced to a one-month good behaviour bond in Southport Magistrates Court on Monday after pleading guilty to inadvertently falsifying her passenger arrival card when she flew into the country last year.

Both she and Depp, 52, her Hollywood superstar husband, could not hide the smiles from their faces when magistrate Bernadette Callaghan said she would not convict the actress, a move that would almost certainly have affected her ability to work globally.
Rose Porteous didn't kill her late husband, Lang Hancock.

"Why would you kill the goose who laid the golden egg?" she told A Current Affair's Ray Martin in what may be her final interview before she relocates to Spain to pursue her true love of Flamenco dancing.

Rose Porteous has given her "last" interview to Ray Martin. Credit:Nine

She also denied claims she engaged in extramarital affairs while married to Hancock - one of her four husbands - despite admitting to not being attracted to him when they married in 1985.

"It took some time, long time. I'm not the person you can just take to dinner and have a hamburger as they say," she said.
Never ones to miss an opportunity to cash in, the pair sold their story to New Idea magazine and posed for a solemn-looking photoshoot, wherein Garvey "fought back tears" to reveal that he did the dumping.

The former Bachelor, 33, and Louise Pillidge, 28, have split because the Instagram-famous blonde struggled with being the topless waiter-turned-auctioneer's third pick on the 2014 reality TV show.

His season-ending was not one to be forgotten, when he proposed to Sam Frost on bended knee, sending Lisa Hyde home. But before the show aired on Channel Ten, he had already dumped Frost, and shortly after ran away to Thailand with Pillidge where they announced their love for each other.

Few will forget Blake Garvey's announcement in Woman's Day that he had dumped Sam Frost and run off with runner-up, Louise Pillidge instead. Credit:Instagram/ Blake Garvey

Blake explained they tried three months of relationship counselling to make things work, but blamed their split on others' disapproval of their controversial partnership.

"We've both tried so hard to make it work, but the negativity that has surrounded us has changed us as individuals," he said before adding: "We felt like we were walking on eggshells around each other, always trying to say the right thing. It was suffocating."

Pillidge said it was difficult having to live with the fact that she came in behind both Frost and Hyde.
News / National

by Elizabeth Tsuro

A 34-YEAR-OLD woman from Gokwe has been slapped with a nine-year jail term after she was found in possession of a pangolin skin.Letwin Chari from Mufunguri Village under Chief Chireya in Gokwe was found guilty of possessing a specially protected animal without a permit by Gokwe Magistrate Sithabile Zungula.In passing sentence, Magistrate Zungula said the charge attracted a custodial sentence. "Matters of this nature attract a custodial sentence and you could've killed the specially protected pangolin to get the skin," she said.Prosecuting, Maxwell Tapfira told the court that on March 25, Constable Paul Rundariro of the Minerals and Border Control Unit in Gokwe was tipped by an informer that Chari had a live pangolin in her possession.Police teamed up with members of the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and went to Chari's homestead. "Upon arrival, they found her and asked her to produce a live pangolin which she had and she told them she was in possession of the skin," said Tapfira.Chari then produced the skin but failed to produce a permit authorising her to keep it. She was immediately arrested.
Celebrity designer Johanna Johnson's struggling bridal and red carpet empire will be tipped into liquidation owing more than $1 million to the Tax Office and thousands to creditors unless the Sydney couturier can convince the Supreme Court she has a plan to pay her debts.

Fairfax Media revealed on Friday the Alexandria-based designer, famed for dressing Mad Men's Christina Hendricks and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, was being pursued by former employees in court and through the ATO for unpaid entitlements.

Johanna Johnson's company appears to have failed to pay staff superannuation over many years, administrator says. Credit:Getty Images

On Monday Supreme Court Justice Paul Brereton ordered her company be wound up and a liquidator appointed. The Tax Office supported the move and a voluntary administrator appointed by Ms Johnson on Thursday agreed to step aside.
When we talk about porn we usually assume that men mostly look at it, but it's no secret that women are also increasingly becoming consumers of online porn.

One of the world's most popular free websites, Pornhub, visited by about 150 million people every month, has revealed that women make up a quarter of its global audience. However, the idea of women getting off looking at porn isn't as normalised yet as it is for men.

Female-focused 'porna' is gaining popularity. Credit:iStock

With the new technology available, it's so much easier for women to overcome the barriers that existed before. With a smartphone or internet-enabled device, they can access explicit material discreetly. But openly talking about watching porn is still daunting  most women are embarrassed or even ashamed  because it is still very much a taboo.

The operators of Pornhub decided in 2014 to examine the choices of their female viewers and found that their lesbian category ranked No. 1. That same year a British Cosmopolitan magazine survey also found that many women gravitated towards lesbian sex. Most women preferred to watch porn alone, and two-thirds said they never watched it with a partner. More than half agreed that porn had a positive impact on their sex lives. Most of the respondents use porn to find out what they liked and incorporate it into their sex lives and masturbation practices.
Wei Wu, the business school's head corporate finance tutor, resigned from the position on Monday after reports he called his mainland students "pigs" generated widespread outrage in Australia and went viral in mainland China.

The posts, mostly made last year, were discovered by students in his class and circulated among the Sydney University community in a petition condemning the remarks.

University of Sydney tutor Wei Wu Credit:Facebook

"The Usyd finance course is very difficult, not sure how many international pigs will hire essay writer [sic] because of their low IQ," read one of the posts, translated by a student who created the petition.

Mr Wu's supporters, including many in the local Australian-Chinese community, insist he was using coded political slang popular with dissidents online, and was being targeted for his dissident work and frequent vocal criticism of China's ruling Communist Party.

Mr Wu's Weibo account has been taken down and Fairfax Media has not reviewed all of his previous posts. But in the posts used as examples in the USyd student petition, the obscure character tun is used rather than zhu, the vastly more commonly used character for pig.
Saudi Arabian diplomats in Canberra have clocked up more than $140,000 in traffic fines, hooning around the capital in their official cars but authorities are powerless to make the Saudis pay.

The Saudis are Canberra's worst-behaved diplomats with more than 550 fines outstanding for speeding, running red lights and parking where they please around the city, ACT government data reveals.

All told, foreign embassies in Canberra owe more than half-a-million dollars in fines for speeding, running red lights and parking infringements which they have no intention of paying despite the pleas of the Commonwealth government.
As in 1888, it seems more natural to look forward than to look back. But there is one great unsettled issue: the relations between European and Aboriginal Australia. Australia, to contradict Mr Howard, has yet to make peace with itself.

As it has since Australia was settled, prosperity means trade - buying the goods and services that they produce best, specialising in the things that we produce best. Australia grew rapidly last century selling staple products to the British market. It grew rapidly after the war selling staple commodities to rapidly-growing Japan. Now, if it is to continue to prosper, it must exploit its nearness to sell to Asia's new economic miracles. More and more, Australians will consume Asian goods and services and will depend for their livelihood on Asian customers.

Our manufacturers cannot expect to prosper, as they have in the past, behind the walls of import protection erected in the mistaken belief that these would produce an efficient manufacturing base. Nor can our service industries - such as shipping, civil aviation, construction and health - carry on in splendid isolation from the events just to our north. Just as Britain has had to adjust to - and become part of - the new economic reality of Europe, Australia must adjust to the new Asia. Australia, as Mr Dawkins reminded us yesterday, will prosper or perish in this region.

The Bicentenary has focused world attention on the plight of Australia's Aborigines and, rightly, Aboriginal leaders are exploiting the opportunity. That should also be a painful experience for white Australians. Mild international criticism by an official of the UN and by the London-based Anti-Slavery Society seems to have caused much anxiety already. Not because either said anything Australians did not already know, but because Australians are better at giving international criticism than taking it.

Well, the more embarrassment we are made to feel, the better. Race relations and the conditions of Aboriginal life in many of our country towns are outrageous. They can be changed, but only under intense pressure. If the world is shown the kind of conditions found last year by Justice Einfeld, then the voters of Sydney and Melbourne might insist that those conditions be changed. If the world takes an interest in why 90 Aborigines have hanged themselves in Australian jails since 1982 - and why they were allowed to - then white Australians might also take a genuine interest in the subject.

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Of course, there is a danger that the Aborigines will allow themselves to be fobbed off with meaningless treaties and grants for community radio stations and the like. This year could so easily degenerate into a Year of the Aborigines. Whatever happens it will be a crucial year for Australia's Aborigines. They will have the attention of the outside world and of an embarrassed nation. Nineteen eighty-eight will be a year in which they build a new confidence or a new despair.

The relationship between Aboriginal and white Australia is the greatest historical problem still to be resolved by this country. It is to be hoped that when the nation celebrates its next major anniversary - the centenary of Federation at the beginning of the 21st century - the painful encounter between Aboriginal and white Australians will have been significantly overcome. That will take money of course, and the pressure that only an effective Aboriginal political movement can provide. Only when Australians are reconciled with this aspect of their past, will the process of building a genuine Australian culture be credible.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard appeared in a somewhat bizarre video about Australian biosecurity as part of Heard's court hearing. Credit:YouTube The short film went viral within moments of its public release at the conclusion of the court hearing on Monday, drawing a raft of ridicule on social media by people who largely drew comparisons between their performances and a hostage situation. But went viral it did, and the superstar couple are now highly likely to become the faces of Australian quarantine. Depp leaving Southport Magistrates Court, Queensland, with Heard in April after she pleaded guilty to falsifying travel documents to sneak her dogs into Australia. Credit:Robert Shakespeare Mr Joyce acknowledged the video did not appear to have been filmed willingly, but expressed his approval.

"I want it to be as widely viewed as we can possibly get it because the more widely viewed it is the more we have people who might be unaware of our biosecurity requirements, when they come into this nation they will say 'This is one thing Australians are red hot about, biosecurity, don't take it as a joke, this is one thing they are noted for'," he told reporters in the wake of Ms Heard being sentenced to a one-month good behaviour bond for falsifying her entry documents last year. Pistol and Boo. It was another publicity coup that began, albeit in a somewhat farcical fashion, when the presence of the Pistol and Boo was revealed last May. Depp's celebrity profile provided an unequalled opportunity for Mr Joyce, a seemingly passionate advocate for Australia's strict biosecurity laws, to tell the world just how serious these regulations were. By channelling his inner bogan and telling Pistol and Boo to "bugger off" back to the United States, then threatening to have them killed if they did not return home within 50 hours, "Blustering Barnaby" ensured the story went global.

It received media coverage of unprecedented proportions with talk show hosts across the United States and Europe forced to dissect exactly what circumstances could facilitate a country's agriculture minister threatening to kill two tiny dogs. Mr Joyce may now be forever known as the man who tried to kill Depp's dogs, but many, many more people may now understand why than ever before. As for Depp and Heard, the celebrity couple are expected to return imminently to their Los Angeles home. Exiting the court amid chaotic scenes on Monday, the actor briefly told waiting media he and his wife were very happy with the outcome. While he has made light of the situation, Ms Heard has previously expressed no desire to return to Australia.

They came, her defence lawyer said, across the Pacific, because they wanted to apologise and to let the Australian people know they did not smuggle Pistol and Boo into the country intentionally and did not believe they were above the law. Magistrate Bernadette Callaghan accepted the entry of the dogs had been the result of a misunderstanding between Heard and her husband's entourage, who she was led to believe had obtained the requisite quarantine clearances. She sentenced Ms Heard to a one month good behaviour bond and crucially, did not convict her of the crime, which could potentially have hampered the actress' ability to work internationally. "All references speak of Ms Heard's generosity, commitment and kindness and indicate she is not just another celebrity on the charity bandwagon," Ms Callaghan said in sentencing, after reviewing reference material that told of the actress' extensive charity work. However, the profile that Australian biosecurity has been given by the case, Ms Callaghan acknowledged, came at a cost to Ms Heard and her husband.
A victim of a one-time Brisbane massage therapist who preyed on female clients, including children and the intellectually impaired, felt ripped open and exposed by the abuse, a court has heard.

Samuel Joseph MacBean pleaded guilty to 50 charges, including counts of rape, sexual assault and recordings in breach of privacy when he fronted Brisbanes District Court on Monday.

A former massage therapist has pleaded guilty to 50 charges, including rape.

The court heard the 43-year-old abused five female children and 16 women, including two that were intellectually impaired, when he owned a business called Moorooka Therapeutic Massage.

This included touching them in and around their genitals and breasts, as well as capturing footage on a laptop that was covertly filming the sessions.
The Palaszczuk Government plans on unwinding another of the Newman Government reforms - this time in regards to youth justice  in the upcoming parliamentary sitting, as it continues to play it safe with legislative debates.

The government will introduce its youth justice amendments, which aim to overturn the Newman Government amendments moving teenagers to adult prisons on their 17th birthday, allowing for youth to be identified and reinstate the jail as a last resort principle, this week, fulfilling an election promise.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Credit:Glenn Hunt

It will also introduce Queensland's National Injury Insurance Scheme legislation, which the Newman Government signed the state up for when agreeing to the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

It has decided to back the hybrid model favoured by lawyers, which will allow for common law rights to sue to exist alongside the scheme that covers catastrophic injuries in no-fault motor vehicle crashes not covered by Compulsory Third Party insurance.
A Queensland police officer accused of raping and choking a woman he met on a dating website has been released on bail.

The 23-year-old male constable appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday, charged with two counts of rape and one count of assault.

A police officer has been charged with two counts of rape and count of assault. Credit:Tom Threadingham

The court heard the pair met after first making contact on the dating website Plenty of Fish last week.

It's alleged the officer from the Northern Police Region sexually assaulted the woman before grabbing her by the throat.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Minister of State for Bulawayo Provincial Affairs Eunice Sandi-Moyo has said Zimbabwe is in a mess and need urgent reconstruction.She gave an honest assessment ahead of today's independence celebrations."The last 15 years have been difficult for us as a nation."We are still struggling but let us celebrate, work hard and be hopeful that we will be on our feet soon."The country should treasure the gains of Independence and support the Government as it works towards reviving the country's economy" she told the Herald.
Microsoft Windows users who still have Apple QuickTime installed should ditch the program now that Apple has stopped shipping security updates for it, warns the US Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT). The advice comes just as researchers are reporting two new critical security holes in QuickTime that likely won't be patched.

US-CERT points to an April 14 blog post by Christopher Budd at Trend Micro, which runs a program called Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) that buys security vulnerabilities and helps researchers coordinate fixing the bugs with software vendors. Budd urged Windows users to junk QuickTime, citing two new, unpatched vulnerabilities that ZDI detailed which could be used to remotely compromise Windows computers.

"According to Trend Micro, Apple will no longer be providing security updates for QuickTime for Windows, leaving this software vulnerable to exploitation," US-CERT wrote. The advisory continued:

"Computers running QuickTime for Windows will continue to work after support ends. However, using unsupported software may increase the risks from viruses and other security threats. Potential negative consequences include loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability of data, as well as damage to system resources or business assets. The only mitigation available is to uninstall QuickTime for Windows. Users can find instructions for uninstalling QuickTime for Windows on the Apple Uninstall QuickTime page."
A group of Jewish residents fed up with a spate of violent crimes in Melbourne's south-east hope that banding together will help create safer streets for the community.

On Sunday, Caulfield businessman Avi Yemini up a Facebook page he's called J-Safe,

The founders of the Facebook page says many suburbs where Jewish people live are being targeted because residents are considered wealthy. Credit:Peter Rae

The page operates as a place for victims of crime to share their experiences and warn others about crimes in real-time.

Within 10 hours of it's debut it had attracted more than 6000 "likes".
Every building at Mornington Special Developmental School contains asbestos, there are holes in the walls and a leaky roof.

Dedicated teachers work when they're sick because there's little money for casual relief staff, while the senior school toilets are too cramped to fit a change table.

"It is an old school that's in a poor condition," acting principal David Newport said.

"We want to be a modern school and provide the best facilities for our students who love coming here."
A man has been charged with the drive-by-shooting murder of Nathan Knight, a suspected car thief who was shot in the face as he sat in his car.

Another man has been charged with helping cover up the crime.

Nathan Knight, 24, was shot in the face while he sat in a car parked in Lalor on New Year's Eve

Serdar Atesok, 28, is accused by police of murdering Knight on New Year's Eve, 2015.

Syed Sultan, 33, is charged with stealing a silver Mazda and then later setting it alight.
Ever wondered what type of "extenuating circumstance" would be enough for a local council to waive a $76 parking fine?

As one Melbourne woman recently found out, being in the midst of a psychiatric episode so severe she was admitted to a mental health unit and put on suicide watch, isn't serious enough.

Yarra Council initially refused to withdraw a parking fine to a cancer patient (pictured) who was having a psychiatric episode. Credit:Simon Schluter

After appealing against the fine she incurred while at her doctor's office for a crisis appointment, the woman was told by Yarra Council that her condition was not considered a "medical emergency".

This is despite providing the council with evidence her doctor had prescribed a cocktail of powerful sedatives, deemed her unfit to work and referred her to a psychologist for acute anxiety and depression "on the background of chronic pain and serious physical health issues" (the woman has cancer).
News / National

by Staff Reporter

Several Chinese, Indian and Pakistani male bosses at Chiadzwa's diamond mining firms allegedly raped female workers at will, parliement heard.The ex-workers raised the allegations in Parliament last Thursday when they appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth and Indigenisation.Zimbabwe Diamond Miners' Union president, Francis Matinyarare told the Justice Mayor Wadyajena-led committee that most rape cases were recorded at Diamond Mining Company (DMC)."At DMC, we have ladies that are members of our union that were allegedly raped by a company official (named), who is a foreigner and the cases were reported to Zimbabwe Republic Police Bambazonke Base," Matinyarare said."However, they have been swept under the carpet, maybe because of corruption," he said.Proportional representation MP Jasmine Toffa (MDC) called on the union to compile a list of rape victims and submit it to the committee for further investigations, but Matinyarare said it was difficult to follow up the matter following the recent consolidation of diamond mining firms."Before we came to Parliament, I communicated with one of the victims, who said she was prepared to come before the committee to testify, but she later chickened out. I am speaking under oath and can testify we have names of the ladies that were raped and the alleged perpetrator," he said.Matinyarare said he had presided over a number of cases where workers complained of being kicked and assaulted by their Chinese bosses."I can testify that at Jinan Mine, workers have been physically kicked by Chinese bosses. When a worker, who is a machine operator does not understand what they are saying, because the Chinese cannot speak English - they end up being physically abused. I almost hit back one of them."Whenever we tried to drag them to a hearing about the abuses, they would come in their dozens and make a lot of noise disrupting the proceedings.
News / Press Release

by Clemence Tauya Nhliziyo - (DARE) Head Of Communications

Zimbabwe became independent on 18 April 1980. The historical significance of that day is spiritual and flows through the veins of every Zimbabwean . It is on this day that we pay homage to all Zimbabweans who took any part on our journey to independence. It was an arduous journey and we are reminded of its cost when we look at the National Heroes Acre . From those who provided food, shelter and clothes to our friends who armed, harbored and trained our gallant sons and daughter's. We stand reminded of the ultimate price some paid for this our independence. We give homage to all those who were collaborators and povho which bore the brunt of the liberation war in keeps and reservations. Today we enjoy our peace and nationhood as a people. However this independence day reminds us of the goals and aspirations of those dear to us. It strenghtnens our resolve to lift and light up the torch of independence.We indeed owe it to past generations to carry on the ethos and values of the liberation war to its logical conclusion. 36 years after independence we should be however celebrating and complementing the attainment of liberation war. To this day we remain prisoners of unfulfilled promise of social and economic realignment of Zimbabwe from yesteryear Rhodesia to Zimbabwe. Yes indeed we managed to create a poor learned black middle class and a rich elite class solely based on political patronage. Opportunities and dreams of the larger populace remain a pipe dream where expedient populist programmes aimed at alleviating the situation have always been hijacked by the political elite. This can be traced to the first land resettlement program to the current land program which has failed to revolutionise our agricultural industry but has instead destroyed the economic foundation of our country. The national housing fund again became a scandal of looting and pillage just as the GMB Scandal, War Victims Compensation Fund, Willowgate Scandal which were precedence to today's malevolent corrupt behaviour.Today corruption and pillage of resources have become the bedrock of the rich and affluent who control the levers of power with the masses as political fodder and stepping stones. Gone is the ingenuity and bussiness acumen of the common person to climb to success. The Zimbabwe of today is fraught with looting and a death of ethics and principles. Our pillars of state have been abused in defence of partisan individuals and not in defence of the constitution. 2008 elections is a clear indicator of security sector abuse in electoral processes in the country. From 1980 upwards the institution of chieftaincy has been politicised as political appointments compromised the registrar general and the current ZEC secretariat. Indeed we seek a new charter for Zimbabwe where we are able to exercise our vote freely with dignity and respect of outcomes hence our participation in NERA for electoral reforms . DARE(Democratic Assembly For Restoration And Empowerment ) political party regards the need for electoral reforms as critical and at this juncture call upon like minded parties to join the call and implementing of such reforms in order to have a free and fair election. Our call for electoral reforms is obviously the failure of the GNU to implement the later to its fullest.We recognise that independence is but a pipe dream without full alignment of the voted constitution three years after the historic referendum. Independence today cannot be real if we wallow in poverty as the majority can not afford three meals let alone two meals a day. Independence should mean transformation of life for the majority and not subdugation of the majority by a rich minority . There is need for drastic restoration of the values of people power, people centred economic programs and above else cultivation of democratic institutions .Our independence was not won for individual hegemony but for more strengthened institutions where democracy prospers. In that spirit it is vital that today's independence day be a prudent reminder that Zimbabwe remains a republic and not a quasi monarchical state. Our liberty came through the sacrifice of the common people who expect to have work, opportunity, food, shelter, security and education. Once again we congratulate Zimbabweans on your endurance and remind you that DARE will walk with you to total independence where we do not remain stuck in ZANU Pf corrupt, greed and exploitation of our beautiful country Zimbabwe. We salute all Zimbabweans and once again remind you that today is your day and let no political party, institution or person take away our pride as Zimbabweans.
Chamber looks to cut through export red tape

THE burden of red tape and its ability to mire down businesses looking to export successfully is being investigated by the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce.

The GBCC has teamed up with one of the regions MEPs to identify how intrusive the bureaucratic requirements are.

The chamber, together with MEP Daniel Dalton, are asking businesses what rules and regulations hinder them, particularly when it comes to exporting. This week is the UKs Exporting is GREAT week.

Mr Dalton is promising to have every example of red tape raised by local businesses reviewed in Brussels.

He said: Cutting red-tape, especially for small businesses, is absolutely vital for our competitiveness in the global economy. We have done much in the past year to remove unnecessary rules but we need to be more ambitious and I am delighted that the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce are as enthusiastic as I am.

Paul Faulkner, chief executive of the GBCC, said: We often hear concerns from members about burdensome regulation and red tape holding back their business, particularly when it comes to exporting and EU directives (or the gold plating of EU regulation by UK institutions). Through delivering the Enterprise Europe Network Midlands weve worked hard to identify and escalate barriers to SMEs trading with the EU.

We need more people in Brussels standing up for the needs of local businesses and are pleased with Daniels support for this agenda. This is a problem where we simply cant afford to not keep up the pressure.

Mr Dalton said that like the chamber, he often heard from firms about the tiresome regulations and how they hold up progress.

The chamber said Mr Dalton had been part of a team that in the past year, had repealed 120 pieces of EU legislation and simplified 800 more.



The GBCC will be collecting information from businesses on the EU directives and regulations throughout Exporting is GREAT week. The MEP will then highlight the issues in Brussels.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/04/2016 (2379 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There is no emergency, but the City of Steinbach is making sure it can communicate with its citizens if one were to happen. On Wednesday, between 5 and 6 p.m., the city will use its emergency notification service, Steinbach Alert Now, to send residents and businesses a test message.

Only those who have signed up to the Steinbach Alert Now service, have had a published local Steinbach number, or have a phone number on file with the city may receive the notification.

This is our first real test of the system and were doing it for two reasons. First, we want to try out the system to make sure our processes work; second, we want residents to know that even if they receive the notification, its up to them to maintain their emergency contact information in the system, said Steinbach emergency planning coordinator Denis Vassart in a release.

For anyone already signed up for the free service, the test notification is a reminder to make sure their account information is up to date. Other residents and businesses can sign up for notifications at www.steinbachalertnow.ca.
Opinion / Columnist

There are reports that Mugabe,s daughter Bona had a baby boy. He must be the most expensive baby to the nation, given the nation,s present financial difficulties!Only last week Health Minister, David Parirenyatwa, condemned the maternity ward at Chiredzi General Hospital as "unsafe" because it is overcrowded, for one thing. The ward was built by the whites in 1967 to accommodate a few patients and now it is so overcrowded many patients have to sleep on the floor.Years of poor funding has left the country's health service in a terrible, terrible state.No one is suggesting that Mugabe and his daughter should not seek the best health services; every parent out there would want the best for themselves and their children. What is unacceptable here is Mugabe is seeking the very best for his family at PUBLIC EXPENSE. Public funds that should be used to ensure Chiredzi General Hospital maternity ward is safe for the hundreds of thousands of expectant mothers and their new born babies using the ward every year; are used instead to pay for extravagant luxuries of one mother and child.Chiredzi General Hospital, like most other hospitals up and down the land is starved of funds it will not have enough incubators (if it has any at all). The money spent on Bona and Grace,s and their usual entourage of hangers-on on this trip alone will probably buy enough incubators for all the hospitals and clinics in Zimbabwe. So thousands of babies at Chiredzi hospital will die in the coming year alone for lack of something as basic as incubators. So beside the obvious cost in sweat and millions of dollars in treasure for Bona,s baby the nation will also indirectly in human suffering and lost lives in lost opportunity to provide a safe health service.The nation would also want to know why was the huge sums of money spent sending Bona and company overseas for her health needs were not used to build, equip and staff one local hospital to the same five star standards she demands. It would have been a bitter pill to swallow that the nation has a two tier health delivery system, a five star for the ruling elite and a substandard one for the masses, just as the whites had done before independence. One would hope that the latter would benefit from excess skills, plant, etc. required for the former thus ensuring standards do not fall below the star rating to outright "unsafe" for human use as has happened!If one has to congratulate Mugabe then it must be for degrading the nation,s health delivery system to the point where even five star hospitals in 1980 like Parirenyatwa Hospital will be lucky to have one star rating now whilst sub-provincial hospitals like Chiredzi General Hospitals are now "unsafe".It is most disquieting that, compared to other babies in Zimbabwe, Mugabe,s grandson was born with a lot more than the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth; it has costed the nation a great fortune in cash, human suffering and even human lives to fly his pregnant mother, grandmother and the rest to a hospital far, far away to be born. It is heart breaking, given this is a family that wears nothing else but designer clothing, booties of Mugabe,s grandson alone will be valued at thousands of dollars and God knows how many other babies whose lives would have been otherwise saved if the money had been used more prudently.Public resources must be used for the good of all and not a select few at such exorbitant cost to the masses. It does not matter how one looks at it; this morally wrong and must be condemn in no uncertain terms!
By Linda Qiu and C. Eugene Emery Jr.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory on Sunday stood by a state law that spurred many businesses, Bruce Springsteen, and gay rights groups to condemn his state, saying the measure was a necessary response to local government overreach.

Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd asked McCrory, Charlottes former mayor of 14 years, if North Carolina leaders had not overreached in the same way by nullifying the Charlotte City Councils LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance.

I made a point when I was mayor of Charlotte for 14 years, we dealt with fire and police and airports and roads and light rail lines, we didnt impose new regulations on businesses, he said. And I dont think the government ought to be the H.R. director for every business, whether it be in Charlotte or whether it be in Greensboro or whether it be in Boone, N.C.

McCrory has characterized the now-defunct ordinance this way from the beginning in statements, videos, and most recently his national interview with Todd.

The city of Charlotte passed a bathroom ordinance mandate on every private-sector employer in Charlotte, N.C., McCrory said. Its not governments business to tell the private sector what their bathroom, locker room, or shower practices should be. Not only the private business, but also the YMCA and other nonprofit organizations.

Certainly many businesses would have been affected, but not every one, as McCrory said. McCrorys description rates Mostly False.

Josh Ellis, McCrorys spokesman, called the ordinance a mandate on every private business open to the public. The extra distinction about the public is important.

Under the Charlotte ordinance, it would have been illegal for places such as stores, hospitals, movie theaters, restaurants, and hotels to prohibit transgender customers from using the bathroom or locker room with the gender he or she identifies with.

But the ordinance would have specifically exempted establishments closed to the general public like private clubs; religious and advocacy organizations with beliefs that are at odds with the law like churches; and nonprofits such as homeless shelters.

Practically speaking, the ordinance also would not have affected large swaths of private-sector businesses that dont deal with the public face-to-face on a daily basis. Think call centers, distribution warehouses, manufacturing plants, etc. Not to mention private employers who arent required to have a public bathroom.

Clooney talks campaign cash

Actor and activist George Clooney also appeared on Meet the Press to talk about a dinner he hosted for Hillary Clinton at his California home. Clooney said he didnt disagree with Bernie Sanders supporters who threw dollar bills at Clintons motorcade in protest of the big-money political event.

It is an obscene amount of money. The Sanders campaign, when they talk about it, is absolutely right, Clooney said. Its ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics. I agree completely.

But Clooney said the money he helped raise for Clinton in California has to be put in perspective.

The overwhelming amount of money that were raising, and it is a lot, but the overwhelming amount of the money that were raising, is not going to Hillary to run for president, its going to the down-ticket, he said. Its going to the congressmen and senators to try to take back Congress.

Clooneys claim is largely correct. It rates Mostly True.

The Clinton fundraisers Clooney was talking about were on behalf of her Hillary Victory Fund, which distributes the donations to several entitiesher campaign committee (Hillary for America), the Democratic National Committee, and the state parties.

Because federal law says individuals cant give more than $2,700 to a presidential candidates primary campaign (another $2,700 can be collected for the general election), Clintons Victory Fund has set up its rules so that the first $2,700 donated goes to her.

The next $33,400 goes to the Democratic National Committee (the maximum allowed for an individual under federal limits) and the remainder is split among 32 state parties to finance federal candidates. The federal limit for each state is $10,000.

So if a large donor gives $356,000 to the Victory Fund, Clinton would directly get less than 1 percent.

If a small donor were to give $3,000, the Clinton campaign would directly get 90 percent.

Read the full fact-checks at PunditFact.com.
WARRI, Nigeria  To paraphrase the 18th century sage Samuel Johnson, Islamism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. One might cite any number of examples, but none is quite so striking as the latest ploy by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, who has declared his hitherto secular country an Islamic Republic.

After decades as a weirdly mystical presidentand a blood-curdling homophobe who threatened last fall to slit the throats of gaysJammeh made his big announcement on Dec. 12, and life in The Gambia (also called, simply, Gambia) has gotten uglier ever since.

The 1996 constitution of this little country of fewer than 2 million people, with its capital on the sea and most of its land sandwiched inside Senegal, would remain unchanged. And Jammeh declared that this Islamic state would be a tolerant one.

In a widely televised broadcast, Jammeh said there would be no restrictions on dress and that Christians and followers of other faiths, who make up around 10 percent of the population, would be given their due respect.

But that didnt last long.

In January, an executive order, leaked to pro-opposition newspapers, said that an executive directive has been issued that all female staff within the government ministries, departments and agencies are no longer allowed to expose their hair during official working hours.

Female staff are urged to use head tie and neatly wrap their hair, it added, without giving reasons for the order. All are strictly advised to adhere to this new directive.

Persecution of homosexuals had come as a sort of prelude to this latest move. In recent years they have been the target of new discriminatory legislation, arbitrary detention, and mistreatment in The Gambia. After an aggravated homosexuality law was passed in October 2014, imposing a life sentence for several offenses, dozens of LGBT people fled the country.

The new law treats consensual, private sexual activity between adults of the same sexwhich should not be a crimein the same way as rape and incest, Steve Cockburn, deputy regional director for West and Central Africa at Amnesty International, said at the time.

The vague and imprecise provisions of this law could be used to arrest and detain anyone who is believed to be gay or lesbian, and contributes to the already severe climate of hostility and fear for LGBTI people in the country, said Cockburn.

Jammeh has never hidden his dislike for gay people. The Gambian leader was recently quoted as saying animals are more godly than gays and that if the West wants gays so much, they should just put planes at the airport and he will be happy for them to leave.

I have the largest number of pigs and cattle, and I have never seen a male pig climbing on top of another male pig or a male cattle climbing on top of another male cattle, Gambias leading Freedom Newspaper quoted him as saying during the state opening of the countrys parliament on March 31. I will rather die than to allow it [homosexuality] to happen in Gambia. If they want to perpetrate it, we will be merciless.

Following Jammehs declaration of Islamic statehood, the countrys Supreme Islamic Council (GSIC), a group of scholars, went around the country stirring up popular support for the development. The president said legislation to enforce his declaration would soon be introduced into parliament and the national flag would be changed to reflect the countrys new status. The national broadcaster has already taken to referring to The Gambia as the Islamic Republic.

Jammeh has painted critics of his regime as neo-colonialists, and in the last 2 years has withdrawn The Gambia from the British Commonwealth, saying Britain did nothing for Gambia in 300 years of colonialism, except to tell us how to sing Baa Baa Black Sheep and God Save the Queen. Jammeh also scrapped English as an official language.

One senior Gambian official, while on a visit to Nigerias commercial capital, Lagos, in December, told The Daily Beast that the government was considering plans to put the issue of full Sharia implementation to a referendum.

We are likely going to let the people decide on this, he said. It is what the government is seriously looking at.

Jammehs Islamist ploy is almost certainly aimed at winning the support of Arab Gulf states, particularly Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain, whose cash the president is thought to covet. Support from the West, meanwhile, has dwindled, with international bodies, especially the European Union, withholding aid because of human-rights abuses.

Last June, Jammeh expelled the EUs top diplomat to Banjul, Agnes Guillard, without giving any explanation, although the action came six months after the EU blocked some $11 million in aid to The Gambia because of its anti-gay laws.

Since taking power in a bloodless coup in 1994, Jammeh has ruthlessly repressed all forms of dissent while seeking to rule The Gambia through what can only be called mysticism, even claiming to cure a number of ailments, including obesity and erectile dysfunction.

In 2007, Jammeh claimed to have invented his own herbal cure for HIVbut it could only be taken on a Thursday, and his treatment required that patients give up conventional retrovirals.

A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) released in September 2015 said Gambian security forces frequently arrest people without charge, often detaining them secretly for months and even years.

Political detainees, critics of the president or the government, perceived supporters of the opposition, and those allegedly implicated in coup attempts are often subjected to torture and other ill treatment. In one incident, dozens of people were arrested and allegedly tortured after a coup attempt in December 2014.

As recently as Saturday an opposition activist, Solo Sandeng, died in detention shortly after his arrest for participating in a peaceful protest, according to Amnesty International, which called for an inquiry into the death.

Sandeng was the National Organizing Secretary of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) and was detained during a march calling for electoral reforms on Thursday, ahead of national elections in December.

Another activist from the opposition, Fatoumata Jawara, who was detained with Sandeng on the same day, is believed to have serious injuries, Amnesty said.

Several senior opposition leaders were arrested on Saturday after taking to the streets along with hundreds of their supporters, demanding answers from the authorities. Witnesses said protesters were swiftly rounded up by Gambias security force, which fired tear gas at the crowd.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement Sunday saying it condemns the Government of The Gambias severe response to recent peaceful protests.

The tragic death in detention of Solo Sandeng must leave no space for impunity. The authorities must conduct an immediate, thorough and independent investigation, said Sabrina Mahtani, Amnesty International West Africa researcher.

Gambia must uphold the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, especially in advance of the elections. All of the peaceful protestors arrested by the authorities should be immediately and unconditionally released. Any who are injured must receive urgent medical treatment.

The Gambias National Intelligence Agency (NIA), a paramilitary group known as the Jungulers, and armed units of the Gambian Police Force have been implicated frequently in the countrys abuses, according to the HRW 2015 report.

When [Jammeh] wants to torture you, he uses the Jungulers team to torture you, a former Junguler told HRW. Or if he wants to arrest you secretly, he uses this Jungulers team. Or when he wants to kill you without anyone finding out, they will just kill you and throw you [away].

In one bizarre incident after the presidents aunt fell ill, security forces rounded up more than 1,000 villagers on suspicion of witchcraft and force-fed them hallucinogenics. Groups of Jungulers and government-hired sorcerers then systematically raped the female detainees during subsequent witch trials, according to HRW.

Press freedom is almost nonexistent in The Gambia. Government oppression of the media is seen as a deliberate attempt to prevent negative information about the country from reaching the outside world. Dozens of journalists have fled The Gambia under Jammehs rule.

The president believes he has the backing of the Muslims in the country, a Gambian journalist working in one of the countrys leading newspapers told The Daily Beast privately. He doesnt give a damn about the non-Muslims. They cant even help him win an election.

Sadly, some of The Gambias leading Muslims see Jammehs recent proclamations as appropriate for a country where about 90 percent of the citizens practice Islam.

On Jan. 6, officials of the GSIC and the Banjul Muslim Elders visited the State House to express their appreciation and support for the declaration that The Gambia is an Islamic republic. Muhammad Lamin Touray, president of the GSIC and imam of State House Mosque, was quoted saying, The Gambia Muslim community views the move as Allahs additional bounty to the country and the people.

Jammeh doesnt even know the meaning of Islamic state and how a country can take up that status, the journalist said. He just got up one morning and took the decision, and he may not have consulted with his cabinet.

Indeed, Jammeh may not have consulted widely at all before making his December pronouncement. When members of the GSIC visited State House on Jan. 5, Vice President Isatou Njie-Saidy urged them to carry out research into the exact requirements of an Islamic Republic, suggesting he, too, may be uncomfortable with the manner in which Jammeh made the declaration.

Many in the formerly secular nation see the presidents actions as aimed at attracting voters while he prepares to seek a fifth term in office in the next presidential election, scheduled for December this year.

He knows the forthcoming election will be a difficult one for him, said another of the countrys leading journalists, who asked not to be named for fear of government retaliation. Muslims in Gambia are so passionate about their faith, and by invoking Islam in his rule, Jammeh wins over his people.
On Sunday, Brazilian lawmakers voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff over alleged corruption. And that could make life a little uncomfortable for Hillary Clinton, who said just four years ago that Rousseff herself set a global standard for transparency.

That was then.

Now, thanks to allegedly shady accounting practices and her connection to a scandal involving Brazils state-owned oil company, polls show that more than 60 percent of Brazilians want Rousseff impeached. You wouldnt have predicted this four years ago if youd listened to Clinton, who then called Rousseff a role model of openness for other world leaders.

Clinton made those comments on April 17, 2012, when she addressed the Open Government Partnership in Brasilia. It was the first yearly meeting of the partnership, which the United States and Brazil spearheaded to encourage government transparency. Member countriesincluding Brazilcommitted to having robust anti-corruption policies, mechanisms and practices, ensuring transparency in the management of public finances and government purchasing, and strengthening the rule of law.

Clinton pointed to Rousseff as a great example of an enemy of corruption.

So we now have a chance to set a new global standard for good governance and to strengthen a global ethos of transparency and accountability, Clinton said as she wrapped up her remarks that day, according to a State Department transcript. And there is no better partner to have started this effort and to be leading it than Brazil, and in particular, President Rousseff. Her commitment to openness, transparency, her fight against corruption is setting a global standard.

The conservative Washington Free Beacon flagged that comment on March 28.

A week after praising her in Brazil, Clinton name-checked Rousseff at the Time 100 gala in New York City.

I want to give a shout-out to Angela Merkel and Dilma Rousseff and Portia Miller, Christine Lagarde, who are also on the list and prove once again that you actually can run the world in heels and pantsuits, because the day is over when women leaders could only aspire to a supporting role, she said at the event. And by the way, I think we may have just found Kristen Wiigs next movie: She can call it Bridesmaids No Longer.

Clinton and Rousseff werent strangers; on Jan. 1, 2011, Clinton attended Rousseffs inauguration, according to the State Departments historian. And Clinton praised Rousseff at the March 2012 Women in the World Summit, an event co-sponsored at the time by The Daily Beast.

You can look around the world today and you can see the difference that individual women leaders are making, Clinton said. Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, whos now leading U.N. women. They carry an enormous load for the rest of us, because it is hard for any leadermale or female. But I dont fear contradiction when I say it is harder for women leaders.

Clinton is unlikely to give Rousseff any more shout-outs. The lower chamber of Brazils legislature voted on Sunday to impeach her; 367 members voted against her, according to CNN, while only 167 voted to keep her in power. The countrys senate will now vote on whether to keep impeachment proceedings in the works.

Clintons campaign did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

At issue is, well, Rousseffs commitment to transparency. During her 2014 re-election bid, she used illegal accounting tricks to hide a ballooning government budget deficit, according to a unanimous ruling from the Brazilian federal court. If that wasnt enough, the state-run oil company Petrobras has also drawn members of Rousseffs party and her close allies into a massive scandal. Rousseffs backers say the impeachment is politically motivated, and her foes are embroiled in corruption scandals of their own.

Still, its a messy situation.

Between 2004 and 2014, Petrobras executives overcharged the company for construction contracts and funneled millions of dollars of extra cash to themselves or others, or politicians, including members of Rousseffs Workers Party, explained The Atlantic.

Though Rousseff has not been directly implicated in the scandal, she was on the companys board as it unfolded. And its been enormously damaging to her, according to reports. Millions of Brazilians protested against Rousseff and her government last month. According to The Atlantic, most Brazilians want her gone.

As Clinton said at the Time gala, you can run the world in a pantsuit. But you can also get impeached in one.
Weve heard a lot about lead over the past year due to the horrific events in Flint, Michigan, said John Oliver, leading off his main segment on Last Week Tonight.

Indeed, the crisis in Flint has been declared a federal emergency, with experts claiming that roughly 8,000 to 9,000 kids under age 6 may have suffered permanent brain damage after they were exposed to high levels of lead in the citys water. Oliver then threw to clips of Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the Oversight & Government Reform Committee chair, decrying the lack of action in Flint in Congress.

Unfortunately, Americas lead problem isnt limited to Flint. A recent USA Today Network report found lead contamination in close to 2,000 additional water systems across all 50 states. There are 7.3 million lead service lines in the U.S., but water isnt even our biggest threat of lead poisoningrather, its ingesting lead paint dust. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), there are an estimated 2,144,000 homes with a lead dust hazard affecting children under 6, and the CDC further estimates that 535,000 children between ages 1-5 have elevated lead levels in their blood. Since a child can be poisoned to death by only 10 mg of pure lead, ingesting small amounts is highly dangerous.There is no safe level of lead. Its one of those things so dangerous you shouldnt even let a little bit of it inside youmuch like heroinor Jeremy Piven, joked Oliver, before getting serious: Even low-level exposure can lead to irreversible damage, like lower IQs, antisocial behavior, and reduced attention span.

Oliver then threw to a lead prevention video produced by Sesame Street way back in 1996a program that then aired on PBS, a government-funded network Senate Republicans tried to defund in 2011which attempted to communicate the dangers of lead exposure.

If lead paint is so dangerous, why the fuck is there still so much of it in houses where kids live? asked Oliver.Indeed, while other parts of the Western world turned their backs on lead, the lead industry engaged in aggressive lobbying efforts on behalf of their dangerous product in the 40s and 70s. In the late 1970s, however, Dr. Herbert Needleman, a pediatrician and child psychiatrist, studied the baby teeth of healthy schoolchildren in two Boston suburbs. Dr. Needleman found that children with higher levels of lead in their teethwho had never been identified as having any problems with leadhad lower IQs, poor language function, and poor attention spans.So the U.S. finally started banning lead, including in paint and gas. There was just one problem. We were still left with all the lead that was already therein our pipes and our walls, said Oliver.

HUD estimated that the cost of testing for and ultimately removing lead from all houses nationwide was $16.6 billion per year, every year from 2001-10. Meanwhile, a partial lead removal plan came with a price tag of $230 million per yearbut even that wasnt fully funded. HUDs Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes received $175 million in government funding in 2001thanks to a Republican-controlled House led by pedophile Dennis Hastertand its been steadily going down since. This year, it was appropriated just $110 million by a Republican-run Congress.

Thats a little more than Americans spent on Ride Along 2, a movie which, incidentally, the New York Post described as as funny as lead poisoning... Oliver quipped.

Furthermore, HUD was only able to award 32 of 79 lead abatement grants it received in 2015, meaning many Americans still live in homes with lead in them, and its mostly people in lower socioeconomic circumstancesjust like the people of Flint.

The crazy thing is that lead regulation is cost-effective. Oliver cited a UPI study showing a correlation between decreasing lead levels and a fall in crime, while another study by Environmental Health Perspectives alleged that each dollar invested in lead paint hazard control results in a return of $17-$221 in overall societal benefits. You would think that our members of Congress would be onboard with doing more to fight lead poisoning. After all, you remember how angry they were about all those kids who got poisoned in Flint, right? said Oliver, before cutting to that same earlier footage of Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) denouncing the Flint crisis. Concerned? Oliver continued. Thats what makes it so frustrating that last year, all of those men voted for a bill that would have reduced the already low funding for HUD-led abatement programs by $35 million, amounting to a 32 percent cut. And the truth is, if you cut funding like that, a whole lot more children might get poisoned. Thankfully, said Oliver, those cuts didnt go throughbut the funding stayed flat. Also, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have had major funding problems in recent years as well, with some Republican lawmakersincluding presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trumpdesiring to wipe out the EPA altogether.

Cut to an incensed Oliver: I thought poisoned children was something we were all justifiably outraged by?
Opinion / Columnist

Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo recently made sensational claims implicating former Vice- President Joice Mujuru in the missing 15 Billion USD Diamond Revenue. The reason why Prof Moyo is telling the nation now boggles my mind. Thats pathetic diversionary tactic. If one is to consider this as true then it also makes him an accomplice. Being an eyewitness to a wrongdoing that warrants legal prosecution and keeping quiet can be viewed as tacit endorsement if not aiding and abetting, however this is just a case of the proverbial pot calling the kettle black.The rantings and ravings by the cantankerous Prof Moyo who seem to be desperately trying to redeem himself ought to be dismissed as mere cries in the wilderness. These are just puerile and ludicrous claims by Prof Moyo. Given his legendary history as a five star political harlot, Prof Moyo is desperately trying to redeem himself, convince and appease his master by any means. This makes Prof Moyo behave like a defending champion in the Robert Mugabe loyalty contest.Its funny to note how individuals can throw stones to others while in a glass house and call themselves strategists at the end of the day.Its a case of seeing a speck in someone's eye when you have got a plank. Prof Moyo's obscession with personal vendattas and ad-hominem attacks makes me conclude that he honestly needs a rehab just like drug addicts. Firing vitriolic salvos against political opponents will not raise the GDP of Zimbabwe.Moyo is saying Mujuru is complicit considering the fact that she was responsible for supervising Ministers.This is legally wrong if the Vicarious Liabilty Doctrine is to by. Above all, that there is one centre of in ZANU PF is somethimg on public domain.Vicarious liability in English law is a doctrine that imposes strict liability on employers or superiors for the wrongdoings of their employees.Generally, an employer or superior will be held liable for any tort or wrongdoing committed while an employee or surbodinate is conducting his or her duties.This makes the President liable and not the ex-VP,since President is the centre of power in ZANU PF.Africa needs a leadership that accepts its shortcomings and not a leadership that specialises in blameshifting, fingerpointing and scapegoatimg.I am tempted to salute Jacob Zuma for the stance he took of swallowing his pride and and make a public apology to the South African people for the Nkandlagate.Thats a rare quality of leadership which people like Jonathan Moyo will never embrace and enhance.It is a result of mere anecdotal evidence that Proff Moyo is regarded as a strategist.The deficit of an iorta of political etiquette in him is profoundly disheartening.Notwithstanding Jonathan Moyo's political and academic prowess he is a man of inflated ego and hubristic mentality.How can a grown up man,well read and a Minister be seen exchanging verbal tantrums now and again.What kind of an example does he set for his children and the people of Zimbabwe whom he is supposed to serve.Prof Moyo attacked Christopher Mutsvangwa ,former RBZ Governor Gedion Gono and had a public spat with Charamba.This reveals his lack of tact and deftness in dealing with delicate political matters.The Macho mentality he exudes potrays him as a possible victim of narcisstic personality disoder. Victims of narcisstic personality disoder are normally dogmatic,bigotic and self opinionated. Most importantly such people easily feel threatened and always rush unnecessarily to prove a point.Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of ultraconfidence lies a fragile self-esteem that's vulnerable to the slightest criticism. A narcissistic personality disorder causes problems in many areas of life, such as relationships, work or school . You may be generally unhappy and disappointed when you're not given the special favors or admiration you believe you deserve. Others may not enjoy being around you, and you may find your relationships unfulfilling.Such human foibles and frailities on Prof Jonathan Moyo cast a dark shadow on the longevity of his tempestuous political career .His invincibility will soon be interrogated as his machinations crumble like a deck of cards.Waterloo is imminent on his part.The problem with Prof Moyo is his predilection for bellicose and and belligerent approach to politics which makes him a very vulnerable politician.Politics is a theatre where you can create enmity unintentionally and Jonathan has played his part in creating enemies intentionally.
As pundits and political prophets focus on deciphering the vagaries of delegate math leading into Julys Republican convention in Clevelandhow many delegates do you need, how do you secure them, how do you keep themstories abound about how the party establishment is plotting to deny Donald Trump the nomination.

The prevailing theory is that the grand poobahs of party discipline will pursue a three-step strategy. First, theyll use Ted Cruz as their Trojan horse to ensure Trump falls short of the 1,237 delegates needed on the first ballot. Then theyll pivot to stop Cruz from emerging on the second and third ballots. And finally, theyll implant their own choice as the consensus unifierJohn Kasich or Marco Rubio or Scott Walker, now that Paul Ryan has demurred.

Theres just one little problem with this scenario: Donald Trump gets it. He knows the cabal is laying in wait to use the soon-to-be-infamous rule 40(b)a nominee must have the majority of voting delegates in at least eight statesto validate the coup despite 16 million voters who by then would have pulled the Trump lever over the others.

Trump knows that after the first ballot, more than 50 percent of the delegates will be unboundfree agents to determine whos most deserving despite how people voted in their respective states. Trump knows delegates will be urged to protect the GOP oligarchy over the triteness of our one-person-one-vote democracy.

So Trump will do what he does best: the art of the deal. After all, he wrote a book about it, created a business empire around it and, at his core, unflinchingly believes he does it better than anyone else on the planet.

Trump is preparing to pull off the political deal of the century, where the prescriptions for success penned in his famous book become his roadmap. Three cites from the book suggest why Trump is a favorite to close the deal.

The best dealmakers know the value publicity can add to close a deal. Donald Trump has rewritten the political playbook on controlling message by compelling attention and commanding the stage 24/7. This creates leverage, and leverage equates to having the upper hand at the negotiating table. In Trumps world, whoever has the mostthe most victories, the most delegates, the most mojowins the deal.

Dont think outside the box; think like there IS no box. (Citing Blackhawk Partners CEO Ziad Abdelnour.) If it seems a deal is moving sideways because the prevailing winds of circumstance are not favorable, just create a new narrative, a new reality that now justifies the merits of the deal. Simply put, if Trump follows the GOP establishments convention roadmap, hes very likely in political peril. Do the unexpected by drawing his own map, and Trump can quickly turn certain peril into political prosperity.

You are the most powerful player in your arsenal deal with the decision-maker no one can sell your idea like you. Before the first Republican delegates cast votes in Cleveland, Trump could approach Cruz with a deal creating between them an alliance of outsiders to beat the insiders at their own game. Trump can suggest they run as a ticket, promising hell support Cruz downstream. Failing that, Trump may even publicly declare hell serve only one term devoted to getting the country back on track, then throw it to Cruz to complete the assignment.

Their slogan, recognizing their currently tepid image ratings: You may not love us, but youll like what were going to do for America.

As of today, Trump and Cruz together hold the cards. Apart, neither one may ultimately hold the winning hand. Trump gets it; Cruz soon will. And America will watch as both write the next and greatest chapter in The Art of the Deal.

From the beginning, Trump (much like Bernie Sanders on the other side of the partisan divide) has not led a candidate campaign, but a movement. Yet unlike everyone-gets-everything-for-free Bernie, Trump wants to replace FDRs New Dealwhich put America back on its feetwith his own populist Now Deal to get America up and running again.

We must secure our borders now; save our jobs now; support our military and veterans now. In short, we must start winning now. If you know anything about Donald Trump, hes already thinking three clicks down the road about how to make all of this happen in Cleveland, before the unsuspecting brokers of GOP power.

One thing is certain: Trumpthe dealmakerwont go quietly into the night.
A funny thing about the Nixon-tattooed showy master of the shadowy arts whos helped make Donald J. Trump the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination: He worked out his playbook for using a larger-than-life New Yorker to blow up a partys establishment by hijacking debates with incendiary comments and earned media coverage a dozen years ago, on behalf of a Democrat.

That was when Roger Stone, who claims credit for, among other things, exposing Gov. Eliot Spitzers hooker habit and the Brooks Brothers riot he says made George W. Bush president, crossed party lines to work fordeep breath, Trumpstersthe Rev. Al Sharpton.

The Sharpton-Stone alliance is a piece of recent history that none of the three men want to talk about now, but one that the great Wayne Barrett extensively documented for The Village Voice in 2004, in the midst of Sharptons attention-grabbing and ill-fated bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Barretts bottom line:

Stone played a pivotal role in putting together Sharptons pending application for federal matching funds, getting dollars in critical states from family members and political allies at odds with everything Sharpton represents. Hes also helped stack the campaign with a half-dozen incongruous top aides whove worked for him in prior campaigns. Hes even boasted about engineering six-figure loans to Sharptons National Action Network (NAN) and allowing Sharpton to use his credit card to cover thousands in NAN costsneither of which he could legally do for the campaign.

Stone and Sharpton had a mutual interest, one of the men who arranged their initial meeting told Barrett: They both hate the Democratic party.

Neither of the twowith Sharpton now having remade himself as a frequent visitor to the Obama White House and Stone a top outside adviser to Trump, albeit one whos nominally separate from the campaignwanted the story of their unlikely alliance revealed then, or brought back to light now. Trumps campaign didnt respond to questions about this story and denied the reporters request for press credentials to an event Sunday on Staten Island.

Both Stone and Sharptonwho Barrett called outlandish personalities too large to be bound by the constraints that govern the rest of us, a description that also applies to The Donaldhave long histories with Trump.

Stone has been the rare adviser whos kept Trumps ear over the years (and, Barrett reported, worked behind the scenes to help Donalds sister, judge Maryanne Trump Barry, win her seat on the federal bench), while Sharpton has done business with Trump in what hes called an unlikely friendship that goes back to the days when the Trump casinos in Atlantic City were actually owned by Trump and he contributed to Sharptons old operation, when then-heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, managed by Sharptons friend Don King, was fighting at The Donalds venues there. The Sharpton-Trump link, through King and Tyson, is no secret, and takes up some space in Jack Newfields 1995 book Only in America: The Life and Crimes of Don King. (Trump, again according to Barrett, was Newfields main source.)

I had nothing to do with Trump or boxing in Atlantic City, Sharpton told me last Thursday in the ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, where the Rev. held his 25th annual National Action Network (NAN) convention. The group replaced Sharptons National Youth Movement, which Trump had contributed to and that was the subject of multiple tax investigations in New York before it was shuttered.

And Roger Stone had nothing to do with my campaign, Sharpton said, when I asked about his unlikely alliance with the self-described GOP hitman, who the reverend said had only helped the NAN and not his presidential bid. If youve got a hatchet job, write it.

When I cited Barretts comprehensive reporting (which included documentation of Stone and a wide circle of his allies delivering critical contributions to the campaign as it struggled to reach the threshold for collecting matching funds), Sharpton attacked the messenger, saying, I could tell you 15 different stories he wrote about people in this room, including MSNBC, that were not true.

(Barrett, who replied to that charge only by pointing to a 2011 New York Times article highlighting his decades of unblemished investigative work, reported a series of articles that same year for The Daily Beast on Sharptons role in helping to facilitate the merger of Comcast and NBC, a prelude to him receiving his own MSNBC television show, since demoted to Sunday mornings.)

Pressed to clarify Stones role in the 2004 campaign, which set the stage for Sharptons later ascendance in liberal media, the reverend conceded: He introduced me to some Democratic guys that helped me, but he didnt give me campaign advice. Roger Stone helped us with NAN, because I said while I was running, I needed to support NAN. He helped NAN.

When I asked Stone to describe that help, he wrote in an email that: I made a $50,000 loan to keep the civil rights organization afloat while Sharpton was running for President. It was later converted to a contribution. The reason for this subsequent conversion, said Stone, was that NAN was unable to re-pay the loan so we we had to write it off after 5 years.

Quoting aides who worked with Sharpton, Barrett reported in 2004 that Stones beneficence actually amounted to upwards of $200,000, and that Stone knew full well that hed never get the money back. Stone later told the Federal Election Commission, which investigated Sharptons campaign activities in light of Barretts reporting, that his so-called loans to NAN in fact totaled $240,400. The same FEC investigation found that NAN activities and Sharptons campaign were intimately commingledSharpton was found to have violated several provisions of election law and fined $208,000.

Still, Roger Stone was never involved directly in my campaign, Sharpton said, adding that Stonewho told the FEC that Sharpton was a personal friendis now working with Trump, who Ive been beating up on. The key word there is directly. Stone isnt on Trumps campaign payroll this year, just as he wasnt on Sharptons when Barrett documented that the GOP operative played a role in staffing, financing, and managing it.

Sharpton insists he and Stone connected under innocuous or even noble circumstances. We met during the Rockefeller drug law fight in 2003 or 2004, he told me. I talked at those rallies, and we got to talking.

Stone mirrored that account: As a libertarian I supported reform of New Yorks draconian drugs laws, he wrote. The point is its not surprising that I would know Rev. Al or support his civil rights efforts as I am personally opposed to racial injustice, concluded the man who advises Trump.

Barrett, on the other hand, saw Stones interest as stirring up disaffection among black voters to damage the eventual Democratic nominee, John Kerry. That may have worked. In 2004, George W. Bush won 11 percent of the black vote, up 2 percent from four years prior.

Sharpton for his part received tens of millions of dollars worth of free exposure from the debates and campaign coverage. The MSNBC hosts convention last week was sponsored by the likes of Walmart, Verizon, Airbnb, Time Warner, and Comcast, and the honorees on whom he bestowed awards included Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, a Citigroup executive, and Gloria Steinem. The event, celebrating 25 years of no justice, no peace, drew both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders as speakers, even as Sharpton has so far declined to endorse either Democrat.

Asked when he last interacted with Stone, Sharpton said: I mightve bumped into him maybe a couple years ago, maybe a year ago. Just in the street once. I might have, I dont even remember. Stone corroborated this account: I ran into him near Penn Station. I complimented the Camel Hair Coat his was wearing. (sic)

About five minutes into my conversation with Sharpton, he told me, if you want to write lies, write them, bringing my audience with him to an end. I reached out to shake his hand and he turned, frowning, and walked off.
Music pirates are boring nowadays. The pirates den is a bedroom in moms flat. Or maybe thats a pirate using the free wi-fi at Dunkin Donuts.

That wasnt always the case. Music pirates once had their own ships, just like their skull-and-crossbones predecessors in the Caribbean. The deejays didnt wear eye-patches or talk like Jack Sparrow, but before they were done reinventing radio rules, they helped shape the musical tastes during the rise of rock and even changed international maritime law.

Long before Napster and torrents, the pirate radio stations of the 60s found a home on the high seas. These renegade outfits operated from a host of different ships that circumvented government restrictions by broadcasting from international waters. At their peak, these stations attracted millions of listeners, who grooved to rock n roll tunes ignored by the state-controlled radio outlets.

On Aug. 2, 1958, Radio Mercur became Europes first offshore pirate music station, operating from a converted fishing boat stationed in international waters between Copenhagen and Landskrona. Retailers in consumer electronics backed the venture, with the hope of selling more radios if a wider range of programming were available.

Their bet paid off: The station eventually attracted 5 million listeners, and one advertiser, a German seller of nylons and stockings, boasted that a radio campaign on the station generated increased sales of 3 million units in just two months. Sales of transistor radios skyrocketed across Europe, with teens seizing the opportunity to listen to their own music in their own room, freed from the controland out-of-date song preferencesof their parents.

The piracy movement quickly spread from country to country. In 1960, Radio Veronica shook up the heavily regulated Dutch broadcasting business when it started operations in a converted German lightship anchored off the coast. The next year Radio Nord, backed by Texas money, took on the Swedish radio establishment from the Bon Jour in the Baltic Sea. In 1962, Radio Antwerpen began transmitting off the Belgian coast.

Britain, then at the forefront of commercial music world, would not long remain immune from the pirates. English rock was shaking up the world, but fans in the United Kingdom only enjoyed a few hours per week of this exciting new music on stuffy BBC radio. Radio Caroline, with its cooler vibe, now changed all that.

In February 1964, at the very moment when the Beatles were setting off the British rock invasion with their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, a different kind of musical assault was underway back in the U.K. The instigator, Irish businessman Ronan ORahilly, came from a family of rebelshis grandfather had been a leader in in the 1916 Easter rebellion and died in an attack on British machine gunners. Now at this critical juncture in music history, ORahilly acquired a 188-foot ferry ship named the Frederica. This would serve as his pirate ship, and he also had an Easter rebellion in mind.

The Frederica was soon converted into a floating radio station, and renamed the Caroline. It started broadcasting on Easter Sunday, and didnt stop. Back in those days, most radio stations didnt operate after midnight, but Caroline kept going round-the-clock.

The Rolling Stones Not Fade Away was the first song broadcast on Radio Caroline, and set the tone for a station that offered a much hipper variety of music than listeners found on the BBC. The stations theme song, in its early days, was Thelonious Monks Round Midnight, performed by jazz organist Jimmy McGriff. Pirate radio, and in particular Radio Caroline, was a really exciting part of all our lives in those days, Paul McCartney would later recall, and summed up the spirit of the times culturally and musically.

In March 1965, the station actually hosted a live jazz event when another jazz organist, Jimmy Smith, was brought out to the ship. Smiths Hammond organ was too large to fit down the corridor to the station, and so the performance took place on deck with the wind blowing and whistling in the background. Smith announced the first number played as Hip Ship Blues, and the title captured the spirit of pirate radio during its glory days.

The success of Caroline led to copy-cat pirates, each trying to carve out its share of the British music market. On May 12, British military hero and failed politician Oliver Smedley launched Radio Atlanta from a ship in the North Sea. Two weeks later, Radio City established operations on an abandoned World War II sea fort in the Thames Estuary. Radio London started broadcasting in December from a converted World War II minesweeper located off the coast of Essex County.

Yet pirates are dangerous characters, even in the music business. In June 1966, Smedley killed fellow pirate Reg Calvert, owner of Radio City, as the result of contentious merger discussions between the two stations.

No one was forced to walk the plank, but an actual pirate raid had taken place two days earlier, when thugs working for Smedley launched a surprise attack on Radio Citys fort. Alan Clark, a disc jockey for Radio City on board at the time, recalled the details of the raid in a 1997 interview: There was a dispute between Reg Calvert and Oliver Smedley and this dispute took place at the time of a seamens strike It climaxed in Major Smedley recruiting some striking seamen to sail out to the fort in a tug and take the place over.

I was there at the time, along with a number of other people, and we were quite surprised to peer out of a porthole to see this tug nearby and lots of men rowing towards us in their boat. Then of course they came on board, took over the place, ripped the studio apart, placed it out of bounds. There was no violence. They didnt hurt us or anything like that but they certainly kept us off the air for a few days.

This incident led to Calvert confronting Smedley in his home a few hours later. Oliver Smedley wasnt the man to take threats lightly. He had been a paratrooper in World War II, and earned a Military Cross during the battle of Normandy. As soon as Calvert arrived, Smedley retreated to his bedroom and loaded his shotgun. Without giving his adversary pirate any warning, Smedley shot Calvert. At the subsequent trial, Smedley convinced a jury that he acted instinctively and in self-defense, and was acquitted.

For a brief spell, it looked as if pirate radio would enter the mainstream of the music business. Radio 390, launched in 1965, was the most ambitious pirate operation of them all, with a strong signal and a full range of programs, including music, dramas, weather, and news. Like Radio City, this station operated from abandoned military towers. But a court eventually ruled that its facility, located on a sandbar off the north coast of Kent, was located in British territorial waters and the station disappeared from the airwaves in 1967.

But by then, the British government had grown tired of pirates. The Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, enacted on Aug. 14, 1967, made it illegal for anyone in the U.K. to advertise on the pirate stations or supply their ships.

Radio Caroline survived this change by supplying its operation from the Netherlands, but it would continue to face legal and nautical challenges in subsequent years. Meanwhile, most of its pirate competitors shut down. For better or worse, the golden age of pirate radio was coming to an end.

Other countries enacted their own regulations, and one by one these alternative sources of music gradually disappeared from the airwaves. At the height of activity during the mid-60s, more than a dozen stations were broadcasting from the North Sea, but by 1970 only two were leftRadio Veronica and Radio North Sea International.

Even so, the age of piracy had a lasting impact on British music. Six weeks after the passage of the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, the BBC launched an expanded pop-rock format, modeled on Radio London, and even hired a number of former pirate disc jockeys.

Yet the music pirates of the 60s anticipated the future in other ways as well. In the digital age, radio broadcasts cross all borders and boundaries via the Web. Except for a few totalitarian regimes, nations no longer expect to control the musical tastes of the citizenry. Songs can reach anyone in any jurisdiction nowadays, and dont require a pirate ship to do so.

In short, we enjoy our music, and dont need to worry about government intrusion into our playlists. We choose our tunes freely, and no one censors our music, or shuts it down at midnight. We take all that for granted, but we ought to thank the pirates who took the plunge into those uncharted waters a half-century ago, and proved how beautiful free-flowing music could be.
When youre gender nonconforming, its hard to know where you belong, especially when youre using the bathroom.

Alok Vaid-Menon, who works for the Audre Lorde Project and uses gender-neutral pronouns, explained that deciding whether to use the mens or womens restroom depends on the day and the mood.

In a given day, I can look like a lot of different things, Vaid-Menon told The Daily Beast. Their daily wardrobe is incredibly eclecticranging from plaid bow ties and vests to bright purple lipstick and long, flowing dresses.

According to Vaid-Menon, using the restroom is a combination of assessing my safety and asking how much I want to push peoples buttonsI try to be very responsive and aware of all the other people in the room, they said. Im thinking: Are other people staring at me too long? What do I do? Whats going on? I try to leave as quickly as possible.

Devin-Norelle, a genderfluid trans activist and writer who lives in New York, has a full beard and a man bun, which often looks like a womens hairstyle from behind. That combination doesnt make going to the bathroom in public an easy task.

In general, I hate using the restroom because Im such a feminine- or androgynous-looking person, Norelle told The Daily Beast. I get a lot of looks. There was a time where I was very concerned about my own safetyIm putting myself at risk when Im walking into the mens restroom and Im putting myself at risk when Im walking into the womens restroom.

The 26-year-old has been repeatedly stopped, denied entry, and kicked out of both bathrooms. As soon as someone cant read your gender, they are afraid of you, Norelle said. People dont like it if they dont know if youre a man or a woman. Theres no gray area for anybody.

Last week, 16-year-old Ny Richardson found that out the hard way. Richardson, who is a cisgender lesbian, was thrown out of a McDonalds in Hull, England, after using the womens room. This incident is very similar what transpired last year at a Fishbones in Detroit, when a security guard mistook Cortney Bogorad for a man and pulled her out of a stall in the womens room. He proceeded to bodyslam her against the wall. Shes suing the establishment.

***

These cases prove something that should be obvious by now: Gendered restrooms dont work.

For trans and gender nonconforming people, they justify harassment and abuse. For restaurants and private businesses, playing gender police could open proprietors up to a costly lawsuit. For everyone else, dividing bathrooms by gender is an unnecessary vestige of the 19th century that leads to longer lines and bigger headaches for everyone. Its time to banish them back to the dark ages where they belong.

Where do gender-segregated restrooms come from? In Unisex Toilets and the Sex-Elimination Linkage, Emory University professor Sheila Cavanagh explains that the earliest instance of this phenomenon dates back to 1739 at a Parisian ball. Signs at the fete directed patrons to Men Toilet and Women Toilet.

Before this time, public bathrooms were commonly designated for men only, but as women began to emerge in the workplace, reforms increasingly became necessary. Nearly a century and a half later, urinary segregation came to the United States. In 1887, Massachusetts was the first state to pass a law mandating womens restrooms in workplaces with female employees, Reasons Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes. By the 1920s, most states had passed similar laws.

Since those states initially passed legislation codifying public facility use, these laws have gone virtually unchanged. According to Slates Ted Trauman, neither have the politics behind them.

The advent of urinary segregation was part of a push for total gender division in public life, as a means of [protecting] women from the full force of the world outside their homes.

Trauman writes that this led to ladies reading rooms at libraries, parlors at department stores, separate entrances at post offices and banks, and their own car on trains, intentionally placed at the very end so that male passengers could chivalrously bear the brunt in the event of a collision.

Since the Roaring Twenties, many of these divides have been torn down. Today, men and women share apartment buildings. They sit side by side on public transportation and in church. The sexes absolutely do not, however, pee together.

This is both a matter of social custom and the laws themselves. Nolan Brown states that part of the problem is that businesses are legally prohibited from offering only gender-neutral restrooms in many states and many of those potty parity codes mandate a certain ratio of womens to mens restrooms, but that is slowly changing.

That effort is being led by cities like Berlin, which has led a push toward unisex bathrooms across the city, starting in government buildings.

Initially we were laughed at for this, but now that people are discovering that unisex toilets are just normal bathrooms, we are experiencing rather broad acceptance, Simon Kowalewski, a German Member of Parliament, told The Washington Post.

In the United States, New York, Washington, D.C., Austin, Texas, and San Francisco have all championed the desegregation of public facilities. The nations capital has long led the way on the issue: Back in 2006, the D.C. Office of Human Rights mandated that all single-occupancy restrooms across the city be accessible to all genders.

Philadelphia passed a similar law last year, offering an online guide for those seeking a safe space to use the restroom. According to Helen Fitzpatrick, who serves as the director of the mayors office of LGBT affairs, the resolution was meant to serve as a teachable moment about the need for inclusivity.

For Sofia Nelson, an attorney practicing in Detroit, Michigan, this legislation is common sense.

I think if you are a businessor any place with public accommodationthat has single-stalled restrooms, they should be gender neutral, Nelson told The Daily Beast. Theres no reason that a one-person bathroom needs to be gendered. Its great to have the option of a gender neutral restroom and also gendered restrooms.

Many businesses, however, are even pushing to make multi-occupancy bathrooms open to everyone. At New Yorks MoMa PS1 in Long Island City, museum guests might notice long lines of men and women both waiting to use the same restroom.

Moss, an architecture firm in Chicago, believes that every public restroom canand shouldbe gender neutral. In a 2015 design proposal, their answer to the problem of gendered bathrooms is similar to PS1s: clusters of single-occupancy stall that look like closets and share a common sink space. Youve likely used facilities like these before and not even realized it.

Such solutions might make those worried about the threat of sexual assault in a public restroom squirm. Thats a more than understandable fear, but statistics show that most rapists arent lurking in the bathroom. According to the National Institute for Justice, an estimated 6 in 10 sexual assault victimswere assaulted by an intimate partner, relative, friend, or acquaintance. Many of these incidents take place at a private residence or at home.

This number is even higher for female college students: 9 in 10 survivors knew their assailant prior to the assault.

In Houston, Texas, critics of a nondiscrimination bill voted down last November attempted to brand trans people as dangerous bathroom predators, ready to attack other restroom users if given the chance. That myth, however, has been thoroughly disproven. Currently, 190 cities around the country allow trans people equal access in public accommodations, and there has yet to be a surge in violence in any of those areas.

In fact, multiple independent studies have shown that theres never been a reported case of a transgender person attacking someone else in a public facility.

The opposite is true: Disproportionate numbers of trans people have been the victim of violence or harassment in public restrooms. According to UCLAs Williams Institute, 9 percent of transgender folks report being sexually assaulted in a bathroom.

States including North Carolina have put transgender people at greater risk for harm by passing laws denying affirming bathroom access to trans people. In March, Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law House Bill 2, which forces the states transgender residents to use the facility that matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

South Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri are among the 14 states considering similar legislation.

But while we should be fighting for trans people to be able to use the bathroom that most closely corresponds with their gender identity, its also about providing better, safer options for everyone. If legislation like HB 2 essentially outs transgender folks every time they go to the bathroom, some folksincluding Devin-Norelle and Alok Vaid-Menonhave no choice but to be out whenever they use either facility.

This will prove especially true for Millennials: In a 2015 Fusion poll, the network found that half of young people no longer believe in a binary concept of gender. For a new generation radically thinking gender boundaries, the status quo isnt enough.

Even for non-trans folks, there are a number of reasons to champion greater adoption of gender-neutral and inclusive restroom options. If youre tired of endless lines at the womens room, unisex facilities will help reduce your wait time. For people with disabilities, single-occupancy bathrooms save the frustration of the only accessible stall being occupied by a mother changing her newborn.

According to Nelson, shifting nearly four centuries of societal norms might sound complicated, but its actually not. She said, Were just talking about peoplewho could be your child, your friend, or your co-workerwanting to do something super basic that we all have to do: use the bathroom.
FOLEY, Ala.Deborah Stokes has been in the child day care business for 14 years, and to say it's been a rough time for herand for the kids she mindswould be an understatement. At her first location, in Saraland, Ala., just outside of Mobile, she was arrested by local police for child endangerment for having warehoused the kids in a location that, according to the charges against her, didn't meet the county's health and safety standards.

After that, however, Stokes got wise: She registered her day care business with the Alabama Secretary of State as a church, the "Alpha & Omega Ministries"and though she's opened more than a dozen child day care centers since then, the state can barely touch her. Why? Well, it seems that thanks to a 1980s state law, church-sponsored day care centers are exempt from most state regulations.

What that law has done is led to a string of day care centers across the state that operate in a gray area when it comes to the health and safety of the kids who are brought there for careand in the case of one of Stokes' centers, warehousing the kids in a strip mall next to an adult retail store.

"Deborah Stokes next day care popped up several months later on the other side of Foley, between a pawn shop and a porn store," reported NewsReveal.org's Amy Julia Harris. "At Kids Space Day Care, posters of scantily clad women and ads for lingerie and body jewelry hung feet from where parents dropped off their toddlers. Its illegal in Alabama for a porn store to open next to a day care. But its not illegal for a day care to open next to a porn shop."

Of course, it's unlikely that the kids were actually harmed by being that close to adult nudity, or even DVDs and magazines featuring hardcore sex, but considering that this all took place in what might be described as the "buckle of the Bible Belt," it's surprising that no state action was taken. The city council did attempt to deny her a business license in 2011but Stokes sued the city, and its attorneys eventually agreed that the council had no power to regulate her "church."

One of Stokes' employees at Kids Space, Kimberly Nicole Hinman, observed that disabled kids at the facility were locked in playpens for hours, and at least one toddler was slapped with a flyswatter. This so infuriated her that she started a Facebook group, "Stop Debbie Stokes From Opening Another Day Care."

Since then, Stokes has moved around the state, opening day cares wherever she canmost recently in Spanish Fort, Ala., called Little Nemo's by the Baybut the point is, in six states, being a church exempts any business that "church" operates from all state regulationand opening a child day care next to a porn store may be the least of their worries.

FYI, besides Alabama, those states are Florida, North and South Carolina, Missouri, and Indianaso watch out, retailers: a "church" may be opening up right next to you!

Pictured: Deborah Stokes' mug shot.
Can big lager brands join the cult of craft?

For big lager brands, the rise of craft ale presents a challenge. Tony Enoch, partner at Nude Brand Creation looks at what the sector can do to address the threat posed by craft

Tony Enoch Nude Brand Creation

As the craft ale revolution gathers momentum, lager has been losing out, according to a report examining the beer industry by market intelligence agency Mintel. While sales of lager still heavily outweigh those of craft ale, what can the sector do to address the threat posed by craft?

Small independent breweries have been springing up around the country at a growth rate of 10 per cent per year, according to the Campaign for Real Ale and independent breweries ales have proved popular in pubs, creating a lifeline for the struggling pub industry. Pubs have been turning to craft ale in a bid to encourage more people in through the doors to enjoy ales from around the UK and even abroad.

In fact, some of these independent breweries have spotted a gap in the market for creating more complex lagers with an interesting narrative. For example, runaway success story BrewDog is making its own lager called This is Lager, which is described as an homage to the 19th century German and Czech Pilsners and as lager reclaimed, perfected and renewed.

It is really positive to see the craft sector adding value and substance to the lager industry. It promises to give consumers more choice and to create more competition, which will only serve to make the lager sector more vibrant. But for big lager brands, the rise of craft ale presents a challenge. And if small UK breweries continue to dream up artisan lagers this will eat into their profits further.

A quick response

The dilemma facing big lager brands is that craft is small, independent and can launch innovative new products quickly. This is everything big brands are not. The difficulties for bigger brands is that when they do come up with an innovative product, they cannot react as quickly, due to the long and established processes products have to go through before they are released. The big brands spend a lot of time researching and need to seek several levels of management approval, whereas a smaller independent will just do it. For the larger beer brands to innovate quickly, they would need to have a big mind set change. They are trying to and they would love to, but change of course takes time.

The big brands cannot simply imitate craft as consumers are savvy and will reject obvious ploys to cash in. Products need to be authentic, have a truth about them and be better than the competition. It is of course possible for big brands to acquire craft companies without alienating their audience, but the transition needs to be managed carefully. The craft company should be allowed to carry on business as normal and retain the elements that make it craft. And we wouldnt recommend shouting about the acquisition either.

Another challenge faced by the big brands is that some craft ales obtain a cult following. And you cant create a cult in a boardroom. You cant dictate to the consumer what products are cult. So the big companies have a really difficult job to compete with craft. However, there are great examples of successful craft brands in other sectors that have made that transition; for example Ben & Jerrys, Innocent and Nantucket Nectars.

Innovation is key

Working across the alcoholic drinks industry, from spirits to beer, Nude understands the challenges, as well as the need to surprise and engage with their audience in new ways. Quite simply larger brewing companies need to take a few more risks, not be afraid to make mistakes  allow their marketers the chance to make mistakes and learn from them. For example, in Japan it is not uncommon for launches to go ahead without research, and see what happens. This approach best mirrors the start ups attitude of passion and gut instinct that can really resonate with todays consumer. However, if a brand is tied and unable to act more spontaneously, then it needs to look at improving the brand story and drive forward innovation to help attract consumers and head off competition from small independent brewers.

There are examples of innovation by big brands out there which point to a way forward in addressing the challenge from the craft sector. A good example is Pernod Ricards Our Berlin, a vodka made from locally sourced ingredients at a Berlin micro distillery, where it is hand bottled and labelled. The vital factor here is that it is built around a genuine neighbourhood structure that is both engaging and inclusive. The concept has been rolled out to other cities, including Detroit and Seattle, with more cities to follow. Each city adds its own local character to the vodka.

Fosters Rocks also reappraised its position in the lager sector with its release of classic rum and spiced rum flavours last year. It responds to the demand for flavoured lagers and illustrates innovation in the sector, although in this case, following a trend rather than creating one.

Finally if you look to the bread industry, the supermarkets have been quick to embrace the trend for artisan bread. As new artisan bakeries open, selling a loaf of bread for 4, so the supermarkets have created their own artisan style bread, using desirable ingredients such as spelt, millet or quinoa. To attract more consumers, could the lager industry look at inventive ways to use new ingredients or present themselves in more eye-catching formats? Embracing innovation will be key for the lager sector to regain its sparkle but narrative continues to be essential to reach the heart of savvy consumers attuned to the new and engaging story of craft.

18 April 2016
The following letter was sent to Carol Gande, Executive Director of the Utah Pride Center regarding the Utah Pride Festival, scheduled to take place June 3-5:

Dear Ms Gande,

The Free Speech Coalition condemns your recent decision to exclude an adult business from your Pride festivities. For too long we, the LGBTQQI community, have fought against those who have shamed us for our sexuality. By censoring our sexuality on political grounds, you promote shame over pride and freedom of expression.

MormonBoyz.com is an active part of Utahs diverse LGBTQQI community. As a lifelong HIV and LGBTQQI rights activist and advocate, I can vouch for the company and its owners in their outstanding commitment to sexual health, PrEP awareness, and community empowerment. From the sex workers at Stonewall, to the free speech battles waged by posing strap magazines, to money raised for HIV, the adult industry has been a critical ally in our movement for health and equal rights.

For too many years our communities have suffered from discrimination, criminalization, and hatredall founded in moral, cultural, and religious prejudice. Only through the strength of unity have our communities not only survived, but thrived. It was through great sacrifices and the loss of almost an entire generation that we have found that unity.

We urge you to reconsider your decision to exclude MormonBoyz.com from your pride festivities in an effort to celebrate true diversity, free of prejudical censorship.

With kind regards,

Eric Paul Leue

Executive Director
After nearly a decade of bickering and finger pointing, Texas scientists and lawmakers finally seem to agree that building some version of a coastal spine  a massive seawall and floodgate system  would best help protect the Houston region from a devastating hurricane.

But with a price tag sure to reach into the billions, the spine will almost certainly require a massive infusion of federal money, state officials agree. Whether Texas congressional delegation has the political backbone to deliver the cash remains to be seen.

While state officials say the project enjoys the full support of Texans in Congress, almost every member has been silent on the issue, including those who hold the most sway.

Everything depends on how long it takes us to get Congress, said Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, a local economic development organization. We could have a hurricane in three months.

In March, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica published an extensive look at what Houstons perfect storm would look like. Scientists, experts, and public officials say that such a hurricane would kill thousands and cripple the national economy.

Building some sort of coastal barrier system around Galveston and Houston would rank as one of the nations most ambitious public works projects and would be unlikely to succeed without champions in Washington. State leaders and Houston-area congressmen cited U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Kevin Brady of Houston as those most likely to fill the role of standard bearer.

Cornyn and Brady, both Republicans, declined repeated interview requests about the coastal project over a period of months. The states junior senator, Ted Cruz, is busy running for president, and his staff has said he is waiting results of further studies. Of the 36 members representing Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives, only five agreed to interviews on the subject.

At the state level, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who has made coastal protection one of his top priorities, said he hopes for support from Brady, who chairs one of the most powerful committees in the U.S. House. He also mentioned Cornyn.

Congressman Randy Weber, a Republican from Friendswood, said he is already pushing the issue, but added that a senators support will be critical.

John Cornyn, of course, a senior senator, majority whip over on the Senate side, would be a great one to champion the cause, he said.

A recent Houston Chronicle editorial also called for action from Cornyn and dubbed the proposed hurricane protection plan Cornyns wall.

I will continue to partner with local and state officials as we work towards a consensus solution to better protect the region from future natural disasters, Cornyn said in a statement.

His office also released a photo of him this week meeting with former Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, who heads a group that will recommend a final hurricane protection plan for the Houston area in June.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also just started studying the issue, and Cornyns office emphasized that he signed a letter last October in support of that effort. But the study will take at least five years.

In another letter sent last November, 32 members of the House delegation urged the Army Corps to speed up the process even though it is at the mercy of funding from Congress.

Meanwhile, the next hurricane season is just two months away.

Dont just write a letter and think that youre done with it, said Michel Bechtel, the mayor of Morgans Point, an industrial town on the Houston Ship Channel that was nearly wiped out during Hurricane Ike in 2008. Lets get some dollars flowing down here and lets build it.

Republican Congressman Pete Olson said the Corps is taking too long and should have started its efforts earlier. But for years it didnt have the money to study hurricane protection for the Houston region. The agency was able to start last fall only because the Texas General Land Office agreed to pay for half the $20 million study at the insistence of Bush.

Congress is supposed to provide the rest, but the Army Corps will have to ask for it every year until the study is complete.

Asked if he thinks Congress will commit to the $10 million, Olson said the Corps had never given him that dollar figure. They told you that, but not me that, he said.

Meanwhile, not everyone in Congress seems to agree that the coastal spine is the best approach to protect Houston. In 2009, Texas A&M oceanographer Bill Merrell proposed the concept, which calls for extending Galvestons 17-foot seawall and installing massive floodgates between the island and Bolivar Peninsula.

Congressman Gene Green, a Democrat from Houston, said he still likes a concept called the Centennial Gate, which called for a gate at the mouth of the Port of Houston. But that was ruled out years ago because coastal communities feared it would protect industry at their expense.

I dont have an opinion on which plan is the best plan, said Congressman Ted Poe. The Republican from Humble said crafting and implementing a plan is not the role of the members of Congress.

Texas officials and stakeholders, the people that are affected by the hurricane  they need to come up with a plan, he said. Nothing is going to happen until theres a plan.

State Sen. Larry Taylor, a Republican from Friendswood who has long been an advocate of building a hurricane barrier, agreed with Poe and said its premature to blame Congress.

Until we give them a plan, we cant expect Congress to step up, Taylor said at a hearing last week in Galveston, noting that scientists argued for years over what should be built to protect the region.

At the same hearing, though, Taylor wondered aloud if the delegation might be able to help the state avoid the five-year Corps study and go straight to Congress for planning and construction funding.

There is a way around this very long and lengthy process, and its called a direct appropriation from Congress, he said.

That will be a tough sell. Republicans in Congress have banned earmarks, or federal money for local projects. And Congress has never spent a significant amount of money to build or repair hurricane protection infrastructure until after a devastating storm has hit. It took Hurricane Katrina for Congress to give New Orleans billions of dollars to repair its failed levee system.

Local leaders in Texas say thats the wrong way to look at it. A coastal spine in Texas isnt an earmark because it protects the entire countrys economy, not just the Houston region, they say. And they add that a direct appropriation from Congress for storm protection in Texas is long overdue; Texas never got any such money after Hurricane Ike in 2008.

We had a storm eight years ago, and were still looking for federal funding, Bechtel said. We dont want to wait until we get another storm that comes in and does $200 billion in damage and kills a bunch of people.

Bechtel was in Washington, D.C. last week to advocate for the cause in meetings with Congress. Bush will be heading to D.C. for the same reason in June.

Mitchell said he is more optimistic that hes ever been that a storm barrier will be built, especially after state lawmakers pledged to help fund the effort at last weeks Galveston hearing.

It took us five years to get the states attention on the importance of this, he said. Lets just hope it doesnt take another five years to get the congressional delegation to understand the importance of this.

Weber said he thinks the federal government should help pay for a hurricane protection barrier, but he wouldnt comment on whether his colleagues in Congress agree with him.

I dont know, well, maybe, he said.
As of Aug. 1, licensed gun permit holders will be allowed to carry concealed guns on college and university campuses around Texas. We are not particularly reassured that doing so will somehow make our campuses safer. In fact, we believe, as do so many others, that our campuses will be less safe.

Thank you to our Legislature for caving into the powerful gun lobby.

But, campus carry soon will be the law and it is up to our colleges and universities to device clear, understandable rules. Last week, Texas A&M announced its proposed rules and they make sense. Pretty much, people licensed to carry concealed weapons may do so pretty much anywhere except in counseling and health care facilities. They will be allowed in campus dorms, unlike at The University of Texas where guns are not allowed in dorm rooms and must be securely stored.

To be licensed, Texans must be at least 21, receive four to six hours of training, complete a session in non-violent dispute resolution, pass a written test and show proficiency in shooting a handgun. Those requirements certainly will limit the number of young Aggies who legally can carry a concealed weapon on campus. Hopefully the age requirement alone will bring some maturity to concealed handgun permit holders.

Still there are a lot of stressors on college campuses: relationship issues, grade questions and so on. We understand why so many faculty members are uneasy about the prospect of armed students in the classrooms and offices.

At the same time, we understand how many students, faculty and staff will feel safer should something terrible happened as we have seen on far too many other campuses, from Virginia to Oregon. Perhaps, but we caution that shooting at an unmoving paper target with no stress is far different is far, far different than acting wisely, thoughtfully and carefully during a high-stress situation with moving targets that may well be shooting back. God forbid that ever happens again on another American campus.

When Aug. 1 rolls around, we urge those licensed to carry handguns on campus to use caution and all good sense. You carry a responsibility not only to yourself but to every other person on campus.
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Welcome to BCS Toyota! We are the premier dealer of new and used Toyota vehicles in the Bryan, TX area!

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BCS Toyotas new facility offers a state-of-the-art service center & to take care of all maintenance on your vehicle.

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The Paris Agreement makes it impossible for any country or any sector to say climate change isn't their problem.

It has created unprecedented momentum for all sectors in all countries to take action and be part of the solution.

The shipping industry plays a fundamental role in boosting global trade and prosperity. Maritime leaders have rightly recognised the need to invest in more energy-efficient vessels and to apply measures like slow-steaming.

But to ensure a level playing field, collective action is urgently needed across the sector. Because maritime carbon pollution happens beyond national boundaries, emissions from shipping did not get a specific reference in the final text agreed at the Paris climate conference.

That is why the industry is gathering this week at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in London from (18th-22nd April) with the aim of agreeing a plan for the sector to manage its emissions.

Failure to get an agreement could put the integrity of the Paris Agreement - and the safety of us all - at risk.

Soaring shipping emissions cannot be allowed!

The IMO predicts that emissions from shipping may rise by 50-250% by 2050 from 2012 levels. That would take the shipping sector from a carbon footprint the size of Germany, at 3% of global emissions, to one nearly the size of the entire EU.

We need robust sustainability regulations for shipping that are internationally recognised and respected. This will ensure shipping plays its part in the global transition to carbon neutrality.

It is now a year since the Marshall Islands called for measures to help the shipping sector to reduce its emissions. That proposal gained support but countries agreed to wait and see what the climate summit agreed. In fact, the level of ambition agreed in Paris went far beyond what many had expected, with 195 governments signing up to a global goal of reaching 'net zero' emissions in the second half of the century.

Now the Marshall Islands have resubmitted their plan for the shipping industry to manage its pollution whilst maintaining a thriving maritime sector. They are joined by France, Germany, Morocco, the Solomon Islands and Belgium. These countries are supported by ever louder calls from ship owners and builders calling for a plan for the shipping industry to manage its pollution within a strategy to ensure a thriving industry of opportunity.

In February, the International Chamber of Shipping called for the shipping sector to put forward its own 'intended nationally determined contribution' or INDC, following the national climate plans that countries announced ahead of the COP21 climate summit.
2015 was a bad year for coal. Global coal use fell by up to 5%. Peabody Energy - the world's largest private coal company - continued its precipitous decline, with a fall in its share price of more than 800% across 4 years.

2016 got off to an even worse start. In January the United States' second largest coal company - Arch Coal - filed for bankruptcy.

And last week it only got worse: Peabody moved from share price collapse into bankruptcy with a massive $1 billion hole in its finances.

The Chinese government has announced the closure of more than 5,000 coal mines, with 1,000 to go this year. Almost half the UK's coal power stations have announced closure in the last 12 months.

But coal's inevitable demise is not happening quickly enough. To avoid catastrophic climate change, we have to keep more than 80% of known coal reserves in the ground. Consumption needs to be tackled, but so too does production  and with governments still hiding from the issue, it is the responsibility of ordinary people to take control.

Join us in May to demand a halt to coal!

In May thousands of us will gather at key points across the planet and use our bodies to stop the world's most destructive fossil fuel projects. From the Philippines to Brazil, Indonesia to Nigeria, a mass movement now exists to make sure things keep getting worse for fossil fuels.

In Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, local campaigners will set up camp with people from across the country. We will then use nonviolent direct action to shut down Ffosyfran, the UK's largest opencast coal mine. This is the pivotal moment to kill coal in the UK, and Ffosyfran is the pivotal mine. Just days after our action, Wales will vote in the Welsh Assembly elections and ending coal mining will be a major election issue.

Back in Westminster, the UK government is planning to phaseout coal power plants by 2025 - it is clear the use of coal is drying up. We are at a crossroads. Down one road, we choose to open further mines and continue to burn the dirtiest of fossil fuels. Down another road, we accelerate the Just Transition from dangerous, unhealthy and uncertain mining, to millions of new jobs in clean energy. This May is the moment to make it happen.

Ffosyfran is 178m deep, and covers 3,500 acres. It is huge scar on the beautiful landscape of the Brecon Beacons. For almost a decade, local people have fought against it but now they face the further injustice of another new mine, next door at Nant Llesg.
The largest development bank in the world is still pouring millions of dollars into oil, gas, and coal projects every year, despite repeated calls by its president to end global subsidies of dirty energy.

The World Bank Group, which provides loans to developing countries, stumped up $313 million just for fossil fuel exploration projects in the 2015 fiscal year alone, according to research by Oil Change International (OCI).

The organisation shelled out over $1.7bn in total in investments for exploration, or projects that included an exploration component, between the fiscal years 2011 - 2015.

"Nobody in their right mind should be funding fossil fuel exploration projects", said Alex Doukas, senior campaigner at OCI. "It's time for the World Bank to stop."

As OCI's report states: "In 2015, the World Bank Group's actions continued to speak louder than its President's strong words on climate change ...

"The World Bank Group continues to invest in exploration for new fossil fuel reserves despite clear signs that we already have far more fossil fuels than we can afford to burn, and over the last five years, the World Bank Group's total fossil fuel finance has trended upwards, with finance into the billions of dollars nearly every year."



The rhetoric goes one way - the money goes the other

The financial flows into fossil fuels fly in the face of repeated calls by the World Bank head to end fossil fuel subsidies. As the World Trade Organisation defines it, a subsidy is a "financial contribution by a government or any public body", including loans and loan guarantees.

In fact, on the same day the OCI analysis was published, the World Bank's president, Jim Kim, warned that climate change rivals migration and pandemics as the major threat to global economy. He urged that current plans to build hundreds of carbon-intensive energy plants must be stopped urgently.

"We are working with countries to make renewables cheaper than coal and push forward efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change", Kim told a press conference on 14th April.

He had previously stated: "We've come together in the shadow of an undeniable truth: We simply cannot afford to continue polluting the planet at the current pace. Unless we drastically cut emissions and do more to help countries adapt, the effects of climate change could push an additional 100 million people into poverty by 2030."
LOS ANGELESJames Deen Productions has just released the third installment in the James Deens Sex Tapes: James House series. James Deens Sex Tapes: James House 3 is now available for purchase through Girlfriends Films.

In James Deens Sex Tapes: James House 3, Deen invites four beautiful babes over to his house for some one-on-one time with his cock. James Deen Productions newest release gives the audience a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on when porn stars get together off set.

This film shows each of the sexy babes getting real and showing fans exactly what they like sans camera crew. Part three of the James Deens Sex Tapes series features a variety of raw scenes with Jay Taylor, Anna Morna, Molly Manson, and Chanel Preston.

I feel that everything I've shot with James has been super personal because there's never anything fake about our scenes. I'm just me, he's just him, and we're having sex. There's also my nervousness and massive fangirl crush on him, and that gets blended with more and more friendship each time we work together. Every time I'm with James, it's my goal to impress him. I hope the rawness and honesty in our sex is what sticks with people, noted Jay Taylor.

For an inside, private look at off-set sex with these four babes, it can all be found in James Deens Sex Tapes: James House 3, available now through JamesDeenStore.com and Girlfriends Films.
SHARE Rego Cruse

Gleaner staff

An investigation into an alleged hostage situation resulted in authorities arresting one person and seizing a quantity of drugs and weapons.

The Henderson County Sheriff's Office and the Kentucky State Police responded to Hancock Street in Corydon where Rego Cruse, 48, Corydon, was allegedly holding his wife hostage in a vehicle.

The sheriff's office said when law enforcement arrived, the couple had left the area, but were located in the vehicle on Kentucky 359 in Smith Mills.

Authorities stopped the car and checked on the victim who was uninjured, a news release said.

A search of the vehicle revealed a quantity of meth, marijuana and "concealed deadly weapons," sheriff's officials said.

Cruse was arrested and charged with first-degree unlawful imprisonment, carrying a concealed deadly weapon by prior deadly weapon felony offender, first-degree possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence, fourth-degree assault, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving under the influence and driving on a DUI suspended license (third offense).

Cruse was lodged at the Henderson County Detention Center without bond.
Hawkeyes pluck 2024 commit Ava Heiden out of Oregon

The Iowa women's basketball team landed a big get (literally) for its 2024 women's basketball class.
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NORWALK - The citys Department of Motor Vehicles branch was packed one recent late morning when Charlie Kuintzle of Monroe waited in line to register a car.

Ive tried them all, Kuintzle said of the DMV offices in the region. Bridgeport. Waterbury. Now Im trying Norwalk. So far it looks faster than Bridgeport. Thats not saying much.

Kuintzles sampling of what the DMV has to offer at its various branches is not a novel idea. In fact the departments new leaders are taking the exact same approach as they try to improve the customer experience and bolster the reputation of what seems to be a perennially-loathed function of government.

Less than a month after the governor put them in charge of the DMV following Andres Ayalas controversial tenure, Commissioner Michael Bzdyra and Deputy Judeen Wrinn are visiting the main offices around Connecticut for a first hand look at what they inherited.

Last week, they were in Norwalk. Prior to that the pair stopped by the Bridgeport and Danbury branches.

I would classify this as a listening tour, said William Seymour, who handles communications for the DMV. Thats somewhat cliche but its actually very true. Theyre going to branches, looking at operations, how customers feel about the operations, how employees feel about operations. And theyre basically gathering facts and listening to what everyone has to say.

And later this spring the agency will also be surveying as many as 1,500 customers at DMV offices around the state and scheduling focus groups in various counties.

We are determined to make this a strong customer-centric organization, Seymour said. And were going to do what it takes to turn it around.

Kicking the tires

This comes after last summers troubled replacement of a 40-year-old computer system. The goal was to make the agency more customer-friendly by offering additional online capabilities, from improved registration renewal to ordering vanity plates. The transition from old to new software resulted in the closure of the departments offices for a few days in August and long-lines afterward.

Then a number of motor vehicle registrations were wrongly suspended for lack of insurance.

By late January, Ayala, a former state Senator from Bridgeport, had resigned. Bzdyra, a deputy commissioner, was promoted to the top job, and Wrinn was hired from the private sector, where she at one time worked in customer service for Aetna Insurance at in client relationship management for ING.

Theres no doubt we had problems after the rollout and there were bugs in the system. And there still are bugs in the system that we are working to resolve, Seymour said. We are holding 3Ms (the corporation that produced the new software) feet to the fire and looking at our own internal processes with employees.

Seymour said Wrinns background in particular lends itself to scrutinizing efficiencies.

Waiting time

Virginia Thom of New Jersey and Lenny Bundock of Stamford are regulars at the Norwalk DMV. The two make a living registering vehicles for automotive dealers.

Both complained about the new software.

I can get through 11 (registrations) in New York in an hour. Im getting through 8 here in 7 hours, Thom said. It is awful.

It still has glitches in it, Bundock said, adding the DMVs rank-and-file staff is doing the best they can with what they have.

Annie Vail of Westport said to her the DMV still seems kind of frozen in time with long waits. But, Vail said of the Norwalk office, Theyre really nice.

Typically visits to the DMV entail a wait in the information line, then receiving a service ticket and waiting again to be called for your specific transaction.

Seymour could not immediately provide data for Norwalk, but said the average wait time statewide immediately after launching the new software last August was 2 hours and 41 minutes. That measurement does not include time spent in the information line.

For the full month of March, the average wait time was 1 hour and eight minutes, Seymour said. That is a nearly 60 percent reduction. Nonetheless, we are focused on finding a solution to reduce wait times further.

Seymour said another challenge is the fact 34 percent of visitors to a DMV branch could have conducted their business without going to an office.

People think, I need to go to the DMV as opposed to going online to the DMV, Seymour said. We think thats a cultural change and are working on it now. Seymour said the upcoming surveys will focus in particular on whether customers could instead accessed a computer and what other online services would be helpful.

The DMV should survey Beth Krane of Westport.

Krane said she spent two hours and fifteen minutes at the Norwalk office to renew her license.

Its ridiculous, Krane said. It was 45 minutes just on the information line to get a ticket.

Krane said she should have taken advantage of another effort to cut wait times by offering license renewal at at AAA offices.

That was my own stupidity, Krane said, adding: I hope never to come here again.
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NORWALK  As a child growing up in heavily-minority South Norwalk, Warren Pena had no neighborhood school to attend.

Nathaniel Ely Elementary was shuttered in the late 1970s to help desegregate the citys public schools.

So Pena hopped a school bus for a ride to Wolfpit Elementary.

Its way across town, almost getting into the Westport line, Pena said.

That was the 1980s. And the situation remains unchanged for over 300 South Norwalk children.

They are bused all over town every day, and some are on buses for over an hour and a half a day, said Michael Lyons, chairman of the school board. Other kids are bused 20 minutes a day or walk to school.

Nearly four decades later, the city wants to reopen Ely to help put an end to those long commutes and to solve another problem - system-wide overcrowding.

A $300 million facilities master plan unveiled over the winter recommended building a new school at the Nathaniel Ely site and renovating Naramake and Ponus Ridge schools.

The City Council this week authorized spending $2.5 million on initial designs, with Ely the priority, to submit to the state for approval and funding.

You need a full set of educational specifications and sufficiently detailed conceptual drawings and site layout drawings, Lyons said. You do that preliminary work sufficient to go to the state for their approval, then you go into full design mode. Our hope is this will get one school - maybe two projects - in front of the state by June of 2017.

There are two options for the reopened Ely. The first, to construct a new building to educate kindergarteners through fifth graders.

It would be a new building close to surrounding the existing building which houses grant-funded early childhood programs like Head Start, Lyons said.

Lyons said the school board may also explore including sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

To do that you have to incorporate the existing building into the plan because of legal restrictions related to the early childhood programs, Lyons said.

Student magnet

On a recent afternoon Sasha Jimenez picked up her four-year-old son from Head Start at Ely. Jimenez liked the idea of the new school.

Its closer to where I live, Jimenez said. It would be nice just to keep him (her son) in the same place because hes used to it.

Pena, who has moved out of South Norwalk but is chairman of that neighborhoods community center, is a major proponent of a new Ely school.

Its a fabulous idea, Pena said. In the end this is exactly what the South Norwalk community needs.

Other leaders are worried Ely will again become a predominantly minority-populated school offering a poorer quality of education.

People want neighborhood schools. Thats not a problem, said the school boards Shirley Mosby, who is black and who lived a block away from Ely and was also bused to other schools.

The problem is ensuring the schools are of good quality and equitable, Mosby said. If you move all the children back to certain areas, youre not going to have a balance in certain areas.

Deidra Davis, who is also black, put it more bluntly: My concern would be this school is not just for the South Norwalk people.

Davis lives in the Roodner Court public housing project behind Ely and represents all residents as an elected member of the Housing Authority.

People are under the impression its just being filled (to deal with overcrowding) and we wont be able to get the same services that the other schools have, Davis said.

Lyons said that in order to meet Connecticut standards the student population at a reopened Ely would have to be about 25 percent white.

That means making the new Ely a magnet or specialized school, Lyons said, in order to attract out-of-neighborhood students.

Create a robust enough program down there that white kids will come in from other parts of town, Lyons said. He pointed to the success of South Norwalks Columbus Magnet School. In 2000 the state designated Columbus a Higher Order of Thinking or H.O.T. school, meaning the curriculum is heavily-centered on the arts.

So we know from the example of Columbus that if you do it right, you can get it to work, Lyons said.

Pena agreed.

These are things that are going to be hashed out, he said.

No input

Some, like Mosby and Davis, have accused the school board of moving ahead with the Ely plan without enough input from South Norwalk residents.

Lyons said one meeting was already held at the South Norwalk Library April 2 and others are planned for May 5 at Ely and May 12 at the South Norwalk Community Center.

We will consult far more with the South Norwalk community than any other community in town on this matter, Lyons said.

And City Council President Bruce Kimmel added there are so many issues to be worked out, from the types of studies Ely would offer to changes in bus routes, This is not going to happen overnight.

Curtis Law has been executive director of the Norwalk Housing Authority since the 1970s.

I think they closed (Ely) about the time I came here, Law recalled.

Law understands some of the trepidation South Norwalk residents feel about the plans for a reopened Ely just based on history.

If you go back to desegregation, thats always been a concern - that schools are not resourced adequately or at the same level, Law said. This is years after some of those decisions were made, but I think it still lingers in the minds of some.

I think its just a matter of the school board having conversations with the community about what kind of school its going to be, Law said.
The political process today has become a big joke. The majority of politicians have made it clear that neither the Democrats nor Republicans care about the American citizens or America. Both exploit for their own gain  look at the two bozos running for the Democratic Party.

Hillary Clinton is being investigated by the FBI for the email scandal and thinks she is above the law. She is conniving and manipulative. She should be disqualified for the office of president of the USA, but in todays corrupt politics what do you expect?

Sen. Bernie Sanders belongs in a straitjacket instead of being a presidential candidate. Look at the individual  is he not able to own a comb or afford to get a haircut? He talks at length aimlessly about free everything for all and how the rich will pay. He is one of the rich; his pay is $200,000 per year. Many Americans believe every word that comes out of his lying socialist mouth.

Clinton and Sanders advocate equal misery and poverty for all. Everyone who wants to live under socialism can move to a socialist country anytime.

This old saying is true: A nation deserves the politicians that it elects.

Democracy is majority rule. A republic is governed by the rule of law, affording everyone protection under the law.
Gelato, smoothies, pizza and more: Check out the newest in Bucks' eats

These new Bucks County dining spots are serving up everything from gelato, pastries and pizza to green smoothies, cold-pressed juices and acai bowls.
The March of Dimes Missouri Chapter is preparing to honor nurses who exemplify an extraordinary level of patient care, compassion and customer service.

The organization will accept nominations for its 2016 Nurse of the Year Awards, presented by the Catherine McAuley School of Nursing at Maryville University, beginning April 1, 2016. This year marks the 5th anniversary of the awards gala.

Exceptional nurses employed in the state of Missouri and Illinois counties of Jersey, Madison, St. Clair, Clinton, Monroe, and Randolph are eligible. A selection committee comprised of health care professionals will review the confidential nomination forms.

About twenty nurses will be honored at a special awards gala November 19, 2016 at the Marriott Grand Hotel in St. Louis, MO.

Cathy Koeln, Director, Patient Care Services at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, is chairing the 2016 Nurse of the Year committee. Kimberly Tuck, President and CEO at Home State Health and Kristine Ziegler, Vice President, Strategy & Business Development at Envolve, are serving as vice-chairs.

Whether serving as health care provider, educator, researcher, chapter volunteer and/or advisor - nurses play a critical role in advancing the mission of the March of Dimes: to improve the health of all babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. The Nurse of the Year initiative supports this mission while recognizing exceptional nurses throughout the state and celebrating the profession.

Chair Cathy Koeln said, The Nurse of the Year event is an opportunity for the March of Dimes, and the community, to publicly say thank you to the wonderful caregivers who make such a difference in our lives. We are proud to be celebrating our fifth year honoring nurses in Missouri and the Metro East.

Nomination forms will be available online beginning April 1, 2016. Nominations close on June 27, 2016. More information is available at: nurseoftheyear.org/missouri

The 2016 Nurse of the Year is presented by Catherine McAuley School of Nursing at Maryville University. Platinum sponsors include Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis Childrens Hospital and Envolve and Home State Health. Gold sponsors are Chamberlain College of Nursing and MU Health Care.
Nathan Ross Chapman Honored BY CIA 13 Years After Covert Mission

Trending News: Meet The Green Beret Killed On A Secret CIA Mission 13 Years Ago

Why Is This Important?

Because this gives us a clearer picture of what US troops were doing in the early days of the Afghanistan war and the kinds of risks they ran.

Long Story Short

Nathan Ross Chapman was the first US serviceman to die in combat in Afghanistan. The Green Beret had been officially detached to the CIA, and the agency finally acknowledged and honored him last year.

Long Story

When the 31-year-old Chapman was killed on January 4, 2002, he was deep in Pashtun territory, part of a secret CIA team working to isolate Al-Qaeda elements from local support. They were the first Americans in the area around the eastern Afghanistan city of Khost since the war began.

On their way into the city to locate and eliminate an Al-Qaeda safe house, the convoy Chapman was in came under small arms fire. Chapman was shot in the pelvis, the bullet severing his femoral artery. He would die of blood loss less than an hour later.

Getty Images

While his death was headline news in the US, the CIA never admitted that hed been seconded to them. It was not until a Washington Post reporter started digging into the story behind that the details around Chapmans death emerged.

An engraved marble star unveiled at the CIAs headquarters last May honored the death of an agency member in 2002, without revealing the employees name. The CIA still wont officially comment on the matter, but Post reporter Thomas Gibbons-Neff spoke to Chapmans father, military personnel and CIA officers while writing the story.

According to the article, CIA director John Brennan met privately with the Chapman family and apologized for the 13-year delay. Chapmans father Will told the Post that Brennan just said it should have been done a long time ago.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: Whats the reasoning that prevents the public from hearing about CIA agents and employees being posthumously honored?

Disrupt Your Feed: Nobody joins the CIA hoping to be in the limelight, for any reason.

Drop This Fact: Forward Operating Base Chapman, a CIA-run facility near Khost, was named after him, and was the site of the deadliest bombing in CIA history. On December 30, 2009 an Al-Qaeda double agent blew himself up inside the base, killing seven American CIA agents and contractors, a Jordanian intelligence officer and an Afghan CIA employee. The bombing was dramatized in Zero Dark Thirty.
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Linkedin Zaki Mubarok Busro and Genevieve Quirk (The Jakarta Post) Wollongong  Mon, April 18, 2016

Negotiations to create an international legally binding instrument for governing marine resources beyond national borders took place recently at the UN headquarters.

More than 50 percent of the worlds oceans are in these areas beyond national jurisdiction. These first negotiations from March 28 to April 9 in New York related to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The underlying principles are mainly that the marine resources and biodiversity are a common heritage, apart from freedom of navigation.

Indonesia, a maritime and archipelagic state, was closely involved with the drafting of UNCLOS and together with the G77 group of developing nations, now comprising 134 members, supports these talks to improve governance of the seas.

The negotiations are historic; the UN agreed only last year to tackle the challenge of coordinated governance of biodiversity beyond national borders through a legally binding instrument. Marine areas beyond national jurisdiction are vital to sustainable development, food security and poverty alleviation. This is because of the trans-boundary nature and interconnectedness of ecosystems in the high seas and on the seabed beyond our borders to the coastal regions within those borders.

Industrial activity has expanded to include seabed mining, ocean energy generation, distant industrial fishing and bio-prospecting for marine genetic resources. Today technological advances are a double-edged sword aiding more intense exploitation, but with the benefit of overcoming the high costs of monitoring and enforcement outside national jurisdictions. Reformed governance of ocean activities beyond our borders is crucial to minimize risks to the health and productivity of marine ecosystems.

Last year the UN working group that studied marine conservation and sustainability stressed the need for a comprehensive regime to address oceans governance beyond national borders.

The recent talks of the UN preparatory committee on the issue included discussions on marine genetic resources, which genes and bio compounds are pivotal to medical advances and how the benefits sourced from the high seas should be shared.

Another issue is about the measures for conservation and sustainable use such as marine protected areas, which can be contentious for industries. Others are environmental impact assessments for industries and the transfer of marine technology to developing countries.

Negotiators face complex issues and challenges, especially the creation of an access and benefit sharing mechanism for marine genetic resources and how to establish protected areas in the high seas.

Additional challenges arise in negotiations over an institutional structure that does not undermine the mandates of existing organizations. The other challenges are about an appropriate dispute settlement mechanism, unresolved issues over continental shelves and a mechanism for coordination and oversight for regulation of activities.

For biodiversity beyond national borders, fishing poses the greatest threat. For Indonesia, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing beyond our borders threatens the environment and livelihoods. Indonesia has taken a strong stance on IUU fishing nationally and in international forums.

The UN negotiations  to continue next year before an intergovernmental conference  offer a key opportunity to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing in areas beyond national jurisdictions. Through these negotiations Indonesia can be part of combating these illicit activities in the high seas as a responsible member of the international community.

For Indonesia and its friends in the G77, careful attention is needed in the following issues:

First, the legal framework on areas beyond national jurisdiction should not undermine legal arrangements such as the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and the Food and Agricultural Organizations agreement on global conservation by fishing vessels on the high seas.

Second, Indonesia must be among the developing states to benefit from marine genetic resources in the high seas.

Third, the institutional framework for the international legally binding instruments should also be considered as cautiously as compliance and cooperation with regional fisheries management organizations. Fourth, Indonesia should ensure that capacity building and transfer of technology will be on equal footing for developed and developing states.

Of particular importance to these negotiations is the link between IUU fishing and transnational organized crime beyond national waters. Crimes such as over-exploitation of fisheries and human trafficking are key examples of illicit activities within and beyond Indonesias oceans.

Eradicating the problem requires global cooperation and it is important for Indonesia to continue to cooperate with the global community in this unprecedented opportunity to stamp out illegal and criminal activities at sea.

***

Zaki Mubarok Busro is a member of the participating in the preparatory committee on areas beyond national jurisdiction Regional Leaders Program at the UN headquarters. Zaki and Genevieve Quirk are PhD students in ocean law and policy at the Australian National Center for Ocean Resources and Security, University of Wollongong, Australia.

---------------

We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to community@jakpost.com.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin Gregory Katz (Associated Press) London  Mon, April 18, 2016

The longest-reigning monarch in British history turns 90 on Thursday, but Queen Elizabeth II is not planning a major, fireworks-filled celebration to mark the happy occasion.

Just a gentle stroll outside the grounds of Windsor Castle, the lighting of a beacon, and a night at home with family are all that are on the royal plate.

No, she'll save the pomp and ceremony for her next birthday. The monarch is such an eminent figure in British life that she gets two birthdays each year, one on the actual date of her birth, April 21, and one official birthday in June, when there is at least a reasonable hope of dry, sunny parade weather.

Her customary reticence hasn't kept the nation's media from going slightly bonkers at the approaching milestone. ITV has already aired a celebratory "Our Queen at 90" documentary to pump up its Easter ratings, and Tatler magazine not only put the queen on its cover, foregoing the youthful socialites that are its typical cover fare, but published a special supplement in her honor.

The birthday events Thursday can be considered a dress rehearsal for the official celebrations planned in early June. It also opens the door to a rolling birthday season that will last a full six weeks, climaxing with hundreds of celebrations large and small.

"June is when everything is happening. That's the great big extravaganza, the street parties and everything," said Sophia Money-Coutts, Tatler's features director. "From now on, the coverage will be relentless. The republicans will be screaming."

Indeed, it's not a good time for those who oppose the monarchy to peek above the parapet. The British public's considerable affection for the queen surfaces at times of national celebration  witness the million-plus crowd that cheered her outside the Buckingham Palace gates at her Golden Jubilee in 2002.

The queen and the royals have endured some low points in the last two decades, particularly around the time of the death of Princess Diana in 1997, but their popularity has rebounded with the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton and the arrival of their two children, Prince George  now third in line to the throne  and Princess Charlotte.

"It's just a golden moment for the whole family after a tricky few years," Money-Coutts said. "And the queen is the figurehead of all that, with the line of succession pretty assured. They are going through a glorious period."

Elizabeth  with her familiar smile, colorful outfits and eccentric if expensive hats  seems oddly impervious to time. If she is tired, it doesn't show. She has softened her schedule, as a concession to 89 and counting, and she has cut back on grueling plane journeys, but she shows no sign of physical or mental frailty.

Neither does her 94-year-old husband Prince Philip, despite several serious health scares that included a medical intervention to open clogged heart arteries. His face is craggy, but he still carries himself with the upright bearing of the former naval officer that he is.

Both still seem to be going strong, although their children and grandchildren are increasingly stepping in to handle royal duties ranging from the routine, like opening a hospital ward, to the more substantial such as attending a meeting of Commonwealth heads of state.

Elizabeth and Philip say little in public, but the ITV documentary was revealing about the family dynamics because William, Kate and Prince Harry all spoke about the queen, breaking the normal code of silence that governs their relations with an often intrusive news media held responsible by some for cruelly hounding Diana in the final months of her life.

William, who lost his mother Diana when he was just 15, said the queen had helped him in subtle ways by providing stability and encouraging him to find his own footing.

"Growing up, having this figurehead, having this stability above me has been incredible," he said. "I have been able to explore, understand, slightly carve my own path. I greatly appreciate and value that protection."

Kate, a likely future queen who stepped into the limelight when she and William fell in love in their university days in Scotland, praised Elizabeth for making it easier for her to cope with the constant attention her position brings.

"I feel she's been there, a gentle guidance really for me," she said.

The milestone 90th birthday is a happy occasion, one the queen is willing to acknowledge and share with the nation. It was different in September when  by virtue of her father's early death and her own longevity  she surpassed Queen Victoria to earn distinction as the British ruler with the most time on the throne.

While the British press went gaga over her accomplishment, it seemed that for Elizabeth it was a somewhat painful reminder that her father, King George VI, had died suddenly at age 56, making her queen far earlier than had been expected or desired. She was on vacation in Kenya at the time, having left Britain as a princess and returning as a queen in mourning, greeted at the airport by Winston Churchill, the first of many prime ministers.

The queen may be reluctant to make a great fuss over her 90th birthday, but there is little doubt her favorite time of year is approaching. For June means not only her official birthday, and the gala Trooping The Color parade that accompanies it, it also brings the Royal Ascot races that are a highlight of the queen's year, and other races and racing-related events dear to her heart.

Viewers of the ITV documentary couldn't help but notice that the normally reserved queen seemed most animated at the races, even showing surprising foot speed for a woman in her 80s as she tried to get a better view of the home stretch.

"She'll be at Ascot every morning in her pastel-colored suits, studying the Racing Post, talking with her racing manager," Money-Coutts said. "She absolutely loves it."
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Linkedin Tama Salim, Ina Parlina and Nani Afrida (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 17 2016

Amid ongoing efforts in the Philippines to secure the release of 10 Indonesian hostages from an Islamic militant group, four more crew members have been taken hostage after their vessels were hijacked by unknown captors.



Two ships carrying Indonesia flags, the TB Henry and the Cristi, were hijacked near the maritime border between the Philippines and Malaysia on Friday at 6:30 p.m. local time.



The Foreign Ministrys director for the protection of Indonesian nationals and entities abroad, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, said another Indonesian crew member onboard had been shot, while five others had escaped capture.



Iqbal said that the ships had been on their way home, travelling from Cebu in the Philippines to Tarakan in North Kalimantan, when the incident occurred.



The injured crew member, he said, was rescued by Malaysias maritime police and was currently receiving treatment from them.



He is in a stable condition despite suffering a gunshot wound, Iqbal said on Saturday, adding that the Malaysian Maritime Police had evacuated him to a hospital in Lahad Datu, Malaysia, where the two tugboats had been towed to.



The five crew members who evaded capture have also been taken to Lahat Datu port.



Philippines Military spokesperson Major Filemon Tan said seven gunmen in a blue speedboat attacked the two tugboats off the Philippines southernmost island of Sitangkay in Tawi-tawi, near the border with Malaysias eastern Sabah state.



We dont exactly know who took [the four crew members] but the only lawless group operating in that area is Abu Sayyaf, Tan said, as quoted by Reuters, adding that four Malaysians were also abducted in a separate incident earlier this month in the south.



The al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, known for extortion, kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, is one of several militant factions that have intensified their activities on the remote islands of the region.



The rebel group have been targeting foreign crew of slow moving tugboats because they can no longer penetrate resorts and coastal towns in Sabah due to increased security.



Fridays hijacking follows another incident on March 26, also involving the Abu Sayyaf group, when an Indonesian-flagged Brahma 12 tugboat and the Anand 12 barge were also hijacked.



During that incident, 10 Indonesian crewmen were taken hostage by the rebel militants, who demanded a ransom of 50 million pesos (US$1.07 million).



Indonesia has stationed special forces personnel on the Philippine border, but has yet to receive an official go-ahead to assist with rescue operations.



The government is currently communicating with the owners of the Henry and the Cristi, as well as with Philippine and Malaysian counterparts, Iqbal said, adding that the Indonesian Consulate in Tawau, a town in Malaysias Sabah state, was in contact with the local authorities there.



The government is determined to take all necessary measures against the frequent hijackings in the area. Indonesia will ask neighboring countries to strengthen security, he said.



International law expert Hikmahanto Juwana pointed out the importance of holding joint patrols between Indonesia and the Philippines and between Indonesia and Malaysia following the second kidnapping.



These kidnappings have their own complexity as the TNI [Indonesian Military] cannot simply enter the territory to aid with hostage releases, because the Philippine constitution does not allow it, he said.



Also, the hostages come not only from Indonesia, but include other foreign nationals from Canada, Norway and Malaysia.



He later urged the TNI and the government to refrain from making public statements that might provoke the captors, and from divulging information that could benefit them.



Moreover, Hikmahanto explained, the Indonesian government should also maintain communications with the Philippine authorities because we must respect their sovereignty.



Navy chief of staff Admiral Ade Supandi said that the military would explore the option of routine joint patrols with Malaysia and the Philippines.



He insisted, however, that the first course of action be to ask companies sailing through the area to exercise extreme caution.



Well look into [new patrols, but] we will prioritize warning sailing firms, he said.

__________________________________

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Linkedin Elly Burhaini Faizal (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18, 2016

Countries in the Asia Pacific region on Saturday pledged to jointly combat the increasing threat of antimicrobial resistance, which transcends borders and endangers global health by making life-saving antibiotics ineffective.

In a communique issued by the Tokyo Meeting of Health Ministers on Antimicrobial Resistance, health ministers from 12 countries in the region agreed to improve the way information on antimicrobial resistance is collected and shared to guide effective policies and actions.

They also agreed to strengthen and harmonize how their nations regulate the production, sale and use of antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines. They said they were ready to take innovative approaches to stimulate research and development of new antibiotics, diagnostic tests, vaccines and other technologies.

World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for South-East Asia Poonam Khetrapal Singh said antimicrobial resistance was a threat to global security and economic stability.

It is a looming health and economic crisis that requires both global and local solutions. Since drug resistant genes can travel, countries with higher levels of economic and social organization have a stake in the success of measures taken by less developed countries. In the fight against antimicrobial resistance, we are only as strong as the weakest link, she told ministers during the meeting.

Khetrapal Singh further said antibiotic resistance was one of the biggest threats to human health today. Having effective antimicrobials is also critical to the social and economic development of nations. We have a limited window of opportunity to take action and avoid a post-antibiotic era, she said.

WHO is supporting countries across the Asia Pacific region to take critical steps to preserve the effectiveness of these life-saving medicines.

We must strengthen health systems response and cooperation with the agriculture sector to contain this threat, and improve understanding of the problem among the public. The Tokyo meeting has provided a platform to move forward with this important agenda, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific Shin Young-soo said.

Asia Pacific region populations are at higher risk for emerging drug-resistant infections, evident by the spread of multidrug resistant strains of malaria and tuberculosis, due to rapid economic development and sociodemographic and cultural changes, coupled with their health status.

In the meeting, ministers acknowledged that antimicrobial resistance is a by-product of system failuresfrom regulation of medicines to agricultural and trade controls, and agreed that strengthening these systems is a critical component of the Sustainable Development Goals.They were also united on the need for urgent action to raise awareness across all sectors to promote responsible use of antibiotics. (ebf)
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Linkedin thejakartapost.com (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar  Mon, April 18, 2016

Bank Indonesia (BI) has warned modern retailers in Bali over the use of candies as small change, saying it was an illegal practice to use other means of exchange aside from rupiah issued by the central bank.

BI would soon conduct a survey and tests on the use of candies instead of cash at Bali retailers and groceries, said BIs Bali chief Dewi Setyowati. She estimated that candy was widely used to replace small change, such as Rp 100, Rp 200 and Rp 500 coins.

"We will send them a letter, because the practice is illegal and forbidden. It creates disadvantages for the public, too," she said in Denpasar on Monday, as quoted by the Antara news agency.

The "Candy currency" has been widely used in Indonesia for a decade. It is said to disadvantage consumers as they receive unneeded things instead of small change, which they could use toward the purchase of something else.

The low nominal value of the rupiah creates difficulties for cashing out small change. In the currency with an exchange value of 13,200 per US dollar, the smallest coin of Rp 100 is frequently used in daily transactions.

BI recorded that coin demand in Bali in the last three years was very high. Last year, there were 97.2 million coins worth Rp 41.8 billion in Bali, up 30 percent from the 2014 value of Rp 32.1 billion.

Dewi predicted the low usage of coins as small change among modern retailers and groceries had led to the small inflow of coins to the central bank. At the same time, coin transactions and deposits at banks were quite low.

According to the latest BI survey, only 38 percent of the people in Indonesia used coins for payments, while the remaining 62 percent chose to collect them in a safe deposit boxes or piggy banks. (ags)
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Linkedin Markus Makur (The Jakarta Post) Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai  Mon, April 18, 2016

The bodies of two Malaysian tourists who died in an incident at Cunca Wulang waterfall in Mbeliling, West Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara, have been flown back to their home country.

Mohamad Azfar bin Tahir, 24, and Mohamad Ezzaq Azraf bin Azumi, 24, were reportedly killed when they fell into the river at the waterfall on Saturday. A local guide, Wenseslaus Hendro Akung, 39, from Warsawe village, Mbeliling, also died in the incident. The bodies of the three victims were recovered on Sunday.

The search operation involved a team from the Labuan Bajo Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), supported by Sano Nggoang Police, military personnel from the Lembor Military Sub-District Command (Koramil) and the Navy post in Labuan Bajo, as well as local people.

West Manggarai Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Supyanto said the bodies of the Malaysian tourists were flown from Komodo Airport in Labuan Bajo to Jakarta on Monday before being flown on to Malaysia. The body of the local guide will be sent to his home town, he added.

Supyanto said that according to the polices preliminary investigation, it was suspected that the tourists slipped and fell into the river at the waterfall. It is unclear how Wenseslaus met his death, although it is suspected the guide may have been negligent prior to the tragedy.

The police are still investigating the incident, said Supyanto.

A senior guide from West Manggarai, Gabriel Pampur, said he had given safety training to Warsawe residents acting as guides for tourists exploring Cunca Wulang waterfall.

Local guides must have adequate knowledge about standard operating procedures in guiding and rescuing tourists during emergency situations at tourism locations. Local guides must be able to give assistance to tourists if untoward incidents occur, he told thejakartapost.com on Monday.

Pampur said safety equipment such as life jackets must be used. It is thought that neither the tourists nor the guide were wearing life jackets while at the waterfall.

I hope the West Manggarai administration makes regulations for local guides. Our administration should open their eyes to the need to regulate local guides. They should not only think about regional revenues, paying little attention to the safety of tourists and their guides, said Pampur.

Chairman of the West Manggarai branch of the Indonesia Tour Guides Association (HPI), Sebastianus Pandang, feared the incident could damage the areas reputation among tourists. Sebastianus said Cunca Wulang waterfall was a nature-tourism destination in West Manggarai. Tourists often jumped from rocks into the waterfall. The river was narrow and rocky and had a fast-flowing current, he added.

Local guides in Warsawe village have poor knowledge of safety procedures for tourists visiting the location, said Sebastianus. He said a guide in Cunca Wulang waterfall must be able to explain in detail about the conditions at the waterfall to tourists. In the dry season, for instance, the depth of the Cunca Wulang River was around 10-13 meters.

Sebastianus said Saturdays incident occurred during the rainy season, in which the depth of the river was 18-20 meters. He further explained that the two Malaysian tourists apparently did not use a professional tour guide.

We, tour guides in Labuan Bajo, have always called on foreign and domestic tourists to use only professional tour guides, who have already received HPI training, he said. (ebf)
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Linkedin Yuri Kageyama (Associated Press) Tokyo  Mon, April 18, 2016

The twin earthquakes that struck southern Japan were having ripple effects far beyond the disaster zone, forcing Toyota to suspend production at most of its factories across the country over a scarcity of parts, and affecting other manufacturers.

The quake damaged Honda's motorcycle plant in Kumamoto, the largest city affected by the two quakes that hit late Thursday and early Saturday, killing at least 42 people. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index tumbled more than 3 percent Monday in part on worries over quake repercussions as well as a spike in the yen and drop in oil prices.

But the economic impact is nowhere near as large as the havoc wreaked by the 2011 quake and tsunami disasters, which slammed supply chains so badly that Japanese automakers' production was halted even in the US. They learned the hard way about their vulnerability to such interruptions, especially from second-tier and third-tier suppliers, and have worked to create contingency plans.

Disasters tend to hobble Japan's mighty manufacturers because they are supported by small machine-shops that provide components to bigger suppliers, which in turn supply bigger players.

"That kind of lesson has been learned," said Nissan Motor Co. spokesman Dion Corbett. "We now have maps that show where exactly the suppliers are."

Nissan's two plants in Kyushu were temporarily shut down after the quakes for checkups. The checks found damage was minor, allowing the plants to be resume operations on Monday, he said.

Some of the worst affected areas are deep in the mountains surrounding Mount Aso, Japan's largest active volcano, an area renowned for dairy farming. But one of the hardest hit cities was Mashiki, a center for semiconductor fabrication and other manufacturing.

Sony Corp. said its sensor and device plant in Kumamoto was closed. Although the building's structure was intact and no employees were injured, the precise nature of the production processes requires that delicately calibrated equipment must be checked carefully.

"The impact to near-term economic activity looks inevitable, while the comprehensive picture is difficult to gauge now, particularly due to the continued aftershocks," Masamichi Adachi of J.P.Morgan said in a commentary.

Overall, the risk to the outlook for growth is "to the downside," he said.

In trading Monday, Toyota's shares lost 4.8 percent, Nissan lost 2.8 percent and Sony shed 6.8 percent.

Renesas Electronics Corp.'s computer chip plant in Kumamoto city was also shuttered, spokeswoman Makie Uehara said. It was unclear when production could resume. Gases that can be dangerous are used to maintain antiseptic conditions for chip production, and so safety had to be confirmed before other damage could be checked.

Toyota Motor Corp., the most heavily affected of the big car makers, has stopped production not only at a factory in Kyushu but at 15 others in Japan through Friday. Output will resume depending on the availability of parts.

Toyota's Japan output will drop by 50,000 vehicles in April, or about 7 percent of Japan production, according to a report on the quake's effects on automakers by SMBC Nikko. Toyota declined comment on that estimate.

Critically affected parts include door frames, door hinges and cast-aluminum engine parts, said Toyota spokesman Itsuki Kurosu. The maker of the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models was working hard to get substitute parts, he said.

Honda Motor Corp.'s motorcycle plant was severely damaged. Due to repeated aftershocks, it is unsafe even to go inside to carefully inspect the damage, said Teruhiko Tatebe. Production has been stopped until Friday at least.

So far production at its auto plants has not been affected, he said. The company did not rule out future supply problems.

"So far we are OK," he said of the auto plants.

___

Business writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
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Linkedin thejakartapost.com (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18, 2016

The government has stressed that there are no plans for an official apology for the 1965 anti-communist purge, an official said Monday.

Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan made the statement during his opening remarks at the two-day National Symposium titled "Dissecting the 1965 tragedy" being held in Jakarta April 18-19.

"We are not that stupid. Don't even think that the government will apologize for this and that. We know what we are doing that is best for this nation," Luhut said in his speech at the opening of the two-day symposium, as quoted by Kompas.com.

The government has been through a complicated process, he continued, adding that there have been many meetings for the realization of the national symposium.

The symposium has received various reactions, including accusations that the government was influenced by the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Luhut said the government is serious in its intentions to resolve the cases of human rights abuses, especially the case of the 1965 killings.

"The process of getting here has not been easy. We have conducted several meetings regarding the running of the symposium. As in accordance with the desire of the government, the human rights issues must be resolved," said Luhut. (dan)
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Linkedin thejakartapost.com (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18, 2016

The tax office will launch an investigation into the data and documents of Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Twitter in Singapore, looking for any tax liabilities that the four digital giants have not paid to the country.

Jakarta Tax Office head Muhammad Hanif said the office must thoroughly scrutinize the records of those companies not only from data provided by their Indonesia-based representatives, but also their records in other countries to find the exact amount of the Indonesia-based contribution to their income.

We will check the data with Singaporean companies, he said as reported by kontan.com on Sunday, adding that the income of those companies from their Indonesian clients was subject to income tax.

In the near future, Hanif continued, top management personnel from Google Asia Pacific, which is based in Singapore, would visit Indonesia to hand over the billing data of their Indonesian clients.

The four tech-giants have not paid a penny to the Indonesia tax office since they first began operations in the country. Opening representative offices in Indonesia has so far been their strategy to avoid paying taxes here. (ags)
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Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang and Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18 2016

Despite reluctance to address the 1965 tragedy that is thought to have claimed thousands of lives, the government is set to safeguard the first state-sponsored symposium on the controversial subject. The event will include the thorough examination of the mass killing of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members and sympathizers that followed the ousting of first president Sukarno.



The symposium, that starts on Monday, will bring victims, government officials and academics together to look through the countrys dark history from various angles in an effort to find comprehensive solutions to the prolonged, unresolved cases of gross human-rights violations that occurred between late 1965 and early 1966. The leader of the symposium, Let. Gen. (ret) Agus Widjojo, who was recently inaugurated as National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) governor, is confident that the event will run safely according to plan despite protests from hard-line groups opposed to the initiative.



We already have the police in charge of security since we know that this is a sensitive issue. We have also collaborated with the office of the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister, which will certainly help. Im upbeat that it will run safely, Agus told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.



Similar confidence was also shown by National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti, who was optimistic that his personnel would successfully secure the two-day event. We are prepared [...] the Jakarta Police will be in charge.



The decision to set up the symposium resulted from months of meetings by a government reconciliation team set up to search for the best pathway, which officials have dubbed the Indonesian way, for dealing with the 1965 massacre, as well as other cases of gross rights abuses.



Led by Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, the reconciliation team involves the Law and Human Rights Ministry, the Attorney Generals Office and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).



Under the supervision of the Presidential Advisory Board (Wantimpres), the team has been organizing meetings and discussions with various stakeholders, from human-rights campaigners and academics to individuals who have suffered themselves.



Although it is the first gathering officially sponsored by the government, it is not the first attempt to publicly discuss the matter. Various groups have initiated gatherings aimed at recalling and reviewing the 1965 incident, but many of them were forcibly cancelled due to pressure from radical groups that use the Pancasila to defend their actions.



One such incident was the recent forced dissolution of a meeting for survivors of the mass murder, mostly people over 60 years old, organized by the 1965 Murder Victims Research Foundation (YPKP 65) in Cipanas, West Java. Pressure from hundreds of Islam Defenders Front (FPI) members and the youth organization Pemuda Pancasila forced the event to stop.



Prior to that, the FPI and like-minded groups had insisted on shutting down many meetings and art performances seen as encouraging the rise of communism.



On Saturday, anti-PKI hard-liner, Front Pancasila, threatened to deploy followers to Hotel Aryaduta, the symposium venue, in an attempt to stop it from happening over a suspicion that it aims to lawfully reinstate the PKI.



The organization spokesperson Alfian Tanjung claimed that 90 percent of the gatherings 200 invitees were affiliated with the once largest political party in the country.



No matter what, Lemhanas governor Agus, whose father, Gen. Sutoyo Siswomiharjo was killed during the initial Sept. 30 attack in 1965, rebutted such suggestions. How can they move past that opinion if they refuse to discuss it together? Its time for us to leave stereotyping behind.



The scheduled symposium has immediately attracted enthusiasm from survivors and rights campaigners who are looking forward to the results of the event.



Activist Bedjo Untung, himself a victim, said that 17 survivors from the 1965 Murder Victims Research Foundation would attend the discussion. We are happy as this is the first national discussion where we have the chance to speak for ourselves.



The event is expected to result in recommendations being made to President Joko Jokowi Widodo who is scheduled to make an official announcement next month regarding the governments stance on the reconciliation process.

______________________________________________

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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Kuching, Malaysia  Mon, April 18 2016

The government has yet to adequately protect Indonesian migrant workers in neighboring countries.



Instead of strengthening the protection of migrant workers abroad, President Joko Jokowi Widodo previously called for a ban on sending domestic workers to a number of Middle Eastern countries, arguing that doing menial work abroad undermined national pride and dignity.



In Sarawak, one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo, around 400,000 Indonesians currently work in various sectors, both formal, such as agriculture and the plywood industry and informal, such as being maids. However, around 280,000 of them are illegal.



What is surprising is that every year an average of 200 Indonesian workers die in Sarawak, according to data from the Indonesian Consulate General for Sarawak. Around 80 percent of the victims are illegal workers.



And the numbers continue to grow. In 2015, the consulate general recorded that 232 workers died, more than the 197 in 2014. The causes of death ranged from being killed by wild animals to harsh treatment from their employers, sickness and workplace accidents.



Indonesian Consul General for Sarawak Jahar Gultom said workplace accidents dominated the figures, as many companies did not care about safety and did not teach staff how to work safely.



The companies know [the workers] are illegal and dont have any official documents, so they pay less attention to them, Jahar said.



He added that illegal workers did not only refer to those who came to Sarawak illegally. Others may arrive with official work documents, before moving to another company without officially resigning, leaving behind their documents at their previous workplace.



The original employers then simply need to report their workers missing to be free of responsibility.



The consulate general handled 476 migrant worker cases during 2015, more than the 348 in 2014. Documentation issues amounted to 116 cases, while 97 were about late payments and 83 about workers inability to survive in their jobs.



Jahar acknowledged that the main challenge in cooperating with the Malaysian government on illegal migrant workers related to workers knowledge about their situations.



First, our people need to enhance their own awareness. They should be critically aware that coming here illegally could endanger them, Jahar said.



The second problem, he said, was unscrupulous agents who deceived customers or companies, saying it was legal to hire Indonesian workers on Journey Performed (JP) visas.



With JP visas, Indonesian workers are brought into the country on tourist visas, which can then be converted into work permits by agencies or employers that apply to the Immigration Department.



Although the Malaysian government stopped the hiring of Indonesian workers on JP visas in October 2013, the practice continues.



Salaries are not the only factor prompting Indonesians to seek work in neighboring countries, despite the potential risks.



The minimum wage for Indonesian workers in Sarawak is 800 ringgit (Rp 2.4 million), compared to Jakartas minimum wage of Rp 3.1 million. In July 2016 the minimum will increase to 900 ringgit.



The consulate generals vice consul for general affairs, Marisa Febriana Wardani, said many workers did not actually earn high salaries. However, they valued the prestige of their positions.



They are willing to work in agricultural fields or selling snacks on the streets, because their relatives in Indonesia only know that they are working abroad.



Besides, its easy to get jobs there because elementary school certificates enable them to fulfil the qualifications for work, Marisa said.



Working illegally in Sarawak is considered easy because there is no need to undergo competence tests or health checkups. The cost of a work permit is Rp 800,000 (US$59.57), which does not include payments to agencies for their services. Agencies usually aim to make Rp 3 million from each worker.



Sarawaks Environment, Public Utility and Industry Minister Datuk Amar Haji Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said Sarawak was concerned about the situation of Indonesian migrant workers because they were needed by the state, which is populated by 600,000 citizens.



We always try to make sure that their bosses or companies register them officially so that we can guarantee their protection, the minister said.

____________________________________________

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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18, 2016

Indonesia plans to cooperate with Germany to strengthen its education sector, especially with regard to vocational education.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said cooperation in the education sector was the main focus of President Joko Jokowi Widodos working visit to Germany.

"Why vocational education? Vocational education is obviously very necessary at this time to respond to the needs of today's market," Retno said at a press conference at the Adlon Kempinski hotel in Berlin.

Vocational education prepares people to work in various sectors, such as trade and manufacturing, or in supporting roles of various professions, such as engineering, accounting, nursing, medicine, architecture and law.

Retno added that vocational education was aimed at preparing Indonesia to embrace its demographic bonus period, during which more than 50 percent of the country's population were below the age of 30.

"Undoubtedly, to improve or strengthen vocational education, the government should partner with the private sector and one of Germanys key success factors in education is the partnership between the private sector and the government," she went on.

Retno said enhancing cooperation in the education sector was particularly important for Indonesia, as it was now facing tighter competition following the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the turn of the year.

"Our qualification and expertise in certain fields of professions must be improved, and one aspect of this is strengthening vocational education," the minister said.

President Jokowi and his entourage arrived in Berlin on Sunday evening local time. Indonesian Ambassador to Germany Fauzi Bowo welcomed the President. German Ambassador to Indonesia Georg Witschel was also present.

Retno said President Jokowis working visit was in response to German Chancellor Angela Merkels invitation conveyed during their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit last year.

During the one-day visit to Germany, Jokowi will also attend several activities, including two one-on-one meetings and a business forum. The President is also scheduled to meet with Indonesian citizens in Germany.

Indonesian Ambassador to Germany Fauzi Bowo explained the German education system to journalists at the press conference. After compulsory education of nine years, he said, students were given the opportunity to go to university or continue their studies at vocational education institutions.

"They are given an apprenticeship opportunity. They already receive a salary of a moderate amount, and two days a week they get vocational education that focuses on skills," Fauzi said.

The ambassador said the skills of Indonesias young generation needed to be improved. This would become a mainstay of Indonesian economy in the future, he added.

Fauzi went on to say that Germanys youth unemployment rate was the lowest in Europe, even in the whole world, particularly because the countrys workforce had professional skills, so they no longer burdened the society and the country.

"We will learn about the system. The President will have a closed-door meeting with Chancellor Merkel, probably it is also in this regard," he added.

Fauzi said creating a partnership with the private sector was necessary to finance the vocational education program. "Private companies should be involved, because they will utilize this skilled workforce," he said. (ebf)
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Linkedin thejakartapost.com (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18, 2016

Indonesia plans to establish military cooperation with the Philippines and Malaysia to address the rising threat of piracy, the government has said.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the military cooperation would take the form of concrete action such as conducting joint patrols in the waters where pirates usually operated.

"The way to prevent more kidnappings is by guarding sea traffic and holding joint patrols between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines," Kalla said on Sunday as quoted by tempo.co.

Kalla added that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo was aware of the initiative and had given it his approval before he left on a state visit to the EU.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said Jokowi had personally asked him to prepare for the cooperation with Kuala Lumpur and Manila, as he saw the protection of trade in the area as a top priority.

"I am scared that the area will become like the Somalian waters," Luhut said, referring to the area in which hijackings and kidnapping for ransom is relatively common.

The initiative was made following two recent incidents in the region.

Two Indonesian-flagged vessels, the Brahma 12 tugboat, and the Anand 12 barge were hijacked and 10 Indonesian sailors were taken hostage in the southern Philippines on March 26.

Two more Indonesian-flagged ships were hijacked on Friday in waters between in waters between the Philippines and Malaysia. One sailor was shot, five escaped, and four were taken hostage.

According to Luhut, the government is still investigating the most recent case to ascertain whether they Abu Sayyaf group was also responsible for the second incident, or whether it was one of its splinter organizations. (dan)
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Linkedin thejakartapost.com (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18, 2016

An Indonesian fugitive who fled after his Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) trial, Samadikun Hartono, was arrested in China last week after 13 years on the run from a prison sentence for embezzlement.

The arrest of the former Bank Modern president commissioner was achieved thanks to cooperation between the governments of Indonesia and China, reported Sutiyoso, the head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), on Sunday during his visit to Germany with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

"At midnight on April 14, SH [Samadikun Hartono] came to the planned location and was detained by Chinese authorities," Sutiyoso said as quoted by tribunnews.com on Monday.

Explaining the chronology of the arrest, Sutiyoso said that BIN had received a tip-off about Samadikun's whereabouts in Shanghai. However, it still proved difficult to confirm the information and actually locate Samadikun.

The fugitive was not always in Shanghai, Sutiyoso said, and his office needed more accurate information before it could find him.

Sutiyoso visited China on April 7 to be a keynote speaker at a terrorism-related event attended by representatives from Asian countries.

"I used that opportunity to meet and speak with Chinese ministry officials to ask for support in arresting SH," he said.

More information then came in, suggesting that Samadikun would attend last Sunday's Chinese F1 Grand Prix.

Sutiyoso, who had by then returned to Jakarta, reported this information to Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan who sent several BIN and law enforcement officials to China.

The officials, along with Chinese counterparts, closely monitored Samadikun's possible locations for a few days. The fugitive then showed up at the Grand Prix site on Thursday.

Samadikun ran away from Indonesia in 2003 following a Supreme Court ruling that sentenced him to four years in prison for the misuse of BLBI funds for Bank Modern, which cost the state Rp 169 billion (US$12.8 million). Samadikun's Bank Modern went bankrupt during the 1997 monetary crisis. The funds were part of Rp 145.5 trillion in loans disbursed by BI in 1998 to help 48 troubled banks during the crisis. Ninety-five percent of the loans were embezzled.

According to the AGO's website, Samadikun lived in a luxury apartment in Singapore and still owned film studios in Vietnam and China while he was on the run. (rin)
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18, 2016

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Indonesia has inked a total investment commitment worth US$875 million between Indonesian and German firms, in conjunction with President Joko Jokowi Widodos visit to Europe on April 17 to 22.

Comprised of a cooperation between German miner Ferrostahl Cronimet and state-owned miner Antam worth US$800 million, an agreement between state-owned ship operator Pelni and the major German shipyard operator Myer Werft worth $40 million, and an agreement between Indonesias leading manufacturer in the paper and pulp industry April and Inova Semiconductors GmbH, a fabless semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Munich, Germany worth US$35 million, according to Kadin chairman Rosan Perkasa Roeslani, the commitments were confirmed with a series of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signings.

The MoU signing is a real contribution to the development of the national economy," said Rosan in a press statement on Monday, the first day of a visit to Berlin, Germany.

Kadin Indonesia deputy chairman of International relations Shinta Widjaja Kamdani said Kadin had invited several business delegates from various sectors such as energy, industry, maritime, agribusiness, and telecommunications to join the Presidents European delegation.

This is a very important event aimed opening Indonesia up to new investment, as well as to accelerate the finalization of trade cooperation under the framework of CEPA [Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement] with the European Union, which is due to be completed within the next two years," she said.

During the six day visit, the President is scheduled to visit Germany, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands accompanied by a group of Kadin members, led by Rosan.

In Brussels, the President plans to talk with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker regarding CEPA progress. IE-CEPA was initiated in 2010.

Previously, discussion of the scoping paper had been postponed due to Indonesias change in government. An intensive discussion in Brussels on April 4-5, 2016, allowed both sides to bridge many of the issues that could have hindered the completion of the scoping paper. (ags)
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Linkedin thejakartapost.com (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18, 2016

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry plans to purchase a mothership this year to support its ongoing fight against illegal fishing in Indonesian waters.

The mothership would feature facilities such as helipads and would have the ability to carry a number of speedboats. It would also house the ministry's control and monitoring center, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said on Sunday.

"We will also buy six maritime patrol aircraft and five speedboats to enhance supervision," Susi said during a working visit to London, as quoted by kompas.com.

No details were available on the budget required for the planned purchase.

Overseeing maritime and fisheries resources has become the ministry's top priority, in line with policies regulating foreign fishing vessels' permits and activities in Indonesian waters.

The government aims to only allow Indonesian fishermen to operate in the archipelago in the future, to ensure the sustainability of fisheries resources.

Susi is scheduled to visit a number of shipbuilding companies in England and Scotland during her trip from April 17 to 23, as part of the ministry's efforts to seek assistance for the construction of the mothership.

One of the companies is London-based Houlder Ltd, which has more than 25 years of experience in the design and engineering of vessels for the marine and defense sectors.

Susi said she hoped an Indonesia-based shipbuilder could cooperate with Houlder to ensure a transfer of technology.

The ministry has sent a stern message to foreign-flagged vessels operating in Indonesian waters by sinking offending boats. Since Susi took office in 2014, 176 ships have been sunk, according to ministry data. (afr/rin)
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Linkedin (Associated Press)  Mon, April 18, 2016

Crude oil prices have taken a hit from the failure of oil-rich countries to reach an agreement Sunday on freezing production.

US crude oil fell $2.20 to $38.16 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 5.5 percent early Monday in Asia. It sank to a low of $37.61 a barrel, down 6.8 percent before regaining some of that loss.

Brent crude oil, which is used to price international crude oil, fell $2.23 to $40.87 a barrel early Monday, down 5.1 percent. It tumbled 7 percent in earlier trading.

The effort to reach an accord on freezing production to support prices failed after Iran stayed away from a weekend meeting of 18 oil producing nations in Qatar that had been expected to boost crude prices.

"The market basically rallied from $26.05 to levels above $40 on the 'hope' that there would be some kind of agreement at Doha. That did not happen," said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho Securities USA.

Since US crude oil supplies are at all-time highs, Iran is increasing output and Libya is due to step up production, so "prices will trade lower. Maybe sharply lower," he said.

Oil prices hit a 12-year low in January, dipping under $30 a barrel, but had risen above $40 in recent days, buoyed by bullish talks surrounding the Doha meeting. (**)
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Linkedin Ruslan Sangadji (The Jakarta Post) Poso, Central Sulawesi  Mon, April 18, 2016

The operation launched to pursue terrorist group Indonesia Mujahiddin (MIT) is under review as until now their leader, Indonesias most-wanted man Santoso, aka Abu Wardah, remains at large.

National Police chief Gen.Badrodin Haiti said Santoso and his men had thus far been able to evade capture, and therefore changes in security force deployment as part of Operation Tinombala were necessary. However, he refused to give more details about the changes, saying it was a covert operation.

What I can assure you, is that there will be no increase in personnel. There are around 3,000 National Police and Indonesian Military personnel deployed as part of the operation. This will be maintained, said Badrodin.

The police chief further said the operation had made good progress despite the fact that Santoso had not yet been arrested, adding that this was not a reflection of any inability on the part of Operation Tinombala personnel.

Badrodin said it was believed the MIT leader was still in Lembah Napu forests as a security personnel cordon had restricted his ability to move to other areas.

Speaking in front of police and military personnel at the taskforces tactical command post in Napu, Poso, Badrodin said all police and military personnel involved in Operation Tinombala would receive significant promotions if Santoso was arrested.

I have discussed about it with the Indonesian Military commander [Gen.Gatot Nurmantyo] and he has agreed, the police chief said.

Close cooperation  National Police chief Gen.Badrodin Haiti talks with a soldier, part of the Indonesian Military's Operation Tinombala deployment. (thejakartapost.com/Ruslan Sangadji)

Meanwhile, Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig.Gen.Rudy Sufahriadi said during the Operation Tinombala, 14 Santoso terrorists were paralyzed, ten of whom were killed in a shootout while the remaining four terrorists were arrested alive. They are Zaenal Effendi from Bogor (West Java), Sahad and Ibaduroham alias Ibad alias Amru from Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, and Muhammad Sulaeman alias Sul alias Ifan from Madura, East Java.

They were arrested when they came to settlements to ask for food from local residents, said Rudy.

He said that this indicated the group was running of food supplies after security personnel had cut their logistics route and killed their two couriers. (ebf)
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18, 2016

Ayomi Amindoni

The vast, mineral-rich province of Papua has the worst income equality in the country, with a Gini ratio of 0.43 percent, exceeding the national ratio of 0.4, according to the Central Statistics Agencys (BPS) latest report.

Yogyakarta, West Java and Jakarta also recorded above-average gaps of inequality. At the opposite end of the scale, Bangka Belitung (Babel) province recorded the lowest ratio at 0.27, followed by Maluku with 0.29 and Central Kalimantan with 0.3.

BPS social statistics deputy head M. Sairi Hasbullah explained that the presence of mining companies in Papua, such as copper giant PT Freeport Indonesia, had create a huge gap in the region.

"In Papua, there are modern businesses such as those run by Freeport and others, while people are still living very traditionally. So it is very likely that there is a wide gap," Sairi said on Monday in Jakarta.

Meanwhile, the wide inequality gap in Yogyakarta was because low-income people in the region recorded low consumption compared to other regions.

"Actually, the consumption of the high-income group in Yogyakarta is not as high as in Jakarta. But the very low consumption of the low-income group there led to the gap being wider," he said.

The Gini ratio is an indicator measuring income distribution inequality. A coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality, while one (100 percent) implies maximal inequality. Indonesia's Gini ratio slightly declined by 0.01 to 0.40 in September 2015.

Sairi explained that the average Gini coefficient in urban areas had improved slightly from 0.43 to 0.42 because of sluggish export-import business activity, while in rural areas it was relatively stable at 0.33.

"The economic performance was down until September 2015 due to the sluggish global conditions. Exports fell, which decreased public income. Meanwhile, the Gini ratio in rural areas is relatively stagnant at a low level due to the wage increase," he said.

According to BPS data, the average spending per capita in urban areas increased to almost Rp 3,000,000 in September 2015, compared to Rp 2,600,000 in March 2015. In rural areas, average per capita spending increased from Rp 1,400,000 to 1,500,000 in the same period. (ags)
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18, 2016

Residents due to be evicted from Pasar Ikan in Muara Angke, North Jakarta, have insisted on staying put unless the city administration grants them compensation for leaving behind their livelihoods.

The evictions are part of the Jakarta administration's plan to clear the area for flood mitigation purposes and to revitalize Pasar Ikan.

Representatives of the community visited the Jakarta City Council on Monday to ask councilors to urge Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama to halt the eviction plan.

Sunadi, a lawyer representing Pasar Ikan residents, said the administration must grant compensation to the residents for taking away their homes.

Most of the residents have occupied land in the area for more than 30 years. They have spent money on buildings and paid land and building taxes regularly. Other residents have borrowed money from banks using their buildings in Pasar Ikan as collateral, Sunadi said.

The ownership status of land in Pasar Ikan is unclear but basically we have found that most of the residents have lived in the area for more than 30 years. The administrations negligence has become our basis for requesting compensation, Sunadi said at a hearing with the city council.

The city officially began clearing the area last week, despite resistance from local residents.

Community representative Upi Yunita said the evictees would continue to occupy the land until the administration provided compensation.

Ahok previously said that clearing Pasar Ikan was necessary for the administration to install sheet piles on riverbanks in the area to prevent flooding during high tide.

He added that installing sheet piles would not only save the area from flooding but would help to protect the whole city.

The City Council considered the administration's conduct in evicting the residents last week to be inhumane, council speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi said during the meeting.

Around 385 residents have insisted on staying in the area. Another 73 people have decided to stay on their boats as a symbol of protest at the city's plan to relocate them to low-cost apartments.

"These [evictions] are misconduct toward residents. We will request that the administration halt the evictions in Pasar Ikan," Prasetio said during a meeting with the residents at the City Council on Monday.

The City Council's Commission A overseeing administrative affairs will summon Ahok to discuss the evictions and deliver recommendations as soon as possible.

The councilors could push for Ahok to relocate the residents to an alternative location near Pasar Ikan to help them continue their livelihoods.

The administration has provided low-cost apartments in Marunda, Rawa Bebek and Kapuk Muara to accommodate the evictees.

However, the relocation plans met were with protests as some residents refused to move to the apartments, citing the long distance from Pasar Ikan, where they earn a living.
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Linkedin Jon Gambrell (Associated Press) Doha, Qatar  Mon, April 18, 2016

Oil-producing countries met Sunday in Qatar to discuss a possible freeze of production to counter low global prices, but Iran's decision to stay home and hours of negotiations without an announced decision raised questions about the impact of any possible agreement.

The attendees, including Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, silently swept past gathered journalists at a luxury hotel in Doha. Also on hand was Russia, another of the world's top oil producers. The US, now a major producer because of shale oil, did not attend.

At least 15 oil-producing nations representing about 73 percent of world output were expected at the Doha meeting, Qatar's energy and industry minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, has said.

The gathering follows a surprise Doha meeting in February between Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, in which they pledged to cap their crude output at January levels if other producers do the same.

They hope the cap will help global oil prices rebound from their dramatic fall since the summer of 2014, when prices were above $100 a barrel, though no one is talking seriously about the more dramatic step of cutting production.

Prices dropped briefly to under $30 a barrel, a 12-year low, in January, but have climbed to the mid-$40s this week, boosted in part by market speculation about the Qatar meeting.

Western markets were closed Sunday and not immediately affected by the discussions, though the late-hour of the discussions likely will come into play Monday. Stock exchanges in Saudi Arabia and Dubai closed in negative territory Sunday, with the Saudi Tadawul down 1.48 percent.

Iran decided to stay home late Saturday after saying the day before it would send an emissary to the meeting. Speaking to Iranian state television, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said it didn't make sense to send any representative from the Islamic Republic "as we are not part of the decision to freeze output."

"We can't cooperate with them to freeze our own output, and in other words impose sanctions on ourselves," Zangeneh said.

With many international sanctions lifted under its nuclear deal with world powers, Iran began exporting oil into the European market again and is eager to claw back market share. It produces 3.2 million barrels of oil a day now, with hopes of increasing to 4 million by April 2017.

Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia has said it won't back any freeze if Iran, its Shiite rival, doesn't agree to it, throwing into question whether any deal will be reached. The kingdom seems determined to ride out the low prices that could squeeze Tehran.

That dispute underscores the level of discord inside OPEC as it faces arguably its biggest challenge since the oil glut of the 1980s. Even if officials reach a deal, Iran's production and oil from other sources, like the US, could keep prices down.

The meeting, which began around 9 a.m., broke up just before 11 a.m. as attendees planned to meet with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said Kabalan Abisaab, Ecuador's ambassador to Qatar, who was on hand for the meeting. A brief report on the state-run Qatar News Agency confirmed the participants met the emir.

Abisaab said participants would return to the meeting in the afternoon and continue their deliberations.

Asked if Iran's absence had an effect, he responded in Spanish that it "didn't matter."

"Believe me, everything is going well," he said.

But later Sunday, a group of officials suddenly left the talks without explanation. Saudi and Russian officials were not among them.

"Just wait, just wait," Abdallah Salem el-Badri, the secretary-general of OPEC, told trailing journalists as he left the meeting.

Asked a short time later if there would be a deal, Mohammed bin Hamad al-Rumhy, Oman's blunt-spoken oil and gas minister, responded: "Absolutely." But that optimism seemed misplaced as negotiations dragged on past 8:30 p.m. without any word as waiters carried more coffee and sweets into the meeting.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellap. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jon-gambrell. (**)
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 18, 2016

The reclamation project is the answer to Jakarta Bays pollution woes as the mega project would help restore contaminated water and fix the environment of the capital's coastal areas, Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama said on Monday.

The city administration has conducted discussions with the Director general for coastal and small islands at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, Sudirman Saad, on the mega project consisting of 17 man-made islets off the coastal area of Jakarta, Ahok claimed.

The discussion resulted in the conclusion that reclamation was the answer for the heavily polluted waters of the Jakarta bay, Ahok added.

Reclamation is not prohibited. Sudirman is the person who taught me that if the bay has been polluted, the technique to fix it is by reclamation to absorb the toxicity. Theres a book about it, just ask him, Ahok told journalists at City Hall on Monday.

A joint Jakarta administration, Maritime Ministry and Coordinating Maritime Affairs Ministry meeting on Monday afternoon will discuss the continuation of the controversial project, especially issues relating to permit issuance.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said on Friday she asked Ahok to halt the reclamation projects. Acknowledging that authority over the projects remained with the Jakarta governor, Susi reminded the city administration to fulfill all the requirements and acquire recommendations from her ministry before proceeding.

The project, which will add 5,100 hectares, half the size of Bogor city, to Jakartas total area, would benefit all Jakartans as long as the city administration acquired the 15 percent contribution from developers, Ahok said.

From the 17 planned islets, eight have already acquired permits and began construction.

Ahok's statement is in contrast with environmental experts and activists who believe that the reclamation project threatens the Jakarta Bay environment.

Chairman of the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen's Association (KNTI) Riza Damanik said the toxic sediment in Jakarta Bay would enter the sea during the construction of the reclaimed islets.

This would worsen the water pollution in Jakarta Bay as the reclamation project would harm the sea biota as well as the residents of coastal areas, especially poor fishermen.

Furthermore, the other coastal areas in Banten province, where developers are taking the sand from, would also suffer environment degradation from sand dredging, Riza said.

"The Jakarta administration must stop the reclamation project and address the environmental damage that has occurred as a result of the reclamation, Riza said in a discussion on the reclamation project on Friday.

The KNTI also pointed out flaws in the environmental analysis documents (Amdal) and strategic environmental assessment (KLHS) issued by the city administration.

The group urged the administration to completely halt the project, saying it threatened the livelihoods of thousands fishermen who lived along the coast.

According to KNTI speakers at the discussion, around 17,000 fishermen families had been the victims of the construction of islets C, D, and G, and the average fishermans income had dropped to Rp 30,000 (US$2.27) per day from the previous level of at least Rp 300,000. Reportedly, fishermen can now only catch 50 kilograms of fish, a stark contrast to their previous 1 ton catches.

"Reclamation has impoverished the fishermen. Traditional fishermen must also sail further, because the area that they previously used to catch fish has been turned into the islets," Riza said.

In a trial at the Administrative Court (PTUN) against the reclamation, KNTI alleged PT Muara Wisesa Samudra, a subsidiary of property giant Agung Podomoro Group, that acquired the permit to develop Islet G, to forging fishermen's signatures when completing their Amdal documents.

Moreover, KNTI also slammed the city administration for failing to include information about the environmental supporting capacity in the KLHS such as the increased need for clean water, energy, transportation and waste disposal.

Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) public attorney Wahyu Nandang urged the city administration and central government to focus on the livelihoods of the fishermen and not just the their own profit.

The public must be at center of the project, he continued, adding that YLBHI would closely monitor the deliberations of reclamation bylaws once the discussions started.

"So there wont be any law smuggling during the process, Wahyu said referring to deliberations on the Jakarta coastal spatial planning bylaws that have been plagued with controversy since the a corruption case involving city councilor Mohammad Sanusi and the Agung Pomodoro Group came to light. (rin)
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta, Central Java  Mon, April 18, 2016

The Radya Pustaka Museum in Surakarta, Central Java, reopened on Saturday at the request of Surakarta Mayor FX Hadi Rudyatmo.

The museum was closed for five days from last Monday due to financial difficulties. The Surakarta administration promised on Saturday that it would disburse a Rp 300 million (US$22,727) grant it had promised to the museum this week.

The mayor, more commonly known as Rudy, asserted the Surakarta administration would be responsible for the continuity of the museum and that the grant fund would be disbursed soon.

Rudy said the 300 million fund could be disbursed without having to wait for the Radya Pustaka Museum to become a corporate body as required by a newly passed bylaw.

I have given a disposition letter [on the grant disbursement] to the Culture and Tourism Agency and the Asset and Financial Revenue and Management Office. I have asked that the grant fund be immediately disbursed, said Rudy on Sunday.

The Surakarta mayor said the disbursement of the museum fund would be based on Law No. 11/2010 on culture preservation. Article 98 of the 2010 Culture Preservation Law stipulates that the central government and provincial and local administrations are required to preserve and protect cultural heritage objects, sites and museums.

The cultural preservation budget can come from the State Budget [APBN] and local budgets [APBD] at provincial and mayoral levels. Because the APBN and the APBD Central Java do not allocate funds for the Radya Pustaka Museum, the APBD Surakarta will cover its budget, said Rudy.

Meanwhile, a Radya Pustaka employee, Fajar Suryanto, said the employee strike that forced the museum to close was not because of a delay in the payment of employees salaries, but only to urge the Surakarta administration to give more serious attention to the oldest museum in Indonesia.

The closing of the museum had nothing to do with delayed payments of our salaries. If it was related with salaries, we could have refused to go to work since January. What we did was only to make the Surakarta administration care more about this museum, said Fajar.

Precious collection  An ancient object on display at the Radya Pustaka Museum in Surakarta, Central Java. Around 200 people visited the museum over the two days after it was reopened on Saturday. (thejakartapost.com/Ganug Nugroho Adi)

As reported earlier, Radya Pustaka Museum employees have not yet received their salaries since January.

Fajar said the Surakarta administration should not have waited until the strike happened to express its commitment to the museum, including the disbursement of the grant fund, as the preservation of cultural heritage objects, sites and museums was mandated by law.

The museum closure was very ironic because the Surakarta administration just received an award as the best heritage conservation city. We hope that after this incident, the Surakarta administration is more serious in handling the Radya Pustaka Museum, said Fajar.

The Indonesia Art Institute graduate also said he hoped the reopening of the museum was not aimed at merely boosting the good image of the Surakarta administration. Instead, he said, the Surakarta administration must be brave enough to admit that it had not given enough attention to Radya Pustaka in the past.

There are still a lot of work the Surakarta administration must do, such as handling the management of the museums programs, human resources and facility procurement, said Fajar, who is also a non-permanent staff member at the Central Java Cultural Heritage Preservation Agency (BPCB).

Around 200 people visited the Radya Pustaka Museum over the two days after it was reopened on Saturday. They included school student tour groups from Karanganyar, Purwokerto and Surakarta.

Separately, Radya Pustaka Museum committee secretary St Wiyono confirmed that the reopening of the museum was based on the order of the Surakarta mayor, adding that the Surakarta administration and the museum committee would together seek solutions to the museums funding problems.

While waiting for the disbursement of the 300 million grant, the committee and the Surakarta administration will discuss museum financing issues on Tuesday. We will discuss potential sources for, at least, the operational funds of the museum, said Wiyono. (ebf)
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Manila  Mon, April 18, 2016

The Australian ambassador and Philippine presidential candidates condemned the leading contender's remark at a campaign rally last week that he "should have been the first" to rape an Australian missionary who was assaulted and killed by prisoners in 1989.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was speaking about the killings of 36-year-old Australian Jacqueline Hamill and four other missionaries during a hostage situation at a prison in his city. Soldiers stormed the prison after learning that a male hostage had been killed and female hostages were raped. All 16 convicts and five of the 15 hostages died.

"What came to my mind was they raped her, they took turns raping her," Duterte said at the rally last Tuesday. "Why did I get angry  because she was raped? Yes, that's part of the reason, but also because she was so beautiful and the mayor should have been first."

His supporters attending the rally laughed and cheered at the comments, making Duterte smile, as seen in YouTube video. But other politicians and social media users criticized the comments.

Australia's Ambassador Amanda Gorely tweeted late Sunday that "rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialized" and "violence against women and girls is unacceptable anytime, anywhere."

Senator Grace Poe, Duterte's closest rival according to recent surveys, said Monday that Duterte's comment "is distasteful and unacceptable, and reflects his disrespect for women."

"You are a crazy maniac who doesn't respect women and doesn't deserve to be president," said Vice President Jejomar Binay, another contender in the May 9 presidential election.

Former Interior Secretary and administration presidential candidate Mar Roxas said "anyone who laughs at the ultimate assault on the dignity of women should not be allowed to wield power."

Duterte has refused to apologize for his comment, saying the gutter language was uttered in anger over the killing of the hostages in 1989. But he apologized to the Filipino people because the hostage situation had turned violent and gory.

"It was said in anger, I was not joking," he said. "I said, this one, she's beautiful, like an actress, son of a bitch they beat me to her. Kill them all."

Duterte has been nicknamed "Duterte Harry" after the Clint Eastwood film character with little regard for rules. The mayor casually threatens to shoot criminals, hang them using laundry line or drown them in Manila Bay. He built a political name with his iron-fist approach to fighting crime in southern Davao city, where he has been mayor for 22 years.
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Linkedin Karamjit Kaur (The Straits Times) Singapore  Mon, April 18, 2016

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Airbus have opened a new training center at Seletar amid growing demand for pilots and other aircraft crew.

The Airbus Asia Training Center (AATC) is 55 per cent owned by the European plane maker and 45 per cent by SIA.

The 9,250 sq m facility at Seletar Aerospace Park offers training for all in-production Airbus planes including the A-380 and A-350.

When fully operational, it will be Airbus' largest training center worldwide after those located at the firm's headquarters in Toulouse, France, as well as in Miami and Beijing.

The US$100 million (S$136 million) facility in Singapore will eventually have eight full-flight simulators and six fixed cockpit training devices as well as classroom facilities.

It will have the capacity to train more than 10,000 people a year.

Airbus' president and chief executive officer Fabrice Bregier, said at the official opening event on Monday (April 18): "We are extremely pleased to inaugurate, in partnership with Singapore Airlines, the latest addition to our global training network.

"The new center combines the expertise of our two companies to offer the highest standards of training for the growing flight crew population in the Asia-Pacific region."

Airbus' investment in the joint venture is another example of the firm's commitment to bring its support services closer to customers and especially in key growth markets, he said.

SIA chief executive Goh Choon Phong added: "With hundreds more new Airbus aircraft on firm order by the region's airlines, we are confident that AATC will go from strength to strength."

Seventeen airlines from Asia and the Pacific have already signed up for the different courses offered.

Airbus predicts that the Asia-Pacific region will lead demand for new aircraft in the coming years, with the in-service fleet growing from around 5,600 aircraft today to 14,000 over the next two decades.

This will see the active flight crew population employed by airlines in the region increase from over 65,000 to almost 170,000, generating significant demand for flight crew training services.

Before moving into the Seletar facility, the training center which started offering courses in April last year was operating out of temporary facilities at the SIA Training Center near Changi Airport.

All operations are gradually being transferred to the new center.
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Linkedin Jamey Keaten (Associated Press) Geneva  Mon, April 18, 2016

As Charlie Chaplin finished out his long life on his bucolic Swiss manor, the former silent film star worried about drifting into oblivion, his connoisseurs say.

Little chance of that. The legacy of the Hollywood legend behind "The Dictator" and "Modern Times" lives on today in the minds of stars like Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr., in Broadway plays and in the general cultural consciousness. But he never had bricks-and-mortar museum honoring his life and achievements.

Visitors look at a film studio during the inauguration and the opening of the museum on actor , filmmaker and composer, Charlie Chaplin, "Chaplin's World by Grevin" at the Manoir de Ban, in Corsier-Sur- Vevey, Switzerland, Saturday, April 16, 2016. (Keystone via AP/Laurent Gillieron)

That changes Sunday with the public opening of "Chaplin's World," a multimillion-dollar project in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey. Its director-general says the museum is the first of its kind in the world to honor Chaplin, and has added value because it's at a place he called home for years.

The "Manoir de Ban" is where Chaplin lived his last 25 years raising children, writing music and movie scripts, and contemplating his legacy far from the glare of the Hollywood spotlight. Visitors can see his trademark bowler hat and cane, a replica studio, black-and-white photographs from his career, and the bedroom where he died at age 88 in 1977.

Working with Paris' Grevin museum, which is known for its wax figures, managers have displayed a number of figures of Chaplin as well as friends like Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill on the green 14-hectare (35-acre) grounds along Lake Geneva, said Jean-Pierre Pigeon, the Swiss-Canadian director of Chaplin's World.

A visitor looks at a wax figure of actor , filmmaker and composer, Charlie Chaplin, during the inauguration and the opening of the museum "Chaplin's World by Grevin" at the Manoir de Ban, in Corsier-Sur- Vevey, Switzerland, Saturday, April 16, 2016. (Keystone via AP/Laurent Gillieron)

"He was not just resting here, he was working. He was part of the region," said Pigeon. "He was able to live a normal life here. He found the right life-work balance here in Switzerland. In England, he was really poor, in the United States, he was really successful in his career and money-wise, but his real happiness was here for 25 years."

About two dozen of his children and grandchildren were on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday, which was Chaplin's birthday.

Organizers are hoping for more than 300,000 visits per year, Pigeon said, boosted by a nearby chocolate factory and a medieval castle.

The renovated "Manoir de Ban" House pictured during the inauguration and the opening of the museum "Chaplin's World by Grevin" at the Manoir de Ban, in Corsier-Sur- Vevey, Switzerland, Saturday, April 16, 2016. (Keystone via AP/Laurent Gillieron)

What would the famed English-born actor and director think about "Chaplin's World?"

"I think his first reaction would probably be 'Oooh!'" Pigeon said with a chuckle. "But there was one thing he was scared of: being forgotten. So this is a good way to broaden his notoriety."

"A place where people can laugh and get emotion: That's what he would have wanted," Pigeon said.
Theres only one more day before voters head to the polls to pick a new assembly member to replace Sheldon Silver. A special election takes place tomorrow, alongside New Yorks presidential primary. Over the weekend and again this morning, the unusual campaign garnered more mainstream media interest. Heres a roundup.

The Times bundled the Lower Manhattan race with the contest in Nassau County for the Senate seat formerly held by Dean Skelos:

the special elections on Long Island and in Lower Manhattan offer voters a chance to do the unprecedented: to replace, in the space of one day, two former members of New York States ruling triumvirate, both of whom are scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks after being convicted on corruption charges. And the two contests, if less chaotic than their presidential counterpart, have afforded their own measures of intrigue and incivility.

Reporter Vivian Yee notes that the Democratic candidate (Alice Cancel) would normally be a huge favorite to win the special election. But the contest is seen as competitive because Yuh-Line Niou (running on the Working Families Party line) is orchestrating an unusually robust and well-organized campaign.

Most local Democratic elected officials have endorsed (Niou) and her promise to break with Mr. Silvers brand of politics, which depended on a loyal and tight-knit network of Lower East Side allies who helped propel Ms. Cancel, a longtime district leader, to the Democratic nomination. Ms. Cancel, who has praised Mr. Silvers work in the area, has sought to sow doubt about her opponents commitment to reform by pointing out that Ms. Niou, too, sought the backing of Mr. Silvers associates before declaring the process corrupt when she was not chosen for the nomination. Ms. Niou moved to the district two years ago, and she has also been flustered by questions about her previous voting record. The Republican candidate, Lester Chang, a businessman, has also branded Ms. Cancel as a creature of Mr. Silvers political organization.

While the Times has endorsed Niou, the Daily News blasts the rigged special election to replace Silver for the few months left in his term. Its choosing to sit this phony contest out:

When Silver got convicted and bounced from office last November, it left his district without representation. But rather than wait for a new assembly member to be chosen via a legitimate primary and general election, Gov. Cuomo scheduled a special election. That let a handful of party insiders put only one name on each ballot line, leaving voters a choice in roughly the same sense that you have a choice of peanuts at the vending machine. In a 65% Democratic district, the holder of that line is a shoo-in. This is Alice Cancel, a cog in the machine favored by Silvers faction. Yuh-Line Niou, a Democrat running on the Working Families Party line, is a little better, but thats not saying much. Whoever wins this wasteful exercise will have the shortest of tenures. But as the incumbent, the winner will get a leg up on challengers in the real open primary that starts within weeks. Which means the people will get robbed, again.

New York Slant, a publication of City & State, also finds the choices uninspiring:

Unfortunately, the candidates to replace Silver in the forthcoming April 19 special election leave much to be desired Cancels ties to the former Assembly speaker through his Democratic club  which anointed her as his replacement  calls into question whether she would serve the district independent of the influence of Silvers cronies Both Chang and Niou demonstrated a much more comprehensive understanding of some of the issues facing the district  from congestion pricing to education reform. Chang, however, indicated that he would not be the most independent-minded legislator despite running as a Republican, saying that he would be more likely to go along with the consensus on key policy votes, rather than consider issues independently on their merits. Which brings us to Niou, a former Assembly staffer who has only lived in the district for the last two years, immediately raising the carpetbagger allegations that typically dog similar candidates. It was unclear to us whether Niou was driven more by her ambition to hold public office rather than a genuine desire to advocate for a district she claims to have grown familiar with while campaigning these last several months. However, Nious positions on education reform  she spoke eloquently on fighting for much-needed school funding in the district  and commitment to being a vocal advocate for Chinatown, a long underserved part of the district, swayed our editorial board enough to endorse her to replace Silver for these next several months.

Finally, the Post endorsed Lester Chang:

Voters in Tuesdays special election to fill the Assembly seat of corrupt ex-Speaker Sheldon Silver have a chance to send a message: No more business as usual But thats only one of the reasons The Post endorses Lester Chang for the 65th Assembly District. Chang, a local businessman and the son of immigrants, is also the candidate best suited to stand up for the interests of the districts residents  from Chinatown voters concerned about the schools to residents further downtown worried about safety in the age of terror.

Heres what you need to know about voting tomorrow. Youll receive two ballots  one for the presidential primary and one for the special election. Any registered voter is eligible to vote in the assembly contest. Follow this link is you need to check you poll site.
In August of 2015, we celebrated 150 years of Howard School and reflected back for a moment and asked history to tell us about this great institution.



In 1865, when Chattanooga and the rest of the nation began reconstruction, Howard School was birthed. The school was named after the Civil War General Oliver O. Howard. Although he suffered two defeats at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, he became a successful military leader on the western front. General Howard led with religious piety and was appointed head of the Freedmens Bureau. His task was the integration of the freed slaves into Southern society. It was fitting that the new school, Chattanoogas first public school, would be named in his honor.

The Bureau and General Howard had the task of bringing Chattanooga into the new integrated country with the use of education and public policy.



Classes were originally held in an old building, which had served as a Civil War hospital. The school was located on Chestnut Street, according to an essay written by Ella B. Harris, an 1888 graduate of Howard School. The school at that time was called Howard Free School. History also records that until 1881, the students in black schools were taught by Caucasian instructors. This prompted the question, What to do about Howard? Therefore, Chattanooga decided to conduct an experiment that would allow black teachers to teach the black students. By 1883, the school had moved from the Chestnut location to a larger location at East Eighth and Douglas. In 1886, Bell Washington became the first black to graduate from a public school in Chattanooga. She went on to teach for 35 years in the Chattanooga school system.



After the turn of the century, Howard continued to make great strides in educating the students of Chattanoogas black population. And again arose the question, What to do about Howard? The school moved twice in the early part of the century - in 1904 to East Eleventh Street and in 1921 to Carter and West 10th Street, which testified to the growth of the school. In 1913, the Chattanooga Public Library started a branch in Howard School, which opened the literary world up to this segregated population. By 1933, Howard was the first black school to receive approval status from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 1954, the school moved to its current location at 2500 South Market St.



By the end of the 1950s, several American cities had experienced non-violent civil rights protests, resulting in legal and political backlash of varying intensity. Although Chattanooga had a long history of civil rights activism, the mid-20th century movement had not yet touched the daily life of the city. On the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 19, 1960, however, 30 local black high school students walked into three downtown Chattanooga variety stores and quietly took seats at their traditionally segregated lunch counters. Many of those involved in the demonstration were seniors in the Howard High School Class of 1960. Howard School had begun to play a role in the politics and the policies of the city. In 2008, the History Makers Award was presented to spotlights those courageous individuals of Howard Class of 1960.



Once more the question surfaced, What to do about Howard? In 1966, an old gentleman came to challenge our lives and encouraged the Class of 1966 at graduation with the words of Alexander the conqueror, I came, I saw, I conquered! Those words didnt mean that much to me at the time because I had other personal concerns on my mind. I dont remember who the speaker was and Im sure he is no longer with us, but his words still resonate in my soul, I came, I saw, I conquered!

Where did we, the students come from?



We were gathered there at Howard School with a student population of over 3,000 strong from all ends of the community, some urban and some middle class with a certain pride in the new school; and a demonstration of that pride through excellence in industrial arts, excellence in sports, excellence in academics, and excellence in conduct because of our respect for our teachers. We were products of a generation with expanded opportunities through the Civil Rights Act and our teachers gave us the very best of their skills of instructions. They went above and beyond their mandates and became surrogate parents and personal mentors for those of us who came from single parent homes with no progressive role models to mimic. We were encouraged by teachers who served as strong examples for a new breed of students going out into a strange free work world.



What did we, the students see?





We found that this new world was not to be without an intense level of struggle that would have destroyed even the best of any other ethnic group with the same challenges. To name a few, we faced a struggle for peace and happiness, physical well-being, self-actualization, and even trying to become one with God.





What did we, the students conquer?





We learned how to get a job and keep a job. We discovered ourselves and came to realize who we are and why we are, and how we fit into this grand scheme of life. Most of us have successfully given up on vices that give a false sense of happiness. More than these, a lot of us have even learned that God is not some benevolent Santa Clause in the sky - He is a Spirit and we are to worship Him in our spirit and in according to the truth.





Reasons why Alumni still love Howard?





In addition to Gods Spirit, there is another spirit dwelling within us; it is the spirit of Howard School. It represents the fun memories we have of those former days of walking the halls of Howard. It is the stimulus for the chills in our bodies every time we hear the Howard School Song. It reminds us of the academic achievements that were obtained. It is the firmness in our souls that makes us stand tall like a fixed pole holding a flag waving Howard, Howard, Howard.



Still battling years of Struggle, Academics, Progress and Continuity.



In 2003, again the question arose, What to do about Howard? Some yelled, Tear it down. Others cried, Renovate it. Facing an overflow delegation from Howard High School, the County Commission voted 5-3 for a $17.5 million renovation of the school located in South Chattanooga.



Voting in favor were Commissioners William Cotton, Rep. JoAnne Favors, Larry Henry, Richard Casavant, and Charlotte Vandergriff. Dozens of Howard students marched to the meeting at the County Courthouse. Distinguished Howard alumni; Irvin Overton, Napoleon "Doughnut" Williams, and City Council members - Leamon Pierce and Yusuf Hakeem -were present to lend their support for Howard School. Mr. Overton said improvements at the school had been promised for years. He said, "Were kind of tired of waiting. We're sick and tired of being sick and tired."



Approved was the bid of Construction and Improvement Specialty Company of just over $14 million. Mr. Gary Waters said the project would include a new gym and new kitchen as well as complete renovation of the existing school, including all new plumbing, electrical, and heating and air.



In 2010, the question came up again, What to do about Howard? During the summer, the state of Tennessee put Howard School of Academics and Technology on notice, Raise grades and graduation rates or we will take you over. In 2011, Howard had the reputation of being one of the worst schools in the Hamilton County School District. The numbers showed that it was one of the 13 worst schools in Tennessee.



But every time the state threatens Howard, we assemble ourselves, stand proud, and come forth like thunder and lightning - led by JoAnne Favors and that rowdy bunch of sit downers from the sixties to let our voices be heard.

The school also acquired a new administrator and rose again from the flames of impending demise.





These are changing times and we dont know, 1) whether or not if Howard School will survive the next onslaught of rezoning and/or immigration, and 2) when that ageless question rises again of what to do about her.





Nonetheless, we do know that as long one alumnus is left, she will live on.





As long as one voice can sing the Howard School song, she will survive. Then when we are gone and our voice is heard no more; those that we have touched and left in this world who have a deep affirming tie to Howard will come forth like an Iron Tiger and carry on the legacy that our fathers created out of nothing.



God bless you and the legacy of Howard High.

County Commissioner Greg Beck

* * *

I was to thank Commissioner Beck for providing such a well-written piece on Howard High School.

His knowledge of the history of Howard is impressive but no more so than his ability to write in a way that holds the attention of the reader to the very end.

Steve Campbell

* * *

The Chattanooga High School Alumni Association congratulates our friends at Howard on the 151 years the school has served the community as the oldest high school in the county. Nine years after Howard was created, CHS came into being and for the past 132 years along with our successor school the Center for Creative Arts, has served the people of Chattanooga and Hamilton County.



Thanks to Commissioner Greg Beck for keeping alive the memory of the Howard Tigers and the many community leaders who attended the school. Go Tigers.



Douglas Jones
Ecuador digs for survivors after quake kills 246

ECUADOR: Rescuers in Ecuador yesterday (Apr 17) burrowed through rubble where towns once stood in an increasingly desperate attempt to find survivors of an earthquake that killed at least 246 people and allowed scores of inmates to escape prison.

constructiondisasters

By AFP

Monday 18 April 2016, 09:40AM

Rescue workers work to pull out survivors trapped in a collapsed building after a huge earthquake struck, in the city of Manta early yesterday (Apr 17). Photo: Ariel Ochoa/AFP

About 2,500 people were injured when the strong 7.8-magnitude quake hit Saturday evening (Apr 16), bringing structures crashing down, Vice President Jorge Glas said.

President Rafael Correa, who cut short a trip to the Vatican, landed back in the country close to the disaster zone late yesterday to inspect the devastation, his Twitter account said.

Although the oil-producing South American nation frequently suffers seismic shudders because of its position on the Pacific rims Ring of Fire, the quake  though it lasted just one minute  was the worst in nearly 40 years in Ecuador.

The quake wrecked buildings, toppled power lines and sent terrified residents running from their homes when it struck a coastal zone popular with tourists.

Some 100 inmates in a prison in the western town of Portoviejo escaped when the quake shook their facility, Justice Minister Ledy Zuniga tweeted.

About 30 of them had been recaptured, some had returned voluntarily and police were hunting for the others.

Elsewhere in hard-hit Portoviejo, the odor of decaying bodies started to fill the tropical air as rescuers raced to find survivors.

We have already recovered three dead and we believe there are 10 to 11 people still trapped, said one worker digging through the debris of what used to be a six-story hotel called El Gato.

Officials have declared a state of emergency in the worst-hit provinces, and a national state of exception, both of which suspend certain civil rights and liberties to allow security forces and officials to react faster.

Among the worst-hit towns was Pedernales, where Mayor Gabriel Alcivar estimated there were up to 400 more dead yet to be confirmed, many under the rubble of hotels that collapsed.

Pedernales is devastated. Buildings have fallen down, especially hotels where there are lots of tourists staying. There are lots of dead bodies, he told local media.

Soldiers patrolled the beach town, and the Red Cross and the army had set up a centre to treat the injured and receive bodies.

Two Canadians were among those killed by the quake, their countrys government told AFP. Ecuadors Geophysical Office reported considerable structural damage as far away as Guayaquil, Ecuadors biggest city with more than two million people, which is 350 kilometres away.

In the town of Abdon Calderon, near Portoviejo, 73-year-old resident Nelly, who would not give her last name, told AFP in tears that she rushed into the street after the quake and saw that the covered market had collapsed.

There was a person trapped who screamed for help, but then the screaming stopped. Oh, it was terrible, she said.

Neighboring Colombia  which also felt the quake but emerged unscathed  has dispatched aid and emergency workers to help in the rescue effort, as have Mexico and El Salvador.

Some 200 aftershocks of lesser intensity have followed the quake.

The epicentre of the quake was 170 kilometres north-west of the capital Quito, which suffered relatively little damage beyond cracks in walls and a power outage.

Officials said the oil infrastructure of Ecuador, an OPEC member, seemed intact.

Ecuador has been rocked by seven earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher in the region of Saturdays quake since 1900, the US Geological Survey said. One in March 1987 killed about 1,000 people.

David Rothery, a professor of geosciences at Britains Open University, said the 7.8 magnitude meant that the total energy involved was probably about 20 times greater than the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that killed at least 41 people in southern Japan on Saturday.

He said there was no causal link between the two quakes.

International concern and sympathy  and offers to assist  have flowed in.

Pope Francis urged prayers for the victims.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU chief diplomat Federica Mogherini expressed condolences and said they were ready to help.
Keep the immigration overstay re-entry ban, says Phuket poll

PHUKET: The stern Thailand immigration re-entry bans for foreigners who illegally overstay in the country has received strong support from Phukets expat community.

immigration

By The Phuket News

Monday 18 April 2016, 10:35AM

Phuket expats voted strong support for the immigration re-entry bans. Photo: Tanayluk Sakoot

The new regulations stipulating the bans came into force late February. Under the new rules, bans for foreigners who surrender themselves to immigration for overstays range from one year for overstays of 90 days or more to 10 years for overstays of five years or more.

The penalties for those caught overstaying in the country are even harsher. (See here.)

Yet two-thirds of all people who cast votes in the poll, which asked How harsh should the immigration overstay re-entry ban be? voiced their support for the bans.

A total of 36 per cent of respondents to the poll voted, The ban is understandable against adults, but should not apply to children under 18 years of age.

At the time the poll was launched (Mar 18), Immigration had yet to confirm whether or not children would be banned under the new rules.

But by the following Friday (Mar 25), Immigration Bureau Chief Lt Gen Nathathorn Prousoontorn visited Phuket to confirm in person that children would be exempt for the re-entry bans.

Officers will strictly enforce the rules and crack down on all overstayers in the Kingdom. However, I must reiterate that these rules do not apply to children under the age of 18, he said. (See story here.)

However, just under one third (30%) of respondents to the poll called for even harsher measures, voting for the bans to apply to foreign children. The ban is entirely appropriate. It should apply equally to all foreigners, both adults and children, was their choice.

Despite the strong support for the bans, healthy support was also present for abolishing the new re-entry bans altogether, with 34% of respondents voting: The ban is too severe for overstays. For this, there should be no ban, just fines and deportation, as Immigration used to do for years.

Of key importance in this particular poll was that 72% of all respondents had classified themselves as Local expatriate resident.

Only 18% of respondents identified themselves as Thai national and a further 11% of respondents to the poll identified themselves as Foreign visitor to Phuket.

For the full poll results, click here.

If the best response for you was not listed, feel free to mention it in the comments below.
Phuket Governor laments three dead during Songkran road-safety campaign

PHUKET: Governor of Phuket, Chamroen Tipayapongtada, today lamented the three deaths during the Seven days of Danger Songkran road-safety campaign, which officially ended at midnight last night (Apr 17).

accidentstransportalcoholdeathpolice

By Tanyaluk Sakoot

Monday 18 April 2016, 04:44PM

Boontan Sonthon, 34, died after losing control of his motorbike and crashing into a roadside pylon in Cherng Talay on Saturday (Apr 16). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The news comes as Thailand experienced its worst road-fatality rate during a Seven Days campaign for Songkran in national history. (See story here.)

The three deaths in Phuket are very sad news, Gov Chamroen said.

We did the best we could, but many of the accidents were not related to regular traffic. The main causes of accidents, and the resulting deaths and injuries, were drunk driving, motorcyclists not wearing helmets, and reckless driving to the point that there were single-vehicle accidents.

We are looking deeper into this and hopefully we can reduce the number of people killed on Phukets roads to zero, Gov Chamroen said.

During the the Seven Days of Danger campaign in Phuket, which started at midnight on April 11 and saw the government introduce measures in a attempt to reduce road fatalities, the province had one of the lowest fatalities rates in the country, three.

The first Phuket fatality during the campaign was Swedish national Johnny Daniel Soderstrom, 41, in Phuket for Phuket Bike Week, who died after he crashed his motorbike on Thepkrasattri Bridge last Thursday night (Apr 14). (See story here.)

Narong Jarat, 44, became the second victim after he was fatally injured by Russian national Ruslan Gainutdinov, 37, who is facing a charge of reckless driving causing death for driving his car down the wrong side of a street in Rawai that same night (Apr 14).

Mr Narong was fatally injured while riding his motorbike in the opposite direction on the correct side of the road. Hospital staff reported Mr Narong had died from his injuries at 10am the next day. (See story here.)

Boontan Sonthon, 34, died after losing control of his motorbike and crashing into a roadside pylon in Cherng Talay on Saturday (Apr 16). (See story here.)

This year, in addition to the three deaths, 62 people in Phuket suffered injuries in a total of 57 reported road accidents. Last year there were 57 reported accidents leaving 58 people with injuries  but zero deaths.

Of the 57 reported accidents this year, 26 occurred in Muang district, 24 in Thalang and seven in Kathu.

In terms of police action, during this years campaign 4,871 people were fined for not wearing a helmet, 245 people charged with drunk driving, and 2,422 for driving without a licence.

There were 132 people fined for using a phone while driving, 55 for running red lights, and 486 more for not wearing a seat belt.

The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation also reported that 46 people were charged with reckless driving (all motorbikes), and 93 for illegally riding/driving against traffic flow.

However, not a single person was recorded as charged for speeding.
Songkran death toll sets a record

NATIONWIDE: The first six days of the seven dangerous days of Songkran has already set a record number of deaths, with yet another reporting day to go today (Apr 18).

accidentsdeathmilitarypolicetransport

By Bangkok Post

Monday 18 April 2016, 09:06AM

Rescue workers and passers-by work to free the injured from this vehicle that turned turtle. Photo: Post Today

In just six days, 397 people lost their lives through Saturday (Apr 16) in road crashes across Thailand, a 30 per cent jump from last year. Drink-driving was the major cause of accidents.

A total of 3,104 road accidents occurred nationwide from Apr 11 to 16, with 3,271 people suffering injuries, said Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith during a press briefing on road safety measures.

The number of accumulated road crashes, deaths and injuries this year all are higher than last year, with yesterdays (Apr 17) reports still coming in. Last year, there were 2,915 road accidents, 306 deaths and 3,070 injuries during the same period.

The highest one-week traffic toll was 364 dead and 3,559 injured, a record set just last year, when there were 3,373 collisions in the military regimes first effort to reduce the Songkran highway slaughter.

This year, as the regime announced new measures, the toll was the highest in national history.

On Saturday alone, there were a total of 380 road accidents which claimed 59 lives and 380 injuries.

Speeding was blamed for the major cause of Saturdays crashes at 31%, followed by drink-driving at 28%. Most accidents, more than 80%, involved motorcycles. Pick-up trucks were the second most deadly vehicle, involved in 10% of crashes, said Mr Arkhom.

Official reports are from the Road Safety Directing Centre of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. However, the centres figures have clashed dramatically with other reports during the past week.

For example, while the centre reported 3,271 injuries in the highway crashes, Dr Pranom Khamthiang, deputy permanent secretary for the Public Health Ministry, said 25,516 people injured in road crashes had received treatment at public hospitals during the Songkran period. These included 3,815 were seriously hurt.

Neither of her figures matched with the Road Safety Directing Centre. There was no explanation from the military government on the wildly different reporting figures from the two ministries.

Dr Pranom ordered all public hospitals to prepare medical teams, emergency and operation rooms, blood storage and patient wards around the clock during the Songkran period.

The Road Safety Directing Centre said 69% of road accidents in the first six of the seven dangerous days occurred on main roads, and the peak time for crashes was between 4pm and 8pm.

On the accumulated road accidents over the past six days, Chiang Mai had the most accidents at 158 as well as the most injuries at 166. Nakhon Ratchasima had the highest number of fatalities at 18. Five provinces  Trat, Phrae, Yala, Ranong and Nong Bua Lam Phu  reported no road deaths.

A total of 110,909 people have been arrested and 5,772 vehicles impounded at road safety checkpoints across the country between Apr 9 and 16 as part of the National Council for Peace and Orders unsuccessful anti-drinking campaign over Songkran, said the transport minister.

Authorities had seized 16,346 driving licences from drunk drivers as of yesterday morning. The impounded vehicles included 4,353 motorcycles and 1,419 cars.

There were heavy traffic jams on main roads heading into Bangkok yesterday, as holidaymakers returned home on the last day of the Songkran holiday.

Chayapol Thitisak, the interior deputy permanent secretary, said the road safety centre has ordered provincial authorities to deploy more police and volunteers to facilitate traffic as people headed back to Bangkok. Special traffic lanes were opened in areas where traffic was congested.

Despite the record highway tolls, Chatchai Promlert, director-general of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, claimed road crashes caused by drink-driving showed a sign of reducing, while accidents caused by speeding and cutting in front increased.

He has instructed provincial authorities to increase the number of road checkpoints on main roads to prevent motorists from travelling at high speed.

Read original story here.
St John United Methodist Church will be host to the Chattanooga site of an international cloth diaper changing event taking place on Saturday, the same week as Earth Day. This is the sixth year for the international event. The Great Cloth Diaper Change event will attempt to break the current world record of 8,459 babies changed at one time around the world.



"Each year billions of disposable diapers enter landfills where it takes hundreds of years for them to decompose, if ever. In five successful years of the Great Cloth Diaper Change event, participants have shown the entire world that cloth diapers are a real option for todays modern families, particularly catching the eye of expecting and new parents who may be seeking more planet-friendly and affordable alternatives to disposable diapers," officials said.



There are approximately 50 parent and baby pairs registered to participate in the Chattanooga event. The event will take place at 3921 Murray Hills Dr.

In addition to the Great Cloth Diaper Change world-recording setting activity, there will also be a cloth diaper resale as well as a vendor fair. Current vendors set to participate include local businesses and non-profit organizations including Wee Care Diaper Service, Inspire Chiropractic, Usborne Books, Cakes and Confetti, Phyxius Designs, Noels Boutique, Babywearing International, Weekly Fig, Share the Love, Chattanooga BirthNetwork, Chattanooga Breastfeeding Coalition, and more. Participants and guests are eligible for over a dozen door prizes.



For more information or to participate in The Great Cloth Diaper Change in Chattanooga, contact Megan Clark at 423-332-8307, or visit www.GreatClothDiaperChange.com and click on the map to find information about your local event. The Great Cloth Diaper Change can also be followed on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/GreatClothDiaperChange and on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/ClothRecord.
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Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
Sarah Hall and Itzel Toro of Chattanooga, represented Global Scholars at the 2016 Southern Region Honors Council (SRHC) conference in Orlando, Florida. Based on their research in Honors MATH 1530 during the Fall semester, these students submitted a proposal titled Core Fundamentals Learned in Introduction to Statistics and Their Application to Research. More than 400 conference proposals were submitted, and these Global Scholars earned a spot to share their research with hundreds of other honors students, faculty, and administrators from across the region. Ms. Hall and Ms. Toro were among very few community college students who presented at the conference, and the only students from a TBR institution.

Their research was part of a Service Learning project designed by their honors Professor, Dr. Azar Raiszadeh. The primary purpose of the project was to analyze student outcomes in the new learning support co-requisite remediation model. More than 1,000 students enrolled in MATH 1530 were surveyed. Global Scholars in the honors MATH 1530 course analyzed this data to explore the relationship between student GPAs and numerous variables including college readiness, number of hours students were working per week, how many hours slept per night, and number of hours spent on social media.

In addition to the opportunity to present, they were also able to network with other honors students and hear presentations from several senior thesis projects allowing them to gain ideas and insights to bring back to Chattanooga State.

The SRHC conference theme was The Magic of Honors and was heavily influenced by the Harry Potter series. As such, conference attendees, including Ms. Hall and Ms. Toro, spent time enjoying Universal Studios Islands of Adventure and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, reinforcing the magical and transformative world of honors education.

For more information about Global Scholars, contact Amanda Bennett at Amanda.bennett@chattanoogastate.edu or call 423-697-2577.
How to watch and what to know about South Dakota State at North Dakota
Tennessee Manufacturers Week, an annual week of events aimed at celebrating manufacturing across Tennessee, will kick off Tuesday, April 19 with the Tennessee Association of Manufacturers (TAM) Member Connect Golf Tournament at Council Fire Golf Club. The tournament provides attendees the opportunity to network and connect with other members of the Association.

TAM will also host the Manufacturers Excellence Awards Luncheon, an event recognizing members of the organization who exemplify practices resulting in manufacturing excellence onWednesday, April 20 at the Chattanooga Convention Center at 11:30AM. The Manufacturers Excellence Awards are presented in the categories of Energy, Environment, Safety and Company of the Year, and serve to distinguish entire organizations for their overall achievements and positive impacts. The 2016 finalists for the individual categories are:

Energy: AdTech Ceramics, Lodge Manufacturing

Environment: GRACE, Tennessee American Water Company

Safety: BASF, Propex

Company of the Year: Astec, Inc., Lodge Manufacturing, Propex, Siskin Steel

Dr. Nancy Hoffman, Vice President for Program and Talent Development of Jobs for the Future and Co-Founder of Pathways to Prosperity, will deliver the keynote address at the Manufacturers Excellence Awards Luncheon. As workforce development and education are the number one priority of TAM, Dr. Hoffman will discuss the Pathways to Prosperity initiative, and the importance of engaging high school students in work-based learning. Jobs for the Future is a national nonprofit that works to ensure educational and economic opportunity for all through the development of innovative career pathways, educational resources, and public policies that increase college readiness and career success.

Manufacturers Week will conclude on Thursday, April 21 with a day of company tours, where TAM members host tours at their facilities to showcase their best practices in manufacturing. Fillauer, Lodge Manufacturing, Propex, Sofix Corporation and Tennessee American Water Company will be hosting tours.

For details regarding Manufacturers Week events, as well as registration information, please call the TAM office at 423-266-1902.
Photos: Chicago's Police Force Has Four New K-9 Graduates

By Emma G. Gallegos in News on Apr 18, 2016 6:13PM

The Chicago Police Department is embroiled in controversy right now, but the work of the department's explosive-sniffing dogs is one of the few things not critiqued in the recent Police Accountability Task Force report. Now, four new dogs have joined the force, after officially graduating from the department's training program this weekend, according to CPD.

The quartet appear to be labrador retrievers, which are known for their keen sense of smell, even temperament and strong work ethic. Theyalong with German shepherds and Belgian Malinoisare favorite breeds of the department.

Dogs usually come to the department from Europe and with little training at a price of about $5,000. They learn how to do their job at the Chicago Police Department Canine Training Center in Des Plaines. The dogs and training are pricey, but one dog can do the work of over 10 human police officers.

The dogs will be paired up with new human partners. Chicago Police Lt. Vick Guerrieri explained to CBS Chicago, "The handler is with his partner 24 hours. He feeds him. He takes him home to his family. The dog lives in the officer's home."
Throughout his 50 years as publisher of the Toronto Star from 1899 to 1948, Joseph E. Atkinson developed strong views on both the role of a large city newspaper and the editorial principles it should espouse. These values and beliefs now form what are called the Atkinson Principles. For more than a century, they have provided the intellectual foundation on which the Star has operated and have given the paper its distinctive voice.

The editorial principles Atkinson espoused were founded on his belief that a progressive newspaper should contribute to the advancement of society through pursuit of social, economic and political reforms. He was particularly concerned about injustice, be it social, economic, political, legal or racial.

Fundamental to his philosophy was the belief that the state has the right, and duty, to act when private initiative fails. While Atkinson's beliefs were never codified in any set form, the central Principles can be summarized as follows:

SHARE:
Ethical journalism is the foundation of Torstar news organizations integrity and is essential to our credibility with our audiences. Accuracy, fairness and quality journalism have long been critical to our newsrooms, and are especially so in this digital media ecosystem where trust and transparency matter more than ever.

This 2018 version of the Torstar Journalistic Standards Guide provides a comprehensive code of journalistic principles and conduct to guide us in our mission: to responsibly engage and connect with our readers on all platforms with trusted news, information and content to help make their lives, their communities, our country and our world better.

No code of conduct can cover every eventuality in the 24-7 production of news and information on multiple platforms. Common sense, good judgment and the journalists own moral compass must be brought to bear on any set of guidelines. We should be prepared to explain publicly what we do in gathering and presenting news and information and the journalistic judgments involved in all we publish.

All Torstar newsrooms are members of the National NewsMedia Council. The NNC considers complaints from members of the public who are not satisfied with the news organizations response about its judgments. In adjudicating any complaint, the NNC considers a set of criteria that includes the news organizations own code of conduct, generally accepted national and regional journalistic standards, and any other considerations deemed valid by the NNC board.

TO WHOM DO THESE POLICIES APPLY?

These policies apply to all Torstar editorial staff in the creation and publication of all editorial content on any platform. Any breach of policy can lead to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.

These policies also apply to all freelancers when creating content for Torstar newsrooms.

Some of these policies may also apply to persons on leave. Staff should check with their department heads if they are uncertain.

Here are the general editorial principles that provide the foundation for this guide:

RESPONSIBILITY

Torstar has responsibilities to its customers, its clients, its shareholders and its employees. But the operation of a news organization is, above all, a public trust, no less binding because it is not formally conferred. The overriding responsibility of our daily and community news organizations is to the democratic society.

Freedom of expression and of the press must be defended against encroachment from any quarter, public or private. Journalists must ensure that the public's business is conducted in public. They must be vigilant against all who would exploit journalists and their news organizations for selfish purposes.

Journalists who abuse the power of their professional roles for selfish motives or unworthy purposes are faithless to that public trust.

ACCESS

Torstar news organizations provide a forum for the interchange of information and opinion. They should provide for the expression of disparate and conflicting views. They should give expression to the interests of minorities as well as majorities, of the powerless as well as the powerful.

ACCURACY AND TRUTH

Good faith with the reader is the foundation of ethical and excellent journalism. That good faith rests primarily on the reader's confidence that what we print is correct. Every effort must be made to ensure that everything we publish is accurate, presented in context, and that all sides are presented fairly.

Journalistic integrity demands that significant errors of fact, as well as errors of omission, should be corrected promptly and as prominently and transparently as warranted.

FAIRNESS

Torstar news organizations should respect the rights of people involved in the news, be transparent and stand accountable to the public for the fairness and reliability of everything it publishes. Fair news reports provide relevant context, do not omit relevant facts and aim to be honest with readers about what we know and what we do not know.

Our core fairness standard demands that any subject of potentially harmful allegations must be given opportunity to respond.

INDEPENDENCE

Independence from those we cover is a key principle of journalistic integrity. We avoid conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts. Torstar news organizations believe in paying the costs incurred in gathering and publishing news. In circumstances where that may not be possible, we disclose information that could create the perception of a conflict of interest. Transparency with our readers about the potential for conflicts should guide our considerations about real or perceived conflicts.

IMPARTIALITY

To be impartial does not require a news organization to be unquestioning or to refrain from editorial expression. Sound practice, however, demands a clear distinction for readers between news and opinion. All content that contains explicit opinion or personal interpretation should be clearly identified as opinion or analysis, as appropriate.

PRIVACY

Every person has a right to privacy. There are inevitable conflicts between the right to privacy, the public good and the right of the public to be informed about the conduct of public affairs. Each case should be judged in the light of common sense and humanity.

Back to top OUR JOURNALISM STANDARDS

Here are the policies that guide our work:

ACCURACY AND CORRECTIONS

There can be no compromise with accuracy. Accuracy is our most basic contract with readers and is the responsibility of everyone in our newsrooms. Accuracy is grounded in verification, the essence of journalism. We must check and double-check all the information we publish, including information from all other publications.

Mistakes will happen. When they do, we correct our errors. Corrections serve the reader and they serve the public record. They are essential to building and maintaining trust with our readers. Anyone who becomes aware of a possible error has responsibility for alerting those responsible for corrections in their newsrooms.

Our corrections are guided by the core principles of accountability and transparency. We are accountable to our readers for the accuracy of the information we publish in stories, headlines, photos, cutlines, social media, graphics, data, videos and any other content on all of our platforms. We correct errors of fact in a clear, transparent manner on the platform(s) in which the error was published, as promptly as possible. We make clear to readers the correct information and the context and magnitude of the mistake. Published corrections do not ascribe blame within our news organizations.



On all of our platforms, it should be clear to readers how to report a possible error.

You can find our corrections here.

ANONYMITY AND CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES

The public interest is best served when news sources are identified by their full names. We should be aggressive in pressing sources to put information on the record and should seek independently to corroborate off-the-record information.

We do not provide anonymity to those who attack individuals or organizations or engage in speculation  the unattributed cheap shot. People under attack in our publications have the right to know their accusers.

There are times when reporters need confidential sources to serve readers and democracy. Responsible journalism in the public interest often depends on these confidential sources who give journalists information that powerful people seek to keep secret. There are times also when some sources, such as underage or other vulnerable people, may require anonymity in telling their stories.

Torstar journalists must discuss using confidential sources with their department head, and in some cases the newsrooms most senior editor. They must always reveal the sources identity to editors, and provide a compelling argument for why the source will not be named in news reports. Senior editors have responsibility to work with reporters to assess the credibility of all sources including confidential sources.

Once any promise is made to grant anonymity, we protect our source, only revealing their identity with that persons permission.

Published articles must explain why sources have been granted anonymity and why we consider them authoritative and credible. Confidential sources should have first-hand knowledge of the information and this must be conveyed to the reader. We should publish as much information as possible about the source  including why they sought confidentiality  without revealing identity.

The definitions and ground rules for not naming a source must be discussed with sources. Any further promises made or deals brokered with any source must be discussed in advance with senior editors and are subject to the following:

 Composites, where several sources are compiled into one person, are not used. Pseudonyms are used only rarely, with a senior editors permission, and must be declared as such in stories.

 The source and the journalist must be clear on what has been agreed to and that agreement must be shared with the department manager. Torstar journalists keep their promises.



ATTRIBUTION AND PLAGIARISM

We do not present other medias reporting as our own or publish unattributed material from other sources. Plagiarism  the unattributed use of words or ideas from another published source  is grounds for discipline or dismissal.

Background information from previously published Torstar stories may be reused without credit.

We attribute and credit material to its source, including reporting obtained exclusively by other media organizations on any platform. If an article contains a significant amount of wire copy, then the agency and/or author should be credited.

Any information from social media and other digital sources such as Facebook, Twitter and personal or corporate websites must be verified to establish the bona fides of the sources, who should be properly credited for the information.

DIVERSITY

Inclusiveness is at the heart of thinking and acting as journalists. Torstar newsrooms aim to reflect the diversity of our communities and respect the human rights and equal dignity of all. We aim for a variety of voices as sources and contributors in our news and opinion.

We seek to foster greater community understanding about ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status and physical/mental ability and do not perpetuate hurtful stereotypes.

Generally no reference, direct or indirect, should be made to a persons race, colour or religion unless it is pertinent to the story.

In the case of a missing person or a criminal suspect at large, there may be justification for identifying race or colour as part of a full description that provides as many details as possible. Avoid vague descriptions that serve no purpose. At times, a group may make race a public issue. In such cases, the persons race becomes relevant to the news.

Religion is important to the lives of many of our readers. Do not hold up one religion or set of beliefs as superior to another. Do not single out a religion or religious practice for ridicule or stereotyping or use profanities considered offensive to any religions.

We treat men and women equally and respect diverse gender identities, including people who identify as neither male nor female.

EMBARGOES

If a report is obtained from a credible source on the understanding that it not be published until a certain date and time, we agree to the embargo unless it is broken by other media. Generally, this does not apply to widely distributed email press releases that include an embargo date.

FAIR PLAY

We respect the rights of people involved in the news, act with decency in our conduct with readers and those we report on, and stand accountable for the fairness and reliability of our journalism. Fair news reports provide relevant context, do not omit relevant facts, and aim to be honest with readers about what we know and what we dont know.

We are obligated to investigate and publish all sides of the news we report. The essence of fairness demands that before publication every effort must be made to present subjects with all allegations  the sooner the better, and the more detailed the better. If an individual cannot be reached or refuses to comment, the article must state this and, if applicable, report any reasons why the opportunity to comment was refused. Rebuttals and unsuccessful attempts to reach subjects should be prominent, not buried.

News reports should be straightforward and not indulge in inferences or use words such as claimed in a pejorative manner.

HOAXES

Torstar newsrooms generally do not publish articles about bomb scares and related hoaxes. Exceptions may be made if the scare becomes a significant public event.

IDENTIFYING OURSELVES AND UNDERCOVER REPORTING

Torstar journalists must clearly identify themselves as journalists gathering information for possible publication, be it in person, on the telephone, by email or through social media platforms. This is the most basic contract between a journalist and a source - the foundation of informed consent in journalism.

Undercover reporting, photography and surveillance video should be used rarely, and a case must be made that the story to be uncovered is of significant public interest and the event to be investigated is a sustained, consistent practice, not a gotcha. Advance approval by senior editors of any undercover work is required.

In such cases, the extent of and reason for the deception should be clearly communicated in the resulting published reports.

Cameras and audio recorders should not be concealed except in unusual circumstances and only with the approval of senior editors. It is permissible to record telephone interviews without a sources knowledge to provide an accurate record of a conversation but these recordings should not be used for other purposes, such as being replayed on radio or on our websites.

KIDNAPPINGS AND HOSTAGE TAKINGS

In certain cases involving kidnapping, hostage taking and/or terrorism, when publication could endanger someones life, we should put the victims safety first. Decisions to withhold news in such cases must be approved by senior editors.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

In line with our commitment to engage and connect our communities and reflect a diversity of views, Torstar news organizations aim to publish a representative sample of the letters to the editor they receive, striving to reflect the many sides of any issue. Preference is given to ordinary readers over professional letter writers, special interest groups and public figures. We reserve the right to edit letters for length, style and clarity.

Letter writers have the last word; that means columnists must not attack or rebut letter writers in subsequent published articles. Exceptions may be made if the letter writers are public figures.

Except when necessary for legal reasons, letters criticizing a Torstar employees work should not be published without such criticism being reviewed with the employee before publication, if it is practical to do so.

MULTIMEDIA AND VISUAL JOURNALISM

Multimedia work documents reality and generally should not depict contrived situations. Any photo illustrations or staged situations should be clearly labelled for readers.

Torstar photojournalists and videographers must respect the moment in aiming to capture reality. If the moment passes without being recorded, it should not be restaged in order to make an image. All ambient sound during the shooting of news, features or documentaries should be collected on site. Canned sound effects must not be used and presented as reality.

Editors must select and crop photos and consult with photographers to bring out the most accurate, truthful account of each situation. While digital manipulation is permissible to improve technical quality, any alteration or enhancement that renders a photograph inaccurate or misleading is forbidden.

When editing any multimedia content, care must be taken not to manipulate the story, distort reality or mislead. In editing audio files, words may not be inserted or rearranged to mislead or change the intent and context of the interview and/or action. Ambient sound collected in one location must not be used with footage gathered elsewhere.

Editors must verify the authenticity of handout photos and images sourced from social media. Except in rare instances, cutlines or credit lines must identify the source of such photographs.

NEWS AND OPINIONS

Torstar newsrooms clearly label content on all platforms to draw a clear line between news and opinion.

News content is verified information based on the impartial reporting of facts, either observed by reporters or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. News reports do not include the opinion of the author.

Opinion articles are based on personal interpretation and judgment of facts. Opinion journalists have wide latitude to express their own views, subject to standards of taste and laws of libel, including views directly contrary to the editorial views of Torstar news organizations.



This glossary provides definitions for the various types of news and opinion content we publish.

NEWS TERMS:

Analysis: A critical or contextual examination of an important and topical issue based on factual reporting. It provides an explanation of the impact or meaning of news events and draws on the authority and expertise of the writer. Analysis articles do not contain the authors opinions.

Investigation: In-depth reporting in the public interest that reveals wrongdoing and/or systemic problems, holds those in power accountable and promotes positive change.

OPINION TERMS:

Editorial: An article that presents a point of view reflecting the news organization's position on an issue of public interest. Editorials are not meant to be a neutral presentation of the facts. They are written by journalists who are expressing the view of the news organization. As an editorial serves to present the companys voice, there is no individual byline.

Opinion: Articles based on the authors interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. Opinion articles include columns written by staff and commentary from non-staff contributors. Opinion journalists have wide latitude to express their own views including views directly contrary to the news organization's editorial views, as long as they fall within the boundaries of taste and laws of libel. Columnists should not engage in personal axe-grinding or internecine debates with other columnists who write for their own or other publications.

Advice: An advice article reflects the opinion of the author, who provides guidance or direction on a topic based on their expertise as well as their personal interpretations and judgments of facts.

Blog: An online journal updated regularly by a journalist or editorial department that supplements news coverage. Blogs are usually informal or conversational in style and may reflect a writers opinions, subject to the rights and responsibilities of fair comment.

First person: Narratives exploring an authors insights, observations or thoughts based on that individuals personal experience and opinions.

Readers letters: A selection of letters by readers expressing a point of view, usually concerning a recently published article or current event.

Review: A critical assessment of the merits of a subject, such as art, film, music, television, food or literature. Reviews are based on the writers informed/expert opinion.

PAYMENTS

Torstar newsrooms do not pay for information other than standard fees for syndicated trusted news services, photographs, videos, book excerpts and freelance stories.

PLACELINES

Torstar newsrooms do not mislead readers by suggesting our journalists or freelancers were someplace they were not.

POLLS, REPORTS AND STUDIES

In reporting polls, we must give readers full context: names of the sponsor and the polling agency, population from which the sample was drawn, sample size, margin of error, type of interview (telephone, mail, online, in-home), dates when the poll was conducted, and wording of the questions on which the story focuses.

Some polls are misleading. We should be particularly skeptical of polls sponsored by special interest groups, which may be slanted to produce an answer favourable to the interest group.

Articles on reports and studies should include information on who funded them. As much information as possible should be published about the methodology so readers can judge the credibility of the study, especially the sample size, the geographic area and time period, the group surveyed or studied, and how the data was selected.

Reports of studies should generally be based on peer-reviewed, reputable journals and should include independent comment.

PRIVACY

Conflicts between the publics right to know and individuals reasonable expectation of privacy are inevitable in the gathering and publishing of news, but common sense, our duty to report in the public interest and some measure of compassion should govern our judgment.

Children and teenagers  particularly those under the age of 16 who may not fully understand the implications of speaking to the media  command a special sensitivity.

So, too, do those experiencing tragedy or grief. People should be treated with sensitivity during times of grief or trauma.

Visual journalists should be sensitive when photographing children under 16 without permission of a parent or guardian. A decision on publishing or posting any such images will be made by a senior editor who will consider all circumstances, including the public interest.

PROMISES

We keep our promises. Torstar journalists must receive full approval of senior editors before any promises can be made to a source or subject.

We do not make promises to sources or subjects about whether or when a story will be published; how a story, photograph or video will be displayed; the prominence it will be given; or what any aspect of the report will say.

Journalists should not promise to read back an article to sources, unless this has been approved by senior editors.

QUOTATIONS

What appears inside quotation marks in published articles must be an accurate representation of what was written or said. Grammatical errors can be corrected and some idiosyncratic expressions of speech can be omitted.

Paraphrasing is acceptable and even preferable if the accuracy of a direct quote cannot be verified, but any paraphrasing must fairly reflect the sources words.

Circumstances and context for quotes, including whether the comment was in response to a question and whether it came from email or social media, should be provided when relevant. If quotes appear out of sequence, changes in circumstance and context should be reported. Circumstance and context include body language, facial expressions, audience and inflection.

Quotes cited from interviews conducted through a translator must be identified as such.

Reconstructed dialogue must be cleared by a senior editor and should be published only with the acknowledgment that it is reconstructed from a sources memory. The source should be named.

REMOVAL REQUESTS (UNPUBLISHING)

We will consider changes to previously published online articles. Such changes can include updating articles with new information, removing personal information and removing articles from online searches. Any changes will consider the publics right to know, fairness to those named in the news and the importance of preserving the historical record. If you want to have an article reviewed, the first step is to fill out this online form

SOCIAL MEDIA

Torstar journalists are always Torstar journalists.

Journalists are encouraged to be themselves and find their own voices on social media, but its important to remember that the content they post and the way they conduct themselves can have an impact on reader trust, the journalistic reputation of our newsrooms, our brands and the companys public standing. This is true regardless of the privacy settings on a journalists account, their profile description or whether they consider an account personal.

This policy applies to all editorial staff across all Torstar newsrooms. Other newsroom and corporate policies, such as those governing corrections, ethics and the business code of conduct, also apply to social media use.

Here are the key points:

 Staff must not do anything on social media that damages the companys reputation for fair journalism. That includes making partisan or offensive comments, endorsing candidates or  with the exception of opinion columnists  taking sides on issues our newsrooms are covering.

 Torstar journalists must not use social media to criticize or undermine the company, their colleagues or the work of their colleagues.

 Fact-based analysis by reporters is not opinion. In areas of reporting expertise, social media can be an effective platform for using facts to authoritatively point out lies, questionable behaviour, baseless claims and policies unsupported by evidence, even if doing so leads to a perception of being negative to one side of a public debate.

 Torstar opinion journalists have the same wide latitude to express opinions on social media as they are given on our other platforms.

 Torstar journalists must not purchase followers or pay for any service to artificially inflate their social media following.

 Except for reporting purposes, Torstar journalists must not join partisan groups on Facebook or elsewhere  even if those groups are marked secret. Journalists should not use social media accounts to register for partisan events. If they wish to join a group for reporting purposes, they should identify themselves and consider how their posts would be interpreted if made public. When in doubt, journalists should talk to a supervisor, especially if they feel the need to join a group anonymously.

 Staff should not use social media to make customer service complaints or lobby politicians. Their grievances may be frustrating, but they are likely to be treated differently because of their position.

 Torstar encourages journalists to listen and interact respectfully with readers who engage them in productive ways.

 If a readers comments are inconsiderate or could be considered trolling, its best not to respond. Journalists are encouraged to block or mute someone who is making threatening, abusive or harassing comments. It is never appropriate to threaten someone or direct profanity at them.

 A staff member who feels threatened by someone on social media should inform their supervisor immediately. Torstar has policies in place to protect its journalists.

SUICIDES

We should not shy away from writing about suicide when the story is newsworthy and considered to be in the public interest. Such reports should respect the grief of survivors and strive to provide information for others about how to get help. Generally, we should not provide explicit details about methods used or reach simplistic conclusions about why a person took their own life. Suicide stories must be discussed with senior editors before publication.

TASTE

Our newsrooms respect taste and decency, understanding that our communities concepts of taste and decency are constantly changing and may vary across the platforms on which we communicate. The following should be handled with care in consultation with senior editors:

 Swear words, sexually charged and blasphemous words: Unless they are in direct quotations, they should rarely be used. In publishing obscenities, we use short dashes following the first letter, except in rare cases, determined by senior editors, where spelling out the word in full is considered central to understanding the context of the news.

 Racially pejorative terms: Again, these should be used sparingly and only in direct quotations, when essential to the meaning of the story.

 Photos of the dead: Publishing graphic images of dead bodies, bloodied victims and traumatized survivors of bombings, massacres, torture and other tragedies can be justified when the image is considered to be historically relevant and/or advances the story in a serious and considered manner; when it conveys information relevant to the story; and when it is not intended to shock our audiences gratuitously.

Back to top CONFLICT OF INTEREST PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES

OVERVIEW OF PRINCIPLES

Independence from those we cover is a key principle of journalistic integrity. We avoid conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts. In circumstances where that may not be possible, we disclose information that could create the perception of a conflict of interest. Transparency with our readers and openness about the potential for conflicts should guide our considerations about real or perceived conflicts.

These policies apply to all outside interests that could cause our audiences to question the fairness and independence of our journalism.

We seek primarily to ensure that our reporters reputations as fair-minded fact-finders are not compromised by public displays of political or partisan views on public issues, nor influenced by personal involvement or personal axe-grinding on issues we cover.

Opinion journalists have greater leeway on these matters, in line with the latitude to express their own views in their work.

All Torstar editorial staff should inform their immediate supervisors of any outside activity that could result in a conflict of interest, or reasonably perceived conflict of interest, that could cause our audiences to question the integrity of our work.

These policies are not intended to restrict the personal lives, interests or expressions of beliefs of Torstar journalists outside their work lives. Rather, as has been established through various arbitration processes across the company, they seek to ensure that any such personal activities and interests do not come into conflict with the public role of our news organizations in any way that could be seen to compromise our editorial independence and integrity.

OUTSIDE POSITIONS AND INTERESTS

Editorial staff should not hold elected political office, work on political campaigns, or write speeches for political parties or officials. Care should be exercised by all editorial staff, but particularly those reporting the news, to avoid open endorsement of any political candidate or political cause, including personal comments on social media platforms. Editorial staff should not make financial contributions to a political campaign if they may be called upon to cover the campaign. Bear in mind that such contributions are often subject to public disclosure.

Editorial staff should not hold office in community organizations involved in activities about which they may write or make editorial judgments. This includes fundraising or public relations work, and active participation in community organizations and pressure groups that take positions on public issues.

Editorial staff should avoid participation in judicial and other official investigations into wrongdoing. Such inquiries are often prompted by our reporting. Our participation should end there. Senior editors should be informed if any employee is summoned to appear.

News reporters should avoid participation in demonstrations or the signing of petitions, including online petitions and social media campaigns, on political or partisan issues that they may be called upon to cover. Opinion journalists should discuss such participation with their editors.

Torstar editorial employees may not use their positions to obtain any benefit or advantage in commercial transactions not available to the general public.

CONTESTS AND AWARDS

Torstar encourages its editorial staff members to seek recognition for their work, but they should avoid contests that may create the appearance of a conflict. No Torstar journalist shall enter any awards program sponsored or administered by the profession, industry or community the journalist covers. Any entries submitted for consideration for awards or contests must receive prior approval of senior editors.

FAMILIES

Editorial employees must not use their close relatives or close friends to circumvent Torstar conflict guidelines. It should be recognized that the involvement of a close family member in politics or some other high-profile position may result in a change of assignment. Editorial staff should not write about, photograph or make news judgments about close relatives or friends unless this conflict is made clear to readers.

GIFTS, TRAVEL AND PASSES

We aim to pay our own way in covering the news. Editorial staff and freelancers should not accept or solicit gifts, passes or favours.

Other than in the following circumstances, disregarding this policy is a serious offence and could lead to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal for staff members and cancellation of regular work for freelancers.

Gifts: It is not our intention to ban the trinkets that sometimes accompany news releases, but rather merchandise that is of real value. Any unsolicited gift of more than nominal retail value  more than $25, as a general principle  should be returned promptly with a polite explanation. If in doubt, editorial employees should consult their department heads. If it is impractical to return the gift, it should be turned over to the department head, who shall donate it to an appropriate charity or institution, or the gift should be sold and the money donated to charity.

Occasionally, an editorial staff member will be invited to a gala opening as a representative of the news organization. It is generally not appropriate to attend unless the staff person has the approval of their department head.

There are several obvious exceptions. We accept reviewers tickets for film previews and theatrical performances. Passes for working media are accepted for some sporting events, but only for those journalists and photographers covering the event. Tickets occasionally provided by our newsrooms to various events are also exempt.

Travel: We pay for travel expenses. This includes sports journalists covering road games, travel writers touring foreign locations and entertainment journalists attending out-of-town interviews arranged by studios and promoters  three circumstances in which junkets are available and are increasingly accepted by other media organizations.

It is clear there are some stories, particularly in special sections such as travel and automotive, that are difficult or even impossible to cover without accepting a media rate or relying on a freelancer who has done so. Key principles should apply in such circumstances: transparency and news judgment.

Stories in which an editorial employee or freelancer has accepted free or discounted travel or accommodations must carry an endnote explaining to readers the particular circumstances of gaining access to the story. As examples:

Travel was provided to _________ by _________.

or

Some travel and accommodation costs were courtesy of _________.

Media rates for editorial staffers and freelancers should be accepted only with the prior approval of the section editor.

All trips by editorial employees who plan to freelance for the travel department must be assigned or the trip approved in advance by the travel editor. Staff members outside the travel department are forbidden from using their position as Torstar employees to gain access to travel discounts or media rates.

Other: Editorial staff members occasionally will be invited to sit on a panel or deliver a paper at an academic conference or policy seminar. It is permissible for the host to pay the staff members travel and hotel expenses, but any such payments must be disclosed in any reporting on that event. Before accepting such an invitation, staff members should check with senior editors.

INVESTMENTS

Editorial employees should avoid writing about any subject in which they have a financial interest. Any employee asked to do such a story should declare the interest to their supervisor and another employee should be assigned.

Staff in our business departments have a particular obligation in this regard. They should not own stocks or other securities in sectors they regularly cover or could reasonably be expected to cover. Furthermore, they should disclose to their department head all holdings of individual securities (i.e., stocks, corporate bonds and mutual funds) in all accounts in which the employee has part or whole decision-making authority.

For freelance columnists whose work is based on their expertise as investors, there is an exception to this general policy. This dual role must be clearly acknowledged in a note at the end of their columns.

MERCHANDISE FOR REVIEW (BOOKS, CDs, FOOD, ETC.)

Within narrow limits, editorial staff may use a product for a short time to test or evaluate it, but any extended use of these products is not allowed.

Exceptions include books, recordings, foodstuffs and other products that are sent unsolicited for reviewing. All material not reviewed should either be returned, be donated to a library or charity, or be sold and the money donated to charity.

OUTSIDE WORK BY STAFFERS

Editorial staff members are generally free to appear on radio and television, provided this is done on the employees own time.

Such work is subject to the following conditions:

 The department head must be notified in advance and the company reserves the right to veto such appearances.

 When appearing in other media, a journalist or commentator should be identified as a journalist of the specific newsroom for which they work.

 In no circumstances will editorial employees release or discuss in any other media, including social media, any exclusive item before it has been published by Torstar, unless explicitly authorized by senior editors.

 No staff should enter into a regular commitment (i.e., weekly or more frequently) with other media without the approval of senior editors.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

Before addressing an outside group, whether through an event organized by the companys Speakers Bureau or independently, editorial staff must consider whether an actual or apparent conflict of interest or threat to the perceived fairness of our journalism exists.

Any invitations to make paid speeches must be discussed with senior editors to consider the potential for conflict or perceived conflict of interest. Generally, we should not accept payment from those we cover, particularly political or advocacy groups or commercial interests.

Employees should not accept invitations from outside companies or organizations to speak where the function is to attract customers to an event primarily intended as profit-making for that company or organization.

Back to top TORSTAR NEWSROOMS AND THE LAW

THE RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL

Torstar newsrooms seek not to publish anything that would jeopardize the right to a fair trial of a person accused of a crime. We also believe in freedom of expression and the publics right to know what is happening in the courts.

Just before or during a trial, these principles sometimes collide. But at the time of arrest, we believe it is in the public interest to publish as much relevant and fair information about the accused as possible, and that reporting such information does not jeopardize the right to a fair trial. In general, the police theory of crime and motive as well as the criminal record of the accused are relevant information to publish at the time of arrest. We sometimes live-stream police press conferences about arrests and believe the public interest of doing so outweighs the potential for a highly prejudicial statement about the accused, such as a statement that the accused is guilty. However, we guard against repeating such statements in further reporting on the news conference.

We also believe that publication of new information about a case up to six months before a trial does not jeopardize the rights of the accused. The nearer to a trial date new information emerges, the more carefully its public interest must be weighed against the rights of the accused.

We should not publish stories that state an accused person is guilty. At the time of arrest, the accused is often unable to respond to incriminating information or evidence of bad character. Fairness therefore requires that editors carefully consider the quality and accuracy of information reported about the accused. Prejudicial or negative statements about the accused should be published only when an editor deems they are well founded and there is a compelling public interest in doing so.

Media have less leeway to publish information just before or during a trial. We must not publish statements by police that tend to incriminate the accused or evidence of the bad character of the accused just before or during a trial until such information is presented as evidence in court. Doing so could cause a mistrial and result in our being cited for contempt of court.

We do not report that an accused person has confessed until the confession has been ruled admissible and entered into evidence in court.

The names of people charged with criminal offences are reported in our news stories unless there is a legal or ethical reason not to do so. Wherever possible, we try to distinguish the accused from others who share the same name by specifying their age, occupation and general place of residence.

We believe it is in the public interest to publish the names of all adult parties to a trial in the absence of a publication ban, including names of witnesses and victims, except for victims of sexual assault. Please see, below, the relevant sections of our policy on children and crime, and child protection cases.

In the absence of a publication ban, Torstar newsrooms do not agree to requests to withhold names of those involved in a trial except in exceptional circumstances, and with the permission of senior editors.

TRIAL COVERAGE AND UPDATING REPORTS OF CHARGES

Stories about court proceedings must be fair and accurate. When one side makes an important point, journalists should make every effort to report cross-examination on that point or contradictory evidence presented by the other side.

Journalists should never speak with jurors about a case before the trial is over. Journalists can talk to jurors after a trial, but it is illegal for jurors to discuss the deliberations or how the jury arrived at its decision.

When we become aware that charges have been dropped against people who were named in news stories at the time of their arrest, or that the accused has been acquitted, we report the information promptly. News reports of criminal charges published on digital platforms will be updated with a prominent note at the top of the article stating the outcome of any charges.

PUBLICATION BANS

Publication bans are routinely and automatically granted by courts in bail hearings, preliminary hearings and certain pre-trial motions dealing with the admissibility of evidence. While Torstar news organizations strongly believe that open courts, openly reported on, provide confidence to the public that justice is being done, we honour such court-imposed bans.

On occasion, a court will impose an extraordinary ban that goes well beyond the routine, such as a ban on publishing the name of someone accused of a serious crime or a witness in a case. On the instructions of the editor-in-chief, we may oppose such extraordinary bans in court when we believe it is in the public interest for the information to be reported.

VICTIMS OF CRIME

Editorial staff should show sensitivity when dealing with victims of crime and their families. Crime victims and their relatives should never be harassed to obtain their stories, identities or photographs. Journalists must clearly identify themselves and never use deception.

CHILDREN AND VICTIMS OF ALLEGED SEXUAL ASSAULTS

Torstar news organizations do not publish the names of victims of alleged sexual assaults, or anything that would identify them, unless such victims agree to be identified and senior editors consider it in the public interest to do so.

We do not publish anything that would identify a person under age 18 who has been charged with a crime. This policy is consistent with the Youth Criminal Justice Act. During sentencing, the court will determine whether a ban on identifying a convicted youth should continue after conviction.

The law states that a victim under the age of 18 cannot be identified once an accused who is also under 18 has been charged, unless the victims parents consent or the victim consents after turning 18. Senior editors should be consulted in cases where naming an underage victim may be newsworthy. Witnesses in a court hearing who are under 18 cannot be identified if the accused is also under 18.

CHILD PROTECTION CASES

Due to an automatic statutory ban, Torstar newsrooms do not publish anything that identifies a child involved in a child protection case, whether that child is a witness, participant or subject of the proceeding, or anything that identifies the childs parent, foster parent or family member.

CIVIL ACTIONS

Statements of claim and defence filed in civil lawsuits are protected by privilege. When we publish a news report based on those pleadings, every effort should be made to contact the other side for comment. If the subject is not available or declines comment, this should be reported prominently. So should a statement that the allegations have not been proven in court.

SEARCH WARRANTS AND SUBPOENAS

Torstar newsroom staff gather information for only one purpose: to publish. We do not collect information to assist the police or defence, or to aid parties in civil disputes.

Editorial staff should report to senior editors any overtures by police or lawyers for assistance on a case. Senior editors and Torstar lawyers should be notified immediately if police try to execute a search warrant in the newsroom or at a staff members home, or if a staff member is served with a subpoena.

Journalists will protect confidential sources and should be extremely careful about how and where they store information that could identify such sources.

CRIME SCENES

Torstar reporters, photographers and videographers are free to gather information or shoot pictures at crimes scenes provided they do not obstruct police officers or firefighters, or disturb or interfere with official activity. Staff should identify themselves to officers and be polite.

Police officers do not have the right to confiscate notes or camera equipment. If asked to turn anything over, staff should refuse and immediately consult a senior editor.

CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS AND CONVERSATIONS

Senior editors and lawyers should be consulted before publication of stories involving confidential documents that may have been obtained illegally.

BREAKING THE LAW

Staff members must obey the law when pursuing a story. Rarely, the only way to get a story will be to break the law. Such action may be taken only with the prior consent of the newsrooms most senor editors, and only when the story is of significant public interest.

LIBEL

Libel is injury to reputation. Words, pictures or drawings that damage a persons reputation can be potentially libellous and open our newsrooms to legal action. Such actions usually result from stories that allege crime, fraud, dishonesty, or immoral or unprofessional conduct.

The law on libel is complex, but the strongest answer to any libel claim is the truth. In cases where truth may not be accessible, Canadian law recognizes a defence called responsible communication in the public interest, which recognizes that investigative journalism is part of the vital role of the media. The defence has two essential elements: public interest and responsibility. To avail itself of this defence, a media defendant must show that it took reasonable steps in the circumstances to ensure the story was fair and the contents accurate.

Whatever the defence, we must be accurate and fair in everything we publish.

A sincere effort must be made to understand all sides of a story and fairly represent those views. As detailed in our guidelines on fairness, we must give anyone who will be portrayed in an uncomplimentary way, or against whom allegations are being made, a reasonable chance to respond.

We should represent documents fairly. Journalists should never cherry-pick information to suit a thesis not supported by the document as a whole, nor distort the overall meaning of a document.

We should be wary of sources with axes to grind and always ensure that information from sources whose motives are in question is based in fact and can be verified independently by the journalist.

We should ensure any reporting on privileged statements, such as proceedings in the House of Commons, the Senate, provincial legislatures, municipal councils or their committees, courts, public meetings or hearings by public boards and agencies, accurately and fairly reflects those statements. Articles should distinguish between privileged statements and those made outside the event, which are not privileged.

The Supreme Court of Canada has also explicitly recognized another defence called reportage. This defence is available where there is a public interest in reporting that defamatory allegations were made. This defence may be available where the defamatory allegations are attributed, the story indicates that truth of the allegations has not been verified, the story fairly sets out both sides of the dispute and the story provides the context for the statements made.

LIBEL NOTICES

When libel notices are served against a Torstar publication or staff member, we must note the time and method of service. The appropriate senior editors should be notified immediately and the notice distributed to the publisher, editors, Torstar legal counsel and those involved with that story.

An internal report must be assembled as soon as possible after receipt of a libel notice so a decision can be reached as to whether we should publish a retraction or correction. To limit damages, retractions and corrections must be published prominently within three days of receiving the notice.

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Each day in my practice at West Park Healthcare Centre, I am reminded of how COPD  a disease once exclusively found among men  is affecting women in increasing numbers.

In the last 15 years the number of women who are now suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has skyrocketed. Today half of my patients are women  and their numbers continue to grow.

What is it like to suffer from COPD? Its as if you can never catch your breath. Its a lung condition characterized by increasing and debilitating breathlessness and includes terms such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. The truth is that the vast majority of my patients today have COPD because of years of smoking. As smoking rates among women have continued to rise  so has the number of women suffering from COPD.

Many women smokers say that they were encouraged to smoke by advertising campaigns in the 60s and 70s such as the now infamous Youve Come A Long Way, Baby featuring cigarettes for women. These campaigns promoted smoking as a symbol of empowerment and equality. Sadly, that equality has translated to the equal burden of being unwell that they and their families experience.

Recent estimates show more than 1.5 million Canadians are suffering from the disease and over the next six years, it is estimated there will be 100,000 more Ontarians living with COPD.

By 2011 the gap in the death rate from COPD between the sexes had virtually disappeared. While smoking rates among men have declined, there has not yet been any corresponding drop in the death rates among women. We can expect a similar pattern to unfold among women, an eventual reduction in smoking followed by a delay in reducing their health care needs.

COPD is not curable. It progresses with time, leading to more breathlessness, decreased activity tolerance and less participation in day-to-day life. However, even at an advanced stage you can slow its progress by stopping smoking and improve your quality of life by using medications correctly, responding quickly to disease flare-ups, receiving the flu vaccine and by participating in pulmonary rehabilitation.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is considered to be the gold standard of care when it comes to managing COPD. It is recommended by professional organizations across the world. The patients learn breathing techniques to help deal with breathlessness as well as how to identify and manage a flare-up. They enrol in endurance and strength training to increase their ability exercise and become more mobile in their day-to-day lives. Most importantly they learn to manage their disease outside of a hospital setting.

According to research conducted at West Park Healthcare Centre by my colleague, Dr. Dina Brooks, less than five per cent of Canadians with COPD are eligible for pulmonary rehabilitation are able to access it. Access is limited by a lack of rehabilitation facilities and as a result of under-diagnosis. Current resources will not meet the growing need of future male and female COPD patients. We will have to be resourceful and creative to increase access and capacity to accommodate more individuals without overburdening the health-care budget. Approaches such as community programs and remote delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation through telehealth are promising directions that our group is exploring.

Tips for Lung Health

Taking care of your lungs doesnt have to be complicated. Here is some basic advice to keep you breathing easily.

 Dont smoke. As high as 98 per cent of COPD diagnoses are related to smoking.

 If you smoke, quit.

 If you have a lung condition, learn what triggers shortness of breath for you.

 Learn about your medications, including how and when to use them.

 Get the flu shot.

 Recognize the signs of a flare-up. Early intervention with medication or support from a family physician could avoid an emergency room visit.

 Enrol in pulmonary rehabilitation

 Stay fit and active.

Dr. Roger Goldstein is a professor of medicine and physical therapy at U of T. He heads Respiratory Services at West Park Healthcare Centre and holds the National Sanitarium Association Chair in Respiratory Rehabilitation Research. Doctors Notes is a weekly column by members of the U of T Faculty of Medicine. Email doctorsnotes@thestar.ca .

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The complicated task of how best to simultaneously reform the taxi industry and companies like Uber is now up to council.

On Friday evening, the six-member licensing committee, which has largely defended the traditional taxi industry, voted to scrap all of the staff-recommended changes that would legalize competition from services like UberX after 15 hours of public debate and dozens of speakers stretched over two days.

While licensing sent a statement to council that more than half of the 103 proposed rules do not provide a level playing field as promised by Mayor John Tory and as requested of staff, none of the committees decisions are final.

Members also voted to reverse several changes, requesting that snow tires for all cars and a command of English for all drivers be mandatory.

Council will now debate the regulations at its next meeting, which starts May 3.

By passing the regulations on to council for final approval, the committee heeded Torys urging that the regulations not be delayed. Earlier, Tory said he had spoken to committee members, including chair Councillor Cesar Palacio, who sits on the mayors executive, to make that point.

While the report could have been sent back to staff and delayed the debate at council, no one on committee made that move. A majority of councillors pushed for the reforms to move forward.

I think its important to recommend something to council as opposed to just a referral, said Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who throughout the day Friday vowed to kill the report. Council needs to, whether they like it or not, needs to respect a standing committee.

The proposed reforms from staff would create two sets of regulations  one for taxis and one for private technology companies like Uber. Since the draft rules were released last week, many of those representing factions within the industry that would lose out from sharing the road with Uber  owners of lucrative taxi plates and large brokerages  demanded the report to be scrapped entirely.

By Friday afternoon, it became clear almost no one was completely satisfied with the regulations.

While speakers continued to voice their opposition in front of the committee in city halls main council chamber, Uber representatives quietly registered their own concerns.

While Uber Canada did not sign up to speak or answer questions at the meeting, as they have in other cities, public policy manager Chris Schafer sent a 13-page letter to committee members on Friday, which was posted online.

Uber took issue with several key parts of the newly proposed reforms, which creates another hurdle for Tory and those pushing to adopt a new set of rules.

One too many seemingly innocuous pieces of regulatory red tape that dont serve to advance a core pillar, such as public safety, risks putting ride-sharing on life support, Schafer said in his letter.

The items of concern include the requirement that all vehicles be no older than seven years; that vehicles undergo annual, provincially certified inspections; additional fees for drivers; and that Uber share its records with the city to ensure drivers are complying with the rules.

Uber Canada spokesperson Susie Heath later clarified that none of its stated concerns are deal breakers and that even if council ignores them, Uber would not leave Toronto.

Councillor Janet Davis said Uber is trying to skirt regulations meant to protect public safety and accountability.

This is so typical of Uber. They want it their way, no other way. They ploughed into this market, they have ignored the rules and theyre trying to make up their own rules, Davis said. And theyre going to try to make the city even capitulate to the lowest standard and that is not acceptable.

On the age of vehicles, Uber argued the city provision unfairly prevents drivers with cars that are eight to 10 years old  vehicles in good working condition and with few kilometres  from working for them.

Uber claimed to have a sufficient process in place to ensure the safety of vehicles, saying cars are already subjected to a 26-point inspection each year and that the provincial inspection proposed by the city is essentially overkill.

The citys proposal to charge additional fees for drivers is an unnecessary burden, Uber said, requesting it be charged directly to the company instead.

Separate requirements on drivers deter people who only want to drive a few hours each week and will benefit from this kind of flexible work, Schafer wrote.

And Uber raised privacy concerns for drivers in sharing data with the city, meant to give licensing staff oversight, with Heath saying they want to better understand the citys collection, use and protection of any information that a ride-sharing company might provide.

While Uber was happy with regulations passed by Edmontons city council, they rejected stricter rules from Calgary, including on inspections and fees, and refused to operate there. Theyre currently not operating in either city as the province of Alberta looks to increase safety and insurance provisions.

In a statement, the mayors spokesperson Amanda Galbraith said the mayor believes we need new regulations that create a level playing field, provide safe, convenient options to our residents and allow drivers to earn a competitive living.

Our focus is not on pleasing one stakeholder, company or special interest, but instead to put the people of Toronto first by providing them with safe, convenient and affordable options to get around this city.

In the end, she said, council will decide whats best.

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Mayor John Tory is gathering Toronto black leaders to talk about trust and police  but Black Lives Matter leaders are not invited.

However, his comments Monday might have opened a door to detente with the group.

Tory told reporters he knows some black Torontonians feel targeted and disrespected, face systemic barriers to equality and dont trust the citys police service.

He is reaching out to some leaders of our black community to have a private summit with him and Mark Saunders, Torontos first black police chief, as early as this week. Tory wants advice on making sure everyone feels respected, feels included and feels safe in our city.

Asked if representatives of Black Lives Matter Toronto  a loud, leading voice for police accountability and transparency in the deaths of black Torontonians  will be invited, Tory said: No they wont.

The mayor said he has emailed the group four or five times asking for a private meeting, which its leaders rejected. The offer stands for a private meeting, separate from the one hes organizing now, but I dont intend to send any more emails.

Last week, coroner Dr. Jim Edwards said pressure from Black Lives Matter and other groups helped persuade him to call an inquest into the police shooting death last July of Andrew Loku, 45.

Tory agreed Black Lives Matter is an important voice in this conversation. He noted that, after Premier Kathleen Wynne spoke briefly to group members outside Queens Park, they met privately with one of her cabinet ministers before agreeing to hold four upcoming public community meetings on race and justice.

Tory said he expects that at an initial private meeting, you set an agenda for future discussions, private or public, and decide who should be involved and what you should be discussing.

Sandy Hudson, a Black Lives Matter co-founder, said that if Tory is suggesting he would participate in a future public meeting or meetings with her group after an initial private gathering, that is a first.

He has never opened the door to any public meeting with Black Lives Matter, she said. If hes not being dishonest about it, thats absolutely possible, that they could come to an arrangement.

We are not encouraged with any kind of action he taking on his own when dealing with issues of race and racism, Hudson said. Its not frustration with him not meeting with us  its the community, because he doesnt know enough about the issues for the community to have confidence that he will take care of issues of anti-black racism.

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ouvalis, a political mastermind behind the election of both Toronto Mayor John Tory and Rob Ford, says he had a timely wake-up call on the weekend after an accident near his home in southwestern Ontario.

The Windsor Star reported Monday that Nectarios Kouvalis, 40, of Amherstburg, was charged with drunk driving after a grey Lexus crashed into a concrete culvert in Tecumseh.

Since 2011, Ive been struggling with alcohol addiction. I was hopeful that after a stint in rehab and regular attendance at AA meeting that I had it under control, Kouvalis wrote in a series of Twitter messages posted Monday afternoon.

It has become apparent I do not. This weekend, I had an accident and thankfully no one was  injured, he wrote.

I am grateful I have received this timely wake up call and look forward to starting my journey to permanent sobriety.

Tory called the matter unfortunate, both in the standpoint of public safety and his own personal fortunes. Otherwise, the matters before the courts, the mayor said Monday at Toronto City Hall.

I havent (spoken to Kouvalis since he was charged). He acknowledged . . . that hes had personal issues and those are very challenging for anyone to deal with, including him, and I just wish him well in dealing with it, as I would anybody. Hes a very smart man and hes acknowledged he has some issues  and you hope people who have those issues, whoever they are, will be able to deal with them, Tory said.

The newspaper said Essex OPP reported arresting a man at the scene when he showed signs of being drunk. Kouvalis is charged with impaired operation of a motor vehicle and exceeding 80 milligrams blood alcohol content.

The Windsor Star asked Kouvalis by phone about the charges. He declined to comment, saying he cant talk about that.

The Toronto Star was not immediately able to reach Kouvalis or the OPP.

The Windsor Star says he is scheduled to appear in court on May 4.

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A 22-year-old man has been charged with the second degree murder of Gabriel Nikov, the 18-year old fatally near Yonge and Bloor Sts. last Wednesday.

Bradley Cheveldayoff, 22, of Toronto, was arrested on Sunday.

Around 8 p.m. last Wednesday, Toronto police officers arrived to the scene in front of a coffee shop where they found a wounded male victim without vital signs. He was rushed to a local trauma centre and was pronounced dead later that night.

Cheveldayoff is scheduled to appear in court at College Park, on Monday, April 18, 2016, 10 a.m.

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The human remains found in a Northwood Park fire pit has been identified as those of a Toronto man, police say.

On Saturday, Toronto police issued a missing persons notice for Julio Cesar Soto, 29, who was last seen on April 8 in the area of Assiniboine Rd. and Sentinel Rd.

On April 9, police responded to the Sheppard Ave. W. and Sentinel Rd. area, west of Downsview Park, at around 10 a.m. after receiving reports of an open fire. Officers found what they say appeared to be a body in the fire pit, with signs of a recently extinguished blaze.

The following day, police said it was a homicide investigation.

Northwood Park has witnessed a gruesome slaying at least once before; in 2004, a 32-year-old man, Juan Jose Mancia, was found dead there after suffering blunt-force trauma to the head.

With files from Vjosa Isai

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Black lives matter, of course they do. It shouldnt have taken a worldwide movement to accentuate the fact that blacks are disproportionately killed, over-policed and racially profiled.

The crime is that it should have to be said at all, over and over again.

Theres not much for Canadians to feel smug about, merely because the death tables of blacks killed by law enforcement pale, even in ratio terms, compared to the U.S. According to a Washington Post analysis of data  986 slain by law enforcement in total last year  blacks were killed at three times the rate of whites, and 40 per cent of them were unarmed when confronted by cops.

While Canada averages about 25 fatal shootings by police annually (not an official figure), Statistics Canada doesnt compile race-based stats; neither does the Special Investigations Unit or any other oversight agency in Ontario. Theyre very good, the SIU, at withholding information that would be useful in documenting trends or at the very least delineating areas of concern.

The SIU was born in 1990 out of public protest and resulting task forces, primarily in the wake of two 1988 fatal police shootings of blacks  Lester Donaldson, a disabled man with schizophrenia and a history of violence against police, confronted in his own home; and Michael Wade Lawson, shot by a Peel officer while the teenager was driving a stolen vehicle. In those shootings, officers were sent to trial on charges of manslaughter and second-degree murder, respectively. In both cases they were acquitted.

Three days after Donaldsons death, a group of activists formed the Black Action Defence Committee. The BADC was widely reviled at the time, condemned by cop supporters, yet the organization was responsible for changing the conversation in this city, for transforming that conversation into a debate about police accountability.

Weve come a long way yet nowhere near far enough.

The dearth of accountability is now focused on the SIU itself, which doesnt disclose the reasoning behind its findings, not to the public and not to victims families. Were it not for Dr. Jim Edwards ordering a coroners inquest  announced last week  into the police shooting of Andrew Loku nearly a year ago, we would be expected to continue in ignorance about how and why the 45-year-old Sudanese immigrant came to be killed after allegedly refusing to drop a hammer when approached by two Toronto cops in the hallway of a west-end building leased to tenants by the Canadian Mental Health Association.

The name of the officer who killed Loku is still secret, though Edwards has said the officer will be subpoenaed to testify. One way or another, the officers identity will be revealed and presumably well come to know about that individuals professional record, including any pertinent information about previous interactions with suspects.

I suspect the inquest will be more relevant in dissecting how cops engage with the mentally ill than exploring systemic racism. Mentally fragile lives matter, too. But weve been down that inquest road before and the mentally ill just keep on getting killed.

It shouldnt be this hard to winkle out significant information. That speaks to the legislative shortcomings of the SIU, a quarter-century and two scolding ombudsman reports later.

Black Lives Matter Toronto can take credit for the coroners decision to probe Lokus death. It was their steadfastness  setting up a camp outside police headquarters in March  which kept the focus on the victim. And it was their fury over the SIU outcome which stirred Edwards to action  the only action that remained, since the agency decided no charges were warranted against the police shooter, without ever explaining the merits of their judgment call. The public cant be trusted with those details, which have been disclosed only to a handful of officials, Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur among them.

Thats why there needs to be an overhaul of the SIU, Pascale Diverlus, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Toronto chapter and organizer of the HQ tent city, said at a Sunday press conference outside the cop-shop.

An overhaul of SIU practices may or may not ensue as part of a larger review of the Police Services Act already underway. But Ive seen too many reviews come and go over the decades to place much faith in the likelihood of an emboldened Act. Governments  Liberals, Conservative, New Democrats  have never shown much willingness to tackle broader police culture or trigger the wrath of police unions.

Association president Mike McCormack obviously takes a dim view of the organization, though his most pungent criticism has been aimed at Premier Kathleen Wynne over a comment she made at a scrum with Black Lives Matter protesters. I believe we still have systemic racism in our society, Wynne said, without making a direct correlation to policing. McCormack claims that was direct enough. Tough.

I like the response of Sandy Hudson, who appeared with Diverlus at yesterdays press conference. Were not trying to meet with him. He does not have the ability to change policy. Were not interested in what he says.

Finally, cutting to the quick of the thing. Who cares what McCormack says? The existing imbalance between public interest and police interests has for too long been out of whack specifically because the scales have been tilted toward cops. They speak loudly, have organized massive demonstrations of their own in this citys history, and taken dead aim at politicians who threaten their clout.

Black Lives Matter has inherited much of the disdain once levelled at BADC, a generation later. Their tactics  taking the protest outside the premiers home, for instance  have been slammed but theyve worked. Way too much snarl was directed at co-founder Yusra Khogali over an old cuss-tweet that said more about the carelessness of social-media yipping than the organizations objectives.

Some of those demands were reiterated on Sunday. A few of them are essentially absurd and belong in the domain of la-la-la: ensuring daycare and transportation so that members of the public can attend public consultations  on the whole gamut of policing issues  which they revealed have been promised by Queens Park. Four such consultations will take place though the place and timeline have not yet been formalized.

Frank talk is good. How much of this process will amount to little more than sideways placating by government remains to be seen.

The Police Act is the crux of the thing. SIU accountability  transparency, lifting the shroud of secrecy  is crucial.

It matters profoundly.

Mea multi culpa: King George VI was christened Albert Frederick Arthur George, known within the family as Bertie. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was on June 2, 1953, 16 months after her fathers death. Off with my head.

Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

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The Gut-Wrenching Story Of Chicago's Homeless Restaurant Workers

By Sarah Gouda in News on Apr 18, 2016 10:02PM



Photo via wavebreakmedia on Shutterstock

Sunday, The Guardian published an unnerving story of Chinese employment agencies that exploit undocumented restaurant workers in Chicago, forcing many of them into homelessness. Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan recently filed a complaint against three of such Midwestern agencies and two Illinois restaurants for subjecting Latino workers, especially, to dire working conditions, physical abuse and pay far below minimum wage.

The employment agencies, which cater to restaurants throughout the Midwest, require a commission for placing employees in jobs, the Guardian reports. This often leaves the worker making as little as $3 an hour, paid in cash under the table, once the commission is subtracted. To make ends meet, many workers live in a homeless encampment located between downtown and Chinatown.

"I like my job, Mario, a Mexican restaurant worker, told the Guardian. But I never thought I would be living under a bridge. If I die here, I die alone.

Many city officials and local residents remain oblivious to this encampment's existence, the Guardian reports. One can only hope the publicity conjured by this piece and Madigan's complaint will bring improved conditions for these men, who expressed fear of deportation for coming forward. (For this reason, the Guardian only used their first names.)

Read the full Guardian story here.
After Justice William B. Horkins delivered his verdict, pronouncing Jian Ghomeshi not guilty on all counts, Linda Christina Redgrave rushed to the witness assistance room and screamed in rage.

She was livid  not that Ghomeshi had been acquitted, but at how the judge had torn into her and the other two witnesses as inconsistent, unreliable and careless with the truth.

Redgrave had been exposed during cross-examination, he said, as a witness willing to withhold relevant information from the police, from the Crown and from the Court.

He indirectly called us liars, like You naughty girls, what were you thinking? Go back to your rooms. You wasted our time, she said during an interview at a coffee shop recently. How dare he be so condescending. He could have come to the not guilty in a much more respectful way to women. Hes not just talking to us, hes talking to all survivors of sexual abuse.

It hardened her resolve to campaign to change the legal system for sexual assault victims. To do that, she decided to get the publication ban on her name lifted, which Horkins did in court.

I want other women to do this. I want them to identify with me and know Im just a normal woman. Im doing this so other women will be armed doing this, said Redgrave, a grandmother who looks 15 years younger than her age (she doesnt want it printed) and de-stressed during the trial in a sauna at her gym.

Redgrave was the first complainant to take the stand against the man shed met while serving canapes at a CBC Christmas party in 2002. She told the court that on their first date, he grabbed her hair and yanked it really, really hard. A few weeks later in his home, he grabbed her hair again, punched her in the head several times and pulled her to her knees, she testified. After that, she said she had no contact with him.

During cross-examination, Ghomeshis lawyer, Marie Henein pointed out inconsistencies in Redgraves story that Horkins called concerning. After her initial statement to police, she had emailed them to add shed had hair extensions at the time. On the stand, she said she didnt. Also, in the media, she had changed her verbs, saying Ghomeshi had pulled her to the floor, in two interviews, and thrown her, in another.

The judge took particular issue with her demonstrably false memory that Ghomeshi had been driving a bright yellow Love Bug  a car Henein said he bought seven months later.

Her evidence fell apart when Henein produced two emails Redgrave had sent Ghomeshi after the alleged attacks  one with a photo of her in a red bikini. Horkins said these emails were not ones Redgrave could have simply forgotten about. He classified her behaviour as odd.

He called my behaviour odd, but the other two women had similar behaviour. I didnt know those women, said Redgrave. We didnt behave maybe as a man would have, who doesnt have a clue about these issues.

She maintains she had only vague memories of them, but didnt know if she ever sent them because Ghomeshi never responded.

If she could do it all over, Redgrave would retain a lawyer before speaking to the media and going to the police.

I had no idea what you say in the media was just as good as a sworn statement in court, she said. I didnt know I had to remember every precise detail and it would be used in court. At that point, I didnt even know I was heading that direction. I was just telling my story.

Redgrave only reported to police after Toronto police Chief Bill Blair called for witnesses to come forward. She thought her statement would help police with their investigation  she didnt understand it would be the bulk of their investigation. Each time she phoned them back or emailed with subsequent details, she thought she was giving them more clues to get to the truth. Instead, the way the system works, each additional detail was given to the defence. Much was used to discredit her memory.

Apparently, I was supposed to say it perfectly scripted from the beginning, she said. I thought what you say in court, that is your story.

Before every videotaped witness interview, police read from a script warning witnesses that they are under oath. Sex crime officers routinely make it clear that all evidence is shared with the defence, said Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash, but thats not included in the script. On the Toronto police website, A Guide for Sexual Assault Survivors explains many parts of the process, but not the importance of a witness statement.

Redgrave thinks police should have a written script plus a pamphlet for complainants to read before they make their statements, laying out how the legal system works and the fact that victims have the right to counsel before making their statement, as well as when it comes to their sexual history and third-party records.

The accused like Jian Ghomeshi are read their rights. Victims are not read their rights, she said. In a high profile case, they are not giving me my rights. I cant imagine in smaller (profile) ones.

Like many witnesses, Redgrave believed wrongly the Crown attorney was her lawyer and would defend her. She did later, however, receive free counsel from criminal lawyers Jacob Jesin and Alvin Shidlowski, without whom she said she would not have survived two rigorous days of cross-examination.

Because they are the ones typically in Marie Heneins shoes, they let me know the methods and tactics she could use, she said. The biggest thing they taught me is Listen carefully to the question.

Starting this spring, sexual assault victims in Toronto, Ottawa and Thunder Bay will be offered up to four hours of legal advice. Thats a start, says Redgrave. Jesin says he worked 100 hours, at least on her case.

In his ruling, Horkins said navigating this sort of proceeding is really quite simple: tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

The day before Horkins delivered her verdict, Redgrave had already put up a website for victims of sexual assault, comingforward.ca. Right now, it asks victims for their stories and offers clickable resources. Her plan is to compile a number of detailed briefing notes for complainants, walking them through the processes ahead, should they choose to file a police report.

Shes working with a legal writer.

I want to give women knowledge. Now, any layperson going up against a 25-year seasoned lawyer, who stands a chance? Its uneven. Its unfair. Maybe it still wont work out in their favour, but at least theyll go in there armed and ready, she says. The more knowledge we have, the more powerful well be on the stand.

Some responses from experts on Redgraves proposal:

Det. Ann-Marie Tupling, domestic violence services co-ordinator, Toronto Police Service: A 101 or pamphlet  maybe thats something we should put in place. Maybe thats something we as police need to do better  better inform the public about the process.

Defence lawyer David Butt: The operating presumption is that a witness is like a computer  press print, and they do a data dump of evidence. Thats not how human memory works. Right now, we punish people in the witness box for simply being human. We have to let incremental memory into the courtroom or let the client lawyer up before she gives her statement.

Criminal defence lawyer Jake Jesin, who counselled Redgrave: Whats not explained to them as well as it could be is the value of ensuring you are articulate, chronological, that you take the time, that you really think about the words you are going to use to describe your recollections because those exact words are going to be parsed by a defence lawyer and you will be asked questions about those exact words.

Marie Corbett, former Superior Court justice and author of January: A woman Judges Season of Disillusion: Theres no question that victims do not have a right to a fair trial. They dont have any articulated rights. I do agree that complainants should be given legal advice at some point.

Former Crown counsel Daniel Lerner likes the idea of a pamphlet because anything that educates the public about the criminal justice system is a good thing, but disagrees with the idea of legal counsel for victims, which might push witnesses to tailor their statements around perceived defence strategies.

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ISLAMABADA powerful earthquake rattled Pakistans capital and other cities on Sunday, killing one person in the northwest and wounding 30 others, officials said.

Pakistani official Arif Ullah told The Associated Press that the magnitude-7.1 quake was centred near neighbouring Afghanistans border with Tajikistan. Germanys GFZ Research Center for Geosciences set the quakes magnitude at 6.5.

Residents fled their homes and offices in the capital, Islamabad, as buildings swayed. Television footage showed people praying in public. Tremors were felt as far away as the Indian capital, New Delhi.

Two officials at Pakistans National Disaster Management Authority said the quake toppled the walls of homes in the northwest, killing one person. They said 30 wounded people were taken to hospitals in the northwest. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

NDMA spokesman Ahmad Kamal said postquake landslides were a potential threat, and said he had asked regional authorities to prepare for all possible contingencies.

A Pakistani student, Kiran Saeed, said she was studying at home in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, when it felt like someone shook her chair. When I turned back, no one was there and then the walls started shaking. We came out of the home and everyone was reciting verses from the Quran, she said.

Sahiba Bibi, an Islamabad resident, said she almost fell to the ground when the tremors began.

I am still very terrified, she said.

Sundays quake was the strongest since October, when a magnitude-7.5 earthquake damaged thousands of homes in the northwest.

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Donna Mays daughter had been in a downward spiral for months. Once a happy young woman, with dimples and a quick sense of humour, Jac had become addicted to opioids.

She first took OxyContin to cope with the pain from a fall down the stairs in her home in Sault Ste. Marie. When the prescription ran out, she turned to fentanyl patches  a highly addictive opioid 20 times stronger than heroin, and readily available on the street.

Jac began selling drugs to fuel her habit, lost custody of her three daughters, and ended up in a B.C. hospital with plural septic pneumonia and hepatitis C.

I flew out to see her. She had no teeth. Her eyes were sunken and she weighed less than 100 pounds. It was a horrible situation for a mother to find her child in, May said. Months later, in 2012, her daughter died from complications related to drug use.

May is one of 50 parents, including five Canadian mothers, travelling to New York to address a special three-day United Nations Session on the World Drug Problem beginning Tuesday. Her message? Dont treat drug users like criminals.

She is joining a growing chorus of reformers who say drug prohibition has been a failure and the UN treaties  which prohibit the production and supply of drugs and criminalize users  are outdated and ineffective.

The UN laws are killing a generation of children. I was raised with the notion that drugs were bad, says May. Then I realized my daughter needed help. With access to safe injection sites, mental health treatment and naloxone, which reverses the effects of an overdose, May believes her daughter could have recovered.

In advance of the UN summit, the Lancet, an influential medical journal, published an article calling the treaties ineffective, and proposing all non-violent drug use and possession be decriminalized. The continued criminalization of drug use fuels HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis transmission, said the researchers, faulting the UN drug regulations for not distinguishing between drug use, and drug abuse.

The last time the UN held a special session on drugs was in 1998, when the slogan was: Drug-Free World. We can do it! The slogan this time around is A Better World for Tomorrows Youth.

Despite growing global opposition to prohibition, the UN is unlikely to endorse any major changes to its regulations, given vehement opposition from member states such as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and several Southeast Asian countries. Many of these countries still use the death penalty for drug-related offences.

Still, researchers and policy experts say the tone of the debate has shifted. Political leaders can no longer credibly argue that the war on drugs has been a success. The goal of a drug-free world will likely never be reached. In the last two decades, the use of cannabis and pharmaceutical opioids has continued to rise, as has use of methamphetamines, while in Canada and the U.S., fentanyl overdoses have become significant public health problems. British Columbia recently declared a public health emergency over a significant increase in drug-related overdoses and deaths.

The consensus that prohibition is effective is dead, said Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch of the Open Society Foundations.

The unreasonable countries will now be perceived as unreasonable, she said. We are glad to have Canada back at the reform table. Countries with harm reduction programs have better outcomes.

In Canada, medicinal marijuana use is permitted and safe injection sites, already in place in Vancouver, are opening up in Toronto with the support of the new Liberal government. Plans are also afoot under the Trudeau government to decriminalize cannabis.

In the U. S.  once the principal champion of the war on drugs  several states have recently legalized marijuana, with little objection from the Obama administration. California, the worlds 8th-largest economy, is set to hold a referendum on marijuana legalization on election day, Nov. 8.

Portugal, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, and some Latin American countries, including Uruguay, have undertaken similar reforms. Innovative experiments in drug regulation, including Switzerlands national health plan that supports heroin-assisted treatment and maintenance doses for addicts, are underway. In Mexico, the president of the Senate introduced a bill to Congress this month to legalize medicinal marijuana.

We are going through a generational, century-wide transition from the failed drug prohibition of the 20th century to a new 21st-century drug control regime, said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. It is like the way we changed our views on AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s.

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PORTOVIEJO, ECUADOREcuadors security minister says the death toll from the countrys devastating earthquake has risen to 413. Cesar Navas said rescuers are continuing to seek more victims and survivors in collapsed buildings after Saturday nights magnitude-7.8 quake.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Red Cross says as many as 100,000 people may need assistance in the area of Ecuador devastated by the earthquake.

The group says in a statement that there is no official estimate yet on the number of affected people but it estimates that between 70,000 and 100,000 will need some kind of help. It says that 3,000 to 5,000 people need temporary housing after the quake flattened homes.

Two members of a Quebec family were among those killed, a relative confirmed Monday.

Guy Laflamme told Montreal radio station 98.5 FM his nephews wife, Jennifer Mawn, and their son, Arthur Laflamme, were among the 413 reported dead after the roof of a residence collapsed on them.

Laflamme said his nephew, Pascal Laflamme, and his family had moved to Ecuador not too long ago and that they liked travelling and working abroad.

He said Pascal had been chatting on FaceTime with his father Real, who was in Quebec, when the earthquake hit Saturday night.

Everything was going well and from one moment to the next, everything started to shake, to vibrate, Laflamme said. Pascal shouted, Get out! Get out! and all communication was cut off.

The uncle said Pascal managed to get in touch later to confirm the deaths. Word of his sons death was sent by text first and a few hours after that, Pascal Laflamme managed to reach his father to also relate Mawns death.

Guy Laflamme said Pascal also mentioned he and his daughter, Laurie-Ann, were slightly injured but OK.

They went to the hospital, but there were a lot of people extremely injured so they went to stay with friends, he said.

The family often blogged about their travels; they lived on Reunion Island between 2007 and 2010, returned briefly to Canada and then headed to Mauritius before moving to Ecuador.

Pascal Laflamme noted in one post the family had moved last September to the coastal town of Bahia de Caraquez.

We just love it here, weather is great and living by the Pacific Ocean is a real joy! he wrote.

Mawn was a neuropsychiatrist who founded a clinic working with children and teens in Longueuil, south of Montreal.

A work colleague, Hugo Laprise, said Mawn kept tabs on the clinic despite being abroad and checked in several times a week.

Laprise said staff are in shock and that Mawn will be dearly missed.

She was a very nice person, Im really shocked, Laprise said. She was a very positive person, she was a very nice person, she was very honest, professional and was always trying to look for the best interest of everybody.

Global Affairs Canada has asked friends and relatives of those known to be travelling in Ecuador to contact its emergency response centre.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Canada will respond right away to any request for aid.

These human tragedies are so, so compelling and the world needs to come together to make sure that every resource, every bit of assistance and support, is made available, Goodale said in Ottawa.

We will respond to any request with great diligence . . . . Obviously this is an emergency, so we would respond immediately.

Spains Red Cross says it is helping the Ecuadorean Red Cross evaluate need for the coastal area devastated by the quake.

The statement says about 800 volunteers and staff members with the Ecuadorean Red Cross are involved with search-and-rescue operations and helping provide first aid and other services to people in the quake zone.

As aid poured into Ecuador, the countrys security co-ordination office issued a tweet thanking Mexico for sending 120 rescue workers.

Aftershocks continued to rattled Ecuador on Monday. Ecuadors Geophysics Institute says 230 aftershocks had hit as of Sunday night, ranging in magnitude from 3.5 to 6.1 and striking at shallow depths.

The institute also sent out a steady stream of tweets Monday morning each time a new aftershock was registered. Most were happening in the Pacific Ocean near the hard-hit coastal cities of Pedernales and Manta.

The earthquake left a trail of ruin along Ecuadors normally placid Pacific Ocean coast, buckling highways, knocking down an air traffic control tower and flattening homes and buildings.

Portoviejo, a provincial capital of nearly 300,000, was among the hardest hit, with the towns mayor reporting at least 100 deaths. Among them are 17-year-old Sayira Quinde, her mother, father and toddler brother, crushed when a building collapsed on their car.

A grief stricken aunt, Johana Estupinan, is now heading to the town of Esmeraldas, where she will bury her loved ones and break the news to her sisters three now-orphaned children. The Quinde family had driven to her house from their home hours north to drop off Sayira before she was to start classes at a public university on a scholarship to study medicine.

The aunt says I never thought my life would be destroyed in a minute.

With files from The Canadian Press

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German former judge and journalist Jurgen Todenhofer is a veteran observer of some of the worlds most dangerous wars. In 2014, he took a perilous journey into the territory of Daesh with his photographer son, Frederic, and survived to tell the tale.

His book, My Journey into the Heart of Terror: Ten Days in the Islamic State, is an alarming and illuminating look at the group that has spread terror through the Middle East and Europe. And his conclusions run counter to the strategy of the policy-makers who are battling it.

How did you make contact with Daesh?

My son sent emails to about 80 German jihadists asking if they would discuss with me what they were doing in the so-called Islamic State. We got answers from 15 to 20 people. At the end of three weeks we had three people we were talking with.

After some discussions I was told to talk to a member of the Daesh media department, a German guy named Abu Qatadah. I talked with him for hours and hours over more than four months. We discussed the theology of Daesh, the brutality of Daesh, the strategy of Daesh.

How confident were you of your safety?

It was a long discussion. I asked if I could get a guarantee from their caliph. I asked them to publish it and they agreed. They published it on Twitter, so I had the chance to wait and see if they would make a denial  the guy I talked to could have been part of another terrorist group.

There was no denial, only many comments from Daesh backers writing that they hoped Daesh would behead me, and that it was a wonderful chance to get this guy who was always criticizing Daesh.

What conditions were you given for your interviews in Iraq and Syria?

No conditions. I had a list of things I wanted to see and they didnt make up my program. I wanted to go to Mosul, as I had been there before the American invasion. About two-thirds of my wishes were accepted.

They wanted to see all the film material, and my son had to show it every evening. In the end, they deleted not more than 10 per cent: in one (example) my son wanted to have a photo taken with his dad. But one of the fighters had put a machine gun at the back of his head as a kind of joke so that was deleted. And we (photographed) a female beggar in Mosul, but there are officially no beggars in the Islamic State.

Were you surprised by your first view of the self-proclaimed Islamic State?

I thought they were very strong and very dangerous. But I was surprised by many things. One was that they were a state: they have a medical service, social care, taxes, lots of things like in a normal state. Its a bad state, a primitive state. But thats why I was able to come back  they gave a guarantee in the states name and it would have been a defeat for them if they did not respect it.

Secondly, I was surprised how normal it was when we arrived in Mosul. There was huge traffic in the street and a lot in the little markets. But all the Christians had been forced to leave. The Shias had left or been killed. It was only a Sunni city. The Mosul I knew was a multi-ethnic, multi-religious city.

You didnt see the atrocities they circulate on the Internet?

I met a judge and asked many questions: would there be an amputation or beheading in the next few days? I wouldnt go to a beheading or an amputation. But he said no. He had (ordered) two amputations and it was a deterrent. There was no beheading, no executions.

But at that moment a guy from the media department said if you need this for your camera I can arrange it. Would you like an amputation or a beheading? The prisons are full of guilty people and I can do this for you myself.

They have extraordinary contempt for human life. Abu Qatadah said that Daesh was prepared to kill 500 million Shias if they didnt convert.

They have lost all sense of human feeling or respect for the lives of others. But this is brainwashing. They think they are right, that they are in a war. I discussed it very often with them.

Some 113 to 114 (chapters) of the Quran start with in the name of God the most gracious, the most merciful. I asked where is your mercy? and I got an answer only at the end when we left. They said we are too weak to be merciful. (They also said) we captured 3,500 Shias in Mosul and killed only 50 per cent. With the other 50 per cent we were merciful. This is their kind of mercy.

Have the Russian and coalition bombing campaigns modified their ambitions at all?

No. I think the American government wants to show successes, but in all wars telling the truth isnt the main strategy. Ive read that something like 40 per cent of IS territory was lost. But its maybe 15 per cent or so.

Western countries celebrated what they called a big victory in Ramadi. There were 2,000 Daesh fighters at the beginning of the battle, which took three months. The town was attacked by 20,000 Iraqi troops. It was bombarded every day.

The real result was that 1,850 Daesh fighters escaped and are fighting in the suburbs of Ramadi and other places. Less than 150 were killed, and 90 per cent of the citys houses and infrastructure were destroyed.

So the bombing wont eradicate them?

It has two effects. The first is that young people who have lost their houses tend to become terrorists too. Many in Ramadi said theyd join Daesh.

The other is that it is important for Daesh to have a state. If they lost (territory) they told me they would become the biggest terrorist underground the world had ever seen. They said we will disappear and we will go to your countries. So bombarding them isnt the right strategy. Canada was right to stop.

Youre saying there is no solution and they will just fulfil their goals?

Their behaviour and ideology are extremely horrible, but the strategy to defeat them is not easy.

First, Americans would have to stop the Gulf States from delivering weapons and ammunition to extremists in Syria. They dont give them directly to Daesh, but it is the strongest and gets them from the other groups.

Second, the border must close between Daesh territory in Syria, and Turkey. It is not easy to cross, but it is possible. (If it was closed) Daesh wouldnt get new fighters, and they need them because their fighters die.

Third, they can only be successful if they have support in the population. Iraq is the most important country for Daesh. After the invasion of American troops in 2003, the Sunni population was stripped of power and kicked out of the political system. Sunnis were excluded from the political process. Thats why until now Sunnis have tolerated Daesh in Iraq.

So a political solution is possible?

If the international community can persuade the Shia Iraqi government to have a national reconciliation and give the same rights to the Sunnis, they will stop tolerating Daesh.

Normal Sunni culture is completely different from the medieval extremist attitude of Daesh. The Sunnis are getting angry. Girls cant go to university in Mosul. People cant leave the city without asking permission and signing a paper.

More and more are ready to fight Daesh. But if we bombard them we only push them to the side of Daesh.

In Syria its even more difficult to sign an agreement between a dictator and feudal rebels. But there is a ceasefire and even some of the rebels understand five years is enough. There is a small window of opportunity, and we should take advantage of it.

When you left Syria, you found out a shocking fact about your driver.

On our trip, our driver was the boss. He was the famous Jihadi John (the British militant and executioner killed by a drone in November 2015.) He was masked. But I saw his face in a room near where we had lunch, and in the British newspapers.

And yet, you came back alive.

I believed I would come back. But every night before sleeping I didnt know if I would survive another day. If you climb a high mountain you cant fear the summit: you go to your personal limits.

This interview has been edited for length, clarity and Star style.

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MOGADISHU, SOMALIASomalias president, prime minister and speaker of parliament have issued a joint condolence to the nation on Monday over an unconfirmed report that some migrants may have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on a trip from Libya to Italy.

Reports of the drownings are circulating among families and on social media but so far remain unconfirmed by coast guard authorities in Italy, Greece, Libya or Egypt.

Somalias state radio quoted the Somali embassy in Egypt when reporting the incident.

The joint statement from the Somali leaders said that 400 migrants, mostly Somalis, drowned when their boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea on a trip from Libya to Italy. But the Somali information minister later said that 200 drowned. Later reports said even fewer had drowned.

Its a painful tragedy which reminds us all how important it is for us to discourage our youth from embarking on such high risk journeys, the leaders joint statement said.

Many people saw on Facebook the I am Somali page which a montage of photos of young people who it said were Somalis who had drowned. It was not possible to verify the identities of those in the post.

Very painful, death of nearly 400 Somalian young men and women near the Egyptian coast ... most of them are students in Sudanese and Egyptian universities, said one post.

Another post read: April 17, 2016black day.

A Somali news website, Goobjoog News, carried an interview with Awale Warsame, who said he is a survivor of the incident.

There were 500 passengers, mostly Somalis on the boat, but only 23 people survived, he said. Survivors, including me, had to use broken wood pieces from the capsized boat to float over waters before we were rescued. We had travelled from Egypt, especially Alexandria, on April 7th and the boat capsized on April 12 but we were rescued by a Filipino ship off a Greek island five days later.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said that his ministry had no information and officials are checking the reports.

Libyas Coast Guards Spokesman Ayoub Jassem said he has no information on the migrants, and said that scores of boats leave the Libyan shores every day and they have very limited capabilities to stop them or rescue those who are at risk of drowning.

A top Somali diplomat in Cairo told The Associated Press that we have no official confirmation on the reports and they are working with the Egyptians to verify them.

The Greek coast guard said it had no reports of any boat sinking in the area. On Saturday, Greeces coast guard said a merchant vessel had rescued 41 migrants about 95 nautical miles (175 kilometres) off Greeces southwest coast after their wooden boat lost steering. The coast guard said those rescued boarded a Filipino-flagged merchant ship, which arrived at the southern Greek mainland port of Kalamata early Sunday. The migrants on board were reportedly from Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan.

Shipwrecks in open seas are difficult, if not impossible, to verify, as it is often not possible to recover bodies. Instead, their fates are described by survivors and, in cases when boats are lost at sea without any rescue attempt, by relatives who report their failure to arrive in Europe. Organizations tracking the migrant flows rely on the consistency of the reports from loved ones which they say give veracity to such reports.

The report of the sinking comes on the one-year anniversary of the anniversary of the shipwreck of a fishing boat crowded with smuggled migrants which sank to the sea floor with some 800 people on board. Only 28 survived.

The Vatican newspaper LOsservatore Romano reacted to the reports on the front page Monday afternoon with the headline Yet another massacre, recalling the anniversary of the shipwreck near Lampedusa last April 18.

The migrant drama knows no end, the newspaper wrote.

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JERUSALEMA bus exploded in Jerusalem on Monday, wounding at least 21 people in what police said was a terror attack, raising fears of a return to the Palestinian suicide bombings that ravaged Israeli cities a decade ago.

There is no doubt that this was a terror attack, Jerusalem police commissioner Yoram Halevy said. He said it was too early to know the identity of the attacker or if it was a suicide bombing.

We are investigating where the explosive device came from, who planted it, how it got on the bus. All this is in the initial stages of investigation, he said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 21 people were wounded in the attack, two seriously, seven moderately and the rest lightly.

Another bus and a car nearby were also damaged by the explosion.

It was not clear how many people were on the bus at the time it exploded. Police said the blast was caused by an explosive device detonated at the back.

Bus driver Moshe Levy told reporters he checked his bus for bombs twice before he started his journey. He said he was in a traffic jam when suddenly there was an explosion in the back, I immediately understood it was a terror attack, I opened the doors of the bus so people could escape and told them to get out.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation. We will locate those who prepared this explosive device. We will reach the dispatchers. We will also reach those behind them. We will settle the score with these terrorists.

The blast came as jittery Israelis prepared for the Passover holiday amid a seven-month wave of Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, shootings and attacks where cars were used as weapons against civilians and security forces.

In that time, Palestinian attackers killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. At least 189 Palestinians have been killed. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were attackers, with the rest killed in clashes with security forces.

For some, the bombing was reminiscent of attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad when the Palestinian groups sent suicide bombers to detonate their explosives in buses and cafes.

Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, issued a statement praising the bus bombing, but did not take responsibility for it.

Some mosques in Gaza also welcomed the attack with messages of praise broadcast from loudspeakers.

A spokesman for Hamas in Qatar, Husam Badran, said This attack affirms to everyone one that our people will not abandon the resistance path.

The current round of bloodshed was triggered in September by unrest at a major Jerusalem shrine revered by both Muslims and Jews, and quickly spread to Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza border.

Israel says the violence is fueled by a campaign of Palestinian incitement compounded on social media sites that glorify and encourage attacks. Palestinians say the violence is due to a lack of hope for gaining independence after years of failed peace efforts.

Meanwhile, Jordans prime minister on Monday said his government has decided to call off a plan to install surveillance cameras at Jerusalems most sensitive holy site, derailing a U.S.-brokered pact to ease tensions at the volatile hilltop compound.

The decision came just days before the Jewish holiday of Passover, a time of increased activity at the site. The spot is revered by Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount, and Muslims, who call it the Noble Sanctuary. It has been a frequent scene of violence in the past.

In a deal brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Jordan offered to install the cameras last fall after clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces.

The Palestinians had accused Israel of secretly plotting to take over the site, a charge Israel strongly denies, while Israel pointed to videos showing Palestinian protesters using the mosque as cover while throwing stones and firecrackers at police.

The idea was that transparency by both sides would help ease tensions.

But the plan quickly ran into trouble, as the Palestinians objected to Israeli demands to place cameras inside the mosque. The Palestinians also said that Israel would use the cameras to spy on them.

Jordans prime minister, Abdullah Ensour, told the state-run Petra News Agency that Jordan was calling off the plan due to Palestinian concerns.

We were surprised since we announced our intention to carry out the project by the reactions of some of our brothers in Palestine who were skeptical about the project, he said. We have found that this project is no longer enjoying a consensus, and it might be controversial. Therefore we have decided to stop implementing it.

The Jordanian decision could deal an embarrassing blow to Kerry, who had hailed the deal at the time it was announced in October and pushed behind the scenes in recent months for the sides to wrap it up.

There was no immediate reaction from the U.S., Israel or the Palestinians.

The site is revered by Jews as the location where the biblical Temples once stood.

Today, it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.

Under a decades-old arrangement, Jews are allowed to visit the site, but not to pray there.

Increased visits to the compound last fall by Jewish nationalists, coupled with some restrictions on Muslim access, set off clashes that quickly escalated into months of violence across Israel and the West Bank.

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A 911 caller wont be charged for reporting a man waving a gun in a Walmart store before police fatally shot the shopper, whod picked up an air rifle from a shelf, a special prosecutor said Monday.

The decision was made by Mark Piepmeier, the same prosecutor who had presented the shooting case to a grand jury. It concluded that the August 2014 shooting of 22-year-old John Crawford III at the Beavercreek store, near Dayton, Ohio, was justified.

That grand jury had authority to bring charges against 911 caller Ronald Ritchie if merited but didnt, Piepmeier said in a Monday court filing outlining his findings that no charges are warranted.

I dont find any evidence that Mr. Ritchie knew any of the information he was providing was false, Piepmeier wrote. The Hamilton County prosecutors office, where Piepmeier is chief assistant prosecutor, said he wouldnt comment further.

A group of people who took interest in the shooting had used an obscure law to push for prosecution of Ritchie, who told investigators he thought the firearm was real.

The law allows private citizens to make complaints for review by a judge who can then refer them for further review by a prosecutor. A Fairborn Municipal Court judge reviewed the filings, including surveillance video synchronized with the 911 recording, and ruled there was sufficient evidence to prosecute Ritchie for the misdemeanour of making false alarms.

One of the filers, Dayton-area activist Bomani Moyenda, said he thinks the prosecutor ignored video segments that indicate Crawford wasnt doing what the caller described at certain moments.

It doesnt surprise me at all looking at the way this case has been handled from Day One, Moyenda said. Theres just no semblance of justice anywhere at all.

He said hell consider whether there are any other legal avenues to push the matter further.

Piepmeier has handled some of Ohios biggest cases, including a deadly 1993 prison riot and cases involving excessive force by police, but the filers were upset that he was the prosecutor appointed to review the 911 callers role. They noted that after the grand jurys decision, Piepmeier had publicly described Ritchie as someone trying to be a good citizen.

The Riverside man was the only person to call 911 before shots were fired at the store. He reported a man walking around waving an apparent rifle and pointing it at people. The next day, the Riverside man told authorities the man actually didnt point the firearm but swung it around and flashed the muzzle at children.

Calls to Ohio and Florida phone numbers currently associated with Ritchies name have gone unanswered.

An attorney for Crawfords relatives, who sued the officers, has said they hold police responsible for what happened.

Police said that they believed Crawford had a real weapon and that he didnt respond to commands to put it down  something the soundless video cant corroborate.

The shooting remains under review by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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I was angry because she was raped, thats one thing. But she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What a waste. The mayor to whom he was referring, by the way, is himself, Rodrigo Digong Duterte, mayor of Davao City on Mindanao in the Philippines.

Thats the kind of dark, cruel joke most people would be embarrassed to tell (or even hear) in the privacy of their own homes, yet its one that Duterte, a front-running candidate for president of the Philippines, said publicly.

A YouTube video showing the mayor making these statements recently surfaced and is causing an uproar even in a country accustomed to some raunchy politics. While the commentators have started referring to him as another Donald Trump, this guy makes Mr. Trump look like Mr. Rogers. Among the previous nicknames for Duterte are the punisher and Duterte Harry, after the Clint Eastwood character Dirty Harry.

The video was shot during a campaign rally in Quezon City, Philippines, on April 12, CNN Philippines reported.

Hes referring to an incident that took place during his first term as mayor in August 1989 at the Davao City Jail.

Inmates of the jail overpowered their guards and grabbed their weapons, taking 15 people, including 36-year-old Australian lay minister Jacqueline Hamill, hostage in 1989.

Hamill told Rev. Fred Castillo, another hostage who would later escape, that she had been raped by her captors.

They also slashed her throat.

As troops stormed the prison, killing 15 captors in a hail of gunfire, Hamill was shot in the neck and died.

I looked at her face, son of a b---. She looks like a beautiful American actress  what a waste, the presidential candidate said, before making the aforementioned remarks about how he should have been first.

In a Facebook post on Monday, the Australian Embassy in the Philippines wrote, Rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialised (sic). Violence against women and girls is unacceptable anytime, anywhere.

Theyre not the only ones with strong words for Duterte.

In response, one of the Philippines opposing presidential candidates in the May 9 election, Manuel Mar Roxas II, said anyone who laughs at the ultimate assault on the dignity of women should not be allowed to wield power, CNN Philippines reported.

Another candidate, Sen. Grace Poe, said, It is distasteful and unacceptable, and reflects his disrespect for women. No one, whoever she is and whatever her looks may be, deserves to be raped and abused. Rape is a crime and no laughing matter. We should all be outraged at abuses against women, according to CNN Philippines.

Philippines Vice President Jejomar Binay took to Twitter to unabashedly state his discontent with Duterte: You are a crazy maniac who doesnt respect women and doesnt deserve to be president.

Many users have tweeted about the mayor, tagging their tweets with #RapeIsNotAJoke. One user tweeted, When we make light of rape, were empowering rapists and imply to victims that their situation shouldnt be taken seriously. Another tweeted, I want a candidate who understands the responsibilities and accountabilities of the public office he/she is running for.

Though the video shows the crowd laughing when he says this, Duterte denies allegations that it was said in jest. Instead, he admitted to having said it in 1989 and claims he was merely retelling the story at the rally.

It was not a joke, he said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. I said it in a narrative. I wasnt smiling.

I said it in the heat of anger, Duterte said. Im sorry in general. Im sorry to the Filipino people, its my style, its my mouth, I said it in anger  listen to the story behind it.

Duterte once made a tourist swallow a cigarette butt for refusing to follow the citys smoking ban, Rappler reported. He has described himself unapologetically as a womanizer, admitting to currently having three girlfriends and a common law wife, according to CNN Philippines. He has pledged to execute 100,000 criminals and feed them to the fish in the Manila Bay, Kicker Daily News reported.

Still, hes a front-runner.

Duterte poses a grave challenge to the countrys fragile democratic institutions, said two scholars writing earlier this month in the East Asia Forum. He has promised to clean up the country within six months and has threatened to abolish Congress or tame the courts if they try to stand in his way. The rapid rise of voter support for Duterte, despite his late entry into the race, highlights the pent-up anger among the lower-middle class at the deterioration of public order and concerns about growing drug abuse.

Dutertes neo-authoritarian style, alongside anti-Imperial Manila sentiments, has fuelled his popularity, particularly in his birthplace of southern Mindanao. Duterte does not deny his poor human rights record  instead he brags about extrajudicial killings that he claims were necessary to pacify Davao, they wrote. Along with his bombastic style and rough language  which is typical of a many local politicians but unusual in national politics  this cavalier attitude makes him a kind of Philippine version of Donald Trump, wrote Julio C. Teehankee of De La Salle University and Mark R. Thompson, of the City University of Hong Kong.

He projects the look of somebody who could actually deliver on what people need, has that ability to connect with a certain group of the electorate, University of Asia and the Pacifics School of Law and Governance Professor Jeremy Gatdula told ABS-CBN News.

Whether that will be enough to elect him on May 9 remains uncertain, but his joke has stirred the ire of many Twitter users:

We should make a strong statement to the whole world. Let us not elect this sick mayor! #NoToDuterte2016 #RapeIsNotAJoke

Presidential candidate, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte  I think I just lost all the respect I had for you. #sorrynotsorry #RapeIsNotAJoke

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NEW YORKThe Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday for documenting the use of slave labour in Southeast Asia to supply seafood to American tables  an investigation that spurred the release of more than 2,000 captive workers.

The Tampa Bay Times and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune received the investigative reporting prize for a project on mental hospitals, and the Tampa Bay Times also won in local reporting for studying the harmful effects of ending school integration in Pinellas County, Florida.

The Los Angeles Times won the breaking news prize for its coverage of the deadly shooting rampage by husband-and-wife extremists at a government building in San Bernardino, California, and The Washington Post received the national reporting award for an examination of killings by police in the U.S.

The New York Times won the international reporting award for detailing the plight of Afghan women, and the breaking news photography prize for images of refugees.

The Boston Globe was honoured in the feature photography category for pictures of a boy who had suffered abuse, and the newspapers Farah Stockman took the commentary prize for her work on the legacy of school busing in the city.

ProPublica and The Marshall Project received the award for explanatory reporting for exploring a rape case in which authorities initially didnt believe the victim, prosecuted her for lying, and years later came to realize she was telling the truth.

The New Yorker was awarded the feature reporting prize for a story on the enormous Cascadia fault line under the Pacific Ocean, while the magazines Emily Nussbaum won in the criticism category for her TV reviews.

In editorial writing, John Hackworth of Sun Newspapers of Charlotte Harbor, Florida, was honoured for his pieces about a deadly assault on an inmate by guards. Jack Ohman of The Sacramento Bee took the editorial cartooning prize for what judges called work that conveys wry, rueful perspectives through sophisticated style.

The awards marked the centennial of the Pulitzers, American journalisms highest honours.

Associated Press journalists Margie Mason, Robin McDowell, Martha Mendoza and Esther Htusan chronicled how men from Myanmar and other countries were being imprisoned, sometimes in cages, in an island village in Indonesia and forced to work on fishing vessels. Numerous men reported maimings and deaths on their boats.

The 18-month project involved tracking slave-caught seafood to processing plants that supply supermarkets, restaurants and pet stores in the U.S. Subsequent Associated Press reports detailed the use of slave labour in processing shrimp.

If Americans and Europeans are eating this fish, they should remember us, Hlaing Min, 30, a runaway slave from the Indonesian island, told The Associated Press. There must be a mountain of bones under the sea.

The stories, photos and videos led to freedom for thousands of fishermen and other labourers, numerous arrests, seizures of millions of dollars in goods and crackdowns on Thai shrimp peeling plants.

Associated Press executive editor Kathleen Carroll commended all of The Associated Presss journalists, saying they stand up for people who dont have a voice and use the tools of our craft to inform the world and, occasionally, right wrongs that need to be righted.

The Post, meanwhile, explored an issue that has prompted protests and debate around the U.S. in recent years. The newspaper found that in 2015, on-duty police officers shot and killed 990 people nationwide  and that unarmed black men were seven times more likely to die at the hands of police officers than unarmed whites. More than 50 of the officers had killed someone before.

Established by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, the prizes were first given out in 1917. Public service award winners receive a gold medal; the other awards carry a prize of $10,000 (U.S.) each.

The 2016 Pulitzer Prize winners

Public Service:

The Associated Press, for a series of articles documenting the use of slave labour in the commercial seafood industry in Indonesia and Thailand. More than 2,000 enslaved fishermen were freed after officials took action as a result of the APs reporting.

Breaking News Reporting:

Los Angeles Times staff, for coverage of the San Bernardino massacre and the ensuing investigation.

Investigative Reporting:

Leonora LaPeter Anton and Anthony Cormier, of the Tampa Bay Times, and Michael Braga, of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, for a project on escalating violence and neglect in Florida mental hospitals.

Explanatory Reporting:

T. Christian Miller, of ProPublica, and Ken Armstrong, of The Marshall Project, for a story about police and prosecutors who didnt believe an 18-year-old Washington woman when she reported that she was raped at knifepoint, and two Colorado detectives who arrested a serial rapist were able to connect the case back to the woman.

Local Reporting:

Michael LaForgia, Cara Fitzpatrick and Lisa Gartner, of the Tampa Bay Times, for a story that studied the effects on education in Pinellas County, Florida, when schools in poor neighbourhoods were essentially desegregated and neglected.

National Reporting:

The Washington Post staff, for an examination of killings by police officers in the U.S., which found that 990 people had been shot and killed by on-duty police officers nationwide in 2015.

International Reporting:

Alissa J. Rubin of The New York Times, for coverage of abuse facing the women of Afghanistan.

Feature Writing:

Kathryn Schulz of The New Yorker, for a story about rupturing of the Cascadia fault line.

Commentary:

Farah Stockman of The Boston Globe, for columns on the legacy of busing in Boston and its lingering effect on education.

Criticism:

Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker, for television reviews.

Editorial Writing:

John Hackworth, of Sun Newspapers in Charlotte Harbor, Florida, for editorials on a deadly assault of an inmate by guards.

Editorial Cartooning:

Jack Ohman of The Sacramento Bee.

Breaking News Photography:

Mauricio Lima, Sergey Ponomarev, Tyler Hicks and Daniel Etter, of The New York Times, for photographs that captured the resolve of refugees, and Thomson Reuters staff, for photos of migrants covering hundreds of miles.

Feature Photography:

Jessica Rinaldi, of The Boston Globe, for photos of a boy who strives to find his footing after being abused.

Fiction:

The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Drama:

Hamilton, by Lin-Manual Miranda

History:

Custers Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America, by T.J. Stiles

Biography or Autobiography:

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, by William Finnegan

Poetry:

Ozone Journal, by Peter Balakian

General Nonfiction:

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, by Joby Warrick

Music:

In for a Penny, In for a Pound, by Henry Threadgill

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China continued to top the world's patent application list for the fifth year in a row, showcasing its booming culture of innovation, an official said at a meeting on Sunday.

More than 60 percent of the applications in China were filed by enterprises engaged in high-speed train, nuclear power, 4G mobile telecommunications technology and ultra-high-voltage electricity transmission, according to Wang Zhongyu, head of the China Enterprise Confederation.

However, Wang mentioned some weaknesses, such as the lack of top-level talents and key technological breakthroughs.

He called on enterprises to implement an innovation-driven development strategy to promote industrial transformation and upgrading.
Earlier this month, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi found himself at a gathering with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He had been invited to the dinner-and-lecture event in Los Angeles by a friend who works for the World Affairs Council, and he was thrilled.

The University of California, Berkeley senior is a double major in political science and Near Eastern studies. At the close of Ban Ki-moons speech, Makhzoomi recounted in a phone interview with The Washington Post Sunday night, he stood up to ask the secretary general about Iraqi Popular Mobilization units, militia groups fighting against the Islamic State.

The question was greeted by applause from around the room, followed by a lengthy response from the U.N. chief. It was the kind of exchange that Makhzoomi lives for: having come to the United States as an Iraqi refugee six years ago, his research centers on how life can be improved in his home country.

But the next day, April 6, the 26-year-olds fortunes took an unfortunate turn.

Makhzoomi had just settled into his seat on a Southwest Airlines flight when he pulled out his cellphone to call his uncle in Baghdad. His uncle is a political analyst, so Makhzoomi wanted to discuss last nights event with him.

He was speaking into the phone in Arabic when he noticed that the woman in the seat in front of him was turned with her neck craned in his direction, staring.

Feeling discomfited, Makhzoomi cut his conversation short. Inshallah, he told his uncle, using a customary Arabic phrase meaning God willing. Ill call you when I land.

After Makhzoomi hung up, he noticed that the woman had left her seat and was making her way up the aisle, weaving around passengers who were still boarding.

His sense of unease deepened. A thought occurred to him: I hope shes not reporting me.

Except, Makhzoomi is now certain, that is precisely what happened. Shortly after the womans departure, a Southwest employee informed Makhzoomi, Sir, you need to step out of the plane right now.

Makhzoomi was then led off the plane to a hallway by the boarding gate, where three police officers were awaiting him. He said the Southwest employee appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, and began speaking to him in Arabic. The employee told him he used to live in Dubai, and asked him where he was from. At Makhzoomis urging, the employee switched back to English.

Why would you speak in Arabic on the airplane? the employee asked him. Its dangerous. You know the environment around the airport. You understand whats going on in this country.

The employees tone made Makhzoomi feel demeaned. He was immediately deferential.

Im sorry, Makhzoomi responded. I shouldnt have done that. But the employee continued to be accusatory, and Makhzoomi said he grew frustrated. Exasperated, the college student said: This is what Islamophobia has done.

This only angered the employee further. According to Makhzoomi, one of the police officers then said into his radio: Call the FBI.

With the plane long taken off without him, Makhzoomi was joined by more police officers, sniffer dogs, and eventually, three FBI agents. At one point, a police officer pressed his head against the wall and restrained his hands behind his back. When the authorities asked him whether he had any weapons on him, Makhzoomi said he teared up. I dont have a knife, he repeated.

The FBI agents took him into a separate room and began the questioning anew.

Okay, you need to be honest with me, Makhzoomi recalled one agent saying to him. Tell us everything you know about martyrdom.

Makhzoomi was stunned. I looked at her and opened my eyes very wide, he told The Post. I told her I never mentioned this word, ever. You can call my uncle - I have never mentioned that word. Its associated with jihad and terrorism, and gives a false image of Islam.

He said the agents were interested in his familys ties to Iraq. His mother, brother and he fled the country for Jordan in 2002, a year after his father was executed under Saddam Husseins regime, Makhzoomi told The Post.

He said his father was a former Iraqi diplomat who was jailed in Abu Ghraib, then killed for what authorities there called a security threat. The family now lives in Berkeley, Calif.

After further questioning, the FBI agent let him go, but told him he could not fly with Southwest. Makhzoomi was directed to get his refund from the same Southwest employee who had asked him to leave the plane.

The employee wordlessly swiped Makhzoomis credit card. He then booked a flight with Delta Air Lines, arriving back in Berkeley nine hours later than he had originally intended. Before his itinerary was disrupted, he had been planning to attend classes that same afternoon.

Southwest wrote in an email statement to The Post that their Crew made the decision to investigate a passenger report of potentially threatening comments overheard onboard our aircraft. . .While local law enforcement followed up with that passenger in our gate area, the flight departed.

We regret any less than positive experience a Customer has on Southwest, the statement further said. Safety is our primary focus, and our Employees are trained to make decisions to safeguard the security of our Crews and Customers on every flight. We would not remove a passenger from a flight without a collaborative decision rooted in established procedures.

The company cited privacy reasons for not commenting specifically about Makhzoomis case, but said: Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.

We were asked to respond, and we determined no further action was necessary, Ari Dekofsky, a spokeswoman for the FBIs Los Angeles office, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Makhzoomi said he has attempted to reach the airline three times and received only cursory responses. Southwest said in its email that the company cannot find record of the Customer contacting us and have tried multiple times to reach him after learning of his disappointment from an article in the UC Berkeley student newspaper.

Stories of Muslims being removed from commercial flights have become more common alongside an escalating fear of Islamic State terrorism.

In the same week as Makhzoomis incident, a hijab-wearing woman from Maryland was ordered off a Southwest flight bound for Seattle. In late March, an Arab American family was removed from a United Airlines flight due to safety concerns. The airline said the decision was prompted by the familys inadequate child booster seat, but the family believes they suffered discrimination because the mother wears a head scarf.

We are tired of Muslim-looking passengers being removed from flights for the flimsiest reasons, under a cryptic claim of security, Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, said in a statement.

As for Makhzoomi, the college student said he does not currently have plans to take legal action, though several lawyers have offered their services. For now, he said he just wants Southwest to publicly acknowledge their error.

I came here to the U.S. because I believed in the values of this country, Makhzoomi said. Islamophobia does not serve to fight terror. It plays right into the Islamic State game of striking fear among us.

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A little more than 12 years ago, Oscar-winning actor and former sexiest man alive George Clooney made what may have been his first leap into political fundraising. The pitch went out in a letter on behalf of his father, a Democrat running for Congress in Kentuckys fourth district, and it involved a perennial favourite among those seeking support for pet causes: a car wash.

OK, this is a little tricky, the younger Clooney wrote. Ill start with a warning: Im asking for money so you might want to stop reading and pretend you never got this letter.

For $500 (U.S.), Clooney explained  up to a maximum of $4,000 for his fathers campaign  hed get soapy.

Ill wash your car every week till its paid off and Armor-all the tires ... in a toga, Clooney wrote. Hope to see you there.

Though the fundraiser was real, the car wash, it turned out, was just a joke. And Clooneys father lost the election, and didnt run again. But there was, perhaps, one lasting lesson: People would pay a lot of money for just a little bit of quality Clooney time.

The phone rang constantly for two-and-a-half hours, one of Clooneys fathers campaign consultants said after the letter got out. The actor reportedly brought $140,000 to his fathers campaign. At one event, about 150 people paid $250 to hang with the actor at a restaurant called the Oriental Wok in Fort Mitchell, Ky.; at another, about 100 people paid $1,000 to rub elbows with him at a private home.

Now Clooney, after fundraisers for Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton that raised $15 million over the weekend, has criticized the big-ticket prices at some political fundraisers as obscene.

It is an obscene amount of money, Clooney said Sunday on Meet the Press of an event where couples could contribute $353,400 to sit with him. The Sanders campaign, when they talk about it, is absolutely right. Its ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics. I agree completely.

Naturally, just days from the crucial New York primary, the Sanders campaign seized on Clooneys comments.

Before noon Sunday, the campaign had sent an email sharing Clooneys quote and asking supporters to chip in $2.70 as a way of saying you have had ENOUGH of millionaires and billionaires buying our campaigns and elections.

Thank YOU, George Clooney, read the subject header of the email.

Indeed, over the years, Clooney has proved willing to engage in quite a bit of obscenity, by his definition  fundraisers a lot more extravagant and lucrative than a meet and greet at the Oriental Wok. Though he didnt think he could help out the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, it appeared hed caught the fundraising bug.

John Kerrys people called and said, after the nomination, take a train across the country, why dont you come with us? he told Larry King in 2006. Clooney said he declined because I hurt you, I dont help you, but I can help raise money.

That he did. In 2008, Clooney appeared at a fundraiser in Geneva for Sen. Barack Obamas presidential run that dwarfed his efforts for his dad, aiming to raise $1 million.

According to planners, Clooney will address a cocktail reception  speaking and answering questions  of 170 U.S. citizens, who are each paying $1,000, People magazine reported. Afterwards, he will sit down to dinner with 75 guests, each donating $10,000 per plate.

The event fell short of its goal  raising just $900,000.

The two things you need to win are money and peoples attention, and celebrities can get you a little of both, Steve Ross, chairman of the history department at the University of Southern California, told ABC at the time.

In 2012, Clooneys efforts on Obamas behalf proved even more effective. That year, a fundraiser the actor hosted for Obamas re-election campaign brought in $15 million  a record for a single fundraiser, according to The Associated Press.

Guests paid $40,000 to attend, accounting for about $6 million of the evenings financial haul for Obamas campaign and the Democratic Party, the AP wrote. The remainder came from a raffle for small dollar donors. Two winners  both women  got to attend the dinner and, even though Clooney was the host, they brought their husbands.

If expensive, the event  at which Robert Downey Jr., Barbra Streisand, James Brolin, Jack Black, Salma Hayek and Tobey Maguire, who played basketball with Obama and Clooney earlier in the day, put in appearances  was not without luxury. A dinner provided by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck featured an artichoke salad, roasted duckling Peking style with tiny buns, lamb and beef cheek with potatoes and Brussels sprouts, and sweet corn tortelloni.

We raised a lot of money because people love George, Obama said. They like me; they love George.

Not long after this blockbuster event, Clooney went back to Geneva  this time netting a more modest sum.

Organizers said they had taken in at least $625,000 from U.S. donors for Obamas campaign, including many who were flying in to Geneva for the one-night event from around the world, the AP reported. Americans Abroad for Obama, the events sponsor, says on its website that guests are paying $15,000 per person to dine with Clooney, $5,000 for a photo with him and $1,000 to attend a reception before the dinner. About 30 people are attending the dinner, with at least 100 at the reception.

Clooneys well-known activism, of course, extends beyond raising millions for favoured political candidates. He spoke out against the Iraq War. He spoke out for recognition of the Armenian genocide. He raised money for Haiti. He co-authored an op-ed about Darfur for The Washington Post and been arrested while protesting at the Sudanese embassy.

Not every activist, though, can command hundreds of thousands of dollars for a few hours of their time. Still, Clooney seems intent on doing his duty  even if he doesnt enjoy it.

So you dont enjoy doing these fundraisers? Chuck Todd asked him on Meet the Press.

No, I dont think anybody does, Clooney said. I dont even think politicians do.

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Most of the delegates to the recent federal NDP convention in Edmonton are long gone, back home in other parts of the country.

But they left behind such a hornets nest of controversy that NDP Premier Rachel Notley is still trying to convince Albertans that she is prepared to do whatever it takes to set the federal wing of her party straight because at this point it does not appear to have Albertas interests at heart.

The core of the controversy is the so-called Leap Manifesto that was cobbled together in Toronto by progressive activists Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis together with leaders of some environmental NGOs, indigenous groups and unions.

Convention delegates accepted it as a document worthy of serious discussion by constituency associations.

This infuriated many Alberta delegates, even though much of what it contains is already on Notleys agenda: ground-breaking climate change policies, a carbon tax, a significant increase in renewable energy, continued support rather than austerity for health, education and social services even when government revenues are down, higher income taxes on corporations and wealthy people, removing corporate money from political campaigns, and adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

It was the section on halting expansion of oil and gas infrastructure projects  pipelines in other words  as well as the extinction of the oil industry by 2050 that upset Notley and her supporters.

And why wouldnt it, given that Notley and her cabinet have been campaigning hard for the approval of two major pipelines  Energy East and Trans Mountain  that would transport Albertas bitumen from the oilsands to replace imported oil in eastern Canada or to tanker ports for export.

They know all too well that when oil prices have declined as much as they have and thousands of workers have been laid off, the promise of well-paying jobs and future prosperity is important to people who are struggling to keep up.

Its also clear that as much as some activists would like to see the end of oil and natural gas entirely it will still be needed for the production of plastics, the manufacture of renewable energy infrastructure components, some electricity generation and large-scale transportation.

For cars, not so much. And the swarm of people seen last Saturday in Teslas Calgary showroom, conveniently located in a popular shopping mall, is testimony to that.

Theres an idea. Maybe all of Ontarios auto plants should be phased out. After all, cars use way too much fossil fuel.

The Alberta NDP also know that if they dont get re-elected for a second term the Wild Rose or PCs or some combination of conservatives will scrap everything they have done so far on the climate change file.

Are there Albertans and other NDPers who think Notley and her government are not moving fast enough? For sure there are. But governing is hard work and trying to steer the ship in a different direction without sinking it is even harder.

No doubt Notley would have liked some sign of appreciation from her federal colleagues of just how difficult it is, especially in Alberta where the oil and coal industries have had far too much control over resource policies, rather than a slap down of one of her priorities.

Calgarian Bill Phipps, former Moderator of the United Church, former federal NDP candidate and a long-time climate change activist, signed the Leap Manifesto because he believes Canadians need to have a public conversation about the issues it raises.

But Phipps also thinks Notley has taken some courageous first steps when it comes to climate change policies, as has Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

It would also serve the Leapers well to realize that NDP governments in B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba and now Alberta have lots of experience trying to reconcile the interests of resource industries, environmentalists and workers.

Perhaps they should be looking to them for advice rather than drawing up manifestos in Toronto that seem oblivious to what is going on in the rest of the country.

Gillian Steward is a Calgary writer and former managing editor of the Calgary Herald. Her column appears every other week. gsteward@telus.net

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The following is an excerpt from a lecture delivered at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto by Haroon Siddiqui, the Stars former columnist and editorial page editor emeritus.

He argued that the media have contributed to widespread Islamophobia by conflating Muslim terrorists with all Muslims. In doing so, he said, the media are violating their own declared principles of fair and ethical journalism:

The biggest culprits have been the National Post and the Postmedia group of newspapers across the country, which now include the Sun chain.

Hardly a week goes by without these publications finding something or other wrong with Muslims and Islam. These publications are forever looking for terrorists under every Canadian minaret. They are hunting for any imam or any Muslim who might make some outrageous statement that can be splashed as proof of rampant Muslim militancy or malevolence.

In the 1950s there was the Red Scare. Today, Postmedia are giving you the Green Scare.

Last week, I spoke to John Honderich, chair of the board of Torstar Corp. I asked him if he thinks there has been an anti-Muslim bias in the media. Yes, there is, especially in the Postmedia newspapers, he said. Some of their columnists conflate Muslim terrorists and Muslims  this has been lethal.

John Cruickshank, publisher of the Toronto Star, told me that a big segment of the Canadian media has been peddling flat-out racism and bigotry against Canadian Muslims. He added:

The popular press, perhaps, are doing what theyre doing not out of some deep conviction or ideological basis, but because they are playing to the notion of building the loyalty of a certain segment of their customer base by creating a tribal solidarity against Muslims. Theyre doing it to strengthen their own brand. It is despicable. We have to call them out on it for not abiding by the rules of their craft.

The other media are not blameless.

The media demand that Canadian Muslims condemn the latest act of terrorism, anywhere. Muslim groups and individuals always do so, but the media rarely report on them. So the impression persists among large numbers of Canadians that Muslims have not condemned terrorism and may, in fact, be endorsing it by their silence. The media leave Muslims in a no-win situation.

Some of the more outrageous allegations against Muslims have been carried on editorial and opinion pages, especially in Postmedia papers. Pundits are, of course, entitled to their views in a free society. But even opinion pieces must adhere to basic facts. Is it really true that Canadian imams are inciting terrorism? Are our mosques really crawling with potential terrorists? Is a preference for halal products really a sign of fundamentalism or militancy  more than it may be for your preference for kosher food?

The credibility of media with Muslims is very low. Muslims generally dont trust us. In fact, theyre outright afraid of us. They dont think they would get a fair shake from us. They are petrified that their words would be twisted and distorted.

Let me offer some suggestions.

It would be helpful for newsrooms, or the media industry as a whole, to articulate some ethical guidelines on coverage of and commentary on Muslims.

Develop a manual to clarify what do the following words mean and whom do they apply to  moderate Muslims, anti-modern Muslims, fundamentalist Muslims, militant Muslims, and Islamist Muslims. Who, exactly, are radical Muslims  those who believe in violence, or something else? Who are anti-modern Muslims  the Muslims who dont drive cars, dont use iPhones, dont Tweet, dont build or visit museums, or refuse blood transfusions?

Subject opinion pieces and commentaries to the simple test of truth. Give us a range of views, not just those that might just confirm your own prejudices. The CBC commentator Rex Murphy has advanced questionable propositions about Muslims. He is free to express his views, of course. But wheres the counter-opinion on the taxpayer-supported CBC?

Dont find excuses to attribute crimes by Muslims to their religion. Use the same standard for them as for other people.

Avoid double standards on free speech. It seems that we must have free speech to malign Muslims but Muslims must not claim the right to be free from hate speech, which is also a very Canadian value.

Resist generic photos of niqab-wearing women when the story has little or nothing to do with niqab. You create the impression that most Muslim women wear it, whereas the number who do is a tiny, tiny minority  in Canada, no more than a few dozen. Dont distort that reality.

I describe myself as an incurably optimistic Canadian. So I think if any nation can debate this issue, within the framework of free speech and fair play, it is Canada. If we get this right, we might even export it to the United States and Europe.

We owe it to Canada to at least try.

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When Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government talks boldly about strengthening Canadas place in the world, its not empty rhetoric. Ottawa is throwing a fair whack of cash at some of the worlds pressing problems.

Trudeau has pledged $2.65 billion, for example, to help developing countries tackle climate change. Ottawa is spending another $1.6 billion to help ease the crises in Iraq and Syria. Theres $680 million budgeted to resettle Syrian refugees here. And $100 million to the United Nations to help people displaced by war.

Measured against Canadas modest $5-billion foreign aid spending, these are big investments. But they dont all qualify as development aid, in the sense of promoting growth and alleviating poverty in the poorest regions. On that score weve been sliding for years.

The Liberals have serious hills to climb if they aspire to nudge aid spending back up to anything like its historic levels. For three decades, from roughly 1970 to 2000, Canada spent significantly more than other developed countries, on average, measured as a percentage of our national economy. In the 15 years since weve just paced the average, or fallen behind. Thats a lot of lost ground.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which groups the major economies, reported the good news last week that our official development assistance did bounce back in 2015 to 0.28 per cent of gross national income from a low of 0.24 per cent. But that still left us below the 28-nation average of 0.3 per cent.

Moreover, theres concern it was just a temporary blip that masks stand-pat, historically low spending on development. Thats because much of the hike was in one-off support for the World Bank and Ukraine. And next year refugee costs will be a bigger factor. Discount those elements and our aid appears stagnant.

Granted, its good to see the aid envelope growing at least nominally, says Canadian Council for International Co-operation president-CEO Julia Sanchez. But for Canada to really be back as a leader on the global stage, we need to see a timetable of annual and predictable increases with a focus on developing countries.

To their credit, the Liberals appear to be less trade-driven than the Conservatives and keener to ease poverty in the poorest regions. That can only benefit the countries that receive our aid and loans, including the top 10: Ukraine, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Pakistan, Mali, Bangladesh, Vietnam, South Sudan and India.

But theres scant sign of any major aid increase on the horizon.

The federal budget did promise a small bump-up in spending  $128 million annually for two years. Thats little more than a token of goodwill as the Liberals rethink our development, humanitarian and peace and security programs. Canada would need to spend about $350 million more annually  nearly three times the planned increase  just to meet the current OECD average.

To reclaim the high ground Canada had back in 1975, when we allocated 0.54 per cent of our income to aid, we would have to nearly double our current spending to just under $10 billion. And even then, wed be spending relatively less than Britain, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, all of which met the UN target of 0.7 per cent last year.

Such is the measure of the gap that has widened over the years.

Given the demands on Canadas treasury as Ottawa moves forward with a $125-billion, 10-year strategy to boost domestic jobs and productivity, we wont see a doubling of foreign aid any time soon.

But Ottawa should at least commit to meeting and exceeding the OECD average in the near term. Additionally, Ottawa should commit to predictable, annual increases going forward, as the CCIC urges. And it should build transparency into our aid programs after an era of Conservative obfuscation. Thats the minimum one would expect of a government that truly aspires to make a difference.

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With the federal government allowing a free vote on Bill C-14, I am concerned that defeating it would leave Canadians with no law and, effectively, severely restricted access to medical aid in dying. The Supreme Court ruling only exempts physicians from the criminal code ban on assisting suicide, but doctors cannot safely or effectively provide this service on their own. The legislation makes it legal for family members and all health-care professionals, not just physicians, to assist a patient in a medically assisted death.

Without this law, each patient would have to go to court to get an exemption for non-MD health care providers, costing thousands in legal fees. I hope that concerned MPs will work to amend the areas of the bill that they object to, without killing the legislation in its entirety.

Dr. Hershl Berman, MD, FRCPC, Specialist in Internal Medicine and Palliative Care, Toronto

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Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan on Saturday called for broadening the use of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s basket of reserve currencies to advance the reform of the International Monetary System (IMS).

"The IMS has inherent deficiencies and faces new challenges from globalization, financial innovation, and volatility in capital flows," Zhou said in a statement for the meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the IMF's policy setting committee, on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

"The SDR has the potential to resolve the existing deficiencies in the IMS," Zhou said, referring to the Special Drawing Right, an international reserve asset created by the IMF in 1969.

The value of the SDR is currently based on a basket of four major reserve currencies: the US dollar, euro, the Japanese yen, and British pound. The IMF decided last year to include the renminbi in its SDR basket as the fifth currency, effective October 1, 2016.

"We can start now to gradually broaden the use of the SDR, including using it as a reporting currency in parallel with the US dollar and exploring issuance of SDR-denominated assets," Zhou said, adding that China has released foreign exchange reserve data denominated in the SDR in addition to the US dollar starting from this month.

Zhou said China will also explore issuing SDR-denominated bonds in the domestic market and look forward to the IMF's further analysis on strengthening the role of SDR this year.

"We support the examination of the possible broader use of the SDR," the IMFC said Saturday in a communique after the meeting of the 24-member committee.

"The IMF will discuss the case for a general allocation of SDRs and the reporting of official reserves in SDR," the communique said.
Two girls were reportedly attacked on Saturday inside a four-star hotel in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu. The report came shortly after a similar case in Beijing earlier this month, which sparked a nationwide outcry for better protection of women.

The photo shows a girl who was attacked on Saturday inside a four-star hotel in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu. [Photo: weibo.com]

The two, who have claimed to be tourists from China's northeastern Heilongjiang Province, were beaten inside the Rainbird International Hotel and suffered light injuries.

According to the victims, who were guests at the hotel, they returned to the hotel around 1 o'clock on Saturday morning and found a man, surnamed Peng, following them into the elevator and behaving suspiciously. Feeling uneasy, the two returned to the hotel lobby and asked the man why he followed them. Peng then started physically assaulting them. One of the girls texted her friends for help, who then called the police.

According to Peng's wife, Peng is a Chengdu local who got drunk that night due to his sluggish business and started to beat the girls to vent his anger. Peng and his wife have apologized to the victims and gave the girls 12,000 yuan, or around 1,800 US dollars, as compensation.

The incident soon triggered wide attention, as it reminded people of a similar case in a Beijing hotel days ago.

The female victim, known only by her Sina Weibo user name "wanwan_2016", said that she was attacked by a stranger in a Yitel Hotel in downtown Beijing. What made the case more appalling was that several witnesses, including a hotel employee, failed to stop the violence.

Similarly, according to the victims in Chengdu, no security staff had shown up to help them, despite the fact that the attack took place inside the hotel lobby.

The hotel in Chengdu has so far refused to make any comments or provide security camera footage to the media.
Five years ago, when Qin Yuefei graduated from the prestigious Yale University, he could have found a well-paid job in big cities like New York or Beijing, and lived an affluent life thereafter. However, to everyone's surprise, he journeyed to the hinterlands of China and became a grassroots village official earning only 1,450 yuan (US$224.46) a month.

Qin Yuefei (R) poses for a photo with his dean during his graduation ceremony at Yale University. [File photo]

Two years ago, when Qin's office term ended, he got the chance of being promoted to a higher-rank government post. But to everyone's surprise again, he volunteered to work in another village some 30 km away from the previous one with his salary totally unchanged.

Even to this day, Qin's career choices have confused many people.

Born in 1985, Qin was a city boy with little experience of villages or farmers. His parents are both salary workers in Chongqing, a major city in southwest China. Since Qin's childhood, he has been known as a gifted boy with great talents in leadership and innovation. When he graduated from high school, he got full marks on his TOEFL exam, a widely used English-language exam, and obtained a full scholarship at Yale. That year, Yale only took in two high school graduates from China.

During his four years at Yale, Qin studied both political science and economics. When he graduated in 2011, he returned home and took the exam held by the local governments in central China's Hunan Province to recruit grassroots village officials. After rounds of exams and interviews, he became an assistant to the director of the village committee in Hejiashan Village.

As a village official, Qin's work covered different aspects of the daily lives of his villagers -- agriculture, economy, education, healthcare and public infrastructure.Thanks to his efforts, an aging water conservation project was repaired and upgraded. It ensured that farmers could reap a good harvest even during droughts. Qin also raised funds with charity organizations for children and the elderly. With the money, he managed to expand the nursing home in the village and buy 700 tablet computers for students of four primary and middle schools near Hejiashan. With interactive educational software, students receive remote guidance from volunteer teachers via the internet.

However, when Qin reviewed his work at the end of his office term, he found that he was only able to tackle specific problems, but failed to promote sustainable development in the village. The village could easily return to its previous state after he left. Therefore, he decided to work in another village and tried everything he could to make real changes in the countryside.

In Baiyun Village, Qin established a cooperative to help farmers sell their products on an online platform. The website, known as Serve for China, has attracted many graduates of famous foreign colleges and village officials with a background of college education. By integrating top resources in the internet, agriculture, finance, media and academic fields, the platform is aimed at helping village officials better serve China' s countryside and encourage comprehensive change.

"It's true that many of my classmates chose high paying jobs, but we are all serving society. The only difference is that we are serving society from different perspectives and in different sectors," Qin said.

Being a village official, Qin is able to see how people live at the bottom level of society. "This broadens my view and offers me opportunities to solve practical problems. Every day is new to me, so my choice has been worth it," he said.

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Countdown [By Zhai Haijun / China.org.cn]

If the European Union was a nation it would have the largest economy in the world; but a century after the First World War, can Europe produce enduring prosperity and permanent peace? Over the last five centuries, European states unified the world under their dominion but internal conflicts and contradictions dominate European history. And the 52 sovereign states of Europe are divided by geographical complexities and long-term historical conflicts that are sporadically reawakened and undermine prospects for unity.

Norman Angell's 1910 book, "The Great Illusion," argued that the integration and interdependence of Europe would prevent future wars. However, between 1914 and 1945, wars and political conflicts killed 100 million Europeans. From 1945 until the early 1990s, the continent was occupied by the Soviet Union and the United States. This maintained a peaceful balance of power based on the fear of a nuclear war - driven by the conflict between contradictory socio-economic systems. At that time, the idea of a unified Western Europe was supported and promoted by the United States.

After the collapse of the Communist-led governments in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, members of the European Union signed the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. It was designed to foster prosperity and to draw new European states into an ever-closer union.

However, the United States orchestrated a number of so-called "color revolutions" in Ukraine, Georgia, and other new countries surrounding Russia. In 2008, the Russian invasion of Georgia showed that Russia would not take this encroachment into their previous spheres of influence lying down. When the 2008 economic crisis struck, it shattered illusions of economic stability and competence in Western capitalism.

Europeans lacked a concentrated and unified means of interstate decision-making to contain and control the crisis. This is largely because the interests of different European capitalist states conflicted with each other.

Germanic political and economic structures are based on a different model than U.S. capitalism. Indeed, the Germanic and American models can be seen as two basic but distinct types of capitalism, the Germanic variety being more controlled and interventionist and the U.S. variety being more closely aligned to free market philosophy.

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The UN special envoy to Libya met on Sunday with the Libyan presidency council, saying the newly formed government in Libya will tackle the challenges in the war-torn country.

"There are several challenges here now and the most important one is the expansion of the IS and the security situation," Martin Kopler said in a joint press conference with Ahmed Maiteeq, Libyan deputy prime minister of the UN-backed government.

"This can only be tackled if there is a clear consensus to go ahead with the government of national accord," he said.

Kopler said he will travel to Tubrug on Monday to meet with the house of representatives (parliament) "to encourage all to follow this way, to endorse the government of national accord."

"The problem of terrorism is endemic; the humanitarian situation is dire; hospitals need medicines; people need bread. Only the government of national accord can bring the process forward," Kopler said.

The government of national accord was named based on a political agreement signed by the Libyan political rivals that aims to end the country's political crises after months of UN-sponsored political dialogue sessions.
Chinese car trading web site Autohome (ATHM) found itself at the center of a potential tug-of-war after its CEO, backed by three Asia-focused private-equity shops, offered to pay $3.57 billion for the business.

The bid, announced late Friday, came hours after China's Ping An Insurance Co. said it had agreed to buy a 48% stake in Autohome from the site's largest shareholder, Telstra (TLSYY) , in a deal valuing the business at $3.33 billion.

CEO James Zhi Qin, Boyu Capital, Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia China made a non-binding offer of $31.50 a share. The offer represents a 6.6% premium to Ping An's agreement to pay $29.55 a share, or a total of $1.6 billion, for the Telstra stake.

Qin will need the support of Ping An if he is to succeed in de-listing Autohome. "The deal with Ping An is binding," Telstra spokeswoman Nicole McKechnie said in an email on Monday.

The Qin-led consortium's offer of $31.50 a share, equated to a 6.7% premium to Autohome's Thursday closing price of $29.52, is a 12.1% premium to the target's volume-weighted average price over the 30 days prior to the bid.

The consortium said they will form an acquisition company to buy Autohome, adding that cash for the deal will be raised from the bid-partners and through bank loans.

Chinese entrepreneur Li Xiang founded Autohome in 2005 to provide information on pricing and car buying. Qin was appointed CEO in 2009, a year after Telstra, Australia's largest telecom, acquired a 71.5% stake in the business.

Autohome was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013 in an initial public offering that diluted Telstra's stake and valued Autohome's equity at $1.63 billion. Telstra will retain a 6.5% stake in Autohome following the sale of its stake to Ping An. The Australian telecom said Friday it expects to book a $1.38 billion gain on its investment in the website.

Autohome's New York-listed American Depository Receipts closed Friday at $32.14, up $1.98.
Morgan Stanley's (MS) bond- and commodities-trading revenue slid 56% during the first quarter, by far the worst of the biggest U.S. banks so far.

Rivals Bank of America (BAC) , JPMorgan Chase (JPM) , and Citigroup (C) , which reported quarterly earnings last week, all posted drops of less than one-third that size as they grappled with global market volatility fueled by falling oil prices, slow growth in China and unrest in Europe linked to migration from the Middle East and Britain's possible exit from the European Union.

The other banks' average decline was 13%, Chris Kotowski, an analyst with Oppenheimer, said in a note to clients. Morgan Stanley's fall to $873 million, while not as bad as some analysts had feared, is still "not a very strong message," Brian Kleinhanzl, an analyst with the brokerage firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said in a note to clients. He had predicted fixed-income and commodities revenue would drop only 45%.

"Obviously, 2016 got off to a difficult start," CEO James Gorman said on a conference call with analysts. "The securities businesses were exposed to a number of these factors, which led to a more challenging revenue environment than what we have come to expect in the first quarter of the year."

The decline in bond and commodities revenue was due in part to the November sale of the bank's oil business, including terminal storage agreements and inventory, for an undisclosed amount. Wesley McDade, a company spokesman, declined to say how much the transaction curbed trading results.

Still, the New York bank's overall profit of 55 cents a share topped the 47-cent average of analysts' estimates amid gains in interest income and strength in both equities trading and its deal-advisory business.

Net income in the three months through March dropped 53% from a year earlier to $1.13 billion, Morgan Stanley said in a statement. Revenue of $7.8 billion, down 21%, was in line with Wall Street projections.

The results may give a hint to the performance of Morgan Stanley's cross-town rival Goldman Sachs (GS) , which reports tomorrow, since neither have the sprawling commercial operations that benefited JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup. Both of those banks also beat estimates, although revenue from their trading and operations tumbled.

Fixed-income and commodities trading revenue dropped 13% at JPMorgan, 11% at Citigroup and 17% at Bank of America, the companies said. All except Citigroup reported smaller declines in their stock-trading businesses.

At Morgan Stanley, equity trading fell 10% to $2.1 billion. "Across sales and trading, we do not believe that the backdrop we saw in the first quarter will become a permanent state, and have already seen some improvement in market conditions," CFO Jonathan Pruzan said on the call. "However, given the numerous uncertainties across regions, we would expect to see some uneven markets."

Morgan Stanley climbed less than 1% to $25.86 on Monday afternoon. The shares previously fell 19% this year to $25.76, worse than either Goldman or the broader S&P 500 Financials Index.

The firm maintained the performance targets that executives outlined in January, including a return on equity of as much as 11% by 2017, up from 7% last year. Gorman had noted when the goals were announced that they depended, in part, on a global economy that reflected "growth, not turmoil."

"If these markets were to continue as is, our goals will be extremely difficult to achieve, and we would therefore take additional appropriate actions," Gorman said Monday.

The firm's return on equity in the quarter was 6%, which Gorman said "is not acceptable."

Given that figure, "we expect a lot of focus" on how Morgan Stanley will attain its return-on-equity target, Richard Ramsden, a Goldman Sachs analyst, said in a note to clients.

Firmwide, revenue was "somewhat disappointing," with weakness in fixed-income trading, equity and debt underwriting and wealth management curbing the benefits of strength in equities trading and advising on mergers, Steven Chubak, an analyst with Nomura, said in a note to clients. He has a "buy" rating on the shares.

Investment banking revenue, garnered from underwriting debt and stock offerings as well as advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, fell 18% to $1.1 billion.

Pruzan had said at a March conference that investment-banking should improve. "Just the volatility that we've seen in the marketplace has made it very difficult for issuers to pull the trigger," he said. "Not a permanent state."

The bank has "a significant number of IPOs and other deals in the pipeline that just keep sort of further slipping in terms of the timeline," he added then, "but we would expect to hopefully execute those throughout the course of the year."

Like its peers, Morgan Stanley is grappling with higher defaults on loans to the beleaguered energy industry after oil prices dropped to about $26 a barrel in February from a 2014 peak above $100. The fuel later rebounded to nearly $40, but may pare gains after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to agree on an output cap at a weekend meeting.

Morgan Stanley trimmed its energy book by about 6% during the quarter to $15 billion, Pruzan said on the call, and close to half of that is slated for sale. The company said in January that about 60% of energy loans were to borrowers with investment-grade credit ratings. It increased reserves against loan defaults by $127 million during the first quarter, the "vast majority" of which was for energy lending.

"We have continued to see pressure on the energy complex," Pruzan said, with some borrowers' credit ratings deteriorating and others filing for bankruptcy. "We're monitoring it closely."

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After failed talks in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend, one analyst isn't confident the world's major oil producers will agree to a production freeze at any point this year.

Spencer Welch, an oil analyst with IHS, based in London, said Iran isn't going to take part in any production cap until it has regained its market share following years of burdensome sanctions. "They're targeting around 4 million barrels per day of production," he said. Those levels won't likely be reached in 2016, he added.

Saudi Arabia said it won't agree to a cap unless Iran participates. That's why this weekend's talks failed. "If Saudi Arabia sticks to what they just said, then there is not going to be a freeze deal this year," Welch said.

The news sent prices for West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, plummeting some 4%. The closely watched commodity fell below $40 a barrel and is now down 2.8% since the start of the year and 37% over the last 12 months.

Though oil prices are up 13.1% over the past two months, largely amid hopes that a deal would freeze oil output at this meeting. "This freeze meeting has been talked about for about two months," Welch said.

It's not a shock that the talks didn't result in a deal. Iran didn't even attend Sunday's meeting, and Saudi Arabia has indicated in recent weeks that it is not willing to play ball unless Iran is involved in a production freeze.

Even if a cap had been set, Welch said it would not have done much for prices. Oil production is already near record levels. However, a deal could have been a stepping stone to something more substantial down the road, like a cut in production.

This weekend's developments haven't changed Welch's outlook for prices.

"The market still needs to come back into supply and demand balance -- it's heading that way, but it's not there yet," Welch said. That could occur in the second half of 2016. Welch expects oil to reach $45 a barrel by the end of 2016. For 2017, he expects oil to average $48 a barrel.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Yamana Gold (AUY) are rising by 2.73% to $4.14 late Monday morning as gold prices trade in the green.

The metal advanced this morning amid uncertainty over oil prices and a weaker U.S. dollar, which prompted investors to seek out safe-haven assets, the Wall Street Journal reports.

However, gold pared some of its earlier morning gains.

For June delivery, gold is up by 0.13% to $1,236.20 per ounce on the COMEX this morning.

"You had a little bit of safe-haven buying...after the OPEC meeting kind of fell apart," said Frank McGhee, head precious metals dealer at Alliance Financial, told the Journal, "That seems to have worked its way through."

A meeting in Doha, Qatar among top oil producers on Sunday failed to yield an agreement about freezing output to bolster prices.

Toronto-based Yamana is a gold and copper exploration company that operates seven mines and oversees several ongoing development projects in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

Last Monday, TheStreet's David Peltier and team sold 300 shares of Yamana as the stock added 12% to recent gains last week.

"We maintain that Yamana is an attractive hedge against volatility in the broader market, but we don't want to be greedy with an investment that has more than doubled year-to-date," Peltier wrote in his most recent Stocks Under $10 Weekly Roundup.

(Yamana is held in David Peltier's Stocks Under $10 portfolio. See all of his holdings with a free trial.)

Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a Sell rating with a score of D on the stock.

This is driven by some concerns, which should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks covered.

The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its feeble growth in its earnings per share, deteriorating net income and disappointing return on equity.

Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: AUY
As Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU) renews its "for sale" and "marriage partner wanted" pitch, the silence from potential partners such as General Motors (GM) , Ford (F) and Volkswagen (VLKAY) grows more deafening.

One constituency that hasn't been heard from -- publicly, anyway -- is the Chinese auto industry, whose members have shown sophistication and resources as they've begun to explore overseas markets. A merger or alliance between FCA and a company like Beijing Auto, BYD (BYDDY) or First Auto Works could be a stunning win for both sides.

A Chinese automaker instantly could gain access FCA's brands -- Jeep, most notably -- as well as the highly profitable North American pickup truck business and Chrysler's minivan franchise. FCA would gain much needed capital, and advanced technology, such as BYD's electrification know-how.

Obstacles to such an agreement would have to be overcome, of course.

John Elkann, FCA's chairman, last week revived the invitation for another automaker to join forces with his company in a letter to shareholders, prior to FCA's annual meeting in Amsterdam. He more or less repeated the rationale that Sergio Marchionne, FCA CEO, first raised last year in regard to GM. GM said it wasn't interested.

At the North American Auto Show in January, Marchionne hinted at talks with some potential partners, without identifying them. Rather than look for a merger, he said, he was concentrating on fulfilling corporate goals to be achieved by 2018.

"We've had expressions of interest from more than one party over the fact that they were interested in pursuing the discussions," he told the Detroit Free Press. "We had to make a choice as to whether they offered us enough of an upside to engage."

Were any of the interested parties Chinese? It's not out of the question. Chinese automakers are looking for Western customers, though Chinese brands -- or newly invented brands -- would face tough sledding against BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota (TM) and other names with tremendous equity.

One Chinese enterprise, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, solved the problem by buying the well-known and respected Volvo car company and brand from Ford in 2010. With investments by Geely of $11 billion, Volvo is well on its way to enlarging its market position, including the announcement of a new assembly plant in South Carolina.

Could a similar arrangement be made between a Chinese automotive enterprise and FCA? One serious obstacle is rooted in the politics of a U.S. automaker -- bailed out by the U.S. government following its 2009 bankruptcy -- being bought out or refinanced by a Chinese company. Surely during a presidential election season, neither party will bless an arrangement that could result in diminished U.S. production by FCA, a possible outcome of any merger.

But FCA sorely wants to make a deal before the U.S. automotive market enters its next and inevitable down cycle. Once sales and profitability fall, FCA will have less leverage to make a deal with a partner on favorable terms.

After the U.S. gets a new president this November, watch for more merger talk -- and possible activity -- from Marchionne and Elkann. And don't be surprised if a future merger partner hails from the People's Republic of China.

Doron Levin is the host of "In the Driver Seat," broadcast on SiriusXM Insight 121, Saturday at noon, encore Sunday at 9 a.m.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Carnival Corp. (CCL) are down by 1.41% to $50.30 in early afternoon trading on Monday, as the company said it may delay its cruises to Cuba as it continues to negotiate with the country's government.

The Miami-based cruise vacation company had planned to begin the voyages on May 1 through its new Fathom brand.

Although the cruise ship operator is accepting bookings, Carnival said it is continuing discussions with Cuba to allow cruise ships to operate in the same way as air charter operations, which transport Cuban-born people to and from the country.

Cuban-born Americans cannot travel to the island by sea due to a Cuban law dating to the Cold War era, Reuters noted. However, they can go to Cuba on an airplane.

"While optimistic that Cuba will treat travelers with Fathom the same as air charters today, should that decision by Cuba be delayed past May 1, Carnival Corporation will delay the start of its voyages to Cuba accordingly," the company said in a statement.

Last month, the company said it was the first cruise ship operator to be approved to voyage to Cuba in more than 50 years, Reuters added.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a "Buy" rating with a score of B+ on the stock.

The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, revenue growth and reasonable valuation levels.

Although the company may harbor some minor weaknesses, the team believes they are unlikely to have a significant impact on results.

Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: CCL
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Vale (VALE) stock is climbing by 0.95% to $5.34 in mid-afternoon trading on Monday, as iron ore prices near $60 per ton.

Benchmark Australian ore for immediate delivery to China was assessed at $59.90 per ton today, up by $2.40, according to the Financial Times.

Iron ore prices have risen more than 40% this year, as a pickup in construction and China's property market has strengthened expectations for steel demand, the Financial Times adds. China's iron ore imports increased by 6.5% in March.

However, analysts have warned that the rally in Chinese demand for steel will probably not last, and iron prices remain vulnerable to excess supply and a weak global steel market.

Vale is a Brazil-based miner and iron ore producer.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates the stock as a "sell" with a ratings score of D.

Vale's weaknesses include its deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity, generally high debt management risk, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in its earnings per share.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: VALE

TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this article's author.
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The death toll from Ecuador's biggest earthquake in decades soared to 272 on Sunday as survivors cobbled together makeshift coffins to bury loved ones, lined up for water and sought shelter beside the rubble of their shattered homes.

The 7.8 magnitude quake struck off the Pacific coast on Saturday and was felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, causing panic as far away as the highland capital Quito and destroying buildings, bridges and roads.

"Ecuador has been hit tremendously hard... This is the greatest tragedy in the last 67 years," said a shaken President Rafael Correa, who rushed back to Ecuador from a visit to Italy.

"There are signs of life in much of the rubble and that is the priority," Correa said in a televised address to the nation.

He confirmed 272 deaths and 2,068 injured and said he feared those figures would increase.

Coastal areas nearest the epicenter were hit hardest, especially Pedernales, a rustic tourist spot with beaches and palm trees now laden with debris from its pastel-colored houses.

Dazed residents recounted a violent shake, followed by a sudden collapse of buildings that trapped people in wreckage.

"You could hear people screaming from the rubble," Agustin Robles said as he waited in a line of 40 people for water outside a stadium in Pedernales. "There was a pharmacy where people were stuck and we couldn't do anything."

Authorities said there were more than 160 aftershocks, mainly in the Pedernales area. A state of emergency was declared in six provinces.

The quake has piled pain on the economy of OPEC's smallest member, already reeling from low oil prices, with economic growth this year projected at near-zero.

Rubble, rain, prison break

As darkness set in and rain began to fall, survivors bundled up to spend the night next to their destroyed homes. Many had earlier queued up for food, water and blankets outside the blue-and-white stadium.

Inside the stadium, tents housed the dead and medical teams treated hundreds of survivors. About 91 people died in Pedernales and some 60 percent of houses were destroyed, according to Police Chief General Milton Zarate.

"We heard the warning so luckily we were in the street because the entire house collapsed. We don't have anything," said Ana Farias, 23, the mother of 16-month-old twins, as she collected water, food and blankets from rescuers.

"We're going to have to sleep outside today."

Other survivors hammered together shelters in empty lots. Police patrolled the dark town, where power remained off, while some rescuers plowed on.

Locals used a small tractor to remove rubble and also searched with their hands for trapped people. Women cried after a corpse was pulled out.

In Portoviejo, around 180 kilometers (112 miles) south of Pedernales, authorities said some 130 inmates escaped from the El Rodeo prison after its walls collapsed. More than 35 have been recaptured.
Donald Trumps relentless assault on the rules that govern how Republicans choose their nominee is coming far too late to change what even what defenders acknowledge is a complicated selection system.

He seems to know it, too.

Instead, his railing against a rigged process appears aimed at amplifying his central message to an angry electorate: America is a mess, and only Trump can clean it up.

Politicians furiously defended the system, Trump wrote Friday in The Wall Street Journal. He equated the partys nomination procedures with the unfair trade, immigration and economic policies that have also been rigged against Americans.

He added, Let me ask America a question: How has the system been working out for you and your family?

Underlying the constant criticism, Trumps goal is to rally supporters and pile up primary season victories that would bring him the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright before the summer convention. But its a tactic that Republicans say carries real risks for the billionaire businessman.

Should Trump fall short of that clinching number going into the Cleveland convention in July, they said, his rantings against the party are likely to annoy the delegates who would then decide the nominee.

He is trying to pit voters against the very people who make the decision of whether he gets the nomination, said Matt Borges, chairman of the Republican Party in Ohio. If he does not arrive in Cleveland with 1,237 pledged delegates, then there is no way he gets the nomination.

Trumps tirades have aired the backroom tension with the party. But GOP officials are pushing against the front-runner accusations of unfairness.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus took to Trumps favorite medium, Twitter, to to make the point that the nomination process has been known to all for more than a year.

Its the responsibility of the campaigns to understand it, Priebus wrote. Complaints now? Give us all a break.

Priebus told NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday that he will not allow Trump to bully him, and noted that a majority  not a plurality  rules in most aspects of governance. The rules are set.  Im not going to allow anyone to rewrite rules for the party.

On Friday, the partys chief strategist, Sean Spicer, laid out the rules for elected delegates in each of the remaining states that will hold primary contests.

Spicer noted those rules were shared with all the campaigns last year, adding that each process is easy to understand for those willing to learn it.

At the same time, however, party insiders who make the rules appear keenly aware of the emotions that Trump is stirring.

At a rally this past week in New York, Trump said RNC members should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this crap.

Several of those involved in the rule-making process told The Associated Press that they believe theres a consensus inside the party against considering changes before the convention.

We want to avoid even the appearance that somehow, the RNC is trying to meddle or manipulate the convention process, said Florida GOP committeeman Peter Feaman.

That isnt likely to do much to placate Trump. He says the process should favor the candidate who wins the most votes during the primary campaign.

Trump has received about 8.2 million votes to date, about 2 million more than his closest competitor, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. I think the vote is the thing that you count, Trump said.

Cruz is outmaneuvering Trump in lining up support among the individuals who will attend the Cleveland convention as delegates. Thats a separate process, in which party activists seek the positions primarily through local, district and state party conventions.

If Trump cant clinch by the time the last group of primaries on June 7, then those delegates will largely be free after the first ballot at the convention to vote for the candidate of their choice.

To be fair, its complicated for everyone, said Ron Kaufman, a longtime member of the RNCs standing rules committee. And I understand why someone whos never done it before, and hasnt taken time to learn it, gets frustrated.

But that frustration isnt winning Trump any friends among the party officials who will have sway at a multi-ballot convention.

Several noted the irony of Trumps focus on the fairness of the rules. Some states allowed him to win all of their pledged delegates even when he captured less than a majority of the vote.

Morton Blackwell, an RNC rules committee member from Virginia, said Trump is guilty of selective moral indignation.

Henry Barbour, also rules committee member, put it more simply: Trumps attack on the party and the delegate selection process is bad politics.

If you want to ask a girl to the prom, you dont tell her how ugly she is the week before, Barbour said.

(AP)
Once again a United Nations affiliated organization seeks to rewrite history by referring to Har Habayis as Al-Aqsa Mosque, thereby accepting the PA (Palestinian Authority) propaganda position that the Jews do not have historical roots to Har Habayis.

The decision was made during the UNESCO Steering Committees semiannual conference in a 33 to 6 vote with 17 abstentions. Russia, Sweden, France and Spain were among those voting in support of the decision.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded, stating, This is yet another absurd UN decision. UNESCO ignores the unique historic connection of Judaism to Har Habayis, where the two Temples stood for a thousand years and to which every Jew in the world has prayed for thousands of years. The UN is rewriting a basic part of human history and has again proven that there is no low to which it will not stoop.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
U.S. Special Operations forces have been quietly deployed around the world since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in an effort to shore up U.S. allies embroiled in their own conflicts.

While not secret, the missions  known often by some variation of train, advise and assist  have served as an extension of Americas larger wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead of large deployments of troops, U.S. Special Operations forces instead embed with local militaries to help bolster their capabilities and often accompany them on missions that serve both their governments interests and those of the United States.

Below is a list of countries where the Pentagon has acknowledged the presence of U.S.-led advise, assist and accompany missions in recent years and a brief description of operations in those countries. This list is not exhaustive.

Somalia and Kenya

Since December 2013, the United States has maintained a small contingent of U.S. troops in Somalia and Kenya to help advise local forces and to support the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), according to the U.S. Africa Command. AMISOM is composed of peacekeepers from a consortium of African countries, and they have have been targeted by al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-aligned group operating predominately in Somalia. U.S. Special Operations forces have conducted raids against al-Shabab, along with its Somali allies, and U.S. aircraft regularly carry out airstrikes in the region.

Uganda

After a 2012 campaign to stop Joseph Kony, the warlord and commander of the brutal Lords Resistance Army, the Pentagon deployed a detachment of U.S. Special Operations forces, including Army Green Berets, and drones to help local forces, including Ugandan troops, to locate Kony in the neighboring Central African Republic.

Tunisia

Little is publicly known about U.S. forces in Tunisia, other than that there is a small contingent of Special Operations forces there  probably from Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command  helping its Tunisian counterparts to develop their ability to counter extremist groups within and near their borders.

Mauritania

While the United States gave Mauritania two advanced surveillance aircraft in 2014 to help counter al-Qaidas affiliate in the region, known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, little is known about the train, advise and assist mission there. It probably resembles U.S. involvement in other African countries: a small Special Operations detachment working with its local counterparts.

Niger

After the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by the militant group Boko Haram in nearby Nigeria in 2014, the United States deployed a small tranche of Special Operations forces to help build up the militaries of countries such as Niger, Nigeria and Chad. The United States and France also have flown drones out of Nigers capital in an effort to gather intelligence on Boko Haram. U.S. and French forces cooperated across West Africa after France intervened in Mali in 2012, following a revolt there.

Mali

In 2013, a handful of U.S. Special Operations forces deployed to Mali to help assist French forces fighting there and coordinate military aircraft in the region. It is unclear whether U.S. forces are still in Mali; however, at least one Special Operations soldier was present in the countrys capital when al-Qaeda militants opened fire in a local hotel and took more than 130 people hostage in November 2015.

Philippines

The United States has helped train and assist Philippine forces since 2001. A continually rotating force of Special Operations troops has helped the Philippine government fight the Abu Sayyaf Group, an Islamist group. U.S. forces are barred from participating in direct combat; instead, they help Philippine troops locate Abu Sayyaf safe havens. U.S. forces have also conducted information campaigns and civil affairs projects to build local opposition to the group.

Colombia

There has been consistent U.S. involvement in Latin America since the start of the War on Drugs in the 1980s. Elements from the Joint Special Operations Command and the CIA both helped take down one of Colombias most notorious drug lords, Pablo Escobar, in the early 1990s. In recent years, Special Operations forces have helped the Colombian military with intelligence and advanced military equipment as it has fought FARC rebels. In late 2015, the Colombian government struck a cease-fire with the rebel group and it is unclear whether U.S. forces continue to aid Colombian troops.

U.S. Special Operations forces are also engaged on more traditional battlefields:

Iraq

American troops have been in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. Although the majority of U.S. troops pulled out in 2011, a small element of Special Operations forces advised some parts of the Iraqi military up until the Islamic State overran the city of Mosul in the summer of 2014. Since then, the United States pledged air support and a limited number of advisers to help the Iraqis fight the Islamic State. Currently, U.S. troops and U.S. Special Operations forces are training units from the Iraqi military and helping them call in airstrikes. The Pentagon has gone to great lengths to keep U.S. forces off the front lines; however, a Delta Force soldier accompanying Iraqi Kurds was killed on a raid in northern Iraq in 2015 and a U.S. Marine, stationed at an American fire base, died after coming under rocket fire last month.

Syria

In December, President Obama announced that a small contingent of U.S. Special Operations forces would enter Syria to help train, advise and assist Syrian forces known as the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian Arab Coalition. Both are amorphous groups of moderate Syrian rebels and Syrian Kurds. While the White House said the contingent would only consist of 50 troops, it is unclear how many are there now. In February, U.S. Special Operations forces helped Syrian opposition forces retake the town of al-Shaddadi from the Islamic State in northeastern Syria.

Afghanistan

The United States first foray into Afghanistan in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks involved CIA paramilitary units and U.S. Special Operations forces, advising and assisting parts of the Northern Alliance, which was fighting the Taliban. As the war dragged on, U.S. forces continued to advise and assist the newly formed Afghan Security Forces and local police. Currently, roughly 9,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, following an end to U.S. combat operations in November 2014. The troops that remain are advising the Afghan military and its commandos. In the countrys restive south, a U.S. Green Beret was recently killed while accompanying his Afghan counterparts on a mission to help retake parts of the city of Marjah.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Thomas Gibbons-Neff
Dont look now, but Donald Trump has made moves in the past week that are, wait for it, actually quite smart.

Consider:

_ Trump announced the hiring of Rick Wiley, who managed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walkers presidential campaign, as his national political director this past week. Wiley joins the likes of other longtime GOP operatives, including Paul Manafort, Don McGahn, Ed Brookover and Rick Reed, in Trumps inner circle  evidence that Trump rightly assessed that his loyal core of staffers wasnt equipped to handle the knife-fightbattle for delegates between now and July 18, when the Republican National Convention is to begin.

_ Trump has leaned hard into the idea that the whole process is rigged against him, pointing to what happened in Colorado two weekends ago  where he was out-organized and lost all 34 of the states delegates to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas  as evidence that party leaders are trying to silence him. (More on Trumps delegate problems below.)

This is a terrific message for Trump and may be the second act he needs to push himself over the delegate threshold by June 7, when California votes. He always runs best as the aggrieved outsider, the guy whom the establishment is trying to control but who keeps slipping out of its grasp. He has struggled of late because he became the very clear front-runner and didnt really have anything or anyone to run against. Now that he can rail against the rigged system, he is right back in his messaging wheelhouse.

The Republican National Committee, theyd better get going, because Ill tell you what: Youre going to have a rough July at that convention, Trump said Saturday in Syracuse, N.Y.,  a message that will thrill his supporters and send shivers through the RNC and the rest of the GOP establishment.

_ The Trump family town hall meeting on CNN last week was an absolute home run for his candidacy. Trump himself is never going to be warm and fuzzy. His pointy edges are what make his supporters love him. But they are also what make lots and lots of people not like him; 67 percent of Americans view Trump unfavorably in a new Washington Post-ABC poll. His family  especially his daughter Ivanka, who is not only his best surrogate but should consider running for office herself one day (Ill have more to say on that later in this space)  rounds off some of his sharp edges. You look at his children, and they all seem to be relatively normal, well-adjusted people who love and admire their dad. Which, you think to yourself, must mean that Trump the dad was doing something right. The more that Trumps family is in the picture, the better for him.

Looking forward, theres reason for optimism in the Trump camp as well. He looks well-positioned to take the lions share of New Yorks 95 delegates on Tuesday. Seven days later, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island vote  these should be good states for Trump. Its not until May 3, in Indiana, where Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will go all out, that Trump might face defeat again.

Then theres this fact: Recent polling suggests little appetite in the Republican Party to keep the nomination from Trump if he has the most votes but cant get to 1,237 delegates before the convention.

Sixty-two percent of Republicans in an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday morning said that if no candidate had a majority of delegates going into the convention, then the person with the most votes should be the nominee. That will, almost certainly, be Trump, who has 8.2 million votes to Cruzs 6.3 million. Just 1 in 3 respondents said the GOP delegates should choose the nominee who would be the best standard-bearer for the party in the general election.

(Sidebar for those keeping the Paul D. Ryan flame lit despite the House speakers repeated insistence that he is not running  71 percent of those polled said it would be unacceptable for the party to nominate someone who didnt run in the primary process.)

But, wait, there is more! That same NBC-WSJ poll found that Republicans divided on whether a third-party bid by Trump  if he doesnt get the GOP nod  would be okay; 45 percent said it would be acceptable, and 47 percent said it wouldnt, a split decision that Trump would almost certainly take if he decided to go that route.

And he may have to do just that if he doesnt get the 1,237 delegates he needs on the first ballot. For a second straight weekend, Cruz dominated Trump in the local and county meetings that select the delegates for the convention. He was shut out of Wyomings 14 delegates and was drubbed in Georgia.

Many of those delegates will be bound to Trump on the first ballot at the convention but will be free to choose their own candidate  Cruz  on the second ballot and beyond.

Trumps losses in the delegate-selection process mar what has been a good 10 days for him. But the truth is that his only shot at the nomination has long been to get 1,237 delegates either before the convention or on its first ballot. In that regard, nothing has changed.



(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Chris Cillizza
Donald Trump can secure enough delegates to clinch the Republican presidential nomination by the middle of June, a top campaign aide said Sunday.

Paul Manafort, Trumps convention manager, said the campaign has many paths to gaining the 1,237 delegates needed to claim the nomination on the first ballot at the GOP convention in July.

The dialogue and the narrative of this campaign isnt focusing on the real issues, Manafort told ABCs This Week.

The real issue is theres not going to be a second ballot. There [are] many paths to 1,237 for Donald Trump between now and the middle of June, not July. And we are working all of those paths.

Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski predicted Ted Cruz, Trumps main rival for the nomination, will be mathematically eliminated from securing 1,237 after the New York state primary on Tuesday.

By the end of this month, in the next two weeks, Donald Trump will add an additional 200 delegates to his total. He is the presumptive front-runner right now. He is the presumptive nominee going forward, Lewandowski told Fox News Sunday.

The Trump campaign is hoping to sweep the upcoming wave of Northeastern primaries, followed by strong performances in the California and New Jersey contests on June 7.

Ken Cuccinelli, Cruzs delegate director, slammed Trumps failure to pick up delegates in Saturdays Wyoming Republican convention.

He didnt even bother to compete, Cuccinelli said on ABC. Trump didnt just lose in Wyoming, he got stomped. And the same was true in Colorado: 65,000 people participated in Colorado. And Ted Cruz swept that election. And he did it with his vision for economic growth, to make this country secure finally and also to expand freedom.

Trump warned Saturday of a rough July at the GOP convention if the Republican National Committee did not reform its nomination process.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said there is no room for threatening the delegates or the convention or anybody.

But I also think some of this is rhetoric and hyperbole, he told NBCs Meet the Press.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Elise Viebeck
Hillary Clinton, who is in the course of a fierce struggle for the affection of the Democratic base, is not about to disown the JCPOA, President Obamas signature second-term accomplishment. The administration considers the Iran agreement the foreign policy equivalent of Obamacare. Whether Clinton, who opened up the back channel to Iran, thinks it is a great deal or the product of her weak successors cluelessness, she is having to walk a fine line.

She calls the deal a good start, but then has departed from the president in advocating sanctions to respond to Irans illegal missile tests. She appears to advocate a policy that would seek to check Irans regional aggression  something the administration said it would do, but plainly will not for fear that Iran would walk away from the deal.

If Clinton is elected, shell have three choices: Continue Obamas string of endless concessions and indifference to its regional aggression; pull out of the JCPOA and, if need be, unilaterally impose an array of sanctions; or look at the JCPOA the way the Iranians do, namely as the start, not the end of the negotiations.

The first will perpetuate a split with our Sunni allies and risk Iranian domination of the region, both of which Clinton says she wants to avoid. The second is not even supported by all the GOP presidential contenders and comes with risks Clinton likely will not want to take on. That leaves the third, intriguing option.

That option is championed by Mark Dubowitz, the sanctions guru from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. At a public forum last week, he explained: I think its completely unrealistic to shred this nuclear agreement. And I think to do so, particularly early on, would backfire on the United States. It would only, Dubowitz says, do for Iran what they want to do for themselves, which is they are trying to legitimize themselves globally, in order to attract significant economic benefits.

That does not mean, however, continuing Obamas policy. Dubowitz argues that the Iranians since the agreement was reached continue to negotiate greater and greater concessions. And so, good. Lets  lets continue to negotiate. And, in fact, I mean theres a long history in the U.S. arms control of us continuing to negotiate, additional agreements, side agreements, better agreements. He recalls that the Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear-tipped missiles aimed at U.S. cities. And yet, both Democrats and Republicans administration of  on both sides of the aisle, members of Congress, people like Scoop Jackson, for example, insisted that despite the threat the Soviet Union represented, we were not going to live with deeply flawed nuclear deals.

He sketches out how that would work:

So one way to renegotiate with Iran is  is to actually follow exactly that strategy, which is to use the non-nuclear sanctions that the  President Obama and Secretary Kerry and others, have made very clear are permitted under this nuclear agreement.

And so to use tough non-nuclear sanctions to go after Irans missile activities, their support for terrorism, their vast system of domestic repression, their continued elicit financial activities. Use those non-nuclear sanctions.

If Iran threatens to walk away, Dubowitz says we should call their bluff. If they go so far as to abandon the JCPOA, it would be Iran, not the United States that would be internationally isolated. Well have a greater predicate for  for stronger action. If, facing threat of non-nuclear sanctions, they agree to sit down, the negotiations in essence begin anew, but with a president willing to impose, not give relief from, additional sanctions. In fact, the Iranians themselves may provide an opening to return to the table:

I actually predict that theres going to be an opportunity for a future U.S. president, because there are  there are key provisions in the agreement where if the IAEA certifies under whats called a broader conclusion that Irans program is for peaceful purposes only, the Iranians are going to come back in and try to renegotiate the agreement to get these sunset restrictions lifted more quickly.

So I think theres going to be opportunities for a future president, that may be one, there may be others where well have an opportunity to use coercive power, sanctions and  and other mechanisms, and look for the opportunity because [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei is continuing to negotiate and renegotiate this agreement, that the United States should look for those opportunities to do so.

This may be an approach Clinton can live with, and which would finally get the legislative and executive branches to work in concert. Unlike Obama, who took Irans side in pressuring Congress not to act, Clinton could use the threat of congressional action to pressure Iran.

In addition to all of the above, Clinton can start to do what Obama was entirely disinclined to do, namely highlight and condemn Irans human rights record. Ronald Reagan did precisely that in the Cold War, while also negotiating with the Soviets. We should adopt the same long-term objective he did (We win, they lose), namely regime collapse/change.

This does not mean we go to war with Iran. Reagan did not launch World War III, but he did align our diplomatic and military policies with the goal of weakening and eventually breaking the back of the Evil Empire. Denying Iran legitimacy, championing the cause of Iranian dissidents and adding Iranian leaders to an expanded list of human rights violators under new legislation that would expand the Magnitsky Act globally would be part of a concerted effort to weaken and create friction within the Iranian regime.

Republicans may not find this ideal, but if Clinton is elected it is certainly preferable to the disastrous string of concessions they have seen. Denying additional sanctions (e.g. access to dollar transactions), imposition of new sanctions, passing human rights legislation to target members of the regime and using coercive diplomacy to force changes to the deal (or provoke Iran to walk away) would represent a significant course correction in U.S. policy. And finally, a return to Clintons own policy of removing Bashar al-Assad, Irans closest ally, would bolster our Sunni alliances, check Irans regional ambitions and signal that Iranian detente is not the policy of the United States.

Dont expect Clinton to say any of this in the course of a campaign. If she is elected, however, critics of the JCPOA should do what they can to help redesign our Iran policy. Clinton might just be amenable.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Jennifer Rubin
Jordanian security forces mistakenly raided the headquarters of the kingdoms largest Muslim Brotherhood group on Sunday after confusing it with the offices of an outlawed organization, the government said.

Police raided the Islamic Action Front offices after they mixed up the IAF headquarters with those of a nearby, unregistered branch of the Islamist group, according to government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani. He confirmed that the IAF was registered.

The government should apologize for this action which touched the Islamic Action Front, IAF spokesman Murad Adaileh said.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan split in March 2015 over its ties with the mother movement in Egypt. The IAF severed its relationship with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, but affiliates that did not have been outlawed by Jordan.

Over the past week, the government has shut down seven branches of the Islamist group across the kingdom, carrying out raids in the capital Amman and the cities of Jerash and Tafileh.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the regions oldest Islamist movement, and its affiliates won a series of electoral victories following the Arab Spring uprisings but provoked a backlash in several countries.

Egypts first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi, hailed from the Brotherhood, but was overthrown by the military in 2013 after a divisive year in power. Egypt later outlawed the group, branding it a terrorist organization.

(AP)
Hillary for America Campaign Chair John Podesta met with Jewish community leaders last week in Southern Brooklyn to discuss Hillary Clintons strong support for Israel, national security, combating anti-Semitism, religious freedom, and whats at stake in the upcoming New York primary. Councilmember David Greenfield, who endorsed Hillary along with eleven other members of the New York City Councils Jewish caucus, convened the meeting. With nearly 20% of New York democratic voters identifying as Jewish, this is a critical population for either Democratic candidate who are looking to clinch the pivotal primary on Tuesday.

Prominent Orthodox Jewish philanthropist Shlomo (Sol) Werdiger, who serves as Chairman of the Board of Agudath Israel of America, also endorsed her in his personal capacity. Additionally, she received the endorsement of two widely read publications in the Satmar community.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
[By Chaskel Bennett]

As primary Tuesday finally descends on New York, there are those in the Jewish community who are contemplating supporting Bernie Sanders as the first Jewish candidate to nearly reach the vaunted tier of Presidential nominees in American political history. Nostalgia aside, that vote would be a terrible mistake. The Sanders campaign and the candidate himself is based on out -of- the mainstream, far left policies that has no semblance or connection to Judaism or for that matter, American exceptionalism. Alarmingly, Mr. Sanders espouses a radical anti-Israel platform that has gleefully emboldened pro-Palestinians activists and haters of Israel. Additionally, the hiring (now suspended) of a virulent anti Israel leftist, as national director of Jewish outreach amplifies just how out of touch Team Sanders is when it comes to the sensitivities of the very diverse American Jewish community.

For those blinded by Bernies folksy, grandfatherly style, remember that a candidate is judged by their words, positions and the company they keep. Sanders fails on all counts. Whether motivated by his scorched earth pronouncements or naively clinging to the misleading slogan of hope and change, socialists, anarchists, and benign do- gooders have set out on a mission to dramatically alter America as we know it. They need to be stopped. Right here,right now.

To be fair there are many who are legitimately disillusioned by politics as usual. Some have theorized that they intend to vote for Bernie as a protest vote against the Democratic establishment. While that idea might have sounded like a reasonable course of action just a few weeks ago, it must be noted that New York is now surprisingly in play and the country is playing for keeps. With the rise of the Sanders radical fringe in the Democratic party and the tightening of the race for the nomination, the stakes are simply too high to waste valuable votes on protests alone. Bernie and his growing gang of societal malcontents are dangerously inspiring a new generation of haters. This is no time for an election day laboratory experiment. New York Jewish Democrats must recognize the moment and do their part to soundly defeat Mr. Sanders.

Chaskel Bennett is a noted communal advocate involved in numerous Jewish causes. His advice and counsel on Jewish communal issues is sought by elected officials and key opinion makers. Twitter @ChaskelBennett

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Thousands of Israelis are expected to join with the family of the IDF soldier who is facing manslaughter charges for killing the wounded terrorist on Purim in Hebron. Leading entertainers in Israel will be participating in the event as well, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, 11 Nissan at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv.

The military prosecutor on Monday, 10 Nissan will formally file the manslaughter indictment against the soldier.

There is an audible public outcry against the IDF for moving ahead with criminal charges against the soldier, who shot and killed the wounded terrorist who was on the ground minutes after he stabbed an IDF soldier. Nevertheless, the prosecution explains the terrorist had been neutralized and there was no justification for the soldier to then come and verify the kill by shooting him in the head.

The prosecution adds the autopsy has determined the soldiers bullets killed the terrorist and they have established the BTselem video documenting the soldiers actions is indeed valid and unedited.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The ISA (Israel Security Agency  Shin Bet) is opposed to talks of diminishing its presence in areas under total PA (Palestinian Authority) autonomous control, designated as Areas A under the Oslo Agreements. According to a Haaretz report, this is one of the items being discussed in secretive talks between Israel and the PA. The ISA expressed its opposition to such a reality in a document presented to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon and other unmentioned senior officials.

Haaretz quotes senior Jerusalem officials as the source for the report, adding the ISA fears such a move would limit the agencys movements and ability to combat terror in those areas.

Haaretz reports on Monday 10 Nissan that PA reports state the sides met in secret as recently as Sunday, 9 Nissan. The report adds that the negotiating teams include Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Major-General Yoav Mordechai & Central District Commander Major-General Roni Numa. The PA team includes Civilian Affairs Minister Hussein a-Sheikh and Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Police on Monday morning 10 Nissan were called by a mother, who reported her son had been assaulted on Kaari Street in the so-called Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem. The information was transferred to the Mabat 2000 unit, to scan the video footage of the hundreds of cameras that regularly monitor events in the Old City.

In a matter of minutes police found the incident in question and armed with the description of the attackers, border police arrested two suspects who fled the attack scene into a nearby Arab home. The two suspects, 13-year-old Arab youths, were arrested and taken for questioning.

Since the police report does not mention the condition of the victim it is presumed he was uninjured in the assault.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Secretary of State John Kerry plans to see Irans foreign minister this week, in a meeting that comes amid Iranian complaints that its not getting the sanctions relief it deserves under last years landmark nuclear deal.

A senior U.S. official says Kerry and Mohammad Javad Zarif will meet in New York on Tuesday. The official was not authorized to discuss Kerrys plans matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The meeting follows complaints from top Iranian leaders that the U.S. is not fulfilling its part of the nuclear agreement, in which Iran curbed its atomic program in exchange for sanctions relief. The U.S. insists it has met its obligations but is considering easing or clarifying financial regulations about legal trade with Iran.

(AP)
From 400p a share to less than 4p in four horrible years, Gulf Keystone Petroleum, a former favourite with the bulletin board warriors but now the day traders bete noire, has enjoyed a remarkable fall from grace.

At one point it was worth enough to be considered for the FTSE 100 - though it didnt at that point meet the regulatory requirements for inclusion.

Last week, however, was horrific for GKP, with 40 per cent wiped from its market capitalisation, taking it below 50million.

Share price: In four years, GKP's price has gone from 400p a share to less than 4p

We already knew the Kurdistan-focused oil producer was facing a debt crisis  it owes around 405million.

Last week it revealed its need for capital injection is more pressing than investors realised and institutions lost patience. So just what happened?

GKP needs support from lenders

The interest payment that had been scheduled for April was delayed for two weeks, as the company exercised an option for a grace period.

Two payments will now be due early next month.

Gulf Keystones balance sheet is creaking under the weight of debt due to mature next year.

It said last Thursday that the grace period allows the company to finalise fundraising plans and the restructuring of the balance sheet.

GKP does have cash

Last week, the company told investors that for March the Kurdistan Regional Government paid 11million for crude deliveries from the Shaikan field.

This means its cash position is 49million. Thats obviously enough to meet the interest payments.

But 

Heavy burden: Gulf Keystones balance sheet is creaking under the weight of debt due to mature next year

More money is needed for the Shaikan field

Forget about the massive debt for a moment (if you can), and theres a more immediate need for funding.

Gulf Keystone investors were told the Shaikan field in northern Iraq would go into decline without new investment.

Some 51million is needed simply to keep Shaikan ticking over.

And in fact the plan to upgrade the field would bring the cost up to 62million.

So, investment is needed and it is needed quickly.

Words, rather than actions

Last week the company set out a number of potential investment scenarios 'to build a common foundation for stakeholder discussion'. Nothing really struck a chord with the market.

'We are working to achieve the best possible way to restructure our balance sheet,' said GKP chief executive Jon Ferrier.

'Addressing our funding needs will ensure the company's longer term future and ability to continue developing the Shaikan field for the benefit of all our stakeholders."

Keeping afloat: GKP's Shaikan field project needs 51million just to keep ticking over

Institutional investor throws in the towel

Regulatory statements on Wednesday revealed that Prudentials M&G funds had sold its entire 5 per cent shareholding in the company.

Some 49.2 million shares were offloaded by the institution, which was the activist investor that began spinning the revolving door on the Gulf Keystone board back in 2013, amid criticism over the old management teams corporate governance and excessive pay.

Where does that leave the company?

Well, it has 49million of cash. Remember, thats sufficient to make the interest payment, but not enough to make the necessary investment into Shaikan.

The bonds maturing (becoming due) poses the biggest risk. And there are some that say the current battered share price still presents too optimistic a picture.

'A tough corner' was the title of a broker note penned by the analysts at Canaccord Genuity.

Notching its target price down from 15p a share to just 4p it moved to a sell on the stock.

'Gulf Keystone is in a very difficult position with limited time to find a solution to the overhanging debt issues,' said analyst Charlie Sharp.
17.25 (close): The London market struggled to make headway as the falling price of crude dragged on stocks after a key meeting of oil producers ended in stalemate.

The Qatar summit at the weekend saw Saudi Arabia willing to cut production, but Iran continues to increase output following the recent lifting of Western sanctions against it.

The FTSE 100 Index was up 9.7 points to 6353.5, as Brent Crude dropped 2.8 per cent to more than 42 US dollars a barrel after the Doha meeting broke up without agreement.

Royal Dutch Shell and BP fell 13.5p to 1805p and 0.2p to 355.8p respectively, recovering from heavier losses earlier in the session.

Spreadex financial analyst Connor Campbell said: 'Realistically Iran remains the only country that matters in this oil saga and, until the newly un-sanctioned country agrees to halt its march to greater and greater daily levels of production, there isn't much chance of a Brent Crude price rescuing deal being implemented.'

However, travel stocks picked up on the prospect of lower fuel prices following the fallout of the Doha talks, with TUI rising 24p to 1065p, easyJey stepping up 10p to 1457p, while British Airways-owner IAG climbed 1.5p to 535.5p.

In Europe, Germany's Dax was up nearly 0.7 per cent, while the Cac 40 in France stepped up 0.4 per cent.

The pound was up 0.2 per cent against the euro at 1.26 despite Chancellor George Osborne warning that Britain's economy would shrink by six per cent by 2030 if the country replicated Canada's trading agreement with the EU.

Sterling also rose 0.5 per cent against the US dollar at 1.42.

The pound has come under fire in recent months amid fears that Britain could vote to leave the European Union.

Shares in British Gas owner Centrica fell by more than 1.5 per cent as the firm lost 224,000 customers in the first three months of the year as competition in the energy market continues to bite.

Its overall residential accounts fell 1.5 per cent to 14.4million customers.

The group put the loss down to a significant number of customers coming off long-term fixed-price contracts, and consumers switching suppliers as smaller rivals put Big Six players under price pressure.

Shares fell 3.7p to 234.6p.

Durex owner Reckitt Benckiser shrugged off tough trading to cheer rising sales thanks to a boost from new products including an electronic nail file.

The Slough-based firm saw like-for-like sales come in ahead of expectations, up five per cent in the first quarter, following a 'good' performance from healthcare products Gaviscon and Strepsils.

The group said Europe and North America like-for-like sales stepped up three per cent, driven in part by the launch of new products from footwear brands Amope and Scholl Innovations.

Shares in Reckitt lifted nearly two per cent, or 133p to 6868p.

Elsewhere, the chief executive of Voda maker Stock Spirits has stepped down, just weeks after the firm's biggest shareholder called for him to be ousted.

The FTSE Small Cap firm said Chris Heath will take early retirement and Miroslaw 'Mirek' Stachowicz, an independent non-executive director, will serve as interim chief executive.

Earlier this month, Western Gate Private Investments, Stock Spirit's largest individual shareholder, called for Mr Heath to be ousted. It urged 'fresh perspectives' in order to address a decline in sales in the firm's key Polish market.

Shares lifted 75p to 154p.

The biggest risers in the FTSE 100 Index were BT Group up 10.9p to 454.9p, TUI up 24p to 1065p, Anglo American up 15.3p to 693.6p, Reckitt Benckiser up 133p to 6868p.

The biggest fallers were Arm Holdings down 38p to 952p, Antofagasta down 12.8p to 458.2p, Centrica down 3.7p to 234.6p, Carnival down 58p to 3680p.

14.50: The Footsie held off its lows in late afternoon trading as US stocks rallied from opening falls thanks to some upbeat US corporate earnings, and as crude prices eased off lows hit after a key oil producer meeting at the weekend failed to agree a plan to curb global oversupply.

With around an hour and three-quarters of trading to go in London, the FTSE 100 index was down 9.0 points, or 0.2 per cent at 6,334.7, off the day's low of 6,261.71, but below the peak of 6,343.75.

European markets also stayed weak, with France's CAC 40 index off 0.1 per cent, and Germany's Dax 30 index down 0.2 per cent.

But in early trade on Wall Street, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered from early falls, adding 48.7 points at 17,946.1, while the broader S&P 500 was up 4.0 points at 2,084.7, and the tech-laden Nasdaq composite gained 6.0 points at 4,944.2.

Recovery: The Footsie held off lows, as US stocks rallied from opening falls thanks to some upbeat corporate earnings, and as oil prices eased off lows hit after a producer meeting failed to agree an output freeze plan

US stocks rallied as investors focused on some better than expected earnings reports from the likes of banking giant Morgan Stanley, up 0.8 per cent, and toys manufacturer Hasbro, ahead 2.8 per cent.

But energy stocks were still a drag as oil prices retreated, with Brent crude down 3.4 per cent at $41.65 a barrel, albeit better than an earlier 5 per cent drop, having rallied last week on hopes that a deal could be done in Doha.

In the event, the weekend summit in the Qatari capital saw Saudi Arabia willing to cut production, but only if Iran  which didn't even attend the meeting  stops increasing its output, which has only been flowing since the lifting of global sanctions against the country earlier this year.

Joshua Mahony, Market Analyst at IG, said: 'Saudi Arabia has single-handedly driven this crash in crude prices, from masterminding the strategy to push US shale out of business, to vetoing any suggestion of cuts at any OPEC meeting.

'It has the biggest wallet and is willing to suffer in the short-term for the promise of a greater share of the bounty in the long run. How long this will play out for will be reliant on how long the US can maintain its production. However, as seen over the weekend, Saudi Arabia plays by its own rules and oil bulls will be wary of that.'

Away from oil on the downside, Apple shares dropped 1.5 per cent in New York amid reports the US tech giant plans to reduce iPhone production this quarter after seeing sluggish sales.

In London, blue chip designer and Apple supplier ARM Holdings was knocked by the report as well, shedding 3 per cent, or 29p to 961p.

ARM was also cautious ahead of a trading update, due later this week, and after broker Jefferies International cut its rating for the chip maker to hold from buy.

And fellow UK Apple suppliers were weak too, with mid cap chip maker Imagination Technologies down 6.5p to 171.8p, and Laird Group losing 3.7p at 373.7p.

On currency markets, the pound was lower against the dollar, down 0.2 per cent to $1.4189, and fell 0.5 per cent versus the euro to 1.2547, in the absence of any key data today, dogged by ongoing 'Brexit' worries ahead of the June referendum on UK membership of the European Union.

11.45: The Footsie was more modestly lower approaching lunchtime as crude prices trimmed the earlier sharp falls which had followed disappointment that key oil producer talks at the weekend in Doha had failed to agree a plan to curb global oil oversupply.

Around mid session, the FTSE 100 was down 13.1 points, or 0.2 per cent at 6,330.6, well above the day's low of 6,261.71, having closed 21.35 points lower on Friday.

European markets were also off lows, with France's CAC 40 index flat, but Germany's Dax 30 index still down 0.2 per cent.

Off lows: The Footsie was modestly lower around lunchtime as crude prices trimmed earlier sharp falls which had followed disappointment that key oil producer talks had failed to agree a plan to address oversupply

US stock futures pointed to moderate opening falls today in New York despite the Doha disappointment, with no major US economic pointers due for release, and the main corporate focus to be on results from Morgan Stanley.

The summit at the weekend in the Qatari capital saw Saudi Arabia willing to cut production, but only if Iran  which didn't even attend the meeting  stops increasing its output, which has only been flowing since the lifting of global sanctions against the country earlier this year.

Brent crude initially dropped 5 per cent on the oil deal failure, but by lunchtime that loss had more than halved, with the benchmark down 2.0 per cent to $42.24 a barrel.

David Cheetham, Market Analyst at XTB, said: 'Hopes of a deal regarding a cap on output were at elevated levels for much of last week, driving oil benchmarks to their highest level in over four months as market participants believed the first coordinated action between OPEC and non-OPEC members in fifteen years could provide further fuel to the strong rally we've observed since January's 12 year low.

'However, warning signs of the forthcoming problems were apparent on Friday, when Iran announced that their oil minister wouldn't be in attendance in Doha, as the recent lifting of sanctions has enabled Tehran to ramp up production leaving little appetite for enforcing fresh restrictions on their output.

He added: 'The failure to agree on capping output at January's levels, which were record highs for several nations, doesn't bode well for future collaboration of production to support price and heading into June's bi-annual OPEC meeting much work remains to be done for a positive outcome to be reached amongst the member nations who have made no secret of their desire for a higher market price.'

Falls by energy stocks remained a drag on the FTSE 100 index, with Royal Dutch Shell losing 1.2 per cent, or 22.0p at 1,796.5p, while BP was off 3.9p at 352.1p.

But shares in fuel-consuming travel firms rose in response to the oil price slide, with budget airline easyJet the top FTSE gainer, up 35p at 1,482p, while British Airways-owner IAG gained 9.5p at 543.5p.

Holidays firm Thomas Cook Group was the best FTSE 250 performer, up 0.8p to 93.8p also supported by an upgrade to hold from sell by Berenberg.

Among the day's corporate news, consumer products firm Reckitt Benckiser was in demand, up 82p at 6,817p after the firm - which owns brands ranging from Durex condoms to Nurofen painkillers and Dettol cleaning products - said like-for-like sales for its Health product business grew 11 per cent in the quarter to the end of March

But ARM Holdings was a blue chip faller, down 2.5 per cent, or 24.5p at 965.5p ahead of a trading update later this week after broker Jefferies International cut its rating for the chip maker to hold from buy, with the stock unsettled too by reports that US tech giant Apple plans to reduce iPhone production this quarter after sluggish sales.

Aside from ARM, fellow Apple suppliers were also weak with mid cap chip maker Imagination Technologies down 3.8 per cent, or 6.8p to 171.5p, and Laird Group losing 2.1p at 375.2p.

On currency markets, the pound stayed weaker against the dollar, down 0.2 per cent to $1.4188, and was 0.5 per cent lower versus the euro at 1.2542, dogged by ongoing 'Brexit' worries ahead of the June 23 referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.

09.05: The Footsie stayed weak, but eased off opening lows as the morning session progressed, with commodity stocks under pressure as crude prices took a tumble after talks yesterday between oil producers in Doha failed to agree on a plan to curb the global oil supply glut.

By mid morning, the FTSE 100 was down 25.8 points, or 0.4 per cent at 6,318.0, albeit above an early low of 6,261.71, having closed 21.35 points weaker on Friday after a dip in the oil price ahead of the Doha meeting.

European markets were also lower, with France's CAC 40 index down 0.7 per cent and Germany's Dax 30 index off 0.5 per cent reflecting big overnight falls by Asian markets on the producers meeting disappointment.

Some 18 oil exporting nations, including Opec members, had gathered in the capital of Qatar over the weekend in an attempt to agree to stabilise output at January levels until October 2016. However, the pact fell apart after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran  which only recently saw global sanctions on its exports lifted - join in.

Dull progress: The Footsie stayed weak, but eased off opening lows, with commodity stocks under pressure as crude prices took a tumble after talks yesterday between oil producers in Doha failed to agree on a supply plan

Qatar's Energy and Industry Minister Mohammed bin Saleh said at a press conference that participants in the meeting had agreed on the need for more time for discussion. The minister added that Opec members would meet in Vienna on June 2 to consider a possible freeze.

In reaction, Brent crude fell nearly 4.5 per cent in morning trading to $41.19 a barrel.

Rebecca O'Keeffe, Head of Investment at stockbroker Interactive Investor, said: 'All too predictable differences of opinion between Saudi Arabia and Iran prevented what would otherwise have been a historic deal between OPEC and other major oil-producing countries to support prices by limiting output.

'The short-term impact of the talks failure has seen equity markets and oil prices plunge, but the concern is that high positive correlation between oil prices and global equities so far this year suggests that equity markets are vulnerable to more significant long-term downside risks caused by lower oil prices - in particular if this impasse leads to another sustained decline in crude prices.'

Energy stocks led the sell-off in London on the oil price slide, with Royal Dutch Shell shedding 3 per cent, or 55.0p at 1,763.5p, while BP lost 8.4p at 347.6p, and mid cap explorer Tullow Oil dropped 8.7p to 204.4p.

Miners were also weak, with Anglo American falling 19.7p to 658.6p, while Antofagasta shed 14.2p at 456.8p, and Rio Tinto was down 23.0p at 2,207.5p also hit by a downgrade from Citigroup to sell from neutral ahead of a production update due tonight.

But shares of fuel-consuming travel firms rose in response to the oil price slide, with budget airline easyJet the top FTSE 100 gainer, up 27p at 1,474p, while British Airways-owner IAG gained 8.5p at 542.5p, and cruises operator Carnival rose 54p to 3,792p.

Holidays firm Thomas Cook Group was the best FTSE 250 performer, up 3 per cent, or 2.9p to 95.9p also supported by an upgrade to hold from sell by Berenberg.

Back with the blue chips, consumer products firm Reckitt Benckiser was also in demand, up 37p at 6,772p after it reported strong like-for-like sales growth in its Health and Hygiene product portfolios in the first quarter, offset by a flat performance in its Home business and a decline in sales for its Portfolio Brands.

Reckitt, which owns brands ranging from Durex condoms to Nurofen painkillers and Dettol cleaning products, said like-for-like sales for its Health product business grew 11 per cent in the quarter to the end of March.

Housebuilders were also trading higher, rallying after sharp falls last week, helped by a report from property website Rightmove showing UK house prices hitting new record levels in April at around 307,000.

Blue chip Persimmon gained 1 per cent, or 18p at 1,888p, while Taylor Wimpey added 2.4p at 175.1p, and Barratt Developments was up 2.5p at 512.0p.

But ARM Holdings was a blue chip faller, down 2.5 per cent, or 24.5p at 965.5p after broker Jefferies International cut its rating for the chip maker to hold from buy ahead of a trading update due later this week.

And British Gas-owner Centrica shed 2.4 per cent, or 5.8p at 232.5p after Britain's largest energy supplier said it lost another 1.5 per cent of its home energy accounts in the first quarter.

On currency markets, in the absence of any major UK economic data, the pound fell back again versus the dollar and the euro, to $1.4146 and 1.2516 respectively, dogged by ongoing European Union 'Brexit' worries.

08.05: The Footsie dropped back in early trading, tracking big falls overnight by Asian stocks as crude prices took a tumble after talks yesterday between oil producers in Doha failed to agree on a plan to curb the global oil supply glut.

In opening deals, the FTSE 100 was down 64.0 points, or 1.0 per cent at 6,279.7, having closed 21.35 points lower on Friday as investors responded to fresh signs of weakness in the Chinese economy and another dip in the oil price ahead of the Doha meeting.

Some 18 oil exporting nations, including OPEC members, had gathered in the capital of Qatar over the weekend in an attempt to agree to stabilise output at January levels until October 2016. However, the pact fell apart after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in.

In reaction, Brent crude fell nearly 5 per cent in early London trading today to $41.06 a barrel.

Doha disappoints: The Footsie dropped back in early trading as crude prices took a tumble after talks yesterday between oil producers in the Qatari capital failed to agree on a plan to curb the global oil supply glut

Petra Kuraliova, Dealer at Capital Index, said: 'Most of the commodity based currency markets opened in a negative territory as the summit between the world's largest oil producers in Doha turned into a complete failure.

'Saudi Arabia vowed not to freeze the output until the others do. Iran did not bother even to attend. It is quite understandable for Iran trying to avoid the oil output freeze given the fact that Iran has been out of the oil market for such a long time.'

Asian shares fell back on the Doha disappointment, while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index was also hit by worries over the impact of devastating earthquakes in southwestern Japan's Kyushu island, dropping 3.4 per cent.

Falls in London were exacerbated by a lack of much else for direction, with no major UK economic pointers due today, although a survey released overnight showed UK house prices hitting new record highs.

The average price tag on a home leapt to more than 307,000 in April, 3,843 more than in March, as a last-minute rush of buy-to-let investors energised the market, property website Rightmove reported.

But Rightmove said the average price of a typical buy-to-let property - that with one or two bedrooms - dipped in April by 2,686 month-on-month to reach 182,926, as investors' interest in the market became more subdued after a stamp duty hike was imposed on people buying buy-to-let properties from April 1

Stocks in Focus in London include:

CENTRICA - Britain's largest energy supplier said it lost another 1.5 per cent of its home energy accounts in the first quarter, highlighting the British Gas-owner's market share continues to be under severe pressure from rivals.

RECKITT BENCKISER  The consumer products group reported slightly better than expected quarterly sales and affirrmed its full-year forecast after a severe flu season boosted sales of medicines and other health products.

STOCK SPIRITS  The vodka maker said its chief executive Chris Heath will step down with immediate effect and take early retirement. Heath's departure comes ahead of the company's annual general meeting, due to take place on May 23, at which shareholders were due to vote on the his removal.

AGGREKO  The temporary power provider said it has secured a three-year power supply deal in Zimbabwe.

PLUS 500  The contracts-for-difference trading platform Plus500 said revenue grew substantially in the first quarter as market volatility proved conducive to signing up new customers.

INTERSERVE  The support services firm said it has been awarded a five-year contract with the Ministry of Defence's Defence Infrastructure Organisation operating arm worth 230million.

UK company news scheduled today includes:

Trading updates: Centrica (AGM), Reckitt Benckiser (Q1), Rio Tinto (Q1), Plus500

Finals: NetDimensions, Elecosoft, Mayfair Group, SimiGon, CityFibre Infrastructure Holdings

Economic news scheduled today includes:
Financial markets fell today as crude prices dropped after the world's major producing nations failed to strike a deal on Sunday to freeze oil production, saying they needed more time to agree a deal.

But consumers should be celebrating as it means they could enjoy cheaper petrol in the short term, as weaker oil prices keep a lid on the cost of filling up at the pumps, according to analysts.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: 'Motorists should be relieved that the Doha oil producer talks broke down without a production freeze agreement as this means fuel prices at the pumps should not rise too much further.'

Tension: The meeting in Doha included Russia, Mexico and all Opec members aside from Iran

He added: 'Even if a production freeze of some sort had been agreed, we would have been very surprised if it had meant the price of oil going back above 60 US dollars a barrel.

'To put things in perspective, four years ago when the average price of petrol was 142p and diesel was 148p, a barrel of oil cost 120 US dollars a barrel, so fortunately we are a long way from seeing those bad times again.'

But Williams had said the 'good times' were coming to an end after the average price of petrol rose by 3p a litre when oil jumped above $40 a barrel in March.

Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics showed the average price of petrol rose by 0.9 per cent between February and March to hit 102.3p per litre.

The oil price has fallen by close to 70 per cent since hiitting a peak around $115 a barrel in the summer of 2014.

The key weekend meeting held in Doha, the capital of Qatar, included most members of the Opec oil producers cartel plus Russia and Mexico, but it ran into difficulty after tensions flared between the region's two superpowers - Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, had been prepared to freeze output if all Opec members had agreed.

But Iran decided to boycott the talks altogether as it attempts to ramp up its oil production having only returned to the market after global sanctions against the country were lifted earlier this year.

The Iranian government said in a statement: 'As we're not going to sign anything, and as we're not part of the decision to freeze output, we ultimately decided it was not necessary to send a representative.'

After hours of stalled talks in Doha, Qatar's energy minister Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada said that the oil producers needed 'more time'.

He said after the meeting ended: 'We of course respect [Iran's] position... The freeze could be more effective definitely if major producers, be it from Opec members like Iran and others, as well as non-Opec members, are included in the freeze.'

The failed summit has ended hopes that the 18 countries taking part could agree a sign off on a deal that would have helped to put a floor under the price of crude oil, by freezing output at January levels until October 2016.

Prior to the meeting, oil prices had rallied from below $30 a barrel in mid-January to hit $43 by the end of last week, on hopes a freeze deal would be done.

But much of that hard work was undone today, with Brent Crude down around 3.5 per cent to $41.61 a barrel, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil was off 4 per cent at $38.66 a barrel.

James Hughes, Chief Market Analyst ay GkFX, said: 'The tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia go deeper than just that of agreeing on oil output, the two nations compete for power in the middle east and are already fighting unofficial conflicts with each other in areas of Syria and Yemen.

'The failure to reach a deal is expected to have a huge negative impact on the downside for oil prices, after many expected the major stumbling blocks to come from the Russian side.

'The bearish catalyst could well see oil prices tumble more than the initial fall back to $38, with Goldmans predicting an average price of $35 a barrel for the year. Any decline is likely to have a knock on effect on world indices, with us already looking at a negative start in Europe.'

Global issue: Oil prices had rallied from below $30 a barrel in mid-January to hit $43 by the end of last week, on hopes a freeze deal would be done at Doha last weekend

Unsurprisingly, energy stocks took a knock today on the crude price decline, leading falls by the FTSE 100 index in London, with BP losing 3.8p at 352.2p and Shell shedding 30.0p at 1,784.0p.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'BP and Shell were early and inevitable casualties as investors reacted to the fall in oil prices following the failure by oil exporting countries to reach an agreement on output.

'The fall in oil prices is sparking profit-taking as a marked slide in crude raises the question of whether BP and Shell will be able to maintain their dividend payments if oil remains lower for longer.'

Weakness in oil prices also put pressure on the shares of blue chip mining companies such as Anglo American shares, off 5.8p at 672.5p, and Glencore, down 2.0p at 153.7p.

Meanwhile hedge fund managers were likely sweating as some have placed huge positions betting on a recovery in oil prices, even though analysts were sceptical a deal at Doha would have significantly altered the balance of the market.
Black gold? An exploratory well-head at the site in Horse Hill, Surrey

GATWICK GUSHER The company behind plans to extract oil from the ground around Gatwick Airport has increased its stake in the venture.

UK Oil & Gas Investments has snapped up a larger stake in the Horse Hill oil exploration company, near Gatwick airport, to 27.3 per cent.

It has paid 1.8million in cash and shares for Angus Energys 7.8 per cent stake.

UKOG has carried out tests at Horse Hill  nicknamed the Gatwick Gusher following claims last year of large amounts of oil under the Weald basin area.

UKOG shares fell 6.82 per cent or 0.15p to 2.05p.

STANDARD BID Career civil servant Sir Paul Tucker has emerged as a leading candidate to help run one of the Citys biggest banks.

The former Bank of England deputy governor is being considered as chairman of Standard Chartered.

Tucker, a senior fellow at the University of Harvard, would replace John Peace who pledged to quit as part of a boardroom clear-out after shareholders demanded change at the bank.

HSBC BOSSES Boss Stuart Gulliver is set to stand down within two years as part of a management shake-up. A successor for chairman Douglas Flint is expected to be named by 2017, and they will lead the search for a chief executive.

Sources said Henri de Castries, who leads insurance giant Axa, was hotly tipped to replace Flint.

MILITARY DEAL Maintenance firm Interserve has won a 230million contract to manage six airfields used by the US military in Britain.

The five-year partnership starts in November 2016 and has brought together a number of engineering and maintenance contracts at the sites under the control of one main contractor. Interserve shares increased 0.74 per cent or 3p to 409.4p.

POWER ON Aggreko, which rents equipment providing power to festivals, building projects and other remote locations, has won a three-year supply contract.

Despite this shares fell 0.46 per cent or 5p to 1074p after its Power Solutions business signed the contract to provide 200MW of diesel-fuelled power in Zimbabwe.

SAVERS ROCKED Investment firm Charles Stanley saw its asset book shrink by 3.8 per cent to 20.5billion in the year to April as the world was rocked by volatile markets.

Revenues at the 300-year-old company fell 5.4 per cent to 141.5million.
China has stoked fury by accusing the West of lazy and lame excuses over the steel crisis.

The Peoples Republic is being blamed for causing a global plunge in steel prices by dumping excess supply around the world.

Indian-owned Tata Steel put its UK steel assets up for sale last week placing thousands of jobs at its Port Talbot side at risk after it was revealed the plant could no longer compete.

Britains steel industry has been devastated by cheap imported steel, mainly from China. Lower growth has left China with excess steel and it has been exporting this to Europe.

Oversupply: China has stoked fury by accusing the West of lazy and lame excuses over the steel crisis

Yesterday Chinas official news agency used the start of a two-day crisis summit to say it was understandable to believe that China, as the worlds largest steel producer, was the cause of the problems.

However, it said, upon closer inspection its just a lame and lazy excuse for protectionism.

As the talks got underway, China was immediately blamed for failing to help find a solution to the problem.

The Chinese government refused to put its name to a joint communique that was supposed to agree levels of over-capacity and set out targets to reduce the glut. Sources say that talks have reached an impasse.

Gareth Stace, director of UK Steel, said: What we needed to see at the meeting was an agreement by national governments to take short term, detailed actions to help address the steel sector crisis.

However, having agreed what the problems are we appear to be no closer to finding international action to put in place solutions.

This is a global problem which requires a global solution to remove current over-capacity and time is a luxury we dont have.

'In Europe we have already been through very painful restructuring and must now look to others, including China, to take the same radical action.

Meanwhile, Tata said it had expressions of interest from 190 potential financial and industrial investors worldwide and has hired Standard Chartered to run the sale process.
Deutsche Boerse is seeking to take over the London Stock Exchange in a deal worth around 21bn

A row has erupted over a takeover of the London Stock Exchange after bosses behind the bid appeared to suggest its headquarters could move to Germany.

Deutsche Boerse is seeking to take over the 215-year-old institution in a deal worth around 21billion.

Both sides insist it will be a merger of equals but the German firms shareholders will get a 54.4 per cent controlling stake, profits will be reported in euros and Deutsche head Carsten Kengeter will be chief executive.

Critics were told the new company would be based in the City rather than Deutsches Frankfurt home.

But in a German newspaper interview, Kengeter said the terms could change if Britain voted to leave the EU.

Sources at both Deutsche and the LSE have since strongly denied the group could be based abroad, saying its London location was non-negotiable.

However, there is increasing pressure for a rethink from Frankfurt politicians who see it as a major prize.
The number of shoppers hitting the high street dropped by 3.9 per cent last month compared to the previous year as online shopping proved a popular alternative during the cold weather.

Britain's retail sector continues to struggle overall, with footfall falling by 2.7 per cent last month compared to a year earlier, new data from the British Retail Consortium and Springboard said.

Shopping centres saw one of the biggest declines, with visitor numbers falling by 3.7 per cent.

In a bid to help hard-pressed small businesses, last month Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to exempt 600,000 small firms from business rates, with a further 250,000 enjoying lower rates from next April.

Falling footfall: Britain's retail sector continues to struggle, with footfall falling by 2.7 per cent last month compared to a year earlier, the British Retail Consortium and Springboard said

Footfall in out-of-town retail parks increased by 1.6 per cent year-on-year last month, down from a 2.5 per cent rise in February.

Shops in the East and the South East reported the deepest decline in footfall, falling 3.5 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively. This was closely followed by Wales which saw a 3.2 per cent decline.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: 'The near four per cent decline in footfall on our high streets and in shopping centres is partially caused by the distortion of the timing of Easter.

'It is, however, also a continuation of a longer term trend caused by on-going structural change within the retail industry.

'Customers dont differentiate between buying online, on a mobile device or in-store and often combine two or more different channels when they shop.

'Therefore, as well as their significant investment in digital, retailers know they also need to continually improve their physical stores to ensure an ever changing and more exciting shopping experience. The ongoing decline in levels of footfall highlights the significance of this structural change.'

Shopper numbers: The number of shoppers hitting the high street dropped by 3.9 per cent in March, while shopping centre visitor numbers declined by 3.7 per cent, the British Retail Consortium and Springboard said

While many small businesses face benefiting from the Chancellor's proposals for business rates, such firms may struggle under the Government's new National Living Wage scheme.

Under the new scheme, the minimum hourly pay rate is 7.20 for over 25s, up from 6.50 an hour.

Ms Dickinson said: 'The industry stands ready to work with Government to ensure these policies are implemented in a way that achieves Government objectives while minimising the burden on retail businesses.'

In a sign of how the retail landscape has changed, research from Mintel last week revealed that just over 10 per cent of people now do all their grocery shopping online.
The number of thefts at cash machines is on the rise as fraudsters look to steal cash under your nose, experts are warning.

Up to 2,500 Britons fall victim to card fraud at ATMs every week, according to Financial Fraud Action UK - and those going to the US on business or holiday have been told to take extra care.

It comes after the number of machines hacked by criminals in America last year rose 546 per cent in 12 months to its highest ever level, according to New York Stock Exchange-listed software firm Fico.

When using a cash machine, it is important to be alert for signs of criminal activity. Here are some telling signs that an ATM has been tampered with, from Fico's fraud specialist Brian Kinch:

When using a cash machine, it is important to be alert for signs of criminal activity - of which there can be many

1. Criminals are adept at placing card or cash capture devices and PIN compromise devices in or around ATMs to get quick access to consumer funds. Some even install entire false fronts to ATMs to capture people's PINs and money.

These are often so well disguised that they can be extremely difficult to detect, so properly look at the ATM you are using to try and check it is legitimate.

Ticket skimmers: Fraudsters can superimpose gadgets to steal card information on top of real cash machines

2. An unusually bulky card insert slot might suggest a 'skimmer'. A skimmer is a tool that is attached to the card slot on an ATM and secretly swipes your card details while you're making a withdrawal  it's almost indistinguishable from the real card reader.

Look out for misaligned or even misprinted stickers, as this is often an attempt to cover up where a compromise device has been installed.

3. A loose or blocked card slot may suggest the presence of a 'Lebanese Loop'. Thieves can place a tiny plastic device or sleeve with a barb into the card reader so that, when you try to withdraw money, your card is caught in the machine.

The ATM will continue to ask for a PIN as it can't read the card so, if you are led to believe your card has been swallowed, you may walk away and leave your card to be taken by the fraudsters.

False frontage: Whole fake ATM covers (left) can be used to steal debit cards and card information. A blocked card slot can suggest the presence of a 'Lebanese Loop' at the back of the machine (right)

4. If the PIN pad feels loose, thick, or sponge-like, then it may be a fake. This long-standing way of capturing people's PINs is known as a 'pin-pad overlay' - the true PIN pad is covered by a counterfeit keypad such that, although pressing the buttons correctly causes the ATM to register your PIN, it is simultaneously being captured by the criminal.

Sometimes these digits are even instantly being transferred by WiFi to a waiting accomplice to record and use later.

Grabbers: These two devices are examples of cash claws which can help criminals take money from ATMs

5. Be aware of your surrounding environment, not just the appearance of the machine. Do not accept help from seemingly well-meaning strangers and don't allow yourself to be distracted while at an ATM.

Typically fraudsters work best in teams, and distraction is a good way of scamming innocent victims to obtain a card or PIN. If an ATM is surrounded by individuals inexplicably loitering, ideally try to use a different machine.

Sometimes these will be confidence tricksters who, for example, have deployed a cash or card trap and will become overly helpful when you run into trouble. Whilst you are distracted, an accomplice can quickly check your PIN or remove and conceal your card or cash.

How Britons are suffering from debit card fraud in the US

Nearly half of all debit card fraud suffered by Britons abroad takes place on the other side of the Atlantic.

The surge in criminal activity seems have been focused on non-bank cash machines  such as ATMs at convenience stores. Ten times as many of these types of machines were compromised compared to 2014, according to Fico.

TJ Horan, vice president of fraud solutions at Fico, said: 'Criminals are taking a quick-hit approach to ATM theft and card fraud.

Issue: Nearly half of all debit card fraud suffered by Britons abroad takes place on the other side of the Atlantic

'They are moving faster to make it harder for banks to react and shut down the compromises. They are targeting non-bank cash machines, which are more vulnerable - in 2015, non-bank cash machines accounted for 60 per cent of all compromises, up from 39 per cent in 2014.'

If someone is crowding or watching you, then cancel the transaction and go to another machine Brian Kinch, fraud specialist

The firm is warning that this type of fraud 'migrated' over to the US and could soon return to the UK.

Martin Warwick, Fico's EMEA fraud chief, added: 'Different countries' defences against fraud, banks' adoption of powerful analytics, and their use of EMV [chip and pin] technology have pushed fraudsters from one type of fraud to the next, crossing borders to find easier targets as EMV strengthens protection in the US, criminals will be looking for the next lucrative opportunity.'

Mr Kinch said: 'When taking money out of an ATM, it's important to always stand close to the machine and shield your PIN carefully. Once you have completed the transaction, put your money and card away before leaving the machine.

'If you spot anything unusual about the machine, or there are signs of tampering, make sure you leave it well alone and report it to the police or your bank immediately so they can investigate.

'Ultimately, always remember to be alert and put your personal safety first - if someone is crowding or watching you, then cancel the transaction and go to another machine.'

It was revealed in January 2015 that criminal gangs had been adapting mobile phone video cameras and hiding them in cash machines to help empty bank accounts.

The use of the gadget came to light after a MailOnline reporter became a victim of the scam - with the device secretly helping to fuel a rise in the 100million-a-year card fraud industry in Britain.

Police advised potential victims to look out for anything suspicious, but warned against taking devices away because there was a chance the gangs could come after people to get them back.

Technique: MailOnline revealed in January 2015 that criminal gangs had been adapting mobile phone video cameras and hiding them in cash machines to help empty bank accounts

Last year two fraudsters were jailed for a total of six years for a scam which netted more than 2million worth of stolen card details from potentially thousands of victims.

Florin Ardel, 25, and Ioan Flore, 33, were arrested after officers found an Aladdins cave of card skimming equipment at an address in Southgate, north London.

Officers had followed Ardel back to the property after spotting a gang acting suspiciously around an ATM in Mayfair. Ardel was then seen dumping gift cards on the back into a rubbish bin outside.

When officers searched the property, they found an array of card-skimming devices, with side camera bars, false ATM fronts and memory devices.
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By Lenore Skenazy

This will sound strange, but it only gets stranger: A man in the Yukon who lives in a hut and has a team of 30 mush dogs got interested in the topic of female sex offenders.

Go figure.

The man, Darrell Otto, may trod the frozen tundra, but like everyone else, he has Internet access, and somehow he stumbled upon an odd case: Four Texas lesbians convicted, when they were in their very early 20s, of raping two young girls in a tequila-soaked orgy. By the time Otto was reading about them, the women had been in prison four or five years, but they had at least another decade to goand one had 30 years to go.

Thats a long sentence.

The more he read about the case, the more Otto wanted someone to dig deeper. At last he got the National Center for Reason and Justice, which identifies false allegations of harm to children, to agree to investigate. Heres what it found.

The girls, 7 and 9, had been staying with their aunt, 20-year-old Elizabeth Ramirez, for a week. Two months later, they told their grandmother theyd been raped by Ramirez and her friends.

The facts of the story were confounding, at best. First of all, the girls said all four of the women raped them, even though two of the womens work schedules made that almost impossible. Then, their details differed widely on retellings: Sometimes the girls said they were together during the attacks, other times apart. Sometimes they said they were threatened with a knife, other times a gun.

But most damning of all: the same girls had told a strikingly similar story two years earlier. That time, it was about their mom. This was when their dad, Javier Limon, was engaged in a bitter custody battle with her.

Javier Limon figured large in this case, too. He had been in love with Ramirez and outraged when she turned him down. He vowed vengeance on her and her family. Slate reports that Ramirez had love letters from Limon.

She was not allowed to enter them in her defense.

Instead, the trial was about four gay women, in a conservative Texas town, right on the heels of the Satanic Panic. Thats when Americans across the country became convinced that day care workers were dismembering babies, drinking blood and ritually raping preschoolers. It sounds outrageous now, but people went to prison, sometimes for decades, for ostensibly making toddlers dig up bodies in the graveyard, or flying them down to Mexico to be raped by the armyand back by circle time. (See the case of Frances and Dan Keller).

In the end, the fate of the San Antonio Four was sealed when a doctor testified that the lines she saw on one of the girls hymens were irrefutable proof of rape. The women entered prison reviled as child molestersand lesbians.

Many of these cases were fueled by homophobia, says Debbie Nathan, the Brooklyn-based author of Satans Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt. Nathan is on the board of the Center for Reason and Justice. Back then, she says, many people assumed that every gay person was also a child predator.

Nathan urged one of her proteges, Deborah Esquenazi, to keep digging, even as she convinced the Texas Innocence Project to do the same.

A gay woman herself, Esquenazi met the women in prison and was shocked to find they were no longer angry. They just wanted to tell their story.

So she brought along a video camera, and bore witness over the next few years to an extraordinary turn of events.

First, the doctor who had insisted the physical evidence proved rape admitted shed been wrong. It turns out that hymen lines are a normal variation.

Second, a new Texas bill that allows people to appeal if their convictions were based on junk science brought the case back to court.

Finally: one of the victims, now in her 20s, recanted her testimony.

Then, after more than a decade in prison, the women were releasedbut not exonerated. Theyre in legal limbo, working factory jobs as they await what happens next.

Which is the red carpet.

This week, Esquenazis documentary, Southwest of Salem, premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival. The San Antonio Four will be there, their first time in New York.

It should be sweet, but not as sweet as justice.

Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four dates: World premiere: April 15 at 4:30 p.m.. Then: April 17 at 7:30 p.m., April 18 at 3:30 p.m., April 20 at 8:30 p.m. The four women will be interviewed by Kelly Michaels at Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen St, Manhattan, Wednesday night, April 13, at 7 p.m..

Lenore Skenazy is founder and author of the blog and book Free-Range Kids.
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By Mark Hallum

Police from the 106th Precincts Special Conditions Unit shot and killed a man who reached for a pistol carried in his waistband during a foot pursuit, the NYPD said.

The incident took place in Ozone Park at 1:30 a.m. Sunday, when two plainclothes officers approached the suspect in a routine quality-of-life stop.

George Tillman, the 32-year-old suspect, was standing next to his double-parked sport utility vehicle with an open container of alcohol when the police pulled up in an unmarked car, police said. Officers could see the butt of the .40-caliber Hi-Point pistol sticking out of his waistband. That is when the suspect made a run for it, ignoring all verbal commands, according to police.

Three additional officers on 135th Street and 116th Avenue joined in the pursuit. It was at this point that Tillman made a move for his gun, the police said. Four officers opened fire, hitting the suspect several times in the torso.

A police spokesman said the suspect was shot multiple times, but did not elaborate. The investigation was ongoing.

Tillman was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The officers, whose names were not released, were all assigned to the 106th Precinct. They were taken to Long Island Jewish Medical Center for evaluation despite the fact that all were unharmed in the shooting.

A friend of Tillman who identified himself as J. Washington said Tillman was newly married and was raising five kids, three of them his own.

Life was just starting to go good for him, he told The New York Times.

Tillmans uncle, Barry Wilson, was shocked to hear that his nephew was carrying a gun.

I was at the front door when I heard the commotion and someone came running over to me and told me my nephew got shot and that hes dead, Wilson told the New York Post.

Tillman was in town from Maryland visiting family. Police said the pistol he carried was recovered from the scene, regardless of sources for the New York Post who claimed he was unarmed.
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By Times Record News

Technology enthusiasts with a mind for business can learn firsthand about some of the latest and greatest tech resources available Wednesday at a Back to Business seminar called "Tech to Look Out For", which is hosted by America's SBDC at Midwestern State University.

Terry McAdams, a Wichita Falls businessman and owner of MacTech Solutions in Parker Square, will present the seminar in room 189 of the Dillard College of Business Administration at MSU. Lunch begins at 11:45 a.m. and costs $10.

McAdams will cover topics like the Internet, bring your own device and what "the cloud" is.

Guests wishing to attend the seminar must register no later than 8 a.m. Wednesday. Registration can be done online at mwsu.info/url/sbdctouchnet. For more information, call 940-397-4373.

Back to Business Wednesday is cosponsored by the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce & Industry and The Nonprofit Center of Texoma.
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By Barbara Green, The Bowie News

A 31-year-old Amarillo man was found guilty of money laundering in 97th District Court Thursday and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Barry Willis Jr. was arrested July 5, 2014, for speeding by the Department of Public Safety outside Bowie, but discovering a large amount of cash law officers began to investigate further, which led to the charge of money laundering.

Assistant District Attorney Kevin Henry said Willis was found with just under $10,000 in cash during that traffic stop. He also had a misdemeanor amount of marijuana.

"He was driving from Amarillo to Dallas and had lots of money. Investigators found photos of him with money and with marijuana," Henry said.

Money laundering involves the transport or concealing of proceeds from a criminal activity. Henry said they found evidence that shows he made "tons of money" as a wholesale marijuana dealer.

After two and a half days of testimony the jury went out Thursday afternoon and returned 35 minutes later with a guilty verdict. On Friday morning, following a half-day hearing, District Judge Jack McGaughey gave the sentence of 15 years.

Henry said he did not ask for a specific sentenced, adding that 20 years was the maximum available. Money laundering starts as a state jail felony, but is then graded by amount. Henry said Willis had two prior jail offenses, which moved the charge to a second degree felony.

"I didn't ask for a time, I just wanted him locked up and let everyone know we are trying to protect them. For those committing the offenses, you will get punished if we get them in court," concluded Henry.
Drones

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By Los Angeles Times

No one knows for certain what will happen if an errant drone crashes into a passenger jet. Maybe nothing  birds collide with planes all the time with little consequence. But not always. From time to time, a little bird causes big damage to an airplane.

Who wants to find out for sure? Better to keep drones and planes well out of each other's way. One important step is for Congress to pass the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that's working its way through the Senate this month. Among many other things, the bill adopts some of the strictest regulations for commercial and hobby drones yet. It's way past time to start getting a handle on these flying robots.

Significantly, the bill would require the industry to develop new safety standards for unmanned aerial vehicles  UAVs in industry parlance  that will likely mandate technology that stops drones from flying into restricted airspace. That wouldn't be a huge hurdle for the industry; DJI, one of the major consumer drone manufacturers, has started including this capability, called geo-fencing, into its drones.

The necessity of such a step was highlighted a few weeks ago when the pilot of a Lufthansa A380 passenger jet reported that a drone passed within 200 feet of the plane as it approached Los Angeles International Airport. The plane was flying at about 5,000 feet. Drones are not supposed to fly above 400 feet. They do anyhow. Last year, hundreds of pilots reported seeing drones flying way too close for comfort.

The drone that crossed paths with the Lufthansa plane was never identified by the FAA, but under the new rules proposed in the bill, reckless drones in the future may be. One of the provisions would require the government to develop a method to identify remotely the operators and owners of drones while they are in the air. The FAA set up a mandatory drone registration system last year, but fewer than half of the estimated drone owners have registered and there's no mechanism to identify them.

Accountability is essential, given the expected growth of consumer drone sales: An estimated 7 million consumer drones will have been sold in the U.S. by 2020. That figure includes both large, high-end drones used professionally (for such things as filming and monitoring crops) and the small, low-cost models sold at electronics stores.

The consumer drone revolution sneaked up on most Americans, turning the devices from a novelty into a nuisance seemingly overnight. Last summer, stories of drones blundering into aerial firefighting operations in California woke up the public to both the proliferation and the inherent dangers of a technology so sophisticated and powerful that anyone can have one flying thousands of feet in the air within minutes.

Not all of the drone provisions in the bill have merit. Manufacturers are legitimately concerned that the language will result in an approval process for safety standards that could create a bottleneck for new models. Another provision, preempting cities and states from adopting their own rules for drones, needs tweaking. It makes sense for Congress to preempt local rules that would create a messy patchwork of regulations over drone manufacturing, safety standards and most use of airspace. At the same time, however, there must be some recognition that cities and states have a role in determining how drones are used in their communities in the future.

As the National League of Cities and United States Conference of Mayors put it in a letter to senators, "(P)olicymakers, including those at the federal level, do not yet know what the broader use of commercial UAVs means for our cities and towns, and cannot reasonably anticipate the challenges that will arise with the expanded deployment of UAVs."

But we have a good inkling of what is to come: drones delivering pizzas, books and all manner of other consumer goods, if the likes of Amazon and Google have their way. And they probably will, which will entail the development of aerial drone thoroughfares through cities and towns. Cities and states ought to have some ability to make land-use decisions about where to place those pathways.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whose Consumer Drone Safety Act helped shape this bill, has offered an amendment with two other senators that would limit federal preemption to drone manufacture and design. That's a good place to start. While it's important to make sure that the skies are safe today, communities must be allowed to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow.
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Schenectady

Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich told a crowd in Schenectady that Americans no matter their age need to use their gifts and talents to make the country better.

"I believe that everyone is made special," the Ohio governor told the gathering of about 500 people during a wide-ranging town hall-style meeting Monday at the Schenectady Armory where he tackled topics including illegal immigration and free trade.

His appearance came the day before voters in New York go to the polls for the Republican and Democratic primaries.

On free trade, he concluded that it is a "complicated issue" but that the country would benefit from "connecting the education of our kids with the skills they need to get a job."

He called on college presidents to do a better job of controlling costs, encouraged teens to start taking college-level courses in high school and consider enrolling first at a community college to save money, and touted community service as a way for college graduates to work off some of their debt.

He told the audience that polls show him defeating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton by 12 points.

A woman in the crowd told Kasich she thought he was the only "viable candidate" among the GOP candidates, but she wondered if he is doing so well against Clinton, and why he is polling behind Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

He answered by saying that while he has broader appeal then Cruz and Trump, he lacks name recognition and may not always say what people want to hear.

"I am not a sound-bite guy," said Kasich.

A common theme Kasich emphasized during the exchange was the dire need to grow the economy.

"Part of the problem is our economy is growing so slowly ... and we don't have jobs," he said.

He said Ohio is doing well on the economic front because it has a better mix of jobs.

Kasich also said that he doesn't favor a federal minimum wage.

The Ohio governor says the country needs to shore up its borders to cut down on illegal immigrants coming and make those that are already here pay a fine of back taxes.

The most recent poll from the Siena Research Institute, released last week, showed Kasich pulling in 27 percent of the state's likely Republican primary voters  a distant second to front-runner and New York native Donald Trump, the pick of 50 percent of the survey's respondents, but well ahead of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who garnered only 17 percent.

Trump spent election eve at a rally in Buffalo, where he was scheduled to be introduced by Bills football coach Rex Ryan. Cruz opened the day with a town hall appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Washington

Millions of taxpayers face a midnight deadline Monday to file their tax returns, while millions of others will ask for more time a six-month extension. Some things to know about taxes:

Emancipation Day

The traditional April 15 filing deadline was extended because of Emancipation Day, a legal holiday in the nation's capital. The holiday commemorates President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act in 1862. The act freed more than 3,000 enslaved people in the district and compensated their owners.

The Friday holiday moves the tax deadline to the next business day. In Massachusetts and Maine, taxpayers get one more day to file. The deadline there is Tuesday because Monday is a legal holiday, Patriots' Day, in both states. The holiday commemorates the first battles of the Revolutionary War in 1775.

150 million tax returns

The IRS expects millions of tax returns to be filed each day as the tax deadline approaches, with more than 5 million returns possible on Monday. More than 150 million tax returns are expected to be filed in 2016. As of April 8, almost 82 million refunds have been issued, the IRS said. The average refund amount was $2,798.

For those who need more time to finish their returns, tax-filing extensions are available. Extensions grant more time to file returns, but do not extend time to pay. The IRS projects it will receive 13.5 million requests for extensions.

Congress targets IRS

The IRS is a favorite target of lawmakers from both parties who complain about the complexity of the tax code and accompanying regulations that span more than 70,000 pages. Instructions to complete IRS Form 1040  the main individual income-tax return  run more than 100 pages.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., says the House will vote this week on a half-dozen bills to hold the IRS more accountable. "Fairness is our guide and accountability is the goal as we try to make the IRS beholden to the American people," McCarthy said in a statement.

One bill would require the IRS to crack down on employees who are delinquent on their own taxes. According to the agency's inspector general, nearly 1,600 IRS employees have failed to pay their own taxes in the past decade.

The House also will consider legislation that blocks the IRS from rehiring employees who were already fired by the agency for misconduct. It will vote on bills to ban IRS employees from getting bonus payments until the agency puts in place a plan to improve customer service, and to block any IRS funding from being used to target citizens for political purposes.

The last bill is in response to complaints by Republicans that the tax agency unfairly treated conservative and tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status. The Justice Department said last fall that no IRS official will face criminal charges in the political controversy over the processing of applications by groups seeking tax-exempt status.

Impeach leader?

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has moved to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, but a full vote has not been taken in the House.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., stopped short of backing impeachment. The IRS "is an agency that needs to be cleaned up," Ryan said at a news conference last week. But instead of impeachment, Republicans need to win the presidential election to "get better people in these agencies and reform the tax code so we're not harassing the average taxpayer with a tax code that they can't even understand," Ryan said.

Cybersecurity

Ryan and other Republicans criticize the IRS for failing to secure sensitive taxpayer data. They cite an inspector general's report that identifies "significant security weaknesses that could affect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of financial and sensitive taxpayer data."

The IRS withstands more than one million malicious attempts to access its data each day, Koskinen said, and is stepping up efforts to combat identity theft.
Albany

As the deadline nears for a state decision on the Constitution natural gas pipeline, business interests are urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to clear the way for the project.

Recent letters from the Business Council of New York and the Manufacturers Consortium of Long Island called for Cuomo to ensure the state Department of Environmental Conservation issues key water quality permits for the project. Those permits are the final approval needed for construction to begin, and DEC is expected to decide later this month.

The planned $750 million, 124-mile pipeline would carry hydrofracked natural gas from Pennsylvania into New York, crossing through Broome, Chenango, Delaware and Schoharie counties, where gas then would move into the Iroquois pipeline that runs between Canada and Long Island.

The 416-mile Iroquois pipeline currently delivers gas south from Canada into the southern Hudson Valley, Connecticut and Long Island, but Iroquois owners are exploring plans to reverse that flow so some gas from Constitution could move north to Canada, where it could be stored or exported.

On Monday, Business Council spokesman Darren Suarez said that potential change to Iroquois' direction does not reduce Constitution's economic benefit to New York state.

"We believe that Constitution would have enough gas to meet both (New York and Canada)," he said. "The project benefits far outweigh the potential of the gas that could move north."

Robert Perless, project development manager for the Iroquois South-North project, said that project remains on hold until the Constitution project moves forward.

"We need to see some construction by Constitution. They need to put some pipe into the ground," he said.

Without Constitution, there is no need to reverse the Iroquois pipeline, Perless added. If Constitution is built, the Iroquois pipeline could be reversed by 2018 or 2019, he said.

Plans now call for gas to "flow north on mild days to underground Canadian storage fields and then reverse flow south during extreme winter weather to ... markets in New York and New England," according to the description on Iroquois' website.

On its route in New York, the Constitution pipeline would cross 270 bodies of water and clear 1,000 acres of forest containing 700,000 trees. More than 700 parcels of land are affected by the proposed pipeline, and 120 landowners face losing property to the gas company under eminent domain.

Facing pressure from vocal pipeline opponents, DEC has a deadline at the end of the month to decide on state water quality permits, without which Constitution cannot move forward. Pipeline critics claim that deadline is April 26, but the DEC on Monday would not confirm or deny any deadline date.

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In her April 13 letter to Cuomo, Business Council President and CEO Heather Bricetti wrote that Constitution would have "minimal environmental impact" and that DEC has "had more than ample time to review the permits."

Bricetti wrote that the project would provide natural gas to the Amphenol Corp., based in Sidney, Delaware County, and Raymond Co., based in Greene, Chenango County. Together, the two firms employ about 1,100 workers, she wrote.

Long Island businesses also want the natural gas that Constitution could feed into the Iroquois network, wrote Anne Shybunko-Moore, chairwoman of the Manufacturing Consortium of Long Island. She said that should result in lower natural gas prices on Long Island.

Constitution is a partnership of Houston-based Cabot Oil and Gas Corp; Williams, an Oklahoma-based energy company; Piedmont Natural Gas; and WGL Holdings.

bnearing@timesunion.com  518-454-5094  @Bnearing10
The bald eagle was chosen as our national bird because of its majesty, power and longevity. But saving it from extinction was a grueling, poop-covered, often lonely business, Darryl McGrath reports in great detail in her book, "Flight Paths, A Field Journal of Hope, Heartbreak and Miracles with New York's Bird People."

McGrath combined a journalist's eye for detail and ear for story with her lifelong fascination with birds for the book, which tells the story of saving wild bald eagles and peregrine falcons in the 1970s as a backdrop to what wildlife biologists are doing today.

The research was far more intensive than McGrath expected it would be when she started, and personal tragedy  the death of her husband, longtime Times Union writer and editor Jim McGrath  nearly derailed the book when it was almost finished. She persevered, because she didn't want the time her sources spent recalling their early work and telling their stories to go to waste.

"Birds have always been the early warning system of what we are doing to ourselves," McGrath said. "DDT and the chemicals of the pesticide era of the 1940s, '50s and '60s were dangerous for humans. Now, the new generation of chemicals, including triclosan, meant to be used rarely for doctors scrubbing into surgery now in widespread use in anti-bacterial products, poses a threat. When we see bird species vanishing, it's not because they've hit the end of the 2 to 3 million years allotted to them as a species. In one generation, we've seen bird populations plummet. What we are doing to them, we are doing to ourselves."

More Information Darryl McGrath will read from ''Flight Paths'' at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Woman's Club of Albany, 725 Madison Ave., Albany. A suggested donation of $10 at the door will benefit the club. Books will be on sale for $20 cash. See More Collapse

As an example, McGrath referred to an ongoing study that examines the harmful effects of mercury on loons in the Adirondacks. Studies like this and others come into play when it comes time for the federal government to take strong action to cut emissions, McGrath said.

The author, who worked as a reporter at the Times Union from 1995 to 1998, came up with the book idea while working as a correspondent for the Boston Globe. She wrote about emerging plans at Barton Mines, a garnet mining company in Warren County, to put up wind turbines. Conservationists objected to 400-foot towers with blades attached, because they posed a threat to the Bicknell's thrush, a little-known songbird believed to breed at high elevations in the Adirondacks and Catskills. But McGrath moved away from the wind energy project into a broader story about bird conservation in the state, using examples in different habitats. She included the short-eared owl to represent grassland birds, the common loon, which lives on freshwater lakes, the piping plover, found on ocean beaches, and Bicknell's thrush, the high-altitude bird that inspired the book.

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While McGrath has always liked birds and has long collected books on the subject, it was the personal stories from the people who worked with them that intrigued her the most. The primary players in ''Flight Paths'' are Tom Cade, an expert on peregrine falcons and a professor emeritus of ornithology at Cornell University, and Peter Nye, a research scientist at the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The men shared with McGrath both their field journals and their memories, to talk about what inspired them to work with birds. McGrath also interviewed four pioneering women biologists, who started their careers working on peregrine falcon and bald eagle restoration projects in the 1970s. One of them, Tina Milburn Morris, was the first person to raise bald eagle chicks in the wild without parent birds to help raise the wild population.

McGrath worked on the book starting in 2005, while simultaneously working as a writing teacher, taking field trips into the wilderness and doing extensive interviews. By September 2013, the manuscript was complete. McGrath and her husband, Jim, planned to begin editing it during a vacation to Cape Cod. Instead, Darryl McGrath suffered a nearly fatal allergic reaction to something she ate. While she was in the back of an ambulance on the way to a hospital for treatment, Jim suffered a heart attack and died later at the same hospital. McGrath said grief left her blown apart. The manuscript sat untouched for a while. Eventually, with her husband in mind, McGrath began working on it again. Jim McGrath had avidly supported her, buying her bird books and a pair of binoculars. She kept working to honor his memory, and that of the scientists and volunteers who inspired her.

lhornbeck@timesunion.com  518-454-5352  @leighhornbeck
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Colonie

Twenty-five years after helping guide attack helicopters during Operation Desert Storm, Norman Massry finally received a Bronze Star for his service.

Now a Colonie town justice, Massry said he was originally recommended for the medal for his actions during the campaign, which pushed Iraqi occupying forces out of Kuwait in 1991, but an administrative glitch downgraded the honor to an Army Commendation Medal.

"When I left active duty, there was a rumor going around Fort Riley that officers who were leaving were not going to get a Bronze Star," he said. His colonel was on leave, and the person filling in did not pursue the Bronze Star for him.

To finally receive it, Massry had to track down the officers who were over him at the time.

"I found them all. They all were still alive, and they all wholeheartedly endorsed my receiving the award," he said.

His former commander, retired Col. James L. Mowery, praised his performance in a letter recommending he receive the Bronze Star.

"Captain Massry performed magnificently in the lead up to Desert Storm, during Desert Storm, and after hostilities were concluded," Mowery wrote. "Captain Massry's professionalism, bravery, discipline, and calm set an example for all around him. His example provided inspiration and calmed the nerves of many soldiers experiencing combat for the first time."

Massry entered the Army in 1982, spending four years at West Point and graduating in 1986. He learned to fly helicopters at Fort Rucker in Alabama, then spent a year in South Korea flying helicopters over the demilitarized zone with North Korea. From there, he was deployed to Fort Riley in Kansas as a platoon leader.

During the preparations for Desert Storm, he was sent to Saudi Arabia as an air battle captain.

The war began with a four-week air campaign before ground troops entered Kuwait.

"The four days of ground war started with one of the most intense artillery barrages ever," he said. "We heard artillery going off for hours on end, all directed at the Iraqi Army." Massry recalls seeing U.S. troops firing multiple-launch rocket systems at the Iraqi forces.

"These missiles are the size of telephone poles, and they contain multiple bomblets," he said.

Overhead, A-10s, the Air Force's tank destroyers, flew.

"You had a combination of air and ground forces unleashing the dogs of war on the Iraqi Army," Massry said. "Within four days, we were in Kuwait City. I couldn't believe how quickly we moved."

Iraqi troops had set Kuwaiti oil fields on fire as they fled.

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"When we arrived in Kuwait City, the fog was so heavy," Massry recalled. "At night, those fires illuminated the desert. You didn't need a flashlight to walk around. It was quite surreal."

He was in charge of operations for an Apache battalion, including 18 Apache helicopters and Scout helicopters. He flew some missions but his main role during the ground war was to direct the operations of the attack helicopters.

"We helped to liberate the nation of Kuwait," Massry said. "It was a once in a lifetime experience. They treated us like heroes. They were out there waving to us in the street. The kids were coming up and hugging us."

After the ground war ended, he flew reconnaissance missions to spot and destroy abandoned Iraqi tanks so they could not be reused. He received an Air Medal for that work.

In 2014, after talking to some of his commanders who asked why he never received the Bronze Star, Massry began his effort to obtain the award. Normally after two years, that can only be done with the help of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate. Massry said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand took up his cause and was instrumental in helping him receive it. She presented him with the medal, awarded last summer, this past Friday.

"It's humbling to finally receive it," Massry said. "I am quite honored to be a recipient of the Bronze Star."

tobrien@timesunion.com  518-454-5092  @timobrientu
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Albany

A state senator for less than a year, Eric Adams was already feeling the pinch.

As the chamber took up legislation that would boost pay for the state's trial court judges in December 2007, the Brooklyn Democrat saw his chance to publicly advocate for one of the most politically difficult items a lawmaker can speak in favor of: raising his own pay.

"Show me the money," Adams said during a floor debate, channeling his inner Jerry Maguire and drawing out the last word. " ... That's what it's all about. We deserve more money. We deserve to be paid for the job we're doing."

More Information How state lawmaker salaries stack up Here's a comparison of the five highest and five lowest annual legislative salaries in the country as of May 2015 (lulus and travel reimbursements and pay for attending committee meetings outside of session not included): California$97,197* Pennsylvania$85,389 New York$79,500 Michigan$71,685 Illinois$67,836 Wyoming$3,000** Montana$3,719*** Alabama$1,050**** New Hampshire$100***** New Mexico$0 * Pay was increased to $110,113 in 2015 by a panel appointed by the governor. ** Wyoming lawmakers are paid $150 per session day. In even years, the legislature is limited to 20 session days ($3,000 total). In odd years, the legislature is limited to 40 session days ($6,000 total). *** Salary is paid daily for 90 legislative session days. Session is held biennially. **** Salary is paid daily and calculated as a yearly rate; per diem rate is $4,308 per month. ***** Salary is $200 per two-year term. Source: National Conference of State Legislatures See More Collapse

While perhaps tone-deaf  the speech carries the asterisk of infamy at the state Capitol  Adams' assertion that "I deserve a raise" will finally be judged this year. The state Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation is considering whether the $79,500 base pay for lawmakers  one of the highest legislative salaries in the nation  should go up for the first time in nearly 18 years. The commission, established as part of the 2015 state budget deal, has until Nov. 15 to issue its recommendations, which would have the force of law if legislators don't shoot down the recommendations by Jan. 1.

A Hofstra adjunct professor recently filed suit against the commission, claiming its powers are unconstitutional.

The question of whether $79,500 is appropriate pay for a part-time lawmaker is rooted in one of New York's greatest struggles: balancing the needs of those who represent high-cost downstate and the expectations of upstaters who scoff at the idea that a salary nearly $21,000 greater than New York's median household income is paltry.

In making his plea, Adams claimed that some lawmakers could qualify for public assistance on their salaries. In New York City, a single lawmaker without dependents living on $79,500 in an $1,800-per-month one-bedroom apartment would not qualify for cash assistance or SNAP programs, according to the city's Access screening tool. (This model leaves out "lulus"  bonus pay for leadership posts  and travel reimbursements collected by lawmakers who live outside the Capital Region.)

Yet it's difficult to dispute that lawmakers earning $79,500 in the city face a higher cost of living than in, say, Albany. According to CNN Money, a $79,500 salary in Albany is comparable to a $124,860 salary in Brooklyn and a $162,592 salary in Manhattan. When flipped, a $79,500 salary in Manhattan would be comparable to earning just $39,362 a year in Albany. Such a salary actually works out to be more than $19,000 less than New York's median household income of $58,687, according to 2014 census data

But while the pay commission is supposed to consider economic data when making its decision, it's the principle of a raise that's likely to stick in voters' minds.

And probably not in a good way: In a February Siena College poll, 55 percent of voters said they don't believe lawmakers deserve a raise, though 60 percent support a ban on outside income, which for some lawmakers is far more lucrative than their legislative work.

In what's expected to be a hard-fought election year  especially in the narrowly divided Senate  that voter sentiment has become political ammunition, even if lawmakers won't have to cast any votes on the commission's decision unless they want to quash an impending raise.

"People who are bringing home $80,000 a year, that's a livable wage," said Democrat Chad Putman, the deputy Schenectady city clerk challenging longtime Republican state Sen. Hugh Farley "People have to figure it out who live in New York City."

The pay commission, however, currently seems to be wrestling with the question of whether the Legislature is full- or part-time more than it is with the philosophical question of how to properly stretch a dollar.

Yet there is difficulty for the commission in arriving at an answer, because banning or even restricting outside pay is something only the Legislature can decide to do.

And midway through the legislative session, it seems to be a question lawmakers are content with leaving open.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed in his State of the State address restricting outside income to 15 percent of lawmakers' base pay, similar to the model used in the U.S. Congress. But much to the chagrin of good-government groups, the governor and even some lawmakers, income  and ethics reform as a whole  was not addressed in the budget.

At least one member of the pay commission is weighing the ethics factor as the panel continues its fact-finding.

"Clearly, there's lots of evidence of (government) dysfunction, but also an unwillingness to address the dysfunction by the body itself, and at what point do you reward that kind of behavior as opposed to trying to incentivize better behavior and real change?" said Fran Reiter, a gubernatorial appointee to the commission, at an Albany public hearing last month. "That's the only thing we have, is to send that message that (says), 'You know what, guys? If you'd actually get your act together and become what you should be, change the internal governance of your body, be more responsive, be more transparent, all of the things that have been raised over several years now ... then guess what, we'd treat you as the professionals we want you to be.'"

In public, lawmakers don't seem to be providing the type of guidance that the commission is seeking on when and if the questions of public trust and outside income will be answered legislatively. Only two lawmakers, Assembly members Bill Nojay of Monroe County and Phil Steck of Colonie  showed up at the commission's Albany hearing, which was held on a legislative session day.

Nojay, one of the more conservative Republican lawmakers, took a different view. He spoke to the commission about what he sees as an inefficient government in which many lawmakers work for only a few hours during session days, while the much-maligned "three men in a room"  the governor and legislative leaders  hammer out major policy.

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Even Cuomo, whose commissioners' pay also is being considered by the commission, suggested that a late budget could endanger the Legislature's case for a raise. (The budget ultimately was passed in a timely fashion, albeit 17 past the March 31 deadline.)

The polarized opinions and convoluted questions of lawmakers' pay are by no means unique to New York.

In 2008 in West Virginia, lawmakers voted to boost their pay to $20,000 from $15,000. In Washington state, a Citizens' Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials meets every two years, with the next raise for lawmakers going into effect Sept. 1 boosting base pay to $46,839  $2,700 more than it was in 2014.

Of course, not all states that consider raises actually hand them out.

Among the more recent examples, a state commission in Arizona recommended in 2014 that lawmakers who hadn't received a raise in 16 years should have their pay boosted by 45.8 percent, to $35,000. Voters rejected that recommendation.

If the New York panel ultimately decides to show lawmakers the money by its mid-November deadline (after the election  another can of worms entirely), Adams will not be one of the 213 beneficiaries. He left the Senate in 2013.

He is now the Brooklyn borough president and earns $179,200 a year  almost exactly $100,000 more than his base salary in the Legislature.

How much do state lawmakers across the country make per year? Take a look:

mhamilton@timesunion.com  518-454-5449  @matt_hamilton10
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Troy

Police Chief John Tedesco on Monday said a patrol sergeant acted "in line with the law" when he fired his service weapon eight times, killing a DWI suspect whose vehicle struck the officer following a brief car chase.

The officer, Sgt. Randy French, suffered minor leg injuries as he repeatedly ordered the driver, 37-year-old Edson Thevenin of Watervliet, to stop the vehicle before opening fire, the chief said.

"At this juncture in the investigation, while still ongoing, it would appear that the actions of Sgt. French are certainly in line with the law, department policy and his training, and we are fully supporting the sergeant in his actions," Tedesco said.

The Troy police and the Rensselaer County district attorney's office are handling the investigation. Tedesco said the department would not request outside assistance.

Troy police said the incident began at 3:30 a.m. Sunday when French tried to pull over Thevenin's vehicle on Sixth Avenue on suspicion of DWI and Thevenin nearly struck French with his vehicle as he fled.

Sgt. Thomas Hoffman, president of the Troy Police Benevolent Association, said the fatal shooting, the second for city police in eight months, stunned the 130-member department. "We support Randy and his family 100 percent," Hoffman said.

In November, a grand jury cleared Officers Joshua Comitale and Chad Klein in the Aug. 22 gunfight that resulted in the fatal shooting of carjacking suspect Thaddeus Faison in Lansingburgh. Comitale and Klein remain on medical leave recovering from their wounds.

Mayor Patrick Madden expressed confidence in the police department's investigation. "I'm grateful that our officer was not more seriously injured," Madden said, adding, "Any loss of life is a tragedy."

"I expect a full, fair, impartial investigation," City Council President Carmella Mantello said.

French was released from Albany Medical Center Hospital with "soft-tissue" injuries and has not been interviewed, the chief said.

Police would not say how many rounds struck Thevenin from the eight shots that French fired from his service weapon. Tedesco declined to say if weapons were recovered in Thevenin's vehicle, saying the search is ongoing. But a law enforcement source close to the case said Thevenin was not armed with a weapon when the shooting took place.

A person briefed on the case told the Times Union on Sunday that Troy police initially declined to provide details of the shooting to investigators with the state attorney general's office who showed up at the scene on Sunday morning.

Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove said that assertion was "categorically not true" and that he personally spoke to an assistant attorney general, Paul Clyne, and the investigators who were with him. "Details were shared with the attorney general's office," Abelove said.

But Tedesco then acknowledged that he issued the directive.

"Early on in the investigation, as soon as the district attorney had contacted the attorney general's office, I issued a directive until such time as the jurisdiction was established that there would be no discussion with anyone on evidence other than anyone with the Rensselaer County district attorney's office," Tedesco said. "So that was on my directive."

Last year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave the state attorney general's office power to investigate police killings of unarmed civilians and, when necessary, prosecute officers. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced last July that five prosecutors would be assigned to the new Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit, including Clyne, who is a former Albany County district attorney.

According to Abelove, the attorney general's office is not expected to pursue an investigation of Sunday's fatal shooting. "It was relayed to me by Mr. Clyne that the attorney general ... is not going to be claiming jurisdiction in this case," Abelove said, adding he would determine later whether a grand jury will review the case.

Eric Soufer, a spokesman for Schneiderman's office, said a final determination on whether they will take the case has not been made. "We're in the preliminary stages of the investigatory process and we'll request information from the DA's office," he said.

Thevenin had a DWI conviction in Rockland County Court, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in 2007 to DWI and was sentenced to four months in the Rockland County Jail and fined $1,000, and his driver's license was revoked for a year. The former Troy resident's only other documented encounter with Troy police was in 2011 for a traffic ticket, according to City Court records. Details of the ticket were not available.

People close to Thevenin described him as a family man who they said attended church every Sunday in Colonie with his wife, Cynthia, and sons, ages 4 and 8. They said his actions, as described by police, were uncharacteristic.

"This guy never missed a Sunday," said Pastor Tre' Staton of Empire Christian Center. "He was on our usher board ... family-minded, a really good guy. What the police are saying is the polar opposite of his character."

Staton said the couple were married in October but had been together for "many years" raising their sons. They were a tightknit family, Staton said. Thevenin's oldest son is so used to attending church he didn't understand why the family wasn't going Sunday, after they learned of the fatal encounter.

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Thevenin's mother, Gertha Depas, said her son was a mechanic for Enterprise Car Rental and went out Saturday night with his brother. She said Thevenin dropped off his brother at a residence in Troy before the fatal encounter unfolded, apparently when he may have been on his way home.

Troy police on Sunday said Thevenin fled when French attempted to stop him at Sixth Avenue between Hutton and Hoosick streets. With French in pursuit, Thevenin attempted to make a U-turn on the Collar City bridge and hit a barrier.

At that point, French tried to block the vehicle with his cruiser and got out of the car after another officer arrived to block Thevenin's car from the rear, police said.

The suspect then hit the police car behind him, according to officers, and drove forward and allegedly pushed French against his police vehicle. Troy police said the officer fired shots through the windshield at the suspect.

Police said more officers arrived and assisted in moving the suspect's car to free the officer. French was treated at Albany Medical Center Hospital and released. Police did not provide details of the officer's injuries.

Thevenin is a large man but never showed any signs of aggression, his pastor said. "Just because you're big doesn't make you a monster," Staton said.

"It's just a great family," the pastor continued. "He and his brother Tyler were dressed like 'Men-In-Black' welcoming people into the church when they served together as ushers. It was nice  two big men greeting people arriving."

Depas said police came to the family's Watervliet residence after 5 a.m. Sunday, about two hours after the shooting, and told her that her son was involved in a traffic accident. She said the officers did not tell the family that Thevenin had been shot. The family learned about the shooting from another officer when they went to St. Mary's Hospital, where Thevenin was taken by ambulance.

The Troy Police Department does not have cameras in its police cruisers and officers do not wear body cameras. Tedesco pushed for cameras to be used last year, but the plan did not proceed under former Mayor Lou Rosamilia.

On Monday morning, the family was still being blocked from seeing or identifying Thevenin's body, which was moved from St. Mary's to Albany Medical Center Hospital for an autopsy. Tedesco said the final autopsy results are not expected to be completed for another six weeks.

blyons@timesunion.com  518-454-5547  @brendan_lyonstu
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Troy

A Watervliet man was fatally shot by police after he allegedly fled a traffic stop early Sunday and used his vehicle to pin a Troy police officer against a patrol car, with the officer shooting the man through his windshield.

Edson Thevenin, 38, who is married with two young sons, was killed in the shooting. He was not armed, according to a law enforcement source briefed on the case. Police declined to identify Thevenin, whose identity was verified by the Times Union.

Thevenin's mother, Gertha Depas, said police came to the family's Watervliet residence around 5 a.m. Sunday, about two hours after the shooting, and told her that her son was involved in a traffic accident. She said the officers declined to tell her he was shot. The family learned that from another officer later when they went to St. Mary's Hospital, where he was taken after the shooting.

On Sunday evening, Depas said the family was still being blocked from seeing or identifying her son's body, which was moved from St. Mary's to Albany Medical Center Hospital for an autopsy.

Troy police said the incident began at 3:15 a.m. when an officer tried to pull over a vehicle on Sixth Avenue between Hutton and Hoosick streets. Police said the driver attempted to strike the officer with his vehicle and fled. The officer, who the Times Union learned is Sgt. Randy French, pursued the suspect, who attempted to make a U-turn on the Collar City bridge and struck a barrier.

The officer attempted to block the suspect in with his car and got out of the vehicle, with another officer arriving to block the suspect from the rear, police said.

The suspect then hit the police car behind him, according to officers, and drove forward and allegedly pinned French against his police vehicle. Troy police said that is when the officer shot through the windshield at the suspect.

Police said officers arrived on scene and assisted in moving the suspect's car to free the officer. French was treated at Albany Medical Center Hospital and has been released. Police said he will need further medical treatment.

The person briefed on the case said that Troy police declined to provide details of the shooting to investigators from the state Attorney General's office who showed up the scene on Sunday morning.

The attorney general's office last year was tasked with investigating and, when necessary, prosecuting police for killing unarmed civilians. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced last July that five prosecutors would be assigned to the new Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit.

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Depas said police have not given the family any details about what happened. She said her son was a mechanic for Enterprise Car Rental and that he was arrested for DWI "many years ago." She said he was out with his brother on Saturday night and was driving home after dropping his brother off.

"That's when whatever happened happened," she said. "I don't have any definite answers and I haven't seen him."

In August, Troy police Officers Joshua Comitale and Chad Klein discharged their weapons while exchanging gunfire with suspect Thaddeus Faison on 112th Street in Lansingburgh. Comitale's legs were shattered and Klein was shot in the shoulder; both remain on medical leave. Faison died as a result of his injuries. A grand jury cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, and in February Troy Police Chief John Tedesco showed the community video surveillance footage of the incident.

Troy police Capt. Daniel DeWolf said the identity of the deceased suspect and further details about what happened will not be released until possibly Monday. A large section of Hoosick Street was closed Sunday, but opened back up late Sunday afternoon. Sixth Avenue was also closed Sunday between Hoosick Street and Jacob Street as part of the investigation.

Staff writer Kenneth C. Crowe II contributed to this report. lstanforth@timesunion.com  518-454-5697
THE ISSUE:

Some politicians exploit the anger of those not benefiting from the economic recovery.

THE STAKES:

Had Congress worked with the president, the job situation would be more promising.

More Information To comment: tuletters@timesunion.com or at http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion See More Collapse

While the national unemployment rate is back down to pre-Great Recession levels, a shortage of better-paying jobs remains. Despite compelling evidence and common sense, blame is often cast by unbelievable rhetoric backed by flawed reasoning.

For decades, well-paying manufacturing jobs have declined dramatically in the U.S., due largely to globalization. It's simply much cheaper to produce many goods overseas, where wages and production costs are significantly lower. In states like Michigan, which has lost a third of the 900,000 manufacturing jobs that were there in 1999, the impact has been devastating.

Studies suggest Donald Trump, the GOP's presidential front-runner, does so well in such places because of support from underemployed, white, middle-class men who lack education past high school. His pledge to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States has resonance, no matter how unrealistic the prospect.

Take Mr. Trump's assertion earlier this year that his administration would "get Apple to build their damn computers and things in this country instead of in other countries." The problem, according to estimates by the respected consumer electronic site CNet: If the iPhone were built here, the cost of the device would double or even triple. Surveys show that for more than half of Americans, price is more important than where the product was made.

A new analysis by Steven Rattner, a private equity investor and economic policy expert, blames the GOP leadership in Congress  so fearful of a Trump candidacy's impact on Republican re-election efforts  for Mr. Trump's political rise. Mr. Rattner, a Democrat, argues that by digging in against Obama administration plans to mitigate the impact of globalization, they fed the fervor that Mr. Trump has successfully tapped.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it his mission to see President Barack Obama fail. Instead of pushing for labor force retraining programs in his home state of Kentucky, he has opposed clean air regulations that cause problems for the state's declining coal industry.

Economists have long said real job and wage growth in the U.S. will come from new technologies. A good example is the clean power area, which will sustain our economy while reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.

Recently, four Western states competed for the $5 billion factory that will produce batteries for the next generation of Tesla electric vehicles. Nevada was the winner. Its economy will no doubt benefit for decades.

Perhaps instead of trying to prop up the dying coal industry, Sen. McConnell should have used his enormous political clout to get the battery plant for his state. But a successful bid for new industry would have needed prior investment to retrain the workforce, which would require working with Democrats  possibly even the White House.

The losers here, though, aren't just Republicans, but American workers.
A Borrisokane-born missionary priest who served in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Irland has died at the age of 80 years.

A Borrisokane-born missionary priest who served in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Irland has died at the age of 80 years.

Fr. Paddy Cleary CSSp, who was a cousin of Hollywood actor Martin Sheen, died on March 9 in the Dublin nursing home of the Spiritan (Holy Ghost) congregation.

He was born in 1934 to Margaret (nee OMeara) and Patrick J Cleary in Borrisokane, the home town of his fellow Spiritan and former Provincial, the late Fr Vincent Dinan CSSp.

After primary school in Borrisokane, Paddy studied in Rockwell College and, for one year, in Blackrock College before entering the Spiritan novitiate then in Kilshane House in Tipperary. He moved to Kimmage Manor after his profession to continue his studies for the priesthood and he was one of 20 Spiritans, including two from Trinidad, who were ordained in 1961.

The following year he and over a dozen other young priests and brothers set sail for Nigeria, which at that time was by far the largest mission field of the Spiritans, and which today produces more Spiritan missionaries than does any other country.

On home leave in 1967 from his mission in Ekwereazu parish in Owerri Diocese when the Biafran War brought his Nigerian appointment and that of over 300 other Irish Spiritans to an end, he took on a mission promotions role in Ireland while he was also associate editor of Missionary Annals, the then magazine of his congregation in Ireland.

West Africa beckoned for a second time in 1973. On this occasion he went to Sierra Leone, to pastoral roles in Moyamba, St Martins and Sacred Heart cathedral parish, Freetown.

Returning to Ireland in 1980, he completed a sabbatical year in Kilmihil parish in County Clare. After a period as director of promotions, he spent over a decade as curate and, later, parish priest in Greenhills, one of four Dublin parishes in the care of his congregation. From there he moved to Rathmines where, as community leader of the group of Spiritans who were attached to St Marys College, he brought kindness, good humour and a hint of mischief!

Predeceased by his sisters, Phyllis and Eithne, Fr Paddy is survived by his sister, Brenda; brother Gay, and extended family, including his cousin, Martin Sheen. His loss also extends to his fellow Spiritans and his many friends and, not least, to the teachers in Rathmines as well as the boys they jointly prepared for First Holy Communion and Confirmation over many years. A number of those boys were in the guard of honour which was formed at the end of the funeral Mass in Kimmage on Thursday, March 12.

At the funeral Mass, it was noted that, though small in stature, Fr Paddy was larger than life, with an infectious laugh and a simple philosophy that life was there to be celebrated.

In the homily, his cousin, Fr Donagh OMeara, also highlighted the depth of humanity and the courage in the face of suffering that Fr Paddy had displayed.

A Tipperary man through and true, who always retained an interest in the fortunes of the Premier Countys hurling team, Fr Paddy was buried in his native county in the community cemetery attached to Rockwell College, the school where his association with the Spiritans had begun as a 12-year-old boy just after World War II.
Titusville Dairy Co. General Manager Ralph Kerr accepts an award recognizing the dairys 90th anniversary from Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce board president Nate Kerr, during the annual chamber banquet on Thursday. The dairy would later in the evening be named the 2015 Titusville Area Business Distinction Award winner.
[April 18, 2016] SENSIO not to seek further extension of stay

MONTREAL, April 18, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - SENSIO Technologies Inc. ("SENSIO" or "the Company") (TSXV: SIO) announced today that, as a result of the inconclusive sale process of its main asset, its video-on-demand service 3DGO! TM, its board of directors decided to not request any further extension of the stay of proceedings in favour of the Company. Following such decision, all independent directors have resigned effective immediately. The non-renewal of the stay will result in Sensio's eemed assignment in bankruptcy on April 21, 2016 pursuant the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (Canada) (the "BIA").



Sensio has been operating under the protection of the BIA since December 23, 2015 while pursuing the sale of its remaining assets with the assistance of Deloitte Restructuring Inc. Any net proceeds of the sale will be distributed to the Company's creditors. About SENSIO

Founded in 1999, SENSIO Technologies Inc. is a pioneer in the field of stereoscopic 3D imaging and of 3D content distribution at home.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE SENSIO Technologies Inc.

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[April 18, 2016] Honeywell And NASA Put STEM Education In 'Motion' For Colorado Middle Schools

MORRIS PLAINS, N.J., April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Honeywell (NYSE: HON) and NASA are proud to support their science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education program with the award-winning, hip-hop educational experience FMA Live! Forces in Motion. The program made its return to the West Coast this month with plans to visit six states and perform at 40 public, private and military-connected middle schools. FMA Live! Forces in Motion is rolling into Colorado for performances in Sterling (Sterling Middle School), Broomfield (Westlake Middle School) and Commerce (Kearney Middle School). The popular show incorporates hip-hop music and dancers with student volunteers and on-stage, interactive science experiments to demonstrate how physics plays a role in everyday life. Since the program's creation in 2004, the FMA Live! cast has performed before 455,000 students in more than 1,150 schools from all 48 contiguous U.S. states, as well as in Mexico and Canada. "It is critically important to get middle school-aged students aware of and excited about STEM topicsespecially physics. We've seen FMA Live! make the introduction easier," said Donald James, NASA's associate administrator for Education. "Thanks to our collaboration with Honeywell, we're inspiring students to set their sights on future careers in the critical STEM field." Each performance focuses on Newton's Universal Law of Gravity and Three Laws of Motion. Named after Newton's Second Law of Motion [Force equals Mass times Acceleration], FMA Live! uses music videos and interactive scientific demonstrations to teach and inspire students to pursue STEM careers. "Many of today's engineering challenges will be solved decades into the future by the next genertion of engineers and scientists," said Mike Bennett, president, Honeywell Hometown Solutions. "To prepare students to become tomorrow's innovators, Honeywell invests in programs like FMA Live! to ignite that spark of inspiration in fun and relatable ways."



The FMA Live! Forces in Motion experience features an online "Teachers' Lounge" that includes National Science Standards-based teaching resources, downloadable streaming videos, music from the show, and a comprehensive educational guide with lesson plans. This digital tool helps keep the post-show spark alive and can be incorporated into classroom learning objectives. To learn more visit FMALive.com . About FMA Live!

Using live actors, hip-hop songs, music videos, interactive scientific demonstrations and video interviews with scientists and engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the show teaches Newton's Three Laws of Motion and Universal Law of Gravity. Honeywell and NASA created FMA Live! to inspire middle school students to explore STEM concepts and careers. The program addresses Forces and Motion learning objectives outlined by the Next Generation Science Education Standards for students in grades 5-8.

Through Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company has a number of award-winning programs focused on inspiring students at all grade levels to embrace STEM education. The company chose physics for FMA Live! Forces in Motion because studies have shown that the middle school years of education offer the best window of opportunity to get students interested in STEM careers. Supporting Resources Read more about FMA Live! Forces in Motion

Visit the FMALive! Facebook page

Follow @HON_Citizenship on Twitter

Follow FMA Live! on Instagram

Visit Honeywell's Corporate Citizenship page

Learn more about NASA's education programs For Educators The FMA Live! Forces in Motion website features a "Teachers' Lounge". About Honeywell Hometown Solutions

FMA Live! Forces in Motion is part of Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company's corporate citizenship initiative, which focuses on five areas of vital importance: Science & Math Education, Family Safety & Security, Housing & Shelter, Habitat & Conservation, and Humanitarian Relief. Together with leading public and non-profit institutions, Honeywell has developed powerful programs to address these needs in the communities it serves. For more information, please visit http://citizenship.honeywell.com/. About Honeywell

Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes, and industry; turbochargers; and performance materials. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywell.com/newsroom. Honeywell and the Honeywell logo are the exclusive properties of Honeywell, are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other Honeywell product names, technology names, trademarks, service marks, and logos may be registered or pending registration in the U.S. or in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Copyright 2016 Honeywell. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/356631 Media Contact:

Cecilia Tejeda

(973) 455-3450

[email protected]

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/honeywell-and-nasa-put-stem-education-in-motion-for-colorado-middle-schools-300253162.html SOURCE Honeywell

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[April 18, 2016] MDA to continue providing operational support to Canada's broad-area maritime surveillance system

RICHMOND, BC, April 18, 2016 /CNW/ - MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. ("MDA" or the "Company") (TSX:MDA), a global communications and information company, today announced that the Government of Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) has exercised its fourth renewal option for an operations contract announced in April 2013. MDA will continue to provide operational support for the east and west coast RADARSAT-2 ground systems that support the Polar Epsilon Near Real-Time Ship Detection (NRTSD) system. The option is estimated at CA$2.4 million and extends support until March 2017. The NRTSD system is a broad-area surveillance system that was delivered by MDA to DND in 2012. The system delivers space-based, day and night, all-weather maritime surveillance information of Canada's Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and includes global high-resolution surveillance capabilities to support deployed Canadian Forces. About MDA MDA is a global communications and information company providing operational solutions to commercial and government organizations worldwide. MDA's busness is focused on markets and customers with strong repeat business potential, primarily in the Communications sector and the Surveillance and Intelligence sector. In addition, the Company conducts a significant amount of advanced technology development.



MDA's established global customer base is served by more than 4,800 employees operating from 11 locations in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The Company's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "MDA."

Related Websites www.mdacorporation.com Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements and information, which reflect the current view of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. ("MDA" or the "Company") with respect to future events and financial performance. The forward-looking statements in this regard include statements regarding the award and amendment of a contract with an intergovernmental agency. Any such forward-looking statements are based on MDA's current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends. The factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements in this release include contracts with any government or intergovernmental agency not being terminated. Any such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. MDA cautions readers that should certain risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from those expected. The risks that could cause actual results to differ from current expectations include, but are not necessarily limited to: changes in government or intergovernmental priorities, mandates, funding levels, contracts and regulations; satellite failure; failure of third parties and subcontractors; failure to anticipate changes in technology, technical standards and offerings or to comply with the requisite standards. For additional information with respect to certain of these risks or factors, plus additional risks or factors, reference should be made to the Company's continuous disclosure materials filed from time to time with Canadian securities regulatory authorities, which are available online at www.sedar.com or on the Company's website at www.mdacorporation.com. The Toronto Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the form or content of this release. SOURCE MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.

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A 22-year-old UW-Stout student was found dead Saturday morning in the driveway of residence in Menomonie.

According to Menomonie Police Chief Eric Atkinson, the report was received at 7:07 a.m. of a deceased male at at 920 Eighth Street East. Identified as Rickey Alan Hible, 22, 414 12th Avenue West, there were visible laceration wounds on his body that police believe were related to broken glass found around the sign at the Our Saviors Lutheran Church located nearby at 910 Ninth Street East.

Hibles body is scheduled for autopsy on Sunday at the Ramsey County Medical Examiners Office in Minnesota.

In a statement to the campus, UW-Stout Chancellor Bob Meyer said: We regret to inform the campus that Rickey Alan Hible, 22, of Shakopee, Minn., was found deceased this morning off campus. The death is under investigation by local police agencies, but with current information there does not appear to be any ongoing danger to the community.

Noting that Hible was a sophomore majoring in engineering technology with a mechanical design minor, the chancellor added, Our thoughts and prayers are with Rickeys family and friends.

As of Saturday afternoon, the area around Eighth Street and 10th Avenue East remains barricaded as police continue the process of collecting evidence.

Pedestrians and motorists are advised to avoid the area until further notice.

The investigation is being conducted by the MPD in partnership with the Dunn County Medical Examiners Office, Dunn County Sheriffs Office, UW-Stout Police Department and the Wisconsin State Patrol.

Anyone with information about Rickey Hible is encouraged to call the MPD at 715-232-1283 or contact the Dunn County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-847-3866.
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A segment on CBS News' 60 Minutes news program last night (April 17) may have scared iPhone owners concerned about losing their privacy and security to hackers. But in fact, the show demonstrated only well-known vulnerabilities that affect many cellphones, and no flaws specific to the iPhone.



The segment seemed to show that flaws in the telephone system let hackers easily hear your calls, read your email and turn on your phone's camera. Yet the hacks demonstrated were actually more varied, didn't all depend on telephone service and, in some cases, required the reporters to nearly completely disable security on their mobile devices.



(Image credit: Dean Drobot/Shutterstock)

For example, you may have been shocked to see German hacker Karsten Nohl tracking the location of an iPhone used by U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu, D-California, and listening to telephone conversations taking place between Lieu and 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi.



But you might be less scared if you realized that Nohl could do this only because he and his team had been granted privileged access to the back-end communications system that telephone companies use worldwide.

MORE: Best Android Antivirus Apps

That system is called Signaling System Seven (SS7), and it's a set of protocols that lets telecoms around the world route calls to any landline or cellphone. SS7 makes cellular roaming possible, and also lets calls be forwarded worldwide (a feature that Nohl used to listen in on Lieu's calls).



But, like many services we report on, SS7 does not always have proper security. Each one of the 800-odd companies that make up the global telephone network has to protect its own access to the SS7 system, and not all do a good job.



So while the average user may not be able to get into the SS7 backend, a hacker who knew his or her stuff might be able to find an entry point. Many state intelligence agencies, such as the NSA, definitely have such access, whether it's through an access hole or by being actively granted access by a cooperative telecom  as Nohl had been.



Old hacks seemingly made new

Nohl and the other hackers featured on the segment are well respected within the information-security community, and everything they said was accurate and level-headed. It was the parts that the 60 Minutes producers chose to leave out that made the piece misleading.

When John Hering, another hacker interviewed in the 60 Minutes piece, fooled Alfonsi into connecting her phone to a rogue Wi-Fi hotspot, then read her email messages, he was actually using a years-old trick. (Hering is one of the founders of the mobile-security provider Lookout Mobile Security.)

Hering gave his rogue hotspot a name that implied it belonged to the Las Vegas hotel in which he and Alfonsi were meeting. That's always been a trap, as many devices are vulnerable to attack from other devices on the same network  even if that network requires a shared login password.



As we reported last week, a twist on this attack takes advantage of the "feature" that many Wi-Fi enabled mobile devices will automatically join hotspot networks that they think they've accessed before. Yet the only form of verification is the Wi-Fi hotspot name, which can be changed in a second.



The fact that Hering could read Alfonsi's email made us wonder what kind of outdated email service she was using for the purposes of this news segment. It doesn't seem like it was an encrypted service, which would have rendered her messages into gibberish on Hering's laptop. Gmail or Yahoo Mail will encrypt email automatically, when they can. The catch is that the receiving email service must support encryption as well.

At one point, Hering showed that he could hijack the user-facing camera on Alfonsi's smartphone to spy on her. But eagle-eyed users may have noticed a clever bait-and-switch by the 60 Minutes crew. In most of the segment, Alfonsi used an iPhone, but for this part she suddenly, and without any notification to the viewer, switched to a Samsung Android phone. That makes all the difference.

Android phones will let anyone install software from anywhere  but only if you manually go into the Settings menu, change a toggle switch to override the system default and allow installation of apps from "unknown sources" outside the Google Play store, and ignore the warning window that pops up. Hering's attack on Alfonsi's Samsung phone probably wouldn't have been possible otherwise, and especially not if the phone was running Android antivirus software of the kind that Hering's own company makes and markets.



Hering's attack also requires social engineering, because he tricked Alfonsi into clicking on a link sent via text message, thereby installing unknown software without thinking twice. This is what can happen when you install random software without verifying its origins. But no matter how gullible a phone's user was, Hering's camera-hijacking attack wouldn't work on Apple devices that haven't been "jailbroken."



Finally, Nohl pointed out that he could track Rep. Lieu even if the congressman turned off GPS on his phone. Alfonsi seemed surprised, but this shocking flaw is exactly how cellphones are supposed to work.



When you move about a city, your phone, whether it has GPS or not, is constantly pinging nearby cell towers and saying, "Here I am." Cellular carriers keep logs of each phone's movements as its signal is handed off from one cell tower to the next. If the phone is roaming out of its home area, then the local carrier and the home carrier will exchange information about those movements for billing purposes  using the SS7 system that Nohl had privileged access to.

What to do if you're truly paranoid

The 60 Minutes segment didn't expose any new points of attack, but it should give users some pause about what they say or do on their devices, at least if they're paranoid enough to suspect a targeted attack by a malicious hacker or nation-state with a bone to pick. An easy way to avoid eavesdropping by hackers or criminals on calls or text messages is to use an end-to-end-encrypted service such as WhatsApp, Signal, Silent Circle or even Apple's own iMessages.

To avoid having your email read, don't connect to any unfamiliar Wi-Fi hotspot, even one in a hotel or airport. Use your phone's 4G connection instead.



Are you on a tablet or laptop that requires Wi-Fi to connect, and don't want to use your phone as a hotspot? Then sign up for a virtual-private-network (VPN) service such as PhantomVPN, HideMyAss or TunnelBear, some of which have free options.

To avoid spyware being installed on your phone, you don't necessarily need to use an iPhone. You can use an Android device as long as you keep "Unknown sources' turned off, and you make sure it's running the latest possible version of Android for that model of device.

To avoid cellular carriers knowing where you are at all times  well, you might as well leave the cellphone at home. The carriers have to know where you are so that you can send and receive calls and texts.

Of course, all these guidelines are useless if you, like Will Smith in Enemy of the State, are targeted by the NSA. In that case, turn the phone off and toss it into a lead-lined box (or an unpowered microwave oven).

"The average person is not going to be exposed to the type of attacks we showed you today," Hering told Alfonsi, using wise words that should toss a bucket of water on any scared users. "Our goal was to show what's possible, so people can really understand if we don't address security issues, what the state of the world will be."
Noise complaints are one of those annoying reminders of why we cant have nice things. Granted, many are completely valid, but when you, for example, move into a neighbourhood famous for its live music scene, complaining about noise is a serious jerk move.

However, one Manly resident tuned the d-bag meter all the way up to 11 over the weekend after he accosted a busker who was performing in broad daylight in the middle of the suburbs famous Corso. Footage of the altercation has since surfaced online.

Sydney photographer Emma Leslie was on the scene when an unidentified Grumpy Old Man (GOM) interrupted a performance by local musician Declan Kelly, complaining about the volume of the performance, much to the chagrin of Kelly and a gathering crowd of supporters.

Yep this just happened at Manly Market, Kelly wrote on Facebook. Lil ol me playing tunes, then aggressively told mid-song to turn the Fff down. I gave him my calm response to step away though he would not.

One of those stubborn boring complaining types. You know, the 1% making it difficult on culture and progressiveness. Was gratifying having the crowd turn on him and tell him where its at 2016.

At one point, the man began arguing with a crowd member who pointed out what we were all thinking: If you hate noise, why would you live right on the Corso? Apparently, the man first moved in 30 years ago and noise only recently became an issue in one Sydneys most famous shopping and nightclub precincts.

Footage of the incident has been doing the rounds online and has been re-shared by several local musos, with pretty much everyone siding with Kelly and leaving supportive comments. At the time of writing, the video has amassed just under 140,000 views.

You can check out the footage below (or via Facebook), but make sure you watch till the glorious end when Kelly begins playing and the NIMBY-er marches off in a huff as the crowd cheer. Noise complaint sorted, and they didnt even have to call Dave Grohl.
Local indie pop talents Max Quinns Onomatopenis (a project spearheaded by songwriter Max Quinn) are today unleashing their brand new single In The Aeroplane (Mode) Over The Sea  the latest track from the songwriters upcoming EP Carpool Tunnel Syndrome, set for release May 5th via LostBoyRecords.

Max explains the message behind the song: Its more or less just a song about living far away from the person you love and saying see you next time, then putting your phone in flight mode and listening to Neutral Milk Hotel on the plane home.

Now based in Melbourne, the Ballina-born Quinn has established a new troupe of musicians, and over the course of the last month, theyve supported the likes of triple j upstarts Alex Lahey and Camp Cope, as well as Melbourne legends Ceres and personal hero Jeff Rosenstock (USA).

With the impending release of Carpool Tunnel Syndrome, Max Quinns Onomatopenis are geared up and eager to unleash their distinct pop songs imbued with punk sensibility on stages and airwaves around Australia. Check out the incredibly endearing In The Aeroplane (Mode) Over The Sea below and if you like what youre hearing stay locked to Max Quinns Onomatopenis Facebook page for more info.
The iconic all-female Japanese, pop-punk rock trio Shonen Knife are gearing up to celebrate the release of their brand new LP Adventure. In this their 21st studio album Naoko continues her effervescent pursuit of sugar coated rock with the return of original bass player and sister Atsuko along with new drummer Risa.

Forming in Osaka in 1981, when Naoko first heard late 70s punk-pop particularly The Ramones, the band crafted their own idiosyncratic songs, fashioned brightly coloured outfits and DIY albums. In 1985, K Records released Burning Farm in the US and following that release with Sub Pop and various labels followed.

1989 saw the creme of the alt. rock scene (including Sonic Youth, L7 and Redd Kross) covering their favourite Shonen Knife songs on the tribute album Every Band Has A Shonen Knife Who Loves Them. They toured with Nirvana (on the Nevermind tour), The Breeders and as part of Lollapalooza. They recorded sessions for John Peel and appeared on MTVs Beavis and Butthead.

2016 will be the bands 35th year of rock, and what better way to celebrate than with an iconic and powerful new record like Adventure? To celebrate the release of the LP, Naoko has penned a track by track run down of the record which you can check out below. Adventure is out now via Valve/MGM.

Jump into the New World

When you jump into the new world, you might get nervous but it goes well if you have music in your mind. This song is like that. I made the melody line pop and cheerful. I wanted to use many guitar chords not like pinkish three chords songs.

School and business year starts from the first of April in Japan. There are many fresh men and fresh women in town. I hope they can try to keep on with this song.

Rocknroll T-shirt

I wrote this song because I love rock T-shirts. With 70s style guitar riff, it became a groovy song.

When I go to shows of my favorite bands, I often buy their T-shirts because I can continue to feel the excitement of the show if I wear them. Rock T-shirt sometimes become a communication tool with other people. We can start to talk about the band on the shirt and expand the conversation. What a cool clothes!

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Calabash

Calabash is a lucky charm in Japan and a trade mark of a historical Samurai, TOYOTOMI Hideyoshi who was a lord of Osaka Castle. The theme of this song is my hometown Osaka. Osaka is a very ROCK town. People are friendly but dont interfere other people.

Dog Fight

When I visited Katsura Hama beach in Kochi prefecture in Japan long time ago, I watched a dog fight. I was surprised. Two giant dogs wore Mawashi which is the same costume of Yokozuna of Sumo.

Kochi has lots of local speciality like bonito sake. Tosa Dog which is big strong dogs and long tail rooster are famous, too.

I visited Kochi again last year for sight seeing and went to the beach again. Actually, there was still the show theater for dog fight there. I didnt see it at that time but I expanded my imagination there.

Its a little scary but I made gentle melody line on it.

Wasabi

I like spice like mustard or wasabi. Wasabi is popular to western countries now used for Sushi. I want people to know it can matches with various food.

I made exotic melody lines. I tried to make Guitar riff and Atsukos vocal unison. It was my first trial.

Green Tangerine (Kabosu)

I got Kabosu tangerines from our new drummer Risas mother as a gift from her hometown Oita. I was inspired by them and made this song. I wanted Risa to do a lead vocal for the new album and I made this song.

Kabosu is a tiny green tangerine and Oitas local specialty. It can be used like lemon.

So tasty.

ImI (Emoji)

When I write double horn sign with emoji, itll be ImI. Emoji is from Japanese language which means picture letters. Japanese emoji is different from English one but its fun. Ive heard that DIO invented double horn sign so I put hard rock style melody line on this lyrics.

Cf. Recently I noticed that people in Japan starts to call it Kaomoji to distinguish from Emoji but before Emoji was invented, we call everything Emoji.

Hawaii

I havent been to Hawaii for many years. Recently Ive heard that my friend went to Hawaii for her friends wedding ceremony. I saw her photo there and it made me that I want to go there. Ive ever been there for sightseeing and having a show. We played at a big venue in Hawaii in 1994. One day before our show, Anthrax played at the same venue. I dont remember so much but the atmosphere of Hawaii is very peaceful. I love that.

Tasmanian Devil

Shonen Knife was invited a festival in Tasmania island, Australia in January 2015. It was my first visit there. I was so impressed the beautiful scenery of the island and made this song. Tasmanian Devils are living there. It looks cute but very wild.

I saw them first time at a zoo in Brisbane in 2009 when we toured in Australia. It was the departure day to be back to Japan. Our flight was midnight and we had to spent more than 10 hours there. I We had They were eating raw mouse. I wanted to express such gap with twin lead vocals of Atsuko and I.

Cotton Candy Clouds

The motif is cotton candy which is my favorite. I wrote the lyrics first and when I saw it, the rap style melody line appeared spontaneously. I used only three guitar chords for this song but the arrangement became very colorful and a little bit inspired by 70s Beatles.
The Mission Society Moves to Expand Diversity that Reflects the Kingdom of God

Romal Tune Hired to Create Greater Inclusion throughout Ministry

NORCROSS, Ga., April 18, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- The Mission Society today announced a broad new push to create greater diversity in its staff and outreach programs, saying that it has hired noted author, speaker and minister, the Rev. Romal Tune, to become a full-time senior advisor to the Rev. Max Wilkins, president of the organization. Tune will focus on approaches to create and accelerate diversity initiatives throughout the organization.

Photo: The Rev. Romal Tune has been named senior advisor to the Rev. Max Wilkins, president of The Mission Society, as part of an effort to expand diversity within the organization.

"The Mission Society and its board have been aware of the sparsity of ethnic minority participation in the global mission force for some time," said Wilkins. "We believe that bringing Romal on board will allow us to broaden our organization to reflect the overall diversity of the kingdom of God."

The Mission Society recruits, trains and sends Christian missionaries to minister around the world, with 235 missionaries serving in 38 countries. It also provides seminars, workshops and mentoring for churches in the United States and abroad, helping equip congregations for outreach in their communities and worldwide.

Tune ( www.romaltune.com ) is well-known as a speaker, author and strategic consultant with extensive experience in driving nonprofit initiatives, propelling advocacy programs that work and delivering communications that break through boundaries. He graduated with honors from Howard University and Duke University's School of Divinity.

Tune is the author of "God's Graffiti: Inspiring Stories for Teens," which received an NAACP Image Award nomination for outstanding literary work. He is a frequent blogger on matters of faith for the Huffington Post.

Tune, who will start on May 9, believes that increased inclusion will strengthen The Mission Society, making it more adaptable  and hence more effective  in its outreach efforts.

"My role is to work closely with Max on cultural diversity within the institution, as well as building strategic partnerships in communities of color," he said.

Tune said creating new space within the organization for greater diversity will begin with careful study.

"I'll have to spend time learning the history of the institution, work culture and background of the staff," he said, adding that he will be an additional voice in decision-making that will help to create a more diverse culture. "It's important to be a voice that informs existing practices while also highlighting blind spots that would continue to go unnoticed if people of color are not in the room."

Wilkins said The Mission Society is excited to bring an advisor with Tune's extensive experience on board.

"We have been looking to identify just the right person to help lead us in this initiative," he said. "With God's guidance, we believe his insight and his energy will help position The Mission Society for greater growth and effectiveness."

To stay abreast of the latest news, subscribe to The Mission Society's free, monthly newsletter on their website - www.themissionsociety.org

Founded in 1984 in the Wesleyan tradition, The Mission Society ( www.themissionsociety.org ) exists to mobilize and deploy the body of Christ globally to join Jesus in His mission, especially among the least-reached peoples. The Mission Society recruits, trains and sends Christian missionaries to minister around the world. Its church ministry department provides seminars, workshops and mentoring for congregations in the United States and abroad, helping equip churches for outreach in their communities and worldwide. At present, The Mission Society has 235 missionaries serving in 38 countries.
"A Jackson County judge has thrown out an incendiary lawsuit alleging that the owner of the Power & Light District discriminated against black patrons and ginned up disturbances as a pretext to eject them from its bars and restaurants.





Jackson County Circuit Judge Joel P. Fahnestock last week granted motions for summary judgment filed by The Cordish Companies of Baltimore and other defendants, ruling that plaintiff Glenn E. Cusimano had failed to substantiate his claims."

IS THIS A VICTORY FOR KANSAS CITY OR A DECISION THAT COULD MAKE DOWNTOWN MORE DIVISIVE AND DANGEROUS?!?!

Some call this a Kansas City victory for dress codes, taxpayer subsidy that never seems to pay off and the rights of bully bouncers . . .Deets:And so we put the question to our reader community . . .Remember that theshooting incident occurred in the Power and Light district and ongoing complaints still abound while this place continues to lose at least $15 million for KCMO taxpayersYou decide . . .
Kansas City Innocent Gunfire Victim

The World According To Yael

Kansas City Crash Across The Bridge

Sunflower State Education Battle Continues

Old School Customer Care Stays Losing

Show-Me Bread Ban Fight

Royals Stay Losing Tonight

One last peek at Kansas City news tonight as we prep for the week of fighting to come and brace for even more Kansas City violence, slapfighting and political posturing.Take a peek:And this is thefor tonight . . .




KCUR: For years, police werent sure who murdered 45-year-old Deanna Lieber, the top attorney for the Kansas Department of Education. Liebers daughter, then 13, and mother-in-law were also in the car, which was traveling south on U.S. 71 near 59th Street when a stray bullet struck Lieber.





Check the conclusion of a case that pretty much destroyed the image of one of Kansas City's most celebrated attractions and chased away even more business from the urban core.Checkit:You decide . . .
ND leader stressed that the current leftist Greek government is inefficient and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras never intended to implement any reforms for the countrys economy

Main opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis adopts the most extreme 'Thatcherite' positions and agrees on a number of structural and labour reforms the IMF demands from Greece, government sources said commenting on Mitsotakis' interview with Washington Post.

The same sources blamed Mitsotakis of saying one thing in the country and another thing outside the country. "Mr Mitsotakis probably believes that the Greeks do not understand English or that they do not follow the US media," they said and added: "Mitsotakis said that he agreed on a number of labour and structural reforms that the IMF demands from Greece. Therefore he agrees with mass layoffs, further cuts on salaries, the deregulation of the labour market, the abolition of collective negotiations and labour rights. So, he obviously agrees with the abolition of what is considered EU social acquis."

ND leader stressed that the current leftist Greek government is inefficient and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras never intended to implement any reforms for the countrys economy, according to an interview with the Washington Post published on its website last Wednesday.

Greece deserves a serious and efficient government

I think that Greece, first of all, deserves a serious and efficient government with good people in top positions, he was quoted as saying, noting that the issue of the country's debt needs to be addressed.

He went on to explain that Tsipras never really wanted to implement reforms but only hoped he could attain a restructuring of the countrys debt. This, he stressed, led the economy into a recession, with Greece being the first European country to impose capital controls.

The leader of the main opposition also criticised the governments record in managing the refugee crisis, undelining that they havent been able to build the camps across the country for the 50,000 refugees and migrants who are stuck in Greece. He also called again for elections.

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
Russian tour operators reported an increase in demand for holidays in May compared with last year: 10-15% for foreign destinations and up to 20% on tours in Russia

Russian tour operators report an increase in demand for holidays in May compared with last year: 10-15% for foreign destinations and up to 20% on tours in Russia. Top choices are resorts in Krasnodar region, the Crimea, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, the Golden Ring routes and river cruises. Top outbound destinations include Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Italy and France.

Despite the small volume of sales, market players expect that demand to will eventually increase, due to a larger number of bookings of tours in Russia, travel to visa-free countries, such as Serbia and Montenegro, to destinations with facilitated visa procedures such as Cyprus and countries in Southeast Asia. "The direction of the Southeast Asian demand clearly shifted: now tours are bought even at the last moment, since the majority of countries in the region virtually visa-free," KMP Group notes.

Waiting for "last minute prices"

As Natalia Litvinenko, Deputy Director of Sales for "Russian Express" explains: "Many tourists are not yet sure of their plans. There is a category of tourists, who are waiting for "last minute prices" for tours. So, we expect that demand will peak after April 15 and the active sales period will continue through to the end of April. "

The same point of view is held by representatives of the national operator ALEANA: "In the next ten days, we expect the next surge in bookings" - they say.

The duration of vacations varies with different destinations. For tours in Europe, Russians prefer 3-7 days, for European seaside resorts 5-7 days, for tours in Southeast Asia countries 9-10 days. Cost naturally depends on choice of destination and duration of vacation. On average, it ranges from 600 to 1,500 euros per person, including airfare. The most popular departure dates both abroad and in Russia are 29 and 30 April.

In Russia, tours typically last from 3-4 days to a maximum of 7-10 days. "The most popular tour duration is 4 days. There is great demand for arrivals from 30 April to 3 May. Nevertheless, a lot of travelers are choosing seven-day duration, " ALEANA staff report.

Russia and the CIS countries

The demand for holiday packages to Russia during May has increased by 15-20%, according to tour operators - mainly because of growth in popularity of resorts in the Krasnodar region and the Crimea. Also, positive booking trends are recorded in Abkhazia, where tourists, despite the absence of warm sea, still go attracted by the sun and gastronomy. According to "ALEANA", top destinations are resorts of the Krasnodar region, spa treatment facilities in the Caucasian Mineral Waters and Crimea. There is also demand for trips to Moscow and St. Petersburg, sometimes combined with rest in sanatoria in Belarus and Moscow. Another strong trend for May is for river cruises throughout Russia.

Popular outbound destinations

Regarding outbound destinations, Serbia, Montenegro and Morocco have gained popularity in May, due to their visa-free entry for Russians. Among the leading European visa requiring destinations are Italy, France, Spain, Croatia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and the UK. For sun and warm seas Russians choose Cyprus, UAE, Sri Lanka, Goa, Southeast Asian countries and, of course Greece, as shown in TUI Russia's increased sales volume.

According to the German tour operator, the market is mainly affected by the absence of the two destinations that have been leaders in the past year, Turkey and Egypt. "For May holidays in 2015, these areas were the leaders in demand, followed by Italy, Cyprus, Greece. This year, these three destinations, Cyprus, Italy and Greece have taken the lead. Cyprus has become more popular as an alternative to other warm countries, and excursions to Italy during this period remains always in demand, "TUI Russia says. Finally, this year most tourists traveling to foreign destinations, select budget accommodations and reduce duration of travel.

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
The European Union and the European Investment Bank can help private companies get financing in Greece, European Commissioner for Employment, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, Jyrki Katainen said

The European Union and the European Investment Bank can help private companies get financing in Greece, European Commissioner for Employment, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, Jyrki Katainen, who is paying a visit in Athens, said on Monday addressing the Greek parliament.

"We are here to help you. It is very important that you, as legislators, carry this message to private investors," Katainen underlined in the Greek parliament.

"Our delegation can help financing private sector in Greece. It is not necessary for someone to go to Brussels or Luxembourg. The European Fund for Strategic Investments can help private investors in Greece. It is a risk financing tool and a good vehicle to finance businesses. They need to be informed that they can request funds without the approval of the Greek government," he said.

Presenting his plan for growth, the EU vice president emphasized on the creation of new jobs, and spoke of the four basic steps to be taken to promote growth in our country:

- Contacts with the Greek banks in order to get to know how they can use the investments strategic fund to strengthen the Greek economy.



- Gathering ideas from businesses on investment needs and organizing an investment platform to proceed with the funding from the European Fund.



- A campaign on how to "exploit" the European Investment Bank office.



- Re-opening of the Greek Investment Fund, which could be a good vehicle to channel investments.

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
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Plans for the implementation of a major flour mill and grain storage facility at Sohar Port and Free Zone, part of the Omani governments national food security strategy, will be announced shortly, revealed a senior official from the free zone.



The flour mill and associated silo-storage scheme, which are part of the ports new Agro Terminal, will position Sohar Port and Freezone as a major food logistics and distribution hub for the region, Jamal T Aziz, deputy chief executive officer, was quoted as saying in the Oman Daily Observer report.



He said that the announcement will be made very soon with regard to the construction and operation of the terminal.



Aziz added that as for the silos, the government has been looking at various models for investment in this project, and they will announce very soon how they intend to execute the project.



Sohar Flour Mills, a subsidiary of Oman Flour Mills, aims to set up a 500-tonnes-per-day-capacity mill at Sohar Port, alongside a major complex of grain silos, the construction of which will be funded by the Public Authority for Strategic Food Reserves (PASFR), added the report.
PropSpace, a global leader in real estate software solutions, has launched a new product that now makes it easier for real estate agents in the Middle East region to sell property to Chinese buyers in partnership with Juwai.com, the largest Chinese international property website.



The new software enables the agents to upload their listings directly via PropSpace to Juwai.com.''

A leading developer of cloud-based real estate software, PropSpace said the users must be customers of Juwai.com for their listings to be successfully uploaded from PropSpace to Juwai.com.



The Chinese are the largest international real estate buyer group today with the US, Australia and Canada topping their favourite destination list.



They had invested about $52 million last year in international property, an amount that is expected to rise to $220 billion per year by 2020.



The PropSpace - Juwai.com link is a sign of the growing prominence of the Middle East real estate sector, particularly cosmopolitan destinations such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and the increasing role in the region of Chinese investors looking to diversify their property portfolios, said a top official.



"We are delighted to join forces with Juwai.com, the largest and most trusted international property website in China. This mutually beneficial partnership brings tremendous value to PropSpace clients, allowing them easier access to the influential Chinese investor segment," remarked Alex Nicholas, the CEO and founding partner of PropSpace.



"The Middle East is an increasingly preferred destination for property investment by Chinese investors, from high net worth individuals down to the $300,000 range. Juwai.com is an ideal partner in that regard, offering unparalleled access to this powerful investor group," he added.



Charles Pittar, CEO of Juwai.com, said: "The UAE is the most popular Middle Eastern country for Chinese real estate buyers, accounting for more than half of total regional demand in 2015. The next most popular Middle Eastern countries are Turkey and Egypt."



"Last year we saw 15 per cent growth in the number of enquiries made by Chinese buyers in the UAE. Dubai is the Number One destination for Chinese buyers in the Middle East, followed by Istanbul (Trukey)," stated Pittar.



The UAE is considered the principal safe and appealing destination in the region. Dubai competes for investors with Europe, Southeast Asia and North America, not so much with other Middle East countries. The offering of prestigious global university brands helps it get the attention of Chinese students and their families, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Itinera, a leader in the construction of roads, motorways, railways and bridges, has signed agreements with the Iranian government for two major railway construction projects, said a report.



This comes following a statement by an Italian official that his country was planning to invest about 4 billion ($4.47 billion) in the Iranian railway sector, reported the IRNA news agency.



In a meeting with Irans Republic of Iran Railways (RAI) managing director Mohsen Poursaeed-Aqaei, Renato Mazzoncini, the CEO of the Italian railway company, has announced its readiness to supply assistance to the Iranian railways for both high-speed trains, and a complete programme for training personnel, it stated.



During the meeting, Poursaeed-Aqaei introduced the countrys railroad and rail projects, and stressed on their importance, the report added.
Gulf Property Show, the boutique showcase for real estate and property developments in the region, has upgraded its website and property search engine with several fresh and innovative features including offering direct access to real estate and property developments of its exhibitors.



The event is being organised by Hilal Conferences and Exhibitions (HCE) from April 26 to 28 at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre under the patronage of HRH Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain.



The upgradation of the website http://gulfpropertyshow.net and the search engine was done by Bahrain-based Fabric Digital Agency, also the technology partners of the upcoming event.



The Gulf Property Show search engine http://gulfpropertyshow.net/properties will reflect the real estate portfolios on show at the event with properties of exhibitors from Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Thailand, UK, Turkey and the US.



Gulf Property Show site will provide property description, prices and agent contacts which can be searched for geographically or according to property requirements.

.

"The aim of the Gulf Property search engine and website is to provide visitors with the opportunity to view properties being sold by exhibitors at the exhibition to help to generate leads prior to the show as well as for up to six months after the event," remarked Jubran Abdulrahman, the managing director of HCE.



Mohammed Ali, the business development manager of Fabric Digital Agency, said: "The Gulf Property Show has grown in reputation due to its innovative approach to the real estate sector. We feel that through our upgrades we have added to the innovation and customer experience of the Property search platform."



"Our company mission is always to deliver services looking at the clients needs for tomorrow. This is our approach for The Property Search Engine which is modelled on the best in the real estate sector globally," added Ali.



Ahmed Suleiman, the director of HCE, said the Gulf Property Show has established itself as a major real estate event not just for Bahrain developers but also for international realtors.



"We are continuously looking at our events to see how we can provide visitors and exhibitors added value from the exhibitions. We are impressed that in Fabric Digital Agency we have found a technology partner who not only can deliver on our ideas but take them to new levels," he added.



The Gulf Property Show is sponsored by Manara Developments and Diyar Al Muharraq in association with Bahrain Property Developers Association (BaPDA).



It runs alongside two other major exhibitions - Gulf BID and Gulf Interiors - ensuring the continued success of the biggest integrated business-to-business platform for the construction, interiors and property in the Northern Gulf.-TradeArabia News Service
Arcapita, a global investment management firm based in Bahrain, has acquired a logistics park in Dubai, UAE, for a total transaction value of approximately $100 million.



The investment comprises nine freehold plots of land in the Al Quoz Industrial Area covering an area of approximately 630,000 sq ft. The logistics park is strategically located next to Al Khail Road, one of Dubais main transport arteries.



By the third quarter of 2016, the site will consist of 10 completed warehousing facilities that will be under a long-term master lease with a reputable UAE conglomerate. The investment will capitalise on Dubais growing logistics market and will offer premium warehousing facilities to tenants in one of Dubais most established and sought-after industrial areas.



Atif A Abdulmalik, Arcapitas chief executive officer, said: We continue to pursue investments in sectors where Arcapitas management team has built significant expertise. We have managed over $8.1 billion in transactions across the global logistics market, including in the US, Europe, Asia and the GCC. In particular, we recently successfully exited a $360-million fund, ARC Real Estate Income Fund I, which was focused on investing in the UAE and Saudi Arabia's logistics and warehousing market. We are excited about this investment which will provide Arcapita and its investors with stable, recurring income as well as potential capital appreciation.



Martin Tan, Arcapitas chief investment officer, said: "Dubais logistics market is poised to experience significant growth, driven in large part by its attractive geographical location, well-developed supply chain network, and supportive legislation, which collectively make it an ideal supply and redistribution gateway.

"In addition to strengthening domestic spending, Dubais growing retail sector is expected to generate significant demand for warehousing and logistics facilities as nine million sq ft of gross leasing space enters the retail market over the next three years. Reflecting the demand for quality logistics facilities, average rental rates across industrial locations in Dubai have increased by approximately 20 per cent over the past 20 months. We expect this trend to continue, and look forward to delivering attractive returns to our investors through this transaction. - TradeArabia News Service
The Doha meeting, among 16 oil producers (Opec and non-Opec) concluded on Sunday, without an agreement on a production freeze, as the political tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran trumped the economics for agreeing to a deal, a report said.



Representatives from Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela agreed on a draft in advance to be put forward to the group, but the Saudis changed their stance on Sunday morning, added the Oil Market Instant Insight from Barclays.



Though Iran initially planned to send their Opec minister, his participation was cancelled when the Qataris insisted that all attendees would also be signatories to any deal. The political tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran trumped the economics for agreeing to a deal.



The producer countries are likely to meet again at the Opec meeting in June, but we assign little meaning to the process in light of the fundamental rebalancing that is underway. We maintain our fundamental view that Brent is likely to average $36/barrel during the second quarter (Q2), the report said.



What the no deal signals to the market



This meeting and its outcome should have built confidence that the oil market rebalancing was close at hand, as well as building a circle of trust among producers for possible future cooperation and coordinated action. In this regard, the meeting was a complete failure. The meeting gave these producers an opportunity to fast forward the market balancing process.



But they could not agree on a freeze, especially when most attendees (i.e., Saudi, Russia) are producing at elevated levels, and some producers are facing declines (Venezuela, Qatar, Algeria). The failure of the talks gives the market another clear indication that Opecs relevance in this market environment has faded, and its ability to coordinate with members outside the group is equally difficult.



If agreeing to a freeze of output among producers whose output is close to capacity is proving this difficult, then this exercise shows to the market that achieving a cut, should there be a need for one in the future, will be almost a non-starter.



Moreover, the meeting exposed that the heightening geopolitical tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran continues to transcend into the oil market, hampering Opec representatives ability to save face with even a simple, vague agreement to do what they had planned to do anyway for the next couple months. The Saudi position shift also highlights that there are likely differences of view between Mohammed bin Salman, who is firmly in the drivers seat of Saudi Arabias oil policy, and the Ministry of Petroleum, headed by Minister Ali-Naimi.



Outlook on market balances and oil prices



According to Barclays, this crisis of confidence among oil producers to act, combined with elevated speculative length in the oil markets going into this Doha meeting, could result in a sharp price fall in the short term, as positioning in the market adjusts to the new reality.



However, physical oil market balances have tightened recently, helped by unplanned supply outages and a slowdown in non-Opec supply growth. Over the weekend, fresh supply outages have been added, with strikes in Kuwait, further outages in Nigeria and Canada.



On Sunday, Kuwait Oil Companys spokesman Saad Al-Azmi posted on the companys Twitter account that as a result of the worker strikes, the company had cut crude output to 1.1 mb/d.



This is lower by 1.6 mb/d from the level produced in March, and represents a large supply outage if sustained for more than a week. Currently, export ports are operational, as Kuwait has oil stocks to offset the outage.



However, if the strike were to last for more than a week, it would tighten physical oil markets significantly. It is unlikely that the strikes would last that long given the remits of Kuwaiti law, on strikes that affect production and the need to attempt discussion before extending a strike. Kuwait is a large refined product exporter (750 kb/d in 2015), and the state refiner KNPC has also reduced refinery output to 520 kb/d from 930 kb/d (source: Reuters), before the stoppage on crude started on Sunday.



This has the potential to boost refinery margins in the near term, although, once the refinery does return, if margins dont fall, the elevated runs globally could exacerbate the diesel glut, and cause run cuts globally down the line. Overall, we dont see the strikes in Kuwait impacting production for more than a week, but this is worth keeping on the radar given the size of the outage, Barclays said.



These tightened market balances from the supply side, despite demand being lacklustre (weighed down by weak diesel demand), suggest that prices may not fall much below $30/bbl. Our downbeat Q2 forecast of $36/bbl for Brent, followed by a mild recovery into Q4 2016 to average $43/bbl, is driven by our market balance assumptions that the oil market surplus will fade from 1.6 mb/d in Q1 2016, to a stock draw of 0.1 mb/d in Q4 2016 and 0.6 mb/d over 2017, said Barclays.



The balancing process in the oil markets is well underway, but producers have missed the opportunity in Doha to reinforce this process. The uncertainty in the market with regards to the such next meeting and the developing geopolitical backdrop with regards to Iran and Saudi Arabia, will continue to lead to oil market volatility.



To the extent that market participants saw reason to add positions from their expectations for this meeting over the last several weeks, it has delayed the damage to supply and the stimulation to demand that was underway in the low $30 range.



We think the producer meetings failure to meet those already-low expectations means that the market is likely to backtrack to square one, consistent with our forecasts. And, like the December 2015 Opec meeting, the group might have been better off not having the meeting at all, said the Barclays Instant Insight.



A disappointment in Doha is likely to sour market sentiment in the short term, but oil market balances are on course to reduce surplus by Q4 2016, Barclays concluded.  TradeArabia News Service
Australias largest privately owned hotel management company StayWell Hospitality Group (SWHG) has signed a management agreement to operate two Park Regis properties in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.



The deal was signed in Dubai by StayWell CEO Simon Wan and Riyad Alhoraibi, the CEO of Asas Capital, the owner of the properties.



Expected to open in the second quarter of 2018, the two hotels boast 286 and 344 guest rooms, respectively.



This development will be one of the latest openings for the fast growing international brand which has a presence in Australia, Singapore, the UAE, India, the UK and Indonesia, a statement said.



Wan said that formalising the management agreement for the hotels is a strategic move for the Sydney-based company in entering the established Saudi Arabia market to grow its presence in the Middle East further.



These two unique hotels will offer guests superb dining options as well as deluxe accommodation within walking distance to the Grand Mosque in Makkah. The hotels are targeting to open in time for the 2018 Haj.



"We are looking forward to both hotels complementing our existing Park Regis Kris Kin and our upcoming Park Regis Business Bay hotel, located in Dubai. We are also actively looking for further opportunities to expand our network in the Middle East, he said.



Riyad Alhoraibi said: Discussions on the Park Regis Makkah hotels first started at ATM 2015 and over the ensuing months the relationship developed culminating in the signing of agreement for the two properties just weeks before the 2016 ATM.



We are delighted to be able to offer guests a range of accommodation in Ibrahim Al Khalil Street within walking distance from the Haram, he said.



The opening of the Park Regis Makkah hotels will bring the StayWell Hospitality Groups portfolio to 31 hotels worldwide and four in the region and a step closer to the groups strategic objective of expanding its portfolio to 100 hotels within three years, the statement said. - TradeArabia News Service


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European Waterways Opera Cruise featuring a live performance of Carmen



(TRAVPR.COM) USA - April 15th, 2016 - European Waterways announced that its 2016 Opera Cruise will feature front-row seats to watch a performance of one of the worlds most beloved operas, Georges Bizets Carmen, staged at the Arena di Verona amphitheater in Italy. The night at the opera will be followed the next day by a 6-night, all-inclusive cruise aboard the 20-passenger La Bella Vita hotel barge, which cruises Venice to Mantua. The cruise is a total of seven days, from August 20  27, 2016, and starts at $3,490 per person, based on double occupancy.

Before the Opera Cruise begins, guests will be picked up at the Hotel Due Torri in Verona to visit the fascinating Arena Museo Opera museum, followed by dinner in its courtyard restaurant. In the evening, they will be treated to front-row seats in the magnificent setting of the Arena di Verona to watch a magical performance of Carmen.

The next morning, guests will enjoy a walking tour of Verona before being transferred to La Bella Vita in Venice, which sets off that afternoon along the Giudecca Canal. It will moor at the Naval Museum, followed by a guided tour of the Doge's Palace, a city landmark. The cruise also features visits to several historic baroque theatres. These include Gran Teatro La Fenice, where the premieres of operas by composers such as Rossini and Verdi were performed, and the intimate Teatro Bibiena in Mantua, with its bell-shaped interior that opened in 1770 with a concert by a 13-year-old Mozart.

The Opera Cruise is one of our most beloved cruises, said Derek Banks, managing director of European Waterways. The extra day of sightseeing and front-row seats to watch Carmen is just the beginning. Once the cruise starts, guests will also enjoy excursions that include visits to the famous fish market in Chioggia, the Schifanoia Palace in Ferrara and the stunning Ducal Palace in Mantua. They are also treated to wine tastings and a dinner in the private home where Lord Byron wrote some of his best poetry.

The opera cruise itinerary is for seven nights and includes a one-night, pre-cruise stay in a 4-star hotel in Verona; the evening in Verona at the opera; all gourmet meals prepared by the chef on-board; fine Italian wines, an open bar, daily escorted excursions, admissions and local transfers. For more information, call toll-free 1-800-394-8630 or visit http://www.gobarging.com/opera--itinerary.

###


Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : FIRST FULLY MEXICAN MANUFACTURED AIRCRAFT NEARS PRODUCTION Industry: Airlines

Funding to completely manufacture the Spectrum Aeronautical S-40 aircraft in Mexico is nearing completion, and the aerospace manufacturer is planning to have all funding secured by the end of June to begin production on the fully Mexican manufactured aircraft.



(TRAVPR.COM) US - April 18th, 2016 - The Freedom S-40



While Mexicos aerospace industry is already well established, the Freedom S-40 business jet is set to be the First fully Mexican manufactured aircraft from start to finish . A total investment of $300 million USD is needed to fund the aircraft from development certification into service. Equity investors from the US and Mexico are fronting much of the capital with additional loans being offered through Mexican bank, Bancomext. Company representatives are confident full funding will be in place by the end of June, and are hoping to break ground on the plant later this year.



Plans for the S-40 are frozen, and tooling will be built this summer. The plane is designed to seat up to nine passengers in a carbon-fiber cabin that stands 5.9 feet tall, cruising up to 2,250 nautical miles and with a maximum altitude of 45,000 feet. It will be propelled by two GE Honda HF120 turbofan engines. It is expected to cost half as much to own and use half as much fuel as comparably sized business jets.



Choosing Mexico



Mexicali in https://www.tecma.com/locations/tecma-tijuana-and-baja-california/Mexicos Baja California, just south of the US border will be the location for the manufacturing facilities and flight center of the first fully Mexican manufactured aircraft . Based in San Diego, California, Spectrum says they chose the Mexican site because of the large pool of highly skilled workers in the area in addition to the proximity to extensive industrial aerospace infrastructure in southern California.



With over 250 aerospace manufacturing companies active in the country, Mexico is home to a well-established aerospace manufacturing sector, and it comes as no surprise that Spectrum will be joining the family of aircraft manufacturers already in the area  manufacturers like:



USs Hawker Beechcraft

Frances Safran Group

Canadas Bombardier Aerospace

Netherlands Fokker

Spains Aernnova

Brazils Embraer

Within the past decade, the aerospace industry in Mexico has reached a compounded annual growth rate of over 15%. Mexico is encouraging further aerospace investment in the area by offering an attractive incentive package. Aviation exports are now well over $5 billion USD and climbing.





TECMA GROUP



2000 Wyoming Avenue



El Paso, Texas 79903



Phone - 915-543-4252 FREE



Fax - 915 -534-0205



https://www.tecma.com/ ### Please contact the person or company listed above for information regarding the content of this press release. TravPR.com are not the issuers of this press release and are not responsible for the accuracy of the content. Share Release :



CONTACT INFORMATION Name: TECMA GROUP Company: TECMA GROUP Phone: 915-543-4252 Email: tecmagroup@yahoo.com Web: PRESS RELEASE TAGS
Mat Orrego, CEO of CIS, has been invited to join the elite panel of judges for Phocuswrights Travel Innovation Summits in both India and Europe.



(TRAVPR.COM) UNITED STATES - April 18th, 2016 - Cornerstone Information Systems (CIS), a leading global technology and services provider for travel companies, announced today that Mat Orrego, CEO, has been invited to join the elite panel of judges for Phocuswrights Travel Innovation Summits in both India and Europe. The sister events of Phocuswright's two-decade-running U.S. conference, Phocuswright Europe draws the region's top executives in the travel and hospitality space to discuss the trends, technology and turmoil affecting the European travel market. Phocuswright India is the first-ever conference centered solely on the Asia Pacific travel market and its ever-evolving nature. Mr. Orrego is the only judge invited to sit on the panel at both events.

The Travel Innovation Summit has a long history of identifying companies that are transforming the travel industry. A select group of global visionaries use this unique platform to demonstrate applications with the potential to shape the future. Having Mr. Orregos depth of experience, insight, and knowledge is a valuable asset to the panel as they review exciting new advancements from around the world. "Anytime you are selected as an expert in your field and trusted to judge others work, it is a great honor, says Orrego. I am excited to see what innovative technologies are going on around the world and eager to acknowledge the work of thought leaders in this category. At Cornerstone, we continue to develop breakthrough technologies, and we look forward to working more closely with Phocuswright and the emerging technology innovatorswith whom our purpose and values are so closely aligned."

Cornerstone is recognized for developing intelligent automation technology solutions that enable travel companies and corporations to connect, prepare, visualize, engage and optimize their business around actionable data to drive better decisions as well as improve travel experiences.

Phocuswright India takes place April 21st-22nd, 2016 in Gurgaon, National Capital Region (NCR), India. Mat joins an impressive roster of judges including Katherine Grass, Head of Innovation and Ventures, Amadeus IT Group, Raghav Bahl, Vice President, Bessmer Venture Partners India, Mohit Gupta, COO, MakeMyTrip.com, Bhanu Chopra, Founder & CEO, RateGain, Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital and Charlie Li, Founder & CEO, TravelDaily China.

Phocuswright Europe will be hosted in Dublin, Ireland May 10th-12th, 2016. The panel for Europes Innovation Summit consists of Suzanna Chiu, Principal, Amadeus Ventures, Rod Cuthbert, CEO Rome2Rio, Joakim Everstin, Head of Innovation & Tech Evangelist, Sabre Travel Network, Dean Forbes, CEO, KDS, Bob Healy, CTO, CarTrawler, Vincent Lebunetel, VP Corporate Innovation, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Polina Raygorodskaya, CEO, Wanderu, and Sean Seton-Rogers, General Partner, PROfounders Capital.

ABOUT CORNERSTONE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Cornerstone Information Systems is a global technology and services provider that has a unique domain knowledge in the travel industry, from how travel is operationalized to how information is managed. With a foundation in automation, we design, build, and deliver technology for travel companies and corporate buyers. We help our partners manage their process and information, to drive better decision making. Cornerstone has a single focus on travel data from the management of the reservation to the creation and presentation of information. The result is higher quality customer service and more nimble operational responsiveness at a lower cost with fewer resources yielding higher profit. We are people-centric, service-focused, and technology driven.

Companies managing more than $25 billion in travel spend annually trust Cornerstone to help them proactively lower the costs of travel management and drive revenues through travel optimization. Founded in 1992, Cornerstone Information Systems is a privately held company headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana with customers in more than 50 countries. To learn more, visit ciswired.com

Unless indicated otherwise, all trademarks and service marks herein are trademarks of Cornerstone Information Systems Inc. or an affiliate thereof.

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In partnership with the Government of Latvia, VFS Global has launched visa application centres for applicants in London, Manchester and Edinburgh. The new centres aim to better serve the needs of the growing number of travellers to the Baltic nation.



(TRAVPR.COM) UK - April 18th, 2016 - VFS Global launches visa application services for Latvia in three cities in the United Kingdom

LONDON/MANCHESTER/EDINBURGH: In partnership with the Government of Latvia, VFS Global has launched visa application centres for applicants in London, Manchester and Edinburgh. The new centres aim to better serve the needs of the growing number of travellers to the Baltic nation.

This is the first time the Government of Latvia has partnered with VFS Global to open visa application centres in the UK. The centre in London is located at 66, Wilson Street, London EC2A 2BT. The centre in Manchester is located at 50 Devonshire Street North, Manchester, M12 6JH. The centre in Edinburgh is located at 1 Rennies Isle, Leith. Edinburgh. EH6 6QT.

Mr. Oskars Pastars, Third Secretary, Latvian Consulate, London, said, I think that visa application process for Latvian Schengen Visas has become more appealing for many visa applicants even in distant regions of the United Kingdom.

Added Mr. Chris Dix, Chief Operating Officer  UK and Americas, VFS Global, The aim of these centres is to offer first-class service to those travellers to Latvia who need a visa, offering the full range of services in a standardised manner. We are honored to partner with the Embassy of Latvia in the United Kingdom to facilitate this process for visitors to this beautiful country, and are confident applicants will be fully satisfied with the new services.

The key features of the centre include:

 Convenient and centrally-accessed location

 Professional staff with local language capability to handle queries and applications

 Dedicated website for easy access to information including visa categories, requirements, check-list and applicable fees

 Secure handling of passports, documents and personal information

 Door-step delivery of passports

Latvia Visa Application Centres in the UK

Address: 66 Wilson Street, London, EC2A 2BT, United Kingdom

Address: Manchester is located at 50 Devonshire Street North, Manchester, M12 6JH

Address: 1 Rennies Isle, Leith. Edinburgh. EH6 6QT

Helpline: +448713760023 Email: info.schengen@vfshelpline.com

Website: http://www.vfsglobal.com/Latvia/UK/index.html

Business hours: 0830hrs to 1730hrs (Monday day to Friday)

*VFS Global will be responsible only for accepting applications for client missions. All applications submitted will continue to be assessed and processed by the respective client missions. Timelines for turnaround of visas are as per the discretion of the authorities.

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About VFS Global

VFS Global is the world's largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. With 1986 Application Centres, operations in 123 countries across five continents and over 115 million applications processed as on 31 March 2016, VFS Global serves the interests of 50 client governments. VFS Globals worldwide operations are certified ISO 9001:2008 for Quality Management System, ISO 27001:2013 for Information Security Management System and ISO 14001:2004 for Environmental Management System. For more information, please visit www.vfsglobal.com

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Media Contact

Ishara Bhasi Callan Shaily Vaswani

Tel: +44 7826542245 Tel: +91 91672 10887

ishara.callan@apollostrategiccomms.com ShailyV@vfsglobal.com

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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 17

Voice of Tobacco Victims (VoTV), an organisation running anti-tobacco campaigns, has lamented that the rule of having 85 per cent pictorial warning on tobacco products was not being implemented in Punjab.

Patron of VoTV, Dr Prahlad Duggal, said it was surprising to note that as per the Health Ministry, the implementation of pictorial warning of 85 per cent should have been displayed on both sides of all tobacco packets from April 1.

He said even as two weeks had already passed, the tobacco companies were still selling the same old packets. He said implementing the Central Governments orders, the governments of Maharashtra, Bihar and Goa had seized tobacco products worth crores of rupees but the Punjab Government had failed to take any action in this regard.

Duggal said in Punjab, around 8 lakh people used cigarettes and around 9 lakh smoked bidis, while around 13.5 lakh people used tobacco-chewing products. A cancer specialist, Dr Prahlad Duggal said most of the cancers were caused by tobacco. He stressed the need for creating awareness among the people against the use of tobacco. Effective strategies such as implementation of 85 per cent pictorial pack warnings wold discourage the children and youth from consuming tobacco.

He said that in view of the vast economical burden of cancer treatment in the state, the government must initiate to check usage of tobacco and seriously implement the directives to discourage the usage.
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 17

Farmers have warned of protest against the government if it failed to release payment of grain on time, which is likely to be delayed after a food scam of Rs 12,000 crore came to the fore.

Fearing a delay in payment, farmers have started holding meetings to plan the future course of action.

However, Member of Parliament Harsimrat Kaur Badal has claimed that the farmers will not face any problem in procurement and payment of procured grain.

Farmer leaders in Mansa today held a meeting over the issue and discussed the situation. They said the procurement of wheat in grain markets of Mansa and Bathinda was slow.

The farmers claimed that the government is short of gunny bags following which, lifting was being done at slow pace.

Officials of the district administration, including Deputy Commissioners, are visiting the grain markets to inspect the ongoing lifting and procurement process.

They have directed the officials concerned to ensure that lifting of procured wheat was done within 72 hours from the grain markets.

Ram Singh Bhenibagha, BKU Ugraha president, Mansa, said, We are planning the strategy regarding how the farmers could be saved from harassment this year and if payments are delayed, what should be done besides agitation. Every time farmers have to suffer without any fault but enough is enough. We will not tolerate any delay in the payment for our food grains. Farmers are committing suicides but the state government is least bothered. We will stage protest and intensify our agitation if need arises. The government has turned atrocious and inhuman towards the farmers by making wrong and anti-farmer policies.

When asked about the probability of payments for foodgrain likely to be delayed following the Rs 12,000 crores scam yesterday, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, at Mata Sundari College in Mansa, said, There is no such scam rather its all propaganda of Congress. Surjewala is no one to be believed. Regular auditing was being done. The farmers will not face any problem or hindrance in the procurement and payment for their procured wheat.
Tribune News Service

Mohali, April 18

A Delhi-based liquor barons son, who is pursuing business management studies at Geneva in Switzerland, was arrested by the Mohali police for posing as an SSP. One of his nine private security guards escorting the imposter was also arrested for possessing illegal arms and ammunition. While the fake SSP, identified as Parth Wadia (23), son of Ashok Wadia, was released on bail, his security guard was sent to judicial custody. The remaining accused also got bail in the case.

Giving details, Inspector Lakhwinder Singh, SHO of the Phase VIII police station, said a security guard bragged about Parth Wadia, claiming that he was an SSP, when the police asked him about his identity at a naka around the PCA Stadium for an IPL match here yesterday.

The police booked Parth and his nine bouncers under Sections 419, 120 B and 177 of the IPC at the Phase VIII police station and arrested all of them.

Inspector Lakhwinder Singh said Parth was driving his swanky Porche car, bearing the registration number CHS 7, behind his private security guards Gypsy (PIP 8) and a Safari vehicle (DL 9LX 9999) when he was stopped by the police at the naka. They were going to the stadium to watch the match.

Asked about the identity of the youngster, one of the security guards told us that he was an SSP. When we enquired further, all of them sped away in their vehicles from the spot, said the SHO, adding that all of them were nabbed at the next naka.

During a search, one of a security guards, Jatinder Kumar, was found possessing a .32-bore revolver with an arms licence from Uttar Pradesh. Inspector Lakhwinder Singh said as the licence in question was invalid here, Jatinder Kumar had also been booked under the Arms Act. While nine accused, including Parth, were later released on bail, Jatinder Kumar was remanded in judicial custody.

Not related to Ness Wadia: Police

As the key accused shares his surname with IPL Kings XI co-owner Ness Wadia, rumours were rife that he was related to the business tycoon. However, the police dismissed the rumours, claiming that he was not related to Ness Wadia.
Syed Ata Hasnain

A dangerous situation is unfolding in Kashmir and it appears a deliberate attempt to up the ante. It was predictable to any one who observes the Jammu and Kashmir situation on a regular basis. South Kashmir was far too volatile and the north far too quiet over the last few months. The conditions were ideal for a return to the street turbulence witnessed during 2008-10. Sopore, Handwara, Baramula and Pattan are competing centres for attention. Bandipura too has been without political or terrorist activity for some time. All of them have distinct separatist bases with a large cadre of over ground workers (OGWs). Terrorist strength has dwindled due to an effective anti-infiltration grid and effort of the security forces in the hinterland. Separatists cannot afford to allow their movement to flag off beyond a certain threshold and the youth-based militancy in south Kashmir is increasingly out of control of the United Jehad Council with whom the separatists have a good working linkage. The stamina of the public for another round of street turbulence has resurged. This was evident from the manner in which mobs attempted to intervene in the operations of the Army's Victor Force in south Kashmir and turned out to pay tribute to dead terrorists. The local media has largely been eulogising the terrorists in south Kashmir, with pro- separatist commentaries. The return of a government also triggered the idea of agitation.

With Governor's rule an agitation loses its political effect and the response by the state is far more robust. With an elected government in place the situation helps to create hype; response comes under scrutiny and with a coalition government dissensions increase on how to handle the turbulence Separatists create situations in which the security forces are offered few options but to respond. Recall how the Muzaffarabad March of August 11, 2011, was set up and Sheikh Abdul Aziz was virtually led to his death through a conspiracy. His death is still believed to have been at the hands of terrorists concealed in the mob. The manner in which the recent Handwara incident panned out was typical of a deep-set conspiracy to bait the Army. The targeting and burning of the bunker was done deliberately to invite response. The Army could not have had a benign response as the safety of its men was involved.

The attention of the Army will shift to internal security and the terrorists and their handlers will hope that the anti-infiltration grid will be less focused allowing more terrorists to infiltrate, leaders to be brought in and the critical supply of arms and ammunition replenished. Separatists want India and Pakistan to talk but perceive that their own role is being marginalised, hence the necessity to project their relevance. Street power is considered an appropriate means to draw attention. If the India-Pakistan peace process does progress, the importance of Handwara- like situations will enhance  with separatists constantly seeking their space.

The spiralling violence is a part of the overall plan of action and reaction. Cadres are usually on the ready for this and professional rabble-rousers move from town to town, with teams of stone throwers. The Baramula agitation, for example, is almost entirely instigated from Sopore and carried out by the Pattan youth. The Army has the experience to handle this although many of the officers and jawans may be new to this game due to turnovers. However, there is an institutional memory and the JK police will help in briefing them on past responses. The Army must keep itself out of the agitation as in the past, notwithstanding deliberate attempts this time to bait it. This is not a conventional internal security situation. Remember, the Army is on a counter-terrorism grid. Flag marches will have to be dispensed with as this brings the mobs in contact with soldiers. The CRPF and JK police have enough experience but must ensure that a repeat of 2010 is avoided at all cost. The optimum amount of anti-riot gear is learnt to be still eluding these forces for which responsibility must be fixed. Senior police officers have to ensure that their sub units are never too small to get isolated and, therefore, targeted.

My personal experience tells me that the clergy plays a crucial role in subsiding tempers. The Amir e Jamat of the Jamat e Islami (K), who is located at Kulgam in south Kashmir can play a positive role. In such mass agitation, a sane voice will help and his services must be requested. If need be, SAS Geelani and his ilk should be physically isolated and prevented from accessing any communication resources such as mobile phones. His bandh calls had reached a point where no one was responding to them. Obviously Handwara is a method to regain his lost space.

All the above is well said and is fine as an approach towards prevention of a negative situation followed by avoiding worsening if it occurs. However, there is an element within the separatists and a very influential one which is instigating an irrational approach. It is catering for a conventional benign Army response of controlled use of violence.

The overall response of the security forces has been relatively benign, although some may term my usage of the word as an oxymoron. It's not easy to be facing mobs and attempting to be good guys. Before long, tempers will have flared.

In 2010, Geelani was initially ill- advised to increase the pitch of the agitation by targeting Army camps. When a veiled warning from the Army was received, he sensibly held back.

It seems this time the separatists have concluded that the Army will be benign and defensive so as not to draw the ire of human rights activists. Those promoting violence on the streets need to be aware of the phenomenon of unpredictability which the Army follows as an essential principle of security. In needling the Army, the separatists may just cross the threshold. It is their intent to sacrifice a few lives in the street to raise passions but beyond a point they too realise that loss of lives flags down a movement rather than take it forward.

There is a dire need for messaging at this time. The parents must know that their sons in the streets are being instigated. Even with best of intentions of the security forces, lives will be lost if a threshold is crossed. Is it difficult to get this message across? Perception management isn't the strongest area of any government establishment but this time sincere efforts must be made to shift blame squarely to the perpetrators who care least for young lives.

Some elements of the local media are attempting to egg on the new government to take a hard stance against the security forces. The Army Commander has made an early visit to ascertain and be briefed.

This is the time when the political leadership and the Army need to be demonstratively on the same page. Separatists and elements of the negative media will paint perception of division of opinion and attempt to project the CM as anti-people. This must not allow the working to be dented. The Durbar is still at Jammu but an advance element of the government must move to the Valley to nip the happenings in the bud. If not, there will be no rest this summer in the salubrious environs of the pristine Valley.

The writer, an ex General Officer Commanding of the Srinagar based 15 Corps, is now a Fellow with Vivekanand International Foundation & Delhi Policy Group.
Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, April 18

Prime Minister of Kingdom of Swaziland Dr Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini today expressed keen interest in the high yielding varieties of maize and training programme for scientists, students and teachers to develop human resources. He was at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU) regional research station, Uchani.

He led the 17-member delegation, which visited the regional station for exploring the opportunities to raise the production of maize in Swaziland.

The delegation met the experts of the CCSHAU. Dlamini said they were willing to cooperate with the CCSHAU to raise the production of maize.

Agriculture is being taught as a subject in colleges in Swaziland, but our teachers and scientists have a need for training, so the CCSHAU would impart training to them, the visiting PM said.

He lauded the efforts of the CCS HAU scientists for developing human resources in the field of agriculture. He even expressed interest in the exchange of faculty.

Moses Vilakati, Minister of Agriculture of Swaziland, said there was a need for maize varieties that mature a short time and the CCS HAU could quality to fulfil their demand.

Dr KS Khokhar, Vice Chancellor, CCSHAU, informed the delegation about the high yielding varieties, per acre production and market management. He said Haryana had favourable climatic conditions and soil for the production of maize.
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 17

Delhi resident, Bobby Joshi, a key witness to the Murthal gangrapes during the Jat reservation stir, was allegedly attacked by two unidentified persons on National Highway -1, while he drove enroute to Delhi from Ludhiana last night. Though Joshi escaped unhurt in the incident, the two motorcycle borne attackers hurled a stone at him, smashing the cars window.

Speaking to The Tribune, Bobby Joshi said, While returning to Delhi in my car from Ludhiana, I stopped to buy cigarettes between Karnal and Panipat around midnight. As I got back into the car, two motorcycle-borne youths drove towards me. Hurling abuses, they threw a stone at me, shattering the cars window.

Even though the police claimed to have provided him security on Friday itself, after he allegedly received a threat call, no cop was accompanying Joshi while the incident took place last night. Joshi said he later narrated the incident to cops, who joined him at Panipat.

Asked whether he had lodged an FIR following the incident, Joshi said he had informed Mamta Singh, Inspector General of Police (IG), who also heads the SIT formed by the state government to probe the Murthal gangrapes. They have asked me to give a written complaint, Joshi said.

Mamta Singh, IG, said Joshi had brought the matter to her notice today when she had called him to ask when he would appear before the SIT to record his statement. She also said Joshi neither contacted her or the police immediately after the incident.

When asked about the absence of security cover provided to Joshi during the attack, the IG said since Joshi was in Ludhiana, he had himself coordinated with the security guards and asked them to wait for him at Panipat.

I have referred his complaint to Karnal SP and told him to take action as per the law, she said.

When asked whether he had narrated the incident to the security guards at Panipat, she refused to comment.

After initially rejecting the reports of sexual assaults in Murthal, the state government had informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court during the last hearing on the case that a section on gangrape had been added to the FIR registered on the basis of a complaint filed by Bobby Joshi on March 30 alleging gang-rapes during the Jat quota violence.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had taken suo motu notice of media reports that some women commuters were stripped and raped by rioters at Murthal on National Highway  1 during the Jat stir.

Joshi had alleged receiving a threat call on Friday frightening him with dire consequences for speaking too much. Mamta Singh, IG, claimed to have provided him security then.
Kumarhatti, April 18

A 20 million-year-old fossilised tree, discovered on the outskirts of Himachal Pradeshs Kumarhatti town, was saved from destruction, a geologist said on Sunday.

The tree fossil discovered in 2013 was about to be destroyed last week during the four-laning of the Parwanoo-Shimla highway at Raboon village, some 50 km from Chandigarh, Geologist-entrepreneur Ritesh Arya told the IANS.

He said numerous flora and fauna fossils had been discovered in Kasauli, Barog, Kumarhatti, Dharampur and Subathu areas, located in the Shivaliks, in Solan district.

The entire area, he said, should be preserved by declaring it as geo-fossil forest for in-site conservation, meaning the conservation of an archaeological asset in its original location.

Arya claimed that the discovered fossils dated back to paleoflooding that was related to global warming and glacial melt, resulting in floods.

The flooding uprooted trees and buried them under sand along the river channels, leading to petrification  a process of fossilisation in which dissolved minerals replace organic matter.

The saved fossil tree is 12 feet tall and one metre wide.

Its believed that the fossil might be more than 100 feet tall, Arya, who holds a Guinness Book of World Record for discovering groundwater at an altitude of 11,000 ft in Ladakh, added.

He said this was the second fossilised tree in the region that was saved from destruction.

Earlier, a 25-million year-old fossil of a five-foot-tall and three-foot-wide tree was discovered a few years ago at Jagjitnagar near Kasauli. The fossil, which was standing on a rock, was conserved as the land where it was located was a private land and the owner took initiative to preserve it.

Arya said the Kasauli hills were geologically related to 16 to 23 million years and had been associated with Irish geologist Henry Benedict Medlicott, who discovered the first fossilised preserved leaves in 1864.

Kasauli was once inhabited by a large number of apes, tigers, elephants, hippos, giraffes, crocodiles and land tortoises.

According to Arya, the discovery of fossils in the Kasauli region indicated that the area supported flora and fauna that was native to coastal regions of Malaysia, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Indonesia.

This clearly indicated that the Himalayan region was under the ocean, the geologist said.

Arya, who studied at Panjab Universitys department of geology, said the presence of fossils of Garcinia and Gluta and other near coastal species showed that the Himalayas had not evolved during those times and were younger than 20 million years.

Declaring Kasauli and its nearby hills to be geo-heritage site, he said this would boost tourism and help improving the knowledge of the evolution of the Himalayas.

The geologist said staff of construction company GR Infra Ltd engaged in the construction of the Parwanoo-Shimla highway also cooperated to save the fossil by shifting the road alignment.

Sensing potential to attract tourists and researchers from across the globe, the state government in 2011 started setting up a geo heritage park in Kasauli town, some 50 km from the state capital Shimla.

For this, the state Tourism Department has tied up with the Chandigarh Natural History Museum.

The museum, which is likely to be completed in the next three-four years, will display models of extinct animals like the grand elephant Stegodon Ganesha Sivatherium, a hippopotamus with six incisors and the giant land tortoise Colossochelys Atlas.

The Kasauli park will be the second fossil park in the state. The Suketi Fossil Park near Nahan town in Sirmaur district displays six life-size fiberglass models of pre-historic animals whose fossils and skeletons were unearthed at the site. IANS
Tribune News Service/PTI

Srinagar, April 17

The 16-year-old girl, whose alleged molestation last week sparked protests and led to killing of demonstrators in north Kashmirs Handwara subdistrict, has recorded her statement before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in which she stood by her earlier statement that she was not molested by any Army soldier on Tuesday.

The girl along with her father was presented before the Chief Judicial Magistrate last evening and her statement was recorded, the police said in a statement today.

The girl has claimed in her statement that she was assaulted and dragged by two boys. The police said she has revealed that while heading home after school with her friend, she entered a public lavatory near the main chowk in Handwara.

As soon as she came out of the lavatory, she was confronted, assaulted and dragged by two boys and her bag was snatched. One of the boys was in school uniform. The girl was produced along with her father before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Handwara, was to comply with the order of the Honourable J&K High Court, the police said in a statement.

The girls statement was recorded in the case with FIR number 130 under Sections 341, 354 and 509 of the RPC registered at the Handwara police station. The invoked sections amount to wrongful restraint, assault or use of criminal force against any woman with the intention of outraging her modesty, and any word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.

The locals had initially alleged that the girl was molested by a soldier, which had fuelled violent protests in Handwara.

The J&K High Court had yesterday directed the police authorities to present the girl, her father and aunt before the nearest Chief Judicial Magistrate following a petition filed by the mother of the girl.

The petition was seeking the release of the girl, her father and aunt who have allegedly been in police custody since the day the allegations of molestation resulted in protests in Handwara. The mother yesterday claimed that her daughter was pressurised into making the statement exonerating the Army man from the molestation charge.

Meanwhile, the Kashmir zone police chief, IGP SJM Gilani, told The Tribune that the girl was not in police custody but was staying at the house of a relative.
Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, April 18

Barring some parts of the Patel community-dominated areas of Amreli, Mehsana and Dehgam towns, the Gujarat bandh call given by the pro-reservation leaders against the alleged police repression on the Patel youths was almost totally ignored today with life returning to normalcy after yesterdays violence.

The day by and large remained incident-free except an incident of arson at the unoccupied house of the Minister of State for Home Rajni Patel in Mehsana. A group of miscreants set fire to the house, which was under repair after a similar case of arson in November following another round of reservation stir in the town. Targeted by the agitation leaders for setting the police free on the Patel youths for repression, the Home Ministers house was attacked during the violence in August too.

In another incident, some automobile tires were burnt in heaps on the highways near Palanpur to disrupt traffic but the police soon took control of the situation. No other major untoward incident was reported from any other parts of the state with life remaining normal and shops, offices, commercial establishments and even schools and colleges functioning as usual.

In some cities, primary schools were closed for the day as a precautionary measure while the North Gujarat University located at Patan, near Mehsana, postponed the days examinations apprehending disturbances.

While the curfew imposed on Mehsana town following outbreak of violence yesterday was lifted this morning, Section 144 imposed in many cities and towns remained in force and the mobile internet services in Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Mehsana and several other cities continued to remain suspended at least till midnight.

Even in Patel-dominated Amreli, Junagadh and parts of Ahmedabad and other cities shops and business establishments remained closed in the morning but most of the shops opened by afternoon as the situation remained normal. The Mehsana police have filed FIR against Sardar Patel Group (SPG) president Lalji Patel and 50 others for yesterdays violence in Mehsana and the district collector claimed that the head injury sustained by Lalji was not caused by the police lathicharge but due to stone-pelting by his own supporters who were targeting the police but hit their own leader. The bandh call was given by the SPG and was supported by the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, which was spearheading the reservation agitation.

Despite the bandh call, the state cabinet sub-committee headed by Health Minister Nitin Patel went ahead with the scheduled meeting with Patel community leaders in Gandhinagar for a negotiated settlement of the reservation dispute. After the meeting that lasted for over three hours, the minister claimed that it had covered a lot of grounds and a settlement was on the cards. The PAAS leaders, however, disputed the ministers claims.
Beijing, April 18

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday kicked off his first visit here by holding talks with Chinese counterpart Gen Chang Wanquan, stating that India attaches highest priority to its relationship with China and is committed to further develop the ties.

India attaches highest priority to relations with China and committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China, Parrikar told Chang in his opening remarks before the two delegations started the talks.

Parrikar was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the headquarters of the Chinese military here by a contingent of PLA soldiers.

Welcoming Parrikar, Chang said, Hope your visit improve strategic mutual trust between the two armed forces.

After his meeting with Chang, Parrikar will hold talks with Gen Fan Changlong, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, (CMC).

In Chinese military hierarchy Gen Fan is ranked higher, as CMC is overall head of the 2.3-million-strong Peoples Liberation Army (PLA).

He is also due to call on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visit Chinas recently-integrated western command military headquarters in Chengdu which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.

During Parrikars talks today with top Chinese military officials, recurring incidents of incursions, implementation of an agreement to reduce tensions between border patrols and Sino-India strategic concerns are expected to figure.

While Indian officials said the talks were expected to review the whole gamut of bilateral ties, Indias concerns over aggressive patrolling by Chinese troops especially in the Ladakh sector remains high.

China denies any incursions, asserting its troops patrol areas within its territory along the 3,488-km disputed border.

The two militaries also have strategic concerns over each others military tie-ups with other countries.

Ahead of Parrikars visit, China hinted that it may take up the recent decision by India to open up military bases to the US for logistics and efforts to conclude a pact to share aircraft sharing technologies.  PTI
New Delhi: India's Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, which was several years in the making, has caught the attention of Sri Lanka and Egypt. Sri Lanka had recently rejected Pakistan's JF-17 built with Chinese help, while Egypt had last year signed a contract for 24 French-made Rafale fighter jets. The two countries are interested in the current version of the Tejas and not the upgraded one, which will be rolled out later. However, state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the manufacturer of Tejas, is focusing on delivering the aircraft to the IAF first. PTI

Under fire for 'selfie' act, Pankaja hits back

Mumbai: Maharashtra Minister Pankaja Munde, who came under attack from the ruling ally Shiv Sena as well as the Opposition for clicking selfies while on a visit to drought-hit Marathwada, has defended herself, saying she took pictures out of elation on seeing water in a trench in the dried-up river. The Rural Development Minister attracted criticism from across the political spectrum for clicking selfies at a village in Latur, where she had gone to review the desilting work in Manjara river, which has nearly dried up. PTI

Indian struck by train, dies in London

London: A 33-year-old Indian, who was pursuing an MBA, died after being struck by a train at a London Underground station, authorities said on Monday. Mir Baquer Ali Rizvi, from Hyderabad's Miralam Mandi area, was pronounced dead at Osterley station last Tuesday. British Transport Police (BTP), which led the investigation, said it is not treating the death as suspicious. Rizvi was reportedly based in the UK for over six years. PTI

Fossil fuels could be phased out in decade

London: The worldwide reliance on burning fossil fuels to create energy could be phased out in a decade, according to a major energy think tank. Prof Benjamin Sovacool, Director of the Sussex Energy Group, believes that the next great energy revolution could take place in a fraction of the time of major changes in the past. Moving from wood to coal in Europe took between 96 and 160 years, whereas electricity took 47 to 69 years to enter into mainstream use. But this time the future could be different, he said: the scarcity of resources, the threat of climate change and vastly improved technological learning and innovation could greatly accelerate a global shift to a cleaner energy future. PTI
Berlin, April 18

A special commission has been set up to probe the bomb blast at a Germany gurdwara as the authorities in the western city of Essen assured India that all steps would be taken to ensure security of all minorities, including the Sikhs.

Indian Consul General in Frankfurt Raveesh Kumar, who rushed to the Nanaksar Satsang Darbar Gurdwara following the attack, was apprised of the current level of investigation and the situation during meetings with Essens Mayor Thomas Kufen and Police Commissioner Frank Richter yesterday.

We (police department) have set up a commission of inquiry and are thoroughly probing. The security at religious institutions will be beefed up, Richter told Kumar, who visited the Sikh community to show solidarity besides holding talks with the authorities.

The explosion ripped through the entrance hall of the gurdwara on Saturday evening during a wedding ceremony and severely damaged part of the building housing the gurdwara besides shattering several windowpanes and injuring three persons, including the Sikh priest or granthi.

India had expressed distress at what is being deemed as a deliberate act.

The police in Essen said in a statement that they were focusing their investigation on the possibility that the explosive device was planted inside the foyer of the gurdwara or lobbed into it from outside. They are searching for a masked man dressed in black, who was seen by eyewitnesses fleeing the area soon after the detonation.

The police said so far they had no indication that the attack on the gurdwara was racially motivated or whether it has any terrorist background.

Three occupants of a car parked near the gurdwara, who were taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the explosion, were set free after questioning on Saturday night.

The mayor assured Kumar that the city administration, the police and the state prosecutors office would take all necessary measures to ensure that the Sikh community could feel secure, the city of Essen and the police commissioners office said in a joint statement.

Religious freedom is guaranteed in the German society and any form of violence against religious minorities will be totally unacceptable, Kufen said.

Richter said the police so far had no indications of a terrorist background, but we are investigating in all directions and thereby we are working closely with the Indian authorities.

Kumar and Kufen jointly visited the Sikh community after their discussions and the mayor conveyed his solidarity and the citys support to protect them, the statement said.

Ambassador of India to Germany Gurjit Singh tweeted: The mayor and the police chief of Essen promise full investigation into the incident.

The Ambassador also said granthi Kuldeep Singh, who suffered deep cuts after the pane of glass fell on him due to the impact, was recovering.

The other two men who suffered minor injuries have been discharged from the Essen hospital.  PTI

Harsimrat to call on PM

Bathinda: Expressing anguish over the bomb attack on a German gurdwara, Union Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Monday said she would soon raise the issue of security of gurdwaras with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj. Talking to mediapersons here after a sangat darshan programme, Harsimrat said the Essen incident was unfortunate and condemnable. TNS

DSGMC demands thorough probe

New Delhi: Demanding a thorough investigation into the bomb blast case, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Manjit Singh GK on Monday wrote a letter to Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel over the attack on Gurdwara Nanaksar. I want to assure you and the people living in Germany, Sikhs always aspire and strive for welfare and prosperity of the nation wherever they are living. We request your office to direct the appropriate authority to conduct a foolproof investigation and take justified action at the earliest in order to restore the confidence and safety of Sikhs living in Germany, Manjit Singh said in the letter. TNS
New Delhi, April 18

The mortal remains of Kirpal Singh, the Indian prisoner who died under mysterious circumstances in Lahores Kot Lakhpat jail, will be handed over to India tomorrow, sources said.

Kirpals family members had on Friday met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to express concern over the treatment meted out to Indians languishing in Pakistani jails.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had on Wednesday assured Kirpals kin that India would get his body back home.

Kirpals family had earlier rejected Pakistans claim that he died of a heart attack, while demanding a post-mortem examination to ascertain the cause of his death.

Kirpal had allegedly crossed the Attari-Wagah border to enter Pakistan in 1992 and was subsequently sentenced to death in a serial bomb blasts case in Pakistans Punjab province.  ANI

Dalbir got Sarabjit killed, alleges sister

Jalandhar: Ludhiana-based Baljinder Kaur, who claims to be the sister of deceased Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, here on Monday accused the latters sister, Dalbir Kaur, of having links with Pakistani extremists. Addressing a press conference, Baljinder said the extremists had got Sarabjit killed inside Kot Lakhpat jail at Dalbir's behest. She also accused Dalbir of getting Kirpal Singh murdered as he would have exposed her nexus with the extremists soon after his expected release from the Pakistani jail. Kirpal had reportedly been acquitted of bomb blast charges by the Lahore High Court, claimed Baljinder. BJP leader and lawyer MP Goraya alleged that Dalbir's husband Gurdev Singh was presently lodged in Haridwar jail and he had proof of her true identity. When contacted, Dalbir refused to comment on the charges levelled by Baljinder and Goraya and said she would expose them at the right time.  TNS
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 17

The Congress today moved a step closer towards consolidation of anti-incumbency space in Punjab with the ruling Shiromani Akali Dals breakaway faction SAD (Longowal) merging with it unconditionally.

The merger, finalised on April 14 after SAD (Longowal) chief Surjit Kaur Barnala met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi, was formally announced today in the presence of AICC general secretary (Punjab) Shakeel Ahmad, Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh and Congress Campaign Committee chief for the state Ambika Soni.

Also present were SAD (Longowal) general secretary Gaganjit Barnala, his son Simar Partap and around 100 supporters of former Governor and Punjab Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala, whose political legacy his wife has inherited. We took a conscientious decision of a merger with the Congress to see that Punjab lands in Amarinders safe hands, Surjit Kaur said today.

Amarinder said, Surjit Singh Barnala has contributed immensely to the state. We welcome this merger. This will give us greater strength in our fight against the Akalis.

The party will now work to engage the Left for a possible understanding ahead of the 2017 polls. We have not closed the channels of communication with the Left. I had earlier met CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who was very keen to work with us. But his state unit appears to have reservations, Amarinder said days after Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said her party would go it alone in Punjab.

Amarinder, who wanted an alliance with the BSP, today attacked Mayawati. She has always assisted the Akalis. Her candidates never win; they always spoil the anti-Akali vote under a deal, he alleged.

The Congress calculations behind the unity of anti-Akali forces in Punjab is clear  Sanjha Morcha had not won any seat in the 2012 Assembly elections but had pocketed 5.4 per cent of the votes (the Congress lost by just 0.8 per cent votes).

Asked how the Congress planned to counter Arvind Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab, Amarinder said AAP was no force and would at best harm the anti-incumbency vote. We will run an expose AAP campaign to reveal the many faces of the Delhi CM, who was caught lying on the SYL issue. AAPs Lok Sabha upsurge (in Punjab) is history. Kejriwal is using Delhi taxpayers money to market himself in the state. Where will he spend Punjab money  in Tamil Nadu? asked Captain.
Beijing, April 18

A Chinese military aircraft has for the first time publicly landed at a new airport on an island China has built in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Monday, raising the prospect that China could base fighter jets there.

The US has criticised Chinas construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea and worries that it plans to use them for military purposes, even though China says it has no hostile intent.

The runway on the Fiery Cross Reef is 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) long and is one of three China has been building for more than a year by dredging sand up onto reefs and atolls in the Spratly archipelago.

Civilian flights began test runs there in January.

In a front-page story, the official Peoples Liberation Army Daily said a military aircraft on patrol over the South China Sea on Sunday received an emergency call to land at Fiery Cross Reef to evacuate three seriously ill workers.

They were then taken in the transport aircraft back to Hainan island for treatment, it said, showing a picture of the aircraft on the ground in Hainan.

It was the first time Chinas military had publicly admitted landing an aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef, the influential Global Times tabloid said.

It cited an military expert as saying the flight showed the airfield was up to military standards and could see fighter jets based there in the event of war.

The runways would be long enough to handle long-range bombers and transport aircraft as well as Chinas best jet fighters, giving it a presence deep in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia that it has lacked until now.

More than $5 trillion of world trade is shipped through the South China Sea every year. Besides Chinas territorial claims in the area, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.  Reuters
Berlin, April 18

A special commission has been set up by Germanys western city of Essen for a thorough probe into the gurdwara explosion in which three persons were injured, even as Indias Consul General in Frankfurt visited the Sikh community and held talks with authorities.

Raveesh Kumar was apprised of the current level of investigation and the situation following the attack on the Nanaksar Satsang Darbar gurdwara during meetings with the Mayor of Essen Thomas Kufen and Police Commissioner Frank Richter yesterday.

The Mayor assured Kumar that the city administration, the police and the state prosecutors office would take all necessary measures to ensure that the Sikh community can feel secure, the city of Essen and the Police Commissioners office said in a joint statement.

Religious freedom is guaranteed in the German society and any form of violence against religious minorities will be totally unacceptable, Kufen said.

Richter told Kumar that the police department has set up a special commission to thoroughly investigate the explosion, which occurred in the entrance hall of the gurdwara.

Richter said the police so far have no indications of a terrorist background, but we are investigating in all directions and thereby we are working closely with the Indian authorities.

A 60-year-old suffered serious injuries and had to be hospitalized, while two 47- and 56-year-old men had minor injuries. The injured included the granthi (priest) on whom the whole pane of glass had fallen due to the impact.

Yesterday, India expressed distress at what is being deemed as a deliberate act.

Eyewitnesses have spoken of a kind of bomb that exploded at the gurdwara on Saturday evening. About 200 persons, including many children, were present at the wedding that began very late and was ongoing when the explosion occurred.

The explosion was so violent that windowpanes of adjacent buildings were broken. The building was heavily damaged.

Kumar and Kufen jointly visited the Sikh community after their discussions and the mayor conveyed his solidarity and the citys support to protect them, the statement said.

The police were searching for a masked man dressed in black, who was seen by eyewitnesses fleeing the area soon after the detonation. Three occupants of a car parked near the gurdwara, who were taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the explosion, were set free after questioning on Saturday night.

Gurdwara Nanaskar and the residence of the Sikh communitys president have been put under police protection.

It is one of the main places of worship for the Sikh community in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia.  PTI
Tehran, April 17

Iran used its annual Army Day parade today to showcase parts of a long-awaited air defence system ordered from Russia, a move likely to irk critics of the arms deal.

The S-300 system has been on order since 2007 but Russia postponed the sale three years later after the UN Security Council passed a resolution relating to Irans nuclear programme.

A deal between Iran and six world powers over its nuclear activities which lifted sanctions in January removed the barriers to delivery but the fully operational system is still awaited.

According to pictures published by the semi-official ISNA news agency, S-300 missile tubes and the radar equipment were shown during the military parade held in southern Tehran. Iran insists the system is necessary to defend itself from threats of attack, including possible bombing of its nuclear facilities, and the S-300 would allow early detection of approaching aircraft.

Israel and the US have hit out at the sale, which is seen as a means for Russia to maintain influence in the Middle East. Iran and Russia are also in talks on a sale of the Sukhoi SU-30 fighter, another proposal criticised by the US.  AFP
Washington, April 17

A US Air Force reconnaissance plane was barrel-rolled by a Russian SU-27 fighter jet in an unsafe and unprofessional manner during a routine flight in international airspace, American officials said today, exacerbating tensions between the rival powers.

The incident on Thursday occurred when a Russian jet performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers as it flew within 50 feet of the US aircrafts wing tip over the Baltic Sea, a spokesman for European Command said.

He said the US plane never entered Russian territory.

This encounter comes just days after the US Embassy in Moscow issued formal concerns over Russian fighter jets flying very close to the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea this week. Close encounters between Russian military aircraft and US warships have become increasing common in recent months.  PTI
Source: EIA

The price of diesel fuel rose last week for the second straight week, but uncertainty in the crude oil market could curb the increases, according to the latest numbers from the Energy Department.

The average price of on-highway diesel fuel jumped by 3.7 cents, increasing to $2.165 per gallon. The price of a gallon is still more than 61 cents cheaper than it was 12 months ago.

Prices vary around the country and the largest regional increase was in Gulf Coast. The average price of a gallon of diesel increased by 5.4 cents. The smallest increase by region was in the Central Atlantic at 2.4 cents.

The price of regular gasoline fuel increased once again last week, jumping 6.8 cents to a price of $2.137 per gallon. The price is still nearly 35 cents cheaper than it was for the same week a year ago.

Price were up significantly in most areas of the U.S., with the Midwest seeing a 9.2 cent increase in prices. The smallest increase in prices was a 2.8-cent jump on the West Coast.

Crude oil prices saw a decline on April 18, as a meeting of oil producing countries over the weekend, failed to produce an agreement to freeze oil production, according to a MarketWatch report.

OPEC members met in Doha, Qatar to discuss crude oil production, which has been much higher than global demand for the past year. That has caused prices to drop dramatically. Market analysts were hoping that the countries would agree to freeze production at current levels to help stabilize the crude oil market, but no agreement was reached.

Without an agreement, prices were expected to drop dramatically again. But a worker strike in Kuwait that reduced that countrys oil production by 50% managed to offset a huge decline.
Councilor and mayoral challenger G.T. Bynum said he asked Mayor Dewey Bartlett on Monday to participate in at least one town-hall forum each week until the June 28 primary election.

Bynum said his request is in response to claims and accusations that fired up from all sides during the first official week of campaigning.

When asked about Bynums proposal at a midtown neighborhood association meeting Monday night, Bartlett said he was unaware of it and had no comment at the time.

Last week was the campaigns first debate, which was followed by social media battles after Bartlett accused Bynum in a Facebook post of negative campaigning.

That post was the subject of a social-media backlash by Councilor Blake Ewing, and then another Bartlett post got pushback on Saturday from police union President Clay Ballenger.

What Ive seen in the last week is name-calling, picking fights on Facebook, debates about who deserves all the credit for Vision Tulsa, Bynum said. None of that educates kids better. None of that improves our relationship with Tulsa County. None of that makes Tulsa nationally competitive.

Bynum said he hopes the campaign can mirror recent public initiatives such as Improve Our Tulsa and Vision Tulsa, each of which led to dozens of public forums.

I think that last week has revealed a campaign that is beneath what Tulsans ought to expect in a campaign of this importance, Bynum said. I dont think Tulsans deserve a mayoral campaign like that. They deserve one that can have interaction with candidates.

Bynum said he doesnt have any preferences on a format, whether they be debates or just question-and-answer forums.

His chief purpose, he said, is to have more opportunities for Tulsans to interact with the candidates.

If a Rotary Club wants to do it differently than a neighborhood association, thats fine, Bynum said. The point is to make the candidates accessible  in a way other than trying to communicate through a political campaign apparatus.
It sounds like an oxymoron, docile swarms, but it is an accurate description of honeybees on the move.

Beekeepers on social media have been posting photos of their swarms early this year and some have wondered if bees are on the increase.

A local expert said the bees did indeed start dispersing earlier than is typical this year but the increased buzz more likely is a reflection of markedly increased numbers of beekeepers who are involved in social media  which happens to be a boon for the bees.

Greg Hannaford of Tulsa Urban Bee Company and Hannaford Honey made a career out of the hobby he began about 25 years ago and said that while honeybee numbers continue to suffer across the country due to colony collapse disorder, the number of beekeepers  especially urban beekeepers  is growing and that the time of swarming is a great public education opportunity.

Bees in the Tulsa area typically swarm mid-April to early June, he said. This year they got going in early April, possibly in late March, probably because of the weather, he said.

The annual highly visible phenomenon is a great educational opportunity, he said.

A lot of times people see a swarm and theyre scared, he said. There is absolutely no reason to be scared of them. They are very docile at this stage.

Rather than frightening, Hannaford and other beekeepers see it as fascinating. Its incredibly fun, Hannaford said.

Bees are most likely to sting when they are protecting their hive, but a swarm is the natural reproductive process of bees in search of a new home so they have nothing to protect, he said.

With a new queen in place in the hive, the old one leaves with a swarm of most of the workers in search of a new home. The queen and her workers will settle someplace, usually on a tree branch, but it can be just about anywhere, while a few dozen scouts fly off in search of a new home.

The swarm may hang out on a branch for as little as 20 minutes or up to several weeks, he said.

This is the stage when a beekeeper can pick up the swarm and introduce the entire mass to a perfect new home.

Ive picked up hundreds of them wearing just a T-shirt and a veil over my face and shook them off in a cardboard box, Hannaford said. More than anything, the veil is just to keep them off my face because theyre an annoyance and it makes it hard to focus on what youre doing.

Police have contacted Hannaford after 9-1-1 calls about swarms. He said he enjoys the resulting educational opportunity.

People are afraid, but then they see me show up in a T-shirt putting them in a cardboard box and 10 or 15 people from the neighborhood will come around to watch. Its a great time to talk to people about bees and talk about how important they are as pollinators.

Most beekeepers wear protective gear and Hannaford said when he teaches beekeeping classes his instruction to amateurs is to wear whatever level of protection you are comfortable with.

Two of his former students, David and Becky John of Skiatook, wear their protective gear when gathering swarms, but they take extra steps to fully enjoy the swarm-gathering experience as well.

Weve already had nine swarms in the past 13 days, David John said Thursday. Theyre going gangbusters right now but with the rain and cooler weather coming it might slow down some.

The Johns take the extra step of laying out white sheets when they collect their swarms so they can better watch the swarm process.

We place a new hive, which has some honey in it and some frames for them to work on, so the wind is blowing past the hive as we shake the bees down right in front of the entrance, he said. Within seconds the queen finds that dark entrance to the hive and they will all follow her in like a river of bees. Its amazing to watch.

Beekeepers want to be contacted about swarms, especially beekeepers just starting out, Hannaford said. It saves the cost of buying bees to start a hive.

Theres the financial aspect but mostly its the excitement and fun of it, he said.

The Northeast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association has a contact list of swarm collectors listed by ZIP code on its web site at neoba.org, but posting that you have a swarm on just about any social media probably will draw a quick response these days, he said.

It is best to call a beekeeper, he said.

We will give them a good, safe home, he said. If you just leave them alone thats when they find a shed or abandoned home and move in and make trouble.

Twenty years ago beekeepers were a rarity, but beekeeping  particularly in urban settings  has exploded, he said. Twenty years ago Hannaford offered beekeeping classes in Tulsa and struggled to find 20 to 25 students for a class held once a year.

The last time we did classes we did five in a year and we had 50 people per class and were turning people away, he said.

Post that you have a swarm in your yard on social media and you likely will get a quick response nowadays, he said.

You may know a beekeeper and not even realize it, he said. Post that you have a swarm on your Facebook page and it will get shared and I bet someone will contact you within an hour.
A 23-year-old man was fatally injured when he was struck by a vehicle as he walked along a highway in north Tulsa early Monday.

Police are looking for the driver.

Dylan Kane Nicholson was lying on Oklahoma 11 near Memorial Drive when police arrived about 3 a.m. A motorist had stopped to administer first aid to him, police said.

An ambulance took Nicholson to St. John Medical Center, where he died, police said.

Officers think Nicholson was walking along the highway when he was struck by a vehicle. The driver might have briefly stopped but then fled, police said.

The southbound lanes of Oklahoma 11 near Memorial Drive were closed for several hours as officers worked at the scene.

Anyone with information about the crash may contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 918-596-COPS (2677), online at p3tips.com/918 or through the Tulsa Tips app, which can be downloaded from the Google Play or iTunes stores.
Next Monday networks will feature Anzac Day Dawn Services, marches, services in Gallipoli and Villers-Bretonneux services and afternoon sport.

Please check local guides.

ABC

From 4.28am on ABC (local time) and 4.28am AEST on ABC News 24, join ABC News Breakfast hosts Virginia Trioli and Michael Rowland and ABC reporters at dawn services across Australia as the nation wakes up to the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings.

The early morning live simulcast of the Anzac Day events includes the Anzac Dawn service in Sydney, followed by the National Dawn Service from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

On ABC, Anzac Day marches in each capital city will be broadcast in every state and territory, while on ABC News 24 viewers can watch the Anzac Day National Ceremony from the Australian War Memorial.

Following the local marches, the TV simulcast will continue with coverage of the dawn service from Anzac Cove in Gallipoli at 12.30pm on ABC (local)* and 12.30pm AEST on ABC News 24, and the dawn service from Villers-Bretonneux from 1.30pm on ABC (local)** and 1.30pm AEST on ABC News 24.

*Except 12pm in WA

**Except 1pm in WA

On ABC, the local Anzac Day marches are at:

NSW 9.00am  12.30pm

ACT 10.30am  12.30pm (National Ceremony)

VIC 9.00am  12.30pm

TAS 10.57am  12.30pm

QLD 9.30am  12.30pm

SA 9.00am  12.30pm

NT 10.45am  12.30pm

WA 9.00am  12.00pm

ABC and ABC News 24 coverage highlights (ABC, local time / ABC News 24, AEST):

4.28am  5.30am ABC News Breakfast, includes Anzac Dawn Service from Sydney

5.30am  6.00am Anzac Day National Dawn Service from Canberra

6.00am  9.00am ABC News Breakfast continues with coverage of Dawn Services and Anzac events around the country

10.50am  12.00pm News 24 will broadcast the Australian War Memorial National Ceremony

12.00pm  12.30pm Anzac Day half hour news special program (News 24 only)

12.30pm  1.30pm Anzac Day Gallipoli Dawn Service, Turkey*

1.30pm  3.00pm Anzac Day Villers-Bretonneux Dawn Service, France**

3pm Anzac Day Service Melbourne

3:30pm Why Anzac with Sam Neill

5.00pm Australias Great War Horse

6:55pm Governor-Generals Anzac Day Address

*Except 12.00pm  1.00pm in WA

**Except 1pm  2.30pm in WA

Seven

AEST:

4:50am Seven News Special: Currumbin Dawn Service, Qld.

6:15am Sunrise

10am The Morning Show

11:30am Seven Morning News

12pm Movie: Northanger Abbey

2pm AFL pre game (Mel) / (7mate: Syd / Bris)

3pm AFL Collingwood v Essendon (Mel) / (7mate: Syd / Bris)

Nine

Nines Anzac Day coverage will commence with a special broadcast of Today from 5.30am on Monday, April 25.

Host Karl Stefanovic will be joined by Sylvia Jeffreys live from the RSL Anzac Village at Narrabeen on Sydneys northern beaches, with regular crosses to Christine Ahern who will be covering the dawn service from Melbournes Shrine of Remembrance

The broadcast will also feature full coverage of the dawn service from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

At 12.30pm, Peter Overton will present ANZAC Day: A Nine News Special featuring live coverage of the dawn services in Gallipoli, Turkey and Villers-Brettoneux in France.

Nine News reporter Seb Costello will be on the ground at Gallipoli, while Amelia Ballinger will be live from Villers-Brettoneux and Ben Hennessy will report from London.

A comprehensive wrap of all Anzac Day commemorations will also be presented in Nine News bulletins at 11.30am, 2.30pm, 4.00pm and 6.00pm.

This year we will pause to remember three of Australias greatest heroic moments in war:

The 100th anniversary of the nations most deadly battle at Pozieres on the Western Front in the First World War.

The Siege of Tobruk in World War II, where our diggers were branded the rats  not an insult, but a compliment because they were admired for their incredible ability to survive.

The Battle of Long Tan, where 108 Australian troops were caught under fire by an overwhelming enemy force of 2,500 during the Vietnam War.

AEST:

4:30am Nine News: ANZAC Dawn Service live from the Cenotaph, Martin Place, Sydney.

5:30am Today

9am Today Extra

11:30am Nine Morning News

12:30pm Nine News: Gallipoli Dawn Service

1:40pm Nine News: Villers Bretonneux Dawn Service

2:35pm Nine News Now

3:30pm Anzac Day NRL: St George Illawarra Dragons v Sydney Roosters (Syd / Bris) (GEM: Mel / Ade / Per)

SKY News

The Live coverage commences from 4:00am with the Auckland Dawn Service, followed by the Sydney Dawn Service at 4:30am then the Canberra Dawn Service at 5:30am from the Australian War Memorial.

Throughout the morning join SKY News anchors Kieran Gilbert and Brooke Corte as they present First Edition. The program will feature Live crosses throughout the morning to SKY News reporters around Australia as they cover local ANZAC Day marches.

From 10:30am Live coverage continues with the National ANZAC Day Ceremony in Canberra, including the official march, commemorative address and wreath laying ceremony.

At 12:30pm we take you to ANZAC Cove for the Gallipoli Dawn Service, followed by the Villers-Bretonneux Dawn Service in France at 1:30pm.

Throughout the day SKY News anchors Helen Dalley and Peter van Onselen will present Live coverage from ANZAC ceremonies across the country as they continue to cross to SKY News national reporters.

At 3:30pm a SKY News special report: The Secret War of the Z Men: the untold story of WWII heroes.

From 4:00pm, an ANZAC Day edition of PM Agenda with Political Editor David Speers Live from Canberra, followed by The Latest with Laura Jayes at 6:00pm.

At 7:00pm the highly anticipated premiere of The Bolt Report with Australias leading political columnist and commentator Andrew Bolt, followed by Viewpoint with Chris Kenny at 8:00pm and then Paul Murray Live at 9:00pm.

Australias Public Affairs Channel (A-PAC, Ch 648) will feature encore presentations of ANZAC Day ceremonies throughout the day.

SKY News will also feature extensive ANZAC Day coverage online from Gallipoli and around the nation at www.skynews.com.au/anzacday2016.

For Australians and New Zealanders overseas, complete coverage of ANZAC Day can be seen on the Australia Channel www.australiachannel.com.au

3am Auckland Dawn

4:30am Sydney Dawn

5:30am Canberra Dawn

6am First Edition

10am News Now

10:30am National Service

12pm PVO NewsDay

12:30pm Gallipoli Dawn

1:30pm Villers-Bretonneux Dawn

NITV

AEST

5:30pm Anzacs: Remembering Our Heroes (also 6pm, 6:15pm, 7pm, 11:30pm, 11:45pm)

History

7:30am Charles Beans Great War

8:30am Tony Robinsons Tour of Duty

10:30am The Anzac Spirit

11am Beyond Kokoda

1pm The Memorial: Beyond the Anzac Legend

2pm The Battle of Long Tan

4pm Combat Trains. The Death Railway

5pm Tony Robinsons Tour of Duty

6pm Anzac Battlefields: The Western Front

6:30pm Gallipoli: Last Anzacs Tell All

7:30pm Australia: The Story of Us

8:30pm The Crater

9:30pm Changed Forever: The Making of Australia
Streaming newcomer hayu, which offers US Reality TV, has been suffering some technical problems since its arrival last month.

The NBCU-owned service features such titles as Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the Real Housewives franchise and I Am Cait for $5.99 a month.

On their Facebook page subscribers have complained about slow speeds and various bugs.

Weve been delighted with the very positive reception to hayu by fans in Australia, where there is clearly a strong appetite for the very best in reality programming. However, we are aware of some technical issues with the service for a small minority of users on a limited number of devices, a spokesman told the Australian Financial Review.

After less than a month since its debut, the hayu team are working quickly to bring a number of improvements to the service in the coming days and weeks, to make the hayu experience equally positive for all reality fans. We are confident that these improvements will address any current issues.

hayu is hoping to issue software fixes by today.
8:51 a.m., April 18, 2016--Adam Rome, an environmental historian at the University of Delaware, wrote the book on Earth Day.

His The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach-In Unexpectedly Made the First Green Generation, published in 2013, tells the story of what he calls the most famous little-known event in modern American history.

Everyone has heard of Earth Day, celebrated annually since 1970 on April 22, but many people today are unfamiliar with its origins and impact.

Rome, the Unidel Helen Gouldner Chair for the Environment at UD, has a joint appointment in the departments of History and English and is co-director of the environmental humanities initiative in the College of Arts and Sciences. Here, he shares some thoughts and historical perspective as the 46th Earth Day celebration approaches.

Q. Why was the first Earth Day transformative?

Rome: In 1970, Earth Day drew more participants by far than the biggest civil-rights or antiwar demonstrations of the 1960s. It was celebrated almost everywhere, in roughly 10,000 public schools, 1,500 universities and hundreds of communities. The turnout was huge, and it got incredible coverage in the media.

The huge crowds made clear that the nation needed to get serious about addressing environmental problems. But the first Earth Day wasnt just a symbol  it empowered a generation of activists.

People who cared about the environment spoke at Earth Day events all over the country, and for many it was the first time that they had a large audience listening to their concerns and ideas. It gave them a platform.

The vision for Earth Day came from Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a Wisconsin Democrat, but he left the organizing up to local groups. That was ingenious because it allowed people to take ownership of the event in their own communities. Many of those local organizers worked for months on the event, and many were inspired to devote their lives to the environmental cause. That was huge!

Q. How has the annual event changed over the years?

Rome: You cant really get a sense of what the first Earth Day was like by experiencing how its celebrated today. Its still marked as an important event in many places, but a lot of events now are more like trade shows, displaying products and resources focused on environmental issues. Some have corporate sponsors.

The first Earth Day was much more political than it is now, not in terms of partisan politics but because the events were so action-oriented. And action was certainly needed then  the air was polluted, the water was polluted, and there was no Environmental Protection Agency.

The only time since 1970 that Earth Day was really celebrated nationally, even internationally, was on the 20th anniversary in 1990. It was a big event that year, but it didnt have the transformative power of the first one. On the other hand, many places today mark Earth Week or Earth Month in April, and theres a great deal of focus on environmental sustainability year-round. Earth Day itself still gets media coverage every year, and people do pay attention.

Q. Has Earth Day outlived its original purpose?

Rome: I think its unreasonable to expect that Earth Day events now and in the future will have the same impact as the first one. In 1970, there were tens of thousands of people in Philadelphias Fairmount Park, spending all day listening to speakers and discussing issues. Hardly anyone does huge events like that anymore.

Even Gaylord Nelson knew that the first Earth Day couldnt be repeated. He initially saw Earth Day as a one-off, and then, when it was so enormously successful, he called for people to set aside a time every year to assess our progress: How much have we done? And what do we still need to do to protect our environment?

And look at how things have changed. At the University of Delaware this year, two of the Earth Month events are panel discussions for students to learn about green jobs and career opportunities in the environmental field. In 1970, those kinds of professions just didnt exist. If you wanted to be an environmental lawyer or an environmental journalist, you had to make your own path.

Q. How should we think about Earth Day this year and in the future?

Rome: As I researched the first Earth Day, one of the most surprising things was realizing how important it was for people to just take the time to think and talk about these issues, to ask the hard questions. A lot of the discussions really were soul-searching.

That kind of discussion isnt much a part of Earth Day today. But it could be. Weve made progress in many ways, but we still face great challenges, and taking the time to talk about them together, in a formal setting, would be very powerful.

Article by Ann Manser

Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson
11:57 a.m., April 15, 2016--A panel discussion at the University of Delaware focusing on solitary confinement will feature an international expert, a former inmate who survived solitary confinement and a recent UD graduate who has conducted research on Delawares prisons.

The program, which is free and open to the public, will be from 5-6:30 p.m., Monday, April 18, in Room 005 Kirkbride Hall on the Universitys Newark campus. It is sponsored by the UD Legal Studies program in conjunction with the department of Sociology and Criminal Justice and of Women and Gender Studies.

A Facebook event created by Chrysanthi Leon, associate professor of sociology and criminal justice, summarizes the program: Changing views, empirical evidence and litigation in Delaware may change how we use solitary confinement in our correctional institutions. Come find out whats happening.

Panelists include Evie Litwok, a formerly imprisoned elderly woman who wrote several articles on incarceration related to feminists, LGBT women and criminal-justice reform for the elderly.

Litwok is the author of If Hitler Didnt Kill Me, You Will and the director of Witness to Mass Incarceration, a project dedicated to research on the history of mass incarceration in American history. She formerly testified before the New York City Board of Corrections in June 2015 on the experience of incarceration at the Alderson Federal Prison Camp.

Also speaking at the event is Keramet Reiter, professor at the University of California, Irvine, and an international expert on the use of solitary confinement, who focuses her research on prisons, prisoners rights and the impact of prison and punishment policy on the community and legal system.

Reiter, who has provided testimony to Congress based on her in-depth research and data, is the author of two books on solitary confinement and extreme punishment and will present her understandings on the history and impact of criminal justice policies, medical experimentation and long-term solitary confinement in the United States.

The third participant in the panel will be Abby Samuels, a 2014 UD graduate in women and gender studies and in political science, who will present her research on the use of solitary confinement in Delaware state prisons.

Samuels, who was the recipient of the 2014 Nellie Thompson Rudd Award for scholarship, leadership and service in womens studies, now works with Delawares Community Legal Aid Society. She conducts site visits and interviews in the state prisons to help with pending lawsuit regarding the use of solitary confinement.

Article by Christopher Razzano
Perry and O'Callaghan were certified by the IRS as part of the Tax Prep Assistance course.

NGCDC site manager Sonya Barkley said that both she and her clients love working with UD students.

A client of the Nehemiah Gateway Community Development Corporation (NGCDC) works on his taxes with Perry.

Perry and O'Callaghan have prepared taxes for dozens of Delaware community members throughout the tax season.

UD accounting students Justin Perry (left) and Brendan OCallaghan provide free tax services to Delawareans through UD's Tax Prep Assistance course.

1:25 p.m., April 18, 2016--This Tax Day, University of Delaware students are using their accounting skills to provide free tax preparation for Delawareans throughout the state.

Today and throughout the tax season, UD students have prepared taxes for community members eligible for the Delaware Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Campaign under a program coordinated by the Nehemiah Gateway Community Development Corporation (NGCDC).

NGCDC site manager Sonya Barkley said that both she and her clients love working with UD students.

Clients love the idea that theyre able to get a free service, and their return is prepared accurately, Barkley said. I have clients that come back year after year after year.

This is truly a win-win situation, she continued, as the students gain valuable experience. They master complex software, build administrative skills during intake and strengthen communication skills when interacting with clients.

Theyre dealing with all kinds of questions; they have to know their tax law, Barkley said, explaining that each student must take an exam for certification from the IRS. She has seen many students utilize this tax training to secure jobs.

Its really a positive environment, and theyre able to learn a lot, Barkley said.

UD accounting students Brendan OCallaghan and Justin Perry, who have prepared taxes for dozens of Delawareans throughout the year, agreed that theyd learned a good deal from their volunteer work.

Every aspect of volunteering has been useful, said OCallaghan, especially the first-hand experience of working with clients.

Perry, a senior, said that earning his IRS certification will be a big help when taking the certified public accountant (CPA) exam.

This helps me get some experience under my belt, know what to do and be able to pass the exam, Perry said.

These skills will be useful for Perry after graduation as well, as he will prepare taxes as part of his work as a staff accountant for Berdon LLP, an accounting firm in New York City.

Does it feel good for Perry and OCallaghan to help Delawareans save thousands of dollars by filing their taxes properly?

Of course, Perry said. We do what we can.

Rita Kingery-Cook, instructor of accounting at UDs Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, said that UD students have offered this service to Delaware community members for more than 10 years.

Through UDs Tax Prep Assistance course, The students receive three hours of academic credit, but, more importantly, they learn so much. This is a Discovery Learning Experience for them, she said.

Kingery-Cook, who has been involved with the program since its launch a decade ago, added that one of the best things about the program is that it provides international students with hands-on experience working with a diverse group of American taxpayers.

At the programs onset, she continued, only accounting students participated, but the program is now open to all majors.

This has become an opportunity, not only for accounting students, but for finance, math and even political science majors, she said.

Article by Sunny Rosen

Photos by Wenbo Fan
Semi-finals (24 April & 1 May)

1 Lyon v Paris Saint-Germain

2 Wolfsburg v FFC Frankfurt (holders)

Final (18.00CET, 26 May, Stadio Citta del Tricolore, Reggio Emilia)

Winner Semi-final 2 v Winner Semi-final 1

Lyon v Paris

Lyon remain on course for a tenth straight league title, leading Paris by three points with three games to go. They boosted their hopes on 3 April with a 1-0 win at fourth-placed Juvisy courtesy of Pauline Bremer. On Sunday, Lyon defeated Rodez 9-0 with a hat-trick from UEFA Women's Champions League and Division 1 Feminin top scorer Ada Hegerberg to reach the French Cup final, a fifth consecutive double still on the cards.

OL's opponents in Grenoble on 15 May will be Montpellier, who beat Paris 4-3 on penalties in Sunday's other semi-final. Paris had come back from 2-0 down with goals from substitutes Marie-Laure Delie and Anja Mittag to force the shoot-out. In the league, second-placed Paris won 4-0 at St-Etienne with two Delie goals on 3 April to stay in touch with the leaders and leave themselves two points from joining Lyon in confirming their European place for next season.

Watch: Frankfurt beat Paris in 2015 final

Wolfsburg v Frankfurt

Frankfurt ended leaders Bayern Munchen's league-record 40-game unbeaten run, dating back to June 2014, with a 1-0 away win on Sunday thanks to a goal from Saskia Bartusiak. However, there was a blow for the European champions when Dzsenifer Marozsan limped off with a calf injury. Wolfsburg won 2-0 against Bayer Leverkusen with two Alex Popp goals just before half-time to move to within nine points of reigning champions Bayern and stay one ahead of Frankfurt with four matches left.

Both European opponents have Wednesday league games, Frankfurt hosting Freiburg and Wolfsburg visiting Essen. Wolfsburg, meanwhile, are already through to one final after beating Freiburg 2-1 thanks to Popp and Babett Peter in the German Cup last four a fortnight ago. In Cologne, on 21 May, Wolfsburg will play Sand, who came from behind for a 2-1 win against Bayern, who had not lost a competitive game since December 2014 but after Sunday now have two defeats in a row.
The United States does not provide Ukraine with lethal weapons not to provoke escalation of the Donbas conflict.

U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Samantha Power said this in an interview with the Voice of America.

"The White House believes that a military solution to the conflict would be a disaster for all... Double down and giving Ukraine more weapons, we get more pain for Ukrainians. A lot more people will suffer," she said.

According to her, Washington believes that economic and diplomatic pressure on the Kremlin together with the successful reforms in Ukraine will be a more effective way than the military one.

"We have provided a lot of non-lethal weapons, about three billion dollars in loans and other forms of financial assistance. We are investing in the reform of justice and anti-corruption programs. Time will show that such a policy and the isolation of Russia will bring the expected results," Power said.

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The U.S. experts will help Ukraine update the approaches to preparation and use of the Armed Forces and promote the development of new military manuals and doctrinal documents.

The Head of department for bilateral military cooperation of the General Staff Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel Hennadiy Kovalenko, posted this on General Staffs Facebook page.

"A group of ten American advisers-instructors will work in Ukraine starting from the beginning of May. They will help not only train our instructors and our servicemen, but also assist in the development of new regulations, new concepts, new doctrines and new approaches towards preparation and use of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the representative of the General Staff wrote.

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The Second National Export Support Forum will be held in Kyiv on April 27-28. Representatives of the government and business at the forum will jointly develop decisions to step up reforms in the economy and all the spheres connected with exports.

The head of the forums organizing committee, Vice Chairman of Ukraines Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Serhiy Svystil,announced at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The main idea of this years National Forum is the need for significant, comprehensive reform of the economy and all areas related with exports, because without such reforms the further rise of our production and improvement of economic performance is impossible, he said.

Another task of the forum, according to Svystil, is the discussion and creation of proposals to solve problems connected with technical and trade barriers that business can face when entering foreign markets.

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Europe should complete the ratification process of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement which will facilitate the development of business between the two sides.

Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland Andriy Deshchytsia said this during the international conference "Ukraine from Past to Future" in Warsaw, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"In global terms, the signing of the Association Agreement and Free Trade Area helps move towards the European market. However, we lack light at the tunnel of this path. We hope that the EU will switch the light on at the end of the tunnel and the agreement will be finally ratified," Deshchytsia said.

When asked about the possibility of lifting the EU visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens in the short term, the Ambassador stressed that it depended solely on the European Commission and that decision would be "political."

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The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraines Parliament, has called on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to do everything possible so that Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko can return to Ukraine as soon as possible, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy has said.

Today, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe begins its work in Strasbourg. The first issue will be about Nadiya Savchenko, a heroic Ukrainian woman, who was kidnapped by Russian terrorists during fighting in the town of Schastia. Nadiya Savchenko is our colleague, who has become a symbol of the statehood of Ukraine ... Her current state of health is critical, we understand that President Putin is responsible for this.

We understand that it is extremely complicated to hold negotiations with him, but we are calling on the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to do everything possible so that Nadiya Savchenko can return home as soon as possible and be with us, Parubiy said.

A reminder that the PACE Spring plenary session opens in Strasburg on April 18. Debates on Nadiya Savchenko

are planned to be considered on the first day of the session.

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The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has put off the debates on Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian pilot illegally sentenced to 22 years in prison in Russia.

The Chairperson of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE, MP Volodymyr Ariev, wrote this on Facebook.

PACE has postponed the debates on Savchenko until Thursday. A special part of the report on captives will be drawn up. The issue of the Kremlins other Ukrainian captives will be also considered, the MP wrote.

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UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is readying preparations for a major aid airlift, expected in the next 48 hours, to help people displaced by the disastrous earthquake in Ecuador. This follows a request for UN help received from the Ecuador Government.

Operational planning has been underway today in Copenhagen - UNHCR's global logistics hub - for a first plane bound for Quito carrying core relief items including some 900 tents, plastic sheets, 15,000 sleeping mats, kitchen sets and, in view of the Zika virus risk, 18,000 much-needed repellant-impregnated mosquito nets. From Quito these supplies will be moved onwards as quickly as feasible and in accordance with priorities being determined locally. The focus will be on the worst-affected areas in the country's west including areas around Manabi, Santo Domingo, Esmeraldas and Guayaquil.

The aim is to rapidly provide essential shelter and other aid material over the next days for some 40,000 people - refugees, asylum seekers and locals alike - in earthquake-affected communities.

In Ecuador, efforts have been ongoing since Sunday to assess the extent of the damage and determine the needs of people who have been affected. UNHCR has already dispatched emergency stocks from its in-country stockpile by truck to Carchi, Esmeraldas, Manta and Pedernales. These include scores of tents, and plastic sheeting for hundreds of people.

"It's a very distressing and urgent situation we are dealing with. As well as hundreds of lives having been lost we're also seeing many people now rendered homeless, including refugees and asylum seekers," said Renata Dubini, Director of UNHCR's Americas Bureau.

Ecuador is the biggest refugee-hosting country in Latin America. Its people have generously welcomed over 200,000 Colombian refugees and others in need of international protection, many of whom had settled in the earthquake-affected areas. UNHCR is committed to helping Ecuador and its people with support for refugee and host community populations.

News contacts:
Pennsylvania native and mother, Latrisha Bentch, talked in front of supporters in Capitol Rotunda who requested the House to legalize marijuana for medical purpose. Bentch and many other speakers marked the last day of voting and are expecting a change in the law.

Cara Salemme was one among other Pa. mothers whose child needs marijuana treatment to control her son's seizures illness. According to her, marijuana legalization would make a big difference to his health.

The effort has been taking two years ago but resulted in delays. Currently, there are 23 states that legalize the use of marijuana in treating patients with various illnesses when other drugs can't. The gathering was hoped to make Pennsylvania the 24th state to use cannabis.

Begging the House to have a little compassion, Bentch delivered a heartfelt testimonial and hoped that her child's sufferings would end soon. Reported by the Pennlive that the lawmakers might have mistaken her kindness for weakness and requesting an immediate action on the bill. She also said that these mothers' decision to sit outside the House office was a prick and uncomfortable, but validating the act as 'a need to be done'.

Hours later, Pennlive reported that the House finally approved the bill after it's voted 149-46. The audience that included mothers and advocates, applauded in excitement celebrating of what they described as the right thing.

Primary co-sponsor of the bill, Senator Mike Folmer, expressed his gratitude upon the bill's approval stating that the citizens have been fighting for this.

The marijuana for medical purpose in Pennsylvania is expected to treat various conditions of illnesses including seizures, cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy, neurological disorders and autism. It will take 18 months to finalize the program before hospitals can use it.

The bill, however, included circumstances for children under 18 which have to gain initial approval before being treated with marijuana. On the long run, the medical marijuana will also be applied to adults.

The medical marijuana legislation is now passed to Governor Tom Wolf. An article in the Philly Voice said that Wolf is proud and excited to put his signature on the bill. The governor hopes that the bill could be a medical relief to treat patients.
Hilary Clinton will make a stop in Pennsylvania for a presidential campaign along with husband, Bill Clinton and daughter, Chelsea Clinton. Despite being awaited for her speech in Keystone State, the president candidate will let her daughter take the stage.

According to an article in CBS Local, she will be speaking to citizens of Pittsburg in Shadyside to explain why they need to vote for her mother. The Democratic candidate's daughter believes that her mother can build a bridge to opportunities for American families. On April 25, the Oxford graduate is scheduled to talk in front of the audience in Philadelphia in an event called "An Evening with Chelsea Clinton."

With the deadline just around the corner, the Clinton family is pushing in a full force on former first lady campaign. Endorsing Hillary, the family give support to mom by delivering a speech. Before her daughter steps up in the battlefield this week, the former Secretary of State had spoken at the AFL-CIO convention as she has a root in Pennsylvania. She mentioned about the experience of visiting her grandfather had made her being respectful towards dignity of hard working. Hillary also disagrees on Trump's decision in building walls to separate Americans against each other.

As reported by the Politicspa, the former U.S. president was also in Philadelphia to show support to wife although he had to face a few protesters accusing him to ruin black youth communities after signing the 1994 Crime Bill. The former president noted that Hillary should not be blamed for the mistake he did in the past.

Another presidential candidates scheduled to campaign in Pittsburgh are Ted Cruz and Donald Trump at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. According to Fox News Poll, Clinton has a higher percentage than Trump by 11 percent.
Most college students graduate with huge student loan debts. University of Maine and Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) students were among numerous colleges who participated the "Million Student March" to raise awareness for loan debts, free public college for two years and higher minimum wage at $15 for campus workers.

WCSH6 reported that SMCC tuition costs $2,700 per year. University of Maine in Orono costs $8,370 plus mandatory fees and housing for $2,236 and $9,296 respectively. An SMCC freshman shared that their college debt is getting in the way of their focus in school.

"I feel like if we move funding to the right places, it could happen. If it was a little less, it would be a little helpful for more college students. They'd be able to follow their passion more," the student said. The "Million Student March" had an event page on Facebook. MPBN reported that only about a dozen students showed up during the protest in Orono and around 3 showed up in SMCC.

This is how much student debt will cost you in retirement via @CNNMoney https://t.co/NOG0JV9Vpe #studentloan #retirement  Henry & Horne (@HHCPAs) April 15, 2016



"We are here to protest the increasing cost of education," said Leah Turlo, sophomore at University of Maine and member of the Maine Student action group, as reported by Bangor Daily News. "Yes, UMaine has a [tuition] freeze right now, but it's still really expensive."

A student who did not take part in the "Million Student March" in Maine said that the issue is a pressing one for college students like him. "I'm, I want to say, probably $50,000, from my undergrad," Rich Metellus told the MPBN. "Which is not too bad I guess for a lot of people, but it's still high."

Meanwhile, the President Barack Obama and his administration are planning to give more than $7 billion dollars in student loan debt by permanently disabled Americans. All eligible borrowers will be sent a letter. It will guide them to apply for the Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) loan discharge program, University Herald reported.
President Barack Obama will be delivering one of his final commencement speeches during the 2016 Commencement Ceremony at Howard University on May 7. He will also be delivering keynote address speech at Rutgers University's New BrunswicK, New Jersey campus on May 15 and at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

"The President's commitment to education, especially for those who can least afford it, dovetails with Howard's commitment to provide these same students with a rigorous, intellectually-stimulating, and academically-challenging educational experience," Howard University president Dr. Wayne Frederick said in a release. The President and other leaders will be receiving an honorary degree, doctor of laws during the commencement exercise.

President Barack Obama to deliver Howard University 2016 Commencement Address https://t.co/fS3ClsgHs2 #HowardU16 pic.twitter.com/wCDf52xIoR  Howard University (@HowardU) April 14, 2016

Additionally, President Obama is the sixth US President to deliver the commencement speech at Howard University. US News & World Report noted that this will be the President's third time since in the seat to deliver the keynote address in the historically black university.

It will be the first time for Rutgers University to have a sitting president speaks at their graduation ceremony. The coming commencement ceremony on May 15 will be the university's 250th graduation year.

"We are delighted that President Obama has chosen to address our graduates at this year's historic commencement," University president Robert Barchi said in a release. "This is the first time in Rutgers University's history that a sitting president has agreed to speak at commencement."

Gazette reported that Obama will also be delivering a commence speech for Air Force Academy's class of 2016. The ceremony will be held on June 2.

"The U.S. Air Force Academy is recognized for educating and training some of the nation's most dedicated leaders, and the President looks forward to thanking them for their service," Obama spokesman Keith Maley wrote to the outlet. Details for Obama's visit to Colorado will be released in a few days.
Scott Lane was a Pace University official who got arrested over child pornography charges. He goes by the name "NYC Perv." Reports say that Lane watched, directed and live streamed the abuse of an underage victim last year.

Lane worked for Pace University's fundraising department. He was arrested at his home near Central Park. Lane allegedly directed a live-steam act of a boy being sexually abused. New York Daily News reports that Lane has been charged with possession of child pornography and sexual exploitation of children. He is in jail without bail while others who were caught and identified during the live stream on July 22, 2015 were also arrested.



The live streaming website where Lane was caught is being investigated by Canadian authorities in collaboration with Homeland Security. The laptop with the website subscription was found underLane's bed. Heavy reported those found guilty of possessing child pornography can face five years of jail time. However, there is no mandatory sentence for just possession of the material. If Lane will be found guilty of child exploitation, he can be jailed for up to 30 years.

Screenshots were taken during the conversations of the live stream, including those of NYC Perv, NY Post noted. Lane allegedly wrote "Let us hear the audio," "Get him naked," "make out with him," and several others. The Pace University admin has already been dismissed since the news broke out.

"The University learned today from press reports that Scott Lane, a staff member in donor relations and fundraising, has been arrested on charges of child pornography," a Pace University spokesperson said, Daily Mail reported. "Lane has been terminated, permanently barred from University property and facilities, and is no longer employed by the University."

Do you think that the US needs stricter child pornography possession laws? Tell us your opinions in the comments below.
Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, 26, was ejected from a Southwest Airlines flight when a fellow passenger overheard him speaking Arabic. Makhzoomi is an Iraqi refugee who came to the US in 2010. He studies in University of California, Berkeley. The fellow passenger alerted the crew when she felt threatened by Makhzoomi's conversation on the phone.

As it turns out, Makhzoomi was speaking with his uncle in Baghdad. They had a conversation about Makhzoomi meeting the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon the night before. When they ended the phone conversation, they uttered the customary goodbye "inshallah" which means "if God is willing," reported by The New York Times.

"I was very excited about the event so I called my uncle to tell him about it," the college senior said.The incident happened last April 6 at the Los Angeles Airport where the flight was heading to Oakland.

I explain "inshallah"after this #SouthwestAirlines fiasco where a Muslim kid was kicked off for speaking Arabic: https://t.co/9ZXvXAEDzB  Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) April 17, 2016

A woman nearby overheard the conversation. She stared at Makhzoomi and went to where the cabin crew was. A Southwest Airlines crew member came to him and escorted him off the plane. The employee reportedly treated him like "an animal." When he expressed how Islamophobia played into the situation, the crew member got angry and said he cannot fly. Makhzoomi was embarrassed when he was escorted and searched by the security personnel and some police dogs.

"The way they searched me and the dogs, the officers, people were watching me and the humiliation made me so afraid because it brought all of these memories back to me," he said, reported by NY Mag. He adds that he remembered what Saddam (Hussein) did to his father, a former Iraqi diplomat, who was killed by the regime during the war in Iraq.

After thoroughly searching, Makhzoomi did not have anything threatening on him. He wants the airline to apologize to him for his treatment. The employee who escorted Makhzoomi could not be contacted.

Independent reported that cases of maltreatment over Muslim and Arabic-speaking people by Southwest Airlines have increased. A Muslim woman was reportedly ejected from her flight to Chicago after a flight crew saw the woman's headscarf.
The two students who have been shot and hospitalized during a campus shooting Tuskegee University in Alabama are now in stable conditions after their injuries were found non-life threatening. The two were shot in the parking lot near a residence hall. The suspect has surrendered and now in custody of the police.

The shooting happened in the early morning of Saturday last week. Suspect, Ras Hodari Akanbi Jacobs-El, turns out to be a Tuskegee university student, WTVM reported. Fellow students were alarmed and terrified that the incident happened in the normally peaceful campus. Authorities say that the Jacobs-El knew the victims and that it was an isolated case.

Suspect in shooting of two Tuskegee University students is in custody. Go to: https://t.co/JoNFLwJiKu  TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY (@TuskegeeUniv) April 17, 2016

After the shooting, Jacobs-El was identified and warrants for his arrested were issued. He surrendered to the Huntsville Police Department. ABC3340 shares that he is charged with attempted murder and shooting an occupied vehicle. The suspect will be extradited to Macon County on Monday. The motive of the shooting has yet to be determined.

The Tuskegee University said in a statement that they will cooperate with the authorities regarding the criminal investigation. They will continue to set measures to protect students from experiencing campus violence and other adverse preventable situations.

"We are deeply saddened by this incident. Tuskegee University is a close-knit family institution where students, faculty, staff and administrators are deeply connected," Tuskegee University President Brian Johnson said in a statement. "Although we are still investigating and learning the complete circumstances surrounding this incident, let us all turn our attention and focus to the recovery and well-being of the injured students, who along with their families, have our prayers, thoughts and support during this tragic incident."
A known university in New York City has mistakenly sent out acceptance letters to 5,000 prospective students on Wednesday, April 13. Those applications of students who applied have not been completely reviewed.

In an article published by CBS News, John DellaContrada, spokesman of the University of Buffalo in New York said that they made the mistake of sending emails to those students. As a form of damage control, the institution has sent a follow up email, apologizing for the gaffe that has been made on their end. The apology letter was sent electronically after about four hours.

A photo posted by buffalo party co. (@buffalopartyco) on Apr 12, 2016 at 1:32pm PDT

To make sure that the university delivered the right statement this time, they also shared a post on their official website on Friday according to NBC News. "Miscommunication occurred when an incorrect email list was generated from an applicant database," the school made a statement. "We know that this can be a stressful time for prospective students and their families. The University at Buffalo deeply regrets this unfortunate error in communication."

The school said, there is no reason to lose hope for those students who received the wrong notification. The University of Buffalo would like to stress it out that they are still under consideration for their acceptance. The school has a total of around 30,000 students enrolled. They have about 25,000 students who applied for their fall semester and only 5,400 were able to get in.

Based on those numbers, it would appear that the university is quite strict when it comes to accepting students who they think would represent their institution well. It is noteworthy to report that this school is a member of New York's State University system.

Do you think that the school's apology was enough for those who received false hopes on their application? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
A lot of university students these days could not help but blame their school when it comes to them not being able to finish an entire book. This issue was brought up since professors from different institutions are saying that students nowadays are no longer able to completely read a book and it is quite disturbing.

Breibart reported that university professors find it daunting that students these days can no longer focus, which is a huge factor why they can't finish a book. But aside from that, they have also observed that university students nowadays have quite a short attention span, which affects their ability to comprehend such complicated subjects and arguments.

A photo posted by Bookworm Merch! - (@bookwormboutique) on Apr 17, 2016 at 3:25am PDT

The Independent reported that after that statement made by university professors, students needed to defend themselves, as to why they weren't able to finish a book. The majority reasoned out that universities put them under time pressure, which is why they are not able to even finish reading a whole book.

It has come to the attention of professors from different universities in the United Kingdom that they would have to force their students to actually finish a book. They also noticed that students these days have no interest in even reading the entire texts. Professors are blaming the Internet, as it has created a new culture and new breed of students who seem to be just depending on technology's feeding.

On the other hand, students are adamant that it is their school's fault for not giving them ample time to finish whatever book that was assigned to them. "It's just not true that students find reading whole books too challenging," said the spokesperson for students at the University of Sheffield's Students' Union. "The reason some students don't read whole books isn't because they struggle to, but because of problems with how we're assessed, and the over-emphasis universities place on assessment."

Who do you think is right about this issue? The university professors or the students? Post your comments below.
The release of Xperia X series has increased speculations that Sony would not pursue in developing Xperia Z anymore, since the firm has been silent on the possibility of releasing Xperia Z6.

It was guessed sometime in February that Sony might drop a clue on Xperia Z6's release in the Mobile World Congress 2016 (MWC). On the contrary, Sony presented the X performance together with Xperia X, International Business Times reported.

As for the speculations, Z5 is possibly the last mobile handset that will be launched in its series. Don Mesa, Sony Mobile U.S, Head of Marketing explained that the XA, the mid-range Xperia series is developed for the users who like less pull that the Z series gives.

Mesa explained that the X series is a varied line and it is impossible that the Z series will be eliminated in their product line.

It is good to know that the X series is just almost a couple of months old. This detail is collaborated by a Sony representative and a reliable report by Techradar. In September 2015, the Xperia Z5 was launched in the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) Berlin. The event is known as one of the strongest tech exhibits in Germany.

Xperia Z5's Premium and Compact editions were launched in the said event. It showcases a 23 megapixel camera that offers 4k video recording and Ultra HD experience. Furthermore, 424 pixels-per-inch resolution on its 5.2 inch screen that is certified IP68. Sony's smartphone is powered by 2900 mAh battery, octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM and Snapdragon 810 system chip, Motoring Crunch reported.

It is presumed that the features of Z6 include Snapdragon 820 system chip, 25 megapixel camera, and higher battery life. That is if Sony will launch Z6. With all of these speculations circulating the web and the smartphone market, do you believe that Sony will launch Xperia Z6 in the next MWC? Let us know what you by leaving your comments below.

Watch the video below to see the features and specifications of Xperia Z6.
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Semana Primavera Events Scheduled at UW April 18-23

A performance and discussion by a spoken word artist, a blood drive, a barbecue cookout and a final fiesta highlight Semana Primavera (spring week) April 18-23 at the University of Wyoming.

Sponsored by the UW student organization MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), this years celebration is Honoring Our Intersectional Roots and Routes. MEChA is celebrating its 32nd year as a recognized student organization.

Events are open to the public and free, unless otherwise noted.

The weeks schedule:

Monday, April 18, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. -- Cesar Chavez blood drive, Wyoming Union East Ballroom.

Monday, April 18, 7 p.m. -- Performance and discussion by Denver spoken word artist and Rawlins native Adrian Molina, a UW graduate, Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center. Free.

Tuesday, April 19, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. -- Cesar Chavez blood drive, Wyoming Union East Ballroom.

Tuesday, April 19, 1-3 p.m. -- Paper Picado art activity, Wyoming Union skylight lounge. Free.

Wednesday, April 20, 4-7 p.m. -- Latina/o-themed dinner, Washakie Dining Center. Regular meal fees apply.

Thursday, April 21, 3-5 p.m. -- Barbecue cookout with Latino Outdoors and MEChA, Washington Park. Free.

Friday, April 22, 4-6 p.m. -- Love in the Tetons, film and discussion, Room 214 of the Classroom Building. Free.

Saturday, April 23, 4:30-11 p.m. -- Fiesta Primavera, Wyoming Union Ballroom. Tickets required. Students can pick up two tickets each, with their student IDs, beginning Tuesday, April 19, through Thursday, April 21, at the Wyoming Union information desk.

All who wish to partake in the dinner -- whether a student or not -- will need a ticket, says Norma Lira-Perez, MEChA club officer. If there are non-students or community members that would like a ticket for dinner, I suggest that they contact a student who is willing to get tickets for them.

She says UW students are allowed two tickets, plus additional passes for guests, which is equivalent to receiving a total of four tickets.

For more information, email Lira-Perez at nlira@uwyo.edu or Robert West at rwest5@uwyo.edu.
UW Student Affairs Recognizes Outstanding Contributions

Assistant Professor Mary Jo Cooley Hidecker, left, discusses a project with some of her students who nominated her for the UW James C. Hurst Each Student-A Person Award. From left are Maddie Deutsch, Kailey Symes, Allison Long and Clarissa Petres. Other nominators not pictured are Payton Crawford and Adele Riley. (UW Photo)

Students, faculty and staff from the University of Wyoming Division of Student Affairs and across UW were honored at the divisions recent annual recognition luncheon.

Each of the individuals recognized at the event embodies the Division of Student Affairs vision of STUDENTS FIRST through demonstrated excellence in the workplace and involvement in the university community, says Sara Axelson, vice president for student affairs.

We are grateful for the opportunity to honor our excellent colleagues and students who were recognized through this process, both the nominees and the winners, Axelson says.

Those honored for their contributions to the Division of Student Affairs were:

UW James C. Hurst Each Student-A Person Award -- Mary Jo Cooley Hidecker, assistant professor in the UW Division of Communication Disorders.

The award recognizes James C. Hurst, who was UW's vice president for student affairs from 1981-2000. Hurst is remembered for his warm and caring demeanor, wisdom and dedication to student success.

Hidecker was nominated by six students who praised her passion for her work and her positive influence on their educational experiences.

Dr. Hidecker is extremely dedicated to her research and the classes she teaches, but she is always willing to help her students learn and understand as well as empower them to do great things, one student wrote.

She is humble, empathetic and genuinely passionate about her work and mentorship role with students. She makes classes fun, educational and engaging. If anyone deserves this award, it is Mary Jo Cooley Hidecker! another student wrote.

Outstanding External Contributor -- Kira Lawrence, programmer analyst, senior, IT/Application and Database Services.

Her nominator noted, Kiras help has enabled us to streamline many processes that have positively impacted not only operations within our office, but also for all of our prospective students applying to the University of Wyoming and our colleagues in associated Student Affairs departments.

Outstanding Student Contributor -- Mahin Sandoval-Chavez, lead student programmer, Friday Night Fever.

Sandoval-Chavez worked to create, plan, budget and execute up to 30 unique programs each year designed to appeal to the student body.

Outstanding General Staff -- Macki Snyder, project coordinator, Associated Students at UW (ASUW).

During her almost three years in the ASUW office, Snyder has promoted an appreciation for social justice and diversity while dedicating her time, energy and support to student leaders, according to one nomination letter.

Outstanding Professional Staff -- Nancy McGee, psychiatric nurse practitioner, Student Health Service.

Her nominator wrote, She is so passionate about helping students who struggle with mental health. She is so kind and fair to all students besides being a tremendous health care provider. The work Nancy does can be so emotionally draining, and she always does it with a smile on her face and love in her heart.
COURTESY PHOTO A team of detainers work on the Air Force One jet in Seattle once used by presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.

SHARE COURTESY PHOTO Sergio Fierro, of Oxnard, is part of a team of detainers who are working on an Air Force One jet in Seattle once used by presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. COURTESY PHOTO A team of detainers work on an Air Force One jet in Seattle once used by presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.

By John Scheibe of the Ventura County Star

Sergio Fierro started cleaning and restoring automobiles in Oxnard about 10 years ago, something that would eventually lead to his participation in a project to help preserve aviation history.

The 41-year-old Oxnard man is one of a handful of people who were invited to Seattle this month to help restore numerous important aircraft, including the Boeing 707-120 that served as the flying Oval Office for several U.S. presidents, starting with Dwight Eisenhower.

The restoration project comes as Boeing celebrates its 100 anniversary this summer. The restored planes are on display at the Seattle Museum of Flight's new Airpark Pavilion that opened as part of the anniversary celebration.

"I'm very honored that I was one of the people chosen," said Fierro, who has worked in automobile detailing for about 10 years, cleaning and restoring all kinds of cars, from classic autos produced in the 1940s and 1950s to much newer models.

Born in Mexico, Fierro was determined to work for himself when he moved to the United States as age 21.

"In the beginning I cooked and cut meat in various restaurants," Fierro said.

He eventually opened a food market with family members in the Oxnard area.

Fierro recalls there was a car wash next to the market, which did auto detailing. In his spare time, Fierro would help clean and restore some of the cars there. Fierro eventually decided to sell his share of the food market, and started doing more detailing work.

"I got more training too," he said, noting the work is divided into two broad areas, interior and exterior detailing. Interior detailing includes restoring vinyl, leather, carpets and other material, while exterior detainers work on chrome, rubber, glass and an array of other materials. Today, Fierro heads his own company, Advance Detailing Experts.

Fierro's clientele eventually included not only car owners but also motorcycle, boat and aircraft owners.

The Air Force One aircraft that Fierro is working on in Seattle served as the presidential jet starting with President Eisenhower in 1959. Presidents John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon also flew on the Boeing 707-120 before it was replaced by a newer plane.

Fierro is also working on a Boeing B-29 superfortress bomber used during World War II as well as some of the first aircraft manufactured by Boeing.

The detailing project began April 11 and will conclude Saturday.

"It's a real honor to be part of a project that will preserve Air Force One," Fierro said before he left for Seattle.

For more on the project and Boeing's centennial celebrations this year, go to http://www.boeing.com/boeing100/
GRETCHEN WENNER/THE STAR RIGHT: A gated wooden bridge separates Rincon Island from the shore at Mussel Shoals.

SHARE GRETCHEN WENNER/THE STAR A gated wooden bridge separates Rincon Island from the shore at Mussel Shoals. GRETCHEN WENNER/THE STAR A gated wooden bridge separates Rincon Island from the shore at Mussel Shoals.

By John Scheibe of the Ventura County Star

A state commission that manages millions of acres of submerged and tidelands across California has notified an oil company that operates on Rincon Island that it is in default under its state oil and gas leases.

The April 11 letter by the California State Lands Commission to Rincon Island Limited Partnership states the company has 60 days to fix a list of problems identified by state regulators at the site, located just off shore from Mussel Shoals northwest of Ventura.

Should the company fail to do so by the June 10 deadline, commission staff will recommend to commissioners that they terminate the leases to operate in the Rincon Island area when they meet on June 28.

Recent inspections by state regulators "have revealed a failure to perform the required maintenance over a number of years on the wellheads, piping, tankage and safety systems," in the area, said Mark Meier, chief counsel for the California State Lands Commission, in his letter to Rincon Island Limited Partnership.

Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Carpinteria, who has introduced legislation to strengthen state laws for idle oil wells, said the concerns by the state center on two main areas. The first is the environmental danger posed by unplugged wells, including the possibility of oil spills from them and the damage this would cause. Officials also worry that should an oil company suffer financial hardship or declare bankruptcy, that it might "just walk away" from the unplugged wells, leaving taxpayers with the costs of properly capping them. These concerns have only increased with the recent fall in the price of oil, he said.

The letter from the State Lands Commission comes as another state agency, the California Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, told the company that state officials are concerned about the condition of the equipment on the man-made island and surrounding area.

The concerns include "the number of long-term idle wells at this site in the marine environment," State Oil & Gas Supervisor Ken Harris said.

Susan Whalen, a senior vice president for the company as well as its general counsel, said the company had just recently received the notifications from the state.

"Following our review, we will be responding" to the state, Whalen said.

Meier said in his letter to the company that in addition to performing required maintenance at Rincon Island, "many of the valves and safety equipment at the wellheads have deteriorated to the point that they cannot be made operational and are unable to allow for monitoring and controlling wellhead pressures."

Other problems include a main firefighting system at the site that has been inoperable for months. The "backup system does not have sufficient capacity to provide for operation the lease," Meier said.

The company must "ensure that Rincon Island has an operable fire suppression system at all times," the letter states.

The notices by state regulators come as Williams has introduced legislation to strengthen state laws for idle oil wells "so that operators plug their idle wells, before they become a health hazard," Williams said.

The aging oil wells "and gas infrastructure, poses a risk to underground sources of drinking water," Williams said. California has more than 20,000 idle wells, he noted, with 2,299 wells in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

"I am under no illusion that it's going to be easy to get this bill passed," said Williams of Assembly Bill 2729.

"We're taking on a very powerful group, the oil and gas industry."

But Williams said he is optimistic, in part because the bill has the support of Gov. Jerry Brown.

As to the situation at Rincon Island, Williams said state inspectors found "severely corroded equipment and valves" when they visited the site in February.

"Current law leaves too many loopholes for bad operators and puts our health and environment at risk," he said.
ROB VARELA/THE STAR Vincenzo Giammanco has developed a proposal to transform Plaza Park in Ventura into what he calls The Play Ground, a spot that could include a dog park, outdoor stage, community gathering area and space for private events.

SHARE ROB VARELA/THE STAR Vincenzo Giammanco has developed a proposal to transform Plaza Park in Ventura into what he calls The Play Ground, a spot that could include a dog park, outdoor stage, community gathering area and space for private events. ROB VARELA/THE STAR Vincenzo Giammanco points at his rendering of The Play Ground, which he proposes to build in Plaza Park in Ventura. ROB VARELA/THE STAR Vincenzo Giammanco has developed a proposal to transform Plaza Park in Ventura into what he calls The Play Ground, which could include a dog park, outdoor stage, community gathering area and space for private events.

By Arlene Martinez, amartinez@vcstar.com

It's been called Drug Park, Hobo Park, Needle Park. None are particularly flattering and none are words the city of Ventura wishes people would associate with Plaza Park.

After all, few cities can boast a 3-acre park that's walking distance to both the beach and a quaint downtown that draws tourists from all over the world.

Located at Santa Clara and Chestnut streets, the park has a gazebo, walking path, a playground with slides and swings and lots of tall, leafy trees to escape the sun.

Or, as was the case on a recent early afternoon, trees to use as a restroom.

Sitting at a picnic table not far away, events promoter Vincenzo Giammanco looked away. He pointed to his plan.

It's called The Play Ground. The public-private partnership Giammanco envisions starts with getting a lease from Ventura to rent the city-owned park. It goes on.

On a portion of the site, there would be a dog park, a bocce ball court, space for yoga or Mommy and Me classes, a music stage, another playground and an events space for, say, weddings. A coffee shop and small businesses would set up shop in storage containers.

Sound ambitious enough?

Giammanco, whose group California Beer Festival hosts the Champagne on Main Wine Walk and Winter Wine Walk downtown, said that's the point.

"You need to do something drastic to make a change," he said.

TAKING BACK PLAZA PARK. AGAIN.

For decades the city, businesses and other groups have tried to make Plaza Park less of a haven for vagrants and those involved in illegal activities, and more of a recreation destination for local families and tourists. Recent efforts include the 2011 Clean and Safe Public Places Initiative, which lists the park as one of the locations to "take back," and the creation last year of Ventura's Park Security Ambassadors program.

Both programs place a high value on having a visible presence at the park, and not necessarily a police one. The ambassadors, for example, even help direct some of the park regulars to treatment or other services.

Residents, businesses, the City Council and others feel the programs have helped, and the council is exploring ways to make the ambassadors program permanent.

Jim Wright, who owns Jimmy's Slice, Sans Souci and Marie Shannon Confections, said the ambassadors "do a good job. It's just a big job."

Homeless people and vagrants still defecate on the patio of his bakery and do drugs in the bathrooms.

A friend of Giammanco, Wright fully supports The Play Ground, and plans to run the coffee shop, should it get that far.

"The homeless people won't want to stay ... if there were more people around," he said.

THE PROCESS BEGINS

Last month, Giammanco brought the proposal to the city's Parks and Recreation Commission.

The commissioners unanimously supported the plan and directed staff to find a path to move it forward.

"This is the type of project that hasn't been done here in Ventura, and I think they were intrigued by that," said Parks Manager Nancy O'Connor.

The board of directors for the downtown business improvement district, Downtown Ventura Partners, also supported the concept.

Giammanco wants to lease the park for 10 years, paying $1 a year in exchange for investing $1 million in infrastructure, including redoing the bathrooms, installing a fence around part of the park and adding 24/7 security.

City Manager Mark Watkins said The Play Ground would have to go through the same process as any permanent facility. It would need water and wastewater connections, to meet all building code requirements and to fit in with the vision of the city.

"The challenge from our end ... is to make sure these things are done right," he said. "Clearly a portion of the park would be uninhabitable to the public. Those are the things we need to think through."

It's unlikely the lease, the starting point, would come to the council anytime soon, Watkins said  or at least not until the budget is passed and decisions are made on the charter amendments and possible sales tax measure.

That said, "it looks exciting," he said.

City officials are looking into whether it would also have to go through the California Coastal Commission.

PLENTY OF ENTHUSIASM

Giammanco knows there will be a lot of doubt. He encountered it when he first started his beer, wine and Champagne events in downtown Ventura.

But it's what the city needs, he said.

"The goal is not to bring in a concrete jungle. It's to enhance what's here and make people feel safe coming here," he said.

The beautiful park has such potential, he said, and it was obvious what it could be during the 150th anniversary picnic held April 2. The event drew hundreds to the park to eat, browse vendors and listen to music.

"It shouldn't take five years to get this done," Giammanco said. "Let's not think of things to stall this. Let's think of ways to get this done."
By: Dezan Shira & Associates

On April 6th, Vietnams National Assembly approved amendments to a number of tax policies relevant to those with operations throughout the country. Changes cover a wide variety of tax policies and should be followed closely to ensure compliance.

Specific policies that have seen amendment include Value Added Taxation (VAT), Special Consumption Tax (SCT), and Tax Administration. The general package of amendments is slated to become effective July 1st, while the rollout of specific instruments will be carried out over the course of the year.

Tax Administration

For those failing to pay taxes by the dates specified within Vietnamese legislation, amendments are set to provide some relief from late payment penalties. Changes currently show interest on late payments falling to just 0.03 percent a day or around 11 percent a year.

For those with outstanding obligations to Vietnamese Authorities incurred prior to July 1st 2016, interest is to be calculated using the aforementioned rate going forward. It should be noted, however, that the rate will not be retroactively applied to the original principal.

Special Consumption Tax

Adjustments to Special Consumption Tax (SCT) will see three major adjustments under recent amendments. The first of these changes concerns the importation of vehicles with less than 24 seats. The amendments specify several adjustments to capacity specific rates at which cars currently are taxed. Despite changes, rates applied continue to vary significantly based on the quantity of seats within a given vehicle.

The secondary area of Special Consumption Taxation to see change is that of transfer pricing for manufacturing operations. Under new amendments, floors on the taxable price of goods sold will be imposed as a means of regulating intra-company transfer pricing. The determination of exact prices will be based on a percentage of the average selling price of companys good to all parties and will be applied to sales between entities enjoying the following relationships:

Companies that share the same parent company

Parent companies and their subsidiaries

Companies enjoying a related party relationship with another company (i.e. a major shareholder in company A selling to company A)

A final area of SCT that will see change as a result of amendments is the points at which SCT is levied on goods being brought into Vietnam. From July 1st, companies will be liable for SCT both at the time of import and sale. However, to prevent an excessive tax burden, import SCT will be creditable against SCT incurred at the point of sale.

Value Added Tax

Exemptions Expanded

Exemptions from Value Added Taxation in Vietnam have been expanded under recent changes to include the following:

Exports with a combined natural resource and energy cost exceeding 51 percent of the goods value will be exempted from VAT

Care services related to the elderly or those with disabilities will be exempted from VAT

In addition to the exemptions listed above, sales of select semi-processed or un-processed cultivation or aquaculture related goods are not subject to output VAT

Refunds Restricted

While exemptions have seen limited expansion, the ability of companies to apply for VAT refunds has been simultaneously restricted. For those operating and exporting from Vietnam, the following changes should be noted:

For those investing in the manufacturing sector after July 1 st , projects with combined natural resource and energy costs exceeding 51 percent of their goods total costs will not be eligible for input VAT refunds .

Investment projects where capital has not been fully contributed will be ineligible for VAT refunds.

Investment projects involved in restricted sectors that are incompliant with up to date regulation will be ineligible for VAT refunds.

Companies which have accumulated in excess of 12 months worth of VAT to be refunded will be prevented from doing so. Instead, this amount must be carried forward.

For those involved in the export sector, VAT refunds accessible via the VAT refund first, tax audit later program will be limited to entities which have maintained a clean track record with customs and tax authorities for two years and are not deemed at tax risk by regulators.

Optimizing your Tax experience in Vietnam

Taxation in Vietnam is likely to see continued change in coming years as Vietnamese officials attempt to attract investment and promote sustainable growth within their economy. Those able to adapt and thrive within these conditions will be perfectly positioned to take advantage of Vietnams competitive labor rates and emerging network of international trading agreements. With a team of seasoned tax professionals bringing decades of experience in Vietnam and Asia at large to their work, Dezan Shira & Associates is perfectly positioned to assist companies in their quest to navigate Vietnams tax landscape. For more information on how your business may benefit from the amendments mentioned above, please get in contact with our tax professionals at vietnam@dezshira.com or visit us online at www.dezshira.com



About Us Asia Briefing Ltd. is a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. Dezan Shira is a specialist foreign direct investment practice, providing corporate establishment, business advisory, tax advisory and compliance, accounting, payroll, due diligence and financial review services to multinationals investing in China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Singapore and the rest of ASEAN. For further information, please email vietnam@dezshira.com or visit www.dezshira.com. Stay up to date with the latest business and investment trends in Asia by subscribing to our complimentary update service featuring news, commentary and regulatory insight. 

Annual Audit and Compliance in Vietnam 2016

In this issue of Vietnam Briefing, we address pressing changes to audit procedures in 2016, and provide guidance on how to ensure that compliance tasks are completed in an efficient and effective manner. We highlight the continued convergence of VAS with IFRS, discuss the emergence of e-filing, and provide step-by-step instructions on audit and compliance procedures for Foreign Owned Enterprises (FOEs) as well as Representative Offices (ROs).

Navigating the Vietnam Supply Chain

In this edition of Vietnam Briefing, we discuss the advantages of the Vietnamese market over its regional competition and highlight where and how to implement successful investment projects. We examine tariff reduction schedules within the ACFTA and TPP, highlight considerations with regard to rules of origin, and outline the benefits of investing in Vietnams growing economic zones. Finally, we provide expert insight into the issues surrounding the creation of 100 percent Foreign Owned Enterprise in Vietnam.

Tax, Accounting and Audit in Vietnam 2016 (2nd Edition)

This edition of Tax, Accounting, and Audit in Vietnam, updated for 2016, offers a comprehensive overview of the major taxes foreign investors are likely to encounter when establishing or operating a business in Vietnam, as well as other tax-relevant obligations. This concise, detailed, yet pragmatic guide is ideal for CFOs, compliance officers and heads of accounting who must navigate Vietnams complex tax and accounting landscape in order to effectively manage and strategically plan their Vietnam operations.
Most of the countrys big pharma producers are hesitating to raise their foreign ownership cap

In a resolution released by the Board of Directors (BoD) in early April, Domesco (DMC) plans to seek its shareholders permission to remove the foreign ownership cap at the annual shareholders meeting on April 23. The firm will also seek its shareholders approval to make changes to several business activities, including retail drug sales, drug import and export, and others.

Raising foreign ownership at pharma firms is a controversial topic because if a Vietnamese pharma firm has foreign partners which hold a stake of more than 51 per cent, this could result in Vietnamese firms being labelled as a foreign-invested enterprise, thus depriving them of their profitable rights to distribute medicines, Tran Thi Hong Tuoi, analyst at BIDV Securities, told VIR.

Additionally, under the current rules, if a pharma firm lifts its foreign ownership cap to 100 per cent, it must divest from its distribution business, she added.

For DMC, the fear of being acquired is not a problem, its foreign stakeholder CFR International, which currently holds a 45.94 per cent stake in DMC, has already started to intervene in DMCs operations by appointing Luong Thi Huong Giang as general director of the company in 2014. Andrew Hamish Lane, a representative of the US-based Abbott Laboratories, which acquired a 99 per cent stake in CFR International, has been on the BoD since 2015.

DMC, which currently has five pharma production plants in the country, is expanding its drug production operations. The firm is set to begin construction on a costly drug factory in the southern province of Dong Thap in 2016.

Industry insiders are wondering if the DMC move could create a domino effect in the local drug market, as many listed domestic drug producers, including leading players like Imexpharm (IMP), Hau Giang Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (DHG), and Traphaco (TRA), are hesitating to raise limits on foreign ownership from the current 49 per cent. These firms may not want to give up their distribution business, may be waiting for the official list of conditional businesses, or may fear acquisition.

IMP, which is believed to have the most advanced production lines, has become a magnet for foreign investors, who want controlling stakes in the company. However, the Vietnamese enterprise is reluctant to lift its foreign ownership cap out of fears of being acquired.

The situation is similar for DHG, which dominates the southern market, and TRA, which holds a large percentage of the northern market. Their foreign shareholders are mainly financial investment organisations.

Many leading pharma groups have targeted DMC, IMP, DHG and TRA, which have nationwide distribution networks and advanced drug production assembly lines, using merger and acquisition deals to penetrate the Vietnamese market.

According to industry insiders, the Vietnamese pharmaceutical market, which is valued at $3.5 billion, will continue to be on the radar of global drug companies and investment funds including Mekong Capital, Dragon Capital, and JP Morgan.
Indian firms are increasing their investments in Viet Nam. Indian enterprises poured over $230 million into Viet Nam last year, bringing their country's total progressive foreign direct investment in Viet Nam to more than $530 million. - Illustrative image

Economic ties were also the focus at events between Viet Nam and Belgium, and Viet Nam and Mexico held the same day in Brussels and Mexico, respectively.

The Vietnamese Embassy in India and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) co-organised a conference entitled, "Invest Vietnam 2016" in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Speaking at a conference, Thanh highlighted the expanding Indian investment in Viet Nam and the great potential for investment links between the two countries' enterprises.

Viet Nam welcomes Indian companies to invest in the oil and gas industry, textiles, parts supply industries, pharmaceuticals, food processing, IT, mechanics, infrastructure development and renewable energy, he stated.

Viet Nam has participated in 12 free trade agreements (FTAs) and has become a major gateway for exports into many large markets such as the US, Japan and the European Union, he said, adding that Viet Nam is now an attractive destination for foreign investors.

Viet Nam commends the Indian Government for setting up its US$100 million special fund, which supports Indian companies to build production and supply chains in Cambodia, Laos, Viet Nam and Myanmar, Thanh said.

The Viet Nam-India Strategic Partnership has been strengthened in recent years, facilitating economic co-operation between the two countries, he added.

According to the ambassador, along with enhanced links in trade and tourism, Indian firms are increasing their investments in Viet Nam. Indian enterprises poured over $230 million into Viet Nam last year, bringing their country's total progressive foreign direct investment in Viet Nam to more than $530 million.

Vice Director of the Export Import Bank of India, Nirmit Ved, said there were many reasons for foreign partners to invest in Viet Nam, citing its rapid economic growth, strategic position in Southeast Asia and strengthened international economic relations.

Vietnamese representatives from the Foreign Investment Agency also introduced the country's fields of strength and the Vietnamese Government's preferential policies on tax and land leases.

On the same day at a conference in Brussels, Nabil Jijakli, an expert from the Credendo Group emphasised that Belgium should look to trade ties with Viet Nam, where stable politics stimulate economic growth.

Jijakli said Viet Nam's average growth rate above six per cent is a dream for many western countries.

According to him, the key to Viet Nam's success lies in its geographical location in Southeast Asia and literate young population. These factors help boost industrial development, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

However, Jijakli also noted challenges facing Viet Nam, including a slowdown in the global economy and neighbouring China  an economic powerhouse in Asia.

Participating businessmen praised the Vietnamese market, saying it has the potential for European investment in technology, the environment and manufacturing.

A seminar analysing achievements in Viet Nam's foreign policy, Doi Moi (Renewal), and international integration was also held in Mexico on Tuesday.

At the seminar, Ambassador Le Linh Lan briefed participants on major milestones in Viet Nam's regional and international integration, especially the country's role in the formation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The ambassador also expressed her joy at the strengthened co-operation between the two countries, especially in economics.

Two-way trade reached a record in 2015, hitting $2.23 billion, up 55.7 per cent year-on-year. In the first two months of this year, the figure was $320.46 million, up 32.17 per cent over the same period last year.

Participants of the seminar lauded Viet Nam's foreign policy, socio-economic achievements and its efforts to build a peaceful and prosperous nation.
As the number of bus users in the southern city has declined over the years since 2013, authorities have planned a series of projects to improve the quality of the transport service.

Greener buses

Ho Chi Minh City officials began researching the use of compressed natural gas (CNG), an available alternative to gasoline, as fuel for buses in 2009, Le Hoang Minh, deputy director of the Department of Transport, said at a conference on CNG application on April 6.

In 2011, Saigonbus Company put 21 CNG-fuelled buses imported from South Korea into operation.

Results of a one-year pilot project showed that such vehicles produced a considerably low amount of exhaustion while saving 23 percent in fuel cost compared to those that run on diesel, opening a new phase for the citys public transport.

A total of 137 out of 2,683 buses in the metropolis are using the environment-friendly fuel at present.

If all buses run on CNG as the primary fuel, the volume of pollutants released by these vehicles into the atmosphere will be reduced by about 5,109 metric tons, according to the Center for Scientific Research and Technology Development of Transport under the Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport.

To replace old buses with the CNG-powered vehicles, city authorities have approved a proposal to manufacture 300 eco-friendly buses for the 2014-17 period.

The May 19 Bus Transport Cooperative in early March spent VND63 billion (US$2.82 million) buying 23 of such vehicles, which have shuttled between An Suong Station in Hoc Mon District and the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City in Thu Duc District.

According to Deputy Director Minh, the Department of Transport will cooperate with other competent agencies to come up with optimal measures to boost investment and expedite the mass use of CNG in public transportation.

Smart bus tickets

A new system of smart bus tickets is expected to be utilized in the public transport network in the southern city at the end of this year, said Dau An Phuc, director of the Public Transport Management and Operation Center, managed by the Department of Transport.

As part of the project, authorities are still working on appropriate policies to provide users of the service with favorable conditions, such as fare reduction, according to Phuc.

The application of the new form of ticket is also anticipated to help improve the service quality of bus operators as passengers will pay in advance, providing the operators with necessary financial capacity to enhance their performance, Lam Thieu Quan, member of the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Council, stated.



Passengers get off an eco-friendly bus that uses compressed natural gas as fuel in Ho Chi Minh City.

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Busway to open in 2018

The municipal Peoples Committee is planning on the construction of a bus rapid transit (BRT) system for the Vo Van Kiet-Mai Chi Tho route.

The plan, whose total investment capital is estimated at $137.5 million, will be executed in January 2017 and the BRT will come on stream in late 2018.

Vehicles used for the BRT system will be CNG-fuelled buses and deliver faster, safer, and more convenient services, according to Luong Minh Phuc, director of the Urban-Civil Works Construction Investment Management Authority of Ho Chi Minh City.

The Peoples Committee will also discuss the building of five other similar BRT routes for passenger transport on several major roads in the city.

Ads on buses

Some 10 buses in Ho Chi Minh City were seen with advertisements on their sides on Tuesday, for the first time in 14 years, as part of a project carried out by Koa-Sha Vietnam, an out-of-home ad agency.

The company is scheduled to implement the pilot project to place advertisements on a total of 171 buses in the southern city within one year.

Results of the pilot project will be reviewed by the Peoples Committee, after which a plan on mass advertising on buses will be carried out, while the idea to place ads inside the vehicles will also be realized, said director An Phuc.

According to an official at the Department of Transport, the city budget will receive an extra VND170 billion ($7.62 million) if all buses in the metropolis are wrapped with ads.
The reason is that IMPSA did not finish the administrative procedures to start investment within six months as promised back in 2011 when the peoples xommittee agreed in principle with the project. In a recent document signed by Deputy Chairman of the committee Pham Van Thuan, the committee asked the provincial Department of Planning and Investment to look for new investors to invest in this location  location no. 5 on Ninh Thuans wind power map.

IMPSA earlier proposed to the province a wind power project as well as a plant to produce parts of wind turbines with the total investment of between $2 billion and $3 billion. At end-2011, IMPSA asked to raise the area of the project to 1,000 hectares from the initially planned 600, and was allowed. Since then the company has made no more moves.

Earlier, in 2009 IMPSA also went to Binh Thuan to propose a $1.2 billion power plant and an part production factory worth $171 million. It also hasnt done anything.

Argentinean company IMPSA provides comprehensive integrated hydro and wind solutions focused on Latin America, particularly on Brazil. IMPSAs website hasnt been updated since 2014. As of November 2015, according to windpowermonthly.com, IMPSA was in the process of negotiating with creditors to have $1 billion debts swapped into equity.

Ninh Thuan is considered very suitable for wind power development. As of now in the province there are 12 wind power projects in the master plan for wind power, but all of them are behind schedule. The Phuoc Nam Enfinity renewable power project by Belgian company Enfinity, the Mui Dinh wind power project, South Korean company LandVille Energys wind power project and Malaysian wind power company Timurs project, worth the total investment capital of $800 million, are examples.

Vietnam has incentives for wind power projects in terms of taxes and land use fees. But the feed-in tariff of 7.8 US cent per kWh guaranteed by the government, though higher than the price of electricity currently paid by users, is considered economically unfeasible. The Ministry of Industry and Trade once proposed a 10 US cent/kWh feed in tariff but the proposal has gone nowhere.

See more information on VIR print to be published on April 25
JX Nippon is a step closer to take part in Vietnams petrol retail market- Photo: Le Toan

The Japanese oil and gas giant signed a share subscription agreement to buy into Vietnams largest distributor of petroleum products. This move will help JX Nippon secure business opportunities in Vietnam where the current demand for petroleum products is approximately 350,000 barrel/day and rising steadily.

The acquisition shifts JX Nippon one step closer to building its first overseas oil refinery in Vietnam, and may even position it in the petrol distribution business across the country.

As part of our co-operation strategy, JX Nippon and Petrolimex have signed a memorandum of understanding to start a joint study for the construction of a refinery in Van Phong Economic Zone, said NOE president Tsutomu Sugimori in a recent speech.

The $8-billion Nam Van Phong oil refinery project, which is expected to go online by mid-2020 at the earliest, will produce approximately five million tonnes of crude oil per year. The prime minister gave in-principle approval for the project, and assigned Petrolimex to begin the process of project planning, and selecting co-investing foreign partners with sufficient capability, experience, and commitment in providing crude oil.

Petrolimexs chairman Bui Ngoc Bao said the deal with JX Nippon had been under negotiation for nearly two years. It had planned to sell 20 per cent of its stake to JX Nippon at first, but the figure was reduced to 8 per cent due to existing difficulties in the market, which were raised at the shareholders meeting late March.

According to Bao, if the deal is approved by the groups shareholders, a portion of the capital earned from the sale will be used to restructure the finances of Petrolimex Singapore Pte. Ltd, which is currently reeling under losses amounting to trillions of dong.

Petrolimex was recently found violating several capital and asset management regulations between December 26, 2013 and June 17, 2014. Following an inspection of the group during this period, the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam uncovered multiple violations in the use of assets and capital, in equitisation, in the management of its parent company and subsidiaries, as well as in construction and land use.

Petrolimex incurred significant losses through its financial investments into businesses far removed from its core operations.

The report pointed out that Petrolimexs investment of VND400 billion ($18 million) in PG Bank, VND171 billion ($7.7 million) in PG Insurance, and VND51 billion ($2.3 million) in PetrolimexLand were all carried out without permission from the Ministry of Industry and Trade or the prime minister.

The Government Inspectorate of Vietnam has therefore proposed that the government fine Petrolimex VND1.2 trillion ($54 million), as well as an additional $310,000 for misuse of capital and funding between 2010 and mid-2013.
The construction of VND15 trillion ($670.3 million) Trung Luong-My Thuan expressway-phase 1 project in the southern region remains standing at starting point after 14 months of re-launching.

As of now, only three of 24 packaging tenders have been kicked off with poor performances although the local authorities have handed over 80 per cent of land for investors.

According to Dang Trung Thanh, deputy head of the Department of Traffic Works and Construction Management under the Ministry of Transport, contractors have yet to concentrate its resource to implement the project, leading to the long delay.

Besides, the investor, namely Trung Luong-My Thuan BOT Company consisting of Tuan Loc Investment Construction JSC, Yen Khanh Production and Trade Services Company Limited, BMT Construction Investment JSC, Thang Loi Group Limited, and Hoang An JSC have yet to submit the necessary application dossiers to the local authorities for approval of the official investment contract.

Furthermore, in spite of being urged, four of six stake-holders have yet to submit their audited 2015 financial reports aiming to prove their finances when they join the consortium.

Nguyen Nhat, Deputy Minister of Transport has recently continued to urge six stake-holders to submit their audited 2015 financial reports, especially, the capital invested in the expressway in reports must match with the figures in biding documents and they are not allowed to transfer the investment right without the authorities approval.

Especially, Nhat also asked BMT Construction Investment JSC and Tuan Loc Investment Construction JSC to submit their audited 2015 financial reports before April 30 otherwise the MoT and related agencies will refuse to sign the official investment contract, simultaneously notice the Ministry of Planning and Investment to revoke the investment certificate.

The Trung Luong-My Thuan expressway project involves building a 51 kilometre expressway and 4.5km approach road at the total investment capital of VND15 trillion ($670.3 million) under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) form.

The project construction initially kicked off by Expressway Investment Development Joint Stock Company under Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) in November 2009 and expected to complete in late 2018. However the construction became suspended due to the investor facing capital constraints. It was resumed in February 2015.
MHI has been awarding scholarships to students who study engineering in Vietnam and the company starts support for students studying in Japan from this year. Photo:(C) MHI

The five-year programme aims to realise the September 15, 2015 agreement between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Vietnams Ministry of Education and Training (MoET). The main objective of this agreement is the development of human resources so as to spur on the machinery industry in a rapidly industrialising Vietnam.

HUST ceremony on November 4, 2015. Photo:(C) MHI

To this end, each year MHI will provide financial support to underwrite five Vietnamese students study in Japan. Applications for the opening year of the programme is required to be sent before May 1, 2016.

The global market, including Vietnam, is evolving constantly. We have set up this programme to help able-minded Vietnamese students further their academic achievements, and to later work in the rapidly-changing global economic scene. I look forward to the success of this programme towards Vietnams development, and in fostering opportunities to work together in the future, said Kenichi Sonoda, general manager for MHIs Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City liaison offices.

MHI has great expectations for competent Vietnamese students to come and study in Japan, gain valuable experience, acquire new knowledge, and then return home to play an important role in their home countrys development.

Committed to the development of young people  the drivers of their countrys future  MHI has been involved in joint initiatives with Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) for six years, and Vietnam Electric Power University (EPU) for five years, by establishing courses in the fields of nuclear energy and aeronautical engineering.

MHI is one of the worlds leading comprehensive heavy industry companies supplying widely-diversified products underpinned by advanced technologies, e.g., a variety of power generators, aircraft, space rockets, ships, transportation systems, distribution and logistics, environmental facilities, industrial machinery, automobile-related products, and defence-related gear.

Last November, MHI successfully launched the first flight of MRJ, the next-generation regional jet it has been developing. The launch of the H-IIA No.30 rocket on February 17, 2016 was also a success, delivering into orbit the ASTRO-H (Hitomi) X-ray space observatory to study black holes.

MHI is engaged in diversified operations in Vietnam. In the power sector, the company has supplied machinery to Phu My, a highly-efficient gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) power plant (1,090 megawatts) based in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. Achieving an outstanding operational performance, this plant has made a significant contribution to promoting economic development in the country.

Another key ingredient for social infrastructure development is steel. MHI also supplies cold-rolling as well as hot-rolling steel production machinery to local firms in Vietnam.

In addition to supplying quality products and machinery, MHI has established its operation centres in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi to promote businesses that are closely linked to local communities.

More specifically, the company built MHI Engine Systems Vietnam (MHIES-V) just outside of Ho Chi Minh City for emergency diesel generators and MHI Aerospace Vietnam Co., Ltd (MHIVA) in the Hanoi suburbs for assembling structural components for commercial-use aircraft. These MHI projects contribute to local development through the transfer of technology from Japan and also by creating jobs  a win-win situation for both MHI and Vietnam.

For more information please visit the official website link: vied.vn
The water tower, located on Hang Dau street in Hoan Kiem district, was built in 1894. It is decorated with LED lights funded by Dutch company Philips.



The illumination project aims to attract city dwellers to the relic and remind them of the importance of water as well as water protection.



At the lighting ceremony on April 16, Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam Nienke Trooster said the Hang Dau water tower is chosen for the project as her country wants to show its respect for the beautiful and long-standing structure of Hanoi.

Vietnam, especially the Mekong Delta, is facing a fierce drought, she noted, adding that all people must join hands in resolving water and climate change issues and seeking green solutions to attain sustainable development and prosperity.



Vice Chairman of the Hanoi Peoples Committee Nguyen Doan Toan thanked the Dutch Embassy and Philips company. He said the capital city has had sound cooperation with Dutch localities, particularly Amsterdam city, in such fields as urban planning, heritage preservation, tertiary education, water management and climate change adaptation.



He added that Hanoi hopes to receive more assistance from and have long-term cooperation with the Netherlands.



The Hang Dau water tower illumination project is part of the campaign Tomorrow is Green launched by the Dutch Embassy and Consulate General in Vietnam in 2015.



Themed Vietnam  the Netherlands: Partnership on water, the campaign also demonstrates the two countries strong and effective partnership in climate change adaptation and water management.
Making his debut last week, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung stated that the spirit of reform will define his tenure as progressive reforms are vital to the countrys development.

Determination, straightforwardness, and reforms are values that I respect, Dung told local press.

As Dung took the position as helmsman of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI)  a policy-making consultancy body for the government  he pledged that the MPI would successfully accomplish all tasks and goals set out at the recent 12th National Party Congress.

I confirm that during my term in office, the MPI will continue to pioneer administrative and business climate reforms, he said.

Dung also pledged the MPIs future efforts in research and the application of new and modern economic models such as models for special economic zones, free trans-shipment ports, and international financial centres to give Vietnam a fresh impetus for growth, and to attract additional international capital into the country.

Reforms are not words; reforms must be recognisable actions. If we offer policies which are against the law of nature and which hinder development, and then later remove them, claiming we are making reforms, well, clearly theyre not reforms, Dung noted.

I will also make great efforts to develop the ministry as an efficient governmental arm for the design of socio-economic policies and strategies. Any illegal sub-licence and unnecessary administrative procedures will be curbed and removed, while business conditions will be made clearer.

Dung, 56, who will steer the MPI during the period 2016-2020, said he would continue the reforms initiated by his predecessor Bui Quang Vinh, who served as MPI Minister since August 2011.

During Vinhs (63) previous five-year tenure, the MPI made great contributions to the countrys socio-economic development. Legal systems have been strengthened and amended to boost the countrys economic reforms and earn the confidence of investors and enterprises.

In particular, the MPIs work on amendments to the laws on Investment and Enterprises have been hailed as breakthroughs in the local investment climate, allowing enterprises free rein to engage in all sectors not prohibited by the law.

In addition to these laws, the MPI has also helped the government release various decrees on guiding the implementation of the laws, with new breakthroughs in reforms.

The MPI has also  on behalf of the government  co-operated with the international community to design the Vietnam 2035 Report, which outlines the path for Vietnam to reach upper-middle-income status within two decades.

Vietnam has to boost its development, otherwise it will lag behind other countries, or suffer protracted stagnation, Vinh said.
Steaming bowls: CNN has named Ha Nois pho as one of the top ten most delicious dishes in the world.

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 Dan, 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 Dinh, 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 VND 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 Duc 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 VND50,000 each. We did not have to wait long because there were not so many diners compared with Bat Dan.

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 VND40,000 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.
From now until the end of this years second quarter, competent authorities will deter all illegal imports of agricultural material, including antibiotics, pesticide, fertilizer, and other prohibited substances, Tam said during a conference on food safety on Wednesday.

Authorized units will first focus on dealing with the excessive use of sabultamol, a lean-meat agent that causes animals to gain weight in a short time but is detrimental to human health, in husbandry, as well as Vat Yellow, a cancer-causing substance used in paints and dyes, in food processing, the deputy minister continued.

Inspections will also be carried out more frequently without advance notice at breeding farms and food processing facilities across the country, he said, adding that those animals and products found containing the forbidden agents would be disposed of.

Individuals and organizations responsible for the violations in food safety will be severely punished as per regulations under the Penal Code, which will take effect on July 1.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will cooperate with localities in Vietnam to introduce consumers to trustworthy certified products and food processors, Tam added.

Recent food safety offenses in Vietnam

Food inspectors proposed on Wednesday that the Peoples Committee in Hoc Mon District, Ho Chi Minh City, impose a VND8.5 million (US$381) fine on Huynh Kim Lien for her violations in the sale of animal products.

Local inspectors had discovered over four metric tons of pork and other swine parts decomposing at Liens business facility.

She also failed to present any license, permit, or food safety certificate.

That same day, an official in the central province of Quang Tri affirmed that five out of seven types of bamboo shoots as food in several major markets in the locale tested positive for Vat Yellow.

Authorities have ordered merchants at all markets in the locality not to trade such kind of products.

Also on Wednesday, environmental police in the north-central province of Nghe An confiscated over five metric tons of processed bamboo shoots at Duong Van Lois residence.

The products were contained in several barrels, of which one was infested with maggots, according to officers.
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Activist Ouch Leng has received international recognition for his work documenting illegal logging and land abuses in Cambodia over the past two decades.

The Goldman Environmental Foundation on Monday announced that Ouch Leng was among six grassroots campaigners from around the world to be awarded the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize, which recognizes their efforts to protect the environment and means more financial support for their causes.

Its an honor for Cambodia and its people, Ouch Leng told VOA Khmer after hearing about his award.

He dedicated the award to his countrymen who are fighting to preserve Cambodias remaining forests in the face of rampant illegal logging and damaging government policies.

I would like to appeal to the government to reform its environmental protection policy to ensure the forest is saved for the next generation, he said.

I promise to utilize resources and knowledge to continue the fight and preserve the forest, and I call on people to stand up against illegal loggers, while the government is blindly allowing it to happen.

The endorsement is all the more meaningful given Ouch Lengs life story, which mirrors Cambodias own journey from the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime through years of poverty to the ongoing crisis of landlessness.

Ouch Leng was born in the 1970s in rural Takeo province to a family of peasant farmers. The family survived the Khmer Rouge regime by hiding out in the forests just south of Phnom Penh. His memory of the sanctuary the wilderness provided at that time would drive Ouch Leng later in life to strive to conserve Cambodias forests.

When the war was over, Ouch Lengs family found themselves landless, and moved to Phnom Penh in the early 1980s. My mother became beggar with mental illness, he recalled, while my father worked as cyclo pedaler to earn a living and support my studies.

Left largely on his own, Ouch Leng would work Phnom Penhs streets collecting garbage to make small amounts of money that helped fund his education, he said. He made an arrangement where he could attend school if he helped out the teachers and cleaned the classrooms.

Despite this adversity, Ouch Leng graduated high school in 1993 and won a scholarship to study law at the Royal University of Law and Economics. Since completing his degree in 1997, he has dedicated himself to addressing what he saw as Cambodias two most damaging problems: land grabbing and deforestation.

Under a program intended to draw investment in industrial-scale agricultural projects, the government has since the early 2000s issued hundreds of economic land concessions, or ELCs, to private companies and individuals.

Corruption and poor oversight of this program led to mass evictionsoften enforced through state violenceas well as deforestation when concessions were handed out for areas covered by forest. Additionally, concessions have been used as a cover for illegal logging in supposedly protected forests, with illegal timber smuggled into concession areas and passed off as legally felled wood.

Ouch Lengs approach to this problem was to shine a light on the murky goings in the forests.

He went undercover, posing at various times as laborer, timber dealer, driver, tourist and cook to document illegal logging. He went after Cambodias largest timber magnate, Try Pheap, publishing photo and video evidence of the plunder that went unimpeded thanks to links between loggers and high-level government officials.

Doing so has meant taking considerable risks with his own safety.

In 2012, Ouch Lengs sometime colleague Chut Wutty was gunned down while guiding journalists to investigate forestry crimes in Koh Kong province. And in November last year, a park ranger and a police officer were gunned down in Preah Vihear province while patrolling forests for illegal logging and poaching. Ouch Leng has been subjected to threats against himself and his family that have forced him into hiding more than once.

Despite the perilousness of confronting those involved in deforestation in Cambodia, he promotes an approach to conservation that mobilizes communities to stand up to loggers and authorities.

We all work voluntarily as a community because of the unresponsiveness from the government to help us, said Ouch Leng, who founded the Cambodia Human Rights Task Force, and has also worked with the countrys established rights groups Adhoc and Licadho.

The work of Ouch Leng and others has gained some traction in recent years, and the government has begun to respond. In 2013, the government called an end to the policy of awarding economic land concessions, and later returned some land to its former occupiers.

He vows to keep up his work, however. I am going to live up to this recognition, he told VOA Khmer of the award. I call upon the people of Cambodia to join me and the community to protect our forest for younger generations.
A war of words between China and Taiwan over how the two sides should handle alleged perpetrators of telecom fraud targeting Chinese citizens is increasingly turning political.



But more than politics, analysts say the case highlights gaping differences between the two sides legal systems, and the importance and need for collaboration in fighting such fraud.



Forcible deportation



The battle began last week when authorities in Kenya allowed Chinese authorities to forcibly deport more than 40 Taiwan citizens back to China. The Taiwanese had been acquitted in Kenya of undertaking telecom-related business without a license and were supposed to be returned home, but instead were shipped off to China.

Authorities in Beijing have said little about how they would be prosecuted and refused to respond to requests from Taiwan to see the alleged fraud suspects.



Already, two alleged fraud suspects, surnamed Chien and Liu, have been either quoted or paraded on state-media and television in what appeared to be a forced confession even before they were indicted or put on trial.

Fraud suspects released



However, when another group of fraud suspects were nabbed in Malaysia, Taiwan managed to have them returned to the island. After they were returned to Taipei, the suspects were released for lack of evidence, further enraging authorities in China.



A top Communist party-backed newspaper, the Global Times, reacted angrily to Malaysias decision to return the Taiwanese fraud suspects to Taipei.



In the sharply worded opinion piece, The Global Times complained about how the suspects were released just hours after their return because of a lack of evidence, saying the authorities actions had disgraced Taiwans media and rule of law.

A judiciary case, which should be fact-oriented, is turned into a political event across the Straits. The suspects even applauded Taiwan for its human rights after being released, the editorial said.

Taiwan harboring criminals

Chinese victims themselves further accused Taiwan of harboring criminals.

I heard from news that those Taiwanese fraudsters have been arrested, which has slightly eased my mind. But now, we were told that some, who were deported back to Taiwan, walked away free, a victims daughter told state media CCTV.

Taiwan is harboring and conniving the criminals. [Under such circumstances,] there will be more victims falling for their scams, she added.

Another 81-year-old victim agreed.

They broke the law. Why were they released? This shouldnt be tolerated. This is injustice, the victim, surnamed Wu, told CCTV.

Featuring confessions of both the victims and the suspects, the lengthy TV report, however, gave no evidence or connection between the cases and those arrested.

The suspect surnamed Liu admitted he worked on a 2-3 percent commission in addition to a monthly pay of under $1,000. Lius mother had testified and pleaded innocence for her son in Taiwans legislature.

Chinese state media have said at least some of the fraud suspects allegedly called Chinese citizens and pretended to be prosecutors demanding payment for crimes or infractions, with the threat of jail for those who didn't pay up. The victims were allegedly told to wire money to an account to clear their name.

Differences in law interpretation



In Taiwan, many have called the forced deportation to mainland China of more than 40 Taiwanese an "illegal abduction." The Global Times editorial argued, however, the release of the suspects shows the ugly side of Taiwan politics.

Chiu Tai-san, designated minister of justice under the incoming DPP government, said he strongly disagrees with that assessment.

The incident does highlight gaping differences about the rule of law and the protection of perpetrators rights between Taiwan and China, Chiu said.

For example, Taiwan honors the presumption of innocence before anyone is found guilty and lawyers should be present during the interrogation of perpetrators - due processes and practices - which China often ignores, he said.

All in all, in any case, no countries should or will give up its jurisdiction over prosecuting its nationals, who break the law either at home or abroad. Otherwise, it will create lots of discrepancy for the measurement of penalties on its people, he added.

Telephone scams growing



Last November, China launched a campaign to crack down on telecom fraud, something that state-media have said is a fast-growing crime. According to official estimates, the telephone scams have already resulted in more than $1.5 billion in losses in recent years.

Without giving any specific details, a February report in the English language China Daily said China had arrested more than 9,400 suspects since the campaign began. Among those suspects, the report said, 950 were arrested overseas with the help of authorities in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Malaysia.

And thats why collaboration is so important, Chiu said.

The closer the cooperation between Taiwan and China, the bigger the chance to combat the [cross-border] crime and allow the justice to prevail while striking a win-win for both governments, Chiu said, urging both sides to refrain from putting up more shows to politicize the controversy.
The United Nations warned Monday that growing attacks as well as the misuse of medical and education facilities by all parties to the Afghan conflict have reduced the availability of health care, and limited childrens access to these essential services in the past three years.

A new report jointly produced by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and UNICEF says violence-related activities last year killed 31 health workers and personnel associated with the education sector, wounded another 58 while 115 were abducted. The figures marked a sharp increase over incidents documented in 2014.

The reports findings are deeply troubling. It is simply unacceptable for teachers, doctors and nurses to be subjected to violence or threats, and for schools and medical facilities to be misused or attacked, a statement released in Kabul quoted UNAMA chief Nicholas Haysom as saying.

Haysom called on all parties to take measures to protect education and health services in Afghanistan.

The U.N. released its report as fighting has intensified across Afghanistan and reports say Afghan security forces have occupied schools in Helmand province to use them as bases against the resurgent Taliban.

The majority of the 257 incidents documented in 2015 were comprised of threats and intimidation, including death threats, assaults of health and education personnel, forced closures of schools, letters prohibiting school attendance - particularly against girls - extortion and other harmful acts, the report noted.

It also documented incidents of improvised explosive devices detonated near schools and clinics, killing and wounding health care and education personnel.

In 2015 children increasingly struggled to access health and education services in Afghanistan due to insecurity and conflict-related violence, further exacerbated by high levels of chronic poverty throughout the country, said Akhil Iyer, UNICEF representative in Afghanistan.

The U.N. report says conflict-related violence resulted in the partial or complete closure of more than 369 schools in 2015, affecting nearly 140,000 students and 600 teachers across Afghanistan.

It also noted attacks, threats and explicit prohibitions imposed to restrict girls education in the war-hit country.

Efforts must be redoubled to enable children - particularly girls - free and safe access to medical services and education, said Danielle Bell, UNAMA human rights director.

On Sunday, UNAMA said children were almost one-third of the nearly 2,000 civilian casualties caused by the Afghan conflict in the first three months of 2016.
Russia is increasing diplomatic contacts with the Taliban insurgent group in Afghanistan as Moscow looks to counter Islamic State (IS) gains in Central Asia and increase its influence in the nation it once occupied.

We and the Taliban have channels for exchanging information, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, told the Interfax news agency recently. The Taliban interest objectively coincides with ours, he said, referring to IS, which emerged in Afghanistan last year as a rival to the Taliban in eastern parts of the country.

In pursuing the Taliban, Moscow is playing a two-sided diplomatic game, analysts say.

Which way does the aid flow?

More than two decades after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia has upped its military and economic aid to the Afghan government, which is battling the Taliban in several areas of the country.

That aid includes 10,000 Kalashnikov rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition that the government will use to fight both IS and the Taliban insurgency, analysts say.

Moscow does not want to seem as a supporter of the Taliban, said Kabul-based security analyst Wahid Muzhda. It has good ties with Kabul, too. Its contacts with the Taliban do not mean that it is against the Afghanistan government.

Pakistans English-language newspaper The Nation reported in December that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour held a secret meeting with President Vladimir Putin to discuss possible Russian support in the Taliban's fight against IS.

VOA could not confirm the authenticity of the report. The Taliban said in a statement that it does not see a need for receiving aid from anyone concerning so-called Daesh - the Arabic acronym for IS.

But, according to analysts, Russia sees Taliban help as essential in fighting the spillover effects of the IS insurgency in Afghanistan.

Battling Islamic State militants

Militants from Central Asian nations have been training under IS in the tribal belt along the Durand Line between Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to IS video and military intelligence in several nations.

Central Asians have also been fighting alongside the Taliban.

Some of the militants recently joined IS and may return to their native countries for terror activities, Russian media say.

Russia is genuinely concerned by the deteriorating security situation in Central Asia and afraid that it might be forced to help its Central Asian allies in their fight against terrorism, said Stephen Blank, a Russian analyst at the American Foreign Policy Council.

But the Afghan government, while publicly welcoming Russian aid, is casting a wary eye on Moscows Taliban overtures.

A number of [Afghanistans] neighboring countries, including Russia, have reached out to various Taliban splinter groups to establish information channels, said an adviser at the presidential palace in Kabul, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Uzbekistan is probably the only neighboring country that has not approached the Taliban, the adviser told VOA. Tajikistan, he said, "played a crucial role in facilitating contacts between Russia and the Taliban.

It is not clear whether or not the Taliban has received any military or financial assistance from Russia, but the group has been trying to gain international recognition, according to the Kabul presidential palace adviser.

Taliban insurgents have increased militant activities in various parts of Afghanistan. The Taliban warned last week that new attacks coming in the new fighting season. The Afghan government, for its part, called the Taliban spring offensive warning mere propaganda.

Afghanistans northeastern province of Kunduz briefly fell to the Taliban last year. According to Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry, around 1,300 foreign militants, most of them members of the Pakistani Taliban, participated in the assault on Kunduz.

IS militants in Afghanistan have established a presence in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar and launched multiple attacks on government and Taliban security checkpoints.

Recent Afghan and NATO military operations have helped clear many areas in Nangarhar of IS presence. But reports of fighting between government and IS forces  and the Taliban and IS  continue.

Russian officials say IS fighters in Afghanistan plan to use the country a jumping-off point.

They have other aims, said Kabulov, the Russian president's special envoy to Afghanistan. They need Afghanistan as a springboard for a wider expansion.

But the Taliban have reportedly told Moscow that IS is using Afghanistan mostly as a training ground and, according to analyst Muzhda, the Taliban would not support the spread of terrorist activities into neighboring Central Asian countries.

Still, Russia is conducting its second major military drill in as many months in Tajikistan near the Afghanistan border as part of what it calls anti-terrorism training.
Brazil is in political turmoil awaiting reaction from President Dilma Rousseff on the launch of impeachment proceedings against her less than four months before the Olympic Games open in Rio de Janeiro.

The Senate could vote in early May to proceed with impeachment against the 68-year-old leftist leader, and if it does, she would be forced to step down for up to 180 days while an impeachment trial is conducted. Only a simple Senate majority is needed to proceed with a trial and Brazil media reports say 45 of the 81 senators favor a trial.

Vice President Michel Temer, once Rousseff's ally but now accused by her of being a traitor, would assume the presidency if Rousseff is suspended. But he has been implicated in Brazil's mammoth corruption scheme centered on the state-run Petrobas oil company and he also signed off on some of the government's same budgetary maneuvers at the heart of the impeachment case against Rousseff.

In six hours of raucous voting Sunday, Brazil's lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, voted overwhelmingly, by a 367-137 margin, to start the impeachment process.

Fireworks lit up the night sky in Sao Paulo and Rio following the vote. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, many calling for Rousseff's ouster and others supporting her, took to the streets in cities and towns across the country in peaceful protests.

"Impeachment!" shouted the front page headline Monday in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. "Close to the end," another leading paper, O Globo, said, adding, "Dilma Rousseff yesterday started to say goodbye to the presidency of Brazil."

Rousseff is vowing a "long" fight against possible impeachment.

During a televised news conference she said that she is "outraged."

"I have strength, spirit, and courage. I will not be beaten. I will not be paralyzed...This is not the beginning of the end. The battle has begun. This fight will be very long and memorable," she said.

Rousseff had especially harsh words for Vice President Michel Temer - her former political ally who is a leader of the pro-impeachment forces and would take over if she is impeached. She called Temer a traitor.

Olympic preparations continue

The International Olympic Committee said the impeachment process against Rousseff should not halt work leading up to the summer games, set to open August 5. It said preparations "have now entered into a very operational phase where these kinds of political issues have much less influence than at other stages of organizing the Olympic Games."

Political surveys show Rousseff's popularity has dipped into single digits amid charges that she engaged in budgetary sleight of hand in 2014 before her re-election to mask the country's sharply declining economic fortunes, tactics her supporters point out have also been employed by other Brazilian leaders in the past.

Not long ago, Brazil was viewed as an emerging global economic powerhouse, but now is in the midst of its worst economic downturn since the 1930s, which many of Rousseff's critics blame on her. Opinion polls show 60 percent of Brazilians support her impeachment.

Rousseff has not been accused of corruption, but her government has been tainted by the graft scandal at Petrobas.

Congresso em Foco, a prominent watchdog group in Brazil, said that more than 300 of the lawmakers who voted against Rousseff are under investigation for corruption, fraud or electoral offenses. Chamber of Deputies Speaker Eduardo Cunha, second in line to the presidency, has been charged with taking $5 million in bribes in the Petrobas scheme.

Endemic corruption

Latin American analyst Sean Burges of the Australian National University told VOA that the Brazilian governments of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Rousseff, his handpicked successor, have engaged in "pretty incredible acts of corruption, but no worse than any other party that's been in charge in Brazil."

He said that "in terms of legitimacy, whoever is in charge in Brazil is going to have a horrendous time."

The move to impeach Rousseff is the second time in less than a quarter century Brazil has opened impeachment proceedings against a leader. In 1992, then-president Fernando Collor de Mello resigned after he was impeached and before the Senate took up his case of alleged influence-peddling.

In the lower house Sunday, the chamber's 513 deputies rose to announce their impeachment vote at a microphone, greeted by cheers and sometimes jeers from the rest of the members.

It took them five hours to reach the needed two-thirds majority, or 342 votes, to initiate the process. Rousseff's opposition cheered wildly when support reached the 342 vote threshold.

Jose Eduardo Cardozo, Rousseff's attorney general, described the vote as "a coup against democracy."

Ruling Workers' Party leader in the House, Jose Guimaraes said, "The coup plotters have won." He called it a "temporary defeat" and said it does not mean the war is over.

"The fight will continue in the streets and in the Senate," he said.

Rousseff was first elected in 2010, with the leftist Workers' Party now in control for the past 13 years.

VOA's Victor Beattie contributed to this report.
Carnival cruise lines says it will allow Cuban-born passengers to book travel to Cuba, but will delay trips if the island's government does not change its policy allowing nationals to return by sea.

The U.S.-based leisure company had planned to start cruises from Miami, Florida, to Cuba on May 1 following the historic restoration of diplomatic ties between the two nations.

But Carnival has not allowed Cuban-born Americans to book the trips because a Cuban law that dates to the Cold War says they cannot visit the island by sea.

Carnival says it is negotiating with the Cuban government to lift the restrictions, and in the meantime will accept bookings from all travelers to Cuba.

The company says that if the ban is not lifted, the trips will be postponed.

Carnival's 700-passenger Adonia is set to sail every other week and dock in the Cuban ports of Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Chile.

The weeklong cruise starts at $1,800.
A court in Pakistan sentenced two men to life in prison Monday in a major child sex abuse ring that outraged the country.

The two men in Punjab province were also fined more than $2,800.

They are the first suspects jailed after the Pakistani senate passed a bill for the first time formally outlawing child sex abuse, pornography and trafficking.

Lawmakers acted after officials uncovered a brutally cruel pedophile ring last year in Punjab.

As many as 300 families say members of a gang videotaped themselves sexually abusing children and blackmailed their parents by threatening to release the tapes.

Gang members allegedly threatened to use knives and guns to force the children into sex acts.

Seventeen suspects have been arrested.
The death toll from a raid into Ethiopia by South Sudanese gunmen has risen to 208, according to top Ethiopian officials.

Mothers and children were among those killed in the attack on villages in Ethiopia's western Gambella region Friday. The assailants also kidnapped more than 100 children and stole more than 2,000 cattle, authorities say.

There had [previously] been abduction of children and raiding of cattle from Gambella through crossing the Ethiopian border; however, Fridays attack was massive, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said on state television Sunday evening.

Ethiopia is blaming the attack on members of South Sudan's Murle tribe, who often stage cross-border cattle and kidnapping raids.

Officials say Ethiopian forces killed 60 members of the attackers so far, and troops had crossed into South Sudan to continue to pursue the gunmen.

Local journalists reported the attackers were carrying AK-47 assault rifles and that the men were killing anyone who resisted.

Ethiopia is host to thousands of South Sudanese refugees - about 272,000 in the Gambella region, which borders South Sudan - who fled after war broke out in their country in December 2013. Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million people forced to flee their homes during the war.

Ethiopian officials say the raid has no connection to either the South Sudanese government or the countrys rebel groups.
European Union foreign and defense ministers will meet late Monday in Luxembourg to discuss a plan to send security personnel to Tripoli to help train police and border guards for Libyas new U.N.-endorsed unity government.

The security mission will only go ahead if requested by the Libyan Government of National Accord. Its first phase is to be restricted just to the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

The EU stands ready to offer security sector support in response to possible Government of National Accord requests," says an early draft statement prepared by diplomats for the Luxembourg meeting.

There is a growing urgency for Libya to be stabilized, with anxiety mounting that people-smugglers will exploit the chaos in the country and as many as 270,000 migrants may seek to travel across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy this year. That would prompt a new phase in a migration crisis roiling Europe.

Western fears are rising also about the expansion of an affiliate of the Islamic State terror group in Libya. U.S. officials told VOA they estimate the affiliate now has 6,000 fighters, mainly Tunisians and sub-Saharan Africans.

The Libyan government has not given the green-light for the security mission. The countrys putative Prime Minister Fayez Seraj will speak to ministers during a video conference, but he has been reluctant to approve the security mission, fearing it will compound opposition to his government.

Domestic foes argue the so-called unity government lacks legitimacy and has been foisted on the country by foreign powers.

Separate from the security mission, European ministers have been discussing whether to deploy a larger military stabilization force in Libya.

In March, U.S. ambassador to Italy John Philips told an Italian newspaper that Italy could send up to 5,000 troops as part of a broader European force.

We need to make Tripoli safe and ensure that ISIS is no longer free to strike, Phillips said.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi quickly shot down Philips remarks, saying conditions were not in place for an EU military intervention in what was once an Italian colony.

Last week, in London, British Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Crispin Blunt, accused Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond of failing to be straightforward about plans for the possible deployment of up to a thousand British troops. Hammond denied Britain is preparing such a deployment.

The only reason for having the Government of National Accord installed in Tripoli is to have legitimacy to intervene in Libya, that is the only reason why the GNA is there, says Olivier Guitta, managing director at GlobalStrat, a security and Geopolitical risk consultancy.

The British, the French, the Americans, they all have special forces in Libya already. They want to increase them and have a much bigger operation.

He adds, Since November ISs numbers in Libya have probably tripled. And there is evidence that IS is getting involved in the people-smuggling trade and forcing groups of asylum-seekers or migrant families to pay for their trips across the Mediterranean by agreeing to enroll a relative or a member of the group in IS. Potentially you could have 10,000 or 15,000 IS members very quickly that way.

Both the more limited security mission, and a broader military intervention, appear to be dependent on the Government of National Accord being able to establish itself. Failure to do so, reduces the likelihood that European governments will agree among themselves to act. A key concern is mission creep and of European troops being drawn into wider conflicts with other armed groups and militias aside from the Islamic State.

The progress the GNA makes in establishing its authority, and succeeding in replacing two rival governments in Libya that have been in a standoff since 2014, will be a crucial factor in how we proceed, says a Brussels-based European diplomat.

But the GNAs prospects took a turn for the worse at the weekend as heavy gunfire erupted in Tripoli amid clashes in three separate parts of the Libyan capital between militias supportive of the unity government and those opposed to it.

One militia leader warned in a phone conversation with VOA the clashes are just the beginning of a push against the unity government and its supporters. We will not allow the GNA to move forward. We want elections and not a government imposed on us by the international community, he said. He asked for his name not to be disclosed in this article.

Western officials are hoping war fatigue, the allure of foreign aid and development money, and the growing threat of IS in the chaotic North African country will help to build momentum for the unity government.

The rival governments the unity government is meant replace appear ready to concede to the unity government.

In another promising sign, several mainly Islamist militias who have been controlling Tripoli since 2014 either announced their neutrality or agreed to support the new government, but the weekend clashes have upended the early hope it will face no violent obstruction.

In another promising sign, several mainly Islamist militias who have been controlling Tripoli since 2014 either announced their neutrality or agreed to support the new government, but the weekend clashes have upended the early hope it will face no violent obstruction.
A motorboat putters in the falling darkness, the sound of Arabic spoken above the engine. What happens next to the young men aboard is anybodys guess.

By now, the odyssey of the massive wave of migrants trying to reach Europe by sea is all too familiar, captured on YouTube and nightly news channels. Some become success stories, others find themselves begging on European streets.

Still others have been sent home, and more than 40,000 have died trying to cross the Mediterranean since 2000.

Now, Europes migrant crisis is being viewed from a historical lens at a stately Paris museum, with an exhibit focused on the worlds shifting border walls and their imperfect ability to keep people out.

Borders can appear and disappear, and most which were considered very important, such as the Berlin Wall or the Iron Curtain, are now quite forgotten by the young, said political scientist and migration expert Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, who helped put together the "Frontiers" exhibit at the National Museum of Immigration History.

Crossing is inevitable

Another lesson of history: All borders are ultimately crossed. If we control at one point, the migrants will arrive at another, Wihtol de Wenden said.

Captured through photos, paintings, personal stories and videos such as that of the young men at sea, "Frontiers" looks not only at Europes recent immigration history  and the physical and administrative barriers erected over the years  but also at some of the major border walls that exist in the world today, including Israels Gaza wall, the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, and the nearly 1,100 kilometers of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico frontier.

Rather than shrinking, border walls have actually grown since the fall of the Berlin Wall more than a quarter-century ago, and since the 1983 Schengen treaty aimed at creating a "border-free" travel zone within Europe.

After the end of the Berlin Wall, Europeans thought there would never again be walls in the world, said Helene Orain, the museums general director. But the reality is very different. We build walls around the world every day.

The exhibit resonates now more than ever, as new frontiers take shape. In the United States, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has called for constructing a permanent wall to stem the immigration flow from Mexico, while Israel reportedly plans to increase the height of its border fence with Egypt to keep African migrants out.

EU-Turkey deal

For its part, the European Union has begun sending illegal migrants back to Turkey under a new deal with Ankara, even as national border fences sprout in countries like Macedonia and Hungary. Across the region, too, high unemployment and fears of terrorism have further hardened attitudes toward immigrants and cast new doubts about Schengens viability.

Public opinion is divided, said analyst Wihtol de Wenden. Some people think we need more fortress Europe, but fortress Europe creates a lot of dead people, and the cost of control is very high.

In France, the migrant influx and last years terrorist attacks have fueled support for the far-right, anti-immigrant National Front party and growing distrust of foreigners. Surveys also show most French oppose accepting new asylum-seekers and believe not only are there too many immigrants in France, but the newcomers have changed their country in ways they dont like.

Yet even as some French cling stubbornly to the myth of "our ancestors, the Gauls," "Frontiers" underscores the reality of France as a nation of immigrants. There are photos of Portuguese, who arrived in postwar France for work by the tens of thousands, hiking across the Pyrenees in the 1960s and Bohemians being expelled from the country in 1900.

Nureyev's visa

On display, too, is the yellowed visa French authorities gave to star Soviet dancer Rudolph Nureyev when he defected to the West in 1961. There's also a recording of a young Afghan asylum-seeker describing his tortuous journey to France via Turkey and Greece. Why are there frontiers when were made of the same flesh? he asks.

Fifty-five percent of French have foreign origins, but I think 10 years ago people ignored that statistical fact, Orain said. Things are changing, but its a long-term job.

For Helene Renouvin, 56, visiting the exhibit one recent afternoon, Europes border walls have sprouted up in ways that are almost banal. You get used to it, and dont realize it, she said, describing events like World War II, which created new forms of surveillance and identity documents.

Many other visitors draw parallels with the current migrant crisis. I always thought it was inhumane not to accept them, said high school student Jinane Dolbec, whose parents migrated to France from Lebanon and Canada. The exhibit has made me realize this even more.
The Gambian government is defending the arrest of several opposition leaders and their supporters. This, as the U.N. secretary-general has called for the immediate and unconditional release of those arrested.

The United States has also condemned what it calls the Gambian governments severe response to recent peaceful protests.

Gambian security forces Saturday arrested Ousainu Darboe, leader of the countrys main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) and some of his supporters. There are also reports that Solo Sandeng, the partys National Organizing Secretary, had been tortured to death while in police detention.

Sheriff Bojan, Gambias information minister said he knows nothing about anyone being killed. But he said opposition leader Darboe and his cohorts broke Gambian law by holding a demonstration without permission from the police.

Mr. Darboe is veteran lawyer and hes quite an informed that in the Gambia just like in every other country there is something called the Public Order Act which forbids procession, street protests, meetings, and so forth without first seeking and being granted permission by the police. But he and his cohorts decided to completely flout that law, and in the Gambia, just like in any other country, there acts and reactions; there causes and effects. So, I dont they have anyone to blame for their dispersal and subsequent arrests, he said.

But Pa Samba Jow, spokesman for the Democratic Union of Gambian Activists in the Diaspora said Gambias constitution guarantees the right to peaceful protest.

First of all, let us be very clear. Section 25, subsection 1-D of the Gambian constitution gives every Gambian the right to peacefully protest. So, it is absolute incorrect to suggest that one needs a permit to protest. But what is important to us is, what has those people done to warrant a brute that was used by the government to confront them. So the matter here is, if there are any law breakers, the law breakers are the government and the security forces because they violated the fundamental human and constitutional rights of Gambians by attacking peaceful protesters, Jow said.

Bojan said those arrested will be taken to court in due time, but he said security and maintenance of the public is paramount in Gambia.

The president of the Islamic Republic of the Gambia, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh has been saying time and again that public law and order and security will not be compromised in the Gambia. The Gambia is known for its civility, is known for its stability, is known for its tranquility, and no one will be allowed to put a pin in that balloon of tranquility, Bojan said.

Jow described Bojan as the minister of misinformation. He challenged the government to produce Solo Sandeng and others believed to have been killed by security forces.

I wish that we were talking about somebody who was speaking for a credible government, but this is a government that has no credibility and of course what they have to do is to resort to denials. The simple matter here is that if Solo Sandeng is alive, if Fatoumata Jawara is alive, and if Ngoi Njie is alive, all they can do is to parade them on national TV and let them speak to the Gambian people to tell them that guess what, we are alive and well, Jow said.

President Jammeh, who seized power in 1994, is regularly accused of rights abuses and of running Gambia with an iron fist.

Amnesty International in its 2015 annual report accused Jammehs government of enforced disappearances, torture, ill-treatment, custodian deaths and a flawed criminal justice system.

But Information Minister Bojan said most of those talking about human rights abuses in Gambia are former government officials who had been fired from the government and fled to Europe and America where they are now stoking the fire of violence and anarchy."

Right now in the Gambia, there are newspapers of all opinions. If you buy a newspaper in the streets you will see the most hard-hitting being printed against the government. So the Gambia is definitely a free country. Although we have issues like any other country, but I think it is a haven of peace. The Gambia is right now on the cuff of great things to come, he said.

Bojan said Gambia has been notified recently that it will be hosting the 2018 Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit.

A lot of good things are about to happen to the Gambia and nobody will be allowed to distract the government of his Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh from developing the Gambia to where he wants it to be, he said.

He also said President Jammeh last year granted amnesty to more than 320 inmates, some of them on death row.

Gambians will go to the polls at the end of the year to elect a new president.

Gambian opposition leader Lamin Waa Juwara of the National Democratic Action Movement Party last week called for presidential term limits in Gambia.

President Jammeh is one of a number of African leaders who have removed term limits from their constitution.

But Bojan said it was Gambians who voted to remove term limits.

We have to be clear, before the 1997 constitution was ushered in, there was a referendum, and according to the outcome of that referendum, Gambians do not want term limits. If somebody is doing a good job, you dont need term limits, Bojan said.
Indonesia has reacted positively to a Human Rights Watch report about how mentally ill patients are being treated in the country, with Jakarta admitting shortfalls in dealing with the issue in accordance with modern medical standards.

The Indonesian government has launched several campaigns to eradicate shackling of the mentally ill and disabled, a practice that has officially been banned since 1977.

But among the 400,000 people who suffer from mental illness, more than 57,000 are still shackled at some point, according to the Indonesian Social Ministry.

Just before Human Rights Watch released its report and recommendations last month called Living in Hell, the ministry declared a campaign to end the practice, setting a deadline of next year.

Limited access, facilities

In its efforts to end the practice of abuse, the government will have to tackle the problems of limited access and awareness.

The Galuh Foundation, located at Bekasi, just a one-hour drive from Jakarta, is a home for mentally ill patients.

The facility has 254 mentally ill patients of various ages, including children.

The foundation, opened in 1982 and funded by donations and support from the government, once used only herbal medication to treat patients and was one of many institutions that shackled mentally ill patients.

However, Galuh, which is free for people with conditions ranging from Down's Syndrome to methamphetamine psychosis to schizophrenia, said it has changed.

Nina Mardiana, Galuh program director, told VOA the facility had previously had to chain some of the mentally ill patients. She said it was necessary because of a lack of resources and facilities, including lack of a special room to treat new patients, no modern psychiatric techniques, or even regular visits from a doctor or nurse.

We chained [the patient] not to limit their freedom to move, no, it was temporary only for safety. Mainly, [we did chain] because of limited [workers and facilities], Mardiana said.

But the foundation is now in far better condition to help the patients, she told VOA.

No longer chain, shackle

The facility now has an isolation room, she said, so they no longer chain or shackle patients.

Galuh is also able to afford to in bring in doctors and nurses, medicine and modern psychiatric techniques. Even so, providing medication is still a struggle.

The HRW report highlighted the lack of facilities and services to mentally ill patients in Indonesia, a problem the government acknowledged.

We realized it, because of our effort in helping and reaching at the moment is not yet able to cover all, said Dr. Fidiansyah, director of prevention and mental health control from the Indonesian health ministry.

Fidiansyah added that geography is also a reason why mental health patients cannot always get proper medical services.

The practice of shackling was found in very remote areas, where access to transportation and mental health facilities is limited.

Among Indonesias 34 provinces, eight have no mental hospitals.

Of the countrys 48 mental hospitals, half are located on the most populous island of Java.

Government efforts

The Indonesian government said it has launched a campaign to end shackling by 2017.

The national parliament also recently passed legislation on the rights of the mentally ill.

Officials said they are trying to spread the word on the new health law to make people realize that shackling is forbidden and that those who still do it can be charged with a crime.

Indonesia is also sending teams of workers into often-remote hamlets to help free patients kept in chains and ensure they get the medical treatment they need.

Yet, mental illness education and awareness are still lacking among the family members of many patients.

Social stigmas

Nahar, director of social rehabilitation for Indonesian Social Ministry, said families struggle with a family member's mental illness because of social stigmas. Nahar said many also still believe the mentally ill are possessed by demons or under the influence of black magic.

Some patients who show improvement are not always welcomed back by their family or society.

Family acceptance is one of our problems. When [a mentally ill patient] is ready to go home, but the family has rejected [them], thats a problem for us, Mardiana said.

Even if family acceptance isn't an issue, Mardiana said patients are returned to Galuh because of the lack of acceptance by neighbors.

Social Ministry's Nahar said he is optimistic the country will have a better system in place by next year to help the mentally ill and disabled.

"So this two years we are going to do socialization through a stop-shackling campaign and we will maintain that all institutions related to mental disability people or fulfillment effort of mental disability people can be working effectively all around Indonesia, Nahar said.

The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in late 2006, which calls on countries to promote, protect and ensure full human rights and freedoms by all persons with long-term disabilities  physical, mental, intellectual or sensory.
Iran's concerns about its perceived lack of sanctions relief and Syria's faltering political talks will be focal points for Secretary of State John Kerry when he sits down for talks Tuesday with his Iranian counterpart.

Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will meet in New York, at the start of a trip for Kerry that will include stops in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Iranian officials have complained that their country is not getting the sanctions relief specified in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the landmark nuclear agreement that was implemented in January.

"All of the countries should take necessary measures to remove the obstacles to the implementation of the nuclear deal," Zarif said at a Saturday news conference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

"We have seen the Americans' attitude, so we will put some pressure on them, so should the EU, to pave the way for cooperation between the non-U.S. banks and Iran," he added.

The U.S. has been "fulfilling" its commitment to the JCPOA, said White House spokesman John Earnest on Friday. He said giving Iran access to the U.S. financial system was "not part of the deal."

At the State Department on Monday, spokesman John Kirby acknowledged that he expects the sanctions issue to be on Tuesday's agenda for Kerry and Zarif.

"We are obviously aware of the concerns that they have expressed about the status of sanctions relief, and the secretary is very mindful that this topic will come up," he said.

Ahead of the talks, Kerry said in a speech to the pro-Israel group J Street that Iran has so far received about $3 billion as a result of the deal to constrain the Iranian nuclear program. He said that is far less than figures given by critics and reiterated that the agreement showed the power of prioritizing diplomacy.

"Despite the skeptics' most dire predictions, we are in a place that some people thought was unimaginable and others unacceptable," Kerry said.

The meeting between Kerry and Zarif also comes at a time when the U.N.-facilitated process for a political transition in Syria appears to be showing signs of fray.

Syrian setbacks

Their meeting also comes at a time when the U.N.-facilitated process for a political transition in Syria appears to be showing signs of fray.

The Syrian opposition announced that it has postponed its participation in the political talks because of what it says are the Syrian government's cease-fire violations.

The two sides have been holding indirect talks in Geneva.

Iran supports the Syrian government while the U.S. has supported the moderate opposition. But Tehran and Washington are part of the International Syria Support Group, which has been backing the process for a political transition.

After his meeting with Zarif, Kerry travels to Cairo, where he will discuss bilateral and regional issues with officials including President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

He then will join U.S. President Barack Obama in Riyadh for a Gulf Cooperation Council summit.
Father Najeeb Michael saved as many people as he could.

Right before Islamic State stormed his village, he packed as many people as possible into his car and fled to Irbil in the dead of night.

It is not easy to describe this criminal day, this black day which Daesh occupied Mosul and around Mosul, Father Najeeb told VOA, using a local term for the extremist group.

It was the night of August 6, 2014, a very dangerous and sad day and night when many thousands of people left Mosul and also Qaraqosh, he recalled.

Qaraqosh is an ancient Assyrian Christian town southeast of Mosul.

This night I left Qaraqosh just two hours before Daesh came and occupied Qaraqosh, and I bring with me thousands of manuscripts in my cars, he said.

The manuscripts include parchments that date back more than 1,000 years, and historical documents related to astrology, theology and philosophy.

Mike Albin, a U.S.-based Arab world specialist formerly with the Library of Congress, told VOA the manuscripts are irreplaceable.

The manuscripts rescued by Father Najeeb are as important for the history of Iraqs culture as any museum object or archeological site, Albin said.

His heroism in rescuing the manuscripts and his organizational skill in preserving them are a priceless contribution to the preservation of mankinds cultural heritage," he said of Father Najeeb.

Some of the documents now are tucked away inside a metal filing cabinet in the middle of a rundown building in central Irbil, kept in gray boxes tied in cream-colored ribbons.

Father Najeeb said he managed to sneak many pieces, including paintings, out of Qaraqosh and surrounding churches 10 days before the extremists stormed in.

I felt we were in a dangerous situation and IS will attack us, thats why...I chose a big truck and put everything inside, many thousands of manuscripts, and also many thousands of documentation and archiving and precious things, and I take it out of danger.

Opposite the file cabinet, Father Najeeb has set up a camera above a small table, where he and a number of students are painstakingly photographing every page of every manuscript.

By digitizing these historical pages, Father Najeeb hopes he will forever preserve Iraqs Christian history.
The Israeli military charged a soldier with manslaughter Monday for shooting a wounded Palestinian assailant as he lay on the ground last month in the West Bank.

The 19-year-old soldier, whose identity remains secret under a gag order, was initially held on a murder warrant. The lighter manslaughter charge, reflecting the view that the killing was not premeditated, could still result in 20 years in prison.

"The accused violated the rules of engagement without operational justification as the terrorist was lying on the ground wounded and represented no immediate threat for the accused or others who were present," a copy of the indictment said. "By his acts, the accused unlawfully caused the death of the terrorist Abdul Sharif."

Defense lawyers say the soldier acted in fear that the Palestinian assailant was carrying a bomb; however, prosecutors determined that the assailant was posing no threat when he was killed.

"The terrorist...was left lying on the ground, still alive, and did not present any immediate and tangible danger to the civilians and soldiers around him," the manslaughter indictment said.

The incident took place March 24 in Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank that has been at the center of six months of Palestinian street violence.

The case has sparked controversy throughout the region with polls showing 57 percent of Israelis believe the soldier should never have been arrested. An online petition has been signed by nearly 60,000 people demanding that he be decorated for heroism.
U.S. Special Forces together with Kurdish peshmerga on Monday launched a helicopter attack against an Islamic State commander, killing him and two of his bodyguards, Kurdish national security sources said.



Salman Abd Shaib al-Jabouri, also known as Abu Saif, was killed as he traveled near Hamam Ali, south of Mosul, the security sources said.

Separate sources said coalition forces also struck a vehicle carrying IS fighters traveling on a northwestern highway out of Mosul.

There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon on the attack.
A California student who came to the United States as an Iraqi refugee says he was unfairly removed from a Southwest Airlines flight earlier this month because he was speaking Arabic.

Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, 26, said he was removed from the flight at Los Angeles International Airport after a fellow passenger raised concerns as Makhzoomi spoke in Arabic in a phone call with his uncle.

Makhzoomi attends the University of California, Berkeley. He said he was calling his uncle to tell him about attending a recent speech by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"I was very excited about the event, so I called my uncle to tell him about it,'' Makhzoomi told The New York Times.

Makhzoomi said he thinks a passenger may have heard him say inshalla, which means God willing.

He said an Arabic-speaking employee escorted him off the plane. Makhzoomi reportedly stated, This is what Islamophobia got this country into.

Southwest said it had not talked to Makhzoomi, but in a statement said it regrets any less than positive experience by a customer.

Southwest added that it "neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind."

After the incident, Makhzoomi was able to catch a flight on another airline, arriving home in Oakland eight hours later than planned.

"My family and I have been through a lot, and this is just another one of the experiences I have had,'' he told the Times. "Human dignity is the most valuable thing in the world, not money. If they apologized, maybe it would teach them to treat people equally."
The rape and murder of an Afghan refugee girl in Iran has fueled outrage in Afghanistan and drawn diplomatic protest from Kabul.

The six-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and then murdered by her Iranian kidnapper last week in Varamin, a poor suburb of Irans capital, Tehran. The incident sparked protests in at least one Afghan city over the weekend.

The alleged killer is reported to be a 17-year-old student who lived in the same neighborhood and had contact with the girl and her family.

I urge Iranian authorities to exert justice, the girls father, Shir Agha Quraishi, a well-digger, told VOAs Persian Service.

An Iranian reporter in Tehran who has been following the case said local sources confirmed that the girl was raped, killed and her body doused with acid in an attempt to conceal the murder.

The authorities did not show us the corpse because they told us that her face features had vanished due to the acid effect, the father said.

Afghan outrage

Afghan rights groups condemned the killing and asked the Afghanistan government to follow up on the case.

[Her] case shows the plight of Afghan refugees in Iran whose conditions are worrisome, Sughra Attaye, the head of the Afghan Women Network organization in the central Afghan city of Bamian, told VOA.

The Afghan foreign ministry has said it is meeting Iranian authorities to make sure that thorough investigations are carried out.

We are aware of the tragic incident. Our embassy in Tehran has been assigned to follow up the case so that the case is thoroughly investigated and that justice is served. Khairullah Azad, the deputy spokesperson of the Afghan foreign ministry, told VOA.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission condemned the incident terming it as a barbaric and inhuman act. The commission said the murder highlights the insecure situation Afghan minors are facing in neighboring countries.

Iran is bound by international human rights treaties as well mutual treaties between Afghanistan and Iran to protect the rights of Afghan refugees living on its soil, Rafiullah Baidar, spokesperson of for the commission, told VOA.

Iranian empathy

Iran says the suspect is in custody and will face trail.

Iranians have taken to the nations social media to express sorrow.

There is no difference between Iranians and Afghans in terms of equality before the lawwe feel ashamed as hosts that such a thing happened to our guest, Hassan Khomeini, a reformist and the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, said on his Instagram page.

Iranian Maryam Abtahi, 32 and a mother of two, told reporters at the girls funeral that she would sell her gold bangle to pay for an attorney and have justice served.

Iranian police, however, banned further vigils saying protesters did not have permission for the rally.

VOAs Masih Alinejad contributed to this report.
Aung San Suu Kyi says Myanmar's constitution needs to be amended in order to transform the former military-ruled nation into a true "federal democratic union."

The Nobel Peace laureate and de facto head of state repeated her vow to revise the nation's charter during a nationally televised speech Monday, as part of her goal to ensure "national reconciliation," including equal treatment of the country's various ethnic groups.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been plagued by ethnic insurgencies since gaining its independence from Britain in 1948.

The current constitution was crafted by Myanmar's long-ruling military junta shortly before turning over power in 2011 to a semi-civilian government. But the military granted itself 25 percent of all parliamentary seats, plus the key ministerial posts of home affairs and defense -- enough to give it veto power over any proposed constitutional changes.

The constitution also bars Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president, because she was married to and had children with a foreign national. But she is serving in President Htin Kyaw's Cabinet as foreign minister, and is also serving in the legislature-created post of "state counselor," allowing her to follow through with her pledge to run the government through a figurehead president.
When Phil Trowbridge wakes up every morning, he does what any responsible parent would. He checks on the kids and makes sure everyone is healthy and well-fed  feeding time begins promptly at 7 a.m.

At age 60, he has kids and grandkids of his own, but the way he treats his cattle on the farm  all 340 of them  is hardly any different.

Like many upstate New York voters, Trowbridge values hard work and honesty. And he expects no less of his candidates.

His voice, along with millions of non-city residents, form a powerful bloc of voters across the state. Collectively, they represent the backbone of the American middle class. And like anywhere else, the economy, for them, is a top priority.

"Agriculture gets hit probably as hard or harder than anybody," said Trowbridge, who has seen the influence of his industry on U.S. politics decline over the past decades, along with the overall workforce  now less than 2 percent of U.S. workers.

A seed-stock producer in the cattle business, he describes his politics as "pro-choice and anti-union," which puts him somewhere in the middle of the U.S. political spectrum.

To this day, he remains an undecided voter, but he says candidates like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and some of his supporters disappoint him.

Trowbridge is not convinced that proposals like tuition-free college are viable business plans.

"He spoon feeds them and they believe it," Trowbridge said. "I'm not sure how they would think he's going to fund what he's talking about."

Importance of the land

For New York agricultural workers, policies such as the farm bill, crop insurance and state minimum wage are important concerns, although they are hardly mentioned on the campaign trail, if at all.

Steve Hadcock, senior resource educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension, said the politics of agricultural workers are overall complicated  there are many factors at play.

"It depends on their own personal philosophy and, to some extent, their family philosophy  how they were brought up; how they were instilled with the importance of the land, the importance of being a successful farmer," Hadcock said.

On the other end of the spectrum, he noted, many farmers are interested in social and food justice.

Peter Ten Eyck, who owns a 300-acre fruit farm just outside Altamont, New York  now in its 100th year  said he is tied to the land.

He was born and raised on the crops he now owns, the third generation to take on the family business.

'Upstate dues'

This election, for him, is about small government. He said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a legitimate candidate that has paid her "upstate dues," but  as a self-described conservative  Ten Eyck said she is too far left, particularly on the role of the federal government.

Ohio Governor John Kasich, he said, might be a good alternative.

"He's a solid guy," Ten Eyck said. "He's done a good job in Ohio, getting a big deficit removed, and balancing a couple budgets."

Similar to Trowbridge, Ten Eyck is not "feeling the Bern." But his employee Timothy Albright, who manages the orchards, is a Sanders fan.

As a Christian, he said he finds that Sanders "espouses the beliefs of Jesus Christ."

"Some of the beliefs of Jesus Christ are that you should be looking out for others  that you should be sympathetic to those in need. And I find his beliefs to be more sympathetic to the needy than any other candidate," said Albright.

One person that Ten Eyck and Albright can agree not to vote for this election is businessman Donald Trump. As Ten Eyck explains, the issue has little to do with policy, and more to do with "rhetoric and demagoguery."

"Anyone who could say, Who would vote for a woman with a face like that?' How could you be proud of having that person be your president?" asked Ten Eyck.

Similarly, Trowbridge is turned off by some of Trump's "edge," although he has not counted him out entirely.

Not a pleasant thought

He imagines what it might be like if Trump or any other candidate were to work on his farm. It isn't a pleasant thought.

"If you talk about humans that way, what would you do to an animal?" he wondered.

Perhaps most importantly, Ten Eyck and Trowbridge agree on personal responsibility. On election day, they insist, you can't stay home.

"My oldest brother has a saying that if you've got a problem, bring the solution. If you don't have the solution, you're the problem," said Trowbridge. "I think there's a lot to be said about that. Because if we don't at least try to vote the very best person we think could be president, then I think we're just not doing our job as citizens."
In the short term, there seems little the world can do to stop North Korea from conducting a fifth nuclear test in the very near future.

On Monday the South Korean Defense Ministry said Washington and Seoul are monitoring an increase in activities at North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site that likely indicate preparations are underway for another nuclear test.

I cannot tell you details, but I can tell you that North Korea has the capability to conduct its fifth nuclear test anytime, said Moon Sang-kyun, the South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman.

However, a U.S. official on Monday said the United States would respond strongly in the case of another North Korean nuclear test, Reuters reported.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said actions by the Kim Jong Un regime in North Korea were "unacceptable" and North Korea would be digging deeper into a hole if it pursued further provocations.

There will be additional strong response in case of another [North Korean] nuclear test, Blinken told reporters in Tokyo, where he is meeting with senior Japanese government officials. He said Washington would consider "a number of possibilities," but said it was premature to be specific.

The Kim Jong Un government has responded defiantly after the United Nations Security Council imposed tough new international sanctions on North Korea in March for conducting its fourth nuclear test in January, followed by a long-range rocket launch in February

South Korea on alert

President Park Geun-hye on Monday called on the South Korean military to remain on high alert in case the military activity in the North leads to some sort of attack on the South.

It is uncertain what kind of aggressive provocations North Korea will make so as to avoid isolation and strengthen the solidarity of its regime, Park said.

North Koreas moves to accelerate its nuclear weapons development, some analysts say, are attempts to intimidate the international community to accept it as a nuclear power and to solidify Kims power within the country in advance of the ruling Workers Party congress in early May.

There was also speculation that the North Koran military is under pressure to quickly conduct a successful nuclear test after a mid-range missile test on Friday ended in catastrophic failure.

North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium to make eight to 12 nuclear bombs and has a stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

South Koreas Defense Ministry said Monday there is a good chance the next nuclear explosion will be conducted underground and that it will involve the testing of a nuclear warhead.

North Korea has claimed it has miniaturized a nuclear warhead to fit on a ballistic missile.

South Korea and the U.S. view this claim as a credible threat but say it has not been yet been demonstrated. Experts say North Korea is still years away from developing a reliable long-range nuclear missile that could reach the U.S. mainland.

Sanctions impact

In March the United Nations Security Council, which has prohibited North Korea from conducting ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests, imposed tough new sanctions on the Kim Jong Un government.

These punitive measures, which have the potential to impose real economic pain, include suspending currency transfers and restricting North Koreas lucrative mineral trade that had accounted for over half of the countrys $2.5 billion in exports to China alone.

Beijings pledged support for these international sanctions is considered crucial because 90 percent of North Korean trade flows either to or through China.

However, China seems just as concerned about maintaining stability in the region as it does about pressuring the North to give up its nuclear weapons.

It will take time to gauge the impact of the sanctions, but initial reports of lax enforcement coming from the Sino-Korean border area have raised concerns about Chinas commitment to keep pressure on North Korea.

Further measures

Since the sanctions were imposed, North Korea has test fired a number of short- and medium-range missiles.

The international community has condemned the repeated provocations but has imposed no additional penalties.

Kim has responded by threatening to conduct nuclear attacks against South Korea and the United States.

Following North Koreas failed launch of a mid-range ballistic missile on Friday, China's official Xinhua news agency sharply cautioned its ally in Pyongyang, saying this latest in a string of saber-rattling, if unchecked, will lead the country to nowhere.

Another North Korean nuclear test in defiance of U.N. resolutions could lead to stricter enforcement of existing measures and further sanctions.

A South Korean official said Pyongyangs next serious violation of U.N. resolutions would likely result in restrictions on the export of North Korean labor.

The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) estimates there are over 50,000 North Korean laborers working in China, Russia and countries around the world, and that they earn billions of dollars, most of which goes to the government in Pyongyang.
Amid reports that Syrian peace talks are at an impasse, U.S. President Barack Obama urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to use his influence with the Assad regime during a phone call early Monday.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Obama had an "intense" conversation with Putin that centered on the situation in Syria and concern about all of the parties living up to commitments made in the cessation of hostilities.

"President Putin has publicly expressed his view that this kind of political transition is critical to both Russian and U.S. interests in [Syria] and in the broader region, and this is an opportunity where our interests overlap," Earnest told reporters.

In a readout of the call, the White House said Obama "stressed the importance of pressing the Syrian regime to halt its offensive attacks against the opposition."

In its statement on the call, the Kremlin said Putin "stressed the need for the moderate opposition to distance themselves swiftly from ISIS and [al-Qaida affiliate] Jabhat al-Nusra, and to close Syria's border with Turkey, from where fighters and arms supplies for the extremists make their way in."

ISIS is an acronym for the Islamic State.

During Monday's briefing, Earnest said the "fragile" and "increasingly threatened" cessation of hostilities was critical to a successful political transition in Syria.

Other topics

The two presidents also spoke on Ukraine, with Obama calling on Putin to "take steps to end the significant uptick in fighting in eastern Ukraine" and implement the Minsk agreement.

"President Obama continues to make a forceful case that Russia needs to abide by their commitments, and by doing so they can begin to relieve some of the isolation that they have sustained as a result of interfering in the sovereign activities of their neighbors in Ukraine," the White House press secretary said.

For its part, the Kremlin said Putin expressed "hope that with the new Ukrainian government in place now, the authorities in Kyiv will finally start taking concrete steps toward implementing the Minsk agreements."

An issue that was not addressed in Monday's call was the recent incident in the Baltic Sea where the U.S. military says Russian jets flew within 30 feet (10 meters) of the U.S. Navy destroyer the USS Donald Cook.

More recently, the U.S. military says a Russian jet "barrel-rolled" a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance flight last week. Russia disputes the account.

Earnest said the incidents were not elevated beyond the U.S. military attache in Moscow expressing U.S. concerns to his Russian counterpart.

"Those kinds of activities are destabilizing and a source of some concern, but they are not particularly unusual," Earnest noted.
A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says global trade in counterfeit goods is rising, and proceeds from this illegal activity may be larger than the take from illegal drugs, and may help fund terror networks and criminal gangs.

Monday's OECD report shows the trade in fake and pirated goods has grown to nearly half a trillion dollars, or about 2.5 percent of global imports.

OECD Deputy Secretary-General Doug Frantz says counterfeit goods are the largest contributor to the world's undergound economy, and helped fund the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in Paris.

Frantz also says counterfeiting produces fake products that endanger lives, including "auto parts that fail, pharmaceuticals that make people sick, toys that harm children, baby formula that provides no nourishment and medical instruments that deliver false readings."

News accounts describe fake auto brake parts that look right, but preform poorly or don't fit the car. Other stories describe fake contraceptives with authentic-looking packaging that fail to prevent pregnancy.

Products from the United States, Italy, France, Japan, and Germany are the ones most often copied. The study's authors say China is by far the largest source of faked goods.
The latest claim by the Islamic State (IS) that it has launched a new front in Bangladesh and its local fighters are gearing up to launch attacks on India and Myanmar has been dismissed by the government in Dhaka, which says the militant group has no presence in the South Asian nation.

In an interview published in the latest issue of the Islamic State magazine Dabiq, Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, who was introduced as the head of the organizations Bangladesh wing, said efforts to recruit soldiers of the Khilafah (Caliphate) in Bangladesh has gained great momentum with many Muslims joining its ranks.

Bengal (Bangladesh) is an important region for the Khilafah and the global jihad due to its strategic geographic position a strong jihad base in Bengal will facilitate performing guerrilla attacks inside India Also, jihad in Bengal is a stepping-stone for jihad in Burma, Hanif said in the interview.

Hanif added that IS has succeeded in building a base by attracting Muslims following the organizations campaign in Bengali language in the social media.

However, Bangladeshs Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said IS is indulging in false propaganda.

The statement (that IS has established its network in Bangladesh), which was issued outside the country, actually shows that the group is desperately seeking a foothold in our country, Kamal said in a media conference in Dhaka on Friday. This statement is bogus because the group has no existence in Bangladesh.

IS claims attacks

In Bangladesh, where more than 90 percent of the countrys 160 million population is Muslim, Islamists have long agitated on issues which they say threaten Islam.

After an Italian aid worker, a Japanese farming expert, two Shiite people and a muezzin of a Shiite mosque were killed in four separate attacks between September and November in Bangladesh, IS claimed responsibility for all of the deaths.

Among the death threats that around three dozen Bangladeshi Christian leaders received in December, many were claimed to have been sent by local IS commanders.

IS also claimed responsibility for the February murder of a Hindu priest in northern Bangladesh.

Local groups blamed

Despite the reported IS claim of responsibility for the killings and threats, authorities insist the group does not have a functioning network in the country and blames the opposition alliance, led by Khaleda Zias Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) for the attacks.

Police have also said Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), another banned local militant outfit, was behind some of the gun and bomb attacks.

Both the BNP and JeI have rejected the allegations, saying the government is desperate to frame them for terror crimes.

But a JeI central executive council member and former Member of Parliament, Hamidur Rahman Azad, agreed with the government in dismissing the IS claim.

"The claim that Jamaat e Islami grassroot cadres are joining the Islamic State in Bangladesh is absolutely false and baseless. None from our organization has joined that group," said JeI executive council member Hamidur Rahman Azad in a press release Friday.

Experts dismiss IS threat

Retired Major General Mohammad Abdur Rashid, executive director of Dhakas Institute of Conflict, Law & Development Studies, said all terrorist outfits in Bangladesh are homegrown and their creations were linked to the turbulence of the countrys domestic politics.

IS claimed responsibility to some recent killings in Bangladesh. But those violent incidents have been found as a mixture of terrorist actions and contract killings, aimed at causing destabilization in the country, he told VOA.

IS has not turned its main focus from spreading its network in the West. It has not prepared itself yet to look east. The news or interview as published in Tabiq and claims to have established an IS base in Bangladesh roping in local fighters, clearly seems to be a hoax, he added.

Security analyst Ajai Sahni, executive director of New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management, said the terrorist groups in Bangladesh are in complete disarray as a result of decimation of their leaderships, both in counter-terrorism operations and as a result of the countrys war crimes trials.

The surviving fragments are now attempting to reinvent themselves, and the IS banner is currently the most theatrical and effective in terms of getting international attention. IS also finds it advantageous to claim that it has spread to Bangladesh and established a base there, and has happily claimed the occasional hacking and stabbing incidents against intellectuals and bloggers as its own doing, Sahni said to VOA.

However, he added there is no sign of any transfer of resources, capabilities or materials, nor of any direct command structures or networks that suggest an effective operational links between the terrorist groups in Bangladesh and the IS leadership and networks in Iraq-Syria, Sahni noted.

The possibility of any dramatic spike in terrorism in Bangladesh or directed against India in the foreseeable future, however, remains remote, he said.
Human Rights Watch commended Saudi Arabia on its new regulation that strips power from the often criticized religious police force.

The Saudi cabinet passed the measure last week which prevents religious police from stopping, arresting, chasing or detaining people.

The Council of Ministers also requested the religious police, formally known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice or Mutawaa, to carry official identification showing name, position, work hours, and branch.

This is a positive move for Saudi citizens and residents who have suffered years of harassment and abuse by the religious police, Human Rights Watch Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson said.

The new guidelines say that only police and drug squad officers have the jurisdiction to make arrests.

Saudi Arabia has taken a step that could rein in longstanding religious police abuses, but authorities must enforce the new regulations for them to have any meaning, Whitson said.

The Mutawaa is responsible for enforcing the countrys strict interpretation of Islam, by, for example, ensuring that women are covered from head to toe in public, that they are not mingling with unrelated men, and that all shops are closed during the five daily prayers.



Whitson said the authorities should go even further and strip the religious police of the power to enforce sex segregation rules.

The controversial Mutawaas were barred from interrogating and pressing charges back in 2013; such actions could only be validated with the support of accompanying policemen. But abuses were said to have continued.

In February, the controversial law enforcement group apprehended two women in Riyadh, capital city of Saudi Arabia, and told them to cover their faces. According to the Arab News, the religious police ordered them to get into their car, but they refused. While one of the women escaped to a nearby mall, the other was shoved and dragged on the ground as videos posted on social media networking sites showed.

A five-member advisory committee is set to make suggestions to the Mutawaa president on holding officers accountable for any violence or abuse.

"It's a very, very controversial issue inside Saudi Arabia, Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern studies at the London School of Economics, told CNN, adding, Obviously the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the political leaders, have decided that the religious police is doing more damage than good and they are very much concerned with the popular misgivings about recent incidents in the kingdom."
South Sudan rebel leader and First Vice President Designate Riek Machar is expected to return to Juba Tuesday. South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei said Machars return is a milestone in the implementation of the peace agreement signed last year between Machar and South Sudan President Salva Kiir.

Machar had been expected to arrive in the capital Monday, but a spokesman for the rebel advance team said a lack of flight clearance will delay the arrival until Tuesday morning.

Makuei has said Machar will be inaugurated as the countrys first vice president immediately following his arrival, marking the beginning of a 30-month transitional period.

The current vice president of South Sudan is James Wani Igga. He will become second vice president when the new government is sworn in.

The First Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar will be arriving this morning. He will be received by the vice president (James Wani Igga) at Juba International airport. He will be accorded the necessary official reception, and after that he will go to the palace where he will take the oath and after that the president will have a meeting with his two vice presidents so that they can discuss the establishment of the government of national unity, he said.

President Kiir and Machar signed a peace agreement last year to end more than two years of civil war which came about after Kiir accused Machar of an attempted coup.

Among the agreements key provisions is the establishment of a national unity government.

Machars expected return to Juba comes as tensions from the civil war, which is estimated to have killed more than 300,000 people, continues.

Just last week, fighting broke out in Western Equatoria state between government and rebel forces.

Makuei said, contrary to views by some of a trust deficit, South Sudanese will work together as they have done over the years.

The government and the people of South Sudan have been yearning for this day because people have come to know that war does not help anything; it is destructive. I am optimistic that this lost confidence will be regained and people will move forward in the implementation of the agreement so that our people can enjoy the peace they have wanted, he said.

After all this is not the first time for us to enter into agreement. We entered peace with the government of Sudan. We signed the CPA [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] in 2005 and we worked together after our independence in 2011, Makuei said.
Less than $5 a year per person can save four million lives a year, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.



Six researchers from Johns Hopkins, led by Dr. Robert Black, spent a year and a half studying health problems and needs in the worlds poorest countries.

Providing basic health care

They found that in 2015, pregnancy and birth complications resulted in the deaths of more than five million children and 300,000 women, 95 percent of the global populations maternal and child deaths.



The researchers focused on expanding access to specific basic care services, which would not only save the millions of lives lost, but cost roughly $4.70 per patient per year to do so.



Blacks team created three health care packages that contain conditions and services relative to reproductive health, maternal health, newborn and child health and nutrition.



The packages include 66 health care treatments that fit in with how countries organize services like management of pregnancy and immediate care of a newborn, treating pneumonia, vaccines.Within each package, the team then selected particular services that were most effective and have the largest benefit.



We dont build hospitals, sophisticated care units or diagnostic facilities for that amount of money, said Dr. Black. But the study showed there are very affordable cost effective interventions that could be put in place now, with very limited additional resources.



Were not claiming that well prevent every death, but well prevent more than half of the deaths and were talking about $5 per person in the countries that are affected, Black clarified.



Prevention, implementation



The study shows that if 90 percent of the target population were provided with these services, it would prevent about 1.5 million newborn deaths, 1.5 child deaths, and nearly one million stillbirths and maternal fatalities.



The services also includes improving access to contraceptives and reducing death rates by meeting the demand for family planning, which, alone, would decrease maternal deaths by 67,000.

After the research was published, Black joined a Countdown to 2030 meeting.The initiative is an expansion of Countdown to 2015, a collective effort of many organizations, governments, U.N. agencies and health care associations aiming to accelerate the reduction of child mortality rates and improve maternal health, while tracking progress.



What were talking about is how to take the work forward in The Countdown, said Dr. Black.



The 2005 U.N. goal was to cut the number of deaths by two-thirds by 2015, but while the numbers decreased, the goal was not met.



The study was sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, which Black, commends for its dedication to helping improve the lives of others.



From the foundation there is a very strong commitment, but I hope it carries over to the countries themselves to sustain the work or to build on it, and to other funding agencies as well, said Black.



The periodical Lancet published the study and it was also presented at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health conference in San Francisco on April 09.
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing Monday arguments in a landmark case -- the United States v Texas -- debating the legality of President Barack Obamas executive actions on immigration.

Who is affected: Roughly 4 million undocumented immigrants who are living in the United States.

What does the court case involve:

The case focuses on Obama's 2014 program known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA). The program defers deportation for undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. since at least 2010, have a child who is a U.S. citizen or is in the country legally, and do not have a criminal record.

Obama said he took executive action because Congress had failed to overhaul the immigration system.

Who is behind the lawsuit: Texas is leading 26 states as well as congressional Republicans in challenging Obama's executive actions. They argue Obama doesn't have the power to effectively change immigration law.

Possible court outcomes:

Side with administration: About 4 million people would be allowed to live and work in the U.S. temporarily without constant fear of deportation.

Side with the states: The lower court rulings, which have frozen the immigration actions, would likely stand through the remaining months of Obama's presidency.

Tie 4-4: A tie is possible after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February, which left eight members on the court. A tie would let the lower court rulings stand.

Sidestep immigration issue: The high court also could decide that Texas and the other states don't have the right to sue in federal court, a procedural outcome that would largely sidestep the divisive immigration issue.

Decision expected: The court is expected to decide by late June.

Arguing the case:

Administration is represented by its top appellate lawyer, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr., who has argued many high-profile cases before the court, including the Affordable Care Act, the constitutionality of same-sex marriage and the Defense of Marriage Act.

The states are led by Texas solicitor general, Scott Keller, who has argued before the court regarding Texas' right to reject a proposal for license plates featuring a Confederate battle flag as well as in defense of Texas sharp restrictions on abortion clinics.

Where the 2016 presidential candidates stand:

Republicans: Candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich have said they would immediately reverse any actions allowed to take place.

Democrats: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have said they would expand upon those efforts.
The U.N.-sponsored Syrian peace talks in Geneva were plunged into crisis Monday after opposition negotiators announced they are delaying involvement in the formal negotiations until the Assad government agrees to discuss the establishment of a transitional administration in Damascus.

Their announcement came as the U.S. and Russian brokered cessation of hostilities agreement appeared to be fraying fast, with both the government and rebels violating the truce. The Western-backed Free Syrian Army and other rebel groups issued a statement saying they had set up a joint operations room to respond to the violations by government forces and allied Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi Shiite militiamen.

As fighting intensified in the Aleppo countryside, international humanitarian organizations warned that the already desperate plight of an estimated 100,000 refugees trapped in northern Syria will worsen. For months, the Turkish government has blocked Syrians fleeing the war from crossing the border.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders) warned that renewed fighting Monday was just seven kilometers from where the bulk of the refugees have gathered.

Rebel negotiator Mohammed Alloush warned the truce has effectively been ended by the regime. He said the Assad government along with Russian warplanes carried out 70 airstrikes on Sunday, and he alleged that Iran had sent more troops to reinforce Assads forces. All this intervention gives a clear indication that the solution in Syria, with the presence of this regime, has become shut  or we have hit a wall," he told the Associated Press.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura sought to play down the significance of the oppositions decision, saying the Geneva peace talks, now in their third round, will continue despite the rebels postponing their participation. De Mistura said he will continue technical discussions with all sides by phone in hopes of securing some agreement on the broad outlines of a political transition in Syria.

U.N. officials told VOA there are deep divisions among Syrian opposition officials, with some not happy about the decision to suspend participation and others supporting a withdrawal from Geneva until the cessation of hostilities is restored.

Riyad Hijab, the head of the rebel High negotiations Committee (HNC), was due to hold a news conference Monday night, but postponed it until Tuesday  a sign of disagreements within the opposition camp. Rebel commanders also are putting pressure on the HNC, says an HNC official. Nearly a dozen Free Syrian Army militias have warned of the need to take firm and decisive stances towards the half-solutions being propagated  by the regimes allies and de Mistura.

The intensified fighting in the days leading up to the third round of the talks  the opposing sides have not even met face-to-face  augured badly, even before the negotiation teams arrived in the Swiss city. De Mistura said the new fighting in parts of Syria, especially around Aleppo, where the regime and its Iranian and Hezbollah allies as well as the Russians appear to be on the brink of launching a major offensive, was particularly worrisome.

The Assad government has made little secret of planning for an offensive on the rebel-held parts of Aleppo city. On April 10, Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi told Russian news networks the government was preparing a major operation to retake the rebel controlled city districts.

We, together with our Russian partners, are preparing for an operation to liberate Aleppo," he said.

Dmitry Sablin, a Russian lawmaker, told RIA news agency, Russian aviation will help the Syrian army's ground offensive operation.

Meanwhile, rebel factions, along with al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, have been pressing an offensive in the coastal province of Latakia, the stronghold of Assads minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. They have insisted that the offensive was in retaliation for government bombing of civilians targets elsewhere in the country.

Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, accused rebel fighters of calling for a revocation of the cessation of hostilities. Syrian opposition negotiator Mohammed al-Abboud countered by arguing that the rebels have the right to defend themselves and Syrian civilians.

We have the right to retaliate and defend ourselves in case we are attacked and we will not be silent about any aggression and we will continue our main mission to defend civilians, al-Abboud said on Twitter.
Turkish police detained dozens of people for their alleged financial links to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported Monday.

The police operation, centered in Istanbul, was launched across nine provinces, and more than 100 people were taken into custody. Altogether, prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 140 people.

Among those detained are the officials of the Istanbul-based Dumankaya Construction Company and 41 employees of the Islamic lender Bank Asya, which was founded by followers of Gulen and seized by the government last year.

The probe is centered on financial support raised for Gulen's group amounting to some 50 million liras ($17 million) between 2004 and 2015.

Turkey's Organized Crimes Unit detained the suspects on charges of being a member of a terrorist organization, laundering assets acquired and terrorism finance statutes.

According to Fortune magazine, the Dumankaya Company is the 224th biggest company in Turkey.

"As has been reported by the media, on April 18, 2016, our members of the board were invited to the [Police's] Financial Department in order to be consulted for their information," the company said on its website. "The process is being followed by us."

The political conflict between the ruling AKP (the Justice and Development Party) and the Islamic Gulen movement, known as the "Hizmet" (Service) movement, began in late 2013 after a major corruption and graft investigation led by Istanbul prosecutors against four ministers became public.

Gulen history, reaction

The Gulen movement was once among President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most enthusiastic supporters and the Gulen-affiliated media groups backed government policies.

But Gulen, 74, ran afoul of the military-backed secular government in Ankara and sought refuge in the United States.

The government accuses the Gulen movement of infiltrating the police, judiciary and political system and creating a state within a state.

Gulenists have been charged in recent years with setting up an armed terrorist group, trying to bring down the government, and wiretapping.

In December 2014, Turkish police arrested several journalists and media executives close to the Gulen movement on charges of "forming, leading and being a member of an armed terrorist organization."

Gulen followers decried Monday's detentions.

"The latest detentions and arrests of taxpaying ordinary citizens sympathetic to Hizmet movement are only the continuation of a troubling authoritarian pattern in Turkey under the leadership of President Erdogan and Prime Minister Davutoglu," the Washington, D.C.-based Turkic American Alliance (TAA), affiliated with the Gulen movement, said in a statement to VOA.

"Erdogan and his friends are intolerant of any form of dissent," the statement said. "We are extremely worried about this antidemocratic trend and call on the international community to press Ankara to respect the rights of all opposition and minority groups in Turkey in accordance with universal human rights norms and international legal commitments."
A Ukraine court has sentenced two Russian fighters captured last year in Ukraine territory to 14-year prison terms for their participation in the deadly pro-Russian rebellion that erupted in eastern Ukraine two years ago.

A three-judge panel in Kyiv issued the sentences Monday, saying defendants Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev participated in an "aggressive war" against Ukraine. For its part, Moscow -- which has repeatedly denied sending troops into Ukraine -- insists the two defendants were serving as volunteers in the conflict after resigning from the Russian military.

Many analysts have suggested the two Russians will become part of a prisoner exchange under which they could be returned to their homeland in exchange for the release of Ukraine helicopter pilot Nadezhda Savchenko.

The 34-year-old Savchenko is serving a 22-year prison term in Russia, after a Russian court last month found her guilty of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists who were reporting on the conflict in 2014.

Both Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin say they conferred about the two Russians and the Ukraine pilot. But no further details of those talks have been disclosed.

The trial of the two Russians stoked controversy that erupted into violence last month, when the attorney for defendant Aleksandrov was murdered by two Ukrainian suspects now in custody.

Separately, unidentified assailants earlier this month firebombed the Kyiv office of the Ukrainian judge overseeing the trial.
A vehicle in a motorcade transporting Samantha Power, the United States' ambassador to the United Nations, struck and killed a young boy Monday while traveling through northern Cameroon.

A U.S. official said the accident occurred near the northern town of Maroua where Power was visiting refugee camps and talking with officials about the threat of Boko Haram Islamist militants in the region.

According to news reports, villagers had lined the roadside to watch the motorcade speed by when a seven-year-old boy darted into the road. One of the cars in the motorcade, an armored Jeep, was not able to serve away. The driver is reported to be Cameroonian.

U.S. officials say Power later returned to the scene of the accident and visited the family of the young boy to offer her condolences.

The Associated Press reports the motorcade was moving quickly, at times exceeding 60 mph. It said the vehicle that hit the boy initially stopped, but was told by U.S. security officials to keep moving through the unsecured area. An ambulance in the U.S. caravan did stop and rushed the boy to a local hospital.

U.S. officials say the area was near recent instances of violence by Boko Haram Islamist militants.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke with South Sudan's president and the top rebel leader Monday, urging them to quickly establish their transitional government, seen as a vital step to ending the country's civil war.

The telephone calls came as rebel leader Riek Machar prepared to return to the capital, Juba, to be sworn in as first vice president and set up the government with President Salva Kiir.

The United Nations says Ban commended Kiir for his decision to welcome Machar to Juba and called on him to implement security arrangements outlined in the peace deal that Kiir and Machar signed last August.

Ban welcomed Machar's decision to return to Juba and urged him to work with the president to prevent further violence.

Machar had been expected to arrive Monday in Juba, but a spokesman for the rebel advance team said a lack of flight clearance will delay Machar until Tuesday.

South Sudan erupted into civil war in December 2013, six months after Kiir fired Machar as vice president. Two and a half years of fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than two million South Sudanese from their homes.

Aid agencies warn the country is at the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe, caused by poor harvests and food shortages since the start of the war.
U.S. presidential candidates made last-minute appeals for votes Monday in New York, a day ahead of the state's crucial Democratic and Republican presidential nominating elections.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, trailing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Democratic contest, is throwing a night-time concert in a park with dramatic views of New York City's skyscrapers, a day after 28,000 people turned out for another of his rallies elsewhere in the city.

Pre-election polls in the state continue to show Clinton with a sizable lead over Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, but Sanders cautioned about the outcome. He told NBC he has won in other states where surveys showed him trailing heading into election days in the months-long presidential campaign to pick a successor to President Barack Obama when he leaves office next January.

"Generally speaking," he said, "polling has underestimated how we do in elections."

Clinton, with a double-digit percentage lead in most surveys, is campaigning in New York's densely populated Manhattan borough, while her husband, former President Bill Clinton, headed to rallies in two upstate cities, Buffalo and Rochester.

On a morning radio show, she branded the Republican presidential front-runner, billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump, as the "Donkey of the Decade." Clinton rebuked Trump, saying his proposals to curb immigration and temporarily keep Muslims out of the U.S. "basically in so many ways play to the worst instincts of people ... in violation of American values and New York values for sure."

GOP delegate numbers

Surveys show Trump, who lives in a luxury high-rise building in New York City, with a commanding lead in the state against his two remaining challengers, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich. But analysts are uncertain how many of the state's 95 delegates to July's national presidential nominating contest Trump will win Tuesday, with most of the delegates decided by the outcome of contests in localized congressional districts.

Trump has a significant lead over Cruz, and even more over Kasich, in national convention delegates, but it is unclear whether Trump will be able to amass a majority of delegates he needs to claim the nomination before the quadrennial gathering starts.

Generally, the delegates Trump has won in state-by-state voting are only obligated to vote for him on the first convention ballot, but could switch their allegiance to Cruz or Kasich on second and subsequent ballots, distinctly limiting Trump's prospects to become the Republican standard-bearer in the November national election.

Trump, whose name is emblazoned on New York skyscrapers he built, told one crowd at a rally Monday, "We love this city. We care about New York values." He then headed to Buffalo for another campaign event.

But Cruz, also campaigning in New York City, continued to attack Trump over the meaning of "New York values," which Trump says characterizes the city's resilience after the 2001 terrorist attacks that toppled the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Cruz says it means that the city's millions of residents "have suffered under the left-wing Democratic policies year after year after year."

Kasich visited smaller upstate cities, Syracuse and Schenectady, in hopes of winning convention delegates where Trump might fall short of capturing a majority of votes in individual voting districts. The party's rules would give Trump all three convention delegates in each of the districts where he wins 50 percent of the vote, but leave Kasich or Cruz with one of the delegates if Trump wins but falls short of a majority.
U.S. President Barack Obama says he expects that by the end of the year conditions will be in place for Iraqi troops to eventually recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants.

In a CBS News interview aired Monday, Obama stressed the need to support the Iraqi forces who are doing the ground fighting.

"We're not doing the fighting ourselves, but when we provide training, when we provide special forces who are backing them up ... when we are gaining intelligence, working with the coalitions we have, what we've seen is that we can continually tighten the noose," said Obama.

Earlier Monday, during a visit to Baghdad, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the U.S. is providing more than 200 additional troops and several Apache attack helicopters to assist Iraqi forces in retaking Mosul.

Carter said the new U.S. troops would be mainly advisers needed to help with the logistics of advancing Iraqi troops further from their bases as they encircle Iraq's second largest city. He said they would advise at the brigade and battalion headquarters level.

Everyone knows the fight of Iraq is the fight for Mosul, a senior U.S. defense official said. Mosul is the end game in Iraq.

Iraqi forces began an offensive to retake the IS stronghold on March 24.

A senior defense official says a total of eight Apache attack helicopters will be sent to aid in the battle. U.S. troops are needed to fly and maintain them. Last year, Iraqi officials declined a U.S. offer for Apache helicopters in the battle to retake Ramadi from IS, but the U.S official noted that the fight for Mosul will be even more difficult. The city fell to IS militants in the summer of 2014.

Carter on Monday also announced the United States will increase funding for Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq, with a senior official saying the amount will be about $400 million.

Secretary Carter traveled to Iraq Monday to talk with his commanders and Iraqi leaders about ways the U.S. can ramp up the fight against IS militants in Iraq and Syria.

He met with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Minister of Defense Khaled al-Obaidi before speaking by phone with Kurdish President Masoud Barzani.

Carters visit was his third to Iraq as secretary of defense.

WATCH: VOA's Carla Babb on the scene in Baghdad

The Iraqis are not shy about asking for what they need, a senior defense official said. Our generals, our colonels, they are sitting next to the Iraqis. to



Speaking to reporters in the United Arab Emirates Saturday, Carter expressed confidence the White House will approve recommendations.



"We are looking to do more," Carter said at Al Dhafra Air Base near Abu Dhabi. "That ranges from in the air to on the ground. You should expect to see us doing more."

But Carter added that Our presence on the ground will continue to be to enable, not to substitute for local forces."



The U.S.-led coalition has used the Al Dhafra Air Base for airstrikes against Islamic State, as well as for intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance missions.

Air power



According to some at the Al Dhafra Air Base, the U.S. has already upped its munition power from the air and expects to continue to increase air power over the next six months.



The F-22 has seen quite an expanded role since weve been here, an F-22 fighter jet operations officer told Carter during his visit to the base Saturday. The last six months the unit that we just swapped out with, they dropped just over 200 munitions, precision munitions out in the theater. Just this past week, weve dropped 20 percent of that, so 40 munitions in just a week.



In addition to munitions, about a third of the aircraft deployed to this base is dedicated to surveillance over Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Carter said the troops at Al Dhafra Air Base played an important role in the fight against Islamic State.



These people are pretty busy and some of them are in risky situations every single day, Carter said.

US strategy



Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA the U.S. strategy seemed to be containing Islamic State, which continues to lose ground in Iraq and Syria, but worries that needed improvements to the strategy could come too little, too late.



When it comes to the fight against the Islamic State, it's almost as if we diagnosed with cancer at Stage One and then sat about arguing about whether or not we should prescribe an aspirin for the next four-five years while it metastasized to Stage Four, Rubin said.
The lawsuit being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court Monday -- U.S. v. Texas -- asks the court to consider whether the presidents 2014 executive actions deferring deportations for some undocumented immigrants are within the governments authority to direct immigration policy, or whether the president exceeded his constitutional authority by making new immigration laws.

An executive order -- also called the executive power in Article II of the U.S. Constitution -- is a rule or order issued by a president that has the force of law.

U.S. v. Texas focuses on Obama's 2014 program known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA). The program defers deportation for undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. since at least 2010, have a child who is a U.S. citizen or is in the country legally, and do not have a criminal record.

The announcement also expanded an earlier deferred-action initiative that applies to people who came to the United States as children, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Obama said he took executive action because Congress had failed to overhaul the immigration system.

But 26 states, led by Texas, as well as congressional Republicans, are challenging Obama's executive actions. They argue Obama doesn't have the power to effectively change immigration law.

Presidential executive orders are legally binding. Yet if a new administration doesn't like a previous leader's order, it can legally reverse the action.

According to the Federal Registry, Obama has issued 238 executive orders between 2009 and 2016.

President William Henry Harrison, who died just 32 days into office, issued none. While Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, issued 291 executive orders during his eight years in office.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, who led the country during trying times -- the Great Depression and the start of World War II -- issued the most, with 3,278. Of those, one established internment camps for Japanese-Americans during the war and another created the Works Progress Administration.

For a list of executive orders issued by each president, from George Washington to Obama, visit The National Archives or Federal Register websites.

The National Archives also lists each president's executive actions in alphabetical order.

The White House website also lists presidential executive orders.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is pressing Asian countries to cut their road death and injury toll in half by 2020.

A 2015 study from Chalmers Technical University in Goteborg, Sweden, covering 24 Asian countries encompassing 56 percent of the world's population, says the total highway death toll for those countries is 750,000 per year with traffic accidents the leading cause of death for people under the age of 30.

The study says the injury toll is more than 50 million, of which 12 percent are hospital admissions, leading to economic costs of around $800 billion or 3.6 percent of the gross domestic product in those 24 countries.

Steep rise in traffic deaths in Thailand

Thailand, which recently marked the traditional Thai New Year celebrations, has reported a 30 percent rise in its road death toll for the holiday period, rising to a record of more than 400 people killed.

Thai officials say speeding is the leading cause of accidents, along with drink driving, with most accidents  some 80 percent  involving motorcycles. Public Health Ministry officials put the injury toll at more than 25,000 people, with more than 3,200 of those seriously hurt requiring hospital treatment.

The toll came despite a blitz by Thai police, reportedly arresting more than 110,000 people and impounding 5,700 vehicles at road safety checkpoints across the country.

Nana Soetantri, a transport specialist with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), said the toll in Thailand is grim news, and on a per capita basis exceeds most other countries in the region.

Its unfortunate but Thailand  among ADB developing member countries  is on the top. Their estimated traffic deaths per 100,000 of population is about 36.2 and its higher than Vietnam and higher than China, Soetantri told VOA.

I understand that in Thailand the rate of motorization is actually greater than the other countries in the ASEAN [Association of South East Asian Nations] as well, she said.

Offenders sent to work in hospital morgues

Thai police, in a bid to shock drivers into greater road safety, say traffic offenders will face community service work at hospital morgues.

But the English language newspaper The Bangkok Post, in a weekend editorial, said the governments road safety strategy was falling short, questioning the plan of sending people to work in morgues  a program the paper says was adopted and dropped a decade earlier.

High motorcycle death rate

The paper said motorcyclist deaths were a disproportionate number in the toll, with drunk drivers and lax attitudes towards safety helmets and seat belts also contributing factors.

The ADBs Soetantri, while welcoming the Thai authorities tougher measures, said concrete knowledge was necessary if road safety policies were to be effective.

What theyre trying to do with arresting these people  its commendable to some degree. But one needs to question; what is the science behind it? Because if they are targeting drink drivers- are drink drivers the main factors of death in the traffic injuries in Thailand? she said.

Jac Wismans, a university engineer lecturer at Chalmers Technical University in Sweden, said the rapid rise in motorization in developing countries is the prime reason for the rising death and injury toll.

But Wismans, a co-author of the 2015 research report on the status of road safety in Asia, said the dramatic increase is already leading countries to take action in a bid to stem the toll.

Some reduction in deaths in recent years

WHO data shows that since 2004, China, with an annual road death toll of around 261,300, has seen a steady decline in reported deaths per 100,000 of people through safer road networks, enforcing drunk driving laws, as well as enforcing seat belt wearing laws.

In Vietnam, where motorcycles comprise some 95 per cent of all registered vehicles, there will be tougher enforcement of laws requiring drivers and passengers to wear helmets. Police reports indicated over 1,500 lives were saved and 2,500 serious injuries prevented.

Since the last five, almost 10 years, the total number of fatalities and injuries has stabilized [globally]. Where it is reducing is in the U.S., and Europe and Japan and its still increasing in developing countries, said Wismans.

But the aim of the World Health Organization (WHO) is its possible soon, with all the measures in force, to see a reduction in accidents and injuries taking place in developing countries, he said.

The WHO said without policy action to lower the toll, road traffic accidents would be expected to account for around 1.9 million deaths annually across the world by 2020.

The United Nations Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety from 2011-2020 is aimed at cutting the forecasted level of fatalities around the world in half, saving as many as five million lives.
Hundreds of East African migrants are believed dead after their boat capsized in the eastern Mediterranean.

Witnesses and survivors told VOA Monday that the vessel overturned while carrying as many as 500 people. An unknown number swam to boats nearby and were later picked up and taken to Greece.

The incident happened April 8 but was first reported by the BBC late Sunday.

Ethiopian national Mussa Mohamed Adam said he is one of the few migrants who survived the tragedy. He told VOA's Horn of Africa Service that the boat capsized after he and about 200 other migrants came on board from a smaller boat that departed Egypt a day and a half earlier.

Adam estimated that 500 people were on board at the time, and only 30 were able to swim back to the smaller boat.

Liban Qadar Jama of Somaliland was on another boat that was approaching the rendezvous point. "I could see the bigger boat sinking," he told VOA's Somali Service. "We ran with the small boat we were in, as some migrants from the sunk boat desperately swam toward us. We could only save four of them."

Jama and other witnesses say the survivors spent about nine days drifting at sea before they were picked up by either the Greek or Italian coast guard and taken to Greece.

Unconfirmed reports on social media Monday suggested most of those who drowned were Somalis, trying to escape their war and drought-ravaged homeland.

If the death toll is confirmed, it would be the worst migrant tragedy since some 700 people drowned off the coast of Libya in April of last year.
Peace talks between Yemens warring parties have been delayed from their scheduled start on Monday, said a United Nations special envoy for the country.

"We are working to overcome the latest challenges and ask the delegations to show good faith" and participate in the U.N.-brokered talks, diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said after representatives of the Shi'ite rebels known as Houthis failed to arrive. " The next few hours are crucial. We call on the parties to take their responsibilities seriously and agree on comprehensive solutions."

Yemeni government officials accused the Houthis of intentionally delaying the peace process. Its aimed at ending an 18-month conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people and created a humanitarian crisis.

Earlier,Yemen Foreign Minister Abdel Malek told the state news agency, Saba, that "we are ready for a political transition which excludes no one... and we will give everything we can to alleviate the suffering."

The Houthis also had hinted at reconciliation, with spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam using Kuwaiti media to call for "a consensus authority during a definite transitional phase to decide every political dispute."

The U.N. sponsored two rounds of peace talks last year, with December negotiations crumbling amid fierce fighting.

A cease-fire has been in place for a week, though both sides have reported violations.

Critical crossroad

Last week, Ahmed said the country is at a "critical crossroad," where one path leads to peace and the other to a worsening security and humanitarian situation. He told the U.N. Security Council that success at the peace talks would require "difficult compromises from all sides, as well as determination to reach an agreement."

Yemen's U.N. ambassador, Khaled Alyemany, told reporters the talks could yield concrete results. "If they fail," he warned, "it will be a repetition of the cycle of violence."

The Houthis seized Yemen's capital, Sana'a, in September 2014 and the following March launched an offensive to the south that sent President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi fleeing to Saudi Arabia.The Saudis responded by launching airstrikes with a coalition in defense of Hadi's government.
As Zimbabwe celebrates 36 years of independence, health experts, economists, government officials and ordinary Zimbabweans agree that the health system is in bad shape, hindering the enjoyment of the right to health as enshrined in the countrys constitution.

Dilapidated infrastructure, lack of machinery and drugs, brain drain, inhibitive costs and strikes by medical personnel are some of the challenges bedeviling the health sector.

Harare resident Nothando Nyoni says lack of access to healthcare has dented Zimbabwes black majority rule. She blames the Zanu PF government for failing to maintain even the health infrastructure left by the colonial regime.

The health system is deteriorating. When we were growing up we would get everything at hospital but now doctors are always on strike, there is no medicine etc. Hospitals have become death traps.

While Nyoni applauds the government for its ability to contain HIV/AIDS, she says it is sad that Zimbabwe is dependent on donor funds to fight the epidemic.

We give credit to the government for the manner in which Zimbabwe has managed to deal with HIV/AIDs with the prevalence rate getting lower and lower but the danger is that the HIV treatment is funded by donors. What will happen if the donations dry up. Will government be able to take over? Government needs to look into this.

A Chitungwiza resident, Delight Pambirei, says it is worrying that the countrys leadership is usually seeking medical attention outside Zimbabwe when the health delivery system is failing back home.

There is a serious decline in the health system despite the fact that we inherited a robust and good health network. Ordinary people cannot afford health care. A lot of new mothers are detained time and again for failing to pay their bills. The elite prefer to get treatment outside the country like in South Africa or India as they have no confidence in the health sector.

Even our own government officials lack confidence in the health delivery system. President Mugabe travels to Asia even for eye-care and now his daughter gave birth outside the country. His grandson was born outside the country. Government should start focusing on ensuring that health system is running well.

A health expert, Muchaneta Mukamuri says while they are a few positives, it is a sad reality that the heath system has been compromised.

We appreciate the efforts the government has done so far e.g tackling HIV/AIDS a lot still has to be done to improve access to healthcare especially by the poor. If you visit health institutions today nothing has been done even maintaining the buildings themselves. Certain diagnostic machines continue to breakdown and do not receive due attention.

Zimbabwe seems to be fertile ground for health personnel training as the trained personnel leave for greener pastures because of poor remuneration. We lack experienced personnel.

Economist Tapiwa Mashakada who is also a Member of Parliament for Hatfield, blames the ruling Zanu Pf for the failing health sector.

At Independence, hospitals were state of the art manned by qualified staff, proper equipment and drugs were available. You would look forward to go to the hospital, however 36 years later the hospitals have become death traps with no medicine, equipment or staff. The hospitals have now become death traps.

Director in the HIV/AIDS and TB Unit in the Ministry of Health and Childcare, Dr. 0wen Gurungi, agrees that all is not well in the health sector.

Mugurungi says lack of resources is devastating the sector, adding that as long as there are no resources the health system will continue to deteriorate.
Zimbabwes independence on 18 April 1980 was preceded by the Lancaster House agreement of December 1979.

The agreement paved way for the country first democratic elections. Analysts and ordinary Zimbabweans say the period running up to the elections, announcement of the results and the Independence Day was tense, joyous and hopes were high for the black majority.

The two liberation movements, Zanu PF led by Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomos Zapu resoundingly won the elections with Mr. Mugabe becoming the first black prime minister in 1980.

Political commentator, Ibbo Mandaza, who attended the Lancaster House conference, says the announcement of the victory for the liberation movements threw the country into a frenzy with wild celebrations as white Rhodesians collapsed and fainted following in their homes and streets following their heavy their defeat.

He says amid the joy, were fears that the Rhodesians could do anything to prevent the smooth transition of the black majority into power.

When the results were announced the city went wild, buses hooting, youth and I think it was clear and the British warned General Walls that if you try anything, the blood of the whites would be on your hands because I think the population was ready for anything.

He says thousands of jubilant Zimbabweans thronged Rufaro Stadium for the independence celebrations and hoisting of the Zimbabwe flag despite reports the venue had been mined by the Rhodesians.

For retired General Mike Nyambuya, the announcement of the March 1980 election results and the run-up to Independence Day compares to no day in the countrys history. At that time, Retired General Nyambuya was commanding Dzapasi Assembly Point, one of the largest assembly centres for the liberation fighters who had returned from Mozambique.

There was jubilation and celebration in the country.so we were then tasked with the task of preparing for the parade, main parade in Harare and then in other provincial centers as well and it was announced that Prince Charles was coming to lower the Union Jack and we lift the Zimbabwean flag.

He adds that people couldnt t sleep as they celebrated victory after a protracted liberation war in which thousands of their loved one perished.

It was those days up to the 18th April ...Were full of excitement and celebrations and on the 17th April we did not sleep so the Union Jack was lowered on 17th midnight and the new flag was raised.

Zaka senator, Misheck Marava, says he was excited to vote in the March 1980 elections. A then young Marava, working as cost clerk in Harares Msasa industrial area, voted in Harares Mabvuku high density suburb.

Marava says he was very happy when Mr. Mugabe and his Zanu party won the elections.

I am one of those people who almost touched the sky by happiness and almost every youth tried to imitate or draw President Mugabe. I am one those people who tried to draw his portrait, we were so happy then.

He still remembers that the period between announcement of the election results and Independence Day was full of joy and happiness. But for Marava, now a lawmaker for an opposition party Movement for Democratic Change, formed 19 years after independence, things have changed.

He says the important national day has been monopolized by Zanu PF and it has lost its significance.

This time independence has become a party issue, it belongs to a certain party and the other parties are not involved yet during the first independence celebrations other parties were not there everybody was one person, we all were Zimbabweans it was not much of the party. No one knew of a party, we only knew of the independence fought for by the sons and daughters of Zimbabwe.

BOB NESTA MARLEY GIG

For economic analyst, Masimba Manyanya, who enjoyed Jamaican reggae star, Bob Marleys independence celebrations gig at Rufaro Stadium, expectations were high.

He says each time he passes by Rufaro Stadium he remembers 18 April 1980, a day he describes as the highest point of his life. But he is depressed by the current state of affairs in the country.

Today my thinking is, yes we are politically independent but we are not free, because the freedoms that we thought we had won in 1980 dont seem to materialize before us, economically we are enslaved.

He says Zimbabwe is an impoverished nation, worse than it was in 1980. Mandaza is equally concerned. He says its sad little or nothing has added to the independence.

Its very sad, there is no comparison between the eighties and now. Eighties was a period of contagious patriotism, hard work, commitment it was an era of non-partisanship and nonpartisan nationalism where we all wanted to build Zimbabwe.

Mandaza, like many Zimbabweans, believes that another Zimbabwe will emerge from the disastrous Mugabe era. He says Zimbabwes restoration cannot be done by the current crop of leaders but by young people.
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Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant in Supergirl. Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS

On the February 29 episode of Supergirl, media mogul Cat Grant, impeccably dressed in high-waisted, wide-leg trousers and a simple black top, strides into her office and summons her underlings for a staff meeting: Stat, with a side order of ASAP. She begins the assembly with characteristically verbose disdain for a world that never quite meets her standards. My massage therapist spent the entire session talking about how her surrogate has celiac disease and my Pilates instructor just informed me that hes quitting to open up an artisanal yarn store in Vermont, she groans, still wearing her designer sunglasses. So! Which one of you hardy souls is going to give me a reason to go on living?

In that moment, I felt her pain. Supergirl isnt a bad show  indeed, Ive argued that its a better Superman story than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But its often boring and repetitive. The boilerplate love-triangle plot and the villain-of-the-week battles often leave one feeling as irritated as Cat is after sessions with her service professionals. Luckily, Cat is the hardy soul who always gives me a reason to keep watching. Played with bombast and aplomb by Calista Flockhart, she runs laps around everyone else in Supergirls roster. As the first season of the show closes and we prepare for a near-certain second one, its safe to declare her the superhero series MVP.

Before we go any further, lets address the elephant in the room: Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. It would be foolish to deny that Cat shares a great deal of DNA with Miranda Priestly. Both walk through the world of mass media with a confidence and style that can inspire a mix of awe and terror in anyone who comes into their orbits. Both are intimidating bosses to meek-but-gradually-bolder female assistants (Supergirls civilian name is Kara, but Cat inveterately calls her Kira.) Both are, in their way, feminist ideals of women in power.

That comparison shouldnt disqualify Flockhart from praise. First of all, Cat is much more high-strung than the dour and soft-spoken Miranda. Flockhart portrays her characters disdain with steely eyes and anxiously pursed lips (though she rarely heats up beyond a high simmer). But more importantly, Cats echoing of another icon is just part of a long tradition in superhero fiction. Characters borrow heavily from other characters, both on the screen and the page. Batman began as a ripoff of the Shadow and Zorro; seven decades later, the title character of The CWs Arrow is more or less a ripoff of Batman. That doesnt diminish the power of the characters  it merely gives the creators the opportunity to play around with existing archetypes in new situations.

And damn, Flockhart really knows how to wield power. She plays Cat with an intensity that can only come from an actor who knows she has another shot at major prime-time exposure after many years away from the spotlight (her last recurring role was in 2011, as Kitty McCallister on Brothers and Sisters). In a show where dialogue is largely built to further the plot, she brings ornate flair to her pontificating mini-monologues. Lets look at one of many examples. In the episode For the Girl Who Has Everything, Cat has to suffer through an interaction with a shapeshifter whos posing as Kara and doesnt know her bosss preferences and routines. The faux Kara is summoned to Cats office after having missed a bunch of work due to sci-fi shenanigans (they involve a solar storm, which will be an important fact in a moment) in the A-plot.

Oh, how lovely for you to come into the office. On a weekday, no less! You are a real hero, Kira, she muses.

Was there a reason you called me in, Ms. Grant? is the tentative reply.

Oh, Im sorry, Cat replies. Im just dealing with a little story about a solar storm that threatens all global commerce and promises civilian unrest. Yes, book me interviews with Barbara at NASA, Eduardo at NSA, and Gina at the White House. And I want attributable quotes, no press releases. And if they try to evade you, you remind them that I am still holding on to their Hamilton tickets.

Who? the shapeshifter asks.

Oh, first base! Cat shouts, casually invoking a deep-cut pop-culture reference. Keep up! Just to punctuate the encounter, after the impostor Kara offers to get coffee with whole milk, Cat delivers her response perfectly stone-cold: Whole milk has not passed my lips since I rode a bicycle with streamers on the handles.

Cat is even fun to watch when shes being serious. The show is careful to make sure we admire her as much as we laugh at her, and were periodically reminded that she is, in fact, a top-notch journalist. Take, for example, her soliloquy in an episode where she becomes convinced Kara is actually Supergirl. When Kara denies it and offers excuses to explain away Cats suspicions, she refuses to have any of that nonsense: Only a person who is determined to lie can answer all the questions theyre asked. How do you think I caught Lance Armstrong? You see, Kira, you and I both fight for truth, justice, and the American Way. It just so happens that my methods are better. And more fun.

Fun is exactly the right word, because thats what Flockharts performance is. Especially by comparison to the often-stilted cadences of the rest of the show, which, again, arent bad, just not nearly as exciting. Indeed, Flockharts performance is a perfect example of a larger phenomenon in the world of the superhero shows produced by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg: The more experienced performers are way more interesting to watch than the younger ones.

That suite of shows has become a massive and unexpected hit in the past few years. First came Arrow, then its spinoff The Flash, then CBSs Supergirl (initially unrelated to the first two, but now connected via an interdimensional crossover), then  back on The CW  yet another Arrow and Flash spinoff called DCs Legends of Tomorrow. The leads are almost always young, sexy people who do young, sexy things like grappling with will-they-or-wont-they romance and struggling with their inner demons while trying to figure out their role in the world. The actors who wield those roles, understandably, take them very seriously, and their performances are therefore often dragged down by the gravity theyre giving to their lines.

But you can always count on getting a thrill when you see some of the older folks having genuine fun with the bizarre premise of being on a show about superheroes. Victor Garbers scientist Martin Stein on The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow is an uptight, stuffy delight. When Jesse L. Martin smiles as the Flashs adopted dad, the whole world smiles with him. John Barrowman has gradually made Malcolm Merlyn (or should I say  the Dark Archer!) one of the most interesting characters on Arrow. Tom Cavanagh displays a mastery of simmering menace as The Flashs Harrison Wells. And perhaps the greatest of them all is Wentworth Miller, who has reinvented longtime Flash villain Captain Cold as an eternally condescending, relentlessly wry comedic powerhouse who is basically the main reason to watch Legends of Tomorrow.

Theres no small-screen precedent in superhero fiction for the current explosion of spandex on TV and streaming. Its nearly impossible to take it all in, especially given how much of a slog it can be to get through 40-plus minutes of superpowered hand-wringing (Im convinced that the 20ish-page comic book is still the ideal length of a chapter in a superhero story). Supergirl, like its title character, is going through growing pains and finding out what it needs to do in order to be as gripping as possible. But in the meantime, we can all revel in the glory of Flockhart, who knew exactly what she was doing on day one.
Ariana Grande. Photo: Jason Merritt/2014 Getty Images

A little more than a month ahead of Dangerous Womans release, Ariana Grande has finally shared the albums full track list. The Ghost of Louise Belcher Yet to Come presented her songs as mugshots in an Instagram video Saturday night, revealing exciting and intriguing collaborations in the process. The 15-track record notably includes features by Nicki Minaj and Macy Gray, as well as Lil Wayne and Future. Read on for specifics:

1. Moonlight

2. Dangerous Woman

3. Be Alright

4. Into You

5. Side to Side, feat. Nicki Minaj

6. Let Me Love You, feat. Lil Wayne

7. Greedy

8. Leave Me Lonely, feat. Macy Gray

9. Everyday, feat. Future

10. Sometimes

11. I Dont Care

12. Bad Decisions

13. Touch It

14. Knew Better / Forever Boy

15. Thinkin Bout You

DW arrives May 20, and you can preorder it here. Also, keep your eyes peeled for something later tonight, which may or may not mark the return of the Hat.

Update: Hat? No. Song? Yes:
The Big Border Wall Theory Photo: Getty Images

The beautiful people of Hollywood are above the mess of party politics. Indeed, they are true independent thinkers who support freedom of expression and, if only by accident, the assertion All Governments Under God. An investigation from the L.A. Times revealed that thousands of Californians have registered for the ultraconservative American Independent Party, while meaning to define their political affiliation as independent on voting forms  among them, a gaggle of confused celebrities that includes Emma Stone, Demi Moore, and boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. But the party that campaigns for Our Great Pro-Life Constitution and Public Servants, Not Public Masters! will not be getting a Bernie Sandersstyle campaign video. Stone, Leonard, and Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of former Republican governor Arnold, all told the Times that they plan to re-register before the June election. Others had PR reps hustle out statements: The views of this party do not accurately reflect my personal beliefs and I am not affiliated with any political party, The Big Bang Theorys Kaley Cuoco told the Times. Demi Moore, a big donor to the Obama campaign, took the full McCarthy route, having a representative write, Demi Moore is not, nor has ever been, a member of the American Independent Party  Any record that states otherwise is a mistake. Odds are, at least one celebrity truly does support the AIP, but who? Keep an eye out for a Hollywood Hills mansion with a 20-foot border wall.
Dave Franco, one of a college-lacrosse team-sized set of indistinguishable white hunks who are all in the running to play a Young Han Solo, would like you to know that its really weird to audition for the part of Han Solo. Im not good with impressions, Franco told MTV News about the experience. I think thats the reason its so hard to cast this role, too. Its like, do they want to like perfectly embody who Harrison Ford is, or do they want to go a completely different route? Do they want someone to look really similar him? So, I dont know, I think theyre struggling with that, maybe.

Currently, rumor has it that Alden Ehrenreich of Hail, Caesar! is the front-runner for the role, though Brooklyns Emory Cohen, Kingsmans Taron Egerton, and Transformers: Age of Extinctions Jack Reynor were also on the short list. Will Dave Franco get the part? I dont want to underplay it, he told MTV News. Im very flattered to have been or to be whatever, wherever they are in the conversation, but, like, it is what it is. This sounds like a concession speech, unless Francos trying to do an end-run around Disneys press and impress them with his Han Sololike ballsiness. What a rogue.
Lena Dunham in Girls. Photo: HBO

Girls prompts more think pieces with each episode than any other show on television  it also elicits as many iTunes downloads and Spotify streams for its music. As the powerful fifth season comes to an end, the songs in each episode have gotten as much attention as Lena Dunhams various body parts: In March, Girls occupied five of the top ten slots of TV songs that were searched most often on Shazam.

Vulture spoke to music supervisor Manish Raval, who has been with Girls since the very start, to get his favorite musical moments from the series, including one from tonights finale.

Frankie Valli, Cant Take My Eyes Off of You (Season 5, Episode 10)

[This song] stemmed from Lena and Jenni Konner, who directed [the episode]. They had the idea to end with this song very early on in the process. It was one of these things where it was something weve never done in the show, a very old classic song that everyone knows, and we use it in a big monumental way. It seems like an un-Girls thing to do, and thats why we liked [it]. We took a few stabs at trying to replace it with some other stuff that might have been more in the Girls wheelhouse, and they all failed. It was one of those moments when we had to say, this is it and it cant be any other song. It was a conscious decision to not end every episode with a new artist or an artist giving you an exclusive song or something were breaking on Girls. We didnt feel like we needed to do that  [we] just purely serve the story.

Robyn Dancing on My Own (Season 1, Episode 3)

I dont know whats in store for season six, but that will go down as the definitive musical moment of Girls. Seeing that for the first time in the editing room was like Oh shit, this will be like nothing else Ive seen or worked on before. I had the same reaction the fans had when they saw for the first time. Lena wanted that song. She wanted to end the episode with Hannah and Marnie dancing to [it]. It was one of the first things she knew ahead of time, and for me I just wanted to make sure I got it for her.

Brenda Lee Someday (Youll Want Me to Want You) (Season 5, Episode 7)

[The scene where Hannah spots Jessa looking at Adam from the fire escape.] It was one of the songs that came together last season. It was on the short list for an episode we wanted to end with a country song. We used Patsy Clines Shes Got You for episode four of season four. This song was a remnant of that conversation. We knew that we had songs that were recorded around 1962, when the play Adam is in is set. We thought it was a great use, and weve been getting a ton of emails about it.

Vicktor Taiwo, Curse (Season 5, Episode 7)

[The scene where Hannah and Fran leave the play and see Jessa and Adam walking away together.] It was a musical spot that was open and up for discussion up until the last second. We hadnt come to a conclusion what emotion we wanted to end with. We made the passionate plea for this song to the producers. We felt [it] was one of the strongest-acted scenes in the series. So much happened without any words being said and we really had to be in that headspace as to what they were feeling and thinking. The song had to carry that emotionally with the music and lyrics. If it didnt do that, we [feared] we were going to do the ending a disservice. The gratifying thing afterwards was the artist himself [tweeted], holy shit Im #3 on iTunes, or something. To see a moment of him flipping out because he got showcased in a great way, for us that just made it all worth it.

Lia Ices, Little Marriage (Season 5, Episode 6)

[The scene in the lake in the Marnie episode.] This is where she and Charlie are in the park and they fall into the water and she has this internal moment. It was a very ethereal song with female vocals, and it takes you into that moment of them on the train coming home.

Lia Ices, Love Is Won (Season 1, Episode 9)

She is one of the first artists weve come back to, because shes not like anyone else. This plays over the end credits in the first season after Marnie and Hannah have a big fight.

Icona Pop, I Love It (Season 2, Episode 3)

So much attention was brought to the song because of the scene we used it in. We werent trying to make a song into a hit, it was just a rough demo of a song that we happened to get from someone. It was amazing to see something from that stage become a huge hit song, and that is attributed to Lena Dunham dancing in a yellow mesh top on a coke binge.

Brns, Past Lives (Season 5, Episode 3)

I personally had such an affection for the song when I first heard it. It opens with this mellower intro and then has a beat that switches the emotion immediately and turns off that first emotion and turns into a second emotion. For me, as a supervisor, that is something that can be used in a great way. We found the perfect spot for it because it was when Shoshanna is in Japan and you dont know what she is thinking, and shes on her ledge. We realized that was the perfect time  after leaving that we kick back to America and cut to credits. That song did it perfectly for that moment.

Fleet Foxes Montezuma (Season 1, Episode 6)

In the first season we ended the episode where Hannah goes back home with a Fleet Foxes song that I love. The lyrics speak exactly to the moment Hannahs character is going through with her parents. It couldnt have been more literal to the moment and that experience.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this season of Girls is the number of lusciously shot sequences that follow characters through specific, strange places. For Shoshanna, it happened in Japan, and it was capped by the stunning closer of her walking through an empty Tokyo street, with Auroras cover of Life on Mars helping to give her foreignness a lonely and heroic arc. For Marnie, it was The Panic in Central Park, which similarly finds her in a city rendered alien. Shoshannas fetish room mirrors the black-tie fundraiser Marnie crashes, down to the costumes they both require; Shoshannas empty street is echoed in Marnies walking away from Charlies apartment, barefoot and raw.

Hannah just hasnt gotten the same Sofia Coppola treatment. Creatively stifled and shackled to Fran the secret dick, Hannah has instead descended to as-yet-unexplored depths of bad behavior, culminating in flashing her boss and forcing a blow job on Ray.

In Love Stories, though, Hannah is freed from the strictures of a relationship that was patently terrible for her, quits her teaching job (and apologizes for the flashing incident), and, at last, gets a version of her own dreamlike, girl-meets-city sequence, accompanied by her old nemesis Tally Schifrin. Unable to think of a reason why not to join her  she is free, she says, until she has to go home to Michigan for Thanksgiving  Hannah joins Tally for the day, and they find themselves flying over a bridge on bikes, zipping past construction workers and playground kids to a cover of Vanity Fares Hitchin a Ride.

Its not the same as Marnies night with Charlie, or Shoshannas experience in Japan. Though Hannahs bike ride is cheerful and freewheeling  even as shes too afraid to look at the view as they cross the bridge  its also short, and has none of the heft of the other characters parallel moments.

Instead, Hannahs big revelatory moment is the quieter one she shares with Tally afterwards, as they talk about their careers and identities and anxieties. Hannah admits that shes been measuring herself against Tally for years; while Tally has a successful writing career (including a book of poetry), Hannah has nothing to show for her life except to have gained and lost a total of 33 pounds and not one but two strains of HPV.

They are high, and Jenny Slates Tally is as much a caricature as anyone else on this show, and if her subsequent disclosure doesnt make it onto a highlight reel of Girls and the Problem of First-World Problems, I dont know what will. But its absolutely sincere, and it has a ring of confused, self-loathing truth. I Google myself every day, Tally tells Hannah. Tally Schifrin is no longer just a person; shes a character. Shes a monster, Tally says. She feeds on praise and controversy and its exhausting and boring all at once.

Girls (and Hannah in particular) has gotten quite a bit of flack over the past five seasons for adhering too closely to Lena Dunhams experience and viewpoint. It is both a feature and a pitfall of this series that its main character is so frequently conflated with its creator  every loathsome thing Hannah does is disgustedly (and gleefully) ascribed to Dunhams own life and selfhood. It gives us a voyeuristic thrill to feel like were getting Dunhams real, controversial self, but it can also encourage some viewers to see the show solely as Dunhams roman a clef.

Perhaps more powerfully than anywhere else in the series to date, Love Stories presents a moment from a character other than Hannah who might usefully be read as a Dunham stand-in, with all the knotty issues that represents. Tally is the success story whose notoriety has divorced her from the real experiences she needs to sell her authorial brand. Its very hard to not think of Dunham during Tallys mournful confession.

Most pertinently to the episode, this confession lets Hannah see her own past several years in a different light  all her failures and mistakes are reframed as material for writing, just as shes always wanted. She is, for the first time in a while, legitimately happy.

The success of this moment relies on its audiences ability (or desire) to see it outside the context of Hannahs other actions. She is, after all, still the person who forced her friend into a sexual encounter he did not want. She got an apology from the principal, whose indulgent, accepting stance is pretty hard to buy. She stole the bike that launched her on this little trip. She stole it from a business guy whose Ultra-Square Business-y Papers spill out of his leather satchel, which is supposed to render him below our sympathy, I suppose. But she stole it nonetheless.

While the episode plays with the idea of Hannahs titular love story being between her and Tally (Should we have sex?  Should we?), the actual love story might just be the earliest blush of Hannah falling in love with herself. Weve seen things like this before, and Im a long way off from accepting this as the moment Hannahs trajectory changes course. But it certainly comes at a suggestive narrative juncture, moving blocks into place right before the shows final season.

Thats enough of Hannahs love story, because we also need to look at Elijah, whose Pretty Woman bit with DEmilia does not work out as he had hoped. Its hard to say how fully Elijah actually feels the things he says to Dill in his pitch for serious-boyfriend status. In spite of his general delight at informing DEmilia and others about his well-known TV-personality hookup, Andrew Rannells plays Elijahs realization that Dill doesnt want him with deep sadness. Both Dill and Fran go a long way toward demonstrating how terrible they would be as partners, but Dills final moments are hilarious, in spite of Elijahs heartbreak. When Dill couldnt even hug Elijah all the way because of his filming makeup, I snickered. When Dill said, Ill think of you every time I go to Brooklyn, I full-out snorted.

In the land of Marnie and Desi, the love story is happily not between them. This is thanks in no small part to Tandices insistence that more than eight minutes with Marnie would constitute re-immersion. Instead, its a reunion between Marnie and Ray, which is the result of a dream Marnie insists on describing as a love dream rather than a sex dream. It doesnt bode particularly well that Marnie is, yet again, proving incapable of being on her own, but at least Ray is happy.

I doubt theres any love story that would be fully satisfying for Shoshanna  other than a flight back to Japan, that is  but her gleeful leap back into marketing to help save Rays coffee shop will have to do. Her Carmen Sandiego-esque hat-and-trench routine at Helvetica certainly suggests shes enjoying herself, and its always entertaining to watch Girls poke fun at the culture its so often despised for depicting. The owner-barista duo are hard to parse  theyre not so different from a show like New Girl making fun of a hipster elementary school in L.A., but they also feel like Girls having a laugh at its own expense.

The last glimpse of Love Stories is Hannah and Tally coming down the stairs, high and giggling and riding the wave of their intimate confessional dance montage. They bump into Jessa and Adam, who are presumably delivering groceries for Laird and Sample, and cannot stop their peals of hysterical laughter. It is awful, of course, that sense of being the butt of a joke you didnt even hear, but it also feels like a moment of relief for Hannah, finally. This whole situation is hysterically funny to her, rather than painfully, perpetually dire. Is this what it looks like when Hannah sees outside of herself?
When I look back at these last days of The Good Wife, Ill be quite grateful for a panel presentation that the shows cast and creators gave at the Tribeca Film Festival this weekend. When asked whether viewers should expect closure of the shows many story arcs before the last episode airs in May, co-creator Robert King answered, The best finales [] are novelistic. And novels, there is sometimes a level of ambiguity, which is fun. Fun is the wrong word. Resonant, perhaps. You want a last episode that resonates.

Its a simple revelation, but it helped me understand what to expect as the show winds down. I went into Landing with expectations firmly managed  and then the show delivered an episode so well executed, so rife with everything that made old-school Good Wife compelling, so fun to watch, that I managed to completely overlook the fact that the show was revisiting the stupid NSA story lines. Once again, my expectations for the rest of the series are sky high. Oh, Good Wife. Loving you is complicated.

The episode doesnt pick up at the previous episodes cliffhanger, in an odd departure from the shows typical form. We learn after the fact that Alicia still wants a divorce, but that shes sticking by Peter until his case is over. Im a little surprised that the latter is true  my Good Wife brain trust (a.k.a. my parents) were certain she wouldnt stand by him  but Alicia and Peters relationship has always been a murky thing. Nothing should surprise me anymore.

Even though Peter is a total garbage person, and even though Alicia has deserved better for decades, theres something weirdly moving about the way she stands by his side. Im not sure if its wrong for me to look at whats happening between them that way  or unhealthy for Alicia to be behaving in the way that she is  but I got emotional when Bearded Matthew Morrison stormed into her apartment, ready to arrest Peter. Alicia bolts into the guest room, scares up a blazer to cover up the cuffs on Peters wrists, and then ties a tie around his neck. She hisses at Bearded Michael Morrison, You will not embarrass my husband, then walks to the police car with Peter, in images that are transposed to the familiar black-and-white of the shows opening credits. Later, she goes on TV, announcing that shell support Peter because hes innocent. Full circle, indeed.

None of that changes the fact that the case against Peter is strong, and his options are dwindling. To top it all off, he seems legitimately heartbroken that Alicia still wants to go through with the divorce. Hes offered a plea bargain, but when he says three years, its not probation, as Alicia assumes. Its jail time. I make a lot of jokes about Alicias lack of facial expression, but the actual shock in her face packs one hell of a punch in this scene. Were right back where we started, Peter says. Its on the nose, but its not inaccurate.

Peters not the only one in trouble, either. Alicia gets a frantic phone call from fugitive whistle-blower Jeff Dellinger (the perfect Zach Woods). Jeff is on the cusp of trying to reenter America to go to his mothers funeral, when he gets spooked at the border crossing and declines to present his passport. The U.S. Border Patrol and the infinitely more polite Canadian police end up in an actual, physical tug of war over him, so Jeff calls Alicia, who gets on the first plane to Toronto with Lucca to help him out. Im willing to suspend my disbelief for The Good Wife when its warranted, but even I dont believe Jeff would just up and decide to casually come back to the States.

The tug of war doesnt stop there, although it gets a lot less literal. The Canadian judge (whos referred to as your worship, which is just wonderfully odd) is quick to act snooty about the superiority of the Canadian legal system to Americas guns and gangs. It immediately gets complicated, and there are the requisite collection of Good Wife twists and turns. At one point, one of the agents who has monitored Alicia for years turns up, and  wait, are NSA agents allowed to so gleefully reveal the depths of their spying? I know (or at least I think I know  Lord, I wont miss trying to keep seven seasons of story mentally straight) that this particular agent is a bit doltish, but its still breathtakingly unprofessional. It all leads to Alicia finally learning the extent to which the NSA has listened in on her, and, somehow, that leads to Jeff getting Canadian asylum  presumably to work for the Canadian version of the NSA. Hooray?

Meanwhile, Gary Cole is back as Dianes husband, Kurt. (I continue to have a fantasy in my head where Kurt is just an extension of Coles character on Veep, and it holds up if youre willing to squint.) He terrifies Diane by announcing, Lets talk, but its good news. Kurt wants to sell his business so that he and Diane can spend a portion of their marriage actually, you know, living together. Shes thrilled, and its a rare unguarded moment for Diane. I really, really love it. Kurt asks Diane to oversee the sale of his business to PGT Ballistics, which turns out to be owned by Megan Hilty in a tight-fitted dress, oddly cloying and strangely sexualized. Its a Glee/Smash reunion, which is to say both Hilty and Matthew Morrison appear on this episode and dont interact at all. Diane, beautifully, tells her to go fuck herself (insofar as a person can actually say that on network TV). I have not really loved anything David Lee has ever done, but watching him slink out of the room after Diane drops that bomb is pretty amazing.

Later, Diane accuses Kurt of being too easily swayed by pretty, young, blonde Republicans. FAIR POINT. She later walks it back, but Kurt says hell find another buyer anyway. Tearfully, Diane responds, You make me happy. I so wish wed been able to see their relationship actually develop over the years. Diane deserves far more than just a happy marriage, but Im thrilled she has it anyway.

Jason spends most of Landing working on Peters case (what could possibly go wrong?) and avoiding Alicia after she breaks the news of the divorce, even though she emphasizes the Im not getting divorced for you angle. But at the end of the episode, in Alicias apartment, he asks why shes getting divorced. He wants to know what she wants. Alicia begs off a few times before finally, simply giving him an answer: You. We dont hear Jasons response, but it doesnt feel like a cliffhanger. This time, it seems like a complete sentence.
Margulies. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/2016 Getty Images

When Julianna Margulies read the script for the series finale of The Good Wife, she was rendered speechless. As the actress revealed Sunday during a Tribeca Film Festival salute to the program, it took four reads  and a glass of wine  before she could respond to show creators Robert and Michelle King, who were waiting to hear if she had any comments, concerns, or revisions. Along with the script came a bottle of wine and a note that read, Alicia should be drinking while reading this.

After the first read, Margulies felt emotionally confused, and just couldnt even talk, because I was having so many emotions, she explained at the John Zuccotti Theater. After the second read, Margulies attempted to process her reaction with her husband, Keith Lieberthal. He asked, Do you like it? And she told him, I do. Its so complex! His response? Thats exactly how you should be. I know youre right, she told him, but Im sad. His response to that? Thats exactly how it should be.



By the fourth read, Margulies was ready to open the wine and pour a glass. A wee glass, not an Alicia-sized glass, she laughed. Youd be drunk! This time, she was able to digest the script, finally, and sent her thoughts to the Kings. I wrote them all of three words, she said. Nothing but brilliant. Asked to give another three words to describe the finale, Margulies offered, Satisfying, uplifting, and sad. (Her co-star Cush Jumbos three words in turn were, Happy, sad, sexy.)



Dont expect all of the shows questions to be answered, or all the loose ends to be neatly tied up in a bow, though. Showrunner Robert King cited finales from Six Feet Under, Breaking Bad, and The Sopranos as models, in that the last episode would make a viewer want to start over at the beginning of the series. The best finales  are novelistic, King said. And novels, there is sometimes a level of ambiguity, which is fun. Fun is the wrong word. Resonant, perhaps. You want a last episode that resonates.



As to rumors that Josh Charles would return to the show in a Will Gardner flashback, the Kings would neither confirm nor deny. Instead, co-showrunner Michelle King mentioned other rumors shes heard, noting at least one of these is true: Ive heard that Peter, at this point, is starting another affair. Ive heard that Alicia and Eli kiss. Ive heard that Alicia and Jason run off happily together. And Ive heard that Michelle Obama guest-starred.



The most plausible of those rumors sounds like theres going to be a happy ending, right? Sure, theres always a chance, Michelle King grinned, saying her response would be the same as to whether the opposite was possible as well. But Jumbo said that the Kings do deliver, and that viewers will be satisfied. Theyre not going to let you down, she said. Theyre not going to sleep with you and walk away. Theyre going to cuddle you for a while  and then theyre going to leave.
PRESS RELEASE  The Commemorative Air Forces (CAF) iconic Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, FIFI, along with other AirPower Tour aircraft, starts a 24 city, 6 week tour in Birmingham, AL May 18-22. She will also perform in two air shows prior to the start of the tour, the Barksdale AFB Defenders of Liberty Air Show April 30-May 1 and the Spirit of St. Louis Air Show May 14-15. FIFI is currently the only flying B-29 Superfortress in the world.

While on tour the B-29 will be accompanied at many stops by the P-51 Mustang Gunfighter and a variety of other World War II aircraft including the beloved C-45 Expeditor, Bucket of Bolts; a T-6 Texan; a PT-13 Stearman; and others. Each year the CAF AirPower History Tour provides powerful history lessons to audiences across the United States. Their collection of flying military aircraft brings the sights, smells, sounds and stories of World War II aviation to the public at large. Visitors can view the aircraft up close, watch them fly and purchase rides in many of them. Advance ride reservations can be made at AirPowerTour.org.

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress, first flown in 1942, began active service in 1944 and is best known as the aircraft whose missions over Japan helped bring about the end of World War II. It was designed as a replacement for the older B-17s and B-24s, with longer range and greater bomb loads. The B-29 was also used in the Korean War in the early 1950s and was a staple of the U.S. Air Force until the late 1950s.

The tour schedule for May through early October:

St. Louis, MO, May 14-15 (Spirit of St. Louis Air Show)

Birmingham, AL, May 18-22

Farmingdale, NJ, May 25-29

Hagerstown, MD, May 30-June 1

Reading, PA, June 3-5 (World War II Weekend)

Nashua, NH, June 8-12

Albany, NY, June 15-19

Pittsburgh, PA, June 22-26

South Bend, IN, June 29-July 3

Aurora, IL, July 15-17

Dubuque, IA, July 18-20

Janesville, WI, July 22-24 (Heavy Bomber Weekend)

Oshkosh, WI, July 25-31 (EAA AirVenture)

Peoria, IL, August 3-7

Springfield, IL, August 10-14

Omaha, NE, August 17-21

Cheyenne, WY, August 22-25

Broomfield, CO, August 26-28

Grand Junction, CO, August 31-September 4

Las Vegas, NV, September 7-11

Monterrey, CA, September 14-18

Modesto, CA, September 21-25

Sacramento, CA, September 29-October 2

Prescott, AZ, October 5-9

Lubbock, TX, October 12-16

About the CAFs B-29 Superfortress, FIFI:

FIFI was acquired by the CAF in the early 1970s when a group of CAF members found her at the U.S. Navy Proving Ground at China Lake, California where she was planned to be used as a missile target. The airplane was rescued and restored and flew for over thirty years until 2006 when the chief pilot made the decision to ground her pending a complete power plant re-fit. What followed was an extensive four year restoration that included replacing all four engines with new custom built hybrid engines. FIFI returned to the sky in 2010 and since that time has traveled coast to coast attracting large crowds at every tour stop. Learn more about FIFI and her tour schedule at www.AirPowerTour.org.

About the Commemorative Air Force:

The Commemorative Air Force honors the men and women who built, maintained, and flew in these airplanes during World War II. The organization believes that is best accomplished by maintaining the airplanes in flying condition; taking the airplanes to the people allowing them to experience the sight and sound of the aircraft in flight.

Collecting, restoring and flying vintage historical aircraft for more than half a century, the Commemorative Air Force ranks as one of the largest private air forces in the world. The CAF is dedicated to Honoring American Military Aviation through flight, exhibition and remembrance. A non-profit educational association, the CAF has more than 13,000 members and a fleet of 165 airplanes distributed throughout the country to 76 CAF units for care and operation. For more information, visit www.commemorativeairforce.org.
If any single number captures the state of the American economy over the last decade, it is zero. That was the net gain in jobs between 1999 and 2009nada, nil, zip. By painful contrast, from the 1940s through the 1990s, recessions came and went, but no decade ended without at least a 20 percent increase in the number of jobs.

Many people blame the great real estate bubble of recent years. The idea here is that once a bubble pops it can destroy more real-world business activityand jobsthan it creates as it expands. There is some truth to this. But it doesnt explain why, even when the real estate bubble was at its most inflated, so few jobs were created compared to the tech-stock bubble of the late 90s. Between 2000 and 2007 American businesses created only seven million jobs, before the great recession destroyed more than that. In the 90s prior to the dot-com bust, they created more than twenty-two million jobs.

Others point to the diffusion of new technologies that reduce the number of workers needed to produce and sell manufactured products like cars and services like airline reservations. But throughout economic history, even as new technologies like the assembly line and the personal computer destroyed large numbers of jobs, they also empowered people to create new and different ones, often in greater numbers. Yet others blame foreign competition and offshoring, and point to all the jobs lost to China, India, or Mexico. Here, too, there is some truth. But U.S. governments have been liberalizing our trade laws for decades; although this has radically changed the type of jobs available to American workersshifting vast chunks of the U.S. manufacturing sector overseas, for instancethere is little evidence that this has resulted in any lasting decline in the number of jobs in America.

Moreover, recent Labor Department statistics show that the loss of jobs here at home, be it the result of sudden economic crashes or technological progress or trade liberalization, does not appear to be our main problem at all. Though few people realize it, the rate of job destruction in the private sector is now 20 percent lower than it was in the late 90s, when managers at Americas corporations embraced outsourcing and downsizing with an often manic intensity. Rather, the lack of net job growth over the last decade is due mainly to the creation of fewer new jobs. As recent Labor Department statistics show, even during the peak years of the housing boom, job creation by existing businesses was 14 percent lower than it was in the late 90s.

The problem of weak job creation certainly cant be due to increased business taxes and regulation, since both were slashed during the Bush years. Nor can the explanation be insufficient consumer demand; throughout most of the last decade, consumers and the federal government engaged in a consumption binge of world-historical proportions.

Other, more plausible explanations have been floated for why the rate of job creation seems to have fallen. One is that the federal government made too few investments in the 1980s and 90s in things like basic R&D, so the pipeline of technological innovation on which new jobs depend began to run dry in the 2000s. Another is that a basic shift in competitiveness has taken placethat countries like India, with educated but relatively low-cost workforces, have become more natural homes for jobs-producing sectors like IT.

But while the mystery of what killed the great American jobs machine has yielded no shortage of debatable answers, one of the more compelling potential explanations has been conspicuously absent from the national conversation: monopolization. The word itself feels anachronistic, a relic from the age of the Rockefellers and Carnegies. But the fact that the term has faded from our daily discourse doesnt mean the thing itself has vanishedin fact, the opposite is true. In nearly every sector of our economy, far fewer firms control far greater shares of their markets than they did a generation ago.

Indeed, in the years after officials in the Reagan administration radically altered how our government enforces our antimonopoly laws, the American economy underwent a truly revolutionary restructuring. Four great waves of mergers and acquisitionsin the mid-1980s, early 90s, late 90s, and between 2003 and 2007transformed Americas industrial landscape at least as much as globalization. Over the same two decades, meanwhile, the spread of mega-retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot and agricultural behemoths like Smithfield and Tysons resulted in a more piecemeal approach to consolidation, through the destruction or displacement of countless independent family-owned businesses.

It is now widely accepted among scholars that small businesses are responsible for most of the net job creation in the United States. It is also widely agreed that small businesses tend to be more inventive, producing more patents per employee, for example, than do larger firms. Less well established is what role concentration plays in suppressing new business formation and the expansion of existing businesses, along with the jobs and innovation that go with such growth. Evidence is growing, however, that the radical, wide-ranging consolidation of recent years has reduced job creation at both big and small firms simultaneously. At one extreme, ever more dominant Goliaths increasingly lack any real incentive to create new jobs; after all, many can increase their earnings merely by using their power to charge customers more or pay suppliers less. At the other extreme, the people who run our small enterprises enjoy fewer opportunities than in the past to grow their businesses. The Goliaths of today are so big and so adept at protecting their turf that they leave few niches open to exploit.

Over the next few years, we can use our government to do many things to promote the creation of new and better jobs in America. But even the most aggressive stimulus packages and tax cutting will do little to restore the sort of open market competition that, over the years, has proven to be such an important impetus to the creation of wealth, well-being, and work. Consolidation is certainly not the only factor at play. But any policymaker who is really serious about creating new jobs in America would be unwise to continue to ignore our new monopolies.

ts not as if Americans are entirely unaware of how consolidated our economic landscape is, or that this is a perilous way to do business. The financial crisis taught us how dangerously concentrated our financial sector has become, particularly since Washington responded to the near-catastrophic collapse of banks deemed too big to fail by making them even bigger. Today, Americas five largest banks control a stunning 48 percent of bank assets, double their share in 2000 (and thats actually one of the lessconsolidated sectors of our economy). Similarly, the debate over health insurance reform awakened many of us to the fact that, in many communities across America, insurance companies enjoy what amounts to monopoly power. Some of us are aware, too, through documentaries likeFood, Inc., of how concentrated agribusiness and food processing have become, and of the problems with food quality and safety that can result.

Even so, most Americans still believe that our economy remains the most wide open, competitive, and vibrant market system the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, the stories we have told ourselves about competition in America over the past quarter century are simply no longer true.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand this is to take a quick walk around a typical grocery or big-box store, and look more closely at what has taken place in these citadels of consumer choice in the generation since we stopped enforcing our antitrust laws.

The first proof is found in the store itself. If you are stocking up on basic goods, theres a good chance you are wandering the aisles of a Wal-Mart. After all, the company is legendarily dominant in retail, controlling, for instance, 25 percent of groceries sales in some states and 40 percent of DVD sales nationwide.

But at least the plethora of different brands vying for your attention on the store shelves suggests a healthy, competitive marketplace, right? Well, lets take a closer look.

In the health aisle, the vast array of toothpaste options on display is mostly the work of two companies: Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble, which split nearly 70 percent of the U.S. market and control even such seemingly independent brands as Toms of Maine. And in many stores the competition between most brands is mostly choreographed anyway. Under a system known as category management, retailers like Wal-Mart and their largest suppliers openly cooperate in determining everything from price to product placement.

Over in the cold case we find an even greater array of beer options, designed to satisfy almost any taste. We can choose among the old standbys like Budweiser, Coors, and Miller Lite. Or from a cornucopia of smaller brands, imports and specialty brews like Stella Artois, Redbridge, Rolling Rock, Becks, Blue Moon, and Stone Mill Pale Ale. But all these brandsindeed more than 80 percent of all beers in Americaare controlled by two companies, Anheuser-Busch Inbev and MillerCoors.

Need milk? In many parts of the country, the choices you see in the Wal-Mart dairy section are almost entirely an illusion. In many stores, for instance, you can pick among jugs labeled with the names PET Dairy, Mayfield, or Horizon. But dont waste too much time deciding: all three brands are owned by Dean Foods, the nations largest dairy processor, and Wal-Marts own Great Value brand containers are sometimes filled by Dean as well. Indeed, around 70 percent of milk sold in New Englandand up to 80 percent of milk peddled in some other parts of the countrycomes from Dean plants. Besides dominating the retail dairy market, Dean has been accused of collaborating with Dairy Farmers of America, another giant company that buys milk from independent farmers and provides it to Dean for processing and distribution, to drive down the price farmers are paid while inflating its own profits.

The food on offer outside of the refrigerator aisle isnt much better. The boxes on the shelves are largely filled with the corn-derived products that are the basic building block of most modern processed food; about 80 percent of all the corn seed in America and 95 percent of soybean seeds contain patented genes produced by a single company: Monsanto. And things are just as bad farther down the ingredients listtake an additive like ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), produced by a Chinese cartel that holds more than 85 percent of the U.S. market.

How about pet food? There sure seems to be a bewildering array of options. But if you paid close attention to coverage of the massive pet food recall of 2007, you will remember that five of the top six independent brandsincluding those marketed by Colgate-Palmolive, Mars, and Procter & Gamblerelied on a single contract manufacturer, Menu Foods, as did seventeen of the top twenty food retailers in the United States that sell private-label wet pet foods under their store brands, including Safeway, Kroger, and Wal-Mart. The Menu Foods recall covered products that had been retailed under a phenomenal 150 different product names.

Heading out to the parking lot should give us some respite from all of thissurely the vehicles here reflect a last bastion of American-style competition, no? After all, more than a dozen big carmakers sell hundreds of different models in America. But its a funny kind of competition, one thats not nearly as competitive as it looks. To begin with, more than two-thirds of the iron ore used to make the steel in all those cars is likely provided by just three firms (two of which are trying to merge). And it doesnt stop there. A decade ago, all the big carmakers were for the most part vertically integrated, and they kept their supply systems largely separate from one another. Today, however, the outsourcing revolution, combined with monopolization within the supply base, means the big companies increasingly rely on the same outside supplierseven the same factoriesfor components like piston rings and windshield-wiper blades and door handles. Ever wonder why Toyota came out so strongly in favor of a bailout for General Motors last year? One reason is they knew if that giant fell suddenly, it would knock over many of the suppliers that they themselvesas well as Nissan and Hondadepend on to make their own cars.

And dont fool yourself that this process of monopolization affects only Americas working classes. Whats happened to down-market retail has happened to department stores as well. Think Macys competes with Bloomingdales? Think again. Both are units of a holding company called Macys Inc., which, under its old name, Federated, spent the last two decades rolling up control of such department store brand names as Marshall Fields, Hechts, Broadway, and Bon Marche. A generation ago, even most midsized cities in America could boast of multiple independent department stores. Today a single company controls roughly 800 outlets, in a chain that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

n school, many of us learned that the greatest dangers posed by monopolization are political in naturenamely, consolidation of power in the hands of the few and the destruction of the property and liberty of individual citizens. Most of us probably also learned in seventh-grade civics class how firms with monopoly power can gouge consumers by jacking up prices. (And indeed they often do; a recent study of mergers found that in four out of five cases, the merged firms increased prices on products ranging from Quaker State motor oil to Chex brand breakfast cereals.) Similarly, its not hard to understand how monopolization can reduce the bargaining power of workers, who suddenly find themselves with fewer places to sell their labor.

The way corporate consolidation destroys jobs is clear enough, tooit dominates the headlines whenever a big merger is announced. Consider two recent deals in the drug industry. The first came in January 2009 when Pzer, the worlds largest drug company, announced plans for a $68 billion takeover of Wyeth. The second came in March 2009, when executives at number two Merck said they planned to spend $41.1 billion to buy Schering-Plough. Managers all but bragged of the number of workers who would be rendered redundant by the dealthe first killed off 19,000 jobs, the second 16,000.

Nevertheless, Americas problem in recent years hasnt been job destruction, its been a fall-off in job creation. Consolidation causes problems here, too, in a variety of ways. First, it can reduce the impetus of big firms to invest in innovation, a chief source of new jobs. The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter famously theorized that monopolists would invest their outsized profits into new R&D to enable themselves to innovate and thus stay ahead of potential rivalsan argument that defenders of consolidation have long relied on. But numerous empirical studies in recent years have found the opposite to be true: competition is a greater spur to innovation than monopoly is. In one widely cited study, for instance, Philippe Aghion of Harvard University and Peter Howitt of Brown University looked at British manufacturing firms from 1968 to 1997, when the UKs economy was integrating with Europe and hence subject to the EUs antitrust policies. They found that on balance these firms became more innovativeas measured by patent applications and R&D spendingas they were forced to compete more directly with their continental rivals.

The opposite trend took place in some of Americas biggest industrial firms in the years after 1981, when the Reagan administration all but abandoned antitrust enforcement. Many of the most successful U.S. companies adopted a winner-take-all approach to their industries that allowed them to shortchange innovation and productive expansion. Prior to 1981, for instance, General Electric invested heavily in R&D in many fields, seeking to compete in as many markets as possible; after 1981 it pulled back its resources, focusing instead on gathering sufficient power to govern the pace of technological change.

Consolidation in the retail sector can also inhibit job growth. As behemoth retailers garner ever more power over the sale of some product or service, they also gain an ever greater ability to strip away the profits that once would have made their way into the hands of their suppliers. The money that the managers and workers at these smaller companies would have used to expand their business, or upgrade their machinery and skills, is instead transferred to the bottom lines of dominant retailers and traders and thence to shareholders. Or it may be simply destroyed through pricing wars. A good example is the pre-Christmas book battle between Amazon and Wal-Mart, in which the two giant conglomerates pushed down the prices of hardcover best sellers to lure buyers into their stores and Web sites. In many cases, the two companies actually sold the books for less than they bought them, treating them as loss leaders and expecting to recoup the loss through the sale of other, more expensive products. Although consumers welcomed the opportunity to pay $9.99 for the latest Stephen King novel priced elsewhere above $30, the move caused a near panic among publishers. Even though the low prices may have resulted in the sale of more books, the longer-term effect is to radically lower what consumers will expect to pay for books, which will in turn reduce the funds available to publishers to develop and edit future prospects.

Another way that monopolization can inhibit the creation of new jobs is the practice of entrenched corporations using their power to buy up, and sometimes stash away, new technologies, rather than building them themselves. Prior to the 1980s, if a company wanted to enter a new area of business, it would typically have had to open a new division, hire talent, and invest in R&D in order to compete with existing companies in that area. Now it can simply buy them. There is a whole business model based on this idea, sometimes called innovation through acquisition. The model is often associated with the Internet technology company Cisco, which, starting in the early 90s and continuing apace afterward, gobbled up more than 100 smaller companies. Other tech titans, including Oracle, have in recent years adopted much the same basic approach. Even Google, many peoples notion of an enlightened, innovative corporate Goliath, has acquired many of its game-changing technologiessuch as Google Earth, Google Analytics, and Google Docsfrom smaller start-ups that Google bought out. As the falloff in IPOs over the last decade seems to confirm, one practical result of all this is that fewer and fewer entrepreneurs at start-up companies even attempt any longer to build their firms into ventures able to produce not merely new products but new jobs and new competition into established companies. Instead, increasingly their goal, once they have proven that a viable business can be built around a particular technology, is simply to sell out to one of the behemoths.

Finally, dominant firms can hurt job growth by using their power to hamper the ability of start-ups and smaller rivals to bring new products to market. Google has been accused of doing this by placing its own servicesmaps, price comparisonsat the top of its search results while pushing competitors in those services farther down, where they are less likely to be seenor in some cases off Google entirely. Google, however, is a Boy Scout compared to the bullying behavior of Intel, which over the years has leveraged its 90 percent share of the computer microchip market to impede its only real rival, Advanced Micro Devices, a company renowned for its innovative products. Intel has abused its power so flagrantly, in fact, that it has attracted an antitrust suit from New York State and been slapped with hefty fines or reprimands by antitrust regulators in South Korea, Japan, and the European Union. The EU alone is demanding a record $1.5 billion from the firm.

To understand just how disadvantaged small innovative companies are in markets dominated by behemoths, consider the plight of Retractable Technologies, Inc., of Little Elm, Texas. The company manufactures a type of safety syringe invented by its founder, an engineer named Thomas Shaw. The device uses a spring to pull the needle into the body of the syringe once the plunger is fully depressed. This helps to prevent the sort of needlestick injuries that every year result in some 6,000 health workers being infected by diseases such as hepatitis and HIV. Since starting the company in 1994, Shaw has carved out a modest market niche, selling his lifesaving product to nursing homes, doctors offices, federal prisons, VA hospitals, and international health organizations for distribution in the Third World. But hes not been able to break into the mainstream U.S. hospital market. The reason, he says, is that a company called Becton Dickinson & Co. controls some 90 percent of syringe sales in America and enjoys enough power over hospital supply purchasing groups to all but block adoption of Shaws device. In 1998, Shaw sued, charging restraint of trade, and in 2004 won what looked like a stunning victory: Becton Dickinson agreed to settle for $100 million, and the purchasing groups promised to change their business practices. But according to executives at Retractable Technologies, things have only gotten worse. We probably have less of our products in hospitals today than we did ten years ago, says Shaw, who just won a patent-infringement case against Becton Dickinson and is pursuing another antitrust suit against the company. I have spent what should have been the most creative, productive years of my life sitting in depositions. By the time Im done fighting, my patents will have expired.

A few years back, Bess Weatherman, the managing director of the health care division of the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, spelled out the effect of such monopoly power on investments in new health care technologies. In a Senate hearing, Weatherman testified that companies subject to, or potentially subject to, anti-competitive practices  will not be funded by venture capital. As a result, many of their innovations will die, even if they offer a dramatic improvement over an existing solution.

he degree of consolidation in many industries today bears a striking resemblance to that of the late Gilded Age. So too the arguments that todays monopolists use to justify consolidation. In the late nineteenth century, men like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J. P. Morgan often defended themselves against antimonopoly activists with the argument that one giant vertically integrated company could deliver oil or steel more efficiently than could many firms in competition with one another. This efficiency argument appealed to a broad range of opinion, from European socialists to many American progressives. Even Theodore Roosevelt, despite his reputation as a trust buster, accepted the notion that competition was wasteful. He hewed instead to a philosophy of corporatism, which held that giant enterprises could best be managed through a mix of government and private power according to scientific principles to ensure their maximum utility to the public. When antitrust law was put to use during these years, it was often in ways that aided the monopolists: it was used to break up labor unions, farmers cooperatives, and small business alliances. The one big exception to this rule was the administration of Woodrow Wilson, who was elected in 1912 by a Democratic Party largely dominated by populists. But the outbreak of war in 1914 swiftly put an end to the populist effort to force big businesses to compete and to leave small businesses in peace. Herbert Hoover was a fervent believer in corporatism, as were the New Dealers who succeeded him. When they brought their National Industrial Recovery Act to Congress in June 1933, one of the acts central provisions called for suspension of Americas antitrust laws.

The modern era of antitrust enforcement began in 1935, when the Supreme Court declared the NIRA unconstitutional. In the aftermath of that decision, populists in Congress and the administration moved swiftly to take the New Deal in a radically different direction. Unlike the corporatists, the populists believed that the central goal of government in the political economy should be to protect the individual citizen and society as a whole from the consolidation of power by the few. Antitrust laws were integral to this notion. In the immediate aftermath of the NIRA decision, Congress passed laws like the Robinson-Patman Anti-Price Discrimination Act and the Miller-Tydings Fair Trade Act, which restricted the power that big retailers could bring to bear on smaller rivals and on producers. By 1937, Roosevelt officials were shaping a second New Deal centered largely around the engineering of competition among large companies.

Populists have often been charged with being naive romantics who pine for a lost agrarian utopia. Yet in practice, most New Dealera populists were perfectly at ease with concentration of power; they simply wanted the government to create at least some competition wherever possible and to regulate monopoly in those caseslike the provision of water or natural gaswhere competition truly seemed wasteful. Indeed, many of the populists were strong proponents of industrial efficiency; they just didnt believe that unregulated industrial monopoly ever was more efficient than competition among at least a few industrial firms. Under the direction of Thurmond Arnold, the antitrust division of the Department of Justice set out to engineer rivalries within large industries wherever possible. In the late 1930s, for example, the government brought an antitrust suit against Alcoa, which had commanded a monopoly over aluminum production. As the suit dragged on through the 40s, the government sped up the process by selling aluminum plants built with public money during World War II to Alcoas would-be competitors, Kaiser and Reynolds.

The result of the second New Deal was an economy in which competition was regulated in three basic ways. Natural monopolies like water or gas service were left in place, and regulated or controlled directly by government. Heavy industry was allowed to concentrate operations to a large degree, but individual firms were made subject to antitrust law and forced to compete with one another. And in sectors of the economy where efficiencies of concentration were far harder to proveretail, restaurants, services, farmingthe government protected open markets.

One result was a remarkably democratic distribution of political economic power out to citizens and communities across America. Another was an astounding burst of innovation. As the industrial historian David Hounshell has documented, the new competition among large corporations led companies like DuPont and General Electric to ramp up their R&D activities and fashion the resulting technologies into marketable products. Smaller firms, meanwhile, were carefully protected from Goliaths, enabling entrepreneurs to develop not merely ideas but often entire companies to bring the ideas to market.

Antitrust enforcers werent content simply to prevent giant firms from closing off markets. In dozens of cases between 1945 and 1981, antitrust officials forced large companies like AT&T, RCA, IBM, GE, and Xerox to make available, for free, the technologies they had developed in-house or gathered through acquisition. Over the thirty-seven years this policy was in place, American entrepreneurs gained access to tens of thousands of ideassome patented, some notincluding the technologies at the heart of the semiconductor. The effect was transformative. In Inventing the Electronic Century, the industrial historian Alfred D. Chandler Jr. argued that the explosive growth of Silicon Valley in subsequent decades was largely set in motion by these policies and the middle-level bureaucrats in the Justice Departments Antitrust Division who enforced them in the field.

hile this was happening, a group of thinkers centered around the economist Milton Friedman began to develop arguments in favor of resurrecting the laissez-faire political economic theories of the nineteenth-century monopolists. Their basic contention was that Americas markets and Americas industrial activities should be governed by private individuals. They held that when public officials participated in the management of industrial corporations or used antitrust law to protect open markets, such actions merely distracted the private executives in charge of these institutions from the task at hand.

In his 1962 collection of essays, Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman argued against any application of antitrust law aside from breaking up labor unions and guilds like the American Medical Association that threatened to encumber the work of the capitalists. In his book, Friedman also developed a more palatable term for laissez faire: free market. Another leader of this movement, future Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, focused on rehabilitating the efficiency argument that monopolists like Rockefeller and Morgan had once employed to justify their near- total domination of their industries.

The Chicago School thinkersso named because many of its members taught at the University of Chicagofound their champion in Ronald Reagan, who brought their theories with him into the White House in 1981. Almost as soon as Reagans team took power, they made clear that one of their very first targets would be the antitrust laws. William F. Baxter, the head of the Justice Departments Antitrust Division under Reagan, announced his intentions to pursue an antitrust policy based on efficiency considerations. The declaration was met by a strong bipartisan outcry in Congress, but the Reagan team skillfully reframed their ideas in terms that fit the policy mood of the era. The administration borrowed a page from Chicago School legal scholar Robert Bork, who in his 1978 book The Antitrust Paradox had made the case for the old efficiency argument in language adopted from the then-flourishing consumer movement. The reason to promote efficiency, Bork wrote, was to increase the welfare of the consumer. The basic argument was as simple as it was subversive: given that consumers benefit from lower prices, and given that greater scale and scope gives managers the power to drive down prices, we should embrace concentration rather than resist it.

Beginning in Reagans first term, antitrust enforcement all but ended. Throughout the 1980s, the opponents of antitrust sometimes buttressed their arguments by stoking fears about the supposed dangers posed to American manufacturers by their Japanese rivals. But for the most part such arguments proved unnecessary, as the government had already largely retired from the field, leaving corporations largely to their own devices. By the time Reagan left office, laissez faire had become conventional wisdom. The Clinton administration was more activist, cracking down on price-fixing schemes and bringing a high-profile antitrust action against Microsoft. But for the most part it accepted the new corporate consolidation guidelines that the Reagan team had devised. Waves of mergers and acquisitions came and went with few calls to reexamine our thinking about antitrust. In no small part this was because the economy as a whole seemed to be performing quite well; not only did prices for many goods fall, but for a short while toward the end of the Clinton years there was actually a shortage of workers in America. As the twentieth century drew to a close, the United States was in the midst of the longest period of sustained economic growth in its history.

But as weve seen, the great burst of business activity in the 1980s and 90s was to a significant extent the result of actions taken by the federal government during previous decades of anti-trust enforcement. Indeed, many of the companies we most associate with the 90s tech boomApple, Microsoft, Oracle, Genentechwere actually founded in the 1970s, went public in the 80s, and eventually grew big enough to force establishment behemoths like IBM to revolutionize their management philosophies and business models in order to compete. It is this dynamicof radically innovative start-ups growing in size and eventually challenging the status quothat drives most jobs creation. And it was precisely this dynamic that the pro-consolidation policies launched in the Reagan years would eventually upset. By the time the 2000s rolled around, industry after industry had been consolidated; the innovation by acquisition trend was in high gear; antitrust enforcement was reaching a new low in George W. Bushs administration; and a plethora of global capital, unable to find enough attractive growing companies to invest in, started flowing into subprime mortgages and other financial exotica. The rest, as they say, is history.

That, at least, is one possible explanation for why the American jobs machine seems to have failed in the last decade. As weve noted, there are others as well, having to do with changes in technology and international trade. These other theories are open to debate, but at least theyre beingdebated. What isnt getting talked about is the role industry consolidation might be playing in all this. That needs to change.

s we seek new ways to jump-start Americas job growth, we would be wise not to rely only on big government or big business to accomplish the task for us. Indeed, the new and better jobs of tomorrow will be created not by any such abstract powers but by very real peoplesuch as our own more entrepreneurial neighbors, cousins, and childrenworking in big corporations made subject to competition and working in small ventures launched specifically to compete. These entrepreneurs will be able to do so only after we have used our antimonopoly laws to clear away the great private powers that now stand in their way.

When we get serious about this task, we will find that an entire political economic model lies ready for our usethe one shaped largely by the populists in Congress and the Roosevelt administration during the second New Deal. Before we can make use of this ready-made system for distributing power and opportunity, however, we will first have to break up the intellectual monopoly that has been forged over so much political economic policymaking in Washington today. The generation of political economists who understood the theory and practice of antitrust as devised by the late New Dealers are mostly retired or dead, and the academic economists who today dominate most discussions either have little understanding of the political nature of antimonopoly law or are openly hostile.

Thats why our first step must be to repopulate our discussions of political economics with the voices of the people who actually make our economy go. After all, real entrepreneurs and real scientists and real executives and real bankers and real farmers and real software engineers and real venture capitalists tend to understand quite well how real power is used against them. Just as it is they who know better than anyone else what freedoms they require to go about the task of putting their fellow Americans back to work.
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GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the creation, discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines, and health-related consumer products in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceuticals R&D, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company offers pharmaceutical products comprising medicines in the therapeutic areas, such as respiratory, HIV, immuno-inflammation, oncology, anti-viral, central nervous system, cardiovascular and urogenital, metabolic, anti-bacterial, and dermatology. It also provides consumer healthcare products in wellness, oral health, nutrition, and skin health categories. The company offers its consumer healthcare products in the form of nasal sprays, tablets, syrups, lozenges, gum and trans-dermal patches, caplets, infant syrup drops, liquid filled suspension, wipes, gels, effervescents, toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes, denture adhesives and cleansers, topical creams and non-medicated patches, lip balm, gummies, and soft chews. It has collaboration agreements with 23andMe; Lyell Immunopharma, Inc.; Novartis; Sanofi SA; Surface Oncology; Progentec Diagnostics, Inc.; Alector, Inc.; and CureVac AG., as well as strategic partnership with IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. The company was formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline plc and changed its name to GSK plc in May 2022. GSK plc was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Brentford, the United Kingdom.
The following companies are subsidiares of American International Group: AGC Life Insurance Company, AIG APAC HOLDINGS PTE. LTD., AIG Aerospace Insurance Services Inc., AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte. Ltd., AIG Asset Management (Europe) Limited, AIG Asset Management (U.S.) LLC, AIG Assurance Company, AIG Australia Limited, AIG Brazil Holding I LLC, AIG CIS Investments LLC, AIG Canada Holdings Inc., AIG Capital Corporation, AIG Capital Services Inc., AIG Claims Inc., AIG Credit Management LLC, AIG Egypt Insurance Company S.A.E., AIG Employee Services Inc., AIG Europe Holdings S.a.r.l, AIG Europe S.A., AIG Federal Savings Bank, AIG Financial Products Corp., AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd., AIG Global Asset Management Holdings Corp., AIG Global Operations Inc., AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp., AIG Global Reinsurance Operations, AIG Holdings Europe Limited, AIG Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, AIG Insurance Company China Limited, AIG Insurance Company JSC, AIG Insurance Company of Canada, AIG Insurance Company-Puerto Rico, AIG Insurance Hong Kong Limited, AIG Insurance Management Services Inc., AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited, AIG International Holdings GmbH, AIG Investments UK Limited, AIG Israel Insurance Company Ltd, AIG Japan Holdings Kabushiki Kaisha, AIG Kenya Insurance Company Limited, AIG Korea Inc., AIG Latin America I.I., AIG Latin America Investments S.L., AIG Lebanon SAL, AIG Life Holdings Inc., AIG Life Limited, AIG Life South Africa Limited, AIG Life of Bermuda Ltd., AIG MEA Holdings Limited, AIG MEA Limited, AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad, AIG Markets Inc., AIG Matched Funding Corp., AIG PC Global Services Inc., AIG Philippines Insurance Inc., AIG Property Casualty Company, AIG Property Casualty Inc., AIG Property Casualty International LLC, AIG Property Casualty U.S. Inc., AIG Re-Takaful (L) Berhad, AIG Resseguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., AIG South Africa Limited, AIG Specialty Insurance Company, AIG Technologies Inc., AIG Travel Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., AIG Travel Assist Inc., AIG Travel Assist Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., AIG Travel EMEA Limited, AIG Travel Inc., AIG Uganda Limited, AIG Vietnam Insurance Company Limited, AIG WarrantyGuard Inc., AIG-FP Pinestead Holdings Corp., AIG-Metropolitana Cia. de Seguros y Reaseguros S.A., AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund I GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund II GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund II GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund III GP LP, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund IV GP LLC, AIU Insurance Company, AM Holdings LLC, Ageas Protect, AlphaCat Managers Ltd., American General Corporation, American General Life Insurance Company, American Home Assurance Co. Ltd., American Home Assurance Company, American International Group UK Limited, American International Realty LLC, American International Reinsurance Company Ltd., American International Underwriters del Ecuador-Holding S.A. en Liquidacion S.A., Arthur J. Glatfelter Agency Inc., Blackboard Insurance Company, Blackboard Specialty Insurance Company, Blackboard U.S. Holdings Inc., C.A. de Seguros American International, Commerce and Industry Insurance Company, Crop Risk Services Inc., Eaglestone Reinsurance Company, Ellipse, Franklin Life Insurance Company, Fuji Fire and Marine, Glatfelter Insurance Group, Glatfelter Underwriting Services Inc., Globe and Rutgers Insurance Group, Grand Isle SAC Limited, Granite State Insurance Company, Illinois National Insurance Co., Inversiones Segucasai C.A., Johannesburg Insurance Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, Laya Healthcare Limited, Lexington Insurance Company, Lexington Specialty Insurance Agency Inc., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh Pa., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Vermont, New Hampshire Insurance Company, PCG 2019 Corporate Member Limited, PT AIG Insurance Indonesia, Pine Street Real Estate Holdings Corp., Risk Specialists Companies Insurance Agency Inc., SAFG Capital LLC, SAFG Retirement Services Inc., Service Net Warranty LLC, Stratford Insurance Company, SunAmerica Asset Management LLC, Talbot Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Ltd., The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York, The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, Travel Guard, Travel Guard Group Canada Inc./Groupe Garde Voyage du Canada Inc., Travel Guard Group Inc., Tudor Insurance Company, VALIC Financial Advisors Inc., Valic Retirement Services Company, Validus Holdings, Validus Holdings (UK) Ltd., Validus Holdings Ltd., Validus Reinsurance (Switzerland) Ltd, Validus Reinsurance Ltd., Validus Ventures Ltd., Volunteer Firemen's Insurance Services Inc., and Western World Insurance Company.

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The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. operates as a diversified financial services company in the United States. The company's Retail Banking segment offers checking, savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit; residential mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit, auto loans, credit cards, education loans, and personal and small business loans and lines of credit; and brokerage, insurance, and investment and cash management services. This segment serves consumer and small business customers through a network of branches, ATMs, call centers, and online and mobile banking channels. Its Corporate & Institutional Banking segment provides secured and unsecured loans, letters of credit, and equipment leases; cash and investment management services, receivables and disbursement management services, funds transfer services, international payment services, and access to online/mobile information management and reporting; foreign exchange, derivatives, fixed income, securities underwriting, loan syndications, and mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets advisory related services; and commercial loan servicing and technology solutions. It serves mid-sized and large corporations, and government and not-for-profit entities. The company's Asset Management Group segment offers investment and retirement planning, customized investment management, credit and cash management solutions, and trust management and administration services for high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals, and their families; and multi-generational family planning services for ultra high net worth individuals and their families. It also provides outsourced chief investment officer, custody, private real estate, cash and fixed income client solutions, and fiduciary retirement advisory services for institutional clients. The company has 2,591 branches and 9,502 ATMs. The company was founded in 1852 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
National Bank of Canada provides various financial products and services to retail, commercial, corporate, and institutional clients in Canada and internationally. It operates through four segments: Personal and Commercial, Wealth Management, Financial Markets, and U.S. Specialty Finance and International. The Personal and Commercial segment offers personal banking services, including transaction solutions, mortgage loans and home equity lines of credit, consumer loans, payment solutions, and savings and investment solutions; various insurance products; and commercial banking services comprise credit, and deposit and investment solutions, as well as international trade, foreign exchange transactions, payroll, cash management, insurance, electronic transactions, and complimentary services. The Wealth Management segment comprises investment solutions, trust services, banking services, lending services, and other wealth management solutions. The Financial Markets segment offers corporate banking, advisory, and capital markets services; and project financing, debt, and equity underwriting; advisory services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, and financing. The U.S. Specialty Finance and International segment provides specialty finance products; financial products and services to individuals and businesses in Cambodia; and investment solutions, guaranteed investment certificates, mutual funds, notes, structured products, and monetization. It provides its services through a network of 384 branches and 927 banking machines. National Bank of Canada was founded in 1859 and is based in Montreal, Canada.
So, to prepare myself for Monday's special sitting of Parliament, I went to the circus over the weekend. (Actually, friends with a wry sense of humour bought me a ticket.)

"Democracy" said satirist H. L. Mencken "is the art and science of running the circus cage".

The multi-trick ponies, camels, alpacas, a buffalo and a Macaw did their routines on cue with a precision and timing that the whips of the major parties could only dream of.

But it was the bare-chested young Vladimir Putin lookalikes and exquisite ballerina performers who most wowed the crowd with their near death-defying trapeze and high-wire routines.

The circus metaphor for Monday's events in Canberra is both obvious and obtuse. It's obvious because Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's out of the blue decision to prorogue parliament and call MPs and senators back for a special sitting is a risky political high-wire act of the first order.

Not only did Turnbull blindside his political opponents and the Canberra press gallery, he surprised and delighted supporters with the sort of hither-to absent bold decisiveness that defined his extraordinary success in the corporate world.

Turnbull  to use his own catchwords  was being both innovative and agile by pulling out the prorogation tightrope. But maybe there is a less obvious politics/circus metaphor at play here as well. Parliaments are generally (almost always) prorogued to signify the end of the previous parliament; to usher in the newly elected government, reinvigorated with a fresh agenda.
Malcolm Turnbull didn't say diddly-squat about union lawlessness in his "maiden" speech in 2004, and made no priority of it as opposition leader in 2008 and 2009.

Bill Shorten's Labor party voted against a banks royal commission as recently as June last year with his senators describing the Greens' attempt to establish one as "a stunt".

Now, voters are being asked to accept that both leaders are pursuing their core beliefs and are prepared to die for their principles. Wither the polity.
Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove has apologised to Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek after being accused of snubbing her in an awkward handshake moment.

Present in the Senate to open the special sitting of Parliament, Sir Peter shook the hands of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, Speaker Tony Smith and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten but denied Mr Joyce's opposition counterpart the opportunity after she extended her hand.

The Queen's representative had just delivered a speech outlining why Parliament had returned, "to give full and timely consideration to two important parcels of legislation", during which Labor MPs had heckled.
And that's it from me for the day. What happened?

Australia is headed to the polls on July 2 (only 75 days to go);

(only 75 days to go); the Senate rejected the government's building watchdog legislation ;

rejected the government's ; this gives Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull the trigger he needs for a double dissolution election ;

the trigger he needs for a ; the House of Representatives voted to abolish the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal ; and

voted to abolish the ; and and, for a bit of light, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce achieved closure in the delicate matter of Pistol and Boo.

My thanks to Alex Ellinghausen and Andrew Meares for their magic and to you for reading and commenting.

You can follow me on Facebook.

Alex, Andrew and I will be back in the morning. Until then, good night.
After having a taste of the big screen with The September Issue and Zoolander 2, straight-talking, no-nonsense, sunglasses aficionado Anna Wintour is back, this time with The First Monday in May.

The documentary gives ordinary folk a look behind the scenes at the uber exclusive Met Gala 2015, the most extravagantly fashionable soiree of the year with an A-list guest list that would make your eyes water.

"The Met Ball is the Super Bowl of social fashion events," former editor-at-large for US Vogue, Andre Leon Talley, says in the Andrew Rossi-directed doc that had its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday night.
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's ... that jacket your ordered from Asos.com.

Within months, some Australians may get the option to have items they purchase online delivered straight to their doors by drones.

Australia Post is trialling the use of remotely piloted drones internally, with the backing of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. If the initial two-week trial is successful, the company hopes to trial the service with consumers by the end of the year.

"We're exploring the viability of adding this to our multiple methods of delivery," Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour said.
The man was removed from the Southwest Airlines flight after making a phone call to his uncle in Baghdad. Credit:Andrew Harrer His sense of unease deepened. A thought occurred to him: I hope she's not reporting me. Except, Makhzoomi is now certain, that is precisely what happened. Shortly after the woman's departure, a Southwest employee informed Makhzoomi: "Sir, you need to step out of the plane right now." The Berkeley student was escorted off a Southwest flight after speaking Arabic on the phone to his uncle. Credit:Facebook: Khairuldeen Makhzoomi Makhzoomi was then led off the plane to a hallway by the boarding gate, where three police officers were awaiting him. He said the Southwest employee appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, and began speaking to him in Arabic. The employee told him he used to live in Dubai, and asked him where he was from. At Makhzoomi's urging, the employee switched back to English.

"Why would you speak in Arabic on the airplane?" the employee asked him. "It's dangerous. You know the environment around the airport. You understand what's going on in this country." The employee's tone made Makhzoomi feel demeaned. He was immediately deferential. "I'm sorry," Makhzoomi responded. "I shouldn't have done that." But the employee continued to be accusatory, and Makhzoomi said he grew frustrated. Exasperated, the college student said: "This is what Islamophobia has done." This only angered the employee further. According to Makhzoomi, one of the police officers then said into his radio: "Call the FBI." With the plane long taken off without him, Makhzoomi was joined by more police officers, sniffer dogs, and eventually, three FBI agents. At one point, a police officer pressed his head against the wall and restrained his hands behind his back. When the authorities asked him whether he had any weapons on him, Makhzoomi said he teared up. "I don't have a knife," he repeated.

The FBI agents took him into a separate room and began the questioning anew. "Okay, you need to be honest with me," Makhzoomi recalled one agent saying to him. "Tell us everything you know about martyrdom." Makhzoomi was stunned. "I looked at her and opened my eyes very wide," he told The Post. "I told her I never mentioned this word, ever. You can call my uncle - I have never mentioned that word. It's associated with jihad and terrorism, and gives a false image of Islam." He said the agents were interested in his family's ties to Iraq. His mother, brother and he fled the country for Jordan in 2002, a year after his father was executed under Saddam Hussein's regime, Makhzoomi told the Post. He said his father was a former Iraqi diplomat who was jailed in Abu Ghraib, then killed for being what authorities there called a "security threat". The family now lives in Berkeley, California.

After further questioning, the FBI agent let him go, but told him he could not fly with Southwest. Makhzoomi was directed to get his refund from the same Southwest employee who had asked him to leave the plane. The employee wordlessly swiped Makhzoomi's credit card. He then booked a flight with Delta Air Lines, arriving back in Berkeley nine hours later than he had originally intended. Before his itinerary was disrupted, he had been planning to attend classes that same afternoon. Southwest wrote in an email statement to the Post that their "Crew made the decision to investigate a passenger report of potentially threatening comments overheard onboard our aircraft ... While local law enforcement followed up with that passenger in our gate area, the flight departed. "We regret any less than positive experience a Customer has on Southwest," the statement added. "Safety is our primary focus, and our Employees are trained to make decisions to safeguard the security of our Crews and Customers on every flight. We would not remove a passenger from a flight without a collaborative decision rooted in established procedures." The company cited privacy reasons for not commenting specifically about Makhzoomi's case, but said: "Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind."

"We were asked to respond, and we determined no further action was necessary," Ari Dekofsky, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles office, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Makhzoomi said he has attempted to reach the airline three times and received only cursory responses. Southwest said in its email that the company cannot find "record of the Customer contacting us and have tried multiple times to reach him after learning of his disappointment" from an article in the UC Berkeley student newspaper. Stories of Muslims being removed from commercial flights have become more common alongside an escalating fear of Islamic State terrorism. In the same week as Makhzoomi's incident, a hijab-wearing woman from Maryland was ordered off a Southwest flight bound for Seattle. In late March, an Arab-American family was removed from a United Airlines flight due to safety concerns. The airline said the decision was prompted by the family's inadequate child booster seat, but the family believes they suffered discrimination because the mother wears a headscarf. "We are tired of Muslim-looking passengers being removed from flights for the flimsiest reasons, under a cryptic claim of 'security'," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago.
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Barely a day has gone by over the last three weeks without some reports surrounding the offshore dealings associated with the Panama Papers. Now there is another offshore story  and this one is right in time for an election.



Step forward Dave Chomiak, an NDP candidate ahead of the Manitoba General Election tomorrow (April 19), who has hit out at Conservative leader Brian Pallister over alleged inconsistencies surrounding his assets.



According to Chomiak there are differences in what has been said publically by Pallister and what features in public records in Costa Rica.



Brian Pallister has to tell us today the whole truth, so that he does not get caught again before an election, said Chomiak.



A report at CBC.ca suggests that Pallister had been leading the polls ahead of the election on Tuesday as he bids to displace Greg Selinger. However, a report in the Costa Rica Star has listed companies and assets that Pallister possesses in the country. He is reported to own two companies and it is being questioned as to why he didnt reveal this information even though he did disclose having a bank account and vacation home in the country.



According to the report, Pallister is listed as being president of Finca Deneter Doce Sociedad Anonima, which has three pieces of land in Tamarindo.



However, a spokesperson for Pallisters party, Ross Romaniuk, has disputed the claims of the newspaper in an email to CBC describing this as a desperate Selinger NDP attempt to distract from the issues that really matter to Manitobans.
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By Stewart Naidesh

Apr. 18, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By Stewart Naidesh Apr. 18, 2016 | 12:17 PM | PADUCAH, KY

According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, financial abuse is a contributing factor in 98% of all domestic violence cases. Abusers exert power and control in numerous ways, including limiting or controlling access to financial assets. This dynamic creates forced dependency and entrapment. This could occur throughout the relationship or surface when a victim attempts to leave an abuser.



In response to this chilling reality, the Allstate Foundation has awarded over 1 million dollars in 11 years to the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Allstate Foundation funds support KCADVs Economic Empowerment work through 15 domestic violence shelters throughout Kentucky, including Merryman House in Paducah.



I recently had the opportunity to work with domestic violence survivors at Merryman House. This experience was enlightening to the barriers survivors face to becoming financially self-sufficient and independent. Many victims are disallowed from working, are forced to quit a job, or suffer impaired job performance as an effect of ongoing trauma. Abusers may force victims to accrue debt or sign financial documents, or they may make unfavorable financial transactions in the victims name. For victims of economic abuse, it can feel overwhelming or impossible to consider the cost of independence. When a survivor has children, she may feel additional financial strain.



The Allstate Foundations funding supports individual case management, financial education classes, Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), micro loans, credit counseling, free tax preparation, and housing. Last year, 2,600 individuals received financial empowerment services using The Allstate Foundation's Moving Ahead Through Financial Management curriculum. Allstate Foundation funding has also helped 115 survivors purchase their own cars, so that they can commute to work or school.



I am grateful to have the opportunity to help survivors in the Paducah area navigate the often-daunting financial mainstream. Financial competency and independence are necessary to building safe, healthy, and strong communities. I am proud to work for a company like Allstate that is so committed to empowering survivors and ending domestic violence.



If you suspect a friend or family member is in an abusive relationship, the most important thing you can do is to let them know that they have support and options to leave the relationship. If you are concerned about the safety of your friend or family member, or to learn about victim services in your area, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or 1-800-787-3224.



Stewart Naidesh is an Allstate Personal Financial Representative who resides in Paducah, KY. He specializes in helping customers protect their family's financial futures through retirement and life insurance planning. He is passionate about helping victims of domestic violence and seeks to empower, inspire and encourage them to have hope and never give up. If you have questions or would like assistance with planning your financial future, you can reach Stewart by phone at (270) 705-2805.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Apr. 18, 2016 | HICKMAN, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 18, 2016 | 06:12 AM | HICKMAN, KY

The Dorena-Hickman Ferry is back at the Hickman landing and preparing to resume service at 1:00 pm Monday.



The ferry has been closed for an extended period due to damage to the rudders and the propeller drive system. The ferryboat had to be take to Memphis and put in dry dock. What was expected to be about a one week closure back in February turned into a more extended shut down. It took time to get on the work schedule at the shipyard and get the necessary repairs completed.



According to officials, the boat arrived back at the Kentucky Landing on Sunday. The crew will spend much of the morning preparing the boat to resume normal operation. They plan to resume service at 1:00 pm Monday.



That will be of particularly good news to farmers who depend on the ferry to move equipment back and forth across the river for planting and harvest. It will also reduce travel time for regular commuters, as well as Missouri residents who travel to and from recreational activities in the Reelfoot Lake area of Tennessee.



The Dorena-Hickman Ferry connects KY 1354 at Hickman, Kentucky, with Missouri Route A and Route 77 near Dorena, Missouri.






By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 18, 2016 | 11:26 AM | PRINCETON, KY

Kentucky State Police charged a Nashville man with multiple traffic offenses after a vehicle pursuit through several counties.

At around 10:40 pm Sunday, a trooper attempted to pull over a vehicle for speeding on I-24 near the 56 mile-marker in Caldwell County, but the driver reportedly fled. The pursuit continued through Lyon, Livingston, Marshall, and McCracken Counties, and ended when the driver stopped near the 16 mile marker in Paducah.

The driver, 22-year-old Devontae M. Parrish of Nashville, TN, was taken to the Caldwell County Detention Center and charged with speeding 26 mph or more over the limit, 1st degree fleeing or evading police, wanton endangerment of a police officer, driving on a suspended license and improper passing.

Several area law enforcement agencies assisted with the pursuit.
By Diane Janes, Central Elementary School Apr. 17, 2016 | 05:49 PM | MAYFIELD, KY

My journey to becoming a teacher was not an easy one. It all started on an island in the Caribbean called Trinidad. My parents were wedded through an arranged marriage. I have four siblings and I am the third child and second daughter. We were surrounded by poverty. We grew up in a wooden house called a hut. It was made on stilts because of hurricanes and flooding. The roof was made of old, galvanized sheets that leaked often when it rained. We had a well/pond that was used for washing our clothes and another pond for the ducks. There were barrels that sat near the main road so that when the water trucks passed by they would fill the barrels with water for drinking and cooking.

We did not have a lot, but my mother made certain we had food, even if she had none. She sent us to Sunday School whenever she could. I was a good student in school; I worked hard and made good grades. My mother was proud to say that she knew one day I would find a good job and help with rebuilding the house. School was 30 minutes from our house and we walked every day. I believe now that it was good exercise, but she made the decision for us to walk because she could not afford to pay a taxi or even to buy books and uniforms for us. She was a hard-working, stay-at-home mother. My father and mother worked on the sugar and rice land for many years. I also worked the rice land a few times. Through all of this, I knew I wanted to be more!

In my senior year of high school, on Jan. 3, 1998, I saw my life shattered into a million pieces right in front of me! My sisters and I were preparing for school to re-open after the Christmas break, when Mother fell sick. She was pregnant. It was a few weeks before the baby would be born; but it did not happen. My mother and the baby both died. We were in shock, in tears, and in pain! My father was at work that morning and after work, that afternoon, I was the one who ran up to him and cried on his shoulder. Without saying a word, he knew exactly what had happened.

My older sisters moved out and I was the one who then raised my younger sister. I was 15 years old, but I gave up that teen-aged part of me to act like a 30-year-old. I completed high school and then I remained home to clean, cook, and take care of the house, my father and sister. For nine years I did nothing else with my life. I got up at 4:30 a.m. every day to cook for my father and my sister. As an individual, I was nothing and I had nothing.

One Saturday morning, the youth pastor of the church I attended visited my home. He wanted to see how we were doing and if we needed anything. He saw the sadness in my eyes from the pain that life had instilled in me. He knew that I was still alive only because I was all my younger sister had and so I had to be strong for her. As he was about to leave, he looked at me and said "Diane, you are called to be a blessing to younger children. You have a special skill to teach children, a gift that God has blessed you with."

Those words melted in my heart and I prayed for God to use me as best as He saw fit. I started teaching Sunday School and I did that for about ten years. A missionary visited the church and spoke to the pastor about finding a young person for a family who wanted to help someone financially in college. I had no idea that person would be me! I spent more than a year trying to obtain a U.S. student visa. It was a very difficult process. In fact, I was refused three times! That changed when the very same missionary came to visit again and took me to the U.S. embassy. Finally, things happened! The person at the desk even told me, "I want you to become the best teacher you can be!" The very next day, I was granted a U.S. student visa!

I then told my father about my plans and he was very excited for me! I was sad to leave the only home I'd ever known, but I realized that this was my turn to shine, my opportunity to make a difference in the world! I left in 2007 and went to college. It was difficult for me because I had spent a gap of nine years at home, running the household since I had left high school. I knew that this would be my one chance to escape the poverty and drudgery I'd always known, to improve my life, and to strive for excellence! I resolved that I was going to work as hard as I could and as hard as I needed to work to make the people who believed in me proud! I wanted to justify the faith that others had in me... that helpful and kind missionary, that family who invested their own money in me by paying my fees, and my own family in Trinidad who wanted something better for me!

After studying for an education degree at Mid-Continent University near Mayfield, I had the good fortune of completing my student teaching at Central Elementary School in Graves County. I absolutely loved it there! I graduated in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education and even was honored with the Academic Achievement Award! I am now married to Nathan Ray Janes and I am a proud, naturalized citizen of the United States of America!

A Central Elementary hiring committee interviewed me for a full-time teaching position. I couldn't resist telling them: "I believe there is a reason for me to be here, to be around children, to show them that they can overcome anything, to be the best they can be... even through the worst obstacles in their lives. And, I want to show them that no matter what, they are loved!" I went on to say, "Someone believed in me! Someone knew that I was waiting to shine, to share light in the world even in the darkest places!" I am extremely grateful that they brought me here to achieve that dream! I'm confident that all I need is just this one chance to succeed! That's because with all my heart, mind, and soul, the only thing I want to be is a teacher; it's the best way I can help others, as others helped me! My heart will not let me do anything else."
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By Jim Waters

Apr. 17, 2016 | LEXINGTON, KY

By Jim Waters Apr. 17, 2016 | 10:08 PM | LEXINGTON, KY

Along with his recently created "Selfie of the Week" contest, Gov. Matt Bevin's Facebook page includes a video of the commonwealth's 62nd governor going where most Kentuckians have never ventured  up to that little round enclosure at the Capitol's pinnacle above the dome.



Bevin and his kids celebrated Spring Break by climbing myriad groups of stairs to get a bird's eye view of Frankfort.



His video shows not only how small objects on the ground outside the Capitol seem but also offers a real perspective on how much smaller the floor of the rotunda under that dome appears from 200 feet high versus how it feels when you're standing in that same spot surrounded by multitudes of self-serving politicians with an overinflated view of their own importance.



Perhaps the governor will consider climbing those steps again and inviting some of his fellow Kentucky politicians who've lost sight of why they were sent to Frankfort in the first place to tag along.



Rep. Hubert Collins would be a good candidate for such a climb.



Collins, who's occupied space in the General Assembly for more than a quarter-century, tried during this year's legislative session to wreck a bill filed by fellow Democrat and state Sen. Perry Clark from Louisville detangling the commonwealth's onerous regulations of natural hair braiding.



Bevin eventually signed the bill after it was passed by the legislature, but not before Collins did his best to replace the now-former obstacles of entry into what's known as the "African style" hair-braiding industry with new, equally thick regulatory barricades that shut out entrepreneurs wanting to open businesses providing this service.



The level of irrationality imposed by both the former regulations and Collins' replacement amendment reach even higher than those "walls."



Kentucky law previously required natural hair braiders to spend 1,800 hours and between thousands of dollars  anywhere from around $5,000 at the Paducah Beauty School to nearly $20,000 at the Empire Beauty School locations in Elizabethtown and Louisville  just to obtain the required license, even though the practice is totally natural and includes no dyes or chemicals.



"To add insult to injury, this training never even breaches into the braiding areas," Clark said.



Yet after his fellow legislators voted to tear down these barriers, Collins proposed a floor amendment with several new requirements, including a $1,500 fee, which would trip up the dreams of immigrants  many from West Africa  who came to America legally and are willing to work their fingers to the bone while building a new life.



This nonsense of replacing one set of onerous regulations with another reminds me of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's quip: "I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning, I will be sober and you will still be ugly."



What's really ugly  no matter the angle from which it's viewed  is that Collins' amendment would have sent the $1,500 fee straight to the Kentucky Board of Hairdressers and Cosmetologists, which is chaired by none other than the lawmaker's wife, Bea Collins.



Amazingly, even Rep. Reginald Meeks  also a Louisville Democrat who normally floats around in the outer reaches of the political sphere's leftist regions  labeled Collins' amendment "anti-business."



He could have added "corrupt," as well.



If Hubert and Bea Collins would ascend those stairs and glance back down when they reach the top, they would see what state government as enshrined in the Kentucky Constitution was meant to be: a miniscule part of our lives that serves its constituents, protects their liberties, provides a level playing field and removes barriers that prevent citizens from freely climbing as high as their dreams, dedication, abilities, hard work and destinies take them.



When that truly happens in Frankfort, watch Kentucky rise higher and go where it's never gone before.



Jim Waters is president of the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky's free-market think tank. Reach him at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com. Read previously published columns at www.bipps.org.
James Norton, stood with a pair of pliers in his mouth, winces as he tries to tease free a bad tooth. You can see the exact moment it rips from his gum. His face folds into a silent shriek, before he doubles up in pain.

There's something peculiarly thrilling about watching actors up close. Norton, a star on the rise after a string of high-profile television roles, is currently packing them in at Found111. Quite literally. It's a tiny room, a found space that can hold 110 people squished shoulder-to-shoulder. Bug has just extended by a week.

Recently, a West End producer told me how difficult it is to find young actors willing to play in big theatres. Stars are still the lifeblood of commercial theatre, but commercial theatre tends to take place in big theatres  the better to cover costs.

His theory seems to hold true. Game of Thrones star Kit Harrington is currently previewing Doctor Faustus at the Duke of York's. Lily James and Richard Madden will lead Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick later this year. Others  Denise Gough and Sheridan Smith  are in shows that started out in smaller spaces.

Larger-than-life isn't particularly fashionable these days. Small spaces allow quietness and subtlety

These are the exceptions, though. Jessica Raine's back on stage at the Royal Court in X. Andrew Scott, whose fanbase exploded with Sherlock, is down to play Hamlet at the 325-seat Almeida next year, after his own stint at Found111. Tom Hiddleston chose the intimate Donmar for his Coriolanus. Mostly, our bigger stages are led by older actors: Kenneth Branagh, Ralph Fiennes, Timothy Spall.

Is this a dereliction of duty? If big stars with big fanbases squeeze into small theatres for limited runs, many more people will want to see a show that can possibly do so. Doesn't that serve to make theatre seem even more exclusive than it already is?

So why do young actors plump for small spaces?

Mostly, I suspect, it's about style. Spaces shape a performance. Each needs its own register and, in big spaces, performances have to hit the back of the balcony. Only, larger-than-life isn't particularly fashionable these days. Small spaces allow quietness and subtlety; a different kind of skill. One might point to technique  the old mantra (call it Berkoff's Law) that young actors, trained for television, are no match for old hands with voices marinated over years in regional rep. There might be some truth in that, given that profile tends to come via screen acting, but it's more likely a matter of preference.

Partly, that's about perception. For all its changes in the past five years or so, the West End is still not seen as cool  not in the way the Almeida or Found111 are. Small spaces are a thrill for actors as well as audiences. They have a risk of their own, leaving actors nowhere to hide, always acutely aware of their audience. No actor will admit it, but behind a proscenium arch, it's possible to relax a little, to switch off and write a shopping list while someone else speaks.

If you're an actor with a budding profile, a big theatre is a risk

For young actors with strong screen credentials (and fees to match), theatre isn't the way they earn their money. Rather than play to big audiences for a decent weekly fee, there's a freedom to explore one's art in a small space. For some, theatre's a way of proving one's chops, legitimising oneself in a way that a big blockbuster film might not do. Rightly or wrongly, Shakespeare still trumps Star Wars on that front. However, a big stage can leave actors  not to mention plays  exposed. It limits the sort of material one can do  new plays, edgier fare. Besides the West End comes with different connotations; a certain scepticism about star casting. Both factors can feed into reviews  and if that's a motivating factor, a small space might serve a star better.

If you're an actor with a budding profile, a big theatre is a risk. It means several hundred tickets to sell every night; a few thousand a week. If an actor's name is above the title, a play becomes a test of pulling power. Better, then, to pack out a small space night after night, to be a hot ticket, than to risk half-filling a vast auditorium and find your face beaming out of the discount ticket booths.

That cuts both ways. The West End tends to attract an older audience, one that doesn't balk at ticket prices and comparatively conservative programming. Unsurprisingly, Branagh and Fiennes are more likely to pull in that crowd than, say, Scott or Hiddleston. Very quickly, you end up with a vicious circle.

All this comes back to what I wrote about last week: risk. Actors with profile can ease the risk of a big space, pulling in audiences off their own back. And yet, those spaces entail a risk for those actors as well.

When Mark Rylance played the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse for the first time, in Farinelli and the King, I was struck by the way he spent the first five minutes scanning the auditorium, making eye contact, just for a moment, with every single person in the room.

Laurence Olivier used to do something similar, apparently. He'd start by taking a turn around the stage, letting his audience take him in from every angle. That's a very different relationship between actor and audience: Look at me' as opposed to Rylance's Let's play.'

That's the difference between the two actors, I suspect, but also between big and small spaces. It says a lot about today's actors that they lean towards the latter.
Sarah Crompton and Holly Williams will join the reviewing team at WhatsOnStage following the departure of Michael Coveney.

Crompton joins Matt Trueman as joint Chief Theatre Critic, replacing Coveney who stepped down earlier this month after completing ten years in the role.

Williams will work alongside Trueman and Crompton as a Staff Critic. Each will take up their roles with immediate effect.

Crompton said today: "I am absolutely thrilled to be joining WhatsOnStage and contributing theatre reviews and blogs to its expanding and significant platform. It is a brilliant forum for telling the story of British theatre at a fascinating and vibrant time, and from my point of view dovetails perfectly with my work for other organisations."

Crompton is one of Britain's most respected writers and broadcasters, commentating on all aspects of culture and the arts. Her work appears in the Guardian, the Sunday Times, The Times, the Observer, British Vogue, Intelligent Life, and the Evening Standard among others. She is a regular contributor to the BBC's Front Row and Saturday Review and was previously the Arts Editor in Chief of the Daily Telegraph, and a contributor to BBC2's The Review Show.

Williams said today: "It's been a privilege to write for WhatsOnStage, recognised for both the breadth and depth of its coverage of theatre around the country, forming an essential contribution to a lively, rigorous critical conversation. So I am delighted to become one of their staff critics, alongside such talented colleagues as Matt Trueman and Sarah Crompton."

Williams is a theatre critic, and arts and features writer. Having worked in various capacities at the Independent and Independent on Sunday since 2010, she is now a freelance journalist, and has written for the TLS, the Evening Standard, Time Out, the New Statesman, the Guardian, Fest and Exeunt. She was awarded a Special Commendation in the Allen Wright Award for arts writing at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2015, and shortlisted in 2014.

WhatsOnStage's Sita McIntosh said,"I couldn't be more thrilled to welcome Sarah and Holly to the WhatsOnStage team. To have writers of their calibre join us, alongside Managing Editor Daisy Bowie-Sell and Matt Trueman, will ensure the company's position at the forefront of online theatre journalism."
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Stories of young people leaving the west to fight with Islamic State are barely out of the news these days. But any meaningful information about who they are, and why they do it is hard to find. Verbatim playwright Gillian Slovo and director Nicholas Kent, have attempted to lay bare some of the truths behind the headlines and in Another World present the voices of some people affected by those who leave to join IS.

It's a varied 90 minutes, which at times becomes heavy with detail and at others shocks you to the core. The piece starts with a group of mothers in Brussels, each of whom have a son or daughter who has left for Syria. They talk in depth about the often bewildering chain of events that led to their children being recruited by IS. One is a not particularly devout single mother, another is a Belgian woman who has converted to Islam, another's son told her he was going on holiday to Morocco and never returned. Their verbatim dialogue all comes from interviews conducted by Slovo, who has partially edited them, and their stories are heart-breaking, shocking and confusing in equal measure.

Elsewhere we meet a researcher for the Study of Radicalisation, a man who knows first-hand what it is to be radicalised at a young age by an organisation like IS. There are students from Tower Hamlets, Moazzam Begg  the British Muslim once imprisoned at Bagram and Guantanamo who now campaigns against war on terror abuses  and Charles Farr the former director general of the office of security and counter terrorism. As with all Slovo's verbatim plays (The Riots, Guantanamo - Honor Bound to Defend Freedom)  and Kent's verbatim productions  the piece attempts to give as comprehensive a portrait as possible of an exceptionally complicated situation.

Kent's remarkable achievement in creating The Great Game in 2011 - a collection of plays at the Tricycle which focused on setting the political record straight on the past and present of Afghanistan - is not quite replicated with Another World. Where The Great Game broke big issues into digestible chunks, Another World is unwieldy. One of the catch-22s of the piece is that including background knowledge is vital, but the mass of information crammed into Another World lacks the drama to keep us interested. The facts, the figures, the first hand accounts drift into a bulk of words.

But the play does go some way to unveiling myths behind just how east and west got to this point. There are sections which pose the idea that Global Jihad actually began in the Cold War and that during this time America played a big part in encouraging extremist groups against the USSR. Listening to the mothers talk about their children, it is striking too, how Syria is like a steadily increasing black hole in which young men and women seem to disappear.

Kent keeps things simple with his production. Images, maps and news reports are projected onto several TV screens at the back of the stage and the strong ensemble of actors speak out to us, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing. He lets the interviews speak for themselves and from them one main message emerges: the danger of not paying attention. "I lived in another world" one of the mothers says, and though she thinks she's talking only for herself, there's resonance for us all, too.

Another World: Losing Our Children to Islamic State runs at the National Theatre until 7 May.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 17/04/2016 (2380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG  Indigenous and Northern Affairs says its offices are expected to reopen despite the fact protesters continued to occupy two of those offices in Toronto and Winnipeg over the weekend.

Claudia Fournier, a spokesperson for the department, says in an email that while those offices remained occupied on Sunday, the department anticipates they will open again on Monday.

However, she says the department will assess the situation in each region as it evolves.

A group of activists for aboriginal rights stage a sit-in at the Toronto offices of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada on April 13, 2016, in solidarity with a remote Ontario First Nation community struggling with a suicide crisis. The governmental department says its offices are expected to reopen despite the fact protesters continued to occupy two of those offices in Toronto and Winnipeg over the weekend. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Protesters took over the Toronto and Winnipeg offices of Indigenous and Northern Affairs last week, calling for more to be done to address youth suicides in aboriginal communities, including Attawapiskat in Ontario and Cross Lake in Manitoba.

The department responded by closing the offices, and also closing its offices to the public in other cities, including Gatineau, Que., Regina, Edmonton, Calgary and Quebec City.

Raquel Kirton, who was among close to 20 people occupying the Winnipeg office on Sunday afternoon, says the protesters are staying put.

We dont have any intentions of leaving any time soon, Kirton said, adding the group has been in touch with the Toronto protesters.

Were doing this for the youth that are facing this in Attawapiskat and Cross Lake.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett will visit Attawapiskat on Monday, along with Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus, the NDP critic for aboriginal affairs.

But the protesters occupying the Winnipeg office have said they want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with the youth of Attawapiskat, Cross Lake and other communities.

In a video statement posted online Friday and read by Kirton, the group says it also wants the Indian Act and Canadas system of reserves abolished, as well as other demands met such as adequate health care, housing and education for aboriginal communities.

We will continue to assert our sovereign right to occupy this space until the Crown, so-called government of Canada, and so-called chief and council, acknowledge this statement and the commands within, Kirton says in the groups statement.

Supporters of the Winnipeg occupation held a round dance on Sunday on the street outside the office.

The federal department said in an email late last week that it was working to resume some of its services at alternate locations due to the office closures.

We recognize the publics right to engage in peaceful protests and lawful assembly and are balancing that against the need to ensure public and staff well-being, the statement said.

 by Rob Drinkwater in Edmonton
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/04/2016 (2379 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  The leader of the countrys national Inuit organization says his people are also dealing with devastating rates of suicide.

The heartbreaking suicide crisis in the First Nation community of Attawapiskat has become a touchstone moment for how mental health issues affect Aboriginal Peoples, Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, said Monday.

Obed watched the House of Commons emergency debate on the issue last week  a discussion he was pleased to see.

Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, is shown in Ottawa, on Friday, Nov. 27, 2015. Obed, the leader of Canada's national Inuit organization, wants Canadians to know that his people are also dealing with devastating rates of attempted suicide.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

I am thankful for the leadership of (NDP indigenous affairs critic) Charlie Angus in bringing the issue forward, Obed said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

I was sympathetic to a lot of members of Parliament who shared stories and it was obvious that a number of parliamentarians are passionate about this issue and really want to see positive change, for not only Attawapiskat, but all indigenous communities in Canada, including Inuit.

Obed fears, however, that Canada is still stuck treating indigenous suicide in a very different way than other public health crises.

We could have a much more informed debate and a much more sophisticated debate and not leave it up to communities to come up with answers to the entire problem, he said.

Obed noted there are more than 1,000 attempted suicide calls each year in Nunavut, a territory of just over 30,000 people.

The suicide rate for Inuit is 11 times higher than the national average and the majority of deaths by suicide are people under 30, according to Statistics Canada.

ITK is also working on identifying more specific suicide figures by working with coroners in the four main jurisdictions where Inuit live  Nunavut, Nunavik (northern Quebec), Nunatsiavut (northern Labrador) and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the Northwest Territories.

Obed said he hopes the government will move forward on a plan designed specifically to help Inuit people.

It is going to take a lot of money and a very fundamentally different way in which we treat this particular issue, Obed said.

When I talk to anyone who has power, anyone who has influence in the area of suicide, it is as if we are taking all the things that actually matter, the societal change issues, off the table and to say OK, what can we do to reduce Inuit suicide?

Im supposed to answer that question and our communities are supposed to come up with a solid answer to the question without (government) doing the things everyone in the world knows that you would do to transform a high-suicide rate society into a low-suicide rate one with the infrastructure  the environment in which our children are raised. So then we get into the question of What are people willing to do instead of what needs to be done?

Obed also said he is worried about some of the things the Liberal government has said in the federal budget about the funding it is providing to Aboriginal Peoples.

Theres a lot of statements that this government has made that, I think, are quite frankly irresponsible, he said.

They keep talking as if the clean water funds and the education funds are indigenous funding when really they are First Nations, on-reserve funding.

Obed said the government has acted to address some long-standing issues, which he applauds as a Canadian, but he does not see the investments as transformative from his perspective as an Inuit leader.

Inuit get caught up in this all the time where something can be announced and it has nothing to do with our reality because we are not on reserves and our funding relationships are so different, Obed said.

I am disappointed that everything seems to be politicized to the point where it is preying upon peoples ignorance of the complex realities of funding between the federal government and indigenous peoples.

Follow @kkirkup on Twitter
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This article was published 18/04/2016 (2379 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Opposition Conservatives say it was out of line for the international trade minister and a staff member to spend nearly $20,000 to stop in Los Angeles on the way back from an APEC summit in the Philippines.

The Tories claim Chrystia Freeland took the November trip solely to appear on Real Time with Bill Maher, a popular U.S. trade show.

But a spokesperson for the minister is throwing cold water on those claims, saying Freeland was there for a trade mission and the show was just one stop of many.

Her schedule included meetings with business leaders, sessions on ties between the economies of California and British Columbia and a meeting with Californias state treasurer.

The Tories are also accusing Freeland of double-dipping and charging taxpayers for meals even though she would have had food on her flights.

But the ministers office says Freeland got stuck in the airport for a day after coming off an overnight flight and bought food as she waited for her flight home.

Freeland made the visit to L.A. on he way back from the APEC summit in the Philippines. Expenses posted online say the total cost for the trip was $13,826.07.

The Conservative total includes the charges made by a staff member who accompanied Freeland on the trip.

Freelands spokesperson said the trade mission was one of several Freeland has done.

The minister is proud to advocate for Canadian businesses with our largest trading, the United States, and has made similar visits to New York, Boston, and Washington, as chair of the cabinet committee on Canada-US relations, Alex Lawrence said in an email.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 17/04/2016 (2380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ontario Provincial Police confirmed Sunday night that the body of missing teen Azraya Kokopenace was found near the location of where she was last seen Friday.

Police said in a media statement that Azraya, 14, was found deceased at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday by members of the Bear Clan, who were assisting in the search for the girl. Foul play is not suspected.

OPP members, other emergency crews, the Bear Clan and other community members had been searching for Azraya since she was last seen leaving the Lake of the Woods District Hospital in Kenora around 11:20 p.m. Friday.

Azraya Kokopenace

Police said the girl had been observed entering a wooded area on Lakeview Drive.

Earlier Sunday, traffic had been diverted by police on Lakeview Drive away from McLeod Park after a body was discovered.

Police said the local coroner attended the scene and that a post mortem examination will be conducted at a location and date to be determined. The investigation is continuing.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/04/2016 (2379 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON  Brandon police are investigating a Facebook page targeting the local immigrant community.

The page, which included derogatory posts and a profile picture with the words I Hate Immigrants, was removed from Facebook Saturday.

The Brandon Police Service takes incidents of immigrants being targeted very seriously, and to this end, our criminal investigations unit is continuing to investigate the recent Facebook posting, read a news release from Brandon police Sunday.

Brandon resident Rhonda McCorriston reported the page to Facebook when it was still active.

I was really offended as far as Im concerned, it is spreading hate, McCorriston said. Its not very good for Brandon and its against so many things that we as Canadians value in our multicultural society.

McCorriston said Facebook did not take down the page after her report because the page did not violate its community standards.

Staff Sgt. Greg Hebert said Brandon police first received a report about the page last Monday, and a second complaint came in on Friday.

I believe the officers that were investigating have spoken to Facebook, Hebert said, adding he doesnt know if the local investigation played a role in the page being removed.

Hebert said its not the first time Brandon police have investigated a targeted online attack, but he said it isnt a common occurrence.

Most of our Internet stuff we deal with is still frauds, whether its Revenue Canada scams or selling stuff on Kijiji scam, he said.

Anyone with information related to the page is asked to contact Brandon police or Brandon Crime Stoppers at 204-727-8477, on brandoncrimestoppers.com or by texting BCSTIP and your message to CRIMES (274637). Crime Stoppers pays up to $2,000 cash for information that leads to the solution of a crime.

 Brandon Sun
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 17/04/2016 (2380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

John Delacruz walked out of a Manitoba courtroom as a free kid on Sunday.

John was cleared of any wrongdoing along with a few fellow Grade 3 and 4 classmates from Frontenac School. The accused were alleged to have eaten a witchs gingerbread cottage while lost in the forest.

John and his other co-defendants argued they had no choice but to eat the cottage, as it was a matter or survival because they were too afraid of the witch to ask her for help.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Officer Hamill demonstrates how Brady a K-9 officer seeks out drugs during Law Day Open House at the Manitoba Law Courts Sunday afternoon. Both officers work at Stoney Mountain penitentiary.160417 - Sunday, April 17, 2016

They were originally charged with wilful damage and mischief.

Its really good that Im not guilty or anything, John said moments after the unanimous verdict was handed down by the jury, also made up by students.

Deliberations at the Manitoba Law Courts lasted less than a minute.

Of course, R. v. Hansel and Gretel was pure fiction. The students were given lines to read out in court and they had practised for about a month before their chance in front of Judge Robert Heinrichs on Sunday.

The mock trial was designed to give a selection of students from Frontenac a positive look-in when it comes to court proceedings.

It was really fun and I was really honoured to get picked for the case, said Sarah Gauvin, who acted as the Crown attorney in the case. They (Hansel and Gretel) won, but it was really fun.

The hope is to have kids to have a better understanding of the legal system, that its not just what people see on TVs and in the movies, said Annette Horst, a Legal Aid staff lawyer helping with the students.

Students were chosen from across five classrooms at Frontenac.

It was a chance for some of our students who really shine in our classrooms to come in and try a new challenge, said Sheila Cooper-Simon, a teacher at Frontenac.

It gives them an experience for life, one they can take into the community.

The mock trials were a part of a bigger initiative on Law Day, a cross-country event celebrating its 24th anniversary and the 34th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In Manitoba, Law Day is put on by the The Manitoba Bar Association.

A big purpose of this is to celebrate the signing of the Charter in April of 1982, said bar association president Bradley Regehr. Its important all Canadian citizens learn the Charter and the Bar Association is very happy and proud to bring this educational event to all Canadians, but especially to young Canadians so they learn about these rights and freedoms in life.

Exhibits and displays line much of the main floor of the courts. The RCMP and Winnipeg police had booths, guided tours of the courts were available and demonstrations by a drug detector dog were just a few of the events to take in.

Three local schools  Acadia Junior High, St. Johns Ravenscourt School and St. Marys Academy  also took part in a debate that asked the question: Should Manitoba courts promote access to justice by webcasting all court proceedings?

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/04/2016 (2379 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Finance Minister Cathy Bennett warned last week the first budget tabled by the new Liberal government of once oil-rich Newfoundland and Labrador would be filled with harsh medicine and bad news.

There is not one single choice in this budget  not one  that is a happy one, she told the CBC.

Promise kept.

The giant Hibernia oil platform at Trinity Bay was Newfoundland and Labradors first offshore oil project in 1997. Oils plummeting price has pushed the provinces deficit north of $1 billion again this year.

Bennett prescribed a regimen of tax hikes, fee increases and cuts to the civil service last week as Canadas easternmost province grapples with a perfect storm of low petroleum prices and billion-dollar deficits.

Individuals and companies will pay more income tax, including an additional levy earmarked to reduce the deficit. The gasoline tax will double to 16.5 cents per litre. There is an array of service fee hikes, for everything from salmon fishing licences to birth, marriage and death certificates. A $2,200 bonus paid to parents of a newborn child has been cancelled.

When Premier Dwight Ball swept to power last fall, ending a dozen years of Progressive Conservative rule, one of his first acts was to rescind the previous governments plan to increase the harmonized sales tax to 15 per cent from 13 per cent.

In what must surely be one of the fastest about-faces in Canadian political history, there will be a two per cent hike to the HST after all, effective July 1.

Its a major assault on taxpayers wallets. A single person with a salary of between $70,000 and $80,000, provincial officials say, will pay more than $2,800 a year in extra taxes and fees.

The province will cut hundreds of public-sector jobs, reduce services and increase classroom sizes to save money.

The measures will boost revenues by almost $1 billion a year, but thats not enough to halt the slide into the red. Bennett projects a deficit of $1.83 billion in the next fiscal year, on top of last years $2.2-billion shortfall bequeathed by the Tories. Without the cuts and tax increases, she said, this years deficit would have ballooned to $2.7 billion.

But the pain brings little gain. A province with a city-sized population (some 527,000 residents) will be saddled with a debt of $14.7 billion by this time next year. Newfoundland spends more on servicing its debt  almost $1 billion annually  than it spends on education. At least one bond agency has downgraded the provinces credit rating, forcing Balls government to take decisive action.

Its easy to blame the previous administrations of Tory premiers Danny Williams, Kathy Dunderdale and Paul Davis, and the Liberals have not hesitated to point the finger. High oil prices allowed the province to expand its spending and programs, as well as break free of equalization payments from Ottawa and the label of a have not province.

Royalties from offshore petroleum production were once in the $2-billion range; with oil at its current price of about $40 a barrel, Bennett predicts the province will earn only $550 million in royalties in the coming fiscal year.

The finance minister warns of further cuts and more pain ahead as she seeks to reduce spending and boost revenues. It adds up to tough times ahead for a province that has weathered more than its share of hard times, from the economic calamities that lead to Confederation in 1949 to the cod fishing moratorium of the 1990s.

The unemployment rate stands at 13 per cent, almost double the national average. It will continue to climb as Newfoundlanders losing their jobs in the Alberta oilpatch head home in search of work.

The offshore windfall and new oil wealth prompted Newfoundlanders and their governments to spend like drunken sailors, an editorial writer noted in the provinces largest newspaper, the St. Johns Telegram.

We spent eight years living beyond our means We won the lottery and picked up all the tabs at the bar.

The offshore lottery winnings have dried up and, for Newfoundland and Labrador, the partys over.

Dean Jobb teaches creative nonfiction and journalism at the University of Kings College in Halifax and is the author of Empire of Deception, the true story of a master swindler.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/04/2016 (2379 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Did Justin Trudeau and Stephane Dion misrepresent the supposed fait accompli of the Saudi arms deal? Absolutely.

Is Canada wrong to follow through with the $15-billion arms package to Saudi Arabia? Canadian public opinion is divided. While this is the single largest arms deal, Canada has a 26-year history of selling approximately 2,600 light armoured vehicles (LAVs) to Saudi Arabia. The deal is a short-term disgrace to human rights but pragmatically, the Liberals should honour the agreement.

Heres the bigger picture:

A boy chants slogans through a gap in a national flag raised by Shiite rebels during a protest against Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday.

Saudi Arabias record on human rights is an outrage and amoral, and has been for decades. To change this situation, some may argue for a BDS (boycott, divest and sanctions) regime against Saudi Arabia until it changes its human rights situation, but the Gulf petrodollar nation is not South Africa and this is not the 1980s. Not delivering the LAVs will not automatically change the Saudi human rights calamity.

Dion rightly argued if Canada did not sell arms to Saudi Arabia some other country would. That begs the question: would it not be better for Canada to have closer political and socioeconomic ties with Saudi Arabia in order to influence it rather than sit on the sidelines with no leverage while some other country with a lesser human rights record takes the contract?

I am dismayed by the arms deal but one of the positive implications it has is closer Canada-Saudi relations.

The economics of human rights and policy carryover from the Harper government shed light on this deal as well. The General Dynamics Land Systems plant in London, Ont., where the LAVs will be produced, was under threat of closure when the Canadian Forces cancelled a substantial order of LAVs under Harper. Canadians were outraged and demanded the economy be the priority. When the Saudi Arabia deal was brokered and announced, it was met with fanfare as it saved 3,000 manufacturing jobs.

It is quite clear that when the economy is poor, we give ourselves licence to act amorally because we think we must. The opposite is true now. When the economy is good, Canadians can afford to express their moral outrage at an arms deal with a totalitarian theocratic regime. We can ironically in part thank the arms deal itself for our casual moral outrage capabilities. Things are more complex than they first seem.

It should be noted Canadian law mandates Canada cannot sell arms to countries which will use them to violate human rights against their own people. Beyond internal repression, the Saudis have violated human rights recently in other countries with attacks in Bahrain and Yemen, and LAVs were in their arsenal. While it is acknowledged the Saudi government has not used LAVs against Saudis themselves, they are part of the harm apparatus and Canada must be mindful of this.

This has been conveniently overlooked by both the Harper and Trudeau governments. Canada is also the only NATO member to have not signed the Arms Trade Treaty (2014), which regulates the international arms trade industry. We stand alongside human rights bastions North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Syria and Iran as a non-signatory. That should probably be changed, too.

So what then, is the responsible conviction of the federal Liberal party? If anything, it is a pragmatically principled foreign policy, similar to the Obama Doctrine of carefully selected intervention and shortchanging some principles in the short-term to achieve long-term principled victories. International politics requires politicians who are otherwise good moral people to make pragmatic decisions on which principles they will enforce and when.

Cancelling the arms deal to supposedly enforce human rights now could see Canada lose 3,000 manufacturing jobs in London, Ont. Which is more important to Canadians?

By completing the contract, Canada gains leverage to more profoundly influence the Saudi Arabian human rights catastrophe. Cancelling the deal means Canada loses any Saudi Arabian goodwill on oil production  of which the Saudis have demonstrated they are willing to crash oil prices. By honouring the contract, perhaps Canada can work with Saudi Arabia on this critical internationalized issue.

Cancelling the deal means Saudi Arabia is further strategically isolated by the West, and the anti-Islamic State coalition could lose the intelligence-gathering and anti-terrorist financing capabilities of the Saudis. If Canada honours the deal, Saudi Arabia continues as a necessary regional partner. Peace with Iran and Israel significantly play into this strategic picture.

Cancelling the deal signals Canadas contracts can be cavalierly shredded with the change of government. Delivering on this contract demonstrates Canadian reliability. Simply because Canada signed this arms deal now does not mean it will seek these contracts in the future.

Given the circumstances, Canada, unfortunately, should honour its contractual obligations to Saudi Arabia and violate Canadas human rights ideals in the short-term to gain a long-term victory.

Welcome to the new pragmatically principled Canadian foreign policy.

Andrew R. Basso is a PhD candidate in the political science department at the University of Calgary. His research focuses on atrocity crimes, human rights, security and the ethics of war, and international relations. He specifically studies the use of displacement to perpetrate human rights violations.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 17/04/2016 (2380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG  Manitoba voters head to the polls Tuesday. Here is a look at some of the highlights of the election campaign:

March 7: Just over a week before the official start of the campaign, an unidentified civil servant complains that Premier Greg Selingers office used non-political civil servants for a pre-election NDP announcement on surface parking lots. Its the third time Selingers government is accused of using government resources for partisan purposes, contrary to the provinces Elections Financing Act. Selinger promises full co-operation with the investigation by the provincial commissioner of elections, which could take months.

March 8: The NDP government delivers a mini-budget that serves as a blueprint for their upcoming election campaign. The document includes plans for a new tax bracket on high incomes, small tax credit increases for lower- and middle-income earners and more spending on health care. The document also reveals the deficit has more than doubled to $773 million.

reporter: Steve Lambert; produce

March 16: Selinger kicks off his attempt to keep his 16-year government in power with a walk to Lt.-Gov. Janice Filmons office to dissolve the legislature. Selinger says the election is about clear policy choices that will make a difference for the future of Manitoba, while Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister says its about getting a handle on this freight train of spending increases that the NDP is driving. Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari launches her campaign with a pledge to bring in all-day kindergarten.

March 23: A recording surfaces online of Bokhari meeting with a man seeking media attention for his concerns about mental health services. Bokhari tells the man the media wont touch his story because they survive on government ads. Pressed by reporters on the recording, Bokhari doesnt back down. I think its common knowledge that people believe that thats the way the system works.

March 30: Elections Manitoba rejects five Manitoba Liberal Party candidates. One is removed after the NDP complained she had worked as an enumerator earlier in the year; another is rejected because the candidates paperwork was not handed in before the deadline and three others are rejected because they didnt fill out their forms correctly. The Liberals will not have a full slate of candidates for the first time since 1999.

March 31: Liberal Brandon West candidate Billy Moore says health-care wait times could be reduced if some hospitals were closed. Moore says the wide availability of hospital emergency rooms encourages people to use them for minor or even non-existent ailments, which clogs up waiting rooms.

April 1: Court documents obtained by The Canadian Press reveal Elmwood Liberal candidate Kurt Berger had pleaded guilty to assaulting a girlfriend in 2002 and was given a conditional discharge. Berger says he turned himself around after the assault and took counselling. The Liberals stand by him.

April 4: Bokhari drops Berger as a candidate after she says she received an email from the woman involved in the assault that contained new accusations about what happened.

April 5: Pallister bristles at a small business announcement when a reporter asked questions about Tory plans for children in government care. Youre choosing the questions and Im choosing which ones to respond to, Pallister says. He later apologizes and says his party can reduce the record number of children in care by boosting the economy and ensuring parents have jobs.

April 6: Pallister says, if he is elected premier, he would be open to following Selingers lead and participating in gay pride celebrations. The NDP say they will appoint a minister responsible for LGBTQ issues, but Pallister calls that not helpful.

April 7: The leaders exchanged barbs over jobs, deficits and even the rock band Nickelback as they squared off in the first leaders debate in Brandon. Pallister says an NDP promise to boost tax credits for the middle class pales in comparison to the amount of money gobbled up by recent tax increases. Thats the Nickelback plan, Pallister says. Lets just talk about the relevance of Brian Pallister, Bokhari interjects. Nickelback  2016, the guys talking about Nickelback.

April 10: NDP Leader Greg Selinger invites the media to share details of his 2014 tax return. Selingers total income was $147,374. The Liberals responded by releasing leader Rana Bokharis T4, which listed her income as $24,584 after deductions. The Tories issued a statement calling Selingers move desperate, American-style politics meant to divert voters attention.

April 11: The Tories stand by candidate Dr. Naseer Warraich after it is revealed he is facing restrictions from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba. Documents posted on the colleges website say Warraich, who is featured on the partys website wearing a white coat and stethoscope  was restricted as to where he can practise, how many patients he can see and how he documents encounters with his patients. Warraichs licence was suspended for two years in 2006 and was fined $16,000 after he co-signed prescriptions for U.S. patients he had never seen. Selinger calls Pallister homophobic for voting against a law in 2013 that requires schools to allow gay-straight alliances set up by students.

April: 12: Maintaining a wide lead in polls, Pallister is the main target in the televised debate. He faces accusations he would cut government services, increase poverty and privatize parts of the health care system.

April 13: Pallister releases his plans for his first 100 days in office saying he would shrink the provincial cabinet and start an audit of government spending. Selinger demands to know what Pallister will privatize. Selinger says some voters will accuse him of fear-mongering late in the election campaign, but the public deserves to know that is on the table.

April 14: Pallister uses the last leaders debate to raise the issue of unions. He says the province is being run by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, something that will change if his party wins. Selinger counters: Mr. Pallister always looks for one person or one group that he can punish or make a victim, and he demonstrated that again today.

April 15: Pallister defends his time out of the province after the CBC obtained travel logs which show he spent 240 days either travelling to or in Costa Rica since being elected in 2012. None of the time was taken while the legislature was in session. Pallister was in the Latin American country during flooding that was occurring in Manitoba in 2014. At the time, he told media he had been at a family wedding. I wrestle with the balance between work time away from my family and finding time to be with my family, he says. Time with my family doesnt mean I dont work.

April 16: A new opinion poll by Mainstreet Research for Postmedia suggests the Tories are well out in front with 46 per cent support, the NDP are in second place at 21, and the Liberals and Greens are tied at seven per cent. The random automated telephone survey of 1,800 Manitobans was conducted Thursday, and is considered accurate within plus or minus 2.3 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 17/04/2016 (2380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NDP Leader Greg Selinger, senior cabinet minister Steve Ashton and the Manitoba government are being sued by Omnitrax Canada.

Selinger and Ashton, the provinces infrastructure and transportation minister, are accused of breaching a non-disclosure agreement in relation to the proposed deal to sell the Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill to a group of First Nations.

The statement of claim, obtained by the Free Press, says the parties entered into a non-disclosure agreement in March 2015 after the defendants (Selinger and Ashton) were provided with confidential information pertaining to the companys business plan. The lawsuit alleges the defendants disclosed confidential information in December to an accounting firm and Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN), a First Nation about 630 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Premier Greg Selinger

The claim states Omnitrax at the time was exclusively negotiating the sale with Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, 800 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. The deal, with a consortium of 10 northern Manitoba First Nations led by Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, was formally announced in January.

The unlawful and wrongful conduct of the defendants amounts to a deliberate, high-handed, wanton and outrageous interference with the plaintiffs right, the claim, filed in the Manitoba Court of Queens Bench, states.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

A spokesman for the Manitoba government said the province has not received the statement of claim and has not filed a statement of defence.

Based on internal reviews already undertaken, the government intends to deny the allegations, said a statement from government spokesman Shane Gibson.

The NDP, in a written response, called the allegations in the lawsuit unsubstantiated and said government officials are reviewing the claims.

The Progressive Conservatives jumped on the news of the lawsuit Sunday, sending out a statement that the allegations raise serious questions about potential linkages between this lawsuit and the ongoing Hydro jobs for votes investigation currently being conducted by the elections commissioner.

In February, the Free Press reported the provinces elections commissioner was investigating allegations the provincial government offered Manitoba Hydro contract work to a First Nation in exchange for political support for Selinger.

The allegations became public in December when a letter dated April 21, 2015, from OCN Chief Michael Constant to deputy premier Eric Robinson, was released to the media. The letter alleged in exchange for support for Selinger in the election process, contracts for Bipole III transmission line work would be awarded to OCN. Constant clarified and told a media source in December rather than there being a deal, there was an understanding the First Nation would receive the contracts.

The unlawful and wrongful conduct of the defendants amounts to a deliberate, high-handed, wanton and outrageous interference with the plaintiffs right as-yet unproven allegation by Omnitrax in lawsuit against Premier Greg Selinger, Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Steve Ashton and the provincial governmentBased on internal reviews already undertaken, the government intends to deny the allegations provincial government spokesman Shane Gibson

Constant later backtracked, writing a letter to the elections commissioner in February stating the letter was written by overzealous staff and Robinson did not promise work on Bipole III in exchange for support for Selinger.

Omnitrax Canada operates the Hudson Bay Railway, which connects many isolated northern communities. Omnitrax also runs the Port of Churchill, which once relied heavily on grain shipments from the Canadian Wheat Board. The CWB was dismantled as a single-desk buyer of wheat and barley by the former federal Conservative government.

The greatest threat to the Port of Churchill was the dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board by Stephen Harpers Conservatives, which Brian Pallister supported as a member of the Harper team, NDP spokesman Andrew Tod said in a prepared statement Sunday.

Merv Tweed became president of Omnitrax after he resigned as the Conservative MP for Brandon-Souris in 2013.

Prior to that, Tweed was a Manitoba Tory MLA.

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/04/2016 (2379 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Remember the environment, climate change and global warming?

The planet may be in dire peril, but nary a syllable was uttered by the three main party leaders that anyones noticed over the past few weeks.

The Greens probably had something to say about saving the planet, and had they gone into the election with anything like the numbers the Liberals had in the polls, the mainstream media may have paid the Greens some notice. Our bad.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Can anyone recall our farmers getting much love on the campaign trail?

All must be well with agriculture, because except for the Liberals favouring a break on the farmland school tax rebate, can anyone recall our farmers getting much love on the campaign trail?

In a province that floods rather regularly, flooding wasnt much of an issue. Corollary effects of flooding, yes, that got attention, when the NDP tried to explain why it had needed another point on the PST and when the Tories were alleging conspiracies around Tiger dams.

But flood mitigation, ideas and projects on how to protect us, how and when and where to move unimaginable amounts of water with the greatest protection and the least damage? Any promises must have slipped right by all the mainstream media. Maybe someone put something about it somewhere on Twitter.

Speaking of disasters, did any leader let slip the words water bombers?

OK, so you cant define the universe over the course of a 35-day election campaign, but if there is time to devote to giving women a PST break on a cut and colour at the salon, to putting $700,000 of public money into a curling centre of excellence, or to a $1-million slush fund for extra school fees that works out to $5 a student, then maybe the Big Picture didnt always get its due.

Everyone knows ambulance fees and parking charges at hospitals are exorbitant, but theyre just nibbling around the edges of an enormous health-care system. Who offered a solution to the mental-health crisis?

We have a childhood obesity epidemic, but where was that topic during the election? Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari said shed have schools provide mandatory daily physical activity, but was unaware of what already programs already exist and had not considered which core subjects would give up class time for more exercise.

The leaders tiptoed around the edges of education as gingerly as they ventured into health issues.

A short campaign may not be the best place to address the inequities of a $2.25-billion public education system based on the assessed values of property within arbitrary geographic areas, but hardly anything of systemic substance got talked about. Conservative Leader Brian Pallister would emphasize the development of reading skills, and the Liberals would scrap the 2008 moratorium on closing small schools.

By the way, if you read really, really far down in the Conservative platform Pallister released a couple of weeks back, youll find hes promised teachers they can write whatever they want on a report card (including descriptions of a childs behaviour) and will have the discretion to mark students appropriately on their work, which may mean giving a failing grade without having the world come down on a teachers head. But the Tories didnt make a big deal out of a couple of significant changes that may have, to resort to jargon, resonated with some stakeholders.

The parties made some promises around post-secondary bursaries and scholarships, and about converting student loans into grants, but they ignored the two issues vital to post-secondary education. Provincial operating grants are basically a percentage increase  and, oh yeah, will there be any?  on whatever the schools previously received, and not geared to per-student funding. Manitoba has the third-lowest tuition among Canadian provinces and it is capped at an increase of provincial growth  an arts undergrad student carrying a maximum course load would have to pay at least $2,000 a year more to have our universities enjoy Saskatchewan revenue levels.

We could go on. Social-housing improvements, bettering the lives of indigenous people, urban sprawl, development of natural resources, services for newcomers. Just speculating, but the leaders may not be aware we have provincial parks.

NDP Leader Greg Selinger and Pallister each spent 35 days accusing the other of being more evil, while Bokhari failed profoundly to offer a discernible ideology.

Where was the vision for a better Manitoba?

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Nine Cotter students from South Korea attended Global Minnesotas reception for Ambassador Ahn Ho-Young in Minneapolis on Friday, April 8. It was a unique opportunity to meet Ambassador Ahn, who spoke about the historic relationship between South Korea and the United States, as well as their unique tie with Minnesota. Cotter Schools is an international learning community with students from 17 different countries. This year Cotter has 27 students from South Korea.
A Fillmore County home and shed burned Friday after a grass fire spread through the property, occupied by a couple who face charges of manufacturing methamphetamine.

The Fillmore County Sheriffs Office received a report at 3:23 p.m. of a fire at 10517 County Road 113, in an unincorporated community in Canton Township referred to as Prosper.

The initial report was that a grass fire had spread to a house and shed. The Canton Fire Department responded and upon arriving on scene, requested mutual aid from the Mabel Fire Department. The Fillmore County Sheriffs Office conducted traffic control on the adjacent Hwy. 52 and was later assisted by the Minnesota State Patrol. Fillmore County Sheriffs Office investigators also arrived on scene.

On April 11, Fillmore County Sheriffs Narcotics Investigator Jesse Grabau had executed a narcotics search warrant at the same address on suspicion that methamphetamine was being manufactured there. Grabau was assisted by members of the Southeast Minnesota Violent Crime Enforcement Team and members of the sheriffs office.

As a result of the investigation and search warrant, a subsequent search warrant was obtained for an adjacent property, 10491 County Road 113, where evidence of manufacturing methamphetamine was discovered and seized, leading to two arrests.

Jeffrey George Torgerson, 48, and Joan Elizabeth Torgerson, 40, both of the property 10517 County Road 113 that caught fire, were taken into custody. Both have been arraigned in Fillmore County District Court and are being held in the Fillmore County Detention Center.

The fire remains under investigation by the Minnesota State Fire Marshals Office and the Fillmore County Sheriffs Office.
Were in trouble when we find truth in the absurd  and thats whats going on in the following exchange from a Houston County Board of Adjustment meeting in February.

Are we trying to shut the mine down or are we trying to correct it?

What were asking is that the county enforce the ordinance.

By doing that, we shut it down.

So, the only way the Erickson mine can continue operating is if Houston County refuses to enforce its own ordinance.

Thats chilling, and not only for Houston County, but for all of us in frac-sand country.

Were repeatedly told, Dont banregulate. Were told that frac-sand mining can be done right if we enforce existing regulations.

Thats a big if, as evidenced by the examples below:

The Hemker frac-sand facilitys officially reported water usage for 2013 was nearly 50 percent higher than the amount allowed by its Minnesota Department of Natural Resources permit, according to a DNR document. Whats been done about that violation? Nothing. Why not?

For one thing, a DNR staffer said, there are more than 8,800 active water appropriation permits and not nearly enough DNR employees to monitor them. So, a lot (of regulation) is the honor system, the DNR staffer said, meaning that much regulation is really self-reporting.

And theres not much we can do if operators dont respond to inquiries about permits.

Furthermore, the DNR rep said, because of the shortage of staffers for monitoring permits, Hemkers huge 2013 overage in reported water usage might not have been noticed for up to a year if the DNR hadnt been asked specifically about that permit.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency also relies heavily on self-monitoring and reporting from the permit holder, according to an MPCA staffer.

(Im not criticizing the DNR or MPCA. Parties at both agencies have been friendly, open and responsive in answering questions. They strike me as admirable public servants.)

In another instance, a neighbor called police about noise from the Hemker facility. Police referred the call to the citys planning department, which isnt open nights or weekends. That means citizens might at times find it impossible to find an official to listen to a complaint or concern.

Those are only a couple of examples, and only ones we know about. Truth is, theres no ongoing, timely, effective regulation of frac-sand operations, not at the city, county or state level. Although the industry has been in the Winona area for a number of years, local government hasnt added a single employee to regulate such facilities.

So next time you hear that the frac-sand industry can operate safely if regulated properly, ask where that regulation will come from. Ask whos going to do it and pay for it. And ask whether youre willing to bet the regions beauty and water quality on regulation so heavily based on self-reporting that it looks like the fox guarding the henhouse.
Sauk County attendees were overwhelmingly in favor of key proposals to toughen mining rules and give more independence to the Department of Natural Resources at the 2016 Wisconsin Conservation Congress county meetings and fish and wildlife hearings.

The voting took place April 11 in all of Wisconsins 72 counties, with more than 4,300 people attending statewide, including 78 in Sauk County.

There were 45 questions posed to the attendees, with the major questions involving mining, DNR leadership and the professionalism of DNR staff.

Voters were overwhelmingly in favor of repealing the controversial law allowing a mining company to develop an iron mine in far northern Wisconsin, more so in Sauk County than statewide, with the question approved by a 2-1 margin across the state and a 4-1 margin in the county.

The biggest support was shown for the DNR secretary to be chosen by the Natural Resources Board instead of by the governor, approved by 89 percent of the voters statewide and in all 72 counties, with Sauk County voting unanimously in favor of the proposal.

A moratorium on new state permits for frac sand mining and processing also was shown to have big support, with voters approving it 68-6 in Sauk County and 2,802-826 throughout the state.

Having a professional, better educated managerial team at the DNR won big support as well, by a 69-4 margin in Sauk County and a 3,287-506 count in the state.

The meetings results overall and county-by-county can be found online at www.dnr.wi.gov/About/WCC/springhearing.html.

The results will be reviewed by the Natural Resources Board on May 25. The results are non-binding and are used by the board as a gauge of public support or lack of support for proposed changes in the states rules overseen by the board.

Baraboo News Republic reporter Tim Damos contributed to this report.
The results of a recount that took place last week in a Sauk County Board race were overturned Monday.

After a second recount, District 19 challenger Doug Ament once again was declared the winner over incumbent Sauk County Supervisor Andrea Lombard. The district includes wards 5 and 7 in the city of Baraboo.

I just hope we can move forward and Im ready to get started, Ament said after being declared the victor for the second time Monday. I dont want to use any more of the taxpayers money. I hope the incumbent lets this be so I can be sworn in.

Prior to Monday mornings meeting of the Sauk County Board of Canvassers, Lombard objected to the handling of the recount process and challenged the validity of individual voters that were listed in a city poll book.

Ament was declared the winner by a 266-261 margin the night of the April 5 election. Lombard requested the first of two recounts, which took place Thursday.

Prior to the initial recount, canvass workers noticed a discrepancy between a city poll book and the number of ballots cast in a particular ward. There were 22 more ballots than registered voters.

In order to account for the discrepancy, canvass workers removed 22 ballots from the pool. That resulted in Lombard being declared the winner by a single vote Thursday.

But shortly thereafter, canvass workers learned that their poll book tally did not include voters from that ward who had registered to vote on Election Day. Following consultations with attorneys and the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, the Board of Canvassers opted to schedule a second recount that would once again include the 22 previously removed ballots.

Before that recount began Monday, Lombard raised objections to several poll book entries in which information  such as an address or signature  was not included for a particular voter. But following consultation with a GAB attorney, canvass workers determined the entries were valid, and that votes should not be randomly removed from the pool.

Although notification of Monday mornings recount was posted by the county, Lombard complained that she did not receive individual notification of the meeting, which she attended. She also said the quick turnaround did not leave her with enough time to obtain legal representation.

Monday mornings recount resulted in the exact same vote tally that was announced on election night.

Baraboo City Clerk-Finance Director Cheryl Giese said the discrepancy revealed prior to Thursdays initial recount was due to a clerical error by one of her poll workers.

Ament is slated to be sworn in along with fellow board members Tuesday during the Sauk County Boards organizational meeting. A resolution honoring Lombard for her years of service is also on the agenda.
North Carolina has a lot of Bruce Springsteen fans.

A lot of disappointed Springsteen fans, but proud nonetheless that their musical hero canceled a sold-out concert April 10 in Greensboro rather than pump revenue into a state that is practicing out-and-out discrimination against LGBT Americans. Ringo Starr has dropped a concert scheduled for June 18 in Raleigh for the same reason.

Yes, the religious zealots are at it again, masquerading their hatred in the name of religion, just like other generations used the Bible to justify slavery. This time theyre lining up against gays and lesbians, not blacks. They were wrong then, and theyre wrong now.

It all started when the city of Charlotte joined hundreds of cities across the nation in enacting a city ordinance prohibiting businesses from refusing to offer services to customers, just because they happened to be gay. Homophobes in the state Legislature, appalled at any sign of tolerance toward gays in the Tarheel State, rushed into action. Within hours, with no public hearing, they pushed through House Bill 2, which Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law the same night.

HB 2 bans all cities in North Carolina from enacting their own anti-discrimination measures. They must follow statewide standards, instead, which provide no protection for LGBT residents. Thats right. You can still be fired from your job in North Carolina, just because youre gay. And, of course, this is the legislative product of hypocritical conservatives who preach local control  until they dont like what local governments decide.

And if you make the mistake of traveling to North Carolina, be careful what bathroom you use, too. In a direct slap at transgender persons, HB 2 also requires that people may only use the public restroom of the sex marked on their birth certificate, based on the fear that transgendered men will suddenly be rushing into womens restrooms.

This is not only discriminatory, its also absurd for several reasons. One, theres no need for it. Theres never been a reported case of a transgendered person flashing his or her private parts in a public restroom. Two, its totally unenforceable, unless you assign a police officer to stand outside the door of every restroom, checking ID. And, seriously, how many people carry their birth certificate around with them all the time? But even then its a joke, because most states permit transgendered men or women to change both their name and sex on their birth certificate, reflecting their entirely new identity. Just ask Caitlyn Jenner.

Unfortunately, this hatewave is not limited to North Carolina. A similar, and even broader, bill, HB 1523, was signed into law by Phil Bryant, the governor of Mississippi. Other so-called religious freedom bills are pending in Missouri, South Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Theres no doubt that such laws eventually will be struck down by the courts. This is, after all, the United States of America, where the Constitution is still our guiding document. So what if some religious crazies believe that the Gospels, which theyve obviously never read, require them to deny equal rights to gay Americans? Theyre not only dead wrong  Jesus never says anything in the New Testament about homosexuality, but he does teach us to love and respect everybody, even those we may disagree with  they cant use their perverted reading of the Bible to trump the Constitution and practice discrimination against anybody for any reason.

Indeed, Rev. William Barber, head of North Carolinas NAACP and leader of the Moral Monday movement, has warned state leaders he will lead sit-in protests in the capitol unless legislators rescind HB 2 before April 21. HB 2 is the politics of Jesse Helms revisited, says Barber. Its not about bathrooms. Its about oppression.

But in the end, it may be business leaders, not religious leaders, who save the day. Threats from Coca-Cola and other companies to abandon Georgia convinced that states governor, Nathan Deal, to veto his states version of the bathroom bill. Now, more than 100 companies in North Carolina, including Google, Starbucks, Citibank, Hilton, Paypal and Wells-Fargo, have petitioned McCrory to rescind HB 2, or else they may leave the state or cancel plans to expand there. Their message is very sound and very simple: Discrimination is not only unconstitutional. Its not only immoral. Its bad for business.

Amen to that.
Its unfortunate those who value Wisconsins clean air and water no longer will have an opportunity to watch the video of a speech by Cathy Stepp, the person Gov. Scott Walker appointed to head the Department of Natural Resources.

He appointed her even though she had neither job experience nor formal education in the area of natural resources. In fact, she was a builder and developer who for years had fought all the pesky regulations protecting our air, water and wildlife. And, of course, she was a Walker supporter.

Stepps Feb. 5, 2015, speech to the Denison Best Practices Forum had been displayed on YouTube. Unfortunately, the video has since been taken down. Denison Consulting is a company she hired to reform the DNR. Hiring this company cant be cheap: Its clients include huge corporations such as 3M, Dow, DuPont and many more. It would be interesting to find out how much we taxpayers are spending to have such an illustrious company tell this novice how to run the DNR like a machine, as she put it.

In the video, she began by telling the audience she was challenged, but not by the complexities of the job. No, she said she was challenged by employees who thought their customers were the deer, butterflies, clean air and water. The last I checked, she said, they dont pay taxes, they dont pay our paychecks.

She must not have read the state guidelines of the DNRs responsibilities, which are to protect and enhance Wisconsins natural resources, including its air, land, water, forests, wildlife, fish and plants. Funny, those are the things DNR employees always have been charged to do. No wonder she was challenged.

She also told the audience she had a hard time with those employees who werent politically aligned with our administration. I guess she would. Those employees were under the impression that clean air and water are important and vital to all of us. Instead, she told the employees they had to support the Walker administration and further his policies; policies that cater to those who fill his campaign coffers. Wildlife, clean air and water dont have any money to donate, so their protection is apparently of no interest to the governor and his enablers.

Many DNR employees have a problem with that. They see a dangerous shift from a science-based resource protection agency to one dominated by politics and special interests, wrote Maggie Ginsberg-Schutz in the Jan. 3, 2014 issue of Milwaukee Magazine.

Stepp proved she represents those special interests when she joked about being called private-sector Cathy. She said as a builder and developer, she had faced barricades and hurdles when running her business. You know, regulations that wouldnt let developers fill in precious wetlands to build condos, or allow toxic runoff to flow into our lakes and streams. Those kinds of hurdles.

She received a lot of applause from an audience that represented people whose main motivation is profit over preservation of our most valuable natural resources. She told them the DNR used to be a customer service agency that regulated the customers, but she was working hard to make it a permitting agency. Yes, she really said that.

Shes had a lot of help from the governor and the Republican majority in the Legislature to further that goal. Theyve passed bills that allow companies to do their own permitting and allow pollution of our water, calling it an inevitable result. Wouldnt want the DNR to interfere with their plans to do whatever they want. That includes gigantic livestock operations that routinely discharge tons of manure into our ground water and frac-sand and other mining operations that devastate large areas of pristine wilderness for the profit of a very few, often out-of-state corporations  one of which just happened to give $700,000 to Republican campaigns.

She told her audience she had to figure out ways that the employees would fit in like cogs in a machine. I hate to tell her, but those are intelligent, caring and well-educated human beings she was talking about, not unthinking chunks of metal.

But the most astounding aspect of her entire speech was that she never once brought up conservation or the value of our natural resources. She mentioned hunting, fishing, ATVs and snowmobiles, but not a word about the importance of keeping the water safe to drink or the air safe to breathe. Kind of easy to see where her values lie.

I wonder where she thinks people will be able to fish if there are bigger and more devastating manure spills like the one that recently killed the fish in a two-mile stretch of a Grant County trout stream. Or if the DNR continues to sell off land that has long been available for hunters and fishermen.

Its time to tell the governor the DNR exists to preserve, not destroy, Wisconsins most precious assets.
Information is taken from the records of the Portage Police Department and does not represent a comprehensive list of police activity. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Between 6:23 a.m. Friday and 6:53 a.m. Monday police responded to 110 calls.

South Highway 16: Police on Friday at 7:20 a.m. stopped Megan A. Schmidt, 28, of Montello, who was cited for operating a vehicle after revocation as a third offense and driving without proof on insurance. The vehicle was towed.

Wal-Mart: Police on Friday at 10:14 a.m. responded to a reported theft. Alexander Kleist, 20, of Poynette, was issued a citation for shoplifting $46.99 worth of fishing equipment.

West Wisconsin Street: Police on Friday at 12:17 p.m. responded to a disturbance where a 17-year-old Portage male was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.

Cemetery Road: Police on Saturday at 3:33 a.m. approached a suspicious vehicle at a residence, where Tanya Krueger, 32, of Portage, was arrested on a charge of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated as a third offense.

East Wisconsin Street and Washington Street: Police on Saturday at 4:14 a.m. stopped a vehicle for erratic driving and not having a front license plate. Shawny Grande, 25, of Columbus, was arrested and cited for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated as a first offense and driving with an open container.

Central Portage: Police on Saturday at 12:34 p.m. responded to a domestic disturbance, where a 25-year-old Portage woman was arrested on a bond violation, later registering a PBT of 0.28, and also cited for domestic battery.

Central Portage: Police on Saturday at 6 p.m. responded to a domestic disturbance where an 18-year-old Portage male was arrested and charged with domestic disorderly conduct, false imprisonment, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. A 19-year-old Portage man was also issued a misdemeanor citation for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Ridge Motor Inn: Police on Sunday at 6:12 p.m. responded to a reported domestic incident in which a 34-year-old Portage man was arrested and charged with domestic battery, disorderly conduct, criminal damage to property and felony intimidation of a victim.
Just before 2 a.m. Saturday the Sauk County Dispatch Center received a call that a vehicle had entered Lake Delton near the boat launch at the intersection of East Adams Sreet and Canyon Road.

Village of Lake Delton Police Chief Dan Hardman said the vehicles On Star system automatically sent an alert to emergency personnel, who responded to the scene.

Initially the driver and passenger indicated they were trapped in the vehicle and it was almost fully submerged. When members of the Lake Delton Police Department, Delton Fire Department and Dells-Delton EMS arrived, however, they discovered the two occupants had been able to exit the vehicle before the vehicle submerged.

Hardman said when officers asked the person who was not driving how many people were in the car he responded probably two more. Upon hearing this, a Lake Delton police officer started to take off his gun belt to enter the lake. When the passenger was asked the same question again he changed his answer to just the two of us.

As the passenger was loaded onto an ambulance, he said, I think our friend was with us. At that point emergency personnel called the Dive Team. While waiting, the Delton Fire Department used a pipe pole to put a hole through the front window of the submerged car and along with equipment from Platts towing company partially pulled the car out of the lake.

Emergency personnel then discovered there was nobody else in the car. Hardman said the passenger then said now that I think about it, it was just us two. Officials quickly then called off the Dive Team.

Dells-Delton EMS personnel treated and medically released both occupants on the scene for exposure to cold water. The driver, 29-year-old Heather Reed of Winona, Minnesota, was arrested for OWI after breathalyzer tests indicated she was more than twice the legal alcohol limit and she was booked into the Sauk County Jail.

The passenger, described as Reed's boyfriend, who police think was also intoxicated, was taken to his hotel in Lake Delton by police.
USDA announces $1 billion debt relief for 36,000 farmers

The USDA announced a program to provide $1.3B in debt relief for about 36,000 farmers who have fallen behind on loan payments or face foreclosure.
Professor Vishnu Padayachee inducted into the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars

Award honours former university staff who gained marked distinction elsewhere in their fields.

Distinguished Professor Vishnu Padayachee has been inducted into the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars on 11 April 2016.

Padayachee was one of 16 scholars who were awarded a Lifetime Fellowship of the society by the University, where served as a visiting professor, through a United States-South Africa Leadership fellowship, at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in 1986.

The Society of Scholars was created on the recommendation of then president Milton S. Eisenhower and approved by the university board of trustees on May 1, 1967. The society inducts a limited number of former postdoctoral fellows, postdoctoral degree recipients, house staff and junior or visiting faculty who have served at least a year at Johns Hopkins and thereafter gained marked distinction elsewhere in their fields of physical, biological, medical, social or engineering sciences or in the humanities and for whom at least five years have elapsed since their last Johns Hopkins affiliation.

Padayachee is a Distinguished Professor and holds the Derek Schrier and Cecily Cameron Chair in Development Economics in the School of Economic and Business Sciences at Wits. He is also a professor emeritus in the School of Built Environment and Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

In 1996, President Nelson Mandela appointed him to the board of directors of the South African Reserve Bank on which he served for nearly 12 years, completing his third term as a nonexecutive director in September 2007. Although trained in Keynesian macroeconomics, his research and graduate teaching fall within the confluence and traditions of political economy, economic history, and development studies.

In his acceptance speech, Padayachee said he was honoured by the award, and that he was grateful to many of his colleagues and students for assisting him through his successful career.

They taught me mostly through their example so much about the real business and the purpose of academic endeavour: the freedom to think openly and critically, about the excitement of graduate teaching, about the value of elegant writing, about the fuzzy warmth generated by good research and publishing in top journals, about aiming ever higher and higher, about never settling for an average career, he said.

I learnt a lot too both academically and socially from my graduate students, many from my own continent, whom circumstances had precluded me from meeting before.
Response from the Senior Executive Team to education students

Wits management commits to working with student representatives to resolve funding issues.

The Senior Executive Team (SET) has deliberated on the issues raised by students from the Wits Education Campus and remains committed to working with student representatives in order to resolve these matters.

Student funding

The University is committed to the principle of access to quality, free higher education for those who cannot afford it and is working with various structures within the University as well as with external stakeholders including the public and private sectors, the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and others to develop an alternative model to fund higher education.

About 20 700 of Wits 33 000 students received financial aid, scholarships or bursaries in 2015. Of the 20 700, approximately 3 820 were education students, representing 19% of the students who received funding.

In 2016, thus far approximately 8 888 students received funding of which 2 599 were education students, representing 29.2% of the total students who were allocated funding at Wits.

Approximately 499 students from the Wits School of Education require funding which amounts to about R40 million. About 235 students may qualify for NSFAS funding worth approximately R15 million, leaving a shortfall of R25 million.

Wits has written to the education departments of both Gauteng and Limpopo requesting support. We have not yet received favourable responses from these structures. The University will continue to follow up with officials.

The University has managed to raise approximately R500 000 from external donors to assist with undergraduate student fees this year. These funds have already been allocated. We have also managed to raise additional funds from a SETA for postgraduate students.

No student will be deregistered for not making the necessary tuition fee payments. However, we encourage students to enter into payment plans with the University in the interim so that interest does not accrue on their outstanding balances. We will also allow all Wits students to pay off their debt interest-free until the end of November 2016 provided that students do not default on their payment plans.

This does not have any bearing on academic exclusions or the Universitys admission or readmission procedures which are in place to ensure that Wits quality education standards remain intact.

Funza Lushaka Bursary Programme

The Funza Lushaka scheme is a merit-based programme funded by the Department of Basic Education (DBE). In 2015, 51 000 applications were received for about 4 000 bursaries nationally. The Funza Lushaka bursary programme is allocated on merit to students studying towards a Bachelors of Education (BEd) degree or a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). It is not a financial aid programme. The programme aims to address critical teacher shortages in specified subject areas and school phases.

Selection Process

A Funza Lushaka selection meeting was held at Wits on 22 March 2016. The selection committee consisted of officials from the DBE, the provincial department of education and Wits representatives. The selection of bursary holders was undertaken in accordance with the criteria contained in an approved policy. The results of the Funza Lushaka selection process have not yet been officially released although we are aware that some preliminary lists were posted on the campus. The Funza Lushaka coordinator at Wits will inform students of the outcome of the selections once this process is completed. It is envisaged that students will be informed of the outcome before the end of April 2016.

A Funza Lushaka representative from the DBE is in attendance today to answer any key questions around the programme.

Accommodation

The issue of accommodation is a national challenge and remains a difficult matter for an urban university like Wits. We have tried to accommodate more students over the years through developments like the Wits Junction and Noswal Hall, but building residences is expensive and is not easily funded. We have 6 600 beds which accommodate about 19% of the student population. Education students occupy about 19% of the available beds, which is broadly in line with their proportion to the student body.

The University will not evict education students staying in residences who are still awaiting the outcome of their bursary status.

The Student Affairs Office has had a presence on the Education Campus last week. All needy students who require emergency, temporary accommodation are requested to speak directly to the Dean of Students who will consider submissions on a case by case basis.

Standard marking

All academics at Wits subscribe to the Senate Standing Orders on Assessment. The Dean of the Faculty of Humanities will work with the Head of the School of Education to ensure that academics in the School adhere to all University policies and procedures. This will be undertaken by the end of May 2016 and any particular complaints made in this regard should be raised with the Dean of the Faculty directly.

Financial aid and student support services

The establishment of satellite financial aid and student support offices in Parktown will be a significant additional cost to the University in a year in which budgets are severely constrained. However, we commit to launching such facilities in Parktown by 31 October 2016.

Low-cost food options

The University is investigating cheaper food options for students on the Parktown campuses. We will commence with a survey of the type of food that students favour and the price range that they can afford. Depending on the outcome of the survey, additional service providers could start operating on the campus as from 1 August 2016.

Budget meals are available at the Highfield Dining Halls from 09:00 to 10:30 and from 15:00 to 16:00 on weekdays. Prices are R22 and R24 respectively. Details are available from the Catering Liaison Officer at the dining halls.

We have also requested Theos to offer low cost options including a hot meal at a favourable price. Student Affairs will also be providing a warm meal for lunch for students who are financially constrained. This will roll out from the 3rd of May 2016.

Safety and security

The recent disruptions and unlawful activities have left Wits with no choice but to once again redirect resources away from where they are needed most  accommodation, food and support for needy students. We can only remove security once we can guarantee that University activities will continue without disruption and when we can ensure the safety and security of staff and students.

The SET assesses situations daily and will determine what level of security is required. The University allows for lawful protest, provided that it does not infringe on the rights of others to learn and work. If there is a breach of the Universitys policies and procedures, if University activities are disrupted or if the court interdict is in any way violated, the University will act as appropriate against those individuals.

Student governance

The University has a governance structure in place and the Education Students Council is thus required to work within this framework, through the Students Representative Council and the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs, as required.

Engagement

The SET remains committed to working through the details of these matters via the Office of the Dean of Students.

Thank you

Senior Executive Team

18 April 2016
W&M alumni on the front lines of the battle against Zika

John Dye '92 The W&M alumnus serves as the chief of viral immunology for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Courtesy photo

Zika Forest Dye at the Zika Forest in Uganda, where the virus originated. Courtesy photo Photo - of - Hide Caption

The following story originally appeared in the spring 2016 issue of the W&M Alumni Magazine - Ed.

In a closing image from the recent television documentary Fighting Pandemics, Dr. John Dye 92 stands with arms crossed, his face obscured behind the mask of a full-body biosafety level 4 protective suit. He is dressed for battle, ready to take on mans most dangerous and elusive enemy  the virus.

Fighting Pandemics, the first episode in National Geographic Channels Breakthrough series, focused on the innovative work of Dye and other scientists in fighting the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The chief of viral immunology for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Md., Dye has led a team developing experimental drug treatments for Ebola.

Premiering on Nov. 1, 2015, the documentary ended with a warning from Dye: If we arent able to catch these viruses early, chances are theyre going to outrun any ability we have to respond.

Just 10 days later, Brazil declared a national public health emergency, following reports of an unusual spike in cases of microcephaly, a birth defect causing small head size in babies and consequent developmental issues. Heartbreaking photos began to emerge of infants stricken with the condition.

Officials suspected a link between microcephaly and the Zika virus, which was first reported in Brazil in March 2015 and has spread rapidly throughout Latin America, transmitted primarily by infected mosquitoes. On Feb. 1 of this year, the World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in response to the Zika pandemic.

Dye has been called into battle once again, along with thousands of other scientists and public health officials worldwide. With the Zika virus, its all hands on deck, says Dr. Christina Nelson 00 of the Centers for Disease Control, another W&M graduate playing a critical role in combating Zika. Nelson serves as a medical officer for the CDCs Division of Vector-Borne Diseases in Fort Collins, Colo. She recently returned from fieldwork in Colombia, where more than 6,000 pregnant women had been diagnosed with Zika as of the end of February.

Because of the lack of confirmed evidence linking the virus and neurological disorders such as microcephaly, a quick and coordinated response by the global health community is especially urgent. There werent a lot of people working on Zika before  it was pretty much an orphan disease, Dye says. What we dont know far outweighs what we do know.

Deep in the Zika forest



Although Zika is new to the Western Hemisphere, the virus was already on Dyes radar. In connection with his work on Ebola, he has been making semiannual trips to Uganda, where Zika was first identified in a rhesus monkey in 1947. The virus is named for its place of discovery, Ugandas Zika Forest. In an increasingly common spillover event, the virus jumped from animal to human hosts soon afterward.

This part of Africa is a petri dish for all sorts of biological agents, Dye says. So in our work over the last five years, weve been discussing with our Ugandan collaborators what might be the next emerging global infectious disease. And Zika made our list.

We actually travel to the Zika Forest for collections. Two years ago, we decided to start to collect from Zika patients to try to understand the immune response in those people who were infected, Dye says. Only about one in five people who are infected have any clinical signs at all. The symptoms are rather mild  a rash, flulike symptoms, lethargy. But we were interested in why just 20 percent were showing signs of the disease and others were not.

As Dye explains, he and his Ugandan counterparts were initially trying to better understand other insect-borne viruses (known as arboviruses) endemic to Africa with more serious symptoms, such as dengue fever and chikungunya. Prior to its jump from Africa, Zika had not been known to be associated with neurological conditions such as microcephaly.

Spreading slowly across Africa and Asia, Zika eventually made its way to the Pacific Islands, where outbreaks were reported in Polynesia in 2013 and 2014. Public health officials speculate that the virus may have traveled along with Polynesian canoe racers to Rio de Janeiro, introducing Zika to Brazil. Because Latin Americans had no previous exposure and therefore no built-in immune response, the disease spread quickly.

Along with microcephaly, Zika has now been linked to eye damage in babies, as well as a rare condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can cause paralysis in adults. Some scientists suggest that children of mothers infected during pregnancy may be at higher risk for mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism later in life.

Its the $64,000 question, or million-dollar question, Dye says. Developing the causative link in a human population is a very difficult task, especially in an outbreak population where theyre constantly being barraged by different viruses. Everything now is anecdotal, retrospectively looking at the epidemiology.

Fear and uncertainty have led to numerous conspiracy theories  blaming such factors as genetically modified mosquitoes, larvicide and vaccines  all debunked by scientists. As Dr. Bruce Aylward of the WHO recently told the New York Times, At this time, the virus is considered guilty until proven innocent.

On the ground in Columbia

The response to a global pandemic such as Zika requires specialists on all fronts, from virology to entomology. Armed with both a medical degree and masters in public health, the CDCs Christina Nelson combines clinical and public health roles. She also has valuable international experience, having spent 18 months in Peru on an NIH fellowship studying encephalitis. (She gives a special shout-out to William & Mary biology professors Sharon Broadwater and Eric Bradley for cultivating her love of science.)

Until the Zika outbreak, Nelson had primarily focused on bacterial diseases spread by vectors such as ticks and fleas, including Lyme disease and more rare, potentially deadly illnesses like plague and tularemia. Her work involves a combination of surveillance, epidemiological research, prevention efforts and education, especially for fellow physicians.

The other branch here at Fort Collins is the arbovirus division  we work closely together, she says. When the Zika virus outbreak started, I began helping them respond to inquiries. They were putting a five-person team together to go to Colombia, and because Id been involved and I speak Spanish, they asked me to be part of it.

Our teams main role was to collaborate with Instituto Nacional de Salud, or INS, and the ministry of health in Bogota to build laboratory capacity, increase surveillance and help with prevention on the ground, Nelson says. Weve put the entomologists there in touch with CDC experts on mosquito control. There are efforts underway to control the vector, but they expect the outbreak to continue to grow. So unfortunately, its raging on.

Because Zika was first confirmed in Colombia in October, five months after the first Brazilian confirmed case, few babies have yet been born to mothers infected with the virus. Part of our work was collaborating with the Colombians to set up enhanced surveillance of pregnant women who have been diagnosed with Zika, Nelson says.

One of the biggest things we dont know is at what trimester the infection poses the most risk. Thats part of what were looking into.

Should Americans expect to see Zika come to our shores? Its very difficult to predict, Nelson says, but we can use past experience with dengue and chikungunya, because in some ways they cause similar disease patterns. Based on that prior experience, there may be small outbreaks, most likely in Texas and Florida.

Although no cases of locally acquired Zika have yet been in the continental United States, more than a hundred Americans have acquired the virus from trips abroad, including a pregnant woman who gave birth to a baby with microcephaly. The CDC is also investigating several possible cases of Zika being acquired through sexual transmission.

The most important thing for most Americans is to be updated on travel advisories, Nelson says. They can go to the CDC website [cdc.gov] to find the list of countries that have active Zika transmission. (CDC is advising pregnant women not to attend the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this summer and to postpone travel to areas with Zika.)

In a maximum containment laboratory

Like Christina Nelson, John Dye has gone beyond his primary mission  in his case, protecting members of the U.S. armed services from biological threats  to focus on Zika. The virus is a biosafety level 2 agent, so unlike his work with Ebola, he is not required to suit up in protective gear.

What my lab is doing is supporting other U.S. government agencies such as CDC and NIH in the response against this particular outbreak, Dye says. So weve been focusing on a couple of fronts here, leveraging efforts that we have ongoing in Uganda. The first is the basic virology of the Zika virus  how the virus infects different cell types, both in mosquitoes and in humans. The second is the development of animal models to test potential vaccines and therapeutics that are developed either here at USAMRIID or elsewhere.

At the end of the day, I know that my job is to help protect the service member, but I hope what we do goes forward to help all of humankind, Dye says. He noted that all the therapeutics used to treat Ebola in West Africa were developed or assessed at USAMRIID, and that he and his colleagues trained physicians from around the world in how to safely work with Ebola patients.

Dyes laboratory at Fort Detrick operates under continuous negative airflow, keeping the contaminants within contained from the outside world. Its one of the only places in the world where you can work with some of these deadly pathogens, he says. So you have to be a little bit adventurous, but you have to be extremely safe and aware. Im not afraid of it  otherwise it would paralyze you. But you have to respect it. And thats what I teach.

With other viruses lurking in the forest, Dye will no doubt be called on to don his armor once again after Zika has been contained. I think were going to need to be prepared more and more for emerging infectious diseases, he says. The industrialization of previously untouched resources in Africa spreads new fauna into new ecosystems, and suddenly you have a spillover event. Then with globalization, the spread across continents is much, much easier.

He remains confident that humans can eventually outwit Zika and whatever virus emerges next. With Ebola, it was amazing how quickly people came together and how divisional lines were just obliterated. I think what well see from the Zika outbreak is how the whole world coming together can actually solve a problem.




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UK capable of producing Westinghouse SMR vessel

18 April 2016

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The UK has the capabilities to produce the reactor pressure vessel for Westinghouse's small modular reactor (SMR) design, according to an independent assessment by the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC).

Westinghouse announced in early March that a manufacturing study to investigate the fabrication of reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) for its SMR in the UK would be carried out through a collaboration with the NAMRC. The RPV is "one of the largest and most demanding parts of any reactor", they said.

A cutaway of the SMR vessel

(Image: Westinghouse)

On 15 April, Westinghouse and NAMRC announced that the study had concluded that Westinghouse's use of UK advanced manufacturing techniques "offers a potential 50% reduction in delivery lead times and offers substantial cost savings to SMR manufacturing".

Westinghouse senior vice president for new plants and major projects Jeff Benjamin said, "The ability to source locally the steel, forge, machine and then assemble all of the Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor RPV is a significant finding and builds on our unique offering to the UK government." He added, "We are confident that our innovative approach and ability to localize our supply chain and manufacturing in the UK, further demonstrates our commitment to developing SMR technology in the UK."

Westinghouse noted, "The UK's strong nuclear supply chain, as well as Westinghouse's commitment to SMR technology, would promote economic growth and job creation in the UK's nuclear industry."

The NAMRC is a collaboration of academic and industrial partners from across the civil nuclear manufacturing supply chain, and was established in 2012 with the mission of helping UK manufacturers win work at home and worldwide.

NAMRC CEO Mike Tynan said, "The results of this manufacturing study demonstrate the important role that Nuclear AMRC can play in identifying efficiencies within the advanced manufacturing process to significantly reduce capital costs and drive project savings, whilst also highlighting key opportunities for the UK supply chain, which can only benefit the UK economy."

Westinghouse said the study is "an important part" of its SMR offer to the UK government. Last October, Westinghouse presented a "proposal to partner" in phase two of a study being carried out by the UK government into the nation's potential use of SMRs. Phase one - an SMR feasibility study commissioned by the government and carried out by the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory - was published in December 2014.

In January, Westinghouse said its Springfields nuclear fuel fabrication facility in the UK had "reached the requirements necessary" for manufacturing fuel assemblies for its SMR. The company said the Springfields plant achieved this "crucial milestone" following a "readiness assessment" based upon fabrication data for two proprietary SMR fuel assemblies produced at its fuel fabrication plant in Columbia, South Carolina, USA.

The Westinghouse SMR is a 225 MWe integral pressurized water reactor design with all primary components located inside the reactor vessel and utilizes the passive safety functionality developed for the company's AP1000 reactor, currently being built at sites in China and the USA. The SMR design's reliance on existing technology and the proven licensing basis should likely reduce development time and licensing risk for the reactor.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
Russia, Jordan to cooperate on nuclear regulation

18 April 2016

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Russia's nuclear regulator and Jordan's Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission (EMRC) recently signed an agreement to cooperate in the field of nuclear and radiation safety regulation.

The agreement was signed through correspondence, with EMRC chairman Farouq Al-Hyari signing the document in Amman on 30 March and Alexey Aleshin - chairman of Russia's Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervision Service (Rostechnadzor) - signing it in Moscow on 6 April.

Rostechnadzor said on 7 April that, under the five-year agreement, the two regulators will cooperate in the development of the legislative basis in the field of nuclear and radiation safety. They will also exchange experience in licensing activities as well as exchanging experience in oversight and control activities, including development and implementation of inspection programs.

EMRC and Rostechnadzor will also exchange experience in safety regulation in the management of used nuclear fuel and radioactive wastes, including their transportation and safe storage. They will also share their experience in the supervision of accounting and control of nuclear materials, radioactive substances and radioactive waste, as well as the supervision of physical protection of nuclear installations, radioactive sources, storage facilities, nuclear materials and radioactive substances.

Russia and Jordan signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in nuclear energy in May 2009. The agreement included cooperation in the design and construction of commercial nuclear power plants and research reactors, as well as water desalination plants. It also covered the development of uranium deposits and nuclear fuel cycle facilities, although under the agreement, Russia would supply Jordan with nuclear fuel, which would be returned to Russia once used.

Russia was selected in October 2013 as the preferred bidder to supply Jordan with its first nuclear power plant. The Jordan Atomic Energy Commission said then that the initial reactor of the two-unit plant was expected to start operating in 2020.

In March 2015, Russia and Jordan signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the construction and operation of the Middle Eastern country's first nuclear power plant. The document envisages construction of two 1000 MWe VVER units in Az-Zarqa, in the central region of Jordan. The document also envisages setting up a project company that will be the customer, operator and owner of the plant, as well as the owner of the electric power it generates.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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A young man wanted to make a point about racism in the United States, but his plan backfired when he was exposed for a liar by police. 20-year-old Khalil Cavil of Texas was working at the Saltgrass Steak House in Odessa when he claimed he was discriminated against because of his Muslim name. Cavil took
The women

By: Chan Yuan

(Scroll down for video) Nine woman went onto the streets of Indonesia, to protest a new building project.

Many people gathered to watch the protesters who placed their feet in wooden boxes and had cement poured over them.

The women of Jakarta, are protesting the cityas plans to build a new cement factory in the area.

The woman geared the protest toward the Semen Indonesia, formerly known as Semen Gresik, which is the largest cement producing company in the country.

The company is owned by the government of Java.

The nine women who took part in the protest said that they will not leave the area until they meet President Joko Widodo, and their concerns are heard.
Wrexham Motorcyclist Seriously Injured Following Four Vehicle Collision

This article is old - Published: Monday, Apr 18th, 2016

A motorcyclist from Wrexham has been left with life threatening injuries following a multiple vehicle collision yesterday afternoon.

North Wales Police have today issued an appeal for witnesses following the collision, which took place at around 1:50pm outside the Siabod Cafe on the A5 at Capel Curig yesterday afternoon.

The collision involved four vehicles  two cars, a van and a motorcycle.

As a result of the collision the motorcyclist, a man in his 50s and from the Wrexham area, was airlifted to hospital in Stoke with serious life threatening injuries.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the collisions and anybody with information is asked to contact officers at the Roads Policing Unit on 101, or via the live web chat.

Anybody with information regarding the collision should contact North Wales Police on 101 quoting reference number U054960.
Wrexhams Food Bank Usage Down  However Regional Usage Remains At Record Levels

This article is old - Published: Monday, Apr 18th, 2016

Food bank usage across Wales remains at record levels  with more than 4700 emergency food packages handed out in Wrexham alone during the last financial year.

Latest figures by the Trussell Trust show that Welsh food bank usage was at 85,656 packages for the three day emergency food supplies compared to 85,875 last year.

Of this number, 31,267 went to children. The Trussell Trust note the figures is a measure of volume rather than unique users and on average, people needed two food bank referrals in the last year.

In Wrexham 4,734 emergency food packages were given out, with 3,005 given to adults and 1,738 given to children.

Wrexhams figures are down slightly on the 2014/15 financial year, which saw 5,600 emergency food packages handed out. However the countys figures are the second highest in north Wales  with only Flintshire higher, issuing 5,766 emergency food packages in 2015/16.

Tony Graham, Wales Manager for The Trussell Trust said: 85,000 three day food supplies given out in Wales is 85,000 too many. Hunger is clearly an issue that continues to have a real impact on people in this nation, and thats why were calling on politicians, the voluntary sector, businesses and communities to work together to tackle the issue.

Our new partnership with one local authority to roll out additional services like money advice and budget cookery courses to food banks in their area shows that this can be done, and it would be great to see this replicated in the other 21 local authority areas of Wales. 

As readers will be aware last week Wrexham.com questioned Leader of the Welsh Labour Party, Carwyn Jones on various topics including on the extent of food bank usage across Wales and asked him if there was anything more the Welsh Government could do to intervene as it was 2016 and such things were still a necessity in society.

Speaking about food bank usage in his constituency, Bridgend, Mr Jones stated that there are residents refusing rice and pasta because they cannot afford to cook it, that is how difficult it is.

He added: Lesley Griffiths has done fantastic work in looking at how do we alleviate poverty. We have schemes like Communities First which have worked well for the past few years. We have other anti poverty schemes like Flying Start  but there is a limit to what we can do because as people have their benefits hammered by the UK government it affects their income.

There are people working hard who are now losing their tax credits this month, now they are not the people who caused the financial crash in 2007. They are hard working people looking after their families and its shocking to see the UK government target them and reduce their incomes.

Labour Leader Carwyn Jones continued: The key to tackling poverty is to up skill people and remove the hurdles in getting people back to work. This is why we are pledging to provide 30 hours of free childcare for working parents, 48 weeks of the year for 3-4 year olds, because we know once children are past the very early years parents start to look at wanting to go back into work.

Finding childcare at all or finding affordable childcare is a challenge. What this will do is make sure childcare is available for all 3-4 year olds to give families breathing space to find a job and then of course get back to work and later on perhaps later on to be able to afford childcare.

Bridging that gap is hugely important and that helps remove the hurdle that many people have to clamber over to get back into work and back to lift themselves out of poverty.
Stephen Parker, Bertolt Brecht. A Literary Life, London, New York, 2014.

There will undoubtedly be a flurry of magazine articles and theatre productions this year to mark 60 years since the death in August 1956 of the extraordinary German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956). The social analysis undertaken by Brecht, the strengths and weaknesses of his work and his theoretical writings on the theatre remain relevant, not least because his life was bound up with questions that remain unresolved to this day.

Brecht was one of the outstanding playwrights of the 20th century, but his body of work includes more than simply his plays. Although he only lived to the age of 58, he also achieved a great deal as a theoretician of drama, lyricist, essayist and prose author (even if his novels remained for the most part uncompleted). His meditations on theatre practice, expressed in Messingkauf Dialogues and A Short Organum for the Theatre, for example, are still authoritative for many active in theatre, even if one does not agree with all of Brechts conceptions.

Stephen Parkers biography, Bertolt Brecht. A Literary Life, is an excellent introduction to this author and his work, and its planned translation into German is welcome news. Parker, a German literature specialist at the University of Manchester, whom we were able to interview at some length, has thoroughly studied critical studies of Brechts works and life, Brechts own works and a mass of biographical material. Parker also based his research on archive material first made available after the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (Stalinist East Germany), where Brecht lived from 1949 until his death, that has not yet been published.

The biography begins with a vivid portrait of Brechts childhood and youth, and his family life in Augsburg, in southern Germany. Parker describes the political turmoil of the years before and after the First World War and the conflict between the left-wing Spartacist movement (the nucleus of the future Communist Party), led by Rosa Luxemburg (murdered in 1919), and the reactionary Freikorps mercenariesa period which politicised the young poet along with many others of his generation. Brechts early passion for the theatre, together with his instinct for its shortcomings and limitations in the hands of the bourgeoisie, led to an indomitable desire on his part for change.

Parker deals in detail with Brechts frail physical constitution, his susceptibility to sickness from childhood and his development into an extremely sensitive young man. The biographer seeks to explain, perhaps a little reductively, Brechts vacillation between morbidity and tremendous vitality. This latter condition led, not least of all, to his passion for women. They not only inspired him to write wonderful love poems; he was also able to win them as significant and devoted collaborators. Parker describes these entanglements in a genuinely sober and objective manner.

Brechts fascination with figures such as Baal (from his early play by the same name), who recklessly enjoy life only to leaves a large number of victims in their path, resulted in part from Brechts precarious health, the early emerging symptoms of cardiac weakness and painful kidney disease, which eventually led to his early death.

Many of the facts that Parker cites are already known in the broad spectrum of Brecht literature. In particular, the two-volume biography by Werner Mittenzwei and Werner Hechts extensive Brecht chronicle (both unavailable in English), contain numerous details about Brechts life and work. Parker, however, succeeds in presenting Brechts personality and work in a fresh light and brings the author and his work closer to a contemporary audience.

Parkers biography is a valuable work. It is honest and meticulous. Moreover, the author is generally sympathetic to Brechts socialist aspirations. After a number of right-wing smear jobs, such as John Fuegis The Life and Lies of Bertolt Brecht (the review of which in the Independent, for example, began: That Bertold [sic] Brecht was a rat has been known for years ), the present volume is a pleasing change. Parkers book is enjoyable to read and takes up fascinating questions of 20th century culture.

While we welcome the biography, precisely because we take Parkers efforts seriously it is necessary to express our differences on a number of key political and historical questions. A clear understanding of the consequences of the emergence of Stalinism in the Soviet Union, the Stalinisation of the German Communist Party and the rise of fascism, representing the historic defeat of the German working classis crucial and necessary to comprehend the trajectory of Brecht and many other intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century.

In essence, the issues boil down to these: was Brechts orientation and adaptation to Stalinism in the 1920s, 1930s and beyond a correct perspective, or at least the only realistic one? Was it more or less inevitable given the difficult circumstances of the period? And what was the essence of Brechts anti-fascism?

Like many of his contemporaries, Brecht was politicised by the First World War, which he initially glorifiedas a teenagerin patriotic poems. Based rather more on instinct than a worked out understanding of society, Brecht lined up with the left-wing Spartacist tendency in the convulsions of 1918-19. In the years immediately after World War I, however, he concentrated more on his private concerns and artistic career.

Parker exhibits weaknesses and historical inexactitude in some passages dealing with political conditions in the Weimar Republic and the relationship of Brecht and other intellectuals to the Communist Party. As a rule, he uncritically adopts Brechts own political judgments and justifications for the development of the German Communist Party (KPD) and the USSR, from the late 1920s onward.

For example, Parker declares (p. 274) that there was no possibility that the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the KPD could have united against the Nazi threat. The reason, according to Parker, was the unwillingness of the left to recognise that their voters in the working class had voted for Hitlers party (NSDAP). The lefts fetishising of the working class and also the lower middle class allegedly drastically impaired its ability to evaluate the power and attraction of fascism.

In his conversation with the WSWS, Parker reaffirmed his view that Brecht could not have followed any course other than critical, at times highly critical, support for the KPD and Stalinism because of the unfavourable circumstances.

In the first place, the circumstances were increasingly unfavourable because of the defeats brought about by Stalinist policies on a global scale (in Germany in 1923, in Britain, in China and elsewhere). Each defeat strengthened the forces of reaction and further demoralised socialist-oriented workers.

In fact, there was an alternative. The writings of Leon Trotsky, both his political and cultural analyses, were read by Brecht and those around him, as Trotskys supporters in the Left Opposition fought tenaciously for a hearing in the working class and amongst intellectuals.

In Germany in particular, a resolute statement of agreement with Trotskys policies by well-known figures such as Brecht could have had significant results. The ability of Stalinism to impose its reactionary policies on the German working class was by no means preordained.

Everything depended on uniting the organised workers against the fascist danger and arming them with an understanding of the situation and with principled socialist policies.

The SPD, the KPD and the unions had millions of members. As late as November 1932, the number of parliamentary seats held by the SPD and the KPD still exceeded the Nazis total. The disastrous course of the KPDwhich demagogically and ultimatistically termed the SPD and its supporters social fascistsand the subsequent victory of the Nazis had nothing to do with a fetishisation of the working class by the left intellectuals. It was first and foremost the result of Stalinist policy dictated from Moscow.

There was nothing realistic about Brecht or anyone else remaining part of the Stalinist orbit. The series of disasters organised by the Communist International and the various Stalinist parties in the late 1920s and into the 1930s, including, above all, the victory of Hitler, enormously weakened the international working class and the position of the Soviet Union itself. The ultimate catastrophe of another imperialist war, which cost the lives of 30 million Soviet citizens, and of the Holocaust was only made possible by the Stalin bureaucracys nationalist and counter-revolutionary policies.

The support among intellectuals for the Stalinist regime did not simply result from a misunderstanding or a lack of knowledge. Many left-leaning middle class artistseven some who recognised the Stalin regimes immense crimesfelt more at home, by and large, with the bureaucracy and all its resources than they did with Trotsky, with his confidence in the working class and the program of world socialist revolution.

Brechts indefensible arguments about Stalins realism or the supposed necessary evil that the Soviet bureaucracy represented were repeated by dozens of other respected poets, painters, novelists and filmmakers. Brecht knew the Moscow Trials were frame-ups, but largely kept his mouth shut.

At least on one occasion, however, Brecht actually justified the trials. Parker cites a letter written to an unnamed recipient, written by Brecht after the third show trial, which was first published in 1993. Brecht wrote: To adopt an attitude in opposition to the government of the Union, which is staging these trials, would be quite wrongsince this would automatically, and in no time at all, be transformed into an attitude of opposition to the Russian proletariat, which stands under threat from global Fascism, and to the process of the construction of Russian socialism. Other intellectuals did the same, or worse, signing petitions hailing the murderous show trials.

As Trotsky explained in Art and Politics in Our Epoch (1938), capitalism had radicalised the artistslike Brecht and many othersbut Stalinism represented a formidable snare. An entire generation of the leftist intelligentsia had turned its eyes to the Soviet Union, Trotsky argued, and had bound its lot, in varying degrees, to a victorious revolution, if not to a revolutionary proletariat. Now, this is by no means one and the same thing. In the victorious revolution, he pointed out, there was not only the revolution, but there was also the new privileged layer that had raised itself on the shoulders of the revolution. In reality, the leftist intelligentsia has tried to change masters. What has it gained?

The point is not to demonise Brecht, to leave him pinned and wriggling on the wall. These were complex, objective problems of political and cultural life. Only a few artists passed the harsh test of that period. But Brechts adaptation to Stalinism had consequences, both for the general cultural and political situation and for his own work.

Parkers use of the term antifascist literature, with which the biographer labels Brechts work in the 1930s and during the war, does little to shed light on the works in question, nor does it correctly identify the political context. Again, Brecht failed to clearly identify the role of the Stalinist leadership in the defeats suffered by the working class, and held capitalism responsible for fascism and warbut then in a very abstract way. As a result, many of the characters in his antifascist literature resemble marionettes more than genuine figures anchored in history.

Without a doubt, features of the authors own precarious situation in exile and relations with the Stalinist bureaucracy are reflected, as Parker points out, in Brechts intriguing Galileo Galileiabove all the earlier version of this play, written while Brecht was in exile in Denmark. Brecht also wrote extraordinary poems during this time, setting out the playwrights problems and the character of the dark perioda period in which he, his family and his companions struggled morally and physically to survive.

Parker deals thoroughly with Brechts difficult relations with the Stalinist bureaucracy, including KPD emigrants in the Ulbricht Group, based in Moscow. But here again he misses the heart of the matter. He discusses the hostility towards Brecht from this quarter, especially from the defenders of Stalinist Socialist Realism, including Fritz Erpenbeck, Alfred Kurella and Georg Lukacs.

Brecht was well known to be an opponent of Socialist Realism, but his position was far removed from Trotskys principled opposition. Parker writes of Brechts efforts to contribute to socialist construction with his own brand of socialist realism. The problem is that Parker does not challenge Brechts adaptation to what was in fact the strangling of all artistic creativity in the Soviet bloc by the bureaucracy.

The Moscow people accused Brecht sweepingly of formalism and negativity. Indeed, while they included him in the editorial collective of the exile literary journal The Word, they published hardly anything by him, nor did they accept his suggestions. In the circle of the Ulbricht Group, the suspicion was raised repeatedly that Brecht was a Trotskyist like his friend, the actress Carola Neher, and her husband, Anatol Bekker, who both fell victim to Stalins terror.

Literary questions were, as Parker correctly states, with regard to the purges, questions of life and death. To a certain degree, this explains why Brechts statements about the purges and the Moscow Trials came to a halt, although he composed a few texts and poems (not published in his lifetime) in which he expressed his doubts.

A number of Brechts close friends and collaborators fell victim to the Stalinist terror. Indeed, Brecht tried cautiously to look into their fates. In several unpublished texts, which Parker quotes, he vacillates between justifications for the purges and his own skepticism.

Parker also deals with Brechts friendship with Walter Benjamin, a congenial critic and discussion partner of Brechts. The treatment of Benjamin offers a reservoir of interesting suggestions on questions of aesthetics. Brecht also discussed with Benjamin the role of Trotsky, whom they both evaluated in a contradictory way. Brecht held Trotsky to be the greatest writer of his time, while at the same time rejecting his political perspective.

Parkers chapters on the period following Brechts return to Europe from American exile after World War II and his life in East Berlin are also engrossing. He bases himself on archival material drawn from the Academy of Art. Parker describes the hostility of the Ulbricht bureaucracy in East Germany toward Brecht, and the tenuous position in which the playwright repeatedly found himself, despite all of his diplomatic efforts.

Brecht played an important role in the cultural-political discussions of artists and intellectuals in the early GDR, and many of the other artists and intellectuals who had returned to Germany after the collapse of the Nazi regime looked to him for guidancefor example, the German literary scholar Hans Mayer, who at that time taught in Leipzig. Many of those who returned fell victim to the illusion spread by the Stalinists that there should be a united, progressive, capitalist Germany under Stalinist influence.

The fact that Brecht and his wife Helene Weigelnot least of all as the result of his solidarity with the Stalinist ruling party during the East Berlin workers uprising in 1953received their own ensemble and finally also their own Theater at Schiffbauerdamm was anything but a matter of course. The successes of Brechts works abroad and performances at the Berliner Ensemble made it difficult for the bureaucracy to act against him. He became an important figurehead for the GDR and could not be dispensed with easily.

I need no grave stone, but

If you need one for me

I wish that it would say:

He made suggestions. We

Have accepted them

Through such an inscription

All would be instructed.

Brecht summarised his artistic lifes work as revolutionising his means of production, that is, the theatre. His goal was to transform the theatre, in the scientific age, into a workshop for knowledge, into a place that would help the audience realise it was necessary to change the world. However, the great social problems could not be solved through transforming the theatre alone, but by a social revolution. The political apparatus with which he was associated was the greatest impediment to that social transformation. Brecht did indeed make suggestions, but the anti-communist Stalinist bureaucracy had long since closed its ears.

Intellectuals and artists were divided about his work and theories, and remain so up to this day. Contrary to Brechts hopes, the ruling classes in the West remained in the saddle. Unable to boycott or ignore him, the West German elite decided to appropriate his work and elevate Brecht to the status of a classicist whose writings could be safely taught in schools.

Today, the new, privileged layer in the USSR to which Trotsky referred in 1938 no longer exists. The bureaucracy in the former Soviet Union overturned all of the gains of the October Revolution in the interests of capitalism. However, despite the triumphal proclamations of the end of socialism, the capitalist system is unable to overcome its basic contradictions.

Unprecedented social inequality, obscene wealth, bitter poverty, the lowering of the standard of living of broad masses, wars and the danger of war in all parts of the globe, which could lead to the end of humanity through weapons of mass destructionall of this once again poses the task of revolutionising society, of the overthrow of the outmoded capitalist system. Brechts works remain relevant and instructive for a critical, historically conscious audience. Stephen Parkers biography of Brecht is a highly readable and stimulating opener to the debate.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Ecuador on Saturday evening, killing at least 246 people, injuring thousands more, and destroying infrastructure in a large swath of the South American nation. The death toll was expected to rise on Monday as collapsed buildings are excavated. It was the regions strongest earthquake since 1979.

The epicenter of the quake was twelve miles underground near the town of Muisine, on the north-central coast not far from the Colombian border, according to the US Geological Survey. Heavy aftershocks, some as powerful as magnitude 5.6, continued after the first earthquake, which reportedly lasted for over 40 seconds.

Deaths have been reported in the provinces of Manabi, Esmeraldas and Guayas. Among Ecuadors cities, extreme damage was reported in Pedernales, a coastal town of some 40,000. Portoviejo, the capital of Manabi province, was also devastated. Buildings collapsed in Guayaquil, Ecuadors most populous city. Quito, the capital, lost power but reported less damage and no deaths.

Were trying to do the most we can, but theres almost nothing we can do, Pedernales Mayor Gabriel Alcivar told the media. This wasnt just a house that collapsed, it was an entire town.

President Rafael Correa, who was on a state visit to Italy at the time of the quake, imposed a national state of emergency in six of the countrys 24 provinces.

There has reportedly been little organized emergency response from the government or volunteer organizations. Rescue efforts were hindered by an absence of readily available earthmoving equipment. Desperate residents dug through debris with their hands, as those trapped under rubble called out for help.

We hear screaming all through the night, said Luis Quito, a resident of Pedernales. There are humans trapped below the terrace. Babies. We need rescuers. But nobody has arrived so far.

The Correa government deployed some 13,500 security forces to keep order around Ecuador, while the Red Cross called on 800 volunteers to assist. Venezuela, Chile and Mexico said they would send supplies and personnel.

Correa said Ecuador would tap into $600 million from international lenders to rebuild, and currently had $300 million at its disposal for earthquake response. This is $50 million less than the production cost of one the US Air Forces nearly 200 F-22 fighter jets. As of Sunday evening, the Obama administration had made no concrete offer of assistance, though Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the US stands ready to assist and support.

Earthquakes occur with regularity in Ecuador. Over 1,000 were killed by a series of powerful tremors in 1987. In 1979, an 8.2 magnitude earthquake off the coast generated a tsunami that killed over 600 and injured 20,000 more.

The consequences of yesterdays earthquake are made worse by Ecuadors poverty. With a population of 16 million, Ecuadors gross domestic product of approximately $100 billion is considerably less than the combined wealth of the two richest Americans, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. GDP per capita, at approximately $6,000, is one ninth that in the US.

In spite of the left pretensions of the Correa administration, which has been in office since 2007, Ecuador remains one of the worlds most unequal countries in terms of wealth distribution. Poorly built concrete houses and shantytowns that provide shelter for much of the population reportedly came down throughout the country from the force of the earthquake.

The earthquake intersects with a deep crisis in Ecuador and South America as a whole. Ecuador, which aligned itself with Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina in a leftward turn under the Correa government, has been hammered by falling oil prices, which previously accounted for roughly 40 percent of its export earnings, along with decreasing prices for basic agricultural and mineral commodities, which account for much of the rest. Economic growth for the coming year, even before the earthquake, was projected at near zero.

The same day the earthquake hit, Ecuadorian Hydrocarbons Minister Carlos Pareja was in Doha appealing to OPEC countries to cut oil production. There is a need for a committee that will monitor the capping of production, Pareja told reporters Sunday. The negative consequences [of overproduction] will be enormous, and not only for Latin America; we are talking about the whole world.

Declining oil and commodity prices, combined with a strengthening dollar, pose particular problems to Ecuador because it adopted the US currency as its own national currency following the countrys 1998-1999 banking crisis. Ecuador cannot devalue its currency, making its other major exports, including bananas, more expensive and less competitive on the global market. Yields on Ecuadorean government debt briefly surged to 18 percent last fall.
In the days leading up to this weeks recall of parliament, which could result in a rare double dissolution election of both houses on July 2, the Australian government was handed two warningsfrom the international credit rating agency Moodys and from Australias Reserve Bankabout deteriorating state of the economy.

The alarms underscore the political crisis of the Liberal-National Coalition government, which is under mounting pressure from the corporate elite to implement deeply unpopular austerity measures. It is threatening to call a double dissolution election as a means of breaking the legislative deadlock between the two houses of parliament.

The warnings underscore the reversal hitting Australian capitalism because of the implosion of the two-decade mining boom, which is now being compounded by signs that the other pillar of the economya speculative housing bubbleis also collapsing.

Last Thursday, Moodys warned it could strip Australia of its AAA credit ranking unless stronger action was taken to reduce the growing federal budget deficit and debt levels. Then, last Friday, the Reserve Bank of Australia, the countrys central bank, said a glut of inner-city apartments could end in a property market collapse that would endanger Australias financial stability.

Moodys credit outlook report bluntly voiced the concerns of the financial elite. It criticised the failure of the political establishment to sufficiently cut spending on welfare, education and health, due to electoral calculations. It said this left Treasurer Scott Morrison with almost no choice but to increase taxes in the scheduled May 3 budget if he wanted to preserve the AAA rating.

Moodys analyst Marie Diron warned: Limited spending cuts are unlikely to meaningfully advance the governments aim of balanced finances by 2021, and government debt will likely continue to climb, a credit negative for Australia.

Although Australia still had a favourable budget position relative to other countries with AAA credit ratings, Moodys noted Australias government debt had trebled to 35.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 from 11.6 percent of GDP 10 years earlier. We expect government debt to increase further to around 38 percent of GDP in 2018, it said.

The agencys advice cut directly across repeated promises by Morrison not to raise taxes. In response to Moodys report, he was forced to backtrack, saying there would be revenue measures in the May 3 budget.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull attempted to exploit the Moodys warning to reiterate his recent declaration that the population had to learn to live within our meansthat is, accept even deeper cuts to public health, education, social services and living standards than those already inflicted by successive Labor and Coalition governments over the past decade.

Labor leader Bill Shorten and shadow treasurer Chris Bowen swiftly pledged to heed the Moodys message. Bowen said tough decisions were needed on both revenue and spending. He said losing the AAA credit rating would be a blow to confidence, and it would have flow-on effects to the ratings of major corporate entities as well. Labor has announced a number of tax measures, including a regressive tobacco tax, but provided no detail of its proposed tough spending cuts.

Falling tax revenues from mining industries and mining-related construction are quickly deepening the budget deficit. According to the Australian Financial Review, the Parliamentary Budget Office has predicted that, even since the Turnbull governments mid-year budget update last December, the deficit over the next four years would blow out by a further $27 billion to $96 billion.

In its latest Financial Stability Review, issued last Friday, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) pointed to increased global risks. It cited problems overtaking emerging economies, slowing growth in China, weak growth and high levels of non-performing loans in Japan and Europe, and an uncertain pace of normalisation in the United States. As a result, there was a risk of a disruptive fall in asset prices.

Australian banks and finance houses are acutely vulnerable to a global crash, as they were in 2008, when they were propped up by a guarantee of their borrowings by the then Labor government. That is because they again depend heavily on borrowing funds on the international markets to finance domestic lending, particularly in the housing marketthe biggest source of their profits. The RBA noted that a large global shock could be difficult for overseas policymakers to address, which could have spillover effects on the Australian economy.

However, the RBAs sharpest warning related to the danger of a housing bubble crash. It said an over-supply of new apartments, especially in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, could weigh on prices and rents, exposing investors and banks to losses.

The RBA devoted a special section of its report to the danger of a withdrawal of Chinese investors from the market. It said the Australian banking systems direct exposure to Chinese property investors and developers appears to be smallwith Chinese investment estimated at 23 percent of the total residential sector. However, if Chinese demand were to decline significantly, that could weigh on domestic property prices and so lead to losses on the banks broader property-related exposures.

The housing bubble is far larger than any Chinese contribution, even though Chinese purchases of residential and commercial property more than quadrupled from $5 billion to $24 billion per year between 2013 and 2015, according to official Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) statistics.

Since 2011, there has been a fivefold rise in dwelling approvals, as investors sought speculative profits via rising property prices. Many bought apartments off-the-plan before completion and may now seek to avoid making settlements on the properties because of falling prices.

Recent data has shown that some apartments in central Melbourne are being resold at less than 30 percent of their off-the-plan price. Nearly 45,000 apartments are due for completion and settlement during 2016 in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with more than another 50,000 apartments under construction, approved or awaiting approval.

Last Friday saw a telling indication of the financial stress gripping the industry. One of Australias highest-profile real estate chains, McGrath, called for a trading halt on its shares. It said it was reviewing its prospectus forecast, having already lost half its value on the stock exchange.

These developments are intensifying the big business demands for Turnbull to deliver what he promised them when he deposed his predecessor Tony Abbott seven months agoan offensive on social spending and workers conditions. Last weekends Australian Financial Review highlighted the RBAs warning on its front page and published an editorial declaring: As Australians prepare for a probable July 2 election, the national debate is failing to come to grips with how much we are living beyond our means.

The editorial demanded that the government break through the budget gridlock to achieve serious spending cuts and push hard on tax and workplace reformthat is, more corporate tax cuts and a sharper attack on workers jobs, wages and working conditions.
The Socialist Equality Party intervened in Saturdays demonstration with its statement For an active boycott of the Brexit referendum, referring to the June 23 ballot on Britains continued membership in the European Union.

In opposition to the right-wing, nationalist stance of both the official Remain and Leave camps, the SEP is fighting to develop a political movement of the working class based on workers international unity and socialism.

Darren, a bar worker, said he and friend Simon heard about the demonstration on social media and came especially to support those fighting in defence of the National Health Service. They brought a homemade banner protesting the privatisation of the NHS and other public services.

Darren said, I supported Jeremy Corbyn becoming Labour leader. I think I still do. Hes the only one that represents hope. Although I guess that was the same thing with President Obama. We can all see that was a smokescreen for the same policies continuing. The same with Syriza in Greece.

Asked his opinion of the Socialist Equality Partys call for an active boycott of Junes referendum on Britains EU membership, Simon said, Id love it if all the borders were torn down and we could live in peace. But its difficult to see how it could be done. Under capitalism there will always be war. Its all about oil and natural resources. But there has to be an alternative. I will read your pamphlet and look at your web site.

Gemma, a student nurse, was critical of those who spoke on the Peoples Assembly platform. She said, It makes me mad to hear the speakers talk about supporting us and the junior doctors. Its all words. I have heard it so many times since we have been taking action. If they really supported us, they would be bringing out their members as well. After all, NHS workers have suffered years of freezes to their wages and had their pensions cut too.

Len McCluskey [Unite general secretary] thinks its funny to put on his panama hat and joke about tax evasion. I would say he is the joke, if it wasnt so serious. He will go down in history as the leader of the biggest union who presided over the destruction of the welfare system and did nothing about it. Its the same with what is happening with the steel industry. Theres a lot of support for the steel workers, and yet McCluskey and Unite dont get other people involved. The union shouldnt be called Unite, it should be called Disunite.

Its also the same with the teachers leader [National Union of Teachers General Secretary Christine Blower]. Schools are being turned into academies all over the place and shes done nothing about it. I agree we have to start doing things without the unions. They cant be trusted. We cant rely on them anymore.

Of the Labour Party, Gemma said, John McDonnells speech was just as bad. I thought he and Corbyn would make a difference. But they are backtracking on everything they said before and he has the nerve to tell us to have courage and determination. He says we ought to bring the Tories down, but I dont think he really believes that. And if he did, the rest of the Labour MPs dont. So it will end up waiting until 2020 when and if we get a Labour government. But, there wont be an NHS by then.

Asked what she thought of the SEPs position on the EU referendum, Gemma said, I agree with what your party is saying about the Europe referendum. I hadnt thought about a boycott before. Its true that whether people vote to stay in or go out, austerity policies and privatisation will continue.

Also, what you said about the threat of a Third World War; all these things are tied up. You listen to these people speaking at this demo and they have such small minds. Theyre just interested in feathering their own nests. It will be disastrous if we leave it to them. I will have to look up your party on the Internet and come to your meeting.

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For an active boycott of the Brexit referendum! 29 February 2016
Two major earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks starting last Thursday have left a trail of death and destruction through the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. The response of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his government has been a military onedespatching some 20,000 troops as part of rescue and relief operations.

According to the US Geological Survey, the largest of the quakes hit in the early hours of Saturday morning with a magnitude of 7.0, following an earlier earthquake measuring 6.2 on Thursday night in the same area. According to Japans Meteorological Agency, there had been 478 tremors up until 9 pm yesterday, of which more than 70 were strong enough to cause damage.

The death toll from the twin earthquakes rose to 42 on Sunday after the body of a 61-year-old woman was discovered in her collapsed home in Minamiaso. Many of the victims were elderly. As well as those killed in building collapses, several people died in fires and landslides. About 11 people are still missing as rescuers continue to search through rubble. More than 1,000 people were injured, including about 190 in a serious condition.

The worst affected area was the Kumamoto Prefecture, with significant damage also in neighbouring Oita Prefecture. As many as 196,000 people were evacuated in the two prefectures as of Sunday morning, but the figure dropped to 110,000 later in the day as some began returning to their homes. By Sunday evening some 250,000 homes were without water, 100,000 without gas and 39,000 without electricity in Kumamoto Prefecture.

The quakes not only destroyed homes but collapsed or damaged other buildings and structures. According to the NHK national broadcaster, a 500-bed municipal hospital was one of several buildings badly damaged in Kumamoto City, forcing the evacuation of patients. The Great Aso Bridgea single span of more than 200 metrescollapsed into the ravine below. Sections of a stone wall surrounding the 400-year-old Kumamota Castle collapsed into the moat on Saturday afternoon.

High-speed rail services, or shinkansen, have been suspended in Kyushu and the islands two main highways have been cut by landslides. The Kumamoto airport was shut. Meteorological Agency spokesman Gen Aoki said on Sunday that earthquake activity was continuing and warned: There is an ongoing possibility of ground slips from more tremors or the rain since yesterday.

Major corporations including Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Sony, have been forced to temporarily suspend operations in many parts of the country as damage to plants in Kyushu threatened to disrupt the supply of parts. A Toyota supplier Aisin Seiki was assessing the situation at its two plants in Kyushu that produce door and engine parts, but stated that it would boost production elsewhere to minimise the impact.

The Financial Times commented: Japanese companies have learnt lessons from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, where car factories from Nagoya to Alabama ground to a standstill after production halted at Renesas, a supplier of microcontrollers used in vehicles worldwide. Renesas subsequently strengthened the level of quake resistance in its plants and maintained higher levels of inventory.

The 2011 disaster killed 15,000 people and led to the partial meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima power plant resulting in the evacuation of hundreds of thousands. The catastrophe, which will take decades to clean up, exposed the collusion of government agencies and the plants operator, TEPCO, in covering up safety breaches.

The Kyushu Electric Power Company was quick to issue a statement saying that its two nuclear power plants had not been affected and continued to operate normally.

While major corporations concerned about profits have taken action following the 2011 disaster, the death and destruction on Kyushu over the past week raises questions about what action has been taken by governments to protect the population. According to USA Today, the area affected by the twin quakes is a largely rural, mountainous region where some homes and structures lack modern earthquake-mitigation technology.

The Abe government has responded to the disaster by announcing that 20,000 troops would be sent to Kyushu to assist in rescue and relief efforts. The use of the military in disaster operations, which figured prominently in the response to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, is an element of the countrys remilitarisation and the increasing intervention of the armed forces into civilian life.

The Pentagon has also been quick to send military assistance with the US-based Military Times reporting that an undisclosed number of US Marines are already on the ground in Kyushu. At least four MV-22 Osprey aircraft are also part of the relief operationswith another four on standby. The US Marines were flown from the Philippines where they have been participating in the annual joint US-Philippines Balikatan war games.

US military involvement in such operations is now so routine that it has its own acronymHADR or Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief. In the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake/tsunami, in which the US armed forces were heavily involved, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) produced a report entitled More than good deeds: Disaster risk management and the Australian, Japanese and US defence forces.

ASPI pointed out: The primary justification for despatching defence forces to help another country experiencing a disaster is usually humanitarian. But for Australia, Japan and the US, there are several other drivers: reinforcing alliances and partnerships, advancing foreign policy agendas and providing knowledge of operational military capabilities.

The latest disaster in Kyushu offers another opportunity for the US to collaborate closely with the Japanese armed forces to test out personnel, equipment and procedures under the guise of providing humanitarian assistance. The strengthening of the US alliances with Japan, and also Australia, serves more sinister purposesthe military build-up throughout the region in preparation for conflict with China.
Eighteen teachers were arrested in Chiapas on Friday as demonstrations spread across southwestern Mexico against the implementation of a right-wing federal education reform law. On Saturday, the ten men and eight women were transferred by airplane to a prison in Tepic, Nayarit where they are being held on federal charges.

The arrests were part of an overwhelming show of force by police against the thousands of teachers who marched in the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacan, and Veracruz. Teachers set up road blocks in several cities and set fire to the city hall of San Cristobol de las Casas, Chiapas.

The protests are aimed at preventing the implementation of a right-wing education reform program passed by the federal government in 2013. Implementation of the law has been incomplete due to the widespread opposition to the reforms amongst teachers. The reform program revokes the teachers right to control hiring and firing and gives this power to the government. The reform plan also establishes a mechanism of testing teachers to facilitate mass firings, creates a system of government supervisors to monitor and report on teachers and decentralizes funding.

The reform law package was introduced by President Enrique Pena Nieto in 2012 and was immediately met with opposition of teachers. In May and June of 2015, the federal government was unable to impose exams on teachers due to protests and has been attempting to impose the programs ever since.

The outbreak of demonstrations was provoked when the Oaxacan state legislature met last Saturday in a secretive midnight session to ram through a new series of reforms aimed at bringing the states education laws into harmony with the new federal reforms.

Thousands of armed police mobilized against the teachers on Friday and fought street battles against teachers armed only with rocks and eggs. In San Cristobal de las Casas alone, 1,000 federal police, 400 state police and 100 special agents hurt dozens of teachers in the crackdown.

The Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) responded to the demonstrations by claiming that most classes were not cancelled and that most teachers remained on the job.

However, the Mexican ruling class is well aware of growing popular discontent over widespread inequality, corruption and state violence, and fears the possibility that opposition to the education reforms may spark broader social discontent. An April 13 opinion piece in the daily Excelsior noted with concern that legal and political failures could incite extremistsor those that dont have anything to loseto create a radicalization like what is taking place in Guerrero.

The outbreak of protests by teachers comes at a dangerous time for the Pena Nieto administration, which according to a recent poll is the least popular administration in 20 years, garnering the support of just 30 percent of Mexicans.

The teacher demonstrations follow protests last week by student-teachers (known as normalistas) in the state of Michoacan. On April 12, street battles broke out between youth and riot police after police attacked a blockade the normalistas set up on a highway. Four police and many students were hurt in the confrontation.

Sections of the Mexican ruling class are maneuvering to bring the longstanding opposition of teachers back into the acceptable framework of bourgeois politics. On March 21, the leadership of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) finalized a deal with National Regeneration Movement (Morena) leader and ex-Mayor of Mexico City Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Obrador has long served as a lightening rod for social opposition in Mexico, and his political maneuvers serve as a key method by which the ruling class seeks to diffuse social tensions and forestall social revolution. The CNTE-Morena alliance is intended to give Obrador an increased space to maneuver and channel opposition to education reform into Morenas 2016 election campaign in the state of Oaxaca.

In announcing the deal, Obrador issued hollow and demagogic statements against Pena Nietos education reform and proclaimed that the CNTE-Morena alliance angers the mafia of power. Obrador proposes the election of a democratic government led by his party. Such a government, Obrador said, would apply a reform plan put together by the Oaxacan state government and the CNTE, known as the Plan for the Transformation of Education in Oaxaca (PTEO).

In 2010, the CNTE endorsed Citizens Movement candidate Gabino Cue, who won the Oaxacan gubernatorial election in 2010 and has since played a key role in helping the federal government ram through its education reform plan in Oaxaca. The CNTE has called Cue a traitor in an attempt to cover up its own bankrupt deals with the Mexican ruling class aimed at protecting their dues base and ensuring that their memberships militancy is kept within acceptable limits.

Mexican teachers, especially in the poorer southwest region, have a long history of militancy. During a 2006 teachers strike, police opened fire on strikers taking part in nonviolent demonstrations, provoking mass social opposition. The Mexican government organized death squads and called in the army to crush the strike, leaving 27 teachers and protesters dead.

The Mexican ruling class, with the support of its US imperialist masters, is preparing similar massacres today. The governments attempts to amend Article 11 of the Constitution to grant the president the power to impose marital law to crush strikes and protests, and its passage of the Atenco Law in the State of Mexico, show how the ruling class responds to social protest.

Mexican teachers cannot rely on sections of a capitalist class that respond to their protests with bullets and bombs to change the education through reform plans like the PTEO. For all his populist phraseology, Obrador only serves to sow illusions in the bourgeois political system by juxtaposing his call for democratic bourgeois government to the government of the current mafia of power. These meaningless terms cover over the basic class character of the Mexican state and serve to disarm workers, paving the way for future state massacres.

Mexican teachers and normalistas do not lack militancy or courage, but in the absence of an independent, socialist political party of the working class, they are left defenseless to betrayals by the CNTE and attacks by the military and police.
Tens of thousands took part in an anti-austerity demonstration organised by the Peoples Assembly in London on Saturday.

A broad cross-section of society marched, expressing anger over decades of austerity under Labour and Conservative governments alike. There were large numbers of junior doctors currently involved in industrial action. A delegation of student nurses, who are having their bursaries for training removed, attended. The march was headed by steelworkers and their families threatened by job losses and wage cuts as a result of the sell-off of steel plants by Tata.

However, the organisers and supporters of the Peoples Assembly--the Stalinists of the Communist Party of Britain, the Trades Union Congress, a few Labour Party lefts, Green Party and pseudo-left groups, including the Socialist Workers Party and Counterfire--have no perspective to offer those seeking a means to combat austerity.

The Assembly was created by these organisations in 2013 to cover for the Labour Party and the trade unions, which opposed any struggle against the then-Conservative/Liberal Democrat governments attacks on wages and public services.

This time round, the Assembly was oriented directly to the Labour Party. Advertised around the slogan Cameron Must Go--Tories Out! and four demands--Health, Homes, Jobs and Education--the main aim of the march was to bolster recently elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Peoples Assembly National Secretary Sam Fairbairn said Corbyn wouldnt be leader of the opposition if it wasnt for the many marches and rallies against war and austerity that so many have been on. Fairbarn declared, The right wing want to get rid of Jeremy and the politics he represents. Tens of thousands taking to the streets again can keep progressive politics on the offensive.

In fact, the right wing is the majority of Labour MPs and councillors, few of whom turned up for the demonstration. Out of thousands of Labour councillors, less than 90 (only two in London) signed a letter of support for the march, despite the fact that councils have had 12.5 billion cut from their budgets (around 40 percent) and 700,000 council workers have lost their jobs since 2010.

The march ended in Trafalgar Square, where the main speakers were Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett and Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey.

The platform delivered a party political broadcast in support of Labour. Bennett made no mention of her own party or called for people to vote for it, instead calling for a change in government to get rid of the Tories. This was despite the Greens publishing the day before their manifesto for the May local elections, in which they are standing over 1,500 candidates.

McCluskey followed Bennett. Back at the Peoples Assembly first demonstration in 2014, the Unite leader promised those attending that the union movement would make use of all the tools at our disposal including a general strike when that is necessary

No strike ever came and there was no such demagogy this time. McCluskey had nothing to offer other than worthless messages of solidarity to steelworkers who were fighting for the whole of the manufacturing sector of our nation and junior doctors and teachers all of whom are fighting for our future.

McCluskey blamed the government for phone hacking, expenses scandals, police cover-ups, the banking crisis, illegal wars and now the Panama papers, donning a panama hat as he spoke. He omitted to say that the previous Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were implicated in all this as much as the Tories.

He declared that under Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, we now have a leadership fighting for ordinary people in Parliament, in workplaces and on the streets, here, in London.

This set the stage for McDonnell, who said, For too long, Labour leaders in the past have seemed to be embarrassed by association with struggles on the street or industrial action. That era is over. Whether its in Parliament or on the picket line, this leadership will be with you.

But all he offered were feeble promises littered with caveats. For the steelworkers, he said meekly, Yes, if we have to nationalise in the short term, we will nationalise. On nuclear weapons: We are committed to scrapping Trident if we can win the argument in the party. To teachers: When they come to academise [privatise] our schools, if teachers wish to take industrial action, we will be with them in solidarity.

McDonnell claimed austerity was not an economic necessity, driven by the crisis of capitalism, but a political choice. Labour will end austerity, build hundreds of thousands of council homes, restore benefits, make the rich and corporations pay their way, and create a world of peace, he said. McDonnell told the audience that we dont have to wait until elections in 2020. We have to work to bring down this government at the first opportunity.

In a video posted on his Facebook page, Corbyn said he was not able to attend the protest, as he was campaigning in Liverpool for next months local elections. The video was posted with an accompanying message from Corbyn saying, The Labour Party is now an anti-austerity Party and were standing up against the failed policies of the Tory government.

The claim of the Peoples Assembly and Corbyn that Labour are now opposed to austerity is a fraud. In the run-up to last months budget, McDonnell said a Labour government will be absolutely ruthless about how we manage our spending. A Fiscal Credibility Rule would underpin Labours policies and we would commit to always eliminating the deficit on current spending in five years, as part of a strategy to target balance on current spending over a target five-year period.

In December, Corbyn and McDonnell issued a letter instructing Labour councils, which control spending in every major city and town, to abide by the law and impose austerity measures demanded by the Conservatives.

In contrast to McDonnells rhetoric, the truth is that Labour has had ample opportunity to bring down the government, but has ensured that Cameron remain in power. Last year, Corbyn gave a free vote to Labour MPs on preparations for Britain to join the bombing of Syria, ensuring that the Conservative government would win the day. More recently, when the Panama Papers scandal detailing mass tax avoidance by the super-rich enveloped Cameron and the Tories, Corbyn and McDonnell refused to call on Cameron to resign or even to call a vote of no confidence in him.

Last week, Corbyn again came to the rescue of the Tory government, which is deeply divided over the June 23 referendum on Britains membership of the European Union. With Camerons association with the Remain campaign a poisoned chalice for those sections of the British bourgeoisie favouring continued membership, Corbyn gave his first speech in support of the EU. Media and political commentators openly discuss that Corbyn is their only hope of mobilising voters--especially young people--in support of Remain, despite the fact that many are hostile to the pro-big business message and anti-migrant rhetoric of the official Remain and Leave camps.

The Peoples Assembly had campaigned for a Labour government under then-leader Ed Miliband in the May 2015 general election. After Labours defeat, the Peoples Assembly was able to organise a demonstration the following month of some 250,000 people.

At that rally, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas summed up the Peoples Assembly role as an external lobby for a so-called Progressive Alliance of the Greens and Labour in England, Plaid Cymru (The Party of Wales) and the Scottish National Party. A prominent place on the platform was given to Corbyn, who at the time was one of four contenders in the Labour leadership contest.

Due to the role of the unions in emasculating every struggle of the working class in the intervening period, and the efforts of Corbyn and McDonnell in ensuring that the Tories remain in office, this years march was significantly smaller.

The organisers are well aware of seething class anger. In the run-up to Saturdays protest, Fairbairn had warned, Were now seeing the potential for big unrest across the country and it wont be long until this government face a movement for change they cant control.

The demonstration underscored that the role of the pseudo-left is to divert this growing opposition into the suffocating embrace of the Labour Party.

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250,000 demonstrate against austerity in London

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The campaign for the June 23 referendum on Britains membership in the European Union is officially underway after its launch on Friday. The Socialist Equality Party (Britain) calls for an active boycott of the referendum in opposition to the reactionary nationalism of both official camps. We urge a rejection of both the defenders of the EU and the chauvinist advocates of a British exit in the official Remain and Leave campaigns.

The electorate in Britain is being asked to choose whether to leave the EU or remain on the basis of reactionary concessions negotiated by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. These include an emergency brake on EU migrants claiming in-work benefits, restrictions on child benefits for EU migrants, and the right of the UK to impose a temporary stop to financial regulations that impact the City of London.

There is no mechanism in this referendum for working people to register opposition to austerity and the national hatreds being whipped up by the entire British political establishment.

To vote Remain is to endorse both the EUan imperialist bloc dedicated to austerity, militarism and warand the xenophobic, pro-business agenda of the Cameron government. To vote Leave means supporting Camerons opponents on the right wing of the Tory party and in the UK Independence Party. They argue that the measures Cameron secured to clamp down on migrants do not go far enough. The position of these forces is that EU legislation cuts across the City of Londons ability to act as a global hub of financial parasitism and prevents UK businesses from ramping up the exploitation of working people.

Whether the outcome of the vote is to leave or remain in the EU, bourgeois politics will be shifted even further to the right, along with an intensification of national tensions. In the face of the spread of nationalism and militarism by the ruling classes across Europe and the growing danger of war between nuclear-armed powers, the SEP advocates an active boycott to arm the coming struggles of the working class with a revolutionary socialist and internationalist perspective.

This past week, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn pledged himself to support the Remain camp, claiming that the EU can be reformed in the interests of the working class. His endorsement of the EU is an attempt to rescue British capitalism from the threat posed to its interests by a possible Brexit, under conditions where the Cameron government is widely reviled and internally divided over Europe.

The reactionary character of the EU was underscored by the announcement just one day after Corbyns speech that President Barack Obama will visit the UK to solidarise the United States with the Remain campaign. His high-profile endorsement points to the essential function of the EU as a military bulwark within NATO, with the European powers presently engaged not only in bombing missions in Syria, but also in military manoeuvres in all the states and international waters bordering Russia.

Alongside waging war, the EUs two other major preoccupations are the continued imposition of savage austerity and the policing of the borders of Fortress Europe. Greeces creditors are reportedly considering 3 billion more in cuts on top of the package of 5 billion in tax increases and spending cuts already being negotiated. This month, the Syriza government in Greece began deporting hundreds of migrants to Turkey under the March agreement signed between Brussels and Ankara. The thousands more yet to be deported will be kept in concentration camps, guarded by the EUs Frontex forces as warships patrol the Aegean.

In opposing the Remain camp, working people and youth can give no support to the Leave campaign. Under conditions of a mass movement of the working class against the EU, involving strikes and appeals for cross-border solidarity with the Greek working class and other victims of EU austerity, a vote to leave the EU could acquire an anti-capitalist character. Under the current conditions, however, a Leave vote would only promote the most nakedly reactionary forces in British politics.

A Leave vote would accelerate the breakup of the EU under the pressure of growing national antagonisms between the European powers and boost far-right forces across the continent. The neo-fascist National Front in France is only one of a host of parties seeking to exploit popular hostility to the EU and channel it in a nationalist, anti-migrant directionepitomised in Marine Le Pens depiction of herself as Madame Frexit.

The greatest danger facing the working class is posed by those aligning themselves with the Leave campaign on the basis of a left nationalism that portrays a sovereign British state as the basis for progressive, anti-austerity policies. These are the same forces who hailed the election of Syriza and its perspective of reforming the EU and covered for the Syriza government as it imposed even more drastic austerity measures. Now they call for a Left Exit (Lexit), a threadbare cover for a political alliance with extreme right-wing parties.

In urging the rejection of both nationalist camps, the SEP orients its polices to the explosive social discontent that is mounting among masses of workers and youth in Britain and across Europe, and fights to arm this discontent with a revolutionary socialist perspective.

As the mass protests in France against the Socialist Party government of Francois Hollande demonstrate, there is a growing desire among millions of workers and youth throughout Europe for a fightback against austerity, militarism and war. But this must find independent political expression.

The SEPs call for an active boycott provides the means through which the opposition of working people in the UK to the Cameron government can be articulated and connected with the emerging movement of the working class throughout the continent. It will advance the struggle to build the SEP in Britain and the International Committee of the Fourth International across Europe as the necessary leadership to take forward the struggle for a genuinely socialist and internationalist movement against the EU and its constituent governments.
About 1,200 people assembled in lower Manhattans Foley Square on Saturday and then marched to Union Square in support of Democratic Party presidential aspirant Bernie Sanders. The rally was far smaller than the event three days earlier at Washington Square Park, where the candidate spoke and drew an audience of tens of thousands.

Speakers at the Saturday rally, advertised on the Sanders campaign web site and held just a few days before the hotly contested New York primary between Sanders and Hillary Clinton, included a number of trade union bureaucrats. Officials from the Communications Workers of America, whose members are now on strike against the telecom giant Verizon, addressed the crowd. Also speaking was a representative from the New York State Working Families Party, the organization that functions, with union support, as a pressure group in the orbit of the Democrats, and which has endorsed Sanders.

The most politically notable speaker, however, was Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, a leading member of the pseudo-left organization Socialist Alternative. Sawant and Socialist Alternative have sought to give a left cover to the Democratic Party, particularly since her initial election in 2013. She has appeared at Democratic Party fundraisers and in 2015 ran for reelection to the city council in open alliance with Seattle Democrats.

Sawants remarks on Saturday underscored the integration of Socialist Alternative into the Sanders campaign and the Democratic Party. The Seattle socialist did not use the term socialism in relation to Sanders campaign. Just as significantly, she made no criticism of Sanders foreign policy positions, nor did she say a word about the military moves of the Obama administration for confrontation with Russia in Eastern Europe or with China in the South China Sea.

Sawant chastised Hillary Clinton as an establishment candidate, but went on to boast that Hillary and the corporate establishment are feeling the pressure because of our movement. The message could not be clearer: the goal is to pressure the Democrats, to prevent a break by the working class with this capitalist party.

Sawants specialty is to dress up the alliance with the Democrats in some fraudulent left rhetoric. Wouldnt it be incredible, she said, if Sanders won the New York Democratic primary?

If he did not win, however, it would be because the Democratic Party is hostile territory for our agenda. She added: If he is blocked by the Democratic Party establishment, he should run all the way as an independent or Green. She urged the audience to sign a Socialist Alternative petition calling on Sanders to form a third party for the general election.

Exposing her own phony call for independence, Sawant went on to say that an independent Sanders party would not contest the ten swing states in the November election. Thus, after Sanders current race for the nomination, he would continue his pressure campaign on the Democrats by running in states where he would not affect the outcome of the vote!

The Sanders campaign is seen by pseudo-left groups like Socialist Alternative not only as a means of heading off a genuinely independent movement of the working class against the capitalist system, but also as a way of facilitating their own entrance into the capitalist establishmentat levels higher than that of Seattle City Council.

The break from the Democratic Party is not simply one of organization; it is a programmatic and class question. As the bitter experiences with Syriza in Greece and similar left bourgeois parties have demonstrated, the pseudo-left is prepared to come to the rescue of capitalism via new political formations that chain the working class to the capitalist system. Socialist Alternative would gladly play this role in the US.

The complete faith in the bourgeois political establishment that emanated from Sawant on the podium was not shared by many of those who attended the rally. Like many of those who are supporting the Sanders campaign, they expressed opposition to soaring collage debt, rising inequality, unaffordable rent and the inability of millions to access health care. Sanders role is to try to keep this social anger contained within the Democratic Party and the capitalist system.

Emma, a college student from St. Lawrence University in upstate New York who was at the New York City rally, was asked what motivated her to support Sanders. I like the way he is addressing health care. Its important. Obamacare requires people to have health insurance but many cant afford it. Two people in my family have had to struggle with heroin addiction. Sanders is going about trying to get universal health care, different than establishment politicians.

Kris Blessing traveled from Maryland to the New York City rally. The University of Maryland student told the WSWS, I came here for the rally. I really want to be part of the revolution. This is the first election Ive felt is part of a bigger cause. The cause is income inequality, environmental issues, racial equality and really the first presidential candidate who has spoken out on almost every war.

When the WSWS pointed to Sanders support for the Obama administrations war policy in the Middle East and its provocations against China and Russia, Kris expressed deep concern. In the past, Sanders has stood up against wars, but he hasnt spoken out enough on wars beyond the war in Iraq. That includes Libya and the decisions leading to the Syrian refugee crisis.

I think as to being non-confrontational and non-imperialist, Bernie Sanders is better than Hillary. I dont want Hillary with her finger on the button. I think Hillary is terrible. She is so ready and willing to intervene militarily overseas it is very scary. She would intervene overseas whenever the wind blows that way. But I never heard Bernie criticize the Obama administrations war policies against Russia or China.

I think it is a conspiracy that we dont hear what is happening in China. It is not mentioned because there would be a lot of big rallies like this against that war drive.

Michael is a student at Essex County College in New Jersey and a dispatcher for a taxi company. He explained, I came to support Bernie Sanders and spread the word. I support his plans to fight for a $15 minimum wage and tax the rich. He has no Super Pac and takes no money from the corporations.

I consider Sanders a partial socialist, Michael said. He doesnt want a full socialist country, but he has some socialist policies I support. When asked what those were, he answered, In terms of health care, he wants it for everyone, but I cant think of any others. After further consideration, he pointed to shortcomings in Sanders health care policies, I think the pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies should be nationalized. I have Medicaid, and I take many medications, but the problem is the pharmaceutical companies are not well regulated in this country, and as a result, the prices of medicines are too high. Beyond regulation, the pharmaceutical companies should be nationalized, and that would be a more socialist solution.

I dont like that Sanders says he wants the banks to break themselves up, and the government doesnt have a role in it. I dont think Sanders spoke well about the banks in his rebuttal to Hillary on the banks in the recent debate.

I believe all basic human needs should be available to all and provided by the government. I would include healthcare, education, housing and energy. This could be full socialism, although there could be more.
As the strike by 39,000 workers at telecom giant Verizon enters a new week, workers are discussing the issues in the strike and the strategy needed to take forward their struggle. The WSWS Verizon Strike Newsletter spoke to workers on the picket lines in Northern Virginia and New York City.

Joseph, from Northern Virginia, spoke about his working conditions. I usually work from 7:30 am until 4:00 pm. During the summer it can get to be about 12 hours a day. That is what I would be working if we were on the job.

When asked about the cost of living in the Washington, DC area, Joseph asked, How can you live off [$13] an hour? I told myself a long time ago, as a man, that I would not work for anything less than $20 an hour, and even then you are selling yourself short, with just enough to get by. The bare minimum that a person needs is an apartment, food and a car, not a BMW or anything fancy, but a Toyota at the least.

Two line workers with over 10 years also spoke to the WSWS but asked to remain anonymous because of possible retribution by management. One said the main concern for strikers were wages, benefits and the language used in the contract. I dont care anything about profit-sharing with the company or being allowed to vote on a board or directors, all that does is get me victimized for how I vote on company affairs.

Speaking of Verizons plans to increase the cost of health coverage, the worker said, I can understand being told to give a little back to keep the cost of our health care just beneath the Cadillac plan cut-off point, but this company is asking us to pay four times as much for our health coverage.

Comparing the current struggle to the 2011 Verizon strike he had participated in, the lineman said, This time weve got the public behind us a little bit more. I think people are beginning to realize that someone needs to stand up. Right now everything is in favor of the corporations; we may even be reaching the point in which workers begin getting issued company scrip.

Now a lot of companies have this thing called permissive time off, in which you dont actually have paid sick days. You have to ask your manager for permission to take a paid sick day, it all depends on whether or not they like you. I wish a virus or fungal infection would ask me for permission to infect me on Tuesday, so that I could coordinate it with my manager.

When asked about the conduct of the two unions leading the strike, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the lineman said, I wish the union hadnt called off the 2011 strike when they did, it would have put us in a much better position than we are in now. I saw a lot of our immediate higher-ups lose their benefits, and the union did very little about it. Its because they are isolating these struggles. The mentality is that the problem is over there and not our struggle, when it really is.

Verizon has this talking point, in which it states that it hasnt laid anyone off, which is technically true, the other worker continued. They dont lay people off in this area, they offer them a buy-out, which saves the company from having to report layoffs to shareholders. What theyll do is theyll make it worth workers while to leave.

This leads to huge problems with understaffing in Virginia, which is a Right to Work state and doesnt maintain any requirements that a certain number of workers be kept to service the population. So now you have a situation where six months of over time were required for certain job titles last year alone, 12 hours a day, for 10 days straight. They will do this and move your normally scheduled off days backward as well. For the young guys this might be fine, but so much for having a family.

One worker who joined the conversation said that the working conditions were so bad at a FiOS installation center nearby that he would get a doctors note to prevent him from ever being sent there again. From 2012-2015, the installation center had a string of managers, military types, who would bully their line workers. They would show up first thing in the morning and demand to inspect your vehicle for safety violations. If they found that you had left a sweatshirt in the front seat, they would write you up, claiming they found an unsecured deadly object in your vehicle.

Explaining how customers are manipulated by the company, the worker said, The company is doing a big push for fiber optics installations, so their goal is to discontinue traditional copper lines. Theyll look for slight irregularities in these old lines and force us to tell the owner that the system needs to switch over to FiOS. Now many owners of copper landlines have been with these systems for decades and dont want to switch. The management will order their service be disconnected.

The worker noted that the attempts to break apart the communication grid seriously undermined the communications infrastructure, while allowing the management to legally deny that it held a monopoly on services in the area.

When addressing some of the larger political issues facing workers globally, one worker said, They always seem to have money for wars overseas when there are more than enough problems to fix at home.

When speaking about the need to unite workers internationally against Verizon, a transnational corporation, he said, They are trying to divide workers from themselves. Im from Europe, and that is what theyre doing with Muslims. Its what Hitler did with the Jews during World War Two.

Andre, a field tech in New York City also spoke to the Newsletter. He explained, The company gets set for what they are going to give us, and then they wont budge. They are now trying to take away rights that former employees fought for and won. The company is trying to dismantle these rights. They want to get rid of job security, healthcare, a livable wage and respect in the workplace.

I think we should have called the strike when the contract expired, but maybe the union thought the company would bargain in good faith. However, that is why we are here now. I dont think it is right that the company wants to break up your life, and move you away from home for 120 days. You may have a sick member of the family or your parents to take care of. People cant be away for home for so long.

It is not like the company doesnt have the money. They paid $4.4 billion for AOL a year ago. They are paying $1 to 2 billion to buy XO Communications, and they are getting ready to spend $2-3 billion to buy Yahoo. They have sent us emails about this purchase at work. They are trying to buy up these companies to get a signal frequency to build out their wireless unit more and make the signal stronger. We service the wireless divisions because we install and maintain the G1 circuit the wireless system works on.

The company has stopped investing in the wire-line side. They are selling off the wire-line side to smaller telecom companies like Broadview and Covad. They have sold off other sections of wire-line like Fairpoint Communications in Maine where there was the long strike in 2013 and 2014. They want to do this because wireless is more profitable, less regulated and nonunion. The store in Brooklyn was unionized, and it is closed now because they are on strike with us.

The reason 9,000 mostly wireless workers were laid off last fall is because the union was trying to unionize them, and this was intimidation for them as well as for us.

I cant explain what the union was doing. It is probably a strategy move to go on strike in the middle of the New York primary. I think when one union goes on strike, all the unions should support them. When one group stands up alone, you barely get heard.

Politics is playing a critical role in us continuing to have a job. You hitch yourself to a party hoping they will help you with your job, but none of the parties are doing that. I do think the working class should have its own party definitely.

Zujen, a frame tech with 20 years with Verizon, said, Were not even asking for raises, we just want whats fair. Verizon expects us to give up everything. They expect us to work without any job security, to pay three times more than we used to pay for benefits. They expect us to just pick up and leave our families for up to five months at a time and work anywhere from Boston down to Virginia. They are trying to get rid of us and actually want us to quit.

Verizon is trying to go all wireless. Were trying to unite with the wireless workers and bring them into the union but the company will fire anyone that supports joining. Just recently a Verizon Wireless worker from the Baybridge location was fired for talking to other workers about trying to unite Wireless and Telecom. They wont admit that was the reason but it was definitely the reason.

Theres a lot of support for us out thereyou can tell from the people passing by. Weve had students and kids come out and ask to walk with us on the picket line. It would be wonderful if everyone went on strike at once, from Con Ed to teachers. That should really happen. This time its us but the next time its going to be them.

Most of us have families and children to support. How do they expect us to survive? Verizon makes over a billion dollars in profit a month. The CEO [Lowell McAdam] makes $80,000 dollars a day! And theyd rather see us on the street.

Those of us whove been here for over 20 years are the ones who actually built this entire infrastructure. My father put in 30 years for the company. I remember being 12 years old and walking the picket line with him back in 1989. This is in my blood. The people running the company now have totally lost touch. They never had it. How can they with the kind of money theyre making? All they see are dollar signs.
The Pentagon announced Saturday that it was filing a formal complaint with the Russian Defense Ministry and US Secretary of State John Kerry threatened retaliatory action after two incidents involving US and Russian forces in the Baltic Sea.

The Pentagon alleged that a Russian SU-27 fighter jet flew within 50 feet of a US reconnaissance plane in international airspace on April 14, and that a Russian jet and helicopter buzzed the Navy destroyer USS Donald Cook as it was conducting military exercises with Poland in the Baltic two days earlier.

The two incidents demonstrate once again that Washingtons aggressive military build-up throughout Eastern Europe, in close collaboration with its NATO allies, has brought the entire region to the brink of war between nuclear powers. The Obama administration seized on the Ukraine crisis provoked by a Western-sponsored coup in Kiev in 2014 to massively expand its military presence in Eastern Europe, so as to encircle and isolate Russia in a region stretching from the Arctic Circle to the Black Sea.

While the intensification of US military operations on Russian borders represents an act of aggression, the latest incident also demonstrates the bankruptcy of Moscows response. The Kremlin oligarchy, which came to power by plundering state resources in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, is resorting to a military build-up and the encouragement of reactionary Russian nationalism. Conditions are so tense that a miscalculation by either side or even an accident could serve as the trigger for a conflict that could quickly escalate to include the use of nuclear weapons.

Secretary of State Kerry admitted as much this past week, when he responded to the USS Donald Cook incident by bluntly declaring that the US would have been within its rights to shoot the Russian jet down. Washingtons top diplomat labeled the alleged behavior of the jet as reckless and provocative, while the Pentagon called Thursdays interception of the spy plane as an erratic and aggressive act.

Moscow denied the allegations, claiming in a statement that in the case of the spy plane, the Russian Air Force had detected over the Baltic ocean an unidentified aerial target rapidly approaching the Russian border. Spokesman Igor Konashenkov stated that the actions of the Russian aircraft were in accordance with international standards for the use of air space.

Confrontations between NATO and Russian aircraft over the Baltic are becoming routine. According to a January report from United Press International, NATO jets scrambled at least 160 times in 2015 to intercept Russian jets in the Baltic. This figure was a 14 percent rise from 2014.

The pace of such incidents is likely to rise dramatically in the immediate period ahead. The Obama administration has announced a quadrupling of defense spending for Europe for 2017 to $3.4 billion. The increase will finance the sending of an additional three brigades. A further 16,500 soldiers will be in permanent rotation throughout Eastern Europe, from the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuaniato whom Obama in September 2014 issued a guarantee of US support in the event of conflict with Russiato Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the Black Sea states of Romania and Bulgaria.

In this, Washington is aligning itself with virulently right-wing, anti-Russian regimes whose reckless policies could provide the spark that ignites the ongoing standoff.

In comments to the Globsec security forum on the weekend, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski proclaimed Russia to be a greater threat to world peace than the Islamic State. He urged NATO to permanently deploy troops to Poland to protect its eastern border, vowing that he would make an appeal to that end at the NATO summit scheduled to take place in Warsaw in July. By all evidence, Russias activity is a sort of existential threat because this activity can destroy countries, Waszczykowski asserted.

Romania, another NATO member, is pushing for the Warsaw summit to adopt a plan for a permanent NATO naval presence in the Black Sea. Romanias defense minister, Mihnea Motoc, said earlier this month on a visit to Georgia that he would be in favor of an enhanced partnership between NATO members Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey and would-be members Georgia and Ukraine to establish a Black Sea fleet. Motoc said in an interview that the proposed fleet would be open to NATO members who dont border the Black Sea, yet are constantly present in Black Sea ports and take part in exercisesfirst of all, to the United States.

At the NATO summit in Wales in September 2014, the alliance committed to have all members spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on their militaries, and agreed the creation of a rapid response force for eastern Europe that has since been expanded to enable tens of thousands of troops to be deployed anywhere within the alliances territory in a matter of days.

The lead article in Sundays edition of the New York Times underscored the fact that potential conflicts for which such forces are being prepared would likely involve the deployment of nuclear weapons. In what it described as a revival of the Cold War, the Times described Washington, Russia and China as being engaged in an arms race to develop a new class of small-scale nuclear weapons with capabilities to bypass traditional missile defense shields.

There is an objective significance to the fact that the Times, Americas newspaper of record, has published a front-page article bringing to light a development that has long been the subject of in-depth analysis by US think tanks. A report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments published earlier this year was entitled Rethinking Armageddon: scenario planning in the second nuclear age, reflecting the fact that policymaking circles are considering the practicalities of how to fight and win a military conflict with nuclear weapons.

Since President Obamas 2010 promise not to pursue new nuclear weapons programs, Washington has announced an additional $1 trillion in funding for the modernization of the US nuclear arsenal. The Times article provides information on the types of weaponry being developed, including a new weapon called a hypersonic glide vehicle. Such weapons, which the US will begin flight-testing next year, could render missile defenses all but useless, the Times noted.

At the conclusion of the biennial nuclear summit in Washington at the end of last month, to which Russia refused to send representatives, Obama expressed concern about ramping up new and more deadly and more effective systems that end up leading to a whole new escalation of the arms race.

A second Times article published over the weekend on the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad makes all too clear that the plans for the deployment of nuclear weapons have moved well beyond the realm of speculation. The Russian territory, located on the southeast corner of the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Poland, was described in testimony to Congress by NATO Commander Gen. Phillip Breedlove in February as a very militarized piece of property that was capable of repelling attacks by air, land or sea.

The six years since Obamas empty pledge to reduce nuclear weapons have seen a vast intensification of US-led aggressive military operations aimed at consolidating American hegemony and weakening Russia and China in key geostrategic regions. As part of the ongoing bombardment of Iraq and Syria, carried out under the pretext of combating terrorism, Washington recently sent nuclear-capable B52 bombers to its Middle East bases, bringing them well within range of Iran and Russia itself.
Nearly 40,000 workers across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states remain on strike against the telecom giant Verizon, which is demanding sweeping health care and pension cuts, the further outsourcing of jobs and a free hand to transfer workers across wide geographic areas for weeks or months at a time.

After forcing workers to labor without a contract for eight months, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) called the current strike on April 13. The strike is the largest in the United States since Verizon workers struck in 2011, which the CWA and IBEW shut down after two weeks before subsequently accepting deep health care concessions.

Verizon is number six on the Forbes list of Americas 25 most profitable companies, with $18 billion in earnings in 2015 and $39 billion in profits over the last three years. Over the last two years alone the company has paid out $16 billion dollars in dividends, mostly to its wealthiest investors. Lowell McAdam, the Verizon CEO, is paid $18 million a year in salaries, stock shares and other compensation, while the top five executives at Verizon bring in a total of more than $47 million a year.

The company is digging in for a long fight, with McAdam saying the company must implement common-sense reforms to rein in the cost of health insurance for active and retired workers and their dependents. He pointed to the fact that the company is currently subject to the Cadillac tax on excessive plans as defined by the Affordable Healthcare Act.

Verizon executives have long been preparing for a walkout. Lets make it clear, we are ready for a strike, Bob Mudge, president of Verizons wireline network operations, boasted in a news release on the company web site last week. He added, Verizons strike readiness teams have been preparing for a strike since early 2015.

The company has trained thousands of nonunion employees to fill in for those walking a picket line and has reassigned employees from all parts of the U.S. and all parts of the business including finance, marketing, real estate, engineering and more to handle customer inquiries, inside and outside network plant management, fiber and copper network maintenance and repair, both on the ground and on our poles.

According to Verizon workers, the company has moved nearly all managers who have not been reassigned to do jobs of striking workers to the Chesapeake complex in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Joseph, a wire worker with less than five years on the job in Northern Virginia, told the WSWS Verizon Strike Newsletter that there was pressure building up on management due to an influx of customer requests for services. I have heard that there are about 6,400 open tickets in northern Virginia alone, said Joseph, referring to the number of new customer requests for services that are beginning to pile up. Joseph said that management and the strikebreakers average response times to the open requests were two tickets a day.

I know management is being forced to work 12-hour shifts right now, 6-7 days a week, he added. Eventually, management will not be able to handle whats going on. People are going to start cashing in their Verizon services for the networks of competitors; people I know are saying that this strike could go for weeks or even months. I consider myself a master wire technician, and I still make mistakes. What we do on a line you cant just a take a few classes for.

A letter sent to the WSWS revealed the abusive conditions facing managers. My husband was sent to cover for the strikers. We have a family of 7 and our oldest was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma 5 months ago. I am a stay at home wife and mother. My husband works while I take care of our family. With one-day notice, he was forced to get on a flight to cover for the people striking, and we have no idea when he will be home. Verizon is not a company that cares about honest hard working employees that have families. If they did, my husband would be home where he is desperately needed. I am so stressed and overwhelmed with this entire situation.

The strike is being closely monitored by the Obama administration, which has relied on the trade union bureaucracy to suppress every form of class struggle in order to drive down wages and shift the burden of health and pension benefits from corporate America to the backs of workers. In 2009 work stoppages fell to their lowest level since the end of World War II, with only five strikes involving 1,000 workers or more, and an average of 13 work stoppages in each of Obamas seven years in office. By contrast, there were 470 strikes and lockouts in 1952, and 424 in 1974.

The AFL-CIO and Change to Win labor federations have done everything to isolate and defeat the embattled Verizon workers. They fear that it could spark a far broader mobilization of workers who are angered over stagnating and falling wages amid a supposed economic recovery that has only benefited the super-rich.

On Saturday, the International Association of Machinists (IAM) pushed through a four-year extension of its agreement with United Continental, which covers 30,000 airline customer-service agents and ramp workers. Last February, mechanics at United Continental, voted by a 93 percent margin to reject a tentative contract agreement between the Teamsters and airline management. The deal included a pay increase that would have been offset by increased medical costs and work rule changes that would result in less overtime.

Last Friday, Obamas Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker met with officials from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association to discuss extending the six-year contract they agreed to last year to 10 years. In 2015, Obamas labor secretary intervened to prevent a strike by West Coast dockworkers before the ILWU agreed to the deal, which also increased health care costs while maintaining a second tier of casualized labor on the docks.

Although their labor agreements expired last summer, the United Steelworkers continues to force ArcelorMittal workers to work without a contract, and the Chicago Teachers Union is doing the same.

In the face of the provocations by Verizon, the CWA and IBEW leadership have restricted the activity of strikers to isolated picketing and various protest stunts coordinated with other unions and the Democratic Party. The CWA, which endorsed the campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, has timed the strike to coincide with Tuesdays Democratic Primary in New York State, where Sanders and Clinton are in a close contest.

CWA Local 1101, which bargains for 3,500 workers, canceled its general membership meeting scheduled for Tuesday due to Verizon strike activity, saying it will send an announcement with a new date when it is rescheduled. The postponement protects the union bureaucracy from rank-and-file workers who would challenge them over the strategy of the strike. It also raises the possibility that the CWA could shut down the strike after the primaries and announce that it will accept federal mediation overseen by the Obama administration.

While CWA Local 1101 officials have told picketers that they would not send workers back to work without a contractlike the CWA did in 2011such a decision would be made on the national level, and despite various posturing by local union officials would be accepted. Workers who had saved up for a strike last August were caught unawares by the sudden strike call last week and have been forced to subsist on $300 a week in strike pay.

While putting strikers on starvation rations, according to its 2015 report to the US Labor Department, the CWA has a staggering $1.7 billion in marketable securities, which could easily be converted to cash.

The unions, which have already reportedly offered some $200 million in concessions, have downplayed workers major demands over health care, pensions, outsourcing and extended transfers. Instead, the CWA has almost exclusively centered its slogans on the demand for Verizon to expand its FiOS fiber optic cable system, which the union sees as crucial to building its dues base, which has fallen precipitously as the company shifts to nonunion wireless services.

The unions demand is being coordinated with the Democrats, who have repeatedly handed the telecom giants multibillion-dollar subsidies to expand their broadband systems into urban and rural areas, which Verizon considers too unprofitable for investment. Since 2015, Obamas Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has provided $1.8 billion a year to Verizon and AT&T, while allowing the carriers to raise the rates they can charge for basic phone service, supposedly to subsidize the cost of expanding the system, which is still restricted to a tiny portion of the country.

In order to prevent another sellout deal, rank-and-file workers must take the conduct of the strike out of the hands of the CWA and IBEW and fight for the broadest mobilization of the working class against the telecommunications giant and both big-business parties that back it.
6 years, 6 months ago by Scott Hardy

Tells Morning Meeting Federal Gov't may review deal

An Iowa senator continues to raise concerns over a proposed global ag merger.

Senator Chuck Grassley says he's concerned that a proposed merger between Syngenta and state-owned Chem China would give the Chinese easier access to the United State's agricultural infrastructure. Grassley, appearing Monday on WTAD's Morning Meeting, did say what the main reason was for the proposed 43 billion dollar merger.

Grassley says that even though both countries are based outside the US, the deal could still face Federal scrutiny. Hear the full interview with Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley in the podcast section of WTAD.com.
MIAMI, FL. (AP) - Sentencing has been delayed for the former head of a for-profit college called FastTrain in a multimillion-dollar U.S. government fraud scam.

A Miami federal judge agreed to postpone the sentencing of Alejandro Amor from Monday until May 2. He was previously convicted of conspiracy and 12 counts of theft of government money.

Amor faces a maximum of about 10 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors are also seeking forfeiture of $4.7 million in assets from Amor.

A jury convicted Amor of fraudulently getting hundreds of students approved for federal financial aid. Testimony showed FastTrain collected some $35 million in federal aid and loans from 2007 to 2012.

FastTrain had campuses in South Florida, Tampa, Jacksonville and Clearwater.

Amor's attorney had contended the fraud was caused by rogue employees.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A former Florida House speaker who stood up to Gov. Rick Scott is being pushed off the Florida State University board.

Scott on Friday replaced Allan Bense on the FSU board of trustees with Max Alvarez, a Doral businessman and friend of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. He also reappointed two trustees including one helping with Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Bense said Saturday he had asked for a new term on the FSU board but was turned down. His only comment: "I respect the decision." Bense's removal was first reported by the Tampa Bay Times.

In 2013, Bense voted in favor of a tuition hike opposed by Scott. FSU officials contended the tuition hike was mandated by state law but Scott's staff tried to pressure schools to vote it down.
Tallahassee, Fla. (WTXL)--It was a busy weekend for the Tallahassee Fire Department as crews responded to three different fires.

The most recent breaking out Sunday morning in the 9000 block of T-Bird Lane near Woodville.

Crews say an electrical fire displaced a family of three. When officials arrived on scene they found a home completely in flames. They were able to get the blaze under control and searched for the residents. Luckily, no one was home at the time.

TFD says the causes appeared to be electrical. The American Red Cross is assisting the family.

Allen Road

Meanwhile a kitchen fire destroyed an apartment on Allen Road. This one happened on Saturday night. Crews responded to the 2700 block where they say the fire was already out but once they got inside they found fire inside the walls.

They were able to extinguish what was left of the blaze but say it caused about $25,000 in damages.

No other apartments were affected and no one was injured, However The Fire Department is reminding residents to never extinguish a fire alone--but rather call 911.

Main Street

The Tallahassee Fire Department is working to figure out what caused a duplex to go up in flames Saturday night.

Firefighters were dispatched to the 2100 block of Main Street. When they got there the found the back of the home on fire.

Crews were able to quickly put it out and luckily no one was inside at the time. The fire caused about $5,000 in damages. The cause is still under investigation.
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Nearly two years after the end of Operation Protective Edge, the IDF has uncovered a Hamas attack tunnel crossing the border fence into Israel, which is believed to have been dug after the 2014 war, it was cleared for publication on Monday morning.

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The shaft was discovered inside Israeli territory, just a few dozens of meters from the border fence, in the Eshkol Regional Council, but not very close to nearby communities.

Officials in the defense establishment say the tunnel was likely meant to be used in a strategic attack against Israel, in which dozens of Hamas fighters from the elite "Nukhba" unit would participate.

Hamas fighters in an underground tunnel (Photo: Reuters)

Since the tunnel's discovery last week, IDF engineering forces and fighters from elite units have been working in the open area between Kisufim and Kerem to destroy it.

IDF forces destroying the tunnel (   ")

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The tunneling took place on both sides of the border, and the Palestinians in Gaza reported on it, but Hamas refrained from using the tunnel or taking other offensive steps against the IDF. And this despite the fact that according to Israeli officials estimations that Hamas was aware that the IDF had uncovered and destroyed the tunnel.

At the start of IDF operations, Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and GOC Southern Command Eyal Zamir were present. Residents in the area were told that the matter was under IDF control and that there was no real danger, therefore life went on as usual. Even farmers in the area were updated and were given no special instructions.

A senior security source said last week around the time of the tunnels discovery, "We are not surprised by Hamass efforts as that is an opportunity for them to carry out a strategic attack. Hamas is not rushing to battle. We have identified other tunnels dug by Hamas, but they have not penetrated our territory."

(Photo: IDF spokesperson)

Hamass excavation of this tunnel appears to be have been done relatively fast compared to those dug in the years prior to Operation Protective Edge, pointing to their having learned lessons and invested an unprecedented amount of money  millions of shekels  in the project. Even the depth of the tunnel, about 30 meters, is considered unusual.

Nevertheless, in other respects, it is the same type of tunnel discovered before and during Operation Protective Edge - reinforced walls, digging pathways, branches and inner depth.

According to a senior Southern Command official, Hamas employs 800 tunnel diggers who enjoy high salaries compared to other operatives in the organization, and Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades chief, Mohammed Deif, considers the tunnels a flagship project highlighting the strengthening of the organization's military wing.

The fact that no weapons were found in the tunnel, and that Hamas realized that the tunnel was discovered almost instantaneously and yet chose not to use it to attack the IDF, reinforces the defense establishments opinion that the tunnel was not meant to send terrorists into Israel in the nearby future but rather in further down the line.

Not an Iron Dome-level success yet

Over the past year, after receiving intelligence on the matter, the IDF focused much of its efforts on finding tunnels along the Gaza Strip border. IDF forces have been seen scanning the area in past months, attempting to find shafts and tunnel openings. The IDF responded to any tip by residents of the Gaza border communities, who reported suspicious noise, even in cases involving towns relatively far from the border fence.

The new tunnel's discovery is the result of field action, intelligence work by both the military and the Shin Bet, and above all, the result of the IDF's new tunnel-discovery technology, which has been used along the border over the past year.

IDF forces destroying Hamas tunnel (Photo: IDF spokesperson)

The IDF is treating the discovery of this tunnel as an initial step, heralding the new system's full implementation in a few months. The new system is part of the IDF Southern Command's "Southern Glow" operational plan, which includes the fortification of border measures against a mass invasion by Palestinian forces, as well as the deployment of early warning trackers which should aid in the discovery of terrorists crossing into Israel. Assuming the planned receives the required budget, "Southern Glow" is expected to be implemented during the next two years, starting with higher-risk areas.

IDF officials expressed their approval of the new technology used in discovering the tunnel, but the security community prefers not to call this a revolutionary moment or compare it to the implementation of the Iron Dome missile defense system. Still, the results of Israel's investment in this technology over the past few years have led a number of other countries to send representatives to learn how to combat the tunnel threat from Israel.

"We need to make this discovery into a method, with the test coming in the next few months, in which we will try and find more tunnels," said a senior Southern Command officer. "This is an ability that allows the discovery of very small spaces at depths of 30-40 meters, down to the level of ground water. We are still developing our method of handling this system. What we thought would happen during a certain time period with this system is taking four times longer (than expected)."

The senior officer doesn't rule out the possibility that Israel's breakthrough in the anti-tunnel fight could cause an escalation of violence on Israel's southern border.

"We have defined the mission as being the destruction of all attack tunnels without reaching an escalation, but an escalation will not deter us. Hamas knows we've strengthened our defenses and that it will have a hard time surprising us. If we end up in a war over this  then so be it. This is a long, protracted struggle. Hamas is a sophisticated enemy. It learns lessons and implements them fast. Each one of these tunnels that we foil is a loss for it. Hamas will have to contend with the dilemma of whether or not to act if it sees itself losing other attack tunnels."
Turkish police detained nearly 100 people in an investigation of their alleged financial links to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a foe of President Tayyip Erdogan, state-run Anadolu Agency said on Monday.

It said the police operation, focused on Istanbul, was launched across nine provinces and 88 people have so far been taken into custody, with prosecutors having issued arrest warrants for 140 people under the probe.

Among those detained were executives and employees of Islamic lender Bank Asya, which was founded by followers of Gulen and seized by the government last year, it said.
Sergeant Elor Azaria, 20, from Ramla, the Kfir Brigade soldier who shot dead an already-neutralized terrorist in Hebron, was charged with manslaughter at the Jaffa Military Court on Monday. He was also charged with inappropriate behavior.

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The Jaffa Military Court accepted the defense's request to lift the gag order on the soldier's name.

While determining that Azaria will stay in detention at the Nachshonim military base near Rosh HaAyin until the conclusion of legal proceedures against him, Judge Lt.-Col. Ronen Shor accepted another request by the defense to allow Azaria to spend Seder night with his family at home.

"The soldier took several steps towards the terrorists, aimed at his head and fired a single bullet from short range. This the defendant did in contravention of the rules of engagement and without operational justification," the indictment said.

Sgt. Elor Azaria (Photo: Shaul Golan)

The judge criticized both the prosecution and the defense, and warned that the evidence in the case was weak. "The level of criminality of the defendant might be lower than what the prosecution attributes him," Judge Shor said.

Prosecutor Lt.-Col. Adoram Rigler said at the court hearing that "the terrorist who was shot by the soldier did not pose a risk to him or to anyone around him. There is a strong evidentiary basis to prove the indictment."

The defense, meanwhile, claimed that The testimony and evidence ruled out a vengeful motive for the shooting. The pathologist said she cannot rule out that the terrorist might have moved his hands.

Attorney Ilan Katz, representing the soldier, further stated, "Company Commander NT testified to the Military Police, saying, 'I stood there for 7-8 minutes before the shooting, and noticed about 20 seconds before the shooting that the terrorist was moving.' Which explains the carelessness of the other people around."

Attorney Ben Malka, who also represents the soldier, said that "the decision mentions the fact there are many versions in support of the soldier. The prosecution's evidence is weak and this led, to begin with, to detention at the base. This is a manslaughter case and might turn out to be less. The indictment is not the end of it, just the opening note, and the truth will come out."

Scene of the shooting (Photo: AFP)

Azaria enlisted in the army a year and eight months ago and became a combat soldier in the Shimshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade. After successfully finishing a combat medics course, he began serving as a medic in his company.

Azaria has no criminal or disciplinary record. On the contrary, before the incident, he recently received a certificate of excellence for his service.

His father served in the police for 30 years. In recent years, the father has been doing volunteer work, helping soldiers to expunge their criminal record.

Investigators did not find any indication that Azaria supports or has been involved with radical right wing groups. However, in posts he made on Facebook before beginning his army service, he expressed support for the revenge of the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenagers.

On March 24, two terrorists armed with knives stabbed a soldier, moderately wounding him, at an IDF post near the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron.

The two were shot and neutralized by soldiers from the IDF's Kfir Brigade, and the wounded soldier's condition was later downgraded to light.

A video filmed several minutes later by B'Tselem volunteer Emad abu-Shamsiyah shows one of the terrorists, Abed al Fatah a-Sharif, lying on the ground motionless, when Azaria, who arrived at the scene of the attack several minutes later, aims his weapon at him and shoots him in the head.

An autopsy performed on a-Sharif found he was alive when he was shot, and died as a result of the shot to the head - not from the wounds he sustained before.
This is not the first time the IDF exposed a Hamas attack tunnel burrowing into Israel. This is, however, the first time it was done with the unique new technology that was developed and implemented here. The tunnel the IDF recently discovered was apparently dug after Operation Protective Edge's conclusion, and penetrated a few dozen meters into Israel, at a depth of about 30 meters. It seems that Hamas is digging its new tunnels in a zigzag pattern, with many divergent paths, in order to confuse Israeli forces. That way, when the IDF demolishes a tunnel, it's not entirely destroyed.

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It is believed that once Hamas realizes the IDF discovered one of its tunnels, it will stop using it. Still, one of the concerns is that just as the Brussels terrorists feared an imminent discovery and attacked the Belgian capital - even though their original targets were in Paris - Hamas will try and use the tunnels it has now to preempt the possibility of losing these resources.

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot at the tunnel's site (Left). (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)

This likely wasn't the only tunnel, but so far there's no proof of a tunnel penetrating into the ground beneath an Israeli town. On the contrary  every case of digging noises has been investigated and dismissed. Keeping in mind that we shouldn't take this phenomenon lightly, there's also no point in panicking.

The tunnels that were discovered shortly before and after Protective Edge were not an existential threat to any town. They were mostly aimed at harming IDF forces on the home front. Hamas wants to abduct soldiers and use the tunnels to replicate its success from the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. Attacking Israeli towns is a tertiary priority for it, but it exists nonetheless, and the very idea of Hamas tunneling into our territory hurts the Gaza border residents' sense of security. A routine cannot exist without the feeling of safety, and neither can a decent quality of life, which makes it necessary to handle the underground threat.

The tunnel discovery systems were developed by several groups of scientists, engineers, and technicians at the request of the defense establishment, but have yet to fully mature. The tunnel threat is still here. The level of protection provided by the new systems is not yet the equivalent to that of the Iron Dome missile defense system, but you can compare the achievements theyve had so far to the first successful trial runs of Iron Dome.

There's only one place in the world that currently has an active and functional tunnel-discovery system. The South Koreans discovered several tunnels, which crossed the border, dug by the North Koreans. A whole infantry division could fit through them in short order. Those were very large tunnels, dug for years through rocky terrain, and that makes a big difference as far as their location is concerned. Digging an underground tunnel through solid rock creates a lot of noise, which aids in discovering and locating the digging sites via sensitive sensors that can detect both vibrations and sound.

An old Hamas tunnel (left) and the new tunnel (right). (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)

In contrast, the land around the Gaza border is soft, comprised of a mixture of sand and red soil that can be dug through fairly easily and silently. The implementation of the partially-operational South Korean technology here was not really possible, which is why so much time and money were required before a promising first step could be taken.

Life-saving, just as much as medical science

Similar to the Iron Dome system, it is now necessary to implement scientific solutions and develop systems that will augment our vast combat experience. Faced with rocket fire, our capabilities have improved by dozens or even hundreds of percentage points. This is what must happen now. Rather than pat ourselves on the back for our successes, it is essential that we utilize that which we already have and continue to develop.

There are two lessons to be leaned here:

The first: When the defense establishment and the State of Israel know how to define the problem and are prepared to invest scientific, engineering and intelligence efforts into solving it - they create groundbreaking successes. The problem is always recognizing a specific danger in a given phenomenon and recognizing the threat it poses, not only to people's physical security, but also to their sense of safety.

(Photo: IDF Spokesperson)

The second: We need to invest in education, especially encouraging excellence in exact sciences. It can save just as many lives as medicine can.

In conclusion, it is important to highlight once again that we are not quite there yet, but we are quite close. We can only hope that those capable of developing groundbreaking technology will double their efforts and that the government will provide them with all the financial resources and necessary conditions to expedite technological development and implement it in facilities and in the field.

By doing so, the defense establishment will be free to deal with more pressing issues such as the firing of mortars from the Gaza Strip and from Lebanon towards Israeli towns on their respective borders.

This is the next objective. Intercepting mortars is no less important than intercepting tunnels. In my opinion, it is even more so.
Instead of addressing the estimated $600 billion in unfunded liabilities in Californias beleaguered public-employee pension system, Democrats in Sacramento have instead decided to solve a growing pension crisis in the private sector. In 2012, Governor Jerry Brown signed a measure that created an investment board and authorized a feasibility study of various options for a state-backed private-pension system. That study came out last month, and the legislature is now vetting bills that would put its recommendations into action.

The plans under consideration would mandate participation in the new state-run retirement system for firms with five or more workers, though the workers themselves could opt out. Employers that dont comply would face fines and other penalties. They would automatically deduct 3 percent to 5 percent of each employees earnings (the exact percentage is not yet determined) and deposit the money in an IRA, likely managed by the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS)the same union-controlled government entity that uses its investment muscle to promote liberal causes. Unlike the public-employee pension plans (or even Social Security), however, the envisioned private-pension system is a 401(k)-style, defined-contribution plan. It could not accumulate unfunded liabilities, at least in its current design.

After winning assurances that firms wont be liable for any losses, the states business community has stayed mostly neutral on the scheme. A state senate analysis in support of the bill points to a genuine problem. Today, due to inadequate retirement savings, nearly 50 percent of middle-income California workers will face living in or near poverty during their senior years, it says. Social Security is inadequate, and more than 7 million private-sector workers do not have access to a retirement savings plan through their jobs.

The obvious rebuttals: workers do have access to such plans in the private sector, and its not the governments job to create such a program. Low-income earners might not be thrilled to see their paychecks decline by 5 percent if the new proposal takes effect. Additionally, employers would face unexpected costs and red tape. The plan would almost certainly lead private employers with their own pension programs to dump their workers onto the new state system. And a government-administered pension system would likely crowd out private companies that manage and sell 401(k) investments.

The states public-sector unions backed Browns bill. As it turns out, union-friendly politicians hatched the private-sector pension plan a few years ago as a way to deflect attention from the public systems massive unfunded liabilities. The idea was to give private-sector workers some modest benefit as a way to dampen public support for pension reforms.

Union members pensions are enormous. Public-safety officials in California typically receive the 3 percent at 50 formula, which means they (and their spouses) are guaranteed 3 percent of their income multiplied by the number of years worked, available at age 50, which translates to 90 percent of their final years pay after 30 years. And thats before myriad pension-spiking gimmicks. Other public employees often receive formulas that guarantee 80 percent or more of their final pay, which is quite generous. The states $100,000 Pension Club is expanding rapidly for precisely that reason. Recently, the San Jose Mercury News reported on Alameda Countys top bureaucrat retiring with a $500,000 annual pension.

Should California go ahead and put the new system into place, and see positive results, expect political pressure to build to expand it into a bigger programone that could eventually put taxpayers on the hook. Would you trust this crowd to solve any pension crisis?

Photo by Max Whittaker/Getty Images
Following the discovery of an attack tunnel leading from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon stressed Monday that the search for Hamas's attack tunnels is the Israeli defense establishment's highest priority.

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"We don't seek another conflict, but if Hamas tries to challenge the State of Israel and disrupt the lives of the Gaza border residents, it will suffer a very powerful blow," Ya'alon added.

"Before, during and obviously after Operation Protective Edge weve been dedicating a lot of technological, intelligence and military efforts towards discovering tunnels from the Gaza strip. We have discovered many tunnels and we are adding to and centralizing our efforts to that end," he said.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Photo: Shaul Golan)

While Hamas has seen several of its tunnels collapse and some of its diggers killed, "we don't fool ourselves to think that Hamas will draw the conclusions, stop digging tunnels and set its efforts instead to improving life in the Gaza Strip for the benefit of its residents," the defense minister went on to say. "That is why we will continue our different efforts to discovering tunnels."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Ya'alon's words and praised the IDF and the security forces for the discovery while emphasizing the considerable financial investment which has gone toward thwarting the terror tunnel threat. After stating Israel's determination to "respond stongly respond strongly to any attempt to attack its soldiers and civilians." Netanyahu addressed the residents of Gaza.

"I want to say to the residents of Gaza - The IDF is operating 24/7 in order to ensure your safety and your daily routines."

The discovery of the tunnel comes two years after Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, when the IDF entered the Gaza Strip to flush out its mortar and rocket supplies after months of persistent rocket fire on Israel, as well as to destroy a network of tunnels being dug across Israels southern border.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) warned on Monday that Hamas is seeking to surprise Israel with what he dubbed as a kind of 'Yom Kippur War' of terror.

The Gaza terror organization, he said, is planning a multi-faceted attack which included penetration into Israel, killing and kidnappings.

Bayit Yehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett (Photo: Ido Erez)

"Our worst fears have come true," Bennett said. "Over the two years that have passed since Operation Protective Edge, Hamas hasn't been deterred from re-intensifying its efforts. It has made the construction of terror tunnels - penetrating deep into Israel - into a national project. This is a top national goal for them and the time has come for us to internalize that, he continued.

Bennett also sought to demonstrate Israels resolve to counter the threats posed by Hamas, promising to protect the citizens of the Gaza border region and even hinting at the renewal of military hostilities. Digging into our territory constitutes a violation of (our) sovereignty and justifies all necessary action," he said.

"The State of Israel must provide security for the residents of the south, prevent the (threat of tunnels) at all cost, and not rely on the idea that Hamas has been deterred," the Bayit Yehudi leader added.

Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman, meanwhile, called to overthrow the Hamas regime in Gaza.

"If we already know that Hamas is preparing itself for the next conflict, why are we letting it decide the timing? The State of Israel needs to decide what it wants and unfortunately, the government is not able to decide," he said.

"I have news for you. Even during this interview the Palestinians are digging more attack tunnels," he claimed, adding that the Palestinians were also developing cyber capabilities.

Opposition leader lsaac Herzog blamed what he dubbed "the chatterboxes" in the government which, he argued, "had promised us that there will be deterrence and quiet for many years, but it turns out that Haniyeh is not scared of Bennett and Mohammed Deif does not take Netanyahu into consideration. The time has come to establish an Israeli government, whose leaders keep quiet and hit the enemy in the head."

Yoav Galant (Kulanu), the former IDF commander of the Southern Command, told Ynet that while he believed the current strategy to locate tunnels appeared to be succeeding, another conflict with Hamas could be imminent.

The IDF needs to regroup in the coming days and prepare for another wide scale conflict against Gaza this summer. I hope it doesnt happen but it needs to prepare," Galant said.
Hamas's military wing dismissed on Monday the attack tunnel discovered by Israel as "nothing more than a drop in the bucket of what the resistance has prepared to defend the people and liberate our holy sites, land, and prisoners."

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The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades also claimed that Israel had withheld from its citizens some information about the tunnels, but so far failed to elaborate on those details, claiming these will be revealed at the appropriate time.

"The Israeli occupation was not brazen enough to publish all the details, information, and facts about the resistance tunnel," a statement by the al-Qassam Brigades said.

The newly discovered tunnel (Photo: IDF Spokesman)

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official in Gaza told Ynet that he does not expect the discovery of the tunnel to lead to a major military conflict between Hamas and Israel. "Both sides are currently interested in calm and not an escalation that could lead to a new war. Indeed both sides are improving their respective military abilities, but no one can say what the future holds."

The Hamas official added, "Another war is expected, but no one can say if it will happen in another year, ten years, or twenty years. I am convinced that (things) are not (headed) in that direction at the moment.

"The situation between Gaza and Israel is stable. Both sides are in control of the borders and I believe neither side has an interest in an escalation. It is possible that the discovery of the tunnel could upset the stability, but it is still too early to make such determinations."
The Gaza military court, which is subject to Hamas, sentenced five Palestinian men to death on Monday on charges of collaborating with Israel.

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Four of them are set to be hanged, and the other executed by firing squad.

One of the five was accused of collaborating with Israel since 2008. According to the charges, he passed on information to Israel about the location of tunnels dug by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas' military wing), as well as the activities and locations of its members.

Another Palestinian was accused of collaborating with the Jewish state since 2000, when he worked at the Erez Border Crossing. He is alleged to have passed information to Israel regarding members of the military wing and where they lived, as well as the locations from which rockets were fired and of Hamas' rocket manufacturing facilities.

Hamas executes 'collaborators' with Israel during Operation Protective Edge (Photo: Reuters)

A third member of the group was accused of collaborating with Israel starting in 2010, causing harm to senior members of Hamas's military wing with the information he gave Israel.

A fourth member of the group was accused of collaborating with Israel since 2008, giving Israel details of al-Qassam Brigades members and their bases.

The fifth man, who was sentenced to death by firing squad, was convicted of passing information to Israel about the movements of Hamas military wing members, which led Israel to target them.

Another Gazan Palestinian was sentenced on Sunday to ten years in prison for collaborating with Israel.
Sweden's housing minister, Mehmet Kaplan, resigned on Monday partly over comments he made seven years ago comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany, increasing pressure on an already unpopular government.

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At the weekend, daily Svenska Dagbladet reported comments made by Kaplan in 2009, before he became a minister, when he said "Israelis treat Palestinians in a way that is very like that in which Jews were treated during Germany in the 1930s."

"Mehmet Kaplan's overall assessment of the situation is that he will not be able to act as a minister and I share that assessment," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven of the Social Democrats told a news conference.

Mehmet Kaplan (Photo: Reuters)

Relations between Sweden and Israel hit rock bottom in 2014 when the Social Democrat-Green government recognized the Palestinian state

Kaplan, who was born in Turkey, has also come under criticism for attending a dinner attended by a representative of an ultra-nationalist Turkish organization.

Kaplan told reporters he rejected "all forms of extremism whether they are nationalistic, religious or in any other form".
Amid rising Palestinian opposition to the plans by Jordan and Israel to install security cameras on the Temple Mount, Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour announced on Monday that his country would not proceed with the installations.

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According to Ensour, the Hashemite Kingdom backed out of the joint initiative due to a lack of Palestinian support for the initiative.

Last month, the Jordanian Minister of Religious Affairs, Hayil Abdelhafeez Dawoud, announced that his country would install 55 cameras on the Temple Mount "to monitor and document the continued Israeli violations against Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif." A few days prior to this, the Jordanian Minister of Media Affairs and Communications, Mohammad Momani, clarified that the cameras will not be placed inside the mosques.

The plan was met with widespread opposition from the Palestinians. Banners were hung all over the Temple Mount calling for Palestinians to smash the security cameras. One guard from the Waqf (Islamic Religious Endowments Organization), which is charged with managing the Islamic religious affairs on the Temple Mount, said that We dont need any cameras here. Only Allah sees all.

Palestinians also launched a second banner campaign called The picture is clear - so no cameras are needed, bearing pictures showing Israeli policemen attacking and dragging Palestinians from the Mount.

Sign calls for Palestinians to smash security cameras

The opposition, which was also joined by Hamas and other radical factions among Israels Arabs, was intended to prevent the live coverage that could thwart attempts by young Palestinians to start violent conflicts on the site, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims and has been a focal point of violent clashes and demonstrations.

In an interview with the Petra news agency, the Jordanian prime minister claimed that despite alleged Israeli attempts to sabotage the project, Jordan overcame all the obstacles but that the real difficulty came from an unexpected place.

We were surprised since our intention to carry out the project, by the response of some of our Palestinian brethren to the project, adding that they voiced their concern and cast doubt on its aims and objectives, Prime Minister Ensour said.

He added that, out of respect for the choices of "our brethren in Palestine," in their national land (including the al-Aqsa Mosque), we found that this project is a point of contentious and therefore, we decided to halt its implementation, Ensour concluded.

In anticipation of a significant increase in the number of Jewish visits to the Temple Mount ahead of the Jewish festival of Passover, Israel will deploy reinforcements around the compound in an effort to stop rioting and prevent terror attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday.
The Supreme Court decided on Monday to shorten the sentence of Raed Salah, the head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, from 11 to nine months.

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Salah was convicted of incitement to racism and violence for a sermon he delivered in a mosque in East Jerusalem in 2007 following archaeological digs close to the Mughrabi Gate which leads to the Temple Mount.

This is Salah's second appeal in this case. After being sentenced in a Magistrate's Court last October, he appealed to the District Court, where his appeal was rejected. He then appealed to the Supreme Court, where they decided to shorten his sentence due to the fact that the sermon happened a long time ago, and because Saleh has not committed a similar offense since then.

Raed Salah, Head of the Islamic Movment's Northern Branch (Photo: Reuters)

The recent decision was made by a majority opinion penned by judges Elyakim Rubinstein and Anat Baron, against the opinion of Judge Salim Joubran. Joubran asserted the conviction of incitement to racism should be sustained, but Salah should be acquitted of incitement to violence.

Judge Rubenstein wrote in his ruling that "the defendant is a well known figure in the Arab world and in Israel; he is one of the religious leaders of Muslims in Israel ... his speech was given to a large crowd, furious and agitated ... it appears this sermon was organized and planned in a volatile public atmosphere in light of the claims Israel wanted to change the status quo in the al-Aqsa mosque. There is no reason to split hairs to determine these things. The objective of this speech was to incite to racism."

On the other hand, Joubran wrote in his opinion that "there is great importance to the diversity of the crowd and their ability to understand the meaning of (the sermon). I believe that the fact the defendant did not address a specific crowd, willing and politically motivated, but to a general crowd from all over the world, reduces the specificity of the call, and as a result reduces the possibility that this call could bring someone to carry out an act of violence."

"As a crude analogy," Joubran continued, "just as general calls for world peace do not necessarily bring about world peace, I believe that general calls for a 'global intifada' do not necessarily incite to violence."
UNITED NATIONS - The Israeli and Palestinian ambassadors engaged in a rare shouting match in the UN Security Council on Monday, reflecting Israel's growing consternation at the upsurge in Palestinian attacks against civilians and Palestinian frustration at the failure to achieve its dream of a truly independent state.

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Israel's Ambassador Danny Danon started the heated exchange at the end of his speech during Monday's monthly council meeting on the Middle East.

Looking across the council table at Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour, he demanded: "Will you condemn Palestinians who commit terror attacks against Israelis?"

Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon (Photo: UN/Cia Pak)

Mansour, whose initial response was not heard because his microphone was off, retorted when it was turned on: "We condemn the killing of all innocent civilians including Palestinian civilians. Do you do the same?"

During Israel's war against Gaza militants in 2014, more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed, including hundreds of civilians, according to UN figures.

Since the current wave of unrest began in September, Palestinian attackers have killed 29 Israelis and four foreign nationals and at least 189 Palestinians have been killed. On Monday, a bus exploded in Jerusalem wounding 21 people in what police were calling a "terror attack." Palestinians have accused Israel of using excessive force against assailants, and in some cases, killing innocent civilians.

Neither Danon nor Mansour got an answer to their initial question, but the Israeli ambassador wasn't giving up.

Danon accused the Palestinians of teaching "hatred" in schools and naming streets after "terrorists" and demanded that these practices stop.

"You pay the families of terrorists," he said. "You glorify terrorism. Shame on you for doing that."

Mansour shot back: "We don't."

Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour (Photo: EPA)

Danon, undeterred, went on: "Shame on you for glorifying terrorism."

Mansour retorted: "Shame on you for killing thousands of Palestinian children."

After another heated exchange, China's UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi banged his gavel and told the Israeli ambassador to continue with his statement.

But Danon ignored him, again shouting at Mansour saying: "You cannot condemn terrorism. You cannot say it here ... Shame on you for not being able to say it."

Mansour responded but his microphone was turned off.

When it was turned on, he shouted back: "Let my people be free. You are occupiers. You are colonizers. Leave us alone."

The Israeli-Palestinian exchange followed a briefing to the Security Council by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who said the latest killings "have only deepened the divisiveness, hatred and grief" on both sides.

Mansour said the Palestinians are moving ahead on a Security Council resolution that would address Israeli settlements in the West Bank and aim at de-escalating the volatile situation, rebuilding trust and moving toward "a just, lasting, comprehensive peace."

Danon reiterated that when the Palestinians end their "campaign of hate and violence," and teach respect for all people in their schools, "they will find a partner ready to work with them for the promise of peace."

China's Wang, obviously annoyed at the shouting match, urged all to speakers to "keep order in this chamber in order to reflect the solemnity of the question we are discussing."
Racist City Employees Are on Notice, and 9 Other Greater Cincinnati News Stories You May Have Missed This Week

Catch up on local government, politics, sports, celeb sightings and Halloween fun.
Stephen William hill was yesterday handed a two year and nine month prison sentence with a non-parole period of one year and nine months after he was found guilty earlier this year of six charges of fraudulent misappropriation worth $218,000 in March.

Hill faced the charges after an Australian Securities & Investment Commission investigation into his companies Hill Stephens & Associates Pty Ltd and International Finance Consortium (Aust) Pty Ltd.

The ASIC investigation found that between January 2006 to February 2007 Hill used Hill Stephens & Associates Pty Ltd and International Finance Consortium (Aust) Pty Ltd to induce various investors to pay approximately $618,000 to acquire interests in a 'house and land' property development in Queensland.

ASICs investigation found that Hill reviewed the financial circumstances of investors, recommended they set up a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) for investment, referred investors to a solicitor to establish a SMSF, elicited establishment fees and instructed investors to deposit their funds to his company bank accounts.

Hill advised their funds would be used as seed capital in a number of Queensland based property developments and that they would receive returns of between 10 - 30% per annum.

Unknown to the investors, funds paid were not invested in the property developments as originally advised by Hill and were directed to company bank accounts to make payments to Hill and other third parties.

ASIC Commissioner Greg Tanzer said the sentence showed regulators were serious about cracking down on behaviour like Hills.

'Mr Hill's actions betrayed the trust of his investors and caused them significant financial harm. Today's sentence showed such behaviour will not be tolerated, he said.
As a homeowner, you probably already know that you should be working to maintain your home. But, chances are, you Read More
The Global and United States Hydrobike Market Report has been published by QY Research recently. Hydrobike Market Analysis and Insights This report focuses on...
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- President Klaus Iohannis convened, on October 25, at Cotroceni Palace, a meeting of the Supreme Council of the Country's Defense (CSAT), the Presidential Administration informs, the topics on the agenda being to be related to the security situation in the context of Russia's aggression against Ukraine

- Former presidential Adviser Ligi Deca took the oath of office as Minister of Education, before President Klaus Iohannis, in a ceremony that was held at the Cotroceni Palace on Monday. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro 

- President Klaus Iohannis signed on Monday the decree by which Ligia Deca was appointed education minister. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro  Help your friends know more about Romania! Share this article on Facebook

- President Klaus Iohannis signed on Thursday the decree on the establishment of the Romanian Embassy to the Republic of Latvia, based in Riga. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro  Help your friends know more about Romania!

- Romania co-chairs, at the initiative of President Klaus Iohannis, the thematic line "Teachers, teaching and the teaching profession" within the Transforming Education Summit - TES, due to take place from Friday to Monday, on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, informed the

- President Klaus Iohannis will attend, on Monday, September 19, the State Funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II that will take place at Westminster Abbey in London, the Presidential Administration announced. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook

- President Klaus Iohannis on Monday signed a decree regarding the submission to Parliament for ratification of a loan agreement and a grant agreement between Romania and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) related to the first programmatic financing for the development

- The Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization announced on Monday the launch of a call for the support of Romanian SMEs to retrain their workforce in key technical fields (programming/coding, data analytics, cyber-security, computer-assisted design, additive manufacturing), the ministry
New Delhi: Expressing disappointment over BJP MP Vijay Goel's move to violate the Odd-Even scheme, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that one should not tamper with a move, which has received immense public support.

Kejriwal said the reports state that the people of Delhi are following the initiative very positively.

Responding to a poser about Goel being fined Rs. 3500 for violating the Odd-Even scheme, Kejriwal said "Vijay Goel ji was driving without license. This is a very dangerous thing."

He further congratulated the people of Delhi for the success of Odd-Even formula.

"The people have voluntarily come forward and are participating in the Odd-Even programme," he added.

CM Kejriwal also warned that the government will take strict action against Ola and Uber after the cab-hailing companies hiked their rates by at least three times during the odd-even rationing scheme.

Commuters said they had to pay astronomical rates for cabs because of surge pricing, a business practice in which companies increase rates when demand for cabs goes up.

The surge pricing varied from three times the usual rate to five times during morning rush hour.

Earlier in the day, Goel violated the Odd-Even scheme as a mark of protest following which he was penalised by the traffic police.

"I don't oppose the Odd-Even scheme rather I oppose the amount of public money being used by the Kejriwal government to advertise it. If they remove those advertisements, I won't protest with regard to this scheme," Goel told ANI.

Goel earlier met Transport Minister Gopal Rai during which the latter urged him to refrain from breaking the rule.
Surat: A 27-year-old Patel youth, who was actively involved in the quota agitation here ended his life allegedly by consuming poisonous substance "out of shock" upon learning about the police action against Patel quota leaders in Mehsana, claim Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leaders.

However, police said that it is a matter of investigation on why the young man committed suicide.

Bhavin Khunt (27), who was associated with quota body PAAS in the city, committed suicide by consuming poisonous substance at his residence in Puna Gam area here last evening, said Surat PAAS convener Nikhil Savani.

According to Savani, Khunt was in deep shock after he learned about the violent clashes between police and Patel agitators at Mehsana, where Patel community members had gathered for a 'Jail Bharo' agitation.

"Khunt was actively involved with PAAS. He was deeply hurt when he learned about police action against Patel agitators in Mehsana yesterday. Out of pain and shock, he consumed poisonous pills at around 7 PM yesterday at his house in Puna Gam area," said Savani.

"He was then rushed to a private hospital in Varachha area, where he died during midnight. Khunt was a native of Babra taluka of Amreli district and settled in Surat since many years. He was into textile marketing," said Savani, adding that Khunt's last rites were performed today afternoon.

Puna Gam police lodged a case in this regard and started further inquiry into the matter.

Though PAAS claims that Khunt ended his life out of shock, police have refused to accept this argument.

According to police inspector of Puna Gam, Vinod Patel, it is matter of investigation as to why Khunt ended his life.

"PAAS claims that Khunt was in shock because of the violence in Mehsana. PAAS also claims that he was harassed by police. Since Khunt was never detained by police, there is no question of harassment. We are yet to find out the exact reasons that led Khunt to commit suicide," said Patel.
New Delhi: Body of Kirpal Singh, the Indian prisoner, who died in Pakistan's Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore last Monday, will be brought back to India, according to an ANI report.

A team of doctors will perform postmortem of Kirpal Singh in Lahore on Tuesday. Singh's body will be brought back to India by afternoon, ANI report says.

Kirpal's family members had been requesting the central government's intervention in the matter after they received the news of his death in Pakistan prison.

His family alleged a conspiracy behind his death and drew parallel with another Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who was lodged in same prison and died after being attacked by his jail inmates in 2013.

Fifty four-year-old Singh, who was serving a life term in Pakistan after being convicted in a 1992 bomb blast case in Faislabad, died under mysterious condition on Monday.

Pakistan authorities, however, claimed that Kirpal complaint of chest pain after which he was rushed to a hospital where he died of heart attack.

Kirpal's family members have denied Pakistan's claim that he died of a heart attack and have demanded that his post-mortem be conducted in India to ascertain the facts.

Earlier, Home Minister Rajnath Singh met the family members of Kirpal Singh and assured them of all possible help from the government.

On April 15, India's Acting High Commissioner in Islamabad, J.P. Singh, met the Director-General for South Asia in the Pakistani Ministry for Foreign Affairs to request that Singh's body be flown to India at the earliest.
Beijing: Visiting Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday underlined that India attaches highest priority to its ties with China.

Just before beginning his meeting with Chinese counterpart General Chang Wanquan at the headquarters of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) here, Parrikar said, India attaches highest priority to its relations with China and is committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations.

Chang, on his part, said Parrikar's visit is likely to improve the strategic mutual trust between the two armed forces.

This is the first visit to China by an Indian defence minister in three years - AK Antony had travelled to Beijing in June 2013.

Later today, Parrikar will meet Gen Fan Changlong, vice-chairperson of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), headed by President Xi Jinping, before calling on Premier Li Keqiang.

Tomorrow, Parrikar travels to Chinas integrated western command military headquarters in Chengdu.

Parrikar's China visit comes in the backdrop of two significant developments: first, China's move to veto at UN India's efforts to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar, and second, India and the United States moving closer to inking the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) that will allow militaries of both countries to access each other's facilities.
Moscow: India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said that she looked forward to working with her counterparts from Russia and China in the fight against terrorism after she took up with the Chinese foreign minister the issue of Beijing vetoing New Delhi`s move in the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar.

Sushma Swaraj said in a media statement following the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers` Meeting that international terrorism remained the foremost threat to international peace and security.

"I stressed the need to craft an effective global strategy to counter terrorism, including at the UN. I look forward to working with both my colleagues, in this regard," she said.

Answering a question in press conference after the RIC meeting, she said that all three countries -- India, Russia and China -- have been victims of terrorism.

"It is natural for us that we unite to lead the world in our fight against terrorism," Sushma Swaraj said.

"To do this, it is important that we give up the distiction between `good` and `bad` terrorists. We will also need to give up the tendency to differentiate between `my terrorists` and `your terrorists`," she said.

The external affairs minister stated that a terrorist was a terrorist, one who committed crimes against humanity and not against any nation.

"We must adopt this principle. And today at the RIC meeting, I put forward these views quite frankly before my two counterparts from Russia and China," she said.

Sushma Swaraj also referred to her bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier in the day, during which she raised the issue of China vetoing India`s bid at the UN to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar.

India approached the UN in February to include Azhar in the UN Security Council`s 1267 sanctions list, in the aftermath of the Pathankot airbase terror attack. In the strike in early January by JeM terrorists, seven Indian security personnel were killed.

However, China asked the UN sanctions committee to keep on hold the Indian move, saying that Azhar did not meet the UN criteria to be banned as a terrorist.

India has voiced disappointment at the "technical hold" put on its application to include Azhar in the UN sanctions list.

"I would also like to tell you that in the morning today, I met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and in that meeting also I said to him that if we want to fulfill our commitment to fight terrorism together, then we must rethink the position they have taken on UNSC 1267 Committee," Sushma Swaraj said.

In her media statement, she also said that she and the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers had a productive exchange of views on the situation in the Middle East.

"We all stressed our commitment to support democratic, pluralistic and peaceful forces in order to restore stability in the region," she stated.

"We also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and agreed that it was important for the international community to remain engaged and support the Afghanistan Government in its development and reconciliation efforts and in defeating terrorist forces."

On the issue of UN Security Council reforms, the external affairs minister said she once again urged both Russia and China to take the lead in ensuring that the inter-governmental negotiations (IGN) process in the UN advanced swiftly.

"India`s permanent membership of the Security Council is long overdue and this anomaly needs urgent rectification," Sushma Swaraj said.

She said that she, along with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Wang, had an exchange of views on various groupings, including BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).

India assumed the chairmanship of BRICS this year.

"We look forward to active participation of both Russia and China in various activities that we have planned throughout the year and throughout India," Sushma Swaraj said, adding that India looked forward to welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Goa in October for the BRICS summit.
Beijing: Playing down India's decision to sign a logistic agreement with the US, Chinese state media on Monday said the proposed deal is stalled because of distrust between the two as India wants to be the "most beautiful woman" wooed by all, especially Washington and Beijing.

"Besides their traditional distrust, the speculation heralding a US-India alliance is also an obvious underestimation of India's ambition for a role of swing-state between superpowers," an article in the state-run Global Times said as Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar started his first visit to Beijing today for talks with Chinese officials.

"The basic idea is that India would like to continue to be the most beautiful woman wooed by all men, notably the two strongest in the house, US and China," the article titled 'Indo-US strategic distrust stalls LSA signing'.

"This is not an unfamiliar role to India. We can still recall how its diplomatic manoeuvring had earned itself a special role between the two competing blocs during the Cold War," it said.

"Evidently enough, it needs to feel its way forward and try not to agitate China by crossing the bottom line and consequently it declines to discuss the prospect of joint patrols in the South China Sea, despite the obvious interest and much enthusiasm from its American counterpart," it said.

Last week, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter concluded his three-day visit to India and announced he and his Indian counterpart have agreed in-principle that all the issues regarding a Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) are resolved and both sides would finalise the text in the coming weeks.

Highlighting India's decision to sign the LSA, the report said: "Despite a whole range of strategic issues being covered in the visit, the topic of the logistics agreement itself has triggered speculation among international media that both sides are boarding the same boat to contain China."

In essence, the LSA's purpose is to share military bases for logistical purposes, including refuelling and repair.

"Therefore it is very much similar to the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA), a traditional agreement the US has with many of its NATO allies," the article said.

"That's why it has triggered speculation that both sides are moving toward a military alliance arrangement", it said.

In 2007, the US and Sri Lanka signed an ACSA to allow exchange of logistics supplies during peacekeeping missions, humanitarian operations, and joint exercises.
Delhi: Government on Monday told the Supreme Court that Koh-i-Noor diamond was neither "forcibly taken" nor "stolen" by British rulers but given to the East India Company by the rulers of Punjab.

"Koh-i-Noor cannot said to be forcibly taken or stolen as it was given by the successors of Maharaja Ranjit Singh to East India Company in 1849 as compensation for helping them in the Sikh wars," Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told a bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur.

The apex court then asked whether the government was willing to stake a claim to the Koh-i-Noor, one of the most valuable diamonds in the world.

The Solicitor General told the apex court that the demand to get back Koh-i-Noor have been raised time and again in Parliament.

"If we claim our treasures like Koh-i-Noor from other countries, every other nation will start claiming their items from us. There will be nothing left in our museums," Solicitor General said, as per PTI.

He said this was the stand of Ministry of Culture while the response from Ministry of External Affairs, which is also a party, is awaited.

The bench, also comprising Justice UU Lalit, then asked the Solicitor General to file a detailed reply within six weeks.

Following are some of the facts related to the famous diamond:

- Koh-i-Noor means 'Mountain of Light'.

- It has been the subject of a historic ownership dispute and claimed by at least four countries including India.

- It is a large, colourless diamond that was found near Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, India.

- The diamond by some accounts was a royal treasure as far back as 3000 BC.

- However, by and large, it is said to have been found in 13th century and weighed 793 carats (158.6 g) uncut.

- The diamond was first owned by the Kakatiya dynasty and has changed hands several times.

- In the early 14th century, Alauddin Khilji's general Malik Kafur made a successful raid on Warangal in 1310 and possibly acquired the diamond.

- It remained in the Khilji dynasty and later passed to the succeeding dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate.

- Later it came into the possession of Babur who established the Mughal Empire in 1526.

- Both Babur and his son and successor, Humayun, mentioned the origins of this diamond in their memoirs, thought by many historians to be the earliest reliable reference to the Koh-i-Noor.

- Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor, had the stone placed into his ornate Peacock Throne.

- It is said to have been given to Britain by Maharajah, Ranjit Singh, as compensation for help in the Sikh wars.

- Members of the public were given a chance to see the Koh-i-Noor when The Great Exhibition was staged at Hyde Park, London, in 1851.

- Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, unhappy with its dull and irregular appearance, ordered it cut down from 186 carats (37.2 g) in 1852.

- It is then said to have emerged 42 percent lighter weighing 105.6 carats (21.12 g) and measuring 3.6 cm x 3.2 cm x 1.3 cm.

- After Queen Victoria's death, the Koh-i-Noor was set in the Crown of Queen Alexandra, the wife of Edward VII.

- The diamond was transferred to Queen Mary's Crown in 1911 and finally to The Queen Mother's Crown in 1937.

- India had first demanded the return of the Koh-i-Noor in 1947.

- A second request followed in 1953.

- In 1976, Pakistan asserted its ownership of the diamond.

- In 2000, several Indian MPs signed a letter calling for the diamond to be given back to India.

- A PIL was filed by All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front seeking directions to the Indian High Commissioner in United Kingdom for the return of the diamond, besides several other treasures.

- The PIL has made Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Culture, High Commissioners of UK, Pakistan and Bangladesh as parties in the case.

- It had also sought return of the "ring and talwar of Tipu Sultan and other treasures of Tipu Sultan, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Rani of Jhansi, Nawab Mir Ahmad Ali Banda and other rulers of India."
New Delhi: In a major development in Murthal gangrapes case during Jat agitation, key witness Bobby Joshi has claimed that he was attacked by two unidentified persons on Sunday night.

The alleged attack on the key witness of Murthal gangrapes took place on National Highway - 1, while he drove enroute to Delhi from Ludhiana, a report published in Tribune said.

What happened with him?

According to Bobby Joshi, while he was returning to Delhi in his car from Ludhiana, he stopped to buy cigarettes between Karnal and Panipat. As he got back into the car, two motorcycle-borne youths drove towards him and hurled abuses.

"They threw a stone at me, shattering the cars window," Bobby Joshi claimed.

Threat calls

Earlier, Bobby has claimed that he was threatened for speaking too much against Jats.

Bobby Joshi had said that he received a call saying 'you're speaking too much against Jats, 'hum tumhe dekh lenge'.

After rejecting the reports of sexual assaults in Murthal, the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government had earlier last week told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that a Section of gang-rape has been added in the FIR registered on the basis of a complaint filed by Bobby Joshi on March 30 alleging gang-rapes during the Jat quota violence.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had taken suo motu notice of media reports that some women, who were commuting on the Delhi-Ambala Highway (NH-1), were stripped and raped by rioters during the Jat agitation over reservation in government jobs.

The Haryana Government had initially told the court that no incidents of rape or molestation had taken place.
New Delhi: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board is likely to oppose any move to scrap triple talaq and the Shayara Bano case which had called it unconstitutional in the Supreme Court.

As per a report by ToI, the AIMPLB had last week decided to thwart any attempt by the Centre or "any authority" in the Muslim personal law to scarp triple talaq.

"The SC has accepted the board as a party in the case. Now, the board will seek a similar intervention in the Shayara Bano case," lawyer Zafaryab Jilani was quoted as saying.

Interestingly, the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) president Shaista Ambar had also called for nullifying the triple talaq system.

Terming the triple talaq system as un-Islamic and an evil practice, Shaista had said that she would leave no stones unturned to nullify the instant way of divorcing.

A high-level committee set up by the Central government to review the status of women in India had recently recommended a ban on the practice of oral, unilateral and triple talaq (divorce) and polygamy - a demand already made by a majority of Indian Muslim women.

The assessment of family laws governing Muslim community members is part of a voluminous report submitted last year by the panel appointed by the previous Congress-led UPA government.

The recommendations of the panel support the demand for the ban on the grounds that such talaq renders wives extremely vulnerable and insecure regarding their marital status.

The panel, in its report, had recommended specific amendments to the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939 coupled with suggestions for introducing provisions to provide interim maintenance.

The report states that payment of maintenance to the wife and children must be made mandatory in the event of separation or divorce.

The landmark ruling of the Supreme Court in 1985 in the Shah Bano case recognised the Muslim womans right to maintenance, but was never actually codified in the Muslim personal law.

Last month, the SC had admitted the petition of Shayara Bano from Uttarakhand seeking triple talaq to be declared unconstitutional. The apex court had also initiated suo motu proceedings to examine the need for protecting the rights of all Muslim women. AIMPLB is all set to become a party to the case.
New Delhi: India's Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, which was several years in the making, has now caught the attention of foreign buyers with Sri Lanka and Egypt evincing interest in the indigenously built fighter jet.

Sri Lanka had recently rejected Pakistan's JF-17 aircraft built with Chinese help, while Egypt had last year signed a contract for 24 French-made Rafale fighter jets.

The two countries are interested in the current version of the Tejas and not the upgraded one which will be rolled out later.

However, state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the manufacturer of Tejas, is focusing on delivering the aircraft to the IAF first.

"While there is an interest which has been shown (by other countries), let us get the product first to our own customer. The confidence that will come to others when our own Air Force flies it will be immense. So at first, we should at least meet the initial requirement of the IAF," HAL chairman T Suvarna Raju told PTI.

Refusing to share information on which are the countries that have evinced interest in Tejas, he expressed confidence in his marketing team and said they are equipped to take forward the talks. However, Defence sources said that the two countries which have evinced interest in Tejas were Sri Lanka and Egypt.

He said the "current version is more than enough" for smaller nations.

Two things that go in favour of the Tejas are its lower cost and flying ability.

"We have proved its flying ability and the aircraft, for that class, is a terrific one. We did take some time but we need to remember that DRDO and us did everything from the scratch," Raju said.

Raju said that the upgraded version of Tejas, with Active Electrically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Unified Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite, mid-air refuelling capacity and beyond the vision range missiles, will cost between Rs 275 crore and Rs 300 crore.

Sources said enquiries by foreign countries came during the Bahrain air show in January, the first time that Tejas flew outside the country.

The decision to send Tejas abroad was of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who has put his weight behind the aircraft.

LCA Tejas performed 8-G (gravity) pull, vertical loop, slow fly-past and barrel roll at the air show, which the Indian officials described as "historic".

Interestingly, soon after the announcement of Tejas' participation in Bahrain, Pakistan had withdrawn its JF-17 aircraft from the show despite having paid the initial installment which ran into a few millions US dollars.

Tejas is perhaps the world's smallest lightweight, multi-role single engine tactical fighter aircraft.

JF-17 has been developed jointly by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation of China. However, experts feel that the aircraft has been assembled in Pakistan from readymade Chinese kits.

HAL is likely to hand over the fourth Tejas aircraft to the Air Force by June end. The four aircraft will make up the first squadron of IAF which will be used for training and familarisation.

Rather than wait for LAC Mk II, IAF had decided to go for an upgraded version of the existing Tejas with over 40 modifications.

IAF plans to acquire 120 Tejas aircraft, with 100 of these having major modifications.

As per the production plan, six aircraft will be made this year and HAL will subsequently scale it up to eight and 16 aircraft per year.

The LCA programme was initiated in 1983 to replace the ageing MiG-21s planes in IAF's combat fleet but has missed several deadlines due to various reasons.
Moscow: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday met mother of a 23-year-old Russian woman who was attacked with acid in Varanasi in November last year

Later she tweeted a photo of the meeting saying, "A nation's support at a difficult time. With mother and sister of Darya Prokina."

A nation's support at a difficult time. With mother & sister of Darya Prokina - Varanasi acid attack victim.pic.twitter.com/DcfsE9Q1Tv  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 18, 2016

Swaraj told Antonina Prokina, the mother of the victim, that trial in the case has begun and that she was in touch with Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav in connection with the case so that the man behind the attack does not escape strong punishment.

"He (the accused) had applied for bail but a court has rejected it. The trial in the case has already begun. I am in touch with Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and told him that he must get harshest of the punishment," Swaraj told Antonina, as per PTI.

The mother of the girl met Swaraj - who arrived here yesterday on a two-day visit - at the hotel where the Minister is staying.

Antonina, accompanied by her elder daughter Yana, explained to Swaraj the trauma the family was undergoing following the incident.

The family stays at the Moscow region.

The 23-year-old Russian national had suffered 46 percent burn injuries after a local youth threw acid on her on November 13 in Nand Nagar area of Varanasi.

The victim was first shifted to a Delhi hospital after initial treatment in Varanasi.

On November 16, she came to Moscow.

The Indian Embassy here has been helping the family in treatment of the girl.

The accused, identified as Siddharth Srivastava, had fled to Allahabad after the incident and was arrested later.

Swaraj had sought a report from the Uttar Pradesh government following the attack on the girl and promised all possible help to her and the family.

(With PTI inputs)
Moscow: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday strongly raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi the issue of China blocking its bid to have JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the UN.

Swaraj took up the issue with Wang at a bilateral meeting here on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.

Official sources said the issue was raised by Swaraj besides deliberations on a range of issues.

Earlier this month, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

Last July, China had similarly halted India's move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying its stand was "based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness" with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar last week had said in New Delhi that India has taken up at a "fairly high level" with China the issue of Beijing blocking its bid to have Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN but the issue will not "overflow" into other areas of bilateral ties.

China had defended its decision, saying that it acts on such issues based on facts and rules in an "objective and just manner".

After the attack on the airbase in Pathankot on January 2, India had in February written to the UN calling for immediate action to list Azhar under the UN Sanctions Committee.

The Indian submission was considered by the Counter- Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) for technical aspects of the evidence provided.

The technical team then with the support of the US, the UK and France had sent it to all the members. All were told that if there are no objections, the designation will be announced after the expiry of the deadline but just hours before the deadline, China requested the UN committee to keep on hold the designation.

Earlier this week, India had slammed the use of "hidden veto" and demanded accountability, saying the world body's general members are never informed of the reason for not acceding to requests for sanctioning terrorists.
Moscow: India on Monday warned the international community of "serious consequences" if it continues to adopt "double standards" in dealing with terrorism and strongly pitched for crafting of an effective global strategy to deal with the menace.

In her address at the Foreign Ministers meeting of RIC (Russia-India-China), External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said there must be an effective global action against terror networks and terrorism remains the foremost threat to peace and security.

"India believes that the foremost challenge to international security continues to be posed by international terrorism. The RIC countries must lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN," Swaraj said.

"We must not fail in this regard. If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," she said.

Significantly, Swaraj's remarks came after she raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, before the tilateral, the issue of China blocking India's bid at the UN to have JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as terrorist.

Later, addressing a press conference along with Wang and her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Swaraj said there was a need to craft an effective global strategy to counter terrorism, including at the UN.

"India, Russia and China have been victims of terrorism. It is natural for us that we unite to lead the world in our fight against terrorism. To do this, it is important that we give up the distinction between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists. We will also need to give up the tendency to differentiate between 'my terrorists' and 'your terrorists'," Swaraj said.

In her address at the RIC, Swaraj talked about the UN Security Council reform and said a greater urgency was required on the issue. She also sought support of Russia and China in this regard.

"Let me also touch upon the issue of reform of UN Security Council, on which there has been some positive movement with a text being put for the first time on the table for inter-governmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue. I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN process forward," she said.

The External Affairs Minister said the slowdown of the global economy has created its own set of issues for economies of all the three countries and they must join hands in spurring growth.

"As three large, emerging economies, we share similar approaches and could benefit from coordinating our positions," Swaraj said.

On BRICS, Swaraj said it is an important framework to boost economic growth.

"We look forward to active participation of all members in the meetings of BRICS during our presidency this year. We hope to have a very successful BRICS Summit in Goa in October," Swaraj said.

She said India was looking forward to welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the BRICS Summit.

"Let me end by re-emphasising the importance of RIC for consultations on regional and global issues of common concern," Swaraj said.

"These meetings provide a good opportunity to our three influential countries to exchange views on how we could jointly contribute to international peace, security and development," she said.

Swaraj said a host of issues including situation in the Middle East were discussed at the RIC meet.

"We all stressed our commitment to support democratic, pluralistic and peaceful forces in order to restore stability in the region. We also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and agreed that it was important for the international community to remain engaged and support the Afghanistan government in its development and reconciliation efforts and in defeating terrorist forces," Swaraj said.

The next RIC foreign ministers' meeting will be held in India.
Moscow: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today met her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov here and raised issues of the killing of an Indian and the death of two Indian girl students in a fire tragedy in this country besides discussing key bilateral matters.

During their meeting, Swaraj raised the issue of the killing of Yasir Javed, a businessman from Srinagar who died in Russia's Kazan city last month following an attack on him by a group of local goons, and enquired about the progress of investigation into the case.

Javed was attacked by unknown miscreants in Kazan city on March 3 and died later at a hospital there after remaining in coma for several days.

"I want to know about the status of the investigation. At least the guilty must be punished after the probe," Swaraj told Lavrov.

She also raised the issue of the death of two Indian girl students, who were killed in a fire at a medical university in western Russia.

Pooja Kallur and Krishma Bhonsle, both from Maharashtra, were studying at Smolensk Medical Academy in Russia and lost their lives in a fire accident in February.

Swaraj also expressed regret over an acid attack on a Russian girl in India recently and said India has ensured treatment for the girl in India as well as in Russia.

A 23-year-old Russian national was injured in the acid attack in November allegedly by her boyfriend following a quarrel between them.

Lavrov thanked Swaraj for dealing with the case effectively.

Lavrov, on his part, said both countries should continue to work closely to further expand bilateral ties.

Both sides should continuously review the agreements being signed at the highest level, he told Swaraj.

Lavrov also expressed gratitude to India for its support during Russia's chairmanship of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). He also ensured Swaraj of Russia's full support to India during its presidency of the grouping that began earlier this year.

They also discussed a range of issues, including furthering of trade and economic ties.

Swaraj arrived here yesterday to attend the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.
New Delhi: Almost 10 years after Mayawati's "social engineering" helped her BSP capture power in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is trying to emulate the model to regain lost glory in the country's most populous and politically critical state.

"We sense strong anti-incumbency (against Samajwadi Party). There is also a substantial fall in Brahmin support for Mayawati. So we need to tap this vacuum," a senior minister in the Narendra Modi government told IANS.

The appointment of Keshav Prasad Maurya, a Koeri caste OBC leader, as the Bharatiya Janata Party president in Uttar Pradesh, must be viewed from this standpoint, the minister said, outlining the agenda for next year's assembly elections.

The minister along with Prime Minister Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and senior leaders Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari played a major role in the selection of Maurya, who replaced Laxmikant Bajpai.

Besides good caste combinations, the party is banking on the BJP's developmental plank and the appeal of Modi, an MP from Varanasi and also a OBC.

The BJP is also banking on the lingering Ram temple issue but wants to tread cautiously.

"We hope to make significant inroads among smaller caste groups like Gadhel, Kakushta, Jogi, Domri, Lodh and Nai," the BJP leader said. He felt these groups had been traditionally lost out on development. "So they see in BJP a party which will set the past wrongs right."

In the 2014 Lok Sabha battle, the Extremely Backward Class (EBCs) other than Yadavs, who largely remain with the Samajwadi Party, flocked to Modi and the BJP. "This needs to be retained," the leader said.

The BJP fought the 2014 election on its own but had a minor ally in Apna Dal, which represents the interests of the Kurmi community. Of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, the BJP won a staggering 71 while the Apna Dal bagged two seats.

Rajnath Singh, an upper caste Thakur, was chief minister till March 2002. Prior to that, the party had a strong Lodh leader in chief minister Kalyan Singh.

But Kalyan Singh developed differences with then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and quit the BJP, denting its appeal in the key northern state. Rajnath Singh's rule also distanced Brahmins from the BJP.

BJP strategists feel that aggressive door-to-door canvassing to woo the Dalits and EBC voters by projecting Modi's OBC caste (Teli) will help - to consolidate a rainbow coalition a la Mayawati.

The BJP-led central government is already reaching out chiefly to farmers and rural India in the name of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar. The LJP of Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, a Dalit leader from Bihar, is keen to join the BJP bandwagon for the 2017 elections.

BJP's poll managers are also working overtime to make inroads among Muslims, who have generally backed either Maulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party or Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party.

"UP voters are very smart. Muslim voters in UP are smarter. They indulge in tactical voting and support strong candidates who can defeat BJP. This needs to be handled," said Jagdambika Pal, a BJP MP from UP.

But winning UP may not be that easy.

In 2012, the BJP finished third with just 47 seats in the 403-member assembly while the Samajwadi Party picked up 224 seats and the BSP, which was voted out, 80. The Congress was fourth with 28 seats.

The BJP's vote share was only 15 percent, down from 32.51 percent of 1996.

In September 2014, just four months after it swept the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had suffered reverses in the assembly by-elections across key hubs like Bijnor, Thakurdwara, Nighasan, Hamirpur and Charkhari.

In 2002 also, the BJP was third with 88 seats with the Samajwadi Party topped a hung assembly with 143 seats followed by the BSP at 98. In 2007, Maywati's social engineering helped the BSP to win 206 seats followed by Samajwadi Party's 97 and BJP's 51.
New Delhi: A spurt in infiltration across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir has set alarm bells ringing in the Home Ministry, which has directed security forces for effective vigil in border areas.

Official sources said only three terrorists could infiltrate through the LoC from across the border in the first two months of 2015. However, in January and February this year, at least 10 terrorists sneaked through the LoC to enter Jammu and Kashmir.

During winter, infiltration is always low. However, this year, the winter did not last long and terrorists are suspected to have taken advantage of the favourable weather, sources said.

There were 121 infiltration attempts along the border in Jammu and Kashmir in entire 2015 of which 33 were successful. However, 46 terrorists were killed by security forces.

In 2014, there were 222 infiltration attempts in the state of which 65 were successful. A total of 52 terrorists were killed by the security forces that year.

Altogether, 208 terror incidents took place in the Valley in 2015 in which 39 security personnel and 17 civilians were killed.

There were 222 terrorist incidents in J-K in 2014 in which 47 security personnel and 28 civilians were killed, he added.

There were 253 instances of ceasefire violation along the IB in 2015, 430 in 2014 and 148 in 2013.
New Delhi: Hearing on a petition seeking the entry of women into Kerala`s Sabarimala temple will resume on April 22 in the Supreme Court, which had on Wednesday said that denying women the right to enter and pray in the historic shrine violated constitutional principle.

A three-judge bench comprising of Justices Dipak Misra, V Gopala Gowda and Kurian Joseph, had said that denying entry to women based on traditions are against the principles of the Constitution.

The bench also said that the case could be referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench in case substantial questions of constitutional importance arise in future.

The apex court had earlier sought to examine previous judgments on entry of women in religious places, while underlining that any religious practice banning their entry will have to necessarily pass the test of constitutionality.

The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the `Indian Young Lawyers` Association`, seeking entry of women in the Sabarimala temple.

The hearing came close on the heels of the Bombay High Court order directing Maharashtra Government to ensure that women are not denied entry at any temple.

Defending the ban, the Sabarimala temple administration earlier said the tradition is connected to essential religious practice.Supporting them, the Kerala Government told the court that beliefs and customs of devotees cannot be changed through a judicial process and that the opinion of the priests is final in matters of religion.
Jalna: After receiving tremendous response for mass wedding of 577 couples belonging to drought affected suicide farmers and weaker sections conducted by the Shiv Sena under the scheme of `Shiv sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray Kanyadan Yojana` at Parbhani and Aurangabad, the ruling BJP on Sunday conducted mass marriage of more than 500 couples in Jalna.

The couples, belonging to four religions, got married in presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis organised at the Agriculture Product Market Committee yard ground here.

The mass wedding was jointly organised by the BJP and Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Smarak Samiti of Bokardhan.

Out of 550 couples, 406 couples belonged to Hindu community, 94 couples from Buddha community and 14 couples each from Muslims and Christian community.

Maharashtra BJP president Raosaheb Danve, who was organiser of the event, said, "The state government will always support farmers affected by drought. Hence we are getting couples from farmer families married."

The Marathwada region is experiencing severe drought condition from the last three years. Almost all water resources have dried up following which a number of distressed farmers have been forced to commit suicides.
Mumbai: Maharashtra Minister for Water Conservation Pankaja Munde landed in trouble after she took selfies in drought-hit Latur district on Sunday.

Munde is the guardian minister of Latur and was there to review desilting work being carried out by the government.

At Sia village where desilting work is being carried out in completely dry Manjara river, Munde decided to click a selfie with the dry riverbed as the backdrop.

Selfie with trench of said barrage Manjara .. one relief to latur .. pic.twitter.com/r49aEVxSSk  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 17, 2016

2 selfie with bandhara pic.twitter.com/OKFeyT3OPS  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 16, 2016

Munde's selfies went viral on the social media with netizens accusing her of being insensitive to the plight of poor farmers of the region.

However, she remains unfazed by the criticism and appeared keen to put out the correct picture on her tour of the drought hit region.

River rejuvenation work in full swing. Monsoon forecasts r also good. Will benefit water consvn to great extent. pic.twitter.com/KsxbrgpaDp  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 17, 2016
Chennai: Continuing her tirade against DMK president M Karunanidhi over prohibition, AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday charged him and his party with "conspiring" to sell liquor through private firms and clubs and underscored her commitment for a phased rollout of the dry law in Tamil Nadu.

Addressing a well-attended election rally here, she asked why DMK, despite staging many protests demanding total prohibition, just promised enacting a law to implement dry law while giving a miss to the word "total" in its recently released election manifesto.

"It is because Karunanidhi and DMK have no intention of bringing total prohibition. That is why they have said in their manifesto that a law will be enacted for this purpose while government will completely back away from selling liquor and TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) will be disbanded.

"They have conspired to sell (liquor) through private (persons) and clubs," she alleged, canvassing for votes for her party nominees of three districts for the May 16 Assembly elections.

Accusing Karunanidhi of having "introduced alcohol to an entire generation" by relaxing the dry law in 1971, she assured her commitment to implement total prohibition in the state, albeit in a phased manner, as promised already.

She reiterated that bringing prohibition with one signature, as earlier promised by DMK, was not possible and that she will go about it by initially shrinking the working hours, cutting down on number of retail outlets and later closing bars while opening rehabilitation centres for addicts.

Prohibition has taken the centre stage in this election campaign, with all political leaders including Jayalalithaa batting for the dry law.

A major revenue grosser for the state exchequer at around Rs 30,000 crore last year, alcohol sales was first nationalised by the AIADMK government in 2003.

The subsequent DMK government continued with that policy.

Jayalalithaa also attacked DMK on other issues, charging it with carrying out a "campaign of lies" vis-a-vis the power situation and the December floods "unable to digest our success."

The Chief Minister ruled out any power cut in both domestic and industrial sectors even as she said Rs 117 crore had been levied as fine for power theft which was being detected by 40 groups of ex-servicemen.

Jayalalithaa charged Karunanidhi and his party with "betraying" Tamil Nadu on inter-state river disputes like Mullaperiyar and Cauvery with Kerala and Karnataka, respectively, besides the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and ceding of Katchatheevu islet to the island nation.

She ridiculed DMK for promising in its election manifesto to press the Centre for holding the storage level at Mullaperiyar at 142 ft as per a court direction, saying the level was already being maintained for the last two years following a Supreme Court order.

Her government, despite the "unprecedented" rainfall in December 2015, had taken adequate precaution and therefore could avoid loss of lives in the subsequent deluge, she said.

However, DMK was making false claims that sudden release of water from a city reservoir had led to over 300 deaths, she said, claiming neither was the release 'sudden' nor was there any loss of life.

Even the Central team that took stock of the situation in the affected districts had commended her government for its prompt and quick response, she said.

She targeted Karunanidhi over "family" politics and said thee state-run Arasu Cable TV was launched following a "fight" in the family (involving Maran brothers), but later "stifled" after they patched up.
Sydney: Australia`s parliament voted down a labour reform bill on Monday, handing conservative Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull the excuse he has sought to dissolve both houses and hold a general election in July.

In an outcome that was unexpected only in terms of how quickly it was reached, the Senate voted against the government`s proposal to reinstate a building industry regulator, 34 votes to 36.

Turnbull was expected to address the lower house later on Monday and formally dissolve parliament and call for an election on July 2, media reported.

Hamstrung by a Senate dominated by minor parties and the main centre-left Labor party, Turnbull used the rare "double dissolution" manoeuvre - only possible after a bill has been rejected by the Senate twice - to clear both government houses and put the entire legislature to a poll.

When Turnbull recalled parliament last month from a seven-week recess, it was only the fourth time in more than 50 years a government has used that measure.

Turnbull said then that if the bill failed to clear the Senate he would call an election for July 2.

The bill had been widely expected to be blocked in the Senate, where opposition lawmakers depicted the proposed construction watchdog as a covert attack on unions, but Turnbull pursued it nonetheless since he has sought a reason to call an election amid sliding opinion polls and a deadlocked upper house.

Opinion polls showed support for the ruling Liberal Party-led coalition lingering at its lowest level since Turnbull assumed office last September.

Support for the coalition was 49 percent, a Newspoll found on Monday, on a two-party preferred basis where votes for minor parties are redistributed to the two main blocs according to preferences.

Turnbull retained his lead as preferred prime minister over Labor leader Bill Shorten. But his popularity has waned amid perceived dithering over tax reform, a rejection of calls for an investigation into major banks and planned cuts to spending on hospitals and schools.

The sagging polls and likely early election will add pressure on Treasurer Scott Morrison to issue a voter friendly budget on May 3.

But analysts said Morrison faces a difficult task of addressing a ballooning budget deficit of about A$40 billion ($30.67 billion) this year while shoring up electorate support.
New Delhi: A dead scorpion is first dried in sunlight or burnt on coal, and then crushed into powder before using it in cigarettes to get high.

Although traditional drugs like opium are still widely used by addicts, smoking dead scorpions to get a similar 'kick' seem to be emerging as a new trend in Pakistan, particularly in the north-western khyber Pakhtunkhwa region.

Opium affects are far safer than scorpion smoking. But I started smoking scorpion quite early, Dawn quoted Sohbat Khan, a regular user, as saying.

Sohbat, who started smoking dead scorpions at the age of 20, used to buy them from a vendor at Jalil Kabab house for just Rs1 or 2.

The supplies fro trade are brought from Peshawars Matani area, which is rich in scorpions because of its hot weather.

Sohbat roams around his village hunting for scorpions when the need is too overwhelming. Its a worst form of addiction," he said.

Although it is the scorpion's tail that addicts really want but its poisonous venom makes for dangerous addiction, the report said.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, some people mix the burnt tail with hashish and tobacco to smoke it in a cigarette. Sohbat said that the method varies from person to person but he prefers to use it in a small pipe to inhale the smoke.

The high lasts for almost 10 hours. The first six hours are more painful, as the body adjusts to the high, the report quoted him as saying.

According to experts the scorpion venom is dangerous for the human brain when inhaled. Of some 1,750 species of scorpions, 25 are fatal to humans.

Scorpion smoking causes short and long term memory loss. It also causes hallucination, the report quoted an expert as saying.
Jerusalem: A bomb blast ripped through a bus in Jerusalem on Monday and sparked a fire, wounding at least 21 people, Israeli police said, in an apparent escalation in a wave of violence.

Details were still emerging, but police said a bomb had exploded on one bus in a relatively isolated area of Jerusalem, with the flames spreading to another one as well as a car.

Israeli domestic security agency Shin Bet referred to the explosion as a "terror attack".

The bombing was expected to lead to a sharp increase in security ahead of Jewish Passover celebrations beginning Friday night.

If confirmed as a Palestinian bombing, it would both reverse a decline in a wave of violence that erupted in October and mark an escalation, with most of the attacks having been stabbings.

"A professional examination of police sappers has proven that a bomb exploded on the back part of the bus, resulting in the wounding of passengers and the burning of the bus," a police statement.

"In addition, another bus and car were damaged."

An AFP journalist at the scene said one bus was completely burnt out while another was partially burned, with a large contingent of firefighters battling to extinguish the blaze.

Police said 21 people were injured, with medics reporting at least two hurt seriously. Police were investigating whether any of the wounded were behind the bombing.

Initially police said the explosion was on an empty bus, with people on a bus and car nearby wounded by the ensuing fire, correcting later to say it was the bus with passengers that was hit by the bomb.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "we`ll find whoever prepared this explosive device".

"We`ll reach the dispatchers and those behind them. We`ll settle the score with these terrorists. We`re in an ongoing struggle against terror, knife terror, shooting terror, bombs, rockets and tunnel terror."

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, welcomed the attack as "a natural response to Zionist crimes", but there was no claim of responsibility for the bombing.The blast struck in an area of the city without any major buildings or homes and which is not heavily used by pedestrians.

The location was on Moshe Baram Street close to the so-called Green Line dividing mainly Jewish west Jerusalem from mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called on residents to be vigilant, "but continue with your plans".

"It`s part of the deep understanding that if it`s a terror attack, they want to deter us from our normal life, and what we must do... is go back to normal life as fast as possible," he said.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that on a day "frightened citizens returning from their daily routine are being rushed to hospital -- it is clear to us all, that the struggle against terrorism is ceaseless."

"We will pursue and we will reach all those who wish us harm, until quiet is assured," he said in a statement.

The explosion comes with tensions high following a wave of violence that began in October that has killed 201 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

The last bomb targeting a bus in Jerusalem dates back to 2011, when a British tourist was killed.

In Tel Aviv, a bomb exploded on an empty bus in 2013 in what Israeli authorities called a "terrorist" attack.

Suicide bombings were frequent during the second Palestinian intifada between 2000-2005.

Daniel Katzenstein, a first responder with the United Hatzalah medical service, said when he arrived on the scene "we saw a pile of smoke that was reminiscent of the bus bombings in the early 2000s".

"There were many people far too dangerously close to the bus when it was burning. Our first task was to get them to a safe place and to begin to treat them," he said.

Speaking before the bomb was confirmed, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said "if it was a terrorist attack, the implications are very great in terms of security on the ground".

Attacks have steadily declined in recent weeks, though there have been concerns the Passover holiday could lead to a new surge in violence.

Many analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the recent unrest.

Israel blames incitement by Palestinian leaders and media as a main cause of the violence.
Brasilia: Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff said today that she is "outraged" by a vote in Congress to authorise impeachment proceedings against her and vowed to keep fighting.

In an emotional first public response to the vote on yesterday, Rousseff said she would not give up now that her case has gone from the lower house to the Senate for a possible trial.

"I have strength, spirit and courage. I will not be beaten, I will not be paralysed. I will continue to fight and I will fight as I did all my life," Rousseff said in the remarks carried live on television.

The lower house voted overwhelmingly to send Rousseff to the Senate for trial on allegations that she illegally manipulated government accounts during her 2014 reelection to mask the scale of budget holes.

But Rousseff said that deputies in the house had failed to provide any evidence that she'd committed an impeachable crime, calling the process instead a "coup d'etat."

The vote was "violence in Brazil against truth, against democracy and against the democratic rule of law," she said.

The Senate is due to vote in May on whether to open a trial at which point Rousseff would be suspended. The trial could take months and if senators then voted by a two thirds majority she would be deposed.

Her vice president, Michel Temer, would take over. Rousseff branded Temer a "traitor" in her remarks, saying he had conspired against her.
Moscow: Terrorism poses the biggest challenge to international security and nations cannot afford to adopt double standards in the fight against it, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday at the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers meet here.

"If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism, it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," she said.

Sushma Swaraj called on the RIC countries to lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN.

Raising the issue of UN Security Council reform, Sushma Swaraj said that the issue demands greater urgency, and sought support of Russia and China for this.

"There has been some positive movement in this connection with a text being put for the first time on the table for inter-governmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue. I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN process forward," she said.

On the slowdown of the global economy, the Indian minister said that as three large, emerging economies, India, Russia and China share similar approaches and could benefit "from coordinating our positions".

The minister also sought active participation of all members in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit to be held in Goa in October this year.

"We hope to have a very successful BRICS Summit in Goa in October," she said.


Beijing: A military plane belonging to the Chinese Air Force landed for the first time on Yongshu Jiao, or Fiery Cross Reef on the Spratly Islands, for which Beijing has disputes with Manila, Hanoi and other neighbours.

The aircraft landed on a yet unknown date on the airstrip built by China on the reef, where the first civil flights began in January, Efe news reported on Monday.

China's foreign ministry on Monday confirmed the plane's landing but tried to downplay the incident defending it as part of a rescue mission.

The construction of the runway on the Fiery Cross Reef had led to an artificial extension of the reef and triggered protests from neighbouring countries, including Vietnam, whose government claimed that the runway had been illegally built on its territory.

The US and Japan also expressed concern that the construction of infrastructure for possible military use in the disputed waters of South China Sea could elevate tensions in the region.

Other countries, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim total or partial sovereignty over the Spratly Islands.

China is also locked in similar territorial disputes over the control of the Paracel archipelago.


Beijing: A Chinese military aircraft has for the first time publicly landed at a new airport on an island China has built in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Monday, raising the prospect that China could base fighter jets there.

The United States has criticised China`s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea and worries that it plans to use them for military purposes, even though China says it has no hostile intent.

The runway on the Fiery Cross Reef is 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) long and is one of three China has been building for more than a year by dredging sand up onto reefs and atolls in the Spratly archipelago.

Civilian flights began test runs there in January.

In a front-page story, the official People`s Liberation Army Daily said a military aircraft on patrol over the South China Sea on Sunday received an emergency call to land at Fiery Cross Reef to evacuate three seriously ill workers.

They were then taken in the transport aircraft back to Hainan island for treatment, it said, showing a picture of the aircraft on the ground in Hainan.

It was the first time China`s military had publicly admitted landing an aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef, the influential Global Times tabloid said.

It cited an military expert as saying the flight showed the airfield was up to military standards and could see fighter jets based there in the event of war.

The runways would be long enough to handle long-range bombers and transport aircraft as well as China`s best jet fighters, giving it a presence deep in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia that it has lacked until now.

More than $5 trillion of world trade is shipped through the South China Sea every year. Besides China`s territorial claims in the area, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.
Pedernales: The death toll from Ecuador`s biggest earthquake in decades soared to 272 on Sunday as survivors cobbled together makeshift coffins to bury loved ones, lined up for water and sought shelter beside the rubble of their shattered homes.

The 7.8 magnitude quake struck off the Pacific coast on Saturday and was felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, causing panic as far away as the highland capital Quito and destroying buildings, bridges and roads.

"Ecuador has been hit tremendously hard... This is the greatest tragedy in the last 67 years," said a shaken President Rafael Correa, who rushed back to Ecuador from a visit to Italy.

"There are signs of life in much of the rubble and that is the priority," Correa said in a televised address to the nation.

He confirmed 272 deaths and 2,068 injured and said he feared those figures would increase.

"The number will certainly rise and probably in a considerable way," he stated.

Coastal areas nearest the epicenter were hit hardest, especially Pedernales, a rustic tourist spot with beaches and palm trees now laden with debris from its pastel-colored houses.

Dazed residents recounted a violent shake, followed by a sudden collapse of buildings that trapped people in wreckage.

"You could hear people screaming from the rubble," Agustin Robles said as he waited in a line of 40 people for water outside a stadium in Pedernales. "There was a pharmacy where people were stuck and we couldn`t do anything."

Authorities said there were more than 160 aftershocks, mainly in the Pedernales area. A state of emergency was declared in six provinces.

The quake has piled pain on the economy of OPEC`s smallest member, already reeling from low oil prices, with economic growth this year projected at near-zero.

RUBBLE, RAIN, PRISON BREAK

As darkness set in and rain began to fall, survivors bundled up to spend the night next to their destroyed homes. Many had earlier queued up for food, water and blankets outside the blue-and-white stadium.

Inside the stadium, tents housed the dead and medical teams treated hundreds of survivors. About 91 people died in Pedernales and some 60 percent of houses were destroyed, according to Police Chief General Milton Zarate.

"We heard the warning so luckily we were in the street because the entire house collapsed. We don`t have anything," said Ana Farias, 23, the mother of 16-month-old twins, as she collected water, food and blankets from rescuers.

"We`re going to have to sleep outside today."

Other survivors hammered together shelters in empty lots. Police patrolled the dark town, where power remained off, while some rescuers plowed on.

Locals used a small tractor to remove rubble and also searched with their hands for trapped people. Women cried after a corpse was pulled out.

In Portoviejo, around 180 kilometers (112 miles) south of Pedernales, authorities said some 130 inmates escaped from the El Rodeo prison after its walls collapsed. More than 35 have been recaptured.

In Ecuador`s largest city, Guayaquil, rubble lay in the streets and a bridge fell on top of a car

"It was horrible. It was as if it was going to collapse like cardboard," said Galo Valle, 56, who was guarding a building in the city where windows fell out and parts of walls broke.

"I prayed and fell to my feet to ask God to protect me."

About 13,500 security force personnel were mobilized to keep order around Ecuador, and $600 million in credit from multilateral lenders was immediately activated for the emergency, the government said.

REFINERY SHUT, GALAPAGOS UNSCATHED

It has been decades since the government dealt with an earthquake of this magnitude. In a 1979 disaster, 600 people were killed and 20,000 injured, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

According to the country`s Geophysics Institute, 230 aftershocks have been registered after the subduction, an event in which one tectonic plate goes under another.(http://goo.gl/smIFMb)

Venezuela, Chile and Mexico were sending personnel and supplies, the left-leaning Correa government said. The Ecuadorean Red Cross mobilized more than 800 volunteers and staff and medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said it was sending a team from Colombia.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter that two Canadians were among the dead and that the "scope of the devastation in Ecuador is shocking." [L2N17L008]

The U.S. State Department said in an email that it was working to confirm reports of Americans injured in the quake, although it had no reports of any U.S. citizens killed.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry offered assistance.

Although tsunami warnings were lifted, coastal residents were still urged to seek higher ground in case tides rise.

The government said oil production was not affected but closed its main refinery of Esmeraldas, located near the epicenter, as a precaution. It was likely to restart soon.

Residents on the Galapagos islands far off Ecuador`s coast, home to numerous rare species, said they had not been affected by the quake.

The Ecuadorean quake followed two large and deadly quakes that struck Japan since Thursday. Both countries are located on the seismically active "Ring of Fire" that circles the Pacific, but according to the U.S. Geological Survey large quakes separated by such distances would probably not be related.
Berlin: A special commission has been set up by Germany's western city of Essen for a thorough probe into the gurdwara explosion in which three persons were injured, even as India's Consul General in Frankfurt visited the Sikh community and held talks with authorities.

Raveesh Kumar was apprised of the current level of investigation and the situation following the attack on the Nanaksar Satsang Darbar Gurdwara during meetings with the Mayor of Essen Thomas Kufen and Police Commissioner Frank Richter yesterday.

The mayor assured Kumar that the city administration, the police and the state prosecutor's office would take all necessary measures to ensure that the Sikh community can feel secure, the city of Essen and the police commissioner's office said in a joint statement.

Religious freedom is guaranteed in the German society and any form of violence against religious minorities will be totally unacceptable, Kufen said.

Richter told Kumar that the police department has set up a special commission to thoroughly investigate the explosion, which occurred in the entrance hall of the gurdwara.

Richter said police so far have no indications of a terrorist background, "but we are investigating in all directions and thereby we are working closely with the Indian authorities".

A 60-year-old suffered serious injuries and had to be hospitalised while two 47- and 56-year-old men had minor injuries. The injured included the 'granthi' (priest) on whom the whole pane of glass had fallen due to the impact.

Yesterday, India expressed "distress" at what is being deemed as a deliberate act.

Eyewitnesses have spoken of "a kind of bomb" that exploded at the gurdwara on Saturday evening. About 200 people, including many children, were present at the wedding that began very late and was ongoing when the explosion occurred.

The explosion was so violent that windowpanes of adjacent buildings were broken. The building was heavily damaged.

Kumar and Kufen jointly visited the Sikh community after their discussions and the mayor conveyed his solidarity and the city's support to protect them, the statement said.

Police were searching for a masked man dressed in black, who was seen by eyewitnesses fleeing the area soon after the detonation. Three occupants of a car parked near the gurdwara, who were taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the explosion, were set free after questioning on Saturday night.

Gurdwara Nanaskar and the residence of the Sikh community's president have been put under police protection. It is one of the main places of worship for the Sikh community in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia.
Berlin: A special commission has been set up to probe an explosion at a gurudwara in Germany as authorities in the western city of Essen assured India that all steps will be taken to ensure security for all minorities including the Sikhs.

Indian Consul General in Frankfurt Raveesh Kumar, who rushed to the Nanaksar Satsang Darbar Gurdwara following the attack, was apprised of the current level of investigation and the situation during meetings with Essen's Mayor Thomas Kufen and Police Commissioner Frank Richter yesterday.

"We (police department) have set up a commission of inquiry and are thoroughly probing. The security for religious institutions will be beefed up," Richter told Kumar, who visited the Sikh community to show solidarity besides holding talks with authorities.

The explosion ripped through the entrance hall of the gurdwara on Saturday evening during a wedding ceremony and severely damaged part of the building housing the gurudwara besides shattering several windowpanes and injuring three persons, including the Sikh priest or 'granthi'.

India had expressed "distress" at what is being deemed as a deliberate act.

Police in Essen said in a statement that they are focussing their investigation on the possibility that the explosive device was planted inside the foyer of the gurudwara or lobbed into it from outside. They are searching for a masked man dressed in black, who was seen by eyewitnesses fleeing the area soon after the detonation.

Police said so far they have no indication that the attack on the gurudwara was racially motivated or whether it has any terrorist background.

Three occupants of a car parked near the gurudwara, who were taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the explosion, were set free after questioning on Saturday night.

The mayor assured Kumar that the city administration, the police and the state prosecutor's office would take all necessary measures to ensure that the Sikh community can feel secure, the city of Essen and the police commissioner's office said in a joint statement.

Religious freedom is guaranteed in the German society and any form of violence against religious minorities will be totally unacceptable, Kufen said.

Richter said police so far have no indications of a terrorist background, "but we are investigating in all directions and thereby we are working closely with the Indian authorities".

Kumar and Kufen jointly visited the Sikh community after their discussions and the mayor conveyed his solidarity and the city's support to protect them, the statement said.

Ambassador of India to Germany Gurjit Singh tweeted: "Mayor and police chief of Essen promise full investigation into Gurdwara incident. Mayor joined CG Frankfurt to address sangat (prayer meeting) at Gurdwara."

The Ambassador also said that the 60-year-old 'granthi' Kuldeep Singh, who suffered deep cuts after the whole pane of glass fell on him due to the impact, was recovering and in "good spirits".

The other two 47- and 56-year-old men who suffered minor injuries have been discharged from the Essen hospital, which the Consul General also visited.

Eyewitnesses have spoken of "a kind of bomb" that exploded at the gurudwara where about 200 people, including many children, were present at a wedding ceremony that began very late and was ongoing when the explosion occurred.

The gurudwara, one of the main places of worship for the Sikh community in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia, as well as the residence of the Sikh community's president have been put under police protection.
Mosul: Members of the Islamic State group executed a reporter and his policeman brother in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul for 'spying', a Syrian news website said on Monday.

TV reporter Ayham Khazaal and his brother Nashwan Khazaal were put to death at the weekend, the Aranews website said, citing local human rights activist Khalid Musill.

"After being held for several months, IS militants executed Ayam and Nashwan on Saturday," Musill was quoted as saying.

Ayham Khazaal, who worked for the 'Sama al-Mosul' local TV channel, and his brother were accused of spying for the international coalition against IS and for the Iraqi security forces, Musill said.

The Khazaal brothers were executed in front a large crowd after an IS militant read out their death sentence.

All coalition 'spies' including journalists and aid workers would meet the same fate, witnesses cited the militant as warning.

Dozens of journalists accused of spying have been executed by IS in Iraq including at least 25 in July last year in Nineveh province surrounding Mosul.

Mosul is the largest Iraqi city still under IS control. US-trained Iraqi forces last week retook the Hit region backed by war planes from a US-led coalition.

Iraqi forces retook the western city of Ramadi in December.
Tokyo: The Japanese share market fell more than 3 percent on Monday after a series of earthquakes measuring up to 7.3 magnitude struck a southern manufacturing hub, killing at least 42 people and forcing major companies to close factories.

About 30,000 rescue workers were scouring the rubble for survivors and handing out food to those unable to return to their homes following the quakes which struck Kyushu island from Thursday. The biggest hit near Kumamoto city early on Saturday.

"There are still missing people. We want to make further efforts to rescue and save people and prioritise human lives," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament, adding he aimed to declare the region a disaster zone to free up reconstruction funds.

The Nikkei stock index ended 3.4 percent lower, hit by a stronger yen and as investors weighed the impact of the disaster on manufacturers` supply chains and insurers.

Factories for major manufacturers including Toyota, Sony and Honda were closed, disrupting supply chains around the country.

Japan`s atomic regulator declared three nuclear plants in the region safe, giving a degree of comfort to a country deeply scarred by the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 that was sparked by an earthquake and tsunami.

All commercial flights to the damaged Kumamoto airport were cancelled and the bullet train service to the region was suspended.

Food was in short supply as roads remained cut off by landslides. Evacuees made an SOS signal out of chairs at a school playground, hoping to catch the attention of supply helicopters, Japanese media reported.

"Yesterday, I ate just one piece of tofu and a rice ball," said the mayor of one of the areas affected. "What we`re most worried about now is food."

Of more than 500 quakes hitting Kyushu since Thursday, more than 70 have been at least a four on Japan`s intensity scale, strong enough to shake buildings.=>

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The Kumamoto region is an important manufacturing hub and home to Japan`s only operating nuclear station.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government would "take all the necessary measures" to support companies affected by the disaster and the economy more broadly, including tapping into reserve funds of 350 billion yen ($3.24 billion).

Abe said a sales tax increase next year would go ahead barring a financial crisis or major natural disaster, without elaborating on whether the quakes qualified as such a disaster.

On the stock market, Sony Corp and Toyota Motor led the sharp falls among manufacturers, dropping 6.8 percent and 4.8 percent respectively. Nissan Motor and Honda Motor both lost about 3 percent. Insurers and utilities were also sold, with nuclear plant operator Kyushu Electric Power slumping nearly 8 percent.

Toyota said it would suspend production at plants across Japan after the quakes disrupted its supply chain.

Electronics giant Sony said its Kumamoto image sensors plant would remain suspended. One of the company`s major customers for the sensors is Apple. Honda said production at its motorcycle plant in southern Japan would remain suspended through Friday.

Numerous aftershocks have rattled the region with one of 5.8 magnitude on Monday evening. There were no immediate reports of new damage or injuries.

Automotive chipmaker Renesas Electronics said earlier the aftershocks were keeping it from installing replacement equipment at a quake-hit plant.

The Kumamoto government said 42 people had been killed and nine were missing.

Thirty three people have been confirmed dead in Saturday`s quake and nine in the smaller tremor just over 24 hours earlier. The government said about 190 of the injured were in serious condition and some 110,000 people had been displaced.

Rescuers digging with their bare hands dragged some elderly survivors, still in pyjamas, out of the rubble and onto makeshift stretchers made of tatami mats.

"We can`t take a bath, we don`t have any clothes to change into - we just have what we ran out in," a woman at one evacuation centre told TBS television.

Public broadcaster NHK showed footage of forests and rice fields torn apart by the quake, saying one 50 km (31 miles) strip shifted almost 2 metres (6 feet) sideways.

Quakes are common in Japan, part of the seismically active "Ring of Fire" which sweeps from the South Pacific islands, up through Indonesia, Japan, across to Alaska and down the west coast of North, Central and South America.

At the other end of the ring this weekend, Ecuador`s biggest earthquake in decades killed at least 262 people, caused devastation in coastal towns and left an unknown number trapped in ruins.

A 9 magnitude quake and tsunami in northern Japan in March 2011 caused the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986, shutting down the nuclear industry for safety checks and sending radiation spewing across the countryside.

Nearly 20,000 people were killed in the 2011 tsunami.=>


Cairo: Jordan on Monday recalled its ambassador to Iran over what it described as Tehran`s interference in Arab affairs.

Jordan is the latest Arab country to recall its envoy after Saudi Arabia cut its diplomatic ties with Tehran following attacks on its mission in Tehran during protests against the Saudi execution of a prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

There was no official response yet from Iran to the Jordanian move.

On January 2, Saudi Arabia executed Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 others over terror charges.

The execution sparked protests in Shia-dominated Iran, where angry mobs stormed and set ablaze Saudi Arabia`s embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the city of Mashhad.

A day later, Saudi Arabia announced it was severing its diplomatic ties with Iran, and asked all Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours.

"After attacks on Saudi Arabia`s embassy in Tehran, we urged Iran to stop interference in Arab affairs, but we did not see any response from Iran even to calls by the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation not to interfere in regional issues," Jordan`s Minister of State for Media Affairs Mohammad Momani said on Monday.

Jordan decided to recall its envoy to Iran to revaluate the situation in light of the ongoing developments, he added.

Jordan hopes that Iran would work on building cooperation and trust with the Arab countries and respect the sovereignty of the Arab states and not interfere in their affairs, Momani said.

Earlier this year, Bahrain and Sudan also announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Iran, citing Tehran`s intervention in Arab affairs, which they said became clearer after the execution of Nimr al-Nimr.

"Bahrain has decided to end diplomatic relations with Iran because of its continuous interference in the affairs of Saudi Arabia, and also of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)," a Bahraini official statement said at the time.

Bahrain also asked the Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours.

Sudan expelled the Iranian ambassador in Khartoum and the whole Iranian diplomatic mission. It also recalled its envoy from Tehran.

Sudan also condemned what it sees as Iranian interference in the Arab region and inaction to protect the Saudi embassy and consulate in Iran.

At a less tense level, the UAE had decided to downgrade its diplomatic ties with Iran and reduce the number of Iranian diplomats in the country.

The UAE foreign ministry said it recalled its ambassador to Iran Saif Al Zaabi in support of Saudi Arabia.

This step was taken "in the light of continued Iranian intervention in the internal affairs of the Gulf and the Arab world" that recently reached unprecedented levels, the statement added.
Naypyidaw: Myanmar`s Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday vowed to press for greater autonomy for the nation`s ethnic minorities, in an early move to soothe the rebellions roiling the country after her party`s ascent to power.

The country has been swept up in optimism for a more peaceful and prosperous future since the National League for Democracy (NLD) took power from the military on April 1.

But the democracy figurehead warned Myanmar`s prospects pivot on ending ethnic conflicts that have blistered the country since its independence in 1948.

To do so, the National League for Democracy government will seek "a real federal democratic union", she said in a televised address marking Myanmar`s New Year.

"Peace and a federal democratic union are closely intertwined and that`s why we need to change the constitution. The most important thing is national reconciliation."

They were Suu Kyi`s first major comments as "state counsellor" -- a role she took on following the handover from an army that dominated the country for 50 years.

The current charter, penned by the military in 2008, centralises power.

The pledge to create a federal set-up could reassure ethnic leaders that the NLD will govern for all, despite its leadership being drawn heavily from the Buddhist Bamar majority.

The NLD swept up seats in many of Myanmar`s ethnic areas in last year`s election.

Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi is blocked from becoming president by the same charter as her two sons are not Myanmar citizens.

Attempts to amend the document under the former quasi-civilian government were stymied by the military -- which is gifted 25 percent of all parliamentary seats by the constitution it scripted.

Any moves to change the charter are likely to meet stiff resistance from the still-powerful military.

Suu Kyi has taken a firm grip of the country`s first civilian-led government in decades by taking on a string of senior roles in the new administration, including the powerful -- if vaguely defined -- advisory role.

She has vowed to rule "above" the president, picking school friend and close aide Htin Kyaw as her proxy.

Conflicts continue to rage in several areas between ethnic minority armed groups and the army, which operates beyond the reaches of civilian government, after a ceasefire pact signed late last year failed to include all of the country`s fighters.
Washington: US President Barack Obama today spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to express his concern over the status of cessation of hostilities in Syria as the two leaders affirmed the need to end attacks and ensure humanitarian access to all besieged areas.

"President Obama spoke today by phone with President Vladimir Putin of Russia to share his concern over the status of the Cessation of Hostilities in Syria between the Syrian regime and its allies on the one hand and the armed opposition on the other," the White House said.

During the call, Obama stressed the importance of pressing the Syrian regime to halt its offensive attacks against the opposition.

"The two leaders committed to intensify their efforts to shore up the Cessation of Hostilities and affirmed the need to end attacks by all parties and ensure humanitarian access to all besieged areas," the White House said in a statement.

Obama also said that progress on these issues needed to be made in parallel to progress on political transition to end the conflict in Syria, it said.

On Ukraine, Obama asked Putin to take steps to end the significant uptick in fighting in eastern Ukraine and stressed the urgent importance of moving forward with full implementation of the Minsk agreements, the White House said.

The White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, said Obama continues to make a forceful case to President Putin that he should abide by the commitments that he made in the context of the Minsk talks.

"The United States continues to believe and President Obama continues to make a forceful case that Russia needs to abide by their commitments, and by doing so, they can begin to relieve some of the isolation they have sustained as a result interfering in the sovereign activities of their neighbours in Ukraine," he said.

The Obama Administration, he said, has for years now encouraged Putin and the Russian government to use the influence that they have with the Assad regime to compel them to act constructively and more recently that means to live up to the commitments that they made in the context of the cessation of hostilities.

"President Putin has publicly expressed his view that this kind of political transition is critical to both Russian and US interests in that country and in the broader region and this is an opportunity where our interests overlap and it's an opportunity for the president to, once again, make the case to President Putin that he should use his influence with the Assad regime to live up to the commitments that they've made in the context of the cessation of hostilities," he said.

"Unfortunately, we've seen that the cessation of hostilities continues to be fragile and increasingly threatened due to continued violations by the regime," Earnest said.
Karachi: Pakistan's largest bank has received a license to open a branch in China, becoming the first South Asian bank to operate in the second biggest economy in the world.

Habib Bank Limited (HBL) will open its branch in Urumqi, the largest city in the province of Xinjiang, a spokesman for the bank said.

Xiajiang province lies along the traditional Silk Route and borders Pakistan.

Without giving a time frame for when the bank planned to start operating its branch the official explained the decision to get a license was taken given the growing economic trade between the two countries.

"A lot of our traders are doing business in Xiajiang province mainly in the city of Urumqi. We want to facilitate them by giving them a proper channel for deals and transactions," he said.

He said Urumqi is a growing commercial and trade centre and the regional hub for China's Belt and Road Initiative (B&RI) in Central Asia.

Pakistan and China are presently surging ahead on their USD 46 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor project which will connect Gwadar port in Pakistan's Baluchistan province to Xinjiang.

A leading financial analyst said the HBL move was a calculated as in future Urumqi could become a major hub of trade between the two countries.

"Basically the bank wants to capitalise on the growing investment and trade activities between the two countries as it has already developed its reputation with the Chinese business and trade sector. HBL is a private limited entity first founded in 1947 by the prestigious Habib group and presently holds over 40 per cent of Pakistan's banking market share," he said.

China's interest in Pakistan has grown in recent years in economy and trade as investment from Chinese companies in the first eight months of the current fiscal year to USD 523 million from USD 204 million in the same period last year.

Commodities imports from China to Pakistan have also grown to around USD 5 billion every year.
Brasilia: Brazilian legislators pushing to oust President Dilma Rousseff appeared to have the upper hand, with a wide margin voting to impeach her and cut short a term running through 2018.

More than two hours into voting, the pro-impeachment camp was leading 254 to 87. If 342 of the Chamber of Deputies' 513 members vote in favor, the proceedings move to the Senate for a possible trial. If senators voted to hold a trial that would suspend Rousseff and hand over the top job to Vice President Michel Temer.

A close ally of the president lamented that many of her colleagues had "betrayed" Rousseff.

"It was a herd effect, and many (legislators) betrayed us. It was a double defeat," said Brazilian Community Party legislator Orlando Silva, a close supporter of Rousseff.

After more than 40 hours of debate that began Friday, legislators in Congress' lower house began voting one by one yesterday evening, the culmination of months of political wrangling that exposed deep polarisation in Latin America's largest nation and most powerful economy.

Eduardo Cunha, the house speaker leading the impeachment push, called deputies individually, giving them time to speak before casting their vote. After each vote, both cheers and boos erupted while legislators looked up at a board keeping score.

Luiz Carlos Hauly, a deputy in the Social Democratic Party, the main opposition party, said Rousseff had to go. "In Europe they change their government when it doesn't have the majority," he said. "This administration has no majority. It doesn't have the means to govern."

Simone Morgado, a member of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement, said impeachment proponents were trying to derail a democratically elected president.

"Given that Dilma didn't commit any crime, like so many others in this chamber, which has no shame, I'm voting 'no!'," she said.

The extraordinary session came as the government is paralysed and the population sharply divided, with friends and foes of Rousseff dismissing each other as "putchists" and "thieves."

Outside the legislature, waves of pro- and anti-impeachment demonstrators flooded into the capital of Brasilia from across the huge nation.

A metal wall more than a kilometre long was installed to keep the rival sides safely apart.

People on both sides watched the score on large movie screens, cheering or booing in accordance with their political leanings.
Istanbul: Two members of a Turkish nationalist youth group were detained after trying to put a sack over the head of a US soldier at an air base in southern Turkey, according to Turkish media reports.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported yesterday that two members of the right-wing group, Yalcin Semir Akarsu and Cenk Kizilirmak, were placed under house arrest after the incident that occurred Saturday at the Incirlik air base in Adana province.

There was no immediate reaction from US or Turkish officials. Turkey's private Dogan news agency says Kizilirmak filmed his friend as he chased the soldier.

The nationalist Turkish Youth Union posted footage on Twitter in which the man identified by Dogan as Akarsu is heard as saying, "You put a sack over our soldiers' heads in 2003. You are responsible for that and for the terrorism in our country."

He was referring to an incident in July 2003 in which a group of Turkish special forces operating in northern Iraq were arrested by US soldiers and led away with hoods over their heads to be interrogated.

They were released after 60 hours in response to protests by top Turkish leaders, but what became known as "the Hood event" was seen by many Turks as a deliberate insult.

Akarsu also was referring to the recent series of bombings in Turkey since last summer, some claimed by Kurdish militants and others blamed by the authorities on the Islamic State group.

"You cannot leave your base, but we can come to your prison and put this sack (on your head)," he said.

Incirlik is a critical base in the fight by the US-led coalition against the IS, and includes strike aircraft, drones and refueling planes.

Last month, the State Department and Pentagon ordered the families of US diplomats and military personnel Tuesday to leave posts in southern Turkey due to "increased threats from terrorist groups" in the country.
Pedernales: Rescuers and desperate families clawed through the rubble Monday pulling out the first survivors of an earthquake that killed 350 people and destroyed towns in a tourist region of Ecuador.

Tearful relatives grabbed chunks of debris with their bare hands as they joined in the search for their loved ones along with stretched firefighting teams and mechanical diggers.

Among the stories of survival, local media said a girl was rescued from the ruins of a building after being trapped for 20 hours in the hard-hit town of Pedernales, at the center of the quake.

Firefighters said on Twitter they pulled out three other survivors from rubble in the town of Manta.

But the government raised the death toll to 350, two days after the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck the South American nation late Saturday. More than 2,000 people were injured.

Foreign countries and organizations dispatched rescue teams to help the search and medical units to treat the thousands of people injured, saying tens of thousands of people would need aid.

Rebuilding the destroyed areas will probably cost billions of dollars, President Rafael Correa said during a visit to Pedernales.

Along the Pacific coast, in the towns of Pedernales, Manta and Portoviejo, the stench of rotting bodies filled the tropical air among heaps of rubble and twisted metal. Rescuers with sniffer dogs roamed the wreckage.

"My husband is under there," said Veronica Paladines, 24, tearing at a mound of debris that used to be a hotel in Manta, with tears flooding down her cheeks.

Her 25-year-old spouse, Javier Sangucho, the father of their two young children, worked at the property as a painter.

"He had just gone down to rest a bit when it happened," his wife told AFP.Correa said on Sunday that the death toll would "certainly rise and probably in a considerable way" in the hours ahead.

"There are still lots of bodies in the rubble," he warned. "These are extremely difficult times, the biggest tragedy in the last 67 years."

He was referring to an August 1949 earthquake near the central Ecuadoran city of Ambato that killed some 5,000 people.

In Pedernales, Mayor Gabriel Alcivar estimated there were hundreds of dead buried under the rubble of collapsed hotels.

Soldiers patrolled the beach town, and the Red Cross and the army opened a field hospital and a makeshift morgue at the local stadium.

"Here in Pedernales survivors have been rescued among the rubble and we are not losing hope that more will be found," Ecuador`s Vice President Jorge Glas, who visited the town, told AFP.Foreigners killed by the quake include two Canadians, five Colombians and at least one US national, officials said.

A Catholic missionary nun from Northern Ireland was killed along with three trainee nuns at a school, her religious congregation said.

Although Ecuador frequently suffers seismic shudders because of its position on the Pacific Rim`s "Ring of Fire," the weekend`s quake -- which lasted a full minute -- was the worst in nearly 40 years.

Since 1900 Ecuador has been rocked by seven earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher in the region of Saturday`s quake, the US Geological Survey said. One in March 1987 killed about 1,000 people.

International sympathy and offers of help flowed in.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said it was preparing to airlift supplies including hundreds of tents and kitchen sets as well as mosquito nets to protect people from the Zika virus.

It said it aimed to provide shelter and aid to 40,000 people, including Colombian refugees settled in the area.

The Spanish Red Cross said in a statement it estimated that up to 100,000 people would need assistance.

The World Bank said it had a credit line of $150 million ready to help with reconstruction. Correa`s government said it had access to $600 million in emergency credit overall.

But Correa said that rebuilding the various ruined towns "will take months and years and will cost hundreds of millions, and probably billions, of dollars."
Dhaka: Bangladesh on Monday named a second editor for allegedly plotting to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son, days after an 81-year-old pro-opposition magazine journalist was arrested for his involvement in the same case.

Mahmudur Rahman, 62, already faces 75 cases of sedition after authorities shut down his Amar Desh newspaper for allegedly inciting religious tension in 2013.

The police claimed that they have found involvement of detained Rahman in the alleged conspiracy to abduct and kill prime minister's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy in the US.

"Investigators have found Mahmudur Rahman's connection with a plot to abduct and kill prime minister Sheikh Hasina's son and her ICT adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy," said Additional commissioner and chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Monirul Islam.

Rahman has been in jail since his arrest from his newspaper's office in the capital in 2013 for allegedly inciting religious tension.

Rahman has been named, a day after another magazine editor was taken into custody for his alleged involvement in the same case.

Shafik Rehman, the editor of popular Bengali monthly magazine Mouchake Dhil and also a British citizen, was sent to five-day police custody for his alleged involvement in a plot to "abduct and murder" Joy in the US.

Shafik worked as a speech-writer for former prime minister Khaleda Zia and his arrest is the latest in a series of cases that have sparked concern over freedom of speech.

Police said their case statement suggested that Shafik was one of several suspects who met in the UK, the US and Dhaka and other parts of the country before September 2012 and conspired to abduct and kill the premier's son.
Geneva: The Syrian opposition delegation threatened to quit the Geneva peace talks, due to resume Monday, as a renewed flare-up in violence in Aleppo killed another 22 civilians.

The opposition High Negotiations Committee said indirect negotiations could collapse if Syria`s regime refuses to compromise on political and humanitarian issues.

"We might suspend (our participation in) the talks if things carry on this way, and then there will be no prospect for any political solution," HNC member Abdulhakim Bashar told AFP.

The opposition`s chief negotiator also said there could be "no compromise" on Bashar al-Assad`s ouster, and called for renewed attacks on regime forces despite a fragile ceasefire.

The truce has seen violence drop across parts of Syria, including the northern city.

Areas controlled by the Islamic State group, Al-Qaeda`s Syria affiliate, and other jihadists are exempt from the ceasefire, but renewed clashes around Aleppo are straining the truce as other rebel groups are being dragged into the fighting.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the number of civilians killed in Aleppo city was one of the highest single tolls since the truce began on February 27.

At least six civilians were killed and eight wounded in regime air strikes on rebel-held eastern parts of the city on Saturday.

And a barrage of rockets and sniper fire by opposition groups onto government-controlled western districts killed 16 civilians, including 10 children and two women.

Rebel groups fired more rockets at western areas of Aleppo city late Sunday, but there was no immediate information on new casualties."There`s a clear escalation. This was the bloodiest incident in Aleppo and its province" since the ceasefire began, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"This escalation directly threatens the truce."

The HNC has questioned the regime`s commitment to a political solution to Syria`s five-year war, particularly in the wake of the renewed violence in Aleppo.

"The humanitarian situation is continually deteriorating, the issue of the detainees has not seen any progress, the ceasefire has almost collapsed, and now there is an attack on Aleppo from three sides," Bashar said in Switzerland.

"Given these factors, we are reviewing everything, and we will continue our meetings today (Sunday) so that tomorrow we can decide what to do."

A second member of the HNC delegation, speaking anonymously, said the talks were nearly at "an impasse".

The fate of Assad has remained the main sticking point in peace talks, with Syria`s opposition clinging onto its call for his ouster since the conflict began in 2011.

But the regime has ruled out his departure, calling it "a red line".

"There can be no compromise on the issue of Bashar al-Assad... For us, it`s a closed book -- you cannot trade an entire people for one man," opposition chief negotiator Mohammed Alloush told AFP in Geneva.

UN mediator Staffan de Mistura is expected to sit down with the Damascus government Monday morning and meet the opposition delegation in the afternoon.Earlier, Alloush called for renewed attacks on regime forces, despite the shaky truce.

"Don`t trust the regime and don`t wait for their pity," tweeted Alloush, a leading political figure in the Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) rebel group.

"Strike them at their necks (kill them). Strike them everywhere."

A fellow opposition figure said Alloush`s hawkish statement did not represent the HNC`s position.

Alloush himself later told AFP that he had been calling on rebel groups to defend themselves against regime truce violations.

The peace plan outlined by De Mistura and backed by world powers envisions a political transition, a new constitution, and presidential and parliamentary elections by September 2017.

But Syria`s government hosted its own parliamentary elections last week only in government-held areas, which Assad`s ruling Baath party easily won.

The opposition denounced the election as a "farce".

Brokered by Russia and the United States, the ceasefire has largely held across parts of Syria, despite frequent accusations of violations by both sides.

IS has seized fresh territory from rebel groups in the north, threatening the key opposition town of Azaz, just eight kilometres (five miles) south of the Turkish border.

The jihadist onslaught has forced 30,000 Syrians to flee, and tens of thousands more are at risk of displacement.

Since the conflict erupted in 2011, half of Syria`s population has been displaced -- including five million who have fled to neighbouring states.

More than 270,000 people have been killed.

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Beirut: Several of Syria's key opposition factions said Monday they were launching an armed response to what they alleged were regime "violations" of a ceasefire agreement in the war-torn country.

"After the increase of violations by regime forces that included targeting displaced people and continuous bombing of residential neighbourhoods, we declare the start of the battle in response," said a statement signed by 10 armed rebel groups.

The truce, brokered by Russia and the United States, has seen violence dip significantly across Syria but fighting has recently flared in several regions, particularly around second city Aleppo.

Among the groups to sign the Monday statement was Jaish al-Islam, the most powerful rebel faction in Eastern Ghouta, an opposition stronghold east of Damascus.

A key figure in Jaish al-Islam is Mohammed Alloush, who is also the chief negotiator for Syria`s main opposition body, which is currently participating in UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva.

Alloush on Sunday called for renewed attacks on regime forces, despite the shaky truce.

"Don`t trust the regime and don`t wait for their pity," he wrote on Twitter. "Strike them at their necks (kill them). Strike them everywhere."

Also among the signatories was Ahrar al-Sham, a powerful Islamist group that has been fighting alongside Al-Qaeda`s local affiliate around Aleppo.
Istanbul: Turkish police on Monday detained at least 105 people in a new wave of raids on suspected supporters of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, arch foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports said.

Those detained are accused of providing financing for the "terror organisation" of Gulen, who the Turkish government accuses of seeking to overthrow Erdogan.

Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 140 people and 105 people have been detained so far, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Most of those detained were apprehended in Istanbul, it said, adding that the operation involved some 800 police.

Over 40 of those detained were employees of Bank Asya, a bank linked to Gulen that was put under state control last year. Another 45 are described as businesspeople.

They stand accused of "being a member of a terror organisation" and "financing a terror organisation".

Among the businessmen detained are two members of the board of leading Turkish construction firm Dumankaya Insaat, Anatolia said.

Those detained have been brought to the financial crimes department of Istanbul police for questioning.

Ankara accuses Gulen of running what it calls the Fethullahaci Terror Organisation/Parallel State Structure (FeTO/PDY) and seeking to overthrow the legitimate Turkish authorities.

Gulen supporters decry the accusations as ridiculous, saying all he leads is a more informal group known as Hizmet (Service).

The preacher has been based in the United States since 1999 when he fled charges against him laid by the former secular authorities.

He and Erdogan used to be allies but fell out and the president blames Gulen for a 2013 corruption scandal that broke while he was prime minister and posed one of the biggest threats of his rule.

Turkish authorities have since the summer of 2014 rounded up allies of Gulen in numerous police operations but this was one of the biggest to date.
Paris: The UN cultural body on Monday sought to calm anger over a resolution on a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site which saw Israel accuse it of seeking to "rewrite history".

UNESCO chief Irina Bokova called for "respect and dialogue" with regards to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, revered by both Muslims and Jews, who refer to the site as the Temple Mount.

"Jerusalem is a Holy Land of the three monotheistic religions, a place of dialogue for all Jewish, Christian and Muslim people. Nothing should be undertaken to alter its integrity and authenticity," Bokova said in a statement.

"Only respect and dialogue can build the trust we need to move forward."

The UNESCO executive board on Thursday adopted a resolution on "Occupied Palestine" presented by several Arab countries.

The resolution outraged Israel, which it refers to several times as the "occupying power", while referring to the holy site by only its Arab name.

It criticises Israel for "excavations and works" in annexed East Jerusalem, and urges it to stop "aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims` access" to their holy site.

The resolution also accuses Israel of "planting fake Jewish graves in Muslim cemeteries."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the resolution as "yet another absurd UN decision".

"UNESCO ignores the unique historic connection of Judaism to the Temple Mount, where the two temples stood for a thousand years and to which every Jew in the world has prayed for thousands of years.

"The UN is rewriting a basic part of human history and has again proven that there is no low to which it will not stoop."

The compound in east Jerusalem, which was taken by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally, has long been a flashpoint in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Clashes have often erupted at the site in recent years, over fears that Israel is plotting to change rules which currently state that Muslims can pray there, while Jews can visit but are not allowed to pray.

Netanyahu denies seeking to allow Jews to pray at the compound.

According to biblical tradition, the first and second Jewish temples were located at the site before being destroyed by the Babylonians and the Romans.
Erbil: Troops from a US-led coalition landed a helicopter in northern Iraq and seized at least one Islamic State fighter from a vehicle, three witnesses and two Kurdish security sources said.

The force quickly took off again with their captive on Sunday afternoon, the sources told Reuters.

"It all happened in less than 10 minutes," said a witness of the raid in Badush district, around 20 km (12 miles) northwest of Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still in the hands of Islamic State.

A spokesman for the U.S. coalition declined to confirm or deny the reports.

A news agency that supports Islamic State said the militants had thwarted the raid.

Iraqi authorities say they will retake Mosul this year. But an army offensive launched last month south of the city has been put on hold until more forces arrive to hold ground.

The United States announced last December it was deploying a new force of special operations troops to Iraq to conduct raids against Islamic State there and in neighbouring Syria.

The militant group`s second-in-command and other senior leaders were likely killed last month by an air strike after a U.S. special forces` helicopter was fired on from the ground.
Kuwait City: The start of UN-brokered peace talks between Yemen`s government and rebels was delayed Monday after the insurgent delegation failed to show up in Kuwait claiming truce violations.

The talks aim to bring an end to 13 months of fighting that have devastated already-impoverished Yemen and are taking place after a ceasefire came into effect one week ago but was repeatedly breached.

Representatives of the internationally-recognised government as well as the Iran-backed rebel Huthis and their allies -- loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh -- were supposed to gather in Kuwait for a new round of peace negotiations.

A government delegation led by Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi was in Kuwait on Monday awaiting the arrival of the rebel delegation.

"Until now we don`t have information except that the (rebel) Huthi delegation is late," a source close to the government delegation in Kuwait City told AFP.

"They haven`t left Sanaa and are procrastinating," the source said, adding that the start of talks had been pushed back.

Speaking from Yemen`s rebel-held capital, a source from the Huthi political bureau confirmed to AFP that the rebels, expected in Kuwait alongside representatives from Saleh`s General People`s Congress party, had not left Sanaa.

"They did not go to the Kuwait talks because of the continued Saudi aggression on Yemen," said the source who requested anonymity. "Saudi Arabia did not commit to the truce."

Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition of Arab Sunni states which have been supporting pro-government forces with air strikes, weapons and troops since March last year.

The ceasefire has been violated numerous times.

Fighting in Nahm, northeast of rebel-held Sanaa, killed nine pro-government soldiers on Sunday.

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrived Sunday in Kuwait, where he spoke of "much tension" still gripping the war-torn country, KUNA news agency reported.

But briefing the UN Security Council on Friday, Cheikh Ahmed said Yemen has "never been so close to peace"."The path to peace might be difficult, but it is workable," he said, cautioning however that violations of the ceasefire in place since April 11 "threaten the success of the peace talks".

But the rebels, the government and coalition backing it, as well as the United Nations, have avoided talk of the ceasefire collapsing, as happened with three earlier truces.

Cheikh Ahmed on Sunday said the situation was generally stable across Yemen despite "some violations" of the ceasefire, KUNA reported.

And the coalition had described ceasefire violations as "minor".

And in contrast with previous ceasefires, joint committees of rebel and loyalist forces were formed to monitor compliance.

Previous attempts have failed to stop the war, which the UN says has killed more than 6,400 people, forced almost 2.8 million from their homes and raised regional tensions.

Among the issues to be tackled in Kuwait are security arrangements, the withdrawal of militias and armed groups, the handover of heavy weapons and the release of detainees.

Mikhlafi has urged the Huthis to surrender their arms, reported the government-run sabanew.net website.

"We will do all we can to alleviate the suffering of our people," Mikhlafi said in remarks published at the weekend, adding however that "we do not expect a full agreement at this stage" but rather a step forward.

"We can expect a hard time" in Kuwait, said April Longley Alley of International Crisis Group.

The conflict in the impoverished nation has raised Middle East tensions between Sunni Arab states and Shiite powerhouse Iran.

The United Nations has meanwhile raised alarm over the growing influence of Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

The ceasefire does not apply to jihadists, including the Islamic State group, which have strengthened their hold in the south.

A previous round of talks in January failed to make any headway.
People walk past the Finance Ministry in Buenos Aires on April 18, 2015

Argentina made its return to international financial markets Monday, receiving offers from investors for its sovereign bonds ahead of its first debt sale in 15 years, a government source said.

Latin America's third-biggest economy is seeking to end 15 years of financial isolation by borrowing cash on world credit markets for the first time since a 2001 default.

"We have started to receive offers. We will know the total amount" on Tuesday, a source in the finance ministry, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

The government was hearing bids by investors ahead of the formal bond issuing process that was due to take place on Tuesday, organized by international banks.

Argentine newspaper La Nacion cited sources involved in organizing the debt auction that the government had received offers worth $67 billion -- five times the amount of bonds available.

The country is looking to boost its struggling economy and settle a 15-year lawsuit by US investment funds which its ex-president Cristina Kirchner branded as "vultures."

Now that a US court has cleared the way for Argentina to start borrowing again, the government planned to issue a reported $15 billion in medium- and long-term bonds.

"Argentina is back," said Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay in Washington ahead of the sale.

- 'Major step forward' -

Argentina's new conservative president Mauricio Macri has claimed the return to the international financial fold as a victory.

His opponents said poor families would bear the cost of his borrowing since public spending cuts would be imposed to pay off the debts eventually.

Macri has been scrapping Kirchner's protectionist policies and opening up Argentina's diplomatic and financial ties.

He has removed currency controls and raised utility prices, triggering angry protests from Argentines who say their spending power is declining.

The bond sale "is a major step forward," said Agustin Carstens, head of the IMF world lender's Monetary and Financial Committee, on Saturday.

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"It is very good to have a country as important as Argentina putting the house in order."

He warned however that Argentines would have to endure tough economic cutbacks to stabilize the economy and public finances.

"Needless to say in the short term some measures may be difficult to digest," Carstens said in Washington.

The IMF forecasts that Argentina's economy will contract by one percent this year and grow 2.8 percent in 2017.

Prat-Gay has given a stronger forecast of around zero growth this year and growth of up to four percent next year.

- 'High credit risk' -

South American countries generally borrow at 3 to 4 percent interest, but analysts forecast Argentina would have to offer a higher rate of up to 9 percent in its new bond issue.

After the 2001 crisis, some Argentines object to taking on new debt -- not least Kirchner and her allies.

"Once again history is repeating itself and catching the Argentines out. Debt, devaluation, layoffs, political persecution, price rises," Kirchner said in a speech last week.

"These are just a few of the calamities that the new government has caused in barely four months."

Macri on Saturday announced a series of social welfare measures that he said would help the poor cope with the cuts.

The finance ministry said it has enlisted Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan, Santander, BBVA, Citigroup and UBS to organize the bond sale.

It has included a clause to prevent a small number of shareholders from blocking the restructuring of the debt.

That is a measure to avoid a repeat of Argentina's fight with the "holdouts," international investment funds that sued it in the US courts for full repayment after its 2001 default.

Credit rater Moody's raised Argentina's sovereign rating on Friday ahead of the bond sale.

It still ranks as a speculative investment with a "high credit risk," but less high-risk than before.
A University of Delaware police officer forced a student to scribble over a drawing of a penis inscribed on a gigantic "free speech" beach ball because it doesn't "open up a conversation." He went on to lecture the students who had the ball on display about what kinds of free speech he would tolerate.

"A campus police officer should never ask students to self-censor their constitutionally protected speech," said FIRE's Marieke Tuthill Beck-Coon in a statement. "As a public university, UD must abide by the First Amendment, which has very few exceptionsand subjectively offensive words or images are not one of them."

The officer's insistence that he had a duty to be the speech police was quite remarkable.

"If I were to write, 'I think Donald Trump should be the next president, I think that's something we could have a discussion about," he said. "Drawing a penis, or a swastika, or putting the n-word on there, what does that do?"

The YAL student responded that the two of themthe officer, and the studentwere having a discussion about it at that very moment.

"I don't know that it really opens up a conversation," said the officer, disagreeing. "I just think it's meant to provoke."

Here's the thing, officer: the police are not in charge of deciding which kind of speech "opens up a conversation" and which kind is just "meant to provoke." Nor is there anything illegal about provocative speech. Sometimes speech should offend.
There's been an awful lot of talk about "cyber pathogens" and "cyber bombs" lately from the mouths of American officials discussing terrorism, and how we will vanquish it. President Obama mentioned "cyber ops" against Islamic State terrorists in one recent address. Today, we know a little more about what was behind last week's cyber-hawkish hacking headlines.

Hackers who work for U.S. Military forces are disrupting ISIS's encrypted chats, implanting viruses in terrorists' computers, and mining the machines to launch real-world strikes. From the Daily Beast:

But the American military's campaign of cyber attacks against ISIS is far more serious than what the president laid out in his bland description. Three U.S. officials told The Daily Beast that those operations have moved beyond mere disruption and are entering a new, more aggressive phase that is targeted at individuals and is gleaning intelligence that could help capture and kill more ISIS fighters..

As the U.S. ratchets up its online offensive against the terror group, U.S. military hackers are now breaking into the computers of individual ISIS fighters. Once inside the machines, these hackers are implanting viruses and malicious software that allow them to mine their devices for intelligence, such as names of members and their contacts, as well as insights into the group's plans, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive operations.

One U.S. official told The Daily Beast that intelligence gleaned from hacking ISIS members was an important source for identifying key figures in the organization. In remarks at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia this week, Obama confirmed that cyber operations were underway and noted that recently the U.S. has either captured or killed several key ISIS figures, including Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, a leader of its chemical weapons program, and "Haji Iman," the man purported to be ISIS's second in command.

The military has also used cyber operations to block ISIS's use of encrypted communications, in order to force members to use less secure channels where they can be more easily monitored, officials said. That tactic appears to be a response to ISIS's effective use of encrypted text applications in particular, which officials had said previously made it harder for the military and intelligence community to track individual fighters.
How to File an Amended Tax Return

Canadians are counting on some big bucks coming back to them.

With tax deadline looming, Canadians are anticipating substantial refunds this year.

Nearly six in 10 (57 per cent) say they expect to get some money back this year, according to a recent TD survey. Of those anticipating a refund, 61 per cent expect to receive up to $1,499.

The survey didnt look into why Canadians are counting on a refund, but its likely dyue to RRSP contributions, rather than just wishful thinking.

A Bank of Montreal survey earlier this year found that the average contribution was $3,984, up from $3,738 last year.

The top three ways Canadians said they would use their tax refunds were paying off credit card debt (28 per cent), adding the money to an emergency fund (21 per cent), and contributing to an RRSP or TSFA (21 per cent), the TD poll found.

This tells us there is an appetite to use any expected funds in a way that helps Canadians achieve their financial goals, says Adrian Lawford, assistant vice president of personal savings and investing at TD Canada Trust. If one of those goals is to maximize a tax return in 2016, an individual could consider taking their 2015 return and making a lump sum RRSP contribution.

How long theyll have to wait to get their refund depends on a few things, including how they filed.

The average processing time for returns done by Netfile is 10 business days, while those who stick with paper will have to wait another four to six weeks, according to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Direct deposit is the fastest way to get money in hand; people who are expecting a paper cheque can tack on at least three to five days to their wait time.

Your refund may be delayed if you owe money to a government agency, such as a payment for Employment Insurance benefits or a balance due from a previous years return.
Every day, government agencies and private businesses are under threat from cyber criminals. While that is nothing new two recent industry reports show the tactics being used to attach them have changed, and technology alone is insufficient to stop the threat.

Every day millions of records are being stolen. Its happening right here, right now, said Ajay Sood, General Manager of FireEye Canada. You can no longer use technology to meet this level of threat.

FireEye, a security company headquartered in California that provides malware and network-threat protection systems for 4,400 customers in 67 countries (including 100 companies in Canada), released a report this year which showed businesses are swamped with alerts for security breaches  up to 17,000 each week. Theres no system to rank or contextualize these breaches, which can leave major ones overlooked, and it can take up to 100 days to respond to serious breaches. FireEyes studies show that organizations can only manage to respond to 4 per cent of threat alerts and spend up to US$1.2-million annually responding to inaccurate alerts.



The result is that you are still grossly exposing yourself to the probability of being breached, Sood said. Statistics show us that the time from invasion, reconnaissance, data theft, and exfiltration is approximately seven minutes. Imagine what a criminal can do in 100 or 200 days?

But the biggest thing businesses and government organizations should be concerned about are how cyber criminals are now targeting them.

Sood said Eastern European criminal groups and the Peoples Liberation Army in China used to target financial computer systems and networks but are shifting their focus to personal attacks in order to build a data footprint.



Now its about, Lets own that person. Lets infiltrate their lives. That is the biggest evolution in the last 12 to 14 month that weve seen in the area of cybercrime, he said.

To what end? To leverage an employees privilege and exploit what they know about that person as well as who they know, Sood said. They can access an employees workspace, gather proprietary data, and track whoever that employee knows. He explained that approximately 50 per cent of networks are breached internally as a result of stolen credentials when employee access is abused or, sometimes, by a disgruntled employee.

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For example, by reading an employees Google calendar, criminals will know that he or she is attending an important government meeting; they can remotely turn on the phones microphone to stream and record the private meeting, Sood said. Forget about stealing a credit card number. That is basic.

People tend to think and worry about the photos on their phone but they should be thinking about the people they know and what can be done to exploit their identity.



Mega breaches of personal data

Last week, Symantec released a cyber security report detailing nine mega-breaches of personal data in 2015, where 429 million personal records were likely exposed or stolen by cyber criminals  including a voter database in the U.S.  but the real number of hacks were unreported because the organizations kept the breach a secret. In fact, the number of companies that refused to report the scope of a data breach soared by 85 per cent last year. According to Symantec, hospitals, healthcare firms and insurance companies suffered the largest number of breaches.



In the last 18 months there have been high-profile breaches in Canadas public sector as well including at Elections Canada, the National Research Council, and Canada Revenue Agency.



Whats being disclosed is a very small percentage of what is actually occurring, Sood said, since there is no federal law requiring companies to report data breaches. He added that the government is not well positioned to protect government agencies or businesses from cyber-scams, malware, or international cyber crime.



We are outmanned and outgunned. We are facing off against tens of thousands of individuals whose lives depend on hacking us, he said. The reality is the government is not providing cyber resiliency services. The infrastructure isnt there for them to deal with cyber crime.

When asked to outline infrastructure and protocols that protect against cyber crime, Mylene Croteau, a spokesperson for Public Safety Canada, said in an email that the Government of Canada has a cyber crime Guide for Small and Medium Business that provides practical advice on how a business can protect itself and employees. In addition, its the job of the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre (CCIRC) within Public Safety Canada to provide advice and support, Croteau said. She also explained that as part of Canadas Cyber Security Strategy, the Get Cyber Safe public awareness campaign is designed to help educate Canadians about internet security and how to keep themselves safe online. The website can provide information, she said on the most common threats and tips to help businesses protect themselves.

From the IT department to counter-intelligence

In response, cyber security is no longer confined to the IT department; it has become a form of counter-intelligence. In 2014, FireEye acquired Mandiant, a security company that uses digital forensics. Today FireEyes 500 cyber-specialists worldwide include ex-military, computer scientists, and cryptographers who actively scour cyber networks for intelligence. The combination of local and global analytics and human and machine generated data is poured into their massive database to search for and take down malware to provide global coverage 24/7, Sood said. Theyre also working to plant operatives into cyber criminal terror cells in order to warn clients ahead of a cyber terror attack.



To be ready for a breach, to defend against an infinite number of cyber attacks you need a mixture of technology and expertise powered by intelligence, said Sood. This is the big challenge our industry faces today.

Sood shared some tips you can use to help protect your business from a costly data breach:

1. Understand your data: What data do you have? Classify it. Where is it? How important is it? And what is important about it?

2. Dont forget about your computer, your cellphone or your tablet: You need to secure those endpoints because that is where your users live and thats where the invasion happens. By email. By web browsing.



3. Build a secure enclave: Once you understand the threat surface, put that data somewhere safe and build out a protocol. Understand that the network where you data lives is not the same network where your users live. Make sure they dont intersect. Put some of the following tools or processes in place: SIEM technologies, incident response frameworks, advanced malware detection.


By Joseph Menn and Mark Hosenball SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The company that helped the FBI unlock a San Bernardino shooter's iPhone to get data has sole legal ownership of the method, making it highly unlikely the technique will be disclosed by the government to Apple or any other entity, Obama administration sources said this week. The White House has a procedure for reviewing technology security flaws and deciding which ones should be made public. But it is not set up to handle or reveal flaws that are discovered and owned by private companies, the sources said, raising questions about the effectiveness of the so-called Vulnerabilities Equities Process. The secretive process was created to let various government interests debate about what should be done with a given technology flaw, rather than leaving it to agencies like the National Security Agency, which generally prefers to keep vulnerabilities secret so they can use them. The government's efforts to force Apple to help it unlock the San Bernardino iPhone have reignited a national debate about encryption, security and privacy that continues to rage two weeks after the Justice Department said it broke into the phone without Apple's help. The sources said the technology used to get into the phone was supplied by a non-U.S. company that they declined to identify. Without cooperation from the company, the FBI would not be able to submit the method to the Vulnerabilities Equities Process even if it wanted to, the sources said on condition they not be named. The FBI itself probably does not know the details of the technique - just enough to determine that it worked, according to government sources and Rob Knake, who managed the White House process before leaving last year. The FBI said in February that it was unable to get into the iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook without help from Apple, and it won a court order compelling the Silicon Valley icon to break into the device. Apple, backed by much of the tech industry, complained that the order would in effect make businesses arms of the state. The Justice Department dropped the matter the day before a crucial court hearing, saying it had found a way to get into the phone. At the time, Apple said it hoped the maneuver would be disclosed so that it could fix the flaw before it is discovered and exploited by criminals. In a separate New York case, the Justice Department is trying to force Apples help in extracting data from a drug dealers iPhone 5s. For technical reasons, that would be easier for Apple to do, though it would be much harder for the FBI or a contractor, said phone security expert Dan Guido. The two battles spotlight a long-running but seldom aired conflict over whether information about software security lapses should be kept secret by law enforcement or intelligence agencies, who want the knowledge to snoop, or disclosed to the technology companies so they can patch the holes. After questions were raised about the Vulnerabilities Equities Process in 2013, White House cybersecurity policy coordinator Michael Daniel said it was "reinvigorated," though information as basic as which departments are involved remained undisclosed. Daniel has written that the factors to be weighed include how easy a flaw would be for outsiders to find and how much danger would be posed to society. But Knake said the procedure had been created in 2010 to handle situations like an FBI technologist in a lab inventing a method for circumventing security. It was not set up for a world of commoditized exploitation, where major defense contractors buy and sell flaws for millions of dollars. (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyberweapons-specialreport-idUSBRE9490EL20130510) There is no way the government could force companies to share the methods that they are trying to sell, or any way to stop government agencies from buying from those companies, he said. Knake said the process could be improved if it were revamped again to deal with the reality of the exploit marketplace. The White House referred questions to the FBI, which did not respond to emails seeking comment. (Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco and Mark Hosenball in Washington. Additional reporting by Dustin Volz. Editing by Jonathan Weber and Bernard Orr)
BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Chinese state television has aired confessions by two Taiwanese fraud suspects among dozens deported from Kenya to China, as Taiwan said it would send officials to China to talk about a case that has infuriated Taipei. Taiwan has said China effectively kidnapped its nationals. Kenya, however, does not have official relations with the democratic, self-ruled island, and considers it part of "one China", in line with the position of Communist Party leaders in Beijing. Kenya said the 77 suspects, 45 of whom were from Taiwan, were in the country illegally and were being sent back to where they had come from. On Friday, Chinese state television aired video of two men in orange jump suits with blurred-out faces, confessing to impersonating police in telecoms fraud in China. "I now know that carrying out these scams is wrong, and I will accept the punishment of the law," said one suspect surnamed Jian. "I hope that the government will give me a chance." Asked by a woman off-camera what he wanted to say to his "mainland compatriots", Jian, who had a Taiwanese accent, said: "Sorry to the people of the mainland". Reuters was not able to independently verify that they were from Taiwan. China's Ministry of Public Security has said the group detained in Kenya had operated out of Nairobi and were suspected of cheating people out of millions of yuan across nine provinces and cities in China. As most of the victims were in China, it said, they would be prosecuted there. The ministry has said China informed Taiwan of the situation and would invite its law enforcement officials to visit to discuss how best to tackle such fraud. It did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the confessions. Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said it had received another letter from China inviting members to visit, and so will send a delegation on Monday to talk about the issue. "We have not seen those suspects ourselves. We have not seen any evidence ourselves. We are not in a position to comment at this point," the council's secretary general, Jeff Yang, told Reuters when asked about the confessions. The videos are the latest in a recent string of on-camera guilt admissions in China, which this time is likely to aggravate cross-Strait tensions. Though such displays of contrition have long been part of China's legal landscape, state media have increasingly used them, including in cases involving foreigners accused of crimes. That has prompted international criticism that the admissions could be made under duress and that the practice violates China's own laws on due process. [nL3N15D2JM] (Reporting by Michael Martina and Natalie Thomas in Beijing and Faith Hung in Taipei; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jason Subler and Nick Macfie)
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)
By Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union are expected to consider moving security personnel into Libya to help to stabilise the chaotic country if requested by a new United Nations-backed Libyan government, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters. Impetus for the move comes in part from fears of an uncontrolled new tide of migrants into Italy from Libya unless law and order can be rebuilt soon in the North African state. EU foreign and defence ministers will hold a special dinner in Luxembourg on Monday, when they are expected to agree to look into police and border training missions for Libya. Any such support would initially be in Tripoli, where the new government is trying to establish itself. "The EU stands ready to offer security sector support in response to possible (U.N.) Government of National Accord requests," according to a draft statement prepared by diplomats, though the text is still under discussion. "A possible civilian ... mission could support Libyan efforts ... through advice and capacity building in the fields of police and criminal justice," the draft said, referring to counter-terrorism, border management and the tackling of the smuggling of migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe. Italy, which has been clamouring for coordinated action on migration, wrote to the heads of the EU Council and European Commission underlining the urgency of the situation. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government proposed a "constant European law enforcement presence in the Saharan belt" and expanding sea missions to disrupt trafficking and train the Libyan Coast Guard. An EU security presence in Libya, which would not involve soldiers, would be Europe's biggest step in the oil-producing nation since a NATO-backed mission led to the fall of Libya's long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. "DELICATE BALANCE" Diplomats said there had yet to be a detailed discussion with the new U.N.-brokered Libyan government in defining what kind of assistance they wanted from the EU, and that it is keen to avoid the impression of moving into the country uninvited. "It is a delicate balance," said one senior EU official involved in the plans. "We need to prepare to help Libya, but we cannot jump the gun." Libyan officials with the new unity government were not immediately available for comment on the specific document, but they have said that any international security cooperation must be Libyan-led and so far have made no detailed request for aid. However, such a request would be a sensitive subject for the new government, which opponents accuse of being a foreign-imposed body with no legitimacy. Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Seraj will speak to ministers by video conference at the dinner on Monday. Talks on a possible EU security mission could give momentum to discussions among Italian, French, British and U.S. military planners on whether to send troops to Libya to help to protect key installations, government buildings, ports and the airport. The United States is eager to see Europe, not Washington, take the lead in a region on the continent's doorstep. The separate mission, which includes France, Italy, Britain and the United States and is known as the Libya International Assistance Mission, has already briefed EU diplomats about how it could have a military role in stabilising Libya. It may set up a secretariat based in Rome. Also under consideration is how the EU's so-called "Sophia" naval mission operating in international waters near Libya could move into Libyan waters to destroy boats used by people smugglers, catch the traffickers and head off an expected surge in migrants trying to reach Europe by sea from Libya. While the naval mission has been operating since mid-2015 and has saved more than 8,000 lives, it is unable to move into Libyan waters without a request from the Libyan government and a U.N. Security Council resolution. MILITIA INFIGHTING The problem has been finding an effective governing authority in Libya to deal with. Libya has been in anarchy for years, with two competing governments based in Tripoli and the far east and a plethora of militias dominating various regions. The new U.N.-backed unity government has yet to establish its authority in Tripoli, let alone the vast country at large. Previous training efforts ran into difficulties in 2012 and 2013 when Italy and Turkey started training police and, along with Britain and the United States, planned to build a force of 8,000 troops. Those programmes were hampered by militia infighting and political squabbling among Libyan factions. Renzi told reporters in Rome that the new U.N.-backed government in Tripoli would help to reduce the boatloads of migrants who dice with death to reach Europe from Africa. "It's fundamental that Libya has a government ... Now we can work with an executive that isn't at the height of its powers, but it exists," Renzi said. "In light of the fact that there is now a Libyan government, we will try to get the EU to invest in Africa to put a stop to the death journeys (on overcrowded boats) so we can have a decisively lower and more controlled migrant flow." In his letter, Renzi proposed that the EU share the cost of repatriations, screening of migrants and other logistical support for countries on migration routes. He suggested member states issue common bonds and provide new funds for African and other transit countries. He said a controversial deal whereby the EU will reward Ankara for taking back some migrants who pass through Turkey "should not remain an isolated event". EU ministers will also discuss whether the Sophia naval mission can work more closely with NATO's naval contingent in the Aegean, which aims to help Greek and Turkish coastguards tackle people smuggling and stem the record flows of migrants into the EU via Greece from nearby Turkey. (Additional reporting by Patrick Markey in Algiers and Steve Scherer in Rome; Editing by Francesco Guarascio, Mark Heinrich and David Goodman)
ABC/ Ida Mae Astute(NEW YORK) -- Donald Trump doesn't believe the Republican National Committee will see violence if he fails to win the nomination when the convention is held this summer.



Speaking Sunday in Staten Island ahead of New York's primary this week, Trump again criticized the Republican Party's process for choosing a nominee, saying the "rigged system" makes it about party bosses instead of voters.



"I hope it doesnt involve violence," he said, claiming his rallies are "the safest places to be in the country."



"But I will say this -- it's a rigged system, it's a crooked system. It's 100 percent crooked."



RNC chair Reince Preibus responded to some of Trump's frequent complaints last week, saying it was the responsibility of the campaigns to understand the rules as the nomination process had been known for more than a year.

Nomination process known for a year + beyond. It's the responsibility of the campaigns to understand it. Complaints now? Give us all a break  Reince Priebus (@Reince) April 13, 2016



Trump expressed confidence he would win the nomination on the first ballot in Cleveland by securing the needed 1,237 delegates.



"A lot of people say, 'dont complain, youre winning,' and I think well get there on the first ballot, actually," he said.



Trump's path to the nomination became less certain Saturday after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz swept 14 available delegates in Wyoming, a week after doing the same in Colorado. Trump said his campaign didn't put much effort into either state because both were they were for "the bosses" and not the voters.



"We didnt play in Colorado because I heard that it was going to be for the bosses, for the RNC," he said. "I dont wanna play that game. Im winning with the voters and were winning big."



Trump contended Cruz's recent wins were because of the money his campaign spent wining and dining delegates.



"Nobody has better toys than I do," he said. "I can put them in the best planes and bring them to the best resorts anywhere in the world. Doral, Mar-a-Lago. I can put them in the best places in the world -- California. I have something that blows everything away."



Trumps campaign has accused the Cruz campaign of breaking the rules when it comes to the hunt for the delegates needed to secure the nomination. His convention manager, Paul Manafort, threatened the campaign would be challenging some results while speaking to ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.



Well be filing protests. Missouri, we're going to be filing protests. Colorado, we're going to be filing protests, Manafort said.



Cruzs delegate operations director, Ken Cuccinelli, countered in a later interview, saying Trump's campaign was whining about the results and had used unsavory tactics to win delegates.



How about calling for riots in the street? How about threats -- 'Were going to go to the hotel rooms of delegates' -- death threats to the Colorado Republican chairman? Cuccinelli said. They keep using the rhetoric. This is a banana republic approach from the Trump team because theyre getting beat on the ground.



Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
(Reuters) - A Malayan tiger mauled a keeper at the Palm Beach Zoo on Friday and she died from the injuries, according to media reports.

The attack occurred in a hidden area where tigers eat and sleep, according to the Palm Beach Post newspaper, which cited zoo spokeswoman Naki Carter.

Zoo officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The incident happened at around 2 p.m. local time. The tiger was subdued with a tranquilizer and officials treated the injured woman who was then rushed to St. Mary's Medical Center, the newspaper reported. She died from her injuries, Carter told the paper.

The victim was longtime zookeeper Stacey Konwiser, 38, the newspaper said.

Local TV station CBS12 reported that the tiger did not escape the enclosure, and that no visitors were injured.

The zoo, about 70 miles (113 km) north of Miami, will be closed through Saturday, the Post reported, citing officials.

The Palm Beach Zoo has four Malayan tigers, an endangered species, the paper said.

Word of the attack triggered a frenzy at the zoo, with about two dozen visitors including a number of children being shuffled into the gift shop for protection, a witness told the Palm Beach Post.

The newspaper said that the zookeeper was preparing for an educational zoo attraction called Tiger Talks when the incident happened.

"(The zookeeper) was very proficient and efficient handling these animals and something happened," the Post quoted Carter as saying. "Exactly what occurred remains under investigation."

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Matthew Lewis)
Several hundred migrants are believed to have died after four boats capsized in the Mediterranean.

Italy's president, Sergio Mattarella, said there had been a migrant "tragedy", as unconfirmed reports suggested the vast majority of those on board the vessels were Somalis, trying to cross the sea from Egypt to Europe.

Speaking at a prize giving ceremony in Rome, Mr Mattarella said Europe needed to reflect in the face of "yet another tragedy in the Mediterranean in which, it seems, several hundred people have died."

Around 800 migrants and refugees drowned on 18 April last year, when the overcrowded fishing boat they were in capsized in waters between Libya and the Italian island of Lampedusa .

Mr Mattarella did not give any further details - and neither Egyptian or Greek officials were able to confirm the reports of a major disaster.

The Italian coastguard said they knew nothing about the reported disaster.

However, they were involved in the overnight rescue of 108 migrants from a semi-submerged rubber dinghy. Six people drowned in the incident.

Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni added: "We are looking for more details, information. But what is sure is that we are again with a tragedy in the Mediterranean - exactly one year after the tragedy we had, not in the Egyptian but in the Libyan waters.

"This is another strong reason for Europe to commit itself not in building walls but in strengthening our common commitment towards migration, especially towards Africa."

It comes as a report by academics accused EU policymakers of "killing by neglect" by reducing search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean.

Mare Nostrum, the Italy-led rescue mission, was scrapped in October 2014 and replaced by Triton, which deployed fewer ships and prioritised deterring migrants over rescue operations.

The change has since potentially cost the lives of more than 1,500 migrants, according to the report, Death By Rescue: The Lethal Effects Of The EU's Policies Of Non-assistance At Sea.

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A charity warned the numbers of migrants braving the perilous journey by sea to Europe is unlikely to fall - despite an EU deal to deport those who have failed to gain asylum.

"The numbers will not stop coming because they have no choice but to try and reach Europe," said Sarah Tyler, head of communications for Save The Children International.

"What they are leaving behind is not a life that is worth living, many children have told me. So, yes, the safe passage has to be implemented and search and rescue measures need to be continued."
By Patricia Zengerle MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned Carnival Corp on Thursday for barring Cuban-Americans from its planned cruises to Cuba and called on the Cuban government to change its policies to allow them. "Carnival needs to not discriminate," Kerry said in an interview with CNN en Espanol and the Miami Herald. Cuban-born Americans cannot visit the island by sea, due to a Cuban law that dates to the Cold War era, and therefore are barred from joining in Carnival's sailings to the island, the Miami Herald has reported. People born in Cuba can, however, travel to the island on an airplane. "American citizens, Cuban Americans have a right to travel, and we should not be in a situation where the Cuban government is forcing its discrimination policy on us," Kerry said. "So we call on the government of Cuba to change that policy and to recognize that if they want a full relationship, a normal relationship, with the United States, they have to live by international law and not exclusively by their own," he said during a trip to Miami. Carnival officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the company has told the Miami Herald it had no choice but to enforce the rule when booking tickets for its new Miami-to-Havana route. It said it has asked the Cuban government to waive the rule before the first ship sails on May 1. A State Department official said, "Secretary Kerry in no way meant to convey that Carnival is supporting policies that are discriminating against Cuban American travelers." Miami is the center of the U.S. Cuban-American community, and many of its residents from the island nation, who fled Cuba after its Communist revolution, are vehemently opposed to President Barack Obama's moves toward more normal relations with Havana. Critics of the policy say Washington should not ease a half century of restrictions on travel and trade until Cuba has free elections and its human rights record improves. Kerry, who gave two interviews to local media, met with business leaders and addressed college students, said Cuba could move more quickly to improve its rights record. But he said he was sure a more open relationship with the United States would yield positive changes. "I think more could happen faster. More should happen faster. But I'm not surprised. Nobody expected that. This has been 50-plus years of the status quo ... but there are changes that are in place for the positive," Kerry said. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Dan Grebler and Diane Craft)
Election day in Manitoba is Tuesday, but more than 109,000 people have already cast ballots in advance polls  an increase of 38 per cent from the last provincial election.

Approximately 109,078 eligible voters took advantage of the advance voting period, which ran from April 9 until Saturday, according to Elections Manitoba.

That number is an increase of about 38 per cent from 78,786 people who cast ballots in the eight-day advance voting period leading up to the 2011 election, a spokesperson told CBC News.

It's the highest advance participation rate in a provincial election to date, the spokesperson added.

Elections Manitoba attributed the higher turnout to greater public awareness of how people can vote in advance and the fact they can vote at any advance voting location. As well, the agency cited its website and mobile app, which have information on where to find advance voting locations.

Manitobans who have not voted yet can do so on Tuesday, which is election day. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Coverage of the results will begin at 8 p.m. CT (9 p.m. ET) Tuesday on CBC Radio One 89.3 FM and CBC Television.

You can personalize your election night experience with our results dashboard, where you can watch our interactive map change as the results come in, set "favourites" with constituencies you want to follow, watch and listen to our television and radio specials, view Twitter updates from our reporters in the field and join a live discussion.
(Reuters) - Michigan lawmakers on Wednesday extended the state of emergency in Flint for four months, enabling the city to tap more state funds and coordinate a response with other authorities to the crisis over lead contamination in the city's drinking water. The legislature matched the time line of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which last month extended emergency assistance to Flint through Aug. 14 from mid-April. Aid has included supplies of bottled water, filters and test kits. The extension applies to Genesee County, which includes Flint and surrounding towns, as well as to Flint proper. It allows state officials to tap funds that otherwise would be restricted, a spokesman in Governor Rick Snyder's office said by telephone. "The state is committed to continue working with the city to provide strong support and continue drawing on all resources available to support Flint residents during the city's recovery," Snyder said in a statement. Snyder was hauled in March before a U.S. congressional committee where he faced tough questioning over his response to Flint's crisis. He has resisted calls for his resignation. Michigan has committed nearly $67 million in funding for Flint and the governor has proposed a total of $230 million, officials said. Flint was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched the source of its tap water from Detroit's system to the Flint River in April 2014 to save money. The city switched back last October after tests found high levels of lead in children's blood samples. The more corrosive water from the river leached more lead from the city pipes than Detroit water did. Lead is a toxic agent that can damage the human nervous system. (Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Fiona Ortiz)
Quebec wants to seize the opportunity presented by the thawing of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States to open a permanent office in Havana.

"It would be a very concrete gesture to show our determination to establish [a] sustainable and permanent relationship with Cuba," International Relations Minister Christine St-Pierre told CBC News in a one-on-one interview.

An office in Havana would help Quebec businesses hoping to break into the island nation's economy and help develop relationships in education, science and culture, St-Pierre said.

"Ideally, it would happen fairly quickly," said the minister. However, talks with Cuban authorities and the federal government need to take place before the province can establish a firm presence.

First official visit last November

St-Pierre accelerated steps to solidify the relationship after her official trip last November  the first by a Quebec international relations minister.

She said realized Quebec needed to act quickly in order to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to strengthen relations with Cuba, only a three-and-a-half hour plane ride from Montreal.

Fifty countries were present at the trade fair in November, St-Pierre said, and many had the same idea.

"The Chinese are there," she said. "The Germans are there, and they definitely want to do business with Cuba."

After the mission, she expanded the responsibilities of Quebec's mission in Mexico to include Cuba, as a first step towards developing stronger and more stable ties.

Quebec's relationship with Cuba dates back to the 18th century, when French-Canadian explorers first travelled to the island. Today, Canadians make up a third of tourists in Cuba, with Quebecers making up 40 per cent of them.

Quebec already has 26 offices in 14 countries around the world. It opened a mission opened in Dakar, Senegal on March 4.

Under the decades-old U.S. embargo of Cuba, American authorities have the right to penalize foreign companies with U.S. business interests in Cuba.

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This has prevented some Quebec companies from entering the Cuban market.

However, the recent thaw in relations between the U.S. and Cuba is a signal that the Americans may eventually lift the embargo. This is why "Quebec [is] moving forward," said St-Pierre.

Cuba's human rights record

When it comes to Cuba's record on human rights and freedom of speech, the minister believes Quebec can help promote democratic values by further developing its relationship with Cuba and its government.

"If you want to show what you are doing in your own country and the protection of values, democracy, human rights, I think it's the best way to be with them and help them understand," she said.

"They can see what we have in Canada. We have freedom of speech, and it's very, very important in a democracy."

'No-brainer,' says Cuba expert

Quebec and Canada have a "natural advantage," when it comes to capitalizing on Cuba's economic opening, says John Kirk, a Latin American Studies professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, because of the relationship both governments maintained with the country despite U.S. policy.

However, he says, until now, Quebec and Canada have not taken full advantage of that position.

"This is a no-brainer," says the author and editor of 16 books on Cuba.

"While Ottawa has been asleep at the switch under Stephen Harper and has frittered away its natural advantages, other countries have not," he said.

"The government of Quebec is taking the lead, and I sincerely hope people in Ottawa will take notice and do the same thing themselves."


An apparent machete attack at a karaoke bar in North York sent three people to hospital overnight.

Police say the incident happened Monday after a man tried to take liquor from a bar near Jane Street and Wilson Avenue at around 1 a.m., before he was stopped by staff.

The man then allegedly went back to his vehicle where he armed himself with a machete. Toronto police say he then returned to the bar and attacked three people.

One person was slashed in the stomach, a second person was struck in the head and a third person was slashed in the hand, according to police.

The victims initially transported themselves to hospital, but the victim with a head injury was rushed to a trauma centre by paramedics.

Police say none of the injuries are considered life-threatening.

Investigators are still looking for the man behind the alleged machete attack.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian rebel group on Saturday said United Nations-led peace talks had so far been extremely negative and criticized opposition negotiators as divorced from a deteriorating military situation on the ground. The statement from Ahrar al-Sham, an Islamist group and one of the biggest rebel factions involved in the conflict, indicates the pressure facing the opposition High Negotiations Committee as it takes part in a second round of indirect talks with the government in Geneva. The talks appear to be making no progress toward ending the five-year-long war that has killed more than 250,000 people, while a military escalation has stretched to breaking point a truce agreement brokered by the United States and Russia. "There is a clear division between the work of the (HNC) and the reality on the ground, for while Russia realizes field gains for the benefit of the regime, giving it political momentum, and while the regime and Iran breach the truce ... we see insistence from the (HNC) on pursuing the negotiations," it said. Russia and Iran have both provided military support to President Bashar al-Assad, with Moscow deploying its air force and Iran sending members of its elite Revolutionary Guard Corps and, more recently, its regular army to support Damascus. The HNC was formed in December at a Riyadh meeting of the political and armed opposition to Assad. It includes rebel groups including Jaysh al-Islam and a number of Free Syrian Army rebel factions deemed moderate by the West, some of which have received military support from Assad's foreign enemies. Ahrar al-Sham withdrew from the Riyadh meeting, citing reasons including what it described as the sidelining of "revolutionary groups". Further distancing itself from the political process, Ahrar al-Sham said in its statement on Saturday that it had not taken part in any of the Geneva talks. It also said there was "a gulf" between the HNC and "the revolutionary street with all its military and civilian elements", calling its performance "weak and stumbling". The HNC has itself expressed deep misgivings about the outlook for peace talks which it says must be focused on a political transition. The Syrian government has ruled out any discussion of the presidency. Ahrar al-Sham said the Syrian government was meanwhile still "working for a purely military solution". Ahrar al-Sham is an ultra-orthodox Salafist group and has fought as part of a military alliance including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which was not part of the cessation of hostilities agreement brokered in February. Ahrar al-Sham, whose late leader had fought alongside Osama bin Laden, last year denied sharing al Qaeda's ideology or having organizational ties to the group. The Ahrar statement also noted that important opposition conditions for the start of the political process had not been realized, including an end to government blockades of opposition-held territory and a release of detainees. (Additional reporting by Ali Abdellatti in Cairo, writing by Tom Perry, editing by G Crosse)
(Reuters) - Blood-testing firm Theranos Inc is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, Bloomberg reported. U.S. federal health regulators have proposed banning Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes from the blood-testing business for at least two years after determining that the company failed to fix deficiencies at its California laboratory, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. Theranos could not immediately be reached for comment. Theranos had promised to shake up medical testing by conducting a wide range of tests with just one drop of blood in a user-friendly manner with quick results. The company has been in the spotlight after reports in the WSJ suggested that the blood-testing devices were flawed and had problems with accuracy. (Reporting by Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
By Zachary Fagenson WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's campaign manager will not be prosecuted in Florida on a misdemeanor battery charge involving a reporter, Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said on Thursday. Corey Lewandowski, 42, was charged on March 29 by police in Jupiter with intentionally grabbing and bruising the arm of Michelle Fields, then a reporter for the conservative news outlet Breitbart. The incident occurred when Fields tried to question Trump at a campaign event on March 8. "Mr. Lewandowski has a reasonable hypothesis of innocence. There is insufficient evidence to rebut these defenses," said Aronberg, a Democrat, noting that Lewandowski had grabbed the reporter's arm against her will. Aronberg's office said it faced a legally higher standard than law enforcement. State prosecutor's offices must show proof of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, and whether there is a reasonable chance of conviction. Law enforcement can bring charges on probable cause, and Aronberg said police had acted appropriately. He added that politics did not factor into his decision. Police released a video of the incident showing Fields walking alongside Trump and trying to question him. Lewandowski is seen grabbing her arm and pulling her backward. Fields had brushed or touched Trump's arm following a campaign news conference, after which Lewandowski reached out and grabbed her arm, said Aronberg, citing a video recording. Trump has repeatedly defended Lewandowski, and the campaign released a statement noting that the campaign manager was gratified by the decision of prosecutors. Lewandowski "appreciates the thoughtful consideration and professionalism by the Palm Beach State Attorney and his staff who carefully reviewed this matter, as well as Mr. Trumps loyalty and the support of his colleagues and family during this time," the statement said. But the decision was a disappointment to Fields, Aronberg said, noting that his office had talked with her on Thursday. Fields on Wednesday posted on Twitter, "For those asking, office of prosecutor asked 2 weeks ago if I'd be ok with an apology from Corey. I said ya but haven't heard back about it." Aronberg said an apology to the reporter might have avoided the legal proceedings. (Writing by Letitia Stein; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Enterprise Resource Planning

San Bernardino Community College District Deploys Cloud-Based ERP System

San Bernardino Community College District in California has selected a new cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to provide insight into operations and improve reporting to support the decision-making process.

San Bernardino Community College District is one of 72 community college districts within the California Community College system, and it's "in the process of becoming fiscally independent from the County," said Jose Torres, vice chancellor of business and fiscal services for San Bernardino Community College District, in a news release. As part of that process, Torres and his team were looking for "a robust, complete cloud ERP solution that could help us transform our organization."

The district selected Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Cloud. According to information from Oracle, its ERP Cloud includes financials, planning and budgeting, risk and controls management, procurement and sourcing, inventory and cost management, product master data management and project portfolio management.

San Bernardino Community College District will work with Highstreet IT Solutions on the implementation. Once the new system is in place, it should help the district "drive sustainable cost reductions, simplify processes and standardize systems," according to a news release from Oracle.

In related Oracle news, several other higher education institutions have opted to deploy Oracle's cloud-based systems recently. Kentucky State University (KSU) has selected both Oracle ERP Cloud and Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud to replace its aging ERP system and improve the efficiency of its operations. Bellevue University in Nebraska has selected Oracle ERP Cloud and Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service to replace its on-premise licensing. And Vanderbilt University in Tennessee has selected Oracle ERP Cloud and Oracle HCM Cloud to replace its 30-year-old legacy system.
What does decoupling mean?

When someone gets together, they become a couple. If they are famous or infamous, they become the couple. When they decide to leave each other, they de-couple, or divorce.

When a couple buys a house, they buy it together and pay for it by cash, and property is fully paid, the ownership is: -

 Owner: Husband + Wife (They hold the title deed)

When a couple buys a house, pay the down payment and then borrow the rest from either HDB or the banks: -

 Mortgagors: Husband + Wife (Also known as owner, except that the bank still holds the title deed when there is an outstanding loan).

  Borrowers: Husband + Wife (They owe the banks as borrowers.)





Additional Buyer Stamp Duty (ABSD) causes many divorces (De-coupling)?

The problem comes when these couples have the ability to buy a second residential property.

They have to incur ABSD: -

 Buying 2nd residential property = 7% ABSD.

 Buying 3rd residential property = 10% ABSD.

If a couple owns a residential property (Fully paid up) and buy another property at $1m, they would incur: -

 Stamp Duty of 3% less $5400 = $ 24,600

 Additional buyer stamp duty of 7% = $ 70,000

 20% down payment = $200,000

 Total Cash/CPF required = $294,600

This simply put them off buying another property. Lets face it, Singaporeans love properties.

Diagram 1: Singaporean Husband and Wife buy 2nd Property



In the good old days, Husband and wife buy the 1st residential property and then the 2nd residential property together. They stayed together, not needing to decouple. But with ABSD, they have to pay 7% extra if they did it this way.

Diagram 2: De-coupling - Husband buys Wifes share and Wife buys her own property, saving on ABSD of 7%.





Decoupling for HDB flats

HDB does not allow part sale between couples, unless in case of divorce. Banks on the other hand does not accept Gifting of ownership between HDB couples with outstanding loan.

Hence decoupling for HDB is only possible on a case by case basis when the HDB flat is fully paid up via the Gifting method, subjected to approval by HDB. (Transfer of flat ownership, HDB) One of the couples is the full owner while the other is an occupier. This still forms the family nucleus.

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Very complicate rules, which you have to keep up to date all the time.

So decoupling for HDB flat is basically out.





Decoupling for Private Property

Decoupling for Private Flats is still possible through the following methods: -

 Gifting (subject to property being Fully paid)  IRAS tax is still payable based on arms length transaction. That means you cannot under-declare your GIFT and an independent valuation need to be sought.

 Part purchase (Fully paid)  Also need to be an arms length transaction, where the valuation is independent. CPF monies from the acquired shares will need to be returned with accrued interests into members CPF account.

 Part purchase (With bank loan outstanding)  Arms length transaction where the valuation will need to be independent.

Usually part purchase with existing bank loan is the most common. But the existing bank usually do not like to do part purchase as there is no new loan dispersed and hence this is extra work without revenue points for the bankers. As bankers have high targets to meet, they will tend to ignore this request.

The best situation is usually to refinance home loan to a new bank while doing part purchase. This will involve 2 sets of lawyers: -

 Sellers lawyers for Sale and Purchase.

 Buyers lawyers for Buyer conveyance.

 Seller pays for Seller Stamp Duty (If sold within 4 years  if they fall under the period SSD is applicable)

 Buyer pays for Buyer Stamp Duty; 1st $180,000 at 1%, 2nd $180,000 at 2% and 3% thereafter.





Why stop Singaporeans who can afford to buy their 2nd or 3rd properties from buying?

Why stop Singaporean couples from buying their 2nd and 3rd properties and impose punitive taxes such as Additional Buyer Stamp Duty (ABSD)?

For financial prudence, Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) would more than suffice to make sure that whoever is buying their 2nd and 3rd properties are able to finance it.

There is also the added protection of reduced loan-to-value borrowing, such that if you have an outstanding 1st residential property loan, your 2nd property loan is capped at 50% of property valuation or price (whichever is lower).

If a Singaporean couple can afford a second property, is it necessary to make Singaporeans jump through all the hoops and pay Additional Buyer Stamp Duty?





Why Singaporeans should come first?

While we welcome foreign talents, we should first take care of our citizens. In an unintended consequence, If Singaporeans are hindered (by ABSD) to buy the second property, PR can buy their 1st property more easily, this simply deprives the Singaporean from being able to buy and rent to foreigners, including PR.

In this case we may have foreigners who buys his/her own property instead of renting from a Singaporean. This represents loss of potential rental revenue for Singaporeans who would otherwise own a 2nd properties.

Of course, due diligence, must still be exercised by the Singaporean couple in deciding whether property investing is the right asset class or not.





Summary

HDB has about 76% of Singapore residents staying in it, has too much rules, It is like some legal textbook. Since HDB is becoming more and more like private properties, approaching the price points of S$500 to S$700 per square feet in some mature estates. Perhaps it is time to bring HDB policies in line with those of private properties? There are too many pages to read.

For those who still want to buy a 2nd property, they can still de-couple and spend thousands of legal fees to get around the additional buyer stamp duty (ABSD). Moreover, there is already Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR), and a reduction in Loan-to-value for 2nd residential property purchase with outstanding loan, capped at 50%. Hence the incremental benefit of Additional Buyer Stamp Duty (ABSD) on 2nd property purchase is limited. ABSD should be abolished for Singaporean buyers.

Some of these hurdles may have the unintended consequences of disadvantaging Singaporeans. Since some Singaporeans can afford to buy a 2nd private condominium, they are not competing with 1st time home buyer who are most likely to buy HDB, why stop them from earning rent from foreigners?

Click here to receive a sample Property Buyer Report.

Sample Property Buyer Reports for Download: Sample 1, Sample 2, Sample 3





Reference

1. Transfer of flat ownership, HDB, http://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/residential/living-in-an-hdb-flat/changing-owners/-occupiers/change-in-ownership/transfer-of-flat-ownership)




Sweden's Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan announces his resignation on April 18, 2016 in Stockholm following his comments on Israel (AFP Photo/Jessica Gow) (TT News Agency/AFP)

Stockholm (AFP) - A Swedish cabinet minister of Turkish origin who compared Israel to Nazi Germany and was photographed with Turkish ultranationalists resigned on Monday, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced.

"Mehmet Kaplan has submitted his resignation and I have accepted it," Lofven told reporters, nonetheless praising the outgoing housing minister's "humanistic and democratic values."

Kaplan, a member of the junior coalition partner Green Party, told reporters he was opposed to "all forms of extremism" and stressed his dedication to "human rights, democracy and dialogue."

The 44-year-old had been in hot water since the weekend when media published old video footage of him making controversial remarks about Israel's politics towards Palestinians.

During a March 2009 debate on Islamophobia organised by a Somali organisation, Kaplan, who was a member of parliament at the time, said there were "similarities" between the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany during the 1930s and the everyday lives of Palestinians.

Israel's ambassador to Sweden, Isaac Bachman, branded the remarks as "deeply anti-Semitic."

"I have on several occasions criticised the actions of the state of Israel severely, but I am clearly not anti-Semitic... My criticism of Israel does not make me less critical of the anti-Semitism that exists in Sweden," Kaplan wrote in a comment published on the website of daily Expressen after his resignation was announced.

Last week, media had published photos of Kaplan attending a July 2015 dinner in Sweden with Turkish ultranationalists, which sparked strong reactions from the opposition, media, and the public.

Among those attending the dinner was Ilhan Senturk, the Swedish head of the ultranational "Grey Wolves" organisation known for political violence in the 1970s and 1980s.

Also present was Barbaros Leyani, the former vice-president of the Turkish National Association of Sweden who was forced to resign after calling for the murder of "Armenian dogs" during a demonstration in Stockholm in April.

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Kaplan, who was born in Turkey and moved to Sweden when he was eight, also came under fire from media and political opponents for his ties to Islamic organisations, especially Milli Gorus which is suspected of promoting religious fundamentalism.

He acknowledged those ties, but "that doesn't mean I agree with them on everything," he told Swedish television.

Opposition leader Anna Kinberg Batra of the conservative Moderates criticised Prime Minister Lofven, a Social Democrat, for "being passive and slow" to react to the controversy.
Lynn was drafted into the Army and moved his family to San Bernardino, California. After his military service he attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and received his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering. He presented his masters thesis on nuclear energy having done his research at Cooper Nuclear Station in Brownsville. After graduation from college he was employed by Consumers Public Power and Nebraska Public Power District. During his career, he resided in O'Neill, Lincoln, Columbus and York, and was always active in community service and also within his church. During his career he was appointed by Gov. Thone to the State Electrical Board. After his retirement he and Lois returned to Long Pine to his beloved ranch. He served as a county commissioner for Brown County and after his wife Lois' death in 2010, he married his high school classmate and friend, Mary Lou Anderson Burns, on Feb. 2, 2012. He also served on the Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company Board, as well as being instrumental in the development of Seven Springs Water, a spring water distribution plant, where he was the vice chairperson of the board at the time of his death. Lynn also loved the outdoors. His pastimes included hunting, fishing and camping throughout his life. After his retirement at the ranch in Long Pine you could find him playing with his tractors, fixing and repairing whatever needed to be done to run the ranch, as well as spending numerous hours cutting the noxious weed, Eastern red-cedar trees, from his pasture.
BOSTON, April 17, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Massachusetts acupuncture clinic On Point Acupuncture & Wellness is offering custom workplace wellness programs for Boston corporate offices and businesses in the surrounding areas. Workplace wellness programs improve productivity and employee satisfaction, and On Point Acupuncture & Wellness can assist with providing customized programs on-site.

About 90 percent of all visits to primary care providers are related to stress, and over half of lost workdays have been shown to be stress-related. Up to 80 percent of industrial accidents in workplaces or on job sites are due to stress. Additionally, 14 percent of workers report that it was stress that caused them to change jobs or quit a job.

Employee stress, pain and illness cost companies untold amounts of lost revenues each year. However, when workers are healthy, they are less likely to take sick days or become injured on the job. They are also far more likely to be productive, focused and effective at work.

On Point Acupuncture & Wellness is dedicated to helping Boston, Massachusetts, companies reduce costs by decreasing worker stress and increasing productivity. The experienced practitioners from On Point Acupuncture & Wellness will work directly with each employer to create a customized program which may include acupuncture, physical therapy and massage for increased worksite health and wellness. A primary focus of these programs is to improve the productivity and job satisfaction of workers, resulting in lowered employee costs and higher business profits.

Workplace wellness programs have a range of documented benefits. They can help to reduce worker illnesses and absenteeism while raising their effectiveness. They can also reduce insurance claims filed which can result in lower premium costs. This in turn boosts employee morale, workers report having a higher rate of job satisfaction, and company loyalty and longevity are increased.

Workplace wellness programs can include screenings, educational lectures, individual or group therapy sessions and employee health fairs. Programs can be conducted on- or off-site at a convenient location. Each business receives a customized wellness program based on their needs.

On Point Acupuncture & Wellness can also assist with promotion of health education via flyers, newsletters, emails and discount promotions. Programs and incentives for smoking cessation and weight loss are also an option. Flexible spending and health savings accounts offer an added incentive.

Karin Kramer, Lic. Ac., and founder of On Point Acupuncture & Wellness shares, Each workplace wellness program we design is customized to each company. We know the firsthand the benefits these programs can bring and look forward to creating the perfect health and wellness program for each new business client.

On Point Acupuncture & Wellness is located at 185 Devonshire St., Suite 201, in Boston, Massachusetts. Those in the public who would like more information can call (617) 654-8960 or visit their website at http://onpointacupuncturewellness.com/ to find out about their additional location in Brookline and their full range of services.
Lithuanian English

Vilnius, Lithuania, 2016-04-18 08:05 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On 25 March 2016, the General Shareholders Meeting of INVL Baltic Farmland, AB (identification code 303299781, address Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, LT-01109) decided to allocate EUR 0.066 dividend per share.



Dividends will be paid to the shareholders who at the end of the tenth business day following the day of the General Shareholders Meeting that adopted a decision on dividend payment, i.e. on 11 April 2016 were shareholders of INVL Baltic Farmland, AB.



From 20 April 2016 the dividends will be allocated in the following order:



- to the shareholders, whos INVL Baltic Farmland, AB shares are accounted by a financial brokerage company or credit institutions, which provide securities accounting services, the amount of dividend, after deduction of Personal or Corporate withholding income tax applicable by the laws of Lithuania, will be transferred to the shareholders account held with a respective financial brokerage company or credit institution;

- to the shareholders, whos INVL Baltic Farmland, AB shares on behalf of the Company are accounted by the authorised custodian Siauliu bankas, AB, the dividend amount, after deduction of Personal or Corporate withholding income tax applicable by the laws of Lithuania, will be transferred to the shareholders account with Lithuanian commercial bank as indicated by the shareholders (requests with account indications should be submitted to the branch at Seimyniskiu st. 1A, Vilnius).



Procedure for dividends taxation for the year 2015:

- dividends paid to natural personsresidents of the Republic of Lithuania and natural personsresidents of foreign countries are subject to withholding Personal income tax of 15 per cent;

- dividends paid to legal entities of the Republic of Lithuania and legal entitiesresidents of foreign countries are subject to withholding Corporate income tax of 15 per cent, unless otherwise provided for by the laws.



For additional information please contact Siauliu bankas, AB tel. 1813.
Icelandic English

Reykjavik, 2016-04-18 16:17 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At Orkuveita Reykjavikurs (OR; Reykjavik Energy) annual general meeting, held today, Brynhildur Davidsdottir assumed chairmanship og ORs Board of Directors. She is a professor of environment- and energy studies at The University of Iceland and has served as veice-chair of ORs BoD since 2011. Gylfi Magnusson, docent in economics at The University of Iceland, succeeded Davidsdottir as vice-chair. Other memeber of the BoD are Aslaug Maria Fridriksdottir city councillor, Kjartan Magnusson city councillor, Sigridur Rut Juliusdottir advocate to the Supreme Court and Valdis Eyjolfsdottir city councillor at Akranes Township. Attending member on behalf of Borgarbyggd Municipality is Bjorn Bjarki Thorsteinsson city councillor.

In connection with the annual general meeting, OR published the attached Annual Report 2015 and Environmental Report 2015. The reports are for the first time made with reference to GRI standards on corporate social responsibility, as mandated in ORs CSR policy.
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LINCOLN  A man shot Monday afternoon in Lincoln is still in critical condition, police said Tuesday morning.

Jerry Griffis, 21, was shot multiple times at 1966 Euclid St., where Christopher Coleman, 32, was shot to death just before 3:30 p.m. Coleman lived in the house.

Three of Coleman's children were in the house at the time, but were not injured. A brown boxer that was shot also has died, police said.

While police don't have a formal description of the suspect or suspects yet, Jackson said the shooting was "not a random act" and is believed to be associated with drug activity. Investigators haven't identified how many suspects they're looking for and do not know if those involved are still in Lincoln.

Jackson hopes a description will be released later Tuesday.

"We have a number of witnesses that have reported information to us," he said. "Were trying to vet that information, compare it to each other. What we dont want to do is put out incomplete or inaccurate information."

The children ages 5, 3, and 1, are in the care of family members, Jackson said. Court documents show all three children are Coleman's.

Neighbors said they heard as many as eight shots inside the home about a block away from Prescott Elementary School, according to police.

Investigators remained at the house early Tuesday morning executing a search warrant.

"Homicide is a tragedy to the community, and certainly to the loved ones of those involved," he said. " ... Our investigation will continue following tips, leads and evidence we find at the scene."

Jackson urged the public to report suspicious activity they see occurring at any time.

The shooting brings the citys homicide total to four this year and follows the death of a woman killed by her husband in what police described as a murder-suicide Thursday.

There was one murder in Lincoln in 2015.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Lincoln Police at 402-441-6000 or Crimestoppers at 402-475-3600.
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MONDAY, April 18, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Hoping to look more kissable perhaps, Americans underwent a record number of lip procedures last year.

"We live in the age of the selfie, and because we see images of ourselves almost constantly on social media, we're much more aware of how our lips look," Dr. David Song, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said in a society news release.

There were more than 27,400 lip implants performed in 2015 -- a 48 percent increase since 2000. That averages out to one lip implant every 19 minutes, the society said, noting the procedure became more popular among both men and women.

Lip injections, which include Botox and various soft-tissue fillers, also rose steeply last year, reaching nearly 9.2 million. That's an increase of more than 1,000 percent since the year 2000, the plastic surgeons said.

Lip procedures have been the second-fastest-growing facial procedure in the United States since 2000. Only dermabrasion procedures have climbed more rapidly.

Dr. Robert Houser, a plastic surgeon in Westerville, Ohio, said that lips are an easy place for people to start. "A patient may not be ready to commit to something as dramatic as a facelift or eyelid surgery, but there are a variety of ways you can change the shape of your lips," he said.

Some people prefer the temporary nature of injections, Houser said. "If a patient doesn't like the injections, it's fine, because within a few months they wear off and everything is back to normal," he explained. "But if they do like what injections do for their lips, they have to keep coming back every few months to maintain them."

The alternative, Houser said, is a more permanent but still reversible lip implant.

More information

The U.S. Office on Women's Health has more about cosmetic surgery.
MONDAY, April 18, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- In a bid to take high-performance wearable electronics to a new level, Japanese researchers have developed an "e-skin" that may be a noninvasive way to monitor patients' health and vital signs.

The ultra-thin, flexible film can light up and display numbers or images. It moves easily with the body and is resistant to air and water damage, according to the scientists who created the technology.

The electronic skin is less than 2 micrometers thick. It is made up of layers of inorganic and organic materials, including Silicon Oxynitrite and Parylene.

The researchers, led by Takao Someya and Dr. Tomoyuki Yokota at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Engineering, also attached transparent indium tin oxide electrodes, enabling them to create electronic devices called polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) and organic photodetectors.

These devices are six times more efficient than existing PLEDs, producing less heat and consuming less power. This makes them ideal for direct application to the skin and medical uses, such as measuring pulse rate and oxygen levels in the bloodstream, the e-skin's creators said.

Until now, such devices have been thicker, much less flexible, and not stable enough to survive when exposed to air. The protective film created by the research team extends the life of the device from a few hours to several days.

The researchers said that the ultra-thin and flexible e-skin may be used to measure the oxygen levels and heart rate of athletes. The technology, they added, could also be utilized in many other applications.

"The advent of mobile phones has changed the way we communicate. While these communication tools are getting smaller and smaller, they are still discrete devices that we have to carry with us," Someya said in a university news release.

"What would the world be like if we had displays that could adhere to our bodies and even show our emotions or level of stress or unease? In addition to not having to carry a device with us at all times, they might enhance the way we interact with those around us or add a whole new dimension to how we communicate," he said.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more on digital health, including wearable technology.
Police in Iran's capital have a network of 7,000 undercover agents whose job is to inform on alleged moral transgressors in the Islamic republic, a top official said Monday. Bad veiling -- covering the head is mandatory for women in Iran -- and anti-social behaviour is among the crimes the force has been tasked with tackling. The men and women's "undercover patrols will confront implicit transgressions in the city," according to General Hossein Sajedinia, Tehran's police chief. "Confronting bad hijab and removal of veils inside cars, driving recklessly, parading in the streets, harassing women and stopping noise pollution are the priorities" for the agents, he said Sajedinia's remarks were published by Mizan Online, the official news service for Iran's judiciary, along with pictures of himself and a large formation of plain-clothed agents in Tehran. When in public, all women in the Islamic republic, including foreigners, are required to wear at least a loose scarf, known as hijab, which covers the hair and neck. Since the mid-1990s, however, there has been a gradual change in the dress code with some women, particularly in more affluent northern neighbourhoods, wearing colourful tight-fitting coats and loose scarves. If the agents observe such violations they report the alleged offender to police who will then be contacted and later summoned, Sajedinia said. The agents, bearing judicial orders, are not allowed to engage people directly and will only report to the police.
An Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth entity said Monday that the Malaysian state fund 1MDB had defaulted on $1.1 billion it owed in a new blow to the scandal-tainted company.

The announcement, made in a filing to the London Stock Exchange by Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), raised the spectre of Malaysian market turmoil if 1MDB is unable to dig out from under its huge debts.

1MDB, or 1Malaysia Development Berhad, was founded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009 but is now teetering on the verge of default amid multiple investigations around the world into allegations that billions were looted from it.

IPIC had agreed in 2012 to guarantee $3.5 billion in 1MDB bonds, lend it more than a billion dollars, and make interest payments on the bonds.

In its statement, IPIC said 1MDB and its owner, Malaysia's Finance Ministry, had failed to pay back more than $1.1 billion they owed.

"As a result, 1MDB and MOF are in default," IPIC said.

Najib has been under fierce pressure over 1MDB's accumulation of more than $11 billion in questionable debt, and his own acceptance of nearly $700 million into his personal bank accounts in 2013.

Najib has denied that the money he received, first revealed last year, was siphoned from 1MDB, saying it was a gift from the Saudi royal family.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister confirmed last week the money came from his country, but only after weeks of silence as doubts over Najib's claim grew.

Following IPIC's announcement, Malaysia's Finance Ministry issued a statement curtly noting the "dispute" over the loan but sought to reassure markets.

"The MOF wishes to make clear that it will continue to honour all of its outstanding commitments in the financial markets," it said.

1MDB's problems have riveted Malaysia for more than a year, ratcheting up pressure on Najib to resign and raising concerns that Malaysia financial markets could be hammered if the company were to default on its massive debts.

Story continues

The scandal had already contributed to a plunge in the value of Malaysia's ringgit currency last year.

1MDB was supposed to pay IPIC back via payments to a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi fund called Aabar Investments PJS.

Contrary to 1MDB's claims, IPIC said last week that Aabar never received the money.

A recent investigative report by the Wall Street Journal said 1MDB instead paid more than $2 billion to a British Virgin Islands entity, an apparent shell company with a nearly identical name to Aabar's.

The British Virgin Islands entity has since been shut down, the Journal said.

"IPIC and Aabar .... are considering their options in relation to this dispute, including referring the matter to the appropriate dispute resolution forum," the statement said.

dma/eb
An Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth entity said Monday that the Malaysian state fund 1MDB had defaulted on $1.1 billion it owed in a new blow to the scandal-tainted company. The announcement, made in a filing to the London Stock Exchange by Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), raised the spectre of Malaysian market turmoil if 1MDB is unable to dig out from under its huge debts. 1MDB, or 1Malaysia Development Berhad, was founded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009 but is now teetering on the verge of default amid multiple investigations around the world into allegations that billions were looted from it. IPIC had agreed in 2012 to guarantee $3.5 billion in 1MDB bonds, lend it more than a billion dollars, and make interest payments on the bonds. In its statement, IPIC said 1MDB and its owner, Malaysia's Finance Ministry, had failed to pay back more than $1.1 billion they owed. "As a result, 1MDB and MOF are in default," IPIC said. Najib has been under fierce pressure over 1MDB's accumulation of more than $11 billion in questionable debt, and his own acceptance of nearly $700 million into his personal bank accounts in 2013. Najib has denied that the money he received, first revealed last year, was siphoned from 1MDB, saying it was a gift from the Saudi royal family. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister confirmed last week the money came from his country, but only after weeks of silence as doubts over Najib's claim grew. Following IPIC's announcement, Malaysia's Finance Ministry issued a statement curtly noting the "dispute" over the loan but sought to reassure markets. "The MOF wishes to make clear that it will continue to honour all of its outstanding commitments in the financial markets," it said. 1MDB's problems have riveted Malaysia for more than a year, ratcheting up pressure on Najib to resign and raising concerns that Malaysia financial markets could be hammered if the company were to default on its massive debts. The scandal had already contributed to a plunge in the value of Malaysia's ringgit currency last year. 1MDB was supposed to pay IPIC back via payments to a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi fund called Aabar Investments PJS. Contrary to 1MDB's claims, IPIC said last week that Aabar never received the money. A recent investigative report by the Wall Street Journal said 1MDB instead paid more than $2 billion to a British Virgin Islands entity, an apparent shell company with a nearly identical name to Aabar's. The British Virgin Islands entity has since been shut down, the Journal said. "IPIC and Aabar .... are considering their options in relation to this dispute, including referring the matter to the appropriate dispute resolution forum," the statement said. dma/eb LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE GROUP PLC
AFP News

Ukraine on Sunday denounced as dangerous lies suggestions from Russia that it was preparing to use a "dirty bomb". Its western allies also dismissed the allegations from Moscow, just hours after Russia went public with the claims. In conversations with his British, French and Turkish counterparts, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu conveyed "concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine with the use of a 'dirty bomb'", Moscow said. Russia did not mention the alleged "dirty bomb" allegation in its statement following Shoigu's call with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin. "If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on social media. "I believe that now the world should react as harshly as possible." Earlier Sunday, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denounced Moscow's claims as "absurd" and "dangerous". "Russians often accuse others of what they plan themselves," he added. A British defence ministry statement said Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had "refuted these claims and cautioned that such allegations should not be used as a pretext for greater escalation". And in Washington, National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson dismissed Moscow's "transparently false" claim. "The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation," she added. - 'Vile strikes' - Russia also announced Sunday that it had destroyed a depot in central Ukraine storing over 100,000 tonnes of aviation fuel. Kyiv's energy operator meanwhile said scheduled power cuts had been introduced in the Ukrainian capital due to Russia's repeated strikes on the nation's power network. The blackouts started from 11:13 am (0813 GMT) with consumers in Kyiv divided into three groups "disconnected for a certain period of time", energy company DTEK said. DTEK reiterated calls for residents to use electricity "sparingly" and for businesses to limit their use of external lighting. More than one million Ukrainian households have lost electricity following recent Russian strikes, according to the Ukrainian presidency, at least a third of the country's power stations having been destroyed ahead of winter. Zelensky condemned the "vile strikes" in comments late Saturday, after Russian attacks caused power cuts across the country. - 'Save your strength' - In the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rig, deputy mayor Sergiy Miliutin was dealing with emergencies and power outages from his underground bunker, used as a venue for a children's martial arts competition. "I've reached a point where I just survive on my drive. You have to stay level-headed and save your strength. No one knows how long this will all last," he told AFP. The intensification of Russian strikes on Ukraine, particularly energy facilities, came after the bridge linking the annexed Crimea peninsula to mainland Russia was partially destroyed by an explosion earlier this month. It was another major setback for Moscow's forces, battling to contain a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south and east of the country. French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that it was for Ukrainians to decide when "peace is possible", in comments made in Rome at the start of a peace summit. Ukraine reported three deaths in an overnight Russian artillery strike in the Toretsk area, a governor of the eastern Donetsk region said. Inside Russia, two lines of defence have been built in the border region of Kursk to deal with any possible attack, a local governor said on Sunday. On Saturday Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor in the neighbouring Russian border region of Belgorod, said the construction of defence structures had begun. Gladkov said two civilians had been killed in strikes there Saturday, and that 15,000 people had been left without electricity. - Kherson evacuations - Meanwhile Ukraine's SBU intelligence service said it had detained two officials of Ukrainian aircraft engine maker Motor Sich on suspicion of working with Russia. The SBU said management at the company's plant in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region -- partly controlled by Russian forces -- had colluded with Russian state-owned defence conglomerate Rostec. The suspects had supplied Russia with Ukrainian aircraft engines that were used to make and repair attack helicopters, the SBU said. In the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, which Russia claims to have annexed, pro-Moscow officials on Saturday urged residents to leave "immediately" amid a "tense situation" at the front. Kherson, the region's main city, was the first to fall to Moscow's troops and retaking it would be a major prize in Ukraine's counter-offensive. A Moscow-installed official in Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, told Russian news agency Interfax on Saturday that around 25,000 people had left Kherson city to the left bank of the Dnipro River. Ukraine has denounced the removal of residents from Kherson, describing them as "deportations". bur-imm/raz/jj/lcm
DOHA  Oil-producing countries met yesterday in Qatar to discuss a possible freeze of production to counter low global prices, but Irans decision to stay home could dilute the impact of any agreement.

The attendees, including Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, silently swept past gathered journalists at a luxury hotel in Doha ahead of the meeting. Also on hand was Russia, another of the worlds top oil producers. The US, now a major producer because of shale oil, did not attend.

At least 15 oil-producing nations representing about 73 percent of world output were expected at the Doha meeting, Qatars energy and industry minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, has said.

The gathering follows a surprise Doha meeting in February between Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, in which they pledged to cap their crude output at January levels if other producers do the same.

They hope the cap will help global oil prices rebound from their dramatic fall since the summer of 2014, when prices were above $100 a barrel, though no one is talking seriously about the more dramatic step of cutting production.

Prices dropped briefly to under $30 a barrel, a 12-year low, in January, but have climbed to the mid-$40 this week, boosted in part by market speculation about the Qatar meeting.Western markets were closed yesterday and not immediately affected by the discussions.

Iran decided to stay home late Saturday after saying the day before it would send an emissary to the meeting.

We reached the conclusion that the Doha meeting is for those who want to sign the oil freeze plans, and if we wanted to have a representative at the meeting, it was to show our support of this project, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said, according to a report by the ministrys Shana news agency.

But since Iran is not going to sign this, there is no need for the presence of Irans representative at the meeting.

Story continues

With many international sanctions lifted under its nuclear deal with world powers, Iran began exporting oil into the European market again and is eager to claw back market share. It produces 3.2 million barrels of oil a day now, with hopes of increasing to four million by April 2017.

On Friday, the Iranian Oil Ministry reiterated it would not join a freeze before it brings its oil exports to the pre-sanctions levels.

Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia has said it wont back any freeze if Iran, its Shiite rival, doesnt agree to it, throwing into question whether any deal will be reached. The kingdom seems determined to ride out the low prices that could squeeze Tehran.

That dispute underscores the level of discord inside OPEC as it faces arguably its biggest challenge since the oil glut of the 1980s. Even if officials reach a deal, Irans production and oil from other sources, like the US, could keep prices down.

The meeting broke up just before 11 a.m. as attendees planned to meet with Qatars emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said Kabalan Abisaab, Ecuadors ambassador to Qatar, who was on hand for the meeting. A brief report on the state-run Qatar News Agency confirmed the participants met the emir.

Abisaab said participants would return to the meeting in the afternoon and continue their deliberations.

Asked if Irans absence had an effect, he responded in Spanish that it didnt matter.  AP
By Jonathan Allen and Luciana Lopez NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders accused front-runner Hillary Clinton of apparent campaign finance violations on Monday, ratcheting up the rhetoric against his rival one day before New York state's crucial primary elections. Sanders questioned whether Clinton's campaign violated legal limits on donations by paying her staffers with funds from a joint fundraising effort by Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, or DNC. Sanders has long maintained that the DNC has favoured Clinton over Sanders. The U.S. senator from Vermont is a democratic socialist who has run as an independent in his Senate campaigns. While the use of joint fundraising agreements has existed for some time - it is unprecedented for the DNC to allow a joint committee to be exploited to the benefit of one candidate in the midst of a contested nominating contest, Sanders' campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said. The Clinton campaign dismissed the charge, with chairman Robby Mook saying Sanders was making baseless accusations. "It is shameful that Senator Sanders has resorted to irresponsible and misleading attacks just to raise money for himself," Mook said. The accusations surfaced as the Democratic and Republican candidates engaged in a final frenzy of campaigning before Tuesday's primaries. Both the Democratic and Republican primaries are expected to be the state's most decisive in decades in the selection of the parties' candidates for November's general election. Former U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, the national front-runners, were favoured to win their respective primaries in the state that both call home. Victories would be a tonic for both candidates following a series of losses. In recent weeks, Sanders has defeated Clinton in nominating contests. On the Republican side, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Trump's closest challenger, has outmanoeuvred the billionaire businessman in the fight for delegates to the Republican National Convention that will pick the party's nominee in July. By the end of Monday - the last official day of campaigning before the New York primaries - tens of thousands of New Yorkers will have heard the candidates' closing pitches. At St. John's Riverside Hospital in Yonkers just north of New York City, Clinton spoke to doctors, nurses and others at a hospital cafeteria, asking for their votes and taking a jab at Cruz's dismissal earlier in the campaign of "New York values." "I think New York's values are America's values," she told the crowd. Cruz defended his "New York values" catchphrase on ABC's "Good Morning America" in Times Square on Monday, saying New Yorkers had "suffered under the left-wing Democratic policies" of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo. Sanders needs a strong victory in New York, where 291 delegates to the Democratic convention in July are at stake, if he is to overtake Clinton. With 2,383 delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination, Clinton has 1,758 to Sanders' 1,076, according to an Associated Press tally. That total includes unpledged superdelegates who are free to back the candidate of their choice but told the news service whom they support. For Trump, the question is whether he will make a clean sweep of all 95 Republican delegates at stake by earning the majority of votes in all 27 congressional districts in the state. Total victory in New York would help Trump avoid the possibility that the nomination could be wrested from him at the party's July 18-21 convention in Cleveland if he arrives without a majority of at least 1,237 delegates. In that scenario, another candidate could win on a second or subsequent ballot. Trump has 744 delegates to 559 for Cruz and 144 for Ohio Governor John Kasich, according to the Associated Press. The count includes endorsements from several delegates who are free to support the candidate of their choice. In Wyoming, in the latest state-by-state delegate battle, Cruz was awarded all 14 delegates, according to a party official on Saturday. "Lyin' Ted Cruz can't win with the voters so he has to sell himself to the bosses-I am millions of VOTES ahead! Hillary would destroy him & K," Trump tweeted on Monday. On ABC, Cruz responded by saying that Trump was throwing a fit because he has lost several recent state contests. "The stakes are too high to hand the election to Hillary Clinton, which is what nominating Donald Trump" would do, he said. (Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Megan Cassella in Washington; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)
The human gut is a complex and amazing system, and the more we learn about it, the more amazed we are. It turns out
STEM

Norwich U Hosts High Schoolers for Summer Cyber Camp

A Vermont college will be hosting a group of third-year and fourth-year high schoolers to teach them the basics of cybersecurity. During the week-long on-campus experience, participants will build a minicomputer, install Linux on it, and learn how to hunt down wayward Wi-Fi hotspots.

Norwich University, a military school, will be hosting the [email protected] summer camp. The schedule of events includes guest speakers, a cyber treasure hunt, in which the students will protect the campus by finding the rogue hotspots, which are powered by Raspberry Pi devices; connect to the Center for Digital Forensics and perform ethical hacking exercises to identify flaws in a system; and take apart malware to figure out what it's trying to do to a compromised computer. Students will be able to take both their minicomputers and Pi devices with them at the end of the week.

The courses will be led by Norwich faculty, alumni and students. It's sponsored by a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency (NSA), and all expenses will be covered by that funding.

Norwich U runs an online cybersecurity bachelor's degree program and an online master of science program in information security and assurance and is certified by the NSA and Department of Homeland Security as a Center of Academic Excellence.
- Ahmed Mohamud Afrah a senior commander of terror group al-Shabaab surrendered himself on Sunday, claiming he now wanted to live in peace with the rest of the people in Somalia

- The Somali National Army welcomed the surrender of the commander and gave amnesty to those who want to defect the militant group

A senior al-Shabaab commander has surrendered to the Somali national army in Galgudud region of central Somalia on Sunday, April 17.

Somali National Army Commander in the region Col. Ahmed Mohamed told journalists that Ahmed Mohamud Afrah accepted amnesty and surrendered to the government.

READ ALSO: US drones kill 12 al-Shabaab fighters near Kenya border

Mohamed said the government will welcome those terrorists who defect but those still with the group will be dealt with accordingly.

The al-Shabaab commander said he joined the terror group due to circumstances and fear but had no freedom at all in the group.

READ ALSO: Police reveal al Shabaabs new recruitment locations in Kenya

Al-Shabaab in recent times has suffered damage from three sides, with US drones killing their militants and commanders as well as losing key towns to Amison and the Somali National Army (SNA).

African Union forces with the help of the Somali national forces on Tuesday, April 5 in statement had confirmed that they had killed at least six commanders of the terror group al-Shabaab in lower Shabelle region.

The al-Shabaab members killed include a judge in Janaale town.

Others include a Kenyan trainer for the group Sheikh Mansur, Hassan Ali, chief Amnyat of lower shabelle region, and Yemeni explosives expert Abu Islam.

READ ALSO: Garissa residents gripped in fear as town is engulfed in shootings

Photo: Hiraan Online

Source: TUKO.co.ke
(Adds economy minister)

PARIS, April 17 (Reuters) - French president Francois Hollande will chair a meeting devoted to the future of state-owned utility EDF (Paris: FR0010242511 - news) next week, Les Echos reported on Sunday.

"The electricity company, which has an important investment programme in the works, wants to secure financial guarantees from the state," the newspaper said, adding EDF would hold a board meeting on April 22.

EDF had no immediate comment.

French Economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, told the BBC on Sunday EDF would go ahead with the construction of the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant in Britain, a 18-billion-pound ($25.57 billion) project.

The venture was announced in October 2013 but a final investment decision has been delayed as EDF struggled to find partners and financing. (Reporting by Matthias Blamont, editing by Louise Heavens)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China should be flexible in implementing appropriate monetary policy and maintain reasonably ample liquidity, China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said at a meeting in Washington over the weekend. Zhou also called for all sides to take forceful measures to promote global recovery, including refraining from the use of various forms of trade and investment protectionism. China's economy is off to a good start in 2016, with economic indicators seeing an obvious pick up and the growth of the services sector outpacing that of the manufacturing industry, Zhou said in remarks delivered at a meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee. He added that China should vigorously push forward supply side structural reform, as well as better balance the areas of economic growth, structural adjustment and risk prevention. At a separate G20 meeting in Washington last week, Zhou said that China's foreign exchange market has stabilized, the yuan's recent trend reflects market supply and demand, and it has held steady against a basket of currencies. Zhou also called for all sides to take forceful measures to promote global recovery, including refraining from various forms of trade and investment protectionism. He called for the expanded use of the IMF's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to resolve flaws in the international currency system and said China is actively studying plans to issue SDR-denominated bonds. Over the weekend, China's finance minister Lou Jiwei said at the G20 meeting that China is taking steps to implement more forceful fiscal policies including increasing its deficit, reducing taxes and dropping costs. China will also take measures to unwind production capacity and inventory in the iron, steel and coal industries, as well as train and provide arrangements for those who lose their jobs, he said. Lou added that the country will control rising provincial government debt levels. As China's central government's debt levels are not very high, he said, China will increase its central government debt with the aim of reducing leverage across the entire Chinese society. Last week, China released its March economic data which saw an improvement due to recent policy steps, supply-side reforms, and international factors, the country's statistics bureau said. On Saturday, the statistics bureau head Ning Jizhe told state news agency Xinhua in an interview that China should definitely be able to smoothly realise its economic and societal growth goals in 2016. (Reporting by Jessica Macy Yu, Huang Kai, and Kevin Yao; Editing by Michael Perry)
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese military aircraft has landed at a new airport on an island China has built in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Monday, in the first public report on a move that raises the prospect of China basing warplanes there. The United States has criticised China's construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea and worries that it plans to use them for military purposes, even though China says it has no hostile intent. The runway on the Fiery Cross Reef is 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) long and is one of three China has been building for more than a year by dredging sand up onto reefs and atolls in the Spratly archipelago. Civilian flights began test runs there in January. In a front-page story, the official People's Liberation Army Daily said a military aircraft on patrol over the South China Sea on Sunday received an emergency call to land at Fiery Cross Reef to evacuate three seriously ill workers. They were then taken in the transport aircraft back to Hainan island for treatment, it said, showing a picture of the aircraft on the ground in Hainan. It was the first time China's military had publicly admitted landing an aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef, the influential Global Times tabloid said. It cited an military expert as saying the flight showed the airfield was up to military standards and could see fighter jets based there in the event of war. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said such rescue missions were part of the military's "fine tradition" and that it was "not at all surprising" they had done this on China's own territory. The runways would be long enough to handle long-range bombers and transport aircraft as well as China's best jet fighters, giving it a presence deep in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia that it has lacked until now. More than $5 trillion of world trade is shipped through the South China Sea every year. Besides China's territorial claims in the area, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Simon Cameron-Moore)
By Aditya Kalra JAIPUR, India (Reuters) - India's tobacco industry has sought to delay strict new health warning rules by appealing to the Supreme Court, a move anti-smoking activists say could backfire given that the court has ruled against cigarette makers in the past. Earlier this month Indian tobacco companies, some backed by "Big Tobacco" firms in the West, effectively went on strike by closing factories in protest against demands that 85 percent of a cigarette packet's surface be covered by health warnings, up from the older requirement of 20 percent. The industry estimates the stoppages cost it as much as $68 million a day, taking cumulative losses to up to $850 million. Similar battles have played out around the world in recent years as governments try to discourage smoking. On a few occasions, major tobacco producers have resorted to drastic action by freezing output. That tactic worked in India in 2010, when the government delayed a set of warnings proposed at the time after the industry shuttered plants. But this time New Delhi's room to compromise is more limited, court documents and interviews with federal health ministry officials and activists suggest. The documents show how a small group of health activists have outmanoeuvred the $11 billion industry and cornered the government into implementing the rules on April 1. Video: Tobacco firms fight India over new label rule http://reut.rs/22yLa0Y Their strategy has left the Supreme Court as one of the last avenues of appeal for cigarette makers. "The tide has turned and the tobacco industry is on a downhill slope," said one of the activists, Sanjay Seth. In 2013, the court pulled up the government for not being serious about tobacco-control laws. The Tobacco Institute of India, an industry lobby group, declined to comment for this story. It has called the packaging rules drastic and impractical, saying the law will increase smuggling of illegal cigarettes. "BIG TOBACCO" HOLDING OUT One small local producer, Golden Tobacco, has started selling cigarette packs that comply with the new rules. But the biggest companies - ITC Ltd, part-owned by British American Tobacco, and U.S.-based Philip Morris International's (PMI) India partner Godfrey Phillips - are holding out. On April 8, an industry group that represents makers of traditional smokes, or beedis, in south India went to the Supreme Court to challenge the rules, according to the filing seen by Reuters on Thursday. It was not previously reported. Graphic: Cigarette package health warnings in 2006 http://reut.rs/1WvceP9 The plea, filed by the Karnataka Beedi Industry Association, seeks a stay in enforcing the new rules, saying that they would bring the industry to a "grinding halt" and "cause grave and irreparable harm and loss". A hearing is scheduled for April 22. The appeal against the packaging regulations, which are among the world's strictest, does not directly involve major cigarette makers, but any ruling could also apply to them. ITC declined to comment on the packaging row. BAT said it would be "inappropriate" to comment as they are "just shareholders in ITC". PMI referred questions to Godfrey Phillips, which did not respond to requests for comment. PRESSURE ON GOVERNMENT For Western brands, Indian cigarette sales represent a small yet significant part of global earnings, as they face long-term sales declines in developed markets and eye countries like India and its 40 million cigarette smokers for future growth. In its 2015 report, BAT said the "adjusted contribution" from ITC was 280 million pounds ($400 million), about 5 percent of its annual profits. The factory shutdown is hurting government's coffers as well, costing it more than $10 million a day in tax revenues, according to industry estimates. More than 8 million workers and their families are affected, and farmers' groups are among those taking out large advertisements in newspapers criticising the legislation. But the government has kept a low profile. "We don't want to get into a duel with the industry on this," a health ministry official said, adding that public opinion appeared to be in the government's favour. Smoking kills more than 1 million people a year in India, said BMJ Global Health, published by London-based healthcare information provider, BMJ. The World Health Organization says tobacco-related diseases cost the country $16 billion annually. The new rules, which have been shown to help reduce tobacco consumption, put India, along with Thailand, at the top of the list of countries with the most stringent cigarette labelling. FAVOURABLE VENUE The new rules were proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in 2014. Initially, they were to be implemented from April 2015, but a parliamentary panel that included a lawmaker with a tobacco business forced the government to delay them as it assessed their impact on the industry and farmers. That was when Seth, who works with the non-profit campaign Voice of Tobacco Victims, said he and a handful of other activists got involved. Their strategy, he said, was to find a court that was likely to be sympathetic to their cause and then get someone to file a case challenging the delay. The Rajasthan High Court was that venue, because then-Chief Justice Sunil Ambwani was seen as someone who would favour public health over big business. Seth's idea was incorporated into a tobacco-control case that a father-son team of lawyers with a history of such activism, Sita Ram and Rahul Joshi, were filing in the high court in Jaipur city last year.Within days, Ambwani ordered the government to implement the rules without delay. Ambwani told Reuters he ruled on the merits of the case. The government won a six-month extension, but has so far ignored the parliamentary panel that last month urged it to set warnings at 50 percent. (Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Michael Collett-White)
(This story corrects that White House was discussing U.S. financial system, not global financial system in ninth paragraph.) By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's main goal in its nuclear talks with world powers was to secure access to the global financial system, and the United States must now do more to remove obstacles to the banking sector, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday. In January, world powers led by the United States and the European Union lifted most sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme. But some U.S. sanctions remain, and U.S. banks remain prohibited from doing business with Iran directly or indirectly because Washington still accuses Tehran of "supporting terrorism". That has deterred European institutions, which fear they could face U.S. legal problems if they re-establish banking links. Zarif used the visit of EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, the first by a high-level EU delegation since the deal came into force in January, to make his point. "Iran and the EU will put pressure on the United States to facilitate the cooperation of non-American banks with Iran," Zarif said at a news conference in Tehran with Mogherini who said in a tweet that she was leading a team of seven EU commissioners. "It's essential that the other side, especially the United States, fulfil its commitments not on paper but in practice and removes the obstacles especially in banking sector," he said. Zarif and Mogherini said in a joint statement after the news conference that the EU and Iran were agreed on the expansion of economic relations, and "encouraging banking cooperation." The White House said on Friday that an agreement with Iran does not include giving it access to the U.S. financial system. Iranian central bank Governor Valiollah Seif met U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Thursday in Washington and said they discussed Iran's expectations under the nuclear deal. Lew told Seif that the United States would keep meeting "its sanctions-related commitments in good faith" as long as Iran continues to uphold its end of the bargain. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Julia Fioretti DUBAI/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran, seeking European leverage to secure better terms from the United States following last year's nuclear deal, asked the European Union to put pressure on Washington to ease its re-entry to the global financial system. In a visit to Tehran by a high-powered EU team in which both sides spoke of a significant expansion in economic and energy ties, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif welcomed EU support for its bid to join the World Trade Organisation and spoke of a "new beginning" in relations with Europe. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, whose team of seven commissioners was the biggest to visit Tehran in more than a decade, said it was in Europe's interest to make sure European banks felt confident to do business in Iran. But she chided Tehran for holding ballistic missile tests despite last year's nuclear deal and said the EU would continue to stand firm on human rights violations in Iran. Following last year's nuclear deal, world powers led by the United States and the EU lifted most sanctions on the long-isolated Islamic Republic in January in return for curbs on its nuclear programme. Despite the nuclear agreement, some U.S. sanctions remain and U.S. banks remain prohibited from doing business with Iran directly or indirectly because Washington still accuses Tehran of supporting terrorism and permitting human rights abuses. Some European banks like France bank BNP Paribas or Germanys Commerzbank AG, once hit by huge U.S. fines for sanctions busting, fear falling foul of the many other restrictions imposed by Washington that remain in force. The White House said on Friday that the nuclear agreement did not include allowing it access to the U.S. financial system. "Iran and the EU will put pressure on the United States to facilitate the cooperation of non-American banks with Iran," Zarif said at a news conference in Tehran with Mogherini. "It's essential that the other side, especially the United States, fulfil its commitments not on paper but in practise and removes the obstacles especially in banking sector." Zarif and Mogherini said in a joint statement that the EU and Iran were agreed on the expansion of economic relations, and "encouraging banking cooperation." "EU will support and assist Iran to become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO)," and will pursue opening a full EU diplomatic mission in Tehran, the statement said. "Today is a new beginning in Iran and EU relations. We hope this cooperation between the Iranian nation and European Union brings about shared interests and global development," Zarif was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA. Mogherini, who headed a team of seven EU commissioners, said cooperation on energy would also be important as Iranian oil and gas would again become a part of the European energy mix and help increase the bloc's energy security. MISSILES AND RIGHTS Iranian officials have complained their country is not getting the full economic fruits of the nuclear deal due to American "deceitfulness", but Washington believes it has been Iran's missile launches that have scared businesses off. Since July's nuclear deal, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has twice conducted ballistic missile tests and the U.S. Treasury has in return put new sanctions on entities and individuals linked to the programme. President Obama said this month that Iran had so far stuck to the nuclear agreement, but Tehran's launch of ballistic missiles "with slogans calling for the destruction of Israel" undermined the spirit of the deal. Mogherini said she did not see the missile tests as a breach of the accord between Iran and world powers, though she added it was a worrying step. "This doesn't mean that we are not concerned," Mogherini said. "On the contrary, we see this as a worrying step ... and we are encouraging (Iran) to abstain from further steps." Despite the lifting of nuclear related sanctions, the EU extended some of its sanctions on Iran because of perceived violations of human rights in the Islamic Republic. The EU is troubled by the more than 1,000 executions in Iran last year. Mogherini said the EU would continue to be firm on issue of human rights while maintaining dialogue with Iran. (The story was refiled to change the number of Iran's ballistic missile tests from 2 to 4) (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Julia Fioretti; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
MILAN (Reuters) - Italy said on Sunday it hoped Libya's U.N.-backed unity government could restore control of the country's borders to limit migrant flows from north and south and was ready to help in any way it could. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano and his German counterpart visited Tripoli on Saturday to show support for the government and said they were ready to offer training for the country's security forces and border guards if asked. "We hope Libya blocks both its northern border, from where (migrants) leave to reach us, and its southern border, through which people coming from places such as the Horn of Africa enter the country and use it as a hub to reach Europe," Alfano told TV channel Sky TG24. Alfano said some 90 percent of migrants arriving on Italian shores came from Libya. Rome was proposing European Union financial aid to African countries in exchange for help in controlling migrant flows. Alfano said he would meet his Libyan colleague soon, adding he would offer the Italian government's support to Tripoli. "I will tell my Libyan colleague that Italy is ready to give any help and cooperation," Alfano said, adding that Italian police could offer support to Tripoli. Italy, Libya's former colonial ruler, has played a prominent role in rallying international support for the new government. Western powers hope the new government can unite Libya's warring factions, end its political chaos and request foreign help to tackle Islamic State insurgents and migrant trafficking across the Mediterranean. (Reporting by Francesca Landini)
By Minami Funakoshi and Kaori Kaneko TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese share market fell more than 3 percent on Monday after a series of earthquakes measuring up to 7.3 magnitude struck a southern manufacturing hub, killing at least 42 people and forcing major companies to close factories. About 30,000 rescue workers were scouring the rubble for survivors and handing out food to those unable to return home following the quakes which struck Kyushu island from Thursday. The biggest hit near Kumamoto city early on Saturday. "There are still missing people. We want to make further efforts to rescue and save people and prioritize human lives," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament, adding he aimed to declare the region a disaster zone to free up reconstruction funds. The Nikkei stock index ended 3.4 percent lower, hit by a stronger yen and as investors weighed the impact of the disaster on manufacturers' supply chains and insurers. Factories for major manufacturers including Toyota, Sony and Honda were closed, disrupting supply chains around the country. Japan's atomic regulator declared three nuclear plants in the region safe, giving a degree of comfort to a country deeply scarred by the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 that was sparked by an earthquake and tsunami. All commercial flights to the damaged Kumamoto airport were canceled and bullet train service to the region was suspended. Food was scarce as roads remained cut by landslides. Evacuees made an SOS signal out of chairs at a school playground, hoping to catch the attention of supply helicopters, Japanese media reported. "Yesterday, I ate just one piece of tofu and a rice ball," said the mayor of one of the areas affected. "What we're most worried about now is food." Of more than 500 quakes hitting Kyushu since Thursday, more than 70 have been at least a four on Japan's intensity scale, strong enough to shake buildings. DESPERATE SEARCH The Kumamoto region is an important manufacturing hub and home to Japan's only operating nuclear station. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government would "take all the necessary measures" to support companies affected by the disaster and the broader economy, including tapping into reserve funds of 350 billion yen ($3.24 billion). Abe said a sales tax increase next year would go ahead barring a financial crisis or major natural disaster, without elaborating on whether the quakes qualified as such a disaster. On the stock market, Sony Corp and Toyota Motor led the sharp falls among manufacturers, dropping 6.8 percent and 4.8 percent respectively. Nissan Motor and Honda Motor both lost about 3 percent. Insurers and utilities were also sold, with nuclear plant operator Kyushu Electric Power slumping nearly 8 percent. Automotive chipmaker Renesas Electronics said earlier the aftershocks were keeping it from installing replacement equipment at a quake-hit plant. A Renesas plant in Kumamoto produces microcontroller chips used by many global auto makers. Toyota said it would suspend production at plants across Japan after the quakes disrupted its supply chain. The company's North American operations and suppliers so far are not affected, a spokesman told Reuters by email, and Ford Motor Co said there had been no impact yet on its global operations. Electronics giant Sony said its Kumamoto image sensors plant would remain suspended. One of the company's major customers for the sensors is Apple. Honda said production at its motorcycle plant in southern Japan would remain suspended through Friday. Numerous aftershocks have rattled the region with one of 5.8 magnitude on Monday evening. There were no immediate reports of new damage or injuries. The Kumamoto government said 42 people had been killed and nine were missing. Thirty three people have been confirmed dead in Saturday's quake and nine in the smaller tremor just over 24 hours earlier. The government said about 190 of the injured were in serious condition and some 110,000 people had been displaced. Rescuers digging with their bare hands dragged some elderly survivors, still in pyjamas, out of the rubble and onto makeshift stretchers made of tatami mats. "We can't take a bath, we don't have any clothes to change into - we just have what we ran out in," a woman at one evacuation center told TBS television. Public broadcaster NHK showed footage of forests and rice fields torn apart by the quake, saying one 50 km (31 miles) strip shifted almost 2 meters (6 feet) sideways. Quakes are common in Japan, part of the seismically active "Ring of Fire" which sweeps from the South Pacific islands, up through Indonesia, Japan, across to Alaska and down the west coast of North, Central and South America. On the other side of the Pacific this weekend, Ecuador's biggest earthquake in decades killed at least 350 people, caused devastation in coastal towns and left an unknown number trapped in ruins. A 9 magnitude quake and tsunami in northern Japan in March 2011 caused the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986, shutting down the nuclear industry for safety checks and sending radiation spewing across the countryside. Nearly 20,000 people were killed in the 2011 tsunami. (Additional reporting by Linda Sieg, Elaine Lies, William Mallard, Shinichi Soashiro, Chris Gallagher, Kiyoshi Takenaka, Tim Kelly and Thomas Wilson in Japan and Joe White in Detroit; Writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by Ian Geoghegan and James Dalgleish)
US court slaps 940 million dollars fine on two Tata group companies

Published: April 18, 2016

The federal grand jury in the US State of Wisconsin has slapped 940 million US dollars fine against two companies of Indias Tata group  Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tata America International Corp.

They were fined in a trade secret lawsuit filed against them by the US based electronics medical records vendor Epic Systems. The jury verdict has directed two companies of Indias Tata group to pay 240 million dollars to Epic Systems for ripping off its software and pay 700 million dollars in punitive damages.

Epic Systems had accused the two companies of brazenly stealing its trade secrets, confidential information, documents and data.

The US based company in its lawsuit has alleged that TCS employee reviewed its intellectual property under the pretence of doing consulting work for Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed health care company in the US and in doing so downloaded Epics proprietary software to help build a rival system.

Epic Systems as an electronics medical records vendor builds software for healthcare companies to manage billing, insurance benefits management and referral services.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2016

Topics: Business  Economy  Intellectual Property  IT sector  Tata Group  TCS  United States

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Kenya caused a huge upset to land their first ever major sevens title by thrashing defending world series champions Fiji 30-7 to win the Singapore tournament on Sunday. Collins Injera moved within two tries of Argentina's Santiago Gomez Cora leading mark of 230 in the all-time scoring charts with a double in the upset victory at the National Stadium to secure Kenya's first title in 17 years. Kenya had only scraped through to the knockout stages after beating Russia, drawing with Scotland and losing to South Africa, but a series of upsets on day one handed them a favourable draw. The Africans beat France 28-7 in the quarter-finals and Argentina 15-12 in the semis on Sunday before taking out the Fijians. Kenya shot up to seventh in the standings after their 22- point haul in Singapore, with Fiji extending their lead at the top to eight points over South Africa with two rounds remaining in France and England. South Africa, beaten narrowly by Fiji in the semis, finished third after thrashing Argentina 28-0. Samoa landed the second tier Plate title after causing another upset in beating New Zealand, Scotland edged United States to land the Bowl and Russia crushed Wales to win the Shield. Rugby Sevens will feature in the Olympics for the first time at this year's Games in Rio de Janeiro. (Reporting by Patrick Johnston, editing by Ed Osmond)
By Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea attempted and failed to launch what experts believe was an intermediate-range ballistic missile on Friday in defiance of U.N. sanctions and in an embarrassing setback for leader Kim Jong Un, drawing criticism from major ally China. The U.S. Defense Department called the test of the road-mobile missile, which came as North Korea celebrated the birthday of Kim's grandfather and North Korea's founding father Kim Il Sung, a "fiery, catastrophic" failure. The test, on North Korea's so-called "Day of the Sun," followed its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in February, which led to new U.N. sanctions that have failed to halt Pyongyang's weapons programs. South Korean officials and international experts said the failed test heightened the possibility that North Korea would conduct a fifth nuclear test, possibly within weeks. The U.S.-based 38 North website, which specializes in North Korea, said there has been activity at the country's nuclear site based on satellite imagery and on Wednesday said the possibility of a fifth nuclear test "could not be ruled out." U.S. officials said the missile tested on Friday never got off the launch pad but further tests were expected. "We're still assessing the specifics of it but I can tell you that it was a fiery, catastrophic attempt at a launch," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told a briefing. "It was not successful." Davis said the U.S. military thought the device was a road-mobile missile because the launch occurred at a coastal site where Pyongyang ordinarily does not test rockets. He said North Korea, which regularly threatens to destroy South Korea and the United States and often fires missiles during periods of tension, remained a security concern in spite of the failure. "We know that this is a capability that they are aiming towards," he said. It's ... a missile system that they've displayed on multiple occasions and that is why we have a ballistic missile defense system that we have invested in very heavily to be able to outpace that threat as that threat develops further." CHINA ANGERED The White House strongly condemned the latest launch attempt and said Washington would work with China and other countries to put pressure on North Korea, which faced the prospect of further isolation. China, North Korea's most important economic and diplomatic backer, has been angered by Pyongyang's nuclear tests and rocket launches and has backed U.N. sanctions. "The firing of a mid-range ballistic missile on Friday by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), though failed, marks the latest in a string of saber-rattling that, if unchecked, will lead the country to nowhere," China's official Xinhua news agency said in an English language commentary. "... Nuclear weapons will not make Pyongyang safer. On the contrary, its costly military endeavors will keep on suffocating its economy." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the U.N. Security Council was clear on North Korean rocket launches. "At present, the situation on the peninsula is complex and sensitive," he told reporters. "We hope all parties can strictly respect the decisions of the Security Council and avoid taking any steps that could further worsen tensions." In 2012, Kim Il Sung's birthday was also marked by an attempted long-range rocket launch, which also failed. The missile was likely a Musudan, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, an intermediate-range ballistic missile with a design range of more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles) that can be fired from a road mobile launcher but which has never been flight-tested. Experts see North Korea's Musudan test as part of an effort to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach the mainland United States. The Musudan theoretically could reach the U.S. Pacific island of Guam. North Korea is to hold a congress of its ruling Workers Party - the first such meeting in 36 years - in early May, at which Kim Jong Un is likely to trumpet his achievements in building up Pyongyang's weapons prowess. South Korean officials and experts say he will be keen to go into that with a show of strength, not a failed rocket launch, making the possibility of another nuclear test more likely. In a new report on Friday, 38 North said it had seen fresh activity in satellite images of North Korea's main nuclear complex, suggesting that reprocessing may be under way to produce more plutonium for atomic bombs.[L5N17I4IM] 38 North predicted last year that North Korea's nuclear weapons stockpile could grow to 20, 50 or 100 bombs within five years, from an estimated 10 to 16 weapons at that time. (Additional reporting by James Pearson in Seoul and David Brunnstrom, Mark Hosenball and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Editing by Nick Macfie and Bill Trott)
EU Parliament approves joint system for sharing air passenger data to fight terror

Published: April 18, 2016

The European Parliament has approved creation of a European passenger name records (PNR) system to combat terrorism

The proposal in this regard was passed by 461 votes to 179 against. Now the EU member countries will have two years to turn it into national law.

PNR is a joint system for security agencies to access airline passenger data on all flights to and from the EU. It will enable police and justice officials to systematically store the data of airline passengers travelling to, from and within the EU.

PNR system will include name, travel dates, ticket details, itinerary, contact details, travel agent and seat number, means of payment and baggage information of the passengers.

Background

The creation of a European PNR system had gained momentum recently following 2015 Paris (France) terror attacks and followed by March 2016 attacks in Brussels (Belgium) which added further urgency.

After these attacks, counter-terrorism officials from the European countries had strongly lobbied for years for the introduction of PNR system. They had argued that sharing data will help them trace suspicious itineraries which may further help in preventing terrorist attacks.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2016

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's military rejected criticism by U.S. European Command on Sunday that a Russian jet had made aggressive manoeuvres near a U.S. reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea, a second incident in the region between the Cold War-era foes in the past week. Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia's military has been beefed up by increased spending and ambitious rearmament, while Moscow, which accuses NATO of expanding towards Russia's borders, tries to pursue a more assertive foreign policy. The latest incident occurred on Thursday as a Russian Su-27 fighter "performed erratic and aggressive manoeuvres", flying within 50 feet of a U.S. RC-135 aircraft, U.S. European Command spokesman Danny Hernandez said, replying to a question from CNN. The United States had protested to Moscow, Hernandez said. "The unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries," he said. Russia dismissed the report as "running counter to reality", saying its air defences had had to scramble a fighter jet after detecting a high-speed unidentified target over the Baltic Sea heading for its borders. After making "visual contact" with the Russian Su-27, the American reconnaissance plane changed its course away from Russia's borders, defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. The flight of the Russian warplane was in "strict conformity with international laws ... and there were no emergency situations," he said. That incident occurred just two days after two Russian Su-24 bombers buzzed the Donald Cook, a U.S. guided missile destroyer, in the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, simulating attack passes, with a U.S. military official describing them as one of the most aggressive interactions in recent memory. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned as dangerous and provocative the military encounter in the Baltic Sea. (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Additional reporting by Anton Kolodyazhny in Moscow; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
By John Davison and Laila Bassam DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrians voted in a parliamentary election in government-held areas of the country on Wednesday in what they called a show of support for President Bashar al-Assad, while his opponents and Western powers denounced the poll as illegitimate. The election is going ahead independently of a U.N.-led peace process aimed at ending the five-year-long war. Peace talks are due to resume in Geneva on Wednesday as an upsurge in fighting darkens the already bleak outlook for diplomacy. The government says the vote is being held on time in line with the constitution, a view echoed by its Russian allies. The opposition says the election is meaningless, while Britain and France dismissed it as "flimsy facade" and a "sham". Voters are to elect 250 MPs to parliament, which has no real power in Syria's presidential system. The state is rallying them around the slogan "Your vote strengthens your steadfastness". "We are voting for the sake of the Syrian people and for the sake of Assad. Assad is already strong but these elections show that the people support him and bolster him," said Hadi Jumaa, a 19-year-old student, as he cast his ballot at his university halls of residence in Damascus. Dozens queued to vote at one polling station where a portrait of Assad hung on the wall. Outside, some danced. With his wife Asma at his side as he went to vote in Damascus, a smiling Assad told state TV that terrorism had been able to destroy much of Syria's infrastructure but not Syria's "social structure, the national identity". Assad said it was the first time a president had taken part in parliamentary polls. "These elections do not mean anything," said Asaad al-Zoubi, chief negotiator for the main opposition body, the High Negotiations Council. "They are illegitimate - theater for the sake of procrastination, theater through which the regime is trying to give itself a little legitimacy." The conflict has killed more than 250,000 and created millions of refugees, splintering Syria into a patchwork of areas controlled by the government, an array of rebels, a powerful Kurdish militia, and the Islamic State group. The government views all the groups fighting it as terrorists. The government controls around one third of Syria, including the main cities of western Syria, home to the bulk of Syrians who have not fled the country. The United Nations puts the number of refugees at 4.8 million. With parliament elected every four years, it is the second parliamentary election held by the government in wartime. Assad was reelected head of state in a presidential election in 2014. OPPOSITION SEES VOTE AS "THEATER" The election coincides with the start of a second round of U.N.-led peace talks in Geneva. The opposition delegation is due to meet U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura on Wednesday. The government has said it will be ready to participate from Friday. De Mistura wants this round to make progress on the question of a political transition. The government had ruled out any discussion of the presidency ahead of the first round of talks last month. Spiraling violence meanwhile threatens to unravel the entire political track by wrecking a partial truce that had helped bring the sides to Geneva. Foreign states opposed to Assad have said the vote is out of line with a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for elections at the end of an 18-month transition. His allies, notably Russia, say it is in line with the constitution. "The decision of the regime to hold elections is a measure of how divorced it is from reality. They cannot buy back legitimacy by putting up a flimsy facade of democracy," said a spokesperson for the British government. France said the elections were a "sham" organized by "an oppressive regime". Russia, one of Assad's main foreign allies, said however that the election was necessary to avoid a power vacuum. "There is understanding already, that a new constitution should emerge as a result of this political process, on the basis of which new, early elections are to be held," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news briefing. "But before this happens, one should avoid any legal vacuum or any vacuum in the sphere of executive power." Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said the election showed that "the Syrian people is the one that decides its fate". But Syrians living in opposition-held areas dismissed it. "We used to be forced to cast our vote in sham elections. Now, we are no longer obliged to. After all this killing they want to make a play called elections," said Yousef Doumani, speaking from the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus. Shereen Sirmani, who fled to Damascus from the Islamic State-besieged city of Deir al-Zor four months ago, said the election was good for Syria. "We hope they bring people together," she said. "We support Assad and these elections are a boost for him." (Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, and Tom Perry and Angus McDowall in Beirut; Writing by Tom Perry; editing by Giles Elgood)
SHANGHAI/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan angered Beijing on Saturday by freeing 20 suspects in a telecom fraud case linked to China that has put more pressure on the sensitive relationship between the two countries. Malaysia had deported the 20 people, who were part of a group of 53 Taiwanese arrested there in March on suspicion of fraud, according to the Taipei foreign ministry. Taiwan's Executive Yuan spokesman Sun Lih-chyun told Reuters there was no legal reason to detain them. "The evidence is not with us. It is with China," he said, noting that Taipei has been talking to Chinese counterparts on the matter so investigations can begin on the self-ruled island. The decision was not welcomed by China. "By releasing the suspects, Taiwan authorities disregarded many victims' interests and harmed them a second time. It also harmed the two sides' cooperation in jointly cracking down on crimes," state-run Xinhua quoted An Fengshan, the Chinese State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman, as saying. Taiwan should give the suspects "the punishment they deserve", An was quoted by the news agency as saying. In a statement issued Saturday, Taiwan's cabinet said that the government would not shield people suspected of crime and that it had instructed the Ministry of Justice to gather information for investigation. Taiwan's justice ministry sent a formal letter requesting China's public security bureau to provide information on the crime once it knew the 20 suspected Taiwanese were returning to Taiwan from Malaysia, the statement said. Separately, Taiwan has objected to the forcible deportation of more than 40 Taiwanese people to China from Kenya also on suspicion of telecom fraud. China's Ministry of Public Security says Taiwanese people have been heavily involved in telecom fraud in China and had caused huge losses, with some victims killing themselves. Taiwanese criminals "have been falsely presenting themselves as law enforcement officers to extort money from people on the Chinese mainland through telephone calls", its has said. (Reporting by John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI and J.R. Wu in TAIPEI; Editing by Louise Ireland)
By Gulsen Solaker ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey would no longer need to honour an agreement on migrants with the European Union if the bloc fails to uphold its promise to provide visa-free travel for Turks by June, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday. Turkey and the EU last month sealed a controversial deal intended to halt illegal migration to Europe in return for financial and political rewards for Ankara. The EU will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with money, visa-free travel and progress in its EU membership negotiations. "These pledges are mutual. If the EU does not take the necessary steps, it would be unthinkable for Turkey to do so," Davutoglu told a news conference before departing for Strasbourg. But he said Turkey has been working to fulfil its pledges to the EU and he had no reason to expect a U-turn on the agreement. "I don't see much of a possibility of EU taking a step to reverse this process after we have come this far," he said. The EU-Turkey deal aims to discourage migrants from perilous crossings, often in small boats and dinghies, and to break the trafficking rings which have fuelled Europe's biggest influx since World War Two. Seventeen of the 75 requirements required for visa-free travel for Turks by June were yet to be completed, Davutoglu said, adding that he expected those to be fulfilled by May. "I believe the visa exemption will come into effect in June. If this doesn't happen, obviously nobody can expect Turkey to hold its side of the deal," he added. Earlier, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey would cancel its agreements with the EU if the bloc did not keep its word on the deal. "The deal we struck with the EU is very clear. We want this human tragedy to end, our citizens to travel visa free, and the customs union to be updated," he said in a speech to the parliament. "If the EU doesn't keep its word, including the migrants deal we will cancel all agreements." (Writing by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
By David Lawder WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department is finalising new tax rules aimed at combating the use of shell companies to evade taxes, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Saturday amid increased pledges by global finance leaders to cooperate on tax issues. In a statement to the International Monetary Fund's steering committee, Lew said the Treasury was finalising a rule that would require banks to identify the beneficial owners of new customers that are companies. "In addition, we are about to propose a regulation that would require the beneficial owners of single-member limited liability companies to identify themselves to the Internal Revenue Service, thus closing a loophole that some have been able to exploit," Lew said. In the wake of controversy stirred by the so-called Panama Papers, which revealed widespread use of tax havens and shell companies by wealthy global elites, officials from the Group of 20 major economies on Friday threatened to penalise tax haven countries that do not comply with new information-sharing efforts and moves to reduce tax mismatches between countries. They called for criteria by July to identify non-cooperative jurisdictions. "Defensive measures will be considered by G20 members against non-cooperative jurisdictions" if progress towards tax goals is not made, the group said in its statement. Lew said the United States fully supports calls for all countries to automatically exchange financial account information. The new U.S. shell company rules will follow steps taken by the Treasury earlier this month to curb corporate "inversion" deals in which U.S. firms buy foreign rivals to move their tax jurisdictions offshore. Those changes were cited as scuttling a $160 billion merger between U.S. drug maker Pfizer Inc and Dublin-based Allergan Plc that would have shifted the combined company headquarters to Ireland, where corporate tax rates are 12.5 percent, compared to the top U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent before deductions and credits. "Tax evasion and tax avoidance hurt government budgets, reduce the equity of our tax systems and hinder global growth," Lew said. In his statement, Lew also repeated calls for euro-area countries and Japan to use available fiscal policy space to stimulate domestic demand while enacting structural reforms to their economies. "Japan should deploy a flexible fiscal policy in the near term that provides a supportive fiscal impulse, while accelerating the implementation of structural reforms, including labour market reforms and opening the service sector to increased competition." He offered up a long to-do list for China, saying the worlds second-largest economy should prioritise reforms that strengthen its social safety net, reduce industrial over-capacity, open up the services sector to competition, tackle rising corporate leverage, confront the associated challenges to the banking system, and allow for a market-determined allocation of credit. (Reporting by David Lawder, Editing by Andrea Ricci)
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Talks to end a civil war and Saudi-led intervention in Yemen will not begin on Monday as planned, the warring sides said as fighting persisted despite an announced ceasefire. Delegations representing Yemen's Houthi group and the party of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh - Saudi Arabia's main antagonists - have yet to head to Kuwait for the peace talks, citing heavy combat and Saudi-led air operations. "There's no point in going to Kuwait if there's no respect for the ceasefire," a senior official in Saleh's General People's Congress party told Reuters on Monday. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam said it has been the movement's demand from the start that dialogue took place "in an atmosphere of peace and stability." Unfortunately, "aggression" had not stopped and air strikes were continuing in different areas, he said. The U.N.-brokered truce went into effect on April 11. Saudi Arabia and some Gulf Arab allies joined the war in March last year to back Yemen's government after it was pushed into exile by forces loyal to Saleh and the Houthi movement, also called Ansarallah. Previous United Nations-mediated talks in June and December failed to end the Arabian Peninsula war, which has killed about 6,200 people, about half of them civilians. Fighting and air strikes persist on several battlefronts throughout the country, especially in the contested southwestern city of Taiz and the Nehm area east of the capital Sanaa. The U.N. envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, urged the two parties remaining in Sanaa to commit to the talks and travel to Kuwait. "The next few hours are crucial ... I hope that Ansarallah and the General People's Congress do not miss this opportunity that could save Yemen the loss of more lives and put an end to the circle of violence that has engulfed the country." Two Yemeni officials from the country's Saudi-backed government said the opposing delegations would likely arrive on Tuesday. "Representatives from Saleh's party and the Houthis are looking for excuses to delay their arrival at a precise time, but it's expected that they will arrive later in Kuwait on Tuesday," one of the officials said. Peace talks face an array of obstacles, from the proliferation of warlords to the deepening of a security vacuum that has allowed al Qaeda fighters to seize territory and opened a path for Islamic State militants to launch attacks. Unrepresented in the Kuwait talks, Yemen's once-independent south is rife with secessionist fervour, and tens of thousands of protesters rallied for independence in the port city of Aden for a second day on Monday. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari and Hashem Mostafa, Writing by Noah Browning and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
 



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A circular slipped out by an HKEx subsidiary, HKSCC, will slash the effective voting window for general meetings, reducing the participation of institutional investors in important decisions such as acquisitions, connected transactions and dilutive share issues. We urge HKEx to rethink this deeply damaging move.

HKEx cuts hit corporate governance of whole market



Hong Kong Securities Clearing Co Ltd (HKSCC), the lucrative monopoly clearing company owned by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEx, 0388) slipped out a circular on 31-Mar-2016 containing some nasty news for investors which will undermine corporate governance by knocking 2 working days out of an already-short voting window for important meetings.

Background

HKSCC runs CCASS, the Central Clearing and Automated Settlement System. In order to trade shares on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Ltd, also owned by HKEx, the shares must be deposited into CCASS and placed on the share register in the name of HKSCC Nominees Limited (HKSCCN), making this HK's de facto central depository. The vast majority of publicly-owned shares (not held by controlling shareholders and directors) are held by HKSCCN on behalf of CCASS Participants comprising banks, brokers, custodians and direct "Investor Participants" like your editor.

So when the time comes to vote in an Annual General Meeting (AGM) or Extraordinary/Special General Meeting (SGM), investors who wish to vote must give instructions via HKSCC to vote the shares held by HKSCCN. Alternatively, if the investor wishes to attend the meeting, then she must instruct HKSCCN to appoint her as its "corporate representative" or proxy in respect of the number of shares it holds on her behalf.

In practice, for meetings in HK, HKSCC has normally sent a representative to the meeting to carry out the instructions of CCASS Participants, voting for and against resolutions according to the total number of shares instructed in each direction. This has the benefit that CCASS Participants can give instructions up to 4.15pm on the last working day before the meeting, either to vote the shares, or to appoint a person to attend as corporate representative.

CCASS Participants that are banks, brokers and custodians must add their own processing time and impose a deadline on clients for instructions. HK custodians often act as sub-custodians to global master custodians, who in turn must add processing time and impose a deadline on the institutional clients they serve around the world.

Of course, being the central depository means that when meetings are held simultaneously, HKSCC needs enough manpower, temporary or otherwise, to handle this load and attend the meetings.

The circular

Now, in the circular, HKSCC has announced that during what it calls "peak season" in May and June, there are so many AGMs that it will simply give up sending its own representatives to any of them, and not just to the AGMs, which handle relatively mundane business and have at least 21 calendar days' notice, but also to the SGMs, which can be called on only 14 calendar days' notice. It will therefor shorten the voting window by requiring instructions 3 business days before the meeting, so that it can submit a proxy form instead by the usual proxy deadline of 48 hours before the meeting. It says that this is:

"To ensure HKSCC have sufficient capacity and consistent approach to act on the voting instructions for all shareholders' meetings held during the peak season"

That's ridiculous, because they have a steady flow of SGMs all year round, so they should be capable of attending those at any time. These meetings handle important and often contentious business such as acquisitions, disposals, massively dilutive share issues, privatisations and connected transactions. Keep in mind that retail investor voting is already very low because the SFC does not require HK intermediaries (banks and brokers) to seek and facilitate voting instructions from their clients. So the bulk of independent votes are cast by institutional investors. These are the investors who are most likely to be impacted by a shorter voting window.

A master custodian will typically set a deadline of 3 to 5 working days before the HKSCC voting cut-off. 14 calendar days is never more than 10 working days, so that leaves 5 to 7 working days, or less if the period straddles holidays. So cutting 2 working days off this window could leave institutions with only 3 working days to read a circular and decide how to vote. Many of them rely on proxy advisory firms such as ISS and Glass Lewis, which in turn need time to produce their advice. The proxy advisors often hold standing orders to vote their clients' shares according to this advice unless the client intervenes. Such intervention becomes less likely if clients have less time to countermand the advice.

Shinbo Won, Head of Asia-Pacific (Ex-Japan) Research at ISS, told Webb-site Reports:

"assuming that custodians will reflect this change on their own cutoff dates, shareholders will be significantly impacted as it will reduce the time they have to review the agenda and make informed voting decisions. This change is not in the best interest of one of HKSCCs key stakeholders, the investors."

HKSCC has also shortened the deadline for investors who wish to attend the meeting in person. They will no longer be appointed as corporate representatives but instead they will be appointed as proxies of HKSCCN, so the deadline for that will also be 3 business days before the meeting instead of 1 business day at present.

Incidentally, even in peak season, there is a natural limit to the number of meetings that will be held simultaneously, due to the finite supply of meeting rooms in hotels and elsewhere.

Conflict of interest

This move clearly has the effect of reducing the costs and increasing the profits of HKSCC, which otherwise has to maintain staff, or hire temporary staff, to handle the additional meetings of the peak season. It has handled the workload every year until now, so this was not a problem in the past. We suspect that this will be used as a stepping stone to complete abolition of sending HKSCC staff to shareholder meetings, and the shorter deadline will apply all year round.

HKSCC is a monopoly and the Government has exempted it (and HKEx and its other key subsidiaries) from the Competition Ordinance. The SFC's approval is needed for any tariff changes but it cannot compel HKEx and its subsidiaries to reduce tariffs. HKSCC makes an enormous profit margin partly by charging an anachronistic "scrip fee" of $1.50 on every board lot of increase in a CCASS Participant's position in a stock on successive book closure dates, despite the fact that the shares are only circulating within the computer system of CCASS, so it pays almost no scrip fees to registrars for production of physical share certificates. The HKSCC scrip fee is disproportionately expensive if the stocks you own have low-value board lots (see table here). Currently 266 stocks have a board lot worth less than HK$1000, so the scrip fee is more than 0.15% or more, and 600 stocks are below $2000.

Scrimping on staff (or even firing the surplus if they stop attending meetings all year round) will boost the HKSCC profit margin even further, but this comes at the expense of corporate governance for the whole market. We urge HKEx and HKSCC to rethink this deeply damaging move, and at the very least, to provide full coverage of all SGMs in Hong Kong and allow participants to vote or appoint representatives up to the day before the meeting as in the past.

 Webb-site.com, 2016

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Why you need a universal power adapter and international plug adapter

This may sound confusing at first, but its ultimately quite simple to figure out:

First it is necessary for you to find out if the appliances you are bringing to Europe with you are dual voltage or single voltage. To do this, find the voltage rating on the appliance which will describe the voltage rating in either one or two numbers. If there are two numbers, listed such as 110V-220V, then it is dual voltage and that particular electronic device will not need a converter. If it is one number, like 110V then it is single voltage, then you will need a 220 volt adapter, voltage converter, or transformer in order to operate this device in Europe. This is because Europe only uses 220V, while the United States, as well as many locations in Central and South America, uses 110V.

After you find out that you need a voltage converter for an appliance, you must then obtain another number called the wattage rating. This can usually be found listed directly on your appliance. But if you cannot find it, you can deduce the wattage rating of a particular appliance by multiplying its voltage by its amp. Then, purchase a converter that is preferably equipped with a 25% higher wattage rating. This will ensure a long lifespan for your converter.

Be sure to also purchase international plug adapters or a universal power adapter. All plugs in Europe are shaped differently from the ones in the United States. Lookout for the 3pin European to USA adapter.

Difference between Voltage Converters and Plug Adapter

So you are traveling abroad and keep hearing these terms jumping around like voltage converter, transformer, plug adapter, and 220v to 110v adapter. Everyone tells you that you need them in order to use your electronics overseas. Sure, they may know what they are talking about, but youre as confused as ever! But you do not need to embarrass yourself by asking your friends what those things are because everything you need to know is right here!

First things first, why exactly do we need a plug adapter and voltage converter or transformer? Well, some countries such as the USA use 110V while other countries such as Germany, France, and Russia in Europe use 220Vso Americans will likely have to pick up a 220V adapter plug.

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Now for the plug adapter: you will always need one when traveling to somewhere like Russia or Romania because the outlets there are usually different from the ones in the US. Outlets from different countries can vary in shape, size, and even number of prongs! You will need to make sure that you find the right plug adapter to fit in those crazy outlets! You can simply research and look up pictures of what countries use or even buy all the different types of plug adapters so that youll be extra prepared for the future.

As you can see, the voltage converter/transformer and plug adapter are completely different in what they function as. However, it is very important for one to understand these terms when traveling overseas. If you want to find the adapter, plug, converter, and transformer that are right for you, look no further than 110220Volts. Good luck on your journey!
KKR has agreed to buy into seeds provider Advanta Enterprises in a deal which values the business at about $2.25bn.
Modified On Apr 18, 2016 01:38 PM By CarDekho

Will invest in marketing and upgrading tech to disrupt higher education space

CollegeDekho.com, a disruptive start-up in the field of higher education, has raised $2 million in pre-series A funding from London-based Man Capital. The investment comes just four months after securing $1 million from GirnarSoft, the parent company of CarDekho.com.

CollegeDekho.com helps students make informed decision about their career through counseling. With a database of 22,000 colleges, it connects students to relevant colleges. The startup leverages technology to curate the best results for a candidate.

On the platform, students are also equipped with plenty of authentic, comprehensive and unbiased information to make a more intelligent and informed decision on their higher education. Some of the unique features on the app include step-by-step search tool that uses basic interests to figure out appropriate colleges and chat forums for prospective/enrolled students of the same college. It provides information on a variety of entrance exams and determines cutoffs for their desired courses.

Speaking on the investment, Ruchir Arora, founder and CEO, CollegeDekho.com, said, We launched CollegeDekho.com with an aim to fundamentally change and improve the journey of college selection process for students. All this has been enabled through our dedicated focus on building a robust service network as well as better unit economics and revenue streams. The latest funding received from Man Capital is a stamp of approval to our approach. It will help us to provide better service offerings.

The funding will be used for building robust technology, ramping up the team, increasing marketing activities and onboarding more colleges.

We have made considerable progress in our approach towards making the technology extremely intuitive and user focused. One of the popular features in our product is college recommendations, that understands the profile of a student and suggests appropriate colleges, said Prateek Kumar, Chief Product Officer, CollegeDekho.com.

Speaking on the investment, Loutfy Mansour, CEO, Man Capital, said, India is one of the important startup hubs of the world. As such, we were on the lookout for an Indian venture that was not only a pioneer in its segment, but also had the potential to become a global leader in the near future. We believe that CollegeDekho.com, with its tech-oriented approach and disruptive impact on the countrys higher education landscape, ticked all the right boxes.

Man Capital is an investment arm of Mansour Group. The CollegeDekho.com funding marks the firms first foray in the Indian startup industry.

Recommended: GirnarSoft buys road side assistance startup Help On Wheels
Modified On Apr 18, 2016 03:42 PM By Akshit

The Texas-based car tuner Hennessey Performance recently celebrated its 25th anniversary in style. It went out and broke the top speed record for an open-top production car in its Venom GT Spyder. Breaking the previous record of 408.8 km/h by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport Vitesse, the GT attained an exhilarating top speed of 427.4 km/h.

Driven by Ford Performance Racing School director Brian Smith, the record was reportedly broken on 25 March at the Naval Air Station Lemoore in California. The news was confirmed by Jim Lau, technical director at the independent speed-testing firm, Racelogic.

2016 marks the 25th anniversary of Hennessey Performance and I thought that this would be a special way to celebrate 25 years of making fast cars faster. Ive wanted to test the top speed of our Venom GT Spyder, without the roof, ever since our coupe ran 435 km/h mph on the Space Shuttle landing runway at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in 2014. This was a great way to validate the technical excellence of our car which includes high-speed stability with an open roof, said John Hennessey.

The Venom GT is based on a heavily modified Lotus Exige chassis and weighs less than 1250 kilograms. Its powered by a twin-turbocharged 7.0- litre V-8 that cranks out a maximum 1,451 bhp and develops a menacing 1,745Nm of peak torque. The mill comes coupled to a Ricardo-sourced 6-speed manual transmission which sends power to the rear wheels that are wrapped in Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres. This enables the GT to accelerate from 0-100 km/h in less than 2.4 seconds, while 0-321 km/h is achieved in less than 13 seconds.

A more potent successor of the Hennessey Venom GT is under works, and a rendering of the same has also been shown in the video. The supercar will most likely go up against Bugatti's 1,480bhp Chiron.
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U.S. oil prices closed well off session lows Monday after a workers' strike in Kuwait slashed the country's oil output by more than half, offsetting worries about a scuttled plan by major oil producers to freeze production. The strike cut more than 60 percent Kuwait's crude output, lending support to price benchmarks such as Brent and Dubai. Supply of refined oil product from the country also tightened due to scaled-back refinery runs and lower fuel exports. Brent tumbled as much as 7 percent earlier on Monday after oil majors from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC Russia failed to reach agreement on a plan to freeze output.

Venezuelan Petroleum Minister Eulogio del Pino arrives for the oil producers' meeting in the Qatari capital Doha, on April 17, 2016. Countries failed to reach an agreement to freeze output at January levels, which sent oil prices tumbling. Karim Jaafar | AFP | Getty Images

The producers had gathered in Qatar, Doha at the weekend for what was expected to be the rubber-stamping of a deal to stabilize output at January levels until October. The deal crumbled when OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia demanded Iran join the plan, despite Tehran's repeated assertions it would not.

"The material loss in production from the Kuwait strike has helped the oil market forget about the farce from Doha," said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at the New York-headquartered Clipperdata.

Global benchmark Brent was down 24 cents at $42.86. It had fallen $3 earlier in the session.

U.S. crude settled 58 cents lower, or 1.4 percent, at $39.78, after sliding to $37.61 at the day's low. Brent's premium versus WTI was at its widest in nearly two months. While fallout from the Doha plan could weigh on a nascent recovery in oil prices, the market may not tumble as much as it did earlier this year, when Brent hit 12-year lows of around $27 in late January, some analysts said. "Gradually declining non-OPEC production as well as planned maintenance in the face of resilient oil demand in Q1 have recently pointed to improving oil fundamentals," analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note, referring to the first quarter.

A weakening U.S. dollar and the mostly steady climb in global equities since February was supportive to oil too, traders said. Supply disruptions in OPEC member Nigeria also helped underpin prices. "While a few forecasters may be dusting off some old $20 WTI expectations as a result of the Doha outcome, we expect solid support in nearby WTI at the $35 mark," Jim Ritterbusch at Chicago oil consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates said. WTI traded off Monday's lows after data from market intelligence firm Genscape showed crude inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for U.S. crude futures falling by nearly 860,000 barrels during the week to April 15, traders who saw the data said. On Monday, Iran urged other oil producers to continue efforts to prop up prices, but insisted it was justified in not yet freezing its own output following the lifting of sanctions in January.

The deal's collapse revived some fears that government-controlled producers will ramp up their battle for market share by offering ever-steeper discounts. Morgan Stanley said the failure sparked "a growing risk of higher OPEC supply," especially as Saudi Arabia threatened it could hike output following the failed deal.
The former president/CEO of an Ohio credit union pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh to stealing more than $230,000.

On July 5, 2014, the board of directors of the $42 million Toledo Metro Federal Credit Union told their former president/CEO Charles Robert Poore they wanted to ask him about numerous suspicious transactions on his corporate credit card. The next day, Poore resigned and was never seen again at the Toledo, Ohio-based cooperative.
An East Sussex organic dairy farmer has turned to online crowdfunding in attempt to raise 300,000 to help keep his business going.

Steve Hook from Longleys Farm, Hailsham, previously featured in the 2013 film The Moo Man, which highlighted the plight of milk producers struggling to stay profitable.

Publicity around its organic raw milk sales helped the farm turn a corner. But now it is appealing to investors for cash, after losing 16ha of rented grazing to developers.

See also: The Moo Man movie reviewed

If the campaign is successful, it will become the first privately-run dairy farm in the country to use crowdfunded equity to support its future. The funds would be used to buy 40ha of neighbouring grassland to establish a second herd and improve efficiency.

Backers will be invited to invest from 50 to 10,000 in return for a combination of non-dividend-linked shares and physical rewards, including milk.

The offer  a hybrid of conventional pledge and reward and straight share issue  will go live on 23 April via the Seedrs crowdfunding platform.

Mr Hook said the businesss 5,000 raw milk customers were already emotionally invested in the business.

One-third of our raw milk is sold through doorstep deliveries, one-third through farmers markets and on- third over the internet.

Effectively, one of those sales channels would go if we didnt do anything, he told Farmers Weekly. Some customers are worried sick about it.

Mr Hook said customers investing in the business would secure their future raw milk supply, even though there was no guaranteed financial return.
Disgruntled land workers have taken their campaign against county council farm sell-offs to the heart of government, unfurling a seven-metre-high poster across the entrance to the Treasury.

A group of protesters from the Landworkers Alliance (LWA) assembled outside the building off Parliament Square on Sunday (17 April) and scaled the portal on ladders. They then draped their banner declaring Public Land for Public Good over the front door of one of Londons most iconic buildings.

Group leader Adam Paynes  himself a small-scale tenant farmer from west Dorset  told the assembled land workers that county council farms played a pivotal role in providing new entrants with their first step on the farming ladder.

See also: Council accused of misleading tenants on estate sell-off

But austerity cuts from central government had pressured local authorities to sell off their farms to plug other holes in their budgets, accelerating privatisation and closing off this key route into farming for young people.

According to the LWA, some 3,850ha of publicly owned farmland and 219 working farms have been sold by local councils since 2010  an exercise that has turned public resources for the many into private wealth for the few.

County council farm rents had also climbed by 30% since 2010, Mr Paynes told Farmers Weekly, as local authorities sought to extract more profit from their land assets. Yet investment back into the estates had dropped 4% over the same period.

Historic importance

The protest was also addressed by Tenant Farmers Association chief executive George Dunn.

He explained that county council smallholdings date back to the late 1800s, when they were set up as a way of bringing fresh blood into the farming industry.

Their role changed after the First World War, as a means of settling ex-servicemen into homes and employment, before returning to their original function with the 1970 Agriculture Act.

But over the past 30 years, the number of county council tenants has at least halved, and more than one-third of the acreage has been lost, said Mr Dunn. We now have just over 60,000ha of land and 1,500 tenants  and this is falling.

Indeed, since the recession of 2008 and the subsequent period of austerity, the rate of loss had accelerated, Mr Dunn told Farmers Weekly.

As well as losing routes into agriculture, the sell-off did not represent best value for taxpayers, he added. Run properly, local authority estates could generate significant, ongoing revenue for frontline services.

Selling income earning assets is a short-term fix to a long-term problem. Bad financial management should not be allowed to destroy what remains of our county council farms.

Mr Dunn suggested there was a role for Defra to take a greater interest and ensure local authority estates were better run. The treasury should also require local authorities to demonstrate best value for local people, rather than fostering a dash-for-cash policy.

The LWA protest formed part of an international day of struggle organised by small producers organisation La Via Campesina, which co-ordinated action across more than 70 countries, highlighting threats to the livelihoods of 200 million family farmers worldwide.
The GCC Ministerial Committee for Cybersecurity held its first meeting on Sunday (October 23, 2022) at the
Sixth Annual Earth Day World Naked Bike Ride - San Francisco

Date:

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Time:

11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Event Type:

Critical Mass

Organizer/Author:

Oswald Montecristo

Location Details:

Meet northwest of the Ferry Building on Embarcadero, between the Farmers Market and the Starbucks Coffee.

It's that time to tune up those bikes and toss those riding duds in the wash, you won't need them for the World Naked Bike Ride in San Francisco. It's the second WNBR of the year, in conjunction with Earth Day and the SIXTH anniversary of the British Petroleum Deep Horizon explosion and Macondo Well oil spill disaster, the worst oil spill in history that occurred on April 20, 2010. Ironically, environmentalist John Muir's birthday.



It is time for the Sixth Annual Earth Day World Naked Bike Ride - San Francisco chapter.



The BP oil spill left dead sea life and birds as well as the environmental devastation of the gulf that will impact sea life and the economy of the gulf's fishing industry for decades. With the Japan quake & tsunami 5 years ago all but forgotten, environmental issues are more important than ever. There still remains to this day a huge blanket of oil at the bottom of the Gulf. Don't let clear waters above fool you into thinking the clean up job is finished. What better way to refresh the public's memory than with a World Naked Bike Ride.



Our San Francisco contingent will meet Saturday, April 23rd at 11:00AM at the northwest corner outside of the Ferry Building, between the Farmer's Market and Starbucks. Our group will have time to gather and renew old acquaintances as well as help initiate new riders. Also slogans and signs can be finalized with body paint & markers. And all WNBRs have challenged the new SF anti-nudity ordinance with NO CITATIONS!!!



The ride is scheduled to start at around Noon.



You decide how much bare you can dare, you can go all out in the joy of sun clad nakedness, go topless, bikinis, body paint or latex, leotard or lingerie, or tuxedos, whatever you feel like. For this ride, however, since an oil spill is the target of our angst, an appropriate statement can be made to mimic spilled oil. Nude riders can use black body paint splattered or coated. Those a little timid about nudity can use black trash bags that resemble spilled oil. Or you can be even more creative and artistic with black latex body paint to achieve a sheen and gloss that really looks like spilled oil. Since it is Earth Day we are celebrating the environment, so if you don't go the bare route or the oil spill look, then adorn yourself with green colors; shoes, hats, scarves, capes, whatever, to promote a greener way of life.



Skates or skateboards have ridden along with us in the past. Also we had our first tandem bike in our last ride. How about a nude unicyclist? And music maestro please. How about some of you musical bikes from Rock The Bike sounding off with us?



As always, our ride is in continued protest of an unsustainable energy policy in all nations around the globe. We support the innovation of alternate and improved energy technologies, the social commitment to a more sustainable energy consumption and generally the pure fun and joy of riding naked to draw attention to these issues. However, this time the main protest is about the BP oil spill and since this is Earth Day, special reverence for our ecosystem and respect for Mother Earth.



Our ride will focus on downtown SOMA areas, Embarcadero, and most flat areas along the financial area downtown. We will go down to Fisherman's Wharf and then back toward the Earth Day Festival in the Mission District before ending our ride in the Castro.
In a small town of Kotpad in Orissa, a tragic incident claimed the lives of eight people, who were killed by a wild bear that had managed to escape from its habitat into the village. The bear was eventually caught and killed by the villagers.

In a small town of Kotpad in Orissa, a tragic incident claimed the lives of eight people, who were killed by a wild bear that had managed to escape from its habitat into the village. The bear was eventually caught and killed by the villagers. This Odisha news created waves among the people of Orissa and led to countless debates and discussions about the correctness of the act of killing the bear and security system for the villagers.Around this time, there were also numerous reports in the newspapers about elephants, leopards, and turtles being killed due to the negligence and carelessness of the people. However, these reports never received the kind of coverage which the news about the death of eight villagers received. This brings us to the burning question  How important are animals in our world? There are a number of species that are on the verge of extinction because of the activities of humans; however, this seems reasonable to us as long as it benefits us in some way. But when even one person from our species is harmed, hundreds join hands to take revenge.Statistics from Odisha news todayAccording to reports from the Orissa Wildlife Organization, the number of human deaths due to attacks by animals such as elephants, crocodiles, bears, wolves, and wild pigs totaled to 352, compared to 331 elephants that died due to the illicit activities of humans. This is excluding the decreasing numbers of other wild animals that have been prey to humans.The situation has come where the animals have to fight with humans for their own habitat and food and, according to Odisha news today , it is very clear that they are losing badly. Now and then, something suddenly goes wrong and humans have to bear the wrath of the animals; however, one can hardly blame them for trying to defend themselves and their lifestyle habits.Odisha news tips on an attempt to achieve a balanceThe problem started when the land that once used to serve as home for many animals turned into sites for mining and industrial projects. A number of projects such as roadways, railways, irrigation projects, hydroelectric projects, and canal systems required vast pieces of free space, and out of pure selfishness and greed, humans began exploiting those places which provided a safe and suitable environment for wild animals.A number of good examples from which Orissa can learn include Thailand, Myanmar, Australia, and Malaysia which take an active interest in conservation of wildlife and their habitats. In fact, a major part of their tourism industry centers on their native species of flora and fauna such as kangaroos in Australia and orangutans in Malaysia.Serious steps need to be taken to discourage deforestation and poaching of elephants. Although all the laws for the protection of forests and animals are in place, the implementation part is a challenge and needs to be actively endorsed all over the state.
Do your homework on Clinton by reader

If, as some reports suggest, the FBIs investigation has expanded to include the Clinton Foundation  and its hard to imagine it failing to do so, given the co-mingling of State and Foundation business on Clintons server  the future may compare Hillarys undoing around her private server to Nixons around his oval-office tapes. In 1972, Nixon was elected despite a growing suspicions of his involvement in the Watergate Break-In. However, unlike Nixon supporters in the 1972 election, todays Hillary supporters will not have the excuse that there was no criminal investigation targeting their candidate when they cast their vote.

Among Californias Democratic Party super-delegates, 46 of 71 have endorsed Hillary Clinton, supporting the corporate medias narrative of Hillarys inevitability through the misleading inclusion of super-delegate pledges in reported primary delegate vote totals. Pledging their votes for Clinton up to a year before the June 7 California Primary, many of the endorsers represent districts  such as the first through fifth  whose primary voters are inclined to choose Bernie Sanders by overwhelming margins.



If these public servants lack of interest in their constituents will is callous, their endorsement is beyond reckless in light of current events. As weve seen in the cases of California state Senators Leland Yee and Ron Calderon, FBI investigations are not likely to end well for their targets.



Three key assertions of the Clinton campaign regarding the current FBI probe of her emails and private server are:



 The FBI is merely conducting a security review of Ms. Clintons email.



 She did not email any classified material to anyone, later amended to say that she did not send or receive any emails marked classified,



 Her predecessors did exactly the same thing. Each of these claims are misleading at best.



First, the FBI does not perform security reviews  it conducts criminal investigations. The FBI and Department of Justice have disclosed that the former Secretary is the target of an criminal probe being directed by the FBI with assistance of attorneys in the DOJs Criminal and National Security Divisions. The number of FBI agents reportedly assigned to the probe is 147. Issued subpoenas and a grant of immunity to Hillarys server-entrusted IT staffer suggest that a grand jury is already hearing evidence. Additionally, federal judge Emmet Sullivan has recently granted discovery to independent investigators suing Clinton and the State Department under the Federal Records Act.



Second, her claim that she did not send any e-mails marked classified is not a defense against the case she now faces. The government classifies communications based on their content  how they are labeled is irrelevant. Being fourth in line to the president and the holder of high-level security clearances, Clinton was one of a small handful of officials entrusted with the authority to classify information. She had the responsibility to recognize and protect any confidential and secret information that she handled  an obligation spelled out in explicit agreements requisite to her security clearance.







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Investigators have determined that thousands of emails containing classified information, and scores containing Top Secret information flowed through her private server, which advertised itself with its ClintonEMail.com address (domain registration records being public) and which lacked encryption for at least part of its life. At least 104 emails authored by Clinton herself have been found to contain classified information, with some receiving Special Access Program classifications. Among those, 22 have been deemed too damaging to national security to release, even in redacted form. The conventional wisdom is that foreign intelligence agencies would have been incompetent not to have intercepted the servers traffic, if not to have hacked into the server itself.



Clinton need not have knowingly compromised state secrets to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, which includes felony charges requiring only the demonstration of gross negligence. Although some of her messages suggest a willful disregard for security protocols  such as the email to her deputy directing him to: Turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure  far more damning is the very existence of her private server hosting classified information.



Finally, Hillary Clintons claim that she did nothing different than every other Secretary of State is disingenuous. Colin Powell and others sometimes emailed state.gov from third-party services like AOL and gmail (whose contents could be subpoenaed and retrieved by U.S. officials). In contrast, Clinton set up a private server in her home, which was un-auditable by her employer. Reportedly never once using her issued state.gov address, Clinton and her inner circle used the ClintonEMail.com server to conduct all of her official State Department business  an obvious attempt to evade accountability and transparency under the Federal Records Statues. Scores of FOIA requests to the State Department seeking information on Clintons actions as Secretary have been answered with No Responsive Records. Why? Apparently because Clintons exclusive use of her private server succeeded in precluding the capture and archiving of her official communications, leaving the State Department empty-handed.



Such violations of the Espionage and Federal Records Acts may be only the tip of the iceberg. By containing classified information, the server became de-facto government property. This makes Hillarys attempt to wipe the server tantamount to destruction of evidence. The decision to delete her private e-mails and submit (only in the form of hard-copy print-outs) her official emails was not Hillarys to make.



Why would the former Secretary risk charges of obstruction of justice to shield about half of the emails from public view if, as she suggested, they concerned only things like yoga mats and wedding arrangements? The elephant in the room isnt the Republican Party. Throughout Hillarys tenure at State, the Clinton Foundation was raking in seven and eight-figure contributions, and Bill was pulling down speaking fees that dwarfed his pre-2009 rates. Recently revealed emails show Foundation activities being coordinated through ClintonEMail.com e-mails.



Much about the nonprofits Foundations financial history remains shrouded in mystery due to the Clintons actions: Ignoring a 2009 Memorandum of Understanding to publish yearly disclosures of Foundation donors, filing incorrect Form 990 disclosures, and funneling contributions through opaque foreign pass-through entities. Despite such obstacles, journalists have pieced together a number of transactions that demonstrate, at the very least, glaring conflicts of interest, and have reported them in outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, CNBC, and Politico.



Consider just foreign arms sales. A IBTimes analysis published in May of 2015 found that the State Department approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to 20 nations whose governments supported the Clinton Foundation. Foundation donors Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, and Qatar all gained State Department clearance to buy American-made weapons despite the Departments flagging them for corruption and abuses of civil liberties. These deals represented a doubling of the value of arms transfers to the Gulf States over those under the prior G.W. Bush administration.



The topic of corruption at the intersection of Hillarys State Department and the Clinton Foundation is vast. Rather than attempt to summarize it here, I list the following search phrases for interested readers: Hassan Nemazee; Claudio Osorio; $500,000 Kremlin; Polo Resources Phulbari Mines; UBS IRS Hillary; Gonzalo Tirado Asylum; Mantz Haiti; Boeing Hillary; Giustra Clinton.



If, as some reports suggest, the FBIs investigation has expanded to include the Clinton Foundation  and its hard to imagine it failing to do so, given the co-mingling of State and Foundation business on Clintons server  the future may compare Hillarys undoing around her private server to Nixons around his oval-office tapes. In 1972, Nixon was elected despite a growing suspicions of his involvement in the Watergate Break-In. However, unlike Nixon supporters in the 1972 election, todays Hillary supporters will not have the excuse that there was no criminal investigation targeting their candidate when they cast their vote.



Democratic Primary voters might be forgiven for overlooking the ticking time bomb of Clintons legal problems, whose likely outcomes include a Trump or Cruz presidency and increased Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. The corporate media has been instrumental in concealing that bomb by parroting Clintons talking points while implicitly supporting the vast right-wing conspiracy narrative through ceding coverage of the probes to fringe outlets.



California representatives and senators should know better. Do the Clinton super-delegates really think that Obamas Justice Department can ignore a criminal referral from the FBI or grant Hillary preemptive immunity without dire consequences? Maybe these politicians just havent done their homework, and need to hear from their constituents.
Country

Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Canada Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cuba, Republic of Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Dominican Republic Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Haiti, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Jamaica Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Mexico, United Mexican States Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu US Virgin Islands Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
Whole or in part by children Tedr77 [at] aol.com) by Ted Rudow III, MA

From 1947 to 1971 the textile industry, like most industries in East Pakistan, were largely owned by West Pakistanis. During that period, in the 1960s, local Bengali entrepreneurs had set up their own large textile and jute factories.

Following its separation from East Pakistan the newly formed Bangladesh lost access to both capital and technical expertise.



Now, Bangladesh's export trade is now dominated by the ready-made garments (RMG) industry. In 2012 Bangladeshs garment exports  mainly to the US and Europe  made up nearly 80% of the countrys export income. By 2014 RMG represented 81.13 percent of Bangladesh's total export. Of the millions of wage earning children in Bangladesh in 1990, almost all of them worked in the ready-made garment (RMG) industry. Based on the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Labor Force Survey estimated there were about 5.7 million 10- to 14-year-old children engaged in child labor. This number may have been as high as 15 million children.



The Child Labor Deterrence Act (the Harkin Bill after Senator Tom Harkin, one of the US Senators who proposed the bill). The act which banned "importation to the United States of products which are manufactured or mined in whole or in part by children" Often when there are fires in garment factories, most exits are locked so that employees do not steal garments during the evacuation. Garment manufacturing companies seem to value their product more than the health and safety of their employees.



The great American story, that self-righteous, blood-thirsty, so-called Christian nation has sown the wind and is now reaping the whirlwind. Now theyre reaping it in their own children.



Ted Rudow III, MA


Kentucky Derby Top 10: Caseys Picks The Kentucky Derby preps are now finished and the list for the Kentucky Derby is at a near loss for me. This list was hard enough to compile with the final prep, the Arkansas Derby, getting one of my Kentucky Derby horses, Suddenbreakingnews, into the Kentucky Derby. While this list is not set in stone and final, this is the likely top horses for me.

Nyquist (Uncle Mo  Seeking Gabrielle, by Forestry; 131 points)  He recorded his first work at Keeneland, going five furlongs in 1:02.30. He has definitely grown since I saw him last October. Nyquist is the likely morning line favorite for the 142nd Kentucky Derby and rightfully so. The question of ability to go another furlong is in question, but that question surrounds every horse on this list. Can Nyquist outrun his distance limited pedigree?

Mor Spirit (Eskendereya  Im a Dixie Girl, by Dixie Union; 84 points)  He again finished 2nd in the Santa Anita Derby. We know he has a grinding stride and runs low to the ground, but he doesnt have a major weapon in his arsenal. He did not give up and took a lot of mud on that day. However, Exaggerator blew right by him. Does he have the ability to get ten furlongs? He is bred for it; it is now the question of if he is good enough.

Gun Runner (Candy Ride  Quiet Giant, by Giants Causeway; 151 points)  Gun Runner would be bucking history if he came into the Kentucky Derby off six weeks rest and won. The last Louisiana Derby winner to win the Kentucky Derby was Grindstone in 1996 and he had a race in between, which happened to be the Arkansas Derby. Gun Runner was the first contender to arrive at Churchill and has been getting there, per trainer Steve Asmussen. Gun Runner is improving and he would have a slight layoff coming into the Derby, but nothing I am concerned about.

Brodys Cause (Giants Causeway  Sweet Breanna, by Sahm; 114 points)  Brodys Cause has a wicked late kick. He closed in all three of his wins and for his third place finish in the Breeders Cup Juvenile. Brodys Cause is a big horse, and has no early speed. He is bred perfectly to get ten furlongs. I am not sure he will get enough speed in the Kentucky Derby, with a possible defection of Cupid. He is a good horse, but he needs to improve off the Blue Grass to have a shot in this big field.

Mohaymen (Tapit  Justwhistledixie, by Dixie Union; 80 points)  Mohaymen will arrive at Churchill this week, and hopefully improve off his poor Florida Derby effort. He has not worked since the race and needs to get going. Word has it that he needs to put on a bit of weight but is all around a happy horse. He has been dropped so much on my list due to not only his Florida Derby but also Zulus terrible performance in the Blue Grass. I need some assurance that he is back to the horse he was in the Holy Bull and Fountain of Youth

Lani (Tapit  Heavenly Romance, by Sunday Silence; 100 points)  With word of mouth is saying this horse is the most fit horse in the race. Connections are saying he is jogging two and three miles at a time. If this is true, the Japanese may have a good shot at this Derby. Lani is a closer, but does not have a massive closing kick. He grinds it out and holds off his competition. He has gone further than any horse in the field, as the UAE Derby is run at 1-3/16 miles (Preakness distance). While foreign horses normally dont perform well, Lani has a good chance this year.

Exaggerator (Curlin  Dawn Raid, by Vindication; 126 points)  Blowing away his competition in the Santa Anita Derby could have been credited to a new come-from-behind running style or the sloppy track, which he seems to relish any time he runs on one. Exaggerator has been questioned on his distance ability and his ability to defeat quality competition. If he can perform in the Kentucky Derby, questions could cease and he could be taken seriously.

Creator (Tapit  Morena (PER), by Privately Held; 110 points)  Creator took six tries to break his maiden, but following that maiden score, he was thrown into the Rebel, where he closed for third. Next, he improved and won the Arkansas Derby. Creator is bred to continue getting the distance and improve. If he can improve once again, he could be a major threat to the Kentucky Derby; however, he will not get the swift pace in the Kentucky Derby that he got in the Arkansas Derby.

Suddenbreakingnews (Mineshaft  Uchitel, by Afleet Alex; 50 points)  Finally getting the points he needed, Suddenbreakingnews gets even more distance in his next start, the Kentucky Derby. However, after watching the Arkansas Derby and chatting with fellow writer Laura Pugh, I believe that Suddenbreakingnews needs a new, more aggressive jockey. Suddenbreakingnews was passed in the Rebel before he was put into gear, and same goes for the Arkansas Derby. Luis Quinonez either needs to REALLY step it up, or a jockey change should be made. I hear Victor Espinoza is available.

Destin (Giants Causeway  Dream of Summer, by Siberian Summer; 51 points)  Destin is last on my list for some specific reasons. One, he is taking eight weeks between the Tampa Bay Derby and the Kentucky Derby. Two, he has never gone further than 1-1/16 miles. Destin is bred to continue to improve with time and distance. However, after a career best performance last time out, could he have the potential to bounce in the Derby? The answer is, of course!

In the Stable

Outwork (Uncle Mo  Nonna Mia, by Empire Maker; 120 points)  Outwork was 2nd to Destin in the Tampa Bay Derby, which looked very good. Next, Outwork was sent to New York for the Wood Memorial, where he barely held off a maiden named Trojan Nation. Outwork flattered his stablemate by winning his next start. The track at Aqueduct was tiring and heavy that day, so I can slightly forgive Outwork for barely defeating a maiden in Trojan Nation. He will, however, need to improve next out to be a threat at Churchill Downs.

My Man Sam (Trappe Shot  Lauren Byrd, by Arch; 40 points)  My Man Sam ran on late to steal second from Cherry Wine in the Blue Grass at Keeneland. He has a somewhat questionable pedigree for ten furlongs, but showed potential and improvement in the Blue Grass. My Man Sam makes a late run, which reserves his energy. This could make up for his lack of quality distance pedigree, but his sire was able to finish 2nd in the Haskell, defeating horses like Super Saver, First Dude, and Ice Box. If he can improve next out, he could be dangerous.

Mo Tom (Uncle Mo  Caroni, by Rubiano; 32 points)  If Mo Tom makes it into the Derby, it would be due to a defection in the top 20, as he sits at #21 on the leaderboard. He will likely be entered as an Also Eligible. If Mo Tom were make the Derby, a jockey chance would need to be in order, as Lanerie is trying to be Calvin Borel and it clearly is not working for this colt. This colt has a massive closing kick and needs room to run. If he gets into the Derby, he could be a real threat.

The Kentucky Derby takes place at Churchill Downs yearly in Louisville, Kentucky. The historic race is entering its 142nd year and promises to be another exciting year. The Kentucky Derby opens the door to only one three-year-old colt/gelding to have a shot at the coveted Triple Crown, which now waits another year to see if another colt can follow in the hoof prints of the twelve great horses before them.
Los Angeles, CA A California labor lawsuit alleging various violations to A California labor lawsuit alleging various violations to California labor laws will go ahead as a class action, in spite of efforts by the defendants to have the two classes decertified. The original lawsuit was brought in December of 2011 in US District Court, Eastern District of California.

Defendants in the California labor code lawsuit are Synthes USA, Synthes USA Sales, and Synthes Spine Company (known collectively as Synthes Companies, or Synthes). The lead plaintiff in the case, Troy Lindell, alleges in his lawsuit that Synthes failed to reimburse certain employees for business expenses, took unlawful deductions from employees, failed to properly pay employees upon leaving the employ of the company, and engaged in unfair competition. All claims made are alleged to be in violation of various statutes of California labor employment law.The California labor lawsuit has undergone a few changes since it was originally brought in 2011. Amended in February of 2012, it was further amended in 2013 to include certification of two classes.The so-called Expense class of employees is comprised of sales consultants from the defendants Trauma and Spine divisions - and sales consultants from the defendants Craniomaxillofacial divisions who received straight commission and higher levels of commission, respectively.A second class has been dubbed the Deduction class and would include all former, current and future sales consultants employed from December 13, 2007 through to the date of the culmination and disposition of the lawsuit.The two classes were originally certified on March of 2014 by Magistrate Judge Barbara A. McAuliffe. Synthes immediately appealed to the Ninth Circuit for permission to appeal the class certification, but the request was denied.The defendants then filed a motion to decertify the two classes. On that motion District Court Judge Lawrence J. ONeill in California District Court turned that motion down as well.Thus, the two California and labor law class actions will proceed, alleging various violations to California Labor Code Sections 2802, 221, 223 and 300, and 201 through 203.Whats more, allegations suggest unfair competition in violation of the California Unfair Competition Law (UCL), California Business and Professional Code Sections 17200-210. Finally, the plaintiff is also looking to recover damages under the California Private Attorney General Act (PAGA), California Labor Code Sections 2698-2699.5, and for violations of Labor Code Sections 201-203, 221, 223, 300 and 2804.The California lawsuit isCase No. 1:11-cv-02053 LJO BAM, in the Eastern District of California.
Los Angeles, April 15, 2016 (Press Release) - The massive gas injection well blowout of well SS-25 in the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility operated by SoCalGas created a geyser that lasted over three months. Natural gas, noxious odors, hazardous chemicals, and toxic pollutants rolled down the hillside into Porter Ranch and surrounding areas. The blowout ultimately released 100,000 tons of natural gas. The volume of gas ejected was 220 times greater than the volume of oil released during the B.P. oil spill.

According to the Government Claim Form filed by R. Rex Parris, for the first two and half months after the blowout, Governor Brown was silent despite his obligation to coordinate the State Emergency Plan . . . for the mitigation of the effects of any emergency in this state. The Los Angeles Public Health Department stepped in to fill the void and issued an order requiring SoCalGas to pay for the relocation of residents becoming ill from the blowout.In the midst of the blowout and evacuation of over 4,000 families, Brown went to Paris and boasted about Californias reduction of emissions. Brown was eerily silent about Porter Ranch. It was not simply the result of his absence due to his Paris trip - Brown was conflicted.First, Brown is a RICO defendant in another lawsuit arising from the same permitting issues present in this action. The state must issue injection well permits to all gas companies that provide basic data showing the injected gas will remain in a confined area underground. This basic data is a safety requirement that is mandated by federal law. Brown, however, ordered state regulators in October of 2011 to stop requiring this basic data for permits of injection wells. DOGGR then stopped requiring gas companies to provide data showing confinement of the injected gas.Second, his sister is on the board of directors of Sempra Energy (the parent company of SoCalGas). She received income of almost $200,000 each year for the last three years from Sempra and rights to Sempra stock worth another $409,945.The problems at the Aliso Canyon facility were well known by DOGGR since 2010 and perhaps earlier according to recently discovered well permit files. There is a cluster of bad wells near newly issued injection well permits. One such problem well has been leaking for at least six years; API 03721313 (32F). Well 32F had a patch installed in 1986 that was removed in 2010. Well 32F has not passed any mechanical integrity tests since 2010. As of today, 32F still appears as if it cannot pass any tests and is a significant risk to the health and safety of the community.Also named in the claim against the state are other agencies including the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The claim also lists SoCalGas, whose property in Aliso Canyon is treated as government property. Another wave of claims will be filed next week. Each client is seeking damages for personal injury and property damage which is expected to exceed $3.5 Million per person.For over 30 years, R. Rex Parris has devoted his practice to protecting the rights of injured people and aggrieved workers. Rex and his dedicated team provide thorough, high-quality representation with integrity and compassion. These lawyers fight aggressively against corporate defense attorneys and insurance companies to ensure their clients get the compensation they deserve. For more information, visit rrexparris.com.
- A militant group claims responsibility for pipeline vandalism in Nigeria

- President Buhari vowed to deal with vandals like Boko Haram terrrorist

- The group says it is undeterred and will continue to attack

A few days after President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to deal with pipeline vandals like Boko Haram terrorist, a group has come out to claim responsibility for the vandalism and vowed to carry out more attacks.

Nigeria has witnessed series of attacks and vandalism on pipelines which has affected power and fuel distribution which has inadvertently affected the country.

File photo: Niger Delta militans

President Buhari said during his trip to China that his administration would crack-down on vandals and give them the same treatment given to terrorists.

Reuters reports that the Niger Delta Avengers has said it carried out the attack on a Shell underwater pipeline in February which affected oil flows and forced the company to shut down its 250,000 barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal for weeks.

READ ALSO: Tension in Delta as militants vow to blow up more pipelines

The vandalism of pipelines is not unconnected to a warrant issued for the arrest of a former Niger Delta militant, Government Ekpemupolo also known as Tompolo.

The group said: We are not deterred by such threats as we are highly spirited and shall continue blowing up pipelines until the Niger Delta people are no longer marginalized by the Nigerian actors.

The group said it was interested in improving the lives of local people in the oil-producing region.

We take no pleasure in claiming innocent lives hence our struggle is geared toward attacking the oil installations in our region and not the people. And we shall stop at nothing until our goal is achieved.

The vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo visited the area where the pipelines were vandalised and said the government was committed to putting an end to the attacks.

He said: As you know, pipelines vandals are probably as bad as any type of terrorists or saboteurs and the danger posed to lives caused by pipelines vandals. All of us must agree with the president that the vandals must be treated with the most severe manner and should not be tolerated at all.

So, I agree entirely that pipelines vandals should not be tolerated under no circumstances.

Aside from the gas problem, there is also the problem of losing thousands of barrels of production. We are not able to produce as much as we ought to. About 250,000 barrels are lost per day. We are losing large sums of money daily. We look for alternative, while we look to repair the pipelines."

Source: Legit.ng
- Prophet TB Joshua has been attacked for his prophecy against Ghana

- The Nigerian cleric predicted that a terrorist attack is imminent

- A Ghanaian prophet has challenged TB Joshua

- He says the Nigerian cleric can only be taken seriously if he can stop the Boko Haram insurgents

The General Overseer of the Church of Rabbi has urged Nigeria's Prophet TB Joshua to stop the activities of Islamist group, Boko Haram in Nigeria if he wants his prophecies to be taken seriously.

TB Joshua has been challenged to face the Boko Haram sect

Breaking Times reports that Prophet Kwabena Tawiah said he is baffled at how the supposed prophet did nothing and now the Boko Haram insurgents have infiltrated and carried out several bombings in Nigeria.

In his view, TB Joshua who is the head of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) should concentrate on driving away Boko Haram from Nigeria and not prophesying doom for Ghana.

Prophet Kwabena Tawiahs comment is in reaction to TB Joshuas prophecy of an imminent attack on Ghana and Nigeria.

The renowned Nigerian prophet had asked his congregation to pray against the attack which could happen either on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

He was emphatic in prophesying that, I see Thursday, Friday. Pray for these two nations  Nigeria and Ghana  over gathering in any way; over an attack. I am seeing the attack and that will be in a foreign way. The attack will come not in a local way. So please open your lips and pray for these two nations for protection.

But his controversial prophecy which stirred so much panic in Ghana, has been met with a lot of criticisms with many religious bodies including the Christian Council calling on security agencies to ignore it since Ghana cannot run on the back of prophecies.

In support, the outspoken Kwabena Tawiah stressed that the prophecy must be treated with the contempt it deserves.

Describing TB Joshuas prophecy as unnecessary, the Church of Rabbi leader said assuming without admitting that the prophecy is true, God would have revealed it to a Ghanaian prophet and not a foreigner.

What is TB Joshua saying; he should leave Ghana alone and concentrate on Boko Haram in Nigeria he fumed.

Kwabena Tawiah also urged TB Joshua to support President Buhari with his prophecies to help arrest the Boko Haram insurgents terrorizing citizens in Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Malawi president replies TB Joshua over death vision

TB Joshua has in recent times, had to face great controversy regarding his ministry in Ghana. It would be recalled that a few weeks back he was accused by Kwaku Bonsam who is also know as 'Devil of Wednesday'.

The Devil of Wednesday who is said to be very powerful, boasted that hes the spiritual father of some of the most powerful preachers in Africa, TB Joshua inclusive.

Kwaku said: Over 1, 700 pastors and so called men of God from different parts of Africa have approached me, seeking powers to perform miracles, including Prophet T.B Joshua from Nigeria. He is my boy. I challenge him to come out and deny this.

Source: Legit.ng
- Sheikh Gumi in the latest interview reveals why Boko Haram propers in the North, while Biafra in the South

- He adviised Muslim leaders to do more to fight the Boko Haram

Sheikh Ahmed Gumi

Popular Islamic scholar, Dr. Ahmad Gumi, in the recent inteview has spoken about the Boko Haram insurgency, Biafra movement, Shiites clashes.

The cleric in the April edition of The Interview stated that the Boko Haram is 100% a Muslim problem, blaming some people in the North for cooperating with and working to protect them.

He said: Boko Haram as it is now cannot prosper in Ibadan because the locals will expose them. The same in Enugu. The people agitating for Biafra cannot prosper in the North because they will be exposed.

READ ALSO: MUST READ: Is CNN running the propaganda wing of Boko Haram?

We have to understand, that these people are from amongst us and that the society was not doing enough to bring these elements out. I can tell you that Boko Haram is 100% a Muslim problem.

The prominent scholar also defined the agitation for Biafra as analogue and further challenged Muslim leaders to do more to fight the insurgents.

Sheikh Gumi speaking on the controversial preaching bill in Kaduna state, said the bill had gone too far and was an violation on the constitution.

If you are trying to fight terrorism and extremism you dont clamp on the freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of propagation of thoughts. These liberties are enshrined in the constitution.

According to him, the bill could drive extremism underground.

READ ALSO: Abubakar Shekau could be a better president than Buhari

The man of God also spoke on the army-Shiite clash in Zaria, the current probe into the $2.1billion arms purchase scam involving the former national securuty adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and the anti-graft war of President Muhammadu Buharis administration.

Gumi earlier suggested that Muslims in Nigeria arent aware of who their enemy really is. The cleric believes that if Northerners can correctly identify the ones who are killing them, they can successfully defeat Boko Haram.

Source: Legit.ng
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- Fayose said Oyegun, Oni and Prof Itse Sagay lack moral rights to complain about criticism of President Mohammadu Buhari

- Fayose said Buhari's non-signing of any direct loan agreement with the Chinese government is a vindication of the his position

President Buhari and Governor Fayose

Special assistant to the Ekiti state governor on public communications and new media, Lere Olayinka has described the All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairman, Chief Odigie Oyegun, deputy national chairman, Chief Segun Oni and others' criticism of governor Ayodele Fayose's letter to the Chinese government on the $2 billion loan sought by the federal government as brazen display of political hypocrisy.

He described President Buhari's non-signing of any direct loan agreement with the Chinese government during his visit as a vindication of the governor's position, maintaining that: "what Nigeria needs is the collaboration of the Government of China in the area of technology transfer, rather than granting loan that will be mismanaged under the guise of building infrastructure."

READ ALSO: SHOCKER: Fulani Herdsmen to pay Benue farmers N100bn

In a statement issued in Ado Ekiti on Monday, the governor's spokesperson said: "people like Oyegun, Oni and Prof Itse Sagay lack moral rights to complain even if President Mohammadu Buhari is called whatever names because they never complained when as a sitting president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan was called unprintable names by APC stalwarts and leaders."

Olayinka, who said governor Fayose only exercised his rights as a Nigerian, asked: "where were the likes of Oyegun, Oni, Prof Itse Sagay and others when APC promoted crude politics and anti-Nigeria posturing to an unprecedented level when Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in power?"

He said: "It is on record that APC wrote to the United States of America not to sell arms to Nigeria, reported the country to the European Union, United Nations and went to the bizarre extent of reporting the then Chief of Army Staff, Azubuike Ihejirika, to the International Criminal Court (ICC), not for committing the kind of genocide committed against the Shiite Muslims in Zaria and Agatus in Benue, but for killing Boko Haram insurgents.

"On one occasion, a certain APC stalwart insinuated that Jonathan's visit to Chad was to plan further attacks on the North, tweeting that; 'Boko Haram: Jonathan visits Chadian President Idris Deby for the second time in two months, to plan further attacks?'

READ ALSO: MUST READ: Gani Adams advises Buhari on national problems (video)

"It is also on record that instead of lending his voice to the federal government efforts to dislodge Boko Haram insurgents, President Buhari opted to describe the clampdown on Boko Haram as injustice against the North. He went on to accuse the government of killing and destroying houses of Boko Haram insurgents while the Niger Delta militants were given special treatment by the government.

"Even when Oni was Ekiti State Governor as a PDP member, Action Congress (AC) as APC was then, wrote against his government move to obtain a N5 billion loan. Isn't it then funny that because he is now in APC, the same Oni is now against Governor Fayose doing the same thing done against him by the APC elements in Ekiti State?

"Isn't it also funny that in Oyegun, Oni, Sagay, others political dictionary of hypocrisy, it was right for APC stalwart to have reported the federal government to ICC but wrong for Fayose to have written to the Chinese government on the federal government's plan to mortgage the future of Nigeria and its people?"

The governor's spokesperson said since the federal government claimed it has recovered and still recovering trillions of Naira allegedly looted from the treasury, there was no need to borrow money from anywhere to finance the 2016 Budget.

READ ALSO: Fuel scarcity bites harder in Lagos, Ogun as queues return

With the $200 billion they claimed is coming from Dubai, $700 million raw cash they said was found in Diezani Alison Maduekes house, N3 trillion said to have been saved from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and N4.5 trillion the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it will generate this year, what then is the rationale behind the federal government seeking any loan?

Source: Legit.ng


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Union Investment has acquired a hotel in Chicago for its open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Europa. Union Investment entered the market in December 2015 by acquiring the Godfrey Hotel in Boston. This second investment underscores our reputation as a reliable and attractive partner to the hotel industry at international level.

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Simple Energy had launched their first electric scooter last year, called Simple One - Deliveries are yet to start
Have you had the experience of being just on the verge of saying something when the phone rang? Did you then forget what it is you were going to say? A study of the brain's electrical activity offers a new explanation of how that happens.

Published in Nature Communications, the study comes from the lab of neuroscientist Adam Aron at the University of California San Diego, together with collaborators at Oxford University in the UK, and was led by first author Jan Wessel, while a post-doctoral scholar in the Aron Lab. The researchers suggest that the same brain system that is involved in interrupting, or stopping, movement in our bodies also interrupts cognition -- which, in the example of the phone ringing, derails your train of thought.

The findings may give insights into Parkinson's disease, said Aron, a professor of psychology in the UC San Diego Division of Social Sciences, and Wessel, now an assistant professor of psychology and neurology at the University of Iowa. The disease can cause muscle tremors as well as slowed-down movement and facial expression. Parkinson's patients may also present as the "opposite of distractible," often with a thought stream so stable that it can seem hard to interrupt. The same brain system that is implicated in "over-stopping" motor activity in these patients, Aron said, might be also be keeping them over-focused.

The current study focuses particularly on one part of the brain's stopping system -- the subthalamic nucleus (STN). This is a small lens-shaped cluster of densely packed neurons in the midbrain and is part of the basal ganglia system.

Earlier research by Aron and colleagues had shown that the STN is engaged when action stopping is required. Specifically, it may be important, Aron said, for a "broad stop." A broad stop is the sort of whole-body jolt we experience when, for example, we're just about to exit an elevator and suddenly see that there's another person standing right there on the other side of the doors.

The study analyzes signals from the scalp in 20 healthy subjects as well as signals from electrode implants in the STN of seven people with Parkinson's disease. (The STN is the main target for therapeutic deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease.)

All the volunteers were given a working memory task. On each trial, they were asked to hold in mind a string of letters, and then tested for recall. Most of the time, while they were maintaining the letters in mind, and before the recall test, they were played a simple, single-frequency tone. On a minority of trials, this sound was replaced by a birdsong segment -- which is not startling like a "bang!" but is unexpected and surprising, like a cell phone chirping suddenly. The volunteers' brain activity was recorded, as well as their accuracy in recalling the letters they'd been shown.

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The results show, the researchers write, that unexpected events manifest the same brain signature as outright stopping of the body. They also recruit the STN. And the more the STN was engaged -- or the more that part of the brain responded to the unexpected sound -- the more it affected the subjects' working memory and the more they lost hold of what they were trying to keep in mind.

"For now," said Wessel, "we've shown that unexpected, or surprising, events recruit the same brain system we use to actively stop our actions, which, in turn, appears to influence the degree to which such surprising events affect our ongoing trains of thought."

A role for the STN in stopping the body and interrupting working memory does fit anatomical models of how the nucleus is situated within circuitry in the brain. Yet more research is needed, the researchers write, to determine if there's a causal link between the activity observed in the STN and the loss in working memory.

"An unexpected event appears to clear out what you were thinking," Aron said. "The radically new idea is that just as the brain's stopping mechanism is involved in stopping what we're doing with our bodies it might also be responsible for interrupting and flushing out our thoughts."

A possible future line of investigation, Aron said, is to see if the STN and associated circuitry plays a role in conditions characterized by distractibility, like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. "This is highly speculative," he said, "but it could be fruitful to explore if the STN is more readily triggered in ADHD."

Wessel added: "It might also be potentially interesting to see if this system could be engaged deliberately -- and actively used to interrupt intrusive thoughts or unwanted memories."

If further research bears out the connection suggested by the current study, between the STN and losing your train of thought following an unexpected event, the researchers say it might be that it is an adaptive feature of the brain, something we evolved long ago as a way to clear our cognition and re-focus on something new. Aron suggests this example: You're walking along one morning on the African Savannah, going to gather firewood. You're daydreaming about the meal you're going to prepare when you hear a rustle in the grass. You make a sudden stop -- and all thoughts of dinner are gone as you shift your focus to figure out what might be in the grass. In this case, it's a good thing to forget what you had been thinking about.
Scientists from Heidelberg University have developed a novel mathematical model to explore cellular processes: with the corresponding software, they now are able to simulate how large collections of cells behave on given geometrical structures. The software supports the evaluation of microscope-based observations of cell behaviour on micropatterned substrates. One example is a model for wound healing in which skin cells are required to fill a gap. Other areas of application lie in high throughput screening for medicine when a decision needs to be taken automatically on whether a certain active substance changes cell behaviour. Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schwarz and Dr. Philipp Albert work both at the Institute for Theoretical Physics and at the Bioquant Centre of Heidelberg University. Their findings were recently published in PLOS Computational Biology.

One of the most important foundations of the modern Life Sciences is being able to cultivate cells outside the body and to observe them with optical microscopes. In this way, cellular processes can be analysed in much more quantitative detail than in the body. However, at the same time a problem arises. "Anyone who has ever observed biological cells under a microscope knows how unpredictable their behaviour can be. When they are on a traditional culture dish they lack 'orientation', unlike in their natural environment in the body. That is why, regarding certain research issues, it is difficult to derive any regularities from their shape and movement," explains Prof. Schwarz. In order to learn more about the natural behaviour of cells, the researchers therefore resort to methods from materials science. The substrate for microscopic study is structured in such a way that it normalises cell behaviour. The Heidelberg physicists explain that with certain printing techniques, proteins are deposited on the substrate in geometrically well-defined areas. The cell behaviour can then be observed and evaluated with the usual microscopy techniques.

The group of Ulrich Schwarz aims at describing in mathematical terms the behaviour of biological cells on micropatterned substrates. Such models should make it possible to quantitatively predict cell behaviour for a wide range of experimental setups. For that purpose, Philipp Albert has developed a complicated computer programme which considers the essential properties of individual cells and their interaction. It can also predict how large collections of cells behave on the given geometric structures. He explains: "Surprising new patterns often emerge from the interplay of several cells, such as streams, swirls and bridges. As in physical systems, e.g. fluids, the whole is here more than the sum of its parts. Our software package can calculate such behaviour very rapidly." Dr Albert's computer simulations show, for example, how skin cell ensembles can overcome gaps in a wound model up to about 200 micrometres.

Another promising application of these advances is investigated by Dr. Holger Erfle and his research group at the BioQuant Centre, namely high throughput screening of cells. Robot-controlled equipment is used to carry out automatic pharmacological or genetic tests with many different active substances. They are, for example, designed to identify new medications against viruses or for cancer treatment. The new software now enables the scientists to predict what geometries are best suited for a certain cell type. The software can also show the significance of changes in cell behaviour observed under the microscope.

The research projects by Prof. Schwarz, Dr. Albert and Dr. Erfle received European Union funding from 2011 to 2015 via the program "Micropattern-Enhanced High Throughput RNA Interference for Cell Screening" (MEHTRICS). Besides the BioQuant Centre, this consortium included research groups from Dresden, France, Switzerland and Lithuania. The total support for the projects amounted to EUR 4.4 million euros.
A team of scientists has found that a species of ant that clusters together to form rafts to survive floods exhibits memory and repeatedly occupies the same position during raft formation, according to a just published paper.

The research shows that, like humans, ants work together to enhance their response to emergency situations with different members of the group carrying out different tasks.

By working together, social insects, such as ants, achieve tasks that are beyond the reach of single individuals. A striking example is "self-assembly," a process in which ants link their bodies to form structures such as chains, ladders, walls or rafts.

By studying self-assembly in ants, scientists are addressing broad biological and evolutionary questions such as why particular animals live in some environments but not others. Their findings set the stage for potential comparisons of ant "emergency responses" in different species from different environmental contexts.

There are also indirect applications. The fields of swarm robotics and nanorobotics use ants and other social insects as models when they design 'cooperative' robots that may ultimately be used in medicine, for such things as clearing blood clots, or for fabrication of materials.

The team of scientists, including Jessica Purcell, an assistant professor of entomology at The University of California, Riverside, focused on Formica selysi, an ant species found in floodplains in central and southern Europe.

In a lab, they subjected groups of Formica selysi workers to two consecutive floods and monitored the position of individuals in rafts. Workers showed specialization in their positions when rafting, with the same individuals consistently occupying the top, middle, base or side position in the raft.

In addition, they found the presence of brood, or immature members of the ant society, modified workers' position and raft shape. Surprisingly, they found workers' experience in the first rafting trial with brood influenced their behavior and raft shape in the subsequent trial without brood.

They believe this is the first time memory has been demonstrated in so-called self-assemblages.

"These elaborate rafts are some of the most visually stunning examples of cooperation in ants," Purcell said. "They are just plain cool. Although people have observed self-assemblages in the past, it's exciting to make new strides in understanding how individuals coordinate to build these structures."

The work was published online in an article titled "Ant workers exhibit specialization and memory during raft formation," in the journal The Science of Nature. Purcell conducted the work while working as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. The co-authors of the paper are Amaury Avril and Michel Chapuisat, both of whom are at the University of Lausanne.

The paper builds on a 2014 paper by the same group of scientists that found worker ants protected the most valuable nest mate, the queen, by placing her in the center of the raft. In contrast, worker ants placed the vulnerable brood at the base of the raft, taking advantage of their buoyancy to produce a sturdy raft and allowing groups to remain in a cohesive unit during floods. Workers and brood exhibited high survival rates after they rafted, which suggests that being immersed in water at the base of the raft is not as deadly as scientists expected.
All this rabbit ever needed was a little care and dedication. Instead, this rabbit's former owner almost let him die. But against all odds, he didn't.

NHC Rabbit Rescue of Wilmington

Rambo, an Angora rabbit, arrived at the New Hanover County Rabbit Rescue of Wilmington in North Carolina, where his owner dropped him off, in appalling condition. The Angora breed of rabbit in particular is known for its fast-growing, long silky fur, which means owning one is even more responsibility than the average rabbit. "[Rambo's] owner stated that they gave him up to me because it wasn't getting along with the other rabbit," Jennie Hoyt, president and founder of the rescue, told The Dodo. "Once I got the rabbit home, I could tell that there was more to the story."

Dodo Shows Foster Diaries Scared Pittie Gets So Happy When He Meets This Guy And His Pack Of Dogs

NHC Rabbit Rescue of Wilmington

As it turns out, Rambo was severely malnourished and had matted fur so severe he was unable to move or relieve himself, leading to a rectal prolapse. Furthermore, his fur had become tangled with urine and feces.

Rambo's shaved fur. | NHC Rabbit Rescue of Wilmington

"Normally, rabbits die before they are starved as he was - so it is truly a miracle he survived his ordeal," Hoyt wrote in a Facebook post, also stating that Rambo was "days from his death" by the time he reached the rescue. "The owner had used our [rescue's] veterinarian to get him neutered a few months prior to surrender," Hoyt said. "I spoke to the vet about it and we decided that the best approach was to use this as an educational story and not to go after [the owner] personally ... Angora [rabbits] are the most difficult breed to own and keep properly." Rambo was quickly given medical attention at the rescue. He was put on antibiotics, and gradually regained not only his weight, but his health. He was also shaved down. Sadly, since his fur was so matted, he experienced unavoidable cuts to his body during the process.

Rambo after a month at the rescue. | NHC Rabbit Rescue of Wilmington

In his shaved-down state, Rambo was given tiny sweaters to keep warm.

Rambo checking in on his friend Wooly. | NHC Rabbit Rescue of Wilmington

According to Hoyt, Rambo had bad litter box habits when he first arrived, but has since been rehabilitated to become a neater and cleaner pet. Today, Rambo is a completely different rabbit - he's much happier and now on the hunt for a forever home where he'll never be neglected again.

NHC Rabbit Rescue of Wilmington
In the age of touch-ups and Photoshop, it's easy to see a photo this perfect and be skeptical about whether it's even remotely real. But it's that organic connection between photographer Hunter Lawrence and his dog, Aspen, that makes his photos resonate with so many fans. The photos capture Aspen as he really is. "We're not doing something to make him smile," Lawrence, who runs an Instagram account with more than 160,000 fans, told The Dodo. "He's just genuinely happy."

Lawrence, better known as Aspen the Mountain Pup's human, spoke with The Dodo about trust, human-dog eye contact and what he thinks Aspen's thinking when modeling for one of the many stunning photos for which he's grown famous.

As perfect as Aspen's photos appear, Lawrence and his wife, Sarah, were uncertain whether they wanted to use Instagram to share photos of their dog, but when they saw how the photos turned out, they convinced themselves that the images were worth sharing.

Dodo Shows Cat Crazy Fluffy Cat Wants To Sit On His Dad At All Times

"We had taken beautiful photos of him in some wild places, and we thought, 'Hey, I think we got something here,'" Lawrence recalled. "Let's just share them with our friends and family to show where we're taking our dog.

In addition to the colorful Colorado landscape that frequently works as a backdrop, Lawrence's photos are known for featuring Aspen's incredible focus and eye contact, which is sometimes stoic and sometimes joyful, but, as Lawrence put it, always "organic."

"Aspen's as organic as it gets. Camera or no camera, it's the same dog," he explained, noting the difference between working with a dog and a human as a model. "There's always the risk as soon as you pull out a camera that people will get shy." But when it comes to being photographed, Aspen couldn't care less. "He's fully secure. There's just this connection between he and I."

That connection is in part due to their history together. Lawrence has cared for Aspen for four years since he was "a tiny, little ball of fur," he said. "He's always been the same cuddly pup over the last four years."

Even back then, Aspen sported his signature stare - straight into the camera - that Lawrence explained comes naturally to the dog. "His eyes are constantly on me and Sarah," he said. "Sometimes I won't even put the camera up to my eye. I'll just look right at him and hold the camera low. I can see it in my viewfinder. I don't even need to put it up to my eye and sever that connection."

About a year ago, Lawrence, Sarah and Aspen moved from their home state of Texas to live in Colorado, where they're better able to travel for work, as both Lawrence and his wife are professional photographers.

"We're always up in the mountains for those, or we're traveling by car up to places like Canada or Oregon," Lawrence said. "He'll come along for the ride."

"We don't even take him on a leash anymore," Lawrence said. "He'll just go run up a mountain or jump into a freezing cold river." He always comes right back, Lawrence added.

Lawrence attributes the trust he's built with Aspen to the years of spending time with each other and deciding to train him. "They're only as good as you're willing to put in effort and time," he said. It's the trust and understanding that allows Lawrence to take photographs of Aspen in situations where most dogs would be running around, overly stimulated by their surroundings.

"He's well-trained, so if I tell him to place, he's not going to leave until I tell him release," Lawrence said. "I can see it in his eyes; He's thinking, 'Come on dad, can we hurry this up? Can I get back to what i was doing? Can I get back to digging in the snow or can I get back to jumping in the water?'" Lawrence imagines. "But I don't think he minds too much."

Thanks to Lawrence, Aspen has seen more nature in a year than some house dogs get to see in a lifetime, but that's only part of the reason Aspen loves going on hikes and adventures with Lawrence and Sarah. The other reason has to do more with something that all dog owners can relate to, no matter where they are.
They were once among the fiercest weapons of the Cold War, capable of delivering nuclear warheads to any place on the planet. But for years the Pentagons stockpile of intercontinental ballistic missiles have been living out a peaceful retirement, holstered in underground, climate-controlled bunkers where they are periodically maintained and tested by the Air Force.

To at least one company, thats a waste of a perfectly good rocket.

Orbital ATK wants to unearth the dormant missiles and repurpose them to launch commercial satellites into orbit. Russia has released its Soviet-era ICBMs into the commercial market, the company argues, so the Pentagon should be allowed to sell its unused ICBMs as well.

But to do that, Congress would have to ease a 20-year-old restriction that prohibits the sale of the missile motors for commercial use. And that has touched off a rancorous battle that has extended from the Pentagon to Capitol Hill, where Congress is scheduled to hold a hearing on the issue Tuesday.

It has also consumed the growing commercial space industry, which fears that the governments release of the motors onto the market would undercut the industry just as it is getting momentum.

In its first launch to resupply the International Space Station since its rocket exploded last year, Elon Musks SpaceX landed its unmanned rocket on a floating 'drone barge' in the Atlantic Ocean. The landing, the first ever of a rockets first stage at sea, is seen as a breakthrough for commercial spaceflight. (Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post)

Fueled by billionaires and outside investors, commercial space has entered something of a renaissance, launching cargo and eventually astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA, developing space tourism businesses and competing for commercial satellite launches.

The industry is also reigniting interest in space, pulling off one feat after another. Elon Musks SpaceX landed a rocket on a ship at sea, Jeffrey P. Bezoss Blue Origin flew and landed the same rocket three times in a row, and Bigelow Aerospace delivered its expandable habitat to the space station. And that was all just in the past few weeks. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Now some fear that the government-subsidized ICBMs could upend the market.

We are gravely concerned that any change to this policy could have a dramatic impact on the innovation and investment in the commercial space industry, said Eric Stallmer, the president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. We dont want to stop that progress with unfair government competition.

A sale of the motors would change long-standing policy and effectively allow the taxpayer-subsidized government to compete with private industry.

There are a range of commercial firms that are spending literally billions of dollars of private capital to try to innovate our way forward, said Richard DalBello, the vice president of business development and government affairs for Virgin Galactic. This private capital entered the market understanding what the regulatory and policy environment was.

If Congress eased the long-standing restriction, it would essentially pull the rug out from under their feet, and it would cause a ripple effect that would make people think twice about investing in the future.

Orbital ATK, though, said it is perplexed by the backlash. The Dulles, Va.-based company said it has no plans to compete with U.S. firms such as Virgin Galactic, which plans to launch small satellites on its LauncherOne rocket. If granted the use of the Air Forces ICBMs, Orbital ATK would use them to propel much bigger rockets.

Its like I have a tractor-

trailer, and Im going to move your box of donuts, said Ed Fortunato, Orbital ATKs senior vice president of government relations. Its just a completely different market.

The Air Force has nearly 1,000 Minuteman and Peacekeeper missiles sitting in bunkers at places such as Hill Air Force Base in Utah and Camp Navajo in Arizona that will eventually have to be destroyed.

Its a lot more economical, and its a lot more prudent to use these for purposeful destruction like launch instead of going on and blowing them up, said Mark Pieczynski, Orbital ATKs vide president of business development.

If the Russians are effective in that class launch, and are using excess ICBMs to compete in the commercial market, why isnt this country doing the same thing? he said.

DalBello said that even if Orbital ATK wanted to launch larger satellites, theres nothing to prevent it from delivering the same kind of smaller satellites Virgin plans on launching.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how payloads are manifested on a launch vehicle, he said.

In an interview, Gen. John Hyten, the commander of the Air Force Space Command, said the Pentagon would like to get some utility out of [the missiles] because weve spent an enormous amount of taxpayer dollars building them.

But he said the Air Force is also counting on industry to continue to innovate and bring down the cost of launching payloads to orbit.

Industry is going to be the engine that drives our access to space in the future, he said. So we cant do anything that destroys the commercial launch business.

He added that he thinks there is a sweet spot that would allow the release of the missiles without hurting the industry.

We dont have to give the ICBMs away, he said. Theres a value on them.
A video display in Toyko shows losses on Japans Nikkei stock average as part of a global market downturn amid falling oil prices. (Koji Sasahara/AP)

Oil prices dropped sharply but Western financial markets held their ground Monday after a gathering of top producers in Qatar failed to reach an agreement on limiting output.

The failure Sunday to rally behind a Saudi-led plan to trim exports displayed critical divides among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after Iran boycotted the meetings, effectively dooming any potential deal.

Oil futures fell as much as 6.8 percent in New York, the biggest single-day drop since Feb. 1, before rebounding, leaving some prices near or below $40 a barrel, Bloomberg News reported.

[OPEC rifts sink Qatar meeting ]

It initially dragged down stocks, which have been buoyed in recent trading by gains in oil prices. Asian markets were broadly lower, led by a 3.4 percent drop in Japans Nikkei 225 stock average.

But European exchanges clawed back. The main markets in France and Germany were up a fraction and Britains FTSE 100 was flat.

Wall Street also moved slightly higher in early trading.

The meeting in Qatars capital, Doha, by 16 major oil producers sought to stabilize prices amid slowing global demand and a glut in crude supply. In February, a four-nation group, which included Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Venezuela and Russia, proposed freezing output to increase prices.

But the plan hinged on backing from other major producers. The decision by Saudi rival Iran to stay away from the Doha talks dealt an insurmountable blow.

Iranian officials had already dismissed the production freeze, saying it amounted to self-imposed harm to the countrys economy as it seeks to regain its share of global oil markets. International sanctions on Iran were lifted in January as part of its deal with world powers to curb Tehrans nuclear program.

The next OPEC meeting is scheduled for June 2.
Sherman Alexie, one of the most beloved authors of young-adult fiction, is about to publish his first picture book. Thunder Boy Jr. is full of spirited fun, but it also has been designed to help correct an ongoing problem: the lack of brown-skinned kids in literature.

Illustrated by Mexican American artist Yuyi Morales, Thunder Boy Jr. has had a long gestation period: I signed the deal for it 10 years ago, Alexie says by phone. I thought this would be easy, but it wasnt at all. I tried 30 or 40 different ideas.

[Jane Smiley explains her first picture book, Twenty Yawns]

What he eventually hit on is a delightful story about a Native American boy trying to carve out his own identity. I am named after my dad, the energetic narrator says. He is Thunder Boy Smith Sr., and I am Thunder Boy Smith Jr. And thats the problem: Little Thunder loves his father, but, he says, I want my own name. I want a name that sounds like me. I want a name that celebrates something cool that Ive done.

Call it the anxiety of influence for the kindergarten set.

Author Sherman Alexie (Rob Casey)

Alexie, who is a junior himself, traces the idea of this book to his fathers funeral in 2003. As they lowered the coffin into the ground, there was his tombstone with my name on it, he says.

My father had wonderful qualities and some really terrible qualities. He was a loving, gentle man  and a lifelong alcoholic who would leave us for days, sometimes weeks at a time to go drinking. He was a man of contradictions.

Nothing in the ebullient Thunder Boy Jr. hints at such despair, but the book definitely captures a childs desire to establish his own special quality.

When you talk about the Native American search for identity, Alexie says, its almost always a story of loss and pain. I wanted to write a picture book in which a kid goes on a search for identity in the context of a loving family.

The need for such a book cant be exaggerated. A report compiled by the Cooperative Childrens Book Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison indicates that only 14 percent of the childrens books released by U.S. publishers last year were about people of color.

One of Alexies inspirations was The Snowy Day, a picture book by Ezra Jack Keats that broke new ground in 1962 by focusing on an African American child. I so strongly identified with that, Alexie says. I wanted to replicate that experience, because in literature in general, there arent many Native American children.

Alexie won a National Book Award in 2007 for his first young-adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The autobiographical story about a boy on the Spokane Indian Reservation has sold more than 1 million copies and is read in schools nationwide. For its references to drugs, gambling and sex, it also shows up frequently on the list of most-banned books, but, fortunately, Alexie Jr. keeps thundering on.

Ron Charles Jr. is the editor of Book World. You can follow him on Twitter @RonCharles.

On May 19 at 6:30 p.m., Sherman Alexie will be at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G St. NW, Washington.

Read more: Kwame Alexanders new novel finds poetry on the field
Reporters from The Washington Post received Pulitzer Prizes in both the national reporting category, for their database profiling the 990 fatal police shootings in 2015, and in general nonfiction, for Joby Warricks "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS. (Erin Patrick O'Connor/The Washington Post)

Reporters from The Washington Post received Pulitzer Prizes in both the national reporting category, for their database profiling the 990 fatal police shootings in 2015, and in general nonfiction, for Joby Warricks "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS. (Erin Patrick O'Connor/The Washington Post)

After covering several high-profile incidents involving the killings of civilians by police officers in 2014, Washington Post staff writer Wesley Lowery was surprised to discover that there were no official statistics about such fatalities. So Lowery pitched an idea to his editors: The newspaper, he suggested, should collect the information itself and analyze it for patterns in law enforcement.

The Post soon marshaled an extraordinary team of reporters, editors, researchers, photographers and graphic artists to do just that. The result was a database containing the details of 990 fatal police shootings across the nation in 2015 and a series of articles describing trends in the data.

On Monday, The Posts series was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the national reporting category. The prizes, in their 100th year, are newspaper journalisms highest honor.

The Pulitzer board also recognized Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, a book by Post reporter Joby Warrick, in the general nonfiction category. The award was Warricks second Pulitzer; he previously won in 1996 for a series of articles about the environmental costs of North Carolinas hog-farming industry, written with two colleagues at the News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh.

Spurred by Lowerys proposal, the police-shootings project grew into one of the largest in the newsrooms history, said Cameron Barr, The Posts managing editor for news. It eventually involved some 70 journalists from the papers national, investigative, metro, video, photo and graphics departments.

1 of 34 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  A look at who won 2016 Pulitzer Prizes View Photos Winners of the prestigious award were announced on Monday. Caption Winners of the prestigious awards were announced on Monday. National Reporting Washington Post staff researcher Julie Tate, left, and reporters Wesley Lowery and Kimberly Kindy celebrate winning the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting at The Posts headquarters in Washington on April 18. Bonnie Jo Mount/Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

The police-shootings database  painstakingly assembled by researchers Julie Tate and Jennifer Jenkins from official and unofficial sources  included more than a dozen details about each incident, including the age and race of the person killed, whether and how the person was armed, and the circumstances that led to the encounter with police. It soon yielded new insights into the use of deadly force by the nations police officers.

The data showed, for example, that about one-quarter of those fatally shot had a history of mental illness; that most of those killed were white men (although unarmed African Americans were at vastly higher risk of being shot after routine traffic stops than any other group); and that 55 officers involved in fatal shootings in 2015 had previously been involved in a deadly incident while on duty.

Another important finding: The vast majority (74 percent) of people shot and killed by police were armed with guns or were killed after attacking police officers or civilians or making direct threats. This finding countered the impression left by several high-profile fatalities that police routinely use excessive force. Staff writer Kimberly Kindy reported many of the major pieces.

The Post has continued to update its database during 2016 and is reporting on other patterns.

Because police are not required to report shootings of civilians, some basic facts were missing from the national conversation about the topic, said Martin Baron, The Posts executive editor. He said the newspapers journalists sought to fill in the enormous information gap with the database and on-the-ground reporting. The Post delivered on a core journalistic mission  telling the public what it needs to know, Baron said.

The newspapers reporting has helped spur federal efforts to collect similar information from the nations 18,000 police departments and has been used by police chiefs in their efforts to overhaul their use-of-force policies.

The series was the ninth Pulitzer-winning project in which Tate, an ace researcher, played a role. It also was the ninth in which investigations editor Jeff Leen was involved.

1 of 16 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  The Reuters photo staff won a Pulitzer with these piercing photos View Photos Reuters shares their Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography with the New York Times for their photos of refugees and migrants. Caption Reuters shares their Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography with the New York Times. Sept. 24, 2015 A Syrian refugee holds onto his children as he struggles to walk off a dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey. Yannis Behrakis/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

Black Flags, Warricks study of the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006, grew out of Warricks coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings for The Post in 2011. Although some analysts viewed the uprisings as hopeful, Warrick said it reminded him of the fall of the Berlin Wall and communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which he covered as a young reporter for United Press International.

In both cases, there was a euphoria . . . but you could see the downsides, especially in the case of the Arab Spring, as terrorist groups rose to fill the deepening power vacuum.

Warrick began researching his book in early 2013 as the Islamic State began to claim territory in Syria and Iraq. He saw Zarqawis story as a vehicle to explain the unfolding chaos and the regions recent history.

The book received glowing praise upon its publication in September, and it is being considered for a film adaptation, Warrick said.

The Posts Eli Saslow was a finalist in this years Pulitzer competition in the feature-writing category for three stories: a profile of a young woman wounded in a mass shooting in Oregon, an article about a teenage single father and a piece about a family living in rural Nebraska a decade after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Saslow, whose story on Oregon shooting victim Cheyeanne Fitzgerald won the Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma earlier this month, won a Pulitzer for explanatory reporting in 2014 for a series on the federal food-stamp program.

Among other winners:

The Associated Press won the gold medal for public service for its investigation of abuses of workers who supply seafood to American supermarkets and restaurants, including the use of slaves.

The Los Angeles Times, in the breaking-news category, won for its coverage of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif.

The Tampa Bay Times won two awards, one for local reporting that exposed a school boards culpability in turning some county schools into failure factories and the other for investigative reporting in a joint project on mental hospitals with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Alissa J. Rubin of the New York Times was awarded the international reporting prize for thoroughly reported and movingly written accounts giving voice to Afghan women who were forced to endure unspeakable cruelties. New York Times photographers also shared a Pulitzer with the staff of Thomson Reuters for photos of migrant refugees.

The Boston Globe won two awards: Jessica Rinaldi in the feature photography category for a raw and revealing photographic story of a boy who strives to find his footing after abuse by those he trusted, and Farah Stockman for commentary.

Two nonprofit digital news organizations, ProPublica and the Marshall Project, teamed up to win in the explanatory-reporting category with exposes about law enforcements enduring failures to investigate reports of rape properly and to comprehend the traumatic effects on its victims.

The New Yorker magazine was also a double winner, under new rules that allow magazines to enter. Emily Nussbaum won for criticism and Kathryn Schulz for feature writing.


New York State Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. outside his Bronx district office. I like Donald Trump. Hes like me, the conservative Democrat says, but hes also been talking to Ted Cruz. (Ben Terris/The Washington Post)

 On the Thursday before the presidential primary, Democratic state Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. strode through his South Bronx district in his signature cowboy hat greeting fans and constituents  a group of Spanish-speaking men who stopped their conversation to shake his hand, a family waving from across the street and an older woman in a shawl and puffy jacket who stopped to ask the important question.

 Por quien debe votar?

Diaz clasped her by the shoulder and leaned in close so only she could hear.

I told her to vote for Hillary, he said a minute later with a grin and a wink. But only in the primary.

And in November? Who knows. I do like Donald Trump, he said later. Hes like me, making enemies everywhere he goes. Diaz has earned his enemies over 14 years in the state Senate, vehemently opposing gay marriage and abortion, and reveling in his notoriety among his peers. In these ways hes got a lot in common with Ted Cruz, another candidate he just might support in the general, and for whom Diaz recently organized a meeting of local ministers in the Bronx.

As expected, that meeting didnt go over well with fellow Democrats.

Its offensive to have invited Cruz to come ask for money and votes after hes been so insulting to us, said the Bronx borough president, who also happens to be Diazs son, Ruben Diaz Jr. But you know how it is. We all have parents, and unfortunately parents dont always listen or always get it right.

The day of the Cruz visit ended up being a big one for the Diaz family. That morning, Ruben Jr. had chaperoned Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton on a much-watched ride on the New York City subway. He was the trim guy with the shaved head and natural smile. Since then, the younger Diaz has made the rounds on cable, speaking on behalf of Clinton and bolstering his reputation as a young Democrat with a bright future.

[Hillary Clinton brings traveling press circus on a wild subway ride through the Bronx]

This kind of attention ahead of a primary isnt normal for the Bronx. But Republicans have stormed Democratic strongholds searching for critical votes, and Clinton finds herself in a fight with Bernie Sanders that has lingered longer than anyone expected. It has put the Diazes in a special place of prominence as community leaders. It also has pitted them against each other, at least publicly.



Hillary Clinton rides the subway with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. on April 7. He has a big political future, said his father, Ruben Sr. (Richard Drew/Associated Press)

I know my positions hurt him, said Ruben Sr., who was invited to last weeks black-tie gala for New York Republicans featuring Trump, Cruz and John Kasich. In his political future it hurts him. I worry that my son will have to pay for the sin of his father. I will not change my belief, but it hurts like crazy.

Im glad that he acknowledges that his actions can be hurtful to the body of work that we have been putting together over the last 20 years, said Ruben Jr., while out campaigning with Bill Clinton. No one is asking him to go back on his beliefs, but those beliefs that he has, like a womans right to choose, they have been settled already.

For Ruben Sr., a minister by day, butting heads with colleagues and family is a regular occurrence.

In 2011, the elder Diaz held a rally to oppose gay marriage  and his 22-year-old granddaughter Erica Diaz, herself openly gay, held a counter-rally across the street in support of gay marriage.

In front of a divided crowd, Ruben Sr. hugged his granddaughter, kissed her on the forehead and announced that despite not agreeing with her lifestyle that he loved her.

Erica wasnt having it, telling the New York Post at the time, Love is empty when you say someones life isnt natural.



Ruben Diaz Sr., center, with Cruz in the Bronx on April 6. Ruben Jr. says his political differences with his father are troubling but will never take away from the personal relationship. (Bryan Thomas/Getty Images)

Diaz says that opposing gay marriage doesnt mean he rejects gay people.

I have a homosexual in my staff, I have a homosexual in my family, I have a lesbian in my family, my lawyer is gay with a husband, he said. So what does that say about me?

[Republicans go hunting for votes in the most Democratic place in America]

And then theres abortion. Donald Trumps recent vacillating about whether women should be punished for terminating a pregnancy made Ruben Sr. livid, but not for the reason one might expect of a Democrat.

It bothered me that he took it back, he said. You cannot have your cake and eat it, too. Either you say its a murder or its not a murder. Once you say its a murder, people have to be punished.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stirred up controversy when he said there should be "some sort of punishment" for women who have abortions. Here's a look back at how he "evolved" into his pro-life views. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

For the younger Diaz, who says he may want to run for citywide office someday, it doesnt help his political ambitions to have somebody with the same name saying such things.

We understand they are different people, but I think Reverend Diaz is right on the money when he says it could hurt his son, said state Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D), who considers himself a big fan of the younger Diaz and cannot wait for the elder to retire.

Ruben Jr. says he cant ask his dad to change his opinions, but that doesnt mean he cant ask him to keep it down every once in a while.

Every day he says, Dad, keep your mouth shut,  his father said.

And yet, the Diazes remain close. I absolutely love and respect my father, said Ruben Jr. The fact that we share differences on political philosophies and who we are supporting will never, ever take away from the personal relationship.

Last week Ruben Sr. texted his son each time he saw him on television to tell him how great he had done.

He has a big political future, he said.

After a tour of the neighborhood, Ruben Sr. headed back to his Senate office, emblazoned with a giant picture of himself on the awning. Nearby, two sets of buildings bore his name  projects he helped bring to the district. I dont just talk, Ive worked, he said. Look at how much has changed here.

He took a seat behind his desk and scrolled through his text messages.

I got invited to go to the Republican gala, he said. But I dont think Im going to, because of my son. I dont want to hurt him.

Reached for comment later, his son laughed: Maybe there is hope for the old man yet, he said.
MARYLAND

Ruppersberger backs Van Hollen for Senate

Rep. Chris Van Hollen has received the first endorsement from a fellow member of the states congressional delegation in Marylands competitive Democratic Senate primary.

Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, who comes from Baltimore County, is backing Van Hollen over fellow Rep. Donna F. Edwards.

Van Hollen and Ruppersberger came into Congress together in 2003. Ruppersberger had considered running for Senate when Barbara A. Mikulski announced her retirement but decided to stay in the House.

Only a few members of Congress have endorsed either Van Hollen or Edwards. Mikulski (D-Md.) told the Baltimore Sun recently that she intends to remain studiously neutral on her replacement through the April 26 primary.

Polls suggest the race is extremely close. The Baltimore area, where neither candidate is well known, will likely be decisive in the race.

 Rachel Weiner

Cummings endorses Jawando in District 8

Maryland District 8 Democratic congressional candidate Will Jawando has landed the endorsement of Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), whose robo-call will be going to more than 40,000 households later this week.

Cummings says that Jawando, a former Hill staffer, is the best candidate to get things done in Congress. He credits Jawando for helping to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Act for equal pay while he was an Obama White House aide.

Cummings is starting to crank out the endorsements as the April 26 primary draws near. In recent days, he has come out for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Baltimore mayoral hopeful state Sen. Catherine E. Pugh.

 Bill Turque

VIRGINIA

Houses in Arlington may get tax-rate cut

Arlington County homeowners probably will get a cut on the tax rate in their property bills this year but still may pay more because the value of their homes has increased.

The County Board is expected to cut the tax rate by a half-cent when it votes on the budget Tuesday night. The rate cut comes as the value of homes jumped 2.8 percent.

A new 97.8-cent tax rate on $100 of assessed value, and an additional 1.3 cents for stormwater management, would mean that the owner of an average Arlington home, now worth $603,500, would have a tax bill of $5,981, up $133 from last year, a report from the budget staff to the County Board said.
BLOOD DONATIONS

BLOOD DRIVES Wednesday 1:30-7 p.m., Foxcroft School, 22407 Foxhound Lane, Middleburg, 800-733-2767; Friday 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospial Dr., Warrenton, 540-316-3588; Saturday 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd., Ashburn, 800-733-2767; April 26, 3-7 p.m., Rust Library, 380 Old Waterford Rd., Leesburg, 866-256-6372.

INOVA BLOOD DONOR CENTER Mondays noon-8 p.m., Tuesdays 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Fridays 6 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sundays noon-4 p.m. Dulles Town Center, 45745 Nokes Blvd., Sterling. 866-256-6372 or inova.org/donateblood.

FIRST AID

FIRST AID/ADULT, INFANT AND CHILD CPR/AED Fauquier Hospital Medical Office Building, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. Call for schedule. 540-316-3588. Registration required.

HEARING

DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTER Technical assistance through the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and presentations to businesses, civic groups and schools. Third Tuesdays 2-5 p.m., Workplace, 205 Keith St., Warrenton. Call for an appointment, 800-648-6324; TDD, 540-373-5890. Free.

FREE HEARING TESTS Age 18 and older. Mondays-Thursdays 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center, 19465 Deerfield Ave., Suite 201, Lansdowne. 703-858-7620. Registration required.

HEARING LOSS, TINNITUS AND MENIERES SYNDROME SUPPORT For all ages, including parents of children with hearing loss. First Fridays 2 p.m., Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 703-430-2906.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING Age 18 and older, second Tuesdays 10 a.m., Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 571-258-3400.

HEARING LOSS OUTREACH Free referrals. Fourth Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Loudoun County Workforce Center, 102 Heritage Way, Leesburg; third Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. Free appointments: 703-430-2906 or nvrcloudoun@aol.com.

MENTAL HEALTH

COUNSELING FOR SEXUAL VIOLENCE SURVIVORS Provided by Loudoun Citizens for Social Justice. 703-771-9020.

CRISISLINK Suicide and crisis intervention. The organization provides community education, has a volunteer crisis response team and offers CareRing, a daily telephone outreach program for the elderly and disabled. 703-527-6016, volunteer@crisislink.org or crisislink.org.

PIEDMONT CHAPTER, NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS Serves Fauquier, Orange, Madison and Rappahannock counties. Support group, education classes and events for people living with mental illness, plus their family members. First Wednesdays 7-9 p.m. Fauquier Hospital, 500 Hospital Dr., Sycamore Room A, Warrenton. 571-426-8213.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA CHAPTER, NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS A support group, classes and programs for people living with mental illness and their family members. naminorthernvirginia.org.

PREGNANCY, PARENTING

ADOPTIVE FAMILY PRESERVATION Adoptive families discuss common experiences; registration required. Third Tuesdays 12:30-2 p.m. Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd. Call 703-941-9008, Ext. 23, or email jmellerio@umfs.org.

BABY CARE ESSENTIALS Thursday 6-8:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Family Birthing Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588. $25. Registration required.

BIRTHRIGHT OF LOUDOUN COUNTY Free pregnancy tests, baby clothing, transportation and support throughout pregnancy, 823 S. King St., Leesburg. 703-777-7272.

BOND BETWEEN US Nonprofit group offers support to birth parents when children have been placed for adoption. Fourth Tuesdays 7:30 p.m. Call for location. 703-771-7844.

BREAST-FEEDING SUPPORT Mondays 9:30-10:30 a.m., Fauquier Hospital Family Birthing Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588.

DAD SUPPORT New and expectant fathers share ideas. First Tuesdays 7 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg. 703-858-6360.

FOR THE CHILDRENS SAKE A group for separating or divorcing parents to share advice. Four-hour session weekly. Information : 703-391-8599 or fitsfoundation.org.

LA LECHE LEAGUE Mother-to-mother support and breast-feeding information. 10 a.m. second Wednesdays in Warrenton, 540-351-6103. Third Fridays 10:15-11:45 a.m., call for location, 703-444-7386. Second Fridays 10:15 a.m., Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd., 703-431-3852; Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Panera Bread, 43670 Greenway Corp. Dr., Ashburn, email lllashburn@gmail.com. Third Fridays 10:15 a.m., Christ the Redeemer Church, 46833 Harry F. Byrd. Hwy., Sterling, 540-338-4637.

LOUDOUN FATHERHOOD PROGRAM Fathers discuss the joys and challenges of being a parent. Meets every other Saturday for two hours for four months; sponsored by Northern Virginia Family Service. 571-748-2796. Free.

LOUDOUN NURTURING PARENTING PROGRAM Positive parenting techniques; children attend with parents. Registration required. Call 703-771-3973, Ext. 27, or email nurturingprogram@lcsj.org . Free.

MOTHERNET/HEALTHY FAMILIES LOUDOUN Program links first-time parents with medical, social and educational resources to give children a socially and physically healthy start in life. Family support workers meet with participants in homes. English-Spanish translation provided. 703-444-4477, Ext. 217, or inmed.org .

NEW MOTHERS SUPPORT Wednesdays 9:30-11:30 a.m. Inova Loudoun Medical Pavilion, 224 Cornwall St., Leesburg, main entrance. Babies welcome. 703-858-6360.

YOUNG PARENT SERVICES Support for teenage parents. Loudoun County Department of Family Social Services, 52 Sycolin Rd., Leesburg. Call for times. 703-771-5375.

ONLINE CHILDBIRTH EDUCATION PROGRAM Inova Loudoun Hospitals Web-based program uses animation, videos and interactive activities to guide users through the basics of childbirth, breast-feeding and caring for newborns. 703-858-6360. thebirthinginn.org/classes.

PARENTING ALONE GROUP For parents of school-age children who have lost a spouse or partner to cancer. Second Tuesdays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-698-2536 or email jennifer.eckert@inova.org .

PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH SUPPORT Childbirth Solutions Resource Center, 8393 W. Main St., Marshall. 571-344-0438.

SENIORS

EXERCISE EQUIPMENT Weights, treadmills, bikes and a cardio-glide. Instruction provided. Age 55 and older. Weekdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

FITNESS FOR PEOPLE 55 AND OLDER Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 1-1:45 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 571-258-3400. $36, 12-visit card.

EYE CARE LensCrafters staff members will clean glasses and make minor repairs. Second Wednesdays 1-2 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 703-430-2397. Free.

INOVA LOUDOUN MOBILE VAN Blood pressure checks. Second and fourth Tuesdays 9:30 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling, 571-258-3280; first Wednesdays 9:30 a.m.-noon, Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039.

LAUGHING YOGA FOR SENIORS I mprove flexibility and balance. Thursdays 9:30-10 :30 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

LOUDOUN ADULT DAY CENTERS For seniors with physical limitations or memory loss, a safe and social environment, therapeutic activities, individualized care and respite for caregivers. Limited transportation. Sliding-scale fees. Weekdays in Leesburg, 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., 703-771-5334; Purcellville, 571-258-3402; and Ashburn-Sterling, 571-258-3232.

MEDICARE INFORMATIONAL SEMINAR Saturday 10-11:30 a.m. Loudoun County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services, 20145 Ashbrook Pl., Suite 170, Ashburn. Sponsored by the Loudoun County Area Agency on Aging. 571-258-3414 or email aaamedicare@loudoun.gov. Free; registration required.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging case manager. Call for an appointment or sign up at the Senior Center at Cascades. First and third Wednesdays 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 571-258-3280.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging Elder case manager. Sign up in the Leesburg Senior Center lobby. Second and fourth Thursdays 11 a.m.-noon and 12:30-4:30 p.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging Elder case manager. Call for an appointment or sign up at the Carver Center. First and third Mondays, 12:30-5 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 703-737-8741. Free.

ZUMBA GOLD CLASS: For people 55 and older who are learning Zumba for the first time, or those who prefer a lower-impact version. The fitness program combines Latin and international music with dance.Thursdays 11 a.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 571-258-3280. $12.

TAI CHI Stretching and strengthening movements. Mondays 11 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

ZUMBA GOLD CLASS Age 55 and older. Wear rubber-soled shoes and comfortable clothing; bring water and a towel. Tuesdays 11 a.m., Tuesdays and Fridays at 1 p.m. Senior Center of Leesburg, 102 North St. NW, Leesburg. 703-737-8039. $24 per month.

SUPPORT GROUPS

AL-ANON SERVICE CENTER OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA A volunteer is available 24 hours with information for spouses, family members and friends of problem drinkers. 703-534-4357 or 877-339-8350. Mondays 8 p.m. Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 125 W. Washington St., Middleburg, 540-554-2747; Tuesdays 7:30 p.m. St. James Episcopal Church, 14 Cornwall St. NW, Leesburg, 877-339-8350; Fridays 8:30 p.m. Grace Episcopal Church, 6507 Main St., The Plains, 800-344-2666; Tuesdays 12:15 p.m. Warrenton Church of Christ, Route 29 N., 540-347-7448; Tuesdays 7 p.m. and Saturdays 8:30 p.m. Warrenton Presbyterian Church, 91 Main St., 800-344-2666.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Various meeting times and locations in Loudoun County. 800-208-8649 or 703-876-6166. nvintergroup.org.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVER SUPPORT For those who care for people with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. Fourth Wednesdays 4-5:30 p.m. The Villa at Suffield Meadows, 6735 Suffield Lane, Warrenton. 540-316-3800.

ALZHEIMERS SUPPORT First Tuesdays 10-11 a.m. Spring Arbor Assisted Living, 237 Fairview St. NW, Leesburg. 540-338-6520.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVERS SUPPORT For those caring for people with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. Second Mondays 7-8:30 p.m. Galilee United Methodist Church, 45425 Winding Rd., Sterling. 703-430-9229. galileeumc.org.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVER SUPPORT Emotional, educational and social support for family members and friends of people with the disease. Third Saturdays 10 a.m. Loudoun County Area Agency on Aging, 20145 Ashbrook Pl., Ashburn. Call 703-771-5407 or email lesley.katz@loudoun.gov.

ALZHEIMERS SUPPORT First Wednesdays 4 p.m. Leesburg Adult Day Center, 16501 Meadowview Ct., Leesburg. 703-771-5334.

TALK ABOUT CURING AUTISM A nonprofit organization educating and supporting families affected by autism. tacanow.org.

AUTOIMMUNE SUPPORT Last Thursdays 6:30-7:30 p.m. Jackson Building, 209 Gibson St., Leesburg. Email autoimmunesupport@hotmail.com .

BEREAVED PARENT SUPPORT One-on-one counseling is available. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. scsm.tv.

BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT For those experiencing loss because of the death of a loved one. Age 18 and older. Third Mondays 1 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. Sponsored by Capital Caring. 703-957-1800.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT Fourth Tuesdays 7-8 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Tower, Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-349-0588.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT For those with new diagnoses or starting treatment. Register if attending for the first time. Fourth Mondays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8857.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT For those who have finished treatment, have had a recurrence or metastatic breast cancer. Register if attending for the first time. Fourth Mondays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8857. Free.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT ASSISTANCE FUND Loudoun County residents who have received a diagnosis or have undergone treatment in the past 12 months are eligible to apply for financial assistance. Areas included are wigs, bras, puffs and prostheses, mammograms and medical bills, food and help with utilities, rent or mortgage, and transportation costs. The Pink Assistance Fund has been established by the Loudoun Breast Health Network. lbhn.org.

CANCER SUPPORT Oncology nurses, social workers and spiritual care providers offer education and support to patients, families and caregivers. Second Mondays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-2273.

CANCER SUPPORT Life with Cancer, for patients, family members and friends. Second Thursdays 7 p.m. Ashburn Presbyterian Church, Room 202, 20962 Ashburn Rd. 703-729-2012. ashburnpresbyterian.org.

CAREGIVER SUPPORT GROUP Third Saturdays 10 a.m. Loudoun County Area Agency on Aging, 20145 Ashbrook Pl., Ashburn. 703-771-5407. alz.org/nca.

CAREGIVER SUPPORT AND RESOURCE GROUP Wednesdays 10:30 a.m.-noon (no meeting first Wednesdays), Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. scsm.tv.

CARING FOR AGING PARENTS Support group. Confidential. Fourth Wednesdays 7:30 p.m., Family Focus Counseling Service, 20-B John Marshall St., Warrenton. 540-349-4537.

CHADD PARENTS SUPPORT For parents of children with ADD/ADHD. Fourth Sundays 3 p.m. KinderCare, 44051 Ashburn Village Shopping Plaza. chadd.nova loudoun@gmail. com .

CHRONIC ILLNESS SUPPORT Tuesdays 10:30-11:30 a.m. Spiritual Care Support Ministries, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814 or scsm.tv.

COFFEE AND CONVERSATION: Support for those discouraged because of illness, bereavement, caregiving or a loved one in the military. Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814.

COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS For parents who have experienced the death of a child. First Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. St. James Episcopal Church, 14 Cornwall St. NW, Leesburg. 540-882-9707.

CREATING AND CONNECTING Two-hour art therapy and relaxation workshop for cancer patients. Every other month, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Call for dates. 703-858-8850.

DEPRESSION BIPOLAR SUPPORT ALLIANCE OF WESTERN LOUDOUN Saturdays 3 p.m. Purcellville Library, 220 E. Main St., Carruthers Room. Call 703-431-7160 or email kathy@dbsanca.org.

DROP-IN GRIEF SUPPORT For those coping with a death. Second and fourth Wednesdays 1-2 p.m. St. Davids Episcopal Church, 43600 Russell Branch Pkwy., Ashburn. Sponsored by Capital Caring. 703-597-1781.

SUPPORT FOR FAMILIES OVERCOMING DRUG ADDICTION April 21 at 6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-9221 or email cbfolker@yahoo.com.

GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER YOUTH AND PARENT SUPPORT A group in partnership with Metro DC PFLAG. Fourth Sundays 4-6 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Church, 22135 Davis Dr., Sterling. 703-328-6518.

GRIEFSHARE Open to anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one. Tue sdays from 7-8:30 p.m. Purcellville Baptist Church, 601 Yaxley Dr., Purcellville. Call 540-338-0918 or email caring@purbap.org. Workbook, $15.

GRIEFSHARE Nondenominational seminar and support group. Tuesdays 7:30-9 p.m., and Wednesdays, 1-2:30 p.m. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. Free.

GRIEF SUPPORT Sponsored by Hospice Support of Fauquier County. Individual counseling available. First and third Thursdays 3:30-5 p.m. Hospice Support Office, 42 N. Fifth St., Warrenton. Registration required. Call 540-347-5922 or email hospicesupport@verizon.net.

GRIEF SUPPORT Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814.

HOSPICE SUPPORT Free medical-equipment loan facility for Fauquier County residents. Especially needed are donations of wheelchairs, bedside commodes, rolling walkers, electric hospital beds, shower benches and chairs, adult diapers, lift chairs, Ensure and hospital bed mattresses. 540-347-5922.

LOOK GOOD, FEEL BETTER For women undergoing or emerging from cancer treatment. Every other month, 6:45 to 9 p.m. ,Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Call for dates. 703-776-2820. Free.

LOUDOUN CHADD SUPPORT Led by Children and Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Third Thursdays 7 p.m. Leesburg Town Hall, lower-level conference room, 25 W. Market St. 703-669-2445.

LOUDOUN INTERGROUP OF OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS Fellowship and support. For locations and times, call 571-420-2012. oa.org.

LYME DISEASE SUPPORT Fourth Sundays 2-4 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Conference Room A and B, Leesburg. Go to natcaplyme.org or email loudounlymeadvocates@gmail.com.

LYME DISEASE SUPPORT Third Thursdays 7 p.m. Warrenton Church of Christ, 6398 Lee Hwy. Access Road, Warrenton. 540-347-7265 or email lymeinfauquier@gmail.com. Free.

MADD LOUDOUN VICTIM SUPPORT For those who have been affected by drunken driving. Third Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. 210 Wirt St., Leesburg. 540-338-6491.

MAN-TO-MAN CANCER SUPPORT Sponsored by Loudoun Cancer Care Center, for prostate cancer patients and their families. Second Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. Call 703-858-8857 or email karen.archer@inova.org.

MENOPAUSE SUPPORT Third Thursdays 6:30-9 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg (second floor, Patient Education Room). 703-858-8060.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SUPPORT Saturdays 10:30 a.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-349-2826.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SUPPORT Last Sundays 2-4 p.m. Cascades Library, 21030 Whitfield Pl., Potomac Falls. 703-771-4256.

NAR-ANON FAMILY SUPPORT For those affected by loved ones with addiction. Meaningful Mondays, 7-8 p.m., Galilee United Methodist Church, 45425 Winding Rd., Sterling. 703-203-9792; Wisdom Wednesdays 7-8 p.m., St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, 37730 St. Francis Ct., Purcellville, 703-606-7125; Serenity Thursdays, 7-8 p.m. Leesburg Presbyterian Church, 207 W. Market St., Leesburg, 703-606-7125.

PARKINSON'S SUPPORT Open to anyone with Parkinson's disease, family members and caregivers. First Tuesdays 1:30-3 p.m. Call for Ashburn location. 571-442-8851.

POST-PARTUM SUPPORT Second and fourth Wednesdays 1-2:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Cornwall Campus, 224 Cornwall St., Leesburg. 703-909-9877. Email lamckeough@gmail.com. Registration required.

REACH TO RECOVERY Home visit program for mastectomy and lumpectomy patients. Temporary prostheses, exercise instruction and encouragement. 703-938-5550.

SEXUAL ASSAULT AND INCEST SURVIVORS GROUP COUNSELING Services provided by Loudoun Citizens for Social Justice and the Loudoun Abused Womens Shelter are free and confidential. 703-771-9020.

SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS EMPOWERMENT SUPPORT Sponsored by Sexual Assault Victims Volunteer Initiative. Child care available with 48-hours notice. Mondays; call for times and locations. 540-349-7720.

SPIRITUAL SUPPORT GROUP For cancer patients, family members and friends. Third Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8850.

STROKE SURVIVORS AND CAREGIVERS SUPPORT Second Wednesdays 11 a.m.-noon, Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg, second floor, Patient Education Room. 703-858-6667 or robyn.thomson@inova.org.

SUICIDE COUNSELING Third Wednesdays 7-8:30 p.m. Leesburg Town Office, Conference Room 2, lower level, 25 W. Market St., Leesburg. 703-587-1618 or survivorsofsuicidelossleesburg@gmail.com.

WOMENS SUPPORT Sponsored by Services to Abused Families. Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Confidential location. 540-825-8876.

WIDOW AND WIDOWER SUPPORT Third Mondays 11 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039.

WOMENS CANCER SUPPORT Woman to Woman, first Wednesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Registration required. 703-858-8850.

MISCELLANEOUS

BRAIN TRAUMA SURVIVORS BROWN BAG LUNCH For survivors and caregivers, first Tuesdays, noon-1:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg, second-floor Patient Education Room. Call 703-737-3150 or email jberg@braininjurysvcs.org. Free.

BRAMBLETON HEALTHY LIVING EXPO May 1, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Brambleton Town Center, 42395 Ryan Rd., Brambleton. Health ckeck stations, exercise demonstrations, music, moon bounces, face-painting, balloon artist and vendors. 703-542-2925. Free.

CHILD DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENINGS For ages 2-5. Children may not be kindergarten-age-eligible. Sponsored by the Loudoun County public schools Child Find Center. 571-252 - 2180.

CHOLESTEROL SCREENINGS Weekdays 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Fauquier Health LIFE Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-2640. Registration required. $35.

COFFEE AND COMPASSIONATE CONVERSATION April 19, 10 a.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. Sponsored by Fauquier Aging Together to educate the public about the importance of advance care planning. 540-829-6405 or email dbanks@agingtogether.org.

EMERGENCY FOOD SUPPLIES Loudoun residents who are in need can receive a free three-day supply of groceries. Supplies are distributed Mondays through Saturdays by Loudoun Interfaith Relief. 703-777-5911. interfaithrelief.org.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATION IN MEDICATION ADVERTISING Wednesday at noon, Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588. Free.

FAUQUIER FREE WALK-IN MEDICAL CLINIC Patients must call Thursdays from 12:30 to 1 p.m. to register for the clinic, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Patients are also seen by appointment Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Fauquier and Rappahannock residents only. Bring proof of address for the first visit. Patients cannot have Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance. Information: 540-347-0394 Tuesdays or Thursdays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

FAUQUIER HOSPITAL BISTRO SENIOR SUPPER CLUB Nutritious meals and fellowship for people 55 and older. Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:30-6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Bistro on the Hill, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588. $5.49.

GAMERS UNION FOR TEENS WITH ASPERGERS Youths 12 to 21 interact through gaming; their caregivers meet for networking. Second Tuesdays 6 p.m. Rust Library, 380 Old Waterford Rd., Leesburg. 703-777-0323. Free.

HEROES (Hometown Enabling Relationships, Opportunities and Empowerment through Support) is a program for military families. A trained volunteer provides support to military members and their families, from pre-deployment up to two years post-deployment. Assistance includes financial help, job placement, family care and mental health services. heroescare.org or email caring@purbap.org .

INOVA LOUDOUN HOSPITAL MOBILE HEALTH SERVICES BLOOD PRESSURE SCREENINGS April 25, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Levis Hill House, 1000 W. Washington St., Middleburg; April 26, 9 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling; April 27, 10 a.m.-noon, Lansdowne Woods, 19400 Leisure World Blvd., Leesburg; April 28, 10 a.m.-noon, Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville; Information: 703-858-8818 or inova.org/mobilehealth. Free.

LOUDOUN CARES INFORMATION AND REFERRAL HELPLINE Call for help in finding resources for county residents who are dealing with rent eviction, utility cut offs, needed health care, employment and more. 703-669-4636.

MASSAGE FOR COUPLES April 29, 6-8 p.m. Fauquier Health Wellness Center, 419 Holiday Ct., Warrenton. 540-316-2640. $55 per couple. Registration required.

MEDICATION AND SHARPS COLLECTION Saturday 9 a.m.-noon, Fauquier Hospital Medical Office Building, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588.

MOTOR SKILL SCREENINGS Birth to 21 months. First Thursdays, Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center, 19465 Deerfield Ave., Suite 201, Lansdowne. Call for an appointment. 703-858-7620. Free.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA LONG-TERM CARE OMBUDSMAN Call for help in resolving complaints related to long-term-care facilities. 703-324-5861.

REIKI SESSION April 27, 6-8 p.m. Fauquier Health Wellness Center, 419 Holiday Ct., Warrenton. 540-316-2640. Free. Registration required.

ROAD TO RECOVERY, for cancer patients who need rides to appointments. 410-781-6909. Email jen.burdette@cancer.org. Free.

SEVEN LOAVES FOOD PANTRY Individuals and families can receive a three-day supply of food, distributed Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 10 a.m.-noon. 540-687-3489 or sevenloavesmiddleburg.org.

TREE OF LIFE FOOD PANTRY Serving western Loudoun County. Food is delivered Wednesdays and Saturdays. 703-554-3595.

WHEN A MAN FACES GRIEF Four week series focusing on the masculine side of healing from loss. Wayne Ralston and Jim Presely, facilitators. Each Thursday in May, 7-8:30 p.m. Spiritual Care Support Ministries, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. Non-denominational. 540-349-5814, Free.

 Compiled by Sandy Mauck

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Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar
There was an unusual twist to the 25th candidates forum for Marylands crowded 8th District congressional primary: The contenders were allowed to question one another directly.

Their Q&A on Sunday, which wound up an estimated 37 hours of sometimes heated debate and discussion, enabled each of the nine Democrats to get one last poke at an opponent before next Tuesdays primary.

But it did little to tease out any substantive new differences among the hopefuls, some of whom have been running hard for nearly a year in what has become one of the countrys most expensive congressional primary contests.

Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez zeroed in on fellow candidate Kathleen Matthews, challenging  with no apparent foundation  the former television news anchors support of abortion rights.

We understand that you have not always been pro-choice, that you were pro-life for a long time, said Gutierrez (D-Montgomery). She acknowledged after the session, held at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington in Rockville, that she had nothing to support her understanding.

[What happens when two Latinas run for Congress in the D.C. suburbs]

I have always been pro-choice, said Matthews, a former WJLA anchor who has received an endorsement and financial support from Emilys List, a political organization that backs Democratic women who endorse abortion rights.

Matthews speculated that her service on the board of Catholic Charities might be the source of some confusion but said her involvement with that group was focused on programs that address poverty and homelessness.

Wine retailer David Trone initially misfired his query, asking contender Del. Kumar P. Barve (D-Montgomery) why he voted earlier this month for a bill to exempt nail salon workers from unemployment insurance. The problem was that Barve voted against the measure, sponsored by state Sen. John C. Astle (D-Anne Arundel). It passed the House of Delegates 106 to 28.

Trones intended target was state Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery), who did vote in favor of the legislation to bar manicurists and pedicurists  mostly immigrant women of color  from unemployment benefits because they are considered independent contractors. It passed the Senate 43 to 1.

[Fact-check site says Raskin overstated record on environment]

Raskin told Trone he needed to go back and check the details of the bill in order to explain why he voted for it.

In an interview Monday, Raskin said he voted for the bill because it was presented to Democrats as a consensus product and that he had heard no opposition from labor unions.

Im on the side of working people, and if theres a problem with the bill we should fix it, Raskin said.

Trone, in turn, got a question from former State Department official Joel Rubin, who asked how the beer, wine and spirits retailer can run as a reformer (taking no campaign contributions) when he has spent millions hiring PACs and lobbyists to benefit his business.

Trone said he has never hired a PAC, and his only goal in retaining lobbyists was to push for consumer improvements, such as sales of craft beer in states where he had stores.

Trone also pointed out that Rubin has a nice PAC funding him, referring to a super PAC formed by a Pittsburgh friend who has purchased advertising on Rubins behalf in the race.

Moderators Josh Kurtz (Center Maryland blog) and Bruce DePuyt (NewsChannel 8) did their best to sharpen up the few policy differences among the contenders.

On recent U.S. trade deals, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, there was some daylight. Trone, Matthews and nonprofit executive David Anderson support them. Gutierrez, Raskin, Rubin and former Obama White House aide Will Jawando said they lack sufficient labor and environmental protections. Barve said the costs and benefits are kind of a wash and called for more investment in training programs to offset job losses caused by such pacts.

[For wine mogul Trone, running for Congress is unfinished business]

And on the nuclear agreement with Iran, only Anderson said he opposed it.

In a discussion about Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court decision that allows corporations and unions to open their treasuries for unlimited independent political expenditures, there was general agreement that winning the White House and changing the composition of the court was the best option to overturn the ruling.

Trone agreed with the calls for change, but he also used the moment to defend himself against what he described as hostility toward his business success and his decision to self-fund his campaign to the tune of more than $9 million.

Theres three millionaires on this panel, he said, referring to Raskin and Matthews. Yup, Im guilty as charged. So I started a business with nothing, created a successful business. I used to think that was a good thing in America, a really good thing. You sometimes hear thats bad, or youre a bad person because you created 5,000 jobs around the country.

Anderson, who has been outspent by nearly all of his opponents in the race, asked the audience to look beyond the millions of dollars in advertising.

I advise you to vote your conscience, not your calculator, he said.
Obituaries of residents from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia.

Matthew V. Ryan, project manager

Matthew V. Ryan, 51, a project manager for Washington Gas who had been with the company for more than 20 years, died Feb. 21 at a medical care center in Woodbridge, Va. The cause was liver failure, said his father, Thomas Ryan.

Mr. Ryan, a resident of Springfield, Va., was born in Washington. He took a medical retirement from Washington Gas about six months ago.

Elliott Thompson, artist

Elliott Thompson, 103, a 30-year federal civil servant who became an artist and art teacher from his 50s into his 70s, died Feb. 28 at home in Fairfax County. The cause was multiple organ failure, said his wife, Robin Berman Thompson.

Mr. Thompson was born in Newport, R.I., to Norwegian immigrants, and grew up in Washington. He retired from government service in 1967 as a financial officer with the Armys Supply and Maintenance Agency. He earlier began painting in his spare time, while based in France.

He worked on large canvases in hard-edged geometric abstract styles. He studied and taught at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, and participated in group and one-man shows. In a 1980 review, Washington Post art critic Paul Richard described Mr. Thompsons pictures as strong, energetic and crisp. . . . They have the tension and the glean of a stainless steel wire pulled absolutely taught.

His work is in several private collections and in museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

John K. Bowersox, consulting engineer

John K. Bowersox, 93, who ran his own Washington-area construction engineering consulting business, JK Bowersox & Associates, from 1979 to 1985, died March 13 at an assisted-living center in Alexandria, Va. The cause was complications from dementia, said a daughter, Ann Gordon.

Mr. Bowersox, a longtime resident of Bethesda, Md., was born in Baltimore. He was Washington editor for Consulting Engineer Magazine from 1980 to 1986. Earlier, he had been chief executive of the Construction Products Manufacturers Council and director of Associated General Contractors of Americas building contractors division.

Phillip G. Speight, salesman

Phillip G. Speight, 80, who sold machine tools to local businesses for Thompson & Cooke Inc. in Bladensburg, Md., died Feb. 29 at a care center in Rockville, Md. The cause was pneumonia, said a daughter, Ryan Whitlock.

Mr. Speight, a resident of Silver Spring, Md., was born in Norfolk. He retired from Thompson & Cooke about 1998 after about 15 years with the company. Earlier he sold residential real estate in the Rockville area. In retirement, he worked part time until 2006 for Sears Automotive as a vehicle maintenance specialist.

Harvey S. Fenster, orthodontist

Harvey S. Fenster, 82, an orthodontist who practiced for 40 years in Wheaton, Md., before retiring in 2004, died Feb. 25 at a medical center in Palm Beach, Fla. The cause was a heart ailment, said his wife, Marlene Fenster.

Dr. Fenster, a native Washingtonian and a Bethesda, Md., resident, was on vacation in Florida when he died. Simultaneously with his orthodontics practice, he was a professor at Howard Universitys dental school. He was a founder of Capital Bank of Maryland in Rockville, Md., and Congregation Har Shalom, a synagogue in Potomac, Md.

Inez Dade, preschool operator

Inez Dade, 103, who worked 23 years on the cleaning staff at the U.S. Capitol and then for 40 years owned and operated a nursery and preschool, died March 8 at her home in Washington. The cause was complications from a stroke, said a daughter, Peggy Holly.

Mrs. Dade was born Inez Powell in Wilson, N.C., and moved to the Washington area in 1937. After 23 years working at the Capitol, she owned and operated the Tiny Tot Preschool and Nursery in the Petworth section of Washington from 1972 to 2012.

Mortimer A. Dittenhoffer, financial management officer

Mortimer A. Dittenhoffer, 102, a financial management officer at federal agencies including NASA, the old Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and what is now the Government Accountability Office, died March 4 at a hospital in Silver Spring, Md. The causes were congestive heart failure and pneumonia, said a daughter, Jane Grant.

Dr. Dittenhoffer was born in St. Paul, Minn., and had lived in the Washington area since 1963. From 1980 to 1985, he was an associate professor at Georgetown Universitys business school. He then spent 16 years as a professor of finance at Florida International University, living in Silver Spring in summers and when school was not in session. He wrote a book on auditing standards and was a former chief executive of the Association of Government Accountants.

Thelma Chen, VOA employee

Thelma Chen, 101, who from the 1950s into the 1970s wrote, translated and broadcast radio programs in Mandarin for Voice of America to listeners in China, died March 10 at an assisted-living center in McLean, Va. The cause was heart disease, said a son, Maurice Chen.

Mrs. Chen, a Washington resident, was born Thelma Xiu-man in Tianjin, China, and had lived in the Washington area since the 1940s. Typically she began work at 1 a.m., broadcasting live to listeners in mainland China, 12 or more time zones away.

 From staff reports
Authorities have arrested a former student teacher who police said went to a Fairfax County hotel with the apparent intent to meet a 13-year-old boy for the purposes of engaging in sex.

The woman, identified as Kathleen Antonina Capitano, 24, of North Carolina, met the boy while she worked at a Herndon elementary school, Fairfax County police said.

Capitano was charged with four felony counts of use of communication systems to facilitate certain offenses involving children under 15 years of age, according to a department press release.

Authorities said Capitano worked at Lutie Lewis Coates Elementary School. A Fairfax County schools spokesman said the 24-year-old was a teacher intern at the school from 2014 to 2015.

The release said investigators were alerted about Capitanos online activity and met her at a hotel in Herndon around 1 p.m. Saturday. She was taken into custody.

Prior to Capitanos arrival, investigators said detectives met with the 13-year-old boy and his parents. Authorities said additional charges are possible.

Capitano is now a math teacher at a North Carolina school district. She was hired there in August 2015 and was placed on administrative leave with pay effective Monday, a Brunswick County schools spokeswoman said.

Police ask anyone with information about this case to contact Crime Solvers electronically by visiting www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org or texting TIP187 plus your tip to CRIMES(274637) or by calling 1-866-411-TIPS(8477). Authorities also said tipsters may contact Fairfax County Police Department at (703) 691-2131.
The search for a missing Fairfax County firefighter widened Monday afternoon from the location where her car was found parked in a remote section of Shenandoah National Park, park officials said.

The Virginia State Police and U.S. Park Police were using officers trained in search and rescue, dogs and aircraft to try to locate Nicole K. Mittendorff, 31, of Woodbridge, who was reported missing on Friday, police said.

The search on Monday morning had centered on the White Oak Canyon Trail, near where Mittendorffs cream-colored 2009 Mini Cooper was discovered on Saturday close to the popular hiking spot of Old Rag mountain, said Corinne Geller, a Virginia State Police spokeswoman.

But on Monday afternoon, Shenandoah National Park announced it was closing four other trails in the area to search for Mittendorff as well.

Separately, St. Paul United Methodist Church in Woodbridge, Va., was planning to hold a prayer service for Mittendorff at 7:30 p.m. on Monday night. The event will be open to the general public.

Nicole Mittendorff is seen in an undated family photo. She was reported missing on April 15 and her car was found in rural Virginia a day later. (Family photo)

Geller declined to comment on whether anything was found inside Mittendorffs car that would give any indication about what happened to her or where she might have gone.

Mittendorffs father wrote in a Facebook post that she is an avid runner and triathlete and may have gone to the location to train for a race. Geller said police have no reason to suspect foul play at this point.

Its a fairly expansive search, Geller said. Its not a field where you can do a grid search. Its mountainous terrain.

Robert Clardy, Mittendorfs father, wrote on Facebook that Mittendorff was last heard from on Wednesday morning. Her last contact was a text message that came around 10:50 a.m. Her last known location was in Warrenton, Va.

She is extremely dedicated to her job and didnt show for a Friday morning changeover, Clardy wrote on Facebook.

Geller said Mittendorffs husband, whom she identified as an employee of the Virginia State Police, first reported her missing. Steven Mittendorff is listed on an online profile as a first sergeant and the area commander for the Arlington Field Office for the VSP.

The family has set up a Facebook page and Web page to aid in the search for Nicole Mittendorff.

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has viewed, liked, and shared this page dedicated to finding my wife, Steven Middendorf wrote on Facebook. I am overwhelmed by the number of calls, texts, and social media messages that I have received, but have not been able to answer.

Jennifer Clardy Chalmers, Mittendorffs sister, told The Post on Sunday that Mittendorff is a career paramedic/firefighter with Fairfax County Fire and Rescue and has been with the department since 2013. The department directed questions to Virginia State Police.

We are holding up as best as can be expected under difficult circumstances, Chalmers said. At this time we are focused on finding Nicole and have the deepest appreciation for everyone helping. We hope and pray for a safe resolution in the near future.

Mittendorff is described as a 5-foot-6-inch white woman with blond hair and green eyes, weighing about 125 pounds. The Virginia State Police has asked anyone with information about Mittendorff to call 703-803-0026 or email information to questions@vsp.virginia.gov.
Two D.C. police officers are under investigation after an allegation that one of them dry fired an unloaded weapon at the other inside a police station over the weekend, authorities said.

The Internal Affairs Division is investigating the report of the incident in the First District station at 101 M St. SW, said Dustin Sternbeck, the departments chief spokesman.

MPD [Metropolitan Police Department] is investigating an incident involving two officers at our First District station where a dry firing allegedly occurred, Sternbeck said. At this point, it is an allegation.

Police released no further details about the incident. To dry fire is to pull the trigger of a gun that has no ammunition.

Sgt. Matthew Mahl who heads the police union declined to comment because the investigation is ongoing. We are aware of the incident, we arent commenting at this time, Mahl said.

The incident under review, which was first reported by other news outlets, happened during a roll call Saturday when a sergeant instructed an officer to unload his weapon for an impromptu training exercise, said two police officials with knowledge of the investigation but who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The officer was told to enter roll call with the empty weapon and point it an officer, the sources said. A tense standoff resulted from the alleged incident, but no one was injured.
Jeanette Vizguerra of Denver, Colo., left, embraces her son, Roberto Baez, 9, outside the Supreme Court on Monday. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Some drove more than 30 hours to get there. Hundreds more boarded buses or hopped on planes. No matter how they came to the Supreme Court on Monday, the purpose was the same: To humanize a debate they say has long been dehumanizing.

This was the moment for thousands of families, many of mixed immigration status, to present their own case outside the nations highest court as the eight justices inside heard arguments over President Obamas deportation-relief proposals in United States v. Texas.

The multitude augmented their arguments with songs, signs and personal stories. Some were nationally recognized faces of the immigrant rights movement, including Gaby Pacheco, Jose Antonio Vargas, members of Congress, religious leaders and little Sophie Cruz, who became a mini-celebrity last fall when she presented Pope Francis with a letter during his trip to Washington.

[The girl who gave a letter to the pope]

Sophie and her mother, Zoyla Cruz, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, were among the first people admitted to the court to watch the 90-minute arguments.

Marilu Fructuoso holds a photo of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy outside the Supreme Court on Monday. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

But many of the others who came for the hearing were ordinary folk, traveling from as far away as California and as close as Columbia Heights.

Whatever they decide, it will impact my life, said Marly Arevalo, a community college student who lives in Prince Georges County.

She arrived in the United State seven years ago from Guatemala, crossing the border without permission. If the justices uphold the presidents executive action, she would be eligible for the extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Arevalo was one of about 100 people who arrived before sunrise to secure a ticket to enter the courtroom. Inside, she said she grew nervous as lawyers representing Texas and the other 26 states challenging the programs laid out their arguments.

They were forceful and clear, she said. I felt that the justices may have been convinced and were doubtful. And that worried me.

[Court majority appears elusive for Obama immigration program]

Those outside the court were far more optimistic, believing their crusade is morally imperative, as well as legally justifiable.

Jenny Rey, 3, right, sits on the shoulders of her father, Alejandro Rey, of Austin, Texas, outside the Supreme Court on Sunday. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Jeannette Vizguerra of Colorado camped out Sunday night as temperatures dipped into the 40s, joined by her son and about 25 other mothers from a group that had formed on social media and called itself Dreamers, Mothers in Action.

The group set up banners, displaying shoes donated by people who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Inside the shoes, they placed small American flags, held in place with crumpled paper towels.

Organizer Lenka Mendoza led a vigil Sunday afternoon, praying aloud and holding photos of the justices. Others held signs with messages such as Families have no borders and Supreme Court, show me justice.

Equal justice under the law, Mendoza said, gazing up at that inscription engraved onto the face of the Supreme Court. That is what we are looking for.

Nearby, the Tea Party Patriots staked out a spot and set up a lectern for their own event, a news conference featuring four members of Congress that was to focus on the court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Field organizer Gregg Cummings said the group is deeply opposed to extending deportation relief to those who have entered the United States illegally.

We are a nation of laws. We cannot be the worlds playground, Cummings, of Iowa, said. A nation without borders is no longer a nation.

[Court decision will resonate in Los Angeles, immigration epicenter]

The group of women from Dreamers, Mothers in Action came from more than two dozen states, organizers said. All would be eligible for Obamas Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program if the court allows it to go forward.

They had been fasting since Friday, had not showered and were exhausted.

But as the crowd swelled Monday morning, ready to listen to Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) and other speakers, the mothers held onto their section of sidewalk. Wearing matching hot-pink shirts, they became one of the most visible groups at a rally that had suddenly swelled to at least 2,000 people.

Vizguerra, the Colorado mother, danced the steps of el jarabe tapatio, better known as the Mexican hat dance, when a mariachi band began playing.

She also listened carefully as a cavalcade of speakers whipped up the crowd in a raucous Si se puede!

Our job here is to make sure they see the needs of our families, said Vizguerra, who is facing final deportation orders that would separate her from her husband and children. I am a woman of faith and I have hope. If it doesnt happen, the struggle will continue.
Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Fauquier) adresses the members of the Virginia Senate at the State Capitol in Richmond. Vogel s law firm billed the state for $180,000 to help six Democratic lawmakers embroiled in an election redistricting case. (Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)

The Virginia Senate has spent $180,000 in taxpayer dollars on a court battle over whether state election maps illegally protect incumbents from primary challenges, according to documents obtained under the states public records law by an advocacy group.

The lawsuit, funded by a redistricting reform group, argues that 11 state Senate districts violate the constitutional requirement that districts be compact.

Instead, many legislative districts zigzag across Virginia in odd shapes in an effort to capture the precise mix of voters to give an incumbent lawmaker the best chance for reelection, critics say.

As part of the lawsuit, some lawmakers are trying to keep secret emails about the 2011 redistricting process sought by lawyers for OneVirginia2021, a nonprofit which says it wants to take the politics out of the process of drawing district boundaries.

The lawsuit has taken unexpected turns, raising questions about conflict of interest and what politicians can and cannot hide from judicial scrutiny.

A Richmond Circuit Court judge earlier this month found four Senate Democrats and two former senators in contempt of court for refusing to turn over correspondence.

The lawmakers currently serving are Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) and Sens. George L. Barker (D-Fairfax), David W. Marsden (D-Fairfax) and John S. Edwards (D-Roanoke). The former senators are Charles J. Colgan (D-Prince William) and Ralph Smith (R-Roanke.)

Attorneys for the lawmakers said legislative privilege provided by the state constitution protects their correspondence from court review. A judge disagreed and fined the six lawmakers $100 each per day to be paid by taxpayers if the issue is ultimately decided against them.

The lawyers asked the judge to hold the lawmakers in contempt as a strategy to quickly elevate the case to the state Supreme Court and get a definitive ruling about what documents they can keep secret from court review.

You dont want to set precedent that people can routinely subpoena your emails, Marsden said. I dont think anyone wants to expose constituent emails to that process. Its almost like a doctor-patient relationship.

Lawmakers are shielded under the state Freedom of Information Act from having to disclose their correspondence with third parties, such as constituents and consultants, under a widely cited exception for working papers and correspondence.

Another senator whose documents were subpoenaed, Richard H. Stuart (R-Stafford), said he has complied with the order.

Im a lawyer, and Im never going to refuse a court order, he said. You just dont do that. Number two, Im a public servant and Im doing the publics work. Number three, I believe in transparency.

[A third redistricting lawsuit targets Va. elections map]

Stuart and other Republican lawmakers who have voted for nonpartisan redistricting reform bills find themselves embroiled in the lawsuit, which challenges districts drawn by Democrats who controlled the Senate during the latest round of redistricting.

According to invoices addressed to Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment (R-James City County) the Senate hired the firm Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky, where one of their own, Sen. Jill Vogel (R-Fauquier), is managing partner.

The invoices were obtained through a public records request by the left-leaning government watchdog group, Progress Virginia, which provided them to The Washington Post. They showed Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky billed the state eight times from September to February, for a total cost of $179,802.

Anna Scholl, executive director of Progress Virginia, said hiring Vogels firm poses a conflict of interest.

It is clearly her business and presumably she is profiting from this contract, Scholl said. As someone who wants to be Virginias next lieutenant governor, I wonder how she justifies hundreds of thousands of dollars in public money being awarded to her law firm.

Norment defended the hiring of Vogels firm, calling it one of a few firms qualified to represent the state in election and redistricting law.

We are fortunate to be represented by Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky, a nationally recognized and respected firm specializing in these complicated cases. They are rendering exceptional professional service, he said in a statement.

Vogel, a candidate for lieutenant governor who represented President George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential recount in Florida, said her firm is saving taxpayers money because we care extra!

No one cares more about protecting the institution and the privilege that allows [the] Senate to function  hence my firm [is] doing the work and effort at huge discount to the Commonwealth, she wrote in a text message.

Vogel and her firm did not respond to questions about the amount of the discount.
Jesse M. Baltazar, who joined the U.S. armed forces after the Japanese attack on his native Philippines during World War II, endured the Bataan Death March, and later became one of the first native-born Filipino officers of the U.S. Air Force, died April 12 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. He was 95.

The cause was cancer, said a son, Melchior Baltazar.

Mr. Baltazar, who retired from the Air Force in 1966 at the rank of major, was a 21-year-old student at the American Far Eastern School of Aviation in Manila when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

The next day, the Japanese attacked the Philippines, then a U.S. protectorate, and Mr. Baltazar swiftly joined the U.S. Armed Forces of the Far East (USAFFE), under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. More than 70 years later  a delay attributed to lost military records  he received the Purple Heart.

Mr. Baltazar participated in the battle on the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines. We had no uniforms, no weapons, he later recalled of his ROTC unit. The first casualty happened to be my schoolmate. He stepped on a hand grenade and died in my arms on the way to the hospital.

Mr. Baltazar was wounded in the leg during a bombing in March 1942. He endured surgery in the jungle and had not fully recovered when he and his comrades surrendered to the Japanese on April 9, 1942.

The Japanese forced 76,000 Americans and Filipinos, Mr. Baltazar among them, on a 66-mile trek that became known as the Bataan Death March. Ten thousand or more prisoners died. The survivors lived on minimal food and water, sometimes drinking from rice paddies contaminated with disease. Mr. Baltazar witnessed the beyoneting or beheading of his comrades.

At one point, he fell to the ground, and a guard struck him with a rifle. Im going to die, he thought to himself, according to an account in State Magazine.

But on the third night of the march, Mr. Baltazar attempted an escape. He made his way home, aided by fishermen who rowed him through swamps.

Mr. Baltazar later participated in the Philippine resistance movement. After the war, he settled in the United States and joined the Air Force, serving principally in the Office of Special Investigations.

A polyglot, he was stationed in Korea during the war there and questioned Korean and Chinese refugees. In West Germany, he used his knowledge of Russian to gather intelligence from Soviet emigres.

After his military retirement, Mr. Baltazar served with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Vietnam during the Southeast Asian War and with Voice of America in Central America. He retired from the State Department in 1988 but remained a contract employee until shortly before his death.

Jesse Mallares Baltazar was born in Manila on Oct. 8, 1920. During World War II, he said, a younger brother was taken away by Japanese soldiers in the night, and an older brother died while fighting.

Mr. Baltazar studied Russian at Georgetown University, where he received a bachelors degree in linguistics in 1950. He received a masters degree in education from the University of Virginia in 1979.

Besides the Purple Heart, his military decorations included the Bronze Star Medal. He volunteered with the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, an advocacy organization.

Survivors include his wife of 61 years, the former Margrit Kilchmann, of Falls Church; five children, Sister Katherine Baltazar, a Catholic nun, of Eagle Butte, S.D., Susanne Baltazar of Miami Beach, retired Army Col. Thomas Baltazar of Herndon, Va., Phillip Baltazar of Washington, and Melchior Baltazar, a retired Navy SEAL, of Philomont, Va.; three sisters; nine grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

Earlier this year, Mr. Baltazar published a memoir, The Naked Soldier (2016).

I will always be a prisoner to the memory of the brutality and savagery of the worst kind, Mr. Baltazar told State Magazine, recalling his experience in World War II. Yet, I also saw courage, nobility, bravery and the best that human beings can be.
California

Confusion prompts voters to list affiliation

A survey found that tens of thousands of voters, including Demi Moore and other celebrities, have mistakenly registered as members of a conservative minor political party in California in a mix-up over its name, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

The newspaper said that a telephone survey of 500 members of the American Independent Party found that nearly 3 of 4 people did not realize they had enrolled in a political party that opposes abortion rights and same-sex marriage and calls for building a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The newspaper said voters were confused by the use of the word independent in the partys name. In California, voters who do not want to register with any party must check a box on a registration form for no party preference.

 Associated Press

Pennsylvania

State enacts law for medical marijuana use

Pennsylvania has become the 24th state to legalize a comprehensive medical marijuana program.

Gov. Tom Wolf (D) signed the bill into law Sunday afternoon surrounded by a jubilant crowd of supporters at the Capitol building in Harrisburg.

Marijuana is medicine, and its coming to Pennsylvania, said state Sen. Daylin Leach (D), the bills co-sponsor.

The bills drafters said it could take two years to write regulations and open retail outlets, but a provision allows parents to legally administer medical marijuana to their children before the legislation takes effect in a month.

 Associated Press

NEw Hampshire

Prep school to look at handling of allegations

Top officials of an elite New Hampshire prep school dealing with a flurry of sexual abuse allegations hired several law firms to examine the schools handling of misconduct allegations leveled at faculty members.

In a letter to parents and alumni, the principal and top trustee of Phillips Exeter Academy said the school is committed to a thorough review of its handling of allegations against former teacher Rick Schubart, who was forced to resign after admitting to sexual misconduct in 2011. He was barred from campus after a second allegation surfaced in 2015. The misconduct occurred dates to the 1970s and 1980s.

Schubart has not answered or returned repeated calls to his home seeking comment.

Principal Lisa MacFarlane said one law firm will investigate allegations that have surfaced since March of this year, when Schuberts misconduct was first publicized. Another will review the schools procedures for handling sexual misconduct complaints.

The school said last week that another teacher had been fired for having sexual encounters with a student decades ago.

 Associated Press

3 killed in Philadelphia: Three people were killed by shotgun blasts to their heads at a home in Philadelphia, and a man was arrested there after a standoff. Police responded Sunday morning to a report of a shooting at the home. A man refused to open the door, saying that he had a shotgun, that had shot someone and that he wasnt coming out, authorities said. The man fired several shots from inside the house at SWAT officers as they were climbing onto the roof, police said. A short time later, he walked out the front door and was taken into custody, police said.

 Associated Press
The writer is a student at Harvard Law School.

Last month, citizens seeking police accountability in two U.S. cities won remarkable victories at the ballot box. In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, prosecutor Timothy McGinty was ousted by Democratic primary voters outraged by the failure to bring charges against the officer who shot and killed 12-year-old African American boy Tamir Rice in a Cleveland park. In Cook County, Ill., States Attorney Anita Alvarez lost her bid for the Democratic nomination for a third term over her handling of the police shooting death of teenager Laquan McDonald.

As the United States faces a crisis of faith in the criminal justice systems ability to hold police officers accountable under the law, attention has turned to the role of prosecutors. These two electoral expulsions have been hailed as milestones in the struggle to inject accountability into the United States local law-enforcement infrastructure.

It is unfortunate, then, that some activists seem intent on making those hard-fought victories irrelevant.

Thats not their intention, of course. Reformers want to solve a problem that can genuinely taint investigations of police officers: the close working relationships between local police and prosecutors, which can lead to biases, intentional or otherwise. Even if local prosecutors put aside those relationships and act as perfect arbiters of justice, the perception of favoritism can linger and erode the publics faith in the rule of law.

Protests continued on Dec. 9 in Chicago, as people took to the streets to protest the death of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old black teenager. McDonald was shot and killed in 2014 by a white police officer, and protestors are calling for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and state's attorney Anita Alvarez to resign. (Victoria M. Walker/The Washington Post)

Recently, that erosion has been on full display in the streets of Ferguson, Mo. And Staten Island, N.Y. And Cleveland. And on and on.

The proposed solution: replace local prosecutors with independent, special prosecutors in police abuse cases. Many in the Black Lives Matter movement are for it. The Post is for it. Statehouses around the country have begun moving toward it.

And yet, future generations of reformers will look back in amazement at how easily well-intentioned advocates embraced a misguided, counterproductive policy that ceded local control over police accountability.

The crisis of faith in the criminal justice system is real, as is the inherent tension between cooperating with local police one day and prosecuting them the next. Completely removing that tension, however, would also mean needlessly crippling the political measures that local communities are beginning to use to force accountability.

In the United States, almost all prosecution is local. Voters in all but three states directly elect their local prosecutors. That gives voters tremendous leverage over how prosecutors perform their duties, including the investigation of police misconduct. While that leverage has been chronically underutilized in the past, the two recent victories demonstrate that elections for local prosecutor positions can be real, robust campaigns if voters are galvanized.

What would scuttle this promise of accountable criminal justice, just as it is beginning to be realized? Neutering the power of directly accountable prosecutors and handing it off to independent officials far removed from local communities.

Special prosecutors do not grow on trees. They come from somewhere. They are appointed by someone. And that someone does not always share the goals or interests of local reformers working to hold police accountable. In 1996, for example, then-New York Gov. George Pataki (R) stepped in to replace the Bronx district attorney because Pataki feared he would not seek the death penalty for the killer of a police officer.

More recently, look no farther than Michigan, where local officials and activists decry the usurpation of key policy decisions by unelected, state-appointed emergency managers. This is not a model to be followed. A local community must always have electoral recourse if citizens do not think a prosecutor is doing his or her job  especially when that job is to prosecute police misconduct.

This does not mean communities have to wait until an election to address a lack of police accountability. A system of checks could involve a provision allowing for use of a special prosecutor after an elected local prosecutor first has had a chance to investigate and act.

We have had elected prosecutors in this country for more than 150 years. Reformers are just beginning to realize that this is a system that can work to the benefit of local communities by offering an avenue both to elect reformist prosecutors and to punish those who stand in the way of accountability. If more election victories follow those in Ohio and Illinois, prosecutor elections could turn out to be the very tool that spreads smart crime policies across the country  and not just in the area of police accountability, but also on drug and gun enforcement and mass incarceration. Now is not the time to take such a powerful lever out of the hands of the people.
The April 14 editorial Secrecy vs. barbarism? called the use of the electric chair as a means to carry out the death penalty inhumane and a barbaric practice. But on the question of whether Virginia should have the death penalty, the editorial board seemed fine with lethal injection as long as the state can obtain the necessary drugs. Thats a shame. Theres nothing more inhumane or barbaric than the state taking away a human life, and lethal injection doesnt make it less so.

I used to be in favor of the death penalty under limited circumstances, but, after visiting Red Onion, one of Virginias supermax prisons, and seeing daily life in segregation and solitary confinement, I now know that a far more appropriate and humane sentence is life in prison without parole.

Virginia should take advantage of the shortage of lethal drugs and put an end to the death penalty once and for all.

Patrick A. Hope, Arlington

The writer, a Democrat, represents Arlington County in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Secrecy vs. barbarism? discussed the impasse between Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and the state legislature on capital punishment. The editorial suggested a moratorium on capital punishment pending the availability of a better alternative to electrocution or lethal injection. A far better alternative  nitrogen asphyxiation  is readily available, and Virginia should consider it.

Nitrogen asphyxiation causes death by replacing the air we breathe, approximately 80 percent nitrogen and 20 percent oxygen, with 100 percent nitrogen. Deprived of oxygen, a person loses consciousness within a few seconds, without physical discomfort, and death follows within approximately one minute. This method of execution thus avoids running afoul of the Constitutions Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, arguably violated both by electrocution and by botched lethal injection. Oklahoma has approved nitrogen asphyxiation for execution. Virginia should designate nitrogen asphyxiation as the states only means of capital punishment.

William T. Dannheim, Alexandria
Numerous unanswered questions have surrounded the federal investigation into the 2010 D.C. mayoral election, in which illegal money and actions helped elect Vincent C. Gray (D). Why did the probe drag on for so long? Why was Mr. Gray  who was a target of government prosecutors  never charged? Was an injustice done to him or to the city? New information that emerged filled in some blanks  but it also raised a whole set of new issues.

Thanks to dogged reporting by The Posts Ann E. Marimow, we know now that one factor that delayed the investigation, and possibly persuaded prosecutors not to charge Mr. Gray, was concern about a potential key witness: Jeffrey E. Thompson. The once-prominent businessman pleaded guilty to funding a $653,000 shadow campaign to secure Mr. Grays victory over former Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in the Democratic primary. Mr. Thompson has sworn that Mr. Gray knew about the illegal financing behind the shadow campaign, a charge that Mr. Gray has denied.

Worries about Mr. Thompsons credibility seem to have centered not on his version of political events but on allegations about unrelated sexual activities. The U.S. Attorneys Office, The Post reported, undertook a separate line of inquiry into the ages of his sex partners to determine if he had committed any crimes and to evaluate his usefulness before a jury. The outcome of that inquiry is unclear, which should be troubling to District residents.

Do prosecutors believe that Mr. Thompson, who has not commented on these developments, committed additional crimes? If so, shouldnt he be charged? And if not, why was a jury not given the chance to decide whether he or Mr. Gray was telling the truth about the 2010 campaign?

Its a question that takes on even more relevance in the wake of disclosures from a trove of investigative material made public Friday after The Post successfully petitioned the court for its release. The hundreds of pages of documents are heavily redacted and  as Mr. Grays supporters point out  contain no smoking gun. But an accumulation of new details chips away at Mr. Grays claims of having been kept completely in the dark as the criminal shadow campaign unfolded.

Among the revelations: Mr. Gray was also being investigated for allegedly promising city jobs and thousands of dollars in an attempt to get a rival mayoral candidate to drop out of the race  and, no this is not Sulaimon Brown, who got a city job to stay in the race and hector Mr. Fenty. Mr. Grays son allegedly facilitated illegal payments to campaign workers. A second witness, the public relations consultant who helped coordinate the illegal campaign and also has pleaded guilty, attests to Mr. Gray personally asking for money from Mr. Thompson.

Mr. Gray is seeking a political comeback in a bid for the Ward 7 D.C. Council seat. Whether he committed any crimes in connection with his 2010 campaign is a question that was taken off the table when newly installed U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips shut down the investigation in December. After the revelations of the past week, Mr. Phillips more than ever owes a fuller explanation of that decision.
A petition that was used to free slaves, on display at the National Archives in 2012 in commemoration of the 1862 act that freed slaves in the nations capital. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

Colbert I. Kings April 16 op-ed, 154 years after emancipation, D.C. has grim, unfinished business focused on slave-owning planters in the District who were compensated for freeing their slaves in 1862. The compensation amounted to 44 percent of the appraised value of the freed slaves. According to Mr. King, the wrong side (slaveholders) was rewarded.

Far from the slaveholders being rewarded, however, this policy reimbursed them for only 44 percent of their worth as measured in the economy of that time, hardly the Fat City described in the op-ed. Very possibly, many of these planters were ruined by this act, although not to the degree of planters elsewhere, who would eventually lose 100 percent of their investment.

The Civil War cost the United States approximately 650,000 lives (counting both sides), plus enormous physical setbacks for the economically ruined Southern states, and great hardships were felt everywhere as the victorious North attempted to reconstruct the South in the postwar years. Had the Districts Compensated Emancipation Act been proposed and accepted in the seceding states, the entire country would have benefited relative to what actually occurred.

This act should be celebrated as an example of good policy involving some necessary degree of compromise, rather than in the grim tone of the op-ed, and it is unfortunate that proposals floated before the Civil War to reimburse slaveholders for the freeing of their slaves were never seriously broached nor embraced in the seceding states.

Robert Ray, Dumfries
Migrants, most from Pakistan, at the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos protest this month against the E.U.-Turkey migration deal. (Petros Giannakouris/Associated Press)

Regarding the April 16 news article Pope to issue moral call to Europe on migrants:

How moving to read about the leader of the Catholic Church with two other Christian leaders honoring those who have lost their lives fleeing the violence in the Middle East. It is ironic that many refugees are Muslims fleeing other Muslims. In my view, this visit represents the true meaning of being a Christian and following the teachings of Jesus Christ. It is also ironic that Pope Francis that same weekend met with an American Jew, who is campaigning on many of the issues that Christ taught 2,000 years ago.

Too bad our government is dragging its feet, as expressed in the April 17 editorial Too slow and too few.

John J. Wolff Jr., Rockville

The photo caption accompanying the article on the popes visit to Lesbos described the migrants held at the Moria camp as being mostly from Pakistan. Thats precisely the problem with German Chancellor Angela Merkels opening of the refugee floodgates. These men  and they are overwhelmingly males  arent fleeing a war zone. They are simply economic migrants seeking a backdoor into Europe, avoiding the requirements of European Union immigration laws. These arent Syrian families fleeing barrel bombs.

Brian Petty, Washington
PRESIDENT OBAMA will have plenty of sticky issues to deal with on his visit this week to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Turmoil in Syria, the fight against the Islamic State, the Iran nuclear deal, regional politics  all of these are important. But theres another, equally important piece of business Mr. Obama should put on the agenda: He should urge Saudi King Salman to free imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi.

Mr. Badawi, 32, has been jailed since 2012 after he appealed online for a more liberal and secular society, a call that infuriated the kingdoms conservative clerics and religious establishment. His sentence was set at 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. After he was flogged 50 times, the remainder have been held in abeyance, but the sentence stands and was upheld by the Saudi supreme court in June, and the whipping could be resumed at any time.

What was it that Mr. Badawi said? Shortly before his 2012 arrest, he wrote about the nature of liberalism. For me, he said, liberalism simply means, live and let live. But the clerics, he said, controlling and claiming exclusive monopoly of the truth, have discredited it. They have succeeded in planting hostility to liberalism in the minds of the public and turning people against it, lest the carpet be pulled out from under their feet. But their hold over peoples minds and society shall vanish like dust carried off in the wind. Mr. Badawi was honored with the 2015 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament.

Ensaf Haidar, Mr. Badawis wife, who accepted the prize for him in December, was in Washington recently and told us, Raif is not a criminal, not a terrorist. He is a peaceful man who expressed his opinion and believes it was his natural right to do so. Ms. Haidar, who now lives in Canada with their three young children, pressed State Department and White House officials for an appeal by the president on her husbands behalf. She told us she hopes that King Salman, who took office in January 2015, after Mr. Badawi was incarcerated, might be persuaded to release him, and she suggested his influential son, Mohammed bin Salman, is open-minded and could be an important factor in winning freedom for Mr. Badawi.

Mr. Obama ought to tell the unvarnished truth to the monarch: Bloggers may be sharp-tongued, but it is barbaric to subject them to flogging and jail.
The April 11 editorial Heaping scorn and passing judgment was too partial. It praised a high school teacher while vilifying Virginia state Sen. Richard H. Black (R-Loudoun), who scolded the teacher. The editorial board said the teacher wants her students to expand their learning horizons by reading such literary works as Toni Morrisons Beloved. I read that novel, and I think it is unnecessarily graphic about sex. I think the novel could have been a better literary work without those graphic sex scenes.

Do Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, Victor Hugos Les Miserables and Ernest Hemingways For Whom the Bell Tolls include sexually explicit content? No.

I think Ms. Morrison wrote Beloved to emphasize that slavery in the United States was bad. Our high school students know that. Teachers need not force our boys and girls to read this novel to know that slavery is bad. Ms. Morrison didnt have to emphasize that theme with near-pornographic descriptions.

I agree with the Virginia legislature, which passed a bill that would require schools to notify parents before assigning books with sexually explicit content. We need that law. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) should not have vetoed the bill.

Wha-You Joh, Leesburg
Regarding the April 16 editorial The lessons and legacy of Hiroshima:

The leaders of every nation possessing nuclear weapons should be required to visit Hiroshima. This, of course, includes President Obama and whoever is elected as his successor in November. Abstract theories of national security and nuclear deterrence have been stubbornly followed for more than 70 years while willfully turning a blind eye to the very real catastrophic human consequences of nuclear weapons.

The Posts call for further reductions in nuclear arsenals is important, but quantitative reductions lose their meaning when the remaining hundreds or thousands of nuclear weapons are made more usable and equipped with new military capabilities.

The United States is in the midst of a $1 trillion, 30-year program to modernize all aspects of its nuclear arsenal: the warheads, delivery systems, production facilities and command-and-control system. The other eight nuclear-armed nations are also engaged in modernization efforts. A visit to Hiroshima would underline the moral and humanitarian imperatives to abolish nuclear weapons. This, taken together with the existing legal obligations to pursue in good faith  and bring to a conclusion  negotiations on nuclear disarmament, makes it clear that continuing with business as usual is unacceptable.

Rick Wayman, Santa Barbara

The writer is director of programs for

the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Why, whenever Hiroshima is mentioned, is it in the context of the horrific atomic bombing inflicted on the Japanese people by the United States but no mention is made of the atrocities committed by the Japanese army? Perhaps, once in a while, the Rape of Nanking in China, the slaughter of hundreds of thousands in Manila and many other mass murders carried out by the Japanese army against innocent civilians could be mentioned  just for balance.

Mike Johnson, Haymarket
Iraqi soldiers show a flag they seized from the Islamic State on April 9 in Kharbardan during operations to recapture the northern Nineveh province, whose capital, Mosul is the main hub of the Islamic State in Iraq. (Safin Hamed/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

Shortly after the fall of Iraqs second-largest city, Mosul, to the Islamic State in June 2014, a delegation of senior officials from Iraqi Kurdistan visited Washington with a troubling question: From where, they asked, would the force come to retake the city? The Iraqi army was too shattered, and the Kurds were too weak, and outside powers such as Turkey and the United States were unwilling to commit ground forces.

A lot has happened in the nearly two years since then. Among other things, the Obama administration has retrained nearly 20,000 Iraqi troops, dispatched some 5,000 U.S. trainers, Marines and special operations forces to the area, and launched more than 11,000 combat air sorties against Islamic State targets. Yet when another senior Kurdish delegation circulated through Washington last week, their question about Mosul was unchanged: Who is going to do this?

We heard a plan is close to being drawn up for retaking the city, said Qubad Talabani, deputy prime minister of the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq, who recently met in Baghdad with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and the senior U.S. commander in the theater, Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland. But we got a sense there are gaping holes in that plan.

U.S. officials have lately been talking up what they say has been the growing momentum of the war against the Islamic State. They say President Obama, who has repeatedly called it his top priority, has asked for an acceleration of the campaign.

To listen to the Kurds, however, is to appreciate the towering obstacles that still must be overcome before the two most important cities held by the jihadists, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, can be retaken. Missing is not just adequate numbers of forces, but also funding, political leadership and that most elusive of goods in the Middle East: a workable vision of what happens the day after the bad guys are dispatched.

It doesnt help that Iraq is suffering through an economic and fiscal crisis caused by the drop in oil prices and yet another political emergency in Baghdad, where a besieged Abadi has been trying without success to introduce a new cabinet. Those upheavals have left Kurdistan, an autonomous region, broke: Its fighters, the peshmerga, have not been paid in three months. Talabani was in Washington in part to appeal for U.S. financial aid, without which the Kurdish forces probably could not be mobilized for a Mosul offensive. The Kurds asked for $200 million a month; the Pentagon suggested $50 million.

No White House decision on funding the Kurds has been made. Even if the money is forthcoming, the question remains: Who will conduct the street-by-street combat Mosul will require? The terrorists have built defensive berms across the city, seeded mines and IEDs and, the Kurds say, loaded mustard gas into artillery shells. An assaulting force might confront the chemical attacks that U.S. troops expected but never faced in 2003.

Iraqi army forces quickly faltered last month when they tried to begin clearing operations near the city of Makhmour, about 70 miles south of Mosul. Thats when 200 U.S. Marines were secretly sent to the area to establish a fire base with artillery. Even with that support, the Iraqis have managed to take only a handful of villages. We all know the Iraqi army is not ready yet, Falah Bakir, Kurdistans chief of foreign relations, told a group of Post journalists.

The Pentagon is now talking about establishing more fire bases on the way to Mosul, and sources say hundreds more special operations forces and other troops may be deployed as the campaign unfolds. Commanders hope that thousands of Sunni tribesmen being trained as security forces can be used to secure the liberated city. But that still raises the question of whether Iraqi Shiite militias backed by Iran will be allowed to join the assault, as they are pressing to do. If so, they may plunge into sectarian bloodletting with the Sunni population.

Such complexities probably explain why Abadi and MacFarland have yet to show a completed campaign plan to the Kurds. Even more remote is a strategy for postwar governance in Mosul and other Sunni-populated areas that would supplant the Islamic State with something the local population would support. Talabani reckons a Sunni jurisdiction inside a federal Iraq might be an answer, but theres no sign that the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad, its allies in Iran or even the Sunnis themselves would agree to it.

All this points to a stark bottom line: There will be no liberation of Mosul in 2016. The Islamic State will outlive the U.S. administration whose lapses in Syria and Iraq helped to create it. It will be the ugliest piece of Barack Obamas legacy.

Read more from Jackson Diehls archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Danielle Allen is a political theorist at Harvard University and a contributing columnist for The Post.

Call me crazy, but I think that, in his remarkable op-ed last week in the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump offered to hand over to other candidates half of the delegates that he won in Florida and Arizona.

Delegates, he wrote, are supposed to reflect the decisions of voters, but the system is being rigged by party operatives with double-agent delegates who reject the decision of voters. In other words, Trump is arguing, delegates should show up at the Republican convention in Cleveland ready to vote in the same patterns in which the voters in the delegates home states voted. If we take his argument seriously, there should be no winner-take-all states whose delegates all vote for Trump.

Trump won all 99 delegates in Florida with 46 percent of the vote. His own principle would knock his delegate haul down to 45 in the Sunshine State. In Arizona, he took the states 58 delegates on the basis of winning 47 percent of the vote. There, he would have to relinquish 31 delegates.

Wait. Whats that? Thats not what Trump meant at all? He was just complaining about the process by which the Colorado GOP decided in August to dispense with its caucus straw poll and focus on its traditional elections for delegates at local conventions?

Colorado Republicans didn't have a regular primary or caucus this year; instead, they held a state convention. Here's how it worked. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Oh, right. I was misled into thinking that there was an articulation of principle in that op-ed, as opposed to a crafty assemblage of sophisms meant to throw sand in peoples eyes.

Let me take another look to see why I was led astray.

Trumps op-ed begins with historians precision, launching with a date and place. On Saturday, April 9, Colorado had an election without voters. The people of Colorado, we are told, were not able to cast their ballots in this election.

Then we get a new paragraph with a new fact, this one not introduced with a date. A planned vote had been canceled. The necessary impression made on any reader without full information is that the date identifier that opened the previous paragraph applies to this new fact, too. What! the reader thinks. The Colorado GOP canceled its primary vote a week or two ago and decided to keep the delegate selection process in-house?

Thus the author of the piece  and Trump clearly has a decent writer in his stable for the first time  sparks the outrage he or she hopes to stir up, by acting as if the story is being told in accordance with a precise chronology when that is not the case.

The second paragraph requires a second date: August 2015. The Colorado GOP made its decision not to hold its caucus straw poll last summer, far too early to be reasonably considered an effort to block Trump. The failure to include this particular date in the op-ed is a clever rhetorical trick.

The same impression of a vote canceled only recently is repeated when, again, without providing the August date and context, Trumps op-ed asserts, No one forced anyone to cancel the vote in Colorado. Political insiders made a choice to cancel it. Ummm . . . not quite. There was never a statewide primary vote scheduled in the first place. There was a caucus, which was held, and a decision  made in August  not to use a presidential preference poll at that caucus.

Traditionally, the straw poll at the Colorado caucus hasnt bound Colorados GOP delegates to particular candidates. A Republican National Committee rule change now requires that even straw polls at caucuses bind delegates, and the Colorado GOP wasnt ready to scrap its long-standing traditions. It decided to scrap the straw poll instead and to focus on the traditional heart of its process, which is its delegate elections. All registered Republicans were eligible to vote in that process. None was sidelined.

Yet Trumps op-ed escalates to Casablanca-esque high dudgeon: Responsible leaders should be shocked by the idea that party officials can simply cancel elections in America if they dont like what the voters may decide. Well, again, Colorado Republicans held their traditional elections, and one might criticize them for their long-standing commitment to a process other than a broad primary, but they did let voters decide. They cant reasonably be compared to parents who say, Kids, Ive decided not to buy you ice cream because I dont like the flavors you may pick.

The prose implies that the Colorado GOP brought back the smoke-filled backroom, and thats just false. Only the op-eds unacknowledged, opening conflation of August and April events makes it possible for the author to sustain this false impression.

A few more paragraphs then lead us from high dudgeon to the principle that were supposed to take as being at the heart of Trumps complaint about Colorado: Delegates are supposed to reflect the decisions of voters. And this is interesting. This principle has some force, but not in the direction that Trump desires. The only delegates at the Cleveland convention who will act in a first vote in ways that dont reflect the decisions of voters are delegates from winner-take-all states  delegates currently bound to Trump in Florida and Arizona, for instance.

Mr. Trump, are you willing to put your money where your mouth is and hand over your extra winner-take-all delegates to the opponents whose voters said they wanted them, not you? No? Oh, right, because then youd have to think of principle as something other than a gilded decoration pasted onto a trumped-up accusation.
Compared with the ferocious fractiousness of the Republican campaign, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are operating by rules inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, the gentle, animal-loving holy man whom Pat Buchanan once derided as the pacifist with the pigeons.

But with the GOP setting a very high standard for political brutality, thats not saying much.

Any doubt that Clinton and Sanders are fed up with each other was put to rest in Thursdays debate. In big block type, the New York Daily News proclaimed them Brooklyn Brawlers. They went at each other as if there would be no tomorrow after New York voted. Thats pretty much true.

You sensed from Sanderss aggressiveness that he knows hes on the edge of effective elimination. If he does win on Tuesday, hed throw the Democratic race into turmoil and make Clintons path to the nomination much rockier. A Clinton victory in New York, which polls suggest is more likely, would all but seal the deal for her.

So its time to ask: Will both candidates now acknowledge that the differences between them are minor compared with the philosophical chasm that separates them from any of their potential Republican foes?

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders reunited in Brooklyn, N.Y. on April 14 for a contentious CNN debate ahead of the New York primary. Here are the most contentious moments from that debate. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

The issue of particular contention between the two Democrats is, paradoxically, the one that shows how far both are from the GOP: what to do about the financial system.

Sanders wants to break up the big banks, seeing anything short of this as selling out. Clinton argues that breaking them up wont solve the financial systems problems and wont touch the many nonbank institutions that helped cause the crash that led to the Great Recession. Instead, she proposes much tougher regulation.

Their underlying argument is more than a century old, reprising an internecine progressive fight that goes back to the 1912 election. It was an American classic when the Republican Party split into two: The relatively conservative incumbent president, William Howard Taft, secured the partys nomination; former President Theodore Roosevelt walked out and formed the Progressive Party. Two other progressive candidates, Democrat Woodrow Wilson and Socialist Eugene Debs, rounded out the most remarkable field of candidates American voters were ever offered.

Although Sanders reveres Debs and has a medallion commemorating him in his Senate office, his position on the banks is closer to Wilsons approach to monopoly. Proclaiming his devotion to a New Freedom, Wilson wanted more aggressive antitrust actions and warned, Sanders-like, that the country was nearing the time when the combined power of high finance would be greater than the power of the government.

Roosevelt, arguing for a New Nationalism, saw economic concentration as inevitable and believed Wilsons approach was naive. He saw stronger government regulation of large entities as more likely to secure both justice and efficiency. When it comes to the world of finance, Clinton is the TR candidate this year.

Ive always been sympathetic to Roosevelts side in that argument, but the larger point is that Sanders and Clinton (like Wilson and Roosevelt before them) both see government as playing an important role in checking concentrated economic power and preventing abuses of the system.

And the Republicans? Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich would all reduce government supervision of the financial system by repealing the Dodd-Frank reforms. Clinton and Sanders are arguing about what needs to be done. The Republicans want to do less altogether.

Or take health care. Clinton and Sanders have battled fiercely about how to move forward from Obamacare, but both want to build on its successes. Republicans would repeal it. The two Democrats have squabbled about how much the minimum wage should go up; the Republicans all oppose a federal minimum wage increase. Such party differences are multiplied across a broad field of issues.

At a time when ideological polarization between the parties is so high, such contrasts should be obvious. But the bad blood between many of Sanderss supporters and Clinton obscures the stakes and presents Democrats with a special challenge.

Their victories (compare 2008 with 2010, or 2012 with 2014) depend on high participation among younger voters, who are turned on to Sanders and, in many cases, turned off to Clinton. The pro-Sanders young are unlikely to vote Republican, but if too many stay home in November, much of what Sanders and Clinton believe in could be consigned to the dustbin.

Thats why the day after New York, the Brooklyn Brawlers would do well to sit down over a couple of Brooklyn Brewery ales and figure out a way forward.

Read more from E.J. Dionnes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Almost everyone agrees that Americas income tax is too complex. Considering this, you might expect that simplifying the income tax would be a slam dunk. Sure enough, the various presidential candidates have proposed sweeping overhauls. But any agreement is mostly rhetorical. The odds that the next president  whoever it is  will engineer genuine tax simplification are negligible. In the wake of another Tax Day, its worth pondering why.

Make no mistake: I think wed be better off with a simpler system. By this, I mean a system with a broader tax base and lower rates. Id eliminate most tax preferences and cut the top personal rate (now 43.4 percent) to 30 percent. There would be no preferential rate on dividends, interest and capital gains (profits on the sale of stocks, bonds and other assets)  income enjoyed mostly by the upper middle class and the wealthy. Theyd pay as much or more in taxes as today.

Here are some tax preferences (a.k.a. loopholes or subsidies) Id repeal along with government estimates of how much tax revenues would rise in 2016:

 The exclusion from taxable income of employer-paid health insurance ($211 billion).

 The deductibility of state and local taxes ($84 billion).

 The deductibility of mortgage interest ($62 billion).

 The deduction for charitable contributions ($54 billion).

 The partial tax-free status of Social Security ($40 billion).

In total, the income tax would raise as much revenue as it does now, but top rates would be lower and preferences fewer. If more money were needed to close budget deficits (as is likely), Id slowly introduce a carbon tax. Still, I would keep two big tax preferences, because they advance crucial national goals.

The first is the earned-income tax credit (EITC), which is a federal wage subsidy for low-income workers. Its a better way than the minimum wage of rewarding people for connecting to the labor market. The second exception would be tax-favored retirement accounts: IRAs and 401(k)s. By the time people reach their 40s or 50s, most realize they should have been saving for retirement. Tax-favored accounts give a nudge to people in their 20s and 30s.

The resulting tax system would be a vast improvement over todays. It would be simpler, fairer and more efficient. It wont happen.

Glance at my list of targeted tax preferences, and you can understand why. If proposed, comprehensive tax simplification would trigger a firestorm of complaints. Workers would have to pay taxes on employer-provided health insurance; theyd scream. Home builders and homeowners would denounce the loss of the mortgage-interest-rate deduction. Real estate values would be affected. Churches and colleges would protest ending the charitable deduction. Retirees would object to making all Social Security income taxable.

With the deadline for filing taxes quickly approaching, here are five things you can do to get the most out of your tax return. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

The truth is that these tax preferences have woven themselves into the nations social and economic fabric. Removing them would be disruptive and unpopular. Even if Congress accepted that, there would probably be complex transition rules. For a while, the tax code might become more complicated. But of course, Congress wouldnt end most tax preferences, because the benefits of doing so are diffuse and obscure.

I believe that lower marginal tax rates should promote faster economic growth by encouraging greater work effort and investment. But as White House economist Jason Furman has noted, the effect is hard to measure and could be quite small  not large enough, he argues, to justify the dislocations of purging the tax code of most preferences. My view is that simplification is worth doing even if the effect on economic growth is zero. It would get the White House and Congress out of the business of using the tax code to reward and punish various behaviors and causes. People and firms would act based more on underlying motives, not tax benefits.

The trouble with my view is that the White House and Congress want to use the tax code to reward and punish. This enhances their power; relinquishing it reduces their power. We know this from history. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 followed the dictum of lowering rates by broadening the tax base. It was a commendable achievement, a rare example of bipartisanship. President Resagan supported it, as did many Democratic and Republican congressional leaders. It might have, if followed by similar laws, transformed the tax code.

But it wasnt. Instead, President Clinton sabotaged it by raising the top rate and peddling new tax breaks. This spirit is alive and well among Democrats. By contrast, Republicans are hypocrites. Theyd rather attack the Internal Revenue Service than undertake the hard political work of making the IRSs job easier.

Accountants and tax lawyers jobs are safe. Our hideously complex tax code has staying power. It survives not because it serves the nations best interest, but because it placates so many groups that make up the nation.

Read more from Robert Samuelsons archive.
For someone who preaches the importance of diplomacy and outreach, even to longtime enemies, President Obama can be awfully tough on his friends.

In recent months, he has offended most of the United States Persian Gulf allies. All I need in the Middle East is a few smart autocrats, he joked privately, according to a recent profile in the Atlantic magazine. Publicly, he has said he weeps for Saudi and Kuwaiti children.

The United States European allies, he complains, have grown too dependent on American firepower to keep them safe.

Even the United Kingdom, a U.S. special partner, has received criticism. Obama seemed to blame the postwar chaos in Libya on British Prime Minister David Cameron, who he said became distracted by other things and didnt do enough to bring order to the fractious country.

[The real loser in Barack Obamas worldview? David Cameron.]

In the next several weeks, Obama will take a series of overseas trips to firm up U.S. alliances and help set the presidents foreign policy legacy. The first of the trips begins Tuesday with stops in Saudi Arabia, Britain and Germany, where the president will tackle an ambitious agenda that includes battling the Islamic State, constraining Iran, sustaining support for sanctions against Russia and warding off a British exit from the European Union.

One big challenge for Obama will be squaring the careful diplomatic rhetoric thats a standard, and frequently stultifying, part of all presidential visits with his tougher, more honest language from interviews back home.

Leaders are going to have to deal with that dichotomy, said Heather Conley, a former State Department official and a Europe analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and I dont believe its going to be very easy.

Even before he became president, Obama introduced himself to the world as a multilateralist who aimed to solve the thorny problems of the 21st century collaboratively. True partnership and true progress . . . require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other, Obama told adoring crowds in Berlin in 2008.

He followed up that speech one year later in Cairo by quoting verses from the Koran, acknowledging Americas mistakes and calling for a new partnership with the Muslim world based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.

Seven years later, the soaring, optimistic language of those early speeches has long since been subsumed by the messy reality of war and diplomacy. Obama has not been able to forge a close rapport with many world leaders.

The presidents cold-eyed view was apparent last year after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly by two militant gunmen. World leaders from Germany, France and Britain marched through the streets of Paris with longtime adversaries such as the Israeli prime minister and the head of the Palestinian Authority. No senior official from the United States marched with the European leaders, prompting a rare apology from the White House.

Ive never heard that Obama has a personal relationship with any of them, said Xenia Wickett, head of the Americas program at the London-based think tank Chatham House. It is neither hot nor cold. There is no personal relationship.

[Opinion: Obamas revolt against the foreign-policy establishment]

For Britons especially, thats a break from a long history of starry-eyed relationships between leaders across the Atlantic. Roosevelt and Churchill. Reagan and Thatcher. Bush and Blair. Obama, the mixed-race child of a single mother, and Cameron, a stockbrokers son with royal lineage, have never had the same kind of personal chemistry.

Obamas cool relations with European leaders is partly a product of his style  even in Washington, the president is known for his frosty relationship with fellow Democrats and big donors. He disdains neediness and sometimes struggles to empathize with allies. Its also a product of an era in which Western leaders have been focused inwardly on domestic politics.

Who are Camerons close relationships with? Who are Merkels? Or Hollandes? Wickett asked, referring to the British, German and French leaders. Were just not as focused on one another in the same way that we might have been historically.

One big question is whether Obamas lack of personal ties to his fellow world leaders is hindering his foreign policy. The primary cause of the strain between Obama and Arab allies is rooted in big differences over how to deal with the collapse of autocratic governments and huge refugee flows.

The United States Persian Gulf allies have lambasted Obama for not doing enough to confront Iranian aggression or to stop Syrias bloody civil war. This policy has led to increased chaos and bloodshed, Nawaf Obaid, special counselor to the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom from 2011 to 2015, wrote recently in the National Interest magazine.

The presidents tough, and unprecedented, critique of longtime Arab allies has not helped in the search for common ground. Nor has the bitter and divisive presidential campaign in which all of the major Republican presidential candidates have called for barring the refugees of Syria or other majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States.

Its clear that the presidents cerebral, dispassionate approach isnt well suited to the gulf leaders, said Perry Cammack, a former State Department official in the Obama administration and associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The end of the Obama administration cant come quickly enough for these leaders.

In Europe, where Obama remains popular with the public, his tough-love approach has been less of a handicap. A Pew Research Center survey last year showed that about three-quarters or more of voters across France, Germany and Britain trusted Obama to do the right thing  a lofty status that is down only slightly from his first year in office.

Often, Obama seems a bit bored by issues on the continent. Still, Europeans like Obamas deliberative, rational, technocratic style. He looks and smells like a European, Wickett said.

When Obama appeared to lash out at Cameron in the Atlantic magazine article, saying the British leader had become distracted after the Western air campaign in Libya, the remarks fed a few days of headlines in Britain.

But the controversy quickly faded, and the close cooperation between the two governments moved forward without a hiccup.

The so-called special relationship isnt about how Thatcher and Reagan get on, said Walter Ladwig, a professor at Kings College London. When you get under the hood of intelligence networks, for instance, in some respects the British and American operations are inseparable. And that kind of cooperation continues irrespective of whether Barack and Dave are grilling hot dogs together.

Still, when Obama is standing with the Saudi king, the British prime minister or the German chancellor, talking about their countries enduring alliance, its possible that some may be thinking back to an interview the president did late last year with comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

How many world leaders do you think are just completely out of their mind? Seinfeld asked Obama.

A sizable percentage, the president replied without missing a beat. Some of these people, you meet them, youll just be chatting and you look in the eyes and go, Oh, this guys gone. 

Witte reported from London.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump told supporters at Trump Tower in Manhattan that his campaign is "really, really rocking," after coming out ahead in New York's primary April 19. Rival Ted Cruz appeared to still be hopeful, telling Pennsylvania voters, "This is the year of the outsider. I'm an outsider." (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Republican front-runner Donald Trump told supporters at Trump Tower in Manhattan that his campaign is "really, really rocking," after coming out ahead in New York's primary April 19. Rival Ted Cruz appeared to still be hopeful, telling Pennsylvania voters, "This is the year of the outsider. I'm an outsider." (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump is the projected winner of the New York Republican primary and Hillary Clinton is the projected winner of the Democratic primary, according to exit polls and early returns.

The Associated Press called the race for the party front-runners after polls closed at 9 p.m. ET, with Trumps projected win called almost immediately, and Clintons at 9:45 p.m. The victories help Trump and Clinton solidify their leads at a time when both are beginning to talk more about the general election.

Trumps victory puts him closer to clinching the GOP nomination and should at least temporarily quell speculation that he will fall short of the votes needed before the July convention.

Clinton held a comfortable lead throughout the campaign and her victory makes it near-mathematically impossible for Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) to overtake her lead in the race for convention delegates.

Today you proved once again, theres no place like home, Clinton told a raucous crowd of supporters gathered in Manhattan.

Nearby, at his Trump Tower, Trump greeted supporters in the lobby of his famed building flanked by his family.

This has been an amazing week, he said, noting that he is scheduled to campaign in Indiana, which votes next month, and will head to Pennsylvania in the coming days.

We dont have much of a race anymore based on what Im seeing on television, he added, gesturing to a nearby screen showing race results.

Polls had shown Clinton and Trump leading by double-digit margins in a state with a vastly diverse backdrop, stretching from the riches of Wall Street and suburban Westchester County to the struggles of industrial cities upstate like Watervliet and Watertown.

A big win for Trump brings him closer to securing an outright majority of Republican delegates  an outcome that remains in jeopardy and has prompted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) to mount a spirited, methodical campaign to force a contested convention.

A Clinton victory provides momentum after a blitz of recent primary and caucus wins for Sanders. Unlike Trump, she is so far ahead in the delegate count that it would be nearly impossible for Sanders to catch her.

While the party front-runners spent much of the day in New York, Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich on the GOP side and Sanders in the Democratic race stumped for votes in Maryland and Pennsylvania, which will hold primaries next week.

1 of 33 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  What it looks like on the ground in New York for the primary election View Photos New York voters head to the polls for the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries. Caption New York voters headed to the polls Tuesday for the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries. April 19, 2016 After winning the New York primary, Hillary Clinton speaks to a packed room of supporters during the victory party at the Sheraton Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Melina Mara/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

[6 things to watch in New Yorks primary tonight]

Early exit poll results in New York showed that Trump was poised for a commanding victory thanks to a less conservative electorate that favors an outsider in the White House.

A clear majority of New York Republican voters  seven in ten  said the party should nominate the leading candidate regardless of whether they achieve an absolute majority of convention delegates, according to exit poll results reported by CNN.

Trump has struggled among the most conservative Republicans this year, but in his home state he won more than six in ten of both very and somewhat conservative voters, far more than his competitors Kasich and Cruz, who won less than three in ten conservative supporters each. While moderate and liberal Republicans have typically been one of Trumps best groups, he split this group with Kasich about evenly in early exit poll data with just over 40 percent support for each.

Most GOP primary voters also said they want the next president to hail from outside the political establishment. If that figure holds, it would mark the highest level of support for a political outsider in Republican contests this year.

Among Democrats, non-white primary voters made up a larger share of this years electorate, and Clinton led Sanders by 67 to 33 points among this group in preliminary exit polls reported by CNN, but her margin was slightly smaller than previous contests this year, where shes led by an average of 41 points. Among white voters, Sanders led Clinton by just two percentage points in preliminary data.

New Yorks primary allowed only registered Democrats and Republicans to participate in the contest, and the exit polls suggest that requirement played strongly to Clintons benefit. Fully 83 percent of Democratic primary voters said they typically consider themselves Democrats, 10 points higher than the average so far this year and trailing only Mississippi. Clinton won self-identified Democrats by a 61 to 39 percent margin. Sanders won nearly three-quarters of independents, but they accounted for only 14 percent of the electorate, similar to 12 percent in 2008.

Tuesdays vote signaled stronger unity among Democrats than Republicans. At least six in ten New York Democratic primary voters said they would definitely support either Clinton or Sanders as the partys nominee, according to preliminary exit poll data reported by ABC News. But about half of Republicans said they would definitely support Trump, while roughly a quarter would support Cruz, and three in ten would support Kasich.

[Trumps field director steps aside]

Trump spent the evening at Trump Tower in Manhattan, where he lives and works. While several hundred reporters gathered in the pink marble lobby for his appearance, guests dressed in cocktail attire took the escalator downstairs to a party in the buildings food court.

Trumps campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, told reporters that his team is already looking ahead to the burst of nominating contests next week in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

I think the Cruz campaign is going to be mathematically eliminated from the nomination a week from tonight, Lewandowski said. If the results go well tonight, he has to win 95 percent of the remaining delegates moving forward, which is almost an impossible task. I think its time to unite around Donald Trump, hes the only person who can win the nomination, hes the only person who can get the delegates, hes the only one who can expand the map moving into the general election.

When asked about the campaigns sudden and dramatic restructuring, which has shifted power away from Lewandowski, the campaign manager replied: Were growing, baby.

[Trumps shift to more-seasoned staffers is a key inflection point for bid]

In New York City, the Board of Elections conceded that tens of thousands of Brooklyn voters had been purged from the voter rolls and residents complained about problems at polling sites across the city. Angered by the news, city officials announced plans to audit the agency and New York Mayor Bill be Blasio said he wanted the problems fixed in time for congressional primaries scheduled in June.

Despite the troubles, many New Yorkers celebrated their newfound relevance Tuesday, even if they have grown a bit weary of the barrage of ads on the airwaves in recent weeks.

Its nice. I feel like our vote usually doesnt count, said Sunita Ray, 41, who voted for Clinton in Midtown Manhattan. Still, she said she will not miss some aspects of the heated primary campaign. The ads were a little annoying.

[Clinton asks New Yorkers to make primary a referendum on Trump]

On Tuesday night, hundreds of upbeat Clinton supporters gathered in a Midtown Manhattan ballroom for her victory party. They danced to a live band and DJ as they waited for results to roll in. When news networks called the race for Clinton, the band played Another One Bites the Dust by the band Queen, and Signed, Sealed, Delivered by Stevie Wonder.

Aaron Leth, 30, has been a Clinton fan since he was a 6-year-old from Nebraska sending letters to the first lady in the White House.

Shes gonna win. Its her home territory, she knows it, Leth said as he danced to the live band.

Throughout the campaign, Leth says he has seen Clinton become more relaxed and rise to the occasion.

I feel like she stayed true to what she believes, Leth said.

Leth said he thinks that the primary continues well into June for a reason, and that Sanders has every right to remain in the race: The people are speaking.

Clinton cast her own vote in Chappaqua in suburban New York, where supporters had waited outside with signs and buttons. She later flew to Washington to address the North Americas Building Trades Unions (NABTU) legislative conference before returning to New York City.

Sanders, who has been trailing throughout the contest, played down his prospects in New York, citing the states closed primary.

At a rally at Pennsylvania State University before the polls closed in New York, he told a crowd in a packed field house that he was going to do a lot better there than people thought, despite a number of obstacles.

Were going to do just fine tonight in New York, Sanders told more than 6,600 people in State College, mostly college students, according to a figure supplied by the venue.

Angered by the closed primary, Sanders said New York officials need to make some fundamental changes about how they do business.

Sanders also said it was absurd that polls in upstate New York did not open until noon, a time that makes it impossible for some working-class voters to participate.

Like Sanders, Cruz braced for a loss in New York, polling behind not only Trump in recent surveys but also Kasich, whose only primary victory so far came in his home state. The loss came after a string of victories in Western states.

Campaigning in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, Cruz unveiled a new campaign stump speech, telling a crowd at the National Constitution Center that this is the year of the outsider.

I am an outsider, Bernie Sanders is an outsider, he added. Both with the same diagnosis, but both with very different paths to healing. Millions of Americans have chosen one of these outsiders. Our campaigns dont find our fuel in bundlers and special interests, but rather directly from the people.

Cruz planned to meet Tuesday night with dozens of Republicans running to serve as national convention delegates at the Cleveland convention. On Wednesday, he is scheduled to campaign in Hershey, Pa.

Phillip and Johnson reported from New York and OKeefe from Washington. John Wagner in State College, Pa., Sean Sullivan in Philadelphia, Jose A. Del Real in New York and Scott Clement, Juliet Eilperin and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.
Jenny Rey, 3, right, sits on the shoulders of her father, Alejandro Rey of Austin, outside the Supreme Court on April 17. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

The conservative justices on the Supreme Court gave little indication Monday that they were inclined to fully revive President Obamas stalled plan to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation and give them the right to work legally in this country.

Instead, the courts conservatives and liberals seemed split while hearing a challenge to the plan, and a 4-to-4 tie would leave in place a lower courts decision that the president exceeded his powers in issuing the directive.

That would close Obamas presidency with perhaps his biggest legal loss and leave in limbo about 4 million undocumented immigrants whom the initiative was intended to help: those who have been in the country since 2010, have committed no serious crimes, and have family ties to U.S. citizens or others lawfully in the country.

In questions and comments over 90 minutes, the Obama administration did not receive support from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. or Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, seen as most likely among the four conservatives to let the program proceed.

But Mondays oral arguments may not tell the whole story. Once the justices debate the case behind closed doors, they could be motivated to search for a compromise to avoid the image of a court at an impasse after the February death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

President Obama's executive order would allow more than 4 million undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. for three years, but the Supreme Court could strike it down. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

One possibility might be for the court to recognize the presidents authority to set priorities on whom to deport but to limit the impact of such a designation on an immigrants ability to receive work authorization or become eligible for government benefits.

GOP-led states and Republican members of Congress say the presidents November 2014 guidance on deportation states that those with deferred deportation are lawfully present in the United States. That term opens a number of opportunities and government benefits to them, according to Texas and 25 other states that have objected to the plan.

But Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., representing the administration, denied that the language was legally significant; it would be more accurate to say the government is tolerating their presence, he said.

If the court thinks its a problem and wants to put a red pencil through it . . . its totally fine, Verrilli said.

Roberts tried that out on Erin E. Murphy, a lawyer for the U.S. House of Representatives, who was given time to argue against the administrations policy.

Why dont we just cross out lawfully present, as the SG has suggested? Roberts asked.

You cant cross it out and achieve what the president intends, Murphy said. Whatever one calls it, the administration means for those whose deportations are deferred to be able to legally work and receive government benefits, she said.

In the arguments, the court showed a familiar divide in confronting a fundamental tension of Obamas tenure: whether the president is correctly using the substantial powers of his office to break through political gridlock, or whether he has ignored constitutional boundaries to unilaterally impose policies that should require congressional acquiescence.

[Heres who will be affected by this immigration case]

But the future of the program depends on who takes Obamas place. Republican presidential candidates have vowed to revoke it. Democrats have pledged to expand it.

The immigration program, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), would allow illegal immigrants in the affected categories to remain in the country and apply for work permits if they have been here at least five years and have not committed felonies or repeated misdemeanors. Obama announced the executive action in November 2014 after House Republicans did not act on comprehensive immigration reform.

The administration says the program is a way for a government with limited resources to prioritize which illegal immigrants it will deport. As a practical matter, the government has never deported more than 500,000 undocumented immigrants per year and often sends home far fewer than that.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in agreement: Inevitably, priorities have to be set.

Added Justice Sonia Sotomayor: So they are here, whether we want them or not.

Thats correct, Verrilli said, and so the administration decided it would be better to have them be able to work legally.

[400,000 in Los Angeles could be shielded from deportation if justices give green light]

But Kennedy saw the action as doing much more than that. It seemed, he said, that the president is setting the policy and the Congress is executing it. Thats just upside down.

And Roberts said the administration saw no limit to Obamas authority.

Under your argument, could the president grant deferred removal to every . . . unlawfully present alien in the United States right now? he asked Verrilli.

Definitely not, Verrilli replied.

But Roberts did not seem convinced by Verrillis reference to specific undocumented immigrants whom Congress has said must be immediately removed, such as those who have committed crimes or are apprehended at the border.

Texas Solicitor General Scott A. Keller called Obamas program an unprecedented, unlawful assertion of executive power and added that DAPA would be one of the largest changes in immigration policy in our nations history.

Sotomayor stopped him. How can you say that? she asked, noting that previous presidents have also protected specific groups from deportation.

The liberal justices seemed to agree with the administrations contention that the states have no legal standing to sue, because it is up to the federal government to set immigration policy, and that the Department of Homeland Security did not violate federal statutes in devising the program.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer was most skeptical of Texass argument that it had standing to sue because of a state law requiring it to provide drivers licenses to those authorized to work. He said it could lead to a flood of litigation on other matters.

Verrilli said Texas could be relieved of what it sees as its burden in other ways. But Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said the government would insist that the immigrants who receive deferred deportation have access to drivers licenses if offered to others.

You would sue them, wouldnt you? Roberts asked Verrilli.

At the beginning of the legal fight, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen agreed with the state that, because it would face a financial cost in providing drivers licenses to those covered by the new program, Texas had standing to challenge the initiative.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld that decision on a 2-to-1 vote. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith rejected the administrations argument that DAPA was a form of prosecutorial discretion in which a government with limited resources sets priorities for enforcement.

The program, Smith wrote, is much more than nonenforcement: It would affirmatively confer lawful presence and associated benefits on a class of unlawfully present aliens. Though revocable, that change in designation would trigger eligibility for federal and state benefits that would not otherwise be available to illegal aliens.

The court granted time in the arguments to hear from the House of Representatives and from three Jane Does from Texas who would be eligible.

Murphy, representing the House, said even Obama did not originally think he possessed the power to take the action.

Three years ago, the executive asked Congress to enact legislation that would have given it the power to authorize most of the people that are living in this country unlawfully to stay, work and receive benefits, and Congress declined, she said. Now the executive comes before this court with the extraordinary claim that it has had the power all along.

Thomas A. Saenz of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund represented the Jane Does.

They seek the opportunity to apply for discretionary, temporary and revocable relief from the daily fear that they will be separated from their families and detained or removed from their homes under the current nonuniform and frequently arbitrary federal immigration enforcement system, he said.

The case is U.S. v. Texas .
Pete Gonzalez, 31, who led a rally Friday in front the Miami-Dade County Government Center, said he went from apathetic to community organizer. (Bruce Stanley)

For Pete Gonzalez, the turning point came last year after hed watched too many episodes of The Daily Show skewering politicians for their dependence on rich donors.

Its clear that money is completely corrupting politics, and we need to step it up, said Gonzalez, 31, who lives in Coral Gables, Fla.

So last week Gonzalez, an account manager at an insurance brokerage, dressed up as a $100 bill and led a rally in front of the Miami-Dade County Government Center, calling on the Dade County Commission to require local candidates to disclose more about their backers.

I went from apathetic to community organizer, Gonzalez said.

A backlash against monied interests in politics that has buoyed the White House bids of Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) is reverberating far beyond the presidential race. The huge sums swamping campaigns have prompted voters to appeal to city halls and state capitols, hoping to curb the influence of wealthy donors in their communities.

Supporters of the activist group Democracy Spring, which protested for a week at the Capitol to end the corruption of big money in our politics, stage a sit-in Friday in Washington. (Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency)

Sunday brought one of the largest public protests against big money, drawing thousands to the Mall. But similar, if smaller, efforts have been playing out across the country on a regular basis.

In Chicago, Sharon Sanders, a retired special-education teacher, is working to build support for a small-donor matching program for city elections. In Cocoa, Fla., Melissa Martin, a former Marine Corps staff judge advocate, is urging her five-member city council to pass a resolution supporting anti-corruption legislation. In Seattle, high school biology teacher Jonathan Tong helped collect thousands of signatures for a November state ballot initiative supporting a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Courts Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which has made it easier for corporations and wealthy donors to spend unlimited money on politics.

I wanted to stand up for my students and my two high-school-age daughters, said Tong, who added that he devotes his free time to the issue. I want them to have the democracy that they deserve.

[The new Gilded Age: Close to half of all super PAC money comes from 50 donors]

The focus of the community efforts varies. Some are pursuing resolutions condemning Citizens United, hoping to amass enough opposition in the states to be able to eventually secure a constitutional amendment. Others in states including Arizona and Arkansas are pushing for fuller disclosure of campaign contributions and stricter ethics rules for lobbyists.

The growing number of local efforts means that politicians at every level of government are contending with voters who believe that their voices are being drowned out by those with more resources.

People are talking about it, said Chris Narveson, town chairman of New Glarus, Wis.  population 1,400  which will vote on an anti-Citizens United resolution in November. There is even money going into local races that used to be, you just show up and talk. Now you see paid signs going up.

Supporters of the activist group Democracy Spring unfurl a banner at the Capitol. (Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency)

David Bossie, president of Citizens United, the conservative advocacy group that spurred the Supreme Court decision, said President Obama and other Democrats have used demagoguery to stir up opposition to the case. The anger is misplaced, he said.

Hedge-fund billionaires such as George Soros and other incredibly wealthy leftists have been participating in the process for a long time, long before the Citizens United decision came along, Bossie said. Thats free speech. My answer to speech I do not agree with is more speech.

But activists trying to reduce the influence of wealthy donors said the ground-level efforts show that there is momentum to change the campaign finance landscape.

We are seeing lots and lots of people at the local level not waiting for Washington to act, taking matters into their own hands, said David Donnelly, president of the advocacy group Every Voice. It seems like people have gotten to the point where they are fed up and they are not going to take it anymore.

[Meet the wealthy donors who are funneling millions into the 2016 elections]

Much of the organizing is being done by offshoots of national groups such as Common Cause, Represent.Us and United to Amend, which have seized on increasing voter awareness about money in politics. But there are also independent endeavors, such as in California, where Republican businessman John Cox has spent $1 million trying to get a measure on the ballot in November that would require legislators to wear NASCAR-style logos of their biggest donors.

His team has collected 260,000 signatures  more than half the number required.

Everyone understands the rich, the big businesses, the labor unions control politics, Cox said. What Im hoping to do is ignite a movement based upon ridiculing the absurdity of this system.

Activists say there is evidence of a groundswell. In Wisconsin, a group of United to Amend supporters has spent the past several years taking its anti-Citizens United message from town to town, asking voters to support a resolution calling for the decision to be overturned.

In the 72 communities it has approached, each has passed the resolution by wide margins  including 11 this month. Eventually, the group hopes to build enough local support to place a statewide referendum on the ballot.

This is going to take a movement as big as suffrage or civil rights, said George Penn, 64, of Madison, who shut down his renewable-energy consultancy in 2012 to focus on the effort full time.

Much of the work is being driven by volunteers new to political activism, such as Ray Spellman, a former tractor dealer and civil engineer, who went door to door in his rural town, Darlington, Wis., gathering the 200 signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot. On April 5, it passed with 81 percent of the vote.

Its just energized our local community, said Spellman, 65. No matter anyones political affiliation or level of activism, they get this at a gut level. Everybody understands money, and they understand that if you or I or a politician take money, you are obligated to the source of that money.

[Voters are mad about mega-donors, and its helping Trump and Sanders]

The anti-big-money rhetoric in the presidential campaign has mobilized some new activists, such as Sara Joehnk, 28, who lives outside Phoenix and is working to help get an initiative on the state ballot that would bolster Arizonas public financing system.

It really was Bernie Sanders who got me interested, Joehnk said.

But for others, the cause has nothing to do with presidential politics.

In Cocoa, Fla., Martin said she was moved to act after realizing that the ethics code she followed in the military was far more stringent than the one that applies to her state and local officials.

I was a bit appalled by what could happen in government, she said. In between home-schooling her three sons, Martin researched organizations seeking to toughen lobbying rules and decided to form a local chapter of Represent.Us.

In November, the 39-year-old political independent went to a public meeting of the Cocoa City Council and asked the members to pass a resolution supporting legislation that would curtail special interests. The council directed city staffers to draft a measure, and Martin is hopeful that it will come to a vote in the next few weeks.

Her next step: bringing in new people to expand her groups reach.

The main thing to ensure that the movement is nonpartisan, Martin said. This is really an American thing.
Two buses burst into flames during Monday afternoons rush hour after an explosive device was detonated in one of the vehicles. More than 20 people were injured, two seriously, in what security officials called a terrorist attack.

Israeli police said a bomb was responsible for the fire, which consumed one bus and badly damaged the second, smashing its windows and shredding its metal skin. An hour after the explosion, the bus with the bomb was a smoldering, blackened shell.

The explosion on a public bus immediately brought back memories of the Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, when bus bombings and suicide attacks were common.

Brachie Sprung, a spokeswoman for the Jerusalem mayor, told Reuters that the explosive device was small, but it was definitely a bomb. Israeli police declined to describe the device.

Israeli officials said they were investigating how the device got on the bus, who planted it and how it was detonated. They promised the investigation would move forward rapidly as police look through surveillance tapes and other evidence, including the identities of injured passengers.

Israelis have been hopeful that a six-month wave of Palestinian attacks was subsiding. There had been just three attacks in April, compared with 20 in March and 78 in October, when the current surge in assaults began.

We will reach the perpetrators and those who support them and ensure those who stand behind it are held accountable, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Daniel Katzenstein, a medic who arrived at the scene while the buses were still burning, said that it was eerily familiar from the days of the bus bombings more than a decade ago. He said the victims were being rushed to hospitals, suffering from burns, lacerations and shrapnel wounds. It was mayhem, he said.

Bus bombings were a hallmark of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, from 2000 to 2005, and many people did all they could to avoid using public transportation. About 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians were killed during the uprising.

The violence of recent months has left many Israelis  and Palestinians, too  anxious and exhausted.

Just hours before news of the bus bombing broke, the Israeli military announced it had discovered and destroyed an offensive tunnel dug by the Islamist militant movement Hamas. The tunnel stretched from the Gaza Strip into Israel. It was the first to be uncovered since the end of the 2014 Gaza war between Israel and Hamas.

Also Monday, military prosecutors formally charged an Israeli soldier with manslaughter in the killing of a prone Palestinian attacker  an act caught on video.

Israeli human rights activists decried the killing as an execution, but many Israelis have defended the shooting as justified or called it a mistake that should have been dealt with as an infraction.

Military prosecutors, however, say the shooting was a serious breach. Sgt. Elor Azaria, 19, shot the Palestinian, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, in the head as he lay on his back in the street in Hebron felled by six bullets, wounded but still alive.

In a small crowded courtroom in Jafa, the prosecutor read aloud from an indictment that stated that Azaria fired in violation of rules of engagement and without operational justification, while al-Sharif lay wounded on the ground . . . and did not pose immediate and clear threat to the defendant, civilians or soldiers in the area.

Azarias defense attorneys countered that their client suspected that Sharif was concealing a suicide vest.

One of his attorneys, Eyal Besserglick, said his client felt a real and present danger to his life and those around him.

He doesnt deserve to be one day in jail, Besserglick said. He was acting in self-defense.

Supporters of the solider are planning a large rally, with music and speeches, in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night. Many Israelis have described Azaria as a hero.

Military prosecutors have collected evidence that Azaria initially mentioned nothing about fearing for his life. Instead, he told fellow soldiers at the scene that Sharif deserves to die.

The last soldier to be successfully prosecuted for manslaughter was sentenced to eight years in 2005 for shooting a British peace activist in Gaza in 2003.

Read more:

Watch: Israeli soldier caught on video fatally shooting wounded Palestinian attacker

Palestinians struggle to define Palestinians who attack Israelis

Meet the Palestinian cartoonist Israelis accuse of incitement

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Ethiopian leader Hailemariam Desalegn in 2012. He expressed his deepest grief over the attack in a televised address late Sunday. (Jenny Vaughan/AFP/Getty Images)

Ethiopias leaders have vowed to hunt down gunmen from South Sudan who massacred about 200 villagers and kidnapped more than 100 children in a cross-

border raid last week, state media reported Monday.

Gunmen from the Murle tribe descended on a dozen villages in Ethiopias remote Gambella province early Friday, snatching children, shooting adults and carrying off more than 2,000 head of cattle.

What we know is that they are heavily armed and well organized, and they knew what they were doing, government spokesman Getachew Reda told The Washington Post. Security forces have killed dozens of them, and some of them clearly were wearing military camouflage, but in that part of Africa, it is not entirely surprising.

He added that Ethiopian forces are in discussions with South Sudans government and that a cross-border operation is a distinct possibility.

Although cattle rustling and violence between rival tribal groups is common in the remote region, the scale and ferocity of the attack was unprecedented.

In a televised address late Sunday, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn expressed his deepest grief over the raid and said defense forces were pursuing the attackers and would free the children.

The atrocities committed by armed militants from South Sudans Murle tribe claimed the lives of 208 mothers and children. They also abducted 102 children, he said.

Ethiopians took to social media to express sorrow over the attack as well as outrage that official statements were not issued until days afterward.

Several top government officials, including the prime minister, were attending a high-profile African security conference in the city of Bahir Dar over the weekend.

Gambella province is more than 300 miles southwest of the capital and is lightly populated, but it is also home to nearly 280,000 refugees from the fighting in South Sudan, where a civil war raged until late last year.

The international community brokered a tense peace deal between the warring factions in South Sudan last year. On Monday, dissident Vice President Riek Machar, who has been in Ethiopia, had been expected to fly from Gambella back to Juba, South Sudans capital, but his return was delayed at the last minute.

[South Sudan report shows civil war horror]

Huge swaths of South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, are out of the control of the central government. In the past two years, forces linked to the rival Dinka and Nuer tribes have carried out atrocities against each other.

Ethiopia has long feared that the violence would spill across the border. The main victims of Fridays attack were Nuer tribesman living on the Ethiopian side of the border.

Gambella was also the scene of a bloody conflict this year between Nuer and Anuak tribesmen, during which local security forces were accused of siding with their respective tribes. The Ethiopian government disarmed the regional police in response, which may have increased the locals vulnerability to cross-border raids.

Hallelujah Lulie, an analyst with the Institute for Security Studies in Addis Ababa, said cattle rustling and kidnapping have long been common in the region but never on such a scale.

Some groups use abductions to weaken other groups, to adopt some of their children to look over the cattle or act as militiamen or be used as ransom, he said. It is the magnitude of the attack we are still trying to understand. We still dont have the full picture.

The attack comes at a sensitive time for Ethiopia, which until last year had been heralded as an African success story because of its decade of high growth based on foreign investment and extensive infrastructure projects.

Last year, however, the rains failed. More than 10.2 million people, mostly in the north and east, now require food assistance. The government issued an appeal for $1.4 billion in international aid.

Civil unrest also has exploded across the Oromo ethnic region, which surrounds the capital. Rights groups estimate that 200 people have died in the past five months in clashes with security forces.

Read more:

History repeats itself in Ethiopia

Ethiopia confronts its worst ethnic violence in years

South Sudan thought it solved its child soldier problem. It hasnt.

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Operations at its image sensor plants in Nagasaki and Oita, also on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, fully resumed.

Electronics giant Sony Corp on Sunday said production at its image sensor plant in Kumamoto, southern Japan, remained suspended as it assessed damage from a powerful earthquake. Operations at its image sensor plants in Nagasaki and Oita, also on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, fully resumed, the company said.

The Kumamoto plant has been offline since Friday, while operations at the Nagasaki and Oita plants were partially suspended on Saturday. A 7.3 magnitude tremor struck early on Saturday morning, killing at least 32 people, injuring about 1,000 more and causing widespread damage. It was the second major quake to hit Kumamoto province on the island of Kyushu in just over 24 hours.
The Israel Defense Force says it uncovered a secret Hamas tunnel that ran from the Gaza Strip into Israel territory. The military announced that it destroyed the illegal tunnel on April 18. (Israel Defense Fund)

The Israel Defense Force says it uncovered a secret Hamas tunnel that ran from the Gaza Strip into Israel territory. The military announced that it destroyed the illegal tunnel on April 18. (Israel Defense Fund)

The Israeli military announced Monday that its engineering corps had destroyed an offensive Hamas tunnel that stretched from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory.

The tunnel reached 30 to 40 yards into Israel near a farming community in southern Israel. It was reinforced with pre-fabricated concrete slabs and had lights, communications lines and rail tracks used by the diggers to ferry the dirt out of the tunnel.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the tunnel was the first one discovered since Israels 2014 summer war with the Islamist militant movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

The working assumption is that this is not the only tunnel penetrating into Israel, that there are others, he said.

During the 2014 war with Hamas, Israeli troops discovered and destroyed 32 tunnels around the Gaza periphery and said that 14 had penetrated into Israel.

Hamas militants emerged from at least one such offensive tunnel during the war and attacked and killed Israeli soldiers.

Residents of the Israeli communities along the Gaza perimeter fear that Hamas fighters could emerge from the tunnels and kill civilians in their farms and towns.

More than a dozen tunnel diggers working for Hamas have died in recent months in collapses underground.

In Gaza on Monday, Hamas officials said that the Israelis had found an old tunnel no longer in use.

Lerner disputed this.

This is a new tunnel that was newly discovered and destroyed, said the spokesman, who declined to reveal the exact length and location of the tunnel.

Read more:

Israel says war in Gaza was moral and deaths are the fault of Hamas

Israel retaliates for Gaza rocket fire with airstrikes; Hamas hacks Israeli TV

Israels Big Brother TV show has some unwelcome guests: Hamas hackers

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Israeli soldiers stand guard at the West Bank settlement of Mitzpe Yosef as a guide points out Joseph's Tomb to tourists. (Anne-Marie O'Connor for The Washington Post)

The bulletproof tour bus, filled with retirees, groaned up the narrow dirt road to meet some of Israels most notorious Jewish settlers, renegade young firebrands known as the hilltop youth.

The stereotype is of monsters, high school dropouts, Arab killers, thieves of Arab land and uprooters of Arab olive trees, the host, Rabbi Meir Goldmintz, told his visitors. The truth is they are the greatest kids, they love this land and want to make their lives here.

As vacation season approaches, Israeli settlers are opening a bold new front in their battle for legitimacy: tourism.

The zealous hospitality comes as Europe demands special labels identifying products from settlements they consider illegal footholds of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The United States disparages the growth of the settlements and blames them in part for the failure of the two-state solution, which envisions Israel living side by side with a Palestinian state.

The settlers are fighting back  by rolling out the welcome mat.

They are offering a sampling of the good life, with fine cabernets and artisanal cheese on the hilltops of the rugged, rural Bible land populated by the gun-toting children of Abraham (armed, they say, to protect themselves from Palestinian attackers).

They are welcoming biblical tourists  evangelical Christians and Jews who want to vacation at ancient sites that appear in the Old Testament and Torah  and geopolitical tourists, travelers who want to see the reality behind the headlines.

There are about 400,000 settlers living in the West Bank, in what Israelis call Judea and Samaria, the biblical names. About 15 percent hail from the United States.

Some settlers live in placid suburban-style gated developments filled with residents fleeing Israels high cost of living for more affordable West Bank villas. Other settlements are built exclusively for ultra-Orthodox Jews. Some settlers are ideological, claiming a right to live on the land they say God promised them.

The international community considers the Jewish settlements in the West Bank illegal, though Israel disputes this. The United States labels them illegitimate and obstacles to peace.

In this campaign, wine tastings are a new weapon against a two-state solution. Holiday chalets are new facts on the ground.

The 1970s and 80s were the settlement era, when we had to build as much as we could, otherwise they would give it back to the Arabs. We had to block the Palestinians, said Karni Eldad, the co-author of Yesha Is Fun, a guidebook about vacationing in the West Bank, known to settlers as Yesha.

Now were in the tourist era, Eldad said, when raising the profile of the settlements is part of the struggle to keep this land, securing our forefathers land, that we conquered with our blood.

So on offer: visits to ancient springs (that Palestinians say they relied on) and the Shiloh archaeology park (where settlers say the Ark of the Covenant was kept).

Drinking wine is a good thing. People begin to be friends, said Vered Ben Saadon, pouring a fruity merlot in her familys Tura Winery at the Rechelim settlement.

There are also zip lines, New Age massages, craft-beer breweries, spiritual retreats and petting zoos  often at sites protected by Israeli soldiers.

We were a bit nervous, but we thought it was more important to be brave, said Judy Russell, 72, an Australian, at Shiloh last week.

Palestinian leaders are incensed.

They block every chance to have a sovereign Palestinian state while promoting the growth of Israeli settlements, said Xavier Abu Eid, a Palestine Liberation Organization adviser.

Abu Eid complained that historic Jericho, Burqin and Nablus in the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank get relatively few tourists. Once-popular Bethlehem has the West Banks highest unemployment, he said, while illegal Israeli settlements are developing a whole new industry under the full support of the Israeli government.

In addition to vineyards and mountain biking, some guides offer more provocative trips. One series of tours, titled Hilltop Youth: Who Are You?, invited visitors to get to know the outposts beyond such negative associations as violence, messianic ideology, rebellion.

On a recent trip, seniors crowded into the yeshiva at Havat Gilad, which has been dismantled several times by Israeli authorities who have accused its settlers of attacking Israeli police and shooting at Palestinians and destroying their olive trees. In January 2015, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian they said was about to throw a firebomb on a road leading to the settlement.

Despite the hillbilly appearance, the Gilad farmers love guests, the Yesha guidebook said. But the long-haired hilltop youth declined to engage. When a tourist approached with a camera, one young man put his head down on the table.

Theyre shy, a guest said.

The hilltops want to be the new normal.

Because how illegal can they be if they get Israeli electricity, water, roads and army protection?

We have to be normal, said Noam Cohen, who runs a music club at Neve Erez, a back-to-the-land hilltop settlement in the Judean wilderness east of Jerusalem that was once dismantled by Israeli authorities who said it was built on land privately owned by Palestinians.

No one can say its not yours  open the Bible, Cohen said on a peaceful afternoon, the sound of the wind punctuated by target practice from a nearby army base.

When people come here, they experience a different side of us: nature, music, olives, lemons, he said.

But not Palestinians?

It just wont fit, Cohen said.

The shift to openness and tourism is credited to Dani Dayan, the former chairman of the settler Yesha Council. Brazil recently rejected Dayan as Israels ambassador. He is now Israeli consul general in New York.

We understood that if we want people to agree with us, we have to open the doors, said Yesha spokeswoman Miri Maoz-Ovadia.

Maoz-Ovadia said there has been huge growth in settlement tourism in the past five years. The 1.5 million annual visitors to the West Bank now encounter 15 new multilingual settlement visitors centers, 20 boutique wineries and some 200 bed-and-breakfasts  in spite of Palestinian pressure on Web hosts such as Airbnb to stop the offerings.

We need to broaden our audience internationally, said Gedaliah Blum, who runs a marketing website from the Eli settlement.

China has no anti-Semitism, there are no hang-ups, he said. Theyre interested in wines.

After a surge in support from settlers aided Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus 2015 victory, some see no reason to be discreet.

To be a settler means to vote against the two-state solution. You dont want to be turned out of your home, Eldad, the guidebook author, said as she baked granola at the Tekoa settlement south of Bethlehem, the clang of construction in the air.

Eldad said she hopes tourism will dispel inaccurate media reports in which the story is always Look how the settlers assaulted the poor Arabs. 

The situation is not hilltop youth burning a house in Duma, Eldad said, referring to the young Jewish extremists who are the alleged perpetrators of a firebombing in the West Bank village of Duma that killed a Palestinian mother and father and their 18-month-old baby, and severely burned their 5-year-old boy.

This rarely happens, Eldad said.

At that same hilltop, where the arsonists came from, there is a herd of goats that has unbelievable cheese, she said.

Read more:

Airbnb slammed for offering rooms with a view in Jewish settlements

Settlers find new ways to label products after E.U. decision

We are the tip of the spear that protects Israel, radical settlers say

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Cuba's President Raul Castro attends a session of the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party in Havana on Monday. (Ismael Francisco/Associated Press)

Cuban President Raul Castro has reiterated his intention to step down two years from now, at age 86, and has said that in the future, all top Communist Party and other officials should be restricted to two five-year terms and should retire when they reach 70.

Calling for the party to inject more youth into its leadership, Castro pointed out that the experience of a number of countries has demonstrated that retaining aging leadership is never positive.

Never forget that during the final stage of the Soviet Union, a government he described as esteemed and beloved, three first secretaries of the Communist Party Central Committee, all in their 70s, died within two years, he said.

Castro spoke Saturday at the opening session of the four-day Party Congress, an event held every five years to review national progress, plan for the future and recommit to revolutionary principals.

In his speech to the group Monday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said President Obamas recent trip in Cuba was at least in part a deep attack on our ideas, our history, our culture and our symbols. He accused Obama of trying to dazzle Cubas growing private sector with outreach and promises that even the United States has said it hopes will lead to political change on the island.

[American businesses are rushing back to Cuba]

Castro devoted much of his own two-hour address to the Cuban economy and its relationship to the political system. While he spoke less harshly than Rodriguez, Castro also referred to the United States as the enemy. He said U.S. claims to have a multiparty political system were largely a sham, since both parties are based on money rather than popular will.

The United States and their fellow travelers, Castro said, speak of a single-party system as if it were a crime. They want to shape the world . . . adjust it to their own convenience.

Only U.S. methods have changed, not its goals, he said, and we have to be more alert than ever.

As he has in the past, Castro said, There have been concrete results in the dialogue and cooperation between the United States and Cuba since the two governments announced in December 2014 that they would normalize relations.

Nevertheless, the [U.S.] economic, commercial and financial blockade, in place for more than half a century, continues in effect, with unquestioned intimidating effects and extraterritorial scope, although we recognize that President Obama and senior administration officials oppose it and have repeatedly called on Congress to repeal it.

Obamas efforts to use his executive powers to bypass the embargo are positive, but insufficient, Castro said, and the embargo remains the principal obstacle to Cubas economic development. He also criticized the illegal occupation of Guantanamo Bay, and U.S. immigration policy that gives special preference to Cuban exiles in general and particular advantages to Cuban medical personnel willing to defect to the United States.

Since Castro took over from his brother Fidel in 2006, becoming president in 2008, he has significantly liberalized Cubas state-owned economy. The percentage of Cuban workers employed by the state has shrunk from 81.2 percent in 2010 to 70.8 percent last year, he said, and more than half a million Cubans are now self-employed.

[Raul Castro, the Cuban leader behind Obamas visit ]

At the same time, he noted, the important tourism industry brought 3.5 million visitors to Cuba last year, the most ever. Since the last Party Congress in 2011, he said, Cuba has opened nearly 11,000 new hotel rooms and renovated an additional 7,000. More than 14,000 lodgings are now offered by private-sector homeowners who rent rooms and apartments to tourists.

Overall gross national product growth, Castro said, was 2.8 percent. But he criticized the party for failing to adequately plan for economic changes, including delays in eliminating Cubas dual currency rates.

As part of the U.S. normalization, and Cubas plans to grow the important tourism industry, U.S. airlines are expected to begin regular flights to Cuba later this year.

But plans to begin a ferry service between Miami and Havana have run into roadblocks. Carnival Corp. said Monday that Cuban law prevents Cuban-born passengers from using its services, effectively eliminating a major source of revenue for the route.

In a policy that stems from the early days of the Cuban revolution, when U.S.-sponsored exiles invaded the island, and the CIA tried to infiltrate Cuba to damage its economy and assassinate its leadership, Cuban-born people are only allowed to arrive there by air.

In a statement, Carnival said its 704-passenger Adonia luxury ship would begin sailing to Cuba every other week beginning May 1, the first time a cruise ship has sailed from the United States to Cuba in more than 50 years.

But we want everyone to be able to go to Cuba with us, said Carnival chief executive Arnold Donald.

At least two Cuban Americans have filed lawsuits against the cruise line, charging illegal discrimination. In a speech in Miami last week, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said the Cuban government was forcing its discrimination policy on us.

If they want a full relationship and a normal relationship, he said, they have to live by international law.

Read more:

Cuban Americans are split on the value of Obamas trip to Havana

Obama tries comedy to woo Cuban people

Why Obama didnt meet Fidel Castro in Cuba
South Korean President Park Geun-hye speaks during a with her top aides in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 18, 2016. Park said there are signs that North Korea is preparing a fifth nuclear bomb test. (Baek Seung-Ryul/AP)

North Korea appears to be preparing to conduct another nuclear test, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Monday, citing signs of increased movement near the Norths nuclear test site.

With a much-hyped congress of the communist Workers Party to be held early next month, Kim Jong Un appears to be trying to burnish his credentials, and analysts say a fifth nuclear test would be a sure way to do that.

Recently, signs of preparations for a fifth nuclear test have been detected, Park said during a meeting with her aides Monday. We are in a situation in which we cannot predict what provocations North Korea might conduct to break away from isolation and to consolidate the regime.

This came after the South Korean Defense Ministry said that North Koreas next underground nuclear test may be of a miniaturized warhead, rather than of the standard atomic devices it is thought to have detonated previously.

Given the latest developments, North Korea could carry out an underground nuclear warhead test, and we are keeping close tabs on it, Moon Sang-gyun, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told reporters in Seoul on Monday.

The Norths official Korean Central News Agency reported last month that Kim ordered a nuclear warhead explosion test and a test-fire of several kinds of ballistic rockets able to carry nuclear warheads to be carried out in a short time.

[North Korea unveils homemade engine for missile capable of striking U.S.]

North Korea claims that it has mastered the technology to make nuclear weapons small and light enough to fit on a missile, but there has been no proof. But an increasing number of military top brass and private-sector analysts think that North Korea either will have made or will be on the brink of making such a technological advance soon.

South Korean officials warned Sunday that they had detected a noticeable increase in vehicles and people moving about the Norths Punggye-ri nuclear test site, particularly near its north portal tunnel.

Analysts at 38 North, a website devoted to watching and analyzing North Korea, said that they also saw, in satellite imagery, increased movement around the north portal but that there was little evidence that Pyongyang was planning an imminent nuclear test.

Nevertheless, that possibility can not be entirely ruled out since the North may be able to conduct a nuclear test on short notice with few indications that it intends to do so, Jack Liu, a military analyst, wrote in a note on the site.

[North Korea works around the clock to prepare for the 70-day campaign]

A fifth nuclear test would create another conundrum for the international community. Kims regime has proved impervious to coordinated efforts to change his calculus when it comes to the countrys nuclear program.

Last month, the U.N. Security Council passed the toughest sanctions yet against North Korea as punishment for its January nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch in February.

Yet Kim has remained defiant, issuing an almost daily barrage of threats and continuing to launch rockets and short-range missiles. An attempt to launch a previously untested intermediate-range ballistic missile last week was deemed to have failed.

At a forum in Seoul, Lim Sung-nam, South Koreas vice foreign minister, said that more pressure and punishment against North Korea is needed.

We can no longer afford to be pushed around by North Koreas deceit and intimidation, Lim said. The leadership in Pyongyang must be pressed much harder until it changes its fundamental calculation regarding the value of its nuclear arsenal and delivery capabilities.

In addition to supporting the tough U.N. resolutions, Parks government has brought in unprecedented bilateral sanctions against North Korea, closing an inter-Korean industrial park and cutting off all humanitarian aid except to babies and pregnant women.

[North Korea animated video shows devastating attack on Seoul]

Yoonjung Seo in Seoul contributed to this report.
Staffan de Mistura, U.N. special envoy of the secretary-general for Syria, leaves a news conference after a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and de Mistura in Geneva on April 18. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/European Pressphoto Agency)

An unprecedented diplomatic effort to end Syrias civil war suffered a blow Monday as the main opposition body said it would at least temporarily suspend its participation in recently restarted peace talks in Geneva.

The umbrella High Negotiations Committee (HNC) informed the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, of its decision to pause the negotiations, which he is mediating. The opposition delegation would stay in the Swiss city, its members said, but only for informal discussions.

The move is a setback after months of intensified diplomacy  particularly between the United States and Russia  to get the warring Syrian parties to negotiate in earnest to halt a war that has killed 250,000 people, displaced millions and empowered extremist groups.

In remarks on the deteriorating situation, de Mistura said there remains a gap between the government and opposition delegations over the issue of Syrian President Bashar al-Assads fate. The opposition demands his ouster as necessary for a political transition, but government officials reject that.

Both the opposition and de Mistura have also called on the Assad government to lift sieges on parts of the country that remain cut off from humanitarian access. At the same time, a partial cease-fire that Moscow and Washington have backed has begun to unravel because, according to the United States and the opposition, of offensives by Assads Russian-backed forces.

President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin held an intense telephone conversation Monday that centered on Syria, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. It was an opportunity, he said, for Obama to make the case to Putin that he should use his influence with the Assad regime to live up to the commitments theyve made.

A Kremlin statement said the two presidents reiterated their commitment to strengthen the cease-fire and facilitating access of humanitarian aid to the regions in need. The Kremlin said Obama had initiated the call.

Russia has intervened militarily in Syria against rebel forces to bolster its ally, Assad, while the United States has helped to arm and finance his opponents.

[How Russian special forces are shaping the fight in Syria]

On Monday, rebel forces launched intense attacks on government positions on at least two fronts in northwestern Syria. The rebel offensives follow increased assaults by pro-government forces, particularly near the northern city of Aleppo. The attacks in and around that city have been led by Shiite militiamen from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq, as well as other Assad allies who have received air support during those operations from Russia, U.S. officials say.

HNC representatives, pressed by rebel allies inside Syria, say that they have found it increasingly difficult to continue negotiations amid frequent violations of the truce by government forces.

Moreover, the representatives say, important conditions that underpin the peace process have not been implemented. Those include the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to areas of the country that are hard to reach or are besieged, a stipulation enshrined in a unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution from December.

U.N. officials, diplomats and Syrian opposition figures accused the Assad government of blocking the distribution of aid to areas besieged by its forces, including Darayya and other suburbs of the capital, Damascus.

[Syrias Assad holds elections despite peace talks in Geneva]

The conflicts momentum has shifted in favor of the Assad government because of Russias military intervention, which began in September and crippled rebel forces. The Syrian leader now looks even less inclined to make concessions during the talks.

DeYoung reported from Washington.

Read more

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
In March 2003, he was a part of one of the most iconic battles of the Iraq War  the battle for Haditha Dam. After the dam was secure, Johns team went to clear a nearby building full of weapons that had been used by the Iraqi Army during the battle. But while John was inside, it collapsed.
London: Tata Steel today said it has reached out to 190 potential financial and industrial investors for selling its UK assets, while appointing Standard Chartered Bank as an additional advisor to scout for buyers in Asia and the Far East.

It also said that Executive Chairman of Tata Steel Europe's Long Products Europe business Bimlendra Jha will be appointed as CEO of Tata Steel UK.

"In order to provide further support to run and manage a global sale process, Tata Steel Europe has appointed Standard Chartered bank as an additional adviser to the process to ensure the coverage and reach of the universe of potential buyers, especially to Asia and the Far East," it said.

They will work alongside KPMG LLP, whose appointment was announced on April 11, the statement added. "Over the last 7 days, the advisers to Tata Steel Europe have begun initial exploration of interest in Tata Steel's UK operations reaching out to 190 potential financial and industrial investors worldwide," it said.

More detailed information sharing will commence this week as the process moves into the confidential phase,it added. With initiation of the sale process for UK business, the plan of Tatas to play a leading role in UK's once-storied sector, which the Indian conglomerate had entered nearly a decade ago with a USD 14-billion takeover with much fanfare, is coming to an end.

Tatas entered UK's steel sector, that once dominated the British economy, in early 2007 with acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus after a fiercely fought takeover battle with Brazil's CSN -- which till date remains the biggest ever overseas acquisition by an Indian group.
From Woman's Day

As wonderful as going on vacation can be, the worst part is when it's over. You know the feeling-for a few moments, you evaluate your life choices and wonder why you can't just stay in paradise?

Of course, there's several reasons why you have to return home, your job being one of the top ones. Bills don't pay themselves, right?! But what if we told you that you could live in paradise while making a living? If that sounds appealing, keep reading.

Hawaii is currently experiencing a teacher shortage, and the state has 1,600 vacancies to fill before the school year starts again in the fall. The main challenge? Finding employees who will actually stay in Hawaii. Corey Rosenlee, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, explains:

Hawaii has one of the highest teacher turnover rates in the nation and this is more so for people that come from the mainland. They say, 'I can't live here' and they leave and we have to go back and recruit, and this cycle just continually happens.

Hmm... we're not exactly sure why someone wouldn't want to live in Hawaii, but we guess that just means more opportunities for you to move there! Look at the photos below if you need some extra convincing.

In addition to the average teacher salary of $56,000, the state is offering a $6,000 bonus to teachers hired in "special education, secondary mathematics and secondary science," Fox29 reports.

So if creating a lesson plan while kicking back in a hammock under a palm tree sounds like a dream come true, head to Hawaii's State Department of Education, and learn more about how you can apply for the job of a lifetime. The beach awaits you.

Follow Woman's Day on Instagram.
The Dragon Prince has a name!



The prince of Bhutan has been named Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, the palace announced Saturday.



The royal newborn arrived in early February to King Jigme, 36, and Queen Jetsun Pema, 25, also known as the Dragon King and Dragon Queen. As is custom in Bhutan, his name was not revealed until after a special Buddhist naming ceremony.





Bhutan's King and Queen Announce Name for Their Son, the Dragon Prince, One Day After Visit from Prince William and Princess Kate| The British Royals, The Royals, Kate Middleton, Prince William









His parents, sometimes referred to as the "Will and Kate of the Himalayas," met the actual Will and Kate earlier this week, when the British prince, 33, and princess, 34, visited the mountainous nation as part of their royal tour of India and Bhutan.



As William and Kate are near the ages of the Bhutan royals  who studied in England before taking the throne  their meeting offered the chance to forge new connections between the nations.



During the elaborate ceremony, the newborn prince was cradled by his grandfather King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who abdicated from the throne in 2006. At one moment, the former monarch was seen sweetly brushing the prince's black hair with a white brush.



At the public ceremony, King Jigme explained the meaning behind the prince's name in a special speech.



"Jigme means fearless," he said in an English translation of the speech posted on his official Facebook page. "It symbolizes great courage to overcome any challenge that he may confront in future as he serves our country.



"Namgyel means victorious in all directions and victory over all obstacles. It is a name taken from the revered Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel, who enabled the Dharma to flourish in all directions as prophesied by Guru Rinpoche.



"Wangchuck is the name of the royal lineage and dynasty."



(In Bhutan, only members of the royal family have traditional surnames.)



"When the time comes for Gyalsey Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck to serve his country, he must always place the concerns of his country above all else and serve his people justly with great love and dedication," the king continued. "It will be his sacred responsibility to build a harmonious and just society, and thereby, fulfill all the aspirations of his people. He must live such a life as a good human being and serve his country in a manner that it will be exemplary and worthy of emulation."
From Cosmopolitan

A sophomore at the University of Illinois has been accused of suffocating her newborn baby and hiding it in her backpack. People reports that prosecutors are accusing Lindsay Johnson, 20, of killing her newborn son moments after giving birth to him in her dormitory bathroom.

Police reportedly went to her dorm room March 13, after her classmates said they heard moans and groans in the bathroom. Johnson told police she was suffering from a stomach flu, but the police came back after her classmates heard a baby's cries. When police arrived, Johnson had left, but they found blood on the bathroom floor. She was later found walking on campus with a dead baby in her backpack. At the time, she told detectives that she thought the baby was stillborn, but she reportedly confessed to using a towel to try to quiet his cries.

She also reportedly told detectives that she had no idea she was pregnant until she started to give birth, but the browsing history on her phone turned up searches for things like home abortions and pregnancy symptoms. According to The Chicago Tribune, her friends had noticed she'd gained a little weight but didn't think anything was wrong since she usually wore sweatpants anyway; they also noted that she'd been spending most of the year with her boyfriend, who was in the marching band with her.

Johnson has been charged with first-degree murder, child endangerment, and concealment of a homicidal death; she has been freed on a $75,000 bond. "This is a tragic case and a complicated case," her lawyer Thomas Bruno told the Tribune. "There is much we still need to investigate and we intend to vigorously do so, to try to achieve justice on her behalf."

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Emily Elconin/GettyThe far-right ReAwaken America gathering in Manheim, Pennsylvania, this weekend wasnt your typical pro-Trump rally.It was a whole different level of crazy.The QAnon-peppered programming frequently flew off the rails Saturday, as speakers took severe issue with everything from McDonalds being part of the deep state to demonic satellites controlling the voting system in the United States.The days activities kicked off with a prayer asking for Trumps eyes to be opened s
Missteps to Avoid in Medical School Admissions

Between standardized test scores, undergraduate grades and extracurricular activities, there are many opportunities to strengthen -- or weaken -- medical school applications.

Here are 10 mistakes to avoid when seeking admission to an M.D. or D.O. program.

1. Not Knowing How Many Applications Are Required

Unlike most graduate school programs, medical school admissions include two sets of applications. Primary applications usually ask for test scores, undergraduate grades and letters of recommendation; secondary applications tend to ask applicants for multiple essays.

If their primary applications pass muster, applicants must be ready to also submit a secondary application to continue in the admissions process.

2. Overestimating Your Competitiveness

Some premeds are too confident about their competitiveness as applicants and apply to schools that are out of reach.

Reviewing the average MCAT scores and GPAs for students accepted at the institutions on an applicant's radar is one way for applicants to lessen their chances of rejection, experts say.

3. Applying Too Soon

Submitting medical school applications following junior year of college may be a mistake for some premeds, especially if waiting would give them more time to improve an MCAT score or undergraduate grades.

Applying after the fourth year of undergrad may be a better option for some.

4. Slacking on MCAT Preparation

An applicant's score on the Medical College Admission Test is one of the most important parts of an admissions package. Allotting just a few days for studying likely won't cut it, experts say.

Instead, applicants should plan to study for at least three months.

5. Neglecting Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteering is one way applicants can demonstrate their interest in health care and community service.

Applicants should be careful not to spend too little time doing an activity, such as one day helping at a nursing home, or assume an overseas opportunity is better than volunteering locally. Sticking with the same activity for a few months is best, experts say.

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6. Discounting Postbaccalaureate Programs

While it's common for students to go straight from college to medical school, a postbaccalaureate program may be a better option for students whose science grades don't represent their passion for medicine.

Premeds looking to improve their understanding of chemistry or physics, or simply boost their MCAT score, can consider a postbaccalaureate program, which often helps candidates get into medical school.

7. Writing a Lackluster Personal Statement

In between studying for premed classes, applicants should also devote a few days or weeks to crafting a personal statement.

A poorly written essay may show a lack of self-reflection or focus too much on a candidate's past achievements, one expert says. A well-written statement will tell a story that details an applicant's specific goals and accomplishments.

8. Stumbling Through an Interview

The interview is usually the last step of the admissions process, and an ill-prepared candidate can botch it by not having a memorable response to a question like "Why do you want to be a physician?"

Applicants should be prepared to discuss their unique qualities that will help them contribute to the medical school community and the medical field. They should also have a handful of questions they'd like to ask.

9. Choosing the Wrong Letter-Writers

Every applicant needs letters of recommendation, and it's easy to choose the wrong people to write them.

A well-known professor or school administrator who doesn't know an applicant personally is an example of a poor choice, one expert says. Applicants should instead choose recommenders whom they know well and can speak to their potential as medical school students.

10. Pushing Off Research Opportunities

Applicants can join a variety of extracurricular activities when pursing medical school admissions, but those who participate in scientific research opportunities may have a leg up on other premeds.

Aspiring doctors should try to spend one or more summers in a research program, and, if possible, get some of their work published, one expert says.

More on Medical School Admissions

Find more tips on how to be a strong medical school applicant on the Medical School Admissions Doctor blog, and get our complete rankings of the 2017 Best Medical Schools.

For additional advice and information on how to navigate medical school admissions, connect with U.S. News Education on Twitter and Facebook.

Delece Smith-Barrow is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering graduate schools. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at dsmithbarrow@usnews.com.
Thirteen-year-old Usha Sookai is the CEO of an event planning company called iParty. She says she originally wanted a position in marketing but got roped into interviewing for the CEO position and ultimately got the top job.



Her eighth grade class at MS 137 in Ozone Park, Queens, is part of an in-school business simulation program that helps give students experience with what it takes to build a business.



Students created resumes and cover letters to apply for the positions they wanted in four distinct departments -- human resources, accounting and finance, marketing, and graphic design. But then the class realized that no one had applied for the CEO position. The best qualities you need to be a CEO are good leadership, to communicate with others, and also to be naturally outgoing, Sookai says. Im naturally outgoing and can talk to people and make friends easily and I found communication very easy.



iParty is the product of a New York City Department of Education program called Virtual Enterprises International (VEI) that started in 1996 and became an independent non-profit in 2010. FIve hundred high schools participate in the program nationwide and VEI just launched a pilot program in three New York City middle schools. The New York Life Foundation is providing VEI with funding to develop its VE-JV middle school program and pilot it in several cities over a four-year period.



The students at MS 137 discussed potential business ideas and democratically decided on a party-planning company that offers three packages: DIY, graduation and glow-in-the-dark. They spend class time pricing their packages and creating compelling brochures. Their efforts culminate in a trade show where theyll share their sales pitch, and will ultimately be graded on participation and professional behavior.



Founder and executive director of VEI, Iris Blanc, says its important for students to be exposed to the world of business from a young age. Though the focus has been on juniors and seniors in high school, there was a huge push from school administrators, teachers and parents to bring the program to middle schoolers.



According to the Council for Economic Education, 23 states now require high schools to offer economics courses, compared to 17 in 2007. Perhaps as a direct repercussion of the financial crisis, the concept of career readiness seems to have become a tenet of youth education. And if you think its overzealous to get middle schoolers feet wet in the business world, they would disagree with you.



Middle school is when youre trying to find out what youre going to be in life and preparing for the future. Having this program can give you guidance for what you might want to do, and even if you dont want to go into the business, its just good to have a little knowledge of this, Noelle Persaud, 14, says.



Two teachers supervise the class but students have full control over how the daily 45-minute class is run. Its amazing to see them be self-sufficient. Im involved only 10% of the time when they have questions. They are really a well-oiled machine, says Frank Bennici, an English teacher who co-teaches the class.



My favorite part of this entire process would be that we have the chance to be independent. We can learn how we learn best, we can decide what we want to do and how we want to do it, says Sookai.



Principal of MS 137, Laura Mastrogiovanni, says it was an easy decision bringing VEI to her school and noted how interested the students were in the challenge: They took to this like water and were amazing from the moment they walked into the room. They produced 30-second elevator pitches within two weeks of meeting and have become empowered to take on leadership roles, she says.



Mastrogiovanni designed the classroom to look like businesses that are very collaborative and friendly. Theres a group of ottomans at the center of the room and cubicles arranged by department. Being tasked with responsibilities like building a website and even paying employees wages, students are truly getting a taste of the startup culture.



Dylan Deosingh, 14, is the accounting and finance administrator, responsible for coming up with a fair wage for his fellow employees. Every week I have to pay the employees, so I log onto our master account and see who gets a raise, who gets overtime, etc. We have a standard minimum wage for $9 an hour, admin is $12 and the CEO gets $15.



The money may be virtual, but these kids arent playing -- theyre serious about business.



Its taught me a lot about being an entrepreneur. Its very hard at the very beginning  we had to make a loan, and we had no money and it was hard to start up but once you get to a certain point, its really fun and its proud to see how your own business has blossomed, says Deosingh.



Manraj Singh, 13, says he feels lucky to get a head start on learning about the business world: I think this is a pretty good experience to know about the business and if in the future I can become a businessman.



And, as with a non-virtual startup, the students are learning to handle the repercussions of risk-taking. You have to take more risks and you have to be more willing about what youre doing. If theres any losses or negativity you have to keep your head up and make sure youre doing well in the future, says Singh.



And just like real CEOs, Sookai says shes been struggling to find a healthy work-life balance.



The biggest challenge of running a company is the balance between working here and at home and actually laying off of that. As a CEO I have a lot of work that I have to do -- administrative work -- and I have to make sure that every department is doing what they have to do. I sometimes work a little too hard at home, she says. As a leader, its hard to not be so hard on yourself because if something goes wrong I blame myself for that.



Perhaps grown-up business leaders could learn a thing or two from this teenage boss, who says the keys to business are communication and confidence. I make it my job to communicate with the administrators so that they dont feel like Im being biased or anything like that. I try to make it as fair as possible but also as realistic as possible, she says. You have to be confident in yourself to do a job like this. Because if youre not confident in yourself then you wouldnt be able to instruct others or lead others because you wouldnt know where youre going.
Rahul Raj Singh's father Harshvardhan expressed that due to all these false allegations, Rahul may take some drastic step.

Mumbai: The parents of TV star Pratyusha Banerjee, who allegedly committed suicide, recently shot off a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis requesting for a probe by Mumbai Police Crime Branch into her death.

In their letter to the CM, they have alleged that Pratyusha's boyfriend and actor-producer Rahul Raj Singh was "solely responsible for her death".

Read: Pratyusha Banerjee's mom writes to CM, requests crime branch probe

Now, in an interesting turn of events, Rahul's father Harshvardhan Singh has written a letter to the CM. The letter, dated April 16, states that Rahul has been traumatised and was in the hospital from April 3 since his to-be-wife committed suicide.

Harshvardhan requested the CM to ensure that justice prevails and there is no unnecessary interference or pressure by any anti-social people. He claimed that certain people, who do not know the actual facts are harming his family name and reputation. He expressed that due to all these false allegations, Rahul may take some drastic step.

Read: Pratyusha Banerjee suicide: Rahul Raj Singh threatens to jump off the building

On the other hand, Pratyusha's parents suspect that their daughter was killed by Rahul and after her death, Rahul, on the pretext of some illness, got admitted to Shri Sai Hospital, which is looking like a high-handed conspiracy between the accused and the hospital management.

In his letter to Chief Minister, Mr Banerjees said, We also have doubts that they have unofficially taken money from Rahul as well and are giving him protection and helping him to get bail on medical grounds, which is a matter of serious concern. We are also doubtful regarding the registration of the hospital and its doctors.

Read: Ive never assaulted Pratyusha: Rahul Raj Singh

Mr Banerjee further alleged that they have learnt that in the past too, Shri Sai Hospital has shielded criminals by taking huge amounts of money from them. Hence, an inquiry should be conducted against the hospital and its management.

Meanwhile, Dr Goel rubbished Mr Banerjees claims saying that the police was keeping a close eye on Rahul and that initially, he was admitted for vomiting but later, they found he was suffering from mental illness because of which the psychiatrist treated him accordingly.

He was constantly saying things and showing suicidal intentions, so we are treating him. If we had taken money from him, how could we have discharged him now, said Dr Goel, adding that there was no conspiracy and they being doctors, were treating him.
Bangladesh police probing a $81 million electronic heist from the central bank said Monday that more than 20 unnamed foreigners were involved in the audacious theft.

Hackers stole the money from the Bangladesh Bank's account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February and managed to transfer it electronically to accounts in the Philippines.

Lead police investigator in the case, Shah Alam, said "at least 20 people from multiple foreign countries" have been found to have been involved with the robbery.

"We've found concrete evidence that these people were involved in the heist," Alam told AFP, without giving any details. "We cannot disclose their identity at the moment as it might hamper our investigation".

Bangladesh's ambassador in Manila, John Gomes, said the hackers were from nations other than the Philippines.

Alam said officers would seek assistance from Interpol in a bid to arrest the foreigners.

Investigators had earlier said local hackers were likely involved as "the names of local development projects were used in the payment advices sent to the Federal Reserve Bank".

Earlier this month, detectives found suspicious malwares in the central bank's computer system which had been sending information to Egypt, although it is unclear whether this played a role in the heist.

The spectacular cyber-theft has embarrassed the government, triggered outrage in the impoverished country and raised alarm over the security of Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves of more than $27 billion.

The unidentified hackers managed to shift $81 million to a nondescript bank in Manila and then on to Filipino casinos before the trail went cold.

They attempted to steal a further $850 million by bombarding the New York bank with dozens of transfer requests, but the bank's security systems and typing errors in some requests prevented the full theft.

The central bank governor, his two deputies and the country's top banking bureaucrat have lost their jobs over the incident and the government has been scrambling to contain the damage from the spiralling scandal.
BRASILIA (Reuters) - With 100 votes cast, 73 congressmen voted in favor of the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in Brazil's lower house on Sunday and 27 voted against or abstained. The opposition needs votes from 342 out of the 513 congressmen to force Rousseff to face an impeachment trial in the Senate on charges of manipulating budgetary accounts and potentially end 13 years of leftist Workers Party rule in the midst of a deeply divided nation. (Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Daniel Flynn)
Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama heads to Saudi Arabia Tuesday amid tensions over congressional legislation which would potentially allow the royal government to be sued in American courts over the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The bipartisan bill has yet to make it to the Senate floor, but already it has triggered outrage in Riyadh and threatens to further poison the already strained ties between Washington and its longstanding Gulf ally.

The White House is desperate to scuttle the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which would allow the families of loved ones killed in the 9/11 attacks to sue the Saudi government.

When asked Monday about the bill during an interview with CBS News, Obama said, "exactly, I'm opposed."

The bill would essentially waive the doctrine of sovereign immunity to say that "if you basically fund and sponsor terrorist attacks on American soil you can be liable for damages," said main co-sponsor Senator John Cornyn, the chamber's number two Republican.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi citizens. But no official Saudi complicity in the Al-Qaeda attacks has been proven, and the kingdom has never been formally implicated.

Saudi Arabia has reportedly warned it could sell off several hundred billion dollars in American assets if Congress passes the measure.

The New York Times reported Saturday that Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told lawmakers in Washington last month the kingdom would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States to avoid having them frozen by US courts.

The White House said Monday Obama would veto the measure.

"Our concerns about this law are not related to its impact on our relationship with a particular country," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.

"The concern that we have is simply this: it could put the United States and our taxpayers and our service members and our diplomats at significant risk if other countries were to adopt a similar law."

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"The whole notion of sovereign immunity is at stake," he said, stressing that the principle "allows countries to resolve their differences through diplomacy and not through the courts in one country or the other."

"We continue to believe that the concerns that we have with Saudi Arabia can be addressed through diplomacy," Earnest added.

Obama arrives in Riyadh Wednesday and holds meetings with King Salman and other Saudi officials. It is not clear whether the legislation, which was introduced last September and has support from senior US senators on both sides, will be part of the discussions.

- 28 secret pages -

Former senator Bob Graham, who co-chaired the 9/11 congressional inquiry, told CNN Saturday that he is "outraged but not surprised" by the Saudi warning on assets.

"The Saudis have known what they did in 9/11, and they knew that we knew what they did, at least at the highest levels of the US government," Graham told the network's Michael Smerconish.

In February Zacarias Moussaoui, dubbed the 20th hijacker, told US lawyers that members of the Saudi royal family donated millions of dollars to Al-Qaeda in the 1990s.

The Saudi Embassy denied Moussaoui's claims. But his accusations revived debate over whether the Obama administration should release a still-classified 28-page section of the 9/11 Commission Report.

The section, which Graham has sought to get released, is believed to focus on the role of foreign governments in the plot.

Cornyn said he believed Riyadh was over-reacting to the bill, but stressed he would not want the legislation altered because of the economic threat.

"I don't think we should let foreign countries dictate the domestic policy of the United States," Cornyn said.

But he also sought to suggest the measure was not targeting Saudi Arabia.

"I don't understand their defensiveness," he said. "It's not directed at the Saudi government -- unless there's something in those 28 pages that have been classified that they're worried about that we don't know about."

Cornyn said he has not read the classified pages but wants them released.

He hopes the measure could pass by unanimous consent, meaning Senate floor debate would likely be avoided. It would then head to the House of Representatives.

Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz has sponsored the legislation, and Democratic White House hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders said they favor the bill.
Randeep Hooda, who has been juggling between several projects at once, is gearing up for the release of 'Lal Rang', 'Sarbjit' and 'Sultan'.

Mumbai: Not even the most popular celebrities are free from the threat of an appendicitis attack. Randeep Hooda is known for displaying his talent in movies like Main aur Charles, 'Rangrasiya' and 'Highway'. He was shooting for 'Sultan' with Salman Khan when he was hit by an acute attack of appendicitis.

The actor ignored it for quite sometime and took a round of strong antibiotics. However, when the pain became unbearable, Salman asked him to sought medical attention. Randeep has admitted to Fortis hospital in Delhi and will undergo a surgery on April 18.

Read: Salman Khan to lend his voice for Randeep Hoodas next Laal Rang

On work front, he is gearing up for the release of 'Laal Rang' where he plays a local Haryana goon, who runs an illegal blood racket in the state. However, due to the appendicitis operation, he will not be promoting the film which is slated to release on April 22.

Randeep will also be seen in 'Sarbjit' for which he shed a whopping 18 kgs within 28 days. The film directed by Omung Kumar also features Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Richa Chadha.
Are today's children worse off than generations past? That seems to be the dominant consensus according to the results of a new survey which looked at how adults perceive children's health.

Conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, the poll asked 2,700 adults questions about their perceptions of children growing up in the US today.

"We found that adults in the U.S. broadly agree: children's health today seems worse than for children over the past several decades," said study author Matthew M. Davis in a statement.

This perception is strongest when it comes to stress levels, with 64 percent of adult respondents agreeing that children today are more stressed than they were when they grew up.

Likewise, 65 percent of respondents said they believe that today's children enjoy less quality family time.

A little more than half (52 percent) said today's generation of youngsters possesses weaker coping mechanisms and is less positive than generations past.

Despite advances in children's medicine and public health, study authors point out that childhood obesity, asthma and behavioral problems have become more common, and call for improved efforts to address the new challenges.
London (AFP) - Britain will be "permanently poorer" if it leaves the EU in a June referendum and the cost to each household could be 4,300 (5,400 euros, $6,100) a year, finance minister George Osborne warned on Monday.

Osborne said a so-called Brexit would cause "profound economic shock and real instability" and it was "complete fantasy" to expect that Britain could then negotiate an advantageous trade deal with the EU.

"Britain would be permanently poorer if we left the European Union," Osborne, who is chancellor of the exchequer, said in a speech at a factory in Bristol in western England, presenting a 200-page report on the financial impact of leaving the European Union.

The findings -- the result of a months-long analysis by the Treasury -- were immediately disputed by Brexit campaigners.

The Leave.EU campaign dismissed the forecast as "flimsy", with its millionaire co-chairman Arron Banks saying that even if true, the cost would be "a bargain basement price" for restoring national sovereignty.

"In exchange, we'd be getting back the power to control immigration, set our own laws, manage our own farms and fishing waters, and strike our own trade deals," said Banks.

Chief executive of the Vote Leave campaign Matthew Elliott said: "The headline figures in this report are deeply flawed."

But Trades Union Congress general secretary Frances O'Grady said the document was a "sobering reality check" and Dave Prentis, leader of the Unison trade union warned Brexit could push public services "over the edge".

- 'Self-inflicted wound' -

The membership referendum, due on June 23, is predicted to be a close-run contest.

A "No" result could bring down Prime Minister David Cameron, cause a major rift in his Conservative Party and send shockwaves across Europe.

The Treasury analysis outlined three possible scenarios following a Brexit:

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-- Under the first scenario, Britain would remain a member of the European Economic Area like Norway and would have broad access to the single market but with no say in the policy decisions that shape it.

-- Under the second, it would negotiate a bilateral deal like Canada or Switzerland, a scenario that the report said would lead to growth being six percentage points less than it would otherwise be by 2030.

-- Under the third and most radical scenario, Britain would have no deal with the EU and rely only on its World Trade Organization (WTO) membership status to trade with the EU, like Brazil or Russia.

The annual loss of gross domestic product (GDP) per household would be 2,600 under the first scenario, 4,300 under the second and 5,200 under the third, the report said.

"The conclusion is clear: for Britain's economy and for families, leaving the EU would be the most extraordinary self-inflicted wound," Osborne said.

Under all scenarios, Britain would have a "less open and interconnected economy," he wrote in The Times.

"It's a complete fantasy to suppose that there is some radically different other arrangement that Britain could negotiate, where we have access to the single market but don't accept any costs or obligations of EU membership," Osborne wrote.

In an interview with BBC radio, he also said that expecting a favourable trade deal to result from Brexit would be "economically illiterate".

The Treasury report has been months in the making and is the starkest warning yet from the government.

The polls show the "Leave" and "Remain" camps are evenly split at around 50 percent each.

Around a fifth of voters remained undecided, however, as the campaign officially got started last week.

- Vote on a 'knife-edge' -

The Treasury report is being published just days before US President Barack Obama is due in London on a visit in which he is expected to underline the importance of Britain staying in the EU.

The world's G20 group of top economies last week warned that one of the risks to the global economy was "the shock of a potential UK exit from the European Union".

International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde also called on Britain and the EU to save a "long marriage".

The IMF last week downgraded its forecast for British economic growth by 0.3 percentage points to 1.9 percent for 2016, although it held its 2017 forecast at 2.2 percent.
By Josh Smith KABUL (Reuters) - Schools and health facilities have come under increasing threat as violence spreads in Afghanistan, making it harder for children especially to get access to education and medical care, the United Nations reported on Monday. Western-backed Afghan government forces are locked in a protracted battle with Taliban insurgents who are at their strongest since they were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001. International donors have poured billions of dollars into reconstruction in Afghanistan, including education and health programs, but the conflict threatens to undermine services provided to millions of Afghans, the new U.N. report said. Although direct attacks on schools and health facilities dropped slightly from previous years, U.N. monitors recorded 257 conflict-related incidents in 2015, up from 130 in 2014. "It is simply unacceptable for teachers, doctors and nurses to be subjected to violence or threats, and for schools and medical facilities to be misused or attacked, Nicholas Haysom, the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, said in a statement. "All parties must take measures to protect education and health services in Afghanistan," he said. Sixty-three medical personnel were killed or wounded in 2015, most of them in a single, mistaken attack by a U.S. warplane on a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in the northern city of Kunduz in October. In 2014, 25 health workers were killed or wounded. A further 66 medical personnel were abducted in 2015, compared with 31 the year before. Deaths and injuries among teachers and other education workers were down, to 26 in 2015 from 37 the year before, but abductions spiked to 49 from 14 in the same period. Reports of threats and intimidation against medical and education workers also increased dramatically. Violence forced more than 369 schools to close last year, affecting more than 139,000 students and 600 teachers, according to the U.N. report. Among the hardest hit areas was eastern Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan, where militants linked to the Islamic State militant group forced the closure of at least 11 clinics and 68 schools. Insurgent groups were blamed for the majority of incidents, but pro-government forces were also reported to have harassed medical workers and used schools as fighting positions. At least 600 civilians have been killed in fighting so far this year, with another 1,343 wounded, U.N. human rights investigators said on Sunday, with urban warfare causing a spike in casualties among women and children. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Paul Tait)
By Mirwais Harooni KABUL (Reuters) - Like many teenagers, 19-year-old Negin Khpalwak from Kunar in eastern Afghanistan loves music, but few people of her age have battled as fiercely to pursue their passion in the face of family hostility and threats. Playing instruments was banned outright during the period of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, and even today, many conservative Muslims frown on most forms of music. Negin took her first steps learning music in secret, before eventually revealing her activity to her father. He encouraged her, but the reaction from the rest of her conservative Pashtun family was hostile. "Apart from my father, everybody in the family is against it," she said. "They say, 'How can a Pashtun girl play music?' Especially in our tribe, where even a man doesn't have the right to do it." Now living in an orphanage in the Afghan capital of Kabul, Negin leads the Zohra orchestra, an ensemble of 35 women at the Afghanistan National Institute for Music that plays both Western and Afghan musical instruments. When she went home on a recent visit, her uncles and brothers threatened to beat her for a performing appearance on television, and she had to return to Kabul the next day. "Compared to women outside Afghanistan, we feel we are in a cage," she said. In a country notorious internationally for harsh restrictions on women in most areas of life, Negin's story highlights a double challenge. "The formation of the orchestra is an achievement in itself," said Ahmad Naser Sarmast, a musicologist who returned home from Australia after the fall of the Taliban to help found the National Institute for Music in 2010. "I WILL NEVER ACCEPT DEFEAT" While children at the school have the support of their parents, they often face pressure from their wider family as well as from religious authorities, he said. "The bravery of the girls sitting in the orchestra and the leadership of a young female conductor is an achievement for Afghanistan," he said. Some of the women say their relatives are proud of their achievements, but they face suspicion from others, as well as intimidation. "When I have my musical instruments with me, people talk a lot behind my back," said Mina, a trumpeter in the orchestra, whose mother is a policewoman in the eastern city of Jalalabad. "There are a lot of security problems, and if we go from one place to another with our instruments, then we have to go by car," she added. The dangers awaiting performers in Afghanistan were brutally highlighted in 2014, when Sarmast was nearly killed by a suicide bomber who blew himself up during a show at a French-run school in Kabul. He has not been discouraged, however. The formation of the girls' orchestra was the best response to extremists, he said, adding that the school was trying to help Negin continue her education, despite the family problems. Negin remains fiercely determined to continue on a path that has given her a new sense of identity. "I am not that Negin anymore," she said. "I have been leading this orchestra for six months now, and leadership takes a lot of effort." She is ready to leave her family behind for the sake of her music, she said, although, in Afghanistan, family is crucial to most people's sense of their position in the world. "I will never accept defeat," she said. "I will continue to play music. I do not feel safe, but when people see me and say, 'That is Negin Khpalwak', that gives me energy." (Additional reporting by; Sayed Hassib; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Jerusalem (AFP) - The Palestinian economy is losing hundreds of millions of dollars every year over outdated or insufficiently enforced fiscal agreements with Israel, a World Bank report said on Monday.

The lost revenue of $285 million annually was equivalent to 2.2 percent of Palestinian Gross Domestic Product, according to the report prepared ahead of the bi-annual meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) which coordinates international donor support for the Palestinians.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) "suffers from substantial revenue losses under the current revenue sharing arrangements outlined by the Paris Protocol", the report said of the 1994 agreement which governs economic ties between Israel and the Palestinian territories.

It said most of the losses are a result of "tax leakages on bilateral trade with Israel in addition to undervaluation of Palestinian imports from third countries".

The World Bank also noted the handling fees Israel takes for imports en route to the Palestinians, which at the current rate of three percent "significantly outstrips costs incurred by (Israel) to handle Palestinian imports", recommending that the rate be reduced to 0.6 percent.

The World Bank said it could not quantify the losses to the PA because of a lack of access to Israeli data.

The Palestinian Authority has also so far failed to open a "dedicated fund" to receive $669 million in pension payments collected by the Israeli government for Palestinians working in Israel.

The World Bank noted recent meetings between Israeli and Palestinian finance ministers over the issues, and Israel's commitment to transfer $128 million to "offset some of the PA's losses", calling it "highly encouraging as a first step".

"Reviving the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Economic Committee, originally set to monitor implementation of the Paris Protocol and resolve outstanding issues, could significantly enhance economic and fiscal cooperation between the parties," it said in a statement.

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Resolving outstanding financial "issues" between Israel and the Palestinians could not only "ease the PA's fiscal stress" and improve its economy but might even "facilitate progress on the political front", the report said.

The Israeli finance ministry said that it ensures that the Paris accords are implemented and has made reductions in its handling fees totalling around $21 million.

"We regret that the World Bank report gave an exaggerated and one-sided analysis of damage to the PA's revenues," it wrote in a response to AFP's query.

"The ministry of finance continues to maintain a positive dialogue with the Palestinian Authority intended for the benefit of both sides."

Earlier this month, Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed to end several days of rolling blackouts in the occupied West Bank over what Israel says is some $450 million in arrears for electricity supplied by Israel.

The World Bank report was set to be presented to the AHLC on Tuesday in Brussels.
Mumbai: Aamir Khan, it seems, is playing mediator to patch things up between Hrithik and Kangana whose public spat is becoming uglier by the day. Aamir is known to be cordial with both of them. He recently met Hrithik and from what close friends of the actor suggest, it was to make peace between the two stars.

Says a source, Aamir is close to both. Recently when Hrithik sent a legal notice to Kangana, she confided in Aamir. He knows both sides of the story and is probably in the best position to be the peacemaker. Both Kangana and Hrithik hold him in high regard as well.

Kangana has always been invited to all of Aamirs parties and the two recently met during PM Narendra Modis private dinner. Meanwhile, Aamir appears to be back to playing the Good Samaritan otherwise too. The actor, since the wrap-up of Dangal, has been lending support to water crisis-related programmes in Maharashtra. As part of one such programme, he visited a school in Satara to highlight the problem of drought in Maharashtra.
RIYADH/WASHINGTON/KUWAIT - By Angus McDowall, Roberta Rampton and Sylvia Westall President Barack Obama travels to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday with a familiar message: the United States will not abandon its Gulf allies in their struggle against Iran, a regional power they fear is seeking to undermine their security. Tired of what they see as a reduced commitment to old U.S. allies, riled by comments Obama made about them in a magazine interview last month and aware there will be a new president in January, Riyadh and its neighbors may not be ready to just take his word for it. "We want to receive tangible reassurances from them," said a senior Gulf official briefed on preparations for the meeting. Short of a formal defense treaty, an idea rejected before a previous summit, Riyadh and its allies hope to come away from their meeting with new missile defense systems. Obama wants to find a way for Gulf states and Iran to arrive at a "cold peace" that douses sectarian tensions around the region and curbs the spread of Islamist militancy. Neither side is likely to get much more than partial satisfaction. Differences over how to assess and address what both the Gulf and United States describe as Iran's destabilizing activities in the Middle East have been at the root of the bumpiest period in ties between Washington and the pro-West monarchies for decades. Sunni Muslim Gulf states fear the nuclear deal Washington and other world powers agreed with Shi'ite power Iran, and Obama's reluctance to get bogged down in the Middle East's complex array of disputes, has freed Tehran to act without inhibition. The exception is Oman, which for historical reasons has tried to maintain good ties with Iran and helped broker talks that led to the deal. Riyadh in particular regards Iran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Lebanon's Hezbollah, Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim militias and the Houthi group in Yemen as part of a struggle for the future of the Middle East. For their part, American officials saw the possibility of an Iranian nuclear weapon and the expansion of militant groups such as Islamic State as posing the greatest threat to both Gulf and U.S. interests. "I don't think that there can be any confusion or ambiguity on who is our partner in the region, and who isn't," said Rob Malley, Obama's adviser on Middle East issues, contrasting the depth of Washington's ties with Gulf states to its efforts to counter Iranian detribalization of the region. CHILLY ATMOSPHERE Obama's meetings, both with Saudi King Salman on Wednesday and a day later at a joint summit with all the heads of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, come in the shadow of other disagreements. The president's own comments, in an interview with American magazine The Atlantic last month, appeared calculated to rile Gulf leaders. He said some states in the Gulf and Europe were "free-riders" who called for U.S. action without getting involved themselves. He also answered a question about whether Saudi Arabia was America's friend by saying "it's complicated", and said Gulf states needed to "share" the Middle East with Iran. There was no official response from the Gulf capitals, but Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former intelligence chief, wrote an open letter condemning the remarks and questioning the wisdom of what he characterized as a U.S. "pivot to Iran". Meanwhile, the New York Times reported on Friday that the Saudi Arabian government has threatened to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of American assets should the U.S. Congress pass a bill that could hold the kingdom responsible for any role in the 9/11 attacks. Though U.S. and Gulf officials are at pains to say the strategic relationship remains strong on many levels, friction may be evidence of longer-term trends, such as higher domestic U.S. oil production, that alter Washington's view of the region. "The bureaucracy is beginning to internalize this idea, that the Middle East is slightly less important to us than it used to be," said Ellen Laipson of the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank, adding that the shift was "a matter of degrees". VOW OF DEFENSE Obama has previously vowed to defend Gulf allies against any "external attack", and the United States' military support role has allowed Saudi Arabia to maintain the campaign of an Arab coalition it has led against the Houthis in Yemen. But talks on the more tangible assurances demanded by Gulf officials are focused for now on improving ballistic missile defense systems, something long discussed but given more urgency by Iran's recent testing of new projectiles. "They (the Americans) should provide something," said the Gulf official briefed on preparations for the talks. Malley told reporters that U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter would be discussing U.S.-Gulf cooperation with his counterparts the day before the summit, but Malley did not provide details about specific American assurances. Another U.S. official, speaking anonymously, said Gulf states had themselves made little progress on integrating their disparate anti-missile defenses despite American help. What is important to Obama, said Malley, is to put Gulf states in a position to counter destabilizing activities by Iran and therefore allow them to engage with Tehran from a position of strength to resolve some of the tensions. He described the competition between Iran and Saudi Arabia as fuelling "chaos, sectarianism and instability in the region, all of which help ISIL (Islamic State) and other terrorist groups". He also said the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, regarded in Riyadh as an important stand against perceived creeping Iranian influence in the wake of Washington's reduced engagement in the Middle East, had distracted from the fight against militancy. Such comments are seen in the Gulf as naive. "It is important for the Americans to understand that we are not happy with the overtures that the United States has been prepared to make towards Iran at our expense," said the Gulf official. Still, if this week's summit can increase cooperation on security and intelligence that ultimately bolster their position against Iran, the Gulf monarchs may still consider it a win. (Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Pravin Char)
Would Jack Sparrow have been proud? Johnny Depp and wife Amber Heard nearly got away with a spot of dog smuggling - nearly but not quite.

The thespian couple have recorded a video outlining the importance of following Australia's quarantine laws after charges of illegally importing their two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into Australia were dropped.

Heard avoided a possible 10 year prison sentence and a fine of nearly $100,000 and - more importantly for an actor who needs to travel for work - a recorded conviction after a one day court hearing the pair attended in Queensland's Gold Coast on Monday.

Magistrate Margaret Callaghan gave Heard a one-month $1000 good behaviour bond, meaning that she cannot commit any other offences within Australia in the next month, saying that the Australian Department of Agriculture "will get more deterrence value from the video than any conviction:"

Two charges of illegally importing the dogs into Australia were dropped while Heard pleaded guilty to falsifying immigration papers by not declaring the dogs were on Depp's private plane when she flew into Australia, where the actor was filming Pirates of the Caribbean 5, on April 21 last year.

Read More: Johnny Depp to Star in Universal's 'Invisible Man' Reboot

Heard's lawyer said the actress mistakenly believed paperwork for Pistol and Boo's entry into Australia had been separately filed.

The 42 second video shows Heard and Depp publicly apologizing for their dogs' unauthorized trip Down Under and Depp saying Australians are "just as unique" as their wildlife.

The pair address Australia's strict biosecurity laws in the video, which reportedly had its script vetted by commonwealth prosecutors.

Heard describes "a treasure trove of unique plants, animals and people," while Depp says that, "Australians are just as unique, both warm and direct. If you disrespect Australian law, they will tell you firmly."

Story continues

That's perhaps a reference to then Australian Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce who, when the dogs were discovered by media in a pet grooming salon in May last year, said they had better "bugger off" back to the U.S. or he'd arrange to have them put down.

A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture told THR that, "Ms. Heard and her husband, Johnny Depp, provided a video expressing remorse for her actions. The department is yet to consider how to best use the video provided by Ms. Heard in the longer term. It will initially be made available via our YouTube channel and Facebook page".

"Today's court outcome - coupled with the video - sends the message to all travelers that Australia's biosecurity laws will be strictly enforced," said the spokesman.

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Actress Amber Heard, accompanied by husband Johnny Depp, has pleaded guilty to falsifying immigration documents in an Australian court on Monday, local time, after being accused of smuggling the couple's two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into Australia last year, according to local reports.

Heard appeared at the Southport Magistrates Court on Queensland's Gold Coast, where she was told that two charges of breaking Australia's quarantine laws had been dropped.

The presence of Pistol and Boo in Australia caused a furor last year when then Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce threatened to deport them or have them put down.

Heard brought the dogs into Australia on Depp's private jet on a visit while he was filming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. It was discovered that she had brought them into the country without permits or a period in quarantine, flouting Australia's strict animal import laws.

Read More: Johnny Depp to Star in Universal's 'Invisible Man' Reboot

Guardian Australia reports that providing adocument on entry under the nation's Migration Act carries a maximum penalty of 10 years jail and a fine of AUS$117,800 ($90,200).

Heard's lawyer Jeremy Kirk reportedly tendered video evidence the actress made in a gesture of contrition over her alleged breaches of Australia's 108-year-old quarantine laws.

"Ms. Heard has made a video, the significance of which will become apparent  it relates to an expression of remorse and recognition of the importance of compliance with Australia's border protection laws," said Kirk.
London (AFP) - British environmental activists put face masks on famous statues across London on Monday including the one of Horatio Nelson on Trafalgar Square to draw attention to the problem of air pollution.

Two Greenpeace campaigners scaled the 52-metre (171-foot) high Nelson's Column in the early hours of Monday to put a mask on the famous naval commander.

Masks were put on 17 statues, including Queen Victoria near Buckingham Palace, Eros at Piccadilly Circus and Winston Churchill outside parliament.

London's Metropolitan Police said that eight people had been arrested -- two on Trafalgar Square, four on Parliament Square and two on Hyde Park Corner.

A parliament spokeswoman confirmed there had been "a minor security incident on the parliamentary estate" which was being dealt with by the police.

Greenpeace said it aimed to highlight the health risks caused by the city's poor air quality.

"Monitoring shows that, if these statues were real people, many of them would often be breathing dangerous, illegal air," campaigner Areeba Hamid said.

"That's why we've given them face masks. Of course many millions of Londoners, including kids, are breathing that same air," he said.

London has some of the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide in Europe and Britain has been ordered to reduce pollution by the European Commission.

Nearly 10,000 Londoners die prematurely every year as a result of air pollution, according to calculations by King's College London.

On May 5, the city goes to the polls on May 5 to elect a new mayor to replace Boris Johnson and both the main candidates -- Labour's Sadiq Kahn and Conservative Zac Goldsmith -- have promised environmental action.

"Kitting everyone out with face masks is not the solution. Instead we need to see real political action from the new mayor," Hamid said.

The current proposal for an ultra low emission zone, which comes into force in 2020, offers protection to residents and commuters only in central London.

Greenpeace has asked for the area to be expanded.
Puri Jagannadhs claims of being attacked by film distributors has not just surprised the Tollywood film industry, but the alleged attackers themselves. The Loafer director had lodged a complaint with the police saying that distributors Abhishek Nama, Kaali Sudheer and Mutyala Ramdas forced their way into his home.

They then allegedly manhandled him and threatened him with dire consequences if he didnt compensate them for losses they had incurred after Loafer flopped.

The three have denied the claims, with Abhishek  who bought the distribution rights for Nizam  claiming that he hasnt met the director in over three months: We had registered a complaint with the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce three months ago, which is a general practice when losses are incurred.

I was not in touch with Puri for almost three months and have not even made any calls to him in these three months. He is always under high security and there are so many cameras installed in his house and office, which can prove our innocence.

Mutyala Ramdas added, I am physically handicapped and have no strength to manhandle him. Also, I have bought Loafer film distribution rights for only East Godavari, which is a small territory. Puri Jagannadh is my dear friend and I had earlier bought a film titled Cameraman Ganga Tho Rambabu and had incurred a loss of Rs 81 lakh.

Kaali Sudheer, who was also named in the complaint, is confused why his name came up. Im in Mumbai since a week. Moreover, Ive no clue why he registered a complaint against me when I am not in any way related to the movie.

The producer of Loafer, C. Kalyan, is shocked with the allegations. Its me who has incurred the losses, I should have asked Puri to compensate but I did not. I have spoken to Puri last night (on Saturday), I shall call him again and try to solve the issue.

As pointed out by Abhishek, Puri indeed has high security, with CCTV cameras, armed security personnel and more, after the TRS party members had attacked him after Puri Jagannadhs Cameraman Ganga Tho Rambabu had released.

Also, its a practise for those who are paid a remuneration of Rs 1 crore and above to compensate if the loss is above 20 per cent. V.V. Vinayak and Mahesh Babu returned a part of their remuneration after Akhil and Aagadu didnt do well. Puri, who charges `8 crore per film, hasnt yet offered to return any money.

Those in Filmnagar are also speculating that this could just be a mere drama by Puri Jagannadh, who has two movies lined up  Rogue and another movie with Kalyan Ram, so that the flop of Loafer doesnt affect him or his remuneration in any way.

Setting the tone?

While Puri himself, who is in Bangkok scripting his next film, refrained from commenting, his colleagues reacted sharply. While the cops investigate the incident, if found to be true it could start a dangerous trend within the Telugu film industry.

Oopiri director Vamshi Paidipally says, This is an insane act, and I dont think this sets an example for anything. Such violence against a director cuts into the creative enthusiasm of filmmaking.

Ravikanth Perepu, director of Kshanam is outraged by the alleged attack. He says, I dont know what equations the makers and distributors share with each other. But I think Puri should be respected for his works which were blockbusters and made a lot of money for the producers and distributors. Cinema is a form of art. Rowdyism isnt.

 With inputs from

Lipika Varma, Suresh Kavirayani and Subhash K. Jha.
Buenos Aires (AFP) - Global investors welcomed Argentina back to international credit markets, with demand for $60 billion of bonds far outstripping supply in the country's first debt auction since a 2001 default, the government said Tuesday.

Latin America's third-biggest economy ended its financial isolation by borrowing cash on world credit markets for the first time in 15 years.

Investors offered to buy more than $60 billion of government bonds, Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said.

That was "the highest demand in history in an emerging economy and among the 20 biggest debt issues in history," he told a news conference.

The demand was several times the supply in the bond auction, which was initially forecast to raise between $12.5 billion and $15.0 billion.

The country is looking to boost its struggling economy and settle a 15-year lawsuit by US investment funds that its ex-president Cristina Kirchner branded as "vultures."

A source close to the operation earlier said that Argentina would pay interest rates of between 6.25 and eight percent on the bonds.

Prat-Gay said the government would give details of the volume and rates of the bonds sold at around 1800 GMT on Tuesday after markets close.

"We are very happy to have come so quickly out of the darkness to be able to reconnect with the world," he said.

The money borrowed by issuing the bonds would give the government financial leeway even after it has paid off the so-called "holdouts," international funds that sued it in the US courts for full repayment.

Maturities on the various bond tranches are for three, five, 10 and 30 years.

It is the biggest Argentine cash call on markets in two decades.

- 'Major step forward' -

Argentina's new conservative president Mauricio Macri has claimed the return to the international financial fold as a victory.

His opponents said poor families would bear the cost of his borrowing since public spending cuts would be imposed to pay off the debts eventually.

Story continues

Macri has been scrapping Kirchner's protectionist policies and opening up Argentina's diplomatic and financial ties.

He has removed currency controls and raised utility prices, triggering angry protests from Argentines who say their spending power is declining.

The bond sale "is a major step forward," Agustin Carstens, head of the IMF's Monetary and Financial Committee, said Saturday.

"It is very good to have a country as important as Argentina putting the house in order."

He warned, however, that Argentines would have to endure tough economic cutbacks to stabilize the economy and public finances.

"Needless to say, in the short term, some measures may be difficult to digest," Carstens said in Washington.

The International Monetary Fund forecasts that Argentina's economy will contract by one percent this year and grow 2.8 percent in 2017.

Prat-Gay has given a stronger forecast of around zero growth this year and growth of up to four percent next year.

- 'High credit risk' -

After the 2001 crisis, some Argentines object to taking on new debt -- not least Kirchner and her allies.

"Once again history is repeating itself and catching the Argentines out. Debt, devaluation, layoffs, political persecution, price rises," Kirchner said in a speech last week.

"These are just a few of the calamities that the new government has caused in barely four months."

Macri on Saturday announced a series of social welfare measures that he said would help the poor cope with the cuts.

The finance ministry said it had enlisted Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan, Santander, BBVA, Citigroup and UBS to organize the bond sale.

It has included a clause to prevent a small number of shareholders from blocking the restructuring of the debt.

That is a measure to avoid a repeat of Argentina's fight with the "holdouts."

Credit rater Moody's raised Argentina's sovereign rating on Friday ahead of the bond sale.

It still ranks as a speculative investment with a "high credit risk," but less high-risk than before.
Buenos Aires (AFP) - Argentina made its return to international financial markets Monday, receiving offers from investors for its sovereign bonds ahead of its first debt sale in 15 years, a government source said.

Latin America's third-biggest economy is seeking to end 15 years of financial isolation by borrowing cash on world credit markets for the first time since a 2001 default.

"We have started to receive offers. We will know the total amount" on Tuesday, a source in the finance ministry, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

The government was hearing bids by investors ahead of the formal bond issuing process that was due to take place on Tuesday, organized by international banks.

Argentine newspaper La Nacion cited sources involved in organizing the debt auction that the government had received offers worth $67 billion -- five times the amount of bonds available.

The country is looking to boost its struggling economy and settle a 15-year lawsuit by US investment funds which its ex-president Cristina Kirchner branded as "vultures."

Now that a US court has cleared the way for Argentina to start borrowing again, the government planned to issue a reported $15 billion in medium- and long-term bonds.

"Argentina is back," said Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay in Washington ahead of the sale.

- 'Major step forward' -

Argentina's new conservative president Mauricio Macri has claimed the return to the international financial fold as a victory.

His opponents said poor families would bear the cost of his borrowing since public spending cuts would be imposed to pay off the debts eventually.

Macri has been scrapping Kirchner's protectionist policies and opening up Argentina's diplomatic and financial ties.

He has removed currency controls and raised utility prices, triggering angry protests from Argentines who say their spending power is declining.

The bond sale "is a major step forward," said Agustin Carstens, head of the IMF world lender's Monetary and Financial Committee, on Saturday.

Story continues

"It is very good to have a country as important as Argentina putting the house in order."

He warned however that Argentines would have to endure tough economic cutbacks to stabilize the economy and public finances.

"Needless to say in the short term some measures may be difficult to digest," Carstens said in Washington.

The IMF forecasts that Argentina's economy will contract by one percent this year and grow 2.8 percent in 2017.

Prat-Gay has given a stronger forecast of around zero growth this year and growth of up to four percent next year.

- 'High credit risk' -

South American countries generally borrow at 3 to 4 percent interest, but analysts forecast Argentina would have to offer a higher rate of up to 9 percent in its new bond issue.

After the 2001 crisis, some Argentines object to taking on new debt -- not least Kirchner and her allies.

"Once again history is repeating itself and catching the Argentines out. Debt, devaluation, layoffs, political persecution, price rises," Kirchner said in a speech last week.

"These are just a few of the calamities that the new government has caused in barely four months."

Macri on Saturday announced a series of social welfare measures that he said would help the poor cope with the cuts.

The finance ministry said it has enlisted Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan, Santander, BBVA, Citigroup and UBS to organize the bond sale.

It has included a clause to prevent a small number of shareholders from blocking the restructuring of the debt.

That is a measure to avoid a repeat of Argentina's fight with the "holdouts," international investment funds that sued it in the US courts for full repayment after its 2001 default.

Credit rater Moody's raised Argentina's sovereign rating on Friday ahead of the bond sale.

It still ranks as a speculative investment with a "high credit risk," but less high-risk than before.
Ariana Grande has released the full tracklist for her new album "Dangerous Woman."

The pop star released the tracks on Instagram, posing in a series of mug shots wearing a tiara and furry boa.

The album features 15 tracks that include guest collaborations with Nicki Minaj, Macy Gray, Future and Lil Wayne.

Grande's third album drops May 20.

Here's the full tracklist:

1. "Moonlight"

2. "Dangerous Woman"

3. "Be Alright"

4. "Into You"

5. "Side to Side" (feat. Nicki Minaj)

6. "Let Me Love You" (feat. Lil Wayne)

7. "Greedy"

8. "Leave Me Lonely" (feat. Macy Gray)

9. "Everyday" (feat. Future)

10. "Sometimes"

11. "I Don't Care"

12. "Bad Decisions"

13. "Touch It

"14. Knew Better / Forever Boy"

15. "Thinkin bout You"
Sheriff Nick Finch let a pistol-packing local man out of the Liberty County, Florida, jail shortly after taking office, a decision that brought him admiration, donations, and speaking requests from anti-government activists across the country. It put him at odds with state authorities, who charged him with a crime, but also thrust him into the vanguard of a radical and growing movement among sheriffs in rural communities who assert they can ignore state and federal laws they decide are unconstitutional.

The Florida episode began in the middle of the countys lush Apalichicola National Forest on March 8, 2013, when one of Finchs deputies pulled over a driver and discovered a loaded .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol in his front pocket, according to the deputys sworn statement. Carrying a concealed firearm without a license is a third-degree felony under Florida law, so the deputy arrested the man, Lloyd Parrish, and brought him in to the county jail.

Finch, 53, later said he decided that I know what law rules the day, and its the U.S. Constitution. He ordered Parrish released and someone whited out Parrishs booking record, an act that caused Republican Gov. Rick Scott to order Finchs suspension after the deputy complained. But then former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack called, and the political machinery of a group that Mack heads  the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association  became engaged.

Sympathizers created a Facebook support page for the previously obscure former U.S.Army police supervisor, and online commentators expressed outrage at what they called an unconstitutional attempt by the state to interfere with Finchs support for gun rights. Mack organized a fundraiser in nearby Panama City and brought Stewart Rhodes, head of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers, the same group that made national headlines last August for patrolling the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, with long guns. Mack is also on the Oath Keepers board of directors.

It wasnt the only occasion in which Mack, a former public relations director of a lobbying group called Gun Owners of America, has intervened on behalf of someone who prominently contested the enforcement of laws. Hes traveled repeatedly to Oregon this year, appearing at high schools and fairgrounds, and giving interviews in which he sharply criticized federal authorities during their armed standoff with militants who occupied a wildlife refuge there to protest federal land-use rules. Hes also promised to help elect new sheriffs in the region who share his views. Gun laws are a focus of his ire, but federal lands restrictions and tax laws also have been in his sights.

Whats unique about his group is not that it opposes gun controls but that its ambition is to encourage law enforcement officers to defy laws they decide themselves are illegal. On occasion, some of his groups sheriffs have found themselves in curious agreement with members of the sovereign citizens movement, which was also founded on claimed rights of legal defiance and is said by the FBI to pose one of the most serious domestic terrorism threats.

Mack claims the dues-paying support of several hundred of the nations more than 3,000 sheriffs and the sympathies of hundreds more, but its hard to assess how many endorse his denunciation of the federal government as the corrupt and illegitimate enforcer of laws that trample on states rights.

Dozens of sheriffs around the country  including John Hanlin, the sheriff of Douglas County, Oregon, the site of last Octobers mass shooting of eight students and a professor at Umpqua Community College  joined Mack in an aggressive letter-writing campaign to the White House after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which they vowed not to enforce any unconstitutional federal regulations that tightened gun restrictions.

Mack has referred to the federal government as the greatest threat we face today, and describes his association  which states its meetings are supported by the John Birch Society and Gun Owners of America, as well as by annual dues payments of $50  as the army to set our nation free. He said in an interview with the Center for Public Integrity that he has grown the army by training more than 400 sheriffs at seminars and conventions in how to interpret the U.S. Constitution and how to resist authorities and laws that violate it. A former Florida assistant state attorney, KrisAnne Hall, assists in a coordinated training effort and says she conducts 265 sessions annually.

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During Finchs boisterous trial in October 2013, he was joined in the small Liberty County courtroom by Mack, several other Florida sheriffs, and dozens of new supporters. The judge had to admonish the crowd repeatedly not to laugh as the state presented its case against Finch, and in the end, the jury acquitted him of misconduct and falsification of records. He later won back pay as well as attorneys fees of more than $160,000 and remains the sheriff of Liberty County.

Electoral defeats no obstacle

Mack first made it to the national stage in 1996 as a sheriff from Arizona, when he and a sheriff from Montana challenged a provision of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act before the U.S. Supreme Court. Using attorneys subsidized by the National Rifle Association, they argued it was unconstitutional for the federal government to require local chief law enforcement officers to run background checks on prospective gun buyers  and won, in a 5-4 ruling that struck down that provision of the act.

Mack was defeated in the Democratic primary that year before the Supreme Court heard his case, and has since lost three more elections, as a Republican primary candidate for sheriff in Utah, a Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate in Arizona, and a Republican primary candidate for the House of Representatives. He nonetheless became a popular speaker, initially at John Birch Society and National Rifle Association banquets, and later at tea party events. In May 2011, he registered the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association with the state of Texas  but it is just now filing for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service, and as a result, its financing is largely opaque.

The group quickly came onto the radar of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama nonprofit group that describes itself as a monitor of hate groups. The center said in 2013 that Mack had frequently embraced baseless conspiracy theories, appeared on ideologically extreme media programs, and sought to promote the Patriot agenda among law enforcement officers. Mack responded by accusing the group of slander, but a lawsuit he filed foundered over a jurisdictional issue, according to federal court records and Center spokeswoman Ashley Levett.

Mack says that more than 100 sheriffs have shown up at the annual conventions his group has organized, including many in 2014 where Finch received the groups top honor: Constitutional Sheriff of the Year. With forty other sheriffs, Finch signed a resolution there declaring they would not tolerate any federal agent who attempted to register firearms, arrest someone, or seize property in their counties without their consent.

Jared Goldstein, professor of constitutional law at the Roger Williams University School of Law in Rhode Island, said this vow conflicts with the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which authorizes federal agents to enforce federal law even when it clashes with state or local laws. What makes them dangerous, Goldstein said in an interview, is that they want the sheriffs to resist federal authority, using phraseology that he contends leaves the door open for violence. In their stubborn resistance to federal authority, he added, they are like Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk jailed last year for flouting the U.S. Supreme Court ruling granting gay couples the right to wed  but with guns.

Mack rejects this and says he envisions the sheriffs take back of the United States as a peaceful event. But he uses apocalyptic language to depict social conditions in America, describing sheriffs as a bulwark to forestall the violence for which armed, angry citizens around the country are preparing. In an interview with the Center for Public Integrity at his office, Finch, too, said he sees sheriffs as a safeguard against all-out civil war. If all the sheriffs would get on board and stand in the gap, then maybe we can avoid the violence that I believe probably is going to come at some point, Finch said.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, an African-American Democrat who supports the association and was chosen as its Sheriff of the Year in 2013, captured the attention of gun rights advocates around the nation that year with his prophecy that federal efforts to restrict gun ownership in the country would result in an all-out civil uprising. In a 30-second public service announcement recorded that January, he urged citizens to learn to use firearms because simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option. In an election the following year, the pro-gun control political action committee started by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent $236,450 on television advertisements for his opponent while the National Rifle Association spent $30,876 on advertisements and organized a fundraising campaign that brought in another $170,617.77 from donors all over the country.

Clarke won with 52 percent of the vote, but his relationship with local authorities soured. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm in 2014 publicly accused him of pursuing media appearances and publicity tours at the expense of public safety in the county. The public has a right to see their elected officials are committed to solving problems not engaging in demagoguery, he wrote. Get off your high horse, Sheriff, and get your office back in the fight.

Winning over law enforcement officials

On the chilly morning last October, roughly 60 people  mostly older white men  sat at long plastic tables beneath the fluorescent lights of the auditorium in the Forrest County Multipurpose Center in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to attend a Tribute to Constitutional Sheriffs and Peacekeepers. The funder was Americas Foundation, a nonprofit founded in Mississippi to teach people about the proper balance of power that is supposed to exist between the states and the federal government, according to the foundations president, Vince Thornton.

Thornton is listed in federal tax court records as a petitioner who sought tax-exempt status in 2000 for a different group, called The Nationalist Foundation, which said its aim was to support promajority citizens and to save neighborhoods by suing minorities and by countering the leftist threat to our liberties. He also is listed in state incorporation papers filed in March as an officer of the Dixie Alliance, which describes itself as supporting a correct understanding of the principles on which the Confederate States of America was founded.

Richard Barrett, a well-known white supremacist lawyer, was listed in state records as the Nationalist Foundations registered agent in 1996 and the Americas Foundations registered agent in 2005. Richard Barrett is a self-proclaimed racist and Chairman of the Americas Foundation, Jackson, Mississippi, a rightist youth organization, a declassified 1987 FBI report states. (Barrett was killed by a neighbor in 2010.)

Asked for comment, Thornton said in an email that Barrett was my friend and we never had a cross word between us. With regard to the Nationalist Foundation, which failed to win a tax exemption, he said I agreed to let him use my name as a favor for legal work he had done for me. With regard to the Americas Foundation, he said Barrett was only one member on a Board of Directors and didnt bring his political views into the operation. Thornton said I reject both Nationalism and Socialism and support limited local government and the free enterprise system, while opposing official corruption.

At the meeting, four or five political groups  the local chapters of a tea party group, Freedom Works, United Conservatives Fund  laid out their literature, candy, and swag on folding tables at the back of the room. The speakers included two local police officers, the president of Mississippis Gulf Coast Rangers citizen militia, a veteran who tracks gun laws in Mississippi, an investigator for the states attorney general, and finally, the star attraction: Sheriff Richard Mack. But only one Mississippi county sheriff showed up: Billy McGee, from the surrounding Forrest County.

Mack is over six feet tall and bears a passing resemblance to Ronald Reagan, but with more piercing eyes and more forbidding eyebrows. Standing before the crowd in a casual, desert-hued suit, he seemed slightly larger than life. Audience members queued to have him sign their copies of a booklet summarizing his case against the Brady Act, called The Victory for State Sovereignty. In America, he said as audience members nodded, gun control is against the law. And we dont get to violate the law just because we have a shooting in Oregon or Sandy Hook or anyplace else.

What we want now is for many of you to come to our certification training, he said. You come to a two-day seminar, get certified, and then you get back here to your state and you start providing this training, bam, bam, bam, go to every sheriffs office, go to chiefs of police, go to county commissioners and show them this training. Details about how to get the certification training, Mack assured the audience, would be forthcoming.

Paul Boudreaux, 53, raised his hand from the third row. What do you do about the sheriffs that are complicit with the federal government? he asked.

Ignore them, Mack replied. He reminded the audience that there are nearly 3,100 sheriffs in the country and that the association is aiming to get approximately one-fourth of them to support its mission: If we get that 600 or 700, theres going to be no stopping. And then everybody in this country has at least two or three places in each state where they can go for refuge, find a true constitutional sheriff wholl tell the federal government, Youre not going to abuse citizens anymore.

Asked later what the worst abuses were that the federal government had committed in his community, Boudreaux brought up the gopher frog: an endangered species native to the Gulf region. To protect it, Boudreaux said, some of his neighbors have had hundreds of acres of land condemned as habitat where the frog can live. Fortunately, because of our Second Amendment, weve still got the freest country on Earth, Boudreaux added, crossing his arms. "But the sheriff needs to know," Boudreaux said, expressing a view that most legal scholars vigorously dispute, "that he can forbid federal agents from coming into his county and trying to enforce laws that are unconstitutional.

Roots of the movement

The constitutional sheriff movement, according to the teachings of Mack and his supporters, is rooted in the historical definition of sheriffs as the most powerful law-enforcement officers within their counties. The idea harkens to medieval England, when Anglo-Saxon kings tasked sheriffs with enforcing their edicts. English colonists brought the tradition to the Americas, and began electing their own sheriffs in the mid-1600s, entrusting them with overseeing the judicial process, carrying out legal decisions, and keeping the peace. Under the latter authority, they could organize citizen brigades to catch outlaws or defend against attackers, an arrangement known as posse comitatus.

In the 1970s, a minister in the white supremacist Christian Identity movement, William Potter Gale, wrote a series of articles that would come to be known as the handbook of the Posse Comitatus movement. Gale described sheriffs as the only legal law enforcement officers in the country and urged citizens to form their own militias to resist encroachments on their rights if sheriffs did not. The constitutional abuses he cited included the federal income tax system, gun control, federal education, and civil rights laws. He advised citizens to form their own common law courts to try officials who violated the constitution, and prescribed archaic punishments, such as hangings.

Contemporary sovereign citizens, who generally reject federal authorities, are inspired partly by Gales rhetoric and partly by past bloody clashes between federal officials and citizens charged with illegal gun sales and ownership. Terry Nichols, who is now in prison for planning the Oklahoma City federal center bombing that killed 168 people and wounded more than 680 others this week 21 years ago, is a notorious member of the sovereign citizen movement, according to the FBI.

That April 19 bombing deliberately coincided with the date of three iconic events in the radical rights historical pantheon  the shot heard round the world at the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775; a violent FBI battle in 1985 with members of an extremist Christian group in Arkansas known as the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord; and the FBIs climactic confrontation in 1993 with religious extremists belonging to the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, provoking a fire in which 76 people perished.

Nowadays, sovereign citizens number in the hundreds of thousands, and U.S. law enforcement agencies consider them the top terrorist threat in the country, according to a July 2014 survey by a University of Maryland-led terrorism study consortium. At least 14 police officers have been killed and another 14 injured in 62 incidents involving sovereign citizens since 9/11, according to J.J. MacNab, a frequent writer on anti-government extremism who consults for federal agencies. Most of their attacks are unplanned, reactive violence targeting law enforcement officers during active enforcement efforts, the Department of Homeland Security said in a Feb. 5, 2015, report.

In one such incident, West Memphis police officer Brandon Paudert and another officer pulled over a sovereign citizen named Jerry Kane and his 16-year-old son in a white minivan with out-of-state license plates, in May 2010. The duo had been traveling around the country peddling debt-avoidance seminars based on sovereign citizen beliefs. Kane had been threatening anti-government violence for years on his Internet radio show, and the traffic stop escalated rapidly into a tussle in which the younger Kane shot Paudert and the other policeman dead with an AK-47. Police officers caught up with both Kanes hours later in a Walmart parking lot, where they were killed.

Mack and his supporters dismiss the idea that they are supportive of the violent measures taken by sovereign citizens. But some of his associations members have found common cause with the group. In February 2011, for example, New Hampshire Sheriff Christopher Conley  who was listed as a member of the council of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association from November 2012 until 2015  expressed support for claims made against the Internal Revenue Service by a sovereign citizen named Charles Gregory Melick. A deputy federal marshal had served a summons on Melick at Conleys office, requiring him to appear in court about unpaid taxes, but Conley decided to write to a judge on Melicks behalf, arguing that the service was not legally valid. I have a duty to protect peoples Constitutional rights and protections, Conley said in his note.

Conley was never directly punished for his decision to not detain Melick, but lost the election in 2012.

In 2014, at least three sheriffs showed up with constitutionalist citizen militia groups and members of the Oath Keepers to support Cliven Bundys standoff against the federal Bureau of Land Management at his ranch in southern Nevada  a precursor to this years standoff by radical land-rights activists, whose leaders included two of Bundys sons, at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. In a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., a few months after the Bundy Ranch standoff, Oath Keepers President Stewart Rhodes gave those sheriffs a special shoutout. You had Brad Rogers [from Indiana] there, he came on our behalf, you had Sheriff Peyman from Kentucky, you also had Jeff Christopher from Delaware, he told the audience.

So if we're a bunch of radical anti-government crazy cop killers, why were there police officers standing right there with us? Rhodes asked. Its cause we're all in this together.

Bob Paudert, the chief of the West Memphis police at the time of the deadly traffic stop and the father of one of the policemen slain that day, said he is troubled by the number of sheriffs and police officers who adopt the ideology of armed resistance embraced by sovereign citizens, but he can understand why they do. Even I agree with a lot of what they say, he told the Center for Public Integrity, such as the principles of standing up for states rights and reining in the federal government. But law enforcement is not the enemy.

Closed seminars for sheriffs and police

One of the foot soldiers in the effort to train law enforcement officers as well as regular citizens to be more constitutionally minded, as Mack puts it, is KrisAnne Hall. Like Mack, she travels the country teaching her interpretation of constitutional law to everyone from sheriffs to middle schoolers. She says the government cannot regulate healthcare or gun ownership or voting requirements, or exercise any powers not delegated to it by the states.

Hall told the Center in a recent interview that her passion for such topics lit up at the University of Florida law school, and that after a brief stint in the state attorneys office, she found a job with the Gibbs Law Firm, which has offices in Florida, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Its owner, David Gibbs III, is also the president of the National Center for Life and Liberty, a ministry organization that aims to protect and defend the Bible-based values upon which our nation was founded, according to its website.

Hall became vocal about her views, and after returning to the state attorneys office, gave speeches at tea party meetings and spoke on radio programs  a practice that irritated her superiors, she and her former boss said in interviews. She was told to quit speaking ill of the states authority or to resign, and filed a protest before reaching a settlement and leaving the office. She then took up the seminar work and developed a curriculum specifically aimed at sheriffs and law enforcement officers. In an interview, Hall said they usually find it particularly challenging to understand their true duties under the First, Second, Fourth, and Tenth Amendments. In her book, Sovereign Duty, Hall exhorts readers to bring a copy of the associations 2014 resolution telling federal agents to keep out, in effect, to their sheriffs and ask them to sign it. Do not except [sic] excuses like, I have to enforce the law, she writes.

The National Sheriffs Association, the countrys main professional association for sheriffs, does not try to regulate its members claims, including messages from Mack and his supporters, according to its deputy executive director, John Thompson. There may be people that are part of this that are our members. Matter of fact, I know there are, said Thompson in an interview at the associations headquarters in Virginia.

The association, a 65-year-old nonprofit organization dedicated to raising the level of professionalism among sheriffs, according to its website, offers general ethics and leadership training for sheriffs. But Thompson said the associations leaders never opine on how individual sheriffs should behave because their authorities vary so widely from state to state, and because they are ultimately accountable to voters.

How Macks campaign plays out over the next few years is unclear. The general political climate, as reflected in the presidential campaign, is angrier and more confrontational than ever. And anti-government extremists are more agitated than at any time in recent memory, as evidenced by the recent siege at the Oregon wildlife refuge. But the reputation of the sheriffs in Macks group could be enhanced or sullied by the outcome of a wide-ranging Oregon state probe of Sheriff Glenn Palmer, a vocal supporter of the group who met with several participants in the siege, allegedly asked them to sign his copy of the Constitution, and was quoted by a newspaper calling them patriots. The sole casualty, Robert Lavoy Finicum, told state police he was on his way to meet with Palmer a few minutes before he was shot, allegedly for making a threatening motion.

We cant make anybody be courageous, but we want sheriffs to see the abuses of the federal government, Mack said in the interview. If you put them in front of the right information, theyll do the right thing.

Executive editor Gordon Witkin contributed to this article.

This story is part of National Security. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

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Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
Jerusalem (AFP) - A fire ripped through a bus in Jerusalem on Monday, Israeli police said, with medics reporting an explosion and at least 16 people wounded.

Police initially said there was "an attack" without providing further details before later saying all causes were being investigated.

The bus appeared to have been empty at the time, the police said, with the wounded apparently on another bus situated next to it.

"A bus travelling from southern Jerusalem reached Moshe Baram street," a police statement said.

"There was apparently an explosion and the bus started burning. Another bus nearby and a private car were also hit."

Rescue service Magen David Adom reported the explosion and at least 16 wounded, including two seriously.

Most of the injuries were said to be burn wounds and smoke inhalation.

An AFP journalist at the scene said one bus was completely burnt out while another was partially burned, with a large contingent of firefighters battling to extinguish the blaze.

The incident comes with tensions high following a wave of violence that began in October which has killed 201 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

A bus bombing would mark a significant escalation in the violence.

The attacks have steadily declined in recent weeks, though there have been concerns that the Passover holiday beginning April 22 could lead to a new surge in violence.
The Stirling University research, which looked at the habits of 4,000 youngsters, is the first to establish the link between e-cigarette displays and increase in underage vaping. (Photo: Pixabay)

Washington D.C.: Shop displays of e-cigarettes are encouraging kids to start vaping, according to a recent study.

The Stirling University research, which looked at the habits of 4,000 youngsters, is the first to establish the link. Study author Catherine Best said that the policy makers need to consider very carefully how to balance the promotion of e-cigarettes to adult smokers as an aid to help them quit, while at the same time minimising their uptake by young people.

The study appears in journal BMC Public Health.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Queensland state on Monday banned underground coal gasification, a controversial process used to convert coal into gas. Unlike fracking, which involves pumping fluid into coal seams to cause fractures, the method by which unearthed coal, known as underground coal gasification, or UCG, takes place entirely below the surface, raising concerns over water contamination and greenhouse gas emissions. The ban on UCG was initiated by the state's mines minister, Anthony Lynham, who said he will introduce legislation by the end of the year to make it law. Carbon Energy Ltd, a company that said it had spent A$150 million ($115.23 million) over eight years developing UCG technology to use in the state, was considering a response to the ban. Carbon Energy, whose stock dropped nearly 8 percent to less than 2 Australian cents on Monday, said it had passed every environmental and scientific test put before it over the past eight years. Last month, Singapore-listed Linc Energy was charged in Queensland with causing serious environmental harm following an investigation into a gas leak at one of its UCG pilot plants, after four employees fell ill with suspected gas poisoning. Linc, whose shares have been suspended since late March, on April 15 sought voluntary ministration, a form of bankruptcy. Proponents of UCG say the process is safer as there is no surface disposal of coal ash into the atmosphere, while detractors have raised concerns over contamination of groundwater and increased levels of greenhouse gases beyond those of natural gas. "The potential risks to Queensland's environment and our valuable agricultural industries far outweigh any potential economic benefits," Lynham said. Wales in the United Kingdom last month imposed a moratorium on UCG, part of a precautionary approach it said toward the development of unconventional oil and gas resources, which includes a temporary ban on fracking. (Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Ed Davies)
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was Monday handed his trigger to call July elections after the Senate for a second time rejected government legislation to re-establish a construction industry watchdog.

Turnbull, who wrested the leadership from conservative Liberal Party colleague Tony Abbott in September, has threatened to hold national polls for both houses of parliament on July 2 unless the Senate passed two stalled bills relating to unions.

But the Senate on Monday evening rejected for a second time legislation to reestablish a construction watchdog. It has already twice blocked a second industrial relations bill.

"The result of the decision in the Senate a short while ago... means that the constitutional grounds for a double dissolution election exist," Attorney-General George Brandis said.

But Brandis said this did not equate with Australia being in an election campaign.

"It is not really an election campaign until the parliament is dissolved and the writs are issued, in my view," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Last month Turnbull recalled parliament to consider the bills and said if the Senate failed to pass them, he would set in train the process to dissolve both houses of parliament and issue writs for an election.

The government is set to deliver its annual budget on May 3, and Brandis said this would be a priority.

Turnbull's Liberal/National coalition government has been wavering in opinion polls, with a Newspoll published in The Australian on Monday showing the opposition Labor Party ahead of the government 51 percent to 49 percent.

But Brandis said almost all Australian elections fell within a 52-48 margin and were generally "extremely contestable by both sides".

"As we move into the home stretch, you would expect the race to tighten because that is what always happens," he said.
BENGALURU: An elderly couple, who were sleeping outside their house in Rajankunte on the city outskirts, got run over by a truck on Saturday night. According to the police the deceased, identified as Ramakrishna, 60, and his wife Rathnamma, both labourers, have been sleeping outside for the past few days due to soaring mercury levels.

They were sleeping near the road and the truck driver, who was reversing the vehicle, failed to see them and the rear wheels ran over them. They died while being taken to the hospital. Fearing attack by villagers and arrest, the driver abandoned the vehicle and fled. Police have established the identity of the driver and a team has been formed to trace him, police added.

Investigations revealed that the truck had come to pick up some people from the village. B. Ramesh, Superintendent of Police, Bengaluru Rural, said, The area was not well-lit. The driver was reversing the vehicle and failed to notice the couple and the accident happened. They were rushed to a nearby hospital by locals, but died on the way. Rajankunte police have registered a case of hit and run.
New York is supposedly Clinton Country, and the polls suggest it will stay that way in Tuesdays Democratic primary.

The notion of a Sanders victory has been mathematically dismissed by the wonks at the data analysis website FiveThirtyEight. Their polls-plus forecast gives Hillary a 99 percent chance of winning, and they project the margin will be 15.8 points.

The respected and widely reported NBC4NY/WSJ/Marist poll has Clinton besting Sanders by 17 points. A YouGov survey that is slightly more recent than the Marist poll has Clinton ahead by 10, and a Gravis poll released Sunday night but taken on April 5 and 6, gives Clinton a six-point edge.

Related: Sanders Attacks Are Taking a Serious Toll on Clinton

While those declining poll numbers may be starting to undermine one of the Clinton Assumptions  that the Chicago-born former senator from New York would own the states primary  a 6-point victory after all the pot-fueled euphoria at Bernie rallies would be solid if not mind-blowing.

But social media may be sending a message that should give pause to the Clinton campaign and at least some of Hillarys super delegates.

The results on 30dB, a website that gauges social-media sentiment (and full disclosure, for which I consult), show that of the 17,800 opinions recorded for Sanders + New York over the past seven days, 46 percent are positive. Of the 14,800 opinions of Clinton + New York shared over the same time period, 52 percent are positive. That mirrors the Gravis poll. So far, so good for Clinton.



Source: 30dB.com - Sanders and New York vs Clinton and New York

The trend lines over the past couple of days tell a significantly different story, however, with Sanders pulling in 58 percent positives on April 18, vs. 46 percent positives for Clinton.



Source: 30dB.com - Sanders and New York vs Clinton and New York

Howard Kaushansky, founder of 30dB, cautions that those results are likely related to Bernies Brooklyn love-in  the record crowd of 28,300 Sandernistas who showed up to cheer their 74-year-old rebel and predict an upset on Tuesday  and the volume of opinions is more than 3,000 for Sanders and fewer than 2,000 for Clinton. He also notes that the outcomes represent an analysis of what has been posted on social media  opinions expressed as opposed to answers to specific questions posed by polls. In addition, Kaushansky says, not everybody spouting an opinion on social media may be of voting age, or registered. The spike may primarily reflect Bernie supporters being vocal and is not necessarily reflective of a massive shift in voting.

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Related: Heres Why Being a Socialist Is Cool on Todays College Campuses

Still, on Feb. 1, the morning of the Iowa Caucuses, 30dB saw the trend lines for Clinton and Sanders almost converging. The day before, the Real Clear Politics poll average had Clinton ahead by 4 points. She won by 0.2.

Sanders told John Dickerson on Face the Nation yesterday morning that he thinks he could pull an upset and win in New York. Not a close second. A win.

We're fighting hard, Sanders said. I think we have real shot to win on Tuesday if there is a large voter turnout.

Kenneth Sherrill, a political science professor emeritus at Hunter College, told The New Yorkers John Cassidy last week that he expects turnout to be high. And the New York Daily News reported an unprecedented surge in voter registration, though it said the state could not break out party affiliation.

Related: How Trump and Cruz Could Be Big Money-Makers for House Democrats

Despite the new voters, it remains hard to see how the Bernie Brigade can overcome the union armies of service workers and teachers that will march to the polls for Hillary  or how Sanders will make significant inroads with older African-American voters who have been reliable Clinton followers (except when Barack Obama is on the ballot).

But even Peggy Noonan, the elegant doyenne of Republican political columnists and author of the paean to Ronald Reagan What I Saw at the Revolution, has confessed to feeling if not the Bern, a certain shaking of the ground. I went to one of [Clintons] rallies in New York at the Apollo Theater the other day, she said on CBSs Face the Nation on April 3. People were enacting the appropriate enthusiasm, but  the sisterhood of the traveling pants suit [was] not there. Then Bernie goes to the Bronx and he's got X thousands of people really cheering. I'm a New Yorker. Something's going on in New York and we're not seeing it in the polls yet.

Maybe, just maybe, what Noonan is sensing is a new revolution taking hold in her town.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Bernie Sanders addresses supporters at a massive rally on Sunday in Brooklyns Prospect Park. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Fresh from a whirlwind weekend in which he met the pope and drew his largest-ever crowd at a rally in Brooklyn, Bernie Sanders hit back against a theme thats become central to Hillary Clintons campaign: He has some great ideas, but when it comes to getting them done, his plans are  as Larry David put it on Saturday Night Live  nothing more than yada, yada, yada.

On CNNs New Day Monday, one day before New Yorks primary, Sanders pointed out that he called for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour from $7.50 more than five years ago.

Most people thought that was a crazy idea, the Vermont senator said. Well, guess what. California, New York, Oregon have done it. Why? Because people stood up and fought.

Sanders said the same about same-sex marriage.

Ten years ago, would you have believed that gay marriage would be legal in all 50 states? Probably not, he said. When people stand up and say, Weve got to end bigotry in America  people have a right to love whomever, change takes place.

At a block party in Washington Heights Sunday, Clinton pushed her pragmatic message.

Its easy to diagnose the problem, the Democratic frontrunner said. Youve got to be able to solve the problem.

The Vermont senator, though, dismissed her criticism, saying his radical ideas are anything but.

I believe everything were talking about, Sanders said. Nothing is radical. These ideas have existed in other countries. Theyve existed in the United States.

SLIDESHOW  The battle for New York >>>

His comments come on the eve of the Democratic primary in New York, where polls show Clinton with a comfortable, double-digit lead over Sanders in her adopted home state.

The Brooklyn-born Sanders urged an estimated 28,000 at his rally in Prospect Park Sunday to help him overcome her edge.

When I was a kid growing up in Flatbush, our parents would take us to Prospect Park, he said. But I was never here speaking to 20,000 people. This is a campaign thats on the move. This is a campaign that one year ago was considered a fringe candidacy  70 points behind Secretary Clinton. Well they dont consider us fringe anymore.

This is a movement of people who are prepared to think big, not small, Sanders added. People who want to elect not just the new president, but to transform America.
LONDON (Reuters) - BHP Billiton Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie said on Monday that businesses could face a decade of damaging uncertainty if Britain voted to leave the European Union in a June 23 referendum. Mackenzie, boss of the world's biggest mining company, said a vote for Brexit would inflict a serious blow on the EU and that Britain would lose economic, political and diplomatic clout by leaving the club it joined in 1973. Unpicking EU trade deals and replacing them with British deals could usher in a decade of complicated negotiations that would end in a less favorable deal for Britain, he said. "On trade, the EU has negotiated broadly effective deals for Europe and the UK. Restoring these agreements after Brexit would take years, perhaps a decade, of negotiation," Mackenzie will say in a speech in London on Monday. Mackenzie, who was born in Scotland and studied for his doctorate in France and Germany, said such a lengthy negotiation would be "a time-consuming distraction to maintain market access we have today on terms that are likely to be worse." "By leaving, the UK would stop being rule makers and become rule takers," said Mackenzie, who was appointed CEO of BHP on May 10, 2013. BHP, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and listed in both Australia and Britain, is one of the world's top producers of iron ore, metallurgical coal, copper and uranium, and has substantial interests in conventional and unconventional oil and gas and energy coal. Pro-Europeans warn an exit from the EU would hurt Britain's economy and could trigger the break-up of the United Kingdom by prompting another Scottish independence vote. Opponents of EU membership say Britain would prosper outside the bloc that they say hits far below its economic weight on the global stage. A British exit would shake the Union to its core, ripping away its second largest economy and one of its top two military powers. "Brexit would inflict a blow on the EU that it can hardly afford given the euro zone and migration crises. Without the UK, the EU would be weaker," Mackenzie said. "British business cannot afford a knock and global leaders are amazed that the UK would even consider leaving," he said. Both U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping have urged Britain to stay, but British voters - and Cameron's ruling Conservative Party - are split on membership. Polls suggest that about a fifth of voters are undecided. "The in and out campaigns are really about unilateralism versus internationalism. Most businesses support the EU and internationalism," said Mackenzie. "For Britain to wield the economic political and diplomatic capital it has historically enjoyed, we must vote to Remain." (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Kate Holton)
If your toddler has more of a sweet tooth than a penchant for salty snacks, they may be at increased risk of weight gain.

That's the suggestion of a new study published in the May issue of Pediatrics which found that toddlers who preferred sweet snacks were more likely to be gain body fat at 33 months than those who favored salty foods after a meal.

For the University of Michigan study, researchers observed the eating habits of 209 children from low-income families who were presented with a tray of cookies and potato chips after they were fed a substantial lunch.

"The tendency to eat when you're not hungry increases with age and could have lifelong implications for weight gain," said study co-author Julie Lumeng.

"We need to explore ways to target this drive to eat before children even turn three."
A pope and and a secular Jew from Vermont walk into the lobby of a Vatican guesthouse. They shake hands. It was nothing, the pope maintains. If someone thinks that greeting someone means getting involved in politics, he said, I recommend that he find a psychiatrist!

Theres a punchline in there somewhere, but this is not a scene drawn from the rabbi-priest-joke canon. On Saturday, Bernie Sanders met Pope Francis in Rome, greeting the pontiff as he departed for Greece. The senator had been invited to speak on the moral economy at a conference at the Pontifical Academy of Social Science, and the speculation was fierce: Will he meet the pope, or wont he? Although Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, suggested before the trip that a meeting wouldnt happen, Sanders got his wish. According to The New York Times, a personal secretary to the pope found Sanders while he was at dinner and told him where and when to be if he wanted to catch Francis. It may be mostly one-sided, but the love affair of Bernie and Francis is not unrequited: Against all logic, the worlds foremost Catholic theologian and a socialist whos running for United States president have found a jam.

On its face, the affinity between the two men might seem obvious. Both speak critically about capitalism, wealth, and greed; both seem to connect economic issues to the rest of the worlds ills. Sanders has pulled Francis close throughout his campaign, praising the pontiff ardently after he spoke to Congress last September, for example. Perhaps Sanders is hoping to soak up some of the popes massive popularity, or feels naturally drawn toward the other 70-something white man who has recently become an unlikely icon of progressive values. His affection seems heartfelt, though. As he told the press when news of his trip became public, I was very moved by the invitation.

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Let these seeming similarities lead us not into temptation: The alliance between Sanders and Pope Francis is profoundly odd. For one thing, Catholic teachings dont necessarily line up with Sanderss stump speech as much as he might like to think. The conference he attended at the Vatican was gathered to commemorate Centesimus annus, Pope John Paul IIs 1991 encyclical that focused on the evils of Marxism and communism. In that document, John Paul II argued that economies exist to serve human freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious. He criticized a kind of thinking that totally reduces man to the sphere of economics and the satisfaction of material needs. While Sanders has called for economic policies that focus more on poverty than profit-seeking and that incorporate goals like care for the environment, he is absolutely a material thinker. He apparently believes that every policy area, from foreign affairs to womens rights, can be explained by economic factors; politics, in his view, is neither ethical nor religious, but rather a function of wealth and class. His campaign-trail preaching seems to be in conflict with the very document he flew to Rome to celebratenot to mention central Church teachings on topics like contraception and abortion, which directly contradict Sanderss platform.

This gets at the deeper weirdness in the Bernie-Francis axis: Sanders has washed the pope in secularism. Last week, he annotated a speech Francis made in Bolivia for The Washington Post, highlighting the popes call for radical changes on environmental and economic policies. The parts of the speech he assiduously avoids, though, are the ones that mention Jesus. The global system of capitalism runs counter to the plan of Jesus, against the Good News that Jesus brought, Francis said. Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation. Sanderss marginalia explains this as a calling for a social and economic system that lives in harmony with nature.

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It goes on. Francis calls the unfettered pursuit of money the dung of the devil, describing it as evilsomething he believes is literal, along with a literal Satan. Sanders says this is Francis asking us to become a different kind of person, where our happiness and well-being comes from serving others and being part of the human community. In the prepared version of his speech at the Vatican conference, Sanders remarked that our very soul as a nation has suffered as the public lost faith in political and social institutionswith both soul and faith meant metaphorically rather than metaphysically, of course.

To a certain extent, Francis participates in his own secularization. Out in public, he speaks in broad, universal terms, intentionally looking for ecumenical space in the Church for non-Catholics and nonreligious people alike. Read any of his formal writings and it becomes clear that his is a particularist vision: He believes work for and with the poor is the Churchs mission, focused on Jesus Christ, and is a way to proclaim the message of salvation. But hes skilled at secular translation, calling on atheists and believers alike to do good, a vague formulation of ethical uprightness that any humanist could probably get behind. This is part of why some American conservatives tend to critique the current pope: They think he has softened the hard theological boundaries that make Catholic theology distinctive.

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When Sanders speaks about Francis, hes doing his own kind of translation magic act. In his annotation of the popes Bolivian speech, Sanders alludes to a global human community and speaks of cheerful things like happiness and serving othersrather than, say, his support for Nicaraguas Sandinistas, a position strongly countered by the institutional Church in the 1970s and 80s. In Rome, Sanders said, There are few places in modern thought that rival the depth and insight of the Churchs moral teachings on the market economy. With that phrasing, its easy to imagine Rerum Novarum, the Churchs foundational encyclical on economic and social issues, sitting on Bernies shelf right next to his copy of the The Marx-Engels Readeralthough the encyclical, in many ways, was intended to provide an alternative to socialism, not an endorsement of it.

For now, Sanders has gotten his handshake, and the so-called cool pope may win a little more cred from progressive American Millennials who have a selective understanding of Catholic teachings and history. The encounter between the pope and the Vermont senator is a revealing glimpse of the careful public personas the two men have cultivated, which is perhaps their truest point of overlap: They are representatives of specific theological principles and political ideologies that have been carefully rendered into anodyne humanism. In a secular age, that may be the secret to their popular appeal.

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This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
TORONTO (Reuters) - Tech companies should comply with lawful requests to access protected data, BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen said on Monday, in thinly veiled criticism of rival Apple Inc for its recent standoff with the FBI. Chen made the comment in a blog posting after reports by Vice and Motherboard last week that threw a spotlight on a 2014 case in which Canadian law enforcement authorities used intercepted messages between some BlackBerry devices to unravel an organized crime network. The devices were consumer phones that were not protected by BlackBerry's BES server, which helps secure any devices running within corporate networks. "We have long been clear in our stance that tech companies as good corporate citizens should comply with reasonable lawful access requests," said Chen in the post.[http://blck.by/1qUkdJg] "We are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good," said Chen, who is known to not shy away from publicly sparring with rivals. Chen, who maintains the BES is "impenetrable" and that only BlackBerry's clients can grant access to messages secured by it, has weighed in on the lawful access topic a number of times in the last few months, including in another blog last December. [http://blck.by/1k4jy46] He also commented on the topic at a media roundtable earlier this month, when asked to comment about BlackBerry's security capabilities in light of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's hacking of an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple had declined to help authorities unlock the encrypted device. "Not that we can crack every phone, but from the standpoint of BlackBerry's philosophy, policy and principles, we will help whenever there is a formal subpoena that comes to us and we have been doing it for many, many, years," said Chen. "But since we don't have a backdoor and since the encryption technology has now gotten to a point where we may, or may not be able to penetrate it, we will have the same difficulties, but we won't have the same attitude about it and it won't be front page news." "Of course we are not Apple, so it may or may not make front page news either," added Chen with a coy smile. (Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Tom Brown)
Ottawa (AFP) - BlackBerry appeared Monday to acknowledge it helped Canadian federal police crack a Montreal crime syndicate that had been using its messaging system, while insisting its smartphone security remains impenetrable.

In a blog post, BlackBerry chief executive John Chen reiterated the company's long-held stance "that tech companies as good corporate citizens should comply with reasonable lawful access requests."

The comments are the latest in a wider public discussion on how much access law enforcement officials should have to encrypted devices and how to balance security issues with user privacy rights. It was triggered when Apple recently refused an FBI request for access to the iPhone of San Bernardino mass shooters.

Vice news and its sister publication Motherboard last week reported that BlackBerry may have helped Canadian federal police eavesdrop on BlackBerry so-called PIN-to-PIN messages sent between members of a suspected criminal organization in Montreal.

It was revealed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had obtained BlackBerry's global cryptographic key, allowing the agency to read all messages sent between BlackBerry smartphones.

This provoked a reaction from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling for better oversight of Canadian security and intelligence agencies.

The RCMP said it had intercepted and decrypted more than one million BlackBerry messages in connection with its investigation, which began in 2010.

Thirty-two people were eventually charged with gangsterism, drug trafficking, extortion, assault and other offenses. All pleaded guilty at trial.

Chen said BlackBerry does not provide blanket access to its systems, but does in specific instances such as criminal investigations.

"For BlackBerry, there is a balance between doing what's right, such as helping to apprehend criminals, and preventing government abuse of invading citizen's privacy," Chen said.

He noted, however, that BlackBerry enterprise servers used by corporate and government clients are off limits.

They are "impenetrable" since clients control the encryption key for these communications, said Chen.
A visa agent from Mehdipatnam had promised them well paying jobs and had said that the employer was known to treat his employees well. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: About a month ago, Syed Alam, 27, and his wife Sajida Begum from Pahadishareef went to Saudi Arabia to work in a Saudi nationals house. A visa agent from Mehdipatnam had promised them well paying jobs and had said that the employer was known to treat his employees well.

Sajida Begum was offered a domestic helps job, and Syed Alam, the post of the family driver. The couple needed them to repay debts. But the reality they faced when they reached Saudi Arabia was different. Alam says that his employer used to slap him even for small mistakes while driving. Sajida Begum said her employers wife used to assault her for no reason.

The employer also prevented the couple from meeting. He said they had come on separate visas and not on couples visa, and there should be no contact between them. After a month, Hyderabads East Zone police helped to rescue the couple after receiving a complaint from Alams brother.

Many blue collar workers working in the houses of Saudi nationals in Saudi Arabia face harsh conditions and physical violence. Women who went on the Kadama (domestic servant) visa suffer the most. Many men are also trapped.

In January, the South Zone police booked five cases against visa agents for this. This week, the East Zone police booked two cases and rescued three people including two women.

One major problem is that most people go abroad with the help of illegal agents who do not register their details with local Indian embassies. These unregistered workers fall prey to all kinds of cruelty, said South Zone DCP V.

Sathyanarayana, whose team had earlier rescued five women trapped in Saudi Arabia last year and early this year. Police found that visa agents send women to Saudi Arabia on tourist visas and force them to do domestic work in houses, where they sometimes face even sexual exploitation.

All the victims are poor and are desperate to go abroad to earn money. They end up suffering because of the greedy agents who make money from both the victim and the employer, said a cop from East Zone.

Cops force agents to bring back indians

The police has now perfected the art of rescuing Indians trapped abroad without approaching the Union ministry of external affairs and local Indian embassies.

They simply file cases against local agents in Hyderabad and use them to pressure their counterparts abroad to get the migrants released and sent them back home. Police also takes the help of Indian social workers based in Saudi Arabia.

Cops said the process of routing requests through MEA is time consuming. The shortcuts are more practical, they said. But these methods may not work always work.

Police said the main reason for using shortcuts is that most of the victims are undocumented workers, who have not registered with the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia. This makes it difficult for MEA to get involved.

Police said that if help reaches a trapped victim late, because of the various procedures required in involving the MEA and the Indian embassy, the employer could harm the expats. The employer can conceal some of his properties and frame the victim in a case of theft. The victim may then end up in jail. He could also manipulate the situation in many ways, said a senior official from South Zone police.

Police generally books cases against local agents for cheating under IPC. Police officials warn them of the consequence they would face if any harm befalls the expat. Since the number of cases is increasing the police plans to organise awareness events for the Gulf-bound.

We have to make them aware of legal ways to reach Gulf countries for employment by approaching bonafide visa agents, said South Zone DCP V. Sathyanarayana.
By Stephen Eisenhammer and Alberto Alerigi CUBATAO, Brazil (Reuters) - On a warm September morning in 2014, the 10-man board of Brazilian steelmaker Usiminas met on the ninth floor of a blue glass tower in Sao Paulo. In the room, the board members grappled over whether to fire the company's chief executive and two vice presidents after an audit found they'd claimed excessive bonuses. The battle lines were clearly drawn, according to accounts given to Reuters by several people who attended. On one side, Japans Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, a part of Usiminas since it was founded 60 years ago, insisted the executives had to go. Rallying to their defense was the company they used to work for, Ternium, a steel producer that is part of closely held Italian-Argentine conglomerate Techint. Ternium had bought into Usiminas in 2012 to get a foothold in the continent's largest and most protected steel market. The tense impasse marked a new deterioration of a conflict between the two controlling shareholders that has now left the survival of Brazil's largest producer of flat steel in doubt. Brazils most tempestuous boardroom feud in years was rooted in a broad clash of corporate cultures and mutual suspicion over supply contracts, according to Reuters interviews with over a dozen former and current employees, including board members and senior executives, as well as union heads and lawyers. A shareholder meeting this week will decide whether to approve an emergency capital injection of 1 billion reais ($288 million), but analysts question whether it will be enough to save the company. Usiminas has already closed one of its two main steel mills, slowed work at its mines and laid off thousands of employees, its problems exacerbated by Brazil's worst recession in decades. Both sides increasingly see breaking up the company as the best way to resolve the dispute. "It went further than common sense should ever have allowed it to," one former board member said of the feud. Most of the employees, executives and other sources spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing disciplinary action or trouble getting new work in the sector. Nippon Steel, Ternium and Techint declined to comment. Usiminas, which has a workforce of around 25,000, said its Cubatao mill had been shut temporarily due to low steel demand and that all its supply contracts, including those with shareholders, go through a bid process. It declined to answer further questions. As the tense September 2014 board meeting dragged into its sixth hour, Chairman Paulo Penido broke the deadlocked vote and the three executives were dismissed. With his vote, Ternium lost its grip on the running of the company and the fight for control of one of the nation's most storied steelmakers, previously carried out behind the boardroom door, broke into the open. INEVITABLE TENSION Sources say tension was inevitable from the moment Ternium, an outsider with a strong reputation for cost control and productivity, took joint control in 2012. The company it bought into, formally known as Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais SA, was founded in the 1950s as a state enterprise producing flat steel principally used in automobiles. It was an important part of Brazils industrialization, but also of Japans post-war economic diplomacy as the firm that later became Nippon Steel transferred technology, equipment and steel know-how to Usiminas at a time when few countries opened their doors to the Asian power. When Usiminas was privatized in 1991, Nippon Steel became one of its largest shareholders. Ternium had to share power with Japan's largest steel company when it paid $2.7 billion along with sister firm Tenaris for a 27.7 percent voting stake. That stake came at a hefty 83 percent premium on Usiminas' share price, reflecting optimism at the time about Brazil's long-term growth potential and domestic demand for steel. But as Brazil's economy slowed, then stagnated, it became clear Ternium, which runs steel mills in Mexico and Argentina, had overpaid. The result was a push to improve productivity with an urgency out of synch with the rest of Usiminas' ownership, several company sources said. With Nippon Steels initial investments in the company long paid off, it had less appetite for radical change. "A lot of what Ternium wanted to do needed to be done, but they tried to do it too fast and without building proper consensus," said a former senior executive who worked closely with the new bosses arriving at the time. Ternium, formally based in Luxembourg but with principle operations in Argentina, brought in its own executives to push through cuts having identified waste in Usiminas' swollen workforce. Argentines, including the Chief Executive Julian Eguren, who would later be fired over his bonus, and Mexicans got senior jobs. The changes, although approved at board level, irked Brazilians as well as the Japanese who had prided themselves on training and promoting locals, according to sources sympathetic to Nippon Steel. One Brazilian 25-year mining veteran told Reuters he quit because he couldn't bear his new Ternium boss, who he said swore constantly and forced changes the rest of the management disagreed with. He was so rude, he said. Beyond staffing, Ternium was unhappy with what it saw as a potential conflict of interest in Nippon Steel's close relationship as supplier to Usiminas. The equipment, mostly from Japan, was viewed as top notch, but Ternium questioned the price and the timing. The new management argued a hot strip mill, used to roll and stretch steel, could have been obtained for 30 percent less, according to the former senior executive. It was bought for $1 billion just before Ternium took its stake. For a while, Ternium's reforms seemed to work. Between July 2012 and January 2014, Usiminas' share price jumped 150 percent, as it improved cash generation and reduced leverage. "There was a lack of humility on both sides, but the Japanese really tried to find a solution. They accepted about 85 percent of Terniums proposals," said another former executive. The payments uncovered by the audit, however, proved a step too far. Sources sympathetic to Nippon Steel say Ternium refused to back down and accept its executives had broken company laws. Internal and external audits, conducted by Ernst & Young and Deloitte, showed the bonuses had not been properly approved, though the amounts classed as illegitimate varied. Sources familiar with Ternium's position say it argues Nippon Steel used an immaterial breach of process to remove their management and run the company by itself. From then on, board decisions, which required consensus between the two sides, came to a halt. They could not agree on a new chairman, and Marcelo Gasparino, a candidate representing shareholders outside the controlling block, took the helm in April 2015. As Brazil's steel industry entered its worst ever slump. Usiminas' mills began to lose money and the company turned free cash flow negative. STEEL CLOSURE One afternoon last October in Cubatao, an industrial city an hour's drive south of Sao Paulo, the mayor's phone rang. Shortly after introducing himself for the first time, the Usiminas CEO Romel Erwin de Souza said the city's steel mill would have to close, according to the mayor's deputy Fabio Inacio. We didnt have time to respond at all, he said. By late March, steel production had stopped and over 2,000 people had been laid off. The chimneys were cold and the buses serving the once busy mill ran empty. At the steel union headquarters in the nearby port city of Santos, dozens of workers queued to settle their redundancy pay. The union's president, 57-year-old Florencio Resende de Sa, said his members had been caught in the middle of what he sees as a battle between Argentina and Japan. "The closure of this plant was the result of a management crisis, not the steel crisis," he said. He hopes the mill might reopen if Usiminas is split up between Nippon Steel and Ternium. Under such an agreement, Usiminas' mill in Ipatinga in southeastern Brazil would remain with Nippon Steel, while Ternium would get Cubatao, sources familiar with the matter say. Sipping coffee in Rio de Janeiro's Santos Dumont airport, Chairman Gasparino manages a smile when reminded of an interview he did with Reuters a year ago promising to show victories by now. "I flew to Japan, I went to Buenos Aires twice. I tried to bring in new management, I tried to improve governance, I brought proposals of interest in buying assets." But to no avail. He acknowledged his role over the next 12 months might be to manage the break up of the company. For Marcelo Peixeira, 44, who worked at Cubatao for 20 years, it's already too late. Sitting in the suffocating heat of the union building, he looked shocked as he recounted finding out he'd been laid off. "From one day to the next, it was over," he said, eyes damp and vacant. ($1 = 3.476) (Editing by Christian Plumb and Stuart Grudgings)
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Boko Haram has been forced to produce its own fuel to power its motorbikes because of an acute petrol shortage caused by a military squeeze on supply lines.

A senior military source said the Islamists were paying huge sums of money for jerrycans of fuel while a woman who recently escaped from the group said they were making groundnut oil into biodiesel.

"Boko Haram were paying outrageous sums to get fuel and the incredible profit margin made young men defy the risk and take fuel to them," said the source in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.

"The cutting off of fuel supplies has badly crippled Boko Haram and that has been made possible by blocking all identified supply routes and the crackdown on the suppliers," he told AFP.

Fuel vendors seeking to exploit the group's need for fuel could sell each 25-litre jerrycan for 50,000 to 70,000 naira ($250-$350, 222-311 euros) each, said escapee Ya-Mairam Ya-Malaye.

A jerrycan of fuel in Maiduguri costs only $13.

But the risk of being caught up in a military aerial bombardment on Boko Haram positions has forced the vendors to stay away, said the security source.

Babakura Kolo, a civilian vigilante assisting the military against the Islamic State group affiliate in Maiduguri, said the militants would pay any amount to get fuel.

"It was a lucrative business for the fuel vendors," said Kolo, who was involved in the crackdown against Boko Haram suppliers in the city.

"But we have taken care of them and Boko Haram are feeling the crunch because they are out of supplies."

Previous reports have indicated the rebels are also running low on food.

- Groundnut oil -

Nigeria and its neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger began a concerted fight-back against Boko Haram in January last year, recapturing territory lost to the militants the previous year.

President Muhammadu Buhari has said the rebels, whose insurgency has killed an estimated 20,000 people and forced some 2.6 million to flee since 2009, can no longer fight conventional warfare.

Story continues

Instead of its trademark hit-and-run attacks using pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, the insurgents have even mounted strikes on remote villages on horseback, bicycles or on foot.

Ya-Mairam Ya-Malaye, a 57-year-old mother-of-eight who was among hundreds of women and children abducted from the town of Bama in September 2014, managed to escape Boko Haram last week.

She said the group has devised a crude way of adding salt to oil extracted from groundnuts to make biodiesel for their motorcycles to mount attacks from their Sambisa Forest enclaves in Borno.

"They confiscate the groundnuts (that) farmers in villages in and around Sambisa cultivated all-year-round from their farms and irrigation fields," she explained from Maiduguri.

"They crush the nuts using diesel-powered grinding machines to extract the oil to which they add salt to make it light and combustible."

Boko Haram had been getting fuel from young men who would bring the petrol to designated points near Sambisa (forest) for the fighters to pick, she added.

Ya-Malaye said she was taken to Sambisa Forest from Bama and moved between camps as troops pushed further into the former game reserve in pursuit of the militants.

The offensives and heightened border security made it difficult for the militants to receive deliveries from fuel vendors from Maiduguri and Cameroonian border towns, she added.
By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's financial markets are expected to react with euphoria on Monday after the lower house of Congress backed impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, analysts and traders said. Brazil's stocks and currency have been among the world's best performing assets on bets that the leftist president's ouster would open the door to a more business-friendly administration, better equipped to lift the economy out of its worst recession since the 1930s. Hopes of political change have already helped lift the Bovespa benchmark stock index more than 20 percent this year to its highest level since mid-2015. In a sign the rally could continue, an exchange-traded fund of Brazilian equities gained 3.8 percent in Tokyo trading shortly after the result was announced. But traders' initial euphoria after Sunday`s Congressional vote could soon give way to caution as they look for hints of what policy would look like in a government led by Vice President Michel Temer. "Initially, details will be ignored and irrationality will prevail for one, two days," said Thiago Castellan Castro, a trader with Renascenca brokerage in Sao Paulo. "After that, we'll go back to assessing technical issues - monetary policy, who'll be in charge of policymaking." Sunday's vote by 367 votes to 137 against - with 7 abstentions and 2 absences - was widely seen as the biggest hurdle to ousting the unpopular Rousseff. Temer would now take office if a majority of the Senate votes to open a trial against Rousseff in early May, as is expected. At that point the president would be suspended during the trial, which could last up to six months, and would be dismissed if found guilty. Many believe Temer would have an easier time implementing austerity measures after Rousseff's pledges of spending cuts and tax increases bumped into strong opposition from her own lawmakers following her tight reelection in 2014. Alexandre Povoa, a partner with Canepa Asset Management, wrote in a client note the index could rise by an additional 10 percent. However, investors could book profits as early as May if it becomes clear that Temer does not hold a clear fix to Brazil's economy, he said. The real has strengthened more than 10 percent so far in 2016 despite determined action by the central bank to weaken the currency. Renascenca's Castro said the currency could reach 3.40 per U.S. dollar on Monday after closing at 3.52 on Friday. Banco Fibra's head of treasury Cristiano Oliveira said the currency should stabilize at about 3.30 per U.S. dollar but could reach as far as 3.00 if it over shoots. ECONOMIC TEAM Once the dust settles, traders will scrutinize the nominations for Temer's economic team, analysts said. "Ideally, he would set up a team who is named for its technical credentials, not political reasons," said Leonardo Monoli, a partner with Jive Asset Management. Local media have named former central bank presidents Henrique Meirelles and Arminio Fraga, both known for sticking with orthodox policymaking at times of financial turbulence. Temer could also be eying Paulo Leme, the chairman of Goldman Sachs in Brazil, and Luiz Fernando Figueiredo, a former central bank official and founder of asset manager Maua Capital, two people familiar with the situation told Reuters. Whatever the composition of Temer's possible government, it will likely face an uphill struggle given the embittered political climate, the depth of the economic crisis, and his PMDB party's involvement in a sweeping corruption investigation. "Strikes and protests by Rousseff's organized labor supporters will complicate things for VP Michel Temer when he assumes the presidency in mid-May, but the Lava Jato probe is still a much greater liability for him and the PMDB", political risk consultancy Eurasia Group wrote in a client note. (Additional reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Jacqueline Wong)
By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's financial markets are expected to react with euphoria on Monday after the lower house of Congress backed impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, analysts and traders said. Brazil's stocks and currency have been among the world's best performing assets on bets that the leftist president's ouster would open the door to a more business-friendly administration, better equipped to lift the economy out of its worst recession since the 1930s. Hopes of political change have already helped lift the Bovespa benchmark stock index <.BVSP> more than 20 percent this year to its highest level since mid-2015. In a sign the rally could continue, an exchange-traded fund of Brazilian equities <1325.T> gained 3.8 percent in Tokyo trading shortly after the result was announced. But traders' initial euphoria after Sunday's Congressional vote could soon give way to caution as they look for hints of what policy would look like in a government led by Vice President Michel Temer. "Initially, details will be ignored and irrationality will prevail for one, two days," said Thiago Castellan Castro, a trader with Renascenca brokerage in Sao Paulo. "After that, we'll go back to assessing technical issues - monetary policy, who'll be in charge of policymaking." Sunday's vote by 367 votes to 137 against - with 7 abstentions and 2 absences - was widely seen as the biggest hurdle to ousting the unpopular Rousseff. Temer would now take office if a majority of the Senate votes to open a trial against Rousseff in early May, as is expected. At that point the president would be suspended during the trial, which could last up to six months, and would be dismissed if found guilty. Many believe Temer would have an easier time implementing austerity measures after Rousseff's pledges of spending cuts and tax increases bumped into strong opposition from her own lawmakers following her tight reelection in 2014. Alexandre Povoa, a partner with Canepa Asset Management, wrote in a client note the index could rise by an additional 10 percent. However, investors could book profits as early as May if it becomes clear that Temer does not hold a clear fix to Brazil's economy, he said. The real has strengthened more than 10 percent so far in 2016 despite determined action by the central bank to weaken the currency. Renascenca's Castro said the currency could reach 3.40 per U.S. dollar on Monday after closing at 3.52 on Friday. Banco Fibra's head of treasury Cristiano Oliveira said the currency should stabilize at about 3.30 per U.S. dollar but could reach as far as 3.00 if it over shoots. ECONOMIC TEAM Once the dust settles, traders will scrutinize the nominations for Temer's economic team, analysts said. "Ideally, he would set up a team who is named for its technical credentials, not political reasons," said Leonardo Monoli, a partner with Jive Asset Management. Local media have named former central bank presidents Henrique Meirelles and Arminio Fraga, both known for sticking with orthodox policymaking at times of financial turbulence. Temer could also be eying Paulo Leme, the chairman of Goldman Sachs in Brazil, and Luiz Fernando Figueiredo, a former central bank official and founder of asset manager Maua Capital, two people familiar with the situation told Reuters. Whatever the composition of Temer's possible government, it will likely face an uphill struggle given the embittered political climate, the depth of the economic crisis, and his PMDB party's involvement in a sweeping corruption investigation. "Strikes and protests by Rousseff's organized labor supporters will complicate things for VP Michel Temer when he assumes the presidency in mid-May, but the Lava Jato probe is still a much greater liability for him and the PMDB", political risk consultancy Eurasia Group wrote in a client note. (Additional reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Jacqueline Wong)
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's presidential chief of staff Jaques Wagner said the government is confident the Senate will dismiss the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, which was approved on Sunday night by the lower house of Congress. Sunday's vote for impeachment was a setback for Brazilian democracy and was "orchestrated" by her opponents who never accepted he re-election victory in 2014, Wagner said in a statement. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer)
Brasilia (AFP) - With the vote in the lower house of Congress to authorize the Senate to open an impeachment trial against President Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's political crisis enters ever deeper crisis.

Here's a snapshot of how Latin America's biggest country got there -- and what's next.

How it all started

On December 2, controversial lower house Speaker Eduardo Cunha formally opened the impeachment saga by accepting a petition from a group of lawyers.

They accused Rousseff of having illegally juggled accounts and taking loans in order to mask the depth of government shortfalls during her 2014 re-election.

Ironically, many politicians, including Cunha, are snared in separate criminal corruption probes linked to a vast embezzlement scheme at state oil company Petrobras.

Rousseff denied the charges and described the impeachment drive as a "coup," since she is elected.

How Rousseff tried to escape

Against a backdrop of huge pro- and anti-Rousseff street protests, Brazil's solicitor general, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, made final arguments in the president's defense on April 4.

He told deputies on a special committee that the charges do not amount to impeachable offenses and that the process is fueled by Cunha's "desire for revenge."

Rousseff also enlisted her predecessor and mentor, ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, to spearhead the intense lobbying campaign for votes in the lower house. The opposition needed 342 out of the 513 votes, or two thirds on Sunday, normally a tall order in the fractious legislature.

But Lula's political comeback hit a major snag when the Supreme Court suspended his appointment as a minister after accusations that he was taking the post to gain legal immunity from corruption charges.

In the end, Rousseff's last-ditch fight turned into a desperate, partisan struggle where she accused her vice president, Michel Temer, and Cunha of conspiring against her.

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What's next?

Rousseff had hoped to kill impeachment in the lower house. Now that she has lost that vote, the case goes to the Senate.

Even now, not all is lost for the country's first woman president, but analysts see her chances of staging a comeback shrinking fast.

The Senate will meet, probably in May, to vote whether a trial should open. A simple majority vote will be enough and in that case Rousseff would have to step down for an 180 day period while the trial gets under way.

To impeach, the Senate would later have to vote by a two thirds majority. If not, Rousseff would return to office.

Current estimates of voting intentions are that the Senate will follow the lower house's lead and oust Rousseff, making her the second Brazilian president to be impeached in two decades.

Temer would take over as soon as the 180 day period began -- and would stay in power until scheduled elections in 2018 if the impeachment went through.

Road bumps

If the Senate launches an impeachment trial, it could be under way as Brazil hosts the Olympic Games in Rio from August 5 to 21. Angry street protests could heat up, further tarnishing Brazil's international reputation.

Temer may take power, but is embroiled in a case at the country's electoral court that could eventually see him, along with Rousseff, being forced to step aside for new elections.

In addition, pro-Rousseff supporters have filed to start impeachment proceedings against Temer.

And while the political paralysis in Brasilia deepens, nothing is being done to address Brazil's tough recession.
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Brazil's Dilma Rousseff survived torture as a guerrilla member under the military dictatorship. Four decades later, as president, she's fighting for her political survival.

After those dark days in the 1970s, when Rousseff belonged to a violent Marxist underground group, she rose to become Brazil's first woman president.

But less than a year into her second term, the lower house of Congress voted on Sunday to send her impeachment case to the Senate, which is expected to decide in May whether to open a trial.

The impeachment charges center on Rousseff's government's allegedly illegal juggling of funds to cover budget holes leading up to her re-election in 2014.

Brazil's 68-year-old "Iron Lady" calls the impeachment a coup and has fought fiercely, trying to repair a coalition left in tatters by the defection of her vice president and the country's largest party, the PMDB.

But anger across Latin America's biggest country and economy over deep recession, corruption and the government's inability to deal with Congress has stoked momentum against her.

Condemned by public opinion and abandoned by allies, Rousseff has seen her government's popularity plummet to around 10 percent since her narrow re-election win against business-world favorite Aecio Neves.

Some critics attack Rousseff as lacking charisma. Others go further, calling her the classic accidental president, a politician who doesn't like politicking.

But as Rousseff herself has pointed out, torture steeled her for tough times.

"I have come up against hugely difficult situations in my life, including attacks which took me to the limit physically," she said. "Nothing knocked me off my stride."

She is expected to maintain that tough attitude as the impeachment fight moves to the Senate.

- Cancer battle -

Rousseff came to power in a 2010 election as the handpicked Workers' Party candidate to succeed hugely popular Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

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Whether as Lula's chief of staff or energy minister, she won a reputation for laser-like attention to detail and ability to master the most minute of policy points -- a talent she is said to have carried on into her own cabinet meetings.

Supporters say there's also a warmer side to the leader, popularly known by her first name Dilma.

Twice married, Rousseff has a daughter, Paula, from a 30-year relationship with her ex-husband, fellow leftist militant Carlos de Araujo.

At Lula's prompting during her reelection campaign, Rousseff learned to open up a little, once confessing to escaping the presidential palace on the back of a friend's Harley-Davidson and cruising through the streets of Brasilia incognito. She is a keen bicycle rider too and frequently photographed taking exercise, even at the height of the crisis.

"People always say about women in power that they're hard, managerial. But Dilma is a person with a great sense of humor, fun, extremely caring and generous," said Ieda Akselrud de Seixas, who was jailed with Rousseff in the 1970s.

Rousseff also tapped into a national obsession with beauty, getting her teeth whitened, hair redone and lifting wrinkles from her face.

The relatively fresh look was in contrast to the visible toll exacted during her successful battle against lymphatic cancer that was first diagnosed in 2009. At one point, she wore a wig to hide hair loss from chemotherapy.

She has since made a complete recovery, doctors say.

- 'High priestess of subversion' -

Born December 14, 1947 to a Brazilian mother and Bulgarian businessman father, Rousseff grew up comfortably middle-class in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte.

She cut her political teeth as a Marxist militant opposed to the 1964-1985 dictatorship and in January 1970 was arrested and sentenced to prison on grounds she belonged to a group responsible for murders and bank robberies.

Rousseff's exploits during her time in the Revolutionary Armed Vanguard Palmares group remain shrouded in rumor, claims, denials and accusations of exaggeration. But most reports agree that she played more of a support role, than taking part in violence.

Nevertheless, the judge who found her guilty dubbed her the "high priestess of subversion," journalist Ricardo Amaral wrote in a biography. A photo in the book shows a bespectacled Rousseff aged just 22 staring defiantly at the court.

After nearly three years behind bars, during which she says she was subjected to repeated bouts of torture, including electric shocks, Rousseff was released at the end of 1972.

She took a legal political path from then on, helping found the Democratic Labor Party (PDT) in 1979 and eventually switching to Lula's Workers' Party in 2000.

From there, she made rapid progress into the country's most powerful positions.

When Lula was first elected president in 2003, he named Rousseff his energy minister and then, in 2005, his cabinet chief.

As chairwoman of Petrobras from 2003 to 2010, Rousseff was at the helm of the country's biggest energy company -- a record that has come back to haunt her with the revelation of massive corruption at the firm, although there are no incidents specifically linking her to it.

Lula, whose own legacy is now threatened by Petrobras-related corruption charges, said he always knew Rousseff was special.

"She came here with her little computer," Lula said after appointing Rousseff to her first Cabinet post. "She started to talk and I felt something different in her."
Islamabad/New Delhi: In a move that could further corrode India-Pakistan relations, Pakistan's Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which visited India to probe the Pathankot terror strike, have accused India of using the attack as part of its 'vicious propaganda' against Islamabad.

A five-member Pakistani JIT had visited Pathankot to probe into the January 2 attack, where seven Indian military personnel were killed by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists.

Terming it as ISI propaganda, Indian government sources said JIT has not officially communicated anything to NIA on Pathankot attacks.

The Pakistan JIT, headed by Additional Inspector General of Police, Counter Terrorism Department, Muhammad Tahir Rai and also including ISI's Lt Col Tanvir Ahmed, in turn, had shared with India's National Investigation Agency the results of probe carried out by them in Pakistan so far.

Sources told Pakistan Today that the JIT has slammed India over its claims of Pakistani hand in the attack, saying that New Delhi continues to expand its propaganda without having any solid evidence to back the claim.

One of the JIT members said the brutal murder of NIA official Tanzil Ahmed, who was probing the Air Base attack, is evidence that India wants to keep the matter under wraps, reported Pakistan media.

The report also claims the Indian government did not cooperate with the JIT and instead made efforts to hinder the probe by the Pakistani team.

On Friday, the JIT returned to Pakistan after their five-day visit to India during which all evidence pertaining to the attack was shared with them, including the DNA of four terrorists, their identities as well as call records showing involvement of JeM.

The JIT had on Thursday examined 13 witnesses, including former Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh.

Pakistani terrorists attacked the Pathankot Air Force Station in January this year, in which four attackers and two security forces personnel were killed in the gun battle, with an additional security force member dying from injuries hours later.

After JITs visit, NIA had said that Indian investigators will also visit Pakistan to take forward the probe into the terror attack on the strategic Indian Air Force base. Dates for the visit will be worked out later, Director General of NIA, Sharad Kumar had said.
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's ruling Workers Party conceded defeat in Sunday's lower house vote to impeach President Dilma Rousseff and said it would focus on blocking the move to remove her from office in the Senate, the party's leader in the chamber Jose Guimaraes, said. "The fight continues now in the Senate," he told reporters in the lower house of congress. (Reporting by Alonso Soto; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer)
By Brad Haynes and Alonso Soto MACEIO/BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Dilma Rousseff is not the first Brazilian president forced to contemplate the loyalty of Renan Calheiros on the eve of her possible impeachment. Nearly 25 years ago, Calheiros, the current president of the Senate who will decide the pace of debate over Rousseff's impeachment, weighed the fate of a fellow politician from his tiny northeastern state of Alagoas: Fernando Collor de Mello. Calheiros was a key advisor in Collor's successful presidential campaign in 1989. Just three years later, his explosive revelations of government corruption to journalists and congressional investigators helped topple Collor in a corruption scandal. As the impeachment process against Rousseff moves to the Senate after winning overwhelming support in the lower house of Congress on Sunday, she and her allies may look with trepidation to Calheiros, a crucial but inconsistent ally in the past year. Calheiros has resisted the rush to remove Rousseff among a large wing of his Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), throwing his support behind the idea of new general elections to settle the country's political crisis. Yet those proposals are distant and theoretical, while the decision before Calheiros is urgent. He faces intense pressure from his own party and others in the opposition to quickly set a date for a Senate vote on whether to accept impeachment charges and put Rousseff on trial. The precedent of Collor's impeachment suggests a committee will be formed to present a recommendation on whether Rousseff should be tried. This would be voted on by the full chamber within 10 parliamentary sessions - which would be in early May. The pro-impeachment camp only needs a simple majority in the Senate to open a trial, an easier hurdle than Sunday's lower house vote, which required two-thirds support. But if Calheiros delays the vote it could give Rousseff vital time to regroup, negotiate and try to swing wavering senators in her favor. Those closest to Calheiros say his shrewd sense of realpolitik, which has helped him dodge several scandals of his own, makes him reluctant to put his own judgment before the intense political currents of the day. "Renan could decide the history of the country. And that's exactly what he doesn't want: to be marked as the one who dealt the final blow," said a close confidant in his home state of Alagoas, who asked not to be named. "Because if that works for him, then it's chicanery, and if it goes wrong then he's dead." Calheiros' aides did not respond to a request for comment, but the Senate leader downplayed his role to reporters on Monday, saying he would neither rush or draw out the impeachment process but would follow the law and the constitution. A SURVIVOR Calheiros, 60, is part of a group of politicians known in Brazil as the "dinosaurs", an old guard who entered politics under military rule and consolidated power after the return of democracy in the 1980s with a knack for compromise and sharp survival instincts. Born in the remote interior of Alagoas, Brazil's third poorest and most violent state, Calheiros' career has been marked by shifting allegiances. First elected to Congress in 1982, he quickly built a reputation as a power broker and has allied with every Brazilian president since Collor in 1990, even as the ruling ideology shifted to the left under the governments of Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Calheiros is also known for close escapes from corruption scandals that could have sunk a less experienced politician. One incident came in 2007, when a news magazine reported a construction company's lobbyist was paying child support for a daughter Calheiros conceived with a young journalist. Further allegations of tax fraud and improper business dealings prompted an inquiry by the Senate's ethics committee and calls for his ouster. Calheiros quit as Senate boss, taking enough heat out of the attacks to gather votes and dodge impeachment. And by 2013, he was back in charge of the Senate. When Rousseff's congressional coalition began crumbling and the movement to impeach her began last year, Calheiros came to her aid. He helped to pass crucial tax measures and delayed an audit into a breach of budgetary laws for which she will now likely be put on trial in his chamber. But colleagues in his party, the PMDB, which led the impeachment process in the lower house, believe he will not stand in the way of Rousseff being forced from power. One party leader with close ties to Vice President Michel Temer, who will replace Rousseff if she is impeached, admitted there were divisions in the PMDB but that in the face of significant political change the party sticks together. To prove the point, the source called Calheiros during the interview. "Lets move ahead together, my friend," he told Calheiros in a light-hearted phone conversation. On Monday, Calheiros took center stage in the impeachment saga, meeting with Rousseff and then her arch-rival, lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha, and Ricardo Lewandowski, the Supreme Court justice who would preside over a trial in the Senate. Regardless of Calheiros' own views, the political momentum is clearly with the pro-impeachment camp. "I think Renan right now is watching to see who wins," Paulo Pereira da Silva, a union boss and ardent critic of Rousseff, said as votes were being cast in the lower house on Sunday. "But once the impeachment arrives in the Senate, he will be the first to hang her out to dry." (Reporting by Brad Haynes in Maceio and Alonso Soto in Brasilia; Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Writing by Brad Haynes and Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Kieran Murray)
London (AFP) - If Britain leaves the European Union its economy could shrink by six percent by 2030, the finance ministry warned in a report on Monday that was dismissed as scaremongering by eurosceptics.

The report said a Brexit would cause "permanent" economic damage as Britain would never be able to negotiate quota-free, no-tariff access to the single market if Britons vote to leave in a June referendum.

"The conclusion is clear: for Britain's economy and for families, leaving the EU would be the most extraordinary self-inflicted wound," Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne wrote in The Times.

"There would be less trade, less investment and less business... Leave the EU, and the facts are: Britain would be permanently poorer," he said.

Under all the Brexit scenarios examined, Britain would have a "less open and interconnected economy".

"It's a complete fantasy to suppose that there is some radically different other arrangement that Britain could negotiate, where we have access to the single market but don't accept any costs or obligations of EU membership," Osborne wrote.

The six percent economic drop forecast was based on the assumption that in the event Britain left the bloc, it would negotiate a trade deal similar to the EU-Canada pact, according to extracts from the report.

The agreement with Canada will remove most duties between the EU and Canada by 2023 and allow EU companies to bid for public contracts in Canada.

The UK Treasury's 200-page report has been months in the making and is the latest stark warning from the government ahead of the June 23 referendum.

The polls show the two camps neck and neck, while around a fifth of voters remain undecided.

- Vote on a 'knife-edge' -

The run-up to the referendum is being closely watched across Europe and beyond because of its potentially far-reaching economic and political consequences.

The Treasury report is being published just days before US President Barack Obama is due in London on a visit in which he is expected to underline the importance of Britain staying in the EU.

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The world's G20 top economies last week warned that one of the risks to the global economy was "the shock of a potential UK exit from the European Union".

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde also called on Britain and the EU to save a "long marriage".

The IMF last week downgraded its forecast for British economic growth by 0.3 percentage points to 1.9 percent for 2016, although it held its 2017 forecast at 2.2 percent.

Charismatic London mayor Boris Johnson, who is campaigning for Britain to leave the EU, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that the vote was on a "knife-edge".

"All the usual suspects are out there, trying to confuse the British public and to persuade them that they must accept the accelerating loss of democratic self-government as the price of economic prosperity," he said.

John Redwood, a pro-Brexit lawmaker and former government minister, dismissed the Treasury analysis, comparing it to arguments made in favour of staying in the EU's Exchange Rate Mechanism.

"The remainers were wrong then and they are wrong now -- people should not trust their judgement on the EU," Redwood said.
By Robin Emmott and Gabriela Baczynska LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Libya's new prime minister called on Monday for European help to combat people smugglers but stopped short of making the formal invitation the EU says it needs to move its Mediterranean naval mission into Libyan waters to stem a new tide of migrants. In his first video conference to EU foreign and defense ministers since setting up in Tripoli, the U.N.-backed prime minister, Fayez Seraj, made a broad appeal for aid to fight Islamic State and rebuild the shattered country, diplomats said of the private briefing. The request, which is sensitive because the Libyan government is trying to establish its independence, could mark the start of Europe's return to Libya five years after the West waged an air campaign to help rebels oust Muammar Gaddafi but then left the country to descend into anarchy. "We are ready to support the government," said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who chaired the meeting with more than 50 ministers in Luxembourg. "Work can now start," she told a news conference, adding that the European Union was ready with 100 million euros ($113 million) in financial support. Exactly a year after the deaths of 800 migrants off the Libyan coast prompted the European Union to act against uncontrolled refugee flows in the Mediterranean, fears over a new tide of migrants have galvanized governments to try to bring law and order to the North African state. An expanded naval mission would be part of the EU's emerging support plan for Libya, which could also work with the U.S.-led NATO alliance to build up a Libyan coastguard capable of stopping traffickers. The bloc says it cannot act until the Libyan government invites it to do so. "Bringing security is vital not just for the Libyan people, but for the region and for Europe," said French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, after a weekend visit to Tripoli. "We must do all we can to fight against the human smugglers and arms trafficking," he told reporters, referring to the U.N. arms embargo on Libya, in place since 2011 and which France sees as a reason to do more in Libyan waters. SMUGGLING ROUTES In a statement, ministers said they were ready to offer security support to train Libyan police, border and coastguards, if requested by Libya, as well as expanding the naval mission. The EU's "Sophia" mission is operating in international waters near Libya and has saved some 13,000 lives since it started in mid-2015, but it is too far out to destroy boats used by people smugglers, catch traffickers or head off an expected surge in migrants trying to reach Europe by sea from Libya. But there are differences about how to proceed, with Britain, France, Italy and Spain eager to act quickly. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who arrived at the meeting directly from Tripoli, said he hoped training could happen in Libya or a neighboring country. Germany is adamant its security personnel will not be on the ground in Libya. Asked if the naval mission should operate in Libyan waters, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said: "Yes, it is very urgent." Mogherini said EU generals had briefed her that such a move was feasible for Europe's naval forces. Sweden says it might also require a U.N. Security Council resolution if the mission is to try to stop arms smuggling. Security Council member Russia has said it was unlikely to back such a request any time soon. Moscow believes the West went too far when a NATO-backed mission helped bring down Libya's long-time leader Gaddafi in 2011. Russia says it overstepped a U.N. mandate that was only to impose a no-fly zone and protect civilians. "We need to stop the smuggling routes and to work more closely with NATO to make sure that we can help the Libyan coastguard," said British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon. "Otherwise we are going to see hundreds of more lives lost." Talks on a possible EU training mission could give momentum to discussions among Italian, French, British and U.S. military planners on whether to send troops to Libya to help to protect key installations, government buildings, ports and the airport. Italy, Libya's former colonial power, has said publicly it is willing to send some 5,000 personnel to help the country. ($1 = 0.8835 euros) (Writing by Robin Emmott; editing by Ralph Boulton)
The worlds biggest rock stars are coming together for a three-day concert billed as a once-in-a-lifetime chance for fans to see the worlds living legends in one place.



The Who, The Rolling Stones, Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Pink Floyds Roger Waters are close to confirming they will play the monster gig.

It will be the first time Dylan and McCartney, below, have appeared on the same bill.

The event is being put together by the organisers of the Coachella music festival, who had the idea of bringing the six Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees together.

Dylan and the Stones, below, are expected to open the show at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California, on October 7, with Young and McCartney on stage the following night.

The Who and Waters are then likely to close the event two days later.

A source told the LA Times: It will be their full stage productions, with full sets.

The artists management have confirmed plans are nearing completion and an announcement is expected within weeks.

Fans came closest to seeing the icons together in July 1985, Dylan, Young plus Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood of the Stones all played at Live Aid in Philadelphia.

Pictures Getty Images
At least 27 performing artists, one of them a child, were killed when their bus plunged into a deep gorge in eastern India, police said on Monday.

The 40-strong troupe were returning from a performance late on Sunday when their bus steered off a hilly road and into a 76-metre (250-foot) gorge in Deogarh district of Odisha state.

"Twenty-seven people lost their lives and around 11 were injured," Sarah Sharma, Deogarh's superintendent of police told AFP. "One of the dead was a child".

An investigation has been ordered, but Sharma said the driver of the chartered vehicle appeared to have taken a sharp turn too quickly.

Emergency workers had to use ropes to pull the injured people out of the gorge.

Fatal traffic accidents are common in India, which has some of the world's deadliest roads with more than 200,000 fatalities annually, according to the World Health Organization.

A packed passenger bus plunged off a bridge into a river in western India in February, killing at least 37 people in one of the deadliest road accidents in recent years.

In October, 15 members of a wedding party, including three children, were killed when a vehicle they were travelling in collided with a bus in the south of the country.
The mangled remains of a Maruti van involved in a collision with a KSRTC bus in Gadag on Sunday. (Photo: DC)

HUBBALLI: Twelve people, including six women and a child, died and several others were injured due to head on collision between a Maruti Omni van and a speeding KSRTC bus in Harlapur village of Gadag district on Sunday evening. All the deceased were travelling in the van.

They were residents of Rajiv Gandhi Layout in Gadag district and were returning from Mandalageri village of Yalaburga taluk in Koppal district after attending a wedding ceremony. The death toll may increase as several injured are in a critical condition.

Police said the accident happened due to the negligence of the bus driver, while he was trying to overtake a lorry. Both bus driver and conductor fled from the spot soon after the mishap. The speeding bus was heading towards Hospet from Hubballi. The injured are undergoing treatment at district hospital in Gadag.

The Omni van was so badly damaged that the police personnel had to struggle to retrieve the bodies. Deputy Commissioner N.S. Prasannakumar and Superintendent of Police K.T. Balakrishna have visited the accident spot.

The deceased have been identified as Abhishek, Priya, Akash, Rathna, Shekavva, Basamma, Shantavva, Karan, Shankargouda , Amit and two others.
By Robin Respaut

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - The California Public Employees' Retirement System decided on Monday to review the potential impact of reinvesting in tobacco, 16 years after the pension fund dropped the controversial asset from its portfolio.

The move to review tobacco divestment by the largest U.S. pension fund has caught the attention of health groups, industry shareholders, institutional investors and many of CalPERS' beneficiaries across California.

Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In 2015, Wilshire Associates reported that the majority of CalPERS divestment initiatives had reduced the pension funds portfolio returns.

Specifically, excluding tobacco had cost an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion, Wilshire found, a considerably larger portfolio impact than CalPERS other divested assets, such as Iran, Sudan and certain firearm-related companies.

The question to review the tobacco divestment divided CalPERS board into two camps - those who favored a review and those who preferred to drop the discussion altogether and remain divested.

The majority favored a study that considered the broader financial and economic impact of reinvesting in tobacco.

Board members said the decision would not necessarily result in CalPERS ultimately reinvesting some of its roughly $293 billion portfolio back into tobacco. Instead, the study would be performed as part of the board's fiduciary duty.

No one should read into this any interest in reinvesting in tobacco, CalPERS board member Bill Slaton told a board meeting.

CalPERS will take the next 12 to 24 months to examine the issue before taking any action on a possible tobacco reinvestment.

(Reporting by Robin Respaut; Editing by Peter Cooney)
By Ethan Lou TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian man in Ecuador who was video-chatting with his father when the connection went down during the Andean country's huge earthquake on Saturday called back hours later to report his wife and son had been killed, a family member said. Pascal Laflamme's wife, Jennifer Mawn, 38, and 12-year-old son, Arthur, died when the roof of their residence collapsed during the 7.8 magnitude quake, the man's uncle, Guy Laflamme, said in a phone interview on Sunday. Pascal Laflamme and his daughter, Laurie-Ann, 14, survived. The quake, Ecuador's biggest in decades, struck off the Pacific coast, causing panic as far away as the highland capital, Quito, and killing at least 262 people. Guy Laflamme said his nephew, originally from Montreal, had shouted: "Get out!" to his family in their home near the coast, but they could not do so in time. "And the roof fell down," the uncle said. "His kid was killed and his wife was under the debris." Pascal Laflamme, who worked for a property developer in Bahia de Caraquez, about 95 miles (150 km) southwest of Quito, told his father afterward he and his daughter sought shelter with a friend away from the seaside. He has not been in touch since. Pascal Laflamme's father, Real, whom Guy Laflamme described as "in shock," declined an interview request, saying it was a difficult time for him. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion confirmed in a statement that two Canadians died in the quake. (Reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Critics' Week, a parallel event that runs alongside Cannes, has released its selection of the best films from emerging filmmakers, with a program that includes titles from France, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Singapore, Canada and the Philippines.

Now in its 55th edition, Critics' Week aims to shine the spotlight on new and emerging talent and features a selective program that shows 10 feature films and 10 short and medium-length films.

This year's selection strongly favors French films.

Opening the festival is "In Bed With Victoria" from France, directed by Justine Triet.

Critics' Week runs May 12 -20.

Here is the full list:



In Bed With Victoria, dir: Justine Triet (France)

Closing short films

Bonne figure (Smile), dir: Sandrine Kiberlain (France)

En Moi, dir: Laetitia Casta (France)

Kitty, dir: Chloe Sevigny (U.S.)

Competition

Album, dir: Mehmet Can Mertoglu (Turkey)*

Diamond Island, dir: Davy Chou (Cambodia/France)

Raw, dir: Julia Ducournau (France)*

Mimosas, dir: Oliver Laxe (France)

One Week And A Day, dir: Asaph Polonsky (Israel)*

Tramontane, dir: Vatche Boulghourjian (Lebanon)*

A Yellow Bird, dir: K. Rajagopal (Singapore)*



Special screenings

Happy Times Will Come Soon, dir: Alessandro Comodin (Italy)

Apnee, dir: Jean-Christophe Meurisse (France)*

* denotes first film eligible for the Camera d'Or

Short and Medium-length films in competition

Arnie, dir: Rina B. Tsou (Taiwan, Philippines)

Ascensao, dir: Pedro Peralta (Portugal)

Campo De Viboras, dir: Cristele Alves Meira (Portugal)

Delusion Is Redemption To Those In Distress, dir: Fellipe Fernandes (Brazil)

L'Enfance D'Un Chef, dir: Antoine de Bary (France)

Limbo, dir: Konstantina Kotzamani (Greece)

Oh What A Wonderful Feeling, dir: Francois Jaros (Canada)

Prenjak, dir: Wregas Bhanuteja (Indonesia)

Le Soldat Vierge, dir: Erwan Le Duc (France)

Superbia, dir: Luca Toth (Hungary)

Special screenings (short)

From The Diary Of A Wedding Photographer, dir: Nadav Lapid (Israel)

Los Pasos Del Agua, dir: Cesar Augusto Acevedo (Colombia)
Miami (AFP) - Cruise giant Carnival, under fire for perceived discrimination, reversed course Monday and started accepting reservations for its planned trips to Cuba from people born on the island.

The US leisure group plans to start cruises from the United States to Cuba on May 1 as part of the historic restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

But under a rule dating back to the Cold War, the Cuban government only allows Cubans to enter the country by air, not by ship.

Carnival said it is holding talks with the Havana government and trusts this restriction will be lifted.

If it is not, the May 1 launch of the cruise trips by a new Carnival unit called Fathom will be postponed, the company said in a statement.

"Carnival Corporation continues active discussions with Cuba, asking that travel on Fathom be on a level playing field with air charter travel to Cuba and remains confident its discussions with Cuba will result in a positive outcome for everyone who wants to travel to Cuba, including those who are Cuba-born," Carnival said in a statement.

Carnival is the first cruise ship company to receive permission from the United States and Cuba to offer trips between the two countries for the first time since they were halted with the Cuba Revolution in 1959. The bilateral rapprochement began in 2014.

But Carnival came in for criticism by not accepting reservations from Cuban-born people, in line with the current Cuban law. The uproar came from anti-Castro activists in Florida, US lawmakers and even the government of President Barack Obama.

"Carnival needs to not discriminate," Secretary of State John Kerry said last week in an interview with the Miami Herald, although his ire was really aimed at the Cuban government.

"The United States government will never support, never condone discrimination. And the Cuban government should not have the right to enforce on us a policy of discrimination against people who have the right to travel," Kerry said.
Maj. Gen. G.D. Bakshi (retired), Supreme Court lawyer Monica Arora and Andhra Bhoomi Editor M.V.R. Sastry (left) felicitate the mother of Lance Naik K. Hana-manthappa, who died after surviving an avalanche on the Siachen glacier.  DC

Hyderabad: Major General G.D Bak-shi (retired) and Supre-me Court advocate Mon-ica Arora said at an event in Hyderabad on Sunday that the protests being seen at several universities was psychological warfare waged by anti-national forces.

The event conducted by Jagruta Bharat saw many speakers attack the trend of protests at universities like the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jadhavpur University and the University of Hyderabad. They blamed blamed Comm-unist elements for instigating the protests. Ms Arora said that protests in JNU were because of Maoist elements.

Gen. Bakshi speaking to the audience, most of whom were youth, invoked the 1971 Indo-Pak war and said, We divided Pakistan into two pieces, divide the remaining Pakistan into four pieces. He compared the protests across universities to anti-India terrorism activities of Pakistan.

In an indirect attack on the protests taking place at the University of Hyderabad following the death of dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula, he said that NGOs, some intellectuals and other sections of society were trying to break India in the name of caste.

Attacking JNU students union Kanhaiya Kumar, Gen. Bakshi called him a traitor and said, One was Hindu Lord Kanhaiya and one is this Kanahiya who conducted janaza for Afzal Guru for three years. When the university tried to stop it he acted brave and raised anti-India slogans. If he is so brave why is he now saying he did not raise those slogans?

Andhra Bhoomi Editor M.V.R. Sastry, who presided over the event, said, The anti-national protests and unnecessary problems being created by communist elements in universities will not affect Prime Minister, Narendra Modis political career or the Bharatiya Janata Party but it is harmful for the country and national integrity.

Recently, students were beaten up in NIT Srinagar for flying the Indian national flag. It is necessary for people to speak out against such activities and the people who are proudly claiming that they are anti-nationals.

He said people were angry at the illogical and unnecessary protests. He said the event is being conducted now as it was the time to speak out. Communist ideology has been trashed by people in this country. Even in Kerala and West Bengal people have lost faith in communism. Now universities are the last bastions of communism. he said.

Mr Sastry also attacked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for his comments that capital punishment for terrorists Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat; he pointed out that both of them were sentenced during the Congress government.
The New York Times

EWA BEACH, Hawaii  It was rough enough when Ashley Badis and her teammates in girls water polo had to practice in the ocean, battling fickle winds and choppy waves because their high school had failed to provide them a pool. But it was humiliating, Badis said, when she learned about female athletes on other teams lugging their gear around school all day, running to a nearby Burger King to use the bathroom, or changing clothes under the bleachers or on the bus. The boys had no such worries beca
Beijing (AFP) - Beijing landed a military plane on a disputed South China Sea reef it has built up into an artificial island, state media said Monday, in the first official confirmation of such a flight.

An air force plane landed on Fiery Cross reef in the Spratlys archipelago on Sunday to evacuate sick workers, the official People's Liberation Army Daily said.

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, even waters close to its Southeast Asian neighbours, and has created artificial islands in an effort to assert its claims.

It has significantly expanded Fiery Cross, which is also claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines, drawing international criticism.

In 2014, China began work on a 3,000-metre (9,840 feet) runway on the reef, which is around 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from its island province of Hainan.

Beijing in January carried out several of what it called civilian flights to Fiery Cross, enraging Hanoi.

This weekend's flight came just days after US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter visited a warship close to flashpoint waters, after announcing joint naval patrols with the Philippines.

On the day of Carter's trip, Beijing said that one of its top military officials had visited a South China Sea island.

Fan Changlong, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, observed building work, the defence ministry said, without giving a precise date or location for the visit.

Washington regularly accuses Beijing of militarising the South China Sea, saying it has built runways and deployed weapons to the islands.

Beijing denies the accusations and says US patrols have ramped up tensions.

As well as China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims to parts of the sea, which are home to some of the world's most important shipping lanes and believed to sit atop vast oil reserves.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Authorities in China have launched an investigation after a report that hundreds of children attending a language school built near a polluted former industrial site developed health problems, including cancer, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday. The municipal government of Changzhou, about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Shanghai, said that since December students and faculty at the Changzhou Foreign Languages School had been complaining about an "unusual smell" emitting from three former chemical plants nearby, Xinhua said. But a report by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) late on Sunday suggested that the problems were much more serious, and the case has raised an outcry online. Of 641 students from the school who underwent health checks recently 493 were found to have conditions ranging from chronic coughs, headaches and blood abnormalities, to lymphoma and leukemia, CCTV reported. Widespread environmental pollution is a dark legacy of the growth-at-all-costs development path that China took since the 1970s, and it is increasingly a source of social unrest. The ruling Communist Party in recent years has dedicated more resources and attention to cleaning the country's polluted air, water and soil, but the severity of the problem will be felt for decades to come. Parents of the students in Changzhou had suspected for months that their children's' ailments were linked to the school, which had opened on the site in September, and called for it to be moved elsewhere, CCTV said in a report online. Photographs posted on microblogs show what appear to be dozens of people staging protests with banners calling for the school to relocate. It is unclear when the pictures were taken. "In China, only the lives of people with power and money have any value!! The lives of common people are buy-one-get-10-free!! Right?!! Rubbish government officials!!" one person said in a comment online. Another interjected: "Emigrate, quickly. That is no place to hang around." Xinhua quoted the municipal authorities as saying that a soil restoration project at site was underway at the time of the complaints. "An environmental-expert panel concluded in February that the program had achieved the expected results and that the air quality meets national standards," it said. The CCTV report said previous environmental assessments had found extremely high levels of contamination in the soil and water at the former industrial site. Surveys commissioned by concerned parents of students found the water, soil and air on the school campus were also contaminated, it said. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Additional reporting by Twinnie Siu in HONG KONG; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
By Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) - China and other major steel-producing countries failed on Monday to agree measures to tackle a global steel crisis as the sides argued over the causes of overcapacity and whether Beijing is keeping loss-making producers afloat. A meeting of ministers and trade officials from over 30 countries, hosted by Belgium and the OECD, sought to tackle excess capacity, but concluded only that it had to be dealt with in a swift and structural way. The OECD said global steelmaking capacity was 2.37 billion tonnes in 2015, but declining production meant that only 67.5 percent of that was being used, down from 70.9 percent in 2014. Britain in particular has felt the squeeze as its largest producer Tata Steel has announced plans to pull out of the country, threatening 15,000 jobs. At a news conference following Monday's meeting, deep divisions were clear. China's assistant commerce minister, Zhang Ji, countered accusations that Beijing subsidizes steel exporters, saying that China had cut 90 million tonnes of capacity and had plans to reduce it by a further 100-150 million tonnes. "That is only 10 million tonnes less than the capacity in Europe," he said, although critics say it would still have a capacity of around 1 billion tonnes, far in excess of its needs. China says the fundamental cause of steel overcapacity was the collapse of demand due to the 2008-2009 financial crisis and that the issue of excess capacity is a global one for all countries. International trade, it says, is not to blame. However, deputy U.S. trade representative Robert Holleyman said Zhang's talk of steel export subsidies missed the point. "What we are talking about are subsidies that encourage steel capacity or that sustain loss-making enterprises or plants," he said, adding that a "critical mass of economies" needed to agree additional steps. Cecelia Malmstrom, the EU's trade commissioner, insisted that governments should not grant subsidies that keep enviable plants running and should subject state-controlled firms to the same rules as the private sector. Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo also highlighted the problem of cheap imports, saying domestic producers had half of the local market in 2010, but only 25 percent now. The OECD Steel Committee is made up of 25 members and associates such as Brazil and Russia, with China, the world's largest steel producer and consumer, also invited to participate. A further high-level discussion is provisionally set for September. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, editing by Louise Heavens)
By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China needs to understand that it is a matter of life or death for South Koreans to protect themselves from possible North Korean nuclear attack and that Beijing should engage in talks over the possible deployment of a new U.S. anti-missile system there, a senior South Korean official said on Monday. The United States and South Korea earlier began talks on possible deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system after North Korea tested its fourth nuclear bomb on Jan. 6 and launched a long-range rocket on Feb. 7, but China firmly opposes the move. Shin Beomchul, director-general for policy planning at South Korea's foreign ministry, told a seminar that more conversations were need with China on the issue. "I hope to ask Chinas understanding of what (South) Korea is feeling about the North Korean threat," he told the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It is not the usual threat, it is a nuclear threat. Thats very serious. We are now in the live-or-die situation," he said. "We have to solve the ... misunderstanding, but the fundamental point is that to protect our country is the top priority." Ultimately, the way to resolve the controversy would be to decrease the North Korean threat, he added. Mark Lambert, director of the Office of Korean Affairs at the U.S. State Department, told the seminar Beijing was still refusing a U.S. offer of briefings to explain that the system was not aimed at limiting China's defense capabilities. South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hyoung-zhin stressed the need for all countries to put pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear program through full implementation of international and bilateral sanctions. He said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's government did not look likely to give up nuclear weapons under any circumstances, but did respond to external stimuli. "If these elements are tightly interwoven without any loophole ... the Kim Jong Un regime will realize that it cannot survive unless it gives up its nuclear program and takes steps towards denuclearization," he said. Lambert said U.S. experts wanted to explain that the THAAD system would not negate China's nuclear deterrent as its radars would be pointed northeast into North Korea, not into China. "We need to have that dialogue. But unfortunately to date, officials in Beijing have been unwilling to meet with our officials and hear that." (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by James Dalgleish)
New Delhi: A day after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar called for a Sangh-mukt (Sangh-free) country, the BJP on Sunday advised him to attend the RSS shakha for a day to clear his misconceptions. Mr Kumar had also said that the BJP and the RSS were a threat to democracy.

The Bihar chief minister had told reporters in Patna that Opposition parties needed to unite to fight against the BJP one on one. The BJP, however, stated that the party was unfazed by efforts to form a united front to counter the ruling alliance at the Centre.

Such attempts to stop the Modi government from working for the development of the country and for the poor will not succeed. Mr Nitish Kumar should focus on Bihar which is back to jungle raj days, said Mr Shrikant Sharma, national secretary of the BJP.

Seeking to expose the differences within the Opposition, the BJP sought to know from the Congress if Mr Kumar, or party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, would lead a united front against the ruling NDA. Mr Kumar has called for an RSS-free India . You have stayed with people from Sangh for long. You have had a long coalition with BJP. You have been participating in BJP programmes also. But you have called for a Sangh-free India . It is better you learn and understand the Sangh a little bit, he said.

Claiming that the critics of the RSS have a lot of misunderstanding, Mr Sharma said, Only when they attend the shakha (daily meeting) of the RSS will they have a better understanding and their misconceptions will be cleared. Only then will the technical glitches in their (mental) software be fixed. He added that the RSS has always worked in the national interest. Mr Kumar, after assuming charge of the JD(U) from outgoing chief Sharad Yadav, has been stressing on the need for a formidable alliance against the NDA.
China's economy grew in the first three months of 2016 at its slowest quarter-on-quarter rate since it began releasing the data, the government said, while the real-estate sector rebounded thanks to aggressive stimulus.

The world's second-largest economy expanded 1.1 percent in January-March over the last quarter of 2015, the slowest pace since it started publishing such statistics in early 2011. The result follows 1.5 percent growth in the previous three months and 1.8 percent in July-September.

The figures came after the National Bureau of Statistics published its on-year figures Friday, which matched expectations, while foreacst-beating March data offered signs of recovery in the Asian economic giant.

The recovery of the property sector -- long a pillar of China's economy -- helped to fuel growth, analysts said, as real-estate services grew 9.1 percent year-over-year, accounting for 6.8 percent of GDP.

The data show that China has returned to "property-led growth" and suggest "recent growth momentum has been underpinned by the resurgence of (the) 'old economy'" ANZ analysts said in a note Monday.

China's leaders are looking to manage a difficult transition away from the investment- and export-led model of the past to an economy more driven by consumer demand, but the change is proving bumpy and global markets have fretted over the outlook.

"The improvement of growth momentum is mainly driven by faster property investment, which is driven by policy easing and strong property sales," said Zhao Yang of Nomura. However, he added that analysts "do not expect the property market rally to last for very long" because policy easing has reached its limits.

"We believe it will be short-lived, as the oversupply in small cities' housing market has not changed yet and the government has started to tighten policies toward property market in big cities," he said.

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Bank lending exploded in March, with aggregate financing coming in at 2.34 trillion yuan ($360 million), booming from 780.2 billion yuan the month before.

Fiscal and monetary stimulus so far this year "are stronger than we expected," Zhao said, noting that banks' balance sheet growth has been "much stronger" than official data for money supply, suggesting the figures "underestimate the pace of credit expansion".

Beijing appeared to have reverted to "the old way to boost economic growth, relying on property investment and infrastructure investment," Zhao said, boosting short-term growth but further delaying necessary structural rebalancing and reform.

NBS data showed that the financial sector's first-quarter growth fell from 15.9 percent last year -- when the stock market was booming --- to 8.1 percent this year.

China's extended lunar new year holiday always falls in the first quarter and the period frequently shows some of the slowest quarter-on-quarter growth of the year.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will prosecute a former vice governor of the wealthy southern province of Guangdong for corruption after an investigation found he took bribes and abused his position, the country's main anti-corruption watchdog said on Monday. Liu Zhigeng, who was put under investigation in February, also engaged in "superstitious activities", the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said. The charge is frequently leveled at disgraced officials to further blacken their names, as party members are not supposed to believe in "superstition" in officially atheist China. Liu has been expelled from the party and his case handed over to the legal authorities, the watchdog said, meaning he will be prosecuted. It was not possible to reach him for comment and unclear if he has retained a lawyer. President Xi Jinping has embarked on a sweeping anti-corruption campaign, targeting a raft of high-ranking officials in industry and government, including many of his formidable political opponents. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will prosecute a former vice governor of the wealthy southern province of Guangdong for corruption after an investigation found he took bribes and abused his position, the country's main anti-corruption watchdog said on Monday. Liu Zhigeng, who was put under investigation in February, also engaged in "superstitious activities", the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said. The charge is frequently levelled at disgraced officials to further blacken their names, as party members are not supposed to believe in "superstition" in officially atheist China. Liu has been expelled from the party and his case handed over to the legal authorities, the watchdog said, meaning he will be prosecuted. It was not possible to reach him for comment and unclear if he has retained a lawyer. President Xi Jinping has embarked on a sweeping anti-corruption campaign, targeting a raft of high-ranking officials in industry and government, including many of his formidable political opponents. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Corruption cases involving three million yuan ($463,000) or more may incur the death penalty in future, Chinese authorities ruled Monday, signalling that officials could be executed for graft.

Under President Xi Jinping the country has waged a much-publicised anti-corruption campaign vowing to target both powerful "tigers" and low-level "flies", but no Communist Party official is known to have been put to death for the offence since Xi took office.

The Supreme People's Court and China's national prosecuting body said that bribes or embezzlement totalling three million yuan or more will be considered "extraordinarily huge value", the Xinhua news agency reported.

Such offenders will be eligible for the death penalty if their actions had "extremely severe circumstances and caused extremely vile social impact and extremely significant losses to the state's and the people's interests", Xinhua cited their joint "judicial explanation" as saying.

Capital punishment will remain an option for the courts -- which in China are controlled by the ruling party -- and will not be mandatory.

The intent was to punish corruption "with severity according to the law", Xinhua said.

Supreme People's Court judge Pei Xianding said judicial authorities would hand down death sentences "in a resolute manner", Xinhua reported separately.

A previous threshold was set in 1997 at 100,000 yuan, but was not updated until it was abolished last year.

Xi's crackdown has swept up scores of senior officials in the party, the government, the military and state-owned companies, including former security czar Zhou Yongkang.

So far its most severe sentences have been death with a two-year reprieve -- which is normally commuted to a life term -- or life imprisonment, which Zhou was given.

Former railways minister Liu Zhijun was given a suspended death penalty in 2013 for taking bribes worth 60 million yuan, which was commuted to life imprisonment last year.

The document also widened the range of benefits that can be defined as bribes, to include debt forgiveness among others, the report said.

Any acceptance of gifts by government employees that might affect the performance of their public duties will be regarded as bribery even if there was no specific request by the briber at the time, it said.
By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - China stepped up its war of words with Taiwan on Monday after Taipei freed 20 suspects in a telecom fraud case linked to China, with state media accusing Taiwan of tolerating crime and being taken hostage by anti-Chinese forces. Malaysia had deported the 20 people, who were part of a group of 53 Taiwanese it arrested in March on suspicion of fraud, according to Taiwan's foreign ministry. But their release has prompted anger from Beijing. Taiwan, for its part, has been infuriated by the forcible deportation of more than 40 Taiwanese people to China from Kenya, also on suspicion of telecom fraud. China says they are wanted for crimes committed against Chinese people in China. Such telecoms fraud typically involves calls from people pretending to be law enforcement officials or companies saying money is owed to them, China says. In a strongly worded editorial on Monday, the influential state-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times said Taiwan's release of the 20 had disgraced the island's rule of law and politicized what should be a normal legal case. It accused the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which won presidential and parliamentary elections by a landslide in January, of manipulating public opinion and stirring anti-China feeling. "The key is that the mainland should stick more firmly to its principles, and resolutely resist the rascally demands by Taiwan's twisted politics," it said. "Western democratic politics can easily provide a hotbed for radicalism and extremism. Taiwan and Hong Kong both have demonstrated this tendency," the paper added, referring to recent protests in the former British colony. The DPP did not respond to a request for comment. Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau says the 20 were freed as there was insufficient evidence to detain them. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang would not directly say whether China had lodged a protest with Malaysia about the case, saying only that China and Malaysia are developing relations in many areas and they had a mutual interest in cross-border law and order cooperation. "The one China principle is an important political pre-condition for China to develop relations with countries around the world," Lu told a daily news briefing. China claims self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as a wayward province, to be brought under its control by force if needed. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the Communists in 1949. China says the cases of the fraud suspects, whether from Kenya or Malaysia, should be a simple criminal matter. China's official Xinhua news agency on Monday published fraud victims' denunciations of the release of the suspects by Malaysia. "When we saw that Taiwan gang had been caught we felt relieved. Now they've been released this is a covert toleration of their crimes, which is hateful!" said one 67-year-old victim, surnamed Liu. China's Ministry of Public Security says Taiwanese people have been heavily involved in telecom fraud in China and had caused huge losses, with some victims killing themselves. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by J.R. Wu in Taipei; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Simon Cameron-Moore)
By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - China stepped up its war of words with Taiwan on Monday after Taipei freed 20 suspects in a telecom fraud case linked to China, with state media accusing Taiwan of tolerating crime and being taken hostage by anti-Chinese forces. Malaysia had deported the 20 people, who were part of a group of 53 Taiwanese it arrested in March on suspicion of fraud, according to Taiwan's foreign ministry. But their release has prompted anger from Beijing. Taiwan, for its part, has been infuriated by the forcible deportation of more than 40 Taiwanese people to China from Kenya, also on suspicion of telecom fraud. China says they are wanted for crimes committed against Chinese people in China. Such telecoms fraud typically involves calls from people pretending to be law enforcement officials or companies saying money is owed to them, China says. In a strongly worded editorial on Monday, the influential state-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times said Taiwan's release of the 20 had disgraced the island's rule of law and politicised what should be a normal legal case. It accused the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which won presidential and parliamentary elections by a landslide in January, of manipulating public opinion and stirring anti-China feeling. "The key is that the mainland should stick more firmly to its principles, and resolutely resist the rascally demands by Taiwan's twisted politics," it said. "Western democratic politics can easily provide a hotbed for radicalism and extremism. Taiwan and Hong Kong both have demonstrated this tendency," the paper added, referring to recent protests in the former British colony. The DPP did not respond to a request for comment. Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau says the 20 were freed as there was insufficient evidence to detain them. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang would not directly say whether China had lodged a protest with Malaysia about the case, saying only that China and Malaysia are developing relations in many areas and they had a mutual interest in cross-border law and order cooperation. "The one China principle is an important political pre-condition for China to develop relations with countries around the world," Lu told a daily news briefing. China claims self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as a wayward province, to be brought under its control by force if needed. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the Communists in 1949. China says the cases of the fraud suspects, whether from Kenya or Malaysia, should be a simple criminal matter. China's official Xinhua news agency on Monday published fraud victims' denunciations of the release of the suspects by Malaysia. "When we saw that Taiwan gang had been caught we felt relieved. Now they've been released this is a covert toleration of their crimes, which is hateful!" said one 67-year-old victim, surnamed Liu. China's Ministry of Public Security says Taiwanese people have been heavily involved in telecom fraud in China and had caused huge losses, with some victims killing themselves. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by J.R. Wu in Taipei; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Simon Cameron-Moore)
The global wine market grew almost 11 percent last year as China not only drank more wine but also produced more, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) said Monday.

In a market worth 28.3 billion euros ($32 billion) in 2015, France remains by far the largest exporter in terms of market share value, with 29 percent, equivalent to 8.2 billion euros.

But France only ranks third in volume of exports, at 14 million hectolitres, reflecting the high quality of its wines which fetch higher prices than its competitors.

Spain is the world's biggest exporter by volume with 24 million hectolitres but has slipped to third place in terms of market share value because of the relatively low price per unit.

Italy is now the world's second-largest exporter at 20 million hectolitres, with a market share value of 5.3 billon euros, the OIV said.

China though is playing an increasing role in fuelling global growth both in consumption and production.

The world's biggest tipplers are Americans, drinking 31 million hectolitres last year. Chinese drinkers consumed 16 million hectolitres, up from 15.5 million in 2014.

Furthermore, while other countries slightly reduced production, China increased the amount of land given over to vineyards by 34,000 hectares in the space of a year.

"China remains the main driver of growth in the global wine industry," OIV director-general Jean-Marie Aurand told a press conference in Paris.
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese military aircraft has landed at a new airport on an island China has built in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Monday, in the first public report on a move that raises the prospect of China basing warplanes there. The United States has criticized China's construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea and worries that it plans to use them for military purposes, even though China says it has no hostile intent. The runway on the Fiery Cross Reef is 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) long and is one of three China has been building for more than a year by dredging sand up onto reefs and atolls in the Spratly archipelago. Civilian flights began test runs there in January. In a front-page story, the official People's Liberation Army Daily said a military aircraft on patrol over the South China Sea on Sunday received an emergency call to land at Fiery Cross Reef to evacuate three seriously ill workers. They were then taken in the transport aircraft back to Hainan island for treatment, it said, showing a picture of the aircraft on the ground in Hainan. It was the first time China's military had publicly admitted landing an aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef, the influential Global Times tabloid said. It cited an military expert as saying the flight showed the airfield was up to military standards and could see fighter jets based there in the event of war. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said such rescue missions were part of the military's "fine tradition" and that it was "not at all surprising" they had done this on China's own territory. The runways would be long enough to handle long-range bombers and transport aircraft as well as China's best jet fighters, giving it a presence deep in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia that it has lacked until now. More than $5 trillion of world trade is shipped through the South China Sea every year. Besides China's territorial claims in the area, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Simon Cameron-Moore)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei criticized Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, calling him "an irrational type" due to his proposal that tariffs on imported Chinese goods be increased to up to 45 percent. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday, Lou said, "Trump is an irrational type. If he were to do this, that would be in violation of the rules set by the World Trade Organization." Lou said that if the United States put Trump's proposal into effect, it "would not be entitled to its position as the worlds major power. The U.S. needs to recognize that the U.S. and China are mutually dependent on each other. Our economic cycles are intertwined." He acknowledged that rhetoric in a U.S. presidential campaign can become heated. China is the United States' largest trading partner. Chinese officials have generally avoided criticizing Trump directly, though they have made indirect criticism of his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States and indirectly rebuffed Trump's claims that China is stealing U.S. jobs. China's tightly-controlled state media has largely stuck to reporting the facts about Trump, with some notable exceptions. Last month, influential tabloid the Global Times accused Trump of being a racist, warning that other extremists, such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, had both been voted into power. Trump on Sunday again asserted that China had waged "economic war" against the United States. "They've taken our jobs, they've taken our money," the billionaire businessman said at a campaign rally in New York. "We can't continue to be ripped off like we're being ripped off." At a Republican presidential debate last month, Trump said China will not allow free trade or U.S. manufacturers to compete freely. "The 45 percent (tariff) is a threat that if they don't behave, if they don't follow the rules and regulations so that we can have it equal on both sides, we will tax you," he said. Republican rival Ted Cruz criticized the 45 percent tariff proposal, saying during the same debate that it would be passed on to U.S. consumers. "How does it help you to have a president come and say ... I'm going to put a 45 percent tax on diapers when you buy diapers, on automobiles when you buy automobiles, on clothing when you buy clothing. That hurts you," the U.S. senator from Texas said. The United States reported a $366-billion trade deficit with China in 2015, up from $343 billion in 2014 - the largest U.S. trade imbalance with any nation. The deficit is up nearly 12 percent in the first two months of 2016 to $57 billion. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Clarence Fernandez)
Sanctioning of bar licence to five star hotels is (done) by Centre. It is part of tourism policy, says CM Oomen Chandy. (Photo: Representational Image)

Kannur: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday said his government had no role in the grant of bar licences to five new five-star hotels in the state and it was done by the Centre as part of its tourism policy.

Answering questions of reporters, Chandy also said there was nothing unusual in it. "Kerala's liquor policy stated that bar hotels would not be allowed in hotels below five-star status," he said at a meet-the-press programme here.

"Sanctioning of bar licence to five star hotels is (done) by Centre. It is part of tourism policy," Chandy said, adding the state government has no role in it. He also made it clear that UDF would not dilute its policy, envisaging total prohibition in ten years.

KPCC President V M Sudheeran, who has been at the forefront of the anti-liquor campaign, said UDF will not dilute its liquor policy.

"The issue related to granting of licence will be examined," he said, adding that he was not aware of details as he was electioneering.

The issue has triggered a row with CPI(M) veteran V S Achuthanandan attacking the UDF government, saying it has exposed the government's "fake (liquor) policy" to dupe the public.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said if she wins the White House she would go farther than President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration and would propose comprehensive immigration reform legislation within 100 days of taking office. "I will do everything I can to protect the president's executive actions and go further to bring more people relief and keep families together," Clinton said in a statement as the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case over whether Obama overstepped his authority with his immigration action. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Megan Cassella; Editing by Will Dunham)
Spring semester is winding down, and you still haven't landed a job. The horror! But it's not too late for college seniors to position themselves for a post-graduate job. The key is to take advantage of on-campus resources while they're still available.

Here's how to find a job in your last month of college.

1. Don't freak out. When it comes to the job search, "if you have not started the process yet, take a deep breath, make a plan and get going," says Lynn Hansen, executive director of career services at the University of Central Florida. "It's never too late to get started."

While you missed fall employer recruitment visits, there's still time to find a job, experts say. In fact, many smaller and midsize companies don't have the manpower or time to recruit new graduates in the fall and are likely still looking for new hires. And there are always employers who fill jobs on a rolling basis, recruiting for positions only when they're being vacated. Those employers may offer late spring job opportunities as well.

[Read: 10 Experts Share the Best Career Advice They Ever Received.]

2. Head to the career center. You may not be within spitting distance of your on-campus career office much longer, so schedule a meeting with a counselor there. Seriously. Do it now. This time of year can be busy, and the center may not be able to accommodate you right away.

Career advisors can help you format your resume, identify potential employers and practice interview answers. But they're not miracle workers. "If this is the first time you've talked to someone, and you haven't done what you needed to do to be competitive, there's only so much we can do to make that resume look good," says Keri Burns, director of career services at the University of West Georgia.

3. Expand your search. If you don't have family obligations tethering you to home, look to a more robust job market elsewhere. "This is the time of your life -- if you don't have anyone depending on you -- it's one of those final years where you can live anywhere in the world or anywhere in the country," says Liz Wessel, CEO and co-founder of WayUp, a job search site for students.

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Students also sometimes stall their searches by focusing on out-of-reach companies or stratospheric job titles. "Keep your options open," Burns says. "Don't look at titles, but look at responsibilities."

[See: 10 Things Your Mom Didn't Teach You About Job Searching.]

4. Lock down social media. That keg-stand picture may have impressed your fraternity brothers, but it won't wow your future boss. When it comes to your social media profiles, "hiring managers are looking at those," Burns says.

Do a search to determine what's available to the public -- sites like Spokeo.com and Pipl.com can help you dig even deeper into the search results -- and lock down anything you wouldn't want your future boss to see.

5. Consider an internship. If a full-time job isn't materializing, or you lack the professional experience to land one, consider taking an internship directly out of college.

Yes, internships are a luxury for some students, especially when they aren't paid. But even working part time on top of a career-focused internship can help students earn money while getting a foot in the door and bulking up a slender resume. Plus, it could translate into a full-time gig since employers often hire standout interns.

[See: 8 Ways Millennials Can Build Leadership Skills.]

6. Take advantage of your student status. While you're still on campus, reach out to professors and advisors for recommendations and job advice. Your classmates and dorm-mates can be helpful, too. Have a study buddy who landed an envy-inducing internship last year? Ask him or her for the inside scoop on applying to and interviewing with that company.

If you're interested in asking a career idol or professional mentor to grab coffee and offer career advice, make the call while you're still a student, experts say. "There's something key about still being in student status," Hansen says. After graduation, she says, that professional will no longer see you as a bright, eager student. Instead, he or she might just perceive you as an unemployed young person and might be less inclined to help out.

The bottom line is that there are loads of steps you can take to move along your job search. But make sure to take advantage of your soon-to-expire on-campus resources before you return home. Says Burns: "Don't freak out, but start now."

Susannah Snider is the Careers editor at U.S. News. She previously covered paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at ssnider@usnews.com.
New Delhi: After the Assembly elections in five states next month, there could either be an AICC meeting or a chintan shivir (brain-storming session) likely in June or July, Congress sources indicated, against the backdrop of speculation that Rahul Gandhis elevation to party chief to take place in the next couple of months.

Rahul Gandhi, who is addressing more meetings than his mother Sonia Gandhi in states currently facing elections and touring across the country, has been active inside and outside Parliament, but it is yet to translate into electoral victories. Party managers said, Rahulji alone has to decide when he wants to become the Congress chief while indicating that it is going to be a smooth transfer of power.

If Mr Gandhis promotion is certain, then the decision has to be taken by the Congress Working Committee which will be endorsed by the AICC meeting. This has been the practice in the party.

Mr Gandhi became Congress vice-president on January 19, 2013 at the CWC meet in Jaipur. Senior leader A.K. Antony proposed his name. Mrs Gandhi and late Sitaram Kesri, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Rajiv Gandhi became Congress presidents the same way, insiders recalled.

But if Mr Gandhi delays his decision, then a chintan shivir has to be called, sources said, while drawing attention to how the RSS is going ahead with its divisive agenda by creating controversies on Bharat Mata Ki Jai and making a comparison between tricolour and saffron, national anthem Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram. Besides, anti-BJP regional parties want to be on the forefront in the battle against the RSS. Do we have to play second fiddle to them? Congress insiders asked.

If the party is facing an open challenge from the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, it is also facing a challenge from secular parties trying to expand at the cost of the Congress.

The Congress wants the unity of anti-BJP secular parties but does not want to have a national-level alliance with the them, fearing that this would eat its space further.

The Congress schedule is tight as it has to focus on the Assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, which are going to be held in less than a year, and later Goa, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur. The Gujarat Assembly polls could also be held in December 2017.
Addis Ababa (AFP) - More than 200 people were killed and over 100 children abducted by armed men from South Sudan in a cross-border raid into Ethiopia, the country's leader said.

Ethiopian officials blame Murle tribesmen from South Sudan for a series of deadly attacks on Ethiopian villages in the western Gambella region on Friday.

"The atrocities committed by an armed Murle tribe from South Sudan claimed the lives of 208," Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said on state television on Sunday evening, increasing the death toll from an earlier estimate of 140.

Hailemariam said "mothers and children" were among the dead and, "they also abducted 102 children."

The foreign ministry said over 2,000 livestock were also stolen.

The Murle, a tribe from South Sudan based in the eastern Jonglei region close to the Ethiopian border, often stage raids to steal cattle and abduct children but rarely on such a large or deadly scale.

"There had been abduction of children and raiding of cattle from Gambella through crossing the Ethiopian border. However, Friday's attack was massive" Hailemariam said.

"The Ethiopian defence force is taking measures against the attackers to free the abducted children without any precondition," he said, without specifying whether Ethiopian troops had crossed the border into South Sudan.

Friday's attacks targeted the Nuer tribe, one of the two main ethnic groups in South Sudan, who live on both sides of the border.

The western Ethiopian region of Gambella, which borders South Sudan, is also home to some 272,000 South Sudanese refugees who have fled the civil war that erupted in their country in December 2013.

The raid -- dubbed the "Gambella massacre" in the Ethiopian media -- reinforces long-standing fears that South Sudan's civil war since December 2013 would spill into Ethiopia.

The conflict has split South Sudan roughly along ethnic lines pitting the president's Dinka tribe against the rebel leader's Nuers. Ethiopia believes the raids are not linked to the ongoing conflict in South Sudan.

Located 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the South Sudanese border, Gambella is home to Ethiopian Nuers.

Local journalists have reported attackers carrying AK-47 assault rifles and killing anyone who resisted.
A survey has found that tens of thousands of voters, including Demi Moore and other celebrities, have mistakenly registered as members of a conservative minor political party in California in a mix-up over its name, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Los Angeles Times said that a telephone survey of 500 members of the American Independent Party found nearly 3 of 4 people did not realize they had enrolled in a political party that opposes abortion rights and same sex marriage and calls for building a fence along the U.S. border.

The newspaper said voters were confused by the use of the word "independent" in the party's name. In California, voters who do not want to register with any party must check a box on a registration form for "no party preference."

"I just blew it," Deborah Silva, 64, of Point Arena in Mendocino County, told the Times. "There were a number of choices. I just checked the box that said 'independent.' "

Of people surveyed in the Times poll, fewer than 4 percent could correctly identify their own registration as a member of the American Independent Party.

Read More: Donald Trump's Children Fail to Register in Time for NY Primary: "They Feel Very, Very Guilty"

Moore was among Hollywood celebrities with known Democratic leanings listed as members. She has contributed money to and campaigned for President Barack Obama. Her registration as an AIP member is wrong, a representative said.

"Demi Moore is not, nor has ever been, a member of the American Independent Party," the representative told the Times.

When Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, registered to vote in 2013, he selected the American Independent Party. A family spokesman said Schwarzenegger, 22, plans to change his registration.

According to the Secretary of State's Office, the party has about 472,000 members, or 2.7 percent of the statewide total.

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The Times reported that the mistaken registration could prevent people from casting votes in the June 7 presidential primary, which is considered California's most competitive in recent years. Voters affiliated with the American Independent Party will only be allowed to vote for candidates on the party's ballot, the Times reported. The Republicans will have a closed primary, while the Democrats will allow unaffiliated voters to participate.

The deadline to register or change voter registration status for the June 7 primary is May 23.

The American Independent Party's roots date to 1967 when George Wallace, a segregationist, launched his second run for the White House. Wallace, who had run as a Democrat in 1964, helped create the party and ran on its ticket. Today, that party exists only in California.

"We're not segregationist anymore," said Markham Robinson, who serves as chairman of the American Independent Party's executive committee. "What we are now is a conservative, constitutionalist party."

Some voters who mistakenly registered with the party said they found the state's official registration materials confusing.

The survey of members of the American Independent Party was conducted by telephone Feb. 9-11. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
By David Bailey (Reuters) - Luke Waid drives 20 miles each day to shower at a relative's place, hauls bottled water back to his Flint, Michigan, home and worries about his 2-year-old daughter's irritability. "I don't know if that is a product of her being exposed to high lead levels, or her just being a child," he said. "Im not sure." That uncertainty also presents a challenge to the lawyers who have enlisted as many as 1,800 residents, including Waid, as plaintiffs in lawsuits over contamination in the Flint's water supply. The problem began in April 2014 when the city, then under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, switched its water source to the Flint River from Lake Huron as a cost-saving measure, and corrosive river water caused lead to leach into the water supply. Flint switched back in October after tests showing elevated lead levels in the blood of some children became public. In spite of the international outcry and the well-known toxic effects of lead, proving Flint's contaminated water actually caused any particular injury will be far from straightforward, lawyers with expertise in lead litigation said. The difficulty in showing a causal link adds to other legal hurdles. State and city officials are challenging the cases, arguing they are protected by sovereign immunity, a legal doctrine that shields most government officials and agencies from liability for their official actions. That powerful defense already has kept many major plaintiffs firms away from Flint, since the water supply is government-run. In an effort to overcome these potential obstacles, plaintiffs' lawyers are pursuing several strategies to seek redress for victims: individual lawsuits, class actions and a victims' compensation fund. Plaintiffs' lawyers claim that the alleged government misconduct rose to the level of gross negligence or violated residents' constitutional rights, two exceptions to immunity. Some lawsuits also target private companies that performed work or tests on Flint's water system. The companies have denied responsibility. It should be relatively easy to show in court that residents were exposed to lead, in part because government officials have publicly acknowledged the water is tainted, said Delaware Law School Professor Jean Eggen. But exposure is not enough to prove damages, Eggen said. Lead injuries may not be apparent for years. In addition, injuries associated with lead poisoning - such as impaired brain development, reduced attention span and lower IQ - all have many causes. New York law firm Napoli & Shkolnik said it has hired a Washington lobbyist to persuade Congress to create a compensation fund for Flint. Such funds may be set up to allow injured parties to receive compensation with a lower burden of proof than applicants would face in court. Napoli partner Hunter Shkolnik envisions such a fund paying for medical monitoring immediately, and possibly leaving the question of damages for later, putting money into people's pockets relatively quickly. But Ken Feinberg, who oversaw victim compensation funds for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the 2010 BP Deep Horizon oil spill, is skeptical such an approach would work with Flint residents. "How long do you monitor them?" asked Feinberg. "If they are deemed injured, are they injured by the water or by other means, other sources?" The Napoli firm also is pursuing a class action in Michigan federal court. It said it has signed up some 800 clients and represents Waid in an individual lawsuit. Corey Stern, a plaintiffs lawyer at New York's Levy & Konigsberg, said that he had filed individual cases in state court in Michigan on behalf of more than 100 children. He said the complexity of proving lead exposure caused specific injuries makes these cases better suited to individual lawsuits than class actions. In 2013, a judge in Washington, D.C. ruled that a case over alleged lead contamination in the district's water supply would be unmanageable as a class action and should proceed as an individual lawsuit. The case is still pending. Lead litigation in the U.S. to date has mostly involved children who have eaten chips of lead-based paint, or inhaled lead dust in the air or soil. The main defendants have been paint and lead manufacturers as well as landlords of properties containing lead paint. The most clearcut cases involve children who develop serious learning disabilities or a measured drop in IQ within a few years of lead exposure. In 2008, for example, Stern's firm won an $8.5 million verdict against New York building owners on behalf of a 15-year-old boy who was first exposed to lead paint and dust eight years earlier. His lawyers showed that he subsequently began failing all of his subjects and was classified as learning disabled, even though he had performed satisfactorily in kindergarten and first grade. While the courts sort out the claims, residents like Waid and his daughter live with uncertainty. Though blood tests have shown she had elevated lead levels, the girl so far has no clear signs of injury - cold comfort for her father. "If we knew that this was just her being a child and she was never exposed to lead, I wouldn't be worried at all," Waid said.
Former JNTU professor and urban development expert Prof. Amitabh Kundu, along with his team visits the construction site of temporary secratariat at Velgapudi village in Guntur district on Sunday. (Photo: DECCAN CHRONICLE )

GUNTUR: A team of urban experts, led by former JNTU professor and urban development expert Prof. Amitabh Kundu, has objected to the use of fertile lands for the concrete buildings of Amaravati capital region.

Mr Kundu further objected to the centralisation of development in one area in the name of new capital. Mr Kundu, Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) professor in Urban Studies, Dr C. Ramachandraiah and others visited Venkatapalem, Mandadam, Uddandarayunipalem, Lingayapalem, Tallayapalem, Rayapudi, Tullur, temporary capital Velagapudi and other areas of the Amaravati capital region on Sunday.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Kundu supported the recommendations of the Sivaramakrishnan Co-mmittee for decentralising development and administration in the residuary AP state. He said that already there are a lot of regional inequalities in Andhra Pradesh and centralisation of development would further increase inequalities which is not good for the state.

He pointed out that government appoints committees seeking recommendations but puts their reports aside which is not good. He sought clarifications from the government about pending committee reports.

Mr Kundu said the city designs of Singapore, Japan and other foreign countries is not suitable for Indian climate. The geological conditions of AP and foreign countries are different, so following foreign models is ill advised.

About the committee to study social impact and flood menace, he said this act would have started in the first phase. He added that usually they will not oppose conversion of farmland into residential/commercial/industrial areas but the multi crop Jareebu lands are unique and hence these farmlands should not be converted and should be protected for future generations.

Dr Ramachandraiah said the temporary secretariat is being constructed at 6-8 feet height to save it from floods. He added that the new capital Amaravati would also be constructed at good height and feared that if the floods hit the Amaravati region, all the villages would be marooned.

He said that there is no use for the reconstituted plots if they are prone to floods. He alleged that the government is keeping farmers in the dark about the matter.

Dr Ramachandraiah asked the government to help farmers without misleading them in development, flood and other issues.
Berlin (AFP) - Borussia Dortmund have given the "all-clear" to star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for their German Cup semi-final at Hertha Berlin after the Gabon international limped out of training on Monday.

Aubameyang, who has scored 37 goals in all competitions for Dortmund this season, broke off the last five minutes of the morning's session clutching his right foot as Borussia prepare for Wednesday's semi-final at Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

Dortmund-based newspaper the Ruhr Nachrichten posted a video on Twitter of Aubameyang limping out of training, but the club later said he should be fit to play in Berlin.

Aubameyang is on an incredible goal-scoring run in the German Cup, having scored in each of his last seven cup games dating back to the start of last season.

He has netted in each of Dortmund's three cup matches so far this season and also scored in the 2015 final defeat to Wolfsburg, when Borussia lost 3-1 in Berlin.

The 26-year-old sat out Sunday's 3-0 Bundesliga win at home to Hamburg which kept Dortmund second in the table, seven points behind leaders Bayern Munich with four games left.
Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are reportedly in talks to star in a "Jumanji" remake.

According to Variety, the actors have been tapped to bring the 1995 family-friendly adventure film back to the big screen, about a boy who becomes trapped in a board game in 1969 and is released 26 years later.

The original starred Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Bonnie Hunt and Bebe Neuwirth.

The "Jumanji" casting would reunite the stars, who play alongside each other in "Central Intelligence," due outthis summer.

Shooting for the film is to start this August in Honolulu.
Pedernales (Ecuador) (AFP) - The death toll from Ecuador's earthquake was set to rise sharply after authorities warned that 1,700 people were still missing and anger gripped families of victims trapped in the rubble.

Three days after the powerful 7.8-magnitude quake struck Ecuador's Pacific coast in a zone popular with tourists, 480 people are known to have died, the government said Tuesday.

Sniffer dogs and mechanical diggers were busy at work in the wreckage of coastal towns such as Pedernales and Manta as the stench of rotting bodies grew stronger under the baking sun.

International rescuers and aid groups rushed to help victims as searchers dug for families trapped in the debris of homes, hotels and businesses.

"We have 2,000 people listed that are being looked for, but we have so far found 300," Deputy Interior Minister Diego Fuentes told reporters in the capital Quito.

Some 4,605 people were injured, according to the latest government figures.

In a glimmer of good news as he toured the affected areas, President Rafael Correa said that 54 people had been rescued alive from the rubble.

Still, hope of finding more victims alive was fading fast as the crucial three-day mark was reached late Tuesday.

Locals in devastated towns such as Manta -- population 253,000 -- started to lose patience.

"The rescue has been very slow and precious lives have been lost. We relatives have been waiting here since Saturday night," said Pedro Merro, who said his cousin was under the wreckage of a three-floor market in Manta.

Luis Felipe Navarro said he was sure there were people alive in the concrete and twisted metal of a building he owned -- one of around 800 structures toppled in the quake.

"I have received messages on my telephone. They say there are 10 of them in a cavity," he said. "But the rescue teams will not listen to me."

- 'Patience' -

"It is very hard but we are moving forward," Correa told AFP in Manta, where he handed out food and water in what resembled a war zone.

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Hundreds of emergency workers from Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, Spain and other countries were helping overwhelmed Ecuadorian officials.

Fears rose for thousands of people left homeless by the quake, prey to disease-bearing mosquitoes and dirty drinking water.

Firefighting captain Freddy Arca pointed to the ruins of a hotel in Manta as drills and jackhammers rattled around him.

"We know that there is a man, his wife and their two-month-old baby in there. And there may be up to nine other people," he said.

UNICEF warned that 150,000 children were affected by the disaster.

It said landslides were complicating rescue efforts in some areas, and some towns were without electricity.

The Spanish Red Cross estimated that up to 100,000 people would need assistance.

In Pedernales, some 180 kilometers north of Manta, a football pitch was serving as a makeshift morgue, medical center and distribution center.

But not everyone was able to get help.

"We came here to ask for food but they've already handed out the supplies," Gema Guillen, a mother of three, told AFP.

The family had lost their home in the quake and was now sleeping on the floor, she said.

US President Barack Obama called Correa Tuesday and told him the United States would do "all it can to support Ecuador's recovery," the White House said in a statement.

Ecuador's government said it had access to $600 million in emergency credit overall, but Correa said rebuilding will cost up to $3 billion and could take two or three years.

It was Ecuador's worst quake in nearly 40 years.

- Noises in the rubble -

In Manta, two young women with eyes red from crying wandered around near the ruined hotel on Tuesday.

"My brother Irvin is under there," said one, Samantha Herrera, 27. "The firefighters only arrived this morning. Ecuador is not prepared for such a catastrophe."

Rescuers said they could hear a noise from someone under the wreckage. Arca, the firefighting captain, ordered the skinniest members of his team to wriggle into a gap in the rubble.

The man came back up looking pale. Searching for survivors, he found two dead bodies.

"But we can still hear the noise," Arca said.
Quito (AFP) - The toll from the big earthquake in Ecuador rose on Sunday to 246 dead and 2,527 people injured, the country's vice president said.

The latest figures were given by Vice President Jorge Glas as he visited a devastated coastal area. Previously officials said Saturday's 7.8-magnitude quake killed 235 and injured 1,557.
As many as 240 projects worth USD 60 billion are in the pipeline to be formalised soon, says Nitin Gadkari. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: With India's unmatched potential on sea and river front, the government is determined to give a big push to 'blue revolution' which has potential to create over 20 million jobs, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said.

"India is on the brink of a 'blue revolution'. Its unmatched sea and river front remained untapped ever since Independence. Now the time is ripe to exploit it and with the Narendra Modi government committed to develop it, we are going to do things that will be beyond imagination," Gadkari said in an interview.

Enthused with the success of the maiden Maritime Summit with commitments worth USD 12 billion on the spot and another USD 60 billion in the pipeline, the minister said apart from the potential of 10 million jobs under Sagarmala, more than 10 million could be easily created in shipping, highways and other sectors.

"Creating jobs is our focus and immense employment opportunities are there in ports, roads and sectors like shipping. What I believe is that apart from 10 million potential jobs under Sagarmala, shipping, port, manufacturing are going to create another over 10 million jobs," said the Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Minister.

He said his government's faith to usher in revolutionary changes in the sector multiplied manifold after signing of business agreements worth over USD 12 billion in only two days during the Maritime Summit here on April 14 and 15.

"As many as 240 projects worth USD 60 billion are in the pipeline to be formalised soon," the minister said adding, all great civilisations of the world prospered around rivers and sea and at present also waterways play a crucial role in all the leading economies.

"India has unmatched over 7,500 km coastline and over 14,000 km of inland waterways. We are working towards leveraging the huge potential offered by our sea and river fronts," he said.

Waterways will not only become a dominant way of transport but is bound to bring down the high logistics costs, he said and added that plans were on the anvil to not only internally harness the potential but pacts are being signed with neighbouring nations like Bangladesh to tap this mode.

"We are going to set up eight new major ports in the country and are going to spend Rs 50,000 crore on three new ports only that include a greenfield port at Vadhavan, Maharashtra and phase one of it would be constructed at a cost of about Rs 9,167 crore," he said.

The other two are Colachel in Tamil Nadu and Sagar in West Bengal, he said. "Investors are welcome to come and join hands with us and we in turn would provide them level playing fields and sops," Gadkari said.
They say death can come in many forms, but in Mexico she is a woman with many names: La Nina Blanca (the white girl), La Flaquita (the skinny girl), La Dama Poderosa (the powerful woman) and Santisima Muerte (most holy saint of death). And then theres a name that doesnt hold any of this death appeal: Enriqueta Romero.

Now in her 70s, this diminutive but feisty former homemaker is actually one of the most unlikely religious crusaders around. She curses; she makes dramatic hand gestures; recently, to get some Mormons on her doorstep to beat it, the grandmother told them she was a stripper. And she can claim credit for spurring devotion to a saint who a decade ago was virtually unknown among even the religious. According to R. Andrew Chesnut, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint, 99 percent of the country had never heard of the saint a decade ago. Today, more than 5 million Mexican citizens  and many more worldwide  say they regularly pray to Santa Muerte. The whole thing started when Romero placed an altar to Saint Death outside her nondescript home in the rough Mexico City barrio of Morelos.

Enriqueta Romero Santa Muerte

Enriqueta Romero stands inside her personal Santa Muerte altar on the second floor of her home. Romero does not pray at the public altar in front of her house.

Source: Alex Washburn / OZY

Although Romero is now internationally recognized, its not like she is WhatsApping with the pope. She spends most days at home puttering about in an apron, and has lived in the same house her entire life. The altar started as an offshoot of a Day of the Dead celebration in 2001  Romero felt it was time for Santa Muerte. Almost 15 years later, theres a monthly rosary gathering attended by thousands outside her house. Romero has seen both incredible controversy and jaw-dropping surprise: Her beloved Santa Muerte is now the second most famous folk saint (the Virgin of Guadalupe is No. 1). She says she started praying to the saint when she was 12. She has just been with me my whole life, Romero says. Incredibly enough, Chesnut calls Santa Muerte the fastest-growing movement in the Americas, in terms of its religious competition for market share.

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Since her public debut, Santa Muerte has been attacked by the Mexican government and the Catholic Church. In 2009, the Mexican government destroyed 40 Santa Muerte shrines along the U.S.-Mexico border, citing links between the saint and drug cartels. The Catholic Church accuses the saint of links to anti-Catholic ideals. By now, a lot of Mexicans have heard something in their parish church equating Santa Muerte with satanism and human sacrifice, says Chesnut, adding that some of his relatives are too afraid to say her name.

Enriqueta Romero Santa Muerte

Enriqueta Romero admires a figurine she has just finished customizing into a Santa Muerte. She will use it for the public altar.

Source: Alex Washburn / OZY

Every morning, Romero prays in her personal altar upstairs and then works on the public altar in front of her house. The constant stream of flowers and candles must be rotated; fruit that is still edible, usually apples, is set aside as snacks for followers or the poor. There are tiles to mop, ashtrays to empty and glass to clean. Romero does this as her husband, Raymundo, takes up his usual post with a newspaper in their little shop  also a part of their home.

Other Latin American countries have saints of death, but Mexicos is the only female one. Santa Muertes relative newness means the rituals surrounding her are not yet set in stone. For example, its not uncommon for whole families to light individual cigarettes in front of Romeros home as they face the public altar and stand silently in prayer, letting the cigarettes burn down to the filter  a modern take on incense meant to appeal to the saints humanity, along with offerings of liquor, candy and marijuana. And Santa Muerte has a significant gay following. She sees your faith and not your face, says Romero. Hers is a fresh face, open for interpretation, even if that face is a bare skull topped with a crown.

Day in and day out, people arrive on foot, by bicycle or in cars. Some come with just their thoughts and prayers as an offering, while others labor under the burden of dramatic flower arrangements. At times, a line resembling that at a theme park, with whole families standing together, snakes from the neatly kept altar out into the street. Those that have come to know Romero over the years might pay their respects to her, and those with special worries may be invited inside to speak privately with the Dona of Death.

God does the miracles, says Romero. Santa Muerte just helps me out.

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By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The death toll from a raid carried out by South Sudanese gunmen in western Ethiopia has risen to 208 people and the assailants kidnapped 108 children, an Ethiopian official said on Sunday. The attack took place on Friday in the Horn of Africa nation's Gambela region which, alongside a neighbouring province, hosts more than 284,000 South Sudanese refugees who fled conflict in their country. By Sunday afternoon, the number had risen to "208 dead and 75 people wounded" from 140 a day earlier, government spokesman Getachew Reda told Reuters, adding the assailants had also abducted 108 children and taken 2,000 head of livestock. "Ethiopian Defence Forces are taking measures. They are closing in on the attackers," he said. Getachew did not give further details, but officials in Gambela said on Saturday Ethiopian troops had crossed the border in pursuit of the attackers. Cross-border cattle raids have occurred in the same area in the past, often involving Murle tribesmen from South Sudan's Jonglei and Upper Nile regions - areas awash with weapons that share borders with Ethiopia. Previous attacks, however, were smaller in scale. The gunmen are not believed to have links with South Sudanese government troops or rebel forces who fought the government in Juba in a civil war that ended with a peace deal signed last year. South Sudanese officials were not immediately available for comment. Under pressure from neighbouring states, the United States, the United Nations and other powers, South Sudan's feuding sides signed an initial peace deal in August and agreed to share out ministerial positions in January. (Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Elias Biryabarema and Stephen Powell)
Brussels (AFP) - The EU's top anti-trust chief Margrethe Vestager said Monday she was taking aim at Google's Android mobile phone platform in a potentially major setback for the Silicon Valley giant.

In a speech in Amsterdam, Vestager said EU regulators "need to be sure that big companies don't try to protect themselves by holding back innovation."

"That's why were looking closely at Googles contracts with phone makers and operators which use the Android operating system," she said.

The speech was the biggest signal yet that the European Union will file a formal statement of objections against Google after launching a probe into Android a year ago.

The case against Android would follow a similar one against Google's search engine in which the EU has already formally charged the company for abusing its dominance in Europe, where it controls about 90 percent of the market.

Android is by far the most used mobile operating system in the world and viewed as crucial to Google's future as customers increasingly rely on smartphones and tablets for their computing needs instead of traditional PCs.

In both cases, Google risks a fine of 10 percent of worldwide global sales for one year, which would reach about $7.4 billion for 2015.

In a historic case in 2013, the EU fined Microsoft 561 million euros ($634 million) for failing to offer users a choice of web browser.

Google in an email to AFP defended the Android system against accusations that it crowded out rivals.

"Anyone can use Android, with or without Google applications," said Google spokesman Mark Jansen.

"Hardware manufacturers and carriers can decide how to use Android and consumers have the last word about which apps they want to use on their devices," he said.

He added that company remained in discussion with the Vestager team.
Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - Europe is more scared of the migrant influx than of terrorism, a European rights monitor said in a report published on Monday.

In an annual report, Nils Muiznieks, human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, described 2015 as "a year of fear and insecurity" for the continent.

"In such an atmosphere, governments tend to neglect their human rights obligations and public opinion sometimes encourages this trend," he warned the 47-nation council, which is based in Strasbourg.

Muiznieks pointed to the impact on public mood from two terror attacks in Paris -- a January assault on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, followed by the coordinated bloodshed in November that killed 130 people.

But "even more widespread than fear of terrorism was a growing fear occasioned by continuing migrant inflows," he said, describing it as a "multi-faceted fear" which had affected many European countries.

"For some, the influx signalled the helplessness of individual governments and Europe as a whole to control borders.

"For others, the continuing arrivals and the attending strains exacerbated doubts about Europes ability to manage diversity and fed anti-Muslim prejudices, which were already widespread."

Muiznieks expressed concern over that fact that governments were focussed more on cutting welfare entitlements than integrating new arrivals.

"What is more, a growing trend in many countries augured huge problems in achieving integration in the future," he said.

The report also sounded the alarm over insecurity in eastern Ukraine, which had prompted the government in Kiev to seek exemption from certain rights obligations, and over media freedom in parts of eastern Europe, including Poland, and the Balkans.
Mysuru: Amidst a lot of opposition and threats from pro-Hindu activists, Vokkaliga girl Ashitha, now renamed Shaista, got married to her childhood friend, Shakeel on Sunday.

Both the bride and groom and their families hailing from Mandya, looked happy at the grand wedding reception which was held without any hitch under tight police security at Taj Convention hall near Bannimantap in Mysuru on Sunday evening. It was not just a wedding but a union of two communities, as friends and relatives of both families, dressed in their own style greeted the newly wed couple.

I feel good, very happy, Shaista told Deccan Chronicle, as she posed in a peach coloured lehanga and a maroon goongat, with rich jewellery in Muslim style. The groom, Shakeel, looked equally happy as he posed in a navy blue suit and white shirt. While the formal wedding was a private affair, the reception at Taj Convention hall drew attention with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes served.

Father of Shaista, Dr Narendra Babu said, I feel very happy as we are celebrating our daughters wedding. Interestingly, several poets and progressive thinkers including Prof K.S. Bhagwan, Gowri Lankesh, social activists including Vimala of Janavadi Mahila Sangha and others lined up to extend their support for the wedding.

More than 2000 people participated in the wedding with person carefully screened before they being allowed to enter the wedding venue. Intelligence SP Rajendraprasad and DCP NR constituency Umesh Ganapathi Sait supervised security arrangements.

Shaista, daughter of Dr Narendra Babu of Ashok Nagar in Mandya, has done her MBA in HR and MS in HR from England. Shakeel, son of Mukther (a rice and jaggery merchant), resident of Gandhi Nagar in Mandya has done his MBA in Marketing and looks after his fathers business.

He is the proprietor of Deccan Trading Corporation. Dr Narendra Babu and Mukther are friends for fifty years, Shaista and Shakeel were childhood friends too and had studied together from PU to MBA.
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. oil and gas major Chevron Corp has put all of its Myanmar gas block stakes up for sale, which at a combined likely valuation of $1.3 billion, would be the biggest deal involving Myanmar assets to date, financial sources familiar with the matter said. The sale, part of Chevron's efforts to preserve cash and retreat from non-core assets in the wake of sliding oil prices, is seen as setting the tone for future deals in a country that is opening up for business after historic elections last year. San Ramon, California-based Chevron is working with an U.S investment bank on the deal, the sources said, declining to be identified as the sale process has not been made public. Chevron, which has been operating in Myanmar for about two decades, declined to comment. It owns 28.3 percent of the Yadana and Sein gas fields operated by France's Total SA in the Andaman Sea, which mostly supplies Thai power plants and also has a stake in the pipeline company that transports the gas to the Thai border. Some of the gas is also supplied to Myanmar. In addition, it has a 99 percent stake in exploration Block A5 in the promising Rakhine Basin, an area where Woodside Petroleum has recently discovered gas. Chevron's net daily natural gas production in Myanmar last year averaged 117 million cubic feet. Chevron is also seeking buyers for its Asian geothermal energy blocks valued at about $3 billion, sources familiar with matter have said. (Reporting by Denny Thomas in Hong Kong and Anshuman Daga in Singapore; Additional reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - OneWeb Ltd, an internet-via-satellite venture backed by Richard Branson's Virgin Group and other high-profile companies, will build a factory to mass produce small satellites near NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sources involved in the agreement told Reuters. OneWeb plans an initial production run of 900 satellites to blanket the globe with high-speed internet access. The company has raised $500 million from Virgin, India's Bharti Enterprises, chipmaker Qualcomm, Hughes Network Systems, Intelsat, The Coca-Cola Co., and Mexicos Totalplay. An official announcement about the factory is scheduled for Tuesday morning at an industrial park adjacent to NASA's spaceport. A number of localities around the country had vied for the project. (Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Mary Milliken)
Miami (AFP) - Extreme weather events are expected to strike more often due to climate change, and a study published Monday detailed how a 2014 storm triggered a health crisis on the Solomon Islands.

The report in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine examined the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Ita, which drenched the capital, Honiara, with more than 24 inches (60 centimeters) of rain from April 2-4.

"This study based in the Pacific island region has implications for coastal communities worldwide," said Stephen Higgs, president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

The unusually intense storm caused rivers to overflow, flooding roads and sweeping away bridges and homes in the city of 64,000 people.

The storm killed 31 people and was deemed per capita to be the world's most deadly single event disaster of 2014, according to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters.

"This is the first study to catalog significant health impacts from our changing climate in the Pacific region," said lead author Eileen Natuzzi, a general surgeon and public health researcher at San Diego State University.

"The findings support the notion that this region is vulnerable not only to the well-documented rising sea levels associated with climate change, but also to more severe storms like this flood, which we witnessed as well as cyclones like Pam and Winston that have followed it."

The floods were particularly dangerous to children.

Twenty-one died in the floods -- most were children under 14 who were swept away -- and 10 more children died of diarrhea and related complications in the days to follow.

The storm broke water and sewer lines, and three of Honiara's nine health clinics were flooded.

One month after the storm, reports of infectious disease transmission reached a peak with 2,134 cases of flu-like illness and 3,876 cases of diarrhea, mostly among children under age five.

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Researchers still do not know what caused the disease outbreaks, because there was no detailed analysis of pathogens found in the drinking water in the weeks after the flood.

The study also found that 75 percent of Honiara's healthcare infrastructure was located in areas considered "vulnerable to destruction by a future flood event."

Furthermore, one in three people in Honiara live within 500 meters (yards) of a river or coastline.

"Our findings could help governments and those providing aid improve readiness and response in order to save lives," said Natuzzi.

Some strategies could include moving housing and hospitals away from flood-prone areas.

"We can't change the weather, but we can change the capacity of communities to cope with the aftermath of extreme weather events," Natuzzi said.
New York (AFP) - US energy giant ExxonMobil is facing an onslaught from environmentalists and some shareholders alleging it hid what it knew about the effects of fossil fuels on climate change.

In an ironic twist: among the opponents is the Rockefeller Family Fund, built on the fortune amassed by John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, which became Esso, then Exxon and then, in 1999, ExxonMobil.

The RFF met last January, in secret, in Manhattan with environmental nongovernmental groups "to establish in the public's mind that Exxon is a corrupt institution that has pushed humanity (and all creation) towards climate chaos and grave harm," according to an internal document on the meeting seen by AFP.

"We hosted a meeting with leading advocates to understand their thoughts on how to best respond to the outrageous conduct," Lee Wasserman, the director of RFF, told AFP.

They adopted a strategy to attack ExxonMobil on legal grounds, by convinci ng authorities to launch investigations and by filing lawsuits. In other words, replicating the tactics used against the tobacco industry in the 1990s.

"This is a conspiracy to deliberately misrepresent the company position and to tear down the company," Alan Jeffers, a spokesman for ExxonMobil, told AFP.

According to a person close to the situation who requested anonymity, certain members of the Rockefeller family have privately expressed opposition to the campaign against ExxonMobil.

Bill McKibben, founder of the NGO 350.org who participated in the January meeting, has pushed for investigations into whether ExxonMobil broke the law.

"We want everyone we can think of to know it broke every kind of moral law," McKibben said in an email.

The ecologist led the ultimately successful opposition against the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought Canadian oil sands production from Alberta to the US Gulf states.

The ExxonMobil critics accuse the oil company of having, since 1977, research showing that fossil-fuel energy has a harmful impact on climate, but that it kept the information to itself.

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Denouncing the critics charges as "inaccurate" and a "conspiracy", ExxonMobil insists that it had acknowledged the risks of climate change as soon as it was possible, that is, in the 2000s.

Accusing the Rockefeller organization of influencing the media and the authorities, the Texas firm has pledged to publicly defend its positions, although until now it has maintained a certain discretion about the subject.

The change in attitude is due to the power of the Rockefellers, who not only have the colossal financial means to contest ExxonMobil on all battlegrounds, but also the influence of their powerful family name.

- InsideClimate, Columbia probes -

The RFF has based its opposition on two separate investigations, by the InsideClimate News and the journalism school at Columbia University in New York, that found ExxonMobil knew in the 1970s that fossil fuels were a major source of climate change.

InsideClimate, like the Columbia school, received financing from the Rockefellers.

The RFF also criticizes ExxonMobil's support of think tanks "which helped create doubt about the profound risks associated with climate change."

That includes the lobbying group the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is financed by companies including ExxonMobil, Jeffers acknowledges. Cynthia Bergman, an executive at the oil group, is a member of ALEC's advisory council.

Since the probe revelations, a number of states have launched investigations into whether it lied about climate change. The state of New York, for example, has requested documents related to the allegations and a list of associations and NGOs financed by the company.

While Jeffers says the company is cooperating with these investigations, ExxonMobil is fighting a legal battle over an investigation launched by the US Virgin Islands as the group of Caribbean islands faces the threat of rising water levels blamed on climate change.

The activists and the RFF could score a first victory on May 25 if ExxonMobil shareholders approve a resolution requiring the company to disclose the impact of climate change on its business, a policy agreed at the climate summit in Paris last year.

A dozen shareholders, including the huge California state pension fund CalPERS, French bank BNP Paribas and insurer AXA, are backing approval of the measure.
New Delhi: The Home Ministry has refused to disclose make, model numbers and registration numbers of cars used by the President which display state emblem in place of license plates, saying it concerns national security and revealing such details might pose a threat to the first citizen.

The information denied by the Ministry seems to be available on social media platforms from unconfirmed sources.

One post on 'YouTube' claims the President uses "black Mercedes Benz S600 (W221) Pullman Guard. It is a custom-built, heavily armoured limousine which meets the requirements of the highest protection class VR6/VR7."

"The armour is designed to protect against military rifle shots and also offers resistance against fragments from hand grenades and explosives. The president's motorcade also consists of the former presidential car, a black Mercedes-Benz W140 armoured limousine, which is now being used as a spare vehicle," it claims.

The information is also available on various news platforms.

One curious RTI applicant Rakesh Agarwal approached President's Secretariat seeking to know the make, model numbers and registration numbers of all cars and vehicles which display the state emblem but not registration numbers.

He sought details about cars of Rashtrapati Bhawan, Vice President, Raj Bhawan and Raj Niwas of all states and union territories, maintained by the Protocol Division of the Ministry of External Affairs and also rules governing the use of emblem.

The application was transferred to Home Ministry which said information sought is exempted from disclosure under section 8(1)(a) and (g) of the RTI Act, 2005 as doing so would endanger the security of the State and life and physical safety of the President.

Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act allows disclosure of information, which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence.

Section 8(1)(g) of the Act allows withholding the information the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purposes.

Agreeing with the contention of the Ministry, Chief Information Commissioner Radha Krishna Mathur dismissed the petition.
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - A Kanye West fan sued the rapper and a company owned by Jay Z on Monday, saying they tricked people into subscribing to the music streaming service Tidal by fraudulently claiming it was the only way to buy West's album "The Life of Pablo." In a proposed class action lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court, Justin Baker-Rhett said he signed up for the $9.99 a month Tidal service after West tweeted on Feb. 15 that "Pablo" would never be sold anywhere else. But the California resident called the exclusivity promise a ploy to add millions of subscribers to a struggling Tidal, which Jay Z controls, and that West released the album 1-1/2 months later on Apple Music and Spotify, and on his own website. Baker-Rhett said the scheme tripled Tidal's subscriber base to 3 million, boosted its value by $60 million to $84 million, and threatened fans' privacy by forcing them to turn over credit card and other personal information. "You can't trick people into paying money and giving up personal information just because the company is struggling," Baker-Rhett's lawyer Jay Edelson said in a phone interview. Tidal and West did not immediately respond to email requests for comment. "Pablo" was streamed more than 250 million times within 10 days of release, the lawsuit said. West's tweet, included in the complaint, said: "My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal." Jay Z took control of Tidal in a roughly $56 million acquisition in March 2015. According to media reports, one of his businesses threatened last month to sue Tidal's former owners for inflating subscriber numbers, suggesting the price tag may have been too high. Tidal calls itself an "artist-owned" service backed by West, Jay Z's wife Beyonce, Deadmau5, Alicia Keys, Madonna, Chris Martin, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Jack White and many other artists. Monday's lawsuit seeks class action status for people who subscribed to Tidal from Feb. 15 to April 1 and streamed "Pablo" tracks within 24 hours. It seeks actual and punitive damages, and the deleting of subscribers' personal data. The case is Baker-Rhett v S. Carter Enterprises LLC et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 16-02013. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Grant McCool)
The Milan Furniture Fair -- which ran April 12-17, 2016 -- turns the Italian city into the capital of interior decoration and design when it rolls into town. This major industry event attracts big names from all walks of design, including fashion, which is increasingly branching out into the world of furniture design.

Bottega Veneta

The Italian fashion house has its own Home Collection. This brings the brand's signature fabric -- leather -- to a selection of new furniture creations, including the "Rudi" line, designed in partnership with Poltrona Frau. This features a club-style armchair, a footstool, a three-seat sofa and a chaise longue. The range also includes round tables with bronze frames -- available with an engraved patterned top -- as well as a suede- or leather-covered chest of drawers and a bronze lamp with a woven black leather shade.

La Perla

From high-end lingerie to furniture, La Perla has teamed up with designer Walter Terruso to create a sleekly sophisticated vanity table by the name of "Mia." The table's geometric design is set against a large round mirror, in a design made from glass, brass and pleated silk.

Marni

This fashion house was back in Milan with a new home collection for 2016. The range once again reflects the label's colorful style, with chairs, chaises longues, rocking chairs, plus small tables, lamps and vases made from metal, wood and hand-woven PVC cord.

Versace

Another Italian fashion house showing off furniture creations at the Milan Furniture Fair was Versace. This year brought the "Via Gesu Palazzo Empire," a blue sofa inspired by the "Palazzo Empire" bag and adorned with two Medusa heads. This brand symbol was also seen on its "Mesedia" chair, an aluminum outdoor seat available in five colors.

Armani Casa

Giorgio Armani's interiors brand presented a collection in line with its usual classy, sophisticated style. The "Luna" swivel table, for example, is equipped with a swivel system in satin-finished brass, a walnut frame surrounding the tabletop, and a pearl- and gold-colored fabric base finished with glossy Himalayan lacquer.
By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's bid to save his plan to spare millions of immigrants in the country illegally from deportation and give them work permits ran into trouble on Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court in a case testing the limits of presidential power. The court, with four conservative justices and four liberals, seemed divided along ideological lines during 90 minutes of arguments in the case brought by 26 states led by Texas that sued to block Obama's unilateral 2014 executive action that bypassed Congress. Liberal justices voiced support for Obama's action. The conservatives sounded skeptical. A 4-4 decision would be a grim defeat for Obama because it would uphold lower court rulings that threw out his action last year and doom his quest to revamp a U.S. immigration policy he calls broken. More than a thousand people in favor of Obama's action staged a raucous demonstration outside the white marble courthouse on a sunny spring day, with cheery mariachi music from a red-and-black clad band filling the air. A smaller group of Obama critics staged their own rally. In order to win, Obama would need the support of one of the court's conservatives, most likely Chief Justice John Roberts or Anthony Kennedy. But they both at times hit the Obama administration's lawyer, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, with tough questions. Kennedy expressed concern that Obama had exceeded its authority by having the executive branch set immigration policy rather than carry out laws passed by Congress. "It's as if the president is setting the policy and the Congress is executing it. That's just upside down," Kennedy said. A ruling is due by the end of June. Obama's plan was tailored to let roughly 4 million people - those who have lived illegally in the United States at least since 2010, have no criminal record and have children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents - get into a program that shields them from deportation and supplies work permits. Obama said the program, called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), was aimed at preventing families from being torn apart. The case comes during a heated presidential campaign in which the status of the roughly 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally, most of them from Mexico and other Latin American nations, has been a central theme. Immigration is also a global concern, with Europe now struggling with a flood of immigrants fleeing violence in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. The Republican-governed states that filed suit asserted that the Democratic president overstepped his authority provided in the Constitution while his administration said he merely provided guidance on how to enforce deportation laws. A 4-4 ruling is possible because there are only eight justices following February's death of conservative Antonin Scalia. POSSIBLE COMPROMISE One possible compromise outcome would be that the court could uphold Obama's plan in part while leaving some legal questions unresolved, including whether the government can provide work permits to eligible applicants. Obama would also win if the justices decide the states had no legitimate grounds to sue. Texas said it had "standing" to sue because it would be hurt by the additional costs it would incur by providing driver's licenses to those given legal status. Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted the "basic problem" that the government lacks the resources to deport everyone in the country illegally, meaning it must set priorities. "There are these people who are here to stay, no matter what," Ginsburg said. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized Texas' argument about the economic harm caused by Obama's action, saying millions of immigrants "are here in the shadows" and will affect the economy "whether we want (them) to or not." Verrilli said the federal government has regularly launched programs aimed at giving large groups of immigrants temporary legal status as part of its role establishing enforcement priorities due to limited resources. Asked by Roberts if the government has the power to allow all immigrants who are in the country illegally to stay, Verrilli said: "Definitely not." Shortly before the plan was to take effect, a federal judge in Texas blocked it after the states filed suit. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision in November. Obama's executive action arose from frustration within the White House and the immigrant community about a lack of action in politically polarized Washington to address the status of people living in the United States illegally. He took the action after House of Representatives Republicans killed bipartisan legislation, called the biggest overhaul of U.S. immigration laws in decades and providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, that was passed by the Senate in 2013. Obama, stifled by Republican lawmakers on many of his major legislative initiatives, has drawn Republican ire with his use of executive action to get around Congress on immigration policy and other matters including gun control and healthcare. (Additional reporting by Clarece Polke and Robert Iafolla)
Mary Kingsleys beloved father had just died. It was 1893, and the 31-year-old was the unmarried, childless heiress to a sizable estate. She couldve just sat back, relaxed and learned to play the harp, but she took a one-way passage to the Congo and became one of the centurys most renowned explorers instead.

Her friends, fellow explorers and even the clerk who sold her the ticket on a steamer to West Africa tried to talk her out of it. You will never come back, she recalled them saying in her memoir. But a couple of years later, she came back and became the respected author of two instant bestsellers entitled Travels in West Africa and The Congo and the Cameroon. She even discovered a fish and named it the Kingsley.



With every book, Kingsley proved to the world that a woman was just as capable as any man of trekking through jungles and pushing a canoe down unexplored rivers.

Exploring sub-Saharan Africa was not what most expected from rich spinsters in the late 19th century. The continent was already crawling with famed male adventurers like David Livingstone and H.M. Stanley, sent by the worlds largest powers to find exploitable resources. But Kingsley cared little for colonialism. The sooner the Crown Colony system is removed from the sphere of practical politics and put under a glass case in the South Kensington Museum, labeled Extinct, the better for everyone, she wrote. Instead of gold mines and the ivory trade, Kingsley was interested in the locals.

Gettyimages 50703954

Nineteenth-century British explorer Mary Kingsley (18621900) sitting in a canoe traveling on the Ogowe River.

Source: Life Collection/Getty

That humanity is what really set her apart, says journalist Adam Hochschild. His book Leopolds Ghost deals with colonial Congo, and he believes Kingsley was one of the first Europeans to write a book that treated natives as humans. While others saw natives as mere numbers, Kingsley went into the jungle with her own team of porters to document the natives lives as best she could. In the course of her travels in West Africa, this Victorian aristocrat  who refused to change her attire, despite the heat and humidity  documented the habits of polygamous and even cannibalistic tribes. And she didnt judge them  much.

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After all, she too was an outsider in the male-dominated world of exploration, and she sensed, even when she was repulsed by the local customs, that she had no right to impose her own. One immense old lady has a family of lively young crocodiles running over her, evidently playing like a lot of kittens, she wrote in Travels in West Africa. The heavy musky smell they give off is most repulsive, but we do not rise up and make a row about this, she wrote, noting how she felt wrong to intrude in these family scenes.

Also, Kingsley was used to being the odd one. Her father was a well-known biologist and travel writer, while her mother was handicapped and spent most of her life in her home. So while other ladies her age were learning how to sing and looking for a husband, she took care of her mother and devoured every book in her fathers library.

Like him, Kingsley was a brilliant writer with a delightfully British sense of humor that made her books extremely popular among Victorians back home. With every book Kingsley proved to the world that a woman was just as capable as any man of trekking through jungles and pushing a canoe down unexplored rivers. She once walked for miles with a broken ankle so as not to show weakness to her porters and wrote about the wonders of wearing Victorian fashions whilst trying to escape a hippo trap. Save for a good many bruises, here I was with the fullness of my skirt tucked under me, sitting on nine ebony spikes some twelve inches long, in comparative comfort.

To the 21st-century reader, her writings may seem far from enlightened. Kingsley was a racist because she regarded African peoples and societies as innately different from and inferior to her own, says Dane Kennedy, professor of British imperial history at Columbia University.

But she did oppose the role of missionaries and was a public supporter of the fight against slavery in the Congo after learning that the success of Belgian King Leopolds colony was fueled by forced labor and abject human-rights violations. Unlike Livingstone and Stanley, both of whom lived to see their 60s, this pioneering adventurer later enlisted as a nurse during the second Boer War in South Africa, where she died of typhoid fever at age 37 while attending to Boer prisoners of war.

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Mumbai: A Mumbai court on Monday issued a non-bailable warrant against liquor baron Vijay Mallya in connection with the money laundering probe in the over Rs 900-crore IDBI loan fraud case.

"A non-bailable warrant (NBW) has been issued," said special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court judge P R Bhavke on a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The 60-year-old industrialist, who is in the UK, has skipped three summons issued by ED. He had also sought time till May to depose before the officials.

Separately, the court also rejected Kingfisher Airlines' plea challenging ED's claim that Rs 430 crore was siphoned off from the Rs 900 crore loan taken from IDBI Bank and used it to acquire properties abroad.

Kingfisher termed ED's claim as "false and incorrect". On April 9, in reply to the last summons, Mallya had informed the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case here that he will be unable to depose personally as scheduled citing the ongoing legal proceedings going in the Supreme Court over settlement of loans.

Read: Mallya did not use Rs 430 crore to buy properties abroad: Kingfisher tells court

The agency had issued fresh summons in the first week of April to Mallya asking him to appear on April 9 after he sought two extensions from the earlier dates of March 18 and April 2 citing official reasons.

ED on Saturday had told the court that out of the over Rs 900 crore which Mallya's company had borrowed from IDBI for using it in Kingfisher Airlines, Rs 430 crore was diverted and spent on purchase of property abroad.
By Marcus E. Howard

(Reuters) - A former Virginia police officer pleaded guilty on Monday to involuntary manslaughter for shooting an unarmed man in a Washington suburb in August 2013, his attorney said.

Adam Torres, who had worked nine years as a Fairfax County police officer, faces a 12-month sentence in the death of John Geer, of Springfield, Virginia, as part of a plea deal reached just before the trial which was scheduled to begin on Monday, his lawyer John Carroll said in an interview.

Torres, 33, is due to be sentenced in June.

The county prosecutor's office and a county spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Torres was charged with second-degree murder following a special grand jury indictment in August. It marked the first time in the 75-year history of the Fairfax County Police Department that an officer had been charged for an on-duty shooting, the Washington Post reported.

The shooting of Geer, 46, led to protests against the police department and a U.S. Justice Department investigation.

Carroll said a Fairfax Circuit Court judge must grant final approval of the deal and could factor in the eight months Torres has been jailed.

"It's a difficult decision for anyone to decide on a sentence and a charge," said Carroll. "But one of the things Adam was most concerned about was that his actions caused Mr. Geer's children to be without a father."

Prosecutors questioned whether Torres was fit for duty, due to anger over marital problems, when he responded to a call about a domestic dispute at the townhouse Geer shared with his girlfriend and their two children. Police said Geer had threatened to use a weapon against them. A loaded holstered handgun was found near his body.

Police initially refused to release details about the shooting and for more than a year did not identify which officer had shot Geer.

Last April, Geer's family settled a wrongful death lawsuit against Fairfax County for $2.95 million. Three months later, Torres was fired by the police department.

(Reporting by Marcus E. Howard; Editing by Frank McGurty and Richard Chang)
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - At least four civilians were killed in the Somali capital on Monday when Islamist militants opened fire on government officials in a car and then a car bomb exploded, police and a spokesman for Mogadishu's mayor said. A spokesman for the al Shabaab group claimed responsibility. He told Reuters that several members of the security forces, rather than civilians, had been killed. The group's accounts of attacks often differ markedly from official reports. It regularly launches assaults in the capital, seeking to topple the Western-backed government. "We shot dead one of the militants who killed four civilians with an explosion and shooting in Mogadishu," police Major Nur Osman told Reuters, saying the security forces had prevented the car bomb doing more damage. The mayor's spokesman, Abdifatah Omar, said the first three civilians were killed when the militants attacked a government vehicle. The militants then fled their pursuers and their vehicle, packed with explosives, was detonated remotely, killing a fourth civilian, Omar said. Two militants escaped while one was shot dead, he said. (Reporting by Abdirahman Hussein, Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Police take charge on members of Patidar community during their "Jail Bharo Andolan" for demanding release of Hardik Patel in Mahesana. (Photo: PTI)

Rajkot: In wake of the violence that erupted in parts of Gujarat following a massive Patel community rally in Mehsana and Monday's 'Gujarat Bandh' call given by some Patel organisations, the state government deployed Rapid Action Force (RAF) in Ahmedabad, Mehsana and Surat and stepped up security in others places.

Gujarat Chief Secretary G R Aloria said five companies of Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been deployed in these three cities. In addition, 20 companies of the State Reserve Police (SRP) have also been posted across the state.

Read: Curfew in Gujarat after protestors, police clash; internet services banned

The Sardar Patel Group (SPG) as well as Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) gave a call for 'Gujarat Bandh' on Monday.

Earlier on Sunday, a massive rally of the Patel community demanding reservation and immediate release of their jailed leaders turned violent in Mehsana, as the angry mob resorted to arson and stone pelting. The violence quickly spread in other cities like Ahmedabad and Surat.

Curfew was clamped in Mehsana town in Gujarat and mobile internet service banned as the rally held by the Patel community demanding reservation and immediate release of their jailed leaders turned violent with two buildings being set ablaze and some police vehicles damaged.

Aloria claimed that police showed maximum restraint in controlling the violent mob at Mehsana.

"Police showed maximum restraint in terms of using force. Police have used water canons and tear gas shells to control the mob. Police have fired some rounds in the air. Due to such restraint, no life has been lost," said Aloria.

Meanwhile, in-charge state DGP P P Pandey also reviewed the security arrangements and ordered deployment of 20 companies of State Reserve Police (SRP) across the state.

"We have made all the arrangements to maintain law and order on Monday. Twenty companies of SRP have been deployed across Gujarat. I appeal the citizens to maintain peace," Pandey said.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday called up Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel, who apprised him on the prevailing situation there.

During the telephonic talk, the home minister took stock of the situation in Gujarats Mehsana district, where clashes broke out between protesters.

Read: Home Minister Rajnath Singh speaks to Gujarat CM on Mehsana clashes

Patel informed Singh about the steps being taken by the state government to control the situation and maintain peace, official sources said.

A godown of Food Corporation of India and a district office were set on fire, the police said, adding 15 persons have been detained in this connection.

Five policemen and two officials sustained injuries in the incidents, the police said while agitators claimed that 25 of their supporters were injured in police action.

In Surat, the police detained 435 Patel agitators who hit the streets after learning about incidents in Mehsana. Surat police commissioner Ashish Bhatia said the situation was under control.

Mobile Internet services were banned also in Surat and Rajkot as a precautionary measure, district authorities said.

In Mehsana, police used lathicharge and fired teargas shells on the agitators who allegedly engaged in stone-pelting.

Patel protesters had gathered at Modhera crossroad as part of the jail bharo agitation announced by the Sardar Patel Group (SPG), one of the prominent groups seeking OBC quota for the Patel community.

SPG chief Lalji Patel received a head injury during the faceoff with the police.

A blame-game erupted with the police claiming it resorted to lathicharge only after some started hurling stones at them while Patels alleged that agitators were targeted without any provocation.

Our protest was peaceful as announced earlier. However, the police suddenly hit me and some of our members when we were walking ahead of the procession. I was hit on head. You can see the blood on my face. We were beaten up without any provocation, said Mr Patel.
By Seyhmus Cakan and Orhan Coskun DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Four people were killed when rockets hit the southeastern Turkish town of Kilis near the Syrian border on Monday, crashing into an area near a hospital and hitting a teachers' dormitory, sources said. The rocket fire came from an area of Syria controlled by Islamic State, and the Turkish army retaliated with cross-border artillery fire against militant positions, Governor Suleyman Tapsiz told broadcaster TRT Haber. "These are coming from the Daesh area in Syria. Our army officials are locating their coordinates and destroying them with artillery fire," Tapsiz said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. Kilis, just across the border from an area of Syria controlled by Islamic State has been frequently hit by rocket fire in recent weeks, prompting the Turkish military to return fire on militant positions. Security sources said that five rockets landed in Kilis, including one in an area near the state hospital, and another striking the teachers' dormitory near the town center. Hospital sources confirmed that four people had died and eight were wounded. Turkey's Dogan news agency said a Syrian national was among the dead and a child among the injured. No one was immediately able to confirm whether the rockets were fired from Syria. Last week more than 20 people were wounded in three straight days of rocket salvoes towards the town, where an estimated 110,000 Syrian refugees are housed. Separately, Dogan reported that the Turkish military fired artillery into Syria after a mortar round landed near an army outpost in the southern province of Hatay. Following last week's attacks Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the military was conducting a "decisive battle" to protect citizens from a "circle of fire". Turkey is facing several security threats. As part of a U.S.-led coalition, it is fighting Islamic State in neighboring Syria and Iraq as well as Kurdish militants in its own southeast, where a 2-1/2-year ceasefire collapsed last July, triggering the worst violence since the 1990s. (Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Angus MacSwan)
Istanbul (AFP) - Four rockets fired by jihadists in Syria slammed into the southern Turkish town of Kilis on Monday, killing four Syrians including three children in the latest deadly cross-border strike, officials said.

Kilis -- the only town in Turkey where refugees from the war in Syria now outnumber Turkish locals -- has been repeatedly hit by rocket fire from areas in Syria controlled by Islamic State (IS) jihadists in recent weeks.

"Four Syrians living in Kilis, including three children were killed," the Kilis governor's office said in a statement.

Five Syrian children and one Turkish citizen were also wounded by the rocket fire which hit the town centre in a two-hour period from 1130 to 1330 GMT.

The three children were killed when a rocket ripped through a three-storey building where nine Syrian families had been living, helped by a local association, state-run news agency Anatolia said.

All three children had lost their fathers in the civil war and had come to Turkey with their mothers around two years ago.

"What we experienced is something very painful. The children's fathers were martyred in the war. What they needed is kindness," Abdulgani Sevang of the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Association, which had been helping the families, told Anatolia.

The other fatality caused by the Katyusha-type rockets was a Syrian shepherd who was tending his flock close to a school that was hit, the Dogan news agency said.

Ten of his sheep were killed while a 14-year-old Turkish schoolboy was also wounded.

The fire was confirmed to have come from an area in Syria controlled by IS, Dogan added.

Turkish armed forces hit back by firing mortar shells at IS targets inside Syria, the report said.

- 'Five years of kindness' -

At least 10 people have now been killed so far in strikes on Kilis from Syria but this was the heaviest toll recorded so far in a single day.

Two people were killed there last week by IS rocket fire from Syria, prompting protests in the town over the lack of security.

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Turkey's powerful intelligence chief Hakan Fidan made a rare public visit to Kilis last week while Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also vowed to protect the town.

Turkish officials have repeatedly lauded the hospitality of people in Kilis towards Syrians as an example of how Turks are hosting the 2.7 million Syrians who have fled their country's civil war to Turkey.

"Kilis for the last five years has shown one of the best examples of compassion, hospitality and mercy," Kilis regional governor Suleyman Tapsiz told Anatolia.

"This will still continue be shown after this."

He emphasised the return fire by the Turkish army was serious and aimed at destroying the launch sites of IS as identified by the authorities.

"Everyone must be sure they are completely destroyed by the armed forces."

Neither IS nor the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front are included in a truce brokered by the United States and Russia that came into force on February 27.

Washington has applauded Turkey's role in the anti-IS coalition but US officials on occasion have urged Ankara to do more.

In mid-February, Turkish artillery also shelled targets of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) inside Syria but there have been no reports of any further such fire since the ceasefire.
CAIRO (Reuters) - France's President Francois Hollande said on Monday he was worried that Syrian peace talks could collapse, urging key players in the conflict to exert pressure to boost prospects of a securing political transition. "We have the most serious concerns that the negotiations could get bogged down if not collapse," Hollande said during a state-visit to Egypt. "We must do everything so that the truce remains and that all the stakeholders exert the necessary pressure so that the transition has prospects." (Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; writing by John Irish; editing by John Stonestreet)
Cairo (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande discussed economic and cultural ties in Egypt Monday, a day after he arrived to a lavish welcome quickly overshadowed by his host's controversial human rights record.

Hollande, who is visiting Cairo as part of a regional tour, attended a business forum with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, with both countries hoping to boost trade and investments.

Allegations of human rights abuses under Sisi's government dominated a joint news conference on Sunday, with Hollande insisting that respecting rights was not a hindrance to fighting "terrorism".

But Egypt -- the most populous Arab country -- is seen as a cornerstone of regional security as well as a key trade partner for France, a point Hollande raised at the business forum.

"Trade, growth and investment are of course at stake, but also security and stability and development, not only in Egypt but throughout the region," he said.

"France is the sixth largest foreign investor in Egypt," he added, addressing French and Egyptian business leaders and officials.

Sisi, in his speech, said Cairo was "working seriously to create an attractive environment for foreign investors", adding that trade between the two countries was 2.58 billion euros ($2.9 billion) last year.

The two leaders on Sunday oversaw the signing of 18 economic memorandums of understanding, and 1.2 billion euros in financing for an extension of Cairo's metro system.

The deals included financing for a wind farm and a solar power plant.

Officials travelling with Hollande said new agreements which could include defence contracts were expected on Monday.

- 'Security and development' -

Egypt has proved to be a lucrative market for French military hardware.

It was the first foreign country to buy French-made Rafale warplanes, and also bought two Mistral helicopter carriers.

Hollande revisited the topic of human rights on Monday, saying "France has principles and values".

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"But we also want to ensure security and development," he said, referring to jihadist attacks in Egypt and the region.

On Sunday, Hollande said he had raised the case of Italian student Giulio Regeni, whose body was found covered in torture marks in February in Cairo, more than a week after his disappearance.

He said he also brought up the case of Eric Lang, a French teacher who was murdered in an Egyptian jail in 2013.

On Monday, Hollande, during a speech at the French embassy, sought to reassure expatriates in Egypt.

"I know how security issues concern you, I know your concern for one of our nationals who was killed in circumstances that remain unclear," he said referring to Lang.

"In Europe there is also the question of resolving the (case) of the young Italian," he said, referring to Regeni.

Since the overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by the military then led by Sisi, police have waged a bloody crackdown on Islamists that has killed more than 1,000 protesters.

The crackdown has spread to secular and leftwing dissidents who had supported Morsi's overthrow but then turned on Sisi.

Meanwhile, jihadists have mounted an insurgency based in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen.

The Islamic State group's Egypt affiliate has also claimed responsibility for bombing a plane carrying Russian holidaymakers over Sinai last October, killing all 224 people on board.

Sisi, who won a presidential election in 2014, has made his country a key player in the fight against IS, which a US-led coalition is battling in Iraq and Syria.

After his Cairo trip, Hollande will on Tuesday visit Jordan's Prince Hassan air base, where French aircraft taking part in the coalition battling IS in Syria and Iraq are stationed.
Los Angeles (AFP) - Born in Cuba to African slaves, Rafael Padilla battled racism to become the toast of bourgeois Paris, feted by the rich and powerful for his performances as "Chocolat the clown," France's first black celebrity.

Almost a century after he was laid to rest in a mass grave in the French capital, his largely forgotten story is being told in the North American premiere on Monday of Roschdy Zem's "Chocolat."

It is a bold choice to open COLCOA, the world's largest festival of French film, as it challenges audiences to consider whether Hollywood's notorious diversity problem is also an issue in France.

The US film industry has been facing a very public backlash over its lack of prominent ethnic minority stars, exemplified by February's Oscars, which featured no black nominees for acting awards for the second year running.

In marked contrast, a record number of ethnic minorities competed in major categories at France's own annual industry prizegiving, the Cesars, this year.

Underlining America's diversity problem, the Center for African-American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles published a damning "Hollywood Diversity Report 2016" in February.

It found that ethnic minorites claimed just 12.9 percent of lead roles in 163 films released in 2014, down from 16.7 percent the year before and 15.1 percent in 2012.

But minority filmmakers and actors involved in features being shown at the nine-day COLCOA festival in Los Angeles believe the Cesars' relative diversity may be masking the true situation in French film.

- Taboo -

"Chocolat" is led by rising star Omar Sy, the first Frenchman of African descent to win a best actor Cesar for his role in 2011's "The Intouchables."

Sy has managed to parlay his popularity in the francophone world into a Hollywood career, first in sci-fi adventure "X-Men: Days of Future Past" in 2014 and then with a role in 2015 dinosaur blockbuster "Jurassic World."

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The 38-year-old points to Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, Dwayne Johnson and other ethnic minority actors who have been able to make it big despite the bleak picture outlined by UCLA's diversity report.

Non-white actors have traditionally been denied leading roles in certain genres, like romantic comedy and superhero movies, but Sy says studios producing global blockbusters, at least, are increasingly trying "to pluck people from all areas of the world."

Shot on a budget of 18.5 million euros ($20 million), "Chocolat" has been lauded by critics for shining a light on a subject which is more taboo in French society than in Hollywood.

A review in the Hollywood Reporter said the film deserved "plenty of credit for using this kind of commercial vehicle to look French racism in the face and call it what it is."

In France it is forbidden by law even to collect statistics referring to "racial or ethnic origin," so any discussion of diversity is necessarily anecdotal, but Sy suspects the problem is as big as in Hollywood.

"We have a track record of actors and directors from diverse backgrounds being given awards but if you look at production as a whole, they are not there," Sy told AFP at COLCOA.

- Death threats -

"Chocolat" writer and director Zem felt the problem acutely when casting around for big names to bolster his film, and only Sy emerged as a credible choice.

"I needed a recognized actor of color and there was only one name in the frame," he told AFP.

COLCOA's focus on diversity is evident in its world cinema section, which hosts two of the most talked-about films in Muslim countries.

Directors and producers across the world protested against Morocco's ban of Nabil Ayouch's French-Moroccan drama "Much Loved," a candid take on prostitution which earned its lead actress Loubna Abidar death threats.

Ayouch says that even when minorities get prominent roles in French cinema, it is often just to typecast them, to play to stereotypes that serve as crude plot devices, reinforcing prejudice.

"If we want to present a son-in-law to parents, we will make a joke out of it by making him black or Arab," he says, referring to last year's comedy "Serial (Bad) Weddings."

"A cop will be black or Arab if he lives in the housing projects."

Mohamed Hamidi, whose comedy "One Man and his Cow" tells the story of an Algerian farmer dreaming of winning a Paris agricultural show, believes the status of minorities in French cinema is improving, however.

His film, he says, follows a strong slate of recent French features led by black or North African actors, including "Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra" (2002), "Welcome to the Sticks" (2008), and "The Intouchables."

"You only have to look at the big successes of the last 20 years... I think the French are largely there," he says.
Tbilisi (AFP) - Georgia has arrested three of its nationals and three citizens of Armenia for trying to sell the radioactive substance uranium-238, the ex-Soviet country's security services said Monday.

"They were planning to sell the nuclear material, the uranium (U238) for $200 million in Tbilisi," Georgia's State Security Agency said in a statement.

"They have been detained," the statement said, adding that a court had ruled all six suspects be remanded in pre-trial detention.

The statement said an unspecified amount of the substance was found stored in a container in the home of one of the suspects. The interior ministry declined to provide further details.

If charged and found guilty, the suspects face up to 10 years in prison.

Uranium-238 -- the most common isotope of natural uranium -- cannot undergo nuclear chain-reactions, but can be used for the production of a fissile substance, plutonium-239.

The case highlighted concerns that unsecured nuclear materials across the former Soviet Union could be sold to violent extremists.

Over the past five years, Georgia and Armenia have reported numerous cases of their citizens trying to sell radioactive substances.

In 2012, Armenia foiled a deal to sell radioactive strontium-90. In 2010, Georgia thwarted sale of another radioactive substance, caesium-137.

Also in 2010, Georgian police arrested two Armenian men accused of smuggling 18 grammes (0.6 ounces) of highly enriched uranium from Armenia to Georgia and trying to sell it to an undercover agent posing as an Islamist extremist.
Hyderabad: The Telangana state government is on a loan mobilisation spree right at the beginning of the new financial year. It has approached the Reserve Bank of India for the purpose and secured approval to raise Rs 4,000 crore through auction of bonds in the first quarter (April-June).

The state government is under pressure to raise funds for irrigation projects, water grid, 2BHK housing and other schemes. The RBI has lined up auction of bonds in four phases to raise Rs 4,000 crore with Rs 1,000 crore in each phase.

The auction will be conducted on April 18, April 26, May 10 and June 14.

The state government had presented a Rs 1.30 lakh crore budget for the year which mentioned that the state would need to borrow Rs23,467 crore.

The Centre had recently relaxed fiscal responsibility norms for the state by allowing it to secure loans up to 3.5 per cent of the gross state domestic product against 3 per cent earlier. This followed recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission which categorised Telangana as a revenue-surplus state along with Gujarat.

This has enabled the TS government to secure an additional Rs 3,500 crore loans this year. The government wants to utilise this opportunity to the maximum and meet 100 per cent targets on loans this year to ensure that there is no dearth of funds for its flagship programmes.

The finance department has devised a strategy to meet 100 per cent loan targets this year. Auction of bonds through RBI will remain the major source of loan mobilisation. For this reason, we have approached the RBI well in advance and secured approval to raise `4,000 crore through sale of bonds within three months, said a finance official.

Apart from budgetary provision of Rs 23,467 crore loan, the TS government has also stepped up efforts to secure loans from World Bank, Japan International Coopera-tion Agency, BRICS Bank, China and Rabobank, Netherlands.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao took up a massive redesigning of irrigation projects which will involve spending of over Rs 1 lakh crore in four years for which Rs 25,000 crore is being allotted every year starting this year. With almost half of the plan expenditure in the budget allotted for irrigation projects, the government has became heavily dependent on loans.
Berlin (AFP) - As Germany seeks to integrate over one million refugees and migrants who arrived last year, one Berlin non-profit group argues that the first step is simple: "Start with a Friend".

That message is the name of the small but fast-growing organisation which teams up newcomers who fled war and misery with local volunteers who can lend them a hand as they start their new lives.

"At our first meeting, there were 10 people," said its founder Franziska Birnbach. "And then, when more and more people arrived in Germany... last year, we were literally inundated with offers (from volunteers), and it hasn't stopped since."

The concept mirrors language-study "tandem" partnerships between locals and foreigners, except that the emphasis is beyond swapping vocabulary and grammar tips.

In Start with a Friend, the local volunteers also help migrants find internships, jobs or apartments, or to navigate the bureaucratic thicket of German asylum procedures.

The aim is to also help them get to know Germany better and, in an exchange of equals, build relationships that are mutually rewarding and long-lasting.

Last year the group facilitated some 200 partnerships, and it aims for more than 1,000 this year.

Such has been its success that Birnbach, 27, and her project partner Sarah Rosenthal, 31, have now left their jobs to devote themselves full-time to "Start with a Friend".

The group now has seven coordinators and has branched out from Berlin to the cities of Cologne and Freiburg, with plans to also launch soon in Hamburg, Munich and Dresden.

- 'I have everything' -

In the cosy kitchen of a central Berlin apartment, Nina Winzen, 27, is chatting and cooking with her new Syrian friend Ehab Masood, 26, as "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" by British pop band The Korgis is playing.

"When I met Nina, I asked her: why are you doing this for me?" said Masood, speaking in the German he has learnt since arriving in Berlin more than one year ago. "She said: 'I have everything in Germany.'"

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Winzen added: "Here we grow up with such a privileged background, we have so much. And, parallel to that, people arrive with nothing and are trying to build a new life."

It seemed only logical to her to get involved in the programme, she said.

"We speak a lot about Syria," said Winzen. "We hear about it everyday, we see images on television. But to have direct contact with someone who is actually from there opens up a whole new perspective.

"For me, this exchange is a real enrichment, not only because of what I bring to Ehab, but also because of the things he teaches me."

- 'This can be done' -

The project in people-to-people cultural bridge building comes as Germany takes a breather from last year's mass influx and searches for practical ways to turn into reality Chancellor Angela Merkel's motto of "we can do it".

Merkel's coalition government last Thursday approved a package of measures governing the integration of refugees, their rights and duties, which she labelled "a first in the history" of post-war Germany.

"This can be done," agreed Winzen, insisting however that "this will only be possible together" and "if everybody plays their part".

Merkel's liberal refugee policy has drawn heavy fire from within her own conservative camp and fuelled the rise of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany party.

Rosenthal, of Start with a Friend, said that "this uncertainty which many people feel and that leads some to vote for extreme parties is very much related to a lack of knowledge about new arrivals".

She deplored a growing trend toward generalisations about migrants, especially in the wake of sexual and other attacks by mostly North African men against hundreds of women in Cologne on New Years Eve.

Rosenthal said she hopes groups like hers will help Germans and, more broadly, Europeans "realise that 'I don't have to be afraid'" and understand that a migrant "is a person who is completely normal, like me, who wants to take care of his family and build a future for them".

In short, she said, people will understand that a migrant can be no more and no less than "my new neighbour".
Jan Bohmermann, the comedian at the center of a freedom of expression debate in Germany, has announced he will not return to TV for several weeks.

The beleaguered satirist, who has been the focus of a media and legal frenzy since he read out a "slander poem" mocking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on live TV, said he would take a broadcast break until May 12.

Bohmermann made the decision, he told his fans on Facebook, so that "the public and the internet can return to focusing on the important things in life, like the refugee crisis [and] cat videos." He added he would spend his break outside Germany, taking the time to study "freedom of the press and freedom of art in greater detail" while traveling through North Korea.

That final line was a not-so-subtle dig at the German government and Chancellor Angela Merkel, who last week said Germany would allow the Turkish president to pursue criminal charges against Bohmermann under an obscure German law that makes it illegal to insult a foreign head of state. If found guilty, Bohmermann could face up to five years in prison.

Merkel has said her government will scrap the relevant law - paragraph 103 of the Criminal Code - by the end of her current term in office, but that won't help Bohmermann.

Read More: Germany Lets Turkey File Criminal Charges Against TV Comedian Over "Slander Poem"

The decision has been one of the most unpopular of Merkel's political career. A poll taken over the weekend by German public broadcaster ARD found 65 percent of Germans disagreed with the Chancellor and only 28 percent supported her. Only 10 percent of respondents said Bohmermann should be prosecuted. An online petition in support of the comedian has received more than 230,000 signatures.

Critics say Merkel is caving in to pressure from Turkey so as not to sabotage a deal with Ankara on the immigrant crisis. The German leader has backed a plan whereby the European Union will pay Turkey $6 billion in aid, along with other political concessions, in exchange for Turkey taking back Syrian refugees from Europe. The deal is aimed at stemming the flood of refugees coming into Europe.

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Bohmermann, 35, and his family remain under police protection in Cologne, where he lives.

The case centers around a poem the comedian read out on his weekly news satire show, Neo Magazine Royale, on March 31. In it, he mocked President Erdogan for his authoritarian leadership, saying the Turkish leader, among other things, enjoyed sex with various farm animals while abusing religious minorities. Bohmermann prefaced his poem with a disclaimer saying he was about to illustrate the boundaries of freedom of speech and satire. The skit was in response to Erdogan calling for a much tamer satire of him, from another German comedy show, to be taken off the internet.

ZDF, the German network that airs Neo Magazine Royale, took the offending poem off the web amid the controversy but the channel says it "respects" Bohmermann and will support him in any legal defense against the Turkish government. The head of the network said deleting the show from its online video service was the easiest way to deal with public pressure while continuing to support the comedian.

Read More: Germany in Free Speech Debate Over Satire Show's "Slander Poem" Criticizing Turkish President
Berlin (AFP) - Germany's right-wing populist AfD party drew heavy fire Monday after two of its leaders labelled Islam incompatible with the country's values and constitution.

The three-year-old Alternative for Germany party, which harshly opposes Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal refugee policy, plans to adopt an anti-Islamic manifesto at a conference this month.

The chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany Aiman Mazyek charged that "the AfD is riding a wave of Islamophobia".

"It is the first time since Hitler's Germany that there is a party which discredits and existentially threatens an entire religious community," he told public broadcaster NDR.

The opposition Greens' senior lawmaker Konstantin von Notz accused the AfD of trying to "deliberately turn Islam into a bogeyman to capture voters".

They were reacting to AfD deputy leader and member of the European parliament Beatrix von Storch who had said that "Islam is a political ideology that is incompatible with the German constitution".

She had also said her party would call for a ban on Islamic symbols such as minarets on mosques, muezzins' calls to prayer and full-face veils, speaking to newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

The anti-immigrant AfD made strong gains in three regional elections last month, profiting from public fears over an influx of more than one million migrants and refugees who arrived last year.

Another AfD deputy leader, Alexander Gauland, has warned of an "Islamisation of Germany" and said that "Islam is not a religion like Catholic or Protestant Christianity but intellectually always associated with the takeover of the state".

The secretary general of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, warned that such statements are "contrary to European values".

"It is right and necessary to have a debate about important issues like integration and education, but to depict Islam as a threat to our society is wrong and hurtful to millions of European Muslims," he said in a statement.

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"We need to strengthen the respect for common values in Europe, not to create new divisions in society."

Merkel's top spokesman Steffen Seibert reiterated Monday the government's often-stated position that "Islam is now, without doubt, a part of Germany".

Germany is home to four million Muslims, and many of the country's most recent arrivals adhere to the faith.
If you're one of LinkedIn's 414 million members, you may think it's enough that you've joined the site, set up your profile page and started connecting with contacts. But there's more than one way to go about these basics, and a strategic approach can help you maximize the value of your LinkedIn membership.

It's true that it's crucial to avoid misusing the site, as making snafus on social media can cost you a job. But you also need to focus on how to do it right. To that end, how you go about building your network can make a big difference in how powerful that network is in helping you reach your career goals.

[Read: Are You Making These 8 Embarrassing Mistakes on LinkedIn?]

-- Network with intention. When joining LinkedIn, it makes sense that one of the first things people like to do is start linking with others on the site -- often as many as possible. After sending and accepting invitations to connect with friends, former colleagues and other personal contacts and acquaintances, it's tempting to go for the low-hanging fruit of padding out your network with people you don't really know and aren't likely to leverage in the future. The site makes this easy by feeding you an unending scroll of "People You May Know," based on your network activities and user profile data. Yet while some of these recommendations may indeed be actual contacts of yours, many will not be. There are certainly reasons you may want to connect outside of your existing network, and that's one of the reasons to use social media. But not every potential contact is equally powerful for your job search and ultimate career goals. Before randomly sending and accepting requests, regardless of the source, think about what your purpose is for using the site and make sure you're building your network with that purpose in mind.

[Read: 7 Ways to Advance Your Career With Social Media.]

-- Think beyond the numbers. If your goal is simply to amass a large number of links and receive the coveted "500+ connections" logo on your profile page without any strategy behind that mission, you might want to rethink it. Collecting contacts for the sake of having more contacts isn't necessarily a smart approach. While any contact has the potential to lead to a future opportunity, some are more likely to become strong professional connections who will be involved participants in your network. With that in mind, take a more thoughtful and deliberate approach to building your base, selecting connections who have the potential to help you reach your career goals.

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-- Vet potential contacts. How do you know which types of contacts may be more valuable in the future? One way to determine this is to communicate upfront with anyone you're considering connecting with to ensure that they're willing to actively network with you. There's no need to rush to reach a certain number of contacts, since the quality of your contacts is in many ways more important than the quantity. Take your time to vet each request that you receive from people you don't know on the site before blindly accepting invitations. You might consider asking unfamiliar people who contact you to provide a convincing reason why they want to connect. Were you just a name that popped up on a list of third-level connections, or did they contact you with a specific intention related to your professional background? If any prospective contacts don't pass your screen, then you might want to skip those connections in favor of others that seem more promising for future collaboration.

[Read: The 10 Best Websites to Find Jobs.]

-- Target "pure" connections. While it may take you longer going this route to build up to having a large number of connections on the site, vetting your contacts first can help you develop a list of "pure" contacts, meaning people with whom you have authentic connections. For a number of reasons, pure contacts are more valuable than those with whom you share no real connection. You'll likely feel more comfortable connecting to any of your pure contacts -- whether to ask for help or to offer your help -- since you have real relationships with them that you've communicated about in advance. Also, if one of your connections requests an introduction to another connection, you'll feel more confident doing so because you'll know each individual personally. Targeting pure connections offers a powerful, reliable strategy that can assist you in your career development -- and it can be equally reliable to anyone who wants to plug into your LinkedIn network.

When you're more intentional about creating and growing your circle of contacts on LinkedIn, you become a power user. A strategic approach to building your network will help you get much more out of this professional social media site during your job search, potentially opening the doors to your next opportunity and beyond.
HBO's Girls has begun its farewell.

On Monday, the Lena Dunham-created and -starring series had the first table read for its sixth and final season, just hours after the show's fifth-season finale aired on HBO. "We read the first four scripts and it was very bittersweet," co-showrunner Jenni Konner tells The Hollywood Reporter. "It was this beautiful thing and everyone's feeling really good about this season. So I think we're all ready to end it. It was sort of sad and we took a picture because we were like, 'This is the beginning of the end.'"

But Konner and the rest of the Girls team have been preparing for the idea that the show would end with its sixth season for the past year, as they filmed the fifth season. And knowing the end was near informed the entire penultimate set of episodes, including its finale, Konner says.

The tenth and final episode of Girls' fifth season featured an epic fight between the equally volatile Jessa (Jemima Kirke) and Adam (Adam Driver), Hannah (Dunham) returning to storytelling for the first time since she quit after leaving the Iowa Writers' Workshop in season four and Marnie (Allison Williams) and Ray (Alex Karpovsky) continuing their relationship as they figured out how to deal with Marnie's ex-husband Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as he continues to be her musical partner.

Read More: Penultimate 'Girls' Season Ends With Fighting and Reuniting

Indeed, Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) will continue to be part of Marnie's life, in a professional sense, Konner says. The Girls' co-showrunner also talked to THR about what's next for Hannah and Marnie in their respective love lives, how Shoshanna's experience in Japan will affect her now that she's returned to New York and, after a season with memorable returns from Charlie (Christopher Abbott) and Tally (Jenny Slate), whether the sixth season will feature more blasts from the past.

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It seems like Hannah's really getting things together in this episode - she's running at the beginning and returning to storytelling - what prompted that? How much of that was due to her breaking up with Fran (Jake Lacy) and seeing Tally and finding out about Jessa and Adam?

I think it's all of it. I think she got kind of broken by everybody, and I think the beginning of her rise was breaking up with Fran. She realized she didn't need to be with a guy who didn't make her happy. I think that's the beginning of her return to strength.

What can viewers expect in terms of Hannah's love life. She broke up with Fran, it seems like Adam's off the table. Could there be someone new in the picture?

I think there can always be someone new but I do think that's a slightly less important part of her world now.

There were a couple of moments (with the yoga instructor at the retreat and where she asks Tally if they should have sex) when she flirted with a same-sex romance, could we see her in a same-sex relationship?

I think the thing about Hannah is she's kind of down to try anything even if it's self-destructive. I think there's something in her that's just like, is this where this leads? She thinks maybe every good connection leads ultimately to sex.

Read More: 'Girls' Star Allison Williams on Marnie's Romantic Reunion and Relationship Decision

Marnie and Ray seem very committed to each other but Marnie just got out of a marriage, do you think she sees this as a serious relationship or what?

I think Marnie's really floundering. I think she does see it as that. I don't think she can keep running from one relationship to the next to the next to the next.

What's Desi's role now that his relationship with Marnie is over?

[Desi] continues to be a part of the tour. They continue to work together. Like the White Stripes.

What does it say about Adam and Jessa's dynamic that they can have a fight like that, in which Adam does things that would scare most people, and Jessa's not scared and just gives it back to him?

If she thinks that he's escalating, she'll take everything ten times furtherI think if they don't kill each other, they'll be great.

How has Shoshanna's time in Japan affected her as she's now back in New York?

I think she had an amazing time but she thought she had solved all of her problems geographically and that didn't quite work for her. I think she's been a little flattened by her latest experiences and it will be interesting to see her re-integrate into New York. I think she's happy to be back.

Read More: 'Girls' Boss on How Main Characters Are "Really Going to Try to Grow Up A Little Bit" in Penultimate Season

This season we saw Charlie and Tally come back and help Marnie and Hannah, respectively, move forward. As you're moving into the sixth season do you see other people from their past coming back to help them?

Yeah, I mean, I think that's really fun in a show when they do that and certainly I would like to see the people.

As you're thinking about the ending in the show for these girls, how much do you feel like they need to be at a certain point in their romantic relationships vs. at a certain point in their careers?

I think we'll probably stop them mid-flow. I think the ending isn't going to feel like a wrap-up exactly, but we truly don't know because we haven't written it yet.

When we talked after season four, you said you wanted to work with Gaby Hoffman more, but she wasn't in the fifth season. Will she be back for season six?

I would work with her every day of our lives but she's also in Transparent, and we shoot - although this year I heard it might be different. Last year, at least, we were shooting on the same schedule as Transparent. We love her so much. She's super talented. I'm also just very happy to watch her as a super fan of Transparent, so either way.

See More: 'Girls': Most Memorable Friends, Relatives and Mistakes
By Vladimir Soldatkin, Sam Wilkin and Tom Finn

DOHA (Reuters) - It was supposed to be the easiest deal ever reached among key oil market players, a mere formality.

Eighteen countries were gathering in the Qatari capital of Doha to rubber-stamp the first joint agreement between major OPEC and non-OPEC nations in 15 years, tackling a huge global glut after flooding the market for two years.

The text was agreed and the timeframe was clear. Oil prices were rising. Traders were calling the event boring.

Then, the first clouds began to appear.

Thousands of kilometers away from Doha, at a Friday summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gave each other the cold shoulder in front of cameras after the 57-member group accused Iran of supporting terrorism.

The frosty tone was noted and quickly became a talking point among some delegates and OPEC watchers in Doha.

None of the OPEC and oil industry sources who spoke to Reuters linked the subsequent collapse of the oil meeting in Doha to the events in Istanbul directly.

But they said it was indicative of the deep mistrust between the Sunni Muslim kingdom and the Shi'ite Islamic republic, which compete for influence in the Middle East and are currently fighting proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

From Friday onwards, things went downhill.

Only a few days before the Sunday meeting, Saudi Arabia surprised Qatar by demanding that it cancel Iran's invitation to the talks, arguing that only those countries which were ready to freeze output should attend, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

Iran has long said it wanted to regain market share following the lifting of sanctions in January and assumed that Venezuela and Russia -- the two proponents of the freeze deal -- had managed to persuade the Saudis the plan was worth signing even without Tehran's involvement.

The sources said the Saudis told Qatar that if Iran showed up at the meeting without agreeing to the output freeze, there could be no deal.

Story continues

FLURRY OF SURPRISES

Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, was a main proponent of the deal, and even made a January visit to Moscow specifically aimed at talking about the idea with Russian President Vladimir Putin, oil industry sources said.

Qatar delivered the message to Tehran on Friday and after some delicate diplomatic maneuvering, Iran said hours later it was happy not to attend, to the relief of the talks' participants.

But that was not enough to seal the deal.

Back in Saudi Arabia, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's top oil official and second in line to the throne, said in an interview published on Saturday that Riyadh would only restrain its output if all major producers, including Iran, agreed to freeze production.

At the Doha meeting the next day, Saudi veteran oil minister Ali al-Naimi, delivered the same line, scuppering the agreement.

It remains unclear for the moment how Prince Mohammed and Naimi reached their decision, and whether they were in alignment on the reasons.

In addition to wanting to punish Iran, the Saudis might have been driven by a reluctance to help prices recover too soon because it could allow rival producers, including in the United States, to resume production growth, delaying a rebalancing of the market beyond this year, according to sources.

But one thing is certain, sources say: although the Saudis' Gulf allies quickly came into line behind Naimi, his decision came as a complete surprise, highlighting how the kingdom -- which traditionally consults with Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar -- appears to be changing under its new assertive and pragmatic leadership, of which Prince Mohammed is a main player.

Global oil prices first started plummeting in late 2014 after Saudi Arabia increased production volumes to drive higher-cost producers such as U.S. shale firms out of the market.

Russia's energy minister asked Naimi on Sunday if any kind of binding deal to freeze output would be possible, according to sources.

In a sign of possible new battles for market share, Naimi said no.

"Once again the Saudis have delivered a hammer blow to fellow producers," said David Hufton, managing director of PVM brokerage.

"It promises to be the final nail in the coffin for those shale producers and their lenders hanging on for a short-term price reprieve."

(Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Washington (AFP) - Google's massive book-scanning project cleared its final legal hurdle Monday as the US Supreme Court denied an appeal contending it violates copyright law.

The top US court denied without comment a petition from the Authors Guild to hear the appeal of a 2013 federal court ruling seen as a landmark copyright decision for the digital era.

In a decade-long case, authors and their backers claimed Google was illegally scanning and digitizing millions of books without compensation to the copyright holders.

But the ruling by federal judge Denny Chin, backed by an appellate court panel, said the colossal project in which Google allows users to search books and see snippets of text was "fair use" under copyright law.

Google said in a statement after Monday's decision, "We are grateful that the court has agreed to uphold the decision of the Second Circuit (appeals court) which concluded that Google Books is transformative and consistent with copyright law."

The statement added: "The product acts like a card catalog for the digital age by giving people a new way to find and buy books while at the same time advancing the interests of authors."

The appeals panel last October rejected the arguments of the Authors Guild, several prominent writers and leading publishers that the Google Books program and its Library Project would eat into their earnings potential by allowing readers free access to the books.

Backers of Google contended that digitization offers numerous public benefits for researchers and others.

- Win for 'fair use' -

The decision "reflects what we have long said: that fair use is a powerful and flexible doctrine that enables not only new works, but also innovative uses of existing works," said Raza Panjwani of the consumer group Public Knowledge.

"Although we are glad to see this 12-year saga come to an end, the real shame is that we've had to wait so long to achieve legal certainty about something so beneficial to the public. This denial will hopefully lead to new efforts to expand our access to culture and knowledge through digital formats."

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Krista Cox of the Association of Research Libraries hailed the ruling, tweeting, "Win for #fairuse."

Nancy Sims, a University of Minnesota copyright librarian, said in a blog post, "This is a pretty great outcome for libraries and the public."

The Authors Guild said it was disappointed.

"Blinded by the public benefit arguments, the Second Circuit ruling tells us that Google, not authors, deserves to profit from the digitization of their books," said Mary Rasenberger, executive director of the authors group.

The ruling, she said, "misunderstood the importance of emerging online markets for books and book excerpts. It failed to comprehend the very real potential harm to authors resulting from its decision. The price of this short-term public benefit may well be the future vitality of American culture."

In the October appellate ruling, Judge Pierre Leval wrote that the longstanding interpretation of copyright law has for 300 years been that authors do not have "absolute control" over their works, and that there are important exemptions for "fair use," including news reporting, historical analysis, parody and other "transformative" purposes.

The court said that the snippets made available by Google were not a viable substitute for the works and that it was immaterial if Google made a profit from its search business using the books.

In the original ruling, New York judge Chin said what was originally called the "Library Project" preserves books, gives "new life" to forgotten editions, sustains "print-disabled" users and benefits authors and publishers by finding them new readers.

The case, which dates back to 2005, centers on a Google program started in 2004 to create an electronic database of books that could be searchable by keywords.
File this one under Well believe it when we see it, but Republican members of the House of Representatives are insisting that sometime soon, they will be producing the GOPs alternative to the Affordable Care Act.

If that sounds familiar, its because Republicans have been promising that an alternative to Obamacare is just around the corner for more than six years, now. But that didnt deter Rep. Fred Upton (R-OH), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee from telling The Hill newspaper this week that this time the party is really, really close.

Related: UnitedHealth Makes Good on Threat to Pull Out of Obamacare

Upton, a member of a small task force tapped by House Speaker Paul Ryan to deliver an alternative to President Obamas signature domestic achievement, urged reporters to give us a little time, another month or so adding that by then they will be pretty close to a Republican alternative.

Promising to do away with the Affordable Care Act has been part of the Republican catechism since it was signed into law in 2010, but the task became infinitely more complicated once the bill took effect in 2014, and people began receiving care. Nevertheless, some individual members of Congress have actually proposed replacements.

Last year, House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, offered a plan to replace Obamacare with a system based on tax credits and insurance portability. However, it failed to collect much support from his fellow Republicans.

In early 2014, three Republican senators, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, and Orrin Hatch of Utah proposed a plan to scale back Obamacare and eliminate the individual mandate -- a move that arguably could have killed the law entirely. It also went nowhere.

Related: Uninsured Rate Hits New Low, But Obamacares Still a Hot Potato

Later in 2014, House Majority leader Eric Cantor had to concede that there wouldnt be a replacement plan coming out of the House of Representatives that year. Months later, he was defeated in a primary election and retired from Congress.

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In fact, promises to produce a viable Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act have been so frequent that for healthcare reporters like Huffington Posts Jeffrey Young, theyve become a years-long running joke.

The history of failure to deliver on past promises may not even be the biggest reason to doubt that the GOP will deliver a plan soon. Upton told reporters that his task force is still in listening mode and is in discussions with many different experts.

Even if the goal is a proposal, not an actual piece of legislation, the likelihood that a small task force could write up a plan to fundamentally reshape the enormous US healthcare sector in the space of a few months is exceedingly small. But the Republicans have always seemed oddly optimistic about their ability to get rid of Obamacare somehow. After all, the chances of President Obama signing a law to gut the his signature legislation were always zero; but that didnt stop the GOP from holding dozens of votes aimed at producing bills that would have required just that.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Pankaja Munde clarified that she clicked those pictures to appreciate the work done by the local administration in this hour of crisis. (Photo: Twitter)

Mumbai: After drawing flak from all quarters for clicking selfies in drought-hit Latur, Maharashtra's Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde on Monday clarified that she clicked those pictures to appreciate the work done by the local administration in this hour of crisis.

Munde took to micro blogging site Twitter to put forth her stand for clicking photographs on the drought-hit land.

"This pics are work done by govt n ppl participation it's my dept n I was working from day 1 sence of satisfaction if it rains we are ready," she tweeted.

This pics are work done by govt n ppl participation it's my dept n I was working from day 1sence of satisfaction if it rains we are ready  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 17, 2016

"It was like finding an oasis in a desert for me. By levelling false allegations on me, who are these people trying to help, drought hit villagers or farmers? These pictures were clicked in the heat of 45 degrees C to show my appreciation for the work my department has done. There was no excitement in it, only contentment," she added.

Munde's 'selfie moments' did not go down well with the Sena, which said on the one hand women are the worst sufferers of the drought and on the other, a woman minister is seen happily clicking selfies in a parched area.

"This was a serious tour. Such selfies could have been avoided or it just dilutes the impact of a drought tour. It is mainly the women who have to walk for miles to fetch drinking water and here a woman minister happily clicks selfies. This is a strange incident," Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande said.

Congress spokesperson Al-Nasser Zakaria the act of clicking selfies was a shameful one and that the present ministers need to become less media savvy and focus on work.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said Munde, instead of being on a drought tour, has made it like she was on a junket and that by clicking pictures, she has mocked the plight of farmers.

"This government is not serious about drought. There was no planning to tackle drought since last September even where there was sufficient data available, he said.

Munde had on Sunday posted a series of selfies on Twitter while reviewing the efforts on water conservation in drought-hit Latur.

Pankaja Munde taking selfie with farmers in Latur. (Photo: Twitter)Munde's selfies with the hapless farmers have gone viral on the social media for which she is also trolled by the users.
GoPro has released more details on its latest Omni camera and is set to launch a new VR platform to give viewers a 360-degree immersive experience.

Available for pre-order Monday, GoPro's Omni camera is pitched as six cameras in one, capable of producing high-resolution image quality that works with stitching software Kolor to create immersive content.

The all-inclusive Omni package includes a GoPro Omni Sync Rig, Kolor software, six HERO4 black cameras, smart remote, cards, cables, readers and shipping case for $5,000 USD.

The company is also set to introduce GoPro VR, a platform to view and share immersive 360-degree video content.

The virtual portal will showcase original content created by a community of artists and will become available on the web, mobile and can also be experienced on a mobile head-mounted display.

GoPro VR goes live Monday at 8am PT at http://vr.gopro.com/.

Watch a surfing video in GoPro VR at https://youtvsu.be/MKWWhf8RAV8.
Wukro (Ethiopia) (AFP) - With Ethiopia in the grip of its worst drought in decades, the government has appealed for aid to help the 10 million people living in Africa's second most-populous nation.

But in the town of Wukro, surrounded by the rocky, arid mountains of the northern Tigray region, the government is investing longer-term efforts to ensure a supply of fresh water that will go far beyond the immediate needs of aid.

With a mushrooming urban population, water needs are only set to grow as the number of people living in towns soars from 70 million today to an estimated 100 million by 2050.

In a bid to anticipate future need, the government is stepping up construction of wells to pump ground water in a project backed by both the United Nations and charities.

"Lack of water affects everything: food, health, education and children's futures," warns the UN children's fund (UNICEF), which is working with the government to boost access to clean water and health in new, rapidly-growing towns.

"Urbanisation must be accompanied by access to water and improved hygiene," says Tamene Gossa, an urban hygiene expert with UNICEF, warning that without it, new districts risk becoming slums.

For Wukro, a town of some 43,000 people, new wells have been dug some 18 kilometres (11 miles) away, tapping into major groundwater supplies. Late last year, clean water emerged from a well some 200 metres (650 feet) deep which now supplies the town.

"We supply 50 litres per day, per person, which means the population in Wukro is now... safe," says Tesfalem Hagdu, deputy director of water resources for the Tigray region.

- Limiting erosion -

Floods and failed rains caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon have sparked a dramatic rise in the number of people going hungry in large parts of Africa, with southern Ethiopia an area of special concern.

Food insecurity is a sensitive issue in Ethiopia, which enjoys near-double-digit economic growth, but which has struggled to change its image following the famine of 1984-85 which followed an extreme drought.

Story continues

While northern Tigray has escaped the worst of today's El Nino drought, it has still seen water shortages, and the area around Wukro is dry and dusty.

But there have been huge efforts to change the situation, with the authorities planting acacia and eucalyptus tree seedlings in a bid to limit erosion, to help water infiltrate the soil and feed underground springs.

Water experts hope to be able to supply the wider region within the next two decades.

"The water coverage for 2035 will be 100 percent -- not only for Wukro, but for five other villages around," says Abdul Wassie, technical chief of the region's water resources.

- Growing hygiene awareness -

But the city has also gone further, with hygiene-related programmes to increase awareness about sanitation issues.

Two years ago, a primary school in the town created a water and sanitation club to promote basic hygiene.

In a remote town like Wukro, where health services are limited, basic tasks such as washing hands regularly can make a big difference to cutting overall sickness.

"Before this programme, viruses spread as well as parasitic diseases," says water club leader Selamawit Tamerat.

"Since then, everything changed and sickness decreased," Selamawit says, praising the educational impact the project has had on the wider community.

As well as raising awareness, there has also been the construction of sorely-need infrastructure, such as toilet blocks for the school which were built last year.

Last year, Ethiopia celebrated the achievement of halving the number of people without access to safe water since 1990, with 57 percent of the population now using safe drinking water.

But the challenges remaining are huge.

According to UNICEF, 180,000 children under five die each year -- 500 a day -- in sub-Saharan Africa from diarrhoeal diseases due to poor access to water and inadequate hygiene conditions.
Wukro (Ethiopia) (AFP) - With Ethiopia in the grip of its worst drought in decades, the government has appealed for aid to help 10 million people living in Africa's second most-populous nation.

But in the town of Wukro, surrounded by the rocky, arid mountains of the northern Tigray region, the government is investing longer-term efforts to ensure a supply of fresh water that will go far beyond the immediate needs of aid.

With a mushrooming urban population, water needs are only set to grow as the number of people living in towns soars from 70 million today to an estimated 100 million by 2050.

In a bid to anticipate future need, the government is stepping up construction of wells to pump ground water in a project backed by both the United Nations and charities.

"Lack of water affects everything: food, health, education and children's futures," warns the UN children's fund (UNICEF), which is working with the government to boost access to clean water and health in new, rapidly-growing towns.

"Urbanisation must be accompanied by access to water and improved hygiene," says Tamene Gossa, an urban hygiene expert with UNICEF, warning that without it, new districts risk becoming slums.

For Wukro, a town of some 43,000 people, new wells have been dug some 18 kilometres (11 miles) away, tapping into major groundwater supplies. Late last year, clean water emerged from a well some 200 metres (650 feet) deep which now supplies the town.

"We supply 50 litres per day, per person, which means the population in Wukro is now... safe," says Tesfalem Hagdu, deputy director of water resources for the Tigray region.

- Limiting erosion -

Floods and failed rains caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon have sparked a dramatic rise in the number of people going hungry in large parts of Africa, with southern Ethiopia an area of special concern.

Food insecurity is a sensitive issue in Ethiopia, which enjoys near-double-digit economic growth, but which has struggled to change its image following the famine of 1984-85 which followed an extreme drought.

Story continues

While northern Tigray has escaped the worst of today's El Nino drought, it has still seen water shortages, and the area around Wukro is dry and dusty.

But there have been huge efforts to change the situation, with the authorities planting acacia and eucalyptus tree seedlings in a bid to limit erosion, to help water infiltrate the soil and feed underground springs.

Water experts hope to be able to supply the wider region within the next two decades.

"The water coverage for 2035 will be 100 percent -- not only for Wukro, but for five other villages around," says Abdul Wassie, technical chief of the region's water resources.

- Growing hygiene awareness -

But the city has also gone further, with hygiene-related programmes to increase awareness about sanitation issues.

Two years ago, a primary school in the town created a water and sanitation club to promote basic hygiene.

In a remote town like Wukro, where health services are limited, basic tasks such as washing hands regularly can make a big difference to cutting overall sickness.

"Before this programme, viruses spread as well as parasitic diseases," says water club leader Selamawit Tamerat.

"Since then, everything changed and sickness decreased," Selamawit says, praising the educational impact the project has had on the wider community.

As well as raising awareness, there has also been the construction of sorely-need infrastructure, such as toilet blocks for the school which were built last year.

Last year, Ethiopia celebrated the achievement of halving the number of people without access to safe water since 1990, with 57 percent of the population now using safe drinking water.

But the challenges remaining are huge.

According to UNICEF, 180,000 children under five die each year -- 500 a day -- in sub-Saharan Africa from diarrhoeal diseases due to poor access to water and inadequate hygiene conditions.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales on Monday asked the United Nations to extend the mandate of a UN-backed anti-corruption body in his country for another two years, officials said.

Morales -- on his first visit to the United Nations' New York headquarters -- made the request for the extension of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) in a meeting chaired by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a UN statement said.

"The secretary general welcomed President Morales' intention to extend the mandate of CICIG until September 2019 and looked forward to continuing cooperation in the fight against corruption and impunity," the statement said.

The CICIG was instrumental in bringing down Guatemala's previous government last year.

Morales' predecessor, Otto Perez, is in jail awaiting a decision on whether he will face trial on charges of being part of a ring of officials that took bribes in exchange for letting businessmen avoid paying import taxes.

The CICIG, working with Guatemalan prosecutors, revealed the corruption ring, triggering months of demonstrations calling for Perez's ouster.

Morales, formerly a television comedian, was elected president in October and took office in January.

He has vowed to curb corruption in his country and has said he views the CICIG as central to that struggle.

The anti-corruption body has a two-year mandate that has been renewed four times since it started work in 2007.

Morales started a week-long visit to the United States over the weekend.
A bearded imam may have seemed out of place at this week's In-Cosmetics expo in Paris, an annual showcase for the world's leading beauty and personal care products.

But Shaikh Ali Achcar's presence points to a growing demand for makeup that adheres not just to the face -- but also to Muslim rules.

"When an animal-based product isn't halal ("allowed" in Arabic), or contains alcohol, it's not only forbidden to consume it, but it's also considered to be impure: you cannot use it on your face, or your skin," said Achcar, manning the stand of the Swiss-based Halal Certification Services (HCS).

"That's why it's increasing the need for halal products in cosmetics," said the Brazilian, who heads HCS's office in Madrid.

Since Islam prohibits the consumption of pork and alcohol, lard-based lipsticks and many perfumes are among beauty products that are off limits to strictly observant Muslims.

Thanks largely to a 2013 EU ban on animal testing, as well as a skyrocketing demand for vegan cosmetics, many new makeup products contain no animal by-products at all.

But labelling is not uniform and can be confusing.

"The majority of the consumers do not know if the product comes from animal-based ingredients or not. So when they see the halal product, they buy it," says Achcar, a copy of the Koran lying on the table beside him.

The nearly 800 exhibitors at the In-Cosmetics expo were showing not only beauty products but also laboratory equipment and other necessities for testing and regulatory compliance.

"In the case of a company that has animal-based products and synthetic ones in the same (factory), we have to understand how they separate the production in order to avoid cross-contamination," he said.

Achcar has begun to build a client base in the cosmetics industry, with HCS charging between 1,500 and 2,000 euros ($2,250) for its scientific team to analyse products.

Story continues

HCS also inspects factories to certify them as halal.

"Some of our competitors are a lot more expensive," said Achcar, adding that the certificates must be renewed every year.

- $20 billion industry -

A few years ago halal cosmetics were a niche market for a few small businesses, mainly in Muslim countries in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

But an industry worth around $20 billion (18 billion euros) in 2014 is expected to double by 2019, when it will represent six percent of the global cosmetics market, according to the British market research firm TechNavio.

This is because "some countries are developing regulations making it mandatory for cosmetic products to be certified halal," according to Monica Ducruet, who is in charge of regulatory questions for the Swiss perfume group Givaudan's French subsidiary.

Major beauty products companies are beginning to adapt to the trend.

L'Oreal has had hundreds of its ingredients certified halal, and experts have checked its production lines turning out goods for the huge market in Indonesia, which counts 200 million Muslims.

"Some of the countries realised how much money they could make with the halal certificates. For a lot of people it's more business than religion," said a source familiar with the industry.

"The fact that halal products can be traced back through the entire value chain is important for them in terms of quality assurance," German chemicals giant BASF said in a recent news release.

The company has certified as halal 145 of its German-made ingredients destined for beauty and personal hygiene products.

But Givaudan's Ducruet said companies were having difficulty standardising the certification.

"The problem is a lack of recognition between the different certifying bodies. Some countries, like Indonesia, have made lists of approved halal certifiers, but it's hard to have a certification recognised in several countries," she said.
The bench was hearing a writ petition of the ousted Chief Minister Harish Rawat plea challenging imposition of Presidents rule on March 26. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Uttarakhand High Court on Monday asked the Centre whether it was not totally extraneous for the Union Government to be concerned over the disqualification of nine rebel MLAs and to interfere in the affairs of the state which has to be done only in extraordinary instances.

What is passing through our mind is, is it the lookout of the Central government as to what would have happened on March 28 (when floor test was to be held) in view of the changed composition and in view of the nine ousted MLAs..?

Will it not be totally extraneous for Central government, which is ruled by another political party, to be concerned by changed composition, a bench of Chief Justice K M Joseph and Justice V K Bist asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.

The bench was hearing a writ petition of the ousted Chief Minister Harish Rawat plea challenging imposition of Presidents rule on March 26.

The bench said it (the demand for division of votes in the Assembly when appropriation Bill was introduced) was only a solitary instance and added this is what is colouring our minds. Can one solitary instance topple a democratically-elected government in its fourth-fifth year root of the matter is you are cutting at root of democracy.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi contended that the Speakers decision to not allow 35 MLAs to vote on their demand for division, when the money bill was introduced, amounted to destroying democracy as the 35 constituted the majority view.

He alleged that former Chief Minister Harish Rawat and the Speaker were in cahoots and scuttled the demand for division.

He claimed that since no vote was held, the money bill had failed and this amounted to the state government having fallen on March 18.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Approximately 300 people were arrested on Monday outside the U.S. Capitol as demonstrators entered their second week of protests on issues ranging from the financing of political campaigns to easing college students' debt load.

The U.S. Capitol Police said that with Monday's action, around 1,240 have been arrested by the department since April 11.

As the demonstrators were being arrested and processed, a large demonstration was underway nearby at the U.S. Supreme Court, where an immigration-related case was being argued.

(Reporting By Richard Cowan; Editing by Chris Reese)
Hundreds are dead or missing in Ethiopia after assailants from South Sudan crossed the boarder on Friday and attacked. As Ethiopian forces continued to hunt for those responsible, the death toll from rose to 208 dead, with 108 missing children and more than 2,000 heads of livestock, Al-Jazeera reported.

"Ethiopian defense forces are taking measures. They are closing in on the attackers," government spokesman Getachew Reda told the Guardian.

Ethiopian troops are known to have crossed into South Sudan in pursuit. The exact origin of the attack and its assailants are unknown but at this time they are not believed to be connected to the South Sudanese government.

Raids from South Sudan into the western Ethiopian region of Gambela are not uncommon. Past raids are believed to have been caused by arms rich Murle tribesmen in the country's Jonglei and Upper Nile areas, according to the Guardian.
Broadcasting from this war-torn countrys capital, a remarkable radio station is bringing implacable enemies together for dialogue.

Over the next few weeks, European leaders will be focusing on the United Kingdom, whose citizens will soon decide whether they want their country to remain part of the European Union. But thats not the only threat to the EUs makeup that is in the offing. Trouble is also brewing in Budapest.

Hungarys prime minister, Viktor Orban, is a long-established Euroskeptic. Ever since he took office in 2010, its been clear that theres no love lost between him and Brussels. He seizes just about every opportunity to scold European Union leaders  and they seem increasingly willing to return the favor.

But lately, Orban been taking matters to a whole new level, prompting opposition parties to warn that hes plotting to take Hungary out of the EU altogether. Although his position on the issue remains far from clear, there are many signs that he is eager to revise Hungarys status within the EU.

It wasnt always like this. Orban was once fervently pro-European. In fact, he led his countrys accession talks to the EU during his first term in office between 1998 and 2002. But once he returned to the opposition in the years that followed, his attitude began to shift. He saw an opportunity to respond to the growing anti-globalization and anti-EU feelings of average Hungarians, many of whom feel that joining the EU has not brought about the prosperity they think they were promised.

By the time Orban returned to power in 2010, he did so on a platform featuring a strong anti-globalization and anti-Brussels agenda. Since then he has regularly flaunted his contempt for European values. He has enacted laws sharply curtailing the freedom of the independent media and allowing for extra taxation of EU companies operating in Hungary. He has openly stated that he aims to transform Hungary into an illiberal democracy, citing Turkey, Russia, and China as praiseworthy models. He has used the migrant crisis to raise himself to EU-wide prominence as the leader of the hardliners who aim to build fences to defend fortress Europe  the implication being that this is something Brussels cant handle. Even though his right-wing Fidesz Party is still part of the European Peoples Party  the mainstream conservative alliance in the European Parliament  he is clearly becoming a liability even for his long-time allies, such as the Christian Democrats of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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Some of Orbans recent comments have fueled additional anxiety about his intentions. Lately he and leading members of his party have taken to describing Hungarys EU membership as purely a business matter  a red flag for those European leaders who see the EU, above all, as a vital political project. In one recent interview, Janos Lazar, a minister often seen as one of Orbans potential successors, also cast Hungarys EU membership purely in economic terms. This is a calculated provocation. If the EU is only about business, then theres no reason to accept a common Europe policy on the refugee crisis  and the refugee quota that goes with it.

Needless to say, that crisis has provided Orban with one of his most effective anti-EU talking points. In a recent radio interview, he declared that Europe is no longer a safe space for his fellow Hungarians, claiming that the EUs stance on migrants has led to rioting immigrants, refugee camps that are on fire, and gangs preying on Hungarian women, our wives and daughters.

Those comments came a few days after Orbans March 1 state of the nation speech, in which the prime minister recast the debate over migrant policy as an epic battle between the Europe of free nations (supporters of national sovereignty, including Hungary) and the federalists who sit in Berlin, Brussels, and Paris. The latter, he claimed, believe in immigrant quotas that will turn Europe into a sort of caliphate, a frontal assault on the continents Christian values. A left-wing opposition party immediately accused Orban of preparing the ground for taking Hungary out of the EU, also referring to Orbans plans to call a referendum on the EUs refugee quotas later this year. That initiative is clearly aimed at providing the prime minister with a popular mandate in his fight against Brussels.

Though such a referendum blatantly violates EU rules, its a perfect way for Orban to boost his partys standing against its main rival, the far-right Jobbik Party. (The next election isnt due in Hungary until 2018.) So its certainly true that Orban has eminently practical reasons for indulging in anti-EU populism.

Yet his Brussels-bashing cannot be dismissed as pure opportunism, either  theres also a strong ideological element. Just consider his affinity for Vladimir Putin. Moving Hungary closer to Moscow has become the centerpiece of Orbans foreign policy. Last year Moscow awarded Budapest a massive 10 billion euro loan. Ostensibly its for an expansion of Hungarys only nuclear power plant, but some observers view the deal as part of a broader Kremlin effort to buy influence with the Hungarians.

Meanwhile, Orbans talk of illiberal democracy is far more amenable to Moscow than Brussels. When it comes to values and body language, the Hungarian prime minister seems much more at ease with Putin than with anyone in Brussels. During Orbans last visit to Moscow, Putin and the Russian media praised him for his critical stance toward the EU, and the Russian president claimed to be just as worried about defending the European identity as Orban himself. Orbans approach can, indeed, be summed up as a kind of Europutinism  crony capitalism in economics, semi-authoritarianism in politics. Once the most liberal member of the Soviet bloc, Hungary is now an outlier once again  but this time in the EU.

So does all this mean that Orban really is maneuvering for an exit? Probably not. Taking Hungary out of the EU altogether would almost certainly prove hugely unpopular among voters. What Orban does seem to want is more space between Budapest and Brussels. He is clearly keen to resist greater political and economic integration among the EUs current members. Judging by his actions to date, he would appear to envision a future for Hungary on the edges of the EU, as a sort of bridge between East and West, still enjoying some benefits of EU membership even as it seeks to grow closer to Russia. Of course, whether he can square this circle remains to be seen.

In the photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban converse during a signing ceremony of several agreements between the two countries on Feb. 17, 2015, in Budapest, Hungary.

Photo credit: SEAN GALLUP/Getty Images
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland's longest serving president said on Monday he would run for a sixth term in June, reversing a decision to bow out in response to political upheaval caused by the prime minister's resignation over the Panama Papers scandal. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, who has been president since 1996, has exerted his right to demand popular votes on key issues, introducing political power to an office that had traditionally been seen as largely ceremonial. His about-face comes nearly two weeks after Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson decided to step down after leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm showed his wife owned an offshore company that held debt from failed Icelandic banks. "The events lately and how they have shed light on the state of society... and the situation of the government has led to people saying that somewhere there has to be stability and experience in the coming years," Grimsson told a news conference. Grimsson demanded referendums on deals made by the government to pay Britain and the Netherlands for their bailouts of customers of private Icelandic banks. In both cases, voters rejected the deals. (Reporting by Ragnhildur Sigurdardottir; writing by Niklas Pollard; editing by John Stonestreet)
CM Nitish Kumar said the state government has requested Shashtra Seema Suraksha Bal to intensify vigil against liquor trade at the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: Buoyed by the success of total prohibition in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said, if invited, he would visit other states to campaign against alcohol.

"If some group invites me in any programme against liquor I will accept and campaign against alcohol sale and consumption there," Kumar told reporters.

His assertions come in the backdrop of reports of liquor trade getting a boost in neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand after Bihar was declared a complete dry state on April 5.

The Chief Minister said the state government has requested Shashtra Seema Suraksha Bal to intensify vigil against liquor trade at the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar.

Asked whether he would like the ban on sale and consumption of alcohol be implemented across the country, Kumar said, "I will be happy if this happen. The social movement arising out of liquor ban in Bihar would spread to other parts and state after state would go for prohibition."

In response to a question whether he was getting assistance from Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, to whom he had written asking for cooperation for successful implementation of the prohibition, Kumar shot back, "They (the two neighbouring states) have encouraged opening of more liquor outlets in border areas, this is the assistance we got."

In reply to a question that reports suggest that there was now demand for psychotropic substances like cough syrup, narcotic drugs and ganja in the border districts of Kisanganj, Araria and Purnea, he said all these substances come under the Liquor Policy, 2016 on the basis of which the prohibition was imposed.

"The state government can take decision on stopping use of such medicines," he added.

The Bihar Chief minister had on April 5 announced a complete ban on sale and consumption of liquor, including domestic and spiced as well Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).
Reykjavik (AFP) - Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson on Monday announced that he will seek another term in office in June's upcoming election, amid political turmoil.

"I have invited you here today to announce that after much consideration I have come to the conclusion to... stand for re-election," Grimsson said.

Grimsson, 72, has been president since 1996. In January, he had announced that he would not run again.

But the country fell into crisis this month after former prime minister Sigurdur David Gunnlaugsson was pressured to resign amid mass protests over a hidden offshore account worth millions of dollars.

He and his wife Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir were cited in the "Panama Papers" leak of millions of financial records.

Grimsson played a calming role during the crisis, opposing the head of government who wanted to dissolve parliament in haste. On April 7, he swore in a new prime minister, Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson.

The president's decision to seek re-election drew criticism from the opposition.

"What do you call a country where a president in power for 20 years, promises not to run, and then changes his mind?" the co-founder of the Pirate Party, Smari McCarthy, quipped on Twitter.

Monday's announcement marks the second time that Grimsson has changed his mind. In 2012 he announced that he would not stand, before being persuaded by a petition to run again.

The presidency in Iceland is largely a ceremonial position, and Grimsson has limited powers. He can call a referendum on a law passed by parliament if it is felt the whole nation should have a say.

Grimsson's earlier terms were marked by the financial crisis of 2008 which devastated the small island's economy.

He subsequently convened two referendums, in 2010 and 2011, over the astronomical sums demanded by Britain and the Netherlands after savings bank Icesave went bust.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State's income and the population under its control have both fallen by about a third, a U.S.-based analysis firm said, describing the declining revenue as a threat to its long-term rule over its self-proclaimed caliphate. Revenue for the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, fell to $56 million a month in March from around $80 million a month in the middle of last year, the analysis company IHS said. Daily oil output dropped to 21,000 barrels from 33,000 barrels over the same time frame, as production facilities suffered damage from air strikes carried out mainly by a U.S.-led coalition. Islamic State is still a force in the region, but this drop in revenue is a significant figure and will increase the challenge for the group to run its territory in the long term, said IHS senior analyst Ludovico Carlino in a report. The territory under its control has declined by about 22 percent since mid-2014, while the population of that territory has fallen to around 6 million from 9 million. "There are fewer people and business activities to tax; the same applies to properties and land to confiscate, said IHS senior analyst Columb Strack. Around 50 percent of the groups revenue comes from taxation and confiscation, 43 percent from oil and the rest from drug smuggling, sale of electricity and donations, the report said. The group began allowing people sentenced to corporal punishment to be spared in return for cash payments, an indication of financial difficulty, it said. It also introduced new taxes on such activities as installing satellite dishes or exiting cities. Fines can be imposed for giving wrong answers about the Koran, it said. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; editing by Peter Graff)
London (AFP) - Islamic State group revenues have dropped by around 30 percent since last year, forcing the group to introduce a range of new taxes including a levy on repairing satellite dishes, a research group said on Monday.

"In mid-2015, the Islamic State's overall monthly revenue was around $80 million (71 million euros)," said Ludovico Carlino, senior analyst at IHS, which issues regular reports on IS-controlled territory.

"As of March 2016, the Islamic State's monthly revenue dropped to $56 million," Carlino said.

An IHS report also said oil production in areas controlled by IS jihadists had gone down to 21,000 barrels per day from 33,000 barrels per day before.

This was due largely to air strikes by the US-led coalition and Russia, although IHS warned the decline was only an "interruption of production" as jihadists were able to repair infrastructure quickly.

The report said around 50 percent of IS revenues come from taxation and confiscation of businesses and property, with 43 percent coming from oil.

The remainder is made up of drug smuggling, the sale of electricity and donations, the report said.

"The Islamic State is still a force in the region but this drop in revenue is a significant figure and will increase the challenge for the group to run its territory in the long term," Carlino said.

IHS said the IS group had lost about 22 percent of its territory in the past 15 months and now ruled over six million instead of nine million people.

This meant the tax base for IS had become smaller.

"Our research has found that the Islamic State is increasing taxes on basic services and coming up with new ways to get money from the population.

"These taxes include tolls for truck drivers, fees for anyone installing new or repairing broken satellite dishes, and 'exit fees' for anyone trying to leave a city," Carlino said.

Fines for not being able to answer questions correctly on the Koran have also been introduced and IS is also taking cash as an alternative to corporal punishment penalties, IHS said.

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Since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, half of the country's population has been displaced -- including five million who have fled to neighbouring states.

More than 270,000 people have been killed.

A truce brokered by Russia and the United States in February excludes the fight against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.
New Delhi (AFP) - A priceless diamond that is part of the Queen Mother's Crown was given to Britain and not stolen, India's government on Monday told the Supreme Court, which is hearing a suit seeking its return.

The 108-carat Koh-i-Noor gem, which came into British hands during the colonial era, is the subject of a historic ownership dispute and has been claimed by at least four countries including India.

But India's Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said the 19th-century Sikh king Ranjit Singh had given the stone to the British.

It is now set in the crown that was worn by Queen Elizabeth's mother until her death in 2002, and is on public display in the Tower of London.

"It was given voluntarily by Ranjit Singh to the British as compensation for help in the Sikh Wars. The Koh-i-Noor is not a stolen object," he told the Supreme Court.

The court was hearing a suit filed by the All India Human Rights & Social Justice Front, a non-governmental organisation, seeking the diamond's return.

It asked the solicitor general to file an affidavit giving the government's stance on the issue.

The stone was presented to Queen Victoria in 1850 after the Anglo-Sikh wars in which Britain gained control of the Sikh empire of the Punjab, which is now split between Pakistan and India.

Singh in turn had taken it from an Afghan king who had sought sanctuary in India.

The diamond had been an heirloom of the Afghan monarchy and before then was in Persian royal hands, but its true origins remain a mystery.

Its name translates as "Mountain of Light" and it is traditionally worn by a queen -- it is said to bring bad luck to any man who wears it.

In 1976 Britain refused a request to cede the diamond, citing the terms of the Anglo-Sikh peace treaty.

"I could not advise Her Majesty the Queen that it should be surrendered," said Jim Callaghan, prime minister at the time.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has also said he would oppose returning the diamond.

"If you say yes to one you suddenly find the British Museum would be empty," he told NDTV television in 2010.

"It is going to have to stay put."
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Shares in India's Alkem Laboratories Ltd fell as much as 8 percent on Monday after the company confirmed it was in talks with German authorities who had accused it of fudging data in some clinical trials. Reuters reported on Friday that German authorities had accused the company of manipulating heart readings of patients in some trials for the antibiotic cefuroxime and the brain disorder drug rulizole, following an inspection of Alkem's plant in Taloja in western India in March 2015. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is investigating the medicines after Germany reported its findings to the EMA and urged it to take action in a report that was posted on the EMA website. Alkem said in a statement on Saturday that the company had responded to the German authorities with a "robust remediation plan" and would also submit "suitable clarification" to the EMA. Similar findings by European regulators concerning manipulation of electrocardiogram data at two other Indian firms, GVK Biosciences and Quest Lifesciences, led to the recall of nearly 700 medicines last year. Alkem said the inspection concerned studies conducted by the company between March 2013 and March 2015 on two products, one of which is selling, while the other is yet to reach the market. It did not name the products. (http://bit.ly/1Te0bTs) It also said it had changed staff, upgraded equipment and improved its quality assurance systems at the Taloja plant since Germany's inspection. Alkem, among the fastest-growing drugmakers in India, said sales from Europe made up less than 1 percent of its total revenue in the nine months to December 2015. Still, the company's shares were down 5 percent at 0459 GMT on Monday, after falling as much as 8 percent earlier in the day - their lowest since Feb. 29. The company debuted on the Indian stock exchanges in December. (Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Richard Pullin)
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Embattled Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya's UB Group has denied allegations that it used 4.3 billion rupees ($65 million) of bank loans to now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines to buy property overseas. Mallya, a liquor baron and lawmaker, has been at an unknown location since March 2 after Kingfisher's creditors stepped up pressure to recover the $1.4 billion they are owed. The Enforcement Directorate, an Indian government agency fighting financial crime, made the money-laundering allegation against UB Group before a court, and has sought a non-bailable warrant against Mallya, a UB Group spokesman said in a statement late on Sunday. "The audited accounts of Kingfisher Airlines including for the year ended (March 2010) show all foreign exchange transactions which includes funds borrowed from IDBI Bank used for legitimate business purposes only," the spokesman said, calling the basis of the warrant against Mallya "erroneous and unjustified". State-run IDBI Bank is one of Kingfisher's more than a dozen creditor banks. The Indian government last Friday suspended the diplomatic passport of Mallya, once called the "King of Good Times" for his extravagant lifestyle, and said the passport would be revoked if he did not respond within a week. Mallya has not disclosed his whereabouts since leaving India, but media reports have traced him to the Hertfordshire village of Tewin, north of London, where he owns a house. (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Stephen Coates)
His political rivals dread him, his fans adore him. That hardly matters to former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who after a roller-coaster ride, has become the BJP state president again. It is a record in the BJP for a leader who quit the party, to return so soon as state president and also get projected as the CM candidate.

A mellowed Yeddyurappa, surrounded by loyalists like M.P. Renukacharya and Prabhakar Kore, spoke to Deccan Chronicle on a wide range of issues. He vows to change himself for the new job at hand. Here are excerpts from the interview.

Everyone expected the BJP central leadership to take a call on the appointment of the state president after the elections in five states. Your appointment was sudden and surprising. Can you tell us how it happened? What occurred behind the scenes?

We got a call from Amit Shahji to be in Delhi on the day of Ugadi. I and Santoshji(party general secretary) went to meet him in the morning. He had a 15-minute chat with us. He told us that they were going to appoint me as state president. I was surprised when he said the central leadership would make a formal announcement at 3 pm on that day.

It was so sudden that I could not believe it for a while. Mr Shah told me clearly that the responsibility rests on me to take everyone along. I guess in the last three or four months, they got reports from various sources on who should become the new president and almost all reports suggested my name. Thats why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr Shah took a decision to appoint me.

Certainly there is something more than what meets the eye...

Nothing else. They (central leaders) were convinced that the only leader who could take on the present Congress government is Yeddyurappa. Two, they thought, I could take leaders and workers forward together. Thats why they decided to appoint me.

Thousands of people come to meet you every day. What do these people tell you?

People all regions, leaders from different castes are coming to greet me. These people have created a festive atmosphere here. They tell me that they prayed for my becoming state president. They are celebrating it as if we have already formed the government. These people tell me that leaders from different parties will join us.

Many leaders inside the party and outside say since you have not come clear in the corruption cases, these cases will play on the minds of the public.

I got relief in many cases. I have the highest respect for the judiciary. I heard this government has decided to go in appeal in fifteen cases which were disposed of in the high court. They want to engage in a witchhunt. Alright, let them do it. Denotification happened since S.M. Krishnas time. I had denotified land of the common people. (pauses...) Even Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has denotified.

Where did Mr Siddaramaiah denotify?

He has denotified a large tract of land in Arkavathy Layout. What more evidence do you want? Many more scams will come out very soon.

You are a mass leader. There may be many leaders who want to join BJP because of you. The bad elements who spoilt the BJP will also return because you are back at the helm.

I know what you are referring to. I would like to clarify one thing. There is no bar on anyone becoming an ordinary member of the party. If a leader wants to join our party, we will sit together and take a call whether to induct him or not. About giving positions, we will weigh the pros and cons. The eligible, honest and committed will get posts.

You say this now. But to get more seats in the elections, it is quite natural for leaders from other parties to join BJP. They will set conditions and you will agree. In the process, genuine leaders from the party will lose out. Thats what happened last time..

No one can set conditions. If a leader wants to join our party after accepting our principles, he or she is welcome. I will promise you that I will not repeat the mistakes I made in the past. It may happen only in very few seats.

You said you will not repeat the mistakes. What mistakes did you commit in the past?

Quitting the party is an unpardonable offence. Still, the Prime Minister and the party president condoned my mistake. They made me the party president again. It has never happened in the BJPs history. They gave me an opportunity and I have to live upto the expectations.

The other day, you said the party should focus on south Karnataka. How will you achieve this?

In Kerala, Sangh parivar workers are being murdered by Communists. Still, we are fighting the elections. Compared to Kerala, we are better off in Mandya and Hassan. In districts where we are weak, senior leaders will take charge. We will form teams and they will focus on these districts. We need to go a long way. We will involve community leaders in these districts. I will personally monitor these districts. There was a time when we were strong in Hassan district too. Due to change of leadership, we lost out. Now, we will rebuild.

Moving on, political parties promise a lot before elections but go back on their word once elected. For instance, the Congress party said they would solve the garbage problem within 100 days of assuming power. Nothing happened. Do you have plans to consult experts and come out with a road map to address peoples problems?

When we were in power, we never had a sugarcane crisis. The garbage issue is limited to Bengaluru. No other city has this problem. We will not wait till we come to power. We want things to change now. Certainly we will consult experts. We will fight to make this government work.

Your party celebrated Ambedkar Jayanthi differently. The party also instructed legislators to make the 125th Ambedkar birth anniversary different in their constituencies. But when it comes to sharing power (with Dalits), you dither. Why?

Many people suggested to me to take charge on the holy day of April 14. I took charge on that day. We had shown our commitment to SC and STs when we were in power. We implemented several schemes. We gave cabinet berths to many leaders from these communities. A large contingent of SC MLAs were in the assembly when were in power. The highest number of SC MPs are from the BJP in the present Lok Sabha. When we come back to power, we will certainly give them power. I will see to it that a large number of people from these communities get posts in the party.

Two veterans from the community, Govind Karjol and K.B. Shanappa are in the Assembly and Council respectively. At least one leader should have been made the opposition leader...

In the past, this decision was taken. I will not speak about this. Mr Shanappa is our deputy leader in the Council. But in future, we will certainly honour them.

Finally, you said you are a changed man. What changes have you seen in yourself?

After many experiences, I learnt who is who and how differently people behave under different circumstances. I know now who to keep at arms length. The other important thing is anger. I realised that I can tackle many issues without getting angry or agitated. I have mastered the art of taking everyone along. I have to continue this.
- Simon Pagenaud finally broke through for Team Penske using a timely late pit stop en route to claiming the Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday. France's Pagenaud pitted on lap 53 then rejoined the field in first place before extending his lead over Scott Dixon on the 3.17 kilometre (1.97 mile) course through the streets of the southern California city. Pagenaud edged out New Zealand's Dixon by just 0.3032secs for the closest margin of victory in Long Beach race history. "The big gamble paid off," Pagenaud said. The 80-lap race ran caution free but not without controversy. Pagenaud was given a warning for improper lane usage during his pit stop but was not penalised.

AFP
In an effort to distance itself from a market where most smartphones look and feel exceedingly similar, Apple in 2017 is reportedly planning to do away with the aluminum backed casing it's used ever since the iPhone 5s. Instead, Apple will reportedly opt for a glass casing, similar to what the company used on the iPhone 4 and 4s.

If true, this would mark one of the biggest strategic changes in Apple's iPhone business since it first released the iPhone 10 years earlier.

DON'T MISS: You can make yourself hallucinate without taking any drugs



Word of Apple's desire to switch things up comes to us courtesy of reputed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (via AppleInsider), who in a recent research note relayed a number of interesting tidbits about Apple's iPhone plans in 2017, presumably when the iPhone 7s will launch.

In addition to a glass back, Kuo corroborates previous reports alluding to Apple incorporating an AMOLED display on the iPhone in 2017. Interestingly, Kuo notes that the added weight of glass relative to aluminum will be offset by OLED panels that weigh less than the current LCD displays Apple currently relies upon.

This would be the first time iPhones with major design changes launched in two consecutive years, making the 2017 iPhone unlike anything we've seen so far from Apple. In the past, "S" updates have featured new internal hardware packed into the same case used by the prior year's iPhone model.

For those worried about a glass-backed iPhone failing drop tests, Kuo noted Apple already has plenty of experience with glass thanks to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s. He doesn't share those concerns, and thinks that a glass iPhone will prove just as durable as the aluminum models. ... Kuo believes that switching to a glass back on the 2017 iPhone will give a "feeling of freshness" to consumers, allowing Apple's handset to stand out from the competition. The KGI analyst is bearish on iPhone sales in the near term, having predicted earlier this month that total iPhone shipments will fall below 200 million in 2016.

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Notably, Kuo, who we should point out has a stellar track record with respect to Apple rumors, echoed a previous report of his where he claimed that the AMOLED display on Apple's 2017 iPhone will be comprised of two curved pieces of glass, one on the front and another on the back of the device.

iPhone sales do seem to be experiencing a bit of a lull these days, but it's increasingly starting to look that Apple still has a few tricks up its sleeve.

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This article was originally published on BGR.com
Tehran (AFP) - Police in Iran's capital have a network of 7,000 undercover agents whose job is to inform on alleged moral transgressors in the Islamic republic, a top official said Monday.

Bad veiling -- covering the head is mandatory for women in Iran -- and anti-social behaviour is among the crimes the force has been tasked with tackling.

The men and women's "undercover patrols will confront implicit transgressions in the city," according to General Hossein Sajedinia, Tehran's police chief.

"Confronting bad hijab and removal of veils inside cars, driving recklessly, parading in the streets, harassing women and stopping noise pollution are the priorities" for the agents, he said

Sajedinia's remarks were published by Mizan Online, the official news service for Iran's judiciary, along with pictures of himself and a large formation of plain-clothed agents in Tehran.

When in public, all women in the Islamic republic, including foreigners, are required to wear at least a loose scarf, known as hijab, which covers the hair and neck.

Since the mid-1990s, however, there has been a gradual change in the dress code with some women, particularly in more affluent northern neighbourhoods, wearing colourful tight-fitting coats and loose scarves.

If the agents observe such violations they report the alleged offender to police who will then be contacted and later summoned, Sajedinia said.

The agents, bearing judicial orders, are not allowed to engage people directly and will only report to the police.
Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi premier Haider al-Abadi called Monday for the fractious parliament to put aside its differences and do its job, saying he hopes a new cabinet will be approved in days.

Iraq has been hit by weeks of political turmoil surrounding Abadi's move to replace the current cabinet of party-affiliated ministers with a government of technocrats.

His efforts to change the cabinet, which have faced significant opposition from powerful political parties that rely on control of ministries for patronage and funds, were overshadowed by chaos in parliament last week.

Both the United States and the United Nations have warned that the political crisis could distract from efforts to combat the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which overran large areas of Iraq in 2014.

"I call on parliament to convene immediately to overcome the obstacles and contribute to developing solutions to the challenges facing the country," Abadi said in a statement.

"I look forward to parliament being able to undertake its... legislative and supervisory role and voting on the cabinet reshuffle in the coming days," he said.

Abadi presented a list of cabinet nominees at the end of March, but the political blocs put forward their own candidates, and most of the premier's original list was replaced on a second presented to MPs last week.

Some MPs demanded the opportunity to vote on Abadi's original list -- from which at least two candidates had already withdrawn -- but the session was adjourned on Tuesday without a vote.

Dozens of lawmakers then began a sit-in and spent the night in parliament, while an "emergency" session on Wednesday ended with MPs shouting, shoving and throwing punches in the chamber.

And on Thursday, lawmakers voted to sack parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi and his deputies, but the speaker insists the session at which the vote was held lacked a quorum and was therefore invalid.

Juburi opponents tried to meet on Saturday to select replacements for him and his deputies, but MPs from the Shiite Badr bloc said they would not attend, leaving it without a quorum.

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Demonstrators then began a sit-in in central Baghdad for the second time in the past month, leading to increased security measures and major traffic jams.

The political turmoil comes as Iraqi forces battle to regain more ground from IS, which has lost significant territory but still holds a major chunk of western Iraq.

An operation against IS west of Baghdad was apparently delayed in March after security forces were withdrawn to provide security for demonstrators in the capital.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, threatened with mass protests over delays in tackling corruption, voiced hope on Monday that Iraq's parliament could vote "in the next few days" on a cabinet of non-party technocrats. On Saturday, powerful Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr warned he would call for major street protests if the nation's leaders failed by Tuesday afternoon to name a technocratic cabinet geared to weeding out graft and mismanagement. Delays in naming a new government, and political and sectarian wrangling over who should be in it, have paralyzed politics in Iraq. Parliament has already postponed the vote on Abadi's government overhaul three times. Abadi has said political turmoil could jeopardize the armed forces' campaign against Islamic State militants who still control large tracts of territory in the north and west of Iraq, including the city of Mosul. Thousands held a sit-in on Monday near the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the parliament and government offices, in support of Sadr's warning to the politicians. ``We're waiting for what Sayyid Moqtada will say tomorrow,'' when the deadline the cleric gave is up, said one of the demonstrators. Iraq, a major OPEC exporter which sits on one of the world's largest crude reserves, ranks a low 161 out of 168 countries on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. "I am looking forward to parliament performing its legislative and supervisory role fully, and voting on the ministerial change in the coming days and as soon as possible,'' Abadi said in a statement on his website. He called on parliament "to convene immediately in order to overcome the obstacles" - a reference to a dispute between MPs about the legitimacy of speaker Salim al-Jabouri. A large bloc in parliament is refusing to meet under Jabouri's chairmanship, blaming him for not holding a session where they can grill Abadi on his proposed cabinet line-up. Jabouri blamed the prime minister's no-show at a session he called for on Thursday. Corruption and fiscal mismanagement became a major issue in Iraq after oil prices collapsed in 2014, shrinking the state budget at a time when it needed additional income to pay for the war against Islamic State. Abadi announced his government overhaul in February under pressure from the Shi'ite clergy as the population continues to suffer high unemployment and lack of basic services. Sadr called off a wave of protests his supporters started at the end of February when the premier presented on March 31 a line-up of candidates made up of independent professionals. Abadi then modified his list under pressure from parliament's dominant political group that has built its influence and wealth on a system of patronage put in place since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Chennai: Accusing Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa of misleading people on the issue of Katchatheevu, DMK chief M. Karunanidhi on Sunday reminded her that any steps to retrieve the island ceded to Sri Lanka has to be taken by the Union Government and that the state governments have no role in the issue.

In a letter to his party cadre, Mr Karunanidhi said the AIADMK chief is giving him opportunities to bring out the truth on several issues. He said the Chief Minister misleads the people only with an eye on the elections.

Ms Jayalalithaa has said several times that it is the Union Government which has to take steps to retrieve Katchatheevu islands from Sri Lanka and that the Chief Minister has no role in it. She had also said that if the Chief Minister had any role, the island would have been retrieved long back, Mr Karunanidhi said.

After making these statements, the Chief Minister says Karunanidhi was responsible for Katchatheevu being given to Sri Lanka. Just before elections, she says she will retrieve Katchatheevu if she comes to back to power. This is just lie, the DMK chief said.

Addressing a public meeting on Friday, the Chief Minister had accused the DMK chief of being responsible for Katchatheevu being given to Sri Lanka.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's military said Monday it had located and destroyed a tunnel extending from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, in the first such discovery since a devastating 2014 conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "global breakthrough in the ability to locate tunnels".

Military spokesman Peter Lerner said the tunnel he accused the Islamist group Hamas of building extended from the southern Gaza Strip several hundred metres (yards) into Israel, although no exit had been constructed.

He declined to provide specifics on how it was "neutralised".

"This tunnel is the first one to be found since Operation Protective Edge," Lerner told journalists, referring to the 2014 war.

"It was built by Hamas in order to infiltrate and execute terror attacks against the people of the southern communities and (military) forces in that area."

Hamas's military wing called the discovery, which it said was east of the southern Gazan city of Rafah, "only a drop in the ocean of what the resistance has prepared in order defend our people, the freedom of the holy places and its land and captives".

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades also claimed the army had not "dared" to publish the full details of the tunnels for fear of scaring Israelis.

According to Lerner, the tunnel was 30 to 40 metres underground and large enough for an adult to stand inside.

- New technology -

It included concrete slabs, "communication lines" and rails used to move rubble, he said.

Lerner called it a "new tunnel", saying the military believed it was built after the 2014 war.

Hamas forces have used tunnels in the past to avoid or carry out attacks, store weapons and at times to enter Israel and capture soldiers.

Israel has suggested in recent months it has developed new technologies that will help it locate Hamas tunnels, and Netanyahu implied the find was the result of this.

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"Israel has achieved a global breakthrough in the ability to locate tunnels," he said in a statement. "The government is investing considerable capital in countering the tunnel threat. This is an ongoing effort that will not end overnight."

Daniel Nisman, security analyst with the Israeli risk analysis firm Levantine Group, said if the technology had made the difference "that is bad news for Hamas".

Israel launched its 2014 operation in Hamas-run Gaza with the stated objectives of halting rocket fire and destroying attack tunnels into Israel.

During the war, 32 tunnels were discovered, including 14 that extended into Israel, according to a UN report on the conflict.

It was the third war in Gaza since 2008 and the longest, deadliest and most destructive.

It killed 2,251 Palestinians, while more than 10,000 were wounded and 100,000 were left homeless.

- Tunnel collapses -

On the Israeli side, 73 people were killed, of whom 67 were soldiers. Up to 1,600 were wounded, according to the United Nations.

A UN report in June said both Israel and Palestinian militants may have committed war crimes during the conflict, decrying "unprecedented" devastation and human suffering.

There have been a number of tunnel collapses within Gaza in recent months, including those extending toward Egypt. Several Gazans have been killed.

The tunnels from to Egypt are generally used for smuggling into and out of the Gaza Strip, which is under an Israeli blockade. Egypt's border with Gaza has also remained largely closed.

In 2014, Egypt began setting up a buffer zone on its border with Gaza, and destroyed hundreds of tunnels it says were used to smuggle weapons and other items.

In September 2015, Egyptian forces carried out excavations that Palestinians say caused the flooding of the last remaining tunnels there.

An Israeli military official said flooding cannot be employed because of the large amount of territory along the Israeli-Gaza border and sea water that would be used would damage a reservoir in the area.

Lieutenant Colonel Ohad Bachar, head of training for an Israeli military engineering unit involved in destroying such tunnels, told AFP last week that the flooding option had been considered in the past, but was abandoned because of those concerns.

He said that in general, heavy equipment and explosives can be used to destroy tunnels.

"We are always... getting new ways to deal with this kind of threat," Bachar said.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's Supreme Court denied on Monday a request by firebrand Islamic cleric Raed Salah to appeal his conviction for inciting violence, but cut his prison sentence by two months to nine.

Salah leads the radical northern wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which authorities outlawed last year after accusing it of instigating violence at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque that sparked months of Palestinian unrest in October.

In March 2014 Jerusalem's Magistrates' Court found him guilty of inciting unrest at Al-Aqsa in 2007, sentencing him to eight months in prison.

The state as well as Salah appealed the decision, and in 2014 the Jerusalem District Court convicted him of incitement to racism as well, increasing his sentence to 11 months, a decision appealed once more by both sides.

In October 2015 the District Court upheld the decision, with Salah requesting permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

On Monday the Supreme Court denied the request to appeal, but in a rare move reduced Salah's prison time to nine months from 11.

The ruling said this was "due to the fact that in the nine years that past since the event, (Salah) has not committed similar felonies".

Salah will begin his prison term on May 8.

Monday's decision comes as a wave of Palestinian violence since October, due in part to fears Israel was attempting to undermine the status quo at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, was largely abating.

Salah's 2007 offence took place during a demonstration against Israeli construction work near the Al-Aqsa compound, in Jerusalem's Old City, and his speech was followed by clashes during which a number of Israeli policemen were injured.
Geneva (AFP) - Syria's envoy to the United Nations on Monday denounced as "provocative" an unprecedented Israeli cabinet meeting held in the Golan Heights, which the Jewish state annexed decades ago.

"It is an irresponsible provocation committed by Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of the Israeli occupation force," Bashar al-Jaafari said of Sunday's cabinet meeting, which was the first ever to be held in the territory seized from Syria in 1967.

Jaafari, who is also the head of Syria's delegation at peace talks set to resume Monday in Geneva, said his government would send letters of protest to the UN secretary general and the Security Council.

The letters, he told a Geneva news conference, urge the Security Council and the secretary-general "to condemn immediately the (Israeli Golan cabinet) meeting and demand that it is not repeated."

Jaafari said that he told the UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, that "the Syrian Arab Republic has the right to take back the Golan.... by all the legal means guaranteed under the UN charter."

Netanyahu, who chaired the meeting, said the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights would "forever" remain in his country's hands.

"The Golan Heights will remain in the hands of Israel forever" and "Israel will never withdraw from the Golan Heights," he said at the start of the cabinet meeting, Israeli public radio reported.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu planned the cabinet meeting as a statement amid fears Israel could come under pressure to return the Golan as part of a future peace deal for its war-torn neighbour.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - A UN Security Council debate turned into a shouting match on Monday between the Israeli and Palestinian ambassadors, who exchanged cries of "Shame on you!" over ongoing violence.

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon broke away from his address to the council and demanded that the Palestinian representative condemn acts of terrorism -- the term he used to describe Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

"Shame on you for glorifying terrorism!" Danon said.

"Shame on you for killing Palestinian children!" Riyad Mansour shot back.

After being called to order by the council president, Danon once again turned to Mansour and hammered: "You cannot say it here. Palestinian children are looking at you right now."

"'I condemn all acts of terrorism': one sentence you cannot say. Shame on you for that," he pressed on.

"Let my people be free! Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! You are an occupier," Mansour hit back.

The council debate took place as the Palestinians pushed for a UN resolution demanding that Israel halt the construction of settlements in the Palestinian territories.

The draft resolution is being negotiated with Arab countries and has yet to be formally circulated to the council, but the United States -- which vetoed a similar resolution in 2011 -- has said it "will consider all options" over the Israeli-Palestinian effort.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in an address that Israeli demolitions of Palestinian buildings in the West Bank were continuing at "an alarming rate," reasserting that settlements are illegal.

The latest surge of violence over the past six months has killed some 30 Israelis and 200 Palestinians, with most of the Palestinians killed while carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Ban said.

The United Nations supports a two-state solution in the Middle East, with Israel and Palestine both recognized countries, and the expansion of Israeli settlements is seen as undermining that plan.

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"Tragically, this solution seems more distant than it has for many decades," Ban said.

The Middle East quartet -- comprised of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia -- is working on a report about how to restart peace efforts.

France is pushing for an international conference to jumpstart negotiations.
Jaffa (Israel) (AFP) - An Israeli soldier caught on video shooting a wounded Palestinian assailant in the head was charged with manslaughter on Monday in a case that has sparked widespread controversy.

Prosecutors presented the indictment to a military court over the March 24 killing, which occurred minutes after the Palestinian had stabbed another soldier and lay prone on the ground wounded by gunfire, according to Israeli authorities.

"The accused violated the rules of engagement without operational justification as the terrorist was lying on the ground wounded and represented no immediate threat for the accused or others who were present," a copy of the indictment said.

"By his acts, the accused unlawfully caused the death of the terrorist Abdul Sharif."

The 19-year-old soldier, who was hugged by his mother as he sat in the hearing, was named as Elor Azria after a gag order was lifted. He also holds French citizenship.

He was also charged with conduct unbecoming of his rank and position in the army.

He will be freed from custody to spend one night with his family to mark the beginning of the Jewish festival of Passover on Friday.

- Political debate -

Video of the incident in Hebron in the occupied West Bank spread widely online and the soldier was arrested, with rights groups labelling it a summary execution.

The video showed Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, lying on the ground, shot along with another man after stabbing and moderately wounding a soldier minutes earlier, according to the army.

The soldier then shoots him again, in the head, without any apparent provocation.

His lawyers have argued that the soldier may have thought the Palestinian was wearing explosives, but he was reportedly already checked for a suicide belt and no one in the video appears to be acting with caution toward him.

The soldier was held at a military prison in the days after the shooting before being confined to his base on April 1.

The court was considering his detention conditions on Monday.

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Defence lawyer Ilan Katz said he believed the court would release him because he "acted as we expect from a combat soldier... when he sees a terrorist who might be a suicide bomber."

The case has led to major controversy in Israel and sparked political tensions, with far-right supporters and politicians calling for the soldier's release.

Supporters are due to hold a music concert calling for his release on Tuesday in Tel Aviv, while outside the court a soldier distributed sandwiches to protesters calling for Azria's release.

Top military brass, however, have strongly condemned his actions.

The killing came amid a wave of violence that began in October and which has killed 201 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

But Israeli forces have also been accused of using excessive force in some cases, charges which they have firmly denied.

The attacks have steadily declined in recent weeks, though there have been concerns that the Passover holiday beginning April 22 could lead to a new surge in violence.

An incident on Thursday ended a three-week lull in deadly violence.

According to the Israeli army, a Palestinian armed with an axe tried to attack an Israeli soldier in the southern West Bank and was shot dead.
New Delhi: Taking a dig at opposition parties, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said the opponents "want to have RSS-free India" but Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants India free from poverty, corruption and unemployment.



"Modi ji wants Garibi Mukt Bharat, Brashtachar Mukt Bharat, Berojgari Mukt Bharat. Our opponents want to have Sangh Mukt Bharat (Modi wants India free from poverty, free from corruption, free from unemployment. Our Opponents want to have RSS-free India)," he said in a tweet.



"They want RSS-free-India. They are not worried about ISI, ISIS," he added.



Congress had on Sunday backed JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar's call for an RSS-free India, saying the saffron fountainhead was "posing a threat to the country's unity and democracy".



Kumar had mounted a counteroffensive against Modi for his 'Congress-mukt Bharat' slogan, saying, "Sangh-mukt Bharat banane ke liye sabhi gair BJP parties ko ek hona hoga (to usher in a Sangh-free India all non-BJP parties will have to come together)."



BJP, however, defended, saying it was unfazed by Kumar's efforts to form a united front to counter it and that such attempts to stop the Modi government "from working for the development of the country and for the poor will not succeed".
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's atomic regulator on Monday said there is no need to shut down the country's only operating nuclear station on southwestern Kyushu island, where a series of quakes killed more than 40 people and damaged infrastructure. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it was monitoring the situation closely at four nuclear power stations, after calling a special meeting of its commissioners. Sensitivity over atomic power is high in Japan after the Fukushima disaster of 2011 was sparked by an earthquake and tsunami. There were no safety issues at the Sendai nuclear station, which has two reactors and is about 120 kilometres (72 miles) south-southwest of Kumamoto city, close to where the quakes struck, NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said at a press conference after the meeting. The NRA is monitoring Genkai, about 100 kilometres northwest of Kumamoto, and Ikata, about 160 kilometres east-northeast of the quake zone. Sendai and Genkai, which has four reactors, are operated by Kyushu Electric Power, while Ikata is owned by Shikoku Electric Power. The regulator is also monitoring Shimane, a two-reactor station operated by Chugoku Electric Power, located further away on the main island of Honshu. The country has been taking steps back to nuclear energy since the Fukushima disaster led to the eventual shutdown of all reactors. It turned on the first reactor at Sendai in August after a two-year blackout and the second at the same station in October. Another station that began operating later, however, was shut down by a court last month. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and many in industry say nuclear power is necessary to cut fuel bills despite widespread public opposition to atomic power, even after electricity bills rose. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Stephen Coates)
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's atomic regulator on Monday said there is no need to shut down the country's only operating nuclear station on southwestern Kyushu island, where a series of quakes killed more than 40 people and damaged infrastructure. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it was monitoring the situation closely at four nuclear power stations, after calling a special meeting of its commissioners. Sensitivity over atomic power is high in Japan after the Fukushima disaster of 2011 was sparked by an earthquake and tsunami. There were no safety issues at the Sendai nuclear station, which has two reactors and is about 120 kilometers (72 miles) south-southwest of Kumamoto city, close to where the quakes struck, NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said at a press conference after the meeting. The NRA is monitoring Genkai, about 100 kilometers northwest of Kumamoto, and Ikata, about 160 kilometers east-northeast of the quake zone. Sendai and Genkai, which has four reactors, are operated by Kyushu Electric Power, while Ikata is owned by Shikoku Electric Power. The regulator is also monitoring Shimane, a two-reactor station operated by Chugoku Electric Power, located further away on the main island of Honshu. The country has been taking steps back to nuclear energy since the Fukushima disaster led to the eventual shutdown of all reactors. It turned on the first reactor at Sendai in August after a two-year blackout and the second at the same station in October. Another station that began operating later, however, was shut down by a court last month. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and many in industry say nuclear power is necessary to cut fuel bills despite widespread public opposition to atomic power, even after electricity bills rose. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Stephen Coates)
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday he wanted to officially designate the southern region hit by the deadly earthquakes since last week as a disaster area as soon as possible. Such a designation would allow the government to spend more on reconstruction and other necessary activities. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Sunday the government may seek a supplementary budget to cover the cost of the quakes. The earthquakes in Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu since last Thursday have caused 42 deaths, while 10 remain "out of contact". About 110,000 people have been displaced. (Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)
Jerusalem (AFP) - A bomb blast ripped through a bus in Jerusalem on Monday and sparked a fire, wounding at least 21 people, Israeli police said, in an apparent escalation in a wave of violence.

Details were still emerging, but police said a bomb had exploded on one bus in a relatively isolated area of Jerusalem, with the flames spreading to another one as well as a car.

Israeli domestic security agency Shin Bet referred to the explosion as a "terror attack".

The bombing was expected to lead to a sharp increase in security ahead of Jewish Passover celebrations beginning Friday night.

If confirmed as a Palestinian bombing, it would both reverse a decline in a wave of violence that erupted in October and mark an escalation, with most of the attacks having been stabbings.

"A professional examination of police sappers has proven that a bomb exploded on the back part of the bus, resulting in the wounding of passengers and the burning of the bus," a police statement.

"In addition, another bus and car were damaged."

An AFP journalist at the scene said one bus was completely burnt out while another was partially burned, with a large contingent of firefighters battling to extinguish the blaze.

Police said 21 people were injured, with medics reporting at least two hurt seriously. Police were investigating whether any of the wounded were behind the bombing.

Initially police said the explosion was on an empty bus, with people on a bus and car nearby wounded by the ensuing fire, correcting later to say it was the bus with passengers that was hit by the bomb.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "we'll find whoever prepared this explosive device".

"We'll reach the dispatchers and those behind them. We'll settle the score with these terrorists. We're in an ongoing struggle against terror, knife terror, shooting terror, bombs, rockets and tunnel terror."

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, welcomed the attack as "a natural response to Zionist crimes", but there was no claim of responsibility for the bombing.

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- Security implications -

The blast struck in an area of the city without any major buildings or homes and which is not heavily used by pedestrians.

The location was on Moshe Baram Street close to the so-called Green Line dividing mainly Jewish west Jerusalem from mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called on residents to be vigilant, "but continue with your plans".

"It's part of the deep understanding that if it's a terror attack, they want to deter us from our normal life, and what we must do... is go back to normal life as fast as possible," he said.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that on a day "frightened citizens returning from their daily routine are being rushed to hospital -- it is clear to us all, that the struggle against terrorism is ceaseless."

"We will pursue and we will reach all those who wish us harm, until quiet is assured," he said in a statement.

The explosion comes with tensions high following a wave of violence that began in October that has killed 201 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

The last bomb targeting a bus in Jerusalem dates back to 2011, when a British tourist was killed.

In Tel Aviv, a bomb exploded on an empty bus in 2013 in what Israeli authorities called a "terrorist" attack.

Suicide bombings were frequent during the second Palestinian intifada between 2000-2005.

Daniel Katzenstein, a first responder with the United Hatzalah medical service, said when he arrived on the scene "we saw a pile of smoke that was reminiscent of the bus bombings in the early 2000s".

"There were many people far too dangerously close to the bus when it was burning. Our first task was to get them to a safe place and to begin to treat them," he said.

Speaking before the bomb was confirmed, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said "if it was a terrorist attack, the implications are very great in terms of security on the ground".

Attacks have steadily declined in recent weeks, though there have been concerns the Passover holiday could lead to a new surge in violence.

Many analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the recent unrest.

Israel blames incitement by Palestinian leaders and media as a main cause of the violence.
IFC has found its Stan. Scrubs alum John C. McGinley has been tapped to tackle the title role in horror comedy Stan Against Evil.

The eight-episode project from The Simpsons alum Dana Gould and first reported by The Hollywood Reporter is set to start shooting in June with the episodes slated for a fall premiere.

Stanley Miller (McGinley), described as a sour, aging bulldog of a New England police sheriff who loses his job after an awkward outburst, befriends his replacement (Janet Varney). The two join forces to fight a plague of angry demons haunting their New Hampshire town.

McGinley, who most recently starred in TBS comedy Ground Floor, also will serve as an executive producer. "Dana has crafted the most deliciously combustible, subversive contrarian on television," the actor said Monday in a statement. "And we are going to set it off."

Written and produced by Gould, the project also is executive produced by Tom Lassally at 3 Arts and Radical Media's Frank Scherma and Justin Wilkes

McGinley is repped by UTA.
Senior BJP leader and Union environment minister, Prakash Javadekar addresses the press at the party headquarters in Chennai on SUnday. (Photo: DC)

Chennai: Senior BJP leader and Union environment minister, Prakash Javadekar, on Sunday accused the ruling AIADMK government and DMK of doing petty politics. He said both the Dravidian parties presented corruption full bad governance and were fooling the people while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has presented corruption free good governance.

AIADMK and DMK are playing smart politics, smart games here, he told reporters here. Flaying the government for allegedly pasting Amma stickers on a centrally sponsored scheme, Javadekar, also BJP election in-charge for Tamil Nadu, said, in giving free rice to poor, 90 per cent is central government subsidy.

Ten per cent is what state government gives. But they are putting label and calling it as Amma Free Arisi (Rice) scheme. What we are saying is at least call it as Pradhan Mantri Arisi.

Poor people get Amma Arisi free of cost that is 20 kilos under free rice scheme. What is the proof of Amma free Arisi? ...Central government gives `32 whereas Amma (Jayalalithaa) gives `3 and that is labelled and stickers are pasted as Amma Arisi (rice)..This kind of politics they are playing.

It is not Amma Arisi. It is Modi Arisi. We can say it as Pradhan Mantri Arisi. We are not fond of names. But who is giving what and it must be named together...they are fooling people, Javadekar said.

Claiming that coconut growers in Tamil Nadu were not given government subsidy, he said, I met coconut growers here and they are suffering...They are not given any subsidy. They are not allowed to tap coconut for making herbal drink.

Government does not want poor to take healthy drink but only Tasmac (state-run liquor outlets) liquor. That is what they are interested in because it is their business, he charged.
By Byron Kaye

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian court let off the actress wife of Hollywood star Johnny Depp with a good behavior bond on Monday after she pleaded guilty to falsifying travel documents to sneak two pet dogs into the country.

Depp accompanied his wife, Amber Heard, for the hearing at a packed courthouse in the Southport magistrates court, near where he had been shooting a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel when the scandal erupted last year.

Bringing an end to what the Australian media had gleefully dubbed the war on terrier, a magistrate filed no conviction for Heard but issued a formal order to stay out of trouble for a month or face a A$1,000 ($767) fine.

Heard, 29, had faced charges of illegally importing animals after authorities accused the couple of flying their Yorkshire Terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country without going through proper quarantine procedures.

But on Monday, the court learned that state prosecutors agreed to drop those charges when Heard pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of lying on an incoming passenger form when entering the country to visit Depp on set last year.

For the A-list couple, the result is a reassuringly un-Hollywood ending to their brush with Australias notoriously tough quarantine laws.

The original charges against Heard carried a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of A$10,000.

The ruling also drew a line under the unlikely diplomatic tangle between the celebrity pair and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who in his capacity as farm minister threatened to have the dogs put down if Depp and Heard did not remove them.

Depp made no comments before entering the courthouse other than brief pleasantries to waiting media.

In court, Heards lawyers played a video apology in which the expressionless couple praised Australias biosecurity rules and Depp noted that if you disrespect Australian law, they will tell you firmly.

Heard added, in the video, that Australia was a wonderful island and she was truly sorry that Pistol and Boo were not declared because protecting Australia is important.

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Heards lawyer, Jeremy Kirk, told the court his client was jetlagged and worried about a hand injury Depp received on set, and believed all appropriate arrangements in relation to the dogs had been made.

She has made a tired, terrible mistake, he said.

For Joyce, the result also represents a win since it vindicates the rural politicians decision to go public with his complaint about the couples violation of the countrys animal import laws. He faces a general election on July, with opinion polls showing support for the government sinking.

In a statement, Joyce said he appreciated Heards willingness to take responsibility for her actions and acknowledgement that she broke our national biosecurity laws.

He used more rugged language 11 months ago when he warned that if we start letting movie stars, even though theyve been the sexiest man alive twice  to come into our nation (with pets), then why dont we just break the laws for everybody?

($1 = 1.3046 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Byron Kaye)
Amman (AFP) - Jordan has decided not to install security cameras at Islam's third holiest site, the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, because of some Palestinian doubts, Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur said Monday.

"We have been surprised by the reactions of some who have made comments expressing their doubts about the aims of the project," the official Petra news agency quoted Nsur as saying.

"Because we respect the point of view of the Palestinians... we believe the project is no longer consensual, but a potential source of conflict, and have decided to end it," he said.

On March 20, Jordan said it would set up 55 security cameras around the flashpoint compound to monitor any Israeli "violations".

The site -- revered by Jews as their holiest site, the Temple Mount -- is administered by a Jordanian trust or "Waqf".

In October, after meeting Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, US Secretary of State John Kerry endorsed a plan for cameras at the site in a bid to calm repeated disturbances. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed.

Kerry hailed the agreement as an important breakthrough at the time, and on Monday his spokesman expressed disappointment that the plan has apparently failed.

"We still see the value in the use of cameras," US spokesman John Kirby said.

"So the Jordanians can speak to this decision that they've made to halt the project. We think it's unfortunate, as we continue to believe in the value of that tool for that purpose and we continue to urge all sides to restore calm and reduce the violence."

Nsur said Amman's main objective had been to install surveillance cameras "at the compound, not inside the mosques, to document repeated Israeli aggressions at the holy places".

Firebrand Israeli Arab cleric Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement, had called on Jordan to reconsider the project, fearing that it would become "the eyes of Israel".

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The compound in east Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally, houses the famed golden Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces erupted at the compound last September amid fears among Muslims that Israel was planning to change rules governing the site.

Netanyahu has repeatedly said there are no such plans.
Amman (AFP) - Around 50,000 Syrians are stranded in no-man's land along the border with Jordan, a three-fold increase since January because of increased security checks, state news agency Petra reported Monday.

The agency, quoting government spokesman Mohamed Momani, said the estimated 50,000 refugees were massed around the desert border posts of Hadalat and Rokban.

In January, Jordan had estimated their number of 16,000 and appealed for assistance from international relief agencies.

"Because of the security situation, Jordan has to tightly control the Syrian refugees before allowing them to enter, giving priority to the elderly, women and children," it said.

Momani said 75 relief workers paid daily visits to the refugee camps under the supervision of different aid organisations.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi said at the start of the year that he fully understands the security concerns which have led Jordan to limit the flow of refugees entering from war-torn Syria.

Jordan has insisted it must screen newcomers to ensure they are genuine refugees and not jihadists seeking to infiltrate the country.

The kingdom is now only allowing in a few dozen refugees each day after the screening process.

Jordan already hosts more than 630,000 Syrian refugees, according to the UNHCR.

Its government gives a much higher estimate of 1.4 million refugees, because many of them are unregistered.
YSR Congress leader Roja addresses a gathering at a hunger strike by party Vizag City president Gudivada Amarnath demanding separate Railway Zone for Visakhapatnam near GVMC Gandhi statue in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. (Photo: DC)

Visakhapatnam: The ruling Telugu Desam has been poaching YSRC MLAs due to lack of able leaders in its yellow brigade, said YSR Congress MLA Roja on Sunday.

Ms Roja and Tirupati MP Varaprasad Rao joined YSRC district president Gudivada Amarnath, who sat on a fast-unto-death for a separate railway zone at Visakhapatnam, and expressed their solidarity with him.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms Roja took a dig at the TD government and its leaders, including Chief Minister and TD national president N. Chandrababu Naidu, Nara Lokesh, Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Ayyanna Patrudu and Atchannaidu. She termed Mr Naidu Tuppu. and his son Lokesh as Pappu.

Chandrababu Naidu, who fears charges for the cash-for-vote scam, has prostrated before the Union government, leaving the interests of the people of Andhra Pradesh in the air. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who brags that he is a moralistic and credible leader, should seek a fresh mandate for the YSRC defectors.

Chandrababu Naidu has been luring the Opposition party leaders by foisting false cases and offering huge packages. If the TD has able leaders, the need wouldnt have arisen for Mr Amarnath to launch a hunger strike, putting his life at risk, said Ms Roja.

"The TD ministers have been a bane to the state. Both Ayyanna Patrudu and Ganta Srinivasa Rao are competing only in looting the state. I have never seen minister Atchannaidu, who also hails from north Andhra region, asking about the railway zone. Mr Amarnaths hunger strike is a proud moment for the YSRC, Ms Roja added.

YSRC Vizag city presidents hunger strike thwarted

In the late hours of Sunday, the Vizag police evicted YSRC MLA Gudivada Amarnath, who sat on an indefinite hunger strike for a separate railway zone at Visakhapatnam, from the protest camp at the Gandhi statue near the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) office and admitted him to a hospital on the pretext of deteriorating health condition.

At 10 pm, a team of policemen reached the camp and shifted Mr. Amarnath who launched his fast-unto-death on April 14 for a separate railway zone, marking the 125th birth anniversary of Dr. BR Ambedkar.

The government cou-ldnt tolerate the growing support for Mr. Amarnath in his fight for a separate railway zone. The CPI, CPM, Loksatta, several railway unions, student unions and women groups extended their support to Mr. Amarnath since the launch of the hunger strike.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Iran's foreign minister in New York on Tuesday to discuss implementation of the Iran nuclear deal as well as regional issues such as ending Syria's civil war, the U.S. State Department said on Monday. After meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Kerry will visit Egypt to see Egypt's president and foreign minister and then Riyadh to join President Barack Obama at the Gulf Cooperation Council Summit, it said in a statement. (Reporting By Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said on Monday she "humbly" accepted her ruling party's shock electoral defeat and vowed to work with the now opposition-controlled national assembly.

Last week's ballot saw Park's conservative Saenuri Party lose its parliamentary majority for the first time in 16 years, as voters registered their dissatisfaction with the president's economic record and soaring youth unemployment.

The result left the three liberal opposition parties with a combined 167 seats in the 300-seat legislature.

Presiding over her first cabinet meeting since the election, Park said it had provided "an opportunity to think about the people's will".

"I will humbly accept the consensus of public opinion and put people's livelihoods at the foremost of state affairs," she added.

The crushing defeat leaves Park, who has less than two years left of her single, five-year term, a lame duck leader who will increasingly struggle to push through her conservative economic agenda, including labour reforms.

Political power in South Korea is firmly concentrated in the presidency and Park has fallen short on most of her key economic promises, a failure she put down to legislative inaction.

Vowing to "work closely" with the new parliament, Park told her senior officials to prioritise "policies for boosting job creation".

Under Park's presidency, annual economic growth in Asia's fourth largest economy has averaged around 2.9 percent compared to 3.2 percent under her predecessor Lee Myung-Bak.

Exports, which account for more than half of GDP, have fallen for the past 14 months straight, while household debt has soared to a record $1.0 trillion.

Meanwhile, the jobless rate for those under 30 has reached a record high of 12.5 percent.
LIMA (Reuters) - Centrist economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is expected to beat Keiko Fujimori, the conservative daughter of a jailed former president, in Peru's June 5 presidential runoff election, according to an Ipsos poll published on Sunday. The first poll published since both candidates made it through the first round of voting earlier this month showed Kuczynski getting 44 percent of the vote compared to Fujimori's 40 percent. Peru's free-market model would be maintained in either a Kuczynski or Fujimori presidency, as both candidates favor the economic system that has been in place for 25 years. "What this poll tells me is that our economic proposal is good, our social investment proposal is good and that we haven't communicated well enough our proposal for citizen security and we are going to communicate it," Kuczynski said after the results were published. Fujimori, whose father Alberto was Peru's authoritarian leader throughout the 1990s, has been seen as vulnerable in the second round vote after she fell far short of the 50 percent of votes needed for outright victory in the first ballot. In the first round, 40 year-old Fujimori garnered 40 percent support while Kuczynski, 77, a former World Bank economist widely known by his initials 'PPK', secured 21 percent. Veronika Mendoza, a 35-year-old leftist lawmaker, fell short with 19 percent of the votes, and Fujimori and Kuczynski now face the challenge of wooing left-wing voters. Mendoza told Reuters late on Wednesday that it was too soon to say if her party might eventually endorse a vote for Kuczynski to defeat Fujimori, whom she deemed "the greater evil" in the runoff. The son of European immigrants, Kuczynski is a pro-business economist and a former finance minister. Compared with Fujimori, he is considered to be more moderate on some social issues. Fujimori's chances could be handicapped by many Peruvians dislike for her father. According to Ipsos, 42 percent of those polled said they would definitely not vote for Fujimori in the runoff, while 32 percent said the same of Kuczynski. Ipsos says its poll of 1,822 people, conducted between April 13-15, has a 2.3 percentage point margin of error. (Reporting by Ursula Scollo; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Kuwait City (AFP) - A walkout by thousands of Kuwaiti oil workers entered its second day on Monday, slashing production by over 60 percent as the government looks abroad to recruit foreign employees.

"To all workers in the oil sector... the strike continues," the Kuwait oil workers union said on Twitter.

The OPEC member's crude production dropped from 3.0 million barrels per day to 1.1 million bpd, and refining output dived to 520,000 bpd from 930,000 bpd due to the strike.

Spokesman for Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC) Khaled al-Assoussi said Monday that Kuwait was still exporting crude oil and refined products.

He said on his Twitter account that three refineries were operating in accordance with an emergency plan at 55 percent of their capacity.

The cabinet on Sunday described the strike as "illegal" and called for legal action against the workers union.

The cabinet also ordered national oil conglomerate Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) to recruit manpower from outside the Gulf state to operate some of its oil facilities.

The workers union described the strike as "very successful" adding that thousands have joined.

They are protesting against plans by the government to cut incentives, benefits and wages for current and new workers following the sharp drop in oil revenues.

Ahead of the strike, the workers rejected a pledge by acting oil minister Anas al-Saleh and KPC to suspend all austerity measures targeting employees and to start fresh talks.

Kuwait is introducing a new payroll scheme for all public employees and wants to include the country's 20,000 oil workers, which would mean an automatic cut in wages and incentives.

KPC said on Sunday that reserves of gasoline and petrol derivatives were "enough to meet the country's demands for 25 days and strategic reserves could suffice for 31 more days".

The union is also protesting against plans to privatise parts of the oil sector.
Pudukkottai: Senior Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram expressed his dissatisfaction over the DMK high command's decision of allocating only 41 seats for Congress as part of the DMK-front, for the May 16 Assembly elections. He was dismayed that some of the constituencies were "forcibly given to us even without we asking for it."

Mr Chidambaram made this observation after declaring open a new building to house the Pudukkottai District Congress committee here on Sunday. However, Congress men will not stay away from the field due to this dissatisfaction, Mr Chidambaram clarified, adding, they were duty found to work jointly with the DMK-led allied parties for the May 16 election, and to work hard for the victory of the DMK-front.

He said it was the volunteers of the congress party, which had got weakened in the last few years, which were its strength as well as its weakness. Once the workers of the party strengthen, the congress too will be strengthened, he added.
Bamako (AFP) - At least one civilian was killed Monday during a protest against foreign peacekeepers in the Malian city of Kidal, underlining simmering tensions between the local population and UN and French troops based in the area.

Local protesters had forced their way onto an airport runway used by UN and French soldiers supporting domestic forces as they battle marauding bandits and a jihadist insurgency, according to several sources.

A source within the UN mission told AFP that "at least one civilian was killed" as angry demonstrators protested about day-to-day "harassment".

The UN mission in Mali, also referred to by its acronym MINUSMA, confirmed that the demonstration had taken place but said in a statement that reports of anyone being wounded or killed were "being verified".

"The protesters forced their way onto the airport runway around 1000 GMT, a restricted area, ransacking the place and setting fire to security facilities," the UN force said in its statement.

A Kidal resident told AFP that UN troops had "fired on the crowd" in the troubled northern city, which provides a base for the foreign contingents.

France's Operation Barkhane, launched in 2014, deploys 3,500 soldiers across five countries in the Sahel region to maintain cross-border security following the ousting of jihadists from key towns in Mali's north.

The MINUSMA mission is the most deadly active deployment for UN peacekeepers and has also suffered internal tensions since its launch in July 2013.

The ex-rebels of Mali's Coordination of Movements of the Azawad (CMA), which has a significant presence in the area, said two protesters were killed and several injured.

The CMA said the demonstrators had "not respected the usual procedures" of peaceful protest but also called for an immediate inquiry into who had fired the lethal shots.

The group was mostly composed of women and young people angry at what they considered to be frequent cases of arbitrary detention, according to the ex-rebels.

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Meanwhile a Guinean MINUSMA soldier told AFP the protesters were calling for the release of three men who were arrested in connection with the killings of French soldiers last week.

It was believed the trio had links with "terrorists who recently laid the mines that killed three French soldiers," according to the Guinean.

The UN said it was in contact with the local authorities with the aim of easing tensions, promising "total transparency" in subsequent reports on the incident.

In January 2015 three protesters were killed by MINUSMA police in the city of Gao in an anti-UN protest.

Mali's vast, desolate north fell under the control of Tuareg-led rebels who allied with jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012.

The Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led operation preceding Barkhane in January 2013, although they have since launched sporadic attacks on security forces from desert hideouts.
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan forces have recaptured key areas in the city of Benghazi, building on earlier advances during weeks of clashes with Islamist militants and other opponents. Troops allied with the government based in eastern Libya took control of a cement factory and cemetery in El Hawari district, where fighters loyal to Islamic State had been holding out, said Milad al-Zawie, a spokesman for the government forces. The troops also took a camp behind Garyounis university, which they captured on Sunday, Zawie said. Five soldiers were killed and nine wounded in the Benghazi fighting, he said. The university has been one of the most bitterly contested sites in the city since the eastern military commander, Khalifa Haftar, launched his Operation Dignity campaign to rid the city of Islamists and other opposition in May 2014. Benghazi itself has seen some of the heaviest fighting in the conflict that has engulfed Libya after the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. The country has been split since then between two governments, one in Tripoli and one in the east. Various armed groups are allied with both governments, and Islamist militants have inserted themselves into the conflict. The army began a fresh push in Benghazi in February, recapturing the neighborhoods of Laithi and Boatni and allowing some residents to return to their homes. But until now the army had not built on those advances. A U.N.-backed unity government arrived in Tripoli last month, and is trying to establish itself by winning over opponents in both the east and west of the country. (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Ahmed Elumami; Editing by Aidan Lewis, Larry King)
Kolkata: The Election Commission will examine the CD of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election speech in West Bengal where he criticised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for "violating" the model code of conduct.

"We will send the video CD to EC. They will see what is to be done," West Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta said.

He was asked to comment on Modi's speech in Krishnagar where he criticised Banerjee saying she "violated" the model code of conduct as the chief secretary replied to a showcause notice issued to her by the Election Commission.

"Either TMC, or its lawyer or Mamataji herself should have given the reply. But if it is true that chief secretary has sent the reply, it was a violation of the model code and misuse of government machinery," Modi had said earlier in the day.
London (AFP) - In a breach of the usual strict etiquette on London's crowded Underground, passengers at one station are being told not to walk up the escalators from Monday to reduce congestion.

Commuters and tourists on the Tube are usually told to stand on the right and walk on the left-hand side of the narrow escalators, allowing travellers in a hurry to race past those content to wait.

But passengers at Holborn station, one of central London's busiest interchanges, are now being asked to stand on both the left and right-hand sides of upwards-moving escalators in the hope of accelerating everyone's journey.

The pilot scheme will last for six months. A previous three-week experiment at the station cut congestion by 30 percent.

"We hope that this can lead to improving congestion at Holborn, making journeys easier for all of our customers," said Peter McNaught, operations director of London Underground.

London's population stands at a record level of over 8.5 million and is forecast to grow to ten million by 2030.

Over 1.3 billion journeys were made on the Tube last year, up over three percent on the previous year. Numbers have increased by a third over the past decade, prompting a huge programme of expansion and renovation.
The patent file for the Wright brothers' original "Flying Machine" has returned to the National Archives, after being misplaced 36 years ago.

The long-missing patent paperwork filed by aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright on March 23,1903, included a diagram of their invention, their petition for patent approval, the patent registry form, and their patent oath, affirming that "they verily believe themselves to be the original, joint inventors" of the so-called "Flying Machine."

The Wright brothers didn't wait for the patent to be granted to take flight. On Dec. 17, 1903, the brothers lofted their flying machine into the air for 12 seconds, flying 120 feet at Kitty Hawk, on North Carolina's Outer Banks. And a little more than three years after filing, the Wright brothers were granted their patent: number 821,393, assigned on May 22, 1906.

A wrong turn for the Wright patent

For years, the files resided in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., the federal repository for historically important U.S. documents.

But more than three decades ago, the Wright patent took a wrong turn, embarking on an unexpected journey that diverged from its proper place for quite a bit longer than expected.

In 1978, the National Archives lent a number of documents  including the Wright brothers' patent  to the Smithsonian Institutions Air and Space Museum, for an aviation exhibit commemorating the 75th anniversary of the first successful flight of a manned, powered, heavier-than-air craft at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Archivists marked the documents as returned in 1980, but a later search failed to locate the patent, and it was added to the official list of missing files. Other important entries currently on the National Archives "Missing Historical Documents and Items" list include the patent drawing for Eli Whitney's cotton gin, assorted 19th-century presidential pardons, several telegrams written by President Abraham Lincoln, and a diamond-studded dagger that was given to President Harry S. Truman.

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Sometimes, historic documents and artifacts are stolen for private sale, and the National Archives exhorts collectors and dealers to avoid illegally buying, selling or trading in stolen government documents, and to report any that they might encounter to the proper officials.

But important documents can also simply be misplaced. With more than 107,600 cubic feet (3,047 cubic meters) of patent files in storage at the National Archives, containing 269 million pages, it's not very difficult to imagine how a single patent could "disappear" if it were mistakenly filed in the wrong spot.

Which is apparently what happened to the Wright brothers' patent. A National Archives representative revealed in a statement that the patent had been filed in the wrong box, and that the Archival Recovery Program tracked it down on March 22, after a targeted search. A folder holding the missing documents had surfaced in a National Archives storage "cave" in Lenaxa, Kansas, The Washington Post reported on April 2.

After spending more than three decades in hiding, the recovered documents will be getting some long-overdue attention. Several pages will appear in an exhibit at the National Archives Museum's West Rotunda Gallery, beginning May 20, to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Orville and Wilbur Wright receiving patent number 821,393.

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An Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth entity said Monday that the Malaysian state fund 1MDB had defaulted on $1.1 billion it owed in a new blow to the scandal-tainted company.

The announcement, made in a filing to the London Stock Exchange by Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), raised the spectre of Malaysian market turmoil if 1MDB is unable to dig out from under its huge debts.

1MDB, or 1Malaysia Development Berhad, was founded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009 but is now teetering on the verge of default amid multiple investigations around the world into allegations that billions were looted from it.

IPIC had agreed in 2012 to guarantee $3.5 billion in 1MDB bonds, lend it more than a billion dollars, and make interest payments on the bonds.

In its statement, IPIC said 1MDB and its owner, Malaysia's Finance Ministry, had failed to pay back more than $1.1 billion they owed.

"As a result, 1MDB and MOF are in default," IPIC said.

Najib has been under fierce pressure over 1MDB's accumulation of more than $11 billion in questionable debt, and his own acceptance of nearly $700 million into his personal bank accounts in 2013.

Najib has denied that the money he received, first revealed last year, was siphoned from 1MDB, saying it was a gift from the Saudi royal family.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister confirmed last week the money came from his country, but only after weeks of silence as doubts over Najib's claim grew.

Following IPIC's announcement, Malaysia's Finance Ministry issued a statement curtly noting the "dispute" over the loan but sought to reassure markets.

"The MOF wishes to make clear that it will continue to honour all of its outstanding commitments in the financial markets," it said.

1MDB's problems have riveted Malaysia for more than a year, ratcheting up pressure on Najib to resign and raising concerns that Malaysia financial markets could be hammered if the company were to default on its massive debts.

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The scandal had already contributed to a plunge in the value of Malaysia's ringgit currency last year.

1MDB was supposed to pay IPIC back via payments to a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi fund called Aabar Investments PJS.

Contrary to 1MDB's claims, IPIC said last week that Aabar never received the money.

A recent investigative report by the Wall Street Journal said 1MDB instead paid more than $2 billion to a British Virgin Islands entity, an apparent shell company with a nearly identical name to Aabar's.

The British Virgin Islands entity has since been shut down, the Journal said.

"IPIC and Aabar .... are considering their options in relation to this dispute, including referring the matter to the appropriate dispute resolution forum," the statement said.
Ports and islands are useful things, especially those scattered across thousands of miles of a hotly contested ocean in one of the most volatile regions of the world. To lease, occupy and possibly even own one is every countrys ambition.

Take the United States, long settled in its largest overseas military base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia (leased from the British in the late Sixties in exchange for a handful of Pershing missiles). Since all roads on the world terror map somehow lead to the AfPak region and given Chinas expansionism across Asia, US presence in the Indian Ocean has swelled in recent years.

For India and China, more than 80 per cent of whose crude oil needs are met by tankers traversing the ocean (with Sri Lankas Colombo port playing a pivotal role), the battle for supremacy here began a long time ago. But while New Delhi under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance governments remained stultified in the stranglehold of coalition partners such as the anti-Sinhalese Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, Beijing cast its pearly net swiftly and precisely all over the Indian Ocean region  in Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh  and beyond. In Sri Lanka, it went from strength to strength.

It built and enjoys unrestricted access to the south eastern port of Hambantota and was later awarded the coveted $1.5 billion dollar contract for constructing Colombos Port City. The last rankled New Delhi the most, since more than 80 per cent of Indias overall commercial shipping traffic passes through Colombo.

Scattered across 90,000 sq km, the 1,192 islands of the Maldives are of particular interest to all players, more so since the countrys growing closeness to Saudi Arabia has allegedly led to a rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the archipelago. Since 2014, all religions other than Islam stand banned and the country will receive a grant from Saudi Arabia to intensify the study of the Quran, build more mosques and therewith almost certainly allow the radical Wahhabi form of Islam to strike roots in the Maldives.

Most recently, Western nations fighting anti-terror wars around the world found a handy weapon to threaten action against the Maldives: The ousting of democratically-elected former President Mohamed Nasheed and his quasi-banishment to the UK, ostensibly for medical treatment. An international campaign calling for sanctions against the Maldives has been launched and is being spearheaded by none other than Mr Nasheeds lawyer, the glamorous Amal Clooney.

But like its approach in Sri Lanka under the all-powerful Rajapaksa, Chinas Maldives policy too has focused on geo-strategy and predictably ignored alleged violations of human rights and democratic principles. China is building infrastructure in the Maldives and has for long been suspected of maintaining a nuclear submarine base in a southern atoll. The liberalisation of land sales by Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom and his welcoming his countrys inclusion in Chinas Maritime Silk Road plan will certainly lead to more Chinese acquisitions across the archipelago.

Indias presence in the Maldives is not unsubstantial. It maintains naval ships and radar stations there and has helped out in times of natural disasters. But on the political and geo-strategic front India has so far teetered indecisively, at times supporting and at others,ignoring the calls for democracy that have grown over the past decades, chiefly at the behest of the ousted Mr Nasheeds Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), now restricted to the opposition. Relations soured after Indias GMR group was ousted from the Male airport modernisation project and the contract given to a Chinese company which will invest $800 million in it.

Suddenly, human rights became an issue and India joined Western nations in denouncing Male for sacking the Chief Justice and arresting several ministers. Prime Minister Narendra Modis omission of the Maldives on his Indian Ocean tour was conspicuous. Sri Lankan analysts often point to how it was primarily Indias support of Western, anti-Sri Lanka resolutions at the United Nations that pushed Colombo into the waiting arms of the Chinese. Indian policy towards the Maldives too seems stuck in a similar groove.

It was the age-old conundrum: Do we side with the big boys of the West and denounce Male, or craft a more pragmatic policy? For the first time in decades, those questions were answered decisively by Mr Modi when President Yameen arrived in Delhi earlier this month. Mr Yameen came to power by illegally ousting Mr Nasheed. Votes were rigged, Opposition members  of late even 30 journalists  were slammed behind bars. Mr Yameen belongs to the same party as former President Gayoom who ruled the Maldives with near-dictatorial control for over three decades. And, finally, this is the same Yameen who has visited Saudi Arabia three times in under two years and given that country unbridled access to investment and education in the Maldives.

And yet, Mr Modi initialled six agreements, including one on defence cooperation with the Maldivian President earlier this month. Further, India has been making backroom efforts to prevent international sanctions against the Maldives. So are geo-strategy and an India-centric thrust going to be the new benchmarks of Delhis Maldives policy?

After all, for all their political troubles, the Maldives have for decades remained a tolerant, if conservative society, permitting alcohol, pork and scanty beachwear  items forbidden by Islam  on the hundreds of islands leased to international luxury resort chains. Despite the indignation and loud protests by their governments, Western tourists continue to flock to what is one of the most beautiful countries in the world to sample its superlative, high-end hospitality.

Indias new approach to relations with the Maldives seems to have factored in that relatively peaceful history too.

Though India has every reason to be worried about the growth of Wahhabism anywhere in the neighbourhood, Mr Modi, for now, seems content with Mr Yameens promise to curb radicalism and his assurance of institutional reforms. Oxymorons from the self-appointed President of an increasingly conservative Islamic nation, say analysts. India, as the Indian Ocean Rims most powerful country, must demand action.
VALLETTA (Reuters) - The Maltese government comfortably won a confidence vote in the House of Representatives on Monday after 13 hours of non-stop debate over revelations in the Panama Papers. The opposition had presented a motion of no confidence in the government after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat failed to remove Energy and Health Minister Konrad Mizzi and his own chief of staff, Keith Schembri, who were found to each have a secret company in Panama and a trust in New Zealand. They were formed after the government took office in 2013. The Panama Papers, published on April 3, are a set of 11.5 million confidential documents with information on about 214,000 offshore companies compiled by Panamanian lawyers Mossack Fonseca that illustrate how individuals and corporations hide assets from public scrutiny and avoid taxes. Mizzi insisted in Parliament that he had done nothing wrong and his arrangements were for the management of family assets, although he admitted that choosing Panama "wasn't the best choice." "I regret that the Panama Papers distracted from the government's successes," Mizzi said. "Investigations will show I did nothing wrong." Muscat said he would base his decisions on facts, but he agreed that there was an issue of political correctness, saying that "doing nothing is not an option". He did not say what actions he might take, however. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said there was no logical reason why a minister and a chief of staff would set up a Panama company and a trust in New Zealand and also attempt to set up bank accounts in eight countries. This case, he said, harmed Malta's reputation and the government's inaction made a bad situation worse. Schembri has also denied wrongdoing, saying the arrangements were for the management of assets related to businesses he was involved in before taking up the government post. (Reporting by Chris Scicluna)
(Reuters) - A man who had been sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping and murder of a 7-year-old girl in 1957 plans to sue the state of Illinois after his conviction was annulled, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

Jack McCullough, 76, who was released from prison on Friday on the basis of previously unknown evidence that pointed to his innocence, told the AP he will sue the state for the suffering that five years in prison caused him and his family.

A lawyer for McCullough, who was arrested and jailed in 2011 and convicted the following year, declined to comment on the report.

Last week, DeKalb County Circuit Court Judge William Brady granted McCullough's request for a new trial and annulled his conviction. The judge ordered him to remain in Illinois while he was free on bond.

McCullough was convicted of killing Maria Ridulph, who disappeared in December 1957 while playing near her home in Sycamore, Illinois, about 65 miles west of Chicago. Her body was found about four months later and the case remained unsolved.

McCullough was a teenager when Ridulph went missing and was an early suspect. He told investigators he was on a train from Rockford in southern Illinois to Chicago when the girl disappeared. He later joined the military, moved to Washington state and became a policeman in Lacey, a town east of Olympia.

(Reporting by Mark Weinraub; Editing by Paul Simao)
Stocks (^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC, ^RUT) are up slightly midday after a rebound in oil, with energy now leading the way and utilities lagging. Keith Bliss joins us live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to discuss the markets.

Joining Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous to discuss some of the other big stories of the day are Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer and David Nelson, chief strategist at Belpointe Asset Management.

Doha disappoints oil bulls

Was Doha really a dud? Markets are still digesting the news that there will not be a production freeze. Crude oil was down as much as 4% in early trading but has bounced back a bit to around $40 a barrel. The persistently low price of oil is starting to reveal cracks in the finances of petro-nations.

Disney shake-up hints at new strategy shift

We're now starting to get some clues into the shakeup at the Mouse House. Bloomberg reports that a cadre of execs moving up in the Disney C-suite are known for their cost-cutting prowess, and this signals a new shift in strategy. It also suggested a lack of confidence in former COO Tom Staggs' ability to cut costs.

Netflix earnings on tap tonight

Finally, Netflix earnings will break after the bell tonight. Analysts are expecting revenue to jump 24% year over year, with new subscribers in the U.S. expected to top 1.7 million.
The event was conducted in the presence of senior functionaries across government, industry and academia including NASSCOM President R Chandrashekhar.

New Delhi: NASSCOM in collaboration with security firm Symantec, and Data Security Council of India (DSCI) launched the National Occupational Standards for ten cyber security job roles with the corresponding Qualification Packs (QP) in line with the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF).

The launch of the ten new qualification packs/job roles is focused on streamlining the cyber security skills development initiative and enhancing the relevance and standards for talent development within India's cyber security community.

The event, which took place in Delhi on Monday, was conducted in the presence of senior functionaries across government, industry and academia. Recognised professionals across myriad sectors shared feedback regarding the guidelines to define the 10 new cyber-security job roles and QPs under the NOS.

In addition to increasing the standard benchmark of talent development in the cyber security community in the country, the collaboration was also aimed at providing cyber security skills training and certification to women professionals in India.

Symantec has also instituted scholarships to 1,000 women undertaking the cyber security certification by SSC NASSCOM.

Last year, the organizations had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support the launch of Cyber Security Skill Development Initiative.

Talking about Symantecs on-going association with NASSCOM, Sanjay Rohatgi, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan, Symantec said Building the next generation of cyber professionals is key to securing Indias critical information infrastructure, battling cybercrime and making the Digital India initiative successful.

Realising the importance of encouraging women in this field, Rohatgi said, Leading on from our commitment in 2015, we continue to work closely with NASSCOM to build a cadre of world class, skilled and certified cyber security professionals in India, with a special focus on youth and women."

NASSCOM President R Chandrashekhar explained that the initiative has a bilateral approachto contribute to limiting the spurt of cyber-crime and also enhancing the employability of the work-force.

With collaborative efforts, we are glad to announce the launch of ten QPs & the courseware for QP Analyst - Application Security, which is the collective effort of the industry and is going to be a landmark in empowering women while fighting a major issue like cybercrime, he added.

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Mcdonaldsfries

For far too long, innocent McDonalds customers have struggled to get their daily intake of fat from supersized fries.

Today, they can rejoice. The struggle is over. All-you-can eat fries are (temporarily) coming to the cultural capital of the world, St. Joseph, Missouri.

SEE ALSO: New alarm music uses the sweet, sweet sounds of a McDonald's deep fat fryer

On Tuesday, the St. Joseph location announced that they'd be opening, "The McDonalds of the future," this July, complete with all new menu items, customizable burgers and all-you-can-eat fries.

Because nothing says 'future' like cheap infinite streams of saturated fat.

And yes, there will be table-side service. No longer will miserable, tired customers have to stand on their aching feet to get their fries and milkshakes. All they'll have to do is a press a button at a digital kiosk and voila! A server will arrive.

To clarify: All you'll have to do to get endless fries is press a button, and someone will (basically) bring it to your mouth.

Never has gluttony looked so glamorous.

While some McDonalds have been trying to take the franchise in healthier directions, this McDonalds appears to have stuck to the basics. Fat, fries, sitting. Joy.

The restaurant will be approximately 6,500 square feet large, including a private play room.

Take a look at the plans for more McDonalds of the future images below.
Barcelona (AFP) - Lionel Messi rode to Barcelona's rescue as he ended a five-game drought to register his 500th career goal to give the Catalan giants hope of avoiding a fourth defeat in five games against Valencia on Sunday.

Messi slotted home Jordi Alba's cross to make it 2-1 Valencia for his 450th Barca goal in 525 appearances.

The five-time World Player of the Year has also scored 50 times in 108 caps for Argentina.
Apple has never stopped surprising us. Be it their first music player or the first touch-based smartphone, Apple was always the first to start a completely new trend in technology. And though they are presently not bringing out anything new for the past two years, they still seem to surprise us. However, this time, analysts claim that Apple will go in for a completely new design and specifications with the launch of the next flagship, the iPhone 7.

Though not the first in the market, it is most likely sure that Apple will put an AMOLED display on their iPhones. The probability comes after recent news in which Apple was reported signing a deal with Samsung for OLED displays.

According to a report by MacRumors, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that Apple will do away with their signature aluminium casing and go with an all-glass rear panel. This is expected to be seen in the next flagship iPhone (7) which is scheduled to be unveiled in September 2016. Apple also used the glass back on their previous models, the iPhone 4/4S.

The report also mentions that investors are a little worried if Apple goes ahead with the decision to put glass on the rear panel since the device would fail the usual drop tests and also increase the weight of the iPhone. However, sources say that the OLED display will compensate for the weight issue, and non-apple brands are still going successfully with glass backs.

At present, there is no confirmation as to which iPhone 7 (the smaller or larger one) will carry the OLED display and the glass rear panel.

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Puebla (Mexico) (AFP) - The huge Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City spat burning ash over nearby towns on Monday and forced the closure of an airport, officials said.

The giant crater 55 kilometers (34 miles) from the capital belched out a three-kilometer high column of ash, the National Disaster Prevention Center said.

Overnight, around 0732 GMT, "an increase in activity was detected, accompanied by the continuous emission of burning fragments," it said.

The dust covered nearby villages and the central city of Puebla.

Authorities advised locals to stay indoors and keep at least 12 kilometers away from the 5,452-meter peak.

Officials said Puebla's international airport shut down operations on Monday morning so that workers could clear away fallen ash.

In 2000, people were evacuated from the area around Popocatepetl during a period of intense volcanic activity.

Some 4.5 million people live within 50 kilometers of the volcano.
DETROIT (Reuters) - Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, under pressure to resign over the state's poor handling of a lead water crisis in Flint, promised on Monday that he will drink filtered tap water from the city for at least the next 30 days to show that it is safe. Snyder visited Flint residents on Monday, including one homeowner whose drinking water has tested higher than federal safety standards for the toxic substance and who has expressed concern about drinking even filtered water. The governor goes to Flint about once a week from the state capital Lansing about 50 miles away and water would be delivered to him by other state officials after their visits the rest of the time, said Ari Adler, Snyder's spokesman. "I completely understand why some Flint residents are hesitant to drink the water and I am hopeful I can alleviate some of the skepticism and mistrust by putting words to action," Snyder said in a statement. "Flint residents made it clear that they would like to see me personally drink the water, so today I am fulfilling that request," he said. He said he would drink Flint water at work and at home. Michigan officials have been criticized for the lead water crisis, which became a national scandal and also drew attention to other cities with potentially toxic water. Under the direction of a state-appointed emergency manager, Flint switched water supplies to the Flint River from Detroit's system in 2014 to save money. The corrosive river water leached lead, a toxic substance that can damage the nervous system, from the city's water pipes. Flint switched back to the Detroit system last October. Water experts have said Flint's water is safe to drink as long as residents are using up-to-date filters and more recently have said the system would not recover until heavy water usage by residents results in the flushing out of lead particles from the system. Several Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives last month called on Snyder, a Republican, to resign. Snyder has said he will not step down. Michigan this month extended the state of emergency in Flint by four months, enabling the city to tap more state funds and coordinate a response to the crisis with other authorities. State officials and water experts also have proposed the state adopt what would be the strictest lead testing standards in the United States. (Reporting by Ben Klayman; editing by Grant McCool)
The latest update to Microsoft's Outlook Android app brings compatibility with Android Wear. Owners of Android-based wearables can now join their Apple Watch-wearing counterparts in receiving Outlook notifications directly on their watches.

With Microsoft's updated Outlook app, owners of smartwatches running Android Wear software can get email notifications, read messages and reply to them directly by voice or with pre-saved messages. All these functions have been available on the Apple Watch since August 2015, via the Outlook iOS application.

It remains to be seen when more applications from the Office suite will be brought to Android Wear. Currently, OneNote is the only other item in Microsoft's famous productivity package that's compatible with both mobile platforms. PowerPoint is already available on the Apple Watch, where users can flick through presentation slides at their leisure. Upcoming support for Android Wear is pretty much certain. Word and Excel, however, are, by definition, much more complex programs to export to this kind of device, no matter what mobile operating system they use.

Still, Microsoft is aiming to roll out its software suite to all mobile platforms, with high-quality versions of its various mobile applications for future wearables, from upcoming generations of Apple Watch to devices running Android Wear. That's a feat the software giant has already managed with another of its flagship products, Skype.

The Android Wear operating system is used in wearable devices including the Motorola Moto 360, LG's G Watch range, the Asus ZenWatch and Sony's SmartWatch 3. Note that Samsung uses its own in-house operating system for wearables, called Tizen.

The Microsoft Outlook application is available to download free from Apple's App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android).
(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in a challenge by 26 states to President Barack Obama's executive action to defer deportation of certain immigrant children and parents who are in the country illegally. Here is a chronology of the case, United States v. Texas: June 15, 2012 - The Obama administration, through the Department of Homeland Security, initiates the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which suspends deportation for two years for people who entered the country illegally at least five years earlier, before they were age 16, and who were under age 31 as of June 15, 2012. Nov. 20, 2014 - Obama, through unilateral executive action, initiates a new deferred-deportation and work-authorization policy for immigrants whose children are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and who have been living illegally in the United States since Jan. 1, 2010. These people must pass certain background checks for possible past criminal convictions. The program is called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). The Obama administration also expands the earlier DACA program by eliminating the age-31 cap and increasing deferred deportation from two to three years. Dec. 3, 2014 - Texas and other Republican-governed states sue the Democratic Obama administration in U.S. district court in Texas. They assert that Obama's Nov. 20 executive actions, which bypassed the Republican-led Congress, violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) notice-and-comment requirements for new federal agency rules and violated the U.S. Constitution's dictate that a president "take care" that laws are "faithfully executed." In all, 26 of the 50 U.S. states eventually sign on to the lawsuit: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Feb. 16, 2015 - U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in the border city of Brownsville, Texas issues an injunction blocking enforcement of the programs nationwide. The judge says the Obama administration had failed to offer notice and seek comments under the Administrative Procedure Act. Administration lawyers counter that the actions did not arise from official rule-making but rather from Homeland Security Department discretion on deportation priorities. May 26, 2015 - After the administration appeals the judge's decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, upholds Hanen's injunction, pending an appeal on the merits of the case. Nov. 9, 2015 - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit rules for Texas and the other states, throwing out Obama's DAPA and expanded DACA actions because, the court says, they were subject to notice-and-comment requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act. Jan. 19, 2016 - The Supreme Court agrees to hear the administration's appeal. The justices say they will review the Administrative Procedure Act issue as well as whether the program violates the "take care" mandate. A key question before the justices is whether Texas and the other states even have legal standing to bring the case based on a claim that Obama's action would cost the states financially in certain public services such as the cost of issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Feb. 13, 2016 - Justice Antonin Scalia dies, leaving the Supreme Court with only eight members - four liberals and four conservatives - and the possibility of a 4-4 deadlock. Such a split ruling would be a defeat for Obama because it would leave in place the 5th Circuit decision disallowing his executive action. April 18, 2016 - The Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the case United States v. Texas. The justices seem divided along ideological grounds, with liberal justices sounding supportive of Obama's action and the conservatives sounding skeptical, underscoring the possibility of a 4-4 split. A ruling is expected by the end of June.
Barack Obama and King Salman bin Abdul Aziz stand during an arrival ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Washington: President Barack Obama will make another trip to Riyadh to consult Washington's Gulf allies on the crises in Yemen and Syria this week, but may not receive a royal welcome.

The king of Saudi Arabia and his regional allies have long been offended by the US president's tone and actions, and are now impatient to meet his eventual successor.

Even before coming to office, Obama had dubbed Saudi Arabia a "so-called ally" and had made clear that his diplomatic priorities would be in Asia not the Middle East.

He rubbed salt on those wounds by standing by as Saudi ally Hosni Mubarak was ousted in Egypt, then by his reluctance to back a similar revolt against Syria's Bashar al-Assad.

And, most crucially for the Sunni monarchies, he cut a deal with Shiite power Iran to end its economic and diplomatic isolation in return for curbs of its nuclear program.

So the public pomp of his visit on Wednesday to King Salman, will conceal much behind-the-scenes bitterness.

Then, on Thursday, he will face a stern audience at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit of leaders from Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Oman.

Last year, he brought the same monarchs together on his own home turf at Camp David outside Washington -- and the Saudi ruler pointedly refused the invitation.

Then, Obama had wanted to ensure the traditional US allies were on board with his plans to fight the Islamic State group, and reassure them on his outreach to Tehran.

But now with barely nine months of his time in office left -- and Iran taunting the Gulf with its support of Shiite militancy abroad -- he has little leverage over them.

"We don't know why he's coming," said Mustafa Alani, of the Gulf Research Centre, a body funded by a Saudi businessman.

Alani and other friends of Riyadh in Washington were deeply offended by Obama's remarks on US policy in their region in a major article in The Atlantic magazine.

In interviews for the article, published last month by reporter Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama rejected the idea that Saudi foe Iran is the source of all the region's problems.

Saudi officials have long insisted that Iran's sponsorship of Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Iraq and Syria and the Huthi rebels in Yemen is a threat to the whole world.

Both sides at fault

And, rightly or wrongly, Riyadh sees Iran's hand behind agitation among the kingdom's own Shiite minority, a notion that helped inspire its own harsh crackdown on dissent.

While regularly denouncing Iran's "destabilizing activities," Obama insists that both sides should evolve.

And he told The Atlantic that both Tehran and Riyadh "need to find an effective way to share the neighborhood and institute some sort of cold peace."

The United States has long been an enemy of Iran and a friend of the Saudis, and any suggestion that Washington is seeking a balance of power is anathema in the Gulf.

With this week's difficult visit looming, US officials have been rolled out to make soothing gestures.

"I don't think there can be any confusion about who is our partner in the region and who is not," Obama's senior advisor for the Gulf, Rob Malley, said.

"It's clear who our allies and who are partners are," he insisted.

"But if there can be a different relationship between the GCC and Iran, it's the president's conviction that is good for the region and good for stability overall."

Troubled marriage

And the White House is keen to emphasize that, despite tensions, the allies worked together to support the still embryonic ceasefires in the wars in Syria and Yemen.

Nevertheless, with whatever gains there have been in ending these brutal conflicts, the minds of the Gulf leaders have already turned to the United States' November election.

Then, they hope, the eventual victor might be someone who returns to the assumptions of previous presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, about Middle East priorities.

In this, they may well be disappointed.

"Our Gulf partners would obviously welcome a return to the old relationship," said Lori Plotkin Boghardt, a former CIA analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"But the region has changed so much, it would be a lot more complicated. Many of them fundamentally want to put Iran back in the box and give it again its pariah status."

And another dark cloud hovers on the horizon.

The US Congress is considering legislation that would allow the families of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to sue the Saudi government for damages.

No official complicity in the Al-Qaeda attacks has been proven, and the White House opposes the draft law, but the Saudi government is outraged to even see it considered.
By Abhishek Takle SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A track vehicle that parked close to the pitlane entrance during Chinese Grand Prix qualifying posed a low but still unacceptable risk, Formula One race director Charlie Whiting has said. McLaren driver Jenson Button had told reporters the positioning of the vehicle had been the "most dangerous part" of Saturday's session because of the risk of a car going off and hitting it. The Briton, world champion in 2009 and a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, questioned why the session was not halted. Two other incidents, a crash involving Manor's Pascal Wehrlein and Nico Hulkenberg losing a wheel off his Force India, brought red flags out. "It must be emphasized that this is not a normal run-off area and the risk was low, unacceptable nonetheless," Whiting told Reuters in an email. "No flags were shown because this was not on the track. The driver of the circuit vehicle that decided to park in the run-off area of the pit entry was rather silly and he moved it very quickly, Whiting added. "The driver lacked experience and wont do it again. "It was in no way comparable with the incident involving Hulkenberg, whose car had stopped on the side of the track with a wheel bouncing around all over the place," he added. Whiting also clarified why marshals placed tyres at turn 14 after the second of the three sessions and then removed them again before qualifying resumed. "The marshals thought that qualifying had finished," he said. "I suspect that when we told the clerk of the course that we would not be continuing Q2 (the second phase which was red flagged) he thought we meant qualifying in general. "It was quite amusing to hear all the team managers calling to wonder why we were doing this," he added. "I confess I did wind one of them up by saying that we were getting fed up with drivers abusing the kerb and decided to take a drastic measure to deter them." (Editing by Alan Baldwin/Peter Rutherford)
Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday vowed to press for greater autonomy for Myanmar's ethnic minorities, in an early move to soothe the rebellions roiling the country after her party's ascent to power.

Myanmar has been swept up in optimism for a more peaceful and prosperous future since the National League for Democracy (NLD) took power on April 1, ending nearly a half century of military domination.

But Suu Kyi warned its prospects hinge on ending ethnic conflicts that have blistered the country since its independence in 1948.

To do so, the NLD government would seek "a real federal democratic union", the democracy figurehead said in a televised address marking Myanmar's New Year.

"Peace and a federal democratic union are closely intertwined and that's why we need to change the constitution. The most important thing is national reconciliation."

They were Suu Kyi's first major comments as "state counsellor" -- a role she took on following the handover to her civilian-led government.

The current charter, penned by the military in 2008, centralises state power.

The former junta in part justified its tight control of the country with fears that ethnic divisions would fracture the nation.

- Daughter of a hero -

But the concept of federalism has gradually become central to peace discussions steered by the quasi-civilian government that replaced outright military rule in 2011.

Negotiations, which do not include all rebel groups, have yet to agree on exactly how powers such as policing or revenue raising might be shifted to regional authorities under a federal system.

But by reiterating the federal pledge, Suu Kyi has sought to reassure ethnic leaders that the NLD will not squeeze out minority groups.

Though Suu Kyi belongs to the ethnic Bamar majority, her party picked up seats in many of Myanmar's ethnic minority regions in last year's election.

She has however come under fire from rights groups for not throwing her moral weight behind the plight of the embattled Rohingya, a largely stateless Muslim minority pushed into grim displacement camps by waves of communal violence in 2012.

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Nobel laureate Suu Kyi is beloved by many in Myanmar but blocked from becoming president by the constitution as her two sons carry foreign citizenship.

The 70-year-old is the daughter of the country's independence hero, who famously signed an agreement before his assassination that would have granted a level of autonomy to several ethnic minority regions.

Attempts to amend the army's charter under the former quasi-civilian government were stymied by the military -- which is gifted 25 percent of all parliamentary seats by the constitution it scripted.

Any fresh moves to change the charter are likely to meet stiff resistance from the military, which can veto amendments through its parliamentary bloc.

Suu Kyi has taken a firm grip of the country's first civilian-led government in decades, taking on a string of senior roles in the new administration, including the powerful -- if vaguely defined -- advisory role.

She has vowed to rule "above" the president, picking school friend and close aide Htin Kyaw as her proxy.

Conflicts continue to rage in several areas between ethnic minority armed groups and the army, which operates beyond the reaches of civilian government, after a ceasefire pact signed late last year failed to include all of the country's fighters.
By Joseph Ax and Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A member of a volunteer safety patrol in an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn was charged on Monday with trying to bribe police officers to obtain gun licenses, prosecutors said, in the latest fallout from a wide-ranging corruption probe into the New York City Police Department.

A criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court charged Alex Lichtenstein, 44, with conspiracy and bribery, saying he bragged about having obtained 150 licenses through his NYPD connections.

Those statements were recorded by another officer whom Lichtenstein last week offered to pay $6,000 per license application that he could get through the department's license division, prosecutors said.

The complaint said Lichtenstein told the officer he tried to bribe that he charged community members thousands of dollars to help them obtain licenses through his NYPD connections.

Lichtenstein was "no less than an arms dealer for the community of New York City," assistant U.S. attorney Kan Nawaday said in court.

The complaint cited three officers connected to Lichtenstein, including one who told investigators that Lichtenstein paid him and another officer $100 in "lunch money."

The complaint did not name those officers, but their titles matched those of three officers who Police Commissioner William Bratton on Monday said were being reassigned in light of the probe.

Those were Deputy Inspector Michael Endall, the license division's commanding officer, Sergeant David Villanueva and Officer Richard Ochetal.

Roy Richter, president of the union that represents high-ranking officers, said Endall was "sickened" by the allegations. The other men's unions did not respond to requests for comment.

Lichtenstein was arrested on Sunday at his home in Pomona, New York, northwest of New York City, where he moved from Brooklyn, where he belonged to the Borough Park Shomrim, a volunteer, unarmed Orthodox Jewish patrol society.

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He was released on a $500,000 bond over prosecutors' objections. His lawyer declined comment.

The arrest came amid an ongoing city and federal corruption probe that a source familiar with the matter has said is looking at whether officers received free trips and gifts from businessmen for favors.

The probe is looking into, among others, two businessmen, Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg; ex-NYPD Chief of Department Phillip Banks; and Norman Seabrook, head of the correction officers union, the source said.

The investigation has resulted in the removal of five other high-ranking officers from their posts and has forced Mayor Bill de Blasio's 2013 campaign committee to hire a lawyer amid reports its fundraising is being scrutinized.

Rechnitz contributed to that campaign, and Reichberg raised money for a nonprofit that supported de Blasio's agenda.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax and Nate Raymond; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)
Universal Pictures has become the first studio to announce a major commitment to implementing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' ACES system from production through distribution and archiving.

"Universal has set a target of comprehensive ACES implementation within two years, or by the first quarter of 2018, for all of our features," Wade Hanniball, the studio's senior vp digital cinema operations and technology, announced Sunday during a panel discussion at the National Association of Broadcasters Show.

The Academy Color Encoding System, or ACES, was developed through AMPAS' SciTech Council with input from all of the Hollywood studios. It is a system for managing the digital negatives that replace film negatives.

As digital filmmaking becomes the norm and digital standards replace the old 35mm film touchstone, a standard digital negative is important for preserving film. It can also aid the postproduction process, because the new digital tools and formats create challenges, Hanniball, explained, saying they "make timely mastering and finishing more difficult, often with significant added expense. Those formats put further demands on a shrinking timeframe that's under increasing pressure to move forward the availability of electronic sell-through and VOD following theatrical release. If the work isn't done properly, there's a potential risk of jeopardizing all the creative efforts of filmmakers with respect to the feature's look and color."

Hanniball called Universal's goal "complicated and not trivial," but added that it's necessary. "It's a response to the continuing rapid rise in new technologies that affect our core business of creating feature motion pictures," he said. "New digital tools are enabling a surge of new formats and their resultant deliverables."

While Universal is the first studio to announce such a large commitment to ACES, Hanniball said he "fully expects other major studios to follow suit."

Since the first version of ACES was introduced in late 2014, roughly 25 companies including equipment manufacturers and VFX houses have signed on to support ACES.
From Popular Mechanics

Bigelow Aerospace's BEAM space station module became the first inflatable anything in orbit when it launched aboard SpaceX's CRS-8 cargo resupply mission on April 8. Tomorrow, April 16, it'll attach to the International Space Station and begin a two-year testing period to pave the way for future inflatables. Jason Crusan, NASA's director of the Advanced Exploration Systems Division, tells PM what it means for the future of manned spaceflight.

PM: Is this the future of space exploration-space balloons with a human filling?

JC: [That's] what we're trying to figure out with this demonstration of BEAM. The entire history of human spaceflight, of actual modules flown in space, has been rigid, metallic structures, and metallics have some limitations-the largest structure you can ever build is one that fits in the rocket carrying it. For some of our long-duration missions to Mars, we need a volume that's rather large. Only then can we have places for all of our stowage and actually have a little volume for people to live.

NASA experimented with inflatables from the 1960s and took a serious run at them with TransHab in the 1990s. So why has it taken this long to actually get one up into orbit?

TransHab was the most substantial effort. So, the national policy in 2000 was for us to actually stand down our efforts related to TransHab, and we went ahead and proceeded with our ISS developments all using known technology: rigid structures. When it came to an end, the technology from TransHab was licensed to Bigelow.

We didn't have a real need to do the next habitation thing until now, when we're actually trying to build habitation structures to send ourselves to Mars.

How did Bigelow develop the project so fast?

Two years for hardware development for a space module shocked a lot of people. That's a really rapid approach from us and from Bigelow.

In part, [it's because] the module is a structural module. There isn't a bunch of life support equipment in it. It's as simple of a test as you can do. So that simplicity did a lot for the expedited test cycle and development-and-build cycle. We can now perform a demonstration at a relatively low cost and get that expandable performance data for our own deep-space mission. At the same time, they get data related to their own commercial endeavors for low-Earth orbit.

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"The entire history of human spaceflight, of actual modules flown in space, has been rigid, metallic structures"

Did you hit any snags in working with BEAM?

Surprisingly, we had very few challenges in the development of the structure, how they were certified, and all that. The real challenging area came with the complexity of mixing this new innovative kind of demonstration and our safety that we need to ensure with the ISS, because we've never flown an expandable structure. "How will it expand?" is one of our questions. Does it expand outward first? Radially first? We don't know. The way it expands then could have an impact on potentially interfering with something on the space station. [But] we always do analysis on everything that could ever occur.

What advantages do inflatables have over rigid construction?

First and foremost is volume, going back to that rocket-ferrying problem. Another is mass, how much a module weighs compared to a same-size metallic module. At small sizes, like on the BEAM, there's not a huge mass savings between it and a standard metallic module that's reasonably close in size. The real advantage comes when you get to the larger 150-, 200-, 300-cubic-meter volumes.

Another advantage is radiation shielding. Metallic structures have interaction effects between radiation particles and the metals. This causes secondary radiation events. If you think about a radiation particle coming in at a high energy, it hits the metallics and then splits into a bunch of lower-energy particles that are just as dangerous, but now there are a lot more of them. In theory, in soft goods you don't have that splintering effect.

There's also no active heating system in BEAM. Between the layers of impact-resistant hull fabric and impact-absorbing foam spacers, there's a layer of air that holds temperature within a very small window, which is our standard temperature on the station.

And then there's structural strength. If you look at metallics versus soft goods-and I'll just use Kevlar as an example-Kevlar is almost ten times stronger than aluminum or even titanium. And the Vectran they're using on BEAM is stronger than Kevlar.

Is anybody else working on inflatables for space?

In active production? No. Bigelow's unique in that they are making private investment towards a commercial space station. We (NASA) are working on fundamental R&D related to expandable structures, but we are not building any in-house habitation expandable.

Bigelow's next step is the much-larger inflatable module BA-330, and from there, self-powered BA-330s and lunar lander BA-330s, as well as an entirely inflatable commercial space station. When are we going to see them, and spacecraft like them?

NASA is well under way building the new SLS rocket and Orion for deep space. The next thing that we need to enable deep-space missions is the habitation. We have studies ongoing with not only Bigelow but Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Orbital ATK on how to approach our habitation strategy for deep space. Our current contracts on deep-space strategy, which Bigelow's BEAM was a part of, will complete by August or September 2016. We're going to look at moving on to our phase-two efforts with habitation, which will get us to ground-unit development that culminate in engineering tests at about 2018. Then we will proceed to flight habitation tests somewhere after that.

As far as landed systems on the moon or Mars or asteroids, those come after Earth and our in-space habitation needs.
Moscow: Seeking strong global action against terror networks, India on Monday warned the international community that if it continues to adopt 'double standards' in dealing with the menace there will be 'serious consequences'. In her address at the Foreign Ministers meeting of RIC (Russia-India-China), External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the grouping must lead the world in fighting terrorism.

Read: In Russia, Swaraj raises issue of China blocking India's bid to ban JeM chief

Significantly, Swaraj's remarks came after she raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, before the trilateral, the issue of China blocking India's bid at the United Nations to have Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as terrorist.

"India believes that the foremost challenge to international security continues to be posed by international terrorism. The RIC countries must lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN," Swaraj said.

Read: India slams 'hidden veto' at UN after China blocks bid to ban Masood Azhar

"We must not fail in this regard. If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," she said.

Her remarks come in the backdrop of China stopping UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

Read: China again blocks Indias bid at UN for ban on Masood Azhar

Talking about the UN Security Council reform, she said a greater urgency was required on the issue and sought support of Russia and China.

"Let me also touch upon the issue of reform of UN Security Council, on which there has been some positive movement with a text being put for the first time on the table for inter-governmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue. I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN process forward," she said.

Read: Love thy neighbour: Chinese diplomats response to Masood Azhar issue

The External Affairs Minister said the slowdown of the global economy has created its own set of issues for economies of all the three countries and they must join hands in spurring growth.

"As three large, emerging economies, we share similar approaches and could benefit from coordinating our positions," Swaraj said.
Neanderthals, the closest known extinct relatives to humans, probably had to pick annoying bits of food out of their teeth from time to time. And now, scientists have evidence that these extinct cousins of modern humans may have done so with the help of prehistoric toothpicks.

Researchers found traces of wood trapped in fossilized plaque stuck to Neanderthal teeth. The bits of bark likely came from toothpicks or possibly wooden tools used as a third hand during crafting, said the new study, published in the April issue of the journal Antiquity.

Led by Anita Radini, an archaeologist at the University of York in the United Kingdom, a group of scientists recently examined teeth found at El Sidron cave in Spain. At this site, at least 13 Neanderthal skeletons have been found; the remains date back 49,000 years. [The 7 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds on Earth]

The scientists said they were mostly after the fossilized plaque known as dental calculus. It's the same stuff a hygienist will scrape off your teeth if you haven't done a good job flossing and brushing. That plaque can trap tiny food particles, bacteria and whatever else may enter your mouth. After plaque hardens, it can survive even longer than bone. That fact, while it may sound like a threat from your dentist, is good news for archaeologists.

People generally didn't have great oral hygiene hundreds and thousands of years ago, the researchers said. The stubborn plaque that's stuck to very old teeth can be a useful capsule of material for reconstructing some mundane but important aspects of prehistoric life, such as how people ate and what their health was like, the scientists said.

In the latest study, the scientists found bits of nonedible, and noncharred, conifer wood tissue in the plaque from some of the El Sidron teeth. The researchers said the most likely explanation for the finding is that these Neanderthals were putting toothpicks or wooden tools in their mouths.

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Previous research has shown that Neanderthals knew how to make use of the trees around their campsites; they made wooden spears, built fire pits and manufactured tar-like pitch from resin.

So the finding isn't all that surprising, especially considering the results of a few recent studies: In 2013, another group of scientists reported in the journal PLOS ONE that they had found grooves on the in-between parts of quite unhealthy Neanderthal teeth, possible proof that these hominins habitually used toothpicks to alleviate gum pain. Meanwhile, last year, scientists studying the skeletons from El Sidron found marks on the teeth that indicated these Neanderthals were performing tasks involving their teeth as tools.

Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The sale of all diesel and petrol cars could be banned by 2025 in the Netherlands if a proposed law to make all new cars electric passes.

The new law wouldnt ban the use of existing petrol and diesel cars but all new car models would have to be emissions-free.

The majority of the lower house in the Dutch parliament supported the motion, which would also see the ban of fuel-efficient hybrid car models.

While its still unclear whether the proposal will pass and become law, the ambitious plan would involve car manufacturers getting on board to produce enough electric vehicles to meet demand.

The latest electric cars have shorter charging times and longer ranges, benefits that emission-free car evangelists hope will help make them appeal to users of traditional petrol and diesel cars.

Sales of electric cars are slowly increasing, while Teslas recently announced affordble Model 3 has received a record number of pre-orders.

Image credit: WestEnd61/REX/Shutterstock

Via: Science Alert


By Lanre Ola MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - The Nigerian army, backed by the country's air force, on Monday repelled an attack an attack by Boko Haram fighters near the border with Niger in the jihadists' northeast heartland, the military said. The group allied to Islamic State had been fighting for at least seven years to carve out an Islamist caliphate in the region in a conflict which has displaced more than 2 million people and killed thousands. The militants struck as the troops were on their way to the border town of Damasak where they wanted to set up a permanent base, a military source said. The army took the area back from Boko Haram last year, but has struggled to hold it. "The Nigerian troops have successfully repelled an attack by Boko Haram terrorists who attempted an incursion into (the) 113 Battalion," army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement carried by PR Nigeria, which releases government statements. Kareto is the army's next base in the area. "So far our troops had two officers and 22 soldiers wounded in action," he said without giving further details. No further information was immediately available from the remote area which is largely disconnected from mobile phone networks. Boko Haram controlled a swath of land in northeast Nigeria around the size of Belgium at the start of last year, but was pushed out by Nigerian troops, aided by soldiers from neighboring countries. The group has since stepped up cross-border attacks and suicide bombings against markets, bus stations and places of worship. (Reporting by Felix Onuah, Ulf Laessing and Lanre Ola; editing by Dominic Evans and G Crosse)
Tehran: Air France resumed flights to Iran Sunday after last year's landmark deal to curb Iranian nuclear activities, as part of larger French and European efforts to rebuild trade ties long frozen by sanctions.

The direct flight from Paris to Tehran was the first since 2008. French Transport Minister Alain Vidalies and a business leaders' delegation were on board flight AF 378 that took off from Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport after noon.

Air France CEO Frederic Gagey was optimistic the line would prove profitable. "It's a touristic destination which I believe is going to become very popular, very attractive," he said. Air France is also counting on Paris to become a hub for American and other tourists headed to Tehran.

Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, Iran's deputy transport minister, welcomed the resumption of the flight. "The current situation has fortunately given the opportunity to both countries to restore their relations to their normal former state. It interestingly seems that the Islamic Republic's aviation sector has been dominated by France and French industries," he said.

The resumption of flights will restore a longstanding aviation link between the two countries. The airline operated flights to Tehran from 1946 until October 2008, when they were suspended amid UN and EU sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

The plans have sparked debate within the airline, with some female crew members objecting to having to cover their hair while in Iran, in line with Iranian law. Air France said earlier this month it would allow female pilots and cabin crew to opt out of assigned Tehran flights if they object to covering their hair.

"Tolerance and respect for the cultures and customs in the countries served by the airline are part of the fundamental values of Air France and its staff," it said.

French relations with Iran are nothing if not complex. Iran is indebted to France for hosting Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the man who fathered the Islamic revolution from his rental home outside Paris, toppling the Pahlavi dynasty and upsetting the world order.

The street where the French Embassy in Tehran sits is now named rue Neauphle-le-Ch?teau, the French town where Khomeini lived and sent messages to his countrymen before returning home to become the Islamic Republic's supreme leader.

But France was also the last holdout in the nuclear negotiations that led to the lifting of economic sanctions and will give Tehran a windfall in cash.

French president Francois Hollande welcomed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Paris in January, hailing the visit as "a new chapter of our relationship." The two countries signed some 20 deals during the visit, including one valued at $25 billion for Iran Air to buy 118 aircraft from Airbus.

For Iranians, some of whom complain that the nuclear deal has not yet produced visible benefits, the resumption of European flights from Tehran's Imam Khomenei International Airport is one tangible change. Oil-rich Iran is hoping to diversify its economy and boost growth by increasing the number of western tourists and investors visiting the country.

Air France will fly to Iran three times a week. German carrier Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines also run several flights a week connecting Iran and Europe. British Airways plans to resume operations to Iran starting this summer.
A trio of Nobel laureates will take part in a "humanitarian" visit to North Korea later this month, even as suspicions grow that Pyongyang is preparing to carry out a fifth nuclear test.

The Vienna-based International Peace Foundation, which is organising the trip, said on Monday it was an exercise in "silent diplomacy" that would focus on such topics as economic policy and medical development.

The three laureates from Norway, Britain and Israel, who won their Nobels for economics, medicine and chemistry, will give speeches and hold seminars with students at some of the North's elite schools, including Kim Il-Sung University.

"The events will not engage in rhetoric by making political statements," the foundation said in a press release.

"Listening to and engaging with the young generation of (North Korea) may be a gateway to establish a dialogue which could contribute to a wider understanding beyond politics and power play," added its founding chairman, Uwe Morawetz, who has visited the North six times over the past two years to prepare the visit.

The trip is likely to be criticised in some quarters at a time when the focus of the international community is on tightening North Korea's diplomatic and economic isolation.

The April 29-May 6 dates mean the visit might also coincide with a fresh North Korean nuclear test.

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye confirmed Monday that increased activity had been detected at the North's nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, suggesting an underground detonation could be imminent.

Numerous analysts have predicted Pyongyang may carry out a fifth test just before a rare ruling party congress next month, at which leader Kim Jong-Un is expected to take credit for pushing the country's nuclear weapons programme to new heights.

No formal date has been set for the congress, but South Korea's intelligence agency says it will likely be held May 7.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, triggering the most extensive UN sanctions to date aimed at cutting funding sources for its nuclear development.

The Nobel laureates will hold a press conference in Beijing after returning from their visit.
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday cleared the way for Pacific Investment Management Co to pursue a California lawsuit accusing American International Group Inc of causing big losses by lying about its subprime mortgage exposure before its 2008 bailout. U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty in Manhattan said it made sense for a California state court to handle Pimco's case, rather than have him decide, as AIG wanted, whether the unit of German insurer Allianz SE waited too long to sue. Jon Diat, an AIG spokesman, said the Manhattan-based insurer disagreed with Crotty's decision but looks forward to defending against Pimco in California. Timothy DeLange, a lawyer for Pimco, declined to comment. AIG had in March 2015 won court approval of a $970.5 million class action settlement over its exposure to subprime mortgages and credit default swaps, culminating in $182.3 billion of federal bailouts. Pimco, which oversees $1.5 trillion of assets, chose to opt out of that settlement, which some plaintiffs do when they hope to recover more by suing on their own. The Newport Beach, California-based firm sued AIG a week later in an Orange County state court, on behalf of more than 60 funds including the flagship Pimco Total Return, over securities it bought between 2006 and 2008. AIG then sued Pimco a month later, seeking a declaratory judgment that Pimco's federal securities law claim was stale. Crotty, however, said letting the California court decide the case was better than "piecemeal" litigation. He also said he could not "countenance" AIG's effort to seek a declaratory judgment, which he called an effort to benefit from "more favorable" legal precedents. "After extensive litigation, it is clear that Pimco's chosen forum (where it is headquartered) is suitable for the resolution of the dispute," Crotty wrote. No trial date has been set. The case is American International Group Inc v. Pacific Investment Management Co et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-03339. The California case is Pacific Investment Management Co et al v. American International Group Inc, California Superior Court, Orange County, No. 30-2015-00779738-CU-SL-CXC. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama will make another trip to Riyadh to consult Washington's Gulf allies on the crises in Yemen and Syria this week, but may not receive a royal welcome.

The king of Saudi Arabia and his regional allies have long been offended by the US president's tone and actions, and are now impatient to meet his eventual successor.

Even before coming to office, Obama had dubbed Saudi Arabia a "so-called ally" and had made clear that his diplomatic priorities would be in Asia not the Middle East.

He rubbed salt on those wounds by standing by as Saudi ally Hosni Mubarak was ousted in Egypt, then by his reluctance to back a similar revolt against Syria's Bashar al-Assad.

And, most crucially for the Sunni monarchies, he cut a deal with Shiite power Iran to end its economic and diplomatic isolation in return for curbs of its nuclear program.

So the public pomp of his visit on Wednesday to King Salman, will conceal much behind-the-scenes bitterness.

Then, on Thursday, he will face a stern audience at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit of leaders from Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Oman.

Last year, he brought the same monarchs together on his own home turf at Camp David outside Washington -- and the Saudi ruler pointedly refused the invitation.

Then, Obama had wanted to ensure the traditional US allies were on board with his plans to fight the Islamic State group, and reassure them on his outreach to Tehran.

But now with barely nine months of his time in office left -- and Iran taunting the Gulf with its support of Shiite militancy abroad -- he has little leverage over them.

"We don't know why he's coming," said Mustafa Alani, of the Gulf Research Centre.

Alani and other friends of Riyadh in Washington were deeply offended by Obama's remarks on US policy in their region in a major article in The Atlantic magazine.

In interviews for the article, published last month by reporter Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama rejected the idea that Saudi foe Iran is the source of all the region's problems.

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Saudi officials have long insisted that Iran's sponsorship of Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Iraq and Syria and the Huthi rebels in Yemen is a threat to the whole world.

- Both sides at fault -

And, rightly or wrongly, Riyadh sees Iran's hand behind agitation among the kingdom's own Shiite minority, a notion that helped inspire its own harsh crackdown on dissent.

While regularly denouncing Iran's "destabilizing activities," Obama insists that both sides should evolve.

And he told The Atlantic that both Tehran and Riyadh "need to find an effective way to share the neighborhood and institute some sort of cold peace."

The United States has long been an enemy of Iran and a friend of the Saudis, and any suggestion that Washington is seeking a balance of power is anathema in the Gulf.

With this week's difficult visit looming, US officials have been rolled out to make soothing gestures.

"I don't think there can be any confusion about who is our partner in the region and who is not," Obama's senior advisor for the Gulf, Rob Malley, said.

"It's clear who our allies and who are partners are," he insisted.

"But if there can be a different relationship between the GCC and Iran, it's the president's conviction that is good for the region and good for stability overall."

- Troubled marriage -

And the White House is keen to emphasize that, despite tensions, the allies worked together to support the still embryonic ceasefires in the wars in Syria and Yemen.

Nevertheless, with whatever gains there have been in ending these brutal conflicts, the minds of the Gulf leaders have already turned to the United States' November election.

Then, they hope, the eventual victor might be someone who returns to the assumptions of previous presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, about Middle East priorities.

In this, they may well be disappointed.

"Our Gulf partners would obviously welcome a return to the old relationship," said Lori Plotkin Boghardt, a former CIA analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"But the region has changed so much, it would be a lot more complicated. Many of them fundamentally want to put Iran back in the box and give it again its pariah status."

And another dark cloud hovers on the horizon.

The US Congress is considering legislation that would allow the families of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to sue the Saudi government for damages.

No official complicity in the Al-Qaeda attacks has been proven, and the White House opposes the draft law, but the Saudi government is outraged to even see it considered.
The bodies of two Syrian children, killed by shelling, lie on the street near Dar al-Shifa hospital in Aleppo, Syria. (Photo: AP)

Beirut: Ten children have been killed by rebel shelling on Syrias largest city this weekend, as the UN warned of desperate conditions inside a war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.

The violence underscores the fragility of the cease-fire in Syria, which has unraveled in the north despite ongoing peace negotiations.

Rebel shelling killed sixteen people in Aleppo  including six adults, and three young siblings  a monitoring group said on Sunday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that airstrikes killed another six people in the opposition-held parts of the citys old quarters.

Syrias state news agency, SANA, said at least five of the sixteen dead in the government-held areas were killed by rebel snipers and said a further ten were injured.

Syrias warring factions have returned to violence in recent weeks, spoiling a period of relative calm brought about by a partial ceasefire that went into effect in late February.

The UN warned that humanitarian conditions are desperate inside a Palestinian refugee camp home to about 10,000 civilians in the capital, Damascus.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said violent battles between extremists have left residents of the Yarmouk camp without food or water for more than a week.

Civilians in Yarmouk are facing starvation and dehydration alongside the heightened risks of serious injury and death from the armed conflict, said UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness.

The camp, a built-up neighbourhood once home to an estimated 150,000 people, has been ravaged by fighting between the Islamic State group and al Qaedas Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, while government forces regularly shell it from outside.

Air strikes near Jisr al Shughour in opposition-held Idlib province killed three civilians, the Observatory reported. Pro-government forces intensified their shelling and bombing on an opposition-held pocket north of Homs, the countrys third-largest city, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an activist network.

Government and opposition delegations have been engaged in indirect peace talks in Geneva since Wednesday as the UN looks for ways to bring an end to the countrys five-year conflict but the oppositions chief negotiator urged insurgents to strike at pro-government forces. Dont trust the regime and dont wait for their mercy, Mohammad Aloush wrote in a post on Twitter Sunday.

More than 250,000 people have died in the conflict, which began in 2011 as a popular uprising demanding government reforms.
By Ginny McCabe

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday made a preliminary finding that an Ohio man accused of plotting to attack the U.S. Capitol with guns and bombs was competent to stand trial.

Judge Sandra Beckwith in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati said she will review evidence presented by prosecutors and defense and is expected to issue a final ruling in a written opinion in the case of Christopher Cornell from Green Township outside Cincinnati.

Cornell, 22, was arrested in January 2015 and accused of plotting an attack using pipe bombs and bullets. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State militant group, attempted murder of government officials, possession of a firearm to commit a crime and solicitation to commit a violent crime.

Cornell is being held without bond and faces up to life in prison if convicted. A trial date has not been set. He appeared in court on Monday with his head and face shaven, but did not speak publicly.

Last November, Beckwith ordered a psychiatric evaluation for Cornell after his attorneys questioned his mental health.

Cornell researched the construction of pipe bombs, purchased a semi-automatic rifle and 600 rounds of ammunition and made plans to travel to Washington to carry out the plot, according to the original indictment.

(Reporting by Ginny McCabe, Editing by Ben Klayman and Bernard Orr)
New York (AFP) - The oil market late Monday recouped heavy losses spurred by the failure of major crude producers to agree curbs on output that could have firmed up the market.

Analysts said a strike that knocked out more than 60 percent of Kuwait's production helped support the market.

Crude prices fell nearly seven percent early in the day after producers came away from talks in the Qatari capital of Doha on Sunday empty-handed.

But by the end of trade, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in May had largely recovered, losing 58 cents (1.4 percent) at $39.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In London, Brent crude for June delivery, the international benchmark, dipped just 19 cents (0.4 percent) to $42.91 a barrel.

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia insisted Sunday it would not agree to freeze production without the participation of fellow cartel member Iran -- which boycotted the talks.

Prices had rebounded last week on hopes that OPEC and non-OPEC producers such as Russia would agree to freeze output levels.

"An agreement on production caps, which had still seemed possible the day before, collapsed because of Saudi Arabia, which demanded that all oil producers -- that is to say including Iran -- should be included," Commerzbank analysts said in a client note.

"Saudi Arabia intentionally torpedoed the agreement and was willing to accept its failure. This has severely damaged the credibility of oil producers in general and of OPEC in particular," Commerzbank said.

Matt Smith of ClipperData said the market found some support Monday from an open-ended strike by oil workers in Kuwait over planned wage cuts.

Oil production plunged more than 60 percent to 1.1 million barrels per day on Sunday, the first day of the strike. Smith noted that Kuwaiti crude is shipped primarily to South Korea, China and India.

- Oversupply to continue -

Still, the failure of the Doha talks points to a continuation of the market glut. Rising production and slower global growth, particularly in China, the world's largest energy consumer, helped to push crude prices from above $100 in mid-2014 to 13-year lows of around $27 in February.

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Until now the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps about 40 percent of the world's oil, refused to cut output.

The Saudi-backed stance has aimed at pushing the market lower drive out less-competitive players, including US shale producers, while maintaining their own market share.

But, although it has fallen about six percent, US production remains high.

The result though is that major exporters from Nigeria to Venezuela to Canada, and including Saudi Arabia, have suffered billions of dollars in lost revenue as prices have collapsed.

- Saudi-Iran rivalry -

"The much-awaited meeting exposed the political rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and (this) ultimately doomed the agreement," said Barclays oil analyst Miswin Mahesh in a research note.

Iran -- which only recently returned to world oil markets after the lifting of nuclear-linked sanctions by the United States and other major powers in January -- has ruled out capping its own production and says it want to boost output to pre-sanction levels.

"While there are a number of factors that might curb oil supply in the short-term -- including a strike in Kuwait and the earthquake in Ecuador -- OPEC's main problem is the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran and this problem is not going to go away," Rebecca O'Keeffe, head of investment at online broker Interactive Investor, told AFP.

"Indeed, Saudi Arabia may move to increase supply in response to higher Iranian output in an effort to maintain their market share," she said. "This impasse could see a sustained medium-term depression in oil prices."
By Barani Krishnan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices slid on Monday after a plan by major oil producers to freeze production was scuttled, but a Kuwaiti oil industry strike helped the market pare losses and settle off the day's lows.

The strike crippled more than 60 percent of Kuwait's crude output, lending support to price benchmarks such as Brent and Dubai. [nL3N17L282]

Brent tumbled as much as 7 percent earlier on Monday after oil majors from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC Russia failed to reach agreement on a plan to freeze output at a meeting in Doha, Qatar. [nL5N17K02F]

"The material loss in production from the Kuwait strike has helped the oil market forget about the farce from Doha," said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at the New York-headquartered Clipperdata.

Brent settled down 19 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $42.91 a barrel. It had fallen $3 earlier in the session.

U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark closed down 58 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $39.78 a barrel, after sliding to $37.61 at the day's low.

While fallout from the Doha plan could weigh on a nascent recovery in oil prices, the market may not tumble as much as it did earlier this year, when Brent hit 12-year lows of around $27 in late January, some analysts said.

"Gradually declining non-OPEC production as well as planned maintenance in the face of resilient oil demand in Q1 have recently pointed to improving oil fundamentals," analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note, referring to the first quarter.

A weakening dollar and the mostly steady climb in global equities since February have supported oil too. [USD/] [.N]

"While a few forecasters may be dusting off some old $20 WTI expectations as a result of the Doha outcome, we expect solid support in nearby WTI at the $35 mark," Jim Ritterbusch at Chicago oil consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates said.

Still, some investors piled on bearish options on U.S. crude, fearing the market may retest 2003 lows of around $26 struck in February. Open interest in WTI's June puts that allow the holder to sell at $35 per barrel hit a record high above 36,000, up 8 percent from Thursday and more than double levels seen in January. [nL3N17L4IC]

A Reuters poll, meanwhile, showed U.S. crude inventories as a whole rose 2.1 million barrels last week, even as market intelligence firm Genscape issued data suggesting a near 860,000-barrels decline at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for WTI in the week to April 15. [nL2N17L1IX]

(Additional reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in NEW YORK and Libby George in LONDON; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Bernadette Baum)
The TV series "Once Upon a Time" introduced an LGBT storyline between two female characters on Sunday's episode, that includes a fairy tale ending.

Spoiler alert: In the episode entitled Ruby Slippers,' Ruby and Mulan set off in the land of Oz in search of Ruby's wolf pack, where they come across Dorothy and her dog Toto.

Ruby and Dorothy end up bonding over shared family problems and Ruby develops feelings for her new friend.

But before she can confess her feelings, Dorothy is put under a sleeping curse by the Wicked Witch, a curse that can only be broken by True Love's kiss.

It's not the first time the show has written gay characters into the storyline.

Mulan was revealed as gay in the third season, but suffered unrequited love.
The runaway teen was apprehended in 2014 as he was about to blow himself up outside a district governor's office. A failed mission that has left him locked up in juvenile detention in southern Kandahar city. (Photo: AP, Representational Image)

Spin Boldak, Afghanistan: At first glance Mohibullah looks an ordinary Afghan teenager, wide-eyed with a tender smile, a little peach fuzz and a boyish dream of becoming a kick boxer. But this 15-year-old is languishing in prison -- jailed after the Taliban preyed on him to become a suicide bomber.

The runaway teen was apprehended in 2014 as he was about to blow himself up outside a district governor's office. A failed mission that has left him locked up in juvenile detention in southern Kandahar city.

Mohibullah's eyes welled up as he described how he was indoctrinated about the glories of martyrdom as a shortcut to a paradise, filled with chaste virgins and lakes of milk and honey.

"You will feel no pain when you detonate your suicide vest," he quoted one of his handlers as saying in an AFP interview inside the prison.

"You will instantly be in heaven's embrace."

His handlers, he said, made him choose from a list of five high-profile targets. He picked one he considered pregnable: the district chief of Arghandab in Kandahar, a lush region filled with grape and pomegranate groves.

With hugs, garlands and the promise of an eternal afterlife, he said he was taken on a circuitous journey to Arghandab, passing from one handler to the next, spending nights in the back of cars.

Tipped-off officials arrested him before he could reach his target and he was sentenced to four years in a juvenile prison.

Mohibullah claimed during the interview that his indoctrination took place at one of the thousands of unregulated madrassas in Pakistan, many funded with Saudi money.

Afghan officials claim they are a prime Taliban recruiting ground.

Kabul has fraught relations with Islamabad, which it blames for sponsoring the insurgency, and the Pakistani government recently admitted after years of official denial that the Taliban leadership enjoys safe haven inside the country.

Observers in Pakistan fear the seminaries are breeding grounds for intolerance or even extremism, with repeated calls for more oversight.

"The madrassas in Pakistan's tribal grounds are factories of suicide bombers," Brian Williams, who conducted a CIA study on suicide terrorism in Afghanistan, told AFP.

Last month a 12-year-old would-be suicide bomber surrendered to Afghan forces in eastern Nangarhar province.

The Taliban sent him to kill "infidel troops", he told local media, but he had last-minute misgivings after seeing soldiers praying inside a mosque.

AFP tracked down Mohibullah's family in a mud-walled house in Spin Boldak, a notorious town along the opium-smuggling route on the Pakistan border, who verified many of the personal details in his story.

Quietly sobbing behind her veil, Mohibullah's mother pleaded his innocence.

"He is scared of cats. How can he become a suicide bomber?" she insisted, adding that she can hardly afford to feed her six children let alone hire legal help.

"When I met him in prison, I asked 'why did you run away from home?' He cried, hugged me and said 'Take me home'."

The words "zakhmi zada" (broken heart) are inscribed on the door of Mohibullah's tiny prison cell, which he shares with nine other inmates.
Apple has always been a market leader when it comes to mobile accessibility features for people with disabilities. And of course as anyone who follows all of our coverage of cool hidden iPhone features knows, accessibility options also provide useful functionality to people without disabilities. While Apple is still the leader in this space, Google has made tremendous strides in recent years by adding new accessibility features with each Android release.

Unfortunately, Google's best new accessibility app in a long time is currently a closed beta, and it's no longer available to the general public  unless you're reading this post, in which case we'll show you how to get it right now.

DON'T MISS: HTC 10 vs Galaxy S7: How their 5 most important features compare

In a recent post on its official blog, Google described a number of new accessibility features that have recently been added to Android or that are currently being tested for inclusion in a future version of Google's mobile platform. Among them, Voice Access is by far the coolest new feature.

With Voice Access, people can control a wide range of functionality on their smartphones or tablets simply by speaking voice commands. The feature set goes well beyond functionality currently afforded by solutions like Siri or Google Now voice commands, supporting commands like "scroll down" or "go back," and much more. On-screen tap targets are also assigned numbers by the app, so you can virtually tap anything you can see on the screen just by speaking.

The new features were designed for users with disabilities that prevent them from using a touchscreen easily or effectively, but they're also useful for anyone else. The problem is that unfortunately, the Voice Access beta is currently full so you can no longer download the app through Google's official beta portal.

It's a good thing you found this post.

By following the instructions below, you can install the official Voice Access beta on your Android phone or tablet and begin using it immediately, even though the beta is closed.

Story continues

Visit this link on your Android device, then scroll down and tap the download button

Once the download is complete, open the APK file

Your phone will ask you if you want to install it  tap Yes (note that you may need to enable app installations from unknown sources)

That's it.

Once the app is installed, it will guide you to the Accessibility section in the Android Settings app, where you'll find a new "Voice Access" option at the bottom. Toggle it to "on" and enable "OK Google" voice detection if it's not already enabled, and you'll be able to use all the newly available voice commands.

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Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Firing confetti, singing and cheering, Brazilian opposition politicians were in party mood after voting to authorize an impeachment trial of President Dilma Rousseff. But the hangover looks painful.

Sunday's vote by the lower house of Congress to send Rousseff to the Senate for an impeachment trial left her just two steps from being forced out of office.

As early as next month, the Senate could launch impeachment proceedings, at which point Rousseff, only in the second year of her second mandate, would have to step temporarily aside.

She could still survive the ensuing trial, but most analysts say the Senate would surely follow the lower house lead and drive her out -- permanently.

No wonder Rousseff opponents grinned on Sunday as they raised placards up to television cameras reading: "Goodbye sweetie."

- Revenge scenario -

The immediate winner is Rousseff's vice president, Michel Temer, who has become her leading opponent and under the constitution would take power the moment a Senate trial started.

Temer clearly sees himself as a president in waiting, even accidentally releasing a recording of himself practicing his first speech to the nation.

But the reality of the top job might not be so attractive.

Deeply unpopular with most Brazilians, the unelected Temer would face a credibility problem.

Analysts say the constitutional lawyer and his PMDB party would find themselves facing a bitter, vengeful opposition if Rousseff were forced out by the Senate.

And that would be before he even tried to address the structural problems at the heart of Brazil's worst recession for decades -- a slide that has transformed Latin America's biggest economy from emerging markets darling into investment horror story.

- 'Nightmare' -

"The crisis will continue. In fact it will become even more serious because the losing side will use all instruments at its disposal to block the winners. Brazil will wake up worse tomorrow," independent political analyst Andre Cesar told AFP.

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Temer has talked of establishing a national unity coalition, but "this will not be easy. It will be a nightmare," Cesar said.

Diego Werneck, at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank, pointed out that Temer may even find himself fighting to stay in power.

Allies of Rousseff have lodged an impeachment petition against him, alleging that he is just as involved as Rousseff in the allegedly illegal accounting practices that are at the base of the case against her.

Although impeachment proceedings would be unlikely to move quickly -- Temer's close ally Eduardo Cunha is in charge as speaker of the lower house -- they would dog him.

Possibly more seriously, Temer is named along with Rousseff as a target of a case at the Supreme Electoral Court contending that their 2014 election ticket was partly funded by bribe money. In theory, the court could declare the elections void and call new polls, stripping Temer of his post.

- No end to crisis -

The most immediate hurdle, though, would be governing such a fractured nation.

Rousseff has ended up almost powerless inside her presidential palace as relations with Congress break down and her personal popularity plummets, leading to huge street demonstrations.

Temer, analysts say, would risk some of the same problems.

His PMDB is a mishmash of ideologies and has always played a kingmaking role, not even presenting a presidential candidate since 1994. With potential partners also eying 2018, when the next elections are scheduled, alliances might prove fragile.

Temer's "eventual government will be in a better position than Rousseff's but still with a lot of complications," Werneck said.

Sylvio Costa, who heads the specialist politics website Congresso en Foco, told AFP that Rousseff was nearly sure to go, but that more trouble lies ahead.

"Whoever loses will keep protesting in the streets," he said. "What's certain is that the crisis will not end today."
By Eric M. Johnson

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The owner of an Oregon-based defense firm pleaded guilty on Monday to plying a U.S. official with cash, meals in Vietnam and Costa Rica, and an Alaska fishing trip during a decade-long conspiracy to win business worth $171 million, a prosecutor said.

The man, who uses the single name, "Sky," pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge on Monday in a federal court in Portland, Oregon, Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Nyhus said.

Sky was accused of heaping gifts on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program manager in a bid to secure government contracts for his Ashland, Oregon-based firm from 2002 through 2013 under what Nyhus called a "wink-and-a-nod agreement."

"There was an expectation that the gratuities would continue," Nyhus told Reuters.

In total, Sky's firm, Sky Research, Inc, or SRI, which primarily provided services to the government for detecting un-exploded bombs and other munitions, received $77 million under nine contracts worth roughly $171 million, according to charging documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in Portland.

The case, which involves the expectation of gratuities, differs legally from an outright bribery case because, in the latter, there is clearer evidence of a quid-pro-quo relationship between the parties, Nyhus said.

No charges had been filed against the Corps of Engineers program manager, identified in court documents only as J.H., who oversaw a defense department military munitions program from Omaha, Nebraska, though the case continues to be reviewed, Nyhus said.

The gratuities went on for years, the charging documents show. In July 2009, for example, SRI was awarded a $9 million contract for environmental remediation services a day or so after Sky paid J.H. $3,000.

In September 2010, Sky paid for an Alaska fishing expedition for the program manager at around the same time SRI was awarded a $9.9 million contract for military munitions response services.

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Sky bought J.H. meals and lodging in Costa Rica and Vietnam in 2008 and, 2004 respectively. In 2009, Sky gave him $3,000 in cash.

Sky faces as much as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Nyhus said.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Sharon Bernstein, Bernard Orr)
Long Beach (United States) (AFP) - Simon Pagenaud finally broke through for Team Penske using a timely late pit stop en route to claiming the Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday.

France's Pagenaud pitted on lap 53 then rejoined the field in first place before extending his lead over Scott Dixon on the 3.17 kilometre (1.97 mile) course through the streets of the southern California city.

Pagenaud edged out New Zealand's Dixon by just 0.3032secs for the closest margin of victory in Long Beach race history.

"The big gamble paid off," Pagenaud said.

He earned his fifth career IndyCar title but it was his first since joining Team Penske last year.

"It was difficult, but we managed to do it. It is awesome," Pagenaud said. "My first win for Penske. You guys can't say no wins anymore.

"When you have Scott Dixon behind you, you always need to push as hard as you can. I was really, really pushing and we were saving fuel."

The 80-lap race ran caution free but not without controversy. Pagenaud was given a warning for improper lane usage during his pit stop but was not penalized.

Dixon was upset with race officials that Pagenaud got off with just a warning.

"The rule clearly states you should have two wheels on the other side of the line or you get a penalty," Dixon shrugged. "I don't know what it's about, this warning thing.

"It has been a long battle with Penskes. It is what it is."

While Pagenaud was able to scrimp on fuel the same could not be said for Graham Rahal. He worked his way into the top 10 but then ran out of fuel on the last lap and finished 15th.

Pole sitter Helio Castroneves finished third, Juan Pablo Montoya was fourth and Takuma Sato rounded out the top five in the third race of a 16-race calendar.

The feature event of the series will be the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29.
By Mubasher Bukhari LAHORE (Reuters) - A Pakistan court on Monday sentenced two men to life imprisonment for their role in a pedophile ring accused of abusing dozens of children over many years in Pakistan's Punjab province, their defense lawyer said. The discovery of the pedophile ring last year shocked Pakistan and led to a rare sanctioning of police officers for negligence after dozens of families came forward to say their children had been abused and then blackmailed by members of a wealthy family. Residents at the time alleged a prominent family in the village of Husain Khan Wala used guns, knives and axes to force children - some as young as five - to perform sex acts on video, which they sold or used to extort money from victims' families. Lawyer Adnan Liaqat said 17 people, including 14 members of the same family, had been charged with sodomy, extortion and blackmail in relation to the abuse of children. "In one of those cases, two accused Haseem Amir and Faizan Majeed have been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court today," Liaqat told Reuters. Pakistani officials occasionally use anti-terrorism courts to prosecute important cases as regular courts are perceived to be weak and wealthy suspects can bribe their way out of trouble. Liaqat said Amir and Majeed were also fined 300,000 Pakistani rupees ($2,865) for their role in the abuse, becoming the first people to be convicted in relation to the scandal. Amir is a member of the prominent family, while Majeed is his friend. Families of the abused children have accused the police of negligence, saying they had raised alarm bells about the abuse but were ignored. At least three police officers were removed from their posts over the scandal, a rare event in a nation where police officials are seldom sacked. (Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Alison Williams)
Two people convicted in a massive Pakistan paedophilia scandal were handed life sentences Monday, officials said, after a law passed in March criminalised child sexual abuse in the country for the first time.

Pakistan was rocked by the huge child abuse and extortion scandal in August last year, dubbed by authorities as the largest in Pakistan's history, allegedly involving hundreds of victims in Punjab province.

"Two convicts in the Kasur child abuse case have been handed life imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 rupees ($2,860) each by an anti terrorism court of Lahore," Sheikh Saeed Ahmed, the chief prosecutor of Punjab told AFP.

In Hussain Khanwala village in Kasur, southwest of Lahore, videos were made of at least 280 children being sexually abused by a gang who blackmailed their parents by threatening to leak the videos.

The police, who had conspicuously failed to act despite pleas from some parents, eventually made dozens of arrests after clashes between relatives and authorities brought the issue into the media spotlight.

Six months after the scandal broke they confirmed 17 of the accused remained in prison awaiting trial and three more were out on bail.

In March, Pakistan's Senate also passed a bill that criminalised sexual assault against minors, child pornography and trafficking for the first time -- previously only the acts of rape and sodomy were punishable by law.

Under the revised legislation, which is awaiting ratification by the president, sexual assaults are punishable by up to seven years in prison.

Likewise child pornography, which was previously not mentioned in the law, is punishable by seven years in prison and a fine of 700,000 rupees.

The amendment to the penal code also criminalises child trafficking within Pakistan. Previously traffickers were only liable for punishment if they removed children from the country.
Panama City (AFP) - Officials running the Panama Canal on Monday started imposing restrictions on the depth of ships passing through because of lower water levels caused by a severe drought.

The measure trims ships' maximum allowed draft -- the distance from the waterline to the bottom of the hull -- by 5.9 inches (15 centimeters), from the usual 39.5 feet (12.04 meters) to 39 feet.

The Panama Canal Authority announced the restriction a month ago and has already said it would further reduce the accepted draft by another 15 centimeters from April 29, then again by the same amount on May 9.

Three years of drought have badly depleted water in the canal, through which around 35 to 40 cargo ships pass every day. Some five percent of world maritime traffic travels through the canal.

Panama Canal Authority vice president Carlos Vargas told Telemetro television that there are no early signs the drought will break.

"Unfortunately, there is no positive news," he said. "Quite the contrary."

The canal depends on two lakes for its water, and both are well below their average levels for this time of year.

The last three years have been Panama's driest in more than a century, and El Nino, a cyclical weather phenomenon, has exacerbated the drought since last year, the authorities say.

Central America's rainy season is expected to break the drought. The precipitation is predicted to begin in "late May or early June," Vargas said.

The canal's new restrictions would not greatly affect revenue, which typically brings Panama a billion dollars a year, the official added.

"It affects us, but it is not significant for the Panama Canal's finances," he said.

Work on expanding the canal to take bigger ships and triple its capacity is just about complete after nine years and around $7 billion.

President Juan Carlos Varela is set to inaugurate the wider canal on June 26.
Tokyo (AFP) - Visiting Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela told a Japanese news agency on Monday that his country would cooperate with an OECD initiative to share tax information in the wake of the "Panama Papers" scandal.

Varela said in an interview with Kyodo News that Panama has "decided to join the common reporting standards," referring to the measures on exchanging financial account information with tax authorities set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Panama is scrambling to avert redesignation as a tax haven that assist money laundering after the disclosure of the offshore dealings of many of the world's wealthy, famous and infamous in the so-called "Panama Papers" revelations.

The scandal, which has already brought down the Icelandic prime minister and Spain's industry minister, came when millions of documents covering nearly 40 years of business were leaked from the archives of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

"The OECD's technical team is coming to Panama this week and we are going to meet and find ways to come to an agreement," said Varela, who plans to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his visit to Japan.

OECD head Angel Gurria said last week that Isabel De Saint Malo, vice president of the Central American country, had called him to express willingness to cooperate with his organisation.

The Panamanian vice president, who is also the foreign minister, told AFP earlier this month that her country would deepen talks with the OECD on sharing tax information.
Brussels (AFP) - Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam and alleged accomplice Mohamed Abrini, who is also charged over the Brussels attacks, were moved to different jails in Belgium on Monday, prison officials said.

Abdeslam, arrested in Brussels on March 18 following a four-month manhunt, "is now in Beveren in a high-security cell" after he was transferred from a prison in Bruges, prison services spokeswoman Kathleen Van De Vijver told AFP.

Beveren is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) further east from Bruges in northern Belgium.

Abrini, arrested 10 days ago in Brussels in connection with both the Paris and Brussels attacks, was moved to "the high security section in Bruges" from a jail in the Forest district of Brussels, the spokeswoman said.

Both transfers "are part of our dispersion plan," she said without elaborating.

Abrini, 31, has confessed to being "the man in the hat" caught on video with suicide bombers at Brussels airport on March 22. The airport attack and bombing an hour later at a metro station near EU headquarters killed 32 people.

Abrini was also linked to the November 13 Paris massacre after being caught on video at a motorway gas station with Abdeslam, who is awaiting extradition from Belgium to France.

However, the Belgian authorities want to question Abdeslam about a shootout in Forest that led to his arrest days afterwards in the capital's troubled Molenbeek district.

Abrini, who grew up with Abdeslam in Molenbeek, was charged with "participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to commit terrorist murders".

Abdeslam has also been charged with "terrorist murder" and being part of a terrorist group in connection with the shooting spree and suicide bomb attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.

Belgian investigators say the same cell carried out the attacks in both cities.

The Belgian parliament's commission of inquiry into the attacks said it will visit Maalbeek metro station and Brussels airport on Friday, one month to the day after the attacks in the Belgian capital.

The committee is tasked with shedding light on the Brussels attacks by the end of the year, as well as the impact on French-Belgian relations of the Paris carnage.

The committee is also to report on the Jewish Museum gun attack in Brussels which left four people dead in May 2014, a gunman's botched attack last August on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris via Brussels, as well as on the dismantling of a jihadist cell in the Belgian city of Verviers in January 2015.
In July last year, Pakistan persuaded the Taliban to join the first-ever direct talks with Afghan government officials. (Photo: Representational Image/AFP)

Islamabad: Embarrassed by Taliban's refusal to join the fledgling peace process with the Afghan government, Pakistan has warned the insurgents to call-off their recently-proclaimed 'spring offensive' or face consequences, a media report said on Monday.

The Taliban earlier this month announced the start of "Operation Omari", named after the late Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, pledging to launch large-scale offensives to oust the West-backed Afghan government from power.

Taliban's announcement of their traditional offensive backed by guerrilla attacks has surprised many in Pakistan.

The Express Tribune quoted a Pakistani official as saying that the Taliban move could derail the peace initiative the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) - involving Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US - had launched in December last. The QCG's aim was to seek direct talks between the insurgents and the Afghan government.

The official said Pakistan had urged the Taliban all along to shun violence and negotiate. "That is why we are utterly disappointed by their announcement regarding the spring offensive," he said.

The official said the Taliban leadership has been given a clear message through "intermediaries" that they will have to pay a "heavy price" if they don't join the peace talks.

It is not clear if the latest warning would work as some reports suggest many Taliban leaders have already moved out of Pakistan or planned to return to Afghanistan in an effort to avoid any action.

In July last year, Pakistan persuaded the Taliban to join the first-ever direct talks with Afghan government officials. However, the contact was suspended due to announcement of Mullah Omar's death last year and subsequent rifts within the group.

In March, Pakistan's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in a frank admission in Washington for the first time said that the Taliban leadership was present in Pakistan along with their families.

The Taliban insurgency has gained strength after the withdrawal of international troops at the end of 2014 and the insurgents are stronger than at any point since they were driven from power by US-backed forces in 2001.

Seasons have long shaped violence in Afghanistan with fighting easing off in the winter, when mountain passes get snowed in, and picking up again in the spring and summer.

According to the UN, 600 civilians have died in Afghanistan's war in the first quarter of this year. It has also that 161 children were killed in Afghanistan and branded the figures "appalling".
Members of the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee, from left, Donna Brazile, Elaine Kamarck and Alice Germond vote on what to do with Florida delegates during their meeting in Washington in 2008. (Photo: LM Otero/AP)

Elaine Kamarck got her start in Democratic politics in the 1970s, at a time when political parties had just recently begun to open up the presidential nominating process. The modern primary system did not really even exist until that decade, after a set of party reforms following the 1968 election took control of the nominating process out of the hands of party insiders and allowed voters a greater say.

The current controversy over the Republican Partys nominating process, driven by Donald Trumps complaints that the system is rigged and corrupt  and his call for a bold infusion of popular will  ignores the fact that the rules have been generally the same for more than four decades. Kamarck, who started as an aide to President Jimmy Carter and became a top White House official during the Clinton administration in the 90s, wrote a book called Primary Politics (2009), which explains the history of how the modern nominating process for Republicans and Democrats came to be.

She talked to Yahoo News about the current debate over the GOP system. The transcript of the conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Yahoo News: A lot of people are wondering about these rules for how delegates are selected. Theyve never really mattered since the primary season was opened up in 1972. Why is that?

Elaine Kamarck: Theyve mattered three times. They mattered for the Democrats in 1972. They mattered for the Republicans in 1976. And they mattered for the Democrats in 1980.

But for most people under 30, thats ancient history.

True. Most people are accustomed to thinking that  if they think about those delegates at all  they think those are people brought to the convention to cheer on the nominee and wear stupid hats.

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So why does it matter now?

The only reason it matters is because the voters havent given a clear-cut victory to someone. What we are accustomed to is: Someone wins early, they keep on winning, the other candidates drop out, and by the time you get to July, there isnt a contest anymore. Whenever the voters dont make a clear decision, the decision making falls to the delegates and you have essentially the system that existed prior to 1972, where party insiders get to make the decision. Theres nothing new about this. Its just that in the modern situation, were not used to it.

It happened all the time pre-1972.

The first nominating convention was in 1832. Until 1968, Americans nominated their presidents in almost exactly the same way. It was party leaders, elected as delegates in their states, going to the convention. For all that time, almost no one ran in primaries. There were very few. In fact, running in a primary was considered a weakness, not a mark of strength. In 72, because of  reform efforts on the Democratic side, more states held primaries, [and] those primaries suddenly were binding  or attempted to be  on the delegates.

What do you think of Trumps complaint that the system is corrupt and unfair?

Trumps out of his f***ing mind. Every single presidential candidate except for him knows what this system is. Its not corrupt. Its the system by which the parties pick their nominee. Parties are protected under the First Amendments freedom of assembly. No American is forced to participate.

Parties are institutions. They have an interest in preserving their brand. Coca-Cola doesnt let Pepsi participate in their brand. Republicans dont let Democrats participate in their brand. This is a party decision, and parties make these decisions based on their institutional health. Meaning, if you put someone at the top of the ticket that is so unpopular that you lose the House of Representatives, youre not doing the right thing for your party.

The voters have been included to keep parties from getting really out of touch. In 1968, Democrats did not understand the depths of the antiwar sentiment in their party and cut [Vietnam War opponents] out of their convention. This time, the Republican Party didnt understand the anger of voters for Trump. But the bottom line is, this is not a public decision  its a party decision.

Do you want that on the record, that Trump is out of his f***ing mind?

Yes. Hes out of his f***ing mind. Hes an a******. No other candidate has ever run for president so unprepared.

Do you think his arguments will influence the way we choose nominees?

The systems will only change if the parties themselves decide to change them. My guess is the system will move in the other direction from where Trump wants it to, with parties taking greater control of the nominations to keep them from being captured by people who sully the brand.

Trump is essentially arguing for direct democracy.

Exactly. He is arguing [for] direct democracy. The Congress has considered a national primary many times. Political parties, however, will never be for it. The current system is very open through the primaries and caucuses and to letting new people participate. At the same time, it has an insider piece to it. Thats why the system has persisted for 40-some years.

The general election is a different story because its a constitutionally sanctioned thing. The parties are a different thing. Parties have the right to say this person is not a Democrat or a Republican. They are voluntary associations of citizens. They are semipublic organizations. No democracy has ever managed to function without parties. They are crucial for organizing the electorate and helping people govern.

Why were the Founding Fathers concerned about parties?

The founders were concerned about the mischief of factions. They created this system of elaborate checks and balances to stop anybody from gaining too much power. What the founders created is something that Trump doesnt like, where it is very hard for one faction to foist its will on others. The Founding Fathers tried to avoid factional disputes, and they did not succeed, because by 1800, the Jefferson versus Adams race was one of the meanest, nastiest party fights in history.

No other democracy in the world nominates its candidates in primaries. All the parliamentary democracies have party conferences and they have lists. You cant just go run for Parliament in Devonshire [in the United Kingdom]. You have to be placed on a list by the central party committee.
Washington (AFP) - The Pentagon on Monday described last week's "unsafe" manoeuver by a Russian fighter that flew close to a US spy plane, saying it had performed a barrel roll.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said a Russian Su-27 flew less than 50 feet (15 meters) from the wingtip of an RC-135 reconnaissance plane in international airspace over the Baltic Sea last Thursday.

It then "conducted a barrel roll from the left side of the aircraft, going over the top of the aircraft, and ended up on the right side of the aircraft," Davis said.

Thursday's "unsafe and unprofessional" incident came just days after Russian aircraft repeatedly buzzed the USS Donald Cook in a series of incidents decried by the US military.

In one case, a Russian Su-24 flew 30 feet (nine meters) above the war ship in a "simulated attack profile," according to the US military's European Command.

Ties between Russia and the West have plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War over Moscow's 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Kiev and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.

It did not appear that the Russian jets were armed in any of the incidents, the Pentagon said.
[Warning: The following story contains spoilers about Girls' fifth-season finale.]

Hannah (Lena Dunham) finally seems to be getting things together.

After breaking up with Fran (Jake Lacy) and talking extensively with someone from her past, by the beginning of season five's tenth and final episode, Hannah's running and preparing to participate in the Moth's open-mike competition, marking a return to storytelling since she left the Iowa Writers' Workshop in season four.

Hannah uses the evening's topic of jealousy to voice her feelings about Jessa (Jemima Kirke) and Adam (Adam Driver), revealing to the audience and viewers that she's made her peace with their relationship.

"When I found out about my ex-boyfriend and my best friend, I was weirdly calm considering that fact, frozen even," Hannah says. "I tried to get myself really worked up and imagine all of this horrible stuff on a loop. I wasn't angry, I was sad. I was sad about what they thought they knew I was."

She says she had to fight not to let her emotions overwhelm her and lash out at them.

Read More: Critic's Notebook: Why 'Girls' Never Stopped Being Great

Meanwhile, Adam and Jessa have an epic, physically destructive fight that results in a broken door, toppled bookcases, shattered objects and more debris. The two share their divergent feelings about Hannah, with Jessa saying she truly considers her to be a lifelong friend even though they don't get along now and Adam complaining about her narcissistic behavior.

"Hannah is my dearest friend. She will always come first. We may not be talking right now, and I hope to God that that changes, so you saying she's not in our lives anymore doesn't work for me," Jessa says, adding that while people find her to be "hateable," she has principles, including not stealing people's boyfriends. "But you ruined that We could die in the same bed and I would never forgive you."

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Later Adam says, "I'm not going to let Hannah break us apart.  She's a lazy, entitled, myopic, manipulative narcissist, who knows a f - of a lot less than she thinks she does." He screams repeatedly about how she's a "bitch" and a "c - ," adding "We're done with her."

Jessa: "We will never be done with her."

But as aggressive as Adam gets, Jessa throws it back and doesn't get scared.

Read More: 'Girls' Star Allison Williams on Marnie's Romantic Reunion and Relationship Decision

Hannah later indicates in her Moth story that she was outside of the apartment and heard part of the fight, as she stopped by to drop off a fruit basket as a peace offering, giving her an end to her story.

"I knew I was free at least for tonight," she says.

Marnie (Allison Williams), still figuring out how to work with Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as her musical partner after the end of their romantic relationship, is spending time with Ray (Alex Karpovsky) again.

And Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet), back from Japan, partners with Ray in a professional capacity, getting involved in his fight with the Helvetica coffee shop across the street.

As for Elijah (Andrew Rannells), he's still reeling from his last interaction with Dill Harcourt (Corey Stoll) and his talk with Hannah's dad (Peter Scolari), seems to affect her father.

Read More: 'Girls' Boss on How Main Characters Are "Really Going to Try to Grow Up A Little Bit" in Penultimate Season

See More: 'Girls': Most Memorable Friends, Relatives and Mistakes
New York (AFP) - Soft drinks giant giant PepsiCo Inc on Monday reported a first-quarter drop in profits and the sixth consecutive fall in sales blamed on a strong dollar.

Quarterly net income fell to $931 million, while sales dropped by 2.9 percent to $11.86 billion against $11.88 billion expected by the markets.

Core earnings per share was 89 cents against 81 cents as expected by analysts.

The company's performance in the first three months of the year was affected by a $373 million impairment charge related to its interests in the Tingyi-Asahi Beverages Holding group.

"Foreign exchange translation had a 4.5 percentage point unfavorable impact," and separating its Venezuela operations due to difficulties converting local currency to dollars "had a 2 percentage point unfavorable impact on reported net revenue," PepsiCo said.

The company said it was also affected by a depreciation of its assets in Russia.

The group reaffirmed its 2016 forecast of earnings per share of around $4.66, an increase of 2.0 percent compared with 2015.

"We are off to a strong start to the year and that gives us added confidence in achieving our financial objectives for 2016," said Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi.
New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Monday indicated that his country may consider a request by India for a visit by its NIA team to further probe the Pathankot terror strike, days after top Pakistani envoy ruled out the same.

Aziz said Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit's comments that the bilateral peace process was "suspended" did not mean "cancelled or given up" and hoped that the Indo-Pak dialogue will resume soon.

Read: Pathankot attack: NIA to seek access to JeM chief Masood Azhar, others

On whether India's National National Investigation Agency (NIA) team will be allowed to visit Pakistan in connection with Pathankot attack probe, Aziz told CNN-NEWS18 in an interview that "once the stage is reached, India makes a request and then we will see".

Claiming that Basit's comments that cooperation not meaning reciprocity were "over-interpreted", he said he did not exclude option of NIA's visit to Pakistan.

"I don't think he used that word. He said that right now cooperation is more important than that of reciprocity and does not exclude option and he said that let's cooperate and then thing will work out. So, I don't think one should over interpret statement, he (Basit) just said that cooperation is more important which is true," Aziz said.

Read: Pathankot terror attack: Pakistan gives clean chit to JeM chief

Earlier this month, Basit had indicated that an Indian probe team is unlikely to be allowed to visit Pakistan, which had sent its JIT to probe the terror attack at the air base, saying, "The whole investigation is not about question of reciprocity in my view. It is more about extending cooperation or our two countries cooperating with each other to get to the bottom of the incident".

Aziz also downplayed Basit's remarks on "suspension" of Indo-Pak peace process, saying "Suspending doesn't mean cancelled or given up". For the time being you called it suspended as obviously after January, four months have passed, and to that "extent dialogue is suspended but I hope it will resume soon," he added.

Read: Its ISI propaganda, India rubbishes Pak claim of staging Pathankot attack

He also alleged that the recent arrest of the former Indian naval officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, was "not the case of one individual. It is network which is operating in Baloachistan. We have arrested some more people. We don't want consular access to affect our investigating in to this entire episode."

Jadhav was arrested last month by Pakistan authorities, who alleged that he was an Indian spy, an allegation rejected by India that has sought consular access to him.
Manila (AFP) - Leading Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, embroiled in an uproar for his apparent joke about the rape and murder of an Australian woman, came under fire Monday from the church and Canberra's envoy but remained defiant.

Duterte, who promises mass killings of suspected criminals if elected next month, has faced a storm of criticism since a video showed him making crude remarks about a female Australian missionary who was raped and killed during a Philippine prison riot in 1989.

The video uploaded on YouTube shows Duterte, who was mayor of the southern city of Davao where the riot broke out, telling a crowd of laughing supporters: "I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first."

The head of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, joined a chorus of people criticising Duterte.

Villegas posted the video on social media, telling the faithful: "Please watch the video and judge for yourself. I will keep my own judgement to myself."

In response to Villegas, Duterte -- who is still mayor of Davao -- issued a statement on Monday saying: "All the while I was doing my duties for humanity. And now they're castigating me for my mouth?"

Asked if the bishop might be warning people not to vote for him, a defiant Duterte said: "Correct."

Duterte warned he would not change his coarse language even though critics say it shows he is unfit for the presidency.

"If it is not acceptable to the cultured people, let it be. If it means my defeat, so be it," he said.

Australian ambassador Amanda Gorely joined the critics, saying in a statement on Twitter: "Rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialised. Violence against women and girls is unacceptable anytime, anywhere."

Duterte, who leads in the latest opinion survey of presidential candidates in the May 9 elections, has refused to apologise for his remarks, saying he was merely relating a "narrative" of events during the 1989 riot and not making a joke.

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Many Filipinos have embraced Duterte for his promise to get tough on crime. He openly boasts in his speeches of the extra-judicial killing of suspected criminals by vigilantes during his time in Davao.

The bishops of the devoutly Catholic Philippines have criticised Duterte before after he called Pope Francis a "son of a whore," for causing traffic jams during his visit last year.

He later apologised for the remark.
Madrid (AFP) - Spain's far-left party said Monday its members had voted massively against backing a coalition government between the Socialists and new centrist party Ciudadanos, boosting the likelihood of fresh elections.

Of the roughly 149,000 party members who took part in the April 14-16 internal referendum, 88.23 percent opposed supporting such a government, the party said in a statement.

The vast majority, 91.79 percent, backed a "government of change" made up of the Socialists, Podemos and several small regional parties, the statement added.

The party plebiscite follows a December 20 general election that resulted in a hung parliament, with power divided among four main groupings, none of which has enough seats to govern alone.

The polls put an end to Spain's traditional two-party system as voters fed up with austerity, unemployment and corruption scandals decamped to new parties like Podemos and Ciudadanos.

But the parties have not been able to agree on the formation of a government. They have until May 2 to find a power-sharing agreement, and if they fail fresh elections will be held on June 26.

"The results are clear and the popular mandate will guide the next steps," deputy Podemos leader Inigo Errejon tweeted.

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias called the referendum in early April after three-way talks between his party, the Socialists and Ciudadanos broke down less than 24 hours after they began.

Analysts said the party leadership wanted an endorsement of its position to shield itself from criticism if Spain was forced to repeat the election in June, as looks increasingly likely.

"We did all that we can do," the lead negotiator for the Socialists, Antonio Hernando, told reporters after the result of the vote was announced.

"The ball is in the court of other parties... What is certain is that 100 percent of Podemos voters do not want Mariano Rajoy to remain at the helm of the government," he added.

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- 'Grand coalition' -

Acting Prime Minister Rajoy's conservative Popular Party (PP) won the most votes in the election but lost its absolute majority in parliament.

He turned down a bid to form a government due to a lack of support from other parties.

Rajoy has urged a "grand coalition" made up of the PP, the Socialists who came in second place, and Ciudadanos which came fourth, but this option has consistently been rejected by Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez.

"We are going to keep until the last day our proposal for a grand coalition," PP official Fernando Martinez-Maillo told a news conference after Podemos announced its referendum results.

The possibility of a grand coalition involving the Socialists seems extremely remote, as the PP's image has been tainted by a series of corruption scandals and Sanchez has been highly critical of Rajoy.

Spain's King Felipe VI will next week hold a third and final round of talks with party leaders in a last-ditch bid to get them to form a coalition and avoid fresh elections.

Polls show fresh elections would once again produce a hung parliament with power divided along the same lines as during the December polls.
Rahman was effectively rearrested on Monday after being named in the alleged conspiracy to kidnap and kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son, Sajeeb Wazed. (Photo: AFP)

Dhaka: Bangladesh police on Monday named a second editor as a suspect in an alleged plot to kill the prime minister's son, amid fears by rights groups of a crackdown on the press.

Mahmudur Rahman already faces 75 cases of sedition and other charges after authorities in 2013 shut down his Amar Desh newspaper for allegedly inciting religious tension. But Rahman, known for his pro-opposition views, had been expected to be released from jail in coming days after being bailed on the most serious offences.

Rahman's lawyer Syed Zainul Abedin called the fresh case "politically motivated", saying the government was trying to keep him in jail as long as possible.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Maruf Hossain Sorder said Rahman was effectively rearrested on Monday after being named in the alleged conspiracy to kidnap and kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son, Sajeeb Wazed.

"Police have filed an application to the court to show him arrested in this case," Sorder told AFP, adding that hearings would be held next week.

An elderly pro-opposition editor was arrested on Saturday on the same charge, the latest in a series of detentions of journalists.

Shafik Rehman, an 81-year-old respected magazine editor, was detained over what was termed a plot to kill Hasina's son in the United States.

Rehman, who is also a British citizen, is not a member of Bangladesh's main opposition party but was a speechwriter for its leader Khaleda Zia, who has for years been involved in a bitter feud with Hasina.

The opposition has blasted the arrest as a stifling of free speech. But Hasina's son Wazed late Sunday called the evidence against Rehman "direct and irrefutable".

"The US Department of Justice discovered Shafik Rehman's direct involvement in the plot to kidnap and kill me. They provided this evidence to our Government," he wrote on his Facebook page. There was no comment from the US Justice Department.

The arrest comes amid widening fears for freedom of speech in the Muslim-majority nation, which has seen a spate of Islamist killings of secular bloggers and publishers.

Last week the High Court suspended 72 defamation and other criminal lawsuits filed by government supporters against newspaper editor Mahfuz Anam.

Human Rights Watch is among those which have slammed the lawsuits against Anam, saying they "are part of a larger, organised assault on independent media".
Fish that contain environmental pollutants may harm people who eat them by preventing the human body from doing its natural job of flushing out toxins, researchers said Friday.

The study in the journal Science Advances examined 10 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) -- including the pesticide DDT and industrial chemicals such as flame retardants -- found in yellowfin tuna and human blood and urine.



All 10 pollutants studied interfered with the effectiveness of a key protein in humans and animals, known as P-gp, which expels foreign chemicals from the body.



One chemical used to make flame retardants in upholstery and plastics, known as PBDE-100, was found for the first time to bind itself to the crucial protein and prevent it from doing its defensive job.



"When we eat contaminated fish, we could be reducing the effectiveness of this critical defense system in our bodies," said lead author Amro Hamdoun of the Marine Biology Research Division at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.



Babies are particularly vulnerable to pollutants in fish -- which they may ingest via breast milk even if they are not eating solid food yet -- because they have low amounts of the protective P-gp protein, the study said.



The US Food and Drug Administration currently recommends that pharmaceuticals be tested to see whether they impede the body's natural defense system. Researchers urged authorities to do the same for pollutants that can make their way into fish.



"It's unsettling to find that all of the tested persistent environmental pollutants interfered with the P-gp protein's ability to protect cells," said Jacob James, managing director of the Waitt Foundation, which funded the study.



"We are the only species that can influence entire food chains and habitats, we must act more responsibly in the design and use of chemicals in our environment."











 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse
Vatican City (AFP) - The 12 Syrian asylum seekers Pope Francis brought back with him from Lesbos are settling into new lives, with Italian lessons and strolls around Rome, their hosts said Monday.

The three Muslim families are being housed temporarily by the Saint'Egidio religious community in the Rome district of Trastevere while they await longer-term accommodation being prepared for them in the Vatican, community spokesman Maximiliano Signifredi told AFP.

"Yesterday they had their first Italian lessons. They have been going for walks around Trastevere, a new life is opening up in front of them," Signifredi said.

"Each of the three families has been assigned a small flat with everything they need while they are awaiting the more spacious apartments the Vatican is getting ready for them."

One of the refugees, Hassan, a 30-year-old who had fled Damascus with his wife Nour and son Riad, 2, told a press conference he felt he was living in a dream.

"The pope is an amazing person. We hope every religious person should be like the pope," Hassan said, before poignantly observing that the pain of leaving friends and family behind in war-torn Syria would not pass easily.

"You can find a new place but you cannot find a new family," he said.

- 'Pope is the miracle' -

"The pope is the miracle, the angel who saved us," said Osam, who also fled Damascus, along with wife Wafaa and their two children, aged 8 and 6. "Peace has no borders."

In a dramatic gesture designed to highlight the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving on the southern shores of Europe, Francis on Sunday flew back from Lesbos with the 12 Syrians.

The three couples, who have six children between them, were plucked from a detention camp on the Greek island to start new lives, more than 1,400 miles (nearly 2,300 kilometres) from their homes in Damascus and Deir Ezzor, a city in eastern Syria controlled by the Islamic State group.

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Francis said on the plane back from Lesbos that the families had been chosen out of some 3,000 people at the camp simply because their paperwork was sufficiently in order to rapidly conclude an accord on their transfer with the Greek and Italian governments.

"I didn't make a choice between Christians and Muslims. All refugees are children of God," Francis told reporters.

The families are expected to seek asylum in Italy rather than through the tiny Vatican city state.

The Vatican was already housing two Syrian families in line with Francis's instruction to every Catholic parish in Europe to take in at least one.

The St Egidio community is very active on migration issues and has organised flights to Rome for dozens of Syrian refugees who are housed in the same building as the families brought back by the Pope.
By Jonathan Allen and Luciana Lopez NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders accused front-runner Hillary Clinton of apparent campaign finance violations on Monday, ratcheting up the rhetoric against his rival one day before New York state's crucial primary elections. Sanders questioned whether Clinton's campaign violated legal limits on donations by paying her staffers with funds from a joint fundraising effort by Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, or DNC. Sanders has long maintained that the DNC has favored Clinton over Sanders. The U.S. senator from Vermont is a democratic socialist who has run as an independent in his Senate campaigns. While the use of joint fundraising agreements has existed for some time - it is unprecedented for the DNC to allow a joint committee to be exploited to the benefit of one candidate in the midst of a contested nominating contest, Sanders' campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said. The Clinton campaign dismissed the charge, with chairman Robby Mook saying Sanders was making baseless accusations. "It is shameful that Senator Sanders has resorted to irresponsible and misleading attacks just to raise money for himself," Mook said. The accusations surfaced as the Democratic and Republican candidates engaged in a final frenzy of campaigning before Tuesday's primaries. Both the Democratic and Republican primaries are expected to be the state's most decisive in decades in the selection of the parties' candidates for November's general election. Former U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, the national front-runners, were favored to win their respective primaries in the state that both call home. Victories would be a tonic for both candidates following a series of losses. In recent weeks, Sanders has defeated Clinton in nominating contests. On the Republican side, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Trump's closest challenger, has outmaneuvered the billionaire businessman in the fight for delegates to the Republican National Convention that will pick the party's nominee in July. By the end of Monday - the last official day of campaigning before the New York primaries - tens of thousands of New Yorkers will have heard the candidates' closing pitches. At St. John's Riverside Hospital in Yonkers just north of New York City, Clinton spoke to doctors, nurses and others at a hospital cafeteria, asking for their votes and taking a jab at Cruz's dismissal earlier in the campaign of "New York values." "I think New York's values are America's values," she told the crowd. Cruz defended his "New York values" catchphrase on ABC's "Good Morning America" in Times Square on Monday, saying New Yorkers had "suffered under the left-wing Democratic policies" of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo. Sanders needs a strong victory in New York, where 291 delegates to the Democratic convention in July are at stake, if he is to overtake Clinton. With 2,383 delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination, Clinton has 1,758 to Sanders' 1,076, according to an Associated Press tally. That total includes unpledged superdelegates who are free to back the candidate of their choice but told the news service whom they support. For Trump, the question is whether he will make a clean sweep of all 95 Republican delegates at stake by earning the majority of votes in all 27 congressional districts in the state. Total victory in New York would help Trump avoid the possibility that the nomination could be wrested from him at the party's July 18-21 convention in Cleveland if he arrives without a majority of at least 1,237 delegates. In that scenario, another candidate could win on a second or subsequent ballot. Trump has 744 delegates to 559 for Cruz and 144 for Ohio Governor John Kasich, according to the Associated Press. The count includes endorsements from several delegates who are free to support the candidate of their choice. In Wyoming, in the latest state-by-state delegate battle, Cruz was awarded all 14 delegates, according to a party official on Saturday. "Lyin' Ted Cruz can't win with the voters so he has to sell himself to the bosses-I am millions of VOTES ahead! Hillary would destroy him & K," Trump tweeted on Monday. On ABC, Cruz responded by saying that Trump was throwing a fit because he has lost several recent state contests. "The stakes are too high to hand the election to Hillary Clinton, which is what nominating Donald Trump" would do, he said. (Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Megan Cassella in Washington; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)
On Monday, April 18th, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case challenging President Obamas 2014 executive action regarding immigration. The case, United States v. Texas, was brought by Texas and 24 other states as an effort to stop the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program, which would classify four million undocumented immigrants as lawfully present in the United States. Last year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction on the program, meaning that the Obama administration cant move forward with the directive unless the Supreme Court overturns the lower court ruling.

Aside from the lively policy questions surrounding the merits of the program, this case raises multiple constitutional questions. At oral arguments, lawyers for both sides will try to persuade justices to agree with their respective viewpoints on three main questions: first, whether the states even have standing to bring suit against the Obama administration. Second, whether the action is an unlawful infringement on congressional powers by the executive. And finally, whether President Obamas action is a violation of the Take Care Clause from Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution.

The brief filed to the Court on behalf of the states opens by explaining why, in their view, the 25 states have standing to sue. The legal principle of standing stipulates that in order for a partys claim to be heard in court, that party must have sustained or will sustain direct injury or harm; show that there is a sufficient causal connection between the conduct in question and the injury, and demonstrate that the court could remedy the situation. The crux of the respondents argument is that DAPA will impose substantial costs on states, which would stem from states providing benefits and services to those deemed lawfully present.

In Texas, for example, lawfully present individuals are eligible for subsidized drivers licenses, unemployment insurance, and access to programs like Social Security and the Earned Income Tax Credit. The states further argue that they will have to spend more money on health care, education, and law enforcement as a result of the executive action. These costs, they argue, amount to a direct injury, and they explain that courts can grant them relief by blocking the action.

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Lawyers defending the program before the Court say that the claim of standing by the states is illegitimate and could begin a dangerous slippery slope. They argue that all of putative injuries that the states could suffer are all indirect and incidental, and that if the Court grants the states standing they are entering the political thicket in a manner that violates traditional understandings of separation of powers. They point to Texas state statute that subsidizes licenses for the individuals covered under DAPA, and say that instead of asking the Court to impede the actions of the Executive branch, Texas ought to change their laws if they find the costs too burdensome.

After arguing that the states have standing before the Court, the brief filed on their behalf argues that the action is an unconstitutional overreach by the President, who they contend is asserting powers delegated exclusively to Congress. They point to recent precedent which underscored that policies pertaining to the entry of aliens and their right to remain here areentrusted exclusively to Congress, and note that Congress has debated and rejected passing policies like those in DAPA. The brief acknowledges that, due to limited enforcement resources, the Executive branch has been understood to have the discretion to abandon deportation proceedings, but note that this power is limited to be used on a case-by-case basis. They claim that DAPA far exceeds the scope of this discretion, as it categorically transform[s] unlawful conduct into lawful conduct.

The opposing brief counters these claims by citing federal statute which delegates, to the Secretary of Homeland Security, the power to establish national immigration enforcement policies and priorities in ways that he or she deems necessary. They explain that this substantial delegation from Congress to the Executive reflects Congress prudent judgment that immigration policies need to respond rapidly to developing situations, and that the Executive is in the best position to determine deportation priorities. They argue that DAPA is justified under this scheme of delegation by Congress, and assert that rather than making unlawful conduct lawful, the executive order reflects nothing more than a judgment that the aliens ongoing presence will be tolerated for period of time.

Finally, the states brief turns to the Take Care Clause, which provides that the President must take care that the laws be faithfully executed. They point to precedent which determined that the clause refutes the idea that [the President] is to be a lawmaker, and say that it prescribes the executive action in question because of its declaration that unlawful conduct be treated as lawful. They warn that should the Court permit this action, future Presidents could cease enforcement of laws like the Voting Rights Act using the same justification employed by the administration in this case.

Lawyers for the administration contend that the Take Care argument is meritless. They assert that the Supreme Court has never interpreted the Clause as a basis for intervening in matters of executive discretion like this, and warn that a broad interpretation of the Clause would lead the way to judicial overreach on powers reserved to the executive. Regardless, they explain, the Executive branch is faithfully enforcing the law, as DAPA is covered under the unusually broad discretion given to the Executive regarding immigration.

While the immediate outcome of this case will have a real impact on the lives of millions and on the contours of the ongoing debate surrounding immigration policy, this case has the potential to have longer lasting institutional effects. Its ruling will impact the delicate separation of powers between all three branches, which makes this one of the landmark cases of the 2015-16 Supreme Court session.

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MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed on Monday to continue building closer coordination on Syria, including through their intelligence services and defense ministries, the Kremlin said. The White House said Obama and Putin had an "intense conversation" by telephone that covered both Syria and Ukraine. During the call, the Kremlin said Putin stressed the need for the moderate opposition to distance itself swiftly from Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. He also stressed the need to close Syria's border with Turkey, "from where fighters and arms supplies for the extremists make their way in", the Kremlin said. Russia has repeatedly raised the issue of the border, across which, according to Russia, militants are crossing from Turkey into Syria. Obama stressed that progress on Syria needed to be made "in parallel" to progress on political transition to end the conflict there, the White House said in a release. Syrian peace talks came close to collapse on Monday, with the mainstream opposition announcing a pause in talks being held in Geneva. The Kremlin said Obama thanked Putin for Russia's help in freeing American citizen Kevin Dawes, who had been in captivity in Syria. The U.S. State Department had said previously Russia played a role in his release. The two presidents also exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine, with Putin expressing the hope that with the new Ukrainian government "will finally start taking concrete steps towards implementing the Minsk agreements", the Kremlin said. Obama urged Putin to take steps to end the significant uptick in fighting in eastern Ukraine and stressed the importance of moving forward with full implementation of the agreements, the White House said in a release. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in a daily press conference that the two presidents did not talk about the two Russian warplanes that the U.S. military said last week flew simulated attack passes near a U.S. guided missile destroyer in the Baltic Sea. (Reporting by Polina Devitt and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Alison Williams and Tom Brown)
By Ana Isabel Martinez and Julia Symmes Cobb PORTOVIEJO/PEDERNALES, Ecuador (Reuters) - Touring a city ravaged by the earthquake that killed at least 413 people, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa on Monday contemplated a rebuilding costing billions of dollars and a potentially "huge" impact on the fragile OPEC economy. But the traumatized survivors Correa met on his rounds two days after the magnitude 7.8 quake had much more immediate concerns: many asked him for water. With the death toll likely to rise further and swaths of flattened homes, roads and bridges coming to light, a visibly moved and grim-faced Correa warned that Ecuador's biggest disaster in decades would put a big toll on the poor Andean country. "Reconstruction will cost billions of dollars," said Correa in the hard-hit city of Portoviejo, where survivors swarmed him asking for aid. The economic impact "could be huge," he added later. Growth in the country of 16 million, which is largely dependent on oil and exports, was already forecast near zero this year due to plunging oil income. The energy industry appeared to have dodged damage although the main refinery of Esmeraldas was closed as a precaution. However, exports of bananas, flowers, cocoa beans and fish could be slowed by ruined roads and port delays. Michael Henderson, at risk consultancy Maplecroft, said Ecuador was less well equipped to recover than Chile, where a 2010 earthquake caused an estimated $30 billion in damage. "Whereas Chile's economy was rebounding strongly from the global financial crisis ..., Ecuador has been slowing sharply recently as lower oil prices depress activity," he said. "But total damage to assets in dollar terms may be quite a bit lower than in Chile due to the smaller magnitude of the earthquake and the fact that Ecuador is a much poorer country." PLEAS FOR AID, SPORADIC LOOTING The quake struck Saturday night along the northwest coast, while Correa was in Italy. Vice President Jorge Glas - a potential candidate to succeed Correa in elections next February - flew into the disaster zone within hours to oversee rescue and relief efforts. But some survivors complained about lack of electricity and supplies, and aid had still not reached some areas. The number of injured rose to over 2,600. Shaken Ecuadoreans lined up for food and blankets, slept in the rubble of their destroyed homes or congregated in the street after the most destructive quake since a 1979 magnitude 7.7 quake killed at least 600 people and injured 20,000, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Fears of looting spread as in Portoviejo people stole clothes and shoes from wrecked buildings and police tried to control crowds. A former social security building was ransacked for aluminum window frames and cables by people hoping to sell the materials. "I have to take some advantage from this horrible tragedy. I need money to buy food. There's no water, no light, and my house was destroyed," said Jorge Espinel, 40, who works in the recycling business. Elsewhere, armed men robbed two trucks carrying water, clothes and other basics to quake-hit beach locality Pedernales. There, survivors curled up on mattresses or plastic chairs next to flattened homes. Soldiers and police patrolled the hot streets while rescuers searched for survivors. Earlier, firefighters entered a partially destroyed house in Pedernales to look for three children and a man apparently trapped inside, as a crowd gathered to watch. "My little cousins are inside. Before, there were noises, screams. We must find them," pleaded Isaac, 18. Tents sprang up in the intact stadium to store bodies, treat the injured, and distribute water, food and blankets. Bruised and bandaged survivors wandered around while the more seriously injured were evacuated to hospitals. Over 300 aftershocks rattled survivors huddling in the streets, worried their already cracked homes could topple. "We're scared of being in the house," said Yamil Faran, 47, in Portoviejo. "When ... the aftershocks stop, we're going to see if we can repair it." Some 130 inmates climbed over the collapsed walls of the town's low-security El Rodeo prison, although more than 35 were recaptured. INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT The government has mobilized about 13,500 security personnel to the affected areas. Nearly 400 rescue workers flew in from various Latin American neighbors, along with 83 specialists from Switzerland and Spain. Cuba was sending a team of doctors. Two Canadians were among the dead. Jennifer Mawn, 38, and her 12-year-old son, Arthur, died when the roof of their coastal residence collapsed. One U.S. citizen is also confirmed to have died in the quake, the State Department said on Monday. And Britain's Guardian newspaper said Sister Clare Theresa Crockett, 33, a missionary nun from Derry in Northern Ireland, also died. To get finance the costs of the emergency, some $600 million in credit from multilateral lenders was immediately activated, the government said. But the disaster may also push Correa, a leftist, to seek help from the International Monetary Fund, consultancy Eurasia said. "Such dynamics increase the odds of Correa turning to an IMF Program for support, an option he has so far resisted, and the earthquake could provide him with political cover to do so," it said. (Additional reporting by Alexandra Valencia and Diego Ore in Quito, and Alexandra Ulmer in Caracas; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by James Dalgleish and Mary Milliken)
Artificial intelligence has had its share of ups and downs recently. In what was widely seen as a key milestone for artificial intelligence (AI) researchers, one system beat a former world champion at a mind-bendingly intricate board game. But then, just a week later, a "chatbot" that was designed to learn from its interactions with humans on Twitter had a highly public racist meltdown on the social networking site.

How did this happen, and what does it mean for the dynamic field of AI?

In early March, a Google-made artificial intelligence system beat former world champ Lee Sedol four matches to one at an ancient Chinese game, called Go, that is considered more complex than chess, which was previously used as a benchmark to assess progress in machine intelligence. Before the Google AI's triumph, most experts thought it would be decades before a machine could beat a top-ranked human at Go. [Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic Futures]

But fresh off the heels of this win, Microsoft unveiled an AI system on Twitter called Tay that was designed to mimic a 19-year-old American girl. Twitter users could tweet at Tay, and Microsoft said the AI system would learn from these interactions and eventually become better at communicating with humans. The company was forced to pull the plug on the experiment just 16 hours later, after the chatbot started spouting racist, misogynistic and sexually explicit messages. The company apologized profusely, blaming a "coordinated attack" on "vulnerabilities" and "technical exploits."

Despite Microsoft's use of language that seemed to suggest the system fell victim to hackers, AI expert Bart Selman, a professor of computer science at Cornell University, said the so-called "vulnerability" was that Tay appeared to repeat phrases tweeted at it without any kind of filter. Unsurprisingly, the "lolz" to be had from getting the chatbot to repeat inflammatory phrases were too much for some to resist.

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Selman said he is amazed Microsoft didn't build in sufficient safeguards to prevent such an eventuality, but he told Live Science the incident highlights one of modern AI's major weak points: language comprehension.

Teaching AI

AI is very good at parsing text  that is, unraveling the grammatical patterns that underpin language  Selman said, which allows chatbots like Tay to create human-sounding sentences. It's also what powers Google's and Skype's impressive translation services. "But that's a different thing from understanding semantics  the meaning of sentences," he added.

Many of the recent advances in AI technology have been thanks to an approach called deep learning, which at some level mimics the way layers of neurons behave in the brain. Given huge swathes of data, it is very good at finding patterns, which is why many of its greatest successes have been in perceptual tasks like image or speech recognition. [A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence]

While traditional approaches to machine learning needed to be told what to look for in order to "learn," one of the main advantages of deep learning is that these systems have "automatic feature discovery," according to Shimon Whiteson, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford.

The first layer of the network is optimized to look for very basic features in the data, for instance the edge of objects in an image. This output is then fed to the next layer, which scans for more complex configurations, say squares or circles. This process is repeated up the layers with each one looking for increasingly elaborate features so that by the time the system reaches the higher levels, it is able to use the structures detected by lower layers to identify things like a car or a bicycle.

"With deep learning, you can just feed raw data into some big neural network, which is then trained end-to-end," Whiteson told Live Science.

Big payoffs

This has led to some superhuman capabilities. Selman said deep-learning systems have been shown to outperform medical specialists at diagnosing disease from MRI scans. Combining the approach with so-called reinforcement learning, in which machines use reward signals to hone in on an optimal strategy, has also been successful with tasks where it is possible to build accurate virtual simulations, said Kaheer Suleman, chief technology officer and co-founder of Canadian AI startup Maluuba. Google's AI system, dubbed AlphaGo, became an expert by playing itself millions of times and using this combination of methods to sharpen its skills and develop strategies.

"The big challenge for AI is in domains where there is no massive collection of labeled data, or where the environment cannot be simulated well," Suleman said. "Language is a great example of such a domain. The internet contains endless text, but nowhere is its "meaning" labeled in some machine-digestible form."

Maluuba is developing algorithms that can read text and answer questions about it, but Suleman said there are several features of language that make this particularly difficult. For one, language is hugely complex  meaning is spread across multiple levels, from words to phrases to sentences. These can be combined in an infinite number of ways and every human uses language differently.

And all language is abstract; words are simply symbols for things in a real world that a machine often can't experience.

"From the perspective of machine learning, the learned system is only as good as the data you provide it," Whiteson said.

Without access to the lifetime of data on the physical world and the wealth of social interactions that a human has accumulated, its little surprise Tay didn't understand what, for instance, the Holocaust is, let alone why it's inappropriate to deny it.

Looking ahead

Despite these challenges, Maluuba posted a paper last month to arXiv, an online repository for preprint research papers, describing how its system was able to answer multiple-choice questions about unfamiliar text with more than 70 percent accuracy, outperforming other neural network approaches by 15 percent, and even outdoing hand-coded approaches. Maluuba's approach combined deep learning with neural network structures, engineered to interact with each other in a way that interactions result in a rudimentary form of reasoning. The company is also working on spoken dialogue systems that can learn to engage in natural conversations with humans.

Selman said language-focused AI can be surprisingly powerful for applications where the subject matter is fairly restricted. For instance, technical helplines are things he predicts could soon be automated (and some already are, to a degree), as could relatively senior administrative jobs that boil down to routine interactions like updating spreadsheets and sending out formulaic emails.

"Weaknesses are exposed in these uncontrolled, very open-ended settings, which involve multiple aspects of human intelligence but also really understanding other people," Selman said.

But progress is certainly being made on this front, Whiteson said, with Google's self-driving car being a prime example. Sharing the street with humans requires the machine to understand more than just the rules of the road  it also needs to be able to follow unstated social norms and navigate ethical dilemmas when avoiding collisions, he added.

And as advances in AI and robotics result in increasing numbers of machines being used in the real world, the ability to interact with humans is no longer some lofty goal for sci-fi aficionados. Researchers are now searching for new approaches that could help machines not only perceive, but also understand the world around them.

"Deep learning is great, but it's not a silver bullet," Whiteson said. "There are a lot things still missing. And so a natural next step that people are working on is how can we add things to deep learning so that it can do even more."

"Now all of these thorny questions about what it is we want machines to do and how do we make sure they do it are becoming of practical importance so people are starting to focus on them a lot more now.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Kuwait City (AFP) - Crucial talks between Yemen's government and rebels were delayed Monday after the insurgents failed to show up, prompting UN concern over the fate of peace efforts for the war-torn country.

The talks in Kuwait aim to end to more than 13 months of fighting that has devastated already-impoverished Yemen.

A week-old ceasefire meant to lay the groundwork for the talks has been repeatedly breached, with both sides trading blame.

Representatives of the internationally recognised government as well as the Iran-backed Huthi rebels and their allies -- loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh -- had been due to gather Monday morning in Kuwait for the negotiations.

But while a government delegation led by Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi was in Kuwait, the rebel delegation remained in Yemen, protesting over alleged Saudi truce violations.

"Our presence in Kuwait requires a total halt to (Saudi) aggression," said Huthi rebel leader Mohamed Ali al-Huthi, quoted on the website sabanews.net, demanding "a guarantee that (coalition) warplanes will no longer violate Yemen's sovereignty".

Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition of Arab Sunni states which has been supporting pro-government forces with air strikes, weapons and troops since March last year.

Speaking from Yemen's rebel-held capital, a source from the Huthi political bureau confirmed to AFP that the rebels, expected in Kuwait alongside representatives from Saleh's General People's Congress party, had not left Sanaa.

A statement from the government delegation in Kuwait accused the rebels of "irresponsible behaviour", and called for the international community to show "firmness in the face of their contempt for the peace efforts".

"Due to developments over the last few hours, the start of the Yemeni-Yemeni peace negotiations scheduled to begin today... will be delayed," UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement, without specifying when they might take place.

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"The next few hours are crucial," he said, calling on all parties to "take their responsibilities seriously and agree on comprehensive solutions".

- 'Opportunity to save lives' -

Saudi Arabia launched the intervention after the rebels, a Shiite minority group that has long complained of marginalisation, descended from their northern stronghold in Yemen to seize control of Sanaa in 2014.

As they advanced into other areas, President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and other officials fled first to the main southern city of Aden and eventually to Riyadh.

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.

Before the UN announcement of a delay, the Saudi government voiced hope for "the success of consultations" in Kuwait, in a statement published on the official Saudi Press Agency.

The UN's Ould Cheikh Ahmed urged the Huthis and their allies not to "miss this opportunity that could save Yemen the loss of more lives".

He had earlier expressed hopes for the talks, telling the UN Security Council on Friday that Yemen has "never been so close to peace".

The ceasefire, in place since April 11, has been repeatedly violated but the rebels, the government and the Saudi-led coalition have avoided talk of it collapsing, as happened with three earlier truces.

The situation across Yemen was relatively calm on Monday despite skirmishes in several areas, local sources said.

Military sources said a rebel attack killed three soldiers in the eastern Marib province, including a colonel.

There was continued fighting in Nahm, northeast of Sanaa, sources said, and sporadic clashes in the southwestern Taez province.

In Aden, thousands of supporters of the Southern Movement demonstrated for the south's secession, in the second such rally in as many days.

Previous attempts at peace talks -- including a failed round in January -- have been unable to stop Yemen's conflict, which the United Nations says has killed more than 6,400 people and forced almost 2.8 million from their homes.

Among the issues meant to be tackled in Kuwait are security arrangements, the withdrawal of militias and armed groups, the handover of heavy weapons and the release of detainees.

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.
Brasilia (AFP) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is on the verge of defeat in her attempt to stave off a vote authorizing the Senate to start an impeachment trial, plunging the deeply divided country into crisis.

After four hours of voting the opposition in the lower house of Congress in Brasilia had reached 312 votes -- near its target of 342, or a two-thirds majority, which would send Rousseff to the Senate for the next stage of the process.

A senior leader of her Workers' Party said defeat was inevitable.

"The coup plotters have won here in the house," said Jose Guimaraes, leader of the Workers' Party in the lower house of Congress.

"President Dilma (Rousseff's) government recognizes this temporary defeat but that does not mean that the war is over," Guimaraes said. "The fight will continue in the streets and in the Senate."

The vote brought to a boil months of rancorous debate that has seen Rousseff's ruling coalition collapse and prompted huge street demonstrations.

The chamber's 513 deputies rose one by one to announce their vote at a microphone, greeted by cheers and sometimes jeering from the rest of the chamber.

Earlier, there were hours of debate regularly interrupted by chaotic scenes of deputies leading allies in patriotic anthems or singing parodies about the leftist Rousseff. Others chanted, waved large flags and one deputy even fired off a confetti cannon.

Brazil's first female president is accused of illegal government accounting tricks but, more broadly, is blamed for the country's worst recession in decades and galloping corruption.

The whole procedure was being aired live on television to the country of 204 million, the biggest in Latin America, and also on screens erected in city squares.

- Protests peaceful so far -

In Brasilia, about 53,000 pro-impeachment demonstrators massed outside Congress, according to a police count. About 26,000 turned out on the pro-Rousseff side, separated by a metal fence.

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In Rio de Janeiro, which is scrambling to organize the Olympics this August, about 3,000 people each from the two sides demonstrated at separate time slots next to Copacabana beach.

So far, the atmosphere on the streets was peaceful, even festive, with a funk band singing in Rio and protesters blowing trumpets and vuvuzelas, as if at a football game, in Brasilia.

In Sao Paulo, the financial center, thousands of pro-impeachment supporters thronged the central Paulista Avenue, many of them in the country's green and yellow national football shirts.

In Brasilia, psychologist Eric Gamaliel, 29, said he had joined pro-Rousseff protesters because impeachment would mean "Brazil loses a lot. The world will lose a lot. It will be a step backwards."

But farmer Silmar Borazio, 50, who made a 20-hour journey to the capital with pro-impeachment supporters, said Brazil needs change.

"The first thing that needs to happen is for Dilma to leave. We are tired of producing revenue and seeing that in the end nothing improves in the country and it gets stolen," he said.

- Senate could vote in May -

Rousseff, 68, is accused of illegal accounting manoeuvres to mask government shortfalls during her 2014 reelection. Many Brazilians also hold her responsible for the economic mess and a massive corruption scandal centered on state oil company Petrobras, a toxic record that has left her government with 10 percent approval ratings.

The president and her allies lobbied frantically in a last-minute effort to turn the tide in Congress. Her mentor, the fiery ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, flew back from his home in Sao Paulo to join the final assault.

If impeachment is authorized Sunday, the Senate would vote, probably in May, on whether to open a trial. In case of a yes vote there, which experts consider likely, Rousseff would step down for 180 days.

During this period she would be replaced by her vice president Michel Temer, who has emerged as a leader of the impeachment drive. If the Senate then ended the trial with a two-thirds majority in favor of ejecting her, Rousseff would have to leave and Temer would stay on until elections in 2018.

Sylvio Costa, who heads the specialist politics website Congresso en Foco, told AFP that Rousseff was nearly sure to go, but that more trouble lies ahead.

"Whoever loses will keep protesting in the streets," he said. "What's certain is that the crisis will not end today."
Moscow (AFP) - The powerful chief of Russia's equivalent to the FBI on Monday called for sweeping new rights restrictions, including curbing Internet freedoms and making it illegal to question Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

The head of Russia's Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin backed a radical crackdown citing th need to counteract the "destructive" influence of the United States.

"It's time to stop playing at pseudo-democracy, following pseudo-liberal values," argued the official in charge of the country's most high-profile criminal investigations in a comment piece in Kommersant Vlast weekly.

Calling for Russia to impose a strong national ideology, he condemned "falsification of information on historical facts" and proposed outlawing any criticism of Russia's controversial annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Russia should amend its extremism legislation to include "denial of the results of a public referendum," he said, likening this to an existing ban on Nazi propaganda.

Russia is struggling with a "hybrid war, unleashed by the US and its allies" and has entered a phase of "open confrontation," he said.

He accused the US of funding opposition parties that openly criticise the Kremlin, stirring up the recent fighting in breakaway Nagorny Karabakh and destabilising the Middle East by backing rebels in Syria.

"I feel it is time to put up an effective barrier against this information war. We need a harsh, appropriate and symmetrical response," Bastrykin said.

Russia and the West have seen ties slump to their lowest point since the Cold War over the crisis in Ukraine.

Bastrykin praised China's blocks on websites of foreign media to "defend the national information space" and proposed that "to a reasonable degree we could very well add this experience to our armoury in Russia."

Bastrykin also called for all religious, cultural and youth organisations in the country to be subjected to a "wide-scale and detailed check" to see if they were supporting extremism.

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He proposed stripping benefits to families of those convicted on charges of extremism and terrorism and confiscating their property, echoing Stalin-era practices.

"Someone who chooses to commit these crimes should know that not only will he be buried in an unmarked grave, but he will also strip his close relatives of support from the government," Bastrykin said.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in 2014 vowed to destroy the homes of relatives of insurgents, prompting the torching of several houses. He was rebuked by President Vladimir Putin, who has now backed him to serve another term.
Bernie Sanders still faces a daunting uphill path to the Democratic presidential nomination, and absent some wholly unexpected seismic shift in the race, theres little reason to expect that will change in the coming months. But he continues to win small victories against Hillary Clinton, in both primary elections and in the campaigns competition to win each news cycle.

Over the weekend, following a high profile speaking engagement at the Vatican, Sanders returned to the US prepared to highlight the differences between his campaign and Clintons.

Related: Bernie Sanders Goes All in with Pope Francis

Sanders went to Rome and met (albeit briefly) with Pope Francis, a beloved religious figure known for his humility and distaste for the gilded trappings of the papacy.

Clinton met with actor George Clooney and his wife, famed human rights attorney Amal Clooney, at their Hollywood mansion for a $15 million fundraiser -- a figure that Clooney himself said was part and parcel of the obscene amounts of money being spent on presidential elections. On the way there, Clintons motorcade passed Sanders supporters lined up along the side of the road who threw a blanket of dollar bills in the path of her motorcade.

In addition, after protracted and unexplained delays, Sanders finally released his most recent tax returns. The delays had caused some speculation that the Vermont senators returns might contain something that would damage his reputation with his supporters. In the end, all it showed was that Sanders and his wife, Jane, made about $206,000 in 2014 -- conveniently about the same amount Hillary Clinton was paid for a single speech to investment bank Goldman Sachs.

The tax return issue perfectly set up Sanders most recent attack on Clinton, an advertisement blasting the former secretary of state for being late to support the push to raise the minimum wage to $15. Clinton, during last weeks Democratic debate, appeared for the first time to endorse a federal $15 per hour wage.

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Related: Clooney vs. The Pope -- Whose Endorsement Will Count More?

Wall Street banks shower Washington politicians with campaign contributions and speaking fees, the ad says. And what do they get for it? A rigged economy, tax breaks and bailouts. Two hundred thousand dollars an hour for them, but not even 15 bucks an hour for all Americans. Enough is enough.

While the ad doesnt mention Clinton by name, anyone who has paid even a little bit of attention to the Democratic primary surely cant help associating speaking fees and $200,000 with Clintons controversial series of speeches at Wall Street events.

In an appearance on ABC News, Clinton fought back against the Sanders ad, saying, He knows very well that she is a supporter of a $15 minimum wage and that she has been endorsed by the coalition of unions and activists leading the fight.

She was asked by host George Stephanopoulos to reconcile her current position with her stance earlier in the campaign, where she appeared to suggest that a $15 might be too high, and would do more damage by eliminating jobs than it would do good by raising workers living standards. At the time, she said that she supports an increase to $12.

Related: Hillary and Bernie Mix It Up Over Guns, Goldman, and Gaza

Clinton tried to bridge the gap by claiming that she is in favor of graduated increases in the minimum wage, coupled with constant analysis that can assure the wage increases are having no impact on job growth. She said that was the sort of legislation that she was referring to when she discussed signing a minimum wage bill in the most recent debate. She added, I think their campaign is trying to make something where there is nothing.

Sanders appeared on the same show immediately after Clinton, and challenged her version of the minimum wage fight, arguing that her expressed willingness to support a $15 wage if the Congress approves it falls short of what he is doing.

I am trying to lead this country in a different direction, Sanders said, suggesting that Clinton acceding to a wage increase passed by legislators falls short.

I want to lead that effort, not just follow, he said.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines plans to launch a low-cost offshoot next year under initiatives to restructure the kingdom's oil-dependent economy, official media said on Monday.

Known as "Flyadeal", the low-cost carrier will begin operations from the middle of next year, Saudi Arabian Airlines chief Saleh al-Jasser said.

It will operate independently of its parent firm, Jasser was quoted as saying by the official Saudi Press Agency at a ceremony on Sunday.

The report gave no further details of its financing or administrative structure. It also did not specify whether Flyadeal would serve domestic or international routes.

Jasser said the airline would be "an addition to the list of strategic initiatives that are being implemented towards the National Transformation Programme."

Saudi Arabia is to announce a wide-ranging plan to redevelop its economy on April 25, the Arab News daily reported on Monday. The National Transformation Programme, a key part of the plan, will be launched in subsequent weeks, it said.

The global collapse in oil prices over the past two years has intensified efforts by the world's biggest oil exporter to find economic alternatives to its biggest revenue source.

Oil prices have fallen by more than half from above $100 a barrel in early 2014, with benchmark crudes trading at around $40 on Monday.

Projecting a deficit of $87 billion this year, the government raised retail fuel prices by up to 80 percent in December and cut subsidies for electricity, water and other services.

It has delayed some major projects and mooted measures including privatisations and imposing taxes.

Saudi Arabia, the largest economy in the Arab world, is already home to the nine-year-old low-cost carrier flynas, which operates domestic and international routes.
Bangladesh police on Monday named a second editor as a suspect in an alleged plot to kill the prime minister's son, amid fears by rights groups of a crackdown on the press.

Mahmudur Rahman already faces 75 cases of sedition and other charges after authorities in 2013 shut down his Amar Desh newspaper for allegedly inciting religious tension.

But Rahman, known for his pro-opposition views, had been expected to be released from jail in the coming days after being bailed on the most serious offences.

Rahman's lawyer Syed Zainul Abedin called the fresh case "politically motivated", saying the government was trying to keep him in jail as long as possible.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Maruf Hossain Sorder said Rahman was effectively rearrested on Monday after being named in the alleged conspiracy to kidnap and kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son, Sajeeb Wazed.

"Police have filed an application to the court to show him arrested in this case," Sorder told AFP, adding that hearings would be held next week.

An elderly pro-opposition editor was arrested on Saturday on the same charge, the latest in a series of detentions of journalists.

Shafik Rehman, an 81-year-old respected magazine editor, was detained over what was termed a plot to kill Hasina's son in the United States.

Rehman, who is also a British citizen, is not a member of Bangladesh's main opposition party but was a speechwriter for its leader Khaleda Zia, who has for years been involved in a bitter feud with Hasina.

The opposition has blasted the arrest as a stifling of free speech. But Hasina's son Wazed late Sunday called the evidence against Rehman "direct and irrefutable".

"The US Department of Justice discovered Shafik Rehman's direct involvement in the plot to kidnap and kill me. They provided this evidence to our Government," he wrote on his Facebook page.

There was no comment from the US Justice Department.

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The arrest comes amid widening fears for freedom of speech in the Muslim-majority nation, which has seen a spate of Islamist killings of secular bloggers and publishers.

Last week the High Court suspended 72 defamation and other criminal lawsuits filed by government supporters against newspaper editor Mahfuz Anam.

Human Rights Watch is among those which have slammed the lawsuits against Anam, saying they "are part of a larger, organised assault on independent media".
Apple is working hard on a brand new type of product, if multiple reports from independent sources are to be believed, and it's something the company has never built before. Now, a new report has emerged that may have uncovered the secret lab where Apple employees are researching this exciting new product.

DONT MISS: Insider says next year's redesigned iPhone will be unlike anything we've seen so far

Apple fans have probably guessed that the secret lab is connected to Apple's rumored Apple Car plans. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Apples secret laboratory is based in Berlin, where 15-20 employees with backgrounds in engineering, software, hardware and sales are working on a car that will launch at some point in the future.

These are relatively young men and women characterized by progressive thinking, according to the report. In addition to building the car, the secret team will also figure out who Apple can cooperate with in Germany, how to tackle regulatory approvals, and they'll study the competition.

The Apple Car is expected to hit the road in 2019 or 2020, the report goes on to say, but its not clear whether the first models will come with self-driving capabilities, as had previously been reported.

The car may be assembled by auto parts maker Magna, which is owned by Austrian-Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach. The company mass produces Minis for BMW and various parts for Mercedes, but it obviously did not comment on the matter. Previous reports speculated that BMW might also be a contender to build Apples first vehicle.

Aside from the people working in this secret lab in Berlin, Apple has hired plenty of car experts over the past few years, including former Tesla, Ford and Mercedes-Benz employees.

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This article was originally published on BGR.com
LONDON (Reuters) - Theft of crude oil from the pipeline network of Shell's Nigerian subsidiary fell to 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2015, the company said on Monday, roughly 32 percent less than the previous year. The number of sabotage-related spills on the SPDC network also declined to 93 in 2015, compared with 139 the previous year, Shell said in its annual sustainability report. It attributed the decrease to divestments in the Niger Delta and increased surveillance and security by the Nigerian government, but said theft and sabotage were still responsible for around 85 percent of spills from SPDC operations. President Muhammadu Buhari has said theft siphons as much as 250,000 bpd of crude of its roughly 2 million bpd of production and last week promised to crack down on groups responsible for pipeline attacks. [nL5N17G5V0] [nL5N11E48B] Still, the issue has continued to plague the country. Shell currently has a force majeure in place on Forcados crude oil exports following an attack on a subsea pipeline in February, while Italian oil major ENI reportedly declared force majeure on Brass River exports late last week. [nL5N17G4PW] [nL5N17I4CJ] (Reporting by Libby George and Karolin Schaps; Editing by Mark Potter)
Geneva (AFP) - The UN human rights chief voiced alarm Monday at a sharp increase in the use of torture in violence-torn Burundi, with nearly 400 cases recorded so far this year.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said his team on the ground had registered "at least 345 cases of torture and ill-treatment" since January, and nearly 600 since tensions spiralled a year ago, warning the actual numbers were likely higher.

"These shocking figures are a clear indicator of the widespread and growing use of torture and ill-treatment by government security forces," Zeid said in a statement.

His comments came a day after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the situation in Burundi as "alarmingly precarious", and proposed three options for a new UN police mission there.

Burundi has been in turmoil since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced plans in April last year to run for a third term, which he went on to win.

Violence has left more than 400 people dead and driven more than 250,000 people across the border.

Zeid said most of the torture in the country was taking place in facilities run by Burundi's intelligence service, but also pointed the finger at the national police and, to a lesser extent, the army.

"Perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment have so far enjoyed total impunity," he warned.

A recent visit by UN rights officials to detention centres run by the national intelligence service in the capital Bujumbura found that 30 of the 67 detainees visited showed physical signs of torture.

Many had "fresh wounds on their bodies. Some were unable to walk without assistance after being beaten with belts, iron rods or sharp objects, or burned," Zeid said.

He said he was "profoundly disturbed by these terrible accounts and I urge the Burundian government, in the strongest terms possible, to put an immediate end to these unacceptable and illegal practices."

The UN rights chief also voiced deep concern over reports of people being held in secret detention centres across Burundi.

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One man had told investigators how he had been arrested at the end of March by "unidentified armed individuals", and taken blindfolded to an unfinished building in an unknown location, where he witnessed his captors execute two other detainees before he escaped.

Zeid also said he has received "persistent reports of arrest, detention, torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearances and assassination of certain members of the police and military by other government forces."

Members of the predominantly Tutsi former Burundian Armed Forces, known as ex-FAB, appeared to have been especially targeted, he said.
Mobile security is obviously a major topic these days but it seems very few of us know just how vulnerable our phones are to hacking. 60 Minutes this week decided to give a new iPhone to Representative Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and then challenge researchers at Security Research Labs to hack it. It goes without saying that the hackers were frighteningly successful in this endeavor and managed to retrieve a lot of sensitive information from the congressman's device after only learning his phone number.

MUST SEE: How to tell if all those glowing reviews on an Amazon product listing are fake

Seriously, that's all it took: As soon as they had the device's phone number, they were able to listen to and record all his phone calls, to read his text messages and to track his location.

The problem here isn't with Apple's security policies but the way that mobile networks around the world connect to one another. The team at Security Research Labs have discovered a major flaw in Signaling System 7 (SS7), a series of protocols first developed way back in 1975 to connect phone carriers around the world. This is a vulnerability that literally affects every single person who owns a cellphone, which is why we should hope that knowledge of this flaw with SS7 is not yet widespread.

That said, 60 Minutes also points out that most hackers don't go through SS7 to hack your device -- the program interviews Lookout Security cofounder John Hering, who details some of the other ways that hackers can get access to your phone.

The full 60 Minutes segment is very interesting and can be found at this link.

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Singapore state prosecutors on Monday appealed against a high court decision acquitting a woman of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl because the law applied only to men, citing public interest.

Zunika Ahmad, 40, a woman who lives as a man, was acquitted last week of six counts of sexual assault despite pleading guilty to the charges, sparking strong reaction from women's and gay rights activists.

Judge Kan Ting Chiu said he threw out the guilty plea and acquitted Zunika because the law on which the charges were based relates only to men with a penis.

He jailed Zunika eight months on the lesser charge of having a sexual relationship with a person aged under 16.

Calling the case a matter of public interest, the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) said the law was intended by parliament to be gender neutral.

"Having reviewed the written grounds of decision, the prosecution has concluded that an appeal is merited against Senior Judge Kan's finding that section 376A(1)(b) does not apply to female accused persons," the AGC said in a statement.

It is also appealing Zunika's eight-month jail sentence.

Zunika, who is biologically female but has lived as a man since youth, pleaded guilty last year to sexually assaulting her young neighbour using a sex toy and her fingers.

The plea was rejected last week by the judge who said the provision, enacted in 2007, specifically covers a person with a penis even if he did not use the organ in the assault.

This meant that the law could only be referring to a male, the judge said.

Singapore classifies gender based on anatomy.
Singapore exports tumbled at their fastest pace in three years in March on falling shipments to Europe and China, official data showed Monday, supporting forecasts for slower economic growth and further monetary easing this year.

Non-oil domestic exports shrank 15.6 percent year-on-year for the month, trade promotion body International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said, worse than the 12.3 percent fall analysts had projected.

It was also the trade-reliant city-state's worst export performance since a 30.6 percent year-on-year decline in February 2013, Singapore's United Overseas Bank (UOB) said.

"Singapore exports remain entrenched in a rut, raising the odds of downside risks to the local economy's growth," ANZ Research said in a note.

"If the current trend persists, it could increase the possibility of a central bank easing at their next policy review in October."

The Monetary Authority of Singapore last Thursday announced a surprise easing of monetary policy to kickstart the stuttering economy by boosting exports as analysts warned of a possible recession.

In a statement, IE Singapore said electronics exports, such as semiconductors, shrank 9.1 percent in March, compared to a 0.7 percent expansion in February.

Non-electronics shipments, including pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals, declined 18 percent, reversing the previous month's 2.6 percent growth.

There was a notable dip in demand from the European Union and China, both major markets for Singapore.

Exports to the EU plunged 39.1 percent from 16.1 percent growth in February while shipments to China dropped 14 percent, accelerating from a 1.2 percent decline.

Exports to the US fell at a slower 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent growth in February.

UOB said exports "will likely remain weak" in the first half but should improve in the second half to end the year on a slightly positive note.

"However, there could be downside risks to our forecast should the uncertainties in China's growth and oil prices perpetuate," it said.

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The government projects economic growth at 1.0-3.0 percent this year, but private sector economists expect it to come in at the lower end of the range. The economy grew 2.0 percent last year.

DBS Bank senior economist Irvin Seah said last week he expects growth this year at 1.5 percent, which implies at least one quarter of contraction.

But the risk of a technical recession -- two successive quarters of shrinkage -- should not be discounted, he added.
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somalia's government said on Monday between 200 and 300 Somalis may have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross illegally to Europe, based on information it has gathered in the past two days from the Somali diaspora and its embassy in Egypt. "We have no fixed number but it is between 200 and 300 Somalis," Somali Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir told Reuters by telephone when asked about possible Somali deaths in an incident first disclosed by the Italian president. "There is no clear number since they are not traveling legally." The minister said he understood a boat may have been carrying about 500 people, of which 200 to 300 were Somalis "and most of them had died". He did not give a precise timing for the incident. (Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Alison Williams)
MOGADISHU/ROME (Reuters) - Somalia's government said on Monday about 200 or more Somalis may have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross illegally to Europe, many of them teenagers, when the boat they were on capsized after leaving the Egyptian shore. Italian President Sergio Mattarella had said earlier on Monday that several hundred people appeared to have died in a new tragedy in the Mediterranean, after unconfirmed reports spoke of up to 400 victims of capsizing near Egypt's coast. More than 1.2 million African, Arab and Asian migrants have streamed into the European Union since the start of last year, many of them setting off from North Africa in rickety boats that are packed full of people and which struggle in choppy seas. "We have no fixed number but it is between 200 and 300 Somalis," Somali Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir told Reuters by telephone when asked about possible Somali deaths in the latest incident. Another Somali government statement, which offered condolences, put the number at "nearly 200", saying they were mostly teenagers. It said the boat they were on had capsized after leaving Egypt. "There is no clear number since they are not travelling legally," the minister said, adding that he understood the boat might have been carrying about 500 people, of which 200 to 300 were Somalis "and most of them had died". He did not give a precise timing for the incident. One year ago, an estimated 800 migrants drowned off the Libyan coast when the fishing boat they were travelling in collided with a mercantile vessel that was attempting to rescue them - the most deadly Mediterranean shipwreck in decades. Egyptian, Italian and Greek officials had earlier been unable to confirm the report of a new sinking. A U.N. refugee agency official told Swiss broadcaster SRF he knew of 40 survivors from what appeared to be the same incident. "We know there are 40 survivors and that as many as 460 people may have been on the boat who sailed from Egypt," the UNHCR's Beat Schuler told the broadcaster in what it said was a report from Malta. In an article on the Somali National News Agency (SONNA) website, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud on Monday "sent his heartfelt condolence on his behalf and on behalf of the citizens of Somalia to the families who lost their loved ones". The president urged Somalis to stand together in helping "stop such hazardous trips to overseas". Somalia has a large diaspora, with many Somalis in Europe and the United States, after fleeing two decades of conflict. The Western-backed government is seeking to rebuild the Horn of Africa nation but is still battling an Islamist insurgency. Islamist al Shabaab rebels often carry out gun and bomb attacks, particularly in the capital Mogadishu, where some hardy Somalis business people are returning to from abroad to invest. (Reporting by Edmund Blair in Nairobi, Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu, Gavin Jones and Steve Scherer in Rome, Michele Kambas in Athens, Michael Georgy in Cairo and Michael Shields in Zurich; Editing by Alison Williams)
I am white and my family is from Memphis and Covington, Tennessee, just a few miles up the Mississippi Delta. My family was something that most people today are more than reluctant to admit: It was violently on the wrong side of the Civil Rights Movement. Its a complex and brutal story that still haunts me at age 55.

My grandfather, Joe Oscar Hill, was born in 1901 to a father who was 60 years old. My grandfather was dismissed from school in the second grade because the teacher thought he was retarded. (In his early 20s, he discovered that he only needed glasses.) At 25, he married my grandmother, who was 14. Neither of them were literate. My father grew up on their 200-acre cotton farm without electricity and indoor plumbing.

In 1949, when my grandfather was a deputy marshal in Covington, he, the town marshal, a store owner, and another man seized an African American father, Jimmy Wade, outside the Sunday evening services of the Church of Christ in God. They took him to the field behind the store owners house, castrated him, shoved his privates into his mouth, and dragged him behind the car by a rope. When that didnt kill him, they shot him 20 times.

According to an article in the Covington Leader newspaper [PDF], Wade had tried for the marshals gun. The autopsy done by the county coroner, who I interviewed at 94 years old, declared his death by four gunshot wounds. I was able to put together the real story through interviews with people in the community.
PRETORIA (Reuters) - Disgraced Olympic and Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius will face sentencing in June following his conviction for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day in 2013. "The matter is postponed to the 13th of June 2016, and it will be heard until the 17th of June 2016," High Court Judge Aubrey Ledwaba said. Pistorius, known as "Blade Runner" for the carbon fibre prosthetic blades he used to race, faces a minimum 15-year jail sentence. The Supreme Court in December upgraded the 29-year-old Paralympian's sentence on appeal to murder from "culpable homicide" - South Africa's equivalent of manslaughter, for which he had received a five-year sentence. In March, the Constitutional Court, the country" top court, rejected Pistorius' right to appeal against his conviction for the murder. (Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by James Macharia)
PRETORIA (Reuters) - Disgraced Olympic and Paralympic gold medalist Oscar Pistorius will face sentencing in June following his conviction for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day in 2013. "The matter is postponed to the 13th of June 2016, and it will be heard until the 17th of June 2016," High Court Judge Aubrey Ledwaba said. Pistorius, known as "Blade Runner" for the carbon fiber prosthetic blades he used to race, faces a minimum 15-year jail sentence. The Supreme Court in December upgraded the 29-year-old Paralympian's sentence on appeal to murder from "culpable homicide" - South Africa's equivalent of manslaughter, for which he had received a five-year sentence. In March, the Constitutional Court, the country" top court, rejected Pistorius' right to appeal against his conviction for the murder. (Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by James Macharia)
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Park Geun-hye will make a state visit to Iran from May 1 to 3 to meet President Hassan Rouhani and initiate discussions with Iran on a wide range of areas including energy and engineering, her office said on Monday. Park's visit will be the first by a South Korean leader since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1962 and her office said it hoped the visit would help deepen ties after sanctions on Iran were lifted. South Korea, the world's fifth-largest crude importer, is one of the largest buyers of Iranian oil. Its import of Iranian crude surged 81 percent in March from the same month a year earlier, after sanctions were lifted. South Korea said it planned to increase imports of Iranian oil this year to meet growing demand, especially of condensate, a super light oil that can be processed into fuels and petrochemicals. Iran on Jan. 17 emerged from years of economic isolation as sanctions over its disputed nuclear program were lifted. South Korea hopes its engineering and ship-building industries can benefit from Iran's return to markets after the sanctions were lifted. Its ship builders, along with Chinese yards, hope to be in line for huge orders as Iran modernizes its aging fleet of super tankers, which is the world's largest. Most South Korean ship builders, including Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries are likely to bid for new contracts, according to shipping sources. South Korean companies also hope to help modernize Irans ailing infrastructure, from refineries, roads to the telecommunication sector as well as enter the market to supply goods ranging from smartphones, to televisions to automobiles. (Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Juba (AFP) - South Sudan's rebel chief Riek Machar will return to the capital Monday for the first time since war began, his spokesman said, a key step in salvaging a floundering peace agreement.

Machar's return as part of the August 2015 peace deal is seen as the best hope yet for ending more than two years of civil war that has left the world's youngest nation in chaos and pushed it to the brink of famine.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a war marked by numerous atrocities, with more than two million forced from their homes and nearly six million in need of emergency food aid.

The conflict broke out in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of planning a coup, claims he denied, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that divided the desperately poor country along ethnic lines.

Billboards have been erected heralding the return of Machar to take up the post of vice-president -- the same job he was sacked from months before the conflict erupted -- and forge a unity government with arch-rival Kiir.

"Reconciling, uniting the nation," read one giant poster on a dusty street, above the smiling faces of Kiir and Machar.

While Machar's arrival will be a symbolic step forward, experts warn that implementing the terms of the peace deal will be a long and tough task.

- Rival troops inside city -

"It will allow the formation of the transitional government, the most significant step in the implementation of the peace agreement," said Casie Copeland from the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, who warned that conflict will likely continue.

Several militia forces, driven by local agendas or revenge, do not obey either Machar's or Kiir's commands.

While inside Juba, tensions are high ahead of Machar's return. A 1,370-strong armed rebel force finished arriving in the city earlier this month as part of an August 2015 peace deal, while government forces say they have pulled out all but 3,420 of their troops, according to the agreement.

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Those troops are based in basic camps scattered in and around the capital, while other forces are not allowed within a 25 kilometre (15 mile) radius of Juba.

Opposition forces accuse the army of sending truckloads of soldiers back into the city, claims the army denies.

The United Nations has over 11,000 peacekeeping troops in South Sudan, many of them guarding the 185,000 civilians who have spent the past 28 months inside UN bases, too afraid to leave in case they are attacked.

Both the government and rebel sides have been accused of perpetrating ethnic massacres, recruiting and killing children and carrying out widespread rape, torture and forced displacement of populations to "cleanse" areas of their opponents.

- 'Armed to the teeth' -

"It will require extreme diligence by security forces of the government, the opposition and the UN," warned veteran journalist Jacob Akol in an editorial for the Gurtong peace project.

"Both sides are armed to the teeth... should fighting break out this time in Juba, we should expect prolonged battles in the city."

Machar, who last year said it would not be possible to have peace while Kiir remained in power, is due to fly Monday from his rebel base at Pagak in the far east of the country, close to the Ethiopian border, rebel spokesman Colonel Nyarji Roman said.

He is expected to be swiftly sworn in as vice-president at the presidential palace alongside Kiir, but a welcome rally by his supporters may be cancelled amid government security fears.

The swearing in is expected to be attended by African Union representative Alpha Oumar Konare, a former president of Mali, as well as Festus Mogae, a former Botswanan president who heads the international ceasefire monitoring team.

Mogae, who is typically upbeat about developments in the fractured nation, has already warned that the "formation of a new government will not in itself be a panacea".
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Abertis said on Monday that, together with a unit of Canada's Brookfield Asset Management , it will launch a bid for the shares of Brazil's Arteris it doesn't already own for 10.15 reais (2 pounds) per share. The Spanish motorway operator and Brookfield Brazil Motorways Holding currently own 69.26 percent of Arteris through Participes, in which they hold 51 percent and 49 percent respectively. The offer, to be finalised May 17 and aimed at delisting Arteris from the Brazilian market, discounts the payment of a dividend, worth around 1.1 billion reais, Abertis said in a statement to the stock market regulator. (Reporting by Tomas Cobos; Writing by Paul Day)
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Caixabank said on Monday it would make a full takeover bid in cash for Portugal's BPI for 1.113 euros ($1.26) per share for the 56 percent stake it doesn't already hold. The offer is dependent on acceptance topping 50 percent of BPI and the Portuguese bank eliminating a 20 percent shareholder rights limitation, the Spanish bank said in a statement to the stock market regulator on Monday. Caibank said it expects the acquisition, which it hopes to be closed by the end of the third quarter, to hit fully-loaded core capital by between 97 and 146 basis points depending on acceptance. ($1 = 0.8860 euros) (Reporting by Jose Elias Rodriguez; Writing by Paul Day)
Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte, Alan Cumming and Rosario Dawson are among some of the celebrities who appear in a Spike Lee-directed endorsement ad in support of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Released days ahead of the New York Democratic primary, the five-minute spot entitled "Wake Up" addresses Sanders' major campaign platforms including healthcare, education, equal rights and racism.

"We're living in the greatest country in the world and yet so many of our citizens can't get an education," says Sarandon.

"Education is a right not a privilege."

Watch the spot at https://youtu.be/tFzb3sz2Vww.
Brussels (AFP) - China firmly defended its efforts to address the steel crisis on Monday, rebutting accusations that its cheap exports were causing plant closures and job losses across the globe.

Ministers and top officials from steel-producing nations met in Brussels to address the crisis in a first round of talks described as "frank" by co-organiser Belgium.

"China does not subsidise its steel export industry. Everything we do is in strict compliance with World Trade Organization rules," China's Assistant Trade Minister Ji Zhang said after the talks ended.

"The financial crisis has led to slowdown in the world economy. This is the fundamental reason for steel over-capacity," he added.

China's position was strongly contradicted by other producing nations, with a top US official warning Beijing about the economic hardship brought to steel-making regions in the United States.

"This is not an academic exercise. This is an exercise in dealing with real pains, real people, real workers, real economies," said US Deputy Trade Representative Robert Holleyman, sitting beside his Chinese counterpart.

Holleyman added that China's steel production still far exceeded its own domestic demand.

China produces more than half of the globe's steel output and is accused of flooding the world market with oversupply sold at below cost in violation of global trade rules.

Indian giant Tata Steel put its loss-making British operation up for sale last month leaving thousands of jobs at risk, in the latest example of the crisis.

"The discussion today with all these countries coming together is something that we pushed for and... China's participation will help make the difference," Britain's business minister, Sajid Javid, said on the sidelines of the talks.

The OECD, the grouping of world industrialised countries that co-organised the event, however said the countries could not agree on a joint statement amid the tensions with Beijing.

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"I'm sure that countries would have wanted to take concrete steps, but the solution is not a simple one," said OECD Deputy Secretary-General Mari Kiviniemi.

France was especially strong on taking a tough stand against China.

"We will tell our Chinese partners... you do not respect the rules governing world trade," said French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron.

"That is inexplicable for our workers, it is inexplicable for our industry," he said.

Angry steel manufacturers in Europe have urged the EU, the second biggest producer in the world, to mirror the United States in punishing China with harsh tariffs.

The US in March slapped tariffs of nearly 300 percent on so-called cold rolled steel, used to make auto parts, but the EU settled on a more cautious 20 percent for the same product.

The EU currently has dozens of anti-dumping measures in place against China, several involving the steel industry, but critics argue these are not enough.

At the talks, EU's Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said the steel crisis was "now life or death for many companies", but said that tariffs were "only a short-term bandage".

"Healing the sector's wounds requires sustained international cooperation leading to effective reform," she said.

Chinese steel output rose in March, official data showed last week, despite repeated pledges by the world's top producer to cut capacity.
US entrepreneur Michael Pelletz's project of a rideshare service for women and children with vehicles driven by women has prompted such interest that he is postponing the service's launch date.

Chariot For Women, fully funded by its founder and close associates, was initially set to kick off on Tuesday.

Interest in the service has largely been driven by the apprehension some women have of male taxi rideshare drivers.

Several sexual harassment and even rape cases have been reported on rideshare vehicles driven by men.

Pelletz, a former part-time Uber driver, wanted to initially collect a roster of 1,000 potential drivers in the northeastern state of Massachusetts.

Like other rideshare services, these drivers would use their personal vehicle to drive on demand. However the drivers would be female, and their customers would be women and children.

Without spending a dime on advertising, no fewer than 7,000 female candidates contacted him in four days to offer to become company drivers.

"We need to make sure that our technology can handle the millions of people that are going to use our company," the Boston-based Pelletz told AFP on Friday.

"We're going to delay for a few months just to make sure."

In Boston, where the service is to be launched, rates will be about the same as Uber and Lyft, the two ridesharing giants, but without Uber's progressive pricing system.

Pelletz also said that the company would keep 25 percent of the first $100 earned daily by each driver, but nothing beyond that.

Uber takes a 25 percent share on all rides.

"I'm not really in this for the money but because there's such a need to keep women and children safe," Pelletz said.

Chariot For Women is not the first service to offer services in this niche, but none has ever been successful, in part due to charges of discrimination.

"Our legal department is well prepared" for any challenge Pelletz said.

He even hopes to be legally challenged "because laws can change if we show that there is a need," he said.
TORONTO (Reuters) - A building that was being demolished has collapsed in Toronto, injuring as many as seven people, the fire department in Canada's largest city said on Monday. Four people have been rescued from beneath the structure, with three transported to hospital. Another three or four people were injured and treated at the scene, Toronto Fire Services Captain Michael Westwood told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Westwood said the building appeared to be in the process of demolition, and parts of the building and attached scaffolding had collapsed onto the sidewalk and road in central Toronto. He said rescuers believed they had found all the people injured in the collapse but were continuing to search the area. Toronto Police said on Twitter a canine unit had been sent to assist with the search and rescue. (Reporting by Andrea Hopkins; editing by Andrew Hay)
An eight-person Supreme Court tacked a major case on President Obamas immigration policies on Monday, in part debating whether the state of Texas had the ability to sue over costs related to drivers license for undocumented immigrants.

The facade of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.

The facade of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.

From early reports, it seems the Courts four liberal and four conservative Justices could be split on the case.

The issue of standing, or the ability of Texas to provide tangible, concrete damages, had been expected to be a core part of Tuesdays arguments. In the case of United States v. Texas, the state, joined by 25 other states, is challenging President Obamas 2014 executive action regarding immigration and which would classify four million undocumented immigrants as lawfully present in the United States. The immigrants are, in the majority, the parents of United States citizens.

Lower courts have sided with Texas and put the Presidents plans on hold, pending action by the Supreme Court.

The Texas attorneys have argued that subsidizing the drivers licenses would be a big cost for the state; hence, it has the standing to sue. The Justice Department has countered that Texas has the ability to charge fees for licenses that offset its costs.

In early reports from the arguments, from The Wall Street Journals live blog, Chief Justice John Roberts appeared focused on another aspect of the standing argument: whether the Court could deny a case in a scenario were Texas refused to offer any licenses to undocumented immigrants.

Roberts openly questioned Solicitor General Donald Verrilli about how Texas could be sued by the federal government for not issuing licenses, but not able to sue the Obama administration over license policy, a situation he called a Catch 22.

In later arguments with Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller, Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked why the Courts acceptance of standing in case would open the door to many other lawsuits brought by states that didnt agree with the federal governments policies. She also questioned the cost estimates provided by the state.

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Roberts has been viewed by legal experts as the key vote on the standing issue, and the Courts ruling against Texas on that point could prevent two other constitutional parts of the case from being decided.

One issue is over claims that the President in effect made laws on his own by issuing the Executive Orders; the other is about the Constitutions Take Care clause, which requires the President to execute laws as passed by Congress.

Justice Anthony Kennedy openly questioned the use of executive orders in the case. Its as if the president is defining the policy and the Congress is executing it, Kennedy said. Thats just upside down.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg addressed a point made in the governments written briefs, that Congress didnt allocate enough money to enforce deportation laws as defined by Congress. But Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito also asked how undocumented immigrants could be considered as lawfully in the United States under the Executive Orders, but not lawfully in the country under the current laws passed by Congress.

Justice Elena Kagan also pressed Keller on the appropriateness of the states objection to the lawful status granted to certain undocumented immigrants, suggesting the state should have mounted a different kind of challenge.

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Frankfurt (AFP) - Swedish state-owned energy giant Vattenfall said Monday it has reached a deal to sell its German coal operations, employing 8,000 people, as it moves away from activities blamed for climate change.

Vattenfall said it would sell its German lignite, or brown coal, business -- open cast coal mines and two power plants close to the German-Polish border -- to Czech operator EPH.

The coal operations represent about one-tenth of Vattenfall's power production in Germany, where it is the third-largest energy supplier.

"This divestment of our lignite assets is good strategically but also financially given current and expected market conditions," said Vattenfall chief executive Magnus Hall.

"We are now accelerating our shift towards a more sustainable production. The sale means more than 75 percent of our production will be climate neutral compared to about 50 percent today," Hall said.

Vattenfall said the sale of the coal business would have a negative impact of 22-27 billion Swedish kronor (2.4-2.9 billion euros/$2.7-3.3 billion) on its second-quarter results, but the hit would have been larger if it had waited longer.

The sale of the coal assets drew few bidders.

Another Czech company, CEZ, withdrew afer expressing initial interest.

Greenpeace, too, had tried to bid for the coal operations with the intention of closing them down. But the environmental group said in November it had been barred from bidding because Citigroup, in charge of the sale, judged it had no intention of making a financial bid.

There is growing resistance to fossil fuels in Germany, where public subsidies of renewable sources of energy are making coal-fired energy less profitable.

- 'Irresponsible' to sell -

Non-governmental organisations and environmentalist groups criticised the sale.

Jan Kowalzig, climate expert at Oxfam, slammed it as an "irresponsible decision" on the part of Sweden, which should have shut down the operations instead.

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The Swedish government, a coalition of environmentalist Greens and Social Democrats, had "betrayed" its international commitments, Kowalzig said, urging Stockholm, which has still to give its green light, to block the deal.

Swedish industry minister Mikael Damberg, for his part, said: "We will examine the transaction... and probably respond within a few months."

EPH, a major player in eastern Europe, already owns another German coal producer, Mibrag.

Annika Jacobson, head of Greenpeace Sweden, described EPH as a "Czech risk capital group who want to relaunch coal in Europe and have plenty of skeletons in their cupboards".

The group's head had been named in the recent Panama Papers tax-evasion scandal, even if the group denied any wrongdoing, Jacobson said.

Vattenfall's plans to sell the operations already raised concerns in Germany since the mines are in the east, where unemployment is higher than in the rest of the country.

Vaattenfall is one of the biggest employers in the region.

The IG BCE labour union for the sector said it expected EPH to draw a "corporate strategy that recognises the importance of the east German brown coal industry for social stability in the region".
Blaming China for woes in the global steel industry is simply a lazy excuse for protectionism, and such finger pointing will be counter-productive, China's official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary on Monday.

The issue has shot to the top of the political agenda in a number of countries.

India's Tata Steel has blamed a flood of cheap steel imports, including from China, for a decision to pull out of Britain, putting 15,000 jobs at risk.

Last week, more than 40,000 German steel workers took to the streets to protest against dumping from China, among other issues such as industry consolidation that they fear will cost them their jobs.

Xinhua, in an English-language piece, said it appeared "understandable" to think that China, as the world's largest steel producer and consumer, was the cause of the problems.

"Upon closer inspection, however, it's just a lame and lazy excuse for protectionism," it said.

"Blaming other countries is always an easy, sure-fire way for politicians to whip up a storm over domestic economic woes, but finger-pointing and protectionism are counter-productive."

Such commentaries are not official policy statements, but they can be read as a reflection of government thinking.

Xinhua said cheap Chinese steel had in fact created many jobs, as it is used by European companies, for example, who then use it to make products for export.

"It should be noted that overcapacity is a global challenge amid a sluggish world economy. China is one of the most hard-hit, but the government is facing up to the headwinds," it said.

"The last thing the world needs is a trade war over this issue. Far more jobs will be lost than gained if protectionism prevails."

The Chinese government has said the issue is a global problem that should be resolved via dialogue and cooperation.

China continues to ship its surplus steel products overseas with neighboring Vietnam being a destination of choice.

Shipments from China dominated Vietnams total steel imports in March with 1.166 million tons, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total volume that the latter imported in the month. The imports from China rose 86.2 percent compared with the same month in 2015, according to latest Vietnamese customs data.
Stockholm (AFP) - A Swedish cabinet minister of Turkish origin who compared Israel to Nazi Germany and was photographed with Turkish ultranationalists resigned on Monday, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced.

"Mehmet Kaplan has submitted his resignation and I have accepted it," Lofven told reporters, nonetheless praising the outgoing housing minister's "humanistic and democratic values."

Kaplan, a member of the junior coalition partner Green Party, told reporters he was opposed to "all forms of extremism" and stressed his dedication to "human rights, democracy and dialogue."

The 44-year-old had been in hot water since the weekend when media published old video footage of him making controversial remarks about Israel's politics towards Palestinians.

During a March 2009 debate on Islamophobia organised by a Somali organisation, Kaplan, who was a member of parliament at the time, said there were "similarities" between the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany during the 1930s and the everyday lives of Palestinians.

Israel's ambassador to Sweden, Isaac Bachman, branded the remarks as "deeply anti-Semitic."

"I have on several occasions criticised the actions of the state of Israel severely, but I am clearly not anti-Semitic... My criticism of Israel does not make me less critical of the anti-Semitism that exists in Sweden," Kaplan wrote in a comment published on the website of daily Expressen after his resignation was announced.

Last week, media had published photos of Kaplan attending a July 2015 dinner in Sweden with Turkish ultranationalists, which sparked strong reactions from the opposition, media, and the public.

Among those attending the dinner was Ilhan Senturk, the Swedish head of the ultranational "Grey Wolves" organisation known for political violence in the 1970s and 1980s.

Also present was Barbaros Leyani, the former vice-president of the Turkish National Association of Sweden who was forced to resign after calling for the murder of "Armenian dogs" during a demonstration in Stockholm in April.

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Kaplan, who was born in Turkey and moved to Sweden when he was eight, also came under fire from media and political opponents for his ties to Islamic organisations, especially Milli Gorus which is suspected of promoting religious fundamentalism.

He acknowledged those ties, but "that doesn't mean I agree with them on everything," he told Swedish television.

Opposition leader Anna Kinberg Batra of the conservative Moderates criticised Prime Minister Lofven, a Social Democrat, for "being passive and slow" to react to the controversy.
SEOUL, April 18 (Reuters) - South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan, who completed an 18-month doping ban in March, is to compete in upcoming national trials despite being excluded for selection due to additional sanctions imposed by the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC). Park was banned by swimming's governing body FINA after testing positive for testosterone ahead of the 2014 Asian Games, and while the ban expired last month he must wait three more years before he can be considered for national selection again. Given Park's profile in Korea, and amid criticism that the KOC regulation punishes an athlete twice for the same offence, speculation grew that it may relax the rule to give the swimmer the chance to compete at the Rio Olympics. However, the KOC said earlier this month it was "not appropriate to amend national team selection regulations for a specific person". Park's management agency, Team GMP, said in a news release titled, "The unfinished challenge of Park Tae-hwan" on Monday that the swimmer would return from training in Australia this week and would compete at the trials anyway. The statement said Park would speak to reporters at the conclusion of the swim meet in Gwangju, some 330 kilometres south of Seoul. Organisers said Park had registered to compete in the 100, 200, 400 and 1,500 metres freestyle races. His first event is the 1,500 on Monday. While Park has struggled to recapture his best form in recent years, a good performance at the Dong-A Swimming Competition, which doubles as the second round of national trials, could put the KOC in an awkward position. Park won gold in the 400m freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Games to become the first South Korean to win an Olympic swimming medal. He added silver in the 200 in Beijing, and was second in both events in London four years later. But Park's image as the golden boy of Korean sport was shattered early last year when it emerged he had tested positive for testosterone ahead of the Incheon Asian Games. The 26-year-old attributed the failed test to an injection he received at a local clinic, where he said he was being treated for a skin complaint and where he also had some vitamin shots and chiropractic treatment. (Reporting by Jee Heun Kahng, writing by Peter Rutherford; Editing by Patrick Johnston)
Geneva (AFP) - Syria's opposition on Monday urged the UN to pause peace talks until Damascus shows it is serious about political transition, as rebel groups vowed to strike back against alleged ceasefire violations.

With fighting surging around Syria's second city of Aleppo and negotiations in Geneva stalled over the fate of President Bashar al-Assad, the opposition High Negotiations Committee said it would ask UN mediator Staffan de Mistura to put the talks on hold.

"A small delegation has come to meet (de Mistura) and to ask him to pause the negotiations until the regime shows it is serious about political transition and humanitarian issues," an HNC member told AFP.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said the delegation planned to remain in Geneva, for now.

Three HNC delegates entered a meeting with de Mistura at 3:00 pm (1300 GMT), with the UN envoy expected to address the media afterwards.

- 'Start of the battle' -

HNC coordinator Riad Hijab said earlier it was "unacceptable" for the negotiations to continue while Assad's regime continues to "bombard and starve civilians" in Syria.

The ceasefire agreed in February dramatically curtailed violence across much of Syria, but the fresh fighting around Aleppo has prompted tens of thousands of people to flee.

"After the increase of violations by regime forces that included targeting displaced people and continuous bombing of residential neighbourhoods, we declare the start of the battle in response," said a statement by 10 rebel groups.

The landmark ceasefire agreed between the United States and Russia took effect on February 27, raising hopes that a lasting deal could be struck to end Syria's five-year civil war.

But the spread of fighting around Aleppo and the regime's apparent unwillingness to hold concrete talks on forming a new government has led the opposition to question Assad's commitment to a political solution to a conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people.

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 22 civilians were killed on both sides over the weekend in divided Aleppo city -- one of the highest single tolls since the truce began.

"This was the bloodiest incident in Aleppo and its province" since the ceasefire started, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"This escalation directly threatens the truce."

State television reported another eight people killed on Monday by rebel rocket fire into regime-held areas.

Among the armed groups that signed Monday's statement was Jaish al-Islam, the most important opposition faction in East Ghouta, a key rebel-held town east of Damascus.

Mohammed Alloush, the HNC's chief negotiator in Geneva and a senior member of Jaish al-Islam, on Sunday urged rebel groups to "strike" regime positions.

"Don't trust the regime and don't wait for their pity," he wrote on Twitter. "Strike them everywhere."

A fellow opposition figure said this did not represent the HNC's position and Alloush clarified that he was calling on rebels to defend themselves from attacks.

- New ideas? -

Syria's UN ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari, the regime's lead negotiator in Geneva, on Monday referred to Alloush's comments as "irresponsible and provocative".

He also denounced Israel for holding a cabinet meeting on Sunday in the occupied Golan Heights.

Without elaborating, Jaafari referred to ideas "raised for the first time" in the government delegation's meeting with de Mistura on Monday.

The peace plan outlined by de Mistura and backed by world powers envisions a political transition, a new constitution, and presidential and parliamentary elections by September 2017.

Alloush also repeated that there could be "no compromise" on Assad's removal -- which the regime has called a "red line".

He also said a rebel offensive had already begun in northern Lattakia province, Assad's heartland.

Areas in Syria controlled by the Islamic State (IS) group, Al-Qaeda's local affiliate Al-Nusra Front, and other jihadists are exempt from the ceasefire, but renewed Aleppo clashes are straining the truce as other rebel groups are dragged into the fighting.

IS has seized fresh territory from rebel groups in the north, threatening the key opposition town of Azaz, just eight kilometres (five miles) south of the Turkish border.

The jihadist onslaught has forced 30,000 Syrians to flee, and tens of thousands more are at risk of displacement.

In addition to Jaish al-Islam, the rebel statement was signed by the powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham faction, which is allied to Al-Nusra and fights alongside it around Aleppo and in neighbouring Idlib province.
Geneva (AFP) - The UN was struggling to keep troubled Syria peace negotiations on track, as the opposition suspended its "formal participation" in the talks in protest at escalating violence on the ground.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama meanwhile agreed to help strengthen a fragile ceasefire in Syria, seen as essential to paving the way towards a lasting deal to end the bloodshed.

With fighting surging around Syria's second city Aleppo and negotiations in Geneva stalled over the fate of President Bashar al-Assad, the opposition said they had had enough.

"Since these talks began in Geneva, the Assad regime has worsened the situation on the ground," Salem al-Meslet of the main opposition High Negotiations Committee said in a statement.

The group said the talks must be placed on "brief hold in order to end the Assad regime's truce violations", accusing the regime of more than 2,000 violations of the ceasefire since it began on February 27.

"The HNC remains fully committed to the political process and establishing peace through diplomacy," Meslet said. "We remain in Geneva ready to engage in serious talks."

HNC coordinator Riad Hijab said earlier it was "unacceptable" for the negotiations to continue while Assad's regime continues to "bombard and starve civilians" in Syria.

The regime responded by accusing Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar -- all backers of the opposition -- of seeking to derail the negotiations.

"The Saudi, Turkish and Qatari sponsors do not want to stop the bloodbath in Syria and do not want a political solution in Syria," the regime's lead negotiator in Geneva, Bashar al-Jaafari, said in an interview late Monday with Lebanese channel Al-Mayadeen.

Jaafari added that the opposition and the countries that support it are "annoyed because of the progress being made by the Syrian army on the ground".

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- Clear blow -

But UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura insisted the ongoing round of indirect discussions, which began on April 13, would continue through the week as planned.

The HNC may continue to meet UN staff at their hotel "to pursue technical discussions", including on a political transition in Syria, de Mistura said.

The UN envoy stressed that the indirect talks format -- which has seen the HNC and Assad's representatives meet separately with UN mediators -- created flexibility to continue the discussions.

But the opposition's announcement is a clear blow to the already precarious negotiations aimed at achieving political transition, a new constitution, and presidential and parliamentary elections by September 2017.

The landmark ceasefire negotiated by Russia and the US in February dramatically curtailed violence across much of Syria, raising hopes that a lasting deal could be struck to end the five-year civil war.

But the spread of fighting around Aleppo and the regime's apparent unwillingness to hold concrete talks on forming a new government has led the opposition to question Assad's commitment to a political solution to a conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people.

Areas in Syria controlled by jihadists like the Islamic State (IS) group and Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front are exempt from the ceasefire, but the renewed Aleppo clashes are drawing in other rebel groups and straining the truce.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 22 civilians were killed on both sides over the weekend in Aleppo city -- one of the highest single tolls since the truce began.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned the situation was "critical" for more than 100,000 people trapped by fighting in the Azaz district of Aleppo governorate.

Piling further pressure on the ceasefire, 10 rebel groups vowed Monday to strike back against alleged violations of the truce.

- US, Russia try to boost ceasefire -

Despite the surging violence on the ground, De Mistura insisted "the cessation of hostilities is holding," but acknowledged: "We are concerned."

Putin and Obama meanwhile agreed during a phone call Monday to help strengthen the ceasefire, according to the Kremlin.

Both leaders had stressed the "significance" of the Geneva talks and agreed that their security services and defence ministries would ramp up cooperation over Syria, it said.

"With this end in view additional measures on how to quickly react to existing ceasefire violations will be worked out," the Kremlin added.

French President Francois Hollande also said everything must be done to maintain the truce.

"If negotiations do not resume, if fighting does, there would again be the worst fears for civilians (and) consequences in terms of refugees," he said.

Regardless of whether the ceasefire is strengthened, the Geneva talks will likely continue stumbling on the tricky issue of Assad's fate.

The HNC insists that any peace deal must include Assad's departure from power. Damascus has so far said the president's future is off limits.

"The gap is clearly wide," de Mistura admitted.
Beirut (AFP) - Key Syrian rebel groups vowed on Monday to strike back against alleged regime ceasefire violations, casting doubt on the future of fragile peace talks due to resume in Geneva.

A truce agreed in February dramatically curtailed violence across much of Syria, but fighting has surged in recent days around second city Aleppo, causing tens of thousands to flee.

"After the increase of violations by regime forces that included targeting displaced people and continuous bombing of residential neighbourhoods, we declare the start of the battle in response," said a statement signed by 10 armed rebel groups.

In Geneva, where regime and opposition delegations were set to restart indirect negotiations, Syria's main rebel delegation warned that renewed fighting could scupper peace talks.

"We might suspend (our participation in) the talks if things carry on this way, and then there will be no prospect for any political solution," HNC member Abdulhakim Bashar told AFP.

The landmark ceasefire agreed between the United States and Russia took effect on February 27, raising hopes that a lasting deal could be struck in Geneva to end Syria's five-year civil war.

But fighting has spread in the last week around Aleppo, leading the HNC to question President Bashar al-Assad's commitment to a political solution to a conflict that has displaced half of the population and killed more than 270,000 people.

"The humanitarian situation is continually deteriorating, the issue of the detainees has not seen any progress, the ceasefire has almost collapsed, and now there is an attack on Aleppo from three sides," Bashar said in Switzerland.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said 22 civilians were killed over the weekend in Aleppo city -- one of the highest single tolls since the truce began.

At least six civilians were killed and eight wounded in regime air strikes on rebel-held eastern parts of the city on Saturday.

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A barrage of rockets and sniper fire by opposition groups onto government-controlled western districts killed 16 civilians, including 10 children and two women.

And rebel groups fired more rockets at western areas of Aleppo city late Sunday, but there was no immediate information on new casualties.

- 'Strike them everywhere' -

"There's a clear escalation. This was the bloodiest incident in Aleppo and its province" since the ceasefire began, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"This escalation directly threatens the truce."

Among the armed groups who signed the Monday statement is Jaish al-Islam, the most important opposition faction in East Ghouta, a key rebel-held town east of Damascus.

Mohammed Alloush, the HNC's chief negotiator in Geneva, is a senior member of Jaish al-Islam who on Sunday called on rebel groups to "strike" regime positions.

"Don't trust the regime and don't wait for their pity," he posted on Twitter. "Strike them at their necks (kill them). Strike them everywhere."

A fellow opposition figure said Alloush's hawkish statement did not represent the HNC's position and Alloush clarified that he was calling on rebels to defend themselves from attacks.

Areas controlled by the Islamic State group, Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front, and other jihadists are exempt from the ceasefire, but renewed Aleppo clashes are straining the truce as other rebel groups are dragged into the fighting.

IS has seized fresh territory from rebel groups in the north, threatening the key opposition town of Azaz, just eight kilometres (five miles) south of the Turkish border.

The jihadist onslaught has forced 30,000 Syrians to flee, and tens of thousands more are at risk of displacement.

- Assad's fate 'red line' -

In addition to Jaish al-Islam, the rebel statement was signed by the powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham faction, which is allied to Al-Nusra and fights alongside it around Aleppo and in neighbouring Idlib province.

UN mediator Staffan de Mistura is expected to sit down with the Damascus government in Geneva before meeting the opposition delegation later Monday.

The fate of Assad remains a major bone of contention, with Syria's opposition clinging onto its call for his ouster since the conflict began in 2011.

Alloush said there could be "no compromise" on Assad's removal but the regime has called that a "red line".

The peace plan outlined by De Mistura and backed by world powers envisions a political transition, a new constitution, and presidential and parliamentary elections by September 2017.

But Syria's government hosted its own parliamentary elections last week only in government-held areas, which Assad's ruling Baath party easily won. The opposition denounced the election as a "farce".
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebel groups announced a new battle against government forces on Monday, a sign of escalating violence that has undermined a ceasefire deal and threatens to derail U.N.-led peace talks. The groups, which included factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham, said in a statement they would respond "with force" against any government forces that fired on civilians. The ceasefire deal has been strained to breaking point by escalating fighting, particularly around the divided city of Aleppo, with each side blaming the other for the escalation that has underlined the huge challenge facing the peace talks. Heavy air strikes have also been reported north of Homs. Senior opposition figures who have asked not to be quoted have said pressure is growing for a speedy decision to leave talks being convened by U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, with no sign of progress towards discussion of a political transition sought by President Bashar al-Assad's opponents. The statement announced the "formation of a joint operations room to begin the battle... in response to violations by the army of Assad." It gave no geographic location for the new battle. Senior Syrian opposition negotiators on Sunday urged rebels to strike back against the Syrian army, accusing it of using a cessation of hostilities to gain ground, and cast doubt over whether they would continue Geneva peace talks indefinitely. The cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by the United States and Russia came into effect on Feb. 27 with the aim of allowing peace talks to get underway. The agreement did not include Islamic State or the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. (Reporting by Tom Perry and John Davison; Editing by Dominic Evans)
The Tesla Model 3 is going to be the more affordable Tesla ever... but you're still years away from being able to actually own one. Since most of us can't afford to shell out the cash needed to buy either a Model S or Model X right now, that leaves us with one option if we want to drive a Tesla: Rentals.

The problem with rentals, however, is that they're also pretty expensive. Given the high demand for Teslas on the rental car market, we've seen rental agencies charge anywhere from $400 to $900 per day just for the privilege of driving the hugely popular electric vehicles.

However, there is another option that will let you drive a Tesla for significantly less money and it comes in the form of peer-to-peer car rental marketplace Turo.

MUST SEE: How to tell if all those glowing reviews on an Amazon product listing are fake

In case you've never heard of it, Turo is sort of like an Airbnb for cars. When you're travelling in a city and you need a set of cheap wheels, Turo can hook you up with a nearby car owner who's willing to rent out their vehicle for prices that are lower than what you'd pay at Hertz, Avis, or Enterprise. Near my home in Boston, for example, I found a Tesla Model S that will be available to rent this summer for $149 per day.

Turo was founded in 2009 and now has available vehicles in more than 2,500 locations across the U.S., including over 300 airports. The idea behind the company is refreshingly simple: Since the average car is idle for the majority of the time, why not give car owners the opportunity to make money on their investment?

Owners who want to list their cars on Turo have the option to either set their own pricing or to have Turo set their rates for them with its dynamic pricing system that creates automated pricing based on variables such as seasonality, location and demand for vehicles. Turo tells us that a Tesla owner who puts their car up on the site can make $600 per month by renting it out.

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One such Tesla owner is Joe Edgell, who has been renting out his Model S for the past four months to 40 different drivers. While many people would feel anxious about renting their expensive electric car out to complete strangers, Edgell says that Turo's vehicle insurance policy combined with its driver rating system helped put his mind at ease. In fact, he says that there have been only two renters that he's worked with over the past three years whom he'd describe as "iffy," and none of them have been flat-out disasters.

This may seem surprising since YouTube is loaded with videos of people doing stupid things with their Teslas, especially when it comes to playing around with the cars' insane acceleration or the new AutoPilot feature. That said, Edgell doesn't rent his Tesla out to people who are under 30 and he actually encourages renters to have a little fun with the car's acceleration just so they can get the full experience of what it's like to drive one.

He initially started renting out his Model S for $189 per day but he found that even that seemingly low price was too high compared to what other Tesla owners were charging. He now lets Turo set the price for him and he's charging an average of $129 per day for the car.

"When I decided to buy a Tesla, part of the decision was to turn it into a business," he explains. "The car's not paying for itself yet... but as summer picks up, more people will rent cars."

Of course, given the popularity of Teslas right now, you'll likely have to book your time with Turo users' cars weeks in advance. That said, if you know you're taking a trip later in the year and you want to travel around with one of the world's most in-demand cars, Turo looks like your most affordable option.

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This article was originally published on BGR.com
New Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc spent his second weekend in office calling for investment to the former demilitarized zone. The north central province of Quang Tri granted investment certificates to 18 projects with a total investment of VND10.6 trillion ($500 million) at a meeting to promote investment and tourism on April 17.

The 18 projects focus on key development areas, including energy, high-tech agriculture and tourism. State owned bank BIDV has agreed to allocate as much as VND5.1 trillion for five projects.

Chairman of the provincial People's Committees Nguyen Duc Chinh said that the province will grant investment certificates within 10 days, allocate land as well as support water and electricity construction for new projects. The leaders also promised to directly address difficulties that investment enterprises have been facing through a hotline.

Representatives of 18 projects which have received investment certificates. Photo by Hoang Tao

Present at the meeting, the new Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the province has many advantages to boost its economy. The province belongs to the East-West Economic Corridor and has many historic sites.

Quang Tri needs to create the most favorable conditions for investors like providing good human resources. The province should also try its best to break away from its poor province status, Phuc added.

Quang Tri is located in the northern central region, adjacent to Laos to the west and the East Sea to the east. In the past, the province was witness to the bloody battle between the People's Army of Vietnam and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam supported by the United States to pull down the Saigon government.
Look at this product on Amazon. Look at all those crazy reviews. Seriously, look at them! Can they possibly be real? No way... right?

Product reviews are a key component when you're shopping, especially on a site like Amazon. Since the popular online retailer has such a wide reach, customer reviews are often a very good tool to use when you're shopping for something. Of course, retailers know that as well as you do, and less scrupulous vendors can sometimes take advantage of that by creating fake reviews for their products in an effort to make them look better than they actually are.

As it turns out, however, there are tools you can use to figure out when you're being had.

DON'T MISS: How to get 2GB of free data from Verizon in just a few seconds

Don't leave things to chance when you're researching products to purchase. Is this sleek 65-inch 4K Ultra HD TV really as good as the reviews make it out to be? Maybe you'd be better off with this hot 55-inch model, which is on sale right now for under $900. And will this cool-looking little drone really last or are all those positive reviews disingenuous?

First of all, use common sense. If a product has dozens of similar reviews in broken English that were all published around the same time, that's a reasonably good sign that the reviews are fake. Unfortunately though, fake reviews aren't always that easy to spot because not all vendors are that stupid. Some do a good job of covering their tracks and that's where third-party tools come into play.

There are a few different options out there that will help you spot products with fake reviews, but we've found Fakespot to be one of the best available. The website couldn't be easier to use  simply paste an Amazon URL into the search bar and Fakespot will analyze the reviews on the page. After the analysis is complete, the site will return a grade between "F," which means that the product listing is littered with fake reviews, and an "A," which means it's 100% genuine.

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Want to see some Amazon products that Fakespot has determined to be littered with fake reviews? Check out these mini inflatable beach balls, these stylish iPhone and iPad charging cables, this decent-looking iPhone 6/6s case or this Qi wireless smartphone charger. Would you have knows those reviews were fake if we hadn't told you?

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Google has released an updated preview version of Android N for members of the Android Beta program, boosting stability and adding new features. The firm is expected to outline the final version of its new mobile operating system at the Google I/0 conference, May 18-20, 2016. In the meantime, here's a look at some of the new features already on the agenda.

One key innovation in Android N is the picture-in-picture function for using two applications simultaneously, open side by side (tablet) or one over the other (smartphone). This mode is even more eagerly awaited since it already features in third-party interfaces for Google's OS -- like those made by Samsung and LG -- as well as in competitor platforms iOS and Windows.

Other new features include revamped notifications, promising a faster and easier-to-use system no matter what applications are open. Launcher shortcuts also let users create custom shortcuts to specific features in certain applications. This could, for example, be a shortcut to message a particular contact or to access a specific folder in an email inbox. On a more technical level, Android N now also supports the Vulkan programming interface, a 3D rendering API for developers.

Google promises improved battery saving in Android N, plus options for limiting data use by reducing the quality of images and video streams, which could prove handy for users with limited data packages.

Finally, Android N gets support for Emoji Unicode 9, bringing users the latest emojis with more human-like faces and a variety of skin-tones.

Google is expected to present the latest features of its Android mobile operating system in detail at the Google I/O conference, held in Mountain View, California, May 18-20, 2016. By giving developers a first look ahead of time, Google could be ready to start rolling out Android N from this summer on a new lineup of Nexus devices, before quickly following with updates for Android Marshmallow products. All that remains now is to find a suitable snack to name the OS. Three years after teaming up with KitKat, could Google have an Android Nutella in store?

Google I/O runs May 18-20, 2016, in Mountain View, USA. Website: events.google.com/io2016
Ted Cruz took another dig at Donald Trump on Sunday when he announced his campaign is selling baby apparel inspired by the billionaire businessman.

The Texas senator shared over social media that he's now offering "Trumper Tantrum" wear, a onesie and bib with a picture of Trump's hairstyle and the phrase: "Enough with the Trumpertantrums already."

Cruz coined the phrase back in February after Trump accused him of dirty politics over the senator's victory in the Iowa caucus. Trump finished second.

The apparel page claims that due to high demand, items are on backorder for as long as two weeks.

Read More: Jimmy Fallon Tries Out His Trump Impression on Ted Cruz

Trump, the GOP presidential frontrunner, has been highly critical of GOP voting regulations lately as Cruz has gained ground in the polls.

Even the two candidates' wives have become mudslinging fodder in their war of words.

The next contest, the New York primary, is Tuesday.

Order your #TrumperTantrum starter pack NOW: https://t.co/61dK4xyGQX pic.twitter.com/pTg16nxqiE

- Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 17, 2016

Ted Cruz campaign now selling Trumpertantrum baby gearhttps://t.co/NE5lMlqEsj

- FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) April 18, 2016
This is the heartbreaking moment a dog refused to move from the side of his owner, who was run over and killed at the side of the road.

Puppy Doki was seen lying down next to the body of 23-year-old Leonardo Valdes, who had gone out for a walk with his loyal dog.

Valdes had been struck by a car near to his home in Concepcion, Chile, and died at the scene.

Emergency crews who rushed to the scene covered the body - but grief-stricken Doki simply refused to move from the spot.

Workers took a picture of the tragic scene and later wrote online: The deceaseds puppy remained in the spot until the body was removed.

The puppy was eventually taken in by Valdes family, who wrote of her continued loyalty - even after his owners death.

They said: She was up all night in the wake 

Truly mans best friend.

Pic: Facebook/Esteban CEBB_257
Baghdad (AFP) - Thousands of people protested for reforms on Monday at the Iraqi capital's heavily fortified Green Zone, where the government is headquartered, for the second time in less than a month.

The call to rally at the Green Zone, where the US and British embassies are also located, went out over a loudspeaker at a sit-in at Baghdad's Tahrir Square, an AFP journalist said.

The demonstrators set out running from the sit-in site, crossed Jumhuriyah Bridge and gathered at the Green Zone entrance near parliament.

Powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr organised a two-week sit-in at the Green Zone in March, calling for a technocratic government and threatening to have his supporters storm the area.

A senior Sadr Movement official told AFP that the demonstrators would not try to enter the Green Zone on Monday.

"It is a message we want to deliver to the government and the parliament," Ibrahim al-Jaberi, the head of Sadr's east Baghdad office said, apparently referring to the fact that demonstrators could be quickly mobilised and gathered at the Green Zone.

"We will withdraw to Tahrir Square this evening," he said.

Sadr, the scion of a powerful clerical family, called off the March sit-in after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi presented a list of cabinet nominees to parliament.

But efforts to replace the current party-affiliated ministers have faced serious opposition from powerful parties that rely on control of ministries for patronage and funds.

Iraqi political blocs presented their own nominees and most of Abadi's candidates were replaced on a second list.

Cabinet reform efforts were then overshadowed by days of chaos in parliament, including an overnight sit-in, a brawl between lawmakers and an attempt to sack the speaker.

Demonstrators began the sit-in at Tahrir Square on Saturday, after a parliamentary session aimed at selecting replacements for speaker Salim al-Juburi and his deputies failed to reach a quorum.
Mekong Stories by director Phan Dang Di is the first Vietnamese independent film to be screened by Memento Films at big cinemas in France from April 20.

Every year, Memento Films, one of France's top arthouse film sales agencies, picks from eight to ten movies from around the world to distribute in France.

Mekong Stories, previously named as Big Father, Small Father & Other Stories, is going to be screened by Memento at big cinemas like MK2, Gaumont, Pathe and UCG.

The movie tells about experiences and challenges of three young people in Ho Chi Minh City in the 1990s, when Vietnam started to shift from a command economy to a market economy. It was filmed over 42 days, starring both famous and amateur actors, including Do Thi Hai Yen, Truong The Vinh and Le Cong Hoang.

Mekong Stories is the first Vietnamese movie to compete for the Golden Bear Prize at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival last year. In November, the film won the Young Jury Prize at the Three  Continent Film Festival in Nantes, France.

Before its official release, the film received positive feedback from film critics in France. Newspaper Le Monde sees the film as "a beautiful portrait of dreamy young people" while cinema magazine Premiere and Positif said: "Director Phan Dang Di made his second film more complex, more ambitious and he seems to have mastered his film better".

The first movie of Di, Bi, dont be afraid, was distributed in France in 2012, but the release was restricted to arthouse cinemas.

Although welcomed by France and more than 50 other countries, Di and his producer find it difficult to screen "Mekong Stories" in Vietnam due to the stiff competition from Hollywoods blockbusters and other mainstream Vietnamese films.
Tokyo stocks slumped on Monday after deadly earthquakes brought factories in southern Japan to a grinding halt, while energy shares took a hit after weekend talks to freeze crude output failed.

Toyota and Sony both lost more than four percent as their production lines on Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu remained offline in the wake of the powerful quakes that killed 42 people.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index dived 3.40 percent, or 572.08 points, to end the day at 16,275.95 -- falling for a second straight session.

The Topix index of all first-section shares dropped 3.03 percent, or 41.25 points, to 1,320.15.

Energy companies suffered heavy selling after talks between major oil producing countries to cap output collapsed over the weekend, sending crude prices tumbling.

Despite a glut of world supplies that has pressured prices for almost two years, top producer Saudi Arabia refused to agree any freeze that did not cover its rival Iran, which boycotted the talks.

Energy-linked stocks tracked the sharp drop in oil, with Inpex down 3.04 percent at 830.1 yen and gas and engineering firm JGC declining 3.25 percent to 1,755 yen.

The disappointment battered Asian stock markets and send investors rushing for safe haven investments, including the yen, which is a go-to asset in times of turmoil and uncertainty.

In Tokyo, the greenback dropped to 107.97 yen from 108.75 yen Friday in New York, weighing on Japan's exporters.

"Expectations were too high that oil output would be frozen," Yoshinori Ogawa, a market strategist at Okasan Securities, told Bloomberg News.

"As we shed those expectations, it becomes easier for a risk-off mood to kick in."

The glum news compounded the impact of last week's two earthquakes -- the first late Thursday, followed by a powerful 7.0 magnitude quake in the early hours of Saturday.

Toyota on Sunday announced the gradual suspension of assembly lines nationwide, citing problems with parts suppliers in the area.

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Toyota plunged 4.75 percent to close down 5,467 yen, while Honda, which said its motorcycle plant in Kumamoto will also remain shut until Friday, tumbled 2.91 percent to 2,946.5 yen.

Analysts said the impact on automakers' bottom line should be relatively limited as they had built up backup procurement networks since a quake and tsunami disaster in 2011.

Sony, which has kept its image sensor manufacturing facility offline, finished 6.78 percent lower at 2,736 yen.

Kyushu Electric, which operates Japan's only two operating reactors, both on the island on which the quakes struck, dropped 7.95 percent to 1,088 yen, as the disaster aggravated safety concerns.
For more than five years, Donald Trumps new top campaign aide, Paul Manafort, lobbied for a Washington-based group that Justice Department prosecutors have charged operated as a front for Pakistans intelligence service, according to court and lobbying records reviewed by Yahoo News.

Manaforts work in the 1990s as a registered lobbyist for the Kashmiri American Council was only one part of a wide-ranging portfolio that, over several decades, included a gallery of controversial foreign clients ranging from Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Zaires brutal dictator Mobutu Sese Seko to an Angolan rebel leader accused by human rights groups of torture. His role as an adviser to Ukraines then prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, prompted concerns within the Bush White House that he was undermining U.S. foreign policy. It was considered so politically toxic in 2008 that presidential candidate John McCain nixed plans for Manafort to manage the Republican National Convention  a move that caused a rupture between Manafort and his then business partner, Rick Davis, who at the time was McCains campaign manager.

Manaforts work for the Kashmiri group has so far not gotten any media attention.

But it could fuel more questions about his years of lobbying for questionable foreign interests before Manafort, 67, assumed his new position as chief delegate counter and strategist for a presidential candidate who repeatedly decries the influence of Washington lobbyists and denounces the manipulation of U.S. policy by foreign governments.

Court records show that Manaforts Kashmiri lobbying contract came on the FBIs radar screen during a lengthy counterterrorism investigation that culminated in 2011 with the arrest of the Kashmiri councils director, Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, on charges that he ran the group on behalf of Pakistans intelligence service, the ISI, as part of a scheme to secretly influence U.S. policy toward the disputed territory of Kashmir.

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Paul Manafort, convention manager for the Trump campaign, on Meet the Press, April 10. (Photo: William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)



The Kashmiri American Council was a scam that amounted to a false flag operation that Mr. Fai was operating on behalf of the ISI, Gordon D. Kromberg, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, said in March 2012 at Fais sentencing hearing in federal court. While posing as a U.S.-based nonprofit funded by American donors sympathetic to the plight of Kashmiris, it was actually bankrolled by the ISI in order to deflect public attention away from the involvement of Pakistan in sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir and elsewhere, Kromberg said. Fai, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax fraud charges, was then sentenced to two years in federal prison.

Lobbying records filed with the secretary of the Senate show that Manaforts lobbying firm, Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, was paid $700,000 by the Kashmiri American Council between 1990 and 1995. This was among more than $4 million that federal prosecutors alleged came from the ISI; Fai collected the money over 20 years from straw American donors who were being reimbursed from secret accounts in Pakistan. (The funds were in some cases delivered to Fai in brown paper bags stuffed with cash  and then the donors reimbursed with wire transfers from ISI operatives, according to an FBI affidavit.)

Manafort, who handled the Kashmiri account for his firm, was never charged in the case, and Kromberg told Yahoo News that what knowledge, if any, he had of the secret source of money from his client was not part of the Justice Departments investigation. (While registering with Congress as a domestic lobbyist for the Kashmiri American Council, Manafort never registered with the U.S. Justice Department as a foreign agent of Pakistan, as he would have been required to do if he was aware of the ISI funding of his client.)

But a former senior Pakistani official, who asked not to be identified, told Yahoo News that there was never any doubt on Pakistans part that Manafort knew of his governments role in backing the Kashmiri council. The former official said that during a trip from Islamabad in 1994 he met with Manafort and Fai in Manaforts office in Alexandria, Va., to review strategy and plans for the council. Manafort, at the meeting, presented plans to influence members of Congress to back Pakistans case for a plebiscite for Kashmir (the largest portion of which has been part of India since 1947), he said. (Internal budget documents later obtained by the FBI show plans by the council to spend $80,000 to $100,000 a year on campaign contributions to members of Congress.) There is no way Manafort didnt know that Pakistan was involved with the council, the former official said, although he added: Some things are not explicitly stated.

Neither Manafort nor the Trump campaign responded to requests for comment for this story. (Im not working for any client right now other than working for Mr. Trump, Manafort recently said on NBCs Meet the Press when asked by moderator Chuck Todd about his past controversial clients.)

Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, executive director of the Kashmiri American Council, in 2007. (Photo: Roshan Mughal/AP)

But Manaforts former partner Charlie Black, now an adviser to rival Republican presidential candidate John Kasich, said that as far as the firm was concerned, the Kashmiri council was a domestic, not a foreign, client. Nobody was more surprised than me that the guy was taking the money from Pakistan, Black said in a telephone interview. We didnt know anything about it.

But there was no doubt on the part of the Indian government about where the money was coming from. Its officials repeatedly alleged that the Kashmiri council was a front group for Pakistan during the period that Manaforts firm was lobbying for it. The issue blew up in September 1993 after Manafort and one of his lobbying associates, Riva Levinson, traveled to Kashmir and, according to Indian officials, posed as CNN reporters in an effort to gather video footage of interviews with Kashmiri officials.

The whole thing was obviously a blatant operation of producing television software with a deliberate and particularly anti-Indian slant by lobbyists hired by Pakistan for this very purpose, Shiv Shankar, then the Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a letter to CNN in Atlanta at the time. (Levinson did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo News. At the time she denied the Indian allegations, telling a UPI reporter, We never misrepresented ourselves as journalists.)

Exactly what Manafort did for the Kashmiri council is unclear from the sketchy lobbying reports his firm filed with the secretary of the Senate. Those reports show his firm first registered as lobbyists for the group in October 1990, the same year the group was founded by Fai. The reports list little beyond the purpose of the lobbying: to seek support for a House resolution by then-Rep. Dan Burton to sponsor a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute. They also show payments to the firm of $140,000 a year. (During this time, Black, Manafort had a long list of other domestic clients that included the NRA, the Tobacco Institute and the Trump Organization, which paid the firm $70,000 a year to lobby Congress on casino gambling, aviation and tax issues, according to the lobbying records.)

We went to the Hill for them to raise the profile of the [Kashmiri] cause, said Black about the firms work for Fais council. But nobody in Bush 41 [the administration of George H.W. Bush] or the Clinton administration wanted to touch it. We never got any real attention for it.

The FBI came across evidence that ISI was actually not pleased with Manaforts work. The bureaus investigation began in 2005 with a tip from a confidential informant (who was seeking a reduced prison term) that Fai and an associate in Pakistan, Zaheer Ahmad, were agents of the ISI. As part of the probe, agents obtained secret national security warrants to wiretap Fais communications; they also searched his home and offices. Among the evidence they seized: a December 1995 letter from Fais main ISI handler, identified as a Pakistani Army brigadier general named Javeed Aziz Khan, who went by the name of Abdullah, that criticized Fai for renewing a contract with a public relations firm, according to the FBI affidavit from a counterterrorism agent, Sarah Webb Linden, that was filed to support Fais detention in July 2011.

Lobbyist Charlie Black (Photo: Tom Williams/Roll Call/Getty Images)



Eight months later, at Fais sentencing hearing, prosecutor Kromberg for the first time identified the public relations firm as Black, Manafort, according to court records. He then detailed a dispute between Fai and his ISI handler over the Black, Manafort contract. Fai wrote back to Khan the next day insisting that the ISI official had in fact approved the renewal of the contract and noted that to make it appear that the council was a Kashmiri organization financed by Americans, there was a preexisting agreement that nobody from the Pakistani Embassy would ever contact Black, Manafort, said Kromberg. But Fai was overruled, according to Krombergs account. The ISI handler wrote back to Fai stating that that we  a reference to the ISI  were unsatisfied with the performance of Black, Manafort & Stone, and advised Fai to terminate the contract immediately, according to a transcript of Krombergs statement to the court.



Meanwhile, the FBI pursued even more alarming allegations relating to Ahmad, Fais Pakistan-based associate. According to a ProPublica account, the bureau questioned witnesses about a trip that Ahmad had allegedly made to Afghanistan with a Pakistani nuclear scientist, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood; the scientist was suspecting of having met with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in August 2001 to discuss the terror leaders interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.

Manafort, for his part, appears to have expanded his business connections in Pakistan. In 2013 he acknowledged to French investigators that, in 1994, he had received $86,000 from two arms dealers involved in the sale of French attack submarines to Pakistans navy. The payments were part of an arrangement to compensate Manafort for political advice and polling he provided to French presidential candidate Edouard Balladur  one part of a wide-ranging French investigation into alleged kickbacks from arms sales dubbed by the French press the Karachi affair.

One puzzling question about the Kashmir case is why, six years after the investigation began, the FBI decided to arrest Fai in 2011. One explanation, a source familiar with the case said, is that it came during a period of mounting tensions between the United States and Pakistan, much of it due to concerns among U.S. national security officials about the double game being played by the ISI. In May of that year, President Obama ordered the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden without informing the Pakistani military, in part because of fears that elements of the ISI (an arm of the military) might have been protecting the al-Qaida leader. Just weeks later, federal prosecutors in Chicago presented damning testimony in federal court that an ISI handler had directed one of the confessed conspirators in the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai  which killed 164 people, including six Americans  that was perpetrated by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani-based group with links to al-Qaida committed to liberating Muslims from Indian rule in Kashmir.

Then, on July 18, after Fai returned from a trip to the United Kingdom, the FBI confronted him for the third time about whether he had any connections to the ISI  and he denied it. Fai was arrested, and he and Ahmad (who remained in Pakistan and died later that year) were charged in federal court with being unregistered foreign agents of Pakistan.
Tsavo (Kenya) (AFP) - Dangling from a helicopter with a high powered rifle, a Kenyan vet fires drugged darts at elephants to sedate them so they can be fitted with satellite collars.

Ten minutes after the elephant is darted, the lumbering creature stumbles, and falls asleep. Ground teams are scrambled, rushing to the scene with just a 20 minute window to conduct tests and fit the collar before it regains consciousness.

More than 12,000 elephants live in Tsavo Park, threatened daily by poaching, but also more recently, by the construction of a new high-speed railway linking Kenya's coast to the capital.

The new 483-kilometre (300-mile) train route linking Kenya's Nairobi to the country's main port Mombasa is worrying conservationists, who fear the new infrastructure slicing through the giant Tsavo national park will affect the movement of elephants.

It is hoped that the satellite radio tracking collars fitted last month by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and conservation group Save the Elephants, will help conservationists monitor railway crossing points to allow the animals to live in peace.

"This project is the first of its kind in Kenya and indeed in Africa," said Dr. Benson Okita, head of monitoring at Save the Elephants. "It seeks to understand how elephant movements are influenced by a major infrastructural project."

Once the railway is complete, a six-lane motorway is also planned, so understanding what impact the railway has on the animals will be crucial to limiting the disruption caused by a new road.

Tsavo, spread over a western and eastern park, covers a vast 20,812 square kilometre (8,035 square miles) area of dense bush, about the size of Slovenia or Djibouti.

- 'First of its kind' -

Each collared elephant is tracked on a map overlaid with land use, logging their movements as humans encroach ever closer on wilderness areas, helping experts to monitor the impact on elephant ranging patterns.

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The elephant movement data "will allow the country to secure space for wildlife as the Kenyan population grows," KWS deputy director for conservation Patrick Omondi said.

Though only elephants are being tagged, the scheme will help experts monitor the movements of other species as well.

"We are only using elephants, as a keystone species, but that will give an indication on how this effects wildlife distribution in general," said Sospeter Kiambi, who heads the KWS elephant tagging programme.

With ivory commanding thousands of dollars per kilo in Asia, conservationists have warned that African elephants could be extinct in the wild within a generation. More than 30,000 elephants are killed for their tusks every year.

Later this month, Kenya is due to set fire to the vast majority of its ivory and rhino horn stockpile -- some 105 tonnes of ivory, seven times the size of any ivory stockpile destroyed so far, as well as 1.35 tonnes of rhino horn -- in a highly publicised symbolic gesture against poaching led by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The mass burning is expected to be attended by international celebrities, actors, conservationists and heads of state.

And though Kenya is striving to secure its economic future with infrastructure investment like the Mombasa-Nairobi road and rail link, it is hoped that the elephant tracking project will ensure that development does not come at the cost of wildlife.

- Environment vs Economy-

Kenya launched in 2013 the construction of a Chinese-funded $13.8 billion (10 billion euro) flagship railway project to dramatically increase trade and boost the east African country's position as a regional economic powerhouse.

The key transport link is eventually hoped to extend onwards to landlocked Uganda, and then connect with proposed lines to Rwanda and South Sudan, a key goods route extending far into the continent.

It replaces a colonial-era 19th century railway built under British rule, a line dubbed the "Lunatic Express" due to the logistical challenges -- including in Tsavo, where man-eating lions hunted the struggling railway workers.

Chugging once-a-day trains on that slow moving line occasionally hit animals, but posed nothing like the threat the busy, fast new link may pose.

Elephants crossing are being built underneath the railway -- raised bridges allowing animals to move beneath -- but concerns remains especially as to the impact of the planned road.

Similar raised bridges will be used when the railway line cuts through the 117 square kilometre (45 square mile) Nairobi national park, where buffalo, lion and rhino roam just seven kilometres (four miles) from the bustling high-rise city centre.

Construction of the railway in that park -- disturbing animals and with reported gaps made in fencing amid the building -- is reportedly one reason for a spate of lion escapes into the capital suburbs in recent weeks.

The new railway "is perhaps the most important transport project Kenya has seen since the building of the first railway in the early 20th century," said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants.

"If research such as this can help influence the way development is carried out, then we are truly on the path to securing a future for wildlife into perpetuity."
Beirut (AFP) - The iron-gated doors and blacked-out windows keep the room dark at all hours of the day. Lingerie is splayed across the floor and a whip hangs over the bed.

This nightmarish setting north of the Lebanese capital is where Soha, a 26-year-old Syrian woman, was trapped for eight years with dozens of other Syrian victims of sex trafficking.

In an interview with AFP in southern Lebanon, Soha -- a pseudonym for the soft-spoken brunette with black-polished nails -- recounts her traumatic experience.

"We had to sleep with 15 to 20 men every day, sometimes 40 if we had a lot of 'work'," she says, taking deep breaths to steady her shaking voice.

"We weren't allowed to leave. The guards would bring us clothes, makeup and food."

Four months ago, Soha managed to escape from her captors and tried to get legal help.

Then in early April, security forces stormed the building where they were being held, breaking up the largest known sex trafficking ring in recent years.

At least 75 women -- mostly Syrian -- were freed.

More and more Syrians made vulnerable by war are becoming victims of sexual exploitation, including in Lebanon and Jordan, police and international organisations say.

People in Lebanon were shocked by the women's horrifying ordeal, as well as by accusations that the "moral police" were complicit and that a gynaecologist had carried out at least 200 abortions on the trapped women.

- Notorious gang leader -

Originally from southern Syria, Soha was tricked into coming to Lebanon in 2008.

She was told she would be working as a waitress, but was terrified to find she had been "sold" to the head of a powerful sex trafficking ring.

"When I refused to be a sex worker, he beat me," she says.

The gang leader who had imprisoned Soha and so many other women was a former officer in Syria's notorious air force intelligence service.

Security sources say the man -- identified only by the initials I.R. -- fled to Syria after his operation was broken up.

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For years, he had managed Chez Maurice and Silver, two of the most infamous brothels in Maameltein, a town known as Lebanon's red light district.

Prostitution is illegal in Lebanon, and police shuttered both locations earlier this month.

Wringing her hands and chain-smoking cigarettes, Soha says she and other women were tortured at Chez Maurice.

"They could do anything to us. If we refused anal or oral sex, or sex without a condom, or if a client wasn't satisfied, they would whip us until the morning," she says.

I.R. would tie the girls to tables, throw cold water on them and hit them with whips or plastic piping -- often in front of other women to serve as a warning.

One girl was so badly beaten that she was bedridden for a month, Soha says.

"The only time a girl was allowed to leave was when I.R. would bring her to his house for the night to 'test' her as if she was merchandise," she says.

"During those eight years, I felt filthy, like trash... I couldn't feel my body. It belonged to my torturers, my clients."

- Tricked and trafficked -

Since the war in neighbouring Syria broke out in 2011, increasing numbers of women fleeing the conflict have been trafficked in Lebanon.

Joseph Mousallem, press officer for Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, says traffickers intentionally target orphans or "girls from vulnerable families".

"As soon as they arrived in Lebanon, the girls were imprisoned and their papers and cell phones were confiscated," Mousallem tells AFP.

The girls had nowhere to turn to in Lebanon, he says, and some try to commit suicide.

Traffickers often lie to young Syrian girls, offering them jobs or promising they will be engaged when they arrive in Lebanon, according to Maya Ammar from KAFA (Enough!).

KAFA is one of several NGOs that manages safe houses for trafficked women and offers medical, psychological and legal support to help them rebuild their lives.

"Many girls are raped on the first day to force them to obey," Ammar says.

Some girls were indefinitely tied to a specific trafficking ring, while others would be "lent out" for months at a time to different gangs, Soha says.

Forced abortions were common "either at the doctor's clinic or at the brothel by swallowing pills", she recounts.

"The foetuses would be buried in the back yard at Chez Maurice," she alleges.

Abortion is illegal in Lebanon, but a gynaecologist who regularly saw the trafficked girls and carried out more than 200 abortions on them was only briefly detained before being freed.

- 'They destroyed our lives' -

Lebanese institutions are rife with corruption, and the Chez Maurice case has sparked accusations of officials turning a blind eye to trafficking and prostitution.

Nearby residents had alerted the police to screams coming from the building, but gang leaders were somehow tipped off before the authorities showed up.

Leading politician Walid Jumblatt has even accused "high-level officials in the moral police" of being "complicit" in the operations.

KAFA's Ammar criticised segments of Lebanese society for being shocked at the "headlines" of sex trafficking when many brothels in Maameltein are an open secret.

She says "artistes' visas" issued by the authorities are often covers for eastern European women to work as prostitutes.

While prostitutes can be charged and imprisoned under one Lebanese law, a second decree from 2012 says victims of sexual trafficking should be treated as victims.

The 2012 law specifies a prison sentence of between five and 15 years for traffickers, Ammar says.

The Syrian women freed recently will not be charged, but will remain haunted by their experience.

Soha says she is furious that her tormentors are still on the loose as she tries to piece herself back together.

"They destroyed our lives."
Abuja (AFP) - A tribunal ruled Monday that the fraud trial of embattled Nigerian Senate president Bukola Saraki will continue on a daily basis -- meaning he will be unable to preside over Senate sessions until the proceedings are over.

Saraki's lawyers had asked for an adjournment in the high-profile trial to allow senators accompanying him to attend Senate sittings, but the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) rejected the request.

Dozens of senators and other politicians have been accompanying Saraki to his trial at the CCT in Abuja in a show of solidarity, but Judge Danladi Umar said politicians needed to go back to work while he was on trial.

"Since it is the personality of the Senate President Bukola Saraki that is standing trial before the tribunal, there is no reason why the national assembly will not carry on with their duties of legislating," the judge said.

Prosecution lawyer Rotimi Jacobs hailed the decision, saying: "It is sad when the entire Senate adjourns because of a trial of one of them, in a nation where corruption has crippled everything."

Speaking to journalists outside the tribunal, he added: "Is that the kind of lesson they want to bequeath to the next generation?"

Saraki, a 53-year-old former banker, has been accused of false declaration of assets while he was governor of western Kwara state between 2003 and 2011. He denies the charges.

Under Nigerian law, senior politicians including state governors are required to declare their assets when they enter office.

At the tribunal on Monday, prosecution witness Michael Wetkas told the tribunal that Saraki had owned several exclusive buildings and landed properties in Lagos and Abuja which he illegally failed to declare.

Several high-profile politicians are currently standing trial as part of President Muhammadu Buhari's drive to tackle endemic corruption in Nigeria, Africa's largest crude producer and biggest economy.
- A South African court will convene to determine disgraced Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius's sentence for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a judge ruled in Pretoria. Pistorius's lawyers last month failed in their final legal bid to reverse a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling that upgraded his conviction from culpable homicide -- the equivalent of manslaughter -- to murder. The double-amputee killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine's Day three years ago, saying he mistook her for an intruder when he shot four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

AFP
Veterans from the U.S. and Vietnam find reconciliation more than forty years after the Vietnam war ended.

On this same runway, it is easy to remember the two MiG  21 fighter jets taking off as I and other jets came roaring down, firing off a missile that took out a Vietnamese plane before the pilot had a chance to eject, former fighter pilot Curtis Dose told VnExpress on his visit to Kep Airfield in the northeast province of Bac Giang.

Former American pilot Curtis Dose shakes hands with former Vietnamese pilot Tu De at Kep Airfield, Bac Giang province. Photo: NVCC

Returning to Vietnam after the end of the war, Dose was surprised to meet the family of a soldier that he shot down on May 10, 1972 - pilot Nguyen Van Ngai. Dose was one of the U.S. Navy pilots in charge of protecting the strike force that was targeting Hai Phong.

Ngais older sister and other family members met me and they brought out his photo. It was very special to me. I found out that we have the same interest in protecting our countries and doing what we are supposed to do, we are just the same," Dose said. "When we fought against each other, we didnt know the pilot, we just knew that the plane was over there and I was trying to shoot him down."

Colonel Tu De, who witnessed the air fight at Kep Airfield in 1972 and the death of Ngai, said that he felt a sense of distance between him and Dose when they saw each other for the first time. However, when they went together to the airfield, Dose said: Both sides were on duty, we were at war at that time.

De realized the importance of leaving history behind for the former enemy, and since then the two have become friends.

De was a pilot from the Quyet Thang squadron who flew A37 aircraft to bomb Tan Son Nhat Airfield on April 28, 1975.

Meeting with 20 other former American and Vietnamese pilots in Hanoi and other central provinces, Dose explained that he had come to Vietnam to close the curtain on the war. Since arriving in Hanoi, he has sent e-mails to family and friends everyday to tell them about what he's done and whom he has met in Vietnam. Dose couldnt hide his joy at being able to talk to the pilots who were on the other side of the frontline. They understood more about each other, they drank and had big laughs together. It helped him to close a chapter on the past.

At 28 years old, Dose traveled with the U.S. Navy to Vietnam. He completed his duty and returned home in 1972. Afterwards, he continued to work as a navy pilot for four years, experimenting with new types of aircraft. Dose spent the next 25 years working for carriers such as Tiger Air and Fedex Airlines. He is married with two daughters and 10 grandchildren.

Dose said he loves Vietnamese people and the country's scenery. He believes that Vietnam  US relations have developed at an unprecedented rate.

Former Vietnamese and American pilots, who were once enemies during the Vietnam War, held a special meeting. Photo: Van Anh

Colonel Jack Ensch, a pilot who fought from 1966 to 1973, said that he had traveled to Vietnam to learn about the people who were his former enemies, and life after the war. He also wanted the opportunity to look back at the old days when he was jailed for eight months.

The food clearly tastes much better now compared to back then, he joked.

"Time will heal the wounds but still leave scars. The war has ended, we should let it be in the past and look towards the future," Ensch said.

Captain Clinton Johnson, a pilot who fought from 1965 to 1966, said he had received information about the Vietnamese pilots he shot down during the war. They have a lot in common - the same age and also a son.

"I have only one desire which is to meet him again today," Johnson said.

Former chairman of Vietnam Airlines Nguyen Sy Hung, one of the organizers of the meeting, said he felt touched to witness the former American pilots pay tribute to the Vietnamese pilots who were killed. He expects many other former American pilots to visit Vietnam and contribute to the Vietnam-US partnership.

The meeting of former American and Vietnamese pilots took six years to arrange. It was the idea of Lieutenant General Nguyen Duc Soat  former commander of the High Command of Vietnam's People's Air Force, and Colonel Charlie Tutt, a retired U.S. marine. They were once enemies in the air from 1965 to 1973.
On Sept. 18, 1980, at 6:35 p.m., two airmen conducting maintenance on a Titan-II missile siloed in Damascus, Ark., dropped a ratchet socket that pierced the skin of one of the eight-story missiles' two fuel tanks, causing a leak that risked a fuel tank explosion and the detonation of the missile's nine-megaton nuclear warhead.

That accident set off a ticking clock as the Air Force scrambled to diagnose and attempted to defuse the problem, and it also sets the stage for Robert Kenner's new documentary Command and Control, based on the book of the same name by Eric Schlosser, which debuted Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The doc, which will open theatrically at the Film Forum in New York on Sept. 14 and play select theaters around the country before airing on PBS' American Experience, which produced the project, is designed to play like a Cold War thriller. By filming at the Titan Missile Museum near Tucson, Ariz,, which houses a preserved Titan-II missile site, Kenner is able to offer a minute-by-minute recreation of the harrowing event, which, combined with archival and newsreel footage, adds up to a disturbingly cautionary tale about the risks the country's nuclear arsenal poses.

"We were attempting to make a thriller," says Kenner, an Oscar nominee for his 2009 doc Food, Inc., which was in turn based on Schlosser's book, Fast Food Nation. "If there's a model we had, it was Paul Greengrass' United 93. I think recreations can be deadly, but there was an advantage [here because] anywhere you pointed your camera, it looked so authentic. I think people won't fully realize they are watching recreations, and that was the goal."

Says Schlosser of dramatizing the events surrounding the Damascus accident, "What's important about seeing these things is that they are out of sight. Literally, they are buried in bunkers and underground silos. One of the people I interviewed for the book, Harold Agnew, who was head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and a nuclear weapons designer, said that every world leader should be forced to watch a nuclear detonation because it's hard to convey the power of these things. The last time a nuclear detonation took place above ground in the United States or the Soviet Union was, I think, 1963, so that means that youngest person who has actually seen a nuclear detonation is in his or her seventies."

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Schlosser himself became invested in the subject while investigating the future of warfare in space. A lot of the Air Force officers in the space command with whom he was speaking had begun their careers as ballistic missile launch officers. They started telling him of their experiences during the Cold War. He recalls: "One guy told me how in an underground launch complex, they'd keep their Playboys in a certain hidden area and one day, one of them caused a short circuit - all kinds of crazy stories."

Another of the officers told him the story of the Damascus accident. "I was amazed I'd never heard it before," says Schlosser. "It had gotten attention at the time, but then it had been forgotten. The reason it was forgotten was that the Pentagon insisted there was never any chance that the warhead could have detonated. But I did more research and I found that was a lie."

Read more: Tribeca: 'Obit' Director Vanessa Gould on Taking Viewers Inside the N.Y. Times' Death Retrospectives

Schlosser expected that he would spent a year or two writing a short book about that specific accident, but instead found himself delving deeper, spending about six years on the book he published in 2013. "The more I learned about it, the more accidents I found," he says. "This is a really important story about a risk that continues to this day."

Kenner's reaction to the book: "I'm a huge fan of Eric's writing, having turned Fast Food Nation into Food, Inc. But that was a very different process from this process. With Food, Inc., we had to go out and find present-day stories. With Command and Control, there was an amazing story, but how do we turn it into a theatrical experience? We really had to find a missile silo to shoot it in, because there isn't enough archival footage. I thought it was a great opportunity to remind ourselves that there is the existential threat out there. So we went out to make the most exciting, entertaining movie that will make you think about a subject that we don't like to think about."

As it recounts the events of the night of the Damascus accident, the film ratchets up the suspense with footage of then-Vice President Walter Mondale and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton attending a state Democratic convention in Hot Springs, Ark., which, like nearby Little Rock, was within the blast zone of the potential nuclear detonation.

Command and Control also sketches in the history of the U.S. nuclear arms program, with footage from the test site in Trinity, N.M., to examples of other accidents like one that occurred in Goldsboro, N.C., in 1980. It also includes testimony from everyone from the two airmen who dropped the socket that led to the potentially catastrophic events - one of whom admits he's haunted by that moment to this day - to various Air Force commanders.

"The challenge was not so much getting people, it was getting them to reveal themselves," says Kenner. "The man who dropped the socket, he's really still shaken by this event. It was very painful for him to come talk. And he would sort of laugh after each line, so as not to reveal the pain it caused him. And I had to ask him to become back a second time."

The interviews work their way up the chain of command to Harold Brown, who served as Secretary of Defense at the time of the accident. Brown himself delivers an ominous warning that "the degree of oversight and attention [of the country's current nuclear arsenal] has, if anything, gotten worse."

Read more: Tribeca: What to Expect From Broad City Teams Time Traveling Bong Miniseries

Schlosser observes, "There was so much departmentalized secrecy during the Cold War that the people who were literally designing our weapons and who were responsible for their safety were not being told of accidents in the field. And the guys in the field who were handling the nuclear accidents on a daily basis were not being told the fundamental safety risks with those weapons. It's not a story of bad guys and evil guys. It's a story of complex bureaucracies and departmentalized secrecy. I tried really hard in the book and Robby does a good job in the film of not demonizing anybody. These are complex technological systems and they are hard to control."

Command and Control notes that the Titan-II missile program was fully deactivated by 1987, seven years after the Damascus accident. But it also states that, even after arms reduction treaties, 7,000 nuclear weapons remain on U.S. soil, and it points to an Atomic Energy Commission report that said during the course of the country's nuclear program, there have been more than 1,000 accidents involving nuclear weapons, even if none of them has ultimately led to a nuclear explosion.

Critics might argue that the fact that there never has been a nuclear explosion on U.S. soil shows the system has worked. Responds Schlosser, "It's one of those things that works until it doesn't. It's sort of like if you have a drinking problem and you drive drunk for 10 years and don't have an accident, you can assume it's safe to drive drunk. But most people who drive drunk and get into accidents aren't driving drunk for the first time. There's no question that during the Cold War our nuclear weapons were vulnerable to detonation because of an accident. The fact that it didn't happen doesn't mean it couldn't happen. And I hope it never happens. But there's a kind of complacency that has occurred."

Adds Kenner, "As Harold Brown says at the end of the film, we have safer weapons systems today than we had in 1980, but we also take them more for granted than we ever did."
Donald Trumps rambling, unscripted stump speeches have been compared to political performance art. But for one Massachusetts elementary school, his face is just too offensive to be included in its talent show.

Last week, officials at Joseph E. Fiske Elementary School in Wellesley, Mass., barred three 11-year-old boys from performing a wordless dance routine to Crazy Frogs Axel F because they were planning to wear comically oversized masks of the Republican frontrunner. The so-called Bobblehead Boys  Christian Mattaliano, Marc Maggiacomo and David Maggiacomo  did a similar routine last year when they wore masks featuring the face of the schools retiring principal.

But after they performed as the Dancing Trumps at a dress rehearsal for students and staff on Wednesday morning, the principals office fielded at least one complaint  and hours before the evening talent show, the Boston Globe reports, the boys were given a choice to make: Ditch the masks, or sit out the show. They chose the latter.

The bobblehead is the act, Maryellen Maggiacomo, the mother of Marc and David, told the newspaper.

They assume they did something wrong. Laurie Mattaliano, Christians mom, added. No words were spoken. Its just pop culture. The skit took no stance in support or defamation.

School administrators had a different view.

These three boys were barred from performing with Trump masks. (Photo: Courtesy Laurie Mattaliano)

I think its so important for us to be seen as nonpartisan in a highly charged election environment, David Lussier, the Wellesley school superintendent, told the Globe, noting that another dance-off featuring students posing as Trump and Rubio was nixed too. We wanted to make sure that nothing we are doing would be perceived as biased in some way.

Maggiacomo vehemently disagreed.

They see Trump in the news, she said. There was no political agenda on our boys part.

Maggiacomo added: They were going to do Justin Bieber, but we went through his songs, and they werent dancy enough.

Its not the first time a school-age Trump troupe has made national news.

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Before a Trump rally in Pensacola, Fla., in January, the USA Freedom Kids, a local childrens trio, warmed up the crowd, debuting a bizarre lip-sync and dance routine thats been dubbed the Official Donald Trump Jam.

The recorded song, called Freedoms Call, includes lyrics inspired by Gen. George S. Patton and patriotic messages relayed by school-age girls dressed in American flag cheerleader outfits.

Enemies of freedom, face the music, the trio sang. Cmon boys, take em down!

President Donald Trump knows how to make America great, they continued. Deal from strength or get crushed every time.

But critics panned organizers for using children to push propaganda.

Its a delightful mix thats part Sparkle Motion, part North Korean propaganda video, part Toddlers and Tiaras, and 100 percent unsettling, Christine Rousselle wrote on TownHall.com.

Simply adorable, Slates Jim Newell quipped, and a hymn that we will all be singing in our mandatory labor camps in a little under a years time.
The Donald Trump campaign this weekend continued its assault on the Republican National Committee and the partys nominating process, with the billionaire frontrunner demanding unspecified changes to the system in advance of the nominating convention, and warning of dangerous consequences for the party if his demands are not met.

The RNC better get going or theyre going to have a rough July at that convention, Trump said angrily from the stage at a rally over the weekend. The party needs to straighten out the system, because the people want their vote, he added.

Related: If Trump and Cruz Flame Out, Whos Next on the Delegates List?

Trump has grown increasingly agitated in the past few weeks, after it became plain that his campaign was badly unprepared to follow up on his early success in Republican primaries with the on-the-ground work needed to assure that delegates friendly to him were actually sent to the convention to work on his behalf.

The GOP nominating process is complicated by the fact that each state sets its own rules for how the delegates are selected. Trumps main problem boils down to this: in many states, the results of the primary election or caucus determine how many delegates from the state will be sent to the convention with an obligation to vote for a specific candidate on the first and perhaps the second ballot. But they dont determine who those delegates will be, and who their preferred candidate is.

Those decisions are made in myriad ways, but typically at meetings of the state parties, where organization is critical. The Ted Cruz campaign has outclassed Trumps people in that regard, placing delegates loyal to the Texas senator in seats won by Trump. Those delegates will have to support Trump in a roll call vote for one or two ballots, but will be free to switch afterward. They will also be free to vote against Trumps wishes on other matters, for instance, on decisions about the rules under which the convention will operate.

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Trump has characterized the system as rigged in favor of Cruz, and indeed, if he fails to get a majority of the delegates by the time the convention begins, there is a strong possibility that when ostensible Trump delegates start flipping their votes on the second and third ballots, he could lose.

Related: Heres Why Trump Is Claiming He Was Cheated in Colorado

For the second weekend in a row, Trump stayed off the talk show circuit, sending surrogates who amplified his message. On Fox News Sunday, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was asked what his boss meant by promising a rough July for the GOP if Trump comes into the convention with the largest share of delegates but loses the nomination.

What hes saying is that hes going to be the Republican nominee, and anything theyre going to try to do to stop him from being that is going to be detrimental, Lewandowski said.

Related: Bernie Sanders Goes All in with Pope Francis

Trump himself has suggested that there might be riots in Cleveland, and informal Trump adviser Roger Stone has called for Days of Rage protests.

Lewandowski was asked if Trump was suggesting that there could be violence. No, he said. What were talking about is a fractured party. What were talking about is millions of people who have turned out to support Donald Trump, and now theyre saying potentially theyre going to take this away from Donald Trump at a convention.

On ABCs This Week, Trump convention manager Paul Manafort, who is in charge of salvaging the billionaires delegate gathering operation, reinforced the claim that the system is rigged, claiming that delegates are being chosen in closed caucuses with no voters.

He said that is why the Trump campaign didnt try to win delegates in Wyoming when that state chose part of its overall slate this weekend. Describing it as a closed system, he said, We didnt play there because we didnt want to waste our money.

Related: Hillary and Bernie Mix It Up Over Guns, Goldman, and Gaza

Cruz, however, did play in Wyoming and was rewarded with 14 out of 14 delegates on Saturday.

Trump has directed much of his anger at the Republican National Committee, which he claims has been actively working against him. RNC Chair Reince Priebus, however, made several appearances Sunday morning and his message was consistent: The rules have been set and public since at least October, and the RNC has no power to change them. Furthermore, the RNC itself has no authority to set the rules for the convention, which will be determined by a subcommittee made up of delegates and then ratified by the entire convention.

However, Priebus wasnt above taking a dig at Team Trumps unfamiliarity with the process.

After the primaries and caucuses, he said, Theres another part of the process that is, as a candidate, making sure that the people who are sitting in those [delegate] seats are people that, once the process gets going, are friendly to your wishes and desires. Thats a function of each campaign doing a good job in each of these states with grassroots activists

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
By Gulsen Solaker ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey will cancel its agreements with the European Union on migrants if the EU doesn't keep its word on the deal, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday. Cavusoglu made the comment in parliament in response to opposition criticism over the government's Syria policies, which include the deal with the EU last month designed to stem the influx of Syrian migrants to Europe. "The deal we struck with the EU is very clear. We want this human tragedy to end, our citizens to travel visa free, and the customs union to be updated," he said in his speech. "If the EU doesn't keep its word, including the migrants deal we will cancel all agreements." Turkey and the EU last month sealed a controversial deal intended to halt illegal migration flows to Europe in return for financial and political rewards for Ankara. The European Union will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with money, visa-free travel and progress in its EU membership negotiations. The EU-Turkey deal aims to discourage migrants from perilous crossings, often in small boats and dinghies, and to break the business model of human smugglers who have fueled Europe's biggest influx since World War Two. (Reporting by Gulsen Solaker, Writing by Seda Sezer; Editing by David Dolan)
Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish police on Monday detained at least 105 people, including top construction executives, in a new crackdown on supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's arch foe, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Those detained are accused of providing financing for Gulen, who the Turkish government accuses of running a "terror organisation" seeking to overthrow his former ally Erdogan.

Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 140 people and 105 people have been detained so far, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Most of those detained were apprehended in Istanbul, it said, adding that the operation involved some 800 police.

They have been accused of providing some 50 million Turkish lira ($17.5 million) in financing to Gulen's group between 2004-2015.

Over 40 of those detained were employees of Bank Asya, a bank linked to Gulen that was put under state control last year. Another 45 were described as businesspeople.

They stand accused of "being a member of a terror organisation" and "financing a terror organisation".

- Top construction firm implicated -

Among the businessmen detained are executives from leading Turkish construction firm Dumankaya Insaat, including chairman Halit Dumankaya and board member Semih Serhat Dumankaya, Anatolia said.

Founded in 1963, Dumankaya is one of Turkey's biggest property developers with a string of prestigious projects in Istanbul.

The company is also the shirt sponsors of top Istanbul football team Galatasaray, meaning its stars like Germany's Lukas Podolski or Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands wear the firm's name on their kit.

"Our board members were called to give a statement at the Financial Crimes Department on Monday morning," the company confirmed in a statement.

It said that in over half a century of existence, Dumankaya "has rigorously fulfilled all its legal and financial obligations."

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"We have worked and continue to work for the development of our country and our people," it added.

Those detained have been brought to the Istanbul police's financial crimes department for questioning. Authorities will then decide whether to send them to court.

Ankara accuses Gulen of running what it calls the Fethullahaci Terror Organisation/Parallel State Structure (FeTO/PDY) and seeking to overthrow the legitimate Turkish authorities.

But his supporters decry the accusations as ridiculous, saying all he leads is a more informal group known as Hizmet (Service).

The preacher has been based in the United States since 1999 when he fled charges against him laid by the former secular authorities.

He and Erdogan used to be allies but fell out and the president blames Gulen for a 2013 corruption scandal that broke while he was prime minister and posed one of the biggest threats of his rule.

Turkish authorities have since the summer of 2014 rounded up allies of Gulen in numerous police operations but this was one of the biggest to date.

In a move that sparked anger abroad, Turkey last month forcibly seized a media group closely linked to Gulen that owned the Zaman and Today's Zaman dailies.

Turkey has repeatedly asked the United States to extradite Gulen but Washington has shown little appetite for doing so.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police detained nearly 100 people in an investigation of their alleged financial links to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a foe of President Tayyip Erdogan, state-run Anadolu Agency said on Monday. It said the police operation, focused on Istanbul, was launched across nine provinces and 88 people have so far been taken into custody, with prosecutors having issued arrest warrants for 140 people under the probe. Among those detained were executives and employees of Islamic lender Bank Asya, which was founded by followers of Gulen and seized by the government last year, it said. The probe is centered on financial support raised for Gulen's group amounting to some 50 million lira ($17 million), Anadolu added. Erdogan accuses Gulen of setting up a 'parallel state' and conspiring to unseat the government with a network of supporters in the judiciary, police and media. Gulen, whose adherents run schools and are active in the media sector, denies the charges. A Turkish court in December 2014 issued an arrest warrant for Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, accusing him of heading a criminal group. The two men were allies until police and prosecutors seen as sympathetic to Gulen opened a corruption probe into Erdogan's inner circle in 2013. Thousands of police officers, prosecutors and judges were sacked or reassigned for alleged links to Gulen. Authorities have seized and shut down opposition media outlets associated with the Gulen movement as well as targeting companies run by his followers. (Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan)
Tran Dang Tuan, a prominent parliamentary self-nominee, talked to VnExpress about his failure to reach the final list to become a National Assembly deputy, saying that he was not surprised and did not mind that much about the result.

Tuan realized early that the majority of self-nominees were out of the race, and he would not pass the third consultation round. I do not have any comment and I do not mind about the reasons why a majority of 83 attendant voters at the consultation did not vote for me, Tuan said.

According to the current election law, they have the right to do that, he added.

Tuan is among 46 self-nomindated NA candidates who failed to pass the third consultation round held by the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the organization that oversees the selection process

95 percent of self-nominated candidates from Hanoi have failed to reach the final list of candidates to become National Assembly deputies as over half of them couldnt get over 50 percent in vote of confidence from local voters. The pool of 48 self-nominated NA candidates in Hanoi dwindled to two nominees left as the majority couldnt get past all three consultation rounds held by the Vietnam Fatherland Front.

Four out of 25 parliamentary self-nominees were included in the final list of 175 qualified candidates in HCM City bidding to become National Assembly deputies.

Vietnam is in the process of selecting 500 members for its NA for the 20162021 term. The final list of official candidates is expected to be announced later this month and the general election is scheduled to be held on May 22. Results of the election are expected to be released on June 11.

Talking about the next election, Tuan said whether he would continue to run as indpendent candidate would depend on his health and voter confidence in the future.

Tuan revealed on his Facebook page that he had prepared a plan to contribute to the development of the country if elected, focusing on food safety, efficient support for poor regions, protecting vulnerable groups in this period of economic development and promoting a bigger role for newspapers.

He said he felt a little disappointed that he could not have the opportunity that a NA member could have to complete just a small part of his plan.

However, he believes that he can still contribute to society as a good citizen. If I were a National Assembly member, I could be in a better setting to do rightful and useful activities for the public in a more efficient way."

Tran Dang Tuan, 59, comes from the northern province of Nam Dinh. He holds a PhD in Television. He worked for Vietnam Television for 20 years, where he was deputy general director.

In 2010, he was one of the few people to ever resign from the position, which is considered equal to a deputy minister in Vietnam. At that time, Tuan told VnExpress: At my age, money and power are not attractive anymore. The thing I want is to experience what I have missed for the past decades.

Tuan went on to become a director of a private television company.

In recent years, Tuan has become known to the public as founder of a popular charity program named: Meals have meat, that has helped hundreds of children from mountainous areas.
Bestselling US crime writer Harlan Coben discovered a passion for screen writing during his work on new TV drama "The Five" which now looks set to compete with his career as a novelist.

The 54-year-old writer has sold some 60 million novels across the world, but it was an offer by French producer Sydney Gallonde to work on the adaptation of his novel "No Second Chance" that first brought him to the world of television, he told AFP.

A 10-part British drama which began showing on Sky One on April 15, "The Five" is about a group of children, one of whom disappears, with the story picking up 20 years later when his friends are all grown up and the mystery resurfaces.

The idea came about when Nicola Shindler, producer of the hit British police drama "Happy Valley" asked about the possibility of doing something with one of his unpublished novels.

"I said I have this idea that I had played around in my head. I was thinking of making it a novel but it was more visual. Like a painter who sees an oil on canvas," he said, speaking on the sidelines of the Series Mania festival in Paris where his new drama is competing for the Grand Prix.

"So I said five kids and what happens, she said 'Sounds good, you think you could make it into a series?'

"Instead of a novel, I thought it would be interesting."

Impressed by the European series he had seen, Coben jumped at the chance to work in Britain, away from the heavy hand of a US network or studio.

"I like the quality, I just thought that this could be a good partnership... that won't get too much interference by a network or a studio, that we would get some independence in the UK that we might not get somewhere else."

- 'All about collaboration' -

The series was made in collaboration with Sky One and Studio Canal, both of whom "had the same vision" for the drama, he said.

Working collaboratively on a story was a new experience for a writer whose 28th novel, "Fool Me Once", has just hit the shelves in America.

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"As a novelist, I am the actor, director, star. I find the settings, I do everything... No other people really interfere," he said.

But penning a TV drama is completely different.

"Series is all about collaboration and presence," he says, giving the example of a character which is developed by input from everyone involved.

"It is something that grows like a tree, it doesn't have to be all completely under my control... Working with all these people, it is much more collaborative and I enjoyed that too."

After working solo for so long, it has been a welcome experience.

"It's a long time to sit alone. So the fact that I could do it this way, I think it is much more fulfilling," he says.

But it doesn't mean his book-writing days are over.

"Well I'm not leaving books! I will still write my novels."
The new head of Twitter in China has called for "closer partnership" with Communist Party-backed state media, leading many of the social network's users to question her appointment.

IT engineer Kathy Chen, who was appointed managing director for the greater China region last week, worked with the Chinese army and more recently American tech giants including Microsoft and Cisco.

Like Facebook, YouTube and other sites, Twitter is blocked in mainland China but many people and institutions -- including state media -- access accounts via Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

Xinhua, China's official news agency, used its Twitter account to offer "congratulations" to Chen on her appointment.

"Thanks and look forward to closer partnership in the future!" she replied.

"Let's work together to tell great China story to the world!" she tweeted at state television channel CCTV.

Premier Xi Jinping reminded both CCTV and Xinhua to "strictly adhere to the orders of the Chinese Communist Party" during a visit to state media headquarters this year.

Twitter users inside China and abroad attacked Chen's public messages, with one writing in Mandarin: "What are you hoping to achieve by working with Communist Party media? Strengthen the Great Firewall?"

"It's not a place for CCP propaganda, go away," wrote another in English.

The account @kathychen2016, from which the tweets were sent, is not verified, but was the one used by Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey when announcing the appointment.

A director for the company told Hong Kong media last week that it was hoping to attract more advertising from mainland China.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter flew into Iraq on Monday to discuss offering more help in the fight against Islamic State, possibly including sending in more U.S. troops, officials said. Carter would meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defense Minister Khaled al-Obaidi and discuss ways to build on recent gains against the militant group, which also controls large parts of neighboring Syria, the U.S. officials added. They declined to say what kind of assistance would be offered, but said it would likely include more U.S. troops on the ground. Whenever were talking about additional capabilities, it usually means some small numbers of additional troops, the U.S. official said before the unannounced visit. Iraq's army, trained by the U.S. military officers and backed by air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition, last week retook the Hit region, pushing it further north along the Euphrates valley. The Iraqi government has designated Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still under Islamic State control, as its next major target. It retook the western city of Ramadi in December. "The fight of Iraq is the fight for Mosul. Mosul is the end game in Iraq," a senior U.S. defense official said, on condition of anonymity. "Its a very large urban scenario ... We are going to need to be more aggressive, the Iraqis are asking us to be more aggressive. (Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Andrew Heavens)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Monday that the United States is providing more support to Iraq as its military moves to take back territory from Islamic State, and he expects the city of Mosul will be retaken eventually. "As we see the Iraqis willing to fight and gaining ground, let's make sure that we are providing them more support," Obama said in an interview with CBS News. U.S. officials announced in Baghdad on Monday the United States will deploy about 200 additional troops, mostly as advisers for Iraqi troops as they advance towards Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still under Islamic State control. The increase raises the authorized U.S. troop level in Iraq to 4,087, not including special operations personnel, some logistics workers and troops on temporary rotations. "Were not doing the fighting ourselves," Obama said, "but when we provide training, when we provide special forces who are backing them up, when we are gaining intelligence, working with the coalitions that we have, what we've seen is that we can continually tighten the noose" on Islamic State. "My expectation is that by the end of the year, we will have created the conditions whereby Mosul will eventually fall," Obama said. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Leslie Adler)
By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - UBS AG went to trial on Monday over $2.1 billion in losses that investors incurred on mortgage-backed securities after the collapse of the U.S. housing market.

The non-jury trial in Manhattan federal court stems from a lawsuit being pursued by U.S. Bancorp on behalf of three trusts established for mortgage-backed securities, the type of financial product at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis.

Sean Baldwin, the trusts' lawyer, in his opening statement said UBS contractually agreed that the mortgages underlying those securities would meet certain standards. When pervasive defects emerged, the bank refused to buy them back, he said.

"UBS's strategy has always been the same throughout this process: Turn a blind eye to the problems and ignore its contractual obligations," he said.

But Thomas Nolan, a lawyer for UBS, told U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel that the trusts' lawyers were looking at the loans with a "hindsight bias," and the question was whether the loans were seen as defective when they were issued in 2006 and 2007.

"Sophisticated parties on both sides knew what they were getting into," Nolan said.

The case is one of a handful to go to trial in recent years over losses incurred on mortgage bonds following the U.S. housing market meltdown.

The lawsuit follows a related action against UBS by bond insurer Assured Guaranty Ltd over the same mortgage backed securities. UBS in 2013 agreed to pay $358 million to Assured, which was represented by the same lawyers as the three trusts.

According to the lawsuit, 17,082 loans were pooled into three trusts that issued securities entitling investors to payments made by borrowers.

But according to Baldwin, who represents the trusts, which are acting through trustee U.S. Bancorp, 9,611 loans contained material defects, largely because they did not comply with underwriting requirements or borrower fraud.

Baldwin said UBS failed to vet the loans, which it acquired from "shady" lenders that later failed. In internal emails, UBS employees called vendors hired to do due diligence on the mortgages "morons" and "crappy," he said.

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"It is no surprise that there is a huge volume of materially defective loans," he said.

Baldwin said $2.1 billion in losses subsequently resulted. He asked Castel to force UBS to buy back some loans and pay monetary damages for ones that have been liquidated.

The case is Mastr Adjustable Rate Mortgages Trust 2006-OA2 et al v. UBS Real Estate Securities Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-07322.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)
LONDON (Reuters) - British finance minister George Osborne said a vote to leave the European Union in a referendum in June would do permanent damage to the country's economy, which he warned would be 6 percent smaller by 2030 than if it stayed in the bloc. The government is due to present on Monday a "serious, sober analysis" of the long-term economic impact of a so-called Brexit, a source familiar with the document said. Osborne was quoted as saying the loss to the economy would be the equivalent to each household of 4,300 pounds ($6,100) a year by 2030. "The conclusion is clear: for Britain's economy and for families, leaving the EU would be the most extraordinary self-inflicted wound," he wrote in a column due to be published in The Times on Monday and which the newspaper reported on Sunday. Opinion polls have shown the rival campaigns running almost neck and neck, although gambling firms predict that British voters are more likely to decide to keep Britain in the EU at the June 23 referendum. Osborne said the hit to the economy of a vote to leave would be permanent because of lower trade and investment. The latest appeal by Osborne, an ally of Prime Minister David Cameron, for Britons to vote to stay in the 28-member bloc is likely to spur accusations from "Out" campaigners that the government is using scare tactics. One of the leading "Out" campaigners, London Mayor Boris Johnson, wants Britain to strike a trade deal with the EU similar to that reached between the bloc and Canada. But Osborne said that kind of agreement would leave Britain's economy 6 percent smaller by 2030 than if it stayed in the EU. Osborne and Johnson are rivals to become Britain's next prime minister. With Britons divided over whether to stay in the EU, those campaigning to leave, including some of Cameron's top ministers, have said the government is selling Britain short by saying it cannot stand alone. But the Treasury's words chime with those of other economic institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, in warning that Britain could deal a damaging blow to the fragile global economy if it votes to leave the bloc. Last week, Osborne said Britain's homeowners could face higher borrowing costs if there was a British exit. In his newspaper column, Osborne said every alternative to EU membership would leave Britain with an economy that was less interconnected with the rest of Europe and countries beyond. U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to say during a visit to Britain this week that he believes the country is better off economically and politically if it stays in the EU. ($1 = 0.7051 pounds) (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and William Schomberg; Editing by Catherine Evans and Peter Cooney)
Kiev (AFP) - A Ukrainian court on Monday sentenced two alleged Russian soldiers to 14 years in prison for fighting in the rebel east, in a ruling that could prelude a swap for pilot Nadiya Savchenko jailed by Russia.

The verdict from a panel of three judges read out in court said sergeant Aleksander Aleksandrov and captain Yevgeny Yerofeyev were guilty of participating in "an aggressive war" against Ukraine and committing "a terrorist attack".

Kiev insists that the duo were serving as members of an elite Russian military intelligence unit when they were captured in the pro-Moscow separatist region of Lugansk in May 2015.

Russia says both had resigned from active duty before crossing into the war zone of their own free will.

Aleksandrov and Yerofeyev stood impassively in a glass cage for defendants while the decision was read out, as journalists crowded into the cramped Kiev courtroom.

- Savchenko swap? -

Many observers doubt that the Russian pair will serve their sentences in Ukraine, with the verdict seen as a potential step towards a much-anticipated prisoner exchange for Savchenko.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has proposed swapping the soldiers for the Kiev-born helicopter pilot who was in March sentenced to 22 years in prison by a Russian court for her alleged involvement in the killing of two Moscow reporters in the war zone.

Savchenko -- who has become a national hero at home -- began refusing all food and liquids in protest at her sentence on April 6 and her health is believed to be deteriorating rapidly.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow was in contact with Kiev over a possible prisoner exchange for Savchenko, who says she was smuggled illegally into Russia to face trial there.

Such an exchange is complicated by Savchenko's continued denial of any wrongdoing. Russian law says that foreign convicts may only be sent home to serve their time once they confess.

- Trial marred by violence -

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The trial of Aleksandrov and Yerofeyev has driven yet another wedge between Moscow and Kiev, with the two sides locked in a bitter feud over Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and alleged responsibility for the war in east Ukraine that has left nearly 9,200 people dead.

Ukraine holds up the capture of the soldiers as further proof that Moscow deployed troops to fight alongside rebels despite the Kremlin's claims that it has not been directly involved in the conflict.

Kiev cites testimony the two men gave during their interrogation and in subsequent conversations with reporters in which both acknowledged to being active members of Russia's GRU military intelligence at the time.

They recanted those statements during the trial.

Moscow has acknowledged the presence of Russian "volunteers" and off-duty servicemen in Ukraine while rejecting charges that they were there under orders from Putin's generals.

The trial of the two alleged Russian servicemen inflamed passions on both side and was marred by a number of violent incidents.

Aleksandrov's defence attorney Yuriy Grabovsky was murdered in March by two Ukrainian suspects whose motives remain unclear.

And unknown assailants earlier this month threw Molotov cocktails and set alight the Kiev office of a Ukrainian judge overseeing the case.
By Ivana Sekularac JAGODINA, Serbia (Reuters) - Ultra-nationalists are set to return to Serbia's parliament in an April 24 election after an absence of several years, boosted by growing discontent with Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's pro-European Union stance and austerity policies. They include firebrand Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj, whose popularity in Serbia was boosted by his acquittal last month of crimes against humanity by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Polls indicate Seselj's Radicals and the right-wing Dveri grouping, which hold pro-Russian and anti-NATO views and demand an end to integration with the EU, will both get over the threshold needed to get into parliament and together could win about 25-30 seats in the 250-seat assembly. While the ultra-nationalists are unlikely to challenge the prime minister's strong hold on power, they will use the platform to attack his pro-EU course and fight any concessions he is forced to make during Serbia's negotiations to join the bloc, which began in December. Opinion polls suggest Vucic's Progressive Party is on track to retain its parliamentary majority, but Seselj's Radicals -- who failed to win any seats in elections in 2012 and 2014 -- could become the third-largest group in parliament. Seselj, whose war crimes acquittal is being appealed by prosecutors, gives voice to the grievances many Serbs feel over NATO's 1999 bombing of Serbia over the Kosovo conflict. Seselj was deputy prime minister at the time. "The EU is made up of NATO countries. They bombed us, they took Kosovo away from us," he told cheering supporters last week in Jagodina, a central town where unemployment runs at 30 percent. Seselj, 61, was a mentor to Vucic until 2008 when his protege broke with the Radicals. Seselj, who has been battling colon cancer for several years, remains a fierce advocate of the "Greater Serbia" ideology that fueled bloodshed in the 1990s Yugoslav wars. His goal is to secure enough members of parliament -- one third or 84 legislators -- to block any attempt to change Serbia's constitution if Belgrade comes under pressure during the EU negotiations to remove a constitutional reference to Kosovo being part of Serbia. AUSTERITY FATIGUE A sharp 2014 recession sent Serbia's budget deficit soaring, forcing the government to seek a 1.2 billion euro ($1.35 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund, which demanded public spending and subsidy cuts, tax hikes and the privatization of inefficient state firms as a condition. EU membership will also require painful economic restructuring. Analysts say austerity measures and an unemployment rate of 18 percent have pushed voters towards the rightist parties. Until two years ago, Suzana Arsic, a 52-year-old kindergarten teacher from Jagodina, voted for the pro-EU Democratic Party, but now she is changing sides. "I'm going to vote for the Radicals this time. I didn't like what I saw -- plants were shut down, people lost their jobs and were pushed to expensive borrowing they couldn't manage," she told Reuters. Serbia's economy is set to grow 1.8 percent this year, slower than its neighbors, the World Bank says. The average monthly wage of 357 euros is among the lowest in the region. Many Serbs see little benefit from the country's talks on joining the EU. A recent opinion poll found nearly 72 percent of Serbs oppose joining the EU and NATO. Vucic says joining the EU, Serbia's biggest trading partner and investor, remains Belgrade's No. 1 policy goal. The conservative leader is going to the polls two years early to seek a mandate for economic reforms needed to qualify for EU membership. Vucic, who says Serbia will not seek to join NATO, warns of the dangers of rising nationalism. "There can be no compromise with those who are pushing Serbia back in the past," he said. The ultra-nationalist resurgence is not causing great alarm in the EU for now because Vucic has ruled out a coalition with the right-wingers, diplomats say. Hrvoje Stojic, a Zagreb-based analyst with Hypo Group Alpe Adria bank, said the strengthening of rightist parties was a regional trend, noting eurosceptic parties are in power in Poland and Hungary. Both the Radicals and Dveri, running in coalition with the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), pledge to halt privatizations, subsidize farmers and impose import duties to protect domestic producers. "If people look in their wallets, if they open their eyes and switch off their TV sets they'll realize that they're being fooled (by the current government)," Sanda Raskovic Ivic, head of the DSS party, told Reuters, referring to Vucic's promises of improving living standards. Many nationalist voters are not elderly Serbs nostalgic for the old Yugoslavia, but young people who remember little of the wars that accompanied Yugoslavia's break-up. "Vucic has lost his credibility ... He made us slaves to capitalists and that's why I will vote for Dveri," said Dejana Simic, a 23-year-old waitress from Belgrade. Many Serbs, however, accept that Serbia has no option but to seek close ties with the EU. "There's really no alternative to the EU," said Djordje Trifunovic, 22, a Belgrade law student. (Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Adrian Croft and Helen Popper)
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - A UN peacekeeper from Morocco was killed in the Central African Republic while on patrol near a village that came under attack, allegedly by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army, a UN spokesman said Monday.

The soldier was shot on Sunday in southeastern Mbomou prefecture, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the killing and said attacks against those working for peace in the Central African Republic were "unacceptable."

The peacekeeper was killed in the town of Rafai where he had been dispatched in response to an attack on the nearby village of Agoumar by the suspected LRA rebels.

Human rights groups have said that LRA rebels are active in the Central African Republic and have kidnapped more than 200 people just this year, a quarter of them children.

In February, a, LRA commander, Okot Odek, was captured and handed over to US forces by a faction of the Seleka rebels in CAR.

The Central African peacekeeping operation, known as MINUSCA, counts about 12,600 foreign police and soldiers, as well as more than 500 foreign civilians.
Paul Ryan, Wendell Willkie, John W. Davis and Adlai Stevenson. (Photos: Scott Applewhite/AP, AP, BHR/AP, AP)

Unconventional is Yahoo News complete guide to what could be the craziest presidential convention  or conventions  in decades. Heres what you need to know today.

1. Paul Ryan is wrong: Dark horses arent (necessarily) a thing of the past

Last Tuesday House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., summoned reporters to a press conference in Washington, D.C., to address the speculation that he might swoop in and save the Republican Party from certain suicide next November by allowing a deadlocked convention in Cleveland to bypass the gentlemen who are actually running for the job and nominate him for president instead.

Let me be clear: I do not want nor will I accept the nomination of our party, Ryan declared. I should not be considered. Period. End of story.

Ryan went on to instruct delegates to only choose a person who has actually participated in the primary. He even advocated for a rule change to that effect.

I think it would be wrong to go any other way, Ryan concluded.

To hear Ryan tell it, the very notion of a white knight  that is, any noncandidate turned nominee at the eleventh hour, whether or not he answers to the name Paul Ryan  represents an unspeakable abomination with potentially apocalyptic consequences for a party that is already in open revolt against the so-called establishment. Many Republicans seem to agree.

But history says otherwise.

Looking back, Ryanesque candidates arent particularly rare. They even have a name: dark horses. In the 19th century, when bosses and delegates picked nominees without any input from rank-and-file voters  there were no primaries or caucuses yet  dark horses were a normal part of the process. The first was James K. Polk, an obscure Democratic congressman whose name surfaced, seemingly out of nowhere, after frontrunner and former President Martin Van Buren failed to vanquish his chief rival on the first eight ballots of the 1844 convention; Polk, who was at home in Tennessee, wouldnt find out until a week later that he had been nominated. A parade of dark horses followed, and many of them, like Polk, went on to become president: Franklin Pierce in 1852, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, James A. Garfield in 1880. Oh, and some guy named Abraham Lincoln.

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Dark horses kept rearing their heads even after primaries entered the equation in 1912. Woodrow Wilson, who emerged as the nominee at that years Democratic convention, wasnt quite a dark horse, even if he trailed frontrunner Champ Clark of Missouri for the first 29 ballots and didnt clinch the nod until ballot 46; same goes for James M. Cox of Ohio, who won on the 44th ballot eight years later. The Democratic Partys 1924 nominee, however  a West Virginian named John W. Davis  was definitely a dark horse, having received the nomination only as a compromise on the record-setting 103rd ballot after neither of the two leading contenders was able to secure the necessary two-thirds majority during the first 102 rounds of voting. Before that Davis had  frankly said  that he was not seeking [the nomination] and that if nominated he would accept only as a matter of public duty.  The Democratic Partys 1952 nominee, Adlai Stevenson, expressed similar sentiments heading into that years convention in Chicago. But then he gave a witty and stirring welcoming address to the delegates, and the rest is history; the party, deeply divided between its Northern and Southern factions, abandoned its leading primary candidate, Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, and turned to the intellectual from Illinois instead.

The GOP nominated its fair share of dark horses during this period as well. The partys 1916 nominee, Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes, didnt run in the primaries. In 1920, General Leonard Wood, Illinois Gov. Frank Lowden and California Sen. Hiram Johnson were the favorites at the start of the convention, but Ohio Sen. Warren G. Harding, whod received a mere 65.5 votes on the first ballot, wound up winning nine ballots later because he was the only candidate both progressives and conservatives could tolerate. And in 1940, Republicans chose the darkest horse of all: a Wall Street industrialist named Wendell Willkie whod been a Democrat until 1939 and had never run for office before. Earlier that year, New York District Attorney Thomas Dewey won five primaries with 1.6 million votes. Willkie didnt bother to enter a single contest.

At this point, fans of Paul Ryans decision to pull a Sherman will note that primaries play a much greater role in todays nominating process than they did in, say, 1940, when they were basically just for show. These people would be correct. The modern primary system  a series of statewide popular votes that all but determine how many delegates each candidate controls heading into the convention  only came into effect in the early 1970s, and since then dark horses have become an endangered species. Pundits have described Jimmy Carter as a dark horse, for instance, but thats just because he wasnt a household name when he launched his bid for the 1976 Democratic nomination; by the time the convention opened that summer hed won 40 percent of the popular vote and pocketed more than enough delegates to clinch the nomination. Every Democratic and Republican nominee since 1972 has competed in his partys primaries (and finished the process in first place).

Presumably Ryan and fans would cite this fact as justification for his decision. It isnt 1952 anymore, they might argue. To select a dark horse now, in 2016, would violate decades of precedent and subvert a system that has become all about the will of the people.

But anyone who agrees with that statement is forgetting one important detail: We havent had a truly contested convention  that is, a convention with more than one round of balloting  in the modern primary era, either.

In fact, we havent had one since 1952.

Anyone who claims to know how the process will unfold  especially if theyre claiming it wont unfold like it has in the past  is lying. If Donald Trump doesnt hit the magic 1,237-delegate mark on the first ballot in Cleveland, and if Ted Cruzs sleeper delegates dont give him a majority on the second, third or 15th ballot, its entirely possible  even likely, given todays polarized political atmosphere, saturation media coverage and lack of trust in party poobahs, who might have swayed delegates in the past  that both sides will dig in and that round after round of balloting will result in deadlock. In that case, it wont really matter how much more democratic the road to the convention has become in recent years: Cleveland itself would look a lot more like 1924 than 2004, and a dark horse could be the only way out.

Regardless of what Paul Ryan says.

Drop me a line on Twitter (@andrewromano) and let me know if you think the GOP should consider a dark-horse nominee  and who their best dark horse would be.

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2. Now I Get It: How to become a delegate

If youve been paying attention, then you know that the magic word for 2016 is delegates. Its clear that delegates hold the keys to the kingdom  or in this case, the White House. But who becomes a delegate? How are they selected? Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric demystifies this complicated and confusing process.

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3. Expert Q&A: Why Trump is out of his f***ing mind when he calls the primary process corrupt

Members of the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee, from left, Donna Brazile, Elaine Kamarck and Alice Germond vote on what to do with Florida delegates during their meeting in Washington in 2008. (Photo: LM Otero/AP)

By Jon Ward

Elaine Kamarck started in Democratic politics as an aide to President Jimmy Carter and became a top official in Bill Clintons White House; in 2009, she wrote a book called Primary Politics, which explains how the modern nominating process came to be. Kamarck spoke to Yahoo News Senior Political Correspondent Jon Ward about Donald Trumps complaints that the current GOP system is rigged and corruptand his call for a bold infusion of popular will. She didnt mince words.

For the full conversation, click here.

Jon Ward: A lot of people are wondering about these rules for how delegates are selected. Theyve never really mattered since the primary season was opened up in 1972. Why do they matter now?

Elaine Kamarck: The only reason they matter is because the voters havent given a clear-cut victory to someone. What we are accustomed to is someone wins early, they keep on winning, the other candidates drop out and by the time you get to July, there isnt a contest anymore. Whenever the voters dont make a clear decision, the decision-making falls to the delegates and you have essentially the system that existed prior to 1972, where party insiders get to make the decision. Theres nothing new about this. Its just that in the modern situation were not used to it.

It happened all the time pre-72.

The first nominating convention was in 1832. Until 1968, Americans nominated their presidents in almost exactly the same way. It was party leaders, elected as delegates in their states, going to the convention. For all that time, almost no one ran in primaries. There were very few. In fact, running in a primary was considered a weakness, not a mark of strength. In 72, because of party rules reform efforts on the Democratic side, more states held primaries; those primaries suddenly were binding  or attempted to be on the delegates.

What do you think of Trumps complaint that the system is corrupt and unfair?

Trumps out of his f***ing mind. Every single presidential candidate except for him knows what this system is. Its not corrupt. Its the system by which the parties pick their nominee. Parties are protected under the First Amendments freedom of assembly. No American is forced to participate.

Parties are institutions. They have an interest in preserving their brand. Coca-Cola doesnt let Pepsi participate in their brand. Republicans dont let Democrats participate in their brand. This is a party decision, and parties make these decisions based on their institutional health. Meaning if you put someone at the top of the ticket that is so unpopular that you lose the House of Representatives, youre not doing the right thing for your party.

The voters have been included to keep parties from getting really out of touch. In 1968 Democrats did not understand the depths of the antiwar sentiment in their party and cut [Vietnam war opponents] out of their convention. This time the Republican Party didnt understand the anger of voters for Trump. But the bottom line is, this is not a public decision  its a party decision.

Do you want that on the record, that Trump is out of his f***ing mind?

Yes. Hes out of his f***ing mind. Hes an a**hole. No other candidate has ever run for president so unprepared.

Do you think his arguments will influence the way we choose nominees?

The systems will only change if the parties themselves decide to change them. My guess is the system will move in the other direction from where Trump wants it to, with parties taking greater control of the nominations to keep them from being captured by people who sully the brand.

Is Trump right? Should the parties do away with the delegate system and select their nominees by popular vote instead? Let us know on Facebook.

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4. The RNC Rules Committee goes to Hollywood

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.(Photo illustration: Yahoo News, photos: Jason Reed/Reuters, AP (2))

For convention nerds like you and me  OK, maybe just me  this week will be all about the RNC Spring Meeting in Hollywood. Sounds sexy, right? In normal election year, it wouldnt be. First of all, the Hollywood were talking about is in Florida, not California. Plus, the big story is all about the GOPs Rules Committee. Zzzzz.

Heres the thing, though: 2016 isnt a normal election year. With Donald Trump quacking Sunday about the Republican Partys corrupt and crooked delegate-selection system  and bragging about how he could buy delegates by put[ting] them in the best planes and bring[ing] them to the best resorts anywhere in the world  the controversy over process is about to take center stage as RNC brass gathers in the Sunshine State to consider what kind of recommendations (if any) it wants to make about the rules governing the partys convention in Cleveland this summer.

On one side of the clash are an Republican National Committee member from Oregon named Solomon Yue and Rules Committee Chairman Bruce Ash, both of whom are arguing that in Florida this week the RNC should consider a proposal to switch the rule book governing the convention from the rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, which have been used at Republican National Conventions for decades, to Roberts Rules of Order, which are common in civic and organizational meetings.

On the other side are RNC Chair Reince Priebus and his allies, who are trying to scuttle the proposal. I dont think that its a good idea for us next week, I mean, before the convention, to make serious rules changes or recommendations of changes, Priebus said Sunday on CNN.



This all sounds arcane, and again, in a normal election year it would be. But switching the rule book could mean the difference between a convention where delegates can nominate a dark-horse candidate (which is possible under the current House rules) and a convention where only current candidates  Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich  could be considered (which is the likely result if Roberts rules are adopted).

So, yeah  a pretty big deal. Stay tuned for more throughout the week.



5. The best of the rest



NEW w/@ShaneGoldmacher: RNC rules clash erupts, just days before critical Florida spring meeting https://t.co/Ko4LZjMqC9  Alex Isenstadt (@politicoalex) April 17, 2016

Ted Cruz wins another round of weekend delegate hunts, by me, @aolivo, and @edatpost https://t.co/FkKE5kxMNu  daveweigel (@daveweigel) April 16, 2016

ICYMI: Bernie Sanders bests Hillary Clinton at Colorado Democratic convention https://t.co/QN9ECGmUEX

by @ByJohnFrank  The Denver Post (@denverpost) April 16, 2016

BREWING GOP DRAMA: Trump wants major say over Cleveland program even if he hasnt clinched. Rivals allies balk https://t.co/NXHidcpk5y  Robert Costa (@costareports) April 18, 2016

Donald Trump Assails Rigged Delegate System, Saying He Chooses Not to Exploit It https://t.co/1Stje9PzDf  NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) April 18, 2016

Trump drag on convention fundraising extending to Democrats https://t.co/NkmdwqIYik  Anna Palmer (@apalmerdc) April 18, 2016

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History lesson

Hubert H. Humphrey is flanked by state standards as he acknowledges the cheers of Democratic National Convention delegates who chose him to be their presidential candidate in Chicago, Aug. 30, 1968. (Photo: AP)

The last major-party presidential nominee not to compete in the primaries? Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who won the Democratic nomination in 1968. Humphrey announced his candidacy on April 27, 1968, shortly after incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson withdrew from the race. It was too late for Humphrey to enter any primary contests. Still, Humphrey wasnt a dark-horse candidate. Favorite-son surrogates competed in various primaries in his stead; meanwhile, Humphrey openly gathered support from Democratic officeholders in nonprimary states. By the time the convention in Chicago began, Humphreys main rival, Robert F. Kennedy, had been assassinated and Humphrey controlled more than enough delegates to clinch the nomination  which he did on the first ballot (despite a late challenge from antiwar Sen. George McGovern, a true dark horse.)

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Countdown

For the latest data, make sure to check the Yahoo News delegate scorecard and primary calendar.

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LONDON (Reuters) - The "In" campaign has retained its seven percentage point lead ahead of Britain's June 23 referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union although more voters were undecided, according to a ComRes poll for the Sun newspaper on Monday. The telephone survey of 1,002 people carried out last week found support for staying in the bloc was on 45 percent with 38 percent of voters backing a Brexit. That meant the "In" camp's lead was unchanged from a similar ComRes poll last month although the number of undecided voters had risen significantly to 17 percent. Last month, 11 percent said they did not know how they would vote. "It is clear there is still considerable confusion about the referendum, which suggests a lack of clarity from both campaigns," Tom Mludzinski from ComRes told the Sun. Phone surveys have generally indicated support for remaining in the EU firmly ahead of the "Out" campaign, while online polls have the two sides running neck and neck. (Reporting by Michael Holden and Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
Actor Johnny Depp (R) and wife Amber Heard arrive at the Southport Magistrates Court on Australia's Gold Coast, April 18, 2016. Hollywood actor Johnny Depp's wife, actress Amber Heard, appeared in the Queensland court Monday charged with illegally smuggling the couple's Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country on a private jet while Depp was shooting a Pirates of the Caribbean movie last year. REUTERS/Dave Hunt/

An Australian court let off the actress wife of Hollywood star Johnny Depp with a good behaviour bond on Monday after she pleaded guilty to falsifying travel documents to sneak two pet dogs into the country.

Depp accompanied his wife, Amber Heard, for the hearing at a packed courthouse in the Southport magistrates court, near where he had been shooting a "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequel when the scandal erupted last year.

Bringing an end to what the Australian media had gleefully dubbed the "war on terrier", a magistrate filed no conviction for Heard but issued a formal order to stay out of trouble for a month or face a A$1,000 ($767) fine.

Heard, 29, had faced charges of illegally importing animals after authorities accused the couple of flying their Yorkshire Terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country without going through proper quarantine procedures.

But on Monday, the court learned that state prosecutors agreed to drop those charges when Heard pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of lying on an incoming passenger form when entering the country to visit Depp on set last year.

For the A-list couple, the result is a reassuringly un-Hollywood ending to their brush with Australia's notoriously tough quarantine laws.

The original charges against Heard carried a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of A$10,000.

The ruling also drew a line under the unlikely diplomatic tangle between the celebrity pair and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who in his capacity as farm minister threatened to have the dogs put down if Depp and Heard did not remove them.

Depp made no comments before entering the courthouse other than brief pleasantries to waiting media.

In court, Heard's lawyers played a video apology in which the expressionless couple praised Australia's biosecurity rules and Depp noted that "if you disrespect Australian law, they will tell you firmly".

Heard added, in the video, that Australia was "a wonderful island" and she was "truly sorry that Pistol and Boo were not declared" because "protecting Australia is important".

Heard's lawyer, Jeremy Kirk, told the court his client was jetlagged and worried about a hand injury Depp received on set, and believed all appropriate arrangements in relation to the dogs had been made.

"She has made a tired, terrible mistake," he said.

For Joyce, the result also represents a win since it vindicates the rural politician's decision to go public with his complaint about the couple's violation of the country's animal import laws. He faces a general election on July, with opinion polls showing support for the government sinking.

In a statement, Joyce said he appreciated Heard's "willingness to take responsibility for her actions" and "acknowledgement that she broke our national biosecurity laws".

He used more rugged language 11 months ago when he warned that "if we start letting movie stars, even though they've been the sexiest man alive twice - to come into our nation (with pets), then why don't we just break the laws for everybody?"
(Reuters) - The number of voters who are still undecided whether to back the campaign for Britain to remain or leave the European Union has gone up by six percentage points since March to 17 percent, the Sun reported, citing a ComRes poll. (http://bit.ly/1YBSBDt) The Remain campaign's 7 percent lead is unchanged since March, with 45 percent saying they will vote to stay in the EU and 38 percent wanting to leave it, the newspaper said, citing the poll. (Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
An ad for fried chicken that was meant to be funny ended up infuriating many KFC customers recently.

The ad for the fast food chain in Australia depicts a man smiling down at his own crotch as his lady friend reaches toward the pixelated area below his waist.

"WARNING:" read the ad, which was posted to Twitter. "#NSFW. Something hot and spicy is coming soon..."

Watch: Man Dressed As Santa Robs KFC After Crawling Through Drive-Thru Window

The ad was immediately criticized as everything from simply inappropriate to downright misogynistic. One critic even wrote that the ad had "set women back 50 years" according to Australian news site News.com.au.

"Finger Lickin' Good" was gross, but this is absolutely disgusting," The Radical Feminist posted on Twitter.

We are very sorry for our earlier tweet on H&S - we didnt mean to offend and removed it when we realised wed made an error in judgment.  KFC Australia (@KFCAustralia) April 15, 2016

@caseyphoenix wrote: "Misogyny manifested by sexual discrimination,belittling of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification of women. @KFCAustralia"

Not all the reaction was outrage, however. Some people were just confused by the ad.

"WHAT THE HELL," wrote @BezelLess, summing up the reaction many had.

Story continues

Read: Real Life Hamburglar Breaks into Burger Joint to Make Himself a Meal: Cops

Within hours of the post going up, KFC Australia pulled the ad and issued an apology.

"We are very sorry for our earlier tweet on H&S - we didnt mean to offend and removed it when we realised wed made an error in judgment," the company tweeted.

In a statement to News.com.au, the company further explained, this was a genuine tweet to launch KFCs new Hot & Spicy chicken products next week. It was not intended to offend and weve removed the image.

Watch: Man Gets Job at Popeye's After Nabbing Robber During His Interview

Related Articles:
Colonia Suiza (Uruguay) (AFP) - Storms and floods in Uruguay have killed seven people and driven 3,600 from their homes in recent days, authorities said.

Four people were killed when a storm struck the western city of Dolores on Friday and three others were later found to have died when trying to cross flooded rivers in the region, according to a government toll.

President Tabare Vazquez declared Sunday a day of national mourning.

"We are going to rebuild Dolores," he vowed in comments broadcast on the radio.

Countless buildings were destroyed in Dolores, an AFP reporter in the town saw.

The National Emergency System late on Sunday sharply raised the number of people forced to abandon their homes after rivers burst their banks.

It said 3,600 people had been displaced, up from the 2,000 it had given earlier in the day.

The hardest-hit town was Rosario, 130 kilometers (90 miles) west of the capital Montevideo.

The Rosario river on which it sits had overflowed, cutting the nearby main national highway that links Montevideo to the tourist town of Sacramento de Colonia and to the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.
Baghdad (AFP) - The United States will deploy additional forces to Iraq and make Apache attack helicopters available to support the country's troops, US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter said Monday in Baghdad.

President Barack Obama hailed the 2011 withdrawal of American troops from Iraq as a major accomplishment of his presidency, but the US has been steadily drawn back into the country since the Islamic State jihadist group overran swathes of territory in 2014.

Washington heads an international coalition that is carrying out strikes against IS and also providing training and other assistance to forces fighting the jihadists in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

"We are going to bring in additional forces," Carter said after arriving in Baghdad on a surprise visit, without specifying the size of the new deployment.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis told reporters an additional 217 personnel would be deployed, bringing the official number of US troops in Iraq to 4,087.

Troops will also be authorised to advise Iraqis at the battalion and brigade level as opposed to the larger divisions, potentially exposing them to greater risks closer to the front lines.

Carter also said that the Apaches -- which can respond "quickly" and "dynamically" when needed -- will support Iraqi efforts to surround and eventually recapture second city Mosul from IS.

- Political chaos -

"They are being offered for the move on Mosul. It will be at the government of Iraq's discretion as to whether or not they are deployed," Davis said of the Apaches.

And Carter pledged $415 million in assistance for the peshmerga forces of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, which are fighting IS in the north.

The region has, like Baghdad, been hit by financial difficulties from low oil prices.

Carter's visit comes after a week of political turmoil that has been a setback for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The US defence chief has previously stressed the need to support the embattled premier.

Story continues

Carter met with Abadi after arriving in Baghdad from the United Arab Emirates, his first stop on a Gulf tour during which he will seek to shore up support for Iraq.

He has said that "the success of the campaign against (IS) in Iraq does depend upon political and economic progress as well," and that "it's important that we continue to support" Abadi.

The premier has sought to replace the current cabinet of party-affiliated ministers with a government of technocrats, but has faced major opposition from powerful parties that rely on control of ministries for patronage and funds.

Abadi's cabinet efforts were overshadowed by days of chaos in parliament, where lawmakers held a sit-in, brawled in the chamber and sought to sack the speaker.

The premier called on Monday for parliament to put aside its differences and do its job, saying he hoped a new cabinet would be approved "in the coming days".

- Economic woes -

In addition to major security and political challenges, Iraq also faces a serious economic crisis caused by low oil prices and years of mismanagement and corruption by officials.

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained significant ground from the jihadists.

Iraqi forces have begun preparatory operations in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, but the actual assault to retake the city is not expected for months, and possibly not until next year.

While most American forces in Iraq play advisory and support roles, Washington has also sent in special forces to carry out raids against IS, and US Marines have deployed to provide artillery support for Iraqi troops.

Obama repeatedly pledged that there would be no "boots on the ground" to combat IS, but US forces are engaged in combat with the jihadists and two American military personnel have already been killed.

An American Marine was killed in a rocket attack in northern Iraq last month, and a US special forces soldier wounded during a raid last year later died.

US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003, overthrowing dictator Saddam Hussein and unleashing an insurgency and years of brutal sectarian violence due to poor planning and a lack of understanding of the country.

Rampant violence was eventually brought under control, and American forces withdrew at the end of 2011 after talks on a residual troop presence broke down over Washington's insistence that they have parliament-approved immunity.
AL-DHAFRA AIR BASE  US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he will talk with his commanders in the coming days to identify additional ways the US can intensify the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, including more airstrikes, cyberattacks and American troops on the ground.

He said the United States wants to do more in the fight and is only limited by our own ingenuity and ideas. Carter expressed confidence that the White House will approve recommendations, saying nothing he has asked President Barack Obama for yet in the conflicts has been turned down.

Carter spoke to reporters at Al-Dhafra Air Base near Abu Dhabi, an important launching point for military operations against the Islamic State group in the region.

His visit comes as the US is considering moves to boost the number of American troops in Iraq, as well as other steps to help the Iraqis take on IS.

Carter suggested the US may consider shifting the nature of its military campaign against the extremists, adding there could be more rapid targeting of the enemy as intelligence on the ground improves.

As weve learned more and are more on top of the enemy, you can do more dynamic targeting, Carter said.

Late last month, US Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that he and Carter believe there will be an increase in US forces in Iraq in the coming weeks. Any final decision would be worked out with the Iraqi government and require Obamas approval.

Its unclear whether the increase would force the White House to formally approve a higher cap on troop levels in Iraq, now set at 3,780.

The Pentagon says there are close to 3,400 US troops there now. According to US officials, however, there are actually as many as 5,000 American forces in the country, but some do not count against the cap because they are in Iraq on temporary duty.

Dunford and Carter have said that accelerating the fight against IS could mean using Apache helicopters for combat missions, deploying more US special operations forces or using American military advisers in Iraqi units closer to the front lines.

The US also is likely to provide additional artillery fire and targeting help for Iraqi forces advancing on Mosul. Those American forces, however, would remain well behind the front lines.

Carter has said that Obama and other US leaders will encourage other Gulf nations to contribute economically to the effort to rebuild Iraq once IS is defeated.  AP
A burned Humvee is seen at the peshmerga base in Makhmour, after it was freed from control of Islamic State, south of Mosul, April 17, 2016. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

Islamic State's income and the population under its control have both fallen by about a third, a U.S.-based analysis firm said, describing the declining revenue as a threat to its long-term rule over its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Revenue for the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, fell to $56 million a month in March from around $80 million a month in the middle of last year, the analysis company IHS said.

Daily oil output dropped to 21,000 barrels from 33,000 barrels over the same time frame, as production facilities suffered damage from air strikes carried out mainly by a U.S.-led coalition.

"Islamic State is still a force in the region, but this drop in revenue is a significant figure and will increase the challenge for the group to run its territory in the long term," said IHS senior analyst Ludovico Carlino in a report.

The territory under its control has declined by about 22 percent since mid-2014, while the population of that territory has fallen to around 6 million from 9 million.

"There are fewer people and business activities to tax; the same applies to properties and land to confiscate," said IHS senior analyst Columb Strack.

Around 50 percent of the group's revenue comes from taxation and confiscation, 43 percent from oil and the rest from drug smuggling, sale of electricity and donations, the report said.

The group began allowing people sentenced to corporal punishment to be spared in return for cash payments, an indication of financial difficulty, it said.

It also introduced new taxes on such activities as installing satellite dishes or exiting cities. Fines can be imposed for giving wrong answers about the Koran, it said. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli
Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama's plan to delay deportation for nearly half of the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants was fraught with uncertainty Monday, as the US Supreme Court appeared closely divided on the issue.

If the eight justices deadlock in their ruling, due by late June, the plan would remain on hold, dealing a bruising defeat to Obama during his last year in office and pushing the issue to the next president.

Hundreds of immigrant rights activists massed outside in blazing sunshine to mark the high-profile hearing, brandishing heart-shaped signs reading "Keep families together" and chanting "Si se puede" -- putting a Spanish twist on Obama's 2008 campaign slogan "Yes We Can."

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy, two conservatives whose opinion is critical in this case, sparred repeatedly with the Obama administration's attorney during an extended 90-minute session of oral arguments.

At stake is a series of executive actions the president took in November 2014 to bypass a Republican-held Congress that refused to enact his promised reform of America's immigration system.

One initiative, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), would shield from deportation people who have lived in the United States since 2010 and whose children are US citizens or residents. They would also be able to obtain a work authorization and pay taxes.

Another would expand on an existing program that grants a reprieve to immigrants who entered the country as children.

In unveiling his actions, Obama said he wanted to prioritize deportations of "felons, not families. Criminals not children. Gang members, not a mom who's working hard to provide for her kids."

The four liberal-leaning justices appeared to defend Obama's plan and pointed to similar actions by his predecessors.

But critics accuse Obama of overstepping his authority, a view echoed on the conservative wing of the bench.

Story continues

- 'Upside down' -

"It's as if the president is setting the policy and the Congress is executing it," Kennedy said. "That's just upside down."

Mirroring Obama's gridlock with Congress on immigration is that of a Supreme Court evenly split between liberals and conservatives while Senate Republicans refuse to hold hearings on filling the seat left vacant by the death of justice Antonin Scalia.

Roberts, who has insisted the Supreme Court should stand above the political fray, is likely to focus on whether Texas and 25 other mostly Republican-led states would suffer enough injury as a result of Obama's actions to legally sue the federal government.

Texas for instance claims it would cost the state millions of dollars in public funds to provide driver's licenses at a subsidized cost to the huge group of immigrants who would be allowed to stay in the United States.

That question dominated much of the court's session.

If the states lack legal standing, that would be enough to dismiss the case -- allowing the justices to eschew a decision on more fundamental aspects of the immigration debate, an immensely divisive issue at the heart of the White House race.

Justice Stephen Breyer, a liberal, noted that if Texas is allowed to sue the government on immigration, that would open the door for states to challenge "all kinds" of federal regulations with which they disagree.

But Roberts, the chief justice, repeatedly challenged Solicitor General Donald Verrilli as he argued on behalf of the administration that Texas had no grounds to sue.

- 'Unprecedented, unlawful' -

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has sharpened the fault lines on immigration by vowing to build a wall along the Mexican border, and deport all of America's undocumented immigrants.

Nearly five million people would get relief from deportation under Obama's policy.

Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller called the actions "an unprecedented, unlawful assertion of executive power," and "one of the largest changes in immigration policy in our nation's history."

But Verrilli stressed that those who would win a reprieve would be a low priority for deportations anyway.

"There is a pressing humanitarian concern in avoiding the breakup of families that contain US citizen children," he said.

America's huge population of undocumented immigrants is "living in the shadows," said Sonia Sotomayor, the court's first Hispanic justice and the daughter of Puerto Rican-born parents.

"They are here, whether we want them or not," she argued.
VW has high hopes for its latest concept car, which will provide the foundation for next year's Touareg SUV, a vehicle the company is positioning as a serious challenger to the Volvo XC90 or Range Rover in terms of luxury, performance and style.

Volkswagen has been using each of this year's major auto shows to give the public a conceptual taste of its plans for an extended SUV range. It's already unveiled a compact and a sub-compact model, and at the Beijing show, which opens its doors to the press on April 25, it will complete the set with a full-size luxury off-roader.

Though officially a concept, the show car will be a clear indicator of what to expect from the next-generation Touareg due in 2017, the company's overall flagship and one that VW wants to look right at home when parked between a BMW X6 and a Range Rover.

VW is, understandably, being coy about the specifics, but describes the car as "one of the most advanced luxury SUVs in the world," and one that will push the envelope in terms of sportiness as well as elegance.

The cabin will boast a completely new infotainment and dashboard set-up that will start to make traditional switches and knobs redundant, replacing them with taps, swipes, gestures and voice commands, while a premium will also be placed on space. VW says that the car will demonstrate a lounge style' layout where each individual occupant's needs are served.

All of which is why the car is making its debut in Beijing, where SUVs, comfort and features that are packaged as standard are the biggest drivers when it comes to consumers choosing a new car.

Its brand may have taken a knock in the US and in Europe, as its latest sales figures, published Friday, show. However, between January and March, VW sold a remarkable 722,800 cars in China which, according to Jurgen Stackmann, Brand Board Member for Sales, is the company's "best quarterly performance ever in China."

The runaway demand for new cars is why the Chinese government is pushing through tougher legislation relating to pollution and emissions, so it comes as little surprise to learn that the VW is a plug-in hybrid, capable of 50km solely on electric power and of a combined cycle efficiency of 78mpg when the electric and gas engines are working in sync. The car also has a reported top speed of 224km/h (139mph), a 0-100km/h time of just 6.0 seconds and a total output of 376hp.
(Reuters) - Striker Andy Carroll has accused referee Jonathan Moss of trying to even things up with some "bad decisions" in Sunday's Premier League draw with 10-men Leicester City that harmed their Champions League qualifying hopes. West Ham led 2-1 deep into injury time at the King Power Stadium but Moss awarded a penalty in the 94th minute after Carroll had brought down Jeffrey Schlupp in the area. Leonardo Ulloa converted from the spot to snatch a point. "It's not acceptable. Week in, week out, we've had bad decisions. I mean, it is a bad decision. It's not the first time and probably won't be the last," Carroll told British media. "I think he's trying to even it up... We could be third and flying. Now we're still fighting for fourth, fifth spot and we're slipping down by losing these points. It is just disappointing and there's nothing we can do about it." Moss had earlier penalised Leicester's Wes Morgan for a pull back on Winston Reid, which allowed Carroll to convert from the spot to make it 1-1 before a stunning strike from full back Aaron Creswell put the visitors ahead. The draw left sixth-placed West Ham seven points behind Arsenal, who are fourth and hold the final Champions League qualifying spot, with five games left. Slaven Bilic's men host 12th-placed Watford at Upton Park on Wednesday. (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru. Editing by Patrick Johnston)
April 17, 2016 | 09:28 pm PT

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's brother took a voluntary leave of absence from his role as chairman of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd ahead of an independent inquiry into money transfers to his personal account, a company source said.

CIMB CEO says board has accepted Nazir's decision to go on leave.

The decision follows revelations last month that Nazir Razak received $7 million in funds in his personal account from the prime minister before the country's 2013 elections.

Nazir announced his plans on Monday to shareholders attending the annual general meeting (AGM) of Malaysia's second-biggest lender by assets, said the source, who asked not to be identified as the announcement was not yet public.

CIMB has commissioned an auditor to carry out an independent review of the bank's processes, the source said, adding that Nazir felt it was right to go on leave during the investigation.

Nazir, a leading Malaysian corporate figure, had said earlier that he believed the money came from legitimate fund-raising, adding that CIMB bank staff disbursed the funds to ruling-party politicians on the instructions of party leaders.

CIMB shares were down 1.6 percent by 0420 GMT, while the benchmark index was down 0.7 percent.

Nazir's decision will benefit corporate governance and transparency, said Tony Fernandes, founder of Malaysian budget airline AirAsia.

"Class act by Chairman of CIMB Nazir Razak," Fernandes said in a posting on social media website Instagram. "Voluntarily has taken leave from today to allow an independent investigation into the $7 million transfer."

Prime Minister Najib, who is president of the country's long-ruling United Malays National Organisation, has faced repeated calls to step down over corruption allegations after $681 million was discovered in his personal bank accounts.

Najib has denied any wrongdoing, and has refused to step down, saying he did not take any money for personal gain.

A government-appointed attorney-general this year cleared Najib of any criminal offence or corruption, saying the funds were a political donation from the royal family of Saudi Arabia.

Such donations are not considered illegal in Malaysia.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House expressed confidence on Monday that Saudi Arabia would not follow through on a reported threat to sell U.S. assets if Congress passed a bill that could hold the kingdom responsible for any role in al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The New York Times reported on Friday that Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir told U.S. lawmakers that the country would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in Treasury securities and other U.S. assets in response to the bill if it passed. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama did not support the legislation and would not sign it. The bill would allow the Saudi government to be sued in a U.S. court for any role in the Sept. 11 attacks. "I'm confident that the Saudis recognize, just as much as we do, our shared interest in preserving the stability of the global financial system," Earnest told reporters. Obama, who is traveling to Saudi Arabia later this week, said he opposes the bill because it could expose the United States to lawsuits from citizens of other countries. "If we open up the possibility that individuals in the United States can routinely start suing other governments, then we are also opening up the United States to being continually sued by individuals in other countries," Obama said in an interview broadcast on CBS News on Monday. Most of the 19 attackers on Sept. 11, 2001 were Saudi nationals who hijacked four planes and flew them into New York City's World Trade Center, the Pentagon near Washington and into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers revolted. The attack was mounted by the al Qaeda militant group, then based in Afghanistan. No U.S. investigation to date has reported finding evidence of Saudi government support for the attacks. The debate over the congressional legislation has gained traction on the U.S. presidential campaign trail. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, has broken with the Democratic administration and said she supported the bill. Her rival, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, said he shared the Obama administration's concern that the legislation could open up the United States to liability from other countries but said it was important to look into any potential Saudi role in the attacks. "I think its important to have a full investigation and an understanding of the role, the possible role, of the Saudi government in 9/11," he said on NBC's "Today" program. Clinton and Sanders' remarks on the issue on Monday came on the day before New York state's Democratic primary, a crucial race for both candidates. The bill, which has 22 co-sponsors, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in January, but it has not come up for a vote in the Republican-dominated Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells office said on Monday that no vote has been scheduled. Family members of victims who were killed in the September 2001 attacks urged Obama to support the legislation and to bring up the issue on his trip. "It is not acceptable ... to succumb to the demands of a foreign government that we abandon principles of American justice while we pursue our diplomatic goals," they wrote in a letter to Obama that was released to the media. In September, a U.S. judge dismissed claims against Saudi Arabia by families of victims of the attacks, saying the kingdom had sovereign immunity from damage claims. (Reporting by Jeff Mason, Timothy Gardner, Patricia Zengerle, Susan Heavey, Steve Holland, Eric Beech and Idrees Ali; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Talks to end a civil war and Saudi-led intervention in Yemen will not begin on Monday as planned, the warring sides said as fighting persisted despite an announced ceasefire. Delegations representing Yemen's Houthi group and the party of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh - Saudi Arabia's main antagonists - have yet to head to Kuwait for the peace talks, citing heavy combat and Saudi-led air operations. "There's no point in going to Kuwait if there's no respect for the ceasefire," a senior official in Saleh's General People's Congress party told Reuters on Monday. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam said it has been the movement's demand from the start that dialogue took place "in an atmosphere of peace and stability." Unfortunately, "aggression" had not stopped and air strikes were continuing in different areas, he said. The U.N.-brokered truce went into effect on April 11. Saudi Arabia and some Gulf Arab allies joined the war in March last year to back Yemen's government after it was pushed into exile by forces loyal to Saleh and the Houthi movement, also called Ansarallah. Previous United Nations-mediated talks in June and December failed to end the Arabian Peninsula war, which has killed about 6,200 people, about half of them civilians. Fighting and air strikes persist on several battlefronts throughout the country, especially in the contested southwestern city of Taiz and the Nehm area east of the capital Sanaa. The U.N. envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, urged the two parties remaining in Sanaa to commit to the talks and travel to Kuwait. "The next few hours are crucial ... I hope that Ansarallah and the General People's Congress do not miss this opportunity that could save Yemen the loss of more lives and put an end to the circle of violence that has engulfed the country." Two Yemeni officials from the country's Saudi-backed government said the opposing delegations would likely arrive on Tuesday. "Representatives from Saleh's party and the Houthis are looking for excuses to delay their arrival at a precise time, but it's expected that they will arrive later in Kuwait on Tuesday," one of the officials said. Peace talks face an array of obstacles, from the proliferation of warlords to the deepening of a security vacuum that has allowed al Qaeda fighters to seize territory and opened a path for Islamic State militants to launch attacks. Unrepresented in the Kuwait talks, Yemen's once-independent south is rife with secessionist fervor, and tens of thousands of protesters rallied for independence in the port city of Aden for a second day on Monday. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari and Hashem Mostafa, Writing by Noah Browning and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
A student activist (2nd R) and his family celebrate outside the prison after he was released by the new government's general amnesty in Yangon, Myanmar April 17, 2016. Photo: Reuters

Aung San Suu Kyi, whose post as Myanmar state counsellor makes her de facto head of state, vowed on Monday to build a democratic federal union including ethnic minorities, but did not mention any group by name.

The address by the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, marking Myanmar's New year, followed a U.S. government agency call on Myanmar to end discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities and do away with abusive policies against the mostly stateless Rohingya.

The country has been plagued by insurgencies by ethnic minority groups since independence from Britain in 1948.

The Rohingya are widely maligned in Myanmar, where they are seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh - including by some in Suu Kyi's party. Myanmar has denied discrimination against the 1.1 million Rohingya, most of whom live in apartheid-like conditions.

Suu Kyi has taken a cautious approach on the Rohingya issue, drawing criticism from some rights groups overseas, in spite of her status as a human rights icon.

"Being democratically elected by the people, our government is responsible for all citizens, treating everyone equally with love and compassion," Suu Kyi said in her speech. "That's why we give a high priority to national reconciliation. We'll continue to build a genuine federal democratic union, longed for by the entire people."

Suu Kyi, who led her National League for Democracy (NLD) party to a sweeping election victory last year, said her government valued a ceasefire initiative started by the previous, semi-civilian government.

The previous government signed a ceasefire in October with eight armed ethnic groups, the culmination of more than two years of negotiation.

"We'll continue to make efforts to include all the organizations we deem appropriate in order to achieve a complete ceasefire," Suu Kyi said.

Suu Kyi was barred from becoming president under the military-drafted constitution because her children are not Myanmar citizens.

Myanmar's junta-era 2008 constitution has been a bone of contention between Suu Kyi and the military, whose relations will define the success of Myanmar's most significant break from military rule since the army took power in 1962.

Suu Kyi vowed to push for amendments to the constitution, although her power to change the constitution is handicapped by the military, which retains huge influence.
By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - New York City police are on the lookout for illegal "upskirters" who take voyeuristic photographs of unsuspecting women in crowded train stations and subways, officials have said.

Five arrests of so-called "upskirters" who targeted women in public places were made during a spate of warm weather in March, according to the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.

"This is a serious crime with serious consequences," Vance said in a statement.

"These are not victimless crimes, but damaging invasions of privacy," he said.

Incidences of "upskirting" increase as seasonal temperatures rise, the prosecutor's office said.

"Upskirters" photograph underneath women's skirts, typically using smartphones or small cameras that might be hidden in newspapers, briefcases, books, hats or jackets, Vance's office said.

In some of the recent arrests, as many as two dozen photos were found, the prosecutor's office said.

Women may be targeted on train cars, platforms, stairs, escalators, benches and other crowded areas, the office said.

An average of 5.6 million people ride the New York City subways each weekday, according to official figures.

The crime of unlawful surveillance carries the possibility of up to four years in prison and potentially being registered as a sex offender.

Additional crimes might apply if the photos are put online, the prosecutor's office said.

(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Santiago (AFP) - The species of mosquito that carries the Zika virus has been found in mainland Chile for the first time in six decades, the country's health minister said Monday.

Chile was, with Canada, one of just two states in the Americas said to be free of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the Zika virus that health authorities say causes birth defects in newborns.

But health minister Carmen Castillo said Monday scientists had identified a specimen of the mosquito in mainland Chile for the first time since the 1960s.

"It is an Aedes aegypti, which means that we have to take more precautions," she said.

The country had previously reported cases of Zika in people who contracted it abroad and one case of it being sexually transmitted in Chile.

Authorities had found Aedes aegypti on the country's remote Easter Island in the Pacific, but not on the mainland, largely protected from mosquitoes by mountains and deserts.

The specimen was found in the northern city of Arica, Castillo said.

Zika has been linked to cases of microcephaly in babies born to infected mothers. Babies with microcephaly have unusually small heads and damaged brains.

Zika has also been linked to rare neurological diseases in adults.
U.S. to give Philippines eye in sky to track South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea) activity

The United States will transfer an observation blimp to the Philippines to help it track maritime activity and guard its borders amid rising tensions in the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea), a U.S. diplomat said on Monday.

Philip Goldberg, U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, said Washington would give Manila, its oldest Asia-Pacific security ally, $42 million worth of sensors, radar and communications equipment.

"We will add to its capability to put sensors on ships and put an aerostat blimp in the air to see into the maritime space," Goldberg said in an interview with CNN Philippines,

The blimp is a balloon-borne radar to collect information and detect movements in the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea), a Philippine military official said.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea (Vietnam's East 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.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited the Philippines last week to reaffirm Washington's "ironclad" commitment to defend Manila under a 1951 security treaty.

China has been expanding its presence on its seven artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago and on Monday landed a military plane for the first time on one of them, Fiery Cross Reef.

It comes ahead of a planned U.S. freedom of navigation patrol this month near the Spratlys.

Carter's visit also signals the start of U.S. military deployment in the Philippines, with 75 soldiers to be rotated in and out of an air base north of Manila.

Goldberg said the two allies had agreed to set up a system for "secure and classified communications" as part of a five-year, $425 million security initiative by Washington in Southeast Asia.

Manila will receive some $120 million in U.S. military aid this year, the largest sum since 2000 when the American military returned to the Philippines for training and exercises after an eight-year hiatus.

They signed a new deal in 2013 allowing increased U.S. military presence on a rotational basis and storage of supplies and equipment for maritime security and humanitarian missions.
U.S pledges "strong response" in event of another North Korean nuclear test

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks at a rocket warhead tip after a simulated test of atmospheric re-entry of a ballistic missile, at an unidentified location in this undated file photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on March 15, 2016. REUTERS/KCNA

The United States will respond strongly in the case of a further North Korean nuclear test, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, days after the North's failure to launch what the United States believes was an intermediate-range ballistic missile.

North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch the next month, both in contravention of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Expanded U.N. sanctions aimed at starving North Korea of funds for its nuclear weapons programme were approved in a unanimous Security Council vote in early March on a resolution drafted by the United States and China.

Blinken, who is meeting senior Japanese government officials in Tokyo, told reporters North Korea would be digging itself deeper into a hole if it pursued further provocations.

"There will be additional strong response in case of another (North Korean) nuclear test," Blinken said, adding that such actions by North Korea were "unacceptable".

Blinken said the United States would consider "a number of possibilities" while adding that it was "premature" to be specific.

Some experts expect North Korea to conduct its fifth nuclear test in the near future, possibly before its party congress in early May, following the embarrassing missile failure on Friday.
The Africa Logistics Forum is an example of how the United States can support African Nations to examine and explore continuing logistics challenges in Africas security sector, said U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Robert P. Jackson.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Africa Logistics Forum in Accra, recently, the Ambassador noted, the forum focuses on analyzing the existing logistic gaps, explores practical applications, and surveys sound principles for effective logistics management.

The United States, he said, continues to recognize the importance of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre. The Centres missionto provide training, education and research to foster peace and stability in Africa is vital and has impact on real lives throughout Africa.

The Centre has already trained more than 11,000 people from diverse organizations in essential aspects of peacekeeping operations.

The United States main objective, said Ambassador Jackson, is to support African Nations with all required assistance. It is imperative to have experienced personnel with the right equipment and training if we are to overcome the logistical obstacles we face in garrison, operational or tactical environments.

Our Ghanaian partners have been a major contributor to the United Nations peacekeeping operations, he said, supplying more than 3,000 personnel, including police, military observers and troops in the past eight years.

Exercises such as the Logistics Peacekeeping Operations and the African Deployment Assistance Partnership Team conducted in Ghana, Togo and Benin in the last two yearshave been essential for training logistical units and personnel.

The Logistics Peacekeeping Operations is a training event focused on logistics before, during and after peacekeeping operations. This exercise covered sustainment principals including preventive maintenance checks and services, subsistence and field feeding, general supply, transportation and distribution, as well as logistical estimates.

In addition, the African Deployment Assistance Partnership Team bridges the gap between limited deployment capacity to participating nations in peacekeeping operations, humanitarian response operations and contingency operations.

Ambassador Jackson told the forum participants that the United States and the nations of Africa share a common destiny.

I am confident, he said, that work like yours will allow us to marshal the tools necessary to craft partnerships and, as Kofi Annan said, to face our goals together.
Eight months ago, the leaders of South Sudans two main warring parties, President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, signed a peace agreement to end the conflict that for 20 months had devastated the young nation. Since then, progress on implementing the agreement has been far too slow, marked by delays and obstruction from both sides.

South Sudans conflict is nearly half as old as the country itself, having erupted in December 2013 during a power struggle between President Kiir and Machar, his former Vice President. Fighting reopened ethnic fault lines between Kiir's Dinka and Machar's Nuer ethnic groups. Unknown thousands of people have been killed and more than 2.2 million driven from their homes, with many fleeing to neighboring states.

The United States condemned recent actions by both sides in the Wau area. The actions by government troops were in clear violation of the permanent ceasefire provisions, which apply nationwide and were agreed to by all signatories of the peace agreement. Additionally, credible reports that the opposition and associated armed actors recently attacked government forces and civilians in the same area also represent a violation of the ceasefire. The United States condemns all such actions.

Moreover, the United States has urged all parties to resolve disputes through dialogue. Disputes related to ceasefire implementation and cantonment should be referred to the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission and other relevant mechanisms outlined in the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan.

There is no military solution to the conflict in South Sudan. All parties must fulfill their commitments to implement the provisions of the peace agreement in full. This is the only way to heal the country, repair its ailing economy, and give the people of South Sudan the peace and stability they deserve.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt and Kharkiv Oblast Governor Ihor Rainin signed a Memorandum of Understanding on April 8th to broaden and deepen trade and investment ties and expand cooperation on science, technology, and the social and humanitarian sectors.

"Kharkiv is renowned for its science, technology, academic, and research communities. I'm delighted to join Governor Rainin in signing this MOU, which will further strengthen our already robust cooperation with Kharkiv Oblast, help create more and better jobs, and promote broad-based economic opportunity," U.S. Ambassador Pyatt said at a signing ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.



The MOU will promote collaboration between Kharkiv Oblast and U.S. business associations, helping the region attract investment as its production facilities and industrial operations work to become more modern, energy efficient, and environmentally friendly. The MOU also proposes expanding practical cooperation in science, education, and technology, including the creation of new linkages between Kharkiv Oblast and U.S. universities, research centers, and technology boards.



Since 2014, the United States has invested more than $9 million in a broad range of programs in Kharkiv Oblast to support decentralization, promote human rights, judicial reform, and civil society development, advance police reform, improve access to credit for farmers, and treat and prevent the spread of tuberculosis.

In that same period, the United States has also provided more than $1 million in life-saving humanitarian assistance to nearly 8,000 civilians who were displaced to Kharkiv Oblast from the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The $73 million investment made by the United States in the newly completed, state-of-the-art Neutron Source Facility at the Kharkiv Institute for Physics and Technology, will provide Ukraine with new research capabilities and the ability to produce industrial and medical isotopes for the benefit of the Ukrainian people, further demonstrates U.S. commitment to building dynamic, collaborative partnerships in the region.

The MOU is part of a continuing effort by the United States and Ukraine to expand cooperation to enhance job creation and economic growth, support economic reforms and liberalization, develop a business climate supportive of trade and investment and improve market access for goods and services. The U.S. and Ukraine recognize that trade is essential for global economic growth, development, freedom and prosperity.
At the recent G7 meeting in Japan, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and fellow Foreign Ministers discussed the path forward on a long list of global challenges.

Top on the list was the threat that terrorist organizations such as Daesh continues to pose around the world. The G7 ministers in their joint communique condemned the attacks, atrocities and abuses of human rights, and the murder of civilians, including hostages perpetrated by Daesh as well as other terrorist organizations. All of the G7 nations expressed their steadfast commitment to degrade and destroy Daesh through the global coalition.

A critical part of defeating Daesh is helping bring about a political transition in Syria that ends the civil war there, because ending the conflict is an essential part of reducing the capacity for Daesh to expand its activities.

It is essential to reduce the number of terrorists who may try to return home to Russia, to the Central Asia, to Europe, to the United States, in order to carry out jihadist attacks. Peace in Syria is also the key to stemming the flow of refugees, particularly from the Middle East to Europe.

On Iraq, the G7 nations recommitted their support for a united and sovereign Iraq, including their support to Prime Minister al-Abadi and his governments efforts to accelerate reforms to enhance the participation of all Iraqis through national reconciliation and inclusive governance. They also stressed the need to rebuild inclusive and government controlled Iraqi forces.

With regard to Afghanistan, the G7 ministers agreed that the international community must continue to support the unity government there in its efforts to stabilize the country and bring peace and security to a war-weary people.

The G7 ministers called on North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further escalate tensions in the region and instead take steps to fulfill its international commitments and obligations to denuclearize.

On the South China Sea, the G7 ministers reiterated its commitment to maintaining peace, security, and safety on the open seas by protecting freedom of navigation, overflight, and unimpeded lawful commerce. Disputes must not lead to militarization and should be settled according to international law.

There is strength in speaking with one voice. As Secretary Kerry said, these joint G7 commitments will take our nations down a path towards a safer, more secure future for our fellow citizens and. . .for generations to come.
Together with the Government of Tajikistan, on April 8th the United States launched a national event at Kokhi Jomi Hall in Dushanbe as part of an information and education campaign dedicated to World Tuberculosis (TB) Day.

U.S. Ambassador Elisabeth Millard, in her keynote address, noted the great progress made toward controlling TB in Tajikistan, with decreased morbidity and mortality in the past five years. Despite this progress, she acknowledged the fight is not over  Tajikistan is one of the countries with the highest rates of multi-drug resistant TB in the world.

The USAID TB Control Program and the Tajikistan Ministry of Health and Social Protection are supporting various TB-related activities throughout Tajikistan during the World TB Day campaign.

These activities include a campaign for TB patients in Machiton TB Hospital; TB Testing Day for women residing in remote communities; information sessions on TB for prisoners; information and educational sessions on TB prevention and treatment for the American Corners visitors in Dushanbe, Sughd and Khatlon Province; and in collaboration with the Tajik National University, awareness campaigns for students in Dushanbe. A mobile troupe of well-known Tajik actors will perform short plays about TB prevention, stigma, and discrimination throughout the country.

The USAID TB Control Program aims to reduce the burden of TB and the development of multi-drug resistant TB in Tajikistan. It focuses on national policy development; access to diagnosis and treatment for vulnerable groups; supporting a patient-centered system of care; and strengthening laboratories and other parts of the health system in Sughd, Khatlon, and the Rasht Valley. As a result of the program more patients with TB are being detected and enrolled on appropriate treatment. This will help stop transmission of tuberculosis and reduce the number of new infections.

USAID grant assistance to Tajikistan now averages $30 million each year; USAID directs about one third of this assistance to the health sector. The program, with an anticipated budget of $13.2 million over five years, is another example of U.S. government assistance to improve the health of Tajik citizens.

The United States is proud to partner with Tajikistan in a global effort to eradicate an ancient and deadly foe of mankind: tuberculosis.
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On the Northern Plains of Montana and Canada, before the arrival of humans, a demigod known as Napi, or Old Man, once roamed with his friend and rival, Coyote, according to Blackfoot tribal legend.

When Napi got tired with his wanderings he would lie down to rest, and when he arose he left behind an outline of his body made of rocks. Those outlines can still be found on the plains today  about 13 of which archaeologists call Napi figures.

We have a number of these in Alberta, said Jack Brink, archaeology curator for the Royal Alberta Museum. Traditional Napi, or Old Man, figures. He is the creator of everything in the world.

Archaeologists have estimated the dates of the Napi figures to the Late Prehistoric period  prior to Plains tribes contact with Europeans  about 1,800 to 150 years before present. Some of the Alberta figures are estimated to be 4,000 to 5,000 years old. Two of these effigies have been documented in northern Montana, on Bureau of Land Management property, just north of Malta along the Milk River.

The Blackfeet would argue that today these are important ceremonial sites, Brink said. They build sweat lodges next to the figures. They all have commanding views of the land. Its very intentional. When you are there its a powerful spot. There are a number of places where Napis coincide with medicine wheels.

The creation of such stone figures on the landscape by a nomadic hunting and gathering people so long ago should not be a surprise, Brink said. After all, 40,000 years ago ancient people had time to paint elaborate animal figures in French caves. The people roaming ancient Montana had about 13,000 years to learn about this landscape and its wildlife.

Evidence supports that they had a successful lifestyle and manipulated the environment to meet their needs, he said.

Brink said the Henry Smith site in Montana, named after the one-time landowner, is a good example of people who successfully mastered the physical environment they lived in.

The property, now owned by BLM and protected from disturbance because it isnt publicly accessible, is riddled with buffalo drive lines, cairns, discarded rock tools, teepee rings, vision quest sites and the two human effigies.

The human rock outlines are very similar to some of those found in other parts of Montana, Alberta and Saskatchewan and a few outliers that have been recorded as far away as North Dakota and Kansas.

All are rock outlines and clearly human figures. The torsos are typically square and contain a rock where the heart is, or a heart line  similar to pictograph and petroglyph depictions of humans that also dates to the same time period. Most have a waist line and some still have stones placed where kidneys are located. The Napi figures are all notably male, too, with a sometimes discernible phallus. A single line of rocks creates the legs, and the feet typically point outward.

With arms outstretched, bent at the elbow in a hands-up style and fingers  if the smaller rocks remain  splayed out, Brink calls the pose one of supplication, the human being surrendering to the spirit world.

Other human effigies without these characteristics have been tied to historical events, such as the place where a rival tribal member was killed. Some of these are found in Wyoming and one in Montana on the Crow Reservation near Pryor is said to represent an unfaithful wife, according to a survey of the sites by J. Rod Vickers, published in Plains Archaeologist in 2008.

Essentially, the recognition of the phallic figures by the Blackfoot as Napi does not necessarily imply that all such figures were originally constructed by the Blackfoot, Vickers wrote. These identifications might have been ascribed to effigies long after their construction.

Another archaeologist, Richard Forbis, is quoted in the same paper noting: Coincidental distributions do not provide conclusive proof  the land shifted hands within a very short period of historic time, and similar shifts may have occurred in prehistoric times.

No matter who built them, Brink said ancient rock features that remain relatively undisturbed in places like the BLMs Henry Smith site are helping to teach modern people an important lesson about ancient plains inhabitants.

These people had a deep spiritual life, he said. It was steeped in ceremony.

That makes sense considering the treacherous and fickle world in which they lived, he added.

For people who are not used to thinking this way, imagine putting yourself out somewhere on the plains and just stand there in the middle of nowhere and ask: How do I survive?
Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt

In every generation, there is temptation to alter the structures and constraints of our Constitution in order to meet the political desires or expediencies of the moment. I agree with our Nations Founders that our freedoms are best preserved in both the short term and the long term by politically operating within our constitutional structure.

Today marks an important day for the rule of law. The Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the president can act alone and create immigration laws without working with Congress as required by the Constitution. By the presidents own admission, his administration has disregarded checks-and-balances set forth in the Constitution, and the presidents executive order on immigration is no exception. The intent of the states lawsuit is not to give an opinion about immigration policy  that is the job of president working with Congress  but to restore the balance of power between the president and Congress. As shown by decisions in federal district and appellate courts in this case, the president overreached by attempting to make the law himself. I remain optimistic that the Supreme Court decision will result in the cherished principles of the rule of law and the separation of powers between the president and Congress being upheld.

U.S. Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto

This issue is personal for me  my grandfather immigrated to this country from Chihuahua, Mexico. Supporters of this lawsuit would tear families apart for nothing more than partisan politics. This is exactly the type of dysfunction and partisanship Nevadans are fed up with. The immigration executive actions wouldnt even be necessary if politicians like Congressman Heck had done their job and passed comprehensive immigration reform. We need real immigration reform that secures our borders and provides a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Until then, these executive actions are necessary to prevent families from being torn apart. Unfortunately, both of my opponents, Sharron Angle and Congressman Heck, not only oppose comprehensive immigration reform, they also oppose the executive actions to keep families together, want to repeal birthright citizenship, and have pledged to support Donald Trump if he wins the Republican nomination. Unlike my opponents, I will always stand with Nevadas Latino community, not anti-immigrant extremists like Donald Trump.
A veteran Democratic state senator now running for mayor of North Las Vegas says her 21-year-old adopted son shot and wounded her nephew at her home while she was at a community event. State Sen. Pat Spearman spoke to reporters Friday outside the jail where police said NaOnche Tamar Osborne is being held. He's being held there pending an initial court appearance on felony attempted murder and other charges. Court records didn't immediately say if he has an attorney. Spearman says her nephew was hospitalized with non-life-threatening wounds. Police say the shooting happened Thursday evening at a home in the citys northwest. Her campaign chief says she's not giving up the race for mayor.
Workers at a slaughterhouse in Vic end their shift. Massimiliano Minocri

You get five seconds per pig. First you rip out the offal, which weighs around 20 kilograms. Then you cut around the lungs and pull them out. After that, you have to slice out the tongue and then hang whats left of the animal on a butchers hook.

Do this 10 times in rapid succession and your arms start to tingle. After that, they begin to go numb; eventually, your nails turn black and fall out. When youre working at a rate of 700 carcasses an hour, the repetitive nature of the work means you cant move your shoulders at the end of the day.

You have to be both fit and desperate for this job, like Emmanuel Kumi, who left his family behind in Ghana to make the journey by foot to Morocco

You have to be both fit and desperate for this job, like Emmanuel Kumi, 47, who left his family behind in the West African nation of Ghana to make the journey by foot to Morocco, where he caught a patera  one of the rickety boats that bring illegal immigrants to Spains shores.

In 2005, he found work at Esfosa, one of the biggest slaughterhouses in Vic, an industrial town in Catalonia, and where the majority of employees are also immigrants. Like Emmanuel, they come from all over the world in search of a better life; some by patera like Emmanuel, others jumping the border fence at the Spanish exclave of Melilla. Among them are Romanians and Poles and Chinese such as Xiao Pin and, in recent years, there has been an influx of Indians, like Surjit Singh.

Rampant racism, long hours and inhuman treatment of workers who fall ill or are injured in an accident are among the grievances cited by the men who agreed to talk to El PAIS about their two-day strike in early April, the first such challenge to the Catalan meat industry by its immigrant workforce.

It didnt do them much good. Instead of being invited to the negotiating table, John Bosco, one of Emmanuels co-workers from Senegal, was both insulted and threatened by his boss, Josep Ramisa.

According to witnesses, Ramisa, one of the so-called aristobutchers of the Catalan pork sector and a partner in the Esfosa company, called Bosco a black piece of shit! and threatened to send him back to Africa, where youll die of hunger! Julio Risque, a co-worker of Boscos, claims Ramisa also threatened the strikers and to pump them full of bullets.

Ramisa, who is facing charges of intimidation and who already has a criminal record for breaching environmental legislation, refused to talk to EL PAIS.

Waiting to be slaughtered.

The dispute, which has been covered by local media such as 9 Nou and Nacio Digital, is the tip of the iceberg in an industry plagued by social, labor and environment problems, all of which have been rife since the crisis triggered 20% growth in the meat industry.

Once a sector run by small family businesses, it is now in the hands of six or seven big corporations, most of which are Catalan. These conglomerates not only manage the abattoirs, they also run the farms, supply animal feed and take care of transport and distribution. Farmers no longer even own the pigs they feed and have now been integrated into a fully industrialized, vertical supply chain.

Local farmer Josep Maria Llopart says profit margins are slim. The raw materials for the feed come from the United States. The pigs are fattened, slaughtered and then exported. Were left with the slurry, he says.

Few of the men working on the killing floors of Vic speak Spanish. They come to work on rundown bicycles from the poor neighborhoods on the outskirts of town. Most of those working at the Esfosa slaughterhouse are on permanent contracts, but other abattoirs such as Le Porc Gourmet, owned by Grupo Jorge in Santa Eugenia de Berga, workers can be hired and fired as needed.

The main problems are a lack of security and racism

Monsterrat Castane, COS labor union

These contracts, introduced in Catalonia and now common across Spain, are known as cooperatives. Most workers employed on this basis earn 800 a month, with 50 deducted for belonging to the supposed cooperative, along with deductions for work materials, laundry, along with a 267 social security contribution. A no-union clause means men can be fired on the spot for no-reason and cannot claim compensation.

Jose Miguel Torrecilla, a spokesperson for Le Porc Gourmet, defends the use of cooperative contracts, arguing, The price of pork is very volatile and there are times when we need more staff. This is the only way we can deal with the situation. We are not breaking the law.

But such precarious labor conditions have provided criminal gangs with the opportunity to establish money-for-work rackets. The bosses dont realize but the supervisors are in on it, says Said Belkacem, who was fired from Le Porc Gourmet in February for striking. If you dont pay them 500, you dont get the job. There was a while when a Chinese woman working in the offal zone was selling jobs to the Chinese. There was also a guy from Ghana called Patrick who charged his fellow Ghanaians to work.

Said also mentioned an Indian worker with criminal connections who was murdered at the gates of another big abattoir.

The Catalan meat sector says it has taken action to tackle the gangs exploiting its workforce. Jose Luis Tolosana, President of the Taic cooperative which works in association with abattoirs such as Le Porc Gourmet, says his organization received anonymous complaints two years ago, and in a bid to stamp out this kind of behavior, told workers to refuse to pay for jobs and go to the police if they were threatened. Since then, Tolosana claims hes heard no more about it.

A criminal network had charged 300 Chinese workers up to 16,000 for a job, sums paid off by deducting quotas directly from their wages

But according to meat workers in Vic, it remains a problem in the sector. One case currently making its way through the courts in Vic is the result of an operation that targeted a network of people traffickers linked to Baucells, one of the biggest slaughterhouses in the area.

The network had charged 300 Chinese workers up to 16,000 for a job, sums paid off by deducting quotas directly from their wages. Six people, most of them Chinese, along with the Spanish personnel manager, were charged.

Meanwhile, the mayor of the nearby town of Santa Eugenia, Anna Franquesa, has taken up the migrant workers case. There are people here working in sub-human conditions, she says, adding: We have gone to parliament about it and we are talking to trade unions, the government of Catalonia and Caritas [a Catholic Church charity]. The problem is that the abattoirs have the law on their side. The director of Le Porc Gourmet tells me its difficult to put workers on normal contracts because the company would suffer huge losses.

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Montse Castane of the COS labor union sits on Esfosas works council and has helped expose demeaning and hazardous conditions there. She told EL PAIS that in the 11 years shes spent working there, shes never seen anything like the current conditions.

She accuses the company of refusing to call an ambulance when people have been injured on the production line, instead making them call a taxi, and cites the case of father of three Surjit Sing who had to walk home from the hospital at 4am after a serious accident.

The main problems are safety and racism, Castane told El Pais. The other day there was a guy from Ghana who was doubled over in pain and I asked the supervisor to have someone replace him. His reply was, Hes black and hes just arrived. Let him die.

English version by Heather Galloway.
Morales gives the pope books on coca. Alessandra Tarantino (AP)

During Evo Morales meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican Apostolic Library on Friday, the Bolivian president had some interesting advice for the pontiff. During the 27-minute conversation, Morales handed over three books on the benefits of the coca plant, and recommended that the pope start chewing the medicinal plant. I am taking it and its working for me. I recommend it to you so you live a long life, Morales explained.

In return, the pope gave Morales a Saint Martin of Tours medallion, a gift he often hands out in private meetings. Saint Martin is the patron saint of Buenos Aires and a symbol of love for the poor. He also brought the South American leader a copy of his exhortation on family, Amoris Laetitia and a copy of The Name of God Is Mercy, an interview book he published earlier this year.

The coca plant is one of the most common medicines used to combat altitude sickness when the body lacks oxygen

The coca plant is one of the most common medicines used to combat altitude sickness when the body lacks oxygen, especially at heights of over 2,400 meters above sea level. In Bolivia, coca is also used as a medicinal herb to boost energy and stave off hunger. It can be chewed or consumed as mate tea or in herbal infusions. Though the coca plant is on the list of narcotic drugs published by the United Nations (UN) in 1961, Evo Morales decriminalized its use in Bolivia. Coca is not cocaine, he has previously stated.

The Bolivian leader also gave the pope a letter from the Bolivian Workers Central (COB) and the National Coordinator for Change (CONALCAM) regarding the latest statements the Bolivian Catholic Church made. Here you have the letter from the social movements and all the material, Morales told Pope Francis.

After the Bolivian Episcopal Conference published a document on April 1 saying that drug cartels had infiltrated state institutions, Morales promised to bring up the issue in his conversation with the pope.

English version by Dyane Jean Francois.
The forces of nature have once again struck in one of the poorest areas of Latin America. An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale ripped through a large part of Ecuador on Saturday night, causing a tragedy that is still hard to quantify. At least 413 have been killed and between 70,000 and 100,000 need some kind of assistance due to the tragedy, according to the latest figures.

On Sunday, rescue teams were yet to reach some of the worst-affected areas. I fear that the death toll will rise considerably, said the Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa at the weekend, adding that there are still many bodies to be pulled from the rubble.

The European Union has announced that it will be sending a million euros worth of urgent aide to help the victims.

It was 6.58pm when the ground began to shake in the northwest of the country, in the coastal province of Esmeraldas, on the border with the south of Colombia. The quake, the worst in the last three decades in Ecuador, was felt across the whole country. The epicentre was in the Pacific Ocean, at a depth of 20 kilometers  28 kilometers from the Ecuadorian coast and 173 kilometers from the capital, Quito.

There have been nearly 230 aftershocks since, some as strong as 6.1 on the Richter scale. The tremors are likely to continue for the next three days. The earthquake is one of the worst that Latin America has seen in the last decade, after Peru in 2007 (nearly 600 dead) and in Chile in 2010 (more than 150 victims).

President Correa cut short an official visit to the Vatican when the earthquake struck, arriving back in his country on Sunday afternoon. The tragedy is huge, the pain is huge, the leader said, visibly moved.

Correa announced that 10,000 military personnel and 4,600 police officers had been mobilized. The state has allotted $300 million for the emergency, while Correa announced that the government has a credit line of $600 million from bodies such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

The international community announced its solidarity and immediate support for Ecuador. Some neighboring countries, such as Venezuela and Colombia, were the first to send assistance. Correa thanked world leaders, including Spains Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, for their phone calls of support.

English version by Simon Hunter.
Podemos general secretary Pablo Echenique (left) and campaign manager Eduardo Maura. LUIS TEJIDO (EFE)

An overwhelming majority of the grassroots membership of anti-austerity party Podemos says it does not want to join the pact agreed by the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the center-right reform group Ciudadanos.

In a weekend poll of some 150,000 members  around 40% of those who are eligible to vote  a total of 88.23% rejected joining Pedro Sanchez and Albert Rivera, the leaders of the Socialists and Ciudadanos respectively, while 91.7% supported the idea of creating a coalition government between the Socialists, the communist-led United Left, and Valencian party Compromis.

The outcome of the poll comes as no surprise, and reflects the position of the party led by Pablo Iglesias. Podemoss new secretary general, Pablo Echenique, announced the results of the referendum on Monday, clearly using it to show that the leadership is in tune with the grassroots over the failed talks with the Socialists in the wake of the stalemate produced by the December 20 elections. Polls suggest voters see Podemos as intransigent and that the party could suffer if, as seems increasingly likely, new elections have to be held in late June.

This week will see King Felipe VI consult with the main parties in a final bid to exhaust all possibilities to reach a deal. At the same time, Podemos will continue to highlight the mandate handed to it by the grassroots to pursue the coalition rejected by the Socialists. But Echenique insists that Podemos will continue to talk to the Socialists.

Polls suggest voters see Podemos as intransigent and that the party could suffer if, as seems increasingly likely, new elections have to be held

We are open to dialog and prepared to sit down and talk about a government of change. I am a little skeptical about the path taken by the PSOE so far, but I am still hopeful it will change course, said Echenique on Monday.

Podemos and Ciudadanos have refused to talk one another, citing insurmountable differences in their programs, among them the right for Catalans to decide their future in a referendum, which Podemos backs. This has also proved a stumbling block in talks with the Socialists.

In March, Ciudadanos and the Socialists announced they had the basis for a pact, but that requires additional congressional support to achieve a sufficient majority to form a government.

Ciudadanos would like to add the ruling Popular Party to this alliance, but so far the conservatives have refused to negotiate. Meanwhile, the Socialists have rejected a coalition with the PP. Instead, Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez insists on bringing both emerging parties onto his team.

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English version by Nick Lyne.
SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

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
SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

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

Google Ad

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

Google Ad

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

LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET

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
Online fundraising to support the families of fallen soldiers in Artsakh

Armenian Renaissance diaspora organization is conducting fundraising to support the families of the fallen soldiers who died in the recent unprecedented Azeri aggression in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). We bow before all of the brave young men who sacrificed their lives for Armenia and for our well-being. It is impossible to fully express our gratitude for the young lives that were sacrificed. But we in the diaspora feel deeply obliged to at least try to help the families of the fallen soldiers in their material struggles by sending them financial support. We invite all diaspora Armenians to join this initiative. Armenian Renaissance will transfer and disburse the funds to the beneficiaries directly and without intermediaries. For this purpose a representative of Armenian Renaissance, Garik Khachatryan, himself a former freedom fighter and member of the Shushi Special Battalion, will travel to Armenia to coordinate the efforts locally, the organization said. You can follow the fundraising, the list of donors and the sum total of funds raised at the following page http://www.armenianrenaissance.org/cs_cause/2016/04/06/12390/ At the same time the organization says the fundraising event and the name of the organization have recently become the subject of misunderstanding and misinformation in the media and social networks. The reason is that the organization is confused with a political party bearing the same name. Our organization existed for three years when Artur Baghdasaryan decided to rename his party Armenian Renaissance Party. Naturally, it caused confusion among people despite our warnings and demand to change the partys name, the organization said. The organization also promised to post on the website of Armenian Renaissance a detailed report after the funds have been provided to the families.
Russian officials visit Russian 102nd military base in Gyumri

On April 16, the members of the RF Federal Council of the Federal Assembly Committee on Defense and Security accompanied by the Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs Koryun Nahapetyan and the Committee members visited the Russian 102nd Military Base deployed in Gyumri. The Commander presented the activities of the Military Base, after which the parliamentarians visited the Russian Church and the Museum on the territory of the Military Base. Koryun Nahapetyan and the First Deputy Speaker of the RF FC FA Committee on Defense and Security Alexander Chekalin left a note in the Book of Honourable Guests of the Museum. Let us note that the 102nd Military Base has a great contribution in strengthening and development of the military cooperation of the Republic of Armenia with the Russian Federation, and shows immediate and active participation in the joint events held by the armed forces of Armenia and Russia. Afterwards the delegation visited the Russian Orthodox Church-Chapel of Gyumri. At the Hill of Honour platform they laid a wreath and flowers at the memorial dedicated to the memory of the victims died during the seizure of Kars Castle. At the end of the visit the deputies had also been to the borderline military unit of the RF Security Federal Service deployed in Gyumri and talked with the Commanders, reports the press service of the Armenian Parliament.
Armenian delegates to speak about Aliyev's wealth in Strasbourg

Although the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was not included in the agenda of the current PACE session, it does not mean that the continued tensions on the Line of Contact between Karabakh-Azerbaijani armed forces will not been discussed at the ongoing session. PACE delegates can always raise the issue in different discussions which are somehow linked to the topic, A1+s journalist reports from Strasbourg. Armenian delegates will raise the Karabakh issue during the discussion on the Panama documents because they believe that tensions in the Karabakh conflict zone are directly connected with the leaked documents about Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyevs family possessions, By the way, some of the circumstances were announced at the meeting of the Political Bureau, when it was decided not to include the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a current issue in the agenda of the PACE. After that, head of the Armenian delegation to PACE Hermine Naghdalyan said that one of the reasons inappropriate - that at the previous session on the theme of the NKR has been widespread discussion. After the April 18 sitting of the PACE Political Bureau which decided not to include the Karabakh issue in the agenda of the current session as a matter of urgency Hermine Naghdalyan, head of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, said, one of the reasons [presented by the Political Bureau] was that the Strasbourg-based structure held an extensive discussion on the Karabakh issue in its previous session. At the moment, PACE Political Bureau refrains from large-scale discussions on the Karabakh conflict as they hope that the conflicting sides will return to the negotiating table and peace will be re-established in the region. they do not want to discontinue or harm the process by heated debates, she said. By the way, the Armenian delegates are distributing brochures entitled "Azerbaijan's war crimes.
ACE President speaks about 'April war' in Karabakh

The agenda of the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has been established with the leaked Panama documents remaining as a topic for current affairs debate. However, at the beginning of the meeting the chairman of the PACE Pedro Agramunt spoke about the tensions on the Karabakh-Azerbaijani Line of Contact earlier in April, A1+s journalist reports from Strasbourg. He condemned the recent escalation of the conflict and expressed his condolences to the relatives of the victims. Pedro Agramunt reiterated that he supports territorial integrity, but this time he did not use the name of Azerbaijan. The PACE President only said that he supports territorial integrity of all CoE member states. Pedro Agramunt stressed that the structure he heads does not have the authority to resolve the Karabakh conflict, but he believes that parliamentary diplomacy can contribute to solving the issue. We need to build bridges, Mr Agramunt said urging all delegates to be as careful as possible in their speeches. By the way, breaking the tradition, Pedro Agramunt will not give a press conference during this session. The spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe launched in Strasbourg on April 18. The Nagorno Karabakh issue was suggested to be included in the current affairs section of the agenda. Three topics related to the Karabakh conflict were suggested for the discussion: Crimes committed by Azerbaijan during the recent aggression against Nagorn-Karabakh suggested by the Armenian delegation, The tragic escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan suggested by the Azerbaijani delegation and The last and tragic escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict suggested by a French parliamentarian. However, during the PACE Bureau discussion prior to the session it was decided to not to include any issue related to the Karabakh conflict in the agenda as a topic for current affairs debate. It was also suggested to include a current affairs debate on The case of the 'Panama Papers' which was approved by the members of the Assembly.
Azerbaijani delegate defends PACE President

Addressing the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) launched on in Strasbourg on April 18, PACE President Pedro Argamunt, today condemned the recent skirmishes in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone that resulted in casualties on both sides, without giving concrete names. In their speeches made in the first part of the session, members of the Armenian delegation to PACE, Samvel Farmanyan, Hermine Naghdalyan and Naira Zohrabyan, said the PACE presidents assessments are not consistent with the real situation. Naira Zohrabyan considered him [Pedro Agramunt] a spokesman for the Azerbaijani President [Ilham Aliyev]. Samvel Farmanyan called PACE delegates attention to the rhetoric of the PACE president, which, Farmanyan said, is in favour of Azerbaijan. Angered by the words of the Armenian delegate, Azerbaijani delegate Ganira Pashayeva expressed support for Argamunt, saying he had made fair statements. Pedro Argamunt regularly supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan in his speeches. In his speech, Head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov reprimanded PACE delegates for not adopting a pro-Azerbaijani report during the previous session. He said that Azerbaijan is getting closer to the West, thats why the provocation was incited. Samad Seyidov added that there are no Azerbaijanis in Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh while many Armenians live in his country [Azerbaian]. He also talked about the necessity of negotiations, which will involve Armenians residing in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijanis who do not live there. As was expected, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation tried to blame the deadly border clashes of April 2-5 on the Armenian side. By the way, PACE President did not respond to the accusations of the Armenian delegation.
Justice for Sale in Azerbaijan's Courts?

The recent early release of the son of a senior official from prison has highlighted widespread concerns about corruption in Azerbaijans judiciary. Ilham Asgerli, the son of the head of the Sabail district of the city of Baku, was responsible for a fatal accident in September 2014. Although he was 16 and did not hold a drivers licence, he took his parents car and drove off at high speed with his friend Sanan Mirzoyev and the family driver as passengers. The Mercedes veered off its lane and crashed into an oncoming truck. Mirzoyev was seriously injured and died in hospital. Asgerli and the driver escaped with minor injuries. Asgerli was initially sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail in May last year and the driver of the truck, Ahliman Suleymanov, to six years. Mirzoyevs familys lawyers asked the court to release the innocent truck driver and demanded that Asgerli, the real culprit, be punished. Instead, one month later, the Baku court of appeals left Suleymanovs six-year sentence unchanged and reduced Asgerlis sentence to three years. In February, he was released from prison. POWER BUYS INFLUENCE Azerbaijan has become increasingly intolerant of political dissent. Dozens of political activists, human rights defenders and journalists have been arrested in recent years on what are widely considered to be trumped charges, ranging from hooliganism and tax evasion to drug possession. According to the Centre for the Monitoring of Political Prisoners, there were 107 political prisoners in the country in February 2016. In mid-March, 13 of the detainees were released, ahead of President Ilham Aliyevs participation in the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. Yalchin Imanov is a lawyer whose clients include imprisoned journalist Khadija Ismayilova and other well-known political prisoners. He said that undue official influence on the courts manifested itself not only through political, but also regular civil cases. In the Asgerli case, all the evidence proved that the officials son had been solely at fault, he said. But the decision ultimately led to his release and the imprisonment of a completely innocent person for a period of six years, Imanov continued. In Azerbaijans courts, if the case is not decided upon someones orders, it is decided on money. The order is given in political cases and in cases where high-ranking people are involved. The high-ranking officials in Azerbaijan are the same rich people who head monopolies and shadow businesses in the country. They can influence the courts through their position and money, Imanov said. If it is about regular criminal cases, there is necessarily money involved. A strange trend reigns in our society. Lawyers are mainly needed to conduct bargaining with the prosecutors and judges. There are very few lawyers who do not participate in such bargaining, he added. These circumstances were used to advantage by a 32-year-old Baku resident, who asked to remain anonymous. My brother was involved in a robbery. When he was arrested, we first agreed with the investigator, then with the prosecutor and judge, so that they would treat him leniently, she said. Her brother could have been sentenced to 14 years in prison. To help him, they sold their apartment, paid first the investigator, then the prosecutor and the judge, doling out about 40,000 manats (over 26,000 dollars). In the end, they were able to knock off six years from the anticipated jail term. My brother was sentenced to eight years in prison, she said. HOPES FOR A MODERN JUDICIARY According to Tamara Grigoryeva, a programme officer at Freedom House, Azerbaijan did attempt to establish an independent judiciary after independence and passed the appropriate laws. A presidential decree in 2006 on modernising the judiciary led to the establishment of new courts and courts of appeals across the countrys regions. An academy was also set up to provide training and certification for judges and lawyers. Last November, at the opening ceremony of a new court building in the city of Sheki, Aliyev claimed transparency was increasing, praising the successful strengthening of the countrys judicial system and implementation of the rule of law. Grigoryeva, however, highlighted serious problems beyond corruption, including a lack of professional judges and specialised first instance courts. On top of all these, the main problem of the judicial system in Azerbaijan is that this country is a one-man government, and the courts dont make independent decisions, she said. In the past couple of years, we have all seen multiple court cases, including cases against prominent journalists and human rights defenders, where no credible evidence was provided to the court. Yet, these people got ridiculously lengthy sentences, Grigoryeva continued. These fabricated cases were a vivid example of how poorly Azerbaijans judicial system functions and how its nowhere near being independent and just. Government officials dispute such allegations. The courts in Azerbaijan are free and independent, Aidyn Mirzazade, a deputy for the ruling party New Azerbaijan, told IWPR. If a citizen is dissatisfied with any judgement, he can appeal to a higher court  the court of appeals, the Supreme Court. Pressure on the courts is out of the question. COURTS NOW GIVE IN TO OFFICIAL PRESSURE Lawyer Alayif Hasanovtold told IWPR that he had referred five civil cases in which pressure from officials had led to unjust sentences to the European Court of Human Rights, "There are many such civil cases, in which the courts under the influence of officials, or basically the local executive structures have rendered completely unfair decisions," he said. Rasul Mammadov said that his son Sabuhi, serving a four-year jail sentence for hooliganism, had fallen victim to this skewed system. My son is now in detention because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, said his father, explaining how in October 2013 the then-23-year-old had gone to meet a friend. When he arrived, he saw that his friend was involved in a fight and tried to break it up, but ended up getting beaten himself. One of the participants in the fight pulled out a knife and injured three people, one of whom died of his injuries. The father of the man who died, a high-ranking official, insisted that everyone involved in the fight be punished. Sabuhi Mammadov knew neither the deceased nor the murderer nor the other participants in the fight. He only knew one of those fighting and that is why he got involved in the fight to separate them. The fact that my client became involved in the fight only by chance was confirmed by all its participants. In spite of this, ... he was imprisoned for four years, said his lawyer, Khalid Bagirov. I understand the grieving father. The man has lost his son. But the punishment of an innocent man will not bring back his son, said Rasul Mammadov. Some citizens have been driven to dramatic acts of public protest to highlight alleged corruption. On February 27, residents of the village of Kotuklu in the Gabala district in northern Azerbaijan marched to the Agdam district to try to cross into territory controlled by the Armenian armed forces. Azerbaijan and Armenia have been in conflict over this territory, Nagorny Karabakh, since the early 1990s. A fragile ceasefire signed in 1994 effectively froze the conflict without resolving it. There have been periodic outbreaks of violence since the fragile 1994 ceasefire, with the latest and most serious skirmishes erupting on April 2. By crossing into this territory, the 25 villagers could be certain to attract wide attention to their problems. The protestors claimed that relatives of senior officials who lived in their village were exploiting their power to abuse fellow residents. Any villager who stood in their way would be set up by having drugs planted in their house or car. Following their protest, villagers were detained by law enforcement officials and then sent home. To cross into territory controlled by Armenians on the side of Armenians is an unworthy step for a citizen, said the lawyer Imanov. But bureaucratic chaos and unfair trials have driven citizens to such a state that, out of hopelessness, they do not know what to do. Nurgul Novruz is the pseudonym of an Azerbaijani journalist. The article is published by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (www.iwpr.net)
Exchange of experiences in postal services

Serzh Sargsyan received today the Director General of the Universal Postal Union Bishar Abdirahman Hussein and his delegation comprising Chairman of the Post Europe Management Board Jean-Paul Forceville and Secretary General Botond Scheben. The President of Armenia welcomed the guests who have arrived to Yerevan to participate at the regular meeting of the Union of the National Postal Operators of Europe. Serzh Sargsyan stressed the importance of the Universal Postal Union in the development of global communications which back in the 19th century became a foundation for the creation of the postal system, enhancing ties between different nations and peoples, introducing to each other civilizations bearers of different cultures and values. Noting that Armenia became a member of the large universal postal family over 25 years ago, the President of Armenia stressed that the membership has greatly promoted development and modernization in our country of postal services. Serzh Sargsyan said that the convening in Yerevan of this meeting is a good opportunity to learn firsthand about Armenias achievements in this area, exchange experience, and assess Armenias national postal operator Hayposts work, as well as to think over future development programs. The Director General of the Universal Postal Union thanked the President of Armenia for the hospitality and opportunity to convene the conference of the Union of the National Postal Operators of Europe in Armenia. He presented the objectives of the Conference and mission of the Organization headed by him, and spoke about cooperation with Haypost. He also assured that the Universal Postal Union will continue its assistance to the national postal operator of Armenia thus promoting its development, considering the fact that in the rapidly changing world new opportunities arise for the introduction of the innovative approaches in the area of postal services as well.
Ecuador earthquake death toll rises to 272 (video)

At least 272 people have been confirmed dead and more than 1,500 people injured after Ecuador was hit by its most powerful earthquake in decades, BBC reports.

More than 2,000 were injured in the quake.

Some 10,000 troops and 3,500 police are being deployed in the affected areas, as rescue operations continue.

The magnitude-7.8 quake struck on Saturday evening.

Coastal areas in the north-west were closest to the epicentre and officials say the death toll is likely to rise as information begins to come in.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has cut short a visit to Italy to deal with the crisis. He has declared a state of emergency and said the priority is finding survivors.

"Everything can be rebuilt, but lives cannot be recovered, and that's what hurts the most," he said.

"I fear that figure will go up because we keep on removing rubble," a shaken Mr Correa said in a televised address. "There are signs of life in the rubble, and that is being prioritised."

The hardest-hit area was the coastal Manabi Province, where about 200 people died, said Ricardo Penaherrera of Ecuador's national emergency management office. The cities of Manta, Portoviejo and Pedernales, a tourist destination, saw the most devastation but damage was widespread throughout the country.

People looking for family and friends frantically dug with their hands and tools until excavation equipment arrived.

All six coastal provinces -- Guayas, Manabi, Santo Domingo, Los Rios, Esmeraldas and Galapagos -- are in state of emergencies.
Naira Zohrabyan to PACE delegates: You gave Azerbaijan carte blanche to start large-scale military operations in Karabakh conflict zone

Naira Zohrabyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) addressed harsh criticism to PACE President Pedro Agramunt during the PACE spring session, condemning Agramunt for his support of the Azerbaijani aggressive policy. She declared that by voting for the resolution of the Sarsang Reservoir in the January session PACE gave Azerbaijan 'a carte blanche' to start large-scale military operations. On the night of April 2, Azerbaijan attack along the entire perimeter of the Line of Contact between Karabakh-Azerbaijani armed forces, applying heavy weapons, clearly targeting civilians and bombarding civilian settlements. They bombarded schools, killed peaceful civilians and soldiers, cut off their ears, mutilated the corpses of Armenian soldiers, and killed a schoolboy in front of his brother. Azerbaijan tortured and beheaded prisoners of war and combatants, and all this before the eyes of the civilized world. Moreover, Azerbaijan's troops managed to take the village of Talish [in Karabakh] under their control for one day, where Aliyevs mercenaries brutally tortured and killed elderly people who stayed in the village. While Aliyevs mercenaries were committing war crimes, PACE President Pedro Agramunt expressed his support to Azerbaijans authoritarian and aggressive policy. While Azerbaijani armed forces were shelling civilian settlements, the President of our Assembly who is obliged to maintain neutrality and impartiality was encouraging the war criminals by his messages, Zohrabyan said. The Council of Europe is an organization of 47 states, obliged to represent and protect the rights of 800 million Europeans. The president of such a serious organization must be an unbiased and objective person, not someone who publicly defends dictatorship by encouraging criminal Azerbaijan. Its an unprecedented situation here, when the President of the Assembly is also Azerbaijani Presidents spokesman. All those who voted for the so-called humanitarian issue of the Sarsang water reservoir should have already acknowledged that Azerbaijan didnt want to solve any humanitarian problem, but to recapture the reservoir. Thats why Azerbaijan needed your support in international institutions and in PACE to commit a war crime under the guise of a humanitarian act. Look at the movement of the Azerbaijani armed forces during the four-day war and you will understand that through your vote you gave Azerbaijan that carte blanche, Zohrabyan said.
German Chairmanship of the OSCE deeply concerned with escalation of situation along Line of Contact

Foreign Minister of Armenia received the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus On April 18, Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian received Gunther Bachler, Special Representative for the South Caucasus of the OSCE German Chairperson-in-Office. Edward Nalbandian presented to Special Representative of German Chairmanship the situation unfolded in the result of military actions unleashed by Azerbaijan, violations of the cease-fire regime by the latter taking place up until now. Ambassador Bachler mentioned that the German Chairmanship of the OSCE is deeply concerned with escalation of the situation along the Line of Contact between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh and conveyed condolences for the human losses due to the military actions. During the meeting, thoughts were exchanged over the prospects of continuation of the negotiation process within the OSCE Minsk Group. Edward Nalbandian presented Armenias stance on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. The sides attached importance to the support for the efforts of the Co-Chair countries directed towards exclusively peaceful settlement of the issue, especially under the current circumstances. Minister Nalbandian highlighted, The Azerbaijani side does not cease speculations around the negotiation process. Whereas the Co-Chairs proposals are well known and clearly formulated, including the five statements by the Heads of states of the Co-Chair countries, the cornerstone of which is the realization of the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination. On numerous occasions Armenia has stated that it is ready to continue negotiations based on them.
Information about missing persons becomes difficult to obtain over time

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, refrained from giving a direct reply to Ganira Pashayeva, a member of Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The latter asked the Commissioner to comment on the tortures of Azerbaijani hostages by Armenians. Nils Muiznieks only expressed his concerns over military operations on the Karabakh-Azerbaijani border saying civilians were killed in action. At the same time, he stressed the importance of cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He particularly highlighted the issue of missing persons and said as the years pass, it becomes more difficult to gather information about them. Nils Muiznieks assured everyone that he will keep the issue in the centre of his attention. The Commissioner for Human Rights also declined to answer a question by Naira Zurabyan, a member of the Armenian delegation, who asked him to assess the atrocities committed by Azerbaijan during the four-day deadly hostilities. He reiterated that he had already expressed his concerns over the tragic events and repeated what he had told the Azerbaijani delegate. Nils Muiznieks presented a report about the structures activities in 2015. Last year, the Commissioner did not visit Armenia. Last week, Nagorno-Karabakhs Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to a statement of a number of Azerbaijani media resources which refers to alleged traces of abuse discovered on the bodies of deceased Azerbaijani soldiers that were transferred to the Azerbaijani side during the exchange of April 10, with the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. Before the start of the exchange procedure, all bodies were examined in the presence of representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross. No traces of abuse or ill-treatment were discovered or registered on the bodies of Azerbaijani soldiers, Nagorno-Karabakhs Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc (blue shirt) and local officials pays tribute to heroic martyrs

at the Quang Tri Ancient Citadel (Photo: VNA)

The activity took place on the threshold of the 41st South Liberation and National Reunification Day (April 30th).



The PM and local officials offered incense at the Truong Son National Martyrs Cemetery, the Road 9 National Martyrs Cemetery, the Quang Tri Ancient Citadel, and the war memorial on the northern bank of the Thach Han River.



The Truong Son National Martyrs Cemetery is the last resting place of over 10,000 soldiers from across Vietnam. Most of them were from Corps 559  Truong Son Army Corps and sacrificed on Ho Chi Minh Trail during the resistance war against the US.



More than 10,000 martyrs were also buried at the Road 9 National Martyrs Cemetery. They fought in the Road 9 battlefield and in Laos during a campaign of the anti-US war.



Meanwhile, the Ancient Citadel of Quang Tri witnessed a fierce struggle to protect the citadel and Quang Tri Township in 1972. Thousands of soldiers laid down their lives during the 81-day battle. The fight contributed to Vietnams triumph at the Paris Conference and was a prerequisite for the General Offensive and Uprising in the Spring of 1975, which completely liberated the South and reunified the country.



The memorial on the Thach Han Rivers northern bank is also to commemorate thousands of soldiers who were young people leaving their hometowns in the north to join in the resistance war in the south.



The Quang Tri Ancient Citadel and the Thach Han River are considered two cemeteries without tombstones in the central province.



On this occasion, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc paid tribute to Party General Secretary Le Duan at his memorial house in Quang Tri  the birthplace of the late Party leader./.
A Malaysian visitor enjoys Vietnamese traditional "pho"

(Photo: VNA)

The event, held at Le Meridien Hotel, is part of the food exchange and promotion activity between Hanoi Sheraton Hotel and Malaysian hotel based in Asia-Pacific.



Chef of Hanoi Sheraton Bui Quy Kim said her hotel wants to bring pho  a traditional special dish of Vietnamese people to Malaysian friends.



The hotel holds annual exchange with Asian countries to promote Vietnamese food, she said.



A similar event will be held at Sheraton Hotel in Hiroshima, Japan, in May, she revealed, adding that she hopes Vietnamese pho will be widely known around the world.



Antoine Rodriguez from Le Meridien Hotel said the gastronomic programme enables Malaysian locals to explore Vietnamese food.



Apart from pho, the cuisine week also highlights nearly a hundred of other dishes such as nem ran (fried spring roll), nem cuon (fresh spring roll), bo sot vang (beef stew), and banh xeo (pancake).



On the occasion, the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia helped Hanoi Sheraton display some photos capturing Vietnamese land and people with a desire of drawing more Malaysian tourists to Vietnam./.
A production line of RoK's Samsung Electronics (Photo: VNA)

In the first three months, the RoK sold commodities worth USDseven billion to Vietnam  its third biggest importer, representing a 7.6-percent annual increase. By contrast, revenue of the countrys shipments to its number one importer China fell by 15.7 percent annually to 28.5 billion USD, the highest drop in the past seven years.



Regarding the types of products, the number of exported conductors, flat screens, petrochemical products, auto spare parts and synthetic materials plunged during the given period.



Park Jin-woo, head of KITAs market research office, said China has invested heavily in expanding local conductors manufacturing to reduce imports.



He advised Korean firms to exploit the potential of the household-article market.



Also in Q1, the RoKs export value to the US and Japan decreased by 3.3 and 13.1 percent to USD16.8 billion and USD5.5 billion, respectively./.
The seventh national congress of the Communist Party of Cuba opens on April 16th

(Photo: Xinhua/VNA) Wishing the congress successful, the CPV Central Committee says the event is held amidst swift changes and complex developments in the global political and security situation. The sluggish global economic recovery and climate change, among others, are posing massive challenges to countries around the world, especially developing ones. Braving that fact, the CPC and Cuban people have reaped enormous achievements during the updating of the economic model and gradually broken embargoes imposed for more than five decades.

Cuba has continually been a symbol of the revolutionary heroism, the unyielding will and the powerful trust in freedom, equality and dignity for its own and other nations across the globe, the CPV Central Committee says.



It expresses the belief that the CPCs seventh national congress will continue intensifying the Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution and the targets set up at the first congress, so as to help Cuba take firm steps towards the socialism.



In its message, the Vietnamese Party says the two countries have been side by side during the past struggle for independence and freedom and the current national development and protection. It is a rare friendship and solidarity and also an invaluable asset that the two Parties and peoples have nurtured.



The CPV Central Committee voices its delight at the growing relations between the two sides, adding that Vietnam always keeps in mind the great support given by the Cuban Party, State and people.



It reiterates Vietnams consistent stance of continuing to solidify the exemplary fraternal relationship, traditional amity, comprehensive cooperation and constant solidarity between the two Parties, States and peoples./.
Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung (Photo: VNA) The two diplomats said both countries enjoyed positive development in the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership over the past year.

They agreed to increase high-level delegation exchanges, reinforce political trust, expand people-to-people exchanges, enhance mutually beneficial and practical collaboration, control effectively and address satisfactorily any disputes.



The foreign deputy ministers suggested enacting necessary measures to boost two-way trade in a stable, balanced, and sustainable manner, while accelerating the progress and ensuring quality of projects on infrastructure, industrial parks and factories undertaken by Chinese firms.



They also agreed to implement effectively Chinas loans and non-refundable aid for Vietnam, and step up win-win cooperation between Vietnamese and Chinese localities.



Deputy FM Le Hoai Trung thanked China for increasing the release of water to the downstream of the Mekong River to address drought and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta.



He proposed the two sides continue long-term collaboration in the sustainable use and management of water resources in the Mekong River.



The two diplomats agreed to promote the role of the Vietnam-China Land Border Joint Committee in soon reviewing the five-year implementation of documents on land border management, as well as maintaining stability, cooperation and development in the two countries shared border lines.



They candidly exchanged maritime issues and concurred to pushing ahead with the current negotiation mechanisms to carry out joint projects.



Deputy FM Trung expressed Vietnams deep concern over tension and consequences of recent complicated developments in the East Sea.



He reiterated the need to strictly follow agreements and common perceptions reached by leaders of the two countries Parties and States, especially the agreement on basic principles guiding the settlement of issues at sea.



He called for controlling effectively marine conflicts, avoiding actions to complicate and expand disputes, and settling disputes via peaceful means and in line with international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), fully implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and soon building a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC)./.
The training will give participants internationally recognised service and culinary skills, as well as improved English skills, to help them take advantage of increased work opportunities in the region under the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the ASEAN Economic Community, especially in the tourism and hospitality sectors.



Photo for illustration



It has received AUD250,000 in seed funding from the Australian Government and will be delivered by the William Angliss Institute in partnership with Dong A University. Accordingly, around 80 participants; 60 of them in front line hospitality guest service, and 20 in culinary skills will be trained, thus helping to build a platform in Central Vietnam for internationally-recognized vocational training in hospitality and tourism.

William Angliss Institute specialises in the food, tourism and hospitality industry and has been working with the ASEAN Secretariat since 2004 on Mutual Recognition Agreements in these sectors.

Besides, this program will utilise Australias world-class vocational education and training expertise and builds on existing collaboration between Australia and Vietnam to help develop nations vocational education and training sector./.
It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the
The Foreign Ministry of Israel has provided an official explanation on the procedure of entering the territory of Crimea temporarily occupied by Russia  it is lawful to enter Crimea only from the territory of Ukraine, the Newsru in Israel wrote.

"According to Ukrainian laws, entrance of the Crimean peninsular requires a permit from the Ukrainian migration department," the ministry said.

Earlier in January 2016 the official website of the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel published a statement on the entrance of the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea by Israeli citizens.

"The embassy recently received information about facts of entering the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea by Israeli citizens who violate the requirements prescribed in Ukrainian law and do business with illegal Crimean authorities without first receiving permits from the Ukrainian government. The embassy notes that these actions violate Ukrainian law, particularly, the law on enduring rights and liberties of citizens and the legal order on the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. They also contravene international law, in particular, the provisions of A/RES/68/262 resolution adopted by the General Assembly on March 27, 2014 on Territorial integrity of Ukraine. If above-mentioned actions are registered, information will be handed to authorized agencies of Ukraine. The placing of the relevant Israeli companies to the list of companies on which sanctions are imposed will be considered," the embassy said.
A mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will visit Ukraine soon, IMF Head Christine Lagarde said at a meeting with the Ukrainian delegation during the Spring Meeting of IMF and World Bank in Washington.

"Lagarde stressed that the Fund is prepared to continue to support our country on its path of economic transformations and stated that the IMF mission will visit Ukraine soon," the Ukrainian Embassy to the U.S. said on Monday after the talks.

For her part, Ukrainian National Bank Governor Valeriya Gontareva said that Ukraine's highest priority was to implement the reforms foreseen in the cooperation program with the IMF.

The four-year EFF program for Ukraine totaling SDR12.348 billion (about $17 billion), opened by the IMF in March 2015, originally foresaw quarterly revisions of the program, the issue of four tranches to Kyiv in 2015, another four in 2016. However, at present the country has received only the first tranche of funds for $5 billion and the second one worth $1.7 billion.

The IMF official representatives said that the Fund needs more clarity about the status of the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian parliamentary coalition for the completion of the second review of the EFF and the provision of the third tranche.
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze deputy prime minister for European integration has said that a main task in her post is to help Ukrainian producers to enter the European markets as much as possible.

"The top priority for me is to make the Association Agreement real. It must work for Ukrainian reforms. Barriers on the way of assistance that both the European Commission and EU members are ready to provide should be removed, as this hinders the acceptance of this assistance and its absorption. Another main task is to help our regions and Ukrainian producers to enter the EU market as much as possible (of course, in cooperation with the Economic Development and Trade Ministry)," she said in an interview with the Ukrainian weekly newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia.

She said that after preliminary consultations with Volodymyr Groysman I had an impression that he understands a certain institution is required to have the post of Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration effective.

"I hope that we will manage to distribute duties and colleagues would back me that the deputy prime minister for European integration gets a chance of really influence the coordination, implementation monitoring and promotion of important steps in European integration. I think that the issue will be settled via distribution of duties among deputy prime ministers," she said.

She said that a large group of professionals has been gathered in the office of the envoy for European integration.

"It could be used to continue forming the full-featured office (bureau) with a team of professionals," she said.

"I hope that we will manage to attract funds of the European Commission to additionally engage specialists who maybe at first would not go to the civil service, but they will cooperate in a certain form with the office of the deputy prime minister. Then we will actively start introducing the reform of the civil service. These people could later come to the civil service, which I think will become more interesting and attractive for everyone who has knowledge and desire to work with the state," she said.
Oil producing constructions did not manage to sign an agreement to freeze oil production at the January level following six hours of negotiations in Doha on Sunday, but they might hold another round of negotiations in June, Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu told reporters.

OPEC and non-OPEC members will probably hold negotiations in June, he said.

Participants in the meeting, including the Nigerian minister and Oman Oil and Gas Minister Muhammad al-Rumhi, said countries need more time to agree on the conditions of an oil production freeze.

Consultations will probably continue in Vienna in June, as OPEC must first resolve its internal problems, Kachikwu said, adding that the meeting in Vienna will probably initially include OPEC countries and they will then be joined by other producers.

He did not comment on whether the Doha talks failed because of the political standoff between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Qatar Energy and Industry Minister Muhammad al-Sada said that the participants in the Doha meeting expect that oil prices will respond to fundamental economic factors, not the results of the negotiations.

He said the situation on the oil market has improved compared to February, when Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar proposed a production freeze.

The oil market has recovered since February, fundamental market factors are improving and this trend is due to a decrease in production of unconventional oil and reduction of investment, the minister said.

The market is improving, oil prices are moving in the right direction, he stressed.

Asked how he expects oil prices to behave after the Doha meeting, the Qatari minister said producers understand that there are some factors for a drop in price, but they hope that the market will respond to positive fundamentals that have dominated in recent months, rather than momentary news from the meeting.

He said the participants in the meeting considered various options for a production freeze, at different levels and for various time periods, but they realized that more time is needed to make such a decision. In light of this, they have taken a timeout and all oil producers will continue consultations until the OPEC meeting in June.

They considered various scenarios, devoting sufficient time to each one, and decided that they need time to consider these scenarios and possible other options, he stressed.

Remarking that Qatar respects Iran's position, the minister said that a production freeze would certainly be more effective if all OPEC countries and non-OPEC producers agreed to it, as this would accelerate the rebalancing of the market.

He also said that a very effective mechanism of contacts among oil producing countries has been created in the past two months.
All segments of the transport sector in Ukraine should be managed by competent people and professionals, newly appointed Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has said.

"Earlier we made many things with a team. I have a desire to continue that process: to make it stable and systemic. Everything that Andriy Pyvovarsky and we as his team were doling, were doing systemically. We should continue this. I think that the staff issue is very important. My mission is to not allow incompetent people to manage the sector," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

The minister said that his professional experience is enough for this post, although it is impossible to be specialist in all spheres.

"I have experience delegating powers to competent people and my function is to gather a professional team," he said.

Omelyan said that there will be many innovation things in the operation of the ministry both in railway and maritime segments.

"Of course, one of the top priorities is Ukrposhta, its corporatization. I think that in the railway sector, the key event is the selection of the new head: I think that this is a fantastic manager [Wojciech Balczun]. He made large changes in Polish railways. He was the ideologist of these changes. I hope that this experience in Ukraine will be also success," the minister said.
Ukraine must create a full nuclear cycle and enter the global level in treating spent nuclear fuel, without Russia's participation, Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Ostap Semerak has said.

"This is the issue of national security and economic viability. I don't see why we should pay money for storing nuclear fuel in Russia if we can do it ourselves," he wrote on his Facebook page over the weekend.

He said that he will hold a discussion of the issue with the energy and coal industry minister, National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom and intends to attract donor countries to the project.

"The task is to prepare opportunities for the removal and disposal of fuel from reactor four," the minister said.

He said that the Chornobyl zone should be made as open as possible.

"The Exclusion Zone, which is today associated only with tragedy, should become the territory of changes, reforms, innovations. It should be declared ecologically safe territory and made transparent to dispel fears and ignorance," he said.
Roshen asking cyber police to investigate virus emails sent from company name

Roshen Confectionery Corporation has warned its customers and other users of e-mail and the Internet on the distribution by unknown persons of emails with dangerous viruses using the name of the company.

"Roshen is outraged by this fact and makes every effort to eliminate the threat immediately," the corporation said.

The press service of the corporation told Interfax-Ukraine that the corporation had appealed to the cyber police asking to investigate the actions of intruders and believes that they are the continuation of an information war against the company.

The owners of Roshen are Petro Poroshenko, who for the time of his presidency transferred his 85% stake to Rothschild Trust "blind" trust, CEO Viacheslav Moskalevsky with 13% and four corporate managers who own 0.5% each.
The referendum in the Netherlands would not affect the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement and the visa liberalization regime for Ukrainians, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said.

"We are not planning to make any amendments to the Agreement. This is not only Ukraine's position, but the position of other EU member states which sent the ratification instruments to Brussels," Klimkin told reporters on April 15 on the sidelines of the 9th Kyiv Security Forum.

The minister said that the referendum in the Netherlands and events after it would not influence the process of introducing visa free regime for Ukrainians by the EU. It is pegged only to the observation of criteria included in the road map.

"We have implemented them [the criteria]. The European Commission in coming days is to start formal work with the European Parliament and the European Union," Klimkin said.

On April 12, the official results of the advisory referendum on the Act of the Dutch Parliament on the approval of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine. Thus, 61% (2.509 million voters) voted against its passing, 38.21% voted in its favor (1.572 million voters) and 0.79% cast a blank vote (32,344 voters). Out of a total of 12.863 million persons eligible to vote, 4.151 million voters did exercise this right.

"This amounts to a voter turnout of 32.38%, meaning that the turnout threshold of 30% was reached. In consequence, the results of the referendum constitute an advisory opinion rejecting the Act approving the Association Agreement. This means that the government is to reconsider the Act. The results of an advisory referendum are not binding," reads a report posted on official website of the Dutch Electoral Council.
The special mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has installed two video monitoring cameras in Ukraine's Donbas, each on the either side of the contact line between the conflicting parties, in the town of Avdiyivka and at the Zhovtneva coalmine, Alexander Hug, Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, said.

"Now we have installed a video surveillance camera in the town of Avdiyivka. This will allow us to monitor the situation round the clock. And one hour ago, we installed the very type of camera near the Zhovtneva mine," Hug told Interfax on Saturday.

Thus, OSCE SMM has had security cameras installed on the both sides of the contact line, which will make it possible to monitor more efficiently the situation with violations of the silence regime in Avdiyivka and near the Zhovtneva coal pit, Hug emphasized.

The video monitoring cameras will make a good supplement to the patrolling already conducted in the form of 'mirror patrols' on the both sides, Hug said.

He went on to reveal that the OSCE receives records from the video cameras in the form of encoded data, via secure communication channels, and that this information remains a sole property of the organization.

A similar type of video camera was installed earlier near Shyrokyne.
NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow has said that the current results of the Minsk agreements are poor, but they have not failed.

Speaking during the TSN.Tyzhden TV program aired on April 17, Vershbow said that the Minsk process cannot be considered a failure.

It is obvious that the international pressure together with the sanctions should be continued, and Russia should understand that half measures will satisfy neither the international community, nor Ukraine, the NATO official said.

He also said that the Minsk agreements envisaged certain sequence of steps, and the restoration of Ukrainian control over the borders is one of the later steps in the process.

First, ceasefire should be established, heavy weapons should be withdrawn and political steps on decentralization should be taken, the elections should be held in line with the Ukrainian legislation under the OSCE supervision, the NATO deputy secretary general said.
Pechersky district court in Kyiv has sanctioned the detention of Sergei Aksyonov, the de facto head of Crimea as part of a probe into the unlawful transfer of property of state-run enterprise Artek International Children's Center to ownership of the Russian Federation.

The press service of the Crimean Prosecutor General's Office, Prosecutor General's Office notified Aksyonov that he is suspected of committing a crime described in Part 5, Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Abusing power he embezzled the property of the Ukrainian enterprise and transferred it to third parties  the Russian Federation.

Obolonsky district court of Kyiv arrested property of Artek International Children's Center as evidence in the criminal case. The cost of property is estimated at UAH 242.229 million.

"Crimea's law enforcers will take all possible measures and each who committed a crime on the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine can be punished," the Crimean Prosecutor General's Office said.
Ukrainian pilot and MP Nadia Savchenko has agreed to be put on a intravenous drip daily to keep alive, but has stressed that she agreed to the procedure only until April 20, according to the TSN news program.

Savchenko said that after the specified date she wanted to know the exact date of her return to her homeland.

The report said that Savchenko was persuaded to get intravenous injections by her sister Vira, who was finally allowed to see Nadia after being denied the visit for three days.

"She feels like a living corpse. She's got bitterness in her mouth and constant thirst. Nadia said that she is constantly thirsty. She is keeping her mind off this by making origami..." Vira Savchenko said.

On March 22, 2016, the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region sentenced Savchenko to 22 years in a penal colony. The sentence went into effect on April 5. The next day, Savchenko began a dry hunger strike, demanding an immediate return to her homeland.
Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada is asking the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to assist in the prompt release of Nadia Savchenko, who was sentenced to 22 years in jail in Russia, Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy said.

"We are asking the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to do everything possible to ensure that Nadia Savchenko is back home with us as soon as possible. And I am sure that we will take maximum effort to ensure that this decision is made as soon as possible," Parubiy said at a meeting of the conciliatory council of the heads of factions, committees and groups on Monday.

He said debates on Savchenko will be conducted at the PACE session that opens in Strasbourg on Monday.

Parubiy said that Savchenko, who has gone on a dry hunger strike, is in serious condition. "We understand that all responsibility for that rests with President Putin. We understand that the negotiations [on the release of Savchenko] are going very difficultly," the parliament speaker said.
Head of Ukraine's permanent delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Volodymyr Ariev has said that PACE postponed the debate on the situation around Ukrainian MP Nadia Savchenko.

"PACE has moved the debate on Savchenko for Thursday. A special part of the report on prisoners will be prepared, So other Ukrainian prisoners of Kremlin won't be neglected," the lawmaker wrote in his Facebook page.

Earlier reports said that the spring session of PACE in Strasbourg will open with the urgent discussion of the fate of Ukrainian pilots and PACE member Nadia Savchenko.
An employee of the Ukrainian State Border Service was injured in an overnight attack, Head of Luhansk Regional Military-Civilian Administration Heorhiy Tuka has said.

"The sound of gunfire was again audible in Stanytsia Luhanska at night. Border guards' trailers were damaged. One border guard suffered injuries," Tuka wrote on Facebook on Monday morning.

"Here is the answer to your question 'when [the checkpoint] may open'," he said.

The Stanytsia Luhanska checkpoint was temporarily shut down on April 8 due to the shelling incidents in the area. It is a pedestrian checkpoint, which is not equipped to clear vehicles. After the shutdown of the Zaitseve checkpoint amid constant attacks, the checkpoint was the only one operating in the region. The other three functioning checkpoints in the anti-terrorist operation zone are located in Donetsk region.
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Pedro Agramunt has urged Russia to release Ukrainian pilot and member of the Assembly Nadia Savchenko.

"At the beginning of the April 2016 part-session, I have to reiterate once again my serious concerns about the situation of our member, Nadia Savchenko, who remains in detention in the Russian Federation. I deplore her continued detention and call once again for her release, including in line with the provisions of the General Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Council of Europe, and Russia's commitments under the Minsk agreements," the PACE press service quoted Agramunt as saying.

In his words, this was especially important in the light of reports about her continuing hunger strike and her deteriorating health condition.

The PACE president urged the Russian authorities to take the necessary steps in order to address this humanitarian issue urgently, including in the context of a possible prisoner exchange with the Ukrainian authorities.

"As I have already underlined on previous occasions, addressing the situation of our Assembly colleague is a top priority for me. The defense of the rights of parliamentarians  their liberty, their freedom of movement and their freedom of speech  is one of the focuses of my mandate," Agramunt said.
Nadia Savchenko, who was sentenced to 22 years by a Russian court, intends to continue her dry hunger strike until Russian intelligence officers Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov are sentenced in Kyiv, a defense lawyer for Savchenko said.

"Nadia currently continues her hunger strike. She is waiting for the sentencing of Yerofeyev and Alexandrov and then she will decide how to proceed, depending on the results," lawyer Mark Feygin told Interfax on Monday.

He said Savchenko is hoping that she will be exchanged for the above-mentioned persons.

Under Ukrainian legislation, the sentence against Yerofeyev and Alexandrov will only take effect in 30 days, if the parties do not appeal.

"Maybe the Russian side will issue an order through its consulate in Kyiv for an appeal to be filed," Feygin said.

The lawyer said the defense lawyers for Savchenko and her relatives continue trying to convince her to stop her hunger strike, but "she is doing only what she sees fit."

Feygin said the condition of his client somewhat stabilized after she started receiving intravenous injections in the detention facility.

The sentence against Yerofeyev and Alexandrov may be read on Monday. The state prosecutors asked the court to sentence them to 15 years in prison.

Savchenko has been held in Russian custody since July 2014 after being kidnapped by Russia-backed separatists and illegally taken across the Ukrainian border.

On March 22, 2016, the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region found Savchenko guilty of killing Russian journalists Igor Kornelyuk, and Anton Voloshin, by a group of people by a previous concert on hatred and enmity motives, and sentenced her to 22 years in a penal colony. The court also found her guilty of attempted murder and illegally crossing the Russian border.

The sentence went into effect on April 5. The next day, Savchenko began a dry hunger strike, demanding an immediate return to her homeland.

On May 16, 2015, Russian citizens Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev were detained near the town of Schastia, Luhansk region of Ukraine, in an attempt to seize a strategic bridge.

On May 19, Ukrainian detectives told the Russians that they were suspected of crimes stipulated under Article 258-3 of the Ukrainian Penal Code for involvement in terrorist activities. The Kyiv Shevchenkivsky District Court ordered their arrest on May 22.
There will be no reboot of Ukraine-Russia relations any time soon, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin has said.

"Of course, we will be able to resolve the military conflict in Donbas in the future. But let's be frank: we don't expect a re-set of relations in any form. That means that Russian aggression will not be only military. It will continue in other areas, including in the economic [sphere]," Klimkin said at a meeting with representatives of business organized by the European Business Association in Kyiv on Monday.

The minister said the issue of how to repel "Russian aggression in the economic sphere" needs to be discussed with Western partners.
Ex-Finance Minister of Slovakia Ivan Miklos will head a group of experts set up under the new Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which will assist in carrying out reforms, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said during "The hour of questions to the government" in the Verkhovna Rada.

"A core will be created in the government, which will include a group of experts headed by Ivan Miklos. This group will support reforms," Groysman said.

The Prime Minister added that Maksym Nefyodov and Yulia Kovaliv will continue work in the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. The core of reformers at the Ministry of Finance will be retained.

"We do not intend to get rid of anyone," the premier said.
Accusations against the newly appointed Minister of Finance, Oleksandr Danyliuk, of illicit relations with British companies do not correspond to reality," Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has said, adding that Danyliuk should confirm this

"The Minister of Finance gave an explanation on this issue. He said he once owned [companies abroad] and worked abroad. This is his personal responsibility. I think that this (information) should be completely open and public," the prime minister said in "The hour of government" in the Verkhovna Rada.

The leader of the Radical Party faction, Oleh Liashko, accused Danyliuk that he allegedly owns two offshore companies and did not declare income received from them. He asked the minister to resign until the completion of an investigation into into the allegations by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Information earlier appeared on Internet social network platforms - with reference to official British registers - that Danyliuk is the director of two companies.

The Finance Minister, in turn, stated he had worked most of his life in business, at home and abroad. He denied knowledge of offshore (companies) and said he had not been engaged in business activities since 2010.

"I am not a corrupt official. During my stay in civil service, I did not take bribes. I actively participated in the development of anti-corruption legislation and electronic (income) declarations. I have no offshores. You won't find them," he said.
Russian man Alexandrov could appeal against his verdict after text received

The lawyer for the Russian citizen Alexander Alexandrov could not say if the verdict against his client would be appealed.

"The verdict was announced by three professional judges, who evaluated the evidence and announced their position in the court ruling. It can be either appealed or accepted. We will discuss these possibilities with my client. The law gives us 30 days," Valentin Rybin told reporters after the Holosiyivsky district court in Kyiv announced the verdict on Monday.

Alexandrov was found guilty of waging an aggressive war, membership in a terrorist organization, and staging a deadly terrorist attack, he said.

"The rest of the charges  arms smuggling, firearm possession without permission, and violation of the rules for crossing into the temporarily occupied territories  were rejected by the court," the lawyer said.

Rubin declined to comment on the possibility of his client being swapped for the Ukrainian military servicewoman and parliamentarian Nadia Savchenko who was convicted by a Russian court.

"I am a lawyer, a defense attorney, I am defending a person, exchange is outside of my competence," Rybin said.

Earlier on Monday, a panel of judges at the Holosiyivsky district court in the city of Kyiv, sentenced Alexandrov and another fellow Russian, Yevgeny Yerofeyev, to 14 years of imprisonment.
Ihor Nimchenko, representative of the Ukrainian state prosecutors in the case of Russian nationals Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov, said that the prosecutors will study the sentence before deciding on any possible appeal against it.

"As for the prospective appeal from the prosecutor's office, we will thoroughly assess the verdict, and then make our decision on whether to file an appeal," Nimchenko told reporters after the sentence was handed down to Alexandrov and Yerofeyev by a Kyiv court on Monday.
Russia backs left and right-wing parties in the European Union to lessen the influence of classic pro-European parties, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said.

"I believe Russia is waging a hybrid war against EU: the logic of supporting left and right-wing parties is to decrease the influence of traditional followers of the European values. It targets those who votes for a classic European party," the minister said during a meeting with business executives organized by the European Business Association (EBA) in Kyiv on Monday.

In this relation Klimkin reminded that during a referendum in the Netherlands "there was an essential component produced by Russia."

According to Klimkin, Russian propaganda reinforces nationalist movements in the EU.
Justice Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko has reported that the ministry has received Nadia Savchenko a request on return her to Ukraine.

"Nadia Savchenko must be brought back to Ukraine! Justice ministry of Ukraine received a request from Nadia where she asks to launch the procedure for returning to Ukraine," Petrenko wrote on Facebook on Monday.

He said that he would "do everything possible" in accordance to the international conventions to bring Savchenko back to Ukraine.

"For many times I've been insisting that Nadia Savchenko was illegally kidnapped from the territory of Ukraine and was judged by the court that Nadia doesn't recognize. This is why she even banned her lawyers from appealing this shameful verdict. Tomorrow I'll meet with her sister Vira," the minister said.

The ministry also said that on April 19 Petrenko will chair an inter-government conference of a high level, concerning brining Savchenko back to Ukraine.

"At 1500, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko and Vira Savchenko will give a briefing for the press following the meeting," the ministry said.
Liu Shuangtian and Tang Yaping are a couple from a village in southern Chinas Hunan province. They met in high school, and just when they thought they were ready to tie the knot in 2016, a huge challenge came their way: 25-year-old Tang was diagnosed with leukemia.

Liu explained, On Dec. 23, 2015, I got the call from Yaping. She told me she had leukemia and was going to die. I felt like my whole world was collapsing in front of my eyes. She is such a kind and outstanding girl. I dont understand how a bad thing like this could happen to someone like her.

Liu quit his job in Shenzhen to take care of Tang full time. He taught himself massage techniques in order to ease Tangs pain. Every time Tang feels frustrated and considers giving up, Liu encourages and supports her.

No one should die at the age of 25! Its not fair! Liu says. He says he wants to see Tang wear a white dress, walk down the aisle, and one day have their children. I want to give her a wedding. No matter how hard it is, I will never give up, Liu promised Tangs mother.
WELLINGTON, April 18 -- Leading Chinese agribusiness representatives will gather in Auckland next month for a new event to promote New Zealand agricultural technology, products and services.

The inaugural China-New Zealand Agribusiness Investment and Trade Conference on May 25 would include "match-making" meetings for New Zealand companies with Chinese counterparts who had matching business needs, the Bank of China's New Zealand subsidiary announced Monday.

The growth potential for New Zealand agricultural industry was immense, while innovators operating in the supply chain and logistics sectors were also substantial, according to the Bank of China (NZ), which is holding the event.

"By hosting 70 Chinese agricultural companies here, we aim to introduce local agribusinesses to people who can potentially help them access the Chinese market and grow their business," Bank of China (NZ) chief executive officer David Lei Wang said in a statement.

Despite China's agricultural output being the largest in the world, it was set to become the largest importer of farm products due to its arable land constraints and housing over 20 percent of the world's population.

China was forecast to import 150 billion U.S. dollars worth of chicken, pork and beef by 2020, while water constraints were predicted to significantly impact horticultural production.

China's Ministry of Agriculture was talking up the need for more imported lamb in the next five years in anticipation of domestic demand growth.

"Food safety and health benefits, including growing demand for organic and gourmet produce, are increasingly important factors among China's middle class. New Zealand's reputation for clean, innovative and efficient production provides it a powerful competitive edge in a highly competitive international market," Wang said.

The New Zealand government was aiming to increase exports from 30 percent of GDP to 40 percent by 2025 and agribusinesses would be a critical component in reaching its target.

Prime Minister John Key is currently visiting China to discuss upgrading the existing free trade agreement between the two countries.

The one-day conference would be supported by the New Zealand government's New Zealand Trade and Enterprise agency and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand.
A mentally disturbed college student that stabbed a fellow fair-goer at an art exhibition in Miami last December has pleaded guilty to attempted murder, claiming she believed her victim to be an ISIS terrorist.

The 24-year-old woman, Siyuan Zhao, admitted to attacking Shin Seo Young on Dec. 4 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The stabbing occurred near an art installation titled "The Swamp of Sagittarius." Zhao followed Shin, 33, and stabbed her in the shoulder and neck with an X-Acto knife. The victim survived the attack.

In a plea to the judge, Zhao's psychiatrist testified that the defendant suffers from mental illness, the symptoms of which include hearing voices in her head. At the time of the attack, Zhao heard voices telling her to kill Shin and two others, and watch them bleed so as to protect the event from the ISIS terror group. Miami-Dade circuit judge Alberto Milian accepted a plea deal from the defendant, ordering her to be deported and never allowed back in the U.S.

Zhaos violent behavior continued even after her arrest. While in treatment, Zhao attempted to kill a therapy bird and vandalized a doctors car. But after several months of treatment, Zhao improved greatly. She was taking her medication, undergoing intensive therapy and learning to understand the gravity of the attack, defense lawyers Howard Srebnick and Mark Shapiro told the judge.
File photo: Xi Jinping

The deepened reform that China is implementing must be "people-centric" and just, President Xi Jinping said at a meeting of the Leading Group for Overall Reform on Monday. The meeting approved a document regulating business operations by relatives of officials, including spouses, sons, and daughters, as well as sons and daughters spouses.

A trial of this regulation will be conducted in Shanghai, and the trial would then be extended to Beijing, Guangdong, Chongqing, and Xinjiang.

The meeting has agreed that details and criteria of such regulations should be specified, and, once so, sternly reinforced. When the regulation work is basically done, it will be normalized.

The president, also head of the leading group, was joined at the meeting by deputy heads Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan and Zhang Gaoli, as well as other senior officials.
Residents stand in front of the debris of houses after an earthquake in the city of Chone, Manabi Province, Ecuador, April 17, 2016. The strongest earthquake to jolt Ecuador in decades has killed 233 people, the country's President Rafael Correa said on Sunday, as rescuers raced to dig out survivors trapped in the rubble. [Photo/Xinhua]

QUITO - The strongest earthquake to jolt Ecuador in decades has killed 235 people, as rescuers raced to dig out survivors trapped in the rubble.

The official death toll from Saturday's devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake has risen to 246 dead and 2,527 injured, Vice-President Jorge Glas, visiting the quake zone, said on Sunday.

At a press conference broadcast live on television, Glas said the priority was to continue searching for survivors in the rubble and to help the injured.

The earthquake struck at 18:58 local time Saturday (2358 GMT) with its epicenter at a depth of 10 kilometers located in northwest of Ecuador's coast. The temblor so far has generated at least 189 aftershocks of various strength.

The quake, felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, cracked highways and collapsed buildings in a swath of western towns, causing panic as far away as in the capital city of Quito when buildings were swayed.

Ecuador has declared a state of emergency in six provinces and has mobilized around 14,000 army and public security personnel to affected areas.

"We will overcome this. I send a message of calm and my deep solidarity to those who lost their relatives," said Glas, who is in charge of coordinating emergency response.

Glas visited the affected cities of Manta and Portoviejo in the northeastern province of Manabi, the hardest-hit and difficult to reach due to damaged highways.

"We are facing logistical difficulties," said Glas, noting that specialized rescue teams have reached the worst-hit zones, with technologies and supplies.
DOHA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The world's key oil producing countries failed to deliver any concrete agreement to freeze production at the end of their ministerial meeting here on Sunday amid disagreements on the wording of the agreement.

Qatari Oil Minister Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada said in a press conference that "the meeting reached a result which we all need more time for more consultations and talks."

He added that all participating countries will talk with other from now until the meeting in June, stressing on "improved fundamentals" as a reason why an immediate agreement wasn't necessary.

Al-Sada said the meeting discussed various issues, which he refused to elaborate. However, the participants came to an understanding that there is a need for more consultations before attempting to make a deal.

Major oil producing countries, except Iran, gathered in the Qatari capital Doha on Sunday discussing a possible crude production freeze in a bid to shore up the floundering global oil markets and the sluggish prices.

Altogether 23 countries, both within and outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), sent their delegates to the Qatari capital for the "Oil-Producing Countries Ministerial Meeting."

Sunday's meeting came after oil prices fell more than 60 percent since June 2014 to as low as 27 U.S. dollars per barrel in January due to the widening glut in the supply.
(Global Times) 09:31, April 18, 2016

Malaysia repatriated a group of telecom fraud suspects Friday, including 20 Taiwanese. Taiwan authorities maneuvered to have them sent to Taiwan.

To the surprise of the outsiders, these Taiwanese suspects were released in a few hours after arrival at Taoyuan International Airport.

When Kenya last week sent a batch of telecom fraud suspects to the Chinese mainland, also including Taiwanese, it triggered a public outcry in Taiwan. Pro-independence media and leading figures, including Tsai Ing-wen, protested against the mainland for "illegal abduction." Now Taiwan is showing that it is more lenient to fraud suspects than anywhere in the world.

Taiwan's judicial authorities expressed that the crime was committed in Malaysia and victims were mainlanders. Since they do not hold evidence against these suspects, they have to release them first.

However last week, the same department stated that it was in accordance with international law that Kenya repatriated Taiwan suspects to the mainland, and "only the mainland can hold them in control." Pro-independence forces would not admit the change was a result of pressure they exerted.

To the outside world, protests against the mainland and releasing suspects show the ugly side of Taiwan politics when it is taken hostage by radical public opinion.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is manipulating and coping with populism.

The release of the 20 suspects has disgraced the Taiwanese media and Taiwan's rule of law.

The mainland is clear how the DPP is manipulating public opinion to instigate "anti-China" sentiments. Swayed by such sentiments, Taiwan politics prioritizes stance over facts.

Western democratic politics can easily provide a hotbed for radicalism and extremism. Taiwan and Hong Kong both have demonstrated this tendency.

A judiciary case, which should be fact-oriented, is turned into a political event across the Straits. The suspects even applauded Taiwan for its "human rights" after being released. Should the mainland feel indignant or treat it with disdain?

The key is that the mainland should stick more firmly to its principles, and resolutely resist the rascally demands by Taiwan's twisted politics.

Taiwan's poor performance in handling the suspects is also teaching a lesson to other countries. Malaysia is proved wrong in repatriating the fraud suspects back to Taiwan. Kuala Lumpur should learn from the case and not be tricked by Taiwan in the future.

Taiwan, which is an inseparable part of China, is always eager to prove it is a "country." Taiwan's ingrained sense of inferiority and paranoia have permeated into its politics, resulting in its self-righteous performances, of which Taiwan's public should be aware.
(Global Times) 09:34, April 18, 2016

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The result of South Korea's general election last week has become a heated international discussion. The ruling Saenuri Party won 122 seats, less than half of the 300 seats in the National Assembly. Losing the assembly was without doubt a disastrous defeat for the party. It was the first time in 16 years that the ruling party failed to hang on to parliamentary majority.

The Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK), the country's opposition party, secured 123 seats. Public opinion generally believes that this will bring pressure for the rest of President Park Geun-hye's term in the coming one year and eight months.

The newly established People's Party captured 38 seats, with its chairman Ahn Cheol-soo successfully breaking the two-party dynamic, restoring three-party politics in the nation for the first time in 20 years.

It was not the MPK alone that defeated the Saenuri Party. The outcome of the election showed voters' disappointment over the severe antagonism between the two largest parties in the country, as well as their hope to promote dialogue and compromises in the nation's politics through a third party.

This election is also a bellwether of Seoul's presidential election next year. If Park fails to put forward a sound strategy to deal with the current predicament, her odds of winning the upcoming presidential election will not be in the ruling party's favor.

Last week's election was considered an outbreak of dissatisfaction toward the ruling party, and especially the Park government. It was called an "angry vote," "political punishment" and "victory of people's will."

The failures of the Saenuri Party have been harshly criticized. A number of reasons are listed, such as divided opinions in the leadership due to Park's arrangement of personnel, and that the current members of parliament are only interested in parliamentary politics while neglecting the management of electoral district and voters, as well as changes in the presidential race. According to public opinion, Park failed to deliver political products, which resulted in conflicts within the party during the nomination period. Park's administration has been accused of being arrogant toward the opposition.

The fundamental problem is that Park has not yet fulfilled her campaign promises. The sluggish economy is without question a crucial factor. And this election has once again proved that income, employment, tax, social welfare are major concerns.

The North Korean nuclear crisis is closely related to Seoul's concerns, yet Park's government cannot stop it from deteriorating. Such a phenomenon has made its citizens more discontented. People hope that Park can adjust her policy, and shift her focus to domestic affairs, and the goal to reach a per capita GDP of $40,000.

The harsh reality is that Park's administration will have to face direct containment from the MPK.

If it wants to rule in the future, it will have to reach an agreement with the MPK in the first place. The national budget also requires the agreement of over half seats of the country's National Assembly.

The Park administration's feeble achievements in foreign affairs are unable to offset the impact of the economic slump. A couple of defections by North Koreans didn't cause a sensation in the South, and had little impact on the election. Apparently, North Korea issues are not a useful bargaining chip in the election.

As for observers, to what extent the center-left MPK and the People's Party can pin down Park's foreign policy deserves more attention.

There is a discrepancy in South Korea's social and political spheres over the deployment of THAAD, the implementation of a reconciliation between Seoul and Tokyo over the comfort women issue, and the joint effort with Japan to counter North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The opposition have raised strong challenges against the administration.

A well-developed political regime will minimize party conflicts at the cost of national interest. It is foreseeable that South Korea will continue its foreign policy and strategy in a sustainable manner after the election.

It is only waves instead of a storm that hit Park's vessel. But how to steer the ship after the election warrants our particular attention.

The author is director of the Department of International Political Science, College of Political Science and Public Management, Yanbian University. [email protected] Follow us on Twitter @GTopinion
Natalie Portman. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

The sixth annual BeijingInternational FilmFestival rolled out its red carpet welcoming a star studded guest list which inlcudes Giuseppe Tornatore, Chow Yun-Fat, and Natalie Portman among many others as they gathered at Yanqi Lake.

Natalie Portman is appearing at the event to promote the film A Tale of Love and Darknesswhere she made her directing debut.

"I have been working in the film industry for over 20 years, and I have been wanting to direct my own film, now it's a dream come true. I hope the audience would like it," said Portman.

The film will be shown at the film panorama section.

Portman will participate in the Sino-Foreign Film Co-production Forum on Sunday, where she will be joined by James Schamus, Iain Smith and two other directors.
BEIJING, April 17 -- Chinese President Xi Jinpinghas offered condolences to the family of rocket scientist Liang Sili, who died of illness at the age of 91 in Beijing Thursday.

In his message, Xi deeply mourned the loss of Liang, who after the founding of New China, returned to the country and devoted himself tirelessly to China's aerospace program.

"He made important contributions to China's aerospace cause. His patriotism, dedication and rigorous scholarship deserve our respect," Xi said.

Liang was one of the founders of China's aerospace cause, and a renowned missile and rocket control expert. He was a member of both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Astronautics.
MOSCOW, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Russia will work together with China to safeguard regional peace and international security, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov has said.

The direction and form of Russia-China military cooperation have been determined by the two countries' heads of state, Antonov said Friday during a joint interview with Xinhua and China Central Television (CCTV).

"The cooperation between China and Russia in the military sphere is not directed against someone," he said.

"Our interaction is aimed at strengthening the security of our countries, taking into account the international obligations of China and Russia, and the fact that both countries are permanent U.N. Security Council members," he added.

Antonov went on praising the two countries' joint military activities, including various kinds of drills, which "secure the best compatibility and mutual understanding of our armed forces."

Moreover, he said, multilateral military cooperation has improved markedly in the past three years within such frameworks as the U.N. Security Council, the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS, a thriving cooperation mechanism that groups the world's five leading emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"A more tight interaction between the military departments corresponds to the national interests of all the SCO member countries, and we expect this interaction to proceed," Antonov said.

With more and more interaction between the Russian and Chinese defense ministries every year, Antonov said, prospects for cooperation with China have become much brighter.

"There is a lot we can do together to strengthen security of China and the Russian Federation," he said when particularly mentioning the threat of terrorism in the region, which probably could spill over from the unstable Afghanistan.

The issue of fighting terrorism has been chosen as a key topic for the Fifth Moscow International Security Conference scheduled for April 27-28, Antonov said.

The anti-terror fight "requires common approaches, common understanding and common solutions," Antonov said, noting that several countries in the Asia-Pacific region are infiltrated by militants of Daesh, also known as the Islamic State or IS.

He also blamed the United States for planning to deploy elements of a missile defense system in the Asia-Pacific region, which, besides presenting a direct threat to China and Russia, has a wider implication as to undermining the global security system.

By saturating the region with warships, fighters and bombers and setting up different kinds of military bases, the United States does not contribute to strengthening regional peace and security, Antonov said.

Countries in the region should take the initiative and make joint efforts for the establishment of a new and broader security system, he noted.
(Global Times) 09:33, April 18, 2016

Back-to-back visits reflect Chinas response to sea row

Experts said they believe China's decision to invite Australia and New Zealand to consecutive visits reflects deeper economic ties between China and the two nations, and is China's response to growing pressure from the US and its allies in the South China Sea.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key arrived shortly after Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull departed. Australia sent troops to a military drill in the Philippines this year, which also included their counterparts from the US.

By inviting Australia and New Zealand to visit China in succession, China sent a strong signal that it doesn't want external countries to follow the US and take aim at it in the South China Sea, as well as to show its intention to deepen economic ties with the two nations, Chen Xiangmiao, a research fellow at the National Institute for the South China Sea, told the Global Times Sunday.

"The US has been trying to convince Oceania countries such as Australia to join its patrols in the South China Sea. China aims to use the visit to gain Australia's and New Zealand's understandings on the regional situation, as well as to warn the US against ramping up sea tensions," Chen said.

The remarks come after US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Thursday during his visit to the Philippines that US troops and military equipment would be sent on regular rotations to the Philippines, and that the two countries had begun joint patrols in the South China Sea, demonstrating increasing security cooperation amid concerns over the South China Sea, Reuters reported.

China's Xinhua News Agency on Sunday called on New Zealand to focus more on economic ties and less on the South China Sea issue, which it said "is of no concern to Wellington."

Key's visit will likely see an upgrade in the two countries' Free Trade Agreement. He is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinpingand Premier Li Keqiangin Beijing and will also visit Xi'an and Shanghai.

Regional competitors

"It's a diplomatic tradition for leaders from Australia and New Zealand to visit China one after the other, but the interval between the two visits was unusually short this time," Su Hao, director of the Center for Strategic and Peace at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times Sunday.

Key's visit comes just two days after a visit by Turnbull, who led one of the largest-ever business delegations to China and signed 19 agreements.

Compared to New Zealand, which takes a mild stance on the South China Sea issue, Australia is much tougher toward China, leading to contradictions between the two nations over the military security issue in the region, Su said.

As a US ally, Australia has been targeting China over the South China Sea issue. In February, China warned Australia against doing things that could harm regional peace, after Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she would press China to explain its construction activities on South China Sea reefs.

Both Australia and New Zealand are resource-based countries, and they compete with other on trade with China. By inviting the two nations in succession, China wants to warn Australia that it's not China's only trade partner in the region, and China could also deepen economic ties with New Zealand, Chen said.

Figures show that China has been New Zealand's largest trade partner for years and the largest market for New Zealand goods, while trade has more than doubled, approaching $13 billion in 2015.

Bilateral trade between China and Australia in 2015, on the other hand, stood at $113.1 billion, and China accounted for about one-third of Australia's exports during the year.

"Despite economic cooperation with China, Australia still takes a tough stance when it comes to the South China Sea issue. The visits will push Australia to adjust its position over the regional situation," Su said.

The visit will also warn New Zealand to maintain its mild stance, as relations between the two countries haven't been entirely rosy recently, Chen said.

In February, Key made some remarks against China on the South China Sea issue, likely under pressure from his country's military ties with the US, which was a surprising move that went against New Zealand's previous pledge not to take sides in the region's territorial disputes, Xinhua reported.

New Zealand Defense Minister Gerry Brownlee said there is nothing provocative with the country's participation in the Bersama Shield military exercises, hosted by Malaysia in the South China Sea, and it would not be taking place in any of the sea disputes.
Shao Ziyan.(Photo from WeChat)

Shao Ziyan.(Photo from WeChat)

Shao Ziyan. (Photo from WeChat)

The twin babies of Shao Ziyan. (Photo from WeChat)

A 21-year-old woman who recently gave birth to twins has passed away. However, the organs she donated were able to save four people's lives.

Wu Jianyong, a doctor at First Hospital of Zhejiang Province, shared the heart-wrenching story on his WeChat on April 15: "A young mother gave birth to twins. It should have been a happy occasion, but the mother passed away from acute fatty liver of pregnancy 50 days later. Her family decided to donate her organs to help other people. The premature twins were never even breast-fed by their mother. What a sad story!"

This post soon went viral.

The young mother, Shao Ziyan, lived and worked in the city of Jiaxing in Zhejing province along with her husband, Chen Shanhai. Her father, Shao Wanhua, lives in countryside. The family does not have a lot of money.

Shao's father said, "After more than 50 days of treatment, my daughter was brain dead. She could never come back to life. We donated her organs so that her life will be prolonged in different way. Now it feels like she is still alive and will never fully leave me."

Wu Xiaoliang, the vice-director of the hospital's organ donation office, said that Shao provided a heart, liver, two kidneys and two corneas. Her organs have saved the lives of four people, and her corneas helped two people with eye diseases.
China published two reports last Thursday, one titled "Human Rights Record of the U.S. in 2015" and the other Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the U.S. in 2015. As their titles suggest, both reports blasted the U.S. when it comes to human rights.

The two documents can hopefully serve as a reminder for the U.S. to think about its own human rights record before calling out other countries for violations, as the superpower so commonly does.

The facts cited in the report expose some serious shortcomings in the countrys human rights record. For example, the use of guns is out of control in the U.S., causing 13,136 deaths in 2015. U.S. police also frequently display excessive violence, fatally shooting 965 people last year, which is made worse by the fact that very few of the offending officers were disciplined for their abuse of power.

In 2015, more than 560,000 people nationwide were homeless. Race relations are also near the worst they have been in almost two decades. Sixty-one percent of Americans characterized race relations in the U.S. as "bad," and 88 percent of African-Americans said they had been treated unfairly by police. Whats more, 68 percent of African-Americans believe the American criminal justice system is racially biased.

On college campuses, 23 percent of undergraduate women said they had been victims of non-consensual sexual contact. Meanwhile, air strikes launched by the U.S. in Iraq and Syria have killed thousands of civilians.

The problematic human rights record in the U.S. comes not only from neglect, but also arrogance.

Starting in the 1970s, the U.S. State Department has issued an annual report on human rights practices. The report is never shy about criticizing other countries' records, but in doing so it also attracts attention to problems happening right in the U.S.  especially since the U.S. clearly views itself as a "model" in this regard.

The double standard the U.S. has for domestic and foreign human rights violations very clearly serves the countrys own interests. Constantine Kosachev, head of Russia's Federation Council Committee for International Relations, pointed out that human rights have become a kind of tool for the U.S. to implement its foreign policy and apply pressure to those countries that resist. He added that the State Department generally gives positive grades to its allies.

However, the disingenuous policies of the U.S. unmistakably contradict the cornerstone of international relations, and do not bring the country any credibility. In recent years, there have been more and more voices from the international community criticizing the U.S.'s hypocrisy in human rights diplomacy. According to Everhard Holtmann from Humboldt University of Berlin, and to Alessio Bruni, vice-president of the U.N. Committee Against Torture, the U.S. now stands at a turning point. The country needs to introspect on its own human rights policies and make some important changes.

If the U.S. really is worried about issues of human rights, it should start by considering its own violations and take effective action to serve its people.
The Guangzhou Maritime Safety Administration rescued 19 foreigners who were sitting in a raft waiting for help on the Pearl River estuary on April 17.

The staff of the naval patrol ship were informed by the Guangzhou Vessel Traffic Management Center that several people had been spotted floating on a life raft in the waters between the number 15 and number 17 light buoys during a patrol near the Qingzhou channel bridge at 10:15 a.m. on April 17. The management center also asked another vessel, Donggui No. 2, to help with the rescue efforts.

The patrol ship helped the foreigners off the life raft and onto Donggui No. 2. The maritime safety authorities also required that the sampan and life raft left behind at the site where the foreigners were rescued be tied to the stern of Donggui No. 2 in order to prevent other vessels from running into them.

Of the foreigners rescued, all were Pakistani except for two Indians. One foreigner explained that they had been sent to the waters near Hong Kong International Airport around 2 a.m. on April 17. The two people who sent them promised to send a sampan so that the foreigners would be able to get to shore. However, due to the sea conditions, this sampan only arrived at the number 15 buoy around 10 a.m.

For the time being, all the rescued foreigners have been handed over to the Shenzhen Public Security and Frontier Corps.
Screenshot of one of Papi Jiang's most liked videos

China's media watchdog said it has ordered a Chinese female video blogger to take her videos offline on Sunday for her use of "swear words and insulting language" in the show.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) told Peoples Daily the move against Internet celebrity Papi Jiang followed "reports from the public and expert evaluations."

"The SAPPRFT has required the show to remove the foul language and vulgar content ... before it could go back online," the regulator said, adding that it will continue to crack down on vulgar Internet shows in the future.

Papi Jiang is the nickname for the producer behind a series of widespread short, funny online videos. She began cracking jokes in homemade videos on social networks in August 2015. She now has more than 10 million followers and has raised 12 million yuan from investors for a share of her brand.

The blogger has responded on Weibo that she accepts the criticism and will revise the videos. Yang Ming, the CEO of Papi Jiang's team behind the viral videos, also said that they have been made aware of their shortcomings and will heed the authorities' call for revision.

The media authorities have said that only after meeting their requirements can her videos be re-posted. It is reported that the verbal order is not directed against Papi Jiang only, as many other video websites are asked to revise their videos.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.18

By Vagif Sharifov - Trend:

"Five brothers" versus "seven sisters"

More than half a century ago, five major oil producing countries - Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia - agreed to work together to deprive seven transnational companies - Exxon, RD / Shell, Texaco, Chevron, Mobil, Gulf Oil and BP - of unlimited influence on the oil market.

Later, the number of "brothers" reached 13 and they organized OPEC, while the "sisters" started to work independently from each other. OPEC had a great influence on the oil market for tens of years.

When there was a need to reduce or increase the oil prices, all hopes were pinned on the cartel.

The cartel's decisions were clear, its management was accurate and effective, the violation of oil production quotas was not critical for the market and everyone turned a blind eye to this.

This situation continued until the 2000s, when OPEC's innovative price mechanism began to shake the market, intensified the speculations, began to sow discord among the participants and led to significant violations of quotas.

The oil prices were dropping to $16 per barrel\and increasing to $143 per barrel throughout 2000s.

The artificial overstatement in oil prices came to an end in the autumn of 2014, when the prices began to fall. The fall would have continued, if sometimes the rumors about saving the market are not pushed the prices up slightly. The negotiations in Doha were one of these popular rumors.

Salvation did not happen

Several oil producing countries undertook the function to help with the support of Saudi Arabia, which has promised to consider what could be done. But the Saudis have always warned that they can't do and won't do anything, and together - means that all together. The intrigue expected from Doha was that how non-OPEC countries will succeed to agree with the cartel's member countries on freezing oil output at the level of January 2016. But the negotiations failed not due to a lack of consensus between OPEC and non-OPEC countries, which, incidentally, include the delegations of Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Oman and Mexico, but due to the fact that there was no agreement within the cartel, which 56 years ago undertook to save the world from the influence of "Seven Sisters."

Firstly, Iran refused to send any representatives to Qatar to participate in the meeting, motivating its decision by the fact that the country has been under sanctions for too long to freeze oil production now. The Saudis, in turn, demanded that absolutely all OPEC members join the initiative. Saying so, the Saudis meant those who didn't come to Doha, namely, Iran and Libya. Judging by the statements of the relevant ministers who arrived in Doha, no agreements at all were reached at the meeting.

For example, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak only said that the meeting in Doha became a significant event. Nigerian Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu suggested to first settle everything within the OPEC before inviting other countries. The next time the OPEC meeting will take place in Vienna in June, the Nigerian minister said, adding that the OPEC members will first agree among themselves before attracting the countries outside the cartel.

Thus, the meeting, which only worsened everything, showed that the OPEC is no longer relevant and there is an urgent need to create an alternative to the cartel. It is obvious that the results of Apr. 17 led to a six percent drop in the June oil futures on Apr. 18 - Brent crude at the opening of trading at the London Stock Exchange already dropped to $40 per barrel, while WTI crude fell by 6.8 percent to $36 per barrel.

In fact, the rescue plan in Doha could help prices increase. After freezing the production at the level of January and holding it until October, futures would begin increasing this Monday, but after an increase in demand in the third quarter (with the supplies at the level of the beginning of the first quarter), the prices would increase.

As a result, on average, we would have $55-$60 per barrel in 2016 versus $30-$35 per barrel, which perhaps we may obtain now. The speculations will only worsen the situation in terms of the unprecedented imbalance of supply and demand on the oil market because everyone has realized that there is nobody 'responsible for oil' any more. Thus, the failure during the Doha talks in fact revealed the death of OPEC.

Nobody can hope for the growth of demand for crude oil as the IMF predicted the fall of the global economy this year. It is obvious that the weak economy generating weak demand for oil leads to a constant fall in prices in case of overproduction of crude oil. I wonder whether we see $9.1 per barrel again, as it was in December 1998.

Vagif Sharifov is an analyst and expert in oil and gas markets.

Follow him on Twitter: @VagifSharifov
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

It was proposed to exempt resident companies of Garadagh Industrial Park, who are engaged in shipbuilding in Azerbaijan, from the value added tax (VAT), customs duties, as well as contributions on compulsory state social insurance to five years, according to the amendments to the country's Tax Code, as well as the laws 'On Social Insurance' and 'On Customs Tariff'.

These amendments were discussed Apr. 18 at a meeting of the Azerbaijan's Parliamentary Committee on Economic Policy, Enterprise and Industry.

Thus, according to the amendments, it is proposed to exempt import of any goods used by resident companies of the park during shipbuilding from VAT and customs duties for five years since May 1, 2016.

In addition, it is suggested to apply a zero rate of VAT with respect to contractors during the sale of goods used in shipbuilding to the resident companies which carry out various work and provision of services for them, as well as with respect to sub-contractors who sell the goods to contractors, carry out different types of work or provide services for them.

It is also proposed to exempt foreigners, contractors and sub-contractors hired by the resident companies of Garadagh Industrial Park to work in shipbuilding sphere, from compulsory contributions on state social insurance.

"Baku Shipyard Factory" LLC received the status of the first resident company of Garadagh Industrial Park in 2015.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18

By Samir Ali - Trend:

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has started new talks on the handover of an Azerbaijani dead soldier, Spokesperson for ICRC's Delegation in Azerbaijan Ilaha Huseynova told Trend April 18.

The Azerbaijani soldier was killed during the military operations on preventing Armenia's provocation on the line of contact of both countries' troops (from April 2 to April 5).

"At present, the ICRC continues the dialogue with the sides of the conflict to find Azerbaijani and Armenian servicemen who went missing," Huseynova said. "The dialogue is confidential."

Earlier, the Armenian side disseminated information that an Azerbaijani soldier's body remains in Armenia. Despite the ICRC talks, Armenia refused to hand over the dead body to the Azerbaijani side.

A demonstrative refusal of Armenia to return the body of an Azerbaijani soldier, despite previously reached agreements, is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, in particular the Geneva Convention and the provisions of additional protocols, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend Apr. 18.

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.
details added (first version posted at 11:23)

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18

By Samir Ali - Trend:

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has started new talks on the handover of an Azerbaijani dead soldier, Spokesperson for ICRC's Delegation in Azerbaijan Ilaha Huseynova told Trend April 18.

Huseynova said that the Azerbaijani soldier was killed during the military operations on preventing Armenia's provocation on the line of contact of both countries' troops (from April 2 to April 5).

"At present, the ICRC continues the dialogue with the sides of the conflict to find Azerbaijani and Armenian servicemen who went missing," Huseynova said. "The dialogue is confidential."

Earlier, the Armenian side disseminated information that an Azerbaijani soldier's body remains in Armenia. Despite the ICRC talks, Armenia refused to hand over the dead body to the Azerbaijani side.

A demonstrative refusal of Armenia to return the body of an Azerbaijani soldier, despite previously reached agreements, is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, in particular the Geneva Convention and the provisions of additional protocols, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend Apr. 18.

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.18

By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend:

Although the Council of Europe has no a direct mandate, the parliamentary diplomacy can help bring closer the positions of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict parties, says President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Pedro Agramunt.

Addressing the spring session of PACE in Strasbourg Apr.18, he said the recent escalation of the situation on the line of contact between Armenian and Azerbaijani armies has led to numerous casualties among civilians as well.

"The territorial integrity of 47 member states [of the Council of Europe] should be respected," he added. "I condemn violence. We should be cautious to the highest extent in this matter and avoid excessive criticism."

Agramunt noted that both sides should ensure the de-escalation of the situation and stop violence.

"International law provides a legal basis for a peaceful settlement of the conflict," said the PACE president. "Armenia and Azerbaijan should fulfill their commitments under the international law and achieve a peaceful settlement to the conflict."

He added that this issue will remain a primary topic on the organization's agenda.

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.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

Trend:

Azerbaijan's State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People has told Trend that Armenia bears the responsibility for violation of the agreement on mutual repatriation of the killed servicemen's bodies.

The State Commission said the latest developments prove that responsibility for the agreement's violation lies on Armenia.

Speaking to Trend the State Commission added:

"The Armenian media reported on Apr. 16 that the dead body of an Azerbaijani serviceman was found. Immediately after this, Azerbaijan requested the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) to clarify the issue. On the same day, the ICRC reviewed the issue and confirmed the reports.

The sides reached an agreement to hand over the dead body of an Armenian soldier found on the territory controlled by Azerbaijani army and the body of an Azerbaijani soldier found by Armenians on the line of contact on Apr. 17. But on Apr. 16, the Armenian side told international organizations that they don't have the body of the killed Azerbaijani serviceman, adding that allegedly, they were mistaken.

Given that it is possible to distinguish the dead body of an Azerbaijani from that of Armenian in several seconds, it is unclear why the Armenian side needed 12 hours for that."

The State Commission said this shows that Armenians are planning to stage another provocation and it is an example of violation of the international humanitarian law.

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.
details added (first version posted at 12:13)

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18

Trend:

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has rejected the information disseminated by the Armenian media that the the Azerbaijani armed forces allegedly wounded two Armenian servicemen in the northern direction of the line of contact.

The ministry said that the Azerbaijani armed forces have not conducted any operations, and only struck back at the positions of Armenia, violating the ceasefire regime. According to the ministry, the Armenian servicemen injured themselves because of a lack of discipline.

The purpose of this information is to violate the agreements on the suspension of military operations, the ministry told Trend April 18.

According to the agreement, the bodies of soldiers left on the battlefield must be found and carried out in the northern direction of the line of contact in the morning of April 19, the ministry added.



The ministry said that while spreading misinformation, Armenia is trying once again to violate the conditions of the reached agreement.



The ministry added that Armenia is trying to hide its losses and delay the processes, while the spread information is unfounded.

Earlier, the Armenian side disseminated the information that an Azerbaijani soldier's body remains in Armenia. Despite the ICRC talks, Armenia refused to hand it over to the Azerbaijani side.

A demonstrative refusal of Armenia to return the body of an Azerbaijani soldier, despite previously reached agreements, is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, in particular the Geneva Convention and the provisions of additional protocols, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend Apr. 18.

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. 18

Trend:

A demonstrative refusal of Armenia to return the body of an Azerbaijani soldier, despite previously reached agreements, is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, in particular the Geneva Convention and the provisions of additional protocols, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend Apr. 18.

Earlier, the Azerbaijani State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons said that the Armenian side is refusing to provide information about the missing Azerbaijani serviceman, warrant officer Seymur Bakhishov. The commission said Armenia does not take appropriate steps for return of the soldier.

Despite the agreement reached earlier to hand over the dead body of an Azerbaijani serviceman, Armenia's subsequent refusal in this issue shocked the mediators from both sides of the frontline, the defense ministry said earlier.

"Being far from human values, Armenia exposes bodies to torture and abuse, turns them into objects of revenge and political speculation," Hajiyev said.

Despite the confirmation of the fact that an Azerbaijani soldier's body remains in Armenia by the international organizations performing the mission on the bodies' return, it is impossible to understand their silence following Yerevan's refusal to return that body, Hajiyev said.

International organizations should take a principal and clear stance in such issues, he said.

Hajiyev reminded that as a result of Armenia's inhuman actions, over 4,000 Azerbaijani civilians and servicemen captured and held hostage during the 1991-1994 military operations are still considered missing.

Meanwhile, according to deputy prosecutor general, military prosecutor of Azerbaijan, Khanlar Valiyev, Armenian armed units desecrated the dead bodies left on the battlefield during the provocation on the frontline on Apr. 2-5.

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.
details added (first version posted at 10:47)

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18

Trend:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Baku to participate in the7th UNAOC Global Forum, to be held April 25-27, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism told Trend April 18.

"A meeting with the participation of senior officials and around 30 sessions are planned to be held," the ministry said. "The Baku Declaration is planned to be adopted at a high-level meeting of the UN Alliance of Civilizations."

According to the ministry, the Organizing Committee was established in connection with holding of the 7th UNAOC Global Forum in Baku on April 25-27 upon Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's decree dated July 24, 2015.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend:

Mostly Armenia is guilty in continuation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Sergey Markov, the Russian president's trustee, the member of the Russian Public Chamber and political analyst, told reporters Apr. 18 in Baku.

"The recent clashes in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region were expected, and there are several reasons for that," he said. "In contrast to other conflicts, there were no peacekeepers on the border, and not the conflict, but the negotiations were frozen and the OSCE Minsk Group is partly guilty of that," Markov said.

He said each co-chair country of OSCE Minsk Group has a large Armenian diaspora, which makes it hard to influence Armenia.

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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Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:

The timing of Armenia's criminal provocation against Azerbaijan wasn't chosen accidentally, while the West and Azerbaijan were strengthening relations, Samad Seyidov, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said.

Seyidov, who is also chairman of the international and interparliamentary relations committee at the parliament of Azerbaijan, made the remarks Apr. 18 speaking at the PACE spring session in Strasbourg, according to the assembly's website.

"We will witness even greater tragedies if we appease the aggressor," Seyidov said.

Ethnic cleansing in Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region and other occupied territories led to the fact that not a single Azerbaijani lives there, according to him.

However, as many as 30,000 Armenians live in Azerbaijan and this means that all the provocations aimed to show that the two peoples cannot live in peace are groundless, he 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.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

Trend:

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev extended condolences to Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado on Apr. 18.

"We were deeply saddened by the news of heavy casualties and destructions as a result of a severe earthquake in your country," said President Aliyev.

"On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to the bereaved families and loved ones of those who died, wish the injured recovery, and hope for the soonest elimination of the tragedy's consequences," the president added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

Trend:

AccessBank signed the first loan agreement under the EBRD co-financing facility (MCFF) with its long-term client Eurohome. The Bank will provide financing to Eurohome jointly with the EBRD for the development of new construction markets in Azerbaijan.

On behalf of AccessBank, CEO Michael Hoffmann commented: "We strongly welcome this first co-financing project with our partner and shareholder EBRD which reflects the close relationship between both of our institutions. Eurohome is a strong and experienced player in the Azerbaijani construction material market. The project funded under the co-financing facility is a good example of forward looking investment in an economically challenging period."

From the side of EBRD, Neil McKain, Head of the EBRD in Azerbaijan Baku Resident Office stated: "We are pleased to support Eurohome alongside AccessBank in this important transaction. At a difficult time for the non-oil private sector it is essential that we continue to work with competitive independent companies with the aim of diversifying the economy."

AccessBank CJSC was founded in 2002 by BSTDB, EBRD, IFC, KfW, the German consulting company LFS Financial Systems (LFS) and AccessHolding. AccessBank is a leading universal bank in Azerbaijan focusing on SME and Micro finance. The Bank offers a full range of banking services through its wide branch network in the country, employing about 1800 staff.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.18

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of the second bus depot of Bakubus LLC.

The president was informed of the conditions created at the facility.

Located near Koroglu metro station, the depot provides a parking lot for up to 300 buses.

President Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the official opening of the depot, and viewed the administrative building here.

Director General of Baku Transport Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers Vusal Karimli informed the president of the 10-month activity of Bakubus LLC.

Established on April 3, 2014, Bakubus LLC today operates 170 buses on seven routes in Baku. The company carried around 24 million people in seven months. The depot will create nearly 1,500 jobs. The company currently employs 750 people.

President Aliyev viewed buses to be purchased by Bakubus LLC.

The president was informed that the second depot of the company occupies a total area of eight hectares. There are administrative and secondary buildings, facilities for drivers, medical points, repair and washing centers, as well as buildings for the night shift employees.

President Aliyev wished the staff of the company success.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is interested in rendering technical support and implementing joint projects with Azerbaijan's Financial Market Supervisory Body, said Philip Bartholomew, head of the technical support mission in the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia department.

Bartholomew made this statement at a meeting with Rufat Aslanli, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Financial Market Supervisory Body in Baku.

Bartholomew expressed confidence that progress will be achieved in preserving the steady financial position on the market and ensuring the stability of the financial sector.

In his turn, Aslanli said that the long-term relations between Azerbaijan and the IMF have always been at a high level.

Aslanli also spoke about the actions taken to ensure financial stability and sustainability in Azerbaijan amid the geopolitical tendencies and macroeconomic risks.

Then the sides discussed the measures to preserve financial stability and, in this context, the prospects for future cooperation between the Financial Market Supervisory Body and the IMF.

The IMF office was opened in Baku in 1992.

The IMF allocated loans worth $577.3 million to Azerbaijan from 1995 to 2005 to support the economic reform program. Azerbaijan has fully repaid the loans to the fund.

Azerbaijan has seen no need for the IMF financial resources since 2005. So, the sides have been cooperating within the consultations and technical assistance on key areas of macroeconomic policy since 2006.
Tehran, Iran, April 18

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Air France signed an agreement with Iran's state-owned airline, known as Iran Air or Homa on April 18.

French Transport Minister Alain Vidalies held a press conference with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Akhoundi.

"We will cooperate on airplane orders and airport maintenance," Vidalies said, Trend's correspondent reported from the event.

"Another contract also was signed regarding railroads," Vidalies said. "Next week we will review the funding methods and small and mid-size companies."

Vidalies led a business delegation to Tehran from Paris on the first Air France flight in that destination in 8 years.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited Paris in January. During the visit Iran and France's Airbus signed $27 billion-worth memorandum of understanding to purchase aircraft.

The western sanctions on Iran was lifted in mid-January after implementation of the nuclear deal, but Vidalies says the banking problems regarding Iran still exist.

In turn Abbas Akhondi said that the contract between Homa and Air France will be finalized shortly. He added that a contract on redesigning and rebuilding rail stations in Tehran, Mashhad and Qom cities was also signed.

He said that Tehran-Qom-Isfahan railroad would be constructed by China, but "we reached good agreements with France on engineering and fleet provision for the railroad".
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.18

By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:

Baku will host Azerbaijan-Spain business forum Apr.26 during the visit of a delegation led by Spain's minister of Foreign Office and Cooperation Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, said the message from Azerbaijan Export and Investments Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO).

The forum will be attended by over 20 Spanish companies operating in the spheres of construction, transportation, energy, industry, agriculture, environmental protection, consulting and others.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Spain stood at 37.85 million manats in the first quarter of 2016, according to Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee. This is while 26.13 million manats accounted for the export of Azerbaijani products to this country.

Edited by SI

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_Mammadov
Energy expert Mahmoud Khagani's exclusive article for Trend

Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh made a right decision not participating in oil-producing & exporter countries which met in Qatar to outline how they are able to commit themselves to a possible freeze of production to prevent further decline in oil prices.

I personally would have been surprised in case Iran would have participated the meeting at minister level as it is a logical observation that freezing the current production is meaningless as the major producers involved in the meeting are producing at the up limit of their production capacity while there is peak demand for oil in the consuming nations.

So, the meeting in Doha seems to have been planned by OPEC major producers and exporters to confirm the fact that OPEC is dead long live OPEC. Perhaps that is the reason as reported by the news media the attendees, including Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, silently swept past gathered journalists at a luxury hotel in Doha ahead of the meeting.

Qatar's energy and industry minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, has said that 15 oil-producing nations representing about 73 percent of world output are expected to attend the Doha meeting, but he has not said whether this gathering will create a real oil cartel ?

Global oil markets have changed particularly during the past two years. Oil prices crashed to as low as $26 per barrel in February, from well over $100 in 2014.

International Oil Companies (IOCs) & National Oil Companies (NOCs) have had no option other than to cut billions of dollars in spending and investment programs. This has caused thousands in the industry to lose their jobs and forced many contractors to declare bankruptcy.

In the meantime, the Saudi Arabia government's brutal message for high-cost petroleum producers & exporters such as Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO)-Caspian region is: "...Get out of Markets..."

Many analysts like Chris Cook a Senior Research Fellow at University College London are of the view that unless there will be a drastic cut by Saudis low oil prices will continue through this year and into the 2017.

On the other hand the decline of oil price is good news for consumers, and US politicians for the sake of current presidential campaign. Drivers in the United States now pay $2.05 a gallon (54 cents a liter) on average. This price is almost near the price that we pay here in Iran. I am told by a Turkish Airline staff that the Airlines also have enjoyed savings of billions of dollars in jet fuel costs. But, apart from Iran which is used to austerities because of sanctions, the low oil prices have pressed ECO-Caspian Sea & Persian Gulf -OPEC - states dramatically.

In my view the Doha meeting is designed for Saudis and its allies to show that they are still matter in the oil market. But, I and many other analysts believe that Saudis no longer have any role to play as swing producer at high oil prices and this role is now transferred to USA. In fact Saudis have now been fallen in the trap they designed with their allies for imposing sanctions on Iran petroleum/energy industry. The question is how long OPEC major producers in particular Saudis can stand current low oil prices before their economic shortcomings destroy their political system?

I am of the opinion that those producers selling their oil should change their policy and learn from Iran which supplies its oil. That means Iran has now entered a new era of considering energy as a service not as a commodity. Therefore, the Doha meeting without Iran participating in many observers view will not provide a reliable outcome.

ECO -Caspian Energy Accord:

For the ECO-Caspian region observers agree that a prototype aimed at initiating a new ECO- Caspian energy framework and market instrument in the course of the 4th ECO Energy/Petroleum Ministerial Meeting during 2016 may be included on the agenda and has the potential if accepted, to open up new avenues for resolving many of the most intractable current economic and investment issues.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18

By Aygun Badalova - Trend:

The fail to reach any agreement at the oil meeting in Doha demonstrates the level of disagreement between key participants, according to the report of the US JP Morgan bank, obtained by Trend.

"We believe for negotiations to have become so protracted so late in the process, illustrates the level of disagreement between key participants at the talks and - based upon the press reports in recent days - possibly some internal differences of opinion within the Saudi delegation," analysts said in the report.

Reports indicate that initial drafts of the agreement to freeze output failed to satisfy Saudi Arabia with regards to the commitments required of other producers, most notably Iran. However, these last minute negotiations are unusual and reminiscent in tone to the problems OPEC members faced in their discussions of 4Q14, when OPEC failed to agree on how to respond to falling prices, analysts added.

They also noted that the fact that so many oil ministers attended the meeting indicates that participants believed that all but the smallest details had been agreed.

Oil producers on Sunday failed to reach a deal to freeze oil output. The talks collapsed after Saudi Arabia surprised the group by reasserting a demand that Iran also agree to cap its oil production.

Iran was not represented at the meeting.

Meanwhile, earlier Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said that the country didn't contribute to the disbalance on the oil market, thus would not freeze its output.

JP Morgan's analysts noted that comments from some (OPEC) oil ministers could almost be interpreted as being the second scenario they highlighted in their weekly note - no agreement, but to keep the dialogue open.

"However, the disparity between participants' views leave us in no doubt that this is a materially weaker outcome than markets were anticipating," analysts said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18



By Aygun Badalova - Trend:



The results of the past meeting in Doha is not disappointing, but only shows that the oil market is also geopolitics, Cyril Widdershoven, Middle East geopolitical specialist and energy analyst, partner at Dutch risk consultancy VEROCY and SVP MEA-Risk believes.



"The continuation of the Saudi Arabia-Iran conflict, or even possible heating up, has been playing a major part. Both parties are now calling the bluff of the other. Iran needs to show to the market that it can deliver, which a growing amount of analysts currently doubts, myself included," Widdershoven told Trend on April 18.



At same time, he said, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Mohamed Bin Salman is taking to hardline approach, which is "you either comply to Riyadh, or you will be confronted by new additional oil volumes from Saudi Arabia".



The latter, based on analysis will not be as easy as maybe most will expect, as infrastructure and export options are not yet fully there, but still Saudi Arabia's overall system could increase production for short term, according to Widdershoven.



He noted that Bin Salman also wants to force Iran into the overall fold of OPEC.



"If this is not going to happen, Iraq and Venezuela will also be taking Iran's point of view," Widdershoven said.



Oil producers on Sunday failed to reach a deal to freeze oil output. The talks collapsed after Saudi Arabia surprised the group by reasserting a demand that Iran also agree to cap its oil production.



Iran was not represented at the meeting.



Earlier Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said that the country didn't contribute to the imbalance on the oil market, thus would not freeze its output.



Overall, Widdershoven believes that the market, especially the financial markets, has shown a lack of rationality again following the meeting in Doha.



When looking at the markets, financial analysts and hedgefunds are over reacting, he said.



"At present, nothing has changed, but prices decreased by more than 6 percent. The latter is profit-taking of investors and overreacting of the others. Market fundamentals are the same, and the old parties (Saudi-GCC-Russia) did not indicate that they will not keep to their old agreement of a partial freeze," Widdershoven said.



"While at the same time, production elsewhere is down, and demand is up. Seems that emotions have been calling the shots at present, in politics, OPEC-Iran and financials," he added.



Oil prices slid on Monday after key producers failed to negotiate a curb on their output, fueling concerns that this could hit the recent recovery in the crude market, the Wall Street Journal reported.



Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 2.5 percent to $42.01 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading down 3.2 percent at $39.05 a barrel.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Apr. 18

By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:

Turkmenistan and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) have discussed the expansion of cooperation in transportation sphere, said the message from Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry.

ESCAP is one of the five regional commissions of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

During the meeting, the parties emphasized the importance of international initiatives put forward by Turkmenistan for developing the international cooperation in the transportation and communication sphere.

They also pointed out the role of joint activities as part of the UN Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA).

SPECA was founded in 1998 based on the Tashkent Declaration signed by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the executive secretaries of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and ESCAP. Later, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan joined the program.

It is planned to hold the first global conference on sustainable transport system in Ashgabat in late 2016.

Edited by SI
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Apr. 18

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:

Turkmenistan and Italy have great opportunities to diversify the cooperation and implement joint projects in various spheres, says the Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

He made the remarks during a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, read a message from Turkmenistan's government issued Apr.18.

The president expressed satisfaction with the dynamically developing cooperation between Turkmenistan and Italy both in bilateral and multilateral formats.

The first official visit of Turkmenistan's president to Italy in November 2009 and the working visit of Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to Turkmenistan in November 2014 gave an impetus to the interstate dialogue.

The two countries see the oil and gas sector, energy industry, construction, textile and chemical industries as the promising areas of cooperation.

Eni S.p.A, an Italian multinational oil and gas company, extended its operation in Turkmenistan for another 10 years in November 2014 under a production sharing agreement. The company is operating on a contract oil and gas area in Turkmenistan's Balkan province.

Eni also showed interest in exploration of two offshore blocks in the Turkmen part of the Caspian Sea, which have over 500 million tons of oil and 630 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Apr. 18

By Demir Azizov- Trend:

President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov offered his condolences to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in connection with strong earthquakes in Kyushu Island, which caused many human causalities and devastations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan reported.

The Uzbek leader shared his sympathy and support to relatives and friends of the people who died and were injured in the result of the earthquakes.

The southwest of Japan was on Apr. 15 shaken by a series of earthquakes, the magnitude of which reached 7.3.

The quakes caused multiple destructions. At least 41 people were killed and 2,000 injured in the result of the earthquakes.
Tehran, Iran, Apr. 18

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Ninety-eight percent of the problems related to the fueling of Iranian aircraft in Europe have been solved and only three stations remain problematic, said the Iran Civil Aviation Organization's CEO Farhad Parvaresh.

Iranian aircraft were banned from receiving fuel in Europe due to the sanctions that were removed this year.

Parvaresh said the International Air Transport Association is going to re-launch its booking and financial transactions systems for Iran's national airliner IranAir, IRNA news agency reported Apr. 18.

He also said Iran will import a number of French-made ATR airplanes within a year.

Iran's aviation was damaged a lot under the sanctions, which not only banned airplanes, but also maintenance and technology from being transferred to Iran.

The country has said it needs to buy 500 aircraft in a few years to refurbish its civil aviation fleet.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

By Emil Ilgar - Trend:

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif left Tehran to New York on April 18 to participate in the UN Climate Summit, Mehr reported Apr. 18.

Zarif reportedly is accompanied by Abbas Araqchi, and Majid Takht Ravanchi who are the top nuclear negotiators.

Mehr said that Zarif will negotiate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with his American counterpart John Kerry in New York.

Iran and P5+1 (US, UK, France, Russia, China + Germany) implemented JCPOA in mid-January. However, Iran asks US to pave the path for cooperation of non-American banks with Tehran.

Washington says that providing the access of Iran to the American financial system has not been included in JCPOA.

A landmark agreement will be signed by 155 countries to tackle the climate change at a ceremony at the UN headquarters Apr. 22, the UN said Friday.

The Paris agreement, achieved last year, will take effect 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deposit their instruments of ratification or acceptance with the secretary-general, AP reported on April 15.

The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2C.

The agreement is due to enter into force in 2020.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 17

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

The expanding relationship and engagement between the EU and Iran is a win-win outcome for both sides, as well as entire region, according to Mehrdad Emadi, consultant at the UK-based Betamatrix International Consultancy.

In a visit which follows last year's historic nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic, the EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, heading a high-ranking political and economic delegation comprised of seven European commissioners arrived in Tehran, Apr. 16 and held talks with senior Iranian officials.

She said that the parties had agreed to cooperate in a number of areas, including the economy, energy, education, migration and transportation, adding the results of their talks would "make a real difference" to the lives of Iranians and Europeans.

While responding to a question about outcomes of the visit, Emadi told Trend that "indeed, I expect it will become a win-win-win result benefiting the EU, Iran and Iran's neighbors."

The visit is a significant step in widening the EU-Iran relationship and may include other areas of cooperation such as support of the European Union toward the attainment of full membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and at a later phase, supporting Iran's desire to become a member country of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), he said.



Furthermore, the deepening of the relationship with Iran can help the EU achieve constructive traction on issues such as the rising flow of immigration from Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and Syria by facilitating the strengthening of the economic infrastructure in these countries, as well as reaching a lasting peace in the region, the expert added.

Additionally, encouraging Iran to engage in further diplomatic dialogue with Turkey and Saudi Arabia can reduce the existing tension in Syria and Yemen, he said, adding all of these countries are a source of deep concern to the European Union and not only in the context of their displaced population.

"For Iran, a growing and deepening relationship with the EU will provide noticeable improvements in its access to advanced technologies, significant industrial investment in its manufacturing and upgrading of its facilities in its aging energy sector."

He further said that the expected improvements in the Iranian economy have become a sensitive issue in Iran's relationship with both the EU and the United States, since there appears to be a noticeable inertia in allowing unimpeded access to the world financial system.

Iran is especially concerned about banking services, as well as the issuance of export insurance and export guarantees for contracts with Iran, Emadi added.

Emadi said he believes that this visit to Tehran is aimed to deliver tangible and quick results on all these fronts, specifically on access to banking services in the EU.

He noted that if the EU foreign policy chief and the delegation accompanying her show a clear commitment to delivering results, then Iran will have an added incentive to expand links with the EU.

Moreover, the political leadership of Iran will be able to see consistency in EU cooperation following the P5 +1 agreement which will provide further grounds for confidence building between the two sides in other areas of mutual interest, he said.

"In addition to these potential benefits, it is worth remembering that, even with the existing hesitancy of EU banks and industries to engage with Iran, we have already seen business agreements in excess of 14 billion euros with Germany, Italy, France and Spain and further 3.3 billion euros worth of investment from businesses in the UK and the Netherlands is being negotiated," he said.

"These deals have been reached in less than six months following the lifting of the sanctions, and there are estimated 55 billion euros of trade and investment waiting to be discussed between the two sides," Emadi added.

Iran's acceptance as a full member of the WTO will bring about similar benefits to those enjoyed by China. Even-handed treatment of Iranian goods in outside markets, access to global finance globally and investment projects undertaken by Iran outside the country will all be areas of great improvement. Not only Iran, but also its neighbors will get benefits from all these areas.

A great opportunity seems to be slipping away from US businesses caused by the insistence of the US Congress attempting to restrict Iran's access to US financial markets, as well as its currency outside the US, he said.

"If the existing restrictions continue, then we may see a concerted effort by Iran to focus its relationships for technology transfer and trade and investment on the EU and the industrial economies of Asia," he said.

"I suggest that the loss of the American business community could exceed $30 billion in four years" the expert underlined.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18

By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:

The Iranian Navy has thwarted seven pirate boat attacks on an Iranian merchant vessel sailing in the Red Sea.

Iran's Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said that the naval forces of the Islamic Republic April 16 rushed to rescue the ship when pirates on board seven boats were trying to hijack it, forcing the pirates to flee, Tasnim news agency reported April 18.

Iranian navy vessels escort the country's merchant vessels and oil tankers in the high seas, he added.

According to Sayyari, Iran's navy has increased presence in international waters in a bid to protect naval routes and provide security for merchant vessels and tankers, over the past years.

Since November 2008, the Iranian Navy has also been conducting patrols in the Gulf of Aden in line with international efforts against piracy to safeguard merchant containers and oil tankers owned or leased by Iran or other countries.


Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18



By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:



Commander of the Iranian Army's Ground Forces Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said that the country's army will react if terrorists come closer of 40-km redline on the border of the Islamic Republic.



Pourdastan said this rule applies to all neighboring countries with Iran.



He said that Iran has drawn the red line for the IS terrorist group (akaa ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) and it includes Pakistan, as well, Tasnim news agency reported.



He further expressed concerns over the IS's presence in Pakistan.



Pourdastan further expressed concerns over the presence of IS in Pakistan, saying that if the army of Iran feels any threat from the IS, it will take action.



The information released by Iranian officials suggests that Iran has in recent months neutralized several terror attacks, planed by extremist groups.



The Islamic Republic has ramped up its military presence in Iraq and Syria, where the IS terrorist group controls large areas.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

The efforts of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have prevented terrorism from engulfing Syria, says a senior Iranian military official.

"The IRGC, as a pioneer in fighting the terrorism in the region, entered the issue [Syrian crisis] with a detailed analysis," Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, head of Iran's Center for Strategic Defense Research said, Fars news agency reported Apr. 18.

"As a result, terrorism was prevented from sinking Syria," he added.

Vahidi also said the IRGC's elite Qods force has certain tasks abroad, adding it has carried out the tasks very well.

Iran sees the Syrian regime as its main strategic ally in the region and as a part of the "axis of resistance" against Israel. Tehran has always expressed support for the government of the Syrian President Bashar Assad. Iranian officials have constantly confirmed that the IRGC provides the Syrian army with advisory support in the fight against the terrorist groups.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Vahidi rejected the reports that suggest the Lebanese Hezbollah group is weakened due to its involvement in the Syria crisis.

Hezbollah is ten times more powerful in comparison to its latest war with Israel in 2006, Vahidi claimed.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

The EU first diplomatic delegation will be sent to Tehran in the near future, the EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said.

The delegation will be based in Dutch embassy till opening the EU office in Tehran, the top European diplomat told to Iran's Tasnim news agency.

In a visit which follows last year's historic nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic, Mogherini, heading a high-ranking political and economic delegation comprised of seven European commissioners arrived in Tehran, Apr. 16 and held talks with senior Iranian officials. Opening an EU office in Tehran was on the agenda of the mutual talks.

"We have decided to send first team that will be operating with the support and the help of the current presidency of the European Union, Netherlands," Mogherini said.

The mission of the future EU delegation would be mainly supporting and sustaining all the work that, the parties decided to start on re-launching dialogue and cooperation on many different sectors, she added.

Mogherini further said that the EU plans to develop dialogues on energy, economy and business presence in Iran as well as technology or transport.

"Having a presence in Tehran would be helpful to develop the cooperation in a structured way, and also would provide a support for all the business, companies and also the financial European sector that is willing to engage in Iran, providing a framework for the European engagement in the country from a technical point of view," she said.

While responding to a question about resuming banking ties with Iran, the EU diplomat said that there is no reason for European banks not to come to Iran.

"we are working very hard with all the European banks, with the financial sector in Europe to, first of all, explain that the situation has changed, as the 16th of January and all the economic and financial sanctions that were related to the nuclear program have been lifted," she said.

So the banks and the financial sector in Europe are facing a completely different situation, the top EU diplomat added.

"We have provided them with full information about the change of the situation," she said, adding the big banks maybe need a little bit of time to adjust to the new situation and adapt to the new situation, however the small banks, are coming in Iran already.

Mogherini further said that the EU is also negotiating with the US side on the issue.

"They know how much this issue is very important for us as Europeans, and again, we cannot force anyone to do anything, but we can encourage, we can reassure, we can explain that the legal provisions are now completely different from before, and that."

Iran has asked the EU to force the US to settle banking problems following the implementation of the nuclear deal. In a meeting with Mogherini in her recent Tehran visit, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Shamkhani asked the EU to confront with what he called Washington's "obstruction" of nuclear deal implementation.

He argued that the US is seeking to continue its sanctions policy against Iran and is troubling the implementation of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aka nuclear deal), referring to Washington's approach as "undesirable and unconstructive". Earlier the same day, Iran's Foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, underlined that the other parties, in particular the US, should in practice fulfill their obligations under the nuclear deal.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Mogherini, Zarif said Washington should do more to remove obstacles to Iran's banking system.

Earlier, Valiollah Seif, the head of Iran's central bank, accused the US and the EU of failing to honor the JCPOA by keeping Iran locked out of the international financial system.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

By Dalga Khatinoglu - Trend:

During last months, Iranian officials have announced several times that they are negotiating with international companies to both rent and build the floating liquefied natural gas FLNG) vessels.

It's not clear which foreign company would build the first FLNG for Iranian companies, but Roknoddin Javadi, Iran's deputy oil minister said last December that a consortium of Iranian and French companies will build Iran's first FLNG vessel to gather flaring associated gas from Forouzan (shared with Saudi Arabia) oil field to liquefy and export.

However, recently Iranian officials have said that they are negotiating with Belgium's Exmar and Norway's Golar over FLNG vessels.

An Iranian industrial source told Trend on April 18 that the latest talks for FLNG vessels are intensively focused with Golar LNG representatives.

Iran said on April 18 that a contract was signed with a domestic company to build a FLNG for gathering the flare gas so far burned at Foruzan field in southern Iran.

The contract was signed between Iran Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) and Nogam Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of Bank Mellat, SHANA news agency reported.

The contract's term is seven years, that is, the FLNG unit will be operational in two years and then will be used for five years.

IOOC CEO Said Hafezi said 5.7 mcm/d of gas is burned at the field.

While Nogam Oil and Gas Company has not the experience and the technology of building FLNG, it should choose a foreign company to fulfill its obligations.

Michael Webber, Senior Analyst and Managing Director of Shipping, Equipment Leasing, & Marine MLPs Equity Research told Trend that a partial lifting of sanctions clears some runway for Golar to move in, but since topside (Black & Veatch) and turbine (GE) providers are American companies (and still restricted from sending technology to Iran) any asset play would likely need to be somewhat retooled. Seems like more of a speed bump than a road block, but could kick out the time frame a bit.

"Recently a number of presses have linked Golar to an Iranian LNG project which we believe would make sense for Golar as Iran's project requirements seem to fit GLNG's skill sets, particularly the desire for an expedited speed-to-market".

He added that while Iran is a real possibility, it's important to note that some sanctions remain in place (which prohibits U.S. companies from conducting business with the country, i.e. sending U.S. technology is still prohibited), and Golar would likely need to use different turbine/topside suppliers, which wouldn't be a deal-breaker in our view, but would likely add some time.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18

By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:

Some 500 retired employees of Iran's steel industry have gathered outside the parliament to stage a protest against the government's delay in paying pensions.

The pensioners urged Iranian parliamentarians and government to quickly probe into the issue, ILNA news agency reported.

The report added that the pensioners also staged a protest outside the parliament on April 17 calling on the government to solve their problems with medical care system.

Aliasghar Bayat, an Iranian official with Social Security Organization had earlier said that 60 percent of Iranian retirees receive the minimum payment.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:

The Alliance Orchestra (Orchestre de l'Alliance), directed by Pejman Memarzadeh, will perform in several Iranian cities starting from April 20.

Iran's ISNA news agency quoted Memarzadeh as saying that 120 musicians will play various instruments during the performances.

He added that the symphonic orchestra will play various pieces at Iran's historical monuments.

Memarzadeh believes such cultural events will encourage Europeans to invest in Iran.

According to his website, Pejman Memarzadeh was born in Tehran and moved to France at the age of 16. He later founded The Alliance Orchestra in 1995.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18

By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:

In the light of recent escalation of ties between Tehran and Riyadh, Swiss embassy in Tehran may issue visa for Iranian pilgrims to attend annual Hajj ritual in Saudi Arabia, an Iranian minister said.

Saying that Tehran has sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia to discuss Hajj for the current year, Iran's Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ali Jannati has accused the Saudi government of "sabotaging" against the Islamic Republic over the past several months, Mehr news agency reported.

He further said that talks are underway to resolve visa issue for Iranian pilgrims and accused the Saudi officials of insulting Iranian pilgrims over the past years.

The crisis between Riyadh and Tehran erupted after execution of a prominent Shia cleric, Nimr al-Nimr by the Saudis on Jan. 2.

Following the execution, angry mob stormed Saudi embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad. Right after the attacks on its diplomatic missions, the Saudi Arabia said it severed ties with the Islamic Republic.

Following the closure of the Saudi mission to Tehran, Riyadh announced that Switzerland will act for its interest section in Tehran.

In a separate development on 24 September 2015, a crowd collapse caused the deaths of more than 2 thousand pilgrims who were suffocated or crushed during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Mecca, making it the deadliest Hajj disaster in history.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will discuss the Iranian deal as well as the situation in Syria during the meeting in New York on Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday, Sputnik reported.

"He'll [Kerry] go tomorrow to New York City," Kirby said. "While he is in New York, he will meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif to discuss implementation of the JCPOA and to follow up on earlier conversations regarding regional issues, including continued work of trying to get political resolution in Syria."

Kerry also plans to speak with Zarif about Tehran using its influence on Syria to move forward on a political solution in the country.

"The Secretary [Kerry] intends to raise with Foreign Minister Zarif ways in which Tehran can be more helpful going forward in the political process [in Syria]," Kirby said when asked if there was a shift underway to get Iran to use more of its leverage on Damascus to try to keep the ongoing peace talk process from unraveling.

Kirby noted that Iran does have influence on Syria and that Washington wants them to "use that influence in a constructive manner towards a political solution."
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Eighty-eight people have been today detained in Istanbul, Anadolu Agency reports.

The detainees are suspected of having ties with the Fethullah Gulen movement, which is banned in Turkey.

They are also suspected of money laundering and tax evasion.



More than 10 high-ranking police officers were detained in Turkey in December 2015 as a result of the operations against the Gulen movement.

Fethullah Gulen is an Islamic public figure currently residing in the US. He is accused of being involved in a huge wiretapping scandal in Turkey.

Turkish media reported on Feb. 25, 2014 that in 2011, telephone conversations of about 7,000 people associated with the representatives of both the ruling and opposition parties, including family members of the prime minister, were wiretapped as part of an anti-terrorist operation.

The then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Gulen of standing behind the wiretapping. Later a criminal case was initiated in Turkey against Gulen for his coup attempt and espionage against the country.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18

Trend:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Baku to participate in the 7th UNAOC Global Forum, to be held April 25-27, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism told Trend April 18.

"A meeting with the participation of senior officials and around 30 sessions are planned to be held," the ministry said. "The Baku Declaration is planned to be adopted at a high-level meeting of the UN Alliance of Civilizations."

According to the ministry, the Organizing Committee was established in connection with holding of the 7th UNAOC Global Forum in Baku on April 25-27 upon Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's decree dated July 24, 2015.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.18

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Turkey suspects Russia of spreading the personal data of 50 million Turkish citizens online, the Haber7 newspaper reported Apr.18 citing the investigative data.

The passport data of the Turkish citizens was spread by Russian hackers, according to the report.

Ankara court will send a request to Russia soon for the full investigation into the issue.

Earlier, some Turkish media outlets reported that the passport data of 50 million Turkish citizens was leaked online. However, Turkey's Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communication Binali Yildirim dismissed those reports.

Turkey launched an investigation into the fact Apr.6.

Edited by SI

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Turkish diplomats will have to obtain visas for visiting Russia since Apr. 18, Anadolu agency reported Apr. 18.

Russia unilaterally suspended the visa-free regime with Turkey since January 1, 2016.

This decision was made after the crisis in relations between Russia and Turkey.

Relations between Russia and Turkey deteriorated after Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian SU-24 bomber on Nov. 24, 2015. Turkey said the bomber entered its airspace, while Russia denied its warplane flying into the Turkish skies.

Following the incident, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on measures to ensure national security and economic measures against Turkey.

Edited by SI

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Details added (first version posted 20:12)

Three refugee children were among four killed by rockets fired at a Turkish border town from Syria on Monday.



The attack, which injured six others, was the latest to hit Kilis, which lies less than 6 kilometers (4 miles) from Syrian territory controlled by Daesh (IS).



Kilis Governor Suleyman Tapsiz told reporters the children were from the same family. The fourth fatality was identified as a 53-year-old Syrian shepherd.



Speaking during a visit to the hospital where the casualties were being treated, Tapsiz said five of the injured were Syrian nationals and the other was a 13-year-old Turkish boy.



One of the wounded was described as being in a critical condition.



"With this occasion, I wish God's mercy upon our deceased brothers and sisters and recovery for the injured," Tapsiz said. He added that the Turkish military had responded to the firing of the four rockets.



One rocket hit the roof of a house in Kilis' Hakverdi neighborhood while another fell in a rural area close to a school in the Yavuz Sultan Selim district. The school was evacuated for security reasons.



Almost an hour before that incident, two other rockets hit an olive garden and the oxygen depot of Kilis State Hospital.



Kilis province has been hit by a number of rockets fired from Syria in recent months. Four people were killed in January and March when rockets fired from the Bab region of Syria hit a school and a residential area. Last week, two civilians were killed by rocket fire.
Government officials traveling for official business now face new regulations. (Photo : Getty Images)

The country's Ministry of Finance (MOF) revealed a new set of regulations governing the business travel expenses of officials, according to a Global Times report.



Under the new rules, ministerial-level officials with business trips to Beijing can have a maximum accommodation expense worth 1,100 yuan.



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The MOF also stated that ministerial-level public servants who travel to seven cities in the Guandong Province such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou can have a maximum accommodation allowance of 900 yuan per day. For those officials traveling to other Chinese cities, the maximum is 850 yuan.



In MOF's previous circular, the standard set for the province as a whole was 800 yuan.



The notice further said that the "maximum expense of ministerial-level officials for business trips to Beijing and Shanghai rose to 1,100 yuan from 800 yuan per day in 2015," the Global Times said.



The new set of standards will take effect starting May 1.



The move is said to be part of the Chinese government's way of clamping down on corruption. It has been the country's campaign to combat the said issue and instill greater discipline among China's public servants.



Earlier, the public has criticized the government for using official funds for "overseas leisure trips," the article added, emphasizing the authorities' use of government vehicles for personal errands as well as their enjoyment of luxurious accommodations and receptions.



In addition, China's top disciplinary watchdog stated that officials are "limited to economy-class air tickets and accommodations at single or standard rooms," the Global Times said.



Back on Jan. 1, the MOF had adjusted the accommodation expenses of officials in the central government and in state-owned enterprises and state-level public institutions who travel to major Chinese cities.



Nonetheless, the notice released earlier this year did not reveal the standards for traveling to other cities and countries.


Look Whos Back: Hello Kitty-themed Bistro Now Serves in Shanghai

Red-carpet treatment: Yuko Yamaguchi, the third and current Hello Kitty illustrator, designed the restaurant. (Photo : Sanrio)

The most famous character in the world without a mouth said hello to Shanghai.



Hello Kitty Bistro Bianco started a trial operation in the citys Nanjing Road on Jan. 29, according to Sanrios website.



Tokyo-based Sanrios slogan Small Gift, Big Smile reflects the companys corporate philosophy, and this time, its latest small gift comes in the form of a restaurant.



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Located inside a mall, the two-storey Hello Kitty establishment operates a gift shop on the first floor and serves meals in a public dining room and a VIP room upstairs, reported Mail Online.



Diners can order sweet delicacies--from macaroons to cakes--and Western dishes, with Hello Kittys face even stamped on the steak.



This is not the first time Hello Kitty ventured into business in China.



As part of Hello Kittys 40th anniversary celebration in 2014, Sanrio, the Japanese company that created the iconic character in 1974, built a theme park in the country, according to Mail Online.



Hello Kitty Park officially opened in Zhejiang Province on July 1, 2015.



The 210-million-pound theme park sits on a 9.5-hectare lot in Anji County in Hangzhou. It offers thrilling rides, presents float parades, and provides accommodation in the form of a castle-style hotel with 343 luxury guestrooms.



Another part of the celebration is the exhibit titled, Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty, according to Sanrios website.



The Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California, hosted it from Oct. 11, 2014 to May 31, 2015. Christine R. Yano, an anthropologist from the University of Hawaii, curated the exhibit, according to the museums website.



In Aug. 2014, the news that Hello Kitty was not a cat hit the headlines of various news websites.



Yano said that Sanrio corrected her when she indicated in a script for the exhibit that Hello Kitty was a cat, reported Los Angeles Times.



According to Yano, who authored Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty's Trek Across the Pacific, Sanrio referred to Hello Kitty as a cartoon character . . . a little girl . . . a friend . . . but not a cat.



Well, Hello Kitty looks like a cat--it even has whiskers!--and the name Kitty denotes a feline creature.



So, whats the final verdict?



Kotaku, a blog for video game players, contacted Sanrios headquarters and, according to Brian Ashcraft, the blogs senior contributing editor: Don't be silly, Hello Kitty is a cat.



Hello Kitty was done in the motif of a cat. Its going too far to say that Hello Kitty is not a cat, said a Sanrio spokesperson to Kotaku. Hello Kitty is a personification of a cat.



Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty now runs at the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle, Washington, until May 15.



How about a super cute Hello Kitty exhibit in China?


An investor walks past an electronic screen displaying stock index at a securities company in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on May 8, 2007. (Photo : Getty Images)

China has shut down an incentive program that effectively subsidized exports from small firms, a year after the U.S. challenged it at the World Trade Organization (WTO).



The subsidy program covered several industries, including textiles and seafood, by giving companies a small but crucial advantage in exports, contrary to the regulations set by the WTO, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Thursday.



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Washington estimates the program has amounted to around $1 billion over three years, which is miniscule compared to the overall Chinese exports to the U.S., which reached $482 billion in 2015.



Beijing effectively subsidizes billions more in exports through its support for state-controlled firms that shop low-cost products across the globe, threatening competitors in the U.S. and other countries, the Wall Street Journal said in its report.



The Obama administration has pushed for stronger reinforcement of alleged trade violations in part to rally support for new trade agreements, including the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was approved by Japan and 10 other countries but not China. Approval of the pact is now effectively stymied in Congress.



The White House has brought 20 cases at the WTO, with 11 targeting China's practices. Many of the cases involve deeper investigations of Chinese trade-related policies, most of which were not disclosed publicly. However, politicians critical of President Obama's policy say the WTO cases are too little or too late.



The WTO settlement announced Thursday concludes a program that helped small exporters through so-called "common-service platforms" at nearly 200 "demonstration bases" throughout China.



Flanked by House Democrats, U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman said the settlement is a victory for American companies, workers and farmers.



"This is a win for Americans employed in seven diverse sectors," Froman said. "It also demonstrates the resolve with which we will enforce the high standards negotiated in the Trans-Pacific Partnership."



Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House committee on trade, said the settlement "reinforces the critical need to take action on all fronts against China's predatory actions, which cause major job losses and serious damage to the American economy."



U.S. officials have said that, while quantifying the subsidies involved in the case can prove to be a challenge, China apparently gave around $1 billion over the past three years to suppliers that provided discounted or free services to Chinese companies through the common-service platforms, including to exporters inside the demonstration bases.



Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has singled out China in its criticisms of U.S. trade policies, saying Beijing regularly sidesteps its international obligation and the Obama administration doesn't hold the world's second biggest economy accountable for it.



China's Commerce Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Washington declined comment on the announcement to the press.



The incentive program forms a part of a wide-ranging set of subsidies given to Chinese companies and exporters, including billions of dollars worth of subsidized land and electricity per year as well as cash grants from local governments.



Analysts see the settlement as Beijing's step toward easing trade tensions that were on display earlier this month in Washington as steel companies and unions protested China's alleged dumping of metal at artificially low prices.



Froman said the U.S. is prepared to consider "serious trade responses" beyond the specific antidumping cases it has approved should China fail to address the issue.



"We can't just keep filing trade cases and assume that China will behave," Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers union, told the Wall Street Journal. "They're exporting steel, and they're exporting unemployment."


Foreigners go to China not only for its famed Great Wall but sometimes to also learn how to cook Chinese cuisine from native cooking experts. (Photo : Mattias Klement/Facebook)

Three foreigners fell in love with Chinese cuisine; two of them make a living out of it and another one simply enjoys the pleasant reward of cooking ones own favorite Chinese dishes, reported the Global Times.



There is one Hungarian whose hometown is in Sweden and worked in a restaurant in Romania and later studied in China where he learned how to stretch noodles--and called the task amazing.



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A scholarship at Huangshan University in Anhui Province opened another door of opportunity for Mattias Klement to further broaden his culinary expertise.



Embarking on his new journey in another continent, Klement brought with him his work experience at his fathers Hungarian restaurant in Romania.



Prior to his enrolment at Huangshan University, he studied Mandarin for an entire year.



As he plunged himself into the realms of Chinese cuisine, a bunch of ingredients he had never seen before greeted him along with big woks, high flames and speed, speed, speed.



The language barrier plus the new style of cooking confronted him, but Klement said that it was definitely worth it.



He adapted to the fast pace of preparing dishes because, according to him, when it comes to Chinese cooking, timing is everything.



According to his Facebook account, Klement attended Huangshan University from 2012-2015.



He gained administrative experience working as a manager in a hostel in Huangshan, Anhui Province, from May to Sept. 2015. On Dec. 30, 2015, he started preparing meals in a cafe in Shishi, Fujian Province.



At present, the 26-year-old Klement, a dragon tattoo swirling on his right arm, treats Beijing as his place of residence.



He told the Global Times that he plans to open his own Chinese-themed restaurant when he goes back to Sweden and will go online shopping at Taobao for authentic Chinese ingredients.



Huang Taiji may either refer to Emperor Hong Taiji (1592-1643) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) or to a fast-food restaurant popular for its jianbing or pancakes.



For more than a year, American Geoffrey Torres from Miami trained under Sun Lixin, the executive chef of Bianyifang in Dongcheng, which is Beijings oldest Peking duck restaurant.



Torres invested on Huang Taiji as one of its business partners.



The 31-year-old cook intends to introduce real Chinese cuisine by planning to open a restaurant in Miami.



Among America, South Korea and China--all three offered her a temporary home away from home--a female Russian fell head over heels for the food in the last country, particularly for Chinas Sichuan dishes.



In 2012, Siberia-born journalist and fine artist Katya Knyazeva attended the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine in Chengdu.



Knyazeva, co-author of the two-volume Shanghai Old Town: Topography of a Phantom City (2015), counts Chinese food as one reason why she has stayed in the country for a decade.



She told the Global Times that compared to Western-style cooking where usually spices are accurately measured and procedures are precisely followed, in Chinese cooking, one would just be advised to simply add a little sesame oil or to fry a little longer.



Perhaps culinary schools in the country will be seeing more foreign students in their admission list in the coming years.


Chinese author Yan Lianke (Photo : Wikipedia)

Chinese writer Yan Lianke's controversial novel "The Four Books" has been chosen as one of the six masterpieces shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, reported the Global Times.



Translated into English by Carlos Rojas, the book "explores the chasm between high-flown ideology and brutal reality in [a] satire on the Great Leap Forward," said David Evans in a review published in The Financial Times.



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The 58-year-old author joins Elena Ferrante, Orhan Pamuk, Robert Seethaler, Han Kang and Jose Eduardo Agualusa among the shortlisted authors.



"This exhilarating shortlist will take readers both around the globe and to every frontier of fiction," Boyd Tonkin, chair of the judging panel, was quoted as saying in the Global Times report.



"These six books tell unforgettable stories from China and Angola, Austria and Turkey, Italy and South Korea," Tonkin added. "In setting, they range from a Mao-era re-education camp and a remote Alpine valley to the modern tumult and transformation of cities such as Naples and Istanbul."



Yan is known for his satirical works with underlying commentaries on China's social landscape. He started his career as a writer in 1978. Some of his works are "Xia Rilou," "Serve the People," "Enjoyment" and "Dream of Ding Village."



He won the Man Asia Literary Prize and the Franz Kafka Prize in 2011 and 2014, respectively.



According to The Guardian, it took Yan 20 years to plan and two more to write "The Four Books."



"He wrote it exactly as he wanted to, without regard for the censor. It was rejected by 20 publishers, all of whom understood that publishing it would mean they would be shut down," told The Guardian.



Held in Britain, the Man Booker International Prize is a world-renowned literary award for a body of work in fiction available in English translation. Starting 2016, the award is being given annually to a living writer. The awardee takes home 50,000 pounds, which will be shared between the writer and the book translator.


Shanghai Disneyland is expected to open in spring of 2016. (Photo : Reuters)

The Shanghai police have detained there suspects reportedly involved in a fraudulent job recruitment that duped about 200 applicants, reported the South China Morning Post.



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The victims purportedly paid 3 million yuan to the suspects who promised to give them a job at Shanghai Disneyland. One of the three scammers pretended to be a senior recruitment agent at Disney to woo applicants.



Job advertisements were posted on WeChat, the suspect confessed in an interview.



Those who responded to the ad were asked to give a "finder's fee to a broker in return for helping them secure employment at Shanghai Disneyland," told the SCMP.



Shortlisted applicants were assured that they would be trained for 20 days in the Guangdong Province to prepare them for the job. Victims said that the slots they applied for were for managerial positions at the famous amusement park.



However, it turned out that the jobs were either non-existent or not matched to the original advertisement.



"The victims later found out that they had been offered only low-level jobs, instead of the management position for which they had applied," revealed the SCMP report.



A cab driver was the first victim to report the dubious transaction to the police. According to the Xinhua News Agency, the driver had to quit his existing work and pay 13,000 yuan to the scammers in hopes of landing a better job at Disney.



He discovered eventually that the job he was applying for was a janitorial position and not the managerial post originally offered to him.



The Shanghai police warned the public to exercise caution when transacting with employers and job recruiters, especially those carried out only on social media.



The Shanghai theme park is set to open in June. Tickets for its opening were snapped up easily minutes after their release in March.


Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull (Photo : Reuters)

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull upheld trade ties between China and Australia on his first visit in the country since taking his post last year.



On his two-day mission, Turnbull recognized the bilateral free trade agreement inked in 2014 that offers key opportunities for Australians exporting to China.



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The visit comes on the back of China's slowing economy, which economists postulate could reverberate across many countries, including Australia.



According to Fox News, China accounts for more than 30 percent of Australia's exports, and China's weakening demand for coal, iron ore and other sources "has taken a major toll on Australia's economy."



Two-way trade between [the two countries] totalled AUD150 billion or $115 billion in the last financial year, down 6.3 percent, the report added.



The Australian PM also urged China to continue opening its market to the rest of the world.



"China's own long journey toward open markets and rule-of-law will be well worth the challenges along the way," Turnbull said.



The Australian PM also held Deng Xiaoping's "reform and opening policy" as something to emulate, stating that "a "closed-door policy prevents any country from developing."



"The truth is, as I said in Shanghai, the more open China is, the stronger it is," Turnbull was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.



"Deng Xiaoping said, in the days when China was open to the world it was strong; when it became closed it became weak," Turnball added.



Deng is a known reformist leader in China.



Aside from boosting economic ties, the two countries also inked five documents that strengthen their partnership in science, mining, tourism and industrial parks.



In addition, Australia will grant 10-year visas to China and permit online applications. This will be the first time Australia has ever made such an agreement with the country.



With more than 1,000 delegates consisting of business leaders, Turnball's visit is said to be the largest trade-related undertaking by an Australian leader.


Microsoft Surface Pro 5 release date rumors could be mid or late of 2017 with Pro 4 still going strong

Microsoft Corporate Vice President Panos Panay introduces Microsoft Surface Pro 4 at a media event in October. (Photo : YouTube/ MSFT Technology News)

The Microsoft Surface Pro 5 is expected to join the Surface Pro hybrid series this year and continue the legacy of innovation that made tech industry observers excited. The current Surface Pro 4 released in October 2015, dubbed the laptop killer has set a pattern that the next series would measure up to.



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With the Surface Pro 4 gaining a lot of momentum, in a few months from now, Microsoft fans would want a tablet that is even better than Surface Pro 4. It is possible that some fans are waiting for this year's Surface Pro to buy the tablet as Pro 5 rumors are starting to circulate.



The Surface Pro 5 is rumored to be released either June or October, considering the 3rd series was released in May 2015 while Surface Pro 4 came out in October 2015. The upcoming launch is said to likely follow the Pro 4 launch date, according to News Everyday.



However, there are also rumors that since Pro 4 is still going strong, Redmond may delay the launching of Pro 5, that the Pro 4 successor would be released mid or late of 2017. For those who are waiting to get hold of it, that could be a long wait.



Microsoft's Surface Pro 5 is rumored to sport a larger display, at 13.3 inches, with 4K resolution, new stylus, KabyLake or Intel Skylake processor, latest Windows 10, a fingerprint sensor and an increased battery life.



With an enhanced battery, one can watch three movies back to back on the Pro 5 for at least 6 hours or the battery will last longer with regular computing tasks, according to Dispatch Tribunal. The KabyLake processors by Intel are pegged as highly optimized to boost productivity, specifically when it comes to battery life.



Its price will likely be similar to earlier Surface Pros, like the Pro 4. It could range from $899 to $950, with top end models costing up to $2,200.



The Windows software maker has reportedly filed a patent for a Surface Pen that is rechargeable so that it can replace the existing stylus that is battery-powered. There is also the Surface Dock to prevent the Pen from being misplaced or lost. The video below introduces the Microsoft Surface Pro 4.






The Pirate Bay (TPB), ExtraTorrent and YTS.ag Now Listed as Top Free Download Alternatives; Torrenting Still Hurting from KickassTorrents, Torrentz Shut Down (Photo : Facebook)

More than 24 hours have passed and The Pirate Bay remains offline, apparently struggling with server issues that keep users from across the globe in accessing the file-sharing site. As TPB operators vow to resume normal operation soon, rival torrent provider KickassTorrents is beefing up security to fill in the void created by latest outage.



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TorrentFreak said in a report that following weeks of intermittent service, The Pirate Bay went for an extended time. "The Pirate Bay has been unreachable for more than a day now," the report said, adding that all known domain names of the torrent source are unresponsive as of writing.



Attempts to pull up the TPB site will lead to a page announcing of Error 522 or Connection Timed out message, which actually is CloudFlare informing that The Pirate Bay servers are transmitting no live data.



But the TPB team, TorrentFreak said, is working double time on the technical problem to bring the site back online. Exactly when, the report only said soon. In the meantime, the blog report points to The Pirate Bay's onion address as an alternative that can be accessed through the TOR network and is apparently "working just fine."



Still, the extended downtime that hit TPB anew brings back memory of the late 2014 episode in which the site went offline through the early months of 2015. That incident though opened the door for KickassTorrents to step in and eventually become the go-to site for free downloads.



And as The Pirate Bay struggles to stay online these days, KAT seems determined to keep things going for torrent fans. Last week, Chrome and Safari browsers blocked all links that lead to KickassTorrents while Avast security tool warned of compromised online security and privacy when visiting the site.



Swiftly, the KAT team zeroed in on the problem and identified the source as a problematic link wrapper that has been blocked. As Chrome is now bringing up the KAT side via kickasstorrents.eu, it appears that the security alert had been removed, TorrentFreak said in a separate report.



Also, KickassTorrents recently introduced 2-factor authentication (2FA) as optional security for site users to protect their privacy, somehow indicating that beefed up measures are in place to lure in more torrent fans and prepare to be the last man standing in the torrent scene in the event a delayed TPB comeback.


A Monarch butterfly lands on a branch of an Oyamel tree January 29, 2001 at the butterfly sanctuary in Michoacan, Mexico. (Photo : Getty Images/Susana Gonzalez)

The migration navigation system that the monarch butterflies use for travelling long distances has finally been solved with this new study. The research revealed that the insects have a compass that guides them other regions of the world.



A team of researchers has created a model that explained how the information was processed in the insect's brain, according to a journal posted on Cell Reports' official website. The study revealed that its eyes are always checking out the sun in relation to the horizon. It needs to know where the sun at the moment and registers it in their brains.



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In a previous research, scientists have found out that these butterflies would use the position of the sun in the sky with their internal clocks to find out where south is, and this is called the time-compensated sun compass. There was one issue with this discovery, which was how the insects would use the information and process it inside their brains.



The biological clocks of the insects help out with this process, which are inside the antennae. The clock can indicate whether the sun is rising or setting if it is close to the horizon.



The researchers used their own data, fed it to their own computational model, and developed a supposed-to-be neural mechanism of the insects. The rate and combination of the neuronal signals would tell the insect's brain what kind of signal it would send to its body to change course. These signals can let it change angles and whether it can turn right or left.



University of Washington applied mathematics researcher Eli Shlizerman told Christian Science Monitor in a phone interview that the phenomenon did not just appear in the model, but also in a real situation. The team found out that if the butterflies were pushed off course, they would rotate their bodies around to find the correct course in their computation model. They used actual butterflies in their next experiment and it did the same rotations.



The team is planning to check out the biology of the butterflies to see if their models would match the structures inside the insects' brains. The research could help out getting clues into the navigational tools of other animals and insects too.



Check out the monarch butterflies' incredible journey video below:






The low and negative outlook given by two international credit rating agencies has drawn the ire of Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei. (Photo : Reuters)

Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei has complained against international credit-rating companies for their "bias" against the country following the lowered outlooks on China from Standard & Poor's Rating Services and Moody's Investors Service, according to a report by Bloomberg.



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"Historically, the market performance of most of China's sovereign debt was higher than the assessment of the credit-rating agencies," Lou Jiwei said during a press briefing in Washington after a Group of 20 meeting on Friday, April 16. "That means there's bias."



According to Lou, China's "economic reality" was not reflected in the March downgrades and the first quarter's 6.7-percent growth rate was still very high.



Lou said that last year's slower pace was expected since it is in line with China's target range of 6.5 percent to 7 percent. He added that measures to control the increase and size of local government debt have been taken by China, which was a concern cited by Moody's and Standard & Poor's.



Last month, the ministry told the credit-rating agencies that they underestimated China's ability to handle economic risks and the recent comments by Lou were the strongest word against the agencies.



The outlook for China's AA- long-term credit rating was downgraded by Standard and Poor's from stable to negative in March, after Moody's made a similar move earlier in the month.



Lou said in March that the move had little market impact and Chinese leaders "didn't care that much" about Moody's cut, while the country's economic officials tried to assuage investors' concern over China's outlook, saying that there is more room to act with monetary and fiscal support.



The minister said on Friday, April 15, that the increasingly aging population is posing a challenge to China's economy as it takes on strong measures and reforms to tackle the "downward pressure."



"I'm afraid the credit-rating agencies are not familiar with these reforms, so I don't blame them," Lou said, citing a government plan for a debt-to-equity swap program which it has not released yet.



Data showed on Friday that the surge in new credit has helped the property sector to rebound, stabilizing China's economy in the last quarter, which gathered pace in March, amid questions of sustainability of the expansion driven by debt.



International Monetary Fund (IMF) First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton said on Bloomberg Television on Friday that China's transformation to a consumer-led economy may be a "rocky" experience as the forecast of China's growth this year was upgraded by IMF by 0.2 percentage points. He also expressed concern over the quality of China's growth.



"The IMF only sees the measures we recently adopted on the demand side, but we have different views on the supply-side reforms," Lou said. "I don't want to comment on their forecast. They have their own logic."


Egypt reiterated on Sunday that it has sovereignty over the territory of Halayib and Shalateen, hours after Sudan issued a fresh call for negotiations to resolve the decades-long dispute over the contested border territory.

"Sudan calls on its brothers in Egypt to take part in direct negotiations to resolve this issue, along the lines of what took place with the brothers in Saudi Arabia," the Sudanese foreign ministry said on Sunday night, referring to a recent deal between Egypt and Saudi Arabia to acknowledge Saudi sovereignty over two Red Sea islands.

Egypt's foreign ministry issued a statement a few hours later saying that the region is "Egyptian land that is subjected to Egyptian sovereignty," refraining from giving any "additional comment" on the Sudanese remarks.

The dispute between the two countries over the Halayib Triangle region, located on Egypt's southern border with Sudan and comprising three cities, has lingered for decades, starting shortly after Sudan gained independence from joint Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1956.

Cairo currently exercises control over the territory, inhabited by tribes that trace their roots to both Sudan and Egypt.

The triangle comprises the cities of Halayib, Abu Ramad and Shalateen.

The Sudanese foreign ministry proposed resorting to "international arbitration in compliance with international laws and conventions as a criterion in such cases," referring to an international arbitration ruling that returned Taba, an enclave north of Aqaba Gulf, to Egypt in 1989 after years of border dispute with Israel.

Sudan's foreign ministry cited a 1958 memo Khartoum submitted to the United Nations Security Council which it says "affirms [Sudan's] sovereign rights over the Halayib and Shalateen regions."

Khartoum added that it would "closely follow" the Egyptian-Saudi deal and would take necessary measures that "safeguard Sudan's entrenched sovereign rights over the Halayib and Shalateen areas."

The announcement by the Egyptian government earlier in April that the islands of Tiran and Sanafir would be returned to Saudi Arabia sparked public outcry, with critics accusing President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi of "selling" the islands.

Egyptian and Saudi officials say the islands belong to the Gulf kingdom and were only under Egyptian control because Riyadh had asked Cairo in 1950 to protect them\

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Francois Hollande was speaking alongside Sisi in Cairo at the Egyptian-French Business Forum; Egyptian president says Europe needs to see things through our scope and culture

French President Francois Hollande said in Cairo on Monday that Egypt faces three main challenges to its development  security, demography, and geography.

Speaking on the second day of his three-day visit to Cairo, Hollande described the first challenge as a security challenge in a region that suffers from disasters, tragedies, deprivation and terrorism.

The second challenge is related to Egypts population of 91 million, which increases by an average of two million a year.

This demographic renewal is a burden when theres a lack of preparation and infrastructure to face this [population] increase, the French president said during the Egyptian-French Economic Forum, alongside his counterpart President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

The French president said the third challenge is a geographic challenge; although Egypt is connected to the Suez Canal, Egyptians should expand to other parts of the country.

President El-Sisi on his part said that Europes view of the Middle East is unfair to the region.

You look at what is happening in the Middle East from your European scope and this is a great injustice, the Egyptian president stated.

You should look at what is happening in the region from our scope and culture, El-Sisi added.

El-Sisi also touched on the Egyptian-French economic relationship, describing France as one of Egypts important partners.

Egypt is a country that aims to develop and stand on its feet and take its position amongst the modern nations as a democratic modern state, El-Sisi announced.

During the forum, 30 memorandums of understandings of cooperation between the two countries were signed.

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An Egyptian judge renewed on Monday the detention for 15 days of 25 people arrested while demonstrating against the recent Egyptian-Saudi accord which acknowledges Saudi Arabia's sovereignty over two Red Sea islands, defence team lawyer Amr Imam told Ahram Online.

Prosecutors on Saturday reversed an earlier decision to free the protesters, who were arrested on Friday, and ordered they be detained pending investigations.

The protesters were arrested at a rally in downtown Cairo against the recent Egyptian-Saudi maritime border redrawing agreement which places the islands of Tiran and Sanafir in Saudi regional waters.

Parliament has not yet voted on the agreement.

The rally marked one of the largest demonstrations in recent months.

The detained protesters face charges including protesting without a permit as well as disrupting traffic and "threatening security."

A controversial 2013 law bans all but police-sanctioned demonstrations, with violators facing jail and fines.

Imam says the decision to detain this group is "purely political" and aims at "intimidating people" who plan further demonstrations later this monthagainst the controversial deal.

Dozens of demonstrators protested Monday afternoon before the court in central Cairo where the session was held, chanting slogans including "freedom, bread...the islands are Egyptians."

Several political figures and rights advocates were also present at the Abdeen court to show solidarity with the detainees, including Constitution Party leader Khaled Dawood, National Council for Human Rights member Ragia Omran, and rights lawyer Tarek El-Awady.

A number of political parties and public figures signed a statement late on Sunday calling for the release of the detainees, and questioning if the security apparatus had played a role in the change of course on the release matter.

Another 15 people were ordered to be detained for 15 days in Alexandria over demonstrations in the coastal city against the islands accord, lawyers said.

The announcement has sparked public outcry, with some critics accusing President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi of "selling" the islands.

Egyptian and Saudi officials say the islands belong to the Gulf kingdom and were only under Egyptian control because Riyadh had asked Cairo in 1950 to protect them.

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Egypts parliamentary speaker said Monday that parliament is ready to take legal action against television programmes that "direct criticism at MPs in a way which exceeds the limits of freedom of expression."

In an official statement, headed "Freedom of Expression Should Not Be Used to Justify Slandering and Insulting Institutions, parliament warned MPs who write articles or accept to be guests on talk shows to be careful and not to let themselves tarnish the image of parliament.

The statement said that while articles 65 and 70 of the new constitution state that freedom of expression is guaranteed and that the freedom of establishing all forms of media outlets is allowed, parliament is also authorised to alert attention to the fact that "this freedom should not go to the extent of directing insults or slandering state institutions."

According to the statement, "there is a delicate difference between exercising freedom of expression as a constitutional right and insulting or defaming state institutions."

"The first is an allowed form of political criticism, while the second only aims at tarnishing the image of state institutions and disparaging them," the statement said.

The statement notes that a number of television programmes and public figures have recently directed insults to parliament and its MPs in a way that exceeds the limits of freedom of expression and leads to defaming them in the eyes of their constituents.

"We also note that some of these programmes adopt one point of view  without presenting other different viewpoints," said the statement, warning that "the right of expression should not be used in an arbitrary way because directing insults to MPs is in fact means directing insults to citizens who elected these MPs."

The statement also indicated that parliament's new by-laws, which were signed into law by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday, state that in exercising their parliamentary duties MPs are urged to observe the dignity of state authorities inside or outside parliament "and those who fail to observe this right will be considered guilty of violating parliamentary rules."

The statement was released a few moments after parliament voted in its morning session on Monday to expel independent MP Samir Ghattas from the chamber.

Parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al accused Ghattas, a political researcher, of "violating parliamentary rules whether inside or outside parliament."

"This MP is fond of defaming parliament in every possible way and I urge all MPs who like to talk to TV programmes to be careful and read very well legal articles about the crime of slander," said Abdel-Al.

Ghattas tried to interrupt Abdel-Al, insisting that he was very well informed of all "the files" he discussed in TV programmes. Ghattas also refused to leave the chamber initially, until some MPs persuaded him to do so.

Upon the request of Abdel-Al, MPs voted in favour of expelling Ghattas and referring him to a special parliamentary investigation committee. The speaker said that "as the ethics committee has not yet been formed, Ghattas will be questioned by a special parliamentary committee."

Abdel-Al noted that state institutions, particularly the army, have been lately facing a hostile campaign. "This campaign began with directing insults to President El-Sisi, extending later to entail Egypt's national army which saved this country from chaos," he said.

He wondered how "a man who was prepared to sacrifice his life on 30 June could be insulted in this bad way." 

Abdel-Al's words received enthusiastic and prolonged applause and a standing ovation from MPs.

In a sitting on Sunday afternoon, MPs also led a chorus of attacks against some local media outlets and social networks, accusing them of doing their best to spread chaos in Egypt.

In response, Abdel-Al threatened that parliament is ready to take all measures necessary against media outlets which were involved in defaming the country's legislative body.

In the words of Abdel-Al, "we respect freedom of speech, but this freedom should be responsible, and we reject defamation and are ready to invoke all necessary legal procedures in this respect."

Joining forces with the speaker, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Magdi El-Agati said that three new media laws are being drafted by the justice ministry.

"Officials of the justice ministry are holding meetings on a daily basis to finish drafting three new laws on media and the press," said El-Agati.

The attacks were led by independent MP and high-profile journalist Mostafa Bakri who accused the government of standing "helpless" in the face of protests which were organised in downtown Cairo on Friday.

"This is not a strong government as it kept silent towards last Friday's protests," said Bakri.

Thousands of protesters had gathered outside the Journalists Syndicate to oppose a recent government deal that acknowledged Saudi sovereignty over two Red Sea islands. The deal is yet to be ratified by parliament.

Bakri wondered why "the government is still taking hesitant steps in the area of media laws."

"It just chose to keep silent towards the conspiracies led by different media outlets and by countries like Qatar and Turkey against Egypt and President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi himself," said Bakri.

Bakri urged the government to present all the new laws aimed at regulating the media. He also urged prosecution authorities not to release those arrested during the protest.

"They were using protests to incite the people against their government and they want us to be another Libya," said Bakri.

Bakri also attacked some TV channels and programmes for ridiculing MPs and portraying them as "idiots, citing Abla Fahita, a puppet who gives folksy-yet-satirical commentary on life in Egypt during a weekly eponymous television show on CBC channel, as an example.

"Some have even gone so far to use Facebook to describe MPs who approve of the [Saudi-Egyptian] agreement as traitors," said Bakri.

Joining forces, Hatem Patshat, a leading MP affiliated with the Free Egyptians Party and a former intelligence officer, heaped praise on El-Sisi.

"He is a man who intervened in order not to allow Egypt to become another Yemen and Syria and fall into the hands of Muslim Brotherhood," he said.

He also urged the local media to improve their performance and to stand up to "the campaigns led by the Qatar-based channel of Al-Jazeera."

Independent MP Mohamed Akl said he is in favour of tightening laws aimed at controlling foreign-funded NGOs, and regulating the media and social networks.

"We also have a duty as MPs to warn citizens in our constituencies of the dangers of hostile media and campaigns aimed at spreading chaos in Egypt," said Akl.

In response, Minister El-Agati said that "the government has no control over Abla Fahita." 

"I wonder what we can do against this Abla Fahita," he said, amid laughter from MPs.

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Egyptian, Italian and Greek officials were unable to confirm a BBC report on Monday that up to 400 people, most of them Somali, had capsized near the Egyptian coast after setting off for Italy in boats.

Officials in Egypt did not immediately respond to inquiries and Italy's coast guard, which coordinates all rescues in the waters between Italy and Libya, said it had no information about a shipwreck. It did, however, say that six bodies had been recovered on Sunday and 108 migrants rescued from a semi-submerged rubber dinghy.

The Greek coast guard also said it had no news of a fresh tragedy, and the Somali ambassador to Egypt, cited by the BBC, could not be immediately reached.

In Geneva, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said: "Our offices in Egypt, Italy and Greece are trying to find out more about this reported incident but, so far, we cannot confirm it."

Exactly one year ago, an estimated 800 migrants drowned off the Libyan coast when the fishing boat they were travelling in collided with a mercantile vessel that was attempting to rescue them - the most deadly Mediterranean shipwreck in decades.

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The bomb was targeting a prisoner transport van, according to security sources

An improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in the North Sinai city of El-Arish, killing two citizens and injuring 11 others, including three police conscripts from a passing police van, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported on Monday.

According to security sources and eyewitnesses, unknown assailants planted the explosive device in the El-Khazan area with the aim of targeting a passing prisoner transport van.

Security forces are currently combing the area for the culprits and other possible explosive devices.

The bodies of the two dead citizens and the injured were transferred to El-Arish General Hospital, while the injured conscripts were taken to El-Arish Military Hospital.

No group has yet claimed responsibility of the attack.

Egyptian forces have for years been grappling with an Islamist insurgency based in parts of the North Sinai governorate.

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Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail expressed to French President Francois Hollande Egypt's hope for more investments during a meeting on Monday, the state-owned MENA agency reported.

Egyptian cabinet spokesman Hossam Qawish said that Ismail expressed his hope for more French investments in the field of new and renewable energy, as well as projects that would help in enhancing services provided to citizens and the transfer of advanced French technology to Egypt.

Ismail affirmed Egypt's commitment to decentralisation and service upgrades, adding that the local municipal elections would be held before the end of 2016.

The French president told Ismail that there was a readiness by French companies to increase investments in Egypt in several fields, including infrastructure, energy, electricity, tourism, culture, agricultural development and water treatment.

The Egyptian prime minister said that Egypt was looking forward to French support for a fund through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development needed to execute strategic projects.

Ismail also expressed his hopes for France to take steps to promote French tourism to Egypt, especially with the Egyptian governments efforts to ensure security at Egyptian airports.

Hollande said that France is keen on the return of French tourism to Egypt for its ancient civilisation and unique tourist sites.

Qawish added that Hollande praised the Egyptian government's efforts to accomplish economic reforms and provide a suitable environment for business and investment despite the challenges Egypt is facing.

Earlier, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said that Egypt was looking forward to a partnership with French corporations on major national projects such as the Suez Canal Development Zone at the opening of a Franco-Egyptian economic forum attended by his French counterpart during his second two-day visit to Egypt.

The two presidents have so far witnessed the signing of 18 financial deals worth more than 1.5 billion euros, as well as memorandums of understandings in the fields of transport, energy, renewable energy, gas and tourism.

The French president's second visit to Egypt in less than a year, since the New Suez Canal inauguration in August 2015, included talks with his Egyptian counterpart about regional issues and means to enhance bilateral relations and combat terrorism.

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Egypt's parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al met with French President Francois Hollande in the Egyptian parliament on Monday where they held talks on bilateral relations.

The speaker asked for France's support in the field of renewable energy and combating terrorism, as well as expressing the need for promoting tourism between the two countries due to its importance for the Egyptian economy.

Hollande affirmed to Abdel-Al that one of the main reasons behind his visit was to provide full French support to Egypt, as well as his country's backing of the Egyptian government and army in combating terrorism and promoting tourism.

He expressed his happiness over the diversity displayed in the Egyptian parliament, especially in the representation of women and youth.

The parliament's Deputy Speaker El-Sayed El-Sharif described Hollande's meeting with Abdel-Al and other MPs as a special visit that signals the depth of the relationship between the two countries.

The French president's trip to Egypt, which started on Sunday, is his second visit in less than a year, since the New Suez Canal inauguration in August 2015.

His visit included talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi about regional issues and means to enhance bilateral relations and combat terrorism.

The two presidents have so far witnessed the signing of 18 financial deals worth more than 1.5 billion euros, as well as memorandums of understandings in the fields of transport, energy, renewable energy, gas and tourism.

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Four rockets fired from Syria slammed into the southern Turkish town of Kilis on Monday, killing one Syrian national and wounding a child, the Dogan news agency reported.

Kilis has in the last week repeatedly been hit by deadly strikes from rockets fired from the Syrian side of the border, with local officials saying they were launched from an area controlled by Islamic State jihadists.

There were no immediate details on the origin of the latest fire on the town of Kilis, where refugees from the war in Syria now outnumber Turkish locals.

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The Syrian opposition will ask the United Nations to pause troubled peace talks in Geneva until Damascus shows it is serious about discussing political transition, a delegation member told AFP Monday.

"A small delegation has come to meet (UN mediator Staffan de Mistura) and to ask him to pause the negotiations until the regime shows it is serious about political transition and humanitarian issues," a member of the opposition High Negotiations Committee said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he added that the delegation planned to remain in Geneva, for now.

The latest round of talks aimed at ending Syria's brutal five-year conflict kicked off in the Swiss city on April 13 and had been expected to continue until the end of this week.

But the indirect negotiations, which have seen de Mistura shuttling back and forth between the sides, have been marred by surging violence on the ground and dwindling access for humanitarian aid.

A landmark partial ceasefire, which was negotiated by the United States and Russia and took effect on February 27, had dramatically curtailed violence across much of Syria and raised hopes that a lasting deal could be struck in Geneva to end the bloodshed.

But fighting has surged around second city Aleppo in the last week, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee, leading the HNC to question President Bashar al-Assad's commitment to a political solution to a conflict that has displaced half of the population and killed more than 270,000 people.

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A bomb blast ripped through a bus in Jerusalem on Monday and sparked a fire, wounding at least 21 people, Israeli police said, in an apparent escalation in a wave of violence.

Details were still emerging, but police said a bomb had exploded on one bus in a relatively isolated area of Jerusalem, sparking a fire that spread to another one as well as a car.

Israeli domestic security agency Shin Bet referred to the explosion as a "terror attack".

The bombing was expected to lead to a sharp increase in security ahead of Jewish Passover celebrations beginning Friday night.

If confirmed as a Palestinian bombing, it would both reverse a decline in a wave of violence that erupted in October and mark an escalation, with most of the attacks having been stabbings.

"A professional examination of police sappers has proven that a bomb exploded on the back part of the bus, resulting in the wounding of passengers and the burning of the bus," a police statement.

"In addition, another bus and car were damaged."

An AFP journalist at the scene said one bus was completely burnt out while another was partially burned, with a large contingent of firefighters battling to extinguish the blaze.

Police said 21 people were injured, with medics reporting at least two hurt seriously. Police were investigating whether any of the wounded were behind the bombing.

Authorities initially said most of the wounded were passengers on the second bus, though conflicting information later emerged.

The blast struck in an area of the city without any major buildings or homes and which is not heavily used by pedestrians.

The location was on Moshe Baram Street close to the so-called Green Line dividing mainly Jewish west Jerusalem from predominately Palestinian east Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called on residents to be vigilant, "but continue with your plans".

"Here in Jerusalem and in Israel, we go back to normal life as fast as possible," he said.

"It's part of the deep understanding that if it's a terror attack, they want to deter us from our normal life, and what we must do... is go back to normal life as fast as possible."

It was the latest incident in an almost eight-month long surge of Israeli-on-Palestinian deadly repression met with violent responses by Palestinians against settlers and Israeli soldiers.

The recent surge in violence has raised concern of wider escalation, a decade after the last Palestinian uprising subsided.

Since the start of October, Israeli occupation forces have killed at least 201 Palestinians. Meanwhile, almost daily stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks by frustrated and unarmed Palestinians have killed 28 Israelis.

The current wave of protests by Palestinians and repression by Israeli occupation forces started in late July when toddler Ali Dawabsha was burned to death and three other Palestinians were severely injured after their house in the occupied West Bank was set on fire by Israeli settlers.

Settlement-building, racial discrimination, confiscation of identity cards, long queues at checkpoints, as well as daily clashes and the desecration of Al-Aqsa mosque, describe Palestinians' daily suffering.

The anger of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem has increased in the last three years after the Israeli authorities allowed increasing numbers of Jewish settlers to storm the Al-Aqsa mosque.

The last bomb targeting a bus in Jerusalem dates back to 2011, when a British tourist was killed.

In Tel Aviv, a bomb exploded on an empty bus in 2013 in what Israeli authorities called a "terrorist" attack.

Suicide bombings were frequent during the second Palestinian intifada between 2000-2005.

Speaking before the bomb was confirmed, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said "if it was a terrorist attack, the implications are very great in terms of security on the ground".

The surge in violence has been fuelled by Palestinians' frustration over Israel's 48-year occupation of land they seek for an independent state, and the expansion of settlements in those territories which were captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Palestinian leaders say a younger generation sees no hope for the future living under Israeli security restrictions and with a stifled economy. The latest round of US-brokered peace talks collapsed in April 2014.

*The story has been edited by Ahram Online.

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The delay in arrival of the Houthi delegation and the Yemeni ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh to Kuwaiti-hosted peace talks was met with criticism from the Yemeni government.

The Yemeni government delegation had arrived a day earlier, where they held preparatory meetings with UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

Even though the Yemeni government criticised the delay, several Yemeni officials have stressed the importance of the talks in ending the Yemeni civil war.

The Yemeni deputy prime minister and foreign minister Abdulmalek Al-Mikhlafi said "we are staying in Kuwait until the talks are held, because it is needed to stop the bloodshed in Yemen."

Meanwhile, a source from Saleh's delegation, based in Sanaa, told Ahram Online in a phone interview that the delegation would arrive in Kuwait on Tuesday or Wednesday.

"The delay is due to two reasons: the first one is that a few members of the delegation said they could not go to Kuwait when a ceasefire was not in place on many fronts, such as in Taez, Al-Jawf and Ma'rib, even though an agreement was reached on Sunday and Monday," the source said.

"Apparently there is a gradual ceasefire in place, though it has not been implemented at the scheduled time," the source said.

The second reason for the delay, according to the source, is that a plane was not provided for the two delegations, and that the United Nations, Kuwait, Oman or Saudi Arabia were supposed to provide transportation to Kuwait.

A source from the office of Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi told Ahram Online that the rebels are inquiring about the reason behind the failure to put in place the ceasefire, though this is not an excuse for the delay.

The negotiations will focus on five main points that represent the core of UN resolution 2216, which was handed by Ould Cheikh Ahmed to all parties: the withdrawal of militias and armed groups from all cities without setting any preconditions; the delivery of weapons, especially heavy weaponry, to the state; the formation of a committee to secure the areas after the withdrawal of militias; the militia's handover of authority to the state's institutions; and the formation of a committee to discuss the detainee file and work on the release of prisoners.

Previous attempts at peace talks  including a failed round in January  have been unable to stop the conflict, which the United Nations says has killed more than 6,400 people and forced almost 2.8 million from their homes, according to AFP.

Another source close to the Houthi rebels told Ahram Online that the results of the recent negotiations that took place in Saudi Arabia are still in place and were very fruitful, as they resulted in the release of 30 Houthi rebels.

According to sources from both sides, the Kuwait negotiations will seemingly concern the Houthis and Riyadh only.

A source close to Saleh says that Saudi Arabia aims to exclude Saleh from the scene in order to dismantle his alliance with the Houthis in the short-term.

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Egypt is looking forward to a partnership with French corporations on major national projects such as the Suez Canal Development, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Monday during the opening of a Franco-Egyptian economic forum attended by President Francois Hollande.

"We are working seriously to provide all foreign investors with a more attractive environment within the government's inclusive development vision until 2030," El-Sisi said.

During the televised opening of the forum, El-Sisi reiterated the importance of the economic partnership with France.

The EU state is Egypts ninth largest trading partner, with a total traded volume worth 2.6 million euros and total investments worth 4.3 billion euros in 2015. Hollande arrived Sunday on a three-day visit to Cairo, accompanied by a large delegation of French businessmen.

The two presidents have so far signed a number of financial deals worth more than 1.5 billion euros, as well as memorandums of understandings in the fields of transport, energy, renewable energy, gas and tourism.

According to a statement released by the Egyptian presidency late on Sunday, the Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr has signed financial agreements with the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) worth a total of more than 300 million euros, including the following:

- A 50 million euro senior loan to finance a wind power station in the Gulf of Suez with a capacity of 200 megawatts

- A 50 million euro senior loan to improve the Egyptian electricity control centre

- A 70 million euro loan (guaranteed by a grant from EU) to supply natural gas to Egypts slums

- A 80 million euro contribution to renovate 1 km of the third line of Cairos metro (from Ramsis to Heliopolis)

- A 60 million euro loan to establish a water treatment unit in Alexandria

The two presidents also witnessed the signing of a trade agreement worth 1.2 billion euros between the Egypts National Authority for Tunnels and the French joint venture for construction Vinci and Bouygues to build 17km of phase 3 of the Cairos metro under-construction third line.

AFD will contribute 300 million euros and the European Investment Bank will contribute 600 million euros to the project, the statement reads.

Another trade accord worth 250 million euros was signed between the electricity ministry and GE Grid Solutions company to support the National electricity distribution network.

(The current exchange rate stands at 1 Euro = $1.13, according to the latest data from Bloomberg.)



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A delegation comprising 34 representatives of US companies and members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt arrived in Washington DC on Sunday to start the annual Door Knock in Washington, led by chamber president Anis Aclimandos.

The delegation aims to meet officials and policy makers from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the US State Department, as well as investors and executives of large US companies, according to Aclimandos.

We are looking to conduct meetings with American officials and investors and companies to present a positive image of the developments in Egypt during the past period and of future steps, said Aclimandos.

Chamber members and delegates met with several Egyptian ministers before their trip to receive updates on the economic, financial, monetary and investment-related reforms in the coming period, Aclimandos said.

The delegates were also briefed on the official positions on issues concerning Egypt and the US that have been the subject of controversy lately, such as the state of NGOs, the entitlements owed to some foreign companies and the issue of the peacekeeping forces.

Among the most pressing issues, according to Minister of Industry and Trade Tarek Kabil in his meeting with the delegates before their departure, is Egypts effort to increase its merchandise exports to the American market by removing obstacles limiting the entry of these products, especially agricultural products and textiles.

He also mentioned the removal of obstacles related to air freight, while meeting Egypts demands related to the QIZ agreement, including the reduction of the foreign component from 10.5 to 8 percent and the inclusion of new geographical areas and products in the agreement.

The visit comes after another important trip to DC in January by officials from the industry and finance ministries and the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones. The visit aimed to activate the TiVA agreement between Cairo and Washington and to allow the entry of citrus fruits and other agricultural products into the US market.

This mission comes at a crucial time; the run-up to the US presidential election, which is witnessing fierce competition between the Republican and Democratic parties, and which puts the mission as one of the most important axes of discussion with the American side, said Omar Mohanna, head of the Egypt-US Business Council.

The mission is particularly important this year as it falls near the end of US President Barack Obamas term in office and at the conclusion of the Egyptian post-revolution political roadmap with the election of a new parliament, as well as after significant developments in Syria and Libya in recent days that affect Egypt.

The visit also comes days after the Saudi King Salmans visit to Egypt and after the announcement of the formation of an African counter-terrorism unit in Cairo.

Egypt is an acting member of the United Nations Security Council.

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Blocks from a barque's way station from Queen Hatshepsut's reign were discovered on Elephantine Island in Aswan

During excavation work carried out by a German-Egyptian mission led by Felix Arnold on Elephantine Island in Aswan, blocks from a way station for the god Khnum's festival barque from Queen Hatshepsut's reign was found.

Head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department Mahmoud Afifi said the new discovery was important because it would give scholars some insight into the religious rituals practiced on the island during Hatshepsut's reign. It could also shed more light on the mysterious queen herself during the early period of her reign and her engagement in the Aswan region.

"This is one of very few buildings discovered from the early period of Queen Hatshepsut," Afifi told Ahram Online, adding that the only other one was discovered in Karnak.

Arnold pointed out that the barque's way station building was later dismantled in antiquity and some of its blocks were found by Swiss excavators in previous archaeological seasons. This season, he continued, the German excavators discovered about 30 blocks in the foundation of the god Khnum's temple built by King Nectanebo II.

"Although a large amount of blocks from the barque's way-station building were found along several archaeological seasons, the blocks found this season have clarified the meanings of the other blocks," Arnold said.

He explains that the newly discovered blocks are carved of stone and decorated with engravings depicting Queen Hatshepsut as a woman, which highlights that it should have been carved during the early years of her reign. Hatshepsut was represented as a king later in her ruling tenure

In the reign of King Thutmosis III, all mentions of her name were erased and all representations of her female figure were replaced by images of a male king, her deceased husband Thutmosis II.

Afifi told Ahram Online that the building could be reconstructed to its original appearance based on the blocks found so far. The building would probably have had a chamber lined on all four sides with pillars on which Khnums barque rested.

The pillars would bear representations of Khnum and other gods, including Imi-peref, which means He who is in his house, Nebet-menit or Lady of the mooring post, and Min-Amun of Nubia.

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(Beijing)  A senior Communist Party official in Hebei Province who has been linked to a controversial businessman and a disgraced former vice minister of state security is being investigated for "serious violations of party discipline," a term usually taken to mean corruption.

The party's top graft buster, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), announced the probe into Zhang Yue, the head of the northern province's Political and Legal Affairs Committee, on April 16.

The CCDI did not provide any other details on the inquiry into the head of the party body that oversees Hebei's police and courts.

The investigation into Zhang, 55, is linked to his ties with Guo Wengui, a property tycoon who controls Beijing Pangu Investment Co., and Ma Jian, a former vice minister of state security, a person who has been briefed on the inquiry said.

The source, who asked not to be named, told Caixin that Zhang introduced Ma, a long-time friend, to Guo around 2004. The group colluded to advance Guo's business interests by taking advantage of Ma's clout within the country's domestic security apparatus and Zhang's control of the political and legal affairs commission in Hebei, the source said.

In one case, Ma helped Guo topple a former deputy mayor of Beijing, Liu Zhihua, with a sex scandal that cleared the way for Guo to take control of a key land project near the Olympic Green Park just before the 2008 Games, the source said.

Ma was detained in January 2015 by the CCDI. Guo, 49, lives overseas and has amassed 17 billion yuan in personal assets by the end of 2015, Hurun, a Shanghai-based wealth tracker, said in a report last year.

Zhang helped Guo acquire a 6.81 percent stake in Beijing-based Minzu Securities Co. from the government-backed Shijiazhuang Commercial Bank in Hebie in 2009 by intervening the bank's sale of the brokerage's shares, the source said.

The source said he did not know what Zhang got in return.

Zhang also helped Guo settle scores with business associates when ties with them soured, he said. This included Qu Long , the former president of Guangzhou-based Grandrank Investment & Co. Ltd.

Qu, a former business partner of Guo's, was detained by police in Chengde, Hebei Province, over illegal ownership of firearms in March 2011. He was later jailed for 15 years for embezzlement of 855 million yuan in May of the same year, court documents shows.

Qu's family told Caixin that he got into trouble because he told authorities about Guo's acquisition of the Minzu Securities shares, a deal he said led to the loss of state assets.

Zhang spent much of his career in the capital's police force and in the Ministry of Public Security before being transferred to Hebei in October 2007 to serve as the party secretary of province's police force. He was promoted to the head of the province's political and legal affairs body a year later.

He was last seen in public on April 15, when the official Hebei Daily reported that he attended a provincial party committee meeting on economic affairs.

(Rewritten by Li Rongde)
(Guangzhou)  A businessman has pleaded guilty to bribery charges in the southern province of Guangdong over scams that saw him obtain a military license plate and develop land the military owned.

Ji Zhenwu, a businessman linked to two investment companies, was found guilty in Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court on April 15 of paying sums totaling 3.6 million yuan and HK$ 4.1 million to military officials, including a senior officer, in the southern city.

No verdict was announced.

Prosecutors said Ji gave 2.39 million yuan and HK$ 1.6 million to Cai Guangliao, a former deputy Communist Party official who oversaw the security of leaders in the province, from 2006 to 2013. In return, Cai helped Ji get a military license plate.

The license plate was put on a car belonging to Shenzhen Zhenyue Investment and Development Co. Ltd., in which Ji owned 80 percent of the shares, prosecutors said, citing witnesses.

The prosecutors did not reveal how Ji benefited by obtaining the license plate, but many in the public say that cars with the plates flout traffic laws. Drivers with the plates can also avoid paying tolls and parking fees.

The bribes Cai received include money he gained from selling fake antiques to Ji, the prosecutors said.

Cai sold a 300 yuan vase that he claimed was made in the Ming Dynasty to Ji for 1 million yuan, prosecutors said. Ji could tell the vase "was fake at a glance." He never got the vase but still paid for it anyway, prosecutors said.

Cai also helped Ji to get permission to convert land that owned by the People's Armed Police into a residential real estate development, prosecutors argued.

In 2008, Shenzhen Yonghengtai Investment and Development Co. Ltd., in which Ji's son owned half of the shares and Ji held 20 percent, reached a deal with the paramilitary force to use the land to build warehouses. But Ji later changed his mind because he wanted to build apartments on the land, the prosecutors said.

He asked Cai to connect him with military officials and later paid them 1.21 million yuan and HK$ 2.5 million in total, prosecutors said.

The Central Military Commission's anti-graft watchdog started an inquiry into Cai in 2014 on suspicion he had committed wrongdoing. He was removed from all his positions and expelled from the party in January 2015. Two months later, provincial prosecutors charged him with accepting bribes and other wrongdoing.

(Rewritten by Chen Na)
The death toll from a powerful earthquake in Ecuador surged to 238 on Sunday, as daylight aided rescue and recovery efforts from the overnight devastation. More than 1,500 are reported injured.

The latest figures from the office of President Rafael Correa more than triple earlier estimates. The shallow 7.8 magnitude quake struck late Saturday along the South American country's coast.

Initial reports indicate heavy damage in the coastal city of Manta. Rescue crews struggled to get to sparsely populated fishing ports and tourist beaches. The city of Pedernales, home to more than 40,000 people in Manabi Province, is "destroyed," according to Correa.

Vice President Jorge Glas said early Sunday the death toll is likely to rise as reports from around the country come in. The mayor of Pedernales estimates there are up to 400 more dead yet to be confirmed.

"The country is in a state of disarray," said Denis Suarez, journalist from VOA TV affiliate Teleamazonas. "The aftershocks have affected people not just physically, but emotionally. I was at the supermarket when the earthquake began. The cans fell on the floor, people ran, the electrical wiring was moving, we lost electricity. That night a lot of people were unable to sleep."
Tens of thousands of traumatized Japanese are spending a third night in evacuation centers as powerful aftershocks continue to rock the southern main island of Kyushu.

At least 41 people have died and nearly 2,000 have been injured since Thursday as a result of the strongest tremors.

The quakes have collapsed buildings and bridges, triggered landslides and even derailed a bullet train.

Rescuers continued early Sunday to battle harsh weather conditions in a race to rescue as many as 100 people still trapped or buried under collapsed buildings in Kumamoto Prefecture.

Tens of thousands of policeman, medics, firemen and self-defense force troops are involved in the rescue and recovery effort, which is hampered by heavy winds and rain.

The deadly quakes have sent approximately 200,000 people to evacuation centers at schools and local government buildings, according to government officials.

The Japan Meteorological Agency placed the magnitude of Saturday's largest quake at 7.3, which followed Thursday's 6.5 tremor. Both were at shallow depths, onshore and located under populated areas.

Asked by VOA whether he concurred with JMA's assessment that Thursday's shallow temblor was a foreshock to the stronger quake on Saturday, University of Tokyo professor of geophysics Robert Geller said, "Now I would. But if there is a M7.6, say, tomorrow, we'd have to revise that again. Highly unlikely, yes; completely impossible, no."

Geller added that the series of powerful quakes in Kumamoto prefecture was not uncommon. "For example, there was a magnitude 7.3 quake two days before the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku quake in 2011," he said.

An active volcano in the area, Mount Aso, also erupted for the first time in a month, although Japanese authorities said the small eruption was not linked to the quake.
Russia's military denied one of its jets made aggressive maneuvers during an incident with a U.S Air Force reconnaissance plane flying over the Baltic Sea.

The U.S. military said the Russian SU-27 jet had flown in "an unsafe and unprofessional manner," getting within 15 meters of the U.S. RC-135 aircraft Thursday.

Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russia had to scramble to dispatch an aircraft after detecting an unidentified aerial target flying at high speeds towards its border.

He said when the American aircraft made visual contact with the Russian jet, the reconnaissance plan changed course, flying away from the border.

A statement from the U.S. European Command on Saturday said the incident occurred in international airspace and at no time did the American plane cross into Russian territory.

Days ago, Russian fighter jets flew very close to the USS Donald Cook in international waters in the Baltic Sea.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday vowed to defend Muslim countries against terrorism and Israel while insisting that its neighbors should not feel threatened.

Speaking during a National Army Day parade in which Iranian forces displayed sophisticated air defense systems recently acquired from Russia, Rouhani praised Tehran's role in helping the Syrian and Iraqi governments roll back the Islamic State group.

"If tomorrow your capitals face danger from terrorism or Zionism, the power that will give you a positive answer is the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said. But he added that Iran would only help if Muslim countries asked it to, and said its military power was purely for defensive and deterrent purposes.

"The power of our armed forces is not against our southern, northern, eastern and western neighbors," he said.

He appeared to be referring to Gulf Arab states, which have long viewed Iran as seeking to dominate the region. Saudi Arabia and Iran are longtime rivals that back opposite sides in the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars.
Ethnic Armenians fleeing Syria are finding safe routes to their ancestral homeland where they are welcomed, resettled and provided citizenship in a few months.

Their journey is in sharp contrast to the plight of millions of other Syrian refugees who endure difficulties being resettled in foreign lands after perilous journeys, mainly to Greece and Turkey.

"Armenia is home to all people of Armenian background," said civic activist Ara Sisserian, who lives in Armenian capital Yerevan and advocates for newcomers from Syria. "Those Armenians coming from Syria come here because they consider this as their motherland."

Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, more than 17,000 Syrian citizens of Armenian background have arrived in Armenia. More than 80 percent have remained and found protection in Armenia, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.

The numbers are minuscule when compared to the more than three million Syrians who fled abroad, analysts say, and that makes efforts to resettle them in Armenia more manageable.

 90 Armenian Churches Destroyed

Christians of Armenian background have had a long history in Syria. Many families' ancestors arrived in the country escaping persecution during the Ottoman Empire. They have lived in Raqqa, Hasaka and Aleppo for hundreds of years.

But as Syria's civil war unfolded, Armenians faced religious and social persecution, analysts say.

"The Armenian population has dramatically dropped" the Rev. Haroutioun Selimian, head of a relief organization for Syrian Armenians in Aleppo, told VOA. "Their rights are being violated and their lives are at risk Ninety Armenian churches are completely or partially destroyed."
The number of people suffering from sleep disorders is climbing steeply, from 110,000 in 2005 to 410,000 in 2014. People in their 50s are especially prone, who according to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service account for 65 percent patients with sleep disorders.

Studies show that the quality of sleep deteriorates as people grow older because they experience a decrease in the secretion of melatonin that induces and maintains sleep. The biological clocks also changes, causing them to wake up earlier.

Waking up at irregular hours commonly causes sleep disorders, a study finds. It seems people need to wake up at regular time for their biological clock to move in sync.

"The biological clock is triggered by the light of day and shuts off when the sun goes down, but people see less sunlight during the day and are exposed to bright lights at night, which damages the biorhythm and leads to sleep disorders," says Lee Heon-jeong at Korea University's Anam Hospital.
The government on Sunday dispatched officials to assist rescue efforts on Japan's Kyushu Island, where a powerful earthquake and subsequent aftershocks last week killed at least 41 people and injured nearly 2,000.

No Korean casualties have been reported so far, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The ministry dispatched five chartered planes to Kyushu to evacuate about 200 Korean tourists stranded in a resort city there, and sent another to Fukuoka. Approximately 23,000 Koreans live in Kyushu, about 1,000 of them in Kumamoto Prefecture, which was hit hardest by the latest quakes. Around 3,600 Korean tourists visit Kyushu every day.
Imported cars owned by corporations accounted for just 35% of all vehicle imports in the first quarter of this year, a new low, in the wake of tighter regulations on corporate expenses.

Among 55,999 imported cars registered in the first quarter, 19,564 or 34.9 percent were owned by corporations, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said on Sunday. The percentage of corporate cars was about 40% last year and in 2014.

The decline was attributed to the government's recent tightening of corporate expense rules for allowable tax deductions, a move aimed at preventing personal use of cars registered for business purposes.
Exports to China tumbled some 15 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period of 2015. Experts warn that the trend is likely to continue as the Chinese economy is sputtering.

The Korea International Trade Association said Sunday that first-quarter exports to China totaled just US$28.5 billion, the worst quarterly performance since the second quarter of 2009, when shipments to China plummeted 20.3 percent at the height of the global financial crisis.

Exports of semiconductors, flat screen displays, petrochemicals, automotive parts and synthetic resins were particularly weak.

"Some 70 percent of Korea's exports to China are intermediate goods, but demand for these is falling in China," KITA researcher Park Jin-woo said. "China is investing heavily in semiconductor and related facilities, and lowering its dependence on imports."

Meanwhile, imports from China amounted to $20.2 billion in the first quarter, down 9.6 percent on-year.
The UN Security Council on Friday issued a press statement condemning North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile as a violation of UNSC resolutions.

The UNSC warned Pyongyang of strong measures should it carry out any further provocations including a nuclear test or missile launch.

A UNSC press statement is a less severe measure than a resolution or presidential statement. But it is considered an important tool allowing UNSC members to present a united front on an issue of particular importance.

While it stopped short of calling a meeting, the UNSC adopted the press statement immediately after the North launched the missile from a site on its eastern coast last Friday.

Although the North's latest ballistic missile launch was a failure, "this attempt constituted a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions," the statement says.

It also points out that UNSC resolutions on North Korean nuclear tests and missile launches, adopted on five occasions from 2006 through March this year, prohibit the country from test-launching ballistic missiles, regardless of their range.
The minister said the order was an attempt to create stagnation in the higher education sector and that it was definitely a setback for the sector's progress.
#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....
Europe needs a stable FYROM guided by the rule of law. The countrys Euro-Atlantic future is at risk, EU Council President, Donald Tusk, tweeted in response to the political crisis in Macedonia. FYROM  or the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, a term that is also used by international organizations such as the EU, the Council of Europe and NATO  confirmed on Friday (15 April) that it would hold early elections on 5 June despite opposition calls and anti-government protests for a delay. Based on my constitutional and legal authority I today signed the decision to call early elections on 5 June 2016, Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski said in a statement.

Demonstrators officially took to the streets in protests to the decision of Macedonias President, Gjorge Ivanov, to stop investigations into 56 public figures in connection to a political scandal. The political crisis started last year when the main opposition party SDSM accused Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of wiretapping about 20,000 people and said that some recordings were a proof of high-level corruption. The government denied the accusations and said that SDSMs leader, Zoran Zaev, was spying and trying to destabilize Macedonia.

The snap polls were originally agreed for 24 April but were later put off to 5 June. Originally, they were supposed to be part of the EU efforts to soothe the crisis. However, the EU Neighborhood Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, said that he doubted whether credible elections were still possible. Mr Zaev said that SDSM would boycott the polls, saying that the conditions for a free and fair vote have not been met. Demonstrators, who are mostly SDSM supporters, would like President Ivanov to resign and the election to be postponed. The political crisis and mainly President Ivanovs decision to halt probes into the recordings and corruption allegations have been condemned by both the EU and the United States, which warned that the recent events raised questions about the rule of law in Macedonia and thus cast shadow over the countrys aspirations to become an EU member.
China securities regulator calls for more investor protection Updated: 2016-04-18 08:01 (Xinhua)

Liu Shiyu, Chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), attends a news conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China, March 12, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

BEIJING - The securities regulator has called for more investor protection to ensure the healthy development of the capital market.

Liu Shiyu, chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), made the call at a symposium held with securities and fund firms in Shenzhen on Saturday.

The symposium was the first time Liu has spoken with the leaders of market players since his inauguration in February. The aim of the dialog was to solicit advice and suggestions.

"Institutions should put more emphasis on the protection of investors' legitimate rights and contribute to the healthy development of the capital market," said Liu.

He ordered the market players to do businesses in accordance with the principle of prudent operation, and honestly and responsibly fulfill their legal duties.

Leaders from six securities firms and two fund companies were present at the symposium.
China unveils plans to help laid-off steel, coal workers Updated: 2016-04-18 08:09 (Xinhua)

A worker at a steel company in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, in January 2015. [Photo/China Daily]

BEIJING - China's ministries on Saturday unveiled general plans to help people laid off from the steel and coal industries, which are in the midst of overcapacity cut.

The "suggestions" on relocating redundant workers were jointly released by seven ministries including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the National Development and Reform Commission.

In addition to the help given to redundant staff, support will be offered to firms who create new jobs by adopting the "Internet Plus" strategy, developing new industrial fields and products, and expanding domestic and overseas market, according to the document.

A "back-to-work" program should be created so that workers receive training and career guidance for free, and, for those who want to start their own businesses, channels that will give them access to government support, it said.

Local authorities should also enhance trans-regional cooperation to relocate redundant workers to regions with employment opportunities.

To switch from an investment-led model to one that relies on domestic consumption, services and innovation, China is slashing industrial overcapacity, mainly in the coal and steel sectors.

According to preliminary forecast by the human resources ministry, the two sectors will see a combined laid-off workers totaling 1.8 million.

To cushion the effect of job losses on families and society, the central government decided to allocate 100 billion yuan ($15.4 billion) to help the laid-off workers find new jobs. The fund can be increased if necessary and local governments should handle their responsibilities accordingly, Premier Li Keqiang said in March.
China sets major tasks for reform in 2016 Updated: 2016-04-18 08:10 (Xinhua)

BEIJING - China's top economic planner has listed major tasks in propelling economic reforms this year, including reforms of State-owned enterprises (SOE), market supervision, investment, urbanization, opening up and innovation.

China will initiate mixed-ownership pilots in SOEs and push forward reforms in electricity, oil, natural gas and salt industries, said a statement issued after a two-day meeting of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), held on Thursday and Friday.

The government will further cut red tape and improve market supervision, including compiling a negative list to enhance market access regulation. Market threshold of some major industries will be lowered for investors, and the current investment and financing mechanism will be improved, according to the statement.

China will implement the household registration reform to urbanize more rural migrants with a plan to help 100 million people settle in cities.

The country will continue to push forward opening up, stepping up the Belt and Road construction, promoting international production capacity cooperation, further opening service and manufacturing sectors, and establishing a negative list for foreign investment.

The government will also better its support for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Other tasks include accelerating a pricing reform in electricity, medical services and transport, and improving the way China uses natural resources and protects the environment.
Chinese central bank calls for broadening use of IMF's basket of reserve currencies Updated: 2016-04-18 08:10 (Xinhua)

WASHINGTON - Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan on Saturday called for broadening the use of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s basket of reserve currencies to advance the reform of the International Monetary System (IMS).

"The IMS has inherent deficiencies and faces new challenges from globalization, financial innovation, and volatility in capital flows," Zhou said in a statement for the meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the IMF's policy setting committee, on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

"The SDR has the potential to resolve the existing deficiencies in the IMS," Zhou said, referring to the Special Drawing Right, an international reserve asset created by the IMF in 1969.

The value of the SDR is currently based on a basket of four major reserve currencies: the US dollar, euro, the Japanese yen, and British pound. The IMF decided last year to include the renminbi in its SDR basket as the fifth currency, effective October 1, 2016.

"We can start now to gradually broaden the use of the SDR, including using it as a reporting currency in parallel with the US dollar and exploring issuance of SDR-denominated assets," Zhou said, adding that China has released foreign exchange reserve data denominated in the SDR in addition to the US dollar starting from this month.

Zhou said China will also explore issuing SDR-denominated bonds in the domestic market and look forward to the IMF's further analysis on strengthening the role of SDR this year.

"We support the examination of the possible broader use of the SDR," the IMFC said Saturday in a communique after the meeting of the 24-member committee.

"The IMF will discuss the case for a general allocation of SDRs and the reporting of official reserves in SDR," the communique said.
UAE's major port operator seeks benefits from China's Belt and Road Initiative Updated: 2016-04-18 13:53 (Xinhua)

DUBAI - World's leading port operator in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Sunday it is ready to expand business in China under its Belt and Road Initiative.

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman and chief executive of Dubai Ports (DP) World, the world's third biggest maritime port operator in terms of assets, made the remarks while addressing local and international media representatives at DP World's annual media meeting here in Dubai.

The senior business chief noted in his speech that the DP World is currently running three port terminals in Tianjin as well as in Yantai and Qingdao, adding that the company's plan to expand existing ports in Asia would take China's Belt and Road Initiative into account as it bears huge potential for trade across Asia.

DP World is also ready to enlarge its operations in Russia and Iran, he said, adding that linking East Asia through Central Asia with the Middle East through railway projects would be an opportunity for his company to expand port operations and investments along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road.

He also said the firm's growth is good in China, and is interested in expanding the terminal in Tianjing, noting that the decision to invest will be made if there is demand.

The UAE supports China's Belt and Road Initiative and the Gulf Arabian state, a major oil supplier, is one of the founding member states of the China-proposed Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB.
Description

Co-Sponsored by North Shore Jewish Center

In his riveting documentary, Emmy-Award winning director, Slawomir Grunberg, re-creates the death-defying mission of Jan Karski, who risked his life trying to prevent the Holocaust by revealing his eyewitness accounts of the atrocities perpetrated on the Jews in Poland during WWII. No one listened, no one cared.

As a young lawyer in Poland, Karski witnessed first hand the brutalities of war. Follow-

ing the outbreak of WWII, he was imprisoned as a POW. He managed to escape and became involved in the Polish underground. Highly intelligent and fluent in many languages, he was appointed emissary of the Polish Underground State. One of his missions was to go undercover, infiltrating the Warsaw Ghetto and a Nazi transit camp to deliver to the world eyewitness accounts of the unfolding final solution of the Jews. Without the intervention of the Allies, the Jewish community will cease to exist in eighteen months time, he reported in the so-called Karski Report. His shocking eyewitness accounts were smuggled out of Poland and handed over to American and British politicians, journalists and artists. The most dramatic appeals for help were to the British Foreign Minister, Anthony Eden and to the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who Karski refers to as  the lords of humanity. These appeals for help for the Jewish people yielded no results. The majority of people didnt believe him, and nor did the heads of the Western allied powers. Jan Karski received a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by President Barack Obama.

Time: 72 minutes

Guest Speaker: Director, Slawomir Grunberg
WANG XIAOYING/CHINA DAILY

Some countries are playing up the "China threat" theory because, contrary to many foreign observers' expectations, China's economy has grown with its status on the world stage. China's economy grew 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2016, reflecting its resilience to economic troubles across the world.

Moreover, China's strong growth has had a positive impact on the global economy, proving that the world's economic stability is linked to its sustainable development.

China's GDP reached 67.67 trillion yuan ($10.46 trillion) in 2015, an increase of 6.9 percent year-on-year, with the International Monetary Fund estimating that China's GDP might account for 15.5 percent of the world's total. Compared with the world's average economic growth rate of 2.4 percent, China's annual average growth rate was 7.3 percent from 2011 to 2015, the fastest among the world's major and developing economies. And during the last five years, its economic growth contributed more than 25 percent to global economic growth, which made it the most important engine of the world economy as well as the main driver of global economic recovery.

China's fast-paced economic growth has also contributed to global poverty alleviation. According to the 2015 UN report on Millennium Development Goals, China lifted more than 70 percent to the world's poor population out of poverty from 1990 to 2015. In real terms, it helped reduce the world's impoverished people from 1.9 billion to 836 million.

World Bank data also show the number of Chinese people living in abject poverty declined from 770 million in 1978 to 55.75 million in 2015, with an annual decrease of 2.2 percent, far higher than the world's average.

Developing countries in Africa and other regions, too, have met with moderate success in alleviating poverty.

Also, because of its close economic and trade links with the outside world, China has been the world's largest trading country in goods over the past three years; it ranked second in terms of service trade. And in spite of the decline in its foreign trade volume owing to falling commodity prices and shrinking global trade, China's trade volume still exceeded 24 trillion yuan in 2015, 13 percent of the world's total, contributing 30 percent to global trade growth.

China's trade with other countries and the "Made in China" label have helped strengthen economic globalization and stabilize the world economy. During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, China's outbound direct investment is expected to exceed $500 billion and imports are expected to reach $10 trillion, meaning it will continue to power the world's economic recovery and stabilize global growth while helping reduce unemployment and poverty worldwide.

The rising status of the yuan in the global currency system means countries can use it as a foreign exchange reserve to prevent risks, and thus ensure global economic stability. Besides, China's endeavors to build free trade zones with other countries, its Belt and Road Initiative and the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank all symbolize China's accelerated efforts to strengthen globalization. And its voluntary actions as a responsible country will help expedite global economic recovery and promote the world's healthy economic development.

China's stable development indicates it will always seek peaceful development and help alleviate poverty and reduce unemployment worldwide.

The author is a researcher at the Institute of Quantitative & Technical Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
There has been a cessation of hostilities deal in place in Syria since February 27 but violence around Aleppo has sparked concerns that it may not last (AFP Photo/Karam Al-Masri)

Beirut (AFP) - Twenty-two civilians were killed in an exchange of fire in Syria's second city Aleppo, a monitor said Sunday, in one of the highest single tolls since a fragile truce came into force.

Nearly all warring parties in Syria -- the regime, rebels, jihadists, and Kurds -- have carved out zones of control in war-torn Aleppo province.

Since February 27, a truce has seen violence drop across parts of Syria, including the provincial capital of Aleppo city.

But renewed violence in the northern city during the past 24 hours has seriously strained the truce, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.

At least six civilians were killed and eight wounded in regime air strikes on rebel-held eastern parts of the city on Saturday.

And a barrage of rockets and sniper fire by opposition groups onto government-controlled western districts killed 16 civilians, including 10 children and two women.

"There's a clear escalation. This was the bloodiest incident in Aleppo and its province" since the ceasefire took effect, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

"This escalation directly threatens the truce."

Brokered by Russia and the United States, the agreement to cease hostilities excludes the fight against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.

The truce had largely held across parts of Syria since late February, despite frequent accusations of breaches on both sides.

But violence around Aleppo has sparked concerns the ceasefire may peter out, partly because rebels are involved in the battles too.

IS jihadists have seized fresh territory from rebel groups in recent days, threatening the key opposition bastion town of Azaz, just eight kilometres (five miles) south of the Turkish border.

The jihadist onslaught has forced 30,000 Syrians to flee, and tens of thousands more are at risk of displacement.

Since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, half of the country's population has been displaced -- including five million who have fled to neighbouring states.

More than 270,000 people have been killed.
me and dad

WASHINGTON, DC  Children who grow up with one or both parents in the military and spend time on or around bases  otherwise known as military brats  get used to things that seem weird to everyone else.

Since I was born at William Beaumont Army Hospital on Fort Bliss, Texas, with years spent there and subsequent deployments to Kaiserslautern, Germany and Osan, South Korea, I've become very familiar with this lifestyle.

In honor of Military Family month, here's 13 tell-tale signs you grew up in the military:

1. You learned the phonetic alphabet along with your ABCs

The phonetic alphabet is a list of specified words used to identify letters in a message transmitted by phone or radio.

For example, the word "Army" would be "Alpha Romeo Mike Yankee" when spelled using the phonetic alphabet.

Just like the military, you also refer to countless things with acronyms. Military slang and acronyms are tossed around in conversations with ease and as a child you learn to pick them up quickly.

For instance, no one ever explained the meaning of "Hooah" (pronounced WhoAh) to you but you knew that it was short for "Heard, Understood, and Acknowledged."

2. Your pantry was always stocked with rations.

amanda dad and i

The self-contained, individual ration called Meal Ready-to-Eat (MRE) is a typical military family household commodity.

MREs contain a main course, side dish, bread, dessert, and a flameless ration heater.

These instant dishes, like "beef ravioli in meat sauce" and "pork chop formed in Jamaican style sauce with noodles," are designed to give service members in the field well-balanced meals.

Sometimes a packed lunch was an MRE shoved into your backpack.

3. Along with a school ID, you had a military ID.

Military ID cards are golden tickets and misplacing one meant perpetually waiting with a sponsor in a small ID card office.

Story continues

The khaki-colored "identification and privilege card" is the key to a military base and all of its goodies  gym, commissary (grocery store), swimming pool, etc.

4. People ask you where you grew up and it takes you five minutes to answer.

amanda italy

Not having one permanent home for more than five years can make for a lengthy response to the question, "Where are you from?" Living in different states and sometimes foreign countries makes, "I'm from all over" the simplest answer.

That is because military families don't have much of a say as to where they go.

Some families luck out and get amazing placements to installations like the Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay, with sailing and surfing classes at the on-base marina and ample views of paradise.

5. At "colors" you drop everything and look for an American flag.

salute amanda

The flag is raised briskly and lowered slowly on American military bases every morning and evening while a patriotic song is played through a loudspeaker, usually "To the Color" or the National Anthem, depending on the base.

This time is referred to as "Colors." Military personnel are required to stop, face the direction of the base flagpole, stand at attention, and render a salute until the music stops.

Moreover, you're used to singing the national anthem everywhere, even in movie theaters after the previews finish.

6. Your church had an American flag inside it.

No different from an American flag hanging inside of a school classroom, America's Stars and Stripes are also recognized inside military installation chapels.

These chapels are designed to be convertible in order to accommodate various religious beliefs of service members.

For example, the chapel may offer a Catholic Mass at 8 a.m. and then a Protestant service at 11 a.m.

Service ended with singing "God Bless America" or "America the Beautiful."

Also, the priest was referred to as chaplain.

7. Calling everyone by last names seems normal.

avenger amanda

It is almost as if this behavior is innate, because remarkably, military brats quickly begin to refer to anyone by their last name.

That is because troops refer to each other by their last name, a practice originating from their training in boot camp.

Calling an adult "ma'am" or "sir" is another natural mannerism.

8. Your doctor wears combat boots.

Service members and their families largely use the hospitals and clinics on base as their primary care providers, and those clinics are staffed with military doctors and medics.

A far cry though from the white lab coat with the cold stethoscope, many of these health care providers have seen the worst of the worst.

9. Your chores were mandatory.

Mom never had to come in and make your bed because every morning before school it was your responsibility.

Failing a parent-conducted room inspection resulted in more chores or pushups.

So you learned how to do things the "right way" quickly.

10. If you aren't 15 minutes early, you're late.

Being "tardy" doesn't exist in the military world. You were early to school, doctor's appointments, ceremonies, and parties  no exceptions.

11. You are a bit of a perfectionist, especially in your appearance.

retirement ceremony

Appearance represents a form of self-discipline, and in the armed forces, it is a requirement that a soldier is neat and well-groomed when in uniform.

Leaders ensure that personnel under their command present a conservative military image.

Similarly, this practice was echoed into your childhood and that meant you didn't get to sport a trendy haircut, loud fingernail polish, and especially an unsightly untucked shirt.

12. You had holiday dinners in a chow hall.

one more dad

Instead of heading over to grandma's house, military families often go to a dining facility for a cafeteria-style Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.

This is either because travel is too difficult or expensive, or because the family lives on an installation in a foreign country.

13. You have immediate respect for anyone in uniform.

Respect for individuals serving in the armed forces is strongly encouraged in military family upbringings.

Possibly because you catch a glimpse of your personal experiences as a military brat, and that kind of relation isn't possible with civilians.

I always look twice when a young troop is in an airport terminal  not because of the enormous rucksack, but to figure out if they're heading home, to an overseas deployment, or to a combat zone.





More From Business Insider


By Josh Smith

KABUL, April 18 (Reuters) - Aided by American advisers, the Afghan army on Monday launched its first unmanned surveillance drones from a base in Helmand province to try to expand its ability to provide its own air support.

Afghan forces are struggling to build up an independent air force as Taliban insurgents step up offensives across the country.

Government troops remain heavily reliant on international aircraft to supply surveillance, intelligence, and occasionally air strikes.

The first unarmed ScanEagle unmanned aircraft are based in Helmand, which has seen heavy fighting, as well as a training base in Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.

The army will receive eight "systems" from Washington, each including six aircraft, that are planned to be eventually used in all of the most contested areas in the country.

"Before this technology, they relied on human and signals intelligence," Maj. Jason White, a U.S. Army adviser, said in a statement. "The ScanEagle systems considerably increase their intelligence collection and reconnaissance ability."

The rudimentary drone network will remain totally reliant on foreign operators for years to come, however.

While Afghan commanders will oversee the flights, aircraft operations will be dependent on international contractors until at least 2018. Afghan soldiers are undergoing training in both the United States as well as at bases at home.

The ScanEagle is an unarmed surveillance aircraft that costs about $100,000 apiece, with a stabilised turret to carry high-definition and infrared cameras with live video feeds, says its maker Insitu, owned by aviation giant Boeing.

ScanEagles use a pneumatic launcher to take off, and are recovered by a system of cables, letting them operate without an airfield. With a wingspan of about 3 m (10 ft), they can stay aloft up to 24 hours, at an altitude of 4,600 m (15,000 ft).

(Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Alison Williams)
Dr. Robert Houser, ASPS member surgeon, performs an exam on Kim Comisar following lip implant surgery. According to new data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, a record number of patients underwent lip implant surgery in 2015.Click here for high-resolution version

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL--(Marketwired - April 18, 2016) - A record number of patients underwent lip augmentation procedures in 2015, making them the second-fastest growing facial procedure in the United States since 2000. Only dermabrasion procedures have grown faster.

"We live in the age of the selfie, and because we see images of ourselves almost constantly on social media, we're much more aware of how our lips look," said David H. Song, MD, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. "The good thing about lip procedures is that you have several options. You can change the shape of your lips as subtly as you want."

According to newly released data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the number of lip implant procedures grew by double-digits in every region of the country in 2015, gaining in popularity in both women and men. In all, there were 27,449 lip implants. On average, that's a lip implant procedure about every 19 minutes, and an increase of 48 percent since 2000.

In addition to the sharp rise in the number of lip implants, lip injections continued to show staggering growth as well. Between Botox and Dysport injections, and a variety of soft tissue fillers, lip procedures were part of nearly 9.2 million injection procedures in 2015, a combined increase of more than 1,000 percent since 2000.

"Lips are an easy place for people to start," said Robert Houser, DO, a plastic surgeon in Westerville, Ohio. "A patient may not be ready to commit to something as dramatic as a facelift or eyelid surgery, but there are a variety of ways you can change the shape of your lips."

Houser says the temporary nature of injections is both a pro and a con for patients. "If a patient doesn't like the injections, it's fine, because within a few months they wear off and everything is back to normal," he said. "But if they do like what injections do for their lips, they have to keep coming back every few months to maintain them."

Story continues

The alternative is a more permanent, but still reversible lip implant. "Lip implants have been around for quite a while, but new technology is taking the industry by storm," said Houser. "That's why we're seeing such growth in implant procedures."

Made from soft, flexible silicone, newer implants have proven to be both more stable and more pliable than previous implants, said Houser, and procedures are quick and require minimal recovery time.

"We make 2 small incisions in the corners of the mouth, use a tiny passing instrument to pull the implant into place, and you're done," said Houser. "Two stitches, very little bruising, minimal swelling and a very quick recovery."

Since the implants are intended to be permanent, patients no longer need to go back for repeated injections. However, if they decide they no longer want the implants, doctors can remove them.

Another benefit is that newer implants come in a variety of sizes. "It's all about the contour of the lips and the asymmetry of the face," said Houser. "The best looking lips aren't always the fullest."

In fact, ASPS commissioned a national survey asking more than a thousand women which celebrity's lips they would most like to have. Fuller-lip icons Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Garner came in 4th and 3rd place in the survey, respectively. Scarlett Johansson came in second, but it was the more subtle and sultry lips of Jennifer Lawrence that most people thought were the most attractive.

The desire to have more natural-looking lips may be driving up numbers for lip reduction procedures, as well. According to the latest statistics from ASPS, there were 927 lip reduction surgeries in the United States last year, up more than 34 percent over 2013.

"I think the results show just how much lips can define a person's face," said Song. "Even if you're not born with a perfect pucker, working with your plastic surgeon, you can change your lips subtly."

"Going to the right doctor is crucial," added Houser. "Because they understand the entire asymmetry of the face and adhere to the highest level of safety standards, make sure you find a doctor board certified in plastic surgery and a member of ASPS." These procedures can be subtle and very natural looking, "but mistakes from less qualified providers can be obvious and disastrous," said Houser.

About ASPS

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) is the world's largest organization of board- certified plastic surgeons. Representing more than 7,000 Member Surgeons, the Society is recognized as a leading authority and information source on aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgery. ASPS comprises more than 94 percent of all board-certified plastic surgeons in the United States. Founded in 1931, the Society represents physicians certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery or The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. ASPS advances quality care to plastic surgery patients by encouraging high standards of training, ethics, physician practice and research in plastic surgery. You can learn more and visit the American Society of Plastic Surgeons at PlasticSurgery.org or Facebook.com/PlasticSurgeryASPS or Twitter.com/ASPS_News.

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of The American Society of Plastic Surgeons from April 1-5, 2016 among 1,068 women ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Shannon McCormick.

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Alaska Air Group, Inc. ALK is set to release first-quarter 2016 results, before the market opens on Apr 21.



In the last quarter, the company posted a positive 2.1% earnings surprise. Lets see how things are shaping up for this announcement.



Factors at Play



Despite the decline in fuel prices, Alaska Air Group continues to face stiff competition from other low-cost carriers. Moreover, the slump in fuel prices has encouraged other legacy carriers to slash fares in order to compete with the low-cost airlines. In addition, strong U.S. dollar may impact the top line of the carrier in the upcoming quarter.



Earnings Whispers



Our proven model does not conclusively show that Alaska Air Group is likely to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), #2 (Buy) or at least #3 (Hold) for this to happen. Unfortunately, this is not the case here as elaborated below.



Zacks ESP: The Earnings ESP for the company currently stands at -1.41% as the Most Accurate estimate is pegged at $1.40 while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is higher at $1.42.



Zacks Rank: Alaska Air Group carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) which increases the predictive power of ESP. However, the companys negative ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.



Meanwhile, please note that Sell-rated stocks (#4 and 5) should never be considered going into an earnings announcement.



Stocks to Consider



Here are some companies you may want to consider as our model shows these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter.



SkyWest Inc. SKYW with an Earnings ESP of +16.00% and a Zacks Rank #2.



United Continental Holdings, Inc. UAL with an Earnings ESP of +0.86% and a Zacks Rank #3.



Canadian Pacific Railway Limited CP with an Earnings ESP of +1.11% and a Zacks Rank #1.

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Zacks Investment Research
An aerial view of Anglo American's Los Bronces copper mine at Los Andes Mountain range, near Santiago city, November 17, 2014. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

By Anthony Esposito

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Heavy rains in central Chile have prompted global miner Anglo American Plc (AAL.L) and state-owned producer Codelco to suspend operations at two major copper mines with combined annual capacity of 880,000 tonnes.

Any new outages will be keenly watched by copper investors as the market suffers its longest crisis in more than a decade amid concerns about oversupply, as demand from top consumer China slows.

Natural disasters in Chile, the world's top copper exporter, have crimped output. The torrential downpours during the weekend follow a September 2015 earthquake and March 2015 flooding, which also caused disruption.

The rains battering central Chile left an estimated 4 million people without drinking water as landslides wreaked havoc and rivers breached their banks, leaving at least one person dead and another seven missing.

Anglo American told Reuters on Sunday that it had suspended mining activities at its flagship Los Bronces copper mine and the smaller El Soldado deposit for security reasons following the unusually strong storm.

The company said its processing plants still were partially operating using stockpiled material.

Meanwhile, world No.1 copper producer Codelco said late on Saturday it had suspended production at its century-old underground El Teniente mine, likely leading to the loss of 5,000 tonnes of copper production.

The rains caused landslides, prompted waterways to breach their banks and damaged transportation infrastructure for personnel and minerals at El Teniente.

"Work to restore basic services and systems in order to restart production is estimated to take at least three days, equivalent to production of 5,000 tonnes of fine copper," Codelco said.

All of Codelco's other operations are operating normally, including its Andina mine, which borders Los Bronces, the company said.

Antofagasta Plc's (ANTO.L) Los Pelambres copper mine, some 240 kilometers northeast of capital Santiago, was operating normally.

The majority of Chile's copper mines are in the desert north, which has not been affected by the bad weather.

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Louise Heavens and Bill Trott)
Aqua America Inc (NYSE: WTR) disclosed that it has appointed Whitney Kellett as its new Chief Information Officer. The company said the new position would enable her to oversee information technology systems and platforms.

The company said Kellett joined on Monday and carries over two decades of experience in the IT and tactical integration. She has spent the last four years as VP of IT at Atlas Energy Group LLC, which is an $8 billion energy management firm.

Aqua America's CAO, Susan Haindl, commented "Whitney has a significant and varied portfolio of experience in information services and technology, and we are looking forward to having her lead our team here at Aqua. Information technology has become the infrastructure of today's business, and its level of functionality very often determines our productivity."

Shares of the company traded down by 0.13 percent on Monday.

See more from Benzinga

 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
By Paul Kilby

NEW YORK, April 18 (IFR) - The Republic of Argentina announced a US$10bn-US$15bn multi-tranche bond sale on Monday as it looks to settle claims with holdout investors.

The South American country has set initial price thoughts of 6.75% area on a three-year tranche and 8% area on a 10-year tranche. The issuer is also marketing a five-year at 50bp below the 10-year yield and a 30-year at 85bp over.

Proceeds are going towards paying holdouts who have recently settled with the government.

Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan and Santander are acting as global coordinators, while BBVA, Citigroup and UBS are coming in as joint bookrunners. Pricing is expected on Tuesday.

Expected ratings are B3/B- by Moody's and S&P.

(Reporting By Paul Kilby, Editing by Helene Durand)
SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 18, 2016) - California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT) is now accepting applications from eligible students seeking higher education for the company's 2016 scholarship cycle. In total, $60,000 in college scholarships will be awarded for the 2016-2017 school year, with two top scholarship prizes of $10,000 each.

Scholarship recipients will be determined by academic achievement, community service, and financial need. The scholarship program, which is funded by California Water Service Group shareholders -- not ratepayers -- as part of the company's Cal Water Cares program, is administered by Scholarship Management Services, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

To be eligible for a scholarship, students or their parents must live in a California Water Service, Hawaii Water Service Company, or Washington Water Service Company service area; plan to enroll in full-time undergraduate study at an accredited two- or four-year college or vocational-technical school; and not already possess a degree or diploma from an accredited two- or four-year college or vocational-technical school.

"At Cal Water, we believe one of the most important investments we can make, outside of our water systems, is in our children, who are the future leaders of our communities, companies, and country," said President and CEO Martin A. Kropelnicki. "We are pleased to help these young people realize their dreams of higher education and better the world around them."

California students interested in learning more about the scholarship program or applying should visit www.calwater.com/community/scholarship. Hawaii students may visit www.hawaiiwaterservice.com/community, and Washington students should go to www.wawater.com/community. The deadline to apply for this scholarship period is June 1, 2016.

California Water Service Group is the parent company of California Water Service Company, Washington Water Service Company, New Mexico Water Service Company, Hawaii Water Service Company, Inc., CWS Utility Services, and HWS Utility Services, LLC. Together, these companies provide regulated and non-regulated water service to approximately 2 million people in more than 100 California, Washington, New Mexico, and Hawaii communities. Group's common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "CWT." Additional information is available online at www.calwatergroup.com.

1720 North First St., San Jose, CA 95112
By Anthony Esposito

SANTIAGO, April 18 (Reuters) - Chilean state-owned miner Codelco said on Monday that operations at its El Teniente copper mine would likely be suspended until Thursday because of torrential rains over the weekend that triggered landslides and caused rivers to breach their banks.

The heavy rains, which continued on Monday and were expected to move north into the country's main mining area, have left two people dead, 10 missing and millions without drinking water.

Shopping centers and schools were closed throughout the capital, Santiago, as the swelling Mapocho River made some major highways impassable.

After halting the century-old underground El Teniente mine on Saturday, Codelco had initially said it expected to restart production in at least three days. The mine is located about 80 km (50 miles) south of Santiago.

The world's No.1 copper producer told Reuters it is losing approximately 1,500 tonnes of copper output and $7.5 million each day the mine is halted.

El Teniente's mineral transport system, mine access and industrial installations have been affected, the company said.

The El Teniente area received 350 millimeters (13.8 inches) of rain in three days. Its normal annual rainfall is 513 millimeters, Codelco said.

According to Chile's meteorological service, the storms are headed north toward the Atacama region, home of many of the nation's biggest copper mines.

Severe flooding in the Atacama in March 2015 destroyed many towns and hit copper output.

Anglo American Plc said on Monday it was normalizing mining activities at its flagship Los Bronces copper mine in central Chile, after previously suspending them for security reasons.

The smaller El Soldado mine, where operations had been suspended, was running normally, it said.

Codelco's Andina mine, located near Los Bronces, is operating at 65 percent capacity.

Chilean copper miner Antofagasta, meanwhile, said its Los Pelambres mine in north central Chile had so far been unaffected by the storms.

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Paul Simao)
SMEDEREVO, Serbia, April 18 (Reuters) - China's Hebei Iron & Steel Group signed a 46 million euro ($52 million) agreement to buy a loss-making Serbian steel plant in the first major privatisation deal by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's government, days before an election.

The agreement was signed by Hebei Chairman Yu Yong at an open-air ceremony attended by Vucic and hundreds of workers and dignitaries. It is subject to approval by Serbian competition authorities. The European Commission also must give its opinion.

Hebei was sole bidder for the Zelezara Smederevo mill which employs 5,050 people and posted a net loss of $113 million last year. It has pledged to invest $300 million in the plant.

($1 = 0.8847 euros) (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic, Ivana Sekularac; editing by Adrian Croft)
* Serbia hopes for visit by China president to finalise deal

* Serbian, EU green light needed

* Serbian PM says large European country sought Hebei's help (Adds quotes, background)

By Aleksandar Vasovic

SMEDEREVO, Serbia, April 18 (Reuters) - China's Hebei Iron & Steel Group signed a 46 million euro ($52 million) agreement on Monday to buy a loss-making Serbian steel plant in the first major privatisation by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's government, days before an election.

The agreement was signed by Hebei Chairman Yu Yong at an open-air ceremony at the plant attended by Vucic and hundreds of workers and dignitaries, which ended with celebratory fireworks.

Hebei was sole bidder for the Zelezara Smederevo mill which employs 5,050 people and posted a net loss of $113 million last year. It has pledged to invest $300 million in the plant.

Vucic said he hoped Chinese President Xi Jinping would visit Serbia at the end of June by when he said the sale of the plant, which is subject to approval by the Serbian anti-monopoly commission, should be completed.

In an apparent reference to the British steel crisis, Vucic said he had heard "a leader of one of the biggest European countries" had asked Hebei to take over that country's steel plants which were in trouble, but the Chinese firm had replied a few days ago that it would go to Serbia first "and then we will see."

Europe's steel industry suffers from over-capacity, which European steelmakers blame partly on a glut of cheap Chinese steel. Britain is battling to save its steel industry after India's Tata Steel put its British operations up for sale.

Yu said Hebei planned to preserve all the jobs at the Serbian plant. It would introduce its latest technology to "make Smederevo a model project for cooperation in central and Eastern Europe," he said.

The European Commission has said it is in close contact with Serbia to check whether the sale complies with an EU-Serbian agreement that said Serbian state aid to the steel sector must end by February 2015.

Story continues

The workers wore T-shirts with photos of Vucic, who is seeking re-election on April 24, and the words: "Thank you for believing in us."

"It was uncertain whether we would continue to work. Now that has been resolved," worker Goran Maksimovic told Reuters.

Hebei plans to raise the plant's production - 875,000 tonnes last year - to 2.1 million tonnes a year in three to four years.

Privatising inefficient state firms was a condition of Serbia's 1.2 billion euro ($1.35 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund, approved in 2015, but previous attempts to sell off the biggest state companies have failed.

Vucic has said the deal is expected to push Serbia's growth to up to 4 percent in 2017, more than double the official forecast for this year.

(Additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Adrian Croft and Mark Potter)
A Look at Intel's Fiscal 1Q16 under Its New Reporting Structure

(Continued from Prior Part)

Data center to lead growth

In the previous part of the series, we saw that Intels (INTC) fiscal 2015 earnings were hit by a slowdown in the CCG (Client Computing Group). This is likely to continue in fiscal 2016.

Under such circumstances, the entire burden falls on the DCG (Data Center Group), which contributes 30% toward the companys revenue and 50% toward its operating profit.

Intel commands more than 99% of the data center market, leaving the low-cost processor market for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). A major portion of the DCGs revenue is concentrated among a few very large cloud providers such as Microsoft (MSFT).

The segment reported double-digit YoY (year-over-year) growth in three of the four quarters of fiscal 2015. Its likely to post double-digit growth in fiscal 1Q16 as well.

Intels new DCG products

According to Intel, the top cloud service providers account for ~66% of cloud demand. Enterprises are now moving quickly to increase their cloud capabilities, and Intel is looking to help them with its new Xeon E5-2600 V4 family of scale-out server processors. These chips have built-in security features. They will be adopted by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), Dell, and Cisco Systems (CSCO) in their new servers.

Intel will also co-package Alteras FPGA (field-programmable gate array) technology into its Xeon chips to boost speed by 30%50%.

Cloud software and services

These days, companies are using more than one cloud provider. Intel has partnered with CoreOS and Mirantis to help companies seamlessly move their computing work between various cloud providers and their own data centers. Intel will also establish centers of excellence with VMware (VMW) to assist companies with cloud-related technical issues.

Data center market forecast

Technology Business Research principal analyst and practice manager Christian Perry stated that the x86 server markets growth slowed from 5.6% in 2014 to 4.5% in 2015. However, its still a market with $40 billion in annual revenue. Its growth is largely driven by hyperscale buyers. Perry expects its market share to rise from 20% in 2015 to 25% in 2016 and 30% in 2018.

Story continues

The growth opportunity presented by the data center market has attracted competition. In the next part of the series, well take a look at the impact of this competition on Intel.

The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) has exposure to large-capitalization stocks, including 2.4% in MSFT, 0.84% in INTC, 0.79% in CSCO, and 0.17% in HPE.

Continue to Next Part

Browse this series on Market Realist:
HONG KONG, April 18 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc has shrunk its branch network in China and is looking to grow via its digital platform on the back of data which show that 95 percent of its clients' transactions are not made via a branch.

The move highlights intensified competition between traditional financial firms and technology companies looking to benefit from China's overwhelming adoption of mobile Internet to offer loans, fund management and payment services.

With just 2 percent of China's banking market open to them, according to Ernst& Young, foreigners such as Citigroup and HSBC are seeking cheap and effective ways to reach customers.

Citi, which passed the $1 billion revenue mark in China two years ago, said on Monday it had closed four branches in mainland China over the past 12 months, seeing its current base of 46 branches across 13 main Chinese cities as adequate for now.

"While the branch network remains important in China, the growth in digital means we are adapting fast: it's a bricks and clicks strategy designed to ensure we remain relevant to our clients," James Griffiths, a Citigroup spokesman in Hong Kong, told Reuters.

For Western players saddled with rising regulatory costs, digital banking is a cheaper and faster way to grow than the traditional banking channel.

But they are up against fierce competition from local Chinese FinTech players -- companies which are not banks but which offer digital platforms for financial services from fund management to credit card processing, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding.

"In China, the big story is that a lot of these FinTech innovators are scaling to such a degree that they're the core financial relationship that a lot of particularly young Chinese consumers have," said James Lloyd, Asia-Pacific FinTech leader at consulting firm EY.

"The proposition nowadays for international banks in China and for some of the domestic banks is having to compete with the non-banks that own that customer relationship end to end."

Story continues

HSBC, the largest foreign bank in China, has more than 170 outlets there. The British bank has made its push into China, in particular in the southern Pearl River Delta region, a strategic priority. But it also wants to grow through digital channels.

"The distribution strategy in the Pearl River Delta will be digitally led -- HSBC is not hampered by large inflexible traditional bank channels," HSBC said as it unveiled its Asia Digital strategy on April 1.

Bank of East Asia, the No.2 foreign bank by branches in China, is also considering turning those into more efficient digital outlets after implementing a similar strategy in Hong Kong.

"It's necessary to complement the branch network with a strong online platform as more and more transactions are moving online," deputy CEO Brian Li told Reuters.

(Reporting by Lisa Jucca and Elzio Barreto,; additional reporting Denny Thomas; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
The Creative Works Are Meditations On The Life And Perceptions Of The Children Of Israel

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2016 / To be a child again - Israel, is proud to announce its official launch. The project, which is part video documentary and part book, will explore the lives of children living in Israel, and capture their dreams, perceptions and struggles through the mediums of film and photography.

The idea for the project came from father son team Moy and Gabriel Volcovich. After creating the successful "To be a child again - Mexico," which was a seven years long journey resulting in three successful books and two exhibits in Mexico City, the next natural choice was Israel; which makes up the other half of the families lineage.

"Israel is a country that I know very well and that represents a significant enclave in social, political and religious spheres," says Moy. "It is a country with enormous differences facing great challenges. Therefore, it lends itself to a global scale from which we can explore."

The premise behind the project is to collect images and video interviews of the children of Israel, whether they are Jews, Muslims, Arabs, or Catholics. Once the information is complied, it will then be turned into a book with 140 to 160 photographs of the children and their corresponding interview responses.

The documentary, which makes up the second part of the project, will be a more individual approach where the lives of seven children selected from different backgrounds and demographics will be edited into a 60 to 70-minute film.

"This candid view casts an intimate and personal light on its youth - what they see, how they think, what they learn, and the astonishing impact their thoughts and lives have on their country and the world they are fast inheriting," says the website.

In order to offset some of the costs associated with producing a project of this magnitude, the Volcoviches have taken their project to the crowd funding platform, Kickstarter.

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Substantial donations have already been made, but while crowd funding dictates that reaching the goal is the only way to receive the money, Moy and Gabriel are encouraging more backers to take part in their illuminativeproject.

To learn more, or to make a donation, please visit: https://goo.gl/DMdJH4.

About Moy and Gabriel Volcovich:

With over 30 years of experience in photography, Moy Volcovich is a self-proclaimed "dreamer with a camera on his shoulder," and "graphic journalist of society." He has been widely recognized for his award winning books that focus on children from around the globe. Gabriel Volcovich is finishing his fourth year of Film Production at Emerson College in Boston. He has collaborated in the production of the book "Religion and Freedom in the Children of Mexico" and joined the first trip to Israel for the second "To be a child again" project.

Contact:

Dominick Evans

admin@rocketfactor.com

(949) 555-2861

SOURCE: To Be a Child Again  Israel
While the long-awaited Doha meeting disappointed energy investors who expected an output freeze deal, shale industry pioneer Harold Hamm, who didn't "have a whole lot of hope" in the Sunday meeting, told CNBC that the crude glut will be balanced the second half of this year.

The founder and CEO of Continental Resources (CLR), who previously told CNBC that "the fundamentals of supply and demand were really close," reiterated during a "Power Lunch" interview on Monday that this year's third-quarter will absorb most of the excess oil supply, which in turn will lead to "stronger pricing."

The billionaire suggested that oil is past an inflection point and prices have surged 50 percent from previous lows. Hamm foresees crude prices soaring to $60 a barrel by the end of the year, as lower oil prices are unsustainable. He contends, however, that even when the oil "overhang goes away," ramping up production will take U.S. producers a long time, as rig counts are at an all-time low.

He added that U.S. rig counts "are down 77 percent."

Despite oil producers failing to reach a deal to combat excess supply in the oil market, which led crude to shed 6 percent on Sunday, prices paired losses on Monday, amid a worker strike in Kuwait that has cut the country's oil output by more than half.

Conversely, market watchers consider that more anomalies will force oil-producing countries to minimize output. Bob McNally, founder and president of The Rapidan Group, told CNBC's "Power Lunch" that both involuntary and voluntary output disruptions can impact the oil market.

"Will Nigeria get that pipeline fixed in May or June? ... Will Iraq be able to sustain output through the north ...? Will Libya be able to inch back up?" he said. While involuntary outages are an open question, Iran and Saudi Arabia have both threatened to increase oil output, McNally told CNBC.

"[Iran] last said they were doing 3.5 million barrels a day, can they do more?" he said. "Prince Mohammad bin Salman said on Friday they could go another million barrels a day (plus) immediately, will Iran gun-it?"

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In this same vein, Hamm argued that oil producers in the Middle East are "pretty much tapped out."

On Monday, the internationally traded Brent was down 24 cents at $42.86. It had fallen $3 earlier in the session. U.S. oil settled 58 cents lower at $39.78, after sliding to $37.61 at the day's low.

On the other hand, Francisco Blanch, head of global commodities at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Monday that Saudi Arabia wants to maintain oil market volatility.

"Ultimately, what Saudi wants to get out of this is a larger market share," he said. "There's no better way to get your market share higher than by discouraging investment around the world."

 Reuters contributed to this report.





More From CNBC


London (AFP) - French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron repeated his government's commitment Sunday to plans by state-owned company EDF to build a controversial next-generation nuclear plant in Britain, saying the deal was being finalised.

Questions have been raised about the financial viability of the 18-billion (23.2-billion-euro, $25.5 billion) Hinkley Point project, which will use largely untested technology.

EDF, which is 84-percent owned by the French government, is already struggling with a debt pile of more than 37 billion euros and trade unions have called for the project to be delayed.

In an interview with BBC television, Macron confirmed the government's commitment to the project, financed in part by China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN).

"We back Hinkley Point project, it's very important for France, it's very important for the nuclear sector and EDF," Macron said in English.

"Now we have to finalise the work, and especially the technical and industrial work, very closely with EDF, with the British government, to be in a situation to sign in the coming weeks or month."

He had previously said that EDF would take a final decision at the beginning of May.

This week, he told French trade unions that no decision had yet been taken because of concerns within the energy company about the risks involved.

Hinkley Point will be one of the world's most expensive nuclear power plants and will produce seven percent of Britain's energy needs by 2025.

Doubts over the project are linked to the Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR) technology that will be used. There are no working versions, and other EPR plants under construction are running behind schedule and over budget.

Asked if the project would come to fruition, Macron said: "That's my view and that's our perspective because I think it's very important for our commitment to nuclear energy."
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) and his French counterpart Francois Hollande attend a news conference following their meeting at al-Quba Presidential Palace, in Cairo, Egypt April 17, 2016 in this handout picture courtesy of the Egyptian Presidency. Picture taken April 17, 2016. REUTERS/The Egyptian Presidency/Handout via Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - France signed several deals worth about 2 billion euros (1.6 billion pounds) with Egypt during a visit by French President Francois Hollande to Cairo, the French president's office said on Monday.

The deals included a satellite communications contract agreed upon following discussions between the two presidents and their defence ministries, the Elysee said.

The military telecommunications satellite is expected to be build by France's Airbus Space Systems (AIR.PA) et Thales Alenia Space (TCFP.PA).

French energy Engie (ENGIE.PA) firm said earlier that it also signed LNG and renewable energy contracts during the visit.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Jean-Baptiste Vey; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Sandra Maler)
French President Francois Hollande (L) meets with a Syrian family at Dalhamiyeh refugee camp in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on April 17, 2016 (AFP Photo/Stephane De Sakutin) (AFP)

Beirut (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande met with Syrian refugee children in eastern Lebanon on Sunday before he was to head to Egypt as part of a four-day regional tour.

The French leader travelled to an informal settlement in Lebanon's Bekaa valley that is home to some 600 Syrian refugees, mostly women and children.

"I just visited a camp the likes of which are all over Lebanon," Hollande told reporters after spending nearly an hour in the Al-Dalhamiyah camp.

"They (Syrian children) don't want violence. They want to learn and go home, join their families, their country," he said.

About 15 Syrian schoolchildren greeted the French president as he entered the large communal tent used as their makeshift school.

They recited a poem in Arabic and gave Hollande pictures they had drawn.

"You will be the messengers of peace... France's children are thinking of you a lot," Hollande told them.

He met with the UN refugee agency's Lebanon representative Mireille Girard, who said difficult living conditions were forcing young Syrian children into child labour.

Lebanon, home to four million people, hosts more than one million Syrian refugees. France hosts more than 10,000.

Hollande landed in Beirut on Saturday for meetings with Lebanese officials and announced 100 million euros ($113 million) in assistance to the small Mediterranean country over the next three years.

He was to leave Lebanon on Sunday afternoon for Egypt and to eventually travel on to Jordan.

In Cairo, Hollande is expected to discuss with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi both the political crisis in Egypt's western neighbour Libya and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

His visit to Jordan on Tuesday will take him to the Prince Hassan air base, 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Amman.

French aircraft taking part in the US-led coalition battling the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq and Syria are stationed at the base.
By Geert De Clercq

PARIS (Reuters) - The French government will discuss financing options for state-controlled utility EDF this week ahead of an EDF board meeting on Friday, but no decision is due about the company's project to build nuclear reactors in Britain, sources said on Monday.

A source at the presidential office told Reuters that French President Francois Hollande would host a meeting about EDF (EDF.PA) at the Elysee Palace on Wednesday morning but declined to comment on the agenda.

Hollande and ministers for economy and energy are widely expected to review financing options for EDF's 18 billion pound project to build two nuclear plants at Hinkley Point, in Britain.

French Economy minister Emmanuel Macron told the BBC on Sunday EDF would go ahead with the project, although he said to EDF unions last week that a final investment decision on the British project had not yet been taken.

Macron told reporters in Bruges, Belgium, on Monday that he is meeting with EDF management several times a week and working intensively on how to secure financing for EDF's projects at a time of low electricity prices.

"We are also working on financial and technical guarantees for the Hinkley Point project," he said, adding that the government has been steadfast in its support for the project and he would meet EDF's unions again next week.

On Tuesday, Macron is also due to meet Yannick d'Escatha, former head of French state nuclear agency CEA, who has written a confidential report about the risks involved in the project.

A source told Reuters earlier this year that d'Escatha had raised serious doubts about whether it could be finished on schedule.

EDF has called a board meeting for Friday in which management will present financing options for the company, but it will be a purely informational meeting and no vote is planned, a one source familiar with the situation said.

EDF is looking at several options for boosting its balance sheet, including a partial sale of its grid unit RTE to state-owned bank Caisse des Depots and other assets, as well as further cost savings.

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It also hopes that the state will allow it to pay its dividend in shares again like it for 2015 earnings, which left about 1.8 billion euros in the company. Macron has indicated that this could be an option again for this year.

A capital increase is seen as less likely as EDF has solid cash reserves and the high cost of upgrading its ageing nuclear power stations and the Hinkley Point project are several years away.

($1 = 0.7053 pounds)

(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, Geert De Clercq and Michel Rose; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Ruth Pitchford and Louise Heavens)
A worker checks the valve of an oil pipe at Al-Sheiba oil refinery in the southern Iraq city of Basra, April 17, 2016. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani

By Vladimir Soldatkin, Sam Wilkin and Tom Finn

DOHA (Reuters) - It was supposed to be the easiest deal ever reached among key oil market players, a mere formality.

Eighteen countries were gathering in the Qatari capital of Doha to rubber-stamp the first joint agreement between major OPEC and non-OPEC nations in 15 years, tackling a huge global glut after flooding the market for two years.

The text was agreed and the timeframe was clear. Oil prices were rising. Traders were calling the event boring.

Then, the first clouds began to appear.

Thousands of kilometers away from Doha, at a Friday summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gave each other the cold shoulder in front of cameras after the 57-member group accused Iran of supporting terrorism.

The frosty tone was noted and quickly became a talking point among some delegates and OPEC watchers in Doha.

None of the OPEC and oil industry sources who spoke to Reuters linked the subsequent collapse of the oil meeting in Doha to the events in Istanbul directly.

But they said it was indicative of the deep mistrust between the Sunni Muslim kingdom and the Shi'ite Islamic republic, which compete for influence in the Middle East and are currently fighting proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

From Friday onwards, things went downhill.

Only a few days before the Sunday meeting, Saudi Arabia surprised Qatar by demanding that it cancel Iran's invitation to the talks, arguing that only those countries which were ready to freeze output should attend, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

Iran has long said it wanted to regain market share following the lifting of sanctions in January and assumed that Venezuela and Russia -- the two proponents of the freeze deal -- had managed to persuade the Saudis the plan was worth signing even without Tehran's involvement.

The sources said the Saudis told Qatar that if Iran showed up at the meeting without agreeing to the output freeze, there could be no deal.

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FLURRY OF SURPRISES

Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, was a main proponent of the deal, and even made a January visit to Moscow specifically aimed at talking about the idea with Russian President Vladimir Putin, oil industry sources said.

Qatar delivered the message to Tehran on Friday and after some delicate diplomatic maneuvering, Iran said hours later it was happy not to attend, to the relief of the talks' participants.

But that was not enough to seal the deal.

Back in Saudi Arabia, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's top oil official and second in line to the throne, said in an interview published on Saturday that Riyadh would only restrain its output if all major producers, including Iran, agreed to freeze production.

At the Doha meeting the next day, Saudi veteran oil minister Ali al-Naimi, delivered the same line, scuppering the agreement.

It remains unclear for the moment how Prince Mohammed and Naimi reached their decision, and whether they were in alignment on the reasons.

In addition to wanting to punish Iran, the Saudis might have been driven by a reluctance to help prices recover too soon because it could allow rival producers, including in the United States, to resume production growth, delaying a rebalancing of the market beyond this year, according to sources.

But one thing is certain, sources say: although the Saudis' Gulf allies quickly came into line behind Naimi, his decision came as a complete surprise, highlighting how the kingdom -- which traditionally consults with Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar -- appears to be changing under its new assertive and pragmatic leadership, of which Prince Mohammed is a main player.

Global oil prices first started plummeting in late 2014 after Saudi Arabia increased production volumes to drive higher-cost producers such as U.S. shale firms out of the market.

Russia's energy minister asked Naimi on Sunday if any kind of binding deal to freeze output would be possible, according to sources.

In a sign of possible new battles for market share, Naimi said no.

"Once again the Saudis have delivered a hammer blow to fellow producers," said David Hufton, managing director of PVM brokerage.

"It promises to be the final nail in the coffin for those shale producers and their lenders hanging on for a short-term price reprieve."

(Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
KANSAS CITY, MO / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2016 / Kansas City Southern (KSU) will host a conference call and live webcast to discuss the results of the first quarter 2016, to be held Tuesday, April 19, 2016 at 8:45 AM Eastern Time.

To participate in this event, dial 877-407-0782 domestically, or 201-689-8567 internationally, approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the beginning of the call. Additionally, you can listen to the event online at www.investorcalendar.com/IC/CEPage.asp?ID=174907 as well as via the KCS website (investors.kcsouthern.com).

If you are unable to participate during the live webcast, the event archive will be available at www.investorcalendar.com or investors.kcsouthern.com.

You may access the teleconference replay by dialing 877-660-6853 domestically or 201-612-7415 internationally, referencing conference ID # 13634586. The replay will be available beginning approximately 2 hours after the completion of the live event, ending at midnight Eastern on May 13, 2016.

About Kansas City Southern

Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., Kansas City Southern (KCS) (KSU) is a transportation holding company that has railroad investments in the U.S., Mexico and Panama. Its primary U.S. holding is KCSR, serving the central and south central U.S. Its international holdings include Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., serving northeastern and central Mexico and the port cities of Lazaro Cardenas, Tampico and Veracruz, and a 50 percent interest in Panama Canal Railway Company, providing ocean-to-ocean freight and passenger service along the Panama Canal. KCS' North American rail holdings and strategic alliances are primary components of a NAFTA Railway system, linking the commercial and industrial centers of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

SOURCE: Investor Calendar
(Repeats story published on Friday)

* Some banks fear exposure to problems of weaker lenders

* Say fund may not be big enough to make dent in bad debt mountain

* Supporters say it is vital safety net for banking system

* Stability of Italian banks important for euro zone economy

By Silvia Aloisi and Paola Arosio

MILAN, April 15 (Reuters) - Italy has dubbed its new bank bailout fund Atlas, after the mythical Greek titan, because it is meant to hold up the sky above the nation's lenders. But some of the fund's own investors doubt that it can do the job.

The 5-6 billion euro ($5.7-6.8 billion) fund was hailed by the government as an industry-led response to concerns in Rome and other European capitals about the euro zone's fourth-biggest banking system.

But it was only reluctantly accepted by some of the financial institutions that committed to it, according to seven sources, including four of the institutions that eventually agreed to put money in the fund.

Some bankers involved in the scheme voiced fears the fund would expose their own banks to the self-inflicted problems of a few lenders, the sources said.

They also said that the fund may not be big enough to make a real dent in Italy's 360 billion euros in bad debts, a third of the euro zone's total, if it spends most of its money on helping recapitalise weaker banks, according to the sources.

Italy's biggest retail bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and another lender, Banco Popolare, spoke out against Atlas in tense, closed-door meetings leading up to the fund's announcement on Monday, according to two sources who were present.

Some bankers complained they were being asked to sign up to a multi-billion-euro fund without any documentation, the sources said.

A person who played a key role in setting up the fund said some of the details were only fine-tuned at midday on Monday, so no paperwork was distributed at the final meeting with bankers in the evening. The plan's first formal draft circulated the following day.

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Unenthusiastic bankers only agreed to back it after government and central bank officials warned of a crisis of confidence in the sector unless big lenders signed up.

The person who had a key role in setting up the fund said they were told that if a single bank's effort to raise cash on the market failed, it would drag the whole industry down.

Intesa Sanpaolo and Banco Popolare declined to comment on the talks leading up to the fund's creation and on whether they had reservations about the scheme.

A Bank of Italy spokeswoman said it supported the initiative by private financial institutions, which the central bank governor has described as a safety net to ensure choppy markets do not impede the necessary recapitalisation of some lenders.

"The backstop offered by Atlas will have positive effects on the problem of non-performing loans, which is the main problem of Italian banks," the spokeswoman said.

The government did not respond to emails requesting comment on whether some banks had doubts about the plan, and whether it had exerted any pressure on institutions to participate.

The initial reluctance of big players to invest in Atlas casts uncertainty over the long-term future of a fund meant to shore up Italian banks, which fared the worst in Europe-wide stress tests of their financial resilience and have lost a third of their value this year due to concerns over their bad debts.

However, other financial institutions expressed support for the scheme, which has around 40 institutional investors, including insurers, banking foundations and state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, saying something needed to be done.

"It is a positive initiative for the system," said Banca Popolare di Milano Chief Executive Giuseppe Castagna, adding he hoped only a small part of the fund's cash would be needed to assist cash calls at weaker banks. "We hope the announcement itself will soothe the market, so that a bigger portion of the fund can be used for bad debts."

Ennio Doris, chairman of asset manager Mediolanum which is contributing 50 million euros, told Reuters the scheme was aimed at making the banking industry more solid.

DISTRESSED

The fragility of Italy's banking system has increasingly been a factor in a debt crisis that has haunted the euro zone since 2009. Any further risks to its stability could hinder both the Italian and regional economic recoveries.

The sector has long suffered from low profitability, weak governance and high costs. A severe recession added to the problems by making many companies default on loans, saddling banks with soured debts that - if they are written down at their market value - would blow a capital hole in their accounts.

If the bailout fund runs out of money, initial participants would be asked to contribute more cash, but are not obliged to do so. A person with direct knowledge of the matter said he expected banks that put in money now to be willing to increase the fund's fire-power at a later stage if needed, but that if this was not the case other players may join the scheme.

Rating agencies Fitch and Standard & Poor's expressed concern the fund was chipping away at stronger banks to prop up the ailing ones.

"We believe that banks investing in the vehicle could be asked to increase their participation in the future and, thus, their exposure toward weaker financial institutions," S&P said.

Atlas will use most of its cash to buy shares in stock issues at distressed banks, with the rest earmarked to buy bad loans, focusing on junior debt where investor demand is weakest.

To help the fund, the government has pledged to speed up bankruptcy procedures. It takes eight years to recover overdue loans in Italy, four times longer than the European average, which makes them unattractive for distressed-debt investors.

RIGHTS ISSUES

No detailed plans have been announced. But the fund may have to invest up to 2 billion euros in two smaller banks' rights issues, including an imminent share sale by Banca Popolare di Vicenza, the source with direct knowledge of the issue said.

Intesa Sanpaolo Chief Executive Carlo Messina had flatly rejected the idea of Atlas in a preliminary meeting at the end of March, two of the sources said. He agreed in subsequent meetings to put 1 billion euros into the scheme only after receiving assurances that the fund would not spend all its money on buying shares in faltering banks, they said.

Messina said on Wednesday the fund would help banks sell bad debts close to book value and not at the heavily discounted prices demanded by "loan-shark" private equity funds. This, coupled with the government plan to quicken bad loan recovery, will improve the context in which banks operate, he said.

Banco Popolare Chief Executive Pier Francesco Saviotti had also initially criticised the plan, saying it would benefit big rival UniCredit, which is heavily exposed to Popolare di Vicenza.

He was voicing reservations right up until the final meeting on Monday that he could not understand why the whole financial industry should mop up shares of ailing banks when his own lender planned, unaided, to raise 1 billion euros in the next few months, said one of the sources.

Other banks shared Saviotti's doubts.

"The most frequently asked question was: are we here to throw a lifeline to UniCredit?" said one source who was briefed about the discussions.

UniCredit is currently the sole guarantor of Popolare di Vicenza's 1.76-billion euro cash call, meaning it would have to take on any unsold shares in the rights issue if investor demand remains weak, putting its own capital ratios at risk.

UniCredit, which is contributing 1 billion euros to the fund, declined to comment on the meetings. Its chief executive, Federico Ghizzoni, said on Thursday the vehicle was not set up to bail out Popolare di Vicenza. "We did not seek Atlas's help, it's the other way round," he said.

Mediobanca, Italy's top investment bank, did not attend Monday's meetings, having decided to snub the scheme, three sources said. Mediobanca declined to comment.

"Maybe it's not perfect but at least it's something," said the chief executive of a mid-tier bank investing in Atlas who declined to be named due to the confidential nature of the talks. "Would it be better to do nothing at all?"

($1 = 0.8889 euros) (Additional reporting by Andrea Mandala, Gianluca Semeraro and Maria Pia Quaglia in Milan, and Stefano Bernabei in Rome; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Pravin Char)
Mexican Railroads Shine as US and Canadian Railroads Slump

(Continued from Prior Part)

Kansas City Southerns intermodal volumes

Kansas City Southern (KSU) reported a 4.3% fall in its overall intermodal traffic in the week ended April 2, 2016. Containers recorded a slight fall of 3.5% in the week. The company saw 17,000 containers moving in the same week against 17,700 in the corresponding week of last year.

KSU marked the movement of ~200 trailers during the week compared to 361 in the corresponding period last year. Investors should realize that KSU has operations in both the US and Mexico. The fall in KSUs intermodal traffic is in line with the fall in US intermodal traffic. However, it contrasts with the huge rise of ~35% reported by Mexican railroads in the week ended April 2, 2016.

Why is intermodal important to KSU?

KSU operates in Mexico through Kansas City Southern de Mexico (or KCSM). In fiscal 2015, nearly 48% of KSUs revenues came from Mexico. Intermodal accounted for ~16% of the companys total revenues in 2015. In Mexico, the company has the sole concession to serve the Port of Lazaro Cardenas, an important port in Mexico.

Apart from seasonality, the intermodal traffic is impacted by exclusive access to ports, highway to rail conversions, and levels of retail sales. KSU may witness some increased intermodal volumes in the second half of 2016, mainly due to an upcoming APMT container terminal in Lazaro Cardenas. This terminal is expected to be operational in the second half of the current year. KSUs US intermodal business competes with major western carriers like BNSF Railway (BRK-B) and Union Pacific (UNP). In Mexico, KCSMs intermodal competes with Landstar System (LSTR), Trinity Logistics, and ByExpress Logistics.

Investors who want exposure to the transportation sector can invest in the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP). All the US originated Class I railroads are part of RSP.

In the next article, we will go through the traffic of Canadas largest freight rail, the Canadian National Railway (CNI).

Story continues

Continue to Next Part

Browse this series on Market Realist:
Quantitative Analysis of Latin America's Bull Run: Is It Overdone?

(Continued from Prior Part)

Latin American economies

In the base metal space (DBB), Latin American (ILF) economies have a correlation of 52% in the last three-month period. Among all of the Latin American economies, Mexico (EWW) has the highest correlation of 47.3%. Argentina (ARGT) has the lowest correlation of 37.6%. Similarly, in the West Texas Intermediate crude space (USO), Latin American economies have a correlation of 58.1%. Mexico has the highest correlation of 64.5%. Brazil (EWZ) has the lowest correlation of 49.3%.

China (YINN) is the major exporting destination for most of the Latin American economies. It showed a change in its growth model. From an investment-based economy, its focusing on consumer spending. According to McKinseys China Consumer Report, Chinese consumers keep spending despite economic growth concerns. McKinseys latest survey indicates that Chinese consumers are becoming more selective about where it spends its money. Its shifting from products to services and from mass to premium segments. This change could increase consumer demand. A rise in consumer demand in China (FXI) is a good sign for major commodity-exporting economies like Latin America.

In the next part, well discuss the ETFs that are mostly correlated to Latin American commodities.

Continue to Next Part

Browse this series on Market Realist:
Mercedes Maybach S600 Guard

The Mercedes-Maybach S600 is one of the finest luxury limos money can buy.

The Maybach name returned last year after a brief hiatus as the flagship model of Mercedes' S-Class line instead of a standalone brand.

Now Mercedes has a new armored version of the Maybach called the "Guard" edition.

According to Mercedes, the Maybach Guard is the first civilian vehicle to be certified with VR10-level ballistics protection.

That means the Maybach's body and windows are designed to withstand hardened-steel-core bullets fired from assault rifles.

And that's exactly what they did. The company published a photo of a bullet-riddled test car this week, complete with markers to identify each bullet hole.



What we don't have is a photo of the inside of the car after the barrage of gunfire. I guess the assumption here is that nothing got through.

It's the latest addition to Mercedes' Guard line of armored models, which also includes offerings from the S-Class, G-Class, and GLE-Class.

Mercedes isn't the only German automaker to offer armored luxury vehicles. BMW offers a line of high security models, which are designed with a "comprehensive system of protection against violent assault, kidnapping, and organized crime."

Although the armored Maybach may look the same as the posh runabouts Mercedes sells to the rich and famous, underneath, the Guard is very different.

That's because all of the Maybach Guard's safety features are integrated into the car itself.

Mercedes Maybach S600 Guard

Mercedes built in a layer of protective plating between the inner frame and the outer shell of the limo. Further, the company added overlapping protective material in the joints and seams where the armored plates meet to prevent any weak points.

In addition, the whole underbody of the Maybach is fitted with armored plating.

The reinforced windows are coated with polycarbonate to prevent splintering from the glass. In addition to ballistic protection, the car is also designed to withstand attacks from explosive devices.

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According to Mercedes, the Guard's "comprehensive" protection system should be able to provide the same level of protection against a bomb detonating next to the car as a bomb that detonates underneath the car.

Mercedes Maybach S600 Guard

To compensate the for the added weight and stresses of the armored duty, Mercedes beefs up the Maybach's whole suspension and driveline.

In addition, runflat tires, air-purification, and fire-suppression systems are also fitted to the Guard vehicles.

That's on top of the impressive set of luxury and technology features found in the standard Maybach.

The cost for all of this Rambo limo action? A cool $513,000.

So if you've got half-million bucks to spare and you are worried about being attacked by an assault-rifle-equipped hit squad or a roadside bomb, then there's no better way to get around town than the Mercedes-Maybach S600 Guard.

Mercedes Maybach S600 Guard

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1MDB, or 1Malaysia Development Berhad is now teetering on the verge of default amid multiple investigations (AFP Photo/Manan Vatsyayana) (AFP/File)

An Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth entity said Monday that the Malaysian state fund 1MDB had defaulted on $1.1 billion it owed in a new blow to the scandal-tainted company.

The announcement, made in a filing to the London Stock Exchange by Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), raised the spectre of Malaysian market turmoil if 1MDB is unable to dig out from under its huge debts.

1MDB, or 1Malaysia Development Berhad, was founded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009 but is now teetering on the verge of default amid multiple investigations around the world into allegations that billions were looted from it.

IPIC had agreed in 2012 to guarantee $3.5 billion in 1MDB bonds, lend it more than a billion dollars, and make interest payments on the bonds.

In its statement, IPIC said 1MDB and its owner, Malaysia's Finance Ministry, had failed to pay back more than $1.1 billion they owed.

"As a result, 1MDB and MOF are in default," IPIC said.

Najib has been under fierce pressure over 1MDB's accumulation of more than $11 billion in questionable debt, and his own acceptance of nearly $700 million into his personal bank accounts in 2013.

Najib has denied that the money he received, first revealed last year, was siphoned from 1MDB, saying it was a gift from the Saudi royal family.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister confirmed last week the money came from his country, but only after weeks of silence as doubts over Najib's claim grew.

Following IPIC's announcement, Malaysia's Finance Ministry issued a statement curtly noting the "dispute" over the loan but sought to reassure markets.

"The MOF wishes to make clear that it will continue to honour all of its outstanding commitments in the financial markets," it said.

1MDB's problems have riveted Malaysia for more than a year, ratcheting up pressure on Najib to resign and raising concerns that Malaysia financial markets could be hammered if the company were to default on its massive debts.

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The scandal had already contributed to a plunge in the value of Malaysia's ringgit currency last year.

1MDB was supposed to pay IPIC back via payments to a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi fund called Aabar Investments PJS.

Contrary to 1MDB's claims, IPIC said last week that Aabar never received the money.

A recent investigative report by the Wall Street Journal said 1MDB instead paid more than $2 billion to a British Virgin Islands entity, an apparent shell company with a nearly identical name to Aabar's.

The British Virgin Islands entity has since been shut down, the Journal said.

"IPIC and Aabar .... are considering their options in relation to this dispute, including referring the matter to the appropriate dispute resolution forum," the statement said.
My_Scientology_Movie_press_3 BBC:BBC Worldwide

Since the release of Alex Gibney's Emmy-winning documentary "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief," fascination over the Church of Scientology has been at an all-time high.

Now the church is being examined through the unique style of BBC filmmaker Louis Theroux. Known as the Michael Moore of Britain, Theroux often stars in his docuseries projects featuring off-beat cultural subjects like "America's Most Medicated Kids" and "Twilight of the Porn Stars." "My Scientology Movie," Theroux's first feature film (directed by John Dower), is less of a broad historic look at Scientology, like Gibney's film, and more a spotlight on the alleged incidents church members have experienced under the thumb of current Scientology leader David Miscavige.

"I had tried to do something on Scientology in 2002, but I reengaged with the subject after our producer Simon Chinn read the Lawrence Wright New Yorker piece [in 2011]," Theroux told Business Insider hours before the film's international premiere on Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The film follows Theroux as he travels to Los Angeles to investigate what goes on at the church's headquarters. With the church unwilling to cooperate, Theroux enlists ex-Scientology executive Marty Rathbun (who also stars in "Going Clear") to give insight into what goes on there.

This then leads to Theroux asking Rathburn to help him in casting reenactments of incidents that allegedly happened to church members, many of which involve the church's leader, David Miscavige, bullying and physically abusing Scientologists.

As with "Going Clear," making "My Scientology Movie" involved lawyers dissecting every piece of footage in the final cut to make sure BBC Films and others with stakes in the film weren't making themselves legally vulnerable.

Due to differences in liable rules in the UK versus the States, Theroux believes "My Scientology Movie" was scrutinized more by legal than "Going Clear."

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"When you don't have access to a subject and all you have is ex-members and critics, there is this gravitational pull toward telling a certain version of events," Theroux said. "Scientology would say this, and they have a point, that it's like doing a portrait of a marriage in which you're only hearing from the ex-wife and not the ex-husband. So as a journalist it's this nagging feeling that I'm not getting the full picture."

In the movie, many title cards giving information about alleged incidents also include counter-statements from the church. But Theroux believes Scientology's side comes through in its actions during filming.

In a few instances, Theroux finds camera crews, allegedly Scientologists, filming him making the movie. (Scientology informed Theroux that it's making a film on him.) Rathburn also films alleged Scientology members harassing him.

"When they show up saying they are making their own film on me, or filming Marty, as a viewer you no longer have that thought, 'I wonder how Scientology would characterize this?' It strengthens the film," Theroux said.

But Theroux admits he may have gone too far in a key moment in the film. Following an encounter Rathburn has with alleged church members, Theroux and Rathburn discuss the incident, with Theroux reminding Rathburn that when he was in Scientology these were the kind of tactics he instructed people to use on ex-members. This sets Rathburn off, and he curses out Theroux.

scientology xlarge

"I think I was probably over the line," Theroux said. "Every screening I've been in when that moment plays, it's tense and people think, 'I don't know what I feel about this.'"

But director John Dower believes it needed to be addressed.

"Louis needs to ask that question because Marty had consistently batted it away so many times before," he said. "It so happens that's the only time he could get an answer out of him."

"My Scientology Movie" offers the impression that even if you decide to leave the church, members will never leave you alone  especially if you go public with what goes on inside it.

Since filming wrapped, those involved with the movie have thought the church was behind bizarre moments in their lives.

Dower knows his Instagram account was hacked by the church because, according to Dower, Scientology officials admitted to doing it in one of their cease-and-desist letters to the BBC regarding the film.

Then there are the threats toward Theroux.

The morning of this interview, Theroux was locked out of his email account due to, as he called it, "suspicious activity." He believes it might be Scientology-related. And a few months ago, the police came to his house telling him they'd been tipped that someone wanted to do bodily harm to him due to his Scientology movie.

"I asked the police where the threat came from and they said Scientology called them saying they had heard it," Theroux said. "I was like hold on, that doesn't sound right. They were the ones who made the call? Now I'm on a special list where if I call the police they are on the fast track to where I am. But my take is it sounded like Scientologists were just trying to wind me up by getting the police to come to my house."

Numerous attempts to contact Scientology to comment for this story were not successful.

Here's a clip from the movie:

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Policy easing won't help much either.

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) is expected to remain weak throughout the first half of 2016, after shipments crashed to a three-year low in March.

UOB analysts note that the NODX figure is expected to contract by 3.3% year-on-year in the first six months of the year. UOB added that adopting a neutral monetary policy stance may not go too far in supporting Singapore's NODX.

One of the key reasons is that Singapore imports most of the materials used for domestic production. The Ministry of Trade and Industry had earlier said that the imported content of Singapores exports amount to 60%. This means that every $1 exports from Singapore contains 60 cents worth of imported content. As such, a weaker SGD will mean that the imports of materials will be more expensive and the higher cost will still be passed on to overseas buyers eventually, UOB said.

Meanwhile, Citi noted that it now expects the city-state to enter mild recession as external headwinds escalate.

We expect official forecasts to be shaved to 1-2% in Aug after the 1H16 data is released. But should GDP see an unexpectedly sharp step-down in the next two quarters, which results in an even sharper official GDP downgrade in Aug (0.5-1.5% or lower), odds may tilt in favour of a downward re-centring come Oct 2016, Citi said.





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Justin Solomon | CNBC. U.S. stocks looked set to open sharply lower on Monday, with investor sentiment hit by the news that major oil-producing countries had failed to agree to a freeze on crude output.

U.S. stocks looked set to open lower on Monday, with investor sentiment hit by the news that major oil-producing countries had failed to agree to a freeze on crude output.



OPEC and non-OPEC oil-producing nations met on Sunday in Qatar to discuss a freeze. Hopes of a deal evaporated when Saudi Arabia said it would not freeze output unless Iran did. Iran was absent from the talks and had already said it was unwilling to freeze output.



However, oil traded well off lows touched overnight. On Sunday, Kuwait reduced its crude oil output and refining production as part of an emergency plan to help the OPEC member deal with the largest petroleum workers' strike in years, Reuters said. The news wire also cited a tweet from Kuwait Oil Company's account that said the company had cut crude output to 1.1 million barrels per day from its normal production level of about 3 million barrels a day.

Brent (Intercontinental Exchange Europe: @LCO.1) and WTI futures (New York Mercantile Exchange: @CL.1) traded more than 3.5 percent lower, with U.S. crude oil futures for May delivery below $39 a barrel.

U.S. stock index futures held lower but well off lows as of 8:51 a.m. ET, with Dow futures trading about 50 points lower.

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"The post-Doha initial knee-jerk reaction lower is expected, but we expect prices to find support in the mid-$30/bbl range given an otherwise improving fundamental backdrop," Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said in a report on Monday.

Earnings season continued on Monday with quarterly results from Morgan Stanley (MS). The financial giant posted better-than-expected earnings per share with revenue coming in roughly in line. PepsiCo (PEP) also reported first-quarter results



IBM (IBM) and Netflix (NFLX) are scheduled to report after U.S. markets close.

New York Fed President William Dudley said Monday morning that the normalization of monetary policy will likely remain "gradual and cautious" due to "significant uncertainties" and continued "headwinds to growth" from the financial crisis.

Story continues

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Housing market indicators will dominate this week's U.S. economic data, with the NAHB housing index out on Monday.

The data was reported ahead of schedule, with the housing market index at 58 in April, unchanged from March, Reuters said.

Both Asian and European stock indexes traded lower early on Monday as a result of the "no-deal" from Qatar.

Verizon's prospective bid for Yahoo received a boost after potential bidders including Time, Alphabet, Comcast and AT&T exited the race, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

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Venezuela police protest violence

Venezuelas capital, Caracas, earned the ignominious distinction of being the worlds most violent city in 2015, based on its homicide rate.

Crime and violence are rampant throughout the country, and a recent report from Human Rights Watch and a Venezuelan human-rights organization indicates that the war on crime launched by the government has only added to the carnage.

In 135 operations conducted primarily in poor areas between July 2015 and the end of that year as part of the Operation to Liberate and Protect the People (OLP) 20 alleged extrajudicial killings were documented, hundreds of arbitrary detentions and some subsequent abuses were recorded, and thousands of people were evicted from their homes.

During OLP raids carried out by the national guard, national police, intelligence-service officials, and state-police forces last year, 245 people were killed, and in the cases included in the HRW/Venezuelan Human Rights Education-Action Program (PROVEA) report, evidence suggests that the individuals whom security personnel shot and killed were non-threatening. In some cases, those people were allegedly killed after they were taken into custody.

The disparity between the number of people killed in those raids and the number of security agents killed or wounded undercuts the governments claim that killings took place when criminals violently confronted the police, the report says.

Venezuela national guard arrest deportation

More than 14,000 Venezuelans were temporarily detained between July 2015 and January 2016 to verify if they were wanted in relation to any crimes, according to official sources. However, fewer than 100 of those people were ultimately charged with an offense.

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In some cases documented by the HRW/PROVEA report, law-enforcement agents physically abused those detainees, and some agents allegedly stole personal items from homes.

HRW/PROVEA also found evidence that government agents had evicted thousands of people and destroyed hundreds of homes in the course of OLP raids. In some cases, residents said they were not given the legally required notice before those evictions or the opportunity to challenge them.

Colombia Venezuela border

Many Colombians living in Venezuela, some of who had refugee status, were also deported during OLP operations.

More than 1,700 Colombian citizens were deported from the border state of Tachira alone, and more than 22,000 left Venezuela in fear of deportation or other abuses.

None of the deported Colombians interviewed for the report said they were given a chance to appeal, and many said they had been physically abused by Venezuelan security agents.

While the toll OLP-related security measures have taken is surprising, the tactics themselves are not new.

There is a longstanding belief actually among the population, and this predates Chavez  that the only real way to address crime is through 'mano dura,'" or "iron fist," policies, Alejandro Velasco, a professor at New York University, told Business Insider in late 2015.

And the exemplar of mano dura is the military or some sort of highly repressive force," Velasco added, "whether it's the military or the national guard.

With the failure of law-enforcement and gun-control reforms that were pursued between 2008 and 2014, the Venezuelan government has fallen back on these mano dura polices, which have emphasized a larger presence of the military and militarized police on the streets, particularly in poorer areas.

Venezuela police protest

When the army is deployed to do citizen security they follow the rules of engagement that are conventionally military, Velasco told Business Insider. Their rules of engagement are so discretionary and broad that we have seen a significant amount of deaths.

These military forms of policing have been proven ineffective time and again, David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), wrote recently, but they continue to have broad public support.

In the face of these reported abuses, victims have struggled to find justice or to challenge the conduct of government agents. The Venezuelan judiciary has ceased to function as an independent branch of government and has routinely upheld abusive government policies and practices, the HRW/PROVEA report notes.

Colombia Venezuela deportations

PROVEA has reported accusations to the Venezuelan attorney general on numerous occassions, but it's not clear that charges leveled against officers taking part in OLP raids will be investigated, according to WOLA.

The problem is impunity, a resident of Miranda state in north-central Venezuela told HRW/PROVEA interviewers. As long as there is impunity, the mistreatment by authorities will continue.

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TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - April 18, 2016) - Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. ("GLH" or the "Company") (CSE: GLH), is pleased to announce that the Oregon Health Authority ("OHA") has listed Greenpoint Oregon Inc. ("Greenpoint"), the Oregon subsidiary of GLH, on their list of authorized extractors. The OHA, the regulatory body overseeing the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program ("OMMP"), has recently published a list of regulatory requirements, which includes a processor registration requirement. Greenpoint was one of the processors that submitted their application immediately upon the opening of the process.

This means that GLH's subsidiary Greenpoint can produce and sell extracts to dispensaries while the OHA is reviewing the completed application and scheduling an inspection. The listing of Greenpoint is expected to provide the Company with the opportunity to continue to leverage its differentiated brand platform of extract products to capture additional market share and consumer traction.

The OHA rule tried to address legislative concerns over public safety associated with non-commercial, unsophisticated extractors, however in doing so implemented rules that caused confusion in the market disrupting dispensaries abilities to purchase and sell oil extract and derivative products. The confusion that resulted and temporary restrictions on extract sales that existed is expected to negatively impact GLH's Q1 2016 financial results. However, the OHA's new licensing process greatly raises the bar for Oregon's marijuana industry ensuring that extract companies meet more stringent regulatory standards. With the regulations gaining clarity, GLH expects revenue growth in Q2 due to anticipated early recreational oil sales and the potential commencement of revenues derived from Washington State.

GLH has invested in infrastructure that is necessary to comply with the new extraction regulations and inspection requirements. Following inspection, the Company is expected to be well positioned to leverage its processing license to maintain its leadership in Oregon's extract industry. Due to the regulations' higher standards and associated costs, it is likely that some extraction companies in the State may face challenges remaining in full compliance.

Don Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of GLH, stated, "These types of issues will come up from time to time as we evolve as an industry. We are glad that the OHA was able to strike a balance between public safety and supporting a vibrant, emerging industry. We are keeping our focus on the long term opportunity that this movement represents and hope that our investors consider this as well. If anything it is expected that this will strengthen Golden Leaf as a dominant player in the State."

About Golden Leaf Holdings:

Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. is one of the largest cannabis oil and solution providers in North America. It's a leading cannabis products company in Oregon built around recognized brands. GLH leverages a strong management team with cannabis and food industry experience to complement its expertise in extracting, refining and selling cannabis oil.

Disclaimer: This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the Company's future business operation, expectations of gross sales, the opinions or beliefs of management, and future business goals. Generally, forward looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to general business, economic and competitive uncertainties, regulatory risks including risks related to the expected timing of the early roll out of oils and edibles, market risks, risks inherent in manufacturing operations and other risks of the cannabis industry. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is provided herein for the purpose of presenting information about management's current expectations relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purpose. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Harvard students

The graduate-board president of an elite men's final club at Harvard has resigned over comments he made about sexual assault at the university, The Harvard Crimson reported.

Porcellian President Charles M. Storey's resignation as graduate-board president comes after he apologized for saying his club was being used as a "scapegoat" for Harvard's sexual-assault problem.

I am sad that I have disappointed so many people that I care about, Storey, '82, wrote in a statement posted on the website for Harpoon Brewery, where he is also the president. As I think it is best for all involved, I have resigned my position as the graduate president of the Porcellian Club.

The news follows an earlier apology, which stirred up additional fury as Storey said his words were misinterpreted.

By saying earlier that my words were misinterpreted, I did not take full responsibility for what I said, he wrote. I am doing that now. Plain and simple what I said was wrong. No excuses. I want to be clear here that I am apologizing for what I said, not just for who I offended with my words.

The controversy began after Harvard's Task Force on Sexual Assault Prevention excoriated exclusive final clubs for their deeply misogynistic attitudes.

Owl club house

The task-force report condemned the exclusive, mostly male-only social clubs for creating an unsafe campus, and it called for barring students from them or forcing them to become co-ed.

The task force wrote that 47% of female students who participated in final clubs or attended their parties reported experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact since entering college.

Despite its longstanding history of silence, Porcellian spoke out against the report by way of letter sent to the Harvard Crimson by Storey.

His letter charged that Porcellian is being used as a scapegoat for the sexual assault problem at Harvard despite its policies to help avoid the potential for sexual assault, according to the Crimson.

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He also took issue with the university's attempt to dictate the way organizations on campus are run.

"I sincerely hope that the administration will not set the precedent of creating a 'blacklist' of organizations that students cannot join, he wrote. Such McCarthyism is a dangerous road that would be a blow to academic freedom, the spirit of tolerance, and the long tradition of free association on campus.





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President Raul Castro giving a speech during the opening of VII Congress of Cuban Communist Party (PCC) at Convention Palace in Havana, on April 16, 2016 (AFP Photo/Ismael Francisco)

Havana (AFP) - Cuban President Raul Castro rejected rapid privatization and vowed never to pursue "shock therapy," setting the tone for a Communist Party congress reviewing progress in revamping the island's moribund Soviet-style economy.

"Cuba will never permit the application of so-called shock therapies, which are frequently applied to the detriment of society's most humble classes," he said in a lengthy speech opening the congress, which takes place every five years and will stretch on for several days.

The main political event in a one-party system that brooks no dissent, the congress comes less than a month after US President Barack Obama's historic visit and with Havana normalizing ties with the United States, its longtime Cold War foe.

But if Cubans and international observers were hoping for a sign of significant political and economic change at the meeting, Castro -- the man responsible for setting in motion economic reforms -- swiftly signaled otherwise.

"The neoliberal formulas that promote accelerated privatization of state assets and social services such as education, health and social security will never be applied under Cuban socialism," warned Castro, who formally took over from his ailing brother Fidel in 2008.

Castro, 84, defended the slow pace of change to the island's economy, which has only cautiously and gradually opened up to some private entrepreneurship and foreign investment.

"Private enterprise will evolve within defined limits and will provide a complementary element of the country's economic framework," he added, in remarks broadcast to the country's 11.3 million people on state television.

Warming to the theme, he defended Cuba's one-party system that has seen dissidents arrested and locked up: "If one day they manage to divide us, it will be the beginning of the end."

And Castro again blamed Washington's more than five-decade-old embargo on the island for its economic impact on Cuba. The United States and Cuba are slowly normalizing ties, even reopening embassies in each other's capitals, but the trade embargo on Cuba remains.

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- Held in secret -

In contrast with the last party congress, which was preceded by a wide-ranging public debate, this one was being held in secret, with only the state-controlled press allowed to cover the proceedings.

The last congress, in 2011, introduced significant reforms of the island's economy, cracking open the door to small-scale private enterprise and foreign investment.

This one, the Seventh Congress, had raised expectations that it could set the stage for accelerated political and economic changes following the rapprochement with Washington.

But ahead of the meeting, Cuban authorities poured cold water on those hopes, signaling that continuity would be the watchword at the four-day, closed-door session involving 1,000 delegates and another 3,500 invited participants.

For the first time, the agenda of the Congress was kept secret and will not be debated publicly, something that has surprised even the ruling Communist Party's rank and file.

The congress was expected to approve an economic and social development program for the 2016-2030 period.

Cuban diplomacy has been very active over the past five years, its efforts crowned by the spectacular rapprochement with the United States and a dialogue that is now underway with the European Union.

But Cuba's opening to the West is also proving to be a gradual one, reflecting Raul Castro's caution as the island undergoes a transition to a new generation of leaders after more than 55 years under the Castro brothers.

"The fundamental problem is that there is a lack of consensus on the country's development strategy, on the changes that are necessary and on the pace at which they should be made," said Mauricio de Miranda, a Cuban economist at Colombia's Javeriana University, ahead of the meeting.

Experts say that Cuban authorities appear more interested in making it clear that there will be no capitalistic restoration, not now and not when Cuba's revolutionary leaders leave the scene.
MOSCOW/LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine has asked for more time to file a defence in its legal stand-off in a London court over a $3 billion bond held by Russia, but Moscow does not want another stay in the case, Russia's deputy finance minister was quoted as saying on Monday.

Russia filed a lawsuit against Ukraine in February at London's High Court demanding repayment of the Eurobond, which matured on Dec. 20.

Ukraine refused to repay the bond, including it in the external debt it earmarked for restructuring as part of an International Monetary Fund-led bailout programme. Moscow insists this is sovereign debt and should not be part of the programme.

Originally, Ukraine had until March 19 to file its defence although it was granted an extension until April 16.

"Ukraine has sought additional time for the filing of its defence of six weeks until 27 May 2016," said Alex Gerbi, partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, the law firm representing Kiev in this case.

"As the Claimant, The Law Debenture Trust Corporation plc, has not agreed to that request, no doubt at the instruction of the Russian Federation," he said, adding Kiev had formally requested the extension from the court last week.

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said Moscow opposed granting Kiev any more time.

"We agreed once to postpone the hearings - Ukraine had asked and we agreed. But we did not give our consent for the second time - the court should decide that," he said as quoted by Russian news agencies.

The Eurobond in question was issued by the government of former President Viktor Yanukovich just two months before he fled in the face of bloody street protests triggered by him seeking to halt Ukraine's swing towards European integration in favour of closer economic ties with Russia.

According to Gerbi, the hearing on the extension request has been scheduled for Friday, adding Kiev "intends vigorously to defend the entirety of the claim brought against it".

Storchak said that the hearing will be public, unless Ukraine asks otherwise.

"We are not going to (ask for the hearings) to be closed," Storchak said. "One side can ask for the hearings to be non-public, but that's at the discretion of the court." (Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Moscow and Karin Strohecker in London; editing by Ralph Boulton)
MOSCOW, April 18 (Reuters) - Russia's indebted coal and steel producer Mechel said on Monday it had signed a debt restructuring deal with Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, totalling 30 billion roubles ($446.26 million) and $427 million.

Mechel's subsidiaries have already reached a settlement with Sberbank on restructuring of 13 billion roubles and $427 million, while the settlement regarding the debt of its Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant for 17 billion roubles is due to be completed shortly, Mechel said in a statement.

($1 = 67.2250 roubles) (Reporting by Andrey Kuzmin and Jack Stubbs; writing by Polina Devitt; editing by Dmitry Solovyov)
After the collapse of major oil producer talks this weekend, analysts are questioning whether diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran are damaged for good.

Talks between OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers in Qatar on Sunday failed to produce any deal to freeze production to support oil prices . This was largely due to a clash between OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Iran over oil production levels.

Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the 13-member oil producing group, said it would not freeze output levels if Iran did not do the same. But Iran, which was absent from the talks, has repeatedly said it is unwilling to freeze production levels as it wants to regain the market share it lost during years of economic sanctions.





On a wider global level, oil prices have slumped since mid-2014 on the back of a glut in supply and the failure of demand to keep up.

The decline in prices has been partly attributed to Saudi Arabia, as it spear-headed OPEC's decision in late 2014 not to cut production, as part of a strategy to pressure rival oil producers such as those in the U.S.

Read More Why Doha no-deal is actually great for oil prices

Saudi Arabia has blamed Iran for the failure of Sunday's talks. However, Russia has defended Iran, saying that the Saudi demand for all countries to participate in a production freeze was "unreasonable."



Iran's OPEC representative said on Monday that "Those who suggested an oil output freeze wrongly thought that Iran had no option but to accept," according to Iran's Shana news agency,

Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said Saudi Arabia's insistence on full Iranian participation proved the stumbling block.

"Saudi Arabia stood firm, despite the determined efforts of its key GCC allies, such as Qatar and Kuwait, which normally stand shoulder to shoulder with the Kingdom on oil policy, to forge an agreement to freeze output at January levels, irrespective of Iranian involvement," Croft said in a report on Monday.

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Abhishek Deshpande, oil and gas analyst at Natixis, said Saudi Arabia was disingenuous in blaming Iran.

"Everybody was expecting Iran not to cut back and not to join the freeze, so surely the Saudis were quite aware of this," he told CNBC TV on Monday.

The failure of the talks was somewhat expected, with many oil market analysts predicting in the run-up that political rivalry between the two Middle Eastern powerhouses would scupper any chance of compromise.



There is no love lost between the two nations, which are separated along religious, geopolitical and ideological lines.

Saudi Arabia is at the heart of Sunni Islam and ruled by an ultra-conservative monarchy, whereas Iran is an Islamic republic and the home of Shia Islam, a different strand of the religion vying for ideological dominance in the region.

Unlike Saudi, Iran has a history of fraught relations with the west and the lifting of some international sanctions linked to its nuclear program only occurred in January.

Proxy power struggles in neighboring countries, such as Yemen, are still in play and the Saudi execution of a popular Shi'ite cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, in January pushed diplomatic relations to a new low .

Against this background, oil analysts are watching the latest tension with interest and say it could have consequences for producer relations and the upcoming OPEC meeting on June 2.

"It suggests that any attempt to balance the market, should demand falter, will be tougher to engineer, while also leaving open the possibility that Saudi may choose to expand its production from its as yet untested spare capacity, dampening the price effect of any market tightening later this year and into 2017," Jon Rigby, oil analyst at UBS, said on Monday in a note.

Some OPEC members, like Nigeria, have said the next members' meeting could be opportunity to find a compromise, but RBC's Croft was uncertain over whether anything will be achieved.

"Unless Saudi Arabia or Iran has a change of heart, we fail to see how the outcome will be any different, and it may ultimately be mounting supply disruptions in stressed states, rather than collective cartel action, that causes an accelerated market rebalancing," she said.





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By Jongwoo Cheon and Masayuki Kitano

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's exports tumbled in March as sales to China, the United States and Europe contracted in a sign the trade-dependant economy remains vulnerable as weak global demand puts its manufacturing sector to the sword.

Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) slumped 15.6 percent in March from a year earlier, trade agency International Enterprise Singapore said in a statement on Monday.

That missed the median forecast of a 13.2 percent contraction in a Reuters poll. In February, exports unexpectedly rose thanks to a surge in shipments from the statistically volatile pharmaceuticals sector.

"If there's no dramatic pick-up, I think NODX would almost certainly be negative for the year," said Vishnu Varathan, senior economist for Mizuho Bank in Singapore.

"Maybe from second half of the year, we could see very marginal growth, but taking into consideration that the first half may be weaker than anticipated, NODX could contract for another year, although one would like to think that with China stabilizing this contraction turns out to be something shallow."

Last week, Singapore's central bank unexpectedly eased its exchange-rate based monetary policy as growth stalled in the first quarter, darkening the outlook for the city-state economy.

The latest data point to a rocky ride for the trade-dependent economy, and underscores why the central bank had to act.

Exports to China, Singapore's top overseas market, fell 14.0 percent in March from a year earlier, compared with a 1.2 percent slide in February.

The world's second-largest economy grew at its slowest pace in seven years in the first quarter, but Chinese consumer, investment and factory sectors showed nascent signs that its economic slowdown may be bottoming out.

Shipments to the United States declined 6.2 percent last month, compared with February's 4.2 percent expansion.

Sales to Europe dived 39.1 percent in March on-year after rising 16.1 percent in February.

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That came as exports of pharmaceuticals to the continent slid 59.4 percent and personal computers' shipments also fell some 41.5 percent.

On the whole, exports of pharmaceuticals tumbled 30.9 percent from a year earlier, while annual domestic exports of electronics slipped 9.1 percent in March.

Singapore's electronics sector has been underperforming neighbours such as South Korea and Taiwan due to cut-throat competition, as well as the city-state's lack of popular high-tech products such as smartphones.

Activity in local factories in March shrank for a ninth straight month in March, although the contraction was less than in February as new orders improved, a survey showed.

(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
larry david julia louis dreyfus snl opening nbc

"Seinfeld" character Elaine Benes would probably vote for Hillary Clinton.

That's what we learned when "Seinfeld" star Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the hit show's creator, Larry David, reunited on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" this weekend.

While David returned with his Bernie Sanders impression, Louis-Dreyfus, in her third time as "SNL" host, reprised the character she played on "Seinfeld" for nine seasons to poke fun at last week's contentious Democratic debate in Brooklyn, New York. Also, Kate McKinnon stepped back into Hillary Clinton's sensible heels for the sketch.

Louis-Dreyfus' Elaine was called on to ask questions from the audience as a longtime New Yorker. Her first question went to Sanders: "How exactly are you going to break up the big banks?"

"Ya break them up," David's Sanders said, enthusiastically.

"Once I'm elected president," he then said after Elaine pressed him for an actual plan, "I'll have a nice shvitz in the White House gym, then I'll go to the big banks. I'll sit them down and yada yada yada, they'll be broken up."

"What?" Elaine responded. "No, No, you can't yada yada at a debate. Also, you yada yada'd through the best part."

"No, I mentioned the shvitz," he answered.

Then, Louis-Dreyfus gave us a look into her own feelings regarding playing Elaine when she asked Clinton, "Doesn't it suck to be the only girl in a group of guys?"

"Yes it does, my sister-friend," Clinton rejoiced.

"Well, don't worry because everyone thinks you are by far the funniest, I mean, the most qualified," Elaine stated.

Elaine's final question once again referred back to Louis-Dreyfus and pulled in David, as well.

"Sen. Sanders, you believe that the super-rich should pay more in taxes," she asked. "But, wouldn't that be bad for actors who made a lot of money on a certain very successful sitcom?... I mean, wouldn't it be even worse for the person who created that sitcom?" I mean, wouldn't he lose a lot of money? Do you, uh, see what I'm sayin'?"

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Watch the sketch below to find out how David  we mean Sanders  responded:

NOW WATCH: 'Saturday Night Live' took on Sanders and Clinton's feisty exchange in Brooklyn





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Riek Machar, a former rebel leader turned South Sudan's deputy president who was fired, failed to appear in Juba as expected on Monday or Tuesday (AFP Photo/Isaac Kasamani)

Juba (AFP) - South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar's highly-anticipated return to the capital Juba, to take up the role of vice president, was delayed on Monday, his spokesman said, citing "logistical reasons".

"We are committed to the peace agreement, but there have been logistical issues and the first vice president, Riek Machar, will come tomorrow," spokesman William Ezekiel said.

Machar's return to Juba and swearing-in as President Salva Kiir's deputy will mark an important step in a floundering August 2015 deal to end the country's civil war.

The agreement is seen as the best hope yet for ending more than two years of fighting that have left the world's youngest nation in chaos and pushed it to the brink of famine.

Machar previously served as Kiir's deputy until he was fired just months before the start of war in December 2013.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a conflict marked by numerous atrocities, with more than two million forced from their homes and nearly six million in need of emergency food aid.

The war broke out in December 2013 when Kiir accused Machar of planning a coup, claims he denied, triggering a cycle of retaliatory killings that divided the desperately poor country along ethnic lines.

The rebel leader was expected to arrive in Juba Monday from his tribal stronghold of Pagak in the east of the country, but despite the latest hitch spokesman Ezekiel said the rebels remain committed to peace.

"We are here to implement all the peace agreement. We have been missing deadlines but we will fulfil in the end," he said.

- Red carpet no-show -

The red carpet had been rolled out at Juba's airport on Monday morning, the sentries lined up and the dignitaries were assembling when Machar's no-show was announced, disappointing many for whom his arrival marks a major tangible step towards peace.

Overnight, posters welcoming Machar, some reading "Reconciling, uniting the nation," had been torn down, said Ezekiel.

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Machar's arrival will be a milestone in the peace process but experts warn that implementing the deal will be a long and arduous task.

"It will allow the formation of the transitional government, the most significant step in the implementation of the peace agreement," said Casie Copeland from the International Crisis Group think tank, while warning warned that the conflict would likely continue.

Several militias, driven by local agendas or revenge, do not obey either Machar's or Kiir's commands.

Tensions are high ahead of Machar's return. A 1,370-strong armed rebel force arrived in Juba this month as part of the peace deal, while the government says all but 3,420 of its troops have withdrawn from the city.

The opposing forces are based in camps scattered in and around the capital, while other forces are not allowed within a 25 kilometre (15 mile) radius of Juba.

The army has denied opposition claims that it has secretly returned truckloads of its troops to the capital.

The UN has 11,000 peacekeeping troops in South Sudan, many of them guarding the 185,000 civilians who have spent the past 28 months inside UN bases, too afraid to leave in case they are attacked.

Both the government and rebel forces have been accused of perpetrating ethnic massacres, recruiting and killing children and carrying out widespread rape, torture and forced displacement of populations to "cleanse" areas of their opponents.

- 'Armed to the teeth' -

"Both sides are armed to the teeth... should fighting break out this time in Juba, we should expect prolonged battles in the city," Jacob Akol, a veteran South Sudanese journalist Jacob Akol, wrote in an editorial for the Gurtong peace project.

Machar -- who last year said it was not possible to have peace while Kiir remained in power -- is now due to arrive Tuesday and is expected to be swiftly sworn in at the presidential palace.

African Union representative Alpha Oumar Konare, a former president of Mali, and Festus Mogae, a former Botswanan president who heads the international ceasefire monitoring team, are expected at the ceremony.

Mogae, who is typically upbeat about developments in the fractured nation, has already warned that the "formation of a new government will not in itself be a panacea".
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Embattled Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya's UB Group has denied allegations that it used 4.3 billion rupees ($65 million) of bank loans to now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines to buy property overseas. Mallya, a liquor baron and lawmaker, has been at an unknown location since March 2 after Kingfisher's creditors stepped up pressure to recover the $1.4 billion they are owed. The Enforcement Directorate, an Indian government agency fighting financial crime, made the money-laundering allegation against UB Group before a court, and has sought a non-bailable warrant against Mallya, a UB Group spokesman said in a statement late on Sunday. "The audited accounts of Kingfisher Airlines including for the year ended (March 2010) show all foreign exchange transactions which includes funds borrowed from IDBI Bank used for legitimate business purposes only," the spokesman said, calling the basis of the warrant against Mallya "erroneous and unjustified". State-run IDBI Bank is one of Kingfisher's more than a dozen creditor banks. The Indian government last Friday suspended the diplomatic passport of Mallya, once called the "King of Good Times" for his extravagant lifestyle, and said the passport would be revoked if he did not respond within a week. Mallya has not disclosed his whereabouts since leaving India, but media reports have traced him to the Hertfordshire village of Tewin, north of London, where he owns a house. ($1 = 66.6825 rupees) (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Stephen Coates)
* Two nationalist groupings tipped to win seats

* Vucic seen winning re-election but discontent growing

* Ultra-nationalists want closer ties with Russia

By Ivana Sekularac

JAGODINA, Serbia, April 17 (Reuters) - Ultra-nationalists are set to return to Serbia's parliament in an April 24 election after an absence of several years, boosted by growing discontent with Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's pro-European Union stance and austerity policies.

They include firebrand Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj, whose popularity in Serbia was boosted by his acquittal last month of crimes against humanity by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Polls indicate Seselj's Radicals and the right-wing Dveri grouping, which hold pro-Russian and anti-NATO views and demand an end to integration with the EU, will both get over the threshold needed to get into parliament and together could win about 25-30 seats in the 250-seat assembly.

While the ultra-nationalists are unlikely to challenge the prime minister's strong hold on power, they will use the platform to attack his pro-EU course and fight any concessions he is forced to make during Serbia's negotiations to join the bloc, which began in December.

Opinion polls suggest Vucic's Progressive Party is on track to retain its parliamentary majority, but Seselj's Radicals -- who failed to win any seats in elections in 2012 and 2014 -- could become the third-largest group in parliament.

Seselj, whose war crimes acquittal is being appealed by prosecutors, gives voice to the grievances many Serbs feel over NATO's 1999 bombing of Serbia over the Kosovo conflict. Seselj was deputy prime minister at the time.

"The EU is made up of NATO countries. They bombed us, they took Kosovo away from us," he told cheering supporters last week in Jagodina, a central town where unemployment runs at 30 percent.

Seselj, 61, was a mentor to Vucic until 2008 when his protege broke with the Radicals.

Seselj, who has been battling colon cancer for several years, remains a fierce advocate of the "Greater Serbia" ideology that fuelled bloodshed in the 1990s Yugoslav wars.

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His goal is to secure enough members of parliament -- one third or 84 legislators -- to block any attempt to change Serbia's constitution if Belgrade comes under pressure during the EU negotiations to remove a constitutional reference to Kosovo being part of Serbia.

AUSTERITY FATIGUE

A sharp 2014 recession sent Serbia's budget deficit soaring, forcing the government to seek a 1.2 billion euro ($1.35 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund, which demanded public spending and subsidy cuts, tax hikes and the privatisation of inefficient state firms as a condition.

EU membership will also require painful economic restructuring.

Analysts say austerity measures and an unemployment rate of 18 percent have pushed voters towards the rightist parties.

Until two years ago, Suzana Arsic, a 52-year-old kindergarten teacher from Jagodina, voted for the pro-EU Democratic Party, but now she is changing sides.

"I'm going to vote for the Radicals this time. I didn't like what I saw -- plants were shut down, people lost their jobs and were pushed to expensive borrowing they couldn't manage," she told Reuters.

Serbia's economy is set to grow 1.8 percent this year, slower than its neighbours, the World Bank says. The average monthly wage of 357 euros is among the lowest in the region.

Many Serbs see little benefit from the country's talks on joining the EU. A recent opinion poll found nearly 72 percent of Serbs oppose joining the EU and NATO.

Vucic says joining the EU, Serbia's biggest trading partner and investor, remains Belgrade's No. 1 policy goal. The conservative leader is going to the polls two years early to seek a mandate for economic reforms needed to qualify for EU membership.

Vucic, who says Serbia will not seek to join NATO, warns of the dangers of rising nationalism. "There can be no compromise with those who are pushing Serbia back in the past," he said.

The ultra-nationalist resurgence is not causing great alarm in the EU for now because Vucic has ruled out a coalition with the right-wingers, diplomats say.

Hrvoje Stojic, a Zagreb-based analyst with Hypo Group Alpe Adria bank, said the strengthening of rightist parties was a regional trend, noting eurosceptic parties are in power in Poland and Hungary.

Both the Radicals and Dveri, running in coalition with the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), pledge to halt privatisations, subsidise farmers and impose import duties to protect domestic producers.

"If people look in their wallets, if they open their eyes and switch off their TV sets they'll realise that they're being fooled (by the current government)," Sanda Raskovic Ivic, head of the DSS party, told Reuters, referring to Vucic's promises of improving living standards.

Many nationalist voters are not elderly Serbs nostalgic for the old Yugoslavia, but young people who remember little of the wars that accompanied Yugoslavia's break-up.

"Vucic has lost his credibility ... He made us slaves to capitalists and that's why I will vote for Dveri," said Dejana Simic, a 23-year-old waitress from Belgrade.

Many Serbs, however, accept that Serbia has no option but to seek close ties with the EU.

"There's really no alternative to the EU," said Djordje Trifunovic, 22, a Belgrade law student.

($1 = 0.8879 euros) (Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Adrian Croft and Helen Popper)
The headquarters of UniCredit bank in Milan, Italy, February 8, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's biggest bank by assets UniCredit (CRDI.MI) said it had reached an agreement for a newly created bank fund to fully underwrite the upcoming 1.76-billion euro capital increase by Banca Popolare di Vicenza.

UniCredit was previously the sole guarantor for the cash call, which has so far drawn weak investor demand.

Mid-tier lender Popolare Vicenza must raise the cash and list on the Milan bourse by early next month to comply with capital requirements set by the European Central Bank.

(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi)
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest speaks during a daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House expressed confidence on Monday that Saudi Arabia would not follow through on a reported threat to sell U.S. assets if Congress passed a bill that could hold the kingdom responsible for any role in al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir told U.S. lawmakers that the country would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in Treasury securities and other U.S. assets in response to the bill if it passed.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama did not support the legislation and would not sign it. The bill would allow the Saudi government to be sued in a U.S. court for any role in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I'm confident that the Saudis recognise, just as much as we do, our shared interest in preserving the stability of the global financial system," Earnest told reporters.

Obama, who is travelling to Saudi Arabia later this week, said he opposes the bill because it could expose the United States to lawsuits from citizens of other countries.

"If we open up the possibility that individuals in the United States can routinely start suing other governments, then we are also opening up the United States to being continually sued by individuals in other countries," Obama said in an interview broadcast on CBS News on Monday.

Most of the 19 attackers on Sept. 11, 2001 were Saudi nationals who hijacked four planes and flew them into New York City's World Trade Center, the Pentagon near Washington and into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers revolted.

The attack was mounted by the al Qaeda militant group, then based in Afghanistan. No U.S. investigation to date has reported finding evidence of Saudi government support for the attacks.

The debate over the congressional legislation has gained traction on the U.S. presidential campaign trail. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, has broken with the Democratic administration and said she supported the bill.

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Her rival, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, said he shared the Obama administration's concern that the legislation could open up the United States to liability from other countries but said it was important to look into any potential Saudi role in the attacks.

"I think its important to have a full investigation and an understanding of the role, the possible role, of the Saudi government in 9/11," he said on NBC's "Today" programme.

Clinton and Sanders' remarks on the issue on Monday came on the day before New York state's Democratic primary, a crucial race for both candidates.

The bill, which has 22 co-sponsors, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in January, but it has not come up for a vote in the Republican-dominated Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells office said on Monday that no vote has been scheduled.

Family members of victims who were killed in the September 2001 attacks urged Obama to support the legislation and to bring up the issue on his trip.

"It is not acceptable ... to succumb to the demands of a foreign government that we abandon principles of American justice while we pursue our diplomatic goals," they wrote in a letter to Obama that was released to the media.

In September, a U.S. judge dismissed claims against Saudi Arabia by families of victims of the attacks, saying the kingdom had sovereign immunity from damage claims.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Timothy Gardner, Patricia Zengerle, Susan Heavey, Steve Holland, Eric Beech and Idrees Ali; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Where Is the Crude Oil Market Headed after Failed Doha Meeting?

(Continued from Prior Part)

Freezing crude oil production

On April 17, 2016, major oil producers failed to enter an agreement to freeze crude oil production. Saudi Arabia, one of the top exporters of crude oil wanted Iran to agree to the deal. However, Iran withdrew from the meeting at the last minute. On April 17, Qatars oil minister stated that major producers required more time for a constructive result. He also added that oil prices are better than they were two months ago, which gave them an opportunity to take more time.

Major oil producers strategy

Oil producers from Iran to Saudi Arabia want to increase their market share. However, they also need oil prices to be high enough for sufficient profits. So, Russia and Saudi Arabia are producing crude oil almost at their peak levels. But, Iran also wants to regain its market share by producing crude oil at its pre-sanction levels. Thats why Iran isnt interested in the crude oil production deal.

Secondly, oil producers are struggling with their budgets, so they need to produce more. For more detail, read How Are Oil Prices Squeezing OPEC Members Budgets? and Russias Debt Reaches $100 Billion with Oil Market Turmoil.

Impact on oil prices, companies, and ETFs

The oil producer meeting was one of the major factors driving crude oil prices higher by 50% since the lows of February 2016. To learn more about the bullish factors, read How Long Can Bullish Catalysts Benefit Crude Oil Prices in 2016? and How Are Brazil and India Affecting the Crude Oil Market? The optimism surrounding the oil producer meeting propped up oil prices despite a lack of major changes in the crude oil fundamentals.

The failure of the oil producer meeting on April 17 turns the focus towards the OPEC cartels meeting in June. Some experts suggest that this will lead to pessimistic sentiments and the extension of the oil bear market. Oil prices could fall in the near term.

Story continues

Lower oil prices impact Middle East oil producers like National Iranian Oil Company and Kuwait Petroleum Company. They also impact US producers like Triangle Petroleum (TPLM), Energy XXI (EXXI), Goodrich Petroleum (GDP), and Range Resources (RRC).

Plus, the volatility in oil prices affects ETFs like the ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil ETF (UCO), the DB Crude Oil Double Short ETN (DTO), the iShares U.S. Oil Equipment & Services ETF (IEZ), and the Direxion Daily Energy Bear 3x (ERY).

In the next part of the series, well cover Cushing crude oil inventory.

Continue to Next Part

Browse this series on Market Realist:
Old Roman ruins stand in the ancient archeaological site of Sabratha on Libya's Mediterreanean coast, in this June 1, 2013 file photo.[Photo/Agencies]

TRIPOLI - The UN special envoy to Libya met here on Sunday with the Libyan presidency council, saying the newly formed government in Libya will tackle the challenges in the war-torn country.

"There are several challenges here now and the most important one is the expansion of the IS and the security situation," Martin Kopler said in a joint press conference with Ahmed Maiteeq, Libyan deputy prime minister of the UN-backed government.

"This can only be tackled if there is a clear consensus to go ahead with the government of national accord," he said.

Kopler said he will travel to Tubrug on Monday to meet with the house of representatives (parliament) "to encourage all to follow this way, to endorse the government of national accord."

"The problem of terrorism is endemic; the humanitarian situation is dire; hospitals need medicines; people need bread. Only the government of national accord can bring the process forward," Kopler said.

The government of national accord was named based on a political agreement signed by the Libyan political rivals that aims to end the country's political crises after months of UN-sponsored political dialogue sessions.
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Taipei, April 18 (CNA) Russian photographer Murad Osmann, best known for his "Follow Me To" Instagram series by following his wife Nataly Zakharova around the world and capturing her every step, is in Taiwan for an exhibition featuring photos of them on the island.
Sons of Liberty said: Missing from the couples visit will be remembrance or even utterance of the Bengal Famine, where three million people starved to death under the stewardship of Winston Churchill Click to expand...

Why should there be? I don't remember Merkel talking about and apologising for the Blitz when she visited London in January last year.Just more self-righteous rubbish from a left wing newspaper which has so little readers it went out of print earlier this year and is now solely online.If anything, William and Catherine should maybe take the Indians to task for the number of rapes committed in the country each year.
White People Time: Blake Neff on destroying childrens futures in the name of social justice:While the traits listed [being rigorous and punctual, speaking grammatical English] may simply be regarded as positive traits for success in the modern world, Dr Heather Hackman described them as traits chosen and emphasised to favour whites to the detriment of non-white groups, who are forced to assimilate white traits such as good discipline and goal orientation or else be left behind.Hackmans solution, then, is to train teachers to move away from all these aspects of white privilege in education. She routinely touted the benefits of collective assessments (measuring student learning at the class level instead of determining whether each student knows the material), as well as eliminating all school grades entirely.I share the above in case any readers had assumed that Dr Caprice Hollins , who dismisses foresight, diligence and punctuality as white values, must be a one-off absurdity. Alas, no.And Paul Sperry on the consequences of government-mandated racial favouritism in school discipline policy:In St Paul, Minnesota, a high school teacher was put on administrative leave last month after Black Lives Matter threatened to shut down the school because the teacher complained about lenient discipline policies that have led to a string of assaults on fellow teachers. Last month, two students at Como Park Senior High School punched and body slammed a business teacher unconscious, opening a head wound that required staples. And earlier in the year, another student choked a science teacher into a partial coma that left him hospitalised for several days. In both cases, the teachers were white and the students black. []In New York City public schools, classroom assaults have become so common that parents last week filed a negligence class-action suit against the education department, which last year adopted restorative practices [i.e., race-based exemptions from discipline] in lieu of suspensions. The complaint says the department refuses to discipline or transfer violent classroom bullies.Further to which, dont forget this grim farce . Behold the Long March in action. See its glories.h/t sda
About 15 miles northwest of Fremont, past the signs of Rawhide antagonism  like Chickens Stink  lining Hwy. 77, the grassy shoulders along those rural dirt roads gave way to We Love Costco signs as more than 100 proponents, sponsors and leaders of Project Rawhide gathered Sunday.

They assembled at the farm of Hooper-area resident Scott Wagner to ignite further enthusiasm for the proposed poultry operation.

Emerging from among those gathered were many of the faces behind the proposed corporate project potentially slated for a location north of Fremont. The meeting took place to advance support for Costco Wholesale and Lincoln Premium Poultrys fully integrated and state-of-the-art poultry processing operation. It offered a chance for Greater Fremont area residents and media outlets to begin attaching real live faces to the project. Faces that, until late last week, had remained behind of curtain of confidentiality, seeding an air of suspicion and distrust among many opponents.

After a brief presentation, delivered in rural style from atop the bed of a long tractor-trailer, those faces circulated among the crowd. Representative from Coscto, Fremont City government, Lincoln Premium Poultry, the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska, the Greater Fremont Development Council and others offered some new details and further promotion of their excitement and the benefits such an operation could provide to eastern Nebraska.

On point as an emerging leader and proponent among area farmers, Wagner spoke about the connection between the future of farming and agriculture for Greater Fremont, Dodge County and for Nebraska as it relates to Project Rawhide. For Wagner that future stands poised upon the pillars of local family farms, interested Fremont businesses and government leaders, and also upon the newly unveiled corporations behind the project, Costco Wholesale and Lincoln Premium Poultry.

We need to be looking to bring people back to this area; I want to bring that sixth generation back (to the farm), Wagner said Sunday afternoon, against the back drop of several large grain silos and that relentless Nebraska wind.

From atop the long bed of a tractor-trailer, the young farmer addressed the large gathering of Rawhide supporters, financiers, local farmers and other interested parties. He stressed the great economic benefits that an operation of the scale proposed could potentially bring to the community and to Nebraska. He also emphasized the importance an open mind about the project that continues to be controversial.

Lets listen to their answers before we jump to any conclusions, Wagner said, referring to the point of contention many opponents expressed about the slow release of details on the proposal.

AFAN Executive Director Willow Holoubek reiterated the fact that the entire operation could procure a $1.2 billion annual economic impact to the area, significantly stimulating the future of Nebraska agriculture. Its an impact, she explained, that can create value-added wealth by keeping the products Nebraska produces within the local communities.

President of the GFDC Board of Directors Barry Benson addressed the crowd by listing several ways in which the Greater Fremont area may profit from Costcos investment. He said it could lead to new jobs, new growth with the construction of hotels, restaurants and other stores, and a new tax base to support the needs of the community.

He also spoke to the business practices of Costco and its people: Its first-class people with a first-class company.

New Details Emerge

Walt Schafer, a former chicken grower from Virginia with 30 years of experience, will serve as the project manager. Schafer also works with Lincoln Premium Poultry and he outlined the potential of the details  though nothing is official  for the construction and operation of what many proponents have declared a high-tech, environmentally friendly facility.

Schafer said if all goes in favor of Costcos proposal, the facility will take three years to construct. Excluding any political, economic or environmental opposition, construction could began as early as late summer of 2016, Schafer informed. He said it will take two years to build the hatchery, feed mill and the processing plant, upon where preliminary production will begin in 2018. Once underway, the facility will require one year to reach full production capacity: processing 1.6 to 1.7 million birds per week.

The facility will occupy about 300 acres of land, which Schafer explained is much more land than needed. The purpose of extra land is to provide a buffer area to the surrounding community, minimizing as much as possible any impacts felt by area residents. The processing plant will be the largest building, about 250,000 square feet, followed by the hatchery at 75,000 square feet and the feed mill at 50 to 75,000 square feet.

His outline is based on blue prints that already exist. Additionally, he stated that members of the project just returned from Europe where they investigated the latest in technology used at similar facilities. He emphasized their plans for strict biocontainment of the birds during transport to and from the facility. Each bird will also undergo stringent testing prior to arriving at the facility.

Any bird we bring to the processing plant has been tested for Avian Flu, Schafer said. He further explained that testing involves blood samples taken from each bird. Those samples are then sent to a certified lab where they will be assayed for the pathogen.

We will implement strict biosecurity measures, Schafer continued.

Some of those measures will include assuring that no grower barns are constructed near areas where wild game congregate, such as streams and other sources of water. He also described a system that, on its surface, sounds like stringent methodology of biosafety, akin to systems used by the CDC. Some of those strict practices will include a dry chlorine wash for footwear, special change of clothing upon entering and exiting the facility, personal protective equipment and an overall enclosed and contained environment during transport of the birds and while they are housed in the facility.

Its going to employ the latest technology  a lot of equipment eliminates the manual labor but we (will) need good tech labor, Schafer said, and that will lead to an increased degree of the education for the facilities employees.

This chicken plant is going to be state of the art plant and its going to be one of the best in the world when its built, said Jeff Lyons, senior vice president of Fresh Foods of Costco Wholesale.

Fremont Mayor Scott Getzschman emphasized that Costco serves as a class act corporation and that truly, the project is a class-act project. This is a one-time opportunity for Dodge County, Nebraska and this region.

In the end it comes down to weighing the pros and the cons.

Chuck Emanuel, a member of the board of directors of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association and a farmer in the region pointed to the importance of considering the pros.

We need to realize opportunity for the area, and how important it is for the benefits that will be gained, he said. Quality and integrity are behind this company, alleviating concerns moving ahead.

If people can just step back and wait for the information to be divulged before they make their choice. To make assumptions before you have that information isnt fair to anyone, Wagner said.
LINCOLN  A student at St. John the Baptist School learned Saturday that he would have a chance to travel to Maryland to compete in a History Day contest.

Nolan Lewandowski won first place in his event at the Nebraska History Day competition. Lewandowski represented the Plattsmouth school in the Junior Division at state. He earned the top prize in the individual exhibit contest for an entry entitled Encounters of the Oregon Trail.

Students who finished first or second in their categories at the state contest earned tickets to this summers National History Day program. The national contest will be held at the University of Maryland June 12-16.

Lewandowski also collected second place in the Junior Division of the NEBRASKAland Foundation Award contest. The award honored the best entry that dealt with a person, place, event, institution or other development that contributed to the heritage of Nebraska. First-place winners in both the junior and senior divisions received $300. Second-place winners received a $200 award.

Lewandowski was one of ten St. John the Baptist students to compete in state categories on Saturday. Alex Jacobs, Chaz Bogle, Katie Weaver, Cathy Shawhan, Greg Thayer, Jenna Curtis, Matthew Reineke, Libby Baumert and Max Baumert participated in events at Nebraska Wesleyan University.

All ten students competed in the Junior Division at state. Pupils in grades 6-8 took part in the Junior Division and teenagers in grades 9-12 took part in the Senior Division.
Air France now offers 3 weekly flights to Tehran from Paris-Charles de Gaulle. The airline offers Business, Premium Economy and Economy cabins on its Airbus A340 (275 seats) and Airbus A330 (208 seats).

Frederic Gagey, Chairman and CEO of Air France said, "Iran is currently experiencing a major economic boom. With our new direct flights between Paris and Tehran, we are supporting the country's opening up to the rest of the world, and also capturing an important source of growth on our long-haul network. I am delighted to offer our customers the possibility to join Tehran from destinations around the world via our powerful hub at Paris-Charles de Gaulle."

FLIGHT SCHEDULES (IN LOCAL TIME)

Wednesday, Friday and Sunday:

AF738: Leaves Paris-Charles de Gaulle at 12:20, arrives at Tehran-Imam Khomeini at 20:20

Monday, Thursday and Saturday:

AF755: Leaves Tehran-Imam Khomeini at 9:15, arrives at Paris-Charles de Gaulle at 12:40.

Moreover, on 18 April 2016, the Company opened a new Air France ticket office for its customers in Tehran. Air France staff is ready to assist customers during office opening hours from 08:30 am to 5 pm, from Saturday to Wednesday, and from 8:30 am to 2 pm on Thursday.
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan -- The dusty ground thrums under the heels of the troops being retrained to save Afghanistan's largest and most dangerous province.

Hundreds of U.S. military advisers are overseeing the retraining of thousands of Afghan troops operating under the umbrella of the Afghan National Army's 215th Maiwand Corps. It is one of the six Afghan regional commands tasked with protecting Helmand, which has seen rapid Taliban advances during the past year.

With the advent of the new fighting season after the Taliban unveiled their latest offensive, Helmand is in the eye of the storm as the insurgents push hard to overrun the region central to their recruitment. Its status as the center of global drug production also guarantees to insurgent war chests brimming.

The headquarters of the 215th Maiwand Corps in Helmand's sprawling capital Lashkar Gah echoes with loud cries of Allah-hu-Akbar (God is great in Arabic) and "promises to serve our homeland" as columns of Afghan troops march at the end of a two-month rapid retraining regime.

They are trying to conceal their lack of discipline and skill with enthusiasm as young soldiers often struggle to keep pace with the military drill rhythm. Soon they will be deployed to frontlines across Helmand, where thousands of Afghan soldiers and policemen were killed as Taliban overran or contest 11 of Helmand's 15 districts during the past year.

Abdul Jabar Qahraman, a former communist general now in charge of all Afghan forces in Helmand, says that by removing the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of his forces, he expects them to stand their ground and even reclaim territories from the insurgents.

"Ultimately, it all depend on those who are keeping the flame of war alight in our homeland. We are ready to take on any challenges that our opponents are capable of throwing at us now," he said. "But if the dynamics of the battlefield change radically, for example, if the neighbors supporting the insurgents here double or triple their resources, then we will be forced to reconfigure our response."

An estimated 350,000 troops are bracing for a difficult year. After the withdrawal of most international troops at the end of NATO's combat operations in 2014, it is the second year when they are expected to face a robust insurgent offensive in the face of diminishing international support. The loss of NATO's planning, intelligence support, and superior firepower has badly hurt the Afghan forces. In addition, Afghan generals have been forced to lead and plan a war after relying on Western military mentors for years.

With help from a battalion of 500 U.S. soldiers, four battalions of the Afghan Army 215th Corps have been redeployed to the frontline districts.

"We are not only here to repair your vehicles, but to help with weapons and share intelligence," a U.S. military officer overseeing the training told Afghan cadets in March. "Now is not the time to stay behind high blast walls, watchtowers, and barbed wire. You must abandon your defensive posture. It is now the time to fight."

Kabul and its Western allies were alarmed earlier this year when insurgents overran Musa Qala and Nawzad districts and virtually surrounded Helmand's capital, Lashkar Gah.

Abdul Tawab Qureshi, a military expert in Helmand, says the Afghan forces need to clean up their ranks from corruption, find better leadership, and secure long-term intelligence and air support from U.S. forces if they hope to win the war.

"Some of the leadership in the security forces have been appointed because of their connections, which renders them incapable of leading troops in battle," he said. "Corruption is also a major problem."

To fight corruption, the Afghan leadership recently appointed Major General Moein Faqir to lead the 2015th Corps after thousands of "ghost" soldiers were discovered among the estimated 18,000 soldiers of the force. While their salaries were regularly paid, nobody served or even made roll calls.

Qahraman, the operational commander of Afghan security forces in Helmand, is optimistic his men are on the right path toward defeating the enemy. He says the 215th Corps now has its own drone fleet that watches Helmand's nearly 60,000 square kilometers day and night.

"We have build the military capacity to face any eventuality in Helmand," he said.

Abubakar Siddique wrote this story based on Mohammad Ilyas Dayee's reporting from Lashkar Gah, Helmand.
UMass senior Jasmine Bertrand-Halidy, 22, of Boston, center, serves pizza to Divest UMass supporters during a sit in April 13 in the Whitmore Administration Building on campus to demand that UMass officials commit to divest from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel companies. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

UMass senior Rebecca Schmidt, 21, of Chelmsford, left, and UMass junior Toby Armstrong, 21, of Lexington, participate in a sit in for Divest UMass supporters April 13 in the Whitmore Administration Building on campus to demand that UMass officials commit to divest from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel companies. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

UMass senior Pooja Ghosh, 22, of Philadelphia, Pa., center, serves pizza to Divest UMass supporters during a sit in April 13 in the Whitmore Administration Building on campus to demand that UMass officials commit to divest from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel companies. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

UMass freshman Marissa Mackson, 18, of Shrewsbury, left, participates in a sit in for Divest UMass supporters April 13 in the Whitmore Administration Building on campus to demand that UMass officials commit to divest from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel companies. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Divest UMass supporters participate in a sit in April 13 in the Whitmore Administration Building on campus to demand that UMass officials commit to divest from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel companies. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

UMass senior Danielle DaGraca, 18, of Marshfield, center, joins other Divest UMass supporters in a sit in April 13 in the Whitmore Administration Building on campus to demand that UMass officials commit to divest from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel companies. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

UMass senior Joseph Dwork, 22, of Phoenix, joins other Divest UMass supporters in a sit in April 13 in the Whitmore Administration Building on campus to demand that UMass officials commit to divest from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel companies. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

UMass senior Jasmine Bertrand-Halidy, 22, of Boston, left, serves pizza to UMass freshman Sarah Nordberg, 19, of Attleboro, during a sit in for Divest UMass supporters April 13 in the Whitmore Administration Building on campus to demand that UMass officials commit to divest from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel companies. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

UMass sophomore Marissa LaSalle, 20, of Marshfield, left, UMass sophomore Ezra Marcus, 21, of Great Barrington, and UMass sophomore Christin Howard, 19, of Great Barrington participate in a sit in for Divest UMass supporters April 13 in the Whitmore Administration Building on campus to demand that UMass officials commit to divest from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel companies. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

UMass junior Jenny Hersh of Princeton, right, joins other Divest UMass supporters rallying outside of the Whitmore Administration Building, Wednesday, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. SARAH CROSBY

Students gathered outside Whitmore Administration Building at the University of Massachusetts, Wednesday, to protest the university's investment in fossil fuels, cheer for students who chose to be arrested as UMass Police escort them from the building. JERREY ROBERTS

Students gathered outside Whitmore Administration Building at the University of Massachusetts, Wednesday, protest the university's investment in fossil fuels. JERREY ROBERTS

UMass Police escort students who chose to be arrested during a sit-in protest at Whitmore Administration Building, Wednesday, to police cruisers. JERREY ROBERTS

UMass Police escort students who chose to be arrested during a sit-in protest at Whitmore Administration Building, Wednesday, to police cruisers. JERREY ROBERTS

UMass Police escort students who chose to be arrested during a sit-in protest at Whitmore Administration Building, Wednesday, to police cruisers. JERREY ROBERTS

UMass Police escort students who chose to be arrested during a sit-in protest at Whitmore Administration Building, Wednesday, to police cruisers. JERREY ROBERTS

Students gathered outside Whitmore Administration Building at the University of Massachusetts, Wednesday, protest the university's investment in fossil fuels. JERREY ROBERTS

Students gathered outside Whitmore Administration Building at the University of Massachusetts, Wednesday, to protest the university's investment in fossil fuels, cheer for students who chose to be arrested as UMass Police escort them from the building. JERREY ROBERTS

Nineteen students sit in a circle outside the chancellor's office at the Whitmore Administration Building during a sit-in Wednesday held to protest the university's investment in fossil fuels. The students were later arrested. JERREY ROBERTS

A group of students who gathered for a sit-in protest in front of the chancellor's office at Whitmore Administration Building are led away for arrest Wednesday. JERREY ROBERTS

A group of students file out of Whitmore Administration Building for their arrest after a sit-in protest, Wednesday. JERREY ROBERTS

UMass Police talk to a group of students Wednesday who gathered for a sit-in protest in front of the chancellor's office at Whitmore Administration Building. The group was arrested. JERREY ROBERTS

A group of students outside the chancellor's office for a sit-in protest at Whitmore Administration Building take a picture Wednesday before being arrested. JERREY ROBERTS

UMass Police tell a group of people gathered Wednesday for a sit-in protest in the Whitmore Administration Building that the building is closed and if they don't leave they will be arrested. JERREY ROBERTS

Students gathered outside Whitmore Administration Building at the University of Massachusetts, Wednesday, protest the university's investment in fossil fuels. JERREY ROBERTS

UMass Police walk past students gathered on the third floor of the Whitmore Administration Building during a sit-in held to protest the university's investment in fossil fuels. JERREY ROBERTS

Varshini Prakash, center, invigorates protestors on the third floor of the Whitmore Administration Building during a sit-in Wednesday. JERREY ROBERTS

AMHERST  A sit-in demanding the University of Massachusetts divest from fossil fuels that swelled to some 250 participants by late Wednesday afternoon ended with the arrests of 19 students who did not leave the building by a 6 p.m. deadline.

It was the second straight night of arrests at the Whitmore Administration Building after 15 protesters were arrested Tuesday.

All 34 people arrested face charges of trespassing. The students arrested Tuesday received probationary terms in court Wednesday.

Organizers of Divest UMass, in a statement released Wednesday night, vowed to continue their protest until President Martin Meehan and (trustees) Chairman Victor Woolridge release a public statement committing to full fossil fuel divestment.

UMass spokesman Edward Blaguszewski issued a statement Wednesday night reiterating that Meehan and Woolridge have said divesting direct investments in fossil fuel companies represents a logical next step to the action UMass took last year when it divested its direct investments in coal companies. Woolridge and Meehan announced their support for the new step as UMass trustees met at UMass Dartmouth.

Divest UMass had demanded that UMass officials commit to divesting from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies by 5 p.m. Wednesday.

If they do not give us a decision by the end of the business day at 5 p.m., we will continue with our escalation, Divest UMass spokesman Filipe Carvalho said.

As occupying students, professors, alumni and community members faced possible arrest by remaining in the building after its 6 p.m. closing time, supporters from around the country  including some from as far away as California and Montana  called in pizza orders to feed the UMass protesters.

Approximately 200 protesters left the building voluntarily when police issued a dispersal notice about 5:45 p.m. As they left, a group of 50 people lined the entrance to the building and chanted to show support.

We dont want people to have to get arrested, said Carvalho, But the fact that people are willing to be arrested shows this issue is bigger than the university.

According to Carvalho, five volunteers headed to the UMass Police Department to post bail for the 19 arrested protesters by 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The group used money collected by a GoFundMe account. As of Wednesday evening, the account had raised $2,050.

Carvalho said the continued sit-in on Thursday is likely to grow due to social media and press coverage. He said the day will be similar to Wednesday, with a sit-in at Whitmore beginning at 8:30 a.m., trainings for new protesters all day, and a rally to show support for both those who leave voluntarily and those who may risk arrest on Thursday evening.

If the Divest UMass organizers do not feel their demands are met by the end of the day Thursday, a group larger than 19 plans to remain in Whitmore after it closes, according to Carvalho.

Divest UMass issued a statement Wednesday afternoon calling for a formal commitment to full divestment  as well as a formal commitment to work with Divest UMass and other applicable parties to craft a comprehensive divestment and reinvestment plan.

During the day, protesters filled the hallway leading to the chancellors office, extending the sit-in to the third-floor lobby of Whitmore and down the adjacent hallway. The students, faculty, and community members remained mostly quiet, eating pizza and using laptop computers. Some were barefoot, and many held orange signs to support the cause.

A rally was held in the late afternoon Wednesday outside Whitmore. We want to make sure we show support for those at the sit-in, Carvalho said.

Waves of protesters were ushered into the building every half hour Wednesday following training from Divest UMass volunteers. Protesters signified they had undergone training by drawing black Xs on their hands and wearing pieces of orange felt pinned to their clothing.

According to Carvalho, national networks such as the Divestment Student Network are showing support.
MASON CITY  A burning car blocked traffic Monday along a busy Mason City street.

The fire broke out in a 1999 Volkswagen Beetle while it was in the southbound lane of the 400 block of South Eisenhower Avenue, about a block from Highway 122 near the entrance to Wal-Mart.

The vehicle owner, Robin Whetstone of Mason City, said she had just gotten the car out of storage and was driving back from Garner. She noticed smoke coming from the engine after she turned off Highway 122 onto South Eisenhower Avenue.

When I got out, the hood was on fire and then it went up in flames, Whetstone said. It happened real fast.

She escaped unharmed.

Mason City Fire Lt. Dustin Pillard said the car was extensively damaged. Its exterior was scorched, interior blackened and plastic components melted off. Three of the four tires also melted off.

A stretch of grass alongside it also was blackened.

The extent of damage makes pinpointing a cause difficult, but Pillard said he thinks hot parts in the engine compartment may have ignited a mouse nest or other debris.

Whetstone said the vehicle had been running fine until she saw the smoke coming from the engine compartment.

Mason City police blocked traffic so firefighters could put out the flames.
DES MOINES  When Julie Stewart travels the country talking about the need for sentencing reform, she often tells the tale of Mandy Martinson, a Mason City woman serving 15 years in federal prison for drug-related offenses.

I think her personal story is very typical of a lot people, especially a lot of women, who are addicts and hook up with men who have the drugs, said Stewart, the president and founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. And also just that the sentence is so stiff.

Stewart will give the Drake University Harkin Institutes spring lecture.

Martinson was 27 years old in 2004 when she was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and marijuana, and possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.

Martinson, who had never been arrested before, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Her boyfriend, with whom she had been living for only a month, was sentenced to only 12 years for the same crimes after he testified against Martinson.

She needed to be arrested. She needed to be punished, Stewart said Monday during an interview at the Iowa Capitol. Even if you want to punish her, fine. But why 15 years? Why is that the right number? And what damage is going to be done by her being there?

Stewart said overcrowding in the nations prisons and the high costs associated have led lawmakers to warm up to the idea of sentencing reform, and that Martinson is an example of someone who Stewart believes should not be in prison for a decade or more.

In addition to telling Martinsons story, Stewart said she plans to talk about the growing bipartisan support in federal and state governments for sentencing reform for low-level, non-violent offenders.

Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is shepherding through the judiciary committee he chairs bipartisan legislation that addresses sentencing reform, albeit at a reduced scope to what Stewart said she favors.

Stewart called the federal legislation a terrific first step, but said she would go much further.

Grassleys bill would reduce a third-time drug offenders mandatory minimum sentence from life to 25 years, and second-time offenders from 20 to 15 years, among many other provisions.

Sen. Grassley has been great this year. He has not been an easy person to persuade. I think hes beginning to listen to his constituents, Stewart said. I think he has recognized that theres a problem and it needs to be addressed.

The Iowa Legislature has not addressed sentencing reform this year.

Stewart said while more and more lawmakers are embracing sentencing reform, many remain opposed. She believes some are hesitant to make changes to laws enacted 30 years ago, and have a fear of threatening public safety.

People sort of look at these mandatory minimum sentences that are in place and have been on the books for 30 years and they almost look at them a little bit like theyre the Bible, Stewart said. So I think thats part of it.

And then the other part of it is that theres this fear that if somehow we reduce sentences in any way it will make the streets less safe. Now, the statistics dont bear that out.

Stewart pointed to past sentencing reform measures that yielded a reduction in crime rates.
WATERLOO  Iowa firefighters and EMTs are widely considered heroes. But the family of one Waterloo firefighter is still waiting for a hero of its own.

Jill Junk, 57, wife of Waterloo firefighter Joe Junk, is one of 19 Iowans on the organ wait list in need of a new liver.

The Iowa Firefighters Association is partnering with the Iowa Donor Network to challenge each county in Iowa to gain 100 additional registered organ donors in 100 days, issuing the challenge on National Donate Life Green and Blue Day to raise awareness of the lifesaving importance of being a registered donor.

There are 624 people on Iowas organ wait list and more than 123,000 people on the national wait list, said Tony Hakes, Iowa Donor Network public outreach manager. One donor has the potential to save up to eight peoples lives through organ donation and help more than 50 people through tissue donation. Just imagine how many people on this wait list we could save if we can reach our goal of 100 people per county.

Wendy Lensing, Iowa Firefighters Association executive director, agrees that multiple lives can be saved through organ donation.

Last month, Brian Seymour, a retired Indianola fire chief, past president of the IFA and an organ donor, died from injuries sustained in a major fall.

Seymour dedicated 32 years of his life to public service as a firefighter, paramedic and EMS director and to helping others as mission trip leader to Africa to teach children fire safety and to provide an African community with a fire truck.

In one last act of honor in helping others, Brian was an organ and tissue donor, Lensing said. In death, he positively impacted 72 lives through his gift of life. It seemed fitting for the IFA to issue this lifesaving challenge to Iowans in Brians memory and in hope of helping Jill Junk.

Judy Rottinghaus, retired Waterloo Fire Rescue firefighter and paramedic, added her support to IFAs challenge. A living kidney donor herself, Rottinghaus is not one to sit back when others are in need  especially a member of her firefighting family.

Ive been a registered donor since I signed up for my first drivers license, Rottinghaus said. I didnt have a particular person in mind when I decided to become a living donor and do not know the man who received my kidney. I am simply glad that I have given him six years that he might not have had.

Rottinghaus said she felt that because she had two healthy kidneys and could help someone, she should.

I gave him hope, altruistically, and he gave me life, specifically, Rottinghaus said.

Two years after her kidney donation, Rottinghaus was experiencing abdominal pain at the incision site of the kidney surgery, which required her doctors to take more images. Those images showed a problematic tumor on her pancreas. Rottinghaus likens her kidney donation as a gift of hope to the man she provided a kidney, which turned into receiving the gift of early detection and successful treatment of a precancerous tumor for herself.

Now, we have a member of our firefighter family whose battle with pancreatic cancer has led to liver failure, Rottinghaus said. We are all rallying around Jill and Joe, and hope and pray Jill receives her liver transplant very soon. I encourage you to register to be an organ donor, because you too can save a life and be someones hero.

In 2014, the lives of 29,532 Americans were saved through organ donation.

Anyone can register to be a donor regardless of age or medical condition. Visit www.iowadonornetwork.org to sign up to be a donor.
LISLE, Ill., April 18, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eckrich, the makers of naturally hardwood smoked sausage and savory deli meats, partnered with Publix and Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit whose mission is to build strong, stable, and secure military families, to honor a Miami military family on Friday. Joining them for this surprise event was a special guest, platinum-selling country music star Randy Houser.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5f2d12c7-5a3b-48e2-bce5-73d9ef63ceb9

Randy Houser invited the Yagual family backstage before his performance and surprised them with a gift of $5,000 in free groceries at Publix, courtesy of Eckrich. The family then watched Houser perform as part of the Tortuga Music Festival.

Together, Eckrich and Houser have partnered to honor U.S. military families since 2014. Houser is known for hits including his four No. 1 singles How Country Feels, Runnin Outta Moonlight, Goodnight Kiss and We Went as well as the Top 5 smash Like A Cowboy. He recently released his fourth studio album, Fired Up, via Stoney Creek Records. The 17-song project follows Housers breakthrough album, How Country Feels, and features his latest No. 1 hit We Went and current single, Song Number 7.

These families have sacrificed so much for all of us to have the freedom to do what we love and go out and entertain people every night, so Im very humbled and grateful for the opportunity to team up with Eckrich and Operation Homefront to give back and hopefully make their lives a little bit easier, said Houser.

Joel Yagual served four years in the United States Marine Corps. He completed three tours during his time of service, twice serving in Iraq. His daily living has been impaired with vivid nightmares. His wife, Itzel, is his primary caregiver. The couple has a daughter, Delainey, who enjoys play dates at the park with her family.

Its nice to know that other people care about the sacrifices that all our military families are making, said Joel. We appreciate it. Sometimes people say it, but today Eckrich and Publix proved they really care and give back.

The event is part of the ongoing campaign by Eckrich to honor, thank and support military families through its partnership with Operation Homefront. The Yagual family is supported by Operation Homefronts Hearts of Valor program, a network of caregivers for wounded, ill or injured service members. Operation Homefront supports these caregivers through annual retreats, support groups and online communities.

Eckrich, in its fifth year of partnership with Operation Homefront, has donated more than $2 million to the organization since 2012.

Randy Houser has been committed in helping us honor military families across the country, said Chuck Gitkin, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Smithfield Foods. We appreciate his partnership and support for military families. We also appreciate Publix for partnering with us as we give a special thanks to the Yagual family for their sacrifice. We hope they enjoy $5,000 in free groceries courtesy of Eckrich.

For more information about Eckrich, please visit www.eckrich.com.

About Eckrich

Founded by Peter Eckrich in 1894, Eckrich has a rich heritage starting from a small meat market in Fort Wayne, Ind. Through it all, Eckrich meats have been recognized for their great taste and supreme quality, craftsmanship, care and pride. For more information, visit www.eckrich.com.

About Smithfield Foods

Smithfield Foods is a $14 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Farmland, Armour, Cook's, John Morrell, Gwaltney, Nathan's Famous, Kretschmar, Margherita, Curly's, Carando and Healthy Ones. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com.

About Operation Homefront

A national nonprofit, Operation Homefront leads more than 2,500 volunteers with nationwide presence who provide emergency and other financial assistance to the families of service members and wounded warriors. Operation Homefront has provided assistance to thousands of military families since its inception in 2002. Recognized for superior performance by leading independent charity watchdog groups, nationally, 92 percent of Operation Homefronts expenditures go directly to programs that provide support to our military families. For more information, go to www.operationhomefront.net.

About Randy Houser

With an inimitable voice the New York Times describes as wholly different, thicker and more throbbing, a caldron bubbling over, Randy Houser racked up three consecutive No. 1 hits and more than four million in singles sales to date with his Stoney Creek Records album, How Country Feels. He topped the charts with the title track, Runnin Outta Moonlight and Goodnight Kiss (also his first No. 1 as a songwriter) and earned critical acclaim for his powerful delivery of the Top 5 smash and CMA Song of the Year-nominated "Like A Cowboy." Houser added a fourth No. 1 to his catalogue with We Went, the lead single from his new album, Fired Up, and its second single Song Number 7 is currently available at country radio and digital retailers. For more information, visit www.RandyHouser.com or follow on Twitter @RandyHouser and www.Facebook.com/RandyHouser.
The New York state primary election is going down this week, which means after Tuesday we'll finally be able to concentrate all our time and energy on more important issues like, What Are We Eating Next and When Are We Eating It? From Montreal-themed Jewish feasts to pop-up pierogis to French wine, here are a few ways to eat and drink your way through the week.

Greenpoint's Le Fond is trading some of its French finery in for down home Polish goodness during Monday night's pierogi pop-up. It's been dubbed the Antek Pierogi Bar, and will offer the savory little dumplings along with a varied menu of Polish favorites like kielbasa beef and beet-and-egg sandwiches every week, courtesy of Stasia Prenkiewicz. The pierogis are available to eat-in or take out, and can even be picked up frozen for when cravings hit you later in the week. Serving starts at 6 p.m. and goes until 10 p.m., and you can check out more on the new Antek website.



via flickr

If you'd prefer to start the week off with a lovely wine buzz, then Monday night's Wine Tour de Frances at the Alliance Francaise will have all the Burgundy and Bordeaux you can imagine. Wines from each region of the country will be served with a variety of cheese, charcuterie, and bread, and there'll also be winemakers on hand ready to share wisdom on what makes each varietal uniquely delicious. If you've always loved French wine but never been sure about what the hell a Jura is, this evening of crushed-grapes will set you straight.

On Tuesday, get a taste of Montreal's Jewish classics at NoHo's Mile End, which is being taken over by Tasting Collective for a 9-Dish feast hosted by owner Noah Bernamoff. On the menu are Maple Smoked Duck Potato Latka, Reuben "Monte Carlo Potatoes, and whipped Duck Chopped Liver, plus a whole lot more. Tickets for the spread are a bargain at $50 and yes, there will be babka.

Wednesday is 4/20, and Brooklyn theater/restaurant Syndicated is strongly encouraging you to get blazed and dazed on a feast of munchies. Tater tots with pulled pork, beer-infused cheese sauce and house-pickled jalapenos will be served alongside Duck Confit Nachos, Carnival Doughnuts, and Chocolate Budino. Syndicated's theater will show nothing but stoner classics including Inherent Vice, Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke (naturally) and Half Baked. There are plans for special drinks including a bright green mezcal/creme de menthe concoction, and something called a "Bong Water cocktail" (relax, it's not actual bong water...we think). Tickets for the screenings are only $3 each.
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New York's state and county boards of elections have been inundated with complaints from confused voters this primary season. Election officials blame voter ignorance of New York's closed primary system, and the occasional clerical error, whereas many voters, particularly Bernie Sanders supporters, view registration irregularities as evidence of rampant skullduggery. In any event, New York's newly relevant primary is on Tuesday, April 19th (polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.), and heightened interest coupled with these registration problems could cause long lines and major confusion at the polls.

It's too late to get an absentee ballot, and it's down to the wire for fixing any registration issues. Still, it's a good idea to check your registration status, which you can do by searching your information here.

A few notes before we go on: March 25th was the deadline for new voters to register. If you've never voted before and didn't register before then, sorry, you can't vote in the primary.

Also, if you have been registered for a while but wanted to change parties this go-round, the deadline to do that was early last October. That may sound fucking crazyokay, it is fucking crazy. But it's also the truth. See, New York is one of 11 states in the U.S. with a closed primary system, meaning Republicans can't vote in Democratic primaries and vice versaand independents can't vote in anybody's primariesand our party-change deadline is the earliest of anywhere, a provision meant to prevent last-minute sabotage by activists from outside a given party.

If you didn't miss the new-voter deadline or the party-change deadline and there is a problem with your listing, try calling your county Board of Elections, which you can find here. If there's still a problem with your registration on Primary Day, you have one of two options.

One is to try to get a court order stating you should be allowed to vote in a certain party's primary. As difficult as this sounds, the city Board of Elections actually stations judges at offices in each of the boroughs on Primary Day to do exactly this. For reasons unknown, this information doesn't appear on the board's website, but a spokeswoman provided a list of locations and hours judges will be at them, which goes as follows:

The Bronx

Bronx County Board of Elections

1780 Grand Concourse

7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Brooklyn

Kings County Board of Elections

345 Adams Street

Fourth Floor

7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Lower Manhattan

New York County Board of Elections

200 Varick Street

7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Harlem

State Office Building

163 West 125th Street

Eighth Floor

9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Queens

Queens County Board of Elections

126-06 Queens Boulevard

7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Staten Island

Richmond County Board of Elections

1 Edgewater Plaza

6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

At most offices, two judges are covering the day, trading off in seven-hour shifts. In Harlem, though, Judge Tanya Kennedy is holding it down for a full 12 hours, and in Staten Island, three judges are there for a staggered four-hour, seven-hour, four-hour schedule. The Board of Elections didn't respond to a request for guidelines about appearing before these judges, but it's probably a safe bet to bring as much documentation of your registration history as possible, particularly that which is relevant to your issue.

If a judge thinks you should be allowed to vote, you should be given some paperwork to that effect, which you can then take to your poll site and show to the workers to get a ballot.

The other option, if you get to the polls and your name is not on the list of registered voters for the area, is to vote using a provisional ballot. To do this, you need to ask poll workers for a provisional or affidavit ballot. From there, you will fill out the ballot and explain your case in writing. The envelope with your provisional ballot is then supposed to be set aside and, as election commissioners tally the votes, they are supposed to also look at your ballot and consider whether you are indeed eligible to vote at the polling site that you did in the primary that you did, and if so, count your vote. If you are deemed not eligible, you are supposed to receive a mailed notice saying so, with a registration application attached to get you signed up for next time.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has set up a hotline for voters to report problems at the polls. The number is (800) 771-7755. New York's U.S. attorney's offices will also be taking complaints at (718) 254-6323 (for Brooklyn, Queens, Richmond, Nassau, and Suffolk counties) and (212) 637-0840 (for New York, Bronx, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, and Westchester counties). The FBI is also fielding reports of election law violations at (212) 384-1000.

Local United States Attorneys will also take complaints today: For Manhattan, Bronx, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan and Westchester counties, call (212) 637-0840; for Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau and Suffolk counties, call (718) 254-6323.

Got all that?

Oh, and to find out where the polling place is for your neighborhood, search your address here. And as always, if you're upset with the our state's electoral system operates, let your local legislators know.

Finally, you can take photographs of your ballot and inside the polling location.

N.B.: Last month we brought attention to postcards that the city Board of Elections had recently mailed to 60,000 newly registered voters, misleadingly stating that "the primary" is in September. The postcards were referring to the September 13th state and local primary, but made no mention of that detail, or of the upcoming presidential primary. At the time, board director Michael Ryan blamed voters for being confused by the cards, saying, "You can bother to educate yourself."

Since then, though, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has sent the board a letter demanding they fix the screw-up, and the New York Times reports that the board has sent followup notices to 43,000 Democrats and Republicans, correcting the error.

One other revelation sure to cause head-scratching ahead of Primary Day: since November, the number of registered Democrats in Brooklyn has dropped by 63,500, and no one seems able to explain why. WNYC reports that the decrease is the greatest of any county in New York, and that Kings County is only one of seven counties that have seen a decline in registered Democrats.
Culture

Salman Rushdie loses eye, use of hand in attack: Agent

The British writer Salman Rushdie, who was attacked in the United States in August, lost sight in one of his eyes and paralyzed his hand, as well as other injuries, according to what his agent indicated in a statement released to the media.


JERUSALEM - The Israeli military said Monday it has uncovered a Hamas tunnel that crosses from Gaza to Israel, the first time such a tunnel was discovered since the 2014 Gaza War.

A military spokesperson said in a statement that the tunnel was built by Hamas, apparently after the 2014 war, to "infiltrate Israel" and carry out "terror attacks" against the country's southern community near the Gaza border.

The spokesperson said the tunnel, found about 10 days ago by electronic detections means, has been destroyed.

"The tunnel uncovered in Israel demonstrates once more Hamas' warped priorities and continued commitment and investment in tools of violence," said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for Israel Defense Forces.

"The tunnel exposes Hamas' abhorrent intentions to attack the men, women, and children of southern Israel," he said.

Israel's 51-day-long offensive in Gaza in 2014 claimed the lives of at least 2,251 Palestinians, 65 percent of them civilians, according to the United Nations. It also saw the death of 72 Israelis, all but six were soldiers.

The violence ended with a fragile cease-fire on Aug 26, 2014.
Maybe the makers of "The Big Bang Theory" don't watch "Meet the Press."

Hillary Clinton got into a bit of trouble earlier this month when she told "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd that "the unborn person doesn't have constitutional rights."

Clinton was merely noting that some restrictions on abortions are permitted under the law. But the real kerfuffle was over the idea that a person can exist in America without any rights -- or that fetuses are people at all. The International Planned Parenthood Federation cautions activists to avoid the "p" word. It's not a person until it's born or, as Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) once suggested, until you bring it home from the hospital. Until then, it's a fetus or "uterine contents." Planned Parenthood advises that activists don't say "abort a child," preferring "terminate a pregnancy" or some such.

Clinton is rarely that blunt. She usually likes to use the term "women's health." That way she can claim that people who are against abortion-on-demand are against "women's health."

Anyway, it was hardly a big controversy -- more like a Twitter dust-up. That's probably why the writers of the hit CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" missed it.

One of the characters, Bernadette, recently got pregnant. In the episode that aired April 7, Bernadette, her husband Howard and their friend Rajesh use a home ultrasound kit. When they hear the unborn baby's heartbeat, Rajesh exclaims, "You guys made a person!"

Howard replies, "We did!"

This highlights a phenomenon I've written a lot about: On some issues, Hollywood can be downright right-wing. From the value of guns in "The Walking Dead" to the honor of police in countless dramas to the importance of family in most sitcoms, there is a lot more conservatism, broadly understood, on TV than conservatives or liberals ever notice.

And so it is with abortion. With the exception of "Maude," an awful left-wing 1970s TV show (along with some "edgy" HBO series), there have been no major sitcoms in which a character has had an abortion.

Why? Well, one reason is abortions aren't funny. There's no reason to write a storyline in which a character gets pregnant only to decide later not have a baby. That's not a punch line, it's a tragedy. Even the very liberal Mindy Kaling, star and producer of "The Mindy Project," says the show won't touch the issue of abortion -- and Kaling plays a gynecologist!

Maybe you could write a funny scene where a woman goes to the doctor to get a mammogram or deals with some other aspect of "women's health." I don't know. But you really can't write a knee-slapper about a woman deliberately terminating an unborn person's life.

Sometimes the pregnant character agonizes about her choice (and occasionally there's a miscarriage), but the moment Rachel from "Friends" or Murphy Brown or Bernadette chooses to keep it, the "it" stops being an it, and becomes a he or she.

Emotionally, that's how it works for many, perhaps most, people. When a woman wants to keep her baby, it becomes a baby long before it's born. No father speaks to a belly full of "uterine contents," and no mother thumbs through a book of baby names for a fetus she is going to dispose of anyway.

That's how a lot of public policy works, too. Under federal law and many state laws, if you murder a pregnant woman, you can be charged with two homicides.

The White House is asking for a lot of money to fight the Zika virus. "I think Democrats and Republicans in Congress are interested in making sure that pregnant women and unborn children in this country can be properly protected," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in February.

Unborn children? Yes, both parties want to protect unborn children from disease-carrying mosquitoes. But that bipartisanship falls apart when it comes to Planned Parenthood.

This emotional parsing is understandable. The problem is that emotion isn't the best foundation for law. In the past, emotion led lots of Americans to think blacks weren't persons either. Logic, science and, finally, moral reasoning said otherwise. If over here an unborn child is a person but over there it isn't, and the only thing distinguishing the two is someone's feelings, we've got a problem. And it's not just a problem of language.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Overcast with showers at times. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Overcast with showers at times. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Higher wind gusts possible.
Wisconsin Film Festival: Run across campus, bike naked, slack off: This is Madison on film
Rebecca Weaver, who also wrote and directed, stars with Nick Hoover in "June Falling Down."
Davis somber film is set between 1910 and 1920 in rural Scotland, and contrasts the majesty of this land with the hard lives of the people who work it.
Plover resident Barb Gifford lives along the Little Plover River and started the Friends of the Little Plover group in 2005, when sections of the river first dried up. You cant live on a body of water every day and not know when something was wrong, she said. PHOTO BY KATE GOLDEN/WISCONSIN CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
A Beloit man swung at police officers with a beer bottle while his car was stopped in the center lane of the Beltline Sunday afternoon, according to the Monona Police Department.

Police found 40-year-old Luis Garduno in a white Cadillac DeVille around 4:30 p.m. after getting reports of a disabled vehicle on the westbound Beltline at Stoughton Road. Garduno, who was bloody, screaming and swinging his arms and legs when police arrived, crawled out of an open car window before attempting to hit an officer with a bottle, Chief Walter Ostrenga said.

Garduno, who police believe was in a state of "excited delirium" after consuming synthetic marijuana, did not comply with officers' commands before crawling out of the vehicle and was subdued with a Taser after the attempted strike, according to police.

Emergency personnel treated Garduno at the scene before he was taken to a hospital, police said. Ostrenga said Monday that he was still in the hospital.

Police said he punched and kicked his windshield, possibly from the effects of the drug.

Garduno has tentatively been charged with his third OWI offense, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, police said.
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin is prohibiting city government staff from traveling to North Carolina until further notice because of what he calls "state-sanctioned LGBT discrimination."

Soglin is the second local governmental leader to announce a ban on travel to North Carolina, after Dane County Executive Joe Parisi did so last week. Parisi also banned travel to Mississippi.

"The North Carolina state-sanctioned LGBT discrimination is inconsistent with city of Madison policy," Soglin said in a letter on Monday sent to department and division heads and the City Council.

Soglin said if any city employee has a contractual obligation to attend a meeting in North Carolina, the city attorney will assess the situation and advise Soglin if exception should be made.

The ban is an answer to North Carolina's controversial "bathroom" law, which requires the use of a bathroom based on the user's sex at birth.
Q What connection does UW-Madison have with the National Weather Service?

A Last week, the director of the National Weather Service (NWS), Louis W. Uccellini, visited his alma mater as the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award winner.

Uccellini presented the story of the intellectual and professional journey that led him to the leadership of this extraordinarily important government agency.

He reminded us of some of the rich history that connects the professional weather and climate forecasting services of today with the vision of some of Wisconsins first scientists, including professor Increase Lapham, who was among the more influential protagonists arguing for a National Weather Service during the 1860s. That history also includes the first weather satellites, foundational insights into the physics of weather systems in both the middle latitudes and the tropics, as well as pioneering work on understanding the climate system.

As his two-day visit came to a close, we were filled with a great pride that, because of his UW roots, we were able to engage hundreds of students in personal meetings with the director of the NWS. It reminded us that our department and our university are both institutions that aspire to change the world for the better.

UW-Madison is not great by accident but by choice. For more than 150 years the people of our state have chosen to make its success a priority because they realize it is one of the drivers of the states success. As Uccellinis visit reminded us all, we strive to do great things at Wisconsin and we usually succeed.

Steve Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, are guests on WHA radio (970 AM) at 11:45 a.m. the last Monday of each month.
CHICAGO - State Comptroller Leslie Munger held a press conference Sunday morning in Chicago to announce that state elected officials will not get their April 30th paychecks until late June, due to state budget crisis.

Munger did not refer to state employees as a part of her delayed-payment plan.

Freelance Chicago journalist Jeff Berkowitz was on hand at the sparsely-attended conference. He reports:
Rep. Wallace, you and the majority Democrats on the Human Services Committee, by a vote of 8 to 6, have voted out of the House Human Services Committee, HB6073 - The Birth Certificate Sex Designation bill. The bill awaits a second reading in the House. After third reading, the Democrat-controlled Illinois House can vote for passage. This bill permits gender dysphoric persons (who identify with the other sex, not their sex at birth) to change the sex designation on their birth certificates. Neither hormone therapy nor surgery are necessary, just a declaration by a physician or psychologist stating that a person has undergone some type of treatment.

A common sense bipartisan bill, that stipulates school children should use the bathroom and shower facilities that correspond to their biological sex, HB4474, known as the Pupil Physical Privacy Act, was kept in your committee, effectively killed. That sensible bill permitted gender dysphoric children to use a separate bathroom or shower facility.

Last December, Palatine Township High School District 211 school board voted to allow a student, who was born male but identifies as female, to use the girls' locker room. The vote followed notice by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, that District 211 would loses its federal funding, if it did not allow the male student access to the facilities for girls. The student is registered as a female student and is undergoing hormonal treatment, but has not undergone any sex-change surgery.

The unnamed student is represented by the ACLU. John Knight, director of the LGBT and AIDS Project at ACLU of Illinois, told the Chicago Tribune that showering in a different place is blatant discrimination.

The Democrat Party is apparently looking for votes from the LGBTQ community. One might ask what is spurring the urgent need for persons to change a legal document rarely accessed after a person graduates from high school. Do employers ask for birth certificates? Has there been a run on requests for birth certificates by employers wondering whether the hottie in HR was born female or is actually male? Shouldn't the Illinois General Assembly refuse to pass another bill until it has passed the 2016 state budget? People are leaving Illinois in droves, and you see the need for this bill?

Representative Wallace and Democrats on the Human Services Committee, no one is buying your logic that men changing their birth certificates and using women's bathrooms is the civil rights issue of the day. Hundreds of supposed transgender men have sought access to women's bathrooms to take pictures, or worse, to molest or rape women and girls. As legislators, up for re-election November 8th, you should have more respect for the Judeo-Christian principles that have made America a beacon of light in a dark world. Illinois Family Action will lobby legislators April 20th, with the help of concerned Illinois citizens.

Sincerely,

Jane Ryan Carrell

Roscoe Illinois
It was an idea heard in coffee shops around the state: stop paying legislators. Comptroller Leslie Munger must have heard the suggestion because over the weekend she announced that legislators will have to wait to be paid just like the state is making other providers wait. I applaud the actions of the Comptroller and hope this will give the needed push for the legislature to pass a FY2016 budget.

I am hearing from my constituents every day about the worsening problems the lack of a state budget is causing providers across the state and in our area. What is needed is for rank and file members to step up and propose bipartisan solutions.

Groups of legislators from both parties and both legislative chambers have been meeting privately for months in search of reforms, spending reductions and new revenue to craft a budget agreement. Making compromises is difficult but perhaps feeling the pain that state providers, college students and higher education institutions have been feeling for 10 months will create urgency.

Legislative leaders must be feeling some pressure as well because last week they met with the Governor for the first time since December to renew the search for a budget solution. Their staffs are now resuming discussions just like the budget working groups I participated in last summer.

Among the ideas being floated are reforms to work compensation and procurement policies, amending the State Constitutions pension protection clause, broadening the sales tax, a graduated state income tax, hiking the income tax rate, and taxes on retirement benefits. I urge citizens to study the issues and let legislators hear your views. Together we can find the right balance that will restart our economy and again make Illinois a desirable place to live and work.

State Rep. Bob Pritchard is a Republican from Sycamore, Illinois, serving his district since 2003.
Yes, Illinoisans "weighed in" alright. Evidently, they were furious and outraged.

"Thank you to everyone for weighing in on ideas for how to fund road construction in Illinois," he wrote.

About 15 days late for April Fool's Day, Democrat State President John Cullerton post on his Facebook page that the idea for Illinois drivers to pay a tax per mile they drive was all in fun.

CHICAGO - Surprise! It was all an experiment to get the discussion about road funding started!

"I filed legislation to start discussion and debate and get feedback on how the state could replace the gas tax," he said. "I've received a lot of constructive feedback that will help shape future policies."

Who's holding their breath to find out what those "future policies" will cost us?

SB 3267 will not move forward this session, the Senate President assured.

Still, SB 3267 wasn't a fluke or a pie-in-the-sky dream for lawmakers that truly believe we don't pay enough every year. SB 3267 has an array of specifics, including how exactly the taxes would be collected in the "I-RIDE" program, starting in July 2017.

Yes, Cullerton's even had a name, and three tax collection choices: the I-RIDE Smart Plan, the I-RIDE Convenient Plan, and the I-RIDE Flat Plan:

While those that voiced their opinion may feel relieved with Cullerton's post, too much was invested in coming up with this plan to allow it to be archived forever.

Keep an eye out - it was a weather balloon that could have been launched in order for Illinoisans to feel like they got a good deal with a less Big Brother approach to paying for roads.

For years and years, the Illinois treasury benefitted from high gas prices because Illinoisans pay taxes based on the gas price, not per gallon. Filling a 15 gallon tank at $4 per gallon rakes twice as much more into state gas tax coffers than filling that same tank with $2 per gallon gas.

That money was to go to pay for road repair and construction. While the Democrats demand a statewide prevailing wage for every pot hole fixed as well as every road constructed, they convey panic that the taxes we are paying is just not enough to keep up with the exorbitant costs of road construction.

Illinoisans would do well to hold Democrats accountable for every tax hike they demand.
On Sunday, the distribution of miss-printed question paper in 33 centers of Varanasi, Ghazipur, Jaunpur districts annoyed the students as they did not get sufficient time to complete the paper.

By India Today Web Desk: On Sunday, April 17, the distribution of a misprinted question paper in 33 centers of Varanasi, Ghazipur, Jaunpur districts annoyed the students as they did not get sufficient time to complete the paper.

Who faced the problem?



Over 20 percent examinees out of 18,290, who appeared in the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) entrance exam, received 'AA' series papers, in which the first four pages were blank and many questions were misprinted on different pages.



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How was the problem managed by officials?

The issue came into limelight after the students complained after the exam.

The principal of Harishchandra PG College Dr. Sohan Lal Yadav told the Times of India, "Aspirants got AA series question papers started complaining after few minutes of distribution of papers that initial four pages are blank while there was repetition of questions on other pages."



Getting report of the error, the center officer of Varanasi, JB Srivastava said, "On getting instruction from UPTU we asked all the center in-charges to arrange Xerox copies of the complete set of AA series question papers and distribute it among the aspirants. The aspirants were also directed not to attempt repeated questions."



Did this pacify the aspirants?

However, the students complained that it took a long time to take corrective measures and they did not get the sufficient time to attempt all the questions in corrected version.

The officials on the other hand claimed that such examinees were given additional 10 minutes to complete the paper.





Click here for more education news.





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The deceased has been identified as Mir Baquer Ali Rizvi, an MBA student in the United Kingdom.

By India Today Web Desk: A 34-year-old main hailing from Hyderabad was found dead under suspicious circumstances today in London.

The deceased has been identified as Mir Baquer Ali Rizvi, an MBA student in the United Kingdom.

Rizvi, a resident of Hyderabad's Miralam Mandi had left for London in 2009 for higher studies.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has informed Rizvi's family about the incident after getting a note from the London Police about his death near Osterley Railway station in the British capital.

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Opposition parties have stepped up the ante against the Akali Dal-BJP government in Punjab which goes to assembly polls early next year.After the alleged Rs 2000 crore foodgrain scam, now a power purchase scam is haunting the government.

"There is something wrong at the bottom as the power has been purchased at inflated rates by ignoring the state owned power plant.Why they did not stop the payments when one of the companies fail to deposit the penalty.We demand a high level probe into th

Opposition parties have stepped up the ante against the Akali Dal-BJP government in Punjab which goes to assembly polls early next year.After the alleged Rs 2000 crore foodgrain scam, now a power purchase scam is haunting the government.

The party has said that the state rather recovering a penalty of Rs 1210 crore from two private companies , made an access payment of Rs 1000 crore to them besides purchasing power from them at increased rates.While the state government has made a payment of Rs 7500 crore to these companies during last 9 years, it plans to pay an additional Rs 2300 crore to them during the current financial year ( 2016-17).

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Graphics:

Company Fixed Rates Rates on which power purchased Proposed Hike

(upto 2015-16) (2016-17)



Talwandi Sabo Powr Ltd Rs 2.30 PU Rs 6.66 PU Rs 7.50 PU

(Owned by Vedanta)

Rajpura Thermal Plant Rs 2.89 PU Rs 4.05 PU Rs 4.25

(Owned by L&T)



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Congress believes that Akali Dal government has deliberately purchased power at inflated rates from private companies and ignored state owned power company.The party said that it will order a high level probe into the scam book the guilty.

"There is something wrong at the bottom as the power has been purchased at inflated rates by ignoring the state owned power plant.Why they did not stop the payments when one of the companies fail to deposit the penalty.We demand a high level probe into the purchases," Congress MLA and former Leader of Opposition, Punjab said.

The state government which in 2012 had announced that it will export power to Pakistan, has in fact failed to provide affordable power to its own consumers. The consumers are not only battling frequent power cuts in the state but also compelled to pay nearly Rs 1.75 additional amount per unit as compared to the neighbouring Haryana.

The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) while refuting the allegations of alleged power purchase scam made by Sunil Jakhar, said both the Rajpura and Talwandi Sabo thermal plants had been selected after a global tender and that the variable power cost had been fixed as per a long term power purchase agreement which had been approved by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC).

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"I do not want people to be misled by the allegations which were devoid of facts.The factual position was that both Larsen and Toubro and Sterlite Company had been selected to put up the Rajpura and Talwandi Sabo thermal plants after a transparent bidding process approved by the Union government," PSPCL Chariman K D Chaudhri said .

Chaudhri said what also needed to be understood was that there were two components of tariff including the fixed cost and the variable cost. He said the variable cost was essentially a fuel cost which is part of the conditions of any power purchase agreement (PPA). He said the allegation that the variable cost was arbitrarily increased is completely misleading. He said all private thermal plants had coal linkages with Coal India Limited (CIL) which was a government of India undertaking and that all payments made by the companies to CIL were reimbursed to them as per provisions of the PPA. "PSPCL has signed a long term PPA with these private thermal plants which is a standard document approved by PSERC. All payments are made strictly as per Power Purchase Agreements", he added.

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"The allegation that PSPCL did not recover the penalty on account of late commissioning of Talwandi Sabo Power Plant (TSPL) was also misleading. The case of recovery of Liquidated Demurrages (LD) on account of late commissioning of TSPL was under arbitration and there was a stay on the encashment of bank guarantee to the tune of Rs.950 crore," K D Chaudhari said.

He said the allegation that PSPCL purchased power at exorbitant rates was also misleading because since the inception of PSPCL, it purchased power through a transparent bidding process and rates had always been reasonable. "PSPCL is scheduling power from all resources strictly as per merit order which means that the lowest cost power is scheduled first and as per demand costly powers are always surrendered. Merit Order also includes the State run thermal power plants and PSPCL does not schedule power from the State run power plants also if it is costlier".

Also read:

AAP expose: Punjab cops are sheilding Majithia

BJP's dilemma: Will BJP-SAD coalition be benefiting

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By PTI: Dhaka, Apr 18 (PTI) Bangladesh today identified at least 20 foreigners from China, Sri Lanka and the Philippines for their alleged involvement in the USD 101 million cyber heist from the nations foreign reserves, in one of the worlds biggest ever bank theft that embarrassed the government.

The Criminal Investigation Departments (CID) investigation also found evidence of negligence by Bangladesh Bank officials, according to CID Additional Deputy Inspector General Shah Alam.

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"The names of 20 Filipino, Sri Lankan and Chinese nationals came up during our official visits to the countries regarding the heist. We might again visit the countries but we cannot disclose the names right now for the sake of the investigation," Alam told reporters here.

A 16-member team of the CID returned after their visit to the Philippines and Sri Lanka to collect information on the heist, adding that details on the outcome of the visit will be made public later on, Alam was quoted as saying by Dhaka Tribune.

CID said they do not want to disclose information whether any Bangladeshis are involved in the reserve heist incident.

On the negligence of central bank officials, the CID official said investigators are now trying to find out whether it was out of criminal intent or because of their incompetence.

The hacking took place on the night of February 4, using information stolen through the malware, which sent a total of 35 transfer orders to the New Yorks Federal Reserve Bank where the Bangladeshs central bank has an account.

Bangladesh last month said that unknown hackers had stolen USD 101 million of which USD 81 million entered the Philippines and the rest went to Sri Lanka to be used in casino business.

Bangladesh central bank governor Atiur Rahman, his two deputies and the countrys top banking bureaucrat lost their jobs following the theft that has raised serious questions over the safety of its foreign exchange reserves of over USD 27 billion. PTI CPS AKJ CPS

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Apart from the usual flak that Chetan Bhagat gets from the Twitterati and Facebook users, people went on to write many befitting replies to his open letter.

By India Today Web Desk: Chetan Bhagat has been trolled on social media time and again. From his comments on Award Wapsi to a much recent open letter addressed to the Kashmiri youth.

Writing for a column in a national daily, Chetan Bhagat wrote why India is the best bet for Jammu and Kashmir to integrate with. The letter of course has received flak for obvious reasons. Yes, Chetan Bhagat- that is the obvious reason.

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In the letter he slammed the 'experts who have made the Kashmir problem their fiefdom.' According to him, these experts love complicated issues because it gives them another chance to attend a conference and stay relevant.

Bhagat attempts to explain the Kashmir issue in a nutshell and tries to put across how India is better than Pakistan. "India is seen as a major emerging market economy. Pakistan is not even seen as a real economy," the open letter read.

According to him the rest of India should not ask for the removal of Article 370 but it is the 7 million people who should. "If you are Kashmiri and care for Kashmir, the best thing you can do is to integrate with India," wrote Bhagat.

He ended by giving some nationalist gyaan to the Kashmiri youth and said "don't burst crackers when India loses. Don't feel good when India fails. Because if India fails, you will fail too".

Apart from the usual flak that he gets from the Twitterati and Facebook users, people have gone onto writing a befitting reply to his open letter, which many say is 'written with a close mind'.

But what stood out amid this is a Facebook message screenshot that was posted by a Twitter user @juneymb.

I wish you the very best Chetan, and leave you with this.

This is a conversation of one the kids who died. pic.twitter.com/xWwVGMVQNV juni (@juneymb) April 16, 2016

'there are many Muslim players in Indian team'. When his friend questioned if he could ever play in the Indian team, the guy responded in affirmation said and asked him to play from his heart. According to the post, one of the students who died during the Handwara killings had a conversation with a friend where he defended the Indian Cricket Team and said. When his friend questioned if he could ever play in the Indian team, the guy responded in affirmation said and asked him to play from his heart. The authenticity of the screenshot posted has not been verified. advertisement

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BJP launched a scathing attack on the Nitish-government in Bihar, saying the state is back to jungle raj days. BJP national secretary and spokesperson said that everyone was aware of JD(U) leader's national ambitions.

By Kumar Vikram: The saffron party made it clear that it was unfazed by efforts to form a united front to counter it and said such attempts to stop the Modi government from working for the development of the country and for the poor will not succeed.

BJP launched a scathing attack on the Nitish-government in Bihar, saying the state is back to jungle raj days. BJP national secretary and spokesperson said that everyone was aware of JD(U) leader's national ambitions.

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Taking a dig at the Congress, Shrikant Sharma asked party president Sonia Gandhi to make it clear if Rahul Gandhi will lead such a front or will he be just part of it.

"Nitish Kumar has called for an RSS-free India. You have stayed with people from Sangh for long. You have had a long coalition with BJP. You have been participating in BJP programmes also.

But you have called for a Sanghfree India. It is better you learn and understand the Sangh a little bit. And for that visiting the Shakha of the Sangh is the best," said Sharma.

Kumar's JD(U) had snapped its 17-year-old alliance with BJP in 2013 as it was opposed to naming Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general election.

Sharma cautioned the Bihar chief minister saying that from Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi, and from Rajiv Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi, all had opposed the RSS but the organisation has only grown. He also questioned Nitish's call to all non-BJP, non-RSS organisations to come under one banner to save democracy and to maintain the country's unity by putting a brake on increasing activities of communal forces.

"The attempt is only to stop the Modi government from taking steps for development of the country, to stop job opportunities for the youth and to stop the government from helping the poor," Sharma said.

Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that Nitish Kumar used to once chant anti-Congress statements, but was now standing with the Congress.

"You (Nitish) are unable to digest the fact that we are working for poor, weaker sections of the society. And therefore, you are not opposing BJP but the efforts to uplift the weaker sections and to empower the poor. We have no objections to what he says. He won't succeed in his motive," Naqvi said. Reacting on the issue, RSS ideologue M G Vaidya said efforts to attack the Sangh will only backfire.

"They can't defeat the BJP on their own. May be they will gain a bit by coming together.

As far as the Sangh is concerned when there are increased protests against the Sangh, it grows.

Sangh does not grow at someone's mercy but because of the hard work and capability of its workers," he said.

Addressing an event in Patna, Nitish Kumar on Saturday mounted a counter-offensive against PM Narendra Modi for his 'Congress-mukt Bharat' slogan, saying, Sangh-mukt Bharat banane ke liye sabhi gair BJP parties ko ek hona hoga (to usher in a Sangh-free India all non-BJP parties have to come together).

--- ENDS ---

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Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai tried to convince Vijay Goel today morning by offering him roses. Hours later, Goel was charged a penalty of Rs 2000 by the Delhi Police for violating the odd-even scheme.

By India Today Web Desk: At a time when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led Delhi government faces a gruelling test for its ambitious odd-even scheme, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Vijay Goel was fined for violating the road-rationing formula today.

The Rajya Sabha member had declared earlier that he would violate the odd-even rule to protest against the "political posturing" by the AAP. He had also asked the Delhi government to disclose the amount spent on advertisements.

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Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai tried to convince Goel today morning by offering him roses. Hours later, Goel was charged a penalty of Rs 2000 by the Delhi Police for violating the odd-even scheme.

Vijay Goel has said that he is not against the scheme but he opposes the political mileage Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party are seeking out of it.

"A fine of Rs 2000 is too high and it should be reduced. Those exempted are happy, but those who are not, are facing a tough time. People have to buy two cars," Goel said.

All offices, schools and other institutions reopened today after the extended weekend.

Unlike the scheme's pilot phase, in which the focus was more on awareness and voluntary compliance, the government has cracked the whip on violators this time, with over 2,300 challans issued in the first two days as against 479 during the same period in the previous phase between January 1-15.

Under the fortnight-long scheme, private cars having odd registration numbers can ply only on odd dates and the even numbers on even dates, subject to a set of exemptions, which include VIPs, women, school going children, medical emergencies, commercial vehicles and CNG cars.

In the second phase from April 15-30, the government added into its exemption list people driving with school children in uniform.

However, the government has not been able to arrive at a solution to the problem of cars returning after dropping school children or heading towards the schools in the afternoon hours to pick them up, and suggested car-pooling.

ALSO READ

Kejriwal's odd-even scheme may soon be permanent



BJP leader Vijay Goel at odds with Kejriwal's odd-even plan

--- ENDS ---
The Home Minister added, "Jis maa ke laal ne yahan bomb banane ka kaam kiya, main uski khaat khadi kardunga (I am warning all thoses people involved in the 'bomb making industry' here, they will have to face severe consequences.)"

By India Today Web Desk: Home Minister Rajnath Singh today launched a blistering attack on Mamata Banerjee's West Bengal government, saying that law and order has collapsed completely in the state under the Trinamool Congress's regime.

Speaking at an election rally in Karimpur, Rajnath said, "The only industry which is flourishing in Bengal is the bomb industry. Tamaasha bana diya hai (They have made a mockery of law and order.)"

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The Home Minister added, "Jis maa ke laal ne yahan bomb banane ka kaam kiya, main uski khaat khadi kardunga (I am warning all thoses people involved in the 'bomb making industry' here, they will have to face severe consequences.)"

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had yesterday accused Mamata Banerjee of misusing the state machinery and said that Bengal CM has already accepted defeat.

"Mamata Banerjee and her men have accepted defeat. Therefore, they are not fighting with other political parties but has taken on the Election Commission these days," Modi said referring to Mamata's sharp words against the election body for slapping as show cause notice against her over violation of model code of conduct.

"Election Commission is an independent body and is respected by everyone across the world. Polls will come and go but if these institutions are destroyed, the country will not be able to be run," Modi said while addressing a rally in West Bengal's Krishnanagar.

"Election Commission sent notice to Mamata for her inappropriate words and behaviour. It was their duty to do so. Mamata should have responded to EC notice but she instead threatened the institution by saying that she will 'see them after 19th'," Modi added.

The state witnessed nearly 80 per cent voting in the second phase of Assembly election on Sunday amid reports of sporadic violence. High voter turnout in the first two phases of polls has raised speculations over TMC's return to power. The BJP is confident of a good show in the state on the basis of the massive voting.

Also read:

Crude bombs found at WB Congress chief's rally venue

CPI(M) agent attacked, 2 bags of bombs found in Jamuria







--- ENDS ---
Speaking at the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers meet in Moscow, Swaraj, without naming China, warned countries against adopting double standards in fighting terrorism.

By India Today Web Desk: In a strong response to China's move to block India's initiative for a United Nations ban on Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj today said that it was important for countries to assist each other in the war on terror.

Speaking at the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers meet in Moscow, Swaraj, without naming China, warned countries against adopting double standards in fighting terrorism.

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"If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism, it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," Swaraj said.

Sushma Swaraj called on the RIC countries to lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN.

"There has been some positive movement in this connection with a text being put for the first time on the table for inter-governmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue. I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN process forward," she said.

Earlier, Swaraj met her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Moscow meet and raised the issue of Beijing blocking New Delhi's bid to have Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the UN. Official sources said the issue was raised by Swaraj besides deliberations on a range of issues.

Earlier this month, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the Jaish-e-Mohammad in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping sanctions on Masood Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

In July 2015, China had similarly halted India's move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying its stand was "based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness" with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.

Also read:

In Russia, Sushma objects to China's veto protecting Masood Azhar





--- ENDS ---
Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit had indicated last fortnight that Indian investigators may not be allowed to visit Pakistan to pursue the probe in connection with the Pathankot attack.

By Press Trust of India: Amid thaw in India-Pakistan relations, Union minister Kiren Rijiju today said the government was hopeful a team of National Investigation Agency will soon visit the neighbouring country to gather evidence in connection with the Pathankot terror attack.

"We are hopeful that a team of NIA will visit Pakistan soon," the Minister of State for Home told reporters here.

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Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit had indicated last fortnight that Indian investigators may not be allowed to visit Pakistan to pursue the probe in connection with the Pathankot attack.

However, India countered it by saying that before the visit of a Pakistani Joint Investigation Team here last month, both sides had agreed that it would be on the basis of reciprocity.

Official sources said Pakistan has backtracked from its promise to allow the Indian team's visit there to probe the January 2 Pathankot terror attack case apparently after finding that NIA has enough evidence to nail ISI's links with terrorists involved in it.

Basit had also said that at present the peace process between India and Pakistan is "suspended".

Also read:

Despite Abdul Basit's 'suspended talks' comment, Pakistan says dialogue with India on

India slams use of hidden UN veto in sanctioning terrorists

--- ENDS ---
In a significant move, Congress veterans have said that while poll pacts at state level were prudent, the grand old party must lead the front of their non-BJP allies for the 2019 national polls.

By Amit Agnihotri: In a significant move, Congress veterans have said that while poll pacts at state level were prudent, the grand old party must lead the front of their non-BJP allies for the 2019 national polls.

"The Congress will fight the next Lok Sabha elections on its own. However, we may have an understanding with like-minded parties," Congress veteran Satyavrat Chaturvedi told Mail Today.

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Echoing similar sentiments, another senior party leader Anil Shastri said, "Any such national level grouping, in which the Congress is not the lead player will be a nonstarter." The rumblings within the Congress started recently after another senior leader Digvijaya Singh made a controversial remark saying the grand old party was open to fighting the 2019 national polls with JD-U to defeat the BJP.

The remark was interpreted by many as the Congress having given up on its ambitions to provide the next prime ministerial candidate even as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar gave ample hints that he was gearing up for a national role. The Congress was quick to downplay Digvijaya's remark saying it was too premature to talk about any such formation at the moment.

Down to 44 in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, from 2006 in 2009, the Congress managers are worried that giving too much play to Nitish Kumar may send a message that the grand old party was playing second fiddle to regional parties.

Sources said the Congress fully supported Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate of the Congress-JD-U-RJD alliance against the BJP led NDA keeping in mind the political realities of the state. In West Bengal too, the Congress forged an understanding with the CPI-M to corner the TMC. There is no clarity if the Congress would have any truce with a regional party in UP, which goes to polls in 2017. These arrangements have further fuelled rumours that the Congress has doubts over its role in the future national politics. Sources said the Congress must strongly dispel such faulty notions.

"State level pacts are prudent but nationally the Congress has to play the anchor of a secular coalition," said Shastri. According to Congress strategists, regional leaders have the right to nurse ambitions but must not lose sight of their limitations.

The Congress managers hope the party would do much better than 2014 and emerge as the single largest player in the next Lok Sabha so as to be able to anchor a secular formation.

--- ENDS ---
While the construction of the third phase of the Metro line is in full swing in Greater Kailash-II, it has left the residents of the area and surrounding localities concerned.

By Sneha Agrawal: While the construction of the third phase of the Metro line is in full swing in Greater Kailash-II, it has left the residents of the area and surrounding localities concerned.

Reason being the catchment area of the Metro station is located at the corner of the outer wall of Savitri Cinema which is a narrow road. The residents say the road on which the entry/exit point is being constructed is the only entry to GK-II and would grossly choke the road, leading to traffic jam for hours. Moreover, it would also lead to encroachment problem.

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The residents have also shot a letter to Lieutenant Governor and DMRC on the matter. "Recently, we came to know from the site map of the Metro station which has one of its entry/exit point at the sharp turn of GK-II near Savitri Cinema.

Over 5,000 people are estimated to use this point per hour. The location of this entry/exit point is unequipped to handle a large crowd and at the same time it could create trouble for the residents of the area as it would clash with the U-turn under the Savitri flyover," said Chetan Sharma, Chairman, Federation of GKII Complex RWAs.

DMRC, which is aware of the grievance, told MAIL TODAY that it had held a meeting with the residents recently where a solution was sought. The residents had suggested another such outlet be constrcuted on the other side towards Chirag Delhi. But, they were communicated this would require acquisition of private land.

"Initially, this entry/exit point was planned inside the Savitri complex. But that plan involved acquisition of private land and was proving to be extremely time-consuming. Therefore, the current plan was drawn up in consultation with PWD," said the spokesperson for DMRC.

In the letter addressed to Lieutenant Governor and DMRC, the residents mentioned that they were surprised that the RWAs in the area were not consulted before the finalisation of the blueprints in any meetings, be it DMRC or UTTIPEC.

"The construction is already on in full swing and we request that a review of the designs be done owing to the traffic problems that would arise once it becomes operational," said the letter.

DMRC says the entry/exit point for the Greater Kailash Metro, near the Savitri complex, will help the residents of GK-II and CR Park in reaching the Greater Kailash Metro station (near TCIL Building) without crossing the busy Outer Ring Road. The design has been prepared in consultation with the PWD and approved by the UTTIPEC."

However, the residents say being a shorter route, it would be used more and the facility as per the current plan would not be able to handle a large footfall and block the traffic.

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Ashitosh Dikshit, President of Citizen Alliance, said, "There is not enough space to even have a pick and drop facility. There would be no footpaths left for the pedestrians as the road will be encroached upon. DMRC should have done more in terms of the exit points. Lastmile connectivity would also be a problem." Dikshit added that the road usually suffers traffic jams at peak hours, the service, if not addressed in time, would add to the woes.

The U-turn at Savitri Cinema connects GK-II with other localities like CR Park-Alaknanda-Masjid Moth.

Also read:

Winning bidders for Metro-7 corridor to be announced on Apr 18

--- ENDS ---
The high court had earlier rejected the Centre's plea that the hearing be adjourned. Justice Joseph had then said that the court will not issue any order without the first hearing in the case.

Hearing a petition filed by Chief Minister Harish Rawat against Centre's decision, the court said, "The Governor is not an agent of the Centre."

By India Today Web Desk: The Uttarakhand High Court today questioned the Centre's move to impose President's Rule in the state in the fifth year of the Congress government. Hearing a petition filed by Chief Minister Harish Rawat against Centre's decision, the court said, "The Governor is not an agent of the Centre."

"This colours our mind. Can you remove a government based on a solitary incident and the government which is in its fifth year. Root of the matter is you are cutting at root of democracy. Interference in the affairs of states is not to be seen lightly, emergency power should be used in extraordinary cases," Chief Justice KM Joseph said.

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Arguing on the matter, Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi contended that the Speaker's decision to not allow 35 MLAs to vote on their demand for division, when the money bill was introduced, amounted to "destroying democracy" as the 35 constituted the majority view

He said that Harish Rawat and the Speaker were "in cahoots" and "scuttled the demand for division of votes."

The high court had earlier rejected the Centre's plea that the hearing should be adjourned. Justice Joseph had then said that the court will not issue any order without the first hearing in the case.

The Modi government had imposed President's Rule in Uttarakhand on March 27, a day before CM Harish Rawat was to prove his majority in the state Assembly.

Trouble for the Rawat government began last month when 9 Congress MLAs rebelled against the CM and the BJP, which has 28 MLAs, staking claim to form the government.

In the 70-member Uttarakhand Assembly, Rawat has a thin majority. While the Congress has 36 MLAs, the BJP has 28. The Congress government is heavily dependent on independent MLAs for stability of its government.

ALSO READ:

Uttarakhand: Did CM Harish Rawat lose the plot and his MLAs?

Uttarakhand crisis: BJP threatening to impose President's Rule, says CM Harish Rawat

Uttarakhand crisis: CM Harish Rawat to meet Congress top brass in Delhi today





--- ENDS ---
In the wake of the tense situation in Handwara, the government has decided to send additional Central Armed Police Forces to strengthen the security grid in the Kashmir valley.

By India Today Web Desk: Mobile internet services were today restored in Kashmir after it was blocked last week following massive protests in regard to an alleged molestation incident in Handwara.

The mobile Internet service in parts of the Kashmir Valley was suspended in the wake of protests triggered by the death of four people over molestation of a girl allegedly by a soldier in Handwara.

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As uneasy calm prevailed in Kashmir as the police continue to place restrictions in several parts for the sixth day.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had earlier said that she had spoken to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who assured her that the guilty would not be spared.

In the wake of the tense situation in Handwara, the government has decided to send additional Central Armed Police Forces to strengthen the security grid in the Kashmir valley.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is in regular touch with senior officials of the Jammu and Kashmir government and has been monitoring the situation on a regular basis.

MHA has assured full cooperation and support to the government to ensure that there is no further loss of lives. The government said that it is concerned over the loss of human lives in the valley during the last four days.

ALSO READ

Handwara firing: Girl forced into giving statement, says mother Handwara protest: Daughter forced to give false statement, says victim's mother

--- ENDS ---
By India Today Web Desk: An uneasy calm prevails in north Kashmir's Handwara, which witnessed violent protests over the last week after five people were killed in police firing. While mobile internet services have been restored in the region, situation still remains tense. Kashmir is once again simmering.

Meanwhile, the 16-year-old girl has contradicted her mother and repeated to the Handwara magistrate that the people who molested her were local boys and not soldiers. But is that sufficient to end this controversy? or are there grounds to question the Army's response and behaviour?

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Talking to Karan Thapar on the show To The Point, Handwara MLA Sajjad Lone refused to put the blame for the recent violence on anyone and said that only a detailed enquiry into the incident will reveal the actual cause of trouble.

"There are multiple versions of the incident. But only a proper, institutionalised investigation will find out what had happened. The matter is now sub-judice, so I don't want to talk about it," Lone said.

Commenting on the girl's statement to the magistrate, the Handwara MLA said that," I don't want to pass judgment...who is credible and who is not. We should all wait for the enquiry report to come."

"Five people have died and they died because of unnatural causes. Responsibility has to be fixed who is responsible for the deaths. There is a lot of space for improvement in the way we handle the crowd...be it in Handwara or outside. May be this incident was a wake-up alarm," Lone said when asked about Army's role in handling the situation in Handwara.

Former Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir and Chairman of the Minorities Commission Wajahat Habibullah also pointed out that there are conflicting reports about the Handwara incident.

"But what the incident exposes is the very deep rooted suspicion between the public and the administration and the government. The confidence of the public in the government has been totally shattered," Habibullah said.

'Handwara incident was rigged'

Former Army Chief General Ved Malik claimed that the Handwara incident was rigged.

"Handwara has always been Hurriyat's stronghold. The region has always had pro-militant sympathisers. This particular incident, my sources informed me, was rigged. The Army is not involved in the reported molestation of the girl," General Malik said.

Former Army commander of Northen Command Lieutenant General BS Jaswal, however, disagreed with General Malik's claims of Handawara incident being orchestrated.

"An incident (molestation) did take place but probably it was manipulated later and it spiralled off," Jaswal said.

"The Army is not trigger happy, they are forced to take decisions depending upon the situation on the ground," he added

Editor-in-chief of Rising Kashmir Shujaat Bukhari pointed out that when it comes to incidents in Kashmir there has always been more than one version.

"The state institutions don't have credibility and this has been the situation in the region for the last 26 years. People generally don't believe what comes out from the state machinery. The incident needs a thorough probe," Bukhari said.

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--- ENDS ---
Swaraj is scheduled to attend the annual foreign ministers' meeting of RIC (Russia, India and China).

By India Today Web Desk: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj arrived in Moscow today for the second leg of her two-nation visit, during which she will attend the annual foreign ministers' meeting of Russia, India and China.

"Namaste Moscow! EAM @SushmaSwaraj arrives in Russia to attend RIC Foreign Ministers Conference tomorrow," MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Swaraj is scheduled to attend the annual foreign ministers' meeting of RIC (Russia, India and China).

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She is also expected to have a bilateral meet with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.

On the sidelines of RIC, Swaraj is expected to meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during which she is likely to raise the issue of China blocking India's bid at the United Nations to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar.

In Iran, she had a wide rage of engagements with several top Iranian leaders, including president Hassan Rouhani.

Rouhani has assured Sushma Swaraj that Iran can be a 'reliable partner' for India's energy needs. Enhancing energy cooperation was the centerpiece of her visit to the powerful Persian Gulf nation.

ALSO READ

Sushma Swaraj assures Kirpal Singh's family of return of his mortal remains from Pakistan



--- ENDS ---
"This is not an unfamiliar role for India. We can still recall how its diplomatic maneuvering had earned India a special role between the two competing blocs during the Cold War," Chinese media said.

By Press Trust of India: Playing down India's decision to sign a logistic agreement with the US, China's state media today said the proposed deal is "stalled" because of distrust between the two as India wants to be the "most beautiful woman" wooed by all, especially Washington and Beijing.

"Besides their traditional distrust, the speculation heralding a US-India alliance is also an obvious underestimation of India's ambition for a role of swing-state between superpowers," an article in the state-run Global Times said as Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar started his first visit to Beijing today for talks with Chinese officials.

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"The basic idea is that India would like to continue to be the most beautiful woman wooed by all men, notably the two strongest in the house, US and China," the article titled 'Indo-US strategic distrust stalls LSA signing'.

"This is not an unfamiliar role for India. We can still recall how its diplomatic maneuvering had earned India a special role between the two competing blocs during the Cold War," it said.

"Evidently enough, it needs to feel its way forward and try not to agitate China by crossing the bottom line and consequently it declines to discuss the prospect of joint patrols in the South China Sea, despite the obvious interest and much enthusiasm from its American counterpart," it said.

Last week, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter concluded his three-day visit to India and announced he and his Indian counterpart have agreed in-principle that all the issues regarding a Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) are resolved and both sides would finalise the text in the coming weeks.

Highlighting India's decision to sign the LSA, the report said: "Despite a whole range of strategic issues being covered in the visit, the topic of the logistics agreement itself has triggered speculation among international media that both sides are boarding the same boat to contain China."

In essence, the LSA's purpose is to share military bases for logistical purposes, including refueling and repair.

"Therefore it is very much similar to the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA), a traditional agreement the US has with many of its NATO allies," the article said.

"That's why it has triggered speculation that both sides are moving toward a military alliance arrangement", it said.

In 2007, the US and Sri Lanka signed an ACSA to allow exchange of logistics supplies during peacekeeping missions, humanitarian operations, and joint exercises.

ALSO READ: Manohar Parrikar begins Beijing visit, says China ties 'highest priority'







--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Srinagar, Apr 17 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir government today assured all possible help to those injured in security forces action in Kupwara district, saying if need arises they would be taken outside the state for specialized treatment at the government?s expense.

Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Law and Justice, Abdul Haq Khan visited SMHS and Bone and Joint hospitals here today and enquired about the health condition of the injured, an official spokesman said.

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He said the minister assured the patients that the government would provide every possible assistance to them.

"If need arises, the injured persons will be taken outside the state for specialized treatment at the government?s expense," Haq told the families of the injured.

The minister interacted with Ishfaq Majeed, Fazil Ahmad Lone, Shabir Ahmad Lone, Showkat Ahmad Ganaie, Yawar Rasheed, Javed Ahmad and Danish who were injured in the security forces action in the north Kashmir district and are undergoing treatment, the spokesman said.

The minister also provided immediate financial assistance to the injured and assured them of all possible help, he said.

Medical Superintendent SMHS, Nazir Ahmad Choudhary, informed the Minister that the injured victims were being provided best of the treatment, the spokesman said. PTI SSB MIJ RG

--- ENDS ---
Johnny Depp's wife Amber Heard pleaded guilty to falsifying border protection documents on Monday in an Australian court. She was accused of smuggling two Yorkshire dogs, Piston and Boo, when she and her husband Johnny Depp entered the country last year.

By India Today Web Desk: Amber Heard appeared in an Australian court after being accused of smuggling her two Yorkshire dogs, Piston and Boo, when she and her husband Johnny Depp entered the country last year.

ALSO READ: Paul McCartney is acting in Johnny Depp's Pirates Of The Caribbean. No joke, this

ALSO READ: Lily-Rose, daughter of Johnny Depp, bags major acting role



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Accompanied by the Pirates of the Caribbean star, she pleaded guilty to falsifying border protection documents on Monday, reported aceshowbiz.com.

Jeremy Kirk, lawyer for Heard, told the Southport Magistrate's Court on Queensland state's Gold Coast that his client never meant to lie on her incoming passenger card by failing to declare she had animals with her.

The officials noticed the dog's presence after a local dog groomer posted an image of them on social media.

According to the reports, Amber Heard did not mention this fact in her immigration card under the section, i.e. seeking prior permission to bring the animals.

Heard's lawyer defending his client said that she thought her husband Johnny Depp's assistants must have sorted out the dogs' travel documents. According to Australia's tough quarantine laws, the animals outside the country must spend 10 days in quarantine in order to keep disease at bay.



Prosecutor Peter Callaghan said ignorance and fatigue were no excuse, stressing "the laws apply to everyone."

The 29-year-old actor faces up to one year in jail and a fine of more than 10,000 Australian dollars (USD 7,650) if found guilty for falsifying the documents.

Australian Department of Agriculture has released a video in which Johnny Depp and his wife Amber Heard expressed remorse.

Australian Government Department of Agriculture wrote, "Australia has very strict bio-security laws to protect the health of our people, animals and plants. Everyone entering the country must truthfully declare if they are carrying any items listed on the incoming passenger card."

The statement continued, "Ms Heard also offered to publicly state her contrition with the support of her husband - this video is that statement."

Watch the video here:

(With inputs from IANS)

--- ENDS ---
Taking a note of numerous complaints over taxi drivers over-charging the commuters, Kejriwal Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal warned the taxi drivers and released new notified rates for NCT and Delhi alongwith helpline number- 011-42 400 400.

By India Today Web Desk:

The Delhi government today ordered to impound cabs including Uber and Ola if they charge above the recently released government prescribed limit.

Shortly after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal warned the taxi drivers for over-charging, government released new notified rates for NCT and Delhi.

The new notified rates are Rs 12.50 per km for Economy Radio Taxis and Rs 14 per km and Rs 16.00 per km for non-AC & AC Black & Yellow Taxis respectively.

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The notified fare of Radio Taxi cabs (distinguished by an LCD board on roof top displaying "Radio Taxi") is Rs 23.00 per km. Also, additional night charges (25% of the fare) are applicable during 11 PM to 5 PM.

According to the regulation, violation of the prescribed norms will lead to strict actions like cancellation of permit and impounding of the vehicle.

A new helpline(011-42 400 400) has also been released for such complaints where a complainant can register the complain by presenting the copy of the bill and taxi number.

Government's move to regulate the taxis fares came after receiving several complaints about taxi drivers and online taxi booking apps over-charging the commuters.

Taking note of numerous complaints over taxi drivers and online taxi booking apps over-charging, Kejriwal today in his tweet said, " "Strict action, including permit cancellation and impounding (of) vehicle, to be taken against taxis which charge more than government prescribed rates."



In an open letter to Kejriwal, Shiv Ganesh-a common man- wrote, " Arvind Kejriwal sir, common man like me don't know much but what we do know is that we are being looted. While violating the odd-even rule will cost us Rs 2000 fine, taking taxi will burn holes due their sky-rocketing charges."

He further urged the CM to support the people of Delhi in the same way they are supporting government's schemes.



Kejriwal took a note of the of the complain and tweeted, " Recd some complaints against Ola/Uber. Govt planning strong action against them. Will announce it soon."

Under the scheme, private petrol and diesel driven vehicles with odd registration numbers can ply on odd dates and those with even registration numbers on even dates.

Meanwhile, around 152 motorists have been fined till 1 pm today for violating the odd-even scheme. Each violator has been slapped with a fine of Rs. 2,000.

The first phase of the scheme ran from January 1 to 15. The second phase will run from April 15 to 30, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. except on Sundays.

The scheme is not applicable to vehicles using compressed natural gas, two-wheelers, women motorists and several categories of VIPs.

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Speaking to India Today yesterday, Transport and Rural Development Minister of Delhi Gopal Rai said that two-wheelers are also likely to be included in the scheme by end of this year.

As Delhi went about its business during phase two of the odd-even scheme, the Twitteratti had its own funny takes, some of which made us do a double-take.

Twitter saw some people trying to get even and some just being odd. Here are some of the tweets that poked fun at the Odd-Even scheme or the people behind it:

One of the side effects of #OddEven campaign is that pilots are confused where to land the plane cuz all roads are looking like runways.

; Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt) April 17, 2016

Hi Delhi people,

How's odd-even going? Happy with it?

Or when Kejriwal promised an "alternate" type of govt, you had something else in mind?

; Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) April 18, 2016

Age of simplistic solutions:

Odd-Even to solve pollution

Shifting IPL to solve drought

Unjust laws to solve gender inequality

; The Bad Doctor (@DOCTORATLARGE) April 17, 2016

My friend who takes 90 mins to rch office from Gurgaon to Rohini, today it took him no time, coz he didn't go, as it was a holiday #oddeven

If a child in school uniform is in your car, you're exempt from the odd even formula. Thinking of a both end solution startup 'Rent a child'

For the next few days, BJP supporters will face difficulty in catching Metro and AAP supporters will see no traffic on roads.

Delhi parents as #OddEvenBegins pic.twitter.com/0yPHQY5NDr





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The second phase of Delhi governmentas odd-even scheme kicked off in the Capital on April 15.

By Mail Today: The Delhi government's odd-even scheme will witness major changes in the coming months. The scheme which allows cars having odd registration numbers to ply only on odd dates and the even number ones on even dates was a huge success in its first phase. The second phase of the scheme has begun and the real test of the second run in the national Capital will start from Monday since the roadrationing measure was rolled out in the city on April 15.

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While talking to India Today Managing Editor Rahul Kanwal, Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai on Sunday said that two wheelers will also be soon brought under the purview of the odd-even scheme. The scheme so far exempts VIPs, women, school going children, medical emergencies, commercial vehicles and CNG cars and two-wheelers.

"In the coming two months, two-wheelers will also be brought under the purview of the car rationing scheme," Rai said in the interview.

Unlike the scheme's pilot phase, in which the focus was more on awareness and voluntary compliance, the government has cracked the whip on violators this time, with over 2,300 challans issued in the first two days as against 479 during the same period in the previous phase between January 1-15. Even after facing criticism from the opposition parties, the state government is keen in making it a permanent scheme.

"The scheme has become very popular among the city people. People have learned to travel together. They are learning the concept of car-pooling. The government is seriously considering to make this scheme permanent," Rai said.

"If the people of Delhi will not support the scheme, we will take back the scheme.

The second phase has started because the people of Delhi wanted it to be there," he said. During the interview, Rai also mentioned that how the scheme has reduced the traffic congestion and pollution levels in the city.

The rules, whose violation attract a penalty of Rs 2,000 under provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, are applicable between 8am and 8pm, except on Sundays. In the second phase from April 15-30, the government added into its exemption list people driving with school children in uniform.

However, the government has not been able to arrive at a solution to the problem of cars returning after dropping school children or heading towards the schools in the afternoon hours to pick them up, and suggested car pooling.

As Monday is the first full working day of the odd-even scheme, the government will not tolerate arbitrariness by any app-based taxi operator causing hardship to commuters. Ola and Uber will have to follow rules. "If we receive complaints against arbitrariness of any app-based taxi service, we will impound their vehicles," Rai said.

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Also read:

Monitor air pollution during odd-even: Scientist to NGT



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On April 15, family members of Kirpal Singh met Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who assured them of all help to bring back his mortal remains.

By India Today Web Desk: The mortal remains of Kirpal Singh, the Indian prisoner who died under mysterious circumstances in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail, will be brought back to India on Tuesday. The body will be handed over to Indian High Commission officials, after which his kin will receive the body to proceed with the last rites.

The body will be released only after Pakistani doctors perform the post-mortem at Jinnah Hospital in Lahore tomorrow morning

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On April 15, family members of Kirpal Singh met Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who assured them of all help to bring back his mortal remains.

Kirpal Singh, 55, was found dead under unknown circumstances at Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore on April 11. Pakistan authorities, however, have ruled out any foul play and have claimed that Kirpal complained of chest pain after which he was admitted to a hospital where he was declared dead.

Singh was languishing in the Pakistani jail for nearly 25 years on spying charges.

Kirpal Singh had allegedly crossed Wagah border into Pakistan in 1992 and was arrested. He was subsequently sentenced to death in a serial bomb blasts case in Pakistan's Punjab province.

"Kirpal Singh was found dead at his cell in early hours of Monday at Kot Lakhpat Jail," an official of Kot Lakhpat Jail said.

He said the body of Kirpal has been shifted to the Jinah Hospital Lahore for an autopsy.



Also read: MEA seeks response from Pakistan on Kirpal Singh's mysterious death in Lahore jail



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From their price to their size, not just the legendary Koh-i-Noor, all these diamonds will blind you with their beauty!

By India Today Web Desk: With four countries including India laying the claim on the Koh-i-Noor, considered to be the most expensive diamond in the world, the stone's changed hands time and again before ending up in Britain. While the diamond belonged to the Mughals who ruled the Indian subcontinent, it was snatched by Persian ruler Nadir Shah who invaded the country in the 18th century.

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Soon after the diamond came in the possession of Ahmad Shah Durrani, whose descendant Shuja Shah Durrani brought the Koh-i-noor back to India in early 19th century after which the diamond ended up with Maharaja Ranjit Singh--the founder of the Sikh empire.



Also read: Why India may never get its Kohinoor diamond back from the British

While the ruler had willed the diamond to the Jagannath Temple in Puri, his will wasn't executed by the East India Company. After the Sikhs lost in the Second Anglo-Sikh War, the stone came in the possession of the British empire.

Even today, every time the news of any political exchange between India and Britain breaks out, the Indian population nevers fails to point out that their diamond be returned to the country. However it's only after a PIL filed by All India Human Rights & Social Justice Front, regarding the diamond's return to which the country's Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar's replied, "It was given voluntarily by Ranjit Singh to the British as compensation for help in the Sikh Wars. The Koh-i-Noor is not a stolen object," that the subject has gained momentum again.

The Koh-i-Noor means the Mountain of Light in Persian and can be seen at the Tower of London, adorning the Queen's crown. However the 105.60 carat diamond isn't the only known stone in the world.

Picture: Reuters Picture: Reuters

Here are the nine most expensive diamonds in the world:

Sancy

Picture courtesy: Twitter/@LadyDujourLLC

Weighing 55.23 carats, the priceless pale yellow diamond again has Indian origins and is considered to be one of the first large diamonds to be cut with symmetrical facets. The diamond is on display at the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre.



Cullinan

Pictures courtesy: Twitter/@Sparklesindia1

Valued at USD 400 million or Rs 26,62,13,80,000, the Cullinan Diamond weighs 3,106,75 carats and is famous for being the largest gem-quality diamond found in the world. It was cut into nine diamonds, of which the Cullinan I and Cullinan II are most famous and can be viewed at the Tower of London as they adorn the Sovereign's Scepter with Cross and the Imperial State Crown.

Hope

Picture: Reuters

Believed to have originated in India, the diamond weighs 45.52 carats and is on display at the National Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. The legendary diamond is famous for its deep-blue colour and gives a red glow after being exposed to ultraviolet light. It's currently valued at USD 350 million or Rs 23,28,95,07,500 and has also made a name for itself as a cursed stone that brings bad luck or death to its owners.

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De Beers Centenary Diamond

Picture courtesy: Twitter/@Isdiam

Valued at USD 100 million or Rs 6,65,40,45,000, the De Beers Centenary Diamond is among the most beautiful diamonds in the world to have received grade D rating by the Gemological Institute of America for being internally and externally flawless and for belonging to the highest grade of colourless diamonds. The sparkler has been cut into a heart shape without a groove.

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By PTI: Mumbai, Apr 18 (PTI) In order to check sale of spurious liquor, the Maharashtra Government has decided to make it mandatory to have a hologram on every alcohol bottle manufactured and sold in the State.

The Government has decided to paste "polyester base track and trace" hologram, to be supported by a mobile app, which will help consumers find out whether the liquor is fake or genuine, Minister for Revenue Eknath Khadse said today.

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He said besides checking sale of spurious liquor, the technique will also help prevent loss of revenue due to cheap liquor being imported into Maharashtra from neighbouring States.

Talking to newspersons at his Mantralaya office here, he said a recent Excise Department survey found that while the liquor production in the state was two lakh bottles, the sale figure stood at 6 lakh bottles.

"The Government is developing a free of cost mobile app, which when brought in contact with the hologram, will immediately generate a green or red mark indicating to the buyer whether the liquor, wine, country made liquor, Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) is fake or genuine," he said.

"If one holds the liquor bottle against the mobile app one will get a green tick mark indicating it is a genuine product. A red tick mark will indicate the product is fake."

Twenty-one states are already using the hologram technology, the Minister said.

Khadse said the State earned excise duty worth about Rs 18,000 crore, inclusive of VAT, from liquor sales last fiscal. There are 159 liquor manufacturers in the State.

Henceforth, no liquor bottle will be allowed to be sold in Maharashtra without the hologram, he said.

"The decision will be implemented either from July 1 or August 1. The decision was taken keeping in mind the last years tragedy at Malwani where about 100 people died after consuming spurious liquor," he said.

Replying to queries about providing water to liquor industries at the time of drought, Khadse clarified that the District Collectors and Revenue Commissioners have been instructed to allocate water on priority basis.

First priority should be given to drinking water followed by other purposes depending on the availability, the Minister said. PTI MM RSY RG SRE

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Parrikar told his counterpart, General Chang Wanquan, that India "attaches highest priority to its relations with China" and is "committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China".

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar welcomed at the PLA's Ba Yi building in Beijing by his counterpart, General Chang Wanquan.

By Ananth Krishnan: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday morning held talks with the Chinese military leadership at the People's Liberation Army headquarters in Beijing, on a visit that both sides say is aimed at increasing trust between the two countries, including along the disputed border.

Parrikar told his counterpart, General Chang Wanquan, that India "attaches highest priority to its relations with China" and is "committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China".

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General Chang said Parrikar's visit was "important for improving strategic mutual trust and improving cooperation between the two armed forces."

Parrikar, the first Defence Minister to visit China since AK Anthony in 2013, was given a grand welcome at the "Ba Yi building", the PLA's sprawling headquarters in Beijing west of Tiananmen Square.

Parrikar and Chang inspected a guard of honour before heading into the building for talks.

The visit comes as both countries look to address recurring "incursion" incidents along the LAC and expand confidence building measures.

India and China are looking at instituting a new, sixth border personnel meeting point along the LAC, following the opening of two new meetings points last year in the western and eastern sectors, which officials on both sides say has helped better address differences along the LAC.

This is expected to be discussed among a range of other confidence building measures.

Parrikar will also meet Premier Li Keqiang and the PLA's top ranking Genearl Fan Changlong, who is one of two vice chairman on the Central Military Commission headed by Xi Jinping.

He will also travel to Chengdu, the headquarters of the PLA's newly set up western theatre command that covers the entire border with India, and meet its top ranking officer as well as inspect Chinese special operations forces in what officials said is a rare visit to the PLA nerve centre that is in charge of all sections of the border with India.

Parrikar is also likely to use his visit to assure the Chinese that India pursued an "independent" foreign policy, following the recent 'in-principle' deal with the United States for a logistics support agreement. Chinese officials have themselves played down the agreement, and responded officially by saying "it is known to all that India has been upholding an independent foreign policy" and that "like other countries India makes its foreign policies based on its own interests".

His visit also comes amid new strains over China blocking India's attempt to list Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar over the Pathankot terror attack as a sanctioned terrorist at the UN Security Council.

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Officials said the matter would also be raised when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj meets her counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow at the Russia-India-China summit later on Monday. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will also be in Beijing next week, shortly after Parrikar's visit, for the next round of border talks.

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The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh emerged out of its first Sarsanghchalak Keshav Baliram Hedgewar's frustration with the Indian National Congress. The pressing questions for a nation coming into being were those of identity, history, common values, and the ways in which national consciousness could be forged. For Hedgewar, 'nation' was inextricable from 'Hindu'. And so at the core of the RSS, the organisation he founded on September 27, 1925 (Vijayadashami, as it happened), is a strong, united, self-confident Hindu community.

From a Katha Bharti comic on Hedgewar

Hedgewar's organisation, with its cadre made up of Maharashtrian Brahmins and its emphasis on discipline and quasi-paramilitary training, had an authoritarian tendency that appeared to align it with European fascists. An impression enhanced by Hedgewar's close friendship with Balakrishna Shivaram Moonje, an admirer of Italian fascism and the first Hindu nationalist to meet Mussolini. But the RSS maintained that its goals were not political.

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Despite its aversion to politics-its raison d'etre is cultural self-assertion- the RSS has been at loggerheads with the Congress from the outset. Keeping itself aloof from the Independence struggle, the organisation also questioned the adoption of the tricolour as national flag and the validity of the Constitution. It seemed as if the RSS, in its early days, wanted no part of the Indian nation if it could not be a Hindu nation. The conflict with Congress has led to a number of bans, most significantly after the assassination of Gandhi.

Shunted to the margins of Indian society, an organisation noted mostly for its khaki shorts and belief in Hindu superiority, the RSS found renewed political purpose in its opposition to Indira Gandhi's Emergency. Madhukar Dattatreya Deoras, the third Sarsanghchalak, was more politically active than his predecessors, aligning the RSS openly with the JP movement.

The political ascent of Hindutva, a term coined by Veer Savarkar (an RSS touchstone) in 1923, brought the RSS triumphantly into the political mainstream. It is remarkable that two of India's 14 prime ministers have been RSS pracharaks, this from an organisation that has so often professed ambivalence about the Indian state. Still, it hasn't been until the election of Narendra Modi-a model pracharak, devoting himself fully to the organisation at the expense even of family and conjugal life-that the RSS has occupied so ubiquitous a position in national life.

Once a fringe cultural organisation, derided as terrorist by some, the RSS now sits astride the centre. What effect will that have on the nation and what effect will the nation have on the RSS?

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Pankaja Munde's selfies went viral on Twitter and Facebook with many accusing her of being insensitive to the plight of the people in the region.

During her visit to Latur on Sunday, Munde was seen frequently taking out her phone and posing for selfies against a parched backdrop.

By India Today Web Desk: The opposition Congress today hit out at the BJP over Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde's selfie during her visit to drought-hit Latur, and accused the party of mocking the tragedy.

"The BJP as a whole is a selfie and optics party. This is like making a mockery of the drought," a Congress spokesperson said, a day after Munde's selfie act was slammed on the social media.

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Even the BJP's ally, the Shiv Sena, was not amused. "It is unfortunate that a minister went and clicked selfies in drought-hit Latur. It was avoidable," the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

Munde, who heads Maharashtra's Rural Development and Water Conservation ministry, is also the guardian minister for Latur and Beed regions in the state's Marathwada region, which is reeling under severe drought.

During her visit to Latur on Sunday, Munde was seen frequently taking out her phone and posing for selfies against a parched backdrop. She was there to review the de-silting work being carried out by the Maharashtra government.

Soon, Munde's selfies went viral on Twitter and Facebook with many accusing her of being insensitive to the plight of the people in the region.



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Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said Kumar had no qualms in joining hands with a party that ruined the country and warned public against such "casteist, communal and corrupt" forces who are out to stop the country's growth.

By Press Trust of India: Two central ministers today attacked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over his call for 'RSS-free' India, saying the JD-U leader never spoke against organisations like Simi, ISIS and LeT who spread terror and want to break the country.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said Kumar had no qualms in joining hands with a party that ruined the country and warned public against such "casteist, communal and corrupt" forces who are out to stop the country's growth.

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Naidu said while the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) political adversaries want to have an 'RSS-free' India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants the country to be free from poverty, corruption and unemployment.

"Beware countrymen, the castiest, communal, corrupt are coming together. They want to stop growth of the country by forming an anti-BJP front," he said.

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Nitishji, RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) is a great organisation committed to India. Why do you never speak against SIMI, ISIS and LeT who spread terror and want to break India."

Taking a swipe at anti-BJP parties wanting to get together, Naidu said, "They have no qualms in joining hands with the party that ruled and ruined the country. They formed a united front and became a divided front. Country has seen many fronts; they formed fronts, erected tents and left from the back."

In a tweet, he said, "Modiji wants Garibi Mukt Bharat, Brashtachar Mukt Bharat, Berojgari Mukt Bharat. Our opponents want to have Sangh Mukt Bharat (Modi wants India free from poverty, free from corruption, free from unemployment. Our opponents want to have RSS-free India)."

He added, "They want RSS-free India. They are not worried about ISI, ISIS."

Congress had on Sunday backed the JD(U) chief's call for an 'RSS-mukt' India, saying the saffron fountainhead was "posing a threat to the country's unity and democracy", while BJP had come out strongly in defence of its mentor, the RSS.

Kumar had mounted a counter-offensive against Modi for his 'Congress-mukt Bharat' slogan, saying, "Sangh-mukt Bharat banane ke liye sabhi gair BJP parties ko ek hona hoga (to usher in a Sangh-free India, all non-BJP parties will have to come together)."

Also read:

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's call for Sangh-mukt India draws flak





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The great Indian saga of bad loans isn't just about Mallya. Given the high profile nature of the Kingfisher case, Mallya might be in the lead role but there are over 5000 characters in this story.

By Siddharth Tiwari: Ever since Indian banks woke up from their long sleep and started chasing Vijay Mallya, ex-chairman of United Spirits Ltd, for loan repayment, the focus has shifted to the mounting amount of non-performing assets (NPAs) in India and big defaulters.

Mallya's loan was declared NPA in 2012 but until last year the banks kept their silence over the issue. It took them almost 3 years to tag him as 'wilful defaulter' and go for legal action against the liquor baron.

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However, the great Indian saga of bad loans isn't just about Mallya. Given the high profile nature of the Kingfisher case, Mallya might be in the lead role but there are over 5000 characters in this story.

According to Credit Information Bureau Limited, India's first Credit Information Company, there are 5,275 other "wilful defaulters" together owing Rs 56,521 crore to Indian banks. The amount is over 1.5 times of the Centre's allocation to agriculture in its 'pro-farmer budget' 2016-17.



Here are top 4 'wilful defaulters':



Winsome Diamonds



Facing the allegation of fund diversions Winsome Diamonds and its associate firm Forever Precious Diamonds and Jewellery together owe Rs 6,800 crore to a consortium of banks headed by Standard Chartered Bank.

Deccan Chronicle Holdings

The company holds the charge of defaulting loans worth over Rs 4,000 crore to as many as 18 banks including Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank, IDBI Bank and a few private sector banks. The assets pledged by the company has also been discovered to be insufficient to cover the loan recovery.

Zoom Developers

Mumbai-based engineering procurement and construction firm, Zoom Developers owes around Rs 2,400 crore to hosts of banks. The company took the loan on the pretext of launching realty projects in Europe. The loan was declared NPA in 2010 and earlier this year Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) revealed that important documents pertaining to the case have been stolen.

JB Diamond

One of the India's top-10 diamond companies, the Surat-based firm owes Rs 800 crore to consortium of 14 banks led by State Bank of India. Consequently, the banks approached the RBI to blacklist the company. The banks also raided and sealed the factory of JB Diamond.

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With the last of the sequence of four biennial Nuclear Security Summits (NSS) having just concluded in Washington, it is time to assess their implications for India. While the summits have traditionally discussed nuclear weapons and disarmament, the NSS were organised with a different focus, to address the dangers of unsecured fissile materials around the world. These materials, plutonium and highly-enriched uranium (HEU), are the explosive ingredients of nuclear weapons. There is nearly 2,000 tonnes of these materials dispersed around the globe, whereas it takes only 5-25 kg to make a nuclear bomb.

R Rajaraman

Therefore, when US President Barack Obama hosted the first summit in Washington in 2010, it helped draw attention at the highest levels to the importance of securing all nuclear materials, so that they don't fall into the wrong hands. Obama had also invited non-NPT nations like India, Pakistan and Israel as full-fledged participants, on an equal footing with other nuclear powers. Leaders from an unprecedented 49 countries participated in the 2010 chapter, where goals were kept modest and non-contentious, demanding only voluntary commitments. Consequently, the ambience at the summit was harmonious, with several countries offering 'gift baskets' of nuclear security measures.

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The subsequent summits followed a similar pattern. A major addition was the inclusion of the security of all radiological materials, not just fissile ones, to the agenda in 2012 in Seoul, in deference to public fears of radioactivity after the Fukushima tragedy. These inclusions are important, given the possibility of terrorists developing a Dirty Bomb-a case full of radioactive materials pilfered from hospitals, labs and such, to be exploded in a busy urban area.

This possibility was a major talking point at the recent 2016 summit where the danger of terror groups, particularly ISIS, acquiring nuclear materials was the main subject of discussion, especially after the Paris and Brussels attacks. Hypothetical nuclear threat scenarios were invoked to lend immediacy and specificity to the discussions.

The threat of dirty bombs has been with us in India ever since cross-border terrorism began 20 years ago. Unlike nuclear weapons, dirty bombs are relatively easy to produce. The required material is not protected with the stringency accorded to fissile materials used in nuclear weapons. You don't need the sophistication or technological reach of an ISIS or Al Qaeda to get the ingredients or assemble the bomb. Pakistan's indigenous terrorist groups should be able to manage it.

India has announced a slew of measures to ensure that radiological materials remain secure and their nationwide inventory fully audited, but more needs to be done. It is not enough to implement rigorous procedures within India for securing these materials. Similar levels of security must be enforced in other nations from which terrorists emerge. India has to keep urging the international community to specifically pay attention to such nations and enforce strict materials security in them.

There is one crucial aspect of dirty bomb terrorism that has not received much attention. From the terrorist point of view, it is enough, alongside a conventional blast, to even spread an on-site rumour that it was a radiological bomb. The panic and stampede this will provoke, particularly in crowded urban venues, will injure and kill just as many as the radiation might have done. This is particularly so given the public's fear of radioactivity post-Fukushima. Therefore, all first responders at any urban terrorist attack site must carry a radiation counter to confirm or rule out radioactivity. It is equally important to educate the public on radiation so that they have no exaggerated fears.

Coming back to the NSS, from the outset, India has been an enthusiastic participant as its scope and goals were consonant with its own security policies. As a victim, India shares the concern about nuclear materials falling into terrorist hands. In addition to its earlier commitments, at the 2016 summit, India also offered to join the three 'gift baskets', of countering nuclear smuggling, sharing best practices through centres of excellence and joining the contact group in Vienna. India's positive approach to materials security, and its nuclear energy expansion plans have made it an important player in the nuclear community, as testified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi being seated next to President Obama at the inaugural dinner for the 53 heads of government. All this should help India in its quest for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Security Council. It will also smoothen the road in its drive to expand its nuclear capacity.

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The author is Emeritus Professor of Physics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

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By PTI: From Lalit K Jha

Washington, Apr 18 (PTI) US President Barack Obama today spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to express his concern over the status of cessation of hostilities in Syria as the two leaders affirmed the need to end attacks and ensure humanitarian access to all besieged areas.

"President Obama spoke today by phone with President Vladimir Putin of Russia to share his concern over the status of the Cessation of Hostilities in Syria between the Syrian regime and its allies on the one hand and the armed opposition on the other," the White House said.

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During the call, Obama stressed the importance of pressing the Syrian regime to halt its offensive attacks against the opposition.

"The two leaders committed to intensify their efforts to shore up the Cessation of Hostilities and affirmed the need to end attacks by all parties and ensure humanitarian access to all besieged areas," the White House said in a statement.

Obama also said that progress on these issues needed to be made in parallel to progress on political transition to end the conflict in Syria, it said.

On Ukraine, Obama asked Putin to take steps to end the significant uptick in fighting in eastern Ukraine and stressed the urgent importance of moving forward with full implementation of the Minsk agreements, the White House said.

The White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, said Obama continues to make a forceful case to President Putin that he should abide by the commitments that he made in the context of the Minsk talks.

"The United States continues to believe and President Obama continues to make a forceful case that Russia needs to abide by their commitments, and by doing so, they can begin to relieve some of the isolation they have sustained as a result interfering in the sovereign activities of their neighbours in Ukraine," he said.

The Obama Administration, he said, has for years now encouraged Putin and the Russian government to use the influence that they have with the Assad regime to compel them to act constructively and more recently that means to live up to the commitments that they made in the context of the cessation of hostilities.

"President Putin has publicly expressed his view that this kind of political transition is critical to both Russian and US interests in that country and in the broader region and this is an opportunity where our interests overlap and its an opportunity for the president to, once again, make the case to President Putin that he should use his influence with the Assad regime to live up to the commitments that theyve made in the context of the cessation of hostilities," he said.

"Unfortunately, weve seen that the cessation of hostilities continues to be fragile and increasingly threatened due to continued violations by the regime," Earnest said. PTI LKJ UZM

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Parrikar, who met his counterpart General Chang Wanquan at the PLA headquarters in Beijing, also conveyed India's displeasure at China blocking the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar at the UN Security Council sanctions committee.

By Ananth Krishnan: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in Beijing on Monday pressed the Chinese military leadership on border transgressions stressing the need to resume the process of clarifying the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Parrikar, who met his counterpart General Chang Wanquan at the PLA headquarters in Beijing, also conveyed India's displeasure at China blocking the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar at the UN Security Council sanctions committee, expressing that "what happened in the UN was not the right direction that they have taken on terrorism because having a common line is in the interest of India and China both".

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A similar message was conveyed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj when she met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi along the sidelines of the Russia-India-China trilateral in Moscow.

The focus of the defence minister's visit was, however, the boundary issue and ensuring stability along the undemarcated LAC. While India has been pressing China to resume the process of clarifying the LAC over which differing perceptions in certain areas have led to what Indian officials describe as transgressions, Beijing has been reluctant to resume the process. China has viewed the LAC clarification as a diversion from the boundary talks - of which the 19th round will be held on Wednesday when NSA Ajit Doval travels to Beijing.

"We are insisting it should be done in order to really ensure a very stable border.. because all the issues take place because of perception," he told reporters.

Both sides did agree to increased confidence building measures, including adding new border personnel meeting points. After two new points in Daulet Beg Oldie in Ladakh and Kibithu in Arunachal were opened last year, they are looking at a sixth point in the middle sector.

Parrikar described the process of "actual[ly] marking" the LAC as "one of the preconditions of smooth border operations". "Without that everything goes by perceptions.. which has caused problems sometimes".

Parrikar said both sides moved closer to operationalising hotlines between military commands to enable faster addressing of any incidents. China officially responded to a draft memorandum put forward by India, and the issue now appears close to be finally settled, officials said.

Parrikar, the first Defence Minister to visit China since A.K. Antony in 2013, was given a grand welcome at the "Ba Yi building", the PLA's sprawling headquarters in Beijing west of Tiananmen Square. Parrikar and Chang inspected a guard of honour before heading into the building for talks.

On Tuesday, he will meet Premier Li Keqiang before travelling to Chengdu as one of the first visiting foreign officials to see the PLA's new headquarters of its recently set up Western Theatre Command, which is in charge of the entire India border.

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While the main focus of Parrikar's talks on Monday was on enhancing border management, the Defence Minister also raised issues that have recently emerged as prickly differences in ties.

On China's infrastructure projects in PoK, he said India has "made our stand very clear" and "expressed our strong reservations to their activity in PoK". China, he said, has "noted" the concerns and explained the projects as economic ones not aimed at India from a defence or military perspective.

China for its part has been worried by India's recent in-principle agreement with the U.S. on logistics supplies and greater concurrence between Delhi and Washington on the South China Sea.

Parrikar said India "made it very clear that India's policy is autonomous and based on India's national interest". He also said there was no change in India's policy on the South China Sea, which called on all parties to exercise restraint and peacefully resolve differences.

Parrikar said India's message to China was that good relations between both would be positive for not only both countries but the region, and they needed to take steps to ensure this was the case.

"The basic line of thinking is engaging China more; by staying away you can't get solutions. More exchanges, more talks. Such type of dialogue closes the gap, [even if it] doesn't shut [issues] down in one shot."

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Also read:

India, China look at new border meeting point as Parrikar visits





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According to reports, a violent mob attacked Rajni Patel's house situated on Modera road in Mehsana and set it on fire. No one was injured in the incident.

By India Today Web Desk: Patel protesters set afire to Gujarat Home Minister Rajni Patel's house in Mehsana town, which is witnessing violent agitation by Patels demanding reservation for the third day today.

According to reports, a violent mob attacked Rajni Patel's house situated on Modera road in Mehsana and set it on fire. No one was injured in the incident.

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Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) has called Gujarat bandh today. Yesterday, curfew was imposed in the town after a massive rally of the Patel community members pressing for reservation and release of their jailed leaders turned violent.

Curfew was lifted in Mehsana today morning but internet services remained suspended in the town and also in Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Surat, in light of the Gujarat Bandh called today. A 27-year-old from Surat reportedly committed suicide today "as a mark of protest".

Security remained tight, especially in Surat city where six companies of the State Reserve Police were deployed.

Two companies were positioned in Valsad and one each in Navsari and Surat rural. Another 100 police personnel were deployed in Dang district to avoid any untoward incident.

Also read:

Patel quota stir: Curfew lifted in Mehsana, 27-year-old commits suicide in Surat

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Meanwhile, internet services remained suspended in Mehsana, Ahmedabad and Surat in light of the Gujarat Bandh called today.

Police take charge on members of Patidar community during their "Jail Bharo Andolan" for demanding release of Hardik Patel in Mahesana on Sunday.

By India Today Web Desk: A 27-year-old from Surat reportedly committed suicide on Monday amid the raging Patidar agitation in Gujarat. Bhavin Mansukh Khunt allegedly consumed poison "as a mark of protest," a day after caste-reservation protests by the Patel community turned violent.

Early this morning, administration lifted curfew in Gujarat's Mehsana town, while maintaining tight security in various parts of the state. Internet services remained suspended in Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Surat, in light of the Gujarat Bandh called today.

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The bandh call was given by the Sardar Patel Group (SPG) and Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) - the two outfits leading the Patel quota movement. Mehsana Collector Lochan Sehra said the town remained unaffected by the bandh call. "School, colleges are open and everything is in line. Situation in area is now peaceful," he told ANI.

In Ahmedabad, state bus services were reportedly affected by the bandh call.

Security remained tight, especially in Surat city where six companies of the State Reserve Police were deployed. Two companies were positioned in Valsad and one each in Navsari and Surat rural. Another 100 police personnel were deployed in Dang district.

Section 144 - which prohibits an assembly of more than ten people in an area - was also lifted in Surat and Mehsana.

Yesterday's clashes ocurred when police tried to stop around 25,000 agitators who were headed to court arrest at Mehsana jail. The call to court arrest was given by Patidars demanding OBC quota and the release of their leaders arrested last year.

The protestors allegedly retaliated with stone-pelting and set ablaze two government properties.

The police used water canons, lathicharged and fired teargas shells to control the violent mob. 435 Patel agitators were detained in Surat. Several policemen were injured and SPG chief Lalji Patel sustained a head injury in the face-off.

Lalji Patel alleged that Patel agitators were targeted without any provocation. "Our protest was peaceful as announced earlier. However, police suddenly hit me and some of our members when we were walking ahead of the procession. I was hit on head. You can see the blood on my face. We were beaten up without any provocation," he Patel. In-charge DGP of Gujarat PP Pandey claimed, however, that the situation deteriorated only after some people resorted to violence.

As the situation worsened, state administration issued a directive to suspend all internet services (including mobile-based internet services) in affected cities until midnight on Monday. A police notification said internet was blocked in light of the mass messages that were sent to aggravate passions during last August's violence.

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Later in the evening, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called up state chief minister Anandiben Patel, who informed him about the steps being taken to control the situation and maintain peace. Patel also urged "fellow citizens" to "maintain peace and harmony across state". "Violence has never and will not be the solution of any matter," she tweeted.

Congress on Monday accused Patel of "mocking" the Patidar agitation and said the chief minister "should sit and talk to the protesters" instead.

There are 146 communities listed as OBCs in Gujarat, including 17 Muslim communities. 27 per cent seats are reserved for OBCs, 7.5 per cent for Scheduled Castes and 15 per cent for Scheduled Tribes. In July and August last year, PAAS chief Hardik Patel led massive rallies. but government declined to reserve seats for Patels, saying it would violate the 50 per cent cap prescribed by Supreme Court.

After bouts of violence in Mehsana, Visnanagar and Ahmedabad, Hardik Patel was arrested on charges of sedition and subsequently released. He was sent back to jail later in November.

(With agency inputs)

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Barely a decade ago, a cursory visit to two landmark addresses in India's capital city-Keshav Kunj in Jhandewalan and 11, Ashoka Road in Lutyens' Delhi-provided a lesson in contrast: in, respectively, spartan discipline versus indulgent splurge, austerity versus prosperity, stagnation versus growth. Keshav Kunj is the Delhi office of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the moral and intellectual fountainhead of the Sangh Parivar. And 11, Ashoka Road is the main office of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the political expression of the Sangh. The once-modest Keshav Kunj offices, named after Keshav Beliram Hedgewar, who founded the RSS in Pune in 1925, are now the site of a frenetic upgrade. Protected by an imposing police cordon, a massive 10-storey complex is being constructed to house a resurgent organisation. There is no longer any easy distinction to be drawn between the ideological parent and the flashy, political son. It is the architectural manifestation of a remarkable journey from the cultural margins to the political centre.

Great leap forward

Never in its history has the RSS grown as rapidly as in the past five years: from some 40,000 shakhas in 2010 to about 57,000 today. While the RSS has no formal 'membership', the surge in number of shakhas has made it a fertile recruitment ground for the BJP, and the organisation's involvement in politics is more overt than ever before. As evidence of how many Sangh pracharaks end up as BJP leaders, consider the selection of five state unit chiefs the party has named on April 8, for states where elections are scheduled in 2017. While two of them are from the Other Backward Castes (OBCs), one is from the Dalit community. What truly binds all five of these key political appointees-Keshav Chandra Maurya, the new state unit chief for Uttar Pradesh; Union minister Vijay Sampla, a Dalit, chosen as state unit president for Punjab; OBC leader K. Laxman in Telangana; former chief minister B.S. Yeddiyurappa in Karnataka; and Tapir Gao in Arunachal Pradesh-is that they are all RSS veterans. Maurya, for instance, spent 14 years in the organisation and was particularly active in the cow protection movement and the Ayodhya agitation.

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Click here to Enlarge Graphic by Rahul Sharma

Since the end of the Emergency in 1977, there have essentially been two phases during which the Sangh's ranks swelled. Under the leadership of the third Sarsanghchalak Balasaheb Deoras, who had participated actively in the Jayaprakash Narayan agitation, the number of RSS shakas trebled from 10,000 in 1977 to almost 30,000 in 1994. These boom years were followed by a lull until 2010, which marked the start of the current expansion. The current phase is also overtly political. This enmeshment with the BJP has altered the essential character of the RSS, argues Lakshmi Narayan Bhala, a senior pracharak who has worked in Odisha, Assam and Sikkim. This essential character was laid out by Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, the second Sarsanghchalak, in his book Bunch of Thoughts. "The RSS is not merely a school for teaching ideas and ideals," Golwalkar wrote. "It is a school for practical education in character-building." Politics was not part of the agenda. "Till just a few years ago," Bhala says, "'politics' was a no-no in the RSS despite the fact that the organisational secretary in every state BJP unit is a pracharak loaned by the RSS." On the other hand, according to Manmohan Vaidya, the RSS Prachar Pramukh, "What people see as transformation in the RSS is actually natural evolution. I have been associated with the Sangh since my childhood and never have healthy innovative ideas been torpedoed."

Yet, consider who is in charge of the state assembly elections in the current four poll-bound states. In West Bengal, RSS leader Dilip Ghosh replaced Rahul Sinha, a two-time president of the party's state unit. In Assam, the key state for the BJP's 2016 battle, RSS veteran Ram Madhav, deputed by the Sangh to liaise between the RSS and the BJP, has stage-managed the BJP campaign, along with party president Shah. In Tamil Nadu, another former RSS pracharak, Muralidhar Rao, BJP general secretary and former Swadeshi Jagran Manch organising secretary, an acolyte of former RSS ideologue Dattopant Thengadi, is the key person of the campaign, while in Kerala, Shah has appointed hardline RSS leader Kummanam Rajasekharan as the state unit chief.

The saffron rainbow

Some appointments clearly reflect a concern to widen the organisation's support base. Though hard data on the caste background of Sangh activists is difficult to come by, what is clear is that the RSS is shifting from its Maharashtrian Brahmin origins and Bania base and has begun recruiting pracharaks among the OBCs and Dalits. The American political scientist Paul Brass was among the first to point out that the Sangh Parivar's expansion among the backward communities began during the Ayodhya agitation. With a new cadre base, more subaltern, more Dalit and OBC in nature, reservation and the Dalit agenda are subjects of passionate debates within the Sangh. The RSS is acutely aware that despite the massive victory in the 2014 general elections, the total vote percentage of the BJP was 31 per cent or only a third of the electorate. Clearly, the Hindu vote remained divided, with caste factors dominating. The effort now is to be more inclusive and build a saffron rainbow coalition, as it were: one that covers the entire spectrum of Hindus and including those who have long been beyond the conservative pale: Dalits and tribals. For the RSS, without cohesive support and harmonious relations within the Hindu fraternity, its aspirations of cultural and moral transformation to regain India's 'lost glory' and be a leader of nations again will remain a distant dream.

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The three day RSS-BJP Samanvay Baithak (coordination meeting), held in Delhi between September 3 and 5 in 2015, under the leadership of Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, ended with a ringing endorsement of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government. This was widely hailed within the Sangh Parivar. As a moment of cooperation, it marked a sharp departure from the abrasive relationship between the RSS-led by K.S. Sudarshan and Atal Behari Vajpayee's NDA government between 1998 and 2004. As BJP vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe puts it, "There is a greater convergence between the top leaders of the RSS and the BJP today compared to the past. We are much wiser today having learnt from past experience during 1977 to 1980 and particularly during 1998 to 2004." Meanwhile, insiders reveal that Modi has prevailed over the RSS leadership to move forward strategically with an inclusive, non-controversial agenda based on social consolidation and development till the end of his government's present term with the promise that issues like Article 370, Ram Janmabhoomi and Ghar Wapasi might be taken up more aggressively in his next term.

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It's not hard to understand why the RSS might begin to shed some of the 'cultural' paranoia that marked its early years. During the last few years, the main motivation for the RSS to participate in politics has come from its organisational strength and the landslide victory of a former pracharak. The Samanvay Baithaks may well represent the high-water mark of political cooperation between the Sangh Parivar's most prominent entities. But has such confidence altered the quintessential character of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh? From a cultural outfit, it has evolved into a politically astute organisation, effective at electoral engineering, skilled at communications and campaigns and deft at handling social media and digital technology. It is tempting to read the now-famous sartorial change from khaki shorts to brown trousers in the Sangh ganavesh (official uniform), announced last month as a symbolic acknowledgement that the RSS has grown up. But the changes go far beyond the merely cosmetic.

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Bhagwat, the unifier

The flourishing bonhomie between the RSS and the BJP is widely credited to the pragmatism of Mohan Bhagwat who is regarded as a "unifier, a balancer and a political visionary" within the Sangh Parivar. Unlike Sudarshan, whom he replaced as Sarsanghchalak in March 2009, Bhagwat enjoys a warm personal relationship with the BJP leadership. Fluent in Gujarati, since his father Madhukarrao Bhagwat was the prant pracharak of Gujarat, Mohanji, as he is popularly called, is particularly in tune with Prime Minister Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Muslims shower petals on RSS volunteers in Bhopal. Photo: AP

Like the third Sarsanghchalak Deoras, Bhagwat does not shy away from political involvement. A proponent of generational change within the BJP, he has gathered around him a crop of young RSS leaders such as Dattatreya Hosabale and Krishna Gopal. Indeed, the metamorphosis of the Sangh is most evident in these new 'liberal' faces. Hosabale, (see interview) the Sahsarkaryavah (joint general secretary) and virtually the third-in-command, is a soft-spoken Kannadiga Brahmin and former student of English literature. In a significant deviation from the RSS's conservative leanings, Hosabale, at the 2016 India Today Conclave, famously asked: "Why should RSS have an opinion on homosexuality? It is not a crime as long as it does not affect the lives of others. Sexual preferences are personal issues." This is not his only departure from the party line; he is also in favour of more women in the Sangh.

Bhagwat himself has organised several initiatives for women's empowerment within the Sangh. Recognising that the RSS is often dismissed as an exclusive patriarchal club, in 2014, he inaugurated a two-day national convention called the Mahila Samanvaya, a forum for women of different Sangh parivar affiliates, in Ghaziabad. RSS Akhil Bharatiya Sahsampark Anirudh Deshpande, Rashtra Sevika Samiti Pramukh Sanchalika V. Shanta Kumari, Geeta Tayi Gunde, Pramila Tayi, Union minister Smriti Irani and 300 other delegates attended the event.

Moving with the times

Gender inclusion is a clear point of emphasis in recent RSS debates. Last year, in a two-day meeting in Vrindavan, RSS leaders instructed affiliates to enrol and appoint women as office-bearers. To be sure, the RSS has one reasonably venerable women's branch: the Rashtra Sevika Samiti (National Women Volunteers' Committee), which is tasked with the mobilisation of Hindu women for national activities and has been functioning in coordination with the RSS since 1936. But it was during the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha in Nagaur, Rajasthan, in March this year, that RSS national general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi took up the hot button demand for women to be allowed entry to temples across the country (although, perhaps inevitably, he also cautioned that the issue should be settled through discussion and dialogue rather than agitation).

Rashtra Sevika Samiti women at a march past in Nagpur

The increased efforts to make Dalits and women feel more welcome in a new, inclusive RSS is part of a far wider effort to increase participation. The Sangh's savvy use of technology has led to thousands of people registering on the RSS website. A convention was organised to introduce those who had registered to the RSS worldview, its history and ideological underpinnings. The RSS says that almost half the attendees now go to shakhas regularly.

The RSS also runs e-shakhas in which participants can convene online, logging on at a pre-determined time of day. It's a move designed to appeal to young, busy professionals who might baulk at the prospect of travelling to a traditional shakha venue. On January 3, the RSS held the Shiv Shakti Sangam near Pune, a massive convention of some 85,000 workers in full uniform and another 50,000 sympathisers. Two giant screens were raised and the convention was live streamed on the internet. Sympathisers were asked to drop their cards in bowls as if at a corporate networking event-more evidence perhaps, of the RSS's desire to be seen as a progressive, contemporary and inclusive institution.

Another surprising sign of change in the RSS's indigenist culture is the introduction of English in its Saraswati Mandir schools. Time was, the defining slogan of the RSS was 'Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan', and its leaders never tired of complaining about 'colonial' English being taught in government-funded schools. When, as Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi introduced higher-grade English as a second language in government primary schools, he met with stiff resistance from the RSS-affiliated Gujarat Vidya Bharati. The opposition was so fierce that Modi was forced to reconsider the decision. Yet today, under Mohan Bhagwat, a few hundred of the RSS's own Saraswati Shishu Mandir primary schools have begun using English as a medium of instruction. "English is no longer a taboo language in the RSS," says Manish Manjul, a senior RSS worker whose sons are studying at one such school in New Delhi. "There is a growing acceptance. If it is used along with vernacular languages, it really doesn't constitute a cultural threat."

Contradictions persist

The growth in the numbers of people attending shakhas has also made the meetings a hotbed of political debate. Conflicts have emerged between older and newer cohorts of cadres that reflect the changing social composition of the RSS. Ever since the Rohith Vemula suicide, RSS leaders have been preoccupied with the Dalit question. In a recent tweet, Dalit BJP leader Sanjay Paswan warned his government that "the stakeholders of power politics must take serious note of the Rohith Vemula episode or be ready to face wrath, revenge, revolt, reactions".

RSS ideologue K.N. Govindacharya agrees that the Vemula suicide was a major setback for the Sangh. He suggests that the Sangh Parivar must change course or say goodbye to Dalit votes in Punjab and UP in the next assembly elections. But he also maintains that the RSS has always had leaders who were sensitive to the rights of Dalits, tribals and backward castes. "If untouchability is not wrong, then nothing in the world is wrong," says Govindacharya, quoting Balasaheb Deoras (via Abraham Lincoln). It's a view echoed by BJP general secretary Muralidhar Rao. When india today visited him in his office, he was reading writer and former Planning Commission member Narendra Jadhav's Dr Ambedkar: An Intellectual Biography. "Ambedkar was always one of our icons," Rao says. "One of the tallest RSS ideologues, Dattopant Thengadi, was not only very close to Ambedkarji but worked as his election agent from Bhandara constituency which he contested in 1954. He even wrote a book on him, Dr Ambedkar aur Samajik Kranti ki Yatra."

While Rohith Vemula's suicide is seen as a setback, perhaps the fiercest debate within the Sangh Parivar is the Swadeshi-Videshi issue. The RSS-affiliated unions, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, and Swadeshi Jagran Manch are all at odds with the government over coal sector reforms, labour reforms and 100 per cent FDI in the retail sector. In January 2015, the Modi government's effort to push through the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill that would open the sector to private players and allow the government to e-auction coal blocks was firmly opposed by the BMS, the largest trade union in the country, with a threat to hold a nationwide five-day strike. The BMS was clearly worried that such a move by the government might lead its workers to defect to other trade unions such as the CPI(M)'s CITU. In March this year, the BMS was also in conflict with Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar over his decision to amend a slew of labour laws in the state. Ironically, Khattar himself is a veteran RSS pracharak.

BMS general secretary Brijesh Upadhyay says that the Vasundhra Raje Scindia government had earlier initiated similar labour reforms in Rajasthan, with similar results. "If it is proved that labour laws are an impediment to industrial growth, the BMS is ready to discuss the thorny subject. But so far our research has showed that it is not labour laws but other issues that pose obstacles to industrial growth," Upadhyay remarks. Nonetheless, the Haryana Assembly passed a Bill to amend the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, allowing industrial units with up to 300 workers to shut down and lay off workers without government permission. Even the Sangh is not immune to the contradictions of labour and capital.

Walter Andersen, director of the South Asia Studies Programme at Johns Hopkins University and author of The Brotherhood in Saffron, argues that the recent Samanvay Baithak "signalled that the RSS aims to speak out more openly on policy issues of significance, rather than just being a mediator of differences and a ready supplier of workers, and that the Narendra Modi government is comfortable with the RSS doing so." Fifty years ago, Golwalkar described a "sacred duty" to preserve "Hindu Society in sound condition". But is that sacred duty compatible with the inevitable compromises and ideological dilutions of democratic politics? And having tasted political power, it remains to be seen just how far the RSS can stretch, accommodate and radically reinvent itself without losing sight of its core or alienating its original constituency.



with Kiran Tare

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By PTI: Beijing, Apr 18 (PTI) The re-entry capsule of Chinas first retrievable microgravity satellite SJ-10 returned safely to Earth today, marking a huge step forward in the Commmunist giants space science research.

The recoverable capsule of the research probe, launched on April 6, touched down at around 4:30 pm (local time) at the planned landing area in Siziwang Banner in north Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, retrievers said.

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The capsule was transferred to the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), which will hand over the equipment aboard the capsule to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for further analysis and assessment.

The re-entry capsule separated from the orbital module of the probe about 15 minutes before its landing. The latter will remain in orbit before burning away.

It is the 24th retrievable satellite China has successfully recovered.

The landing also marked the first time such a satellite was recovered in Siziwang Banner.

During its 12-day journey in space, 19 experiments on microgravity and life sciences were carried out on board.

The experiments included one on the early developments of mouse embryos in microgravity to shed light on human reproduction in space, and another on space radiations effect on the genetic stability of fruit flies and rat cells. PTI KJV MRJ AKJ MRJ

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The blaze was brought under control by the petrol station staff. No one was injured in the incident.

By India Today Web Desk: Three youths set a vending machine at a petrol station on fire after they were refused fuel in Rawli village in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

The incident which was caught on CCTV camera, took place when Rahul, Inderjeet and Ankit were refused fuel by a staff of the Kisan petrol outlet. In a fit of rage, the trio set the vending machine on fire.

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The blaze was brought under control by the petrol station staff. No one was injured in the incident.

Police have arrested Rahul and Inderjeet and is on the lookout for Ankit.

There have been several cases of road rage in the national capital in the past, with some even leading to death. On April 5, a man was allegedly beaten to death by the occupants of an i20 car that hit his motorcyle near Turkman Gate in Darya Ganj. He was with his two kids when the incident occurred and led to an altercation.

Also read | Road rage: 10 cases that explain why Delhi streets are not so cool

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New Zealand Prime Minister John Key (L) addresses a group of leading Chinese entrepreneurs including Jack Ma (R), Chairman of Alibaba Group, at a forum in Beijing on April 18, 2016.[Photo by Chen Yingqun/chinadaily.com.cn]

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key encouraged entrepreneurs from both China and New Zealand to cooperate and invest more in each other's markets during his visit in Beijing on April 18.

Key is currently visiting China to discuss upgrading the existing free trade agreement between the two countries. It's his sixth visit to China as prime minister.

"China is New Zealand's largest export market and the largest source of international students. Food, technology, and the experiences of New Zealand match well with China's needs," said Key.

"Whatever aspects or areas you look at, we see huge opportunities."

Key addressed a group of leading Chinese entrepreneurs including Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba Group, and Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Legend Holdings Ltd, during the China Entrepreneur Club Leaders Forum in Beijing on April 18.

The forum, hosted by the China Entrepreneur Club, a business organization and non-government organization established in 2006, aimed at discussing sustainable developments and potential agreements between the two nations.

Key said one of the key reasons for his visit is to encourage the cooperation between entrepreneurs from both countries.

"In the past few years, bilateral investments between the two countries have grown quickly. We (China and New Zealand) can work together to sell goods and services to each others markets."

Key added that the bilateral trade value currently stands about 20 billion New Zealand dollars, and aims to make it 30 billion by 2020.

Under the witness of John Key and Jack Ma, The New Zealand Trade Enterprise and Alibaba Group held a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony, which will help more New Zealand businesses sell their products to China through Alibaba's platform.

"On a global scale, New Zealand has advanced in technology. Seeing platform like Alibaba, allows us to be excited about the many opportunities to send products and service directly to Chinese consumers," said Key.

China is New Zealand's second largest source for tourism. Last year, about 400,000 Chinese tourists travelled to New Zealand, a yearly increase of 42 percent.

"I expect a 30 percent growth every year. The indigenous culture of New Zealand is a great attraction to Chinese visitors," said Key.
The Ken-Betwa Project will destroy the impossible-to-replicate natural habitat of the Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) effectively 'killing' the 32 resident big cats "quicker and more surely than the poachers did", says conservationist Raghu Chundawat, 56, who was the first to blow the whistle after poachers 'emptied' the park of its tigers in 2008. PTR is special, celebrated as it is the world over as the only tiger sanctuary in the world which was successfully repopulated.

Now consider this: the Ken-Betwa river-linking project will almost entirely be located within the reserve, its reservoir permanently inundating 90 sq km of tiger territory. NWDA officials claim the reservoir behind the Dhaudan Dam will submerge just 5,258 hectares (52.58 sq km) of core forest area, the rest being what is presently protected as a part of PTR's buffer area. Conservationists say NWDA is cleverly omitting a critical detail, which Shyamendra Singh of Ken River Lodge outlines: "The reservoir will effectively bifurcate the reserve, leaving barely 245 sq km of the 542 sq km core forest area available to the tigers." He says this shrunken forest area will be much too small a range for Panna's tigers.

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Chundawat points to another critical detail that could have serious repercussions for the Bundelkhand Tiger Habitat, which spans 200 km. "The reservoir will destroy crucial tiger migration and dispersal corridors," he says. Panna's forest officials, understandably nervous about commenting publicly, told India Today the submergence at Dhaudan is likely to significantly exceed the 90 sq km claimed by NWDA. They predict that 28-30 per cent of the reserve will be submerged. Construction activity to build the dam, two powerhouses and tunnels will entail quarrying, mining and blasting with dynamite over five, even 10 years. The NWDA seems to believe Panna's unique mix of wildlife, its tigers, ghariyals, vultures, leopards, sloth bears will simply bounce back. It sounds like wishful thinking.

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"What is happening is that no state is willing to accept that they have surplus water. So we are doing river basin studies. We are doing an MoU with the European Union and Australia who have done similar work on the Danube and the Murray-Darling, the world's best river basin studies," says Uma Bharti.

Uma Bharti, Union minister for water resources, river development and Ganga Rejuvenation, tells Executive Editor Sandeep Unnithan that the government's ambitious Rs 11 lakh crore project for interlinking rivers (ILR) will transform the country's irrigation and electricity. Excerpts:

Why is your government so keen on pushing the ILR projects?

We are creating 31 new rivers, irrigating 34 million hectares and generation over 34 gigawatts of power. After the Ken-Betwa project, there will be Damanganga-Partapi. This will solve Mumbai's water problems until the year 2060. When the interlinking of rivers came up before the cabinet, the PM told me only one thing, "Uma, only do those projects where you have the consent of the state government... don't force it on state governments."

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We then instituted the Navalawala task force for people's participation. We emphasised on finances, environment and people's participation through command area development (CAD). I have said environment should not be disturbed. We will not be linking Himalayan rivers with rivers on the plains but when same climatic rivers are interlinked, it will not damage biodiversity or aqua-life.



What is happening is that no state is willing to accept that they have surplus water. So we are doing river basin studies. We are doing an MoU with the European Union and Australia who have done similar work on the Danube and the Murray-Darling, the world's best river basin studies.

There has been opposition to the ILR within the NDA too. Maneka Gandhi has said, "Maine hi roka tha Atalji ko is bakwaas se", that she stopped Vajpapee from going ahead with this.

Manekaji was part of the cabinet when the Ken-Betwa project came, but she has not said anything, therefore I would not like to say anything on what she said 10 years back. All cabinet colleagues were present when the first project of the ILR came before the cabinet in July 2014.

The cost of ILR (30 links) is pegged at Rs 5.6 lakh crore (at 2002-03 prices). Where will the funds come from?

ILR will now cost us Rs 11 lakh crore. I have set up a committee headed by a secretary. We'll take resources, see how we can commercialise irrigation, try the PPP mode, or get the private sector involved. We can't depend on just government resources, for this will never get completed then. Any state that has progressed has done so on the basis of irrigation. See Gujarat and MP. If the country has to grow, it will grow only on agro-based industries and not on industrial growth. And irrigation is the backbone of agriculture. If a person earns Rs 50,000 per month through agriculture from an acre now, and if he can earn Rs 5 lakh after this, he'll happily pay for it.

Will Ken-Betwa be completed in the life of your government?

It will take seven years to complete the Ken-Betwa project from the start of construction. We should not link these projects to the life of a government. As our elders put it, you should not worry about enjoying the fruit of the trees you plant.

How many years will it take for the whole project to be completed?

Daman Ganga-Pinjal and Par Tapi-Narmada project reports are ready. The PM has told me that not a single tribal should suffer because of the projects. So these projects too should be completed in seven years. But there is Chambal-Kalisind, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have certain reservations. These four projects can be done in seven years. If you look at the other projects like the Mahanadi in Odisha, actually speaking, it will take time to convince the state governments and complete the studies. It took Australia 40 years to complete the river basin studies of the Murray Darling. I can say with certainty that we can complete these projects in maximum 20 years.

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What about the project-affected people (PAP)?

The states have now increased the irrigation potential (of the ILP canals in their states) and therefore, we are unable to calculate the numbers now. But don't look at the PAP, look at the benefits of this project. We need to focus on giving them a better life. We are working on a CAD model. What was happening until now is that the development of water bodies was not taking place simultaneously. We want to create a milk revolution on both sides of the rivers through animal husbandry projects which don't need lots of land. Even 1 acre will be sufficient (per person). Project-affected people will get priority for resettlement. I have spoken with surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari and asked him to include the 31 ILR canals in the list of 101 inland waterways he is working on. That will give us revenue. I've asked for PAPs to get the first benefits of these projects.

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But given India's past track record in rehabilitation and compensation, shouldn't we be worried?

In the two big projects in India thus far, the Narmada project is considered the best RR project. In Tehri, the rehabilitation was flawed and over one lakh people were disappointed because a bridge could not be built. The people of Pratapnagar were promised a bridge, from 6 km, they were given an 80-km bypass. In the Naramada Sarovar projects, there was politics at play. There were not many project-affected people in Gujarat, but there were in Madhya Pradesh. But the people of MP were unhappy over minor issues, which I fixed in one month after becoming CM in 2003. Digvijay Singh, as CM, was instigating environmentalists... they were playing dirty politics.

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Over 60 per cent of India's current irrigation needs are met from groundwater and small irrigation projects. Experts have also warned that ILR will permanently destroy river courses, our most important source of groundwater recharge.

Groundwater will be recharged through ILR. Even Punjab and Haryana which are heavily irrigated states, and now suffer from falling groundwater tables, will benefit. ILR will also make transport and passenger movement cheaper. Groundwater will be recharged to a large extent. If there are such large water bodies, like we propose with the canals of the ILR, it will recharge the groundwater.

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Dalbir Kaur left no stone unturned to fight for justice for her brother Sarabjit Singh, who was jailed in Pakistan. And now her story will be told through the biopic Sarbjit by Omung Kumar. But if reports are to be believed, an important part of her struggle is missing from the film.

By India Today Web Desk: Dalbir Kaur left no stone unturned to fight for justice for her brother Sarabjit Singh, who was jailed in Pakistan. And now her story will be told through the biopic Sarbjit by Omung Kumar. But if reports are to be believed, an important part of her struggle is missing from the film.

Reportedly, Salman Khan's initiative to help Sarabjit is not a part of the film. In 2012, when Dalbir was fighting for her brother, Bollywood's Bajrangi Bhaijaan extended help to free Sarabjit from the prison.

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Sarabjit strayed into pakistan 3 months after the blasts n was taken in custody as manjit singh, case of mistaken identity.22yrs in jail Salman Khan (@BeingSalmanKhan) July 5, 2012

Dalbir had said, "I am so glad that Salman Khan has taken an initiative on Sarbajit's issue. Woh kafi gambhir hain iss masle ko lekar (Salman is quite serious about this issue). He is not just tweeting, but he is with us until Sarbajit is not released. It's not that he is just tweeting and leaving the issue unsorted."

But according to a report in DNA, an insider has revealed that this won't be a part of the film. Is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan the reason that Salman is not a part of the project? Well, according the the sources, this might be the only reason that such a crucial scene is not included in the film.

"The Salman chapter being dropped perhaps has something to do with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan playing Dalbir. There is no other reason to not include this important part in the film. Salman and Aishwarya are not on talking terms, so it wouldn't have been possible to even get them to face the camera together. In cases where two actors don't want to shoot together, often these scenes are shot separately but in this case, they had to be face-to-face, so the makers decided not to include that incident in the film," a source told DNA.

But the spokesperson of the film has a different story to tell, "This is not part of the film because the film has to convey and show 23 years of Dalbir's struggle and it's not possible to show every incident."

Salman Khan had earlier also tweeted requesting the people of Pakistan to help him with his initiative. He had said, 'Requesting the people of Pakistan to support me to help free Sarabjit who has been in prison since 30 years. Please Allah ka vasta. Help me, help her (Dalbir). It's a personal request to all of you in Pakistan to send Sarabjit back to his family in Punjab. Hope you find it in your hearts to help and to people from all over the world. Thanks for your support. Am planning an online petition. It would be the most amazing gesture, to send Sarabjit back to his family after 30 years. Hope you support me like it's your own cause. Be a part of one family's happiness. Wanted to tweet this for the longest time, saw a pic of Sarabjit's sister, it killed me. Felt really sad for her.'

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Sarbjit is based on Sarabjit Singh, an Indian farmer who was convicted of terrorism and spying in Pakistan and was sentenced to death. He was attacked by inmates at a prison in Lahore in April 2013 and died a few days later.

Directed by Omung Kumar, the film is set to hit the screens on May 20 this year.

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By PTI: From Gurdip Singh

Singapore, Apr 18 (PT) Indian actress Seema Biswas starrer Singapore film, "A Yellow Bird", will be screened at the Critics Week segment of the 69th Festival de Cannes.

Biswas, best known for her portrayal of Phoolan Devi in "Bandit Queen", plays a dejected mother to an ex-convict in the 100-minute film by Singapores Indian origin and award-winning director K Rajagopal.

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It is his first feature film and will be show during May 11 to 22 festival.

This will be the world premiere of the movie where it will compete against six other first and second features for the sections top Nespresso Grand Prize, the France 4 Visionary Award and the Camera dOr, the Channel News Asia reported.

Biswas is the main international actor in the film which has local Indian actor Siva Palakrishnan in the lead role, with Chinese independent film star Huang Lu.

In an interview with PTI in Singapore on September 3, 2015, Biswas said she agreed to act in the film on "the first reading of the very well written script. I was very happy to act in this film."

The film is about an unwelcome homecoming for Siva, a Singaporean-Indian ex-convict haunted by a tragedy in his past as a contraband smuggler, as he is released after eight years behind bars. Dejected by his mothers silence, Siva leaves home in search of his ex-wife and daughter who do not want to be found.

"A Yellow Bird" is on "social realism", said director Rajagopal, who has made a series of short film.

Rajagopa, 5l, has previously won the Singapore International Film Festivals Special Jury Prize three years in a row, with "I Cant Sleep Tonight" (1995), "The Glare" (1996) and "Absence" (1997).

He has also won other awards and accolades for his other short films, including "Timeless", "The New World" and "Brother"; as well as his contributions to the film anthologies "7 Letters" and "Lucky 7".

It was the only film from Asia, among 15 other projects by emerging directors from around the world, to be selected for the 10th CinAfondations LAtelier last year, which provides films with access to international co-productions to accelerate their completion.

It is also the very first Singaporean film to be selected for this prestigious segment of Cannes. PTI GS BK

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By PTI: New Delhi, Apr 18 (PTI) Indias Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, which was several years in the making, has now caught the attention of foreign buyers with Sri Lanka and Egypt evincing interest in the indigenously built fighter jet.

Sri Lanka had recently rejected Pakistans JF-17 aircraft built with Chinese help, while Egypt had last year signed a contract for 24 French-made Rafale fighter jets.

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The two countries are interested in the current version of the Tejas and not the upgraded one which will be rolled out later.

However, state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the manufacturer of Tejas, is focusing on delivering the aircraft to the IAF first.

"While there is an interest which has been shown (by other countries), let us get the product first to our own customer. The confidence that will come to others when our own Air Force flies it will be immense. So at first, we should at least meet the initial requirement of the IAF," HAL chairman T Suvarna Raju told PTI.

Refusing to share information on which are the countries that have evinced interest in Tejas, he expressed confidence in his marketing team and said they are equipped to take forward the talks. However, Defence sources said that the two countries which have evinced interest in Tejas were Sri Lanka and Egypt.

He said the "current version is more than enough" for smaller nations.

Two things that go in favour of the Tejas are its lower cost and flying ability.

"We have proved its flying ability and the aircraft, for that class, is a terrific one. We did take some time but we need to remember that DRDO and us did everything from the scratch," Raju said.

Raju said that the upgraded version of Tejas, with Active Electrically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Unified Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite, mid-air refuelling capacity and beyond the vision range missiles, will cost between Rs 275 crore and Rs 300 crore.

Sources said enquiries by foreign countries came during the Bahrain air show in January, the first time that Tejas flew outside the country. MORE PTI SAP SK SK

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Salman Khan is known for his rage and anger and when it comes to media, the Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor doesn't hesitate to voice his opinion. There have been instances when the Dabangg actor has lashed out at journalists in public. But now it seems that Salman has changed his approach.

By India Today Web Desk: Salman Khan is known for his rage and anger and when it comes to media, the Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor doesn't hesitate to voice his opinion. There have been instances when the Dabangg actor has lashed out at journalists in public. But now it seems that Salman has changed his approach.

According to a report on Spotboye.com, a photojournalist was clicking the picture of the Wanted actor when he was shooting on the sets of his upcoming film Sultan. And when Salman's bodyguard spotted him, Salman decided to confront him, but this time in a calm but intimidating manner. He asked the photojournalist not to chase him. Reportedly, Salman Khan got irked when his wrestler look from Sultan was leaked and went viral.

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This is not the first time, Salman has confronted a photojournalist. Looks like the scuffle between photographers and Salman Khan is ages old. The actor was boycotted by the photographers after the press conference of his 2014 film Kick, as he had misbehaved with one of the journalist at the event. Photographers wanted Khan to apologize for the bouncers' and his bodyguard's behaviour, but the actor had refused to do so.

In an earlier interview, Salman had also said, "I am fine with them, I am open to getting clicked but if one wants to take pictures then it has to be done respectfully. It can't become like a fish market." He had also tweeted:

this is wat I call a stand, the photographers r gonna loose out on wrk, but hv still taken a decision not to take my pics, happy fr them . Salman Khan (@BeingSalmanKhan) July 14, 2014

The ban on Salman Khan was lifted when the 50-year-old actor had invited some freelance photographers for his sister Arpita Khan's wedding.

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After the attack on the airbase in Pathankot on January 2, India had in February written to the UN calling for immediate action to list Masood Azhar under the UN Sanctions Committee.

By Press Trust of India: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today strongly raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi the issue of China blocking its bid to have JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the UN.

Swaraj took up the issue with Wang at a bilateral meeting here on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.

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Official sources said the issue was raised by Swaraj besides deliberations on a range of issues.

Earlier this month, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

Last July, China had similarly halted India's move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying its stand was "based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness" with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar last week had said in New Delhi that India has taken up at a "fairly high level" with China the issue of Beijing blocking its bid to have Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN but the issue will not "overflow" into other areas of bilateral ties.

China had defended its decision, saying that it acts on such issues based on facts and rules in an "objective and just manner".

After the attack on the airbase in Pathankot on January 2, India had in February written to the UN calling for immediate action to list Azhar under the UN Sanctions Committee.

The Indian submission was considered by the Counter- Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) for technical aspects of the evidence provided.

The technical team then with the support of the US, the UK and France had sent it to all the members. All were told that if there are no objections, the designation will be announced after the expiry of the deadline but just hours before the deadline, China requested the UN committee to keep on hold the designation.

Earlier this week, India had slammed the use of "hidden veto" and demanded accountability, saying the world body's general members are never informed of the reason for not acceding to requests for sanctioning terrorists.

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"The procedures of unanimity and anonymity of the al-Qaeda, Taliban and ISIS Sanctions Committees need to be revisited. The procedures of unanimity and anonymity result in a lack of accountability," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had told the UN Security Council in an open debate on 'Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts' on Thursday.

Swaraj also discussed a range of issues of mutual interest with Wang.

In her opening remarks, Swaraj said the relations have seen significant improvement in the last one year and favoured frequent meetings between the two sides to step up engagement.

"We are meeting after a long gap and I think we should meet quite frequently. Because things are moving very fast in the world and if we meet frequently, we will be able to deliberate on those," she said.

The Chinese Foreign Minister said both the countries need to stay focused on expanding the ties and should align "our strategies" so as to contribute significantly to development of Asia and the world.

"China and India are two major countries and two big neighbours. It is important for us to maintain very close cooperation. We are two developing countries and emerging markets and we both face the challenging task of promoting economic development and realize national rejuvenation," he said.

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He further said, "We are strategic partners and as the world's economic and political centre is shifting towards Asia-Pacific. It is all the more important for both the countries to join hands because our cooperation will have far reaching and positive implications to the region and the world at large."

"So we need to stay focus on growing our relationship, align our strategies and step up our partnership so that we can jointly contribute to Asia and world's development," Wang said.

Swaraj and Wang are in Moscow to attend the Russia, India, China (RIC) Foreign Ministers meeting.

The External Affairs Minister arrived in Moscow from Tehran last night where she paid a two-day visit.

Also Read:

China blocks India's bid to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar, says he's not a terrorist



Pathankot attack: NIA issues arrest warrants against Masood Azhar, 3 other Pakistani handlers



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Volumes have been written about the Second World War. Indeed, shelves in military libraries and bookshops groan under the weight of hefty tomes propounding upon various aspects of that global conflict, ranging from the tactical to the strategic and from the economic to the esoteric. Yet, in the midst of this mass of literature, a reader would be hard-pressed to find much that dealt with the part played by India in this war, or the effect that the war, in turn, had on India. The few books that deal with India's role tend to be purely 'military' histories and provide the reader with a fragmented account at best. The war is often imagined and understood, both within the subcontinent and without, as an event of little direct significance to modern South Asian history. Apart from a vague and amorphous sense of the role of the Indian National Army in influencing the course of the war on the Burma front, in terms that are not clearly defined, the average citizen of this country has very little knowledge or understanding of the immense role that the conflict had in shaping the events that led to Independence and Partition in 1947. That these events were influenced by the supply of material and manpower by India towards the prosecution of the war effort in battlefields both far and near is even less understood.

India's contribution to the war effort is underscored by a glance at the map of the world in 1942. Of the world's four major battlefronts-East and North Africa and the Middle East; Burma and South East Asia; Western Europe and the Pacific-the first two were located on India's strategic flanks and were fought and won largely by Indian troops. India provided the Allies with both a supply base and a springboard to victory against the Germans and Italians in North Africa and the Western Desert as well as against the Japanese in Burma and Southeast Asia.

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Militarily, the Indian army expanded to some 2.5 million men under arms by the end of the war. It was the largest volunteer army in the history of human conflict. Following up on Indian nationalist demands arising from the immense contribution that India and its army had made towards an Allied victory in the First World War, the colonial authorities had gradually and grudgingly implemented a process of 'Indianisation' of the officer corps and the professionalisation of the army. These processes were hastened by the onset of the war and, by 1945, India's army divisions were acknowledged as among the best fighting formations in the world.

By the time it ended, Indian servicemen had served in nearly every theatre of war, from Europe to Tunisia, Eritrea, Somaliland, North Africa, Iraq, Iran, Burma, Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong, to name a few, suffering over 90,000 casualties. Indian muleteers were present with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France in the summer of 1940 and were among those evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk to England. Indian supply corps drivers kept the lifeline to Soviet Russia open through Iran when the Russian Caucasian Army was threatened by the German offensive towards Baku in 1942-43. Indian soldiers battled Rommel's Panzers at Bir Hakeim and Tobruk in the Western Desert and, as a part of Slim's 'Forgotten Army', pushed the Japanese back from the gates of India while their comrades relentlessly rolled up the Germans in Italy. Indian airmen flew in the skies over Europe and Burma during turbulent times, while the Indian Navy came into its own battling Japanese raiders in the Indian Ocean. A small yet significant number of prisoners of war, led by Indian-commissioned officers, switched allegiances and fought alongside the Japanese as part of the Indian National Army on the Burma front; an even smaller number chose to serve in the German Indian Legion in Europe.

It is against this backdrop of a global war that the momentous churning process described in the book took place in India. As the war progressed, events were unfolding which would have a profound impact on the course of Indian history. One of a brace of recent books viewing the war from an Indian perspective, this magisterial work explores how the role of the Indian army was instrumental in shaping not only the outcome of the war, but also the decisions that led to India's independence soon after.

The author of the book, Srinath Raghavan, is fast emerging as one of the leading Indian historians of his generation. In holistically examining for the very first time the role that India and its army played in influencing the course of the war and the countervailing pressures that the war in turn exerted upon them, he displays a scholarship breathtaking in it sweep and depth. The sheer vastness of the canvas that he so effortlessly covers includes the myriad military, political, social and economic aspects that shaped the story of India's role in a world at war.

The author traces the thread of domestic politics, and places it in the broader strategic and international context. He shows how Indian politics impinged upon international strategic concerns, and examines the manner in which the enormous material and manpower mobilisation was managed. He looks at the resultant social and economic impact that this had upon Indian society, including the empowerment of traditionally marginalised social groups.

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Shaped as this period is by the monolithic narrative of the nationalist freedom struggle, Raghavan's work sheds new light on familiar events and will contribute immensely to a better and more nuanced understanding of this period of India's history. The book serves to fill a gap in existing historiography by providing the reader with a comprehensive narrative, covering varied dimensions of both the home and the war fronts. The rationale behind why such an understanding is both important and relevant to a contemporary audience seeking to grasp the context is explained in the author's own words-"The story of India's war is also central to understanding the country's rise on the world stage. India is now acknowledged to be an emerging global power-one that could buttress an open and liberal international order. Yet the rise of India was first foretold during the Second World War, when a desperately poor country mobilised to an astonishing degree and simultaneously fought for its own freedom and that of the world. As we ponder India's emerging role on the global canvas, the story of its Second World War provides the crucial starting point."

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Chhina is an author and leading historian of the former British Indian Army and the Indian Air Force

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Russians perhaps do not need a Cold War 2.0 to display their anti-west feelings and show how much they revere their President Vladimir Putin. This 'President Cafe' has mocking pictures of the world leaders and the floor mats have the American flag on them.

By India Today Web Desk: The 2014 Ukrainian crisis sparked tension between Russia and the United States of America and it is being speculated if the tiff between the two power blocs is the beginning of a second Cold War.

But, Russians perhaps do not need a Cold War 2.0 to display their anti-west feelings and show how much they revere their President Vladimir Putin.

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In the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk ( which is 4,000 miles away from Moscow), a Putin-themed 'President Cafe' has been opened last month.

And this is not a normal cafe that just pays a tribute to the country's President, the owners made a point to mock the other world president's to establish Putin's superiority.

See the graffiti pictures of US President Barack Obama, British PM David Cameron and Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel below.

Source: Reuters

The 26-year-old co-owner Dmitry Zhdanov however said that he is neutral towards Western politicians. "This is just business, nothing personal," he told Reuters.

There are photographs of Putin from different stages of his life displayed in the shape of a heart. From childhood pictures to his KGB days and finally his Kremlin years, it clearly is a visual treat for all the Putin lovers.





Source: Reuters

What seems a little too much, are the toilets which have the American flag as floor mats.





Source: Reuters

The toilet door has a "Block NATO" sign and the toilet paper is printed with portraits of Barack Obama.





Source: Reuters

The cafe also serves dishes such as "President's Salad" and cocktails in the colors of the Russian flag. The high on patriotism cafe plays the Russian national anthem at midday.

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The BJP leader was also trolled on Twitter after her selfies went viral on social media.

During her visit to Latur on Sunday, Munde was seen frequently taking out her phone and posing for selfies against a parched backdrop.

By India Today Web Desk: Surrounded by controversy over her selfies taken in drought-hit Latur, Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde today skipped the state Cabinet meet, citing "heat stroke".

The Maharashtra Rural Development Minister has come under fire from ruling ally Shiv Sena and the opposition for clicking selfies during her visit to Marathwada. She took the selfies with the dried-up Manjara river as the backdrop while on a visit to the parched region to review desilting work on the river bed.

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"Maharashtra is facing severe drought. Women and even kids are going far away from their home for getting water. And in such a serious situation, the ministers are clicking selfies," Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande said.

"This could have been avoided. It lessens the impact of such tours. Entire Maharashtra is reeling under serious drought. There was no need of selfie. It is mainly women who are suffering carrying water and a woman takes selfies. It is strange," she added.

The BJP leader was also trolled on Twitter after her selfies went viral on social media.

According to an official present at the site, Munde started clicking selfies with work going on in the background and then posted them on a social networking site. "Selfie with trench of said barrage (in) Manjara (river).. relief to Latur," she had tweeted.

Congress spokesperson Al-Nasser Zakaria termed the 'selfie moment' as a "shameful act" by a cabinet minister. "It is shameful that she has to post such selfies on social networking sites in a bid to show people that she is indeed concerned about the welfare of people. We need the present ministers to be less media savvy and do more work at the ground level which will definitely show in future," he said.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said taking selfies instead of conducting review meetings is like making a mockery of farmers' woes. "This government is not serious about drought. There was no planning to tackle drought even where there was sufficient data available months ahead. She is the Guardian Minister of Beed and Latur and yet never held a review meeting in the last one year. Now making this tour looks like a junket, she is mocking the farmers," he said.

Last week, Maharashtra's revenue minister Eknath Khadse had faced flak for deciding to take a chopper to a village in drought-hit Latur district, leading to the wastage of nearly 10,000 litres of water for a special helipad.

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Abdulle had boarded the Seattle-bound aircraft on Wednesday when a flight attendant told her she cannot be allowed to remain on board.

By India Today Web Desk: In an incident that hints at racial profiling, a woman wearing a hijab was reportedly removed from a Southwest Airline flight in Chicago last week after she requested a seat change as she "did not feel comfortable" with the accompanying passenger.

Hakima Abdulle, a Muslim woman of Somalian descent from Maryland, said she was removed from the flight bound for Seattle "without any credible explanation".

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All she wanted was her seat changed, Abdulle said, but she ended up being de-boarded.

This is not the first time the carrier has been involved in such an incident. On a previous occasion an Iraqi man claimed that he was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight after a fellow passenger complained about him speaking in Arabic.

Abdulle had boarded the Seattle-bound aircraft on Wednesday when a flight attendant told her she cannot be allowed to remain on board, Zainab Chaudry, an official with the Council on American- Islamic Relations, said at a news conference.

Airport police then escorted Abdulle to the ticket counter, where she had to wait for several hours before boarding the next flight, The Baltimore Sun quoted Chaudry as saying.

The flight attendant and Southwest employees inside the terminal were unable to provide "any reasonable explanation" for their action, Chaudry said, adding that Abdulle, who speaks little English, was in tears and "suffered extreme distress and anxiety as a result of this experience".

When police asked the flight attendant at the gate if there was any viable reason why Abdulle had been taken off the plane, the flight attendant reportedly replied, "No" and said the lady did "not feel comfortable" with the passenger.

Brandy King, a spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, said the "information available, collected at the time of the event, indicates that our employees followed proper procedure in response to this customer's actions".

"We are not in the business of removing passengers from flights without reason," King added.

"She was humiliated because of her religion and the way she dressed." Abdulle's husband Abukar Fidaw said.

ALSO READ: Muslim women learn self-defence as anti-Muslim hate crimes rise in US



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The trailer of Ram Gopal Varma's Veerappan was released on Monday (April 18). The Hindi film is slated for a May 27 release.

By India Today Web Desk: Ram Gopal Varma will soon entertain viewers with the story behind Asia's biggest manhunt - that to capture and kill Veerappan - in Hindi. The trailer of Varma's next film Veerappan, the Tamil version of which was titled Killing Veerappan, was released on Monday (April 18). Within a few minutes of the release of the trailer, the hashtag '#VeerappanTrailer' climbed the trend-charts on Twitter in India.

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ALSO READ: Nowhere in the world can a man who looks like this be a superstar, says Ram Gopal Varma about Rajinikanth

The film is Varma's attempt at recounting the incidents that led up to Operation Cocoon, the mission to capture and kill the Terror of the South Veerappan. The sandalwood smuggler was chased for 20 years through the forests of Tamil Nadu, during the course of which Veerappan struck terror in the hearts of authorities with several murders and kidnappings.

In 2004, the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force, led by K Vijay Kumar killed Veerappan and some of his associates. The entire operation was termed Operation Cocoon.

The trailer of Veerappan begins with a quote by Voltaire: A society gets a criminal it deserves. A comparison with Osama Bin Laden follows; how it took 10 years to nab and kill Osama, while Veerappan made authorities chase him for 20 years before being killed.

Veerappan sees Sandeep Bharadwaj essaying the titular role. The film also stars Shiva Rajkumar, Lisa Ray Sadh Orhan and Yagna Shetty in key roles. Veerappan is slated for a May 27 release:

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Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday did not announce former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh as the party's chief ministerial candidate for 2017 Assembly elections, activating rumour mills.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday did not announce former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh as the party's chief ministerial candidate for 2017 Assembly elections, activating rumour mills. However, informally, Rahul endorsed Singh as the captain of the Punjab Congress.

"It is the tradition of the Congress to make such an announcement only after the elections. Captain Amarinder is obviously the leader of the party, being the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee," Rahul told a group of senior editors during an off-camera interaction later on.

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Party leaders said Singh's nomination as the PCC chief was done after much thought and said too much should not be read into the event. Party sources said at least a dozen leaders favoured Captain as the CM candidate. However, Rahul's alleged move has come as a major disappointment for the Captain's camp.

Interestingly, Rahul had indirectly announced Captain as the candidate in March. "I ask Amarinder Singh to deal with the drug issue sternly on a priority basis when you form the government since the problem of drug is big issue for the inhabitants of the state," Rahul had said.

While Congress leaders are silent on the sudden change in Rahul's mind, those in the opposite camp refused to come on record and said a number of political developments have taken place which may or may not be in Captain's favour.

"Captain has pushed his opponents to the brink. Suspension of former Congress Working Committee member Jagmeet Singh Brar besides merger of People's Party of Punjab and Akali splinter group SAD (Longowal) are being looked as hasty decisions. Leaders from these parties will demand tickets.

Moreover, Rahul has said the party will focus on young leaders. The party may announce a young face as the CM candidate," a senior Congress leader, requesting anonymity, said.

AAP MP Bhagwant Mann ridiculed the campaign Punjab Da Captain, saying the person whom the party is not trusting as the CM candidate cannot lead Punjab. "He is not even Congress' Captain yet as Rahul has said it is not confirmed that Amarinder would be the CM candidate. Earlier, Amrinder arm-twisted Rahul Gandhi and forced to declare him Congress chief in Punjab and now it is Rahul's turn to pay in same currency." Mann said.

Also read:

BJD leader takes dig at Rahul, says Nitishs alliance plan in

Rahul slams Akali govt for not being serious on Pb drug issue



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Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is all set to surprise travellers, locals and photographers on the night of World Heritage Day. This is how.

By India Today Web Desk: If you are in Mumbai these days as a traveller, there's a pleasant surprise waiting for you. All you need to is make space for enough photographs in your camera and reach Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) aka Victoria Terminus (VT) this evening. Wondering why?

On the occasion of World Heritage Day, CST will be specially illumined tonight. Now, won't that be a delight for any travel photographer? This morning, Narendra Patil, Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railways tweeted, "CST #Mumbai world heritage site will celebrate #WorldHeritageDay by special illumination tonite, a photo opportunity." This information was further validated by a retweet by the Ministry of Railways.

Picture courtesy: Twitter/@Narendra_IRTS

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Although, CST has been decorated by special lighting on several occasions in the past, including the Independence Day, the illumination of this monument on World Heritage Day might end up becoming a rare spectacle for travellers and locals alike.

One of the busiest railway stations in Mumbai, the CST building was built way back in 1887 to commemorate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria. Designed by Frederick William Stevens, the architecture of this station has influences from Victorian Italianate Gothic Revival architecture and traditional Mughal buildings.

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Givaudan sales rise 5.8%

In the first three months of 2016, Givaudan recorded sales of CHF1,152 million, an increase of 5.8% on a like for like basis, and 5.6% in Swiss francs compared to the previous year.

In the first three months of 2016, Givaudan recorded sales of CHF1,152 million, an increase of 5.8% on a like for like basis, and 5.6% in Swiss francs compared to the previous year.

Givaudan said it started the year with a good business momentum, whilst the project pipeline and win rates were sustained at a high level. This good growth was achieved against relatively low comparables in 2015.

The company says its 2020 ambition is to create further value through profitable, responsible growth. Capitalising on the success of the 2011-2015 strategy, Givaudans 2020 ambition is built on the three strategic pillars of growing with its customers; delivering with excellence; and partnering for shared success.

Ambitious financial targets are a fundamental part of Givaudans strategy, the company said. It aims to outpace the market with 4-5% sales growth and a free cash flow of 12-17% of sales, both measured as an average over the five-year period of its strategy cycle.

The Flavour Division reported sales of CHF591 million, a growth of 3.5% on a like-for-like basis and an increase of 3.4% in Swiss francs.

Despite what the company described as challenging economic conditions in the high growth markets of Africa and Eastern Europe, the Flavours Division achieved good growth. Sales were positively impacted by new wins and existing business expansion in the high growth markets of Argentina, Brazil, India and Indonesia coupled with strong performance in the mature markets of Japan, Korea and North America. Beverages, Snacks and Sweet Goods segments contributed to the overall expansion.

Sales for Asia Pacific grew 6.7% on a like-for-like basis. The high growth markets increased as a result of healthy new wins and moderate existing business growth in India, Indonesia and Thailand. The mature markets also showed strong growth contributed by new wins in North Asia, while Oceania was flat. Growth across all segments with strength coming from Beverages, Dairy, Snacks and Sweet Goods as a result of new wins and existing business growth.

Sales in Europe, Africa and the Middle East decreased 3.0% on a like-for-like basis. A challenging economic environment across the region contributed to the decline. The high growth markets of Africa were impacted by declines in the Sub-Saharan region while any gains in Eastern Europe were offset by decreases in Russia and Turkey. The mature markets of Western Europe exhibited lower sales in France, Germany and the UK.

Latin America increased 17.2% on a like-for-like basis with strong growth in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay, offset by lower sales in Mexico and continued economic challenges in Venezuela. New wins and existing business growth were realised across all segments with strong performance coming from the Beverages, Savoury and Snacks.

Sales in North America increased by 3.2% on a like-for-like basis. On the back of strong results in 2015, the regions performance was attributed to double-digit growth in Dairy coupled with strong single-digit growth in Savoury and Snacks as a result of new wins and growth of the existing business.
Insurance Back EUROINS Romania completes RON 200 million capital increase

Romanian non-life insurer EUROINS announces the completion of the capital increase of RON 200 million.



"This is the solid proof of the full support of the shareholders of the company and commitment to succeed on the Romanian market", the company announced in a press release.



With the RON 200 million capital increase, EUROINS Romania fulfills the basic capital requirement according to the new Solvency II regime, the company representatives added.



The procedures for the registration of the RON 200 million capital increase will be started after the market regulator approves the financial transaction.



EUROINS INSURANCE GROUP is one of the largest independent groups operating in the CEE and SEE insurance markets. The company is focused on providing a full range of insurance products in the areas of general, health and life insurance. Sofia-based group operates in seven European countries, has more than 7% market share in Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia, and in 2014 initiated operations in Greece. The group has over 2 million clients, 1,400 employees and annual revenues of over EUR 250 million.



EUROINS INSURANCE GROUP is a subsidiary of EUROHOLD BULGARIA - leading Bulgarian company, listed on BSE-Sofia and WSE. EUROHOLD BULGARIA operates across the CEE and SEE, focused on non-banking financial services and asset management.





Author: Andreea RADU on 18.04.2016





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Insurance Back Opportunities, challenges and profitability on the motor insurance segment, analyzed during IIF 2016 - "Motor insurance - the road towards profitability"

The latest developments in regulations and legal issues concerning motor insurance, opportunities and challenges, as well as new technologies supporting this insurance segment are among the themes analyzed during IIF 2016 - "Motor insurance - the road towards profitability". The event, which takes place between April 17-19 in Istanbul, is organized by XPRIMM in cooperation with the Istanbul Underwriting Center (IUC) and with the official support of the Insurance Association of Turkey (TSB).



The Forum is supported by VIENNA Insurance Group, JLT Re and TRUST Re as Main Partners, and by FRISS as Partner.



Mehmet Akif EROGLU, General Secretary TSB, Mariusz WICHTOWSKI, Chairman of the Executive Board, Polish Motor Insurers Bureau, Sergej SIMONITI, President of the Council of Experts, Insurance supervision Agency, Menekse UCAROGLU, President of the Board, IUC, and Richard NATHSCHLAEGER, Managing Director, AUDATEX, are just a few of the well-known international professionals that participate as keynote speakers during the event.



The debates taking place during the first day of IIF 2016 - "Motor insurance - the road towards profitability" focus on the current issues in the motor insurance industry, trends and challenges on the CEE & CIS motor insurance markets, as well as profitability on the motor insurance segment.

Mehmet Akif EROGLU, General Secretary, Insurance Association of Turkey: The rules and regulations governing the Turkish insurance market are in compliance with the EU norms. The sector is highly regulated and supervised. The authority and the association have been working on the implementation of the Solvency II regime.

One of the challenges in Turkey is that the general perception of the insurance market - so we need to work on customer satisfaction;

More than 75,000 people currently work in the insurance industry in Turkey;

We have achieved a 41% increase in the premium production between 2010 and 2015 in USD. 72% of the market capital is owned by international companies;

24% of the total premiums written by the Turkish companies come from MTPL, which generated 2,3 billion USD in losses in 2015;

The market had 92 million USD profit after tax in 2015 in comparison with 634 million USD in 2014 because of MTPL as the claims ratio reached 138% so non-life companies are losing money;

1 out of every 3 policies sold in Turkey is a MTPL policy; Over 15,9 million MTPL policies have been sold in 2015 in the country;

As a trend - in recent years, distribution through banks has increased and has now reached 79% in the life sector and 15% in non-life because of profitability issues;

We do not expect that insurance companies in Turkey will obtain a lot of profits from the MTPL segment. Chris HALLIDAY, Senior Consultant, TOWERS WATSON:

Significant bodily injuries claims have been affecting the Turkish market in recent years due to slow payments, length of courts processes, claims management activity and "at fault" liability;

This caused a significant challenge for actuaries in predicting and in reserving. A lot of the profitability issues on the market are derived from reserving as 90% of all reserves made in 2015 are for bodily injuries, in comparison with about 10% in 2010;

However, a new piece of legislation will look to change things around - which will also include a system of direct compensation. Reporting requirements in the new law should improve outcomes for claimants and insurers, to the benefit of consumers;

MTPL prices are rapidly increasing, but at the same time CASCO prices are getting lower as competition increases on this segment;



The challenge for the insurance industry is the protection of the population, of injured parties - when speaking about MTPL. Increased bodily injuries claims are putting pressure on the system. Mariusz WICHTOWSKI, Chairman of the Executive Board, Polish Motor Insurers Bureau:

MTPL has the biggest impact on all non-life insurance markets in Europe;

The Green Card system handles around 400,000 claims every year, worth around EUR 2 billion. The system in every country has only one aim: consumer protection. The consumer must be protected by law, as the injured party;

But who should pay for the insolvency of an insurance company? The answer is simple: the other remaining insurance companies which basically means that the CUSTOMERS are the ones that will cover the costs in the end. So every insolvency generates an increase in the costs for the customers;

Insolvency of insurance companies can be happen everywhere, not only in Eastern Europe - but Guarantee Funds should be equipped with sufficient funds to cover these situations;

The authorities do not have any right to influence directly the MTPL tariffs but they have the obligation to check the level of the reserves which will make insurers properly price the risk;

Insurance companies should be proactive and cooperate with the regulators and to understand the competition among players does not exclude cooperation between themselves.

Alexandra MARX, Junior Underwriter Motor Fleet, UNIQA Insurance Group, Austria:

The future of motor insurance belongs to new technologies, especially since the eCall Directive, which will be introduced in March 2018, means that cars will be equipped with telematics devices;

UNIQA started in 2008 with the introduction of telematics equipment, which rolled out in Czech and Hungary, as well as in Albania and Kosovo;

In the CEE region the question is if the market is really ready for this. Do we have the right cultural mindset? Also, we need to take into account the fact that premium levels in CEE are below the ones in existing telematics markets like UK, US or Italy.

Sergej SIMONITI, President of the Council of Experts, Insurance Supervisory Agency, Slovenia:

As regulators, we have somehow a delicate role on the MTPL market - as we need to make sure that the customers, the injured persons, are properly compensated but, at the same time, to see when insurance companies are bleeding money;

The EU position is that there should be no regulation on MTPL premiums, but in theory there is also a strong case for regulation, as this line of business is in the public interest. So, at the end of the day, this is a political decision;

In Austria, the MTPL sector was deregulated in the late 80s while Slovenia did it in 1997 and Croatia in 2013. The market in Kosovo is still regulated;

Deregulation works only if it is replaced by competition and if certain steps are taken: building-up expertise, improving the reserving standards, removing commissioning regulation, introducing transparency regulation and proper reporting etc. Strong supervision and consumer awareness are key to deregulating a MTPL market.





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[galerie|IIF-2016-Motor-Insurance-The-Road-Towards-Profitability]

Author: Alexandru CIUNCAN on 18.04.2016





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Insurance Back The latest issue of MOTOR Insurance Report was officially launched

The latest issue of MOTOR Insurance Report, the specialized magazine focusing on the motor insurance markets in CEE, CIS and SEE, was officially launched during IIF 2016 - "Motor insurance - the road towards profitability", the event taking place between April 17-19 in Istanbul, Turkey.



The magazine covers the financial results reported in 2015 for the motor insurance markets from over 30 markets, as well as other relevant statistics, including number of road accidents, persons killed and injured by year in the CEE/ SEE countries, road vehicles fleet's structure, as well as sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.



Moreover, MOTOR Insurance Report also includes various articles analyzing trends and opportunities on the CEE, SEE and CIS markets, as well as interviews with two well-known international specialists: Mauro CANTONI, Vice President Insurance, OCTO Telematics S.p.a., as well as Dante CAFARELLI, Insurance Leader, Italy, IoT and Digital Transformation Leader, Europe IBM Italy.



Last but not least, taking into account the fact that the self-driving cars are just around the corner, and their implications will be tremendous for the insurance industry, the magazine includes a special analysis focusing on autonomous cars and self-driving liability.





Author: Adina TUDOR on 18.04.2016





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The AmeriKat keeping her ears peeled for

the possibility of major reform for

patent disputes in the ITC

"Recent alarming statistics indicate that patent assertion entities, commonly referred to as patent trolls, have used the ITC to exploit our patent laws. These ITC cases can result in injunctions that can keep imported goods out of the U.S. market. There are certain steps that the ITC can take to correct these problems and the Committee looks forward to a thorough examination of these potential patent litigation reform solutions." (see full statement here)

"In recent years, however, the International Trade Commission has been co-opted as a forum to assert weak or poorly-issued patents against American businesses. We look forward to hearing from the witnesses on how we can reform this process to avoid unnecessary and costly litigation."

Chairman Issa starts questioning in the latest patent troll

focused legislative effort

"For example, as ITC case law continues to evolve, NPEs, whose entire business model depends on litigation, may find it more difficult to establish that there is a domestic industry that would be threatened by the importation of a particular product, as is required under Section 337 of the Tariff Act.In addition, the ITC has begun a pilot project, which it proposes to codify and expand, allowing the Commission to identify potentially case-dispositive issues when an investigation begins, and direct the presiding judge to issue an Initial Determination of those issues within 100 days. If used to its full extent and made permanent, this may help weed out weak claims at an early stage and discourage many others from even being filed. Indeed, recent statistics indicate that filings by NPEs has dropped from its peak between 2008 and 2011."

John Thorne of Kellog Huber Hansen - injunctions may

be the appropriate remedy, but not always. The ITC's remedy

is almost "always" an injunction (or exclusion order)

Mark Whitaker of

Morrison & Foerster says the stats

tell a different story...

Fiona Scott Morton of Yale explains

that the ITC's remedies are

about leverage,

not equity

What will be the future of

patent disputes at the US ITC?

"It seems to be very questionable why we have a situation where one body can issue decrees that flaunt the normal equitable considerations that an Article III court would impose. Why would you have this dual jurisdiction where you cannot at least stay [the ITC case]. You should develop one body of case law and enable the normal equitable principles to apply."

of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committeheld a hearing to determine whether the way patent disputes are handled by International Trade Commission ( ITC ) is fair to litigants, beneficial to the US economy and complements or conflicts with the work of the US district courts. Why the interest? Trolls of course! In statement, Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (Republican - Vermont) explained Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa (Republican - California) continued:The hearing was directed to the proposed Trade Protection Not Troll Protection Act ( H.R. 4829 ) which was introduced in the 114th Congress at the end of March (it had previously been introduced in 2014). The ITC has a "domestic industry" requirement. This means that the ITC only has jurisdiction over products protected by a patent where the complainant can show that, with respect to those products, there is a significant investment in plant or equipment, employment of labor or capital or substantial investment in exploitation, including engineering, R&D or licensing. Non-practicing entities (NPEs) make use of the licensing requirement. The bill would amend the provision by requiring a higher threshold for the licensing prong by demanding that complainants show that there is a "substantial investment" in licensing activities that lead to "the adoption and development of articles that incorporate the patent..." The bill would also require complainants who rely on the licensing prong to join one or more of its licensees in as a co-complaint to qualify under the domestic industry requirement.Chairman Issa opened the session making the point that where a district court may not order a permanent injunction in certain circumstances following, the ITC could still make an exclusionary order (see recent report on Fordham IP panel on patent injunctions here ). Expressing frustration at two examples -and. Chairman Issa said the issue boiled down to the question of whether it should be the case that companies like Broadcom and Qualcomm could use the power of the ITC when they did not need to do so (i.e. they could have obtained effective remedies in the district court). The only purpose, he said, of using the ITC was to act as leverage to bring about a settlement which have otherwise taken longer to achieve in district court. Chairman Issa continued by acknowledging that the ITC has a reason to exist and a role, but that it was "hoped through this hearing and likely legislation" that that these issues will be clarified. Parties, especially trolls, should not be able to simultaneously leverage litigation in all three venues - district, PTO or ITC - if one venue is appropriate.The Committee last considered the topic in 2013 in the context of abusive patent litigation. Testimony before the Committee was that patent trolls had started to flood the ITC followingas they were unable to obtain essentially automatic injunctions from the district courts (some estimates suggested that it reduced their chances of obtaining injunctive relief to one in three). The ITC does not apply theanalysis and an exclusion order is almost automatic in the case of an infringement finding. Trolls were therefore exploiting this "death-knell" to pressure defendants into settling frivolous cases. Since that hearing, the ITC has taken steps to address this issue. Congressman Nadler ( Democrat - New York ) explained these steps as follows:Deanna Okun, Former Chairman of the ITC and now Partner at Adduci, Mastriani & Schaumberg stated that the ITC and Section 337 is functioning as Congress intended and that proposals to amend the statute were "misguided". She pointed to the fact that, the Section 337 jurisdiction is essential in providing protection to US intellectual property rights owners. It would send the wrong message for the US to weaken the ITC's jurisdiction at a time where China and Europe are strengthening their IP laws and US trade negotiators worked hard to protect American innovation (see the TTIP ). Okun continued stated that NPEs actually rarely file cases at the ITC and rarely do they succeed. Indeed, there is really only a small number of investigations brought by NPEs as a result of administrative changes and case law. To read Okun's full statement click here John Thorne ( Partner, Kellog Huber Hansen ) explained that two thirds of all ITC cases have parallel district court cases. He said that the first reason why parties pursue litigation in the ITC is because of leverage. He referenced a case of one New York-based company suing a New Jersey-based company. Given they were a mere 20 miles apart, they could have sued in the Eastern District and probably the Southern District, but the plaintiff picked the ITC because its remedy would be uniquely "leveraging, if I can use the 'L' word". The reason was because of the ITC's remedy - the exclusion order (essentially an injunction). An injunction would have been unlikely granted by the district court as the application of the balance of harm test underwould have more likely resulted in an award of damages. Second, the ITC is less likely to invalidate patents. The same rules apply, commented Thorne, but the ITC throws out a bad patent about half as often. Third, the ITC will enforce standard essential patents. Finally, you are able to bring in numerous respondents in the ITC, unlike in the district courts. To read Thorne's statement click here Mark Whitaker ( Partner, Morrison & Foerster - appearing in his personal capacity) stated that Congress intended that the ITC would provide IPR owners with broad protections against a wide range of unfair acts of importation. Section 337, therefore, "is more than a mere surrogate to the district courts" in the field of patent law. It is more properly viewed as being directed toward trade protection that isby US patent law. Whitaker explained that the proposed legislation would not allow a plaintiff to rely on licensing activity unless it is able to show that "licensing leads to development and adoption of articles that incorporate the patent..." This change could potentially limit the ability of NPEs to use section 337 but, in practice, investigations brought by NPEs are low anyway with 3 in 2014, 2 in 2015 and just one in first quarter of 2016. Whitaker explained that prior to 2014, entities that manufacture patented articles in the US had a greater burden of proving their domestic industry activities than entities who rely on US patent licensing activities. However, the Federal Circuit recently confirmed that establishing a domestic industry based on licensing now requires proof of an article that practices the patent in suit. Further, inthe ITC has confirmed that there needs to be nexus between asserted patent and the US investment in that patent when the domestic industry requirement is based on the licensing prong. Whitaker said that the proposed bill would require licensees to be brought in as co-complainants in order for the complainant to establish the domestic industry prong. This would have a potentially negative impact on industries such as university R&D bodies and tech companies who have chosen to license a subset of its patent portfolio for business reasons. This would be contrary to the Congressional intent when opening the ITC up to certain NPEs following the 1988 amendments. Those changes were geared towards enabling "a university and small businesses who do not have the capital to actually make good in the United States to still have access to the ITC forum for the protection of their rights" (see Fed Cir 2013 )). To read Whitaker's full statement click here Fiona Scott Morton ( Professor of Economics of Yale School Management ) said the basic problem is that the ITC duplicates the function of the federal courts with a different process which gives patent holders "in excess of the value of their IP". That power, continued Scott Morton, is used to extract money from implementers. It was noted that this is mostly a US on US problem (InterDigital, Kodak, Apple, Dell). Because US companies manufacture so many components outside of the US, we are necessarily importing them. However, Scott Morton does not consider these disputes "trade disputes". In reality, the problem is the IP leverage that the ITC provides creates a distortion in US contractual negotiations over IP royalties. The incentive created by the duplicative but favorable court creates forum shopping and business for the ITC. Although there were some statistics offered during the hearing which indicated the number was going down, Scott Morton considered the number was actually higher if you looked at the proportion of companies who were actually interested in monetary damages (PAEs as opposed to NPEs), not really an order for exclusion. She reminded the Committee that the business model of licensing means that the patent owner actually does not want an injunction - they need the other party to sell so that they can obtain a royalty. "They don't want a an injunction, they want leverage" explained Scott Morton, "After, litigants get less leverage in federal court than they do in the ITC. " The threat of an injunction or an exclusion order from the ITC is incredibly powerful. Why? Scott Morton provided an example: "Suppose my royalty ask is 50 cents on a $600 device. The risk of exclusion is a $600 royalty - you cannot sell your device. The correct royalty may be 2 cents, but you may have to settle for 50 cents as you do not want the risk of losing the whole $600." This is why monetizers prefer the ITC. This is especially a problem for standard essential patents (SEPs). Again, the owner of an SEP has agreed to charge a FRAND royalty so they are in the business of collecting money. "They are licensing their IP and an injunction is not what they want at the end of the day. So these patents [SEPs] are ripe for abuse at the ITC because there is no way for an implementer to avoid using them. And so, again, the injunction gives them a very powerful threat." Scott Morton recommended that the ITC jurisdiction over licensing disputes should be eliminated - they can safely be resolved by federal court. The process or procedural reforms proposed are a "poor substitute" as any determined complainant can proof up standing to surmount the proposed reformulated licensing requirement. You have to remove the incentive to go to ITC in the first place. If you do, concluded Scott Morton, you do not need to worry about process reforms. To read Scott Morton's written statement click here Tom Stoll (Stoll IP Consulting) said that to the extent that the ITC had a patent troll problem, it appears by the number of filings that the Commission has addressed it. They have done this in two ways. First, by tightening up on the "domestic industry" requirement by requiring more evidence than the fact the patent owner was able to licence the patent, especially where the licensing activities did not specifically relate to articles protected by the patent or where licensing is aimed at financial gains not at encouraging adoption of the patented technology (seeand).Second, by instituting a 100-day pilot program to quickly dispense with unmeritorious cases, the ITC can resolve, by an investigation, a dispositive issue, such as the lack of domestic industry. If there is such a dispositive issue, then the assigned Administrative Judge can conduct an expedited fact-finding and abbreviated hearing and briefing schedule limited to that issue. The decision on that issue is given within 100 days from the institution of the investigation. These efforts have resulted in a reduction in the number of cases instituted - from 69 in 2011 to 39 in 2014. toll concluded: "Only 36 new investigations were instituted last year. According to the ITCs own statistics, non-practicing entities were the complainants in only two of the 36 ITC investigations instituted last year." To read all of Stoll's written statement click here Dominic Bianchi (General Counsel or US ITC) comments were primarily set out in his statement (see here ). In questioning, he admitted that although much had been said about the 100-day pilot number, so far only one case has been adjudicated under that program.The hearing then opened up to a series of questions from the Committee members including whether, in the absence ofcriteria in the ITC, the ITC considered the public interest. No explicit examples were given from current or former ITC witnesses, but it was noted that the ITC does take the public interest element into account including its effect on consumers and the US economy. To a question of whether it was right that the ITC did not have to perform a balance of equities, Okun stated that there were safeguards in the statute, including equitable defences and the provision which enables the President to disprove an order. Although there was much disagreement about what the statistics actually demonstrated (and whether they were counting NPEs v PAEs), the key question seemed to boil down to whether, as matter of policy, it was right that the US should have a separate remedial forum not subject to equitable balances when the district courts could and were addressing the same dispute? A solution proposed, following questions from Congresswoman Lofgren ( Democrat- California ), was to divide up disputes between domestic entities (to be dealt with by the district courts) and disputes involving a foreign entity (to be dealt with by the ITC, which was the original intent of the ITC).Before Chairman Issa adjourned the session, Congressman Nadler concluded:To the AmeriKat, the appetite of the Committee seemed overwhelmingly strong and went beyond the more restrained amendments proposed by H.R.489. For this reason, despite it being an election year which would otherwise have muted this debate, we may be hearing more on the future role of patent disputes at the ITC. In the meantime, what do readers think? Is the dual-jurisdiction functionality between the ITC and district courts a problem?And, if you have are really interested, you can watch the entire two hour hearing during your Monday morning commute (click here ).
If no UK patents judges will be in the UPC,

this paves the way for Judge Merpel, presiding....

Her whiskers have been twitching of late as she can sense some disturbance about the future membership of the judges of the Unified Patent Court. On Friday, the Preparatory Committee announced that the UPC judicial recruitment package had been agreed with the advertisements to be published in May (click here for the announcement). The identity and experience of the UPC judges are a key piece in the UPC framework and future success of the system. Several months ago, Merpel assumed that the various Ministries of Justice from across Europe would be issuing decrees to their experienced patent judges to apply for the UPC posts. To make the system a proper success, full-time experienced patent judges are what is needed, at least in the all-important initial years when procedural case law is established.The question that has yet to be answered, as far as Merpel understands, is whether the UK's Ministry of Justice will permit the current Patents Court judges to be seconded full time to the UPC for a couple of years. Apparently, the answer is not forthcoming or as straightforward as it is hoped. Whatever the status or reasons, such a result would be that without the benefit of the UK's experienced full-time patent judges, the UPC will be weakened.Europe benefits from a collection of experienced and highly qualified patent judges. The UK's patent judges are some of the most experienced , deciding a wide range of cases - from the complex, high-value patent disputes between the world's Goliaths in the Patents Court, to efficiently managing smaller patent cases between SMEs in the Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court (IPEC), where the case is front-loaded, evidence limited and time to trial generally shorter. If IPEC sounds curiously similar to the procedure envisaged by the UPC Agreement and Rules of Procedure , that is no coincidence. In 2009, the Working Party of the IP Court Users' Committee was tasked with proposing a new procedure for IPEC (or the PCC, as it then was). The procedure was modelled after what was hoped the procedure would inevitably look like in the UPC. Fast-forward to 2016 and, with the help of some talented judges , the IPEC has become an acclaimed success in providing litigants with a forum whereby they can obtain high quality patent decisions in an efficient and cost-effective court. Also the aims of the UPC...Given their experience, it is no surprise that the UK's patent judges are kept very busy. In 2014, there were 72 European and UK patent cases commenced in the Patents Court and IPEC concerning 106 patents. If adopting German approach to counting cases (where each claim and counterclaim for infringement or revocation is counted), then the number rockets to 103 cases concerning European Patents. You can read more about these statistics in the UK IPO's recently published report here It would be misfortunate to squander this available experience, especially in the critical early days of the UPC. The success of the UPC will be determined by the quality of its decisions and, thus, the experience of its judges. Without experienced judges from one of Europe's widely recognised and frequently used patent jurisdictions, the strength and attraction of the UPC as a competitive venue for European patent litigation will be depleted. A subsidiary issue is that, without the participation of the UK's Patents Court judges, the attraction for litigants to use the UK's local division to commence patent infringement actions would also be weakened (thus curtailing the positive benefit to UK's economy). Such a state of affairs seems completely nonsensical given how hard the UK Government fought to secure a seat of the Central Division in London for exactly the same reasons (i.e., beneficial to the UK economy, key role in the stake and success of the UPC, etc etc etc).Merpel hopes that whatever the current position or perceived reluctance from the UK, it will be short-lived. It is vital, especially in the current climate, that the UK plays a vital role in helping to shape the future European patent litigation and innovation.
The dissident leaders views were focused on the prospects for transformative change in the Iranian government, and the current weaknesses that may make that possible. Indeed, Rajavi pointedly said that the current regime is dying, largely as a result of its having become overextended in foreign conflicts, where regional adversaries are pushing back against Tehrans imperial ambitions.

The NCRI has reported that some 60,000 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran-backed Shiite militias have been deployed to defend Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the roughly six years since the start of the Syrian Civil War. The escalating losses of IRGC personnel on that battlefield are apparently a price that the Iranian government is willing to pay because the survival of the Assad regime is central to Tehrans foreign policy.

Rajavi explained this situation by saying, If Assad falls out of power in Damascus, then the Iranian regime will evidently follow and collapse in Tehran. If the Iranian leadership agrees with this assessment, it would go a long way toward explaining why they have been so uncompromising about Assads future, even as they have been welcomed into international negotiations aimed at concluding a political solution to the conflict among factions not associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

But according to Rajavi, the Iranian regimes foreign policy behavior can be explained not just with reference to specific policies regarding its Syrian ally, but also through an assessment of the regimes central identity and long-term goals. In line with the thinking of some more hawkish foreign policy experts in the West, the Iranian resistance believes that Tehran ultimately seeks to dominate the region and fashion itself as the Shiite leader of a unified Muslim world.

Rajavi used her interview with Awsat to emphasize that in pursuit of that aim, the regimes strategy is focused on three key elements: retention of power through domestic repression, exportation of extremism and theocratic ideology, and acquisition of greater power and leverage through nuclear capability.

In light of this, Rajavi believes that the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers while a major setback for the regime, was insufficient to prevent the regime from re-invigorating its nuclear ambitions, even if after a brief pause. The Iranian regime is skilled with the art of deception and keeping its activities secret. It hasnt revealed all its cards, and one must say that the international community was not firm enough, because the international community could have taken away everything from the regime, she said.

Various Western policymakers continue to express similar sentiments, and are actively working to retain or expand existing financial restrictions on Iran, despite the fact that most have been lifted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Some of these policymakers and various other global security experts have explicitly given their support to Mrs. Rajavi and the NCRI, endorsing their ambition for regime change and their ten-point plan for the future of a free Iran. Many of the groups Western supporters are expected to take part in an international major gathering of Iranian expatriates and resistance supporters in Paris on July 9.

The event occurs each year and reportedly exceeded 100,000 participants last summer, including hundreds of legislators from the US, Europe, and throughout the world.
The unceremonious burials are believed to be taking place in order to cover up the high number of casualties that the Iranian regimes Afghan recruits have suffered.

In a report on April 9, the state-run website Shaeed News quoted Qassemi as saying, Prior to Nowrouz (March 20), about 28 martyred Afghans were buried as incognitos. Is everything not documented? Can anyone just go to Syria?! Each person has a name and a family. Why were the martyrs buried without any sort of ceremony? And then we see that municipality personnel in dustman uniform bury these martyrs. Gen. Saeed Qassemi, a senior IRGC commander, admitted in a recent speech that in one case in March, some 28 Afghan mercenaries of the Quds Force who were killed in Syria were buried in Tehran as incognitos.

The NCRI announced on April 8, 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. IRGC abuses the extreme poverty of Afghan nationals and their need to attain legal documents to have them go to Syria. In many cases Afghan prisoners or those with death sentences are pardoned if they volunteer to fight in Syria.
[April 18, 2016] Intralinks Announces Date of Earnings Release and Conference Call for Its First Quarter 2016 Financial Results

Intralinks Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:IL), a leading, global SaaS (News - Alert) provider of secure content collaboration solutions, today announced it will host a conference call on Tuesday, May 3, 2016, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) to discuss its first quarter financial results and business outlook. Before the call, Intralinks will issue a press release reporting its first quarter 2016 financial results. To access this call, dial 888-348-8637 (domestic) or 412-902-4244 (international). A passcode is not required. The call will also be featured on a live webcast on the investor relations section of the Intralinks website at www.intralinks.com/ir. Following the conference call, a replay will be available until May 10, 2016 a 877-870-5176 (domestic) or 858-384-5517 (international). The passcode for the replay is 10084325. An archived webcast of the call will also be available on the investor relations section of the Intralinks website at www.intralinks.com/ir.



About Intralinks Intralinks Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: IL) is a leading, global technology provider of secure enterprise content collaboration solutions. Through innovative Software-as-a-Service solutions, Intralinks software is designed to enable the exchange, control and management of information between organizations securely and compliantly when working through the firewall. More than 3.1 million professionals at 99% of the Fortune 1000 companies have depended on Intralinks' experience. With a track record of enabling high-stakes transactions and business collaborations valued at more than $28.1 trillion, Intralinks is a trusted provider of easy-to-use, enterprise strength, cloud-based collaboration solutions. For more information, visit www.intralinks.com.

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[April 18, 2016] New Data Suggesting Positive Effects of Sanofi Genzyme's Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) on Brain Volume Loss and Retinal Nerve Fibers to be Presented at AAN

Sanofi Genzyme, the specialty care global business unit of Sanofi, today announced that positive new brain volume data from an ongoing clinical study of Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) will be presented at the 68th American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting. In addition, new data from an exploratory study will be presented which demonstrate the impact of Lemtrada on retinal nerve fibers. Lemtrada Investigational Brain Volume Data: Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients treated with interferon beta-1a in CARE-MS I and II for two years who switched to Lemtrada in the extension study experienced a reduced rate of brain volume loss over the next three years. Median yearly brain volume loss in interferon beta-1a treated patients in year two in CARE-MS I (-0.50%) and CARE-MS II (-0.33%) was reduced in years one, two and three after switching to Lemtrada (CARE-MS I: -0.07%, -0.13%, -0.09%; CARE-MS II: 0.02%, -0.05%, -0.14%). Lemtrada Investigational Retinal Data: A measurable improvement in retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness was seen in 26 Lemtrada-treated RRMS patients. Over two years, the change in average RNFL thickness for all eyes was +1.5 micrometers (95% CI 0.2, 2.9; p=0.032). The observed thickening of retinal fibers may reflect protection of retinal axons in these patients. "The Lemtrada data being presented at AAN from the ongoing extension study demonstrating slowed brain volume loss over three years are consistent with sustained effects seen in prior clinical, imaging and atrophy analyses," said Dr. Anthony Traboulsee, Associate Professor of Neurology and Medical Director of the UBC Hospital MS Clinic of Vancouver Coastal Health. "In addition, given the critical importance of neuroprotection in the treatment of MS, the retinal nerve fiber data are also exciting and support further investigation." In clinical trials, serious side effects associated with Lemtrada included infusion-associated reactions, autoimmune disorders (such as thyroid disease, autoimmune cytopenias, and nephropathies), infections and pneumonitis. Risk management programs incorporating education and monitoring help support early detection and management of key identified and potential risks. The most common side effects of Lemtrada are rash, headache, pyrexia, nasopharyngitis, nausea, urinary tract infection, fatigue, insomnia, upper respiratory tract infection, herpes viral infection, urticaria, pruritus, thyroid gland disorders, fungal infection, arthralgia, pain in extremity, back pain, diarrhea, sinusitis, oropharyngeal pain, paresthesia, dizziness, abdominal pain, flushing, and vomiting. (See Important Safety Information below.) About Lemtrada (alemtuzumab)

Lemtrada is approved in more than 50 countries, with additional marketing applications under review by regulatory authorities globally. Lemtrada is supported by a comprehensive and extensive clinical development program that involved nearly 1,500 patients worldwide and 5,400 patient-years of follow-up. In CARE-MS I, Lemtrada was significantly more effective than interferon beta-1a at reducing annualized relapse rates; the difference observed in slowing disability progression did not reach statistical significance. In CARE-MS II, Lemtrada was significantly more effective than interferon beta-1a at reducing annualized relapse rates, and accumulation of disability was significantly slowed in patients given Lemtrada vs. interferon beta-1a. The precise mechanism by which alemtuzumab exerts its therapeutic effects in MS is unknown. Alemtuzumab is a monoclonal antibody that targets CD52, a protein abundant on T and B cells. Circulating T and B cells are thought to be responsible for the damaging inflammatory process in MS. Lemtrada depletes circulating T and B lymphocytes after each treatment course. Lymphocyte counts then increase over time with a reconstitution of the lymphocyte population that varies for the different lymphocyte subtypes. Genzyme holds the worldwide rights to alemtuzumab and has responsibility for its development and commercialization in multiple sclerosis. Bayer Healthcare receives contingent payments based on global sales revenue. Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) U.S. Indication

LEMTRADA is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). Because of its risks, LEMTRADA is generally used in people who have tried 2 or more MS medicines that have not worked well enough. It is not known if LEMTRADA is safe and effective for use in children under 17 years of age. Do not receive LEMTRADA if you are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION LEMTRADA can cause serious side effects including: Serious autoimmune problems: Some people receiving LEMTRADA develop a condition where the immune cells in your body attack other cells or organs in the body (autoimmunity), which can be serious and may cause death. Serious autoimmune problems may include:  Immune thrombocytopenia, which is when reduced platelet counts in your blood cause severe bleeding that, if not treated, may cause life-threatening problems. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms: easy bruising; bleeding from a cut that is hard to stop; heavier menstrual periods than normal; bleeding from your gums or nose that is new or takes longer than usual to stop; small, scattered spots on your skin that are red, pink, or purple  Kidney problems called anti-glomerular basement membrane disease, which can, if untreated, lead to severe kidney damage, kidney failure that needs dialysis, a kidney transplant, or death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms: blood in the urine (red or tea-colored urine); swelling of legsor feet; coughing up blood



It is important for you to have blood and urine tests before you receive, while you are receiving and every month, for 4 years or longer, after you receive your last LEMTRADA infusion. Serious infusion reactions: LEMTRADA can cause serious infusion reactions that may cause death. Serious infusion reactions may happen while you receive, or up to 24 hours or longer after you receive LEMTRADA.

 You will receive your infusion at a healthcare facility with equipment and staff trained to manage infusion reactions, including serious allergic reactions, and urgent heart or breathing problems. You will be watched while you receive, and for 2 hours or longer after you receive, LEMTRADA. If a serious infusion reaction happens while you are receiving LEMTRADA, your infusion may be stopped. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms of a serious infusion reaction during the infusion, and after you have left the healthcare facility:  swelling in your mouth or throat  trouble breathing  weakness  fast, slow, or irregular heartbeat  chest pain  rash To lower your chances of getting a serious infusion reaction, your healthcare provider will give you a medicine called corticosteroids before your first 3 infusions of a treatment course. You may also be given other medicines before or after the infusion to try to reduce your chances of having these reactions or to treat them after they happen. Certain cancers: Receiving LEMTRADA may increase your chance of getting some kinds of cancers, including thyroid cancer, skin cancer (melanoma), and blood cancers called lymphoproliferative disorders and lymphoma. Call your healthcare provider if you have the following symptoms that may be a sign of thyroid cancer:  new lump  swelling in your neck  pain in front of neck  hoarseness or other voice changes that do not go away  trouble swallowing or breathing  cough that is not caused by a cold Have your skin checked before you start receiving LEMTRADA and each year while you are receiving treatment to monitor for symptoms of skin cancer. Because of risks of autoimmunity, infusion reactions, and some kinds of cancers, LEMTRADA is only available through a restricted program called the LEMTRADA Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) Program. Thyroid problems: Some patients taking LEMTRADA may get an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) or an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism). Call your healthcare provider if you have any of these symptoms:  excessive sweating  unexplained weight loss  eye swelling  nervousness  fast heartbeat  unexplained weight gain  feeling cold  worsening tiredness  constipation Low blood counts (cytopenias): LEMTRADA may cause a decrease in some types of blood cells. Some people with these low blood counts have increased infections. Call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of cytopenias such as:  weakness  chest pain  yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes (jaundice)  dark urine  fast heartbeat Serious infections: LEMTRADA may cause you to have a serious infection while you receive and after receiving a course of treatment. Serious infections may include:  Herpes viral infections. Some people taking LEMTRADA have an increased chance of getting herpes viral infections. Take any medicines as prescribed by your healthcare provider to reduce your chances of getting these infections.  Tuberculosis. Your healthcare provider should check you for tuberculosis before you receive LEMTRADA.  Hepatitis. People who are at high risk of, or are carriers of, hepatitis B (HBV) or hepatitis C (HCV) may be at risk of irreversible liver damage. These are not all the possible infections that could happen while on LEMTRADA. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have symptoms of a serious infection such as fever or swollen glands. Talk to your healthcare provider before you get vaccinations after receiving LEMTRADA. Certain vaccinations may increase your chances of getting infections. Swelling of lung tissue (pneumonitis): Some people have had swelling of the lung tissue while receiving LEMTRADA. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have the following symptoms:  shortness of breath  cough  wheezing  chest pain or tightness  coughing up blood Before receiving LEMTRADA, tell your healthcare provider if you:  are taking a medicine called Campath (alemtuzumab)  have bleeding, thyroid, or kidney problems  have HIV  have a recent history of infection  have received a live vaccine in the past 6 weeks before receiving LEMTRADA or plan to receive any live vaccines. Ask your healthcare provider if you are not sure if your vaccine is a live vaccine  are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. LEMTRADA may harm your unborn baby. You should use birth control while receiving LEMTRADA and for 4 months after your course of treatment  are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. You and your healthcare provider should decide if you should receive LEMTRADA or breastfeed. You should not do both. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. LEMTRADA and other medicines may affect each other, causing side effects. Especially tell your healthcare provider if you take medicines that increase your chance of getting infections, including medicines used to treat cancer or to control your immune system. The most common side effects of LEMTRADA include:  rash  headache  thyroid problems  fever  swelling of your nose and throat  nausea  urinary tract infection  feeling tired  trouble sleeping  upper respiratory infection  herpes viral infection  hives  itching  fungal infection  joint pain  pain in your arms or legs  back pain  diarrhea  sinus infection  mouth pain or sore throat  tingling sensation  dizziness  stomach pain  sudden redness in face, neck, or chest  vomiting Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away. These are not all the possible side effects of LEMTRADA. You are encouraged to report side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit http://www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088 Please click here for full U.S. Prescribing Information, including boxed WARNING and Medication Guide, for additional Important Safety Information. About Sanofi

Sanofi, a global healthcare leader, discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions focused on patients' needs. Sanofi has core strengths in diabetes solutions, human vaccines, innovative drugs, consumer healthcare, emerging markets, animal health and Genzyme. Sanofi is listed in Paris (EURONEXT: SAN) and in New York (NYSE: SNY). Sanofi Genzyme focuses on developing specialty treatments for debilitating diseases that are often difficult to diagnose and treat, providing hope to patients and their families. Learn more at www.sanofigenzyme.com. Sanofi is a registered trademark of Sanofi. Genzyme and Lemtrada are registered trademarks of Genzyme Corporation. All rights reserved. Sanofi Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations, services, product development and potential, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "plans" and similar expressions. Although Sanofi's management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Sanofi, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, future clinical data and analysis, including post marketing, decisions by regulatory authorities, such as the FDA or the EMA (News - Alert), regarding whether and when to approve any drug, device or biological application that may be filed for any such product candidates as well as their decisions regarding labelling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of such product candidates, the absence of guarantee that the product candidates if approved will be commercially successful, the future approval and commercial success of therapeutic alternatives, the Group's ability to benefit from external growth opportunities, trends in exchange rates and prevailing interest rates, the impact of cost containment initiatives and subsequent changes thereto, the average number of shares outstanding as well as those discussed or identified in the public filings with the SEC (News - Alert) and the AMF made by Sanofi, including those listed under "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in Sanofi's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2015. Other than as required by applicable law, Sanofi does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160418005384/en/

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[April 18, 2016] IEE Contracts With Cubic Global Defense for Military Control Display Unit

IEE, manufacturer of enhanced displays for military and industrial applications, was awarded a contract for a new 3.5-inch Control Display Unit (CDU) by Cubic Global Defense (CGD), a business unit of Cubic Corporation (NYSE: CUB). The 3.5" CDU provides an upgrade to the existing Personnel Locator System (PLS) CDU currently fielded on multiple aircraft platforms, including the Air Force C-130J fleet. While the redesign of the CDU was initially prompted to eliminate parts obsolescence, the application of modern Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) processors also provides several industry standard interfaces that allow for future expansion and additional interoperability with other aircraft systems. The new 3.5" CDU provides full backward compatibility with th Control Display Sub-System (CDSS); but with the added Ethernet interface, comes new functionality that allows PLS output data to be displayed on the moving maps on external avionics displays.



The Cubic PLS's low-cost integration opens up new opportunities to expand onto other rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft. For example, the new system is also targeted for installation on legacy Blackhawk helicopters with obsolescence requirements. "IEE is an expert in delivering the best value in form and fit replacement by modifying existing COTS products to meet legacy requirements," said Tom Whinfrey, CEO of IEE Inc. "This greatly enhances the life cycle of the CDU, which is of utmost importance to our customers."

IEE 3.5-Inch Display Technical Features: 3.5" Color TFT AMLCD

QVGA (320 x 240)

Transflective

Sunlight (News - Alert) Readable

250 cd/m 2 Luminance

Luminance 400:1 Contrast (Backlight On)

+/-80 Horizontal and Vertical Viewing Angles

ARM (News - Alert)/DSP microcontroller architecture

Compatible with AN/AVS-6 (Gen III) Night Vision Goggles

Meets MIL-STD-3009, MIL-STD-461F and MIL-STD-810G. About IEE: Celebrating its 70th anniversary, Industrial Electronic Engineers, IEE, is a trusted provider of enhanced displays for military, industrial and retail applications. From rapid prototyping of custom designs to full-scale production runs, IEE's factory in Van Nuys, CA (News - Alert), produces innovative displays with advanced features like multi-mode backlighting, optically bonded touch screens and lightweight, ruggedized enclosures. IEE's direct control of critical process steps reduces costs, decreases production lead times and improves life cycle management. IEE display products are found in virtually every environment and application worldwide. For more information call 800-422-0867 or visit http://ieeinc.com/. Get our updates: http://www.linkedin.com/company/industrial-electronic-engineers Follow us at: http://twitter.com/IEEdisplays Become a fan: http://www.facebook.com/IEEdisplays View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160418005228/en/

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[April 18, 2016] Fitch Affirms Miami University (OH) Revs at 'AA'; Outlook Stable

Fitch Ratings has affirmed the 'AA' rating on $542.4 million of general receipts revenue bonds issued by Miami University (MU). The Rating Outlook is Stable. SECURITY General receipts revenue bonds are secured by a pledge of the university's general receipts, which are primarily composed of tuition and fees, net auxiliary revenues, revenues from educational activities, unrestricted gifts and investment income. KEY RATING DRIVERS STRONG OPERATING PROFILE: The 'AA' rating reflects MU's healthy student demand and strong academic reputation. Miami has established a consistent track record of positive operating margins due to favorable enrollment trends and conservative financial management. SOUND FINANCIAL CUSHION: MU's unrestricted cash and investments have nearly doubled over the past five years. These resources provide a sound cushion relative to operating expenses and debt that is in line with or better than that of peers in the rating category. Including restricted endowments, MU's total supporting investments total roughly $1 billion. HIGH BUT MANAGEABLE DEBT BURDEN: Maximum annual debt service (MADS) accounts for a moderately high 8.7% of operating revenue. However, MU's structurally balanced operations generate MADS coverage consistently over 2x. Fitch believes MU's strong operations support the additional debt contemplated over the next few years to fund certain revenue-generating auxiliary projects. RATING SENSITIVITIES ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT: Miami University's (MU) operating revenues are concentrated (76%) in student tuition and fees. Deterioration of MU's healthy demand profile or stable enrollment trends could negatively pressure the rating. ADDITIONAL DEBT: Fitch believes MU has some additional debt capacity at the current rating level. However, new borrowing materially in excess of currently contemplated amounts could negatively affect the rating. CREDIT PROFILE MU is the second oldest public university in the state of Ohio, having been established in 1809 and opening in 1824. The university's well-maintained main campus offers a traditional undergraduate experience in Oxford, OH, approximately 35 miles north of Cincinnati. MU also maintains two small regional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown, OH, a learning center in West Chester, OH and a European campus in Luxembourg. MU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, which recently renewed Miami's accreditation through 2025. HEALTHY DEMAND PROFILE Enrollment trends are healthy at the main Oxford campus. Headcount increased to 19,076 in fall 2015 and has grown at a consistent but manageable pace since fall 2011 (2.3% per year on average). Management believes current enrollment levels are appropriate for MU and expects additional growth to be modest. Undergraduates account for over 85% of enrollment, and most are full-time. MU had a strong fall 2015 admissions cycle, yielding well ahead of budget. Miami's strong academic reputation and continued marketing efforts have driven higher applications and increasing selectivity and student quality over the past five years. In addition, interest from out-of-state students remains strong; these students, who accounted for over 40% of the fall 2015 class, offset declining numbers of Ohio high school graduates and also pay higher tuition rates. STRONG FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE MU has generated consistently strong financial results over the past five years; operating margins have averaged 8.6% since fiscal 2011, including 11.4% in fiscal 2015. Healthy demand and enrollment trends have driven steady growth in net tuition and fees averaging 6% per year over that period. Management is conservative and conducts sophisticated long-range planning. A strategic budget initiative focused on new revenue sources and operating efficiency produced approximately $4 million in structural budgetary improvements over five years and reversed what had been a trend of negative operating results through 2009.



Miami's financial performance depends heavily on student-generated tuition and fees, which accounted for 76.4% of fiscal 2015 operating revenues. Net tuition revenue growth may slow in coming years as enrollment stabilizes and the university moves to a 4-year guaranteed tuition model (beginning in fall 2016). Fitch believes MU's sound demand profile and high degree of financial flexibility largely mitigate the risks of this revenue concentration. Appropriations from the state of Ohio ('AA+'/Stable) make up a relatively small 11.1% of operating revenues. State appropriations remain below pre-recession levels but are now improving. SOUND BALANCE SHEET CUSHION

MU's balance sheet cushion has grown significantly over time and is now similar to or stronger than that of rating category peers. Available funds (AF, defined as cash and investments less certain restricted net assets, adjusted to exclude unspent bond proceeds) have nearly doubled over the past five years to $601 million at June 30, 2015. These resources provide a sound cushion relative to operating expenses (108.7%) and debt (91.4%). Management does not currently expect to draw down these reserves materially to fund near-term capital investments. MU also has another $460 million of restricted endowment funds held by the university and the Miami University Foundation, which are not included in available funds. These investments are not spendable but produce income to support MU's operations and mission. The foundation distributed approximately $25 million to the university in fiscal 2015. HIGH BUT MANAGEABLE DEBT BURDEN The university's debt burden is moderately high, offset by strong cash flow and a conservative debt structure. MADS of $54.5 million (2019) is equal to 8.7% of fiscal 2015 operating revenues. MU's debt burden has grown since 2010 because it has largely debt-funded its plan to renovate or replace its student housing and dining facilities. Debt service remains manageable in light of strong MADS coverage of 2.6x in fiscal 2015 and over 2x in each of the past three years. MU has a fully fixed-rate and moderately front-loaded debt structure. In addition, recent debt has funded revenue-generating projects, and internal budgeting guidelines require that such projects are self-supporting. Capital projects over the five years may total as much as $300 million, and MU is considering some additional debt in the next one to two years for student housing to accommodate greater than expected enrollment growth. Fitch considers contemplated debt and capital plans consistent with the current rating level. However, material expansion of debt or capital plans without a commensurate increase in revenues or resources to fund such obligations could negatively pressure the rating. Additional information is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'. Applicable Criteria Revenue-Supported Rating Criteria (pub. 16 Jun 2014) https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=750012 U.S. College and University Rating Criteria (pub. 12 May 2014) https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=748013 Additional Disclosures Dodd-Frank Rating Information Disclosure Form https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/press_releases/content/ridf_frame.cfm?pr_id=1002770 Solicitation Status https://www.fitchratings.com/gws/en/disclosure/solicitation?pr_id=1002770 Endorsement Policy https://www.fitchratings.com/jsp/creditdesk/PolicyRegulation.faces?context=2&detail=31 ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTP://FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON (News - Alert) THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEBSITE 'WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM'. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE 'CODE OF CONDUCT' SECTION OF THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU-REGISTERED ENTITY CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH WEBSITE. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160418006521/en/

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Title: TVET Financing and Networking Expert

Location: Vientiane, Lao PDR with frequent travel in-country

Starting date: 1 July 2016

Duration: 24 months

1. Background

Switzerland and Luxembourg are joining hands to implement a project entitled Skills for Tourism (referred to hereon as LAO/029), which will allow for improvements in the Tourism and Hospitality (T/H) vocational education and skills development provision in Lao PDR through enhanced quality, financing and governance. A particular emphasis of LAO/029 will be to support disadvantaged youth from poor families to acquire the skills needed to work in hotels, restaurants and the greater tourism economy in Lao PDR.

The intervention builds on the results of a successful project funded by Luxembourg Development Cooperation (LAO/020  Strengthening of Human Resources in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry in Lao PDR) over the past seven years. This initiative supported the creation and building up of the Lao National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality (LANITH) as an autonomous centre of excellence in T/H skills training. A notable outcome of LAO/020 was the development of a suite of education and training products and services, which will be expanded upon. The project is also inspired by Swiss Development Cooperations (SDC) positive experience with the Employment Fund in Nepal, which is a good practice model of pro-poor financing of training. The rationale is also relevant to SDCs Mekong Region Strategy 2013-2017 in which the goal is for rural women and men, mostly those belonging to ethnic minorities, to acquire skills and find work, which allow them to benefit from economic development and earn higher incomes.

Project LAO/029 will operate at varying governance levels and target multiple beneficiary groups within an overall TVET (Technical Vocational Education and Training) and private sector development context.

At the macro level, it will engage in policy dialogue, capacity development and coordination support to national institutions.

The meso level support will provide capacity development to support alignment and enhancement of the quality and volume of skills development and vocational training related to: regulatory frameworks such as the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) for T/H, curriculum development, competency assessment, and Training of Trainers/Teachers (ToT), skills development delivery modalities and pro-poor mechanisms of financing skills training.

At the micro level, LAO/029 will provide affirmative action support to disadvantaged youth from poor families, by improving awareness, defining career paths, eliminating access barriers, providing foundation skills training and supporting the acquisition of gainful employment.

The project LAO/029 will be embedded as far as possible in the existing institutional framework of the Lao PDR national skills development system in order to assure alignment with national strategies, policies and plans, facilitate systemic change and scaling-up, avoid parallel structures and duplication of efforts and to increase sustainability of the engendered innovations.

The project contributes to the following Overall Objective: Promotion of sustainable and inclusive growth of the Lao PDR tourism and hospitality sector thereby contributing to poverty reduction.

The Specific Objective of the intervention is as follows: Graduates of improved and expanded tourism and hospitality skills development, including disadvantaged, find gainful employment in tourism and hospitality.

2. INTERVENTION LOGIC

The intervention logic is built on four key elements: i) product development, ii) service delivery and distribution channels, iii) inclusive financing, and iv) nurturing of an enabling governance system.

This approach ensures that all elements of the system will be in place in comprehensive, all-inclusive and replication manner.

The project will deliver four key Outcomes:

Outcome 1: The quality of skills development programs in tourism and hospitality is improved.

Outcome 2: The scale and variety of good quality skills development programs in tourism and hospitality is expanded.

Outcome 3: Transparent and effective support measures for inclusion of disadvantaged groups are established.

Outcome 4: An enabling governance, institutional and regulatory framework is in place.

3. OVERALL ORGANISATION AND DELIVERABLES OF THE technical assistance

A Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) will supervise the team of four international experts to work in tandem with long term national experts and the respective counterpart(s) institution(s).

The four international experts will work under following four Outcomes respectively:

Under Outcome 1: T/H Vocational Education and Skills Development Expert (36 work months)

Under Outcome 2. T/H Education and Training Delivery Systems Expert (24 work months)

Under Outcome 3: TVET Financing and Networking Expert (24 work months)

Under Outcome 4: T/H Public Private Partnership Expert (short term periods over split missions of which durations are still being considered).

The key deliverables of Outcome 1 are to support the development of teaching and training resource material that is linked to priority needs of the T/H industry founded on market led research. Quantitative and qualitative improvements in the provision of teachers and trainers will also be a focus of this outcome along with establishment of a competency-based assessment and certification system.

The key deliverables of Outcome 2 are to expand the distribution of formal and non-formal T/H education and training programs in high demand tourism destinations throughout Lao PDR through a network of affiliated public and private training providers.

The key deliverables of Outcome 3 are to improve access to and awareness of education and training opportunities related to the T/H industry, particularly among disadvantaged youth lacking financial resources and possessing low educational levels. A major element of the outcome will be the establishment and operationalization of the Fund for Access and Inclusion in Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH).

The key deliverables of Outcome 4 are the creation of an improved approach to policy dialogue, donor coordination and public private partnerships resulting in an improved legal and regulatory framework for T/H skills development in Lao PDR.

4. TASKS OF THE TVET Financing and Networking Expert

In order to assure the adequate participation of the main target groups  young people and women from disadvantaged or poor families and ethnic minorities  a system of different support measures will be set up to help them overcome the major constraints that limit their access to quality training and gainful employment in the T/H sector, which is mainly due to lack of financial resources and low educational levels.

A Fund for Access and Inclusion in Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) for affirmative action will be put in place to co-finance certain training measures established and delivered under Outcome 2 by applying result-based incentives fro private sector employers, educational facilities and students in the form of tuition/stipends.

This fund mechanism will also facilitate the participation of the projects main target groups by providing stipends and financing support measures like bridging courses, tuition, guidance and counselling (Key Output 3.1).

To ensure that the target groups become aware of these opportunities and take advantage of them, an inclusive outreach approach will be designed and implemented in close cooperation with local governments and NGOs that have access to and experience in working with the target groups (Key Output 3.2).

Finally, the project will support ad hoc training initiatives for local people in provinces, districts and municipalities where major tourism investments take place in order to allow them to benefit from related employment opportunities (Key Output 3.3).
ETPRO SUMIT DESIGNS CO., LTD., is a small architectural service company which was founded 2005. Its office is currently located at Ladprao 122, Bangkok. The company provides architectural design and consulting services to its customer in Thailand. Presently, the company plans to construct a new pipeline, approximately 48 Km in length beginning from the existing block valve station SN7 of the Provincial Gas Transmission pipeline project to Welgrow Industrial Estate on Bangna-trad road, Bangpakong, Chachoengsao province. Due to this upcoming project, the company is currently in need of three key professionals personnels: Civil Engineers, Architects and Draftmans.
DAI is an international development company. For over 40 years, we have worked on the frontlines of international development, tackling fundamental social, environmental, and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability.

DAI is seeking experienced professionals for an anticipated multi-year U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded counter wildlife trafficking program in the lower Mekong region. The anticipated program will work to combat wildlife trafficking (CWT), reduce consumer demand, strengthen law enforcement and cooperation for CWT, strengthen policy, and improve monitoring of wildlife crime.

DAI seeks long and short-term specialists based across ASEAN countries with the following expertise:
Gov. Pete Ricketts on Monday vetoed redistricting reform legislation designed to distance state senators from the politically volatile process of drawing new congressional and legislative districts following each U.S. census.

His veto sets the stage for a day of confrontation in the Legislature on Wednesday, its 60th and final day in session this year.

Already on the agenda is a motion to override the governor's veto of a bill (LB947) to allow young undocumented immigrants who have been granted lawful presence in the United States to acquire professional and commercial licenses to work in Nebraska.

In advance of that battle, the Lincoln, Greater Omaha and Nebraska chambers of commerce urged state senators to override Ricketts' veto, arguing that the bill "makes economic sense ... at a time when Nebraska is working hard to attract more skilled, educated workers."

"Giving people who have been educated in our state and who have earned advanced degrees and certificates the ability to work is in the long-term interest of Nebraska's economy and communities," the chambers said in a joint statement.

The 28,000-member Nebraska State Education Association also encouraged senators to override the veto, suggesting that "our state's future is brighter when we allow hard-working young people to follow their career dreams and practice their chosen professions right here in our state."

In announcing Monday's veto of the redistricting reform bill (LB580), the governor said a proposed new citizens commission would be "highly likely to be (composed of) party insiders who know how to draw districts to favor their friends and political allies," opening the process to "political cronyism."

The commission would be composed of five members of the party that won the most recent gubernatorial election and four members of the other party.

Redistricting plans recommended by the commission would be aired at public hearings throughout the state before being submitted to the Legislature for its approval or disapproval.

In his veto message to the Legislature, Ricketts argued that the bill "violates several provisions of Nebraska's Constitution."

Supporters of the measure -- a product of several years of cooperative negotiation by Sen. John Murante of Gretna, a Republican, and Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha, a Democrat -- have said the proposal actually would distance redistricting from elected officeholders, political parties and partisan influence.

In 2011, following the most recent U.S. census, Republican Gov. Dave Heineman was actively engaged in the process of drawing new congressional districts to benefit his party, several senators said during debate on the bill.

And senators themselves were often seeking political advantage in drawing maps defining their own legislative districts five years ago, supporters of the bill said.

The bill cleared its final test on a 29-15 vote; 30 votes would be required to override the governor's veto.

Murante said he is "evaluating the governor's veto message and will determine the proper course of action shortly."

Meanwhile, the governor asked Nebraskans to urge their state senators to uphold his veto of the immigrant workers bill during his monthly radio call-in show.

Ricketts told one caller he has been "talking to a lot of senators (about) Sen. Mello's amnesty bill."

Mello is the sponsor of LB947, which applies to so-called DACA youth who were granted lawful presence by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive action taken by President Barack Obama.

Most of the DACA youth were brought to the United States by their parents illegally when they were young children and most of those affected by the bill grew up in Nebraska and went to school here.

Ricketts also vetoed some funding Monday for a pair of bills addressing state Department of Correctional Services rulemaking (LB867A) and the proposed new statewide 911 system (LB938A), arguing there were some incorrect figures.

And the governor raised the prospect of another potential veto during his radio show.

Ricketts said he is taking "a good strong look" at a bill (LB824) that would remove some regulatory barriers to development of wind energy in Nebraska.

"I've not decided on that bill," the governor said.
Tecumseh State Correctional Institution employees trying to move an inmate into a holding cell Sunday had to subdue him with pepper spray.

"During the move, he became combative and staff used pepper spray to gain compliance," Nebraska Department of Correctional Services spokesman Andrew Nystrom said in response to a query about the incident.

He said the officers were checked out and were not hurt.

Corrections Director Scott Frakes said earlier his month that in an effort to be more transparent he'd decided to notify the media whenever assaults of staff happen and the department has issued several such notifications.

But Nystrom said the Sunday incident didn't rise to that level.

"I can tell you this incident shouldn't be compared to some of the incidents recently," he said in an email. "So much so, that I'm not planning on putting together a release.

"It is important to keep in mind 'assault,' when it deals with inmates at our facilities, does not necessarily mean a physical altercation, or a fight, took place."

But he also said the inmate in question will have assault charges added to an already long prison sentence.

Inmate assaults of corrections officers at Nebraska prisons increased threefold in a recent three-year period.
My old friend Joyces family does not start off a trip without calling home to hear their clans most revered words: Journeys mercies.

Joyce says its promise is in contrast to her fathers pulling back up at the family home after a long car trip  a dependable happening every summer of her childhood  and saying Well, we made it safely again. Today Joyce and Ralphs grown children call their parents as they set out on a trip to receive the blessing of those hallowed words.

I have become used to hearing Journeys Mercies from Joyce whenever I embark on a trip, and feel comforted and assured that my travels are honored and held in that generosity and grace.

Joyce refers the words back to writer and grass-roots theologian Anne Lamonts book titled Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, which are several and poignant.

Anne Lamonts quotes are so incisive that to read them is to think they have come from a spiritual seer and giant. Perhaps her unusual exact telling about her faith and her fascinating but not-so-common journey are the matrix in which such aphorisms are charted.

My heart was broken and my head was just barely inhabitable.

 . . . Most of the time, all you have is the moment, and the imperfect love of people around you.

And less elegantly but equally true: The road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines.

In my mind lie these words: The quality of mercy is not strained. When I could not reach our youngest daughter, a Shakespeare teacher and actor, to discuss the meaning of these words from Shakespeares "The Merchant of Venice," I took the easy way out and typed in those words to Google on my computer.

Way more than I needed to know came flooding into my screen, yet at least this helpful explanation of that phrase:   Strained is a Shakespeare-era term for forced or constrained; it means mercy must be freely given. You can grasp this by seeing the quote in context:

The quality of mercy is not straind,

It stoppeth as the rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:

It blesses him that gives and takes.

Google reports: A modern-day equivalent would be something like this: Look, I cant force you to give me a break here, but it would benefit both of us if you did. 

For Petes sake, my brain yells at me, trying to bring me back to the point of all this before I find another quote or idea that explains mercy!

In that I have been the recipient for many years of Joyces Journeys mercies, today I find it applies to more journeys than those by car or airplane.

Recently I took a surgery journey, many years ago I began a sobriety journey, we are in the midst of a spring journey, and some of us are well into the journey of old age that we hope to live through with some grace and fulfillment of the desire not to die bewildered, as an old Lincoln Star columnist once wrote. Joyces sister recently had to give up driving because of neuropathy in her feet and thoughtfully mourned that loss with deep tears of grief.

The journey of old age comes as a shock to those of us who did not grow up around ANY old people; in my 50s I even wrote a book about Women and Aging, Celebrating Ourselves, thinking I knew something about aging. Perhaps I did but those words had no information about the painful and unavoidable losses and physical and mental difficulties of true old age.

No wisdom I gathered from books and my own life suggested anything other than that we grow old and then we die. Nope, they all left out: we grow old, we become sick and infirm, and then, then we die.

So there is enormous wisdom in that plea to not die bewildered. And more in that painful request to age with some grace.

Journeys mercies we ask, the undeserved but profoundly vital charity with which we hope to forge this journey through the wild and unknowable forest of old age.
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RACINE  A Racine woman who lost control of her vehicle, crashed into a duplex and caused a fire early Saturday morning has been charged with operating while intoxicated, police said.

Racine Police Lt. Al Days said police cited Michelle L. Kirchoff, 48, of the 1300 block of Blaine Ave., for first offense OWI after the crash and fire. First offense OWI is not a criminal offense in Wisconsin.

Police and fire officials reported that the crash occurred at about 1:40 a.m. Saturday at 3401-03 Victory Ave. When police arrived, both the duplex and vehicle were on fire. The Racine Fire Department reported that the car went through the front of the house and caused major fire and structural damage to the duplex.

A Saturday news release from the Fire Department estimated the crash and fire caused approximately $50,000 in damage to the duplex.

A passenger in Kirchoffs vehicle, Brian Treiber, was cited for a child support violation, Days added. Kirchoff and Treiber sustained minor injuries in the crash. Nobody was injured in the home at the time of the crash, the Fire Department reported.
RACINE  What began with two men arguing about whether one was a contractor ended with a Racine resident dead on the floor in the hallway of his Grove Avenue home, investigators say.

Three Racine men were charged on Monday in the April 9 death of Thomas J. Borglin, 34. Borglins death is the citys third homicide of the year.

Mecquon J. Jones, 33, and Bobby L. Mitton, 28, who both live in the same home in the 3100 block of 16th Street in Racine, each are charged with being a party to the crime of first-degree intentional homicide and misdemeanor theft. The homicide charge is punishable by life behind bars if convicted of this count.

Derryle L. Allen, 27, of the 1500 block of Flett Avenue in Racine, is charged with two counts of harboring or aiding a felon and one count of misdemeanor theft. He is charged as a repeat offender.

The allegations in this case are truly shocking, Racine County District Attorney Rich Chiapete said during Jones initial appearance in court on Monday. Kind of a wolf pack mentality. This was a severe beating.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiners Office ruled Borglins death the result of blunt-force trauma to his neck and chest, according to the trios criminal complaints.

Allen reportedly told investigators that Borglin and Mitton began to fight because Mitton thought Borglin was fake and he thought Borglin was lying about working as a contractor, the complaints state.

Borglin didnt want to fight, Allen said, but Mitton kept pushing it over and over. Allen said he saw Mitton pick Borglin up and body-slam him to the ground before he then punching Borglin, the complaints state.

Jones then began stomping on Borglins upper torso, according to the complaints.

Violent and unprovoked attack

Two TVs  a 50-inch and 32-inch  reportedly were stolen along with a knife, keys, Borglins wallet and cellphone. The items were stolen from the home or off his body, the complaints state.

Mitton told police that he spotted Jones stomping on Borglin and he and Allen pulled Jones off. But Jones broke free, Mitton allegedly told police, and resumed stomping on Borglin, the complaints state.

Jones allegedly admitted to punching and kicking Borglin, but told police he couldnt remember the number of times because he was too drunk, according to the complaints.

This was truly a violent and unprovoked attack, Chiapete said during Mittons initial appearance in court on Monday.

Chiapete called for Jones and Mitton to be held on $500,000 cash bond, while asking for Allens bond to be set at $75,000 cash.

Im not going to object to a reasonable amount of cash bail, Assistant State Public Defender Erin Larsen said, but not recommending specific bond amounts for Jones and Mitton.

She requested a $5,000 cash bond for Allen, saying he is a lifelong Racine resident and he actually sought out law enforcement on his own to provide information about the killing.

Court Commissioner Alice Rudebusch set Jones and Mittons bonds at $500,000 cash each, and Allens at $50,000. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has a probation hold on Jones, meaning even if he could pay the $500,000 bail, he wouldnt be released from jail.

Borglins family didnt attend the initial appearances Monday. According to his obituary, Borglin was a gifted painter who found his niche in interior design  He also had an affinity for reptiles and snakes and began collecting from a very early age. His collection was diverse and began with a python.

All three men remain in the Racine County Jail. Their preliminary hearings are set for April 27.

The trio were arrested on Thursday in connection with Borglins death, according to Racine police.

Racine Police began investigating Borglins death on April 11, after his body was found in his home, 1547 Grove Ave. Racine County court records show Borglin previously has lived in a home in the 1700 block of Douglas Avenue in Racine, at a home in Caledonia and at Homeless Assistance Leadership Organization of Racine, a local shelter.
A Fitchburg Democrat has signaled a bid for the state Assembly seat now held by Democratic Rep. Robb Kahl.

Calling himself a progressive through and through, Jimmy Anderson issued a news release Monday announcing his candidacy. Anderson is running in Assembly District 47, which covers a swath of the southeast Madison area including Monona, McFarland and most of Fitchburg.

Kahl, the second-term Assemblyman and former Monona mayor, told the Wisconsin State Journal on Monday he has not decided whether to seek re-election.

Its early, and I havent made that decision, said Kahl, who has represented the district since 2013. Its something my wife and I will decide.

If Kahl or other Democrats file to run against Anderson in Assembly District 47, they would square off in the Aug. 9 primary for the right to advance to the November general election.

Andersons campaign website touts his personal story: his parents and brother were killed  and he was left paralyzed from the chest down  in a car wreck caused by a drunken driver.

After the crash, Anderson started Drive Clear, a nonprofit dedicated to helping the victims of drunken driving.

Andersons website makes no mention of his previously having held elected office. His supporters include Fitchburg Mayor Steve Arnold.
29 injured in bus accident

Twenty-nine people were injured when a passenger bus en route to Dharan from Bhojpur headquarters met with an accident on Sunday. According the District Police Office, nine of the injured are in critical condition.
A meaningful career, one click away

As technology continues to shrink the world into our smartphones, HR gurus elaborate on why the search for that dream job is just a click away
Australia parliament recalled as early election looms

Australia's upper house has begun debating a bill that is likely to trigger a double dissolution election.
Dahal, Poudel for speedy charter implementation

UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and senior leader of Nepali Congress (NC) Ram Chandra Poudel have agreed to speed up the constitution implementation, addressing demands of Madhes-based parties.
Deuba arrives in Delhi, no plan of political meetings

Newly-elected Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba arrived in the Indian Capital New Delhi along with his wife on Monday.
Deuba heading for New Delhi, meets Madhesi leaders

Newly-elected Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba is leaving for the Indian capital New Delhi for a weeklong visit on Monday.
Director General Bokova receives huge welcome in Pharping

Visiting UNESCO Director General Irina Gueorguieva Bokova observed community learning center run by locals with the help of UNESCO in Pharping, Kathmandu on Monday.
Give talks a chance

Though frustrated, the Madhesi Morcha should continue to push for negotiation
Japan earthquake: 'Nearly 250,000 told to leave amid fear of tremors'

Nearly 250,000 people have been told to leave their homes amid fears of further quakes in Japan, an aid agency says.
LPG still hard to find despite rising imports

People are still finding it difficult to buy a cooking gas cylinder despite Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC)s claims the gas supply has improved.
Minor girl goes missing in Mahakali River

A minor was swept away by the Mahakali River at Dumpani of Darchula district on Monday.
NC Prez Deuba heads off to Delhi

Newly-elected Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba left for the Indian capital New Delhi along with his wife on Monday.
Ncells acquisition by malaysias axiata

Naya Shakti Nepal has warned they will launch a campaign to boycott Ncells telecom services if the latter doesnt pay the capital gain tax to the government as per the law.
NEA to have veto power in West Seti JV company

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) will have the right to veto any resolution passed by China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC) through the joint venture company to be formed to build the West Seti Hydropower Project even though the Chinese company will have a majority stake in it.
Over 31,000 families rebuild on their own

Tired of government apathy and the sluggish reconstruction process nearly a year after the April 25 earthquake, thousands of displaced families have decided not to wait for the governments help in rebuilding their homes. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), more than 31,000 earthquake survivors in 11 of the 14 worst affected districts have rebuilt their homes on their own.
Philippines candidate Duterte condemned over rape comments

A video of leading Philippines presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte joking about a murdered Australian rape victim has provoked a storm of protest.
Tatopani border point resumes temporarily

Tatopani, a major transit point between Nepal and China, which was closed after last years earthquake, has temporarily opened.
Tech education helping Karnali communities

Equipped with various skills, several graduates from the Karnali Technical School (KTP) of Ghughuti in Jumla have been giving back their acquired knowledge in different forms to communities in Karnali region.
Think about making politicians financially accountable

If a governmental entity does not abide by a constitutional provision, I have no other instrument to make it do so. All I can do is point out that it has not been accountable
UAE to open embassy in Kathmandu on May 10

The United Arab Emirates, a major work destination in the Gulf for Nepalis, will open its residential mission here on May 10.
Ukraine convicts Russian 'soldiers'

A Ukrainian court has convicted two alleged Russian special forces troops of crimes including terrorism and sentenced them to 14 years in jail.
Hundreds of mourners have gathered at Kibuli mosque for special prayers in honor of former Electoral Commission boss Hajji Aziz Kasujja.

Hajj Kasujja suffered a heart attack last evening while attending a meeting at Broadway School in Kawempe and was later pronounced dead upon admission at Platinum Hospital.

In the presidents speech delivered by Hajji Musa Kigongo, the NRM Deputy National Chairman, he described the late Kasujja as hard working and trust worthy, adding that his death is a big blow to the country.

The president has contributed Shs20 million towards the burial arrangements.

The deceaseds body has now been transported to Mbulire in Masaka District where he will be buried at 4:00 pm.

Story By Gistin Ankurukiremu
The battle over exportation of Ugandas sugar to Kenya could soon be over.

Since last year there has been tension in Kenya with some sections condemning a move approved by the Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta to allow importation of sugar from Uganda.

Now during a meeting between members of the East African Legislative assembly and the business community at parliament in Kampala today, it has been revealed that a verification team is to be sent to Uganda from Kenya.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting one of legislators Margret Zziwa said the team is to ascertain Ugandas capacity to produce enough sugar for export.

Story By Benjamin Jumbe
North Korea appears to be capable of fitting a nuclear warhead on some of its existing short- and medium-range missiles, spawning concerns about advances in the country's missile development, the head of a state-run think tank said Monday.



Washington assesses that the North may succeed in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that can fly as far as the U.S. mainland by 2020, according to Choi Jin-wook, president at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU).



"From the technical perspective, North Korea is seen as being able to mount a nuclear warhead on its short-range Scud and medium-range Rodong missiles," Choi said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.



North Korea fired off a Musudan missile, which has a medium range, on Friday, the birthday of the country's late founder Kim Il-sung, although the launch ended in failure.



If confirmed, it was the North's first test-launch of the Musudan ballistic missile, which is believed to be capable of flying as far as Guam, where U.S. military assets are stationed. The intermediate range missile is estimated to have a range of 3,000-4,000 kilometers.



There is high speculation that North Korea may carry out its fifth nuclear test or fire off a long-range missile ahead of the upcoming party congress slated for early May.



North Korea has ratcheted up its bellicose rhetoric since early March by claiming that it has succeeded in miniaturizing nuclear bombs and acquiring the technology that allows a ballistic missile to re-enter the atmosphere.



Early last month, the U.N. Security Council slapped tougher sanctions on Pyongyang for its nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February.



He said that recent mass defections by North Koreans reflect that the sanctions are having an impact on curbing the North's behavior.



A group of 13 North Koreans who worked at a North Korea-run restaurant in China defected to South Korea earlier in the month amid the toughened international sanctions.



Restaurants in foreign nations serve as one of the main sources of hard currency for North Korea as dollar earnings are suspected of bankrolling the North's nuke and missile programs.



"More cases of such defections are likely to continue. I think China might have condoned the flight of the restaurant workers from the nation," Choi said. "This is an incredible change, compared with the past."



The chief predicted that North Korea may launch a charm offensive after the May party congress, but it would not seek sincere and meaningful talks on denuclearization.



North Korea's ruling party plans to hold its first congress in more than three decades in early May, when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is likely to unveil new directions of policies.



"On the occasion of the party event, North Korea may attempt to seek talks with the U.S., but it is likely to launch nuclear provocations if its move ends in failure," Choi added. (Yonhap)




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HOKAH, Minn. -- For Brenda Child, the traditional jingle dress is something her generation of Ojibwe people is acutely aware of, though its no longer an esteemed aspect of their culture. But the University of Minnesota professor and historian has come to find the historical significance of the garment through stories passed down through the generations and spread among the tribes of northern Minnesota.

Child, a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa who is helping rewrite the nations constitution, was in Hokah earlier this month to talk about her book My Grandfathers Knocking Sticks, a deeply personal look at life and labor on an Indian reservation. She focused on the stories of the people she wrote about -- stories she was able to tell after exhaustive research in the National Archives and elsewhere.

Child teaches in the American studies, American Indian studies, and history departments at the University of Minnesota. She received her undergraduate degree from Bemidji State University, which was just 30 miles from her home -- the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Its one of few places, she said, that was relatively unscathed by federal government policies, one of which was the removal of Native Americans from their homes.

Red Lake was one of the few places in the United States that sort of escaped that allotment process, she said of the policy of pushing those on the reservation toward a more individual style of ownership, rather than the customary communal way of living. In the late 19th century when a lot of Indian people were being removed from their homeland, that didnt happen in Red Lake. People kind of stayed put where they were.

Red Lake also bucked a Roosevelt administration suggestion that tribes move away from their traditional styles of governance to an elected council of leaders. Instead, the people chose to maintain their seven hereditary chiefs.

There are a lot of things we think about of our history at Red Lake that makes our story a little bit unusual, Child said of the 800,000-acre reservation. Its the largest Ojibwe place in the United States or Canada completely owned by its original people. Thats not the story that you often hear when you study Indian history.

And study it, she has. Childs been researching and working on her latest book for years, pouring over archives in order to dig out the small, lesser-known stories of the people shes writing about. Only after she finds these stories, she said, is she able to get a better idea of the bigger picture.

One facet of Indian history she was particularly interested in is the powwow, where women can often be found wearing rows of jingles on their dresses, and the corresponding dance. As Ojibwe, said Child, whose 15-year-old daughter is a jingle dress dancer, the traditions and songs associated with the dance are traditions of healing.

We think it has a very strong therapeutic power, she said. I started to think about, What is the history of the jingle dress? I knew it was a tradition of healing, and I knew it was popular with older women like my grandmother.

But in the 1970s, it appeared practicing the tradition was on its way out, and those Childs age werent interested. A generation later, though, the practice was revived and became popular among powwow dancers around the U.S.

As the story goes, told similarly among the various Ojibwe tribes, a young girl fell ill and was nearing death. Trying to find some way for her to recover, the girls father had a vision that included a dance and a special dress, so he made the dress for his daughter and encouraged her to dance the dance wearing the dress.

She does. She gets up, and she started to feel better, and she survives, Child said. Thats the story we always hear and is always told at home about the jingle dress.

So while writing the book, Child decided to include the history of the womens tradition of healing on reservations. While doctors and nurses are considered healers in mainstream society, on the reservation, those who are extraordinarily knowledgeable about plants -- mostly women -- are considered the healers, she said.

As she researched the circumstances around the girls illness, she discovered it coincided with the global influenza epidemic of 1918, which devastated Indian communities, so Child surmised that when the jingle dance of healing is performed, its done with that historic moment at its root.

Child, while researching the epidemic, happened upon information about a woman named Lutiant La Voye, who was a volunteer nurse during the outbreak at an Army hospital in Washington, D.C. Child found a letter La Voye had written to a friend at Haskell Indian boarding school in Kansas.

After reading her remarkable letter, I wondered, Who was she? What was her tribe? Child said. I was also very interested to know if she survived the epidemic, which killed many young people, mirroring the story of the jingle dress girl.

After finding her name in the U.S. census of 1910, Child discovered Lutiant, an Ojibwe, was living in Roseau, not far from the boundaries of the Red Lake Reservation. She learned Lutiant was the oldest of four children who attended a Catholic school in Minnesota that accepted Indians, and later, two government boarding schools. According to a letter Lutiant wrote about herself, she always desired to become a stenographer and to be independent.

Though young, she had seen a lot as a nurse, including the countless soldiers she attended to at the hospital in Washington. So what does that have to do with the jingle dress?

It, Child said, was an example of how creatively Ojibwe women responded to the worldwide epidemic -- and not, as some might suggest, banished to an isolated reservation in northern Minnesota. She was a healer.

Decades after this tradition developed, Ojibwe women still regarded the dress, the dance and the songs associated with it as treasures of our cultural heritage, Child said. Lutiant survived the epidemic. The first jingle dress dancer, that little girl in the story, is also a survivor."

(Ojibwe women) reach into very creative places in their souls to pick themselves up, and that they did so during this global epidemic.
Mary Thompson, a registered public health nurse from Caledonia, has been named a Centers for Disease Control Childhood Immunization Champion for her outstanding efforts to promote childhood immunization in Minnesota.

Thompson was recognized for her dedication to creating a culture where immunizations are seen as a priority so staff do not miss any opportunity to review immunization status and offer immunizations when needed. She has used innovative approaches to reach parents, such as setting up a station at the county fair where parents could look up their own or their childs immunization record.

In her time at Houston County Public Health, Thompson has worked hard to strengthen relationships with local partners to improve immunization rates in Houston County and neighboring areas, including across state lines as an adviser on a Wisconsin-based regional immunization coalition.

Thompson has built relationships with local clinics when conducting annual visits to review immunization practices and protocols. She has also worked with local schools to institute school-based immunization clinics and written articles for various media sources on the benefits of infant immunizations.

Thompsons passion for promoting immunizations stems from her experiences of caring for patients with vaccine-preventable diseases during her more than 40 years as a nurse. She has seen young patients die from complications of diseases such as chickenpox, Hib and HPV.

Mary knows the devastation these diseases can cause and works hard to improve immunization rates for everyone she comes in contact with, said Houston County Public Health Director Health Mary Marchel in a statement. She is an inspiration to everyone she works with and is a true immunization champion.
La Crosse Loggers owner Dan Kapanke is again running for the Wisconsin Senate seat he lost in a recall election five years ago.

Announcing his candidacy Monday, Kapanke said the state has experienced a reversal since Republicans took control of government in the 2010 elections but added there is more work to do.

It came to me about two months ago that there was much to do, he told a group of supporters and media at the La Crosse County GOP headquarters.

Kapanke said his priorities would be patching the transportation budget, reforming the school funding formula and continuing to add jobs. He did not commit, however, to increasing the gasoline tax or vehicle registration fees, saying only that the state cannot borrow more to pay for transportation projects.

Those answers will be forthcoming, he said on what funding mechanism he would support.

Kapanke vowed to run a positive campaign while highlighting differences between him and Democratic Sen. Jennifer Shilling of La Crosse.

When I was in Madison I heard a Democratic senator  on the floor  saying business owners have to do more. They have to step up. We need more of their money, Kapanke said. Bernie Sanders  thats all he wants. He wants all of our money, everybodys. Thats their party. Thats what they do. Our side, we want taxpayers to keep as much possible as they earn. Its just a difference in philosophy.

Shilling defeated Kapanke with 55.4 percent of votes in the recall election fueled by the uproar over the GOPs move to curtail collective bargaining rights for most public-sector workers. She was elected to a second term in 2012 with more than 58 percent of the vote and has since gone on to become Senate minority leader.

That certainly is not the reason Im running, Kapanke said of the recall. I dont hold grudges, he said.

He added that voters have had time to see the benefits of Act 10, which the governor says has saved the state $5 billion.

Kapanke previously served in the Senate for more than six years, winning the open seat in 2004 with 52.5 percent of the vote and defeating Democratic challenger Tara Johnson in 2008 with 51.4 percent.

The State Senate Democratic Committee issued a statement calling Kapanke a rubber stamp for Gov. Scott Walker and blaming his past votes for the states lagging job creation and stagnant middle-class wages.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected Mr. Kapanke in 2010 and 2011 after he sided with Gov. Walker over local families, the statement read. His record of supporting massive school cuts, attacks on worker rights and limits on womens health care continue to hurt local families and small businesses.
MADISON  State attorneys formally asked a Madison judge on Monday to stay his ruling declaring Wisconsin's right-to-work law unconstitutional while they appeal the decision.

State Justice Department attorneys filed a motion requesting a stay with Dane County Circuit Judge William Foust as well as a notice of appeal with the 3rd District Court of Appeals. If Foust grants the stay, the law would remain in effect until the appeal is settled.

The DOJ attorneys argued in their motion that leaving right-to-work in place won't cause labor unions substantial harm and the law clearly benefits the public since 25 other states have such statutes. Without a stay, non-union members could be forced to pay dues, upsetting families that rely on weekly paychecks, they added.

"This (ruling) will have significant, immediate impacts on the State and its citizens," the motion said. "Due respect for the presumption of constitutionality and the public interest requires that the judgment should be stayed until the appellate courts can finally decide whether Wisconsin, alone among its sister States, is prohibited from enacting a right-to-work law."

Right-to-work laws prohibit businesses and unions from reaching agreements that require all workers, not just union members, to pay union dues. Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed Wisconsin's law last year and touted it during his brief presidential bid last summer.

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO, Machinists Local Lodge 1016 and United Steelworkers District 2 filed a lawsuit challenging the law, alleging it amounts to a taking of union services without just compensation since the unions must represent all employees in a workplace even if the workers don't pay dues. Foust sided with the unions earlier this month, handing down a ruling finding the law unconstitutional.

Fred Perillo, the lead attorney for the unions, said he hadn't been served with the motion yet and had no immediate comment.

Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, said in a statement that Walker and Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel shouldn't play politics with workers' freedom to stick together.

"If we want a strong economy," he said, "we should be strengthening unions so that workers can continue to collectively negotiate better workplaces for future generations."
A total of 53 Wisconsin public school districts asked their local citizens April 5 for additional nancial support through 71 referenda questions. Of those ballot issues, voters approved 55, or more than 77 percent.

Funding from those referenda questions will be used in places like Spring Valley to maintain their facilities. The districts elementary school is between 40 and 88 years old, depending on where you stand.

It will be used in districts like Brodhead to continue providing the level of service the community is accustomed to by supporting stafng needs and technology upgrades.

During the past handful of years, the passage rate of referenda questions has steadily increased. Ten years ago, in 2006, the passage rate for referenda was over 59 percent. And 15 years ago, questions prevailed roughly 43 percent of the time. Year-by-year snapshots cannot tell the whole story of what is happening with a school district, state or nation, but the overall trend in successful referenda itself conveys an important message.

Referenda questions are being prompted by budgetary shortfalls as state support for PK-12 education stagnates. That is forcing school boards to ask local taxpayers to shoulder more of the cost to educate their children. It troubles me to see the difference between have districts that can pass referenda, and have-not districts that are unsuccessful. As a state, we have a constitutional obligation to provide an equal opportunity to access a free public education system. I fear our current pathway puts us at odds with that guarantee.

The upcoming budget for the state of Wisconsin presents a perfect vehicle to engage on two important issues: the need for increased state support of public education and the need to update our funding formula to reect our current educational climate. I will be incorporating these topics into the budget request for education that Ill propose for 2017-19.

Our state has undergone a great deal of change in the past two decades. Our public school students overall are more diverse, increasingly come from low-income families, and more are learning English. With technology all around us, methods of learning and teaching have changed as well. But despite all this change, as Wisconsinites we remain steadfast in our shared value of maintaining a strong system of public education. Our public school funding system must reect the fairness and equity we want for all of our children.
Following the Super Tuesday primaries Donald Trump remains the frontrunner to win the Republican presidential nomination in the US. Nomination is not yet a sure thing. If successful the property tycoon-turned-politician will need to go on to confront a Democratic party opponent, most likely to be Hillary Clinton. Victory over Clinton is also far from assured. But a candidate notorious for his anti-Mexico views has now gone far enough and fast enough in the race to be considered a serious contender for the US presidency. That means Mexican political leaders are starting to imagine what a Trump presidency might be like.

Trumps views on Mexico have  as he intended  received headline coverage. A brief summary: if elected Trump intends to build a gigantic wall (which appears to get higher every time he mentions it) along the frontier to keep Mexican immigrants out. Mexico is to be forced to foot the cost of the wall, for which various numbers have been mentioned (the latest Trump estimate is US$8bn). In Trumps view Mexicans entering the US include rapists, murderers and drug runners. A Trump government will deport all Mexicans illegally in the US back to Mexico  an operation that could involve up to 11m people.

Opinion remains divided between those who believe Trump should be interpreted literally, and those who see his statements (such as the claim that all Muslims should be denied entry to the US) as more of a deliberately provocative and figurative appeal to a disgruntled middle America, deeply worried by immigration, crime, and terrorism, and eager to be offered simple solutions restoring the countrys perceived loss of global power and status.

Mexican reaction

Mexican responses to Trump appear to have evolved through various stages. An initial response was to condemn Trumps ideas but to treat him as something of a clown. Various Mexican leaders attempted to ignore him entirely. That began to change as the Trump factor showed itself to be resilient and to reflect a not insignificant cross-section of the US electorate. One sign of this was that the proposal to build a wall, along with other hard-line anti-immigrant positions have been adopted, with different variants, by Trumps Republican rivals. He has framed the debate to his advantage.

Another sign of the real impact of Trumps rhetoric has come from indications that after slowing over recent years, the flow of immigrants into the US has increased again (see sidebar), with many reasoning that the time to get in is now, ahead of whatever tougher regulations are introduced after a new occupant enters the White House in January 2017. There are reports that people traffickers are encouraging this notion as a way of boosting demand for their services.

While former Mexican presidents have compared Trump to Hitler (see sidebar), Mexican government officials have tried to keep out of the war of words, until now. This week Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu said the wall plan was impossible, as well as impractical, inefficient, wrong and franklynot an intelligent thing to do. President Enrique Pena Nietos chief of staff, Francisco Guzman, has said the government will use its consulates across the US to publicise the positive aspects of the two countries relationship. Pena Nieto, Guzman added, believes any leader elected to the US presidency would end up taking a softer and more pragmatic line once in office.

Trump wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), slapping higher tariffs on Mexican products. Opponents of Trump point out that bilateral trade has quintupled to US$530bn since Nafta was signed in 1994 and now arguably supports significant job creation in the US as well as in Mexico. Guzman noted, It would be difficult to reverse 20 years of integration.

A number of security experts believe that the Trump wall  as described by its main proponent  will never be built. They argue that the cost and technical challenges are prohibitive and that there are legal complications over ownership, right-of-way conflicts, eminent domain disputes, and environmental regulations. But it is feasible that a future US administration would further strengthen and tighten border patrol and deploy advanced technology, including drones and other devices, to make illegal entry significantly more difficult. Mass deportations in the other direction are also possible.

As the process would most probably be accompanied by a sharp cooling in bilateral relations, it is likely that it could be poorly managed and would have serious unintended consequences. One is that a less porous border with fewer illegal drug trafficking routes might intensify the struggle to control those routes between the drug trafficking organisations (DTOs). If Mexican criminals are deported from US prisons and simply dumped on the Mexican side of the border that too is going to increase, not reduce border tensions. US-Mexican security cooperation would most likely decrease sharply and the Merida initiative  a part US-funded joint security programme  might not survive. Poor security cooperation between the two countries might be seen as a great opportunity by the ever-resourceful DTOs.

Illegal immigration

According to US border patrol statistics a total of 150,304 immigrants were arrested when trying to enter the US illegally between October 2015 and February 2016, a 24% increase on the same year-earlier period.

Mexican presidents on Trump

President Vicente Fox (2000-2006) said he would not pay for that f****** wall, adding of Donald Trump that He reminds me of Hitlerhes going to use the executive power to do what hed like. Another former Mexican President, Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), pointed out that Trump is himself the son of immigrants but is talking about immigrants who have a different skin colour to him. Frankly its racist and exploits sensitivities, rather like Hitler did in his day.

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Despite the announcement by the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN), Colombias second-largest leftist guerrilla group, that it will soon engage in formal peace negotiations with the government, it has launched a military offensive in recent weeks, prompting a counter-offensive by the armed forces. The decision by Clan Usuga, the countrys largest emerging criminal organisation (Bacrim), to initiate a new campaign of violence in repudiation of the governments peace negotiations with the guerrillas [WR-16-13] is also a factor in the upsurge of violence in the country. All of this is sparking fears that the peace process being conducted by the Juan Manuel Santos administration could become seriously hindered.

Since announcing on 30 March that it had agreed a six-point formal peace talks agenda with the government, the ELN has launched a series of attacks in different parts of the country. On 6 April ELN guerrillas kidnapped two bus drivers after stopping them on a highway linking the north-western departments of Choco and Risaralda. The guerrillas set fire to their victims buses as well as six other private vehicles before making their escape. General Javier Diaz, the commander of the Titan military task force charged with combating criminal groups in the area, said that the bus drivers were presumably taken after refusing to pay an extortion fee demanded by the ELN.

General Diaz condemned the incident. He noted that while the government and the ELN had been clear that they would conduct the peace negotiations without declaring a bilateral ceasefire (as the Santos government agreed with the main guerrilla Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia [Farc]), one of the conditions set by Santos for engaging in peace talks with the ELN was for the latter to release all of its kidnap victims and refrain from targeting the civilian population.

In the wake of the Choco kidnapping, Colombias national congresss peace commissions called on the ELN to declare a ceasefire in support of the formal peace talks, as the Farc has done, in order to reduce the intensity of the armed conflict. But the ELN ignored this, launching instead a series of attacks targeting the armed forces. This after on 7 April Defence Minister Luis Carlos Villegas confirmed that ELN commander Alejandro had been killed during a 30 March navy operation in Jurado, Choco department. Alejandro was the third ELN commander killed by the armed forces in March after Zorillo, the leader of the Alfredo Gomez Quinones front, was killed in the north-eastern department of Bolivar and Danilo, the leader of the ELNs northern front, was killed in the northern La Guajira department. Villegas said that the operation that resulted in Alejandros death was part of the offensive ordered by President Santos against the ELN to expedite the peace negotiations. Villegas then demanded the release of the kidnapped bus drivers.

But the ELN opted to strike back. On 10 April ELN guerrillas ambushed an army patrol in the El Tambo municipality of the south-western Cauca department. One soldier was killed and another was wounded in the attack, which General Juan Vicente Trujillo, the commander of the Apolo task force, described as a violation of international humanitarian law and human rights. General Trujillo explained that at the time of the attack, the patrol was in a state of indefence and that their attackers were dressed as civilians.

Clan Usuga joins the fray

As the clashes between the armed forces and the ELN intensified, the guerrillas also began targeting the Clan Usuga which was set up by demobilised paramilitary groups and recently began calling itself the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC). This led the Farc and the ELN to denounce it as new paramilitary threat and to call on the government to dismantle it so as to ensure the viability of the peace process. On 12 April Colombias ombudsmans office denounced that Clan Usuga members had been involved in armed clashes with ELN and Farc guerrillas the previous day in Antioquia department.

According to the ombudsmans report, the clashes took place when dozens of heavily armed members wearing Farc and ELN badges entered the municipality of El Bagre, with the aim of attacking members of Clan Usuga. Gun battles between the guerrillas and the criminals broke out, in which three civilians were injured. The report goes on to say that soon afterwards the armed forces arrived in the area, killed two members of the criminal organisations and wounded another two, without providing further details. The ombudsmans office said that the incident was a clear infringement of international humanitarian law, adding that it would monitor closely the situation in the area as the local community is concerned that this new conflict dynamic could lead to a recrudescence of violence in the area.

The incident at El Bagre came after six Colombian civil-society organisations formally denounced the emergence of a new phase of paramilitarism in Colombia led by the Clan Usuga before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The complaint, which was filed on 5 April, states that 28 people were killed in February-March in suspected paramilitary activity carried out by the Clan Usuga. According to the complaint, 13 of these people were social and human-rights activists, while the others were victims of a suspected social cleansing exercise designed to instil fear. The Santos government responded by condemning the deaths of all social and human-rights activists; promised to clear up the cases and punish all those responsible; and intensify its efforts to combat the Bacrims, especially the Clan Usuga (see sidebar). Amid the growing concerns about the resurgence of paramilitarism and its impact on the peace process, the government is under pressure to achieve these goals.

ELN moots May as possible start of peace negotiations

On 7 April Miguel Atalay, who has identified himself as a spokesperson for Colombias Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) guerrillas, announced through Twitter that the ELN had agreed to hold the first formal peace negotiating rounds with Colombian government representatives in May. The ELN announces to Colombia and the international community that the first public [negotiating] table will be installed in Ecuador in May, Atalays tweet reads. The announcement has not been confirmed nor denied by the government or the ELN leadership.

Taking the fight to Clan Usuga

On 11 April President Santos announced that the government would redouble its efforts to combat the countrys Bacrims, in particular the Clan Usuga. We are going after the leaders of this Clan, including its maximum leader Otoniel [Dairo Antonio Usuga David]we are redoubling our efforts, Santos said before announcing that the reward for any information leading to Usuga Davids arrest had increased to Col$3bn (US$983,000) from the Col$1.5bn (US$492,00) offered last month. It is imperative to strengthen actions against all kinds of criminality, but especially criminal organisationssuccessors of paramilitarism, Santos added. A week earlier, on 7 April, Santos had announced the arrests of 39 Clan Usuga members as part of an operation targeting the Bacrims leaders.

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From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

A new report from Human Rights Watch details the treatment of mentally sick people in Indonesia. The report is titled "Living in Hell. It documents the practice of pasung.

Pasung is the isolation of a person suffering from some sort of mental health problem. They might be held separate from others, either inside or outside their homes or at a health care center. Sometimes they are held in place with tied ropes or chains. The situation forces the person in pasung to eat, sleep and release waste in one small place.

The report says about 18,000 people currently live in pasung in Indonesia.

The report also cites one case in which a man was trapped in a room for 15 years. Another case involved a 24-year old woman suffering from depression after her husband left her and her small child. Photos show her chained to a wooden platform that serves as a bed.

Shantha Rau Barriga is the director of the disability rights division at Human Rights Watch in Jakarta. She spoke to VOA by phone.

Barriga says that Human Rights Watch has documented rights abuses against the mentally sick in many countries. These abuses often include chaining or tying people in place.

She adds that such cases can be found at mental health centers in Ghana, Russia, Croatia, as well as in prisons in the United States.

Barriga warns that abuse is widespread. She says the victims seem "invisible" because they are held in isolation.

The expert says stigma connected to mental health problems worsens the situation. She also said that there are not enough community-based mental health care and support services.

Barriga said there "is so much misinformation and misperception about mental health. In her words, people in Indonesia, and in many other countries, see it not as a medical condition, but as a curse, or that the person is possessed by evil spirits."

As a result, people may turn to spiritual healers or prayer for a "cure. They may choose not to use medical care even if it is available.

Superstitions: Shes a witch

Barriga traveled to Ghana in 2014 to study conditions at so-called "prayer camps."

Christian organizations own the camps. The camp leaders often declare themselves to be prophets.

People go to the camps for help, she explains, during difficult times in their lives, after a death in the family, for example, or the loss of a job.

But the camps also contain separate areas for people with mental and intellectual problems. They are often brought to the camp against their will and left for long periods of time. A 2012 Human Rights Watch report described a man tied to a tree for five years.

Barriga was interviewing the head of one such camp when she heard a child crying. She asked who it was. The man told her the child crying was a witch. He took Barriga to see her. Barriga said she was a five-year-old girl chained to a tree.

According to Barriga, the camp leader told her about 95 percent of the so-called witches at the camp are girls. Barriga then claimed that the man pointed to a group of girls, from about ages five to 11, saying, She's a witch. She's a witch. She's a witch."



Multiple treaties violated

The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in late 2006. It calls on countries to support, protect and guarantee full human rights and freedoms for all persons with long-term disabilities.

More than 160 countries have signed the treaty. Barriga said shackling and other abuse of the mentally ill violates this treaty and others.

Indonesia banned the use of pasung almost 40 years ago. However, Barriga says the government needs to do more to stop pasung.

Human Rights Watch is calling on Indonesia to enforce the ban by closely watching centers where it takes place. The organization is also urging Indonesia to work toward changing opinions about mental sickness among communities.

Shantha Rau Barriga said the long-term goal is for governments all around the world to change how they treat the mentally ill.

She said she hopes governments turn toward a system of community-based mental health care, where people can live independently, make decisions for themselves and get the care services they might want."

Studies have shown that in any given year, as much as a third of the world's population suffers some form of a mental disorder. Two-thirds of them do not get the care they need and are at risk of abuse.

Im Anna Matteo.

And Im Jonathan Evans.

Cecily Hilleary wrote this story for VOA News. Anna Matteo adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

isolation  n. the state of being in a place or situation that is separate from others

shackle  n. one of two rings that are placed around a person's wrists or ankles and that are connected by a chain

invisible  adj. incapable by nature of being seen

stigma  n. a set of negative and often unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something

superstition  n. a belief or way of behaving that is based on fear of the unknown and faith in magic or luck

witch  n. one that is credited with usually malignant supernatural powers


A judge in China ruled against a gay couple last week in the countrys first case about same-sex marriage.

A court in central China dismissed the suit that the couple brought against the local government. The couple said the local government bureau would not issue them a marriage registration certificate.

The ruling was not a surprise. The couples lawyer said he expected the ruling. But a judgment in under four hours was a surprise.

The lawyer argued that Sun Wenlin and Hu Mingliang should be allowed to marry because the laws in China do not specifically ban marriage between couples of the same sex.

The laws only address marriage between a man and a woman.

Sun says the fact that marriage between a man and a woman is legal does not suggest that marriage between two men is illegal.

The couple will have to pay a small fee  about $7  in court costs.

The couple says it plans to appeal.

China does not recognize same-sex marriage and government officials say they do not expect that to change.

The case received a lot of attention inside China. Hundreds of people arrived at the courthouse, hoping for a chance to witness the arguments. But only about 100 were admitted.

Sun talked with the Associated Press news agency before the hearing. He said he hoped other people will see same-sex marriage as a possibility.

I hope I can pave the way as far and wide as possible so that people who want to do the same will see how much we have tried and what possibilities there can be.

Homosexuality is not illegal in China, but same-sex couples do not usually live openly.

Im Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English based on reporting by the Associated Press and New York Times. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

Do you think same-sex marriage will be legal one day in China? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

gay - adj. someone who is interested in a person of the same sex

couple - n. two people who are married or who have a sexual relationship together

suit - n. case

certificate - n. a document that is official proof of something

allowed - v. permitted

address - v. to deal with

bureau  n. a government department or office that provides services to the public

homosexuality  adj. sexually attracted to people of the same sex

gender  n. the state of being male or female


Efforts to rescue victims continue after strong earthquakes in Ecuador and Japan killed hundreds and injured thousands.

In Ecuador, officials say at least 350 people died and more than 2,500 were injured in an earthquake that struck the coastal area late Saturday.

Officials say the number of dead will increase as aid workers reach isolated areas.

Rescuers are digging with their hands and tools to find survivors under collapsed buildings. Soldiers have been deployed to areas hit by the earthquakes.

President Rafael Correa visited the coastal city of Manta, where the earthquake caused much damage. He said the earthquake was the worst natural disaster in his country since 1949, when thousands of people died in an earthquake.

Officials say the quake was felt throughout the country. It stopped electricity and mobile phone service throughout the capital, Quito.

In Japan, the U.S. military is helping Japan recover from three powerful earthquakes there. At least 41 people were killed in southern Japan on the large island of Kyushu.

Officials said as many as 100 people were trapped under collapsed buildings in Kumamoto Prefecture.

In addition to the dead and the missing, almost 2,000 people have been hurt since the first earthquake struck Thursday. Buildings collapsed. Fires and landslides occurred. Two stronger quakes struck on Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday, the Japanese government sent 25,000 Self Defense Force troops to help people on Kyushu.

Officials say many people are trapped or buried under collapsed buildings or homes. About 200,000 people are in evacuation centers at schools and government buildings.

Officials will not have complete damage reports until all communities are reached.

Dangerous aftershocks often happen after large earthquakes. Experts say they will be felt in southern Japan for more than a week. There have been more than 450 aftershocks since Thursday.

There is no connection between the earthquakes in Japan and Ecuador, says Gavin Hayes, PhD, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado.

Earthquakes are random, he says, and sometimes they happen around the same time. These recent ones are not connected, he says.

What Japan and Ecuador do have in common is that they are both part of what is called the ring of fire. That is the area around the edges of the Pacific Ocean, like coastal Asia and coastal North and South America. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, 90 percent of the worlds earthquakes happen there.

Earthquakes happen when the "plates" -- or the crust and upper layer of the earth -- move against each other. When they shift, it causes the earth to shake and shudder, moving energy along the lines of the plates. These lines are called "faults."

Hayes says earthquakes are not increasing or getting worse than in the past. What is different is word spreads more quickly now.

We are in a situation now that everyone is in tune with the Internet and media and were hearing more about (earthquakes) than in the past.

With Twitter and other social media, Hayes says, people can post pictures and information immediately after an earthquake.

Im Anne Ball.

VOANews.com and Correspondents Richard Green, Steve Herman and Anne Ball reported this story. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the reports for VOA Learning English. Kathleen Struck 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

aftershock  n. a smaller earthquake that takes place after a larger one

landslide  n. a large mass of rocks and earth that suddenly and quickly moves down the side of a mountain or hill

isolated  adj. separate from others

shudder - v. to shake or move violently
ALMA  Groundwater wells at a Republican River augmentation project in Lincoln County have been shut down temporarily because of forecasts for several inches of rain in much of the basin in the next several days.

In reviewing Thursdays Lower Republican Natural Resources District board meeting for the Hub this morning, LRNRD Assistant Manager Scott Dicke said a decision will be made after the rain about whether more augmentation water will needed to meet the pumping target of 31,000 acre-feet by May 20.

General Manager Mike Clements has said the latest agreement between the Republican River Compact states, Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska, requires there to be 40,000 a-f of water in Harlan County Lake by June 1 for the downstream Kansas Bostwick Irrigation District.

In exchange, Kansas officials are giving the Nebraska NRDs more flexibility in when to operate the N-CORPE system.

The original 2016 plan was to begin a gradual shutdown of N-CORPE, which stands for Nebraska Cooperative Republican Platte Enhancement, starting Tuesday.

The project has pumped groundwater from the wellfield into Medicine Creek, a Republican River tributary, since October. The goal of augmenting river flows is to comply with the compact without shutting down wells serving irrigated acres. Seventy-five percent of the water from the project owned and operated by the Upper, Middle and Lower Republican and Twin Platte NRDs is earmarked for the Republican Basin.

Dicke said the benefits are seen in Harlan County Reservoir, which holds 31,000 a-f more water in storage than a year ago and was at 214,597 a-f this morning. It looks good, he said about the lake.

A recent report from the federal Bureau of Reclamation listed the end-of-March storage at 207,062 a-f, which was 73 percent of average and 66 percent of full.

Also part of Clements report to the board was an update on a Platte-Republican diversion project involving the LRNRD and Holdrege-based Tri-Basin NRD.

It would transport high Platte River flows, when available, into the Republican Basin via the east branch of Turkey Creek in Gosper and Furnas counties, starting west of Smithfield. Project leaders have said the augmentation water would go into the Republican River between Oxford and Edison as credit for compact compliance.

At a meeting of representatives from both NRDs scheduled at 10 a.m. April 22 at the Tri-Basin office in Holdrege, it is expected there will be a recommendation on hiring an engineering firm. Clements has said that would allow both boards of directors to consider approval at their May meetings.

The other part of the project is negotiating an agreement with Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District, which would divert water through its system into the Republican Basin diversion project.

In other reports at Thursdays LRNRD board meeting in Alma, the directors:

n Were told that the staff has nearly completed groundwater measurements in the district.

n Were reminded that a video about the history of NRDs will be broadcast again on Nebraska Educational Television at 7 p.m. May 5 and 1 p.m. May 8. It also can be viewed at http://netnebraska.org/basic-page/television/keeping-nebraska-local-unique-approach-resource-management.

n Were told the NRD has sold more than 30,000 trees and shrubs this year. Planting was to start next week.
Veterans of all ages, from all wars, were honored in a special recognition Sunday afternoon at Northwest High School.

There were veterans who served in Iraq and some who served in Afghanistan. There were veterans who served in Vietnam, in Korea, and in Panama. There were even veterans from World War II.

"I'm lucky I'm here today," World War II veteran Rudy Liebsack told the audience after explaining he flew in 30 missions over Iwo Jima in a B-24 bomber.

The Wednesday Group from Mid-Nebraska Individual Services decided to invite all veterans to a special ceremony as a thank-you for their service. But that thank-you came from veterans themselves as well.

"I served from 87 to 90, during peace time," said Bryan Mahoney. "I want to thank all you who served during the war time  God bless you and keep you  you are my heroes."

The ceremony opened with the stage at the Northwest auditorium lined with Patriot Guard riders, each holding an American flag.

Marine Jesse Haake, who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, greeted the group and sang "Prayer to St. Peter" while playing his guitar.

Roger Lempke, a retired U.S. Air Force major general who also served as the adjutant general of the Nebraska National Guard, brought greetings from U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, whom he now serves as her director for military and veterans affairs.

Lempke said perhaps the most recognizable military honor is the Purple Heart. It was first used by George Washington during the American Revolution, where only three soldiers were recognized.

The honor was revamped to the Purple Heart that is known today in 1932, but was based on action and meritorious service, not necessarily being injured by the enemy, Lempke said. It wasn't until 1942 that being wounded in enemy action became a requirement for receiving the Purple Heart, he said.

While primarily for those in the military, Purple Hearts have been given out on occasion to civilians, including war correspondent Ernie Pyle, and military animals.

About 964,000 Purple Hearts were given out during World War II, Lempke said.

Travis Karr, a veteran himself and director of the veteran and military services program at Central Community College, said veterans serve the country for so many reasons  to gain an education, to help provide for their families, to serve the country and in honor of those who never come home.

He said he was moved to see the audience honoring and recognizing the service and sacrifices that veterans make.

"This to me, feels good in my heart," he said looking out across the audience of about 60.

CCC graduate and veteran Anthony Chaulk, who formerly worked at Mid-Nebraska Individual Services before his deployment, praised the Wednesday Group for the recognition.

"I am so proud of you for doing something like this," he said.

Karr and Central Community College then presented the Wednesday Group with a framed momento of the college's Warrior Paper project. Old uniforms are used to make a pulp that becomes a textured paper used for artwork.

The art presented Sunday read Wednesday Group across the top and then carried the college's veterans program slogan "Yesterday's Warrior, Today's Scholars, Tomorrow's Leaders" across the bottom.
Google Play Music is now more than just music. Google has launched a podcast section that lets you stream episodes of your favorite shows or find new shows you might like.

That last bit is an area where Googles podcast offering might stand out from the competition. While theres no shortage of podcast apps and services, most require you to search or browse for new shows you might want to hear.

Google Play Music will let you do those things. But you can also use contextual playlists like learn something new, or laughing out loud to start listening to episodes from podcasts you may or may not already be aware of.

The feature is a lot like the contextual music playlists that have been available in Play Music since Google started incorporating features from Songza (a music streaming service that the company acquired and then shut down).

You dont have to use these playlists. You can just use Google Play like any other podcast app: find shows you like, hit the subscribe button, and listen on your mobile device or in a web browser.

But Google is a late-comer to the podcast party and there are a number of popular apps and services for Android and other platforms including Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, BeyondPod, and more. Im not sure Ill stop using BeyondPod anytime soon, but Im curious to see if the LPX Podcast (now available via Google Play) ends up getting any new listeners thanks to Googles new playlist recommendations.

I also wonder if Google will eventually change the name of Play Music now that its more than music.

The service is already kind of hard to describe in just a few words, since Play Music is really a whole bunch of different services bundled together. You can use it as a cloud locker for your own music (by uploading up to 50,000 songs for free). You can use it as a free, ad-supported internet radio service by streaming music from playlists. Or you can pay for ad-free streams and on-demand playback of millions of songs.

Note that while Podcasts are already live in the web version of Google Play Music, the feature is rolling out gradually to Android users. Google Play Podcasts are also available exclusively in the US and Canada for now.

via Google
The anticipatory bail hearing of TV producer-actor Rahul Raj Singh, for allegedly abetting his girlfriend Pratyusha Banerjee's suicide, has now been adjourned until 25 April by the Bombay High Court.

The Court was expected to announce its decision on Rahul's bail please today.

As the matter was adjourned, however, Rahul will have to make another appearance before the Bangur Nagar police on 23 April.

Rahul had previously approached a sessions court with a plea for bail. On 7 April, however, the court turned down Rahul's plea. He then approached the High Court and was granted interim relief until 18 April.

It now seems that Rahul will only know the status of his bail application on 25 April.

Rahul had discovered Pratyusha's body hanging from a ceiling fan in the apartment they shared on the evening of 1 April. He rushed her to Kokilaben Hospital, where Pratyusha was pronounced dead on arrival.

After being questioned by the police for two days, Rahul was hospitalised since he complained of chest pain. Within 48 hours, the police had booked him for abetting Pratyusha's suicide, on the basis of a statement given by Pratyusha's mother Soma Banerjee.

Meanwhile, Pratyusha's parents  Soma and Shankar Banerjee  have requested the Maharashtra government to order a CBI probe into their daughter's death.
In the midst of war of words between Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranauts legal counsels, there was a fresh development on Monday evening that the actress will be recording her statement with the cyber crime cell on April 30.

Kanganas fight with rumoured former beau Hrithik Roshan took an ugly turn when they both filed legal notices against each other sometime early this year.

However, over the past few days, their disagreement had deviated and focused on the cyber crime cells investigations following an FIR filed by Hrithik on March 5 which says that a fake email-ID has been created and an impostor has been operating it under his guise and misleading many of his fans, including Kangana. Kangana had not yet recorded her statement to assist in the investigations and hence the proceedings in the ongoing legal battle were stalled, Hrithik's counsel claimed.

Ever since, reports of Kangana being 'summoned' by the police and being asked to cooperate with their investigation have been doing the rounds. Kanganas lawyer, Rizwan Siddiquii said, We communicated the date (April 30) to the cyber crime on Saturday as that is the earliest when all three of us  Kangana, her sister Rangoli and I will be available.

Earlier during the day on Monday (April 18) there was strong buzz that the cyber crime team was to record Kangana's statement at her residence on Monday but the actress's counsel had denied any such development. "I have been receiving calls from media persons since last two hours. They have been told by Hrithik Roshan's PR team that police is coming to meet Kangana today (Monday). That's a blatant lie as no one is visiting Kangana, as has been communicated by Hrithik's team," the counsel said further adding, "My client is not a coward to disappear suddenly. We have always been handling the matter legally and without any fear," said Rizwan.

"He (Hrithik) should rather concentrate on acting on my counter-notice or responding to it, as it has been more than 45 days since he received it. Such acts of misleading media persons shows acts of desperation. Hrithik never bothered about any impostor in the last about two years. How has it become so important now? Hrithik did what he had to do, now he should wait patiently as law will take its own course," the counsel added.

The controversy began earlier this year after Kangana hinted at Hrithik being her 'ex' when she said in an interview that she failed to understand 'why exes do silly things to get your attention'.

Meanwhile, Hrithiks counsel, while attacking Kangana and her legal team, issued a statement saying, "Instead of giving so many media statements, they (Kangana) should record one official statement with the cyber crime cell which will really help the investigation. They are clearly more interested in media wars than anything else. The entire process of investigation is stalled because they haven't officially recorded their statement with the authorities." Reportedly, Hrithik has recorded his statement in the case and the cyber crime team has been trying to get Kangana's statement.

Refuting these allegations, Kanganas lawyer reiterated, My client is not interested in any media war nor is she interested in the matter initiated by Hrithik Roshan. She herself fails to understand as to why Hrithik did not file a proper complaint in May 2014 and proper investigation into the matter, if he really felt that there was someone impersonating him. His silence for two years has created serious doubts."

"What is more confusing is that in his belated complaint and public statement Hrithik had confirmed that many people have given him information about this alleged impostor. Even then till date on one else has been named or questioned. Suddenly Hrithik wants my client and her sister to be a witness in his complaint without asking any questions. He also wants my client not to see the copy of the FIR nor exercise any of her rights. Isnt he asking for too much?

Kanganas counsel further stated, He has done whatever he felt is legally right and my client is doing whatever is legally required to determine the truth. Hrithik should not interfere with my clients rights or try to pressurise her on the said matter any further, whether directly or indirectly.
The Rs 9,000 crore Kingfisher-Vijay Mallya saga is a tough riddle to solve for 17 large banks (that lent money to the airline), the investigating agencies and the Narendra Modi-government, especially given that the return of liquor-baron to the country itself is uncertain. Even if Mallya returns and faces the law, it wouldn't be easy for the banks to recover the amount at stake.

Last week, on the request of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the government suspended Mallyas passport. The PMLA court on Monday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant (NBW) against him, tightening the noose around the liquor baron. Earlier a Hyderabad court had issued four NBWs in a cheating case. Despite the NBWs, his arrest depends on whether the authorities will be able to deport him from the UK.

But the larger issue is Mallya is just one of the many wilful defaulters in Indias stress-ridden banking sector. He is certainly a pricey target. Stern action against the high profile industrialist would set an example for other large defaulters too. But, will banks learn a lesson from the Kingfisher-Vijay Mallya episode?

There are two major mistakes lenders committed in this case. First, they failed to foresee the impending business failure of Kingfisher--an airline which never made profit in its eight year lifeand lent merrily relying on Mallyas name and taking comfort from his large business empire, which ultimately proved worthless for banks for recovery.

Second, the lenders failed to act with a sense of urgency, to be specific till late last year, when they woke up to see the problem and tagged Mallya as a wilful defaulter and pressed for action by seeking legal recourse. The Kingfisher loan had turned an NPA in 2012.

More Kingfishers in waiting

But, Mallya isnt, certainly, will be the last of the nightmares for Indian banks. There are bigger cases of wilful defaultsmany of them more serious in nature, where banks, arguably, havent acted adequately. The Kingfisher case, because of its high profile nature received more attention. But, in several other cases, there are clear signs of wilful default and where chances of getting back the money is even lesser than Kingfisher, said Vaibhav Agrawal, vice president research at Angel Broking Ltd.

Take the case of Mumbai-based engineering procurement and construction firm, Zoom developers,

tagged as wilful defaulter, with Rs 2,400 crore of bad loans, by a host of banks including Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank, Dena Bank and Indian Bank. However, there has been no major progress on the recovery front. The loan was termed a Non-Performing Asset (NPA) sometime in mid 2010. But, there has been no meaningful recovery. Banks wouldnt talk about the status of this case.

Similar is the case with Winsome Diamonds, another topper in the wilful defaulter list. The company owes at least Rs 6,800 crore loans to several banks including foreign lenders. Of the total Rs 6,800 crore of debt, Winsome owes Rs 4,680 crore to a consortium of lenders headed by Standard Chartered Bank. It's associate firm Forever Precious Diamonds and Jewellery owes another Rs 2,121.82 crore to a set of banks led by Punjab National Bank (PNB).

Recovery from the Indore-based company is even more difficult than the Kingfisher case, since repayment of loans depends on the firms settlement with its clients in middle-east. The company has filed cases against 13 of its large defaulters in the UAE. But, there is more than this. Ever since the company fell into trouble, there have been allegations of fund diversions by Windsome.

In the case of Deccan Chronicle Holdings, another company in the CIBIL wilful defaulter list, the company had defaulted loans worth over Rs 4,000 crore to several banks including Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank, IDBI bank and a few private sector banks. According to banking analysts, a significant part of these loans have been written off by banks already, punching a hole in the banks balance sheets and impacting their profitability.

According to RBI data, about Rs 1.14 lakh crore of bad loans have been written off by 27 public sector banks in fiscal year 2012-15.

Some of these are gone cases. No chance to get back the money, one of the banking analyst said on condition of anonymity. The list goes on. Going by a list of wilful defaulters compiled by Firstpost, top wilful defaulters (with loan exposure above Rs500 crore each) together contribute over Rs 17,000 crore loans to banks.

Hidden NPAs?

Besides the declared bad loan cases, there are possible cases of hidden bad loans on the balance sheets of banks in the form of restructured loans.

For several years, banks have actively encouraged in masquerading bad loans in the restructured loan segment to show a healthier balance sheet. Such loans will turn bad when the economic recovery doesnt happen as expected or happen with a lag. The signs of this are already visible.

Going by the CDR data, total value of failed restructured loan accounts in fiscal year 2016 rose to Rs 31,000 crore from Rs 27,000 crore in the previous year. This means, these companies have failed to recover despite the loan recast assistance provided by the banks. The trend would continue in the absence of strong economic recovery.

The good news is that the practice of pushing NPAs into the restructured loan basket has been checked by the RBI when it raised the provisioning requirement for banks for restructured loans at par with NPAs. Nevertheless, the challenge of dealing with the past stock of bad loans remains.

The bottomline is this: A victory in the Kingfisher-Vijay Mallya case is indeed critical for banks. But, this is just one case in the pile of bad debts (Rs 400,000 crore till December). Banks should learn the lesson from the Mallya episode (lending to a loss-making firm and acting late on the recovery) and should plan early to initiate recovery from other promoters too. There are bigger fishes in the pond.

Data contributed by Kishor Kadam
India's biggest IT outsourcing firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) says it will challenge $940 million in damages imposed by a US court in an intellectual property theft case.

A federal grand jury in the US state of Wisconsin found TCS and its American unit guilty of using data from a US medical software firm without permission, according to Indian media reports.

The Mumbai-based company said in a statement late Saturday that it plans to "defend its position vigorously in appeals to higher courts".

It also said it "did not misuse or derive any benefit" from documents downloaded from the user-web portal of US-based Epic Systems when developing its own hospital management system.

"As an organization, TCS remains committed to protecting IP (intellectual property) as well as its reputation and financial interests fully," it said.

The statement did not put a figure on the fine. But the Press Trust of India and other media said TCS and the American unit were ordered to pay $240 million to Epic Systems for using its software without permission and another $700 million in punitive damages.

Epic Systems filed the lawsuit in 2014, accusing TCS of taking its crucial data when it was hired by the company to install healthcare software for a US-based client, according to the Press Trust of India.

The verdict in the US came days before TCS announces its fourth-quarter and financial-year results on Monday.

AFP
Patna: Bihar cabinet decided on Monday to refund license fees to bars, hotels and retail foreign liquor shops, besides giving 'export duty exemption' to distilleries of the state.

"The state cabinet gave its nod to Registration, Excise and Prohibition Department's proposal to refund license fees to bars, restaurants, hotels, retail foreign liquor shops," Principal Secretary (Excise) K K Pathak said.

License fee, movement fee, excise duty or VAT deposited by bars, restaurants, hotels, foreign liquor shops would be refunded to them following the state government's decision to enforce complete prohibition, he said.

The move has come as a relief to those who have deposited license fee for running bars, restaurants, hotels, clubs, and retail foreign liquor shops in the state for 2016-17.

Pathak, however, could not specify the exact amount of license fees that would be refunded by the state government.

The cabinet also gave its nod to the excise department's proposal to exempt distilleries from export duty in order to facilitate export of 'ethanol' and 'extra neutral alcohol' (ENA) from Bihar to other states.

At present, there is 50 paisa per litre export duty on ethanol while it is Rs 4 per litre on ENA, Pathak said.

Export duty exemption would cost around Rs 4 crore to the state exchequer, he added.

There are 12 sugar and grain based distilleries in the state which produce ethanol and ENA.

ENA is used in the manufacturing of foreign liquor while ethanol is blended in petrol, excise officials said.

It would help the distilleries in making them financially viable in the state, officials said adding that distilleries have got an order of 5 crore bulk litres of ethanol purchase from oil companies.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar had announced last week that the government would refund license fees to those who had deposited fees for running their business for 2016-17.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi had also demanded that the state government return 'license fees' it had collected for 2016-17 from bars.

After sale and consumption of country and spiced liquor in rural areas were banned on 1 April, the government imposed on 5 April total ban on sale and consumption of liquor including Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).
Chetan Bhagat's open letter to Kashmiri youth is drawing strong reactions on social media. Some are responding in the same coin - "open letter" but mostly tweets or Facebook posts.

Bhagat wrote in a Times of India blog calling on Kashmiri youth to change tack.

"If you are Kashmiri and care for Kashmir, the best thing you can do is to integrate with India. Your population size is small, only 7 million. It is not unthinkable to unite them and create a group of people that talks real business with the Indian government," is the dominant theme in his "open letter".

GM All, "Letter to Kashmiri Youth (the ones that hate India)," my col in TOI today. Do share if you like it! https://t.co/sBDua0I6nR  Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) April 16, 2016

Sheikh Usman has written his open letter to Bhagat in the DailyO where he says "Thanks, but no thanks".

Tweets in response to Chetan Bhagat's letter range from praise to the other extreme and trended for many hours Monday night India time.
The famed Kohinoor diamond was neither stolen nor forcibly taken away and India should not stake claim to it, the Central government has told the Supreme Court on Monday.

The statement was made by Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, who was appearing for the government in the court, The Times of India reported. He is reported to have told the court that the 105-karat diamond, which has become a part of popular culture, was handed over to the East India Company by Punjab's Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

It is now set in the crown that was worn by Queen Elizabeth's mother until her death in 2002, and is on public display in the Tower of London.

The Supreme Court on 8 April had asked the government to clarify its stand on a PIL seeking return of the Kohinoor diamond in the country.

A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur, which did not issue notice on the PIL, asked the Solicitor General to seek instructions in the matter within a week.

"Everybody is claiming the Kohinoor. How many countries are claiming Kohinoor? Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and even South Africa. Somebody here is also asking for the Kohinoor. Do you know about it?," the bench asked the Solicitor General.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said he was unaware about it and would need time to seek instructions and get back.

During the hearing, the bench, also comprising Justices R Banumathi and UU Lalit, said there has been a press report attributing statements to the British Prime Minister quoting him as saying, "if we were to accept such demands, British Museums would be empty".

"Why don't you approach the government? Hasn't the government taken up the matter? The government has done something. They have done whatever it could," the bench told the petitioner.

The apex court was hearing a PIL filed by All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front seeking directions to the High Commissioner of United Kingdom for return of the diamond besides several other treasures.

The PIL has made Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Culture, High Commissioners of UK, Pakistan and Bangladesh as parties in the case.

It has also sought return of the "ring and talwar of Tipu Sultan and other treasures of Tipu Sultan, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Rani of Jhansi, Nawab Mir Ahmad Ali Banda and other rulers of India."

Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who had handed over the diamond, in turn had taken it from an Afghan king who had sought sanctuary in India.

The diamond had been an heirloom of the Afghan monarchy and before then was in Persian royal hands, but its true origins remain a mystery.

With inputs from agencies
Years ago, a friends daughter switched to a premier school in Delhi in Class X. On her first day at the school, the Class X teacher asked the students to write their impressions, in a few paragraphs, of the morning assembly which they had attended.

The teacher then had the students read out their composition to the class. Each students version differed from that of the other, largely in their emphasis, possibly influenced by their respective powers of observation as well as their likes and dislikes.

No one, obviously, contested the occurrence of the morning assembly. Once each version had been read out, and the differences between the narratives noted, the teacher drew a parallel for them. She said, This is what history is all about. There is no single truth. There are always multiple versions of an event.

This incident comes to mind as one reads the news reports about the alleged molestation of a teenager in Handwara, Kashmir. Alas, here are no multiple versions, but just two, reflecting, not too surprisingly, two broad narratives which have been extant in the Valley for now nearly 25 years.

The two narratives reflect the schism in the Valley. One narrative is of the people, said to be partial to leaders clubbed as separatists, who are accused of spinning every untoward event to their advantage. Their version, it is said, often has the endorsement of civil society groups, which consequently too is seen to be prejudiced.

The other version is of the state, broadly the troika of the government, the Army and the J&K Police. Its narratives of events are often the mirror opposite of that of the people and civil society groups.

Between the two narratives there exists a wide gulf. The two narratives are akin to two mountain ranges flanking a valley. It is in this swathe bullets whistle and bodies fall, and anger and hatred echo.

It is because of human casualties that we who are outside Kashmir encounter the challenge: Whose version do we believe in Kashmir  the states or the peoples and their leaders?

Since both narratives lay claim to be true, the previous question can be refined thus: whose truth do we believe in Kashmir? This is inherent to the two contradictory narratives regarding the episode in which a Kashmir teenager was molested in Handwara recently.

There is the states narrative which says the teenager was molested by Kashmiri youths, but, either to conceal their shame or for reasons political, a vicious rumour was spread that a security personnel was the culprit. Soon, the forever simmering anger of Kashmiris boiled over into street protests and stone-throwing, provoking police to open fire in which five persons perished.

The peoples narrative insists it was the security personnel who molested the girl, and that the talk of locals having been the culprits is just the States ruse to deflect blame from itself.

This narrative, thus, holds the state guilty on three counts  its personnel molested the Kashmiri girl, in itself a reflection of the stifling condition in which people there live; to protect him, it is blaming the locals, thereby insulting them collectively; it then compounded its mistake by killing five Kashmiris.

In normal circumstances, media would have accepted the victims deposition and gone to town against the accused, as is customary in all gender-related cases. But Kashmir is not normal; another standard has to be presumably applied, therefore.

The extent to which Kashmirs is a battle between two narratives is palpable from the states response to the victim. It took her in its protection. Not protection, but custody, argue the opponents of the state, only for winning the battle of narratives.

When the video-recording of the victim, in which she said she hadnt been molested by a security personnel but local youths, was leaked, the gulf between the two narratives only further widened. For the Kashmiris, her video-recording has no credibility as they assume she was pressured to make the statement exonerating the security personnel.

But she is in our protective custody, said the DIG, North Kashmir, where Handwara is located, reported The Indian Express. Undeniably the state bungled, for the IGP Kashmir said to the same paper that she wasnt in their custody and was free to meet anyone. However, when The Times of India sought a meeting with the girl, the DIG denied permission and said she was in police protection following violence and threat to their lives.

The gulf between the two narratives became unbridgeable as the victims mother, with the help of the Jammu-Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, petitioned the High Court, which has asked the police to explain why she and two other family members have been detained. The petition will now come up for hearing on 20 April.

Now assume the victim does indeed depose before the High Court. Nothing is likely to persuade the Kashmiris that she, if she were to indict the locals, did not act under police pressure, as she has been in their custody, protective or otherwise, for an inordinately long time.

Should she identify her assailant as the security personnel, the state will claim she acted under popular pressure, as she has to live in Handwara, and thought it judicious to accept the version of separatist leaders. Newspaper reports have already quoted sources saying her mother petitioned the court at the behest of separatist leaders who were quick to reach out to her.

Truth, therefore, is likely to slip through the abyss separating the two narratives in the Valley.

The Handwara incident isnt the first of its kind. In the infamous Kunan-Poshpura case, in which 40 Kashmiri women were said to have been raped by soldiers in 1991, there were contradictory narratives, too. The Army denied the mass rape took place, as did some fact-finding teams, including one led by the late editor BG Verghese.

In 2013, however, the Kupwara district court ruled, after 22 years, that the investigation into the Kunan-Poshpura mass rape should be speeded up and completed in three months. But the case still remains entangled in court battles.

The history class of my friends daughter didnt encounter the challenge as we do over incidents in Kashmir. None of the students of her class denied the conduct of the morning assembly, nor who presided over it. The events in Kashmir are of another order. These pertain to whether or not rapes took place, as in Kunan-Poshpura, or over the identity of the assailants, as in Handwara.

The two contradictory narratives in the Valley only testify to the gulf between them, indicative of the divide between the state and the people. This is a consequence of the deep alienation of the people and the mutual suspicion between them and the state.

Kashmir cant have normalcy, and for this reason neither can India, until a way is found to have a common narrative, not on the big political questions, but on occurrences which are best described as unconscionable. The state cant possibly win confidences when permission to prosecute Army officers for alleged crimes has seldom been granted over the last 25 years.

The hot April wind of Delhi howls the question: so which of the two narratives on Handwara is right? I just know that another victim  the one who was molested  is likely to slip through the abyss between the two narratives, scarred for the rest of her life.

(The writer is a journalist in Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, was set against the backdrop of the Babri Masjid demolition.)
New Delhi: As Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar tours China, Indian Navy chief R.K. Dhowan on Monday said that the two neighbouring countries are cooperating with each other in the maritime domain.

"Both Indian and PLA (People's Liberation Army of China) navies cooperate with each other in maritime domain," Chief of Naval Staff Dhowan told reporters on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi that brought together investors in the defence sector and top naval officers.

"Recently, when our agreements were renewed, two warships and official delegation of PLA had arrived in India and we carried out joint exercises," he said.

Together India and Chinese navies have been successful in tackling piracy as well, Dhowan said.

His comments came as Parrikar arrived in China on Saturday on a five-day official visit for talks with top PLA officials to consolidate ties between the armed forces of the two countries.

Dhowan said: "The two navies cooperate with each other even in the Gulf of Aden, where we undertake anti-piracy patrol. We exchange information, so that both the navies are aware what escorts are being undertaken by the other."

"We also have occasions where both of our ships visit each others' country. We visited China in 2014 to participate in multilateral exercises and their ship visited us after that."

Defence Minister Parrikar may raise with the Chinese minister the issues about enhancement of cooperation and interaction between the two countries, Dhowan said.

The navy chief also said the LSA (Logistics Support Agreement) that India is about to sign with the US would help the Indian Navy in getting crucial logistical support in high seas.

"This (LSA) will be to our advantage. We will get support in logistic aspects, which will meet the requirements of the ships when they operate in different parts of the world," Dhowan said, insisting "the two navies will also look deeper into the other aspects of the agreement".

The navy chief refused to link the LSA with India-China relations. The agreement is being seen by some as part of America's 'China containment' measure.

Parrikar and US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter last week announced that the two countries have 'in principle' agreed to conclude a logistics support to each other.

India and the US will sign two more agreements: A Communication and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA), and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) for assistance in geospatial intelligence.
With the Supreme Court citing triple talaq as unconstitutional in the Shayara Bano case, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB)  the body which says it represents India's largest minority  is all set to oppose any move related to the scrapping of triple talaq.

The Supreme Court announced its decision while hearing a petition filed by Shayara Bano from Uttarakhand in March, in which she stated that triple talaq violates Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution, according to The Indian Express.

The Times of India reported that the AIMPLB is already a party to a similar case being heard at the SC and the board will now request the court to be allowed to be a party to the Shayara Bano case too.

According to the Indian Express report, the AIMPLB had, on Saturday, appealed to the NDA government to maintain the stand of non-interference" in personal law matters while alleging that attempts were being made to interfere in Shariat laws through courts.

According to its website, the AIMPLB believes that "..the issue of their Personal Law is not merely a cultural issue or an issue of customary practices for the Muslims rather it is an issue which concerns the safeguarding and conservation of their religion which burdens them with grave responsibilities and they are, as a result, very sensitive about it".

A Centre-appointed committee had called for a ban on the practice of verbal, unilateral, triple talaq and polygamy on 31 March. The committee was set up to review aspects of personal laws relating to marriage, divorce and custody prevalent in religious minorities, including Muslims. There has, however, been no action from the apex court on this call.

Earlier in September 2015, the AIMPLB had said there was no scope of change in the triple talaq system and rejected the suggestion put forward by a few community outfits on building a consensus to make it mandatory that couples wait for three months after deciding to divorce before finalising it.

Though as per Quran and Hadith, "triple talaq" is a crime if once said, the process would be considered complete and cannot be changed, AIMPLB Spokesman Maulana Abdul Raheem Qureshi had told PTI at the time.
New Delhi: The city's air quality continued to fluctuate on the third day of the anti-pollution measure odd-even, with the level of Ozone showing an upward swing as per Centre's System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) agency.

PM 2.5 and PM 10, fine respirable pollutants, oscillated between poor and moderate levels in areas across the city with them being higher on border areas which have high vehicle density such as Anand Vihar.

At 9 pm, an hour after the curbs on vehicles ended for the day, PM 2.5 and PM 10 were recorded at 234 and 696 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3) respectively. The corresponding safe limits are 60 and 100.

As per SAFAR, eight-hour average of Ozone, a gaseous pollutant, which had shown a downward curve since 15 April, spiked above 40 parts per billion (ppb), which still falls in the good category. Its eight hour notified average safe limit is 100 micrograms per cubic metre.

According to the air quality index of Central Pollution Control Board, the monitoring station at the East Arjun Nagar had Ozone as the most prominent pollutant while PM 10 dominated areas such as RK Puram, Punjabi Bagh and Anand Vihar.

In its analysis, green body TERI said that over the weekend, the 24-hourly pollutant concentrations "showed a dip" with PM 2.5 concentrations recorded 0.8-2.1 times the prescribed standards at various locations in NCR and PM 10 levels 2.3-3.6 times the standard.

Delhi government's own analysis of PM 2.5 levels monitored across 74 locations on April 16 found PM 2.5 within "permissible limit" at 42 places and PM 10 levels below 200 at 45 locations.
New Delhi: Gender equality is a "constitutional message" and the ban on entry of women of a particular age group in the historic Sabarimala temple cannot be claimed as a right to manage religious affairs by its management, the Supreme Court said on Monday.

"Gender equality is a constitutional message and they (temple management) cannot say that this (banning women) comes under their right to manage religious affairs," a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said.

The bench, also comprising Justices V Gopala Gowda and Kurian Joseph, reiterated that it would test the "so-called" customary practice under the provisions of the Constitution.

At the outset, senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for NGO 'Happy to Bleed' which is seeking women's entry into the historic shrine in Kerala, said the law was meant for "removal of social ills" and constitutional principles would prevail over discriminatory customs and beliefs.

"The ban on entry of women cannot be said to be part of the right to manage a public religious places like temple," she said and referred to various judgements to buttress her arguments.

The right to enter a public temple is available to all Hindus irrespective of gender, she said, adding that any custom, belief or even law could be termed "void" if they do not conform to the constitutional principles.

During the hearing when Jaising started dealing with the aspect that the deity at Sabarimala is "celibate" and "brahmachari", the bench asked her not to get into it.

"They (Travancore Devaswom Board) rely on customs, tradition and philosophy and you rely on Constitution. Let us not get into the nature of deity...," the court said, adding it would examine whether any custom is protected by any law.

The court is hearing a PIL, filed by Indian Young Lawyers' Association (IYLA) seeking entry of women in the Sabarimala temple, located on a hill-top in the Western Ghat mountain ranges of Kerala's Pathanamthitta District.

Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, said "the practice, which keeps women away and prevents them from worshipping the deity of the shrine because of their biology, is derogatory and detrimental to their dignity".

During the hearing, the bench, referring to the belief that the deity at Sabarimala is celibate, asked, "If the deity says I don't want to see you, why compel him? If he doesn't want to be pleased, why compel him to be pleased?".

"The deity saying so is the belief of the persons who are managing the shrine," Ramachandran said.

The hearing in the case would resume on 22 April.

Earlier, the apex court had said that denying women the right to enter and pray in the historic temple cannot be justified on the basis of traditions which violated constitutional principle.
In one of the most massive drug hauls in recent history, a huge quantity of around 18,600 kg of Ephedrine powder, worth around Rs 2,000 crore, was seized in Thane near Mumbai on 16 April.

Ephedrine, a banned drug in India, is widely used abroad to treat asthma and bronchitis, according to a report by The Indian Express. However, when it is consumed beyond controlled doses, it leads to euphoria, hallucinations and delusions.

Thane police also have information that the drugs may have been sent to Poland and other East European countries, a Mumbai Mirror report said.

As much as 3,000 kilograms of the drug were moved out of a manufacturing unit in Solapur in western Maharashtra in the past six to eight months, as per a report by The Times of India.

"A Nigerian national was apprehended on 10 April 10 for possessing half kg MD powder. He had come to sell the powder

in Navi Mumbai," Thane Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh told reporters.

However, during investigations it was revealed he had Ephedrine powder, which is a controlled drug, and not MD powder, he added.

On 12 April, two persons -- Sagar Powale and Mayur Sukhdare -- were arrested here for allegedly possessing around 2 kg of Ephedrine, police said.

Singh said their interrogation revealed the source of the drug was a factory in Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area in Solapur (West Maharashtra).

An alleged drug peddler - Dhaneshwar Swamy was apprehended on April 14 in Solapur and 5.50 kg Ephedrine powder was seized from him, he said.

Swamy led police to the factory where the drug was allegedly being manufactured. Police raided the unit and arrested its senior production manager - Rajendra Dimri, Singh added.

Sometimes ephedrine is exported to Poland and other European countries. It is also used to manufacture MD powder and Meth Methamphetamine, the Commissioner said.

The factory, which was functioning illegally, has been sealed and the seized drug being brought to Thane, he said, adding, the drug was being manufactured for the past one and half years.

With inputs from PTI
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday said his government had no role in the grant of bar licences to five new five-star hotels in the state and it was done by the Centre as part of its tourism policy. Answering questions of reporters, Chandy also said there was nothing unusual in it.

Keralas liquor policy stated that bar hotels would not be allowed in hotels below five-star status, he said at a meet-the-press programme in Kannur.

Sanctioning of bar licence to five star hotels is (done) by Centre. It is part of tourism policy, Chandy said, adding the state government has no role in it. He also made it clear that UDF would not dilute its policy, envisaging total prohibition in ten years.

KPCC President V M Sudheeran, who has been at the forefront of the anti-liquor campaign, said UDF will not dilute its liquor policy. The issue related to granting of licence will be examined, he said, adding that he was not aware of details as he was electioneering.

The issue has triggered a row with CPI(M) veteran V S Achuthanandan attacking the UDF government, saying it has exposed the governments fake (liquor) policy to dupe the public.
India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said that she looked forward to working with her counterparts from Russia and China in the fight against terrorism after she took up with the Chinese foreign minister the issue of Beijing vetoing New Delhi's move in the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar.

Sushma Swaraj said in a media statement following the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting that international terrorism remained the foremost threat to international peace and security. I stressed the need to craft an effective global strategy to counter terrorism, including at the UN. I look forward to working with both my colleagues, in this regard, she said.

Answering a question in press conference after the RIC meeting, she said that all three countries  India, Russia and China  have been victims of terrorism. It is natural for us that we unite to lead the world in our fight against terrorism, Sushma Swaraj said.

To do this, it is important that we give up the distiction between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists. We will also need to give up the tendency to differentiate between 'my terrorists' and 'your terrorists', she said.

The external affairs minister stated that a terrorist was a terrorist, one who committed crimes against humanity and not against any nation. We must adopt this principle. And today at the RIC meeting, I put forward these views quite frankly before my two counterparts from Russia and China, she said.

Sushma Swaraj also referred to her bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier in the day, during which she raised the issue of China vetoing India's bid at the UN to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar.

India approached the UN in February to include Azhar in the UN Security Council's 1267 sanctions list, in the aftermath of the Pathankot airbase terror attack. In the strike in early January by JeM terrorists, seven Indian security personnel were killed. However, China asked the UN sanctions committee to keep on hold the Indian move, saying that Azhar did not meet the UN criteria to be banned as a terrorist.

India has voiced disappointment at the "technical hold" put on its application to include Azhar in the UN sanctions list.

I would also like to tell you that in the morning today, I met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and in that meeting also I said to him that if we want to fulfill our commitment to fight terrorism together, then we must rethink the position they have taken on UNSC 1267 Committee, Sushma Swaraj said.

In her media statement, she also said that she and the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers had a productive exchange of views on the situation in the Middle East.

We all stressed our commitment to support democratic, pluralistic and peaceful forces in order to restore stability in the region, she stated.

We also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and agreed that it was important for the international community to remain engaged and support the Afghanistan Government in its development and reconciliation efforts and in defeating terrorist forces.

On the issue of UN Security Council reforms, the external affairs minister said she once again urged both Russia and China to take the lead in ensuring that the inter-governmental negotiations (IGN) process in the UN advanced swiftly.

Indias permanent membership of the Security Council is long overdue and this anomaly needs urgent rectification, Sushma Swaraj said.

She said that she, along with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Wang, had an exchange of views on various groupings, including BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).

India assumed the chairmanship of BRICS this year.

We look forward to active participation of both Russia and China in various activities that we have planned throughout the year and throughout India, Sushma Swaraj said, adding that India looked forward to welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Goa in October for the BRICS summit.
Chennai: In his maiden attempt to enter the Tamil Nadu Assembly, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) chief ministerial candidate and Dharmapuri Lok Sabha MP Anbumani Ramadoss will contest from Pennagaram constituency which falls under his Parliamentary seat.

Anbumani, son of PMK founder Ramadoss began his political career as Union Health Minister in the UPA I regime (2004-09) as a constituent of the Congress-led alliance. A doctor by profession, he was a Rajya Sabha MP during 2004-10.

"People elected me against the muscle and money power in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and people of the region now want me to contest from Pennagaram," he told reporters.

He claimed that PMK was the "credible alternative" to both AIADMK and DMK.

In a tweet, he said, "I assure to provide free, compulsory and high quality education to all children in Tamil Nadu."

Last year, the Supreme Court had declined to entertain his plea to quash charges against him in corruption cases.

The CBI had charged the former Minister with illegally granting renewal of approval for admissions to MBBS course in Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital in Bareilly, and allowing Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre in Indore to proceed with admissions without sufficient faculty.

PMK on Monday named 90 candidates, including Anbumani and it has already announced nominees for 117 constituencies. The party is expected to name the rest of its nominees soon.

Party president G K Mani will contest from Mettur while PMK general secretary Vadivel Ravanan will be trying his luck from Vandavasi (Reserved) constituency.

PMK is contesting all the 234 constituencies alone. The party was part of the NDA during the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Cairo: French President Francois Hollande urged Monday that everything be done to maintain a truce in Syria, expressing fears for civilians if the negotiations end.

Hollande's remarks, during a visit to Egypt, came as the Syrian opposition asked the United Nations to pause peace talks in Geneva until President Bashar al-Assad's regime shows it is serious about a political transition.

"We must do everything to maintain the truce" in Syria, Hollande said in a speech at the French embassy.

"If negotiations do not resume, if fighting does, there would again be the worst fears for civilians (and) consequences in terms of refugees," he said.
Beijing: Playing down India's decision to sign a logistic agreement with the US, Chinese state media said on Sunday that the proposed deal is stalled because of distrust between the two as India wants to be the "most beautiful woman" wooed by all, especially Washington and Beijing.

"Besides their traditional distrust, the speculation heralding a US-India alliance is also an obvious underestimation of India's ambition for a role of swing-state between superpowers," an article in the state-run Global Times said even as Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar started his first visit to Beijing for talks with Chinese officials. Parrikar, on his part, kicked off his visit by holding talks with Chinese counterpart General Chang Wanquan stating that India attaches highest priority to its relationship with China and is committed to further develop the ties.

"India attaches highest priority to relations with China and committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China," Parrikar told Chang in his opening remarks before the two delegations started the talks. Parrikar was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the headquarters of the Chinese military here by a contingent of PLA soldiers.

Welcoming Parrikar, Chang said, "Hope your visit improve strategic mutual trust between the two armed forces". After his meeting with Chang, Parrikar will hold talks with General Fan Changlong, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, (CMC). He is also due to call on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visit China's recently-integrated western command military headquarters in Chengdu which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.

Creating some sort of friction ahead of India-China meetings is not new to the Chinese media, and the Global Times article contended that "The basic idea is that India would like to continue to be the most beautiful woman wooed by all men, notably the two strongest in the house, US and China. This is not an unfamiliar role to India. We can still recall how its diplomatic manoeuvring had earned itself a special role between the two competing blocs during the Cold War."

"Evidently enough, it needs to feel its way forward and try not to agitate China by crossing the bottom line and consequently it declines to discuss the prospect of joint patrols in the South China Sea, despite the obvious interest and much enthusiasm from its American counterpart," the article added.

Another article in the daily said that the India-US Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) "is drawing the US and India into an undeclared military alliance."

"India's diplomatic manoeuvring risks dampening cooperation among the China-Russia-India triangle and the Brics," it said but quickly added that "tensions between the US and China and Russia in terms of geopolitics have provided India with admirable strategic opportunities."

The article further claimed India's foreign policy has entered an era of non-alignment 3.0, featured by three characteristics: "India, instead of maintaining a neutral position, takes sides with countries like the US and Japan in islands and maritime disputes concerning Asia-Pacific security at the risk of escalating confrontation and conflicts in the region," it said. Second, India shirks its responsibilities and distances itself from China and Russia in dealing with some global problems such as the West Asian conflicts in order to avoid confrontations with the West, it alleged. "(And) finally, it takes advantage of geopolitical conflicts between the US, Japan and China, Russia to gain maximum interests for itself. We hope India won't go too far as a swing power," it said.

Last week, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter concluded his three-day visit to India and announced he and his Indian counterpart have agreed in-principle that all the issues regarding an LSA are resolved and both sides would finalise the text in the coming weeks.

With inputs from PTI
Moscow: India on Monday did some plain-speaking with China over its blocking of the Indian bid to get JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN and warned the global community of "serious consequences" if it continues to adopt "double standards" in dealing with terrorism.

During a bilateral meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also asked for a "review" of the Chinese action at the UN.

"I told him (Wang) that if we were to fulfil our intention of fighting terrorism together, then China should review the stand it had taken at the UN 1267 Committee," Swaraj told a joint press conference with Wang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The three ministers had earlier jointly chaired a Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers meet here.

In her meeting with Wang, Swaraj emphasised the need for bilateral cooperation to combat the challenge of terrorism.

If India and China were to combat terrorism unitedly, then Beijing should change its position of opposing India's bid against Pathankot terror attack mastermind Azhar at the UN Sanctions Committee, Swaraj told Wang.

It was agreed during the Swaraj-Wang meeting that the two sides would remain in touch on the matter, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

Last month, China had vetoed India's bid to get Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN Sanctions Committee, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council. The Chinese action evoked a strong reaction in India which said that it was "incomprehensible" that while Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) was banned by the UN, its chief was not.

This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the JeM in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping of sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

Earlier addressing RIC meet, Swaraj warned the international community of "serious consequences" if it continues to adopt "double standards" in dealing with terrorism.

"India believes that the foremost challenge to international security continues to be posed by international terrorism. The RIC countries must lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN," Swaraj said.

"We must not fail in this regard. If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," she said.

Later, addressing a press conference along with Wang and her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Swaraj said there was a need to craft an effective global strategy to counter terrorism, including at the UN.

While talking about the roadmap for the RIC to tackle the issue of terrorism, Swaraj said there cannot be any difference between good terrorists and bad terrorists.

"It is important that we give up the distinction between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists. We will also need to give up the tendency to differentiate between 'my terrorists' and 'your terrorists'. A terrorist is a terrorist, one who commits crimes against humanity and not against any nation," she said.

Swaraj said India, China and Russia have been bearing the brunt of terror networks and that time has come for the three countries to play a leadership role in combating terror globally.

On the Swaraj-Wang meeting, Swarup said they assessed the implementation of decisions taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China last May.

"They noted the significance of high level exchanges contemplated this year, including the ongoing visit of Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar)," he said.

"The Ministers appreciated the expanding trade and investment ties between India and China. They underscored the importance of strengthening people to people ties. In this context, Foreign Minister Wang Yi apprised External Affairs Minister of China's decision to increase the number of Indian pilgrims for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via Nathu La," Swarup said.

In her opening remarks during the meeting, Swaraj said the relations have seen significant improvement in the last one year and favoured frequent meetings between the two sides to step up engagement.

"We are meeting after a long gap and I think we should meet quite frequently. Because things are moving very fast in the world and if we meet frequently, we will be able to deliberate on those," Swaraj said.

Swaraj also met with her Russian counterpart counterpart Lavrov on the sidelines of the RIC meet here and raised issues of killing of an Indian and the death of two Indian girl students in a fire tragedy in this country besides discussing key bilateral matters.

"EAM (External Affairs Minister) raised the cases of Indian nationals Yasir Jawed (who was killed in Kazan) and Puja Kallur and Karishma Udai Bhosle (who died during a fire at the Smolensk State Medical Academy). FM Lavrov briefed on the progress of the investigations," Swarup said.

Later, she also had a meeting with Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitryi Rogozin.

The meeting provided opportunity for in depth review of the strategic partnership. Both sides discussed the progress in implementing the decisions taken during the summit-level meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Putin, in particular Russian participation in the defence sector under Make in India, officials said.

They also discussed the energy partnership between India and Russia and ways to strengthen it. Both sides looked forward to the next meeting of the India Russia Inter-Governmental Commission (IRIGC) in India.

PTI
JERUSALEM A bomb blew up a bus and set fire to another in Jerusalem on Monday, wounding 16 people in an attack that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked to a six-month-old wave of Palestinian street violence.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility from any Palestinian factions for the blast. Israeli officials declined to assign direct blame.

They said two of the casualties had not yet been identified and may have been bombers.

Suicide bombings on Israeli buses were a hallmark of the Palestinian revolt of 2000-2005 but have been rare since. With Palestinians carrying out less organized stabbing, car-ramming and gun attacks since October, Israel has been braced for an escalation.

"We will settle accounts with these terrorists," Netanyahu said in a speech, referring to whoever executed the bus attack.

"We are in a protracted struggle against terror - knife terror, shooting terror, bomb terror and also tunnel terror," he added, speaking hours after Israel announced its discovery of an underground passage dug by Hamas militants from Gaza.

Police initially said they were looking at the possibility that a technical malfunction caused the fire that consumed two buses on Derech Hebron road, in an area of southwest Jerusalem close to the boundary with the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

But based on the wounds and other findings, authorities concluded that a small and possibly rudimentary explosive device was set off at the back of one of the buses.

Those details recalled the bombing of a Tel Aviv bus by an Israeli Arab during the 2012 Gaza war which caused injuries but no deaths.

In the last half year, Palestinian attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two visiting U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 191 Palestinians, 130 of whom Israel says were assailants. Many others were shot dead in clashes and protests.

Drivers behind the bloodshed include Palestinian bitterness over stalled statehood negotiations and the growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, stepped up Jewish access to a disputed Jerusalem shrine, and Islamist-led calls for Israel's destruction.

Bombings have not been carried out during this period - though Israeli prosecutors said a Palestinian woman who tried to blow up a gas balloon in her car after being pulled over by police in October was a would-be suicide bomber.

(Writing by Dan Williams, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Seoul: A trio of Nobel laureates will take part in a "humanitarian" visit to North Korea later this month, even as suspicions grow that Pyongyang is preparing to carry out a fifth nuclear test.

The Vienna-based International Peace Foundation, which is organising the trip, said on Monday it was an exercise in "silent diplomacy" that would focus on such topics as economic policy and medical development.

The three laureates from Norway, Britain and Israel, who won their Nobels for economics, medicine and chemistry, will give speeches and hold seminars with students at some of the North's elite schools, including Kim Il-Sung University.

"The events will not engage in rhetoric by making political statements," the foundation said in a press release. "Listening to and engaging with the young generation of (North Korea) may be a gateway to establish a dialogue which could contribute to a wider understanding beyond politics and power play," added its founding chairman, Uwe Morawetz, who has visited the North six times over the past two years to prepare the visit.

The trip is likely to be criticised in some quarters at a time when the focus of the international community is on tightening North Korea's diplomatic and economic isolation. The 29 April-6 May dates mean the visit might also coincide with a fresh North Korean nuclear test.

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye confirmed on Monday that increased activity had been detected at the North's nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, suggesting an underground detonation could be imminent.

Numerous analysts have predicted Pyongyang may carry out a fifth test just before a rare ruling party Congress next month, at which leader Kim Jong-Un is expected to take credit for pushing the country's nuclear weapons programme to new heights.

No formal date has been set for the Congress, but South Korea's intelligence agency says it will likely be held 7 May.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, triggering the most extensive UN sanctions to date aimed at cutting funding sources for its nuclear development.

The Nobel laureates will hold a press conference in Beijing after returning from their visit.
Islamabad: Embarrassed by Taliban's refusal to join the fledgling peace process with the Afghan government, Pakistan has warned the insurgents to call-off their recently-proclaimed 'spring offensive' or face consequences, a media report said on Monday.

The Taliban earlier this month announced the start of "Operation Omari", named after the late Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, pledging to launch large-scale offensives to oust the Western-backed Afghan government from power.

Taliban's announcement of their traditional offensive backed by guerrilla attacks has surprised many in Pakistan.

The Express Tribune quoted a Pakistani official as saying that the Taliban move could derail the peace initiative the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) - involving Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US - had launched in December last year.

The QCG's aim was to seek direct talks between the insurgents and the Afghan government.

The official said Pakistan had urged the Taliban all along to shun violence and negotiate.

"That is why we are utterly disappointed by their announcement regarding the spring offensive," he said.

The official said the Taliban leadership has been given a clear message through "intermediaries" that they will have to pay a "heavy price" if they don't join the peace talks.

It is not clear if the latest warning would work as some reports suggest many Taliban leaders have already moved out of Pakistan or planned to return to Afghanistan in an effort to avoid any action.

In July last year, Pakistan persuaded the Taliban to join the first-ever direct talks with Afghan government officials.

However, the contact was suspended due to announcement of Mullah Omar's death last year and subsequent rifts within the group.

In March, Pakistan's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in a frank admission in Washington for the first time said that the Taliban leadership was present in Pakistan along with their families.

The Taliban insurgency has gained strength after the withdrawal of international troops at the end of 2014 and the insurgents are stronger than at any point since they were driven from power by US-backed forces in 2001.

Seasons have long shaped violence in Afghanistan with fighting easing off in the winter, when mountain passes get snowed in, and picking up again in the spring and summer.

According to the UN, 600 civilians have died in Afghanistan's war in the first quarter of this year. It has also that 161 children were killed in Afghanistan and branded the figures "appalling".
Washington: President Barack Obama will make another trip to Riyadh to consult Washington's Gulf allies on the crises in Yemen and Syria this week, but may not receive a royal welcome.

The King of Saudi Arabia and his regional allies have long been offended by the US president's tone and actions, and are now impatient to meet his eventual successor.

Even before coming to office, Obama had dubbed Saudi Arabia a "so-called ally" and had made clear that his diplomatic priorities would be in Asia not the Middle East.

He rubbed salt on those wounds by standing by as Saudi ally Hosni Mubarak was ousted in Egypt, then by his reluctance to back a similar revolt against Syria's Bashar al-Assad.

And, most crucially for the Sunni monarchies, he cut a deal with Shiite power Iran to end its economic and diplomatic isolation in return for curbs of its nuclear program.

So the public pomp of his visit on Wednesday to King Salman, will conceal much behind-the-scenes bitterness.

Then, on Thursday, he will face a stern audience at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit of leaders from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Oman.

Last year, he brought the same monarchs together on his own home turf at Camp David outside Washington  and the Saudi ruler pointedly refused the invitation.

Then, Obama had wanted to ensure the traditional US allies were on board with his plans to fight the Islamic State group, and reassure them on his outreach to Tehran.

But now with barely nine months of his time in office left -- and Iran taunting the Gulf with its support of Shiite militancy abroad -- he has little leverage over them.

"We don't know why he's coming," said Mustafa Alani, of the Gulf Research Centre, a body funded by a Saudi businessman.

Alani and other friends of Riyadh in Washington were deeply offended by Obama's remarks on US policy in their region in a major article in The Atlantic magazine.

In interviews for the article, published last month by reporter Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama rejected the idea that Saudi foe Iran is the source of all the region's problems.

Saudi officials have long insisted that Iran's sponsorship of Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Iraq and Syria and the Huthi rebels in Yemen is a threat to the whole world.
Two months ago the Ministry of Health raided the kingpin of the illegal oxytocin trade in India. He is a lowly employee of the Municipal Corporation of Kolkata with five houses, and many godowns stuffed with oxytocin, and another illegal drug codeine. Both items have been flown in for him from China regularly by FedEx which has been doing a roaring business in shipping illegal drugs and wildlife trophies across the world. FedEx has not been hauled up as yet. If they are, they will blame a single employee. In July 2015, an American dentist from America went on holiday to Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe and shot the national animal, a lion named Cecil, which he then cut into parts and sent to himself through UPS.

Both FedEx and UPS have facilitated wild life crime across the world. More than 26,000 wild hunting trophies were shipped around the world between 2010 and 2014. This includes thousands of wild animal heads, elephant ears, panther skulls, black bear claws and monkey bodies. Other items include turtle eggs, snake skins, panther skulls, alligator skins and rhino horns and leather. These trophies do not include the millions of insects that both these companies have been handling. From India, lakhs of butterflies have been sent through these international shippers and three species have become extinct. Snake skin exports are common. Foreigners come, pay locals to catch the animals and send them through parcels to foreign countries  unchecked by customs and usually mislabelled. Mongoose hair, pangolin scales , star tortoises, even tiger parts  all these are shipped through by the single worst poachers on the planet  UPS and FedEx. I am surprised that they have not been banned from most countries.

After Cecil, the Lion case, they were asked to stop shipping animals and their parts. Both shippers have refused. Over three lakh people have signed petitions saying that they will not use these delivery firms in future. It makes no difference to them. Even after the lion case, they have shipped another couple of hundred trophies of elephants, wild buffalo and leopards out of Africa to America. A spokesman for UPS said that it is strongly against the trafficking or trade of endangered species but accepts for shipment taxidermy items that are legally obtained and appropriately documented. That is an outright lie. No documentation is given or asked for any illegal shipment of wild animals or drugs by either of these two firms. The dentist has also killed a leopard and an elephant.

Keng Liang Wong, a Malaysian wildlife smuggler has been sentenced in federal court in San Francisco to 71 months jail and a fine of $60,000 for trafficking in some of the most endangered reptile species in the world. The species involved ranged from Komodo Monitors and Plowshare Tortoises which are on the brink of extinction. Wong also trafficked in such rare species as the Chinese Alligator, the False Gavial and the Radiated Tortoise, Gray's Monitor, Spider Tortoise, Burmese Star Tortoise, Indian Star Tortoise, Boelen's Python, Timor Python, Green Tree Python, and Fly River Turtle. He sent regular shipments to the US through Fed Ex. Seven other defendants have been convicted for sending or receiving FedEx consignments, including a FedEx employee Robert Paluch. Wong spearheaded an international smuggling ring that illegally imported and sold more than 300 protected reptiles native to Asia and Africa. None of this could have happened without Fed Ex, who brought the reptiles in express delivery packages and large commercial shipments of legally declared animals.

The United States is the biggest customer for all illegal wildlife. But while special agents in the Wildlife Service patrol the major air and seaports, no one is paying attention to FedEx, Airborne and other mail carrier hubs. In fact the number of agents has decreased over the last 25 years while wildlife crime has exploded in sales and revenue across the globe. The staggering profits which now run into billions have engaged international organized crime syndicates like the Russian mafias. The growth has been fed by the internet and the parcel carriers. The net is an unrestricted shopping mall for natural resources and has enabled thousands of illegal transactions from one side of the world to another. Global shipping services are a smugglers best friends. They dont screen packages but do provide online tracking and delivery confirmation. Dealers use their services regularly as the animals and their parts arrive safely. In one DHL package from Singapore, labelled as toys addressed to a dealer from California, US wildlife officials found 51 Indian star tortoises smuggled out of India. Caviar, eggs taken from the slit bodies of live protected sturgeons, is a commonly smuggled item.

India is one of the major victims of the parcel trade. We have no sniffer dogs at parcel venues. Even though DHL, FedEx, UPS have been caught many times in both drug and animal smuggling, no action is taken against them and they are left to self regulation. Our Home Ministry has no one patrolling the internet for wild animals / fish / birds being freely advertised by Indian sellers. Some instances are the thousands of painted glass fish being offered, dried seahorses, shark fins, dried fish bladders, butterflies, and scorpions  all these will be exported illegally through the parcel companies. Even though there is a ban on all ivory advertisements, code words are common on the Net and in the shipment service. As soon as a law enforcement agency catches on that white gold is code for ivory, a new code word pops up.

Sites like Yahoo openly advertise ivory. More than 12 tons of ivory exchanged hands from 2012 to 2014 on Yahoo Japan. With more than 30,000 elephants being killed for their ivory each year, Japan and China have emerged as the drivers of the illegal trade. How did the ivory reach Japan from India and Africa? FedEx zindabad. While Google has technically banned ivory sale on its platform, it still has advertisements for ivory products on its shopping site in Japan. The advertisements are for hanko, ivory Japanese stamps used as signatures on contracts.

eBay has been identified as the worst offender in the online trade of endangered wildlife products. The International Fund for Animal Welfare found that 4,300 of 5,200 tracked elephant ivory listings took place on eBay. Amazon explicitly bans ivory sales. Still, the Environmental Investigation Agency found, in 2013, that the company allowed thousands of ads for real ivory on its Japanese site. Craigslist was thrust into the spotlight in March 2015 after an investigation by IFAW and the Wildlife Conservation Society showed more than 600 elephant-related items, worth a total of $1.5 million, were advertised on the website. Only three percent were legally obtained. Craigslist is still selling ivory products and endangered animal parts. When a customer buys an illegal animal item from these sites, who do you think delivers them to your doorstep; the unhampered, unregulated parcel companies. In March 2015 UPS forfeited $40 million to the US Government for shipping drugs from "illegal internet pharmacies".

Fed Ex admitted that it had been doing the same but refused to pay the fine. A Grand Jury has indicted them for delivering drugs to vacant homes, parking lots where carloads of people are waiting, customers with multiple names and suspicious identification documents and people who are under watch by the local law enforcement agencies for criminal activities. In its defence FedEx claims that its job is to deliver packages. Not to examine packages to make sure they are legal. We are a transportation company - we are not law enforcement." is their cry. Which means they can carry on criminal smuggling right under the nose of every government!

Today, over 140 species of sharks are threatened by extinction. An estimated 73 million are killed per year for shark fin soup. 98% come from India where shark fin export has been banned. Two international shipping companies  UPS and DHL  publicly declared they will not ship shark fins any more. FedEx has refused to take part in the ban. And we refuse to do anything about it.

To join the animal welfare movement contact gandhim@nic.in, www.peopleforanimalsindia.org
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce suspects Hollywood actors Johnny Depp and wife Amber Heard were reluctant stars of an apology video, which spruiked the importance of Australia's biosecurity.

But he hopes the video is widely viewed, citing the case against Heard as evidence of how seriously Australia takes quarantine issues.

Heard has received a one-month good behaviour bond with no conviction after pleading guilty to falsifying her arrival card.

The charge stems from the actress bringing two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into Australia when her husband Johnny Depp was on the Gold Coast shooting the next instalment of Pirates of the Carribean last year.
Blinded by his success in opinion polls and a mistaken belief that the primaries are beauty contests, Trump at first failed to notice Cruz's dogged rounding up of delegates who will support him over Trump when convention votes are taken  and when Trump did wake up to what was happening, he cried 'thief!' An unfriendly crowd? That never stopped Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz. Credit:AP Or more bizarrely, as in Wyoming on Saturday, Trump made no effort  other than a planned visit to the Republican National Convention in Casper Wyoming by Sarah Palin, which later was cancelled. Cruz, however, was on the ground and scooped up all of Wyoming's 14 convention delegates. Same deal in Colorado earlier in the week, when Cruz bagged all of that state's 34 delegates. Ted Cruz signs posters for his supporters at a campaign rally on Friday. Credit:AP

There's an emerging consensus among analysts that Trump will not win the 1237 convention delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the GOP convention scheduled for Cleveland Ohio in July; and that Cruz will have caught up sufficiently in his tally of delegates to make him a plausible alternative who, in the arcane voting procedures of the convention, will outstrip Trump to become the Republican nominee. End-of-convention parties will celebrate how clever they all were in whooping Trump's ass, as Americans would put it. And as they emerge from their hangovers the next morning, they'll turn to Cruz and a few will say: "Well, what have we got here?" Donald Trump has been surprised by Ted Cruz's political acumen. Credit:AP In short, perhaps the most conservative GOP candidate ever nominated. Born in Canada to a Cuban father, the 45-year-old Cruz hails from the far right of the Republican Party. In this context, to describe him as a 'zealot' is fair comment as a freshman elected in 2012 on the back of the Tea party revolt in the GOP, Cruz's voting record in the Senate has marked him as one of the two or three most consistently conservative members.

As seen by Edward Carmines, a political scientist at Indiana University, Cruz represents the embodiment of the hard right; extremely conservative not just on economic and social welfare issues like social security, health care, affirmative action programs for women and minorities, and taxes; but also on social and cultural issues such as gun control, prayer in schools, abortion, and gay marriage. By The New York Times' analysis of Cruz's policy statements even rape and incest victims who became pregnant would be denied abortions and the so-called morning-after-pill would be illegal. Cruz wants reduced social security entitlements in a partial privatisation of US welfare; he wants Muslim communities to be 'patrolled and secured;' and high up in every speech his makes is the claim that he is "fully committed to repealing every single word of Obamacare." Much of his policy pronouncements are dressed up as messages from God or appeals for prayer, such as this on his abhorrence of same-sex marriage: "I'm going to encourage each and every man and woman here to pray. If ever there was an issue on which we should come to our knees to God about, it is preserving marriage of one man and one womanan issue on which we need as many praying warriors as possible to turn back the tide." Cruz bills himself as a 'courageous conservative.' But how clever a politician is he? He rails against the 'Washington political cartel' and thinks nothing of denouncing his own party leader on the floor of the Senate as a liar  and these days he works the phones, miffed at his lack of success in getting any of the party big wigs to endorse his candidacy wholeheartedly. Political journalists are having a field day. Ordinarily they'd have to go to Democrats to get on-the-record criticism of a Republican; and the most they might get from the subject's GOP colleagues would be an unattributed put down. But there's no such problem when it comes to Cruz.

Some happily go on the record with their refusal to endorse him. And former GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole went on the record with his warning that a Cruz candidacy could turn voters away from voting for down-the-ticket Republicans - "If he's the nominee, we're going to have wholesale losses in Congress and state offices and governors and legislatures." And Peter King, a Republican congressman from New York, didn't feel constrained either, telling a reporter: "Cruz isn't a good guy, and he'd be impossible as president. People don't trust him." In the absence of an alternate candidate, the Republicans find themselves boxed in, with no choice but the test the argument of the party's hard right leadership that the GOP lost four of the last six presidential elections because their candidates were not conservative enough  George H. W. Bush [1992], Robert Dole [1996], John McCain [2008] and Mitt Romney [2012]. But here's the thing. Crazy as it might sound, as The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat puts it, Cruz might be unloved, unattractive, a Simpsons-quoting nerd still chasing the teenage dream of world domination, but he has outworked, out organised and outlasted the candidates who were supposed to beat him, from the blueblood to the jock. In averaging the myriad opinion polls on a presidential face off between various of the candidates, Real Clear Politics finds that the presumptive Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton would defeat Donald Trump; but in a Clinton-Cruz match-up, Clinton wins by just 3.4 points  arguably not far outside the polls' margin of error.
The Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) opened the public consultation period on their 10-year plan for rehabilitation services on Friday.

In a press conference held at the IAS facilities, the plan for the period 2016 to 2025 was presented to the press at which time it became public and open to comments and suggestions.

Under the theme Create a society based on equal rights and cohesion, the plan, which will be under public consultation until May 30, establishes goals at 3 different levels (short term, mid-term and long-term). All goals focus on obtaining achievements in 13 different areas, as said Choi Siu Un, Head of the Department of Social Solidarity of the IAS.

The plan has been in preparation since the end of 2013 by the Interdepartmental study group for the ten-year planning and development of rehabilitation services in collaboration with a team from the City University of Hong Kong. Among the extensive list of goals and objectives to be achieved by this action plan is a particular focus on the area of Medical Rehabilitation wherein there is a goal to Reinforce the technical training of the health care professionals []through the revision of the Legal Qualifications and Registration for Health Care professionals and the creation of a Faculty of Medicine in Macau.

Education is also an important focus of the plan, as it sets goals to provide adequate financial support to schools for an integrated education.

Another of the goals set within education is to introduce, from 2016, interpretation in sign language for all education-related information, including on website pages of the Social and Youth Affairs Bureau [DSEJ].

The vast and comprehensive plan also aims to promote changes in Public Housing design and construction, setting instructions for the conception and construction of barrier-less public housing, seeking to improve the lives of the physically handicapped.

These rules and instructions would also extend to other areas of public life such as market places, streets and flyovers and for pedestrian subways.

Another area for development is the Application of the Information and Communication Technologies, highlighting the goal to support the development and provision of audio-description.

In total, the plan lists 347 items with most (44 percent) goals to be achieved during 2016 and 2017.
As Charlie Chaplin finished out his long life on his bucolic Swiss manor, the former silent film star worried about drifting into oblivion, his connoisseurs say.

Little chance of that. The legacy of the Hollywood legend behind The Dictator and Modern Times lives on today in the minds of stars like Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr., in Broadway plays and in the general cultural consciousness. But he never had bricks-and-mortar museum honoring his life and achievements.

That changed yesterday with the public opening of Chaplins World, a multimillion-dollar project in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey. Its director-general says the museum is the first of its kind in the world to honor Chaplin, and has added value because its at a place he called home for years.

The Manoir de Ban is where Chaplin lived his last 25 years raising children, writing music and movie scripts, and contemplating his legacy far from the glare of the Hollywood spotlight. Visitors can see his trademark bowler hat and cane, a replica studio, black-and-white photographs from his career, and the bedroom where he died at age 88 in 1977.

About two dozen of his children and grandchildren were on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday, which was Chaplins birthday.

Organizers are hoping for more than 300,000 visits per year, Pigeon said, boosted by a nearby chocolate factory and a medieval castle. AP
An art exhibition was held at the Macau Anglican College (MAC) last week to showcase the coursework of some 40 art students across forms four, five and six. Some of these students will shortly submit their work for grading and monitoring at the University of Cambridge, in the U.K.

For many of the students, the exhibition on Thursday night was a chance to display the fruits of many months of work and preparation, ahead of the examinations for the subject that then took place over the weekend.

Paul Bishop, the head of the Art Department at MAC, explained that few guidelines are given for the art project aside from a general theme for each year group, except form six..

Form four students have been given the theme, Object as a Metaphor, while form five has been assigned Sense of Place, Bishop explained to the Times, which involves coming to terms with some sort of location.

Form five student, Sin Ian Si Tou, motioning toward her painting said, You can see [in the painting] my room where I have lived for about 10 years. [The theme] is a Sense of Place so it has to have some emotional attachment. Since I have looked out of that window for years [] it has a lot of significance to me.

Her classmate Melody has also painted a picture of her room. Its what I see at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day. The sky above is what I want to reach, though its quite small and quite far.

Sin says that she likes art but its not like other subjects as you have to put in a lot of extra time, while Melody jokingly adds, Yeah, there is no real syllabus.

Paul Bishop, who is now in his second year at MAC, said that form six has more freedom, in its coursework as there is no assigned theme.

Most of the artwork exhibited on Thursday were paintings, though some are drawings and others include elements of collage.

MAC art teacher, Bernita Schroder stressed during the evening the importance of holding an exhibition to showcase the students work. Its very important for the students to see their teachers, friends and parents celebrate their art.

Her colleague, Robert Smerdon who is in his first year teaching at the school, echoed Schroders statement, adding that it is especially the case for art as it can tend to be a very solitary subject. Daniel Beitler
The worlds only museum chronicling the Chinese governments brutal 1989 crackdown on student protesters in Beijings Tiananmen Square say it faces closure because of a legal dispute, its Hong Kong operators said Friday.

The pro-democracy group behind the tiny Hong Kong museum said it has decided to look for another space rather than fight a costly lawsuit launched by other owners of the building where the museum is located.

The June 4th Museum, which opened two years ago, is dedicated to preserving the memory of one of the darkest chapters of modern Chinese history through photos, videos, artifacts and written histories. Its exhibits include a replica of the Goddess of Democracy statue famously erected by protesters in Tiananmen Square.

Located in a small office building in the specially administered Chinese regions Kowloon peninsula not far from a major tourist district, the 75 square meter museum is aimed at challenging the Communist Partys official verdict that the mostly student-led protests were a counterrevolutionary riot.

Unlike in mainland China, where the crackdown remains a taboo, memory of the Tiananmen protests remains strong in Hong Kong, which retains civil liberties 17 years after Britain ceded control of the city to China.

The lawsuit claims the group is breaking building rules by not using the space as an office, said Lee Cheuk-yan, a lawmaker and secretary of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China.

They have a very expensive lawyer team to challenge us so it takes up a lot of our time and resources in facing this lawsuit, Lee said, calling it a form of politically motivated harassment.

He said his group has decided to find a new and bigger space and will hold a crowdfunding campaign to raise 3 million Hong Kong dollars (USD387,000). Kelvin Chan, Annie Ho, AP
American actor Kevin Spacey recently recounted his visit to Macau in 2014, describing how the overwhelming response in China to the political drama House of Cards has turned the actor into an instantly recognizable personality in Macau.

I went to Macau and walked on stage and it was like some rock star had walked on stage, Spacey told Abu Dhabis English-language publication, The National. About 300 Chinese rushed the stage and spent the whole concert taking selfies with me in the background. I got back to my hotel and asked my friends, What has happened? They said, House of Cards. Its huge in China.

Spacey was in Macau in 2014 to support the local chapter of Best Buddies International, a charity dedicated to helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The charity held a gala event in the Venetian Macaos ballroom.

His rise in popularity was all the more surprising to Spacey, the American actor recalls, as he was relatively unknown in Mainland China only a few years earlier.

I did a film in China a few years ago and I could walk down the street with its star, Daniel Wu. Hes a huge star over there  its like walking down the street with Tom Cruise. Next to him everyone just thought I was his bodyguard or something, he told The National.

The Chinese interest in an American TV drama that exposes the scandalous and ruthless rise of political figures may be unexpected in a country that strictly monitors its citizens access to information and prohibits criticism of the ruling elites. Indeed, the show remains unavailable on Netflix, where House of Cards premiered, within Mainland China.

I have heard, and understand totally, that many members of the Chinese government are fans, Spacey explained. But my friends told me that for the common man in China, Francis [the character portrayed by Spacey] is perceived as someone fighting corruption.

That took a while to get my head around, he added. DB
A large crowd of buyers involved in the Pearl Horizon group returned to activity yesterday. This time, as the protesters went back to Polytec Assets Headquarters the traffic nearby was forced into a slow march.

Hundreds of pre-sales buyers of Pearl Horizon units, staged a protest, urging the government to protect their interests. I want to meet Chief Executive, Give back my home quick! 

the main sign reads. Other signs say: 2018, I want my flat ready.

The crowd of protesters walked all the way through from Polytec Assets office to the government headquarters, where a large number of policemen awaited them. The goal of this dispute is to safeguard both the life of Macau and the citys universal values, said Kou Meng Pok, president of Pearl Horizon Proprietors Association. The man claimed to be the first activist. The Public Security Police said that around 680 people participated the demonstration. One hundred and twenty PSP officers were deployed to follow the protest.

When crossing through Avenida 1o De Maio, the long line of people caused drivers who were waiting at the crossroad to sound their car horns to express their frustration at being stuck in traffic.

Representing the views of his fellow protestors, Kou expressed that the situation is now heading into a deeper level of desperation. Kou further criticized the government for taking no action since the previous protests. Kou urged the Chief Executive to solve the problems: we hope that the Chief Executive, as a leader, can be brave to face the reality. He also advised the crowd of protestors to always engage in peaceful public displays of discontent when it is necessary to do so.

According to Kou, buyers have been acting in a more decisive manner now because they have been assembling every Sunday. They will continue to do so near the border gate and at another location.

The local government was not willing to communicate with the protesters, according to Kou. He acknowledged that this fact alone had prompted people to organize frequent protests.

When referring to the loan payments between buyers and banks, Kou said that the situation had been previously brought to the attention of the banks.

The group arrived at the government headquarters around 5 p.m., then left funeral music playing to show their disapproval of this government and Or Wai Sheun, president of Polytex Asset Holdings Ltd. During the demonstration, a large number of police officers were deployed to the scene. Staff reporter
CHINAs second-ranking general recently visited the countrys man-made islands in the South China Sea, underscoring defiance in the face of calls by the U.S. and others to cease construction work that they say is raising tensions in the region.

HONG KONG The worlds only museum chronicling the Chinese governments brutal 1989 crackdown on student protesters in Beijings Tiananmen Square say it faces closure because of a legal dispute.

ECUADOR The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast, sending the Andean nation into a state of emergency. As rescue workers rushed in, officials said yesterday at least 233 people were killed, over 580 injured and the damage stretched for hundreds of miles to the capital and other major cities.

BURUNDI Four members of the countrys ruling party were killed in an attack in continuing violence associated with the extended tenure of President Pierre Nkurunziza. The attack was on supporters of the ruling party who had gathered for an environmental clean-up exercise, said Jerome Ntakarutimana, chief of Mugamba district in Buriri province.

CHILE Heavy rains have caused severe flooding and cut water service to millions of people in the countrys capital, Santiago. Authorities say the Rio Mapocho flooded several districts of the city and landslides killed at least one person.

GREECEs creditors are considering proposing additional austerity measures that would kick in if the nation missed budget targets, according to a European official familiar with the talks who asked not to be identified.

GREECE Pope Francis made an emotional visit to the Greek island of Lesbos Saturday, plucking 12 Syrian refugees to take back to Rome with him and draw attention to what he called Europes most serious humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II.

SYRIA Ten children have been killed by rebel shelling in Aleppo this weekend, as the U.N. warned of desperate conditions inside a war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.

MYANMARs new president pledged to continue efforts to release remaining political prisoners as part of the sweeping democratic changes his government envisions after a half-century of military control.
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Idaho State University has been informed that approximately 50 of our students from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been victims of off-campus home burglaries over a period of several weeks. To the best of our knowledge, all of these burglaries have been reported to the Pocatello Police Department, who are actively investigating these crimes.

In some cases, personal documents were stolen and hateful and hurtful messages were left behind. These burglaries are in addition to the vandalism of 17 vehicles, including some belonging to international students, on July 17, 2015, along the Bartz Way roadway from Schubert Heights to the McIntosh Manor area. The Pocatello Police Department apprehended the perpetrator. Although recently reported on some social media, incidents of physical abuse and harm targeted at Kuwaiti and Saudi students have not been verified or reported to the Pocatello Police Department.

As we can all imagine, home invasions invoke fear, sadness, anger and bewilderment. Our hearts go out to these affected students as well as their peers, who worry that they may be next. These students are far away from home and family and have chosen to attend Idaho State University for its reputation for high quality educational programs in a safe environment. As a result of these crimes, some of our students are seriously considering leaving ISU and Pocatello. This would be a devastating loss for our community and would earn us an undeserved reputation for discrimination, bias and racism.

As you know, the safety and security and well-being, both physical and mental, of our students are our pre-eminent focus. Any harm to our students impacts all of us negatively by diminishing the quality of our life because how can any one of us feel safe if others are in jeopardy? Our ability to attract and retain students who seek a college degree will be impacted because any crimes against students will discourage students from Idaho, the U.S. and the world from enrolling here. And lastly, harm to any person impacts our humanity.

Mayor Brian Blad has been meeting regularly with international students throughout his tenure to ensure that they feel welcomed and any concerns are heard. In Pocatello we care about our neighbors  and were all neighbors.

Let us join together to demonstrate to the world that Idaho State University and the city of Pocatello are communities whose 21st century values reflect intellectual and creative endeavors and achievements, care and concern for the individual; and appreciation and support for diversity in its many forms.

Most importantly, please help us reach out to our international students, especially, our students from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Let them know that we want them to stay. In the ISU Student Handbook, I remarked that, In addition to being scholars in the classroom and laboratories, our students are making a difference both here and abroad. Our international students will carry messages home about what America and Americans are like. Many will become important business and civic leaders who will influence others perceptions of America.

If you are a student and need assistance, please contact the Vice President for Student Affairs Office. Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and the International Programs Office are here to assist and support all of our students.
(c) 2016, Special to The Washington Post  Nathan Christensen  NATIONAL, OPINION, POLITICS, OP-ED  Apr 16, 2016 - 8:46 PM

Last month, President Obama returned from Cuba, where he took another step toward normalizing relations with the island nation. In his speech to the Cuban people, the president made the case that engagement is a more powerful agent of change than isolation, even where strong disagreements remain. With his visit, the president continued to chip away at the more-than-50-year U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

Two days later, Ed Lee, the mayor of San Francisco, laid the foundation for a new embargo. He announced that San Francisco's city workers are banned indefinitely from traveling to North Carolina unless doing so is essential to public health and safety. The embargo is intended to protest North Carolina's new law prohibiting the state's local governments from enacting antidiscrimination rules that protect gay and transgender people and limiting transgender people to bathrooms that match the gender on their birth certificate. Since then, more cities and states, including the District of Columbia, have announced similar travel bans. Others will likely follow.

At the moment that our country is opening lines of communication and travel abroad, we are closing them within our own borders.

The bans apply only to official city or state travel, and it's unclear how often employees from these cities and states actually travel to North Carolina. But these policies are as much about message as effect. The problem is: It's the wrong message.

It's not that North Carolina's law is acceptable. It isn't. I was part of the legal team that brought an end to Oregon's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, and discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation is harmful and inconsistent with our country's values. North Carolina's decision to thwart its own cities' efforts to prevent discrimination deserves condemnation.

And it's not that those who oppose North Carolina's law should sit on the sidelines; it's important that people and organizations take action when they see injustice, as we did in Oregon. The business, civic and political leaders who have spoken out against North Carolina's law, including by warning that they may not pursue future investments in the state, have sent a powerful message.

But should city and state government travel bans be part of the response? States are on the front lines of social and political issues. What would happen to our ability as a country to work through important issues if whenever a city or state perceived injustice in another state, it banned official travel there?

What if Ohio banned travel to Arizona because it deemed Arizona's policies toward immigrants inhumane? What if Texas barred state employees from traveling to Connecticut because it believed that Connecticut's gun control laws were unjust? What if Minneapolis banned travel to Georgia to protest that state's use of capital punishment?

The presidential campaign is evidence enough that we live in a polarized environment. Do we need more lines in the sand, and fewer people talking and meeting with each other?

Not only do the travel bans potentially send us down a slippery slope, but also they are blunt instruments that could halt progress in other areas. Cities and states collaborate on many issues, from urban planning to public education. What would happen to this collaboration if their officials were not allowed to meet? Should city planners in Seattle be stopped from visiting a green building project in Charlotte? And what would happen to organizations that bring city and state officials together, such as the U.S. Conference of Mayors? Would they splinter into factions, with their events held at approved locations for each constituency?

Even setting aside the restriction on travel, these bans undermine collaboration. They erect walls between public employees, placing entire states on one side or the other, with no exception for areas where their views and work are aligned.

For city and state governments wanting to take action, here's an alternative. Rather than ban travel, do the opposite. Take a page from Obama's book and organize a trip to North Carolina. Bring along a coalition of political, business and civic leaders who can present their views and experiences on inclusiveness for gay and transgender people to residents and public officials there, engaging them in a direct dialogue.

Perhaps by humanizing the issue and opening rather than closing lines of communication, we could remove the fear and misunderstanding underlying North Carolina's new law and plant seeds for more genuine and long-lasting change.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated Sunday during a weekly cabinet meeting that the Golan Heights seized from Syria during the 1967 war known as the Six-Day War will never be returned.

This weeks cabinet meeting was held in Golan and Netanyahu said he choose to have this festive cabinet meeting there in a bid to send a clear message: the Golan Heights will forever remain in Israeli hands.

Israel began annexing the region in 1981 but the international community does not recognize its authority in the area. Netanyahu said its time, after 50 years, that the international community finally recognizes that the Golan will forever remain under Israeli sovereignty.

A statement from the Syrian government in reaction to Israeli prime ministers remarks vowed that the Israeli occupation entity made its settlers promises that will fall flat on the first test when faced by the heroism of our homeland defenders. It also termed Netanyahus government as racist.

Around 20,000 settlers are living in the Golan Heights in more than 30 Jewish settlements.

Netanyahu stressed that whatever is beyond the border, the boundary itself will not change as he underlined that Israels security will be prioritized. According to the Prime Minister, he already told US Secretary of State John Kerry that Tel Aviv does not oppose a diplomatic settlement in the Syrian war that does not come at the expense of the security of the state of Israel.

The Golan Heights is a strategic military point. Israel reportedly intervened in Syria to target Hezbollah claiming the group posed threats.
Results of the parliamentary elections held on Wednesday were announced late Saturday evening by the Higher Electoral Committee, Syrias electoral body, and 200 of the 250 seats were won by the National Unity coalition.

The UN said it wont recognize the elections while the opposition camp has described it as a farce.

The ruling Baath party joined hands with its allies to run under the banner of the National Unity coalition and all its candidates won seats to the Peoples Assembly.

Head of the electoral committee, Hisham al-Shaar, said 57.56% of the 8,834,994 eligible voters took part in the elections. It is the second parliamentary elections since the war started in 2011 with the first dating back to 2012.

A record 11,341 candidates registered for the elections but the number came down to 3,500 after the withdrawal of candidates that deemed their chances to win were slim.

The elections only took place in areas controlled by the government. The Syrian opposition groups fighting the government, western countries and the UN said the situation in the country does not allow fair elections.

The Syrian government and the opposition are holding talks in Geneva under the auspices of the UN for a transitional government. Yet, questions still remain over the fate of President Assad who was elected for a seven year mandate in June 2014.

The five year old war in Syria killed thousands of people, forced millions to flee and devastated the economy and infrastructure of the country.
The meeting between OPEC members and non-OPEC members in Qatar on freezing oil production levels based on the January data ended without any deal following Saudi Arabias stance that Iran must be present at the meeting before a deal could be reached. Tehran has downplayed the importance of agreeing on a freeze and did not attend any of the meetings arguing that it has to reach its ante-sanction production levels.

Iran had promised to send a delegate to the meeting but made a U-turn late Saturday. Oil minister Biajn Namdar Zangeneh told state TV that we cant cooperate with them to freeze our own output, and in other words impose sanctions on ourselves.

Russian oil minister Alexander Novak sounded disappointed because he came to Doha hoping to seal a deal. He told Reuters that Saudis demand for Irans presence was unreasonable while Omans oil minister Mohammed al-Rumhy was quoted by Al Jazeera saying until this morning we thought there would be a deal. We didnt know Iran wasnt coming.

The possibility of organizing another meeting is unclear and Qatars energy and industry minister and current OPEC President, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, stated after the meeting that we concluded we all need time to consult further. He added that the fundamentals of the market are generally improving although analysts have noted that the market is being overloaded with a surplus of between 1million and 2million barrels per day. Oil prices have fallen by more than 70% since mid-2014.

OPEC members will be meeting in June and current OPEC president said they dont know how the future will unroll but it was a sovereign decision by Iran to sideline the Doha meeting.
Diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and the US could be straining as some members of the US congress push for a bill that will enable American courts to hold the Saudi government accountable for any role played in the September 11, 2001 attacks which left around 2977 people dead after two passenger aircrafts were crashed into the World Trade Centre, another one in the Pentagon and another in a field in Pennsylvania.

Saudi Arabia has warned that passing such a bill will lead the Kingdom to sell its treasury securities and other assets in the US amounting to around $750 billion.

Foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir was in Washington last month and personally delivered Riyadhs message.

The sale is meant to avoid that the securities and assets are frozen by courts but some analysts believe that it will be technically impossible to sell them all without crippling the global economy.

The Obama administration is reportedly lobbying against the bill and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon have warned that passing the text will affect diplomatic and economic ties with other countries. 15 of the 19 hijackers of the four aircrafts were Saudi citizens.

President Obama would be meeting King Salman during the week as he expected to arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday but it is unclear whether the matter will be discussed. A 2002 congressional inquiry had cited in 28 pages some evidence that Saudi officials living in the United States at the time had had a hand in the plot. The 28 pages continue to be censored and President Obama would decide in June whether the censored pages will be released to the public.
About 11 people were killed and some 59 others injured when a bus carrying supporters of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) back to Johannesburg after they attended the partys election manifesto launch in Port Elizabeth overturned, the countrys emergency services said.

A number of passengers were thrown from the vehicle, while several others were trapped beneath the wreckage, local media reported.

Shortly after reports of the crash, the ANC said through social media it was saddened by the accident that had claimed so many lives. Our thoughts are with the injured and bereaved at this time, the party said on Twitter.

The ANC Womens League also expressed great sadness at the tragic accident that involved ANC Ekurhuleni volunteers, believed to be from ward 60.

This is indeed a sad day for all the structures of the ANC and the community of Ekurhuleni. Our heartfelt condolences go out to families of the deceased and those injured, the league said in a statement.

Some 4,500 people were killed in road accidents in South Africa last year, according to the countrys Road Traffic Management Corporation.
Nigerias Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun said over the weekend that the West African nation has not applied for financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in spite of the economic challenges it faces.

Africas top oil exporter, which has the continents biggest economy is going through its worst economic crisis in years. The country has been hit hard by the fall in crude prices since oil sales account for around 70 percent of its income.

Nigeria is not sick and even if we are, we have our own local remedy, said the Finance Minister at a panel discussion in Washington where she attended the IMF-World Bank spring meetings.

We have resolved to build resilience into the countrys economy to hedge against future oil shocks. We are doing a combination of things to diversify our economy, she said.

Adeosuns spokesman, Festus Akanbi, said the comment was an apparent response to a question on why the government has refused to apply for IMF loans.

Last month the IMF said it had again cut its growth forecast for Nigeria, predicting that gross domestic product growth would slow to 2.3 percent in 2016. It said it hopes exchange rate limits imposed by Nigeria will be removed.
Libyan authorities on Sunday said they had arrested 203 African migrants in the capital who were preparing to make a perilous sea crossing to Europe.

The migrants were nabbed after a raid by forces battling clandestine migration targeted a house in Al-Hashan district in eastern Tripoli. Their smuggler was also arrested.

Last week alone, 6,000 people were rescued on the so-called Libyan routeleaving from Libya, or at times, sailing along the coast from Egypt and then crossing from Libya.

The interior ministry of Italy put migrant arrivals in the country at 23,739 since the start of the year, compared with 19,589 last year.

The chaos reigning in Libya since the death of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 continues to benefit human traffickers and thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe from Libya, just 300 kilometers from the Italian coast.

Since the ousting of long time ruler Muammar Gaddafi, the oil rich nation has also suffered blows of attacks from Islamist militants battling for territory and recognition in the country.
via @ChuckRabin

Palm Beach County prosecutors let The Shark off the hook on Monday, dropping all charges against a popular conservative Florida blogger after a witness refused to cooperate.

A single-page court file signed by Assistant Palm Beach County State Attorney Christy Rogers said charges of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm and burglary with assault or battery against Javier Manjarres, would not be filed.

Victim refused to cooperate by refusing to identify to view a lineup, the filing read.

The dropped charges against Manjarres on Monday is the second time in the past week that Palm Beach County State Attorney David Aronbergs office has decided against prosecuting a case that turned into a hot political issue.

Last week, state prosecutors said no charges would be pressed against Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who grabbed the arm of Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields' during a Trump rally to try and get her away from the presidential candidate.

Manjarres, 43, known as The Shark and whose website is called The Shark Tank, was arrested in Pompano Beach in March and accused of threatening Jason Holowinski, the boyfriend of Manjarress sister.

As first reported in Politico, Holowinski told Boca Raton police that he and his girlfriend had been drinking and arguing and that Manjarres ambushed him in a parking lot, then fired a bullet into his vehicle.

Manjarres, one of the states leading conservative blogging voices, is known for his coverage of state politics, particularly following the career of Sen. Marco Rubio. Hes known for showing up at political events with a video camera and sometimes landing exclusive interviews.

--CHARLES RABIN
@JeremySWallace

Twelve more people have filed to be Florida's next insurance commissioner since Gov. Rick Scott and Florida's Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater deadlocked over the issue last month, but there are no indications either is closer to agreeing on a successor to longtime commissioner Kevin McCarty.

On March 29 at the last meeting of Florida's 4-member cabinet, Scott and Atwater could not agree on a single candidate for the job. Under state law, the elected CFO and governor must both agree on who the state's insurance commissioner will be. With no resolution in sight, the Cabinet agreed to re-open the application process with an eye toward trying against to vote on an insurance commissioner at their next meeting, which is on April 26.

At the last meeting, Atwater recommended state Rep. Bill Hager, R-Delray Beach, for the position, which pays up to $200,000 a year. Scott refused to agree with Atwater and has instead supported Pinellas County resident Jeffrey Bragg for the position.

Bragg, a former U.S. Treasury official who ran the nation's terrorism risk insurance program under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, told the Times/Herald that he's still pressing forward hoping to get the position.

"I do remain interested in the position," said Bragg, a Safety Harbor resident.

Hager, vice chairman of the Florida House Banking and Insurance Committee and a former Iowa insurance commissioner, isn't giving up either. In an interview on Friday, Hager said he's "100 percent committed" to getting the position.

McCarty announced earlier this year that he is resigning as Florida Insurance Commissioner effective May 2. McCarty has been the insurance commissioner for more than 12 years.

Hager and Bragg were the only two candidates out of the original 55 that the cabinet agreed to bring in for a final interview at their March 29 meeting.

Besides Bragg and Hager, those 55 candidates included top state insurance regulators from Missouri, Nevada, Illinois, Alabama and Tennessee. Of the 12 latest candidates, most have private insurance market experience but none have lead another state's insurance commission office, though one candidate, Michael Bownes served for 16 years as general counsel for Alabama's Department of Insurance. Four candidates on the list currently work in the upper ranks of Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation, including McCarty's chief of staff Belinda Miller, chief actuary Eric Johnson, and deputy commissioners Rich Robleto and David Altmaier. Those four were all interviewed privately by Atwater, but none were brought back for a public interview at the March cabinet meeting.
As controversy continues about Florida GOP leaders choosing delegates to the convention, Gov. Rick Scott avoided a question about delegate selection but still showed support for Donald Trump while in Broward Monday.

When asked if the Republican Party of Florida should mostly appoint Trump supporters since he won the Florida primary, Scott said: you'd have to go talk to RPOF.

When asked if Trump should be the nominee if he enters the convention with the most votes and delegates but doesnt have a majority, Scott said: Donald Trump will either have a majority of delegates or he will be very close. If we want to win in November we dont want four more years of Barack Obamas policies that are injuring our families. If Trump is in that position we need to rally around him.

Scott didnt directly answer a question about whether Congress should pass $1.9 billion to fight Zika as requested by Obama. Instead, he recapped the states efforts to deal with Zika including the requests to get additional test kits from the Centers for Disease Control. When asked about the funding a second time, he said:

I dont know exactly what the right number should be but I think we have to take this seriously.

Scott wouldnt answer a question about who he will support for state insurance commissioner at next weeks Cabinet meeting.

Scott answered political questions briefly Monday after holding a ceremonial bill signing at the David Posnack Jewish Community for a Holocaust memorial to be constructed in Tallahassee.
@ByKristenMClark

Jorge Labarga, the chief justice of Florida's Supreme Court, is participating at an event at the White House on Tuesday to promote ways to help low-income Americans seek justice through the court system.

Labarga is one of six state chief justices invited, the Florida Supreme Court said in a news release this morning.

Speakers at the event include U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, White House Counsel Neil Eggleston and John Levi, the chairman of the Legal Services Corp., which is the single largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans and a co-sponsor of the non-partisan forum. After the forum, a reception at the U.S. Supreme Court will include remarks by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

It's the second year that Labarga has participated.

I am eager to once again bring Floridas perspective to this critically important national conversation, Labarga said in a statement. And I look forward to hearing about initiatives and innovations elsewhere that we may very well want to explore here in Florida.

Access to civil justice has been one of Labarga's top priorities as head of Florida's judicial branch. In 2014, he created the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice -- which is researching ways to bring down barriers that keep poor people from seeking the help of the courts in matters such as child custody and landlord-tenant disputes.

The lack of meaningful access to civil justice is so critically urgent that I believe it can be fairly described as a crisis," Labarga said.

He praised attorneys and legal groups that work to help people who can't afford a lawyer, but he said, "the simple truth is that the gaps in access to civil justice are bigger than the legal community. We are grappling with a societal problem. And it needs a societal answer.

The forum will be live-streamed at https://www.whitehouse.gov/ live.
@PatriciaMazzei

Before Carnival Corp. announced Monday it would postpone its upcoming cruise to Cuba if Cuban-born Americans couldn't buy tickets, it faced political pressure from all sides -- including, as it turns out, from a one-time Miami federal prosecutor.

Former U.S. Attorney Bob Martinez had asked the Justice Department last week to investigate whether Carnival's trip would violate civil-rights protections. He had tried to book passage on the cruise and was told he couldn't because he was born in Cuba.

"I thought that was pretty outrageous," he said. "It kind of just hits you, like, 'Whoa, what do you mean I can't? I'm a U.S. citizen."

The cruise company had originally planned to set sail even if the Cuban government continued to prohibit Cuban-born Americans from traveling to the island by sea. It now intends to postpone the May 1 voyage if Cuba doesn't lift its decree before then.

"Smart," Martinez said Monday.

Last Thursday, he wrote Attorney General Loretta Lynch. He's yet to get a response but said he knows his letter got read by some DOJ folks.

"That the U.S. civil rights laws prohibit national origin discrimination should not be surprising to anyone, least of all to a major U.S. business, such as Carnival, with its operational headquarters based in Miami, Florida. And yet, that is exactly what Carnival is doing," he wrote. "Shamelessly, Carnival tries to absolve itself from its illegal conduct by pointing its finger at the Cuban Government and blaming it for its discriminatory laws. But, it is Carnival that is playing the role of the Cuban Government police, doing its dirty work by enforcing the Cuban Government's discriminatory laws. Carnival is willing to play that role for business reasons."

In a statement Monday, Carnival CEO Arnold Donald said he expects Cuba to change its regulations.

"We want everyone to be able to go to Cuba with us," he said.

Read Martinez's letter: Letter
@ByKristenMClark

The state's largest teachers union and its two national affiliates are endorsing Democrat Patrick Murphy in Florida's U.S. Senate race.

The Florida Education Association threw its support behind the Jupiter congressman with an announcement Monday morning in Palm Beach County. The FEA represents over 140,000 teachers and school support professionals in the state.

President Joanne McCall said, at the FEA's recommendation, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers back Murphy's U.S. Senate bid, too.

"We support Patrick Murphy for U.S. Senate because he has proven time and time again wholehearted commitment to education and Floridas teachers and education staff professionals," McCall said. "Patrick has stood with our teachers, education staff professionals, parents and students when it mattered the most. He knows that there is nothing more important to Florida's children's futures than a high-quality education."

Murphy said he'd continue to support fully funding education including Title I and Head Start programs, better teacher pay and universal access to pre-K education, as well as backing away from high-stakes standardized testing.

"Were setting back an entire generation. Weve got to make sure were moving toward debt-free education," Murphy said during his remarks.

Murphy has racked up establishment endorsements during the course of his bid for Marco Rubio's open U.S. Senate seat. Other union support includes the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Florida Teamsters, among others.

His primary opponent -- fellow U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando -- has also gotten support from some unions, including the Communications Workers of America.
@PatriciaMazzei

Never mind that Florida's two U.S. senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio, agree that Congress should fund President Barack Obama's request for $1.9 billion to combat the Zika virus. The candidates looking to replace Rubio aren't all so sure.

Both Democrats vying for Rubio's seat, Orlando Rep. Alan Grayson and Jupiter Rep. Patrick Murphy, have said they'd vote to authorize the emergency funds.

"We're in a situation, in regards to Zika, where no private entity, no business, has the necessary incentives to try to address the problem and prevent a public health disaster," Grayson told the Miami Herald in a telephone interview. "It's clear the government has to step in."

But among the five main Republican Senate contenders, the issue is more complicated. Florida has more confirmed Zika cases than any other state in the country.

Rep. David Jolly of Indian Shores has said he's not against Obama's request but first wants to see how the nearly $600 million already approved to combat Zika get spent before signing off on the additional funding. Rep. Ron DeSantis of Ponte Vedra Beach told the Herald through a spokesman took a similar position: "If more funds are needed, the administration should come to Congress and demonstrate how the funds will be used," he said.

Orlando contractor Todd Wilcox offered a similar response. "I support the premise of ensuring the CDC has the funding to protect the public from disease transmission and pandemics," he said through a spokeswoman, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But let's make sure current funding sources for such events have been exhausted before handing this administration billions more."

Carlos Beruff, a Sarasota home builder, denounced Congress for not tackling Zika sooner.

"Instead of taking action now to get something done and deal with the threat at hand, the Washington establishment is dragging its feet," Beruff spokesman Chris Hartline said. "Carlos would have to look at the specifics of a spending bill, but as long as Congress ensures that the money goes toward treating Zika and preventing the disease from spreading, he supports more federal funding for this issue."

Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera did not respond to a question emailed to his campaign.

--with Alex Leary

This post has been updated.
@MichaelAuslen

Democrat Dwight Dudley has drawn a Republican challenger for his St. Petersburg-based House seat: A South Florida congressional candidate and advocate for the disabled named Joseph "JB" Bensmihen.

The former CEO and owner of Boca Home Care Services, Bensmihen filed for the seat Friday using a St. Petersburg address, but less than a year ago, he declared candidacy for a South Florida congressional race.

Bensmihen filed to challenge U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, according to the Federal Elections Commission.

State lawmakers must live in their district but do not have to prove residency until after the election.

Bensmihen, 47, was born with spastic cerebral palsy and has advocated for the disabled since he was 12, according to his campaign website.

Dudley has held the Pinellas County seat, which leans Democratic but is competitive, since 2012. In 2014, he beat Bill Young, the son of former congressman CW Bill Young, with 53 percent of the vote.
@PatriciaMazzei

Opening a new front in their political push for closer U.S.-Cuba ties, proponents of Cuba engagement are taking to the medium that for decades has voiced the most strident opposition to their cause: Miami's Spanish-language radio.

The hour-long paid program will debut Tuesday on WQBA-AM (1140), a local station owned by media giant Univision. For its inaugural show, CUBAHORA -- a play on words that translates to "Cuba Now" or "Cuba Hour" -- will feature an interview with former U.S. Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, a Cuban-American Republican who favors normalized relations with the island. Though the program is paid advertising, Tuesday's interviewers will be WQBA anchor Jose Alfonso Almora, a trusted voice among listeners.

Lengthy paid programming is not unusual on Spanish-language radio, especially during election season, when candidates or their Hispanic surrogates seek to reach older Cuban-American voters who reliably cast ballots (the programs include a disclaimer). But a weekly slot to push the pro-engagement position might still surprise listeners used to anchors with a more hardline editorial bent. Notably, the program won't air on the higher-rated -- and more conservative -- Radio Mambi, WQBA's sister station and Univision's local Spanish-language flagship. (WQBA was once so focused on its Cuban-exile listeners it called itself "La Cubanisima," which loosely translates to "the very Cuban.")

The program is paid for by Cuba Now, a nonprofit group that advocates among other things for lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Its executive director, Ric Herrero, will provide commentary alongside Almora.
@Cveiga

The trip to Cuba is called A Revolutionary Perspective on Education. It promises stunning museum collections, conversations with college professors and plenty of free time to wander the streets of Old Havana.

For seven days, Florida International University will help lead the tour for educators, even offering a small federal subsidy to help pay for the trip.

Until recently, such a trip would have been illegal.

For a decade, state law made it impossible for Florida colleges and universities to use public money or even private grants to travel to the island 90 miles south. That changed when the American flag was raised over the U.S. Embassy in Havana last summer, marking the restoration of diplomatic ties and with it, the evaporation of the last travel restrictions keeping Florida professors from visiting the island.

Photo credit: Javier Galeano, AP
For most of us, life will necessitate at least one interaction with the court system, often in time of crisis. The ordeal of escaping an abusive relationship or the anxiety faced by a veteran looking for mental health care should not be accompanied by the fear of not knowing where to turn for help.

Statistics show that 167,000 low- and moderate-income Montanans have at least one legal problem per year. These Montanans commonly fall into the justice gap, finding no help for their legal issues. Research shows that unmet legal needs affect especially vulnerable populations: victims of domestic violence, people affected by mental illness or physical disability, Native Americans, persons with limited English proficiency, and the elderly, and many are veterans. Their legal problems often involve basic needs such as personal safety, health, shelter, food and employment.

Important strides have been made to help Montanans navigate their way through the legal process. The statewide Court Help Program has provided information and legal forms to thousands of Montanans, allowing them to address their issues in the court system without a lawyer. And Missoula-area attorneys, impressively, donated over 22,000 hours of free legal services last year alone. Still, when individuals need legal advice or assistance, many have nowhere to go. In 2014, organizations that assist low- and moderate-income people were able to provide legal services to fewer than one in 10 Montanans requiring civil legal aid.

The Montana Access to Justice Commission aims to increase the availability and types of legal assistance available to these populations, to expand legal services in rural areas and to foster collaboration between legal providers. The Access to Justice Commission is hosting a public forum series to review and assess our civil justice system.

On behalf of the Montana Supreme Court, I invite you to join me at this months forum in Missoula. The forum will take place on Wednesday, April 20, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law on the University of Montana campus. The public is encouraged to share stories and ideas with our panel, which will include members of the Legislature and tribal and local judges. Montanans are asked to participate in order to help the commission better understand the challenges facing Montanas court system and to find practical solutions.

Montanans seek resolution in our court system of the most important issues in their lives. Narrowing Montanas substantial justice gap will help ensure justice for all, regardless of income level, location or status. Please consider attending the forum to help address the problems and work towards a better future for all of Montana.
HELENA  What Montana officials call evidence of corruption that justifies the state's low campaign contribution limits is really just democracy in action, an attorney for individuals, groups and political organizations trying to strike down the limits said Monday.

Montana is defending its contribution caps, which are among the lowest in the nation, in a federal lawsuit that claims they unconstitutionally restrict freedom of speech, association and candidates' ability to raise enough money to effectively campaign.

State officials have focused on how Montana is threatened by public officials making promises in exchange for money, after a federal appeals court ruled last year that such quid pro quo corruption, or its appearance, is the only legitimate justification for the caps.

Attorneys for both sides made their arguments Monday before U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell in one of a handful of cases across the nation challenging state contribution limits after the 2010 U.S. Citizens United ruling that allowed unlimited corporate spending in elections. The Citizens United decision raised the standard for states to justify their contribution limits by saying it's not enough to show they are preventing the influence of big donors over politicians, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

Under the new standard, states must prove their caps prevent quid pro quo corruption, or its appearance. As evidence, Montana Department of Justice attorneys pointed to an offer by the National Right to Work Committee to donate $100,000 to support Republican legislative campaigns if the lawmakers introduced anti-union legislation. That offer was not accepted.

More recent examples are the state's cases against nine GOP candidates accused of taking illegal campaign contributions from the National Right to Work Committee in 2010. Earlier this month, a jury found that one of the nine, Rep. Art Wittich, R-Bozeman, took $19,599 in illegal corporate contributions from Right to Work affiliates.

Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl has said Wittich's case and the eight others are evidence of corruption, because the candidates pledged fealty to Right to Work's anti-union cause in exchange for the campaign aid. The jury in Wittich's trial did not rule on whether Wittich's acts were corrupt.

James Bopp, the Indiana attorney who has challenged campaign finance laws across the nation, told Lovell Monday that those examples don't amount to corruption, but democracy. There is nothing wrong with a candidate telling donors that he or she will support a bill that they favor, Bopp said.

In the case of the nine Republican candidates accused by Montana, their "pledge" to Right to Work amounted to filling out a candidate survey that showed they agreed with the anti-union group's beliefs, he said.

That is not evidence of corruption, Bopp said.

"If that is criminal ... then we have made common, ordinary representative government criminal," he said.

Wittich and the other cases are examples of serious threats of abuse under the existing campaign laws, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Cochenour said in reply. That proves there is the appearance of corruption, he said.

"Nobody's saying if you support a candidate, that's corrupt," he said.

Lovell said he would consider the arguments, but did not make an immediate ruling. A decision could come before the June 7 primary elections.
BOZEMAN (AP)  A Bozeman man who is charged with breaking into his former girlfriend's house and shooting her to death is scheduled to change his plea.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that District Judge Holly Brown has scheduled an April 26 change-of-plea hearing for 35-year-old Anthony Tobias Fagiano.

Fagiano has pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide, aggravated burglary, theft and violating an order or protection in the March 9 death of 37-year-old Darcy Buhmann.

Charging documents say Fagiano texted Buhmann's estranged husband and members of his family and told them about the shooting. His sister urged him to surrender to law enforcement and he did.

Deputy Gallatin County Attorney Eric Kitzmiller says prosecutors offered Fagiano a plea agreement, but he declined to comment on its terms.
The Western Governors Association is sponsoring "Celebrate the West," a regional art competition that challenges high school students to create works inspired by their state.

Entrants must create original two-dimensional artwork inspired by their state and may draw ideas from a variety of sources, including state history, landmarks, natural resources, national parks and monuments, people, communities and culture. The competition is open to students in 19 states, including Montana.

Winning artists will receive cash prizes and their works will be displayed at an upcoming WGA meeting as well as on the WGA website.

Students will submit a digital copy of their entry via email by April 30. For more information and to download the entry form, visit westgov.org/news/351-news-2016/1122-enter-now-western-governors-celebrate-the-west-high-school-art-competition.
Late last week, the managing director of the I.M.F., Christine Lagarde, said publicly what many senior fund officials have said quietly for months: Europes assumption that Greece, in the decades ahead, can annually achieve a budget surplus (minus interest payments) of 3.5 percent of G.D.P. and pay down its debt is highly unrealistic and would require a heroic sacrifice from an austerity-battered populace.

That assessment is hardly a surprise. Since the spring of 2010, the time of the first Greek bailout, I.M.F. economists have been saying that Greece would never be able to pay back such a tremendous amount of debt.

Three economists, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Thomas Philippon and Dimitri Vayanos, examined the history of Greeces debt boom and bust in a new paper.

They contend that in terms of money borrowed and economic output lost, the Greek crisis has far exceeded even the classic emerging market busts in Latin America and Asia  many of which were resolved via various forms of debt restructuring.

As a result, they conclude, the very thought that Greece can pay its way out of this mess without having its debt reduced in some way is fantasy.

There is no exit for Greece without debt relief, Mr. Gourinchas said.

Part of the problem is that the funds role now is highly unorthodox. While the fund is owed $12 billion, it is not promising to lend any new money this year, which, at least in the view of the Greeks, reduces its credibility. Isnt it hypocritical of the fund, some Greek officials say in private, to push us so hard when it is not willing to lend new money? At least the Europeans are promising to put more money on the table, they point out.

Fund officials have responded: How can we be your enemy if we are the ones pressuring Europe to give you a break on your debt?
Updated, 10:04 a.m.

Good morning on this phenomenal Monday.

For the first time in decades, the New York presidential primaries will be consequential to both the Democratic and the Republican nominations.

If you have a legitimate chance of victory, this is really your get-it-done time, David Birdsell, dean of the Baruch College School of Public Affairs, said of the candidates.

So weve heard them debate our values, weigh into local politics and barnstorm our public spaces with booming speeches.

Its all to connect with New Yorks diverse voters.

Youve got liberal pockets, conservative pockets, upstate, downstate and the city, Mr. Birdsell said. That keeps the conversation alive 24-7.
WASHINGTON  For much of his time in the White House, President Obama has labored to pull the United States out of the Middle East so he could pivot to more promising horizons in Asia. Now, as he winds down his presidency, it is Europe, another place where Americans have deep ties and a long history, that is exerting an unwelcome pull.

As Mr. Obama prepares for a six-day trip this week that will include stops in Britain and Germany, his administration is worried about a cascade of events that is destabilizing, and could even potentially unravel, the European Union. Britain and Germany are both reeling from political tempests and fear of a new wave of immigrants, raising the risk that the British might vote to leave the union in a referendum in June.

White House officials said last week that Mr. Obama would deliver a message of solidarity when he visited Prime Minister David Cameron in Britain and Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany. Yet the presidents own well-publicized statements and foreign-policy priorities could complicate his efforts to be a trans-Atlantic cheerleader.

Some critics in Europe viewed Mr. Obamas Asia pivot as a realignment of priorities away from the Continent. And the president struck a nerve when he suggested, in a recent interview in The Atlantic, that Britain and France had been free riders in NATOs air campaign in Libya, leaving the United States to bear most of the military burden.
BRASILIA  Brazilian legislators voted on Sunday night to approve impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the nations first female president, whose tenure has been buffeted by a dizzying corruption scandal, a shrinking economy and spreading disillusionment.

After three days of impassioned debate, the lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, voted to send the case against Ms. Rousseff to the Senate. Its 81 members will vote by a simple majority on whether to hold a trial on charges that the president illegally used money from state-owned banks to conceal a yawning budget deficit in an effort to bolster her re-election prospects. That vote is expected to take place next month.

Those pressing for impeachment had to win the support of two-thirds of the 513 deputies in the lower house; the decisive 342nd vote for impeachment happened at about 10:10 p.m. Eastern time. The final vote was 367 for impeachment, 137 against and 7 abstaining. Two deputies did not vote.

If the Senate accepts the case, Ms. Rousseff will step down temporarily while it deliberates her fate. Vice President Michel Temer, a constitutional law scholar and seasoned politician, will assume the presidency.
When Angela Collins and her partner wanted to have a child, they reached out to a sperm bank in Georgia to look for potential donors. They thought they had found the perfect match in Donor 9623, described as a man with an I.Q. of 160 who was healthy and working toward his Ph.D.

But in 2014, about seven years after Ms. Collins gave birth to their son, she and her partner, Elizabeth Hanson, made an upsetting discovery after learning the mans identity through a donor sibling group. The donor had a history of mental illness and a criminal record, and had exaggerated his educational accomplishments, they say.

It was like a lead ball went to the bottom of our stomach for both my partner and I, Ms. Collins said in a radio interview last week with As It Happens on the Canadian network CBC.

She added, We know nobody is perfect, but we didnt sign up to choose knowingly that our donor had schizophrenia.
After pleading, Zia was allowed to briefly visit his father at the old school building the Taliban had turned into a prison. Noor ul-Haq was stooped, and barely able to walk. But hundreds of miles away from his grave in the Behsud cemetery, there he was, breathing, talking to his son.

The Taliban would not let him go, and Zia went home alone.

After the soldiers base was overrun, in the Musa Qala District of Helmand, Mr. Haq and his comrade Mr. Ibrahimkhel were among 10 soldiers who were taken captive by the Taliban, Mr. Ibrahimkhel said in a phone interview.

The new captives joined other prisoners from the security forces, 87 in all, Mr. Ibrahimkhel said. Every month, they would be moved to a different prison, sometimes in a different district, out of fear of a government raid.

After four months in captivity, when the world believed them dead, Mr. Ibrahimkhel gave a phone number to a visitor who had come to see a civilian prisoner. The visitor wrote the number on his leg, under the cuff of his pants, and later used it to call Mr. Ibrahimkhels family to let it know that he was alive. One of Mr. Ibrahimkhels brothers made a trip and finally found the prison in Now Zad.

Image Imamuddin Ibrahimkhel.

They didnt let us meet up close  just from 20 meters, to show that I was held by them and alive, Mr. Ibrahimkhel said.

When the Afghan Special Forces raided the prison in Now Zad in December, Zia held out hope that his father had been freed. He made calls, but the news was not good: His father was not among the rescued. He was told that Mr. Haq may have been shot dead by the Taliban before the raid.
How Have Things Gone Wrong?

From the Saudi perspective, confidence in United States support was undermined in 2011 by what they perceived as Mr. Obamas failure to support Hosni Mubarak, the ousted president of Egypt, during the Arab Spring. It was further rattled when Mr. Obama drew a red line against the Syrian governments use of chemical weapons, then stopped short of taking military action to enforce it. Mr. Obama has said he is proud of his last-minute restraint, but the 2013 episode made the Saudis question the commitment of the United States to defending its allies in the region.

In the years since, those questions have turned to deep concern, notably as Mr. Obama engaged with Iran  once a diplomatic pariah  in an effort to reach a deal to end the countrys nuclear weapons program. American officials have hailed the agreement, completed last year, calling it successful in keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

Inside Saudi Arabia, though, the thaw between the Americans and the Iranians is seen as a dangerous shift in the regions balance of power. The Saudis fear conventional and terrorist attacks from Iran, and they worry that the United States is backing away from the defense commitment it has maintained for decades.

For Saudi Arabia, this is always existential, Mr. Cordesman said. For us, its another regional problem.

Another simmering problem is the longstanding suspicion among some in the United States that the Saudi government or some of its officials participated in the plotting for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In recent days, Saudi officials warned American lawmakers that they might sell off hundreds of billions of dollars worth of American assets if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in United States courts for any role it may have had in the attacks.

Still, a senior State Department official said the relationship is better now, the day before Mr. Obamas trip, than it was two years ago, after the Syria red line incident. Efforts to mend relations by Secretary of State John Kerry and John O. Brennan, the C.I.A. director, have led to Saudi help in brokering a cease-fire in Syria and cooperation from the United States in the Saudis fight against Iranian-backed forces in Yemen.

What the President Really Thinks

If the relationship is getting better, it is doing so despite blunt and revealing comments that Mr. Obama made about Saudi Arabia during a series of interviews for a recent magazine article.
After assignments for the newspaper in Iraq and France, she was hired by The New York Times in 2007 as a correspondent in the Baghdad bureau, where she went on to serve as its chief. In 2009, she became chief of The Timess bureau in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The work was sometimes harrowing. In August 2014, Ms. Rubin was in a helicopter that crashed while delivering aid to Yazidi refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan. She suffered severely broken wrists and a fractured skull. Later, as she narrated the experience from a hospital bed in Baghdad, her concerns focused on the refugees and the pilot.

I heard myself groan like everybody else. At that moment, it just hurt so much. But then I thought, thats good. At least Im alive. I bet a lot of them are not. How is the pilot? Did he make it? He just wanted to help.

Over her career, Ms. Rubin has earned recognition from the industry as a reporter of unique courage and fierce intellect.

She has picked up a number of awards, among them the 2015 John Chancellor Award, which honors lifetime achievement in journalism.

A Pulitzer was not the only recognition she received on Monday. Earlier in the day, Atlantic Media announced that it was bestowing its 2016 Michael Kelly Award on Ms. Rubin for her series of articles on women in Afghanistan. A news release said she risked her life to capture the struggles of the women in illuminating and sensitive detail.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Rubin worked at The Congressional Quarterly, The Wichita Eagle and The American Lawyer magazine. She is a graduate of Brown University and earned a masters degree in history from Columbia University.
Despite these impressive statistics, the fact that redwoods are home to so many additional species intrigued Dr. Nsborg and her husband, Cameron Williams, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, who met Dr. Nsborg over a decade ago at a lichen conference in Estonia. The researchers had suspected that the redwoods rosy colored namesake tannins would deter communities from forming in the trees, because many organisms do find those chemicals unpalatable.

Mr. Williams was the first to try to identify all the players involved in those communities. He focused on epiphytes (literally on plant), or species that grow on trees without harming them, like mosses, lichens and other vegetation. Ascending redwoods in northwestern California, he found trunks wrapped in blankets of fuzzy, grass-green moss; twigs covered by whimsical chartreuse lichen wisps; and in places where they could eke out a precarious roothold, a variety of saplings and bushes  currant, huckleberry, hemlock and more  some of which had epiphytic communities of their own. All told, the survey found that redwoods contain more diversity  282 epiphytes in and directly beneath the trees  than other tree species that researchers had previously sampled, including the Douglas fir and the Sitka spruce. This study also uncovered a species new to science  a lichen as diminutive as its redwood host is towering. Sprouting from the tree bark like a minuscule hair, Mr. Williams bestowed it with a fitting name: redwood stubble.

The research would most likely have ended there if not for Save the Redwoods League, a nonprofit group that promotes protection of redwoods. The league asked the researchers to conduct an epiphyte survey of redwood communities at the southern end of the tree range. Preliminary results of that study reveal patterns of diversity  237 species so far  similar to those found in the north.

In both the north and south, from Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, lichens  science-fiction-like organisms that exist as symbiotic assemblies of fungi and algae or cyanobacteria  make up most of the species identified. About 17,000 lichen species are known worldwide, although much about them remains unknown  for example, the potential uses for the more than 600 unique compounds that lichens are known to produce. Some of them are already being used today as antibiotics in soaps and deodorants, and others as ingredients in traditional treatments for constipation, arthritis and kidney diseases; others still are being investigated as cancer-fighting agents.

Potentially, we could find some compounds that could be beneficial to humans, Dr. Nsborg said. We really dont know what wed be missing if we dont climb the trees.
LONDON  The British government outlined the central argument on Monday it hopes will persuade voters to stay in the European Union, publishing a detailed economic analysis finding that Britons will be poorer if they quit.

The release of the publication by the Treasury, complete with complex algebraic calculations, is an important moment before a referendum, to take place June 23, on whether Britain should end more than four decades of integration and quit the 28-nation bloc.

Those who oppose a British withdrawal from the European Union, known as Brexit, say that it would inevitably lead to economic uncertainty and deter investment, and that it could complicate ties with the bloc, the countrys biggest trade partner.

On Monday, the government put a number on that claim, asserting that, under one midrange situation, annual economic output would be 4,300 pounds, around $6,100, lower per household if Britain left than if it stayed in the bloc.
MOSCOW  A Ukrainian court sentenced two Russian men to 14 years in prison on Monday for fighting against Ukraine as active-duty soldiers in the Russian military, a central issue in the separatist war in southeast Ukraine.

The Russian government denies any role in the fighting and the Russian Defense Ministry refuses to acknowledge any ties to the two men. The two were wounded and captured on a battlefield last summer. The government of Ukraine and those of Western nations insist that Russia is actively supporting the pro-Russian separatists.

In the course of the trial, Ukraine claimed to have finally captured  and put in a glass cage in the courtroom in Kiev  two living examples of the suspected thousands of little green men, or Russian soldiers fighting on the separatist side in uniforms without insignia.

As such, the pair  Capt. Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Sgt. Aleksandr Aleksandrov  had taken on immense symbolic importance for Ukrainians. The ranks date from their time in the Russian military. The Russian government said both had resigned from the military before leaving the country to fight in Ukraine.
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Butte police reports

SHOPLIFTING

Brittany Tucker, 29, of Great Falls was caught about 2 p.m. Saturday at Walmart with clothing merchandise inside a large bag valued at $128. She was arrested for shoplifting.

Nicole Smith-Music, 20, of Helena was arrested Saturday for misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass to property and theft after police say she was caught taking $75 in merchandise.

FENCE RAGE

Dale Gustafson, 27, of Butte was arrested about 9:30 p.m. Saturday after police say an argument with his wifes in-laws led to him alleging punching the fence on their property on the 2500 Elm Street. He is facing a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief.

EJECTED

Police arrested Jason Mattila, 26, for disorderly conduct at Maloneys bar, 112 N. Main St., shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday. A large disturbance was reported; police say Mattila refused to comply when patrons were asked to leave.

WANTED MAN

Danny Adams, 41, was wanted on a $7,500 felony warrant in Jefferson County when police responded to the area of Paxson Avenue and Sunset Road about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. He allegedly lied about his name and was found with a hypodermic needle and small plastic baggies with a white powder residue.

Adams was booked on misdemeanor charges of criminal possession of drug paraphernalia and obstructing a peace officer as well as felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs.

DUI

Workers at county animal shelter reported Darell Neitz, 36, of Butte smelled of alcohol and they gave police a vehicle description Thursday. He was pulled over in the area of Greenwood Avenue and Montana Street where he failed sobriety tests. He blew over the legal limit and was booked on a fourth-offense DUI, a felony, and two misdemeanor traffic violations.

Jeffery Hafer, 51, of Butte faces misdemeanor charges of speeding and DUI after he allegedly was riding a motorbike nearly 20 miles over the speed limit in the area of Park and Montana streets late Saturday. His blood alcohol content was over the legal limit, police said.

BLOODY NOSE

A 17-year-old female allegedly punched another female, 20, breaking her nose after the two exchanged words at a bonfire behind Montana Tech about 2:30 a.m. Saturday. Police say the older woman was dating the teens ex-boyfriend.
Two Montana Tech students were injured in a string of pellet gun shootings over the weekend that police say could lead to felony charges.

A 19-year-old male was walking with friends in the area of the 500 block of W. Park Street when he heard what sounded like a pellet gun and then felt something hit his leg about 1 a.m. Sunday, according to police reports.

After several hours of sleep, he woke up and saw a pellet lodged in his skin and sought treatment at St. James Healthcare, said Butte-Silver Bow Undersheriff George Skuletich.

An hour later a female, 24, walking toward the Tech campus with friends on the 400 or 500 block of W. Park Street was struck once in her leg by a pellet gun. When she reported the incident to police at noon Sunday, she indicated there was bruising where the pellet had hit  but not penetrated  the skin and planned to go to the hospital, the undersheriff said.

In a separate incident late Saturday morning, two people working on a roof on the 500 block of W. Broadway reported being shot at. Skuletich said two pellets hit the metal roofing. No injuries were reported.

Police believe the shots may have been fired from an apartment building at 429 W. Park Street. Investigators queried residents about the shootings, but as of Monday morning have no suspects.

Skuletich voiced concern over the shootings, noting that a pellet gun is very dangerous.

It is impossible to determine ballistics on a pellet gun, he said. However, police consider the incidents assaults, and depending on the injuries, could result in felony charges being filed.
A 25-year-old Missoula woman suffered multiple injuries after a rollover crash on Interstate 90 near Garrison on Sunday night, authorities said.

The woman, who was not identified, was westbound in a Toyota 4Runner when she attempted to pass a trailer being towed by a vehicle near the Garrison exit, said Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Thomas Gill.

She swerved to miss the swinging trailer and lost control of her vehicle, which traveled into the median and rolled before coming to a rest in the eastbound lanes of I-90 about 7:30 p.m.

Garrison is located halfway between Butte and Missoula.

The woman was wearing a seat belt. She was transported to Deer Lodge Medical Center with a gash on her head, injuries to her left arm and leg, and possibly to her spine, the trooper said.

Fatigue may have been a factor in the crash; alcohol was not a factor, he said.

As of 9:30 p.m. Sunday, the woman was still hospitalized. Gill said he did not know whether she was flown to another hospital.
Misuse of prescription opioids has been ravaging the nation over the last several years, and our state has not been spared. Prescription overdoses are responsible for killing more Montanans than cocaine, meth and heroin combined, according to the attorney generals office. Even those of us who have not been affected directly probably know someone who has.

For chronic pain sufferers, opioid misuse is a near-constant threat. Even worse, taking prescription painkillers over a long period of time can have debilitating side effects, especially as the patients tolerance increases with ongoing use.

Thankfully, some of the most vulnerable patients in our state have access to another option  medical marijuana. Montanas medical marijuana program provides patients with conditions like cancer, multiple sclerosis and HIV/AIDS a safer treatment plan than prescription opioids. Medical marijuana presents a much lower risk of dependence, and there has never been a lethal overdose.

Prescription risks

Unfortunately, Montanas veterans, numbering 100,000 in this state, are not given the same options. In fact, VA providers are prohibited from discussing the benefits of medical marijuana, even in states where it is legal. Veterans who struggle with painful injuries have little choice but to try prescription opioids.

A recent study of more than 140,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans revealed they are more likely to engage in high-risk opioid use and, therefore, are more susceptible to overdoses. Despite this knowledge, veterans continue to be prescribed opioids at a rate that far surpasses the rest of the nation. We also know that veterans suffer from high rates of PTSD and traumatic brain injuries, and that studies show medical marijuana can help alleviate their symptoms. It is cruel to place additional obstacles in the way of vets who wish to treat their condition with healthier alternatives.

VA providers are unable to recommend medical marijuana due to a directive from the Veterans Health Administration. Though this directive expired in January, it continues to be enforced until a new directive is issued.

Daines advocates for vets

Realizing that our veterans deserve better, Sen. Steve Daines co-sponsored an amendment last year in the United States Senate Appropriations Committee that would permit the VA to discuss and recommend medical marijuana treatment options. Although it did not make it to the presidents desk, Daines penned a letter earlier this year urging the VA to enact a change in policy. Its our hope that he continues to do right by our states veterans and work toward making medical marijuana an option for them.

Our veterans have been through so much. Why are we making things harder for them once they return home? In light of all the ailments that our veterans struggle with, it is a tragedy that the federal government is preventing them from receiving treatment that could help them.

With Daines help, we can enact change soon. Every day that passes puts more veterans at risk. Until we give them the benefits they need and deserve, we are doing an incredible disservice to our countrys finest.
Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi []
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 []
On the eve of Saturdays thanksgiving rally at Afraha Stadium, Cord leader Raila Odinga penned a piece accusing President Uhuru and his deputy William Ruto of dancing on the graves of post election violence victims.

Read what he had to say then take a vote.

*************************************************

Uhuru and Ruto must stop mocking the victims of PEV:

RAILA ODINGA

I began writing this from Paris where I had come for a special meeting of the Emerging Markets Forum hosted by the Governor of Banque de France.

The theme of the meeting was Striving for a Just, Prosperous and Harmonious Global Community. It was attended by various world leaders and particularly President Alassane Ouattara, President Horst Koehler, Michael Camdessus and Hiroshi Watanabe.

While in Paris, I learnt of a medieval dance that originated in France called the danse macabre, which is French for the dance of death. It started in the mid 14th Century and involved a procession in which people danced to the graves of the dead in their community in celebration of death.

As I thought about this very perverse type of custom and traditions, I could not help but compare this with what President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto have planned to do at Afraha Stadium tomorrow, April 16, 2016.

Firstly, I wish to explain my position on the collapse of the cases. I did congratulate my friend Hon. William Ruto for being free from the cases, as I had also done to my brother President Kenyatta.

Rutos freedom was of particular concern to the Orange Democratic Movement as it proved, as we had always maintained, that ODM did not plan any violence against other Kenyans. Ruto could not have planned for the eviction and murder of so many ODM supporters in so many parts of the country including Nairobi, Naivasha, Nakuru and Kisumu. Ruto certainly could not have evicted so many perceived ODM supporters from the remote parts of central Kenya where the party then had to hire buses and ferry people to Kisii, Kericho, Kakamega, Kisumu, Eldoret and other parts of western Kenya.

The collapse of the cases brings little to Kenya in terms of justice and an end to impunity. While we all agree that our leaders got caught up in a mixture of botched investigations and subversion of the administration of justice, we must admit that the collapse of the I.C.C engagement with the Kenya situation denied this country the only chance it had to end the culture of impunity that has condemned us to an orgy of violence with every election.

As we reflect on the cessation of our engagement with I.C.C regarding the post election violence, we must moan the continued lack of justice for those who were killed, the helpless women who were raped and the multitude of persons who lost their homes and were displaced.

Clearly, as a nation, there is nothing to celebrate about. Instead, we have to reflect on the many critical decisions that we need to make. We have many people who we still need to condole and reparate and a national sense of justice that needs to be reconfirmed.

In light of these circumstances, it amounts to mocking the dead and the surviving victims of Post Election Violence for the President and his Deputy to assemble their political supporters at Afraha Stadium to celebrate the end of the pursuit of justice over the atrocities of the mayhem in 2007/2008.

The only picture that comes to mind is that of the President and his Deputy leading a procession of Jubilee followers performing the danse macabre over the graves of their fellow county men.

What Uhuru and Ruto should be doing is keeping their jubilation in check and thinking of the pain that abounds in the country. There is pain over continued lack of justice for the hundreds of young Kenyans shot in their backs as they ran away from the steaming barrels of AK47s. The children who helplessly watched their mothers being beaten and raped are hurting. The thousands whose homes, property and places of worship were incinerated beyond imagination remain pained. That elderly father who had to identify his sons maimed body from a sea of blanket covered corpses, the young girl who discovered her mothers body lying in a pool of blood as stray bullets tore through their mabati home, striking her mother in the chest all remain in pain.

Kenya does not need a self-absorbed jamboree hosted by the Presidency but a genuine engagement to pursue truth, justice and reconciliation. Justice was always intended to be our shield and defender. Without justice, the shield is gone, and we are exposed.

Uhuru and Ruto must cease this continued mockery of the victims of the Post Election Violence and lead this nation towards the truth and reconciliation that will save us from what is quickly becoming an irreversible descent towards another orgy of violence.

We need truth and reconciliation in our Presidency. Barely a couple of years ago, the Deputy President was complaining that people close to the President fixed him. With the Jubilee Coalition constantly marketing itself as a partnership to unite communities, these loudly pronounced accusations must be addressed openly to remove the suspicion they have created among the people.

We need truth and reconciliation in our institutions. The National Intelligence Service provided a lot of the evidence that I.C.C cases were riding on, and in particular what is now known as the confidential Exhibit 19 and 19A of the Waki Report. These are the exhibits that were compiled by then Director General of NIS as evidence against Ruto and other ODM members. The president must now make these exhibits public if he is serious about truth and reconciliation.

The President should open up the envelope and let the people deal with the I.C.C ghosts and exorcise them from their national psyche.

Similarly, the Police must come out openly regarding their operations in the 2007/2008 period. We need to know how they ended up shooting close to the declared 500 people. We also need to know the exact number of people the police shot. Most critically, the police must answer the yet unanswered question of what happened to the over 1000 Kalenjin youths that went missing during and after the post election violence.

We need truth and reconciliation among our communities. In 2007/2008, neighbours rose up against neighbours. Long time family friends picked arms against each others parents and children. They burnt each others homes.

We cant sweep these realities under the carpet and move on. We must bring people together to talk and make peace. This has been done successfully in South Africa and Rwanda and we have seen it bring lasting peace.

And lastly, we need truth and reconciliation in the whole country. The President must now publish the list of all the people who died in the Post Election Violence, those who were injured and those who were displaced. He must also publish what reparations his government has given to each of them.

Just last week, we observed the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda. That was on April 7. I ask that we consider undertaking a similar initiative like Rwandas village courts.

I think we can have Baraza Courts in villages that were affected by the Post Election Violence. Let people come together and say what they did, why and on whose instructions. It is never too late to pursue truth and reconciliation.

*************************************************

What do you think. Were the Jubilee leaders dancing on the graves of PEV victims?
(CNN Money) In what is likely to be the last public reveal of their annual income and taxes, President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama released their 2015 tax returns Friday afternoon.

The documents show the couple earned $436,065 in adjusted gross income last year, and paid $81,472 in federal income taxes, giving them an effective tax rate of 18.7%.

Thats in keeping with their effective tax rates in recent years, which ranged from 18.4% to 20.4%.

The First Familys income has gradually declined since 2012, largely due to less income from the sales of the presidents books.

The bulk of their 2015 income came from his salary of nearly $400,000. He also made $56,069 after expenses from his books.

Like a lot of very high-income Americans, the Obamas had to pay an additional Medicare tax on their wages. The surtax, which was created under the presidents signature health reform law,cost them an extra $1,766.

And they also fell prey to the Alternative Minimum Tax, which added $7,743 to their total tax bill.

The Obamas gave $64,066, or nearly 15% of their earnings, to more than 30 charities and nonprofits. Most contributions ranged between $1,000 and $2,000. But they donated $5,000 to the Beau Biden Foundation, named after Vice President Joe Bidens late son, and another $5,000 to Sidwell Friends School, which their daughters attend.

They also made a $9,066 contribution to Fisher House, which provides temporary homes for families of soldiers and veterans while their loved ones receive medical treatment.

The Obamas are due a federal tax refund this year because they overpaid what they owed Uncle Sam by $22,859.

They also paid nearly $49,000 in state and local income and property taxes.
Daddy Owens older brother Rufftone has challenged the gospel crooner and his wife Farida to deliver 5 children.

Daddy Owen and Farida tied the knot on April 2nd in a colourful invite-only wedding that was held at the Kenya Assemblies of God Church in Buruburu, Nairobi. It has been dubbed the Kenyan wedding of the year thus far.

Rufftone while speaking on KTNs Samanthas Bridal show demanded 5 kids from of the newly weds.

We, as the Mwatias, demand five children  two boys and three girls  from my brother Daddy Owen and his wife, Farida. The boys will protect their sisters, he said.

Daddy Owens younger sister also piled pressure on the newly-weds to grow the Mwatias family.

If you are going for honeymoon, enjoy and if a baby would come out of it, the better, she said.

Daddy Owen and Farida Wambui went for their honeymoon in Belgium.
One of South Americas most celebrated chefs, Argentinas Francis Mallmann, will serve as guest chef for Auction Napa Valley 2016, on June 2-5.

Recently featured in the Netflix Chefs Table series, Mallmann will oversee every aspect of the culinary design and cuisine that will be prepared for 800 guests throughout Saturdays live auction at Meadowood Napa Valley.

Mallman will draw on his talents with wood fire and cast-iron cooking, along with his training in fine French cuisine, to create a dramatic experience for auction guests. He and his team will prepare small bites for bidders as they vie for lots under the big tent. Afterward, on the fairway at Meadowood, they will serve guests an alfresco dinner inspired by the fire and aromas of Mallmanns style of cooking.

We could not think of a more perfect headlining chef for this years Auction Napa Valley than chef Mallmann, said Agustin F. Huneeus, proprietor of Quintessa and honorary chairman of this years event. Our shared love for South America will not only shine through Francis food and innovative preparation but also throughout the weeks lively events.

Mallmann grew up in Patagonia on a cliff overlooking Lago Moreno, where cooking by fire became a major influence that helped define him and his techniques. When he was just 19, Mallmann opened his first restaurant in Bariloche, Argentina, where he began to gain loyal supporters. After a few years of success, he jumped at the opportunity to open a restaurant in Uruguay and continued to build his following.

Mallmann would close his restaurants in the off-season to travel to Europe and work in world-renowned kitchens in France under the direction of Alain Senderens, Roger Verge and Raymond Oliver.

Today, his restaurants include 1884, Garzon, Patagonia Sur, Los Fuegos at the Faena Hotel Miami and Francis Mallmanns Siete Fuegos at The Vines Resort & Spa in Mendoza.

He has two cookbooks  Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way and Mallmann on Fire  and has a cooking show in Argentina on the gourmet channel.

Illustrating chef Mallmanns culinary style, his recipe for Tournedos Wrapped in Bacon and Sage is included in todays Register.

Saturdays live auction is the centerpiece of Auction Napa Valley offerings, which also includes dinners, parties, outdoor activities and the Napa Valley Barrel Auction on Friday, June 3, taking place this year at Robert Mondavi Winery.

Auction Napa Valley proceeds support community health and childrens education, benefiting more than 100,000 clients of Napa County nonprofit organizations annually.

To register for Auction Napa Valley, Napa Valley Vintners annual community fundraiser and the wine worlds most well-known charity event, visit AuctionNapaValley.com.
Sara Moulton, the prolific TV chef and author of four cookbooks, will be in Napa Valley next week to promote her newest book, Home Cooking 101: How to Make Everything Taste Better, which came out last month. She will be at a dinner at Peju Winery on Friday, April 29, where Pejus executive chef Alex Espinoza will prepare dishes from the cookbook.

The book is a departure from earlier efforts, which concentrated on her favorite niche: preparing nightly meals for busy moms who work. The new book is aimed at elevating a home cooks cooking, from basics, including many tricks and hints that arent well known, to enhancing familiar dishes and creating innovative riffs on old favorites like paella soup, Cubano or beef Stroganoff burgers or carrot fettucine.

I try to share what Ive learned after almost 40 years as a chef, she said. The recipes combine classic technique with simplicity (mostly), innovation and fresh ingredients. Moulton describes it as a teaching manual for home cooks, but you dont have to work your way through it. Just read the first chapters and then jump in.

The 150 recipes, mostly main dishes, stand alone. The book is lavishly illustrated and, unlike many cookbooks, invites cover-to-cover reading, for its many sidebars containing tips would be worth the $35 list price alone.

A food star

It seems as though Moulton has always been a part of televisions love affair with food, starting with helping Julia Child prepare dishes for Julia Child & More Company, a cooking program on PBS, in 1979. This led the petite chef  shes 5 feet tall, compared with Childs 6 foot, 3 inches  to Child, helping her get a behind-the-scenes position with Good Morning America that led to her becoming the on-air food editor from 1997 through 2012.

Between 1996 and 2005, she also hosted Cooking Live (19972002), Cooking Live Primetime (1999) and Saras Secrets (20022005) on the Food Network, becoming one of the original stars of that cable- and satellite-television channel during its first decade. She answered questions from viewers live in those programs, a daunting task for a chef.

She was simultaneously the chef of the executive dining room at Gourmet magazine for 20 years, which ended only when it ceased publication in 2009. Since 2008, Moulton has been the host of Saras Weeknight Meals, a cooking show distributed by American Public Television and shown locally on PBS stations. The show has been nominated for a James Beard Award twice, while Moulton has been nominated three times as outstanding personality/host.

In addition, she has been the author of a weekly cooking column now called KitchenWise for The Associated Press since 2012. Moulton has written several cookbooks and videos including Sara Moulton Cooks at Home (2002), Saras Secrets for Weeknight Meals (2005) and Sara Moultons Everyday Family Dinners (2010), all tied to her TV series. Her cookbooks encourage everyone to cook at home and to dine with family and friends instead of depending on takeout and fast food.

Early life and career

Moulton was born in New York City in 1952, and attended The Brearley School in New York City. She admits that she lived to eat. I had a sweet tooth and loved to prepare desserts  and hot dogs.

Her grandmother was a great old New England cook, and her mom cooked amazing meals from The New York Times Cookbook, particularly dishes she had enjoyed on trips to Europe. As Sara got interested in boys, however, she overcame her sweet tooth. I couldnt be a butterball! The idea of turning her childhood passion for food into a career did not occur to Moulton until after she graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1974 with a major in the history of ideas. She had thought of becoming a doctor, a lawyer, even a biological illustrator.

I should have gone to the school of education, however, she admits. I love to teach.

She did volunteer work in New York public schools, but didnt pursue teaching. While in college, she cooked for a professor and his wife, flipped burgers in her dorm, cooked pizzas and burgers in a bar and was a waitress. She didnt put two and two together yet, but her mother, concerned about her future, wrote unsolicited letters to famed writer Craig Claiborne and Julia Child asking for advice. Child apparently never received the letter, but Claiborne suggested she study at Lausanne in Switzerland, as he did, or the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

She was then living with a boyfriend, and when she asked him if it was OK for her to go away, the foolish guy said it was fine. He wanted to see other women anyway. Moulton enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in New York in 1975 and graduated with highest honors in 1977, winning a scholarship from Les Dames dEscoffier in the process.

She began working in restaurants immediately, first in Boston, and then in New York City, taking time off only for a postgraduate apprenticeship with master chef Maurice Cazalis of the Henri IV Restaurant in Chartres, France, in 1979. Julia Child arranged the apprenticeship. Between 1981 and 1983 she was the chef tournant (all-purpose chef) at La Tulipe, a three-star restaurant in New York City. In 1982, Moulton co-founded the New York Womens Culinary Alliance, an old girls network designed to help women working in the male-dominated culinary field. While at La Tulipe, she briefly once again helped Julia Child with television preparation at Good Morning America.

That led to the position there in 1987. Julia was like an angel to me, she said. In the interest of starting a family, she left restaurant work and began devoting herself instead to recipe testing and development. Moulton worked for two years as an instructor at Peter Kumps New York Cooking School (now known as the Institute of Culinary Education). There, she discovered her love of teaching, which is what she does on television and in her books.

In 1984, she took a job in the test kitchen at Gourmet. Four years later she became chef of the magazines executive dining room. Moulton lives in New York City with her husband, Bill Adler, an American music journalist and critic. They have two children, Sam and Ruth.

A different approach

Writing the new book was different from those based on her TV series, she said. I had a helper who tested and wrote up the recipes before. This I did on my own. Its a lot of work, she admitted. She had a year to hand it in, then had to be quite involved in the photography and layout. Shes touring to promote the book, with part of the tour sponsored by the publisher like the dinner at Peju, and part by Chantal cookware. Home Cooking 101: How to Make Everything Taste Better was published by Oxmoor House. Tickets to the dinner April 29 are $165 at Peju.com, or call 800-446-7358. Peju Winery is at 8466 St. Helena Highway in Rutherford.

Sara Moulton, the prolific TV chef and author of four cookbooks, will be in Napa Valley next week to promote her newest book, Home Cooking 101: How to Make Everything Taste Better, which came out last month.

She will be at a dinner at Peju Winery on Friday, April 29, where Pejus executive chef Alex Espinoza will prepare dishes from the cookbook.

The book is a departure from earlier efforts, which concentrated on her favorite niche: preparing nightly meals for busy moms who work.

The new book is aimed at elevating a home cooks cooking, from basics, including many tricks and hints that arent well known, to enhancing familiar dishes and creating innovative riffs on old favorites like paella soup, Cubano or beef Stroganoff burgers or carrot fettucine.

I try to share what Ive learned after almost 40 years as a chef, she said. The recipes combine classic technique with simplicity (mostly), innovation and fresh ingredients.

Moulton describes it as a teaching manual for home cooks, but you dont have to work your way through it. Just read the first chapters and then jump in.

The 150 recipes, mostly main dishes, stand alone.

The book is lavishly illustrated and, unlike many cookbooks, invites cover-to-cover reading, for its many sidebars containing tips would be worth the $35 list price alone.

A food star

It seems as though Moulton has always been a part of televisions love affair with food, starting with helping Julia Child prepare dishes for Julia Child & More Company, a cooking program on PBS, in 1979.

This led the petite chef  shes 5 feet tall, compared with Childs 6 foot, 3 inches  to Child, helping her get a behind-the-scenes position with Good Morning America that led to her becoming the on-air food editor from 1997 through 2012.

Between 1996 and 2005, she also hosted Cooking Live (19972002), Cooking Live Primetime (1999) and Saras Secrets (20022005) on the Food Network, becoming one of the original stars of that cable- and satellite-television channel during its first decade. She answered questions from viewers live in those programs, a daunting task for a chef.

She was simultaneously the chef of the executive dining room at Gourmet magazine for 20 years, which ended only when it ceased publication in 2009.

Since 2008, Moulton has been the host of Saras Weeknight Meals, a cooking show distributed by American Public Television and shown locally on PBS stations. The show has been nominated for a James Beard Award twice, while Moulton has been nominated three times as outstanding personality/host.

In addition, she has been the author of a weekly cooking column now called KitchenWise for The Associated Press since 2012.

Moulton has written several cookbooks and videos including Sara Moulton Cooks at Home (2002), Saras Secrets for Weeknight Meals (2005) and Sara Moultons Everyday Family Dinners (2010), all tied to her TV series.

Her cookbooks encourage everyone to cook at home and to dine with family and friends instead of depending on takeout and fast food.

Early life and career

Moulton was born in New York City in 1952, and attended The Brearley School in New York City.

She admits that she lived to eat. I had a sweet tooth and loved to prepare desserts  and hot dogs. Her grandmother was a great old New England cook, and her mom cooked amazing meals from The New York Times Cookbook, particularly dishes she had enjoyed on trips to Europe.

As Sara got interested in boys, however, she overcame her sweet tooth. I couldnt be a butterball!

The idea of turning her childhood passion for food into a career did not occur to Moulton until after she graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1974 with a major in the history of ideas. She had thought of becoming a doctor, a lawyer, even a biological illustrator.

I should have gone to the school of education, however, she admits. I love to teach.

She did volunteer work in New York public schools, but didnt pursue teaching.

While in college, she cooked for a professor and his wife, flipped burgers in her dorm, cooked pizzas and burgers in a bar and was a waitress.

She didnt put two and two together yet, but her mother, concerned about her future, wrote unsolicited letters to famed writer Craig Claiborne and Julia Child asking for advice.

Child apparently never received the letter, but Claiborne suggested she study at Lausanne in Switzerland, as he did, or the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

She was then living with a boyfriend, and when she asked him if it was OK for her to go away, the foolish guy said it was fine. He wanted to see other women anyway.

Moulton enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in New York in 1975 and graduated with highest honors in 1977, winning a scholarship from Les Dames dEscoffier in the process.

She began working in restaurants immediately, first in Boston, and then in New York City, taking time off only for a postgraduate apprenticeship with master chef Maurice Cazalis of the Henri IV Restaurant in Chartres, France, in 1979. Julia Child arranged the apprenticeship.

Between 1981 and 1983 she was the chef tournant (all-purpose chef) at La Tulipe, a three-star restaurant in New York City.

In 1982, Moulton co-founded the New York Womens Culinary Alliance, an old girls network designed to help women working in the male-dominated culinary field.

While at La Tulipe, she briefly once again helped Julia Child with television preparation at Good Morning America. That led to the position there in 1987. Julia was like an angel to me, she said.

In the interest of starting a family, she left restaurant work and began devoting herself instead to recipe testing and development. Moulton worked for two years as an instructor at Peter Kumps New York Cooking School (now known as the Institute of Culinary Education). There, she discovered her love of teaching, which is what she does on television and in her books.

In 1984, she took a job in the test kitchen at Gourmet. Four years later she became chef of the magazines executive dining room.

Moulton lives in New York City with her husband, Bill Adler, an American music journalist and critic. They have two children, Sam and Ruth.

A different approach

Writing the new book was different from those based on her TV series, she said. I had a helper who tested and wrote up the recipes before. This I did on my own. Its a lot of work, she admitted.

She had a year to hand it in, then had to be quite involved in the photography and layout.

Shes touring to promote the book, with part of the tour sponsored by the publisher like the dinner at Peju, and part by Chantal cookware.

Home Cooking 101: How to Make Everything Taste Better was published by Oxmoor House.

Tickets to the dinner April 29 are $165 at Peju.com, or call 800-446-7358. Peju Winery is at 8466 St. Helena Highway in Rutherford.
Early one morning last June, pilot Andre Borschberg stepped aboard an odd-looking planeits wings long like those of an albatross, its cramped cabin as small as a refrigeratorand guided it into the sky above Japan.

In a typical airliner, it would have taken him eight hours to arrive at his destination in Hawaii, but Borschberg was at the helm of Solar Impulse 2, a plane powered entirely by the suns rays. Lightweight but slow, traveling at an average of 38 miles per hour, it landed in Hawaii after 117 hours 52 minutes, or five days and five nightsthe longest solo flight in history.

Borschberg, 63, and fellow Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard, 58, were in the middle of attempting the first round-the-world trip in a solar-powered plane, taking turns at the controls of the single-seat aircraft.

They left Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East, in March 2015, and have divided their trip into 13 segments. The flight from Japan to Hawaii was the longest and most dangerous. On the first day, a quick ascent overheated the planes batteries, which store energy supplied by hair-thin solar cells that cover the top of the plane. The batteries could not be cooled enough during the long flight to prevent permanent damage.

Now, after replacing the planes batteries and waiting for calm, sunny weather, the pilots are ready to resume their journey. Later in April, Piccard will make the four-day flight from Hawaii to North America, where, depending on the weather, hell land in Arizona or California or near the Canadian city of Vancouver. From there, he and Borschberg will continue across North America to Europe and finish their journey in Abu Dhabi this summer.

Piccard answered some questions for KidsPost last weekend during an 18-hour flight above Hawaii to test the planes instruments before continuing the big trip.

Solar cells work well enough to power a plane, but the plane needs to be extremely lightweight to conserve energy. The cabin fits just one pilot at a time, and theres no room for baggage. The walls are thin and the plane isnt pressurized, which means that the pilot has to dress like a mountaineer and wear an oxygen mask at high altitudes.

Piccard says he was born for this kind of adventure. His grandfather was a balloonist, and his father, Jacques Piccard, explored the deepest part of the ocean.

I remember very clearly saying to myself ... that I also wanted to have that kind of life; the life of an explorer, interesting and useful, he said. He made the first nonstop, round-the-world balloon flight in 1999. Soon after, he set his sights on a round-the-world solar flight and joined up with Borschberg.

The flight is all about promoting cleaner, environmentally friendly technologies, he said, adding that using such devices as LED lamps and electric or hybrid vehicles will make a big difference in the world by helping conserve energy and resources.

Flying for four or five days at a time with only occasional 20-minute naps can take a lot of focus. The plane weighs about as much as a small car but has the wingspan of a jetliner, making it very sensitive to wind and to little adjustments at the controls.

A few moments ago I saw hundreds of dolphins swimming in the water near the coast of Hawaii, Piccard said. It was so beautiful I got distracted and the airplane went outside its flight path for just a couple seconds. An alarm rang in the cockpit, alerting him to make an adjustment so he would not lose control of the plane.

Unfazed, Piccard tweaked the controls and flew on. The dolphins kept swimming.
Californias June 7 primary could come with a big shot of controversy and star power that ends up hitting counties such as Napa in the pocketbook, even if its only a glancing blow.

Registrar of Voters John Tuteur said the election could cost $30,000 to $50,000 beyond what his department and the county has budgeted. One factor is an uptick in voter registration.

Its mostly driven by whats going on with all the publicity nationally, Tuteur said.

The presidential nominations are usually long sewed up by the time the Golden State has its primary. This year, the state could hold the key to Donald Trumps controversial quest to become the Republican Party standard-bearer.

Throw in an increasingly competitive contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and voter interest is high.

Also on the ballot are such local issues as three county Board of Supervisors seats, the largest bond measure in Napa Valley Unified School District history and a quarter-cent sales tax to help pay for a new jail. But all of these are apparently playing second fiddle to the national political show.

Tuteur is not yet certain how many temporary employees the department will need for the election beyond whats in the budget. He brought in an initial temporary employee in early April, a month earlier than usual.

Napa Countys highest number of registered voters in recent years was 71,523 for the November 2008 presidential election that featured Barack Obama and John McCain. Tuteur said he doesnt expect to break that mark, but registration is approaching 70,000, an unusually high number for a presidential primary election.

Tuteur would like to see an even greater surge in voter interest for the June 7 election. The county has about 93,000 eligible voters. May 23 is the last day to register to vote.

Another factor could affect the countys bottom line. Petitions could soon be turned in for as many as 13 statewide ballot measures and two local measures. Napa County would have to verify that a random sampling of local petition signers are registered voters, even for the statewide efforts.

The workload on the signature verification could hit amid the preparations for the June 7 primary.

Counties statewide are facing the same situation, according to the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials. The groups applauded Secretary of State Alex Padilla for asking Gov. Jerry Brown and the state Legislature to provide additional election funds.

Not until late March did we see enough evidence to suggest that the June 7 primary would put a highly unusual strain on our limited resources, group President Neal Kelley said in a news release.

If the state doesnt come through, Napa County might have to take any extra money needed for the local election from its contingency funds, Tuteur said.

Napa County on Wednesday began sending out 400 or so ballots to overseas and military voters. Local vote-by-mail ballots go out later and should arrive at residents homes by May 16. Tuteur said about 90 percent of voters get vote-by-mail ballots.

After May 16, I want people to start contacting us if they dont have their ballots, Tuteur said.

Turnout for the June 2014 primary election was 55 percent, a figure Tuteur called abysmal. Hed like to see something in the 60 to 70 percent range.

This year, the political star power of Trump, Clinton and Sanders could provide the needed boost to hit that mark.

I dont make predictions, but the way the wave seems to be developing, the size of the swell, I think we will, Tuteur said.
Gunter Nitsch made a paper airplane, wrote Zahers Airline on the wing and slipped it in the parcel en route to an 8-year-old Syrian boy.

Nitsch, 78, remembered when he was 8 years old with no toys to play with when a war ripped him from his home, too.

Several years after World War II ended, Nitsch was living in a crowded West German refugee camp after his family escaped illegally from their home in East Prussia, which was under Russian control. Thats when the first CARE package arrived from America. It was packed with chocolate, coffee, corned beef, rice and raisins. There was a fruit salad that was so delicious he thought it must be the kind of food the angels ate in heaven.

Nitschs family was among the first recipients of the original care package, a generic term now but one that originated with the humanitarian organization CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere), formed in 1945.

Life was bleak in the refugee camp, but the dozen or so parcels Nitschs family received for more than a year from the Peacheys, a Mennonite family in Pennsylvania, gave them some joy. Nitsch, who came to America in 1964, located the Peacheys about a decade later, and they have become lifelong friends.

So now he and other World War II refugees who received care packages as children are paying it forward by sending letters and other special items to a Syrian refugee child of about the same age they were when they were displaced.

Im writing to share my story with you to let you know that, no matter how bad things may seem, there are good people in this world who can make everything better, Nitsch said in his note to Zaher.

CARE, which facilitated the connections, filmed the refugees receiving their packages. Zaher, who lives in an apartment in Jordan, beamed when he flew Nitschs handmade aircraft. In the video, his father said his son has no toys like he did in Syria and that Zahers mental state is deteriorating.

CARE hopes these messages of hope from the World War II refugees will provide some comfort to the Syrian children.

They not only lived through it, but they lived through it and saw the other side, said Holly Frew, a CARE spokeswoman.

Helga Kissell, 87, was a teenager when her father was called away from his factory job to join the German military near the end of the war. He was killed during an air raid. As the family reeled from their loss, their Berlin home was bombed. They survived, but she and her mother fled to a Bavarian village where they had relatives. It was there, working in her uncles photography store, that Kissell met a young U.S. solider named Leo. They became friends.

After Leo returned to America, he and his family sent her family care packages. And Leo and Helga wrote letters, probably about 100 each, over those few years, they say. Through that correspondence, they fell in love, and he asked her to come to America and marry him.

She shared her story with a 16-year-old Syrian girl named Sajeda, who is living in a Jordan apartment that isnt home.

It is never easy to have to leave ones homeland! Kissell wrote. Always remember the good times and look forward to what the future may bring. It is always difficult to adjust to living in a different countryI know!

When Sajeda heard her words, she cried. She told CARE that she felt she had left myself in Syria. Helga made me feel like I exist, Sajeda said.

As of March, the Syrian refugee crisis has gone on for five years. Close to 5 million Syrians have escaped to live in foreign lands, stripped of their belongings, their schooling, their friends and, for many, their dreams.

It was a very humbling experience to think a few words and a few remembrances from way back could give comfort and solace to a young person so far away, Kissell, who lives in Colorado with Leo, said this week.

In May, Nitsch and Kissell will meet for the first time with other surviving first recipients of the CARE packages at an event in Washington where they will be honored. CARE has received more than 1,000 messages of hope for Syrian refugees from the public as part of its broader letter-writing project, including ones from other former refugees or children of refugees, Frew said.

Each letter is unique, but all share the same goal: to let the families and children know theyre not forgotten, and to help them believe in a brighter future.
I offer you the following quotes: "Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable." Also: "Do not be alarmed by simplification, complexity is often a device for claiming sophistication, or for evading simple truths."

Both are excellent thoughts, not necessarily self-evident, but when a famed economist utters them, then we all should pay attention. I, along with many others in our small community of St. Helena, am focusing on our present financial situation and the conundrum it creates for our future. Resolving it will take insight and determination. Fortunately, we have a great group of people in our community who are smart, passionate and committed to finding answers. Of course, in a small community hit by two very large financial calamities, it brings a sense of urgency and need for leadership.

The reason for my letter is twofold. First, to support the idea being put forth by the group of citizens recommending a solid and practical plan to take us out of the current problems -- selling the Adams street property to a third party to develop it into a small high-end destination hotel. This will also partially fix the city's current and future finances. It's almost, in the vernacular, "a no-brainer." Once the monies are received from the sale, further discourse can be started about how it should be spent to improve the community. If you lock the two together, and hide behind an RFP device, it will just be "kicking the can down the road" -- a lack of leadership and a sense of urgency.

Secondly, I understand the current elected officers of St. Helena are not to be blamed for the two financial calamities; however, accountability does not stop! Yes, we can do more than forgive and move on! The person who created this disastrous situation whether it be incompetency, or audacity, has created a hardship to our citizens -- and this person is allowed to retire with a significant pension! Seriously, you are an attorney as are others in the community. Let's find a way to "claw back" this person's comfortable retirement, which he has certainly not earned in his years in St. Helena. He has put undue stress on many in our small community and he lives with no consequences?

Maybe it is my many years as an officer and a fiduciary in a large auditing firm, a former trustee of the Napa County Land Trust and a current member of its financial and investment committee that has gotten my attention on the feasibility of the Adams Street plan. It deserves yours, too.

J. James Meehan

St. Helena
Syunik governor in Frances Vienne, sister city of Armenias Goris, discusses implemented projects, future cooperation

Climate protesters throw mashed potatoes at Monet painting in Germany museum

There is chance for peace in Ukraine, Macron says

US, Russia defense chiefs discuss Ukraine situation for 2nd time in last few days

Turkey plans to set up 2 more military bases in northern Syria

Germany wants to use Israel UAVs to protect its key infrastructures

UK defense secretary holds phone talk with Russia counterpart

US to attempt set Russia oil price cap above $60 per barrel?

Russia, Turkey defense ministers confer about Ukraine situation

Armenia official: Terms for buying, building houses for those displaced from Artsakh have improved

Saudi Arabia forum set to draw American business leaders despite existing tensions

Iran plans to increase natural gas exports to Turkey

Iran army ground forces holding exercise in West Azarbaijan Province

Sovereignty renunciation to be punished in Armenia with 12-15 years of imprisonment, as per justice ministry draft

2 pilots killed in Russia fighter jet crash

Russia, France defense ministers discuss Ukraine

Fighter jet crashes into house in Russias Irkutsk

150 residents of 3 Karabakh settlements handed over to Azerbaijan get compensation certificates

Rishi Sunak confirms UK premier bid

Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson hold talks

Biden slammed for 'scary' long pause during interview

Elite US troops conducting exercises on Ukraine border

Iran MP: Military exercises on Azerbaijan border are decisive response to Israel

Xi Jinping elected Communist Party of China Central Committee general secretary

Armenia envoy presents credentials to Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency chair

Hungary to approve by years end Sweden, Finland petitions to join NATO

US researchers debunk main theory for origin of life

Iranian MP: Iran will conduct military exercises wherever it deems necessary

Finnish delegation to visit Ankara to discuss NATO membership

Social media giants are likely to oppose Turkey's new law

Pastor steals $900,000 to buy stocks and car in U.S.

Lithuanian President Nauseda is named most popular politician in country

Charles III will embark on longest tour of world in history of royal family

Deputy Director of Institute of Oriental Studies of RAS: Baku's goal is that Karabakh has no Armenian population

Hurricane Roslyn in Pacific Ocean intensifies to third category

Italy's new prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, begins forming government

U.S. Treasury Department records budget deficit of over $429 billion in September

Why does Baku need aggravation on border with Armenia? Skakov assesses likelihood of new aggression

Iranian Foreign Minister: I had important meeting with Pashinyan in Armenia

Johnson spotted in economy class on flight from Dominican Republic to Britain

Armenian PM and European Parliament Resident Rapporteur for Armenia discuss Karabakh situation

Authorities in Kherson urge residents to immediately leave city

Russian expert: Baku's attempts to open corridor by force will cause negative response not only from IRI or Russian

Telegraph: Britain to send about 60 old tanks to NATO base in Germany for exercises

Artak Beglaryan: You will see me in new position

Netanyahu: Iran nuclear deal could bring Russia 'hundreds of billions'

Russia and Turkey begin to develop gas hub project

PM Pashinyan discusses agenda of bilateral relations with Iranian FM

Anna Hakobyan meets Armenians in Paris

Sargsyan: Recognition of Artsakh people's right for self-determination must be reflected in legal documents

Italy's first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, sworn in

Private jet goes missing off coast of Costa Rica

Times of India: India tests nuclear-capable Agni Prime missile

Spiegel: German Foreign Minister and Defense Minister ask to allocate 2.2 billion for military aid to Kiev

Deputy PM of Armenia and Head of Sharjah Heritage Institute discuss strengthening of Armenian-Emirati relations

Biden allows participation in U.S. presidential election in 2024

Secretary of Security Council of Armenia and representatives of AIISA discuss security issues

Kakhovka reservoir increases water discharges in case of possible destruction of HPP

Pashinian's spouse: Yesterday at Elysee Palace I was received by dear Brigitte Macron

At least 15 people killed in bus-truck collision in India

Explosion at Uzbek Defense Ministry depot injures 16 people

Armenian NA Speaker receives Iranian FM: Tehran opposes obstacles on border with friendly Armenia

President Harutyunyan receives group of members of Union of Artsakh Reserve Officers NGO

Newspaper: Armenia restores diplomatic ties with Hungary?

China hit by 5.5 magnitude earthquake

Armenian Defense Ministry denies Azerbaijani report on shelling, calling it disinformation

Blinken: Moscow is not interested in stopping aggression against Ukraine

Japan and U.S. will hold joint military exercises

France withdraws from Energy Charter Treaty

CNN: White House is in talks with Elon Musk to create satellite Internet service Starlink in Iran

Baku outraged by Iran's statements and frightened by IRGC military exercises

Who are main beneficiaries of 'Zangezur' corridor?: Another anonymous article by 'Haykakan Zhamanak' newspaper

Ankara decides to stand up for Riyadh amid deteriorating relations between Saudi Arabia and U.S.

French Foreign Minister considers it vital to keep lines of communication with Russia open

Pentagon refuses to give details of conversation between Austin and Shoigu

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin: Head of Caucasus Muslims Department again made slanderous and false statements

Erdogan denies using chemical weapons against Kurds and threatens those who dare to talk about it

Saudi Arabia and China will strengthen their ties in energy sector

Governor of Gegharkunik province receives representatives of OSCE fact-finding mission

Penny Mordaunt runs for Prime Minister of Great Britain

Sweden expects ratification of NATO membership application by Hungary and Turkey to be completed soon

European Union will allocate 1.5 billion euros per month to Kiev in 2023

An Israeli-built flight school opened in Greece

Russian Railways is negotiating with Azerbaijan and Iran to launch the Rasht-Astara route

Overchuk: Construction of road through Meghri, whose sovereignty is not in question, depends on Armenia's position

Armenian Defense Minister's working visit to India is over

Hungary will not agree to limit prices for imported gas

Iranian Foreign Minister: Iran considers Armenia one of most important transit countries

Naribekyan participates in meeting of secretaries general of PACE parliaments

Delegation from United Arab Emirates visits Armenia at invitation of head of MONKS: Two agreements signed

Dollar, euro drop in Armenia

Iran consul general in Armenias Kapan: We do not accept any change of borders

Baza: Mobile military registration and enlistment offices will be removed on Russian-Georgian border

Iranian Consul: Countries of region do not need presence of foreign armed forces

Armenia FM: Iran consulate general in Kapan will be important for regional security

Iranian Consul General advises Kapan residents not to worry anymore: Iran is here for Armenian people

FM reaffirms Armenia plan to open consulate general in Irans Tabriz

Turkey to open consulate in occupied Armenian Shushi city of Artsakh

Turkish Ministry of Finance: Ankara can buy Russian oil without Western funding

Armenia Security Council chief briefs European Parliament rapporteur on recent Azerbaijan military aggression
Voices of solidarity with Armenians are needed  not to win the war but to impede it, the article in the Italian Tempi newspaper reads.

In the night from April 1 to 2, the Azerbaijani attack was launched, with bombardments, tanks and occupation of villages. The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh showed resistance. An unstable truce has been established currently. But the Azeris, who have returned from ISIL detachments in Syria, are unlikely to withdraw from their craft.

The war makers can be named differently: irredentists, supporters of independence or reconquest supporters. Each of the two sides can call out for their help the principles of international law. People and army of a Christian nation stand on one side, that of the Muslim one standing on another.

We cant allow the situation to remain uncontrolled: there is a big difference in the military potential in favor of Azerbaijan. Besides, its known  including from the Russian sources  that the fighters have returned from the Syrian Raqqah, having been joined by the Turkish Grey Wolves fighters.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated: "We pray our Azerbaijani brothers will prevail in these clashes with the least casualties. We will support Azerbaijan till the end".

Does till the end mean till the final solution of the Armenian cause? Werent half million Armenian victims enough?

There are 3.5 million Armenians in Armenia now, 10 million of them being in the entire world (30,000 Armenians in Italy, nearly equal to the number of Jews residing in the country). They are the successors of the extermination survivors. There are about 150,000 of them in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Every time the solution to the conflict seems close, something happens. The hand of Turkey is felt behind this, which wants to dispute the current world order, feeling upsides with Russia.

The problem of Azerbaijani refugees remains, which the Baku government  rich with oil and natural resources  constantly keeps unresolved, almost the way the Arabs used and continue using the Palestinians against Israel.

Meanwhile search for a solution is underway, its important to hear voices of solidarity with our brothers by civilization and culture, the Armenians. Not to win the war, but to impede it.
11:14

The Afghan Intelligence Office could have been the primary target for the bomb explosion in Kabul today. Early reports say 24 people have been killed and many injured.



The explosion rocked central Kabul early on Tuesday and photos have emerged showing a thick plume of black smoke rising from the vicinity of the sprawling US embassy in the Afghan capital, Reuters witnesses said.



The US embassy and NATO headquarters said they were not affected by the blast.



Gunshots were heard in the area where the explosion happened, local witnesses reported.



The powerful explosion came during the morning rush hour, a week after the Taliban announced the start of its annual spring offensive.



A Reuters witness near the scene also reported hearing gunfire more than half an hour after the blast. Kabul police also reported some gunfire immediately after the blast.



Several major Afghan security agencies are based in the area, including the national directorate of security. The ministry of defence and the presidential palace are also within a few hundred metres.



Warning sirens blared out from the US embassy compound, which is also close to the headquarters of the main Nato-led mission in Afghanistan. There was no indication of the source of the blast, but rocket attacks remain relatively common in the city.



The US embassy said it was not affected by the blast. The Nato military coalition also said it was unaffected.



The blast rattled windows several miles away and sent a plume of thick smoke rising in the sky.



No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Afghan Taliban last Tuesday announced the start of its so-called spring offensive, even as the government in Kabul seeks to bring the insurgents back to the negotiating table to end their drawn-out conflict.



The Taliban warned it would "employ large-scale attacks on enemy positions across the country" during the offensive, dubbed Operation Omari in honour of the movement's late founder Mullah Omar, whose death was announced last year.



The annual spring offensive normally marks the start of the fighting season, though this winter the lull was shorter and the Taliban continued to battle government forces, albeit with less intensity.





Pic: Plumes of smoke rise from the city centre of Kabul where the explosion took place. The picture was tweeted by @mogtabajawady1
United Airlines-SIU Aviation Career Day planned

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Like many of his United Airlines co-workers, Capt. Michael Besley will make a return trip to Southern Illinois University Carbondale later this week for United Airlines-SIU Aviation Career Day.

The 1987 aviation management graduate will pilot an Airbus A320 to Southern Illinois Airport on Saturday, April 23, bringing approximately 113 high school students to campus to learn more about the universitys aviation programs.

Im very proud to have the opportunity to represent United on aviation day and to return to SIU with one our airplanes, Besley said.

Media Advisory

Reporters, photographers and camera crews are welcome to attend the event, participate in courtesy flights, and interview students, faculty and alumni. The plane will land at Southern Illinois Airport at about 9 a.m. For more information, contact Jose R. Ruiz, professor and interim chair, aviation management and flight, at 618/453-8898.

Wojciech Koziarski, another aviation department alumnus, will be first officer. Participating alumni include pilots, dispatchers, mechanics, flight attendants, and others. The alumni who work for United Airlines volunteer to make the trip and talk with students. The discussions center on careers in aviation and at the airline, and there will be a campus tour, including the Transportation Education Center. The schedule includes, weather permitting, introductory flights in aviation flight aircraft for selected students.

Besley, who is from Plainfield, earned his private pilot license while in high school and wanted to continue his flight training in the state. His father, a United Airlines pilot for 39 years, attended the University of Illinois and both visited there and SIU. In the end, we both liked Southern the best, Besley said. His sister, Ann Swalwell, pilots a 747 for United out of OHare airport, and his stepfather worked as a technician for the airline as well.

Besley recently took SIU aviation students on a tour of OHare, the airlines flight operations and some of the airplanes.

It was very gratifying to show them what all their hard work can lead to, he said. Besley said he will tell high school students that if they catch the aviation bug, the road to the airlines is about hard work and persistence as well as networking.

SIU Carbondale is the only university that works with major airlines to fly students to its campus for an aviation career day. This is the 18th year for a collaboration with United Airlines that began in 1994; the program was suspended in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and resumed in 2007.

The event represents a partnership between two premier aviation organizations  United Airlines and Southern Illinois University, Jose R. Ruiz, professor and interim chair, aviation management and flight, said. The event will expose young people to a multitude of career opportunities in aviation, reconnect with SIU aviation alumni and strengthen SIUs ties with the aviation industry. It also serves as an opportunity to highlight the nationally recognized SIU aviation program and the beautiful SIU campus. We want to demonstrate that SIU is a great place for the next generation of aviators to receive their aviation education.

The aviation programs consist of aviation management, aviation flight, and aviation technologies, all within the College of Applied Sciences and Arts.
Stanford researchers create super stretchy, self-healing material that could lead to artificial muscle

Researchers show how jolting this material with an electrical field causes it to twitch or pulse in a muscle-like fashion. This polymer can also stretch to 100 times its original length, and even repair itself if punctured.

Bao Research Group A new, extremely stretchable polymer film created by Stanford researchers can repair itself when punctured, a feature that is important in a material that has potential applications in artificial muscle.

If there's such a thing as an experiment that goes too well, a recent effort in the lab of Stanford chemical engineering Professor Zhenan Bao might fit the bill.

One of her team members, Cheng-Hui Li, wanted to test the stretchiness of a rubberlike type of plastic known as an elastomer that he had just synthesized. Such materials can normally be stretched two or three times their original length and spring back to original size. One common stress test involves stretching an elastomer beyond this point until it snaps.

But Li, a visiting scholar from China, hit a snag: The clamping machine typically used to measure elasticity could only stretch about 45 inches. To find the breaking point of their one-inch sample, Li and another lab member had to hold opposing ends in their hands, standing further and further apart, eventually stretching a 1-inch polymer film to more than 100 inches.

Bao was stunned.

"I said, 'How can that be possible? Are you sure?'" she recalled.

Today in Nature Chemistry, the researchers explain how they made this super-stretchy substance. They also showed that they could make this new elastomer twitch by exposing it to an electric field, causing it to expand and contract, making it potentially useful as an artificial muscle.

A flexible fishnet

Artificial muscles currently have applications in some consumer technology and robotics, but they have shortcomings compared to a real bicep, Bao said. Small holes or defects in the materials currently used to make artificial muscle can rob them of their resilience. Nor are they able to self-repair if punctured or scratched.

But this new material, in addition to being extraordinarily stretchy, has remarkable self-healing characteristics. Damaged polymers typically require a solvent or heat treatment to restore their properties, but the new material showed a remarkable ability to heal itself at room temperature, even if the damaged pieces are aged for days. Indeed, researchers found that it could self-repair at temperatures as low as negative 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 C), or about as cold as a commercial walk-in freezer.

The team attributes the extreme stretching and self-healing ability of their new material to some critical improvements to a type of chemical bonding process known as crosslinking. This process, which involves connecting linear chains of linked molecules in a sort of fishnet pattern, has previously yielded a tenfold stretch in polymers.

First they designed special organic molecules to attach to the short polymer strands in their crosslink to create a series of structure called ligands. These ligands joined together to form longer polymer chains  spring-like coils with inherent stretchiness.

Then they added to the material metal ions, which have a chemical affinity for the ligands. When this combined material is strained, the knots loosen and allow the ligands to separate. But when relaxed, the affinity between the metal ions and the ligands pulls the fishnet taut. The result is a strong, stretchable and self-repairing elastomer.

"Basically the polymers become linked together like a big net through the metal ions and the ligands," Bao explained. "Each metal ion binds to at least two ligands, so if one ligand breaks away on one side, the metal ion may still be connected to a ligand on the other side. And when the stress is released, the ion can readily reconnect with another ligand if it is close enough."

Advancing artificial muscle and skin

The team found that they could tune the polymer to be stretchier or heal faster by varying the amount or type of metal ion included. The version that exceeded the measuring machine's limits, for example, was created by decreasing the ratio of iron atoms to the polymers and organic molecules in the material.

The researchers also showed that this new polymer with the metal additives would twitch in response to an electric field. They have to do more work to increase the degree to which the material expands and contracts and control it more precisely. But this observation opens the door to promising applications. (View video.)

In addition to its long-term potential for use as artificial muscle, this research dovetails with Bao's efforts to create artificial skin that might be used to restore some sensory capabilities to people with prosthetic limbs. In previous studies her team has created flexible but fragile polymers, studded with pressure sensors to detect the difference between a handshake and a butterfly landing. This new, durable material could form part of the physical structure of a fully developed artificial skin.

"Artificial skin is not just made of one material," said Franziska Lissel, a postdoctoral fellow in Bao's lab and member of the research team. "We want to create a very complex system."

Even before artificial muscle and artificial skin become practical, this work in the development of strong, flexible, electronically active polymers could spawn a new generation of wearable electronics, or medical implants that would last a long time without being repaired or replaced.

This latest discovery is the result of two years of collaboration, overseen by Bao, involving visiting scholar Cheng-Hui Li, a Chinese organo-metallic chemist who designed the metal ligand bonding scheme; polymer chemist Chao Wang, now an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, who had made previous iterations of self-healing elastomers; and artificial muscle expert Christoph Keplinger, now an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Other contributors to the study, "A highly stretchable autonomous self-healing elastomer," include Jing-Lin Zuo, Lihua Jin, Yang Sun, Peng Zheng, Yi Cao, Christian Linder and Xiao-Zeng You.

The work at Stanford was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Samsung Electronics and the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China.

Media Contact

Tom Abate, Stanford Engineering: tabate@stanford.edu, (650) 736-2245
Another Look book club spotlights Joseph Conrad's Shadow-Line novella

On May 10, the Another Look book club will weigh in on Conrad's "The Shadow-Line," written by one of the darkest and most prophetic voices in English fiction.

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Joseph Conrad (foreground) on the secret service ship Ready in 1916. He wrote The Shadow-Line when he returned from this voyage.

The author Joseph Conrad insisted his work The Shadow-Line: A Confession was not a book about the supernatural. But sometimes the real can be spookier than the imagined, and what we observe outpaces our worst nightmares. So it is with Conrad's late novella.

"The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness," Conrad said a few years before World War I. Certainly the rest of the century bore out his conclusions.

The Another Look book club will discuss Conrad's 1917 novella and the Polish author at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, in the Bechtel Conference Room of Encina Hall. The Shadow-Line is available at Stanford Bookstore, Kepler's in Menlo Park and Bell's Books in Palo Alto.

The panel will be moderated by Another Look director Robert Pogue Harrison, an acclaimed author and professor of Italian literature. Harrison is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and the host for the popular radio talk show Entitled Opinions. He will be joined by drama Professor Rush Rehm, artistic director of the Stanford Repertory Theater, and Monika Greenleaf, associate professor of Slavic languages and literatures and of comparative literature.

The event is free and open to the public.

"I chose this short novel because of its exquisite prose and quintessentially Conradian drama," Harrison said. "It probes the enigma of fate by putting circumstance, landscape and depth psychology into play all at the same time."

He added, "Conrad is a master when it comes to putting his characters through trials. The Shadow-Line is one of the most intense of Conradian trials of character. It is not one of his best known novels and is certainly deserving of another look."

Supernatural or not?

Conrad's short masterpiece describes the "green sickness" of late youth, when a young man desires to "flee from the menace of emptiness." The unnamed narrator's flight ends when he is captain of a merchant ship in Southeast Asia; the terrors of sickness and the sea bring him to grief, maturity and wisdom.

In a two-page author's note, Conrad denies the supernatural has anything to do with his story. We are meant, then, not to draw a line between the mate's superstitious and feverish fear of his former captain, buried at sea, and the destruction of the ship to weather, wind and contagious fever. The mate says the ship will not have luck until it passes the spot where the reckless and demented captain was put overboard.

The Shadow-Line can also be read as a psychological study of the disintegration of an entire ship's crew. That would be in keeping with Conrad's worldview; he once called life a "mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself  that comes too late  a crop of inextinguishable regrets."

The year The Shadow-Line was published, The Argus praised the novel: "It holds the reader under a spell so strong that the book must be finished at one sitting, and even when it is laid aside it keeps its grip on the memory, and the impression left remains with a curious persistence."

The Sunday Times wrote, in 1917, "Mr. Conrad is an expert in the business of suggesting mystery and the action of malevolent agencies and the endurance of a man under the buffets of fate. Not even Coleridge has held passers-by more spellbound under a tale of horrors on the ocean than does Mr. Conrad in this work."

Origins of Conrad

Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski  Joseph Conrad  was born in 1857 in a largely Jewish village in territory that is now Ukraine; it had been part of the Polish-Lithuanian Respublica before partition, and at the time of his birth was part of the Russian Empire. His father was a Polish patriot and man of letters, and the family had a migratory existence. Conrad began a seafaring career as a teenager, and eventually joined the British merchant marine and became an English citizen.

He was one of the very few writers to establish his literary reputation in a foreign tongue. (Vladimir Nabokov comes to mind as well, but the author of Pale Fire and Lolita was reared in an aristocratic Russian family; however, he later claimed English was the first language he learned in his trilingual household.)

World War I was much on Conrad's mind as he wrote Shadow-Land, and the book is dedicated to his son Borys, a soldier. By the time it was published, Borys had returned from the front, shell-shocked and gassed in the new technology of warfare. The war's end would change forever the face of the Europe Conrad remembered.

Shortly after the war, a visitor to the Conrad household observed: "Conrad spoke fluently, but his accent, his manner of expression were such as I observed among the inhabitants of the south-eastern Polish borderlands. One felt clearly that when he thought of Poland, it was of a Poland of half-a-century ago. When I listened to him, I could not evade the impression that I am being carried back in time and talk to one of the people of long ago."

Another Look is a seasonal book club that draws together Stanford's top writers and scholars with distinguished figures from the Bay Area and beyond. The books selected are short masterpieces you may not have read before.

Media Contact

Cynthia Haven, Another Look book club: cynthia.haven@stanford.edu

Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, cbparker@stanford.edu
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during her meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi here on Monday raised the issue of China vetoing India's bid at the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar. The external affairs minister raised the issue of listing of Masood Azhar in the UN 1267 Committee and emphasised that as common victims of terrorism, China and India should cooperate in combating this challenge, external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said after the meeting between two leaders on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers' meeting. It was agreed that the two sides would remain in touch on this matter, he said. India approached the UN in February to include Azhar in the UN Security Council's 1267 sanctions list, in the aftermath of the Pathankot airbase terror attack. IN the strike in early January by JeM terrorists, seven Indian security persons were killed. However, China asked the UN sanctions committee to keep on hold the Indian move, saying that Azhar did not meet the UN criteria to be banned as a terrorist. India has voiced disappointment at the "technical hold" put on its application to include Azhar in the UN sanctions list. During Monday's meeting, Sushma Swaraj and Wang also reviewed the state of bilateral relations. They assessed the implementation of decisions taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to China in May last year. Swarup said the two ministers noted the significance of high-level exchanges contemplated this year, including the ongoing visit of Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar to China. China will be hosting the G20 Summit, and India the BRICS Summit in 2016. The ministers appreciated the expanding trade and investment ties between India and China, the spokesman said. They underscored the importance of strengthening people-to-people ties. In this context, Foreign Minister Wang Yi apprised the external affairs minister of Chinas decision to increase the number of Indian pilgrims for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via Nathu La, he added. Sushma Swaraj reached Moscow on Sunday on the second and final leg of her two-nation tour that earlier took her to Iran. She is also scheduled to meet Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on trade and economic cooperation, to take stock of the developments in strengthening this important aspect of the bilateral relationship. She will also meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to take stock of the overall bilateral relationship. --Indo-Asian News Service ab/vt ( 421 Words) 2016-04-18-14:14:08 (IANS)
The purpose of Deuba's visit -- his first since the promulgation of the new constitution in September last year -- is ostensibly due to his wife and NC lawmaker Arzu Rana Deuba's treatment at a hospital in Gurgaon, according to an aide.

"It is not a political visit," said Bimalendra Nidhi, a close aide of Deuba.

"He is visiting New Delhi to look after his wife, who is undergoing a major hip transplant surgery at Fortis Hospital, Gurgaon."

"There is no pre-scheduled meetings with any Indian leader," Nidhi added.

Deuba will return home on April 24.

Deuba, 69, was elected NC president in March at the party's 13th National General Convention, succeeding late prime minister Sushil Koirala. He is the eight president of the NC.

He served as prime minister from 1995 to 1997, from 2001 to 2002, and from 2004 to 2005.

He had earlier visited India in October 2015 and met Modi and other senior political leaders.

Ahead of his visit, Deuba on Sunday met agitating Madhesi leaders at his residence here and discussed their demands and agenda.

"Deuba held talks with the Madhesi leaders," said Nidhi, adding that they appreciated the lead taken by the NC president and agreed to hold talks in future also.

During the meeting, Deuba said the Nepali Congress was positive towards fulfilling the unfulfilled demands of the Madhesis.

--Indo-Asian News Service giri/ksk/dg

( 258 Words)

2016-04-18-15:16:05 (IANS)
Qatari Oil Minister Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada said in a press conference that "the meeting reached a result which we all need more time for more consultations and talks".

Major oil producing countries, except Iran, gathered in the Qatari capital Doha on Sunday discussing a possible crude production freeze in a bid to shore up the floundering global oil markets and the sluggish prices, Xinhua news agency reported.

Altogether 23 countries, both within and outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), sent their delegates to the Qatari capital for the "Oil-Producing Countries Ministerial Meeting".

Sunday's meeting came after oil prices fell more than 60 percent since June 2014 to as low as $27 per barrel in January due to the widening glut in the supply.

--Indo-Asian News Service pku

( 175 Words)

2016-04-18-05:22:05 (IANS)
Uttar Pradesh BJP state president Keshav Prasad Maurya today issued an appeal, asking party workers not to use his photo, comparing him with God in hoardings, posters or social media and asked them not to get over board with his appointment as state president.''I am a simple human being, who has been given an assignment by the party leadership. Please do not get over board. My pictures should not be used, depicting me as God in hoardings, posters or social media,'' Mr Maurya said in his appeal here.The statement was issued after BJP workers had put up posters in eastern Uttar Pradesh, depicting the new state BJP chief as Lord Krishna and opposition party leaders as Dushasana, who were pulling the saree of Draupadi- read UP. The party had to face flak, once this poster went viral on social media. It also had pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party's national president Amit Shah. BJP has, however, claimed that the person who released that poster, did not belong to the party.Mr Maurya said party workers should not get over enthusiastic with his appointment as state party chief. ''This act of party workers will bring bad name to BJP, which is unacceptable to me,'' he added. The state BJP chief appealed to party workers to help Mr Modi make UP as Uttam Pradesh. ''Our aim is to win 265+ seats in 2017 Assembly elections and we should strive to achieve this target,'' he said. Meanwhile, while addressing party workers in Mathura and Vrindavan, Mr Maurya said, ''party and its ally won 73 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. We have to replicate that achievement.''The onus is on party workers to spread out in villages and inform people about the good work being done by the Modi government, he added. He clarified that opposition parties have been spreading canard about criminal charges against him. ''These are all political cases, which have been lodged during political agitation,'' he added.UNI MB PY RJ 2105 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0298-688070.Xml
A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai will today pronounce its order on Enforcement Directorate's plea for the Non Bailable Warrant (NBW) against liquor baron Vijay Mallya in a money laundering case. The special court had on Saturday reserved its order till today on the agency's plea. The order was reserved by special Judge P.R. Bhavake, who hears cases filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED has alleged that Mallya diverted Rs. 430 crores for purchase of a property abroad from the Rs.950 crores IDBI loan for his Kingfisher Airlines. ED's lawyer informed the PMLA Court that the first summon to Mallya was issued on March 10, second on March 18 and the third on April 2 under Section 15 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to seek accused presence for investigation. The lawyer told the court that Mallya replied on March 15 that he has received the first summons dated March 10, while he responded to the second summon on April 1. Mallya was also ready to appear before the ED via video conferencing, said the lawyer. He told the court that Mallya is not following his promises and asking for time to appear before the ED again and again. The lawyer said Mallya used the same tactics in the Supreme Court SC also in a FERA case, and the loan he borrowed from IDBI was not used by Kingfisher Airlines. The ED lawyer alleged that Mallya has bought property worth above Rs. 430 crores outside India. "We found a money trail in the case and need to know how this money was dispersed." Mallya is wanted by the law enforcing agencies for a default of over Rs. 9, 000 crores. Meanwhile, acting on the ED's request, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) last week suspended the diplomatic passport of Mallya with immediate effect for a period of four weeks under Section 10-A of the Passports Act. The Ministry of External Affair (MEA) asked Mallya to respond within a week as to why his passport should not be impounded or revoked. "If he (Mallya) fails to respond within stipulated time it will be assumed he has no response to offer and MEA will go ahead with revocation," said MEA. (ANI)
Five people, including a woman suicide bomber and a prisoner, were injured in a bomb explosion in Chhapra Civil Court premises in Saran district today.Police Superintendent Pankaj Raj said here that a veiled woman suspected to be carrying bomb was present in the court's premises to meet a prisoner who was brought there in connection with a case. As the woman reached near the prisoner, the bomb exploded."The woman and four others, including the prisoner, were injured in the incident," Mr Raj said, adding all the injured had been admitted to a local hospital.Heavy deployment of police personnel had been made in civil court premises for massive search operation to nab those involved in the incident, said the Police Superintendent, adding that the case was being investigated from all possible angles.It was the second case of woman suicide bomber triggering explosion in civil court premises as the first was engineered in Ara Civil Court about a year back.UNI XC KKS AD SV PM1208 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0108-688454.Xml
Uttar Pradesh Home Guards, who lacked any facilities until now, may soon get a major makeover after the Akhilesh Yadav government has decided to equip them with INSAS rifles and train them to use sophisicated weapon. The force, which had to arrange for its own uniform until now, may also get a uniform allowance or a stitched uniform provided by the government soon. According to officials, there are around 1.18 lakh home guards in the state and plans are afoot to train one company of around 100 jawans in each district in handling the assault rifle. The government plans to purchase weapons for them once training gets over. Sources here today said that the organisation is set to undergo a major makeover in the coming months. Apart from being provided INSAS rifles, jawans will be getting khaki uniform after a gap of nearly seven years. From April 1, their allowance has been hiked to Rs 300 per day, which means each home guard would carry home a fixed amount of Rs 9,000 per month. "Efforts are underway by the state government to provide them training in disaster relief too, so that the force can double up as State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) in times of emergencies. In this connection, a platoon of National Disaster Relief Force has already been stationed at State Home Guards headquarters in Lucknow to train the personnel,"sources said. The official said since UP had the highest number of home guards in the country, the government wants to utilize the force in the best possible manner. "A proposal to train hand-picked jawans as special commandos like those of Central Industrial Security Force is already in the pipeline. Apart from this, services of those posted in rural areas would be utilised on the highways to guide drivers and provide immediate relief in case of accidents," sources said. The force was set up by the government of India in each state in 1963 soon after the Indo-China war of 1962. The aim was to develop it as an auxiliary force which can function alongside law enforcement agencies in times of contingency. It was later that they were deployed on a regular basis to cope up with the manpower crunch in the police force.UNI MB SV PM1122 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-688393.Xml
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has congratulated the forest department, officials and security guards of Kaziranga National Park for bagging the excellence award for best conservation of non-tiger species. The award instituted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority was presented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Conservator of Forests attached to Director, KNP, Rajendra Garwad at the three-day 3rd Regional Ministerial Conference at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on April 12. Appreciating the painstaking efforts of the forest department, the park authorities, including the security guards, Mr Gogoi said it would provide the much-needed impetus to them in conservation efforts and in effectively tackling the poachers. "I congratulate the authorities of Kaziranga National Park, the forest guards and the forest department as a whole for bagging the prestigious award. It will bolster their conservation efforts and in tackling the poachers effectively in the days ahead," he said in a statement here last evening. UNI SG PL SV SB1355 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0211-688580.Xml
In view of the severe water scarcity across Maharashtra, the local administration has initiated several steps to ensure supply of drinking water in Nagpur during the ongoing summer season. Following instruction of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, whose first and the top-most priority is to maintain the supply of drinking water all over the state, the local administration has issued stern directions to the concerned authorities not to waste drinking water in swimming pools and construction works. Mayor Pravin Datke said here today that stern action would be taken against the violators. He said lots of water is consumed in the construction work and keeping in mind this fact, the permission for construction is not granted during the summer season. Swimming pools are another major hurdle in maintaining drinking water supply, said the mayor adding that the persons concerned with the swimming pool maintenance have been instructed not to use the drinking water for the purpose. Sources at Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) said it had been learnt that some influential people were defying the government ban on using potable water for swimming pools and construction works. The sources informed that the NMC would keep an eye on such people and would levy a stiff penalty on them. MORE UNI RS PR SV 1406 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0105-688529.Xml
Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah,Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, DMK Chief M Karunanidhiand leaders of various political parties today greetedthe Jain community on the eve of Mahaveer Jayanthi. In his message, the Governor said ''on the sacred occasion of Mahaveer Jayanthi, let us resolve to follow the path of truth, develop in us the spirit of tolerance and promote peace and ahimsa ensuring a safe, secured and happy life.'' He also extended his heartiest greetings and bestwishes to the Jain brethren. Extending her greetings, the Chief Minister said 'the 24th Tirthankara of Jain community, Mahaveer preached Ahimsa, truth and abstaining from liquor. If people followed it, peace will prevail in their life''. In his message, Mr Karunanidhi a government holidaywas declared by his government in on the occasion ofhis birthday to enable the Jain community people livingin the State to celebrate the occasion with their familymembers, friends and relatives. After the AIADMK scrapped it in 2002, the DMK regimeagain re-introduced after it came back to power in 2006,he said and extended his greetings to the jain community. PMK Founder Dr S Ramadoss and leaders of other partiesalso extended their greetings. Extending its greetings, the Jain International Trade Organisation (JITO) said Lord Mahaveera's teachings of non-violence, truth, non-stealing, celibacy and untouchability were relevant to human kind, irrespective of their cast, creed or religion. JITO will celebrate Mahaveer Jayanthi as Ahimsa Day along with Shree Jain Maha Sangh tomorrow by taking out a procession.UNI GV 1510 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-688787.Xml
Hundreds of people, including youths and women, took to the streets at main chowk Trehgam, the ancestral village of founder of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, who was hanged in Delhi's Tihar jail on February 11, 1984.

Raising ''pro-freedom'' and anti security force slogans, the demonstrators demanded immediate action against the soldiers involved in the killing of five persons, including a woman, in the Kupwara district last week.

The demonstrators clashed with the security force and state police personnel deployed in strength to maintain law and order.

Security forces resorted to lathicharge which had no impact on the demonstrators who were pelting stones, official sources said, adding that later security forces burst teargas shells.

However, later, administration imposed curfew in Trehgam and adjoining areas to prevent any more human loss or damage to property.UNI BAS SV AS1410

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Three people were injured in leopard attack in two seaparate incidents in this district.Two grape traders from Madhya Pradesh - Tahir Khan (22) and Akbar Khan (37) - were proceeding towards Niphad Taluka on motorcycle when the feline pounced on their vehicle injuring them seriously. They were rushed to Nashik civil hospital.In another incident, a farmer-Mohan Pandurang Avhad (38) was attacked by the big cat when he was going to his field at Dapur village in Sinnar taluka of the district yesterday.He was also to admitted in Nashik civil hospital, the officials added.UNI RDS NV SV SB1350 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-688452.Xml
Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi today expressed her concern over the issue of trafficking of children from Northeast to other parts of the country as well as abroad. Addressing a regional conference of the northeastern states on Child Adoption at the State Convention centre, here, Ms Gandhi said in order to curb this menace, the Ministry has come up with a series of initiatives. One of the initiatives is to set up centres at three railway stations like Guwahati, Jalpaiguri and Sealdah. These centres have online registration programme to help parents trace their missing or runaway children rescued at railway stations. The Union Minister said "Khoya Paya" - a citizen based website to exchange information on missing and found children was launched last year. "If the citizens are involved we will get better response," Ms Gandhi said. She said the government, in order to curb the menace of trafficking and violence against women, will deploy one woman police officer who will be responsible to keep track if a child goes missing from a village under her jurisdiction and keep tab on cases of domestic violence against women. The conference has been organised with a view to familiarising the stakeholders with the adoption programme in the region and about the provisions relating to adoption under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. The regional conference will orient stakeholders about the provisions of Adoption Guidelines - 2015 as well as the online adoption process through Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS). The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development issued revised Guidelines Governing Adoption of Children 2015 which became effective from August last year.Apart from Meghalaya Social Welfare Minister Deborah C Marak, ministers from Nagaland and Tripura attended the regional conference. About 400 delegates, including the various stakeholders, attended the Conference. UNI RRK PL SW CS1633 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0211-688810.Xml
A day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating Hi-Tech and Super Specialty Hospital (SSH) near Katra Town, patients pined for open heart surgery facilities in the hospital, lamenting that if the facility was not provided, their woes would not end.The stage has been set to welcome the Prime Minister tomorrow at village Kakryal near Katra town of Reasi district where he will be inaugurating hi-tech and well equipped Super Specialty Hospital having all modern facilities. "Unfortunately, Jammu's only Super Specialty Hospital (SSH) sans 'Open Heart Machine' thus causing inconvenience to the patients", they complain and seek the machine's installation there on the priority . The Super Specialty Hospital in Jammu was the dream project of former state chief minister and Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, which started its functioning in November 2013 with only couple of departments, but now it has been fitted with a lot of facilities to turn it into a super specialty hospital. The project was initiated with an aim to decongest Government Medical and Hospital of heavy rush of patients besides providing better health and Medicare facilities to the people of the state.Hospital sources said that departments like nephrology, cardiology, neuro-surgery and others are presently functional in the SSH but unfortunately, the CTVS (Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery) department, which performs major heart surgeries is having no 'open heart machine' following which the patients have to rush to outside state for treatment.''CTVS Department is doing all types of thoracic, vascular and closed cardiac surgeries on getting referrals from all departments of associated hospitals and peripheries of Jammu,'' sources said.They asserted that the Department however, is suffering because of lack of 'open heart machine', which is the basic and utmost essential equipment required for performing the task."It is really a sad affair that with no option left for the Department, they have to refer cases to the hospitals outside state thus not only causing inconvenience to the patients but dashing all their hopes and expectations of better health facilities in the state itself despite setting up a huge infrastructure,'' they opined. Sources said that more than 50 elective cases are being performed per month including 30 of vascular- 15 Thoracic and five closed cardiac. "Emergency operations are being performed in GMC Jammu and associated hospitals at an average of 10 to 15 surgeries per month," sources said and added that approximately 10 open heart surgeries were done in initial shifting to SSH Jammu with an old open heart machine, which is presently has been declared obsolete by company."Without basic open heart machine no such surgery is possible now and it is badly required to start open heart surgeries in the SSH," they said.Official sources (pleading anonymity) confirmed lack of 'open heart machine' in the CTVS department asserting that despite frequent and repeated requests to the helm of affairs vis--vis the government, was of no help as without such a major requirement (open heart machine) no 'open heart' surgery has been performed for the last one year in the Super Specialty Hospital, Jammu.They further added that an amount of Rs 135 crore was earmarked on the Jammu based Super-Specialty Hospital project. Official sources however, said that it is appreciable that a hi-tech 230-bedded SSH is coming up in Katra, which will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister but at the same time, the government should consider the proposal of the CTVS department of installing 'open heart surgery' machine as soon as possible in the interest of the people visiting from across the state so that they should not be referred outside the State.The facility at Katra SSH has been set up by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board at a cost of Rs 300 crore at Kakryal and have entered into an agreement with Narayana Hrudayalaya Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore, which operates 32 hospitals across the country.The hospital has more than 20 different streams of medicine and surgery, including cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, neurology, neuro-surgery, nephrology, urology, oncology, pulmonology, bone-marrow transplant, gastroenterology, orthopaedics, trauma-medicine, paediatrics and neonatology, obstetrics and gynecology.UNI VBH ADG 1800 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-689175.Xml
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today expressed concern over conversion of agricultural land into non-agricultural purposes. "Agriculture determines performance of our economy and ensures food security and rural employment," the Chief Minister expressed while addressing the Fifth Convocation of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology (SKUAST-J) here. She expressed concern over the trend of converting agricultural lands into non-agricultural purposes and wanton construction on highly-productive lands. "No law or punishment can work unless we incentivise agriculture and inspire the farmer to cultivate land to earn a handsome income," said Ms Mufti. However, asking the universities to travel extra mile in navigating technologies from lab to land, she said the farmers will have to be taken on board if agriculture sector has to reclaim its key position in the state's economy. "Nature has been too kind in bestowing us with abundant water resources that can boost our agriculture production to the extent where we not only become self-sufficient but also export our produce to other parts of the country," she said adding, "unlike other states which are grappling with droughts, farmer suicides and water shortages, we have been lucky in having ample water resources to harness our agriculture potential." Jammu and Kashmir Governor, N N Vohra, Chancellor of the University, and Dr Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairman NITI Aayog, who was the Chief Guest, were also present on the occasion. Calling upon the scientists to share their knowledge with the farmers, the Chief Minister, who is also the Pro-Chancellor of the university, said any research that doesn't change lives and technology that doesn't upgrade livelihoods of poor farmers is meaningless. Highlighting the huge strides made by countries like New Zealand, Netherlands, Australia and US in agricultural entrepreneurship, the Pro-Chancellor urged the graduating students to take pride in their newly-acquired knowledge so that they become trendsetters of a new agricultural awakening. Earlier, the Chief Minister conferred degrees among 42 candidates.UNI VBH JW SB 1806 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-689201.Xml
Some unidentified criminals robbed the house of Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari's brother-in-law Rajesh Totade's on Friday in Nagpur.According to a report disclosed today, the criminals looted cash and jewellery worth over Rs 20 lakhs from the house. Mr Totade informed that the incident took place when his family members had gone to pick him up when he was returning to Nagpur from Jharkhand.The criminals broke open the lock and entered into the house to commit the crime. Mr Totade said that after coming back they found the lock broken and all things scattered in the house.A complaint was lodged at the concerned police station. The police was investigating into the case.UNI PK RS JW SB 1811 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-689233.Xml
Unidentified criminals gunned down an assistant sub-inspector of police (ASI) in Barh sub-division in Patna district this afternoon.The ASI identified as Suresh Thakur was posted at Maranchi police station and was on way to his station after deposing before a local court in connection with a criminal case.The killers pumped bullets into his body in Gaurakchini locality in Barh and fled from the spot with his service revolver.The slain ASI Is a resident of Begusarai district and had resumed work today after leave.Police have launched a massive manhunt and sealed inter-district borders to nab the assailants.Further details were awaited.UNI IS RD JW SB 1816 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-689280.Xml
Police said the manager of the petrol pump alongwith another employee was going to a nearby SBI branch to deposit the amount when the incident took place.

Meanwhile, Chattarpur DSP Sanjay Kumar said that the miscreants have been identified and soon they would be arrested.

He said the bordering areas of the region have been sealed and raids are being conducted.UNI XC-AK AKM SB CS1824

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Family members of Kirpal Singh, had on Friday, met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to express their concerns over the gruesome treatment meted out to Indians languishing in Pakistani jails.

The Home Minister, after the meeting, assured that all concerns related to the bringing of the body of Kirpal Singh back from Pakistan will be addressed.

External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday assured the kin of Kirpal Singh that India would get his body back home.

Kirpal Singh's family had earlier rejected Pakistan's claim that he died of a heart attack and demanded a post-mortem to ascertain the true facts behind his sudden death.

"How can we believe that he died of heart attack? His body should be sent to us and post-mortem should be done. We want to know the truth," Singh's nephew had told ANI.

Kirpal had allegedly crossed the Attari-Wagah border to enter Pakistan in 1992 and was subsequently sentenced to death in a serial bomb blasts case in Pakistan's Punjab province. (ANI)
US cruise operator Carnival Corp said it may delay its voyages to Cuba, scheduled to start on May 1, unless Cuban authorities allow cruise ships to operate in the same manner as air charter operations.Cuban-born Americans cannot visit the island by sea due to a Cuban law that dates to the Cold War era, and therefore are barred from joining in Carnival's sailings to the island. People born in Cuba can, however, travel to the island on an airplane.Last month, the Miami, Florida-based company said it was the first cruise ship operator to be approved to sail to Cuba in over 50 years. However, the company is not allowed to ferry Cuban-born Americans according to the Cuban law. REUTERS CJ AS1904 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-689451.Xml
With improved condition in the Annual Paracite Incidence(API)of coastal districts, the Odisha government today decided to move to eliminate malaria in Puri, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts. Official sources here quoting the national survey figures said that conditions have improved significantly in eight coastal districts where Annual Parasite Incidence (API) per 1000 population is less than one. Looking to block API data, it was decided to move to elimination phase in three districts Puri, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur while the rest five districts such as Bhadrak, Balasore, Jajpur, Cuttack and Khurda would move to pre-elimination phase. State Chief Secretary A P Padhi who today chaired a high level review meeting on the elimination of malaria directed the concerned department to intensify the state sponsored malaria elimination scheme named DAMAN in remote district from May next. He assured that state government would provide the required fund for the purpose from its own resources and asked the Health & Family Welfare department to ensure availability of malarial medicines at PHCs and health centres and cautioned the department that no person should be deprived of getting medicine in time. Joint Secretary of the Health & Family Welfare department Surjit Das said the DAMAN scheme is an innovative and integrated approach for control and prevention of malaria. The scheme, sponsored and funded by the Government of Odisha would be implemented and intensified in eight districts, which have reported more than 10 API. These districts included Gajpati, Kalahandi, Kandhamala, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabrangpur, Nuapada and Rayagada. An amount of Rs 25 crore has been estimated for the purpose. The services to be provided would include diagnosis, treatment, intensive mass awareness, behavioural change communications, haemoglobin test, nutrition test and supply of medicines. The meeting further decided to set up 25 entomological units in various districts including five municipal corporations to address malaria and other vector-borne diseases including dengue and chikangunia. It was also decided that around 1.52 crore LLI nets would be procured from Global Fund for TB, AIDS & Malaria (GFTAM) control through the Government of India within 6 months to meet present requirement of the state. This apart the ongoing programmes like indoor residual spray, diagnosis and treatment within 24 hours would also be intensified in the state. UNI DP AKM RJ AS1923 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-689269.Xml
Bihar government will refund the licence fee to the manufacturers of foreign liquor, bar owners and liquor retailers after complete prohibition came into force in the state from April 5. A decision to this effect was taken at the state cabinet meeting today, a day before the Patna High Court resumes hearing on a bunch of petitions demanding relief against the closure of bars, despite payment of licence fee for a year. Prinicipal Finance Secretary Ravi Mittal said the government will pay back the entire amount deposited with the Bihar State Beverages Corporation. He, however, did not specify any date for refunding the amount. Mr Mittal also said that it had been decided to abolish export duty on production of ethanol by 12 distilleries in the state and different oil companies had agreed to purchase five lakh litres of ethanol.UNI IS BM RJ RAI2244 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-689823.Xml
Tension gripped the Brandix India Apparel City (BIAC) Company, a Sri Lankan apparel firm in the AP SEZ near Achutapuram area of this port city, when women workers of 10 units in the company boycotted their duties and staged a protest, demanding the management to hike their wages and facilitate other benefits, including immediate withdrawal of provident fund savings. Police officials have deployed additional forces in the area. Around 7,000 women out of the total workforce of 19,000 on Friday afternoon came on to the roads demanding their wages be hiked to a minimum of Rs 10,000. Brandix closed all 10 units in the SEZ and told the workers that the corporate head office in Sri Lanka would take a decision on their demands by April 30. However, the agitators said that they would join the duties only after a decision on the new wages was announced. The state government dispatched officials to the villages near the company and requested the women workers to report to the duties. On the other hand, the CITU leaders also visited the villages and explained them on how to negotiate the wages. Since the strike is spontaneous, unorganised and not led by any trade union, it became difficult for the management and the district authorities to convince the workers. The top brand international companies which operate in BIAC include UK-based Quantum Clothing, Ocean India, Seeds Intimate Apparel, Pioneer Elastics, Shore to Shore and few others involved in manufacturing ladies underwear and T-shirts. ''We have been working in the Company for the past four years for peanut wages of Rs 4,200 per month. We would rather resign than going back to work for old wages,'' workers G Lakshmi and P Bhavani said. Local MLA Bandaru Satyanarayana Murty visited the spot and tried to convince the workers, but to no avail. District Collector N Yuvaraj also visited the spot and requested the workers to join the duties as the State government was seized of the matter. UNI BSR RJ 2256 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-689911.Xml
Office bearers of the district unit of Congress party today demonstrated in front of the District Collector's office, demanding to immediately stop the supply of water to the liquor-manufacturing companies, in view of acute water shortage in the region due to scanty rainfall during themonsoon season last year. The Congress activists, including women, led by newly appointed district party president and sitting Sillod MLA Abdul Sattar and city chief Namdevrao Pawar, along with Congress vice-president Keshavrao Autade, gathered in front of the Collector's office and held demonstration against the BJP-Shiv Sena led state government, as well as NDA government at the Centre. During demonstration, they raised slogans against the state and Central government like 'Modi tere raj me sasti daru mehanga pani'. Their main demand is that the state government should stop the supply of water from Jayakwadi dam to the number of liquor-manufacturing companies in Waluj and Chiklatahna MIDC areas of Aurnagabad. The live water stock in the the Jayakwadi dam has depleted to the near bottom. If the government does not take any decision in this regard, the demonstrators threatened to cut the pipeline that supplies water to liquor companies.UNI VKB SS RJ RAI2303 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-689876.Xml
Glas said as many as 2,527 were injured in the earthquake, that has generated at least 189 aftershocks of various strength.

Ecuador, who has declared a state of emergency in six provinces, has mobilised around 14,000 army and public security personnel to the affected areas.

On Sunday, Glas visited the affected cities of Manta, Pedernales and Portoviejo, in the northeastern province of Manabi, which has been difficult to reach due to damaged highways.

Saturday's quake has been reported to be Ecuador's biggest since 1979. More than 130 aftershocks have followed.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at a fairly shallow depth of 19.2 km, about 27 km from Muisne in a sparsely populated area.

The quake was also felt in Colombia, where patients in a clinic in Cali city were evacuated from the building.

In Ecuador, helicopters and buses ferrying troops have been hampered by landslides. People were using their bare hands to try to dig out survivors in some areas.

Food and other essential items were handed out, with aid also coming from Venezuela and Mexico.

--Indo-Asian News Service pku

( 216 Words)

2016-04-18-06:12:06 (IANS)
Sanders attracted over 28,300 people on Sunday afternoon, according to the campaign and a production company helping to plan the event.

This total was higher than the campaign's previous record of 28,000 in Portland, Oregon, in August 2015, NBC News reported.

"In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of people here this afternoon!" Sanders bellowed to cheers as he took the stage after veteran actor Danny DeVito glowingly introduced him.

Mega-rallies have been a staple of Sanders campaign since last summer, but only in the past few weeks has he brought show-of-strength events to New York City.

By March end, Sanders drew about 18,000 people to the South Bronx, according to the campaign.

Last week, more than 27,000 people showed up to hear him at Washington Square Park.

On Monday - the night before the all-important New York primary - another large crowd is expected in Long Island city.

--Indo-Asian News Service ksk

( 196 Words)

2016-04-18-08:22:11 (IANS)
Amid concerns in Beijing over the "in-principle" agreement reached between India and the US for sharing military logistics for mutual purposes, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today held wide ranging talks with his Chinese counterpart Gen Chang Wanquan. The delegation-level meeting between the two sides lasted for about one-and-a-half hour, sources said here. Mr Parrikar was accompanied by Vice-Chief of Naval Staff ,Vice-Admiral Sunil Lamba, and Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh, Director General, Military Operations, while Chinese Minister of National Defence and State Councillor Chang Wanquan led his side. Mr Parrikar, who is on a five-day visit to China, was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Ba-Yi building. He arrived Beijing from Shanghai yesterday after wrapping a two-day tour the financial capital of China. The Defence Minister will hold talks with Vice-Chairman of Central Military Commission Fan Changlong. Mr Fan, who is regarded as the most powerful man in the Chinese military hierarchy, will host a banquet for Mr Parrikar later this evening. Mr Parrikar's visit is taking place immediately after he announced a path-breaking with the US that will enable the armed forces of the two sides to share their logistics under certain conditions. The agreement, which is yet to be signed, is being seen as an arrangement aimed at containing China, a perception denied by Washington. Moreover, the timing of the visit was marred by China's move in the Security Council that scuttled India's attempt to get Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar designated as a proclaimed terrorist. Chinese veto has angered India with New Delhi strongly reacting to the development. UNI MK PR SV 1053 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-688356.Xml
Leading Swiss right-winger Christoph Blocher has likened the treatment of his Swiss People's Party (SVP), the biggest national party, to that of the Jews in Nazi Germany.In an interview with the local newspaper, the Zuerichsee Zeitung, Blocher was critical of the campaign by other political parties and media outlets that succeeded in defeating an SVP proposal for stricter deportation of foreign law-breakers in a referendum."If all the media and the other parties still have only the goal of slandering, discriminating against and bashing the SVP -- primarily out of envy and resentment -- we're no longer voting about factual issues," the 75-year-old billionaire was quoted as saying in the interview, published on Saturday."In this, the referendum campaign over the enforcement initiative reached an unprecedented pinnacle. The fight against the SVP by state media and by (newspapers from) Blick to the NZZ reminded me in its radicalism of the National Socialists' methods against the Jews."Asked about the comments on Monday, Blocher told Reuters that his comments referred to the Nazis' measures to exclude Jews from society, before the violent persecution that eventually led to the deaths of 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust."The comparison of the methods is meant seriously," he said. "Nip it in the bud. Saying this is no cause for regret."Rival parties and activist groups all mobilised supporters to vote against the SVP initiative in February. In the highest turnout for a referendum since 1992, 59 percent opposed automatic deportations.The SVP was also the driving force behind a 2014 referendum that has forced the government to propose new limits on immigration, threatening Swiss ties with the European Union.Under Blocher's influence, the far-right SVP has developed a eurosceptic and anti-immigration agenda that has shaken up the cosy post-war consensual system in neutral Switzerland.To his fans, Blocher is a heroic defender of traditional Swiss values who has turned a party of farmers and small businessmen into a political powerhouse.To critics he is a divisive figure whose anti-immigration policies have destabilised a once-safe haven for companies and investors. REUTERS CJ VP1630 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-689005.Xml
India today warned the international community against the dangers of adopting double standards in the fight against terrorism, and called for crafting a common global strategy to combat the menace. ''If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism, it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole,'' External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in her opening remarks at the Russia-India-China Trilateral here. She said India believed that the foremost challenge to international security continued to be posed by international terrorism. ''The RIC countries must lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN. We must not fail in this regard,'' she said. The External Affairs Minister also called for greater urgency on the issue of UN reforms and sought the support of China and Russia for taking the inter-governmental negotiations on the text forward. She also said India was looking forward to greater cooperation with Russia and China on the BRICS platform. ''The slowdown of the global economy has created its own set of issues for all our economies and development agendas. As three large, emerging economies, we share similar approaches and could benefit from coordinating our positions,'' she stressed. ''We hope to have a very successful BRICS Summit in Goa in October,'' she said. More UNI XC NAZ RSA SB 1735 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0091-689102.Xml
Pakistani helicopter gunships on Monday pounded the island hideout of an armed gang that has been holding 24 hostages on a 10-km (six-mile) long island in the centre of the Indus River, media and army sources said.The operation involving more than 2,000 security forces has been ongoing for two weeks and the army's push to deploy troops, artillery and helicopter gunships is an unprecedented use of force by the military in Punjab, which is the political power base of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif."We (army) had given the Chotu gang until 2 p.m. today to surrender but they did not abide by the deadline," said a military official based in the district of Rajanpur in southern Punjab where the battle is taking place."Now there is no option left but a full-scale operation, which has started."It was unclear just how many members of the Chotu gang, blamed for hundreds of cases of kidnapping for ransom, murder and robbery, were trapped on the island, but police said their families were believed to be accompanying them.Pakistan's largest news network, Geo News, also reported that a full-scale operation had been launched. TV footage showed army commandos firing machine guns at the island and gunship helicopters flying overhead.The army's publicity wing announced that General Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmed, the most senior commanding officer in the area, had arrived earlier in the day "to see preparation for impending operation against criminals".While Pakistan's attention has for years been focused on the Taliban and al Qaeda threat on the Afghan border in the remote northwest, militants and criminals have quietly expanded their influence and won recruits in the country's heartland of Punjab.At least six police officials have been killed in the battle for the island, launched in a sweeping crackdown after a Taliban suicide bombing killed 72 people in Lahore, the provincial capital, last month.A police spokeswoman said policemen were among the 24 hostages.The battle was taking place near Rajanpur, one of the poorest districts in Punjab, where the Panjnad River flows into the Indus, Pakistan's lifeline.Previous military crackdowns have focused on the lawless tribal regions where the Taliban and other militants are based. Paramilitary Rangers also launched a crackdown on criminals in the violent southern port city of Karachi in 2013.REUTERS CJ RAI1815 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-689276.Xml
The issue was discussed at a bilateral with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavarov held on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China bilateral here.

Jawad was killed in Kazan and Puja Kallur and Karishma Udai Bhosle died during a fire at the Smolensk State Medical Academy.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said Mr Lavrov briefed Ms Swaraj on the progress of the investigations.

The two Ministers also had an extensive exchange of views on the situation in Syria.

The two Ministers reviewed bilateral ties, with particular reference to trade and economic links. They also discussed the Annual Bilateral Summit between India and Russia, in advance of which India will host the next meeting of the Inter Governmental Commission (IRIGC) later this year.

India's Chairmanship of BRICS and the schedule of meetings leading up to the Summit in Goa in October also figured in the discussions. Russia promised full support to India's Chairmanship, Mr Swarup said

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Mexico's army is withholding key evidence from international investigators in the case of 43 trainee teachers abducted and apparently massacred in late 2014, hampering their efforts to reach the truth, the experts told Reuters.More than 18 months after the incident and just one week before the team of experts' window to investigate closes, the army has still not handed over an undisclosed number of photographs and video taken by a military intelligence officer as police clashed with the students on Sept. 26, 2014, the five investigators said.When Reuters requested the original photographs of police rounding up a group of the students from the military, via a freedom of information request, the army responded that the evidence was "inexistent."The investigators have also not been allowed to question the soldiers on duty that night at Battalion 27, based in Iguala in the restive southwestern state of Guerrero."Access to Battalion 27 and its members is fundamental to the investigation ... The state needs to explain," said James Cavallaro, president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which commissioned the panel of experts.Testimony given by soldiers to the attorney general's office shows the army was aware of the clashes and did not intervene."We have repeatedly asked the attorney general's office to get (the military) to give us photographs, videos and documents which have been referred to in their own testimony," said Francisco Cox, a Chilean member of the independent panel of five experts commissioned by the IACHR."We made a list of people who needed to testify. Some haven't and there are others who ought to testify again," he added. "They have made declarations and the fundamental issues still haven't been answered."The panel members say the testimony the soldiers have given so far to the attorney general's office is flawed and incomplete, because the questioning was too basic and they see some discrepancies.Mexico's defense ministry, which is in charge of the army, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.Previously, the army has said there is no reason its soldiers should be interviewed by the team of international experts."I can't permit them to treat soldiers as criminals or interrogate them and make it seem as though they had something to do with it," Salvador Cienfuegos, who is Mexico's defense minister and the head of the army, said in October.The attorney general's office declined to comment, but a source told Reuters the investigation would remain open and they have not called soldiers to give evidence again because they are preoccupied dealing with other parts of the case.IMPUNITYThe case has drawn fresh attention to police abuses and impunity in Mexico. Drug cartels often have local security forces in their pockets, government purges of police ranks have shown.The trainee teachers studied at a rural college in the restive state of Guerrero. About 100 were attacked in the town of Iguala on Sept 26, 2014 after they hijacked five buses to transport them to a march commemorating a massacre back in the 1960s.Forty-three disappeared and are believed to have been murdered. But just one of them has been identified from a charred bone and the team of international experts rejected a government assertion that the 43 were burned in a pyre at a garbage dump.The Mexican government said in January 2015 it believed that corrupt police working with a local drug gang murdered the students, citing testimony given by detained suspects. But relatives of the disappeared rejected that account, and accused the government of trying to close the case early.No-one has yet stood trial over the case.The government has said the gang mistook the youths for rival gang members, and that police handed them over to Guerreros Unidos henchmen, who then burned them to ashes at a garbage dump in the town of Cocula, in the hills near Iguala.President Enrique Pena Nieto agreed with the IACHR in late 2014 to allow the international experts to investigate the case and promised them access to all the information they needed.The experts, who examined the site, say the government's garbage dump fire account is scientifically impossible given the heat needed to reduce human remains to ash and charred bone fragments. The fate of the students, who were long seen by local authorities as troublemakers, is still unclear.Families and lawyers of the disappeared students believe the army was involved in their abduction, though no evidence has been presented to support this."The army pitched in to form a cordon so the aggressors could act," said Vidulfo Rosales, one of the lawyers representing families of the victims.Since 2007, the army has been tasked with ensuring public security in some of the most violent corners of Mexico. However, lawmakers say there is no specific law that requires the army to intervene in such cases of unrest.One military intelligence operative, Eduardo Mota, testified to the attorney general's office in December 2014 that he snapped an undisclosed number of photographs as police threw tear gas at a group of the students in front of the local courthouse in Iguala and detained them. That group of students, which investigators number at about 17, was never seen again.The army has not handed over the original photographs he testified to taking to the experts, who say they believe Mota also filmed video, citing standard army operating procedures. Mota could not be reached for comment.Instead, officials later gave them a presentation that included a power-point containing four photographs from the night in question, one of the investigators said, but not the original filesREUTERS CJ BL1845 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-689388.Xml
Three late 15th century paintings missing since they were looted by Nazi troops from a Tuscan villa over 70 years ago have been recovered and two people have been accused of receiving stolen goods, police announced today.The works, of religious themes, seized in two private homes in Milan last July, were described by art historian Paola Strada as "of immense interest because of their unique character, and because they are from artists considered rare on the market".Part of a vast collection of art of the House of Bourbon- Parma, the paintings were plundered in 1944 by German troops from a villa in the Tuscan town of Camaiore, where Prince Felix, consort of the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, once lived.Most of the stolen pieces, kept in the villa of a high-ranking member of the Nazi SS military organisation, were found and returned to Luxembourg soon after the end of the war.The paintings recovered in Milan, and held in the city's Pinacoteca di Brera art museum since July, were three of almost 40 pieces still missing.A criminal investigation linked to the recovery of the paintings has been initiated, the head of of the Art Crimes department Riccardo Targetti said, with two unnamed people accused of receiving stolen goods.SYSTEMATIC LOOTINGExperts from Italy's culture ministry said they were not able to give a value for the art pieces."For the time being, there are no parameters we can use to quantify how much they are worth," art historian Strada said.The pieces include the "Trinity" by Alessio Baldovinetti, a scholar of Renaissance painter Beato Angelico, and the "Presentation of Jesus to the Temple", by Verona-based Girolamo Dai Libri, a famous miniaturist artist.According to Antonella Ranaldi, superintendent for the arts at the culture ministry, the paintings require restoration as "their state of conservation is not great".They need not be returned to Luxembourg as compensation had already been paid for the loss, police said.Police based in the northern town of Monza began investigations to recuperate the three pieces of art in 2014, drawing on analysis of old documents.The team recovered three other art pieces in 2009 and 2015, belonging to the Mason Perkins and the Loeser Calnan collections.Agents acting on behalf of the Nazi party systematically stole art and cultural property from occupied territories. In those years many Jewish artists and collectors were also forced to sell their art and other pieces were confiscated.While a majority of art work was recuperated by allied armies soon after the war, much is still missing, feeding into an illegal multi-billion dollar international trade, estimated to be the third largest after drugs and arms trafficking.REUTERS CJ AS1915 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-689489.Xml
Global import of counterfeit and pirated goods are worth 461 billion dollars or 2.5 per cent of total global trade, and 63 per cent of these products originated from China. According to a new report by the OECD and the EU's Intellectual Property Office titled "Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods: Mapping the Economic Impact" the value of imported fake goods worldwide was 461 billion dollars in 2013, compared with total imports in world trade of 17.9 trillion dollars. Up to five per cent of goods imported into the European Union are fakes while most of it originate in middle income or emerging countries. "The findings of this new report contradict the image that counterfeiters only hurt big companies and luxury goods manufacturers. They take advantage of our trust in trademarks and brand names to undermine economies and endanger lives," said OECD Deputy Secretary-General Doug Frantz, launching the report with EUIPO Executive Director Antnio Campinos as part of OECD Integrity Week. Fake products crop up in everything from handbags and perfumes to machine parts and chemicals, the report says. Footwear is the most-copied item though trademarks are infringed even on strawberries and bananas. Counterfeiting also produces knockoffs that endanger lives auto parts that fail, pharmaceuticals that make people sick, toys that harm children, baby formula that provides no nourishment and medical instruments that deliver false readings. Out of total fake products 63.2 per cent were manufactured in China, followed by 3.3 per cent in Turkey, 1.9 per cent in Singapore 1.6 per cent in Thailand and 1.2 per cent in India. The report covers all physical counterfeit goods, which infringe trademarks, design rights or patents, and tangible pirated products, which breach copyright. It does not cover online piracy, which is a further drain on the formal economy. It notes that emerging economies tend to have the infrastructure for large-scale trade but often suffer from governance gaps and may lack the institutions and enforcement capacity to effectively tackle counterfeiting. While China is the top provenance of fake goods, its most innovative companies also fall victim to counterfeiters. The top countries whose companies had their intellectual property rights infringed in the 2011-13 seizures were the United States, whose brands or patents were affected by 20 per cent of the knock-offs, then Italy with 15 per cent, and France and Switzerland with 12 per cent each. Japan and Germany stood at eight per cent each followed by the UK and Luxembourg. Postal parcels are the top method of shipping bogus goods, accounting for 62 per cent of seizures over 2011-13, reflecting the growing importance of online commerce in international trade. The traffic goes through complex routes via major trade hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore and free trade zones such as those in the United Arab Emirates. Other transit points include countries with weak governance and widespread organised crime such as Afghanistan and Syria. The report shows trade routes change greatly from year to year as counterfeit gangs spot new weak points.UNI AKJ ASH NS2023 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0321-689399.Xml
As El Salvador reels from a record wave of murders and a stuttering economy that has forced tens of thousands to emigrate, one town has turned to an unlikely refuge: the coffin industry.Jucuapa, a town of 18,000 people 116 kilometers (72 miles) east of San Salvador, has 18 such businesses listed. And a growing number of residents are leaving behind their low-profit trade in coffee and agriculture to set up impromptu workshops on their small farm or plot."There has been a rise in shops due to the economic situation," said Cesar Cruz, 36, who administers his father's business. "It's the area that generates the most jobs here."Cruz's business now has 16 workers and makes some 40 weekly shipments throughout the country.In the shade of trees in the patios of ramshackle workshops across town, carpenters fashion caskets from wooden boards lined against walls, before others line the coffins with white cloth and adorn them with fixtures.The casket industry in Jucuapa spans the entire supply chain, from sawmills and carpenters to decorators, upholsterers, drivers and salesmen, with prices ranging from $100 to $1,200, depending on materials and labor.Gang violence pushed homicides up by 70 percent in El Salvador during 2015, putting the country on track to overtake Honduras as the murder capital of the world. Murders continued to rise in the first three months of 2016, hitting an average of 22 a day, as powerful gangs known as maras fight for control of drug trafficking and extortion.Each day of the week, Jucuapa's narrow streets overflow with pickups hauling coffins to funeral homes around the country and abroad."With or without murders, one can always (find) work because caskets go to other countries like Honduras and Guatemala," said Jose Flores, 24, who has spent five years working in the industry, making $15 for each coffin he assembles.The spike in murders has challenged the government of leftist President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, who has trouble financing security plans and has instead focused efforts on controlling the more than 15,500 gang members locked up in 13 prisons, where many of them continue leading criminal activities.Violence cost the poor Central American state some $4 billion in 2014, or 16 percent of its national income, according to El Salvador's central bank.Funeral homes are one of the few industries that have benefited from the scourge, though even those working in the sector would prefer that business were not so good."Who wouldn't want to live in peace?" said Flores, the carpenter.REUTERS CJ NS1958 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-689633.Xml
France, Italy and Spain urged their European partners on Monday to move the EU's Mediterranean naval mission into Libyan waters, if requested by a new government in Tripoli, to stop a new tide of migrants and uphold a UN arms embargo.An expanded naval mission is one part of the EU's emerging support plan for Libya, which EU foreign and defence ministers will discuss over dinner in Luxembourg, and could see Europe return to the country with 100 million euros in aid."It is indispensable to ensure Libya's stability, the security of Libyans and also its borders," said French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, after a weekend visit to Tripoli."We must do all we can to fight against the human smugglers and arms trafficking," he told reporters, referring to the United Nations arms embargo on Libya, in place since 2011.More than 50 ministers will discuss the plans that also include sending security personnel to train Libyan police and border guards and that could mark Europe's most significant intervention in North Africa in decades.Europe is eager to support the new unity leaders to tackle Islamic State militants and stop migrants, though the new government is still trying to establish itself in Tripoli and is wary of being seen as a foreign-imposed body with no legitimacy.Europe's failed efforts to help its neighbours since 2003 has created what some officials have described as "a ring of fire" on the EU's borders, with refugees teeming towards the European Union.Reports of another mass drowning of migrants over the weekend in the Mediterranean, off Egypt's coast, demonstrated that people smugglers were still operating freely and flows could increase as the weather improves.Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni circulated a list of ideas to ministers, which set out how the EU naval mission should start "new phases and tasks, including the training of the Libyan coastguard."Asked if the naval mission should operate in Libyan waters, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said: "Yes, it is very urgent."The EU's "Sophia" mission is operating in international waters near Libya and has saved some 8,000 lives since it started in mid-2015, but it is too far out to destroy boats used by people smugglers, catch traffickers or head off an expected surge in migrants trying to reach Europe by sea from Libya.RUSSIAN CONCERNEU governments want a request from the new United Nations-backed Libyan government in Tripoli to operate in Libyan waters and some, such as Sweden, say that might also require a U.N. Security Council resolution if the mission is to try to stop arms smuggling.Security Council member Russia said it was unlikely to back such a request any time soon.Moscow believes the West went too far when a NATO-backed mission helped bring down Libya's long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Russia says it overstepped a U.N. mandate that was only to impose a no-fly zone and protect civilians.While a broader EU naval mission may be difficult to agree, EU governments hope to prepare a bigger role for EU training personnel, potentially in cooperation with NATO, to build up Libya's shattered security forces.Talks on a possible EU training mission could give momentum to discussions among Italian, French, British and U.S. military planners on whether to send troops to Libya to help to protect key installations, government buildings, ports and the airport.REUTERS CJ NS2014 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-689670.Xml
The United States will send more troops to Iraq, potentially putting them closer to the frontlines to advise Iraqi forces in the war against Islamic State militants.US Defense Secretary Ash Carter made the announcement today during a visit to Baghdad during which he met US commanders, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and Iraqi Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi.About 200 additional troops will be deployed, raising the number of US troops in Iraq to about 4,100, a senior US Defense official said.The Pentagon will also provide up to 415 million dollars to Kurdish peshmerga military units.Carter did not meet Kurdish leaders in person during his visit, but spoke with the president of the Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, on the telephone.Today's announcement is the move in the past several months by the United States to step up its campaign against the hardline Sunni Islamist group. US special forces are also deployed in Iraq and Syria as part of the campaign.Iraqi forces - trained by the US military and backed by air strikes from a US-led coalition - have since December managed to take back territory from Islamic State, which seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in 2014.The new US troops will consist of advisers, trainers, aviation support crew, and security forces. Most of the new military advisers are expected to be army special forces, as is the case with the approximately 100 advisers now in Iraq.The advisers will be allowed to accompany smaller Iraqi units of about 2,500 troops that are closer to the frontlines of battle, whereas now they are limited to larger divisions of about 10,000 troops located further from the battlefield.That will allow the US military to offer quicker and more nimble advice to Iraqi troops as they try to retake Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still under Islamic State control.But by placing them closer to the conflict, it could leave them more vulnerable to enemy mortars and artillery.The United States has also authorized the use of Apache attack helicopters to support Iraqi forces in retaking Mosul, Carter said. The United States had originally offered the Apaches to the Iraqi government in December. The Iraqis did not take up the offer then but did not rule out their use.The United States will also deploy an additional long-range rocket artillery unit to support Iraqi ground forces in the battle for Mosul, Carter said. There are two such batteries already in place in Iraq. REUTERS SHS BL2200 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-689855.Xml
Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, called on President Barack Obama today to "definitively" rule out any possible sanctions "workaround" that might provide Iran, directly or indirectly, with access to the US financial system or dollar."Instead of helping the regime get richer, the administration should hold it accountable for its continued ballistic missile tests, egregious human rights violations and support for terrorism," the Republican congressional leader said in his strongest statement yet on the issue. REUTERS SHS RAI2220 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-689902.Xml
The United States will send more troops to Iraq, potentially putting them closer to the front lines to advise Iraqi forces in the war against Islamic State militants.US Defense Secretary Ash Carter made the announcement today during a visit to Baghdad in which he met US commanders, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and Iraqi Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi.The additional support comes with Iraq engulfed in a political crisis over anti-corruption reforms that is crippling state institutions and threatening to slow the military campaign against the militants.Iraq's parliament has failed three times to vote on a cabinet overhaul sought by Abadi to stem graft.About 200 additional troops will be deployed, raising the number of US troops in Iraq to about 4,100, a senior US defense official said. The Pentagon will also provide up to 415 million dollars to Kurdish military units.Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, head of the US-led coalition battling Islamic State, said the United States would discuss how the funding would be spent with the Kurdish government, but that part of it would likely be spent on food for the Kurdish peshmerga forces."Right now the peshmerga are not getting enough calories to keep them in the field, so we're very interested in making sure that they have enough food just to carry on the fight," he said.Carter did not meet Kurdish leaders during his visit, but spoke with the president of the Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, by telephone.Today's announcement is the latest move in the past several months by the United States to step up its campaign against the hardline Sunni jihadists. US special forces are also deployed in Iraq and Syria as part of the campaign.Iraqi forces - trained by the US military and backed by air strikes from a US-led coalition - have managed since December to take back territory from Islamic State, which seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in 2014.ESCALATING SUPPORTSome US troops already in Iraq will be shifted to establishing logistics for Iraqi forces as they move up towards Mosul, Carter said. Such logistics include establishing food and other supply lines, particularly important as Mosul is 400 km north of Baghdad."We're on the same page with the Iraqi government," Carter told reporters. "We want more action by Iraqi forces towards victory here and more action will require more logistics."The new US troops will consist of advisers, trainers, aviation support crew, and security forces. Most of the new military advisers are expected to be army special forces, as is the case with the approximately 100 advisers now in Iraq.The advisers will be allowed to accompany smaller Iraqi units of about 2,500 troops that are closer to the frontlines of battle, whereas now they are limited to larger divisions of about 10,000 troops located further from the battlefield.That will allow the US military to offer quicker and more nimble advice to Iraqi troops as they try to retake Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still under Islamic State control.But by placing them closer to the conflict, it could leave them more vulnerable to enemy mortars and artillery."This will put Americans closer to the action," Carter said. "Their whole purpose is to be able to help those forces respond in a more agile way.The United States has also authorized the use of Apache attack helicopters to support Iraqi forces in retaking Mosul, Carter said. The United States had originally offered the Apaches to the Iraqi government in December.The Iraqis did not take up the offer then but Carter said Abadi had agreed that the United States would provide the use of the Apaches as the campaign to retake Mosul progresses.The United States will also deploy an additional long-range rocket artillery unit to support Iraqi ground forces in the battle for Mosul, Carter said. There are two such batteries already in place in Iraq.REUTERS SHS RAI2306 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-689928.Xml
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama have agreed to assist further in securing a cessation of hostilities in Syria during a phone call, the Kremlin said in a statement today.During the call, Putin highlighted the need for the separation of the moderate Syrian opposition from Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, as well as the need for the closure of Syria-Turkey border, the Kremlin said.Russia has been repeatedly raising the question of the border, across which, according to Russia, militants are crossing from Turkey into Syria. REUTERS SHS RAI2341 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-689940.Xml
US first lady Michelle Obama will join her husband, President Barack Obama, on parts of his trip to Britain later this week, the White House said today.White House spokesman Josh Earnest declined to give further details.The president's trip comes as the British weigh whether or not to remain in the European Union in an upcoming referendum. REUTERS SHS RAI2344 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-689944.Xml
ROWLEY, COME OUT!

As the workers shouted and rang bells, heavily armed police and soldiers stood guard.

The workers are alleging disrespect and indifference from the Prime Minister while they struggle to put food on the family table and pay bills in the wake of being laid off as Arcelor Mittal shut down local operations on March 11.

Yesterday, the protesting men and women, gathered at the entrance of the PMs Official Residence at 2.30 pm. They chanted, we want we money right now! while holding up placards asking why the Prime Minister and Attorney General Faris Al Rawi, continue to remain silent on the matter.

This is the latest in a series of protests undertaken by the laid off workers with support of the Steel Workers Union (SWUTT).

SWUTT Chief Labour Relations Officer Timothy Bailey said no employer is to come into the country as a multi-national and benefit from resources of the country without taking care of its employees.

They used the citizens of this country and are being allowed to leave...depriving workers of their separation pension benefits. This is the situation we are in right now and we are saying government must intervene on behalf of its citizens. He added, You cannot say to me that a worker who have worked with a company for more than 35 years can walk away from a company with one month pay and it is alright. He explained that if the Government is allowing a company to operate in such a manner and ill-treat citizens, workers will have a serious problem if a similar situation arises in the future.

He said the matter has seriously impacted and affected more than 2,000 workers.

Citizens are going to lose their homes; they are going to lose their cars, they are going to lose their families...their livelihood! For Gods sake, govern the country the way it is supposed to be governed, shouted a protestor as he held his head during his impassioned outburst.

Nearby, soldiers stood guard holding sub-machine guns close to their chests as they watched the protestors who chanted and rang bells.

Only last week, laid off workers engaged in a sit-down protest along the Pt Lisas roundabout, near the Arcelor Steel facilities.
Imbert not willing to pay the price

Browne noted that Government was in a very difficult position as he said he believed Imbert was not prepared to pay the political price for dealing with the problem .

Therefore, he said, the country would pay an economic price .

There is no action he has taken to date that he ought not to have taken six months ago. To argue that they needed time (to further review the countrys economic situation) is rubbish. The information he has at his disposal is the same information that he had at that time (of the Budget presentation in October last year), Browne said .

Unfortunately, he said Imbert basically told the nation that everything would be alright and so built up expectations he was incapable of meeting. Browne said Government should have been hard and tough and made necessary decisions up front instead of bit by bit so that citizens would not feel as if it were death by 1,000 cuts. Browne noted that, while nothing could be done about the price of oil, the countrys fiscal and economic situations could be dealt with. However, he said neither was addressed realistically. Therefore, he said while the measures implemented and proposed by Imbert would have an effect on the economy, they would make no significant impact on Moodys downgrade .

Moodys has been very clear, the IMF has been very clear since 2014 .

They repeated everything they said in 2014, except in very diplomatic language. They laid out the things that needed to be managed and the decisions that were necessary to make. If you dont make them then you would run into more problems than we already have. Senior economics lecturer at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, Dr Roger Hosein agreed saying although he believed Government was moving in the right direction with its policies, he did not think that the magnitude of the policies would yield the desired results. We can take two steps towards a goal but really, the goal is 60 steps away. Therefore one would have preferred to see 15 steps taken instead of two. But certainly, in many regards, we are moving in the right direction, he told Newsday .

He stated that the economy has moved from secular stagnation towards a recession and so the downgrade was a proper reflection of the countrys economy .

However, instead of being negative about the downgrade, Hosein said the move should act as a basis to continue with the structural reform the government began. He noted that the changes were necessary, but warned that the balancing process would not be quick or easy .
Labour PS on future job fairs

Permanent Secretary in the Labour Ministry, Jennifer Daniel, was speaking with Newsday about the outcome of the event during a recent function honouring the 125th anniversary of the Trinidad Building and Loan Association (TBLA), held last Friday evening (April 15) at Radisson Hotel, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain. Employers told us it was beneficial and they have asked for another job fair. Even on the day, there were persons saying, You all need to do this again. The thing for us would be the cost because we are operating in a state of reduced expenditure.

Quite frankly, I cant say definitely but it is very possible that we will be organising another Jobs Expo. During the function, the PS revealed that while some companies expressed concern that some job seekers want a job but they dont necessarily want to work, at least one person lamented the lack of applications based on newspaper advertisements about vacancies.
Tobago Jazz Experience begins

Hundreds of Trinbagonians and visitors to the island, converged at the Seyside recreational ground for the opening concert. Whether dressed as a Roman God or in colourful suits, a wide cross-section of visitors and residents alike, turned out for the start of the Jazz Experience 2016.

The concert began promptly at 6pm with Alvin Pierre delivering the National Anthem.

The chairman of the Tobago Jazz Experience committee, John Arnold then brought welcoming remarks. Emceed by Michael Baker, opening band OMG composed of soca artiste Fya Empress and Tony Prescott led the growing audience through a song repertoire ranging from soca to hip hop and R&B. Prescott took the audience back down soca memory lane with his hit, All Aboard, which saw the slowly growing audience dancing.

Freedom Street from LAnse Forumi then took to the stage, delivering their cover of hits such as Tarrus Rileys Gimme Likkle One Drop and Marvin Gayes Lets Get It On. The group also roused the audience with its over of Ed Sheerans Thinking Out Loud.

Tobagos Soca Monarch King Gerard Balfour demonstrated his musical versatility, delivering his hits such as Giddy Up, but then playing Kerwin du Bois Too real on the steel pan. Assemblyman Tracy Davidson-Celestine then delivered her remarks, signalling the growth of Tobagos tourism sector through event tourism and declaring the 2016 Tobago Jazz Experience officially open.

Davidson-Celestines remarks were followed by the musical stylings of pan duo, Frederick Lincoln and Tony Pan Jumbie Williams. The two also brought the amassing crowd to its feet with songs such as Justin Biebers Sorry and Five Star Akils Different Me and Destra Garcias Lucy.

Speysides own Gardah Knight also had the people moving with his reggae hits. The first half of the concert, before major soca acts David Rudder, Patrice Roberts, Benjai and Farmer Nappy took to the Speyside stage, was rounded off by Arita Edmund. The Tobagonian sang her hit A Good Man as well as debut a part of her new video for her new single Promise. She too did a reggae-jazzed cover of Ed Sheerans Thinking Out Loud.

For many attending the event, it was one that was well enjoyed.

A strong police presence and a wide assortment of food and drinks kept the attendees content.

One attendee, however, said she found that acts at the event had become repetitive. Natalia Roberts from TopHill, Speyside said, I found it could have been better.

We have seen all of those local artistes before.

They could have done something new.
WAND donates equipment for cancer kids

A staff member at the JBF Paediatric Speciality Unit explained that a Colleague triple infusion pump allows doctors to administer or run three types of medication at the same time.

Depending on the treatment protocol, this could include chemotherapy, saline solution and anything else that may need to be administered, such as antibiotics. This would be done via a port-a-cath, which is surgically inserted into the patients chest, the staff member said.

The digital baby tray is larger and more modern than the units other scales, so babies can lie down more comfortably while being weighed. Plus the digital scale means more accurate readings of a babys weight.

Speaking at the donation ceremony, chairman of WAND, Soraya Khan, said cancer has to be the most difficult disease anyone can face in life but cancer in children can seem inexplicably unfair and cruel. It not only impacts the child but the whole family and it can be truly devastating. JBF has helped these families tremendously through these tough times and we are very pleased, Khan added, to be able to assist in a valuable way. It is our hope that the equipment will go a long way in helping to strengthen the health service delivery to these angels battling cancer. WAND purchased one pump and the digital baby scale from Bryden pi Ltd with money donated at a November 2015 fundraiser. Noting that the Brydens graciously donated a second pump, Khan said this type of corporate sponsorship really needs to be recognised and today we publicly thank them for their overwhelming generosity. Turning her attention to the cancer patients, who she referred to as brave soldiers, Khan encouraged them to fill your veins with medicines, fill your heart with love, fill your mind with determination, and fill your soul with hope so that cancer has no place to stay in your life.
PAHO/WHO to partner with Health Ministry

In a statement issued last week, the Ministry of Health noted that Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh attended the culmination of the Mt Hope Postgraduate Lecture series on April 12, at the Mt Hope Womens Hospital. The series comprised presentations from different post graduate students on topics which included H1N1  its impact on pregnancy and protocols for dealing with suspected cases, breastfeeding, vaccination, Zika and Microcephaly.

In addressing those assembled, Deyalsingh indicated that there was a need to institute policy measures to effectively treat with these public health issues.

If Trinidad and Tobago is to effectively impact this problem, then clinical and non clinical measures need to be examined. In this vein, the Pan American Health Organisation/ World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) has been invited to partner with the Ministry in developing strategies, the Minister said.

Deyalsingh also committed to re-establish a Quality Department within the Ministry of Health and holding the Regional Health Authorities responsible for submitting a weekly Quality Issue Report and a monthly Adverse Effects Report.

He said the ministry supports initiatives such as these that yield inputs, ideas and innovations that will lead to the improvement of service delivery in the public healthcare system.
Google, Facebook and Twitter all conspire to censor critics of European migrants who sexually assaulted women

The Left-wing extremist governments of Europe continue to put refugees and migrants from war-torn, economically depressed regions of the world ahead of their own citizens, who are being required to foot the bill to care for the new arrivals, even to the point of suppressing their individual rights.

As noted recently by Breitbart News, its London bureau who first reported to the world news that European women and some men were subjected to violent sexual assaults, rapes and robberies committed by mobs of young migrant males over the New Years Eve holiday recently.

The bulk of the attacks occurred in Germany  and then, mostly in the city of Cologne  outraging citizens throughout the country. But thanks to the pandering German political class, complaining about what happened, say, on social media, could be branded as illegal hate speech.

Whats more, German policymakers are getting help from the worlds biggest social media/tech firms.

Creeping censorship

Breitbart News reported further:

In a deal reached last December, major social media sites said they would work to delete any German anti-migrant sentiments distributed on their networks within 24 hours after a removal request has been made. The outlets agreed to apply domestic laws, rather than their own corporate policies, to reviews of posts and already users in Germany are expressing disgust at the policy which came straight from German Chancellor Angela Merkels office.

In September, Merkel was heard discussing the issue with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, with the tech/media mogul stating we need to do some work in order to remove posts deemed by government censors as offensive, Wired reported.

Further, Zuckerberg agreed to cooperate with the German chancellor on the issue.

As Breitbart News has also reported, speech Nazis at Reddit, the link-sharing and discussion site, have removed scores of links and comments pertaining to the immigrant gang violence following the assaults in Cologne as part of a campaign to curb vileness. But those deletions and restrictive speech codes have not gone unnoticed by social media users.

Its not politically correct to say anything against migrants. We dont have freedom of opinion anymore. #Cologne, Tweeted a German user from Hanover, Breitbart News cited.

Stefan Korner, chairman of Germanys liberal Pirate Party, agreed with that, sounding like an American founding father in the process by arguing that democracies must be able to bear a measure of xenophobia (or speech that just points out the obvious).

As noted by the Washington Post, Korner lashed out against Berlins deal with social media sites, noting that the action surely will lead to too many rather than too few comments being blocked.

This is creeping censorship, and we definitely dont want that, he continued.

Dont worry, ladies, well put some guidelines online for you

And yet, that seems to be whats coming, as noted by Breitbart:

By mid-2016, Google, Facebook and Twitter will have to provide user-friendly mechanisms for the submission of removal requests. They will enforce their terms and conditions by reviewing specific reports of hateful content and incitement to violence under both their community guidelines, and German law, particularly Section 130 of the German criminal code. When a removal request is received, dedicated teams at the companies have to review it. Most content must be reviewed within 24 hours and removed, if necessary.

This hardly seems fair to ordinary Germans but given the mindset of the countrys ruling class, this censorship makes perfect sense.

As noted by Collapse.news, following reports that women in Cologne were sexually harassed by masses of migrants, the mayor of the city  a woman, no less  essentially blamed her citizens for the assaults for not being prepared enough.

The women and young girls have to be more protected in the future so these things dont happen again, Mayor Henriette Reker, speaking on live television in early January, said. This means, they should go out and have fun, but they need to be better prepared, especially with the Cologne carnival coming up. For this, we will publish online guidelines that these young women can read through to prepare themselves.

Oh, well, online guidelines for German women. Thatll help.

Meanwhile, German officials continue to live in a world of denial, being so wrapped up in ensuring that another Adolph Hitler doesnt come to power that they are willing to allow their own people to be hurt in order to avoid being called a name.

Sources:

Breitbart News

Collapse.news

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Icelands economy has boomed after coming down hard on criminal and fraudulent banksters

Banks, once the quaint little savings-and-loans depositories of yesterday, have now transformed into instruments of fraud, deception and greed, thanks to wealthy criminal conglomerates that thrive on the misery of those who have less than them in life. For years, these criminal enterprises have gotten away with charging customers for just about everything, from cash deposits to ATM fees, and even with defrauding unsuspecting victims of their hard-earned money.

Fortunately, one Western country has finally figured out that allowing these criminals to continue operating their businesses the way they currently do was hurting the nations growth and destroying its economy. Now, instead of bailing out the bigwigs, Iceland has chosen to try, convict and jail criminal banksters  their apparent power and influence notwithstanding. As a result, the country has become the fastest recovering economy in all of fiscally declining Europe.

As reported by The AntiMedia:

After Iceland suffered a heavy hit in the 2008-2009 financial crisis, which famously resulted in convictions and jail terms for a number of top banking executives, the IMF now says the country has managed to achieve economic recoverywithout compromising its welfare model, which includes universal healthcare and education. In fact, Iceland is on track to become the first European country that suffered in the financial meltdown to surpass its pre-crisis peak of economic outputessentially proving to the U.S. that bailing out too big to fail banks wasnt the way to go.

While the decision to proceed in that manner shocked a number of governments and financial experts at the time, it was a gamble that has since paid off.

On the other hand, the United States government, after having decided to bail out global banks while allowing erring bank executives to get away without so much as a slap on the wrist, continues to suffer from its disastrous decisions.

Why should we have a part of our society that is not being policed or without responsibility? special prosecutor Olafur Hauksson said following a decision by Icelands Supreme Court to uphold the convictions for three bankers, sentencing them to between four and five and a half years each. It is dangerous that someone is too big to investigateit gives a sense there is a safe haven.

Hauksson, a one-time police officer from a small Iceland fishing village, has taken up the role of special prosecutor after he was asked to do so when the job announcement initially drew no takers. Thankfully, Icelands parliament helped the prosecutorial effort by relaxing secrecy laws, giving Hauksson the ability to conduct his investigations without the hassle of needing court orders.

At present, Icelands successful prosecutions and economic recovery remain the subject of envy for most Americans. In fact, as of February this year, Iceland has already been able to successfully sentence 29 bankers for their roles in the 2008 financial crisis. Icelands credit status has also improved, while its public debt has fallen, according to global credit rating agency Moodys.

Meanwhile, more than a thousand miles away, in America, bankers continue to rejoice as they await their next six-digit bonus.

Sources:

NaturalNews.com

TheAntiMedia.org

MintPressNews.com

Science.NaturalNews.com

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Richa Chadha to work with Freida Pinto in her next movie Love Sonia

Bollywood, Mon, 18 Apr 2016 NI Wire

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Mumbai: The 'Bholi Punjaban' of Bollywood Richa Chadha will be working with Freida Pinto of Slumdog Millionaire fame in her next movie Love Sonia, a film based on child trafficking. Love Sonia is the directorial debut of Slumdog Millionaire producer Tabrez Noorani.

Producer of Life of Pi David Womar will be producing this Indo- American venture as well. The film is scheduled to go on floors this April 24th and is slated to release sometime in 2017. According to reports, the film stars other actors like Rajkummar Rao and industry veterans like Anupam Kher and Manoj Bajpayee.

Commenting on her upcoming project, actress Richa Chadha said, "I am delighted that I can be a part of this project. I really believe in the content and I can say that this film is being made for the right reasons. I am honoured to be a part such a talented international team."

The film is based on real life incidents and the story revolves around Sonia, a young girl from a village who gets sold by her father for some money and in the hope that she may land a job in Mumbai. After her disappearance, her sister Preeti goes on a mission to find her and falls into the vicious world of sex trafficking.

The film will be shot mostly in Mumbai with parts of it being shot in Los Angeles, USA. Two of the world's largest anti-trafficking NGO's CAST (Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking) and Apne Aap Woman Worldwide have lent their support to Love Sonia.

The year 2016 seems to the year for Richa Chadha, with two big films Cabaret and Sarbjit already under her belt. It looks like 2017 is also going to be great for the versatile actress as she gears up for her role in Love Sonia.

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There will be a 50 percent increase in the Defense Departments 2017 budget request for hypersonic research. The Air Force plans to test a hypersonic missile by the end of the decade. Patrick Tucker at Defense One provided an excellent summary of the US Air Force Hypersonic weapons projects.

The Pentagon, whose long record of hypersonic research stretches from the X-15 rocket plane to the Boeing X-51 scramjet and beyond, is today funding

the Lockheed Martin Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 program

the Raytheon Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC)

the Raytheon/Lockheed Tactical Boost Glide.

The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency gave Raytheon $20 million and Lockheed $24 million for the latter.

Raytheon is spending tens of millions of its own dollars into hypersonic research. Thomas Bussing is Raytheons VP of Advanced Missile Systems. Bussing said that 3D printing and additive manufacturing have reduced the complexity of hypersonic devices and made Hypersonic missiles affordable.

David Walker, the U.S. Air Force deputy assistant secretary for science, described the US Air Force roadmap to hypersonic technology.

The military sees hypersonic airplanes as one answer to the rise of more capable programmable radar. Our ability to operate in a stealthy mode is starting to lose its advantage because of the advanced radars, Dick Urban of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, told the crowd at NDIA. We think that speed is going to give us that extra advantage. (Welby called advanced programmable radars a challenge but said that they did not necessarily make stealth obsolete.)

China is also working to develop hypersonic cruise missiles and has already conducted six tests of a hypersonic weapon, the WU-14. Russia and India are also planning to test a hypersonic missile called the BrahMos-II capable of reaching Mach 7, in 2017.

SOURCEs- US Air Force, Defense One
The film is set in the years before the storyline of 1977's "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope".

Gareth Edwards directed Rogue One, which features an impressive global ensemble cast including Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Forest Whitaker, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, and Jonathan Aris.

Rogue One, led by Godzilla and Monsters director Edwards, was written by Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz, from an idea by long-time Star Wars visual effects supervisor John Knoll. Here's a quick rundown of what "Rogue One" is and how it fits into the "Star Wars" universe, both past and present.

The movie takes place following the foundation of the Galactic Empire.

Once we find out more about how Disney will release their new movies on Netflix, we will make a prediction for the Netflix release date for Star Wars: Rogue One.

Fans flocked to Twitter to excitedly discuss the trailer, with one user writing: "Shall we all start a petition for Disney to release #RogueOne now?" "Rogue One" gives the history behind the intergalactic weaponry.

Rogue One is the first in several planned spinoffs from the official ennealogy (the nine-part official series).

So you could only imagine our little faces when a BRAND NEW Star Wars trailer made its way into our lives yesterday jam-packed full of Star Wars-based goodness. The film is out in theaters on December 16.

Speculation has also been circulating around the character, Hans Solo.
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Visiting President Francois Hollande of France urged his Egyptian peer to respect human rights even though the country is being riddled with terrorist attacks.

Prior to his visit, rights groups lashed out at Hollande for his silence over the poor human rights record in Egypt which has tightened its control over rights groups and massacres basic human rights in its fight against terrorism.

At a joint news conference Sunday, dominated by questions on human rights abuses, President al-Sisi explained that his government was facing a tumultuous security situation requiring an urgent response.

The region we live in is very turbulent, he told his French guest.

President Hollande responded that respecting human rights was not an obstacle to the struggle against terrorism but it rather helps fight it.

Human rights are not a constraint but also a way to fight terrorism, Holland said.

Al-Sisis regime is also accused of the death in February of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni whose body was covered with torture marks. Regenis death dealt a blow to ties between Egypt and Italy after Rome accused Cairo for failing to cooperate in the investigations to uncover the root cause of Regenis death. Rome this month recalled its envoy to Cairo to protest against Egyptian authorities lack of cooperation.

Asked about Regenis death, Sisi dismissed claims that the Italian student was killed by Egyptian security forces. Egypt was victim of the works of evil forces trying to bring down the state and its institutions, he said.

Regeni was last seen on January 25, marking the fifth anniversary of the Egyptian revolution. Egyptian authorities had then ramped up security level in the capital in a bid to prevent demonstrations called by political groups and activists to ouster al-Sisi.

Hollandes two-day visit was marked by the signing of several economic and military agreements, including a $1.4 billion deal to cover the expansion of the metro line in Cairo. Arm deals worth $1.0 Billion are also in the pipeline after months of negotiations.

Egypt has turned to France and Russia to beef up its military capability, after Washington became warry of human rights abuses and scaled down its military cooperation in the wake of 2013 military coup.

Egypt has already bought French Rafale warplanes and two Mistral helicopter carrier ships.
Ready for victory. Photo: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Donald Trump finished his Empire State campaign rallying supporters with Bills coach Rex Ryan in Buffalo, while Hillary Clinton schmoozed with Stephen Colbert in Manhattan, and Bernie Sanders completed his frenzied tour of all five boroughs. Then, as New Yorkers head to the polls today, Trump will dream of a delegate sweep, while Clinton makes the the final arrangements for the Sanders campaigns funeral, and Bernie backers pray for another Michigan miracle.

The most recent polls show each partys front-runner in a commanding position. A CBS News/YouGov poll puts Trump over Ohio governor John Kasich by 33 points, while an Emerson University poll puts him up by 34; in both surveys, the Donald commands over 50 percent. FiveThirtyEight puts the odds of a Trump victory tomorrow at greater than 99 percent. But that doesnt mean the mogul wont be wringing his tiny hands while waiting to hear the returns: The New York GOPs complex delegate-allocation rules may allow the Donalds rivals to diminish the significance of his win.

Heres the trouble for Trump: Each of New Yorks 27 congressional districts has three delegates to award. If the Donald clears 50 percent in a district, he lays claim to all three  but if he comes in anywhere below that threshold, even at 49 percent, he collects two delegates, and the runner-up takes one. According to a Politico poll released last week, Trump runs up big margins in Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, but hes stuck around 40 percent in many districts upstate. And then there are districts like Charlie Rangels up in Harlem, where the race will be decided by, approximately, two Republican families. The Politico poll suggests that Cruz and Kasich could scoop up as many as 24 of the states 95 delegates. With Trumps path to a pre-convention majority already claustrophobically narrow, the front-runner has to hope that late-deciders upstate give him a few more district-level landslides.

On the Democratic side, polls from over the weekend show the race tightening, but it will likely be too little, too late for the political revolution. A CBS News/YouGov poll from over the weekend puts Sanders within ten points, matching his best showing from a top-tier firm in the state. An Emerson University poll released Monday shows him trailing by 15  still up three points from last week and 33 points from last month, when Emerson gave Clinton a 48-point lead over the Vermont senator. Nonetheless, a RealClearPolitics average of all polls puts Clinton up by nearly 13, and FiveThirtyEight puts the odds of a Clinton victory in the Empire State at 99 percent.

If youre a Sandernista looking to keep your spirits up, there are a couple of things you can tell yourself. One, a Gravis poll from over the weekend shows Sanders within six points (though it was taken before Thursdays debate, and Gravis doesnt have the best reputation). Two, the night before Bernie won Michigan, RCPs average had Clinton up by more than 20 points, and Nate Silvers number crunchers gave her a 99 percent chance of victory. And, as usual, theres no shortage of grassroots energy on the democratic socialists side. Over the weekend, nearly 30,000 people came to hear the senator speak in Prospect Park.

Still, Sanderss historic upset in Michigan was made possible by the states open-primary system, which allowed impulsive younger voters to flock to the polls in large numbers. By contrast, New York has one of the most restrictive primaries in the country. If you didnt register with your party last October, you wont be able to cast a ballot this Tuesday  a fact Trumps children know all too well. Plus, to keep from falling further off-pace in the delegate race, Sanders would have to win New York by multiple percentage points  in Michigan he barely eked by Clinton.
Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Benjy Sarlin has an interesting report explaining how Trump fans took over Reddit. Part of what Sarlin discovers is that a key pro-Trump activist, who posts under the name CisWhiteMaelstrom, calculated that he could exploit a certain kind of anti-Trump outrage for the benefit of his candidate. Anything that branded the subreddit in opposition to the cultural left drew the attention of anti-PC Redditors, who recognized the sites prankish ethos as their own even if they had no prior interest in Trump and didnt think of themselves as conventional conservatives, reports Sarlin. Whenever the site turned up on groups like r/AgainstHateSubreddits that oppose offensive speech, Cis celebrated. He fanned the flames by sending outlandish messages to left-leaning forums demanding they stop talking about r/The_Donald, which of course had the opposite effect.

That is to say, CisWhiteMaelstrom identified opposition to political correctness as an issue he could use to broaden Trumps appeal. By provoking opponents to protest against his right to express himself, he attracted to his side people who were not originally inclined to support the substance of his opinion. The point is not that pro-Trump Redditors were actual victims of repression (theres no reason to believe they were) or that there is anything attractive about their beliefs or their methods. Supporting Trump just to show somebody they cant stop you is a bad reason to support Trump. (For that matter, any reason to support Trump is bad.) The point is, as a simple matter of political arithmetic, they understood that provoking protests against their right to express themselves would add to, rather than subtract from, their base of support.

Obviously, some people will always be inclined to use threats to their right to speak as an excuse to advocate outrageous views. But other people like the idea of rebelliousness and standing up against censorship, and the more convincingly any movement can depict itself as the victim of censorship, the more successfully it will recruit those attracted to this form of rebellion. In the 1950s, McCarthyist repression lent American communists the allure of the forbidden. Rather than being seen as pawns of a murderous dictatorship, communist sympathizers acquired the glamour of rebellious independent thought, and pride of place on the front lines of a cultural struggle on behalf of Americans aghast at McCarthy.

Trumps supporters dont need to fabricate the notion that they face a challenge to their right to express themselves. Some of their opponents are perfectly candid about this goal. Trumps rhetoric is an instigation to racist, anti-migrant and misogynist violence, one member of the Stop Trump Coalition, a coalition of activist groups attempting to shut down his speeches, told ThinkProgress. As a matter of self-defense and protection of New Yorkers, we intend to do what the citys elected so-called leaders refuse to do  and shut down Trump from spreading his hateful message. (Possibly the so-called leaders are aware of the First Amendment, which would seem to get in the way of things like public officials shutting down speeches by political candidates.)

Several organizers of confrontations against Trump described their thinking to Voxs Dara Lind for a reported story last month. The Stop Trump movement regards his candidacy as a terrifying threat akin to what occurred in Europe in the 1920s and 30s. Trump and Trumpism is an emboldened and public new Fascism, one organizer wrote, where there is a rising fascism there is a moral imperative to oppose and stop it. Yet the balance of evidence suggests that direct confrontations help rather than harm Trumps campaign. So if Trump truly poses such a dire threat to American democracy, wouldnt it be incumbent upon his opponents to pursue the most effective strategy against him and avoid helping him win?

Not necessarily. The Stop Trump activists not only shrug off the prospect that they will polarize the debate in such a way that enlarges Trumps support, but they actively welcome it. The disruptions polarize it in a way, Marisa Franco, one of the anti-Trump activists, tells Lind. People have to make a choice of where they stand. If they side with Trump, thats the gamble we have to take. Organizer Joseph Phelan adds, In this moment, we cannot win over Trump supporters. Nor can we necessarily win over fence sitters. Instead, Phelan proposed using confrontations with Trump supporters to consolidate our base and encourage actions, in particular by white people who want to be in solidarity.

The Stop Trump movements putative goal is actually a means to the true end of polarizing the debate in a way that increases its influence within the left. The Trump threat injects the element of fear into politics that allows radical activists to draw adherents to their side on the premise that the normal rules of politics no longer apply. The radicalization of the opposing side is an opportunity to radicalize their own.



What makes both Sarlins and Linds reporting so valuable is that, read side by side, they describe a perfectly symbiotic relationship between the Trumpian right and the illiberal left. Activists on both sides are candid about their belief that extremists on the other side benefit their own cause. The energy they draw by organizing against the radical target on the opposite end allows them to rally people who would ordinarily be hesitant to endorse them. One doesnt need to draw a moral parallel between their goals to grasp the strategic parallel in their methods. The two reports demonstrate a real-time, ground-level insight into a dynamic political activists understand and are able to exploit: Fear and repression feed upon themselves.
A gas-field development in southern Iran. Photo: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

Over the weekend, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to get the band back together for one more price-fixing scheme, 15 years after the groups last significant effort to coordinate output. With oil prices mired around $40 a barrel, Russia, Qatar, and Venezuela were hoping for a production freeze to avoid glutting the market any further. But Saudi Arabia decided it would rather accept deflating prices than risk ceding market share to Iran, and the deal collapsed. Now oil futures are dipping, American shale producers are sweating, and your summer energy bill is shaping up to be a bargain.

Newly freed from international sanctions, Iran is trying to regain a foothold in the global market and has no interest in sanctioning itself, Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters on Saturday. Thus, Tehran chose to back out of the meeting. And the Saudis have no intention of aiding Irans resurgence by turning off their own spigots.

The weekend talks are a demonstration that the Saudi government, as the deputy crown prince has clearly stated, doesnt want to cede market share, Ed Morse, head of global commodity research at Citigroup, Inc., told Bloomberg. They are fearful that the world may be in a weak or bearish market for a long period of time. In a bear market, as they learned from the 1980s, if they cede market share it is very difficult to get it back.

Oil prices hit multiyear lows in February, but had edged up in the months since. However, crudes recent rallies were spurred in part by optimism that an OPEC agreement would be reached. With no deal out of Doha, West Texas Intermediate fell to $38.70 a barrel on Monday.

The growing glut of Middle Eastern oil puts American shale producers in a tough spot. Since it costs more to extract oil from American shale than a Saudi oilfield, the surplus of cheap foreign supply will force cutbacks from U.S. producers. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects domestic crude production to fall an average of 8.6 million barrels a day in 2016 and 8 million barrels a day in 2017, according to MarketWatch.

OPEC will meet again in June. But barring a sudden reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia  or a historic collapse in crude prices  a summer deal seems unlikely.
After signing the bill, Wolf said today is a great day for Pennsylvanians. Photo: Jessica Kourkounis/2015 Getty Images

After signing a series of LGBT nondiscrimination orders earlier this month, Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf today signed a bill that legalizes medical marijuana in the state of Pennsylvania. The state is the 24th to enact a legal medical-marijuana program, and although it could take regulators up to two years to draft rules for retailers, a provision in the bill lets parents administer medical marijuana to their kids immediately. As Democratic senator Daylin Leach, who co-sponsored the bill, told the Associated Press, Marijuana is medicine, and its coming to Pennsylvania.

Like New Yorkers, residents of Pennsylvania will need a prescription to obtain medical marijuana, and theyre prohibited from smoking or growing it. They can, however, take it in pill, oil, vapor, ointment, or liquid form. The bill also puts a system in place for tracking marijuana plants and certifying physicians, growers, and dispensaries.

Although medical marijuana is legal in many East and West Coast states, most central and southern states have yet to pass bills enacting their own programs. Wolf said his states program was established in response to a real human need. He went on, When you have people who represent a cause as eloquently and in as heartfelt a way as the advocates for this have done, it shows that we can actually get something done that means something.
The FBIs NYPD corruption probe just got a bit juicier, if the New York Post is to be believed. The tabloid reported Monday that top police officials had sex with a prostitute while flying on a private jet allegedly paid for by a mayoral donor at the center of the investigation. The Feds are scrutinizing gifts and vacations that Brooklyn businessmen Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg allegedly gave some members of the department brass in exchange for police escorts and other favors. Both men raised money for the mayor, and the FBI probe also includes possible fund-raising corruption on the part of Bill de Blasios campaign.

Rechnitz allegedly paid for the round-trip flight, says the Post, which went between Teterboro Airport in Jersey and  where else?  Las Vegas sometime in 2014.

The Post, citing two unnamed sources, reports that two high-ranking cops had sex with the woman, who was dressed like a flight attendant. The story also names two police officials  a commanding officer in the 19th Precinct and a community-affairs officer in Brooklyn  who were allegedly on a Rechnitz-funded flight. Both men had already been put on modified duty in the fallout from the FBI probe. Both NYPD officers denied the Posts allegations, and Rechnitz also declined to comment on what the tabloid termed Jet Screw.
Photo: James Minchin/FX

Last week, Douglas Laux, a former CIA agent who spent eight years undercover  including a stint in Afghanistan  hosted a Reddit AMA in which he fielded questions about his time as a spy, his life since leaving the agency (Now Im just a cat owner with a PlayStation who likes to drink Capri Sun), and how he managed to keep such a big secret for as long as he did.

Laux, who recently published a memoir titled Left of Boom, told his family and everyone else that he was a low-level salesman (and since thats pretty boring, there truthfully werent a lot of other follow-up questions). Keeping his cover wasnt quite as drama-filled as it was for the Jennings, the KGB agents living as a suburban Virginia family in The Americans (a show produced by another former CIA officer)  much of the current season deals with the fallout after the married spies decide to reveal their true identities to their daughter  but he still made some missteps. When he learned he was headed to Afghanistan, he told his parents he was moving to Hawaii  a place so far away from their Midwestern home, he assumed, that theyd never try to come visit him.

Incidentally, he was wrong. They tried, a few times. And that wasnt the only snag he hit while trying to guard his secret:

Those closest to me always were suspicious. And those closest to me were always my girlfriends. They always thought I was cheating on them or in the mafia or selling drugs or something illicit. Which they would constantly point out but I just had to suck it up and deal with it. I talk about in my book how my girlfriend once found my Agency badge in my sock drawer (cool secret hiding spot huh?) and how I had to talk my way out of that disaster. Didnt go over so well.

My social life was robust, he explained in another answer, but do understand that came with a lot of stress that I brought upon myself. Consider, every new person I met was one more person I had to keep my secret from and weave another lie with. Ultimately, Laux was able to compartmentalize  I do not regret that my life was a fabricated lie, he said, because it was only my job that I was hiding from everyone.

Not everyone can handle this sort of secrecy as well as Laux did. In fact, the stress of constantly lying can lead some law-enforcement agents to emerge from undercover assignments with deep psychological scars. A 2006 paper in the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, for example, explained the mental toll that a double life can take: Psychologically, the essence of all undercover operations is the same, it reads. Officers knowingly and purposefully develop relationships that they will eventually betray with both the people theyre targeting and the people they meet in the context of their assumed identities. Many undercover officers find this dual betrayal a difficult road to walk, adding to the stressors already inherent in undercover work.

But beyond this paper, researchers knowledge of spy psychology  both what makes someone suited to the job in the first place and what the long-term effects of being a spy are  is fairly limited. Thats partly because its such a hard thing to study. A 2014 paper in the Intelligencer, the journal of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, pointed out that plenty of information about spies is classified by intelligence agencies that want to protect their methods. And then theres the problem of sample size: There just arent many current or former spies out there who can be corralled into submitting themselves for study.

Still, more general research on lying can shed some light on how some people effectively pull off fictional identities for so long. In 2014, a team of Dutch researchers compiled a list of 18 traits that make someone an effective liar. Some are fairly straightforward, like confidence, preparedness, and quick thinking. Others are slightly less intuitive  one item on the list, for example, was unverifiable responding, or knowing when to say I dont know to a question versus making up an answer that could later be debunked. Another was eloquence, or the ability to give answers so long and so winding that the questioner becomes confused.

And Laux, who lived a lie for the better part of a decade, had something else working in his favor. One of the other traits on the list was experience: The more you lie, the better at it you become.
Where did this picture come from? Whose dormroom was it taken in?

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It was a candid taken in his Elephant Man dressing room

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i would be sad if my dad died

but if my mom died i would be unable to go on

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this is me. I can't even imagine my life without my mom.

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Yeah, I fear that day :/ I will be inconsolable

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I will actually feel at peace when my dad dies but when my mom goes I am gonna find it really hard to function.

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Fuck American healthcare tbh.



My aunt has stage 4 lung cancer and her insurance has denied the requests of 3 different doctors for a PET scan.



Honestly, this is why I am so passionate about Sanders as a candidate.

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I'm so sorry about your mom.

US healthcare is the fucking worst.

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My aunt, not my mom, thank God. It's hard enough going through this with my aunt. I'd be a huge wreck if it were my mother going through this.

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our healthcare system is so economically inefficient and effs ppl over if they're sick





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When my Mum was dying of pancreatic cancer, she was denied a bed in a facility that would have been better for her than at home. The Insurance Company (Cigna, yeah, fuck you) tried giving my dad the run around, and he wasn't having it.



She ended up in hospice not long after, but I've never forgotten it. Or forgiven it.

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jfc, how this is not a human rights violation, idek. I can't believe insurance companies can get away with something like this.

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The MOST common reason Americans file for bankruptcy is due to medical bills, and of those people ~75% had health insurance! deplorable

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We need to fix this! Obama had good intentions with the ACA, but it was gutted and in the end, it's just served to make insurance companies richer.

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vote for Bernie

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I took an entire economics of healthcare class taught by a Canadian prof and it made me even more angry

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Our healthcare system is extremely inefficent. Healthcare is an inelastic good, so they can eff ppl over. Also, other countries with one provider are price setters and have power over healthcare corporations whereas our country is run by profit margins....



i had to pay over 10K in hospital bills for 2 outpatient visits when I had a life threatening blood clot but i can't imagine how much cancer would cost.

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If my dad had health insurance he would still be alive. Plain and simple. It wasn't that he couldn't afford it because he could have. The cheapest health care he could get was $800 a month and there was a laundry list of things they wouldn't cover. I think deep down inside he knew he was having a heart attack but refused to let anyone know because he didn't want to blow his savings on health care. He was only 51. Fuck the non existent American health care system. Fuck them right up the ass with Negan's Lucile.

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I am so sorry about your dad. I worry this will be my mother in a few years because she has some chronic conditions (lupus, apnoea) that she is seeking zero treatment for because there's just no money. The ACA did nothing for us because Georgia didn't expand Medicaid, so we live below the poverty line and can't afford to pay for health care, yet also do not qualify for anything from the government.

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I'm in GA too, look into the Kaiser Permanente Bridge Program. I got information about it through my school but it's available through a lot of their community partners too.

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Our healthcare system is extremely inefficent. Healthcare is an inelastic good, so they can eff ppl over. Also, other countries with one provider are price setters and have power over healthcare corporations whereas our country is run by profit margins....



i had to pay over 10K in hospital bills for 2 outpatient visits when I had a life threatening blood clot but i can't imagine how much cancer would cost.

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If my dad had health insurance he would still be alive. Plain and simple. It wasn't that he couldn't afford it because he could have. The cheapest health care he could get was $800 a month and there was a laundry list of things they wouldn't cover. I think deep down inside he knew he was having a heart attack but refused to let anyone know because he didn't want to blow his savings on health care. He was only 51. Fuck the non existent American health care system. Fuck them right up the ass with Negan's Lucile.

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I'm so sorry about your dad. My best friend's mom was uninsured and put off seeing a doctor due to not having the money for it. By the time she finally went to see a doctor, she was diagnosed with stage 3c ovarian cancer. She's beaten the odds and is still alive 4 years later. But fuck, if she didn't have to worry about the cost of medical care, they could have caught it MUCH earlier.

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I'm very happy for your friend that her mother survived.



Medical care in the states is a joke and health care insurance is an even bigger joke. These companies don't care about keeping you alive and healthy. They just want as much money from you as possible.

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im sorry

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my mom died in a hospice bed in my living room after a 2 month battle with lung cancer. the doctors wouldnt order tests they just told her she had a cough or she had allergies. it wasnt until the cancer spread to her brain and she woke up with a slur that took her a bit serious, but by serious i mean they gave her a shot for a migraine and sent her home 3 days in a row. fucking cancer is the worst.

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I'm so sorry about your Mom, I am here for you if you need to talk, PM me

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wow fuck those doctors, there are so many stories like this. sorry about your mom. </3

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i'm sorry bb <3 if you ever want to talk, pm me <3



you should also join us for Civil War opening night

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I'm so sorry to hear about your Mom. *hugs*

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I hate our healthcare system. It's so inefficient and doesn't really benefit many people. My hearing aids are not covered by health insurance and I need to get a new one really badly. Which of course means going to see my specialist and my audiologist and getting a hearing test. Only about half of that would be covered. This shit is ridiculous because it's not like a hearing aid is something I could do without. It's a legit necessity for me but they won't cover it. And fucking insurance companies for not allowing needed tests to be run for people. That's bullshit.

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I work in the biggest hospital in the south, so I thought I would be offered decent medical insurance, but when I started showing signs of MRSA after treating an infected patient, I could even afford to go to our ER because the deductible was so high

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Jesus! It's MRSA, were they angling for an epidemic?

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I had a patient a few weeks ago that had a MRSA infection all over her legs. Which I had to wash and then wrap up with the wound care nurse. Her legs we so heavy because of swelling and it was so hard to lift them up with just my hands because fuck no was I going to heave them up on my shoulder or use my chest to lean them against. Then I was paranoid the rest of the day about it. The hospital wouldn't cover it because you were infected there during work?

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They would only send me to our occupational health clinic, an np didn't even touch the spots that came up on my arm and said it might have been a spider that had "breakfast lunch and dinner and then breakfast lunch and dinner again"

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wtf.



i remember once i had a really bad bronchitis and had to go to the emergency room and they charged me over $2,000 just to sit in the doctor's office and be given a prescription for medication. luckily i had insurance but that shit is still ridiculous.

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That is just awful. I'm sorry that you had to go through that :/

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I had a health scare last October. Within about three weeks it seemed to clear itself up. I'm choosing to believe it did. Half because there's been no trace of the issue since and half because I haven't had insurance in about 12 years. Even the "free" clinics in my area are too expensive. So basically I'm just keeping a close eye on myself and hoping for the best. Obviously I'm in the US.

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There's so many horror stories about American healthcare. And here I am, feeling bad about paying $75 for a doctor's appointment because I can't have Medicaid on this permit.



As a socialist European I'm just super spoiled.

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healthcare should be considered a human right, not a luxury.

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exactly...it's disgusting that it's all about profit.

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amen

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Yup. It makes me so mad when people disagree with this.

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Yup

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People who dont think healthcare is a human right are such trash



I'm specifically thinking of this one republican Christian bitch I used to know

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This thread is scaring me with hospital/doctor horror stories.

I hope the next president does something to make healthcare better.

I just wish there were more candidates willing...

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Canadas oil production could see a small increase this year as several major projects that were planned before the collapse in oil prices reach their completion. But the project pipeline, so to speak, looks pretty empty beyond the current crop of projects under construction.





Canada produced 4.5 million barrels of oil per day (mb/d) in 2015, which could rise slightly to 4.6 mb/d this year and 4.8 mb/d in 2017 as a few major projects finish up. Related: The Great Glut: Why LNG Markets Might Not Balance Before 2025

However, according to the comments from several executives at the top oil sands companies  Suncor Energy, Cenovus Energy and Meg Energy  the megaprojects of yesteryear are likely a thing of the past. Speaking at the CAPP Scotiabank Investment Symposium in Toronto this week, the industry signaled its intent to scale down its ambitions. The years of large, multibillion-dollar projects are probably gone, Alister Cowan, CFO of Suncor, said on April 12. After the CAD$13 billion (USD$10 billion) Fort Hills project, which Suncor is developing along with Teck Resources, Suncor will probably pursue smaller, more modular-type projects.

The focus will shift on ways to cut costs, rather than on developing major new sources of production. For example, Suncor is looking at using radio waves to replace steam, and Cenovus and Meg are exploring the use of solvents to cut down on their use of steam in order to reduce expenses.

But Canadas oil industry has been hit hard by the downturn, and no amount of tinkering can make up for the enormous plunge in revenues from low oil prices. Collectively, Canadas oil and gas producers will be cash flow negative this year, with spending plans of around $30 billion, but revenues of just $17 billion. Related: Mexicos Clean Energy Market Is Surging

That likely means that companies will not only decline to undertake major new projects, but they also will likely stay away from them for quite a while even when oil prices rebound. There are balance sheets to be repaired, equipment to be fixed at $60 per barrel, Peter Tertzakian, chief energy economist and managing director at ARC Financial Corp., told The Financial Post. The board of directors and CEOs of companies arent going to immediately sanction new projects. The era of big oil projects is likely delayed at a minimum for several years.

The market is so depressed that when companies go to try and sell their assets to raise cash, they are having trouble finding willing buyers. Since mid-2014 as oil prices came down, it has been difficult to align buyers and sellers, said David Baboneau, managing director at Scotia Waterous, according to The Financial Post. It becomes increasingly difficult to get an agreement on asset pricing, when prices are dropping essentially day-to-day. Some Canadian companies are so concerned about not being able to find buyers for their assets that they are conducting negotiations privately so that the markets arent privy to potential failed deals. Related: Oil Slips While All Eyes Are On Doha

The fundamentals are so wrecked for so many companies that they are losing opportunities, said Ian Dundas, CEO of Enerplus Corp., a Calgary-based oil and gas producer. He also said that Enerplus divestitures are sorely needed to shore up the damaged finances. Balance sheet trumps growth, we are not drilling through inventory. Its the most difficult M&A market I can remember. It has been a hard market to deal with.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) released new figures on April 7, showing that Canada could see a decline in oil and gas spending by $50 billion in 2016 from 2014 levels, down from $81 billion to $31 billion. That would mark a 62 percent decline, the worst two-year showing for the industry since it started tracking data back in 1947. Also, the number of wells drilled will fall from 10,400 in 2014 to just 3,500 this year, a 66 percent decline.

The trade association said that more pipeline capacity was one of the most important objectives for the industry. The United States, our only customer and No. 1 competitor, is certainly not standing still, CAPP President Tim McMillan said. However, Keystone XL is dead, and several alternative routes are also facing an uphill battle. There are very few, if any, bright spots on the horizon for Canadas oil producers.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Necessity is the mother of invention and in the year ended December 31, 2015, adapting to a rapidly shrinking market was absolutely necessary for oilfield service (OFS) companies to survive. When OFS players fold or disappear, for whatever reason it always makes the news.

What is discussed less often is who survived the continuously contracting OFS market of 2015 and how they did it. Because no matter how bad business looks at the present time or the near future, it is useful to at least occasionally notice the glass is half full.

It is in this spirit of determined survival we examine the financial performance of 25 diversified Canadian OFS companies last year. There are numerous different businesses supporting multiple sectors of the upstream oil and gas industry. These companies had revenues ranging from $60 million to $1.8 billion, from comparatively small businesses to huge. Most had some sort of presence in markets outside of Canada, while five had meaningful revenue diversification outside of the oilpatch.

The financial performance of publicly traded OFS operators is analyzed continuously. The data is sliced and diced and presented in many ways. But most analysts focus on how much money these companies make, a key driver of value.

At MNP, we take a different approach, which is to focus on how OFS companies make money. Where the rubber hits the road for OFS is the margin between what companies can charge the client versus the direct expenses, or cost of goods sold (COGS). This is the primary measure of pricing power or pricing pressure and the companys ability to operate effectively, control costs or adapt to changing market conditions.

The following chart ranks success by each companys ability to grow, maintain or slow the decline of the gross margin on revenue  sales less direct expenses or COGS. These are the direct variable and direct fixed costs incurred to generate revenue. This most often includes field labor, fuel, expendables, repairs, subsistence, cash cost of product sold, maintaining field service locations, field administration and transportation (including field vehicles). Related: Why the Saudis Want a Deal in Doha

Some companies include depreciation and amortization in direct expenses and disclose it elsewhere, while others report it as a separate line item on the financial statements. Therefore, to normalize the comparative gross margins for companies that include it in direct expenses, depreciation and amortization have been deducted, thus increasing gross margin from what the companies publicly reported.

Gross margin does not include corporate fixed costs commonly called SG&A or sales, general and administrative expenses. SG&A is the fixed cost a company spends to run the organization, whether there is any revenue or not. Nor does gross margin including other expenses such as financing costs, foreign exchange or asset value restatements.

(Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

Source: Company reports SEDAR

Abbreviations: Mfg, Manufacturing; Svc, Services; Prod, Production; Enviro, Environmental

1  Company reports depreciation and amortization in cost of goods sold so this has been deducted from direct expenses for accurate comparison with companies who report depreciation and amortization as a line item elsewhere on their financial statements.

2  Company reports material business and operations outside of Canada.

3  Company reports revenue diversification into non-petroleum business sectors.

Color coding reflects margin maintenance success: green for increasing or holding year over year margin loss below 2%; yellow for holding margin loss below 6%, red for margin loss 7% or more Related: Oil Slips While All Eyes Are On Doha

Analysis

 Total revenue for the 25 companies in 2015 was $16.096 billion, 32.2 percent lower than $23.747 billion reported in 2014. Two companies reported year-over-year revenue declines exceeding 50 percent, eight companies reported over 40 percent, seven companies over 30 percent, five companies over 20 percent and only three companies enjoyed revenue declines of less than 20 percent. No companies grew revenue last year. Tough 12 months, by any measure.

 Pricing was a big factor in the contraction but it was difficult to calculate. Many exploration and production (E&P) companies have reported a 20 percent to 30 percent decline in their direct field expenses such as drilling, completion and tie-in costs. In their financial reports, OFS operators do not disclose whether the average 32.2 percent year-over-year revenue decline is because of reduced prices, less business or, most likely, a combination of both. It is certain E&P companies reduced their total well drilling and completion costs significantly through lower prices (many brag about this in their public disclosures). But operational efficiency and effectiveness has proven historically to be as or more important than individual input prices (do the job once, do it right, and have minimal to no standby time on location). E&P companies rarely admit their project management and logistical coordination capabilities are anything but outstanding. However, because neither E&P nor OFS companies report exactly why their costs or revenue declined, it is impossible to allocate the elements of reported lower E&P capital costs between price reduction and operational efficiency gains.

 Considering an average year-over-year revenue decline of 32.2 percent for these 25 companies, that the average gross margin decline was only 4 percent is a testament to the agility of OFS operators to slash costs when they must. Fuel prices were certainly lower and field wages were cut significantly. These are two major direct cost inputs. OFS operators also put pressure on their own supply chain for lower input costs. Doing less work allows higher utilization of the most skilled and experienced employees, the people OFS managers will try the hardest to retain. This means there is likely less downtime, unbilled hours or price adjustments based on operational mistakes. All these increase gross margin, even at lower prices. Related:The Great Glut: Why LNG Markets Might Not Balance Before 2025

 Of the 10 companies reporting gross margin increases year-over-year or decreases under 2 percent, half of them operated drilling and service rigs. Rig operators have a collapsible field labour force such that when the rig is not operating, variable direct labour charges fall to zero. Other OFS operators like pressure pumpers have been moving from a salary / bonus compensation model, where they pay field personnel something whether they are generating revenue or not, to a pay-when-you-work model more like rigs. Unfortunately, not everyone in OFS can be in the drilling and service rig business.

 The companies which endured the greatest reduction in gross margin were the three operating in the pressure pumping and hydraulic fracturing business; Canyon, Calfrac and Trican. Three companies in this essential but clearly overbuilt sector have gone into court bankruptcy protection in Canada in the past 15 months (GasFrac Energy Services Inc., Sanjel Corporation and Millennium Stimulation Services Ltd.). Having sold its U.S. and Eurasian operations, Trican is reported above as essentially serving only the Canadian market, though some smaller divisions may still operate outside of Canada.

 Of the 25 companies reviewed, only five reported a profit in the 2015 fiscal year: Shawcor Ltd., Mullen Group, Enerflex Ltd., Total Energy Services Inc. and Canadian Energy Services & Technology Corp. Shawcor actually reported higher profits in 2015 than 2014, despite a slight drop in revenue. Of the five, Shawcor and Mullen have revenue from clients and industries from outside of upstream oil and gas. Shawcor, Enerflex and Canadian Energy Services do significant business outside of Canada. Shawcor and Enerflex serve clients all over the world while Canadian Energy Services does its international business in the U.S. Only Total and Mullen reported no material business outside of Canada in their year-end 2015 financial disclosures.

Unfortunately, 2016 has started off even worse than last year. Due to continued low commodity prices and the expiration of higher priced commodity hedges (which sustained cash flow), E&P companies are continuing to reduce capital spending in 2016. While crude oil is showing some signs of potential recovery, natural gas prices in Canada are severely depressed because of high storage levels and competition from U.S. sources like the Marcellus shale in historic markets such as eastern Canada. With spring break-up underway, there is no indication OFS business will improve in the short term. A meaningful oil price increase could change the outlook in the second half of the year.

However, the above figures certainly demonstrate OFS operators will do what they must when they must to sustain their businesses and the viability of operations. As awful as it looks, the ability of these companies to hold their average gross margin loss to only 4 percent, when as nearly one-third of their business disappeared, due to lower capital spending and severe client pricing pressure is a testament to the skill and determination of these companies, their executives and their management teams.

That doesnt mean the operational adjustments made in 2015 are sustainable. Margins were held because workers with no options took pay cuts; repairs and maintenance investments were delayed on equipment that was parked, and vendors in the supply chain were ground down to rates that wont stand the test of time.

If and when E&P companies want to go back to work, they will have to pay more. That said, the foregoing data indicates at least there will be somebody there to answer the phone when they call.

By David Yager for Oilprice.com

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Seventy-seven years after Gene Autry recorded back in the saddle again, and the bears are in control to start the week. Although an oil strike in Kuwait is helping to temper losses, the sucker-punch provided by the collapse of production freeze talks in Doha yesterday has the bears taking the reins today.

The latest CFTC data out on Friday showed that speculative net long positions in WTI crude oil increased ahead of the Doha meeting. Once again, however, the increase was driven by hedge funds becoming less bearish as opposed to mo bullish.

Bearish bets  aka short positions  shrank by 18 percent last week, while long positions increased by a mere 0.8 percent. Nonetheless, the increase in net-longs illustrates that expectations of a production freeze from the Doha meeting were weirdly high. Related: Half Of Kuwaiti Oil Production Offline After Massive Strike

(Click to enlarge)

Crudes losses today are being kept in check by news from Kuwait. A strike by Kuwaiti oil workers, kicked off yesterday, is severely impacting production from the nation. Output is said to have dropped by over 60 percent down to just 1.1 million barrels per day, as thousands of workers have walked out. Related: Saudi Arabia Kills Doha Deal, Talks Fall Apart

To put this in some context, our ClipperData shows that Kuwaiti loadings averaged 1.86 million bpd last year, with nearly 80 percent of this volume heading to Asia. South Korea was the leading destination, then the usual suspects of India and China. The U.S. was the fifth-largest recipient of Kuwaiti crude, with crude oil loadings averaging over 200,000 bpd.

Finally, I was out on CNBC Squawk Box this morning, discussing how the wheels of rebalancing are already in motion for the global oil market, as non-OPEC supply is already falling. Related: Canadas Oil Industry To See 62% Decline In Investment

Hot on the heels of the drop in U.S. production below 9 million bpd last week (h/t the EIA inventory report) comes the latest forecast from the IEA. It shows that the drop in non-OPEC supply should accelerate through the duration of the year and into 2017. Regardless, of Doha, the market is starting to rebalance.

(Click to enlarge)

By Matt Smith

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Its a tricky game that Premier Oil is playing in the ultra-expensive North Sea, but is it finally paying off?

Premier Oil, the independent UK exploration company, has announced its first test output from the offshore Solan field near Shetland. The news comes after a delay of several months, due to harsh weather conditions. The company has set a daily target of between 20,000 and 25,000 bpd. Regular production is planned to start in mid-2016.

When maximum production rates at Solan are reached, it will yield about a third of Premier Oils current daily output, which at the end of 2015 stood at 57,600 barrels per day. For this year, the company projects average daily output of 65,000-70,000 bpd. Related: Are We On The Right Track To An Oil Price Recovery?

Three years ago, or even two, the news about such a major contributor to overall production would have sent Premium Oils stock sky-high. But two years ago, oil was trading in three-figure territory. Now, after reaching a trough of $27, it has rebounded, pulling up oil-company shares with it, yet nowhere near past levels: Premier Oil has lost 90 percent of its value over the last five years.

Premier reported a net loss of $1.1 billion for 2015, on revenues of the same size, because of non-cash impairments worth $583.5 million regarding inaccurate oil price predictions, and those principally relating to the Solan field, the company said in the press release announcing its 2015 financial results. Related: Will China's Slowing Economy Stall The Silk Road Project?

Like its peers, Premier is now streamlining its operation and cutting costs, which is perhaps why its acquisition of E.ONs North Sea assets came as a surprise. Its true that now is the perfect time to buy oil assets, as they are being sold cheaper than they would have been at the height of oils latest Golden Age, when a barrel traded at $140. However, it is also true that North Sea oil in the British shelf has the highest production costs in the world. Even with the abolition of the Petroleum Revenue Tax.

Premier Oil also said in its 2015 financial report that it has hedged around a third of its 2016 production at $73.40 a barrel, which is pretty high given the current price environment. The Doha meeting on Sunday is not really expected to lead to anything more substantial than a general agreement to freeze oil output. Whats more, Saudi Arabia has made it clear that it will not undertake a production freeze if Iran doesnt join it, which it wont. This deepens the pointlessness of the endeavor. Related: This Is How Oilfield Services Are Surviving Low Oil Prices

On Monday, prices will dive (unless something else happens over the weekend), despite the lack of any great expectations for the meeting. Improvements in the near future are always a possibility, but their degree will most probably be modest and will continue to be modest until the global glut starts showing some actual signs of subsiding.

Premier Oil can sleep safe in the knowledge that it has a significant hitherto untapped source of new oil. Thats good to know for the long-term future. Over the short-term, however, its basically the same with or without Solan  there is still too much oil to sell and too few buyers.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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The Doha talks came and went yesterday. With little to show after Saudi Arabia largely refused to take action on oil output cuts without the cooperation of Iran.

But even as OPEC leaders were meeting in Qatar, a potentially bigger story for crude broke in a completely different spot.

Kuwait  OPECs fourth-largest oil producer.

That was the spot of a surprise strike by the countrys oil workers. With key union Oil & Petrochemical Industries Workers Confederation directing about 6,000 of its total 13,000 members to stand down from their jobs Sunday at Kuwaits oil fields and refineries.



Related: Canadas Oil Industry To See 62% Decline In Investment

The walk-off Sunday morning had an immediate and massive effect on Kuwaits oil production. With officials from Kuwait Oil Company saying that Kuwaits crude output has now been reduced to just 1.1 million barrels per day  down 61 percent from the 2.81 million b/d that Kuwait averaged last month.

This kind of strike action is extremely unusual within the Middle East oil-producing nations. And highlights some of the challenges these producers are facing right now because of lower crude prices.



Related: Saudi Arabia Kills Doha Deal, Talks Fall Apart

The Kuwait workers strike comes after national petroleum firms cut wages and benefits for its employees. Almost certainly a consequence of lower oil revenues biting into the bottom line for these companies, and requiring drastic cost-saving measures.

But the strike shows that making such financial adjustments isnt going to be easy. Putting more pressure than ever on leaders in Kuwait and the rest of OPEC to take action in trying to bring oil prices back up.

Kuwaits officials said they have enough supply to meet domestic demand and export commitments for the time being. But if the strike drags on, the situation could become more dire  watch for announcements on negotiations between workers and oil companies. And for upward momentum in the oil price if this supply disruption becomes longer-term.

Heres to making everybody happy.

By Dave Forest

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The Wisconsin Council on Children and Families (WCCF) has released a report finding that, after falling to a record low, the number of children killed by guns in Wisconsin has risen in recent years.

The rate of children killed by guns in Wisconsin rose 31 percent between 2008 and 2010 and 2012-14, while the national rate dropped seven percent over the same period. Firearms are now the third leading cause of injury death for Wisconsin children, and they have killed more children than drowning, fires and falls combined.

According to the report: "Every time a child in Wisconsin dies from injuries inflicted by a gun, the loss is felt on multiple levels. The family suffers the most obvious loss, as it grieves the demise of one of its youngest members. But the community also loses, as it must bear the burden of recognizing that children in the community may not be safe, with African American communities bearing an especially large burden from losing children to gun violence. The entire state loses as well when the potential of a child who will never reach adulthood is wasted."

The report also says that Wisconsin has made significant progress in keeping children safe from firearms, but still has a long way to go. Between 1999 and 2014, 408 children in Wisconsin were killed by guns, including 21 children in 2014. Put another way, a child has died from injuries inflicted by a firearm about once every two weeks in Wisconsin since 1999.

Children of all races are killed by guns in Wisconsin, but African-American children are much more likely to be killed by guns than other children. Black children are nearly five times as likely to be killed than their white-non-Hispanic peers and are 42 percent more likely to die from guns than black children in other states.

Its unclear what is causing the increase in child gun deaths and why there are higher rates among black children, but what is clear is that action must be taken or there is the risk that the number of children killed by guns will grow.

"People in our state hold passionate and differing opinions about guns, but we can all agree that no child should be killed by a firearm. Lets protect our children by working together to find common sense solutions that will prevent the death of Wisconsins youngest residents," said Ken Taylor, WCCF executive director.

There are a number of policies and practices that can be adopted to push the number of child deaths to a new low and ultimately reduce the number of child fatalities to zero, including:

Directing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct research on the best ways to keep children and others safe from guns

Designing guns in way that would make them more difficult to operate by children and other unauthorized users

Improving storage techniques of guns in homes

Encouraging families to talk to their doctor about gun safety and storage

Broadening penalties for owners who are careless with their guns

"The somewhat cavalier approach that this state and our nation as a whole are taking in the light of the epidemic of gun related violence and death is appalling. We must redouble our effort to require licensing, competency, education and training of any and all purchases of firearms," said Reverend Willie Brisco, president of Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope.
Reprinted from Counterpunch

A couple weeks ago the Wall Street Journal confirmed our worst fears about the student loan program, that is, that it was going to blow up in the government's face just like all the other gigantic debt-bubbles that preceded it. For the sake of background, here's a brief excerpt from the article that will bring readers up-to-date:

"More than 40% of Americans who borrowed from the government's main student-loan program aren't making payments or are behind on more than $200 billion owed, raising worries that millions of them may never repay. "The new figures represent the fallout of a decade long borrowing boom as record numbers of students enrolled in trade schools, universities and graduate schools. "While most have since left school and joined the workforce, 43% of the roughly 22 million Americans with federal student loans weren't making payments as of Jan. 1, according to a quarterly snapshot of the Education Department's $1.2 trillion student-loan portfolio." (More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren't Making Payments, Wall Street Journal)

While it all sounds very shocking, the real eye-popper was buried deep in the text where it was most likely to be ignored. Here it is:

"Carlo Salerno, an economist who studies higher education and has consulted for the private student-lending industry, noted that the government imposes virtually no credit checks on borrowers, requires no cosigners and doesn't screen people for their preparedness for college-level course work. 'On what planet does a financing vehicle with those kinds of terms and those kinds of performance metrics make sense,' he said." (WSJ)

Let's see if I got this right: The Fed, government regulators and the entire political establishment looked the other way while the mortgage industry cranked out trillions of dollars of "toxic" subprime liar's loans that Wall Street bundled into garbage bonds that wound up blowing up the entire global financial system and plunging the world into a severe recession from which we still haven't recovered. Then, a couple years later, they start pumping up another lethal trillion-dollar credit bubble, this time comprised of equally toxic "student liar's loans"?

Is that what they're saying?

That's it, alright. This is why there should be blanket amnesty for all the student debt generated in the last decade. It's because the whole thing was another filthy credit-swindle from the get go.

And let's be honest; it's not the government lenders who were scammed in this deal, it's the students. They're the victims, in the same way that the applicants, who borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars for mortgages they could never repay, were the victims. The lender is ALWAYS responsible when a loan that goes belly up. ALWAYS. Because it's their freaking job to figure out who can pay and who can't. Period. That's all they do, lend money. And they're pretty damn good at it too, when they actually expect to get repaid, which in this case, they don't. That's why we know it's a scam.

So now we're supposed to believe that no one could have foreseen this trainwreck ahead of time. Is that it? Is that what Obama and the media and the rest of the crooked financial establishment want us to believe; that no one could have known that 40 percent of the borrowers were going to "stiff" the government?

Baloney. The handwriting was on the wall from the very beginning. Take a look at this interview I did with professor Alan Nasser in 2011.
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If you already like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, you'll love her after seeing this We hear things that are stunning, urgent, challenging and sometimes humorous from this new congresswoman almost every day. And almost every day, more Americans wonder why we can't just lower the age for presidential candidates to 29. Here's AOC's latest GOP ass-whoopin', courtesy of a C-SPAN clip Wednesday, March 27, 2019We hear things that are stunning, urgent, challenging and sometimes humorous from this new congresswoman almost every day. And almost every day, more Americans wonder why we can't just lower the age for presidential candidates to 29. Here's AOC's latest GOP ass-whoopin', courtesy of a C-SPAN clip

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Barr summary of Mueller report is quite narrow, possibly slanted, and still very, very disappointing Donald Trump got a pass. He will walk away from this not just free from consequence, but emboldened in the idea that he really is above and beyond any rules. And on the possible charge of obstruction, he got a very special intervention from Barr, who had advertised this part of the pass in his job application to be attorney general. Sunday, March 24, 2019Donald Trump got a pass. He will walk away from this not just free from consequence, but emboldened in the idea that he really is above and beyond any rules. And on the possible charge of obstruction, he got a very special intervention from Barr, who had advertised this part of the pass in his job application to be attorney general.

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Roger Stone Breaks Gag Order, Tells Vice News Cohen Testimony "Entirely Untrue" UPDATE2 Stone was told by Judge Amy Berman Jackson that he could not "talk publicly about the investigation or the case or any of the participants in the investigation or the case. Period." Stone blew that immediately. Friday, March 1, 2019Stone was told by Judge Amy Berman Jackson that he could not "talk publicly about the investigation or the case or any of the participants in the investigation or the case. Period." Stone blew that immediately.

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Hidden History: The Mexican-American War In 1844, the central issue in American politics was Texas. For several decades, the area of Texas (then a part of Mexico) had been steadily settled by immigrants from America some of them legally, some not. By 1836, most of the population was American, and in an armed rebellion, the "Republic of Texas" declared its independence from Mexico and asked the United States to annex it as a state. Monday, February 18, 2019In 1844, the central issue in American politics was Texas. For several decades, the area of Texas (then a part of Mexico) had been steadily settled by immigrants from America some of them legally, some not. By 1836, most of the population was American, and in an armed rebellion, the "Republic of Texas" declared its independence from Mexico and asked the United States to annex it as a state.

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Impeachment is NOT the best punishment for Trump. This is. Impeachment is NOT the best punishment for Trump. This is. Tuesday, May 29, 2018Impeachment is NOT the best punishment for Trump. This is.

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Fox News Turns Against Donald Trump for the Worst Imaginable Reason Trump whined about having to sign a bill that was so chock-full of crap he didn't like. He said that he would never sign another bill like this one, and most Americans probably hope that's true. The spectacle of Trump lambasting a bill as he was signing it is actually a rather good depiction of his pitiful proclivity for failure. Sunday, March 25, 2018Trump whined about having to sign a bill that was so chock-full of crap he didn't like. He said that he would never sign another bill like this one, and most Americans probably hope that's true. The spectacle of Trump lambasting a bill as he was signing it is actually a rather good depiction of his pitiful proclivity for failure.

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The Frontline in the Battle for the Soul of the Democratic Party We're fighting a system that keeps the poor impoverished, makes the sick bankrupt and keeps the well-connected in power. The people of the Lehigh Valley can't afford any more of what the corporate Democrats are selling. Monday, March 5, 2018We're fighting a system that keeps the poor impoverished, makes the sick bankrupt and keeps the well-connected in power. The people of the Lehigh Valley can't afford any more of what the corporate Democrats are selling.

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UPDATE: Senate health repeal FAILS the Byrd Rule; Freedom Caucus throws in the towel! The GOP Senate version of Obamacare repeal, known as BCRA, does not meet the requirements of the Byrd Rule in many important areas, according to a ruling from the Senate Parliamentarian. Those provisions would have to be removed from the bill in order for the bill to pass under "reconciliation" rules, i.e., the "Byrd Rule". Sunday, July 23, 2017The GOP Senate version of Obamacare repeal, known as BCRA, does not meet the requirements of the Byrd Rule in many important areas, according to a ruling from the Senate Parliamentarian. Those provisions would have to be removed from the bill in order for the bill to pass under "reconciliation" rules, i.e., the "Byrd Rule".

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Paul Ryan tries to deflect on leak that implicates him in a Russia cover-up Paul Ryan tries to deflect on leak that implicates him in a Russia cover-up Sunday, May 21, 2017Paul Ryan tries to deflect on leak that implicates him in a Russia cover-up

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Krugman: Yes, Republicans Are Perfectly Willing To Betray This Country. It is difficult to say which is more appalling--the thoroughly bizarre, flailing behavior of the current Occupant of the White House in attempting to justify this week's shocking actions, or the stone-cold silence of the political Party that is backing him. Paul Krugman in today's New York Times has some choice words about the Republican members of the Congress and Senate who have chosen to stand mute Sunday, May 14, 2017It is difficult to say which is more appalling--the thoroughly bizarre, flailing behavior of the current Occupant of the White House in attempting to justify this week's shocking actions, or the stone-cold silence of the political Party that is backing him. Paul Krugman in today's New York Times has some choice words about the Republican members of the Congress and Senate who have chosen to stand mute

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Eric Trump explains that his father fired missiles because Ivanka was upset after railing that Obama should stay out of Syria, stay out of Syria, and stay out of Syria despite the fact that more than 1,400 people had died in that earlier chemical weapons attack, Trump's tiny heart finally thawed after an attack an order of magnitude smaller. Why? Wednesday, April 12, 2017after railing that Obama should stay out of Syria, stay out of Syria, and stay out of Syria despite the fact that more than 1,400 people had died in that earlier chemical weapons attack, Trump's tiny heart finally thawed after an attack an order of magnitude smaller. Why?

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A Future to Believe In I want to talk about why I will be going to my county convention in Washington as a proud delegate for Sanders. I want to talk about why I look him up at least twenty times today. I want to talk about why any of you who are Sanders supporters should continue to stand by him as well, instead of losing hope, getting depressed, and walking away. I want to talk about why the established forces should listen too. Thursday, April 21, 2016I want to talk about why I will be going to my county convention in Washington as a proud delegate for Sanders. I want to talk about why I look him up at least twenty times today. I want to talk about why any of you who are Sanders supporters should continue to stand by him as well, instead of losing hope, getting depressed, and walking away. I want to talk about why the established forces should listen too.

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Hillary Victory Fund: $2 million for downballot Dems, $22 million for Hillary Politico has an interesting report, especially in light of the constant refrain that Hillary has raised 10s of millions for downballot Dems while Bernie is all about himself. First of all, this "Victory Fund" is usefully structured as a cozy "joint fundraising committee", letting it skirt like a ballerina around otherwise onerous campaign finance laws: Sunday, April 17, 2016Politico has an interesting report, especially in light of the constant refrain that Hillary has raised 10s of millions for downballot Dems while Bernie is all about himself. First of all, this "Victory Fund" is usefully structured as a cozy "joint fundraising committee", letting it skirt like a ballerina around otherwise onerous campaign finance laws:

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Thank You Hillary - My Choice is Easy Now HIllary would be the better candidate, but... Wednesday, January 20, 2016HIllary would be the better candidate, but...

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DNC Data Breach Reveals a Lot More Than Hillary's (and Maybe Bernie's) Campaign Data The fact that the DNC data breach happened, and that the Sanders lawsuit is apparently continuing, may end up being good for Democrats as a whole and for all Democratic campaigns going forward. The data breach is shining a light not just on the technology vendor at the heart of the issue, but also on the extreme level of control over candidates it has put into the hands of the head of the DNC. Saturday, December 26, 2015The fact that the DNC data breach happened, and that the Sanders lawsuit is apparently continuing, may end up being good for Democrats as a whole and for all Democratic campaigns going forward. The data breach is shining a light not just on the technology vendor at the heart of the issue, but also on the extreme level of control over candidates it has put into the hands of the head of the DNC.

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Govt set up helpline for Hajj Scheme

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony has set up a helpline to promptly respond to the queries of the intending pilgrims about the Government Hajj Scheme.



According to official sources in the ministry, the intending pilgrims can get quick answers to their questions about Hajj by dialling 051-9205696.



Designated branches of the eight scheduled banks  Habib Bank Limited, Muslim Commercial Bank, Meezan Bank, Bank Al-Falah, Bank of Punjab, Allied Bank, United Bank Limited and the National Bank of Pakistan  are set to receive applications from the people who want to go to Hajj under the government scheme from today (April 18).



The ministry has asked the intending pilgrims to mention their mobile numbers and complete residential addresses on their Hajj forms to enable the ministry to intimate them through SMS, telephone call or letter in case their names are chosen in the balloting scheduled on April 29. The successful applicants could also see the status of their applications on ministrys website www.mora.gov.pk or www.hajjinfo.org. At least 83,440 people would go to Hajj this year from Pakistan under the Government Hajj Scheme.



The banks may receive applications from groups of up to 14 people each through group leaders. The group leader would be responsible for leading and facilitating his group members as per instructions issued by the ministry. This year the successful pilgrims would be chosen on the basis of groups through balloting.



The basic aim of forming Hajj groups is to make coordinated arrangements for pilgrims training, travel and accommodation in Makkah and Madina.



A group could have the strength of 14 persons. Family persons or close relatives are permitted to form a group. This will help them live and travel together in Saudi Arabia. However, a person who applies individually will also be considered a group. All members of a group will have the same application number, travel plan and sect and they will submit their Hajj applications to the same branch of the bank. The ministry will not be responsible for any inconvenience caused by a mistake.



The name of the group leader and his deputy should be mentioned on each Hajj form. A woman and her mahram (a family member whom she cannot marry under the Islamic Sharia) should be in the same group. Feeble and aged pilgrims should have a person to help them during their stay in Saudi Arabia.



Any person who performed Hajj in the last five years will not be eligible for Hajj 2016, barring few exceptions such as a person going to Hajj with a woman as her mahram.



The applicants must have machine readable passports valid up to March 10, 2017 to avoid any inconvenience, said the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony.



According to the Hajj Policy 2016, the applicants not having valid machine-readable passports would not be chosen for Hajj this year. The applicants must also have computerised national identity cards and medical certificates.
Raza Rabbani rejected heading a parliamentary commission on Panama Papers

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Sunday rejected the possibility of heading a parliamentary commission constituted to probe revelations made in the Panama Papers earlier this month.



Responding to Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Khursheed Shahs assertion that the Senate chairman was the most suitable person to head the commission, Rabbani said he was not available for consideration amongst other probables and called for speculation on the matter to cease.



In my capacity as Senate chairman, I am the custodian of the rights of the Senate in particular and parliament in general. Such a position may have the potential of creating a conflict of interest, he said.



I lack expertise in the field of investigation of white collar crimes, he said, adding that the Panama leaks inquiry involves complicated questions of facts, laws and cross-jurisdictions which require specialisation in the said fields.



Khursheed Shah had earlier said he considered Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani as the most suitable person to head a parliamentary commission, as opposed to the proposed judicial commission, to investigate the Panama leaks.



Shah said the PPP had reservations over Justice Usmani, whose name was making the rounds as the one to head the judicial commission to probe the Panama leaks, since his wife was affiliated with the PML-N.
Migrants arrive by Turkish cruise boat near village of Skala, Lesbos island Greece, Monday November, 16, 2015.The Turkish boat owner delivered some 150 persons to the Greek coast and tried to escape back to Turkey, he was arrested later in Turkish waters. Photo  Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times.

Two photo teams have won Pulitzer Prizes for Breaking News Photography this year: one prize went to Mauricio Lima, Sergey Ponomarev, Tyler Hicks and Daniel Etter of The New York Times and the second went to the photography staff of Thompson Reuters. The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography went to Jessica Rinaldi of The Boston Globe. The prizes were announced this afternoon at the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York.

Lima, Ponomarev, Hicks and Etter were recognized for their work that captures the resolve of refugees and the perils of their journeys, as well as the struggles of host countries to take them in, according to the Pulitzer citation.

Thompson Reuters has been recognized for its photographs that follow migrant refugees hundreds of miles across uncertain boundaries to unknown destinations, the Pulitzer Board noted.

 Jessica Rinaldi for The Boston Globe

Rinaldi won the Feature Photography prize for her story about a boy who strives to find his footing after abuse by those he trusted. The finalist for the award was the Photography Staff of The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina.

The Pulitzer Committee says that it received more 1,100 journalism entries for this years prizes.

Related: 2015 Photography Pulitzers Go to Daniel Berehulak, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Staff (for PDN subscribers)

How Winning a Pulitzer Changed Deanne Fitzmaurices Career

Josh Haner, Tyler Hicks Win 2014 Pulitzer Prizes for Photography
The Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation and its partners recently hosted the 7th annual Mai Khao Marine Turtle Release Ceremony which took place during the Songkran Festival on April 13, 2015 from 2.30 pm  4.30 pm. The Phuket Vice Governor, Mr. Khajornkiet Rakpanichmanee was a guest of honour and participated The Thai New Year celebration at JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa. Furthermore, the Mai Khao Turtle Foundation also has organized the exclusive Turtle release programs on April 15 and 16 from 9 am  10 am together with IUCN for this year. The event was supported by the Phuket Marine Biological Center and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Songkran Festival is also known as The Thai New Year and Sea turtles represent longevity in Thai culture and releasing animals to nature is believed to bring good luck to the participant. On this occasion, 30 new batch of rehabilitated green turtles stepped into the Andaman Sea, with thousand eyewitness of Phuket residents and hotel guests were cheering and waving them the farewell.

All monies have raised through donations during the event, it went towards supporting the Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation and its partners: the Phuket Marine Biological Centres injured Turtle Rehabilitation Program and the Third Naval Area Commands Turtle Hatchery Program.

37 Turtles were released to the Andaman Sea as a significant sign of the Songkran Festival or Thai New Year on April 13 at JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spas beachfront.

(1st left  stand) Mr. Karl Hudson, Area Vice President SE, Marriott International

(2nd left) Captain Sathaporn Wajarat, Deputy Director of Phukets Interanal Security Operations Command

(3rd left) Mr. Khajornkiet Rakpanichmanee, Phuket Vice Governor

(centre) Dr. Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, Head of Endangered Species Unit, PMBC

(3rd right) Mr. Uthit Limsakul, Assistant Director of TAT Phuket office

(2nd right  stand) Mr. Vitoon Dechpramualpol, Intendent of Sirinart National Park

(1st right-stand) Mr. Oriol Montal, General Manager, JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa

Mr. Khajornkiet Rakpanichmanee, Phuket Vice Governor gave an opening speech at the 7th annual Mai Khao Marine Turtle Release Ceremony on Songkran Day at JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa

Songkran Festival Celebration  The Rod Nam Dum Hua Ritual on Songkran day also known as the National Elderly day: Mrs. Lily Muttarak (right), Assistant House Keeping Manager was pouring fragrant water into Mr. Oriol Montal (left), General Managers palms as a gesture of humility and got for his blessings.
A schematic portraying the structure of MraY (in green and brown), an essential enzyme in bacterial cell wall synthesis. The enzyme is bound to the antibiotic muraymycin (magenta) which is overlaid on an image of a brick wall that symbolizes the bacterial cell wall. Drugs that bind MraY can inhibit bacterial cell wall synthesis. Credit: Ben Chung

Antibiotic-resistant infections are a growing threat to public health, striking about 2 million Americans each year and killing at least 23,000 of them. Microbes are rapidly evolving resistance to existing drugs, making the need for newer, more potent antibiotics greater than ever.

Now, researchers have discovered the structure of a well-established target for antibiotic development, an enzyme called MraY, as it is bound to the natural antibacterial muraymycin. The results show that the enzyme dramatically changes its shape to reveal a hidden binding pocket, which muraymycin connects to like a two-pronged plug inserting into a socket.

The study, published April 18, 2016 in Nature, provides important structural information for designing broad-spectrum antibiotics that target an enzyme essential to every known strain of bacteria, including those that cause tuberculosis and MRSA.

"Nature has evolved a number of ways to inhibit this enzyme, but researchers haven't been able to mimic their properties in the laboratory," said senior study author Seok-Yong Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry at Duke University School of Medicine. "Here, we provide a platform for understanding how these natural inhibitors work, with the degree of molecular detail necessary to accelerate drug development."

Many of the most widely used antibiotics were derived from substances concocted by soil-dwelling bacteria and fungi to poison their microbial competitors. The discovery of these natural products led some leaders in the scientific community to announce an end to infectious diseases, but those predictions proved premature as more stubborn, drug-resistant forms of bacteria emerged. But rather than keeping up with the need, antibiotic development has stagnated in recent decades. The World Health Organization now warns that society is on the cusp of a post-antibiotic era, where millions of people could die from previously curable diseases.

Structural biology provides a glimmer of hope. By capturing the interactions between bacteria and their natural killers, Lee believes that he can provide the inspiration for developing new and improved drugs. For instance, five different naturally-occurring antibiotics target MraY, an enzyme responsible for building up the cell wall to shield bacteria from outside attack. However, without knowing the structures involved, researchers have been unable to develop drugs with the same effects.

Almost three years ago, Lee solved the atomic structure of MraY. The finding, which was published in the journal Science, represented a critical first step to understanding how to disable the bacterial enzyme.

In this study, Lee took the next step by visualizing the structure of MraY while it was locked in an embrace with the natural antibiotic muraymycin. He used a tool known as X-ray crystallography to generate an atomic level three-dimensional picture of this complex. When Lee compared the structures of MraY on its own versus when it was bound by muraymycin, he was surprised to find they were quite different. The enzyme essentially changed its shape to accommodate its inhibitor.

"This is not the relationship that we typically see between enzymes and their substrates or inhibitors," Lee said. "We usually think of the lock and key model, where there is a clearly defined shape for the inhibitor that fits into a corresponding shape on the surface of the enzyme. Instead, we found that this enzyme undergoes a dramatic conformational change upon binding to this inhibitor to expose a binding pocket that was not apparent before."

Lee used various molecular biology and biochemistry techniques to figure out which interactions were important to maintain the connection between MraY and its inhibitor. Basically, he found that muraymycin connects to the once-hidden pocket like a two-pronged plug inserting into a childproof outlet. Next, Lee plans to repeat the same experiments with other inhibitors of MraY.

"Many natural product inhibitors bind and inhibit this enzyme in a different way, by a different mechanism," he said. "If we understand every possible mechanism of inhibition of this enzyme, then we may be able to translate that knowledge into the development of drugs that can target it with the most specificity."

Explore further Scientists blueprint antimicrobial candidate that may stem post-antibiotic tide

More information: Ben C. Chung et al. Structural insights into inhibition of lipid I production in bacterial cell wall synthesis, Nature (2016). Journal information: Science , Nature Ben C. Chung et al. Structural insights into inhibition of lipid I production in bacterial cell wall synthesis,(2016). DOI: 10.1038/nature17636
Kiya Riverman peers at ice crystals growing from the ceiling of an ice cave in the Larsbreen glacier in Svalbard, Norway. Credit: Ethan Welty

Dropping into an ice cave is like entering another world: There's no wind, no ambient sound, and no discernible smellunless you're eating a peanut butter sandwich; then the scent tends to overwhelm the cold, dark space. Headlamps light up sparkling rooms of ice crystals, towering waterfalls, and narrow passages, while heavy ski boots leave footsteps behind where no other human has ventured.

"It's kind of just you and the ice down there, and I love that," said Kiya Riverman, a Penn State graduate student in geosciences. Riverman's glaciology research involves climbing, crawling, and squeezing through an ice cave in Svalbard, Norway, in the Larsbreen glacier, every few years. Her research explores how waterfalls form and move within the glacier, which impacts its overall hydrology.

In the summer, meltwater from the glacier cuts through the ice, Riverman said, forming and altering cave passageways as it flows down to the earth below. There, under the ice, the meltwater can speed or slow the glacier's movement. By studying the changing pathways of water flow, Riverman hopes to better ascertain how glaciers will respond to climate warming and increased ice melt.

"We're describing the hydrology of this glacier by crawling around inside of it," she continued. "In general, I'd say these systems are incredibly underutilized" in the research community. Not enough scientists actually study glaciers from the inside out, she explained.

Rivermans ice caving colleagues climb down into the cave. Credit: Ethan Welty

The ice cave research started as a fun weekend hobby in 2010 when Riverman was an undergraduate studying abroad in Svalbard. A glaciologist in her program needed help mapping the ice cave, and being an avid caver back in Pennsylvania, Riverman jumped at the chance.

"It's like a fish to water at that point," Riverman said. "Sure, you're in a system that's completely ice-filled instead of rock, but it's a lot of the same kind of exploration mentality that we have in the normal caving world."

In 2014, Riverman traveled back to Svalbard as part of her graduate program and decided to map the cave again. Because the cave is near the town of Longyearbyen and frequently used for tourism (although the guides don't take the tourists very deep), the entrance to the cave is easy to spot; someone always leaves behind a flag denoting the entrance's location under the snow. Riverman and her caving companions just dig it out and rappel down. Earlier this year, Riverman again traveled to the cave to map its icy twists and turns, and she was surprised at how much the cave had changed from her initial adventures 6 years prior. Since her first visit in 2010, the cave now sits noticeably deeper in the ice.

Riverman and her colleagues hike seven kilometers and then ski for an hour to get to the ice caves entrance. Riverman calls this easy access. Credit: Kiya Riverman

Riverman always takes fellow cavers with her, mostly for safety reasons but also because it's fun.

"There have been some beautiful moments connecting with my fellow scientists underground," Riverman said. Her caving companions have to rely on each other for hours at a time underneath the ice. "The time I get to spend with the people I'm mapping [caves] with is always magical."

There have been some scary moments as well. Once while dangling over a 9-meter drop, safely secured to a rope, Riverman had a brief moment of existential panic about the ice screws that were the only things protecting her from a swift death. Still, Riverman feels drawn again and again to exploring the otherworldly cave.

"To be standing within the system and have some kind of appreciation for how it changes and evolves, that's what keeps drawing me back," Riverman said.

Explore further Research team uses innovative techniques to map water beneath Antarctic ice shelf

More information: JoAnna Wendel. Into the Belly of a Glacier, Eos (2016). JoAnna Wendel. Into the Belly of a Glacier,(2016). DOI: 10.1029/2016EO050257
Coastal Californians battling pervasive Cape ivy have been waiting years for a helpful fly with a regal name.

Now, Agriculture Department officials are finally getting ready to pull the trigger, turning the fly loose on the vine that has infested shady parts of the Pacific Coast. The fly deposits its eggs on the Cape ivy, causing a huge boil-like growth known as a gall to form on the plant's stem and stunt its growth.

For San Luis Obispo County resident David Chipping, it's about time.

"Invasion of both upland and riparian habitat by Cape ivy long ago reached crisis proportions in our county," Chipping told the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Chipping, a Los Osos resident and member of the California Native Plant Society's San Luis Obispo Chapter, this month added his voice to a others supporting a federal proposal to release of the fly, known as Parafreutreta regalis.

The fly would target Cape ivy, which can climb up to 30 feet, crowding out other coastal plants and requiring frequent herbicide treatments along roadways and in places like parts of Morro Bay State Park.

"Cape ivy is a major problem in coastal riparian areas in California, smothering native vegetation," said Gerald H. Meral, former deputy director of the California Natural Resources Agency. "An effective biocontrol agent would make a big difference in protecting these areas."

Meral, who is now with the private Natural Heritage Institute, and Chipping were among only a dozen or so people to offer public comments about the Agriculture Department's proposal as of Friday. All support the proposed release of the flies to control what's also been called German ivy.

But the comment period, which lasts through next Monday, did not come easy. Some studies that supported the proposal began so long ago that the lead scientist has since retired. Research funding has sometimes been hard to get. Lab priorities have sometimes shifted.

Cost-effectiveness has not been the only consideration. Under several executive orders, Agriculture Department officials also had to consult with Indian tribes and examine potential specific effects on children and "any minority populations and low-income populations."

In brief, the wheels have turned methodically. Approval could still be months away.

"Biocontrol of weeds is always a long process," said Joe Balciunas. A retired Agricultural Research Service entomologist. "I thought this one would go faster, but I was wrong."

Balciunas and colleagues began testing at an Albany, Calif.-based Agricultural Research Service lab in 2001. Balciunas retired six years ago. A technical advisory panel recommended approval three years ago. An environmental assessment found that the biocontrol program would be safe and effective. It was completed more than 14 months ago.

"It grinds exceedingly slow," Balciunas said.

Cape ivy is a native of South Africa and was brought into the United States as an ornamental ground cover. Then, it spread, including into areas where herbicide use may be limited. In places like the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, managers resort to hand tools.

"Other methods such as goat grazing and prescribed fire are being used," the environmental assessment noted.

If left uncontrolled, the ivy becomes a bully. A study at Golden Gate National Recreation Area found that sites infested by Cape ivy for 5 to 10 years had 78 percent fewer annual plant species than uninfested plots.

Enter the Cape ivy gall fly, which is also a native of South Africa. After mating, the females insert eggs into part of the ivy's stem. When the eggs hatch, growths known as galls form on the plant and stunt its growth.

Initial plans call for pairs of flies to be placed in field cages over Cape ivy patches in several locations along the California coast, Alameda and and Contra Costa counties. In time, the cages would be removed and the flies would disperse naturally.

Explore further Video: The chemistry of poison ivy

2016 McClatchy Washington Bureau

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Apatoraptor pennatus as illustrated by paleontology graduate student and paleoartist Sydney Mohr.

Solving one of the longest cases of mistaken identity, University of Alberta PhD candidate Greg Funston recently described a new genus and species of toothless dinosaur from Alberta. Long thought to be a more common ornithomimid, Apatoraptor pennatus instead turned out to be a member of the notoriously enigmatic caenagnathid family.

"This is my first time naming a new dinosaur," says Funston of the prestigious honour. "It's really exciting on a personal level, but what I am most excited about is what it means for this field of paleontology. In future studies, it will help us to better understand these dinosaurs. It's a really important specimen."

The mostly complete skeleton was found in 1993, but because it was believed to be a more common ornithomimid, it sat on a shelf at the Royal Tyrrell Museum for 15 years before it was finally prepared for the museum's 25th anniversary. The mistaken identity laid the foundation for its name, meaning "deceptive thief."

The Apatoraptor pennatus fossil is the first articulated caenagnathid skeleton from anywhere in the worldmeaning the bones are still in the same position as when the animal diedand is by far the most complete caenagnathid skeleton from Alberta. The discovery helps fill in some of the missing puzzle pieces on this elusive group of animals.

"Because it is a relatively complete skeleton, it helps resolve the relationships of caenagnathids, which have always been problematic," notes Funston. "Most caenagnathids are represented by isolated material or single bones, which means that we can't tell if they came from the same animal. Apatoraptor gives us a better idea of what these animals looked like, which tells us if the features we've been using to separate species are significant or not."

Greg Funston talks about his research on caenagnathids.

Feathers used for sexual display

With such a beautifully preserved fossil, the scientists were able to use CT scanning technology to fully examine the bones. They were surprised to find pits on an arm bone corresponding with feather scars. "These feather scars suggest that Apatoraptor had a wing of feathers on its arms, although it couldn't have used these wings to fly," says Funston. Instead, he explains, the wings were likely used for sexual display to attract mates.

"Oviraptorosaurs, the bigger group to which Apatoraptor and other caenagnathids belong, were probably some of the flashiest dinosaurs. We know of three separate wayshead crests, tail feathers and now arm feathersthat they would display to their mates."

Funston worked on the findings with his supervisor, world-renowned paleontologist Philip Currie, professor at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair in Dinosaur Paleobiology. He worked with his fellow grad student, paleoartist Sydney Mohr, on the life reconstruction. Mohr used modern birds as inspiration for the colouring.

"A new caenagnathid (Dinosauria: Oviraptorosauria) from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, Canada, and a reevaluation of the relationships of Caenagnathidae" appears in the April 14 edition of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Explore further Undergrad researcher unearths dino discovery

More information: Gregory F. Funston et al. A new caenagnathid (Dinosauria: Oviraptorosauria) from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, Canada, and a reevaluation of the relationships of Caenagnathidae, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (2016). Journal information: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Gregory F. Funston et al. A new caenagnathid (Dinosauria: Oviraptorosauria) from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, Canada, and a reevaluation of the relationships of Caenagnathidae,(2016). DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2016.1160910
Dinosaurs were already in an evolutionary decline tens of millions of years before the meteorite impact that finally finished them off, new research has found.

The findings provide a revolution in the understanding of dinosaur evolution. Palaeontologists previously thought that dinosaurs were flourishing right up until they were wiped out by a massive meteorite impact 66 million years ago. By using a sophisticated statistical analysis in conjunction with information from the fossil record, researchers at the Universities of Reading, UK and Bristol, UK showed that dinosaur species were going extinct at a faster pace than new ones were emerging from 50 million years before the meteorite hit.

he analyses demonstrate that while the decline in species numbers over time was effectively ubiquitous among all dinosaur groups, their patterns of species loss were different. For instance, the long-necked giant sauropod dinosaurs were in the fastest decline, whereas theropods, the group of dinosaurs that include the iconic Tyrannosaurus rex, were in a more gradual decline.

Dr Manabu Sakamoto, University of Reading, the palaeontologist who led the research, said: "We were not expecting this result. While the asteroid impact is still the prime candidate for the dinosaurs' final disappearance, it is clear that they were already past their prime in an evolutionary sense."

'Losing their edge'

"Our work is ground-breaking in that, once again, it will change our understanding of the fate of these mighty creatures. While a sudden apocalypse may have been the final nail in the coffin, something else had already been preventing dinosaurs from evolving new species as fast as old species were dying out.

"This suggests that for tens of millions of years before their ultimate demise, dinosaurs were beginning to lose their edge as the dominant species on Earth."

Professor Mike Benton of the University of Bristol, one of the co-authors of the research, said: "All the evidence shows that the dinosaurs, which had already been around, dominating terrestrial ecosystems for 150 million years, somehow lost the ability to speciate fast enough. This was likely to have contributed to their inability to recover from the environmental crisis caused by the impact."

It is thought that a giant asteroid's impact with Earth 66 million years ago threw up millions of tonnes of dust, blacking out the sun, causing short-term global cooling and widespread loss of vegetation. This ecological disaster meant that large animals reliant on the abundance of plants died out, along with the predators that fed on them.

The new research suggests that other factors, such as the break-up of continental land masses, sustained volcanic activity and other ecological factors, may possibly have influenced the gradual decline of dinosaurs.

'Room for mammals'

This observed decline in dinosaurs would have had implications for other groups of species. Dr Chris Venditti, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Reading and co-author of paper said: "The decline of the dinosaurs would have left plenty of room for mammals, the group of species which humans are a member of, to flourish before the impact, priming them to replace dinosaurs as the dominant animals on earth."

Dr Sakamoto points out that the study might provide insight into future biodiversity loss. He said: "Our study strongly indicates that if a group of animals is experiencing a fast pace of extinction more so than they can replace, then they are prone to annihilation once a major catastrophe occurs. This has huge implications for our current and future biodiversity, given the unprecedented speed at which species are going extinct owing to the ongoing human-caused climate change."

The new study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Explore further Dinosaurs wiped out rapidly in Europe 66 million years ago

More information: Dinosaurs in decline tens of millions of years before their final extinction, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1521478113 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Dinosaurs in decline tens of millions of years before their final extinction,
Chuquicamata, located in the north of Chile, is the largest open pit copper mine in the world by excavated volume. Credit: Madison Condon

The mining industry accounts for 12 percent of the Peruvian economy and 60 percent of Peru's total exports. The government of Peru faces significant pressure to encourage growth and investment in this sector, especially in the face of falling commodity prices. But this has also put pressure on the government's ability to properly assess environmental impacts.

In 2014, the government passed a law limiting the power of the Ministry of the Environment. The ministry now must wait three years before penalizing a company for a breach of environmental safeguards. This change in the law followed a period in which Peru was seen to be strengthening its environmental governance. It had been issuing significantly more fines and penalties on mining companies in response to criticism in 2011 over the firing of employees in the Ministry of Mines who had failed to approve flawed environmental impact assessments.

A 2012 review of assessments revealed that 86 percent lacked proper documentation on how they had received approval from the Ministry of Mines. The Ministry of the Environment continues to lack capacity to thoroughly review each of the environmental impact assessments it approves.

Researchers from the Columbia Water Center recently conducted interviews with Peruvian non-governmental organizations working with communities impacted by the mining industry. Red Muqui is a network of local and country-level organizations that works to create participatory processes for communities impacted by mining to voice their concerns. EarthRights International is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of communities negatively impacted by mines.

Representatives from both organizations echoed a concern that in Peru, many environmental impact assessments, a required part of the mine permitting process, either incorrectly predict the environmental effects of a proposed mine or are approved by the government regulators without a proper consideration of the impact on communities from the predicted environmental changes.

One potential role for advocates and scientists interested in supporting the healthy regulation of the mining industry in Peru would be to provide technical support in third party assessments of the environmental assessments.

Even here in the United States, Kuipers and Maest found that these assessments consistently under-predicted the level of water pollution that would result from the construction and operation of a proposed mine. They found that while all mine assessments predicted total compliance with water quality standards, in reality 76 of those mines exceeded water quality standards once they were in operation. Kuipers and Mast were able to prove that the assessments systematically under-predicted the amount of water pollution because they could compare the predictions with water quality data either measured or required by the federal and state governments. In Peru, however, this monitoring is not guaranteed.

There is a role for activist scientists to evaluate potential sources of heavy metal exposure that result from mining operations. Water samples taken from a stream can be analyzed for concentrations of heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead. The information gained from random sampling could alert authorities that further monitoring was required, or as an advocacy tool, could show that the initial approved environmental impact assessments inadequately predicted the water quality impacts resulting from the mining operation. This concept received enthusiastic support from Peruvian NGOs.

Explore further Toxic spill from zinc mine in Peru

Provided by Earth Institute, Columbia University

This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University: blogs.ei.columbia.edu/
Since February this year six Bangladeshi bloggers have been killed  hacked to death. Dozens have been forced to flee the country after death threats.

At a recent conference, newly arrived bloggers and one tortured journalist explained what they see as a terrifying and growing threat to free speech in their country.

Ric Wasserman has this story

I meet Tasneem Khalil again after a gap of four years. After hed just fled Bangladesh and had been granted asylum in Sweden.

An outspoken free thinker at Bangladeshs largest newspaper, the Daily Star, Tasneem wrote about extrajudicial killings  carried out by the state-sanctioned death squad, Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB.

He was dragged from his house, thrown into a cell and tortured repeatedly. His friends at the Swedish embassy in Dhaka smuggled him out of the country.

Hes here in Stockholm to take part in a forum on human rights abuses, where he will speak on two themes. The first is the systems of state terror, which is the subject of his recent book. Second is the situation in Bangladesh, especially in the wake of the brutal murders that have taken place.

Tasneem is specifically talking about bloggers in Bangladesh being targeted and slashed to death.

But why are bloggers being targeted and why now?

Protests took place after the hanging of two men, convicted and sentenced to death last year of war crimes during the 1971 independence war with Pakistan.

Ten bloggers have been slain since then. Some say those murders are revenge for the hangings. But Tasneem Khalil says Al Qaeda is behind the killings.

What is going on right now is an Al Qaeda affiliated group called Ansar al Islam, Bangladesh. Theyre the followers of Anwar al-Awlaki. Theres no other way I can describe it other than an insurgency against atheists and free thinkers in Bangladesh and they are carrying out a series of assassinations.

The most prominent to be killed was writer Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death last year. His wife was also slashed.

The latest: Nazimuddin Samad, a university student just two weeks ago  cut to pieces and then shot in the head.

The four young men and women bloggers at the conference, now living in Sweden come from both Muslim and Hindu families.

They share a common denominator that makes them hated by many in Bangladesh: Not only do they write about taboo subjects, like homosexuality, they are also atheists  non-believers in God.

Foring Camelia is a blogger and filmmaker. She fled to Sweden last year after repeated death threats. Her crime? Advocating womens rights and being an atheist.

Camelia commented, Islam has some kind of rules against womens rights. They dont believe in equality between man and woman. I thought, why? Because Im a woman and I can do everything, compared to a man. So this feeling made me an atheist.

Many of todays bloggers in Bangladesh started by becoming part of Mukto Mona first an email list, then an online group for free thinkers and debate.

But the Mukto Mona writers quickly found both the extremists and the state were against them.

Section 57 of the countrys Information Communication and Technology Act states: if any person deliberately publishes any material in electronic form that prejudices the image of the State or person, or causes to hurt to religious belief, the offender will be punished for a maximum 14 years, and minimum 7 years imprisonment.

Thirty cases are being tried, hundreds are under investigation.

Its dangerous, but we must speak out, says Siddahrtha Dhar, whose best friend Ananta Bijoy Das was killed last year. When people like us start this kind of venture we know there will be threats to our lives. We accept this fact, he said.

Das had been expected to attend a conference in Stockholm on press freedom just a week after he was killed, but Swedish consular officials in Bangladesh had declined his visa application.

Ola Larsmo, chairman of Swedens PEN, a global association of writers, gets several letters per week from threatened bloggers in Bangladesh.

I asked him what PEN can do to help stop the murders in Bangladesh.

We are asking the Bangladeshi government how they are living up to their own standards when it comes to protecting these bloggers, Larsmo commented.




Conservationists appeal for protection of forests to save endangered species like the Philippine Eagle in Mount Apo, southern Philippines. (Photo: Madonna T. Virola)

Environmentalists have expressed alarm over a wildfire that has razed some 350 hectares of forest and grassland on Mount Apo, the highest peak in the Philippines.

While the blaze appears to have been bought under control, fears remain over how the fires will affect the critically endangered Philippines Eagle  the national bird of the Philippines.

Madonna Virola has this report from Calapan city.

Scientists and conservationists have gathered at the 25th National Biodiversity Symposium to discuss and collaborate on ways to conserve the Philippines rich biodiversity.

Among them is Dennis Salvador, executive director of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, from Davao City, in the southern Philippines.

Last year it was estimated there only 600 Philippine eagles left in the wild. Mostly they have been threatened by deforestation, logging and expanding agriculture.

But now Dennis says hes also worried about the impact of the fires on Mt. Apo, which spread quickly because of the drought-like conditions. Were concerned because its near where Philippine eagles are nesting.

The Philippine Eagle, is one of the rarest and most powerful birds in the world.

It has a large arched beak, thick brown and white feathers and a huge wingspan.

The eagle can grow to a meter high and weigh up to eight kilograms.

It is also the only blue-eyed bird of prey in the world, feeding on flying lemurs, squirrels, civets, snakes, hornbills, bats, and even, monkeys.

Dennis explains why the fires might affect the eagles food source.

The Philippine eagles by nature because they are large predators, this particular prey occupies about 10,000 hectares. But there are certain other preys occupying the entire mountain range, and that means it extends beyond the Mount Apo park itself. Where this fire is occuring now, basically this will deprive the particular prey of habitat, a place to breed and places in which to forage or hunt.

Efren Garcellano has been an active mountaineer for three decades and is now environmental consultant at Oriental Mindoros provincial government.

He says the government has not done enough to protect mountains like Apo and its unique biodiversity, like the Philippine Eagle, which is endemic and only found in certain areas of the country.

Unfortunately, I dont know if anybody has learned anything, Garcellano said.

It happens so many times in the past and nobody cares anymore. It depends on those who are aware to  maybe plan. One sorry thing about Mount Apo, there are no plans actually, the government is caught flat-footed, there is not much contingency planning when this thing happened.

Dr. Antonio Manila is an assistant director at the national Biodiversity Management Bureau.

He says the sulfur deposits on Mt. Apo have made it extremely difficult to put out the fires  even though hundreds of volunteers have been helping out.

The government has also flown in choppers to drop gallons of water on the burning grasslands of the summit.

Following reports that irresponsible hikers started the blaze, when they didnt put out a small fire they used for their cooking, Dr. Manila says the government is considering declaring Mt. Apo a no-go area.

We wish to ban entry of our visitors going up to the mountain, maybe for about 3-5 years, if it is possible, or another possibility is to deputize volunteers in the community, or with the indigenous people in the community, to help us prevent this kind of situation happening in other parts of the country.

Dr Manila believes that everybody must be aware of the situation if the problem is to be managed.

Conservationist Dennis Salvador hopes government will take a more pro-active approach to help preserve the critically endangered Philippine Eagle.

The Philippine Eagle is the countrys top predators of the rainforest ecosystem and as such, it has a practical value in terms of maintaining the dynamics of this forest ecosystems, Salvador remarked.

Having a Philippine Eagle in a particular forest for instance tells you that this is healthy because there are many organisms will thrive there.
The sugar industry contributed $9,000 to the campaign of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, in the 1st quarter, bringing total sugar industry contributions to the campaign this election cycle to $11,000, according to a report the campaign filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission.
A team of veterinary and environmental officials, at the weekend destroyed about 250 birds birds, eight crates of eggs, four bags of poultry feed and empty egg crates suspected to have infected with the disease, the GNA reported.

In January, government released GHc11 million to support the fight against bird flu in the country.

Speaking at the forum, Dr Bissiw said her Ministry has supplied 22 vehicles and 120 motorbikes to control the disease.

The government of Ghana through the Ministry of Agriculture has supplied 22 vehicles and 120 motorbikes for the control of the avian influenza. Government has also released GHc11 million to support the fight against the disease. Government of Ghana paid compensation to 25 affected poultry farmers an amount of GHc1,067,365 representing 90% of the total current market value of GHc1, 185,928, she said.

Dr. Bissiw added Since the first outbreak of Bird Flu in May 2015 the government of Ghana and its development partners such as Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations, the World Bank, UNC and UNICEF and weve also found out that USAID has also been very supportive.
READ MORE:Trade ministry restricts export of raw cashew nut

In the statement that banned cashew export, the minister said The survival of the industry which is processing cashew in Ghana is on the brink of collapse and will only survive on the availability of adequate supply of raw cashew nuts for processing.

So far, one out of the 11 processing plants in the region is operating. The rest is folded up.

Last week, the largest processing factory in the region, KONA Agro Processing Limited folded up over operational challenges.

The company, which employed 250 workers, many of whom were, used to process about 1,500 metric tons of raw cashew annually for export, the GNA reported.

The company's Director, Mr. Kwabena Taylor, said his outfit needed US$1.5 million to get back into business.

Spio Garbrah told the meeting that the ban on exportation of cashew nuts was in the interest of the country, adding that consultations at various levels were ongoing to come out with the best decisions which will stand the test of time.

The ban, which was later reverted, drew rare criticism from MPs of the ruling National Democratic Congress.

The Majority leader Alban Bagbin said the minister was acting like Don Quixote and that the directive had no legal basis.

READ MORE:Cashew exports ban suspended

Deputy Majority Chief Whip and Member of Parliament for Banda in the Brong Ahafo region, Mr. Ahmed Ibrahim described the directive as very weak and illegal, questioning the basis of the directive.
She advised Ghana to commit to passing all the reviews by the Fund in order to help the country restore market confidence.

Ghana signed up to a three-year programme with the IMF in April last year, and the government had expected that the programme will help improve economic stability, promote growth, reduce budget deficit and confront the lack of confidence in the economy.

But it looks like all efforts have not yielded any gain since the country is still struggling to strike confidence in investors for over a year now.

The situation has been compounded by the upcoming elections in November, which has heightened economic uncertainty.

Christian Lagarde told Accra based Joy Fm that implement the conditions will better Ghanas economic future.

For any country under a current programme, to actually deliver under the programme, go through the review one after the other. Its probably the best response to market concerns about the stability and macroeconomic policies decided by the country.
The solar panel, which is connected to the ECG, is located near Winneba and produces 20 MW of power during the day, according to the Project consultant, Engineer Daniel Azu.

"The 20 MW is connected to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) sub-station at the Winneba roundabout. This plant took about six to eight months to complete and it is working well," said Azu.

BXC reportedly invested 30 million U.S dollars into building the solar plant on a 100-acre land.

Project Manager Luan Ye said the company was also assisting the ECG to overcome its transmission losses and to help Ghana overcome energy challenges.
At KNUST, he told the students Ghana should focus on providing tax incentives so as to increase production and create employment.

He again promised in Houston, USA, to give tax incentives to local business in a bid to promote local production in a government he will be the head of economic management team as vice president should his party win the November polls.

In a similar speech to the one he deliver at KNUST, he said Ghana has focused a lot more on revenue generation at the expense of production.

We have focused a lot on revenue generation at the expense of production. The focus of government after government has been on taxation and very little on the incentives for production and if you get into that you are really creating an engine for unemployment and I am not surprised that the unemployment issue is not tackled because we have focused a lot on taxation.

Bawumia told his audience an NPP government will scrap all import duties on raw materials, adding that it make sense to do so.

According to him, when businesses produce and employ people, government can then get income taxes from there then when they make profit, you will get corporate taxes.

He responded to critics who said his proposals will stifle government of cash to carry out developments, saying the NPP is not afraid it will lose revenue.

We are not worried that we are going to lose revenue, he said. In fact, our estimates suggest that we will encourage more local production and by so doing, we will get more taxes.

He also repeated another signature promise of introducing national identity cards without hesitation.
$68,000! We must as well build a factory with it and employ many young people. I think the figure I have heard which I believe is the truth is $25,000. Initially, I heard it was $30,000 but from clarification, I got to know it is $25,000; not $30,000. As for the $68,000s, they dont come in at all, he noted.The guild does not have $25,000. That is the truth. I have asked the executives how we are going to raise that. Last week, the executives called me to accompany them to the ministry, but the minister had travelled to the Brong Ahafo Region and continued to the USA later in the day so we didnt meet her. We met one of the directors. I spoke to him, and he promised that he would talk to the minister. We hope to see her and see what can be done, the member of the guild argued.
Organiser of the event and founder of Food for All Ghana, chef Elijah Amoo Addo said the conference will highlight the need for integrated approaches from public-private partnerships with the goal of launching a cross-sectoral alliance and establishing concrete commitments to reduce food loss and waste throughout the food supply chain.

Amoo Addo uses food donated from companies to create sustainable means of nutrition for the vulnerable in society. He and a team of volunteers often go to schools, communities and orphanages to cook meals for the vulnerable with donated food.

Ghana's Vice President, Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur is set to launch the event, with the my right to food campaign, a programme which will educate Ghanaians on the universal rights and responsibility on caring for the vulnerable in society, which forms the base belief at Food for All Ghana.

The second day of the conference will have the Chief Executive Officer of Food and Drugs Authority delivering a presentation on the economic and social benefits of food recovery in Ghana and a presentation by UNICEF Ghana on attaining the United Nations Sustainable Goals 2 and 12.
There are several time-tested ways of becoming wise. From the inception of the various religions and philosophies, different thinkers have theorized on wisdom and how to arrive at it. In all of these theories, one important way of arriving at wisdom has often been ignored. It is the way of consistent stupidity. Consistent stupidity is when a person who otherwise is audaciously stupid, remains consistent in the application of his/her stupidity. With time, their consistency in churning out crazy ideas and impossible utterances begins to take on the coloring of wisdom. Rarely do people care how one becomes wise. The focus has always been the end, which is wisdom. So consistent stupidity should be given a chance.

There is only one thing worse than abject stupidity, and that is the inability of people to stick by their ideas, irrespective of how crazy they are. Most greats of history are remembered today not because of their words of gold, but because they consistently defended their crazy ideas with a passionate intensity. When youre consistently stupid, observers cannot help but applaud you with laurels. They say well done, good and mighty oaf, youve been consistent to the end.

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I will illustrate consistent stupidity with this example. Let us assume you put your foot in your mouth and call a group of noble people some very unsavory names. In the case of backlash, you have two options: option A, you can take back your words and apologize profusely, and option B you can stand by your claims with an unflinching faithfulness. Option A will bring peace and it is the mature thing to do. With option A, you may get back into the good books of the noble people, but only after youve submitted yourself to thorough embarrassment by apologizing for your idiocy.

With option B this is what you do: if you honestly meant the insults you rained on our noble people, then by all means be consistent. Give consistent stupidity a chance. Posterity will thank you for it, they will sing songs about you.

This is another beauty about consistent stupidity: assuming that our noblemen are indeed scoundrels, you nullify your initial insult by choosing option A. Any attempt you make to re-insult our noblemen will deepen your stupidity. Had you chosen option B, consistency would have will glorified your name. You will then have all the right in the word to gloat about how right you were.

Consistency has won wars; it has made strong men and women out of ordinary wimpy people. Consistency has been instrumental in mixing up genuinely wise people with the audaciously stupid. Today, we are none the wiser, the idiot and the thinker are our heroes. This is the end of the matter: in case of doubt, be consistent in all your doings, even in stupidity.
The suspect, who is a management member of the ARDA group company undertaking the Oda-Akwati-Winneba and Cape Coast water project is alleged to have assaulted the worker who sustained life-threatening injuries and was rushed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for treatment.

The victim was accused of negligence by the Turkish expatriate after an excavator he was operating on got stuck in a wetland, according to Starrfmonline.com.

The Oda District Police Commander, DSP Ebenezer Ntoso, confirmed to Starr News that, two separate cases of assault have been reported to the Police by the Ghanaian workers; however, one of the suspects has been arrested and granted bail while efforts are being made to arrest the other.

Scores of workers with the Turkish company last week demonstrated over alleged abuses meted out to them by their employers.

Starr News investigations also revealed that there has been another allegation of attempted rape on a female worker by one of the expatriates.
Delivering the sermon of the service was done by RT Rev Col W Jonfia (Rtd) the bishop of Winneba Methodist Church of Ghana on the theme Jesus Christ our master shepherd it entreated the new service chiefs to rely on God for direction and the wisdom to lead and also be patient and firm in their discharge of their duties.

Rt Rev Col W Jonfia was also the bishop of the Burma camp Presbyterian/Methodist church until his retirement in 1993.

Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal M. Samson Oje, thanked all loved, families and the military for their loyalty and professionalism to duty, he also asked for prayers and support from all in order to enable them to discharge their duties to the benefit of the armed forces and mother Ghana as a whole.

He touched on the two most important issues confronting the country currently  the threat of a possible terrorist attack, where he assured all present that the military was ready to prevent such attacks with adequate measures in place. He also encouraged all to be vigilant and report any suspicious activities as soon as possible to avert any attack. He further stated that in case the attack happened adequate measures were in place to respond immediately to the situation and to provide the needed assistance.

He also spoke about the upcoming elections in November and cautioned the military not to be involved in any political activities or allow themselves to be used by any political party or politician to disturb the peace we are currently enjoying.
In an interview with The Finder newspaper, Ghanas Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Alhaji Saeed said the issuance of Visa 20 will only resume after Kuwait and Ghana sign a bilateral agreement that streamlines procedures for recruitment and outlines conditions of service to offer better protection to the maidservants.

He added that the bilateral agreement would also ensure that illegal recruitment agencies and families who employ the services of such agents are held responsible for any infractions, and not the housemaid.

Last week, the deportation of 62 Ghanaian girls arrested in Kuwait for offences such as prostitution, organising parties without permit, as well as running away from the families they were serving as housemaids due to maltreatment began.

The victims, who were between 17 and 25 years, have been in Kuwait for six and 15 months.
Our officers are doing their best. Sometimes they even go to disconnect people and they get pursued by police in some cases institutions like police if you go to collect your bills sometimes we have difficulties. They do not want you to disconnect them and they do not want to pay the bills as well, but our officers are doing their best to get our monies back, he said.There have been instances our officers will go to disconnect the police and the police will actually arrest them. The only charge is that they have not paid their bills and our officers are disconnecting them, he added.
The security alert, dated April 9, was an internal memo to all heads of security agencies, but was leaked and seen by Pulse.com.gh.

The alert said a possible terrorist attack on Ghana was real, as confirmed by a suspected Malian terrorist under interrogation for the Grand Bassam attacks in Cote DIvoire .

The suspect had said Ghana was a next target to take away the perception that only francophone countries are the target.

Speaking with Citi GM, Dr. Kwesi Aning said the Ghana Immigration Service, the originator of the memo, needed to investigate the matter and punish anyone found to have leaked the memo.

Dr Aning is a security Analyst at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), and is the director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research.
The tour comes ahead of the Presidential and parliamentary elections due November this year.

The Volta region has recently been in the news as the NDC and the main opposition party NPP battle over who has developed the region..

Former president, John Agyekum Kufuor recently debunked assertions made by president John Dramani Mahama that the NPP government under president Kufour did not embark on any meaningful project to improve the lives of the people of the Volta Region.

President Mahama had accused the NPP of neglecting the region in their eight year tenure in government, pledging his commitment to the provision of infrastructural development to the region going forward.

President Kufuor maintained that president Mahamas comments were false.

The former president mentioned the Keta Sea Defence Project as one of the main improvements the NPP government brought to the region.
The US government has said a third of that, equal to about 5.7 million cedi -will be given to the Electoral Commission to help in its strategic communication work, while another third would be used by the peace commission for peace keeping operations, Citi news has reported.

US Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Jackson said the US government will also be offering additional training programmes for journalists ahead of the election to equip them to cover the polls effectively. we will be doing additional training for journalists and we will also be working to identify the areas that are at greatest risk of conflict.
This follows accusations by some sections of the public that the EC has plagiarized a similar logo that belongs to an educational institution in Turkey  Yedi Sistem.

The new logo which has been widely criticised by the Ghanaian populace has already been embossed on educational and other materials meant for the upcoming limited voter registration exercise.

These materials include registration forms, posters, flyers, brochures and pens.

In his response, the Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) in-charge of Operations, Mr. Amadu Sulley, said the the public should remain calm as concerns surrounding the new logo will be addressed at the official launch.

"Anything that the Commission is coming out with would have been discussed at the Commission meeting. So whatever it is, after the decision has been taken, as I have said and we have agreed are we going to launch it, at the launching time...we will explain the reasons behind all these things," he told Accra-based Citi FM.

The new logo has a dark-blue background and it's round in nature with round spots which are green, yellow, white, and red in colour.

These four round spots form a symmetry with four other similar spots on the background, creating an abstract image of eight people in a circle with their hands lifted.

However, some media practitioners are reported to have kicked against the new logo when it was unveiled to them at a capacity workshop organized by the EC on the November polls.
The Electoral Commission says this will allow Ghanaians who turn 18 at any time within 2016 to register for a voter ID card in any of its district offices.

Meanwhile all stakeholders have been urged to probe the background of personnel being recruited by the commission to conduct next weeks Limited Registration Exercise.

The commission says it is doing this in accordance to the new provisions under the Constitutional instrument CI 91 which came to force in February, 2016.

Quaikoo said this was to ensure the personnel conducting the limited registration exercise could not be accused of political bias.
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Previous successful editions of YCBS summits were held in Dubai-UAE, Accra-Ghana, London-UK and Lagos-Nigeria.

The YCBS Abuja-Nigeria 2016 will over 200 young entrepreneurs from West Africa and those from Nigeria to discuss the theme "Promoting Nigerias non-Oil sector & stimulating her SMEs for inclusive growth: the new paradigm".

This edition is special as it focuses on promoting Africas non-Oil sector and showcasing SMEs capable of creating many jobs thereby proffering solution to unemployment challenges in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

The commitment is that this summit will help encourage and empower the SMEs sector with relevant skills, funding, partnerships and important information necessary to improve their capacity as they embark on their entrepreneurial journey.

The first panel on the session captioned Launching a new enterprise features Rich Tanksley, Head of Pulse as a panelist with Andre Blaze, media bigwig as moderator.

The submodules to be discussed are:

a) Business models that worked.

b) Developing a viable Business plan.

c) Productivity and Business Management.

d) Boosting your confidence to do Business in different Cultures and Markets.

Partnering with the organisers on this edition are; Institutes of Leadership & Management ILM, Forbes Magazine, Aim higher Africa and Femaz Microfinance bank amongst others.

The events schedule is as follows:

21st April 2016- Welcome cocktail 8pm-10pm (Harrow Park Gulf club)

22nd April 2016, - Summit proper & Pitching session (10am-4pm)

23rd April, 2016, - Summit, Award conferment & Pitch Prize presentation (4pm-8pm)

Other features at the summit include;

- Networking Session/Breakfast Meeting

- Sector by sector specialized Business Strategy sessions

- Key Note Presentations

- Panel Discussions

- Idea pitching session (SMEs Challenge contest)

- Inspire: Expert Panel Q&A Sessions

- CEO Global Awards (conferment)

- Exhibition

For more information, visit this website.
Easily one of Americas fastest growing haircare brand, Cantu Shea Butter brings her expert hands on the model for the 2016 edition set to take place on the 1st through 3rd July 2016 at the Eko Hotel and Suites.

Cantu Shea Butter will be creating all the hairstyles for the runway during the 2-day event. Multi award winning European creative hairstylist Anastasia Chikezie from London, will be styling the models with Cantu Shea Butters range of innovative hair products, creating glamorous and iconic looks to complement the dynamic fashions that audiences have come to expect from the shows.

In addition to producing catwalk looks, Cantu Shea Butter will also have its own stand where visitors can purchase Cantu Shea Butter products as well as interact with the Cantu Crew on the stand.

The partnership between Cantu Shea Butter and Africa Fashion Week Nigeria marks an exciting chapter for one of the most highly-regarded and innovative hair care brands.

Cantu Shea Butter launched in Nigeria last year and this partnership will allow Cantu Shea Butter to engage with consumers in Nigeria and wider Africa. With all the action taking place, Africa Fashion Week Nigeria promises to be an incredible event.

Cantu Shea Butter is an Award-winning brand providing high quality moisturising hair & body products.

AFWN 2016 will Include 5 Catwalk Shows, 50 Designers, a Fashion Gala & Awards Night and panel discussions aimed at promoting Nigeria as a production hub.

Details:

Date - 1st-3rd July 2016.
According PM News, Florence who is being detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, had reportedly emptied a gallon of petrol on her husband and took a lighter to set him on fire before he managed to wriggle away from her and escape, jumped the fence of the compound, sustaining serious injuries in the process.

According to Chinedu, Florence then turned her attention to vehicles parked inside their No 48 Olukotun Street, Ejigbo, compound and other properties worth millions of naira and destroyed them all.

Florence Chukwuma and one of the destroyed cars

Photo Credit: Instagram

Her anger, it was gathered, stemmed from her husband's attempt to end their 18-year-old marriage by filing a divorce suit against her, over allegations of constant fighting, nagging, intimidation and harassment by Florence, but she is however insisting that she will not quit the marriage because she already has five children and the marriage was consummated for life.
According to Chelsea, the man reached out for her breasts twice when her mum got up on a flight between LA and Sydney in July 2014.

The teenager's family tried to press charges against the air travel company but found it difficult to do so because of lack of evidence.

Daily Telegraph, Australia reports that the girl's family wrote a letter and in response the airline wrote:

"The flight attendants and passengers also stated that you and your daughter were allowed to move to other seats several times, that Chelsea repeatedly moved in and out of her seat, crawling over the other customer who was attempting to sleep, and that your daughter wore extremely short shorts.

"You have provided no evidence of any negligence on the part of United regarding this matter."
But late last year, I got to find out that what my father has been saying all along has been the truth because I caught my mother red handed with a man in her bedroom.

Dad had travelled out of the country and all there was no one in the house apart from the maid. My three older siblings are all married and I was in the university, so the coast was quite clear for her. On the day I caught her, I had come back from school without informing anyone that I was coming home.

I got to Lagos in the evening and went to see some friends. I stayed with them for a while and got home at about 9pm. I notice that something was wrong because Margaret, the maid, was not very comfortable when I asked her where mum was. In truth, I never suspected anything, so I went straight to her room to check if she was in but on opening the door, I met the shock of my life.

A strange man was on top of my mother, . I was so shocked that I screamed and fainted right there. When I came to, I found my mother sitting beside my bed but I told her I did not want her near me. She begged and begged but I stormed out of the house and went to spend the night with a friend.

I the morning, I went to my elder sister's place and told her what I saw but to my surprise, my sister told me she knew what mum was up to and that I should not tell dad about what I saw.

I have not been able to forgive her even though she has tried everything to make me do so; neither have I had peace in my heart as I get tempted every time to tell dad.

This secret is eating me up and I don't know what steps to take.

Sandra."
The Kogis state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reportedly accused Bello of donating N70m at the occasion.

The Kogi Governor, in a statement issued by his media aide, Kingsley Fanwo said The book launch was organized by the nations First Lady to garner support for the families of the abducted Chibok girls, which was attended by Governor Yahaya Bello to lend support to the traumatized families of the girls.

As a political leader and a parent, Governor Bello is touched by the plight of the girls and their families, hence the will to identify with the project.

The book launch was televised to the whole world and no one announced what anyone donated. Governor Yahaya Bello did not donate 70,000,000 naira as insinuated by the people who are turning opposition politics to a comical adventure, the statement said.

The first lady, Aisha Buhari launched her first book on Essentials of Beauty Therapy.

A book which she says is a result of extensive years of research into the subject of beauty and wellness.

See Pulse Photo-News gallery below.
The Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj. Gen. Leo Irabor said the weapons were buried in a make-shift grave.

Irabor said We conducted some various scale of operation as well as specific operations that led to the recovery of arms cache in the village called Gursum, around Alagarno general area; and there we had a very sterling discovery of Boko Haram terrorists burying large quantities of ammunition on the ground.

This operation was in conjunction with the Civilian JTF because they led us through the routes. We recovered 36 boxes of .50MM which is equivalent to 12.7mm buried concealed as though it was a grave.

We also got 5/20 lethal brief case as well as a mixture of 7.6 mm NATO and 7.62mm special. These ammunitions were all concealed in plastic containers which we recovered. In addition we got 1/81 NATO tube that was wrapped in cellophane and buried on the ground.

During the operation, we also discovered one generator, one Hilux vehicle and several motorcycles, he added.

The commander also said 7 Boko Haram terrorists were killed, and 4 AK 47 rifles were recovered, when they attacked troops Pulka.

United Kingdom(UKs) Minister for International Development, Nick Hurd, has pledged his governments support for the fight against Boko Haram.

See Pulse Photo-News gallery below.
This is following during a raid on the terrorists by soldiers in Borno state.

Army spokesman, Col Sani Usman said the storage facility was discovered by troops on Saturday, April 16, 2016, while carrying out an operation in Biggoro, Warpaya and Aura, north of Kumshe in Bama area of Borno state.

Usman said The essence of the operation was to stop the reported criminal activities of remnants of Boko Haram terrorists hiding in the three villages. This became necessary as previous efforts were futile. The suspected terrorists kept coming in search for food, water and shelter.

The Nigerian Army has also revealed that 800 Boko Haram fighters have surrendered to troops waging war in the North-East.

President Muhammadu Buhari also said the terrorists have been degraded to the extent that the group can no longer seize and hold on to any territory in the country.

See Pulse Photo-News gallery below.
The Director-General of the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN), Dr Reuben Okeke, disclosed this at a graduation of trainees at the institutes National Graduate Skills Development Programme (NGSDP) in Abuja on Monday, April 18.

Okeke said that President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to sign the agreement on behalf of Nigeria, while President of France would sign for his country.

"By next month, the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria and that of France will be signing a loan agreement to get NAPTIN completely transformed, up to a tune of 50 million Euros," he said.

He said that at the current rate of N222.8 to one Euro, the loan would be valued at N11.15 billion, adding that the fund would help NAPTINs training programme.

Okeke said that the institutes programme is answer to manpower shortage in the technical skills in Nigerias power section.

According to him, the success of the recent power sector reform will depend on the availability of a qualified workforce to meet the needs of the industry.

He said that there is need for NAPTIN to structure its operations to reflect the needs of the private sector.

Okeke disclosed that the institute is currently working with a leading international consulting outfit for funding support of the Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) to evolve a new strategic plan.

The director-general said that the plan includes the training needs of the new private entrants as well as their participation in the delivery process.
The official, Dr Muyideen Akorede, spokesman to Gov. Abdulfatai Ahmed, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Ilorin that the government had already notified the unions of the deadline.

"That is the stand of the state government now as far as the issue is concerned.

"The unions and other stakeholders have been notified to carry their members along,'' he said.

Akorede said the government had embarked on enlightenment campaigns in the print and electronic media to sensitise the workers on the issue.

NAN recalls that the government commenced physical screening of its employees in March, 2016.
Ngbako who is the leader of Stakeholders Forum in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), called on the FCT minister, Muhammad Musa Bello, to consider chief of Garki community in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) for a first class status.

Ambassador Ngbako, who is the current Executive Director in Nigeria Electricity Management Services (EMS), while denying allegations linking him with pursuit of his personal interest against the wishes of his people, said he never sold out the right of the Gbagyis in the just concluded Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).

For the first time, PDP lost the election to the now ruling party- All Progressives Congress (APC).

But Ambassador Ngbako, while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Monday April 18, 2016, described the allegations against him as baseless.

I am not a politician who does not look before I leap, so that was the reason behind my decision to throw in my support to the APC candidate because he is an indigene too, Ngbako said.

On the issue of the first class chief, Ambassador Ngbako said: If you take a look at my community, the Garki village, we have the highest population of original inhabitants and large size of landmass, we are centered in the heart of Nigeria and if you compare us with other communities in Nigeria that has a first class chiefs, we are qualify, Ngbako said.
Adesian said the issue of loan was not addressed during Buharis stay in China.

He said this when he appeared as a guest on the O&M Sunday Show on Africa Independent Television (AIT).

The Presidents media aide was however quick to add that Buharis China visit attracted $6b worth of investments to the country.

Adesina said The issue of loan didnt arise during the presidents trip to China, not even an emergency loan was discussed.

The president went there and signed agreements that were in the interest of Nigeria. We should know that this president knows what is good for the country.

Also commenting on the letter written by Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state, Adesina said Every nation has a room for comic relief. If someone chooses to be so idle and be entertaining others, so be it.

"I am sure so many people laughed when they saw the letter.

He also said President Buhari is a serious minded person who will not allow himself to be distracted.

undefinedbefore order can come into the country.

See Pulse Photo-News gallery below.
He said As Ndigbo, we are going through trying periods; we are being provoked everyday by the government of the country; by the way they treat our people especially and the marginalisation going on at the level of the Federal government.

We are all aware of the contributions of the Igbo to the growth and development of this country. We have done so much for this country and we deserve some amount of respect; and until we get our respect, Nigeria will not be the same.\

So, any person who thinks the Igbo will be relegated, is joking; we believe in equity and justice. We will never accept a situation where Igbo or any other tribe for that matter is excluded in the governance of this country. Nigeria belongs to all of us.

Meanwhile, an Igbo group, Aka Ikenga has called for an autopsy to be carried out on the corpses the Department of State Services (DSS) alleged are Fulani herdsmen.

See Pulse Photo-News gallery bwlow.
Earlier on Monday, the army had on Twitter confirmed an ongoing fierce battlebetween the troops and the terrorists but did not give details.

According to BBC, the terrorists attacked the army base in large numbers, but with the support of fighter jets, troops regained control of the village.

The broadcast station quoted one of the soldiers as saying that the terrorists came with heavy weapons which we didnt have.

Several of the militants were killed in the fighting which lasted for several hours, a resident told the station.
Punch reports that two Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members, Lekia Nzeregbara and Fred Teedom were killed at Ogale in the Eleme LGA and Bomu in Gokana LGA respectively.

Speaking on the incident, Austin Sor, The Caretaker Committee Chairman of Gokana LGA said On Thursday, one of the party stalwarts, a stakeholder, Mr. Lekia Nzeregara, was gunned down at Ogale in the Eleme LGA. His death is one is one of those too many to mention.

We totally condemn that. Shortly after that, at about 6.30pm or 7pm, one of the youth leaders, Mr. Fred Teedom, who happened to be the youth leader of Bomu and the Vice Chairman of Ward 8, Gokana LGA, was also shot dead.

I was told that those that shot him are the cult boys from that community. We also want the Nigeria Police and other security agencies to do their investigations and ensure that the culprits are brought to book.

Reports also say that the gunmen abducted one person and killed two at Elele, in Ikwerre LGA.

An eyewitness who spoke to Punch said A group of gunmen dressed in black attire invaded my compound in Elele at about 8pm. They came in a tinted vehicle.

They killed two persons and kidnapped another one. They (those killed and the kidnapped) are all my tenants. I dont know why this happened, but you are aware of what is currently going on in Rivers State.

Meanwhile, the Department of State Security, DSS, in Rivers State has arrested five suspects allegedly behind the abduction and murder of a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Mr Sampson Worlu.

See Pulse Photo-News gallery below.
The Jigawa PDP also accused Governor Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar of conniving with the police to keep Sheriff out of the state, according to Daily Trust.

The Acting Deputy Chairman of the PDP in the state, Aminu Jahun, told Daily Trust that the police denied them permission to host Sheriff because the All Progressives Congress (APC) also applied for a permit to conduct a rally on the same day.

The allegation has however been denied by Badaru through his spokesman, Bello Zaki.

It was a coincidence. Yes, PDP has organised a rally and coincidentally, the APC, too, has organised its own. But the police stopped both of them from conducting the rallies, saying this is not time for politicking," Zaki said.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for the state, Abdul Jinjiri, in confirmation, said that both parties were stopped from holding rallies for security reasons.

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I have no plan, no ambition, slide or straightforward looking for it, he said according to Vanguard.

On the issue of national chairmanship, based on the spirit of equity and fairness which is the foundation and principle upon which our party was built by our founding fathers, the South West deserves the national chairmanship now.

This is the right and proper thing which must be done. The South West is a significant zone for the Nigeria federation which cannot and must not be treated with levity, he added.

George also urged current chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff to keep to his promise of handing over on May 21.

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Punch reports that Oni said Fayose needs spiritual deliverance from emotional bondage.

Oni in a statement said Governor Fayose was in his characteristic state of hallucination when he wrote the letter and claimed, while reveling in his world of ecstatic fantasy, to be voicing the opinion of Nigerians.

Fayoses seemingly strange behaviour is not strange to people like us, as he is only behaving to type.

We called the attention of the people to his conduct years ago, during his first term as governor, after the under-the-barb-wire drama at the airport, that any governor, who chooses to pass under the barb-wire at an international airport, whatever the circumstance, cannot be a normal person and should have his fitness for the exalted office ascertained.

Governor Ayo Fayose wrote a letter to President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday, April 14, 2016, asking him not to grant Nigeria any loan.

The letter was submitted to the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Gu Xiaojie, by the Chief of Staff to the Ekiti Governor, Barrister Dipo Anisulowo.

See Pulse Photo-News gallery below.
Read his remarks, made during a recent interview with Vanguard, below:

But what do you have to say to what Governor Ayodele Fayose has done in writing to the Chinese government not to grant Nigeria any loan?

I think Fayose has a problem. The way I see it is that, the man who is on the brink of destruction has no restraint about what he does. To start with, what is the business of a state governor about a loan that is being given to the federal government?

Is it right for him to take such a step?

He has no business. In fact on the contrary, it is when a state government wants to take a loan, that it will require the federal government to guarantee the loan. So, he has no business at all and I regard him as being on a journey to self-destruction and I wish him luck. Let him continue to destroy himself with his mad impulses.

Fayose has also been criticized for pretending to give a speech in China when he was in fact only posing at a tourist centre.

The governor travelled to China three days after PresidentMuhammadu Buhari.

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Frank urged Oyegun to let the law take its cause rather than make statements that will further cause tension in the party.

The APC chieftain said That the chairman of the ruling Party will grant an interview on his personal opinion and asserting it to be the decision of the party, can at best be described as unfortunate and a carefully mapped out plan to rubbish the current trial of the Senate President.

It is on record, that there hasnt been any NEC , NWC , BOT or Caucus meeting of the party were such decision was taking to abandon the Senate President to his fate. This move undoubtedly proves once more, that the Chairman is acting on an already prepared script to incarcerate and make the Senate President pay for his disobedience for not adhering to the partys decision in contesting for the seat of the Senate Presidency.

Frank also asked members of the party and the public to disregard the comments made by Oyegun regarding Sarakis trial, adding that they were his personal opinions and not the official stand of APC.

He also said Oyeguns comments have given credence to the insinuations that Sarakis trial is politically motivated.

Instead of allowing the court to take its course in finding the Senate President guilty, having utilised his fundamental rights as enshrined in our constitution of the legality of his trial at the tribunal, one would have wondered the hurry in Chief Oyeguns assertions.

The chairman must be reminded of the role played by Senator Saraki in the emergence of the ruling party and if Chief Oyegun in all honesty believes that Senator Saraki should be the scapegoat for the ruling party, owing to his confirmation of bias in the ongoing trial of the senate president, then indeed the chairman has to be reminded that history has its way of repeating itself and reminding those who take it for granted when it beckons.

Chief Oyegun, must note that every member of the APC has put in their utmost best in being a part of the party whilst driving the party legacy in all ramifications. Sowing seeds of discord and not attending to pressing divisive party issues is bound to set the ruling party on a collision course. Admitting in itself that the party wouldnt mind sacrificing the seat of the ruling party for the opposition PDP is to further confirm that the Chairman is set to upset the smooth governance of Mr President, by clamouring for an opposition Senate President to further distract the activities of the present administration, Frank added.

The Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki is standing trial for an alleged false declaration of assets.

See Pulse Photo-News gallery below.
Oyegun said this in reaction to the undefinednot to grant Nigeria any loan.

The APC chairman said the actions of the Ekiti Governor shows that he is insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.

Oyegun also said by writing such a letter, Fayose showed that he is ignorant about the issues affecting the country.

I hope Fayose did not really do what we are told he did. I dont think even he is capable as descending into these low depths. But if he did, I feel sorry for him and the people of the state. Nigerians should ask Fayose what he was doing in China. Anyway, we are not bothered; the President is not bothered, Oyegun said.

Adding that Most people do not recognise the very sorry state of the nations economy and the fact that the countrys economy was ran aground and the crashed economy which contributed in no small measure towards the crash of crude oil from N120 per barrel to a miserable N30 to N40 per barrel at the international market.

Ayo Fayose has been the subject of ridicule since photos of the Ekiti Governor supposedly addressing the Chinese business community were posted online.

See Pulse Photo-News gallery below.
The couple who have been together for 40 years were featured on Tunde Kelani TV, owned by veteran cinematographer Tunde Kelani, where they narrated their love story.

Oga Bello and Alhaja Ejide revealed they first met at Ansar-Ud-Deen primary school, Oke-Popo, Amuto, Lagos Island. The couple as young children had their differences and disliked each other for it. Salami even tried to beat up his wife in school!

We both went to the same primary school, His shakara was too much then and I didn't like that. I never liked him, and he always tried to beat me. I always reported him to his parents until the day his father chased me". At the end of the day we became friends, Alhaja Ejide told Tunde Kelani TV.

The veteran actor said they settled whatever scores they had, the day his wife bought him food.

We became friends after she bought me meat pie and rice. And we began to date. We loved each other so much from 1966 till we got married in 1975. She joined me in fetching water back then when we were kids. She helped a lot, Oga Bello said.

The couple who were always seen together as youngsters said their friendship continued even when they went to secondary school. They began dating afterwards.

I liked him so much even the whole community knew that. We were always together. When we left for secondary school, he wrote me letters and I replied. Because he liked acting, I liked it too. I also accepted his colleagues into my home. I endured with him because I like him, the veteran actors wife said.
The Word for Today devotional by United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) says

You do not have to spend huge amounts of money to have meaningful family life. Children love the most simple, repetitive kinds of activities.

They want to be read the same stories hundreds of times, and hear the same jokes long after they have heard the punch lines. These interactions with parents are often more fun than expensive toys or special events.

Dr James Dobson says, A friend of mine once asked his grown children what they remembered most fondly from their childhood. Was it the vacations they took together or trips to Disney World or the zoo? No, they told him.

It was when he would get down on the floor and wrestle with the four of them. They would gang-tackle the old man and laugh until their sides hurt. Children think that way.

The most meaningful activities within families are often those that focus on that which is spontaneous and personal Busy and exhausted mothers and fathers, especially those who are affluent, sometimes attempt to pay off their kids with toys, cars, and expensive experiences.

It rarely works. What girls and boys want most is time spent with their parents - building things in the garage or singing in the car or hiking to an old fishing pond. No toy, to be played with alone, can ever compete with the enjoyment of such moments.
The visit by Jean-Marc Ayrault and Frank-Walter Steinmeier is part of efforts by the European Union to rebuild law and order in Libya and head off a potential new tide of migrants into Italy from the country, which has been in chaos since the toppling of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Western governments are also concerned about growing presence of Islamic State militants in Libya, where its affiliates have taken control of Sirte city and threatened oil installations as they seek to build a base beyond their Iraq and Syria territory.

"What's at stake is to get all the Europeans on the same page so that if there is a new anti-Islamic State coalition the Europeans speak as one voice and aren't faced with a U.S.-Russian fait accompli like in Syria," said a French official.

The ministers, who will meet Seraj at a naval base in Tripoli where he has been operating the U.N.-backed Presidential Council, follow a visit by their Italian counterpart last week. The meeting also comes ahead of an EU foreign and defence ministers special dinner on Monday to discuss the situation in the oil producing nation.

The dinner is expected to agree to look into police and border training missions for Libya. Any such support would initially be in Tripoli, where the new government is trying to establish itself.

Seraj has been tasked with ending the country's political impasse, resolving its armed conflict and tackling a growing threat from Islamic State jihadists.

"There is no alternative to this government," said a senior French diplomat. "Seraj embodies the political solution. He has got a number of backers now and there is momentum, so we want to give this government a bit of spotlight."

An EU security presence in Libya, which would not involve soldiers, would be Europe's biggest step in the oil-producing nation since a NATO-backed mission led to the fall of Gaddafi in 2011.

Diplomats say there has yet to be detailed discussion with the new U.N.-brokered Libyan government in defining what kind of assistance it wants from the EU, and that the EU is keen to avoid the impression of moving into the country uninvited.

Seraj will brief the EU ministers by video conference on Monday.

"There hasn't been any request yet from Seraj," the diplomat said. "France isn't hostile to a military intervention, but it must be done through a Libyan request to the international community and it needs to be attached to the political process."

Paris played a leading part in the NATO air campaign that helped rebels overthrow Gaddafi, but has regretted the lack of support given to the authorities afterwards.
Gunmen shot swimmers and sunbathers before storming hotels in the town of Grand Bassam, killing 19 people 40 km (25 miles) from the commercial capital, Abidjan, on March 13.

A second police source confirmed the arrest but was unable to provide further detail.

Saturday's arrest was the third reported in Mali linked to the Grand Bassam attacks, that were claimed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Islamist group's North African branch..

Eleven Ivorians, including three special forces' soldiers, died in the attack. Four French citizens were killed and other foreign victims included citizens of Germany, Lebanon, Macedonia and Nigeria.

Ivory Coast authorities have also arrested 15 people and say the ringleader, who they named as Kounta Dallah, was still at large.
Ban made the comments in telephone calls on Sunday with President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar, who is due to return to Juba this week to take up his former post as deputy to the president.

Thousands have been killed and more than two million people in a nation of 11 million have been driven from their homes by more than two years of fighting that erupted at the end of 2013, barely two years after South Sudan's independence.

Kiir's decision to sack Machar as his deputy in 2013 precipitated the crisis that erupted into conflict in December that year. Fighting has often run along ethnic lines, pitting Kiir's dominant Dinka ethnic group against Machar's Nuer.

After protracted talks, Machar and Kiir signed a peace deal in August that called for a transitional national government and other security arrangements to end the fighting.

But clashes have frequently flared outside the capital since then and Machar has repeatedly delayed his return.

Machar, due to be sworn in on the day he returns as First Vice President, had been scheduled to arrive in Juba on Monday. But a spokesman for his opposition group told Reuters his return had been postponed till Tuesday, citing logistical issues.

In his call with Kiir, Ban praised the decision to welcome Machar back and "called for the expeditious implementation of the security arrangements" including withdrawing Kiir's SPLA troops from Juba.

Ban welcomed Machar's decision to return and "urged him to work with President Kiir to prevent any further violence."

He urged both "to quickly form the Transitional Government of National Unity, as a crucial next step in the peace process."

The conflict has hammered the economy of what was already one of Africa's poorest nations. Oil exports - the government's main source of revenues that are suffering from weak global prices - have tumbled and the currency has plummeted in value.
At least six people have been killed in the capital of the southern African nation in the past four weeks and police said some body parts including ears, hearts and genitals had been removed, raising suspicion of ritual killings.

"Four shops have been looted so far on suspicion that they (the owners) were involved in the recent murders which have been happening in area," police spokeswoman Charity Munganga-Chanda said.

Residents on Monday chanted "We want peace!" as extra riot police were drafted into troubled areas.
The attacks reportedly started at a house and a shop belonging to an entrepreneur from Rwanda in the low-income Zingalume neighbourhood.

They then spread to nearby Chunga neighbourhood.

Zingalume residents stoned police, who responded with tear gas. The relentless rioting forced police to seek reinforcements.

The rioting was said to have started following the discovery of a mutilated body in Zingalume last Saturday.

Four suspects were also arrested on Sunday.

The discovery was the sixth of its kind in or near the two neighbourhoods in two months.

The victims were believed to have been killed to obtain body parts for money rituals.

"The residents, who were chanting slogans, have accused us, the police, of not providing enough security to them.

"Now they are saying these foreign businessmen are behind the ritual killings.

"We appeal for calm, as police are still investigating these murders, and all those behind them will be brought to book, Zambian Police spokesperson, Charity Munganga-Chanda said.
Clocking in just more than 100 days in office, Davenport Mayor Frank Klipsch emphasized collaboration during his State of the City speech on Monday before a crowd of dozens at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites on Elmore Avenue.

One of my awakenings has been seeing just how many times we are in a room together working for the Quad-Cities, Klipsch said.

He hit on that point multiple times during the speech, beginning with how he meets with other area mayors two or three times a week.

Gary Loss, a Davenport resident who attended the event, called the mayors focus on a Quad-City-wide approach to various issues refreshing.

That collaboration has been there for years, according to Scott County Administrator Dee Bruemmer, who also attended.

Its a fresh approach to Frank because hes new, Bruemmer said. The fact is, I dont think the private sector knows how much co-governing goes on around here.

Nancy Renkes of River Bend Foodbank, who lives in Davenport, said she was impressed by the mayors remarks.

Hes got a very clear direction and path, Renkes said.

In a speech that lasted about 30 minutes, Klipsch wrapped up 3 months of work, beginning when he took office at the beginning of January.

Here are some of the highlights of his speech:

Passing a budget

As soon as Klipsch took office, he and the City Council began hashing out the next fiscal year budget. He said Monday, I solemnly swear to be the mayor of the city  lets start the budget."

The city passed a budget of $201 million, including $27 million set aside to improve streets and sewers, without raising taxes, Klipsch said.

He also pointed out a 19.6 percent general fund unassigned fund balance and refinancing by the citys finance department that will save taxpayers $1.8 million this year.

Public safety

Davenport has seen a recent spike in shooting incidents compared with previous years. While the mayor said arrests are being made, he suggested the effort to combat violent crime will take a broader, Quad-City-wide approach.

Were cant arrest our way out of this issue, Klipsch said.

He brought up how he is putting together a committee to address public safety, something he first announced during a budget meeting at the beginning of February as aldermen were grappling with cuts to police and fire personnel.

Transparency

Beyond City Council meetings, which always are open to the public, Klipsch said he has held multiple other open meetings since taking office and challenged citizens to sit in on future ones.

This is something we heard was important to you, Klipsch said. Weve had four or five sessions like this, and only four or five show up.

He added, We all need to check on each other.

The Rev. Rogers Kirk, pastor of Third Missionary Baptist Church in Davenport, said the nod to transparency was important.

What he does is show that everything about the city is very transparent, that anyone can have access to city government, Kirk said.

Riverfront

Klipsch said a priority for Davenport is figuring out what to do with the riverfront after the Rhythm City Casino moves its boat this summer.

He said he personally talked to a representative of Viking River Cruises, but the European company has not said when it will begin stops in Davenport, if at all. A deal depends on whether the company can get the paperwork together to operate in the United States and build boats to navigate the Mississippi River, the mayor added.

Meanwhile, Moline-based Celebration Belle is ready to include Davenport in its cruising schedule, he said.

North Elmore

Another priority for Klipsch is developing the North Elmore Avenue corridor after the new Rhythm City Casino opens.

We have this one-time opportunity to make a difference, the mayor said.

He suggested not just marketing Davenport to prospective big box retailers but the Quad-Cities as a whole.

We need to stop thinking of Davenport as a community with a 103,000 population and start thinking of the Quad-Cities as a 450,000-person community, he said.

Shout outs

Sprinkled throughout his State of the City speech were shout-outs to various city leaders, including Police Chief Paul Sikorski and Fire Chief Lynn Washburn and Davenport School District Superintendent Art Tate.

He put city Finance Director Brandon Wright on the spot by saying the work his department has done has kept the citys bond ratings steady with AA- from Standard and Poors and Aa3 from Moodys.

He also mentioned Interim City Administrator Corri Spiegel in the search for a permanent city administrator.

Klipsch said Spiegel has been "doing great" and that he hopes she applies for the job.

The applications for city administrator are due May 4, and interviews are expected to be done in July or August. (Read the complete job posting with the online version of this story).

Teases

Klipsch said the city is supposed to unveil a dashboard on its website in July where residents can rate how the city is doing in various areas such as street maintenance and customer service. He called it the citys commitment to transparency.

Regarding infrastructure work, the city is trying to come up with a system that rates projects in a priority list and allows residents to visit the citys website to see where his or her street or sewer is on the list.
The committee fighting a plan by the Central States Pension Fund to cut benefits will meet at noon Saturday at Teamsters Local 371, 7909 42nd St., Rock Island.

The Quad-Cities Committee to Protect Our Pensions, which is organizing the effort, said retirees, active members and spouses are welcome.

The guest speaker will be Bob Amsden, of the Wisconsin Committee to Protect Pensions.

The Quad-City committee is one of many across the nation that are opposing a plan by the Central States Pension Fund that would cut benefits in many cases by 50 percent and up.

A provision in a large omnibus spending bill that Congress approved in late 2014 set up a process by which endangered multi-employer pension funds could be cut.

Central States proposed the cuts last year, saying they're needed to keep the fund from going into insolvency.

An official appointed by the U.S. Treasury Department is scheduled to make a decision on the plan May 7.

Amsden was one of the organizers of a large rally last week in Washington, D.C., which was aimed at highlighting the pending cuts.

For more information, call the Quad-City committee at 309-787-4456.

 Ed Tibbetts
Russian citizens charged with terrorism in Ukraine found guilty

MOSCOW, April 18 (RAPSI)  The Goloseyevsky District Court of Kiev has found two Russian nationals, Alexander Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev, guilty of terrorism, RIA Novosti reported on Monday.

They were sentenced to 14 years in prison each.

Ukrainian authorities claim that Aleksandrov and Yerofeyev were captured in an eastern region of the country during an attack on a bridge on May 16, 2015.

The men, who faced terrorism charges, serve in the Third Special Forces Brigade, which is based in Togliatti, a city in southern Russia, according to Ukrainian officials.

The men also faced allegations of waging of a war of aggression, illegal border crossing, illegal carrying weapon and ammunition, illegal entry to an occupied territory and unleashing of war. They could be sentenced to life in prison on these charges.

Moscow strongly denies the allegations. The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier that the men "were not on active service in the Russian Armed Forces" at the time of their capture in May 2015.

In April 2014, the Ukrainian authorities began a military operation in Donbas against the local residents who objected to the coup. According to the UNs latest data, over 6,200 people have been killed in the conflict. Ukrainian officials and some Western states have repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in Ukraines domestic issues.

Moscow has repeatedly claimed that it has had absolutely no part in the events in southeastern Ukraine and does not supply the self-defense forces with military equipment and ammunition; that it is not a party to the domestic Ukrainian conflict and is interested in Ukraine overcoming the political and economic crisis.
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Improved international legal cooperation necessary  report

MOSCOW, April 18 (RAPSI)  It is necessary to improve legal mechanics of international cooperation of law enforcers, Alexander Bastrykin, the Head of Russias Investigative Committee, told Kommersant-Vlast magazine on Monday.

It is necessary to improve legal mechanics of international cooperation between law enforcement agencies and other authorities empowered to counter terrorism and extremism,  Bastrykin said.

According to the Investigative Committee Head, as yet the Russian legislation has regulated only the procedures, which govern the forwarding of international letters of request for legal assistance, whereas international acts in this area envisage opportunities of a closer integration up to establishment of international investigative teams.

This cooperation would help in situations, where Russian investigative agencies need to carry out investigative activities or even preliminary investigations in the territories of foreign countries on condition these countries grant such an opportunity. This legal gap has become apparent in the course of probes into 2008 Georgia  South Ossetia armed conflict and the act of terrorism on the board of Russian Airbus A321 over Sinai, Bastrykin stated.
Terrorist and extremist crimes on rise in Russia in 2015  report

MOSCOW, April 18 (RAPSI)  Head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin made public the statistics related to terrorist and extremist activities in Russia in 2015, noting a negative trend in the year-to-year dynamics of such crimes, Kommersant-Vlast magazine informs on Monday.

A rise in the number of crimes of extremist nature was registered across 56 subjects of the Russian Federation; overall, there were committed 1329 such crimes, by 28.5 % more than in 2014 (1034).

The number of such crimes as public calls for carrying out extremist activities, instigation of hatred or enmity, as well as violation of human dignity rose by almost 40 % as compared with 2014 figures.

There were registered 42 crimes relating to arrangement of activities of extremist organizations (+2.4%).

A significant rise in the number of terror attacks carried out in the territory of the Russian Federation (by 36.3 %) was also registered in 2015, 1538 as compared with 1128 in 2014.

According to Bastrykin, 70 crimes were prevented at the stage of preparation or attempt, whereas 113 crimes of terrorist nature were committed using Internet.

The Head of Investigative Committee noted that especially complex situation was observed in the North Caucasus Federal Okrug, where the majority of crimes of terrorist nature were registered: 1168 such crimes or 75.9 % of the total across the nation (+ 32.3 % as compared with 883 crimes in 2014).
Pulse demand is on the rise both domestically and abroad, and thats one reason behind the reported pulse crop increase in the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Prospective Plantings report in some northern states.Pulse demand has increased tremendously in the nation over the past year, said Shannon Berndt, executive director of the Northern Pulse Growers Association. Coupled with some new markets and some pretty attractive prices, acreage looks like it will be increasing in our northern states for many chickpea, pea and lentil crops.According to the report released March 31, North Dakota, Montana, and Idaho producers plan to increase their lentil acreage.For peas, North Dakota producers plan to double their acreage, while Montana and Idaho producers plan to plant less peas.All-chickpea acreage will be increased in Montana and North Dakota, and acres will be stable in Idaho, if the report holds true.Dry bean acreage will reportedly decrease in all the northern states that plant any of the 12 or more varieties of dry beans.Berndt said many of the pulse processors, such as AGT foods out of Bismarck, N.D., are using peas and lentils in flours, for fiber and starch substitutes to replace other ingredients.One of the biggest markets for us is with pet products. There is a huge demand for pulses in pet foods, she said.Interest in lentilsPrices were higher for lentils than for many other crops last year, at about 30 cents a pound at its highest, Berndt said. According to the USDA, there are strong prices and demand for lentils this year.Montana will be the top lentil-producing state in the nation, if the plantings hold true at harvest time, with acreage going from 235,000 acres to a half-million acres, for a 213 percent gain from 2015 to 2016. Second in lentil acreage would be North Dakota with producers increasing their acres from 165,000 to 240,000, a 145 percent gain.Washington would be third with 70,000 acres, a decrease from last year, while Idaho will be fourth, going from 33,000 acres in 2015 to 40,000 this year, a 121 percent increase.Area planted for the 2016 crop year is expected to total 850,000 acres, up 72 percent from 2015 in the whole U.S. Prospective plantings are up in all program states which include Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Washington.Pea acreage up in North DakotaNorth Dakota will be the top pea producing state in the nation in 2016 if the report holds true.Producers in North Dakota are expected to nearly double their pea acreage, going from 385,000 in 2015 to a whopping 640,000 acres this year  a 166 percent increase  which would be a record high.In Montana, pea acreage will decrease slightly, from 595,000 acres in 2015, down to 580,000 acres.According to Berndt, those acres are probably being shifted to lentils.Idaho producers are expected to plant less peas this year, from 51,000 to 40,000 acres.For the entire U.S., expected area planted for all peas is 1.42 million acres, up from 935,000 in 2014 and 1.14 million acres last year.Chickpeas gain huge acreageWith lots of products for chickpeas, especially hummus domestically, acreage for chickpeas is mostly up this year.The main problem with planting chickpeas is the disease issue, but research centers and breeders are addressing it. Ascochyta blight has wiped out many acres in the past, Berndt said.According to the report, Idaho producers expect to plant 30,000 acres of small chickpeas, down about 2,000 acres from 2015. Idaho is expected to plant 40,000 acres of large chickpeas this year, up from 38,000 last year.Montana producers expect to plant 18,000 acres of small chickpeas this year, with no previous reported acres. Montana is expected to plant 50,000 acres of large chickpeas this year.North Dakota plan to plant 5,000 acres of small chickpeas, the same as last year. For large chickpea, they are expected to plant 6,000 acres, up from 2,400 acres from last year, an increase of 250 percent.Dry edible bean acreage downMontana producers are expected to increase acres from 49,000 last year to 80,000 this year, while Idaho producers are expected to remain the same, at 120,000 acres.But producers are reminded that the USDA dry edible bean report includes chickpeas, so while the USDA reports Montana dry bean acreage up, it is actually down, when dry beans are considered to be beans such as pintos, blacks, reds and pinks, according to Tim Courneya, executive vice president of the Northarvest Bean Growers Association in Frazee, Minn.It was not a surprise to us to find dry bean acreage down in the northern tier states. We have a supply and demand issue, and farmers are backing away from seeding dry beans, Courneya said. Prices have been down for dry beans and there is plenty of inventory on hand left from 2015.Even with U.S. bean acres down, we do expect better pricing for beans this year, with 80 percent of our beans going to domestic markets and 20 percent going overseas, he said. More people domestically have been eating beans and there are beans in so many of our food products.Mexico has been in a drought, so that is an unknown.Minnesota acres are more accurate for dry beans, since there are few acres of chickpeas there. Producers in Minnesota are expected to decrease acres of dry beans from 190,000 in 2015 to 155,000 acres.North Dakota producers plan on planting 590,000 acres of dry beans (including chickpeas), down from 655,000 acres last year.Wyoming producers are expected to plant 40,000 acres of dry beans including chickpeas, up from 32,000 acres.Weather the unknown factorThe USDA planting intentions report is important for the Northern Pulse Growers because it is used to make plans for the entire year, Berndt said.But weather is always the unknown to see if the report will hold true to harvest.In 2011, we lost 80 percent of our crop due to weather, so if it is a late spring, producers could not get their pulses planted on time, she said. Pulses are an early-seeded crop. But weve heard Montana has already been planted, and are way ahead of us in North Dakota this year.
WASHINGTON  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated Custer County in Montana as a primary natural disaster area due to damages and losses caused by drought that occurred from March 1, 2015, and continues.Farmers and ranchers in Carter, Fallon, Garfield, Powder River, Prairie and Rosebud counties in Montana may also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous.All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas on April 6, 2016, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDAs Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. FSA has a variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.Other FSA programs that can provide assistance, but do not require a disaster declaration, include the Emergency Conservation Program; Livestock Forage Disaster Program; Livestock Indemnity Program; Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program; and the Tree Assistance Program. Interested farmers may contact their local USDA Service Centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available online at http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov .
There was a time that the most asked question while campaigning for the Public Service Commission was What is the PSC? That is not true in Missoula, where the PSC has been thrust to the front pages of the Missoulian with their activity, or lack thereof, in the citys attempt to acquire Mountain Water. This recent interest in the PSC is positive because the work they conduct is far too important to be treated as a part-time job.

The PSC is responsible for utility rates, rail safety, telecommunication, garbage collection, public transportation, gas line safety and more.They are made up of five commissioners elected district wide across the State of Montana. The PSC is generally tasked with regulating public utilities that are privately owned and have a monopoly on markets that provide services to rate payers. All five commissioners are currently Republicans and do not represent the views of many rate payers.

This Public Service Commission has been ineffective on many fronts and have made decisions that make me question their commitment and dedication to Montanans. It was no surprise the PSC was paid little respect, and prior permission was not sought, in the recent sale of Mountain Water to Liberty Utilities.

Lets take a look at a few of these areas where the PSC did not keep the consumers best interest in the forefront of their decisions:

Local citizens are familiar with the Mountain Water case. The only clear winner so far has been The Carlyle Group. Having served as a city-county commissioner previously in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, I completely understand the city of Missoula wanting to control its municipal water supply. This is too valuable of a resource to be held in ownership by out-of-state and foreign investors.

Commissioner Bob Lake favored the Carlyle Group. He has not supported the citys attempt to acquire the water company, nor has he been neutral, he has actually been more of an obstacle. He supported hefty rate increases for Carlyle. A Dec. 16, 2013 Missoulian story reported, Bob Lake supported a 9.8 percent return on equity as being fair for the consumer and adequate to keep the company strong. He said the rate is typical in the industry and unfair to say the company doesnt deserve the increase.

The PSC dropped the ball with their last minute objection of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes acquisition of Kerr Dam. They requested the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hold new hearings on a process that has been in the works since 1985. This was not only wrong and cynical but I feel was motivated by distrust for the tribe.

In September of 2015, this PSC commission voted on an annual housekeeping measure of re-certifying eligible telecommunications carriers. This has been done annually since 1996. The motion failed for the lack of a second, placing $100 million that annually supports our rural communities in jeopardy. Schools, libraries and hospitals were at risk of losing critical funding. After a huge public outcry, a special meeting was called the following week and the PSC, after hearing testimony from across the state, approved the recertification. We need more broadband service across Montana, not less.

Earlier this year, a state legislative audit called the PSC unable or unwilling to do its job providing for railroad safety as required by Montana law. Railroad activity has and will continue to expand, hauling volatile products along river corridors and through every major community in the state. Safety is paramount.

These poor decisions affect all of us and need to be taken seriously. The finger pointing, excuses and shoulder shrugs are not acceptable.

For far too many years the Public Service Commission has been a place for termed out legislators to top off their pensions. The current commission is made up of three politicians and recent past commissions have been similar. This is unacceptable. The position has been treated as a part-time job where commissioners attend one or two meetings a week in Helena. The responsibility to the rate payer is far too important, and the job too technical for it to be used in this way.

Mark Sweeney is a candidate for PSC District 4. He worked 27 years with Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks studying the effects of hydroelectric dam operations on fish habitat and conserving native fish populations. He served as Chairman of the Anaconda Deer Lodge County Commission and currently serves on the Upper Clark Fork River Basin Remediation and Restoration Advisory Council. He is also a Broker Owner of Montana Blue Ribbon Real Estate and Aquatic Resource Management.
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.
Colombo Telegraph, April 16, 2016

by Dr. Rajan Hoole

As the country drifted towards chauvinism in the post-independence years, the Left until the early 1960s offered hope as an alternative to a politics entrenched in feudalism and the past. In the first Parliament, the Left was almost in a position to form the government. The Citizenship Bills which turned Tamil plantation labour into virtual serfs was largely intended to take a huge slice off the Leftas support base. The battle to resist the Bills was staunchly fought by the Left and lost. The Sinhala Only Bill of 1956 too was ably opposed by the Left and from the debates came those memorable words of Dr. Colvin R. de Silva of the LSSP, that are etched in this countryas history: aOne language, two nations; two languages, one nation.a

Even before his assassination in 1959, the government of Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike was in crisis. Weighed down by Sinhala Only, two bouts of communal violence, the broken pact with the Tamils, a restive section of the Buddhist clergy charging him with betrayal and an air of conspiracy in the cabinet, the Prime Minister, whose moderation never completely deserted him, was an isolated man. The two main Left parties, the LSSP and the CP, which had long taken an ambivalent view of parliamentary democracy a as against revolutionary change a had by 1960 firmly opted for parliamentary democracy. In contesting the 1960 elections, the Left was optimistic about forming the government. They failed. The debate about parliamentary democracy once more emerged in the Left. The early 1960s was a period when a Left front and coalition with the SLFP were discussed in a parliamentary context. The Left divided and subdivided with some sections rejecting parliamentary democracy and working towards newer expressions of democracy at the grass roots or even revolution.

Hector Abhayavardhana

Hector Abhayavardhana

We trace some of the developments in the form of questions posed to Mr. Hector Abhayavardhana, a senior LSSP theoretician, whose 80th birthday was commemorated recently in December 1999, and his answers.

Q: Leading Tamil intellectuals from the Left, including V. Karalasingham from your own party, saw very clearly in the early 60s where the nationalism of the Tamil-speaking people, founded on alienation and self-imposed isolation, as expressed by the Federal Party, would eventually drag them and the country. Karalasingham described their politics as aburning themselves out in impotent ragea. Knowing the dangers very well, why did the Left distance themselves from the Tamils by abandoning their earlier stand of parity for Sinhalese and Tamil as official languages and adopt aSinhala Onlya?

H.A: In 1960, the LSSP (Lanka Socialist Party) had overestimated its electoral strength. When we went for the first electoral contest in that year, we were hoping for the formation of a government with our leader Dr. N.M. Perera as prime minister. The result was a hung parliament with the UNP of Dudley Senanayake having the largest number of seats. It was a great come down for the Left, and at the second elections in 1960, the LSSP publicly committed itself to helping the SLFP to form a government. The SLFP won. The Party thought desperately of means to break out of its isolation. One idea was the formation of a United Left Front (ULF) under the leadership of Philip Gunawardene of the MEP, Dr. S.A. Wickremasinghe of the CP (Communist Party) and Dr. N.M. Perera of the LSSP. Now, by the early 60s, Philip Gunawardene had consolidated a Sinhalese chauvinist line. He had taken the lead to line up with Bandaranaikeas SLFP in the mid- 50s to form the MEP, which swept the 1956 elections on a Sinhala Only platform.

Q: Philip Gunawardene was of course a leading light of the LSSP. Why did he do that?

H.A: It was opportunism of course a to break out of his isolation. As a condition for forming the ULF, PG insisted that we adopt Sinhala Only. We discussed it in the Party. There were those who opposed it, but we eventually decided to accept it.

Q: But Edmund Samarakkody led a group that split off from the LSSP and stood by the policy of parity on languages.

H.A: That is true. But Edmund was part of the move to form the ULF, and there is nothing in the record of the discussion which says that he opposed the adoption of Sinhala Only. But ironically the ULF was formed in 1963, and before it could consolidate itself Philip broke it up and went his way. We were left with Sinhala Only and we could not go back to our old position since it was now awkward to explain to the public why we changed to Sinhala Only and changed back to parity.

The early 60s were a period of drift. The SLFP government narrowly survived an attempted coup in January 1962 by a right wing section of the armed forces. After the coup attempt the SLFP was feeling more and more isolated and was beginning to show signs of collapse. The split between the right wing of the SLFP and the left wing was open. The Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike publicly appealed for support from the LSSP and CP and there was a drift to commence talks. The right wing of the SLFP was violently opposed to the LSSP and CP. Felix Dias Bandaranaike who belonged to the right wing sought to counter Mrs. Bandaranaikeas strategy by appealing to Philip Gunawardene to join the SLFP and form a common government. The left wing of the SLFP led by T.B. Illangaratne pressed Mrs. Bandaranaike to open talks with Dr. N.M. Perera without delay. She did so and this led to the short- lived United Front government of 1964.

The Government was defeated on the Press Bill in December 1964 where several members of the SLFP Right led by C.P. de Silva voted against the Government. The UNP came to power in the elections which followed. Thereafter the SLFP, LSSP and CP formed a United Left Front and campaigned to form the government at the next elections. So you see that these years, 1960-65, were characterised by a feeling of isolation and uncertainty on the part of the SLFP, particularly after the coup attempt in January 1962. Both the CP and LSSP were faced with having to consolidate a united front or going back to a relatively isolated political existence in the face of the UNP and SLFP. This period saw shifting relations between the parties and an anxiety to cement some coalition with the Left or the Right to stabilise the SLFP government. Without being unconcerned about the Tamil question, these were the main issues which impelled decisions at that time. Once we had dropped parity in 1963, there was no way of going back to it.

Q: But the Left has been accused of encouraging communalism when in the opposition from 1965- 70a.,the so-called aMasalavade linea of the Left? (Masalavade is a popular Tamil delicacy.)

H.A: That was a misunderstanding. The Left had to adopt a common position on language with the SLFP. On May Day in 1966, the Left and the SLFP marched in a common procession from Victoria Park. Someone started shouting aDudlige bade masalavadea (aPrime Minister Dudleyas stomach is filled with masalavadea ). The slogan went right down the line. Thereafter people thought that it was a Left slogan.

Q: In the coalition government of 1970, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva was entrusted with the task of drawing up a new constitution. The new constitution adopted in May 1972 was a psychological blow to the Tamils. It made no accommodation with Tamil demands. Sinhala Only remained the policy on language and Buddhism was given the foremost place. Unlike the Soulbury Constitution of 1947 where the Law was supreme, the one of 1972 made Parliament supreme in the name of the people. To the minorities outside the mainstream in a polarised polity, this arrangement appeared even more a tyranny of the majority a the Sinhalese Buddhists. Section 29 of the old constitution which, symbolically at least, guaranteed protection to the minorities against discriminatory enactment was also dropped. The Tamil youth especially were left feeling bitter and in a rebellious mood. It has been widely said that the Federal Party leaders found Dr. Colvin R. de Silva from your party less accommodative than the SLFP?

H.A: What you say may be true of the left of the SLFP. But the right of the SLFP would have gone no further than the 1972 Constitution. Where the LSSP was at fault was in mishandling the matter of the new constitution a we were already caught in the compromise made with Philip Gunawardene on the language question. Where we were at fault was on the issue of talks between S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and Mrs. Bandaranaike on the new constitution. Mr. Chelvanayakam asked for talks and Mrs. Bandaranaike refused. We could have insisted that Mrs. B should talk to Chelva, but we did not.

It was then that Chelvanayakam resigned his seat and announced his intention of turning the bye-election into a referendum calling for a mandate to form a separate state for the Tamil- speaking people. The LSSP could have insisted on going the full length of talks with Chelvanayakam and the Tamil leaders, but did not.

Q: On looking back, the Left was deeply divided on ideological issues while their positions on key issues affecting this country were similar. Today many see the traditional differences in the Left as unreal in comparison with the challenge of formulating a programme for political action to defend the interests of the powerless against the enormous power of corporate institutions. Why did this not happen in the 50s and 60s?

H.A: After the Russian revolution of 1917 and the setting up of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), the Marxist movement was appropriated by the new Soviet government and the Communist International. With the death of Lenin, the factional crisis in the Soviet Communist Party came to a head, and the entire leadership of Leninas Bolshevik Party, with a few exceptions, was wiped out by Stalin. From its centre in Moscow, the Stalinist movement appropriated the goodwill that belonged to the former Marxist movement. At the same time, it converted that movement into one that devoted all its energies to the military defence of the Soviet State and the carrying out of the foreign policy of the Soviet Government

Irrespective of our wish as Trotskyites, we were converted into a permanent opposition to the official communist movement and one that had behind it the entire resources of the Soviet State. The Stalinist a Trotskyite split became a worldwide split and everyone had to contend with the policy of the Stalinist-movement. It was then impossible to get away from it.

So far as the world was concerned, Marxism consisted of the Soviet State and its worldwide projection. Until the death of Stalin in 1953, no one outside the Trotskyite movement could reasonably expect that this state of affairs could be changed. Only subsequently with the coming to power of Gorbachev could the possibility of radical transformation of Stalinist politics be visualised. Today, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, the concrete fact is established. Today Stalinism and Trotskyism look unreal. Then they were a reality we could not get away from.

We may however mention here that contemporary political observers close to the Tamil Left do not fully agree with Hector Abhayavardhanaas reading of events. They find it wholly unconvincing that the Left joined the SLFP in a coalition to counterbalance the Right in the SLFP and to maintain a viable Left option. They rather see it as a piece of parliamentary opportunism with very predictable results a the suicide of the Left in an entity where the forces of the Right had the upper hand. A telling instance of this opportunism, they point out, was the experience of the Jaffna District Communist Party while the new constitution promulgated in 1972 was being drawn up. We give the experience as related by V. Ponnambalam, the leader of the JDCP, a very responsible man, to a Left intellectual:

The Jaffna District Committee of the Communist Party decided at a meeting that they would press for the abrogated Bandaranaike- Chelvanayakam Pact of 1957 to be incorporated in the new constitution as a settlement to the Tamil question. They asked CP leader Pieter Kenuman to arrange for a deputation to meet Prime Minister Mrs. Bandaranaike and Minister for Constitutional Affairs Dr. Colvin R. de Silva. The delegation led by V. Ponnambalam presented their case cogently and pointed out that if the aborted B-C Pact was implemented, the Tamil militancy (which was just beginning to emerge) could be nipped in the bud.

Mrs. Srimavo Bandaranaike listened very intently and agreed with the delegation that implementing the B-C Pact would be the best way out.

Then up jumped Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, and in a two-hour harangue interspersed with his usual histrionics, painted a grim picture of Buddhist bhikkus and Sinhalese mobs taking to the streets and literally bundling the United Left Front out of power. This so unnerved Mrs. Bandaranaike that she told the delegation that the matter would be shelved for the moment. Those close to V. Ponnambalam blame Colvin R. de Silva for the present impasse in addition to S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, J.R. Jayewardene and other individuals like Badiuddin Mohammed. Being in that coalition, Colvin R. de Silva, they contend, appears to have been impelled to prove himself more SLFP than the SLFP Right. The 1972 Constitution, which entrenched Sinhala Only, and placed Buddhism in the foremost place, was an ironic testament to the man who once said, aTwo languages one nation, one language two nationsa .

It is moreover hard to understand how this constitution was found acceptable by the LSSP leader, Dr. N.M. Perera. At the beginning of the chapter, we quoted from a speech made by him in Parliament on 19th October 1955, when signs of the deluge of the coming year were all-too- evident. He moved a motion to make Sinhalese and Tamil state languages enjoying parity of status. He said that such a timely gesture was necessary in view of the chauvinist sentiment being whipped up by the Tri Sinhala Peramuna. Articulating essentially aCeylon for the Sinhalesea, the Tri Sinhala Peramuna was a precursor of present day extremist groups with the same social base a the commercial and professional elite of Sinhalese society.

One reading N.M. Pereraas speech from 1955 would be impressed by the fact that it came from the heart with a sense of urgency. To an interruption by Mr. D.B.R. Gunawardena that J.R. Jayewardene headed the Tri Sinhala Peramuna, Dr. Perera said, aI have no doubt that there are important members of the Government apparently associated with the organisation.a Its sponsors, he said, were good capitalists and supporters of the UNP. Parliament has been greatly impoverished with the passing of such giants of the past who combined intellectual brilliance with lucidity of exposition and a passion for justice a a combination no longer in vogue. There were already rumblings of Sinhalese being made the sole official language. The UNP government of Sir John Kotelawela was being ominously silent on the issue. After Kotelawela said in Jaffna, when asked pointedly by Handy Perinpanayagam that the Government stood for parity of Sinhalese and Tamil, he denied in Colombo that he had said such a thing.

Arguing his case with great clarity, Dr. Perera pointed out that democracy is not majoritarianism and the absurdity of forcing 23 lakhs of Tamil speakers to transact all their official business in Sinhalese because 58 lakhs (official figures) were Sinhalese speaking. This kind of reasoning, he pointed out, would make it legitimate to pass laws forcing everyone to adopt the religion of the majority or entitling only Sinhalese speakers to get government jobs. aThe sovereignty of the majoritya , he said, ais automatically checked by those inalienable rights the minorities have, which cannot be overridden by the mere whim and fancy of a majority.a

Dr. Perera then went on to demolish the case of those who protested that things would not be so bad: that while Sinhalese remained the state language throughout the country, Tamil would be a regional language in the Northern and Eastern Provinces that are predominantly Tamil speaking. Dr. Perera said that the logical outcome of this arrangement would be to drive and confine this non-Sinhalese speaking element a the Tamil-speaking element a to the Northern and Eastern Provinces. This, he pointed out would concede Mr. Chelvanayakamas case for a federal state comprising the North and East that would have a separate government.

He then put the pertinent question: aIs there any earthly reason why they should agree to be a portion of Ceylon if they are confined to those areas?a This region, he said, not being economically viable would be forced to look to India or to aother imperialistic countriesa (i.e. the US and Britain). Having Sinhalese as a state language and Tamil as a regional language in the North and East, he concluded, awould lead to so much rioting, bloodshed and civil wara. (See CDN 13 & 14 Nov.1997.)

His foresight, events have shown, was unimpeachable. Few would contest these conclusions today except for the intellectual progeny of the Tri Sinhala Peramuna. The Sinhalese extremists to this day, while vociferously insisting on a unitary state under Sinhalese hegemony, were all the time in their actions conceding Dr. Pereraas arguments. (See 4.8 for an extract from an extremist leaflet issued about the time of the 1958 pogrom.) It was ironically Jayewardene who made Tamil a state language towards the end of his presidency when his logic had run its course. Perhaps Dr. N.M. Perera himself came to underestimate the gravity of the situation as a result of the deceptive calm of the 60s.

The Left had indeed faced very difficult challenges in a small country where the economic problems were superimposed on a feudally dominated, abnormally polarised polity, with a good section of the working class disenfranchised. Decisions were forced on the actors under pressures of the hour. But the question needs to be asked if the compromises in principle made to get into the mainstream of parliamentary politics helped the Leftas objectives. Their flirtation with chauvinism did not impress the chauvinists who believed their chauvinism to be fake. By the time of the 1977 elections, the prospects for the Left were at their nadir. The giants of the Left a Dr. N.M. Perera, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, Pieter Kenuman and Dr. S.A. Wickremasighe a were all defeated in their secure electorates by largely unknown UNP candidates.

It took another 4 years for the Left to make a re-entry into parliament in the form of Sarath Muttetuwegama of the Communist Party, at a bye-election in 1981. After years in the wilderness, the parliamentary Left went back to its old positions, dropping its veneer of chauvinism. The key younger figures from the Left who held the stage during the 1980s were Sarath Muttetuwegama, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne (the latter two from the NSSP a which broke away from the LSSP in the 70s) and Vijaya Kumaratunga. All of them distinguished themselves as anti-chauvinist and champions of minority rights. Had elections been free and fair, more of them would have become MPs in the early 80s. They demonstrated that it was possible to fight elections successfully in a Sinhalese constituency while strenuously opposing chauvinism.

Vijaya Kumaratunga broke new ground in another way. After leaving the SLFP, he and his wife Chandrika Kumaratunga (nee Bandaranaike) founded the SLMP in the mid-80s. It espoused socialism, while the time also permitted it to remain oblivious to the old questions of Stalinism and Trotskyism that had bedevilled the Left. Even if these developments were not so visible electorally in the 80s, they made the break in public opinion of 1994 possible, when the Peoples Alliance led by Chandrika Kumaratunga came to power. The PA which comprised the SLFP, SLMP, LSSP and CP, while depending on older SLFP figures for its electoral support, was closer to the old Left on the Tamil question.

But paradoxically, the first step in creating a break was taken by Jayewardene a who has been described by some of his contemporaries as the most unprincipled politician in Sri Lankan history. These important changes did not come because of agitation by the Left. They came because of Jayewardeneas rash and intemperate handling of the Tamil question. Conditions started improving for the Plantation Tamils who had not already left for India, because Jayewardene needed peace on the estates and the income they generated to sustain a costly war in the North-East. Moreover, by getting the Indian Government involved in the internal affairs of his country, he was forced to go a long way in accommodating Tamil demands in the form of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987. He got it through parliament not by campaigning for mass support, but by using the undated resignation letters of his MPs in his possession. The Left to their credit helped their traditional adversary to soften the impact by publicly supporting the political solution under the Accord.

There was the other important segment of the Left, which rejected the parliamentary line and went into mass work at the grass roots. Some of the dissidents (e.g. Bala Tampoe and N. Shanmugathasan) remained active in trade union work. Many among the younger generation rejected middle class aspirations and lifestyles and sought a closer identification with the people. They became active in protest movements on issues. An important one was against the expropriation of peasant lands in Moneragala for multi-national investment in sugar in the early 80s.

Most of the second-generation groups survive as issue-based NGOs. One political movement of significance from the second generation is the JVP, which will be referred to in the coming chapters.

*To be continued..

*From Rajan Hooleas aSri Lanka: Arrogance of Power a Myth, Decadence and Murdera . Thanks to Rajan for giving us permission to republish.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INDIA

PRESS RELEASE

18 APRIL 2016

New Delhi

Repression of media and civil society in Chhattisgarh deepening

Over the last six months, human rights defenders in Bastar, Chhattisgarh have faced a relentless crackdown by the police and self-styled vigilante groups, leading to a near-total information blackout in the state, Amnesty International India said today.

aBlackout in Bastar: Human Rights Defenders Under Threata describes how journalists, lawyers and activists have been harassed, attacked and locked up for investigating excesses by security forces and seeking justice for human rights abuses.

aOver and over again, Chhattisgarh authorities have stood by and watched as their critics are intimidated and attacked by groups which seem to enjoy police support,a said Aakar Patel, Executive Director, Amnesty International India.

aEven worse, the police have themselves arrested journalists on trumped-up charges. The ominous message the state government is sending to defenders is clear: shut up or face the consequences.a

Four journalists a Santosh Yadav, Somaru Nag, Prabhat Singh and Deepak Jaiswal a have been arrested on politically motivated charges since July 2015. Another journalist a Malini Subramaniam a was forced to leave her home in February 2016 following attacks on her home and police pressure on her landlord.

Kamal Shukla, the editor of Bhumkal Samachar, a Bastar newspaper, said, aWe are always reminded by the state police that our lives will be in danger if we dont follow the government narrative. And now we have these vigilante groups backed by the state that just makes it difficult for independent journalists to work in Bastar.a

In February, Adivasi activist Soni Sori had a chemical substance thrown at her face by unknown assailants who warned her not to file a complaint against a high-ranking Bastar police official for an alleged extrajudicial execution.

Bela Bhatia, an independent researcher, has faced intimidation and harassment from so-called vigilante groups called the Samajik Ekta Manch (Social Unity Forum) and Mahila Ekta Manch (Womenas Unity Forum), for helping Adivasi women file police complaints of large-scale sexual assault and other abuses allegedly committed by security force personnel.

Human rights lawyers of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, which provides free legal aid to Adivasi pre-trial detainees, were also forced to leave their home in Jagdalpur in February following police pressure on their landlord.
 "Colorado 8th-graders caught sexting could have to register as sex offenders" | Main | Would Congress be wise to pursue sentencing reform through DOJ spending limitations? 

Virginia made capital headlines last week after Gov. Terry McAuliffe altered a bill passed by the state's legislature calling for use of the electric chair if the state could not obtain need lethal drugs. The headline of this Washington Post piece from last week explains his proposed alternative approach: "In a move that could jeopardize executions, McAuliffe wants to shield the identity of makers of lethal-injection drugs."

Meanwhile, this new commentary by Kerry Dougherty, a columnist for The Virginian-Pilot, provides some perspective on this execution method brouhaha and Virginia's recent experience with the death penalty. The piece is headlined "Lost in all the death-penalty drug talk is that there are only 7 men on death row in Virginia," and here are excerpts:

Last winter, state legislators came up with a solution: They said that if drugs are unavailable, the commonwealth should fire up Old Sparky. Predictably, this sparked a heated debate among politicians. Some argued that the electric chair is cruel.

Others shrugged, saying painless deaths are not the goal of the state. I hear, Oh my Lord, he might have to suffer,  said the Senates Democratic leader, Richard Saslaw in March.  If we dont have the necessary drugs, then we need this bill. When you commit acts like that, you give up your right, as far as Im concerned, to say, Well, I want to die humanely. 

The governor seems to disagree. We take human beings, we strap them into a chair, and then we flood their bodies with 1,800 volts of electricity, subjecting them to unspeakable pain until they die, McAuliffe said last week, according to news reports. Virginia citizens do not want their commonwealth to revert back to a past when excessively inhumane punishments were committed in their name.

McAuliffes language calls for the state to buy the drugs needed to put prisoners to sleep from special pharmacies. The names of those companies would be cloaked in secrecy, as they are in some other states. All Im doing today is providing a humane way to carry out capital punishment here in Virginia so we have options, McAuliffe said. If they do not take it up, I want to be clear, they will be ending capital punishment here in Virginia.

Now the question becomes, should the peoples business be conducted covertly? I can answer that: No, it shouldnt.

Lost in all this talk about how to kill the last men on Virginias death row is the happy fact that there are just seven men living there. Seven. According to an NBC news report, Virginias death row was at its most crowded in 1995 when it housed 57 condemned prisoners. Both executions and death sentences have dropped sharply since then.

The ultimate penalty is imposed on those who commit the most heinous crimes. Last year, for instance, Virginia executed one man: The loathsome Alfredo Prieto. He killed a young couple in Fairfax in 1988, raping one of the victims as she died. The Washington Post reported that he had killed as many as seven others. One of those murders was of a 15-year-old in California while he was on the run after the double homicide in Fairfax.

I couldnt gin up any sympathy for this predator. Neither could the governor, who refused to block his execution in October. Yet Prieto was the first man executed in the Old Dominion in more than two years.

Why all the empty cells on death row? Many reasons. But one component is certainly 1995s truth-in-sentencing law pushed by then-Gov. George Allen. The measure abolished parole and closed the revolving doors on Virginias prisons. Suddenly a 10-year sentence meant the convict would spend most of a decade in prison. And a life sentence? It actually meant life in prison.

Given this ironclad alternative to execution, its become rare for a Virginia jury  or judge  to send a convict to death row. Before we get back to arguing about the death penalty, cant we all agree thats a good thing?
 An interesting perspective on Virginia's recent capital experiences | Main | "Montgomery's Messy Trifecta" 

April 17, 2016

Would Congress be wise to pursue sentencing reform through DOJ spending limitations?

The question in the title of this post is prompted by this recent Reason piece by Jacob Sullum headlined "DOJ Accepts Decision Saying It May Not Target State-Legal Medical Marijuana Suppliers: The feds had argued that a spending rider left them free to shut down dispensaries." Here are the details:

The Justice Department has abandoned its appeal of a ruling that said federal prosecutors are breaking the law when they target medical marijuana providers who comply with state law. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued that ruling last October, when he said enforcing an injunction against a state-legal dispensary would violate a spending rider that prohibits the DOJ from interfering with state laws allowing medical use of marijuana. The Justice Department initially asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to overturn Breyer's decision but later changed its mind, and on Tuesday the court granted its request to withdraw the appeal. That decision leaves in place Breyer's ruling, which involved the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana (MAMM), without establishing a circuit-wide precedent. Presumably the DOJ worried that the 9th Circuit would agree with Breyer's reading of the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which says the department may not use appropriated funds to "prevent" states from "implementing" their medical marijuana laws. The DOJ argues that prosecuting medical marijuana suppliers, seizing their property, and shutting them down does not prevent implementation of laws authorizing them. Breyer said that interpretation "defies language and logic." The rider that Breyer considered expired last year, but the same language was included in the omnibus spending bill for the current fiscal year. If Congress continues to renew the amendment and other courts agree with Breyer's understanding of it, medical marijuana growers and suppliers who comply with state law will have less reason to worry about raids, arrests, and forfeiture actions, although uncertainty will remain in states where the rules for dispensaries are unclear. For the time being, that remains true in California, although state regulations aimed at clarifying the situation are scheduled to take effect in 2018.

In other words, now that DOJ has (sort-of) accepted a broad reading of the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, this DOJ spending limitation has (sort-of) achieved indirectly what Congress has been unwilling or unable to do directly, namely authorize states and individuals to move forward with a responsible medical marijuana program without persistent concerns that DOJ may raid and prosecute participants. Of course, this spending limitation can and will expire if not consistently renewed by Congress. But still, as this Sullum piece highlights, even a short-term spending limit can end up having some real bite.

In light of this intriguing "spending limit" back-door form of congressional marijuana reform, I am now wondering if this approach should be pursued sentencing reformers/advocates growing frustrated Congress has not yet been able to pass a significant statutory sentencing reform bill. Though some clever drafting might be needed, I could imagine a provision in a federal budget bill that prohibited the Department of Justice from, say, expending any funds to prosecute a non-violent drug offender using statutes that carry any mandatory minimum sentencing term or expending any funds to continue to imprison anyone whose prison sentence would have been completed had the Fair Sentencing Act been made retroactive.

My suggestion here might ultimately be more of a Swiftian "modest proposal" than a real suggestion for how real work can get done on sentencing reform in Congress. Nevertheless, as the prospect of major federal statutory sentencing reform semes to grow ever darker with each passing week, I am ever eager to consider and suggest whatever it might take to turn the enduring bipartisan sentencing reform talk into some consequential legislative action.

April 17, 2016 at 09:46 PM | Permalink

Comments

There should be NO penalties for cannabis use. Since it's less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, it should be treated even less harshly. I know this subject as a 40 year emergency physician, now retired.

Posted by: david d spilker | Apr 19, 2016 12:08:57 PM

federal government must respect laws passed by the state

Posted by: Marisa vadell | Apr 19, 2016 3:38:22 PM

Thank you, this is excellent work you are doing

Posted by: Student | May 20, 2016 4:46:55 AM

Post a comment
The brazen gunpoint robbery of a Mission District bar Friday might be one in a series, a local liquor industry insider says, but so far police haven't been able to catch the suspects.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, two armed men barged into a bar located at 17th and Folsom Streets at 10:38 Friday evening.

The Rite Spot, a longstanding Mission watering hole, is located at that intersection. Citing SFPD policy, a spokesperson declined to specifically name the business at the site of the incident.

One of Friday night's raiders, police say, held the bar's "patrons at gunpoint." The second man "attempt"ed to rob the bar's clientele and "unsuccessfully" tried to plunder the cash register.

The second man then went into the back room of the bar and stole an undisclosed amount of cash, police say. Both then fled in an "unknown direction" and remain at large.

According to Brian MacGregor, a longtime San Francisco bartender who's also married to Carey Suckow, the owner of Mission standby Docs Clock, Friday's robbery wasn't a solitary incident.

Hey Missio,bars are being robbed by two large men over 6'4" with masks, get away car waiting outside. Robbery times are between 11pm-1am.  Brian MacGregor (@themacgregor) April 18, 2016

An SFPD spokesperson wasn't immediately aware of crimes similar to Friday's in the area, but noted that a Noe Valley establishment had recently been robbed twice.

The BAR (On Dolores), which is located at 1600 Dolores Street at 29th Street, was robbed on March 27 at 10:45 p.m. by two armed men who "entered [the] establishment brandishing handguns and demanded that the bartender hand over the money," according to an SFPD report.

Though the bartender complied, there was a scuffle in which a 53-year-old man suffered a non-life-threatening laceration to his head. Both suspects fled the scene on foot, police say.

The suspects, both of whom were clad in ski masks, got away with about $3000 in cash, SF Bay reported at the time.

Just a few days later the bar was robbed again, this time by "three armed suspects in their early- to mid-20s." This time, no one was injured as the bandits raided "both the register and a tip jar."

A police spokesperson couldn't comment on if investigators believe that there is a connection between these three robberies, but urged anyone with information on any of the crimes to contact SFPD's anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444, or to text a tip to TIP411 with "SFPD" at the beginning of the message.
Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, whom the Daily Californian reports is a 26-year-old Berkeley student in his senior year, had just boarded Southwest flight 4260 from Los Angeles to Oakland on April 6, planning to return to campus after attending a dinner at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

To discuss the event, he called his uncle in Baghdad, talking in Arabic and bidding him a traditional goodbye  inshallah, which translates to "god willing." Then, when he looked around the plane, Makhzoomi saw a woman looking at him fearfully. She quickly left her seat.

Makhzoomi, an Iraqi refugee, fled with his family to Jordan in 2002 after his father, a diplomat in Iraq, was killed under Saddam Hussein's regime. Makhzoomi, his mother, and his younger brother, were eventually granted asylum to the United States, where they have lived since 2010. Currently the family resides in Oakland. Incidentally, Makhzoomi is a member of Southwest's loyal premier rewards program.

Something in the woman's gaze troubled Makhzoomi. She kept staring at me and I didnt know what was wrong, he said. Then I realized what was happening and I just was thinking I hope shes not reporting me.

She was, and she did, and Makhzoomi was eventually removed from the flight, an insult and inconvenience for which he has not received an apology  and which LAist reported on over the weekend.

Makhzoomi's story has travelled quickly across social media, making its way to the New York Times and other national outlets as an example of the current American rash of Islamophobia and xenophobia.

"Why were you speaking Arabic in the plane? an airline employee of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent who introduced himself in arabic asked Makhzoomi after escorting him from the plane. The man spoke to Makhzoomi "like an animal," Makhzoomi said. I said to him, This is what Islamophobia got this country into, and that made him so angry. That is when he told me I could not go back on the plane.

Not just that, but the employee contacted the FBI. At that moment I couldnt feel anything, Makhzoomi told the Daily Cal. I was so afraid. I was so scared. Dogs searched the 26-year-old as onlookers watched."The way they searched me and the dogs, the officers, people were watching me and the humiliation made me so afraid because it brought all of these memories back to me," Makhzoomi told his school paper. "I escaped Iraq because of the war, because of Saddam and what he did to my father. When I got home, I just slept for a few days.

At the airport, Makhzoomi was questioned by the FBI. What did he know about terrorism? Was he carrying a knife (they searched, he says, his genitals for one). Had he smuggled any secret bags aboard the flight.

Makhzoomi collected a refund for the flight, and eventually caught another plane, from Delta Airlines, to Oakland, arriving eight hours later than he had initially planned.

Zahra Billoo, who serves as executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tells the Times the incident is one of seven such cases of Muslims being pulled from flights so far this year. We are concerned that Muslims are facing more and more scrutiny and baseless harassment when they are attempting to travel, Billoo said.

We regret any less than positive experience a customer has onboard our aircraft, Southwest said in a statement. Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.

My family and I have been through a lot and this is just another one of the experiences I have had, Makhzoomi told the Times. Human dignity is the most valuable thing in the world, not money. If they apologized, maybe it would teach them to treat people equally.

Related: Tech Companies Already Recruiting Boy Arrested For Bringing Homemade Clock To School While Muslim
"We are in the ring of fire. The Big One is coming." #1906quake remembrance in #SF #LottasFountain pic.twitter.com/fKeUOm8lgl  Ron Lin, LA Times (@ronlin) April 18, 2016

On April 18, 1906 at 5:12 a.m., the barely half-century-old city of San Francisco experienced a major earthquake the likes of which we have not felt in the 110 years since. And this morning, as is tradition, history buffs, relatives of survivors, and assorted others gathered at Lotta's Fountain on Market and Geary for the annual commemoration ceremony, notable this year for being the first at which there were no living survivors of the Great Quake. The last of that rare breed, William Del Monte, passed away in January at age 109  he was four months old when the quake struck, and only had memories to share told to him by his parents.

The numbers of centenarian survivors have of course been dwindling in recent years, and it's been decades since anyone with more than just the vaguest childhood memories of the quake were living. But the ceremony continues at Lotta's Fountain, and the Chron's resident nostalgia buff, SF native Carl Nolte tells NBC Bay Area that he sees the event as like the Fourth of July. "We dont have any signers of the Declaration of Independence anymore do we? But we still celebrate it," he said.

As the Chronicle reports, this year's ceremony was used to also recognize and remember the victims of two recent major earthquakes in Japan and Ecuador. Anne Kronenberg, executive director of San Franciscos Department of Emergency Management, said to those affected places, "San Francisco stands in solidarity with you," as wreaths were lain at the fountain for those victims.

The cast iron fountain is named for Vaudeville performer Lotta Crabtree, who commissioned it as a gift to the city in 1875. It originally stood a partial block up at Third Street, Market, and Kearny, and was relocated to the intersection where Geary intersects Market in 1974, during the construction of BART that saw the whole street torn up. It was known to be a popular meeting spot for survivors just after the '06 quake.

And each year, after the 5:12 a.m. ceremony, many make their way to the corner of Dolores Park at Church and 20th Street where another ceremony takes place around the famed Golden Hydrant, known to be one of the only functioning fire hydrants after the quake which helped save this part of the Mission District in the ensuing fire.

An interesting sidebar: The Examiner reveals a never-before-seen letter that's recently surfaced, written by a quake survivor to a friend in Oakland who was wondering whether she should move to SF two months after the Great Quake, in June 1906. In the letter, which is a copy, Esther A. Connolly writes of the rising rents in the wake of the earthquake  something SFist noted in this piece last year  and of the vast numbers of people made homeless after the fire. "Imagine 490 big square blocks of city property laid bare by fire, and 300,000 people homeless, and you will realize the immense work of rebuilding that is ahead of San Francisco."

But, she says, she and many others refuse to leave.

We never have snow, tornadoes, cyclones, or  oh yes, we do have earthquakes. We are distinctly proud of our climate, our ocean, our bay, and our city, if it is in ruins... We went down with San Francisco, and we are satisfied to stay here and watch her grow.

Let this serve as a reminder, too, once again, to get your earthquake kit together if you haven't already. Here are some commercially available ones to buy, but you can also just make your own.

Chief Joanne Hayes-White Addresses the Viewers at Lottas Fountain pic.twitter.com/hLrPADdetP  San Francisco Fire (@sffdpio) April 18, 2016

Previously: Bill Del Monte, Last Survivor Of 1906 Earthquake, Dead At 109
SIOUX CITY | When the Sioux City Police Department adds two new officers to the force later this year, the department will be nearing the average relative size of other police forces around the state, according to data obtained by the Journal.

Sioux City, the fourth-largest city in Iowa, employed 123 police officers in 2015, the fourth-most in the state. But the city's ratio of officers to residents -- 1.49 per 1,000 residents -- ranked seventh among the states 10 most-populated cities.

Among these cities, the average size of the force was 1.51 officers per 1,000 residents.

Dubuque has the highest ratio at 1.87 officers per 1,000 residents, despite being only the state's 10th most populated city. Dubuque's 109 officers are only 14 fewer than Sioux City's 123. Council Bluffs, the sixth-largest city, ranked second with a ratio of 1.82 officers per 1,000 of population. Council Bluffs, which borders the large Omaha metro area, has 113 officers, just 10 less than Sioux City.

Iowa's three most-populated cities -- Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport -- all have higher officer ratios than average, with 1.79, 1.76 and 1.59, respectively.

Sioux City Police Chief Doug Young said while police departments take more than ratios into account when hiring officers, he is aware of the statistics and will appreciate the extra strength on the force.

Theres economic factors that come into play and community factors that come into play (when hiring officers), Young said. I look forward to having more police officers. I think we do a lot for the number of officers that weve got.

In March, Sioux City Council voted 4-1 to hire the two officers as part of the budget that begins July 1. The officers will cost about $269,000, an amount that includes salaries and benefits and other personnel costs.

With the hiring of the new officers to the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (S.T.E.P.) Unit, the unit will be increasing from three to five members in order to address a traffic problem that has climbed rapidly in the last two years.

Sioux City Police Department reported 3,170 accidents in 2015, which is more than 500 higher than it reported in 2013. That means over the last two years, the number of accidents in Sioux City has risen an average of 13.6 percent per year.

While Young said several variables could cause accident numbers to differ from year to year, he said traffic is consistently one of the top two concerns he hears at community meetings. The other is drugs.

I think we address the drug issue very well with our DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) task force, and then weve got a unit within our department that works street-level drugs, but weve just never been able to address the traffic issues, Young said. Im hoping that maybe we can make some impact by having a full unit that just enforces traffic laws.

Sioux City Councilman Keith Radig, who said he voted against the proposed budget because it was increasing by nearly 8 percent from last years, said when it comes to addressing traffic, there may be less expensive ways to reallocate the police officers Sioux City already has.

You could reallocate your resources even just one day a week. Traffic doesnt have to be a 24/7 presence, Radig said. If you have four extra cars on the street (on a Monday morning) it just sets the tone for the rest of the week.

Councilwoman Rhonda Capron, who voted for the budget and favored the officers addition, said with Sioux Citys population increasing, reallocating officers isn't enough. She said she sees a need to invest now to bulk up police presence.

Id just as soon be proactive as reactive, Capron said. The more people we get, the more traffic were going to have.

Sgt. Todd Sassman, who heads the S.T.E.P. unit, said the addition of the officers will bring the unit back up to its previous strength. He said the two officers will specifically help police to better monitor both morning and evening commute times.

"When I came on the department 22 years ago, the unit was usually three or four officers and a supervisor," Sassman said. "So in essence were kind of just getting back to what we were in the mid-'90s."

Young said the officers likely will not officially join the force until April 2017, since the funding to hire them will not be available until August and they will first need to complete training at the state police academy.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly the order of Iowa's three largest cities.
SIOUX CITY | Anthony Plunkett, 18, has been charged with third-degree sexual abuse against a 13-year-old girl who later became pregnant, according to court documents.

During an interview at Mercy Medical Centers Child Advocacy Center in March 2015, the victim, then seven months pregnant, told police Plunkett was the only person she had sexual contact with.

Plunkett had told the girl he was 15, she told investigators, and he would visit her while her great-grandmother was working.

Plunkett admitted to police about his relationship to the girl, documents state. He said they had intercourse more than 10 times, and he last saw her on Halloween of 2014 when the girl trick-or-treated at his residence.

Plunklett told police he thought the girl told him she was pregnant before they stopped seeing each other, but he wasnt sure.

In May 2015, the girl gave birth to a son. Investigators were able to collect DNA evidence from the child and the DCI Crime Lab in Ankeny, Iowa, was able to identify the child as Plunketts.

Plunkett was booked into the Woodbury County Jail, and is out on $10,000 bond.
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SPENCER, Iowa | Regional authorities arrested two Spencer men Monday after finding marijuana, weapons and cash related to narcotics trafficking inside their residence.

According to a news release from Spencer Police Department, members of the regional High Risk Entry Arrest Tactical Team and the Spencer Police Department, assisted by Spencer Police K-9, executed a search warrant at 1629 Fifth Ave. East in Spencer.

Tactical team members entered the residence and secured the property, where police located 6.7 pounds of marijuana, three firearms and a large amount of cash related to narcotics trafficking.

As a result of the investigation, 40-year-old Steven Schwarting and 32-year-old Michael Schwarting, both of Spencer, were arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver while in possession of a firearm, drug tax stamp violation and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the release.

Both are being held in Clay County Jail on $5,000 bond.
SIOUX CITY | A Sioux City man has pleaded not guilty to charges related to a January home invasion.

Keegan Ingram, 19, entered his written plea Friday in Woodbury County District Court to first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and second-degree theft.

Ingram is one of three men arrested in connection with the Jan. 25 incident. According to court documents, Ingram, Tykell Robinson and Deloyd Fields forced their way into a home in the 4300 block of Springfield Street. Ingram is accused of pointing a gun at residents inside the home and helping take an AR-15 rifle, ammunition and electronics.

Robinson, 19, of Sioux City, faces the same charges as Ingram and has pleaded not guilty. He has also pleaded not guilty to charges in a second home invasion.

Fields, 38, of Sioux City, has yet to enter a plea to charges of first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, second-degree theft and unlawful possession of a prescription drug.
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
LEONARDTOWN, Md. (April 18, 2016)A man riding a Harley Davidson Road King was killed Sunday evening after colliding with a stopped car in the Hollywood area. The victim has been identified as George Alvey, Jr., 55, of Hollywood.



The accident occurred at approximately 8:55 p.m. on Three Notch Road in the area of Clover Hill Road in Hollywood. Police arrived on scene to discover three vehicles involved in a collision.



The preliminary investigation, conducted by the Collision Reconstruction Unit of the sheriff's office, revealed a 2010 Nissan Altima being operated by George Taylor, 54, of La Plata, was traveling Eastbound on Clover Hill Road. The vehicle was stationary, partially in the southbound lane and the median crossover, waiting to continue north on Three Notch Road. The Nissan was struck by a 2013 Harley Davidson Road King, operated by Mr. Alvey. Alvey was ejected from the motorcycle. The motorcycle continued sliding south on Three Notch Road until it struck a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer, operated by Patricia Moreland, 65, of Hollywood.



Alvey suffered extensive injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene.



At this time, the motorcycle's speed is believed to be a contributing factor. Anyone who may have witnessed the collision or any events leading up to the collision is asked to call Corporal Brandon Foor #235 at 301-475-4040.
As a purveyor of mid-century modern furniture, Chynna Luschen would have fit in perfectly with Antique Alley in its heyday. But that heyday was 20 years ago when antique shops made up the majority of businesses along the small stretch of Dixie Highway just south of Five Points.

Now the street, with just a couple shops that sell antiques, has a nickname more befitting of the mixture of the different kinds of businesses that occupy most of its storefronts  Dixie Village.

The street includes art galleries and studios, a salon, massage parlor, a gym, professional offices, a video rental store, an animal hospital, a rug merchant, a locksmith and a used car dealership. A cafe that sells smoothies is also in the works and under renovation.

And Luschen, co-owner of It's a Mid Mod Mad World, said shes fine with the areas new name. I think its cute. Its good to rename this part of Wilton Manors. I actually call this Artists Row. Its secondary but better than F.A.T. Village. Were thrilled to be over here. And its still affordable.

But after most of the antique shops left, only a handful of businesses survived and there wasnt much to rename for a while. I was alone for a long time on this street. It died. There was nothing else here, said Michael Bolling, owner of Divine Concepts, which sells antiques, clothing and other items.

Bolling has been in business on a near-empty street for six years but things remained that way as recently as two years ago when Tim Abbott, owner of Retro Video, opened his video rental store. A lot of places werent open. There wasnt much going on. The location has always been right for Abbot though. I love it. I like that were right off Wilton Drive.

To promote whats going on now, the Dixie Village Business Marketplace was held on March 26. Some of the merchants on Dixie Highway held open houses to showcase their businesses. We just want people to slow down and look . . . so they know theres a business district here, Sterling said.

The resurgence in occupied storefronts comes right as The Metropolitan, a 179-unit apartment complex adjacent to Dixie Village, is almost complete.

Artist Rachel Henriques, who has a studio on Dixie Highway, said shes hopeful the people who move into The Metropolitan make their way over to Dixie.

Sterling predicts redevelopment, the form of mixed-use buildings with commercial on the bottom and residential on top, will hit Dixie just as it has Wilton Drive and The Metropolitan before it. In the next five years, were going to see a different business district here.

The citys planned $1 million improvements along Dixie Highway, funded by a grant from the state, have also begun  March 30. Henriques and her husband, Tim Hartley, hope construction doesnt hurt business.

Its growing pains, Hartley said.
Two male lions in the Kwando Concession in Botswana were caught by photographer Nicole Cambre in photographs that indicate they were mating.

According to The Gaily Grind, Cambre said the two lions had only started these homosexual patterns last week. These males had pushed out the resident males earlier in the year and the other female lions had headed into the Mopani woodlands; an area difficult to access with a safari vehicle, she said. Cambre also stated that one lioness was visible near the male lions, but they showed no interest in the female  which may be an indication that the lioness was pregnant.

'It is the first time I have seen homosexual behavior in lions, but when reading about it upon my return, it is not that uncommon. With the light just around sunset, it gave some spectacular images, she said.

This isnt the first time two same-sex animals have been caught mating. According to the BBC, homosexual behavior is the norm among females of macaque populations. Animals have been observed engaging in same-sex matings for decades, the article stated. But for most of that time, the documented cases were largely seen as anomalies or curiosities.
Last week, Pope Francis released a letter titled Amoris Laetitia  The Joy of Love  but the contents had revealed everything but love for those on the LGBT spectrum.

Pope Francis wrote in the 264-page document that transgender people should accept the body they were born in. He urged: The young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created, for thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation.

He also stated that people should appreciate their bodies as male or female to manifest their own self-awareness in an encounter with others different from ourselves.

In addition to speaking out against the transgender community, the Pope also came out against gay marriage, stating in his letter: there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to Gods plan for marriage and family. He also stated that gay people need assistance to become normal.

Mary E. Hunt, co-founder and co-director of the Womens Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual told The Chicago Tribune, It doesnt seem to have penetrated into the mind of the Vatican on how sexuality and sexual ethics have changed.
U.S. Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, on the eve of New Yorks primary election, faces questions about his position on the use of sex toys.

A story surfaced last week in Mother Jones Magazine that Cruz, during his tenure as Texas Solicitor General, argued individuals have no legal right to use sex toys  even in the privacy of their own homes.

In 2007, Cruz co-wrote an 83-page brief arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court has never suggested that the substantive-due-process doctrine ensures individuals ability to stimulate their genitals in ways that are neither connected to procreation nor associated with any particular lifestyle.

Cruz, seeking to catch front-runner Donald Trump in the race for the Republican Partys nomination, appears to have modified his views on dildos, vibrators and other items of pleasure. In an interview with New Yorks WABC Radio, the Texas Senator down played the controversy.

Look, of course not, its a ridiculous question, and of course not, Cruz told the station when asked if he would ban sex toys. What people do in their own private time with themselves is their own business and its none of governments business.

Heading into Tuesdays election, polls have Cruz trailing Trump by double digits in the Empire State.
(CNN) In late 2014, the synthetic drug known as flakka exploded on the scene and prompted such bizarre, violent behavior that it quickly becameshorthand for lunacy. The street drug, which is similar to cocaine but much cheaper and more potent, has been called "$5 insanity."

The hype was not overblown. Last spring, three or four people were hospitalized every day in South Florida, an area particularly hard-hit by the epidemic.State authorities warned about the health dangers of using flakka, which comes in white crystals that can be snorted, ingested or injected. Being around users could also be dangerous: Reports circulated of a man breaking down hurricane-proof doors and a woman running naked through the streets, both allegedly while high on the drug.But then, just as quickly as it came on the scene, flakka seems to have nearly vanished. Sixty-three users died in South Florida between September 2014 and December 2015, but there have been no flakka-related deaths in 2016. Treatment centers in Broward County, Florida, admitted only six flakka users in January, compared with about 50 a month in the fall.

Flakka crystals can be snorted, ingested or injected."Anecdotal reports from both street users and law enforcement officers say that flakka is not even available in the street drug market," said Jim Hall, a drug abuse epidemiologist at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida."I have never seen an epidemic emerge so rapidly but literally disappear so quickly," he said.The popularity of flakka has also plummeted in areas such as Chicago, Houston and rural parts of Kentucky and Illinois, he added.

Public health experts: Decriminalize minor drug offensesThe main force that stemmed the flakka surge, Hall said, was a Chinese ban on the production and exportation of alpha-PVP, the chemical name for flakka, along with 115 other street drugs.The United States and Europe put pressure on China to ban these substances, and the Chinese government acted swiftly. The ban went into effect October 1."They did not want to become known as a narco (or narcotic) nation," said Hall, who met with government officials about the problem.It probably helped that nearly all of the labs that made flakka were in one Chinese province, just north of Hong Kong, Hall said. "It was primarily a single supply source. This was not an international drug cartel with major operations and different systems. We could shut it off right at the source."

Drug overdose deaths reach all-time highBut don't celebrate the end of flakka just yet. In 2014, China banned methylone, a synthetic stimulant in the same family as flakka that was added to ecstasy or "Molly." Methylone disappeared, only to be replaced by an analog substance called ethylone. And after ethylone was included in the 2015 ban, it has been replaced by dibutylone, Hall said.Flakka itself is related to a group of drugs known as "bath salts," which were banned in 2012."History has shown that one of the unintended consequences to banning certain drugs is that it typically leads to an explosion of new replacement drugs. Whether that will happen (with flakka) in response to the 116-drug ban is impossible to tell at this point," said Michael H. Baumann, director of the Designer Drug Research Unit at the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Intramural Research Program.Another question, Baumann said: "Will some other country pick up the slack if China is not making it?"Hall suspects that there has been no sign of a flakka replacement because it had a bad reputation, even among those who used it. "Active users despised the drug but were addicted to it and compelled to use it," he said.Maybe as a result there is not really demand for a stand-in for flakka, which gets its name from the Spanish word "flaca," for a thin, attractive woman.

Public awareness around flakka also played a key role in the slowdown. "I've never seen a community come together so unified and focused on a specific drug problem as Broward County did with flakka," Hall said.The local United Way created a team of community leaders, including paramedics and mental health counselors, that held almost nightly town hall meetings to educate the public about the dangers of flakka and places users could go for help, Hall said.Baumann agrees that such public health campaigns can be very effective. "I think this might have even played just as big a part as having the drugs banned," he said.
As we live more of our lives online, the companies we trust with our digital secrets are increasingly clashing with authorities who want access to the messages, pictures, financial records and other data we accumulate in electronic form.

Microsoft opened a new front in the battle over digital privacy this week, suing the Justice Department over its use of court orders requiring the company to turn over customer files stored in its computer centers - often without notifying the customer involved.

It's the latest in a series of legal challenges brought by Microsoft and some of its leading competitors. Apple recently fought a high-profile battle over the FBI's demand for help unlocking an encrypted iPhone in San Bernardino, California, and it's continuing to challenge similar demands in other cases.

Other companies, including Google, Facebook and Yahoo, have increased their use of encryption. They've also sued for the right to report how often authorities demand customer information under national security laws, after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of government data-gathering efforts.

Privacy advocates have applauded those moves, while authorities complain they could stymie legitimate investigations. But those legal maneuvers may benefit the companies as well as their customers. In the wake of Snowden's revelations and high-profile hacking attacks, tech firms want to reassure customers their information is safe.

"Privacy is an economic good at this point," said Jennifer Daskal, a former Justice Department attorney who now teaches law at American University in Washington, D.C. "It's good for business because consumers care about it. So the companies are competing over being privacy protective."

Many tech companies make money directly from customer information, of course, by selling advertising targeted to their users' interests and behavior. While some privacy advocates have criticized those practices, others note that's different from handing over information to authorities who have the power to put people in jail.

In the latest case, Microsoft Corp. says the U.S. Justice Department is using a decades-old law to obtain court orders for customers' data, while in some cases prohibiting the company from notifying the customer. Microsoft says those "non-disclosure" orders violate its constitutional right to free speech, as well as its customers' protection against unreasonable searches.

Microsoft is also fighting a court battle in New York over the government's demand for emails of a non-U.S. citizen that the company has stored in a data center located in Ireland. Microsoft President Brad Smith has argued the case could open the door to other governments demanding information stored in the United States.

As people and businesses store more information on their electronic gadgets, or online in corporate data centers, "these companies are increasingly the intermediary between the government and our own privacy," said Daskal.

One former federal official was critical of Microsoft's latest lawsuit. Daniel "D.J." Rosenthal, a former Justice Department lawyer, said it could lead to warning "child molesters, domestic abusers, violent criminals and terrorists that they're being investigated."

But authorities are required to disclose most search warrants for information stored in filing cabinets, safes or other physical locations, as Microsoft notes in its lawsuit. With more people storing data online, the company contends the government is exploiting that trend "as a means of expanding its power to conduct secret investigations."

The company understands the need for secrecy in some cases, Smith added in a statement. "But based on the many secrecy orders we have received, we question whether these orders are grounded in specific facts that truly demand secrecy. To the contrary, it appears that the issuance of secrecy orders has become too routine."

Microsoft's business customers "regularly convey to us their strong desire to know when the government is obtaining their data," Smith said, while adding that individual customers should have the same right.

The Redmond, Washington-based company says authorities used the 1986 law, known as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, to demand customer information more than 5,600 times in the last 18 months. In nearly half those cases, a court ordered the company to keep the demand secret and, in about 1,750 cases, those gag orders were indefinite.

In recent years, the tech industry and civil liberties groups have pressed Congress to reform several aspects of the law, which they say is outdated, but previous attempts have stalled.

"Hopefully this litigation will either produce a ruling or it will spur Congress to act," said Neil Richards, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Microsoft's move was also praised by Aaron Levie, the CEO of online data storage company Box. In a statement, Levie said his company has been expanding its encrypted storage services to "give customers more control over their data."

Levie added: "We also fully support Microsoft's effort to require more transparency in government data requests and the government's full observance of the protections guaranteed by the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution."
Migration, fight against terrorism, energy union top Slovakias agenda.

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SLOVAKIA will take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1 amid a migration crisis, terrorist attacks in Brussels and the UKs EU referendum. The countrys main task will be to be the honest broker, leaders say.

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With what success a country handles the EU presidency depends in a certain extent on how much it manages to distance itself from its national priorities, European Commissioner for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said on April 5 in Brussels. It must play the role of an honest broker, with a goal to find a consensus and achieve an agreement.

Slovak officials have long worked on the programme for its presidency, along with two other countries in the so-called trio, the Netherlands which presides over the EU now and Malta which will take over the presidency from Slovakia. The priorities include employment, competitiveness, the single market, protection of citizens and the energy union. But already now it is clear that the migration crisis, a revision of the Dublin regulations and the fight against terrorism will be high on the agenda too.

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Within the debate of possible solutions to the migration crisis there is no united view among diplomats whether the negative stance of Slovakia to EU quotas to redistribute migrants voiced by its Prime Minister Robert Fico and the lawsuit Slovakia filed against the EU would have an impact on the presidency. One of the views is that Ficos rhetoric was coloured by the election campaign and that the lawsuit is an issue separate from the presidency. And though ministers of the presiding country will be busy chairing ministerial councils, there is no such body to be chaired by the prime minister. This is in contrast to the role the prime minister of the presiding country played before the Treaty of Lisbon took effect in 2009.

High on the agenda will be also the annual EU budget for 2017 that is always debated during the second half of the year. Peter Javorcik, the head of the Permanent Representation of Slovakia to the EU in Brussels said that during even numbered years since 2010 there were always problems when agreeing over the budget.

We will try to break this pattern, said Javorcik.

Another important topic may be the so-called mid-term review of the seven-year financial framework for the EU lasting from 2014 until 2020.

This will be certainly an important topic, but we are waiting for a draft to be prepared by the European Commission, said Javorcik. So if it will be on the table somewhere in July, which is also possible, it will be a strong agenda for the presidency.

But if the EC submits the evaluation only in late 2016, because its duty is to submit the document by the end of 2016, then Slovakia will do more or less introductory discussions and the evaluation would be closed only during the Malta presidency, he added.

Nevertheless, the final programme will depend on the situation in which the European Union will be at the start of the presidency. Thus apart from topics that are predictable or long-planned, the agenda with which Slovakia will deal during its presidency will reflect developments, including the results of the UKs EU referendum. On June 23, one week ahead of the start of the Slovak presidency, UK voters will vote on whether to leave the EU.

As the latest survey published in mid April showed that 45 percent of people in the UK now want to leave the EU compared to just 42 percent who want to remain, the Slovak presidency may have to deal with a Brexit scenario.

If the answer is Leave the whole agenda will strongly focus on how we [the EU] will handle this new phenomenon, Javorcik said, adding that the mechanism for Brexit is set in the article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon but only very generally. To say it in a very simplified way, it says that a solution [for the departure of a country from the EU] should be found within two years.

This means that it will be Slovakia that as a presiding country will have to start this process. But according to Javorcik, the European institutions are set for a positive development and that the working hypothesis is that the UK will remain in the EU.

Ivan Stefanec, a member of the European Parliament (EP) for the Christian Democratic Movement and a member of the UK advisory group, hopes the UK remains, referring to this as to Brimain and not Brexit.

We respect that it will be the free decision of UK citizens but the basic question is whether the UK would be stronger or weaker without the EU and for me the answer is that the EU is stronger with UK and that UK is stronger with the EU, Stefanec told The Slovak Spectator, adding that the British economy is the second strongest in the EU and that the referendum may be a political signal about the adhesiveness of Europe.

In terms of the programme and priorities on which Slovakia should focus Stefanec would like to see that economic issues are not forgotten during emotional debates about the migration crisis.

To keep the Schengen zone under the current situation is not a small ambition, said Stefanec, recalling that six member countries are closing their borders.

It will be Slovakia that will pay the highest costs because as much as 72 percent of Slovakias exports head to EU countries. This is the biggest share within the EU. Apart from economic impacts the fall of the Schengen would be a bad signal.

It will be a kind of disintegration signal, said Stefanec.

Slovakias added value

Experts say that the worst thing a presiding country can do is to push for self-interested priorities while they stress that they are often smaller countries, contrary to big countries, that manage to push important issues forward as they are perceived as being driven less by their own interests.

The primary task is to be an honest broker, thus in principle it should not matter which country holds this position, Javorcik told The Slovak Spectator. Nevertheless, it is natural that each country has its priorities and some relations to some questions that are solved on the European level.

Here he used extension of the EU or the Eastern Partnership as an example, while the latter is a long-term priority of the foreign policy of Slovakia and he thinks that we can speak to this because we know these countries better, we have built much stronger relations and thus maybe we will be able to communicate with them better and move this process forward more than another country.

So Slovakia will also try to table questions and priorities that the presidency can move forward, Javorcik continued.

Thus the added value of the presidency is that in certain things it is possible to put greater stress on some European questions during six months of the presidency, he added. But I would like not to overestimate it as about 85 percent of the agenda of the presidency is set regardless whether Slovakia or the Netherlands holds this position. Simply the large vessel of the European integration is set in a certain direction and maybe in the rest we can push on one question a little more and some others a little less.

While each presidency of a country is being evaluated after it is over, it is difficult to quantify what is a successful presidency, according to Javorcik. Maybe it is possible to say afterwards how many agreements were achieved within 28 member countries or with the European Parliament, or what progress was achieved, for example, when negotiating the single digital market.

But maybe more important is the subjective evaluation by people and this means whether the presiding country managed the role of the honest broker, whether the atmosphere during meetings and negotiations in Brussels was fair, whether we managed to create a proper atmosphere to move forward goals which the EU and we have in common, said Javorcik. Thus it is often rather what a subjective impression or trace the presiding country leaves. We will do our utmost for the impression from our presidency to be good.
The state-run health insurer Vseobecna Zdravotna Poistovna (VsZP) terminated its much-disputed contract with Klinika Kostka after the Health Care Surveillance Authority (UDZS) revealed several flaws in it.

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The notice period of cancelation will expire on June 30, the Pravda daily wrote on April 16. The inspection showed that VsZP re-paid the private clinic for treatments like acupuncture or using lava stones, which were defined in a special code, which should not have been covered from public insurance. UDZS also claimed that the clinic did not explain why it increased prices for this special code.

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VsZP CEO Miroslav Vadura ordered a revision of all treatments of Klinika Kostka / Kostka Clinic owned by Pavel Kostka and operated by CPKSB, Ltd. Since then the special code was abolished, i.e. between November 1, 2015, and January 31, 2016. Vadura also claimed that the measures taken by VsZP so far were not effective enough, thus the health insurer decided to terminate the contract with CPKSB, s.r.o. Miroslav Vadura also actively approached the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) which asked for documents concerning the contracts to be checked and said he was ready to help clarify this case.

On February 2, 2016 the opposition party Siet drew attention to extraordinary profits enjoyed by Dr. Pavel Kostka under Robert Ficos government due to special VsZP payments. Kostkas clinic specialises in massages and rehabilitation. In the meantime, Transparency International Slovensko watchdog discovered that Klinika Kostka also received money from the Prime Ministers reserve and European funds. VsZP argued that the contract establishing a unique payment code for Klinika Kostka was already signed back in 2011 under former director Marian Faktor (a nominee of Christian-Democratic Movement-KDH), and that the deal was abrogated in 2015.

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Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright received the Czech and Slovak Transatlantic Award at the GLOBSEC 2016 international security forum in Bratislava on April 16.

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The award, given every year to two laureates who made significant contributions to the bolstering of trans-Atlantic ties, peace, prosperity and stability, will also be bestowed on Czech diplomat and politician Michael Zantovsky.

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During her career, Madeleine Albright actively supported the process of democratisation and the building of freedom and stability in central Europe, Milan Solar of the Slovak Atlantic Commission told the TASR newswire. He added that the former US secretary of state also actively contributed to the integration of former Eastern-bloc countries to NATO. Zantovsky was one of the key figures of the 1989 Velvet Revolution, according to Solar.

It is a miracle personalised in a human whose family suffered so much, said ex-Slovak ambassador to the US Martin Butora shortly before he awarded Albright, who in her speech she said she is proud of her Czechoslovak origin.

The USA must continue to be involved in the process of tackling issues of todays globalised world, Albright said, as quoted by TASR. My lifelong opinions are based on the premise that the United States must be involved, she said. Following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American public is feeling a certain amount of exhaustion, with voices speaking in favour of isolationism growing. However, the United States must not forget about its international responsibility, said Albright, who added that America does not have to shoulder this responsibility alone but rather in cooperation with allies. She considers the calls to wind down the trans-Atlantic partnership or even disassemble NATO quite dangerous. Albright also stressed that despite the USAs proclaimed pivot to Asia, Washington is not leaving Europe and still considers its security as important.

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As for the current situation in Europe, Albright voiced her concern over the rise of xenophobia and nationalism, even though she conceded that a similar trend is discernible also in the US. Patriotism is one thing; nationalism, however, is very dangerous, especially when it leads to hatred, Albright said, as quoted by the Sme daily.

She also spoke about growing populism and extremism, which make many people in central and eastern Europe blind. According to her, freedom will always have enemies and evil has many forms, from nationalists to the Islamic State. We should stop speaking about the refugee crisis, as it indicates it will end shortly, but it is not going to stop, the former state secretary added. She delivered her speech before an audience including Slovak MFA Miroslav Lajcak and US Senator Christopher Murphy.

It is not true that President Barack Obama ignores central Europe or Europe in general, Albright also said in her address. Central Europe once was considered a problem, but now it is somewhere else and can be part of the solution of problems of others. Obama has worked with Europe and he believes it is important to have a strong and equal partner, Albright stated as quoted by the SITA newswire.

Albright, born in Prague, was one year old when her family fled Nazis from Czechoslovakia. She served as the US secretary of state in 1997-2001 in the second administration of Democrat president Bill Clinton.
Prime Minister Robert Fico will stay hospitalised in the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NUSCH) until the end of this week.

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Doctors will examine and test him, NUSCH spokeswoman Dobroslava Krajacicova informed the TASR newswire on April 18. His doctors did not want to specify his diagnosis, as the premiers family asked them not to do so. Fico allegedly had acute coronary syndrome, the Dennik N wrote on April 15. His health condition is not worsening, though, the general manager of NUSCH Mongi Msolly told the Aktuality.sk news website.

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The prime minister should have presented the governments programme manifesto in Parliament on April 18, asking the House to approve it and to express confidence in the cabinet that stems form the March election. Asked whether doctors did not recommend Fico going to parliament, Msolly said for Aktuality.sk that PM decided the dilemma for himself.

In parliament, Fico should be substituted by Deputy Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini. The prime minister further executes his function and closely cooperates with people around him, his spokeswoman Beatrice Szaboova informed the SITA newswire, adding that his working schedule is scrapped, however, until the end of this week.

Fico has been hospitalised since April 14 when he cancelled his first foreign visit of this term to the Czech Republic. Later this week, he was supposed to also travel to Warsaw and Budapest.

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His foreign duties have been postponed and two deputy prime ministers have stepped in to executing domestic roles and duties. In the current case, it will be Deputy Prime Minister for Investments Peter Pellegrini (also from the ruling Smer party) who will take over.

Unlike other political figures, for example US President Barack Obama who usually publishes information about his health condition following his regular medical examination, Slovak PM Robert Fico has never does so. It should be a natural part of democracy that a person we elect reveals such things, says expert in protocol Jaroim Antal. This is not the case of Fico, through, the Sme daily wrote. The public knows only about his previous problems with a cervical spine, mostly thanks to the caricature by Martin Shooty Sutovec, whom Fico later sued. Another item of information known to the public pertains to the surgery Fico underwent after problems with his Achilles tendon. While ordinary people are protected by the law from revealing the information about their health condition, Fico is a public official, says lawyer Jozef Vozar from the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV). Though he does not have to do it immediately, he should certainly inform the public after he recovers, Vozar added.
Around the mid-1990s, many women began to wear just scarfs covering their head. Nowadays, many urban women in protest have stopped wearing the hijab, while driving.

Some have been arrested and sentenced to heavy fines. During 10 months of 2015, over 40,000 women had their cars seized by the traffic police during their raids. In 2014, about three million people received official warnings from the Ershad police, which is the official Iranian police responsible for controlling morality in the country.

In recent years, the hijab has increasingly acquired a political coloring. Although, the situation has in fact always been polarizing according to US-Iranian writer Azadeh Moavenisaid. For the Iranian officials, the hijab is of great symbolic importance. Loosen the hijab, they think, and hell will break loose; people will want to drink beer on the street and read uncensored novels. They believe the hijab is a gateway to freedom.

Therefore, the hijab issue is a matter of concern to Iran's conservative establishment. Thus, the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said that women wearing the hijab save our society from sinking into corruption and confusion.

Hence, Ayatollah Khamenei rejects any discussion on the hijab, which is considered one of the cornerstones of the Islamic Republic.

But the reformists have a different opinion about the matter. Elected at the last parliamentary elections to the Majlis, Parvaneh Salahshori said, Iranian women want a change. We want to have a voice in society on an equal basis with men and are willing to do anything to stop the practice of discrimination. We ourselves must decide whether to go to the polls or not, or even whether to wear the hijab.

According to Elena Dunaeva from the Institute of Oriental Studies RAN, Currently, the mass innovation in all spheres of Iranian society, including on the issue of the hijab, has reached a critical point and is ready to change the balance of modern and traditional in favor of the former. The youth, intellectuals, the urban middle classes, albeit some reservations, have a positive perception regarding these innovations.
A 6.5 earthquake on Thursday was followed by a 7.3 earthquake on Saturday, triggering hundreds of aftershocks that caused landslides. Estimates suggest over 500 quakes since the first on Thursday. Early figures show 43 killed, nine missing, and approximately 1,100 injured.

The mud here is so soft, so it is still moving downward as many aftershocks hit, Tsukasa Goto of the Self-Defense Forces told the Japan Times, noting that at least four homes were swept away during landslides. The heavy machines finally came this morning as they were blocked by roads that were broken and cut off.

The Japan Times reported that, as of Monday morning, some 104,900 people were in shelters as aftershocks continue. Due to the continued dangers and damage to main roads, officials have had difficulty getting supplies to the shelters, leaving many without food.
On Monday, a Chinese military airplane evacuated three injured workers from the construction site on the Fiery Cross Reef, an island claimed by both Vietnam and the Philippines.

According to a report in the People's Liberation Army Daily, people were taken to the island of Hainan for medical aid.

This is the first instance Chinese officials acknowledged a landing on the disputed reef, Global Times newspaper claimed.
"Global cooperation should stabilize oil prices  the success of this OPEC initiative to a large extent depends on Russia," the newspaper wrote.

Following the failed summit, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that some OPEC countries decided to change their terms at the last moment, trying to get concessions from countries which have decided not to take part in the meeting.

"We were insisting on trying to concentrate on the countries which are [present at the Doha summit]," Novak stressed. "We were expecting more, and we were expecting a deal, rather than heated discussions. But we believe the door remains open."

In order to achieve progress in curbing global oil oversupply, OPEC countries called on non-members to work together to resolve the crisis. The call marks a turning point in the strategy of OPEC countries which in the past 18 months increased their oil production and thus contributed to the oversupply.

According to Die Welt, the OPEC cartel no longer controls the energy markets as its members are too divided to affect the increase or decrease of oil production volumes. For example, Tehran refused to take part in Sunday's meeting in the Qatari capital of Doha, the author noted.

"Since we are not going to sign the plan on freezing oil production, we don't see the need to send our representative to Doha," Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said earlier as cited by the newspaper.

The recent meeting in Doha involved oil ministers of Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Algeria and eleven other nations who gathered in the Qatari capital in a bid to stabilize the global market.
Uncertainty of Downing Street policies toward the financial sector in case of Brexit is also putting investors and enterprises off deal making until after the vote. Currently, the UK's governmental regulation of the corporate sector is similar to that of the entire EU, yet, should Britain leave the bloc, changes in regulative policies are likely, meaning an extended period of rules adjustment, harmful for business activity.

"Because a lot of our regulation originates in Brussels, it is unclear what will be renegotiated if the U.K. were to leave the EU, but we expect a long period of reworking a number of treaties," Ben Higson of London-based Hogan Lovells said.

Aside of Brexit concerns, the broader international decline in M&A activity affected Britain as part of a prevailing global tendency. Stock market fluctuations, bond meltdowns, and currency swings that have accompanied the global economy throughout most of 2015 resulted in international M&A deal making declining by 10% in Q1 this year to $623 bln.

Meanwhile, the UK's banking sector has fallen on hard times. Profits of top British banks collapsed 40% in 2015, the steepest on the record, due to their excessive exposure to international headwinds, according to KPMG research. The combined earnings of Barclays, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Lloyd's dropped to 12.4 bln pounds, to their 2013 levels, with Barclays, RBS, and Standard Chartered having posted net yearly losses in 2015.

"There is definitely not much news to cheer investors. Compensation is high, costs are not coming down as fast as expected, and there is a lot of project change over the next four years with ringfencing. There is more redress still to come out. So investors will have to be in it for the long run," Tim Howarth of KPMG said.
The Saudis were determined to prevent prices from going high enough to encourage rival nations to significantly increase their production, Freeman continued.

"When prices reach levels at which there is significant stimulus for increased production by higher cost producers, the Saudis will move to ensure that they do not rise further," he maintained.

There would be no return to prices that enable production by high-cost producers at the expense of Saudi market share, Freeman believed.

"We are in a new and increasingly complex situation in energy markets," he noted.

Freeman also pointed out that the Saudis were also responding to the global trend of creating far more oil refining capacity.

Like other producers, the Saudis "are expanding their refining capacity and their ability to add value through petrochemical production. Less crude will be available on global markets," he observed.

Freeman suggested that the Saudis were also striving, like Russia, to diversify their national economies and move away from sole dependence on energy production.

"Even the Saudis understand that they cannot rely forever on revenues from energy extraction. They are attempting to transform their economy to achieve a measure of independence from oil markets. Other countries, like Russia, have no alternative to doing the same," he concluded.

Chas Freeman is a lifetime director of the Atlantic Council and served as US Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge daffaires at the US embassies in Beijing and Bangkok. Freeman also held several senior level positions at the US Department of Defense.
This weekend Jedlicka and his three volunteer ministers held a conference to discuss Liberland's future at a Croatian hotel just 5 km from the border. During a conference, a plan was adopted to stage a "state celebration" in a field next to the disputed territory which, if all goes to plan, could snowball into a mass takeover action.

"It's going to be a big media event," Jedlicka said. "We would like to invite 5,000 people, with the best artists who support Liberland [attending], and we already have two or three major festival organizers in the area helping us."

The self-proclaimed president revealed to The Guardian his plan to use the event for a spontaneous takeover of the land, going as far as threatening the Croatian government to "better give the festival-goers a green light' for the move."

"There is no way you can stop 5,000 people taking over control of Liberland," he said.

Jedlicka believes that Liberland will make a successful example of a tax haven  calling it a "tax heaven"  also naming Liberland's own sort of beer as the main source of export.

Having a legislation of only as much as five laws, Liberland is going to be a functioning anarchist state, with black color on its flag representing anarchy. The Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that Liberland, while frivolous', does not infringe upon the border of Serbia, without any other comments. Croatia, however, stated that while the territory's status remains undetermined, after international arbitration, it will be awarded to Croatia or Serbia, not a third party.
"The decision to close the Western Balkans route has left more than 46,000 refugees and migrants in appalling conditions and in a state of constant fear and uncertainty.

"EU States have only exacerbated this crisis by failing to act decisively to help relocate tens of thousands of asylum-seekers, the majority of whom are women and children, trapped in Greece.

"If EU leaders do not act urgently to live up to their relocation promises and improve conditions for stranded refugees and migrants, they will face a humanitarian calamity of their own making," John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Director for Europe and Central Asia told Sputnik.

Of the 66,400 asylum-seekers pledged to be relocated from Greece in September 2015, only 615 had been transferred to other EU member states, according to information published by the European Commission on 12 April.

"The conditions here are not good and we are sleeping on the ground; our blankets are soaked with water. There are no bathrooms. This is why people are getting sick," a Syrian woman who was nine-months pregnant told Amnesty International at a makeshift camp in Idomeni.

Violation of Rights

Meanwhile, Oxfam has said the EU response to the Mediterranean tragedy leaves vulnerable people in "legal limbo." It said people are continuing to arrive in Italy via the Mediterranean and the death toll remains high. Numerous concerns have been raised about the way these hotspots function and the potential violation of people's right to claim asylum, it said.

1 yr since 800 people died off Lampedusa and stil Europe won't provide #safepassage. Pls share #refugeeswelcome pic.twitter.com/OoYtSXy4MY  Oxfam International (@Oxfam) April 18, 2016

"The conflicts, abuses, and abject inequality that drive people from their homes, the dire conditions on the routes that lead to Libya, and the further dangers people on the move face as they seek passage to Europe lead many to experience severe trauma," Oxfam said.

"The United Nationsal Support Mission in Libya has noted that migrants detained in Libya often face torture, beatings, and forced labour. Recently four were shot dead and 20 wounded while trying to escape a detention centre."
Her rosy expectations, however, were soon crushed by the brutal reality, as she was forced to share a dirty and overcrowded room with several other women and drink poisoned water. After an unsuccessful attempt to flee, she was thrown in jail, where she saw 14-year-old sex slaves and witnessed public executions and torture.

At some point after her release from jail she married a man of wealth who also happened to have a prominent position within Daesh. The marriage, however, was brief, as her husband died in battle shortly thereafter. Being a constant witness to terrorists' atrocities, she began to question whether Daesh was right for her. In early 2015, she made up her mind to return to Sweden (the same path via Turkey, but in reverse), after Daesh murdered a captured a Jordanian pilot by burning him alive.

"Sara" thinks such brutality does not belong to Islam.

"We just cut off their heads before they would actually feel anything. It goes off fast, they die immediately. We do not torture anyone," she said in the documentary.
The number of births is reported to have dropped for five years straight, with the decline reaching its peak in the rural provinces of Kainuu and Ostrobothnia. In Kainuu, the birth rate corresponds to an average of 1.68 children born per woman over her lifespan, down from 1.98 the previous year. In Central Ostrobothnia the rate fell from 2.32 children per woman to 2.01 children.

Some Finish couples postpone having children or go without children altogether, whereas others have fewer children both in comparison to earlier generations or than originally planned. The percentage of childless women over 35 years of age has risen by roughly 10 percent over the last 20 years. About 20 percent of these women are forecast to remain childless for their entire lives. Among men in the same age bracket, the childless percentage is already at over 40 percent.
"It has to be stressed that the withdrawal of naval assets from the area, if not properly planned and announced well in advance, would likely result in a higher number of fatalities."



'Huge Gap'

The Italian government decided to end its search and rescue Mare Nostrum mission in October 2014. It was replaced by Triton, managed by the EU's border force agency Frontex.

IOM believes that ending Mare Nostrum rescue at sea mission last year was premature &applauds EUs conclusions that saving lives be priority  IOM (@IOM_news) April 24, 2015

The report is based on field work, special analysis and policy forensics, looking at the minutiae of European Policy documents, meetings and minutes.

"Our report sheds new light on the consequences on the EU's decision to cut back on search and rescue operations which left a huge gap in its rescue abilities and shifted the burden of responsibility in dangerous regions to large commercial vessels," Pezzani says.

"These ships are not equipped to carry out dangerous rescue operations The crew don't have specific training, there are usually only 10 or 20 people on board and the very structure of the ship is not adequate to carry out rescue operations of migrant boats, which are overcrowded and unseaworthy."
At the moment in Turkey there is no press freedom, no independent justice system. Systematically almost all the criteria and principles of democracy are violated. The work of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey has actually been suspended. The authorities are trying by referendum and other means to force a new constitution on the people. Work on the legitimation of the current situation is undergoing.

He further said that Turkey is now in the limelight after the problems that have been there for the past 13-15 years received international attention.

We have been saying for over 13 years that the current government has a specific purpose set by secret bilateral agreements, and it is attempting to divide the existing Middle East. The AKP government has deceived the Turkish people, working toward the set goal under the guise of democracy. Although in reality there is no real democracy of any sort.
DUNDEE (Sputnik)  Glasgow Trades Union Council may consider voicing its support for the United Kingdom to exit the European Union over the bloc's role in promoting the EU-US Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal and the UK's austerity policies, the organizations Chairwoman Jennifer McCarey told Sputnik on Monday.

"We are moving towards considering support for Brexit. The purpose of the debate [on exiting the bloc] is to highlight the democratic deficit that has existed for some time within the EU and we think that might be exaggerated by TTIP," McCarey said.

"We also have concerns about the role of Europe in the anti-austerity agenda and those concerns are shared across the trade union movement," she pointed out.
ATHENS (Sputnik)  Greek journalists are set to hold a 48-hour strike in protest of the government-proposed pension reforms, Greece's Panhellenic Federation of Journalists' Unions (POESY) said Monday.

The Greek government is expected to submit pension reform legislation to parliament this week in order to fulfil demands out forward by the country's international lenders. Meanwhile, negotiations between the Greek government and four of its international and European lenders have been suspended for a week on April 12 without reaching agreement.

Journalists will walk out on strike at 6:00 a.m. (04:00 GMT) on Thursday and resume work at the same time on Saturday, according to the federation's statement.
"Whatever the case, this did not happen in Greek waters and nobody was rescued off a vessel with 400 to 500 people on board."

The Maltese rescue coordination center has also denied responding to any such shipwreck.

According to Migrant Report, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated that "its enquiries about any survivors being brought to Crete or the nearby island of Karpathos both turned up a blank."

All initial reports of the shipwrecks stemmed from a single report from BBC Arabic, and many suggested that the story had incorrectly referred to previous shipwrecks in the Mediterranean.
"The result of the voting was a huge disappointment for me. I expected a more even political battle. However, this course of action was predictable as the so-called bandwagon effect took place. Undecided parliamentarians began to side with those in favor of a coup and began to join their camp. It's unfortunate that those defending President Rousseff were ignored, when they had to be given a word," parliamentarian Margarida Salomao told Sputnik.

"Obviously, the results are disappointing. We expected a closer fight, but corrupt opposition prevailed. But they only won the first battle. The second battle is just starting. We'll meet on April 18 and 19 in Sao Paulo. And the people of Brazil will be on the side of their President Dilma Rousseff, they will support her and won't allow a coup to take place," parliamentarian Maria Do Rosario said.

"This is the result of hybrid warfare waged against Brazil since last year and the work of foreign agents who seek to mobilize the Brazilian middle class to support the impeachment. In the near future, we can expect profound changes in fiscal policy and the part of legislation that regulates the offshore oil drilling. The objective of this work is to take Brazil out of the group of nations successfully fighting against the current global hegemony. From the point of view of progress, this is a huge defeat for the Brazilian people," explained Marcos Cordeiro Pires, professor of International Relations and Economics from the University of Sao Paulo.

Pro-Impeachment Voices

"What happened tonight isn't the defeat of the Workers' Party of President Dilma Rousseff or former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It's the victory of the Brazilian people. I always told my voters and fellow parliamentarians that if the people of Brazil took to the streets to demand change, we, as the members of the parliament, can't turn our backs to the voices on the streets. People can no longer tolerate when the country is ruled so horribly," parliamentarian Caio Narcio told Sputnik.
Delegates said Saudi Arabia had in effect torn up an earlier draft of the deal after Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the kingdom wouldnt restrain its production without commitments from other all other major producers including Iran, which has ruled out freezing for now.

Earlier in April, the Saudi Prince also predicted the looming twilight of the oil age and shared the countrys plans to transform the oil state into a country which will not depend on the black gold.

Tehran had refused to join the freeze, stressing that the sanctions had been lifted recently and Iran wanted to rebuild its oil exports to pre-sanctions levels.

The next oil meeting would be held in June after the cartel members agreed concerted position on the proposed freeze, according to Nigerian Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu.

Failed talks in Doha led to a noticeable drop in oil prices with crude losing more than 5 percent on Monday morning in Asia.

Brent, the international benchmark, was down 5.2 percent at $40.87 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, shed 5.7 percent to $38.07 a barrel.

Oil prices may go down to $30 a barrel. If the oil producing nations agreed to freeze their output  something they pledged to do back in February  the prices would go up to $45 per barrel and could even spike to $50 if Iran joins in.
GENEVA (Sputnik)  The decision of the Syrian opposition's Riyadh-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) to suspend its participation in the intra-Syrian talks proves that the HNC delegation is immature and not ready to engage in the process of political settlement, Bashar Jaafari, the head of the Damascus delegation at the peace negotiations in Geneva, told Sputnik on Monday.

Earlier in the day, a source close to the negotiations told Sputnik that the HNC would stay in Geneva but asked for a short break while truce violations in Syria continued.

"By deciding to withdraw or suspend their participation, they are showing their irresponsible approach towards the process of Geneva, they are showing that they are immature, politically speaking, because we have been here in Geneva only for 48 hours. They have not yet engaged in any serious discussions before deciding unilaterally to freeze their participation [in the talks]," Jaafari said.
He stressed that the opposition delegation would return to the negotiating table "once there is real progress, any day, at any moment."

"We are not moving away from the political process. These are two different things. We will continue the process, but we will abstain from the talks," Makhous said.

He stressed that the Saudi-backed group does not put forward any preconditions in its decision to postpone the proximity talks with the Syrian government delegation.

"Our demand is to implement the [UN] Security Council decision," Makhous added.

"Our decisions have been essentially completely unanimous. I am not saying 100 percent, but the vast majority completely agrees, there is no disagreement between people who represent the civil opposition or the military," Makhous said.

"Naturally, the people who are fighting on the ground are more demanding. But we still maintain the same line," the Saudi-backed opposition groups spokesman added.
Earlier in the day, the HNC asked UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura to put the ongoing intra-Syrian talks "on pause," blaming the government for the escalation of violence in Syria, Aleppo area in particular. Damascus says it is fighting Islamic State and Nusra Front terrorists in the region.

"According to resolution 2254, there are two tracks  political and military, on combating terrorists. So combating terrorism is a fully legitimate action taken by the Syrian army and its allies in accordance with the resolution," Jaafari said.
The Russian Defense Ministry also reported that the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation at the Hmeimim airbase registered a total of five violations of the ceasefire regime in Syria in the last 24 hours.

"The cessation of hostilities in Syria has been respected in most of the Syrian provinces. However, a total of five violations of the ceasefire regime have been registered, including four in the Latakia province and one in the Hama province," the ministry said.

"Militants of Ahrar al-Sham armed group, which had claimed to belong to the opposition, carried out shelling with multiple launch rocket systems and mortars of Sandran, Ain al-Ashara, Ard al-Wata and Qellaz [Latakia province] as well as positions of the government troops near Maharda in the Hama province," the ministry said.

"Three civilians were killed and four others were wounded," the bulletin said.
GENEVA (Sputnik)  The Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) is ready to ensure compliance with the cessation of hostilities in Syria, the Saudi-backed group's spokesman told Sputnik on Monday.

"Yes, of course," Monzer Makhous said in response to a question on whether the HNC was ready to ensure compliance with the truce between government and rebel forces.

"Statistically speaking, the vast majority of the cessation of hostilities violations come from the regime. I do not rule out that there may [be violations] on our side too, but these are self-defense measures," Makhous stressed.
Jaafari also said that the Damascus delegation at the intra-Syrian talks would "pray for" the direct talks once a unified delegation of all Syrian opposition forces is formed.

"We will pray for that," Jaafari said, when asked whether the government delegation would be ready for direct talks with the opposition if a unified delegation were formed.

Last week, a source at the negotiations told Sputnik that a unified delegation of opposition would be formed after the current round ended. It would include 15 members and bring together the representatives of the Riyadh-backed High Negotiations Committee, Moscow-Cairo-Astana groups, domestic opposition formed at the Hmeimim airbase, Syrian women's council and the Kurds.

"The Syrian opposition is not only about the group of Riyadh. It also includes the group of Moscow, Cairo, Astana, Hmeimim group, the women consultative council and the civil society. So here we are dealing with five main bodies of oppositions," Jaafari said.

"We are a disciplined delegation We will be here as scheduled with the special envoy. We do not react childishly, we are here to implement the national agenda, to defend the interests of our country. We do not work for foreign agendas and do not get instructions from outside," Jaafari said. "So we will stay here as long as it takes, to serve the interests of our people."

"We will react accordingly," he said, when asked what his response to the HNC request to suspend the talks would be.
GENEVA (Sputnik)  The Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee (HNC) postponed its participation in the latest round of UN-mediated negotiations until progress is achieved in areas including the cessation of hostilities, HNC spokesman Monzer Makhous told Sputnik on Monday.

"This is a temporary stop until there is some progress There was no progress on all matters. First of all, with regard to the political process itself, particularly forming a so-called supreme body that would manage the political process," Makhous said.

The Saudi-backed opposition group spokesman criticized Damascus backing for an expanded government under the leadership of President Bashar Assad.
GENEVA (Sputnik)  Damascus expects that Washington will exercise "real pressure" on the Syrian armed groups and opposition to make them engage in the settlement process more seriously and effectively, Bashar Jaafari, the head of the government's delegation, told Sputnik.

"We want Washington to exert more pressure on its fellow armed groups operating in Syria in order to engage effectively, fruitfully and constructively in its political track. This group of Riyadh would not have acted the way it acted if it did not benefit from foreign coverage and help from outside," Jaafari said.

"If they felt for a second that their handlers from outside would not be happy with their unilateral decision of freezing [participation in the current round of Geneva talks[, they would not have acted this way. They did it because they got instructions from their handlers to do so. So we expect Washington to exert real pressure on these groups in order to engage positively in the intra-Syrian talks," Jaafari said, when asked to comment on the phone conversation between US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  China and India are interested in purchasing the Russian S-400 Triumf air defense systems, but the priority will be given to the Russian army, Russian President Vladimir Putins aide for military-technical cooperation said.

"There are many of those who want it [the S-400 system] but the case is that we are not able to supply everyone with it and therefore we will not deliver it to everyone because the priority is the Russian army, however, the negotiations with China and India are underway," Vladimir Kozhin told the Russian Izvestia newspaper.

According to the newspaper, products of the Russian defense industry have sparked an interest among several countries, including India, Malaysia, Algeria and Indonesia, following Moscow's campaign in Syria on Damascus' request, during which the Russian Aerospace Forces conducted precision airstrikes against the extremists' targets.
The Soviet Army used PTAB bombs against enemies on the ground. Bombs were dropped mainly from the IL-2 Ground Attack Aircraft bomber, which could carry 192 bombs on board. Each PTAB bomb had between 1.5 and 2.5 kg of explosives and destroyed the area of 15 square meters.

During intense fighting, such as at the Battle of Kursk, IL-2 pilots took on board more than the maximum capacity of 192 bombs. According to historian Andrei Rumin, IL-2 planes were packed with 300 PTAB bombs in Kursk to destroy all the Wehrmacht tanks rolling toward Soviet positions.

Since the 1970s, the Soviets began using RBK-250 AO-1 cluster bombs dropping them from Su-17 bombers and Mi-24 attack helicopters. Each bomb had 150 little clusters and could cover the area of 4,800 square meters.

The bombs were effectively used during the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the first Chechen war. A few Soviet planes, packed with RBK-250 bombs, could "re-design the mountainous landscape of Afghanistan" in front of terror-stricken Mujahedeen, according to TV Channel Zvezda.

Starting in the 1990s, the Russian military began to develop RBK-500 and PBK-500 cluster bombs with a special target-locking system. When a target is identified and bombs are dropped, the self-targeting technology accelerates munitions to a speed of up to 2,000 meters per second for maximum destruction.

Military experts say that when these bombs lock on their targets, whether it's an infantry vehicle, a tank or any other armored vehicle, they have virtually no chance of survival, Zvezda said. If a bomb doesn't hit its target, the self-destruct system will be activated and the bomb is eliminated.
Russia's top diplomat also refuted statements of alleged secret talks between the United States and Russia that are supposedly being held to determine Syrian President Bashar Assads future.

Attempts to make statements that there is some sort of a secret negotiations channel, or even more that within that secret negotiations channel that someone has promised to decide Assads fate outside the framework of the intra-Syrian talks is false. This is an attempt to impede the fulfillment of the [UN] Security Councils resolution thats based on a Russian-American agreement supported by everyone and its written clearly: Only the Syrian people will decide Syrias future, Lavrov said.

The Syrian civil war broke out in 2011 between the government, rebels and terrorist groups such as Daesh and al-Nusra Front.

Rumors that Russia is holding secret negotiations on Syria is an attempt to compromise Moscow, Lavrov said.

Yes, there are those desiring to rewrite the UN Security Council decision and trying to predetermine the results of the intra-Syrian talks, in particular attempts to put forward preliminary conditions as an ultimate on the need for Assads stepping down on the current stage so that all the rest can agree. This is unacceptable and is an attempt to impede the process of settling [the crisis] and compromising the UN Security Council.

But rumors that Russia has given its ok on some sort of secret negotiations is already an attempt to compromise the Russian Federation, Lavrov added.
GENEVA (Sputnik)  The fight against terrorism in Syria must continue, while intra-faction fighting in the country is "not helpful," Chinas Special Envoy for Syria Xie Xiaoyan told Sputnik on Monday.

"I think the emphasis should be on continued dialogue. And not talking about the pull out or going back to the battleground. The facts that there are sporadic fighting are not helpful. But this is different from a fighting against terrorists inside the country. That should continue and be reinforced. Because terrorists are the enemies. So that's the different story," Xie said on the sidelines of the intra-Syria talks in Geneva.

China expects that all sides to the Syria conflict taking part in peace negotiations in Geneva will respect the ceasefire deal, China's Special Envoy for Syria Xie Xiaoyan said.
GENEVA (Sputnik)  UN's Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura confirmed Monday that the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee intends to postpone its formal participation in the Geneva talks due to concerns regarding the humanitarian situation and ceasefire violations.

"I heard today from the HNC their intention to postpone their formal participation in the Palais to the negotiations, in order to express their own displeasure and concern due to the deterioration of the humanitarian situation and the cessation of the hostilities," de Mistura told reporters.

"They told us, however, their intention to remain in Geneva, in their hotel, and, possibly, at my own suggestion, to pursue technical discussions with myself and my team, particularly on the issues related to Resolution 2254 and the political transition," he added.
Defense officials, who did not wish to be named, mentioned that first of all Manohar Parrikar will raise the issue of aggressive patrolling by the Chinese army in the Ladakh sector. India will stress that, as agreed between the two countries, peace and tranquility along the border is a prerequisite for the cordial relations between India and China. Thus, frequent transgressions along the border are a deterrent to peace and tranquility along the border and it will also impact bilateral economic and political relations in the long run. India will stress that until the border problem is finalized, both sides should maintain the status quo.

Secondly, the Indian Defense Minister will raise the issue of Masood Azhar as China has blocked India's bid to designate Pakistan-based terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed and its chief Masood Azhar as a terrorist by the UN. The Indian Defense Minister will try his best to convince the Chinese side that the source of terrorism is the same for both the countries and hence it will be better for them to fight the menace of terrorism jointly. India will also convince and convey to Chinese leadership that the Afghanistan-Pakistan region is the source of terrorism and there are several terrorist organizations which operate from Pakistani soil to carry out terrorist activities in the neighboring countries.

Furthermore, during his discussion with top Chinese military officials Manohar Parrikar will push for the early solution of the border problem between the two countries. India will ask that the Special Representative talks be more focused and work towards finding a solution to the border problem between the two countries.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The US government has sent Special Envoy Amos Hochstein to Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt and Israel to discuss falling oil prices after the failure of the Doha energy talks, the US Department of State announced in a media note on Monday.

"Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos J. Hochstein will be travelling to the region to meet with key interlocutors in Jerusalem, Cairo, Kuwait City and Doha," the note stated.

As global oil prices remain near record lows, and the United States emerges as a global exporter of liquefied natural gas, Hochstein will be seeking to strengthen US relationships with partners in the region as well as discuss strategies for addressing the market realities of the energy sector, the note explained.
"My candidacy is about public health, environment, transportation and infrastructure, about arts and culture," said McKesson. "My candidacy is about how do we make a whole city, whole again. It isnt just about criminal justice reform."

The New York Times says you will not be Baltimores mayor. How do you respond?

"That article missed the context on so many things," started McKesson. "You think about this election, the first election where the presidential primary and mayoral primary will fall on the same day. So the electorate will be different."

McKesson says that polls underestimate his support, noting that, "when the New York Times referenced the polls, what I know to be true is that 75% of the people polled are over the age of 50 and only 6% are under the age of 35, so we anticipate that the electorate itself will be different."

How does your candidacy compare to that of Bernie Sanders?

"My campaign is about making sure the issues are front and center," said McKesson. "I think Bernie has shown that to be important, because he is talking about issues that are politically unpopular but are the right issues to talk about."
Edward is an absolute hero of our times. When I first read about him, it made me think of my mother," Jarre told the Guardian.

"She joined the French resistance in 1941, when people in France still thought they were just troublemakers, and she always told me that when society is generating things you cant stand, you have to stand up against it.

Jean-Michel Jarre then travelled to Moscow to meet Snowden, who lives in Russia in exile, and record the samples that feature on the track.

The album also features guest contributors Gary Numan and the Pet Shop Boys.

Snowden started making revelations about widespread US global surveillance in 2013. The same year, Russia granted the whistleblower temporary asylum for one year. In August 2014, Snowden received a three-year residence permit to live in Russia.

In the United States, he faces up to 30 years in prison on charges of espionage and theft of government property. Snowden has repeatedly said that he would return to the United States if Washington guaranteed him a fair trial.
According to Oleg Sienko, the plant had previously produced a robotic fire engine based on the workhorse T-72 battle tank.

The first batch of Armatas driven by a 1,350 horsepower engine is currently undergoing field trials.

A remote-controlled Armata is a tank of the future, no doubt about that. We and people in the military are absolutely positive about this, Sienko added.
Local authorities initiated efforts to destroy a 40-km ice jam on the Sukhona river near Veliky Ustyug, in the Vologda region. As Monday's demolition work didn't bring the expected result, bombing missions from the air are being implemented.

Several Russian Su-34 bomber aircraft launched airstrikes on the border area between the Archangelsk and Vologda regions. These modern multipurpose planes were most recently bombing Daesh positions in Syria.

The task isn't easy. The Vologda region is in the grip of the worst flooding in 20 years, and the consequences have required a special operation by the military and emergency response groups.
"US government officials will meet this week in Europe with their Russian counterparts to discuss issues of mutual interest in cybersecurity," senior US administration official said. "This meeting is not a restart of the Bilateral Presidential Commission working group, but it is in our interest to discuss cybersecurity issues with Russia, including to review the 2013 Bilateral US-Russia Cyber CBMs [confidence building measures]."

Earlier on Monday, the media reported that high-ranking officials from the United States and Russia are expected to hold cybersecurity consultations in Geneva this week.

According to the CNN broadcaster, the consultations are expected to take place with the participation of representatives of the White House, the US State Department and FBI. The sides are due to discuss the bilateral cybersecurity agreements signed in 2013.

In late March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested during US Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to Moscow that Russia and the United States could hold expert talks on issues related to cybercrime in the near future.
Insurgent Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders lambasted the Saudi government, calling the warning by Saudi officials that they would sell off $750 billion in US Treasury assets a threat, and saying that the United States "cannot be blackmailed."

Sanders went on to criticize the Saudi kingdom for "playing a very dangerous role in fomenting fundamentalism all over the world." The Senator claimed that "the evidence is quite clear that sections of the very large royal family have funded Wahhabism; this extremely right-wing fundamentalist ideology, which is what ISIS is about, and which is what al-Qaeda is about."

Hillary Clinton, when asked about Schumers proposed 9/11 legislation during an interview with ABCs George Stephanopoulos, seemed baffled by the matter, saying she did not know about the measure, and suggesting that she had to look into it, as she "hadnt studied it."

Following Sanders statement in favor of legislation allowing 9/11 families to sue the Saudi Arabian monarchy, Clintons spokesperson, Nick Merrill, posted on Twitter: "Hillary Clinton supports the efforts by Senator Schumer and his colleagues in the Senate to secure the ability of 9/11 families and other victims of terrorist acts to hold accountable those responsible."

President Obama vows to veto the legislation

On Monday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest stated that the White House opposed Senator Schumers legislation, and would veto the measure. "Given the long list of concerns I have expressed, it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which the president would sign the bill as its currently drafted," said Earnest.
An accident marred Sunday afternoon's (April 17) harness racing card at Century Downs Racetrack and Casino.

The accident took place in the eighth race as Rs Kazza Nova, driven by Dave Kelly, was racing first over into the final turn when the pacer got rough-gaited. Pass The Port was caught behind second over and fell, unseating driver Brandon Campbell. Attack Modes Billy, beginning a three-wide rally for Ed Hensley, and Justabitcrazy, in rein to Ryan Grundy, were also taken out of the race with those drivers tossed from their sulkies.

Officials from Century Downs have reported to Trot Insider that Hensley was transported to hospital with possible cracked or broken ribs. Grundy was also transported to hospital with a possible broken bone in the eye area.

Trot Insider has learned that five-year-old pacer Pass The Port had to be put down due to a knee injury. The Freedoms Pass-Newport Beauty gelding was a seven-time career winner with over $85,000 in earnings for owner, breeder and trainer Sam Johnson.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the connections of Pass The Port, and in wishing the drivers and horses involved a full and speedy recovery.

Earlier on the program, the featured $5,000 eliminations of the Prairie Boys Stakes for three and four-year-old male pacers were contested with Counter Strike and Big Magick earning victories in their respective events.

The 1-5 favoured Counter Strike and trainer/driver Travis Cullen advanced from third at the half and went on to score in 1:55.2 by a length and three-quarters over Man Of Many Arts (Phil Giesbrecht), who had tracked the winner's move. Cullen shares ownership of the four-year-old Camystic gelding, who notched his seventh win in a row, with Jerry Hagenaars of Hafford, Sask. Flamingbluestar (Brandon Campbell), early leader Tripper (J.F. Gagner) and Trustee (Bill Tainsh Jr.) completed the top five finish order. The win was one of four on the day for Cullen.

Driven by Travis Bowman, Big Magick overcame a post eight start as he fired to the front and cleared breaker Outlaw Goodnready before rebuffing a third quarter challenge by runner-up Mach It Big (Rene Goulet) en route to a three and three-quarter length triumph in 1:56.4. The four-year-old homebred Mister Big gelding is owned by trainer Vernon and Earla Sifert and Insight Strategies, all of Aldergrove, B.C. Appellate (Keith Clark), the 3-5 favourite, finished third, with Outlaw This Is It (Mike Hennessy) and Pocket Novel (Jamie Gray) earning the final paycheques.

The $25,000 final of the stakes event, for Alberta-owned, sired or foaled non-winners of $20,000 lifetime as of December 31, 2015, will be held next weekend along with the Prairie Girls division.

In other Sunday racing news, the win streak of Balinska Hanover continued as the four-year-old Somebeachsomewhere mare earned her fifth straight victory for Ed and Ashleigh Hensley in the opener. Meanwhile, Cullen and Keith Hannah's 11-year-old Raleigh Fingers gelding Raging Fingers reached a career milestone, earning his 50th win.

To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Century Downs.
The 'stars' were shining brightly Sunday night (April 17) on Pompano Park -- both from up above and on the track -- as Dedis Dragon took top honours in the $9,500 featured Open 2 Handicap Pace and amateur driver Steve Oldford swept the pair of Billings events as that amateur series began its 2016 season.

Dedis Dragon, handled by Ricky Macomber Jr., fought hard with Alexas Jackpot during a :26.4 opener before assuming control and ripping off subsequent panels of :55.2 and 1:23.4 en route to a 1:51.3 one-length win over the late-charging St Lads Lotto, driven by Aaron Byron. Alexas Jackpot, teamed up with John MacDonald, did hold on for third while Energy Shakes finished fourth. Northern Companion picked up the minor award in the sextet.

In a post-race interview, Macomber Jr. said, "He [Dedis Dragon] has been racing competitively against the top pacers on the grounds and, with a couple of those absent this week, it seemed like a good spot to go out and try for the lead and control the situation.

"He was very strong coming home in what I expected to be a good performance by him. He didn't disappoint."

Trained by Paul Holzman for John McGill, Brian Carsey and the J L Benson Stables, Dedis Dragon, a six-year-old son of Dragon Again, evened up his 2016 scorecard at 3-3-3 in 14 starts, good for $34,487. He's banked $779,871 career-wise in 106 lifetime starts.

Off at 1-5 on the toteboard, Dedis Dragon paid $2.60 to his multitude of backers.

The C.K.G. Billings Amateur Competition, honouring the memory of the great sportsman who owned our sport's first 2:00 trotter (Lou Dillon-1903), visited Pompano Park on Sunday night and driver Steve Oldford swept both of the Billings events, scoring in the Billings pace with Ruths Shadylady and the companion trot with his own Insider Access.

Handling the seven-year-old mare Ruths Shadylady, Oldford smarty stayed off the early pace before following live cover and collaring Internal Check, driven by Peter Gerry, to score by a neck in 1:58.4. Vals Way, with Ned Hodkinson in the bike, finished third while Southwind Vixen (Matt Zuccarello) paced the fastest final panel in the event to finish fourth. Flashy (Billy Muggleston) was fifth after forging to the lead halfway through the mile.

Trained by Fred Cohen for owner Brian Calvert, Ruths Shadylady won for the second time this year and now has 20 career victories and $71,721 in career bounty.

As second choice in the betting at 2-1, Ruths Shadylady paid $6.40 to win.

Insider Access, trained by Oldford for his own Oldford Racing stable, drew off in the lane to score a three and a half length win in 1:58.4 over PCs Wildcard, driven by Peter Gerry. The early leader, Out Of The Hat, with Joe Pennacchio in the sulky, finished third while Highland Yankee (Bob Davis) finished fourth. M C Felix (Ted Bowman) was fifth in the field of 10.

Insider Access was fourth in the early going as Out Of The Hat led through hot early panels of :28.2 and :57. On the backside, Insider Access surged first up, taking the lead around the final turn (1:28) and drawing off in the lane.

An altered six year-old son of Conway Hall, Insider Access earned his initial win of the year in 12 starts and eighth lifetime victory, sending his career bounty to $133,527.

The pair of wins for Oldford sent his career total to 114, four of which have been accomplished this semester.

Oldford's "double-dip" was the third of his driving career, the first accomplished at Charlottetown in 2006 and the second at Delaware, Ohio during Jug Week in 2014.

Following the Billings competition, the Florida Amateur Driving Club took the spotlight with Lexis Amigo surviving an inquiry to earn his first win of the year.

Trained by Paul Messina for Vallelunga Z (Zara) L (Luca) and driven by Fred Cohen, Lexis Amigo left with alacrity from Pompano Park's coveted five post and then let Lady Deda D, handled by Jamie Marra, cut panels of :28.3, :58 and 1:28.2 before leaving the coziness of the pocket at attacking the leader. Taking command with authority turning for home and opening up a long lead in the lane, Lexis Amigo jumped up in the air in mid-stretch, but driver Cohen was able to settle the 10-year-old down and regain his composure, trotting under the wire one and a half lengths to the good of Chaplin Hall, driven by Gary Barbere, with Zeitgeist third for Dein Spriggs. C R Amigo finished fourth while What About Brian earned the final award in the field of nine.

Lexis Amigo now has 20 lifetime wins in a lightly raced career of 98 starts, good for $257,335.

As the 1-5 toteboard favourite, Lexis Amigo returned $2.60 to win.

Also of note, the 11-year-old warrior Ricks Sign, driven by Ricky Macomber Jr., won his fifth race in a row, showing his heels to his younger foes in 1:52.1.

Trained by Paul Holzman for Mary Holzman, Ricks Sign, an altered son of Life Sign, won for the 65th time in a career spanning 275 starts to send his lifetime earnings to $420,589 -- $22,368 this year on the strength of a 6-2-1 scorecard in a dozen starts.

Off as the 3-2 favourite, Ricks Sign rewarded his faithful with a $5 mutuel.

Pompano Park's pentafecta fourth went untouched on Sunday night with a $2,503 carryover resulting in a $15,000 guaranteed pool for Monday night's fourth race pentafecta. Post time for the Monday program is 7:30 p.m.

(With files from Pompano Park)
The Red Miles chief financial officer, Shannon Cobb, has commented on the success of the instant racing terminals that became operational at the Kentucky track roughly six months ago.

In an article by the Lexington Herald-Leader, Cobb stated that the track had purposely unveiled the simulcasting and gaming parlour in a somewhat subdued fashion.

We opened sort of quietly without a lot of fanfare in September to make sure we had our ducks in a row operationally. So the start-up was a little slow, Cobb was quoted as saying.

She explained that a marketing campaign was then developed with Oaklawn Park, and the collaboration led to positive momentum since last November. Cobb was quoted as saying that the ramp-up in business since the collaboration has been steady. The article characterizes Oaklawn as the founders of instant racing.

The article relates that the historical-racing aspect of the gaming parlour  which is a joint venture between the Red Mile and Keeneland  is expected to handle roughly $35 million a month by the end of 2016.

The gaming parlour also features simulcasting, that, according to Keeneland Vice President Vince Gabbert, has been successful.

Gabbert was quoted as saying that simulcasting handle has gone up a tick and that Keeneland has been very pleased with consolidation of the product.

(With files from the Lexington Herald-Leader)
The Harness Horse Youth Foundations stable of Trottingbred horses is being prepped for its cross-country tour. Also, there is a May 15 deadline for students to apply for positions at the HHYFs summer camps.

Nineteen-year-old goodwill ambassador Sweet Karen is being conditioned by the Chuck Connor Stable at Goshen (NY) Historic Track when they can keep the staff of the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame from doing the work for them. She will be featured at the foundations 40th anniversary brunch on Sunday, June 5.

This year, four Trottingbreds have been shipped to Delaware. CDs Miss M is with Bobby Clark Stable; Imas Hit is with the George Teague Stable; Royal Attire returns to the Eddie Dennis Stable; and LR Trixie is again being put through her paces by the Andrew Stafford Stable.

In New Jersey, the Chris Ryder Stable is prepping I Want Another as he starts his second year with HHYF, while newcomer Sonny is being readied in Springfield, Illinois by the Nick Giberson (and family) stable. The Gibersons won the HHYF Service To Youth Award in 2014 for their work with Sweet Karen.

Just like racehorse, our horses cant just show up at camps and be expected to work, says HHYF Executive Director Ellen Taylor. They need to be legged up, to be in condition. We could not possibly do the outreach we do without the voluntary work of our trainers each year. We are especially appreciative of Brittany Farms for annually providing an off-season home for our Trottingbreds.

The trainers will work with the horses for about two months before the HHYF camp season begins at the home of the Little Brown Jug, the Delaware County Fair, from June 18-22. From there they move on to North Carolina, Maryland, New York and New Jersey before returning to Ohio for programs at Scioto Downs and the Van Wert Fairgrounds in August.

For complete information, head to hhyf.org.

(HHYF)
Sydney Seelster, (aka Pinky) the racehorse turned broodmare of Sydney Weaver that made headlines over the last few years, had her first foal on Monday, April 11 -- a beautiful filly by Pet Rock.



Sydney Seelster's first foal and Sydney Weaver (Lisa Weaver photo) Sydney Seelster's first foal and Sydney Weaver (Lisa Weaver photo)

Beginning today, harnesslink.com is hosting a Name Pinkys Foal Contest and fans worldwide are eligible to enter.

The winning name selected will receive a free breeding to the multiple world champion pacing stallion Hes Watching, who stands at both Tara Hills Farm in Port Perry, Ontario and at Alabar Bloodstock in New Zealand. His stud fee for the 2016 season is at $5,000.

The breeding was generously donated by Muscara Racing Trust, Menary Racing, Inc., Brad Gray and Michael Guerriero. There are also second place prizes: $500 in wagers on WatchandWager.com for prize winners that are U.S. citizens residing in a state that does not have a conflict with WatchandWager.com, or dinner for two packages at Flamboro Downs for Canadian winners.

There is no purchase necessary to enter the contest. You must be age 18 or older and a legal resident of the country you live in. All entries must be submitted in English. Just go to the contest page and fill out all the required information.

I want to thank Steve Wolf, Harnesslink, and everyone associated with Hes Watching (especially you Dave Menary) for putting this promotion together. Said Sydney Weaver. I also want to thank Joe Bellino as he donated the breeding to Pet Rock for 'Pinky' and to the folks at Flamboro Downs for hosting the Name Pinkys Foal Contest naming night and to Watch And Wager for donating the second place prize!

This is going to be so exciting, Sydney said. My dad and mom and I have been thinking about all different kinds of names ever since we knew that 'Pinky' was safe in foal. But now I know that all my friends will come up with some super names for us to choose from.

Sydney Weaver is 15 years old and resides in Acton, Ont. She has been involved with harness racing for years, grooms horses, jogs them on the track, owns Sydney Seelster as well as a Thoroughbred racehorse, has already won major youth writing awards and does public speaking. Sydney also has Cerebral Palsy and spends most of her time in a wheelchair, but has never let her disability hold her back from achieving her goals.

The name for the filly cannot be more than 18 letters and/or spaces combined per the rules of the United States Trotting Association (USTA). Any name that has been used in the past 15 years cannot be entered. You can check on your name suggestion to make sure it has not yet been used by going to the free service at the USTA by clicking this link. Just type in the name of the horse and click. You will then see if the name is already being used. Please note that the name Seelster is an official Farm Name, and thus cannot be used in the competition.

Contestants have until midnight on Sunday, May 1 to enter the contest. Contestants are allowed to enter only one name for the foal per e-mail address and only one winner will be allowed per household.

Within one week after the deadline date, Sydney, Lisa and Don Weaver will select six approved names for the foal. Management at Flamboro Downs, where 'Pinky' raced for most of her career, has graciously agreed to hold a Name Pinkys Foal Contest Night at the track on Sunday, May 8 (Mothers Day), when the final name will be announced in a unique presentation.

If there is only one person that submitted the winning name, that contestant will be declared the official prize winner and receive the breeding to Hes Watching. If there is more than one winning entry with the same name, there will be a drawing to see who wins the Grand Prize of the breeding and then there will be drawing for the $500 WatchandWager.com second place prize awarded.

The official rules for the competition (in detail) can be obtained when entering the contest.

(with files from Harnesslink)
New Marist Poll: Majority of Americans Think Government Position Unfair to Little Sisters of the Poor

Contact: Andrew Walther, Knights of Columbus, 203-824-5412, andrew.walther@kofc.org

NEW HAVEN, Conn., April 18, 2016 /Standard Newswire/ -- With the U.S. Supreme Court now reviewing the arguments on both sides, a new Marist Poll conducted for the Knights of Columbus finds a majority of Americans think that the government is being unfair in its treatment of the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious employers.

By a more than 20-point margin (53 to 32 percent) a majority of Americans say that the process demanded by the government's "accommodation" is "unfair." Unlike many other religious organizations or those organizations whose health plans are "grandfathered" and are "exempt" from providing contraception and abortion-inducing drugs, the Little Sisters and many other religious employers are required by the government to sign a form directing their contractors to deliver such coverage through these religious employers' own health plan.

After hearing the case on March 23, the Supreme Court -- in a highly unusual move -- requested additional filings from the attorneys for both the government and the religious employers, including the Little Sisters of the Poor. The initial round of filings was made on April 12. A second filing will be made on April 20.

"It is not reasonable for the government to demand that some -- and only some -- religious employers engage in activity that is totally unnecessary to the government's stated purpose of providing elective and morally problematic drugs to employees," said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. "Such action doesn't just violate the rights of employers like the Little Sisters, it is also at odds with the American people's understanding of basic fairness, and our long-standing commitment to protecting the deeply-held beliefs of every American -- especially when those beliefs are the minority view."

The survey of 1,020 adults was conducted April 8-12, 2016, by the Marist Poll and sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Adults 18 years of age and older residing in the continental United States were interviewed in English by telephone using live interviewers. Results for adults are statistically significant within 3.1 percentage points. The error margin increases for cross-tabulations.
By Olivia Rose

WITH a total of 381 and 514 votes respectively, Patterson Williams and Temard Butterfield have been elected as the new president and vice president of the Civil Service Association (CSA).





The pair won following a national election on April 7.





Civil servants were invited to cast their votes to elect new heads of the CSA but of the 2,000 eligible voters only half turned out at the polls to cast their ballot.





According to statistics revealed by Civil Service in Action (CSIA) committee, 738 civil servants cast votes which included nine in Salt Cay, 315 in Grand Turk, 79 in South Caicos, 42 in North and Middle Caicos and 293 in Providenciales.





The Office of the Deputy Governor via a release thanked all civil servants across the country for attending the various debates and meetings held by the CSIA and candidates leading up to the election.





"Congratulations to our new CSA president and vice president. Job well done and we look forward to working with you on the advancement of the Turks and Caicos Islands civil service.





Congratulations also came from Premier Rufus Ewing and the Opposition party.





According to the CSIA release Williams outlined his plans now that he is in office.





"The Civil Service Association through the civil service itself is going to have a greater presence in the communities, he said.





While vice president Temard Butterfield said: "As we go forward, my theme or my rally or campaign slogan was, Lets make it happen.





"And we can assure that as of today were going to start to make the work happen.





Of the 738 total votes cast Butterfield got 514 over Vershina Forbes 224, while Williams won the island of Grand Turk and had only 24 more votes than Clerveaux.




CONFIDENCE in the countrys financial sector is set to grow after the Financial Services Commission (FSC) signed up with a major regulatory body.





The FSC announced on Wednesday (April 13) that it has been accepted as a full member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).





The IOSCO is the worlds leading organisation for securities regulatory agencies.





It is recognised as the global standard setter and provides an open forum for its 207 members on the development and implementation of securities regulation.





FSC managing director Niguel Streete said that this latest positive development will provide build public confidence in the regulatory system.





"The commission would like to thank the multiple Government agencies and the private sector for their invaluable support and cooperation during the IOSCO screening and assessment period.





"We are looking forward to a continued partnership in our efforts to raise the standard of regulation and supervision of financial services in the Turks and Caicos Islands.





The IOSCO provides a general framework for worldwide securities regulation, while also respecting the right of each country to regulate its own markets.





It has developed core standards against which the securities industry of the Turks and Caicos Islands was assessed as a part of the World Bank and IMFs Financial Sector Assessment Programmes.





The TCIs full membership was granted following a rigorous screening and assessment process.




Police who interviewed Brandon Wright three weeks ago said his conscience pushed him to confess to the 1994 stabbing death of 45-year-old Robert Bushey of Kelso.

Criminologists, though, are skeptical that a guilty conscience alone prods killers to confess.

Most confessions dont come from within, Joseph Weis, professor emeritus and veteran criminologist from the University of Washington, said in an interview this week. Weis hasnt evaluated either Wright or his case but spoke from his personal experience in criminology.

Its rare that voluntary confessions solve cold cases as old as Busheys (pronounced boo-SHAY), Weis said. That makes Wrights case all the more unique.

Its pretty rare, that you hear about someone confessing years later, said Kelsey Henderson, a Florida expert in legal decision making and how jurors view confession evidence. When you look at a confession, you look at an interrogation. Its interesting, that on his own free will (Wright) walked in and confessed.

In 40 years of teaching criminology and being an expert court witness, Weis said hes never known of a murderer who confesses solely because of his conscience, though its impossible to tell for sure a persons motive for confessing. Weis said its far more common that a criminal suspects hell soon be caught, confesses during an interrogation, or has confided their crime in another person and fears that person will come forward.

In a high percentage of cases, someone else knows about it, Weis said. But years later, that person has a fit of conscience and says, Im going to report it. 

In some cases, a personal crisis revitalizes a criminals conscience. They find God, for example. Or, like James Washington and Robert Carr, they believe theyll die and want to confess.

During a heart attack in 2009, Washington confessed to the 1995 murder of Joyce Goodener in Nashville. He survived and was sentenced to 51 years in prison.

In 1976, Carr, a serial rapist and murderer from Florida, was finally arrested. Believing he would be executed, Carr invited Miami Herald reporter Edna Buchanan to hear his life story and the gruesome details of his crimes. Instead of execution, a judge sentenced him to more than 300 years in prison. He asked Buchanan to scrub parts of his interviews, but Buchanan reported them.

With many of these guys, locked in prison, they say I found religion,  Weis said. People confess when theres other evidence that points a finger at them, and theyre figuring that they can make a better (plea) deal if (they) come clean.

Police said Wright was never a suspect in the case, and nothing so far indicates he became religious and confessed because of it. Kelso police declined to comment for this story or comment further on Wrights case.

Wright, 44, is in the Cowlitz County Jail awaiting prosecution on a first-degree murder charge. Police said he walked into the Salt Lake County Jail on March 27 and, out of the blue, confessed to killing Bushey. Hes expected to enter a plea on April 26.

When Wright confessed, was he just tired of running away, of being homeless and unemployed, and felt being in prison would at least give him food, a roof over his head and some stability?

Thats kind of a myth. There arent too many people that would choose to go to prison to just get three squares and a bed, Weis said. Particularly if theyve been in trouble; its a bad place to live.

Wright had been running from the law a long time. His rap sheet from Utah dates back to the early 1990s. It includes at least six alcohol- or drug-related charges, attempted aggravated assault with a weapon and assaults against a police officer and a health care worker.

Weis said theres no way to predict who will become a murderer. Childhood trauma, substance abuse, mental illnesses and other personality characteristics can affect a persons tendency for violence. But its ambiguous which personality traits determine a murderer. Any one trait and any combination of them could be just some of the factors leading up to a murder.

But its impossible for anyone to know for sure. Sometimes even killers dont know why they kill, Weis said. That might be especially difficult to determine in a case like Busheys slaying, which does not appear to have been premeditated. Police said Wright stabbed Bushey 53 times after he was caught burglarizing Busheys Kelso travel trailer.

Its clear that a persons conscience can have an effect on their decision to kill and/or conceal it, Weis and Henderson said.

Weis defines a conscience as an internalized repository of rules, values, expectations and social norms. Its not innate, Weis said. Rather, a person develops a conscience based on how shes raised, taught and role modeled.

A conscience reflects the broader moral codes in the community, the ability to empathize. Most people do develop really strong consciences. (Sigmund) Freud would call it the superego, something that prevents us from doing bad things, Weis said.

When people murder and conceal it, they suppress their consciences, Weis said. But a sense of remorse can return, as well as change through a persons life.

Henderson said researchers identify two types of factors that could lead to confessions: dispositional and situational.

Dispositional factors relate to a persons personality  their intelligence, mental well being and age, for example. Situational factors typically relate to interrogations  their length, intensity and presentation of evidence, for example.

False confessions, she said, are more dependent on situational or outside factors. True confessions more likely come from the feeling of remorse or of guilt, the weighing of the conscience.

With the true confession, the argument is theyre more likely to confess because of their internal factors. They believe theyll be caught eventually, Henderson said.

So did Brandon Wrights conscience return to haunt him? Its possible.

Whoever it was (who killed Bushey) didnt have a conscience for many years, Weis said.
Anirudh Regidi

We recently got a chance to experience Dolby Vision, a brand new display standard that is supposed to raise the bar as far as visual fidelity in the industry is concerned. The technology can best be described as a form of post-processing that retains more colour information than currently available compression technology.

To give you an analogy, wav is an uncompressed audio format for music. The files are massive and there's no chance that your speaker or your ear can appreciate the finer detail in the format. Thus, we compress the audio to a format like mp3, which uses algorithms to determine how our ears work, and it cuts out unnecessary audio data accordingly. The mp3 format isn't perfect and that's why other compression formats popped up these include formats like aac, ogg, etc.

Dolby Vision does the same, except it does so with video. Codecs like H.264 (.mp4) already exist and they are very good, but Dolby claims that Dolby Vision adds a great deal more information to these codecs. The information is tacked on to existing codecs as metadata and can be decoded by compatible hardware.

Our experience

We got to experience Dolby Vision on a gorgeous 84-inch, 4K, OLED display with WRGB support from LG. We were told that the display alone retails for a little under Rs 6,00,000 and it's testament to the quality of the display that we'd gladly pay that amount if we could.

Dolby demoed a handful of scenes on the display and while we will admit that they were spectacular, especially the whites and the blacks, there was no way to tell if Dolby Vision was having an actual impact on the image quality or not. We already know that blacks on OLED panels are actually pitch black and the WRGB (the W indicates the presence of a White LED) panel means that whites will be white.

What we're saying is that by default, video on that display should have been stunning anyway and considering that we've never experienced such a high quality display before, we don't have a base-line to compare Dolby Vision against.

Dolby assures us that there's a significant difference in image quality and we'll just have to take their word for it.

To help us, and you, get a better understanding of Dolby Vision and its potential, we interviewed Mike Chao, Regional Vice President, Asia-Pacific, Dolby Laboratories. Here's what he had to say.

Disclaimer: Some of the answers have been edited in the interest of brevity and are not the exact words of Mike Chao. However, every effort has been taken to ensure that the substance of his responses is unaltered.

On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the actual scene that our eyes perceive, where would you rate the following:

HD broadcast from, say, Tata Sky or its equivalent

Dolby Vision certified broadcast

Raw camera data

Playback on Dolby Vision certified TV (such as the 4K OLED TV mentioned earlier)

Standard Blu-Ray playback on the same OLED TV.

This is really hard to do as perceived quality is highly subjective, but we are seeing reactions from consumers that are very clear and positive once HDR and wide color get added into the mix and less clear when there is merely a step up from HD to UHD. Compression is always a consideration but is very much orthogonal to the other aspects mentioned here. HEVC helps a lot to enable UHD at reasonable bit rates.

You mentioned that Dolby Vision metadata would add 20-30% more data to an HD stream. Are current content delivery networks on set-top-boxes capable of handling this increase in bandwidth?

Yes, the increase stated is for the dual-layer profile of Dolby Vision that adds backward compatibility to standard dynamic range receivers. The enhancement layer and metadata take about 20% in addition to the backward compatible signal. Most deployed Dolby Vision services like Vudu and Netflix use this profile and delivery is not a problem. However, Dolby Vision also offers single-layer profiles for applications where backward compatibility is not required. These profiles are more bandwidth efficient.

How much of an overhead will be added when processing raw camera data to support Dolby Vision standards?

If this question is about the color grading workflow, then the answer is none. RAW data is already used today for standard color grading. Dolby Vision merely replaces the grading display with one that is capable of displaying the higher dynamic range and wider color. The color grading tools are equipped with a plug-in that creates the dynamic metadata. Thats pretty much it.

Since Dolby Vision is claimed to be compatible with existing codecs, does this mean that Dolby Vision can be compatible with streaming services such as YouTube and Netflix and that anyone can view said content with a compatible display?

Yes, Dolby Vision is codec-agnostic. Today, it is integrated with H.264 and HEVC but others like VP9 or AVS+ are also possible if required in the future.

The documentation mentions that Dolby is working with creators of game engines to ensure compatibility with Dolby Vision. Which engines would these be? How does this impact the traditional game development cycle?

Gaming is a potential use case for Dolby Vision and we have shown technology demonstrations with EPICs Unreal Engine and with Amazon Games Lumberyard recently. However, we dont have anything to announce at this point.

If we're talking about games, that means we're also talking about PC and console hardware as well as PC monitors. Can we expect to see Dolby Vision certified monitors in the near future? Are you working with any specific brands?

Please stay tuned for announcements in the future.

How do graphics cards (from Nvidia and AMD) figure in this picture? Will these cards need to integrate Dolby Vision chips or something similar or will the technology work with existing hardware?

Typically, hardware with this kind of capability can run Dolby Vision in software but there are no products announced today.

Most PC monitors are 6-bit panels and better ones are 8-bit panels. How much of an advantage will Dolby Vision offer, especially when the technology has been designed with 12-bit panels in mind? Are lesser panels to be completely excluded from Dolby Vision certification?

We do strongly recommend to have at least a 10-bit video pipeline. Others are possible but are likely not showing the full potential of the technology.

How much does Dolby Vision certification and technology add to the cost of a display unit (monitor or TV)?

In our work with TV, OEMs have made it clear that the desire to build products with HDR and wide color capability has certainly been triggered by Dolbys push in the direction of video fidelity. The actual Dolby Vision processing that ensures that these products perform in the best way possible does not really add significant cost. Yes, there is additional die-area on the chipset to perform the Dolby Vision functions and there is a licensing fee but the total cost here is less than what I usually pay for a cup of espresso...

You mentioned Dolby Vision certified laser projectors for theatres. Can you elaborate on their capabilities and the technology behind them? When can we expect to see such projectors in India? Is there any chance that the technology can trickle down into consumer-grade projectors anytime soon?

We have co-developed the Dolby Vision laser projector used as part of the Dolby Cinema concept with Christie. The Dolby Vision laser projection system uses state-of-the-art optics and image processing to deliver high dynamic range with enhanced color technology. Dolby Vision laser projection delivers a contrast ratio that far exceeds that of any other image technology on the market today. By comparison, standard Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) projectors on average have a 2,000:1 contrast ratio compared to film negatives, which can deliver an 8,000:1 contrast ratio. When it comes to laser, other projectors on the market can achieve a 5,000-8,000:1 contrast ratio. A Dolby Vision laser projector exceeds 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

Quoting Don Shaw, Senior Director, Product Management, Christie, "Dolby Vision laser projection also provides a more detailed viewing experience with up to 14 foot lamberts (a measure of brightness) onscreen in 3D and up to 31 foot lamberts for 2D Dolby Vision content, far exceeding any ultra-bright' industry standards, to all Dolby Cinema locations."

Consumer grade projectors with Dolby Vision have not been announced to date.

Editor's note: To put things in perspective, a standard monitor has a contrast ratio (not dynamic contrast ration, mind you of around 300:1 to 600:1. The iPad, with it's exceptional display, will only manage around 800:1. Any OLED screen can, however, claim a contrast ratio of infinity:1 because blacks on OLED are pure black. Bearing that in mind, a claimed contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 is staggeringly good. If reports are to be believed, Dolby isn't exaggerating in the slightest.
tech2 News Staff

Google may soon be facing antitrust charges in EU for its comparison shopping service and is being investigated on whether the way it handles Android use in third party phones constitutes of unfair trade practice. Politico reports requests from lawyers for documents from competitors of Google is a sign that charges are going to be framed, and notes that Google is at most liable to pay up 10 percent of parent company Alphabet's annual revenue.

The process has started with a statement of charges against Google, that Google can respond to. If the European Commission is not satisfied with the reply, then the antitrust litigation will proceed. Google's comparison shopping service is under scrutiny to check if it has been hindering competition by artificially placing their own service in a more prominent location.

The statement notes that Google's first attempt at a comparison shopping service, Froogle failed, whereas Google Product Search and Google Shopping succeeded. A suggested remedy by the European Commission is that Google should apply the same penalties to its own service that it applies to competition, and not give any preferential treatment to its services.

A separate formal investigation against Android was also opened at the same time. The purpose of the investigation is to check if Google has been hindering the proliferation of rival operating systems, applications or services. There are three focus points of the investigation. Whether Google has been forcing device manufacturers to install only Google's applications on Android, whether Google has taken steps to make sure that manufacturers do not use a forked version of Android, and if Google has been killing competition by bundling Google applications together in Android implementations.
tech2 News Staff

While we've been hearing about Google's balloons and Facebook's drones being tested to beam Internet from the skies, a new report points out that Google is all set to bring wireless internet into your homes.

In an interview with Re/code, Alphabet's Sr. Vice President Craig Barrat who oversees Fiber projects said that the company is now working on fixed wireless Internet for places where Fiber is too expensive. He further added that the company is currently experimenting with different wireless technologies.

"Theyre not the only ones. Aereo founder Chet Kanojia says he wants to develop a similar system at his new company, Starry, and has promised to start testing it in Boston this summer. And yesterday Facebook announced an initiative to experiment with wireless Internet. But Facebook says it doesnt want to build or operate the wireless networks itself. Alphabet does," the report points out.

Barratt joined Google in 2013 and was soon seen heading the Access division. He is reportedly among the small group of recent Google hires who are considered among Alphabet CEO Larry Pages trusted inner circle.

It was just recently that reports around the Google balloon, which is a part of the companys high-speed Internet service Project Loon, crashed in a Sri Lankan tea plantation during its maiden test flight. Facebook has also completed building its first full-scale solar-powered drone, Aquila, that aims at providing Internet access to the most remote parts of the world.
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A U.S.-based online publishing platform, Medium, has been blocked in China, according to users and tests by Reuters, the latest service to apparently be affected as Beijing exerts greater control over the Internet.

Medium, which allows users, including companies and media outlets, to post blogs that readers can annotate, has been inaccessible since at least early this week, according to Internet users in China and tests by Reuters using tools developed by anti-censorship watchdog GreatFire.org.

It was not immediately apparent why Medium was blocked. China's Internet regulator did not respond to a faxed request for comment. San Francisco-based Medium did not respond to emailed questions outside normal U.S. working hours.

Last week, a Medium post about the Panama Papers leak, detailing the offshore wealth of various countries' leaders and their relatives, including China's, was widely shared on Chinese social media.

China has moved to limit access to coverage of the matter and has censored online reports about it. Also last week, Medium said more than a dozen media outlets would start publishing on its site, an arrangement that would have allowed publications whose websites are blocked in China to reach users in the country.

If confirmed, Medium would join a range of sites already blocked in China, including the blogging platforms WordPress and Google's Blogger.

The websites of several major media outlets are also blocked, including those of the Economist and Time, which both become inaccessible last week after they ran articles critical of President Xi Jinping.

Under Xi, the government has tightened control on the Internet and sought to codify that policy in the law. Officials say Internet restrictions are needed to ensure security in the face of rising threats, such as terrorism. Foreign governments and business groups have pointed to restrictions on the Internet as a broader trade issue.

On Friday, a U.S. business lobby said Internet restrictions were hampering business and that the free flow of information was critical to China's effort to promote innovation.

Reuters
tech2 News Staff

Snapdeal, in partnership with IIT Delhi and Phoenix Medical Solutions, announced the launch of SmartCane, an electronic travel aid that offers independent mobility and safety to the visually impaired. The product is available for sale online exclusively via Snapdeal at a price of Rs 3,500.

As a part of the partnership, potential donors can also choose to donate SmartCane via Snapdeal's Sunshine platform. The donated products will be shipped directly to NGO partner, Saksham.

SmartCane is said to be an advanced version of the white cane used by visually impaired people. It uses ultrasonic ranging, which helps detect above knee-level obstacles. The device is co-created with the user community and validated by over 300 people with visual impairment across the country and also has nearly 10,000 empowered users in India already, the company stated in a press statement.

Speaking about the launch, Tony Navin, Senior Vice President, Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives, Snapdeal said, "SmartCane is a fine example of technology solving real life problems of people, and we at Snapdeal take immense pride in bringing the latest innovations to the market. A smart product, SmartCane addresses the concern of independence and safety of those with visual impairment. We are confident that this product will be well received and our customers will also come forward to donate SmartCane to NGOs working with persons with visual impairment."
tech2 News Staff

Seems that not everyone is happy about Uber's growth. Rather, Uber's growth is grabbing the attention of one too many. At the Future Transport Summit held in NSW Australia, Steve Wozniak spoke up about Uber and how he isn't sure about the company and how it is gradually seems to be turning into a monopoly.

The co-founder of Apple told reporters at the event that he was worried as to how Uber is not treating its drivers right. "Like a lot of people, I have some distrust of Uber and how their drivers don't really realise at first that they aren't making much money," said a concerned Wozniak, "maybe losing money on the wear and tear of their cars.".

As reported by Mashable Australia, the co-founder spoke out his thoughts talking about how Uber's workforce is bringing down lowest minimum wage (in Australia) and how the company is getting away with it.

He did however side Lyft, an Uber-like service that has yet to arrive in Australia.

The general manager of Uber in Australia, David Rohrsheim did not take his comments lightly by first pointing out that Woz was not an Uber driver. He went on to defend the company, "More than 20,000 [driver-partners] monthly are putting money in the bank account using Uber, and they've got complete flexibility to log on as much or as little as they want to," he said, "That's the number one thing drivers come to the platform for.".

Wozniack's concerns however, were not to do with how Uber functions but rather who eventually gets all the profits. from Uber to Task Rabbit, will only serve to consolidate the profits of the tech elite and not workers, he suggested "that's the nature of change.".
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After several instances of the Indian Railways and External Affairs ministry using the social media to help people in distress, border guarding force SSB helped two Ahmedabad residents cross over to India with the aid of Twitter after they got stuck in Bhutan when the border was sealed for the Assembly polls in West Bengal.

The travails of Deep Shah and Parth Trivedi began in the wee hours of April 15 when they were told in Bhutan, while packing their luggage for the journey back home, that they cannot cross the Indo-Bhutan International Border as it has been "sealed" in view of the polls.

The duo said they checked with the Indian Embassy in Bhutan but the "phone operator was helpless" as to how to help them. They found the only way out was by taking a flight, which was too expensive.

Shah then took to Twitter and wrote about his problem and tagged numerous official handles of the government like those of Prime Ministers Office, the MEA and Sushma Swaraj, MoS Gen V K Singh, Railway Ministry, Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu, and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with the plea that he be allowed inside India as they had a train to catch from Hasimara in West Bengal the same evening.

"Mam, we are in Bhutan, we heard that border gate to India is sealed due to election. V have train to catch at @5pm. wouldn't we allowed to enter our own country? #stuckinbhutan," Shah tweeted to the WB CM's handle.

Getting restless after there was no response to his tweets in the early hours of April 15, Shah then tagged Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's handle seeking help.

"Sir, v r in Bhutan, border gate sealed due 2 election in WB, we need to get back to our country. Pls help," he wrote to Tharoor. Tharoor, who was awake, responded: "Attn @SushmaSwaraj this young Indian says he's #stuckinBhutan bcos border gates closed due to elections in Bengal?"

The tweet was soon noticed by Sahastra Seema Bal (SSB) Inspector General Renuka Mishra, at its headquarters here, on her personal ID and she acknowledged that it "Pays to stay up late Happy to help."

Mishra, who also manages the forces' Twitter handle @DGSSB, responded to Shah asking "Where exactly are you right now and what is your contact number. Saw your tweet to @ShashiTharoor #stuckinbhutan".

Mishra told PTI that she soon got in touch with the forces' commanders on the Indo-Bhutan border on the eastern frontier. She was told that the gates have been closed and additional vigil mounted in the wake of administration's instructions to "seal" the borders before the polling day on Sunday.

Soon after, the SSB area commander got in touch with his Bhutanese counterpart and Shah and his friend were asked to report at an official crossing point at the border. They were allowed to cross over after due verification of their documents at about 3pm on Saturday.

"I along with my friend @parthlyright have safely crossed border. Thanks," Shah tweeted with photographs he took along with his friend and SSB company commander Ranjit Baidya.

The SSB responded with a short tweet in response: "Glad to be of help". SSB officials said they later facilitated many other Indians cross over the border following this for their onward journey into India. The border sealing directions are in place till Sunday evening, they said.

Later, Tharoor complimented the SSB and IG Mishra for ensuring prompt help to the youngsters. "Well done @DGSSB! Such episodes reinforce my belief that social media can do good & in our Govt & security services," he tweeted. Officials of the paramilitary force said the duo subsequently took their train to Kolkata from where they had to take a flight to Ahmedabad.

"All is well that ends well. The help through social media is enormous," a senior SSB officer said. Shah later admitted on his social media account that when he wrote the first few tweets it was "pretty late in night so not blaming any one!"

PTI
Karrishma Modhy

Industrybuying is an online e-commerce platform for businesses that enables merchant and large businesses to fulfill their procurement. The company was started in 2013 by siblings Swati Gupta and Rahul Gupta. The brother-sister duo, on various business trips, saw the explosion of e-commerce in China and the US. They discovered the huge gap in the market as SMEs and large businesses were unable to procure things easily in a one stop window. They analysed the markets abroad and started Industrybuying as an online platform for e-commerce for businesses to simplify the process.

In conversation with Swati Gupta, co-founder & CEO at Industrybuying.com, she shares the companys USP and plans in detail.

Tell us briefly about your startup Industrybuying

Industrybuying is a business e-commerce platform selling a wide range of business and industrial products to SMEs as well as large businesses. We have over 3,500 registered sellers and more than 50,000 registered businesses - SMEs and large corporates, procuring online from our platform. We offer wide assortment and a reliable and simplified procurement solution to our customers across country. We are based out of Delhi NCR with our fulfillment centers in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bangalore.

What sets you apart from other e-commerce platforms?

Indian B2B e-commerce space has seen huge growth in the last year and there are a lot of niche players, most of them operating in a limited set of categories. We are a truly multi-category B2B marketplace catering to a diverse set of industries. We have more than 40 categories, over a million products and 2000+ brands. This huge assortment across a wide variety of categories is what sets us apart from others in this space.

Also, we have our customised enterprise e-commerce solution - ProcMan, where businesses benefit from a wide range of products at best prices. Our entire catalog ranging from Safety and Security, Electrical and Lighting, Power and Solar, MRO supplies and many more are available for procurement on ProcMan. Through ProcMan, businesses get the e-commerce convenience coupled with Purchase Order, ERP, Credit and Invoice Based Buying.

How did you come up with the business idea, how big is your team?

Rahul and I both worked in US for few years after which we decided to return to India to take over our family business. We felt that industrial and business procurement as a process is very tedious and is highly inefficient due to multiple factors, be it assortment, availability, pricing or delivery. We worked on building a one-stop marketplace for all business needs which would do away with all such inefficiencies and that is when Industrybuying came into existence from an idea. In the past year, we have increased our head count by 10 times. At present, our team strength is more than 380.

Did you get incubated?

We were completely bootstrapped and ran the business that way till December 2014, when we felt the need to go for our first round of funding.

Have you received funding? If yes, how much and at what stage did you receive funding?

Industrybuying is backed by some of the leading Indian and global investors. Post our seed funding, we realised to go for the next round of funding and received $2 million from SAIF partners. Murgappa and TVS Family had also joined in our growth and invested last year. Most recently, we received funding of Rs 60 crores from Kalaari Capital in series B round that we used in establishing fulfillment centers in various cities.

What is your revenue model?

We sell at a selling price mentioned on the website. Our cost for the product is the price at which we procure the product from the vendor once the order is placed. Hence, we are a managed marketplace with zero or just in time inventory. The margin made is the difference in the selling and cost price.

What has the response been like for your product, so far?

Industrybuying has seen great response from customers. Users who are used to buying for their personal purposes have shifted that behaviour to buy online for businesses. Mostly SMEs and even some large enterprises procure for their business needs through our platform.

Initially, we identified few barriers in B2B e-commerce industry such as online buying adoption, trust and supply chain. B2B customers have different buying behaviours and we had to build the assortment, trust, improve the supply chain, to provide reliable and quick procurement alternative.

How do you plan to widen your customer reach?

We are using both online and offline marketing channels to create awareness about online procurement and its benefits among the customers.

How do you plan to scale?

We already have pan-India footprint and deliver to around 21000 pin codes nationwide. More than 70 percent of transactions on our e-commerce platform come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. However, there is huge opportunity in B2B e-commerce as still most of the transactions take place offline. That will change as more and more potential customers who are based out of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities move to online procurement for their businesses.

For a business customer, our relentless focus to provide them wide assortment of products, reliable and simple e-commerce interface and our expertise in identifying the pain points of a business buyer is key in driving scale and growth for Industrybuying. B2B sector is huge and as e-commerce adoption grows for businesses, we are well suited to be one of the biggest players in the industry.

Also, considering the requirement from large businesses, our customised enterprise procurement solution - ProcMan, has seen tremendous growth in a very short span.

What goals have you set for the platform?

In few years of operation in business e-commerce, we have seen tremendous growth. In terms of GMV, we have grown more than 150% in last 6 months and targeting 25 percent of growth month on month. We have crossed 1.2 million customers visit per month on our platform and is aiming to double by next quarter.
20 foreigners involved in BB cyber heist: CID

It also finds negligence of BB officials

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has found the involvement of 20 foreigners in the $ 101-million cyber heist from Bangladesh Banks account with the US Federal Reserve Bank. A process is underway to arrest them. If necessary, well take the help of the Interpol and other international agencies in this regard, said Shah Alam, Additional Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of CID at a press briefing on Monday. Responding to a question, he said they also found the negligence of some Bangladesh Bank officials in maintaining cyber security. Two CID teams recently visited Sri Lanka and the Philippines. One team returned home from the Philippines on April 14 while another from Sri Lanka on April 15, the DIG added. Earlier in February, hackers swindled out over $100 million from the Bangladesh Banks account with the US Federal Reserve Bank. The sensational heist surfaced after a Philippines newspaper published a report on it. The CID was given the onus of investigation into the incident after the central bank filed a case with Motijheel Police Station in the city on March 15, 40 days after the theft had occurred. Following the cyber heist, Dr Atiur Rahman resigned as the Governor of Bangladesh Bank. The government also removed two deputy governors from the central bank following the incident. Immediately after Atiurs resignation, the government appointed former finance secretary Fazle Kabir as the new governor. -- Dhaka, Apr 18 (UNB)
Syrian rebels declare new battle against government

Syrian opposition leaders give a joint statement at a press conference in Beirut on Monday.

Reuters, Beirut :Syrian rebel groups announced a new battle against government forces on Monday, a sign of escalating violence that has undermined a ceasefire deal and threatens to derail U.N.-led peace talks.The groups, which included factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham, said in a statement they would respond "with force" against any government forces that fired on civilians.The ceasefire deal has been strained to breaking point by escalating fighting, particularly around the divided city of Aleppo, with each side blaming the other for the escalation that has underlined the huge challenge facing the peace talks. Heavy air strikes have also been reported north of Homs.Senior opposition figures who have asked not to be quoted have said pressure is growing for a speedy decision to leave talks being convened by U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, with no sign of progress towards discussion of a political transition sought by President Bashar al-Assad's opponents.The statement announced the "formation of a joint operations room to begin the battle... in response to violations by the army of Assad." It gave no geographic location for the new battle.Senior Syrian opposition negotiators on Sunday urged rebels to strike back against the Syrian army, accusing it of using a cessation of hostilities to gain ground, and cast doubt over whether they would continue Geneva peace talks indefinitely.The cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by the United States and Russia came into effect on Feb. 27 with the aim of allowing peace talks to get underway. The agreement did not include Islamic State or the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.Meanwhile , the opposition chief negotiator said "There can be no compromise on the issue of Bashar al-Assad... For us, it's a closed book-you cannot trade an entire people for one man," Alloush told AFP.Alloush's Jaish al-Islam is party to the fragile ceasefire deal between Syria's government and non-jihadist rebel groups.
Prime insurance gets new EC and audit Chairman

Economic Reporter :

Shah Muhammed Hasan has been elected as the New Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Prime Insurance Company Ltd in its 276th Board Meeting recently.

In the same meeting, the Company also re-elected A.Z.M Sazzadur Rahman as the Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of the Company.

Shah Muhammed Hasan, after completion of graduation from Pakistan Naval Academy, joined Bangladesh Navy. After that, he served in Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority and Chittagong Port Authority.

He is the Managing Director of Mariners Bangladesh Limited & Orbit Pharmaceuticals Limited and Director (Production) of Confidence Cement Limited. Mr. Hasan started his business career with shipping and clearing & forwarding business in 1984.

He received Lions' Club International Award, International President's Medal, International President's Leadership Medal (3 times), 100% Governors' Award and Founder Membership Growth Award.

A. Z. M Sazzadur Rahman obtained B. Sc in Mechanical Engineering in 1970 and Post Graduation in Industrial & Production Engineering in 1990 both from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET). Since his graduation from BUET in 1970, he started his professional career in Planning Commission in 1972 as Research Officer. Then, he joined in Bangladesh Railway in September 1972 as an Assistant Mechanical Engineer and served there till 1988 as Chief Mechanical Engineer. Later on,he served as Director, Energy Monitoring & Conservation Centre and various important posts from 1988 to 1996 under Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources, Government of Bangladesh. Presently, he works for Bangladesh Public Service Commission as Part Time External Examiner.
Call to upgrade quality of research, education



A two-day conference on "Meet BDREN (Bangladesh Research and Education Network 2016" began on Monday at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of Dhaka University.

Dhaka University (DU) Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique was present as the chief guest at the inaugural session of the conference jointly organized by the University of Dhaka and University Grants Commission (UGC).

UGC Acting Chairman Prof Dil Afroza Begum presided over the function while World Bank Senior Operation Officer Dr Md Mokhlesur Rahman addressed it as special guest.

Prof Arefin stressed the need for expansion of digital facilities to ensure quality education in the country including remote area.

He urged the teachers, students and researchers to utilize modern IT (information technology) facilities effectively to upgrade the quality of research and education.

He said the internet, websites and various digital portals have become important features of the teaching-learning environment at educational institutions in the 21st century. Citing a recent survey, the DU VC said 94 percent of youths use the internet for school education and research.

He said 34 virtual classrooms have been established at 33 public universities under BDREN project to promote digital education in the country.

Authorities of the DU have already set up two virtual classrooms with the financial assistance from the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) of the World Bank, he added.

Some 200 educationists and researchers from various public and private universities are participating in the conference.

Experts from different universities and organisations of the USA, South Korea, Japan, Nepal, Malaysia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka are also attending the conference.


CCCI Chief leaves for India

Chittagong Bureau :President of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce & Industry Mahbubul Alam left for India yesterday on four days tour to attend the board meeting of Executive body of Saarc Chamber of Comemrce at New Delhi . The SCCI board meeting supposed to be held from April 17 to 20 next . During his tour, he will exchange views with the Commerce secretary of Govt of India Dr. Nagesh Kumar, WB representative & Director of Indian Federation of chambers & Industry Mr. Goutam Ghosh on mutual and bilateral interests. Besides he will meet the business leaders of the Saarc countries . Mahbubul Alam is also the vice president of FBCCI and Saarc Chamber. CCCI president will return home on April 21 next . Director of FBCCI Sheikh Fazle Fahim, Md. Rezaul Karim Reznu and Shamim Ahmed will also accompany him, sources said.
Terrorists rule Bandarban

3 cattle traders killed after abduction by a new outfit: Toll collection, murder rampant

Sagar Biswas :

Police recovered bullet-ridden bodies of three cow traders on Monday who were killed after abduction by a newly-emerged terrorist outfit named 'Tripura Group' at remote Thanchhi upazila in the country's southeastern hilly district of Bandarban.

The law enforcement agencies with the help of local people recovered the bodies of ill-fated traders from a bush at 28-kilometre area adjacent to Thanchhi-Ali Kadam road at about 3:00pm, police said. They were identified as Abu Bakkar, 40, Absar Ali, 35 and Shahabuddin, 25, all hailed from Ali Kadam sadar upazila.

When contacted, Superintendent of Police in Bandarban Mizanur Rahman told The New Nation last night, "We have identified the terrorist group. They are members of newly -emerged 'Tripura Group'. But we are yet to get the political manifesto of the group, whether they are supporters of CHT Peace Treaty, or not."

"As per intelligence information, the Tripura Group earlier used to kidnap local people to make them party members. Now, they have changed the strategy. Another gang, named 'Murong Group', which was engaged in such crimes in the previous days, recently surrendered to the law enforcement agencies," the SP said detailing the crime scenario in the hill district.

According to local sources and police, the traders were kidnapped along with Tk 3 lakh on Friday afternoon. One Jumon Tripura, member of terrorist group, phoned to a cow trader Abu Naim on Pahela Baishakh [April 14] and told him that he has nine cows for trade.

After primary inspection, Abu Naim informed them that they were ready to buy the cows at a reasonable price. After a brief telephonic conversation, the three traders along with Tk 3 lakh went to Obaidul Mia village under Ali Kadam upazila sadar for buying the cows.

As the traders reached there, the terrorists took them to the deep forest at gunpoint. Later, the terrorists killed them after taking the money on Friday [April 15]. Not only that, the terrorist group also took Tk 50,000 more from the family members of victims through B-kash on Saturday giving false assurance of release to their family members, said Mansha Mro, Union Parishad Chairman of Thanchhi Sadar.

"On Monday, the terrorists phoned Md Hasem, brother of slain Abu Bakkar, and told him to take bodies of three traders, who were killed earlier. Police recovered the bodies and sent them to morgue for autopsy," said Md Sirajul Islam, Officer-in Charge of Ali Kadam Police Station.

Police arrested three members of the terrorist outfit in connection with the abduction and murder. They are Zohan Tripura and Jasaim Tripura on Saturday. Of them, Zohan Tripura was arrested from remote Yangrai village, 30 kilometer far from Thanchhi upazila sadar.

Later, a combined team comprising the members of Army, BGB and Police conducted a massive manhunt in the forest along with the arrestees to nab other members of the gang. At that time, a terrorist named John Bright Tripura was arrested.

Meanwhile, the people of the hill district Bandarban are passing their days in utmost anxiety due to abnormal rise in criminal activities including toll collection, abduction and murder.

Local sources said that some misguided tribal people in connivance with the outsiders have established a reign of terror in Sadar, Roangchhari, Ruma and Thanchhi thanas who are engaged hardcore crimes.

Earlier on January 1, the terrorists killed a Bangalee resident and two tribal people at the same area. Not only that, boat looting has also became a regular phenomenon in Sangu River, but authorities are yet to take any action in this regard, according to the sources.

It was earlier alleged that some separatist groups from Myanmar are mainly engaged in such heinous activities causing concern among the people.

"The separatist groups of neighbouring Myanmar are now almost inactive due to massive crackdown by combined forces. The combined force of Border Guard Bangladesh and Bangladesh Army have conducted several operations inside the hills and captured some members of banned Arakan Army and other terrorist outfits in the recent days," the Bandarban SP said.


Will the UN's new leader stand for the powerful or the powerless?

Lyndal Rowlands :

After hundreds of questions were posed to nine candidates vying for the role of United Nations Secretary-General this week, a lasting question remains; will the UN's new leader stand for the powerful or the powerless?

The selection of the ninth secretary-general of the United Nations has been seen as a chance for change within the 70 year old global organisation. Some see 2016 as the time for the first woman to be chosen to lead the global organisation which represents over 7 billion people. Others believe that it is time for the selection process to become more open so that all of the UN's 193 member states get a say in who is chosen. Historically it has been the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - which have ultimately decided.

The latter concerns were in part addressed this week, with the nine candidates who have so far announced their candidacies answering questions from the UN's 193 member states, civil society and the media during an open selection process.

Four of the nine candidates are women, also raising hopes on the gender equality front.

Oxfam Executive Director Winnie Byanyima told IPS that the next Secretary-General should not only be a woman, but that she should also be a feminist.

"It is time for the next Secretary-General of the United Nations to be a woman," Byanyima told IPS. "She must also be a feminist, promoting women's rights and gender equality, she must stand up for the poorest and most vulnerable," said Byanyima.

Natalie Samarasinghe, Executive Director of the United Nations Association UK agreed that the Secretary-General should be a feminist but said that the process should be open to women and men from all countries, adding that she would still love to see a woman selected. "I think that it's appalling a sign of how bad the process is that we haven't had good women seriously considered in the past," said Samarasinghe.

A custom at the United Nations means that it is considered to be Eastern Europe's turn to provide the next Secretary-General, however Europe is the only continent which is split into more than one group, making this custom open to challenges. Two of the nine candidates so far are from outside Eastern Europe.

Samarasinghe said that she hoped to see more geographically diverse candidates emerge. "It would be massively remiss of states not to put forward a developing (country) candidate," she said.

Carne Ross, the director of Independent Diplomat told IPS that the nationality or gender of the candidate is not the most important issue. "What really matters most is somebody who's strong who's smart and has got the courage and the judgment to stand up to some of the unhealthily dominant powers at the UN," said Ross.

Ross said that he believes it is still unclear whether the new more open selection process will ultimately result in a better candidate being selected.

However Samarasinghe said that the more open process was important because it reflected on the UN more broadly.

"There is a huge onus on institutions to become more transparent and inclusive," said Samarasinghe.

You have the UN which goes around the world promoting good governance having this hugely secretive process, so I think that the process is important," she said.

Samarasinghe said that many member states feel that "the vast majority of states are sidelined" in the selection process and that the more open process may help rebalance this relationship.

Byanyima also called for greater UN reforms, arguing that the UN needed to help the UN meet unprecedented global challenges "be it confronting protracted conflicts and a massive global displacement crisis, or tackling climate change."

"The UN and its Security Council must undertake much-needed reforms to become more inclusive, accountable, democratic, effective, and reflective of a world in which political and economic power has shifted," she said.

The current pool of candidates includes former heads of state and government and several current and former high level UN officials with experience working on issues representing the world's poor and vulnerable, experience also reflected in their answers this week. For example Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Administrator of the UN Development Program told journalists of her intentions to be a "voice for the voiceless" and Antonio Guterres, of Portugal, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees told journalists of how his experience volunteering with the homeless had inspired his career in politics.

Yet it remains possible that none of the nine candidates who have so far made their campaigns public will ultimately be chosen.

"In the past it was the best strategy for the candidates to hang back and go quietly lobby in the P5 (permanent five members of the Security Council) capitals but this time around I think there is a transparent open process that they cannot ignore," said Samarasinghe.

- IPS


Business of brokers in public hospitals



THE New Nation reported on Monday that RAB and Mobile Courts have arrested and sentenced 16 brokers to different terms from in front of the Pongu Hospital in the city. They make their presence in the hospital premises on daily basis to lure patients attempting to take admission in the hospital to other clinics and private hospitals with promise of better treatment at cheaper rates. They work on payment of commission from private clinics.

National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR), known as Pongu Hospital provides treatment to patients who come with fatal accidents. The drive of the law enforcers will ease the plight of patients who often come to Pongu Hospital for life saving emergency treatment. It will also ring alert signals to other brokers at other public hospitals in the city and all over the country.

The condition of most public hospitals across the country is quite poor. Apart from shortage of logistics, the hospitals are plagued with mismanagement, which has in some cases given rise to a parallel management of lower level employees and brokers to jointly mislead patients. They silently convince patients to move out to private clinics or diagnostic centers. In case they want admission to the public hospitals these brokers arrange hospital beds or cabins against payment. They also charge for foods and other services.

It is surprising that even after media reports on many occasions they were relentlessly exploiting patients taking advantage of silence of the hospital managements. Despite some arrests and punishment from Pongu Hospital, their presence at other city hospitals and in the districts will remain the biggest challenge to poor patients coming for treatment. We believe that law enforcers and Mobile Courts will expand their drives at those places while the Health Ministry must take stringent steps to make sure that brokers are not allowed at hospital premises.

Experts say that the Health Ministry and hospital authorities are invariably responsible for the plight of the poor patients who come to public hospitals for treatments at low cost. Brokers eventually mislead them to private facilities. Even the biggest public hospital in the city- DMCH is not free from such exploitation.

About a thousand patients visit the outdoor department of the 1,700-bed DMCH and at least 400 get admitted. Most such admission cases are taken care by brokers who manage seats, medicines and blood and often contaminated blood to patients. DMCH study shows about 31 percent outdoor patients take assistance of middlemen for appointment with doctors, admission, diagnosis, operations and beds.

The problem is that the hospital management is allowing brokers because they move patients to clinics and hospitals in which doctors work as private practitioners. Such illegal and immoral actions of hospital managements must end to end the exploitation of patients by brokers.
Not too many years ago it might have been difficult to find true Louisiana culture beyond the state line. But today you can see Swamp Pop soda on the big screen in Los Angeles, add a dash of Tabasco to your dinner on Fifth Avenue in New York and throw something to the screaming crowd from the Mardi Gras app for your iPhone.

Not too many years ago it might have been difficult to find true Louisiana culture beyond the state line. But today you can see Swamp Pop soda on the big screen in Los Angeles, add a dash of Tabasco to your dinner on Fifth Avenue in New York and throw something to the screaming crowd from the Mardi Gras app for your iPhone.

The Cajun and Creole culture has been around for hundreds of years, with hardworking people living meagerly but always persevering. Cajuns and Creoles have maintained much of the culture and traditions that were created hundreds of years ago with a heavy emphasis on faith, family and food.

While our food has been on the national radar for many years, people outside the area are beginning to recognize that weve got a good thing going here beyond the kitchen. Lafayette Travel tracks how many published articles included Cajun, Lafayette and similar words. In 2015, Lafayette received more than $17.9 million worth of free advertising through articles written about the area.

In Acadiana, we will celebrate anything  from andouille to zydeco  and there is usually a festival to commemorate it. A strong tourism industry has developed because of this festival network, our indigenous culture and the hospitality of Acadianas residents. Many out-oftown visitors hear stories from friends and colleagues and choose to experience Louisiana and Acadiana first-hand. They find the stories of jam sessions on a porch, dancing in the streets and delicious foods a reality that they want to bring home with them when they leave.

If youve been to the movie theaters lately, you may have seen a cameo from local soda company Swamp Pop in the movie 10 Cloverfield Lane. This month Swamp Pop also became available at retailers in the UK.

The Cajun brand continues to resonate beyond the region because its authentic in a world where authenticity seems increasingly lacking. Its strength is inextricably linked to the strength of our culture and traditions, says John Petersen, Swamp Pop co-founder. Family, fun, great music, great flavors  we ship these ideals with every bottle of Swamp Pop Soda that leaves Louisiana. This just shows that as long as we preserve and promote the uniqueness of our way of life, companies like ours can find opportunities all over the world.

Andrew Godley with Parish Brewing also sees the growing demand for his products from outside of the state. While Parish Brewing doesnt distribute outside of Louisiana, its beers are some of the most highly traded selections in beverage trading networks across the country.

There are quite a few small breweries around the U.S. that make highly soughtafter beer and the only way to get it, is to trade for it. It happens that some of our beers, specifically Ghost in the Machine, get traded all over the country, says Godley. As we grow, it seems demand for our beer in Louisiana grows as well, and we may not be able to make enough beer to satisfy Louisiana for a while.

Companies like these are exporting more than something to quench your thirst. They are showing people that our quality of life is the same as the quality of our drinks and food  unique and full of flavor.

Its not just tourists who are coming back for a second look at Acadiana, as business owners have taken note that Acadiana is a place they want to do business. Through the years, LEDA has brought many prospects to the region. In the past two years, at least five major out-of-state businesses decided Lafayette is the place they needed to be. Along with strong state and local support and a diversified business base and workforce, our Southern friendliness drew in Bell Helicopter, CGI, Perficient and Enquero. In March, ATC Group Services announced the re-establishment of its headquarters in Lafayette from Denver. They all expressed that one of the reasons for establishing a location in Lafayette was the people  for both our business expertise and our hospitality.

Today, visitors are interested in our food, our music, our hospitality and our business. Lafayette is poised to welcome not only leisure travelers looking for a good time, but also business owners looking to make good business decisions.

Gregg Gothreaux is president and CEO of the Lafayette Economic Development Authority.
While Acadiana rides out its worst economic downturn in decades, some area banks are finding success by staying out of the oil biz.

Home Bank's Joseph Zanco Photo by Robin May

This time last year, things were looking pretty bleak economically for Acadiana. Oil was trading around $60 a barrel, job losses mounted in the hundreds and armchair forecasting hit all time levels of despair. The 1980s loomed once again as a rampant specter of Lafayettes previous rock-bottom  an economic crisis that decimated Lafayettes financial industry and left us with nowhere to go but up.

Moving past the first quarter of 2016, an oft-predicted turnaround has yet to arrive, and Acadianas banks have become as parsimonious with their optimism as theyve been with their loan operations.

Indeed, many community banks are reporting significant reductions in loans since 2014. That should come as no surprise given that new drilling permits are down 37 percent from the same quarter in 2015, and Lafayettes mining job numbers are down 26 percent in the same window. With oil selling for about $32 per barrel earlier this year, 2015 may seem like halcyon days to banking and financial institutions that continue to hitch their wagons to a struggling economic engine. But for banks that have diversified both geographically and on their loan balance sheets, things are relatively rosy.

Publicly traded Home Bank, with less than 3 percent of loans in energy-related businesses, posted a net revenue increase of more than 20 percent from 2014 to 2015. And its stock price is up 28 percent over the past 12 months, according to Tulane Universitys Burkenroad Reports.

The secret to that success should seem obvious  dont put too many of your chickens in a barrel of oil. Thats not a new strategy for Home Bank, according to Joseph Zanco, Home Banks chief financial officer since 2008.

I got to the bank when it was 108 years old, Zanco tells ABiz. Weve stuck to what we know. We have traditionally not had a great deal of exposure to oil and gas. Our geographic diversification has allowed us to expand our profit even when our home market is not doing that well.

Since going public in 2008, the Lafayette-based institution has managed to expand loans and deposits while reducing its dependence on its home market.

An initial public offering of $89 million financed rapid geographic growth outside of Lafayettes immediate surrounds. The move diversified the banks geographic interests, while retaining branch presence and service in Lafayette.

At the time of its IPO, Home Bank did virtually all of its business in Lafayette. Through branch acquisitions in Mississippi and metro-New Orleans, and de novo expansions in Baton Rouge, Home Bank reduced its proportional reliance on the Lafayette market to around 25 percent of its total loan portfolio.

Home Banks strategic success comes in stark contrast with the profit and stock value loss seen at Lafayettes MidSouth Bank. With roughly 20 percent of its loan portfolio in oil and gas, MidSouth has among the highest energy exposure of the banks ABiz researched for this story. At this time last year, MidSouth officials told ABiz they planned to stick with the industry that gave them years of boom, but the bank is now turning its attention to other, more diversified markets, primarily in Texas.

So far, the venerable bank has had a tough ride. According to Burkenroad Reports, MidSouths stock fell 46 percent in the past year.

Success in trying times doesnt necessarily mean profit growth, however. Other community banks are simply approaching the present downturn with caution, and counting a storm weathered as a win. Considering the number of banks lost in the 1980s, theyre not wrong to look at it that way.

St. Martin Bank President and CEO Paul Durand reports that his bank has had a stellar 2016, despite a small decline in its loan-to-deposit ratio, from 93 percent to 89 percent this year. St. Martin historically does not stake much in oil and gas, instead doing most of its loan business in real estate, a sector at least indirectly affected by the oil downturn.

Were not complaining, says Durand.

There are a lot of banks around here that are around 40 [percent loan-to-deposit ratio] and would love to be where we are.

Theres a glimmer of hope to be seen in the form of outside banks still seeing gains in new Acadiana branches.

Jennings-based JD Bank moved into the Acadiana market just under two years ago with de novo openings in Lafayette, New Iberia and Opelousas. Throughout its territories, JD Bank has continued to expand loan operations and see income growth thanks to Lake Charles booming natural gas industry. Locally, JD Bank has seen its Acadiana branches grow at rates consistent with its pre-downturn expectations.

Were not panicking, JD Bank President an CEO Boyd Boudreaux says. There are opportunities, of course, but were not going to be seeking out oil and gas loans. Well make the ones that make sense. Were still optimistic about Acadiana, and we think it is, long term, good growth strategy for the bank.

At current, JD Bank has not suspended any plans to move forward with further expansion into the Acadiana market  though Boudreaux says the bank is keeping a watchful eye for indications of a rebound. And thats likely the same for everyone in Acadianas beleaguered banking industry.

Until then, Acadianas banks will continue to un-hitch their wagons from a falling star, looking instead to different industries and other markets that dont depend as much on oil and gas to keep their economies running.

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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.
CARBONDALE  Several large-print graffiti messages greeted the SIU campus on Monday morning. An individual, or multiple people, wrote Riot proof? Well see in large red paint letters on a Faner Hall balcony.

Thats an apparent nod to an urban legend that the long, thin building completed in 1971 was designed to be safe haven from campus riots, such as those that took place in the late 1960s during the Vietnam War era.

50 years ago, SIU Carbondale campus shut down during Vietnam May 4, 1970  the day 4 Kent State students died after Ohio National Guard members opened fire on demonstrators  some 400 SIU students gathered to join a class boycott. Protests built for 3 days leading up to one of the most destructive nights in Carbondale history.

In smaller writing toward the base of the building and along low concrete walls framing sidewalks, several messages about debt were left in paint. Those messages included, Debt rules everything around me; Monthly, monthly bills yall; You are not a loan; and All money to the administration, among others. The date May 2 was left in at least two places, but with no other explanation about the meaning of the date.

By early afternoon, SIU Physical Plant employees had painted over the messages.

SIU spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said the university is asking anyone with information about who might be responsible to contact the SIU Department of Public Safety with tips, which can be anonymous. The departments non-emergency line is 618-453-3771.

The university considers the graffiti as criminal damage to state property, and she said that if the university can identify who is responsible, the case information will be forwarded to the Jackson County States Attorneys Office. Defacing a public institution is a felony.

As for the Riot proof? Well see message and the May 2 date on the walls, Goldsmith declined to speak to whether this raises any particular concern for administrators. She said SIU officials regularly monitor rumors that circulate among students and others, on social media and elsewhere. That routine activity continues, she said. We cant speak to that meaning anything, she said.

An urban legend has long persisted on campus that the maze-like Faner Hall was built so that it could not be easily taken over by rioters. According to an October 2011 article in The Southern Illinoisan, architects and historians have debunked that theory. Though not completed until 1971, Faner Hall was designed prior to the riots of the late 1960s and early 1970s, that article reported.

At the time, Bob Swenson of the SIU School of Architecture told the newspaper that the rumor was probably started as a way to explain the assuming concrete structure located in the heart of campus, next to the SIU Student Center. Though people have for years discussed various theories for the compartmentalized design, and countless students and professors have found themselves lost inside, the design was not atypical at the time.
SPRINGFIELD  The rivalry between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan continues to intensify during Illinois's 10-month budget stalemate, leaving little hope that the state will have a spending plan any time soon.

Neither man has budged from their respective positions in a battle of attrition that has left Illinois as the only state in the country without a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.

House Democrats propose redistricting amendment SPRINGFIELD  Illinois House Democrats are proposing their own plan for changing the way the

Rauner, a wealthy venture capitalist and first-time officeholder, promised voters he would shake up state government and wants a series of reforms aimed at curbing the power of unions and reducing costs for businesses. Madigan, the face of the state Legislature since the 1980s, has maintained solid Democratic majorities by keeping his party's allies happy, and that includes unions. He says Rauner's ideas are destructive for the working class.

Tuesday marked the first time they were in the same room since December for negotiations, but the same day they publically maligned the other's position. Rauner spoke to a group of business leaders in Springfield before their meeting, while Madigan delivered a rare mid-session speech on the House floor afterward as Democrats prepared to pass a $4 billion measure to fund colleges and social service programs  a bill the governor is expected to veto, saying there's no money for it.

Their remarks show how far apart they still are  and how far Illinois may be from a resolution of its political paralysis:

MOTIVES

Each leader blames the other for using the budget gridlock for political gain.

Rauner:

"I'll tell you what's going on right now, the General Assembly, the Democrats in the majority are working very aggressively to try to force a big tax hike with no reform. They are working really hard right now. They're holding hostage (college student) grants, they're holding hostage social services funding, and they're holding hostage our university funding."

Madigan:

"Some of (Rauner's) remarks in recent years clearly indicate this has been his plan from the very beginning. At the Tazewell County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner, March 2013, Gov. Rauner said, and I quote, 'Even if Democrats got a major majority against us, you know what? They can't stop us. They won't stop me if I want to dramatically spend less. You need the Legislature if you want to spend more. If you want to spend less, they can't stop me. And I apologize, we may have to go through a little rough times."

GIVE AND TAKE

Democrats want Rauner to drop his demands for reforms and focus on balancing the budget. Rauner has said he's willing to support a tax increase to help do that if he gets some of the things he wants.

Madigan:

"Over the last 13 months, compromise has been very difficult to achieve. Never before has the state gone this long without a budget. Every other governor that I have worked with has negotiated with the general assembly in good faith to help the people of Illinois and to ensure that the people of our state would not needlessly suffer."

Rauner:

"Let me be clear, I can never, and will never support a tax hike without significant reforms. Just won't do it. Just cannot do it. It would be a huge error, massive mistake for the people of Illinois to put in a massive tax hike and no reforms. I won't do it. End of story. Period. Won't do it. Now when they compromise on what reforms we have, I'm willing to work with the General Assembly to find bipartisan compromise, but we need significant reforms."

HOLDING FIRM

Rauner and Madigan have indicated they're in the fight for the long haul.

Madigan:

"My view of the important role of state government  which I have argued stands in stark contrast with Gov. Rauner's view of the role of state government, as shown through his comments  has not changed since I first took office. State government has a vital role to play in working to provide needed services for those who need them the most."

Rauner:

"So we're going to stay strong, need your support, big battle, this is a critical year. We're going to stay strong. It's hand-to-hand combat ... we gotta stay persistent, stay true to our principles of freedom and opportunity and growth."
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/By Azernews/

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijans top official expects negotiations on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to launch soon.

Ali Hasanov, Azerbaijani Presidents Assistant for Public and Political Affairs, told local media that Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the heads of states of Armenia and Azerbaijan to sit at a negotiating table to resolve the long lasting conflict.

However, he did not revealed the exact date of the meeting.

Immediately after escalation of the situation at the front-line on April 2, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group called on the parties to observe ceasefire, but Armenia continued violating truce by shelling not only Azerbaijans positions, but also villages adjacent to the contact line of troops. Armenia has stopped breaching ceasefire only after President Putin expressed his deepest concern over the situation.

Hasanov said Azerbaijan has ceased fire under the instruction of President Ilham Aliyev.

"We wanted to show the world that we were not interested in continuing this war, bloodshed, and death of innocent civilians," he stressed.

Azerbaijan requires the intensification of negotiations and the liberation of Azerbaijani lands based on its sovereign rights, Hasanov concluded.

Russia, which enjoys much influence on Armenia, has always been considered a key party in brokering a lasting solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Earlier, as part of annual direct line, President Putin said Russia will do everything to find a solution to the crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in turn, believes that the release of the regions around Karabakh and simultaneous addressing of the issue of its status will allow unlocking the situation in the conflict zone.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed to cease operations on the line of contact starting from 12.00, April 5, as a meeting between the Chief of General Staff of Azerbaijan Armed Forces Colonel General Najmaddin Sadikov and the Chief of General Staff of Armenian Armed Forces Colonel General Yuri Khachaturyan took place by the mediation of the Russian side.

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.

The OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, proceeding talks based on the renewed Madrid principles. The statements promising a sincere contribution to the peaceful resolution of the conflict have become frequent, but declarative in essence.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.




Mostly Armenia is guilty in continuation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Sergey Markov, the Russian president's trustee, the member of the Russian Public Chamber and political analyst, told reporters Apr. 18 in Baku.

"The recent clashes in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region were expected, and there are several reasons for that," he said. "In contrast to other conflicts, there were no peacekeepers on the border, and not the conflict, but the negotiations were frozen and the OSCE Minsk Group is partly guilty of that," Markov said.

He said each co-chair country of OSCE Minsk Group has a large Armenian diaspora, which makes it hard to influence Armenia.

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.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of the second bus depot of Bakubus LLC.





The head of state was informed of the conditions created at the facility.





Located near Koroglu metro station, the depot provides a parking lot for up to 300 buses.





President Ilham Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the official opening of the depot, and viewed the administrative building here.





Director General of Baku Transport Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers Vusal Karimli informed the head of state of the 10-month activity of Bakubus LLC.





Established on April 3, 2014, Bakubus LLC today operates 170 buses on seven routes in Baku. The company carried around 24 million people in seven months. The depot will create nearly 1500 jobs. The company currently employs 750 people.





President Ilham Aliyev viewed buses to be purchased by Bakubus LLC.





The head of state was informed that the second depot of the company occupies a total area of eight hectares. There are administrative and secondary buildings, facilities for drivers, medical points, repair and washing centers, as well as buildings for the night shift employees.





President Ilham Aliyev wished the staff of the company success.




Martinez has no issue with Taylor as Wembley ref

, 18 April,



Roberto Martinez has played down the potential flap over the appointment of referee Anthony Taylor as the referee for next weekend's FA Cup semi-final.

Citing the precedent of Tottenham supporters successfully campaigning to have Kevin Friend removed as the match official for their match against Stoke City because of his affiliation with title rivals Leicester, some Evertonians have questioned the decision to have the Mancunian Taylor take charge in the Blues' clash with Manchester United.

Martinez rejects, however, the idea that the integrity of Taylor or any other English official should be questioned.

When I first came in the British game I was little bit surprised that referees were asked about the teams that they support. I think it's a cultural thing not to allow them to referee the teams that they support. That doesn't happen in other countries.

Article continues below video content

In Spain, it depends on the region. Every region has it's own refereeing schools and obviously in that region you cannot referee the teams that are in that region but nobody wants to know if you support a team outside of your region.

I think referees are just judged on whether they are [impartial] and that the integrity is there.

I just don't there is a question of the integrity of our officials in this country; it's probably cleaner than in any other country so I don't think there's an issue in that.

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Iran's main goal in its nuclear talks with world powers was to secure access to the global financial system, and the US must now do more to remove obstacles to the banking sector, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday.



In January, world powers led by the United States and the European Union lifted most sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.



But some US sanctions remain, and US banks remain prohibited from doing business with Iran directly or indirectly because Washington still accuses Tehran of "supporting terrorism".



That has deterred European institutions, which fear they could face US legal problems if they re-establish banking links.



Zarif used the visit of EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, the first by a high-level EU delegation since the deal came into force in January, to make his point.



"Iran and the EU will put pressure on the United States to facilitate the cooperation of non-American banks with Iran," Zarif said at a news conference in Tehran with Mogherini who said in a tweet that she was leading a team of seven EU commissioners.



"It's essential that the other side, especially the United States, fulfil its commitments not on paper but in practice and removes the obstacles especially in banking sector," he said.



Zarif and Mogherini said in a joint statement after the news conference that the EU and Iran were agreed on the expansion of economic relations, and "encouraging banking cooperation."



The White House said on Friday that an agreement with Iran does not include giving it access to the US financial system.



Iranian central bank Governor Valiollah Seif met U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Thursday in Washington and said they discussed Iran's expectations under the nuclear deal.



Lew told Seif that the United States would keep meeting "its sanctions-related commitments in good faith" as long as Iran continues to uphold its end of the bargain.  Reuters
Terra Sola, a Bahrain-based investor and developer of solar power projects in the region, is in talks with the Egyptian government to build solar plants generating 2 gigawatts (GW) of power and costing $3.5 billion, a report said.



The funding for the projects are expected to be raised through Germany.



The plants may be built in regions including Aswan and Luxor on the Nile and Salloum and Masrah Matruh on the Mediterranean coast, said the Gulf Times report.



The group, which began talks with the Egyptian government last year, comprises RWE New Energy, Hareon Solar Technologies, Terra Nex Financials and a number of German tech companies including LTi ReEnergy, added the report.



Switzerland-based Terra Nex is managing a fund comprising German investors to finance the planned projects, while Hareon will supply solar modules and RWE will help operate the plants.



Economy and Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that German energy investments can help improve the living conditions in Egypt and avert blackouts that hurt companies and citizens, added the report.
Leading German sanitary fittings manufacturer Hansgrohe has opened two new showrooms in the Middle East.



The latest regional openings  in Abu Dhabi (UAE) and Amman (Jordan) - are part of Hansgrohes wider expansion of the business, and also due to an increase in local demand for its high-tech products, said a top official.



In Abu Dhabi, the showroom will serve as an orientation centre for architects and interior designers, and will feature a whole floor of vignette-style settings for the companys chic Axor interior design collection, explained Dirk Schilmoeller, the sales director of Hansgrohe Middle East.



The Jordan showroom is part of a recent partnership with the esteemed Al Nabulsi and Al Amad home decor company. The space will present the new Hansgrohe and Axor ShowTec range in an extraordinary and highly attractive, modular display concept.



"Since entering the Middle East market in the late 1990s, Hansgrohe has been very successful because it carries the respected Made in Germany stamp assuring quality," stated Schilmoeller.



"Also, the brand has been careful to understand the unique needs of this region. With such a harsh regional climate, water saving obviously plays a major role, this is why Hansgrohes Eco Smart ranges of showers and mixers are very popular. Also, our Comfort Zone concept of creating space below the mixer and washbasin is particularly important due to the religious washing before prayer," he added.



While all its products have been well-received in the market, some of the recent products that have done very well include the Metris Select and Talis Select kitchen mixers, Croma and Axor One.



On the main features, Schilmoeller said: "The new kitchen mixers Metris Select and Talis Select, for the first time, combine a pull-out spray head with the innovative Select technology. This innovative solution increases the operating range around the sink, making work in the kitchen considerably easier."



Metris Select and Talis Select kitchen mixers fit in well with a variety of kitchen design styles and harmonise with the shape of many sinks.



On Axor range, the expert said: "Created by London designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, Axor One  All in One (the thermostat module for minimalists) is a thermostat module for the shower which, due to its simplicity, flatness and size, creates a new feeling of spaciousness. It features generously proportioned paddles, and is flat and gently rounded. All functions are concentrated in one central control unit.



Over the years, Hansgrohe has worked on a vast range of high-profile projects in the Middle East.

Recently, the company completed work on Nikki Beach Resort and Spa located on Pearl Jumeirah  a stunning new beachfront boutique property in Dubai, said Schilmoeller.



Hansgrohe supplied the whole resort with its top-of-the-range PuraVida Hansgrohe collection, Croma Select and Raindance Select for the showers using the Select technology, 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
Vinci, a leader in construction and concessions market, along with French conglomerate Bouygues Construction have won a contract worth 1.1 billion ($1.22 billion) for the proposed elevated stations design for the Cairo Metro project.

The 67-month contract awarded by the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) covers civil engineering for the third phase of Line 3, including 17.7 km of new line and 15 stations (eight underground, five elevated and two at ground level), said a statement from Vinci.

The scope of work includes construction of a new tunnel under the Nile.

The project award demonstrated the renewed confidence of the NAT in the joint venture led by Vinci Construction Grands Projets, alongside Bouygues Constructions subsidiary Bouygues Travaux Publics and their Egyptian partners Orascom Construction and Arabco Contractors, it stated.

Once completed, Line 3 will increase the overall length of the Cairo metro system to 100 km and serve five million passengers daily, said senior officials at the signing ceremony held recently in the presence of Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his French counterpart Francois Hollande.

The JV has been building the metro system for North Africas largest urban area since 1981.



Work will start in the residential and administrative parts of the capital, including Zamalek Island, and end in the citys densely populated and highly urbanised northern and southern districts.



The project will generate about 5,000 jobs and continue the longstanding French-Egyptian cooperation in underground works.



It will also offer French SMEs a large number of opportunities. In the previous phase of the project, handed over in 2014, the joint venture called on more than 600 French SMEs as suppliers and subcontractors.



Driven by strong economic and population growth, Cairo is now North Africas largest city. The urban area has 16 million inhabitants and a very high population density of 73,500 people per sq km, said the statement.



Automobile traffic has become highly congested. The expansion of the Cairo metro will help to efficiently and effectively regulate traffic and substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions.



In addition, the joint venture is also working on Phase 4a of Line 3, which will extend the system towards the eastern part of the city. The contract was signed in February last year and the handover is set for the end of 2018.-TradeArabia News Service
Royal Dutch Shell launched its Stem initiative at Think Science 2016, an educational fair being held at the Dubai World Trade Centre from April 17-19.

The oil conglomerate called for the increased adoption of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) educational degrees for careers that will foster sustainable ideas for the future of the Emirates.

In his keynote presentation to the Think Science students, Ali Al Janabi, vice president and country chair for Shell Abu Dhabi, highlighted the value of science education and its far-reaching impact on the economic development in the UAE.

At Shell we understand that investing in the youth is critical to sustainability and to boosting competitiveness. We are proud of our partnership with the Emirates Foundation and its Think Science Programme which provides a platform to become actively involved in the community and contribute to youth development, he said.

According to a press statement, Think Science is one of the biggest events of its kind in the region, attracting thousands of regional school and university students, parents, academics and even investors and private sector representatives.

Think Science is a platform for UAE youth to further develop their curiosity and knowledge in the field of Science and Technology potentially leading to investigating solutions that tackle real world problems. Shells stand at the Think Science Fair provides an opportunity and a platform to connect with students and educate them about world Class Technology at Shell, the statement added.  TradeArabia News Service


Al Salem Johnson Controls, a leading provider of integrated heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) solutions and equipment, has launched its York Promotional Campaign that will extend over April and May.



Globally present with a unique track record of 140 years in the world, and 60 years in Saudi Arabia, York stands out in the market with its distinctive reputation in the air conditioning industry, serving the most prominent landmarks, towers and global skyscrapers, and the biggest residential, commercial and industrial projects in the kingdom, said a statement from the company.



The campaign was launched under its theme We Can Cool Your Homes with the Same Efficiency showcasing Yorks expertise in cooling mega projects.



Adding to the campaigns theme, customers will benefit from a Scratch and Win coupon offer upon purchasing a York Iceberg Split AC, with a seven-year warranty on its compressor.



York is distinguished by the largest after sales services in the Middle East with over 1,200 technicians spread out in different regions across the kingdom.



The company aims to ensure its customers trust in the quality of its American technology products, highly noted by its durability and sustainability, as a product that was used in cooling mega projects, and in consequence ensuring efficient cooling in homes.



York Iceberg Split, available at the Yorks authorised dealers in the kingdom, features impressive qualities, making it the best choice for the customer. This product boasts high quality standards, both durable and long-lasting, not to mention quiet operation and energy efficient.



Dr Mohanad Alshaikh, CEO of Al Salem Johnson Controls, said: The purpose of this campaign is to maintain Yorks position in the market as a brand with history, heritage, integrity, credibility, and to sustain our customers trust in our energy efficient HVAC solutions.



The campaign reinforces its exceptional role in the AC industry, offering solutions to the most iconic projects both locally and globally. This is in addition to the companys contribution in the kingdoms flourishing development in the past 60 years, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
MTN Group, PCCW Global, Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Telecom Egypt (TE) and Telkom South Africa have partnered to construct a new submarine cable system which will connect Africa with the Middle East and South Central Asia.



The consortium-funded Africa-1 submarine cable system will also provide onward connectivity to Europe.



Africa-1 will have at least 3-fiber pair core that extends more than 12,000 km along Africas East Coast towards Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan, with up to an additional 5,000 km for branches. Africa-1 will leverage the latest state-of-the-art 100G technology and will be initially equipped to accommodate several terabits of capacity from day one.



Along with comprehensive interconnection with other cable systems and full Open Access at all cable landing points, Africa-1 will be technically and commercially be designed to be attractive, delivering easy accessibility and a unique low-latency direct express route. The Construction and Maintenance Agreement is expected to be signed by June, with a target ready for service timeframe of the third quarter of 2017.



Dr Homoud M Alkussayer, vice president and head of Wholesale Business Unit of STC, said: Africa is an important emerging marketplace with ever-increasing opportunities arising from the positive socio-economic developments in many African countries. STC is proud to participate in Africa-1 and looks forward to work towards its success. We believe that with its effective connectivity with the rest of the world, Africa-1 can become an important enabler and contributor to the economic progress of Africa in the coming years.



Marc Halbfinger, chief executive officer of PCCW Global, said: We believe strongly in the potential success of this project due to the strength of our partners. All are major telecommunications service providers who are committed to their customers and have strong records of success. We view Africa-1 as a natural extension to facilitate the increasing capacity demands of the Asia-Africa trade corridor with better levels of reliability to connect people and business in the worlds fast growing economies.



Tamer Gadallah, chief executive officer of Telecom Egypt, said: The addressable market of African wholesale bandwidth customers is more promising than in many other regions. The weakness of the continents international bandwidth is due to the lack of new systems coming into Africa to enhance the competitiveness of the African market. Africa-1 system has a superior cost base and a state-of-the-art design that will enable it to be the most competitive system coming to serve this diversified market.









John Unterhorst, group executive responsible for Global Carrier Services and Group Network/IP Projects (MTN Group), said: Africa-1 will ensure future resiliency and capacity requirements for the explosive digital broadband future, so vital for Africas economic and social development, he said.



Casper Kondo-Chihaka, managing executive of Network Engineering & Build, Telkom SA, said: In addition to complementing our existing high-bandwidth cable systems in the region, Africa-1 will provide more diversity for the large volume broadband traffic from South Africa to the rest of the world. This cable will provide the means to fulfil our role as Champions of the National Broadband access and act as catalyst to stimulate further penetration of Internet connectivity for the entire country.  TradeArabia News Service
Iran plans to add 1.8 million barrels per day (mbpd) to its refining capacity which will reach 3.1 mbpd when several ongoing refinery projects begin operations, a report said.



Some of these projects are underway in Persian Gulf Star Refinery, Siraf Refinery and Anahita Refinery, Fars News Agency, Abbas Kazemi, managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company (NIOPDC) was quoted as saying in the Iran Daily report.



Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic has signed deal to sell 700,000 bpd of oil to Europe, Iran Daily said, quoting Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.



The minister added that European companies will begin investing in Iranian oil, gas and petrochemical industry with the support of their governments.
GE has signed a contract worth $250 million with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) to connect 7 GW of power to reinforce Egypts national grid.



GE will provide advanced grid solutions technologies to four gas-insulated substations located in Mostathmereen, Beni Suef Industrial, Ismailia East and Temay Alemdeed.



French components make up approximately 50 per cent of the total project scope including the GIS technologies to be installed at the substations which are manufactured and assembled in France.



The project is being executed in a consortium with Rowad Modern Engineering, a leading Egyptian contractor, for the construction work of the substations. Furthermore, the project is expected to create approximately 50 permanent jobs and 1,000 indirect jobs for Egyptians during its execution. The first phase, which includes the Mostathmereen substation, will be connected to the grid within six months; and the remaining three substations will be completed by the end of 2017.



Dr Mohamed Shaker, Egypts Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, said: Egypts generation capacity has significantly increased over the last two years, additionally were moving towards a more diversified energy mix which drives us to find ways to boost the efficiency and stability of Egypts national grid. Through GEs advanced technological solutions, we will be able to better manage and transmit power nationwide.





As part of the contract, GE will also supply a digital data protection system, network management system and telecommunication technologies, which will help connect the substations to the National Energy Control Center and improve the networks stability. The installation of GEs GIS will offer several solutions for Egypts grid including smarter networks, condition-based maintenance and greater load control to prevent outages.



Ayman Khattab, president & CEO for GE North East Africa said: We are proud to continue our 30-year partnership with EETC by providing our latest grid technologies to help meet Egypts continuing and growing energy needs in a more efficient way. We are keen to support the governments initiatives in the energy sector in both generation and transmission, in order to offer a more stable supply of electricity to Egyptian homes. - TradeArabia News Service
Aluminum cans mean milk for children

Do you know that it takes 100 aluminum cans to equal 2-1/2 pounds in weight? Do you know that Joshuas Storehouse takes 100 aluminum cans and purchases one quart of milk? Do you know that Joshuas Storehouse buys 2,000 quarts of milk every 45 days to give to children in Casper? Do you know that it takes 200,000 aluminum cans to keep the Milk for Minors program going for 45 days? Do you know that you can give your aluminum cans to Joshuas Storehouse to help keep this program for children in Casper? WE NEED YOUR ALUMINUM CANS! Please call 265-0242 for more information.

DDA at Five Trails

The Five Trails Rotary Club will hear from Kevin Hawley at noon on Thursday at the Casper Petroleum Club. Community members are welcome to attend this presentation as guests of the Five Trails Rotary Club.

Hawley will be discussing the history and updates on the downtown events-driven public plaza, David Street Station.

Hawley is the executive director of the Casper Downtown Development Authority and is responsible for executing the directives of the board of directors for the Authority, which is a component arm of the Casper City Government. He serves as the public face and spokesperson for the DDA, which represents property owners within a designated Downtown Development District. The DDA works to increase property values within the district through various methods as directed by State Statute.

If you or someone you know of would like to present at a future Five Trails Rotary Club meeting, please contact Brian McCash at 259-3444.

Fools at Stage III

Fools, a Neil Simon comic fable, will be presented at Stage III April 22-23, 29-30 and May 5-7 at 7:30 p.m., and May 1 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 adults, $10 seniors over 65 and students. Purchase tickets online at stageiiitheatre.org or at Cadillac Cowgirl, 147 S. Center. Season-ticket holders may call 234-0946 to make reservations.

Safari Club fundraiser Saturday

The Central Wyoming Safari Club International will hold its annual dinner and fundraiser on Saturday at the Casper Shrine Club. Tickets are $50 per person, children under 12 are free. Dinner includes Famous Daves barbecue and one-year SCI membership for new members. We will have many worldwide live and silent auction hunting trips available. Doors open at 5 p.m., and dinner is at 6 p.m. For more information, please contact Dale Leatham at 797-2097.

Stage III auditions

Stage III will hold auditions for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, from 1 to 3 p.m., on Sunday and 6 to 9 p.m., on Monday, April 25. Callbacks are 6 to 9 p.m,. on Tuesday, April 26. Performance dates are June 10-11, 17-29, and 23-25. This is a comedy about middle-aged sisters, their movie star sister and her hot young boyfriend.

Monthly vets ceremony April 29

The Natrona County United Veterans Council, the staff of the Oregon Trail Wyoming State Veterans Cemetery, and the Wyoming Army National Guard Honor Guard conduct a monthly memorial service for those known Wyoming veterans who have died since our last memorial service which was held on March 31, when we honored 80 Wyoming veterans, this months service will be held at noon, Friday, April 29, in the Tom Walsh Chapel at The Oregon Trail Veterans Cemetery. All are weldon to attend.

This memorial service is provided on behalf of a grateful state and nation as an expression of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by each of these veterans.

The veterans name, Wyoming community, and branch of service is read at roll call. There is a rifle salute, taps, and the folding of a flag.

Portrait deadline April 30

ART321/ Casper Artists Guild invites all artists in our community, creating portraits in any medium, to take part in our Portrait Exhibit in May. Please deliver your artwork to ART 321 between now and the deadline for submission on Saturday, April 30.

Please deliver your artwork ready to display or to hang with secure hanging wire. No more than 3 pieces per artist. You will find complete information and submission form on our website.

There will be an opening reception on Thursday, May 5, 2016, 4 to 8 p.m., at ART 321.

Exhibit will close on May 27, 2016 at 4 p.m. We hope you will take part in this opportunity to exhibit your portrait artwork to our community.

Along with the Portrait Exhibit we are proud to also present the artwork of well known artist, Jim Kopp and local artist Michelle Meyers.

Mothers Day Tea at Bishop Home

Tea time returns for Mothers Day Celebrations! Historic Bishop Homes Spring Tea is 2 p.m., May 7, 2016. Invite your mother, your daughter, a special friend, or treat yourself! Be sure to make a reservation today!

Be one of the first to see our renovations while enjoying a pot or two of tea, tasty tea sandwiches, warm scones, and tantalizing desserts. Cost is $27.50 per person ($10 is a tax-deductible donation to the Cadoma Foundation).

Reservation deadline is May 5, 2016. Reservations are confirmed upon payment.

Please note that our parking lot behind the house off Lincoln Street is now available! For information and reservations, call 235-5277, email info@cadomafoundation.org or write Cadoma Foundation, 220 East Midwest Ave. Suite B, Casper, Wyoming 82601.

Metalworking for beginners

ART 321 is offering another great workshop in May. Metalworking for Beginners, instructed by Betsy Bower will be held on Saturday, May 14, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, May 15, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. This workshop offers plasma cutting, drill press, blacksmithing skills and welding, and is open to all levels. What a great opportunity to experience these skills. Fee for this workshop is $100 for members/$140 for non-members. Additional fee for supplies. Sign up by phone or online on our website. 265-2655, gallery hours, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., www.art321.org

Murder at Cafe Noir May 19

An encore performance of the murder mystery dinner theatre, Murder at Cafe Noir, will be held May 19 at the Black Gold Grille, 1650 English Ave. The cost for the combined dinner and show is $35. To reserve a seat, call 472-4653 or stop by 1650 English Ave.

Dog manners obedience class

Dog Manners Obedience Classes/STAR Puppy Classes will be held at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds, sponsored by the Central Wyoming Kennel Club. Cost ranges from $40 to $100.

Does your puppy need socialization and responsible training? Does your adult dog need better manners? The Central Wyo Kennel Club is hosting classes for puppies and adult dogs focusing on Socialization, Training and Responsible Dog Ownership. The AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy Program is an incentive program for loving dog owners who take their puppies through a basic training class. When you complete a basic training class (taught by an AKC approved CGC evaluator) with your puppy (up to 1-year-old), your puppy is eligible to be enrolled in the AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy Program. We will have puppy training class for six weeks. Your instructor will administer the AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy test at the end of the course. Upon passing the test, youll get an application to send to AKC for enrollment in the AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy Program. Adult dogs and owners will be taught basic manners and given training tips. At the end of the classes, we are offering CGC- Canine Good Citizen Testing.

The AKCs Canine Good Citizen program is recognized as the gold standard for dog behavior. In CGC, dogs who pass the 10 step CGC test can earn a certificate and/or the official AKC CGC title. For more information go to centralwyomingkennelclub.org or call Charlene at 473-1614.

Combat cross dedication

The Casper American Legion is dedicated the Combat Cross at 2 p.m., on Memorial Day, May 30, at Casper Veterans Park, 2nd and Yellowstone. Any donated to the project would be greatly appreciated. Donations may be sent to Casper Legion, P.O. Box 2268, Casper, WY, 82602.
The Wyoming Supreme Court on Friday denied a request for a new trial from a Casper man serving time in prison for cutting his nephews cheek with a knife.

The Supreme Court determined it was unlikely that a new trial for James Emerson would yield a different verdict.

A jury found Emerson guilty of aggravated assault during a July 2014 trial in Casper. About a year later, Emerson claimed he had evidence showing that three people who testified at his trial talked beforehand to rehearse their stories and that this information could have resulted in an acquittal. Emerson filed a motion for a new trial in Natrona County District Court.

District Judge Daniel Forgey said there were credibility issues with the two people who came forward to report they heard conversations between the victim, Samson Emerson, and witnesses before the trial. Forgey denied the motion.

The Supreme Court concurred with Forgey, according to an opinion written by Chief Justice E. James Burke. The judge wrote that none of the witnesses could recall specific conversations with Samson Emerson and that all had admitted to drug use at the time that may have affected their memories.

Burke also wrote that none of the witnesses said they had agreed to give untruthful testimony.

Forgey sentenced James Emerson in November 2014 to 15 to 25 years in prison for aggravated assault.

According to court documents, Emerson got into a fight with someone while at a party with his nephew in March 2014. Emersons nephew ended the argument, and Emerson left the party and went home. His nephew realized Emerson had forgotten his cellphone and delivered it to his house.

Emersons nephew left the phone on the porch and began walking back home. Emerson followed the man down the street, put him in a headlock and threatened to slit his throat while holding a knife below his chin.

The man was able to free himself, but not before Emerson  whose knife reportedly said Joker and why so serious? on each side  sliced his cheek. Emersons nephew punched him to end the fight.
JACKSON  A Wyoming school has canceled a planned appearance by a Christian abstinence advocate after an outcry from parents.

Teton County School District canceled Shelly Donahues speech after a number of parents complained that her message is unscientific, ineffective and likely to give students a bad impression of themselves and each other.

Donahue may be best known for a demonstration in which she sticks a piece of tape to a boys arm. She compares the tape to that of a promiscuous girl, whose tape becomes less transparent as its shared with other peoples arms.

Superintendent Gillian Chapman said she was surprised by the response from parents and noted that some told her they would have been glad to have their children participate in the program.

When youre talking about sex, its a sensitive subject, Chapman said. Some parents dont want to talk about sex with their kids, they want someone else to talk to them.

For those who are still interested in attending, Donahue will give her presentation in the Jackson Hole High School library after class hours on Wednesday.

The program wouldnt have used tax dollars. It was offered by Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center, an organization that offers pregnancy support with an anti-abortion message.

Parents were given the choice to opt their kids out, but several argued that Donahues appearance in public schools seemed like an endorsement of her views.

She has zero sex education credentials, said parent Renee Glick on Sunday. She called Donahues lessons fear-based and guilt-based, which is really wrong, and which is damaging.

Donahue doesnt talk about contraception, instead focusing on telling teenagers that premarital sex leads to bad physical and emotional results. She backs her claims up with Scripture but says she presents a no-religion version of the speech when necessary.

Chapman called the disagreement healthy, but she also defended Donahue, saying that she saw one of Donahues presentations and thought it was a worthwhile message.

She doesnt just say Dont have sex, she gives kids the language and tools they need to say its OK not to have sex, said Chapman. Shes an excellent presenter, and what was impressive to me was how the kids responded to her and the value they took away from her presentation.
CHEYENNE  A train conductor is suing Union Pacific Railroad Co. arguing that the company's negligence and safety violations led to him being thrown from a rail car in a Cheyenne train yard and losing part of his foot.

Jeremy F. Givens filed the lawsuit in Laramie County District Court on April 8.

The lawsuit said Givens suffered "traumatic amputation" of part of his right foot on Oct. 30, 2014.

The complaint argues Union Pacific failed to provide safe tools and equipment and violated the Federal Employers' Liability Act. Givens is seeking compensation for medical expenses, pain, loss of income and permanent injury and disability.

Union Pacific has not filed its response. A company spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning.
RAWLINS  A Utah man has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for fatally striking a highway construction worker near Elk Mountain.

Karama Leota, 50, was sentenced to 1 year in jail, but 320 days were suspended and he will be credited with 15 days already served.

Leota struck and killed 45-year-old Shelly Yoho, of Rawlins, in June when he says something went wrong with the tractor-trailer he was driving. According to court documents, the semi struck a guardrail, swerved into oncoming traffic, struck the guardrail again and then drove off the roadway, hitting Yoho.

Investigators found no alcohol or drugs in Leota's system at the time of the crash.
LARAMIE  University of Wyoming officials are working to provide more resources to victims of sexual assault on campus.

Nine sexual assaults were reported on campus and one in on-campus student housing to the UW Police Department in 2014. UW officials say a significant number of assaults are not reported to administrators or police, so other resources are important.

Professor of psychology Matt Gray supervises a free, confidential counseling program for victims of sexual or domestic violence in a private setting. Outside groups that are unaffiliated with the university, such as the STOP Violence Program and the SAFE Project also offer help to victims.

STOP coordinator Megan Selheim says about 40 to 60 people visit the STOP office on UW's campus each year for reports of sexual violence.
PETERSBURG, Alaska  Residents in southeast Alaska are helping wildlife officials track bats in an effort to combat a disease that has killed millions of the animals.

White-nose bat syndrome is a fungus that grows on bats' noses, irritating them and waking them up early from hibernation, which can cause them to starve to death.

The disease has been recently found in Washington state and has previously killed 7 million bats on the East Coast. Wildlife officials said it is likely the disease will soon reach Alaska, but because little is known about Alaska's bat population, it is unclear how the disease will affect them.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has asked Alaska residents to drive specific routes with special monitoring equipment in their vehicles to pick up where bats are hiding, KFSK-FM reported. Scientists want to find out where the bats are hang out to see if some populations are more vulnerable to illnesses.

"We're getting a feel that they hibernate less in caves and more in cracks in the ground, talus slopes and things which makes us hope that white-nosed syndrome won't be quite as serious up here because there's not hundreds of thousands of bats all aggregated into a cave hibernating together so it may not spread as fast anyway but we really don't know at this point," said Steve Lewis with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Bats have a reputation for being scary or pests like flying mice, Lewis said, but the animals are an important part of the ecosystem. Bats only have one pup a year, which means an illness like white-nose bat syndrome could be devastating, he said.

"So it's really, really serious," Lewis said. "It may cause a couple of extinctions of our North American bats."

The citizen bat monitoring program will run May through September in southeast Alaska. The program began in Petersburg last summer.
The IRS has a new way for taxpayers in Arizona and other states to pay their federal income-tax bills in cash: visit their neighborhood 7-Eleven store.

In partnership with ACI Worldwides OfficialPayments.com and the PayNearMe Company, individuals can now make a payment without the need of a bank account or credit card at over 7,000 7-Eleven stores nationwide, the IRS said.

Arizona is one of 34 states where the service is being offered. There is a $1,000 payment limit per day and a $3.99 fee per payment.

Taxpayers cant just walk into a store and make a payment, though. To make a payment at a 7-Eleven, a taxpayer must first go online to the payments page at IRS.gov to enter their information and receive a payment code and instructions.

Individuals may print the payment code or send it to their smart phones, along with a list of the closest participating 7-Eleven stores. The store provides a receipt, and each payment usually posts to the taxpayers account within two business days, the IRS said.
Ester Leutenberg is no therapist, but she has about 90 books on mental illness and life management skills to her name.

She does it for Mitchell.

After Leutenberg, 79, lost her son Mitchell Leutenberg to suicide in 1986, she began creating books of handouts for therapists and group facilitators to use with clients.

Her latest book is the first in a new series. Optimal Well-Being for Senior Adults I is now available. Other series include Erasing the Stigma of Mental Health Issues Through Awareness, Transitional Life Skills for Teens and a collection on coping, among others.

On April 28, her alma mater Cleveland Heights High School will honor her in its hall of fame.

I honestly believe if Mitchell had these handouts, it would have helped him to open up, Leutenberg says. A good therapist could have gotten some of that heaviness alleviated by talking about it.

For eight years prior to the death of their son, Leutenberg and her husband Jay told no one, including his three sisters, about Mitchells previous three attempts at suicide. Instead, Leutenberg, living in Cleveland at the time, learned everything she could about her sons clinical depression.

At the time, nobody spoke about mental illness or suicide, Leutenberg recalls. Their son, 30 at the time of his death, asked them to keep quiet and they agreed, afraid he would move if a mental illness stigma tarnished his reputation as a local businessman.

He said, Mom Im going to live as long as I can,  she says. He always called.

And the day he didnt, she knew.

When he died, we told everyone, says Leutenberg, who moved to Tucson in 2007.

Mitchell Leutenberg died Nov. 22, 1986. By July 1987, Leutenberg and her daughter Kathy Khalsa, a therapist, were writing their first book: Life Management Skills I.

From that grew the company Wellness Reproductions and Publishing Inc., which the family sold in 2001. They were already running a graphic arts business, and Leutenberg found herself without time to create new material.

This has never been about money. Leutenberg writes to make sense of her sons suffering and to erase any shame attached to mental illness. She wants people to talk about it.

She believes that opening the topic for people with mental illness and giving them what they need is hugely important, says Khalsa, an occupational therapist and the interim manager of senior behavioral health at Oro Valley Hospital. For the most part, they are underserved. Its not a sexy part of medicine.

Leutenberg has 89 or 90 completed books  she cant remember exactly  with others in progress. Of those, only one is a self-help book. The rest are workbooks with reproducible handouts therapists can use with their clients.

For each book, Leutenberg works with a professional in the mental health industry to shape the handouts. Then she sends a manuscript to experts for feedback.

Khalsa believes she and her mother were some of the first to produce this kind of material.

Now it seems basic to go on the Internet to pull something down, but this was before that, says Khalsa, who has co-written more than a dozen books with her mother. Individual clinicians were using the same handouts over and over again.

Many therapists researched and produced their own material. That was the origin of the first book, Khalsa says  she wanted something unique to better help her own clients.

As a facilitator, you cant be dreaming up activities and making handouts, says Carol Butler, who spent her career in California as a psychiatric nurse. Its all you can do to get to work and take care of clients.

Butler has written more than a dozen books with Leutenberg.

Leutenberg works with Whole Person Associates and others to publish her work. Her audiences include veterans, families and teenagers. Whether writing about grief or stress, so much of it comes back to life skills.

Her real intention, from the very first book to her very last book, has been to impact the lives of individuals who need help, whatever it is, says Sandra Negley, University of Utah program director for recreational therapy. She has also written several books with Leutenberg.

Khalsa suspects her mother will write until she cant anymore.

She advocates for people with mental illness in everything she does, Khalsa adds, referring to Leutenbergs involvement leading support groups, her membership on the board of Survivors of Suicide Tucson and her support of the Coyote Task Force, a rehabilitation program for individuals with a mental illness.
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz.  The patrolmen, dressed in navy cargo shorts and blue polo shirts with Police printed on the back, slow their bikes down as they arrive in front of the crowded entrance of the Exchange. They secure their bikes and remove their helmets as they prepare to patrol the area when theyre stopped twice by pedestrians before they make it inside of the building.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgts. Damien Lyn and Johnny Nunnes, 355th Security Forces Squadron base defense operations center controllers, are responsible for the 355th SFS bicycle patrol fleet.

So far its been an absolutely great reaction from the public, said Nunnes. Most people are just curious as to the uniform so that initiates most of our conversations.

The bicycle patrol fleet is a section within the squadron that allows the "defenders" not only more access to the base but more interaction with the D-M AFB community. The fleet started out as a small group of three Airmen and increased to ten Airmen in two weeks time.

The patrolmen went through a variety of training to be able to maneuver throughout the installation and safely pursue a situation if needed.

Lyn was trained by the Tucson Police Department and participated in a five-day course. He learned how to ride up and down stairs, how to do slow rides to maneuver through crowds and how to tread walk to keep the bicycle still while keeping his balance.

We were trained to know what to do to pursue someone from bike or on foot and not get (ourselves) hurt, said Lyn.

Nunnes trained with the International Police Mountain Bike Association and participated in a rigorous course. For the graduation ride, Nunnes participated in a 50-mile course, down and back, while having to complete additional tasks. The training was based on riding through large groups of people, chasing down suspects if needed, dismounting the bike on a high-speed pursuit and then being able to draw a weapon safely.

Rather than spending their shift inside of a patrol car, an office or at the front gate, the patrolmen spend their shift riding through their designated areas and they also stop to interact with the base community members.
PHOENIX  The states Libertarian Party is asking a federal judge to void a law that Republican lawmakers effectively admitted was enacted to make it harder to put their candidates on the ballot.

In legal papers filed here, attorney Oliver Hall noted the GOP-controlled Legislature reconfigured Arizona election laws to change the number of signatures required for a candidate to get on the ballot.

On paper, all parties are treated the same: They need the signatures of one-fourth of one percent of eligible voters. Thats down from one-half of one percent.

But lawmakers added a twist by redefining who are the eligible voters who can sign the petition.

It now includes not only members of that persons party but also anyone who is registered as a political independent  therefore increasing the base number of voters that is used to calculate the number of signatures needed.

With the decrease in the percentage by half, thats no big deal for Democrats and Republicans.

But Hall said the change means a Libertarian candidate, who needed only one-half percent of Libertarians in the state or district, might have to gather 20 to 30 times as many signatures under the new law compared to what was required before. And that, he charges, shows the law is effectively designed to make it harder for Libertarians to run for office.

Hes not entirely off base.

During debate over the 2015 measure, Sen. Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, conceded as much.

What we have is that people who have historically been third-party candidates (who have) been able to get on the ballot with an incredibly small number of signatures, he complained.

And Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, who sponsored the legislation, conceded that his real goal is removing what he sees as hurdles that can keep GOP candidates from winning.

He said people try to manipulate the outcome of elections by backing third-party candidates who can can get on the ballot with just a handful of signatures. And Mesnard believes that some Republicans that he contends should have won their elections lost because votes went instead to Libertarians.

The numbers tell the story of what Hall calls disparate treatment.

Using the new formula, a Republican candidate for statewide office needs 5,790 signatures on petitions. Thats one-quarter of a percent of both registered Republicans and independents.

Had the old formula been in place  one-half percent of just Republicans  a GOP candidate would need 5,660 signatures.

But heres the thing: a Libertarian running for governor or other statewide office now needs to gather 3,023 signatures, a quarter percent of both independents and Libertarians. Under the old formula, just 134 signatures  one-half percent of Libertarians  would have qualified someone to run in the Libertarian primary and, if chosen there, have their name on the general election ballot, more than 22 times as many.

Hall acknowledged that, technically speaking, the law is the same for everyone: Get a percentage of signatures from anyone who can sign. And that means members of the candidates own party and independents.

Laws can be facially neutral, but in their application, have an unequal effect, he said. And that, Hall is telling Judge David Campbell, makes it unconstitutional and legally unenforceable against the Libertarian Party.

Mesnard, however, said if someone whose name will be on the general election ballot as a candidate for governor, he or she should first have to show some base of support. He said allowing someone to be a candidate for governor with just 134 signatures makes it meaningless.

Then theres his contention that minor party candidates siphon votes from major party candidates.

My mom in CD 9 (in Southeast Arizona) was getting mail from the Democratic Party backing the Libertarian candidate, Mesnard said.

Lets be honest: Politics is politics, and parties will try to manipulate things if you can, he said. When you only need 100 and whatever signatures to run for governor, or you only need 10 or a dozen signatures to run for the Legislature because your party has such low numbers ... it just doesnt make a lot of sense. In my opinion, it makes a mockery of the system and also opens it up for manipulation.

Mesnard contends thats already happened. When the issue was first debated, he claimed that one or two 2012 congressional races did not go in the direction I would have liked to have seen them go. The results, Mesnard argued, would have been different had the new signature requirement been in place.

In CD 1, Republican Jonathan Paton fell short in his bid to oust incumbent Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick. Paton garnered 113,594 votes against 122,774 for Kirkpatrick. But Libertarian Kim Allen picked up 15,227 votes  votes Mesnard contended likely would have gone to Paton to help him win.

Similarly, in the newly created CD 9, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema bested Republican Vernon Parker by 10,251 votes, with Libertarian Powell Gammill tallying 16,620.

And to drive the point home to his GOP colleagues, he pointed out that the new requirements would also affect legislative races. Mesnard told them that if they didnt support the change, they could be personally affected in their next race.

I cant believe we wouldnt see the benefit of this, Mesnard told fellow Republicans.

Barry Hess, who has been the Libertarian Party candidate for governor several times, has said Republicans are sadly mistaken if they think keeping Libertarians out will result in the election of more GOP candidates.

They really are so small-minded as to think that Libertarians are just going to vote for anybody, a lesser evil, he said.
Help India!

By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net,

Hyderabad : In an unprecedented mobilization of Muslims of various sects and schools of thoughts in Hyderabad against the Ahmadiya (Qadiani) community, the latter was stopped from holding its congregation in the city.

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As thousands of Muslims tried to march and lay a siege around the venue of their proposed meeting in a state owned building, the state government cancelled the permission on technical grounds.

Not leaving the matter there, several Muslim organizations have also filed a caveat in the Andhra Pradesh High Court against granting any permission to Qadianis for conducting any public meeting or function in the state in the name of Muslims or Islam.

Muzaffar Hussain Khan, who filed the caveat on behalf of reputed seminary Jamia Nizamia, and several organizations including Jamat-e-Islami, Majlis-e-Ulema-e-Deccan, Jamiatul Ulema, Sunni Dawat-e-Islami, Anjuman Mehdvia, Anjuman Quadria and Shia Asna-e-Ashari, said that such a move was necessary to make it clear to the court that Ahmadia community was not Muslim and it should not be allowed to carry out pubic activities in the name of Muslims and Islam. We have requested the High Court to seek the opinion of Muslims before allowing any public activities by Ahmadiya community, he said. They are misleading ignorant and innocent Muslims specially in rural areas by claiming to be Muslims, he said.

The caveat was filed in view of the orders of the High Court on Friday last in which Ahmadia community was allowed to conduct its day long conference to mark the 100th anniversary of the Khilafat or successorship to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of Ahmadiya community.

The High Court had ordered the police and the government to provide protection to the Ahmadiya conference but the government withdrew the permission on the ground of technical breakdown at the venue of the conference.

The department of cultural affairs in the state government issued a notice to Ahmadiya Jamat withdrawing the permission citing breakdown in electricity supply system. Along with the open air theater, programs scheduled in other buildings were also cancelled on the same ground.

The development averted a possible clash between Muslims and Ahmadiya community as Muslims had threatened to lay a siege of the venue on Sunday. Night before that, thousands of Muslims attended a protest meeting addressed by the reputed religious scholars and representatives of different organizations exhorting Muslims to be aware of Ahmadia Jamats activities and boycott them.

The meeting passed a resolution, moved by the member of Parliament from Hyderabad a senior leader of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) Asaduddin Owaisi. The resolution urged the government of India to expel Ahmadiyas from the list of Muslims and not to extend them the benefits of schemes meant for Muslims.

We want to make it clear that Ahmadiyas are not Muslims because their faith clashes with the basic tenet of Islam. No body could be called Muslim if he does not believe in Hazrat Mohammed being the last prophet of Allah. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad on the other hand had claimed to be a prophet , which is blasphemous, he said.

India is a democracy and any body can hold meeting and carry out their activities. Ahmadias can also do the same but not in the name of Muslims or Islam. They should declare their true religious identity, which is not Islamic, he said.

He also demanded a ban on the website of Ahmadiyas al-islam.org saying it was misleading Muslims and creating confusion among them.

The Ahmadiya Jamat on the other hand defended itself by denying the charges. Inam Ghouri, the head of Ahmadiya community in India said, this is all false and one sided propaganda. Our point of view is not being under stood. We believe that Hazrat Mohammed was the last prophet, Quran is the last book and Islam is the last religion. He said Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had not claimed to be a prophet but said he was promised Mehdi. Ahmadia Jamat had organized similar conferences in Calicut and Bangalore with out any opposition.

After the cancellation of their meeting, Ahmadiya leaders could not come out with their reaction as they were not allowed to address a press conference. While protestors had gathered at the city press club, a five star hotel fearing trouble cancelled the press conference at the last minute.

Muslim community leaders said that their opposition to the meeting was not only to stop their activity in the city but it was also an expression of protest over their converting illiterate Muslims in villages to their religion.

As a fallout of the protest, 22 persons in Srika Pahad village of Nalgonda district reverted back to Islam in the presence of Rahmatulla Shareef, former chief of Jamat-e-Islami, Assam. Similarly a group of Qadianis in West Godavari district also embraced Islam.
Help India!

By Ram Puniyani

The issues related to our educational institutions-patriotism started coming up to the fore with this Government coming to power (May 2014). One after the other news of Government intervention in different institutions, more so the nationally well known ones started disturbing us. There was the case of IIT Madras where Periyar Ambedkar Study Circle was banned. Then IIT Bombay Director Prof Shevgaonkar resigned due to high handed attitude of the Ministry of MHRD. Close to follow suit was Prof Anil Kakodkar who resigned from the Chairmanship of the Board of Governors of IIT Bombay again.

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The case of FTII Pune dragged for a long time as students opposed the appointment of a RSS-BJP sympathizer, a B grade film actor, Gajendra Chauhan. Students went on for a long strike and after trying to make their point for eight long months, withdrew their strike as the recalcitrant government refused to heed to the demands of students. Many other incidents kept happening including those of Allahabad University, Ferguson College in Pune among others. Two incidents which stood out and shook the student community were related to Hyderabad Central University (HCU) and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). In both these cases the issue of nationalism, patriotism was thrown up by the Central government, along with the ruling BJP and its associates in RSS combine.

In HCU the local BJP MP, on insistence from the ABVP branch of the university wrote to MHRD Minister that anti-national and casteist activities are going on and action should be taken against the students belonging to Ambedkar Students Association (ASA). Incidentally the ASA was opposed as they had organized meetings which were opposed by ABVP as per their political agenda. The incidents were, screening of the film Muzzafarnagar Baki hai, a film on Muzzafarnagar violence in UP. Then there was beef festival. On participation in beef festival Vemula wrote on his face book that he participated in the festival as solidarity with those who consume beef. Then there was a meeting to oppose the death penalty to Afzal Guru. The argument of ASA was that the death penalty is inhuman and it is opposite of what the norms of a civil society should be.

Following this; the Vice Chancellor, under pressure from Ministry expelled Vemula from the hostel and stopped his fellowship. This is what forced him to take his life. In the case of JNU, the issue of patriotism was brought up in a deliberate way. In a program organized in JNU some masked students came in and shouted anti India slogans. Kanhiaya Kumar and two other friends were not a part of this slogan shouting gang. Incidentally the slogan shouters have not been apprehended and identified so far, for the reasons best known to the authorities. On the contrary the authorities arrested Kanhaiya, Amirban and Umar on the charges of sedition. A doctored video was played repeatedly by some channels and it became clear that arrested student leaders of JNU had nothing to do with anti India sloganeering. Incidentally the occasion was that of the anniversary of Afzal Guru. As far Afzal Guru is concerned lesser said the better! BJP after hectic deliberations have tied up with the PDP in Kashmir and PDP upholds Afzal Guru as a martyr and someone was who did not get justice. So it becomes clear that BJP is using the JNU issue to build up an emotive issue out of the whole thing.

One knows that such slogans have been there in Kashmir, on similar lines talks of secession have been there in North Eastern states. The demand for secession from Indian was raised also raised C.N.Annadurai of DMK, a prominent leader from Tamil Nadu, who had opposed the imposition of Hindi as a national language. In nut shell there are different places in the world where the part of the nations have been demanding autonomy or separation. That has not been presented as an act of anti nationalism. Many groups and political tendencies have criticized the ruling governments, but that is not what sedition is. This is a right inherent in democratic society.

Even in India there have been various groups which from time to time have been demanding autonomy, secession etc. In countries there are diverse political tendencies and they do keep changing with time. It is a question of their dissatisfactions being met. Students-youth are groups where all types of ideas and ideologies are discussed. There is a long tradition anti-British Nationalist struggle by student bodies like All India Students Federation and likes of them. They were not lectured by so called nationalists to become patriotic. During freedom movement the most patriotic role was played by the followers of Gandhi who were learnt by the example of the national movement.

Even at that time the youth and students influenced by communal ideology of Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS kept aloof from the patriotic act of participation in nation building, the freedom struggle. One recalls that even the earlier Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was arrested in 1942 as he was n onlooker in the movement led by students-youth inspired by Gandhi. Vajpayee in a letter to authorities confessed that he had nothing to do with the national movement and he was released from prison in two days time.

Universities and other educational institutions are the places where patriotism is in-built in our syllabus and pattern of society. One has never been thinking of such lecturing as is being indulged in by the RSS combine. The cases of JNU and HCU demonstrate that this patriotism is being manufactured as an emotive issue for dividing the society. This has been linked with the slogan of Bharat Mata Ki Jai. The way Bhagwat first called for the need to teach this slogan to youth, and the way Asaduddin Owaisi responded to that shows that both these groups are in for bringing up Bharat Mata ki jai as a divisive issue, RSS-Bhagwat is having an aggressive stance on this issue. The position of Constitution as seen in the Jehovahs Witnesses case is that one should respect the national symbols but it is not mandatory to chant or shout any slogan as such is not a must.

In that sense patriotism stands for following the laws in our Constitution, abiding by them. Criticism of ruling government cant be equated with anti-Nationalism. So the present exercises in imposing slogans etc have nothing to do with patriotism. It is being used as a political tool. We need to overcome the sectarian tendencies like that of Bhagwat, Devendra Fadanvis, Baba Ramdev who are trying to force such non important issues on the society. Baba Ramdevs statement is very frightening. There is a very apt phrase, patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels I will like to modify that to In India patriotism is being made the refuge by pseudo nationalists for their political goals.

Our educational institutions need to cultivate the culture of debate and dialogue even with dissenting voices; the need is to promote the deeper values of Indian nationalism and humanism.

(Ram Puniyani is a former IIT Professor, Mumbai-based author and peace activist. His most recent book is Indian Nationalism Vs Hindu Nationalism .).
Help India!

By A Mirsab and Afroz Alam for TwoCircles.net,

She was named Delta after the river deltas. A river delta is formed when a fast moving river meets a body of standing water like ocean and loses its speed and deposits at the meeting point all the sand that it was carrying. River deltas have lots of economic benefit. Perhaps, parents of Delta Meghwal also thought that she will be beneficial to the whole community or just like in Mathematics delta will represent the difference or change. All hopes and aspirations of the 17 year old came to an end on March 29, 2016 when she was found dead in a water tank.

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Delta was born on May 7, 1999 in Trimohi village of Barmer District of Rajasthan near the Indo-Pak border.

She studied till fifth class at Rajiv Gandhi school and passed her standard eighth from a school two KM away from the town. She cleared her tenth from State Girls Medium School. In 2014 she passed her HSC from Late Freedom Fighter Tejuram State High College. She was the first girl from her village to go for higher education.

In 2014, she scored 469 marks out of 600 in an entrance test for Basic School Teachers Course (BSTC) and thereby obtained admission at Jain Adarsh Teacher Training Institute for Girls in Nokha, Bikaner and stayed in the campus hostel. She was hoping to become a teacher just like her father Mahendra Ram, a primary school teacher who encouraged Delta to study further.

As a seven-year-old, she had one of her artworks published in a magazine published by the Rajasthan Secretariat. This painting was liked by Vasundhara Raje, Chief Minister of Rajasthan and she had sent a letter of appreciation to her for this painting.

She was a talented girl who had secured first place in a state-level art competition while studying in the 9th Standard.

In addition to this she was a great orator who was fond of addressing people. At the tender age of 5 she had first time gave a speech and her English speech that she gave at the age of 8 is still remembered by people.

At the time of her death she was in second year of BSTC and she was the squad leader. She was a brave girl who would not tolerate any kind of discrimination and this was the reason that she was disliked by some teachers who would distinguish girls based on their caste. Meghwals have traditionally been weavers.

Theories and Facts of Deltas death

College administration says Delta had gone home for Holi and she returned on March 28 at around 11am. That day there were three more girls with her in the hostel. She was not at her bed in the night at 12 am and she was found in the room of Physical Training Instructor Vijendra Singh. Warden asked both to write and sign a letter of apology for this act and left them.

This was done in the presence of another professor Pragya Pratik Shukla. In the morning at around 5.45am teacher Leela informed warden that Delta is again missing from her room after which her body was found in a water tank.

Now this is the sequence of events told by the administration. Now listen what its principal has to add on top of it.

Principal of the college Dr Rajendra Shrimali told TwoCircles.net that Vejendra Singh is not of this college but of Shri Jain Adarsh Niketan Senior Secondary school (run by the same parent institution of Jain Adarsh Teacher Training Institute for Girls) and adds, Earlier Singh, warden Priya Shukla and Prof Pragya Pratik Shukla were working at a school in Churu district. They knew each other very well.

On the series of events happened on the previous night, he says that warden neither informed Deltas parents nor to police. Even I was not informed and I got to know only at 12 noon, he says with confidence.

However, Deltas family refuses to buy colleges theory and say that she was raped and subsequently she was thrown in water so that it may be assumed that she committed suicide. . Mahendra Ram Meghwal, Deltas father registered an FIR after discovery of her body and alleged in the FIR that one day earlier, on March 28, she had called her parents and told them that she had been raped by her PT instructor.

They also question as to why they were not informed in the morning about nights incidence? And why PTI was not handed over to police? Why the letter of apology was got written in the night itself? Why both apology letters were written by Pragya ratik Shukla? What was he doing in the girls hostel at night?

They also question when her body was retrieved from water it had many injuries that cannot be inflicted by a person committing suicide. Moreover the photo of Delta taken by people after retrieving her from water clearly shows blood in her mouth.

According to Dr. Bheemrao of Nokha post-mortem shows that there was no water in her lungs clearly indicating that she was first killed and then was thrown in water.

He also says there were injuries near her chest, hands and elbow that cannot be there if she could have committed suicide.

He also says as per guard who found her body in a tank, her body was floating in it after he opened the tanks tap. How can tap be placed over the tank if she committed suicide?

Sources say there are 35 CCTV cameras in the college premises but most of them were not working. There was no camera installed near the hostel. Police is verifying all the available footages. It is also checking Deltas mobile to find any clues.

In the meanwhile the doctors of medical board who performed post-mortem said in their re-opinion that death could have been done due to her sinking in water. Police also claim that their investigation reveals that she died due to sinking in water.

Locals are in an ambiguity as to why doctors issue re-opinion and why police are in a hurry to declare death as suicide. People say if need be then doctors should perform re-post mortem than issuing re-opinion.

People also believe that police should wait till forensic report comes than straightaway declare it to be suicide.

TCN went to police station in Nokha and tried to get comments from Thanedar Puja Yadav and DSP Bhawani singh but they did not reply and simply said matter was being investigated by Satnam Singh.

FIR is registered at Nokha 146/16. People in the area say that police were given 7 days time to arrest culprits but it has so far arrested only 3 men but Ishwar Chand Vaidya who is owner of the college is not arrested. People are on strike here demanding his arrest and to revoke permission of the college. They also demand CBI probe as they believe police are in hand with Vaidya.

Local people are questioning as to why college did not pay any tribute to her or observed silence for couple of minute or give holiday? Why college is running as if nothing has happened there? The people here have more questions than answers over Deltas sudden death. And all these questions are sensible and needs to be answered to uncover mystery behind her death.

Related:

Read all stories here

Delta Meghwal Death Mystery
We sought to examine the impact of baseline patient characteristics and perioperative outcomes on postoperative hospital length of stay (LOS), following the robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP). We retrospectively reviewed consecutive patients receiving RARP at our institution by two surgeons between January 2012 and March 2014 (n = 274). Baseline patient characteristics were collected, including Charlson comorbidity index (CCI). Discharge criteria were identical for all patients and included: return of bowel function, pain controlled with oral medications, and ambulation without assistance. LOS was calculated as the number of midnights spent in the hospital following surgery. Postoperative hospital LOS was equal to 1 day for 225 patients and >1 day for 49 patients. Baseline patient and tumor characteristics, including age, race, body-mass index (BMI), pathologic stage, and Gleason score, were not significantly different. Mean operative time was shorter for patients with LOS > 1 day (155 vs. 173 min, p 1 day were more likely to have had a complication: 8/49 (17 %) vs. 14/225 (6 %), p 2 as the only independent predictor of LOS > 1 day (OR = 3.2, p = 0.03), controlling for age, race, BMI, Gleason score, tumor stage, blood loss, operative time, and occurrence of complication. In our experience, baseline patient comorbidity, quantified by CCI, was the only independent predictor of hospital LOS greater than 1 day following RARP. Preoperative assessment of patient comorbidity should be used to better counsel patients on their anticipated postoperative course.

Journal of robotic surgery. 2016 Apr 15 [Epub ahead of print]

Aaron M Potretzke, Eric H Kim, Brent A Knight, Barrett G Anderson, Alyssa M Park, R Sherburne Figenshau, Sam B Bhayani

Division of Urology, Washington University School of Medicine, Campus Box 8242, 660 S Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA., Division of Urology, Washington University School of Medicine, Campus Box 8242, 660 S Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA., Division of Urology, Washington University School of Medicine, Campus Box 8242, 660 S Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA., Division of Urology, Washington University School of Medicine, Campus Box 8242, 660 S Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA., Division of Urology, Washington University School of Medicine, Campus Box 8242, 660 S Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA., Division of Urology, Washington University School of Medicine, Campus Box 8242, 660 S Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA., Division of Urology, Washington University School of Medicine, Campus Box 8242, 660 S Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA. .

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27083922
China's test flight on Nansha reef legitimate: scholars Updated: 2016-01-07 16:40 (Xinhua)

A civilian aircraft took off from the Meilan Airport of Haikou, capital of South China's Hainan province, Jan 6, 2016. China successfully carried out test fights of two civilian aircraft on Wednesday on a newly-built airfield in the Nansha Islands of the South China Sea. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - The Chinese government on Wednesday successfully conducted a test civil flight to an airport on Yongshu Jiao of China's Nansha Islands to ensure the safety of the airport for large airliners and provide options for new alternate airfields and more flexible and cheaper transoceanic flight routes.

Scholars and media in many countries believed that the activity falls completely within China's sovereignty and other countries have no right to interfere, noting that China's move to fulfill its international responsibilities and commitments will be helpful for development and peace in the region.

Li Zhuohui, an Indonesian political analyst, said that the South China Sea is busy waters for commercial navigation, while peripheral countries frequently see natural disasters.

China's construction of airfields, ports and telecommunications facilities on islands and reefs in the South China Sea will offer convenience to passing merchant ships and be beneficial to humanitarian operations in countries in the region, such as natural disaster relief, Li said.

Yang Baoyun, a professor at Thailand's Thammasat University, said that islands of the South China Sea have been China's territories since ancient times and China's construction activities on the islands are legitimate.

What China has built on the islands are mainly civil facilities, which meet requirements of international organizations and institutions and reflect China's fulfillment of its responsibilities as a major country, Yang said.

By building facilities for purposes such as navigation and meteorological observation, China may provide more public services for other economic activities like maritime traffic and transportation and fishing, said Yang.

Li Renliang, a professor at Thailand's National Institute of Development Administration, said that the civil facilities and infrastructure built by China on the Nansha Islands, such as meteorological and environment monitoring facilities, will help offer aid under any emergency circumstances.

South China Morning Post quoted observers as saying that the new airport built by China will be mainly used for civil purposes, most importantly for resources exploration and environment protection.

Ramesh Chopra, an Indian strategic analyst, believed that China's test flight to the new airport on Yongshu Jiao falls within China's sovereignty and has not hindered the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

Therefore, other countries have no right to interfere, said Chopra.

Huang Xiaoming, professor of international politics with Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, said that it was not unexpected that China's test flight on Yongshu Jiao evoked groundless censure from certain countries.

In fact, some countries outside the region have not abandoned their efforts to seek alliance with relevant countries in the region to contain China, said Huang.

An Airbus 319 from China Southern Airlines departed from Haikou, Hainan, at 8:30 am (00030 GMT) and arrived at the the Yongshu Jiao airport at 10:20 am (0220 GMT) on Wednesday.

A Boeing 737 from Hainan Airlines arrived 20 minutes later. The two aircraft flew back to Haikou on Wednesday afternoon.
Taiwan police release 20 telecom fraud suspects deported from Malaysia Updated: 2016-04-16 18:53 (Xinhua)

Taiwan police on Saturday released 20 fraud suspects who were deported from Malaysia Friday evening, citing a lack of evidence.

Most of the suspects wore masks upon their arrival at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport.

Taiwan police released all of them at about 2 a.m. Saturday due to "incomplete evidence for any crime and a lack of arrest warrants."

They were among 52 people from Taiwan arrested in Malaysia for suspected telecommunication fraud.

Late last month, Malaysian and Chinese mainland police cooperated on an investigation into five transnational telecommunication fraud cases involving victims on the mainland, and arrested a total of 119 suspects, including 65 from the mainland, 52 from Taiwan and two from Malaysia.
China unveils plans to help laid-off steel, coal workers Updated: 2016-04-17 01:58 (Xinhua)

BEIJING -- China's ministries on Saturday unveiled general plans to help people laid off from the steel and coal industries, which are in the midst of overcapacity cut.

The "suggestions" on relocating redundant workers were jointly released by seven ministries including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the National Development and Reform Commission.

In addition to the help given to redundant staff, support will be offered to firms who create new jobs by adopting the "Internet Plus" strategy, developing new industrial fields and products, and expanding domestic and overseas market, according to the document.

A "back-to-work" program should be created so that workers receive training and career guidance for free, and, for those who want to start their own businesses, channels that will give them access to government support, it said.

Local authorities should also enhance trans-regional cooperation to relocate redundant workers to regions with employment opportunities.

To switch from an investment-led model to one that relies on domestic consumption, services and innovation, China is slashing industrial overcapacity, mainly in the coal and steel sectors.

According to preliminary forecast by the human resources ministry, the two sectors will see a combined laid-off workers totaling 1.8 million.

To cushion the effect of job losses on families and society, the central government decided to allocate 100 billion yuan ($15.4 billion) to help the laid-off workers find new jobs. The fund can be increased if necessary and local governments should handle their responsibilities accordingly, Premier Li Keqiang said in March.
China tops patent application list for 5th consecutive year Updated: 2016-04-17 19:17 (Xinhua)

BEIJING - China continued to top the world's patent application list for the fifth year in a row, showcasing its booming culture of innovation, an official said at a meeting on Sunday.

More than 60 percent of the applications in China were filed by enterprises engaged in high-speed train, nuclear power, 4G mobile telecommunications technology and ultra-high-voltage electricity transmission, according to Wang Zhongyu, head of the China Enterprise Confederation.

However, Wang mentioned some weaknesses, such as the lack of top-level talents and key technological breakthroughs.

He called on enterprises to implement an innovation-driven development strategy to promote industrial transformation and upgrading.
PLA plane lands at Yongshu Jiao reef to help patients

Updated: 2016-04-18 09:59

(chinadaily.com.cn)

A PLA Navy flight that was patrolling the South China Sea suspended its task to help transport three severely ill patients from Yongshu Reef in the Nansha Islands to Sanya city in Hainan province on Sunday. The Yongshu Reef has been in use since 1988 as a meteorological observation station as requested by UNESCO. Located in one of the world's busiest areas for air and sea travel, Yongshu Reef is being developed to provide medical and other emergency services. [Photo/t.people.com.cn/planavy]



A navy patrol aircraft carried out a historic medical mission to transport three workers from Yongshu Reef, part of the Nansha Islands, on Sunday, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

It's the first time that a Chinese military aircraft landed on the reef in the South China Sea. Earlier in January, the Foreign Ministry confirmed that China had completed an airfield on the reef, the country's southernmost airfield.

Li Wanmei, one of the three workers, was in a coma due to suspected digestive problems. One of the other two workers had a possible hip fracture and the other was believed to be suffering from appendicitis. All three were described as being in a serious condition.

Transporting the men by sea was ruled out because of the time factor and weather conditions. Wu Shengli, commander of the PLA Navy, and Miao Hua, political commissar of the PLA Navy, ordered the patrol aircraft, undertaking missions in the South China Sea, to transport the workers to the No 425 Hospital of the Navy in Sanya, Hainan province.
Regional disputes should not be on the agenda at G7 summit Updated: 2016-04-18 07:50 By Cai Hong(China Daily USA)

Roadside rescue excessive charges result from lack of competitionWith the G7 leaders convening in Japan this year, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is eager to drive home the message that Japan is both a regional and a global leader.

Abe's ambitious foreign policy has already made him the most traveled Japanese leader in history. In just three years, Abe has visited more than 63 countries and held more than 400 summits.

As part of this policy, Japan has been seeking to make a military and political comeback in the strategically important region of the South China Sea. To this end, it has been working hard to improve relations with countries, such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Now, as the chair of the upcoming G7 summit, Abe wants to showcase his country's global leadership credentials by pushing the "challenges" facing the Asia-Pacific region on the agenda of the high-profile international forum.

The G7 foreign ministerial meeting in Hiroshima last weekend seemed to set the tone for the summit of the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States in central Japan on May 26 and 27.

In a joint statement issued after their meeting, the G7 foreign ministers poked their nose into the territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas.

"We express our strong opposition to any intimidating, coercive or provocative unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions, and urge all states to refrain from such actions as land reclamations, including large scale ones, building of outposts, as well as their use for military purposes and to act in accordance with international law including the principles of freedom of navigation and overflight," their statement said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Japan to leave the issue of the South China Sea out of the agenda of the summit. None of the G7 countries represents the South China Sea region, and they should not concern themselves with the issue. China and the countries concerned can deal with their territorial disputes by themselves.

However, Japan has obviously turned a deaf ear to China's words.

The Abe administration has been cozying up to the countries of Southeast Asia situated along the coastline of the South China Sea, and it has been increasing the presence of Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in the region.

A Japanese submarine and two of its warships visited the Philippines and Vietnam in April, and Japan will again take part in the annual Malabar naval exercises of the US and India later this year.

In this it is following the lead of its ally the US, which is also strengthening its military presence in the region.

Last week the US and the Philippines agreed to consolidate their military relationship. A new agreement allows the US to build facilities at five Philippine military bases and station more US troops, planes and ships across the Southeast Asia nation.

The US said on Thursday it will send troops and combat aircraft to the Philippines for regular, more frequent rotations, and will conduct more joint sea and air patrols with Philippine forces in the South China Sea.

Japan has also invited Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea to the G7 Summit, indicating that the G7 nations want to expand their trade relations in the Asia-Pacific region as well as strengthen their security ties with the nations that have territorial disputes with China.

Japan's G7 chairmanship offers it considerable authority regarding agenda setting and membership. But if it deems the summit as a chance to meddle in other countries' affairs, it is miscalculating.

The author is China Daily Tokyo bureau chief. caihong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 04/18/2016 page12)
US' words and actions not conducive to reduce tension Updated: 2016-04-18 07:13 (China Daily)

April 14, 2016 - Manila, Philippines - U.S Secretary of Defense Ash Carter speaks with Philippine Secretary of National Defense Voltaire Gazmin in the Malacanang Palace [Photo/IC]

When US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said while aboard a US aircraft carrier on Friday that the only reason the United States' presence in the region is an issue is because of China's behavior over the last year, he failed to mention what the situation was like in the South China Sea before the US increased its military presence there.

He should not turn a blind eye to the fact that China has never changed its position on settling its territorial disputes with other countries in these waters through peaceful means and seeking common development in the region, nor to the fact that China has never done anything to affect the freedom of navigation in these waters, which the US always cites as the excuse for its military presence. Instead, China has constructed some facilities on its reefs and islands to facilitate the safety of navigation.

Reports by some US news media have given the impression that Carter's visit was associated with the recent inspection tour of some reefs and islands in the waters by Fan Changlong, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, suggesting that the two militaries were defying each other's presence in the region.

But Carter landed aboard a US aircraft carrier navigating in the South China Sea, and in the company of Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, whose country is bickering with China over the sovereignty of some reefs in the waters.

While China's top military officer conducted a normal inspection tour of the country's own reefs and islands.

"What's new is not an American carrier in this region. What's new is the context of tension which exists, which we want to reduce," Carter said.

Presumably this was said with his tongue firmly in his cheek, since seeking to reduce the tension with an aircraft carrier and other naval vessels, and conducting joint military exercises with and providing military aid to a country that has territorial disputes with China, is an odd way to go about reducing tension, and only has the opposite effect.

What Carter did and said was more flexing of the US' military muscle in the South China Sea, and it is this that is increasing the tension.

Along with its military aid to its allies, the US' displays of military might are only making the situation more complicated and volatile.
B20: Green, infrastructure, banking all key Updated: 2016-04-18 10:47 By Hua Shengdun and Cai Chunying in Washington(China Daily USA)

Independent Business leaders and economists from the G20 economies met on Sunday in Washington to address concerns of the private sector over the international economic outlook.

"We need to work with the private sector and we need to leverage the capital market to address global challenges and to bring the world to the next high level," said Zhu Min, deputy managing director of IMF, to people attending B20, a forum through which the private sector produces policy recommendations for the annual meeting of G20 leaders.

Key among the issues discussed was the need for environmentally friendly development patterns and their steep costs.

"Most estimates are saying trillions of US dollars will be needed for investment in green areas such as environmental protection, energy saving, clean energy, clean transportation and clean buildings," said Ma Jun, chief economist at the People's Bank of China.

These investments will be forced to rely heavily on funding from areas outside of the government. "In China, we estimate that 85 percent of the green investment in China needs to be covered by private funding and only 15 percent can be covered by fiscal resources," said Ma.

Much of the green investment within China and other regions will consist of infrastructure projects, which, according to Ren Hongbin, chairman of China National Machinery Industry Corporation, is a welcome prospect.

"Reform in infrastructure could be key to mitigating the global economy's challenges," said Ren, chair of the Infrastructure Taskforce, one of the four taskforces set up by this year's B20, to be held in September in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province during the G20 Summit.

"Infrastructure is one of the few areas identified by IMF reports as having potential to deliver strong productive gains across all kinds of countries - least developed, emerging, and developed," he said.

China is well-poised to take on future infrastructure projects with the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. The initiative hopes to develop infrastructure between China's Central Asian and East European neighbors and beyond.

Another theme at discussion was the notion of financial inclusion, what Ma Jun defined as, "the provision of basic financial services such as account openings, payments, and lending to low-income populations and populations in remote and rural areas".

For many years, he said, these services were considered too costly by the banking system. But in the past few years, the development of digital financial services has enabled such services to be provided at much lower costs and with much higher efficiency.

About 400 million people are now users of mobile banking, Ma said. Digital banking has become more accessible with he invention of online platforms such as WeChat's banking services and Alipay, China's most popular online payment platform.

Allan Fong in Washington contributed to this story.
Vermont scheme could put EB-5 in jeopardy Updated: 2016-04-18 10:47 By Paul Welitzkin in New York(China Daily USA)

Changes may be in store for the EB-5 visa program that is used mostly by Chinese immigrants to obtain US citizenship following allegations that developers of a rural Vermont ski resort funded through EB-5 spent $50 million of investor funds on personal expenses.

Owners of the resort operated a "Ponzi-like" scheme, spending the $50 million intended for an expansion of the property on personal expenses, US financial regulators charged on April 14.

"The current situation is a body blow to EB-5 because the Vermont program was the iconic one, with money to a rural part of the country, and managed by a squeaky clean state government. If the program can go badly, as it did in Vermont, it can go badly anywhere," said David North of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.

EB-5 is an alternative way for immigrant investors to obtain a US visa. It was created in 1990 to help stimulate the US economy through job creation and foreign investment.

With a minimum of $1 million - or $500,000 in low employment or rural areas - an EB-5 investor must create at least 10 full-time jobs through the project they are working toward completing. In return, the investor is eligible for permanent US residency.

China accounts for more than 80 percent of EB-5 visas issued.

Reuters reported that a federal judge in Miami ordered the assets of Jay Peak and related businesses in Vermont frozen after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged that its owners raised some $350 million from investors for projects including new resort facilities and a biomedical research facility, but spent the new funds on old projects that had gone over budget.

Bill Stenger and Ariel Quiros raised the money for projects at Jay Peak and Q Burke ski resorts and in Newport, Vermont, from about 800 investors in countries from Brazil to Vietnam. It is not clear if any of the investors were from China.

Stengos and Quiros are accused of civil actions filed by the SEC. No charges have been filed, but a federal criminal investigation is under way, the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press reported.

US Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who is a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the program, has been a proponent of the EB-5 program. But he said he was "shocked and saddened" by the allegations against Quiros and Stenger.

Leahy said the EB-5 program is in "dire need of reform", the Free Press said. "Without reform, I believe the time has come for the program to end," said Leahy.

"The heart of the EB-5 program, the provisions for the $500,000 investments, is up for renewal on Sept 30," North said. "My prediction is that chances for reform of it have been enhanced by these developments. Look for tighter rules about the definition of depressed areas and a higher investment level - maybe $800,000 - as likely reforms."

As interest in the program has increased, so has the controversy surrounding it. EB-5 received applications from 17,691 investors in 2015, up from 11,744 in 2014 and 6,554 in 2013, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found last year that many EB-5 applications contained a high risk of fraud. The GAO also discovered cases of counterfeit documentation.

There is also controversy over where the bulk of EB-5 funding has been directed. Even though the program is designed to benefit rural and high-unemployment areas, funds are going to projects that are located in big cities, like the Hudson Yards Development in Manhattan in New York City. Leahy and Republican colleague Charles Grassley of Iowa are seeking changes that would better allow low-income and rural areas to find foreign investors.

paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com
Actors fault Hollywood for 'whitewashing' Asian roles Updated: 2016-04-18 10:47 By Lia Zhu in Los Angeles(China Daily USA)

From left: Chinese-American actresses Joan Chen, Lynn Chen, Ming-Na Wen, Constance Wu and Hollywood producer Teddy Zee urge the Asian American community to speak up against stereotypes in Hollywood at a panel discussion at the annual conference of Committee of 100 held on Saturday in Beverly Hills. LIA ZHU / CHINA DAILY

The practice of casting white actresses like Scarlett Johansson in Asian roles was slammed by Chinese-American actors who are calling on the community to speak out against racism in Hollywood.

The recent release of a photo featuring Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi, the lead character in a 2017 live action film of Japanese manga comic series Ghost in the Shell, has caused a loud protest criticizing the filmmakers for casting a Danish-Polish actress as a well-established Japanese character.

"When I saw the image with her (Johansson's) Asian haircut, like they were trying to make her look Asian rather than hiring an Asian actress, I got fired up again," said Ming-Na Wen, a Chinese American actress who stars in the ABC action drama series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and ER.

"I have nothing against Scarlet Johansson," Wen said at a panel discussion at the annual conference of the Committee of 100 on April 16 in Beverly Hills, "but I have everything against whitewashing an Asian role."

Critics said "whitewashing", the practice of casting white actors or actresses in roles of characters of color or ethnicity, is common in Hollywood, such as Tilda Swinton playing Tibetan mentor the Ancient One in Marvel's new film Doctor Strange and Emma Stone cast as half-Chinese-half-Hawaiian Captain Allison Ng in the movie Aloha.

Disney's announcement last year of a live-action remake of the 1998 animated film Mulan drew an online petition urging the company not to have a white actress play the role. The petition garnered 85,300 signatures.

Artists' vision of who looks like a hero is rooted in systematic racism and it's not bad for them to be challenged to think outside the box and it will not reduce their work, said Constance Wu, a Chinese-American actress known for her role as Jessica Huang in the ABC comedy series Fresh Off the Boat.

"We need to be vocal, to ask people to stretch their imagination so that we can start slowly breaking down the systemic racism in Hollywood," she said in the panel discussion.

Joan Chen, another panelist and actress and producer, disagreed. "If an American director adapts a Japanese cartoon into an American story, it's his creative freedom. There's nothing wrong with it. He only needs to buy the rights to make it," she said.

"We can create our own stories. It's just easier to protest than to create."

She said stereotypes in Hollywood were not always malicious but dangerous because they were one-dimensional and incomplete, citing as an example the recent Academy Award ceremony gag featuring Chinese children posing as accountants playing into the old stereotypes of Asians.

The community would continue to go two steps forward and 10 steps back if people didn't speak up on stereotypes in Hollywood, said Ming-Na.

"It was so profoundly irritating, aggravating and frustrating for Asian Americans," she said, "when it was so much about whitewashing and racial issues, on top of it, we are still the easy target."

The scarcity of Asian roles in Hollywood was one of the reasons, said Constance Wu, but "getting that job is at the risk of losing moral integrity".

She said Asian actors should make their choices based on passion not personal employment interest.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com
Hollywood faulted on 'whitewashing' Updated: 2016-04-18 10:47 By Lia Zhu in Los Angeles(China Daily USA)

The practice of casting white actresses like Scarlett Johansson in Asian roles was slammed by Chinese-American actors who are calling on the community to speak out against racism in Hollywood.

The recent release of a photo featuring Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi, the lead character in a 2017 live action film of Japanese manga comic series Ghost in the Shell, has caused a loud protest criticizing the filmmakers for casting a Danish-Polish actress as a well-established Japanese character.

"When I saw the image with her (Johansson's) Asian haircut, like they were trying to make her look Asian rather than hiring an Asian actress, I got fired up again," said Ming-Na Wen, a Chinese American actress who stars in the ABC action drama series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and ER.

"I have nothing against Scarlet Johansson," Wen said at a panel discussion at the annual conference of the Committee of 100 on April 16 in Beverly Hills, "but I have everything against whitewashing an Asian role."

Critics said "whitewashing", the practice of casting white actors or actresses in roles of characters of color or ethnicity, is common in Hollywood, such as Tilda Swinton playing Tibetan mentor the Ancient One in Marvel's new film Doctor Strange and Emma Stone cast as half-Chinese-half-Hawaiian Captain Allison Ng in the movie Aloha.

Disney's announcement last year of a live-action remake of the 1998 animated film Mulan drew an online petition urging the company not to have a white actress play the role. The petition garnered 85,300 signatures.

Artists' vision of who looks like a hero is rooted in systematic racism and it's not bad for them to be challenged to think outside the box and it will not reduce their work, said Constance Wu, a Chinese-American actress known for her role as Jessica Huang in the ABC comedy series Fresh Off the Boat.

"We need to be vocal, to ask people to stretch their imagination so that we can start slowly breaking down the systemic racism in Hollywood," she said in the panel discussion.

Joan Chen, another panelist and actress and producer, disagreed. "If an American director adapts a Japanese cartoon into an American story, it's his creative freedom. There's nothing wrong with it. He only needs to buy the rights to make it," she said.

"We can create our own stories. It's just easier to protest than to create."

She said stereotypes in Hollywood were not always malicious but dangerous because they were one-dimensional and incomplete, citing as an example the recent Academy Award ceremony gag featuring Chinese children posing as accountants playing into the old stereotypes of Asians.

The scarcity of Asian roles in Hollywood was a factor, said Wu, but "getting that job is at the risk of losing moral integrity".

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com
Minister addresses downgrade Updated: 2016-04-18 14:19 By CAI CHUNYING in Washington(China Daily USA)

Chinese Financial Minister Lou Jiwei said on Friday that the downgrading of China's economic outlook "doesn't reflect the reality" of the Chinese economy.

Lou made his comment at a press conference in Washington where he led a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors including US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, and where he is also attending the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. China will host the G20 summit in September in Hangzhou.

Before taking questions at a news conference, Lou first shared key points of a communique reached by his G20 colleagues on issues including infrastructure, the international monetary system, terrorist financing, green investment and climate change.

When asked for his reaction to Standard & Poor's and Moody's downgrade of China's credit outlook rating to "negative" in March, Lou said, "I do not think it reflected the reality of Chinese economy. We just released the GDP growth rate of the first quarter at 6.7 percent, still within our expectation."

"I do not blame them though because they do not know the specifics of Chinese economic situation," he said. "I hope they can have more communication with the countries that they rated, which will help them come to a more comprehensive conclusion."

Lou also commented on the IMF's decision to set the projection of China's 2016 GDP at 6.5 percent in its newly released World Economic Outlook, which is lower than the first quarter's actual number.

"IMF has their own way of reasoning. They might have seen some of the measures we introduced on the demand side. But we are also making great stride on the supply side structural reform, which over the long term will help to sharpen the path of growth," Lou said.

Lou said China has taken two important steps to rebalance its economy: deregulation and market-oriented price correction.

"Others may not see the benefits of these two reform areas, but I know it's going to have very crucial and positive impact. It just speaks to the fundamental laws of economics," said Lou.

Calling the Washington meeting a great success, Lou said he is looking forward to the G20 in China, the first for the country.

"How to evaluate the outcome of China's economic reform is indeed a big issue," he said, "I, however, have confidence."

charlenecai@chinadailyusa.com
India's first nuclear submarine currently undergoing sea trials Updated: 2016-04-18 16:10 (Xinhua)

NEW DELHI - India's first indigenous armed nuclear submarine, INS Arihant, is undergoing sea trials and will be inducted into the Navy after that, a top naval official has said.

"INS Arihant is now undergoing sea acceptance trails as it had already passed several deep sea diving drills. The submarine will be commissioned after completing all the sea trials," Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command, Vice-Admiral H.C.S. Bisht, told the media Sunday.

INS Arihant is the lead ship of India's Arihant class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, which is to be the first of the expected five in the class of submarines designed and constructed as a part of the Indian Navy's secretive Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project.

While its 100-member crew have been trained by Russian specialists, Indian scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre have developed a significant expertise in reducing the size of the reactor to help it fit into the 33 feet diameter hull of the submarine.

Experts say the launch of Arihant will strengthen India's endeavour to build a credible nuclear triad - the capability to fire nuclear weapons from air, land and sea.
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HCM CITY  With nearly half of its seafood exports going to Trans-Pacific Partnership member nations, Viet Nam expects the trade deal to further boost exports to these markets, according to the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (Vasep).

Speaking at a seminar titled, TPP  Opportunities and Challenges to Viet Nams Import-Export Activities in HCM City last Friday, Truong inh Hoe, Vasep general secretary, said last year seafood exports to TPP countries were worth $3 billion, or 46 per cent of the countrys total.

The US and Japan were the two largest importers, with a total value of more than US$2 billion last year, he said.

When the TPP takes effect, Vietnamese seafood exporters would benefit from the deal, which seeks to reduce or eliminate 90 per cent of import taxes, raising the countrys competitiveness vis-a-vis other exporting nations, he said.

For instance, Japan, the second largest buyer of Vietnamese tuna after the US, has for a long time imposed higher taxes on Vietnamese products than on those from other ASEAN member countries.

Argentina, Ecuador and India, the other main exporters to Japan, do not have a free trade agreement with that country, he said.

The TPP would make Vietnamese shrimp more competitive in the US than that from Argentina, Ecuador, India, Thailand, the Philippines or Indonesia, enabling Viet Nam to significantly increase exports to the country, he said.

When the TPP comes into force, export tariffs would be slashed to zero per cent, creating an incentive for seafood firms to invest in their value chain from farming to processing and export, bringing them higher economic value, he said.

Vietnamese processors, who face a raw materials shortage, also expect to import them at cheaper rates once the TPP takes effect, he said.

But to enjoy the export tariff benefits, firms must meet the strict requirements related to origin of products, he said.

Besides, the seafood sector would face challenges as Viet Nam integrates, including more trade barriers and anti-dumping and anti-subsidy lawsuits, he warned.

In the past decade the sector has developed to become one of the countrys key industries.

Viet Nam ranked third globally in seafood production after China and India and fourth in seafood exports (after China, Norway and Thailand).

The country has 612 seafood processing factories meeting national hygiene and food safety standards, including 461 that meet EU market standards.

Seafood exports were worth $6.57 billion last year and are expected to top $7 billion this year, Hoe said.

Leather and footwear

Similar to the seafood industry which is facing challenges of product origin, the Vietnamese leather and footwear industry plans to produce more materials in an aim to increase the localisation rate of goods and satisfy origin standards included in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Speaking at the Viet Nam Footwear Summit held in HCM City recently, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa, said, Under the leather and footwear industrys master plan, by 2020 turnover of the industry would reach $23 billion and localisation proportion would increase from the current 5055 per cent to 7580 per cent.

From this year, tariff level reductions will be carried out under FTAs, and by 2018, with Viet Nams membership in TPP, import tax levels for leather and shoes will fall from 1745 per cent to zero.

This opportunity will allow the Vietnamese leather and shoe industry to expand their export markets, reach strong growth and promote raw materials consumption, Nguyen uc Thuan, chairman of the Viet Nam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso), said.

Under these new regulations, manufacturers have shifted their focus to products, technology and investment. At the same time, buyers are concerned about adjusting sourcing strategies.

"To take advantage of FTAs and the TPP, the local leather and footwear industry should prepare material at home to enjoy preferential tariffs from the deal when exporting their products to the US, the EU and other markets," Deputy Minister Thoa said.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has released a decree about part supplying industry development, in which leather and shoe investors will receive many preferential policies, Pham Anh Tuan, deputy head of the ministrys Heavy Industry Department, said.

The weak supportive industry has caused the leather and shoe industry to deeply depend on imported material even more, and domestic enterprises have had no chance to join global supply chains due to low competitiveness.

There are only a few enterprises with a closed production that can join supply chains of global brand names like Adidas and Nike. Most domestic shoe enterprises continue to process goods only, Thoa added.

She also revealed that under the leather and footwear industrys master plan, some industrial clusters would produce material.

Most global shoe brands have invested in Viet Nam because of the young and skilled labour force. In the coming times, the country will continue to create the most favourable conditions for foreign investors.

Enterprises should notice that when tariffs are cut, the origin standard is necessary to compete. They should also invest more to increase productivity, Thoa added.  VNS
QUANG TRI  The central province of Quang Tri needs to make greater efforts in improving its investment climate and better facilitate businesses critical to boosting the national and local economies, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc during an investment and tourism promotion conference that took place in the locality on Sunday.

The large-scale event witnessed the participation of many economists, investors, and representatives from trade promotion agencies, and domestic and foreign businesses.

The PM asked Quang Tri to enhance inter-regional connectivity, develop hi-quality personnel resources and accelerate scientific and technological applications.

Ministries and central agencies should continue to support the province to make it more attractive to investment, the PM said. He also called on domestic and foreign companies to come and invest in the locality.

In terms of tourism, Quang Tri should better advertise its brand name while ensuring adequate investment sources and skilful manpower for tourism development, the PM noted.

In his speech at the conference, National Assembly deputy Tran Du Lich spoke highly of the provinces geographic advantages such as being located on national arterial roads, railways and sea routes connecting Laos, Thailand and Myanmar with the Pacific Ocean through the EastWest Economic Corridor.

These reviewed advantages would help the province become an intersection of goods movement along the northsouth and eastwest routes and facilitate the provinces tourism development, he said.

In 2011-15, Quang Tri attracted 262 domestically and foreign-invested projects with a combined investment capital of about VN50.3 trillion (over US$2.23 billion), according to the provinces Peoples Committee.

In the first four months, the province granted principal investment certificates to 15 projects with capital totalling more than VN10 trillion (US$444 million).

These figures, however, failed to match the provinces potential or the expectations of local authorities, Committee Chairman Nguyen uc Chinh told the meeting.

Looking forward, the province will focus on significantly improving its investment climate, investing in infrastructure and creating favourable conditions for several important sectors to develop, such as support, clean and environmentally-friendly industries

We promise to consider and approve investment registration within 10 days and license foreign workers within four days, Chinh said.

A hotline through which the committee chairman could talk directly to investors and assist in removing obstacles for the firms would be set up, he added.

At the conference, the committee granted the principal investment certificates to 16 projects with a registered capital of over VN10 trillion.

Martyrs commemorated

Earlier on the same day, PM Phuc paid homage to soldiers who laid down their lives for the fatherlands independence and freedom in the central province of Quang Tri.

The activity took place on the eve of the 41st South Liberation and National Reunification Day on April 30.

The PM and local officials offered incense at the Truong Son National Martyrs Cemetery, the Road 9 National Martyrs Cemetery, the Quang Tri Ancient Citadel, and the war memorial on the northern bank of the Thach Han River.

The Truong Son National Martyrs Cemetery is the last resting place of over 10,000 soldiers from across Viet Nam. Most of them were from Corps 559  Truong Son Army Corps and sacrificed on Ho Chi Minh Trail during the resistance war against the United States.

More than 10,000 martyrs were also buried at the Road 9, National Martyrs Cemetery. They fought in the Road 9 battlefield and in Laos during a campaign of the anti-US war.

Meanwhile, the Ancient Citadel of Quang Tri witnessed a fierce struggle to protect the citadel and Quang Tri Township in 1972. Thousands of soldiers laid down their lives during the 81-day battle. The fight contributed to Viet Nams triumph at the Paris Conference and was a prerequisite for the General Offensive and Uprising in the spring of 1975, which completely liberated the South and re-unified the country.

The memorial on the Thach Han Rivers northern bank is also to commemorate thousands of soldiers who were young people leaving their hometowns in the north to join in the resistance in the south.

The Quang Tri Ancient Citadel and the Thach Han River are considered two cemeteries without tombstones in the central province. VNS
HA NOI (VNS)  Some 6,000 people in Viet Nam suffer from hemophilia, but more than 60 per cent have yet to be examined for the disease, experts said at a press conference yesterday.

Viet Nam has taken a big step forward in terms of care and treatment for hemophilia and patients with bleeding disorders. However, numerous challenges still remain as only 2,737 hemophilia patients have been detected and are undergoing treatment programme, said the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion director Nguyen Anh Tri.

To date, there was no cure for the hereditary blood disorder. Hemophilia patients have to live with the disease due to their need for blood transfusions their entire life, Tri said at a press conference on the occasion of the World Hemophilia Day, which falls on April 17.

However, with early diagnosis, proper treatment and self-care, most people with hemophilia can maintain an active, productive lifestyle, Tri said.

Many patients are unaware of hemophilia due to the lack of information and knowledge on the blood disorder. Most of the patients faced financial problems due to the costly treatment, while many of the drugs needed for treatment were not covered by health insurance, according to Tri.

The Hemophilia Centre Director Nguyen Thi Mai said that Viet Nam currently has only seven hospitals in the country that could provide treatment for patients with hemophilia. Some patients who lived at a distance from the hospitals, were treated at their home or were put under a preventive treatment programme.

Mai said that the centre will focus its activities on developing programmes on patient registration and treatment, integrating the treatment with other healthcare programmes and improving the quality of diagnosis, treatment and management programmes in the coming years.

Hemophilia is a blood disorder that slows down the blood clotting process. People with this condition experience prolonged bleeding or oozing following an injury, surgery, or after having a tooth pulled out. Serious complications can result from bleeding into the joints, muscles, brain, or other internal organs.

The Hemophilia Day 2016 aims to raise awareness about the disease and other inherited bleeding disorders in efforts to increase patients access to diagnoses and treatment.  VNS
HA NOI  The country will receive adequate power this summer, inh The Phuc, deputy head of Electricity Regulatory Authority of Viet Nam (ERAV) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said.

He made these assurances during an online dialogue held by Dan Tri online newspaper last Friday.

The dialogue created a platform for readers to raise questions for leaders in the electricity and irrigation sectors regarding power and water supply in the upcoming dry season.

Phuc said there would be no power cuts due to shortages in electricity. However, there might be incidents related to electricity lines due to oversupply, leading to power shortages in a few areas.

ERAV has assigned localities to establish plans to deal with partial power shortages, he said.

According to Nguyen Danh Duyen, deputy director of Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN), power supply interruption for power line maintenance will be announced five days in advance through the media. Sudden power cuts will be announced to customers through direct phone calls or by fax with clear information on the reasons for the interruption, the duration of the power cut and when the power will be restored.

Vu Xuan Khu, deputy director of EVNs National Load Dispatch Centre, said this year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade had given the nod to an additional charge for more than 26,000kwh. All additional power sources will be mobilised to ensure the best power supply is available.

Regarding the water release by EVN hydropower plants in dealing with the difficulties of agricultural production in recent years, Nguyen Manh Hung, a senior official from the Water Resource Directorate under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said hydropower reservoirs played a vital role in supplying water for households and production.

In the Central region, reservoirs such as ai Ninh, Ham Thuan-a Mi, a Nhim, Song Ba Ha and ak Mi 4 provide water for thousands of hectares of land being cultivated in the Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, Phu Yen and Quang Nam provinces. Some 450,000 out of 630,000ha of rice from the spring-winter crops in the north have received water from the Son La, Hoa Binh, Thac Ba and Tuyen Quang hydropower lakes. The company announced plans to use water from hydropower reservoirs for agricultural production for the summer-fall harvest, he said.

In another report, the National Power Transmission Corporation (NPT) said it had recently completed a project to install 220kV transformers in a 550kV transmission station in Nho Quan District of northern Ninh Binh Province.

The transmission station helped meet the increasing demand for power in Ninh Binh Province and part of the neighbouring province of Hoa Binh, NPT officials said.

The station also helped ensure the stable and safe operation of the electric grid for the area.

In the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) region, phase 4 of the 550kV transmission station project in Pleiku City of Buon Ma Thuot Province has been completed. The operation of the station was intended to increase the power transmission capacity of the North-Central-South 550kV electric line.

The NPT-invested station helped enhance power transmission from Viet Nam to Laos through the hydropower plants of Xekaman No. 1, Upper Xekong No. 3 and Lower Xekong No. 3 and the 220kV line in Pleiku.

EVN, in recent months, has invested in building several electric works in the capital city of Ha Noi to ensure the efficient supply of power for production and daily life.

One of the major projects involved installing a transformer in the 220kV station in Tay Ho District.

Last month, EVN and its member companies put into operation a 550kV line in My Tho City of southern Tien Giang Province, a 220kV line in Hue City and a 220kV line in northern Yen Bai Province.

Besides this, the corporation planned to complete a 220kV line connecting with Trung Son Hydropower Plant in northern Thai Binh Province, as well as upgrade some transmission stations in northern Lao Cai Province and a Nang City.

According to EVN, power consumption was forecast to increase by 13 per cent in the upcoming dry season in the southern region.

In May and June, the extra load capacity might reach 540 million kWh per day, of which the capacity of the southern region might be 250 million kWh per day.

The corporation has asked power transmission companies nationwide to adopt measures to ensure the safe operation of transmission stations and lines, especially the North-South line. VNS
QUANG NGAI  Two young children and a teenager drowned in the Son Tinh and Ba To districts in the central province on Saturday.

This incident comes just one day after nine schoolboys were found dead while swimming in Tra Khuc River in the provinces Thanh Khiet Village last Friday.

The local administration said Vo Tung Lam, 4, and his sister Vo Thi Linh Nhi were found dead in a flooded water tank on a construction site in Tinh Khe Commune in Son Tinh District, where they had been playing during the afternoon.

The same day, the local administration of Ba ong Commune in Ba To District announced that Pham Van Minh, 19, a 12th-grade student, had drowned while swimming with his classmates in a spring during a camping excursion.

The central province is still reeling from the tragedy of losing 12 students to drowning in two days.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health revealed that, on average, nine children died from drowning every day last year in Viet Nam. Drowning is one of the main causes of child death in Viet Nam.  VNS
NGHE AN  Eleven workers were injured when a boiler exploded this morning at the Wood World Viet Nam JSC in Nam Cam Industrial Park in Nghi Loc District, Central Nghe An Province.

Major Nguyen Trong Tue, head of the Nghi Loc District Police told the Vietnam News Agency that the explosion occurred at the oil pipeline of the wood press.

Authorities have already cordoned off the scene of the accident for further investigations.

Rescue teams sent seven workers to the provinces 115 Nghe An General Hospital and four others to the Huu Nghi General Hospital for emergency aid and treatment.

Doctor Nguyen Van Hung, from the 115 Nghe An General Hospital, said five among the seven injured workers, who are being treated at the hospitals ICU were being treated for serious burns on the face, back, hands and feet.

Two among the four workers at the Huu Nghi General Hospital were also in a serious condition.

On the same day, the district Vice Chairman Tran Thi Anh Tuyet went to the scene of the explosion for inspection and paid visited the injured workers at the hospitals.  VNS
HCM CITY  Four out of 25 self-nominated candidates running for seats in the HCM Citys Peoples Council for 2016  2021 were approved to the shortlist of 175 qualified candidates during the third consultative conference organised in HCM City on April 17.

Tran Quang Thang, head of HCM City Institute for Economic Research and Management, along with Nguyen Thi Huyen, a worker at Cau Tre Food Processing Company, lawyer Ha Hai, head of Ha Hai Law Firm, and Le Nguyen Minh Quang, general director of Bachy Soletanche Viet Nam Company, are the four approved self-nominated candidates.

After the conference, organised by the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Committee in HCM City, the shortlisted self-nominees have been included in the list of 175 candidates to be submitted to the HCM City Election Committee and National Election Council.

Of the shortlisted candidates, 23 are not members of the Viet Nam Communist Party, 75 are women, 32 are below 35 years old, 9 belongs to minority ethnic groups, and 11 represent various religions.

According to Vu Thanh Luu, vice chairman of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Committee in HCM City, the initial list of candidates had 203 people, including 25 self-nominees. However, ten self-nominees chose to withdraw before the conference was organised on April 17.

36 candidates ready for NA seats running

The third consultative conference organised in HCM City on Saturday, April 16, chose 36 candidates to run in the upcoming May national elections.

The conference, organised by the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Committee in HCM City, selected the list of 36 candidates to run for seats in the 14th National Assembly. The list will be submitted for approval to the HCM City Election Council and National Election Council.

All of the participants at the conference approved the list. The list includes five candidates who are not members of the Viet Nam Communist Party, 15 are female, six candidates are below 40 years old, three belong to minority ethnic groups, and two represent different religions.

Of the 36 candidates, two are self-nominated. They are Lam Thieu Quan, general director of Tien Phong Technology Company, and Nguyen Thi Hong Chuong, a teacher at Tan Tuc High School in Binh Chanh District.

Nguyeen Hoang Nang, chairman of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Committee in HCM City, said there was no discrimination between those candidates nominated by the citys agencies and the self-nominated candidates.

The city government expects to have more self-nominated candidates running for the 14th National Assembly. However, the level of credibility, confidence, and quality of some self-nominated candidates did not meet the regulations. Therefore, only two self-nominated candidates were selected.

At the last consultative conference, 90 candidates were introduced. Of these, 42 were nominated by agencies and organisations in the city, and 48 were self-nominated candidates.

After the second consultative conference, eight self-nominated candidates withdrew from the shortlist, leaving 82 candidates, including 40 self-nominated candidates who had to undergo a recent vote of confidence.

According to the allocation from the National Assemblys Standing Committee, HCM City is to elect 30 deputies to the 14th National Assembly.

The election of deputies to the 14th NA and all-level Peoples Councils for the 2016-2021 session will occur on May 22, which is a Sunday, as called for by law.  VNS
03:18 Xi Jinping secures third term Chinas President Xi Jinping has secured his place as China's most influential, longest-serving president since revolutionary leader Mao Zedong....

02:09 Rishi Sunak enters UK leadership contest Former UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak is the front-runner to become the next British Prime Minister, as he formally announced his leadership bid.

01:08 Boris Johnson will not run for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced he will not run for the leadership of the UK Conservative Party.

01:45 Evacuation order remains for Echuca residents Flood-weary residents in the northern Victorian town of Echuca are on high alert as they prepare for the worst flooding in over 100 years.

02:27 Welfare spending blows out in budget Australia's welfare bill will surpass $120 billion this financial year, as another budget blowout is revealed.
Corn planting

gets head start

DES MOINES (AP)  A stretch of sunny and dry weather has given Midwest farmers a good start on planting corn.

The U.S. Department of Agricultures weekly crop progress report was released Monday. It shows 13 percent of Iowas corn crop is planted, significantly ahead of the five-year average of 3 percent planted by mid-April.

Missouri farmers have 58 percent planted, ahead of their average of 21 percent. Kansas has more than a third of the corn crop planted, compared to the average 16 percent.

Other states ahead of average are Kentucky and Minnesota. Nebraska is at 7 percent, ahead of its five-year average of 3 percent.

Planting corn early can result in an improved harvest because plants can mature to the pollination stage before summer heat stresses them.

Rembrandt plans cage-free farm

DES MOINES (AP)  One of the nations largest egg producers plans to build a new cage-free farm in eastern South Dakota to house 3 million egg-laying hens.

Spirit Lake-based Rembrandt Foods supplies egg products to food manufacturers, food service providers, restaurant chains and retail grocers. It announced plans to increase the number of hens housed in cage-free barns last year.

Rembrandt president Dave Rettig says growing consumer demand for cage-free eggs has pushed more than 100 food companies, including Wal-Mart and McDonalds, to switch to cage-free eggs in the next decade.

Rembrandt Foods will build the facility in Lake Preston, S.D. Construction is expected to begin this year and it will be ready for hens next year.

Rembrandt already has facilities in Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and Alabama.

Nordstrom to cut up to 400 jobs

SEATTLE (BBN)  Nordstrom is eliminating as many as 400 jobs, looking to save money and focus more on reaching customers online.

The cuts, which will come mostly from the retailers corporate center and regional support teams, will save about $60 million in the companys current fiscal year. The moves will be complete by the end of the second quarter, which runs through July, Seattle-based Nordstrom said Monday in a statement.

The job cuts are Nordstroms latest attempt to rein in expenses as mall traffic slows and shoppers increasingly seek to buy clothing online. Co-President Blake Nordstrom said earlier this year the company would reduce capital spending by $300 million over the next five years. Last month, the company named Kumar Srinivasan as its chief technology officer, continuing efforts to ramp up its Internet operations.

Star Wars, Disney give Hasbro a jolt

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP)  Hasbros first-quarter performance topped Wall Streets view, bolstered by strong sales of Star Wars, Disney Princess and Frozen merchandise.

The toy company earned $48.8 million, or 38 cents per share, for the period ended March 27. That compares with a profit of $26.7 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier.

That easily beat the 24 cents per share analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research expected.

Revenue for the Pawtucket, R.I.-based company totaled $831.2 million. Zacks analysts forecast $768.4 million in revenue.

Netflix beats 1Q profit forecasts

LOS GATOS, Calif. (AP)  Netflix Inc. (NFLX) on Monday reported first-quarter earnings of $27.7 million.

The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company said it had profit of 6 cents per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 3 cents per share.

The Internet video service posted revenue of $1.96 billion in the period, missing Street forecasts. Thirteen analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.97 billion.

Netflix shares have decreased 5 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poors 500 index has increased slightly more than 2 percent. In the final minutes of trading on Monday, shares hit $108.65, an increase of 35 percent in the last 12 months.

Carnival may delay cruise to Cuba

MIAMI (AP)  Carnival Corp. says it will delay the first cruise from the United States to Cuba if the Cuban government does not allow Cuban-Americans to travel aboard.

Cuban regulations bar people born in Cuba from returning to the country by ship. As a result, Carnival had prohibited barred Cuban-Americans from buying tickets on the May 1 cruise from Miami to Havana and a series of other Cuban ports.

Carnival said in a written statement Monday it was optimistic Cuba would allow Cuban-Americans to join the cruise by May 1 and would begin selling tickets to Cuban-Americans. The company said that if Cuban-Americans were not allowed to join the cruise, it would be delayed.

Carnival has been sued by Cuban-Americans claiming discrimination and protesters have targeted its headquarters in Doral.
WATERLOO  For Rath Packing, the 1960s marked the beginning of the end of a long run.

But, for one company executive there, it was a beginning.

At the time, I was the creative director for Rath, and things were spiraling downward  it was an opportunity to seize the moment and we acted quickly, said Bob Hellman.

In 1966, Hellman decided it was time to leave the Waterloo meatpacker to go into business for himself.

So, he decided to launch an advertising firm, to which he proudly attached his family name.

I was adopted as a kid and have always been exceptionally proud of the last name I was given, he said.

Hellmans first job as a business was a branding project for a local client, Dick Doerfer, who had founded Doerfer Cos. in the early 1960s and also served as Bob Hellmans mentor.

I still remember, follow and preach the advice he gave to me, Hellman said of Doerfer.

That first job went well, Hellman noted.

Now, Hellman  the company, as well as the man, who will turn 83 in November  is marking 50 years in business.

Reaching a half-century might be considered a milepost of success for a business, but Hellman said hed have none of it.

No attempt to be flip about this, but I/we have yet to realize this point in time, he said when asked when he realized he had built a successful business.

Theres always reason to be concerned, no matter how well things seem to be going, Hellman said.

The doubts are always with you, especially as the rate of change that is part of this business quickens, Hellman said.

Hellmans company has survived numerous challenges over the years, including the eight major business recessions weve experienced over the past 50 years, with each having a new twist to it, requiring us to make adjustments accordingly, he said.

Bob Hellman has stepped back in recent years. In July 2013, he stepped down from his daily routine and promoted longtime employees Tony Luetkehans and David McNurlen to new roles as co-presidents.

Leutkehans and McNurlen were there as the firm evolved as a digital marketer  a process that brought some additional excitement to the business, they said in an email note.

It allowed us to be more responsive and rely less on outside vendors, they said. Things that took days or weeks before might now only take hours to produce and could be shared with our clients across the country instantly. No more piles of FedEx packages every night.

There were down sides, including initial costs and finding  and training  people to use the digital platforms, Leutkehans and McNurlen said.

As clients came to expect these faster turnaround times, things that took more time, like hand-drawn illustrations, gave way to stock photography that was available instantly and with less expense, they said. Things were faster and often cost less to produce but were not always as special.

The digital age also allowed Hellman to expand into areas it formerly had gone outside of the company to find, such as photography and video.

We evolved from traditional animation to 3D, motion graphics, and high-end visual effects, the two co-presidents said. The company also has kept its eyes on the competition, according to Hellman said.

Were always alert to new developments in our field and, being quite nimble, when we spot someone moving in a new direction, we evaluate it, he said.

But, that works two ways, he said.

Most often, though, I suspect theyve learned more from us, he said.

Indeed, Hellman said, his companys ability to adjust in a highly competitive business has surprised even him.

When we opened our doors there were two competitors; I believe, now there are about 25 competitors in the Cedar valley alone, he said. Weve always been a nimble and highly talented company. We place a priority on talent.

An ever-changing business landscape will lead to further growth, Luetkehans and McNurlen said.

Advertising and marketing continually evolves, they said. The tools and methods change constantly, but the need for great creative solutions and strategies that get results continues to be our key to success.

But, all of that is good, they said.

The constant change can be a challenge, but it also keeps everything fresh and new, they said. The work is constantly changing and we like that. We are always looking for the latest ways to help our clients succeed.

That evolution will continue over the companys next half-century, the two co-presidents said.

Our success and longevity are due to our ability to see whats next and offer it to our clients, they said. Our employees are always excited to take on new challenges. As the needs of our clients change, so will we. We dont know exactly what the future brings, but we have always embraced it, and were looking forward to our next 50 years.
DES MOINES  The future of another legislative attempt to allow medicinal cannabis manufacturers and dispensaries in the state is uncertain, with some legislators skeptical about whether the next steps to pass a bill will happen.

A bill, HF 2384, passed the House Commerce Committee and was sent to the House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 22. But Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Thomas Sands, R-Wapello, said he is unsure whether the bill will get through the committee this session.

I have members who obviously support the bill and others who will not, Sands wrote in an email to IowaWatch last week. I personally am a no vote, but I wear two hats. My personal vote and as chair managing my committee.

A subcommittee for the Ways and Means Committee has not been formed to study the bill further and determine its financial impact.

It would be a huge mistake to not let this go forward, said Rep. Bob Kressig, D-Cedar Falls, a proponent of the bill.

Kressig said he supports the bill because of its expansion of approved conditions for cannabidoil, or CBD, as well as the availability of it in Iowa, and believes enough votes exist to pass it. There are a lot of people in the state of Iowa that have gone through the traditional method of going to the doctor, getting prescriptions and not seeing any benefits, he said.

Initially the bill included 12 health conditions that would qualify for the use of cannibidoil, also known as CBD, and having in Iowa four manufacturers and 12 dispensaries, said Kressig, a member of the House Commerce Committee.

Changes were made and the bill came out of the Commerce Committee with three approved conditions: intractable epilepsy; multiple sclerosis and cancer if a patient has less than 12 months to live.

The number of Iowa manufacturers and dispensaries allowed in the bill decreased to two locations, with both manufacturing and dispensing occurring in the same facilities. The bill says these locations would be determined by Dec. 1.

Gov. Terry Branstad has said he is willing to work with the Legislature on resolving issues with the states current medicinal cannabis law but will reserve his judgment on HF2384 until he sees its final form.

We want to make sure that we protect the state against unattended consequences and access to marijuana to people that would being use it for inappropriate or illicit purposes, he said.

Iowas Medical Cannabidiol Act is the current law, which allows for the use of CBD to treat people who have intractable epilepsy. Enacted in July 2014, patients approved for CBD use have had to leave the state in order to purchase the medicine. With this years HF2384, patients and caregivers would not have to break federal laws that prohibit the transportation of drugs over state lines.

Conditions for being able to use CBD originally listed in this years bill included post-traumatic stress disorder and Crohns disease, Kressig said. When that was stripped out it damaged the bill tremendously.

A clinical trial by GW Pharmaceuticals that the University of Iowa participated in showed that the firms CBD based medication, Epidiolex, was successful in reducing the number of convulsive seizures in epileptic patients.

While some say this shows the medicinal value of marijuana, Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, said he does not think opponents will be swayed by the results.

The people that are opposed feel like the federal government and drug companies should fix the problem, Bolkcom said.

Bolkcom was the floor manager of a 2015 bill, SF 484, that would have expanded medicinal cannabis use and availability. That bill passed the Senate in April 2015 and was referred to the House Public Safety Committee but has gone nowhere since.

If the House cant pass the bill out of the committee, theyre likely not to pass the bill, Bolkcom said.

Although Sen. Michael Breitbach, R-Strawberry Point, opposed Bolkcoms bill, he said he supports the new bill and believes it would get bipartisan support if it reaches the Senate.

I like it, Breitbach wrote about the new bill in an email. Currently those having a prescription for cannabidiol have to go out of state to procure it. This would allow the production to be in state. We would have better control over it and we could monitor more closely the effects, benefits or adverse reactions.

Breitbach said his biggest concern with medicinal cannabis is its classification as a Schedule 1 drug, a designation that indicates no medicinal value but high potential for abuse. That is one of the reasons he opposed Bolkcoms bill, Breitbach wrote.

I wish the federal government would reclassify cannabis so that more centers could be testing the benefits or harms that could come from cannabis, that to me is the biggest hurdle we are facing at the current time, he wrote.

Breitbach previously said that, without a reclassification to a Schedule 2 drug, I dont feel we will see widespread meaningful research until that happens.

Others, like Bolkcom and Kressig, said they do not think the reclassification is important. For some they want to wait for the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) to give approval, and thats like a 20-year process, Kressig said. Its very expensive, and weve already seen the evidence that it works.

Steve Schultz, vice president of international relations for GW Pharmaceuticals, said results from the clinical trial on Epidiolex felt great for him and his team. It is very positive data in a patient population that has no approved medications, he said.

Charuta Joshi, the principal University of Iowa researcher in the study and clinical professor of pediatrics, wrote in an email that five children participated in this part of the trial, with three completing it. The three kids I had in the trial seemed to do fine, she wrote.

Sands, the Ways and Means Committee chairman, would like to see the results from more of the studies that are underway in the GW Pharmaceutical trial.

Unlike legislators they are not basing their decisions on emotion or political interests. They are basing their decisions on scientific facts and results, Sands wrote, referring to researchers in the trials. An FDA-approved drug would have consistent standards and safeguards that protect the public, he wrote.

Maria La France, founder of Iowans 4 Medical Cannabis, initially put her son, Quincy Hostager, in the trial thinking about the benefit of not having to go to Colorado to purchase her 14-year-old sons medicine.

She took her son, who suffers from intractable epilepsy, out of the trial after one month, saying he experienced negative gastrointestinal side effects. She said he responded better to the natural cannabis oil she had been giving him before the trial.

I have discovered what has helped my son using trial and error, La France said. She said CBD made a big difference in Quincys life. He has fewer seizures and is more alert.

Many of my sons other medications have been used on a trial and error basis also, La France said. This is not uncommon with rare illnesses. My doctor has prescribed many off label and non-FDA approved medications in a desperate attempt to help my son. Most of these medications have far more dangerous side effects than cannabis.

La France said she makes the trip to Colorado for Quincys medicine every few months, and that occasionally I have had friends or family driving that way and they have made an illegal delivery for me to save me the drive. She said Iowans 4 Medical Cannabis, the group is working to get bills like the one introduced this year, HF 2384, passed in order to grow medical cannabis in Iowa.

Breitbach said the bill has a way to go before it would become law. Kressig said he would not speculate on the bills prospects this legislative session.

Im going to remain hopeful because a lot of people are counting on this, he said.

This story was produced by Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch.org, a nonprofit, online news Website that collaborates with Iowa news organizations to produce explanatory and investigative reporting.
Iowa Republicans are floating the idea of eliminating the state personal income tax. They allege it will grow the economy by putting more money back in the hands of Iowans.

Sounds great, right? They point to states that have sharply reduced their personal income tax or have no personal income tax as reason for Iowa to follow suit. Not so fast. Lets be sure to compare apples to apples. The states of Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, Texas and Washington are among those with no personal income tax. Most of those states have other sources of income such as tourism, gambling, large subsidies from the federal government or being popular winter destinations for retirees. Iowa does not have those sources of income.

Instead, compare Iowa to a similar state like Kansas, which has sharply reduced its personal income tax. First, lets understand where the personal income tax goes and what it pays for. The personal income tax goes into the states general fund. Most state expenditures (education, human services, infrastructure, services like highway maintenance, public safety like highway patrol and prisons etc.) are paid for out of the general fund unless those funds are required to come from a different source. For example, in Iowa 1 cent from the sales tax goes specifically to pay for school infrastructure or school property tax replacement. When the state of Kansas sharply reduced its personal income tax its budget shortfall was so significant schools were forced to close as many as 12 days early, unplanned.

Since most of state expenditures are paid out of the general fund and that is where the personal income tax is allocated, when the Legislature begins to reduce or eliminate the personal income tax there is less money with which to pay state expenditures. The only way to compensate for the loss of revenue is to either cut services, increase other taxes (property, sales) or both. Gov. Terry Branstad and his Republican cohorts in the Legislature heavily favor giving big tax breaks or subsidies to billion-dollar corporations. To that end, 248 companies in the state of Iowa have claimed at least $51 million dollars in subsidies. When the personal income tax is eliminated or reduced and enormous subsidies are provided to corporations, more of the tax burden gets shifted to middle-class taxpayers and property owners. This is the real outcome of trickle-down economics, which over the last 30 years has redistributed wealth upward to the top 1 percent.

By now, most Iowans are familiar with how Branstad and his Republican colleagues in the Legislature have woefully underfunded schools. Make no mistake, this is a coordinated attempt to destroy public education. First, demonize public education and more specifically teachers. Second, stack the Appropriations Committee and committees that oversee public education with Republicans like Rep. Walt Rogers and Rep. Sandy Salmon who do not value public education. Third, you claim the state is overspending. Using this three-pronged approach, Republicans have attempted to convince Iowans cuts to education are necessary. According to the state Constitution the state must balance its budget and can only spend 99 percent of revenues, with the other 1 percent being put into a rainy day fund. Iowa actually has a budget surplus.

This strategy follows the Republican blueprint for destroying state and federal government. First, demonize government. Second, fill federal elected offices and statehouses with people who dont believe in government. Third, sabotage governments ability to function by defunding it. Then convince the public only private industry can perform those functions previously done by government, garnering public support for the privatization of government services. This scheme further enriches Republicans already wealthy benefactors who then reward those elected officials with campaign contributions to fund their re-election bids to ensure the new status quo.
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America has done a bad thing and or maybe a good thing. It is just how you look at things

I see it the way these kids are seeing it and I see a Russian people who have woke up to the Warmongering USA. They demand Obama to answer for his and all of Americas crimes. Those crimes are numerous and serious in nature. Whether you as an American did it or not and or asked for it or not and or wanted the crimes to happen or not, complacency is a crime

Russians just want to be left alone and live in peace and harmony. Seems that America and Europe want to go to war and cause hate and chaos

Russia is waking up, while Americans seem to be going to sleep

Russians are intellects and intellects do not perform divertissement

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.

 Payment methods. Its good to have multiple payment options available, especially if you plan to play frequently. Its also nice to find a casino that accepts cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. If youre worried about safety, you can always opt for a credit card or PayPal instead.

With all those criteria in mind, heres our top picks

Betway:

Betway is a relatively new UK casino offering online gambling to residents of the United Kingdom and European Union. They offer hundreds of games across both land based and digital platforms, with plenty of top software providers like Net Entertainment, Microgaming and Yggdrasil Gaming Network. With a generous welcome offer that gives players 100% up to 100, you really cant go wrong with Betway.

Coral Casino:

Coral Casino is operated by the same company that runs the famous Caribbean casino, Grand Reef. Like many casinos, Coral Casino offers a wide variety of games, including plenty of video slots and table games. New players can benefit from a huge 100% match bonus up to 1000, while existing customers enjoy 25% cash back on deposits made within 48 hours of opening an account.

Ladbrokes Casino:

Ladbrokes Casino is owned by the same company as the famous bookmaker that started life in 1921. With more than 500 games from leading software providers such as Amaya, NetEnt and Microgaming, you wont be disappointed by the quality of the games here. New players get a 200% match bonus up to 500, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits.

Paddy Power Casino:

Paddy Power is another Irish-owned casino that operates throughout Europe. Not only does Paddy Power Casino offer traditional casino games like blackjack, roulette and slots, but it also provides a full range of sports betting, including football, tennis, boxing and horse racing. New players can receive a massive 100% match bonus up to 200, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits.

William Hill Casino:

William Hill Casino is one of the biggest names in the industry, operating in Europe, Asia and North America. Founded in 1984, this online casino has more than 400 games to choose from, including slots and table games, with a wide array of software providers like WagerLogic, Big Time Gaming and Rival.

Bonus: 100% Match Bonus up to 100  Register Now

Betway: 100% Match Bonus up to 100  Claim Now

Coral Casino: 25% Cash Back on Deposits  Claim Now

Ladbrokes Casino: 35% Cash Back on First 3 Deposits  Claim Now

Paddy Power Casino: 100% Match Bonus up to 200  Claim Now

William Hill Casino: 100% Match Bonus up to 200  Claim Now

If youre interested in trying out an online casino but arent quite ready to commit to one, why not try out one of the many no deposit casinos weve reviewed? You can test drive various casinos completely risk-free, so you can feel confident about your choice before you make a single penny deposit.
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Canl bahis adndan da anlaslacag gibi devam eden musabakaya bahis yapmaktr. Bu bahis musabaka devam ederken de yaplabilir olmasdr. Basta futbol olmak uzere voleybol, tenis, hentbol, basketbol, buz hokeyi ve masa tenisi gibi spor organizasyonlarna canl bahisler yaplabilmektedir. Canl bahis siteleri bu oyunlarn hepsine yuksek oranlara bahis yapmanza imkan tanr. En fazla tercih edilen futbol canl bahisleri diger alanlara gore daha fazla on plandadr. Siteden siteye degisen sartlar ve uygulama esaslar soz konusu olsa da kurallar sabittir.

Canl bahisi populer klan ve heyecan katan en onemli ozellikle musabakann basladg ana dek bahis yapabilmedir. Canl bahis icerisinde yer alan secenekler kazanma sansnz da dogrudan arttrmaktadr. Ilk korneri kim kullanr, ilk tac, gol, sar kart, krmz kart gibi futbol musabakas icerisinde olabilecek hemen hemen her seye bahis yaplabilmektedir. Normal bahisegore de son derece yuksek oranda olmas avantajl yonlerini ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim dogru secenek ksa surede kazancl ckmanza etki edecektir.

Strateji ve dogru analizle 90 dakika gibi bir surede anaparanzkatlayabilirsiniz. Tabi bunu basarabilmek icin mutlaka musabakaya dair ayrntlar iyi degerlendirmek gerekir. Soz konusu musabakann detaylarn inceleyip, cezal, sakat oyuncu veya performans dusen takm oyunu gibi detaylar bilmek canl bahiste kazanc belirleyen onemli unsurdur. Guvenilir Canl bahis hem heyecanl zaman gecirmeyi hem de musabakalar takip ederken para kazanmay saglamaktadr.

Canl Bahis Nasl Oynanr?

Bahislerinizi guvenilir sitelerden gerceklestirdiginiz zaman herhangi bir sekilde para cekme de sorun yasamazsnz. Guvenilir bahis siteleri tespit edip sonrasnda da uyelik islemlerini tamamlamanz gerekmektedir. Belirlenen uyelik sartlarn yerine getirip hesabnza da paray aktardktan sonra bahis islemlerini sorunsuz yapabilirsiniz. Peki, canl bahis nasl oynanr?

Oncelikle bahis konusunda mutlaka dogru site arastrmas yapmalsnz. Yapacagnz arastrma neticesinde buldugunuz site uzerinden canl bahisislemlerini gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Bunun icin uye olup, hesaba para atp, canl bahis bolumune girmelisiniz. Sonrasnda dahil olmak istediginiz musabakann saatini ogrenip, gerekli analizleri yapmalsnz. Tahminlerinizi belirledikten sonra karsnza ckacak olan bahis sayfasndan istediginiz hamleyi yapmalsnz. Bahis tutarn belirledikten sonra musabaka baslayacaktr.

Canl bahis diger normal bahis esaslarna gore farkllklar icermektedir. Bunlardan en onemlisi musabakann gidisatna gore islem yapabilir olmaktr.Ayrca musabakann 2. Yarsna gore hamle yapp ayr bir bahisin soz konusu olmas da ciddi avantajdr. Dogru hamle ile sizde istediginiz bahisi yapp kazanc elde edebilirsiniz. Nitekim canl olarak yapacagnz bahis icin mac oncesi raporlara gore hareket etmek onemlidir. Cunku takmlarn durumlarn analiz etmek tahmin gucunu arttracaktr. Misal tamnn en iyi oyuncusu sakat ya da kart cezals ise takmn performansnda dusus yasanacaktr. Buna ek olarak takmn deplasman performans ile evinde ki performans ayr olacaktr. Burada da takmn musabakay nerede yaptgna bakmak gerekir. Bu ayrntlar da iyice analiz ettikten sonra bahsinizi yapp kazanmann keyfini yasayabilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri

Son derece yuksek getiriye sahip bahis sektoru uzun zamandr faaliyet gostermektedir. Cok ciddi rakamlarn soz konusu oldugu bu sektor zamanla sanal ortamlara donusmustur. Elbette guvenli ve bir o kadar da avantajl olan bu siteler cok yonlu frsatlar sunmaktadrlar. Canl iddaa siteleri gerek yeni uyelere gerekse de hali hazrdaki uyelerine bolca bonus frsatlar vermektedir. Yatracagnz tutara gore belirlenen bonuslar site icerisinde rahat hareket etmenizi de saglayacaktr.

Canl bahis sitelerini kullanmadan once mutlaka guvenli olup olmadgna goz atmalsnz. Zira baz kullanclar guvenli olmayan sitelerden yaptklar islemlerden dolay magdur olmaktadrlar. Nitekim guvenli ve sorunsuz hizmet sunan yurt ds site tercih etmek en dogru secenektir. Sektorde uzun yllar faaliyet gosteren siteleri tercih edebilirsiniz. Bu alanda yer alan yabanc siteler musteri memnuniyetine onem vermektedir. Oncelik site kullanclarn sorunsuz sekilde bahislerini yapabilir olmasn saglamaktr. Bahis sitelerinde amac hem daha fazla kullancya hizmet vermek hem de sektorde emin admlarla ilerlemek onceliklidir. Dogru site tercihi ile sizde canl bahislerinizi sorun yasamadan gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Sizler icin hazrlams oldugumuz canl bahis siteleri listesi su sekildedir;

Mobilbahis Tempobet Bets10 Bahigo 1xbahis Betboo Youwin Superbahis

Sralams oldugumuz bu siteler sektorde basarl islere imza atms sitelerdedir. Canl bahis konusunda beklentileri karslayacak olan bu siteler sizlere kolaylk sunmaktadrlar. Bol bonuslu secenekle de sizlere farkl bahis yonlerini sunacaklardr. Sistemsel etki icerisinde her zaman etkin sonuc alabilmek icin surekli olarak faaliyet icerisindedirler.

Canl Bahis Taktikleri

Bahis sektorunun en fazla dikkat edilmesi gereken hususu dogru taktik ve dogru tahmindir. Elbette dogru tahmini yapabilmek icin analizi cok iyi yapmak gerekir. Canl bahis taktikleri arasnda ilk sra analiz gelmektedir. Analiz yapamadgnz zaman basarl tahminlerde bulunmanz pek de mumkun degildir. Cunku bahiste onemli olan konu musabakann analizini cok iyi yaplmas gerektigidir. Canl bahisin ozelliklerini iyi bilmek ve nasl bir hamle yapacagnz bilmek gerekir. Ozellikle riskli maclarda yaplacak degerlendirmeler cok daha onemlidir.

Canl bahis yapacaklarn takip edecegi degerler takmlarn durumlar ile alakal olmaldr. Performans uzerine kurulu bahis sisteminde takm degerlendirmesine iyi bakmak gerekir. Iki takmn son 5 macta nasl bir sonuc ortaya koyduguna bakarak hareket etmek onemlidir. Ayrca hangi takm evinde daha iyi performans sergiliyor diye de ayrca bakmak gerekir.

Analizlerle alakal puan durumlarna da goz atmak cok onemlidir. Puan degerlendirmesinde oncelikle takmlarn ihtiyaclar ile dogru orantl hareket etmek gerekir. Cunku olusturulan performans takmn da durumunu ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim istenilen sonucu elde edebilmek icin tum ayrntlar bilmek gerekir. Takm ici duzenden tutunda da takmn son durumuna kadar her ayrnt onemlidir. Iki takmn birbirleri arasnda ki sonuclar da incelemek gerekir. Burada dikkat edilecek detaylarn basnda maclarda kac gol oldugu ve gollerin hangi dakikalarda atldgdr. Cekismeli gecen musabakalarda bazen goller ilk yarda daha fazla olurken baz maclarda da ikinci yarda daha cok gol olmustur. Iki takm arasnda ki maclarda gollerin cogunlugu ilk yarda geliyorsa buna gore bahis yapabilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Bonuslar ve Kampanyalar

Bahis yapanlar veya yapmay dusununler sitelerin sunmus olduklar frsatlar merak etmektedirler. Cunku siteler daha fazla kullancya erismek icin her donem kampanyalar duzenleyerek kullanc odakl hamleler yapmaktadrlar. Canl bahis bonuslar ve kampanyalar oldukca populer olup, siteler bu konuda adeta birbirleri ile yarsmaktadrlar. Birbirinden farkl ozelliklere sahip olan kampanyalar size frsatlar sunmaktadr. Daha cok kazanma ihtimalinizi arttran bu bonuslar daha cesur olmanza da dogrudan etki edecektir. Nitekim bonuslar sitelerin cekiciligini ve avantajlarn arttrmaktadr. En cok kazandran canl bahis siteleri bedava bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin http://www.milano2018.com/canli-bahis-siteleri-2022/ linkinden yardm alabilirsiniz.

Hos geldin bonusu ile baslayan ve sonrasnda para yatrdkca bonus veren cok sayda site bulunmaktadr. Canl bahis bonusu veren siteler yeni uyelere sunduklar frsatlar farkl kampanyalarla mevcut uyelerine de sunmaktadrlar. Hali hazrda siteyi kullananlarn da bonus frsatlarndan yararlanmalar icin donemsel kampanyalar olusturmaktadrlar. Boylece baska sitelere gidisler olmayacag gibi site de daha keyifli zaman gecirmek mumkun klnmaktadr. Bu tur eklentiler yapan sitelerde musteri memnuniyeti daha fazladr.

Bahis siteleri ozellik ve uygulama bakmndan farkllklar bunyelerinde bulundurmaktadrlar. Verilen bonuslarn olusturulmas ve kullanclar aktarlmasnda yatrlan para miktarlar belirleyici olmaktadr. 1.000 TL yatran bir kullanc yuzde 20 bonus frsat olan bir kampanyadan 200 TL bonus kazanabilmektedir. Yatracag tutar 10.000 TL oldugunda bu bonustutar 2.000 TL olabilmektedir. Gerceklesen ve uygulanan esaslar tamamen donemsel olarak yaplan kampanyalarla alakaldr. Iyi Canl bahis siteleri bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin sitelerin vermis oldugu oranlar takip edebilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Yatrma

Online Canl bahis yapacaklarn merak ettigi konulardan bir digeri de para yatrma islemleridir. Oldukca onemli olan bu konuda hata yapmamak cok onemlidir. Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemi sanlann aksine son derece basittir. Oldukca basit ve uygulama esas dogru etki olusturan bu yapda sizde islemi rahatca tamamlayabilirsiniz. Para yatrma konusunda su yolu izleyebilirsiniz.

Guvendiginiz ve herhangi bir sekilde aklnzda soru isareti kalmayan bahis sitesine uye olmanz gerekmektedir. Uyelik islemini sorunsuz sekilde tamamladktan sonra para yatrma islemine gecebilirsiniz.

Kullanacagnz siteye uye olduktan sonra karsnza kullanc ad ve sifresini gireceginiz yer gelecektir. Buraya giris yaptktan sonra site icerisine islemlere devam edebilirsiniz.

Sitede yer alan para yatrma sekmesine tklayp sonrasnda karsnza gelen sayfay inceleyebilirsiniz. Para yatrma bolumunde yer alan ksma ne kadar para yatracagnz yazp devam tusuna basmalsnz.

Yatrmak istediginiz tutar girip sonrasnda da devam tusuna bastktan sonra karsnza kart bilgilerinizi gireceginiz sayfa gelecektir. Kredi kart kullanarak para gondermek isteyenlerin tercih ettigi bu sayfa tum bilgiler girilip islem onaylanmaldr.

Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemini gerceklestirmek icin hesaba havale secenegini de kullanabilirsiniz. Site icerisinde musteri hizmetleri ile iletisime gecerek banka hesap numaralarn ogrenebilirsiniz. Belirtilen IBAN numarasna istediginiz tutar havale edebilirsiniz. Havale ederken acklama ksmna yazlacak bilgilere dikkat etmelisiniz.

Kredi kart veya banka havalesi ile gerceklesen para yatrma islemi sonucunda site hesabnzdan bakiyenize bakabilirsiniz. Bakiyenize gore dilediginiz sekilde bahislerinizi gerceklestirebilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Cekme

Canl bahiste dogru hamleler ve dogru tahminler sonucunda kazandgnz bedeli geri almak isteyebilirsiniz. Kazanclarnz istediginiz banka hesabnza cekebilmek icin uymanz gereken kurallar soz konusudur. Oncelikle bahis sitelerinden para cekebilmeniz icin uye olurken dogru bilgi paylasmnda bulunmanz gerektigidir. Cunku canl bahis sitelerinden para cekme islemi icin kullanc hesab ile talep edilen banka hesap bilgilerinin ortusmesi gerekir. Yani uye olurken verilen bilgi ile banka hesab kime ait ise o bilgiler ayn olmaldr. Bu uygulama sitenin hem kullancsn hem de kendisini guvene alma politikasdr. Ayrca frsatclarn onune gecerek yeni bir uye olusumunun da onune gecmek amac gutmektedir. Uye olan kisi farkl para cekilme talebi verilen hesap farkl oldugunda para cekme islemi gerceklesmeyecektir.

Bahisleriniz sonucunda kazanc elde edebilir ve bu kazancnz da hakknz olarak almak isteyebilirsiniz. Burada son derece basit uygulama soz konusu olurken siteler aras farkl gorunumler soz konusu olabilir. Fakat yine de tum sitelerde uyenin site icerisinde para cekme bolumune girmesi yeterlidir. Burada cekilecek olan tutarn belirlenmesi ve hesap numarasnn girilmesi ile birlikte islem onay gerekecektir. Para cekme taleplerinde sizden gerekli bilgiler istenmekte ve havale islemi istenilen bilgiler esliginde yurutulmektedir. Dogru bilgi paylasmak sorunsuz para cekebilmeniz en onemli kuraldr. Istenilen bilgiler girildikten sonra site sorumlular gerekli kontrolleri yapp herhangi bir sorun yoksa ksa surede hesabnza gerekli paray aktaracaklardr.

Canl Bahis Sitelerinden Para Cekmek Icin Istenen Belgeler

Bahis sitelerine uye olduktan sonra baz kullanclar para cekme taleplerinin karslanmadg konusunda sikayetlerde bulunmuslardr. Bu sikayetlersektorde uzun zamandr bulunan guvenilir bahis siteleri de yer almaktadr. Fakat sikayetlerin dayanaklarna bakldgnda ise islerin tamamen farkl oldugu gorulmektedir. Yasanan bu durum kullanclarn hatal bilgi girmesi ve uyelik bilgileri ile banka bilgilerinin uyusmamas ile dogru orantldr. Birde canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler eksik ya da hatal olarak sunulmus olabilir. Ortaya ckan karsklar neticesinde para cekme talebinde bulunan kisi istedigini alamadg icin sikayetci olmaktadr. Oysa ki istenilen bilgiler dogru ve istenilen evraklar eksiksiz sunulsa para cekme islemi sorunsuz olacak.

Sitelerin para cekme konusunda dikkatli hareket etmesi hilelerin ve illegal faaliyetlerin onune gecmek adnadr. Cunku baz kullanclar farkl bilgiler vererek ikinci hesap acabilmektedirler. Bazen de bilincsizce hatal bilgi girilebilmektedir. Hatal islemlerin cozumu konusunda islem yaptgnz sitenin musteri temsilcileri ile gorusebilirsiniz. Talepleriniz dogrultusunda para cekme islemlerinde ki sorunlar giderilecektir. Canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler listesi su sekildedir;

Kullanc bilgileri ile banka bilgilerini karslastrmak icin kimlik fotokopisi

Banka hesap bilgileri

Ikametgah ve kisiye ait herhangi bir fatura.

Kacak Iddaa

Turkiyede dogrudan bahis yapmak icin resmi kanallar kullanlabilmektedir. Fakat tercih edilen ve oran olarak cok daha fazla frsatlar sunan kacar iddaasiteleri bulunmaktadr. Bu siteler kanunlara aykr sekilde yaplmakta olup, yasal bir dayanag yoktur. Elbette bu sitelerin kurulus merkezi Turkiye olmayp, ds ulkelerdedir ve faaliyetler belirlenen siteler uzerinden yaplmaktadr. Kacak Iddaa oldukca riskli olup, cok dikkatli olunmas gerekir.

Kacak Bahis

Kanunlar cercevesinde istediginiz gibi bahis yapamayabilirsiniz. Bahis yapabilmek icin ya kanuni olarak sorun olmayan ulke dsnda ki kumarhanelere gitmeniz veya kacak bahis sitelerinden islem yapabilirsiniz. Zira bu durum tehlikeli olsa da cok sayda site guvenli sekilde bu alanda hizmet vermektedir. Kacak bahiste oldukca fazla secenek bulunurken yuksek oranda kazanc sunuyor olmas da ragbeti arttryor.

Illegal Bahis

Bahisin bircok alanda yasak oldugu Turkiyede bu alanda cok sayda yabanc merkezli siteler hizmet vermektedir. Illegal bahis sektorunde faaliyet gosteren siteler guvenli hizmet anlays ile kullanclarna frsatlar sunmaktadr. Yurt ds merkezli bu siteler sorunsuz sekilde hizmetlerini surdururken bulunduklar ulkelerde kanunlara uygun sekildedir. Elbette faaliyet noktasnda bulunduklar ulkelerde sorun teskil etmese de Turkiyede faaliyet gostermeleri kanunin yasaklanmstr.

Yasads Bahis

Gerek olusturulan etkenler gerekse de ortaya konulan riskler yasads bahis de oldukca tehlikelidir. Kanunlarn mudahil olduklar bu alanlar da hem kullanclar hem de populer bahis yaptranlar tum riskleri goze almaktadrlar. Fakat yasaklardan uzak sekilde guvenli hizmet sunan siteler de bulunmaktadr. Takipler neticesinde kapatlan sitelerin muhakkak alternatifleri kurularak yollarna devam etmektedirler.

Canl Iddaa Siteleri Nelerdir?

Dunya genelinde kabul gormus cok sayda guvenli hizmet veren populer bahis siteleri bulunmaktadr. Elbette bu siteler dunyann bircok ulkesinde faaliyet gosterse de Turkiyede yasaktr. Sektorde yer alan cok sayda legal iddaa siteleri bulunmaktadr. Herhangi bir kanunsuzlugun olmadg bu sitelerden hzl ve guvenli islem yaplabilmektedir. Tabi bu sitelerde uygulanan oranlar yasal olmayan sitelere gore daha dusuktur. Illegal sitelerin tercih edilme sebeplerinin en onemli etkeni de olusturulan oranlardr. Peki, Iddaa siteleri nelerdir? Faaliyetleri ve uygulama esaslar nelerdir?

Turkiyede faaliyet gosteren yasal iddaa siteleri listesi su sekildedir;

Iddaa

Bilyoner

Tuttur

Birebin

Oley

Nesine

Misli

Iddaa

2004 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslayan Iddaa Spor toto tarafndan kurulmus olup, ilk etapta bayilik seklinde calsmaya baslamstr. Elbette zamanla gelisen teknolojiye ayak uydurarak internet uzerinde de populer bahis severlerin hizmetine sunulmustur. Kuruldugu donemde devletin resmi kurumu olarak faaliyet gosterirken gelinen yeni donemde ozellestirilmistir.

Bilyoner

Turkiyede faaliyetine 2006 ylnda baslayan Bilyoner ilk ozel yasal bahis sitesi olma ozelligine sahiptir. Guvenilir bahis siteleri Turkiyede bunlardr. Ksa surede populer olan site halen faaliyetlerini sorunsuz sekilde surdurmektedir.

Tuttur

Ksa surede adndan bahsettirmeyi basaran Tuttur 2009 ylnda faaliyetlere baslamstr. Guvenilir bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almstr. Gunumuze dek bircok alanda populer bahis yapanlara frsatlar sunarken avantajlar ile de begeni toplamstr.

Birebin

Kullanc odakl calsmalar surdurse de 2011 ylnda sektore giren Birebindiger sitelere gore daha az ragbet gormektedir. Bahis oynamak ise bu sitede oldukca kolaydr. Elbette farkl yaklasmlara sahip olmasndan dolay ilerleyen sureclerde adndan sklkla bahsettirecek gibi gorunuyor.

Oley

2009 ylnda Dogus yayn gruplarnn istiraki olarak kurulmus olup yasal olarak herhangi bir sorunu olmayan sitelerdendir. Bahis siteleri arasnda hzl cks yapms bir sitedir. Oley yapms oldugu yenilikler ile kullanclarn da dikkatini ksa surede cekmeyi basarmstr.

Nesine

Birbirini takip eden surecte Nesine de yine 2006 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslamstr. Yasal bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almay basaran firma ksa surede sevilen ve ragbet goren bir site olmustur.

Misli

2009 ylnda sektore cok hzl giris yapan Misli cok sayda reklam filmi ile on plana ckmay basarmstr. Internet uzerinden hem yasal hem de sorunsuz hizmet veren bahis sitelerinden bir tanesi olmustur.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Kayt ve Uyelik Islemleri

Her zaman populerligini koruyan ve surekli gelisim gosteren canl bahis gun gectikce daha da gucleniyor. Bahis oynamak icin ise sitelere uye olunmas gerekir. Yuksek getirisi ve begeni toplayan faaliyetleri ile cok sayda site bu alanda faaliyet gostermektedir. Elbette sorunsuz sekilde uye olmanz ve faaliyetler gostermeniz de oldukca kolaydr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri dakikalar icerisinde gerceklestirilecek yapya sahiptir.

Uye olacagnz siteyi belirledikten sonra siteye girmeniz gerekmektedir. Girdiginiz sitenin ana sayfasnda uye ol ya da kayt ol bolumu bulunacaktr. Siteler arasnda degiskenlik gosteren bu alanda temel unsurlar bulunmaktadr. Elbette farkllklar olsa da temelinde benzer bilgiler uye olmak isteyen kisilerden talep edilmektedir.

Uye ol bolumune tkladktan sonra karsnza uyelik bilgi formu ckacaktr. Bu formda sizin kim oldugunuzu ogrenmek ve sitenin guvenligini saglamak adna islemler yaplmaktadr. Uyelik formunda yer alan ad soyad bolumunu eksiksiz ve dogru sekilde doldurmalsnz. Sizden bu formda istenen bilgilerin tamamn girmeniz istenecektir. Istenen bilgiler mutlaka dogru ve eksiksiz sekilde olmaldr. Eksik veya hatal bilgi uyelik islemlerinde sorun teskil edebilir. Yine de yanls bilgi girisine ragmen uyelik islemleri tamamlanabilir. Fakat boyle bir yol izleyenler sonrasnda buyuk skntlarla karslasabilirler. Bu skntlarn basnda da para cekme islemlerinde yasanan sorunlardr.

Uyelik islemleri dikkatli ve ozenle doldurulmas gereken yapdadr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri gerceklestirilirken verilen bilgiler site yonetimi tarafndan muhafaza edilmektedir. Herhangi bir sekilde 3. Sahslarla paylaslmas gibi bir durum soz konusu degildir. Bu faaliyetleri surduren sitelerin guven unsurlar arasnda bu nokta onceliklidir.

Bahis sitelerine uye olurken hatal bilgi paylasmnda bulunmak size faydadan cok zarar verecektir. Diyelim ki bilgileri hatal girdiniz ve uyelik onayland. Uyelik tamamlandktan sonra siteye para yatrdnz ve kazanc elde ettiniz. Kazancnz sonrasnda hesabnza almak istediginizde karsnza banka bilgileri bolumu gelecektir. Para cekme talebi gerceklestikten sonra site uyelik bilgileri ile banka hesap bilgileri ortusmez ise paranz alamazsnz. Boyle bir durumla karslasmamak adna bu hususa ayrca dikkat etmelisiniz.
"We're not at all worried -- we have insights and resources within our learning community that many cities cannot dream of. But we are energized by this incentive to think larger," said Paul Theriault

EASTPORT, ME, April 18, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Maine Bi-Coastal High School a Semi-Finalist for $10m XQ Super School Prize



Delight and surprise greeted the news last week that Shead High School of the small island city of Eastport, Maine had advanced to the semi-final round of consideration for one of only 5 coveted "XQ Super School Prizes", each worth $10m over five years. Working collaboratively last February with innovative learning experts from Silicon Valley, CA, Shead administrators, teachers, students, and parents proposed a bi-coastal Pacific Atlantic Community Technology (PACT) school. It would prioritize experiential learning and student-designed curricula.



From thousands of initial project concepts, the field has now been narrowed to just 348 teams from 41 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico that will now move forward to the detailed project development phase of the contest.



This puts the Eastport proposal in direct competition with many of the most progressive and well-funded charter schools in the country, along with many large urban school districts able to draw on full-time fundraising personnel and community experts. Expert reviewers will score semi-finalist applications against a detailed rubric. So, is the PACT school team worried?



"We're not at all worried -- we have insights and resources within our learning community that many cities cannot dream of. But we are energized by this incentive to think larger," said Paul Theriault, Eastport School System's Principal and convener of the current XQ super schools working group. "Whether or not we arrive at the winners' circle in August, Eastport schools will be strengthened by this kind of full sprint, no-holds-barred exploration."



For now, the bi-coastal team of volunteers must roll up its sleeves. It has just over a month in which to draft a detailed implementation plan for how it would spend $10m in order to realize its proposal, and it must produce rigorous blueprints for every component of its "school within a school": teacher recruitment, performance assessment, financial oversight, professional capacity-building, architecture, technology, and governance. For a community of 1,293 and a high school study body of about 103, this is no small task.



If this bid were successful, Eastport students would gain a chance to opt into the PACT school and begin a educational journey on two widely separated campuses. The courses will be anchored in community partnerships in Silicon Valley and Maine, allowing participating students to benefit from rigorous experiential learning on both coasts. All participants will graduate with their classes at home, but the paths to a diploma will cross much challenging and unchartered terrain.



The Eastport / Silicon Valley collaborative PACT school team will submit its detailed plan by 23 May, and from the semi-finalists 50 finalists will be announced by 20 July. Five final contest winners will be announced nationally on 4 August 2016.



The "XQ: The Super School Project" launched in September 2015 as "an open call to rethink and redesign the American high school." Core funding comes from the Board of the XQ Institute, chaired by Laurene Powell Jobs. The CEO and founder is Russlynn Ali, former Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, and Managing Director of Education at the Emerson Collective.



Ali notes that "Everyone involved in the XQ movement believes that high school education is fundamental to a vital nation. We are awed by the enthusiasm, optimism and renewed respect for public education reflected in so many of the applications. No prize, no matter how large, can create that kind of authentic renewal of faith and hope. XQ didn't make that, this challenge is only a vehicle for teams and communities to do it themselves."



In reply to the XQ call to "re-think high school", teams self-assembled in communities across America, with volunteer members representing 59 different occupations, including educators, artists, engineers, service workers, parents and students.



The XQ organizers point out that the breadth of ideas they have received is enormous, but a few patterns emerged leading up to the semi-final round currently underway. They note that many teams want schools to be the center of the community again for shared skill building, to embrace learning styles that focus on mastery and collaboration, to build curricula around student engagement and input, and to offer a deeper world readiness and dynamic thinking skills.



# # #
Apr 18, 2016 | By Alec

It seems like 3D printed drones can really be found everywhere, even in the Antarctic. The British Royal Navy has just revealed that one of their Antarctic ice patrol ships, the HMS Protector, successfully launched the tiny SULSA 3D printed drone from its decks. The drone did a lot more than take nice shots of icy wastelands, as it is actually a navigation drone that can help ships find their way through the thick ice of frozen seas.

Its the first time the Royal Navy has launched a 3D printed drone in that remote area of the world, but certainly not the first time they took a 3D printed drone into operation. The Navys partially 3D printed ScanEagle drones have been used by security patrols in the Gulf for a few years now. They also have numerous quadcopters in operation, but the Navy has been looking to expand their drone fleet considerably. This SULSA navigation drone is one of the first results of these new efforts, and was previously tested by the HMS Mersey off the coast of Dorset, Southern England, last summer.

But as you can imagine, the conditions in Dorset are hardly comparable to the environment of the Antarctic, so this successful test is quite a result. The SULSA was more than capable to provide real-time data to the engineers aboard the HMS Protector and proved itself as an excellent long-range reconnaissance tool. A regular quadcopter for short-range missions was also tested. This trial of these low-cost but highly versatile aircraft has been an important first step in establishing the utility of unmanned aerial vehicles in this region, said Captain Rory Bryan, the commanding officer of the HMS Protector. Its demonstrated to me that this is a capability that I can use to great effect.

The SULSA itself was made by researchers from Southampton University, which also explains the drones name (Southampton University Laser-Sintered Aircraft). The university, as you might know, is also a trend setter when it comes to drones, and even has a masters degree program for UAV development. The SULSA consists of four main body parts, all manufactured using an EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering 3D printer. Only a motor and some electronics needed to be added. According to the Navy, the SULSA was considerably less high-tech than other drones currently in operation, but it is still far more impressive than an average 3D printed drone. With a top speed of nearly 60mph, a battery life of 30 minutes and featuring completely noiseless engines, it costs 7,000 (nearly $10,000 USD) to make. The SULSA is also completely watertight, and can be fished out of the water and reused should it run out of power mid-flight.

The results of the successful tests have been sent to the Royal Navy headquarters in Portsmouth, to the Navys UAV unit in Culdrose and to the Maritime Warfare Centre at HMS Collingwood, and experts were impressed. I am delighted with the successful deployment of small unmanned aerial vehicles from HMS Protector in the Antarctic, said Commodore James Morley, the Navys Assistant Chief of Staff Maritime Capability. The whole team has overcome significant hurdles to demonstrate the enormous utility of these aircraft for affordable and persistent surveillance and reconnaissance from ships  even in the environmentally challenging environment of the Antarctic.

The Southampton team behind the SULSA was also very pleased with the results, and argued that drone developers need to use 3D printing more often. Not all of our aircraft are 3D printed and the biggest one is around 60 per cent 3D printed. At the moment we make this lovely sophisticated lightweight structure and then spend a week making all the wiring and soldering. Its labor-intensive and error prone. Our vision is that we 3D print all the wiring into the structure at the same time and that will be a huge step forward, said professor Jim Scanlan, the projects head scientist. 3D printing, he went on to say, even has the ability to recreate the elliptical wing structures of very large WWII aircraft, such as the Wellington bomber and the Spitfire. Both those old ideas had been parked but can now be reborn as 3D printing has removed a constraint, he said.

Commodore Morley went on to say that this 3D printed drone test is just a first step in the right direction. Although this was a relatively short duration trial to measure the relative merits of fixed and rotary wing embarked systems, we are continuing to review our options for acquisition of maritime unmanned aerial vehicles in the future, he concluded.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Apr 18, 2016 | By Alec

Just a few years ago, the very idea of 3D printed organs or bones was completely confined to the realm of science fiction. But experts are now predicting that patients could have access to 3D bioprinted tissue within the next decade, which is creating a lot of buzz and even raises ethical questions. Should we only replace existing tissue, or can we improve ourselves? If we can create functional organs, why not just build a whole new lifeform? In an attempt to make us think about such issues, Dutch visual artist Floris Kaayk recently shared his The Modular Body project. Consisting of 56 fictional clips detailing the creation of a 3D printed and blood-sucking organism called Oscar, the artistic project raises certain questions about the implications of 3D bioprinting.

The Modular Body is quite a shocking project, as it tells the (fortunately fictional) story of Oscar, a misshapen creature created by scientist Cornelis Vlasman using 3D bioprinting technologies. The video below, one of the 56 clips, presents a crowdfunding campaign for the scientific research that has led to Oscar, which claims that a team of Dutch scientists are using 3D bioprinting to effectively replace or provide an alternative to organic birthing. Whats more, this new bioprinting technique, which conceives of the human body as an "open system" rather than a "closed system," can supposedly improve the composition of the human body and even develop a completely new one. If we can create it in the lab, we can improve it from scratch, they say. A new body, which is more efficient, immortal and adaptable. With your help, they add, a hand-sized living prototype called Oscar could be realized.

If you were as intrigued as we were, you might have followed the rabbit hole down to The Modular Body website, a chaotic and visually impressive interface featuring 56 interconnected videos that delves further into The Oscar Project. The website, strategically, would not look out of place in a Sci-Fi film as the visitor is confronted with a barrage of clips of realistic looking biological and synthetic experiments, backed by a very ominous soundtrack. In one video, a skinless lung module is seen breathing, and in another a synthetic heart is shown beating. To not overwhelm viewers too much, the website was designed to operate on an algorithm that, while letting users click on whichever video icon they like, also suggests the next video to watch, keeping some sort of cohesiveness to the whole sci-fi nightmare narrative.

There is no denying that the project is eery: Oscar is a modern-day Frankenstein monster that is closely relying on the care of its maker. The real terror of the creature becomes apparent in another of the seemingly real video clips, this one of a round table discussion of scientists, who share some creepy details about the additively manufactured being. He really needs fresh blood daily, and its very important that [Oscar] is free of pathogens, one female scientist said. Is he preferring frozen or fresh blood? I think that if you could speak of being happy, he needs his supplies. Whether or not its fresh or frozen, another scientist added.

The implication is clear: the next stage in human development has been reached, and it will affect all of us. This is a worldwide eventthe entire mankind basically has to relate to Oscar, another scientist said. Because this is apparently what we can do with 21st century bioengineeringOscar challenges the divide between the natural and the artificial. Some other videos included in the project have even called modern definitions of lifeforms into question. In one, a fictional vlogger argues for a redefinition of life as more open and modular. This [3D printed Oscar] the division between man and machine is slowly thinning. This living creature provides insight into opportunities for the human body, she explains.

But rest assured, it is all fictional. As Kaayk later revealed to The Creators Project, it is simply a thought-provoking visual arts project that encourages the viewer to think more carefully about scientific development. Wanting to create a fictional story about custom-made lifeforms, he was especially intrigued by the sensational press that sometimes covers the development of 3D printed organs. Usually the headlines of those kind of articles present it as if it's already possible to create operational organs with currently available technology, Kaayk explained. If you start to read further, you'll discover that this field of research is still in a very early stage. It's not possible yet to print functioning, vascularized organsmaybe in 30-40 years, but right now it's science fiction.

But like the rest of us, he dared to dream. If we can print organs and body parts, why not completely redefine and redesign the human body? That's when I started approaching the current human body as a closed system. Difficult to repair or adapt, maybe even obsolete. An open, modular system could become immortal, and adaptable, he recalls. He therefore decided to develop a story shows us the first of these lab-born lifeforms.

To make this whole concept as realistic as possible, Kaayk decided to set up a multi-layered platform that counts on the imagination and analytic ability of the viewer. Together with LUSTlab I ended up with an algorithm that connects the fragments in a logical orderevery video has it's own story tags, Kaayk explains. As soon as you watch a video, video's with matching story tags pop up next to it like recommendations or suggestions from the algorithm. While finding your way through this story, your own story path evolves.

Through this interactive platform, you are thus effectively creating your own Sci-Fi story, which you can share through social media. The ominous interface is simply a glue that holds the complete story together, and satirizes technologists as much as it invites you to think about where science is taking us. And while the Oscar Project is a truly remarkable and thought-provoking multimedia platform that is very entertaining, somewhere in the back of your mind, you will also be hoping that Oscar never truly sees the light of day.

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Jake wrote at 4/20/2016 5:46:20 AM:Nice




Apr 18, 2016 | By Tess

NASA, a consistent proponent of additive manufacturing technologies, is reaching out to young makers from across the United States to take part in its most recent Future Engineers challenge, Think Outside the Box. The challenge, which was organized in celebration of the arrival of BEAM, the first expandable habitat at the International Space Station (ISS) as well as the launch of the first commercial 3D printer sent into space, is calling out to K-12 students to innovative and design a 3D printable expandable object, which could potentially be used by astronauts in space.

Within the context of space exploration, being able to travel with less cargo and equipment is crucial, as it means smaller rocket payloads, which help save both on space and fuel. Considering this, having the means to additively manufacture parts and objects within space is a revolutionary step for space exploration as it effectively cuts back on the ready-made parts that need to be shipped. Additionally, being able to create objects and parts that can be expanded beyond the build volume of the ISS on board 3D printer, would be an even greater step, and is the essential inspiration behind the Think Outside the Box junior challenge.

The challenge, as mentioned, is asking young innovative minds to conceive of and design a 3D printed object which can expand or be expanded on beyond the limiting build volume of the ISS 3D printer, which measures 14cm long x 10 cm wide x 10 cm tall. As the official challenge page explains, If you are a K-12 student in the United States, your challenge is to design an object that assembles, telescopes, hinges, accordions, grows, or expands to become larger than the printing bounds of the AMF 3D printerThe assembled or expanded item should be useful for an astronaut living in microgravity on the International Space Station.

The Think Outside the Box challenge was put together by NASA in collaboration with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), who are hoping to promote STEM education as well as to inspire the next generations of makers, engineers, and even astronauts.

The challenge will have two winners, one from the junior designs (5-12 years old) and one from the teen designs (13-19 years old), which will be announced early October 2016. The contest itself will be open until August 1st, when all submissions need to be in. The prizes for the challenge are especially exciting, as the top prize winners will be flown to Las Vegas for a VIP tour of Bigelow Aerospace, which develops expandable space station modules. Additionally, the top four finalists will receive an awesome Heimplanet inflatable tent, and the top 10 semifinalists will each receive a $50 gift certificate for Shapeways 3D printing service.

If you are under the age of 20 and believe you have the skills or vision necessary to take part in the NASA Future Engineers challenge, or know a bright young mind that is up to the task, get designing and maybe your 3D printed expandable object will make it to space! For those over the age limit, perhaps NASA's challenge to design the In-Space Manufacturing logo will interest you.

Posted in 3D Printing Events

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by Maarten Boudry

Maarten Boudry

A man walking in the forest at night arrives at a house with lights burning inside. Looking through the window, he sees people jumping frantically and flailing about. Poor fellows, thinks the man: they are having seizures, or they must be terribly ill, or they have become insane. What the man doesn't hear is the music playing inside. The people are dancing and singing for a wedding. Gershom Gorenberg recounts this Jewish-Chassidic parable in his splendid book The End of Days on the danger of apocalyptic belief systems. Its morale? If you don't hear the music of faith, you will conclude that the dancers are out of their mind.

In our secular age, many have grown estranged from religion and turned a deaf ear to faith. All we hear is its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, in the words of Matthew Arnold. Religion seemed like a distant echo of times gone by.

Now, alas, we can no longer ignore the ear-shattering blasts of suicide belts, the rattle of machine rifles, and the shouting of Allahu Akbar invariably preceding it. Terrorist attacks dedicated to the greater glory of a Supreme Being are being carried out across the world almost on a daily basis. The religious motivation of ISIS and numerous kindred groups is blatantly obvious for anyone who cares to listen to their faith-imbued songs. The atrocities are justified on the basis of religious scripture and tradition. They are intended as punishment for our decadent and sinful ways, for our refusal to accept the final revelation of Islam, and for our resistance against the divinely sanctioned caliphate.

Godless westerners, however, for whom God's name mainly evokes sweet childhood memories, find it exceedingly difficult to understand the mental universe of religious fanatics. Religion, in the eyes of these people, cannot be more than a convenient pretext for violence, a facade disguising true motivations. Besides, does anyone reallybelieve in those juvenile fantasies about a heavenly brothel with 72 dark-eyed virgins and wine that doesn't give you hangovers?

This inability to understand religious fanatics, ironically, is shared by many moderate religious believers. These folk see religion as intrinsically peaceful and benign, and therefore cannot accept its potential for hatred and violence, without experiencing violent cognitive dissonance. In lieu of religion, these two allied groups try desperately to unearth some grievance or frustration on the part of terrorists which would be understandable from within a secular frame of mind, and which would be commensurate to the their utterly barbaric acts. Explanations that are still in vogue, despite having been repeatedly refuted, include socio-economic disenfranchisement, unemployment, troubled family backgrounds, discrimination and racism. Also popular are circular non-explanations such as brainwashing (but then who washed the brains of the brainwashers?), or the one to which the man in the parable resorted: insanity.

For these people, if religion plays a role at all, it's only a side show. The leaders of ISIS may be devout, but most recruits are just violent criminals and psychopaths. Or, alternatively, the foot soldiers of jihad may be religious zealots, but they have been shrewdly exploited as cannon fodder by worldly leaders craving for power and wealth.

This is a dramatic failure of imagination, which has real consequences. After the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Salman Rushdie affair, some maintained that, if only we stopped drawing scabrous cartoons and writing irreverent stories about each other's prophets, we could all get along and no such horrible tragedies would have to occur again. Even today, there are some who believe that ISIS will leave us alone as soon as we pull out of Iraq and Syria. One of the reason why authorities underestimated the threat of ISIS in Europe is that they could not imagine why the group would divert resources to target Western countries, at a time when they were struggling to establish a caliphate at home. Because that wouldn't make sense, right?

Such tragic miscalculations ignore the inherent expansionism of apocalyptic jihadism, which commands the caliph to wage offensive war against the whole world, including even their closest ideological kin in Saudi-Arabia, until they have enslaved, killed or converted every last infidel and apostate' (meaning all Muslims from other sects than their own extreme brand of Salafism). ISIS fanatics see the events on the world stage, both their terrorist plots and our reaction against it, through the lens of their apocalyptic visions, with the true believers on one side, fighting for a worldwide caliphate and for the rewards of paradise, and the assorted crusaders, kafirs, hypocrites, apostates, blasphemers and heretics on the other side. They eagerly look forward to the final showdown between the two camps in a place called Dabiq (not coincidentally the name of their glossy), starring the Messiah (Mahdi) and Satan (Dajjal), and a cameo for a certain Jesus (Jeshua).

In a recent paper, the biologist Jerry Coyne and I have taken issue with this inability of many of our secular friends to understand the perspective of devout fundamentalists. They have become so alienated from religious faith, steeped as they are in a thoroughly secularized environment, that they struggle to take it seriously at all. They don't just find the doctrines implausible, but they find it even implausible that anyone would be insane enough to believe them. In our paper, and in the ensuing exchange with philosopher Neil Van Leeuwen, we call this secular incredulity in the face of religious faith disbelief in belief. If you find yourself doubting whether anyone genuinely believes in an afterlife with 72 bashful virgins, you are a disbeliever in belief.

Even if people admit, reluctantly, that jihadi terrorists have some bizarre beliefs about the nature of the universe, many still scoff at the idea that this animates their behavior. The fact that ISIS terrorist attacks are so indiscriminate, targeting even fellow Muslims, is often appealed to as proof that religion is not their genuine motivation. But this ignores the takfiri theology of jihadism, according to which any Muslim who lives under a secular regime with democratically elected leaders, and who has failed to heed the call to join the caliphate, is ipso facto an apostate deserving to be killed. Many commentators also fail to grasp the true objectives of ISIS, even while paying lip service to the group's undeniable religious motivation. This is witnessed by the many gratuitous instances of the trope If we [blank], then the terrorists win. In response to the horrible attacks in Brussel, the editors of the New York Times opined that, if we now chose to increase surveillance and rein in civil liberties, we are only serving the terrorists' end. But though it is true that we should not sacrifice our civil liberties lightly, does anyone seriously believe that the main objective of a death cult like ISIS is something as parochial as more surveillance in the West? Terrorists do not want to turn our nations into police states  they want to topple them and establish a world-spanning caliphate, so as to hasten the End of Days. More surveillance may or may not be a good idea in our fight against ISIS, but that is our call. Terrorists could not care less: a godless police state is no less of an offence to them (remember the fight of the mujahideen against the Soviet Union) than a society where civil liberties are constitutionally enshrined.

It is also argued that the criminal records and licentious behavior of ISIS recruits show that they are far less pious than they proclaim to be. But again, this argument fails to appreciate the belief system and ethos of jihadism. In the eyes of ISIS, unbelievers and apostates are fair game, to which the usual standards of moral conduct do not apply. If your aim is to wage a righteous jihad, then any available means are justified by that end. In her undercover work in Brussels town of Molenbeek, Hind Fraihi already noted that radical preachers explicitly sanction stealing from infidels, as long as the spoils are invested in righteous jihad. ISIS manuals encourage jihadists on European soil to dispense with compulsory religious clothing, shave their beards and even wear Christian crucifixes, so as to better blend in among the infidels and not to raise any suspicions.

Moreover, the argument that some IS recruits already have a pre-existing attraction to violence, for which ISIS ideology simply provides a convenient way of expression, has another obvious shortcoming. If you enjoy violence and bloodshed, why blow yourself up in the process? It is a strange way of expressing your violent proclivities that doesn't even allow you to witness your own achievements, because you yourself are instantly obliterated. Is there any way to make sense of such bizarre behavior, except in the light of heartfelt beliefs about rewards in the afterlife?

Hard though it may be for the godless to accept, some people really do believe in the imminent End Times and the 72 virgins awaiting them in paradise. We ignore the reality of such sincere convictions at our own peril. The terrorists of IS are neither mad nor brainwashed. Their brains have been infected by a number of dangerous supernatural delusions, with deep roots in the Quran and in monotheistic tradition.

If you continue to believe that ISIS has worldly objectives, that it makes negotiable demands, that military interventions will deter rather than galvanize it, or that it has nothing to do with Islam because many of its victims are Muslims, you are living in a fantasy world yourself. You are deluded about other people's delusions. You are like the man in the Jewish parable, tone-deaf to the Danse Macabre of religious fanaticism.

* * *

Maarten Boudry (1984) is a postdoctoral fellow of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) at Ghent University. In 2011, he defended his dissertation on pseudoscience, Here Be Dragons. Exploring the Hinterland of Science, consisting of a collection of papers that have been published in Philosophy of Science, Philosophia, Quarterly Review of Biology, Science & Education and Philosophical Psychology. He is co-editor of Philosophy of Pseudoscience. Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem (2013), together with Massimo Pigliucci. His current research deals with evolutionary epistemology, in particular the problem of human irrationality. Other research interests include naturalism, skepticism, and the conflict between science and religion. He just published Illusions for the Advanced. Why Truth is Always Better (Illusies voor gevorderden, in Dutch) and is co-author of The Doubting Thomas Might Be Right, (with Johan Braeckman, 2011).
by Carol A. Westbrook

What should I do with this? my husband asked, as he handed me the letter. It was a Press Ganey survey asking him to evaluate a recent visit to his doctor.

In case you have never seen one, a Press Ganey survey is a multi-page questionnaire in which you asked to rate your experiences during a hospital or outpatient clinic visit, from 0 (bad) to 5 (best). The completed questionnaire is mailed to Press Ganey, which compiles and analyzes the data, and reports the results to the hospital or health care system that ordered the survey.

The survey asks questions like, Did you have to wait long to see your doctor? Was the staff pleasant? Was the waiting room clean? Did your doctor take enough time to explain things to you? Did your doctor smile and shake your hand? Did the valet parker return your car promptly? It also does not ask questions that the health care organization does not want to hear, for example, Was your doctor given enough time with you? Did you actually get to see the doctor instead of the nurse practitioner? Press Ganey has been called an Angels' List for clinics and hospitals.

That is why administrators love Press Ganey surveysbecause they know that good scores will bring in more business. They also have the side benefit of providing an outlet for unsatisfied or angry patients who otherwise would be pounding on their door. Giving a doctor a 0 makes a disgruntled customer feel that he is addressing a problem, without the manager ever having to do anything about it!

Most importantly, though, patient satisfaction scores provide objective data that can be used to manipulate physicians by lowering their salaries or even firing them if they do not maintain a high score.

Patients are frequently surprised to learn that the salaries of their doctors are tied to their survey scores, yet this is the reality for almost two-thirds of physicians employed by health care groups. For some doctors, 10% to 20% or more of their salary is at risk. Fortunately for me, when I was an employed physician it was only about 1%.

Why do administrators push physicians to drive up their patient satisfaction scores? For two simple reasons: higher scores bring in more business, but will also result in higher payments for their business, due to the Pay for Performance mandate.

To understand the Pay for Performance mandate, it helps to look at the history of the Press Ganey organization. The survey was created in 1985 when an anthropologist and a sociologist were asked to provide a tool for hospitals to determine if patients were satisfied with the care that they received. The business expanded rapidly after 2002, when CMS, the Federal agency that administers Medicare, announced a program to survey patients and require public reporting of the results. This was the result of a Federal a mandate to empower patients to make more informed decisions about health care by improving accountability and public disclosure. In 2003 Press Ganey went private for $100 million and was sold four years later for $673 million. Today, it typically reports over $200 million in yearly sales.

Press Ganey's business got another boost recently with the ObamaCare Pay for Performance initiative. Hospitals that perform poorly on quality measures forfeit 1% of their Medicare payments, a number that will double in 2017, putting some $2 billion at risk. Thirty percent of that determination will be based on hospital rankings from mandated patient surveys. Because so much is at stake, administrators push their physicians to generate higher scores. A Press Ganey survey for a large health care system such as the Cleveland Clinic could easily cost a half million dollars. Who pays for this? You, the patient. It is yet one more reason that a night in a hospital room costs more than a stay in a luxury New York hotel.

Yet it is hard to imagine that Press Ganey truly addresses the pay for performance mandate. A patient survey is not capable of measuring doctors' competence or performance. What they measure, instead, is patient satisfaction with their visit to the doctor. And there is a serious downside to coercing a physician to accede to their patients' desires, since those desires may be medically inappropriate or even harmful.

A recent study published by researchers at UC Davis (1), using data from nearly 52,000 adults, found that the most satisfied patients spent 9% more on health care and prescription drugs, were more likely to be admitted to hospital, and had higher death rates. It has been speculated that these patients were more satisfied because they were given what they requestedincluding extra tests and medications, which may lead to more harm or complications. Dr. Aleksandra Zgierska, an addiction specialist, believes that the epidemic rise in narcotic addiction is partly due to physicians' over-prescribing pain medication in order to improve their patient satisfaction scores. In an article for the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2012 (2) she wrote, Patients can report dissatisfaction based on real or perceived problems including whether a clinician did or did not prescribe a desired medication. In some institutions, the first question on the patient satisfaction survey queries the extent of agreement with the statement: 'I was satisfied with the way my doctor treated my pain.'

Pressures on physicians to drive up patient satisfaction scores to provide better care may thus have the opposite effect of leading to worse care, while further driving up costs. In my opinion it would make more sense if the hospital administratorswho control scheduling, cleanliness, and ambiancehad their salaries tied to Press Ganey scores, and let the physicians establish their own performance measures. There are a number of professional organizations that provide this service, such as The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, whose surveys have led to improvements such as decreases in hospital-acquired infections, fewer falls, and fewer unnecessary blood transfusions. But Joint Commission surveys are performed by health care professionals rather than patients, while Press Ganey surveys are performed by a multi-million dollar company with great lobbying power. Perhaps it is time to rethink the Pay for Performance mandate.

What should I do with this survey? my husband repeated.

I was inclined to tell him to throw it in the trash, given my dislike of patient satisfaction surveys. But then I had another thought.

Answer every question with a 5, I suggested.

But it's a survey. I can't give all fives! he protested. Like many adults raised in our school system, he couldn't give all 5's any more than he could answer all his SAT questions with the same letter answer. Or could he?

Why not? I asked, You like your doctor, and there was nothing negative about your experience.

He did as I suggested.

If we patients took a stand and agreed to score every survey item with a 5, then the patient satisfaction survey, and its unnecessary added costs, would become meaningless. With luck, it would be replaced by a system that truly measures a doctor's competence and performance, rather than office ambiance. This is unlikely to happen, but I can dream, can't I?

REFERENCES CITED

1. Joshua J. Fenton et al. A National Study of Patient Satisfaction, Health Care Utilization, Expenditures, and Mortality. Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(5):405-411

2. A. Zgierska et al. Patient Satisfaction, Prescription Drug Abuse, and Potential Unintended Consequences. JAMA 2012 Apr 4: 307(13) 1377-1378
David Robert Grimes in The Guardian:

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, and the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl incident. Together, these constitute the two greatest nuclear accidents the world has ever seen.

Even now, widespread confusion over these disasters still blights rational discussion on energy production; too often the debate becomes needlessly acrimonious, reliant on rhetoric in lieu of facts. Yet as climate change becomes an ever-encroaching factor, we need more than ever to have a reasoned discussion on nuclear power. To this end, its worth dispelling some persistent myths.

The events in the Ukrainian town of Pripyat on the morning of 26 April 1986 have permanently etched the name Chernobyl, and all its connotations, into the public mind. With a dark irony, it was a poorly conducted safety experiment that was the catalyst for the worst nuclear disaster in history. The full odious sequence of events that led to the accident would constitute an entire article. In essence, however, the mixture of flawed design, disabled redundancies and a tragic disregard for experimental protocol all feature heavily in the blueprint of the disaster. The net result of this errant test was a massive steam explosion, replete with enough kick to blow the 2,000 ton reactor casting clean through the roof of the reactor building.

Despite the sheer explosive force of the eruption, what ensued was not a nuclear blast.

More here.
Alibaba Group, the worlds largest online and mobile marketplace, and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), the New Zealand Governments international business development agency, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today to formalize discussions for strengthening trade between China and New Zealand and support the growth of New Zealand brands in China.

The signing ceremony of the MOU was witnessed by New Zealand Prime Minister, Rt Hon John Key, and Alibaba Groups Founder and Executive Chairman, Jack Ma, soon after their keynote speeches at an event held by the China Entrepreneur Club, the premier business leader platform in China. The cooperation between Alibaba and NZTE will foster greater trade opportunities for New Zealand businesses seeking to enter the vast Chinese consumer market, by leveraging services and platforms offered by Alibabas ecosystem.

The MOU aims to broaden Alibabas existing partnership with NZTE and is a significant step in establishing a closer cooperation to promote trade and online commerce between China and New Zealand. Under the MOU, the parties will explore different collaboration opportunities, including Alibaba providing support for New Zealand companies to enter the Chinese consumer market through its various e-commerce channels, while NZTE will assist local companies to understand and optimize the opportunities Alibabas ecosystem offers in terms of business growth in China.

We are excited to extend our cooperation with the New Zealand Government by collaborating with NZTE to support local businesses to enter China through Alibabas platforms, said Maggie Zhou, the newly appointed Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, who also represented Alibaba at the MOU signing ceremony. With our strong networks in China and expertise in e-commerce, we will enable Chinese consumers to benefit from the premium products and fresh foods that New Zealand businesses can offer.

Peter Chrisp, Chief Executive of NZTE, said: New Zealand businesses are already using Alibabas channels to sell a wide range of products including dairy, meat, seafood, fruit, wine, beverage, cereal, skincare and health supplements. By providing dedicated services for New Zealand products, this new arrangement offers significant opportunities for New Zealand businesses to reach more consumers as well as advocating New Zealands reputation as a place of open spaces, open hearts and open minds.

Alibaba and its wider ecosystem will offer New Zealand businesses a wide range of services to help cultivate opportunities in China via its major e-commerce platforms. These key services will enable merchants to sell into China through retail (B2C) or wholesale (B2B) platforms, cross-promote tourism between China and New Zealand, and provide seamless payment solutions to both consumers and merchants. These services include:

Tmall.com (http://www.tmall.com), Chinas largest third-party B2C platform for brands and retailers;

(http://www.tmall.com), Chinas largest third-party B2C platform for brands and retailers; Tmall Global (http://www.tmall.hk), a cross-border solution and an extension of Tmalls B2C business for overseas imports;

(http://www.tmall.hk), a cross-border solution and an extension of Tmalls B2C business for overseas imports; Tmall Fresh Food (http://miao.tmall.com), a vertical dedicated to fresh foods sourced from around the world;

(http://miao.tmall.com), a vertical dedicated to fresh foods sourced from around the world; Alibaba.com (http://www.alibaba.com), Chinas largest global online B2B wholesale platform;

(http://www.alibaba.com), Chinas largest global online B2B wholesale platform; 1688.com (http://www.1688.com), leading online B2B wholesale marketplace in China;

(http://www.1688.com), leading online B2B wholesale marketplace in China; Alitrip (http://www.alitrip.com), leading online travel service platform; and

(http://www.alitrip.com), leading online travel service platform; and Alipay (http://www.alipay.com - via its associated companies), secure, trustworthy, and convenient online and mobile payment services.

NZTE will work closely with New Zealand companies to promote local specialties and fresh produce in China. With New Zealands reputation for producing exceptional quality fresh food including dairy, meat, seafood, fruit and wine, there are significant opportunities for this sector as Chinese consumers increasingly demand high quality fresh products.

To better support Australia and New Zealand markets, Maggie will be leading a team with the addition of a New Zealander, John OLoghlen as Director, leading business development for the two regions. John has extensive cross-border trading experiences and knowledge to support the companys developments focusing on assisting Australia and New Zealand businesses to connect with Chinese consumers via Alibaba platforms.

In honouring the new partnership with New Zealand government, Tmall.com, Tmall Global, and Alitrip are jointly hosting a New Zealand campaign from April 17-19, showcasing primarily honey, cosmetics and personal care products from New Zealand. For more details, please visit: http://newzealand.tmall.com

See video on Alizila.com, Alibaba Groups corporate news website, of how Tmall helps New Zealand seafood reach rural China at: http://bit.ly/1SF4CY0

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Groups mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume. Founded in 1999, the company provides the fundamental technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help businesses leverage the power of the Internet to establish an online presence and conduct commerce with hundreds of millions of consumers and other businesses.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160417005102/en/

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(Bloomberg View) This probably will beggar belief for the millions of Americans struggling to meet this year's April 18 deadline to file their income tax returns, but the Internal Revenue Service says it has gotten better at handling taxpayer questions. Two years ago, only 38 percent of the taxpayers who called for help got the assistance they needed. Last year, the number went up to 70 percent.

That the IRS counts this as progress is not exactly reassuring. But its very much in keeping with the long and vexed history of what is known as taxpayer assistance. For seven decades, the IRS has struggled to answer questions about the increasingly byzantine tax code. Sometimes it has succeeded; just as often, it has failed.

Its hard to imagine now, but until about the middle of the 20th century, relatively few people filled out Form 1040. The IRSthen known as the Bureau of Internal Revenuedid little outreach, and when it did, the rare taxpayers who sought assistance actually spoke with deputy collectors of internal revenue, relatively high-ranking government officials who probably knew the tax code inside and out.

Things began to change during World War II, when Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1942, which forced many more Americans to pay taxes. Thats when the trouble began. As more people paid taxes, more people filled out forms incorrectly. They sought out help at the tax agency, but often found the experience frustrating and impersonal. Then, in 1948, Congress banned the use of the W-2 declaration as a substitute for filling out the dreaded Form 1040. The number of confused taxpayers seeking help shot up more than 50 percent in a single year.

In 1949, the lead tax collector for Massachusetts experimented with herding people into a room and then tried to walk them through the form using a public address system. This method of mass-producing tax returns was not without problems: any questions could bring the rest of the class to a grinding halt.

By the early 1950s, complaints about the IRS spurred President Harry Truman to craft Reorganization Plan No. 1, an overhaul of the Bureau of Internal Revenue aimed at making it more modern, efficient and responsive to taxpayers. President Dwight D. Eisenhower implemented the reforms, which sought to decentralize the agency by opening more local offices. He also renamed it the Internal Revenue Service.

These reforms, a congressional report later noted, were animated by the then-revolutionary conviction that taxpayers should be able to receive from the IRS the same level of service expected from the private sector.

So far, so good. Unfortunately, some IRS employees didnt get the memo, including Coleman Andrews, the commissioner of internal revenue in 1954. Andrews, apparently tired of Americans taxing the patience of his employees with their stupid questionsdo pet cats count as dependents? instructed his bureaucrats to halt their practice of helping citizens fill out tax returns unless the person soliciting assistance was illiterate, did not speak English or could not lift a pencil. Everyone else had to face the dreaded 1040 on their own.

The outcry was immediate. Andrews departed, and his successor, Russell Harrington, reversed the order. Every taxpayer should be treated with courtesy, patience, and a genuine attitude of helpfulness. The Washington Post editorial page noted that the sudden graciousness of the IRS was more likely a pragmatic recognition that when it comes to making out income tax returns most taxpayers are illiterates and unable to read the English employed by the Internal Revenue Service.

But this new conceptthat taxpayers were customers and entitled to the same kind of attentive service found at, say, Macysquickly ran into problems. For starters, unlike the customers in a department store, taxpayers were a squirrely lot, generally unhappy with making the trek to an IRS office, and rarely happy to hear the news that, yes, they did owe money to the federal government.

Many of them, moreover, wanted the IRS to fill out the entire formnames, birthdates, and so onand not just the confusing parts.

A tug of war ensued. The IRS added more agents, but forced people to fill out as much of the forms as possible. Nonetheless, more people showed up in their offices. This spurred the agency to rely on telephone service lines, with the first toll-free service center opened in 1965 (local telephone service centers had been set up in the previous decade).

In the late 1960s, newspapers began calling these phone lines, not to get advice, but to determine whether the advice given was accurate. It wasntat least not consistently. When the Chicago Daily News presented IRS phone reps with a series of questions, they got incorrect answers 50 percent of the time. Worse, the IRS quickly established a policy that incorrect answers given by their own employees could not be used as an excuse for filling out forms incorrectly. Court rulings affirmed this policy in the 1970s.

This didnt stop taxpayers from besieging IRS employees with questions. Telephone wait times went up, as did taxpayer tempers. In 1972, IRS Commissioner Johnnie Walters inaugurated yet another wave of reforms aimed at providing better service for the people he called his customers. The decade witnessed the introduction of mobile taxmobiles that put tax advice on wheels; increasingly comprehensive training for anyone charged with advising the public, and measures aimed at reducing telephone wait times.

The IRS had plenty of room for improvement: studies in the 1970s found that agents routinely handed out bad advice to callers between 10 percent and 25 percent of the time, and that many callers never managed to get any help at all. In 1978 alone, 20 percent of callers hung up while still on hold; by 1984, after President Ronald Reagan had cut the IRS's budget, the number had shot up to 28 percent.

And high error rates continued to plague the agency. Although these problems have ebbed and flowed since then, they have hardly gone away, despite a significant shift of IRS resources in the late 1990s from enforcement to customer service.

Why? That the IRS never quite manages to cure its problems is not the fault of the agency. As the tax code has gotten more complex, the ability of low-level government bureaucrats to answer every taxpayer questionnever mind answer it correctlyhas become increasingly difficult, if not impossible.

The IRS can try, but absent reform of the tax code itself, it is fighting a losing battle. And no amount of attention to customer service will fix the problem.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners, nor of Accounting Today.
(Bloomberg) President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported adjusted gross income of $436,065 for 2015, down 8.7 percent from the previous year, according to tax returns released Friday by the White House.

The Obamas paid $81,472 in federal taxes for an effective income tax rate of 18.7 percent. They made most of their income from the presidents salary, plus $60,745 in book royalties. They were due a federal refund of $22,859.

Barack Obama, 54, and Michelle Obama, 52, donated $64,066 to charity, 14.7 percent of their adjusted gross income, according to a statement issued with the returns. Their largest donation, $9,066 went to the Fisher House Foundation, a Rockville, Maryland-based organization that provides housing to families of military members and veterans receiving medical treatment. The next largest donations, both for $5,000, went to Sidwell Friends School, a private school that their two daughters attend, and the Beau Biden Foundation, which honors Vice President Joe Bidens late son.

The White House also released a state return showing that the Obama family paid $16,017 in Illinois taxes.

Biden and his wife, Jill, reported $392,233 in adjusted gross income and $91,546 in federal taxes for an effective tax rate of 23.3 percent. Their income was up 1 percent from 2014.

The Bidens donated $6,620 to charity, 1.7 percent of their adjusted gross income. Their largest donation, $2,400, was to the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware.
A roundup of some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

Nashville, Tenn.: Preparer Nicole Bond Hicks, 45, has been indicted on charges related to preparing and filing false income tax returns.

Hicks was charged with 14 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns for other individuals and one count of interfering with the administration of the internal revenue laws.

According to the indictment, Hicks owned the tax prep business Americas Tax Table, and from approximately 2007 through 2011 she prepared and caused to be filed some 3,700 returns on behalf of clients. The indictment charges that she aided in the preparation of at least 14 false returns for others from January 2010 through March 2011.

The fraudulent returns inflated or created fictitious medical and dental expenses, cash charitable contributions, and fictitious unreimbursed employee business expenses.

If convicted, Hicks faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.

Glendale, Calif.: Preparer Michael Joseph Calalang Cabuhat, 40, has been arrested on charges that he defrauded clients of his tax prep business by diverting refunds into his own accounts.

Cabuhat, a resident of the Hollywood Hills West neighborhood of Los Angeles and who refers to himself in online postings as celebritytaxguy, was arrested pursuant to a criminal complaint that charges him with wire fraud, aggravated ID theft and structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements. Cabuhat is half-owner of VisionQwest Resource Group Inc., which operates VisionQwest Accountancy Group and Icon Tax Group Inc., in Glendale.

According to case documents, Cabuhat defrauded his clients in at least two ways. In some instances, the client was given a copy of a return that showed a much smaller refund than on the return Cabuhat actually filed with the IRS on behalf of the taxpayer. Sometimes, Cabuhat would simply increase the amount of tax owed on the taxpayers copy of the return, decreasing the refund; other times he manipulated reported expenses on the filed returns to increase the refund.

Without the taxpayers knowledge, Cabuhat directed the IRS to deposit the small amount reflected on the taxpayers copy of the return into the taxpayers bank account and deposit the remainder into a bank account that Cabuhat controlled.

In other instances, according to the complaint, Cabuhat gave the client a copy of a return that falsely showed a tax due, but Cabuhat would file with the IRS a return that sought a refund. In these instances, Cabuhat would tell the taxpayer to make the tax payment directly to him so he could remit the payment to the IRS. In fact, Cabuhat allegedly kept the tax payment and directed the IRS to deposit the refund that the client should have received into a bank account that he controlled.

From 2010 through 2015, Cabuhat allegedly used this scheme to steal more than $1.2 million in refunds that should have gone to 144 clients.

In addition, in September of 2014 Cabuhat structured cash deposits to avoid federal bank reporting requirements. Specifically, he structured a $29,700 cash deposit into three separate transactions of $9,900 over seven days, allegedly to evade the reporting requirement triggered by cash transactions of more than $10,000. On the day after these structured transactions were completed, Cabuhat wrote a $24,500 check to purchase a Ferrari.

If convicted, Cabuhat faces a maximum of 27 years in prison.

New York  Preparer Alabi Gbangbala, a.k.a. Babatunde Alabi Babaia, 52, was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release and was ordered to pay $178,209 restitution to the IRS for preparing false federal income tax returns.

According to court documents and in-court statements, Gbangbala was the operator of Broadfield, a tax prep business on Staten Island. For tax years 2008 and 2009, he prepared false federal individual income tax returns for clients by, among other things, failing to report accurate exemptions, falsifying business receipts and losses on Schedules C and inflating or fabricating charitable contributions and unreimbursed employee expenses.

He also filed false tax returns for himself by underreporting his income for tax years 2008 through 2010.

Gbangbala pleaded guilty last June to one count of preparing a false return.

Kansas City, Kan.: Preparer Antione Dorsey, 38, has pleaded guilty to one count of preparing false tax returns.

Dorsey, owner of Day-1 Tax Service, admitted including false items on his clients income tax returns without their knowledge or authorization. He falsely inflated taxpayers incomes by falsifying gross receipts listed on Schedules C, apparently qualifying clients for the EITC. In other instances, Dorsey falsified itemized deductions on Schedules A to fraudulently increase refunds.

Dorsey caused fraudulent refund claims of approximately $74,400 to be made to the IRS and approximately $13,980 in fraudulent claims to be made to the Kansas Department of Revenue. Sentencing is June 27, when he faces a maximum of three years in prison and payment of restitution.

Nashville, Tenn.: Preparer Joshua Gotwe Chinamora, 37, of Plano, Texas, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release on charges of conspiracy and filing false tax returns. He was also ordered to pay $140,705 restitution to the IRS.

Chinamora pleaded guilty in November to two counts of an 11-count indictment charging him and co-defendant Moven Mpofu with conspiracy and preparing false returns. Chinamora admitted that between January 2007 and April 2010, he and Mpofu operated Acura Tax Service and prepared and e-filed some 58 false returns.

Each of these returns claimed false refunds from $1,400 to $7,600. False entries on the returns included filing status, moving expenses, medical expenses, gifts to charity, child and dependent care credits, education credits and dependent credits. Clients for whom Chinamora and Mpofu prepared and filed returns did not provide the defendants with the false information and did not know that the returns were falsely prepared.

Mpofu is currently a fugitive and his case remains pending.

Annapolis, Md.: State Comptroller Peter Franchot has suspended processing electronic and paper returns from four additional private preparers, bringing the total number of firms to 65 at 68 locations throughout the region and outside of Maryland.

The most recent action was due to a high volume of questionable returns received. Preparers or businesses notified of the action are Taxpoint Solution Accountants in Upper Marlboro, Md., Tax Care in Baltimore, ICS Group in Lanham, Md., and Tax Time (a.k.a. Speedy Tax Service) in Washington.

These suspensions follow four previous announcements in the past two months that the comptrollers office halted processing returns from various preparers.

Suspicious characteristics detected on the returns included: business income reported when taxpayers did not own a business; refund amounts requested much higher than previous-year returns; inflated or undocumented, or both, business expenses; dependents claimed when taxpayer did not provide required support or care; inflated wages and withholding information; and inflated itemized deductions.
Airbnb, The worlds leading community driven hospitality company, announces its strategic partnership with The Times of India Group. The partnership comes as part of Airbnbs plans to focus on developing the Indian travel market. As a part of the partnership, The Times Group will drive awareness of Airbnb accommodations, and help Airbnb create a truly localized presence for India, leveraging The Times Groups vast network of media and operational resources.



This is a key partnership for Times Global Partners, an initiative from The Times Group, that supports the launch and expansion of emerging global digital companies in India. Previously, Times Global Partners has partnered with Huffington Post, Coursera, as well as other digital companies.



Satyan Gajwani, Managing Director, Times Internet , said, We are excited to partner with Airbnb to transform the way Indians travel. As a personal user, Ive found that Airbnb has brought a new dimension of convenience, value, and uniqueness to travel. We look forward to working closely with Airbnb to evangelize community driven hospitality.



Commenting on the partnership, Nathan Blecharczyk, Chief Technology Officer & CoFounder, Airbnb , said, We are excited about the opportunity that India presents, and to have one of the most respected partners in The Times Group. We are working on adapting our product for the Indian market so that Indian travelers can live like a local anywhere in the world.
Inspired by a true story, the agencys latest campaign revolves around Parles quest for the perfect Marie recipe.

Parle has a great tradition of taste, nutrition and quality. The brand has grown from strength to strength by concentrating on consumer tastes and preferences, ever since its inception.

Based on the consumer insight that there are various Marie biscuits but no one knows the original Marie and its original taste, Parle has now rediscovered Parle BakeSmith Marie making it its yet another endeavor to bring the best to the consumer.

The discovery of the original Marie recipe can be explained through Mrs. Smiths story. Mrs Smith was a beautiful young lady who lived in the countryside of London, who was a beautiful young lady living in the countryside of London. She was poor and made her living baking biscuits. One day, she thought of experimenting with her biscuits and went on to bake a unique biscuit now popularly known as Marie. Her small bakery soon became very famous as Londoners started queuing up for her rich tea biscuits. These biscuits gained popularity globally. Acknowledging her craftsmanship, Mrs. Smith went to be referred as BakeSmith by the Englishmen. Parle BakeSmith Marie is a product of this recipe and the same is delightfully communicated through the Campaign TVC.

Krishnarao Buddha -Deputy Marketing Manager, Parle said, Parle had its fair share of struggle in the Marie space for many years for lack of differentiation till it rediscovered the Original English Recipe. With a great brand name and an international looking packaging topped with the Original English Recipe, we expect to meet the prospects expectations. To communicate the unique proposition, we mandated Everest Brand Solutions to tell the story in a most interesting manner. We are delighted with the outcome and we are confident to achieve our set objectives.

Commenting on the Campaign, Pramod Sharma  Executive Creative Director (West) said, Great brands are all about great stories. We had a lovely story to narrate and change the way Marie Biscuits are advertised. The script is simple. The treatment is truly international. Im very happy with the film. It positions Parle BakeSmith as a premium offering in a cluttered scenario. The film is an outcome of months and months of hard work. Every step was a challenge. We had to find the perfect face for Parles Founder and Mrs. Smiths character. We had to get that era right, beginning from costumes, location, props, vehicles and lot of other things. I would really like to thank my client Parle, the director and the production house who have helped us deliver a great film."

Aradhana Bhushan - Vice President, Everest Brand Solutions said, The brand objective of BakeSmith is to uniquely own the Classic Marie space. Hence the campaign was built on the route the Original English Maire.
Setting a new benchmark in television news, Network18 announces the re-branding of its English general news channel CNN-IBN to CNN-News18. The channel will be unveiling a new name and logo, its revamped studio and a new look and feel to the news screen tonight at 8PM. Refreshing the approach to news telling, CNN-News18 will make news more relevant to its viewers by bringing immersive journalism to the forefront. IBNLive.com, the digital destination of the channel, is also changing to News18.com.

Speaking on the occasion, Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, Network18 said, A decade back, CNN-IBN re-invented news by getting to its viewers the benefits of a reputed international news partner CNN, and eventually emerging as the most awarded English general news channel. We are now at a time when breaking news role is taken by social media and there is an oversupply of news sources because of which just breaking news isnt enough. In this problem of plenty, quality suffers and consumers dont know what to believe or trust in. Also the insights into an issue keep getting compromised for lack of time and resources. Realizing this gap, we have decided to take the onus of breaking this clutter by focusing on quality of reporting, in-depth analysis and an all-round view of key issues. We are optimistic about bringing this change wherein we will keep the journalist and the consumer at the centre of our programming, which is the critical need of the hour.

Speaking about the re-branding and revamped content, Avinash Kaul, CEO  IBN News Network said, The refreshed identity of CNN-News18 aims to bring the value of immersive journalism to its viewers. Inspired by our new tagline - On Your Side, CNN-News18 will strive to make news more objective keeping the viewers at the centre of its content strategy. We will significantly ramp-up our digital presence to ensure that viewers are seamlessly able to interact and engage with our content.

CNN-News18 is bringing to viewers new formats of programming and a panel of the countrys top commentators including Vir Sanghvi, Swapan Dasgupta, Ayaz Memon and Ajoy Bose. Prime Time 2.0, from 8PM to 11PM, will bring together an unmatched blend of on-ground reporting, opinions, debates and even a daily dose of humour. The weekend will see several new shows including Virtuosity  an exclusive show on the weeks key issues with Vir Sanghvi.

CNN-News18s programming will focus on leveraging our strength in reporting to offer in-depth on-ground coverage by deploying even more resources in news gathering and bring out multiple angles to each story. We will raise the quality of debates and in-studio discussions by engaging the nations foremost journalists & opinion makers. The channel will bring freshness to news television by developing new on-air talent and exploring diverse genres of programming. CNN-News18 will not just offer the latest national news, but also an Indian perspective to international developments. Our partnership with CNN will enable us to bring to you the best of CNN reporters, anchors and their best known shows. It will allow us to align our editorial strengths and upgrade workflows through exchange of best practices, technology and training to offer our viewers the best experience of news consumption in India added Avinash Kaul.
OgilvyOne Worldwides Mumbai office is delighted to welcome Namrata Keswani as Vice President & Head of Office.

This is a home-coming of sorts for Namrata, who began her journey with Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai, way back in 2003 where she proceeded to handle some of the agencys most prestigious businesses. Among them were Asian Paints, Mattel, Unilever, Google, Cadbury, Taj Hotels and TBZ. She also spent a year and a half at Ogilvy Singapore where she managed the GlaxoSmithKline, American Express and Kimberly Clark businesses.

Her inherent leaning towards fashion and style, led her to the role of a Fashion Stylist at NBC in 2005 and more recently, at Conde Nast India where she led the Conde Nast factory  a content vertical for the publishing group.

Welcoming Namrata to her new role, Vikram Menon, President, OgilvyOne Worldwide, India: OgilvyOne has been Indias No. 1 Digital Agency for many years. Our flagship Mumbai office was recently ranked among the Worlds 10 Best Digital Agencies. And to have Namrata now at the helm is truly exciting. Her varied experience across markets, brands and new media will be ideal, as OgilvyOne, Mumbai looks to set new benchmarks across the board.

Namrata Keswani: OgilvyOne Mumbai has grown and transformed rapidly over the last few years into a leading digital agency. Its a fantastic opportunity to be at its helm and chart its next chapter of growth. I hope to nurture a nimble, learning agency culture and ensure our clients see us as their partner of choice in this exciting, challenging environment where the digital landscape and consumer are evolving so dramatically.
Yokota aids Japan with earthquake relief

The 374th Airlift Wing sent two C-130 Hercules aircraft and aircrew to the Kyushu region April 18, supporting the government of Japan in their relief efforts for the series of earthquakes that took place in Kumamoto Prefecture and surrounding areas.



The Yokota aircraft transported heavy vehicles and personnel from Chitose Air Base, Hokkaido, to Kyushu, improving the capabilities of ground relief efforts in the area. Each C-130 can load up to 42,000 pounds of cargo.



"These missions are perfect examples of why we are located where we are and what we train for every day," said Lt. Col. John Kerr, the 36th Airlift Squadron director of operations. "Our airlifters are eager to show their support for their friends and neighbors in Japan following this tragedy."



The 374th AW, as the primary airlift hub in the Indo-Asia Pacific region, has experience responding to natural disasters. In March 2011, the 374th AW responded to the 9.0 earthquake near Sendai, Japan, providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief to stricken areas. In 2013, the wing sent five C-130s to the Philippines to offload cargo and airlift evacuees seeking safe haven in Manila, and in 2015, the 374th AW also sent support to Nepal in response to the Gorkha earthquake.



"I would like to express my deepest condolences on behalf of the men and women of the 374th Airlift Wing," said Col. Douglas DeLaMater, the 374th AW commander. "We will continue to support the relief efforts in Kumamoto in whatever way the Government of Japan requests. This is a tragic event, but I am confident in the resolve of the people of Japan."
Army, Air Force train for short takeoff, landing

Airmen from the 321st Special Tactics Squadron out of Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, and Soldiers from the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade out of Vicenza, Italy, secured the Hohenfels Training Areas short takeoff and landing strip (STOL) April 13, as part of their certification at Saber Junction 16.



The airfield team from the 321st STS practiced seizing the STOL and assessed it for suitability by looking for obstacles and barriers that would be in the way of aircraft, explained Master Sgt. Christopher B. Sones, assigned to the 321st STS and the airfield team leader for the crew accessing the STOL. They also conducted fast-paced landing and takeoff maneuvers for several hours, refining their timing, efficiency and communication.



Sones also said Hohenfels Training Areas STOL differs from other military landing strips.



"It's unique because it's right at 3,000 feet, which is our bare minimum for C-130s," Sones said. "The composition is something we call "rhino-slide;" it's a dirt aggregate kind of concrete mix."



Sones added that even the concrete mix is still tough enough for aircraft to land.



Saber Junction 16, which lasts from March 31-April 24, is a multinational exercise for U.S. Army Europe's 173rd Airborne Brigade, in which theyre evaluated on the readiness of their combat units to conduct unified land operations and promote interoperability. The STOL supports this effort because is it the only semi-prepared, dirt landing zone in Germany, distinguishing it from other landing zones.



Sones says it is essential for his team be able to work in joint operations and share best practices, just as they are doing with the 173rd AB.



C-130s usually land on an average of a 4,600 foot strip. The STOL is 3,600 feet, but only 3,000 feet are usable for takeoff and landing due to the requirement for 300 unused feet to be on either end of a strip for safety.
Air Force Reserve: 68 years strong

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James spoke to the importance of total force integration during the Air Force Reserves 68th birthday celebration April 14 at the Pentagon.



James said she has witnessed the Reserves contributions and accomplishments in her 35 years experience in the federal government and the private sector.



Throughout nearly seven decades, the Air Force Reserve has been there with us every step of the way, every time weve had a challenge around the world, James said.



More than 147,000 reservists fought in the Korean War; 19,000 served during the Cuban missile crisis; and 38,000 deployed in support of the Persian Gulf War.



Today, over a quarter of all forward-deployed Airmen comes from our Air Force Reserve, James said. That is unbelievable to me, and is something most of America doesnt realize, so we have to continue to tell that story.



The Air Force Reserve was originally formed as a standby force by President Harry Truman in 1948, and now has five air reserve bases and 33 flying wings. It officially became the ninth major command -- Air Force Reserve Command -- in 1997.



Recent total force initiatives include cross-component leadership positions and streamlining personnel systems.



Citizen Airmen, with active-duty and (Air National Guard) members, provide global vigilance, reach and power every single day for our Air Force and were a proud member of the three component team, said Air Force Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. James F. Jackson. We have over 69,000 Reserve members standing in our nations defense and I couldnt be more proud of those members.



(I want to thank) every single Airman with a big A we have -- active, Guard, Reserve and civilians -- in standing up every day and doing what you do, and making sure your families are taken care of as you conduct our nations defense, Jackson said.




Carter discusses ISIL, Iran with Airmen in United Arab Emirates

Defense Secretary Ash Carter discussed the two Is  ISIL and Iran -- with U.S. Airmen at Al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates April 16.



Defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is the highest priority for American forces in the region, the secretary told the Airmen.



But the region is complicated, he said, and countering Irans malign influence is a concern not only in the region, but also around the world.

The main mission for the UAE-based Airmen is destroying ISIL in Syria and Iraq. If you think about cancer, that's where the parent tumor is, Carter said.



No caliphate



ISIL leaders continue to call the area they have captured in Iraq and Syria the new caliphate, but Carter said the 66-nation coalition opposing the terror group will not let that happen.



There isn't going to be a state based on this ideology, he said. Thats what you are up to here, and we also secondly need to go after every place (where ISIL has) spread around the world. We're doing that, too.



But the U.S. wants to accelerate the destruction of ISIL, the secretary told the Airmen, and he asked them to think of ways that can happen. We're limited only by our own ingenuity and our ideas, he said.



The strategy, he said, is to enable capable, motivated local forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria to take on ISIL. Special operations personnel are working with Iraqi and Syrian forces against the terror group. U.S. and coalition partners are training these local fighters and working with them.

But they cant do this without U.S. and coalition support from the air, Carter said.



Counter-ISIL progress



There has been progress. Iraqi forces have retaken the key cities of Ramadi and Beiji, and they are fighting ISIL around Hit. Syrian forces took Shaddadi and severed the lines of communication between ISILs alleged capital of Raqqa in Syria and the largest city the group holds: Mosul, Iraq.



But were looking to do more, Carter said. Were looking for opportunities, in essence, to get this over with faster. So if you see something, say something to your commanders.



Even with the defeat of ISIL, there are still problems in the region, the secretary said. The U.S. has a nuclear deal with Iran, he said, calling it a good deal, in the sense that it took the nuclear weapons out of the picture.



But that does not mean Iran wont try to disturb the peace in other ways, the secretary said, adding that Iran is capable of outright aggression or the kind of malign activity that has worried many nations of the area.



He noted that President Barack Obama will be visiting Saudi Arabia later this week for the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting. Carter told the airmen he is in the region to pave the way for the president as the region discusses ISIL and Iran.
Exercise Max Thunder 16 launches at Kunsan

U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy personnel and aircraft will train with South Korean air force counterparts in the bilateral training exercise Max Thunder 16, at Kunsan Air Base April 15-29.



Max Thunder takes place annually and is the largest military flying exercise held on the Korean Peninsula. Max Thunder is part of a continuous exercise program designed to enhance interoperability between U.S. and South Korean forces, and is not tied to any specific real-world events or situations. The exercise highlights the long-standing military partnership, commitment and enduring friendship between the two nations to help ensure peace and security in Northeast Asia.



Every year, Max Thunder serves as an excellent opportunity for U.S. and (South Korean air force) fighter pilots to train side by side and gain valuable experience they will need if the Korea airpower team is required to go into aerial combat together, said Lt. Gen. Terrence J. OShaughnessy, the Seventh Air Force commander. The U.S.s commitment to the security of (South) Korea is ironclad. U.S. military aircraft come to Korea from across the Pacific to participate in this exercise, making a tremendous display of the capabilities the U.S. brings to this alliance.



Approximately 1,200 U.S. personnel will participate in Max Thunder 16, in support of F-16 Fighting Falcons from Seventh Air Force; F-18 Hornets from the 12th Marine Aircraft Group; and EA-18G Growlers from the Navys Electronic Attack Squadron 138.



Approximately 640 South Korean personnel will also participate in the exercise in support of various aircraft.


Taking a dig at opposition parties, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said the opponents want to have RSS-free India but Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants India free from poverty, corruption and unemployment.

Modi ji wants Garibi Mukt Bharat, Brashtachar Mukt Bharat, Berojgari Mukt Bharat. Our opponents want to have Sangh Mukt Bharat (Modi wants India free from poverty, free from corruption, free from unemployment. Our Opponents want to have RSS-free India), he said in a tweet.

They want RSS-free-India. They are not worried about ISI, ISIS, he added.

Congress had yesterday backed JD(U) chief Nitish Kumars call for an RSS-free India, saying the saffron fountainhead was posing a threat to the countrys unity and democracy.

Kumar had mounted a counteroffensive against Modi for his Congress-mukt Bharat slogan, saying, Sangh-mukt Bharat banane ke liye sabhi gair BJP parties ko ek hona hoga (to usher in a Sangh-free India all non-BJP parties will have to come together).

BJP, however, defended, saying it was unfazed by Kumars efforts to form a united front to counter it and that such attempts to stop the Modi government from working for the development of the country and for the poor will not succeed.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a PIL challenging the Centres decision to impose Presidents Rule in Congress-ruled Uttarakhand.

According to ANI, the apex court also rejected demands for CBI probe into alleged horse trading of MLAs in the state.

Advocate General Mukul Rohatgi is currently arguing on behalf of the Centre in the Uttarakhand High Court.

The Centre had last week gave an undertaking in the Uttarakhand High Court that it will come to it before any decision is taken to lift the Presidents Rule in the state after Congress made a strong pitch for the first right to form the government.

I will inform the court before any decision is taken to revoke the Presidential Rule, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Centre, had told the High Court.

The court was dealing with an interim application of former Chief Minister Harish Rawat in which it was apprehended that the Central rule may be lifted to facilitate installation of a BJP-led government in the state.

In his plea, Rawat has sought a direction to the Governor that he should be asked to form the government first if any decision to revoke the Presidential Rule is taken by the Centre during the pendency of his main petition.

The ousted CM has also apprehended that the Centre with the connivance of the state BJP may revoke the Presidential Rule during the pendency of the case and deny rightful opportunity to him to form the government making his petition infructuous.
April 17, 2016, Unedited Live Stream Interview With Vaxxed Filmmakers At LA Screening

From Seattle PI



Last night at the West Coast debut of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, GMO Free News host Kathleen Hallal live streamed her interviews using Facebook Live with the film director Andrew Wakefield and producer Del Bigtree.

The 91 minute film is an investigation into how the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) destroyed data on their 2004 study that showed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. April is National Autism Awareness Month.

Watch the videos here - Unedited Live Stream Interview With Vaxxed Filmmakers At LA Screening.
By Anne Dachel



The current De Niro/Tribeca hysteria in the media needs to be resolved, and the only way to do that is to call Dr. William Thompson to testify before Congress.

Listen HERE:

IMUS IN THE MORNING, April 12, 2016, Andrew Wakefield, Director of Vaxxed

Dr Andrew Wakefield, MB, BS, FRCS, FRCPath, is an academic gastroenterologist. He received his medical degree from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School (part of the University of London) in 1981, one of the third generation of his family to have studied medicine at that teaching hospital.



He pursued a career in gastrointestinal surgery with a particular interest in inflammatory bowel disease. He qualified as Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985 and in 1996 was awarded a Wellcome Trust Traveling Fellowship to study small-intestinal transplantation in Toronto, Canada. He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2001. He has published over 130 original scientific articles, book chapters, and invited scientific commentaries.



In the pursuit of possible links between childhood vaccines, intestinal inflammation, and neurologic injury in children, Dr. Wakefield lost his job in the Department of Medicine at London's Royal Free Hospital, his country, his career, and his medical license.

WHAT WAS SAID ON DON IMUS TUES.

Andrew Wakefield stated we cannot trust any study coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....

Andy said that he and others involved with the film were told nothing about why "Vaxxed" was pulled from Tribeca. He said that a film festival that censors certain films then becomes "a propaganda machine.
WASHINGTON, April 18, 2016 -- The National Cotton Council is vowing to fight Turkeys decision to impose anti-dumping penalties on U.S. cotton imports.

Last week, the Turkish government imposed a 3 percent CIF (cost, insurance and freight) duty on all U.S. cotton fiber imports, effective immediately, based on assertions that U.S. cotton was dumped into Turkey  the second largest export market for U.S. cotton -- injuring the domestic fiber market.

NCC Chairman Shane Stephens said the investigation, which was initiated in October 2014, was clearly in response to several U.S. trade investigations of Turkish steel imports. In a statement, Stephens said that the Turkish government, in an unusual move, self-initiated the investigation without any showing of the special circumstances as is required under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

In the first place, the investigation itself lacked transparency regarding information used to justify the investigation, Stephens said. In fact, data used in support of a finding of injury to the Turkish domestic cotton market ignored established facts to the contrary.

Stephens said that the Council submitted ample evidence showing that Turkeys cotton market has experienced price declines due to the same factors affecting cotton markets worldwide. He said, for example, government policies in developing countries and competition from manmade fibers have contributed to stagnant global demand, increased stocks and lower cotton prices.

Following trade? We cover it on Agri-Pulse. Sign up today for a four-week free trial subscription.





Unfortunately, the import duties only compound the difficult economic climate facing U.S. cotton growers and merchandisers, Stephens stated. The Council will continue to actively oppose the imposition of duties and is exploring ways to reverse the decision, such as WTO mechanisms and the Turkish judicial system.





In a release, the NCC noted that Turkey buys between 1.5 and 2.0 million bales of U.S. cotton annually The duties automatically put U.S. cotton at a competitive disadvantage to cotton produced in other countries, thus seriously jeopardizing business with Turkish mills, NCC said.

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GOP Rep. Andy Harris, who represents Marylands Eastern Shore, a major chicken producer, will sponsor the amendment. He said that the regulations would discourage incentives for farmers to produce the highest quality birds. As were going to build up our export economy, I cant understand why we would want to handcuff the poultry industry, he said.

Other possible amendments would seek to extend a ban on slaughter of horses and to restrict the governments recommendations on sodium in the next revision of the dietary guidelines.

Also this week, the Senate is expected to pass a long-stalled energy bill that Democrats blocked in February over demands for aid to Flint, Michigan. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., lifted a procedural hold last week on the legislation, which would be the most comprehensive overhaul of energy policy since 2007.

The bill, which the Senate is expected to pass on Tuesday, includes popular provisions to update the electricity grid, accelerate the export of liquefied natural gas and promote energy efficiency in homes and businesses. For Republicans, the measure includes incentives for fossil fuels, while for Democrats it would help promote a shift toward renewable power usage.

The Senate will then move to the fiscal 2017 Energy and Water appropriations bill, which funds the Army Corps of Engineers among other agencies. Sen. John Hoeven, D-N.D., said last week that he may seek to attach an amendment that would block the Corps and the EPA from implementing their new waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, which is now on hold pending court challenges.

A similar WOTUS rider failed to make it into the government-wide spending bill for fiscal 2016 because of strenuous opposition from the White House.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency is going forward with a three-day meeting of its science advisers to review epidemiological data on the risks of chlorpyrifos. The agency rejected requests from the pesticide industry for a postponement.

Democratic appropriators look to protect GIPSA rule

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced in early May that the GIPSA rule could be ready for public release by late spring or early summer. Later, Ed Avalos, USDAs undersecretary for marketing regulatory programs, told the House Agriculture Committee that the earliest the rule could be ready would be summer or early fall.

But Avalos also suggested that the department may skip a step and issue the regulations in final form rather than as a proposed rule. Avalos said the department already has plenty of input from the public and the industry on the issue going back to 2010.

Democrats on the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee ensured that the GIPSA rider didnt make it into the draft USDA spending bill. Four of them signed a letter to Vilsack urging USDA to act expeditiously on the regulations. The letter was also signed by four Democrats on the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.

Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said that reinstating the block on USDA rulemaking would be bad for farmers, bad for consumers, and bad for the country. Politically, moving something that eight House and Senate appropriators have already signaled they would adamantly oppose signals a lack of interest in actually getting the agricultural spending bill completed and signed into law this year, he said.

Harris said his chief concern is to preserve the tournament pricing system, whereby part of a contract chicken growers payment is based on how well his or her birds perform in comparison to other growers birds.

Pork producers head to Hill

Some 150 members of the National Pork Producers Council will be in Washington this week to lobby members of the Congress on a variety of issues, including increased funding for USDA to address antibiotic resistance.

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The producers also want funding for development of a vaccine bank for foot-and-mouth-disease. Theyll be pushing for approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with resolution of implementation issues involving Australia, Japan and Vietnam, said NPPC spokesman Dave Warner.

He said the producers also will be using lawmakers to oppose a bill called the PRIME ACT that would allow states to exempt custom-slaughtered meat from federal inspection regulations as long as it isnt sold across state lines. We believe that could lead to food safety issues and undermine consumer confidence in the food supply, Warner said.

Vilsack, meanwhile, leaves Thursday on a week-long trip to Japan, where he will participate in the G7 agriculture ministers meeting, and then go on to Vietnam.

Heres a list of agriculture- or rural-related events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere:

Monday, April 18

National Academy of Sciences study committee meets on Future Biotechnology Products and Opportunities to Enhance Capabilities of the Biotechnology Regulatory System, through Tuesday, 2100 C St. NW

Grocery Manufacturers Association Science Forum, through Thursday, Capital Hilton.

9 a.m. - Farm Foundation Forum on The Cost of Poverty in Rural America.

10 a.m. - Supreme Court oral arguments in United States v. Texas, the states challenges to President Obamas executive orders on immigration.

4 p.m. - USDA releases Crop Progress report.

Tuesday, April 19

EPA FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel to review chlorpyrifos, through Thursday, Arlington, Virginia.

10 a.m. - House Agriculture subcommittee hearing on tightening farm credit conditions, 1300 Longworth.

10 a.m. - Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing on opportunities and challenges for oil and gas in different price environments, 366 Dirksen.

10 a.m. - Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, 406 Dirksen.

10:30 a.m. - House Appropriations Committee markup of fiscal 2017 Agriculture spending bill, 2359 Rayburn.

1 a.m. - U.S. Chamber of Commerce forum, Increased Security and Prosperity: The Immigration Reform Imperative, 1615 H St. NW.

Wednesday, April 20

Food Tank Summit 2016, American University.

National Pork Producers Council fly-in, through Thursday.

10 a.m. - House Judiciary Committee marks up Defend Trade Secrets Act (S. 1890), 2141 Rayburn.

10 a.m. - Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee hearing with EPA Administrator McCarthy, 124 Dirksen.

2 p.m. - House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing on barriers to delistings under the Endangered Species Act, first of two-part hearing, 2154 Rayburn.

Thursday, April 21

NPPC fly-in.

Vilsack heads to Japan for the G7 agriculture ministers meeting.

8:30 a.m. - Brookings Institution forum, Policies to Alleviate Food Insecurity: A Conversation with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. 775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

8:30 a.m. - USDA releases Weekly Export Sales report.

9 a.m. - House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing on ESA delisting barriers, second of two-part hearing, 2154 Rayburn.

2 p.m. - Senate Finance Committee hearing on U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 215 Dirksen.

Friday, April 22

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About the Author

As an ordained Rabbi who is dedicated to serving the Los Angeles community and renowned for his impactful sermons and popular lectures, Rabbi Yoel Gold currently serves as Rabbi of Congregation Beis Naftali. The organization, which comprises Holocaust survivors and modern American professionals, also provides charitable services throughout Southern California to people in need of food, clothing and shelter. In addition, Rabbi Gold is a ninth-grade Rebbe with Mesivta Birkas Yitzchok (MBY), a boys yeshiva high school catering to the strictly observant Jewish Community, whose educational emphasis is to produce students steeped in Torah learning and yiras shamayim. Rabbi Gold is also a sought-after motivational speaker throughout Southern California, sharing his love for life and passion for the torah. His contagious inspirational messages have inspired countless audiences, including Jew in the City, Chayenu, such universities as UCLA, Manchester and Leeds, and companies like BCBG Max Azria. He was previously appointed as the fulltime Rav of Aish Manchester in England, and has led a trip to Poland, where Rabbi Gold taught and inspired youth about past generations and orthodox heritage.
April 15, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Ever since the end of the latest Israeli war on Gaza on Aug. 26, 2014, Hamas has been working on a new exchange deal for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. By concluding this deal, Hamas hopes to show it is a major player in international efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas also aims to restore its declining popularity among Palestinians due to the continuing deterioration of the living and social conditions in the Gaza Strip.

On April 1, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, released four photos of Israelis it had detained, including soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, who had been captured during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in 2014. The third photo was that of Israeli citizen Avraham Mengisto, who is of Ethiopian origin. Israel had officially announced his disappearance in July, but Hamas had not commented on the matter. The fourth detainee is soldier Hashim al-Sayyed, who is of Arab descent and a resident of the Negev in southern Israel. On April 20, 2015, Israel announced that he had left home and had not returned. Hamas refrained from revealing any details on how Mengisto and Hashem were captured.

Israel believes that Shaul and Goldin were killed during battles with Hamas in the 2014 war. On April 21, 2015, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon told Israel's National Public Radio, "Israel continues to make efforts to recover the remains of Goldin and Shaul, who were killed during Operation Defensive Shield and whose corpses are still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip."

Hamas has been careful not to give out free information about the captured Israelis. Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, appeared alongside the photos of the four captured Israelis on al-Aqsa TV, a Hamas-run satellite channel. He said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lying to his people and deceiving the prisoners families. So far no talks or negotiations about the detained Israelis are being held. The enemy will not receive information about the four Israelis until it pays a clear price before and after the negotiations.

Abu Obeida questioned Netanyahu's statements at a March 27 press conference, saying, Strenuous efforts are being deployed in this respect. I am holding meetings for this purpose every few days. I was informed about two days ago of an important development.

Although Hamas aspires to conclude a major deal along the lines of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal in October 2011, which led to the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, it refuses to participate in any negotiations with Israel before the release of the prisoners that were re-arrested after being freed in the Shalit deal.

Israel had re-arrested 70 freed prisoners who were released by the Shalit deal on June 2014, coinciding with the kidnapping by Palestinians affiliated with Hamas of three Israeli settlers in Hebron, south of the West Bank.

Hamas' Minister of Prisoner Affairs Attallah Abu al-Sabah confirmed that Hamas aims to use these captives to clear the Israeli prisons of all Palestinian prisoners. He told Al-Monitor, Capturing Israeli soldiers and exchanging them for Palestinian prisoners is a tactic adopted by all Palestinian factions. Israel has a long list of exchange deals concluded over the past decades with the resistance factions such as Fatah, the Popular Front and Lebanese Hezbollah."

He stressed that Hamas will not disclose any information on those soldiers without something in return, as was the case in the 2009 Shalit deal, when Hamas gave Israel a video showing that Shalit was alive in exchange for the release of 20 female Palestinian detainees.

Political analyst Eyad al-Qara told Al-Monitor that the release of prisoners is a priority for Hamas. He said, Since the occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967, Israel detained those who embraced the resistance activities, be they political or military. Thus, Hamas believes that there is a national and moral duty requiring it to liberate those who were detained for resisting the occupation. He added, Hamas wants to prove that it is committed to its obligations toward the Palestinian people, most notably the release of prisoners, especially those with long sentences and those who have spent more than 20 years in Israeli jails.

According to a December report by the Palestinian Society Prisoner's Club, there are currently nearly 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. In an April 6 statement, the PLO Committee for Prisoners Affairs said that among the jailed Palestinians are 38 prisoners who have served more than 20 years and 504 sentenced to life terms.

Qara said that al-Qassam Brigades talk about the four Israelis in their possession is designed to confuse the Israeli government and push it to open this file, and to cause the Israeli public to pressure the Israeli government to reach a new swap deal.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, political analyst Talal Okal viewed that in addition to freeing the prisoners, Hamas seeks to achieve other objectives through a new swap deal with Israel. He said, Hamas wants to escalate the resistance against Israel by reassuring Palestinians that if they are ever detained during their resistance actions, this detention will not last long. Hamas wants to emphasize that armed resistance is the only option to liberate the prisoners, and not the peace negotiations.

He added, The Israelis are carrying out daily detention campaigns within the Palestinian ranks. Therefore, there is an urgent need to continue to detain Israeli soldiers, which is acceptable to all the Palestinian factions, without exception.

Okal added, Hamas is trying to achieve political gains to increase its popularity, which has declined due to the deteriorating living conditions and growing resentment at the degenerating economic and social situation in Gaza.

The latest opinion poll issued by the Arab World for Research and Development Feb. 6 revealed that Hamas' popularity is declining in favor of Fatah in the Gaza Strip. It showed that 18% will vote for Hamas, while 45.8% will vote for Fatah in the next legislative elections if they are held.

In terms of international gains, Okal believes that through the prisoner-exchange deal, Hamas wants to assert its position and importance as a key actor that must not be disregarded in international efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
April 18, 2016

Jordan announced April 18 that it would recall its ambassador to Iran for the second time in four months. In protest of Irans interference in the domestic affairs of Arab countries, [Jordan] has recalled its ambassador for consultations, said Mohammad al-Momani, Jordans minister of state for media affairs and communications. Irans interference has created a crisis and deepening of instability.

The Jordanians did not allege specific actions by Iran, but the decision seems to be heavily influenced by Amman aligning with Saudi Arabia in its regional rivalry with Iran. The last time Jordan recalled its ambassador was in early January, after Saudi Arabia announced that it would sever all diplomatic relations with Iran after its embassy in Tehran was attacked, following Riyadh's execution of Shiite Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Jordans announcement this time follows a meeting in Amman between Jordan's King Abdullah II and Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi deputy crown prince and defense minister.

In addition to facing off in numerous regional conflicts, Iran and Saudi Arabia are also at odds over preparations for the next hajj. On April 18, Iranian Islamic Guidance and Culture Minister Ali Jannati accused Saudi Arabia of obstructing the negotiations between the two countries. As an example, Jannati said Riyadh has requested that Iranians apply for visas in a third country, rather than through the Saudi interest section at the Swiss Embassy in Tehran. Jannati called this request in no way acceptable. Jannati also said that the Saudis did not want Iran to use its own planes for the transportation of Iranian pilgrims.

In early April, before Jannati's statements, Iranian officials reported that Saudi Arabia had on numerous occasions postponed scheduled trips to begin the preparation process for the logistics of Iranian pilgrims. Jannati said that Iran still hopes that preparations can be made in time for the mandatory pilgrimage, scheduled to begin Sept. 9. Iran had previously suspended nonmandatory pilgrimages after two Iranian boys were molested at the Jeddah airport by Saudi security.

On April 15, another spat with the Saudis had led Iran to forgo the closing ceremony of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Istanbul. Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Saudi Arabia had successfully lobbied to include four anti-Iranian paragraphs in the final statement at the ceremony. The closing ceremony took place without the statement being read publicly, although it was released to the media.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are also currently in an oil dispute. With oil near $40 a barrel, oil-producing countries from around the world met in Qatar April 18 to discuss a plan to maintain production at January's levels until October. The deal fell apart April 18, when Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran participate. Irans oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh, had rejected proposals to freeze output at a level before sanctions against Iran had been removed.

If Iran keeps oil output at January levels, it means that there is no impact on the lifting of sanctions, said Zanganeh April 17. The nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers was implemented in January.

Zanganeh said that since Iran did not want to give the impression of supporting the idea of a freeze in output, it chose not to attend the meeting in Qatar. To criticism that Iran's absence could cause a drop in oil prices, Zanganeh responded, The most important issue for us is that under no conditions will we refrain from our historical share and rights.
April 18, 2016

NAJAF, Iraq  On March 24, Brig. Gen. Yahay Rasoul, the spokesman for the Joint Special Operations Command, the special operations task force in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), told Iraqi state TV that the operation to liberate Mosul was jointly launched by the Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition. Prior to the announcement, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a statement in February that the campaign to liberate Mosul would be launched soon. In a TV statement Dec. 28, he said that the mission would be completed in 2016.

However, disagreements between the forces that will be involved in the Mosul liberation continue to prevail in the political scene. This is true particularly since the Arab Sunnis fear the engagement of the peshmerga forces and the predominantly Shiite Popular Mobilization Units in the fighting in Mosul. This fear is understandable since the peshmerga forces represent the Kurds and the Popular Mobilization Units represent the Shiites. Sunni Arabs have warned against the presence of these two forces in Mosul and its surroundings, as the Sunnis fear the repercussions that could occur if Kurdish and Shiite forces enter the city, which has a Sunni majority and other small minorities.

The Sunni-majority Ninevah provincial council voted Feb. 29 to oppose the units participation in the battle to liberate Mosul. However, this decision was objected to by the members of the national parliament who represent minority communities in Mosul; Ninevah also includes non-Muslim minorities such as Christians and Shiite-affiliated minorities such as the Shabak and the Turkmens.

These minorities have nothing against the presence of the Popular Mobilization Units in Mosul, as they welcome any force able to liberate them and ensure their survival.

The Ninevah provincial council, like other provincial councils, cannot exercise veto power over the makeup of the Iraqi forces operating under the banner of Abadi, who also holds the title of commander of the armed forces under the Iraqi Constitution.

The council has 39 members, the majority of whom are Sunni Arabs and Kurds, and three members representing the minorities. The councils sessions have been held in Erbil since the fall of Mosul, and the minorities' representatives have not attended the meetings since that time.

Abadi recently confirmed the participation of the Popular Mobilization Units in the operations to retake Mosul, stressing the legality of the decision. On Feb. 20, he had said in parliament, The Popular Mobilization Units will take part in the operations to liberate Mosul.

On March 17, Abadi defended his decision in a statement issued on the sidelines of a meeting with the units leaders, saying, The Popular Mobilization Units is a state-affiliated institution and any prejudice against it is a prejudice against the state. No party has the right to tell us who will and will not participate in the battle, and no party has the right to ban our citizens from taking part in the liberation of their land.

In terms of the ground operations, the Popular Mobilization Units participation in the battle for Mosul is necessary, given the major losses incurred by the Iraqi army after one-third of Iraq fell into IS hands in 2014. In fact, this battle is one of the biggest and most significant battles against IS, as Mosul is the third-largest Iraqi city and a main stronghold of IS. Retaking Mosul would lead to IS' defeat throughout Iraq.

Hadi al-Ameri, a commander of the units and the Badr Organization, is well aware of the paramount importance of this battle. He said, Neither the army, nor the police, nor the Hashd [Popular Mobilization Units], nor the tribes can accomplish Mosul on their own. We have to work together as one cohesive team, in coordination also with the [Kurdish] peshmerga forces, to mobilize the whole nation to defeat IS.

In the same vein, it seems that the United States does not object to the participation of the units in the battle to liberate Mosul. Brett McGurk, US special envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State, said in a March 5 press conference at the US Embassy in Baghdad, The operation to liberate Mosul, isolating Mosul, is already underway. It will be a mix of forces and it will be very important to ensure it is well planned. McGurk did not place any red lines on the units' engagement in the battle.

In an interview with the US-based Al-Hurra TV in April, Pentagon spokesman Steve Warren said that the Iraqi government has wisely asked the Iranians to desist from supporting the Popular Mobilization Units fighting on their side.

He said, The problem [Iranian support to the units] was overcome, meaning that the United States is satisfied with the current situation and participation of the Popular Mobilization Units in the operations to liberate the various Iraqi territories. It seems that the United States does not object to the participation of the units, but does not want them to be supported by Iran, as it could stir up sectarian strife and delay the elimination of terrorism.

On another note, President Fuad Masum suggested in an interview with IRNA news agency March 16 that the Popular Mobilization Units and peshmerga forces participate in the operations, but do not enter the city, as happened during the liberation of Ramadi.

This proposal does not, however, seem plausible when comparing the two cities, as Ramadi was almost empty of people and is much smaller than Mosul.

Mosul is a major city with a large population, and therefore it requires a greater number of forces to fight IS than was the case in Ramadi. Moreover, the Popular Mobilization Units now include forces comprised of the minorities of Mosul and Ninevah. For instance, the Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada battalions, which is part of the units, includes Shabak fighters, who are part of an important minority in Mosul and neighboring areas. The Shiite Turkmens, hailing from Tal Afar and other parts of Ninevah, have also a significant presence within these units. Based on that, it seems hard to prevent the Popular Mobilization Units from entering areas from which minorities were expelled after IS seized Mosul.
April 18, 2016

WASHINGTON  UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, who was clearly frustrated, said April 18 that the Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) informed him they will pause their participation in formal negotiations at the United Nations, but have agreed to stay in Geneva at their hotel and talk with his team, until they see progress in bolstering the partial cease-fire and humanitarian aid access. But de Mistura managed to pull the talks from the brink of collapse, saying indirect talks would continue in Geneva through the week and suggesting the opposition might return to the formal negotiating table if there was demonstrated progress on aid access and shoring up the cease-fire around Aleppo.

After five years of war, it was unreasonable to expect the Syrian opposition and regime delegations to find common ground in just a few days of proximity talks in Geneva, de Mistura said. But despite no demonstrated compromise yet on a vision for Syrias political future, he said, it was notable that both sides were talking about some version of a Syrian political transition, and it was totally normal that at the early stages of resumed peace talks, the warring parties would stake out maximal positions and show little common ground.

On the political track, we should not, and no one should, expect that after five years of conflict, a political transition  by one week is solved, de Mistura, sighing repeatedly, told journalists at the UN in Geneva April 18.

It is no secret that one side is insisting on implementation of a [transitional governing body], and the other side, the government, have been indicating their interest in launching an initiative for a broad-based [unity] government, the UN envoy said. The gap is clearly wide. But this is the nature of the negotiations.

The Syrian opposition said it was still committed to the political process, but needed to see improvements on the ground.

Since these talks began in Geneva, the [Bashar al-] Assad regime has worsened the situation on the ground. The progress in Geneva is directly connected to the realities faced by our people in Syria, HNC spokesman Salem al-Meslet said April 18. The talks must not be allowed to become a vehicle for regime violence.

The HNC remains fully committed to the political process and establishing peace through diplomacy, Meslet said. We remain in Geneva ready to engage in serious talks.

US officials said they believed as of now that the Geneva talks would avoid total collapse and continue until April 22. While there have been increasing violations of the 7-week-old cessation of hostilities, particularly near Aleppo, they said, it was still holding in many areas and more aid was getting through, including more than 50 trucks of aid to three towns over the weekend.

But, they said, the Syrian regime is still pulling medical supplies and some food off the aid convoys and obstructing unfettered humanitarian aid access.

I think we are going to be able to keep the talks in place till the end of the week, a US official, speaking not for attribution, told Al-Monitor April 18. What they get out of this week, wait and see.  It is not going to be easy.

The pattern that they have seen is that the Syrian regime and its allies are retaliating against minor armed rebel violations of the cease-fire with disproportionate and escalating violence, US officials said.

We continue to do everything that we can to help solidify the cessation and support the UN-led political process underway in Geneva, a State Department official said in emailed comments to Al-Monitor April 18.

The Syrian opposition HNC is rightfully frustrated by the regimes persistent violations and continued obstruction of humanitarian access.

US President Barack Obama called Russian President Vladimir Putin April 18 and discussed steps to bolster the partial Syria cease-fire, officials said.

President Obama stressed the importance of pressing the Syrian regime to halt its offensive attacks against the opposition, a White House readout of the call said. The two leaders committed to intensify their efforts to shore up the Cessation of Hostilities and affirmed the need to end attacks by all parties and ensure humanitarian access to all besieged areas. President Obama also stressed that progress on these issues needed to be made in parallel to progress on political transition to end the conflict in Syria.

Secretary of State John Kerry would also ask Iran to use its leverage with the Assad regime to support humanitarian assistance and the Geneva process when he meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in New York April 19, the State Department said.

These talks were never going  to start out with a quick settlement on some of the core issues, State Department spokesman John Kirby told journalists at the press briefing April 18.

De Mistura expected both sides to start from positions [that are] very far apart and [that it would] take quite a bit of time to bring them into agreement, Kirby said. And obviously that is true. We knew it was going to be hard.

Former UN official Salman Shaikh, now an international political consultant, said the opposition is frustrated at regime stalling and is under pressure because of the lack of major progress on any front, humanitarian or political.

The opposition is very upset that there isnt any movement, even on the humanitarian side, the regime is just stalling and stalling, Shaikh, with the Shaikh Group, told Al-Monitor by phone from London April 18.

In negotiations, when one gets to a breaking point, sometimes you get a breakthrough, Shaikh said. But at this point, I would not put money on it.

In his assessment, the Russians are trying to push the Syrian regime to be more cooperative on humanitarian aid access, with limited success, Shaikh said. But the Syrian opposition is also irked that the Russians have encouraged bringing other groups of Syrian opposition to Geneva, including the so-called Cairo opposition, muddying the waters, Shaikh said.

The regime bottom line is, it is willing to share  some power, in a national unity government, that would validate the new constitution, which then leads to new elections, in which Assad can run again, Shaikh said. That is what the regime wants.

I feel sorry for de Mistura, Shaikh said. I think  there has to be a US-Russian understanding to move it forward.
April 18, 2016

Could Turkish police have prevented the double-suicide attack Oct. 10 in Ankara that killed 102 people? Until April 13, we could only speculate. But now, we can give a firm answer that yes, the attack could have been thwarted.

This was the question asked immediately after the attack, because nobody had seen any police measures near the train station where the bombs went off. Those coming to the station, where a peace rally was being organized by labor unions and civil society organizations, were not searched by the police.

This question is vital because this Islamic State (IS) attack had a bearing on the fate of Turkey. Chaos and the threat of terror, which was forged by this bloodiest terror attack in Turkeys history, played a role in the Justice and Development Partys (AKP) victory in the Nov. 1 elections, after its resounding loss of votes in the June 7 general elections.

Thanks to stories in the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet by journalist Kemal Goktas published April 13 and April 14, we now know security forces had advance intelligence reports that IS was planning such attacks. The forces even had the names of the terrorists planning to carry them out. But not only did the police in Ankara fail to prevent the attacks, they actually facilitated the attacks with their ill-contrived actions.

The April 13 report in Cumhuriyet said:

According to a Feb. 25 report by state inspectors, 25 days before the attack in Ankara, intelligence units informed the anti-terror department in Ankara that IS could launch attacks on rallies using multiple perpetrators. But the anti-terror unit did not convey this information to its superiors or to the unit responsible for security at the rallies.

According to the inspector's report, on the morning of Oct. 10, the intelligence department warned the anti-terror unit that a potential terrorist named Yunus Emre Alagoz could be preparing for an action. This person was the older brother of IS suicide bomber Seyh Abdurrahman Alagoz, who had killed 33 leftist activists in Suruc July 20 as they prepared to participate in the reconstruction of Kobani. The information given by the intelligence unit was accurate. Here, we must recall that the Suruc massacre reignited the war between Kurdish militants and government forces. The Oct. 10 rally was organized to demand that the peace process be resurrected.

The state inspectors recommended that five senior officers be investigated for their negligence, but the Ankara governor's office has not allowed it. The chief prosecutor did not intervene and terminated further action on the case.

Cumhuriyet's April 14 story, which was also based on state inspectors' reports, said Ankara police had warned its personnel to defend themselves against a possible suicide bombing during the Oct. 10 rally but had not adopted any special measures to protect the rally participants.

In light of this information, one must conclude that IS Ankara massacre could have been foiled.

The Ankara attack was the zenith of bloody clashes and terror actions that occurred between the June 7 and Nov. 1 elections. The Oct. 10 attack played a major role in radically changing voters' perceptions and directly affected their political choices in favor of the AKP.

According to the Turkeys Pulse survey carried out by Metropoll Strategic and Social Research Center, responses to the question What is Turkeys most important problem? illustrate the link between the AKPs election performance and changes in voters' perceptions.

Before the June 7 elections, when the AKP suffered a 20% vote loss, 64.2% of respondents cited the economy as Turkey's most important problem. This explains how the bad economic performance led to the AKP's loss.

In May 2015, those who cited terror as the most important problem constituted a negligible level of 3.7%. In July, after the Suruc massacre, the war with the Kurdistan Workers Party started and the perception of the country's biggest problem turned upside down. By September, those who ranked terror as the No. 1 problem shot up to 42.2%, although there had been no improvement in the economy at all. In the Turkeys Pulse survey carried out Oct. 4-7, just before the Oct. 10 bombing, those who saw terror as the most vital problem went up to 47.2%.

It could be assumed that the suicide bombing three days later must have further reinforced voters' perception of the threat of terror.

This increased fear gave birth to a tendency in right-wing and conservative voters to abandon the search for political change and prodded them to gather around the authoritarian status quo. This situation played a major role in the AKP's electoral victory on Nov. 1 with a high vote margin that even the party had not anticipated.

What is interesting is that a major segment of AKP voters also think that terror gained votes for the AKP.

Metropoll conducted face-to-face interviews with 2,082 respondents in 28 provinces Feb. 6-11, asking, Do you agree with the claims that terror incidents after June 7 increased the AKP's votes?

Slightly more than 50% of AKP voters answered yes. Countrywide, 57.3% of respondents said yes, while 30.4% said no and 12.3% had no opinion.

An amazing development that followed the Cumhuriyet reports of gross dereliction by the police for not preventing the Oct. 10 attacks  reports also published by the leftist daily Evrensel  was the decision of the Ankara chief prosecutor to launch an investigation into journalists who had written the news reports, which he said made "targets of public officials who had taken part in the struggle against terror.

But it seems that these reports, more than targeting public officials, were instrumental in illustrating the link between IS terror and the AKPs election victory Nov. 1.
This story appears in Birmingham magazine's April 2016 Issue. Subscribe today!

A ceiling high tapestry hangs on the wall behind Jeanne Jackson. She got it in Mali when, at 25, she worked in the Peace Corps teaching English in Senegal. She knew she was interested in women's studies then, when she started a co-op for women selling produce.

For 20 years, Jackson worked at Birmingham-Southern College, where she taught environmental studies and started programs like the Hess Center for Leadership and Service and the Urban Environmental Studies program. She loved her job, and she loved the work she did for Birmingham-Southern. But, one day, a new opportunity called.

It was from The Women's Fund, then a program under the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. Jackson says she was "ready for a challenge and something new," and accepted the position of President and CEO. The Women's Fund split off from the Community Foundation and is now an independent 501(c)(3) organization.

"We wanted to grow, we wanted to give women a louder voice," she says. The Fund aims to increase the quality of life for low-income women and single mothers living in poverty.

Its main task is to research issues plaguing low-income women, raise money, and then provide grants to programs that assist women. Last year, the charity gave away $525,000 in grants. By 2020, it hopes to double that amount.

The Fund concentrates on economic help, because research shows that children are less likely to repeat the cycle of poverty if they are not raised in the two-generation flow of poverty.

Women who want assistance from the Fund must have a high school degree, be drug free, and be ready to change their lives. Jackson says that the women must be "in a position where they are ready to move ahead."

One of the things Jackson is most proud of in her work is a program she started two years ago called the Collaboration Institute.The program encourages agencies to work together and "be a catalyst for social change."

"What was happening in Birmingham just wasn't working... As a woman, you need a high school degree and at least some college. A man can get training on the job in things like manufacturing," she says.

The Collaboration Institute funds Birmingham agencies that work together to create programs for women in poverty. While the idea was new and may have seemed crazy at the time, the Fund has seen an 83% graduation rate from programs at Jefferson State Community College and other programs in the Magic City.

Currently, the Fund is working with a program at the Callahan Eye Hospital at UAB that is training women to become vision assistants. The school is also letting the students take their lab practicum at the hospital, since many women in the program cannot afford to travel.

Jackson has also worked with first responders in the city to help them recognize the signs of sex trafficking.

Then, Jackson told the story of Monique.

When Jackson met Monique, the young mother was living in her car. She had just escaped a bad marriage, and was unable to take care of her children--they were living with her parents and god parents at the time.

"Monique had to make the decisions, but our job was to make it a little easier for her," Jackson says.

Monique was accepted into Jefferson State Community College, where she eventually graduated at the top of her class. She got her children back and got a job as a pharmacy technician at Walgreens. She started nursing school this past January.

"This is why I come to work every day," Jackson says.

Monique received national recognition for her accomplishments last year at the Aspen Institute, where she presented her story. The Institute started a two-generation approach to tackling single mothers that live in poverty called the Aspen Ascend Program. The Women's Fund is one of 50 organizations in the nation that are part of the Ascend Program, and they are using the partnership to move families beyond poverty and into economical security.

The Women's Fund Collaboration Institute

In June 2015, The Women's Fund kicked off its second Collaboration Institute--an organization created to bring agencies that work with women and children together to remove obstacles to success and provide comprehensive services. Its 9-month competition concluded in February with six teams consisting of nearly 20 organizations presenting their proposals to the Women's Fund committee.

Two winners were chosen. The first was Project Vision, which won the Vulcan Materials Innovation in Community Collaboration Award. Project Vision provides case management, housing assistance, childcare identification/assistance, and employment preparation services to families to reduce and break the cycle of poverty. The program will meet with families who do not qualify for specific public assistance for various reasons including lack of ID, homelessness, and unresolved legal issues.

The second winner was SMILE (Single Moms Invested, Learning, Empowered) Dental Assistant Training Program, which won the BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama Collaboration in Healthcare Award. With this organization, interested single mothers whose children attend the YWCA's nationally accredited Child Development Center or its after-school programs will complete Jefferson State Community College's Dental Assistant program, an 11-week, non-degree certificate program that will prepare them to enter the field of dental care, which offers high wages and has growing demand in our state.

Each team was awarded $25,000 in start-up funds and $8,000 for an AmeriCorps member or paid intern.

For more information on the Women's Fund, visit womensfundbirmingham.org.
Gibson's Bar-B-Q on South Memorial Parkway is as much a family institution as it is one of Huntsville's most iconic restaurants.

Generations of family have worked in the business, which turns 60 today, but the familiarity goes beyond blood. Owners and cousins Art Sanford and Paula Mabry said it's the repeat customers who make Gibson's feel like home.

"In reality, they almost become family over time because we literally have some people who eat in here every day, some twice per day," Sanford said. "Over time, they become like your adopted aunt or your adopted grandfather or just good friends."

There are hundreds of customers like that, Mabry said, who have been visiting the restaurant for years and bringing new generations of family with them.

"When you don't see them, you get worried," she said.

True family business

Gibson's is marking six decades in business this month, a feat Sanford said his grandparents and original owners, Paul and Velma Hampton, probably would have never dreamed of when they first opened the restaurant on April 18, 1956.

Velma Hampton, one of five children of north Alabama barbecue king Big Bob Gibson, launched Gibson's on 3409 S. Memorial Parkway, three doors south of the current location. The site had curbside service, pie for 20 cents a slice and 3,600 square feet, less than half of the restaurant's space on 3319 S. Memorial Parkway.

The couple's two children, John Paul Hampton and Louise Sanford, took over Gibson's in 1973, when they moved the restaurant to the current facility, which is as well known to Huntsville residents as Redstone Arsenal or the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

A second Gibson's opened on Whitesburg Drive a few years later. Sanford, son of Jess and Louise Sanford, and Mabry, daughter of John Paul and Charlotte Hampton, assumed ownership of the restaurant about two years ago and are in awe of how far the family business has come.

"They'd be proud that the family is still running it, we're still together and we're still going strong," Mabry said.

Sanford said Gibson's has managed to survive the influx of chain restaurants and dips in the economy by following one rule: Maintain the integrity of the recipes and style of cooking that established Gibson's as one of the longest-running eateries in Huntsville.

Popular stop

He said people enjoy eating at Gibson's because the food and staff are consistent, the atmosphere is comfortable and they never know who they may run into there. Gibson's has a loyal following of older customers, many of whom have been visiting the restaurant since childhood or the early part of their careers.

It's also a stomping ground for politicians, former and current Redstone Arsenal employees and breakfast clubs. Marilyn Tucker Quayle, lawyer and wife of Dan Quayle, even visited the restaurant while her husband was running for vice president during past President George H.W. Bush's term.

"We've watched people come and go and they've watched us grow," Sanford said. "It's kind of a neat thing."

Gibson's introduced breakfast for the first time in the mid-70s, opening up a new market for the small business. They later offered catfish and barbecue stuffed potatoes to reach an even wider audience.

The restaurant's barbecue remains the centerpiece of Gibson's, which seasons and slow cooks pork, beef, chicken, ribs and turkey on only hickory wood.

"It's a simple process," Sanford said. "We don't do a lot to it but we get good results."

Free birthday pie

Gibson's is trying to attract a younger crowd using social media websites like Facebook. As Huntsville experiences new growth, Sanford said the future looks good for Gibson's and its 48 employees.

"The small business is so important to the community," he said. "Most of them are opened by people who have lived here the majority of their life. They're devoting their time, their money into an idea or dream they've always had. To see it come to life and prosper is great."

To celebrate 60 years in business, Gibson's is offering a free slice of homemade pie every Monday and Tuesday in April with the purchase of any barbecue plate, barbecue potato or barbecue salad. Sanford and Mabry will also give away a 60-inch television at their Memorial Parkway and Whitesburg Drive locations at the end of the month.

Mayor Tommy Battle, a Birmingham native who moved to Huntsville in 1980, finds himself at Gibson's up to twice a week. With all the changes taking place in Huntsville right now, he said the restaurant remains a mainstay for families in Huntsville and beyond.

"It's one of those places where everybody feels comfortable," he said. "Everybody knows it. It's been there so long that a little bit of Gibson's is a part of everybody else."
Good People Brwing Company QC lab

(Joe Songer/jsonger@al.com).

Good People Brewing Company is expanding its distribution territory for the second time this year.

The Birmingham brewery will start distributing in the Knoxville market by the last week of April.

Good People first expanded into Nashville in 2013. In February, it announced it would start selling in the Chattanooga area and the Florida Panhandle.

"When we first moved into Tennessee in 2013, you could only buy our beer in three counties," Good People cofounder Michael Sellers said in a statement. "By June, Tennesseeans from Clarksville east will be able to buy great beer brewed right here in Birmingham, Alabama. You can't overstate how big a win that is for our brewery and for craft beer in the South."

Eagle Distributing Company will be the brewers' Knoxville-area distributor.

Good People will hold promotional events and samplings in Knoxville throughout the last week in April and will be at the Brewhibition craft beer festival on April 30. Good People will post information on these events on its Facebook page.

Meanwhile in Birmingham, the brewery is exploring the option of adding a kitchen to its downtown tasting room.

Michael Sellers and Jason Malone founded Good People in 2008. In 2010, they moved to their current brewery across from Railroad Park at 114 14th St. S.
A laptop that contained prescription and patient information on customers of a CVS Pharmacy in Calera has been stolen.

CVS learned on March 22 that the password-protected laptop had been stolen from a vendor. The laptop contained information about customers who have had prescriptions filled at the CVS store at 8370 Highway 31 in Calera, the company announced Monday. The laptop was stolen from the vendor and reported to the Indianapolis police department.

The laptop had been stolen on March 16. Information on the laptop included patient names and in some cases addresses, telephone numbers, prescription names, numbers and dispensing dates. There was no financial information on the laptop.

"Nothing is more central to CVS Health's health care operations than maintaining the privacy of its patients' personal information and the Company sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience or concern," CVS said in a statement.

CVS is directly notifying patients whose information was on the laptop, and affected customers with questions can call 1-888-829-6553.

The vendor did not encrypt the patients' information, which is a violation of the vendor's obligations to CVS, according to the statement. The vendor has agreed to provide additional privacy training to its employees, including encryption training.

Only patients of that particular CVS are at risk - if you've never filled a prescription at that location, you're not affected. But not all customers are affected. CVS is notifying customers whose information is on the laptop.

CVS spokesman Mike DeAngelis said the vendor did not have access to patient information at any other Alabama stores. The vendor could have had access to patient information at other stores outside of the state, but only information from the Calera location was on the stolen laptop.

"Based on our thorough review of this matter, we believe this incident is an isolated issue which was not caused by lack of internal controls or other systemic issues," DeAngelis wrote in an email. "The vendor will further enhance its internal controls to prevent similar issues in the future."

CVS declined to name the vendor, but said "but they are taking the appropriate remedial and corrective steps in order to continue working for CVS Health."

Correction 4:16 p.m.: This story has been corrected to reflect that the theft occurred at the site of the vendor, not the Calera CVS.
(Source: Michele Waters)

The strangest town names in Alabama

In 2014, I made a list of my 13 favorite strange place names in Alabama. AL.com readers added their own to the list and lots of fun discussion ensued. I was reminded of the list when Mental_Floss.com published a list Friday of "15 Town Names with Unusual Backstories" and included Frog Eye, Ala.

I decided to revisit my initial list, now that Ive traveled so much more of the state. What resulted is this alphabetical list, which is a combination of reader favorites and mine. The last slide includes a list of more odd place names in Alabama.

READ MORE: Names of 30 Alabama towns that were weird 130 years ago

READ the initial list here.

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(Source: Paul Swisher)

1. Bacon Level.

Bacon Level, located in Randolph County, was named in pioneer days, according to retired Lt. Paul Swisher of Roanoke. He said: Local story has it that some pioneer travelers, circa 1800, had their camp robbed and provisions were taken. They were told there were some outlaws up the way, where the trail leveled out. Sure enough they found their missing bacon at the level spot, hence the name Bacon Level.

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(Source: Blue Eye Baptist Church)

2. Blue Eye.

This community is located in Talladega County near Lincoln. A reader said:

Blue Eye Creek runs through Lincoln and, according to lincolnalabama.com, was named for a Conchardee chief, who had one brown eye and one blue eye.

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(Source: Burnout Baptist Church)

3. Burnout.

The legend behind this Franklin County community says it was named during the Civil War after a group of Union soldiers stopped to camp at a church just outside Red Bay. During the night, a soldier knocked over a lantern and started a fire. Local settlers came together to replace the burned church and decided to call it Burnout Church, a name also adopted by the surrounding community.

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Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com

4. Burnt Corn.

Burnt Corn is an unincorporated community in Monroe County, located at a crossroads near the source of Burnt Corn Creek and the intersection of two historic Native American trading paths.

The town and the creek may have been named for an incident in which passersby found a pile of parched corn, a food used by Creek Indians. However, others believe the name derives from either Indians who burned settlers' crops, or vice versa. See other explanations of the name on the Burnt Corn website here.

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Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com

5. Coffee Pot.

Coffee Pot is an unincorporated community, little more than a crossroads, in Limestone County. At its center is Coffee Pot Grocery.

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(Source: Atkins Furniture Facebook)

6. Dogtown.

Dogtown, or Dog Town, is an unincorporated community at Cagles Crossroads in DeKalb County. The community became known as Dog Town because so many hunters and their dogs frequented the area.

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(Source: Michele Waters)

7. Frog Eye.

Frog Eye is located in Tallapoosa on the Tallapoosa River between Wadley and Daviston. According to Michele Fortson Waters, a local historian, stories differ as to how Frog Eye got its name but she recounts this one on her website frogeyecooking.com: "Years ago, in the prohibition days, there was a saloon in the community. This saloon sold legal and illegal liquor. There was a ceramic frog that sat in the saloon window. If the state boys were in the saloon the owner would close one of the frog's eyes so the customers would know not to ask for the illegal liquor. If both the frog's eyes were open then it was OK to ask for the illegal liquor. The community became known all around as Frog Eye."

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8. Intercourse.

Intercourse is little more than a crossroads in Sumter County. According to Wikipedia, Intercourse is named for an intersection, which was called an "intercourse" at the time, at the location of the community's general store.

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(AL.com File Photo)

9. Lick Skillet.

Sometimes written Lickskillet, this community near Hazel Green in Madison County is at the intersection of Butter and Egg Road and Charity Lane. According to a 2010 story on AL.com, the community got its name from a brawl.

Bill Malone of Fayetteville, Tenn., said his uncle, Hut Malone, got into a fight inside the general store at the crossroads. Suddenly, he grabbed a skillet that was in the store and struck his opponent on the head, ending the fight. The community was from then on known as Lick Skillet because Malone "licked" his opponent "with a skillet."

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(AL.com File Photo)

10. Normal.

Normal is a Madison County community where Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University is located. Normal was established when a post office was located there in 1890, when AAMU was then known as the State Normal and Industrial School of Huntsville.

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(Source: Gadsden Times article, 2003)

11. Scratch Ankle.

According to a 2003 story in The Gadsden Times, the Monroe County community of Scratch Ankle got its name from a plethora of pests. The story blames the itchy population on either the fleas that feasted on the multitude of cows, and then humans, or on the mosquitoes that invaded the area. In both tales, residents were often seen scratching their ankles.

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Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com

12. Screamer.

Adam Richardson wrote: "I grew up in the community of Screamer and can tell you that the name originates from two stories. To start with, sound carries very well in the hills and valleys of the northern part of Henry County and the first story is that the sounds of the Native Americans could be heard clearly. The other origin story comes from the sounds of the steamboat whistles would make from the nearby port city of Otho on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. That town is now underneath Lake Eufaula/Lake Walter F. George and the community of Screamer is all that remains."

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(Source: Shinbone Valley Facebook page)

13. Shinbone Valley.

This unincorporated community in Clay County was named for Chief Shinbone, a Creek Indian.

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Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com

14. Slapout.

According to lore, this Elmore County community got its name from the 1920s-era general store, which was typically "slap out" of many staples. When quizzed about his stock, the owner would respond simply, "I'm slap out."

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Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com

15. Slick Lizard.

This community near Nauvoo in Walker County supposedly got its name from a nearby mine used in the 1920s. According to the book, "Alabama Off the Beaten Path," the name comes from miners who had to crawl on their bellies through clay portals about 2 feet high and came out "slick as a lizard."

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(Source: Strange Alabama)

16. Smut Eye.

This community in Bullock County got its name from a blacksmith's shop, according to a 1999 article in The Montgomery Advertiser. The blacksmith served a "homemade ale that the local women called the devil's brew." The men of the town would stand around the fire to talk and drink moonshine, leaving with their faces smudged with the exception of their eyes. The wives would know what their men had been up to and soon began calling the shop, and later the community, "Smuteye."

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(Source: Postmarks.com)

17. Sunflower.

An unincorporated community in Washington County near McIntosh.

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(Source: RuralSWAlabama.com)

18. Sunny South.

An unincorporated community in Wilcox County.

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Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com

19. Zip City.

Zip City was settled in 1817 in Lauderdale County north of Florence. According to one legend, it was renamed in the 1920s. The story goes that when alcoholic beverages could not be sold in Florence, residents drove along Chisholm Road to the Alabama-Tennessee line where liquor was legal. Cars would zip along the road  hence the community name.

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(Photo of Veto store/AL.com File)

More fun place names in Alabama

Blow Gourd in Blount, Jackson counties

Blues Old Stand in Bullock County

Bucks Pocket State Park in Marshall County

Burn Out in Franklin County

Chalybeate (Klee-bit) Springs in Lawrence County

Deer Head in Washington County

Dog Town in DeKalb County

Eastaboga in Talladega County

Froggy Bottom in Montgomery County

Fruitdale in Washington County

Gobbler's Crossing in Walker County

Leroy in Washington County

Lizard Lope in Jackson County

Lizard Thicket in Marion County

Mud Creek in Walker County

Mud Tavern in Morgan County

Murder Creek in Escambia County

Onycha in Covington County

Pansey in Houston County

Pea Ridge in Washington County

Pigeye in Marion County

Pine Apple in Wilcox County

Pine Level in Autauga, Coffee and Montgomery counties

Possum Bend in Wilcox County

Possum Trot in Calhoun County

Pull Tight in Washington County

Punkin Center in Morgan, Walker counties

Rabbittown in Marshall County

Red Level in Covington County

Rehobeth in Houston County

Scant City in Marshall County

Scufflegrit in Marion County

Spit Box in Monroe County

Sunflower in Washington County

Ten Islands in St. Clair County

Toxey in Choctaw County

Veto in Limestone County

Vinegar Bend in Washington County

Wedowee (We-dow- wee) in Randolph County

Weogufka in Coosa County

Whiskey Run in Wilcox County

Yampertown in Washington County

Zip City in Lauderdale County
Last Thursday, I received a message on Facebook from a reader who wanted to know if I'd ever seen a headstone like the one he'd recently photographed in Rockford. My first thought was: "I love it when readers send me tombstone mysteries."

My second thought was: "Hey, that's not a tombstone."

I was, of course, intrigued. Charles Byrom posted a photo of a marker shaped like an old headstone. In the center of the arched top was what looked to be the hand-crafted relief of a human face. Below it, a piece of white granite was hand-etched with the strange markings: A tiny "1913" in the upper left corner, then "ROCD-2MI" in the center. Beneath that are some illegible initials.

Byrom said the stone, which he identified as a mile marker, was located 2.1 miles from the four-way stop in the tiny Coosa County town of Rockford, population 477. Byrom wrote he'd never seen another like it and wanted to know if I had.

The answer was, no. I had not. I was determined to find out what it was. After calling a few historians and searching online databases of my favorite history sites, I found answers.

What is the Rockford rock? A marker along U.S. Highway 231 that alerts visitors, who were likely traveling by horse or wagon, that Rockford was only 2 miles ahead.

When was it placed? In 1913.

Who placed it? This is the fun part. According to a wonderful and in-depth genealogy on Ancestry.com by user RonBridges32, the marker is the only one remaining of several carved and placed by a prominent Rockford resident named John Kirkham McEwen.

Why was it made? According to a 1939 article in The Tuscaloosa News, the Alabama Legislature mandated owners of roads to create mile markers back in 1820. The act said: "... it shall be the duty of all overseers of public roads to measure all road and to set up posts at the end of each mile, leading from the courthouse or some noted place ..." The article states most markers were made of wood and quickly rotted.

Rockford's markers may have been the only ones etched in stone. Turns out, McEwen, Rockford's most prominent and offbeat resident of the period, had two major interests: collecting Native American artifacts and "shaping things in stone and cement," Ron Bridges wrote. Apparently McEwen, who ran a local store built from rock, made several similar markers but the one Byrom photographed is the only one to survive 100 years later. I could not find an explanation for the face on the stone.

Who was John K. McEwen? McEwen (April 28, 1856-Oct. 5, 1939) was born and died in Coosa County. He married Cattie Dandridge Walker in 1877, and they had six children: Archie D., John Walker, George Washington, Mollie Cleveland, Kate, and Charles Wesley.

For 35 years, he ran a mercantile that he built himself from local stone in the 1890s. McEwen was known for his uncanny "readings" of visitors to his store. He would guess their ages and vocations, Ron Bridges said. "He was usually right."

His interest in carving markers likely started with building monuments for his family burial lot at Sears Chapel Cemetery (McEwen's mother was a Sears). In 1897, he created an arched marble entrance leading to the family plot, along with a path of stones with inscriptions. The monument at the grave site he would share with his wife has an inscription that looks hand-etched like the mile marker, saying: "Burial Ground of John K. and C. D. McEwen Aug 4, 1897."

Bridges wrote that McEwen was quoted as saying, "I made it worm-proof and waterproof and now I'm trying to live so it will be fireproof."

McEwen's rock store was also known as an Indian museum and drew visitors from miles around. By the time he donated his collection to the Alabama Department of Archives and History in 1937, he'd amassed more than 50,000 native artifacts from surrounding counties, including jewels from a long-dead Indian princess, according to a 1928 Associated Press article published in the Prescott, AZ, Evening Courier. The article said McEwen found strings of beads, a silver epaulet, silver earrings and a "silver-threaded lace collarette" in the grave.

Join al.com reporter Kelly Kazek on her weekly journey through Alabama to record the region's quirky history, strange roadside attractions and tales of colorful characters. Find her on Facebook or follow her Odd Travels and Real Alabama boards on Pinterest.
A Jefferson County teenager faces a second-degree rape charge after authorities say he had consensual sex with another teen he met at a party.

The young man, 19, was indicted in March on the felony charge, according to court records made public today. He was arrested April 14 and booked into the Jefferson County Jail. He was released three hours later after posting $30,000.

AL.com is not releasing the suspect's name because it likely would identify the victim, and the names of sexual assault victims are typically protected. The suspect was 19 at the time of the incident, and the victim was a 14-year-old girl.

Fultondale police Chief D.P. Smith said the two met at a party and had sex. The girl's parents found out about the incident through a text message, contacted authorities and pursued formal charges.

According to Alabama law, second-degree rape includes, "Being 16 years old or older, he or she engages in sexual intercourse with a member of the opposite sex less than 16 years old and more than 12 years old provided, however, the actor is at least two years older than the member of the opposite sex."

In Alabama, the age of consent is 16 and only leads to criminal charges if there is an age difference of two calendar years. Also, 16 and 17-year-olds are charged as juveniles, but those 18 and older are charged as adults.

A Class B felony is punishable by two to 20 years in prison and up to $30,000 in fines. A person convicted of statutory rape could be required to register as a sex offender, depending on the conviction and terms of sentencing.

Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls said five or less people are charged with this crime annually.
A former Marine charged with killing his wife at a doctor's office last year pled guilty to murder today.

Chief Deputy District Attorney C.J. Robinson said that Eric Price pled guilty to one count of murder today for killing Leaj Jarvis Price.

Robinson said his plea agreement is for 40 years in prison. The victim's family was in agreement with the proposed sentence.

"We were anticipating to go to trial," Robinson said.

"I wasn't shocked [Price pled guilty], but it surprised me that it was today."

Price killed his wife around 9:17 a.m. at Dr. Jayprakash Patel's office in the 2400 block of U.S. 31 on April 13 of last year.

She died of a gunshot wound to the head.

The former Marine fled the scene and hid in his nearby rental home for hours. The standoff ended around 12:24 p.m. that day.

Last September, Price pled not guilty due mental illness.

Robinson said that many people have questioned why he didn't push for Price to receive a life sentence, and he said that the 40 year sentence is "more than life."

Many people that receive a life sentence get out of prison in 25-30 years, he said.

Price's sentencing is set for May 11 in Chilton County.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it won't hear the appeal of Lee Carroll Brooker, a 76-year-old Houston County man who is serving a life without the possibility parole sentence for his 2014 conviction for possession of a few pounds of marijuana.

The Supreme Court denied certiorari - or review - of Brooker's case without comment. The court had considered whether to take up the case - and many others - in a Friday conference.

Brooker's attorneys argued that the sentence based on his habitual offender status violates the Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment.

Some people said Brooker got a raw deal when he was sentenced as a habitual offender. Those included included Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore who called Brooker's sentence "excessive and unjustified" in a special writing when his court rejected Brooker's appeal last year.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a national sentencing reform group, also had filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of Brooker asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office noted that Brooker had served time for smuggling drugs between Florida and Alaska and had served time for a multi-day, multi-victim spree of armed robberies, culminating in his firing a sawed-off shotgun at one person and threatening to shoot two police officers.

The AG argued that the Court should deny the writ because mandatory life imprisonment for recidivist felons is constitutional and trafficking in marijuana can serve as a triggering offense under the state's habitual offender statute. The 2.8 pounds of marijuana confiscated in Brooker's arrest was more than the weight for personal use.
Was north Alabama forgotten in the days after tornadoes raked Alabama on April 27, 2011? It seemed that way.

"The thing I heard most from citizens that were affected was a frustration that they had sort of been overlooked and forgotten," remembers National Weather Service Meteorologist Chris Darden.

Darden's job then was to travel out from the Huntsville NWS office to assess damage after the storms. Today, he's meteorologist in charge of that office.

Darden remembers talking to a man in the northeast Alabama town of Henagar "and he, in a very nice way, lamented the fact he had not seen anyone offer assistance or come by."

Five years later, search the Web for "Alabama tornadoes April 27, 2011" and the first images you see are of Tuscaloosa, where an EF-4 tornado hit near the University of Alabama. It killed 66 people in Tuscaloosa County and next-door Jefferson County.

Tuscaloosa is where President Obama came two days later, and Tuscaloosa led the first national reports from Alabama. Typical was the National Geographic website's April 29 headline about a "monster storm" in Tuscaloosa.

North Alabama was out of the spotlight, but it wasn't ignored. It's more complicated than that.

Details emerge slowly

In North Alabama as elsewhere in the state, details were slower to emerge. It took time to learn that two EF-5 tornadoes had crossed the area killing 98 people and scouring parts of five counties.

A flattened communications grid didn't help. Power and telephone lines were down. All of Huntsville was blacked out, and power didn't come back on until May 2. The Huntsville Times designed its April 28 newspaper with power from an RV's generator.

"Keep in mind, the only thing they were hearing was on the radio," Darden says of survivors. "We went to very few places that had power, at least the first week or so. All they were hearing about was the president coming to Tuscaloosa or other dignitaries."

Overwhelming damage

Damage in North Alabama was so widespread the National Weather Service didn't know a tornado had hit Bridgeport for three days, Darden says. It didn't know until mid-May that an EF-2 tornado had passed near Fort Payne.

Meanwhile, people across the nation were watching the video of the Tuscaloosa tornado again and again. And it was amazing.

"There was the same video of the tornado that moved across Limestone County," Darden says. "There was the same video of Cullman. For whatever reason, it didn't get the same play. It didn't affect the university."

Overwhelmed responders

Beyond poor communications and damaged infrastructure, public and private response agencies were "overwhelmed," in Darden's words. It took days for the response to ramp up to the scale of the disaster.

Meanwhile, the national story itself was soon bigger than Tuscaloosa or even Alabama. It was the story of a "super cell" outbreak spawning 199 tornadoes in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee. In all, 324 people died.

And five days later on May 2, just as the power was coming back on in Huntsville, U.S. forces in Pakistan killed Osama bin Laden. The death and destruction in one section of one state became a secondary part of what was now the second-biggest story in America.

How bad was it in North Alabama? "The extent of the devastation was unparalleled," the National Weather Service would say later, "with countless homes, neighborhoods and portions of cities either partially or completely destroyed. Houses were removed from foundations, churches were flattened and debris, livestock and people were thrown large distances through the air."

University of Alabama in Huntsville meteorologist Tim Coleman told NASA science writer Dauna Colter that, "Brick homes were blown apart.... Some of these tornadoes were almost unsurviveable. Only in a well-built storm shelter would you make it through."

Three quick stories

Darden tells three quick anecdotes to illustrate. In the first, he's in Phil Campbell, where 20 people died and 800 structures were destroyed. It's a Sunday afternoon just before crews are about to begin burning whatever's left.

"I remember standing there, looking around, and there literally was not a single thing that was recognizable, not a car, a house, a mail box, nothing," Darden says.

In the second story, Darden is in Higdon with a woman who saw the tornado, rushed home from a birthday party at a friend's house and found her mother, father and younger sister dead.

"She was the first one on the scene," Darden says. "She hadn't left and hadn't said hardly a word. We walked up and asked if we could take some photographs. 'I've lost everything,' she said. "I have nothing left.' She started crying. That was really hard, really, really tough."

The next street over, a woman and her two daughters stood in pile that used to be a farm house.

"There was literally nothing left," Darden says. "They owned 40 head of cattle and had to put 21 down, not for puncture wounds, but impact wounds. They had been picked up and thrown by the tornado."

North Alabama today

In North Alabama today, people understand what they survived. Roger Lingerfelt, who works for a telephone co-op, was a Rainsville city councilman then and still is today. His attitude is typical of what you find in the region.

Standing in front of his farmhouse in late March, Lingerfelt said he understands the early attention on Tuscaloosa and other areas. He doesn't begrudge it a bit. Like others here, he focuses on pride at how his community and other utility and telephone co-ops rallied.

Volunteers did come from more than 20 states, said Tim Eberhart, executive director of the Rainsville Chamber of Commerce. They brought "a lot of food, a lot of water, and they were here for months" working hard to help people clean up and start over.

"The volunteers said they'd never come to a community like this," Lingerfelt said. People, if they had anything at all for dinner, would say to take the donated meals down the road "to someone who needs it worse."

Rainsville is back

Five years later, Rainsville is basically back. Only a few shattered trees mark the storm's path north of town. Victory Baptist Church is whole again, and the DeKalb County Schools Coliseum is rebuilt and home to a monument to the 35 who died here.

But some psychological scars remain. Lingerfelt admits he called his insurance agent as this spring approached to check his home and property coverage - just to make sure.

"If the weather turns bad," Linda Samples of Rainsville said, "it's the first thing that pops into everyone's head."

People get on edge, Lingerfelt agreed, "and they want to be in the right places - safe places. Kids notice it. They get nervous."

Celebrating recovery

Samples led the committee that built the memorial monument. "We worked on it every Saturday rain or shine," she said. "Everyone wanted to help. People were making lunches, carrying blocks."

There's been a remembrance ceremony every April 27 since 2011, Samples said, but this year will be different.

"This year we will be celebrating the recovery," she said. "We'll be looking to the future."
Overnight thunderstorms hit the Houston area causing major flooding and leaving more than 120,000 people without power.

The storms are expected to continue throughout Monday and into Tuesday, according the National Weather Service.

According to the Houston Chronicle, school districts and colleges across southeast Texas canceled classes Monday as a flash flood watch remained in effect due to heavy rainfall.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told the Chronicle the Houston Fire Department responded to 610 emergency calls since midnight.
The Big Apple could play a big role in deciding who will be the next president of the United States.

New York's presidential primary is scheduled for Tuesday, April 19 with 95 Republican and 291 Democratic delegates up for grabs. It's an especially important day for Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, who are vying for every last delegate leading into what could be a historically close nominating convention.

Republican voters are choosing between Trump, Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Democrats are deciding between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

New York will award delegates proportionally.

Both the Republican and Democratic primaries are closed, meaning only voters registered with those parties can cast ballots in the referendums. In New York city and counties of Nassau, Suffolk. Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam and Erie polls will open at 6 a.m.-9 p.m. (EST) all other counties will have polling hours between noon and 9 p.m. (EST).

Trump currently has 743 of the 1,237 delegates needed to capture the GOP nomination. Cruz has 517 and Ohio Gov. John Kasich 143.Clinton has 1,748 delegates to Sanders' 1,058.

According to the most recent polls, Trump maintains a large lead in New York. He's also the front runner in Pennsylvania and California, which will hold primaries on April 26 and June 7, respectively. In New York, Trump has 54 percent of support among likely GOP primary voters in his home state, compared to Cruz at 21 percent and Kasich at 19 percent. In Pennsylvania, Trump has a 20-point lead; in California it's 18.

Clinton has a comfortable lead over Sanders in New York, with a fairly strong margin in Pennsylvania and California as well.

Here's what's left on the primary schedule:

Tuesday, April 26

Connecticut - 28 Republican delegates, 70 Democratic, delegates awarded proportionally

Delaware - 16 Republican delegates, 31 Democratic, winner-take-all

Maryland - 38 Republican delegates, 118 Democratic, winner-take-all

Pennsylvania - 71 Republican delegates, 210 Democratic. Republican delegates are winner-take-all; Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally.

Rhode Island - 19 Republican delegates, 33 Democratic, delegates awarded proportionally

Tuesday, May 3

Indiana - 57 Republican delegates, 92 Democratic, winner-take-all

Saturday, May 7

Guam Democratic primary - 12 delegates

Tuesday, May 10

Nebraska Republican primary - 36 delegates

West Virginia - 37 Republican delegates, 34 Democratic

Tuesday, May 17

Kentucky Democratic primary - 61 delegates

Oregon primary - 28 Republican delegates, 72 Democratic, delegates awarded proportionally

Tuesday, May 24

Washington Republican primary - 44 delegates, delegates awarded proportionally

Saturday, June 4

Virgin Island Democratic caucus - 12 delegates

Sunday, June 5

Puerto Rico Democratic caucus - 67 delegates

Tuesday, June 7

California - 172 Republican delegates, 546 Democratic, delegates awarded proportionally

Montana - 27 Republican delegates, 27 Democratic, winner-take-all

New Jersey - 51 Republican delegates, 142 Democratic, winner-take-all

New Mexico - 24 Republican delegates, 43 Democratic delegates, delegates awarded proportionately

North Dakota Democratic caucus - 23 delegates

South Dakota - 29 Republican delegates, 25 Democratic, winner-take-all

Tuesday, June 14

District of Columbia Democratic caucus - 46 delegates
A woman was arrested for leaving her infant in a hot car during her audition for a strip club in Nashville.

Kelsey McMurtry, 24, faces charges of child neglect, along with a friend who told police she was watching the child, according to CBS WTVF.

Police say McMurtry left her nine-month-old daughter in a locked car Thursday for about 30 minutes with the windows up while she went inside to audition in a downtown Nashville club. A person spotted the child, who was dressed in a coat, and notified authorities.

The temperature outside was approximately 72 degrees when officers arrived, and about 100 degrees inside the car, according to a warrant. The child was hospitalized and placed with child protective services.

A 19-year-old friend who told police inside the club that she was watching the child was also arrested.
The Canadian First Nations community of Attawapiskat declared a state of emergency this month after 11 people tried to kill themselves in a single night, bringing the total number of suicide attempts since September to more than 100.

The spike this month snapped the worlds attention to the tragedy unfolding in the remote coastal community of around 1,500 people in northeastern Ontario. The crisis has since deepened, with another five children reportedly attempting suicide on Friday, leading local MP Charlie Angus to denounce a spiralling situation that is taking us into unknown territory.

Although the surge is alarming, the crisis itself is not new. For decades, Attawapiskat and other First Nations communities throughout Canada have experienced high rates of suicide, amid long-standing social problems that include systemic poverty, family violence, educational failures and substance abuse.

Al Jazeera spoke with Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins, who recently visited Attawapiskat, about why life in the community has degenerated to this extent, and what is being done to address the problem.

READ MORE: Canada and the aboriginal mental health crisis

Al Jazeera: Why has the situation in Attawapiskat escalated to the point where more than 100 people have attempted suicide in a matter of months?

Eric Hoskins: Theres a whole set of circumstances  whether its inadequate housing, or a lack of income opportunities, or the massive and continuing negative impact of the residential schools saga  that have all contributed to making this situation that were finding today.

Weve been investing in mental health services, but part of the challenge has been that for the last decade, the level of coordination with our federal partners and the commitment from the federal government has not been what we believe it should have been, so that made it more challenging for us to approach this in a coordinated way.





The resources that weve provided to date at all levels of government have been clearly inadequate. Weve failed the youth in First Nations communities, particularly those in the remote, northern, fly-in communities. And thats not unique to Ontario  thats something that we all share nationally as well.

Al Jazeera: When you visited Attawapiskat last week, what was the mood like?

Hoskins: Its clearly a community in crisis. We heard a cry for help coming from the leadership representing this community.

On the one hand, we saw frontline healthcare workers who were clearly overwhelmed. We found a band council and a local chief who were doing everything they could to manage this enormous challenge and crisis, but they were also clearly exhausted and in desperate need of support.

We spent a few hours with the band council and the local chief, and also with dozens of youth from the community, which was incredibly impactful. We heard from the mother of a 14-year-old girl who tragically took her life last October. It was very moving and very distressing, but it was also incredibly empowering.

It was amazing to hear from the youth, who were obviously in great distress and very anxious and concerned  but despite that, they knew where the community and themselves needed to go. They knew what kinds of support they needed, and mapped out a plan for us that they believed would take the community from a place of hopelessness to a place of hope for the future.

Al Jazeera: What was involved in that plan, and what concrete steps will the province take to help alleviate the fundamental social and economic problems plaguing Attawapiskat?

Hoskins: This is really challenging, and it goes far beyond health  its the social determinants of health.

The conditions are so appalling and so inadequate. We have a moral and historic responsibility to address that. by

In the immediate short term, we announced $2m in funding, some going to youth supports, and the majority going to a team of 13 health-care workers to deal with this surge and provide immediate support to the individuals, but also their families, who have reached the point where they attempted to take their own lives.

But almost all of our conversations were focused on the medium and long term. Its become clear that theres a need for all levels of government and not-for-profit organisations to do a better job of coordinating what were doing together so it has a maximum impact.

Theres no question thats going to require additional resources to deal with everything from access to clean water, to decent housing  because the housing is so inadequate, its dilapidated, and theres mould, and theyre crowded and the windows are boarded up  to education, to income support and revenue sharing. Its important that First Nations communities be able to benefit from the resource extraction and economic activity that occurs in their areas.

The number one request of youth was to have a youth centre and to have programmes and activities that would help them reconnect with the land and their culture and their history, so were looking at that.

Obviously none of this is going to happen overnight, but its almost like the stars have aligned, so we have a responsibility to not get caught up in jurisdictional discussions, which have stopped action in the past. We must come together, all of us at all levels, and start to chip away at these seemingly enormous challenges.

Al Jazeera: On the federal side, First Nations representatives have called for a national strategy to combat indigenous suicide. Do you support this proposal, and what would that look like?

Hoskins: I think thats a great idea. It speaks to the reality that this is regrettably present in First Nations reserves right across this country, particularly in those northern, remote, fly-in reserves. I wholeheartedly support a national strategy to look at this in all its aspects, alongside the social determinants, such as housing and economics.

This is about putting supports in place to prevent young people from the pain being so bad that suicide is something they would actually consider.

Al Jazeera: Considering that the treatment of First Nations communities has been an ongoing problem in Canada for decades, why should anyone be convinced that after the Attawapiskat story fades from the headlines, anything will substantively change?

Hoskins: My perspective on this is that this is such a tremendous moral and ethical and historic obligation. Theres no guarantee that this time will be different, but if those of us who believe we have an opportunity, as well as an obligation, collect that fortitude to move forward, I truly believe we can begin to make the progress thats so necessary.

But when you look at the conditions, Canada is sixth on the human development index; First Nations communities are number 63. The conditions are so appalling and so inadequate. We have a moral and historic responsibility to address that.

Its easy to look back at the failure it has been, but it cant prevent us from trying to find that resolve to hopefully make this time different than the past.

This has really captured Canadas attention, and I hope it is that catalyst to make us realise not just how serious and in crisis many of the communities are, but to make us finally say we can do this if we work together and bring the resources forward.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Follow Megan OToole on Twitter: @megan_otoole
As people treat mental illness as a spiritual rather than a medical disorder, many victims go untreated.

Garissa, Kenya  Its a sunny Sunday morning in Garissa, northeastern Kenya. Abdirahman Abdi Olow wakes up to check if his brothers made it home last night.

Dressed in a white vest, he makes his way to his brothers makeshift room made of dry grass just metres away from his house.

The chances of finding them in their room are unlikely, says the 28-year-old as he opens the tiny iron-sheet door. Sometimes, I find dogs sleeping in there since theyve gotten used to its emptiness.

This time, however, he finds one of his brothers, Aden, fast asleep. He turns him on to his other side and closes the door behind him. He heads back to his house and alerts his wife to prepare breakfast for Aden.

His two brothers, Hussein and Aden, have been suffering from mental disorders for nearly a decade.

Its a medical problem

Hussein, an agricultural studies graduate, was the breadwinner of his family before he was diagnosed with the illness.

One day, nine years ago, Hussein started to complain of headaches and of hearing too many sounds. Some days later, the 35-year-old stripped naked outside of his house.

That was when we concluded that our brother was mentally ill. All this was new to us, Abdirahman says, explaining how quickly the family was stigmatised. People judged and made us outcasts.

WATCH: Traditional healers fill Nigeria mental healthcare gap

Aden became the familys breadwinner, working night shifts as a security guard. But then, in 2011, he too fell ill.

He started complaining of people disturbing him. This was followed by him talking to himself, Abdirahman explains. That was when I suspected that something was wrong with my brother.

Poor and helpless, the family started asking traditional healers to pray for the two men.

They had plans to take them to the Mathari Mental Hospital, the only public referral hospital for the mentally ill, but they could not afford it.

I know my Somali people stigmatise such people and dont believe its a medical problem, Abdirahman says. I respect the religious way, but I cannot leave out the option of taking them to a hospital.

I wish I had money, he adds, explaining how hard it is for the family to raise enough to pay for treatment.

Only God can protect her

The Mathari Mental Hospital, in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, houses mental health patients from across the country. The facility, which doubles as a rehabilitation centre, has been criticised for their handling of patients, as well as their perceived incapacity to care for them.

In 2011, an investigative feature by CNN called Locked Up and Forgotten highlighted the plight of the patients in the poorly equipped facility, where dead bodies were found abandoned on the floor on the day of filming.

Last February, the parliamentary health committee visited the hospital and concluded that the facility was in a sorry state.

The parliamentarians established that there was one female nurse in charge of 146 mentally ill male patients, some of them hardcore criminals, in a maximum security ward.

They also said that another nurse, also female, takes care of 53 mentally ill patients, who at times assault the staff.

Dr Julius Ogato, the medical superintendent at Mathari Hospital, told the parliamentary health committee that the acute shortage of staff has hampered efficient and effective service delivery. The available staff, who do not meet international ratios, are overwhelmed by the work.

Being the sole mental health referral hospital in Kenya, the findings by the parliamentary committee worry many families who have relatives staying at the public institution.

One such family is that of Habiba Dakane. The 60-year-old mother allowed her daughter to be taken to Mathari by well-wishers after her story was highlighted by a local radio station.

My daughter was very fine until she gave birth. Since then, her behaviours have changed and sometimes she gets violent, says the single mother of 12.

I have heard many negative stories about Mathari, but I have no option for now, she adds. Only God can protect her.

Dakane had looked for religious leaders to pray for her daughter, but found it too difficult to travel with her.

Many Kenyans view mental illness as a spiritual problem rather than a medical one, causing them to turn to religious leaders or traditional healers for a cure.

Sixty-year-old Muhumed Abdullahi has been praying for people suffering from mental illness for more than 10 years.

Together with his oldest son, Abdullahi attends to more than 200 clients a day. He is among the few trusted religious leaders in Garissa.

In a typical day, I get between 200 to 300 people who come to seek my help. I believe in God, and I pray for them to be healed by the Almighty, he says as he instructs a patient to wait for him outside.

With a microphone in his hand, the black-bearded sheikh makes his way outside his house, where patients begin to file, awaiting his services.

Emaciated patients, accompanied by their hopeful caretakers, stare blankly at the sky. Abdullahi begins his therapy sessions with Quranic verses. Afterwards, he gives herbal medicines, special water with a prescription to use it twice a day. More detailed orders are given depending on the patients needs.

The illness can be either medical or spiritual, Abdullahi believes, and victims can seek to treat both at the same time.

But because of stigma from relatives and friends who view the illness as a curse and a bad omen, many societies tie up those suffering from mental illness for years at a time, often leading to deeper psychological trauma.

Dr David Ndetei, a psychiatrist and founder of Africa Mental Health Foundation, argues that many have valid reasons for trying to restrain the mentally ill.

They have no option but do so, he says, explaining that they might otherwise pose a threat to themselves and others.

READ MORE: Mentally-ill Indonesians locked up and shackled

In a country where psychiatrists are scarce, Ndetei urges the government to invest in mental health awareness to help curb stigmatisation.

This, he believes, would make people accept mental illness as a legitimate disorder like any other physical ailment requiring medical treatment.

There is a huge gap left in terms of public awareness. Medication should be made accessible and also [training for] traditional healers to assist consciousness on local levels, Ndetei says.

Back in Garissa, Abdirahman is hopeful.

One thing I believe is that if my brothers are given medicine and good care, they would get well, he says.

Osman Mohamed Osman is an independent journalist based in Kenya. Follow him on Twitter @OsmanMOsman_
Rescue operations are still underway in Japan and Ecuador following powerful earthquakes that caused massive damage to property and loss of life in the two countries.

Two quakes struck Japan within a span of 24 hours, with a series of aftershocks rocking southern Japans Kyushu island. At least 42 people are known to have died and more than 110,000 people remained displaced.

Ecuador was hit by a magnitude 7.8 quake, which was felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, causing panic as far away as the highland capital Quito and destroying buildings, bridges and roads.

Rescuers intensified the hunt for nine people still missing in a devastated village in southern Japan on Monday, with time running out after the earthquakes left buildings in rubble and houses buried in mud.

Up to 25,000 personnel have fanned out through villages where scores of traditional-style houses have been left in ruins by Saturdays magnitude 7.0 quake, which struck a part of Japan not used to such tremors.

Many of the evacuees have been forced to sleep in temporary accommodation or huddled in makeshift shelters.

The death toll from Ecuadors biggest earthquake in decades soared as survivors cobbled together makeshift coffins to bury loved ones, lined up for water and sought shelter beside the rubble of their shattered homes.

This is the greatest tragedy in the last 67 years, said a shaken President Rafael Correa, who rushed back to Ecuador from a visit to Italy.

There were more than 200 aftershocks, mainly in the Pedernales area. A state of emergency was declared in six provinces.

The quake has piled pain on the economy of OPECs smallest member, already reeling from low oil prices, with economic growth this year projected at near-zero.
After five years of war, expecting the Syrians to give Bashar al-Assad a chance is as reprehensible as it is dangerous.

When American and Russian spokespersons deny the existence of a secret agreement between them over Syria, theyre not necessarily lying  but they are being misleading.

They dont need an agreement to have an understanding. This is evident by what theyve highlighted as much as what they de-emphasised during US Secretary of State John Kerrys last visit to Moscow.

Its also evident in Kerrys attempts to bring US regional allies on board with these new understandings.





Russian media is abuzz with leaks and innuendos about the US finally recognising that the way forward in Syria goes through Moscow, and that treating Russia like a second-rate power  whether in Eastern Europe or the Middle East  could equally hurt American interests.

ISIL first

After a four-hour meeting between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the relations between the two countries, which soured over Ukraine, appeared to be softening.

The secretary said the US reached a better understanding of decisions President [Vladimir] Putin has made of late, a particularly tolerant comment after the two countries engaged in what seemed to be a proxy war in Syria.

READ MORE: What can a Jewish folktale tell us about Assad?

They came out of their meeting with a target schedule and agreed to speed up the timetable for Syrian political transition  with the goal of having a new Syrian draft constitution by August.

Now that Putin has strengthened Bashar al-Assads position, and Obama made it clear he will only focus on fighting ISIL during his last year in office, the ducks are lined up for a Russo-American 'understanding' on Syria. by

Indeed, despite their distaste for each other, US President Barack Obama and Putin have found a way to work out their differences through their foreign ministers. (This is the subject of a five-part series that Al Jazeera will publish in the coming days).

The US administration doesnt deny its need for and willingness to work with the Kremlin to get this done, especially when Obama made it clear that he has no intention to get his own hands dirty in distant conflicts.

Well, with one exception: ISIL.

The Obama administration announced this week that it will expand its military campaign against ISIL and find ways to intensify the battle.

Now that Putin has strengthened Bashar al-Assads position, and Obama made it clear he will only focus on fighting ISIL during his last year in office, the ducks are lined up for a Russo-American understanding on Syria.

In short: ISIL first, Assad last.

Assad last

The US has caved in on the need for Assad to go and accepted the Russian position that the choice should be left to the Syrians  or, in other words, that Assad must stay.

Lavrov covered up their disagreements on the issue by saying: The US has plenty of partners who do not agree with them  It does not mean that the differences on one particular issue should stop them from talking at all.

Unless asked about the Syrian dictator, the secretary didnt even bother bringing him up after the talks  refusing to say whether or not the future of Assad figured in the talks.

The new Russo-American complicity centres on ignoring the contentious issue of Assads future in favour of focusing instead on writing a new constitution that redefines the Syrian system of governance and the role of the presidency.

They reckon that if the Syrians embrace a parliamentary system with only a symbolic role for the presidency, then Assad would lose his powers.

And even if Syrians embrace a presidential system, Assad could run like any other Syrian in a future transparent, internationally monitored election based on a new constitution with clear divisions of authority.

READ MORE: The Assad ultimatum

And therein lies the scam.

Like any other Syrian

No, Assad is not like any other Syrian. Any such phrasing is an insult to the memory of the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who died because Assad insisted on monopolising power.

Its an understatement to say that Assad has forfeited his right to run for president when he barrel-bombed his own cities. But such a moral argument is lost on the cynics, many of those governing the region and the world.

And what about the political argument? The basic premise advanced by Moscow and embraced by Washington, goes as follows: Why dictate who should or could govern the Syrians, when they can make that decision in their own in democratic elections to be held in just over a years time.

What appears to be a pragmatic, even a democratic position is in fact an utterly cynical one. Assad is like no other Syrian, not only because hes responsible for more war crimes than any other, but also because hes got all the power in his hands and all the security services under his command.

As long as he continues to control or intimidate the population centres of the country, notably the capital, he will continue to dictate progress and regress during the transitional period according to the interests of his regime.

The lesson from Yemen is instructive in this regard. Even when the international community sidelined President Ali Abdullah Saleh, he continued to exercise great power through his links with the military, and eventually conspired in driving the country into civil war.

Does anyone really think that a dictator like Assad, who ruled over Syria for the past 16 years, is about to run and lose elections?

You know something? Maybe he would have if only he hadnt sacrificed a quarter of a million people just to hold on to power.

Thats why after five years of indifference to their suffering, asking the Syrians to fight ISIL and to give Assad a chance is as short-sighted as it is deceitful and dangerous.

Marwan Bishara is the senior political analyst at Al Jazeera. Follow him on Facebook.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Residents say they are trapped in ghettos amid growing fears of a new wave of ethnic violence.

Tuz Khurmatu, Iraq  Beshtowan Kadir, 44, says that a shooting last month in Tuz Khurmatus Komar market between Kurdish youths and members of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, a Shia militia, taught him a hard lesson: When he is wearing traditional Kurdish clothes, he cannot visit the market.

The Shia militia would kill me the minute they see me, Kadir told Al Jazeera. Some [Kurds] have lost their lives only because of who they are, and those who are still alive cannot reveal their identity.

We are stuck somewhere between not living and not dying.

READ MORE: Iraq may soon reach a point beyond repair

Located 80km south of Kirkuk and 175km north of Baghdad, Tuz Khurmatu is a place of mixed identities.

The multi-ethnic town of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, with an estimated population of 60,000, has witnessed increased tensions between its Turkmen and Kurdish residents, resulting in the division of the town into Turkmen and Kurdish quarters.

Residents told Al Jazeera that they were now trapped in ghettos. Concrete barriers have been erected in the streets, separating the Kurdish and Turkmen neighbourhoods. Armed men keep a close watch along the towns streets from the areas they control, and any attempt to cross to the other side means risking a snipers bullet.

The growing fear among the people has led the local authorities to build barriers to separate Shia Turkmen neighbourhoods from those of the Sunni Kurds, and in between, the Arab minority in the city remains trapped, Challah Abdul Ahmad, the governor of Tuz Khurmatu, told Al Jazeera.

Tuz Khurmatu is located in a disputed territory between the Kurdish-administered north and the Iraqi central government. While Kurdish residents consider it to be part of Kirkuk, Turkmen say it is within Salaheddine province.

We have lost the ability to keep people safe. The armed groups are the most powerful in the city, and the government is not doing much to help us restore order. by Challah Abdul Ahmad, Tuz Khurmatu governor

Determining which province Tuz Khurmatu belongs to is crucial for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). If it is within Kirkuk, it would mean it is part of the Kurdish-ruled regions.

Under Iraqs 2005 constitution, the political status of the province of Kirkuk  and other disputed territories  was scheduled to be formally resolved by the end of December 2007. However, the referendum was delayed several times and no clear date has been set yet.

Last June, Peshmerga forces took control of Kirkuk city. It is not possible to go through the city freely. Reporting from one side of Tuz Khurmatu makes it practically impossible to cross over to the other side, and the towns streets are deserted.

Many of the families have fled for their lives, Mawloud Hamma, a resident of Tuz Khurmatu, told Al Jazeera. We have had enough of the fighting between armed groups, assassinations and bombings in the city, and no one can protect us. That is why many families left the city.

Some analysts pointed out that the tension in Tuz Khurmatu has been escalating due to the growing influence of the Popular Mobilisation Forces.

Last November, the city witnessed deadly clashes between the Peshmerga and the Popular Mobilisation Forces, leaving many dead or missing, stores burned down and a city divided.

The Peshmergas chief of staff, Jabar Yawar, accused the Popular Mobilisation Forces of burning houses and shops and shooting at security and Kurdish party headquarters. In response, both Tuz Khurmatus Arab and Turkmen residents accused the Peshmerga of seeking to expel them from the city and to annex it to Kurdish control.

The central government in Baghdad, with the help of an Iranian delegate, mediated between the two sides to reach a deal. The Iranian intervention was crucial, since Tehran has the upper hand in controlling the Popular Mobilisation Forces.

According to local Kurdish media, an agreement between Peshmerga forces, local administration and Popular Mobilisation Forces was reached earlier this year. The mobilisation forces were to withdraw from the centre of the town, and a joint military force would be created to share control over the city.

Despite this agreement, Kurdish officials say the mobilisation forces are still present.

Although the fighting has stopped, the city remains unsafe. Hundreds of families left Tuz Khurmatu, and very few have returned to their homes.





Single-ethnicity neighbourhoods are now being formed, with many residents putting their houses up for sale if they are living in a neighbourhood of a different ethnicity.

The security situation remains volatile, as many fear another wave of violence is coming. The KRG has deployed more Peshmerga forces to maintain order in the city, but this could provoke the Popular Mobilisation Forces.

Abdul Ahmad, the governor of Tuz Khurmatu, fears that the current calm will not last much longer.

We have lost the ability to keep people safe, he said. The armed groups are the most powerful in the city, and the government is not doing much to help us restore order.
Tens of thousands gather in the capital to watch on big screens as presidents opponents score victory in crucial vote.

Brazilian legislators have voted in favour of impeaching President Dilma Rousseff after a contest that has deeply divided the country and could end more than a decade of left-wing rule.

Tens of thousands of pro and anti-impeachment protesters gathered in the capital Brasilia and other cities to watch the dramatic vote, which was shown live on national television on Sunday.

The impeachment motion will now go to the Senate which will vote, probably in May, on whether to open a trial.

WATCH: Dilma Rousseff talks to Al Jazeera

If the Senate votes by a simple majority to go ahead with the impeachment, Rousseff, 68, would be suspended from her post and be replaced by Vice President Michel Temer as acting president, pending a trial. Temer would serve out Rousseffs term until 2018 if she were found guilty.

The impeachment battle, which comes during Brazils worst recession since the 1930s, has divided the country of 200 million people more deeply than at any time since the end of its military dictatorship in 1985.

The 513 legislators voted one by one, all of them given 30 seconds to speak before casting their ballots. The floor of the lower house was a sea of Brazilian flags and pumping fists as dozens of MPs carried the deputy who cast the decisive 342nd vote  needed for impeachment to succeed  in their arms.

Analysis by Al Jazeeras Lucia Newman in Brasilia During the deliberations leading up to Sundays crucial vote, one opposition deputy after the other ignored the formal charges against the president to justify their call for impeachment. Instead, they insisted Rousseff had to go because she had destroyed Brazils buoyant economy and sunk it into deep recession and double-digit inflation. Read the full analysis here

Outside Congress, rival protest rallies were separated by a metal barrier. Rousseff supporters cried while her opponents cheered every yes vote.

READ MORE: Dilma Rousseff caught in media firestorm

The ruling Workers Party vowed to continue to fight to keep Rousseff in the presidential palace.

The fight is going to continue now in the streets and in the federal Senate, said Jose Guimaraes, the leader of the party in the lower house. We lost because the coup-mongers were stronger.

Rousseff is accused of making illegal accounting moves to mask government shortfalls during her 2014 re-election, but she has not been accused of corruption.

Many Brazilians also hold her responsible for the failing economy and a corruption scandal centred on state oil company Petrobras  a perception that has left her government with 10 percent approval ratings.

Rousseff accused Vice President Temer and the house speaker of treachery and plotting what she has consistently called a coup.

She also pledged to fight until the last minute  to foil this coup attempt.

Despite anger at rising unemployment, Rousseffs Workers Party can rely on strong support among millions of working-class Brazilians, who credit its welfare programmes with pulling their families out of poverty during its 13 years in power.
President says almost 300 people dead and many buildings destroyed as military rushes to deliver aid.

Guayaquil  Ecuador on Monday scrambled to respond to its worst earthquake in decades as the president announced the death toll had soared to 272 and people picked through the rubble of toppled buildings for survivors.

Guayaquil, the most populous city with more than three million residents, was the biggest to bear the full brunt of the magnitude 7.8 quake, and its effects could still be seen and felt.

I was in a high-rise in downtown, on the sixth floor, Antonio Torres, a 32-year-old who works as a delivery man in Guayaquil, told Al Jazeera.

We are shaken, but well be fine. by Antonio Torres

I ran down the stairwell to escape the building, which felt like it was going to fall.

The tower Torres was in stayed standing, but many others collapsed.

Homes, entire apartment complexes, and several bridges all collapsed. It was very strong, he said.

Many more buildings were damaged, and in the citys historic centre rubble lined the streets. Residents out walking on Sunday evening seemed wary of passing too close to buildings, with many walking in the now car-free streets.

Local authorities cordoned off dangerous areas, and a clean-up operation has begun, but damage was still visible throughout the city.

We didnt expect something like this, Daniel Masson, an architect from the capital, Quito, told Al Jazeera.

Landslides and rubble

The 27-year-old said that while Ecuadoreans were used to tremors from the many volcanoes that dot the country, especially around Quito, a quake of this strength was unlike anything he had ever experienced.

The distance from the epicentre Pedernales to Quito is roughly 180 kilometres, and the quake registered as a 6.4 in the capital.

Last year, we had more than a month where there were almost constant tremors. But that was fine, we got used to it, Masson said.

Much of Ecuador is mountainous, and deadly landslides resulting from the quake have made travel difficult.

People driving from Quito to Guayaquil usually experience roads that wind easily through misty mountaintops. But on Monday they were forced to endure long waits as rubble was cleared and both military and private trucks rushed to deliver aid.

In Guayaquil, the mood was sombre but people said they were determined to pick up the pieces. The threat of a tsunami has passed, and no major aftershocks have claimed property or lives, authorities said.

We are shaken, but well be fine, Torres said.
More than 400 people die in 7.8 magnitude quake that prompted humanitarian crisis.

Guayaquil, Ecuador  In the largest Ecuadorian city seriously hit by Saturdays earthquake, citizens are acting together to deal with the chaos caused by the natural disaster.

Al Jazeera went to Guayaquils Red Cross centre to witness the citys efforts to deal with the humanitarian crisis.

We just set up this area to enlist the many volunteers this morning, Maria Rojas, a Red Cross coordinator, told Al Jazeera. There have been doctors, nurses, students, between 200 and 300, who have offered their help just today, she said at 10:30 on Monday morning.

The magnitude 7.8 quake struck Ecuadors coastal late on Saturday evening, and at least 413 Ecuadorians have been killed.

The death toll is sure to rise  the loss is great, but we shall overcome, President Rafael Correa said at a short press conference on Sunday night.

The tremors were felt both in the southern coastal city of Guayaquil, killing at least once citizen when an overpass fell on a car, and injuring five others.

Dr Carlos Burneo Aguirre, the secretary-general of the Red Cross in Guayaquil, told Al Jazeera that many people were coming from other cities, Portoviejo  which was about 30 percent destroyed  and Chone, for treatment.

Portoviejo is the capital of the Manabi region of Ecuador, the hardest hit. It has a population of over 200,000. Chone is a smaller, nearby city.

Burneo said that the Red Cross building in nearby Portoviejo was completely destroyed, and Choni lost its hospital to the quake. The organisation is working with under tarps and other temporary structures to treat the many wounded in the area.

Along with volunteers, The Red Cross of Guayaquil is receiving plenty of food and blood donations. There are two locations for blood donation in Ecuador. Here, and in Quito [the capital], Borneo explained. Usually, we operate at a deficit of blood, but I think with the increased support from the people, well be fine, he continued, noting that the amount of blood needed is not yet known.

Makeshift donation centres have been set up in Guayaquil, with nurses and doctors assisting in collection.

Marianna Serrano, a 19-year-old student, was on October 9 avenue, assisting doctors and nurses.

Its the least I can do, she told Al Jazeera. Especially since my home and family are safe.

The many historic Catholic churches in the city are also serving as collection points, with one even reminding Ecuadorians that animals also need support, one volunteer, who declined to give his name, told Al Jazeera.

Those responding to the crisis are doing so with both hope, determination and worry, both for those injured and for their own safety.

Weve had 250 small aftershocks since Saturday, Red Cross Secretary-General Burneo said in his office. This was the worst earthquake in my lifetime, and Im 53. We hope theres not another.
Armoured Jeep in Samantha Powers motorcade fatally struck seven-year-old boy who darted on to the road in Cameroon.

UN Ambassador Samantha Powers trip to Cameroons front lines in the war against Boko Haram has started horrifically as an armoured Jeep in her motorcade struck and killed a young boy who darted on to the road.

The incident occurred near the small city of Mokolo, in northern Cameroon, where Power, her aides and accompanying journalists were headed to meet refugees and others displaced by the years of attacks across West Africa.

Power said she learned of the death with great sorrow.

She said she met the boys family to offer our profound condolences and our grief and heartbreak.

Power returned to the scene of the accident several hours later to meet the seven-year-old boys mother and father, while residents of his village stood solemnly on a sandy expanse.

The motorcade was moving at speed, at times exceeding 96km/h, while villagers lined up along the sides of the road. But when the boy darted on to the two-lane highway, there was no time for the sixth car in Powers convoy to react.

The driver was Cameroonian.

At the moment of impact, a man could be seen running up the embankment, with his arms held high, to try to stop the child. A Cameroonian helicopter acting as part of a large security contingent saw the collision.

The vehicle that hit the boy initially stopped, but was ordered by American security forces to continue travelling through the unsecured area. An ambulance in the US caravan immediately attended to the boy.

He was taken to a local hospital, though his condition was already hopeless, according to people familiar with the incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Several US officials were visibly affected, with one Power aide turning away to cry as his boss met refugee children shortly afterwards.

The motorcade moved at a significantly slower pace for the rest of the day.

Officials did not immediately identify the boy. US officials would not comment immediately on any plans for compensation to the boys family.
Algerian hacker convicted of using popular computer virus to steal millions of dollars from hundreds of bank accounts.

A sentencing hearing for Algerian hacker Hamza Bendelladj will start in the United States on Monday in a case that could see him face up to 60 years in jail for using a computer virus to steal millions from bank accounts.

Bendelladj, 28, who could also be hit with a fine of up to $14m, pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiring to commit wire and bank fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiring to commit computer fraud and abuse, and 11 counts of computer fraud and abuse.

Calculations suggested his crimes may have cost at least $100m or, based on another estimate, up to $900m.

His lawyer, Jay Strongwater, told Al Jazeera the government was trying to show its calculations were reasonable when choosing to use the $100 million figure as a basis for sentencing.

READ MORE: Is the Algerian hacker a hero?

That figure was based on an estimated loss of $500 for each of 200,000 sets of credit card details stolen from victims.

The $900m estimate was based on the cost of repairing damage to each hacked computer.

Strongwater said Bendelladj had co-operated with the government and expressed remorse, adding he believed the government would ask for a sentence below the maximum allowed.

SpyEye for sale

Bendelladj  who used the hacking alias BX1  is believed to have been one of the main developers of the SpyEye program, a sophisticated and hugely popular virus that can be used to steal financial information such as credit card information and online banking log-in details.

US authorities said in a statement that Bendalladj and his associates aggressively tried to sell SpyEye to other hackers.

The government said a Russian co-defendant, Aleksandr Andreevich Panin, had sold SpyEye to 150 clients worldwide. Authorities said one such customer  known by the alias Soldier  made more than $3.2m in just six months.

Bendelladj was arrested in Thailand in 2013 and later extradited to the US.

Social media users claimed at the time that he had donated millions of dollars worth of stolen money to Palestinian charities  an unconfirmed claim that his lawyer has denied.

Follow Ali Younes on Twitter: @ali_reports
Vijay Mallya, who left the country owing more than $1bn, is wanting for unpaid loans made to his defunct airline.

An Indian court on Monday issued an arrest warrant for the embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, who left the country owing more than $1bn, an official said.

The 60-year-old baron, once dubbed the King of Good Times, left India on March 2 despite calls for his arrest and is believed to be in Britain.

The court today issued a non-bailable warrant against Vijay Mallya at our request, a senior official at the Enforcement Directorate, the governments financial crimes investigator, told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

The official said the directorate would now decide how to proceed against Mallya and may seek his extradition from Britain.

We will deliberate before deciding our next step, he said.

The move comes days after India suspended Mallyas passport at the request of the Enforcement Directorate, which had issued a series of summonses for the businessman to appear before it.

Its investigation relates to loans which the state-run IDBI bank made to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, despite allegedly knowing it was suffering financial troubles  leading the bank to sustain huge losses.

Mallya acquired his Good Times nickname before the 2012 collapse of the airline, which left thousands of workers unemployed and millions of dollars in unpaid bills.

The directorate has reportedly accused him of siphoning off money from Kingfisher to buy property abroad  a claim the company denies.

In a statement issued before the warrant, Kingfisher Airlines owner the UB Group said it was shocked at the allegation made by the Enforcement Department before the PMLA Court.

Multiple investigations have been going on since July 2015 and this allegation has never been made, it said late on Sunday.

In order to explain foreign exchange remittances, all of which have been fully accounted for, we will provide full details in the next few days.

The company said the Enforcement Directorates basis for seeking a warrant against Mallya was erroneous and unjustified.

Unpaid loans

Mallya is also being chased by a group of banks over $1.34bn in unpaid loans made to his defunct airline.

Earlier this month the banks rejected his offer to repay $600m and told the Supreme Court they wanted him to return to India so they could negotiate with him personally over the total owed.

His massive debt has become a symbol of Indian banks vast volume of bad loans  those already in default or close to it  which are seen as a threat to financial stability in Asias third largest economy.

Critics say the government has not done enough to tackle the issue of wealthy individuals such as Mallya, who obtain huge loans which they later fail to repay.

The businessman, who is also a member of Indias parliament, has denied absconding and has criticised the media for what he has called a witch hunt.

India and Britain signed an extradition treaty in 1993.
Court charges soldier with manslaughter for fatal shooting of wounded Palestinian in Hebron, which was caught on video.

An Israeli military court has charged a soldier with manslaughter for last months fatal shooting of a wounded Palestinian in the West Bank, an incident caught on tape that has caused global outrage.

The soldier, a medic whose name was not released under a gag order, was also charged with inappropriate military conduct on Monday.

The shooting took place last month in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the focal point of a seven-month wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Initially, the military had said two Palestinians stabbed and wounded a soldier before troops killed the pair.

But a video released later by the Israeli human rights group BTselem showed one of the attackers still alive and lying on the ground before a soldier calmly raised his rifle, cocked his weapon and shot the alleged assailant in the head.

No murder charge for Israeli soldier in shooting death

An autopsy later determined the bullet to the head was the cause of death.

The United Nations said the video of the incident showed all the signs of an extrajudicial killing.

Attorney Eyal Besserglick, who is representing the soldier, told Israel Radio he would aim for a full acquittal.

It was not immediately clear what sentence the soldier faces, if convicted. Such indictments in the military are very rare, said Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

The shooting has enraged the Palestinian community and polarised Israeli society.

Israels defence minister, its military chief and other top officials called it contrary to the armys values. That outcry in turn kicked up a torrent of support for the soldier, who claims he feared the attacker was carrying an explosive belt.

Right-wing politicians have rushed to the soldiers defence, calling his actions appropriate for a country which they say is reeling from alleged Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings.

More than 200 Palestinians have died by Israeli fire since October last year, including 142 who Israel says were attacking or trying to attack Israelis. The violence has also killed 28 Israelis.
Brent oil down to about $40 as Saudi Arabia refuses to sign deal without Iran involvement.

Oil prices have steeply dropped towards $40 after a deal to freeze oil output by the worlds biggest oil producers fell apart.

The market response came on Monday, just hours after Iran, which is trying to ramp up output as international sanctions are lifted, stayed away from a weekend meeting of 18 OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers in Doha, Qatar.

Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that it would not back the deal if Iran was not involved.

Kazempour Ardebili, Iranian OPEC governor, insisted on Monday that Tehran was justified in not freezing its own output, but urged other oil producers to continue talks on an output freeze to prop up crude oil prices.

We support cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC member countries and efforts to bring stability to the oil market, and we urge all producers to continue their negotiations, Ardebili said.

The failure of talks has revived oil industry fears that major producers are going back into a battle over market share that has already driven prices to as low as $27 per barrel in January from highs of around $115 in mid-2014.

READ MORE: OPEC meeting ends without deal on oil production freeze

Saudi Arabias top oil official, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, threatened last week to raise output by as much as two million barrels per day (bpd) from the current levels if the deal freeze was not reached by all members.

That would amount to more than 2 percent of global supply and significantly exacerbate the glut. Iran also wants to raise output by at least 0.5 million bpd. Iraq and Libya could also add barrels to the market.

Low oil prices have helped the global economy but some international financial organisations have warned that a very prolonged period of low prices could damage global growth.

However, Fadel Gheit, a senior energy analyst at Oppenheimer & Co, said the recent cutbacks in investments would help rebalance supply and demand in the longer run, whatever the short-term disruption caused by the Doha meeting failure.

We believe prices will rise regardless what OPEC does or does not do, as US shale oil production, not Saudi Arabia, will be the new swing producer, Gheit said. We believe oil prices will rise to a sustainable level closer to $60, the new normal, not $100 and not $40 either.
Ramallah, Palestine  The Palestinian Authority is being deprived of $285m in revenues annually, the World Bank said on Monday, attributing these losses to arrangements outlined by the Paris Protocol, the Oslo Accord-era agreement that determined the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinians.

The report, which also said Israel is withholding an additional $669m in accumulated Palestinian revenue, will be presented to the Ad Hoc Liaison committee of donor states to the PA on Tuesday in Brussels.

This number includes pension contributions from Palestinian workers inside Israel, as well as salary deductions for their health and social benefits, which are supposed to be transferred to a dedicated fund that the PA has yet to establish, the bank said.

These lost revenues could reduce the PAs 2016 fiscal deficit to below $1bn, and more than half the expected shortfall in financing, said Steen Lau Jorgensen, the World Banks country director for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in a statement.

Paris Protocol

Under the 1994 Paris Protocol, Israel was expected to collect taxes on the PAs behalf  import duties, value-added tax and other revenues which constitute more than 66 percent of total public revenue  and turn them over every month. The lost revenues exclude taxes collected in Area C  60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli military and administrative control.

The World Bank said that these arrangements have not been systematically applied, leading to lost revenue, which is also being diluted by tax leakages on trade between the PA and Israel, and the undervaluation of Palestinian imports from third countries.

The report recommended resurrecting the defunct Israeli-Palestinian Joint Economic Committee, which was created to ensure the Paris Protocol is implemented and bilateral problems are resolved. It also called for re-examining the high handling fee Israel charges the PA, which it uses to fund more than 30 percent of its own finance ministrys customs and VAT department.

Observers said that the report highlights only some of the ways in which Israel benefits from the Palestinians.

This report is just one small aspect of Israels money-making machine, said Diana Buttu, a lawyer and former adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Israel actively blocks the economy and imposes these ridiculous fees.

Part of the denial of political freedom is the denial of economic freedom, Buttu told Al Jazeera. Israel has, for years, made money from the denial of Palestinian freedom, whether by stealing land, resources, or by blocking off Palestinians through checkpoints, so as to make it easier to flood Palestinian markets with Israeli goods.

Limited growth

The bank voiced concern over limited economic growth in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Last year, the economy saw a 3.5 percent growth that it said was barely enough to match the population growth. More needs to be done to overcome tax losses and stimulate growth in an economy that is not growing enough to raise living standards or reduce high unemployment, the report said.

In the Gaza Strip, recovery has been prolonged because of slow aid, with only 40 percent of the amount pledged at the 2014 Cairo Conference disbursed. Only 9 percent of totally damaged houses and 45 percent of partially damaged houses [in Gaza] have been repaired, Jorgensen said. Over 14,800 families continue to be displaced. For these people in Gaza, there is no escape.

Some critics noted that while the report is a helpful means to quantify losses, it is missing the context needed to impact policy intervention.

It is astonishing that, once again, the word occupation is not mentioned at all in this new World Bank report, which reflects deep problematic understanding and framing, said Alaa Tartir, the program director of Al Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.

As a UN body, the World Bank must be obliged to use the language of international law that recognises the illegality of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian land, and calls it an occupation  not restrictions and political instability, Tartir told Al Jazeera.
Turkey hits back after four rockets from Syria land on hospital and teachers dormitory in border town.

A cross-border rocket attack from Syria has killed four Syrians in the southern Turkish town of Kilis, officials have said.

Turkish armed forces hit back by firing mortar shells on Monday after four rockets landed in the centre of Kilis from the area controlled by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

Four Syrians living in Kilis, including three children, were killed, the Kilis governors office said in a statement.

Five Syrians and one Turkish citizen were also wounded in the incident. A teachers dormitory and a hospital were hit, according to Reuters news agency.

Kilis  the only town in Turkey where refugees from the war in Syria now outnumber Turkish locals  has been repeatedly hit by rocket fire from areas in Syria controlled by ISIL in recent weeks.

A Syrian shepherd was among those killed when one of the Katyusha-type rockets hit an area close to a school where he was tending his flock, Turkeys Dogan news agency said.

Ten of his sheep were killed while a 14-year-old Turkish schoolboy was also wounded.

READ MORE: Healing on the Syria-Turkey border

A second person was killed and four more wounded when one of the rockets hit an apartment block in another district of the town, Dogan said.

Two people were killed in Kilis last week by ISIL rocket fire from Syria, prompting protests in the town over the lack of security.

Turkeys intelligence chief Hakan Fidan made a rare public visit to Kilis last week while Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also vowed to protect the town.

Turkish officials have repeatedly lauded the hospitality of people in Kilis towards Syrians as an example of how Turks are hosting the 2.7 million Syrians who have fled their countrys civil war to Turkey.

Turkey is facing several security threats. As part of a US-led coalition, it is fighting ISIL in neighbouring Syria and Iraq as well as Kurdish fighters in its own southeast, where a two-and-a-half-year ceasefire collapsed last July, triggering the worst violence since the 1990s.
Ceasefire in doubt as groups announce new battle in response to what they say are violations from the Assad side.

Several Syrian rebel groups have announced a new offensive against the government in a move they said was a response to ceasefire violations from the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

The groups, which included factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and Ahrar al-Sham, said in a joint statement on Monday that they would respond with force to any army units that fired on civilians in what they called a fresh battle.

The statement was sent to the Reuters news agency by Mohamed Rasheed, a spokesman for the Jaish al-Nasr rebel group.

It said the groups would set up a joint operations room and gave no further details about where any fighting might take place.

WATCH: Is it the right time for Syria peace talks?

A ceasefire deal in place since February has been strained to breaking point, particularly around the divided city of Aleppo, with each side blaming the other for an escalation that has underlined the huge challenge facing peace talks that are currently being held in Geneva.





Heavy air strikes were also reported north of Homs on Monday, killing at least four people, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The main opposition bloc in Geneva, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), accused the government of sending a message that it did not want a political solution, but a military solution that the opposition said would destroy the country.

Mohammed Alloush, the chief negotiator for HNC, said on Monday that accepting Assad as part of any transitional government, a longtime sticking point at the talks, was out of the question.

Syria War: Negotiating in bad faith

Asaad Zoubi, also from the HNC, said opposition forces should respond to any government attack.

Zoubi reiterated calls for the release of people from government prisons, particularly children and women.

We will not accept or negotiate unless we get what we want and our demands are met, Zoubi said.

The HNC said last week that it was willing to share membership of a transitional governing body with current members of the government, but not with Assad himself.

UN mediator Staffan De Mistura has said a political transition will be the main focus of the current round of talks, which aim to end a five-year war that has killed more than 250,000 people and forced millions to flee the country.
Opposition delegation asks UN envoy to pause formal negotiations until government is serious about transition.

The main Syrian opposition coalition has urged the United Nations to pause peace talks until Damascus shows it is serious about political transition as rebel groups vowed to strike back against alleged truce violations.

Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations mediator, said on Monday that the coalition delegation would stay in Geneva, but postpone its formal participation in the negotiations.

They are pausing the talks in order to express their own displeasure and concern on the humanitarian situation degradation and on the problems related to the cessation of hostilities, said de Mistura.

Their intention is to remain in Geneva in their hotel and possibly at my own suggestion to pursue technical discussions with myself and my team.

De Mistura said the talks still had time as the timetable for getting a new constitution and getting a political transition was up to August.

We should not expect, and no one should expect, that after five years of a conflict a political transition by miracle in one week is solved, he said.

Riad Hijab, the head of the coalition, said that it was unacceptable for the talks to carried on while President Bashar al-Assads forces continued to bombard and starve civilians in Syria.

Hijab said that the Syrian government and its allies have used the talks as a pretext for waging their military campaign. He says the government has also kept up its siege of civilian areas.

READ MORE: Syria rebels declare new offensive on government

In February, the United States and Russian-brokered cease-fire brought weeks of relative calm to much of Syria, but appears to be breaking down across the north, where rebels have launched an offensive they say is in retaliation for government breaches.

Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violating the truce.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 22 civilians were killed on both sides over the weekend in divided Aleppo city  one of the highest single tolls since the truce began.

This was the bloodiest incident in Aleppo and its province since the ceasefire started, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. This escalation directly threatens the truce.

State television reported another eight people killed on Monday by rebel rocket fire into regime-held areas.

On Monday, a statement by 10 rebel groups announced the end of truce.

After the increase of violations by regime forces that included targeting displaced people and continuous bombing of residential neighbourhoods, we declare the start of the battle in response, said the statement.
Talks between Houthi rebels and exiled government yet to begin as rebels accuse Arab coalition of air raids.

Talks aimed at ending more than a year of civil war and a Saudi-led intervention in Yemen have been delayed, as Houthi rebel representatives objected to what they said was continued fighting.

Delegations representing the Houthis and the party of a former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who control the capital Sanaa, have yet to depart for the talks.

They cited heavy fighting and Saudi-led air operations as the reason for the delay in heading to the talks, which were to be held in Kuwait.

Theres no point in going  if theres no respect for the ceasefire, a senior official in Salehs General Peoples Congress party told the Reuters news agency on Monday.

Al Jazeeras Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Kuwait, confirmed that the Houthis had yet to arrive. He said the government delegation was already there.

There was optimism surrounding the talks, Elshayyal said, adding that neither side had the same kind of urge to continue this bloody war.

The coalition started a campaign of air strikes last year in support of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after he was pushed into exile by the Houthis and forces loyal to Saleh.

READ MORE: UN probing possible international crimes in Yemen

Two Hadi government officials, who spoke anonymously to Reuters, said the rebels had no good reason not to travel to Kuwait.

Representatives from Salehs party and the Houthis are looking for excuses to delay their arrival at a precise time, but its expected that they will arrive later in Kuwait on Tuesday, one of the officials said.

Hisham al-Omeisy, a political analyst based in Sanaa, told Al Jazeera that the talks in Kuwait were a positive development.

The warring parties are exhausted, they need an exit, he said.

UN-sponsored talks in June and December failed to end the war that has killed about 6,200 people  half of them civilians.

A security vacuum created by the conflict has allowed the local affiliate of al-Qaeda to seize territory and opened a path for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group to gain a foothold.

READ MORE: In Yemen, a dream of revolution is sold

The only winner of the war is al-Qaeda and ISIL, al-Omeisy said. They are expanding exponentially in the south.

The spread of ISIL and al-Qaeda is freaking international community. They are putting pressure for a political solution.

Fighting and air strikes persist on several battlefronts throughout the country, especially in the contested southwestern city of Taiz and the Nehm area, east of the capital.

On Sunday, hundreds of people in Taiz protested a months-long siege.

The protesters demanded an end to a siege they saw was imposed by the Houthi rebels on Taiz and carried photos of civilians killed in recent shelling, residents told DPA news agency.

The city has for months been a battleground between forces loyal to Hadi and the Iran-allied Houthis.
The case against Assange is as political as it is legal; where does it go from here? Plus, Kenyas election influencers.
For the first time under the artistic direction of trumpeter, the 38th edition of the Bergamo Jazz Festivalone of Europe's longest running jazz eventsinvaded the ancient and noble city in the North of Italy with a joyous celebration of the music's diversity.The beautifully restored Teatro Sociale in the Citta AltaBergamo's ancient city center is atop a steep hillsaw for the opening night the concert of pianist's Traditions Today band, withon clarinet andon trombone, with special gueston snare drum and any other drummable surface. Fighting with the torrential Bennink is never easy, and D'Andrea's pianism is always reserved; he seemed not to be especially well served by the instrument or the PA, so he was often difficult to hear among the enthusiastic band. His reformulations of classic jazz tunesD'Andrea began on soprano saxophone in Dixieland bands and played double bass for a living before returning to the pianowere always concise and enlightening, and Ottolini demonstrated his mastery of the mutes. The second half of the evening was dedicated to the young and brilliant trombonist's band, Catharsis, with singerandon trumpet. Blending the voice with two brasses in a front line is not an easy task and I suspect that Camila had too much voice in her monitor, so sometimes the overall sound was not well balanced. The band at the beginning seemed eager to do too much, but slowly they settled and the concert steadily grew. A song in Spanish gave solidity and truth to the voice, and the wonderful encorea destructured version of' "Madalena"was the climax of the concert. A young band full of talent and promise, and a repertoire that could benefit from a better balance between original material and classic songs worth rediscovering.The two tenor saxophones ofand Massimiliano Milesi, one a well-established figure on the Italian scene and the other a not yet very well-known musician with a definite personality of his own, share an interest for the sonic qualities of antique tenor saxophones, and performed acoustically in the setting of a modern art gallery, surrounded by inspired paintings and sculptures. The concert was yet another reminder that listening to unamplified instruments in congenial settings is such a crucial part of understanding what music is about. The subtle play of pitches, timbres, dynamics and harmonics, the two voices blending or separating in a program that included free improvisations as well as Monk and Bach, were fascinating. They both live in Bergamo where there's definitely no shortage of excellent reed players!The evenings in the Teatro Donizettione of Italy's most beautiful opera hallswere opened by's piano solo dedicated to the soul music repertoire of Motown. The audience was mesmerized by Mrs. Allen's charisma and the beautiful sounds she elicited from the piano, but at times the material seemed too thin to support a continuous flow of ideas, so she seemed to evocate the spirits of Duke, Monk and Jobim to help the proceeding. A well-deserved ovation from the capacity audience saluted the performance.followed with his "classic" quartet dedicated to the music he grew up with. The masterful saxophonist, whose band co-led with Scofield was extremely well received, played mostly original material but when artistic director Douglas joined in for a couple of tunes the atmosphere instantly reverted to the Soundprints sound, their joined dedication to. Lovano cares a lot for his Italian roots, and will return soon for a celebration in his family's hometown in Sicily. We had a sympatico conversation over breakfast and he told wonderful stories of learning by his father and musical family: his empathy with the audience was very strong.Clarinetistintroduced with some slight exaggeration as "one of the world's best clarinet players" led her Brazilian themed quartet in a repertory similar to her recent release Luminosa. I am not in love with her miking style, the pick-up mike in the clarinet ensures independence in movement and from variable quality of PA system but the instrument's color is flattened, impoverished. Cohen charmed the audience with a very pleasant set where however the sense of adventure and risk was almost absent. This did not matter a bit for the public, clamorously enthusiast for the band. The show business side of jazz at its best, if you want, with excellent rendition of classic Brazilian repertory: I especially appreciated the nod to Pixinguinha with "Um A Zero." Pianistperformed with his trio that includedon bass andon drums. Barron is a monumental presence in the history of the music, and his set had classic proportions, with some well-crafted solos by his accompanist. Inscribing the music by Monk and others into what could be called the World Heritage of music is more than justified, but in the processprobably inevitablysome of the sheer dangerous and subversive character of the music is lost, and this reviewer for one misses it.The rather bleak and uncomfortablebut with excellent sightlines -Auditorium saw in the afternoons some of the best concerts of the festival. A rather younger audience welcomed Atomic, the celebration of "classic free jazz" -if this makes sense to youled byon tenor andon trumpet, withon piano and contributing maybe the strongest pieces in the repertoire, the very in demandon bassnow living in Texasandseating on the hot drum seat left open by. Echoes ofand Ornette, of Haden and Shepp spiced a set of original compositions enlivened by endless energy and joyous interplay; less thundering and more reflexive compared to the edition with the previous drummer, but adventurous nonetheless. Flaten's final bass solo had the inevitability of the greatest improvisations: a successful set of a fascinating band.The days' program were completed by late night concerts in a sort of pavillion just a few steps from the museum, and it is there that we dragged ourselves, a little wary after a full day of music, to hear Clock's Pointer Dance, a local band created within the activities of the Clusone festival (famous for its avant-garde bent and for the Clusone Trio that took name from this small city near Bergamo). Paolo Malacarne on trumpet, Andre Baronchelli on trombone, Andrea "Jimmy" Catagnoli on alto, Michele Bonifati on guitar and Filippo Sala on drums performed a fresh and energetic set of all original compositions, with intriguing wind arrangements and good interplay: the band already traveled internationally, and hopefully will carry on working together in order to gather more experiences.The "Balkan Bop Trio" with Markelian Kapedani, piano,, bass and Asaf Sirkis drums, offered to the festival by the local Jazz Club, was what its title promised. Again the sound was not too brilliant, with very loud drums, and the pyrotechnic piano solos grew stale after a whilemaybe not the best choice for an 11 am Sunday morning concert.The concert of the band led by drummerwas predictably full of young people that wanted to see if some magic stardust remained on the drummer after his collaboration with Bowie. Jazz works its magic in strange ways though, and I am sure that the capacity audience was captivated by the complex, polyrhthmic music full of twists, turns and surprises created by the band (they however played a Bowie song as an encore at the end of the set as a tribute, and it was for me the weakest piece).The final night opened with Wicked Knee, led byof Medeski Martin and Wood fame but a well-known scholar of rhythm and traditional percussion instruments, withon trumpets, Bryan Drye on trombone andon tuba and serpent. Again a bridge between classic and free jazz, eminently listenable and fun, but somehow not living up its possibilities: drumming was often quite basic, and the freely improvised passages did not seem to jell. Best moment was when Godard took out his serpent, a keyless bass brass from the 16th century shaped like a snake, and Martin shook his rattles, instantly transforming it into a rattlesnake. During Martin's set I found myself thinking that given the number of jazz avant-gardist playing classic jazz tunes that we are seeing maybe a novelty project would be to organize a festival where revivalists are invited to play "Ascension," "Ghosts," and the whole Free Jazz suite.The absolute crown of the Festival was however its final set, the Five Blokes led by South African drummerwithandon saxophonesthe latter leads the up-and-coming band Sons of Kemet, a great hit in Europe's clubson piano andon bass. Originally from Cape Town, Louis Moholo-Moholo left South African during apartheid together with The Blue Notes led by Chris McGregor, with Johnny Dyani, Mongezi Feza and Dudu Pukwana: Louis is today unfortunately the sole survivor. They formed the nucleus for the following big-band like aggregation, fusing South African jazz with free improvisation, the mighty Brotherhood of Breath. In a whirlwind of well known themes from the repertoire of the Blue Notes and of the Brotherhood like "B My Dear" and "You Ain't Gonna Know Me...," Moholo-Moholo evoked the spirits of the departed friends leading the band at maximum speed, showing amazing energy and asking the musicians to do the same in front of an ecstatic audience that asked for two encores. There was nothing post-modern, destructured, or too clever around the set: just burning free jazz of the highest order, and the most fitting conclusion for the festival.Photo Credit: Francesco Martinelli
Originally formed in the Netherlands in 2013, the group Falga brings together four artists from Italy and one from Serbia, all of whom have past connections in duo and trio formations. This like-minded quintet has created a debut that reflects their individual sense of innovation and the synthesis of ideas nurtured over a two-year period. The self-titled album is a revealing and challenging avant-garde outing.Amsterdam-based baritone saxophonist Giuseppe Doronzo has a background that includes modern classical, jazz improvisation and non-western music. His solo work, written for dancer/choreographer Cora Bos-Kroese was performed at the New York University and he has performed with saxophonists, trombonistand trumpetersand. Federico Pozzer studied classical piano from childhood and into his time at the Conservatory of Vicenza. He and drummer Aleksandar Skoric recorded as the duo Sitting Bull on their self-titled release (Self Produced, 2016). Bassist Andrea Caruso has performed throughout Europe, Asia and the U.S. and has studied withand. The young guitarist Lucio Tasca attended Berklee College and studied in New York as well."Goedenavond" begins with Pozzer's deliberately spaced chords, slowly building tension until fused with the leveling effect of Doronzo's baritone. The two intuitively mesh without being in complete unison or taking a predictable route. "Fail Song N.2" features slow melodic sax lines contrasting with the discordant backdrop of the piano and other contextual sounds. The whole piece eventually devolves into individual improvisations that bear little discernable relationship to each other.The compositions are often minimalist experiments with a subdued noise element, such as "Craters at Sunset" and "Pigeon" where those components meet up with fragments of melodies, frequently dissipating and then reforming as extended themes. The reverse method can also be true, as with "Mannaggia" which initially sounds close to a conventional swing rhythm but changes course to abstraction and back again with a slow build up between each phase. "I Don't Know the F Chords (I Could Not Be More Clear Than This)" is a repetitive theme with the more intangible improvisations kept in the background, at least initially.Falga is a transformational recording where each player is given a distinctive voice, though Pozzer and Doronzo are the directional forces in these pieces. There is almost a constant state of flux in the music, accomplished without unnecessary fanfare and with an organic feel. While each of the pieces is different, there is a consistency throughout as the quintet retains just enough fundamental jazz ideology to help weave their very creative improvisations into thought-provoking works.
When Tina the tabby cat went missing, her supposed captor set the ransom at $20.

UF student Ilana Barnes posted on Facebook about her 1-year-old cats disappearance and then received a string of threatening messages just hours later.

The sender, later identified as 22-year-old Madeleine Joan Kaye, claimed to have the cat and demanded at least $20 for Tinas safe return, according to a report from Gainesville Police.

Kaye is listed as a student in UFs student directory.

After tracing the phone number, Barnes learned it was Kaye who sent the threats, revealing a possible motive.

She once asked Barnes to date one of Kayes friends, Barnes said, creating hostility between the acquaintances.

Barnes, a 20-year-old UF international studies and anthropology sophomore, said Kayes texts soon turned profane.

I dont give a f--- about your cat, Barnes said, reading from her phone, but you dont deserve a beautiful animal when youre a disgusting person.

Barnes said she threatened to call police unless Tina was returned, but that Kaye responded with a text about having a lawyer ready.

On Friday, GPD charged Kaye with extortion and took her to the Alachua County Jail where she was released Saturday afternoon on a $5,000 bond.

Kaye told police she sent the messages as a joke when she drank with friends Thursday night, according to the report.

As of press time, Kaye could not be reached for comment.

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On Saturday, Barnes found Tina underneath a house in her neighborhood  unharmed.

Its the most absurd thing thats ever happened, she said.

Correction: The Alligator originally reported that Tina was found on Sunday.

Pictured above is Tina, a 1-year-old grey tabby cat. On Friday, Gainesville Police arrested 22-year-old UF student Madeleine Joan Kaye after they said she demanded a $20 ransom for Tinas safe return. Kaye never had possession of the cat, but said the ransom was a joke.
UFs Student Government wont revisit the Student Body Presidents nominees for UFs Supreme Court, a committee ruled Sunday evening.

Ben Weiner (Impact), the chair of the Judiciary Committee, ruled against a motion to hear nominees for the court from Student Body President Joselin Padron-Rasines because of his interpretation of the Rules and Procedures of the Student Senate. Because the nominations werent emailed by noon Friday, they werent considered for the agenda.

Its the same process weve had in the past, Weiner said.

Noon is not written as the deadline in SGs rules and procedures.

Per the SG codes, legislation must be sent in two days before committee meetings. In the Student Body constitution, nominees arent categorized as legislation.

Padron-Rasines emailed the Senate on Monday, stating she was going to reappoint the two nominees for the court.

Ricardo Sabater (Access), a committee member, argued Mondays email notified the committee.

Toward the end of the meeting, Ford Dwyer (Access), a committee member, attempted to overturn Weiners decision.

Weiner argued the meeting needed to end at 6 p.m. to allow the Replacement and Agenda Committee to meet.

He adjourned the meeting. He said it wasnt fair to keep the other committee waiting.

Nicholas Gurney, the UF SG solicitor general, said Weiner shouldnt have been allowed to adjourn the meeting before the motion was decided due to parliamentary procedure.

Roberts Rule (of Order) is to allow everyone to have a voice, and that voice was taken away, he said.

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@MelissaGomez004

mgomez@alligator.org
"Because sex without it isnt sex.

Its rape.

These lines come from a video from the Its On Us campaign, launched by the Obama administration to promote consent. The video, which featured many celebrities, emphasizes the need for freely given consent. Like most issues, this has fallen prey to partisanship.

When asked to describe a hypothetical sexual assault, someone might describe a dark alley. A stranger. Maybe some type of weapon. This isnt always an accurate and representative idea of how sexual assault actually happens. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, four out of five assaults are committed by someone the victim knows.

Social problems can only be solved if theres widespread recognition of said problems. Sexual assault is no different. In any other crime, the problem is the perpetrator  that murderer shouldnt have murdered that person, that robber shouldnt have robbed that person, etc. But when its a sexual assault that gets committed, somehow that message is lost. The burden falls on the victims to protect themselves from unwanted attention. That person shouldnt have worn that, said that, been there, been alone, etc. This creates an additional burden for survivors to overcome: the idea they attracted the rapist to them. On college campuses, sexual assault can pose a particular problem, given that college administrations must figure out how to deal with the issue.

If you think UF is the exception, youre wrong. While Florida State University was in the headlines for their treatment of Jameis Winston, sexual assault happens here in Gainesville, too  to people of all genders. According to the results of the UF Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct, One in five UF female undergraduate students indicated they have experienced some type of sexual assault  ranging from sexual touching such as groping to unwanted penetration  since entering UF. Five percent of male undergraduates reported the same.

After a sexual assault or rape happens, the survivor may not feel comfortable coming forward. According to InvestigateWest, self-blame and confusion can cause women to delay or not report an assault at all, and 62 percent of sexual assaults are drug facilitated.

Ultimately, this should not be a political issue. There needs to be more widespread education about consent, including what counts and does not count as consent. Problems that mostly affect women might seem petty to men: Well, if they just did this or that, they would be fine! Its well known the current Republican presidential candidates have less than friendly policies toward women, whether its their bodily autonomy in ending a pregnancy or just plainly objectifying them.

Can women really do much to prevent sexual assault? This past week, John Kasich showed he buys into victim blaming. A student from St. Lawrence University asked: What are you going to do in office as president to help me feel safer and more secure regarding sexual violence, harassment and rape?

While his response began with sensible suggestions for policy on campus, he added one last bit of advice: Dont go to parties where there is a lot of alcohol.

Kasich is often painted as the safe and best alternative to Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. Perhaps he is, but these remarks are troubling nonetheless. And that they came from a moderate presidential candidate reflects just how widespread the notion that sexual assault is easily solvable, if women would just follow a few rules, really is in our society.

Coming up with such simple solutions to sexual assault is condescending and wrong. Theres no safe version of misogyny. Women across the political spectrum deserve better.

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Nicole Dan is a UF political science sophomore. Her column appears on Mondays.
Although Wednesday is the last day of classes, it doesnt seem long ago we were beginning the Fall semester and kicking off the school year. It may be time for students to say goodbye to a lot, but at least there is one thing we can all look forward to leaving behind: on-campus dining.

A big problem with on-campus dining is something called Fall-Spring commitment, in which students must have a meal plan in Spring if they had one the previous Fall. So even if students realize on-campus dining isnt for them for various reasons  like if they actually enjoy food  they are forced to pay thousands of dollars more for no logical reason. It seems like Aramark is just trying to take money from students, especially considering all flex bucks not used by students at the end of each semester disappear.

As more than hundreds of unused flex bucks will potentially vanish, UFs Mitchell Kaye and Flex Philanthropy are holding their second-annual food drive to put unused flex bucks to a good cause. On Tuesday and Wednesday, students will be able to use their flex bucks to donate non-perishable goods to the Flex Philanthropy Food Drive at the Rawlings Hall P.O.D. Market.

According to its Facebook page, Flex Philanthropys 2015 Food Drive raised more than $400 worth of food, but theres no reason the UF community should stop there. If more events made it accessible for students to help feed the hungry, UF could go beyond whats currently possible to curb Gainesvilles plaguing problem that too large of a proportion of the population suffer from hunger.

There are two ways UF can become a leading university in preventing food from going to waste. One way is for students to have the ability to donate at P.O.D. Markets year-round. Yes, students could theoretically find local, off-campus food pantries to directly donate if they wanted, but keep in mind most students are on the meal plan in the first place because they live on-campus and do not have easy access to transportation. All students need is a bin at each P.O.D. Market to donate the food they buy.

Theres another way students could easily diminish hunger in Gainesville, and it pertains to the dining halls themselves. As students could theoretically use money at P.O.D. Markets to donate goods without assistance, the same could be done using dining halls as an intermediary. Students could grab a to-go box, fill it with mounds of food and head a couple of blocks from the dining hall to easily find someone hungry. And to mitigate any potential logistical issues, UF could take a page out of the playbook of organizations like the Food Recovery Network.

With more than 100 chapters across the country, the Food Recovery Network organizes students to keep uneaten campus food from dumpsters and instead facilitate getting the food to local food pantries. Since 2011, the Food Recovery Network has recovered about 1.2 million pounds of food. Efforts like these are essential when considering how college campuses collectively throw out a total of 22 million pounds of uneaten food each year, according to an article by NPR. Its no coincidence one in seven Americans go hungry; it ties back in part to the start rates of food waste in our country. We need to act nationally and locally.

Flex Philanthropy gets the ball rolling toward solving hunger in Gainesville. Sure, some of these suggestions may be a bit difficult to pull off. However, I feel it is important that Aramark just give students a chance to put these policies in place, because people go hungry every day.

Joshua Udvardy is a UF mechanical engineering freshman. His column usually appears on Wednesdays.

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Picture this: Youre in one of your political science, history or philosophy classes. Things are going well until the professor asks a politically charged question to the class. You know youre in the extreme ideological minority, because the professor and 98 percent of the class hold the same beliefs.

What do you do? Do you state your views and face the imminent onslaught of criticism, judgment and condemnation? Or do you keep quiet and let your ideologically lock-stepped classmates spew earnestly held but factually inaccurate rhetoric?

For many conservatives on campus, this happens more often than not. Were a very small minority at UF that constantly has to deal with professors, classmates and caped communists looking to disregard our views.

But luckily for us, a new student group is trying to change that. Keira Lyn Hornyak, the Florida Field director and UF chapter leader of Turning Point USA, is leading the charge for conservatism on campus.

Although she was initially hesitant to start a Turning Point chapter in Gainesville, Hornyak believes championing conservative beliefs and at times enlightening her fellow peers has been completely worth it.

She started the groups UF chapter to open a dialogue that hasnt been there for a while. You dont see a lot of conservatism on campus. She tables on Turlington Plaza, where she bravely faces off against UFs united proletarian front and conducts a few meetings.

Now, as a frequent attendee of infrequent conservative gatherings on campus, I decided to go to one of Turning Points meetings last week. The meeting room in Matherly Hall was filled with fliers, posters and booklets promoting truth, justice and the American way. I mean, Dwayne The Rock Johnson was on one poster, so that has to be true. The meeting even had a self-professed social democrat in attendance.

The event focused on conservative activism on campus with a special emphasis on promoting and defending capitalism. After each well-constructed point Hornyak made on behalf of the free-market system  and there were a lot of them  the social democrat opined with his views. Conservatives know liberals like to hear themselves talk.

Impressively, Hornyak, as well as the 20 students in attendance, continually refuted each one of the social democrats penetrating questions. This happened for an hour. I havent seen this kind of takedown since the 1984 presidential election.

Immediately, I knew this group was special. I havent seen a group this smart on campus in a while. And when youre in the ideological minority, you have to be able to defend your beliefs all the time. Remember the classroom scenario?

Not only is Hornyak winning over minds with cold hard facts, shes also winning over hearts, especially when she talks with foreign students. Their faces light up when they see our table, a table filled with signs like #BigGovSucks and I Love Capitalism. Some of these students come from countries like Venezuela and Cuba that have seen the negative effects of big government. Theyre so happy to see a group embracing their beliefs. Big government is often the reason theyre now in the U.S.

I asked Hornyak if she was optimistic about the future of conservatism on campus. As a leader of one of the rising center-right groups on campus, she was unsurprisingly optimistic. But after seeing the Turning Point crew in action, I find myself more optimistic, too.

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Hornyaks leading a group of conservatives more intelligent, impassioned and willing to shake up campus to an extent I havent seen before. They love what theyre doing and are happily facing UFs liberal majority.

All I can say is liberals better watch out. Your days in the majority might be numbered.

Michael Beato is a UF political science senior. His column appears on Mondays.
Given the huge strides made by the body-positivity movement and the mental-health community, it's hard to believe we live in a world where multiple people would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars (not to mention the weeks of pain and healing) to try to make themselves look like unrealistically proportioned children's toys. And yet the Internet has been abuzz once again this week with news that the so-called human Ken Doll was released from the hospital following a life-threatening complication from plastic surgery. Life in plastic, it's... maybe less fantastic than Aqua led us to believe.

Thirty-two-year-old Brazilian native Rodrigo Alves, known by many as the human Ken Doll, was rushed to the hospital last week after part of his nose began deteriorating as a result of skin necrosis related to a nasal reconstruction surgery he had in February. The flight attendant, who has reportedly had 42 surgeries and spent over 300,000 English pounds in his quest for his dream look, told *The Daily Mail *on Thursday, "A horrible hole has appeared in my nostril and the infection is eating my nose, and I've been warned if it is not stopped, it could eat into my face."

Following a round of IV antibiotic treatment, Alves appears to be out of immediate danger, though the damage from the necrosis is irreversible. This will likely mean a new set of surgeries, with the hope that new reconstructed tissue will not be rejected like the last.

While Alves, like most of his fellow Barbie devotees, has not been diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder (a mental disorder in which sufferers fixate on perceived flaws in their appearance), many sources speculate that his actions indicate something more serious than a simple desire to look good. Whatever the case may be, Alves has remained upbeat on Instagram throughout the ordeal, writing in a post on Friday, "Your life is at your hands to be anything that you want to be."

Get the full story at Refinery29.

Inside the Allure Beauty Closet:
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With another season of inadequate rainfall, missed plantings, and failed harvests, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is warning that the number of families dependent on food aid across southern Africa will most certainly increase in the coming months. An estimated 28 million people are currently food insecure across the []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
The Secretary-General of the United Nations commends the Comorian people for peacefully fulfilling their civic duty by participating in the second round of the elections for President of the Union of Comoros and for Governors of Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli on Sunday 10 April 2016. The elections are an important step in the consolidation []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...




AR's Editor Joe Shea Talks About Elections On Iranian TV Bear Stearns Saved By Fed As Lehman Bros. Falters; Major Bank

Failure Looms Over Wall Street, Sends Markets Into 200-Pt. Dive Lie Upon Lie Five Years Into the Iraq War

The Administration Still Churns Out Lies by Randolph Holhut A Small Tragedy Even at 90, As Friends Turn Cool

She Knows the Show Must Go On by Joyce Marcel I'll Take Me Imagine John Wayne or Arnold

In Heels, Silk and a Girdle by Elizabeth Andrews Sen. Nelson Calls For New Fla. Primary; Gov Crist Backs 'Do-Over' Who'll Win? Ask Spock Spock.com Engine Predicts Winners

By Site Searches; It Can be Wrong by Jay Bhatti Chatting Up The Cat God Gave Me Dominion Over Him

But I Think He's a Non-Believer by Constance Daley Death of a Thug The Life and Horrors of Suharto by Andreas Harsono ___________________________ This Just In Sierra Club: McCain Ducked All 15 Key Votes On Green Laws (AR) A Work By AR's T.S. Kerrigan Is Chosen As 'Best Poem' By Wordpress Site Murder At Mile 63

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AFTER 5 YEARS, WE'RE STILL LIED TO ABOUT IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Next week is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And it is likely that sometime in the next couple of weeks, the 4,000th American soldier will die in Iraq. [MORE] Momentum

OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - It's 1931, and a 14-year-old girl is standing alone on a stage. She's small and lively with dark curly hair, widespread hazel eyes, slender wrists and an open, eager face filled with the wonder of performing. Her name is Rose, and one day she will be my mother. But now she is performing an Eugene O'Neill monologue called "Before Breakfast" for a ladies' club in a wealthy suburb of Long Island. [MORE] One Woman's World

COMFORTABLE WITH MYSELF by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I'm not sure but I think I may be socially incorrect. [MORE] On Native Ground

ENOUGH FOR A WAR, NOT FOR A PEOPLE by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Last week, the National Governors Assn. met in Washington, D.C. One of the tasks the NGA had on its agenda was to ask President Bush to increase federal spending on roads, bridges and other public works projects as a way to stimulate the economy. He rejected their pleas out of hand, claiming that infrastructure projects wouldn't offer any short-term economic boost. [MORE] Brasch Words

BEWARE THE SELF-REVERENTIAL PRESS by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter called Sen. Barack Obama's surge to the Democratic nomination "inevitable." It also called for Hillary Clinton to "start her campaign for Senate majority leader." [MORE] Constance

A CONVERSATION WITH MY CAT Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Normally, when the cat starts his evening rant of meowing continuously until he makes his point, I just take it as long as I can, pick him up, and put him in the garage for the night. He doesn't want to go, but the meowing stops and I don't care if he likes it or not. [MORE] Momentum

OUT OF STRUGGLE, ART by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Here we are again at the crossroads of art and social change, having the opportunity to watch good and great films about the lives of women in support of the Women's Crisis Center. [MORE] Campaign 2008

HOW TO PREDICT SUPER TUESDAY II WINNERS? ONLINE SEARCH by Jay Bhatti NEW YORK, March 4, 2008, 7:00PM ET -- With the outcomes of the Texas, Vermont, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries to be decided tonight, how possible is it that online searching can predict who will win tonight's primaries? [MORE] One Woman's World

DON'T VOTE; IT ENCOURAGES THEM by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Call me angry and disgusted but don't call me un-American because I won't be voting come November. [MORE] On Native Ground

BUSH AND THE KEYBOARD COMMANDOS by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- As the days tick down toward the eventual departure of President George W. Bush from the White House, it's a hopeful sign that most Americans are no longer moved by his Administration's constant exploitation of terrorism for political gain. [MORE] Momentum

WHICH AMERICA DO YOU LIVE IN? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It's a little confusing. [MORE] Make My Dat

THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] On Native Ground

FIDEL RETIRES: NOW THE COLD WAR IS REALLY OVER by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Maybe now, we can finally say the Cold War is over. [MORE] Make My Dat

THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] One Woman's World

POLITICS IS NO PARTY by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Are you having a hard time focusing your eyes? Do you have faint red spots all over your body? Is there a ringing in your ears and do you see wavy lines when you look at your television set? Do your hands shake when you try to hold a cup of coffee? And have you recently been forgetting what day of the week it is - or what year? [MORE] Make My Day

FOR BETTER OR WORSE ... A LOT WORSE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- "Marriage: It's Only Going to Get Worse." [MORE] Constance

YOU CALL THESE RIGHTS? by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- When you express an opinion you hope to persuade others to your point of view. It doesn't always happen but still, opinion writers try. [MORE] Momentum

THE BRIDGE WOMAN by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Out there in America - yes, still - is a generation of women who were born in the 1940s, raised in the 1950s, and who came to radical consciousness in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am one of them. Hillary Clinton is one of them. [MORE] On Native Ground

OBAMA AND MY GENERATION by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- I originally planned on voting for Dennis Kucinich in the Vermont Primary on March 4. [MORE] The Willies:

WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla. -- You've heard the warnings, haven't you? Stop Prozac and you may take a shotgun, an Uzi or an AK-47 and mow down your family and friends, or even a whole classroom full of your fellow students. You didn't? Well, that warning is not on the bottle, but like countless mass-murder incidents before it, Friday's shootings at Northern Illinois University, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings that killed 32 last year, was probably precipitated by the effect of stopping medications that suppress anger and other powerful emotions but do not relieve the underlying cause. Isn't it time we started warning people - or stopped prescribing these medicines? [MORE] One Woman's World

DON'T KNOCK ON MY DOOR by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I wish I could feel delight in my poet's mansion being like Grand Central Station all the time, but I can't. And I wish my place was such a place that someone would one day write: "Her door was always open and she always made you feel all fuzzy and warm in her presence. She could make a cup of coffee seem like a banquet." [MORE] Reporting: Panama

PANAMA'S VIOLENT LABOR UNREST INTENSIFIES Mark Scheinbaum PANAMA CITY, Panama, Feb, 15, 2008 -- After just one day of relative calm, wildcat construction strikes by some members of Panama's largest union flared up again Friday morning, four days after a police sniper shot one worker. More than 140 demonstrators have been injured and at least 500 arrested, authorities say. [MORE] Brasch Words

TO STIMULATE ECONOMY, BUY A CHINESE-MADE U.S. FLAG by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Walking down Main Street, pushing a grocery cart loaded with clothes, toys, and appliances was Marshbaum. Fastened to the right front corner of the cart was an American flag tied onto a three-foot ruler. [MORE] Make My Day

THE TOOTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- To commemorate the death of noted shark exploder Roy Scheider, and the "Jaws" movies that resulted in Erik never setting foot in the ocean again, we are reprinting this column from 2003. Shark Experts 0, Sharks 1 [MORE] Momentum

THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - As I write this, it's raining ice. Maybe a half a foot of snow and ice has already landed up here in the woods of Dummerston. Our cars are encased in it, and the door to the house is blocked. The satellite dish that brings in our Internet service quit about 20 minutes ago - frozen solid. [MORE] The Willies

AMERICA TO HILLARY: GET OUT! by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 13, 2008 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton has adopted the Rudy Giuliani strategy, and it's working - for Sen. Barack Obama. It turns out to be the strategy all Democrats are seeking - an exit strategy. But it's not for Iraq. It's for her exit from the race for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. [MORE] Constance

CONFESSIONS OF A DISAPPOINTED VOTER by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- A week ago at just about this time, I completed an article and was about to submit it as scheduled to The American Reporter. I was feeling rather elated, ready to show up on Super Tuesday morning, firmly touch the X next to Rudy Giuliani's name and get on with my day. He was my choice; he would get my vote. [MORE] Reporting: Florida

SIERRA CLUB SET TO SUSPEND FLA. CHAPTER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 10, 2008 -- The national Sierra Club is set to suspend its Florida chapter after years of divisive infighting, the president of the national club told Florida members in a letter delivered to some this weekend. It is the first time in its 116-year history that such a step has been considered by the club, according to news reports. [MORE] One Woman's World

PLANT A NEW WORLD THIS SPRING by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- For a little while, the men will just have to toss and turn in their fear-free-women beds. For a small space of time Hillary Clinton will just have to trudge on toward the White House without my faint applause in the background. [MORE] On Native Ground

VERMONT AND THE 5 STAGES OF CONSERVATIVE GRIEF by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- First, Vermont tried to convince the nation to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. [MORE] Make My Day

REBEL WITHOUT A TONGUE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Kids' brains work in amazing ways. At times, they can grasp complex concepts and make impressive discoveries. Other times, you have to wonder how we ever survived as a species. [MORE] The Willies

FOR DEMOCRATS, NOW IT'S ABOUT RACE, INCOME AND GENDER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Feb. 6, 2008 -- It's not a good time to be a Democrat. As the Super Tuesday results demonstrated, the presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has divided the partly along clear racial, income and gender lines - the very distinctions the party has sought to erase in principle but has emphasized in its pursuit of diversity. [MORE] Momentum

SUPER TUESDAY BLUES by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Super Tuesday has come and gone and I still can't get excited about the upcoming presidential elections. [MORE] The Willies

ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY, YOUR PUSH IS NEEDED by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 5. 2008 -- I'm expecting a sea change tonight. I believe that for the first time in this nation's history we will once and forever banish racism as the deciding factor in the destiny of African-Americans, and indeed adopt diversity as our path to the future. [MORE] Campaign 2008

AT 88, EVERY VOTE REALLY COUNTS by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 5, 2008 -- Pearl Turner will caucus for Mitt Romney tonight in Denver. [MORE] One Woman's World

STAND BY YOUR WOMAN by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- The black vote. The gay vote. The fundamentalist vote. The Hispanic vote. [MORE] An AR Special

SUSPECTS IN BENAZIR ASSASSINATION HAVE TIES TO MUSHARRAF by Ahmar Mustikhan WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Gordon Brown this past Monday feted coup-leader-turned-President Pervez Musharraf at 10 Downing Street, Britain's new prime minister probably didn't ask the Pakistani dictator a question that is now on many minds: Did you order the murder of Benazir Bhutto? [MORE] Momentum

TO THE VERMONT DELEGATION: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt.  Back when President George W. Bush and Dick Vice President Dick Cheney were building up to their loathsome war in Iraq, very few people were brave enough to call the bullies' bluff. [MORE] On Native Ground

IF BUSH HAS HIS WAY, WE'LL NEVER LEAVE IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. - In his final State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President Bush cautioned against accelerating U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying that it would endanger the process that has been made over the past year. [MORE] Campaign 2008

CLASH OF COMMENTS AND PROTESTORS AT CLINTON, OBAMA RALLIES IN DENVER by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 1, 2008 -- At least four presidential campaigns of both partiers rolled into in Denver this week ahead of the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" primaries in 22 states, but it was the Democratic presidential contenders who drew the big crowds and duked it out Wednesday. If sheer numbers are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama - preceded by a buoyant and beautiful Caroline Kennedy - won the round handily. He is the overwhelming favorite to win the Colorado primary next Tuesday. [MORE] The Willies

WHY THE FLORIDA PRIMARY STINKS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Jan. 30, 2008 -- I was with my wife and daughter driving the back way from Miami home to Bradenton when we stopped at a McDonald's in Clewiston, the only big town along the vast shore of Lake Okeechobee, the state's precious freshwater reservoir. The McDonald's had three televisions at a central seating area, each tuned to a different network, and our table was in front of CNN as the very first election results started to pour in around 7:30PM. With them, almost as counterpoint, suddenly came such an overwhelming odor of cow plop that my wife started to throw up as we all ran to the parking lot. [MORE] Passings: Suharto

DEATH OF A KEMUSU THUG by Andreas Harsono JAKARTA - A few minutes after hearing that former president Suharto had died in his hospital bed, Marco, a militia leader in downtown Jakarta, raced to Suhartos house, wearing his jungle camouflage and began guarding the Suhartos residence on Cendana Street. [MORE] Constance

I REMEMBER YOU by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga.. -- It seems to be more often lately that the sentiment is spoken but it's always been out there: "You never get over the death of your child." This is true. But the heartfelt expressions come from some who cannot fathom the notion of losing a child; their own child is who is in their mind, not another mother's child. [MORE]
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
Ally Financial has launched a mobile app that uses geolocation to caution smartphone-carrying customers when they are arriving at stores where they overspend.

Finding ways to help consumers with their spending indulgences has increasingly become a goal for banks seeking to add value to the digital experiences. Most recently, TD Bank in Canada launched a financial health app powered by neobank Moven. USAA has also published a mobile app meant to motivate millennials to save.

Ally's new app, called Splurge Alert, distinguishes itself by using geolocation technology to track its users and engages others to help keep users from making bad decisions. Users designate the stores and areas where they tend to overspend and select friends and family who can help motivate them to resist an unnecessary purchase. When they are nearby the danger zone, the app warns them that they are about to overspend, but also notifies the support network in hopes of encouraging the users to make better decisions.

"Many people believe that large one-time expenses can throw their budgets off track," said Andrea Riley, chief marketing officer of Ally in a press release. "But it's actually the everyday purchases  coffee drinks, smoothies, clothing items  that tend to be a problem area. The intent of this fun and insightful tool is to raise awareness for consumers about spending habits that may be keeping them from attaining their savings goals."


Fifth Third Bancorp Chief Executive Greg Carmichael has been on the job for less than six months, but already it's looking like his honeymoon period may be over.

With Carmichael promising to spend more on technology and compliance this year, investors are becoming increasingly concerned that, absent a rise in interest rates, expenses will grow faster than revenues and further squeeze margins. Several analysts have recently downgraded their ratings on Fifth Third's shares and even those holding the line cite rising expenses as the biggest potential drag on profits.

The $141 billion-asset Fifth Third "did not achieve positive operating leverage in 2015 and we do not expect it to achieve positive operating leverage in 2016," Barclays analyst Jason Goldberg wrote in a research note earlier this month previewing the Cincinnati company's first-quarter earnings. "We believe more needs to be done on the expense front."

Fifth Third is scheduled to release its first-quarter results on Thursday. Analysts are projecting it will say that profits fell by approximately 30% from a year earlier, to around $270 million, and that higher expenses and credit costs outweighed lackluster revenue growth.

Several analysts have also reduced their per-share earnings estimates in recent months.

Like many of its regional peers, Fifth Third has struggled to generate revenue from loans. Its net interest margin has tightened by 10 basis points in the past year, to 2.85%.

Its biggest challenge, though, is reining in expenses.

During the fourth quarter, noninterest expenses grew 5% from a year earlier, to $963 million. Over the past five months, Fifth Third has added more than 100 new tech employees with six-figure salaries, company said in a recent press release. It has also invested heavily in cutting edge analytics programs.

Since replacing Kevin Kabat as CEO in November, Carmichael has been saying that Fifth Third needs to invest more heavily in technology and compliance now in order to boost profits and improve efficiency down the road.

The company plans to spend roughly $60 million this year to digitize its branches, upgrade its loan origination system and invest in new fraud-detection software. It also plans to invest $75 million on compliance systems and personnel.

Carmichael could not comment for this article because Fifth Third is in a quiet period ahead of its first-quarter results. But he has said that he expects investments in a slick new mobile app and improved risk-management systems will start paying off next year.

"They are extremely important investments," Carmichael, a former technology executive, said during a January conference call. "As we move into 2017, you will see those outcomes."

Analysts agree that the investments are necessary, but they are concerned that Fifth Third's revenues aren't growing fast enough to pay for them. That could change if the Federal Reserve boosts interest rates this year, but if it doesn't, core revenue will remain flat, said Peter Winter, an analyst with Sterne Agee CRT.

"The thinking is, in an environment that continues to be challenging on the revenue side, they just have less flexibility than others," said Winter, who downgraded the stock to "neutral" last week.

Several of Fifth Third's peers  such as U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis and PNC Financial in Pittsburgh  have funded big investments in technology by cutting expenses elsewhere.

And Fifth Third, for its part, has also made an effort to trim operating costs. The company recently offered buyouts to 775 of its 18,500 employees. It has also shed about 8%, of its total branch network over the past year.

But the bank is relying heavily on an unconventional source  its ownership stake in Vantiv, the payment processor it spun off in 2012  to fund tech upgrades and pad its bottom line. In the fourth quarter, it recognized a gain of nearly $500 million from a series of stock transactions and the company has said it intends to continue scaling back its ownership stake. It still holds 35 million shares of Vantiv, and has warrants on an additional 7.8 million, said Chief Financial Officer Tayfun Tayzun, during a March 9 presentation.

"Our intention is to sell down our position in Vantiv, and we are going to do that in a thoughtful and deliberate manner," Carmichael said in January.

Marty Mosby, an analyst with Vining Sparks, said that selling Vantiv shares to help fund its transformation is not a bad strategy. The risk, of course, is that the bank could wind up selling an appreciating asset to fund investments that don't pan out as expected.

"The sense of whether they wasted [the Vantiv stake] will be displayed next year," Mosby said.

Mosby is more bullish than other analysts on Fifth Third. He recently downgraded Fifth Third's stock to "market perform," but only because it is no longer trading at a discount after a recent rally, he said.

Mosby noted that Fifth Third's stock price has increased by about 25% over the past two months, compared to a gain of about 18% for the KBW Bank index. Year to date, the shares are down about 3%.


Hillary Clintons wardrobe is not the only thing that isnt necessarily working in her favor these days. Even less flattering is the popularity of Bernie Sanders, whose campaign -- according to conventional wisdom -- should have been suspended long ago. And now, instead of promoting her vision for America and the world, Hillary finds herself sidetracked into defense mode over the high fees and undisclosed lowdown in her speeches to Wall Street moguls. Shes under threat of an FBI investigation over possible e-mail and server abuses. Shes even had to dodge the protesting rabble at her outrageously pricey celebrity fund-raisers.

A less hardened veteran of the political wars might be buckling a bit under the pressure. Even during Hillarys long and contentious struggle with Obama for the presidential nomination eight years ago, real tears were once seen welling up in her eyes. But Mrs. Clinton is one tough cookie, and an overarching ambition to become the first woman president of the United States steels her to the task at hand, taking precedence over everything else.

Secretary Clinton clearly underestimated the feisty junior senator from Vermont. Yet now she is faced with another unexpected dilemma: she overestimated Bill. The popular former president -- who was supposed to wow the crowds on the stump, charm the pants off Democrat ladies, and lend a softer side to his shrill wife  is turning out to be a liability instead of an asset.

Bill Clinton wasnt dubbed the teflon kid for nothing. Long before he moved into the White House and upgraded to the teflon president, he had a reputation for using and discarding women. Hillary took it upon herself to duly discredit those involved in Bills bimbo eruptions. Nowadays she may keep a straight face when she urges abused women to speak out, but back then, she made sure they shut up. The future of the Clinton dynasty depended on it.

Even if bad boy Bill had his way with the ladies, he still had a way with the voters. But some of the good-ole-boy goodwill faded in the wake of his scandalous relationship with Washington intern Monica Lewinsky, despite the First Ladys ambitious visits to all the Sunday talk shows to deny the charges and lay the blame on a vast right wing conspiracy.

By the time Bill Clintons second presidential term ended, the teflon -- and the patience of many Americans -- had worn thin. When his vice president, Al Gore, ran for president, he refused to associate himself with the former chief of state, much less allow him to campaign for the Gore-Lieberman ticket. Bill was a political pariah.

But politics is a strange and fickle beast. And now, sixteen years after Bill Clinton left the White House under cover of scandal and impeachment proceedings, he is generally acknowledged as one of the most popular political figures in America, if not in the world. Gore may by now be schmoozing out there in the ozone layer; retired Joe Lieberman might be sunning himself on a Florida beach; but Bill Clinton, true to his two-for-the-price of-one boast to the American electorate, remains bound to his wifes intention of returning them to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. After all, its her turn now and her last chance, so Bill is back on the campaign trail, expected to be as persuasive and irresistible as ever.

But is he? Well, it seems that Hillary, who all along has found it to her political advantage to identify with her husbands generally successful presidency, is backpedalling in an attempt to distance herself from parts of his administration, now that his once-lauded bipartisan crime and welfare laws are coming under fire by her vital black constituency. Hillary may not really have dodged sniper fire during any of her sallies as secretary of state, but she knows how to do it when the bullets are tantamount to votes.

To make things worse, Bills unflattering image as a womanizer is becoming known to younger liberal female voters who werent around back then, and who, as a consequence, are gravitating to a candidate not of their own sex. And if thats not troublesome enough, Bill is acting distracted and petulant on the stump. Hes arguing with Black Lives Matter protesters, and afterwards attempting some semblance of an apology. Hes having more and more to defend his own past record, instead of promoting his wifes.

Bill is a frail shadow of his former self. He is five years younger than Bernie Sanders, but he doesnt look or act it. His courtly, phlegmatic Southern manner, so appealing in his younger years, now comes across as listless. When he was a young political whippersnapper on the rise, Clinton famously bored an entire assemblage of delegates at the national Democratic convention by delivering a legendary longwinded speech. Now his spiels are briefer, but just as uninspiring to those who turn up at his rallies.

Things have gotten so iffy, its been suggested that the Clinton campaign may be considering cutting back on Bills appearances. The thought is to use Bills other abilities, such as his talent for fundraising and arm-twisting, during the general election.

So could it be time for the Clinton camp to chill Bill, or at least redefine his role in Hillarys campaign? Does it matter anymore that he was responsible in large part for her getting as far as she has? When Hill met Bill, she opted to hitch her wagon to his star, grasping the benefits of holding fast, even in the most humiliating of times.

If Bills performance disappoints her, it wouldnt be for the first time. As always, shell figure it out and keep him under closer wraps, if necessary. Like it or not, if Hillary wins the 2016 election, Bill will become the first First Gentleman of the United States. Indeed, the culmination of their mutual dream would be well worth living together again under the same roof.
No, Bernie Sanders is not a self-hating Jew. Nor are members of the organization J Street, because its leader, Jeremy Ben-Ami, has told us as much. Yet it remains a puzzlement that these self-proclaimed supporters of Israel  indeed, many vitally concerned about the proper "soul" of Israel  are constantly scolding the Jewish State for alleged misbehavior. Rarely, if ever, do they utter a word about its accomplishments or its crucial need for security.

Of course, we know from numerous organizations such as the Jewish Voice for Peace, as well as from Middle East experts such as the novelist Alice Walker and the sanctimonious Archbishop Desmond Tutu, much more about the shortcomings of Israel than of the paradise to be found in Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Burundi.

To the delight of the U.S. mainstream press, above all the New York Times, Bernie Sanders, the independent candidate for president, has now joined the chorus of those who tell us we must speak the truth about Israel. His critical remarks of Israel in the debate on April 14, 2016 have been heralded as "breaking a taboo" on critical comments, and so important that they could now lead others to follow.

But the mainstream press is evidently unaware that Bernie is a follower, not a leader, and the comments he uttered have been made in countless TV programs, in many journals, on many campuses in the country, by the never-ending rhetoric from Palestinian groups and their supporters, from those who suffer from the disease of anti-Semitism, and from the well-meaning naive who have swallowed the fallacious Palestinian Narrative of Victimhood. The various organs of the United Nations, especially the U.N. Human Rights Council, have made anti-Israeli comments their life work.

Bernie, for all his fulminations about the "establishment," political and financial, is on this issue the epitome of fashionable, and sometimes bigoted, political correctness.

Bernie has rarely discussed foreign policy during his presidential campaign, except to criticize rival Hillary Clinton for her vote in favor of the war in Iraq, and her "intervention" in Libya. Bernie's interest in war is limited to just one, the one against "Wall Street." Though he seems to know nothing about the issue of Iran, Bernie did condemn Israel for its criticism of the nuclear deal with Iran, which almost everyone except President Barack Obama now sees as a major political blunder, and likely to ensure an Iranian nuclear weapon.

About Bernie, it is a matter of choice regarding which is the greater: his ignorance of foreign policy or his poor judgment. He had difficulty overcoming his absurd statement in the New York Daily News that in the Gaza Strip fighting in July-August 2014, more than 10,000 Palestinian civilians had been killed. The figure given by the U.N. was 1,423, and even the terrorist Hamas stated 1,462. Even those numbers are exaggerated, because many of the Hamas killed were not civilians, but militants wearing civilian dress.

After recognizing his foolishness, he corrected his gross error by speaking of "10,000 wounded civilians and 1,500 deaths." What is important in all this is that he did not utter a word of the provocations by Hamas, the constant stream of rockets and missiles attacking Israeli cities and infrastructure, and that the Israeli response was to end the rocket fire and to protect its population.

Moreover, Bernie said nothing, probably because he knew nothing, of the Amnesty International report on the atrocities committed by Hamas on this occasion against their Palestinian rival, Fatah, and their use of torture, abductions, extrajudicial killings, "horrible abuses," and war crimes. Bernie should have known that all this is more meaningful, because Amnesty International is not known to be friendly to Israel.

Instead of making meaningful comments on the issue, Bernie echoes the anti-Israeli chorus who relentlessly exclaim about the "disproportionate" force used against the Hamas terrorists. Of course, Bernie does not want the destruction of Israel. But one wonders if he will asked by the New York Times: exactly what would be the correct "proportionate" response?

Bernie's error of judgment should destroy his credibility as a decision maker. He appointed the 25-year-old Simone Zimmerman as his "Jewish outreach coordinator." It is difficult to know her capacity for "coordination," since she was a member of the college chapter of J Street; helped found the group IFNOTNOW, a group critical of Israeli "occupation"; and opposed funding for Israeli projects in the West Bank. Even Bernie might have appreciated the extent of her "outreach."

Zimmerman's political wisdom was limited to remarking on "grave injustices" committed by Israel and the rampant racism in Israel society. Her language revealed the extent of her sensibility as well as her deep vocabulary. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arrogant, deceptive, cynical, and manipulative. Netanyahu was an "asshole," and her message was him was "F you, Bibi." Bernie dismissed her, but why did he ever appoint her? Could the answer be that she was Bernie's example of a "balanced approach"?

Bernie's call for a "balanced approach" on the Israeli-Palestinian issue does not take courage and integrity to be made. The call, and the urging that the U.S. play an even-handed role, has been made by critics of Israel, as well as by some well-meaning people, ever since five Arab armies invaded the newly created State of Israel on May 14, 1948 to destroy it, and ever since the consequent desire by many Palestinians to exterminate the State.

No one will disagree with Bernie's assertion that we should treat the Palestinian people with "respect and dignity," and that changes are desirable, and many Israelis do or try to do so. Yet it is equally important that Bernie and those hostile to Israel call for Palestinians to regard Israel and behave toward it in the same way.

The main problem with Bernie's remarks about the Middle East is not dishonesty, but naivete. Like any rational person, he desires peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but he is looking at the wrong mirror. He should know that if PLO leader Yasser Arafat had accepted the offer that then-Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak put on the table during the discussions in July 2000 at Camp David, the Palestinians would have had a state of their own. It was Arafat who ended, at least for many years, the possibility of a final status agreement between the parties.

Some advice to Bernie is in order. He should be aware now of the considerable amount of arms that Iran is sending to Hamas in the Gaza Strip and to Hezb'allah in Lebanon. Alas, he is less interested in this than in going on a one-day trip on April 15, 2016 to Rome to talk of the need for "the most comprehensive climate change legislation, including a tax on carbon.'' Even the most ardent admirer of Bernie must question his sincerity and the possibility that he is hypocritical because of the nature of his short, pointless trip. Accompanied by his wife, his family, and perhaps 50 people, Bernie chartered a Delta 767 that burns more than 16,000 gallons of fuel per trip. Presidential voters know that an email would have been cheaper and would have saved gas. They should act accordingly.
The Supreme Court has only law to consider; therefore, it is not the prerogative of the court to decide on issues of moral justice. But its liberal jurists, who presumably have been informed of America's founding purpose, speak in an artificial language, freighting old words with new definitions that have sufficed to render morality a product of law. Can the term "vaccination," for instance, be expanded to mean "forced sterilization"? Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said it could, at a time when progressive elites were promoting eugenics as a proper science (Buck v. Bell, 1927), and seven of the remaining justices agreed with him.

The modern Court, guided as much by anomalous precedent as by settled law, enters a region of pragmatic relativism, knowing its decisions, while resolving certain legal issues, will bring whole categories of perplexity and harm to millions of good people, to their beliefs and ways of life and to the wide and common understanding of justice. How, then, are these jurists, selected by partisan privilege, comfortable with a system of justice so arbitrary and so divided by doctrinaire prejudices? What are they thinking as they watch the consequences of their decisions disturb and ripple through society along ideological lines of force? Does the Court in any way serve a didactic function if its understanding of justice sways in sympathy with the emergence of new currents of popular opinion?

The Supreme Court of the United States is an imperfect, irresistible, and unappealable instrument of coercion, and many of its decisions have endured as first causes of civil strife in American society. What business is it of the court to shut down a truly democratic debate by the people on issues affecting their long-established customs, formal education, or religious beliefs? The court cannot create a right where no assumption of a right existed in the Constitution  in other words, the court cannot issue decrees. But an activist court has no difficulty in interfering with the protected rights of all persons  through opinions effecting decrees  if the ends favor immediate social reforms or special preferences in law for targeted constituencies.

There is much need for reparation. New laws create new crimes. But there are too many laws now that hunt down honest citizens  so many laws, in fact, that no one shall escape censure. If the American people do not have standing against a hostile administration corrupted by the prejudices of ideology and political self-interest, then there is no such virtue as justice  for America is the injured party. Every social and moral issue has now become a federal question to be decided by the courts.

Justice breaks upon self-interested government. After many years of activist deconstruction within the court system, words no longer bind meaning into law. We ask only that the Supreme Court of the United States interpret the new laws reasonably, not willfully, but we have discovered in a chain of recent rulings that it is unnecessary for the legislature to write laws in plain and consistent language, for the court, under Chief Justice Roberts, is no longer compelled to discover the purpose of a statute in its language. Rather, it needs only find it in "legislative intent" in order to affirm the law. This specious form of reasoning assures that the court cannot regard any law as unconstitutional based on the ambiguity or internal contradictions of its terms. If the law is "too big to fail," this court will go to any extreme to save it, even if it means revising the law or redefining its terms.

The discovery of volition in the court's opinions  that of deciding for the "greater good" dictated entirely by ideological preferences  establishes a precedent in jurisprudence that is more than dangerous; it virtually assures the dissolution of the Constitution's separation of powers should the liberal ever gain control of all three branches of our government. The court is understandably reluctant to engage in disputes between the legislative and executive branches, but if the Court cannot re-establish the separation of powers, then it leaves the center of government open to a species of despotism that may effectively eliminate judicial review from all legislative and executive activity.

The Supreme Court, standing always upon the limit of democratic debate concerning the laws, has certainly brought discredit upon itself, often in attempting to bend moral principles over a new social template. Due to the pervading inducements of judicial activism, to which a certain few jurors suffer no immunity whatsoever, the logic that carries a majority opinion may proceed along fault lines long abandoned by common sense but reinforced by ideological preferences. When this happens, and the dissent is hotter than fire, the court acts merely as a political instrument. To an activist juror, for whom all justice is "social justice," there can be no successful argument against the State's central authority. Activism, in the guise of a jurist, in whose opinions lie the guide to State actions, may find greater legitimacy in a restraint on the preservation of individual rights than in any limit to the arbitrary force of government. Moral questions thereafter simply devolve into legal or political ones.

The Constitution protects the rights of individual sovereignty, but the modern courts, under progressive influence, give large groups of targeted populations special rights and privileges that individuals do not have. This deliberate action sets these groups apart from the Constitution and above the individual under the new liberal interpretation of justice. By giving groups power over the individual, through affirmative action, eminent domain, class shelter, preferential treatment, or through any number of newly discovered "civil rights," the liberal undermines the democratic process even as he proclaims his love of democracy itself. And so destructive of individual sovereignty are progressive interests that the Supreme Court will no longer deem appropriate the constitutional protections due to a person whose principles, acquired beliefs, or just pursuits oppose those interests. Any individual, although right by conscience and settled law, must now prepare his soul for censure when standing alone before the Court of Social Justice.

The Constitution binds the government to its text. Cancel but a word, and America is forever changed. Although the Supreme Court cannot issue decrees, recent opinions are clearly made of that deplorable substance. Words commonly used do not necessarily have common meanings in the dialect of law. The court, at its discretion, may redefine terms. What words and what actions, then, may not the court legitimize with new meanings?

If the progressive can redefine "human life" in his dictionary, then the court may turn any word to fit a new social justice need. And in a recent bitterly divided opinion regarding the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the court had no difficulty in forcing millions of Americans to purchase health insurance who do not want it or to require them to pay a penalty to the IRS. In other words, the liberal court can no longer define "fairness" without "force."

From this pattern of reasoning, what new "rights" may not the Court scribes further discover in the shadows of language and precedent? The jurist waits only for the need. And how is America not changed by the language of law?

Anyone wishing to agree or disagree with the author, to discuss, suggest or censure, may contact him at his email address: phahl@icloud.com.
We are looking at a permanent structural change in the American armed forces that will not only weaken the nations ability to defend itself, but endanger constitutional principles. A year ago in an article titled Obamas Generals, I described an American military increasingly politicized under the current administration. The evidence at the time was already abundant: the militarys refusal to identify the Fort Hood shootings as terrorism, the coddling of Bowe Bergdahl, the relief or prosecution of politically unreliable generals, and unrealistically rosy appreciations of the campaign against ISIS being the major points. If anything, things have worsened since, most especially with the purely political decision to remove all restriction on women in combat, and as noted in a recent AT posts the mostly symbolic but still significant decisions by the Navy to issue gender neutral uniforms and to ignore regulations regarding naming ships to honor Democrat politicians and leftwing social activists. Add to this, ongoing and increasingly aggressive recruiting policies that mandate diversity and the situation becomes scary.

Arguably there has been some good news here and there, but even that must be taken with a large grain of salt. Last year Congress passed legislation allowing for the soldiers wounded at Fort Hood to receive Purple Hearts, and the Army belatedly acknowledged former Major Nidal Hassans terrorist ties, though has yet (to my knowledge) formally remove the workplace violence moniker it attached to the shooting, despite the fact that Obama late last year reluctantly acknowledged the Fort Hood shooting as a terror attack.

Similarly, in the Bergdahl case, also after incredibly long delays, the Army decided to try the soldier at a General Courts Martial. This is seen by some as the old Army reasserting itself in a case that reeks of liberal political influence. Perhaps this is so. However, the decision to try Bergdahl only came after he badly embarrassed the Army by going public with his account of his desertion and capture on NPR, practically forcing the hand of convening officer, General Robert B. Abrams. Moreover, though the decision to try Bergdahl was made last December (four days after the first NPR appearance), the trial will not take place until August, scarcely demonstrating a hard charging prosecution in a relatively simple case. Even assuming Bergdahl is convicted, his attorneys will argue that Bergdahl has successfully served on active duty for over two years since his release by the Taliban in May 2014, and thus deserving of leniency, undermining the contention he is a bad soldier. This might sound ridiculous to some, but the jury will have to consider it, and it is part of the reason why military prosecutions are usually expeditious, though the Army has not demonstrated any sense of urgency in the case.

Meanwhile the low level war against ISIS goes on. The U.S. continues operate under ruinous rules of engagement which result in countless wasted strike sorties, wearing out men and equipment to no gain. While ISIS is probably weakening under the bombardment, the campaigns military logic is held hostage to politically correct dogmas. The Pentagon goes along with this, hyping over-optimistic casualty reports with promises that ISIS is close to breaking. While the Pentagon and some commentators trumpet the arrival of B-52 bombers in the region, those expecting carpet bombing will be disappointed. The B-52s replace more capable B-1s which flew many hours but dropped only a small fraction of the munitions they are capable of throwing at the enemy. The B-52s will do the same. By contrast, Russias politically incorrect but effective Syrian intervention seems to have accomplished much more, in a much shorter time span, with inferior equipment, money and support.

I got to see some of the strain on Marine pilots, ground crew and aircraft when I visited the Beaufort Marine Air Station a few months ago. While there I also learned a lot about recruiting, and especially political influences that are pervasive and potentially permanent. Beyond the already divisive, controversial and standard-destroying policy of allowing women in all combat billets is the military's intensive drive to fill the ranks with as many women and other categories of diverse recruits as possible, at almost any cost. Diversity is now effectively the primary goal of military recruiters, even beyond meeting basic quotas. Recruiters that enlist too many qualified and ready applicants (read Caucasian males) that dont meet the description of diverse can be sanctioned for going after easy pickings. Recruiting goals are first defined by diversity rather than by quality, availability or cost. In a situation in which the Marines say over 70% of young American adults are unqualified for service, and in an era in which officer quality is a serious concern, this program verges on folly.

Officers and senior enlisted who wish to progress must effectively buy into this program, and the folks they recruit and advance will too. While diversity is not a bad thing (I live and work in very diverse environments) its empirical benefits are extremely debatable, and when adopted forcefully as a matter of policy, it is a completely political matter that reflects a strong leftist bent. It may be desirable to have a military that reflects demographic reality in the country, but effectively favoring some categories of citizens willing to serve over others is a recipe for ineffectiveness, tension, conflict and potentially serious political turmoil. That is not a price worth paying for a cherry-picked military selected to fit an idealized demographic template.

While to some extent the services have always been and will continue to be organizations affected by politics, among the many departments of government, the services are probably the most sensitive to political influence in terms of maintaining a free society. The openly leftist orientation that the Obama administration continues to force on the armed forces not only damages morale and national security, but is potentially a serious long term (if not permanent) phenomenon. Senior officers have to be sympathetic to the administrations moves in order to advance, and junior officers are oriented politically both by selection and doctrine from the get-go. On the other hand, mid-grade officers who do not buy in are forced out via the evaluation process or through their own disgruntlement.

While plenty of former senior officers (and Defense secretaries) have criticized the administration, and some were eventually maneuvered out, Im not aware of any who explicitly resigned on principle, which at least might offer some encouragement for those disturbed by this process. Whether senior officers continue to soldier on based on loyalty to the military-political system or just plain careerism is hard to say (and certainly in many cases both are true), but the practical effect of going along to get along allows this extremely dangerous politicization to snowball, a process which will only worsen if another Democrat is elected in November.
A fight has erupted between some members of the RNC Rules Committee and the party leadership over a crucial rule change that would make it harder to reopen nominations at the convention after they've been closed.

The controversial rule would substitute Roberts Rules of Order to govern the convention for the current system, which is based on U.S. House rules.

The leadership wants to block the rule change, while most of the rules committee wants to pass it. The brawl is coming at an inopportune time, as it comes in advance of the RNC meeting in Florida.

Politico:

Rules Committee Chairman Bruce Ash criticized RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and his allies in an email Saturday to his panel, accusing them of working to scuttle the proposal and prevent it from getting a hearing at this weeks RNC spring meeting in Hollywood Beach, Florida. The proposal in question would switch the rule book governing the convention from the rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, which have been used at Republican national conventions for decades, to Roberts Rules of Order, which is common in civic and organizational meetings. It became apparent to me during the discussions with Reince and others at the RNC that there might be an underlying political result that adherence to the House Rules achieved, and that Roberts made more difficult, Ash wrote in the email, which was first reported by The Associated Press. Reopening the nominations for President during the balloting to permit a more acceptable candidate to be nominated other than Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. The proposal, which is the brainchild of Solomon Yue, an RNC member from Oregon, would further empower delegates to determine the course of the conventions proceedings  while diminishing the power of the conventions presiding officer, a role that is expected to be filled by House Speaker Paul Ryan. Yue has said hes looking to increase transparency by decreasing the influence of insiders.

There's more to this than keeping the nominations open after balloting begins. Giving 2,500 delegates the ability to object to any action or ruling by the chair would result in utter chaos. It's a recipe for disaster and would open the party wounds for all the voters to see.

For the record: the last chaotic convention  Democrats in 1972  resulted in a 49-state landslide for Richard Nixon.

Trump is already planning on challenging the credentials of several delegates as well as possibly challenging the entire state delegation from Colorado. There are also bound to be objections to several rules changes. And what about the platform? With 2,500 delegates, most of whom have their own ideas for what the GOP should stand for, the potential for a convention meltdown on national television goes up considerably.

Transparency is a wonderful thing. So is winning elections. The Republican Party has to decide which it wants more.
Both Democrats and Republicans are bemoaning the difficulty in raising funds from giant corporations for their party conventions.

There is some speculation in party circles that companies are balking at giving to the GOP convention so as not to risk tarnishing their brand by seeing it associated with Donald Trump.

Politico:

None of the firms are publicly pointing to Trump as the reason they're staying away. But the GOP's more well-documented struggles appear to be taking a toll on Democrats, since many companies prefer to give to both conventions or neither in order to project an image of balance. Democratic Party officials expect the convention to cost $84 million. The host committee says it has brought in roughly $40 million in pledges and contributions so far. Its easier to say 'no' than 'yes' at this point, said Michael Meehan, a veteran Democratic political operative who worked on John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid. Some of our corporate clients have said they are still planning to do both, but reserve the right that we may not send anybody in the end. Come July, their executives might stay home and watch. In 2012, Duke Energy provided a $10 million loan to Democrats for its convention in the company's hometown of Charlotte, which it later forgave. This year, though, the energy giant still hasn't said whether it will participate in either convention. Duke does not have a timeline for when it will decide, said spokesman Dave Scanzoni. He declined to comment on the factors that company officials are weighing, but said "there's no relationship" between the lack of a decision and the field of candidates. Bank of America, which contributed $5 million in Charlotte, is also remaining mum on its 2016 convention plans. "At this point, we wouldn't have anything to share on that," said company representative Ferris Morrison. Time Warner Cable, on the other hand, has already decided against reupping for the conventions. The company, which has a large presence in Charlotte, gave $600,000 to the Democratic convention four years ago. Company spokesman Bobby Amirshahi said Time Warner is "not sponsoring or supporting either political convention this year. And we don't have plans to send employees to either convention." The telecom firm is in the final stages of a merger with Charter Communications.

As toxic as Trump is, I think it's more likely that corporations aren't ponying up because the entire process has disgusted the American people. The race in both parties has been a shameful exhibition, and people are heartily sick of it. Having one's brand associated in any way with the political process won't help, and it certainly might hurt.
President Obama has to be furious with the about-face executed by Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. He leaves for Saudi Arabia tomorrow and will meet with King Salman on Wednesday. The Saudis are apoplectic over the possibility of the bill passing and have threatened to pull $750 billion in investments out of the U.S.

After both initially claiming they were unfamiliar with the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders decided to openly support it. As the New York Daily News reports:

The two Democratic presidential candidates are in outright rebellion against the Obama administrations efforts to scuttle a bill that would allow families of loved ones killed in the 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia. (snip) Initially, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders said they were unfamiliar with the legislation even though it has been pending for weeks. But then both issued strong statements Sunday backing the legislation co-sponsored by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican.

The U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia may be on the verge of blowing up. All of a sudden, President Obama finds himself in the uncomfortable position of appearing to be on their side against the 9/11 victims. His trip is going to be quite a challenge. Whom will he surrender to?
On 14 April 2016, by a vote of 257 to 50, Ukraines Parliament elected Volodymyr Groysman prime minister, replacing Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who was forced out by public dissatisfaction and allegations of corruption surrounding his government.

At 38, Mr. Groysman is the youngest Ukrainian prime minister ever elected and the first Jew to hold such a high position.

Here are some basic facts about him:

- Born in Vinnytsia into a Jewish family on 20 January 1978.

- Grandfather Isaac survived the Holocaust by pretending to be dead after being dropped into a mass grave by Nazi troops.

- Started his career in 1994 as a commercial director of the small private business company "" and as a commercial director of the private enterprise "Youth."

- 2003 graduate of the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management with a specialty in jurisprudence.

- Elected mayor of Vinnytsia in 2006.

- 2010 graduate of the National Academy of State Administration with a specialty in community development management.

- Elected to Ukraines Parliament in 2014 as a member of the Petro Poroshenko bloc, which favors decentralization and privatizing all Ukrainian coal mines.

Meanwhile, Democratic Party candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders vowed to increase centralization and staunchly oppose privatization of any government functions or services. Neither has any business experience. On the GOP side, only Donald Trump does. A meeting between Trump and Groysman wouldnt be such a bad idea, for a variety of obvious reasons.

The New York Times story on Groysmans election neglected to mention that he is Jewish. Readers will need to go to other sources to learn, for example, that Mr. Groysman attends synagogue on holidays and wraps tefillin. Evidently, NYT editors did not think such facts are fit to print.
Mexican finance minister Luis Videgaray cited "dignity" in refusing to pay for the wall proposed by Donald Trump and added that his nation will not be "bullied" by the U.S.

Bloomberg:

Mexico will not pay for that wall, not only because it doesnt make any sense for either Mexico or the U.S. to enter into that type of threat rhetoric, but its also a matter of dignity, Videgaray said Saturday in an interview in Washington. Theres no way in which Mexico can be bullied into doing such a thing.

The Republican presidential candidate said in a memo this month that as president, he would block payments that Mexican workers in the U.S. send to their home country, known as remittances, if Mexicos government refuses to foot the bill for a wall he wants to build along the roughly 2,000-mile (3,218 km) border. Trump has said the wall would subdue illegal immigration and cost $8 billion to $10 billion. Officials in Mexico have repeatedly said they have no intention of paying for it.

Mexico has taken action to counteract Trumps anti-immigrant message, including mounting an unprecedented effort to covert the countrys many permanent residents in the U.S. into citizens, a status that would enable them to vote -- presumably against Trump. Officially, Mexico says it respects U.S. sovereignty and has no strategy to influence the result of the presidential race. Yet diplomats are mobilizing to assist immigrants in gaining U.S. citizenship, hosting free workshops on naturalization.

About 12 million Mexicans live in the U.S. and almost half lack legal status, according to a study released in November by the Pew Research Center. Still, more Mexicans left the U.S. than arrived from 2009 to 2014, according to the nonpartisan research group. Trump, front-runner for the 2016 Republican nomination, kicked off his White House bid with invective directed at Mexican immigrants and a promise to build a border wall.

The proposal to make Mexico pay for a wall and trying to achieve that through a set of threats is a proposal that has already failed, said Videgaray, who was attending the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Located within the Palos Forest Preserve, approximately 20 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, in an area named the Red Gate Woods, are two spots designated Site A and Plot M. Site A is 19 acre in size and contains the buried remains of the worlds first nuclear reactor, while the 150 feet by 140 feet area known as Plot M is a radioactive waste dump.

The world's first nuclear reactor designated Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1) was built at the University of Chicago, under extreme secrecy as part of the Allied effort to build the atomic bomb during the Second World War. The reactor was assembled in November 1942, under the watchful eyes of such prominent physicists such as Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard, the discoverer of the chain reaction. On a cold December morning in 1942, less than a month later, the first man-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated. There was no big bang, but this humble beginning was the true dawn of the nuclear age.

Marker at Plot M. Photo credit: Federal Government of the United States

The reactor in Chicago, described by Fermi as "a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers", consisted of 360 metric tons of graphite, used as a neutron moderator to slow down neutrons, and was fueled by 5.4 tons of uranium metal and 45 tons of uranium oxide. Because the reactor was designed to operate at very low power, it had no radiation shield nor any cooling system. Nevertheless, it was a radiation hazard to everyone in the vicinity. So shortly afterwards, the reactor was dismantled and moved to a forest outside Chicago and rebuilt at an area now called Red Gate Woods. The reactor was renamed Chicago Pile-2.

Chicago Pile-2 (CP-2) was bigger and more powerful, running at a few kilowatts, and it had a radiation shield. CP-2 was joined by another reactor Chicago Pile-3. Both reactors operated for ten years before they outlived their usefulness, and was shutdown in 1954.

A gigantic hole was dug in the forest, and both reactors pushed into the hole by detonating strategically placed explosives. All buildings on Site A were torn down and were also buried. The excavation was then backfilled, leveled, and landscaped. The top of the CP-3 reactor shield is approximately 23 feet below ground surface. Rubble and building debris fill the excavation both laterally and vertically to within a few feet of the surface.

Two granite blocks now mark Site A and Plot M.

The Site A marker reads:

THE WORLD'S FIRST NUCLEAR REACTOR WAS REBUILT AT THIS SITE IN 1943 AFTER INITIAL OPERATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO THIS REACTOR (CP-2) AND THE FIRST HEAVY WATER MODERATED REACTOR (CP-3) WERE MAJOR FACILITIES AROUND WHICH DEVELOPED THE ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY THIS SITE WAS RELEASED BY THE LABORATORY IN 1956 AND THE U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION THEN BURIED THE REACTORS HERE.

The Plot M marker reads:

CAUTIONDO NOT DIG Buried in this area is radioactive material from nuclear research conducted here 19451949. Burial area is marked by six corner markers 100ft from this center point. There is no danger to visitors. U.S. Department of Energy 1978.

A sketch of Chicago Pile-1. Photo credit: Melvin A. Miller of the Argonne National Laboratory

After removing any remaining radioactive fuel and heavy water coolant, CP-2 and CP-3 were buried. Other contaminated materials were disposed of at nearby Plot M. Photo credit: fpdcc.com

Scientists at Site A Commemorative Boulder. Photo credit: fpdcc.com

A mountain biker rides past the stone marking at Site A. Photo credit: Philip Scott Andrews/The Wall Street Journal

Marker at Site A. Photo credit: Federal Government of the United States

Sources: Pruned / Wikipedia
After Oracle revealed that its seeking $9.3 billion in damages from Google over the tech giants alleged unlicensed use of Java code in all of the versions of Android OS up to Marshmallow, everyones been waiting for settlement talks between the two parties to commence. Oracle and Google have been in a legal battle over alleged Java infringement for six years now and have already been to trial in 2012. A new trial has been scheduled for May 9th and according to latest reports, its definitely happening, as both companies have already attempted to negotiate a settlement and failed to come to an agreement.

The consensus was likely hard to reach because Oracle is seeking only $475 million in actual damages while the remaining $8.83 billion of the requested compensation is related to profits Google made from Android apps and ads. Google naturally isnt too keen on trusting its plaintiffs damages expert and even though it hasnt publicized its own idea of an acceptable fee, its presumably significantly lower than that. So much lower that the only consensus the parties reached after a six-hour meeting that took place on Friday was that they are definitely going to court. Both companies CEOs, i.e. Googles Sundar Pichai and Oracles Safra Catz were present at the said meeting together with their lawyers.

This was allegedly the second attempt at a settlement by the companies after it was announced that a retrial is scheduled in May, but it seems they are destined for another legal battle. In the meantime, Google has already announced that its already ditching Java in favor of OpenJDK as of Android N, so if anything, we can at least be sure that the aforementioned claim of $9.3 billion is definitely not going to increase in the future. As for realistic outcomes of this trial, if Google loses and the estimates of damages between the two continue to vary as greatly as they apparently do now  and theres no reason to believe otherwise  the tech giant can probably expect to pay about half of what Oracle is demanding as thats how juries tend to settle such disputes. As for how long the latest trial will take  only time will tell.
Google has been under investigation in Europe for various alleged irregularities, and while the company continues to protest its innocence in most cases, its troubles dont seem to be ending any time soon. First, it was the tax authorities in the UK that charged the company for its dodgy tax-avoidance practices, which culminated with Google agreeing to pay 130 million ($185 million) in back taxes in the country after having struck a deal with Her Majestys Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the UK equivalent of the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). Then, the company lost its appeal against an indictment in Russia for alleged monopolistic trade practices, when the countrys largest internet search provider, Yandex, accused the American tech giant of abusing its market dominance to suppress its rivals illegally.

Now, its the turn of Googles old foe, the European Competition Commissioner, Ms. Margrethe Vestager, to reiterate that it is looking closely at Googles contracts with phone makers and operators which use the Android operating system. The EU Competition Commission is investigating Googles contracts with Android OEMs and carriers to check if any of those violate EUs stringent antitrust regulations. According to Ms. Vestager, by requiring phone makers and operators to pre-load a set of Google apps, rather than letting them decide for themselves which apps to load, Google might have cut off one of the main ways that new apps can reach customers. EUs investigations into Googles business practices regarding Android had started last year itself, and the commission is expected to come to a conclusion on that front later this year.

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Ms. Vestager has also been investigating Google for alleged violation of Europes antitrust regulations in a case related to the companys AdSense service, which stands accused of favoring Googles in-house shopping service over those of its rivals. If found guilty of being in violation of European antitrust regulations, the search giant may have to shell out multi-billion dollar penalties, with reports indicating that the fines could go up to a whopping $7.4 billion in each case. Whats more, the company may even be required to change many of its critical business practices henceforth to comply with European regulations.
Japans Kyocera Communications has announced through a press release the launch of its latest waterproof LTE-enabled smartphone, the Hydro Reach, on Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA, both of which operate as Sprints MVNO brands in the country. The smartphone is one of the three new pocket-friendly devices to be launched on Boost and Virgin recently and will cost just $99.99 (plus taxes) without contract. The device and is the latest installment in the companys Hydro line of Android-powered smartphones that come with waterproofing as their highlight feature. Announcing the launch of the device on the two prepaid carriers, Mr. Chuck Becher, vice president and general manager of sales and marketing at Kyocera Communications, said that the device is aimed at people with active lifestyles and will be a great choice for the outdoorsy types looking for a handset without the price tag or worry that comes with more expensive, less durable devices.

Coming to some more info on the Hydro Reach, the device comes with IPX5 and IPX7 certifications, which renders it fully waterproof when immersed in up to 3.28 feet (1 meter) of water for as long as 30 minutes. The company also claims that the phone will be fully operational even with a wet screen, which is certainly a welcome feature. As for the phones internals, it features a 5-inch qHD (960 x 540) display panel and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 MSM8909 chip that comes with an integrated quad-core application processor clocked at 1.1 GHz. 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage come as standard, as does a microSD card slot for capacity expansion.

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The rest of the tech specs, too, are par-for-the-course for a device in this price range, including a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of recording up to 720p videos at 30 fps and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video chats. Theres also support for Stereo Bluetooth (4.1 + LE/EDR), voice recognition and hearing-aid compatibility. To round things off, the smartphone also comes with a 2,160mAh Lithium-ion battery and runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box. As for Boost and Virgin, the two of them have also just started offering the LG Stylo 2 and the Samsung Galaxy J on their networks alongside the Hydro Reach.

https://youtu.be/DMmY4QVZoDA
Samsung Pay didnt take long after launching to cement its place among the top mobile payment solutions in the world. Being bundled on Samsungs flagship devices made its use a no-brainer for one of the largest crops of smartphone buyers out there, but the presence of magnetic secure transmission sweetened the deal significantly by allowing Samsung Pay to work anywhere a traditional debit or credit card could be used. Even with that level of convenience, however, Samsung Pay is useless to anybody who banks with an establishment thats not supported, leaving a decent amount of would-be users out in the cold. As such, Samsung has been steadily adding support for new banks, with TD Bank being the latest to get support.

Samsung made an announcement on Monday that Samsung Pay will be getting support for TD Bank in the very near future, with customers of TD Bank able to add their credit and debit cards to Samsung Pay and use them at any terminal where their physical card would be accepted. Along with the update to support TD Bank, members of around 60 credit unions across the United States will be joining the ranks of Regions Bank and Wells Fargo customers who can use their phone as their payment card. All of the normal security measures, including Samsungs KNOX and the fingerprint scanners on customers devices, will be fully supported on launch.

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No exact timeline was given for support for TD Bank and the various credit unions included in the announcement, but the wait is unlikely to be terribly long, with the official announcement of support out. Samsung Pay is currently supported on most current Samsung flagship phones, including the Galaxy S6 range, Galaxy S7 range and the Galaxy Note 5. Although this announcement regards a bank in the United States and thus, for the most part, only concerns U.S. users, Samsung Pay is supported in a number of countries all around the world, including China and South Korea, with plans to roll out in Canada in the near future. The service also tends to be promoted by banks, Samsung themselves and even wireless carriers, with deals offered to new users or frequent users every once in a while.
Back when Motorola still belonged to Google, the Chicago-born company started to offer 360-degree, immersive stories to Motorola devices, such as the Moto X and Moto G. Google decided to absorb Spotlight Stories into the larger company, and now Spotlight Stories is a part of Google, not the now Lenovo-owned Motorola. Regardless, Spotlight Stories still sees new releases regularly added to the platform, offering viewers a sort of Pixar-esque example of what 360-degree content might look like in the future, and theres a new release on the horizon.

The new title is called Pearl and judging from the YouTube Trailer (embedded below) it appears as though this next title is to be centered around some sort of round trip and the relationships that either flourish or breakdown during such a situation. Just when this new title will hit the Google Spotlight Stories app or the YouTube channel is unclear, but we shouldnt be too far away from a release. The only thing holding back these stories right now is  still  the lack of compatibility with a wider net of devices. While Google has already expanded compatibility to more devices  including some of their own Nexus line  its still hit and miss as to whether or not youre actually get to watch the stories.

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As for the general premise of Spotlight Stories, these are animated shorts that allow people to move their phone around in a 360-degree field to focus in on different elements, uncover the next part of the short or just get a different prospective on whats going on. Theyve been received positively by critics, and some of the bigger names in Hollywood have tried their hand at directing and creating their own Spotlight Stories. Right now, being able to view a Spotlight Story is still fairly difficult, but clicking the Google Play button down below will let you know if your device is compatible or not, and while Pearl isnt available just yet, there are other stories to take a look at  although not all of these are free, bare in mind. A nice way of showing just what can be using 360-degrees worth of vision, these are worth checking out.
Using John Whittingdale to spank a free press across the Boobies

Whats John Whittingdale been up to? The Star says the Tory MP, currently working as the culture and media secretary (GSOH, WLTM 4 MTV) had a two-year fling with a Daily Star Page 3 girl. Will he be involving himself with other mainstays of tabloid news, buying a lawnmower from the classified section, perhaps, or appearing in the TV pages as a Britains Got Talent wannabe?

Whatevers next for Whittingdale, we are more interested in his past, chiefly his five-month romance with Olivier King, a dominatrix he met on Match.com, when he was single man and before he became a government minister, though he was chair of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee. When Whittingdale discovered the single womans job he called off the affair. You might have read about his squeamishness in the tabloids, but when the story was hawked around Fleet Street, no-one bought it.

Anti-free Press, pro-privacy outfit Hacked Off and the BBC thought that a shame. Andrew Gilligan writes that Hacked Off worked with the BBC to produce their story of Whittingdale and the sex worker for Newsnight  thats the show that opted to keep Jimmy Saviles crimes private, spiking a story on the paedophile. These champions of privacy who bemoan press invasion into private lives wanted us to know about Johns sex life.

One theory is that tabloid newspapers passed on the story to keep Whittingdale in his job? Hes not all that in favour of Leveson and plans to clamp-down on the free press. If the Press expose John as  shock of shocks  a single man who likes women, he might be replaced by someone keen on an increasingly State-regulated Press. Or maybe he was being blackmailed? Or maybe thats all nuts because if a free press is free the politicians have no say over what goes in it. So much for the conspiracies  which rather undermine the other story about tabloids being peopled by unscrupulous bastards who name and shame before fabricating facts to support their salacious gossip. It turns out they are edited and considered publications. Who knew?

And now about that Page 3 girl. Stephanie Hutton, for it is she, said the Culture Secretary cheated on her with a dungeon-dwelling dominatrix known as Mistress Kate. On pages 6 and 7  after weve seen Page 3 girl Brook tell us about a love of topless ice-skating  we get to Stephanie, one half of the Boobie Twins. Stephanie say she met John on a dating site in 2013. He told me he was a Russian arms dealer, says Stephanie. I dont know if he was just being careful or trying to make himself more attractive, but it wasnt necessary. I liked him. She says at the Commons, he always turned the lights out so we wouldnt be recorded on CCTV.

The Mirror says this caution approach to dating means Whittingdale is addicted to danger. The paper says Whittingdale has been spotted with East European women at public events in the UK. Scurrying about for anything to spank Whittingdale with that doesnt make the phone-hacking Mirror look opportunistic and crass, we learn via a Labour MP of concerns about powerful, middle-aged men being targeted by young women from the old Soviet Union and left open to blackmail.

You see, its not about sex and privacy  its about State secrets and, er, sex and secrecy. Much better and in the public interest.

Paul Sorene

Posted: 18th, April 2016 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians, Reviews, Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
(ANSAmed) - Brussels, April 18 - Some 9,600 migrants landed in Italy across the central Mediterranean in March, more than double the number that came in February, EU border agency Frontex said Monday. Some 2,283 arrived in March 2015. Most of this March's migrants came from Nigeria, Somalia and Gambia, it said. Italy is bracing for a big wave of migrant arrivals across the sea as the weather improves further, and has proposed a migration compact to the EU to help stem flows.

Meanwhile some 400 Somali migrants were reported missing early Monday morning.


(ANSA) - Rome, April 18 - Bank of Italy Deputy Director-General Luigi Federico Signorini told parliament on Monday that the forecasts in the government's economic blueprint, the DEF, were "plausible". But Signorini also stressed that there was a risk of "less favourable developments". He added: "geopolitical tensions could affect the confidence of companies and households. The financial markets remain subject to great volatility". The central bank said it was "positive" that the government's economic and financial blueprint sees "public debt falling this year despite a worsening of growth projections". But Signorini said "the margins are not wide", stressing the need to closely monitor public accounts. "To ensure reaching the objective it will be necessary to maintain during the year a close monitoring of the public accounts," he said.


(ANSA) - Rome, April 18 - Business lobby Confindustria on Monday called for an "urgent" plan to reindustrialise Italy on the part of the Italian government.

"Industrial policy is essential to push the country towards new frontiers", it said, stressing that the 2007-2008 financial crisis had caused "permanent damage" to 50% of the Italian economic system and a drop in GDP of 9.1%.

"We must bank on boosting manufacturing," it said, saying that the sector was key to lifting the whole economy. photo: incoming Confindustria chief Vincenzo Boccia
(ANSA) - Brussels, April 18 - The European Commission on Monday said it gave a "great welcome" to the migration compact proposed by Italy and that EC President Jean-Claude Juncker was "very happy that the European approach finds strong support" on the part of Italy and Premier Matteo Renzi, according to EC spokesperson Margaritis Schinas. "We will work in close contact with Matteo Renzi to continue to push to have more Europe," she said. Italy on Friday sent the wide-ranging 'migration compact' to the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, Juncker and Donald Tusk, to help cut migrant flows.

The document envisages a framework accord with countries of origin and transit and a big financial commitment by the EU which could be achieved by redistributing already earmarked funds and also via possible Eurobonds, the sources said.

Premier Renzi said in a letter accompanying the proposed compact that "the management of migrant flows is no longer sustainable without targeted and reinforced cooperation with the Third Countries of origin and transit".

Italy's proposal for a "migrant compact" to usher in a new approach to dealing with asylum seekers faces its first test on Monday when it will be examined at a meeting of European Union foreign and defence ministers.

The document has already won backing from European Council President Donald Tusk after Premier Matteo Renzi sent it on Friday. The document envisages a framework accord with countries of origin and transit and a financial commitment by the EU.

Renzi said in a letter accompanying the proposed compact that "the management of migrant flows is no longer sustainable without targeted and reinforced cooperation with the Third Countries of origin and transit".

He said "much has been done, but we must do much more, quickly, if we want to avert the worsening of a systemic crisis." The migrant return deal between the EU and Turkey "should not remain an isolated event", Renzi said in the letter accompanying the 'migration compact' proposal.

The accord "represents a first concrete attempt at enlarged and reinforced cooperation with a third country which, albeit clinched in a situation of urgency, and therefore perfectible, shows how it is possible to draw up effective lines of action in the management of migrant flows," he said.

If it were to be a one-off, Renzi said, "that would determine an imbalance in terms of resources and political capital employed with respect to other geographical regions which are no less important in view of the migratory issue." Renzi also said in the letter that EU foreign policy is "central" to keeping up the Schengen Area and the EU must move from an "emergency" management of the migrant crisis to a "strategic" one.

"The external dimension of migratory policy (takes on) a fundamental role in the preservation of Schengen," he said, stressing that new border guards and the reform of the Dublin III regulation "can only give concrete results if, in parallel, the management of migratory flows moves from the emergency phase to that of a more ordered and strategic management".

The migration compact will be distributed as an unofficial document at an upcoming EU foreign ministers' meeting.

The compact has been drafted in view of an increasing switch in flows of migrants and refugees to the Libya-Italy route after the Greece-Balkan route was closed off thanks to the EU-Turkey deal.


(ANSA) - Rome, April 18 - Over 400 people, most of them Somalis, travelling from Egypt aboard four migrants boats and heading towards Italy have gone missing in the Mediterranean, the Mail online reported on Monday citing the BBC's Arabic service, which, in turn, referred to local media.

Six dead bodies, meanwhile, were found on a migrant dinghy rescued late on Sunday some 20 miles off the coast of Libya in an operation coordinated by the Italian coast guard, ANSA sources said on Monday. The operation saved 108 people, including five women, from the dinghy that was headed towards Italy.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella said reports that around 400 asylum seekers had gone missing the the southern Mediterranean should stir profound reflection and debate. "There is truly a need to think," Mattarella said at a ceremony for the presentation of the candidates for Italy's David di Donatello film awards. "And the umpteenth tragedy in the Mediterranean today reminds us of this".


(ANSA) - Rome, April 18 - The Bank of Italy said it was "positive" Monday that the government's economic and financial blueprint, the DEF, sees "public debt falling this year despite a worsening of growth projections". But BoI deputy director-general Luigi Signorini said "the margins are not wide", stressing the need to closely monitor public accounts.

"To ensure reaching the objective it will be necessary to maintain during the year a close monitoring of the public accounts," he said.


(ANSAmed) - Brussels, April 18 - The European Commission on Monday said it gave a "great welcome" to the migration compact proposed by Italy and that EC President Jean-Claude Juncker was "very happy that the European approach finds strong support" on the part of Italy and Premier Matteo Renzi, according to EC spokesperson Margaritis Schinas. "We will work in close contact with Matteo Renzi to continue to push to have more Europe," she said. Italy on Friday sent the wide-ranging 'migration compact' to the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, Juncker and Donald Tusk, to help cut migrant flows.

The document envisages a framework accord with countries of origin and transit and a big financial commitment by the EU which could be achieved by redistributing already earmarked funds and also via possible Eurobonds, the sources said.

Premier Renzi said in a letter accompanying the proposed compact that "the management of migrant flows is no longer sustainable without targeted and reinforced cooperation with the Third Countries of origin and transit".

He said "much has been done, but we must do much more, quickly, if we want to avert the worsening of a systemic crisis." The migrant return deal between the EU and Turkey "should not remain an isolated event", Renzi said in the letter accompanying the 'migration compact' proposal.

The accord "represents a first concrete attempt at enlarged and reinforced cooperation with a third country which, albeit clinched in a situation of urgency, and therefore perfectible, shows how it is possible to draw up effective lines of action in the management of migrant flows," he said.

If it were to be a one-off, Renzi said, "that would determine an imbalance in terms of resources and political capital employed with respect to other geographical regions which are no less important in view of the migratory issue." Renzi also said in the letter that EU foreign policy is "central" to keeping up the Schengen Area and the EU must move from an "emergency" management of the migrant crisis to a "strategic" one.

"The external dimension of migratory policy (takes on) a fundamental role in the preservation of Schengen," he said, stressing that new border guards and the reform of the Dublin III regulation "can only give concrete results if, in parallel, the management of migratory flows moves from the emergency phase to that of a more ordered and strategic management".

The migration compact will be distributed as an unofficial document at an upcoming EU foreign ministers' meeting.

The compact has been drafted in view of an increasing switch in flows of migrants and refugees to the Libya-Italy route after the Greece-Balkan route was closed off thanks to the EU-Turkey deal.


(ANSAmed) - Brussels, April 18 - The European Commission on Monday said it gave a "great welcome" to the migration compact proposed by Italy and that EC President Jean-Claude Juncker was "very happy that the European approach finds strong support" on the part of Italy and Premier Matteo Renzi, according to EC spokesperson Margaritis Schinas. "We will work in close contact with Matteo Renzi to continue to push to have more Europe," she said. Italy on Friday sent the wide-ranging 'migration compact' to the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, Juncker and Donald Tusk, to help cut migrant flows.

The document envisages a framework accord with countries of origin and transit and a big financial commitment by the EU which could be achieved by redistributing already earmarked funds and also via possible Eurobonds.

Schinas said the EC, like Italy, was convinced that only a strong European internal and external approach can help manage migrant flows, "in a spirit of greater solidarity and returning to a fully functioning Schengen system".

She said the EU had to jointly manage external borders, protect refugees, offer legal avenues to those coming to Europe, and keep internal borders open".

She said the EC would continue to work closely with Rome towards a "faster implementation of all the aspects of the European Agenda on Immigration".

Premier Renzi said in a letter accompanying the proposed compact that "the management of migrant flows is no longer sustainable without targeted and reinforced cooperation with the Third Countries of origin and transit".

He said "much has been done, but we must do much more, quickly, if we want to avert the worsening of a systemic crisis." The migrant return deal between the EU and Turkey "should not remain an isolated event", Renzi said in the letter accompanying the 'migration compact' proposal.

The accord "represents a first concrete attempt at enlarged and reinforced cooperation with a third country which, albeit clinched in a situation of urgency, and therefore perfectible, shows how it is possible to draw up effective lines of action in the management of migrant flows," he said.

If it were to be a one-off, Renzi said, "that would determine an imbalance in terms of resources and political capital employed with respect to other geographical regions which are no less important in view of the migratory issue." Renzi also said in the letter that EU foreign policy is "central" to keeping up the Schengen Area and the EU must move from an "emergency" management of the migrant crisis to a "strategic" one.

"The external dimension of migratory policy (takes on) a fundamental role in the preservation of Schengen," he said, stressing that new border guards and the reform of the Dublin III regulation "can only give concrete results if, in parallel, the management of migratory flows moves from the emergency phase to that of a more ordered and strategic management".

The migration compact will be distributed as an unofficial document at an upcoming EU foreign ministers' meeting.

The compact has been drafted in view of an increasing switch in flows of migrants and refugees to the Libya-Italy route after the Greece-Balkan route was closed off thanks to the EU-Turkey deal. (Ansamed).


(ANSA) - Brussels, April 18 - Italy's proposal for a "migrant compact" to usher in a new approach to dealing with asylum seekers faces its first test on Monday when it will be examined at a meeting of European Union foreign and defence ministers.

The document has already won backing from the European Commission and from European Council President Donald Tusk after Premier Matteo Renzi sent it on Friday. The document envisages a framework accord with countries of origin and transit and a financial commitment by the EU.

Renzi said in a letter accompanying the proposed compact that "the management of migrant flows is no longer sustainable without targeted and reinforced cooperation with the Third Countries of origin and transit".

He said "much has been done, but we must do much more, quickly, if we want to avert the worsening of a systemic crisis." The migrant return deal between the EU and Turkey "should not remain an isolated event", Renzi said in the letter accompanying the 'migration compact' proposal.

The accord "represents a first concrete attempt at enlarged and reinforced cooperation with a third country which, albeit clinched in a situation of urgency, and therefore perfectible, shows how it is possible to draw up effective lines of action in the management of migrant flows," he said.

If it were to be a one-off, Renzi said, "that would determine an imbalance in terms of resources and political capital employed with respect to other geographical regions which are no less important in view of the migratory issue." Renzi also said in the letter that EU foreign policy is "central" to keeping up the Schengen Area and the EU must move from an "emergency" management of the migrant crisis to a "strategic" one.

"The external dimension of migratory policy (takes on) a fundamental role in the preservation of Schengen," he said, stressing that new border guards and the reform of the Dublin III regulation "can only give concrete results if, in parallel, the management of migratory flows moves from the emergency phase to that of a more ordered and strategic management".

The migration compact will be distributed as an unofficial document at an upcoming EU foreign ministers' meeting.

The compact has been drafted in view of an increasing switch in flows of migrants and refugees to the Libya-Italy route after the Greece-Balkan route was closed off thanks to the EU-Turkey deal.


(ANSA) - Berlin, April 18 - German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel on Monday expressed concern about the torture and murder of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni in Egypt earlier this year.

"The news of growing violations of human rights, cases like those of the Italian citizen, scare us and cause us great concern," Gabriel said during a visit to Cairo. "Among other things, they damage the image of Egypt". Britain has called for action on the Regeni case while the New York Times has urged the West to review its ties with Egypt. Regeni, 28, disappeared in Cairto on January 25 and his tortured body turned up in a roadside ditch on February 3. Rome has recalled its ambassador to Cairo after Egypt failed to provide the expected judicial cooperation after a string of suggestions on how Regeni died that sparked incredulity in Italy. Rights groups say Regeni, like many others, was 'disappeared' by Egyptian security police, a charge Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi has denied.


(ANSA) - Luxembourg, April 18 - A summit of EU foreign ministers "welcomed" Italy's migration proposal, EU Foreign Affairs High Representative Federica Mogherini said Monday.

"Many elements (of the proposal) support work we are already doing," she said. "We think it is a positive political contribution to keep the focus on the work that needs to be done and to increase institutions and member States' joint commitment". "It was stressed that right now it is essential to keep our efforts focused on (asylum seeker) resettlements and relocations".

Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini added she hopes the EU will respond "in a timely and coordinated manner" in the wake of "the umpteenth tragedy" after the Somali information ministry said some 200 migrants died in the Mediterranean in a shipwreck reported by the BBC this morning.

"Too little has been done so far to take on the root of the problem with interventions on the causes of forced migrations in the countries of origin," Boldrini said.

She went on to call for the opening of legal channels for people fleeing wars and persecution and a "true European common asylum system" based on solidarity, shared burdens, and the protection of fundamental human rights.


(see related story on migration compact) (ANSAmed) - Rome, April 18 - Over 400 people, most of them from Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, travelling from Egypt aboard migrants boats and heading towards Italy, have gone missing in the Mediterranean, the Mail online reported on Monday citing the BBC's Arabic service, which, in turn, referred to local media.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Rome was trying to verify the reports.

In a separate case, six dead bodies were recovered from a migrant dinghy rescued in choppy waters late on Sunday some 20 miles off the coast of Libya in an operation coordinated by the Italian coast guard, ANSA sources said.

The operation saved 108 people, including five women, from the dinghy that was headed towards Italy. More than 20 people are probably missing as survivors said between 130 and 140 were aboard the dinghy that set off from the Libyan port of Zabratah.

They were saved by the Aquarius ship of the SOS Mediterranee NGO, which docked at the Italian island of Lampedusa on Monday. Italian President Sergio Mattarella said reports of another in a long series of migrant-boat disasters in the southern Mediterranean should stir profound reflection and debate. "There is truly a need to think," Mattarella said at a ceremony for the presentation of the candidates for Italy's David di Donatello film awards. "And the umpteenth tragedy in the Mediterranean today reminds us of this". Gentiloni said the disaster showed the need to discuss Italy's proposal for a new migration compact for the European Union. "It's an extra reason to discuss the migration compact prepared by Italy," Gentiloni said. The minister pointed out that the disaster comes a year after a wreck off the Libya coast in which around 800 people died. "The symbolic fact that it has happened a year after, even if in a completely different area, must touch our conscience and make us think".


EC welcomes Italy migration compact 'Juncker v.happy with Renzi support for EU approach'

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, APRIL 18 - The European Commission on Monday said it gave a "great welcome" to the migration compact proposed by Italy and that EC President Jean-Claude Juncker was "very happy that the European approach finds strong support" on the part of Italy and Premier Matteo Renzi, according to EC spokesperson Margaritis Schinas. "We will work in close contact with Matteo Renzi to continue to push to have more Europe," she said.



Italy on Friday sent the wide-ranging 'migration compact' to the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, Juncker and Donald Tusk, to help cut migrant flows.



The document envisages a framework accord with countries of origin and transit and a big financial commitment by the EU which could be achieved by redistributing already earmarked funds and also via possible Eurobonds, the sources said.



Premier Renzi said in a letter accompanying the proposed compact that "the management of migrant flows is no longer sustainable without targeted and reinforced cooperation with the Third Countries of origin and transit". (ANSAmed).




(ANSAmed) - Rome, April 18 - There were fears of another massacre in the Mediterranean Monday as 400 people were reported missing at sea.



Some 200 migrants died in the Mediterranean in a shipwreck reported by the BBC this morning, the Somali information ministry said. Previously the president, premier and Speaker of the Somali parliament signed a joint statement of condolence to the nation saying 400 migrants were involved, most of them Somalis, after leaving Libya for Italy. There has been no other official confirmation of the shipwreck.



An Egyptian diplomatic source told ANSA that "Egypt at the moment does not have any information" on a reported migrant shipwreck in the Mediterranean involving mostly Somalis. "We will examine this affair with the parties involved," the source said. (ANSAmed).


ROME - Over 400 people, most of them Somalis, travelling from Egypt aboard four migrants boats and heading towards Italy have gone missing the Mediterranean, the Mail online reported on Monday citing the BBC's Arabic service, which, in turn, referred to local media.

Six bodies in migrant dinghy off Libya

Six dead bodies were found on a migrant dinghy rescued late on Sunday some 20 miles off the coast of Libya in an operation coordinated by the Italian coast guard, ANSA sources said on Monday. The operation saved 108 people, including five women, from the dinghy that was headed towards Italy.
German proposal to tax petrol for migrant crisis Schaeuble already spoke to Juncker

(ANSAmed) - Brussels, April 18 - Germany has proposed taxing petrol to help pay for the migrant and refugee crisis, EU sources said Monday, saying German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had "already discussed it" with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker". Germany has ruled out an Italian proposal to use Eurobonds. The Italian idea was part of a migration compact sent to the EU Friday, which includes efforts to forge agreements with countries of origin and transit.




AMMAN - Jordan on Monday said it summoned its ambassador in Iran in solidarity with Saudi Arabia over strained ties between the two sides, officials announced.



Government spokesman Mohammad al Momanni said the decision to summon the ambassador was to express rejection to Tehran continued meddling in Arab internal affairs.



"(Iran) officials continued to give statements and take actions that represent rejected interference in Arab affairs, and particularly Arab gulf countries. This is a violation of good neighborhood policy," said Momani in a statement published by Petra news agency.



"These actions lead to creation of crises and deepen instability in our region," added Momani.



Saudi Arabia had previously pulled its ambassador from Tehran after attack on its diplomatic compound by pro-Tehran protesters. The action was followed by similar move by Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE.



It remains unclear why Amman delayed its action to express solidarity with Saudi in the diplomatic crisis with Tehran.



Tension between Saudi and Iran has flared up due to Tehran continued backing of troubled Syrian president Bashar al Assad and rebels in Yemen, while Saudi supports rebels seeking to overthrow Syrian regime and are engaged in a war against Yemeni rebels.


Aviation officials from APEC member economies are mobilizing to improve air traffic flow to limit costly disruptions to travel and trade, and ensure sustainable growth amid fluctuating industry demand.

Support for the adoption of new air traffic management and control techniques gained momentum during a week of transportation policy meetings that just concluded in Port Moresby, building on technical training held beforehand in Manila. It is part of broader efforts being implemented by APEC economies to boost their supply chain performance and green growth.

The expansion of commercial aviation and air traffic in the Asia-Pacific is resulting in greater airspace congestion and putting airport capacity under increasing strain, explained Nick Brown, Chair of the APEC Transportation Working Group, which guides regional policy collaboration within the sector.

APEC economies and industry partners are stepping up exchanges of technologies and capacity building activities to modernize air traffic management, added Brown who also manages aviation and maritime issues at the New Zealand Ministry of Transport. Our goal is to reduce time en route, airborne holding and airport queuing delays to ensure economic growth in the region that increasingly depends on the efficient movement of people and goods by air.

About half of all air travel  nearly 3 billion journeys  will touch the Asia-Pacific within twenty years, up from around 40 per cent currently, according to the International Air Transport Association, or IATA. Routes to, from and within the region will move an extra 1.8 billion passengers annually by the end of this period, for an overall market size of 2.9 billion.

Air cargo in the Asia-Pacific meanwhile accounts for around 40 per cent of freight traffic worldwide but expanded a moderate 2.3 per cent in 2015 in the face of sluggish global trade, IATA reports. It is a trend that increases the economic case for coordinated action to enhance the regulation of air traffic.

Work in APEC to facilitate the implementation of air traffic flow management offers potentially significant cost benefits for carriers and businesses that use them to trade in the region, noted Mark Dunn, Regional Manager for Asia at the United States Trade and Development Agency, the projects overseer. This includes the growing number of small and medium enterprises that play a role in cross-border production and supply chains.

Wasted time in the air has economic costs as well as increases fuel consumption and carbon emissions that contribute to climate change, Dunn concluded. The steps that APEC economies are taking to cut down on inefficiencies at airports and in air traffic control are raising capacity in the region to accommodate changes in flight volume in sustainable ways.

Trade Ministers from the 21 APEC economies will convene in Arequipa, Peru on 17-18 May to advance new, complementary measures for improving regional trade flows and green growth. It will be followed by a meeting of APEC Tourism Ministers on 28-29 May in Lima who will take further policy actions to facilitate travel and tourism in the region.

# # #

For additional information, or to arrange possible media interviews with APEC officials, please contact:

David Hendrickson +65 9137 3886 at [email protected]

Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at [email protected]

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BrusselsThe European Commission regards Catalonias offer to host 4,500 refugees as a step in the right direction and urges the Spanish government to support Catalonias efforts as soon as possible. Barcelona daily La Vanguardia ran the letter addressed to Catalan president Carles Puigdemont by Dimitris Avramopoulos the EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship where the latter states that all levels of governance can contribute to deliver on our commitments at a European level on the subject of refugees. The Commissioner laments that Spain has, so far, only relocated 18 migrants from Italy and asks Madrid to support Catalonias efforts.

In his letter to Puigdemont, Commissioner Avramopoulos writes that we have to stand steadfast in meeting our legal and moral commitments to those who need protection from war and persecution. The EUs migration policy boss laments that Spain has only hosted 18 refugees following the adoption of two European schemes: one whereby Spain vowed to host 6,127 people and another where Spain committed to aiding a further 1,449. According to Avramopoulos, the measures that Europe has agreed upon have to be implemented as a matter of urgency to prevent a humanitarian crisis from developing in Greece.

A good initiative

On this point, the Commissioner welcomes the initiative by the Catalan government. In his letter, Dimitris Avramopoulos remarks that your active policy to assist and integrate migrants in need of international protection in your region is a step in the right direction. Avramopoulos adds that, like Puigdemont, he too feels that migration is a challenge for Europe and that he welcomes the fact that you are ready to welcome a significant number of refugees. The Commissioner adds: I invite you to coordinate your efforts with the Spanish government which is responsible for the implementation of the relevant EU decisions.

Avramopoulos explains that he has sent of copy of his letter to Spains interim Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernandez Diaz. I am confident that he will support your efforts. The sooner your offer becomes reality, the better for the refugees, he notes.
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by Christopher Sharma

Nepals Truth and Reconciliation Commission began its work yesterday by registering allegations of rape, torture and kidnapping. Its investigations will focus on crimes committed between 1995 and 2006 by Royalist forces and Maoist rebels. However, registration is restricted to only 60 days without adequate staff.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews)  Nepal has begun the process of registering war crime cases dating back to the decade-long civil war between the countrys Maoist rebels and Royalist government.

The 60-day registration process (until 16 June) began yesterday with the first 125 applications before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

However, experts believe that this is not enough time for the TRC to receive an expected 40,000 thousand complaints.

We have limited mandate, TRC Chairperson Surya Kiran Gurung told AsiaNews. Within this [framework], we can hear complains, register them, investigate them and recommend punishment for perpetrators.

If the government and political parties refuse to enforce recommendations, they should not forget about possible action by the international community and the Hague Tribunal. Hence, I believe parties and all stakeholders will be ready to follow our recommendations.

The TRC was created in February 2015 to investigate crimes committed during 11 years of civil war (1995-2006) between the Nepali army and Maoist guerrillas. The rebels sought to overthrow the Hindu absolute monarchy and set up a People's Republic of Nepal.

The conflict ended with a Comprehensive Peace Accord on 21 November 2006 with the United Nations playing a monitoring role.

During the conflict, the Nepali military controlled the cities, whilst the rebels were dominant in the countryside.

Overall, some 17,000 people died and 100,000 were displaced during the conflict. Both sides committed atrocities, eliminating dissidents and anyone who dared speak out. Some 1,400 civilians are still missing.

The TRC is an independent body tasked with investigating specific cases, such as sexual abuse, murder, torture and kidnappings. However, survivors and victims families have accused it of bias since its members are political appointees.

"Yes, we were nominated by political parties, but since we assumed this office, we belong to this institution, not any party, said Chairperson Gurung.

However, not everyone is convinced. We have little hope [for justice] because the parties and government are reluctant to punish, victims rights advocate Subas Adhikari said. Rather than trying to console the victims, they are trying to suppress the cases.

More than 50 per cent of the complaints will not be registered because the Commission will accept only written statements, he explained. However, many victims dont know how to write, and they [the TRC] will not help them file their requests.

The TRC chairperson admits that many victims can only tell their stories and ask TRC employees to write down their complaints. "But we cannot do that because we do not have enough staff, he told AsiaNews.

Mr Gurung also said that he asked the government to update existing laws. Under Nepals current Civil Code (Muluki Ain), rape victims have 35 days to file a complaint. This means that "if the law is not changed, no rape victims will have justice."
by Nirmala Carvalho

The group was participating in a peaceful two day rally. After the naming ceremony of some Christians, the radicals attacked the faithful. Previously they had tortured a Christian, who refused to insult the name of God, for five hours. The man was beaten with chains, sticks and a scythe; his wounds rubbed with water and alcohol; his body subjected to electric shocks.

Patna (AsiaNews) - The faithful of a Pentecostal community of Nabinagar assaulted, the pastor beaten harshly and other religious beaten; a Barh Christian kidnapped and tortured for hours, after he had refused to insult the name of God. These are the last two episodes of violence perpetrated by radical Hindus in the state of Bihar, who have taken on the Christians accusing them of forced conversions. Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, told AsiaNews " intolerance against Christians is growing in secular India."



The Christian leaders said that the Gems Pentecostal community (Gospel Echoing Missionary Society) of Nabinagar was attacked on April 10 during a peaceful rally titled "Holiness of Holiness", organized by the congregation. The local faithful - about 200 people - "were gathered from April 8 to 10 without provocation - he explains - But on the last day, after the naming ceremony of a group of 30 Christians, about 35 radicals belonging to the Bajrang Dal [Hindu nationalists, the young and militant wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, ed] raided the prayer meeting".

The attackers first ordered Jebakumar Dhanraj, who organized the convention, to leave the church. Once outside, they beat him. Then they beat other believers and missionaries and the pastor Suresh Lakhra.



Sajan K George also reports that the police immediately rushed to the place, but most agents flanked the molesters. The officers did not want to register the case against the Hindus, while they arrested the pastor on three counts, two of which do not provide for his release on bail. "It is very worrying - he says - that the police are biased against the Christian minority, while the should maintain order and protect citizens."

The second episode of persecution against Christians occurred on April 5. Extremists of the Bajrang Dal and the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Hindu nationalists, ed] stopped another Christian, Deepak, on his way to the village of Chak Budhani to spread the message of God. They took him into a Hindu center, and beat him on his head, legs and neck with chains.

The man was savagely tortured for five hours, with the use of chains, rods, sickles and shoes. The attackers then rubbed alcohol on his bleeding wounds and forced him to undress and to drink urine. They then took his clothes to hide the traces of their crime and wrote a false statement accusing the man of having offered thousands of rupees for forced conversions. The extremists have also tried to make him insult the name of God, with electrical shocks and threatened to throw him on railroad tracks. But the religious man refused and answered: "Kill me, but I will never insult the name of God."
by Melani Manel Perera

Taking advantage of a three-day public holiday, thousands of Catholics headed to the Marian shrine, one of the countrys most famous religious sites. Whole families with children in tow prayed for their loved ones and thanked Our Lady for healings. It was really worth spending three days of our holiday, said one pilgrim.

Madhu (AsiaNews)  Thousands of Catholics took advantage of the three-day public holiday (13-15 April) marking Sinhalese and Tamil New Year celebrations, and went on a pilgrimage to the Marian shrine of Madhu, one of the countrys most famous and popular religious sites, located in the Diocese of Mannar (northern province).

Since the three-day holiday came just before the week-end, celebrations lasted five days.

"It was well worth spending three days of our holiday with Mother Mary, said some faithful from Wellawatta.

Surrounded by peace and quiet, the shrine was not as noisy as it usually is during religious celebrations, they added. We were able to spend a lot of time inside the church, resting both spiritually and physically."

Whole families came to the famous shrine from each of the countrys province. Even children were happy to make the long trek.

"I really like doing it, said Saarangini Fernando, a girl from the diocese of Chilaw, because I always find some new friends. So far, in all my visits to Mary of Madhu since 2010, I made ten good friends.

Many came to thank Our Lady for the healing of some loved ones and pray for the health of the sick.

"I wanted to come here to Madhu with my whole family and recite 15 decades of the rosary to Mary and offer my heartfelt thanks for the healing of my dangerous cancer," said Newton Silva, 59, father of three from the diocese of Kurunegaka.

"My husband is never home because he is a businessman, said his wife, a Tamil woman, so every time, we take the opportunity to come here and say the rosary together. It gives us inner peace and joy."

Rupa Fernando, a 50-year-old woman from Nainamadama, believes Our Lady cured her from brain cancer after a year and a half of treatment.

"It was my dream to come to the Madhu shrine with my family, pray the rosary, and say the Litany of Our Lady. I am very glad I did."

The Madhu Shrine was built 400 years ago. After 1990, it welcomed thousands of people as the area turned into a virtual refugee camp for Tamils in northern Sri Lanka.

Hit during Sri Lankas civil war, the statue of Our Lady was put back in 2010. Since then, large crowds, including non-Catholics, visit the site each year on 15 August for the traditional feast day.

Overall, an estimated 600,000 people come every year from all over the country on pilgrimage to the shrine.
Li Yinming posted his idea on social media, then left them. He plans to use the time he saves to transcribe the sacred text in three years and give it to his daughter for her 18th birthday. His campaign has attracted more than 60 people.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews/SE)  There was a time in China when Christians used to transcribe long tracts of the Bible by hand because of the difficulty in getting their hands on a printed copy.

In recent years, large-scale big projects have been undertaken in some countries to have the Bible completely transcribed by hand as an exercise in drumming up interest for the Gospel message. This was done in the Philippines recently to celebrate the National Biblical Week.

China Church Voices reports that some people in China have done the same. Li Yinming said that he would transcribe the complete Bible, one chapter a day, as a way to break his addiction to the Internet and playing video games.

As a final "virtual" gesture, he advertised his project on WeChat, a popular microblogging site, and then ended the connection. So far, his idea has attracted more than 60 people from Hong Kong and Hebei.

He explained that his is not only a Christian action but also a way to reflect on his life habits and the organisation of his time.

He figures that at his current rate of progress, it will take him some three years to get to the end of the complete New and Old Testaments.

He plans to present the final copy to his daughter for her 18th birthday.
by Pierre Balanian

Analysts of the Arab world wondering "what is Islamic in the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation". The summit is a battlefield with even distant positions on combating terrorism. The interests of individual states prevail over dialogue. Irans president abandons summit, accusing Riyadh of maneuvering behind the scenes.

Istanbul (AsiaNews) - After witnessing the "burial of the Arab League" following the expulsion of Syria, "maybe now we are witnessing the slow and inexorable death throes of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC)?". The question comes from Talal Salman, a Lebanese analyst who has expressed his doubts in the Lebanese newspaper As Safir. He concluded by stressing that the Islamic Cooperation "has very little of what it means to be Muslim left."

Held April 14 to 15, the 13th OIC summit was attended by more than 50 states (of 57 members), and 30 heads of state including Iranian President Rouhani, the Turkish (host country) Erdogan and the sovereign Saudi Salman. The meeting had an ambitious title "Session of unity and solidarity for Peace and Justice". "Unity" seems to have survived only in title.

A few hours after the reading of the agenda, all observers were witnesses to a clear division between first class Muslims", the subjects of loudly proclaimed solidarity (Turkish Cypriots, Armenians against Azerbaijanis, Saudis against Iran and Hezbollah) ; and of course the "second class", Muslims who do not enjoy the blessing of Riyadh: the Kurds, the Bahrainis, Yemenis, Syrians, Somalis, Palestinians and of course the Lebanese Shiites and Iranians.

The transition of the presidency from Egypt to Turkey took place without even a handshake, a clear failure of the mediation between Egypt and Turkey attempted by Saudi Arabia: the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shokri read a speech in the name of President Abdel Fatah El Sissi and left both the conference hall and the country, without even waiting to represent his nation in the group photo op.

Altogether his visit toTurkey lasted less than two hours," commented the Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper.

Another "illustrious abandonment" of the Summit before concluding statement was that of Iranian President Rouhani who - having learned that the text had included four points condemning Iran, a OIC founding member - deserted the sessions. Rouhani had come with a spirit of peace and opening and had said: "The strengthening of Islamic union in the current situation, is one of the main duties of OIC". He had also hoped, a few hours before the start of the Summit and during a meeting with the Turkish prime minister Davutoglu, "to be able to strengthen the cooperation relations of union and cohesion among the Islamic countries" adding that the OIC "unfortunately has not succeeded, so far, to fulfill its mission satisfactorily "inviting everyone to" join hands to invest and ensure the development of the entire region".

An optimism that apparently did not last long. During a meeting on the sidelines of the summit with the President of Senegal, after ascertaining agreements undertaken behind the scenes between Saudi Arabia and many poor countries members of OIC to gain support for its anti Iranian policies, Rouhani himself said a few hours later that "the enemies of Islam are trying on the one hand to firmly sow division and conflicts in the heart of the Islamic world, while on the other hand exploiting terrorist groups that claim to be Islamic". He then deplored "the proliferation of violence and terrorism in the Islamic world" before emphasizing that "the Islamic Republic of Iran has always guaranteed its support to the States that have asked for its help in the fight against terrorism".

No one has escaped the perseverance of Saudi Arabia in its attempts to create an inter-Muslim sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, as specified by the security and policy chief at the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Hamid Buaidi Nijad. He went on to say that "Saudi Arabia has insisted to the end in beating the drums of fitna (conflictual division between different denominations of Islam especially between Sunnis and Shiites) and division, despite the constructive speech of President Rouhani," while the head of the National Security and Foreign policy Committee in the Iranian Parliament Alaeldin Brogerdi accused Saudi Arabia, in no uncertain terms of being "the advocate of the division within the Islamic world."

In a 200 point final document, one comma condemns Hezbollah, defined by the Lebanese daily "the only Islamic group fighting against Israel, and against IS". In the final OIC document it is called a "terrorist organization": this article was not voted by the Lebanese delegation, which insisted on the "need for non-interference in the internal affairs of other member countries. Lebanon was supported by Tunisia, Iraq and Algeria and since the resolutions have to be unanimous, the OIC appears to have once again failed to adopt any valid resolution to all effects.

"No mention of course the armed intervention of Saudi Arabia in Bahrain or Yemen" noticed one Lebanese analyst. While the appeal to "liberate the occupied territories of Karabakh by Armenia" (when in fact Armenia as Republic does not occupy any Azerbaijani territory) was considered by the Turkish analyst Ozgur Gondim, as an outburst by the "losers in the war Syria, Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia "looking to find consolation in Karabakh" standing alongside Azerbaijan to compensate for their losses in Syria. "

Finally, Palestine was invited to "resume peace negotiations and give a new impetus to the peace process".
Tokyo (AsiaNews)  The death toll is climbing from two earthquakes that struck the island of Kyushu (southwest Japan) within 48 hours on April 14 and 16 last. The number of victims has risen to 42, most of them caused by the second quake with a magnitude of 7.3. Almost 250 thousand people have been displaced and the Japanese authorities have raised the alarm because they fear further earthquakes in the coming days. At least 30 thousand people are engaged in rescue operations, with soldiers and members of the Red Cross. According to police, 11 people are still missing, while 1000 were injured. The severe damage to infrastructure and homes has not yet been calculated.



The aid provided by the government to the evacuated people has drawn criticism. Some families have complained about the meager food rations that are distributed (about two rice balls for dinner a head) others about the lack of water and the consequent inability to wash. The Prime Minister Shinzo Abe responded that the government is doing its utmost to ensure a full recovery of the area.

The double disaster has even affected Japanese finance. The Nikkei lost 3.2% in the morning today, with investors fearing the impact of earthquakes on the manufacturing industry. Giants like Toyota, Sony and Honda discontinued the production chain in the area affected by earthquakes.

The earthquake of April 16, struck at 1.25 in the night, near the city of Kumamoto with a magnitude of 6.4. The two shocks are the strongest to hit Japan after the magnitude 9 earthquake that caused the tsunami in 2011 and the following Fukushima disaster with the explosion of the nuclear power plant. On that occasion the dead were at least 18 thousand.

Japan is one of the most active seismic areas in the world, with 205 of the total of the earthquakes that occur every year of magnitude 6 or greater. On average, the seismometers record activities, however slight, every five minutes. This is why the buildings in the country are among those built with the best seismic criteria and the authorities have created, over time, an effective warning system.
In recent months the revenues of the so-called "Caliphate" decreased by 30%. In March $ 56 million in revenue, in mid-2015 the figure was 80 million. Population in the territories controlled by Daesh also dropping, from nine to six million. To remedy the jihadist leaders have imposed new levies. Fines for those who do not respond correctly to questions on the Koran.

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Islamic States revenues and those of the population living in the territories controlled by the jihadist group have radically decreased in recent months, a decline of 30%. This is according to a study published by the US based IHS Jane's; according to research, the shortfall in revenue could - in the long run - be decisive for the implosion of the so-called "Caliphate".

In an attempt to address this problem, the jihadists leaders have already taken steps to introduce new taxes and duties in the area now under their control, including a heavy tax on the "repair of satellite dishes.

The IHS Jane's study shows that "in March 2016 the monthly revenue of the Islamic State dropped to $ 56 million". In mid-2015, the monthly average of all of its revenues was 80 million dollars.

Based on information obtained from the internet (social networks in particular) and from sources on the territories of Syria and Iraq, the report also adds that oil production in areas under the control of jihadist also decreased, from 33 thousand to 22 thousand barrels a day. For the experts, these losses are due to United States and Russian air raids in recent months.

At least half of the money that flows into the Daesh coffers [Arabic acronym of IS] come from taxes and the confiscation of businesses and assets. Oil constitutes 43%, while the remainder is the result of drug trafficking, the sale of electricity, plus donations.

Also according to IHS Jane's, IS has lost at least 22% of its territory in the last 15 months. At the same time, the population in the areas under the control of the jihadist militia has reduced to six million, compared to nine million of the recent past. This is also one of the reasons for declining revenues in Daesh coffers.

To make up for the losses, the ultra-fundamentalist Sunni Islamic movement leaders have increased taxes on basic services: these include taxes on truck drivers, those who want to install or repair satellite dishes and "exit duties" for those who want to leave a town or a village in IS hands. Added to these are the "fines" for those who do not respond correctly to questions about the Koran and Islam, and the ability to turn corporal punishment (such as flogging) imposed for conduct that "deviate" from the moral and Muslim religion into money.

According to some sources, there is also a "cut" in fighters wages of up to 50%. The decision, explain the leaders, is due to "extraordinary circumstances."
The meeting in Doha, Qatar, ends in an impasse with production freeze put off to June. The failure is due to an Iranian-Saudi geopolitical row. Markets react with prices and shares falling.

Doha (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Oil prices dropped today after leading oil exporters were unable to agree on capping production at a meeting in Doha (Qatar).

Most members of the OPEC producers' group, plus other oil exporters including Russia, attended the meeting.

The talks failed as a result of tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose negative repercussions also undermined the summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Istanbul.

After hours of talks, Qatar's Energy Minister Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada said that the oil producers needed "more time".

Russia's Oil Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow had not closed the door on a global deal to freeze output, but said he was disappointed at the failure to reach a decision as he had travelled to Qatar expecting to sign a deal, not debate one.

Capping production was seen by many analysts and experts as a minimum. However, to boost prices, a cut in output would be necessary.

Over the past two years, exporters have suffered billions of dollars in lost revenue, and have had to cut back on spending to stop burgeoning deficits. This in turn has led to domestic protest.

For example, in OPECs fourth-largest oil producer Kuwait, thousands of oil and gas workers are striking to protest against pay cuts.

That the Doha summit would end without a deal was could be expected given Irans stance.

"As we're not going to sign anything, and as we're not part of the decision to freeze output, we ultimately decided it was not necessary to send a representative," the Iranian government said before the meeting.

Iran, which only recently returned to world oil markets after the lifting of nuclear-linked Western sanctions in January, has plans to increase its own production as it seeks to regain pre-sanctions market share.

For Qatars energy minister, The freeze could be more effective definitely if major producers, be it from OPEC members like Iran and others, as well as non-OPEC members, are included in the freeze."

Now everything has to wait until the next OPEC meeting, scheduled for June.

The effect on oil futures was immediate. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for May delivery was down 7 per cent to about US$ 39 a barrel.

In Europe markets opened sharply lower, before recovering. In Asia, Tokyo dropped 3.4 per cent, whilst Shanghai was down 1.44 per cent. Wall Street opened with minor losses.
Tran Thi Hong met a US human rights delegation on 30 March. Police wanted her to tell them what she discussed with the US diplomats. Upon her refusal, they beat her, including kicking her in the face. Her husband, Nguyen Cong Chinh, has been in prison since 2011 for crimes against the state

Hanoi (AsiaNews/EDA)  Tran Thi Hong is married to Nguyen Cong Chinh, a Mennonite pastor who is in prison on charges of being an enemy of the state. Last Thursday (14 April), she was beaten by Vietnamese police in Pleiku, Gia Lai province (central Vietnam), because she refused to reveal the contents of a meeting she had with a US human rights delegation.

In the early hours of Thursday morning the head of the district police, accompanied by security officers, went to see Ms Tran. When she refused to follow them for questioning, she was forcibly driven to the police station.

At the station, she was badly beaten to extract information about her meeting on 30 March 30 with an American delegation led by David V. Muehlke, First Secretary at the US Embassy in Hanoi, and David Saperstein, US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.

Having refused to talk, and now unconscious, the pastor's wife was taken home by car and dumped by the roadside in front of her house where she was helped by neighbours.

Rev Nguyen Cong Chinh, 44, is a Mennonite clergyman. He was arrested by police in April 2011 and sentenced in March of last year to 11 years in prison on specious charges, like undermining national unity and actively taking part in movements that are opposed to the State".

The pastor had been targeted before. On one occasion, his prayer house was destroyed, and seized by the authorities.

He had been living in Gia Lai province since 1998, undocumented because the authorities have refused to give him identity papers.

Since he was jailed, there have been several alarming reports about his health conditions and mistreatment in prison.
He is the door. "There is no other" and "those who do not enter the sheepfold through this door," but uses another way "is a thief and a robber." "You will find the voice of Jesus in the Beatitudes. Those who try to teach you a way contrary to the Beatitudes, entered through a window: They are not Jesus! '.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Following, the "road of life, the life of every day," Jesus is the door to eternal life and do not trust those who indicate another route, such as fortune tellers and the alleged visionaries warned Pope Francis at Mass this morning in Casa Santa Marta.

Drawing especially on the Reading from the Gospel according to St. John (Jn. 10:1-10), Pope Francis recalled the Lords words  at once a warning and a promise  echoing the readings of Good Shepherd Sunday the day before. He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but tries another way, is a thief and a robber, he said. Christ is the door, stressed Pope Francis, and there is no other.

Pope Francis went on to note the simplicity of the language with which Jesus addresses His teachings to the people  a simplicity of imagery that conveys profound truths in a powerful way. Jesus, he said, always spoke to people with simple images: all those people knew what a shepherds life was like, because they saw it every day. They also understood, therefore, what it meant to say, you enter only through the gate of the sheep pen, and that anyone trying to get in by any other way was up to no good: The Lord thus clearly says: you cannot enter eternal life by any entryway that is not the door  that is not Jesus. He is the door of our life  and not only of eternal life, but also of our daily lives. Any decision I take, I take either in the name of Jesus, passing by way of the door of Jesus, or I take it a little  shall we say in simple language  through the smugglers hatch [It. contrabbando]? We enter the enclosure through the door, which is Jesus.

Jesus, he continued, therefore, speaks of the way. The shepherd knows His sheep and leads them out: He walks in front of them, and the sheep follow him. The journey is just that, the Pope said, following Jesus on the path of life, the life of every day, and we need not fear being misled, when we follow Him as He shows us the way: Those who follow Jesus do nor err! Oh, Father, yes, but things are difficult ... So many times I do not see clearly what to do ... I was told that there was a seer and I went there and I went there; I went to the [fortune teller], who turned the cards to me ... If you do this, you do not follow Jesus. You follow another, who shows you another way, a different way. Jesus shows the way forward: there is no other who can show the way. Jesus has warned us: There will be others who will say the way of the Messiah is this, this, this [other way]: do not listen. Do not hear them. I am the way. Jesus is the door and also the path: if we follow Him we shall not go astray.

Pope Francis then focused on the voice of the Good Shepherd. The sheep, he said, follow Him because they know his voice. Only, how can we know the voice of Jesus, and even defend ourselves from the voices of those who are not Jesus, those entering through the window, who are bandits, who [seek to] destroy and deceive you?: I will tell you the recipe, [it is] simple: you will find the voice of Jesus in the Beatitudes. Should someone make to teach you a way contrary to the Beatitudes, [know] that such a one is one who has entered through the window: it is not Jesus! Second: you would know the voice of Jesus? You may know it when that voice speaks of the works of mercy. For example, in chapter 25 of St Matthew: if someone tells you what Jesus says there, that is the voice of Jesus. Third: you may know it is the voice of Jesus when it teaches you to say Father, that is, when it teaches you to pray the Our Father.

Pope Francis concluded, saying that the Christian life is really quite easy: Jesus is the door; He guides us along the Way, and we know His voice in the Beatitudes, in the works of mercy and when it teaches us to say Father. The door, the path and the voice, said Pope Francis. May the Lord make us understand that this is Jesus, this is the icon of Him: the pastor who leads, who shows the way, and teaches us to listen to His voice.
International firm DAC Beachcroft hopes to expand its footprint in Asia with a joint venture in Malaysia. The firm has applied for a licence to operate the venture in association with Gan Partnership. Although DAC Beachcroft already has an association with the local firm, the new JV will deepen its capabilities for the insurance sector in the country. Gan will continue to operate its separate domestic practice.Slater & Gordon has advised the Australian stock market that those who became shareholders in the firm when it acquired two UK law firms are free to sell their shares from 1May. However, the former partners of Walker Smith Way and Russell Jones & Walker may choose to hold onto their shares in the hope of them regaining value.The shareholders were prohibited from selling shares until next month and have faced the painful truth that holdings that were worth a total of around A$850,000 now would have been worth more than $25 million a year ago. Linklaters has announced promotions to its international partnership with effect 1May 2016. Among the new partners are 5 from Asia-Pacific plus an additional promotion to senior consultant. Across the international firms offices there are also 35 promotions to counsel.The new partners for Asia-Pac are: Alex Bidlake, corporate; Frank Cui, banking; Jonathan Horan, capital markets; Terrance Lau, capital markets; and Justin Tang, disputes resolution. All five are in the Hong Kong office. Eric Liu is promoted to senior counsel in the corporate practice.When extramarital affairs website Ashley Madison was hacked last year with personal data released on the internet, it sent shockwaves through thousands of households. Those who were caught up in the ensuing scandal included hundreds of thousands in Australia and New Zealand.Now, as litigation approaches in a US courtroom, plaintiffs are demanding emails sent between the website owner Avid Life Media, its general counsel and law firm Barnes & Thornburg. They are alleged to hold vital evidence that the website used automated fake profiles in order to attract clients.Avid Life Media says that the emails are privileged. Bloomberg reports that no comment has been made by the firms current outside counsel Paul Weis Rifkind Wharton & Garrison.
Dispute over benefits of foreign law firms in Singapore

The scheme which allows foreign law firms to operate in Singapore has been criticised for not creating enough benefits to locally-qualified lawyers. The managing partner of Morgan Lewis Stamford, Mrs Lee Suet Fern, spoke at a Law Society lecture and questioned why the Qualifying Foreign Law Practice scheme had led to the hire of only about 100 out of thousands of Singapore-qualified lawyers.

According to theindependent.sg Mrs Lee, the sister-in-law of the Singaporean prime minister, said that foreign law firms had taken work away from local firms.

The Law Ministry has rebutted the claims though and says that the QFLP scheme has helped the city state become a regional law centre with many of the foreign firms doing work that would otherwise have been done elsewhere. That work gave new experience to Singaporean lawyers working with those firms.

The Ministry (MinLaw) also claimed that Mrs Lee has previously applied for a QFLP licence and sought an exception for the firm when advised that the application was outside of the specific application period.



Failure for alternative business structures says law chief

The aim of the UKs Solicitors Regulatory Authority to create professional services firms offering legal and accountancy services has not worked as planned. Paul Philip, CEO of the authority told the Law Society Risk and Compliance Conference that the alternative business structures introduced 5 years ago have failed to deliver on some of their objectives including allowing solicitors to offer legal services outside of law firms.

Regulations have meant that while 450 alternative business structures are offering multiple services including accountancy and legal, solicitors have been unable to take advantage of this until a recent relaxation of a key SRA rule.



Making a Murderer lawyers to tour Australia

The lawyers who have become famous for their appearance in online documentary series Making a Murderer are to tour Australia. The show focuses on the case of Steven Avery, jailed for murder in Wisconsin in 2007 having spent 18 years in jail after being wrongly accused of rape.

The Netflix docuseries has become a big hit and lawyers Dean Strang and Jerry Buting will be holding Q&A sessions in Perth, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne in November. Tickets go on sale this Tuesday.




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PAM 3 old and out of date.



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This is for reference only - it is only bits and pieces and some added things in (). Also old.



But may help for Visitor Visa applications?



Bits and pieces ONLY - From DIAC Procedures Advice Manual (PAM3)

Genuine Visitor Policy

Current as of 1 December 2012



The genuine visitor requirement

Genuine visitor requirements

It is a criterion for:

 Tourist visa -

 Sponsored Family Visitor visa - and



Officers should consider whether

the applicant is attempting to obtain the visa:

 to remain in Australia for a longer period (for example, maintain ongoing

residence in Australia on "rolling" visitor visas) or

 for unlawful purposes (for example, to work illegally).



Assessing whether the applicant meets the genuine visitor requirement

In establishing whether this criterion is satisfied, relevant considerations may include, but

are not limited to:



 the personal circumstances of the applicant that would encourage them to return

to their home country at the end of the proposed visit.



 the applicant's immigration history (for example, previous travel, compliance

with immigration laws of Australia or other countries, previous visa

applications/compliance action).



 the personal circumstances of the applicant in their home country that might

encourage them to remain in Australia (for example, military service

commitments, economic situation, civil disruption).



 conditions that might encourage the applicant to remain in Australia.



 the applicant's credibility in terms of character and conduct (for example, false

and misleading information provided with visa application).



 whether the purpose and proposed duration of the applicant's visit and their

proposed activities in Australia are reasonable and consistent (for example, is the

period of stay consistent with "tourism").



 information in statistical, intelligence and analysis reports on migration fraud and

immigration compliance compiled by the department about nationals from the

applicant's home country. Such information, developed as profiles, may assist

officers in deciding whether closer examination of an application is required to

ensure the integrity of the visitor visa program.



Personal circumstances that may encourage the applicant to return to their home country

("home country" being country of usual residence) include:



 on-going employment.



 the presence of immediate family members in their home country, that is, does

the applicant have more close family members living in their home country than

in Australia. ()



 property, or other significant assets, owned in their home country and



 currently residing in a country whose nationals represent a low risk of

immigration non-compliance, even though the applicant is originally from a

country whose nationals represent a statistically higher risk of non-compliance.



Officers should also consider the applicant's economic situation - including

unemployment or employment that, based on knowledge of local employment conditions,

such as salary rates, would not constitute a strong incentive for the applicant to leave

Australia.



Consideration of the applicant's immigration history may include but is not limited to:

 previous travels to Australia, that is:

 has the applicant previously travelled to Australia and, if so

 did they comply with the conditions of their visa (or, if not, were the

circumstances beyond their control) and

 did they leave before their visa ceased

 previous visa applications for Australia, that is:

 has the applicant previously applied for a permanent Australian visa and

 previous travels overseas, that is:

 has the applicant travelled to countries other than Australia

 has the applicant previously travelled to a country where there would be

significant incentives for them to remain, in which case, did they comply

with the immigration laws of that country.



In assessing this factor, officers may give weight to applicants who had travelled

to and complied with the immigration laws of a country(ies) that has significant

incentives for the applicant to remain in that country(ies), either for economic or

personal reasons. However, officers may have to use judicious discretion if there

is a lack of travel history.



Conditions that might encourage the applicant to remain in Australia include:

 the applicant's personal ties to Australia, that is:

 does the applicant have more close family members living in Australia

than in their home country

 is the applicant subject of adoption proceedings that have not been

resolved in their home country

 military service commitments

 civil disruption, including war, lawlessness or political upheaval in the

applicant's home country and

 economic disruption, including shortages, famine, or high levels of

unemployment, or natural disasters in the applicant's home country.

Where consideration of the factors above raise doubts about the applicant's ability to meet

the genuine visitor requirement, such as where the applicant's circumstances may suggest

the need for greater scrutiny, officers may consider/request additional evidence that

demonstrates that the applicant intends a genuine visit.



Officers may request further evidence from the applicant, where considered appropriate,

if departmental statistical or intelligence reports on migration fraud, or profiles based on

such reports, indicate that there is a significantly greater likelihood of nationals from the

applicant's home country:

 staying in Australia beyond the expiry of their visa

 having their visa cancelled

 being refused entry to Australia or

 making asylum claims or applying for a Protection visa (PV).



Additional evidence that officers may wish to consider in deciding whether an applicant

is a genuine visitor include:

 evidence that the applicant has been employed for at least the previous 12

months, has approved leave for the period of stay sought and will continue to be

employed on their return home or

 if self-employed, evidence they have owned their own business for the previous

12 months or

 if retired/non-working have other financial commitments and/or family/social

ties that would provide sufficient inducement for them to return to their home

country at the end of their visit or

 good immigration history.



Generally, offers of support or guarantees given by family and friends in Australia are not

sufficient evidence of a genuine visit. The onus is on the applicant to satisfy the decision

maker that they intend only to visit Australia. Guarantees from connections in Australia

can, however, be critical in assessing whether an applicant has or has access to adequate

funds. When refusing a visitor visa application in relation to the "genuine visit" criterion,

delegates should be careful not to confuse the applicant's financial circumstances as an

incentive to return and their access to "adequate funds".(about $1,000 AUD per month)
Zotye SR8 is similar to the Macan in terms of exterior and interior design; will use a Mitsubishi-sourced 2.0-litre engine.

A Porsche Macan copy, called the Zotye SR8, is to make its first public appearance at the Beijing motor show later this month.

New images of the SUV reveal that the Zotye SR8 is almost identical in design to the Macan. The cabin bears a striking resemblance to that of the Macan, with the steering wheel, centre console and dashboard clock all seemingly lifted from its German equivalent. However, small details distinguish the SR8, such as its square exhausts, which are more rounded on the Macan, and there are also minor differences in the headlight and wheel designs.

The SR8 is powered by a Mitsubishi-sourced 2.0-litre turbo engine and is unlikely to be exported to markets outside China due to possible legal issues with Porsche.

Zotyes SR8 is the latest example of the Chinese car industry designing clones of popular Western cars. In 2014, LandWind revealed its X7 SUV at the Guangzhou motor show, which is essentially a copy of the Range Rover Evoque.

Last year, Land Rover said that manufacturers are "powerless" against Chinese manufacturers copying its designs as there is no law against the practice. Tesla has also had its cars copied by a Chinese car company. Images of a Model S clone surfaced last year, when Chinese start-up automaker Youxia unveiled its Ranger X, which is also powered by an electric motor.

At last years Global Automotive Forum, Chinese car designers hit back at claims that they were copying other manufacturers' designs. Chen Zeng, the design boss of Changan, said, "The truth is that car designs are becoming more and more homogenous. The situation is chaotic.

Image Source
Taking cues from customers who complained about practicality, this famed maker of cute cars with lots of chrome and speedos in the middle is now officially a family car maker. Big deal? Not really  for about two yeas now, the Countryman has been their best seller, and thats because it comes with two extra doors and a bigger boot.Weve know that MINI was working on such a car for quite a while now from various spyshots. But to see it in the flesh is a real treat. And you know what? It doesnt look bad at all.To make this into a family hatchback, technically a supermini, the front doors have been shortened, but are still longer than the rear ones. The wheelbase is also visibly extended, but not by a lot.Two exhaust pipes on the back of this prototype means its a Cooper S, powered by a 192 PS 2-liter TwinPower Turbo engine. However, all the other new downsized engines BMW has developed will be available, including at least two 1.5-liter units available from launch.Nobody knows what the deal is with this sexy little mystery car. But judging from the way its strapped down, it could be going on an airplane thats headed straight to the Detroit Auto Show. If thats not the case, a photo shoot in sunny California ahead of a Geneva debut in March is another strong possibility.Photos courtesy of NewMINIClub via autoblog.nl
CFRP

All kinds of details from the so-called Project Titan have been speculated in the last couple of years, but this is the first one that sheds so much light on Apple's work on its upcoming automobile.According to a report from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), which quotes unnamed insiders, the iCar or Apple Car is being developed by a staff of approximately 15-20 engineers with backgrounds that revolve around software, hardware, engineering and even sales.The secret Berlin lab is mainly a think-tank concerning the project, apparently, since FAZ also speculates that when the car is finally ready, it might be built in Austria, thanks to a manufacturing contract between Apple and Magna that no one knows about officially.Hundreds of people have been linked by the press to Apple's car project, including former Ford engineer Steve Zadesky, and Johann Jungwirth, who used to head the Mercedes-Benz R&D center in North America, but is now working for Volkswagen.Most details concerning Project Titan are obviously under wraps, but it is suspected that Apple may go as far as base the car on the underpinnings of the BMW i3. Back in 2014, Apple CEO Tim Cook visited BMW's headquarters, and sources say that he also went to Leipzig and checked out how the Bavarians were building the-infused i3 there.The car could be ready to be unveiled in 2019 at the earliest, which would also mean that if it is based on the i3, it would probably use the underpinnings of BMW's second generation of the model.As expected from a company like Apple and from a project as important as this, virtually every detail surrounding the matter should be taken with a decent amount of salt, but stranger things have happened.
As a consequence, flying drones around airports has been prohibited, and every measure necessary to prevent this from happening has been taken. And yet, we all knew that, sooner or later, one of these flying objects would find its way into the path of a commercial aircraft, possibly endangering the lives of hundreds of people.This is exactly what happened on Sunday at 12:50 pm when a British Airways flight was reported to have made contact with a drone as it was approaching for landing. The Airbus A320 was returning to London from Geneva, Switzerland, carrying 132 passengers and five crew members. After landing safely, the pilot reported the collision between the plane's front end and an object he thought was a drone.The matter is currently being investigated by the Metropolitan Police, but no arrests have been made so far. If the pilot's version proves to be right, this would be the first ever recorded incident of a commercial plane hitting a civilian drone. A spokesman for British Airlines is quoted by the BBC as saying, "Our aircraft landed safely, was fully examined by our engineers and it was cleared to operate its next flight."Just because nothing happened this time doesn't mean that any other potential future collisions of the same nature couldn't have a lot more tragic consequences. The authorities should view this as a reminder of just how serious this problem is, and they should find ways to prevent such incidents from happening. Otherwise, the next plane and its occupants might not be as lucky as British Airways' Flight 727 from Geneva to London.
If the name of the company does not ring a bell, well have you know that they made the batteries for the Chevrolet Volt/Opel Ampera, as well as the upcoming Chevrolet Bolt.Tesla confirmed a contract with LG Chem last year, which targeted the production of replacement batteries for the Tesla Roadster.Currently, LG Chem has three battery plants, and they supply batteries to over 20 companies. The new factory in Poland might make LG Chem the worlds largest supplier of batteries for plug-in vehicles.The plant is supposedly located in Wroclaw, a city in Poland. LG Chem already has a facility in that country, so the expansion could also be favored by government incentives, as well as a need to increase production. Besides the European plant, LGs Chemical division makes batteries in China, South Korea, and the USA.As Hybricars notes, insiders reveal that LGs upcoming factory might provide batteries for 229,000 EVs a year. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether LG has a single customer for the mentioned capacity or if it will share production between several companies.Since the South Korean company has several European carmakers as partners, including Volvo, Volkswagen, Renault, and Audi, production might be shared between these brands.In the world of batteries for plug-in cars, LGs Chemical division is competing with Samsungs SDI and others, while Panasonic remains the leader. Samsung SDI is also considering building a factory which would make batteries for electric and plug-in vehicles.If Tesla Motors decides to use LG Chem as a supplementary battery supplier, their current partners at Panasonic might suffer a drop in business. Currently, Japanese corporation Panasonic is Teslas battery supplier, but the long ordering list for the Model 3, accompanied by the popularity of the other cars in the Tesla range, might bring the necessity of a new battery supplier for the Californian automaker.
HP

NEDC

SUV

The German company published a set of teaser images of their exhibit, along with a sketchy press release in which it provided a few specs.The press release does not mention the name of the latest concept vehicle from Volkswagen, but it does claim that it is one of the most advanced luxury SUVs in the world.The automaker mentions a plug-in hybrid powertrain for the concept, and that it provides a total output of 376and a maximum torque of 516 lb-Ft (700 Nm). In fully electric operation mode, the estimated maximum range is 50 kilometers (31 miles).Meanwhile, the predictedfuel consumption rating is 78 mpg on the combined cycle, which is the equivalent of 3.01 liters/100 kilometers.As far as performance is concerned, the plug-in hybridfrom Volkswagen can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h (62 MPH) in 6.0 seconds, while its top speed is 139 MPH (223 km/h).While it did not provide any pictures of the interior, Volkswagen says its new concept comes with a lounge-style passenger compartment, which is centered on passengers. The controls on the inside are digitized, and the dash comes with a merger of the infotainment system and the Active Info Display.Regarding design, the new concept from Volkswagen comes with an attractive twist of the front grille, which integrates an LED band. The latter is mated to a similar element in the headlamps. A quick look at the photo gallery reveals a potential new look for the light signatures of upcoming Volkswagen cars.The headlights and fog lamps seem to be ready for production. Meanwhile, the rear of the car features LED taillights, which also show a new signature. However, the look of the latter makes us wonder if Volkswagen will approve such a dramatic change in production. When compared to the current taillight design, the concept marks a huge leap, but not in a direction we admire.
Image courtesy of EMKAY.

It was on March 29, 1946 that EMKAY Car Leasing Co. Inc. began operations from inside Midway Chevrolet. Morton Weiss and Sam Katzin, co-owners of Midway Chevrolet named Sam Katzins brother-in-law, Michael Braude as president of this new venture. At the time, the leasing industry was almost non-existent, with only a few companies offering long term rentals or leases. However, the two innovators had set in motion a series of events that would see EMKAY grow into a prominent player in the soon-to-be expanding leasing industry.

Operations from within Midway Chevrolet continued until May 1952. Under Braudes direction the company quickly grew out of the small space allocated within the dealership. It was at that time Katzin and Braude made the decision to move EMKAY to its own building, and renamed the venture EMKAY, Inc. A few years after the move, EMKAY acquired the leasing accounts from Wilson Automotive Service. As the leasing industry continued to expand, EMKAY was named the third-largest lessor in the U.S. in 1958.

EMKAYs steady growth rate continued through the 1960s under the leadership of Braude. The company had more than 30 full-time employees and announced plans to lease vehicles in Venezuela, England, France, and Germany. The customer base included companies such as American Tobacco, The Gillette Company, and divisions of General Electric.

A change of ownership came about in 1973 when EMKAYs founders, Braude and Katzin, made the decision to sell the business to Indiana Capital Corp., which was headed by Samuel Rea. Upon the completion of this transition, Steven Benedict was named president, and Rea was elected chairman of the board for EMKAY, Inc.

Another example of innovation from within EMKAY came about in 1973 when an EMKAY salesman, Dean Milburn, made his case with management and EMKAY created an industry first by providing fuel credit cards to leasing customers. Western Electric was the first customer to sign onto the fuel card program.

Gary Tepas

However, the new ownership team did not have the same business prowess as Braude and the company began to fall on hard times. When Benedict passed away in 1977, Rea was tasked with locating a successor, though numerous short-term replacements fell short of expectations. Reas ongoing search for a viable replacement ended when he brought Gary Tepas aboard in 1978 as executive vice president.

With Tepas at the helm, changes were swift and calculated. Being that the majority of vehicles were closed-end leases, EMKAY was remarketing those that were coming off-lease. The performance of this department had been down, so in 1978, Tepas appointed Bob Brehm to head up the remarketing process. Brehm had been managing the maintenance department, and his replacement would bring about yet another industry first for EMKAY. Tepas named Lucille Mackey as the maintenance manager, making her the first woman to hold the position at a national leasing company, a role that she held for nearly 15 years before retiring.

Further helping the revamp of the company was Tepas hiring of Bill Stoops and Bob Kaiser as senior sales executives. The two spearheaded the rapid growth of EMKAY over the following decades. In June 1980, Tepas was named president of EMKAY.

EMKAYs growing presence in the Chicago area offered yet another avenue for improvement. In 1985, the executive team made the decision to open EMKAY Motors in Schaumburg, Ill., from which they would offer a service and body shop, daily rentals, and new-vehicle deliveries to drivers in the Chicagoland area. The location would also act as a dealer for the remarketing of off-lease vehicles.

The last ownership change to date occurred in 1986, when Sam Rea approved Tepas to expand the amount of stock options provided to employees, knowing by doing so his shareholders would lose control of the company. By 1996, Indiana Capital Corp. would exit; making Tepas the largest shareholder and ownership was transferred.

In 1988, Tepas had located a piece of property in Itasca, Ill., that provided ample space for EMKAY to operate from. The land was purchased and the two-story, red-brick building that was constructed is the same in which EMKAY operates from to this day.

After the exit of Indiana Capital Corp in 1996, Tepas was named chairman of the board and chief executive officer of EMKAY, Inc. as the company celebrated a milestone 50th anniversary. The fact that EMKAY was now a family- and employee-owned business aided in promoting an atmosphere in which customer satisfaction was the top priority. A more personal approach to managing and assisting clients came about, helping to cultivate the concept of a customizable fleet process. The idea was to make the fleet program as tailored to each clients specific needs as possible. An example of such came about in 1997, when EMKAY brought about another industry first by offering a completely customizable driver handbook. It was during the early 2000s that two of Garys sons, Chris and Greg, joined EMKAY. The two would hold numerous positions within the company before ultimately ending up in executive roles. The process of moving from department-to-department offered the two an in-depth look into the inner workings of the company.

Greg Tepas

A building that was directly behind EMKAY headquarters became available for purchase in 2003, when the construction company that had owned it moved out. Tepas quickly realized the potential benefits the building could provide EMKAY, and purchased it shortly thereafter. This became the new location of EMKAY Motors and was used to sell off-lease vehicles, deliver new orders, and service in-service leased vehicles. As the companys properties and employee base continued to grow, so did its leasing portfolio. In September 2004, EMKAY purchased the leasing portfolio of Auto Rental Corporation.

In 2007, Greg Tepas was named president and CEO for EMKAY. As Greg transitioned to this new role Gary remained involved in day-to-day operations in order to ensure a seamless passing of the guard. In March 2008, Gary officially retired as president and CEO, though he remained involved in operations as chairman of the board of directors.

In 2011, EMKAY completed the buyout of JPL, a Canadian leasing company. Though EMKAY had been leasing vehicles in Canada since the mid-1990s, this was a huge step in cementing the company as a major player in the Canadian fleet market. Just a few years after this buyout was completed, EMKAY had established brick-and-mortar offices in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. This expansion allowed for additional full-time employees to be added, and for the Canadian service model to match that of the U.S.

Greg DePace was named president & COO of the U.S. company in June 2015. Norm Lyle was hired and named president of EMKAY Canada Leasing Corp. in 2016 to replace a soon-to-retire Paul Turner.

About the author: Michael O'Brien is the analytics and communications coordinator for EMKAY.
The Chinese capital is hosting once every two years the Beijing Auto Show that is becoming one of world's most prominent motor exhibitions. At the Beijing Auto Show, manufacturers from around the world target the ever-expanding Chinese car market.

According to Auto Express, the vast majority of the cars displayed at the 2016 Beijing Auto Show will specifically target China. Auto experts expect exciting news cars from major automaker brands such as Audi, Porsche, Honda and Renault, among others.

Chinese brands like Chery, Dongfeng, BAIC and Geely will all be present at the show. According to the automotive publication Motoring, Chinese car giant Chery has revealed a sketch of its latest creation, the electric crossover FV2030 concept that will compete against the China-only ultra-sleek Mazda CX-4 SUV.

While Chinese automakers' car models are yet not so attractive for the western customers, there is a chance that some of them will extend their operations into the global markets in the future. The 2016 Beijing Auto Show edition will also feature plenty of China-only car models of familiar brands including a long wheelbase Mercedes E-Class and a plug-in Ford C-MAX.

The Beijing Motor Show is scheduled in 2016 between the dated of April 29 and May 4. According to the publication Women of China, the organizing committee of Auto China 2016 has announced recently revealed that at the 2016 Beijing Auto Show there will be no women models.

The organizing unit explains in a notification that the decision was made in order to direct attention back to the original purpose and meaning of the motor show. The organizers aim to create a safe, clean and orderly exhibition environment and to make the audience focus their attention on the purpose and the original meaning of the auto show.

According to the statement, the automaker companies attending the 2016 Beijing Auto Show should use healthy perspective and good taste to promote and to reject "low publicity stunts that are harmful" to the Chinese culture. China's ban on auto models is not the first case. During the 2015 Shanghai auto show has happened the first Chinese ban on car models.
News circuits are speculating over FCA CEO's statement on a possible rival line for Tesla's Model 3 which was released early this month. The Italian-American multinational brand is also known in the industry as the 7th-largest automaker in the world.

CEO Sergio Marchionne raised doubts on Tesla's $35,000 Model 3 business-wise mainly due to the fact that advanced orders are climbing close to 400,000, according to AutoNews Europe. He doesn't seem surprised on the outcome of rising reservations of Elon Musk's latest EV release, however, he is waiting to see if the profits outweigh his expectations.

Marchionne further commented on the Model 3's purchase price at $35,000, if it could give back some profit to Tesla. He added on not holding back in copying the Tesla formula, adding the Italian touch design, and putting it out in the market all in one year. When questioned about the company's take on the self-driving cars' trend, the CEO said that it's not happening anytime soon, according to the news agency.

Meanwhile, an AutoBlog post noted on Tesla CEO Elon Musk's excitement for the Tesla Model 3, which customers can get their hands on by 2017 when the car gets officially released. On the other hand, the FCA boss has been known not only for his controversial statements but also for his dislike of EVs.

Although FCA had built its own version of an EV in 2014, which was the 500e, Marchionne said that the company only did so because of the state of California's mandate on zero-emissions vehicles, and strongly suggested for people not to buy the company vehicle.

It's not a secret that the company is in no hurry to join other auto makers in developing EVs and hybrids, USAToday reported. The auto maker is also set to unveil a Chrysler Pacifica hybrid within this year, and still others to come.
In terms of success and revenues, the Lexus sales have amounted to 1 million luxury hybrids distributed on the market for a period of 11 years. At the same time, Toyota aims at enhancing the marketing strategies to attain more revenues for the coming years.

Toyota and its Lexus hybrid cars embody luxury and sophistication. Also, Lexus has remained resilient in the market despite the economic meltdown and global crisis. To prove the latter, "The millionth Lexus hybrid was an NX 300h crossover, which was delivered to owner Aldo Pirronello in Milan, Italy, and this milestone was reached almost exactly 11 years after the first Lexus hybrid was sold," according to a post from Green Car Reports.

Moreover, the sales figure for the Toyota Lexus and its other hybrid cars are noteworthy and stunning. In other markets, Lexus was able to sell its second hybrid version of the GS sedan named as the GS 300h, and other hybrid variants, mainly the IS sedan and RC coupe. The same post also noted that Lexus sold more than HS 250h sedan in Japan, and that same model was pulled out from the U.S. markets in 2012 owing to poor revenues.

Meanwhile, Lexus has been progressively mounting up its hybrid vehicle family after the debut of the RX 400h, the GS 450h in 2006 and the LS 600h. In 2009, Lexus added the HS 250h, followed by the first premium hybrid compact, the CT 200h, in 2011, based on a separate report from Carscoops. In 2012, the IS 300h was released followed by GS 300h and NX 300h for the following year 2013 and 2014. As for the RC 300h that was distributed in global car stalls by the end of 2015.

It stands to reason that the 11 years of sales legacy for the hybrid Lexus is a clear gauge for the Lexus sales and revenues. It is also a testament to the car maker's brand and aim for excellence despite the rising and troubled waters of the car industry.
The powerful earthquake that rocked Japan on Friday, April 15, 2016, has negatively affected several industries in the country. Toyota and Nissan were forced to stop production temporarily after the magnitude-7.0 earthquake damaged the factories of a key auto supplier.

A couple of factories of Aisin Seiki, the car supplier that creates body components and die-cast engine parts for Toyota, Nissan and Daihatsu, were damaged by the huge quake. Reportedly, windows and walls at the two plants were destroyed, which would require immediate fixing. In effect, the assembly lines of Toyota and Nissan were kept idle due to delays in the production of needed materials in the supply chain.

According to Jalopnik, the Miyata plant was forced to stop production for two whole days. The plant is responsible for building the Lexus IS, HS, ES, CT and RX for Toyota. April 15 and 16 work schedules at Miyata had to be halted by Toyota. Nearby engine and transmission factories also had to cease production at the moment because more time was required to look into the lower levels of the supply chain and guarantee that there will be no interruptions in the deliveries of needed sub-components.

As for Nisan, its Fukuoka factory will have to stop production temporarily due to the damaged Aisin Seiki factories. The Fukuoka is responsible for making the Nissan Rogue and Murano and was required to stop production on April 16.

Auto News cites that Nissan will have to make further evaluations on the current situation of their supplier to plan for operations beginning April 18 and beyond.

Over the weekend, more earthquakes were felt in Japan, including a magnitude-7.3 seismic activity that hit a manufacturing hub in the southern part of Japan.

Reuters says that the quakes have caused a drop of three percent in the Japanese share market. Factories for other manufacturing brands were also subsequently closed in the Kumamoto region, which was ravaged by the calamity.

According to Chief Cabinet Secretary YoshihideSuga, the Japanese government will exercise all the necessary measures to support businesses that were affected by the series of earthquakes, as well as the economy on a wider scale. The government may also tap into reserve funds to help affected industries. Toyota Motor Corp. was among the businesses that suffered huge drops. In the morning trade, Toyota went down by 6.8 percent on the sharemarket. Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. also dropped over five percent, followed by minor improvements.
18 April 2016 17:04 (UTC+04:00)

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijans National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) continues demining operations in countrys regions adjacent to the front-line area.

As a result of monitoring of Azerbaijans Terter, Goranboy, Aghjabadi, Agdam and Fizuli regions from April 7 to April 17, the agency has found and detonated 137 unexploded ordnances (UXOs).

Currently, special quick reaction forces are continuing demining operations using sniffer dogs.

Countrys Terter region has been suffering from Armenias attacks most of all. During the recent provocations in the front-line areas, the village has become the main target of the Armenian belligerent army. Within three days, Armenian armed forces have fired Gapanli, targeting mainly civilians using heavy artillery weapons.

Armenia launched military attacks towards Azerbaijan on April 2. As a result of armed clashes residents of the Azerbaijani villages adjacent to the contact line of troops were subjected to enemys shelling.

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. However, Armenia has ignored the agreement and started violating the ceasefire again.

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.

--

Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
18 April 2016 16:47 (UTC+04:00)

By Nazrin Gadimova

Armenia has grossly violated the Geneva Conventions and its obligations under other international documents while refusing to return the body of the Azerbaijani soldier despite the reached agreements.

Hikmet Hajiyev, the Spokesperson for Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry told media on April 18. Earlier, the Defense Ministry has confirmed the information that the dead body of the serviceman was found on the Armenia-occupied side of the contact line between the troops.

Hajiyev accused the Armenian side in inhuman and cruel treatment of those killed as a result of military operations.

Armenia, being far from human values, exposes the corpses to torture and abuse and turns them into objects of revenge and political speculation, he stressed, adding that as a result of Armenias aggression, over 4,000 Azerbaijani civilians and servicemen were captured during the 1992-1994 war, held as hostages and are still considered missing.

Armenia avoids giving information about these persons, mass graves and the people who can give testimony in connection with captives and hostages taken during the conflict.

At the same time, Armenia is not active in searching the dead bodies of its soldiers and officers, thereby showing that they are not interested in handing over the dead bodies of the servicemen to their families, the Azerbaijans Defense Ministry reported.

Possibly, those dead bodies left by Armenians in the battlefield are the bodies of the terrorists and mercenaries conscripted as "volunteers", according to the ministry.

The ministry believes that Yerevan violates the reached agreements, undertakes actions towards increasing the tension, and thus, shows disrespect to the initiatives of the international mediators.

"Despite the previously achieved agreement on the transfer of the body of Azerbaijani soldier, the subsequent failure of Armenia in this issue shocked intermediaries on both sides of the front, the ministry noted.

Armenia also ignores repeated warnings of intermediaries about ban on photo- and video-filming during the retrieving of bodies from the battlefield.

Moreover, they replace these pictures and videos in social networks. Only after Azerbaijan expressed its protest to the international mediators, these videos have been removed, the ministrys report reads.

Meanwhile, after Azerbaijan has expressed its regret with the fact that the negotiators do not hurry to take tough measures against Armenia in this issue, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that negotiations on the return of the body are underway.

Currently, the ICRC is continuing dialogue with the parties to the conflict to clarify the further fate of those missing. The dialogue is conducted confidentially, said Ilaha Huseynova, the head of Public Relations Department at the Azerbaijani representation of the ICRC.

Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.

Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Armenia refuses to implement the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its immediate and unconditional pullout from the neighboring country's territories.

--

Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

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19 April 2016 17:05 (UTC+04:00)

By Aynur Karimova

Azerbaijan and Turkey, the two neighboring countries and strategic partners, are keen on further developing multifaceted relations in all fronts, including in the judicial field.

A visit of a delegation led by Ismail Rustu Cirit, the Chairman of Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeal to Azerbaijan will give a new impetus to the development of judicial ties between the two countries.

Baku and Ankara believe that the successful cooperation between the judicial systems of the two countries contribute to further expansion of the bilateral ties.

This was stated at a meeting held between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the Turkish delegation led by Ismail Rustu Cirit on April 17.

During the meeting, President Aliyev recalled with pleasure his participation in the 13th Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation recently held in Istanbul, describing the high-level representation of the Islamic countries in this event as a manifestation of their attitude towards Turkey.

He said that his meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the country's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu were fruitful.

Ismail Rustu Cirit, in turn, said the relations between the two friendly and fraternal countries are developing successfully in all areas, adding the people of Turkey appreciate this.

He also offered condolences to President Aliyev over the martyrdom of Azerbaijani servicemen in the latest developments on the line of contact of troops in the Nagorno-Karabakh, and wished those wounded the soonest possible recovery.

He said Turkey has always stood by Azerbaijan in the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

As part of the visit, Ismail Rustu Cirit also met with Chairman of Azerbaijan's Supreme Court Ramiz Rzayev, where the sides hailed the relations between the judicial-legal systems of the two countries.

Ismail Rustu Cirit highlighted the activity of the Supreme Court of Appeal, and stressed the importance of cooperation between the two countries.

Prior to the meeting, the Turkish delegation visited the Alley of Honors, and laid a wreath at the tomb of Azerbaijan's national leader Heydar Aliyev.

They also put flowers at the grave of prominent ophthalmologist, academician Zarifa Aliyeva.

The Turkish delegation then visited the Alley of Martyrs to put flowers at the graves of Azerbaijani brave sons who gave their lives for the country's independence and territorial integrity.

They also visited the Eternal Flame monument and a monument to Turkish soldiers.

Later, Fikret Mammadov, the Justice Minister of Azerbaijan, who also serves as the Chairman of the Judicial-Legal Council, met with the Turkish delegation.

During the meeting, Mammadov expressed condolences in connection with numerous loss of human life as a result of the ruthless acts of terrorism which have occurred recently in Turkey, stressed effective cooperation between the two countries at the bilateral level, and also their continued support each other within the international organizations.

He spoke in detail about reforms in the field of justice and the judicial reforms which are carried out in Azerbaijan.

Having shown great interest to the reforms which are carried out in the judicial and legal sphere, guests have stated a wish of further expansion of bilateral ties, have noted importance for both parties of exchange of positive experience.

The Turkish delegation also had talks with Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter @Aynur_Karimova

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18 April 2016 17:07 (UTC+04:00)

By Aynur Karimova

The U.S. State Department has voiced the necessity to strengthen the economic ties between Baku and Washington.

"We discussed the issues related to trade, finances, agriculture, combating corruption," Kurt Tong, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the Department of State told journalists in Baku on April 15. "My role is to strengthen the economy cooperation between Azerbaijan and the U.S."

Kurt said that the U.S. believes it would be a very great idea for Azerbaijan to complete its accession for the WTO.

"This will create more opportunities for Azerbaijan in trade and investment," he noted adding that Baku's WTO accession will also create additional opportunities for strengthening the country's economic relations with other countries in trade.

Tong was in Baku on April 14-15 to discuss with Azerbaijan's officials how the U.S. government is assisting Azerbaijan's economic growth and how that assistance can be improved. The program of Tong's two-day visit to Baku included the U.S. State Department's global economic diplomacy efforts, prospective cooperation with Azerbaijan in trade, finance, telecommunications, transportation, commercial areas, according to the message.

Azerbaijan has had an observer status at the WTO since 1997. A working group on Azerbaijan was established at the WTO Secretariat on July 16, 1997.

Azerbaijan started negotiations with the WTO member countries in 2004. Currently, the country is negotiating with 19 countries. Russia, which formally expressed a desire to start negotiations with Azerbaijan, was the last one to join the organization, but no offers have been received from this country yet.

Negotiations have been finalized and the protocols signed with Turkey, the Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The country is at the stage of signing the protocol with China and Moldova.

Tong went on to add that Azerbaijan wants to change its economy into the developed one not being dependent on resources.

He hailed the importance of Baku Port in the development of economy.

"The role of the Baku Port is of pivotal importance," the State Department representative said. "But we should not forget that in order to increase the role of the port the economy of the states located on the shores of the Caspian Sea should be developed. And this is an issue that depends on the development of markets that exist inside of them. When the markets in various countries develop, a number of goods also increase and it contributes to the port's important role."

The construction of the Baku International Sea Trade Port began in November 2010.

The funds directed to the implementation of all three phases of the port construction are expected to hit 870 million manats ($573.61 million).

The estimated transshipment volume for the new port complex is up to 10 million tons of cargo and 40,000 TEU containers at the first stage, up to 17 million tons of cargo and 150,000 TEU containers at the second stage, and up to 25 million tons of cargo, and 1 million TEU containers at the third stage of the project.

Azerbaijan and the U.S. established diplomatic relations in 1992. Today the two countries enjoy close ties - active political dialogue and economic cooperation. To date, the U.S. companies have invested more than $10 billion in Azerbaijan's economy.

Azerbaijan, which is an initiator of huge oil and gas projects of international importance and plays a significant role in ensuring Europe's energy security, is considered a reliable partner by the U.S.

The two countries enjoy opportunities to develop relations in the fields of investment, industry, in particular in the establishment of joint ventures in engineering, pharmacy, agriculture, tourism, ICT and trade sectors.

According to Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $116.2 million in January-February of 2016.

The U.S. ranks sixth among Azerbaijan's foreign trade partners with a share of 5.27 percent of the total trade turnover of the country.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter @Aynur_Karimova

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Baku to participate in the 7th UNAOC Global Forum, to be held on April 25-27, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism told Trend on April 18.

"A meeting with the participation of senior officials and around 30 sessions are planned to be held," the ministry said. "The Baku Declaration is planned to be adopted at a high-level meeting of the UN Alliance of Civilizations."

The ministry said the Organizing Committee was established in connection with holding of the 7th UNAOC Global Forum in Baku on April 25-27 upon Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's decree dated July 24, 2015.

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18 April 2016 13:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijans top official expects negotiations on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to launch soon.

Ali Hasanov, Azerbaijani Presidents Assistant for Public and Political Affairs, told local media that Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the heads of states of Armenia and Azerbaijan to sit at a negotiating table to resolve the long lasting conflict.

However, he did not revealed the exact date of the meeting.

Immediately after escalation of the situation at the front-line on April 2, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group called on the parties to observe ceasefire, but Armenia continued violating truce by shelling not only Azerbaijans positions, but also villages adjacent to the contact line of troops. Armenia has stopped breaching ceasefire only after President Putin expressed his deepest concern over the situation.

Hasanov said Azerbaijan has ceased fire under the instruction of President Ilham Aliyev.

"We wanted to show the world that we were not interested in continuing this war, bloodshed, and death of innocent civilians," he stressed.

Azerbaijan requires the intensification of negotiations and the liberation of Azerbaijani lands based on its sovereign rights, Hasanov concluded.

Russia, which enjoys much influence on Armenia, has always been considered a key party in brokering a lasting solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Earlier, as part of annual direct line, President Putin said Russia will do everything to find a solution to the crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in turn, believes that the release of the regions around Karabakh and simultaneous addressing of the issue of its status will allow unlocking the situation in the conflict zone.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed to cease operations on the line of contact starting from 12.00, April 5, as a meeting between the Chief of General Staff of Azerbaijan Armed Forces Colonel General Najmaddin Sadikov and the Chief of General Staff of Armenian Armed Forces Colonel General Yuri Khachaturyan took place by the mediation of the Russian side.

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.

The OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, proceeding talks based on the renewed Madrid principles. The statements promising a sincere contribution to the peaceful resolution of the conflict have become frequent, but declarative in essence.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

--

Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

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18 April 2016 13:09 (UTC+04:00)

Former Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, Ephraim Sneh said that Jerusalem should publicly state its diplomatic support for Baku, following the deterioration of the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, according to cursorinfo.co.il.

The current ceasefire in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region won't stand the test of time, according to Sneh.

Sneh went on to add that Israel and Azerbaijan are strategic allies. Baku, according to various estimates, supplies up to 40 percent of oil consumed by Israel, he said.

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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18 April 2016 13:21 (UTC+04:00)

Armenia is mostly guilty in continuation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Sergey Markov, the political analyst, told reporters on April 18 in Baku.

"The recent clashes in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region were expected, and there are several reasons for that," he said. "In contrast to other conflicts, there were no peacekeepers on the border, and not the conflict, but the negotiations were frozen and the OSCE Minsk Group is partly guilty of that."

He said each co-chair country of OSCE Minsk Group has a large Armenian diaspora, which makes it hard to influence Armenia.

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 April 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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18 April 2016 16:33 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has condemned Armenian media reports for misinformation about provocations on the contact line, resulting in "injury of two Armenian soldiers".

Such reports are aimed at gross violation of the agreement on the suspension of military operations, the ministry told Trend on April 18.

Over the past few days no operation has been conducted by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, the ministry said.

The national army only struck back at the enemy positions, violating the ceasefire. The incident with the injured Armenian soldiers occurred as a result of their personal lack of discipline and hazing.

The Armenian media reported about the Azerbaijani side's alleged provocation and wounding of two Armenian servicemen in the northern direction of the line of contact of both countries.

Under the agreement achieved between the sides through international mediation, it is planned to carry out search and the removal of the dead bodies left on the battlefield on April 19 in this direction of the front.

On the night of April 2, 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 civilians. 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 continued violating the ceasefire.

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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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli
18 April 2016 16:08 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of the second bus depot of Bakubus LLC, Azertac state news agency reports.

The head of state was informed of the conditions created at the facility.

Located near Koroglu metro station, the depot provides a parking lot for up to 300 buses.

President Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the official opening of the depot, and viewed the administrative building here.

Director General of Baku Transport Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers Vusal Karimli informed the head of state of the 10-month activity of Bakubus LLC.

Established on April 3, 2014, Bakubus LLC today operates 170 buses on seven routes in Baku. The company carried around 24 million people in seven months. The depot will create nearly 1,500 jobs. The company currently employs 750 people.

President Aliyev viewed buses to be purchased by Bakubus LLC.

The head of state was informed that the second depot of the company occupies a total area of eight hectares. There are administrative and secondary buildings, facilities for drivers, medical points, repair and washing centers, as well as buildings for the night shift employees.

President Aliyev wished the staff of the company success.
18 April 2016 18:09 (UTC+04:00)

By Nazrin Gadimova

Although the Council of Europe has no direct mandate, the parliamentary diplomacy can help bring closer positions of parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Pedro Agramunt, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), made the remark as part of a spring session held in Strasbourg on April 18.

Addressing the event, Agramunt said the recent developments on the contact line of troops between the Armenian and Azerbaijani armies have led to numerous casualties among civilians as well.

"The territorial integrity of 47 member states [of the Council of Europe] should be respected," he added. "I condemn violence. We should be cautious to the highest extent in this matter and avoid excessive criticism."

Agramunt noted that both sides should ensure the de-escalation of the situation and stop violence.

"International law provides a legal basis for a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Armenia and Azerbaijan should fulfill their commitments under the international law and achieve a peaceful settlement to the conflict," the PACE president said, adding that this issue will remain a primary topic on the agenda of the organization.

Meanwhile, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, Samad Seyidov believes that the timing of Armenia's criminal provocation against Azerbaijan wasn't chosen accidentally: Armenia launched military operations in a time when the West and Azerbaijan are strengthening cooperation.

"We will witness even greater tragedies if we appease the aggressor," Seyidov stressed, addressing the session.

After Armenia breached the fragile ceasefire on April 2, the international community expressed concern over the situation and urged the parties to the conflict to strictly observe the truce.

The OSCE Minsk Group, which has been the sole mediator of the conflict over the past 22 years, failed to resolve the long-lasting conflict that emerged as a result of Armenian aggression on the background of the USSRs breakup.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, over 4,000 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.

--

Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

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18 April 2016 15:15 (UTC+04:00)

By Aynur Karimova

The idea of establishment of the International Trans-Caspian Transportation Consortium by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Georgia is expected to smooth the way for cargo on the Trans-Caspian route.

Akif Mustafayev, the TRACECA National Secretary in Azerbaijan, told Trend on April 15 that the establishment of such a consortium clearly determines the cooperation among the member-states of the transport corridor project.

"I would like this consortium to give concrete results and not to resemble other consortia as part of other projects," he said.

The railway agencies of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement to establish the International Trans-Caspian Transport Consortium on April 13 during the meeting of companies involved in cargo transportation via the Trans-Caspian international transport route.

Azerbaijani companies ADY Express and ACSC Logistics, Kazakh KTZ Express JSC and Georgian Trans Caucasus Terminals LLC are the members of the consortium.

The consortium was established to address the issues concerning tariffs, existing bureaucratic delays, to eliminate deficiencies in infrastructure, and to increase the container train speed.

Speaking about the operation of other consortia engaged in the transport sector, Mustafayev said that a consortium on the North-South project was established among Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia 10 years ago to accelerate the railway construction, but was ineffective until now.

"Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev expressed political will. The process moved forward thanks to the president's decisions," he noted, adding that another consortium on the East-West corridor was set up in Istanbul with the participation of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan in the third quarter of 2015. However, its activity leaves much to be desired.

The Trans-Caspian route connects China with Europe via the territory of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia. This is a multimodal corridor which uses railway, maritime and road transport for transportation of goods.

The Trans-Caspian route enjoys an opportunity to become attractive and profitable for consignors from European countries. This route will transport approximately 300,000-400,000 containers by 2020.

This route is attracting the attention of the transport and logistics communities of China, Turkey, Ukraine and European countries, which are looking for new routes of supply of their products to foreign markets.

Earlier, Azerbaijan Railways reported that Germany and Lithuania have expressed interest in joining the Trans-Caspian route.

Being the cheapest and most profitable corridor for freight traffic, the Trans-Caspian route is expected not to have an alternative in the coming decade.

The growing interest in transport infrastructures via Azerbaijan helps the country to become a major transport hub in the region.

Once fully operated, the transport route will have a positive impact on Azerbaijans economic growth.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter @Aynur_Karimova

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18 April 2016 16:19 (UTC+04:00)

By Fatma Babayeva

The International Monetary Fund is interested in providing technical support and joint implementation of projects with the Financial Market Supervisory Body in Azerbaijan.

Philip Bartholomew, head of the technical support mission in the Middle East and Central Asia department at the IMF made the remark in Baku at a meeting with Rufat Aslanli, the Chairman of the Board of Directors under the Financial Market Supervisory Body.

Head of the mission expressed his confidence that the progress will be achieved in maintaining sustainable financial position in the market and to ensure the stability of the financial sector.

The long-term relations between Azerbaijan and the IMF have always been at the high level, said Aslanli in his turn.

The head of the Financial Market Supervisory Body also spoke about the steps taken to ensure financial stability and sustainability in Azerbaijan on the background of the geopolitical trends and macroeconomic risks.

Afterwards, the sides discussed the measures on sustainable financial stability and the prospects of future cooperation between the Financial Market Supervisory Body and the IMF in this context.

Azerbaijan established in February a legal public entity -- Financial Market Supervisory Body -- to cope with the impacts of decreased revenues from oil and gas sales.

The body was founded within the framework of ongoing structural reforms to improve the business environment, promote transparency and increase efficiency of public administration.

This supervisory body aims at licensing, regulating and controlling the securities market, investment funds, insurance and credit organizations. It is independent from state budget and operates based on the principle of self-financing.

The IMF, which is active in Azerbaijan since 1992, has allocated Azerbaijan $577.3 million in loans for the realization of the program on economic reforms in during 1995-2005. Azerbaijan fully repaid loans to the fund.

Since 2005, no need has arisen to apply for the IMF credit for Azerbaijan. Thats why, the parties have been cooperating on consultation and technical assistance issues in the main directions of the macroeconomic policy since 2006.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

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18 April 2016 19:17 (UTC+04:00)

By Fatma Babayeva

Five-year exemption from value added tax, customs duties and compulsory fees for the state social insurance has been suggested for the residents of Garadagh industrial park who are engaged in shipbuilding.

Relative amendments to the Tax Code, Laws on Social Insurance and on Customs Tariff were discussed at the meeting of the parliamentary committee for economic policy, entrepreneurship and industry on April 18.

Amendments suggest to exempt any type of imported goods used by the residents (shipbuilders) of the industrial park from VAT and customs duties for five years starting from May 1, 2016.

Regarding contractors, application of zero VAT are offered to the residents on the sale of the goods that are used in shipbuilding while implementing various works and providing services, as well as to the sub-contractors selling products to contractors and carrying out different works or services for them.

Foreign contractors and sub-contractors who are hired by the residents of Garadag industrial park to work in shipbuilding are also expected to be exempt from compulsory fees on the state social insurance for five years beginning from May 1, 2016.

Baku Shipyard LLC received the status of the first resident of Garadagh industrial park last year.

Baku Shipyard LLC was commissioned on September 20, 2013. The participants of the project on the construction of the plant were the state-owned oil and gas company of Azerbaijani of SOCAR (65 percent), Azerbaijan Investment Company (25 percent), and Singaporean KV Enterprises B.V. which is a subsidiary of the Singaporean Keppel Offshore and Marine, KOM (10 percent).

The plant is designed for the construction of a wide range of specialized and merchant ships including multi-purpose offshore vessels such as platform supply vessels, tankers and cargo ships. The company also implemented ship repair works.

Once reached its full capacity, the plant will be able to carry out 100 repair or rebuilding works a year.

In June 2015, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the establishment of Baku Industrial Park in the territory of Garadagh district.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

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18 April 2016 18:25 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

The State Agency for health insurance has started to operate in Azerbaijan under the Cabinet of Ministers.



Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmadov said to ensure effective operation of this structure, it is necessary to attract appropriate experts at the first stage.

The next stage, according to Ahmadov, provides conducting a serious work in applying mandatory health insurance.

Considerable work has been done, the concept [of compulsory health insurance] is almost ready, but relevant activities are underway. A group of international experts has been invited to study which model is most appropriate for Azerbaijan. One such group is already examining what opportunities and resources exist for the application of the system in the country, he said.

The deputy prime minister emphasized that after determining the specific model, Azerbaijan will start to apply this type of insurance.

I believe that through the use of compulsory medical insurance the quality of medical services provided to the population will increase significantly, he said.

Another goal of creating this public agency, according to him, is applying a new and more modern health care financing form in Azerbaijan.

Ahmadov said that Azerbaijan also intends to apply this model, which is used in the global health system.

The main task of this model is more rational use of funds allocated by the state, which will contribute improving healthcare quality he said. For low-income groups of population health care will be financed by the state, and it will also make insurance premiums [on compulsory medical insurance].

Compulsory health insurance remains a priority in Azerbaijan's insurance policy. The mandatory insurance program ensures citizens to receive free, high-quality medical care and eliminates unofficial payments from the health system.

Earlier, Azerbaijan has requested a technical assistance from the World Bank for the implementation of compulsory health insurance in the country.

Currently, Azerbaijan has only voluntary medical insurance, fees for which amounted to 36.86 million manats (about $24 million) in January 2016, with payments of up to 4.47 million manats (about $2.94 million).

Ahmadov further touched upon the medicine production, adding that all the necessary conditions will be created for companies, which want to open a pharmaceutical plants in the country.

Work on the organization of pharmaceutical production are promoted, and there are several options in this regard. I believe that after the establishment of one or two pharmaceutical plants, Azerbaijani market will be interesting for other manufacturers and a number of pharmaceutical companies desiring to open a plant in the country will increase, he explained.

The deputy prime minister emphasized that this experience may enable domestic drug manufacturers to appear after certain time.

Anyway, the work has begun, and I think that drugs that will soon be produced in Azerbaijan, will appear on the countrys medicine market, he hoped.



Developing pharmaceutical manufacturing in Azerbaijan may become one of major directions in the country's aim to diversify its non-oil sector of the economy.

In late 2015, the government announced that Azerbaijan will establish its own enterprises that will manufacture medicines to cease dependence on imports.

The market of medicines in Azerbaijan by 97 percent dependent on imports, while 57 percent of medicines registered in the country are produced in Europe, 26 percent in the CIS countries, including 12 percent made in Russia. The small proportion is produced in Asian countries.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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18 April 2016 17:01 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

April 18 is celebrated as the International Day for Monuments and Sites each year around the world.

Approved by the General Assembly of UNESCO in 1983, the event is aimed to promote awareness about the diversity of cultural heritage of humanity, their vulnerability and the efforts required for their protection and conservation.

The cultural heritage of the Azerbaijani people is an inseparable part of the world culture and the tool attracting thousands of foreign tourists.

The Icheri Sheher, Shirvanshahs Palace, Maiden Tower and other unique monuments that testify for rich culture of Azerbaijani people are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Atashgah Fire Temple and Gobustan State History and Arts Reserve, an open air museum and one of the oldest historic sites in Absheron and many others are unique samples of Azerbaijan, proving the antiquity of its civilization.

Sightseeing in the countrys regions such as Palace of the Sheki Khans, Sheki Caravansarai and Juma Mosque of Ganja and Momine Khatun Mausoleum in Nakhchivan are other interesting attractions mesmerizing many tourists.

Establishment of the Gala Archeological and Ethnographic Museum Complex located in one of Absherons most ancient settlements serves to preservation of the historical past and transformation of the country into a tourism center.

Historical and Ethnographic Reserve Gala is located in 40 km of Baku - Sulh street, 5. Founded in 2008 in the Gala settlement, the reserve is dedicated to the history of the Absheron Peninsula. The visitors can get acquainted with the lifestyle the people enjoyed in between the 16th-19th centuries. The complex features cave paintings, gavaldash, pottery, household items, jewelry, weapons and coins, and ancient settlements dating back from the III-II millennium BC. to the Middle Ages.

The Shirvanshahs Palace, located in the heart of the Old City is another place of interest which hold many mysteries and secrets. The palace was constructed in the 13th-16th centuries.The palace also has a colorful museum, which will not leave any history lover indifferent.

The Maiden Tower, a historical symbol of Baku dating back to ancient times, has always been a source of national pride. It is believed that the monument was built as a Zoroastrian temple used for fire worshipping, sacrifice rituals and other religious ceremonies. In January 2014, the tower opened its doors to visitors after a major conservation work.

The cultural property of the Azerbaijani people isn't limited and include many ancient places. The Armenian armed forces that occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan territories officially recognized by all the UN member states violently destroyed the national and cultural monuments there.



As a result of military aggression, the Azykh and Taglar Caves, known as pioneer settlements of primitive man, and while Garakopek and Uzarliktep barrows are used in military purposes and destroyed partially. Along with burial mounds in Khojaly, Agdam, Agdere, Fizuli, Jabrail regions, cemeteries, mausoleums, gravestone monuments, mosques, temples, monuments of the Caucasian Albania and other national monuments in the occupied regions have been purposefully destroyed.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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18 April 2016 13:56 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijans State Theatre of Young Spectators has given a start to a new international project.

The theater plans to stage plays on its scene through art direction of masters from different countries.

As part of this project, honored art worker of Russia, artistic director of Kalmyk National Drama theatre Boris Margiev will arrive in Baku to stage a performance based on the work by B. Basangov "Relatives" (Qohumlar), Trend Life reports.

The composer of a new play is honored art worker of Kalmykia, director of Kalmyk State philharmonic, Arkady Mandzhiyev, and art designer is Elshan Sarkhasnoglu.

Creative team of Azerbaijans State Theatre of Young Spectators and Kalmyk National Drama theatre will play the leading roles in the new play.

The premiere is scheduled for beginning of June. Besides, in the framework of the 80th anniversary of Kalmyk National Drama theater, the play "Relatives" will be staged in the city of Elista (Kalmykia).

Azerbaijan State Theatre of Young Spectators was established on March 15, 1927, in Baku, on the basis of Children's Theatre and artistic amateur drama circles of students. The "Storm" play written on initiative of 14-year-old Aghadadash Gurbanov laid the foundation of the Children Theater.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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18 April 2016 18:49 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

The Center of Contemporary Art in Baku has opened an art exhibition of works by young artists, students of Baku Art Corner studio, Trend Life reports.

The exhibition titled "Spring inspiration" included approximately 110 paintings of 45 young artists.

The artists performed in two age groups - 4 to 8 and from 9 to 15 years.

Baku Art Corner functions with the assistance of honored artist of Azerbaijan Esmer Narimanbayova and art director of the studio, artist Safia Mirbabaeva.

Addressing the event, secretary of Artists Union of Azerbaijan, the People's Artist of Azerbaijan Agali Ibrahimov; cultural adviser at French Embassy in Azerbaijan Yoann Litterer, appraised the works presented in the venue. Bright and colorful works of artists emit energy and light.

Then, students and their parents thanked the teachers for the professional skills, pedagogical talent and to instill in children from his childhood love of art.

Paintings are presented at the exhibition in various techniques such as watercolor, pastel, acrylic, batik and oil painting.



Artists were awarded special certificates.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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18 April 2016 11:18 (UTC+04:00)

OPEC and non-OPEC producers on April 17 failed to reach a deal to freeze oil output, three oil industry sources told Reuters.

Sources said OPEC producers had told non-OPEC members they needed first to reach a deal within OPEC, possibly at a June meeting.

After that, OPEC will be able to invite other producers to join.

Meanwhile, oil futures traded sharply lower in Asia on April 18 after a deal to freeze oil output by OPEC and non-OPEC producers fell apart when Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in despite calls on Riyadh to save the agreement and help prop up crude prices, Reuters reported.

Nymex crude for May CLc1 was trading 6.7 percent lower at $37.68 a barrel. The Brent contract for June also dropped 6.7 percent to $40.18 a barrel LCOc1.

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18 April 2016 15:03 (UTC+04:00)

By Fatma Babayeva

The much anticipated meeting of the world's top oil producers in Doha on April 17 has ended with no deal on hand to freeze oil production freeze. Some experts believe it may have negative effect on the oil prices.

OPEC member states and non-OPEC major oil producers met in Qatari capital Doha last Sunday to discuss the issue about freezing the oil output in the market in order to achieve stabilization in the oil market and push the prices up. However, the participants of the meeting failed to freeze production at the levels of early 2016 as previously planned.

Earlier, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, energy minister of Qatar said 15 oil-producing countries are expected to be present at the Doha meeting, which comprise about 73 percent of world oil output.

The root reason for the failure is believed to the geopolitical tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Iran's refusal to attend the Doha meeting is evaluated as the main reason for such fruitless end of talks.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia stated that it will only freeze its oil output in the market if other major producers and especially, Iran do so. Iran said that Tehran would not join the oil output freeze plan in its turn.

Iran's Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh made a right decision by not participating in oil-producing & exporter countries, said Mahmoud Khagani, energy expert in exclusive article for Trend.

The expert believes that freezing the current production is meaningless since the major producers that attended the meeting are producing at the levels of their maximum production capacity.

Khagani emphasized that the Doha meeting is designed for Saudis and its allies to show that they are still a matter in the oil market. However, Saudi Arabia has no role as swing producer in the market any longer and this role is now transferred to the U.S.

"The question is that how long OPEC major producers, particularly Saudis can stand current low oil prices?" he questioned.

Meanwhile, during the gathering in Doha, OPEC producers told non-OPEC members that firstly, the OPEC members need to reach a deal among themselves, possibly during June meeting. Only then, the cartel will be able to invite other producers to join the freezing act.

Chris Cook, a senior research fellow at University College London thinks that unless there will be a drastic cut by Saudis, low oil prices will continue throughout the current year and 2017.

Moreover, JP Morgan's analysts stressed that some (OPEC) oil ministers' commentaries could be almost interpreted as being the second scenario they highlighted in their weekly notes - no agreement, but keep the dialogue open.

The disparity in views of participants left the bank's analysts in no doubt that the outcome is materially weaker than the market was anticipating.

In addition, it was not the first attempt by the oil producers to support oil prices which started to collapse from June 2014. Representatives from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Venezuela, and Russia discussed possible measures to stabilize the current situation in the oil market and production freeze in February 2016.

Furthermore, Russia's negotiations with OPEC member states on freezing oil production levels may continue, but it requires additional time to consider positions of Saudi Arabia and Iran toward the deal, Vladimir Voronkov, Russias permanent representative to OPEC said on April 17, Sputnik reported.

Eulogio del Pino, Venezuelian Petroleum Minister also said on the eve of Doha meeting that Venezuela respects Iran's position regarding the freezing of oil as a sovereign state deciding what it wants, RIA Novosti reported.

Earlier, Iranian Petroleum Minister said that his country does not intend to participate in the discussions on freezing oil production until it will increase production to 4 million barrels per day.

In order for oil freezing act to be successful, some experts believe that U.S. also needs to be a part of it since it is one of the major players in the market.

Overall, Doha meeting could not have a positive effect on falling oil prices. The major oil producers initiative to put a cap on current production level has failed. The market seems to continue suffering from oil glut for now.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

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18 April 2016 17:25 (UTC+04:00)

The results of the past meeting in Doha is not disappointing, but only shows that the oil market is also geopolitics, Cyril Widdershoven believes.



"The continuation of the Saudi Arabia-Iran conflict, or even possible heating up, has been playing a major part. Both parties are now calling the bluff of the other. Iran needs to show to the market that it can deliver, which a growing amount of analysts currently doubts, myself included," the Middle East geopolitical specialist and energy analyst, owner of Mediterranean Energy Political Risk Consultancy told Trend on April 18.



At same time, he said, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Mohamed Bin Salman is taking to hardline approach, which is "you either comply to Riyadh, or you will be confronted by new additional oil volumes from Saudi Arabia".



The latter, based on analysis will not be as easy as maybe most will expect, as infrastructure and export options are not yet fully there, but still Saudi Arabia's overall system could increase production for short term, according to Widdershoven.



He noted that Bin Salman also wants to force Iran into the overall fold of OPEC.



"If this is not going to happen, Iraq and Venezuela will also be taking Iran's point of view," Widdershoven said.



Oil producers on Sunday failed to reach a deal to freeze oil output. The talks collapsed after Saudi Arabia surprised the group by reasserting a demand that Iran also agree to cap its oil production.



Iran was not represented at the meeting.



Earlier Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said that the country didn't contribute to the imbalance on the oil market, thus would not freeze its output.



Overall, Widdershoven believes that the market, especially the financial markets, has shown a lack of rationality again following the meeting in Doha.



When looking at the markets, financial analysts and hedgefunds are over reacting, he said.



"At present, nothing has changed, but prices decreased by more than 6 percent. The latter is profit-taking of investors and overreacting of the others. Market fundamentals are the same, and the old parties (Saudi-GCC-Russia) did not indicate that they will not keep to their old agreement of a partial freeze," Widdershoven said.



"While at the same time, production elsewhere is down, and demand is up. Seems that emotions have been calling the shots at present, in politics, OPEC-Iran and financials," he added.



Oil prices slid on Monday after key producers failed to negotiate a curb on their output, fueling concerns that this could hit the recent recovery in the crude market, the Wall Street Journal reported.



Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 2.5 percent to $42.01 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading down 3.2 percent at $39.05 a barrel.

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18 April 2016 10:22 (UTC+04:00)

South Korea has unblocked a large part of Iran's frozen assets, an Iranian petrochemical official said.

Ahmad Mahdavi Abhari, the secretary of the Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporations (AIPC), has said that Iran had exported petrochemical products to South Korea during the sanctions era and the money from the exports was blocked under international sanctions, Mehr news agency reported.

He further added that Iran's total assets blocked in South Korea is less than $1 billion.

The official said that some Iranian petrochemical companies have managed to receive their assets following the removal of sanctions, but some others still have difficulties to collect their money due to the banking system's failures.

The official, however, predicted that the problems with banking system will be removed soon.

In a joint statement on January 16, the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced the implementation of the JCPOA, aka nuclear deal, and the removal of economic sanctions on Iran. The EU confirmed that the legal framework, providing for lifting of its nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions, is effective, according to the statement.

Under the deal, Iran will have access to billions of dollars in assets frozen overseas, however the exact amount of the blocked assets still remains unclear.

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18 April 2016 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Serbian counterpart Tomislav Nikolic have conferred in Tehran.

During the meeting, the sides called for expansion of bilateral ties in various fields, IRNA news agency reported.

"Tehran and Belgrade can use the existing conditions for the expansion of bilateral ties," IRNA quoted Rouhani as saying at the meeting on April 17.

President Rouhani also described terrorism as a major threat to the world and called for unity in fighting terrorism.

The Serbian president has arrived in Tehran on an unofficial visit to attend the opening of the 5th International Symposium of World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.

Tomislav Nikolic is also expected to meet Iranian Vice President for Science and Technology Affairs Sorena Sattari.

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18 April 2016 10:49 (UTC+04:00)

Supplying S-300 missile system to Iran indicates close and serious cooperation between Iran and Russia, a senior Iranian official said.

Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has said that Iran and Russia also have significant cooperation regarding the issue of Syria and the fight against terrorism, Tasnim news agency reported.

During a meeting with visiting Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in Tehran, Velayati predicted a bright future for ties between Iran and Russia ties.

The cooperation between Iran and Russia will contribute to establishing security and peace in the region, he said.

Iran displayed the first batch of S-300 air defense system delivered by Russia recently during a ceremony to mark the National Army Day in Tehran on April 17.

Eariler on April 11, Hossein Jaber Ansari, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said that the country has received the first batch of S-300 missile system from Russia.

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 on January 16, Iranian officials became confident that they would receive the missile system soon.

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18 April 2016 11:07 (UTC+04:00)

Grounds are fully prepared for Indian investors to work in Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian Foreign Minister told his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj in Tehran.

The strategic cooperation between Iran and India regarding transportation projects that connect Central Asia to the CIS and China is getting along slowly and Iran expects longer strides to realize the projects, Zarif underlined, IRNA news agency reported on April 17.

Iran and India are engaged in a giant transportation project that connects the latter to Russia and Europe, using sea and land routes to reduce transport time from 40 days to 14.

Appreciating bilateral cooperation in Iran's special economic zone Chabahar, the diplomat expressed satisfaction over joint projects carried out in energy, trade, banking, and investment so far.

India recently offered $20 billion investment in LNG and petrochemical projects in Chabahar. India is seeking to turn the area into a reliable footing and a trade hub to fight China's plans for the nearby Pakistani port of Gwadar.

Swaraj, for her part, said India is prepared to ease visa requirements for Iranian businessmen.

She also appreciated the achievements of Indian Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's recent visit to Iran. Tehran and Delhi reached fundamental agreements on developing Farzad B gas field during Pradhan's recent visit.

Swaraj urged joint efforts to ease business atmosphere for both sides and implement agreements the two sides have already made.

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18 April 2016 12:37 (UTC+04:00)

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif left Tehran to New York on April 18 to participate in the UN Climate Summit, Mehr reported on April 18.

Zarif reportedly is accompanied by Abbas Araqchi, and Majid Takht Ravanchi who are the top nuclear negotiators.

Mehr reported that Zarif will negotiate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with his American counterpart John Kerry in New York.

Iran and P5+1 (US, UK, France, Russia, China + Germany) implemented JCPOA in mid-January. However, Iran asks US to pave the path for cooperation of non-American banks with Tehran.

Washington says that providing the access of Iran to the American financial system has not been included in JCPOA.

A landmark agreement will be signed by 155 countries to tackle the climate change at a ceremony at the UN headquarters on April 22, the UN reported.

The Paris agreement, achieved last year, will take effect 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deposit their instruments of ratification or acceptance with the secretary-general, AP reported on April 15.

The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2C.

The agreement is due to enter into force in 2020.

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18 April 2016 15:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Aynur Karimova

Iran has expressed its readiness to ensure the energy security of Turkey.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said at a joint press-conference with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on April 16 that Tehran can fully meet Ankara's gas, oil, electricity and petrochemical needs.

The press conference was aired live by Iran's state-run IRINN TV.

Tehran promised Ankara that it is able to ensure Turkey's energy security, Rouhani added.

Iran and Turkey, which enjoy grounds for boosting cooperation in various areas, have also agreed to expand multifaceted ties as the two countries' economies complement each other.

Rouhani believes that closer banking ties have big importance in the two countries' bilateral ties, therefore, Iran and Turkey need to remove obstacles to expand ties. Taking this fact into account, Tehran and Ankara also decided to expand banking ties.

He added that Turkish banks can open their branches in Iran in order to facilitate the mutual trade and economic ties.

Rouhani believes that the cooperation between the stock markets of Istanbul and Tehran can also lead to a very positive upheaval in the two countries' capital markets.

He urged the two countries' private sectors to make mutual investments to the export of joint products to third-parties, and also invited Turkish companies to invest in the infrastructure of Iran's tourism sector.

During the meeting the two presidents also discussed cultural, academic and scientific cooperation, joint researches, as well as regional issues, including the ongoing crises in Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

"We should help regional countries, such as Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan, to resolve their problems," he noted.

Iran and Turkey have no principal differences in political matters, Rouhani said, underlining that the differences in "minor issues" are natural.

Turkey, which is keen on giving a new impetus to its trade ties with neighboring Iran following removal of international sanctions, intends to take the rising golden opportunity in Iran's economy and to play a more active role on the Islamic Republic's market by its private sector.

Being the Middle Easts two powerful players, Iran and Turkey share very close economic ties despite taking part in opposing political blocs.

Tehran and Ankara are already clashing over a number of issues, in particular their supporting opposing sides in the Syrian crisis.

However, both sides are determined not to allow the political tensions to affect their economic goals as the Iranian market promises a huge opportunity to Turkey in various sectors, including tourism, automotive industry, clothing, textiles, machinery, chemistry, petrochemistry and energy industry, as well as banking, telecommunications and transportation.

Apparently, Turkey is not going to lose this tempting market for political disputes.

Speaking at the press conference, Erdogan said that Turkey and Iran will develop relations in all the areas.

Erdogan believes that despite Iran and Turkey are neighbors, some problems have recently emerged in economic relations between the two countries.

He said there are political differences between Iran and Turkey, but this fact doesn't affect the joint fight against terrorism.

Erdogan noted that the two countries can invest in third countries, as well within the bilateral relations.

Rouhani arrived in Ankara on April 15 evening to hold bilateral talks with high-ranking Turkish officials, especially with his counterpart Erdogan.

As part of his visit to Ankara, Iran and Turkey signed several memorandums of understanding.

The two sides signed documents for cooperation in various sectors, including social welfare, as well as culture, science, education and standards, while the justice ministers of Iran and Turkey also signed a joint statement.

The trade turnover between Turkey and Iran stood at $22 billion in 2012 before dipping to $14.5 billion in the following year due to the economic sanctions imposed on Tehran by the West.

Trade turnover between the two countries stood at $13.71 billion in 2014 and $9.76 billion in 2015. Currently, Tehran and Ankara intend to raise their bilateral trade to $30 billion per year.

Although the trade turnover dropped by 29 percent in 2015 compared to the preceding year, many observers believe that the decline came amid global economic crisis ruling out the role of the political disagreements.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter @Aynur_Karimova

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18 April 2016 15:59 (UTC+04:00)

France's Airbus needs Washington's permission to reach a deal with Iran as 10 percent of the Airbus equipment is U.S.-made, said Alain Vidalies, the French transport minister, on April 18.

"We started talks with the U.S. some time ago. The negotiations are at a very advanced stage now," Vidalies said at a press conference with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Akhoundi, Trend's correspondent reported from the event.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani visited Paris in January this year. During the visit, Iran and Airbus signed a $27 billion worth Memorandum of Understanding for aircraft purchase.

Vidalies also said that banking problems still exist with Iran, although the Western sanctions on Iran were lifted in mid-January after implementation of the nuclear deal.

Earlier today, Air France signed an agreement with Iran's state-owned airline known as Iran Air or Homa.

The first Air France flight between Paris and Tehran in the past eight years landed in Tehran on April 17, carrying Vidalies and a business delegation.

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18 April 2016 16:02 (UTC+04:00)

Turkish diplomats will have to obtain visas for visiting Russia since April 18, Anadolu agency reported.

Russia unilaterally suspended the visa-free regime with Turkey since January 1, 2016.

This decision was made after the crisis in relations between Russia and Turkey.

Relations between Russia and Turkey deteriorated after Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian SU-24 bomber on November 24, 2015. Turkey said the bomber entered its airspace, while Russia denied its warplane flying into the Turkish skies.

Following the incident, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on measures to ensure national security and economic measures against Turkey.

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18 April 2016 17:17 (UTC+04:00)

Turkmenistan and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) have discussed the expansion of cooperation in transportation sphere.

ESCAP is one of the five regional commissions of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry reported that during the meeting, the sides emphasized the importance of international initiatives put forward by Turkmenistan for developing the international cooperation in the transportation and communication fields.

They also pointed out the role of joint activities as part of the UN Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA).

SPECA was founded in 1998 based on the Tashkent Declaration signed by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the executive secretaries of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and ESCAP. Later, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan joined the program.

It is planned to hold the first global conference on sustainable transport system in Ashgabat in late 2016.

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18 April 2016 17:39 (UTC+04:00)

By Aynur Karimova

The European Union has expressed its intention to become again the main trade partner of Iran.

"We used to be Iran's main trade partner and we are determined to take up that position again," The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini said addressing a joint press-conference with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran on April 16.

She arrived in Tehran, Iran on April 16 on a one-day visit heading a high-ranking political and economic delegation comprised of seven European commissioners.

The EU high representative touched upon the energy issue and said the "Iranian oil and gas will be an important part of European energy mix and will improve our energy security in Europe".

The EU will provide Iran with technical assistance to increase its production capacity and energy efficiency, according to Mogherini.

Speaking about the issues agreed upon or being discussed during the ongoing talks, she said the EU will give its support for Iran to join the World Trade Organization, and added that the sides have agreed to exchange business delegations and to cooperate on financial issues, on tourism, textiles and agriculture.

Mogherini went on to add that Iran's missile tests do not breach the nuclear deal with the world powers.

"We do not see the missile tests as a breach of the JCPOA," she noted. "This doesn't mean that we are not concerned."

In his remarks, Zarif said that Iran's recent missile tests are only for defensive purposes.

"Iran's missiles are not designed to carry nuclear warheads and have nothing to do with the JCPOA or the UN Security Council Resolutions," he stressed.

Earlier in March, Iran test-fired Qadr-H and Qadr-F ballistic missiles during large-scale drills, code-named Eqtedar-e-Velayat.

The U.S. sources have claimed that Iran's missile tests violate the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed the JCPOA.

Iranian officials have constantly reiterated that Tehran's ballistic missile tests do not violate the nuclear agreement it reached with the P5+1 group of countries and are not in breach of a UN Security Council resolution.

In a joint statement on January 16, 2016, the EU and Iran announced the implementation of the JCPOA, aka nuclear deal, and the removal of economic sanctions on Iran.

The EU confirmed that the legal framework, providing for lifting of its nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions, is effective, according to the statement.

Iran's officials believe that the EU's cooperation with Iran in implementation of the JCPOA will benefit the EU in both economic and political areas.

Experts believe that the Iran-EU cooperation will help Iran's development, as well as peace in the crisis-hit region.

Joint statement issued

Following the press conference, Mogherini and Zarif issued a joint statement, according to which the two parties welcomed the implementation of the JCPOA that contributed to opening a new chapter in the EU-Iran relations.

The sides also underlined their full commitment to the JCPOA and its implementation in all its aspects.

Mogherini and Zarif also reiterated their intention to develop a broad and comprehensive agenda for bilateral cooperation.

The two sides, taking stock of their long standing relations, based upon mutual respect and interests, underlined their intention to develop a broad and comprehensive agenda for bilateral cooperation, said the statement.

The statement also reads that the EU and Iran intend to cooperate in various areas, including political consultations, human rights, economic cooperation, trade and investment, agriculture, transportation, energy and climate change, as well as civil nuclear field, environment, science, research and innovation, education, civil protection, culture, migration, drugs and regional issues.

All to win

Officials and experts have appreciated the results of Mogherini's visit to Tehran.

Mehrdad Emadi, a consultant at the UK-based Betamatrix International Consultancy told Trend that the expansion of relationship and engagement between the EU and Iran is a win-win outcome for both sides, as well as entire region.

While responding to a question about outcomes of the visit, he said "indeed, I expect it will become a win-win-win result benefiting the EU, Iran and Iran's neighbors."

He believes that this visit is a significant step in widening the EU-Iran relationship and may include other areas of cooperation such as support of the EU toward the attainment of full membership of the WTO and at a later phase, supporting Iran's desire to become a member country of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"For Iran, a growing and deepening relationship with the EU will provide noticeable improvements in its access to advanced technologies, significant industrial investment in its manufacturing and upgrading of its facilities in its aging energy sector," he added.

Emadi believes that this visit to Tehran is aimed to deliver tangible and quick results on all these fronts, specifically on access to banking services in the EU.

He said if the EU foreign policy chief and the delegation accompanying her show a clear commitment to delivering results, then Iran will have an added incentive to expand links with the EU.

Moreover, the political leadership of Iran will be able to see consistency in EU cooperation following the P5 +1 agreement which will provide further grounds for confidence building between the two sides in other areas of mutual interest, the expert added.

"In addition to these potential benefits, it is worth remembering that, even with the existing hesitancy of EU banks and industries to engage with Iran, we have already seen business agreements in excess of 14 billion euros with Germany, Italy, France and Spain and further 3.3 billion euros worth of investment from businesses in the UK and the Netherlands is being negotiated," he said. "These deals have been reached in less than six months following the lifting of the sanctions, and there are estimated 55 billion euros of trade and investment waiting to be discussed between the two sides."

Iran's acceptance as a full member of the WTO will bring about similar benefits to those enjoyed by China. Even-handed treatment of Iranian goods in outside markets, access to global finance and investment projects undertaken by Iran outside the country will all be areas of great improvement. Not only Iran, but also its neighbors will get benefits from all these areas.

EU, Iran can co-op in nuclear field

Behrooz Kamalvandi, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) spokesman, believes that Iran and the EU have great opportunity for cooperation in the nuclear field, which will not be like many other countries' cooperation for Iran is able to offer special services.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting between Mogherini and Zarif, Kamalvandi said the special opportunity comes from two aspects of Iran's nuclear program, Trend correspondent reported on April 16.

"The first aspect is that Iran needs to be producing about 10 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy, and the second is that the country has a lot of expert human resources. We can offer help to the other sides, which means a different kind of cooperation with Europeans," he added.

--

Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter @Aynur_Karimova

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The Dark Chocolate Gingers and Orange add orange pieces to the brands bestselling Dark Chocolate Gingers recipe. The biscuits launch from this month in 98 Tesco stores.

Jill Sutherland, Tesco national account manager at Border Biscuits, said: Were delighted to launch Dark Chocolate Gingers and Orange with Tesco Scotland, further enhancing our relationship and profile with the store and their customers.

We are constantly looking for new ways to innovate and we strive to make exceptional biscuits that people love. Adding to our hugely popular chocolate ginger family felt like the next step and we are really happy with the finished product.

Craig Chalmers, local buying manager for Tesco Scotland, said: Were really pleased to be the first to introduce Dark Chocolate Gingers and Orange to shoppers in Scotland. Border Biscuits are really popular with our customers and their ranges always perform well. The chocolate ginger portfolio is legendary so were sure our customers will enjoy the new flavour.

Border Biscuits recently launched its first national television advert.
Cornwall-based pasty producer Ginsters is revamping its slices range with improved recipes and updated packaging.

Available now, the Chicken & Mushroom and Peppered Steak slices have an increased amount of filling and carry an Even Tastier flash on the packaging.

In addition, the Spicy Chicken Slice benefits from a new tikka-style recipe and, from 20 April, the limited-edition Pulled Pork Slice will become part of the standard range.

From 9 May, packs of the Original Cornish Pasty will feature a flash reading The Nations Favourite, following a recent independent taste test by Wirral Sensory Services.

Ginsters said the launches would benefit from in-store point-of-sale (POS) support and television advertising.

Proud of heritage

Mike Smith, head of brand at Ginsters, said: Ginsters is extremely proud of its heritage and the quality of its products. With this in mind, we have revamped our best-selling slices to include even more meat  providing our consumers with a tastier snack which still boasts the same flavour combinations they have grown to love.

In recent research with our consumers, we were told how much they love the new slices, made with the best of British ingredients. In addition, for retailers, the Even Tastier flash on-pack will really stand out on shelves and help drive footfall to the savoury pastry shelves.

Ginsters recently released a pair of limited-edition sandwiches.

http://www.bakeryinfo.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/15704/Ginsters_launches_limited-edition_sandwiches.html
British Baker can exclusively reveal the location of Dominique Ansels first bakery in Europe, in Londons Belgravia.

Ansel, the pastry chef who invented the Cronut and is best known for his Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York, will open his first UK bakery on Elizabeth Street in Londons Belgravia.

Due to open in late summer or early autumn of this year, Ansel said: We are grateful for the chance to share a little bit of what we do with our guests in London, and we aim to do nothing less than our very best for them.

Its always exciting to meet everyone and challenge ourselves with new creations.

Located close to Victoria, Dominiques first Europe-based bakery will carry a menu of signature pastries from his original shop, as well as a new line of London-only items.

He said Although I grew up in France, so close to London, I didnt have a chance to visit until I was much older. When I did, I immediately fell in love with the blend of cultures and the spirit of the city.

With each new place we go, our team draws a huge amount of inspiration. London not only gives us access to the ingredients across all of Europe, it will also be a chance for us to learn quite a bit along the way.

Most celebrated creations

While the new London exclusives are yet to be announced, Ansel said he was thrilled to bring some of his most celebrated creations to the capital, including:

The Cronut  perhaps the first viral pastry in the world, news of this singular item traversed the globe and led to record-breaking lines for this croissant-doughnut hybrid pastry, named one of the Best Inventions of 2013 by TIME magazine.

The DKA (Dominiques Kouign-Amann)  the number one best-seller in the New York shop is based on a traditional pastry from the Brittany region of France. Dough is layered with butter and sugar, then baked, creating a caramelised crunchy crust on the outside, and a flaky, tender crumb within  or as they put it think caramelised croissant.

The Cookie Shot  a warm chocolate chip cookie, shaped like a shot glass and filled to order with ice-cold milk infused with Tahitian vanilla bean.

Frozen Smores  inspired by the American campfire favourite, this cool treat features Tahitian vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate wafer crisps, surrounded by a honey marshmallow that is torched-to-order, and served on a smoked willow wood branch.

The bakerys address will be: 17-21 Elizabeth Street, London SW1W 9RP
A man stabbed and ran over his estranged wife and two medical professionals before eventually killing his two young children and himself following a domestic-related rampage overnight in Seminole County, deputies said.

The incident began around 10 p.m. at a Chili's along Lake Mary Boulevard.

Police say Chericia Brown, 31, was attacked and seriously injured by her estranged husband, 30-year-old Henry Romone Brown III, in the parking lot of the restaurant.

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Deputies said Henry Brown waited in the trunk of Chericia's vehicle for her to come out of the restaurant and then stabbed her. He left the scene and returned moments later in his vehicle and ran over her, as well as two medical professionals who were rendering aid to Chericia Brown.

Chericia Brown was transported to Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford, where she later died.

Deputies said Henry Brown fled the scene and went back to an apartment complex in Altamonte Springs, where he changed vehicles and picked up the couple's biological children, a 4-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl, from a babysitter.

At about 12:25 a.m., Henry Brown arrived at Central Florida Regional Hospital in an attempt to locate Chericia, deputies said.

Seminole County deputies and Sanford Police confronted him. Brown and law enforcement officers exchanged gunfire inside the hospital, but no one was injured, deputies said.

Brown fled the hospital and got onto I-4, where he was located by deputies within minutes. Deputies were able to stop the vehicle with stop sticks.

When the vehicle slowed to a stop, deputies found Henry Brown and both children dead inside. Investigators believe Brown killed his children at some point after picking them up and then he committed suicide in his vehicle as law enforcement officers prepared to apprehend him.

The children's names are Henry and Aleah.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the officer-involved shooting that occurred at the hospital.

One of the medical professionals who rendered aid to Chericia Brown remains in the hospital. The other person was released.

 Digital Media Producer Andrew O'Brien contributed to this report.



Henry Brown, 30. (Orange County Corrections)

Babysitter: It just didn't seem right

Lauren Camarillo was left with an unsettling feeling, after Henry Brown rushed to pick up his two children from her apartment.

I just got like, a chill. It just didnt seem right, she said.

Camarillo was Browns neighbor and had only watched the children briefly once before. But, the woman was likely the last person who saw the kids alive.

Their last meal was corn dogs and ketchup and grape Capri Sun, she said tearfully.

With her sister by her side and visible shaken up, Camarillo recounted Sunday night when Brown pounded on her door.

I could tell he had a lot going on in his mind, but I just thought it was because of the accident, she said.

Brown said his wife was in a car crash on Semoran Boulevard/SR 436. He had to go help her -- and needed Camarillo to watch the two kids.

I just wanted to keep them calm, put Disney Channel on, made them corn dogs. The little girl was adorable. They were jumping around, they were dancing, she said.

Camarillos mom even snapped a happy photo of her daughter, smiling with the two children in the kitchen. But, the woman said after an hour and a half, Brown returned and was acting different.

Just nervous, shaky, like, Lets go, lets go, she said. He almost forgot the diaper bag.

And with helicopters flying overhead, Camarillo said she had a sickening feeling. She only thought she was doing a favor for her neighbor.

I thought I was helping him, she said. I thought I was helping him, helping the children.

Domestic violence was reported in December 2015



According to court records, Chericia Brown told authorities that she thought her husband was capable of killing and had even threatened to harm her and her children. Yet investigators said they did not have enough evidence to prosecute.

Months before the incident overnight, Altamonte Springs Police responded to a domestic violence call at the Crescent Place Condos complex.

On December 18, 2015, Chericia Brown told the officer that her unemployed husband, Henry Brown, threatened to kill her and their two small children, Aleah and Henry.

The victim said he threw a phone at her, flipped a mattress while she was on it, pulled her hair and held her against a closet wall.

Chericia also told investigators Henry tried to stuff a sock in her mouth, while he pinned his knee on her head and backhanded her five times. She said all of this happened in front of their one-year-old daughter.

But the responding officer said he didnt have enough evidence to make an arrest at the time and said since the victim was leaving the home, the fear of further violence (did) not exist.

The investigation was passed along to the State Attorneys Office and the next day, Henry was questioned by authorities about the battery allegations.

He denied the accusations and told authorities his wife was trying to get back at him for having an affair.

At the same time, Chericia requested an injunction to keep him away from her, their children and her workplace.

An initial, temporary injunction granted Henry Brown 50/50 custody of the couple's children. But a permanent injunction gave Cherisia 100 percent of the time-sharing, sole discretion as to whether the father would be allowed to see the children.

Chief Judge John D. Galluzzo issued a statement clarifying the courts' role in the custody case:

Certain news accounts involving the homicide of Chericia Brown and her two children may have inadvertently misrepresented the facts of this case by broadcasting an interview with a local advocate for abused women.

In a televised interview, the advocate alleged that the Judge granted 50/50 time-sharing of the children to the father. In fact, this Judge actually granted 100% of the time-sharing to the mother, giving her sole discretion to allow contact with the father as she saw fit.

In the aftermath of tragic events, it is human nature to want to assign blame. However, the Judge assigned to this case did exactly what she was authorized to do under current law. She ruled timely and appropriately for the victim.

The advocate who suggested something more could be done apparently did not read the order, watch the video, or attend the hearing. Perhaps if she had, she would not have suggested that the Court could somehow be at fault in this tragedy.

In this instance, the Judge did everything in her power to enjoin Mr. Brown from having contact with his spouse and yet he did. These deaths are tragedies that a piece of paper could not prevent. Increased public awareness and more funding for facilities, such as Safe House, would go a long way towards preventing the horrible fate that Ms. Brown and her children suffered. However, suggesting that judges are somehow to blame for the tragedy is unfortunate and misplaced.

Fifty-four days after the permanent injunction went into effect, Chericia received a letter from the State Attorneys Office that said her husband would not be facing any charges because of a lack of evidence.

In domestic violence cases where children are present, it is common for the Department of Children and Families to get involved.

However, in this case, they did not.

Thats because the Seminole County Sheriffs Office has its own Child Protective Services unit.

We reached out to that unit for details on any findings regarding this family. We were denied an interview and are still waiting on requested documents.

Victim advocates: More needs to be done to stop cases like this one



In 2014, FDLE said more than 100,000 crimes of domestic violence were reported in Florida.

Some 2,000 of those cases came from Seminole County alone.

Local victim advocates believe more can be done to keep these cases from falling through the cracks.

Sometimes its manipulation, feeling imprisoned even internally, said mental health therapist Christy Jordan. Like you cant leave for some reason. Youre not allowed to do certain things.

The Altamonte Springs Police Department investigated Chericia Browns claims of abuse by her husband, Henry Brown. Police said her injuries were not consistent with those statements. No charges were filed against Brown.

I think one of the biggest things is when a victim gets hit, the bruising doesnt show up till a day or two afterwards, said victim advocate Dawn Streeter. So the victims at this department, when we deal with the victims at this department, we tell them if bruises show up, come back so we can take more pictures.

Safe House is a local nonprofit dedicated to ending domestic violence in Seminole County.

For privacy reasons, the organization could not tell us whether Chericia was getting help at this battered women's shelter. They did say she filed an injunction and was referred to Safe House. After that, Henry was prohibited from contacting his wife, but was still granted 50/50 custody of their children.

I am questioning why the heck he got 50/50 child custody, said Safe House CEO Jeanne Gold. Why does he have these children without supervision when Seminole County has it in place where he can actually visit with his children at a supervised visitation center.

Gold believes more cases like these could be prevented if judges were better trained to deal with domestic violence cases.





The incident began with a stabbing at a Chili's located off Lake Mary Boulevard. (Jason Hughes, Staff)

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify the terms of the injunction granting custody of the children between Cherisia and Henry Brown. A previous version stated that Henry Brown was granted 50/50 custody; that was in the initial temporary injunction filed by Cherisia Brown. But a permanent injunction granted Cherisia Brown 100 percent of the time-sharing, which gave her sole discretion as to whether the children's father would be allowed to see the children. The clarification also adds a statement from the chief judge.


David Pillsbury joined Laser Spine Institute in 2015 as president; recently, he took over as CEO of the national leading minimally invasive neck and back surgery company poised to take a larger role in gathering data and providing outpatient spine care in the future.

"The company has had an amazing 11 years and we are now at an interesting inflection point in our history, and in many ways in our industry," says Mr. Pillsbury. "In addition to moving to our new state-of-the-art headquarters and ASC facility in Tampa, we have launched several new initiatives that will signify a new era where Laser Spine Institute leverages our great strengths and history to innovate, collaborate and evolve more rapidly than we did in the last decade."

The company's over-arching organizational objective is to bring their brand of medicine and patient-centric experience to different regions of the country via expansion and to help more people suffering from chronic neck and back pain by expanding their treatment offerings. Traditionally, Laser Spine Institute expanded by opening de novo ASCs in various regional markets. Last year the company opened locations in Cincinnati, St. Louis and Cleveland.

Laser Spine Institute also has locations in Philadelphia, Oklahoma and Arizona, with its headquarters in Tampa. Now the company is looking to expand even further with its minimally invasive spine treatments, but instead of building new ASCs, the company plans to acquire or partner with existing providers and ASCs already located in the community.

"We are looking for the right partners in the right markets, both in our core minimally invasive surgery business and in our expansion into conservative modalities which we call Total Spine Care," says Mr. Pillsbury. "Were most interested in markets where we know we can come in and make a difference, where we can overlay our patient-centric model into an existing practice to find a way to get even more people back to doing the things they love most."

A second facet of the company's growth is in services; Mr. Pillsbury envisions moving beyond outpatient surgery to include those conservative treatment modalities as well within a few hundred miles of the surgical facility to offer patients extended non-operative and follow-up care options.

We offer hope to people suffering from back pain and we receive tens of thousands of phone calls from people in pain looking for relief; out of those calls, only a small percentage are surgical candidates," says Mr. Pillsbury. "Were currently unable to serve 95 percent of those patients because we only offer surgical solutions and not everyone needs surgery. That's why we want to offer a comprehensive set of conservative treatments. We want to offer the thousands of people calling an alternative to narcotics, and a comprehensive plan to get their lives back and live pain free."

While patients travel from around the country for Laser Spine Institute procedures, Mr. Pillsbury did find patients living more than 200 miles to 300 miles away from one of their facilities are far less likely to travel for care. "If we can get facilities closer to these patients, we'll be able to help a lot more people," he says. "The fastest way is to find an existing ASC and surgeon and partner with them. By aligning with an established practice, it allows us to introduce patients to our processes and help them faster."

Finally, the company will begin leveraging the sheer volume of patients treated at Laser Spine Institute facilities to gather data, conduct research and partner with outside institutions to develop minimally invasive spine surgery protocols.

Three months ago Laser Spine Institute launched a new research and innovation initiative with Reginald Davis, MD, as director of clinical research. The company's surgeons are now involved in three clinical trials on new technology. The surgeons are also focused on developing new techniques and technology.

"Over the last decade, Laser Spine Institute was pretty inwardly focused and evolving rapidly with our core competencies. But now we have a substantial enterprise, and in this new era, it is a responsibility to contribute to the spine community under the basic premise that a rising tide lifts all boats," says Mr. Pillsbury. "We have a substantial asset in the more than 60,000 patients we've treated. This is an amazing opportunity to collect patient outcomes."

Spine surgeons are slowly moving toward a more community-minded mentality with data sharing and research. In some communities, providers saw themselves as competing colleagues, but the industry now demands more collaboration than in the past. Gathering data and reporting validated outcomes helps spine surgeons with patient selection, achieving quality outcomes and negotiating payer contracts.

"Payers make rational business decisions and they react to outcomes and economics," says Mr. Pillsbury. "The conversation with the payer only goes as well as you can clearly and empirically demonstrate your outcomes and weve done a poor job of that as an industry. Weve always been a patient-first company with great patient outcomes and patient satisfaction, and now well have the data to tell that story."
San Diego-based Scripps Health said Monday it is partnering with binational company Sistemas Medicos Nacionales S.A. de C.V. to establish a hospital in Mexico that will cater to people who want to get care south of the border instead of in the U.S.

The facility is slated to be built south of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, in Tijuana, Mexico.

Scripps Health will provide consultative services to SIMNSA for the hospital's planning, construction and operation, which SIMNSA, a health insurance company and a medical provider, will design, build and manage to achieve the standards of the Joint Commission International Accreditation, both parties said. As part of the arrangement, the hospital will be co-branded as an affiliate of the Scripps Health Network.

"Our affiliation with Scripps will be important as we work together to transform the delivery of healthcare in our region," Frank Carrillo, president and CEO of SIMNSA, said in a prepared statement. "This collaboration effort is the first of its kind, and the possibilities that this affiliation agreement brings are very exciting to our company."

Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health, echoed Mr. Carrillo's excitement.

"We live in a binational region where thousands of people cross the border between San Diego and Tijuana daily for work. Access to high quality healthcare on both sides of the border is important for our regional economy," Mr. Van Gorder said. "We have been looking for opportunities to expand the Scripps Health Network and our agreement with SIMNSA is the perfect way to do so in Mexico."

Over the years, SIMNSA's medical campus in Tijuana has grown to an eight-story outpatient medical tower with services including primary and specialty care, a full-service dental clinic, stem cell therapy, an ambulatory surgical center, a medical spa, radiology and laboratory, both parties said.

These offerings will expand even more with the new hospital, which will be built in phases. The first phase, anticipated to be completed by early 2017, will feature an emergency room with four operating rooms, an intensive care unit and 30 inpatient rooms. Once the project is complete, the hospital will have 200 beds. The hospital will be equipped to meet the needs for emergency, cardiology, neurosurgery, oncology and labor and delivery.
St. Louis-based SSM Health has signed an agreement with Walgreens to extend the organizations' partnership. Under the agreement, SSM Health will also own and operate 27 retail clinics within Walgreens stores across the St. Louis area.

Once the clinics transition to SSM Health this fall, they will each be renamed SSM Health Express Clinic at Walgreens.

Together, the two organizations will share best practices for boosting patient care, quality and satisfaction and reducing costs. The goal of the partnership is to improve patient access to compassionate, high-quality care.

According to James Bleicher, MD, regional president of the SSM Health Medical Group and ambulatory services in St. Louis, the collaboration is an important step in the system's commitment to improving the health of the community.

"By combining the convenience of Walgreens locations with the personalized care and expertise of the SSM Health Medical Group, we will provide a seamless healthcare experience for our patients," said Dr. Bleicher. "This means care that is truly integrated whether you visit an SSM Health physician, hospital, urgent care or Express Clinic at Walgreens."

More articles on retail healthcare:

10 largest retail pharmacies in America

Humana opens its second retail pharmacy in Texas

Retail clinics may cause healthcare spending to rise




Becker's Healthcare is pleased to release the 2016 edition of its list of "50 Experts Leading the Field of Patient Safety."

This year's list features clinicians, advocates and legislators who have contributed to improving patient safety in different ways  some lead influential government agencies or organizations focused on the issue, some edit prominent journals or write extensively on the topic, and others champion successful safety initiatives at their hospitals or health systems.

Becker's Healthcare selected experts based on editorial research and discretion. Nominations were also considered when making selections for this list.

Note: Leaders are presented in alphabetical order and could not pay for inclusion.



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David W. Baker, MD. Inaugural Editor-in-Chief of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. In addition to his editor-in-chief role, Dr. Baker is the executive vice president for the Division of Healthcare Quality Evaluation at the Joint Commission, where he monitors the development of healthcare quality evaluation tools. [READ MORE]

David J. Ballard, MD, PhD. Chief Quality Officer for Baylor Scott & White Health (Dallas) and President of the STEEEP Global Institute. After completing degrees in chemistry, economics, epidemiology and medicine at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Dr. Ballard trained at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.[READ MORE]

Carol Barsky, MD. Vice President, Chief Quality and Patient Safety Officer of Hackensack (N.J.) University Health Network. Dr. Barsky took on her current role in July 2015, joining HackensackUHN from Yale-New Haven (Conn.) Hospital, where she was medical director for clinical performance and associate chief of patient safety and quality. [READ MORE]

David Westfall Bates, MD. Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Patient Safety. Dr. Bates is not only the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Patient Safety, he is also the chief innovation officer of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. [READ MORE]

Don Berwick, MD. President Emeritus and Senior Fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Dr. Berwick is a former administrator of CMS and chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. [READ MORE]

Leah Binder. CEO of Leapfrog Group. Ms. Binder has been the CEO of the Leapfrog Group since 2008. Leapfrog is a national nonprofit dedicated to the improvement of healthcare quality, affordability and patient safety in hospitals. [READ MORE]

Pascale Carayon, PhD. Proctor & Gamble Bascon Professor in Total Quality, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to her role as a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Carayon directs the university's Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement. [READ MORE]

Mark R. Chassin, MD. President and CEO of the Joint Commission. In his role at the Joint Commission, Dr. Chassin monitors the activities of the nation's predominant standards-setting and accrediting organization in healthcare. Dr. Chassin practiced emergency medicine for 12 years. [READ MORE]

Michael R. Cohen, RPh. President of The Institute for Safe Medication Practices. In addition to his role as president of the ISMP, an organization dedicated to the investigation of medication error causation and the creation of error-reduction strategies, Dr. Cohen serves as the co-editor of the ISMP Medication Safety Alert! [READ MORE]

Patrick Conway, MD. Deputy Administrator for Innovation & Quality, CMS Chief Medical Officer. The offices led by Dr. Conway are responsible for all quality measures for CMS. [READ MORE]

Sara Cosgrove, MD. President-Elect of Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. In addition to her position at SHEA, Dr. Cosgrove serves as the director of the antimicrobial stewardship program and the associate hospital epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. [READ MORE]

Helen Darling. Interim President and CEO of the National Quality Forum. Ms. Darling's career has been centered on finding pragmatic solutions to the problems created by rapidly increasing healthcare costs. [READ MORE]

Susan A. Dolan, RN. President of Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. In addition to her role as APIC president, Ms. Dolan is the hospital epidemiologist at Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora. [READ MORE]

Tom Frieden, MD. Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Frieden was named director of the CDC in 2009 by President Barack Obama. [READ MORE]

Karen Frush, MD. Vice President of Quality of LifePoint Health (Brentwood, Tenn.). Dr. Frush graduated summa cum laude from University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing in 1981, and from the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C., in 1986. [READ MORE]

Tejal K. Gandhi, MD. President and CEO of the National Patient Safety Foundation. Before leading the NPSF, Dr. Gandhi was the executive director of quality and safety at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston for 10 years. [READ MORE]

Atul Gawande, MD.Dr. Gawande is a general and endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Woman's Hospital in Boston. [READ MORE]

Mark Graber, MD. Senior Fellow in the Healthcare Quality and Outcomes Program for RTI International. Dr. Graber is a national leader in patient safety and the originator ofPatient Safety Awareness Week, which began in 2003 and is now recognized internationally. [READ MORE]

Katherine Grichnik, MD. Vice President of Quality and Safety at MEDNAX. MEDNAX is one of the largest medical groups in the country, and Dr. Grichnik plays a critical role in directing the group's programs for quality and safety for all of the physicians, nurse practitioners and other healthcare providers in MEDNAX practices across the nation. [READ MORE]

Linda Groah, MSN, RN. Executive Director and CEO of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. Ms. Groah has dedicated her career to perioperative nursing practice, education and executive management. [READ MORE]

Hitinder Gurm, MD. Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center. Dr. Gurm was recently awarded the Michigan Health & Hospital Association Keystone Center Patient Safety & Quality Leadership Award for his role directing the Blue Cross Blue Shield Cardiovascular ConsortiumPercutaneous Coronary Intervention Collaborative Quality Initiative. [READ MORE]

Helen Haskell, MA. President of Mothers Against Medical Error. Ms. Haskell founded Mothers Against Medical Error in 2000 after a medical error contributed to the death of her son. [READ MORE]

Ann Hendrich, PhD, RN. Senior Vice President and Chief Quality/Safety and Nursing Officer of Ascension Health (St. Louis). In her role at Ascension, Dr. Hendrich guides the implementation of clinical excellence initiatives for one of the largest nursing operations in the country. [READ MORE]

Mark Jarrett, MD. Senior Vice President of Clinical Excellence and Chief Quality Officer of Northwell Health (Great Neck, N.Y.). Dr. Jarrett is responsible for systemwide initiatives in quality and safety at Northwell Health, one of the largest hospital systems in the New York metropolitan area. [READ MORE]

Brian Kaminski, DO. Vice President of Patient Safety and Quality and Patient Safety Officer at ProMedica (Toledo, Ohio). Dr. Kaminski is in his third year of leading an initiative at ProMedica dedicated to implementing high reliability organizational standards across the system's 12 acute care facilities. [READ MORE]

Joe Kiani. Founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. As the founder of Masimo Corporation, a global medical technology innovator credited with revolutionizing noninvasive patient monitoring, Mr. Kiani has been at the forefront of patient safety and innovation for more than 20 years. [READ MORE]

Clifford Y. Ko, MD. Director of American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. In his role at the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Ko oversees all the quality improvement programs, including the Bariatric Surgery Accreditation Program, the Cancer Accreditation program and the Trauma Verification program among others. [READ MORE]

Richard Kronick, PhD. Former Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Dr. Kronick originally joined the HHS in January 2010 as deputy assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, overseeing the Office of Health Policy. [READ MORE]

Stephen Lawless, MD. Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Nemours Children's Health System (Jacksonville, Fla.). Dr. Lawless is a pediatric physician and a professor of pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia in addition to his role at Nemours, a system with locations in Florida, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. [READ MORE]

Lucian Leape, MD. Physician and Professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The first portion of Dr. Leape's career was centered on pediatric surgery  he was instrumental in the founding of the American Pediatric Surgical Association. [READ MORE]

Jeffrey C. Lerner, PhD. President and CEO of ECRI Institute. Dr. Lerner has been the CEO of ECRI  the largest independent nonprofit healthcare technology assessment institute that is focused on improving patient care  since 2001. [READ MORE]

Rachel Levine, MD. Chair of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority. As the physician general of Pennsylvania, Dr. Levine heads up the safety authority and advises the governor on public health matters and policy. [READ MORE]

Helen Macfie, PharmD. Chief Transformation Officer of MemorialCare Health System (Fountain Valley, Calif.). In her role at MemorialCare, a six-hospital health system serving Southern California, Dr. Macfie is responsible for leading systemwide transformation and improvement in the system's clinical quality, patient safety and risk management areas. [READ MORE]

Julie Marhalik-Helms, BSN, RN. Senior Director of Quality Improvement of North American Partners in Anesthesia (Melville, N.Y.). Ms. Marhalik-Helms is a registered nurse with 18 years of hospital experience. [READ MORE]

Ken Maxik. Director of Patient Safety and Pharmacy Compliance of CompleteRx (Houston). Mr. Maxik has worked with hospitals for more than 20 years on patient safety and compliance. [READ MORE]

Lisa McGiffert. Director of Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project. Ms. McGiffert has been a resolute advocate for patient safety. [READ MORE]

James Merlino, MD. President and CMO of Chief Strategic Consulting for Press Ganey. As a surgeon with more than two decades of healthcare experience, Dr. Merlino served as chief experience officer and associate chief of staff at the Cleveland Clinic prior to joining Press Ganey. [READ MORE]

Elizabeth A. Mort, MD. Senior Vice President for Quality andSafety at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston). After completing her residency in primary care internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Mort participated in a two-year fellowship at Boston-based Harvard Medical School's department of healthcare policy. [READ MORE]

Brigitta Mueller, MD. Vice President of Medical Affairs and Chief PatientSafetyOfficerat All Children's Hospital Johns Hopkins Medicine (St. Petersburg, Fla.). Prior to joining All Children's Hospital Johns Hopkins Medicine in 2013, Dr. Mueller was a faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and division director for clinical, operations, quality and safety for the Texas Children's Hospital cancer and hematology centers. [READ MORE]

Patty Murray. Senator from Washington State. Sen. Murray is the first female senator from Washington and has placed a major focus on healthcare-related initiatives. [READ MORE]

Margaret E. O'Kane. President of National Committee for Quality Assurance. Ms. O'Kane received the distinguished alumnus award from Johns Hopkins University, where she received her master's degree in health administration and planning. [READ MORE]

Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD. Director of the Armstrong Institute forPatientSafety and Quality. In addition to his role at the Armstrong Institute, Dr. Pronovost is the senior vice president for patient safety and quality for Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine. [READ MORE]

Gina Pugliese RN. Vice President of PremierSafetyInstitute. In addition to her role as vice president of Premier Safety Institute, Ms. Pugliese is an associate faculty member of the Rush University College of Nursing and an adjunct faculty member of the University of Illinois School of Public Health, both in Chicago. [READ MORE]

Selwyn Rogers, MD. Vice President and CMO of University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston). Prior to joining the University of Texas Medical Branch, Dr. Rogers was professor and chairman of surgery at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia and division chief for trauma, burns and surgical care at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. [READ MORE]

Kaveh G. Shojania, MD. Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Quality &Safety. Dr. Shojania has been editor-in-chief of BMJ Quality & Safety since January 2011. [READ MORE]

Andy Slavitt. Acting Administrator of CMS. Prior to being named acting administrator of CMS, Mr. Slavitt was the principal deputy administrator of the agency. [READ MORE]

Robert K. Stoelting, MD. President of the AnesthesiaPatientSafety Foundation. In 2003, Dr. Stoelting became the first full-time president of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation. [READ MORE]

Robert M. Wachter, MD. Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine University of California San Francisco. In addition to his faculty appointments with the University of California San Francisco's department of medicine, Dr. Wachter is chief of the division of hospitalist medicine. [READ MORE]

Stephen Weber, MD. Vice President of Clinical Effectiveness and CMO of University of Chicago Medicine. Dr. Weber holds a faculty appointment with the University of Chicago Medicine's infectious diseases and global health department, in addition to his administrative roles. [READ MORE]

Ronald Wyatt, MD. PatientSafetyOfficerof the Joint Commission. In his current role, Dr. Wyatt works to promote quality improvement and patient safety in health systems and expand the role of the commission in public policy. [READ MORE]
News broke in March of a bacterial bloodstream infection in Wisconsin that was linked to 18 deaths, but, according to a WBAY report, the state knew about the outbreak months prior to its March public announcement.

WBAY obtained documents through an open records request that show the Department of Health Services was notified of a possible outbreak at the end of December 2015. The department told healthcare facilities in the state to look out for Elizabethkingia infections in the beginning of January, but didn't tell the public until March.

According to a statement the state health department issued to WBAY, the department acted immediately when it was notified of a potential outbreak by reaching out to healthcare providers, labs and infection preventionists throughout the state, as well as notifying the CDC.

"This outbreak has proven to be very unique and complex, and our disease detectives have yet to find the source of the bacteria, which limits the directives we can offer to the public related to prevention," the statement reads. "This was a rare situation in which we recognized that releasing information without being able to offer any direction on how to avoid it would inspire fear among the public."

The health department eventually released information to the public after weighing the risk of inspiring fear with the value of transparency.

As of April 13, Elizabethkingia has sickened 63 people in Wisconsin and killed 18. There is also an additional death among a possible Elizabethkingia case, bringing the total number of deaths to 19 in Wisconsin.

Cases of Elizabethkingia have also been identified in Michigan and Illinois.
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The family-run Killyhevlin Hotel is to increase its capacity

The family-run Killyhevlin Hotel is to increase its capacity

The family-run Killyhevlin Hotel is to increase its capacity

The family-run Killyhevlin Hotel is to increase its capacity

A luxury Co Fermanagh hotel says it will need to increase its capacity by another 30 rooms within the next five years in a 4m project.

And the Killyhevlin Hotel's finance director Jacqueline Wright said she believed leaving the EU would be "detrimental" to the area's hospitality industry, but added that the hotel has a strong future either way.

Work at the four-star Enniskillen business will see the biggest increase in capacity there in well over 20 years.

In 1995, just a year before a bomb caused extensive damage, 20 rooms were added.

A 1m refurbishment project is currently under way to rebuild chalets which line the lakeside. They were built 40 years ago and are popular with families.

They're being redesigned to include two en suite bedrooms.

The hotel employs 160 staff to manage its 71 guest rooms, 13 self-catering chalets, health club and spa.

The business runs with an occupancy rate of around 90% and spends around 200,000 on general maintenance every year, revamping between 15 to 20 rooms.

Ms Wright added: "While five star is certainly attainable for us, it would be totally different in atmosphere and wouldn't reflect what Killyhevlin is about.

"Standards of facilities are increasing regardless and we need to constantly update what we offer.

"In the self-catering chalets we will be including washing facilities for clothes and en suite rooms, whereas before we would have had a communal bathroom in each chalet and a separate area for laundry."

Ms Wright said that the higher Vat rate on this side of the border was one of the biggest challenges to running the Fermanagh hotel.

The higher tax rate in Northern Ireland of 20%, as opposed to just 9% for hospitality in the Republic, made it harder for her to charge the same as hotels just 13 miles west.

However, Ms Wright added that she was not fazed by the series of new hotels proposed in Belfast.

In the city there are around 20 new hotels at various stages of the planning process.

"Belfast is a totally different place. It's very vibrant with lots to do but we offer something completely different in Fermanagh and have a different experience for guests," she said

"We also get a lot of passing trade and people travelling to the Giant's Causeway.

"We have always said Killyhevlin is the gateway to the north."

Speaking about the possible impacts of a Brexit, Ms Wright, who lives in Co Monaghan and commutes to Co Fermanagh, said: "We don't need any more emphasis on the border than there needs to be.

"It would be detrimental to tourism.

"Most of our tourists come via the south of Ireland via Dublin.

The currency difference is already detrimental to tourists because they can find it confusing having to change to euro."

The Killyhevlin Hotel was bought by the Watson family 40 years ago and is run as a family venture.
Reckitt Benckiser, which numbers Gaviscon among its products, had better-than-expected sales figures

Durex owner Reckitt Benckiser shrugged off tough trading to cheer rising sales thanks to a boost from new products including an electronic nail file.

The Slough-based firm saw like-for-like sales come in ahead of expectations, up 5% in the first quarter, following a "good" performance from healthcare products Gaviscon and Strepsils.

The group said Europe and North America like-for-like sales stepped up 3%, driven in part by the launch of new products from footwear brands Amope and Scholl Innovations.

But it said its US and Russian business had been hit after retailers reduced their stock following a "weaker flu season".

Shares rose just under 1%, as the group said it remained on track to hit full-year target of 4% to 5% like-for-like net revenue growth.

The update comes after it was revealed earlier this month that chief executive Rakesh Kapoor saw his pay almost double to  23 million last year after a long-term incentive payout.

Mr Kapoor said the group had seen a "good start" to the year in the face of "challenging market conditions".

He added: " We are pleased to see growth across both developed and developing markets as we pursue our strategy of focusing on the health and hygiene powerbrands in our key powermarkets, supported by continued investment in innovation.

"Our consumer health brands have again outperformed. In hygiene, the performance of the brands was variable. We are on track to achieve our full year net revenue and operating margin targets."

Like-for-like sale rose 10% in its healthcare division, bolstered by "good" performances from Durex, Gaviscon and Strepsils.

It was also buoyed by a 10% rise in like-for-like sales in developing markets, as cleaning products Harpic and Dettol growth in India.

The focus is likely to sharpen on Mr Kapoor's pay when the group holds its annual general meeting on May 5.

It comes after the debate over executive pay was reignited last week when shareholders voted to reject oil giant BP's remuneration report, which included a pay deal of 19.6 million dollars (13.8 million) for chief executive Bob Dudley.

Analysts at Liberum said: "H ealth sales growth remains robust despite retailer destocking and a late start to the cold and flu season in the US and Russia.

"Developing markets overall remain resilient particularly in key markets such as China, India and Turkey."
China has agreed to tackle its overcapacity of steel production which is being blamed for the crisis in the industry, according to the UK Government.

Talks in Brussels with countries including the Chinese were described as "constructive" by Business Secretary Sajid Javid.

He said it was the first time all major steel producing nations had come together with the industry, representing 90% of world production, to discuss the excess capacity which is crippling companies.

Meanwhile, Tata has appointed a chief executive for its UK steel business as efforts continue to find a buyer for its loss-making plants.

Bimlendra Jha, an executive member of Tata Steel Europe, takes the new post at a critical time.

He is executive chairman of Tata's Long Products business, including the huge plant in Scunthorpe, which was sold last week to Greybull Capital.

Tata revealed it had contacted 190 potential financial and industrial investors worldwide since launching its sale process a week ago.

Mr Javid said of China's involvement in the talks: "They have absolutely recognised that it is a problem of overcapacity in their country. They're committing to do something about it and I think that's a very positive step forward."

Over-production was the main issue to tackle, said the minister, adding: "I don't think anyone expects an overnight solution to that. The discussion today with all these countries coming together is something that we pushed for, and ... China's participation will help make the difference.

"With regards to Tata, the sales process - the formal process - has now begun, we're starting to be approached by interested parties. It's too early to say much about them at this stage but the important thing is, as we said all along, we will do everything we can to help with that sales process. The steel workers of Britain deserve nothing less."

Koushik Chatterjee, group executive director of Tata Steel, said: "Today's announcement by Tata Steel Europe will ensure the full focus on the vital tasks that lie ahead of Tata Steel UK.

"Bimlendra's successful experience of the process of divestment of Long Products Europe will be invaluable as Tata Steel Europe explores strategic alternatives for its operations in the UK.

"He will be supported by a team with immense operating experience of the UK business.

"To deliver greater clarity for all key stakeholders such as employees, customers and suppliers, it is important for the new team to seek all credible options in a time-bound manner."

Tata also announced the appointment of Standard Chartered Bank as an additional adviser to its sale process.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom called for "effective reform" based on sustained international cooperation to tackle the challenges facing the European steel industry.

Speaking at the Brussels meeting she said the European industry has made considerable efforts to modernise, adding: "Today it has energy efficient plants making high-tech products. It's a strong sector, with strong potential. However, today's global overcapacity is hitting the sector very hard.

"The price of steel in Europe has dropped by 40% in recent years. This is thanks to a massive surge in imports - a 25% increase last year alone - possibly because the EU's market is open.

"The situation, however, is putting hundreds of thousands of jobs in the EU at risk. It's also undermining a strategic sector with importance for the wider economy.

"Overcapacity in steel was above 700 million metric tons at the end of 2015, and new plants are set to add another 47 mmt by 2018, according to OECD analysis. Meanwhile steel consumption is expected to have declined last year.

"We are acting against unfair trade practices in response to justified complaints. And we are acting responsibly, taking into account the needs of consumers and companies that use steel.

"But we also know that this is only a short-term bandage. Healing the sector's wounds requires sustained international cooperation leading to effective reform."

Gareth Stace, director of UK Steel, said: "What we needed to see at today's meeting was an agreement by national governments to take short term, detailed actions to help address the steel sector crisis.

"However, having agreed what the problems are we appear to be no closer to finding international action to put in place solutions.

"Governments must be prepared to come together to take rapid and decisive action to ensure we have a level playing field on which to compete fairly, or they may face the prospect of seeing their steel sectors wither on the vine and die.

"This is a global problem which requires a global solution to remove current over-capacity and time is a luxury we don't have.

"In Europe we have already been through very painful restructuring and must now look to others, including China, to take the same radical action."

Roy Rickhuss, leader of the Community union, said: "Today's meeting seemed to be all about long-term challenges. While these issues do need addressing, what we need is urgent short-term action from governments across Europe and beyond to get us through the current crisis and create a sustainable future for steel."

Defence Procurement Minister Philip Dunne said new guidelines implemented by the Ministry of Defence would ensure UK steel manufacturers have "every opportunity" to bid for tenders.

During defence questions, he told the House of Commons: "The Government has undertaken a new set of procurement guidelines for steel which we have implemented through the Ministry of Defence through a combination of briefings to the Defence Suppliers Forum, undertaken by the Secretary of State, and I have written personally to the chief executives of the 15 largest contractors.

"We're cascading that through the supply chain to ensure that for future defence procurement there is every opportunity for UK steel manufacturers to bid for tenders."
The London market edged lower as crude prices fell after a key meeting of oil producers ended in stalemate.

The Qatar summit at the weekend saw Saudi Arabia willing to cut production, but Iran continues to increase output following the recent lifting of Western sanctions against it.

The FTSE 100 Index slipped 15.8 points to 6328.1, as Brent Crude fell 4.8% to just under 42 US dollars a barrel after the Doha meeting broke up without agreement.

Royal Dutch Shell and BP fell 28p to 1789p and 4.1p to 351.9p respectively, recovering from heavier losses earlier in the session.

Spreadex financial analyst Connor Campbell said: "Realistically Iran remains the only country that matters in this oil saga and, until the newly un-sanctioned country agrees to halt its march to greater and greater daily levels of production, there isn't much chance of a Brent Crude price rescuing deal being implemented."

In Europe, Germany's Dax was just ahead, while France's Cac 40 was marginally lower.

The pound was slightly down against the euro at 1.25, after Chancellor George Osborne warned that Britain's economy would shrink by 6% by 2030 if the country replicated Canada's trading agreement with the EU.

Sterling was little changed against the US dollar at 1.42.

Shares in British Gas owner Centrica fell by more than 2% as the firm lost 224,000 customers in the first three months of the year as competition in the energy market continues to bite. Its overall residential accounts fell 1.5% to 14.4 million customers.

The group put the loss down to a significant number of customers coming off long-term fixed-price contracts, and consumers switching suppliers as smaller rivals put Big Six players under price pressure.

Shares fell 4.4p to 233.9p.

Durex owner Reckitt Benckiser shrugged off tough trading to cheer rising sales thanks to a boost from new products including an electronic nail file.

The Slough-based firm saw like-for-like sales come in ahead of expectations, up 5% in the first quarter, following a "good" performance from healthcare products Gaviscon and Strepsils.

The group said Europe and North America like-for-like sales stepped up 3%, driven in part by the launch of new products from footwear brands Amope and Scholl Innovations.

Shares in Reckitt lifted over 1%, or 88p to 6823p.

Elsewhere, the chief executive of Voda maker Stock Spirits has stepped down, just weeks after the firm's biggest shareholder called for him to be ousted.

The FTSE Small Cap firm said that Chris Heath will take early retirement and Miroslaw "Mirek" Stachowicz, an independent non-executive director, will serve as interim chief executive.

Earlier this month, Western Gate Private Investments, Stock Spirit's largest individual shareholder, called for Mr Heath to be ousted. It urged "fresh perspectives" in order to address a decline in sales in the firm's key Polish market.

Shares lifted 1.5p to 154.8p.
Footfall on Northern Ireland's high streets dropped even further as spring failed to bounce life back into the retail sector.

The figures collected by the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium showed footfall was down by 1.5% year-on-year for the five weeks between February 28 and April 2.

However, the UK average drop in footfall was even more dramatic, falling by 2.7% year-on-year.

The local results were also less pronounced than the fall for the previous five-week period when the consortium figures showed year-on-year footfall was down by just over 5% compared to 1.1% across the UK as a whole.

Aodhan Connolly, Northern Ireland Retail Consortium director, said: "March's 1.5% decline in footfall is a marked improvement on the -5.1% experienced in February. There is also some solace to be taken from the fact that we have beaten the national average with some regions and Wales having a decline of over 3%.

"What is clear is that the retail industry requires more certainty from the next Executive. There must be clear, bold and effective decisions made to support an industry which employs over 70,000 directly and more through the supply chain.

"A concerted effort needs to be made by all to make Northern Ireland a more competitive place to do business.

"We need the devolved Executive to recognise the cumulative burden faced by retailers in areas as diverse as business rates, the National Living Wage and the introduction of the apprenticeship levy.

"Policy-makers must support retailers to allow us to continue to invest and play our part in a strong recovery here in Northern Ireland."

The news will not make happy reading for retailers as industry experts associate an early Easter with kickstarting demand for spring fashion and household items.
A leading Northern Ireland hotel group is planning a major 4m extension at one of its businesses in Belfast.

Andras House, run by Indian-born businessman Lord Rana, is to add 66 bedrooms to the Holiday Inn Express at University Street in the south of the city.

Managing director Rajesh Rana told the Belfast Telegraph the move by the company was driven by a growing need for hotel accommodation in the area.

"There is demand. That hotel is successful and it's a good brand. It's been very busy over the last couple of years, and the hotel benefits from parking on site," he said.

The building will be extended at the back, part of which currently encompasses a car park.

"We have land to the rear of the hotel," explained Lord Rana.

"We would hope to see it starting in the autumn, with a build period of about one year."

It is the latest development from Andras House, which has a new hotel in the works.

The company is bringing the first Hampton by Hilton Hotel to Belfast.

It is a three-star brand similar in style to Jurys Inn. It will be built in Hope Street.

The group saw profits increase by around 12% in the year to April 30, 2015.

The business's turnover remained almost flat for the same period, sitting at 16.1m.

Andras House was established in 1981 with the refurbishment of a Victorian factory in Belfast city centre at a time when there was little appetite for investment in the city.

Founder Lord Rana settled here in 1966 after spending three years in England following his move from India.

Andras House owns five hotels in the city: the Holiday Inn Express, the Ramada Plaza, two Ibis hotels and the Holiday Inn (formerly Days Hotel).

The Ramada Plaza is undergoing a significant refurbishment of its conferencing and banqueting suites thanks to a 500,000 investment.

The hotel previously benefited from a 1m refurbishment that included a transformation of its grand ballroom, lobby and Laganview Suite.
Some of Britain's top actors have attacked new GCSE drama courses that do not require students to watch a live theatre performance.

David Harewood, Brian Cox, Zoe Wanamaker, and Sheila Hancock are among those who criticised new syllabuses from AQA and Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) for allowing pupils to analyse a digital recording instead of going to the theatre in person.

They joined Hermione Norris, Meera Syal, Robert Lindsay and Tim Pigott-Smith in signing a letter to The Sunday Times warning of a "real concern" the change, coupled with tight school budgets, could see teachers stop organising trips to the theatre.

Homeland star Harewood told the paper: "Giving kids the chance to see live theatre should not just be free, it should be compulsory."

The letter was also signed by Aine Lark, the chairwoman of National Drama, the association for drama teachers, and Chris Lawrence of London Drama, which represents drama teachers in the capital.

It read: "We fear that the designation of digital recordings as live theatre may remove the need for teachers to arrange such events, resulting in pupils missing out on invaluable social, cultural and artistic experiences. In a period of squeezed budgets and health and safety issues about school trips, this is a real concern.

"Trips organised by schools are the only contact with the theatre that some pupils get. Many of us remember those magical experiences all our lives. Countless writers, actors, artists and others working in the creative industries were inspired to take up their craft by those enriching evenings in the stalls.

"Recordings of live productions are valuable teaching tools but they should be in addition to the experience of live performance, not a substitute for it."

But the exam boards defended the change, due to be made for courses starting in September.

Karen Latto, subject specialist at OCR, said it was "an option designed to expand access to live theatre, not replace it".

She said: "Nothing beats live theatre. Live performance is a critical part of the study of drama at every level, and we have built this experience into our new specifications in order to emphasise its significance.

"However, OCR is committed to equality of provision for all our students, and the flexibility to include digital theatre productions is in place to ensure that every student can access live theatre, regardless of the constraints of affordability or geographical accessibility."

Jessica Lober Newsome, AQA's head of drama, told The Sunday Times: "This GCSE gives students a better understanding of theatre than ever before. We're just making sure we don't discriminate against the handful of students who can't get to a performance through no fault of their own."
Michel Roux Jr is celebrating 25 years at the helm of his famed family restaurant Le Gavroche this year

Chef Michel Roux Jr has ruled himself out as the new host of Saturday Kitchen.

The former MasterChef presenter was praised by viewers when he filled in as the hit BBC show's first guest host earlier this month, replacing James Martin who quit after 10 years.

But asked if he would like to take on the role permanently, he told the Press Association: "Good Lord, no. It's a massive ask to commit to 30-something Saturday mornings - and it's early mornings, like four o'clock.

"There's no way my diary could handle that for a start and no, there's no way I'd want to do that."

Roux Jr stepped down from his own BBC shows in 2014 after clashing with the corporation over his endorsement deal with Albert Bartlett Rooster potatoes, but he said "the door is still open with me and the BBC, I've not burnt my bridges".

The acclaimed chef is celebrating 25 years at the helm of his famed family restaurant Le Gavroche this year, but he hinted that he may be taking a step back from his commitments there.

Asked if he plans to take an early retirement, Roux Jr paused and smiled and said: "I'm just thinking, how should I answer this.

"It's difficult to retire. Look at dad (chef Albert Roux), he's 81 this year but he's still working.

"I think I can't imagine myself not doing anything, no. I can't imagine myself not having some kind of an involvement in a restaurant or catering business so I don't know."

Michelin-starred Roux Jr, who has united with The Balvenie whisky for a new YouTube film series looking at British craftsmanship, complained that Britons value cheapness over quality of food.

Talking about the horsemeat scandal that rocked the food industry three years ago, he said: "I still think if the public were given a choice between a cheap burger with the possibility of having horse inside and a premium burger with guaranteed no horse, a lot of people would take the cheaper one because they'd say 'I'm on a budget and it actually tastes alright'."

He admitted worries about overpopulation and sustainable food production after a UN report said insects will need to become a core source of protein to deal with the world's predicted nine billion population by 2050.

He denied that insects could make their way onto the menu at Le Gavroche but said that Britons do need to begin to see meat as a "treat".

He said: "In 50 years' time we'll struggle to feed the world, we're struggling as it is. We have to find more protein, and insects are definitely a way to produce protein in an efficient way but we don't need to eat animal protein every day of the week.

"Forgo cheap supermarket chicken, eat more vegetables and cereal and treat yourself to a really good chicken on Sunday."

Roux Jr's film series The Craftsmen's Dinner can be found at www.youtube.com/TheCraftsmensDinner.
Gonorrhoea bacteria - the highly drug-resistant strain of the sexually transmitted superbug is at risk of becoming untreatable, experts believe

A highly drug-resistant type of "super-gonorrhoea" is spreading in the UK and senior medics warn it may become untreatable.

A powerful strain of the sexually transmitted superbug, first seen in the north of England, has now been found in the West Midlands and the South East, Public Health England (PHE) said.

The strain is "highly resistant" to the antibiotic azithromycin, meaning medics are relying on a second drug, ceftriaxone, to treat it. But there are no other effective drugs to tackle it, raising the prospect of it becoming untreatable if it builds further resistance.

PHE urged people to use condoms with new or casual partners to cut the risk of catching the disease. If untreated, gonorrhoea can result in severe complications and lead to infertility or septicaemia in rare cases.

Dr Gwenda Hughes, head of PHE's sexually transmitted infections (STI) section, said: "Fortunately, the current outbreak strain can still be treated with ceftriaxone.

"Nonetheless, we know that the bacterium that causes gonorrhoea can rapidly develop resistance to other antibiotics that are used for treatment, so we cannot afford to be complacent.

"If strains of gonorrhoea emerge that are resistant to both azithromycin and ceftriaxone, treatment options would be limited as there is currently no new antibiotic available to treat the infection."

PHE said yesterday that there had been 34 confirmed cases since November 2014. Since September 2015, 11 cases have been confirmed in the West Midlands and the South of England.

At least 16 cases were first detected in northern England, including 12 in Leeds where the mutated strand was first recorded, PHE said in September.

The strain, which is resistant to first-line antibiotic azithromycin, spread from Leeds to patients in Macclesfield, Oldham and Scunthorpe.

Cases have been found in heterosexual men and women, and men who sleep with men, PHE said.

The British Association for Sexual Health and HIV urged clinicians to follow up cases of high-level drug-resistant gonorrhoea and trace sexual partners.

Its president, Dr Elizabeth Carlin, told the BBC: "The spread of high-level azithromycin-resistant gonorrhoea is a huge concern and it is essential that every effort is made to contain further spread."

Almost 35,000 cases of gonorrhoea were reported in England in 2014.

It is the second most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the UK after chlamydia, with the majority of cases affecting people who are under the age of 25.

Those infected may have discharge or pain in urinating, but around 10% of men and almost half of women have no symptoms.

Concerns have been growing over "untreatable" strains of gonorrhoea, and in 2012, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control warned that drug-resistant forms of the STI were spreading across Europe.
Wearing constricting undergarments overnight can create the optimum environment for a host of unpleasantness, including an increased risk of bacterial and yeast infections.

Going to bed in your underwear could end up being responsible for a number of health problems, Irish experts have suggested.

Wearing constricting undergarments overnight can create the optimum environment for a host of unpleasantness particularly in women, including an increased risk of bacterial and yeast infections.

The comment comes after American gynaecologist Dr Alyssa Dweck revealed that she advises her patients to ditch their knickers at night across the board.

I tell my patients to sleep without underwear. If the area is constantly covered, especially by fabric thats not moisture wicking or absorbent, then moisture collects, creating the perfect breeding ground for yeast.

Dr Shirley McQuade, Medical Director of Dublins Well Woman Centre revealed that wearing underwear overnight can lead the way for infections such as bacteria vaginosis and thrush.

Wearing underwear to bed can cause problems for women in that the temperature is increased and the circulation is low which can allow for bacteria and yeast to thrive causing problems.

It isnt just underwear either. Wearing tight lycra while working out can also be a cause of recurring infections in women and I would always advise them to wear loose clothing while at the gym and cotton underwear, she said.

It isnt just women who are advised to hit the hay commando either, as experts say wearing boxers to bed can impact a mans fertility.

Theres a reason why the scrotum is outside of the body and it is because temperature affects sperm count.

By wearing boxers to bed, the temperature is often increased, which decreases sperm count and in that way impacts fertility.

Men who sit down at work would also be vulnerable to this problem, as well as men who wear lycra while exercising, she said.

Irish Independent
Police found a crowd of around 100 children - some as young as 12 - drinking at an illegal outdoor party in south Belfast.

The children were drinking in Lagan Meadows in a secluded area of woodland near the river, the PSNI said.

Alcohol - including bottles of vodka, beer and cider - littered the woodland, where residents say music was heard playing late into the night.

The PSNI said officers found around 100 children aged between 12 and 16 drinking area.

But a spokesman added that the trouble was not limited to under-age drinking.

He said: "Sadly, the Fire Service also had to be tasked to put out some gorse fires. The area is very dark, has barbed wire fences, and is beside a river. Listen, I don't want to be a killjoy, but equally, I don't fancy pulling someone out of the river and I am sure you agree the fire service has more important calls to attend."

A message posted online by PSNI South Belfast asked parents: "Do you know where your children are tonight?"

Residents near the area said the trouble appeared to start at around 9pm and finished close to midnight, when police arrived on the scene.

They said the parkland has recently become a hotspot for drug dealers and over the last year has become a regular spot for parties.

One man told the Belfast Telegraph how the trouble had caused concern to a mother with two teenagers living nearby.

He said: "She worries about it because of her boys - they thought they were buying into a safe, trouble-free neighbourhood and now they've got to worry about their sons and make sure they are not getting involved in this.

"I told police yesterday that my neighbours were concerned.

"Several of the emails I got from them while I was on holiday were about this trouble here and what is going on; it's just casual comments, but it has been going on for a while.

"There are noisy weekends. There are parties there and there is a lot of drink taken up to them."

He added he had seen police car chases and car searches in the area as police tried to tackle the issues.

Another man who lives in the area criticised the way police were dealing with the under-age drinking issue.

He said: "Obviously police are coming so often because residents are complaining, but they will never get anyone unless they go up there in plain clothes."

He added that he had seen suspicious activity in the area which he believed was linked to drug dealing.

No arrests were made following Saturday night's incidents.
Emergency services at the scene of a shooting in the Elmfield Street area on April 15, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Emergency services at the scene of a shooting in the Elmfield Street area on April 15, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Emergency services at the scene of a shooting in the Elmfield Street area on April 15, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Emergency services at the scene of a shooting in the Elmfield Street area on April 15, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Man was shot three times in the leg in an alleyway at Butler Place close to Elmfield Street, near the Crumlin Road at about 22:05 on Friday. Photo: Aidan OReilly/Pacemaker

Police officers back in the Ardoyne estate carrying out door to door enquiries following the murder of Michael McGibbon on April 17, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye

Joanne McGibbon, whose mother Margaret was cared for by hospice nurses before she died earlier this year, pictured at home in north Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

Society must turn its back on the thugs dealing out their own brand of justice on the streets of Northern Ireland, it has been warned.

Justice Minister David Ford was speaking after the brutal murder of a father-of-four in north Belfast.

Michael McGibbon was left bleeding to death after being shot three times in an alleyway.

The 33-year-old taxi driver had turned up for a pre-arranged shooting on Friday night.

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His grieving wife told how she arrived to find him lying in a pool of blood, adding: "I tried so hard to save him."

A priest said it was the 100th murder in an area to have experienced some of the worst ravages of the Troubles.

On Sunday detectives arrested a 34-year-old man in connection with Mr McGibbon's murder. He is understood to be dissident activist Dee Fennell. He was released unconditionally on Monday evening.

The brutal killing has turned the spotlight back on the issue of so-called punishment attacks.

Police figures show that almost 100 people were injured last year after being shot or assaulted by paramilitaries.

West and north Belfast were among the worst affected areas.

In the last 10 years, a total of 855 people have been maimed in "punishment" incidents.

Last night Justice Minister Mr Ford said such violence had no role to play in a modern Northern Ireland. He said the community must unite in a show of defiance against paramilitaries.

"There is no place for paramilitary assaults in today's society," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

"The vast majority of our people want to move on and step away from what happened in the past. There must be a clear message sent out about the community uniting in condemnation of those who carry out this kind of crime."

Secretary of State Theresa Villiers said the killing was a dark reminder of the past.

"This callous and shocking murder appears to have the hallmarks of the paramilitary-style assaults which too often ruin lives and scar Northern Ireland," she said.

North Belfast priest Fr Gary Donegan said the murder had "destroyed" the McGibbon family. "From the highest heavens, people cannot condemn it enough," he said. Two men went to Mr McGibbon's home in the Crumlin Road area on Thursday night with the intention of shooting him in the legs.

When he refused to come out they warned him they would be back. It is reported that on Friday afternoon a prominent New IRA member from Ardoyne approached Mr McGibbon as he collected his children from school.

He was told to be at the alley at 10pm to be shot or face exile from Northern Ireland. His wife Joanne has described how her husband put a brave face on the planned attack. "Michael wasn't too worried but when he went I was thinking the worst. I was actually listening out for gunshots, although I didn't hear them," she said.

"I texted my friend to come down and sit with the children so that I could go and see if he was alright.in

"When I got to the alleyway he was just lying there with the blood pouring out of him. I tried so hard to save him."

Joanne described how she fought desperately to save her husband's life. But one of the gunmen's three bullets had struck an artery in his thigh and he bled to death in her arms.

It is understood that detectives are looking at the possibility that he was dealt with more severely because he told police on Thursday that he was under threat.

When two armed New IRA members arrived at his house, he refused to come to the door and phoned the PSNI for help.

"I just knew they wanted to harm him very badly," Joanne said. "It just doesn't feel real. It is horrific. He was such a quiet man who worked hard for his family.

"I don't know what type of people there are in this world."

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Dickson is urging the community to come forward with information.

He said:"This was a callous crime that robbed a wife of her husband and four children of their father. We want to be able to find the people responsible and bring them to justice.

"The support of the community and that local information will be vital in doing so.

"The incident room number is 028 90700303. Or you can phone the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111."
The conference revenue could be complemented by Belfast's thriving leisure tourism market

Conference tourism will be worth a record breaking 45 million to the Belfast economy over the coming years, tourist chiefs said.

More than 30,000 delegates will visit the city this year, according to business promotion organisation Visit Belfast.

High-profile gatherings which are due to take place in Belfast from 2016 onwards include the Royal College of Nursing's Annual Congress, which will bring 5,000 delegates to Belfast in 2018.

The Congress - the largest ever - will also see around 100 meetings and social events take place in a number of venues across the city over five days, bringing an expected 5 million in economic benefit for the city.

Suzanne Wylie, chief executive of Belfast City Council, said: "Business tourism in Belfast has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and the city now competes with the very best.

"2016 will be a watershed year for Belfast, with the re-opening of the Belfast Waterfront allowing us to welcome bigger conferences than ever before."

Visit Belfast said conferences in the city will generate a record-breaking 45 million worth of economic benefit over the next few years.

Conference tourism represents an important sector of the tourism economy in Belfast.

As well as bringing mid-week, year-round trade for the tourism and hospitality industries and complementing the growing leisure tourism market in the city, business travellers and conference delegates are typically high-spending visitors that bring trade to a wide range of local businesses.
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has urged the British and Irish governments to directly intervene in the Stormont power-sharing executive.

Furthermore, he has called for an overhaul in the North-South bodies set up under the Good Friday Agreement.

Speaking at his party's annual commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising, Mr Martin attacked the DUP/Sinn Fein-led adminstration for wreaking "immense damage" on Northern Ireland's post-peace process institutions.

"We need direct engagement by both the Irish and British governments to end the stranglehold in Stormont by two parties," he said.

"This is doing immense damage to public support for the institutions and public engagement in politics."

Mr Martin has previously accused the DUP and Sinn Fein of pandering only to their own communities while failing to build bridges between them.

Pointing out his own party's "central role" in the 1998 peace accord, Mr Martin said the Good Friday Agreement provided an opportunity to build "not just an absence of war but also lasting reconciliation and development".

"This opportunity is being wasted," he said.

"We need a new beginning in the concept of North-South bodies, which have an enormous potential to deliver services and sustained development on both sides of the border."

The North-South bodies include Waterways Ireland, Food Safety Promotion Board, Trade and Business Development Body (known as InterTrade Ireland), Special EU Programmes Body, North/South Language Body, Foyle Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission and Tourism Ireland.
HMS Caroline is on display in Belfast as part of the Battle of Jutland commemorations

The Battle of Jutland was fought off the coast of Denmark

First Minister Arlene Foster unveils the new wall art installation in Jutland Square, at Tennent Street on the Shankill Road, which commemorates sailors from all over Ireland who lost their lives at the Battle of Jutland, the centenary of which falls on 31st May 2016. Photo by William Cherry / Presseye

A new mural commemorating the First World War's most important sea battle has been unveiled.

The artwork highlights the contribution and sacrifice of sailors from across Ireland who died in the Battle of Jutland 100 years ago.

It now dominates a north Belfast park which had previously been a graffiti blackspot.

The seven-panel artwork was created by a Shared History workshop to recognise the valour of Irish sailors who served with the Royal Navy in what was a significant maritime duel.

The battle, near the coast of Denmark's Jutland Peninsula, involved about 250 ships.

More than 6,000 British personnel and 2,500 Germans died in the battle, which raged between May 31 and June 1, 1916.

Some 348 Irish sailors are believed to have died - many of them young men who signed on at just 15 years of age.

The Royal Navy's senior officer in Northern Ireland, Commander John Gray, attended Friday's unveiling.

Pete Bleakley from the Shared History workshop said that, while the British suffered greater losses, it was the battle that won the war.

"The significance of the battle is that the Royal Navy was the most powerful navy in the world at the time. It was blockading German ports and stopping imports of food and steel, slowly strangling the German war effort," he said.

Expand Close New wall art installation in Jutland Square, at Tennent Street on the Shankill Road. Photo by William Cherry / Presseye / Facebook

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Whatsapp New wall art installation in Jutland Square, at Tennent Street on the Shankill Road. Photo by William Cherry / Presseye

The commemoration to the Irish sailors in the First World War will take place on May 31.

HMS Caroline, the only surviving warship from the Battle of Jutland, will provide a focal point for the proceedings.
17/6/2016 (FREE TO USE) MUD FOR IT...One thousand people got down and dirty for the second time this year at Northern Ireland's muckiest event, McVitie's Jaffa Cakes Mud Madness, which took place on Sunday at Foymore Lodge in Portadown. Competitors came from all over Northern Ireland as well as Germany , Portugal , UK , ROI. Professional athletes, causal joggers and people who are just a bit bonkers made their way across 4.5 miles of bogs and ponds, under cargo nets and through water sprays and muddy trenches to help raise thousands of pounds for the official charity partner of the event, Marie Curie Cancer Care.
A bulldozer moves rubble after an earthquake in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Sunday, April 17, 2016. Rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble Sunday after the strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast on Saturday. The magnitude-7.8 quake killed hundreds of people. (AP Photo/Carlos Sacoto)

People carry an empty coffin on a pick up truck as they drive to collect the body of an earthquake victim in Pedernales, Ecuador, Sunday, April 17, 2016. Rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble Sunday after the strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast on Saturday. The magnitude-7.8 quake killed hundreds of people. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A woman rests covered with a blanket under a makeshift tent outside the emergency center in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Sunday, April 17, 2016. Parts of Ecuador have been devastated by the country's strongest earthquake in decades, as the death toll continues to rise and people left homeless prepare to sleep outside for second straight night. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Residents sleep under a makeshift tent outside the emergency center in the town of Portoviejo, Ecuador, Sunday, April 17, 2016. Parts of Ecuador have been devastated by the country's strongest earthquake in decades, as the death toll continues to rise and people left homeless prepare to sleep outside for second straight night. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Rescue workers stand behind rubble after an earthquake in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Sunday, April 17, 2016. Rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble Sunday after the strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast on Saturday night. The magnitude-7.8 quake killed hundreds of people. (AP Photo/Carlos Sacoto)

Picture released by Ecuadorean agency API showing Ecuador's President Rafael Correa (C at left) gesturing during his visit to the city of Manta, Ecuador, on April 17, 2016 a day after a powerful 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country. Ecuador quake kills 272 and the number "will rise", Correa said. / AFP PHOTO / API / Ariel Ochoa / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / API / ARIEL OCHOA" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTSARIEL OCHOA/AFP/Getty Images

Picture released by Ecuadorean agency API showing Ecuador's President Rafael Correa (L) talking to a wounded man during his visit to the city of Manta, Ecuador, on April 17, 2016 a day after a powerful 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country. Ecuador quake kills 272 and the number "will rise", Correa said. / AFP PHOTO / API / Ariel Ochoa / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / API / ARIEL OCHOA" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTSARIEL OCHOA/AFP/Getty Images

A man evacuates his belongings in Manta, Ecuador, on April 17, 2016 a day after a powerful 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country. The toll from the big earthquake in Ecuador rose on Sunday to 246 dead and 2,527 people injured, the country's vice president said. / AFP PHOTO / LUIS ACOSTALUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images

People rest in front of a destroyed house in Manta, Ecuador, on April 17, 2016 a day after a powerful 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country. The toll from the big earthquake in Ecuador rose on Sunday to 246 dead and 2,527 people injured, the country's vice president said. / AFP PHOTO / LUIS ACOSTALUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images

Picture taken in Manta, Ecuador, on April 17, 2016 a day after a powerful 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country. The toll from the big earthquake in Ecuador rose on Sunday to 246 dead and 2,527 people injured, the country's vice president said. / AFP PHOTO / LUIS ACOSTALUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images

Picture showing the destruction in Manta, Ecuador, on April 17, 2016 a day after a powerful 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country. ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images

Sister Clare Theresa Crockett was based at a school in Playa Prieta with the Home of the Mother order.

Heartfelt tributes have been made to the Northern Ireland nun killed after a massive earthquake hit Ecuador over the weekend.

Sister Clare Theresa Crockett was based at a school in Playa Prieta with the Home of the Mother order.

She died when a stairwell collapsed in a school. The missionary of 15 years was teaching young children to play the guitar when the disaster occurred.

She had been trying to lead them to safety when the four storey building they were in collapsed on top of them on Sunday.

Her body was found under rubble on Monday by search and rescue teams.

The 7.8-magnitude quake hit on Saturday evening and was centred 16 miles from Muisne in a sparsely populated area of fishing ports popular with tourists reducing homes and roads to rubble.

Sister Clare (33) was one of six of the order killed in the quake.

Her family described her as a "superstar" and friends said she had the ability to light up any room, putting people into fits of laughter.

Sister Clare was described as a diamond of the family by a relative to the Derry Journal, who said she died as she lived; "helping people".

"Everybody loved her," said cousin Emmet Doyle, "she was a superstar."

On Monday, the death toll had reached 272 in the South American country, with search and rescue operations continuing and a state of emergency declared. Thousands more have been injured.

In a statement, Sister Clare's family added: "On Sunday 17th April, we lost our daughter, sister and aunt Sister Clare Theresa Crockett as a result of the earthquake in Ecuador.

"She was situated in a school in Playa Prieta with the Home of the Mother Order. At this difficult time we would ask for privacy."

Friend and fellow Home of the Mother Order member Sister Cristin Camero added: "She wrote many songs and saw that as a way to bring others to God, to help them have an encounter with the Lord.

"I will remember her jokes - she was very funny.

"She would have the whole room laughing."

Sister Clare was from Londonderry, home to deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

Mr McGuinness said: "I want to send my sympathy to the family and friends of Sr Clare Theresa Crockett who tragically died in an earthquake in Ecuador on Saturday.

"Sr Clare devoted her life to children and young people and died selflessly helping those in need in Ecuador.

"Her death has shocked and saddened the entire community in Derry and further afield.

"My thoughts are with all of Sr. Clare's family, friends and colleagues at this tragic time."

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Fr Roland Calhoun was the young woman's spiritual director. He described her as "a beautiful person".

"The terrible news has devastated everyone in the last couple of hours," he told BBC Radio Foyle.

"This is a young girl who gave her life to God and died for the gospel.

"She was a joyful girl, I've known her since she was a teenager. A beautiful person.

"I'll remember the joy that she brought to her youth group and the enthusiasm she showed for her vocation to religious life.

"It's counter cultural to join a religious order for a young girl and she embraced it. We'll remember her with such affection."

Before the age of 18 when she pledged to a life of servitude, Sister Clare has aspirations to be an actress. She joined an agency, presented television shows and even had a small part in a movie.

A self-confessed party animal she signed up for what she thought was a free trip to Spain only for her to later realise it was for a pilgrimage during Holy Week. It was during this trip that she realised the Grace of God and realised she had to change her ways.

Sister Clare said she was happy to serve God in South America.

In a testimony, she said: "I thank God for the patience that He has had with me, and still has!!!! I do not ask Him why He has chosen me, I just accept it. I depend totally on Him and Our Blessed Mother and I ask them to give me the grace to be whatever they want me to be."
Protesting parents will today hand over a 2,000-strong petition to education authorities demanding an investigation into the situation at a crisis-hit west Belfast school.

It comes as De La Salle College's recently-appointed troubleshooter begins a series of daily briefings with parents to "enhance communication".

In a statement the Concerned Parents of De La Salle said: "We have received over 2,000 signatures and a further 500 comments and messages of support.

"A copy of each will be hand delivered to each appropriate authority on Monday - CCMS, Minister for Education, Church officials and our final delivery will be to a representative of the board of governors on Monday afternoon."

They will also hold another protest at the school gates at 4pm today.

Parents have spoken of their concerns about the detrimental effect the dispute was having on pupils' education, and head boy Peter Heenan spoke out last month, saying he believes the dispute has harmed students "in both an emotional and educational sense".

The Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) has appointed an associate principal, Imelda Jordan, to help address the issues.

Ms Jordan sent letters to pupils' homes on Thursday informing them that as well as daily briefings being held, a homework club will be open to all pupils.

The parents have been holding protests for months, calling for an independent investigation into the running of De La Salle.

Teachers have also been absent as the dispute with school management escalated, and the largest of four teaching unions at the school (INTO) has voted for industrial action.

Recently, a leaked audit report on De La Salle by the Belfast Education and Library board concluded there had been problems with financial mismanagement including serious misappropriation of funds, inappropriate hospitality provided to staff including meals at restaurants, and purchasing of alcohol.

It is understood a criminal investigation for suspected fraud at the school in 2014 is currently ongoing.
More than 2,000 parking fines were handed out in a single year on one of Belfast's busiest shopping streets.

The Lisburn Road is the most ticketed street in Northern Ireland.

It topped a list of places in Belfast where commuters are most likely to be slapped with a fine.

Almost 35,000 penalties were dished out in a 12-month period across the city.

But it is the Lisburn Road where ticket-happy red coats are at their most prolific - hitting motorists at a rate of six a day.

In the 12 months to last April some 2,195 penalty charge notices (PCNs) were issued.

More tickets were handed out on the Lisburn Road than in the whole of Antrim, Newtownabbey and Larne put together.

It has led to claims that shoppers could be driven away from one of the city's most popular and fashionable thoroughfares.

"That level of parking tickets alarms me. It does seem to be excessive," said Glyn Roberts, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association.

"Nobody would disagree with the need for firm enforcement in terms of the regulations around parking.

"But the figures appear excessive, and consistently the Lisburn Road gets the highest density of tickets of any part of Belfast."

A total of 34,890 fixed penalty notices were handed out across Belfast city centre during 2014/15.

The most ticketed streets were:

Lisburn Road (2,195 PCNs).

Chichester Street (1,988)

Stranmillis Road (723).

Adelaide Street (706).

Wellington Place (647).

The figures were released by the Department for Regional Development after a Freedom of Information request.

It came after a motorist contacted this newspaper to say he had been ticketed seven times in just one month.

The angry driver said the spate of tickets was "diabolical".

The Department for Regional Development's TransportNI wing takes responsibility for the enforcement of most parking restrictions.

On-the-ground enforcement is provided by TransportNI's contractor, currently NSL Services Group, which employs the wardens.

Each parking ticket costs car owners 90 - or 45 if it is paid within 14 days.

The 34,890 PCNs dished out in Belfast were potentially worth up to 3.1m.

The city's streets were the most ticketed in Northern Ireland in 2014/15.

Just 7,884 tickets - less than a quarter of Belfast's total - were issued in Londonderry in the same 12-month period.

A further 6,034 were issued in Lisburn, 6,736 in Newry and 2,350 in Armagh.

Coleraine had 4,214 tickets, Ballymena saw 3,942, while Newtownards had 2,965.

Some 928 fines were issued in Larne, 827 in Antrim and 333 in Newtownabbey.

Traders on the Lisburn Road believe that the raft of tickets is driving customers away.

Laura Brown, who runs Arcadia Deli, said: "Historically there seems to be a disproportionate number of tickets issued on the Lisburn Road.

"It does have an impact on businesses, which are hard-pressed at the moment with retail being as it is.

"People often can't get parked, and when they do get parked the red coats are very quick to ticket them.

"It does become an issue and it does put people off."

Mr Roberts said enforcement officers needed to be more reasonable.

"The approach of the red coats has to be fair and proportionate," he added.

"We need a common sense approach - for example, asking for a car to be moved rather than just slapping a ticket on it."

This newspaper has previously reported how Belfast commuters have been hit with thousands of fines for driving in the city's bus lanes.

Since last June motorists who drive in the lanes face a 90 fine, reduced to 45 if paid within two weeks.

Last October the Telegraph disclosed that in the first three months a total of 21,772 fines were issued.

Based on the minimum 45 fine, that means that the cameras will have scooped at least 979,740.

That is double the 500,000 which officials had been expecting to recoup from fines in a typical year.

The Department for Regional Development declined to comment on the number of parking fines.
Friends and relatives at the funeral of John Irwin at St Johns Parish Church, Middletown, Co Armagh

Friends and relatives at the funeral of John Irwin at St Johns Parish Church, Middletown, Co Armagh

Classmates of John Irwin weep at his funeral

Friends of a teenage schoolboy wept openly as their classmate was laid to rest after collapsing in class.

John Irwin, a pupil at City of Armagh High School, died in hospital last Wednesday, just days after celebrating his 16th birthday.

On Saturday hundreds gathered at St John's Church of Ireland in Middletown, Co Armagh, to pay their last respects to the popular teenager.

City of Armagh High pupils wearing the school's distinctive maroon and white uniform bowed their heads outside the church as they formed a guard of honour for their friend's final journey.

Staff from the school also attended, as well as political representatives.

The school has held special assemblies for the Year 12 pupil to help his classmates come to terms with the sudden loss.

His principal David Livingstone described John - a prefect in the school - as a popular young man held in the highest regard by teachers and his fellow pupils.

"John's outstanding good nature and determination will always be remembered in City of Armagh High School," he said.

"The staff and pupils in City of Armagh High School have experienced shock and disbelief as they come to terms with the passing of John.

"The Irwin family has a long association with City of Armagh High School and John's mother Diane is a member of the Board of Governors.

"Our hearts go out to her, John's father Keith, sisters Ruth and Rachel, brothers James and William and the entire family circle."

The Armagh school was hit by a double tragedy last week following the death of its former head girl Lesley-Ann McCarragher in a hit-and-run collision near her home.

The 19-year-old died in the Royal Victoria Hospital after being hit by a vehicle while she was out running on the Monaghan Road near Milford in Co Armagh.

A 17-year-old male has been charged with a number of motoring offences, including causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop, failing to report an accident, and driving without a licence and insurance.
Emergency services at the scene of a shooting in the Elmfield Street area on April 15, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Emergency services at the scene of a shooting in the Elmfield Street area on April 15, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Emergency services at the scene of a shooting in the Elmfield Street area on April 15, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Emergency services at the scene of a shooting in the Elmfield Street area on April 15, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Man was shot three times in the leg in an alleyway at Butler Place close to Elmfield Street, near the Crumlin Road at about 22:05 on Friday. Photo: Aidan OReilly/Pacemaker

Police officers back in the Ardoyne estate carrying out door to door enquiries following the murder of Michael McGibbon on April 17, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye

Joanne McGibbon, whose mother Margaret was cared for by hospice nurses before she died earlier this year, pictured at home in north Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

The Secretary of State has condemned the murder of Michael McGibbon.

Theresa Villiers described it as a "callous" act.

Adding to the condemnation of many politicians, she also hit out at the paramilitary violence scarring society.

"This callous and shocking murder appears to have the hallmarks of the paramilitary-style assaults which too often ruin lives and scar Northern Ireland," she said.

"My sympathy is with Mr McGibbon's young family. The PSNI investigation will now take its course and I urge anyone with information to come forward to bring those responsible to justice."

The DUP's Nelson McCausland described the killing as "intolerable".

The North Belfast Assembly candidate said it was "imperative that the people responsible are brought before the courts and dealt with".

He said the guns used in such crimes must be taken off the streets.

"People want to move on, this is simply dragging people back to the past," Mr McCausland said.

The shooting of Mr McGibbon in Butler Place in north Belfast on Friday night came just three months after the killing of a 31-year-old man a few streets away. Father-of-two Conor McKee was found murdered in a bedroom of his Glenpark Street home in January.

Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly, who sits on the Policing Board, said criminal elements were "at war" with the community.

"This is the second such killing carried out in this area in the last six months by an armed gang which is clearly at war with the local community," he said.

Mr Kelly said there could be "no place for such actions" in society.

"Those who carried out this terrible act do not represent the local community in north Belfast," he added.

"They need to realise that they have no support and get off the backs of the community.

"The community demands that they call a halt to these actions immediately."

SDLP councillor Nichola Mallon said the murder had left the area in shock.

"The community is reeling and has been left shocked and horrified by this brutal murder," she said.

"North Belfast has shouldered this kind of savagery in the past.

"There can be no justification for it. It was wrong then and it is wrong today."

Alliance councillor Nuala McAllister said she "utterly condemned" the killing. She urged people to reject the "thugs" who brought terror to the streets.

"There can never be any excuse for carrying out such a heinous act and I utterly condemn the thugs behind it," she said.

"Thanks to them, there is now a man lying dead and a family plunged into mourning.

"Violent attacks and murder have no place in our society.

"This was a brutal crime and those behind it need taken off our streets.

"Our entire community must unite against those who seek to drag us back to the bloody days of the past."
Eoin with Barry Douglas and Sean Sheehan of sponsors Bank of Ireland

Eoin Fleming performing during the final of the Catherine Judge Memorial Award at Queens University

A talented young pianist has received a 5,000 bursary after winning a prestigious solo classical music competition in Belfast.

Eoin Fleming (18), a pupil of St Dara's Community College, won the Catherine Judge Memorial Award in the final at the Great Hall of Queen's University on Saturday.

The Dublin teenager performed Nocturne Opus 55, no 2 by Chopin and Sonata no 2, Opus 36, 3rd movement by Rachmaninov in front of a 150-strong audience.

The award will help Eoin pursue his third-level music education by world-renowned Belfast-born classical pianist and conductor Barry Douglas, founder of Camerata Ireland.

Douglas chaired the Bank of Ireland-sponsored award judging panel in its inaugural year and returned for this, its 10th year. He said: "It's wonderful to see this fantastic award once again providing a very special and unique opportunity for these young musicians to showcase their talent.

"On behalf of the judges, I congratulate Eoin and look forward with keen interest as his career develops in the coming years."
Theresa May and her aides attempted to delete sentences they didn't agree with from a report on drugs, the former deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has claimed.

The Liberal Democrat MP told the Guardian, the Home Secretary didnt like the conclusions of a report released in 2014, which found no clear link between harsh drugs laws and illegal drug use.

The report, Drugs: International Comparators, said its fact-finding did not observe any obvious relationship between the toughness of a country's enforcement against drug possession, and levels of drug use, sparking requests for further talks regarding decriminalisation.

The conclusions were derived from Portuguese data, where the report found there had been considerable health improvements since the country began to treat drug possession as a health rather than a criminal issue.

Mr Clegg, who sits on the Global Commission on Drugs Policy, was one of a number prominent figures who signed an open letter to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, urging the UN to review its 20-year campaign to rid the world of illegal drugs, ahead of a special summit in New York next week.

In 1998, the UN formally committed itself to abolishing illegal drugs worldwide within 10 years. Recently, however, a reactionary movement has emerged which holds that the so-called War on Drugs, rather than helping the world, has created vast and powerful criminal networks and endless cycles of violence.

The summit, set to open on 19 April, is likely to be a landmark meeting as it appears it will offer a platform to those who question the current drugs policy for the first time.

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The session was brought forward two years at the request of Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia, three countries on the front lines of the narcotics conflict.

Mr Clegg told the Guardian said the original draft of the 2014 report had been subject to an endless wrangle between Lib Dem ministers and Theresa May about the fullness of what would be published, arguing that there would be no change whatsoever as long as she led the Home Office.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The UK's approach on drugs remains clear: we must prevent drug use in our communities and help dependent individuals to recover, while ensuring our drugs laws are enforced.

"We have seen a reduction in drug misuse amongst adults and young people over the last 10 years and more people are recovering from their dependency now than in 2009/10. Decriminalising drugs would not eliminate the crime committed by their illicit trade, nor would it address the harms and destruction associated with drug dependence.

"The International Comparators Study does not say there is no link or impact between tough penalties and drug use. It makes clear that approaches to drugs legislation and enforcement of drugs possession are only one element of a complex set of factors that affect drugs use, including prevention, treatment and wider social and cultural factors.

The move marks one of Mr Cleggs first campaigns since stepping down as leader of the Liberal Democrats after their general election disaster.

Last year Mr Clegg launched a campaign to persuade EU leaders to back global reform of drug laws, warning that the current punitive approach has failed to curb the multibillion trade in illicit substances and has criminalised millions of young people.

Writing in The Independent, he said: We are, without doubt, losing the war on drugs.

Independent
Gerry Adams is "incapable" of accepting the IRA waged an illegitimate war, it was claimed yesterday.

In a strongly-worded attack, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin accused Sinn Fein of seeking to "rewrite history" over the Easter Rising.

Mr Martin said Sinn Fein was guilty of a "deeply cynical and dangerous attempt to exploit the heroes of 1916".

And he accused the party of seeking to claim a direct link to the Easter Rising which is not warranted.

Mr Martin was particularly critical of an exhibition running at Dublin's Ambassador Theatre which includes a section dedicated to the H-Block hunger strikes of the 1980s.

"In the very room where the Irish Volunteers first met they are today running an exhibition which claims to be about 1916 but it is solely about twisting history," he said of the Revolution 1916 exhibit.

"Even though a Sinn Fein officer is running it out of Sinn Fein HQ, they pretend to the public that it is an independent exhibition. They claim that to honour Pearse, Clarke and Plunkett you must honour a sinister organisation which tried to destroy this State and continues to refuse to subject its members to the laws enacted by the Irish people.

"The fact is that today this type of behaviour is the greatest threat to the high standing of 1916 among the Irish people."

Mr Martin was speaking at Fianna Fail's annual 1916 Commemoration in Arbour Hill, Dublin. He said that Sinn Fein had failed to achieve the electoral breakthrough they claimed was "inevitable" and are "now using more underhand methods to legitimise themselves".

"The arguments of the 1970s and 1980s that we should reject the tradition of 1916 are now confined to a small fringe," he added.

"What remains as a direct challenge to the unique status of 1916 is Gerry Adams and a party incapable of accepting that it waged an illegitimate war against a democratic republican tradition directly enabled by 1916.

"People who behave like this are also disrespecting the men and women of the Rising because they are claiming that nothing was achieved.

"This is the biggest difference between the vast majority of the Irish people and the Provisionals movement - we believe that 1916 fundamentally changed the possibilities for pursuing the cause of Irish republicanism."
Joshua Molloy (24), from Ballylinan, Co Laois was arrested by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan is being kept informed on efforts to secure the release of an Irishman arrested after fighting Isis in Syria.

Joshua Molloy (24), from Ballylinan, Co Laois, travelled to the Middle East region in April 2015 to fight against Isis with forces allied to the Kurds.

Mr Molloy is originally from the village on the Laois-Kildare border

He is believed to have gone to school at Ardscoil na Trionoide in Athy, Co Kildare. He joined the British Army after leaving school and served with them for around four years. However, he left due to the lack to military action.

He is believed to have fought against Isis with a Kurdish group. Over the past 18 months, hundreds of Westerners have joined Kurdish, Assyrian and other military units in the fight against Isis.

Before leaving to fight, Mr Molloy told his family he was going to Turkey to undertake humanitarian work. His parents are now understood to be concerned about him and want to secure his release.

He was arrested by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) last Friday along with two Britons, Joe Akerman and Jac Holmes, as they tried to return home.

Mr Molloy and his friends had allegedly entered Iraq illegally from Syria.

The KRG had closed the Iraq-Syria border.

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The group was promised help from the KRG, but when that didn't materialise they allegedly tried to make their way across the border on their own.

According to the 'Sunday Times', the men had been fighting with a Syriac Christian group, the MFS, which is allied to the Kurdish YPG in the fight against Isis.

Release

The Republic's Department of Foreign Affairs is working with British counterparts on the case.

Irish diplomats are understood to have decided it would be best if the British Foreign Office worked for the release of all three men.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office told the Irish Independent they were engaging with officials on the ground in Iraq to secure the release of the men. Mr Flanagan will keep a watching brief on those attempts.

"We are aware of the case and we stand ready to provide consular assistance. Minister Flanagan is being kept fully informed," a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said.

Mark Campbell, a British-based activist for Kurdish rights, said he had spoken to Mr Molloy's parents and that they were very worried.

"Joshua's parents would like to appeal to the KRG to release him and his friends," he told reporters.

He last spoke to the men last Wednesday, when they had arrived at the town of Sinjar, on the Syrian side of the border, waiting to cross.

Pictures on Mr Molloy's Facebook page show him posing in camouflage battle dress with an Isis flag.

The young man was interviewed just after he arrived in Syria for the first time, almost exactly a year ago.

He said he was motivated by disgust of the Isis- which is trying to establish a global theocracy.

The KRG was formed in 1992 in northern Iraq, when Kurds in the region democratically elected a parliament.

Irish Independent
The President suggested the EU needed to do more for migrants

President Michael D Higgins has challenged Europe's response to the migrant and refugee crisis, asking if it will be defined by barbed wire, tear gas and rubber bullets.

In a speech on the future of the EU, Mr Higgins said some member states took a ruinously and narrowly self-interested response to the crisis of more than one million fleeing war and persecution.

The President asked why a continent of 500 million people felt so threatened by those in need.

Mr Higgins told the Irish Association of Contemporary European Studies in Dublin that Greece, Italy and Malta have been left to rely largely on their own, limited, resources after an EU quota system for migrants was rejected.

He said the crisis illustrates the need for solidarity among European countries and social cohesion in each state.

"European media have tended to conflate the image of Europe with that of the small Greek island of Lesbos; they have presented to us a vision of Europe as a frail isolated rock overwhelmed by a tsunami of uprooted people," President Higgins said.

"When one considers the prosperity and the rich diversity of so much of Europe, where so many people from all regions of the globe have settled peacefully and successfully over so many decades, confidence, not apprehension, should guide our response to the arrival of new migrants."

The President called on people to breathe new life into the EU vision.

He said: "Can we leave millions of mothers and fathers, teenagers, children and babies, to wait in uncertainty, hopeless poverty and squalor at the border of Europe?

"Can we avert our gaze from the even larger numbers of those who are trapped in precarious camps in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan? Is our response to be defined by barbed wire, tear gas and rubber bullets?"

Mr Higgins outlined other areas of difficulty facing the EU, which he said were daunting.

He highlighted enduring economic and financial difficulties and youth unemployment, the terror threat in the wake of the Paris and Brussels attacks, xenophobic populism and "political strategies that put at risk genuine democratic pluralism in several member states".

"The combined effects of such difficulties are deeply corrosive of our citizens' confidence in both their national and European institutions. Alarmingly, those various crises only fuel and amplify one another," he said.

The President said European leaders are trying harder to curb the numbers of refugees "at all costs".

He said they are doing this out of fear exacerbated by the threat of terrorism and to reassure public opinion which tends to view a "security crisis" and "refugee crisis" through the same lens.

Mr Higgins said the response poses serious risks for the rule of law and the principle of human dignity as cornerstones of the European project.

He said the controversial Turkey-EU deal to curb the smuggling of migrants and refugees to Europe was an important step.

But he added: "I strongly believe that we should be wary of bending European and international human rights legislation to breaking point."

President Higgins asked if a politically convenient response today could jeopardise the European Union in the future.

He said the EU has a duty under the Geneva Convention to help refugees.

"To give protection, food and shelter to those who are fleeing war, oppression or starvation is a matter of fundamental, universal human solidarity. It is also a matter of legal responsibility," he said.

"There can be no cap on this fundamental responsibility, no limit set on the number of those eligible to request asylum."

Mr Higgins said Europe was in a time of deep uncertainty where the vision of a common union appears to be becoming more faint and distant.

On economics, the President warned that democracy becomes fragile when fiscal rules come before political debate.

"The weaknesses in our economic thinking and the difficulties in challenging these weaknesses are not unrelated, then, to our present political predicament," the President said.

He added: "National governments and European institutions alike are perceived by many citizens, not as protecting and mitigating agents, but, increasingly, as levers in the hands of ever more mobile and speculative, and less productive and less accountable, international financial markets - markets which seek to impose the insatiable requirements of their profit expectations onto populations."
Libya has been in turmoil since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, pictured, in 2011

The Government is "not contemplating" sending ground troops to Libya but a future decision to do so may not need parliamentary approval, the Defence Secretary has said.

Michael Fallon told the House of Commons it is "too early" to say what kind of assistance Libya is seeking in its fight against Isis militants.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond visited Libya on Monday to show support for the country's new UN-backed national unity government.

During defence questions, the SNP's Brendan O'Hara referred to reports that the UK is about to deploy a 1,000-strong training mission to the region.

He asked: "It's been widely speculated that the Government are considering sending ground troops into Libya.

"Could you give us a cast-iron guarantee that any such deployment of foot soldiers, British ground troops, into Libya would be a matter that would be discussed on the floor of this House and voted on by this House?"

Mr Fallon said: "No such decision has been taken and we are not contemplating at the moment a commitment of that kind.

"But what I can say to you is that if we are in the future to deploy military forces in a combat role into a conflict zone, we would of course, as the Prime Minister has made clear, come to this House first."

A written statement released on Monday by Mr Fallon made clear that the Government reserves the right not to seek approval for routine deployments or emergency combat decisions.

The statement also confirmed that the convention to debate the deployment of combat troops to war zones would not be made law, to avoid decisions becoming subject to legal action.

During questions, Tory MP Derek Twigg said: "Do you believe that we can only stabilise Libya by having ground forces and do you accept that that may include British forces?"

Mr Fallon replied: "It is up to the new government of national accord being established in Libya with our support, led by prime minister (Fayez) Serraj, to make clear what assistance he needs.

"A number of countries including ourselves have already indicated that we will be part of a Libyan international assistance mission but it is far too early to speculate as to what form that assistance might take, whether it is training, advice in the ministries or other support."
More migrants died at sea after the EU focused on deterring migrants instead of saving lives, a report says

EU policymakers are guilty of "killing by neglect" by cutting rescue missions in the Mediterranean - potentially costing the lives of more than 1,500 migrants, according to a report.

The Italy-led search and rescue mission, Mare Nostrum, ended in October 2014 and was replaced by Triton, which deployed fewer ships and prioritised deterring migrants over rescue operations, the report says.

Charities and UN officials warned the move could have a disastrous impact and lead to far more deaths at sea.

Documents unearthed by British universities showed the European border force Frontex pushed ahead with the change despite an internal assessment warning that if it was not properly planned it "would likely result in a higher number of fatalities".

The subsequent scaling back of search and rescue operations during the growing migrant crisis "created the conditions that led to massive loss of life", the damning report states.

Over 1,500 migrants died trying to cross the sea in the months after the change was implemented, according to the report, Death By Rescue: The Lethal Effects Of The EU's Policies Of Non-assistance At Sea.

Charles Heller, from Goldsmiths, University of London, co-author of the report, said policymakers were guilty of "institutionalised wilful neglect".

He told the Press Association: "Can we really qualify the ending of Mare Nostrum and its replacement by Triton in all knowledge of the consequences this would have, as a mistake?

"I would rather argue that this was a case of institutionalised wilful neglect, and that European policymakers and Frontex have made themselves guilty of killing by omission.

"Simply arguing that it was a mistake is insufficient. And if, as we show, policymakers and European agencies decided to disregard the risk their policy would entail for migrants, they should be held accountable for that negligence."

The report found European policymakers came to regard Mare Nostrum as a "pull factor" which encouraged migrants to make the perilous crossing because they knew they would be rescued if they got into difficulty.

It was scrapped in October 2014 and replaced by Triton, which deployed fewer vessels, patrolled an area further away from the Libyan coast where many migrants got into trouble, and did not have rescue as its operational priority.

But as the conflicts in Syria and Libya deepened, migrants continued to resort to people smugglers who packed them on to dinghies and sent them across the sea.

The number of migrants crossing the Med in the first four months of 2014 and 2015 stayed the same at 26,000, but death rates soared.

Sixty died in the first four months in 2014, but 1,687 died in the same four months the following year, meaning the chances of dying at sea increased 30-fold.

Charities warned the change could cost lives while Francois Crepeau, the UN rapporteur on migrant rights, said it amounted to saying "let them die because this is good deterrence".

The report said Frontex's planning of Triton "deliberately disregarded not only the external criticism of human rights advocates, but also its own internal assessment predicting increased deaths at sea".

Frontex prioritised stopping illegal border crossings and "deterrence took precedence over humans lives", it found.

By scaling down its search and rescue efforts, Europe effectively shifted the burden on to large merchant ships that were ill-equipped to cope.

Within a single week in April 2015 two ships capsized, killing around 1,200 migrants on board.

Reconstructing the shipwrecks using advanced spatial techniques, researchers found many died during and partly through the rescue operation itself because the merchant ships were not designed to deal with the disasters.

It stated that "EU policymakers and agencies carry a strong degree of responsibility for these deaths" which were, in effect, "death by privatised rescue".

Mr Heller said: "EU policymakers decided in 2014, in all knowledge of the deadly consequences, to end Mare Nostrum and replace it with the more limited Triton.

"It may not have been so much that Frontex and European policymakers were counting on more deaths as a deterrent.

"What is absolutely sure is that their priority was to make the conditions of crossing more difficult for migrants and for smugglers to act as a deterrent. And this priority was given precedent over migrants' lives."

He said Europe must ask itself if it can accept the deaths of thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean every year as a price worth paying to attempt to deter them, and c alled for an investigation into why the policy was taken up and not abandoned when the death toll began to rise.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the UK was committing 10 million in further assistance for the fledgling government of national accord in Libya

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has made an unannounced visit to Libya in a show of support for the country's new UN-backed national unity government.

Mr Hammond said Britain was ready to provide training support to the fledgling administration's armed forces in their fight against Islamic State (IS) militants who have established a firm foothold in the country.

The Foreign Secretary and his entourage were driven from Tripoli airport amid tight security in a convoy of armour-protected SUVs to the heavily protected naval base where prime minister designate Fayez Serraj's government is struggling to establish its authority.

The success of the UN-brokered plan depends upon the new government of national accord (GNA) being able to rally the support of the warring militias who have plunged the country into chaos.

However, Mr Hammond said he believed that after five years of conflict following the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi by rebels backed by British and French-led air strikes, there was now a weariness with conflict and an eagerness for peace.

"What has happened since is a cathartic process. I sense that the Libyan people are ready for reconciliation and a government which allows them to work together," he said.

"Partly that is because they are simply tired of years of fighting each other and partly it is the galvanising effect of Daesh (IS)."

The militants have established a stronghold in Sirte - Gaddafi's home town - just across the Mediterranean from Europe, and from where they have mounted a series of suicide bombings and attacks on oil facilities.

While Mr Hammond said that he did not expect the GNA to ask for direct combat support to take on IS, Britain and other European allies were ready to provide training and other technical support to the Libyan forces.

"It must be for the Libyan people to decide how to recapture their country from the Daesh invaders," he said.

"I hope that as the militia groups come inside the tent, as it were, and co-operate with the government, it will be possible for us and our partners to support the military training programme."

He also made clear that such a mission - which could be based in another country in the region - would not require a Commons vote which was only needed for combat operations.

"That does not extend to non-combat missions," he said.

While it is believed that a small number of special forces troops are already in the country, British sources have played down suggestions the UK is about to deploy a 1,000-strong training mission as part of a 6,000 strong international assistance force.

One source said that they would want to see the GNA up and running, with properly functioning ministries, before making any commitment of that nature.

"We need a functioning government running ministries to decide what they need to do. We are months and months away from any kind of decision of that kind," the source said.

Mr Hammond's arrival follows similar visits over the past week by the Italian, French and German foreign ministers, while the British ambassador also returned to Tripoli for the first time since most foreign embassies pulled out in 2014 amid safety concerns.

At a joint press conference, the Foreign Secretary announced that the UK was committing 10 million in further assistance for the fledgling government of national accord (GNA).

The package includes 1.8 million for counter-terrorism operations and 1.5 million for combating the people traffickers smuggling migrants across the Mediterranean into Europe.

The precarious nature of Mr Serraj's putative new government was underlined when his team were forced to sail into Tripoli when they arrived in March as the authority controlling the capital refused to allow them into its airspace.

But while Mr Serraj has been able to rally support from the Tripoli militias and the municipal councils of western Libya, a rival administration in the eastern city of Tobruk has so far refused to recognise the GNA.

The Europeans meanwhile are looking to the GNA to allow the EU's Operation Sophia against people traffickers to extend its naval patrols into Libyan territorial waters.

The move follows the effective closure of the migrant trail through Turkey and Greece, prompting fears of a new influx trying to reach Europe via Libya.

Following his talks in Tripoli, Mr Hammond headed off to Luxembourg for a meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers to discuss the situation in Libya - including a video conference with Mr Serraj.

The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee last week accused Mr Hammond of being "less than candid" about the prospect of British troops being sent to Libya following a visit to Tunisia during which they were told as many as 1,000 could join a 6,000-strong international assistance mission.

The committee's Conservative chairman Crispin Blunt told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "The concept was of 6,000 troops going into Tripoli to occupy the airport and provide training for Libyans there.

"We were not wildly impressed with that concept of operations, because although it would be an attempt to train Libyans, it would inevitably be seen as a Western intervention and it's very likely they would spend most of their time defending themselves from attacks from various militia and Islamic State, rather than providing effective training. It would probably make the situation worse rather than better."

While it was "formally" the case that no decisions have been made on deployment, Mr Blunt said: "These things are choreographed so that as soon as everything was in place and it appeared it was falling into place, the Government of National Accord would say 'Please help' and the next thing you know people would have been identified and would then be on their way.

"There's every indication there are British troops in the form of special forces already on the ground. The actions of French special forces have been very widely reported. Ours appear to be slightly more media-allergic, thank goodness, but there's no doubt that there are operations happening there against Islamic State, as there ought to be."
Embarrassing claims about the private life of John Whittingdale have been branded "tittle-tattle" by people close to the Cabinet minister.

Former topless model Stephanie Hudson claimed the Culture Secretary had breached security protocols while they were in a relationship.

Mr Whittingdale had showed her confidential papers at his constituency home and had also photographed Cabinet ministers at a private meeting in Chequers before secretly texting the image to her, she claimed in a newspaper report at the weekend. But sources insisted that Ms Hudson "never had access" to Government documents and said the Tory MP was entitled to a private life.

Ms Hudson told the Mail on Sunday: "The Red Box was open on his breakfast table and all the papers were strewn on the table.

"He would show me his work schedule and the letters when I would sit next to him.

"He was always saying this important person had been writing to him and he had to respond to so and so.

"I always felt he was trying to show he was important, you know: 'Look at me, I am big'.

"It would have been easy to read the papers either across the kitchen table or when he was out of the room. There was something about Ofcom written on one of them."

The informal name under which she stored Whittingdale in her phone contacts list was 'Sexybum', according to the Mail on Sunday.

She also claimed that when she asked about his job, he told her he was an arms dealer.

The 36-year-old made an appearance in American soft porn series, Hotel Erotica, and was one half of Britain's first Page 3 twins, with her sister Samantha, earning them the label, The Boobie Twins.

Mr Whittingdale faced Labour calls to step aside from decisions about Press regulation earlier this week after it emerged he had dated a sex worker.

But he was backed by Downing Street and said to have Prime Minister David Cameron's full confidence.

A source close to Mr Whittingdale said: "John is a single man. He is entitled to a private life.

"This is just tittle-tattle.

"Stephanie Hudson never had access to Government papers."
Priti Patel said it was "deeply regrettable" that families in England would be hit by a shortage in primary school places

Many parents are set to be "disappointed" today when their children are rejected for the school of their choice, a Government minister has warned.

Priti Patel said it was "deeply regrettable" that families in England would be hit by a shortage in primary school places.

The employment minister, a Brexit supporter, blamed uncontrolled migration for putting " unsustainable pressure" on public services and warned the problem would only get worse as more countries became members of the European Union.

Hundreds of thousands of four and five-year-olds will learn which primary school they will be attending from September, on what is commonly known as National Offer Day.

Ms Patel said: " The shortage of primary school places is yet another example of how uncontrolled migration is putting unsustainable pressures on our public services. Education is one of the most important things that Government delivers, and it's deeply regrettable that so many families with young children are set to be disappointed today.

" The truth is that for as long as we remain a member of the EU we are completely unable to control the numbers of people coming to this country - and with another five countries in the pipeline to join the EU the problem is set to get even worse.

"If we Vote Leave we can take back control of our borders."

Unions and town hall leaders warned Government reforms that mean all schools will convert to academies are set to fuel the shortage in school places.

Councils will not have the power to force schools to expand in the future, even where there is demand and capacity, the Local Government Association (LGA) said.

It warned that an additional 336,000 primary school places would be needed by 2024.

Roy Perry, chairman of the LGA's children and young people board, said: " Most academies will be keen to work with their local authorities, but in the minority of situations where this isn't the case, appropriate powers are vital to ensure all children get a suitable place."

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said it was " worried" about the impact of the reforms.

Nansi Ellis, assistant general secretary, said: " Many parents already find it stressful to find a school place for their child. And we fear parents will find it even harder to get their child into a school of their choice, especially if they are trying to get all their children into the same school, if all schools become academies.

"We are already hearing that 90 primary schools have a catchment of only 330 yards from the school gate, and the number is likely to rise as the school population increases."

Lucy Powell, shadow education secretary, said: "This Government's broken school places system means that children are being crammed into ever larger class sizes and many schools are already at or over capacity."

She added: "Ministers have already tied the hands of local areas to adequately plan for school places. The Tories' new forced academisation policy will make the school places system implode, as councils lose completely the levers they have to ensure there are enough school places for children."

The Government s pent 5 billion creating places between 2011 and 2015 and 95.9% of parents received an offer at one of their top three preferred primary schools last year, the Department for Education said.

" Despite rising pupil numbers, at primary, the number of pupils in excess of their school's capacity has fallen by a quarter since 2010, and average class sizes have seen little change," a spokesman said.

"Of course there is more to do - that's why this Government has already committed to invest a further 7 billion to support councils in delivering school places, which along with our investment in 500 new free schools we expect to deliver 600,000 new places by 2021.

"I t is simply not true to suggest councils cannot commission new schools - where councils identify that a new school is needed in their area they are required to run a competition to identify strong providers for a new free school."

A Whitehall source said: "There's no evidence that migration is the key driver of demand for primary school places."

David Cameron's official spokeswoman said: "The Prime Minister is focused on the Government's work in this area.

"We are clear that every child deserves an excellent education. That's why we have been investing in our schools so we have 1.4 million more children in good or outstanding schools compared to 2010. That's 30,000 more just in the last four months alone.

"The Prime Minister has been clear that he recognises concerns about the impact immigration can have on public services and that's why the Government is taking action to look at ways to reduce immigration."
The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades has flattened buildings and buckled roads along the country's Pacific coast, killing hundreds of people .

President Rafael Correa said at least 233 people had died and rescuers were struggling to reach survivors trapped in the rubble.

The magnitude-7.8 quake, the strongest to hit Ecuador since 1979, was centred on the country's sparsely populated fishing ports and tourist beaches, 105 miles north-west of Quito, the capital.

Mr Correa reported the death toll on his official Twitter account while flying back from Rome to deal with the crisis. Officials earlier had reported more than 580 people were injured.

Vice president Jorge Glas said there were deaths in the cities of Manta, Portoviejo and Guayaquil - all several hundred miles from the centre of the quake which struck shortly after nightfall on Saturday.

In Pedernales, a town of 40,000 near the quake's epicentre, dozens of scared residents slept in the streets while men equipped with little more than car headlights tried to rescue survivors who could be heard trapped under rubble.

"We're trying to do the most we can, but there's almost nothing we can do," said Gabriel Alcivar, mayor of Pedernales.

Mr Alcivar pleaded for authorities to send earth-moving machines and emergency rescue workers to help find people amid the rubble. He said looting had broken out amid the chaos but authorities were too busy trying to save lives to re-establish order.

"This wasn't just a house that collapsed, it was an entire town," he said.

Mr Correa declared a national emergency and urged Ecuadoreans to stay strong while authorities handle the disaster.

"Everything can be rebuilt, but what can't be rebuilt are human lives, and that's the most painful," he said.

Mr Glas said 10,000 armed forces had been deployed to help. In addition, 4,600 national police were sent to the towns near the epicentre.

Officials said shelters had been set up and field hospitals were being deployed in Pedernales and Portoviejo.

More than 3,000 packages of food and nearly 8,000 sleeping kits were being delivered. Electricity in Manabi province, the hardest hit, remained mostly down as authorities focused on finding survivors.

"Compatriots: Unity, strength and prayer," Mr Glas told a throng of residents gathered in the streets of Manta as he instructed them on how to look for survivors. "We need to be quiet so we can hear. We can't use heavy machinery because it can be very tragic for those who are injured."

Homes were reduced to rubble along the quake's path, while in Guayaquil a shopping centre's roof fell down and a collapsed motorway overpass crushed a car. In Manta, the airport closed after the control tower collapsed, injuring an air traffic control worker and a security guard.

Alberto Reynas, 58, was fishing off the coast of Pedernales when giant waves violently rocked his boat.

"It felt the same on sea as it did on land," he said.

But he was shaken again when he returned to land to find the facade of his two-storey home had fallen off into the streets. He has been unable to communicate with members of his family and spent the night sleeping outdoors with neighbours, keeping a close watch against thieves.

"It's pure sadness. Everything is destroyed," he said.

Luis Quito said he spent the entire night delivering water to guests trapped under the rubble of the small, four-storey Hotel Chimborazo owned by his father-in-law, who was missing and he believed dead.

"We heard screaming all through the night," said Mr Quito. "There are humans trapped below the terrace. Babies. We need rescuers. But nobody has arrived so far."

In the capital Quito, terrified people fled into the streets as the quake shook their buildings. It knocked out electricity in several neighbourhoods and a few homes collapsed but after a few hours power was being restored.
Im going to throw out some quick half-formed ideas in response to this article by Sufi Synik (via the indomitable Samar Kaukab):

Half of the Muslims want me to shut up and take every single hadith (without considering its historical context) that they shove down my throat. And if a hadith cant be found, then they find a quote of one of those ancient scholars. Or a link to a modern scholars website or youtube video who is regurgitating what an ancient scholar said. The other half of the Muslims hate scholars. They want women to lead prayer in the front row and they want all-gay mosques. They want to forego every defining feature of Islam and nominate Irshad Manji as Grand Mufti of America. e youth, the converts, the ummah it has no idea what it wants or where its going. It has no leadership. No answers. Just mass confusion, shouting matches, and endless social media debates. Personal opinions (which include our own unique list of correct scholars) take the place of God. We relish and cherish these opinions. We force our new god down everyones throat. Our newer coreligionists ask questions and get ten thousand different answers. We dont care. We still fire off the opinions of our respected (ahem our OVERLY respected) scholars. We become fanatical for this sect or that, because *these* scholars are rightly guided. -Or we become fanatical in a more violent form. Or we throw it all out and just worship western liberalism. Because we are lost. Hurting. Intellectually exhausted and perplexed. And all because we took those ahadith about respecting scholars a little too literally and a little too far

I think scholars are a relic of the pre-information age ummah (and i use the term ummah in a taxonomic sense only). The system was never intended to function in this distributed way. The better analogy woudl be martial arts (of which i know nothing, mind you)  you dont go off and start learning by creating your own technique or by saladbar approach from other styles. You pick a style, you pick a specific dojo, and you learn and train from a master (ie, your imam) and you immerse yourself in a tradition. In this analogy, fiqh is analogous to specific forms and motions. When issues of fiqh arise, its the dojo that forms consensus and then members of the dojo submit themselves to that consensus  or in case of dispute, the ruling of the Master (imam). The religion is called Islam  submit! but there is still room for choice  the dojo is not a prison, and you have every right to leave. Likewise the dojo has every right to bar you. This isnt a sectarian vision, mind you.

Who starts a dojo? The answer will depend on sectarian preferences. But when faced with a hadith-thrower in an argument the response needs to be a challenge on their dojo rather than meeting them hadith for hadith. We need to delegitimize personal opinions on fiqh while providing outlet for personal choice on fiqh. A dojo neednt be a full institution like Zaytuna or a whole school of jurisprudence but can be as local as your local elementary school. We need to foster the infrastructure for creating these localized communities of faith.

The mosque is not a synonym for dojo, either. A mosque might represent the common ground of multiple dojos. A dojo might be large enough to encompass multiple mosques. If dojos are the soul, the the mosque is the body; one is warp and the other is weft.

Who leads a dojo? ask teh same question of a dojo, or a boy scout troop, or a nonprofit org. A dojo should exist to express a difference. That difference needs to attract like minds and have scholarly support, to be viable. Scholars have a role here to advise and ensure that the dojo doesnt stray in matters of basic deen. There will be constraints on a dojos freedom of fiqh, based on its position within the sectarian divide, the classical school of jurisprudence, the cultural and ethnic makeup of its members (founder, especially), and its members histories. A dojo founded by an African American Muslim professional in Hyde Park will have very different fiqh priorities than one founded by a South Indian entrepreneur in Phoenix, just as a church in Compton will have a different social and spiritual agenda than one in Calabasas.

The information age allows anyone to access everything. We are all scholars now. That is dangerous and requires us to find our way back to the essence of faith: submit.
A Philippine soldier holds a miniature national flag inside a bullet riddled house in the southern island of Mindanao, one week after gunmen linked to the Islamic State launched a deadly assault, March 1, 2016.

The most significant battle by a group associated with the Islamic State (IS) in Southeast Asia occurred on the island of Basilan, Philippines, on April 9, 2016, although the government did not acknowledge it as a fight between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and an IS group led by Isnilon Hapilon.

The battle left 18 troops dead and 53 injured, a significant loss for the government.

Hapilon is former deputy leader of Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the IS designated leader in the southern Philippines. His former members of ASG based in Basilan pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in 2015 and joined forces with other groups associated with IS.

The 125 men led by Hapilon demonstrated they can hold ground and fight AFP. Exploiting the recent successes, IS is likely to declare a wilayat in the Sulu Archipelago.

If the Philippines is determined to prevent IS rise in Mindanao and with it implications for Southeast Asia, it should take the threat seriously. Rather than denying IS existence, the government should make fighting IS a national security priority and step up cooperation with counterparts in Southeast Asia to contain and isolate the threat.

IS increases capabilities in the Philippines

The IS has been steadfastly influencing and building capabilities in northern, southern and western Mindanao in the Philippines.

In northern Mindanao, Tawhid Wal Jihad has renamed itself as Islamic State of Lanao in Butig. Although IS central in Syria and Iraq has not acknowledged the Butig-based group as an official branch, it presents a major threat as members have fought AFP and hold several civilian hostages.

In southern Mindanao, Ansar Khilafa Mindanao has fought with AFP and conducted IS-style beheadings. The group was involved in arms transfers to IS Indonesia and hosted Indonesian bomb making instructor Ibrahim Ali Sucipto who was killed on Nov. 26, 2015.

The most significant of the IS entities is Hapilons Basilan-based unit of former ASG members. The unit, considered the IS-designated official entity in the Philippines, came to the forefront when Hapilon unified with a handful of fighters from Malaysia.

$5 million offered for killing or capture of Hapilon

The April 9 AFP operation aimed at capturing Al Barka, the IS base, releasing foreign hostages and killing or capturing Hapilon who is subject of a $5 million U.S reward.

AFP was supported by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which has maintained a ceasefire with the government since March 2014. The MILF relationship with ASG deteriorated after the MILF joined the peace process and ASG Basilan joined IS.

The MILF informed AFP that the IS base was five kilometers from the MILF community in Sitio Bohe in the the village of Macalang. AFP had requested MILF leave the area and as their fighters and families moved out, IS, forewarned and exceptionally well prepared, confronted the AFP. During the 10-hour firefight in the village of Tipo-Tipo, the AFP did not anticipate ISs preparation.

Julie S. Alipala, writing Hell in Basilan: Landmine Blast Followed by Gunfire Everywhere, April 10, 2016 in Inquirer Mindanao, highlighted the armys failure to prepare adequately to fight IS. Among the injured were the 44th Battalion Commander Col. Tommy Crosby and other officers.

The AFP recovered the body of Moroccan fighter Mohammad Khattab, an explosives expert.

IS issues propaganda after battle

In a release titled: 100 Killed from the Philippine Crusader Army in Operations by Soldiers of the Caliphate in Philippines, dated 5 Rajab 1437 (April 13, 2016), The Islamic State, Philippines stated: Soldiers of the Caliphate were able, by the grace of Allah the Almighty, to repel attempts by the Philippine Crusader army to seize control over positions of the mujahideen in Philippines.

By the grace of Allah, seven troop carriers were blown up and those inside were killed, and there were also clashes with the enemy, killing another number of its soldiers, and the rest fled, defeated and disgraced, by the grace of Allah. The result of the operation reached nearly 100 killed and dozens wounded from the Crusaders, and three brothers from the mujahideen were martyrs, we consider them thusly and Allah knows them best.

IS has territorial control in Philippines

The IS has established territorial control and established training bases in the Philippines. The fight against IS requires a higher level of commitment and leadership. Rather than deploy general purpose forces, it is imperative for the special operations forces to spearhead the fight.

With their best intelligence assets, the Special Operations Commander of AFP should move to Basilan and remain in the Sulu Archipelago until all the groups that pledged allegiance to IS are dismantled and their leaders are captured or killed. There is no better moment to mobilize and mount an uncompromising intelligence led military operation at this point when the nation will rally around AFP for their monumental sacrifice.

Otherwise, IS influence will slowly and steadily spread and its capabilities will grow, a phenomenon witnessed since last year. With a new government in Manila coming soon, the new president will have to confront the rise of IS.

Manila should continue to work with MILF in a range of prevention and preemption operations to keep IS from spreading and growing. The governments in the region should support Manila and keep IS out of their countries and the region. The fight should be decisive and this should become the governments priority vision and mission.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and not of BenarNews.
Members of the Malaysian police and army prepare for a joint training exercise at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 22, 2016.

Malaysian authorities face a challenging task in foiling cash transfers the Islamic State (IS) may be sending to its Southeast Asia arm, Katibah Nusantara.

Authorities are having a difficult time tracing these funds because of the underground black market money network in Southeast Asia and the emergence of the elusive hawala system.

It would be a straight-forward case if the fund is being channeled via the conventional banks as we could track it through the Suspicious Transaction Record (STR) but it would be harder if it is being distributed through other systems out there, Malaysian police counter terrorism official Ayub Khan Mydin Pitchay told BenarNews.

They can even use the simplest method by using courier services and even the more complicated elusive ancient hawala money transfer system, he added.

The hawala system, often used in the Middle East and North Africa, is a means of transferring money via a large network of brokers without money actually moving.

Local English daily The Sun recently reported that IS had allocated more than U.S. $73,000 (RM 292,000) for Katibah Nusantara to finance bombings and attacks at strategic locations in Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia.

Leaders of Katibah Nusantara are pushing their followers to stage attacks similar to the Jan. 14 attack in Jakarta that left eight dead, The Sun reported, citing sources in the intelligence arm of the Royal Malaysia Police, who said they got the information from their international counterparts.

Katibah Nusantara includes IS followers in Malay-speaking countries  mainly Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Approximately 1,000 Southeast Asians had travelled to Syria and Iraq to join militant groups there by the end of 2015, according to the U.S. State Department.

No specific country

Ayub said intelligence received on the transfers were vague. He added that police have not confirmed whether the funding had made its way to any group in Malaysia.

We were only informed that the fund is purportedly being channelled to Southeast Asia region, but it is not specific to which country, he said.

Meanwhile, University Science of Malaysia (USM) Criminologist associate professor P. Sundramoorthy said tracking fund movements and distribution is complicated.

I think it will not be an easy task for the authorities to identify and track down the funds distribution as they happened, particularly given the fact that they are not distributed in one, big lump sum.

In some cases, these funds are being transferred in smaller amounts and even some are being channelled using conventional financial institutions, he told BenarNews on Monday.

Monitoring needed

Malaysia has more than 400 currency or money changing premises, and many of them offer money transfer services.

The Malaysian Association of Money Services Business (MAMBS), which represents all licensees under the Money Services Business Act 2011, insists its members ask customers to produce identification documents for transactions greater than RM 3,000 (U.S. $769), according to a statement.

This is for the purpose of complying with requirements pursuant to the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001, which requires licensees to identify and verify the customers performing money services transactions, reads the undated press statement on its website.

Sundramoorthy said it is paramount that strict monitoring is carried out, along with intelligence sharing among law enforcement agencies, to curb the threat posed by terror organizations.


For Immediate Release, April 18, 2016 Contact: Anne Rolfes, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, (504) 452-4909

Steve Jones, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 305-3866 Gulf Coast Residents Rally in New Orleans Against New Offshore Oil Leases NEW ORLEANS, La. Gulf Coast residents and their allies in the environmental and social-justice movements rallied and spoke today against federal plans to issue 10 new offshore fossil fuel leases in the Gulf of Mexico, continuing the momentum from a historic, high-profile demonstration against another Gulf lease sale last month at the Superdome. The group held a rally and press conference before a Department of the Interior public hearing on its draft 2017-2022 offshore energy plan, calling for a cancellation of the proposed leases and new investments and job creation in renewable energy and environmental restoration. Attendees came from Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and local, community-based groups Bridge the Gulf, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Radical Arts and Healing Collective, Operation Homecare, Vanishing Earth and other Gulf organizations, as well as the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, 350.org, Greenpeace and other national organizations. Hundreds demonstrated against the last offshore lease sale on March 23 at the Superdome, joining the national movement to Keep It in the Ground, which has been targeting fossil fuel leases on public lands. Climate scientists say most untapped fossil fuel reserves should be left intact if humanity is to avoid the worst climate change scenarios and meet the carbon emissions reduction goals agreed to in Paris in December. Offshore oil production is a particularly poignant issue in the Gulf of Mexico, site of the largest oil spill in U.S. history, following the explosion of BPs Deepwater Horizon six years ago this week. After the days hearing in New Orleans, Interior will hold another public hearing on the five-year plan on April 20 in Houston, which many of the activists and concerned citizens from todays action plan to attend. Weve spent years beseeching the oil industry. Please stop polluting, please reduce your accidents, please install air monitors so that mothers can know if children are being poisoned. The industry has never listened and now we see another way. We are inspired by the victory against drilling on the Atlantic Coast. So were telling Big Oil to take their rigs and go home, said Anne Rolfes, founding director of Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Our region is still dealing with the public-health and ecological consequences of the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. Not only that, we are also among the most vulnerable regions to climate change in the world. It is time for us to protect our communities, restore our ecosystems and defend our cultures from the perils of extractive industries, not invest further in them, said Jayeesha Dutta, cultural organizing coordinator with the Gulf Future Coalition, a coalition of more than 75 environmental, community and social-justice organizations in the Gulf Coast galvanized in the wake of the BP oil disaster. We must give the Gulf a future, which starts by ending all new leases for oil and gas industries and instead building a just and sustainable energy infrastructure. We all need to stand with Gulf residents as they fight for a clean energy future. The movement to stop new offshore leases that came to life at the Superdome last month is growing stronger every day, said Blake Kopcho, a campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity. We need to stop treating the Gulf like a sacrifice zone and start the just transition away from dependence on the dirty fossil fuel industry. Keeping fossil fuels in the ground has become the gold standard for climate leadership, said Jason Kowalski, U.S. policy director with 350.org. Last month's victory over Atlantic drilling shows that when we organize, we win. The presidents current proposal to concentrate offshore drilling in Gulf Coast communities is a missed opportunity when we could be making plans to deploy clean energy." The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 990,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


Media Advisory, April 18, 2016 Contacts: Yudith Nieto, TEJAS, (832) 867-1250

Matt Johnson, Sierra Club, (512) 605-6376

Blake Kopcho, Center for Biological Diversity, (805) 708-3435 Houston Communities Demand No New Drilling Leases in Gulf of Mexico Resistance to Offshore Drilling Plan Rallies Six Years After Deepwater Horizon,

Building on Momentum From Superdome Action Last Month HOUSTON On April 20, exactly six years after the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 Gulf residents and triggered the largest oil spill in U.S. history, residents from Houston and surrounding communities will gather to demand an end to all federal auctions for new offshore fossil fuel leases, a serious investment in renewable energy, and a just transition away from intensive fossil fuel production for Gulf communities. The press conference will begin at the start of a public meeting of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on its recently released five-year plan. The Obama administration released the 2017-2022 plan for offshore fossil fuel development on March 15. Thanks to grassroots pressure along the Eastern Seaboard, the plan no longer includes drilling off the Atlantic Coast. However, the proposal would expand leasing in the Arctic and Gulf of Mexico, risking more disastrous spills like the BP disaster, putting communities in harms way and deepening the U.S. dependence on fossil fuels that are driving the global climate crisis. The Gulf of Mexico has long been an epicenter of extraction for the fossil fuel industry; these coastal communities, many of which are still recovering from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, would benefit economically from a just transition to a clean-energy economy, starting with a halt in new offshore leasing. Who: Residents from Houston and surrounding communities impacted by oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Gulf Coast What: Press conference calling on President Obama and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to end all new auctions for offshore fossil fuel extraction leases, and invest in a just transition to a sustainable economy When: Wednesday, April 20, 2016, at 2:30 p.m. CT. The public meeting is scheduled to run from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. CT.



Where: Outside of Hyatt Regency Houston, 1200 Louisiana St, Houston, Texas 77002 (exact spot TBD)
Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia
Growing urbanisation could be a big opportunity for Africa, according to the United Nations' Africa Renewal Programme.

Dr Joan Clos

Dr Joan Clos is the executive director of the Nairobi-based United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). In this interview with Newton Kanhema for Africa Renewal*, Dr Clos talks about the effects of urbanisation in Africa and the forthcoming Habitat III, a major UN conference on housing and sustainable urban development to be held in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016.

Q: What are the consequences of Africas fast-growing urbanisation, and should Africa control this phenomenon?

The share of the population living in African urban areas now is about 30%, but will rise to 50% in a very short period of time. That will present several challenges in both governance and the capacity of cities or even national government to react. Its important to have a national urban policy which can be transformed into local initiatives. Urbanisation is more of an opportunity than a challenge because it goes in parallel with development. If governments plan and design urbanisation well, they will enjoy the benefits that urbanisation brings to a society. Urbanisation will be a big opportunity for Africa in the coming years.

Q: So what you are saying is that urbanisation can bring benefits?

Yes. In the way and pace that African societies are going, urbanisation is a consequence of development and also the driving force for accelerating this development.

Q: Many African governments tend to develop new megacities in order to decongest existing cities. Is this sustainable or a fire brigade solution?

Megacities tend not to be sustainable but they are good evolutions for economic prosperity if they are well planned. In fact, there are many big cities around the world that are much bigger than the megacities of Africa. Tokyo, for example, has more than 35 million people, compared to some of Africas megacities that have around 10 to 12 million people. The question is not the size but the capacity of the cities to develop, not spontaneously but in a well-designed and well-planned manner. The problem is not the emergence of megacities, but the lack of planning. The challenge is how to transform megacities so they can be productive without accumulating the problems of unplanned urbanisation.

Q: What kind of support does UN-Habitat provide to national governments to develop environmentally sustainable human settlements?

We provide advice to member states on strategies that can be applied to urbanisation to increase efficiency and productivity. This includes suggesting a national urban policy composed of three pillars. The first pillar is rules and regulations; this is important because urbanisation is about the rule of law. The second pillar is about the quality of urban design, and the third is financial planning. Urbanisation is a costly exercise which requires a lot of resources.

Q: New cities are springing up in Africa but so too are slums. What kind of policies should African governments adopt to address the proliferation of slums?

Slums are a natural consequence of spontaneous urbanisation. In that sense they should be considered a temporary outcome of development. In order to prevent the slums, we need to accelerate development. Slums should be integrated in a much better manner with proper rights to housing. You cannot fight slums in an isolated manner. What you need is an integrated policy that addresses the livelihoods of people, such as employment, income, training and human capital. Authorities need to provide affordable houses for the middle class. Its a long and difficult process; theres no radical solution.

Q: Are there best practices in the world that African countries can adopt? What can we learn from Kigali or Lagos?

Well, there is a lot of experience in and outside the region. There are no easy and quick solutions to urbanisation because it is a process of transforming a society and it requires time. What is important is to approach the question with a good strategy and a midterm and long-term vision. And this is what we providea framework of ideas that address different problems that cities face. We are helping Kigali to introduce new concepts for city extension, well-planned urbanisation, quality public spaces and a balance between public spaces and buildable plots. In Lagos we have a very interesting case of a big city that, although its mentioned as one of the mega-capitals of Africa, has the capacity to initiate policies that can generate income, sustain domestic services and transform the wealth of its habitants. Lagos is a good example of the approach other African cities should adopt.

Q: The major event on your calendar this year is Habitat III. How significant is this event for the African continent?

This a very important meeting taking place in Quito, Ecuador, 20 years after Habitat II, which took place in Istanbul, Turkey. Habitat III will be a review of urbanisation over the past two decades. It will also be the beginning of a process to implement agreed strategies on urbanization for the next 20 years. There is no doubt that urbanisation is going to accelerate over the coming years and Africa will experience the most rapid pace in the world. I am happy that African leaders are mobilising their governments for Habitat III, as they will be actively participating, engaging and deepening the debate on urbanisation over the coming years.

Q: What outcome can African leaders expect from Habitat III?

Habitat III would provide an important opportunity for African leaders to share experiences on transforming urbanization as a tool for development. Very often we approach urbanisation as a problem of poverty, lack of services, etc., and not as an opportunity to accelerate the pace of development. Habitat III will align urbanisation as a development tool with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Q: Many African countries face huge urbanisation problems. Without resources, how can such countries implement policies that provide for adequate human settlement?

The issue of financing urbanisation is a very complex one but economists say the wealth that urbanisation generates is much more than the cost of urbanising. The question is how to share the wealth created by urbanisation among all stakeholders. One of the tricky points that need to be addressed is that urbanisation is not just building buildings, but finding a balance between the art and science of building cities and building buildings.

Q: Are there elements of the recently signed Paris agreement on climate change that illuminate the work that you do?

Yes, climate change is important to urbanisation. This is particularly so in the developed world, where cities are a source of greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the effects of climate change are most felt in the cities that do not have sufficient infrastructure. Its a complex equation that needs to be addressed globally. It means taking measures to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and helping cities that suffer from the consequences to adapt to new conditions. In some parts of the world cities are the main emitters of greenhouse gases and in others cities suffer the worst from climate change.

Q: Lastly, what is your message for Africa?

Africa has a huge opportunity to address the new challenges of urbanisation. Its a wave and its a process. They should devise strategies that focus on the capacity of urbanisation to generate prosperity. The big question is how to direct this process, and with which objective and vision. I urge people in Africa and their governments to take urbanisation as an opportunity and as a tool for development.

* The Africa Renewal information programme, produced by the Africa Section of the United Nations Department of Public Information, provides up-to-date information and analysis of the major economic and development challenges facing Africa today.
The USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations has released an executive summary of its Global Communications Report, which predicts the worldwide PR agency business will grow from its current estimated size of $14bn to $19.3bn over the next five years.

To accommodate this growth, the senior public relations executives surveyed anticipate their headcount will increase over the same period by about 26%.

Industry leaders, both in agencies and in-house, believe content creation and social media, as well as more traditional activities, such as brand reputation, followed by measurement and evaluation, will drive future growth. Earned media still ranks relatively high for both corporate and agency leaders. Paid media ranked last of 18 possible growth drivers.

Overall, we are sensing a continued optimism about the direction the industry is headed, which is good news for people entering the field, said Fred Cook, director of the USC Center for Public Relations. However, questions remain about the industry's ability to attract the right talent, adapt to new technologies and increase the level of investment required to capitalise on these opportunities.

Both agency and corporate executives strongly agree that the ability to attract and retain the right talent is their greatest challenge and the majority of both groups believe the PR industry is not good at sourcing talent from outside its ranks, citing salary levels as the major obstacle.

Traditional expertise still tops the list of skills that communications departments and PR firms view as key to success over the next five years. Written communications is the skill ranked most important by client and agency respondents. When asked what personal traits they felt were critical for the future, industry leaders ranked traditional values of teamwork and hard work near the top, but they also believe their teams are already strong in these areas. They say more horsepower is needed in curiosity, creativity and critical thinking.

When asked about diversity, only 45% of agency heads and 44% of corporate executives believe their ranks are as diverse as their clients' customers or stakeholders. Both groups cite lack of access to diverse talent at senior and entry levels as the primary challenge.

It's clear that finding the right talent is by far the most critical factor in the PR industry's future growth, continues Cook. The more complicated question is what skills this talent should possess. Industry leaders still value traditional communications skills, but are searching for more strategy, creativity and diversity.

Most survey respondents also anticipate change in the structure of their agencies and departments to better address changes in the communications landscape over the next five years, primarily driven by the adoption of new technologies and increased demand for content delivery across more channels. There is universal agreement that over the next five years, executives will be expected to deliver more strategy, more creativity and more measurement.

Relationships also are shifting. Corporate communications clients acknowledge that they value agencies more for their strategy and creative prowess than for their arms and legs. Meanwhile, agencies disclose that about 30% of the time they report into marketing or brand management, versus 34% into corporate communications.

By 2020, agency leaders expect to see their revenue streams shift away from earned media, but it will still be the dominant revenue driver at 36%. Meanwhile, all of the other media categories will grow - owned to 24.6%, shared to 24.2% and paid to 12.9%. In total, PR executives predict 63% of all media outlets will offer paid placement opportunities in five years. Ironically, only 8% rank media buying skills as an important staff skill for the future.

The pace of change in public relations has never been faster than it is today, but at the same time, it will likely never be this slow again, added Paul Holmes, editor of The Holmes Report, which collaborated on the research. Both agencies and their clients recognise that change is occurring, but it is not clear that they appreciate the extent, when it comes to finding non-traditional talent or developing non-traditional services, particularly outside of earned media channels.

Looking to the future, it is clear that PR as a profession is evolving. All survey respondents agree that in five years their jobs will become more complex, challenging and strategic. Only 27% of agency leaders believe by the year 2020 the term public relations will describe clearly and adequately the work they do.

The annual Global Communications Report is conducted by USC Annenberg's Center for Public Relations,  in conjunction with The Holmes Report, the Institute for Public Relations, the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, the PR Council, the Worldcom PR Group and PRSA.

The detailed results will be presented at the World Public Relations Forum in Toronto, 29-31 May 2016. To download an executive copy, click here.
ECDs and CCOs from six of the top-achieving agencies at the recent Creative Circle Ad of the Year Awards share what it took to shine for the tough judging panel and share some industry love for local work they love at the moment.

McPherson, Reilly, Kennedy, Ireland and Glover

My online panel comprised: Publicis Machine's executive creative director, Gareth McPherson (Trivial Pursuits Close but no wedge came out tops for print); Net#work BBDOs ECD, Brad Reilly (Chicken Lickens Bang Bang Mix '15 Bucks' came out tops for integrated with its 15 bucks analyst was third for experiential); King James Group ECD Devin Kennedy, (tops in the TV, video & cinema film category for Santam One of a Kind); founding partner and chief creative officer of Ireland Davenport Philip Ireland (Salvation Army '#TheDress came third in digital); and Jenny Glover, ECD at TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris (City Lodge Hotels ' A Room For Everyone' tied second in print with its work for Doom Insecticides ' Sexy Times'. This campaign also came third in radio, with the agencys work for Flight Centres Travel Before its not fun anymore topping the radio category.

1. How exactly does the Creative Circles Ad of the Year rankings work?

McPherson: The categories of TV, radio, out of home or outdoor, and print  covering newspaper and magazine  are judged every month. All the monthly award winners in all the categories are then entered into the Annual awards, and a panel of 18 senior creatives judges all the work, selecting a winner from each category, to become Ad of the Year. Work that is either awarded a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in the monthly Creative Circle awards, automatically goes on to qualify for Ad of the Year. These are deemed finalists, and of the finalists, an overall winner in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place get awarded in each of these categories.

Reilly: The Ad of the Year judging then actually took place two days before the award night but none of the judges knew what had won until the award ceremony. All the work that had won at Ad of the Month went forward for us to judge as potential Ad of the Year winners. The process was simply watch all the pieces and then tick the one you feel is best  no discussion, no debate, no defending.

Kennedy: Yip  as there was no discussion or deliberation amongst the judges, the results were a surprise to everyone.

Ireland: I was on the jury but had to withdraw due to work commitments, so I dont have any fly on the wall insights as to the judging unfortunately. However, what is key to remember is that ad of the month is judged by a different jury every month, and the ad of the year jury gets to see it all at once.

Glover: As voting is blind results were kept secret. The judging panel is made up of top ranked ECDs, CCOs and CC board members and its an interesting voting process because you view all the work in the category and vote for just one piece. Usually, awards judging scores every piece but this is about picking just a single outstanding piece.

2. Whats your favourite creative work in these categories at the moment?

McPherson: Print has always been a strong category for the Creative Circle Awards, and theres a lot of good work out there. Favourites for us would be the City Lodge Hotels campaign  "A room for everyone. An honest take on the City Lodge chain of hotels. Clear, simple idea and each execution had a fun twist. Theres also been some good work done on Landrover over the last year or so.

Reilly: Locally, there are fairly slim pickings in this category  it is the type of work that takes a long time to produce, which is why it is only judged at Ad of the Month every three months. Besides our work, (which would be unfair of me to choose), I think the work that has been done for Sanlam on the One Rand idea is great and very well packaged.

Kennedy: As far as integrated goes, maybe there arent as many big standout pieces at the moment like Old Spice or Harvey Nichols I spent it on myself, but I Iove brands that differentiate themselves from the rest. Like REI, an outdoor outfitter that decided to close their 143 stores on Black Friday with their #OptOutside campaign that encouraged people and their staff to get outdoors. At a time when everyone else was trying to get people to spend, this really stood out and worked brilliantly for the brand. I also think Volvo is doing some really interesting work at the moment.

Ireland: "Grazed on greatness for MJ Bale is just spot on.

Glover: The work that was awarded is work that Im enormously proud of. Its work that I loved from script and scamp stage and that as with all great work, the teams all put an enormous amount of effort and personal investment. Great work is never easy. People have been working really hard over the past year to make great work and myself, Rui and Pete have been pushing them to the limit and these awards are the result of all that effort and commitment. Im enormously proud of the people I work with!

3. Do you agree that coming out with a good hand at our local Creative Circle bodes well for these same entries at the international award shows?

McPherson: Coming out tops in the Creative Circle Awards really shines the spotlight on our agency, and this bodes well for the international awards. Historically, Creative Circle has been very effective in evaluating creative work and awarding projects that go on to win at International shows. Its a great benchmark to see how work will perform internationally and I think its reflective of our strong creative talent in this country. The quality of judges and the councils management of industry talent keep the overall level to a very high level. As a rule of thumb, is if your work goes on to win at Creative Circle, the odds are good that it will feature on the international circuit.

Reilly: I think it has very little bearing on the international results and, in fact, tends to work the other way  what gets kudos overseas generally has an impact on what you see winning back home. So, the winners you see at Cannes this year will undoubtedly have an effect on Loeries results. But at the end of the day, if the work is great, the work is great and any jury worth its salt should be able to recognise that.

Kennedy: Its not always a given and really depends on the ad or idea. Take Santam One-of-a-kind and One Rand Family, for instance. One-of-a-kind pretty much won everything locally but nothing internationally, as its filled with cultural nuances like chop and dop, which only South Africans understand and find funny, while One Rand family has done well internationally. But it does give one hope that if it stood out here, it may just cut through the clutter at other award shows.

Ireland: I agree that the reverse is true, unfortunately: Work that is endorsed by international shows is very likely to repeat that success locally, but work that features locally is much less likely to influence international judges awareness of the work. That said, great work does have a habit of winning in front of whatever jury looks at it  universality is one of the defining characteristics of great work!

Glover: Our radio work has already done well at Cannes 2015, two golds (Doom) and two silvers (Student Flights). You can never guarantee that any work is going to win awards. Awards are fickle. The best approach is to keep your focus on doing great work for your clients, work that you love and believe in. In my experience, if you do that, the awards will follow.

Seems these are the ones to watch, whether they shine again on the international circuit or not. Click here for a gallery of this years winning work and here for a reminder of this years winners. Watch this space for more insights from Creative Circle 2015 winners later this week!
The winners of the UN World Wildlife Day 2016 poster competition were announced by the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) of South Africa in Geneva.

The DEA is the sponsor of the UN World Wildlife Day 2016 (WWD2016) poster design competition, as South Africa is the host country of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES CoP17. The South Africa government will provide return air tickets to the winners to fly to Johannesburg in September to attend CITES CoP17.

CITES Secretary-General, John E Scanlon, said, The World Wildlife Day poster competition has helped to raise awareness about wildlife conservation, particularly the challenges facing elephants, in a very creative way. People from right across the globe have used their artistic talents to graphically express their support for wildlife, which is a great inspiration to all of us.

Participants in the competition have come from all regions and from a wide range of ages, from children in kindergarten to retirees, from amateur art lovers to professional designers. Some entries are truly inspiring and very well illustrated the theme of WWD2016 The future of wildlife is in our hands.

Edna Molewa, Minister of Environmental Affairs of South Africa, said, The government of South Africa is pleased to sponsor the World Wildlife Day poster competition to help raise awareness of wildlife conservation. We look forward to welcoming the three winners to Johannesburg to witness CITES CoP17, where crucial discussions will take place around the regulation of the international trade in wild animals and plants.

The key message of WWD2016 is that we, the human beings, hold the future of all wildlife in our hands; failure to take actions now will have immediate, sometimes devastating, consequences for species of animals and plants. The poster designs received by the CITES Secretariat communicated this message very powerfully using images.

Winners

1. Patrick George, UK

2. Yang Lijie, China

3. Nabil Mendjeli, Algeria

Finalists

1. Nadezhda Zakharova, Russia

2. Simon De Meulenaer, Belgium

3. Jim Jourdane, France

4. Victor Otieno, Kenya

5. Yingbo Qiao, US

6. Abdelmonem Amin, Egypt

7. Maria Timofeeva, Russia

8. Nayana Rathmalgoda, Australia

9. Pavlova Olga, Russia

10. Mogen Taylor

Childrens work

1. Raima Gupta Age: 12, India

2. Yevgeniy Siunikov Age: 14, Russia

3. Farzona Majidiy Age: 8, Uzbekistan

4. Platonova Dariya Age: 9, Ukraine

5. Valeriya Nicolaeva, Russia

Judges

Six judges collectively selected the finalists and winners, they were:

 Alexandra Khamitova, an intern working at the United Nations, representing the youth  Aloys Lolo, Geneva-based cartoonist, representing professional designers and artists

 Edna Molewa, Minister of Environmental Affairs, Department of Environment, South Africa, representing the sponsoring government for the poster competition and the host country of CITES CoP17

 John E Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General, representing the organiser and UN partners for WWD2016

 Livia Firth, Director of Eco-Age, a brand consultancy, representing the private sector  Richard Lee, WWF-International, an official partner of WWD2016, representing the civil society

It was so much fun to be a judge on this wonderful competition. We had an incredible amount of entries - from all ages and backgrounds and countries. I was so happy to see so many children also to submit - they are the ones we need to think about when we are depleting the earth resources at such a pace, said Livia Firth, director of Eco-Age, one of the poster competition judges.

We sincerely thank everyone who has participated in this years World Wildlife Day competition and we warmly congratulate all of the finalists and winners, concluded Minister Molewa and Secretary-General Scanlon.

For more information, go to https://cites.org/cop17.
A fleet of mini aircraft could provide the solution to getting medical supplies to remote areas of Africa, thereby preventing thousands of deaths.

Zip airdrop

Ground-breaking partnership

In a pioneering venture, California-based robotics start up, Zipline - which has developed an autonomous electric drone - has partnered with the government of Rwanda to make on-demand deliveries of lifesaving medicine to previously unreachable parts of the country.

Beginning in July this year, the company will make between 50 to 150 blood deliveries to Rwandas 21 transfusion facilities in the western part of the country, expanding the service to the east of the country in early 2017.

For the remainder of the year, the company plans to expand operations to countries across Africa and the world, moving beyond blood delivery to include lifesaving vaccines, treatments for HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis and other essential medicines.

Third-world problems

In the developing world, access to critical medical supplies is hampered by what is known as the last mile solution. This is the inability to deliver much-needed medication from the cities to rural or remote locations due to inadequate transport, communication and supply chain infrastructure.

Therefore, healthcare facilities in remote regions of Africa often only receive deliveries every three to six months. As a result of infrequent deliveries, the in-stock rates for critical medicine at the health centre usually hovers between 60-75%. This is even lower for medication, such as insulin or vaccines, which require refrigeration in places where cold-storage is erratic.

Getting off the ground

Zipline began in 2014 when two of its founders, Keller Rinaudo and William Hetzler, visited a young public health worker in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The worker had created a text-messaging system that enabled hospital workers to urgently request medical supplies in life-or-death situations, says a report in The New York Times.

The public health worker produced the database that had entries every time someone texted, and it was thousands of names long. It was mostly infants, and there was no response. The supply chain had no way of taking them into account, Rinaudo says in the report.

More than 6,3m children under the age of five die every year due to conditions that could be prevented or treated with access to simple, affordable medical interventions, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

How it works

The aircraft - called a Zip - weighs only 10kgs, can carry 1,5kgs of medicine and can fly more than 120kms in a round trip on a single battery charge, even in wind and rain.

They operate from bases called Nests, each comprising 15 planes, which are made from modified shipping containers and located next to existing medical warehouses.

The Zip makes deliveries by descending low over a spot called a mailbox near the designated health centre. The supplies fall to earth suspended by simple paper parachutes. Then the drone returns to a home base, where it's prepared for a new mission by swapping in a new battery and snapping in a new flight plan stored in a SIM card.

The operations will be run by a team of Rwandan and American engineers from a base in the countrys centrally located Muhanga District, near the nations capital of Kigali.

Weve built an instant delivery system for the world, allowing medicine and other products to be delivered on-demand and at low cost anywhere, says Rinaudo.
South Africa plans a new "fat tax" on sugary drinks to combat an obesity epidemic -- but sweet-toothed consumers say its chances are slim of making them cut down.

Ranked as one of the most obese nations on the continent, South Africa is joining a growing list of countries around the world, such as Britain and Mexico, trying to put a cap on fizzy drinks.

But even health experts, who welcome the proposed levy, don't believe the tax will single-handedly discourage South Africans from popping open bottles of sugar-packed soda and sweetened juices.

The levy, announced by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in his budget in February, will come into effect in April next year.

It is aimed not only at saving people from their own unhealthy appetites but at offsetting the economic costs of diseases related to obesity.

In Zandspruit, a township west of Johannesburg, 30-year-old insurance broker Thulani Masango scoffs at the levy.

"We know sugar causes diabetes and obesity, but... we cannot survive without sugar," said Masango, as he strolled down a dusty street.

"As we speak, the price of meat has gone up, but we continue braaing (barbecuing). Alcohol goes up almost every year, we still drink.

"It's the same with sugar. It's something that is uncontrollable," said Masango.

A Zandspruit supermarket supervisor and mother of two, Anastacia Tshabalala, 53, agrees. She believes that sugar is addictive.

"Sugar is sugar! We are going to take it no matter what. Even if the price goes up, we have to take sugar everyday -- you can't live without it," she said.

South African endocrinologist Professor Tess van der Merwe, who says half of adult women and a third of adult men in South Africa are "overweight", is also sceptical.

"These are epidemic proportions," she said, adding that about 15 percent of South Africans are in the "morbidly obese category" -- more than 100 pounds or 45 kilogrammes overweight.

"I don't believe that it will curb the epidemic unless we have a definitive preventative and treatment strategy in place -- like tax didn't curb alcohol use," she said.

Obesity rates are rising sharply among African children.

A World Health Organization-commissioned study released in January showed that childhood obesity has become an "exploding nightmare" in the developing world, including Africa.

The number of overweight or obese children under five nearly doubled from 1990 to 2014, from 5.4 million to 10.3 million.

The WHO declared obesity a disease 10 years ago, but people still struggle to accept it as a deadly disease.

"People need to realise that there are more people dying from obesity (related illnesses) than from any other disease in the world," said van der Merwe.

Minister Gordhan has yet to reveal the proposed taxation rates, but a Plos-One study published in 2014 projects that a 20 percent tax onsugary drinks will reduce obesity in South Africa by between 2.4 and 3.8 percent forfemales and males respectively.

Manufacturers of sugar-sweetened drinks in South Africa believe the tax could lead to job losses.

"For the treasury to announce a tax on only one category of foods is discriminatory," said Mapule Ncanywa, executive director of the Beverage Association of South Africa.

"We don't think that it's going to have the desired result of reducing excessive intake of sugar, let alone obesity for that matter."

Security guard Thomas Sithole, who relies on caffeine- and sugar-laden energy drinks to make it through his night shifts, worries that the tax may be disastrous for him.

"There are things they can tax, but not sugar... everybody needs sugar," said Sithole, seated outside a local soft-drink shop after his night's work.
Embattled German carmaker Volkswagen has said that worldwide sales of its own-brand cars were down 1.3% in the first three months of this year, with gains seen only in the Asia-Pacific region and in central and eastern Europe.

Simon via Pixabay

Volkswagen, currently entrenched in a massive engine-rigging scandal, said in a statement that it sold 1,459 million VW-brand vehicles in the period from January to March, down from 1.479 million a year earlier. "Mixed regional market developments are reflected in our delivery figures," said Juergen Stackmann, head of sales at the VW brand.

"While Volkswagen Passenger Cars recorded the best delivery performance ever in China in the first quarter, the trend in South America in particular continues to decline," Stackmann said.

In the group's home market of Germany, VW delivered a total 138,700 of its own-brand cars to customers in the January-March period, 3.8% fewer than a year earlier.

Tarnished reputation

VW, which owns 12 brands in all, from Audi and Porsche to Lamborghini, Skoda and SEAT, was plunged into its deepest-ever crisis last September when it emerged it had installed emissions-cheating software into 11 million diesel engines worldwide. It is currently battling to count the still incalculable costs from the scandal and is potentially facing many billions of euros in fines and compensation claims.

VW had at one time hoped to overtake Japanese rival Toyota as the world's biggest carmaker in terms of sales, but the scandal has tarnished its reputation. And sales were down in almost all regions in the first quarter of 2016.

Western European sales fell by 0.5%, North American sales were down by 6.5% and South American sales plunged by as much as 31.3% in the three-month period, VW said. Only in eastern and central Europe and in the Asia-Pacific region was the group able to notch up gains of 2.1% and 4.8% respectively, with sales in China climbing by 6.5%.

That was "the best quarterly performance in the first three months since the company entered the the Chinese market over 30 years ago", VW said.

Source: AFP
"The Prism Awards entries this year show the high calibre of work that the South African Public Relations (PR) sector delivers, making it a world-class industry." That was the message from the judges last night at the annual Prism Awards.

The Awards, which reward excellence in PR and are a highlight on the PR industrys calendar, took place at the Indaba Hotel in Fourways.

PR Expert won gold for the South African Campaign of the Year with five silvers also awarded in this category. This, says judge Daniel Munslow, principal consultant at VMA Group, South Africa, shows the superb quality of work in this country. I am proud of the work in South Africa.

He adds that the entries also show how agencies and clients are collaborating more to drive business results. PR is adopting new ways to deliver better results and this shows just how good the industry is at evolving.

FleishmanHillard won Pan African Campaign of the Year for the second consecutive year. Newly appointed general manager (effective 1 May), Sharon Piehl says the award signifies that FleishmanHillard is working across the continent as a matter of course. We are doing work every day in Africa and reaching audiences across our borders.

Africa strategy

She adds it is exciting that global brands are realising they need to have an Africa strategy. And within this they are understanding that Africa is a continent and not a country.

The winner of the Small PR Consultancy of the Year is Positive Dialogue Communications. This is the Cape Town-based consultancys second win in this category, having also won it in 2014.

Since our win in 2014 everything has changed and it proves that there is no cookie cutter solution in PR. Nothing about PR is a formula; there are too many channels and opportunities so you must think out of the box for each brief. It is all about passion  passion for your work and your client, says Tracy Jones, MD of Positive Dialogue Communications.

Tribeca Public Relations won the Mid-sized PR consultancy category. Nicky James, co-owner and senior consultant at Tribeca Public Relations says the win is all about their people. Without our people we do not have a company and we would not have amazing campaign results. I am fiercely proud of the work we produce for our clients because everything we do has to meet or exceed their business objectives and make a difference.

This year, no award was given for Large Agency of the Year and Best PR Professional.

Passion for people

Ogilvy PR Cape Towns Roxanne Leibrandt won Best up-and-coming PR professional. We are thrilled for Roxanne, and this is the second year in a row that [someone from] our Cape Town office has won in the individual awards, as Pippa Holland won the PR Professional of the year in 2015, says Joanna Oosthuizen, national managing director, Ogilvy Public Relations South Africa, adding that it is bears testimony to the quality of the people at Ogilvy.

Ogilvy PRs Cape Town office also took top honours in the social media category and new mobile category. We are thrilled to be recognised for properly integrated campaigns that are rooted in strategy and utilise social media effectively. We love winning in this category because social media is changing PR as a whole, says Oosthuizen.

She adds that it is good to see excellence being rewarded. It is clear that the quality of work this year is high and therefore we are delighted with our campaigns that were recognised through the Awards.

Organiser of the Awards, Bridget von Holdt, executive director of Glasshouse Communications Management, was happy with the evening. We are delighted in our campaign of the year winner and the participation and response of the industry to the Awards, which is represented in the calibre of representation at the Awards evening.

Burson-Marsteller was awarded African Network of the Year, while The Lifetime Achiever Award, sponsored by Bizcommunity, went to Peter Mann of Meropa Communications.

Click here for the full list of gold winners.
Currently in South Africa, only about 15% of high school students make it to university, and the youth unemployment rate rests at 63.1% - no doubt with the former influencing the latter. The situation seems bleak until you realise that BrandedYouth, with headline sponsor Standard Bank, has developed a platform that will provide South African matriculants and university students with the tools needed to navigate this volatile economic environment: the Standard Bank Youth Expo, to be held in on 6 and 7 August this year at the Sandton Convention Centre.

Theres a greater need for brands and organisations to engage with the youth of South Africa to ensure that they are educated and empowered for the future, we therefore designed The Standard Bank Youth Expo as a platform that will fully cater to this, says Bradley Maseko, MD of BrandedYouth.

The Standard Bank Youth Expo will run as a career exhibition and youth conference with the aim of inspiring and assisting South Africas future leaders, entrepreneurs and all-round ambitious value-seekers by offering them access to networks, organisations and information that will have a valuable impact on their professional journeys.

Our research and the current political climate show that South African youth are concerned about their future outlook, says Motlatsi Mkalala, Senior Manager for Youth Customer Financial Solutions at Standard Bank South Africa. They are afraid of becoming another unemployment statistic, failed entrepreneurs, or being unable to afford their tertiary tuition. The Standard Bank Youth Expo will show them that this does not have to be the case. The Youth Expo will provide all the resources necessary that can help turn dreams of future success and prosperity into reality.

Furthermore, through the expo, Standard Bank and BrandedYouth aim to raise R3m through sponsorships, exhibitor contributions, donations from the public at large including private businesses. Once achieved, the money will be donated to various tertiary institutions, so they can award bursaries to deserving students.

The fund isnt reliant on the expo, however, Mr Mkalala continues. The public are welcome to join us in changing lives and building a better South Africa together by contributing to our crowd-funded Pay It Forward fund on the ADDaBIT- Simple Social Saving platform. For contributions to the fund, Visit www.ADDaBIT.com, go to search fund and insert the fund code ACHNZAAHUw. On the Fund Page click add-a-bit to start contributing.

The need to provide young South Africans with opportunities and access to quality tertiary education is now urgent and paramount to our nations success. If our youth move forward, the country moves forward, meaning prosperity for all in all spheres  the Standard Bank Youth Expo is a step in the right direction in facilitating a better future for all, concludes Mr Mkalala.

The Standard Bank Youth Expo will be held at the Sandton Convention Centre on 6 and 7 August. For more information, to book your exhibition stand or for the conference schedule, visit the expo page on www.brandedyouth.co.za




In the face of drought, water shortages, and climate change, technology will play an increasingly important role in production and quality produce. Agriculture globally is tasked with increasing food production despite theses challenges. The way forward? Smart agriculture.

Magnus Rambraut

Yara International, provider of sustainable crop nutrition solutions, is digitizing agriculture by developing advanced tools and solutions for the farmer. We spoke to Magnus Rambraut, director Precision Farming at Yara to find out more about how digitizing the industry can alleviate pressure on farmers and ensure the future production of produce.

How is agriculture being digitized and to what extent have farms and farmers taken up these technologies?

The last few years have seen major changes in terms of digital agriculture, but it is actually not a new concept. Farmers have a history of being early technology adapters. In fact, farmers used the GPS long before private cars to steer the tractor along certain paths to avoid overlap in the spread of fertilizer. Recently, technologies such as remote sensing, digital soil maps, drones, smartphones, big data and cloud-based computing have all been introduced to the agricultural industry.

Digital crop sensors help determine the right use of precious resources like water, fertilizer, and arable land. This data can be stored and analyzed in the cloud alongside weather reports and soil maps, accessed by the farmers through their smartphones and sent back to sensors, which can then spread the right amount of resource. This is what we call smart agriculture or digital farming  and it is completely changing the way we think about farming.

Precision agriculture became a key strategic focus point for Yara in 2015, and we see that more people are getting involved in the movement. At Davos this year, for example, digital agriculture was a major theme, underlining the fact that the fourth industrial revolution has come to the farms as well. From Melbourne to Malawi, governments are increasingly encouraging the use of digital technologies in farming. This shows great prospects for the uptake of the technologies on a global scale, especially in terms of increased investments in farmer subsidies, research, and development.

We have already seen a gradual uptake of the technologies, but in developing countries farmers are still meeting some structural bottlenecks in terms of implementation. For smallholder farmers, especially in developing countries, digital financing has been the most important development so far. This helps promote financial inclusion and economic empowerment for smallholder farmers, which again gives them more financial stability to invest in digital agricultural products in the future.

How has digitization changed irrigation specifically, and why is it becoming increasingly important to embrace new irrigation technologies?

Water scarcity has become one of the biggest challenges we need to face. Droughts such as the one caused by the recent El Nino have caused major lack of water resources in Americas and Africa. In Asia climate change is threatening the water supply of one billion people. It is, therefore, important to embrace new irrigation technologies to reduce water waste.

Agriculture consumes about 70 percent of all freshwater withdrawals, and will have to do with less in the future. The Yara Water Technology is a great example of this. It contains a sensor with a magnet, which is placed on a leaf on the plant and measures the water pressures in the leaf between two magnets. Based on scientific research, we will be able to interpret the water pressure to indicate if the plant needs more or less water. The sensor is connected to a transmitter which transfers the data to our cloud-based solution (MyYara). It is also connected to the weather forecasts; so that the plants are not watered if it will rain in the near future. This ensures that water is only applied when needed, which may lead to major savings.

Yara ZIM-Sensor

However, to further improve the nutrient use efficiency, Yara have developed a Fertigation solution (fertilizer applied through water) where we are able to provide both water and fertilizer recommendations for the farmer to ensure optimal production.

Tell us more about the Yara Sensors and the technology behind it.

In addition to the Yara Water Technology, we introduced the N-Sensor (Nitrogen sensor) to the market in the late 1990s to help the farmer to apply the correct amount of fertilizer at the correct place on the field. The N-Sensor is a roof-mounted sensor for the tractor, which quickly determines the plants nitrogen requirement.

The N-Sensor measures each side of the tractor using wavelengths specifically designed to measure chlorophyll and biomass density. It collects data in real time and calculates how much fertilizer to spread. The information is sent to the tractor terminal, which is operating the fertilizer spreader and spreads accordingly. When completed, the details of the operation is sent to MyYara, where the farmer can access it to generate application heat maps and conduct analysis.

Yara N-Sensor

We also have complementary technologies, such as the handheld sensor N-Tester and the mobile app ImageIT. ImageIT lets the farmer take a picture of his or her crop with a smartphone, and will receive the nitrogen status of the crop and a recommendation on how much nitrogen to apply. As the GPS is today, we hope that the Yara sensors and precision farming will one day become the norm worldwide. All our tools are based on long-term scientific trials which we convert into rules/algorithms/calibrations, which are the basis for our recommendations.

Yara N-Sensor

How affordable is it for farmers who are already facing serious challenges in terms of drought, input costs, etc. to acquire this technology? What kind of benefits and ROI are farmers looking at?

Yara has a long history of doing business in Africa, dating back to the first consignment of fertilizers shipped to Egypt in 1929. We have recently opened a fertilizer terminal in Dar es Salaam to facilitate the growing agricultural sector, and we take part in multinational dialogues and public-private partnerships. These efforts include innovative projects and concepts such as the Agricultural Growth Corridors, the WEF framework New Vision for Agriculture, and the Grow Africa Partnership. Through these initiatives, we hope to make these technologies readily available for the African market. But acquiring new technologies always requires an initial investment.

In terms of return on investments, however, there is no doubt that it will help optimize the yield. Yaras precision farming tools take into account the in-field variabilities of nitrogen needs and ultimately reduces fertilizer input, creates a more uniform crop stand and enhances overall yield and crop quality. In large-scale field trials in over five years, sensor-controlled fertilization increased yield by 6%, reduced nitrogen application by 12% and increased revenues by 57 euros per hectare on average. This holds huge potential, not only for the African industry but for farmers facing similar challenges worldwide.

Would you say smart agriculture and sustainable agriculture are two sides of the same coin? Why?

Absolutely. Climate smart agriculture underlines that smart, or digital, agriculture is the sustainable way to farm. The latest State of Food and Agriculture report from FAO shows that to feed future populations we must increase food production by 70% by 2050. The Global Opportunity Report proposes smart agriculture as a way for farmers to grow more with less. By doing so, farmers are reducing the use of precious resources like water, fertilizer, and arable land, and therefore contributing to a sustainable practice  hence producing more with less

In light of growing food insecurity, water scarcity, and climate change, to what extent can such technologies help farmers mitigate the risks of the day and contribute to a growing movement in sustainable agriculture. Can it really make a tangible difference?

Digital farming does not only help produce more food, it helps produce better quality food. A lot of the crops today are used as animal feed because it is not deemed good enough as food for humans. By gaining more and better output of our crops, we can help combat food insecurity.

Nitrogen fertilizers are a vital ingredient for modern agriculture and world food supply. But excess amounts of fertilizer have a negative impact on the environment. Optimizing input whilst maximizing output is a winning strategy from both an economic and ecological perspective. It proves that less really is more. Furthermore, in order to increase food production, we need to make better use of land that already exists, instead of increasing the amount of land we use for farming. This way we can help prevent further deforestation, which is vital to mitigate the effects of climate change.

For the farmers, gaining real-time access to information about weather, soil, nitrogen levels and water, they can avoid overusing valuable resources when it is not needed, and prepare for changes in farming practices when required. Look to Africa for example. Africa needs to import a lot of their food despite 65% of the population being farmers. The mobile phone has already been one of the most important changes to how they farm, and once other technologies are adapted they can become more food self-sufficient. I am certain that sustainable and digital agriculture not only can, but also will make a tangible difference.

Any other insights or tips on practicing smart and sustainable agriculture?

Although we aim to reach as far as possible, we cannot combat these challenges alone. On a global scale, we need to see increased government support and private-public partnerships to increase awareness and investments.

Innovations, as well as massive interventions on locally and regionally adapted levels, are all needed to gain the momentum needed. While a precision farming future is an ultimate goal, the here and now also calls for more educated methods, requiring widespread knowledge sharing, infrastructure development and inducement of enabling environments for functional value chains in the agricultural sector.

For the individual farmers, my tip would be to become more aware of your current farming practice and evaluate how to achieve optimal yields. At Yara, our slogan is Knowledge Grows, and this knowledge is available to everyone. In every major country, we have agronomists that help farmers analyze their needs, make decisions and get the best out of their investments.
Urban agriculture is widely promoted as the solution to the growing problem of urban food insecurity in South Africa and in Africa more broadly . It is said to provide livelihoods and social cohesion, and have environmental benefits. But it's also promoted as having additional food security benefits.

Food security efforts need to look beyond urban agriculture. Jane Battersby

It is the primary, and usually the only, food security policy of local governments, and the focus of many NGOs and corporate social investment programmes.

There is, however, very little evidence to support this level of investment and focus.

It is thus important to critically assess whether the promotion of urban agriculture is warranted, particularly when it is at the expense of other potential solutions. We simply cannot afford to keep polishing the lamp and hoping the genie will appear.

Research shows something else

Proponents of urban agriculture offer figures suggesting that as many as 40% of African urban residents are involved in some form of agriculture. Such figures require far greater interrogation. In the case of Cape Town in South Africa, research conducted in low-income areas of the city in 2008 found that less than 5% of poor residents were involved in any form of urban agriculture. In reality, those most active in urban agriculture were found to be wealthier people in low-income areas.

Context is a further determining factor. Research shows that in towns where the municipal boundary extended into areas with more rural characteristics, urban agriculture was higher.

In South Africa this finding is supported by the 2011 census, which identified more than 30% of the population practising urban agriculture in medium-sized towns like Mafikeng, Polokwane and Newcastle. In Mogale City and Johannesburg, larger settlements with large urban settlements adjacent, the practice was well below 10%. And in Cape Town it was below 5%. Context, climate, soil fertility and spatial legacies all matter.

There is little evidence to suggest urban agriculture is contributing to food and nutrition security, either locally or internationally. The incomes from sales of produce are generally low, so the indirect food security benefits are limited.

Assumptions without evidence

The assumption in much advocacy work and policy is that urban agriculture benefits the most food-insecure households. But numerous case studies show this is not the case.

Two themes are implicit in motivations for urban agriculture. The first is welfare driven. The second is a narrative that calls for self-help interventions so that the poor initiate their own food security through urban agriculture. This assumes free time for the under-employed poor, who pursue multiple strategies to survive.

Linked to this is the assumption that the food insecure can get access to land, water, seeds and everything else they need. This misses the reality of poverty. State and NGO programmes do facilitate access to such resources, but the most vulnerable lack the knowledge or social networks to access these.

Urban agriculture is often promoted as a means of empowerment. But expecting the urban poor, who have the least access to resources, to grow their own and lift themselves out of poverty and food insecurity fails to recognise the barriers constraining urban agriculture. That isnt empowerment; its the cruelty of false promises.

So where does the dogged pursuit of urban agriculture as the solution come from?

Local governments have no direct food security mandate, as food insecurity is still considered by most states to be primarily a rural problem. This means local governments wishing to address food insecurity adapt rural programmes to meet urban needs.

Food insecurity is seen as a household poverty problem and not a systemic problem. The obvious household response is food production.

The state is largely unwilling to address the systemic drivers of food insecurity, which would entail regulating food companies and challenging the dominant development agenda.



Looked at in this light it is possible to view the increased promotion of urban agriculture as a politically reactionary response. It claims to be aimed at fixing the worst effects of structural poverty and food insecurity. But it doesnt actually address the root causes.

Changes that need to be made

For as long as urban agriculture remains local governments main entry point for addressing food insecurity, it is essential that programming be improved.

First, more effort needs to made in monitoring and evaluation of government-run initiatives. Though inputs are monitored well, outputs and impact monitoring are extremely weak. This means many programmes are failing and lessons are not being learnt.

Second, many NGOs working in urban agriculture have sustainable, viable projects. Local government should work more directly with these to increase the viability of state-initiated projects.

And if urban agriculture is to be a main focus area for food security programming, then suitable land should be identified and protected.

But urban food security efforts need to look beyond urban agriculture. For example, it is essential that local governments understand the food system in which urban agriculture operates to understand why producers struggle to find markets for their goods. This would allow them to develop a range of interventions based on their existing mandates, including integrating formal and informal food retailing spaces, and supporting fresh produce markets to increase their role in local, pro-poor food value chains.

Finally, local governments should develop food security strategies to guide their interventions. Through these measures, urban agriculture can remain integral to efforts to alleviate food insecurity and would be more likely to have the desired impact.

It is clear that urban agriculture can have significant benefits for some participating households. But we are concerned about the absence of wider evidence supporting its potential to address food insecurity beyond those households. The assertion that urban agriculture can provoke systemic change is untested. Through their dogged promotion of urban agriculture, the state and the private sector can claim they are working towards food insecurity and have a good photo op with key personnel in wellington boots. At the same time they can absolve themselves from responsibility for the causes of food insecurity.


The drought has sent SA scrambling to provide financial assistance to farmers. An Agri SA report in February says that as of the end of June last year the country's farming debt was R125bn.

"With many farmers in the summer rainfall areas being unable to plant or facing severe livestock losses, it is likely that liquidity in the sector will deteriorate as a result of the drought," the report states.

Consumers will be affected as food prices go up, especially since maize meal is a staple of many households.

Drought relief

Last month, Deputy Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries Minister Bheki Cele said: "While awaiting a financial injection from the national coffers, the department allocated R1bn towards agricultural drought relief" after it had reprioritised 20% of the comprehensive agricultural support programme (Casp) and Ilima/Letsema, a departmental grant programme aimed at increasing food production.

The department of rural, environment and agricultural development has allocated R25m towards drought relief - R19m for fodder and R6m for livestock water. Cele said R24.6m had so far been spent on assisting 13,688 farmers.

Farmers hit hard

According to the crop estimates committee, summer crops will be 25% lower in the 2016/2017 year than in 2015/2016 as a result of the drought.

Livestock farmers have also been hit hard. The Red Meat Producers Organisation estimates that farmers lost 40,000 cattle in KwaZulu-Natal alone last year. "Given the drastically reduced plantings of summer crops, it is expected that livestock farmers will remain in a tight position as fodder is likely to be in short supply in the coming winter months," the organisation says in a report.

SA is the largest maize producer in Africa and trades about 40% of its maize within the Southern African Development Community. The report says that because of the reduced planting and harvests, the amount of maize SA exports could be reduced to 630,000t, from the 1.5Mt SA has exported for the past 10 seasons.

"The direct influence of reduced maize exports on the balance of payments is estimated to be R4.7bn," the report says. This means SA could end up importing between 3Mt and 5Mt of maize, putting pressure on the balance of payments.

Restructured debt

In a presentation to the portfolio committee on agriculture, forestry & fisheries in March, the Land Bank said it had restructured R600m in distressed accounts of commercial farmers

The bank's share of the farmers' R125bn debt is R36bn. The bank plans to assist farmers through drought relief assistance, a concessionary disaster relief fund and a forced stock sale deposit.

The drought relief assistance includes allowing farmers to carry over their debt to the next seasons, giving them a two-year "repayment holiday" and extending the repayment period for the remaining term of the existing loans.

The bank also has a loan agreement with the Industrial Development Corp for R400m to be made available to assist farmers in the coming seasons. It will provide loans at prime less 3%, but the bank says it expects to lose R15m through the concessionary disaster relief fund. Of the R400m from the IDC, R250m is priced at prime less 3% because of the drought.

The forced stock sale deposit will assist by granting farmers in disaster areas an exemption from income tax for livestock sold as a result of the drought. For the next three years, the bank has budgeted R5bn/year to help farmers recover from the drought.

Support for drought disaster areas

The North West, Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal have been declared drought disaster areas.

The Western Cape government says it will spend R23m on drought relief for farmers most in need in the region. This is in addition to R11m of emergency funds granted while the province waits for national government to consider its request for R88m in relief funds.

Bomikazi Molapo, spokesman for minister of agriculture, forestry & fisheries Senzeni Zokwana, says government loans are provided at prime (currently 10.5%) less 3%. "Furthermore, government is providing funding through the Micro Agricultural Financial Institutions of SA scheme, the AgriBEE fund, the Casp and the Ilima/Letsema food production programme. Over and above this, drought relief funds are allocated when the need arises," Molapo adds.

She says the assistance the department is providing is targeted at commercial and smallholder farmers but priority is given to the most vulnerable, who tend to be the smallholder farmers.

The department has set aside R125m for various provinces. Out of this amount the Free State will get R10m, KwaZulu-Natal R69m, Limpopo R3m and Mpumalanga R1.8m.

Source: Financial Mail
The Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016 exhibition will be showcased at the Chavonnes Battery Museum, Clock Tower, V&A Waterfront in Cape Town from 1 May to 30 September in partnership with the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI). The exhibition includes 41 images covering eight categories, three of which are exclusively in British waters while the rest are a selection taken from 54 countries including South Africa, UK, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Malta, and Italy.

Pier Mane - Three Pillars - Practice, Patience & Luck! (Bahamas)

These spectacular images invite you to explore fascinating perspectives and interesting insights into our world underwater and on land from underwater. South African Pier Mane, is the winner of the Up & Coming Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016 for his image titled Three Pillars - Practice, Patience & Luck!

Highlighting issues of conservation

The overall winner, Davide Loprestis image titled Gold, is an artistic portrait of a spiny seahorse taken in Trieste, Italy to celebrate their return to areas of the Mediterranean that have been protected from destructive fisheries, such as trawling.

Highlighting issues of conservation and endangered species can also be found in Manes image of a Hawksbill Sea Turtle found in Sodwana Bay off the coast of SA and Prietos picture titled What feeds beneath of an endangered Hawaiian Petrel snapped in Mexico.

Like Manes winning image in his category, other photographers were also rewarded for their patience and perseverance:

Sarah Bowring, a Marine Mammal Medic at a seal rehabilitation centre in the UK achieved a long time ambition to engage with the seals in their natural environment. This led to the charming image called Hello, give us a kiss.

Paul Colleys attempt to photograph trout during a year-long river project with a home-made pole-cam, led to a raft of Mallard ducks muscling in to steal food intended to entice trout to the camera.

Christian Vizl was highly commended in the Wrecks category for capturing an image of his lecturer, award-winning photographer David Doubilet, in the Caribbean during a workshop.

We are very excited to partner with the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) and to host this fascinating Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016 exhibition. The various themes will be incorporated into our school group visits along with the NSRI WaterWise Academy project which I know the learners enjoy. The Wrecks category ties into our new display of Model Ships on loan from Iziko Museums and the Rocket Lifesaving Apparatus used for saving lives from shipwrecks at the Cape of Storms in the 1800s, says Dale Dodgen, business executive of Chavonnes Battery Museum.

Visitors have the option to meander on their own or join a guide from local communities for a Guided Tour, where they will enjoy breath-taking images and explore the history of Cape Town in one affordable experience that lasts up to two hours.

Free entry on 1 May and 2 May, in celebration of Workers Day.

For more information visit Chavonnes Battery Museum.
The growth of the tourism industry globally, and particularly in Africa, has been overwhelming. The industry is one of the primary drivers of economic and social development in Africa. 60% of the unemployed population in Africa is youth according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), therefore, the employment opportunities, generation of income and investment by the tourism industry have a major role to play in ending unemployment in the continent.

Small and medium enterprises from one sector that have directly or indirectly benefitted from the growth in tourism sector is the artisan business. We can all attest to the fact that Africa has a rich arts heritage. Major museums, galleries, and art curios are spread across every African country, exhibiting carvings (wood, soapstone, gold and silver), folkloric musical instruments, beadwork and paintings among other artworks.

These contribute immensely in showcasing the countrys culture and are also tourist attractions on their own. Art products are in high demand by hotels in a bid to diversify their furnishings and blend the decor with a traditional sensation. It is also commonplace for tourists to purchase a souvenir to share their Safari experiences with friends and family.

True enough, these mementos are also used as gifts for our loved ones and aide memories of the extraordinary experience in Africa, with each telling a different aesthetic story. By selling their art products to visitors, the artisans get a legit source of living that not only help put food on their table but also educate their children.

Crafts industry should capitalize on growth opportunities created by tourism

There is no question, however, that the crafts industry is yet to be fully tapped. According to a market research done by Aid to Artisans (ATA), the region has been largely unable to capitalize on the economic growth opportunities created by tourism.

The research evidently points to prevalent under-utilization in the arts and crafts and souvenirs markets. Some of the products we purchase from arts vendors may have personalized messages and names of the host country, yet not originally made from there. This kind of competition from imported art products has been a major challenge, especially due to the poor quality of local products or too high selling prices.

The demand is no doubt in the rise and so should be the supply from the African market. Therefore, observing the market trends (to provide sustainable prices) and customer preferences may just translate into amplified production and sales of crafts, which will then have a ripple effect in their businesses, their countrys economy and that of the entire continent. Governments too need to invest more in the artisan sector to help reinforce market access for art products.

The crafts industry has undoubtedly profited a lot from the tourism sector. An industry report by Africas online hotel booking company, Jovago, places Africa on the travel and tourism global map, with projections of approximately 42.6 million tourists traveling to sub-Saharan Africa by 2017. Such prognoses give hope for better days to come for the African artisan sector, as the two are without a doubt, inextricably linked.
The World Bank estimated Sub-Saharan Africa's growth at 3.7 percent for 2015 despite the current financial turmoil, with a slight uptick to 4.4 percent and 4.8 percent in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The Bank's list of the 13 economies projected to grow the fastest between 2014 and 2017 features six African countries.

Jeoff Motshoba

Theres no doubt that the African growth story remains resilient in the face both of global and continental challenges. However, in order to capitalise on our growth potential, we have to ensure that we have integrated transport solutions in place to promote regional, continental and inter-continental trade, says Jeoff Motshoba, executive: Air Traffic Management/Communications, Navigation and Surveillance at Air Traffic & Navigation Services (ATNS). Aviation, in particular, has a critical role to play in providing the kind of infrastructure that a competitive modern economy needs.

Addressing barriers inhibiting African air travel growth

Motshoba believes that two primary barriers are inhibiting the growth of African air travel: physical infrastructure and safety. The former includes both airports and fleet, and here great strides are being made as new airports are commissioned and Africas aircraft fleet gets younger.

Safety, he believes, is rightly considered to be the primary barrier facing Africas aviation industry. African aviation has long had a poor safety record, with the average number of air traffic accidents nine times higher than the global average in 2011. However, things seem to be improving - its 2015 safety record was better than any year in the 2010-14 period.

Motshoba says that ATNS is playing a leading role in helping to improve safety by spearheading moves to create a single upper airspace management control capability for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. By managing the regions upper airspace holistically we will not only reduce the cost of air travel, we will make it significantly safer, he says. Its one of the things mandated by the Yamoussoukro Declaration, which was signed in 1999 but which is not yet fully implemented.

Andreas Berthold via 123RF

The liberalisation of African skies

The Declaration calls for the liberalisation of African skies for African airlines, and the establishment of a single African air transport market. ATNS as the lead operator of the SADC initiative is acting as advisor and liaison with the equivalent organisation in the north of Africa. This kind of integrated approach will also save money as expensive technology can be shared.

One example would be the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) network created and operated by ATNS, which has been providing communication services to air traffic authorities across the SADC region for the past 10 years. Egypt manages a similar service for the northern region.

Creating a deep pool of talent

Making sure that we roll out an air traffic infrastructure that makes use of the best technology is one side of the coin; the other is having a deep pool of talent with the skills needed to use that technology, Matshoba points out. ATNS is playing an important role here, too, with our Aviation Training Academy being one of the continents leading trainers of the air traffic controllers and engineers of the future.

The ATNS Aviation Training Academy is IATAs regional training provider for the Africa-Indian Ocean region, and it was one of IATAs Worldwide Top Regional Training Partners in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. In addition, the Academy was named a Regional Training Centre of Excellence at the end of 2015 by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) - one of only 16 globally.

The post-2015 UN development agenda presents a vision that seeks to achieve inclusive, people-centred, sustainable global development: the future we want. This calls for a broad approach to development, based on social justice, structural transformation, economic diversification, and growth.

Air transport is a vital enabler for Africas economic growth, and Matshoba believes the industry offers huge potential. He believes that South Africa, as the continents most advanced aviation market, has the opportunity and obligation to help build this vital piece of Africas infrastructure.
An oft-told tale of Lagos's once-notorious traffic jams is that of a taxi passenger stuck in a snarl-up who left the vehicle, wandered into a roadside restaurant to eat, drank a beer, took a nap and returned to the vehicle that had not moved an inch. He reached his destination several hours later.

First-time visitors to Lagos about 10 years ago were warned, This is Lagos. That meant that you should not expect help from anyone  but brace up for hard times ahead.

Fast-forward to 2016 and the traffic congestion, high crime rate, clogged gutters and roads filled with garbage could soon become just a bad dream. These days Lagosians still regale each other with anecdotes of the dystopian city even as positive changes can be seen in Africas most populous city, with 21 million people. These days the greeting Welcome to Lagos portends better news.

Transformation foundation

The transformation of Lagos started during the tenure of Bola Tinubu, Lagos State governor from 1999 to 2007. Tinubu set forth a rescue operation that his successor, Babatunde Fashola, later continued.

There were political and economic benefits for such efforts. Lagos is Nigerias richest state, producing about $90bn a year in goods and services, making its economy bigger than that of most African countries, including Ghana and Kenya, notes The Economist.

A fast-growing population (600,000 people added annually), without commensurate improvements in social services such as housing, water and transportation, had pushed Lagos to the cliffs edge.

Manhattan rises offshore

There have been impressive infrastructural developments, but the plan to create a new city at the edge of Lagos is probably the most audacious. Dubbed the Manhattan of Africa, Eko Atlantic on Victoria Island consists of 10-million square meters of land reclaimed from the ocean and protected by an 8.5km seawall. Construction began in 2008, and it consists of seven districts along the oceanfront, including a business district that is expected to host major banks and insurance and oil companies, as well as the Nigerian stock exchange, once construction is fully completed.

Lagoss government reduced crime rates by providing logistical support to the police force run by the federal government. It installed closed-circuit television in most parts of the city and established skills acquisition programmes for the area boys  youths, mostly jobless, who extort money from drivers and passengers. It also set up mobile courts to summarily try cases.

Oshodi market, located about five miles from Murtala Mohammed International Airport, used to represent the good, the bad and the ugly of Lagos: thousands of people to-ing and fro-ing; a cacophony of voices at the highest decibels; rickety buses meandering through a sea of human beings; pickpockets on the prowl; people fighting at one end, others dancing to loud music at the other end. Currently, most of what used to be Oshodi market has been demolished, to make way for a world-class bus terminus, according to government officials.

The place [Oshodi] was harbouring criminals and a number of untoward activities, said Steve Ayorinde, the current Lagos state commissioner for information and strategy, according to the Nigerian newspaper Vanguard. Fashola himself regards Oshodis transformation as a watershed moment. During his tenure, he often reminded Lagosians that, having transformed Oshodi, there was nothing they couldnt achieve.

Lagos is becoming a clean city. Thousands of workers can be seen late every night sweeping the roads and taking away the dirt. An efficient garbage collection service supports the cleaning efforts. More than one million tons of waste was deposited in public landfills in 2015, up from 71,000 tons in 2004. About 72% of Lagos residents currently use a government-regulated waste disposal service; in 2005 only 42% used such a service.

Nigerians are generally in disbelief regarding the new Lagos. This is not the Lagos I used to know, says Sanusi Turay, who manages a private security firm in the city. The new Lagos is a bit of an anomaly, Turay explains, with a tinge of sarcasm. But, honestly, we are very happy things are changing for the better.

Just before Tinubu took over as governor in 1999, the BBC reported that the realities of Lagos may thwart Mr. Tinubus ambitious plans; the city is collapsing as fast as it grows, disappearing under a mountain of rubbish. But after 15 years of painstaking efforts, that image of Lagos is slowly changing.

Fasholas strategy

After Tinubu exited, Fasholas strategy was focused on three fronts. First, he solicited citizens support for a new vision of Lagos. The slogan Eko o ni baje (Lagos must not spoil) rallied Lagosians against the status quo. Second, he reformed the tax system, which resulted in an increase in tax revenues to $115m per month in 2015, up from $3.2m in 1999. Tax compliance increased to 80%, up from about 30% in 2005. Third, Fashola used the tax revenues to undertake ambitious transportation and sanitation projects, including the creation of a rail network, bus lanes and a waste collection system, as well as massive road rehabilitation.

Under the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, Lagos transportation became faster, safer, predictable, relatively cheaper and more comfortable, reported Vanguard. The BRT itself created jobs for 2,500 people. Most of Lagos notoriously old and dangerous commercial buses, called Molues, were replaced by swanky new ones that use designated bus lanes. With support of private operators, the government procured about 1,300 taxicabs to run in the city.

In addition, an ambitious multibillion-dollar light rail project that began in 2010 is set to be completed by December of this year. The project consists of seven lines, which, on completion, will further ease Lagos city traffic.

The journey is not finished

Nowadays Fasholas efforts have won bipartisan praise, a phenomenon rarely seen in Nigeria. Nobel laureate and social critic Wole Soyinka says, Fashola diagnoses the problems and goes at it like a skilled mechanic.

There is no finish line in this journey, says Fashola, whose term expired in 2015 and who now oversees Nigerias federal ministries of energy, works and housing. Both he and his predecessor Tinubu set a high bar. The jury is still out on the current governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who took the reins in May 2015. But for Lagos, the city of the late Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti and the city from which Africas richest person, Aliko Dangote, manages his business empire, the mantra continues to be Eko o ni baje indeed.

Article published courtesy of Africa Renewal.
NEWSWATCH: Political messages have dominated outdoor advertising this year, with the #ZumaMustFall banner in Cape Town intriguing all due to its anonymous origins. Now the city in question is PE with former FIFA man - now mayor of the city - in the spotlight, but this time we know it's the DA behind the messaging.

Political power plays are making headlines again, with outdoor ad news dominated by one thing this weekend: The ANC-run Nelson Mandela Bay municipality ordered a DA billboard to be removed, reports IOL.

EWN confirms that nobody claimed responsibility for the billboard at first and that it contravenes municipal by-laws.

Now, the Democratic Alliance website explains that Jordaan had not complied with the partys Letter of Demand to unban its billboard that states: Danny Jordaan, proudly brought to you by Jacob Zuma, by 5pm on Friday.

As a result, the party reports it will file an urgent interdict in the Eastern Cape High Court.

According to TimesLive, mayor Danny Jordaan says hes done enough for the ANC to win PE, expecting to earn about 55% of the municipalitys votes  this despite having dropped under the 50% mark in the provincial ballot in 2014.

And with the possible exception of a billboard that the mayor ordered removed the African National Congress on Thursday celebrated that major roads freeways and arteries in and around the city are emblazoned with the ANCs mobilisation campaign posters, adds BusinessDayLive.

Interesting times as the political debate catches fire in the run-up to Augusts elections Follow the social commentary with the #JordaanBillboard hashtag.
With a growing presence in Africa, global trend forecaster, WGSN, has opened its Africa head office in Cape Town, and will host a series of trend seminars across Africa later this year.

WGSN, which was founded 18 years ago, has 14 offices globally and has already been operational in Africa for the past 10 years with over 70 clients, including leading retailers and suppliers in South Africa.

African clients can look forward to expert advice when head of fashion at WGSN, Catriona Macnab, makes a weeklong roadshow in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg for an inside look at seasonal trends.

Macnab, an esteemed creative forecaster based in London, has been part of the WGSN team for 12 years and together with her team provide fashion and design companies with exclusive trend advice regarding colour, fabric and style.

The global trend authority provides fashion and lifestyle forecasting, data analytics and expert consultation to their broad client database all across the globe. WGSN is relied upon by more than 6,000 clients, including 95% of Fortune 500 apparel companies, as well as some of the worlds most creative and innovative businesses, from multinational brands to independent designers.

WGSN regional director for Africa, Hannari Slabbert said, Africa, with its unique people and creative minds, is an emerging market and the logical next step for WGSN to expand our services. Fashion and creative minds from the continent are already creating a buzz in the industry with designers and brands featured all over the world.

In May 2015, it was reported that sub-Saharan Africas apparel and footwear market was worth $31 billion, making WGSNs entry into the continent a logical one as it increases its foothold in a growing market. With WGSNs official launch into Africa, fashion houses, retailers and buyers will be able to stay on trend in a rapidly changing industry.

Jose Papa, CEO of WGSN added that Africa was a hub of creativity and full of growth. The investment in our first office in Africa signals our belief, as the worlds leading trend forecaster, that Africa will play a bigger part in the future globally. The fact that large international fashion retailers are also extending their presence in the continent, makes this the ideal time for us. Were hugely excited to see the African market grow and to be a part of that.

WGSNs experts provide deep insight and analysis of consumer, fashion and designer trends, to ultimately assist clients with their planning. The trend authority will offer their full range of services to those operating in the fashion and creative space in Africa. These cover online trend services for fashion, lifestyle and interiors; retail data analytics; crowd-sourcing design validation; and expert consulting.

WGSN is owned by Ascential, a leading international media company that informs and connects business professionals in 150 countries through market-leading exhibitions and festivals, and information services.
Today is the 2nd annual Muslim Advocacy Day in Washington D.C. where members of the Muslim community from across the country meet with lawmakers and promote "a legislative agenda in support of equality and social justice issues that will be of benefit to all Americans, regardless of faith or background."

Diabolical, right?

While some lawmakers chose to meet with their Muslim constituents today, Ted Cruz did not. Actually, one of Ted Cruz's top advisers wrote today that the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO) is actually a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood which seeks "Islamic supremacism."

In a contributors op-ed published on The Hills website, Frank Gaffney warned that organizations associated with Islamic supremacism are seeking to dominate an advocacy day on Monday on Capitol Hill. [L]egislators should have nothing to do with either its participants or its programs, wrote Gaffney, the president of the Center for Security Policy.

In a poor attempt to substantiate his claim that the USCMO is in cahoots with the Muslim Brotherhood, Gaffney cited an arcane document from 1991(!) that alleges some form of cooperation with Muslim advocacy groups in the United States who are merely "Muslim Brotherhood fronts." Gaffney believes the document is genuine because federal prosecutors used it in court during the Bush administration.

Gaffney is one of Ted Cruz's top national security advisers. He's also a birther, among other things.

Republicans think Ted Cruz is a better option than Donald Trump. That may be the real joke here.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) spoke to local ABC affiliate WHAS11 in Louisville, Kentucky where he apparently said he's confidant that a nominee will not be chosen on the first ballot at the GOP convention in Cleveland.

Just because Donald Trump does not win on the first ballot doesn't necessarily mean he couldn't win on the second or even third ballot, but if we're being real that is clearly not what McConnell is intimating.

It is important for everyone to understand that the convention rules will require you to get 1,237 delegate votes and until one gets to 1,237 they will not be the nominee, McConnell said. He did not name the candidate but said one appears to be suggesting that its somehow tricky to simply follow the rules of the convention.

It may not technically be "tricky" to nominate someone else if the frontrunner doesn't reach the magic number of delegates, but the party would still be in the position of nominating someone who received significantly less votes and delegates than the frontrunner. They could theoretically nominate someone who has received no votes and no delegates.

There's no doubt in my mind Trump will burn the party to the ground if they deny him the nomination especially if he sweeps the next couple primaries beginning with New York tomorrow. His ego won't allow for anything else and the people who've voted for him would be justifiably angry.

Democratic voters would also be angry if their frontrunner who has received significantly more votes and delegates than the next closest rival was denied the nomination.

Trump voters may be supporting him for terrible reasons, but that is their right and a majority of Republicans have voted for Trump.

Handing the GOP nomination to someone else could be really bad for the entire country, not just the GOP. What little confidence there is in public institutions could crumble and that has ramifications for everyone.
A number of local Republican parties in Texas at the district and county level have passed resolutions calling for secession from the Unites States which means the issue could be discussed at the state party convention.

The party will descend on Dallas next month where the secessionist movement will be at least briefly considered.

A Nederland-based pro-independence activist group, the Texas Nationalist Movement, said at least 22 of the hundreds of conventions passed secession items. Texas GOP chairman Tom Mechler said he "would be very surprised" if that many had indeed passed the conventions. The Houston Chronicle reached out to GOP officials in the counties listed by the Nationalist Movement. Ten responded and all confirmed passage of the resolutions.

A committee at the state party convention will debate if there even should be a debate on secession. If they allow it, secession will be discussed on the floor of the convention on the weekend of May 12th.

This isn't exactly a surprise. Republicans in Texas have long flirted with the idea of secession and their governor Gregg Abbott unveiled a policy platform earlier this year that I would describe as a blueprint for secession or, at the very least, nullification.

Party leaders may not want to discuss it at their convention but they've encouraged this movement. It wasn't very long ago that we were all talking about Operation Jade Helm and the U.S. military's secret plot to usurp control of Texas by tunneling under local Wal-Marts. Even the governor pandered to that batshittery.
Accommodation is fitted with air conditioning, a fully equipped kitchen with a dining area, a flat-screen TV and a private bathroom with bath or shower, a hairdryer and free toiletries. A dishwasher, a microwave and fridge are also featured, as well as a kettle and a coffee machine. Sonder Denver is the perfect 'home' from home. The cozy studio apartment was full stocked with everything you'd need for a short stay. The location was a short driving distance from downtown, but there were several bars, coffee shops and restaurants within walking distance too. We particularly loved the snow globe pods at Family Jones for gin martinis. The room was clean and we had no problems with noise. Parking wasn't a problem for our two cars. One on-site and one on the road. Both free. We would definitely stay again should the need arise.

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1 It starts with a booking It starts with a booking The only way to leave a review is to first make a booking. That's how we know our reviews come from real guests who have stayed at the property.

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From  16 per night

8.8 Fabulous 303 reviews

I stayed here for 2 days and I came back to stay 1 more day after Jiuzhaigou tour. This hostel is so amazing to me. Firstly, staff are so friendly and helpful. They can speak English very well and always help you with their best. Secondly, the facilities are not like a hostel, it should be a hotel quality. I was so surprise about that. Thirdly, they have many activities everynight and many kinds of tour which are very reasonable. If I come back Chengdu, 100% I will come back here.
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Hotel Insula, Autentic Boutikue and Hotel On Plonge Junior have received great reviews from travellers in Black Sea Romania regarding the views from their hotel rooms.

Guests staying in Black Sea Romania also spoke highly of the views from the rooms at Hotel Agapi Mamaia, Hotel Dacia Sud and CoolKush Boutique.
ECO Boutique Hotel AMS Beagle, Villa Pomona and Hotel Triglav have received great reviews from travellers in Bled Region regarding the views from their hotel rooms.

Guests staying in Bled Region also spoke highly of the views from the rooms at Adora Luxury Hotel, Sport Hotel Manca and Nature Hotel Lukanc.
G4S Botswana, the countrys biggest security services company has posted improved profit for the past year despite challenging trading space. At the end of December 2015, Profit After Tax (PAT) of the sole listed security sat at P29, 5 million, up marginally when compared to P28, 8 million recorded the year before.

Like most security companies in the mining-rich economy, the BSE-quoted company faces stiff competition from mushrooming players especially in the manned security space, default or late payments by some clients and reduction in business due to muted economic growth. Led by Michael Kampani, the company has been involved in a turnaround strategy that is now bearing fruits, if the balance sheet is a measure to go with. Revenue growth of 3,8 percent was achieved despite a challenging economic environment, said a joint statement by long time Chairman, Lebang Mpotokwane and Kampani.

During the period under review, the Gaborone-based company reported that there was notable growth cash solutions, manned security and facilities management. The G4S Facilities Management is a unit, which was bought from Shield Security some few years ago. The directors of the security company said that there was decline in business within the electronic system unit. G4S, which listed in the domestic bourse in 1991,was forced to right size the number of alarm monitoring subscriber base for credit reasons.





Earnings Before Taxation (EBT) expanded by 8,8 percent year on year as a result of new business and existing clients. The directors are content that their turnaround strategy is working and they are expecting better profits in future. Having attained the key objective of consolidating and sustaining the gains made in the turnaround in the previous year, focus will continue towards implementation of productivity and other cost efficiency programs, said Mpotokwane and Kampani. Though the market remains challenging, there are good prospects across all products

On top of the agenda will include improved customers service and a roll out of new products. When Kampani appear before the media this morning (Friday), it will be interesting to know how G4Ss Deposit machine has performed in the period under review. At the stock market, punters did not immediately react to the companys modest results, as its share price closed the day flat at 363 thebe. Shareholders are smiling that a final dividend of 10,88 thebe has been declared.
A Kanye woman has written to president Ian Khama complaining about ill-treatment and abuse at the hands of SBRANA psychiatric hospital staff in 2013.

Freelance journalist Ponalo Thobega 35, says she was admitted at the Lobatse mental hospital, following a depressive illness from her childhood challenges. Narrating the incident to BG News, Thobega says she was not disabled when she got admitted at the hospital. Upon arrival at the hospital, she was given Benzhexol tablets, which are usually prescribed for Schizophrenic patients.

I refused to take them because I knew I wasnt a psychiatric patient, she says. She was then locked up with another patient who attempted to commit suicide in front of her. When I told the nurses about it, they ignored me thinking I was a mental case, she adds. The patient has since killed herself. Thobega was taken to another room where her room-mate took all her food for the whole week, starving her.





They locked us inside there and would slide the food under the door, she states. She would then find a way out of the room and jumped over the hospital wall with the plan to go back home. Unfortunately, some residents of Lobatse saw her and identified her by hospital clothes and forcibly delivered her to hospital security.



Skimberly style

Upon arrival, the nurses told me they were going to fix me. There were seven women and one of them just shouted Skimberly! They tied my hands to the back, kept my legs crossed and stiffened, and lifted my knees to my waist area for a full hour, whilst taking turns to assault me, she says, fighting back tears.

Her father John Thobega, who is also an amputee, says he managed to convince the hospital staff to discharge his daughter so that he could take her for medical examination. Her medical record from Princess Marina hospital shows that she suffered painful limbs both upper and lower, joints pain and pain in the abdomen.

The mother of one says she was treated like an outcast at SBRANA. I cannot walk anymore, she says, pointing at the psychiatric hospital staff for ruining her life as an independent, single mother. Meanwhile, a preliminary psychiatric report from Princess Marina hospital says her mental condition was within normal range. The exam was conducted in February this year.

It has not been possible to get collaborative history, save for a single admission in the distant past to SBRANA hospital for a depressive illness. She stopped taking anti-depressants a long time. She had no depression or any discernible mental illness at the time of assessment, states then acting Superintendent Ishmael Makone.



Official response

SBRANA hospital Superintendent Dr. Mpho Thula said the hospital does not discuss patients with the media, unless the patient has consented through written proof. He however, said that the hospital retains two types of patients being voluntary and involuntary patients. The former, he said, are those that come willingly and mostly for counselling over depression.

Involuntary patients are the ones committed by legal instruments such as mental disorder acts. The latter are usually brought in by the police because they refuse to be detained. We dont beat patients. We usually resort to injecting them. Once they recover sanity, they will then agree to take oral treatment, he says.

On Skimberly, Dr. Thula said it is an informal name used for the physical restraining of patients, who are violent to themselves and to people around them. We do so on rare occasions if the patient is violent. The purpose is to hold the patient so that an injection can be ministered to him or her, but we dont beat patients, he said.
The inherent contradictions in Pelonomi Venson-Moitois campaign to succeed Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as Chairperson of the African Union Commission dictates that I also do the unconventional and start with the conclusion.

From where I stand and with all variables considered, including consulting occult forces, it is safe to conclude that it would take a miracle for Venson-Moitoi to win Chairperson of the AU Commission. But having said that, I have been thoroughly cautioned that we live in an age of miracles, where it is possible for Prophet Mboro to easily walk into Heaven and take selfies with God and come back to sell them for exorbitant prices. Magic happens.

Thus, it would take Venson-Moitoi a miracle of Prophet Mboros proportions to clinch that ever hotly-contested seat at the AU. Remember, it took South Africa an arm and a leg to ultimately get Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma win against Jean Ping. Nevertheless, I wish her luck, lots of luck for she will need it in abundance. But before you call for revocation of my citizenship on accusations of being unpatriotic, let us be brave enough and take the elephant in the room by the horns. As far as facts are concerned, the elephant standing between Venson-Moitoi and victory at the AU is Botswanas foreign policy posture and execution thereof. That is the nemesis. In all fairness, there is little or no credible counter-argument to the thesis that she is now a prisoner of their own design. This puts irreparable damage to Venson-Moitois campaign and leaves it riddled with contradictions of hypocritical proportions.





Taking into consideration Botswanas engagement or lack thereof with the AU at strategic level, it is hypocritical she now wants to run the secretariat. This is arrogance in any other word and leaves Venson-Motois campaign looking like a self-defeating endeavour, at least for Sudans Omar Al Bashir. Despite calls for Botswana to align her foreign policy posture to present realities reaching high decibels, it is all falling into deaf ears.

The Khama regime remains unmoved and unbothered. The unfolding geo-strategic environment of multiple centres of power has no imperative effect on him to align foreign policy with national interests. Hence there has been demonstrable lack of correlation between Botswanas foreign policy statements and national benefit. This is precisely because Botswanas foreign policy posture, like all other instruments of national power, has become irredeemable victim of cult of the personality. Our foreign policy has become fluid and directed by individual perceptions - real or imagined. This phenomenon may go a long way to explain our continued lacklustre engagement and participation in the international arena. If there is no interest at strategic level to engage and interact with the international community, there is no way we can have active engagement at operational and tactical level even if there is will to do things differently.

Frankly speaking, president Khama has no interest whatsoever in the African Union or any other international multilateral forums that can help Botswana project her tiny voice on various issues. Instead of interacting with his counterparts and cross-pollinate ideas and best practices, president Khama would rather go dance polka or ride quad-bikes. However, unashamedly, he would be the first to voice criticism against decisions taken at such forums while he deliberately missed an opportunity to have voiced his differing opinion. This policy of disengagement has become the new normal and overarching. It is the same attitude we display towards the UN, Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), US-Africa Leaders Summit and other multilateral forums where critical policy decisions are taken.

It is our continued roof-top diplomacy that now puts Venson-Moitois campaign between a rock and a hard place. Talking about inherent contradictions in Venson-Moitois campaign, it is important to know how she is going to navigate through and balance her countrys position with that of the AU on the sensitive matter of International Criminal Court (ICC). Botswanas position on this matter is well known and steadfast, while on the other hand Venson-Moitoi will have to defend AUs position on President Omar Al Bashir and other African heads of states indicted by the same court.

How she intends to do it remains a mystery, but certainly she will have to defy either of the two but it cannot be the AU. In fact, if she wins, she will at one point have to directly engage with president Omar Al Bashir and where possible defend him. As of now, Venson-Moitois glimmer of hope lies in that the Francophone vote will split to her advantage, but until that happens, she is certainly on a self-defeating endeavour.
Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) leader, Duma Boko, has attacked the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) led government of President Ian Khama accusing it of breeding future suicide bombers and extremists.

He was addressing a rally in Francistown recently. Boko complained that Khamas hallucinations of seeing every youth as a herdsman and Ipelegeng worker does not go down well with most of the youth who know the truth about the type of leadership this country has. Boko added that suicide bombers and extremists are people who are usually tired of a government which does not care about the wellbeing and rights of its citizens and in the process lose hope and resort to terrorism as the only answer to their woes. He added that the current government should take care of the youth and regard them as the future torchbearers of this country.

The founder of the Botswana National Front Dr Kenneth Koma once said that if children are not given proper education, they normally turn out to be problem children. Problem children are involved in worst case scenarios. The current education system is in shambles and thousands of youths are roaming the streets due to joblessness experienced by Botswana. I beg to differ with Ndaba Gaolathe who said that Botswana is a nation forgotten by its leaders. The leadership of this country is rude as it opts to deliberately forget what matters most to the lives of Batswana, Boko said.





He attributed governments indifference to lack of education amongst leaders of the ruling BDP starting with the first citizen whose educational background he said, is shrouded in mystery as to where and with whom he attended school. Boko said that if Botswana had an educational yard stick to select leadership like in countries like Zambia, most of the current leaders of BDP would not have qualified since most of them lack education. Botswana Congress Party stalwart Kentse Rammidi did not hide his displeasure at the way the government is misusing funds through ridiculous initiatives.

He told crowds at the launch of UDC council candidate for Phillip Matante East by-election Uyapo Nyeku that BDP is squandering money like the exposed past FIFA executive. Kwa ga domkrag madi a jiwa jaaka ko FIFA mme mmang le mmang wa bone yo o a jeleng was go a busa (At BDP there is rampant monetary corruption scandals comparable to the past FIFA office bearers most of whom found themselves behind bars and facing the legal music), Rammidi said. Former Member of Parliament Vain Mamela lashed out that the rot at Botswana Railways where the newly introduced BR Express experienced mechanical hiccups during its maiden trip to Francistown, was indicative of the rot consuming the whole country.

Mamela dismissed Minister Tshenolo Mabeo as an actor who is only good at drama. Mabeo is famous for acting in prominent local dramas including Thokolosi in which he became an instant hit. As for the new train, he has taken drama to the extreme by compromising a service which is dear to the hearts of most citizens. P280 million was used to purchase the new train and this is not a joke but they allegedly went on to buy a second hand train which is a clear sign that the Khama led government is taking Batswana for granted, Mamela said.

He added that everything has collapsed in the country except for Ipelegeng and Chibuku. He accused BDP members for being cowards as they let Khama do as he pleases without any one of them lifting a finger to condemn the poor initiatives which include a lot of Ds. A D is not an appropriate letter as it signifies disaster.


A file photo.

NEW DELHI (PTI): The negotiations over the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets have entered the "final stages" as both India and France have managed to narrow down their differences over the pricing.



Government sources said that the deal has not been concluded yet but it is in "final stages".



The development came nearly four months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande signed a memorandum of agreement (MoU) to purchase 36 Rafale combat jets.



The Indian side has been negotiating hard to bring down the price of the Rafale deal.



Sources said the price for 36 Rafales, as per the UPA tender, keeping the cost escalation and dollar rate in mind, comes to a little over Rs 65,000 crore. This includes the cost involved in making changes India has sought in the aircraft, including Israeli helmet mounted display and some specific weaponry, among others.



"The effort is to bring down the price to less than Euros 8 billion (Rs 59,000 crore)," the sources said.



Sources said the French have more or less agreed to Indian terms.



The expectation is that the final deal will be clinched by May-end.



The deal comes with the clause of delivering 50 per cent offsets, creating business worth at least 3 billion Euros for smaller Indian companies and creating thousands of new jobs in India through the offsets.



In fact, the toughest phase in the negotiations that began in July 2015 - three months after Modi announced in Paris India's plan to purchase 36 Rafale jets - was to get the French to agree to 50 per cent offsets in the deal.



Initially, Dassault Aviation was willing to agree to reinvest only 30 per cent of the value of its contract in Indian entities to meet the offset obligations.



The French side finally agreed to invest 50 per cent of the value following a phone conversation between Modi and Hollande late last year.



The commercial negotiations, as in the pricing of the planes, equipment and other issues, actually began only in mid-January this year.



Under the proposed deal, French companies apart from Dassault Aviation, will provide several aeronautics, electronics and micro-electronics technologies to comply with the offset obligation.



Companies like Safran and Thales will join Dassault in providing state-of-art technologies in stealth, radar, thrust vectoring for missiles and materials for electronics and micro-electronics.




A file photo.

NEW DELHI (PTI): A high-level team from France is expected to arrive here next month to firm up the order for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft by India as both countries have managed to narrow down their differences over pricing.



The development comes nearly four months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande signed a memorandum of agreement to purchase 36 Rafale combat jets.



The Indian side has been negotiating hard to bring down the price with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar refusing to buckle under pressure even as questions were being raised about the delay in signing the contract.



The deal comes with the clause of 50 per cent offsets, which will be a bonanza for the domestic industry as it will lead to business worth at least 3 billion Euros and creating new jobs in India.



The tough part of the negotiations that began in July 2015 was to get the French side to agree to 50 per cent offsets in the deal.



Initially, Dassault Aviation, makers of Rafale, was willing to agree to reinvest only 30 per cent of the value of its contract in Indian entities to meet the offset obligations.



The French side finally agreed to invest 50 per cent of the value following a phone conversation between Modi and Hollande late last year.



The commercial negotiations, as in the pricing of the planes, equipment and other issues, actually began only in mid-January this year.



"It is correct to say that differences over pricing as more or less being settled. A final deal should take place next month if all matters go as scheduled," a defence source said.



Government sources said the deal has not been concluded yet but it is in "final stages".



The sources said the price for 36 Rafales, as per the UPA tender, keeping the cost escalation and dollar rate in mind, comes to a little over Rs 65,000 crore.



This includes the cost involved in making changes India has sought in the aircraft, including Israeli helmet mounted display and some specific weaponry, among others.



"The effort is to bring down the price to less than Euros 8 billion (Rs 59,000 crore)," the sources said.



The expectation is that the final deal will be clinched by May-end.



Under the proposed deal, French companies apart from Dassault Aviation, will provide several aeronautics, electronics and micro-electronics technologies to comply with the offset obligation.



Companies like Safran and Thales will join Dassault in providing state-of-art technologies in stealth, radar, thrust vectoring for missiles and materials for electronics and micro-electronics.


Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 11/04/2016 (2386 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bail has been granted for a Waywayseecappo First Nation woman accused of killing her two-year-old son.

Crown attorney Ron Toews agreed to the womans release in Brandon Court of Queens Bench on Monday.

The 36-year-old woman is charged with second-degree murder. Her name cant be printed due to a publication ban.

File Brandon court house

She has been released to live at Waywayseecappo on conditions that include a 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew.

No evidence was shared during Mondays hearing.

The Crown has previously said it was a Dakota Ojibway Police Service officer who contacted emergency personnel after visiting the Waywayseecappo home where the accused and her children lived.

The toddler died in hospital later that day, on Jan. 31, 2015, at which point the RCMP were called in to assist with the investigation.

Residents said that the mother claimed that the death was the result of an accident.

The laying of a second-degree murder charge suggests that the Crown and police believe thats not the case.

The accused was arrested on April 5, more than 14 months after the childs death.

Toews has said the charge took so long to lay because it took some time to assess medical evidence.

The womans case has been put to Waywayseecappo provincial court on May 11.
Prices at the pumps could stay lower for longer after major oil producing nations failed to reach a deal to cut output, experts have said.

The oil price has tumbled nearly 5% to US$41 a barrel following the summit in Qatar at the weekend, which saw talks break down after Iran continued to step up output despite Saudi Arabia agreeing to cut production.

It means consumers can enjoy cheaper petrol in the short term, as falling oil prices keep a lid on the cost of filling up at the pumps, according to analysts.

The oil price has fallen close to 70% since its peak in the summer of 2014.

The fact that a majority of members of oil producers' group Opec had failed to reach a deal to curb the oil production glut was positive for motorists.

Simon Williams, fuel spokesman for the RAC in Britain, said: "Motorists should be relieved that the Doha oil producer talks broke down without a production freeze agreement as this means fuel prices at the pumps should not rise too much further.

"Even if a production freeze of some sort had been agreed, we would have been very surprised if it had meant the price of oil going back above US$60 a barrel."

Mark Billige, managing partner of pricing specialists Simon-Kucher & Partners, said the fallout of the Doha meeting should keep oil prices and petrol prices lower.

He said utility bills and air fares will also be impacted in the longer term because many companies have hedged their fuel costs for a year in advance.

He said the savings made by airlines, such as Ryanair, would be likely to be passed down to consumers through lower air fares.
The chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland has warned they may have to close beds, because they cannot recruit registered nurses.

At present, 2,200 nurses are awaiting registration by the Irish nursing board.
A Dublin man has been jailed for five years for obstructing a murder investigation.

Christopher Jacksons body was wrapped in bin bags and hidden inside a wardrobe at an apartment on Prussia Street in Dublin in September 2012.

Bernard Locke, of Ramillies Road, Ballyfermot admitted stabbing him over 70 times and is currently serving a life sentence.

Last November, his brother Anthony, of the same address, was found guilty of cleaning the crime scene and helping to hide the body.

Today, the 42-year-old was handed an eight-year sentence with the final three years suspended.
Update 7.13pm: TD John Halligan has admitted there are differences within the Independent Alliance group about whether to join a Government that includes the Labour Party.

John Halligan says he has no personal problem with it, but others in the group are not keen to serve in a Government alongside both outgoing Coalition parties.

Labour is considering Fine Gael's approach to join its new Government, which would require the approval of a special conference.

John Halligan admitted that the Independent Alliance is divided on the issue.

There are mixed views on it, in the sense that wed be telling Fine Gael who to speak to, he said.

I mean, their entitled to speak to who they want to speak to and theyre already speaking to other independents.

So my view would be  it wouldnt matter to me whos in Government, or who they want to speak to, its their prerogative to do that, if they want to.

Update 4.55pm: President Michael D Higgins said today that he is "very, very well aware" Article 13.7 of the constitution which could see him making an address to the Oireachtas or the nation.

President Higgins, who celebrates his 75th birthday today, was giving a lecture about paralysis in the EU, just yards from Dail Eireann on Dawson Street.

Im fully aware and watching what will flow, he said.

My hope is that whatever happens will be to the benefit of the Irish people. You will appreciate I cant comment further at this time, it would be improper.

Fine Gael has told Independents it is making good progress in talks with Fianna Fail and believes a Taoiseach can be elected this week.

However it is understood that Fine Gael is now playing down the re-entering of Labour into Government, as many in Labour are uncertain the move would get passed by a party conference.

Earlier: A leading Labour TD has stated his strong opposition to the party re-entering Government with Fine Gael, writes Daniel McConnell, Irish Examiner Political Editor.

Cork East TD and acting junior minister Sean Sherlock said his party has no mandate from the people to go back into Government.

Speaking on Cork 103 FM, he was asked about his previous comments about Labour staying out of power being the best course for the party.

That remains my position, we did not receive a mandate to go into Government. To the question are we in discussions, the answer is no, he said.

He confirmed that Fine Gael has been wooing Labour in a bid to securing a deal.

Has there been overtures from Fine Gael to individual members at the highest levels, the answer to that is absolutely yes there has. Does Fine Gael want us as part of a minority Government, the answer to that is yes, he added.

Mr Sherlock said he is due to meet his own party supporters tonight but he is aware of the strong opposition to re-entering power.

I have a meeting of members of my own constituency organisation and I am clear that the position is there is a very clear of the Labour that we should not go back to Government, he said.

He said he also doubts the motives of Fianna Fail in the context of them supporting a minority Government.

Fianna Fail are now saying they will support a minority Government, Mr Sherlock said.

They are a long way of a majority of 79, but you could facilitate a minority Government but past experience would show that at the first sign of trouble Fianna Fail would pull the plug.

People do not want an election, there is an electoral game is going on but that is not sustainable.

There is a school of thought within Labour that to remain relevant you have to remain part of a new Government. I don't subscribe to that school of thought.

Physiologically when I won my seat it was with a view to going into opposition. We didn't receive a mandate into Government.

Well there is an element of that [ie being lost in opposition] but you have to go into power with a mandate, he added.

Speaking about what happens if Labour were to go into power, Mr Sherlock confirmed that there would be no need to change leader.

But he said his strong view is that she should resign and that there is a mood for change.

If we transition into Government there is no need to change leader, but if we go into Opposition a leadership race must happen, he said.

I am giving Joan some latitude, she said she would consider her position once a government is formed.

I am happy to allow her that time, but i do believe there will have to be a leadership contest.

I am not sure if going into government is in the best interests of the party, supporters are not in the mood for going into power.
A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of Noel Duggan in Co Meath last month.

The 57-year-old was shot dead in his car outside his house in the Old Mill estate in Ratoath on March 23.
President Michael D Higgins has challenged Europe's response to the refugee crisis, asking if it will be defined by barbed wire, tear gas and rubber bullets.

In a speech on the future of the EU, Mr Higgins said some member states took a ruinously and narrowly self-interested response to the crisis of more than one million fleeing war and persecution.

The President asked why a continent of 500 million people felt so threatened by those in need.

Michael D Higgins @PresidentIRL is spending his 75th birthday musing on the future of Europe #IACESlecture pic.twitter.com/a1GXWXgYuf  Kevin Doyle (@KevDoyle_Indo) April 18, 2016

Mr Higgins told the Irish Association of Contemporary European Studies in Dublin that Greece, Italy and Malta have been left to rely largely on their own, limited, resources after an EU quota system for migrants was rejected.

He said the crisis illustrates the need for solidarity among European countries and social cohesion in each state.

"European media have tended to conflate the image of Europe with that of the small Greek island of Lesbos; they have presented to us a vision of Europe as a frail isolated rock overwhelmed by a tsunami of uprooted people," President Higgins said.

"When one considers the prosperity and the rich diversity of so much of Europe, where so many people from all regions of the globe have settled peacefully and successfully over so many decades, confidence, not apprehension, should guide our response to the arrival of new migrants."

The President called on people to breathe new life into the EU vision.

He said: "Can we leave millions of mothers and fathers, teenagers, children and babies, to wait in uncertainty, hopeless poverty and squalor at the border of Europe?

"Can we avert our gaze from the even larger numbers of those who are trapped in precarious camps in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan? Is our response to be defined by barbed wire, tear gas and rubber bullets?"

Mr Higgins outlined other areas of difficulty facing the EU, which he said were daunting.

He highlighted enduring economic and financial difficulties and youth unemployment, the terror threat in the wake of the Paris and Brussels attacks, xenophobic populism and "political strategies that put at risk genuine democratic pluralism in several member states".

"The combined effects of such difficulties are deeply corrosive of our citizens' confidence in both their national and European institutions. Alarmingly, those various crises only fuel and amplify one another," he said.

The President said European leaders are trying harder to curb the numbers of refugees "at all costs".

He said they are doing this out of fear exacerbated by the threat of terrorism and to reassure public opinion which tends to view a "security crisis" and "refugee crisis" through the same lens.

Mr Higgins said the response poses serious risks for the rule of law and the principle of human dignity as cornerstones of the European project.

He said the controversial Turkey-EU deal to curb the smuggling of migrants and refugees to Europe was an important step.

But he added: "I strongly believe that we should be wary of bending European and international human rights legislation to breaking point."

President Higgins asked if a politically convenient response today could jeopardise the European Union in the future.

He said the EU has a duty under the Geneva Convention to help refugees.

"To give protection, food and shelter to those who are fleeing war, oppression or starvation is a matter of fundamental, universal human solidarity. It is also a matter of legal responsibility," he said.

"There can be no cap on this fundamental responsibility, no limit set on the number of those eligible to request asylum."

Mr Higgins said Europe was in a time of deep uncertainty where the vision of a common union appears to be becoming more faint and distant.

On economics, the President warned that democracy becomes fragile when fiscal rules come before political debate.

"The weaknesses in our economic thinking and the difficulties in challenging these weaknesses are not unrelated, then, to our present political predicament," the President said.

He added: "National governments and European institutions alike are perceived by many citizens, not as protecting and mitigating agents, but, increasingly, as levers in the hands of ever more mobile and speculative, and less productive and less accountable, international financial markets - markets which seek to impose the insatiable requirements of their profit expectations onto populations."
Ryanair flights from Dublin to Brussels' Zavantem Airport will not resume until May, despite the airport reopening.

Most of the airline's flights to the main airport in Brussels have resumed following last month's terrorist attacks.
More than 400 migrants, mostly from Somalia, are reported to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on a boat trip from Libya to Italy.

The disaster came on the first anniversary of the

Read More:

The charity Oxfam Ireland has called on the acting minister for defence to re-deploy Irish Navy vessels to the Mediterranean.

Oxfam is calling on Irish and European governments to immediately ensure safe and legal passage for all those travelling to Europe.

Somalia's state radio quoted the Somali Embassy in Egypt in reporting the incident.

In a joint statement from the president, prime minister and speaker of parliament in Somalia, they said 400 migrants had drowned in the capsizing.

But later the Somali information minister said there was confusion over the number of casualties, which could be 200.

"It's a painful tragedy which reminds us all how important it is for us to discourage our youth from embarking on such high risk journeys," the statement said.

A Somali news website, Goobjoog News, carried an interview with Awale Warsame, who said survived the incident.

"There were 500 passengers, mostly Somalis on the boat, but only 23 people survived," he said.

"Survivors, including me, had to use broken wood pieces from the capsized boat to float over waters before we were rescued.

"We had travelled from Egypt, especially Alexandria, on April 7th and the boat capsized on April 12 but we were rescued by a Filipino ship off a Greek island five days later."

Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said his office had no information and officials are checking the reports.

The Greek coast guard said it had no report of a boat sinking in the area.
A jealous husband who decapitated his wife of 30 years and flushed her severed head down the toilet in an act of "grotesque savagery" will die behind bars in England.

Dempsey Nibbs, 69, became enraged after vivacious and caring Meals On Wheels worker Judith Nibbs, 60, taunted him as their relationship fell apart by saying she had been seeing other men.

The cancer sufferer claimed he had acted in self defence, but a jury found Nibbs guilty of murder following an Old Bailey trial.

His lawyer Ian Henderson QC told the court that his client acknowledged that his ill health meant he would die in jail.

The Recorder of London Nicholas Hilliard QC jailed Nibbs for life with a minimum of 21 years.

He told him: "I'm sure you don't regret your wife's death save for its effect on your own comfort and well-being."

Judith Nibbs.

On the evening of April 10, 2014, Nibbs attacked the mother of his two children at their flat in Hoxton, east London.

He knocked her out with an iron bar before cutting her head off, smashing it up with a mallet and disposing of the pieces in the lavatory.

Afterwards, the crane driver wrote a note to his 30-year-old son Kirk and called 999 to say police would find two bodies at the property.

A police officer broke down the door when he saw Mrs Nibbs's headless body through the letterbox and bravely grappled a shotgun and knife from Nibbs as he attempted to stab himself in the bathroom.

Afterwards, Nibbs, who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, said he killed his wife because he thought she was a "snake" but jurors heard he had shown no signs of mental illness.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC had told the jury that the couple's relationship soured in the spring of 2014 as Nibbs suspected his wife of having affairs.

Their son said that since his mother no longer had to care for his younger sister, Nibbs felt she had changed and was not "the housewife" she used to be.

When Nibbs had asked him to go through his mother's computer, he found videos of her blowing kisses and saying "I love you" as well as sexually explicit pictures which he stored in a file entitled "Mum Slut".

Nibbs searched his wife's drawers and discovered bank transfer slips from their joint account to one in Morocco in the name of a close male friend and neighbour with whom she had gone on a road trip to Rabat in 2013.

An examination of her computer was to show that she went on to exchange sexually explicit messages on Skype with another man called Khalid in Morocco.

Mrs Nibbs had confided in her sister and a colleague at Meals On Wheels that her husband had threatened to kill her and grabbed her by the throat.

During a row on April 7, Mrs Nibbs, who was originally from Kirkham, near Preston, Lancashire, had sarcastically said she had sex "eight times" when quizzed about affairs.

The next day, she predicted her own killing as she left work, with the words: "If I'm not in Friday, I might be dead."

Nibbs, of the Charles Estate in Hoxton, told jurors he had not meant to kill his partner when he went to confront her over money taken from their bank account, which he took as "proof" of her infidelity.

He said he had only meant to "slap her around a bit" and it was only after she was dead that he cut her head off in anger because she "betrayed" him.

Judge Hilliard rejected Nibbs's claim he only initially "tapped" his wife on the head with a metal bar to get her attention, and noted the victim's tooth had been knocked out and swallowed with the root still attached during the attack.

Cutting her head off afterwards was an act of "grotesque savagery" in revenge for her perceived "treachery", the judge said. Leaving her breasts exposed was intended to "humiliate her even in death", he added.

Mrs Nibbs' sister Frances described the mother-of-five as a "very kind and caring person" in a statement on behalf of the family.

They were all "shocked and devastated" by her murder, she said: "Whatever problems there were in her relationship, Judith did not deserve to die in such a callous and brutal way."

Her son Kirk had been greatly affected by the trial and did not feel able to submit a victim impact statement, the court heard.
An Israeli military court has charged a soldier with manslaughter over the fatal shooting of a wounded Palestinian attacker in the West Bank, an incident caught on tape that has deeply divided the nation.

The soldier, a medic, Sergeant Elor Azaria, has also been charged with inappropriate military conduct.

The shooting took place last month in Hebron, a West Bank city that has been a focal point of a seven-month wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Initially the military had said two Palestinians stabbed and wounded a soldier before troops killed the pair.

A video released later by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem showed one of the attackers, still alive and lying on the ground, before a soldier calmly raised his rifle, cocked his weapon and fired at the assailant's head.

A post-mortem examination later determined the bullet to the head was the cause of death.

His lawyer, Ilan Katz, said Azaria acted as expected from a combat soldier and would seek a full acquittal. It was not immediately clear what sentence the soldier faces, if convicted. Such indictments in the military are very rare, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

The shooting has polarised Israeli society. The country's defence minister, its military chief and other top officials called it contrary to the army's values since the Palestinian attacker had been subdued and no longer posed a threat. That outcry in turn kicked up a torrent of support for the soldier, who claims he feared the attacker was carrying an explosive belt.

Right-wing politicians have rushed to the soldier's defence, with many Israelis calling his actions appropriate for a country reeling from months of Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, which have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. At least 188 Palestinians have died by Israeli fire in the same period, including 142 who Israel says were attacking or trying to attack Israelis.

A Tel Aviv rally in solidarity with the soldier is scheduled for Tuesday night, with top Israeli musicians due to perform. However, Eyal Golan, one of Israel's most recognisable artists, later dropped out of the event and said he had intended to "support this soldier and embrace his family" but reconsidered so that he did not appear to be coming out against the military chief.

Yohanan Plesner, head of the Israel Democracy Institute, said such a rally was an affront to the military, Israel's most hallowed institution.

"Our soldiers are faced daily with complex situations and in the majority of cases they succeed in responding in a way that is consistent with proper ethical norms," he said.

"Holding a support rally for a soldier that shot a neutralised terrorist harms the strength of the IDF because it erodes the very values on which the army stands."

The indictment against the soldier came just hours after the Israeli military said it had discovered and destroyed a tunnel burrowing from Gaza into Israel - the first tunnel to be discovered since Israel's 2014 war with the militant Islamic Hamas movement that rules the coastal strip.

Israeli troops detected the tunnel's exit, still underground, several days ago, according to military spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner, who added the tunnel is believed to have been built since the war's conclusion. It extended several hundred metre from Gaza into Israel and was lined with cement and fitted out with electricity, ventilation and rail tracks to cart away dirt from digging, Lt Col Lerner said.

In 2014, Israel destroyed more than 30 tunnels Hamas had dug under the border. More than 2,200 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them civilians, were killed in the 50-day summer war. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and seven civilians were killed.

Hamas has vowed to rebuild the tunnel network. This year, 14 people died in Gaza while digging tunnels aimed at attacking Israelis or hiding weapons and rocket launch sites. Israelis living near the Gaza Strip have reported hearing digging sounds under their homes in recent months.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has achieved a "global breakthrough in the ability to locate tunnels" and the government was investing considerable capital in countering the tunnel threat.

"This is an ongoing effort that will not end overnight," he said.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said the newly discovered and destroyed tunnel was "just a drop in the ocean of what the resistance has prepared to defend its people, free its sanctuaries and prisoners".

Spokesman Eyal Brandeis, of Kibbutz Sufa - just across the border from the southern Gaza Strip - told Israel Radio the tunnel's exit would have been near his community. In 2014, Palestinian gunmen attempted to attack Israel through another tunnel near the kibbutz.

"All the worries and fears residents here had ... are coming back," Mr Brandeis said.
The US military prepared to join relief efforts in disaster-stricken areas of southern Japan after two powerful earthquakes that killed at least 42 people.

Ten people remained missing, and rescuers were redoubling search efforts on the southern island of Kyushu, where many areas were cut off by landslides and road and bridge damage.

Forecasts for heavy rains, which would make land and collapsed buildings even more unstable, added to the urgency of the searches, and the authorities struggled to feed and care for tens of thousands of people who sought shelter.

Toyota said it would shut down most of its vehicle production in Japan over the course of this week because of parts shortages stemming from the earthquakes. Nissan also halted production at some facilities.

With 180,000 people seeking shelter, some evacuees said that food distribution was just two rice balls for dinner.

"We are doing our best," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told MPs when challenged by the opposition over the government's handling of the relief effort.

"We are striving to improve living conditions for the people who have sought refuge.

"Today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, we will be working toward a full recovery."

Gradually some roads were being reopened, and older men in security guard uniforms were helping to direct traffic in the drizzly weather.

US Forces, Japan, said troops were preparing to provide aerial support for the relief efforts. The US has major air force, navy and marine bases in Japan, and stations about 50,000 troops in the country.

Many whose homes were not seriously damaged sought shelter as the area was rocked by more than 500 aftershocks from two big quakes that struck late on Thursday night and in the early hours of Saturday.

"Without water and electricity, we can't do anything. Without the TV on, we can't even get information about disaster relief operations," said Megumi Kudo, 51, standing in a queue for water outside a community centre in Aso city.

"We can't take a bath, not even a shower."

He came with his wife and a 12-year-old daughter, carrying several empty gallon-size plastic containers to get water while his 80-year-old mother waited at home.

His house survived, despite major roof damage, but like many, the family was sleeping in their cars.

Japanese media said most of those missing were in Minamiaso, a mountain village near 5,223ft Mount Aso, the largest active volcano in Japan.

There, dozens of troops, police and other rescue workers were shovelling debris and searching through places where they may have been buried.

Earthquakes on successive nights struck Kumamoto city and the surrounding region late last week. Nine people died in the first earthquake, and 33 in the second. Kumamoto, a city of 740,000, is on Kyushu island.

About 80,000 homes in Kumamoto prefecture still did not have electricity on Sunday, the ministry of economy, trade and industry said. Japanese media reported earlier that an estimated 400,000 households were without running water.

The areas of Kyushu affected by the quake include technology hubs and other manufacturing, and the disruptions to transport and logistics were expected to ripple through the economy.
A British Airways flight was struck by what is believed to be a drone as it came in to land at Heathrow Airport, police said.

The pilot of flight BA727 from Geneva in Switzerland reported being hit as the Airbus A320 bound for Terminal Five approached the London hub on Sunday afternoon with 132 passengers and five crew on board.

It is the latest and most serious in a string of incidents involving drones at the airport, with several near misses between flights and un-manned aircraft reported in the last year.

And it raises the issue of regulation and control of drones, especially in sensitive areas like airports.

BA said aircraft was examined by engineers and cleared to take off for its next flight following the incident.

Steve Landells, flight safety specialist at the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), called for greater enforcement and awareness of rules that govern drone flights.

He said: "Frankly it was only a matter of time before we had a drone strike given the huge numbers being flown around by amateurs who don't understand the risks and the rules."

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) "drone code" says the unmanned craft should not be flown above 400 feet and kept away from planes, helicopters, airports and airfields. Those with cameras fitted should also be kept 50 metres from people, vehicles, buildings and other structures.

A report in March by the UK Airprox Board (UKAB) found there were 23 near misses between drones and aircraft in the six months between April and October last year, including two at Heathrow.

On September 22 a Boeing 777 that had just taken off reported a drone narrowly passed down its right hand side. Investigators concluded the drone was at the same height and within 25 metres of the jet. A report was made to police but the drone operator was not traced.

Days later, on September 30, a drone was flown within a similar distance of an Airbus A319 landing at Heathrow. The jet was flying at an altitude of 500 feet and was on the final approach to the west London airport when the drone was spotted.

The Government is also considering technology to restrict where civilian drones can fly amid growing concerns. Transport Minister Robert Goodwill said that ministers are looking at the possibility of introducing a drone registration scheme in the UK, similar to the ones already in place in Ireland and the US.

The Department for Transport has confirmed it is also talking to manufacturers about introducing so-called geo-fencing technology in their drones.

A CAA spokesman said it was "totally unacceptable" to fly drones close to airports and anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including imprisonment.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said a pilot on an inbound flight into Heathrow Airport from Geneva "reported to police that he believed a drone had struck the aircraft" at around 12.50pm.

On investigation it transpired an object, "believed to be a drone", had struck the front of the aircraft.

No-one has been arrested and aviation police based at Heathrow are investigating, she added.

A BA spokesman said: "Our aircraft landed safely, was fully examined by our engineers and it was cleared to operate its next flight."
The Australian ambassador and Philippine presidential candidates have condemned the leading contender's remark that the mayor "should have been the first" to rape an Australian missionary who was assaulted and killed by prisoners in 1989.

Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte was speaking about the killings of 36-year-old Australian Jacqueline Hamill and four other missionaries during a hostage situation at a prison in his city.

Soldiers stormed the prison after learning that a male hostage had been killed and female hostages were raped.

All 16 convicts and five of the 15 hostages died.

"What came to my mind was they raped her, they took turns raping her," Mr Duterte said at a campaign rally last Tuesday.

"Why did I get angry - because she was raped?

"Yes, that's part of the reason, but also because she was so beautiful and the mayor should have been first."

His supporters attending the rally laughed and cheered at the comments, making Mr Duterte smile, as seen in YouTube video.

But other politicians and social media users criticised the comments.

Australia's ambassador Amanda Gorely tweeted that "rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialised" and "violence against women and girls is unacceptable anytime, anywhere".

Senator Grace Poe, Mr Duterte's closest rival according to recent surveys, said Mr Duterte's comment "is distasteful and unacceptable, and reflects his disrespect for women".

"You are a crazy maniac who doesn't respect women and doesn't deserve to be president," said vice president Jejomar Binay, another contender in the May 9 presidential election.

Former interior secretary and administration presidential candidate Mar Roxas said "anyone who laughs at the ultimate assault on the dignity of women should not be allowed to wield power".

Mr Duterte has refused to apologise for his comment, saying the gutter language was uttered in anger over the killing of the hostages in 1989.

But he apologised to the Filipino people because the hostage situation had turned violent and gory.

"It was said in anger, I was not joking," he said. "I said, this one, she's beautiful, like an actress, son of a bitch they beat me to her. Kill them all."

Mr Duterte has been nicknamed Duterte Harry after the Clint Eastwood film character because of his scant regard for rules.

The mayor casually threatens to shoot criminals, hang them or drown them in Manila Bay.

He built a political name with his iron-fist approach to fighting crime in southern Davao city, where he has been mayor for 22 years.
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A federal police worker who alleged she was sexually harassed, bullied and intimidated by her Canberra-based colleagues has had a compensation win overturned after a successful appeal from the federal government's workplace insurer.

The unsworn Australian Federal Police employee, who worked with the crime-fighting agency for more than 20 years, first lodged a claim for psychiatric injury compensation in November 2013.

The unsworn Australian Federal Police employee said she had been sexually harassed and bullied between 2010 and 2013.

The claim appeared to focus on an acrimonious meeting that took place the month before, but also described a spate of incidents since 2010 said to involve harassment at the hands of colleagues.

In 2012, she said a male AFP agent sexually harassed her and made "derogatory, suggestive and sexually explicit and inappropriate comments" to her.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has shown courage and ambition by threatening a double dissolution election if the Senate fails to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission. But the debate over the ABCC should not be the substitute for advancing a positive industrial relations policy that promotes employment through the entire economy. On this front, the government is sorely lacking the same courage and ambition. The only task of this industrial relations system is to provide a security blanket for those already with a job. It provides no warmth to over 700,000 Australians currently out of work. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull: the ABCC debate should not distract from the need for a positive industrial relations policy. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The re-regulation of the labour market that occurred under the previous government saw unfair dismissal laws imposed on thousands of previously exempt small businesses. Now an employee that is fired for swearing at their boss, stealing, consistently showing up late for work, performing poorly, or physically assaulting their colleagues, can take their employer to the Fair Work Commission  and win. Even if the employee's claim is without merit the commission almost never awards costs. The laws protect those already with a job, but it makes it riskier  and more expensive  for employers to take on new employees. Simply put, unfair dismissal laws are unfair on those out of work. The best protection against unfair dismissal is full employment and a competitive labour market.

Another example is the re-regulation of wages levels throughout the economy. While there might be an argument about the desirability of a minimum wage for unskilled workers, there is absolutely no justification for the union-stacked Fair Work Commission setting a national minimum wage for professionals such as doctors, lawyers and pilots. It's puzzling as to why wages for a job in Hobart must be the same as that in Sydney  especially taking into account cost of living differences. Orders issued this month by the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (another wage-setting body) will force owner-drivers to charge inflated rates, rather than being allowed to compete on price against unionised employee-drivers. This price fixing would never be legal outside the labour market. Perhaps the government should impose an effects test of substantial lessening of competition to its own regulations. Add on top of this the minimum shift requirements that prevent students from working after school, and weekend penalty rates being so high that businesses prefer not to open. Of course, double time means nothing without a shift in the first place. These examples are systems of a framework that strips away the right to work. It is a system that presumes that people are incapable of making good decisions for themselves and their families. A job is about more than a pay cheque  there is dignity in work. Yet, the current system prefers people remain unemployed. This must change. With youth unemployment continuing to track above 12 per cent, a novel solution is crossbench senator Bob Day's suggestion that young workers could "opt out" of the Fair Work Act. The standard rebuff to this idea is "but they might get exploited". Senator Day answers this by asking "where is the outrage when these same young people end up on drugs, get involved in crime, suffer poor health, become pregnant, get recruited into bikie gangs or even commit suicide? No, there is only outrage when they want to take a job that suits them but does not suit the government."
"Wangaratta's Own" 2/24th Infantry Battalion Association has lost one of its greatest leaders in Alan Macfarlane. He was a prime mover in this highly distinguished military unit for more than 75 years.

Many years later, a veteran.

Alan Macfarlane OAM EM was born in Wallasey in the UK, came to Australia as a child and left school at 12 to help on the little sultana farm at Coomealla near Wentworth in New South Wales.

From the time he left Wangaratta Showgrounds to go to war in 1940 at age 22 with the "Wangaratta's Own" banner proudly flying in front of his men, to decades later striding out with his beloved "Rats of Tobruk" pipe band on so many Anzac Day marches, Alan was always the leader, organising and out in front. This generation of men and women was shaped in their formative years by the harsh realities of World War 1 and the Great Depression. Strong of body and mind, they were fiercely independent and loyal and knew the value of close mateship and friends. Alan had these great qualities and values in abundance and they shone throughout his life.

Formed in Wangaratta, the 2/24th Infantry Battalion fought in some of the fiercest theatres of the war in the Middle East: the Siege of Tobruk, the Salient, Tel El Eisa and El Alamein, suffering heavy casualties along the way  in fact, more battle casualties than any other Australian infantry battalion.

Alan was fond of saying: "Hitler never lost a battle before El Alamein and never won one after."
For example, current Palmer United senator Zhenya "Dio" Wang claimed earlier this month that there'd been little communication from the government. And there's a solid argument that "telling Family First senator Bob Day to convince everyone else about our legislation and then report back, thanks" looks a bit like the work of a government that isn't deeply serious about the outcome - not least because the crossbench aren't a knitting group that hang out together like palz, but are a roiling mess of political rivals that disagree on pretty much everything. Even Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm - who actually supports the bill - spoke for the nation in claiming the legislation is simply a not-even-thinly-veiled excuse for a double dissolution election. "Frankly I don't think the government even wanted it to pass," he said on Monday. "This is the weirdest way of negotiating I've ever encountered, the way they've gone about it." And with reports that the vote on the bill could come as quickly as Monday evening, that pretty much confirms that the government's not super fussed about negotiating.

And to be fair, why should they be trying? After all, there's never been a more exciting time for the Coalition to send the nation to the polls, right? Pollwatch! Polls are seductive minxes, ready to whisper sweet nothings into the ears of those in their favour. That's why it's best to take them less as a definitive statement and more as indicative of whether there's a trend at play. For example, the fact that the Fairfax Ipsos poll today showed a further erosion in support for Turnbull as Prime Minister while keeping Coalition and Labor neck-and-neck on two party preferred terms would be uncomfortable reading for the government, certainly. But heck, it's only one poll! Unfortunately it's also in keeping with the general trend of the polls over the last few weeks, and are being supported by Essential (50-50 last week) and today's Newspoll (which has the Opposition slightly ahead, 51-49, for the second poll running), with satisfaction in the PM trending down while Bill Shorten's is well, it's not doing much.

However, that's almost an advantage at this point. Shorten can't really disappoint the electorate, since no-one appears to expect anything. Turnbull, on the other hand, has been increasingly seen as a disappointment. In other words, if the plan was for the government to get a nice solid election win under the belt ahead of the inevitable end of the Turnbull honeymoon, then they might be a smidge late. How very dare you! And the day was not without drama either, as both sides of politics got into some serious grandstanding. While the bored pollies in the lower house argued about whether the government's concerns about alleged corruption in the construction industry was matched by concerns about the level of corruption in the financial services industry - spoiler: nup - there was also some excellent pre-election posturing to be seen.

Labor were handed - well, more accurately not-handed - a perfect symbol for what they'd like to paint as the partisanship and interference of the Governor-General when Sir Peter skipped past Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek when shaking hands with Turnbull, deputy PM Barnaby Joyce, Speaker of the House Tony Smith and Shorten. Cosgrove has since apologised to Plibersek, who has been quick to downplay the snub as "a storm in a teacup", but it fed neatly into Labor senator Stephen Conroy's spray against the GG recalling Parliament and evoking the ghost of the 1975 Dismissal, where GG Sir John Kerr sacked the government of Gough Whitlam under circumstances that seemed dubious then and downright suspicious now. "That's what we have seen, a tawdry political stunt and the Governor-General has demeaned his office," he roared, before claiming that the ghostly hand of Kerr had "reached out from the grave to interfere in a democratically elected Senate decision", which is a low-budget horror film just waiting to happen. Turnbull, naturally, wasn't angry - just very disappointed, intoning "Not for the first time Senator Conroy has disgraced himself and I look forward to the Leader of the Opposition publicly dissociating himself from those appalling remarks." To be fair, though, the lower house has nothing much to do while the senate are "debating" the ABCC. They have to amuse themselves somehow.

The Fall of the House of Bishop Hopefully it will distract from the internal discord going on among the hard-conservative bits of the Liberal party who are reportedly livid at what they saw as deliberate collusion to ensure Bronwyn Bishop lost her seat in the weekend's preselection battle for Mackellar. More specifically, they argued that Tony Abbott was behind the coup, negotiating a concord between the hard-right Walter Villatora (who Abbott supported instead of Bishop) and the eventual winner, the "left" faction's Jason Falinski, in which Villatora's votes flowed to Falinski rather than the conservative Bishop, which would have usually been expected. It has been speculated that this vote was less an endorsement of the moderate Falinski as a punishment by the hard right for Bishop openly supporting Turnbull against Abbott in the leadership spill, because apparently everyone involved in deciding our political representatives is nine years old. And this has led to suggestions that Bishop might be planning a scorched earth response, laying bare the degree to which she was supposedly gagged by the then-Prime Minister over the Choppergate scandal. But honestly, Bron? Whatever Tone did or didn't do, how can this be spun to where you're the innocent victim here?
Many MPs and media commentators have little grasp of Australias political past. Thats a pity because knowing the past can sometimes explain current behaviour and provide a glimpse into the culture of todays politics.

I was surprised to hear that so many federal MPs leave the Parliament earlier than in the past. It makes me wonder if the loss of institutional memory is a problem.

Robert Menzies. Credit:Canberra Times Archives

The statistics show that only 10 per cent of MPs have been in the Parliament longer than 1996. They are certainly not leaving for the money because Labor gave MPs a big pay rise only recently.

It seems that the idea of MPs staying for longer stints is dying. If that stays true, dont expect another Philip Ruddock (1973 to 2016) or John Howard (1974 to 2007).
In the world of film, there are performers with great hands or perfect legs. Some have killer abs or a backside to die for. They may find themselves in a blockbuster movie acting with a superstar but they will never get to show their faces and are seldom credited for their work.

They are the body doubles and stand-ins  often actors themselves  who make a living from lending a shapely hand, breast or bum-cheek to movie stars lacking a particular genetic blessing or the time to shoot a close-up.

Lachlan Philpott and Luke Mullins investigate notions of celebrity and the challenges of being ordinary in an increasingly image-obsessed culture. Credit:James Brickwood

One such performer is the subject of a new play debuting at Carriageworks, Lake Disappointment, a one-man show co-written by Lachlan Philpott and Luke Mullins to explore themes of identity and the contemporary obsession with self-image.

Mullins plays a double waiting for a movie star, Kane, to turn up for a scene on a suspense thriller, Lake Disappointment. It is the last time the pair will work together before Kane makes a leap into action films. But what happens to a double when he is no longer needed?
"It's five past six on a Sunday, let's do this f...ing thing," announces the sardonic Irish comic David O'Doherty as he comes out on stage at this most un-rock-n-roll-like time.

It's actually the perfect slot for the delightful O'Doherty, who takes the audience on a nice and easy jaunt that's spunky enough to provide enough laughs but without proving too abrasive or challenging for Sunday night brains.

The 40-year-old Dubliner, a regular staple on the big British panel shows and voted best international comic at the Sydney Comedy Festival two years ago, serves up a mix of random observations and personal anecdotes, with the odd tune thrown in courtesy of a small keyboard perched on his lap.

He's a surprisingly physical performer, well, if you count a few bouts of lying on the floor and an occasional high kick, and has a self-effacing strain that is carefully tempered so as not to be too dark.

He talks about his plans to become a "fluke internet gazillionaire" with apps centred around farts. He reveals his admiration for Aldi and the bounty of its central aisle packed with the "detritus" of consumer goods.
He wanted an early election because governing wasn't working out too well for him.

Malcolm Turnbull will now get the election he wanted, but without the sort of advantage he'd hoped for.

He's been losing the government's electoral advantage over Labor at an average rate of about 1.2 percentage points a month since November, according to Fairfax-Ipsos polls. That's the equivalent of losing 6100 voters a day. At that rate of attrition, an early election is a good election.

If Malcolm Turnbull wins it will not be because he is loved or admired. Credit:Andrew Meares

The Senate handed him his trigger for a double dissolution election on Monday night at just the moment that he had run the government's poll advantage down to zero.

If anything, the Coalition must now be regretting that he didn't call the election earlier.

And Turnbull wanted the election to be about a confrontation with the unions. Fighting the unions is one of the only issues that reliably unites the Liberals. The Senate has given him that too.
Well, the celebrity juggernaut has departed Southport courthouse but not before Johnny Depp and Amber Heard had to fight their way through a massive crowd of mostly his fans by the sounds of it.

There seemed a lot of relief in the very tight hug the couple shared after Ms Heard's sentence was imposed, perhaps not so much for the outcome but more they can put the whole saga behind them.

No doubt there will be a private Gulf Stream V leaving Coolangatta Airport imminently this afternoon.

That's it for our blog and if you haven't already, please go and watch the couple's public service announcement video that was played in court.

You probably thought I was exaggerating when I described it as awful earlier, right?

Well, I hate to say I told you so but seriously, watching that, you cannot deny Amber Heard has been punished.
The state government has pulled back on plans to dismiss general managers who are not awarded jobs in interim merged councils after warnings it would face lawsuits from those left without a job.

Instead, it has issued new guidelines, telling senior council staff they will be transferred to the interim councils, and one of up to three general managers given the role of interim general manager.

Local Government Minister Paul Toole initially intended to dismiss general managers. Credit:Nick Moir

The merged council then will decide who keeps their job after local government elections.

Nonetheless, the plans for council mergers are likely to lead to a $10 million to $20 million redundancy bill for surplus general managers, especially as several councils have renewed their contracts on generous terms. With the contracts usually running for five years, some councils will face big payouts.
A woman and her disabled grandson who disappeared in Sydney's south on the weekend have returned home, police say.

Laura Stavron, 77, and her grandson George Kondilis, 35, left her Arncliffe home to go to church either in Kogarah or Gymea about 9.15am on Sunday.

Police are searching for missing woman Laura Stavron and her grandson George Kondilis. Credit:NSW Police

The pair were last seen driving in the Kingsford area in a silver Nissan Tiida with the registration CEM-02T about 10.15am on Monday.

Fears were held for their welfare, as they each have a number of medical conditions, and police on Monday appealed for anyone with information about their location to contact police.
A development proposal for units at Highgate Hill that required the demolition of unlisted heritage homes has been rejected by Brisbane City Council, but it came too late to save at least one of the three pre-1911 buildings.

One of the three houses were demolished last week, shortly after a state government review found it had no heritage value of state significance.

The Queensland Heritage Council decided not to list the Highgate Hill homes. Credit:Amy Mitchell-Whittington

The council rejected the five-story, 51-unit complex at the corner of Jones and Coltan streets at Highgate Hill on Monday, citing several concerns about its design.

Brisbane City Council development assessment chairman Julian Simmonds said the developer was told in January that the proposal did not meet City Plan standards and was instructed to make "significant" changes.
Queensland Ambulance is urging people to think twice about taking recreational drugs after five teenagers were rushed to hospital on the Sunshine Coast over the weekend.

Paramedics attended two addresses on Friday night to treat five patients who were thought to have taken recreational drugs.

Five teenagers were taken to hospital over the weekend after consuming recreational drugs. Credit:Viki Yemettas

Neither Queensland Health or Queensland Ambulance would confirm what drugs were taken but it is believed to be MDMA, or ecstasy.

Acting Senior Operations Supervisor at QAS Paul Boyd told Fairfax Media people needed to be cautious when taking recreational drugs because they couldn't be certain what was in them.
Mines minister Anthony Lynham has conceded a Labor trial program to establish an energy industry that only exists in Uzbekistan, was a "failure".

The Palaszczuk Government has banned underground coal gasification within the state's borders and will legislate to make it official by the end of the year following the Linc Energy pilot project ending with charges of serious environmental harm.

Natural Resources Minister Dr Anthony Lynham. Credit:Michelle Smith

The Chinchilla project was one of two pilot programs the Beattie Labor Government gave the green light to in the early 2000s, along with a study program involving the CSIRO and Carbon Energy.

A project undertaken by Cougar Energy in Kingaroy was shut down in 2010, with the company fined $75,000 after the cancer causing chemical benzene was found to have leaked into groundwater.
In a bid to bring an end to years of alleged family violence from her husband, Joanne De Bono crushed up 75 temazepam tablets and, a court has heard, mixed them with his dinner - a plate of meatballs.

After that, the Melbourne Magistrate's Court was told on Monday, she attempted to poison him with a syringe full of weedkiller and brake fluid.

Meatballs mixed with sleeping tablets failed to keep Joanne De Bono's husband from waking as she tried to inject him with a poisoned cocktail. Credit:Marina Oliphant

But he didn't die, and Mrs De Bono now stands accused of her husband's attempted murder. Her 19-year-old daughter is her co-accused.

The huge dose of sleeping tablets knocked Stephen De Bono into a deep stupor, the court heard.
It was the phone call that every parent fears.

And for Sandy Guy, the mother of a son caught up in the Yooralla disability abuse scandal four years ago, it felt like a grim repeat of history.

Craig McDonell was a whistleblower in the Yooralla abuse case four years ago. He still lives in a Yooralla home and says he is deeply disappointed at the latest allegations. Credit:Scott Barbour

A manager at Yooralla, one of Victoria's biggest disability providers, called Ms Guy a month ago and told her there had been an allegation of sexual assault (in this case "inappropriate touching), against a casual carer who had come in contact with clients at her 35-year-old son's home.

Two weeks later the manager called back and said it had been investigated but not substantiated. But it didn't end there.
The Reserve Banks latest commentary on financial risk has been dominated by the apartment construction boom in Australia, along with concerns over the health of the Chinese economy.The RBA warns that the prevalence of Chinese buyers in Sydney and Melbourne could increase the volatility of the property market in Australia, pointing to Foreign Investment Review Board figures showing that overseas buyers could account for up to a fifth of all purchases in recent residential real estate.With China having such a strong stake in Australian real estate, the RBA is therefore cautioning that a slowdown in Chinese economic fortunes could mean fewer buyers for Australian property, or indeed a deluge of sales as international investors move to repatriate their investments. Australias biggest cities are most vulnerable."A substantial reduction in Chinese demand would likely weigh most heavily on the apartment markets of inner-city Melbourne and parts of Sydney, not only because Chinese buyers are particularly prevalent in these segments but also because other factors would reinforce any initial fall in prices," the RBA stated."These include the large recent expansion in supply in these areas, as well as the practice of buying off-the-plan, which increases the risk of price declines should a large volume of apartments return to the market if the original purchasers fail to settle."

The impact of a Chinese downturn on mortgage brokers specifically neednt necessarily be a negative one, however, with such an event likely to produce a range of unexpected scenarios.



Otto Dargan, managing director of Home Loan Experts, told Australian Broker, A slow down of the Chinese economy could have some surprising effects on Sydney and Melbourne. We could see increased activity due to overseas owners selling property in Sydney as well as a flight of capital from China causing others buyers to consider our market. Fear can drive a market in unusual directions and I don't think we can predict the future so well.



He added, If there is a significant fall in demand for new CBD apartments then I expect the government will step in with first home benefits to try to keep the market buoyant. So it may mean that brokers who specialise in foreign investment lose, while brokers that help first home buyers win.



In its report, the RBA added that it believes China possesses the expertise and financial strength to negotiate any serious slowdown.


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With first-home buyers facing an increasingly uphill task to get on the property ladder, co-ownership is becoming a more and more popular option, allowing potential buyers to partner with relatives, parents or friends to strengthen their buying position.A new investment scheme from Joint Property Australia (JPA), which deals exclusively in joint-purchases of property, has produced a new calculation that ensures that buyers will never pay more than 60% of the purchase price on a single property.JPAs speciality is deals where offspring purchase 60% of a property, and parents 40%. A further point of difference is that JPA refers the loans to lenders separately, with each party to be assessed on their share of the loan only. Essentially, the loans are separate, says JPA managing director Paul Ebbels. Its one security, two loans.In JPAs scenario, the children refinance the loan after three years up to 100%, and pay out their parents portion along with 3% capital growth.Sydney-based broker Graeme Salt of Origin Finance has noticed a spike in co-ownership mortgages. He told Australian Broker, As valuations become so stretched, I think these sorts of loans will become more common.However, with more parties involved in a purchase, there is more potential for risk, thus brokers should be cautious for the sake of all involved.Whenever I have written similar loans I have always taken a belt and braces approach to ensure that no one is left with their pants down, says Salt. I once even insisted on interviewing an elderly parent to ensure he understood the implications of going guarantor. At the time he was in hospital, but I wanted to ensure that no one was being coerced; thankfully he was a retired solicitor who new exactly what he was doing.
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Call it a slow Bern.

Councilman Jumaane Williams (DFlatbush) endorsed Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (IVermont) on Sunday  two days before the New York primary and just in time to turn his seal of approval into a speech at a massive rally in Prospect Park. Williams put out a press release Thursday night saying he was still undecided, but seemed to have really got on board over the course of the next two days with the campaign he dubbed a revolutionary moon shot.

Thirty years from now, when our children ask, what were you doing when this revolutionary moon shot came? Im here to say that we want to look them in the eye and say with pride, We felt the Bern, baby!  said Williams, only the second Council member to endorse Sanders, after Councilman Rafael Espinal (DBushwick).

Sanders later thanked Assemblyman Jumaane Williams to a crowd the campaign claims was 28,300 people strong and its largest ever, with many lining up from 9 am to nab a spot on the Nethermead for the 4 pm show.

The Brooklyn-born pol  who left the borough in 1961  reminisced about visiting the Prospect Park Zoo as a boy, and asked whether it still has seals and elephants. (It still has seals, the elephants are long gone).

When I was a kid growing up in Flatbush, our parents would take us to Prospect Park, he said. But I was never here speaking to 20,000 people.

Actors Danny Devito and Justin Long also stumped for the Vermont senator during the huge rally, while local rock band Grizzly Bear got the crowd clapping politely with its mellow set.

Williamss 11th-hour thumbs-up comes after he joined Sanders on a tour through a Brownsville public housing complex earlier that day, along with Borough President Adams and Councilman Ritchie Torres (DBronx)  neither of whom have endorsed a candidate.

Williams, who co-chairs the Councils gun violence task force, tweeted beforehand that he planned to use the meeting to grill Sanders on gun control  an issue the senator has struggled on, with rival Hillary Clinton slamming his previous support for shielding gun companies from lawsuits and opposition to background checks.

Clinton, who held a rally in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Sunday, leads Sanders by 10 percentage points ahead of Tuesdays primary, according to the latest CBS poll.
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The city should use property taxes from a controversial office complex planned for the Williamsburg waterfront to fund a long-promised park next door, says a local green-space advocate group.

The activists have been pushing for the city to make good on its 10-year-old pledge to create a 28-acre park on the neighborhoods waterfront, and are now endorsing a recent suggestion from Borough President Adams that it sell bonds based on the proposed buildings projected tax windfall to finally make it happen.

We support it, said Greenpoint resident Steve Chesler, co-chair of Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park. Its a good, creative way to solve the larger problem.

Local developer Toby Moskowitz is pitching an eight-story office building at Kent Street and West Avenue with a small amount of manufacturing space inside, but needs the citys okay to go ahead with it because it would be in a so-called industrial business zone  an area the city set aside for blue-collar businesses.

The Beep gave his blessing on April 12, arguing the property will bring businesses and jobs back to the area  which is currently more popular with lucrative but low-employing hotels and nightclubs  while loosening the onerous building regulations that have kept new industrial businesses away.

But the development also happens to be adjacent to where the city promised to build Bushwick Inlet Park when rezoning much of the waterfront for huge luxury apartments in 2005, before claiming it could no longer afford the to buy all the land it needed. So Adams gave his approval on the condition that the city consider using one project to finance the other, and Chesler says his group is on board if it means the park will finally get finished.

This developer will basically be a revenue enhancer, he said.

Not everyone in the area is so enamoured with the proposed property, though  critics say the 17 percent of the building that will go to industrial space isnt enough, and arent confident anyone will police whether it actually gets used for manufacturing.

Residents have also railed against an element of proposal that will automatically allow other developers to build similar office-industrial complexes within a 14-block radius of 25 Kent St., which they said was too much, too soon. The local community board ultimately voted against that part of the pitch last month, even though members generally supported the building on its own.

Adamss recommendation addressed some of the opponents gripes  he asked for more oversight and monitoring on what kinds of businesses get to use the industrial space and how they get to use it. He also asked for more bike-parking spaces, and a Citi Bike dock.

But the Beeps and community boards votes and ideas really are just recommendations. The City Planning Commission, which held a hearing on the plan last Wednesday, still needs to approve the plan, followed by the Council, and there is no requirement that either panel include the Bushwick Inlet Park suggestion when makings their decisions.
Signs of life arent necessarily a good thing on Fear the Walking Dead. In this episode, We All Fall Down, Strand docks at a wildlife refuge island to get away from a ship thats been tracking them. While the inhabitants of the island are friendly and safe, Madison and her family find something off about their new friends. Meanwhile, Daniel does some snooping to figure out what Strand is up to.

Fear the Walking Dead Renewed for Season 3 >>>

Losing Their Tail

Madison is pretty angry that Nick went to investigate the shipwreck, but he just takes it in stride. Travis, on the other hand, is pleased with Nicks find in the wreck, the ships log. He finds out that San Diego, where they were headed, was burned down by the military. Strand, of course, doesnt believe the logs.

At the moment, though, Strand is concerned with losing his tail. Hes been tracking a ship thats been following his course, no matter what he does. He says he fears its the same group that destroyed the ship they passed. However, I feel like he knows exactly whos following him.

As a way to lose the tail, he wants to stick close to the coast and dock at a cove for a bit. Travis suggests a wildlife refuge called Catrina Island, in hopes that people or supplies will be there.

The Coast is Gone

As they dock, they see a light in a home go on and off. They approach the house and find a welcoming family. The man of the house, George, takes to Travis and explains his feelings on the walkers  its just natures way of correcting course. He also lets Travis know that all the cities along the West Coast have been destroyed and that inland is no better with all the ranger stations going dead one by one.

Georges wife, Melissa, on the other hand, grills Madison about her life before and after the end of the world. Madison, of course, thinks Melissa wants to leave the island and eventually confronts her about it. It turns out that Melissa wants Madison and the group to take her two children, Harry and Willa. She wants a better life for them, something better than living out their final days on an uninhabited island, which is what George wants.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 Premiere Recap: How Safe is the Open Water? >>>

Preparing for the End of the World

George and Melissas older son, Seth, could be a Rick Grimes in training. He patrols the beach several times a day, doing maintenance on the walkers that wash ashore. He tells Chris that his father has been preparing him for quite a while for an event such as the end of the world.

Their younger son, Harry, makes friends with Nick. When he takes Nick to his room, he has action figures of his friends and family who have been killed. He tells Nick that hes going to live forever because he has power pills. This statement concerns Nick all night. The next day, Nick heads into the home again and raids the medicine cabinet. At first, I think hes just looking to get a quick high. But as he goes through Georges things, he finds other pills hidden in a globe. He brings this information to Madison and Travis, expressing concern that George is preparing a mass suicide for his family on the island.

Travis was very hesitant at first to take Harry and Willa on board with them. However, after hearing Nicks concerns, its a no-brainer that the children need a chance at life away from the solitude of the island.

A Not-So-Better Life

As Melissa prepares to say goodbye to her children, George walks in and hes not happy. That feeling is short-lived, though, as Harry comes down and says his sister, Willa, is not waking up. He tells them that she took her pill. Of course, Willa quickly turns after she dies and she attacks Melissa. George immediately tells Travis and Madison to take Harry.

Strand is not happy when they board the ship with an extra person. But he doesnt have to worry for long, as Seth boards the ship with a gun and threatens to kill anyone who tries to stop him from taking Harry back to the island. They let him take Harry. As they walk along the dock, walker Melissa comes to greet them. As the group sails away, they wave to Harry to distract him from Seth killing their mother.

New 2016 Emmy Categories Could Help Fear the Walking Dead >>>

Other Motives

Meanwhile, Daniel, Ofelia and Strand stay behind on the ship while Travis and his family head ashore. Daniel uses this time to learn more about Strand, who is still very vague. Once the ship that was following them changes course, Strand tells Daniel they will set sail soon and then leaves Daniel in the cockpit of the boat. Daniel uses this alone time to search through Strands things. In a lock box, he finds a gun and some maps.

Strand goes off to make a phone call, though I didnt even know cellphones still worked. He speaks into the phone and says its all clear now. He then asks whens the latest they can push it and then says hell be there at sundown.

So Whats Up with Strand?

While the storyline in We All Fall Down with the isolated family was interesting and showed how differently people have coped with the end of world, I much preferred Strands story. What is he up to? Im pretty convinced that whatever or whoever was following them had nothing to do with the shipwreck and everything to do with Strand. I like the mystery around him and I like how Daniel is on to him.

In fact, Daniel seems to still be the only level-headed person. He was the only one who pulled a gun on Seth when he came to get his brother. Everyone else wanted to use their words to try and persuade him to leave, but Daniel just pulled out his gun and waited.

I really do want to know where the heck they are going to go on Fear the Walking Dead. I hope that the writers arent writing themselves into a corner with the boat and the coast being destroyed. I much prefer my walkers on land anyway.

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.

(Image courtesy of AMC)
Self-navigating boat startup sails into first place in UB entrepreneurship competition

From left: Vikram, Reynolds and Zhitelzeyf. (Photo by Nancy J. Parisi; courtesy of University at Buffalo.)

From left: Vikram, Reynolds and Zhitelzeyf. (Photo by Nancy J. Parisi; courtesy of University at Buffalo.)

More than $60K in startup funding and services awarded

A revolution has started in the shipping industry, and perhaps Buffalo will be known as the place where it all started. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  Three UB undergraduate students took first place on April 13 in the University at Buffalos Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition (Panasci TEC) for a robotics startup that makes and sells self-piloting technology and automation tools to ship operators.

Thiru Vikram, a computer and electrical engineering student from Lovedale, India; Emilie Reynolds, a mechanical engineering student from Webster; and Alexander Zhitelzeyf, a mechanical engineering student from Brooklyn; will receive $25,000 in startup capital, as well as in-kind services valued at more than $27,000 for their company, Buffalo Automation Group.

The system uses data from onboard sensors and other marine navigation aids to recognize navigational hazards and automatically steer around them. The group plans to aggressively expand in the Great Lakes market this year with cutting-edge autopilots that learn navigation techniques from the crew.

Making boats smarter means fewer collisions and lower insurance costs, according to Vikram, the companys CEO. Wherever there is commercial shipping, we believe there is an application for our product and an opportunity to increase efficiency, he says.

Shipping is the backbone of the world economy, says Zhitelzeyf, who serves as COO. Creating a more efficient shipping infrastructure will benefit trade and increase globalization.

The system can be implemented in both commercial and recreational vessels, and the team sees additional applications in water taxis, rental pontoons and survey vehicles. There are also vast opportunities to capture big data recorded from ships that will allow analysts to increase route efficiencies.

A revolution has started in the shipping industry, and perhaps Buffalo will be known as the place where it all started, says Reynolds, vice president of engineering.

The winning team will also receive in-kind awards worth $27,000 for legal services from Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC; accounting services from Kopin & Co. PC; human resource startup services from the People Plan by HR Foundations Inc.; business development services from the UB Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR); and office space from North Forest Office Space.

To top it off, 43Norths John Gavigan announced that the winners would automatically get a bid for the semifinals of the 43North competition.

This is the teams second year in the Panasci TEC, and Vikram says theyve worked relentlessly to improve their business model, thanks to feedback from the judges.

Vikram, Reynolds and Zhitelzeyf have taken advantage of the rapidly expanding entrepreneurship ecosystem at UB and in the Buffalo Niagara region. Theyve tapped into resources at the UB School of Managements Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, UBs STOR and UBs new Blackstone LaunchPad. They also participated in the 2014 Elevator Pitch competition at UBs Entrepreneurship Academy and worked at the Buffalo Student Sandbox. The team now operates out of the UB Gateway Building as part of Gov. Cuomos START-UP NY tax-free business program.

The second-place team was Charles Jones of Bear Creek, N.C.; Mahmoud Kamal Ahmadi of Torbat-e Jam, Iran, both doctoral students in chemical and biological engineering; and Blaine Pfeifer, UB associate professor of chemical and biological engineering. They will collect $10,000 for their venture, Shay Bioproducts, a precious metal retrieval unit used to recover and reuse pricy metals.

All participants will be offered co-working space in dig, within the Thomas R. Beecher Jr. Innovation Center.

Pared down from 22 first-round pitches, five teams of finalists delivered 10-minute presentations at UBs Center for the Arts and were evaluated on how well they described the feasibility and marketability of their venture, proved the need for their product or service and presented potential sources of capital.

Other new venture ideas included a medical product company that proposes a superior healing alternative for conventional tissue vessel grafts in vascular surgery; a cloud-based application to capture and preserve a familys oral history; and a social network for learning new languages.

Serving as judges for the final event were Bob Fritzinger, UB entrepreneur in residence; John Gavigan, executive director of 43North; Anthony Johnson, partner, Buffalo BioSciences, and president and CEO of Empire Genomics; Robert Neubert, director of UBs Entrepreneurship Academy and clinical assistant professor in the UB School of Management; Tom Sass, director of consumer markets, BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York; and Rohini Srihari, associate professor in UBs Department of Computer Science.

Now in its 16th year, Panasci TEC was created by the UB School of Management and the UB STOR and is funded with a $1 million endowment from the late Henry A. Panasci Jr. to facilitate and promote the commercialization of UB-generated technologies.

Hosted by the UB School of Managements Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, the event brings together UB students from science, technology, business and other disciplines to maximize their potential and create viable businesses in Western New York.
Travis Perkins has revealed the industrys biggest headaches as part of its pledge to support customers by promoting and encouraging innovation.

After speaking to contractors, housebuilders, manufacturers and staff, a number of common industry-wide problems became clear. The UK weather was a shared frustration, with high levels of rain blamed for construction delays, muddy working environments and the reduced effectiveness of certain building products.

Unsurprisingly, health and safety was also a primary concern, from using heavy materials and equipment at height to manual handling injuries. Plus, it was universally agreed that solutions were needed to reduce waste levels and address the looming skills gap.

To tackle these collective problems, Travis Perkins has launched the Travis Perkins Innovation Awards (TPIA). The search is now on for product solutions with entries open to anyone in the construction industry, as well as inventors, universities, students and colleagues from across Travis Perkins. Entries from simple sketches to detailed proposals are being accepted.

Norman Bell, group strategy director at Travis Perkins, said: This is a golden opportunity for those in construction who face daily problems that are a barrier to progress and profit, as well as for creative minds that want to make a difference to a vital industry sector. As well as a general product innovation category, were looking for solutions to the issues our survey identified; namely safety, skills, sustainability, and productivity.

The Awards are not just important for recognising ideas that could solve some of the industrys headaches, but also to move the industry forward and future-proof an important economic stream. As a major UK employer with 21 businesses, its vital that we encourage innovation and skills, build the best and most innovative service possible for customers, and tackle major issues such as sustainability.

The closing date for entries is 30 June, 2016, with winners announced at the end of September 2016. Prizes may include financial investment and business support for product and idea development, an opportunity to trial products in selected Travis Perkins locations around the UK, or business mentoring and support from the timber and builders merchants senior team.
5 changes to you, your seafood and the Shore from warming Atlantic

The warming Atlantic is beginning to cause a unique set of changes for fishermen, albeit subtly. They have to adjust to catch new kinds of sea life.
BVB

Crestere pentru indici pe fondul uneia dintre cele mai slabe sedinte de tranzactionare
Alkem Laboratories posted one of the biggest single-day drops on Monday after Germanys medical regulator accused the Mumbai-based firm of data manipulation in some clinical trials. After dropping as much as 7.5 per cent, Alkem shares ended at Rs 1,276.25 apiece on the BSE on Monday, down 4.44 per cent from the previous close.

Germanys Federal Institute of Drug and Medical Devices has accused the company of manipulating heart readings of patients in some trials for the antibiotic cefuroxime and the brain disorder drug rulizole. The charge was levelled after an inspection of Alkems plant in Taloja, Maharashtra in March 2015.

Read more from our special coverage on "ALKEM LABS" Alkem Labs dips after observations from UK-MHRA

Alkem said in a statement on Saturday that the company had responded to the German authorities with a robust remediation plan and would also submit suitable clarification to the EMA.

Alkem said in a statement that sales from Europe had contributed less than a per cent to its total consolidated sales in the first nine months of 2015-16.

Alkem said the inspection concerned studies conducted by the company between March 2013 and March 2015 on two products, one of which is selling, while the other is yet to reach the market. It did not name the products. It also said it had changed staff, upgraded equipment and improved its quality assurance systems at the Taloja plant since Germanys inspection.

Given the data misrepresentation observation and accentuation of the matter to EU (European Union) level, it implies significant regulatory risk for international operations of Alkem, says Daljeet S Kohli, head of research at IndiaNivesh.

Though the business contribution from Europe market is less than one per cent, the sharing of inspection outcome with different regulatory agencies as they work in tandem could pose risk to its international operation. International business is about 25 per cent of total sales, largely the US. The notification could be sentiment-negative on the stock, he adds.

Alkem shares made their stock market debut in December 2015. After listing, the stock has touched a high of Rs 1,568 and a low of Rs 1,264.

Earlier this month, JP Morgan had initiated a neutral rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 1,500.

Alkem has witnessed margin recovery in recent quarters and expects the trend to improve further, say analysts from JPMorgan.
To compete against cheaper and high-grade South African, Indonesian and Australian coal, while keeping its prices unchanged, (CIL) recently strategised a move whereby it is giving up part of its charges levied previously on the consumers.

The coal monolith will no longer charge an extra premium from buyers for purchase of the full quantity of coal as had been done previously.

The initiative comes under the backdrop of a stressed situation in the power sector, which is facing less demand for electricity from the distribution and 57 million tonnes (mt) of pithead stock idling with .

Although officials in the state-run company termed the move to become more consumer-friendly, it was widely believed that the actual reason for forgoing the premium is to push its sales further and clear the stock.

Under the revised terms, CIL has removed realisation of performance incentive for supply of higher grades of coal, namely the G2-G5 grades of coal which have a gross calorific value ranging between 6,700 to 6,100 kilo calorie per kg.

About 43 mt, or eight per cent of Coal Indias total production comprises these grades of coal.

This will give a boost to both our power and non-power consumers who have fuel supply agreements (FSA) with us. However, it is not applicable on lower grades of coal, a senior company official said.

The revision facilitates consumers to buy coal beyond 90 per cent of the annual contracted quantity under FSA without having to pay any extra charges.

This is termed as performance incentive (PI), which, under the previous FSA model, was based on a 0.15 multiplier to the simple average of the base prices of the coal supplied and the quantity supplied in excess of the 90 per cent committed in the FSA. In case the buyer needed coal more than 95 per cent of the quantity as laid down in the agreement, the multiplier doubled to 0.30.

However, after abolishing this practice, the buyers can now avail high-quality coal as per their needs, while escaping the compulsion to pay additional charges for the multiplier. As such, there hasnt been any reduction in the notified prices. We expect the consumers to now lift more coal, the official said. However, with this practice in place, the impact on Coal India's revenue is expected to be minimal for the time being.

Power and coal minister Piyush Goyal, on a separate occasion had said that the country has already reduced Rs. 28,000 crore of coal imports and could save at least Rs. 40,000 crore in the coming days if the imported coal demand was fulfilled by .
The Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) on Monday has set aside an order passed by fair trade regulator Competition Commision of India (CCI) which had imposed a fine of Rs 257.91 crore on Jet Airways, Spice Jet and Indigo.

The tribunal has sent back the case to the commission and asked it to reconsider the appeals filed by the airlines and further investigate the case. "In the result, the appeals are allowed, the impugned order is set-aside and the matters are remanded to the Commission," the tribunal said in its order.

The tribunal held that the commission has failed to explain the reasons to the airlines on why it disagreed with the report of Garima Bhagat, that there was no sufficient evidence to prove any cartelization by the domestic carriers.

"Commission's failure to give notice to the appellants incorporating the reasons of its disagreement with the findings and conclusions recorded by the Jt. DG and giving them an effective opportunity to show that they had not formed any cartel for jacking-up fuel surcharge from time to time has not only resulted in gross violation of principles of natural justice, but has also caused prejudice to them," the tribunal said.

The tribunal's decision follows an appeal filed by the airline against the CCI order passed in November 2015. The CCI in its order had imposed a fine Rs 151.69 crore, Rs 63.74 crore and Rs 42.48 crore on Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet respectively.

The order was passed in response to a complaint filed by Express industry Council of India- the body of logistics which counts majors Blue Dart, Fedex and DHL among its members.

In its complaint, the body had argued that the levy of fuel surcharge at uniform rate from the same day amounted to cartelization and was detrimental to the interests of freight forwarders and consumers. It also alleged that although fuel surcharges were introduced as extra charges linked to fuel prices, there have been no corresponding decreases in fuel surcharges as fuel prices have declined.
In August 2007, an electrifying atmosphere pervaded Jamshedpur. had just acquired Corus for $12 billion in what was India's biggest cross-border acquisition. That it coincided with the company's centenary year made the deal extra special. It meant the celebrations just got bigger.

In the same month, the first commercial flight connecting Jamshedpur was launched by Air Deccan; the then Corus CEO, Philippe Varin, released historian Russi Lala's book for the centenary, The Romance of Tata Steel; and a 20-minute film on put together by Zafar Hai was shown at Jamshedpur Works. was in the mood to celebrate and Corus made it more meaningful.

B Muthuraman, the then managing director, was the man of the moment. Seemingly satisfied with the way things had turned out, he gave a stirring speech to a gathering of employees and guests assembled at Jamshedpur. Prior to the acquisition, he said, he wasn't too excited about the centenary celebrations. "There was something missing...one has to earn a celebration," he said.

Tata Steel had truly earned it. Besides Tata Steel, Corus had another suitor, Brazilian steelmaker CSN. A bidding war ensued which Tata Steel won but ended up paying a 34 per cent premium at 608 pence a share to its original offer. Even then, the deal had looked good.

"Tata Steel was desperately looking for a global acquisition. It was part of the company's long-term plan of achieving a 50-million- tonne capacity by 2015," an analyst points out.

The demand for steel was booming then. According to Tata Steel's presentation to analysts after the acquisition, global steel demand was expected to grow 5.9 per cent to 1,179 million tonnes in 2007; China's steel demand was set to grow 13 per cent and the demand in India was expected to grow 10.2 per cent in the same year.

The next seven years, however, saw a paradigm shift; steel prices crashed from $600 a tonne to $400 and lower; China's supply far outstripped demand and the developed world's demand growth turned negative. Emerging markets, including India, were relatively better off but were affected by cheap imports. The basic assumptions that made Corus's acquisition so lucrative just went haywire.

Tata Steel tried to save Corus. A number of restructuring initiatives like 'Weathering the Storm' and 'Fit for the Future' followed.

In March 2011, Tata Steel sold Teeside Cast Products to Sahaviriya Steel of Thailand for $467 million tonne. Last week, Scunthorpe was sold to Greybull Capital for a token 1, according to reports in the British media. Port Talbot too is on the block. In short, Tata Steel is giving up on the UK units after a nine-year struggle.

Over the past seven days, the advisors to Tata Steel Europe have begun initial exploration of interest in Tata Steel UK's remaining operations, reaching out to 190 potential financial and industrial investors worldwide, Tata Steel said on Monday.

To focus on the "vital" tasks that lie ahead, Bimlendra Jha, executive committee member of Tata Steel Europe, has been appointed as the chief executive officer of Tata Steel UK.

The asset sale might do the company some good. Tata Steel has invested 1.5 billion since the acquisition in modernising the outdated plants. It has, as a result, suffered asset impairment of more than 2 billion over the past five years. The company's loss per day is estimated to be to the tune of 1 million. Clearly, it is a losing proposition.

Prized possession

According to a Deutsche Bank Markets Research note, after the sale of assets in the UK, Tata Steel Europe would house only the highly efficient and profitable Ijmuiden facility in the Netherlands, leading to a sharp improvement in Tata Steel Europe's margin and profitability.

The only concern, however, is the pension fund liability that has not been transferred with the sale of Scunthorpe. But the silver lining is that the employees of the long products unit will now become deferred pensioners, allowing the company to stop any incremental pension contributions.

Peers in the steel sector vouch for the Ijmuiden facility. "It's easily one of the best performing plants in the world. The quality of equipment and products is world class," says a competing producer in the domestic market.

For the year ending March 2015, Tata Steel UK operations reported an EBIDTA (earnings before income, depreciation, taxes and amortisation) loss of 170 million compared to Ijmuiden's positive EBIDTA of 499, says the Deutsche Bank report.

Essentially, it's the non-performing assets that Tata Steel is getting rid of. "The potential sale of assets in the UK is likely to lead to a significant improvement in Tata Steel Europe's margin and profitability profile and decline in cash flow drag (estimated at $500 million per annum) for the free cash-generating Indian entity, providing a strong case for re-rating," the report further adds.

According to foreign media, Tata Steel is exploring the option of forming a joint venture with its Dutch operations and Germany's diversified industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp.

"That could result in a potentially strong player in the European market. Ijmuiden is a world class plant and Thyssenkrupp has a significant market share in special and value added steel," a steel industry watcher says.

Tata Steel may be getting its act together, finally. Its Indian operations are expected to do well going forward with more policy action expected from the government to stem imports.

The production capacity of Tata Steel's India operations is at 13 million tonnes. At Kalinganagar in Odisha, where it has currently commissioned the first phase of three million tonnes, there is scope for expansion up to 15 million tonnes.

Deutsche Bank has valued the Indian operations at 6.5xFY17E EV/EBIDTA, which is in line with the valuation of global peers like ArcelorMittal. That too is a conservative estimate.

On many occasions prior to the Corus acquisition, Tata Steel had topped steel information service provider World Steel Dynamics's chart of world class steel makers on several parameters such as technology, product quality, position in the market, among others.

Can Tata Steel regain its pole position? An old timer recalls how Ratan Tata, then chairman of Tata Steel, had cancelled an extravagant team building conference at Taj Aguada in Goa when the company was undertaking stringent measures to reduce costs. Some employees and their spouses were already on their way when the trip was called off. The conference was ultimately held at Rangoli, a restaurant in Mumbai, with then managing director J J Irani and Tata in attendance.

Hard times call for hard measures. For a century-old company, such moments come more than once.
.com, a leading online aggregator of foreign exchange dealers licensed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), plans to raise $5 million over the next three months.

"The amount can be raised through multiple sources - angel investors, venture capital or even individuals. We are in very advanced stage of talks to raise the funds. The amount would be used on technology improvement, innovation and research & development (R&D)", said Ankit Anubhav, head (marketing & public relations), .com.

Presently, the aggregator operates through over 150 money changers, catering to over 1300 locations in the country.

The company aims to launch its international operations by the end of this year.

"Our team ensures that the money changers are well trained. Technology is the key thing that we are harping on for this project. Also, we will be launching a slew of new products in the next six months", Anubhav said.

.com, a Dubai-based free-zone company with its R&D centre in Bengaluru, had received a seed funding of $2 million in March 2015.

It has also launched India's first forex booking mobile app in 2015, showcasing over 150 dealer locations across the length and breadth of the country, with convenience enhancing features such as geo-location, instant chat and deal tracking.

"The application would answer all customer queries about foreign exchange & provides forex advisory through a personalized chat option. Users can enter the city or the locality from where they want to collect the foreign exchange, and automatically the screen would display the RBI licensed money changers in and around the locality along with the best rate," said Anubhav.
Bangaluru-based (JFSL) has announced a $150-million (about Rs 1,000 crore) equity financing round from global investors, led by TPG Investment.

At present, JFSL is a micro finance institution; it will soon become a small finance bank. TPG Investment's headquarters are in San Francisco.

Another processes of secondary transactions aggregating $60 million (about Rs 400 crore) is also underway to provide partial exits to existing investors.

JFSL is represented in more than 184 cities across 19 states and has an assets under management (AUM) of approximately $1.65 billion (Rs 10,500 crore).

TPG's investment adds to the 2014 investment it made in Janalakshmi. Existing investors, including an investment fund managed by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, Havells India and Vallabh Bhansali, also participated in the round along with new investors, JFSL said in statement.

Janalakshmi will use the new capital to drive customer acquisition and build upon current product offerings, it said.

Last September, Janalakshmi received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to convert to a small finance bank. The current round of equity will help Janalakshmi transition to a bank structure and comply with the RBI's rules for conversion.

Janalakshmi's core product is small batch (SB) loans disbursed to joint liability groups. The microfinance institution also provides individual loans to those who have demonstrated a successful credit track record as borrowers under the SB format, as well as loans to micro and small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Janalakshmi's promoter is the Jana Urban Foundation, a Section 8 company that undertakes activities to deepen understanding of the challenges around financial inclusion.

The Jana Urban Foundation also addresses issues via education, skill development, community connectivity, and financial advisory initiatives.
Delhi-based tyre maker is eyeing annual revenues of Rs 10,000 crore in the current financial year following the completion of the Rs 2,200 acquisition which also gives it an entry into the two wheeler tyre segment. The company had revenue of Rs 7,800 crore last year.

As far as domestic sales are concerned, we hope to emerge as the second largest player in the country. We hope to turn around the Haridwar unit that we acquired in a year," said Raghupati Singhania, chairman and managing director.

The acquisition is being funded through a mix of equity and debt. The company has brought an equity of Rs 700 crore from internal accruals and a debt of Rs 1,495 crore is being raised. The debt is being entirely raised by other in the group such as JK Lakshmi Cement and JK Paper and no debt is being raised on the book of JK Tyres. JK Tyres already has a debt of about Rs 2,000 crore, which was raised to fund past expansions.
Tata Steel on Monday said it had appointed Bimlendra Jha, executive committee member of Tata Steels Europe operations, as the chief executive officer (CEO) at Tata Steel UK.

Jha was the executive chairman of Tata Steel Europes long products business and had successfully led the divestment process that resulted in the signing of a sale and purchase agreement with Greybull Capital on April 11. Jha, in this new position, would report to Hans Fischer, CEO at Tata Steel Europe, and be supported by a team of executives drawn across functions including operations, procurement, finance, human resources and commercial, said the firm.

Todays announcement by Tata Steel Europe will ensure the full focus on the vital tasks that lie ahead of Tata Steel UK. Bimlendras successful experience of the process of divestment of long products Europe will be invaluable as Tata Steel Europe explores strategic alternatives for its operations in the UK, Koushik Chatterjee, group executive director of Tata Steel stated. In order to provide further support to run and manage a global sale process, Tata Steels European operations has appointed Standard Chartered bank as an additional advisor to the process to ensure the coverage and reach of the universe of potential buyers, especially to Asia.

They will work alongside KPMG LLP, whose appointment was announced last week. Over the last seven days, the advisors to Tata Steel Europe have begun initial exploration of interest in Tata Steels UK operations reaching out to 190 potential financial and industrial investors worldwide.

More detailed information sharing will commence this week as the process moves into the confidential phase. Over the last 7 days, the advisers to Tata Steel Europe have begun initial exploration of interest in Tata Steel's UK operations reaching out to 190 potential financial and industrial investors worldwide," it said, according to a PTI report.
Tata Steel has adopted a five-day work week from February 1, 2016 in order to promote work-life balance among employees. Suresh Dutt Tripathi, Vice President-HRM, Tata Steel said that this this transition was not only to bring in collaboration and cultural assimilation across geographies & functions but also to increase productive work hours, productivity, improve safety, reduce cost, reduce carbon footprint and enhance work-life balance.

"In line with our aspiration to continue to be an employer of choice, with a highly engaged workforce, operating in a culture that focuses on safety, productivity, cost, environment, without compromising on work-life balance, there was a need for transition to a '5 Day Work Week'," said Tripathi.

Read more from our special coverage on "TATA STEEL," Cameron likely to hold emergency meet on Tata Steel UK business

This was also further corroborated by the company on the basis of feedback received from employee engagement surveys and various internal dialogues. The company has implemented this initiative across all offices at locations of Tata Steel India. However it does not include shift working.

Apart from this, Tata Steel has put into place a number to provide work-life balance for employees. These include Satellite Office Operation, Sabbatical policy, Additional Privilege Leave, Paternity Leave, Honeymoon package for newly married, Activities under Adventure Foundation among others.

Tripathi said that satellite office operation is a good example of flexible working not only for women employees but all employees who have a need due to spouse having been transferred or taking up an assignment which is in another location. Currently, the maternity leave is provided to the expecting mother up to 22 weeks. However, Tripathi said that there are several provisions for the working mothers at Tata Steel to enable them to take care of her child.

These include leave provision up to a maximum of four months for women employees who are unable to resume duty on the expiry of maternity leave. Once the women employee joins back from maternity leave she is allowed in course of her daily work, 'two breaks' of 45 minutes each (can be taken together) for nursing the child until the child attains the age of fifteen months.

"We are currently working on a number of other policies which will give an excellent environment to women employees for having a great work life balance," he explained. Lady executives are entitled for Additional Privilege Leave of 15 days per year. It can be utilized, if their child under the age of 5 years is sick and needs full time attention of mother.
said Monday it has reached out to 190 potential financial and industrial investors for selling its UK assets, while appointing Standard Chartered Bank as an additional advisor to scout for buyers in Asia and the Far East.

It also said that Executive Chairman of Europe's Long Products Europe business Bimlendra Jha will be appointed as CEO of UK.

"In order to provide further support to run and manage a global sale process, Tata Steel Europe has appointed Standard Chartered bank as an additional adviser to the process to ensure the coverage and reach of the universe of potential buyers, especially to Asia and the Far East," it said.

They will work alongside KPMG LLP, whose appointment was announced on April 11, the statement added.

"Over the last 7 days, the advisers to Tata Steel Europe have begun initial exploration of interest in Tata Steel's UK operations reaching out to 190 potential financial and industrial investors worldwide," it said.

More detailed information sharing will commence this week as the process moves into the confidential phase, it added.

With initiation of the sale process for UK business, the plan of Tatas to play a leading role in UK's once-storied sector, which the Indian conglomerate had entered nearly a decade ago with a $14-billion takeover with much fanfare, is coming to an end.

Tatas entered UK's steel sector, that once dominated the British economy, in early 2007 with acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus after a fiercely fought takeover battle with Brazil's CSN -- which till date remains the biggest ever overseas acquisition by an Indian group.

Last week, Tata Steel UK appointed KPMG LLC as process advisor for the "thorough, but expedited sale" of its entire shareholding in its subsidiary Tata Steel UK, which includes Britain's largest steel plant at Port Talbot.

At the same time the embattled firm announced signing of an agreement to sell its Long Products Europe business to family investment office, Greybull Capital.

Jha, who is currently Executive Chairman of Tata Steel Europe's Long Products Europe business, successfully led the divestment process that resulted in the signing of a sale and purchase agreement with Greybull Capital on April 11.

In his new position, he will report to Tata Steel Europe CEO Hans Fischer, Tata Steel Europe said in a statement.

Jha will be supported by a team of executives drawn across functions including operations, procurement, finance, human resources and commercial, it added.

Group Executive Director of Tata Steel Koushik Chatterjee said: "Today's announcement by Tata Steel Europe will ensure the full focus on the vital tasks that lie ahead of Tata Steel UK."



Jha's successful experience of the process of divestment of Long Products Europe will be invaluable as Tata Steel Europe explores strategic alternatives for its operations in the UK, he added.

"He will be supported by a team with immense operating experience of the UK business. To deliver greater clarity for all key stakeholders such as employees, customers and suppliers, it is important for the new team to seek all credible options in a time bound manner," Chatterjee said.
The planned sale of Tata Steels European long products business to Greybull Capital will be credit-positive and it will help the Indian company lower cash burn, India Ratings has said.

However, the ratings agency expects the uncertain timelines associated with the sale of the overall loss-making UK steel business to delay the expected recovery in its credit profile. Maintenance capex in Europe would also decline significantly after the deal. The agencys rating view on the company is on a consolidated basis and the rating approach factors in a one-notch uplift for its strong operational and strategic linkages with the Tata Group.

A complete exit from the UK can translate into positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for Tata Steels profits in the overseas operations and improve its long-term cash flow visibility, India Ratings said.

While the leverage levels are unlikely to see any direct reduction from the sale of the long products business, its Ebitda losses from Europe will be curtailed, which will facilitate a gradual de-leveraging of the company. During the nine months ended December 31, 2015, Tata Steels European operations reported an Ebitda loss of Rs 339 crore, largely on account of its loss-making UK operations.

The UK assets have a combined steelmaking capacity of 10.2 million tonnes (mt) distributed across Port Talbot (blast furnace, flat products), Scunthorpe (blast furnace, long products) and Rotherham (electric arc furnace) plants. The sale and purchase agreement Tata Steel has signed covers 4.5 mt long steel products facility at Scunthorpe and other associated long products facilities in the UK. Within Tata Steels portfolio of European assets, these facilities were the least profitable, and, hence, the divestment of these is a positive.

The European region, which includes the UK and the Netherlands, accounts for 52 per cent of Tata Steels total revenues in FY15.
Seeking strong global action against terror networks, India on Monday warned the international community that if it continues to adopt double standards in dealing with the menace there would be serious consequences.

In her address at the Foreign Ministers meeting of RIC (Russia-India-China), External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the grouping must lead the world in fighting terrorism.

Swaraj's remarks came after she raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, before the trilateral, the issue of China blocking India's bid at the UN to have Jaish-e-Mohammad chief and alleged Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist.

India believes that the foremost challenge to international security continues to be posed by international terrorism. The RIC countries must lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN, Swaraj said.

We must not fail in this regard. If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole, she said.

Let me also touch upon the issue of reform of UN Security Council, on which there has been some positive movement with a text being put for the first time on the table for inter-governmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue. I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN process forward, she said.

Regarding swarajs meeting with her Chinese counterpart, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the minister emphasised that as common victims of terrorism, China and India should cooperate in combating the challenge posed by terrorism. It was agreed that the two sides would remain in touch on this matter.
A special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) on Monday against liquor baron Vijay Mallya. With the warrant issued, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to send an official request to Interpol through the Central Bureau of Investigation for Mallyas arrest within a week, a senior ED official told Business Standard.

An Interpol notice is an international alert, allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.

The preparation for sending a letter rogatory request to ministry of external affairs (MEA) for foreign judicial assistance is also at an advanced stage and will be despatched in a week, said the ED official.

The ED had moved the court last Friday seeking NBW after Mallya failed to appear before the agency despite three summons sent to him.

Soon after this, his Kingfisher Airlines filed an application in the court on Monday, claiming the allegations made by the enforcement agency that Mallya had diverted Rs 430 crore of an Bank loan to acquire assets outside the country, was false and incorrect. The special court rejected Kingfisher Airlines plea. Kingfisher Airlines counsel Amit Desai argued the alleged Rs 430 crore was utilised in legitimate expenses and was noted in the balance sheet of the company.

He claimed former group chief financial officer R Nedungadi and Kingfisher Airlines CFO A Raghunathan appeared before the enforcement agency on behalf of the company and furnished audited accounts of Kingfisher Airlines for 2009-10.

Desai also told the court that the Kingfisher officials had also provided details of foreign remittances done by the airline during the year.

Responding to the arguments, the ED counsel Hiten Vengaonkar said, You cant monitor my application and its purpose, and for verification of the documents in person appearance is required.



The ED, in the special court, also pointed out the secret details of the money lying in Mallyas overseas accounts in the respective period when the loan was sanctioned.

Business Standard reviewed the copy of the warrant application filed before the court by the ED.

MALLYA ON ED RADAR ED to send request to Interpol via CBI for Mallyas deportation

Also preparing letter rogatory to get Mallyas foreign assets and bank account details, via MEA

Had issued three summons for a personal appearance to Mallya, which he skipped

Alleged Rs 423-crore Bank loan was siphoned off to create properties

Identified recipients/beneficiaries along with their bank accounts

Submitted list of Mallyas domestic and foreign properties, bank account details to PMLA court THE STORY SO FAR Oct 2015: CBI files criminal case against Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines,A Raghunathan and officials

CBI files criminal case against Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines,A Raghunathan and officials Dec 2015: CBI questions Mallya

CBI questions Mallya Mar 2016: Mallya leaves for London

Mallya leaves for London Mar 7, 2016: ED registers an ECIR under PMLA against Mallya, KFA and others

ED registers an ECIR under PMLA against Mallya, KFA and others Mar 18, Apr 2 and Apr 9: Mallya does not appear in person at ED

Mallya does not appear in person at ED Apr 15: MEA suspends Mallyas passport for four weeks

MEA suspends Mallyas passport for four weeks Apr 16: ED seeks non-bailable warrant against Mallya

ED seeks non-bailable warrant against Mallya Apr 18: PMLA court issues warrant

It said, out of the total loan of Rs 950 crore, sanctioned and disbursed by IDBI Bank, Rs 423 crore had been remitted out of India.

The agency submitted crucial details in a sealed envelope, which comprised a list of properties abroad which Mallya created from the proceeds, bank account details of 2009-10 and statements of Kingfisher Airlines and others admitting how Mallya diverted IDBI Bank loan for his own activities.

The application explained that the restructuring of the IDBI Bank loan was carried out in December 2010 and during the restructuring, an amount of Rs 1,303.2 crore was initially converted into convertible preferential shares of Rs 553.10 crore and non-convertible preferential shares of Rs 750.1 crore. These were later converted into equity shares of Kingfisher Airlines.

The warrant application given to investigative officer of this case quoted one of the Kingfisher official saying, Whenever Mallya calls, he calls from his UK number.



The warrant application also stated that the Kingfisher official had submitted various documents pertaining to the company and also details of Mallyas properties located in India and abroad.

The application highlighted how Mallya evaded appearing in person despite three summons and had informed the ED that he was outside India to attend to certain prior commitments in Europe which were planned earlier and requested for permission to appear in the ED office in early April 2016. Mallya also said he was in active negotiations with various European entities for honouring his offer of one-time settlement with the consortium of banks, which had given loans to Kingfisher Airlines, and hence he was required to remain in Europe to achieve the crucial objective.

In its concluding remarks in the NBW application, ED said that Mallya had been actively involved in generation of proceeds of crime through the scheduled offence and subsequent layering and laundering of the same.

So far, scrutiny of the documents by ED officials in this case revealed that the loans sanctioned were not backed by quality collateral.

These apart, the brand value of Kingfisher was one of the collaterals, which was valued at Rs 3,406 crore, which appears unreasonable and is not in sync with the general trend.

There is a possibility that these properties are acquired from the proceeds of crime involved in the present offence and also there is possibility that Mallya may alienate and/or dispose of the same, thereby creating hurdles in the investigation completely frustrating the proceedings under anti-money laundering acts, according to the application.
The controversy over one of Indias long-cherished treasures, the 105-carat Kohinoor diamond, may finally achieve some official, if not emotional, closure with the Indian government deciding not to stake its claim to the famed rock because "it was neither stolen nor forcibly taken away".

The return of to India has been a long-standing demand, with many claiming that the diamond was taken forcibly. The fight to get back the diamond has been ongoing since India's independence. Business Standard takes a look at the legend of the Kohinoor diamond, which has become a symbol for India's past riches, and their plunder by successive rulers.

Ownership of the diamond



After the subjugation of Punjab in 1849 by British forces, the properties of the Sikh Empire were confiscated. The Kohinoor was transferred to the treasury of the British East India Company in Lahore. The diamond was shipped to Britain and was handed to Queen Victoria in July 1850. It was cut to improve its brilliance and was mounted into Queen Victorias crown. The diamond now sits in the Tower of London along with the Crown Jewels.

People of India have longed for the return of Kohinoor for years. Many Indians demanded the return of the diamond when Elizabeth II made a state visit to India to mark the 50th anniversary of India's independence from Britain in 1997.

The Indian government, believing the gem was rightfully theirs, made the first demand for the return of the soon after independence. A second request followed in 1953, the year of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Each time, the British government refuted the claims, saying that ownership was non-negotiable.

In 2000, several members of the Indian Parliament signed a letter calling for the diamond to be given back to India, claiming it was taken illegally. British officials said that a variety of claims meant it was impossible to establish the gem's original owner.

A similar demand was made during UK Prime Minister David Camerons visit to India, to which he responded that he doesnt believe in "returnism".

Cameron said that it is not the right approach to return the diamond to India and said, "If you say yes to one you suddenly find the British Museum would be empty. I am afraid to say, it is going to have to stay put."



What the Indian government has to say



On April 18, 2016, the government of India said that India should not stake claim to the diamond. According to a report by India Today, Centre's counsel, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, told the apex court that the 105.602 carats diamond was handed over to the East India Company by Maharaja Ranjit Singh after he lost in the 1849 Sikh War.

Kumar cited a 43-year-old law that does not allow the government to bring back antiquities taken out of the country before independence. Under the provisions of the Antiquities and Art Treasure Act, 1972, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) takes up the issue of retrieval of only such antiquities as have been illegally exported out of the country.

The matter finally goes to court



A petition was filed by All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front in the Supreme Court, asking the Centre to disclose its stand on bringing back the diamond. The petition had said that the government was not making efforts to bring the diamond back.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the government, said this was the stand of the Culture Ministry.

Chief Justice T S Thakur asked the Centre if it wants the case to be dismissed as they would face a problem in the future when putting forward any legitimate claim.

Who owns the diamond, anyway?



It is not just India that is claiming ownership of the diamond; the list includes Pakistan and Aghanistan, too.
The Gujarat International Financial Tec-city Company (GIFT City) has told the high court in Ahmedabad that a public interest suit filed against it was an abuse of the process of law. The petitioner, D C Anjaria, 69, a former independent director and audit committee chairman, claims to have presented the project to the state government 10 years ago.

GIFT City is a 50:50 joint venture between Gujarat Urban Development, a state government undertaking, and publicly held Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS). The HC had issued notices to GIFT City on Anjarias petition in February.

Anjaria had filed the suit in December, alleging various irregularities and praying that a Special Investigation Team be formed to investigate how the interest of the state has been allegedly compromised. The suit also alleged irregularities in awarding of consultancies. GIFT City, a favoured project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is being marketed as the first 'global financial hub' in the country. A part of the city was notified as a multi-services special economic zone, for development of an international financial services centre.

On the suit, GIFT City said The petition has been filed with malice and to serve the personal interest of the petitioner. Adding: The petitioner sometime around the beginning of the year 2010 had proposed the setting up of a specialist training institute by the name of Indian Institute of Financial Services, within the GIFT City project. In this regard, the petitioner had approached IL&FS for assistance in setting up of the said institute and for financing the same.



In this regard, various e-mails were exchanged between the petitioner and IL&FS, the company said. However, it appears the petitioner did not succeed in getting help for setting up of the said institute within the GIFT City Project.



According to GIFT, the issue of selection of IL&FS raised in the petition had been put to rest by a HC decision in 2013 itself. Further, it argued, Anjaria did not raise the issues of irregularities during the several board meetings he attended till 2011.

The Special Purpose Vehicle has also contended that it was not an arm of the state and therefore not amenable to the writ jurisdiction of the court. It added no rule was flouted in the hiring of consultants. It also denied that the JV agreement dated May 2007 was in violation of the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Act, 1999. The Act, it said, applied only to financing, construction, maintenance and operation of infrastructure projects awarded by way of a concession agreement to a person. It argued that the incorporation of GIFT was governed by the Companies Act.

In a rejoinder to the GIFT City reply, Anjaria reiterated that the petition deserved to be admitted. His contention is illegalities, diversion of funds and loss to public exchequer. He says he's been continuously raising these issues since 2011 and was restricted by lack of information, allegedly withheld by the management. He reiterated that GIFT City was 'State' within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India. According to Anjaria, the GIFT City response was based on only one element of equity interest of the Gujarat Government/GUDC.

However, the company has to pass all tests under Article 12 of the Constitution which it does (not) and is State within that article. He says the law on the comptroller and auditor general's ambit and of the Right to Information Act both apply, as GIFT is substantially financed by the state government.
In what could help farmers using solar powered water pumps for irrigation in to earn some extra money, the state government is considering the possibility of connecting them to the grid.According to sources close to the development, the idea is under primary stage of consideration and could be implemented soon, if found viable.As on date nearly 4,000 solar water pumps have been distributed to the farmers and all these are off grid and farmers are using surplus power for other purpose at their farms. The idea of connecting it to the grid, according to state government sources, is to provide an additional source of income to farmers."Farmers who have installed solar water pumps have been using surplus power for other purposes at their farms. Connecting to the grid will provide opportunity to earn from excess power supply to farmers. The idea is under consideration at this time," a state energy department official told Business Standard.It should be mentioned here that with the help of Madhya Vij Company Limited (MGVCL) and International Water Management Institute (IWMI) had conducted a similar project at Thamna village in Anand district of central . IWMI has set up a demonstration project in the village, as a viable business model for farmers who wish to harvest solar energy and add to their agricultural incomes.Currently the state government provides solar water pumps to farms where it is unable to provide connections to the farmers.

Under this, farmers get 75-80 per cent subsidy on cost of solar water pump while farmers have to pay 20-25 per cent cost of the pump. Government has been installing solar water pumps with capacity of 1 to 5 horsepower (hp) pumps which cost around Rs 100,000-500,000 including installation and maintenance for five years. After that, farmers have to bear all the cost related to preservation. Govind Patel, minister of state for energy and petrochemicals, Gujarat government said: "Connecting farmers to the grid is matter of verification. As of now, government is providing solar power driven water pumps at the areas where government is unable to give electricity connections to the farmers."

The state government is supplying power at subsidised rate of 60 paisa per unit for each connection given to the agriculture. But as providing conventional energy to farmers has not been a profitable business for the state, it is pushing for the solar water pump scheme.
and AES India Private Limited announced an agreement to construct a 10 Mw energy storage array at Panasonic's Technopark manufacturing facility in Jhajjar, Haryana.

This joint project is the first large-scale battery-based energy storage project in India. "The storage will provide daily reliability and back-up to the manufacturing facility, while demonstrating grid stability and renewable integration services in the region," the company said in a statement.



Panasonic is India's leading lithium-ion battery supplier and AES India is one of major owner and operator of energy storage projects across the world, operating 116 Mw of energy storage projects around the globe.

"Panasonic India's partnership with AES signifies the convergence of synergies to deliver reliable, cost-competitive solutions to meet growing energy demand. Set to transform the energy storage landscape, looks forward to this association, which will help offer grid stability and improved ancillary services," said Manish Sharma, executive officer of Panasonic Corporation and president & chief executive officer of .



"We are excited to bring Advancion, the most proven energy storage system available globally, to India," said Marty Crotty, President of AES' Strategic Business Unit in Asia. "Panasonic delivers high quality, cost-effective batteries and is a great partner to be working with as we demonstrate the value of large-scale energy storage to commercial and industrial customers, renewable developers, utilities, and the grid operator."
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has iterated its stance on auctioning all available spectrum in the 700-MHz band in an upcoming sale.

said in a response to the department of telecommunications (DoT) if all the available spectrum was put to auction it would help serve larger a subscriber base and increase data speeds.

Besides, this would result in more recurring revenue to the government in licence fees, spectrum use charges and service tax, it added. The Telecom Commission (TC), the policy-making body of the DoT, had reverted to over its recommendations on reserve prices for auction of spectrum. An internal committee of the DoT was not in favour of auctioning the entire available spectrum in the 700 MHz band, which will be sold for the first time.

STICKING TO GUNS An internal committee of the DoT was not in favour of auctioning the entire available spectrum in the 700-MHz band, which will be sold for the first time

According to the paper, the cost of delivering mobile services in the 700- MHz band is 70 per cent lower than in the 2,100-MHz band widely used for 3G telecom services

Broadband connectivity is a pillar of the Digital India programme, which can be fulfilled quickly if sufficient spectrum is made available. India is way behind in broadband penetration and Internet speed and the 700 MHz band can be critical for spreading connectivity. According to the Trai paper, the cost of delivering mobile services in the 700 MHz band is 70 per cent lower than in the 2,100 MHz band widely used for 3G telecom services.

The entire spectrum in the 700 MHz band is required to be made available for commercial use without any delay, Trai said in a letter to the DoT. It also said if a service provider was not using administratively assigned spectrum without justification, it should be taken back. The government plans a round of spectrum auction in the second half of 2016. After Trais response, the Telecom Commission will meet again to finalise its views and will send its recommendations to the Cabinet. Ratings firm ICRA expects spectrum worth Rs 60,000-80,000 crore will be sold in this auction, which will add to the sizeable debts of the industry. The auction has the potential to fetch the government Rs 5.36 lakh crore.
woke Monday to deep political crisis after lawmakers authorised impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, sparking claims that democracy was under threat in Latin America's biggest country.

Opposition deputies in the lower house of Congress needed 342 of the 513 votes, or a two thirds majority, to send Rousseff to the Senate, which will now decide whether to open a trial. They got there near midnight yesterday after five hours of voting.

Read more from our special coverage on "BRAZIL" Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff faces threat of coalition implosion

Wild cheering and a burst of confetti erupted from opposition ranks at the 342nd vote, countered by furious jeering from Rousseff allies in a snapshot of the bitter mood consuming just four months before Rio de Janeiro hosts the Olympics.

Presidential chief of staff Jacques Wagner accused deputies of voting for impeachment without proving that the leftist president, who is accused of illegally manipulating budget figures, had committed a serious crime.

"In this way, the Chamber of Deputies is threatening to interrupt 30 years of democracy in the country," he said, referring to the end of a military dictatorship in 1985.

"It was a coup against democracy," Rousseff's attorney general, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, said.

Cardozo said that Rousseff -- who was imprisoned and tortured under military rule in the 1970s -- would give her first public reaction today.

It was expected to be a euphoric reaction from the financial markets which have been betting heavily on a Rousseff exit and the advent of a more business-friendly government to kickstart Brazil's flailing economy.

Outside Congress, where tens of thousands of people were watching giant TV screens, the split was echoed on a mass scale -- with opposition supporters partying and Rousseff loyalists in despair.

"I am happy, happy, happy. I spent a year demonstrating in hope that Dilma would be brought down," said retiree Maristela de Melo, 63.

But Rousseff supporter Mariana Santos, 23, burst into tears, saying the vote was "a disgrace for our country."



Several thousand police stood by and the rival camps were separated by a long metal wall.
The lower house of Brazil's parliament has voted in favour of impeaching President Dilma Rousseff, a move that could see the country's first female leader removed from power.

After over five hours of voting late Sunday night, more than 342 lawmakers, the two-thirds majority required by law, have voted in favour of impeachment, CNN reported.

More than 130 lawmakers have voted against it.

The 513 legislators voted one by one, all of them given 30 seconds to speak before casting their ballots.

The impeachment motion will now go to the Senate which will vote whether to open a trial against the president.

If a majority approves it, Rousseff will have to step down for 180 days to defend herself in the trial. She would be replaced by Vice President Michel Temer, leader of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) who broke away from the government two weeks ago and decided to support the process leading to Rousseff's dismissal.

If the Senate approves the impeachment motion, Rousseff could be suspended as early as May which would be about three months before the Summer Olympics start in Rio de Janeiro, an event that was supposed to showcase Brazil as a rising power on the global stage.

Thousands of pro- and anti-impeachment protesters gathered in the capital Brasilia and other cities to watch the dramatic vote, broadcast live on national television.

Advocates for impeachment dressed in yellow and green at protests across the country.

Pro-government supporters wore red, the colours of Rousseff's Workers' Party.

Lawmakers have accused Rousseff of hiding a budgetary deficit to win re-election in 2014.

Opponents blamed Rousseff for the worst recession since the 1930s, now in its second year.

She is also held accountable for a massive bribery and corruption scandal that has engulfed dozens of politicians in the Workers' Party and coalition government.

Rousseff's exit would mark the end of an era for the Workers' Party, which assumed the presidential office in 2004 with the election of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who remained in office for two terms.
Oil prices tumbled on Monday after a meeting by major exporters in Qatar collapsed without an agreement to freeze output, leaving the credibility of the Opec producer cartel in tatters and the world awash with unwanted fuel.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran were blamed for the failure, which revived industry fears that major government-controlled producers will increase their battle for market share by offering ever-steeper discounts.

Opecs credibility to coordinate output is now very low, said Peter Lee of BMI Research, a unit of rating agency Fitch. This isnt just about oil for the Saudis. Its as much about regional politics.



Morgan Stanley said that the failed deal underscores the poor state of Opec relations, adding that we now see a growing risk of higher Opec supply, especially as Saudi Arabia threatened it could hike output following the failed deal.

Oil prices have fallen by as much as 70 per cent since mid-2014 as producers have pumped 1 to 2 million barrels of crude every day in excess of demand, leaving storage tanks around the world filled to the rims with unsold fuel.

Sundays meeting in Qatars capital Doha had been expected to finalise a deal to freeze output at January levels until October 2016 in an attempt to slow that ballooning oversupply. But the agreement fell apart after top exporter Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran, which was not represented, should also sign up.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shia Islamic republic of Iran compete for influence in the Middle East, where they are currently fighting proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

Brent crude futures fell almost 7 per cent in early trading on Monday before recovering to $40.97 per barrel at 0647 GMT, still down 2.15 per cent since their last settlement. Traders said only an oil worker strike in Kuwait had prevented Brent from tumbling below $40 per barrel, while a cut in US drilling down to 2009 levels had prevented steeper falls there.

Benchmark US crude futures were down more than 5 per cent at $38.31 a barrel.

Goldman Sachs said the Doha no-deal could a bearish catalyst for US crude prices, which it forecast would average $35 a barrel in the current quarter. Analysts said that the failed agreement would also impact the broader .

In the near-term, lower oil prices are bound to weigh on investor confidence and could exacerbate financial volatility, said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC. Concerns over financial stability in the energy sector and a further fall in drilling capex are headwinds to growth against an already fragile global economic backdrop.



With producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia pumping near record levels and Iran also increasing output following the lifting of sanctions against it last January, there is no end in sight for the global oil glut.

Iran was the only Opec member not to attend the Doha talks.

Despite calls on Saudi Arabia to save the agreement, Riyadh, Opecs de facto leader, insisted that all 13 members must take part in any freeze.

It seems that for the Saudis politics and national pride are still more important than the price of oil, said Ralph Leszczynski of shipbroker Banchero Costa.

Iran has refused to stabilise production, seeking to regain market share post-sanctions.

Iran has no reason to auto-sanction themselves when they are just trying to get back some of the market share they lost in recent years due the western-imposed sanctions, Leszczynski added.

While tumbling oil prices hurt producers, straining the budgets of energy exporters from Russia to Malaysia, they can also benefit consumers.

Asked whether the failed talks could result in further crude supply discounts for his company, Daniel Purba of Indonesias Pertamina, a major importer of refined products, said: We hope so.



As a result of the failure at Doha, Barclays said that Brent would likely average $36 per barrel during the second quarter of this year as a global glut continued unabated.

This meeting and its outcome should have built... trust among producers for possible future cooperation and coordinated action. In this regard, the meeting was a complete failure, Barclays said, adding that the failure of the talks gives the market another clear indication that Opecs relevance in this market environment has faded.
Stuart Gulliver, chief executive officer of HSBC Holdings Plc, will stand down in two years as the UK bank replaces its top leadership, according to the Sunday Times. The lender has started compiling a list of internal candidates and will also consider external applicants, the London-based newspaper said, citing people it didn't identify. The bank plans to appoint a new chairman first to help choose the next CEO, the Sunday Times reported, after HSBC said last month that it plans to nominate a successor to Chairman Douglas Flint next year. HSBC is revamping the board after coming under ...
The death toll from earthquakes that struck southern Japan rose to 42 and the economic impact began to reverberate Monday as companies surveyed damage and the potential effects on production from supply-chain disruptions. The quakes may add to the case for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to increase fiscal stimulus and postpone a planned increase in the nation's sales tax. Abe has said only an economic shock on the scale of the 2008 global financial crisis or the 2011 quake and tsunami in the country's northeast would justify delaying the levy hike. Even before this latest disaster, ...
The urge of marketers in India to promote their goods and services is expected to propel the countrys growth rate by a significant margin in 2016. According to media agency Carat, which is part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, Indias 2016 growth rate will be the fastest at 12 per cent, ahead of the global average of 4.5 per cent. It will also better Indias performance last year, when the growth rate was 11 per cent.

In a report on Monday, Carat says Indias ad growth rate will also be ahead of most other markets including the US (4.7 per cent), the UK (6.2 per cent), Russia (0.2 per cent), China (5.8 per cent), Japan (1.8 per cent), and Brazil (6.8 per cent).

It needs to be mentioned that the size of Indias advertising market, vis-a-vis global majors, is small at Rs 50,000 crore. So, while a higher rate of growth is in part due to a small base, Carat notes that advertisers in India in general are spending more on brand promotions as they seek to induce top-of-mind recall in a competitive market.

Also, the burgeoning e-commerce and start-up ecosystem in India has ensured that the number of advertisers in India is growing, experts tracking the market said, fuelling the countrys domestic rate of growth.

Carat expects Indias ad growth rate to gain steam next year, touching 13.9 per cent. If this is achieved, it will effectively make it the third straight year of double-digit growth rate for India from an advertising point of view. This will imply that advertisers will remain optimistic of business growth and will likely spend more on ads.

Other key categories such as auto, handsets, retail and real estate continue to see a flurry of launches, prompting high brand spends, while telecom would also see higher ad spends led by 4G, experts said.

While Indias ad market is skewed towards traditional media such as television and print, which remain dominant advertising vehicles here, digital is growing, Carat says, with online video expected to act as a key catalyst of growth. Indias growing mobile phone base (it is already the second-largest smartphone market in the world after China) is expected to fuel digital advertising, led in part by the growth in 4G services, experts said.

TV advertising, says Carat, is expected to grow at 12.3 per cent this calendar year, while print advertising is projected to grow at 10.5 per cent. The primary contributors to this growth in TV and print will include e-commerce, FMCG, auto, retail and state government spending notably around the elections this year.
has dipped 7% to Rs 1,236 on the BSE in early morning trade amid media reports that the company has been accused by Germanys health regulator of fudging data on clinical trials of an antibiotic and brain disorder drug.

On clarification of report, said after the inspection of March 2015 by German regulator, the Federal Institute of Drug and Medical Devices (BfArM), Alkem has responded to the regulator with a robust remedial plan and has also been implementing several measures which include changes in staffing, upgrading equipment and improving quality assurance systems to ensure proper controls during bioequivalence studies and thorough review of the acquired data.

Currently sales from Europe contribute less than 1% to Alkems total consolidated sales for 9MFY16, it added.

In March, the UKs Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) made eight observations following an inspection at the Taloja plant. Alkem had then said it was responding to the UK health regulators observations and did not anticipate any impact on the products it supplies to Europe at present.

At 09:44 am, the stock was down 5% at Rs 1,265 as compared to 0.23% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 195,033 shares changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE.

Currently, the stock is trading close to lowest level since its listing in December last year. It touched a low of Rs 1,232 on February 26, 2016 in intra-day trade.

Generic drug maker Alkem Labs had raised Rs 1,350 crore through initial public offer by issuing shares at price of Rs 1,050 per share.
It is common with people of once colonial powers to recall past achievements even though these might not have any political or economic significance. No wonder, then, that some British commentators are invoking 19th century innovator Henry Bessemer as their country's much-shrunken steel industry is facing an existential crisis. The Bessemer converter, which allows blowing of oxygen through pig iron to remove impurities such as carbon and silicon, was the first inexpensive process of steel-making on a commercial scale.

Betraying pain, some are recalling the time in the the late 19th century when Britain had about 40 per cent share of world production. Our own IISCO plant at Burnpur, now comprehensively rebuilt, hosted the last vestiges of Bessemer converters into the 1990s. Since the invention of the process, much water has flown down the Thames, the Chinese Yangtze and rivers in other steel-producing countries, including India. The economics editor of Sky News, Ed Conway, has put the scene in perspective by saying the 1.6 billion tonnes (bt) of steel the UK has produced since the Bessemer breakthrough equals China's production in the past two years.

Most industry officials, union leaders and politicians in Britain, now much in focus because of Tata Steel's decision to sell all its UK operations if buyers are found or otherwise go for wholesale closure, are holding Chinese imports largely responsible for the crisis. As the chorus of protests against China grows in Britain, where around 24,000 jobs, including 15,000 at Tata Steel UK plants, are on the line, China is finally in the field to say it should not be made a scapegoat for the deepening crisis in the British industry. In a fairly strongly-worded article published in The Daily Telegraph aimed at rebutting the criticism of imports as the prime cause of the British steel meltdown, the Chinese ambassador Liu Xiaoming said the irrefutable fact is producers in the UK are "less competitive and less profitable" in low value steel products. The Conservative government and the Buckingham Palace went out in an unprecedented kowtowing to President Xi Jinping when he visited the UK in October 2015 for $46 billion of Chinese investment and deals. But, the red carpet was laid out when the British steel industry was said to be cowering under imports, particularly from China.

This provoked a Labour Member of Parliament to say British trade policy was in "hock to China". The British disposition led China specialist James McGregor to say "if you act like a panting puppy, the object of your attention is going to think they have got you on a leash." It is only to be expected that the Chinese diplomat will deny dumping allegations even while the European Union initiated three anti-dumping allegations into Chinese products in February. The US also put preliminary anti-dumping duties on imports of cold-rolled steel from China and other countries. Luckily for China, not everyone in Britain is supportive of high tariff walls to ward off steel dumping. Like The Economist writes: "In general, anti-dumping duties are unwise because they penalise consumers and lead to tit-for-tat protection." Taking the argument further, it suggests that steel being a globally traded commodity, stopping China would not help as the material would still come from other places.

Arguing along the same lines, Liu says the cost competitiveness of British automobile manufacturers has improved because of use of imported steel. Will it, then, make sense for the UK to punish a vibrant automobile industry to save jobs in a decaying steel industry? According to Liu, British steel makers are paying the price for the country's shift to the services sector, leading to a fall in metal demand from the manufacturing industry.

Unlike the steel industry in some other high-cost regions, producers in Britain have not migrated from commodity to specialised products. The fact is, by paying high wages, electricity bill and taxes prevailing in Britain, producers of commodity steel will only see losses mounting. Tata Steel's UK operations made a loss of $1.2 billion on a turnover of $5.94 billion in 2014-15. The pain of making commodity steel when prices stay low over a long period is excruciating. Very large surplus world capacity in a slow demand growth situation has done great damage to the steel economy.
The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday modified the order of the Madras High Court, which had partly allowed Financial Technologies (India) Ltd or to use its assets. SC allowed to use funds for its day-to-day functions and wages. It asked the Company Law Board (CLB, a quasi-judicial body), where the dispute between the firm and the government is pending, to speed up its disposal.

Last year, the corporate affairs ministry had asked CLB to allow government nominees to replace existing directors to prevent alleged fraud and breach of trust following a Rs 5,600-crore scam. It wanted to merge with National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).

In an interim order, CLB had directed the firm not to alienate its assets or create third-party rights. The Madras High Court partly modified the curb and restricted the bar only to immovable property.

The government asked SC to restore the CLB order. Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said the government wanted to protect investors and FTIL should not create any third-party interest through any transaction in assets and investments.

Opposing the government's appeal, counsel for the firm A M Singhvi and Amit Sibal argued the CLB order had crippled FTIL's functioning. The company dealt with software licensing only. It was now not able to carry out its day-to-day functions because of the curbs, the counsel argued.

SC allowed use of funds for normal business activity. But no third-party rights should be created, it said. CLB will hear the case on May 6. It will deal with the main issues raised by the company and the government.

FTIL on Monday said it had been temporarily restrained from disposing its assets or creating third-party rights. "SC has not expressed any view on the merits of the matter. The CLB will decide the issue of whether this restraint should continue or not on May 6. FTIL can continue its day-to-day operations," FTIL said.

SC was surprised that the Madras High Court had intervened on an interim order of the CLB. Lawyers told the court that certain aspects of the case were also before the Bombay High Court, where FTIL had challenged the government proposal to merge NSEL with it. The high court had reportedly stayed the merger in an interim order.

The government approached CLB after the alleged payment fraud came to light in July 2013 at NSEL, in which FTIL held a 99 per cent stake.
One of the reasons global equity markets, especially emerging markets, steadied was on account of oil prices stabilising after touching multi-year lows of near $25 a barrel. Oil prices, in turn, paused and moved higher on news of production freeze by some major oil producers. Michael ORourke, chief market strategist at Jones Trading, said that crudes rally this year was not due to rising demand but rather fuelled by repeated speculation that a deal for a production cut would be reached in Doha.

With oil markets settling down, withdrawal from emerging markets ETF, believed to be mainly from oil producing countries subsided. But will the current chain of events revive a withdrawal of money from the market?

Oil prices rose by nearly 50% from their lows in February after Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela agreed to freeze output provided other producers were willing to join in. This led to some hope that sanity might prevail in the oil market. Oil markets had seen a sharp decline in prices after Saudi Arabia decided to take the shale revolution in the US head-on by increasing production and bringing down prices to levels which were lower than cost of production of shale oil.

But the resultant outcome of the supply war saw many oil producing countries being hit on account of lower oil prices. As most of these economies are dependent primarily on oil they needed to pump more oil in the market to meet their spending requirements. Most of the population in these economies had not known what a recession looks like; woke up to rude shocks when they saw taxes being imposed and prices being raised on goods which were free a few months back.

Wage cuts, which were unheard of in the West Asia since the oil boom, have been introduced. Over the weekend oil workers in Kuwait went on a strike to protest the plans to cut wages and benefits.

It was on the background of this turmoil that oil market was looking with some hope at the meeting in Doha. But strategically the Americans opened another front for the Saudis to fight by removing the ban on oil production with Iran. In the meeting in Doha, even a production freeze at January levels, let alone a production cut could not be achieved because Iran, the second largest oil producer in the oil cartel refused to attend the meeting.

In a meeting that was attended by Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kuwait and other OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) members, but not Iran, could not reach a decision as Saudi Arabia insisted that there could be no agreement unless Iran froze production too. But Iran wants its production level to reach the pre-ban levels before it would agree on the freeze.

Many experts in the market did not expect any headway in the Doha meet and were betting on a demand pull to revive the oil market. But latest growth forecast does not show any signs of global economy reviving. In fact lower oil prices have hit other energy markets too. Crash in coal prices lead to one of the biggest names in coal industry  Peabody Energy filing for bankruptcy.

As tough the oil supply war was not enough, Saudis are being confronted from another front by the Americans. A bill in the USA is up for discussion on Saudi Arabias role in 9/11 attacks on the USA. Foreign minister of Saudi Arabia Adel al-Jubeir delivered the kingdoms message personally to Washington that his country would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the US before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.

Not only would this affect the Saudi-American fragile relationship off-late, especially in a very vocal election year, but it could also affect both the oil and currency markets. Saudi Arabia as part of an agreement with the USA sells its oil in dollar denominated currency, any further friction can be ruinous if the country decides to stop dealing in dollar which would result in less demand for the greenback. Thankfully, America President Obama will be visiting Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, which many feel will cool temper between the two nations.

Irrespective of the outcome of the meeting between Saudi and Americans, oil prices have very little to look forward to. Natixis oil analyst Abhishek Deshpande said With no deal today, markets' confidence in OPEC's ability to achieve any sensible supply balancing act is likely to diminish and this is surely bearish for the oil markets, where prices had rallied partly on expectations of a deal. Without a deal, the likelihood of markets balancing is now pushed back to mid-2017. We will see a lot of speculators getting out next week," said Deshpande, who added that prices could fall close to $30 per barrel.

If oil prices start falling, equity markets will feel the pressure again as oil producing countries would again dip into their savings to fund their deficits.
The Special Operation Force of the Afghan army on Monday confirmed the capture of a Taliban leader identified as Mullah Khalifa in the country's southern Kandahar province.

A statement issued by the Afghan Defence Ministry said Monday that Khalifa was captured during a night raid on a Taliban hideout in Khakrez district.

Kandahar, which is located some 450 kilometers south of Kabul, is a well known Taliban stronghold.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has condemned the federal government for what he calls, carrying out 'pre-poll rigging', in

Pakistan-administered Kashmir ahead of general elections.

"By selectively doling out development funds to candidates belonging only to the PML-N, the federal government has resorted to the worst form of pre-poll rigging which must not be allowed," Dawn quoted his statement issued here as saying.

"The Pakistan People's Party condemns this devious scheme to manipulate elections and demands this illegal practice to be stopped immediately," he said.

Bilawal asserted that announcing development projects at this point and doling out funds to the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) candidates was equal to buying votes.

Bilawal pressed that announcing development projects at this point and doling out funds to PML-N candidates was equal to buying votes and he was shocked by tricky methods adopted by the federal government to manipulate elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir

"Distributing the Kashmir Council funds among favourites is an insult to the mandate of the people..There also are disturbing reports that non-Kashmiri Pakistani citizens living elsewhere in the country have been registered as voters in various constituencies in connivance with some federal government agencies," he said.

He said that adding new voters in the lists sent by Azad Kashmir Election Commission was not in the domain of Nadra and warned that his party would not permit any gerrymandering in elections.
CarDekho.com, India's leading online automobile portal has launched a 'Priority Digital Dealer' program. The move will help its dealer adopt the latest technologies to deliver services thereby improving used car buying and selling experience of customers.

India's auto market is expected to grow 15.6 percent this year, nearly five times faster than the global growth rate. The used car market is growing at fast rate [in line with global benchmarks and is supposed to become double of new cars over next three years.

However, the entire process of short listing inspecting, test driving, title transfer, and then accessing loans, roadside assistance and warranty is very cumbersome while buying a used car. With this program, dealers will be provided with technology tools that help them address all the pain points of a used car buyer.

Speaking on the new service and its impact, CEO-Used cars CarDekho.com, Rajat Sahni said, "In today's digital-first world, almost 70 percent of buyers start their journey online. We believe that dealers remain at the heart of the car selling . We envision the provision of a seamless end-user experience across online and offline channels and are looking to extend our expertise in technology to our entrepreneurial partners."

The first partner under the programme, Soumya Roy Chaudhary of SRC Motors from Kolkata, said, "The latest move will allow us to extend our brand presence to an online medium and reach to more consumers to drive growth for us. Our will witness incredible growth with this association."

Saurabh Tripathi, National Head - Partner Solutions, CarDekho.com, added, "We have always worked closely with our dealer partners to improve their . With this program, we are looking to partner with the best 100 dealers who want to adopt digital as a medium to grow their business with changing times."

CarDekho.com has been actively working towards building an end-to-end used car buying and selling portal. To help users buy a good car, it launched TrustMark Warranties so that buyers know they are buying a quality car. The portal has verified more than one lakh cars listed on its platform.

Moreover, CarDekho has launched auctions platform to help users liquidate cars more swiftly.

The startup has also launched G-Cloud app to help dealers view their stock, add more used cars, manage leads and provide fair valuation.
The Delhi High Court on Monday stayed the trial court's order allowing de-freezing of accounts of M/s Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd. in connection with the corruption case filed by the CBI against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar.

Kumar is being alleged of abusing his official position to award contracts to M/s Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd. The trial court had on April 5 ordered de-freezing of two bank accounts of the company.

Kejriwal's Principal Secretary had earlier this month moved a special court seeking the release of his laptop, iPad and cash seized by the CBI during the investigation.

The CBI had in December last year raided the office of Rajendra Kumar in the Delhi Secretariat in connection with this case.

The CBI had registered a case against Kejriwal's aide and others on allegations that he had abused his official position and secured the Delhi Government's tenders of Rs. 9.5 crore between 2007 and 2014 to a company. He was booked under Section 120-B of the IPC and under the provisions of the Preventio of Corruption Act.
China has said that convicts found guilty of embezzling or accepting bribes worth 3 million Yuan (about 463,000 U.S. dollars), will be sentenced to death.

However, it said that the handing out of capital punishment would be based on the severity of corruption and its overall impact on society.

The Xinhua news agency said that the ruling was jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

The court said that a two-year suspended death sentence may be issued if there are mitigating factors.

In practice, however, courts tend to be more lenient when sentencing those who have cooperated during the investigation.

In cases where the death penalty may be too strong, convicts may receive a life sentence without commutation or parole, according to the document.

The ruling is a supplement to the Criminal Law, which was revised in late 2015.

The law gives judicial departments more authority to set precise standards, as it is easier to revise a judicial explanation than amend the law.
The Chinese military aircraft has for the first time publicly landed at a new airport on an island built by China in the disputed South China Sea, raising the prospect that the country could base fighter jets there.

The United States has criticised China's construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea and is worried that it plans to use them for military purposes, even though China says it has no hostile intent.

The runway on the Fiery Cross Reef is 3,000 metres (10,000ft) long and is one of the three which China has been building for more than a year.

Civilian flights began test runs there earlier in January.

A military aircraft on patrol over the South China Sea on Sunday received an emergency call to land at Fiery Cross Reef to evacuate three seriously ill workers.

They were taken in the transport aircraft back to Hainan island for treatment.

It was the first time China's military had publicly admitted landing an aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef.

It cited a military expert as saying that the flight showed the airfield was up to military standards and could see fighter jets based there in the event of war.

The runways would be long enough to handle long-range bombers and transport aircraft as well as China's best jet fighters, giving it a presence deep in the maritime heart of south-east Asia that it has lacked until now.

More than five trillion dollars of trade is shipped through the South China sea every year.
Will removing a baby boy's foreskin leave him with reduced sensitivity later in life? No, suggests a recent study.

The research indicated that there are no differences in penile sensitivity for a variety of stimulus types and penile sites between circumcised and intact men.

Additionally, this study challenges past research suggesting that the foreskin is the most sensitive and, in turn, most sexually relevant, part of the adult penis.

When the American Academy of Pediatrics and Canadian Pediatric Society recently revised their policies concerning routine neonatal circumcision, public interest was reignited in this long-running debate.

Focusing on health outcomes, particularly protection against sexually transmitted infections, rather than penile sensitivity, the American policy statement supports routine circumcision of newborn males, while the Canadian policy does not.

"We directly tested whether circumcision is associated with a reduction in penile sensitivity by testing tactile detection, pain, warmth detection, and heat pain thresholds at multiple sites on the penis between groups of healthy (neonatally) circumcised and intact men," explained lead author Jennifer Bossio from the Queen's University.

She added that this study indicates that neonatal circumcision is not associated with changes in penile sensitivity and provides preliminary evidence to suggest that the foreskin is not the most sensitive part of the penis.

"Methodology and results from this study build on previous research and imply that if sexual functioning is related to circumcision status, this relationship is not likely the result of decreased penile sensitivity stemming from neonatal circumcision," observed Ms. Bossio.

The study is reported in The Journal of Urology.
Congress leader Manish Tewari on Monday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his rant of the grand old party in poll-bound West Bengal, saying the progressive forces need to come together to ensure the fundamental values on which India stands do not get diluted.

Tewari said the fundamental battle in this country today is for the soul of India, adding the progressive forces need to come together if and where required.

"The idea is to ensure that the pluralistic ethos of India, the fundamental values on which India stands they do not get diluted," he told ANI here.

Prime Minister Modi yesterday described the electoral understanding between the Left and the Congress as an attempt to 'cheat' the people and a 'sin', which the people of West Bengal and Kerala would not tolerate.

"I am surprised at the Left and Congress. What do they think of people of the State? The Congress has embraced the Left in such a manner that their own colour is appearing red," he said.

Prime Minister Modi blamed the Left and the Congress for the Saradha chit-fund scam, saying they failed to open enough bank branches in the state.

"Had the Congress and the Left opened the doors of the banks to the poor, they would not have put their money in Saradha chit-fund," he said while addressing an election rally at Shahid Minar grounds in Kolkata.
The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who also heads the High-Level Political Coordination Committee to oversee the activities of the CPN-UML-led coalition government, is set to hold talks with agitating Madhesi parties.

Dahal said that he would take the lead in resolving issues raised by Madhesi parties as soon as he returned to Kathmandu, yesterday while addressing different functions outside the capital.

UCPN-M General Secretary Krishna Bahadur Mahara said that Dahal was taking the initiative since the government was least interested in bringing the agitating Madhesi parties on board through talks.

"Though there has been no official decision Chairman Dahal has been taking the initiative to resolve the outstanding Madhesi issues through dialogue," the Himalayan Times quoted Mahara as saying.

Dahal during his meeting with senior Nepali Congress leader Ramchandra Paudel stressed on the need of a working alliance among major parties to address the grievance of Madhesi parties.

Madhesi-based the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) leader Biswonath Sah also said that since there was no alternate to talks in resolving issues raised by the Madhesi parties, his party could act as a mediator as it shared agenda closer to that of Madhesis.

In the recently concluded Central Committee meeting of the CPN-UML, the party has called the agitating Madhesi parties for dialogue to resolve outstanding issues and urged the government to withdraw all political cases against agitators of the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) and create an environment for talks.

Nepali Congress leader and former member of the talks team Mahesh Acharya also expressed that government hasn't been serious in resolving the issues in bringing the agitating parties to the talks table.

Following which, Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party, Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that his party would now take the lead in resolving the concerns of the agitating UDMF.

Meanwhile, Ram Naresh Raya, leader of Tarai Madhes Sadbhawana Party has announced that UDMF will be launching a national level movement scheduled today with 17 different forces.
Next installment of Sony's 'Jumanji' is up for a summer 2017 release, but no cast member has yet been announced.

However, sources revealed that the studio is lining up two comedy big hitters, namely Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart for the film, reports the Independent.

Johnson and Hart, who will star alongside one another in upcoming comedy 'Central Intelligence,' recently, hosted the MTV Movie Awards together earlier this month.

The film was originally released in 1995 and starred Robin Williams as Alan Parrish, a man released from a board game having been trapped inside for 26 years.

The upcoming installment of the flick will be directed by Jake Kasdan.
The Democratic Alliance government on Monday told the Supreme Court that according to the Ministry of Culture, India should not stake a claim to the famed diamond as 'it was neither stolen nor forcibly taken away'.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the government, said this was the stand of the Culture Ministry.

"Ministry of External Affairs is also a party and their response is yet to come," he informed the court.

He also told the apex court that the diamond was handed over by Maharaja Ranjit Singh to the East India Company.

Chief Justice T S Thakur asked the Centre if it wants the case to be dismissed as they would face a problem in the future when putting forward any legitimate claim.

The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to file a detailed reply within six weeks.

The apex court had on April 9 asked the Centre to disclose its stand on bringing back the diamond.

The apex court made this observation while hearing a petition filed by All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front.

The petition had said that the government was not making efforts to bring the diamond back.

The Solicitor General said that he would seek an instruction from the government and then inform the court.

The diamond was, by force, made to be presented to Queen Victoria in 1850, by the Marquess of Dalhousie, the British governor-general of Punjab.

The people have been demanding the return of the 105-carat stone for years.

The British government had in 2013 rejected demands for the return of the .
Advocate Hari Phuyal has been appointed as the new Attorney General of Nepal by President Bidya Devi Bhandari upon the recommendation of the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Phuyal was appointed as per Article 157.2 of the Constitution yesterday.

The office was vacant since March 1, when the then Attorney General Hari Krishna Karki resigned from his position, reports Himalayan Times.

The post of Attorney General is a coveted one and he works as the chief legal advisor to the government here.
Reaffirming his country's commitment to realizing a free of nuclear weapons and urging the international community to consider this goal as the main objective of humanity in the 21st century. Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev used the platform of the recently held Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in Washington to question the double standards of some powers on the issue of creating and maintaining their respective nuclear arsenal, while urging other nations to destroy theirs.

Warning that the risk of conflict has increased globally over the past few decades, President Nazabayev maintained that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has not fulfilled its purpose, and added that It may be just a matter of time before these weapons fall into the hands of terrorists.

"International terrorism has gained a more sinister character. It has moved from isolated acts in individual countries to a large scale terrorist aggression across Europe, Asia and Africa. The exodus of millions of refugees, the destruction of sites and historic monuments has become an everyday reality. Economic sanctions and trade wars are commonplace. Our planet is now on the edge of a new Cold War which could have devastating consequences for all humankind. This threatens the achievements of the last four decades," he warned.

However, he said, that he was happy to note that the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia have been reduced substantially and that the dive nuclear powers have announced and kept a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. This, he said, had been made possible only through several rounds of negotiations.

He also spoke about the accelerated formation of regional security systems, and in particular made a mention of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which he described as a unique and comprehensive security structure created on principles of mutual trust.

President Nazarbayev further said that while there is coordinated action between the powers and UN peacekeeping operations that has seen the end of many conflicts, the international community nevertheless is witnessing an erosion of these "international security achievements".

He said that there is every possibility of a new long-term confrontation because of the existing tensions and jostling for power around the globe.

He asked, "Which country could be the next victim of the so-called 'proxy-wars' between the world and regional powers? Which territory, flourishing for now, will be torn apart by tank tracks and explosive shells? In which cities will children die from heavy rocket fire? From where and where to will the refugees fleeing conflicts migrate next?"

During his address, he made a specific mention of two prominent scientists - Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell - who more than 60 years ago asked "a dreadful but an inescapable question -"Shall we put an end to the human race, or will mankind be able to renounce war?"

President Nazarbayev said that the most brilliant minds of the 20th century have warned the people that in a future world war nuclear weapons will inevitably be used leading to the destruction of all life on Earth.

Einstein and Russell, he said, had demanded that disputes between countries cannot and should not be resolved by military means, and this remains hugely relevant now in the 21st century.

Insisting that world leaders must look for and accept reasonable alternatives on the highest priority, the Kazakh president said, "In the 21st century, humanity must take decisive steps towards demilitarization. We won't get another chance. If this objective is not achieved, our planet will end as a graveyard of radioactive materials. We need a new comprehensive program - a 21st century, a world without wars."

He listed three key principles that required adoption and adaptation. These were:

.The acceptance that there will be no winners in any modern war and that everyone engaged in such activity would be on the losing side.

.That any new war will inevitably entail the use of weapons of mass destruction which could lead to the destruction of all humankind, and that it might be too late to argue over who is responsible for such catastrophes.

.Acceptance that the main tool for resolving all disputes should be peaceful dialogue and constructive negotiations. Everyone would have equal responsibility for peace and security, mutual respect and non-interference in domestic affairs.

He further stated that the world community must take comprehensive action towards achieving these goals.

He there must be gradual progress towards a world free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. In this regard, he said Kazakhstan made a significant contribution by championing the adoption of the Universal Declaration for the Achievement of a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World at the UN in December 2015.

He reminded the world that 25 years ago Kazakhstan had permanently closed its nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk. He said at that time Kazakhstan had the world's fourth largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, and willingly chose to destroy it as it was seen as a menacing legacy of the collapsed Soviet Union.

President Nazarbayev said that while global nuclear security summits are of great importance, "We now need global decisions to prohibit deploying lethal weapons in outer space, on the seabed and in international waters of the World Ocean, as well as in the Arctic."

He concluded with a warning, "Our civilization, by scholars' estimates, has survived more than 15,000 wars, approximately three every year. Hundreds of millions of people have died, cities and countries have been destroyed, cultures and civilizations have vanished. The world is on the verge of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, but the virus of war continues to poison the international community. Militarism has deeply penetrated our minds and behavior.
A Sri Lankan university will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Japan and India tomorrow on trilateral collaboration in science and technology.

Sri Lanka's University of Sri Jayewardenepura will sign the MoU with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science (AIST) and Biomedical Research Institute (BMRI) of Japan and Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of Ministry of Science and Technology, India, reports Lanka Page.

The MoU will be signed by Dr Yoshihiro, OHMIYA, Director, Biomedical Research Institute (BMRI), Advanced Industrial Science (AIST) and Prof. Sampath Amarathunga, the Vice-Chancellor of University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

The MoU signing ceremony will be followed by a half day symposium with the Japanese and Indian delegates, academics and local industrialists.

This initiative is the result of the long lasting academic collaborations of Prof. Ranil de Silva with Dr. Sunil Kaul, Chief Senior Research Scientist, AIST, which had paved the way towards the advancement in science and technology between Japan, India and Sri Lanka.
The Constitutional Council of Sri Lankan Parliament is scheduled to meet today under the patronage of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to decide on the appointment of the next police chief.

Following the procedure adopted in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, the President has sent three names to the Constitutional Council to be considered for the appointment of the 34th Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Sri Lanka, reports Lanka Page.

Senior Deputy Inspectors General Pujitha Jayasundera, S.M. Wickramasinghe and Chandana Wickramaratne have been nominated by President Maithripala Sirisena for the consideration of the Council.

During the meeting, special attention will be given on the recommendations sent by the President on appointing the next IGP and a final decision will be reached.

The three senior DIGs nominated for the vacant post of IGP will appear before the Council when it convenes. The Council's decision will immediately be informed to the President.

Sri Lanka's 33rd Police Chief N. K. Illangakoon, who joined the police in 1982, officially retired on April 11 after five years of service at the helm.
The global technology and internet conglomerate, LeEco, has filed an application with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for undertaking single brand retail trading of electronic products both through brick and mortar stores and e-commerce portal.

The company has also sought relaxation from the 30% domestic sourcing rule so that it can bring in "cutting edge technology" and "state-of-the-art" features to Indian consumers.

The technology and internet giant which entered the India market this year in January, introducing its unique Ecosystem model and launching its two Superphone models- Le 1s and Le Max, has received a great response from industry as well as consumers in a short span of time.

Owing to its breakthrough technology, disruptive pricing and comprehensive vertically integrated ecosystem, the brand has created 'market disruption' in true sense, which is also evident from the milestones its Superphones have created in the industry.

With plans to open fully owned exclusive retail stores in top 8 to 10 cities, starting with New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, LeEco plans to display its entire Ecosystem ranging from phones, TVs, VR Headsets, Bluetooth devices and power banks.

Additionally, the company will also open 500 franchise stores to ensure its consumers can experience their breakthrough products and unique content integrated offerings across its device ecosystem.

"India is a key market for LeEco and we plan to significantly invest in setting up our model in the country. We are committed to offering our users cutting edge technology at disruptive prices. We have received a great response from consumers so far for our Superphones and now plan to strengthen our presence in the market by opening our own stores and e-commerce portal to offer our users the best-in-class experience", said Atul Jain, COO, Smart Electronics Business, LeEco India.

"We at LeEco are also aligned with the Government's Make in India initiative and also plan to start manufacturing in India very soon", he added.

Earlier this month, the global player also announced setting up in-house Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) in 10 cities across India by end of 2016, making a significant investment of over 10 million USD to set up this CDN/cloud infrastructure.

Offering consumers a comprehensive Ecosystem, which is unique to the company globally, LeEco plans to replicate its successful model in India. Also, LeEco had shared its plans to set-up our R&D centre in Bangalore with a staff of 1000 employees by the end of 2016.

LeEco has a comprehensive ecosystem model globally consisting of devices, content, cloud and a user interface platform, which clearly sets apart the company in the technology and internet space in India as well. The LeEco devices connected by Le Ecosystem are the company's biggest differentiator.
Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur is playing host to an international defence expo where over 1,000 defence industry players are participating.

The Defence Services Asia (DSA) exhibition which kicked off here Monday will see the participation of defence industry giants such as Airbus, BAE Systems, Bell Helicopter, SAAB and Thales.

In all, 1200 companies from 60 countries will put on display static equipment of weapon and defence technology, weaponry systems and generic security solutions

The exhibition will conclude on Thursday. This year's DSA is expected to be the biggest one since its inauguration 28 years ago, Xinhua quoted Malaysia's Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, as saying.
Myanmar President Htin Kyaw has signed a pardon for 83 prisoners, who will be freed by amnesty on the first day of the country's New Year.

It was, however, not immediately clear if the amnesty included political prisoners.

The pardon was intended to 'make people feel happy and peaceful, and promote national reconciliation during the New Year', reports ABC online.

National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest for 15 years, pledged in a statement earlier this month to make releasing prisoners of conscience a priority of her administration.

Since the party took power, charges have been dropped against nearly 200 political activists, including students who spent over a year in jail over an education protest, according to the police.

The jailing of dissidents was among the junta's many repressive policies that helped garner global support for Suu Kyi's democracy struggle.

Watchdog groups in Myanmar say there are still hundreds of activists facing trial or being held in the country's notorious prisons.

Many were arrested under the quasi-civilian government that stepped down last month after five years of transitioning the country from junta rule.
The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved its order on the pleas of Congress leaders challenging summoning of documents from different ministries in connection with the Herald case.

The Indian Congress and the Associated Journals Private Limited (AJL) had last week submitted their respective balance sheets to a Delhi court in connection with this case. The court had last month directed the Congress party to submit its balance sheet for the year 2010- 2011 in compliance with its order in the Herald case.

A Delhi Court had earlier on March 11 given its nod to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Subramaniam Swamy's plea, seeking the balance sheets of the Indian National Congress (INC) and AJL for the purpose of investigation in the case.

Swamy had before approached the Patiala House Court seeking summoning of certain documents related to the financial details of Congress, AJL and Young Indian Pvt. Ltd.

The case relates to the Congress granting an interest-free loan of Rs. 90.25 crore to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), owner of the National Herald newspaper which was established by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938.
Mission for Clean Ganga in collaboration with IIT, Kanpur has announced the formal launch of Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (CGRBMS).

A 10 year Memorandum of Agreement was signed yesterday between the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and IIT, Kanpur for provision of continual scientific support in the implementation and dynamic evolution of the Ganga River Basin Management Plan.

Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, while delivering a keynote address on the occasion, said that the government is trying to make a framework where opinions from all the people across the globe who are interested in the rivers should be invited.

She said that the ministry is focusing on cleaning the Ganga by setting up Effluent Treatment Plants and Sewage Treatment Plants.

She also added that the issues can be solved by procuring the technologies around the world, but the most important thing is to ensure continuous flow in the rivers.
The NDA Government released a Rs.200 commemorative coin and a Rs.10 circulation coin on the occasion of the Martyrdom day of Tatya Tope, one of the outstanding Indian leaders of the 1857 revolt against the British.

Union Minister of State for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Mahesh Sharma issued the coins.

"He fought during 1857 revolt along with Jhansi ki Rani and Nana Sahib, and gave his important contribution in the independence of India. Today the Government of India along with 125 crore people of India salutes him with pride," Sharma told (ANI)

Ramachandra Pandurang Tope (1814 - 18 April 1859) was one of its notable generals of the 1857 revolt. He is better known by his nickname Tatya Tope, which is also transliterated as Tantya Tope or Tantia Topi.

A personal adherent of Nana Sahib of Bithur, he progressed with the Gwalior contingent after the British reoccupied Cawnpore and forced General Windham to retreat from the city. Later on, he came to the relief of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and with her seized the city of Gwalior.

However, he was defeated by General Napier's British Indian troops at Ranod and after a further defeat at Sikar abandoned the campaign. He was executed by the British Government at Shivpuri on April 18 1859.
Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba on Monday left for a weeklong visit to New Delhi along with his wife and lawmaker Arzu Rana Deuba.

Reportedly, he is travelling to India for medical reasons and is scheduled to return on Saturday.

Deuba's aide Bhanu Deuba has said that no any meeting with Indian political leaders during the visit had been scheduled, reports the Himalayan Times.

However, analysts have accorded the visit to be a significant one as he was recently elected the President and the Parliamentary Party Leader of the main opposition and the largest political party in the House.

Deuba has been saying that the Nepali Congress will take the lead in resolving the concerns of the agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front and how the demands of the agitating Madhesi parties could be addressed.

He also met the chiefs of the constituents of United Democratic Madhesi Front on yesterday.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that his call for an RSS-free India was just his personal opinion, adding the Sangh's ideology is not in the nation's benefit.

"This is my opinion, nothing else. It's my political view. The ideology of the RSS is not in benefit of the nation," he said.

Addressing an event in Patna on Saturday, Kumar had mounted a counteroffensive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his 'Congress-mukt Bharat' slogan and said all the non-BJP parties will have to come together to usher in a Sangh-free India.

"Uniting against the BJP and its divisive ideology is the only way to save democracy," he added.

He asserted that the country was heading towards a bipolar political divide with the BJP-RSS on one side and the rest on the other.
Union Minister of State for Culture, tourism and Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma today said that only the Centre can act on the issue of the Kohinoor Diamond.

"According to Guidelines, the Central Government can take steps on things that were gifted or procured by the British before independence. Expert opinion on this regard will be taken on appropriate time," he told ANI.

The Kohinoor, which means "Mountain of Light", was acquired from an Afghan king by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the 19th century ruler of Punjab. He willed it to a temple in Odisha, but Dilip Singh, his successor, a minor, handed it over to the East India Company in 1849.

The diamond was set in a crown of Queen Victoria and is on display in the Tower of London.For years, politicians and others, here and in the UK, have said the diamond was seized after the British annexed Punjab.
A strike organized by the opposition Congress Party paralysed normal life in Left-ruled Tripura on Monday.

The strike call was given over a demand for a CBI probe into the murder of CPI-M Minister Bimal Sinha.

Sinha, who was the state's health minister, was killed by the banned Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) militants while negotiating with them for the release of his brother.

Since last month, the Congress has been raising questions about how a report on the assassination of Sinha was leaked into the public domain.

The retired Calcutta High Court Justice M.A. Yusuf Commission was appointed by the Left Front government in 1998 and it submitted its report on January 31, 2000. The state government had kept the findings of the report under lock and key till this year.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has now said that the alleged leakage of the Yusuf Commission report to a local newspaper should be probed.

Sinha was murdered on March 31, 1998 in the Kamalpur subdivision of the state's Dhalai district.

On Monday, most schools, markets, shops and business establishments in Agartala remained closed. Attendance in government and semi-government offices and banks was thin, while roads were deserted. Vehicles, except those of security forces, remained off the roads.

Tinku Datta, a passenger at the airport said, "So many people are travelling from Agartala to Imphal, Aijawl, Guwahati, Calcutta, they are suffering. They (police) will give us bus on any other vehicle."

There were report of few stray incidents of picketers breaking windshield of vehicles from various parts but large number of police personnel's were engaged in the roads and busy areas.

Superintendent of Police Abhijit Saptarshi said there were no untoward incidents as strict preventive measures were in place.
A South African court has confirmed that former Paralympics runner Oscar Pistorius will be sentenced in June for the murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Earlier in December, Pistorius was found guilty of murder after the supreme court overturned his previous culpable homicide conviction following the state's successful attempt in challenging the verdict.

Pistorius appeared in court in Pretoria on Monday as Judge Aubrey Ledwaba told the double-amputee athlete that he would face a fresh sentencing hearing from 13-17 June, the Guardian reported.

Pistorius, known as the Blade Runner, was released on parole in October 2015 and has been placed under house arrest since then at his uncle's house after serving almost a year in prison of his five-year sentence.

According to the South African law, the minimum sentence for murder is 15 years in prison.
Turns out, treating strokes by reducing inflammation in the brain may actually be bad as a recent study has revealed that it can actually help the brain to self-repair.

"This is in total contrast to our previous beliefs," says Professor Zaal Kokaia from Lund University in Sweden.

Kokaia, together with Professor of Neurology Olle Lindvall and colleagues at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, is responsible for these findings. Hopefully, these new data will lead to new ways of treating stroke in the future.

When stroke occurs, the nerve cells in the damaged area of the brain die, causing an inflammation that attracts cells from the immune system. Among them is monocytes, a type of white blood cells produced in the bone marrow.

The monocytes travel to the inflamed area, and here they develop into macrophages that clear out any dead tissue. But this is not all that they do: they also secrete substances that help the brain repair the damage.

Most stroke patients recover at least partly over time. This spontaneous improvement is well known, but not its exact cause. The Lund researchers now believe that the improvement is partly due to the substances released by the immune cells.

In their study, they actually performed the opposite: in animal model of stroke they were able to ablate monocytes from the blood. Mice with decreased number of circulating monocytes were much less successful in their recovery from stroke than mice whose immune system was functioning as normal.

"Obviously, there is a difference between mice and humans, but there is no indication that our brains function differently in this regard", says Olle Lindvall.

He further argues that this new insight concerning the positive effects of inflammation could also be applied to other diseases.

The study is recently published in the international Journal of Neuroscience.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought to challenge the continuance of President's Rule in Uttarakhand.

The PIL, filed by advocate M.L. Sharma, sought a CBI probe into the alleged horse trading of MLAs in the state before the dismal of the Congress government led by then chief minister Harish Rawat.

Dismissing the plea, Chief Justice T.S Thakur questioned the locus standi of Sharma.

The apex court bench also asked Sharma as to how he was affected by President's Rule in Uttarakhand and warned him that his credibility is at stake if he continues to file such types of PILs.

Seeking the quashing of the presidential proclamation, Sharma had questioned how the council of ministers could recommend the imposition of president's rule when the state's Governor, K.K. Paul, had already directed then chief minister Harish Rawat to go for a floor test on March 28.

The crisis in the hill state erupted on March 18 when nine Congress MLAs rebelled against the Rawat government, resulting in a flip-flop in the passage of the Appropriation Bill.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) met Governor K.K. Paul on the same day and staked claim to form the government.

However, the Centre imposed President's Rule a day before Rawat was supposed to take the floor test in the assembly.
Voicing its support for Maharashtra's Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde, who stirred a controversy after posting selfies during her visit to drought-hit Latur, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said she is a hard working leader and is being misinterpreted.

Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap told ANI that Munde has been making relentless endeavours to pull Maharashtra out of the water crisis and is being misinterpreted.

"Pankaja is a very good politician, very hard working politician and she is a minister of a department which is reeling under water crisis. She in scorching heat is visiting the effected places and making sure that the work is done. She is being misinterpreted," said Rudy.

"The selfie, which is doing rounds against her, was taken at a trench. From past many days Pankaja was monitoring many such trenches but no water was found. The place where she took a photo was a trench where water was cited. The photo she took was out of happiness. I think a hard working Minister like Pankaja takes a photo after finding water at a time when major efforts were made to locate water is nothing bad. All of the case is being misconstrued. We should get over all these things and work collectively to help Maharashtra combat such situation," he added.

Earlier in the day Munde clarified that she clicked those pictures to appreciate the work done by the local administration in this hour of crisis.

Munde took to micro blogging site Twitter to put forth her stand for clicking photographs on the drought-hit land.

"This pics are work done by govt n ppl participation it's my dept n I was working from day 1sence of satisfaction if it rains we are ready," she tweeted.

Munde had yesterday posted a series of selfies on Twitter while reviewing the efforts on water conservation in drought-hit Latur.

The BJP leader's selfies with the hapless farmers have gone viral on the social media for which she is also trolled by the users.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday held bilateral talks with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in a bid to strengthen ties between the two allies.

"A bilateral with the gracious host of the RIC Conference. EAM @SushmaSwaraj holds talks w/FM Sergey Lavrov in Moscow," Ministry of External (MEA) official spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

The relations with Russia are a key pillar of India's foreign policy.

Since the signing of "Declaration on the India Russia Strategic Partnership" in October 2000 during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India, ties between both nations have acquired a qualitatively new character with enhanced levels of cooperation in almost all areas of the bilateral relationship including political, security, trade and economy, defense, science and technology and culture.

The visiting External Affairs Minister will also be meeting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to exchange views and coordinate positions on international and regional issues of mutual interest.

Earlier today, Swaraj met her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of annual Foreign Ministers' meeting of Russia, India and China scheduled here.

Swaraj arrived here last night after her successful visit to Iran.
Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Monday called on the mother of the Russian woman who was attacked with acid in Varanasi and assured her of severe punishment to the guilty.

According to sources, Swaraj told the mother of the 23-year-old that trial in the case has begun and that she is taking due cognisance of the case and was in touch with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in the same regard.

Antonina Prokina, the mother of the victim, was assured by Swaraj that the guilty will be punished heavily.

The 23-year-old Russian national had suffered severe burn and injuries after a local resident of Varanasi threw acid on her on November 13 last year.

Swaraj arrived here yesterday on a two-day visit.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has raised the issue of China blocking India's bid at UN to ban Masood Azhar with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Monday.

Swaraj met Wang on the sidelines of annual Foreign Ministers' meeting of Russia, India and China here.

Vikas Swarup, Official Spokesperson Ministry of External Affairs tweeted, "First bilateral of the day in Moscow before RIC Session: EAM @SushmaSwaraj meets her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi." Read more from our special coverage on "SUSHMA SWARAJ," Sushma Swaraj meets Maldivian President

India had criticised the use of hidden veto by China, blocking its bid at the United Nations (U. N.) to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar.

Following that Swarup had said, "India is in constant touch with China on the matter. The issue has already been taken up at high level. There cannot be two sets of rules for judging terrorists."

After the attack on the Pathankot airbase in January, India had in February written to the U.

N. calling for immediate action to list Masood Azhar under the U. N. Sanctions Committee.

All were told that if there are no objections, the designation will be announced after the expiry of the deadline, but just hours before the deadline, China requested the U. N. committee to keep on hold the designation.

China had said any listing would have to meet the requirements, stressing that it was the Council members' responsibility to ensure that the criteria were followed.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the RIC meeting, Swaraj will hold bilateral meeting with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to strengthen ties between the two allies.

She will also be meting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to exchange views and coordinate positions on international and regional issues of mutual interest.

Swaraj is scheduled to attend the RIC meeting today.

According to reports, the three Foreign Ministers will exchange views on international and regional issues of common concern and discuss ways to push trilateral pragmatic cooperation forward.

Swaraj arrived here last night for the second leg of her two-nation visit after Iran.

Upon her arrival in Moscow, Vikas Swarup, Official Spokesperson Ministry of External Affairs tweeted, "Namaste Moscow! EAM @SushmaSwaraj arrives in Russia to attend RIC Foreign Ministers Conference tomorrow."

Swaraj had a wide range of engagements with several top Iranian leaders, including President Hassan Rouhani in Iran.

During the visit, Tehran pressed on enhancing energy cooperation between both nations.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has raised the issue of China blocking India's bid at UN to ban Masood Azhar with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Monday.

Swaraj met Wang on the sidelines of annual Foreign Ministers' meeting of Russia, India and China here.

Vikas Swarup, Official Spokesperson Ministry of External Affairs tweeted, "First bilateral of the day in Moscow before RIC Session: EAM @SushmaSwaraj meets her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi."

India had criticised the use of hidden veto by China, blocking its bid at the United Nations (U.N.) to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar.

Following that Swarup had said, "India is in constant touch with China on the matter. The issue has already been taken up at high level. There cannot be two sets of rules for judging terrorists."

After the attack on the Pathankot airbase in January, India had in February written to the U.N. calling for immediate action to list Masood Azhar under the U.N. Sanctions Committee.

All were told that if there are no objections, the designation will be announced after the expiry of the deadline, but just hours before the deadline, China requested the U.N. committee to keep on hold the designation.

China had said any listing would have to meet the requirements, stressing that it was the Council members' responsibility to ensure that the criteria were followed.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the RIC meeting, Swaraj will hold bilateral meeting with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to strengthen ties between the two allies.

She will also be meting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to exchange views and coordinate positions on international and regional issues of mutual interest.

Swaraj is scheduled to attend the RIC meeting today.

According to reports, the three Foreign Ministers will exchange views on international and regional issues of common concern and discuss ways to push trilateral pragmatic cooperation forward.

Swaraj arrived here last night for the second leg of her two-nation visit after Iran.

Upon her arrival in Moscow, Vikas Swarup, Official Spokesperson Ministry of External Affairs tweeted, "Namaste Moscow! EAM @SushmaSwaraj arrives in Russia to attend RIC Foreign Ministers Conference tomorrow."

Swaraj had a wide range of engagements with several top Iranian leaders, including President Hassan Rouhani in Iran.

During the visit, Tehran pressed on enhancing energy cooperation between both nations.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Director General, Irina Bokova on Monday expressed her commitment in supporting educational facilities to the people of Nepal.

Bokova, who is on her three-day visit to Nepal called on Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli at his office in Singha Durbar

According to Oli foreign affairs expert Gopal Khanal, Director General Bokova expressed her commitment to support for extending educational facilities to the people of remote and rural areas as well as women and children, reports the Himalayan Times.

Welcoming Nepal's new constitution and wishing for materialising the commitment of the government, Bokova expressed UNESCO's support for the reconstruction of cultural heritage sites damaged by the last year's earthquake.

Oli in response expressed gratitude to UNESCO for the support and wished Bokova, a successful second term to the post of Director General.

Visiting UNESCO Director General arrived here on Sunday.
The editor-in-chief of American Vogue, Anna Wintour, has apologized for branding Kanye West's latest clothing range as "migrant chic."

The 66-year-old reporter said, "I apologise if my remark was offensive in any way," adding that the migrant crisis is real and she didn't intend to trivialise that issue, News.com.au reported.

After Wintour used the phrase during an appearance on the US talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers, it drew a flurry of criticism by social media users who found it insensitive.

One Facebook user said, "So, definitely not the best or most sensitive thing to say," while another wrote, "Anna Wintour called Yeezy season 3 "Migrant Chic". Even though "Chic" is a good thing, the word "Migrant" can be taken any other ways."

West has not publicly responded to the comments.
ADB approves a project loan of $300 million to upgrade over 400 kilometers of major district roads in Uttar Pradesh

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a project loan of $300 million to upgrade over 400 kilometers (km) of major district roads in Uttar Pradesh with improved maintenance, and to strengthen road safety on the major district roads forming part of the core road network in the state. The project supports the state government's core road network improvement master plan, under which the government plans to improve roads through a combination of state, private and multilateral resources.

"Major district roads provide key links between rural roads and state highways, and connect peri-urban and urban areas, so improving them is essential to give more communities better access to markets and basic social services," said Ravi Venkat Peri, Principal Transport Specialist in ADB's South Asia Department. "Along with the physical upgrades and maintenance components, the project will conduct a road safety analysis of the district roads in the core road network, and implement remedial measures at identified trouble spots, to reduce the rate of accidents."

Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state and has the largest rural population, along with widely dispersed industrial centers, making its total road network of around 300,000 km crucial for its economy and development. However significant sections of the roads have inadequate widths and poor surfacing, increasing economic costs and also making them vulnerable to bottlenecks and hazards. In addition, Uttar Pradesh has a challenging record on road safety for accidents and fatalities, which has promoted the Government of Uttar Pradesh to establish a new policy for road safety in 2014.

The loan, which is ADB's first road sector assistance in Uttar Pradesh, will be used to improve around 430 km of major district roads, upgrading them to standard design widths, suitable for use in all weather and with safety features, including widened and strengthened culverts and bridges. A key element of the project is the inclusion of 5-year performance-based maintenance contracts to ensure ongoing high-standard upkeep of the roads.

Along with ADB's loan, the Government of Uttar Pradesh will provide counterpart support of $128 million. The project will run for almost five years with an expected completion date of end-March 2021.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members - 48 from the region.

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Alkem Laboratories was off 4.23% at Rs 1,279 at 12:04 IST on BSE on reports that German authorities had accused the company of fudging data in some clinical trials.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 109.86 points or 0.43% at 25,736.61.

On BSE, so far 40,000 shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 27,800 shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 1,285 and a low of Rs 1,236 so far during the day. The stock had hit a record low of Rs 1,232 on 26 February 2016. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 1,589 on 5 January 2016. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 13 April 2016, falling 2.43% compared with Sensex's 3.68% rise. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, declining 5.43% as against Sensex's 3.11% rise.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 23.91 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.

Reports suggested that German authorities had accused Alkem Laboratories (Alkem) of manipulating heart readings of patients in some trials for the antibiotic cefuroxime and the brain disorder drug rulizole, following an inspection of the company's plant in Taloja in western India in March 2015. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is investigating the medicines after Germany reported its findings to EMA and urged it to take action, reports suggested.

In a statement issued on Saturday, 16 April 2016, Alkem said that The Federal Institute of Drug and Medical Devices (BfArM), Germany, and the Health Care Inspectorate (IGZ), Ministry of Health of the Netherlands performed a joint inspection in March 2015 at Alkem's bioequivalence facility at Taloja. The inspection refers to bioequivalence studies conducted for the period between March 2013 and March 2015 and in particular to bioequivalence trials of two products, of which one is commercialized and another is yet to be commercialized, Alkem said. The company will be submitting a suitable clarification to EMA within the stipulated timelines to enable the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) take a balanced risk-benefit view with respect to these two products, Alkem said. Currently, sales from Europe contributes less than 1% to Alkem's total consolidated sales for the nine months of FY 2016, the company said.

After the inspection of March 2015 by German regulator, BfArM, Alkem said it has responded to the regulator with a robust remediation plan and has also been implementing several measures which include changes in staffing, upgrading equipment and improving quality assurance systems to ensure proper controls during bioequivalence studies and thorough review of the acquired data.

Alkem Laboratories' consolidated net profit rose 17% to Rs 188.93 crore on 28.6% growth in net sales to Rs 1245.99 crore in Q3 December 2015 over Q3 December 2014.

Alkem Laboratories is the fifth largest pharmaceutical company in India by domestic sales. The developer, manufacturer and seller of pharmaceutical and neutraceutical products including branded generics, generic drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and nutraceuticals has 14 manufacturing locations in India and two in the US.

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Imports of counterfeit and pirated goods are around 2.5% of global imports

Imports of counterfeit and pirated goods are worth nearly half a trillion dollars a year, or around 2.5% of global imports, with US, Italian and French brands the hardest hit and many of the proceeds going to organised crime, according to a new report by the OECD and the EU's Intellectual Property Office.

"Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods: Mapping the Economic Impact" puts the value of imported fake goods worldwide at USD 461 billion in 2013, compared with total imports in world trade of USD 17.9 trillion. Up to 5% of goods imported into the European Union are fakes. Most originate in middle income or emerging countries, with China the top producer.

The report analyses nearly half a million customs seizures around the world over 2011-13 to produce the most rigorous estimate to date of the scale of counterfeit trade. It points to a larger volume than a 2008 OECD study which estimated fake goods accounted for up to 1.9% of global imports, though the 2008 study used more limited data and methodology.

"The findings of this new report contradict the image that counterfeiters only hurt big companies and luxury goods manufacturers. They take advantage of our trust in trademarks and brand names to undermine economies and endanger lives," said OECD Deputy Secretary-General Doug Frantz, launching the report with EUIPO Executive Director Antio Campinos as part of OECD Integrity Week.

Fake products crop up in everything from handbags and perfumes to machine parts and chemicals. Footwear is the most-copied item though trademarks are infringed even on strawberries and bananas. Counterfeiting also produces knockoffs that endanger lives - auto parts that fail, pharmaceuticals that make people sick, toys that harm children, baby formula that provides no nourishment and medical instruments that deliver false readings.

The report covers all physical counterfeit goods, which infringe trademarks, design rights or patents, and tangible pirated products, which breach copyright. It does not cover online piracy, which is a further drain on the formal economy.

It notes that emerging economies tend to have the infrastructure for large-scale trade but often suffer from governance gaps and may lack the institutions and enforcement capacity to effectively tackle counterfeiting. While China is the top provenance of fake goods, its most innovative companies also fall victim to counterfeiters.

The top countries whose companies had their intellectual property rights infringed in the 2011-13 seizures were the United States, whose brands or patents were affected by 20% of the knock-offs, then Italy with 15%, and France and Switzerland with 12% each. Japan and Germany stood at 8% each followed by the UK and Luxembourg.

Postal parcels are the top method of shipping bogus goods, accounting for 62% of seizures over 2011-13, reflecting the growing importance of online commerce in international trade. The traffic goes through complex routes via major trade hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore and free trade zones such as those in the United Arab Emirates. Other transit points include countries with weak governance and widespread organised crime such as Afghanistan and Syria. The report shows trade routes change greatly from year to year as counterfeit gangs spot new weak points.

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The government is doing all efforts to make Indian Agriculture climate resilient but considering the challenges, there is still lot more to be done in terms of scale of implementation and adoption more climate resilient technologies, said Mr Shobhana K. Pattanayak, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare at an ASSOCHAM event.

The government is giving adequate emphasis to make agriculture sustainable through effective agronomic management including soil health and water resources, said Mr Pattanayak, while inaugurating a 'Managing Climate Risk in Agriculture,' organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

The Pradhan Mantri Krishi Bima Yojana (PMKBY) has been operationlised for addressing the concerns of farmer due to crop damage and extreme climate events. Various other initiatives like enhanced credit support, market infrastructure, post harvest management are being emphasized for the benefit of farming community. Information and support and agriculture extension systems are being strengthened through the Mission on Agriculture Extension & Technology, said Mr Pattanayak.

The IMT forecast on weather is a welcome development for us because we all know that there has been a shortfall of rainfall in the last two seasons and most of the mini parts of the country especially ten states are having drought like conditions so the predictions of the normal monsoon is a very good for all of us especially the farmers because our khariff will go on in full swings, said Pattanayak.

On the issue of distribution concern Mr. Pattanayak said, as you know the crops are sensitive to distribution of rainfall and we expect that there should be even distribution of rainfall but there has been prediction that around August and September rains may be slightly more than in past, but we have to closely watch the situation.

The Agriculture ministry got a higher allocation for micro irrigation this year and for entire Sinchayee Yojana which includes the micro irrigation, stated the Secretary.

The adverse impacts of climate changes can therefore be devastating for agriculture, disproportionately affecting the poor. Rise in temperatures would affect tropical countries like India much more as these are already at the higher end of the temperature band.

The recent study has done by Indian Agricultural Research institute indicate the possibility of loss of 4-5 million tons in wheat production with every rise of 1 degree centigrade temperature throughout the growing period even after considering carbon fertilization. Losses for other crops are still uncertain but are expected to be smaller, especially for crops grown during monsoon season, said Mr.

Pattanayak.

To minimize the impact of climate variabilities, government has developed contingency crop plans based on models on projected climate conditions for about 600 districts taking into account 126 agro-ecological zones of the country, highlighted Mr. Pattanayak.

To focus on sustained production of specific commodities to meet the projected consumption demand, National Food Security Mission has been launched to address the production and productivity with respect to major crops viz rice, wheat and pulses.

For increasing productivity as well as encouraging economic returns from the wasteland, dry & degraded lands, horticulture plantations have been encouraged under the scheme of National Horticulture Mission (NHM).

Ambassador Jonathan Addleton, Mission Director, USAID in India said 'lack of reliable climate information at local level is one of the primary challenges that affect decision-making at the farmer level. There is a critical need to improve access to good scientific data and a comprehensive approach to utilizing this data, supported by appropriate risk mitigation approaches'.

To fill thus critical void, USAID-Skymet program's is establishing a network of 'Automatic Weather Stations' in 31 districts across nine states in India. The program sends daily crop advisory to farmers as a text message, alerting them about today's weather conditions. To further mitigate risks, the program is also promoting farmers to purchases crop insurance. Majority of smallholders farmer in India and in other developing countries are vulnerable and do not have the financial capacity to mitigate risks associated with crop failure, said Ambassador.

The India-US strategic partnership is a significant contributor to regional and global stability and prosperity and the two governments are working together and leveraging our combined capacities to assist other developing countries and address global development challenges for the benefit of the wider region and the world. This program will not only strengthen the agricultural sector in India, but also create stories of success and resilience that will replicated across Asia and Africa, added Ambassador Addleton.

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Infosys jumped 7.16% to Rs 1,256 at 9:19 IST on BSE after the company at the time of announcing Q4 March 2016 results forecast revenue growth for the year ending 31 March 2017 that would exceed growth for the software services industry.

The result was announced on Friday, 15 April 2016, when the stock market was closed for a holiday. The results are as per International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 112.51 points or 0.44% at 25,739.26.

On BSE, so far 1.52 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 3.19 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 1,267.90 so far during the day, which is a record high for the counter. The stock hit a low of Rs 1,241 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 932.55 on 10 July 2015. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 13 April 2016, rising 2.59% compared with Sensex's 3.68% rise. The scrip had, however, outperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 8.29% as against Sensex's 3.11% rise.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 1148.47 crore. Face value per share is Rs 5.

Infosys forecast revenue growth for the year ending 31 March 2017 (FY 2017) that would exceed growth for the software services industry. Infosys said that it expects revenue growth of 11.8%-13.8% for FY 2017 in US dollar terms. In constant currency terms, the company has forecast 11.5%-13.5% growth in revenue for FY 2017. Infosys' revenue growth forecast is higher than 10% to 12% growth for the IT outsourcing sector for FY 2017 forecast by IT industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) in February this year. Infosys has forecast 12.7%-14.7% growth in revenue in rupee terms for FY 2017 based on rupee dollar exchange rate of 66.26 as on 31 March 2016. The rupee dollar exchange rate stood at 66.64 on 13 April 2016.

After the strong revenue growth guidance for FY 2017, Infosys' ADR jumped 8.4% to settle at $20 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, 15 April 2016. Infosys' consolidated net profit rose 3.8% to Rs 3597 crore on 4.1% growth in revenue to Rs 16550 crore in Q4 March 2016 over Q3 December 2015.

Infosys said that the employee attrition reduced further in Q4 March 2016. On annualized basis, the employee attrition rate declined to 17.3% in Q4 March 2016 from 18.1% in Q3 December 2015.

Infosys is a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing solutions.

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National Aluminium Company (NALCO), the Navratna PSU, under Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India, has declared an interim dividend of 25%, i.e. Rs.1.25 per share of Rs.5 each, amounting to Rs.322.16 crore for the financial year 2015-16, on the paid-up equity share capital of Rs.1288.62 crore. Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Steel & Mines, Govt. of India, was presented a cheque, amounting to Rs.260.72 crore by Dr.

Tapan Kumar Chand, CMD, NALCO, in the presence of Shri Balvinder Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Mines, as interim dividend on the 80.93% shares held by the Govt of India, in New Delhi today. The Minister Shri Tomar had a word of praise for the effective functioning of NALCO despite sluggishness in the market. Particularly, he was appreciative of the company's all-time high bauxite production of 63.40 lakh tonnes and 19.53 lakh tonnes of alumina in 2015-16.

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National Aluminium Company rose 5.95% to Rs 43.65 at 11:08 IST on BSE after the company announced that a meeting of its board of directors will be held on 22 April 2016, inter alia, to consider the proposal for buyback of equity shares of the company

The announcement was made after market hours on Wednesday, 13 April 2016. The stock market was closed on 14 April 2016 and 15 April 2016 on account of holidays.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 130.50 points or 0.51% at 25,757.25.

On BSE, so far 3.97 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 1.98 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 44 and a low of Rs 42.60 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 50.90 on 12 May 2015. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 28 on 25 August 2015. The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 13 April 2016, surging 7.15% compared with Sensex's 3.68% rise. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, advancing 11.5% as against Sensex's 3.11% rise.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 1288.62 crore. Face value per share is Rs 5.

National Aluminium Company's (Nalco) net profit fell 62.3% to Rs 133.49 crore on 13.9% decline in net sales to Rs 1615.97 crore in Q3 December 2015 over Q3 December 2014.

State-run Nalco has integrated and diversified operations in mining, metal and power. The Government of India (GoI) held 80.93% stake in the company (as per the shareholding pattern as on 31 March 2016).

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National Mission for Clean Ganga under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK) announced the formal launch of Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (CGRBMS). The Ministry signed a 10 year Memorandum of Agreement with IITK for provision of continual scientific support in the implementation and dynamic evolution of the Ganga River Basin Management Plan.

Delivering the keynote address on the occasion, Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation explained in detail why the Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies is needed for the mission and how important is this collaboration. She said, We are trying to make a framework where opinions from all the people across the globe who are interested in our rivers should be invited. The Minister said we are focusing on cleaning the Ganga by setting up Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs) and Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs). Sushri Bharti said, These are the issues which can be solved by procuring the technologies around the world. But what is important here is how to ensure continuous flow in the rivers. To solve this, efforts needs to be done by each and every one which includes government authorities, academicians, researchers etc, the Minister added

Shri Shashi Shekhar, Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources said that government has decided to implement Sewage Treatment Plants (STP's) using a specific Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework called hybrid annuity model.

The government shall be technology agnostic and neutral but it doesn't have the capacity to evaluate the technologies. The Centre must take this up as one of its task he added.

Dr. Vinod Tare, Professor IITK said, the program has been aptly named as Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies. He said , The Centre will act as a think-tank to the government as well as knowledge hub to coordinate all activities within the Ganga river basin and these activities will include science, technology, research, innovation, social, economics, finance and investment related aspects. He said that centre will collaborate with many national and international bodies. Prof. Tare said the Ganga River Basin Management Plan 2015 by IIT Consortiums has provided strategic action plans, some policy interventions and management action along with financial implications. These plans shall be further detailed by the centre with financial, social, economical and environment implications, he added.

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Stocks of public sector oil marketing companies edged higher and oil exploration and production firms edged lower at 10:27 IST on BSE on decline in crude oil prices.

Public sector oil marketing companies (PSU OMCs) BPCL (up 1.97% at Rs 943.65), HPCL (up 1.21% at Rs 860.10) and Indian Oil Corporation (up 1.55% at Rs 422.90) edged higher. Oil exploration and production (E&P) stocks Cairn India (down 3.96% at Rs 149) and Oil India (down 1.67% at Rs 314.85) edged lower.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 130.47 points or 0.51% at 25,757.22.

Brent for June settlement was currently down $1.83 a barrel at $41.27 a barrel after talks over the weekend between the world's largest oil producing countries in Doha failed to produce a deal to freeze output aimed at boosting sagging crude prices. The contract had declined 74 cents or 1.68% to settle at $43.10 a barrel during the previous trading session.

Decline in crude oil prices could reduce under-recoveries of PSU OMCs on domestic sale of LPG and kerosene at government controlled prices. The government has already decontrolled pricing of petrol and diesel.

Meanwhile, PSU OMCs announced reduction in prices of both petrol and diesel with effect from the midnight of 15/16 April 2016. Indian Oil Corporation has cut the retail-selling price of petrol by 74 paise per litre in Delhi, with corresponding price revision in other states. After the latest price reduction, the price of petrol in Delhi stands at Rs 61.13 a litre. The price of diesel has been cut by Rs 1.30 per litre in Delhi, with corresponding price revision in other states. After the latest price reduction, the price of diesel in Delhi stands at Rs 48.01 a litre.

Lower crude oil prices would result in lower realization from crude sales for oil exploration firms.

Reliance Industries (RIL) fell 0.34% at Rs 1,061.80 after the company announced that the SEZ refinery of the company is planning to shut down one crude distillation unit for routine maintenance & inspection activities from 1 May 2016, for about 3 weeks. The other three crude distillation units including all secondary processing units are expected to operate at normal throughput at Jamnagar refinery complex, RIL said. The company said it does not anticipate any impact on its commercial commitments. The announcement was made before market hours today, 18 April 2016.

ONGC fell 2.37% at Rs 207.95. ONGC after market hours on Wednesday, 13 April 2016, announced that the company has signed an agreement with Reliance Industries (RIL) and BG Group to take over a part of the abandoned assets of the Mid & South Tapti field in Western Offshore of India. The joint venture members signed the Tapti Asset Transfer Agreement on 12 April 2016 with ONGC. ONGC intends to utilize the Tapti facilities (comprising of the processing platforms along with the connected export pipelines) for use in its adjacent Daman Development and C-26 Cluster Development Projects. In December 1994, Government of India awarded the Mid & South Tapti field in Western Offshore of India under the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) regime to a consortium comprising ONGC (with 40% stake), British Gas (with 30% stake) and Reliance Industries (with 30% stake).

ONGC has committed an investment of over Rs 8600 crore towards Daman Development Project and C-26 cluster Development Project to enhance production of natural gas and condensate from its Daman block in Arabian Sea. The production from these two projects is expected to start in Q2 September 2016, with estimated peak production rate of about 11 MMSCMD of gas and over 11,000 barrels of condensate per day, ONGC said.

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Quick Heal Technologies jumped 7.44% to Rs 238.30 at 14:55 IST on BSE after the company said the First Class Judicial Magistrate observed that there was nothing on the record to show the accused Manohar Malani ever held any shares of the company.

The announcement was made on Thursday, 14 April 2016. The stock market was closed on 14 and 15 April 2016 for holidays.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 142.45 points or 0.56% at 25,769.20.

On BSE, so far 6.42 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 8.46 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 244.60 and a low of Rs 222.90 so far during the day. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 329.95 on 18 February 2016. The stock had hit a record low of Rs 180 on 29 February 2016.

The small-cap company has equity capital of Rs 70.03 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Quick Heal Technologies had announced on 11 April 2016 that it had lodged a first information report (FIR) on 23 February 2016 against Manohar Malani and others (accused) for cheating, forgery and criminal intimidation. The police have arrested Manohar Malani, CEO and MD of NCS Computech, Kolkata, consequent to the filing of FIR and ongoing investigation. The case pertains to Manohar Malani and certain of his family members (claimants) reportedly making claims that certain equity shares of Quick Heal Technologies were allotted to them in the year 2000. With regard to these reports, Quick Heal Technologies had clarified that it had not received any amount towards share application money or for subscription of shares, from any of the claimants in the year 2000 or at any time thereafter and had never allotted any equity shares of the company to the claimants at any point in time.

In a statement issued on 14 April 2016, Quick Heal Technologies reiterated that it had never allotted any equity shares to the claimants/accused at any point in time and it would continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard its shareholders' interests and ensure that the claimants/accused are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Based on consolidated financials, Quick Heal Technologies reported net profit of Rs 24.22 crore on revenue from operations of Rs 148.18 crore for six months ended 30 September 2015. Net profit stood at Rs 53.80 crore on revenue from operations of Rs 286.11 crore for the year ended 31 March 2015.

Quick Heal Technologies is one of the leading providers of security software products and solutions in India, with a market share of over 30% in the retail segment. The company's end customers include home users, small offices and home offices (SOHO), small and medium-sized business (SMBs), enterprises, educational institutions, as well as government agencies and departments.

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The planned sale of Tata Steel's ('IND AA'/RWE) Long Products Europe business to Greybull Capital LLP will help lower cash burn and will be credit positive, says India Ratings and Research. Ind-Ra however expects that the uncertain timelines associated with the sale of the overall loss-making UK steel business may delay the expected recovery in its credit profile. Maintenance capex in Europe would also decline significantly post the deal. Ind-Ra's rating view on the company is on a consolidated basis and the rating approach factors in a one-notch uplift for its strong operational and strategic linkages with the Tata Group.

The complete exit from UK can translate into positive EBITDA profits in the overseas operations and improve long-term cash flow visibility. While leverage levels are unlikely to see any direct reduction from the sale of the Long Products Europe business, its EBITDA losses from the region will be curtailed, which will facilitate gradual deleveraging of the company.

During the nine months ended 31 December 2015, Tata Steel's European operations reported EBITDA loss of INR3.39bn, largely on account of its loss making UK operations.

The UK assets have a combined steelmaking capacity of around 10.2m tonnes distributed across the Port Talbot (Blast Furnace, Flat Products), Scunthorpe (Blast Furnace, Long Products) and Rotherham (EAF) plants. The Sale and Purchase agreement that Tata Steel has now signed covers primarily around 4.5m tonnes long steel products facility at Scunthorpe and other associated long products facilities in the UK. Within Tata Steel's portfolio of European assets, these facilities were the least profitable, and hence the divestment of these is a positive.

The European region, which includes UK and Netherlands, accounts for 52% of Tata Steel's total revenues in FY15. After the sale of UK assets, TSE will consist primarily of the highly efficient and moderately profitable facility in the Netherlands, leading to a sharp improvement in TSE's margin and profitability, providing a improvement in credit profile in the long-term.

The deal with Greybull Capital will be completed once the outstanding conditions have been resolved, including transfer of contracts, certain government approvals and satisfactory completion of financing arrangements. The concern remains as far as the main UK pension fund deficit is concerned, which expanded to GBP485m as of 31 March 2015.

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As many as 107 candidates in the fray in the third and fourth phases of West Bengal assembly elections are crorepatis whereas 128 candidates have criminal cases against them.

Affidavits filed by the candidates reveal that 61 of the 418 candidates in the third phase and 46 of the 345 candidates in the fourth phase are crorepatis -- multi-millionaires.

The West Bengal Election Watch on Monday said that 80 aspirants in the third phase and 48 candidates in the fourth phase have declared criminal cases, including serious offences like murder and rape, pending against them.

In the third phase, the Trinamool Congress heads the multi-millionaires' list with 27 candidates, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party with 14 and the Congress with 11.

The BJP's Somabrta Mandal from Shyampukur constituency in Kolkata is the wealthiest candidate in the third phase with assets worth over Rs.28.65 crore.

The average worth of assets held by the 418 candidates in the third phase is Rs.74.76 lakh.

In the fourth phase, the Trinamool Congress has fielded 19 candidates, followed by the BJP with eight and the Congress with five.

Trinamool nominee and state Finance Minister Amit Kumar Mitra, contesting from Khardaha in North 24-Parganas, heads the multi-millionaire list in the fourth phase with assets worth over Rs.11.74 crore.

The average worth of assets held by 345 candidates in the fourth phase is Rs.50.02 lakh.

Of the 80 candidates in the third phase with criminal cases, 65 face serious charges of murder, rape, attempt to murder and kidnapping.

Trinamool has 20 candidates with criminal cases, followed by the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist with 16 each and the BJP 15.

In the fourth phase, Trinamool has fielded 15 candidates with criminal cases, the BJP seven and the Congress and the CPI-M six each.

Sixty-two constituencies spread across Burdwan, Kolkata, Murshidabad and Nadia districts will go to polls on April 21 in the third phase.

Fortynine constituencies in Howrah and North 24-Parganas will go to polls on April 25 in the fourth phase.
At least 30 people were killed in flash floods in Afghanistan overnight, officials said on Monday.

Rainstorms and flash floods killed 12 people and washed away several houses in Burka district of Baghlan province. Flash floods also killed six people in neighbouring Samangan province, Xinhua quoted an official of the Natural Disaster Management Authority as saying.

At least 12 more people lost their lives in Bangi and neighbouring villages in Taluqan districts of northern Takhar province on Sunday night, official Abdul Razaq Zinda said.

Heavy rain and floods killed 23 more people in the western Badghis province on Saturday night.
At least 96 militants were killed and 93 others injured in clashes and airstrikes across Afghanistan within a day, the defence ministry said on Monday.

"The Afghan national security and defence forces launched several operations in Nangarhar, Ghazni, Khost, Kandahar, Zabul, Badghis, Nimroz, Jawzjan, Balkh, Faryab, Baghlan, Kunduz, and Helmand provinces within the last 24 hours, killing 96 militants," Xinhua cited the ministry as saying.

The statement also confirmed that five army soldiers were killed during the operations.
The Art of Living (AoL) on Monday completed the clean-up of the Yamuna flood plains where the World Culture Festival was held and officially handed it over to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

The World Culture Festival, held here from March 11 to 13, was embroiled in a controversy that it harmed the local ecology as well as disturbed the farmers and their crops. A green court had imposed a fine on Aol for organising the event in the flood plains.

"The grounds have been returned by AoL in a better condition than they received it -- greener, cleaner and with no damage to the soil. There was no water, air or soil pollution from AoL's side. That should put to rest all apprehensions about the possible pollution due to the mega event," Aol said in a statement.

The World Culture Festival attracted 172 leaders from across globe, and over 3.7 million people from 155 countries.

The seven-acre stage on which the event was hosted was build in 50 days and dismantled in 28.

Aol said the stage was set up without a foundation to prevent damage to the soil.

"The area under the stage, as well as the rest of the grounds, now sport a carpet of green grass, and show no signs of any damage. In fact, the place is frequented by cattle for grazing," Aol said.
Bangladesh's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Monday said it has found links of at least 20 foreigners in the theft of $101 million from Bangladesh Bank's account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

CID Additional Deputy Inspector General Shah Alam said this but did not elaborate on the foreigners' involvement for the "sake of investigation", Xinhua reported.

CID investigators have recently visited Sri Lanka and Philippines for the probe.

"We've come to know about the names of the foreigners during the recent visit to the countries," Alam said.

He also expressed his reluctance to tell immediately whether any Bangladeshis were involved in the reserve heist.

Some $101 million worth of foreign reserves of the Bangladesh Bank, deposited with the US central bank, was stolen by a racket of hackers on February 5. The money was transferred to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

About $20 million of the total stolen money has so far been recovered.
The Bombay High Court on Monday directed the Maharashtra government, the censor board and the producers to file affidavits over a petition filed against upcoming Bollywood film "Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd.".

A division bench of Justice S.C. Dharmadhikari and Justice Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi posted the matter for further hearing on April 27.

The court direction came after a petition was filed by Punjab Cultural Heritage Board president Charan Singh Sapra and others claiming that the film depicts the Sikh community in poor light and it could pose a threat to public order.

Arguing for the petitioners, advocate B.A. Desai said the film was a mockery of the high principles of the Sikh faith and portrays a community member as "a dumb, unreasonable person who is an obvious idiot".

The advocates for the film producers said the Central Board of Film Censors has advised reasonable cuts after a review of the film.

After hearing the arguments from both sides, the judges directed the respondents to file their affidavits by April 27 when the matter would come up for hearing again.

The forthcoming film has faced legal hurdles elsewhere in the country, including in New Delhi, for its content which the Sikh community has strongly opposed.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said that

nations cannot afford to adopt double standards in the fight against terrorism even as she took up with the Chinese foreign minister the issue of Beijing vetoing New Delhi's move in the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar.

"If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism, it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," Sushma Swaraj said while addressing the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting here.

Sushma Swaraj called on the RIC countries to lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN.

Raising the issue of UN Security Council reform, Sushma Swaraj said it demanded greater urgency and sought support of Russia and China for this.

"There has been some positive movement in this connection with a text being put for the first time on the table for inter-governmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue. I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN (inter-governmental negotiations) process forward," she said.

On the slowdown of the global economy, the Indian minister said that as three large, emerging economies, India, Russia and China shared similar approaches and could benefit "from coordinating our positions".

The minister also sought active participation of all members in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit to be held in Goa in October this year.

India assumed the BRICS chairmanship this year.

"We hope to have a very successful BRICS Summit in Goa in October," Sushma Swaraj said.

In a media statement following the RIC meeting, she said that terrorism remained the foremost threat to international peace and security.

"I stressed the need to craft an effective global strategy to counter terrorism, including at the UN. I look forward to working with both my colleagues, in this regard," she said.

Answering a question in press conference after the RIC meeting, she said that all three countries -- India, Russia and China -- have been victims of terrorism.

"It is natural for us that we unite to lead the world in our fight against terrorism," Sushma Swaraj said.

In her media statement, she also said that she and the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers had a productive exchange of views on the situation in the Middle East.

"We also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and agreed that it was important for the international community to remain engaged and support the Afghanistan government in its development and reconciliation efforts and in defeating terrorist forces," she said.

Sushma Swaraj started her day with a bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during which she raised the issue of China vetoing India's bid at the UN to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar.

India approached the UN in February to include Azhar in the UN Security Council's 1267 sanctions list, in the aftermath of the Pathankot airbase terror attack. In the strike in early January by JeM terrorists, seven Indian security personnel were killed.

However, China asked the UN sanctions committee to keep on hold the Indian move, saying that Azhar did not meet the UN criteria to be banned as a terrorist.

"I would also like to tell you that in the morning today, I met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and in that meeting also I said to him that if we want to fulfill our commitment to fight terrorism together, then we must rethink the position they have taken on UNSC 1267 Committee," Sushma Swaraj said in the press conference.

The external affairs minister also held a bilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the RIC meeting during which the latter briefed her on the progress in the investigations into the deaths of three Indian nationals in Russia earlier this year.

While Puja Kallur, 22, from Navi Mumbai, and her room-mate Karishma Udai Bhosle, 21, from Pune, perished in the fire which broke out in their hostel on February 14 in the Smolensk State Medical Academy, Yasir Jawed, a medical student from Srinagar died on March 8 after being attacked by unknown people at Kazan city in the Tatarstan republic.

Besides this, Sushma Swaraj and Lavrov reviewed bilateral relations and preparations for the annual bilateral summit.

The external affairs later also called on Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rozogin at the White House in Moscow.

Rogozin is the co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on trade and economic cooperation.
Terrorism poses the biggest challenge to international security and nations cannot afford to adopt double standards in the fight against it, Indian External Affairs Minister said on Monday at the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers meet here.

"If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism, it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," she said.

called on the RIC countries to lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN.

Raising the issue of UN Security Council reform, said that the issue demands greater urgency, and sought support of Russia and China for this.

"There has been some positive movement in this connection with a text being put for the first time on the table for inter-governmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue. I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN process forward," she said.

On the slowdown of the global economy, the Indian minister said that as three large, emerging economies, India, Russia and China share similar approaches and could benefit "from coordinating our positions".

The minister also sought active participation of all members in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit to be held in Goa in October this year.

"We hope to have a very successful BRICS Summit in Goa in October," she said.
A military plane belonging to the Chinese Air Force landed for the first time on Yongshu Jiao, or Fiery Cross Reef on the Spratly Islands, for which Beijing has disputes with Manila, Hanoi and other neighbours.

The aircraft landed on a yet unknown date on the airstrip built by China on the reef, where the first civil flights began in January, Efe news reported on Monday.

China's foreign ministry on Monday confirmed the plane's landing but tried to downplay the incident defending it as part of a rescue mission.

The construction of the runway on the Fiery Cross Reef had led to an artificial extension of the reef and triggered protests from neighbouring countries, including Vietnam, whose government claimed that the runway had been illegally built on its territory.

The US and Japan also expressed concern that the construction of infrastructure for possible military use in the disputed waters of South China Sea could elevate tensions in the region.

Other countries, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim total or partial sovereignty over the Spratly Islands.

China is also locked in similar territorial disputes over the control of the Paracel archipelago.
The Congress on Monday made it clear that its alliance with Janata Dal-United (JD-U) of Nitish Kumar is just limited to Bihar.

The statement held significance as it came two days after Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief's clarion call for unity among all like-minded parties against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"I don't think that he (Nitish) has said that since we are together in Bihar, we are coming to an alliance for the entire country. We hold alliance with them specifically for Bihar," Congress General Secretary Shaqeel Ahmad told reporters here.

"We are in alliance with Nitish Kumr and Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar. We are in alliance in Kerala with other Kerala-based parties. So, the alliances are happening everywhere but alliances happen according to the circumstances of a particular State,a he added.

Though Ahmad advocated for the unity among all non-BJP parties, he insisted the clearer picture for the Centre in the wake of 2019 general elections was yet to emerge.

"We are 100 percent for the unity. Some parties have very strong presence in one particular state and they hardly have any presence in the neighbouring states," he said, insisting pan India tie up with such parties is not so easy.

Nitish Kumar on Saturday urged all the like-minded parties to unite against the BJP for 2019 general elections, saying the need of the hour was a "Sangh-mukt" (Rashtriya Syamsewak Sangh-free) India.

"It is high time. All non-BJP parties and all others opposed to the RSS should unite across the country. Our main aim is to stop the BJP," he said.
The Congress on Monday slammed Maharashtra's Water Conservation Minister Pankaja Munde for taking a selfie during her visit to the drought-hit Latur region.

"Selfie tourism is not the answer to the problems of the Marathwada region of Maharashtra," said Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi.

"It is extremely unfortunate and reflective of the Maharashtra government's mindset whereby they think selfie/disaster/drought tourism is the answer to all the problems Marathwada is facing."

Chaturvedi's remarks came after Munde shared her selfies in a series of tweets on Sunday while reviewing water conservation efforts in Latur.

"Selfie with trench of said barrage Manjara... one relief to Latur," Munde tweeted on Sunday.

"Water conservation is happening massively... isn't it samwedana for duskhal," she wrote in another tweet.

Taking a dig at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Chaturvedi said: "Munde's actions also reflect government priorities whereby they like to promote more and do less for the people of Maharashtra. There has been no word from the chief minister over the disaster (drought) and selfie tourism of its cabinet ministers. It shows there is no accountability on part of the entire cabinet."

She alleged that Fadnavis does not have control over his ministers. "It seems the chief minister doesn't have any authority to seek accountability from such ministers," the Congress spokesperson said.

"Earlier, Maharshtra's Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse wasted thousands of litres of water just to get a helipad constructed for his chopper to land as he was doing disaster tourism," Chaturvedi added.

The Marathwada region is facing severe drought this year and the Centre has arranged special water trains to transport water to Latur.
A court here on Monday fixed April 22 for its order on a plea for examining doctors on the potency of one of the accused in the Danish woman's gang rape case.

Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar was earlier slated to decide on the plea on Monday, but deferred it to April 22.

The application was filed by the counsel of Shyam Lal, who died in February in the Tihar jail here. Proceedings against Shyam in the case were abated thereafter.

Arjun, Raju alias Chhakka, Mohammad Raja, Mahendra alias Ganja, Raju alias Bajji and Shyam were accused of robbing and raping the Danish woman at knife-point near New Delhi railway station in January 2014 after she sought directions to her hotel in Paharganj.

Besides, three minors are also facing proceedings before the Juvenile Justice Board in the case.

Police said all the accused are vagabonds who took the woman to an isolated spot near the Divisional Railway Officers' Club close to the railway station, took away her belongings and then raped her.
Legendary actor Dilip Kumar, who was hospitalised after suffereing from high fever and nausea in the wee hours of Saturday, has thanked his fans for their love and prayers and says now he is feeling "brighter and better".

Dilip Kumar was admitted to Lilavati hospital after he suffered high fever and vomiting.

Later his wife Saira Banu issued a statement stating that he is "recovering well and is stable".

Dilip Kumar himself took to Twitter on Monday to share his health status with his fans.

"By God's grace feeling brighter and better," he tweeted.

In another post, he shared a photograph of himself from the hospital.

"Thank you all for your prayers, love and affection," he wrote alongside the image.

The 93-year-old actor's doctor had earlier said that he had infection in his lungs, fever and experienced a few bouts of vomiting, but was conscious and was having food.

He is likely to get discharged on Tuesday.

Saira Banu's manager Murshid Khan told IANS: "Dilip sir is fine now and all his reports are also normal. Once doctors give a heads up, he will probably get discharged by tomorrow (Tuesday)."

Born in Peshawar, now in Pakistan, Dilip Kumar, whose real name is Yusuf Khan, entered the Indian film industry in the black-and-white era and became a name to reckon with in the 1950s and 1960s.

Apart from films like "Aan", "Daag", "Madhumati", "Paigham", "Leader" and "Ram Aur Shyam", his cinematic gems range from the tragic story of "Devdas", the historical love saga "Mughal-E-Azam" to the dacoit drama "Ganga Jamuna".

After working for about six decades, he stepped away from the arclights in 1998. His last movie was "Qila".

Dilip Kumar was honoured with Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, in 2015.
Abu Dhabi, April 18 (IANS/WAM) Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced the introduction of a new smartphone app to facilitate the job of parking inspectors, and ease the processing of parking permits.

The step is part of RTA's efforts to equip inspectors with top-notch devices, and ensure the speedy processing of parking permits as well.

"Following the introduction of the app, which guides inspectors to vehicles in breach of the rule governing public parking in Dubai, a new feature has been added to the app," said Maitha bin Adai, CEO of RTA Traffic and Roads Agency.

The feature is to enable the speedy processing of applications for issuing or renewing permits related to booking parking slots, occupying pavements, investing private land plots as parking areas as well as private parking permits for citizens, bin Adai elaborated.

--IANS/WAM

ksk/dg
The toll in the deadly 7.8-magnitude temblor that struck Ecuador on Saturday evening has risen to 246 on Monday, Vice President Jorge Glas said.

Glas said as many as 2,527 were injured in the earthquake, that has generated at least 189 aftershocks of various strength.

Ecuador, who has declared a state of emergency in six provinces, has mobilised around 14,000 army and public security personnel to the affected areas.

On Sunday, Glas visited the affected cities of Manta, Pedernales and Portoviejo, in the northeastern province of Manabi, which has been difficult to reach due to damaged highways.

Saturday's quake has been reported to be Ecuador's biggest since 1979. More than 130 aftershocks have followed.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at a fairly shallow depth of 19.2 km, about 27 km from Muisne in a sparsely populated area.

The quake was also felt in Colombia, where patients in a clinic in Cali city were evacuated from the building.

In Ecuador, helicopters and buses ferrying troops have been hampered by landslides. People were using their bare hands to try to dig out survivors in some areas.

Food and other essential items were handed out, with aid also coming from Venezuela and Mexico.
The toll in the deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Ecuador on Saturday evening, rose to 246 on Monday, with authorities heightening relief efforts and activating all resources to cope with the disaster.

According to Vice President Jorge Glas, 2,527 people were injured and an unknown number of others missing in the quake that has generated at least 189 aftershocks of various strength.

The government declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Manabi, Esmeraldas, Guayas, Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, Los Rios and Santa Elena, EFE news reported.

The whole country has begun to take stock and collect medicines, water, blankets, tents and food in order to send them to the hardest-hit places like the coastal Manabi province, where about 200 people died, said Ricardo Penaherrera of Ecuador's national emergency management office.

The cities of Manta, Portoviejo and Pedernales, a tourist destination, saw the most devastation but damage was widespread throughout the country.

The Ecuador government has deployed 10,000 soldiers and 4,600 police officers to the affected areas.

The armed forces built mobile hospitals in Pedernales and Portoviejo and set up temporary shelters.

The military also brought in more K9 units to aid the search for survivors -- and bodies.

"The lack of water and communication remains a big problem," Penaherrera told CNN en Espanol.

"Many highways are in bad shape, especially in the mountainous area because it has been raining recently due to (the) El Nino weather phenomenon."

The governments of Colombia, Chile, Spain and Mexico are sending help for rescue efforts.

The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) also announced its readiness to provide their assistance and the UN Programme for Development (UNDP) has opened an account for international donations for those affected.

Television footage showed completely collapsed houses, damaged roads, collapsed hotels, and people on the streets crying and wandering on dusty roads.

The tremor was centred 27 km southeast of the coastal town of Muisne, according to the US Geological Survey.

It is the deadliest earthquake to hit the nation since March 1987 when a 7.2-magnitude temblor killed 1,000 people.

A tsunami threat following the earthquake has "mostly passed," according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

An earlier warning for other nations with coastlines on the Pacific was cancelled.
The toll in the deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Ecuador on Saturday evening has risen to 272 on Monday, with authorities stepping up relief efforts and activating all resources to cope with the disaster.

According to Vice President Jorge Glas, nearly 2,500 people were injured and an unknown number are missing in the quake that has generated at least 189 aftershocks.

The government declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Manabi, Esmeraldas, Guayas, Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, Los Rios and Santa Elena, EFE news reported.

Officials said the toll was likely to rise as information began to pour in.

The whole country has begun to take stock of the situation and collect medicines, water, blankets, tents and food in order to send these to the hardest-hit places like the coastal Manabi province where about 200 people died, said Ricardo Penaherrera of Ecuador's national emergency management office.

The Ecuador government has deployed 10,000 soldiers and 4,600 police officers to the affected areas.

"The lack of water and communication remains a big problem," Penaherrera told CNN en Espanol.

"Many highways are in bad shape, especially in the mountainous area, because it has been raining due to (the) El Nino weather phenomenon."

The governments of Colombia, Chile, Spain and Mexico were sending help for rescue efforts.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has cut short a visit to Italy to deal with the crisis.

"Everything can be rebuilt, but lives cannot be recovered, and that's what hurts the most," he said.

The tremor was centred 27 km southeast of the coastal town of Muisne, according to the US Geological Survey.

It is the deadliest earthquake to hit the nation since March 1987 when a 7.2 magnitude temblor killed 1,000 people.

Ecuador's quake was about six times as powerful as the earthquake that struck Japan on Saturday, the BBC quoted David Rothery, a professor of geosciences at The Open University, as saying.

A tsunami threat following the earthquake has "mostly passed", according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.
The authentic and uber- sophisticated En - The Japanese Restaurant, brings to the capital the Japanese traditional cherry-blossom flower festival, Hanami, with a special menu in celebration of the ancient custom.

Hanami starts by the end of March to early May, when sakura - cherry blossom - bloom all over Japan.

The tradition is believed to have started around the Nara period (710-794). Inititially people admired the ume - plum - blossoms but by the Heian period (794-1185), sakura grabbed more attention and hanami was synonymous with sakura.

For the occasion, En has introduced a special menu which will be available until April 21.

The interiors of the restaurant which is located in an over 100-year-old heritage building opposite the majestic Qutab Minar, has been redecorated using cherry blossom flowers, sakura coloured round lanterns and the Japanese Ikebana flower arrangements.

The special menu is available both in the non-vegetarian and vegetarian variants priced at Rs. 1,600 and Rs. 1,400 plus taxes respectively.

To start off, we were served the sakura blossom mocktail, an aperitif. The fizzy drink that came in a shot glass sitting on a square-shaped wooden holder tasted very similar to the 7Up cold drink.

This was quickly followed by the temari (round) sushi with cherry blossom served with pickled vegetables. The pink-coloured sushi was a sight for sore eyes. It consisted only of the sticky sushi rice which was soaked in vinegar and sakura essence for 24 hours. Shaped into a ball, the taste was very bland, even the pickled vegetables or the tasty soy sauce couldn't do much.

After this, we were served the yakitori (skewers) in both non-vegetarian - chicken, and vegetarian - okra and mushroom. The chicken yakitori were to die for, juicy, melt-in-the-mouth soft, full of flavour. The mushroom was also flavourful but the okra was again really bland.

The next was the miso (fermented soy-bean paste) soup which actually acts as a palate cleanser and also helps in quick digestion. It came with pieces of fried tofu. It was full of flavour although a little on the acquired side, not recommended for all.

The next dishes that came in were definitely the stars of the whole evening. First up was the aburi (baked) salmon special roll and the California sushi roll, and the second was baked mackerel marinated in sweet miso sauce served with bok choy, steamed rice and pickled vegetables.

The baked salmon sushi roll was fresh giving out the very distinct flavour of the salmon without overpowering it. Japanese mayonnaise and soy sauce was drizzled on top. The California rolls -- filled with cucumber, crab meat and avocado -- felt it was served straight out of the sea. The outer layer of sticky rice was covered in tiny tobiko - flying fish row - pearls, which popped in the mouth.

The rolls were accompanied by wasabi, pickled ginger and soy sauce.

The second dish was again on the acquired side. The rice mixed with the bok choy along with a piece of the miso mackerel was very tasty, with the sweet sauce enhancing the flavour of all the ingredients.

This dish was very nice; it made you feel very royal.

We concluded the meal with sakura chiffon cake and green tea. The consistency of the cake was fluffy, light as a feather and although the sweetness was very less, it managed to hit the right notes.

The meal was definitely a taste trip and En claiming to serve authentic Japanese stood true to its claim.

FAQs:

Where: H-5/1, Ambawatta One, Kalkadas Marg, Mehrauli, New Delhi

Timings: For lunch: 12 noon-2.45 p.m.; For dinner: 6.30-10.45 p.m

(The writer's visit was at the invitation of En. Karishma Saurabh Kalita can be contacted at karishma.k@ians.in)
London police on Monday arrested four Greenpeace activists who climbed several iconic statues here to protest high levels of pollution in the British capital.

As part of their unique protest, the activists climbed statues such as Eros in Piccadilly Circus, and the statue of Oliver Cromwell and Nelson's Column and placed masks on them, Efe news reported.

According to the police, four people were arrested -- of them two while they climbed the statue of Oliver Cromwell within the grounds of parliament.

Greenpeace reported that the activists had targeted 17 statues in the city, including the figure of Queen Victoria outside Buckingham Palace.

This protest, according to the environmental group, aims to put pressure on the mayor of London, who will be elected on May 5, to take action against pollution.
The GPRN/NSCN, one of the strongest factions of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, on Monday extended its ceasefire with the Indian government for another year, but made it clear that it won't be joining the Naga peace accord as the pact is an understanding between the government and the NSCN-IM.

The GPRN/NSCN -- which also goes by the name of NSCN (Unification) -- said the ongoing peace process was not suitable or acceptable comprehensively for the other Naga stakeholders.

The move may come as a jolt to the Indian government, which has been trying to bring all the factions of the NSCN onboard the peace accord inked between the government and the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) on August 3, 2015.

"The GPRN/NSCN, under the leadership of Khitovi Zhimomi and Gen. Neokpao Konyak, has fundamentally agreed in principle to bring about lasting and meaningful peace in Nagaland with the Naga People.

"Therefore, we cannot simply jump into the present arrangement, which is the Naga peace process, since we have also entered into a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the government with unique political dispersions and unique a political dimensions," Jack Zhimomi, supervisor of the GPRN/NSCN ceasefire supervisory board, told IANS.

The GPRN/NSCN and NSCN (Reformation) extended the ceasefire with the Indian government in the presence of senior home ministry officials in Delhi.

Separate meetings were held with the factions, considering the rivalry between them.

According to the letter of the ceasefire extension, a copy of which is with IANS, the ceasefire has been extended till April 27, 2017.

"Government of India and GPRN/NSCN have mutually decided to extend the ceasefire agreement with affect from April 28, 2016 for a period of one more year i.e. April 27, 2017 to bring about a lasting peace in the state of Nagaland with the involvement of Naga people," reads the letter.

On their new decision, Zhimomi said that as the government was already involved in a peace process with the NSCN-IM, it was "impossible" for the other stakeholders to join the process.

"For the past many years, the present arrangement (peace process) is exclusively in parlance with one particular group (NSCN-IM) and not others. So therefore, what I feel is that the term inclusive, which the government is referring to as far as the Naga accord is concerned, is neither tenable nor applicable," said Zhimomi.
The drafting of a law on halal food was not listed in China's legislative work plan for 2016, after meeting with mixed reactions from the public.

The Legal Affairs Office of the State Council announced in March that China had contemplated whether to draft the law, years after the State Council first tasked the Ethnic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) to draft a national regulation on halal food in 2002, the Global Times reported on Monday.

The committee suggested speeding up passage of the legislation in 2012 and 2015, saying that the legislation was "reasonable and necessary" as it relates to "national unity and social stability".

The legislation was opposed by many scholars, including Xi Wuyi, from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who said it "violates the principle of separation of State and religion".

Several Muslims destroyed the facilities of a bakery in Xining in Qinghai province in May 2015 after discovering non-halal items such as pork sausages and ham in its delivery van.

In the same month, hundreds of Muslims in Xi'an, Shaanxi province also took to the streets to demand a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages - which are forbidden by the Holy book Quran - at local halal restaurants.

According to an official from the religious affairs department of the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, at least 20 million Chinese from several ethnic minority groups eat halal food, so it is necessary to have national legislation on halal products.
The ongoing meetings between Chinese and Indian officials demonstrate the good momentum of relations between New Delhi and Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesperson said here on Monday.

Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi and Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will hold a 19th round of talks between special representatives on boundary issues on Wednesday and Thursday, Xinhua quoted spokesman Lu Kang as saying.

Earlier on Monday, Chinese State Councillor and Defence Minister Chang Wanquan held talks with visiting Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in Beijing.

The foreign ministers of the two countries will meet each other during the 14th meeting of the foreign ministers of China, Russia and India on Monday in Moscow.

The meetings show that mutual political trust between China and India have increased, and bilateral exchanges and cooperation are advancing, Lu said.

The two sides also maintain good coordination and collaboration in global and regional affairs, he said.

Although China and India have some differences, both sides are willing to effectively control and solve the issues through friendly negotiations and consultations, according to Lu.

In fact, China and India have always maintained close high-level contacts, he said.

The development of China-India relations is not only in line with their interests but also conducive to regional and global peace and stability, Lu stressed, noting both the countries are the two biggest developing countries, important emerging economies and major powers in a multi-polar world.

"We are ready to work with India to constantly make new progress on building the China-India strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity," said the spokesman.
A CBI court here on Monday sent IAS officer Rajiv Kumar to judicial custody in Dasna jail after he surrendered before the court for abuse of power in a Noida plot allotment scam.

The former deputy chief executive officer (DCEO) and presently in waiting list for new posting, surrendered before the CBI court on Monday. It sent him to jail after taking him into judicial custody.

Kumar, a former principal secretary (appointment) in the personnel department in UP government, surrendered before the court after losing his case in Allahabad High Court.

His accomplice and the then chief executive officer (CEO) of Noida, Neera Yadav, has already surrendered before the same court. She is presently serving a three-year jail term awarded in 2012.

Neera Yadav, who was the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh and the chief executive officer (CEO) of Noida, along with Rajiv Kumar, the then DCEO of Noida, were convicted by the local CBI court to three-year jail terms.

They were also slapped a financial penalty of Rs.1,00,000 each in two cases pertaining to the illegal allotment of plots during their tenure in Noida in 1994.

CBI special judge S. Lal at Ghaziabad, pronouncing the judgment in the Noida plot allotment scam, said the court found them guilty of abusing their position and, therefore, convicted them to three years' jail along with a financial penalty of Rs.1,00,000 and Rs.50,000 in two cases.

Both the penalties -- jail and the cash fine -- were imposed simultaneously on the two accused. The conviction was awarded under section 120(B) of IPC (criminal conspiracy) and section 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servant) read with section 13(1)(D) (using corrupt and illegal means) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The accused were granted bail after the pronouncement of the judgment after furnishing personal bonds of Rs.1,00,000 each.

Neera Yadav and Rajiv Kumar were found guilty in a case wherein Kumar allotted a plot No.86/51 and later transferred the allotment to a prime location in sector-14A as plot No.27.

A piece of adjoining land measuring 105 square metres was also clubbed with the plot and allotted to him. The court found Kumar guilty of abusing his position as deputy chief executive officer (DCEO).

The Noida Entrepreneur Association filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court which then ordered the CBI to investigate the case.

Complying with the Supreme Court order, the CBI on February 26, 1998, registered a case against Neera Yadav and others including Deputy CEO Rajiv Kumar.

The CBI filed the chargesheet in October 16, 2002. After a 10-year trial, the court of CBI special judge convicted the UP cadre senior IAS officers in 2012.
Almost 10 years after Mayawati's "social engineering" helped her BSP capture power in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is trying to emulate the model to regain lost glory in the country's most populous and politically critical state.

"We sense strong anti-incumbency (against Samajwadi Party). There is also a substantial fall in Brahmin support for Mayawati. So we need to tap this vacuum," said a senior minister in the Narendra Modi government.

The appointment of Keshav Prasad Maurya, a Koeri caste OBC leader, as the Bharatiya Janata Party president in Uttar Pradesh, must be viewed from this standpoint, the minister said, outlining the agenda for next year's assembly elections.

The minister along with Prime Minister Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and senior leaders Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari played a major role in the selection of Maurya, who replaced Laxmikant Bajpai.

Besides good caste combinations, the party is banking on the BJP's developmental plank and the appeal of Modi, an MP from Varanasi and also an OBC.

The BJP is also banking on the lingering Ram temple issue but wants to tread cautiously.

"We hope to make significant inroads among smaller caste groups like Gadhel, Kakushta, Jogi, Domri, Lodh and Nai," the BJP leader said. He felt these groups had been traditionally lost out on development. "So they see in BJP a party which will set the past wrongs right."

In the 2014 Lok Sabha battle, the Extremely Backward Class (EBCs) other than Yadavs, who largely remain with the Samajwadi Party, flocked to Modi and the BJP. "This needs to be retained," the leader said.

The BJP fought the 2014 election on its own but had a minor ally in Apna Dal, which represents the interests of the Kurmi community. Of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, the BJP won a staggering 71 while the Apna Dal bagged two seats.

Rajnath Singh, an upper caste Thakur, was chief minister till March 2002. Prior to that, the party had a strong Lodh leader in chief minister Kalyan Singh.

But Kalyan Singh developed differences with then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and quit the BJP, denting its appeal in the key northern state. Rajnath Singh's rule also distanced Brahmins from the BJP.

BJP strategists feel that aggressive door-to-door canvassing to woo the Dalits and EBC voters by projecting Modi's OBC caste (Teli) will help - to consolidate a rainbow coalition a la Mayawati.

The BJP-led central government is already reaching out chiefly to farmers and rural India in the name of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar. The LJP of Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, a Dalit leader from Bihar, is keen to join the BJP bandwagon for the 2017 elections.

BJP's poll managers are also working overtime to make inroads among Muslims, who have generally backed either Maulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party or Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party.

"UP voters are very smart. Muslim voters in UP are smarter. They indulge in tactical voting and support strong candidates who can defeat BJP. This needs to be handled," said Jagdambika Pal, a BJP MP from UP.

But winning UP may not be that easy.

In 2012, the BJP finished third with just 47 seats in the 403-member assembly while the Samajwadi Party picked up 224 seats and the BSP, which was voted out, 80. The Congress was fourth with 28 seats.

The BJP's vote share was only 15 percent, down from 32.51 percent of 1996.

In September 2014, just four months after it swept the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had suffered reverses in the assembly by-elections across key hubs like Bijnor, Thakurdwara, Nighasan, Hamirpur and Charkhari.

In 2002 also, the BJP was third with 88 seats with the Samajwadi Party topped a hung assembly with 143 seats followed by the BSP at 98. In 2007, Maywati's social engineering helped the BSP to win 206 seats followed by Samajwadi Party's 97 and BJP's 51.
Indian Navy chief, Admiral R.K. Dhawan, on Monday called for increased private investment in defence manufacturing which, he said, is capable of producing the world's best warships and submarines.

"The navy has outlined its science and technology roadmap for next 15 years and has shared it with the industry, underlining nearly 100 sets of technologies which are to be absorbed in our warships and submarines," he said at an interaction between private investors and naval officers here.

Dhowan said the navy would provide all the support to MSMEs (micro, small, medium enterprises) in research, design and development of weaponry.

"The blueprint of the future of Indian Navy is firmly anchored in self reliance and indigenisation and I think this partnership with the Indian industry, both public and private, will ensure that our future warships, submarines and the aviation sector will be 100 percent made in India," he said.

NITI Ayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant said defence manufacturing had to be the centre point of India's growth story.

"If manufacturing has to grow, defence manufacturing has to be the driver. Without defence manufacturing, India can never grow in double digit and sustain growth trajectory for long," Kant said in his brief address at the event.

"In the last 15 months we have cleared licences for 125 defence manufacturers. The key principle was that the private manufacturers would be treated at par with the public sector units," Kant said.

He said the Narendra Modi government has adopted a balanced approach so that "private manufacturers get a level playing field to compete and win contracts in India".

The navy chief highlighted the opportunities where the private sector can collaborate with the public sector in warship building.

"In the float components of a warship which comprises the structures of it, India has achieved nearly 90 percent indigenisation. That's because warship seals are being designed and developed by the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and is being manufactured in the country," Dhowan said.

He added that the aircraft carrier Vikrant, which was being built in Kochi, has an Indian seal.

Dhowan said India had achieved 60 percent indigenisation in the move components, where it was building the propulsion and auxiliary machinery.

"But there is huge opportunity of indigenisation and partnering with the public and private sector in making main gas banks, which are the primary requirement for the main propulsion and auxiliary propulsion," he said.

The navy was expecting foreign assistance in manufacturing pipe components of the warships which comprises weaponry and sensors, said Dhowan.

"While we have made the medium range guns, the explosives, anti-aircraft guns, rocket launchers, communication systems, electronic warfare systems, combat management systems... there is still huge opportunity for developing technology. So we would like the best in world to partner with India so that the best sensors and sea warfare weapons are available within the country," he said.

Dhowan said warship building in India can be traced back to 5,000 years ago to the Indus Valley civilisation.

"Even today we have a dry dock at Lothal in Gujarat which traces back to 2,200 BC. From these small ports the sailors sailed out to distant lands in Mesopotamia and Africa. On eastern coast of India, the Kalingas, the Cholas, the Cheras, the Pandyas also sailed out to distant lands in South East Asia.

"Even today we can see India's maritime heritage in these countries," he added.
India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said that she looked forward to working with her counterparts from Russia and China in the fight against terrorism after she took up with the Chinese foreign minister the issue of Beijing vetoing New Delhi's move in the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar.

Sushma Swaraj said in a media statement following the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting that international terrorism remained the foremost threat to international peace and security.

"I stressed the need to craft an effective global strategy to counter terrorism, including at the UN. I look forward to working with both my colleagues, in this regard," she said.

Answering a question in press conference after the RIC meeting, she said that all three countries -- India, Russia and China -- have been victims of terrorism.

"It is natural for us that we unite to lead the world in our fight against terrorism," Sushma Swaraj said.

"To do this, it is important that we give up the distiction between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists. We will also need to give up the tendency to differentiate between 'my terrorists' and 'your terrorists'," she said.

The external affairs minister stated that a terrorist was a terrorist, one who committed crimes against humanity and not against any nation.

"We must adopt this principle. And today at the RIC meeting, I put forward these views quite frankly before my two counterparts from Russia and China," she said.

Sushma Swaraj also referred to her bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier in the day, during which she raised the issue of China vetoing India's bid at the UN to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar.

India approached the UN in February to include Azhar in the UN Security Council's 1267 sanctions list, in the aftermath of the Pathankot airbase terror attack. In the strike in early January by JeM terrorists, seven Indian security personnel were killed.

However, China asked the UN sanctions committee to keep on hold the Indian move, saying that Azhar did not meet the UN criteria to be banned as a terrorist.

India has voiced disappointment at the "technical hold" put on its application to include Azhar in the UN sanctions list.

"I would also like to tell you that in the morning today, I met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and in that meeting also I said to him that if we want to fulfill our commitment to fight terrorism together, then we must rethink the position they have taken on UNSC 1267 Committee," Sushma Swaraj said.

In her media statement, she also said that she and the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers had a productive exchange of views on the situation in the Middle East.

"We all stressed our commitment to support democratic, pluralistic and peaceful forces in order to restore stability in the region," she stated.

"We also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and agreed that it was important for the international community to remain engaged and support the Afghanistan Government in its development and reconciliation efforts and in defeating terrorist forces."

On the issue of UN Security Council reforms, the external affairs minister said she once again urged both Russia and China to take the lead in ensuring that the inter-governmental negotiations (IGN) process in the UN advanced swiftly.

"India's permanent membership of the Security Council is long overdue and this anomaly needs urgent rectification," Sushma Swaraj said.

She said that she, along with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Wang, had an exchange of views on various groupings, including BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).

India assumed the chairmanship of BRICS this year.

"We look forward to active participation of both Russia and China in various activities that we have planned throughout the year and throughout India," Sushma Swaraj said, adding that India looked forward to welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Goa in October for the BRICS summit.
As Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar tours China, Indian Navy chief R.K. Dhowan on Monday said the two neighbouring countries are cooperating with each other in the maritime domain.

"Both Indian and PLA (People's Liberation Army of China) navies cooperate with each other in maritime domain," Chief of the Naval Staff Dhowan told reporters on the sidelines of an event here that brought together investors in defence sector and top naval officers.

"Recently, when our agreements were renewed, two warships and official delegation of PLA had arrived in India and we carried out joint exercises," he said.

Together India and Chinese navies have been successful in tackling piracy as well, Dhowan said.

His comments came as Parrikar arrived in China on Saturday on a five-day official visit for talks with top PLA officials to consolidate ties between the armed forces of the two countries.

Dhowan said: "The two navies cooperate with each other even in the Gulf of Aden, where we undertake anti-piracy patrol. We exchange information, so that both the navies are aware what escorts are being undertaken by the other."

"We also have occasions where both of our ships visit each others' country. We visited China in 2014 to participate in multilateral exercises and their ship visited us after that."

Defence Minister Parrikar may raise with Chinese minister the issues about enhancement of cooperation and interaction between the two countries, Dhowan said.

The navy chief also said the LSA (Logistics Support Agreement) that India is about to sign with the US would help the Indian Navy in getting crucial logistical support in high seas.

"This (LSA) will be to our advantage. We will get support in logistic aspects, which will meet the requirements of the ships when they operate in different parts of the world," Dhowan said, insisting "the two navies will also look deeper into the other aspects of the agreement".

The navy chief refused to link the LSA with India-China relations. The agreement is being seen by some as part of America's 'China containment' measure.

Parrikar and US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter last week announced that the two countries have 'in principle' agreed to conclude a logistics support to each other.

India and the US will sign two more agreements: A Communication and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA), and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) for assistance in geospatial intelligence.
Earlier this month, Harinder Sidhu presented her credentials to President Pranab Mukherjee as Australia's High Commissioner to India. She thus joins two other western Heads of Mission of Indian origin in New Delhi - Ambassador Richard R. Verma of the United States and High Commissioner Nadir Patel of Canada.

It was not always like this. A western power being represented in India in any capacity by a non-Anglo Saxon/Celtic was unthinkable just 20 odd years ago -- until the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs broke the mold by appointing me, India born, as Australia's Deputy High Commissioner to New Delhi. The mosaic of reactions both at home and in India to this path-breaking move gives some idea of the prevailing social climate then.

Reservations about my appointment were discernible enough in the corridors of foreign policy-related establishments in Canberra. But political correctness kept them muted. Though New Delhi was nowhere near as sought after as Washington or London, the post-1991 reformist India was beginning to bud in official consciousness as a posting to make a mark in.

My selection did not exactly endear me to other contenders. There was restrained amusement too at the Department's naivety in assuming that sending a 'native' to his original habitat would somehow improve bilateral diplomatic relations with a 'difficult' country.

Overall, my selection was perceived at best as presenting a new visage of Australian diplomacy on the Asian stage and, at worst, as the Foreign Secretary currying favour with the ruling Labor Government, which was unequivocally committed to multiculturalism in public service.

On my part, I was just plain worried. It is one thing to have served in Beijing, Moscow and Hanoi among others, but quite another to be the first ethnic in the halls of western diplomacy in Delhi. After all, in the broader geo-political context, I had to work closely with other western missions there.

And then there were the unknowns of working in the Indian environment. I sought counsel from both local and foreign observers of the local scene. The unanimous advice was to reject the appointment. Reason? Given the petitionary mores of Delhi's political, bureaucratic and business elite in a still closed economy, I would be inundated with demands for "assistance" with visas, foreign alcohol and other objects of desire, invitations to dinners and events. Why? Because I would be seen as one of them and expected to behave the Indian way -- and all that it implied.

Still, reassured of support at the highest levels, off I went.

On the ground at the Australian High Commission, it was par for the course in working with Australian colleagues (apart from an Australian spouse who kept introducing me to Indians, well-meaningly but disconcertingly, as "believe it or not, this is our DHC"). The notable difference from serving in other Australian missions was the reaction of the local (Indian) staff, long used to taking orders from Caucasians. I learnt later of their anxieties at being saddled with an Indian-style babu, but these dissipated within weeks.

The reaction of the diplomatic community was tellingly a mixed bag. It was then de rigueur for an incoming senior diplomat to call on his counterparts in missions of interest to Australia. I covered about thirty. Presenting myself for the appointment at the British High Commission, much confusion ensued: it had all been a "mistake" and the meeting was politely "postponed" (inevitably followed next day by profuse apologies and a sheepish call on me instead).

The appointment with the US Embassy kept getting delayed until presumably they had 'cleared' me as a genuine article. New Zealanders and Canadians were warmly welcoming.

The Russians, fully aware of my six (Cold War) years in Moscow handling a portfolio quite unpalatable to the then Soviet Union, were downright suspicious, tinged with a hint of hostility. The Chinese evinced much wariness, for e.g., on working together on issues of mutual interest, the crass undiplomatic response was "we will do so with your colleagues", casting doubts on my credibility as a genuine Australian representative.

Singapore apart, other Asian diplomats were visibly confounded, but once recovered, marveled at what they perceived to be a stealthy Australian diplomatic ploy. No sense of my professional merit entered their calculations!

Outside the cloistered Chanakyapuri chanceries, and the Ministry of External Affairs whose staffers had known me or about me over the years in previous official reincarnations, it was uniformly a case of being greeted with undisguised disbelief by Indian bureaucrats. Instead of discussing the official matter at hand, invariably one had to first walk through a barrage of what we would deem personal questions -- the how and why of a "non-white" being the DHC. It was all inoffensive, but somewhat wearisome.

A few months later though, it was just like working as in any other foreign capital.

More broadly, on the public front, I did become something of an exotic specimen for TV and print media. That did not go unnoticed back home, reassuringly so. Indian business with its usual pragmatism dealt with me as it would with another western diplomat. My calendar became overweight with invitations to speak at trade, academic, NGO, arts and other social events.

Fears about being besieged by entreaties proved groundless. At no time during my posting did I receive any untoward request from the usual suspects -- businesspersons, bureaucrats and social contacts. Or from local staff with whom I worked on a day to day basis. The indelible emotional footprint left on my mind after the six year posting was one of having received overwhelming warmth, blended with visible pride, and full working cooperation from Indians of all stations.

While it is not for me to judge the value of my contribution to Australia-India relations, I can confidently assert that my appointment as a senior Australian representative did much to undermine the then Indian elite's highly negative views of Australia, largely informed by still fresh memories of the White Australia policy.

And it served as a precedent for other western governments; today Indian origin diplomats abound in their missions in New Delhi.

They would do well to give credit to the Australian Foreign Service for initiating a multicultural presence in the western diplomatic corps long before it became the norm in India (or elsewhere).

(18.04.2016 - Rakesh Ahuja is a former member of the Australian foreign service who served as a Australian Deputy High Commissioner in India. He is now Managing Associate, Axess India Consultancy Group. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at Rakesh.Ahuja@axessindia.com)
A 33-year-old Indian-origin student was found dead after he was struck by a Tube train at an underground station in Britain, media reported on Monday.

Mir Baquer Ali Rizvi, who was pursuing Master's in business administration (MBA) here, was pronounced dead at Osterley Tube station last Tuesday.

British Transport Police (BTP), who led the investigation, ruled out murder as the cause of the death at this stage though the official reason will only be confirmed by a coroner at a future date.

"We were called to Osterley London Underground station at 7.45 pm on Tuesday, 12th April, following reports of a person being struck by a train," a BTP spokesperson was quoted as saying.

"The man's death is not being treated as suspicious and his family has been made aware. A file will be prepared for the coroner," he added.

Rizvi, who hailed from Hyderabad's Miralam Mandi area, had arrived in London in 2009 to pursue higher education.

Earlier, another Indian-origin MBA student died after his throat was slashed on the street near his home in west London on April 10.

According to eyewitnesses, Sahil Roy, 28, was stabbed as a result of a "petty row over a few pounds", the Evening Standard reported.

"A murder investigation has been launched following the death of a man in Isleworth. Police were called at 4.05 pm (UK time) on Sunday to Summerwood Road in Isleworth following reports of man suffering from a stab injury," read a Metropolitan Police statement.

A 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder and was being held at a south London police station for Roy's stabbing.

Witnesses and friends told the Evening Standard how the victim's mother sobbed by his side as she cradled him while he lay in the road.
The Iranian authorities have promised to take immediate action to try a teenager who raped and murdered a little Afghan girl in Iran.

Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan Mohammad Reza Bahrami said the country's vice president met the victim's family, Khaama press reported.

Bahrami has also promised quick action by the authorities for the trial of the rapist.

A six-year-old Afghan girl was abducted, raped and then murdered by an Iranian teenager. The girl, according to the media, was also burnt with acid to hide the incident.

Iranian police said the authorities have released special orders to follow the case.

The murder of the girl in Veramin city of Iran sparked anger in Afghanistan and elsewhere after reports about the horrific incident emerged.
Levelling serious allegations against the Congress over the Ishrat Jahan shootout case, the BJP on Monday said the Congress almost connived to get a political rival eliminated in Gujarat.

"Here is a political rival, the then chief minister of Gujarat, whom the Congress could not face politically. So they quietly saw a terror plot bloom," union minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was the then Gujarat chief minister.

"The then union home minister gave two affidavits in court. They tried to show as if there was no terror plot, as if there was no threat to Modi's life."

She said that since both of the affidavits on a single matter can't be true, the then home minister P. Chidambaram was either trying to "hide some facts or add something not germane to the case" in the submission before the court.

The BJP's outburst came after a TV channel revealed that the first affidavit, which decribed Ishrat Jahan as a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, was indeed signed by Chidambaram, who has been denying signing it.

However, the second affidavit said there was no conclusive evidence to suggest that Ishrat was linked to LeT.

"By politicising the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, the Congress has undermined the national security. They have weakened the entire security network," Sitharaman said, adding whether the shootout was real or fake was a secondary matter.

Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan and her three alleged associates Pranesh Gopinath Pilai, Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar were killed by Gujarat Police in an allegedly staged shootout on June 15, 2004.

Gujarat Police had described the four as Pakistani-controlled terrorists who came from Jammu and Kashmir to assassinate then chief minister Modi.

In Feruary, LeT operative David Headley told a Mumbai court that Ishrat Jahan was a member of the Pakistan-based terror group.
Japan and the US on Monday agreed to enhance cooperation over possible responses to North Korea's suspected ongoing missile and nuclear ambitions.

Talks between Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki and US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken were held in Tokyo amid rising concerns that Pyongyang might be preparing to conduct a fifth nuclear test, XInhua news agency reported.

"We need to continue to take effective measures against North Korea, always keeping in mind that the country may conduct further provocative acts," Saiki said.

Saiki and Blinken, along with South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung Nam, will hold a trilateral meeting in Seoul on Tuesday regarding the ongoing issue of regional defence and security as pertains to the actions of Pyongyang, Japanese foreign ministry said on Monday.

On April 15, Japan lambasted what it deemed to be an attempted launch of an intermediate-range "Musudan" missile ny North Korea, although said it was of no threat to national security as the launch had possibly failed.

Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said there were no inbound projectiles found headed towards Japan and as such there was no impact on the nation's security, while Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida described the launch as "provocative" and urged restraint on Pyongyang's part.

Following the sanctions by the UN Security Council last month for conducting a fourth nuclear test and launching a long-range rocket widely believed to be de facto test of banned ballistic missile technology, Pyongyang has launched a number of projectiles of late, some of which have been categorised as missiles.

"Japan and the US are facing the immediate challenge of Pyongyang and its ongoing provocative actions with its nuclear and missile programme," Blinken told Kishida during the talks.
Jordan on Monday recalled its ambassador to Iran over what it described as Tehran's interference in Arab affairs.

Jordan is the latest Arab country to recall its envoy after Saudi Arabia cut its diplomatic ties with Tehran following attacks on its mission in Tehran during protests against the Saudi execution of a prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

There was no official response yet from Iran to the Jordanian move.

On January 2, Saudi Arabia executed Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 others over terror charges.

The execution sparked protests in Shia-dominated Iran, where angry mobs stormed and set ablaze Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the city of Mashhad.

A day later, Saudi Arabia announced it was severing its diplomatic ties with Iran, and asked all Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours.

"After attacks on Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran, we urged Iran to stop interference in Arab affairs, but we did not see any response from Iran even to calls by the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation not to interfere in regional issues," Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs Mohammad Momani said on Monday.

Jordan decided to recall its envoy to Iran to revaluate the situation in light of the ongoing developments, he added.

Jordan hopes that Iran would work on building cooperation and trust with the Arab countries and respect the sovereignty of the Arab states and not interfere in their affairs, Momani said.

Earlier this year, Bahrain and Sudan also announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Iran, citing Tehran's intervention in Arab affairs, which they said became clearer after the execution of Nimr al-Nimr.

"Bahrain has decided to end diplomatic relations with Iran because of its continuous interference in the affairs of Saudi Arabia, and also of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)," a Bahraini official statement said at the time.

Bahrain also asked the Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours.

Sudan expelled the Iranian ambassador in Khartoum and the whole Iranian diplomatic mission. It also recalled its envoy from Tehran.

Sudan also condemned what it sees as Iranian interference in the Arab region and inaction to protect the Saudi embassy and consulate in Iran.

At a less tense level, the UAE had decided to downgrade its diplomatic ties with Iran and reduce the number of Iranian diplomats in the country.

The UAE foreign ministry said it recalled its ambassador to Iran Saif Al Zaabi in support of Saudi Arabia.

This step was taken "in the light of continued Iranian intervention in the internal affairs of the Gulf and the Arab world" that recently reached unprecedented levels, the statement added.
Jordan on Monday recalled its ambassador to Iran for consultations over Tehran's interference in Arab affairs, the media reported.

"After attacks on Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran, we urged Iran to stop interference in Arab affairs, but we did not see any response from the country even to calls by the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Conference not to interfere in regional issues," Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs Mohammad Momani said.

On January 3, Saudi Arabia announced the severance of its diplomatic ties with Iran, and asked all Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours. The edit followed attacks on its mission after the Saudi execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Xinhua news agency reported.

Jordan decided to recall its ambassador to Iran to revaluate the situation in light of the ongoing developments, Momani said.

Jordan hopes that Iran works on building cooperation and trust with Arab countries and respects the sovereignty of the Arab states and not interfere in their affairs, he added.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday threatened strict action against taxi drivers after complaints they were over-charging taking advantage of the odd-even traffic scheme.

"Strict action, including permit cancellation and impounding (of) vehicle, to be taken against taxis which charge more than government prescribed rates," Kejriwal tweeted.

Many commuters on Monday posted on social media about the hiked taxi charges on the first full working day of the second phase of the odd-even scheme aimed at battling pollution.

Under the scheme, private petrol and diesel driven vehicles with odd registration numbers can ply on odd dates and those with even registration numbers on even dates.

The first phase of the scheme ran from January 1 to 15. The second phase will run from April 15 to 30.
The government on Monday told the Supreme Court that the East India Company did not take away the Kohinoor diamond but it was gifted to Britain by Maharaja Duleep Singh.

The government stand was conveyed to the apex court bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit in response to a public interest litigation by a NGO.

The NGO, All India Human Rights and Social Justice Forum, has sought directions to the government to make efforts for getting the diamond back to India.

The court, while giving the government six more weeks, said that if it accepted the government position, all avenues for staking claim over the diamond will be shut.

The 108-carat diamond was presented to the then British monarch, Queen Victoria, in 1850 after Britain annexed the Sikh empire in then undivided Punjab.
The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that the East India Company did not take away the but it was gifted to Britain by Sikh monarch Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

The government stand on the matter was conveyed to the apex court bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit in response to a public interest litigation by a non-governmental organisation.

The NGO, All India Human Rights and Social Justice Forum, has sought directions to the government to make efforts for getting the diamond back to India.

The court, while giving the government six more weeks, said that if it accepted the government position, all avenues for staking claim over the diamond will be shut.

The 108-carat diamond was presented to the then British monarch, Queen Victoria, in 1850 after the Anglo-Sikh wars, in which Britain gained control over the Sikh empire in the then undivided Punjab.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The central government on Monday told the Supreme Court that the British East India Company did not take away the Kohinoor diamond but it was gifted to Britain by Maharaja Duleep Singh.

The government stand on the matter was conveyed to the bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit in response to a public interest litigation by an NGO, All India Human Rights and Social Justice Forum, seeking directions to the government to make efforts for getting the diamond back to India.

The court, while giving the government six more weeks, said that if it accepted the government position and dismissed the PIL, all future avenues for staking any legitimate claim over the diamond will be shut.

The court gave the time as Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told it that the stand was that of the cultural affairs ministry but the "ministry of external affairs is also a party and their response is yet to come".

The 108-carat diamond was presented to the then British monarch, Queen Victoria, in 1850 after the Anglo-Sikh wars, in which Britain gained control over the Sikh empire in the then undivided Punjab.

Reacting to the development, Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmad said: "People are emotionally attached with the Kohinoor and it is not a mere stone for them. The then government tried to bring it back in 1953 also but the efforts did not fructify. Nonetheless, the government should not give up and must continue with its efforts to bring the Kohinoor back to India."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday briefed External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj about progress in the investigations into the deaths of three Indian nationals in Russia earlier this year.

"The external affairs minister raised the cases of Indian nationals Yasir Jawed, who was killed in Kazan, and Puja Kallur and Karishma Udai Bhosle, who died in a fire at the Smolensk State Medical Academy," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said following a bilateral meeting between Sushma Swaraj and Lavrov on the sidelines of the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting here.

"Foreign Minister Lavrov briefed on the progress of the investigations," Swarup stated.

Kallur, 22, from Navi Mumbai, and her room-mate Bhosle, 21, from Pune, perished in the fire which broke out in their hostel on February 14 in the Smolensk State Medical Academy, Smolensk, around 380 km southwest of Moscow.

Yasir, a medical student from Srinagar, had reached Russia on February 26 on a business trip. He was attacked in Kazan city in the Tatarstan republic and left in a coma.

He died on March 8.

Swarup said that Sushma Swaraj and Lavrov also had an extensive exchange of views on the situation in Syria.

"The two ministers reviewed bilateral ties, with particular reference to trade and economic links," he said.

"They also discussed the annual bilateral summit between India and Russia, in advance of which India will host the next meeting of the Inter Governmental Commission (IRIGC) later this year."

With India having assumed the chairmanship of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), the issue also came up for discussion, including the schedule of meetings leading up to the summit in Goa in October.

"Russia promised full support to India's chairmanship," the spokesman said.

Earlier on Monday, Sushma Swaraj met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and raised the issue of China vetoing India's bid in the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar.

She is also scheduled to meet Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on trade and economic cooperation, to take stock of the developments in strengthening this important aspect of the bilateral relationship.
The political parties representing the Madhesis in Nepal on Monday announced an alliance with certain organisations of the Janajatis for a combined Kathmandu-focused agitation over their demands.

The new alliance -- Sanghiya Samabeshi Gathabandan (SSG) -- has prepared a fresh list of 26 demands and will announce the details of its agitation on Tuesday.

Since numerous rounds of talks with the government had produced no results, the alliance said, they were compelled to take to the streets.

Both the Madhesis and the Janajatis are unhappy over certain provisions of the new constitution of Nepal, which was enforced in September last year.

Dozens of intellectual, academics and writers extended support to the proposed Kathmandu-centric stir on Monday.

"This alliance is sure to take the identity movement to new heights. Our fight will not stop until the Nepal government agrees to rewrite the constitution in accordance with the agreements signed with the Madhesis, Janajatis, Dalits, Khas, Muslims and other communities in the past," Sanghiya Samajwadi Forum Nepal chairman Upendra Yadav said here.

Various leaders said the collaboration between the groups claiming to represent the Madhesis and Janajatis would prove effective in mounting more pressure on the Nepalese government regarding their demands.

These groups have been demanding carving of provinces based on ethnic identity and greater autonomy for excluded communities.

However, some demands of the Madhes-based parties, especially regarding two provinces in the Terai plains, are in contrast to the demand for Limbuwan, Tharuhat and Magarat provinces in the region.

But with three largest parties in parliament -- the Nepal Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) --enjoying considerable influence over the Janajati constituencies, doubts remain whether the new alliance would be able to garner enough public support for its cause.

Yadav accused these major parties of "curtailing" the rights ensured by the interim constitution.

He claimed the new constitution, on the other hand, was aimed at disenfranchising the marginalised and excluded communities.

Mahanta Thakur, a leader of the Madhes movement, also said that their agitation represented the struggle of all the marginalised and excluded communities in Nepal.

He said the protesters were committed to preserve the communal harmony in the country.

"Our struggle is not against any community. Our struggle is against the government. We are fighting for equality and justice," Thakur said.

(Anil Giri can be contacted at girianil@gmail.com)
Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Friday invited insurgent groups in the state to come to the negotiating table for hammering out a "political solution".

Speaking at a Republic Day function, the Chief Minister also spelt out his government's achievements since coming to power in March 2017.

He said that to stamp out corruption he had set up an anti-corruption cell in his office. "Over 500 complaints were received... Of them, 125 have been acted upon."

In Manipur, 79 contingents representing educational and cultural groups as well as state and Central security forces took part in the march past. Governor Najma Heptulla took the salute from the contingents.

The official function was held at Kangla, an old palace of Manipur.

--IANS

il/pgh/mr

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 24-hour shutdown call given by the opposition Congress on Monday over former health minister Bimal Sinha's assassination 18 years ago evoked mixed response in Left-ruled Tripura.

Five supporters of the Congress and CPI-M sustained injuries in Kamalpur in northern Tripura in scuffles. Police later dispersed the mob.

The Bandh call was given to press for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into Sinha's assassination and seeking resignation of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.

The state's Left Front government, dominated by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), has already rejected both demands.

There was a mixed response to the shutdown call, with attendance in some government offices being thin but little enthusiasm to the call evinced at various markets.

"In some places, shops and business establishments were opened while in most areas across Tripura, including capital Agartala, shutters remained down. Turnout in government, semi-government offices and in banks was thin," police spokesman Uttam Bhowmik told reporters.

"Most educational institutions also remained closed in view of the strike," he added.

Most private and government vehicles, including passenger buses, remained off the roads.

Over 500 Congressmen, including state party chief Birajit Sinha, legislator Gopal Roy and Congress leader Pijush Biswas, were arrested from different parts of the state for organising picketing at important locations, the police official said.

The bandh supporters vandalised some vehicles and auto-rickshaws.

Sinha, a former minister, accompanied by party legislator Gopal Roy, said the Yusuf Commission report blamed the Left Front government, Left parties and the chief minister for Bimal Sinha's assassination. "Hence, Sarkar has no morality to remain the chief minister and home minister of the state."

The judicial inquiry commission, headed by retired Calcutta High Court Justice M.A. Yusuf, submitted its report to the state government in January 2000. It was presented in the assembly on March 23 last following a Tripura High Court order.

The commission was formed in 1998 to probe the assassination of Bimal Sinha and his brother by the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura on March 31, 1998, at Kamalpur in northern Tripura.

The just concluded budget session of the Tripura assembly witnessed bedlam over the assassination report.

According to the Yusuf Commission report, neither the state government nor Tripura Police were responsible for Bimal Sinha's killing.

Talking to reporters, Sinha told reporters that Monday's strike was total and successful.

"People spontaneously observed the strike across the state and accused the Left government of not even protecting its own leader and minister," Sinha told reporters.

Reacting to the Congress's allegations, CPI-M central committee member Bijan Dhar said: "Their allegations are wild and a complete lie. If they have any such evidence, why did they not submit the same before the judicial commission when it sought the views of all concerned during the probe?"

Dhar, also a state secretary of the CPI-M, said: "People rejected Monday's Congress-sponsored illogical strike. Most of the shops, markets and business centres have conducted business normally and presence in government and semi-government offices was as usual."
A 24-hour shutdown call given by the opposition Congress on Monday over former health minister Bimal Sinha's assassination 18 years ago evoked mixed response in Left-ruled Tripura.

The call was given to press for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into Sinha's assassination and seeking resignation of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.

The state's Left Front government, dominated by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), has already rejected both demands.

There was a mixed response to the shutdown call, with attendance in some government offices being thin but little enthusiasm evinced to the call at various markets.

"In some places, shops and business establishments were opened while in most areas across Tripura, including capital Agartala, shutters remained down. Turnout in government, semi-government offices and in banks was thin," police spokesman Uttam Bhowmik told reporters.

"Most educational institutions also remained closed in view of the strike," he added.

Most private and government vehicles, including passenger buses, remained off the roads.

Over 500 Congressmen, including state party chief Birajit Sinha, legislator Gopal Roy and Congress leader Pijush Biswas, were arrested from different parts of the state for organising picketing at important locations, the police official said.

The bandh supporters vandalised some vehicles and auto-rickshaws.

Sinha, a former minister, accompanied by party legislator Gopal Roy, said the Yusuf Commission report blamed the Left Front government, Left parties and the chief minister for Bimal Sinha's assassination. "Hence, Sarkar has no morality to remain the chief minister and home minister of the state."

The judicial inquiry commission, headed by retired Calcutta High Court Justice M.A. Yusuf, submitted its report to the state government in January 2000. It was presented in the assembly on March 23 last following a Tripura High Court order.

The commission was formed in 1998 to probe the assassination of Bimal Sinha and his brother by the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura on March 31, 1998, at Kamalpur in northern Tripura.

The just concluded budget session of the Tripura assembly witnessed bedlam over the assassination report.

According to the Yusuf Commission report, neither the state government nor Tripura Police were responsible for Bimal Sinha's killing.

Talking to reporters, Sinha told reporters that Monday's strike was total and successful.

"People spontaneously observed the strike across the state and accused the Left government of not even protecting its own leader and minister," Sinha told reporters.

Reacting to the Congress's allegations, CPI-M central committee member Bijan Dhar said: "Their allegations are wild and a complete lie. If they have any such evidence, why did they not submit the same before the judicial commission when it sought the views of all concerned during the probe?"

Dhar, also a state secretary of the CPI-M, said: "People rejected Monday's Congress-sponsored illogical strike. Most of the shops, markets and business centres have conducted business normally and presence in government and semi-government offices was as usual."
Mobile internet services were restored across the Kashmir Valley on Monday after the minor girl told the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) that she was not molested by any army soldier.

Internet services from various service providers were suspended since Wednesday after rumours of the girl having molested by an army jawan spread across the valley, leading to violence in Kashmir's Handwara town.

S J M Gilani, inspector general of police (IGP) Kashmir, told reporters that the mobile internet services had been suspended to prevent anti-social elements from spreading rumours.

Meanwhile, the minor girl allegedly molested by a soldier in Handwara town on Tuesday, was produced before the CJM Handwara by police in compliance with the high court directions.

A police statement issued late on Sunday said the girl had repeated her earlier statement before the magistrate.

"The girl accompanied by her father was produced before CJM Handwara. She said that she had entered a public toilet in the town on Tuesday to answer the call of nature. No soldier or anyone entered the toilet when she was inside. But when she came out, two local boys, one of whom was wearing a school uniform created a scene by snatching her bag and shouting at her. After this the girl said she was taken to the Handwara police station", the police statement added.

Five civilians were killed in Kashmir's Kupwara district following violent protests after rumours of the girl having molested by an army soldier spread across the Valley.
Prime Minister will visit Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday to formally inaugurate the 230-bed Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Super Speciality Hospital, officials said on Monday.

The facility has been set up by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board at a cost of Rs 300 crore near Katra in Reasi district, an official said.

Free of cost OPD services and diagnostic tests started at the hospital from March 15. The hospital became fully functional from April 8.

"The hospital is equipped with state-of-the-art computerized equipment to provide best possible diagnostic and treatment facilities to the patients," the official said.
Newly-elected Nepali Congress (NC) president Sher Bahadur Deuba left for New Delhi on Monday for a week-long visit.

The purpose of Deuba's visit -- his first since the promulgation of the new constitution in September last year -- is ostensibly due to his wife and NC lawmaker Arzu Rana Deuba's treatment at a hospital in Gurgaon, according to an aide.

"It is not a political visit," said Bimalendra Nidhi, a close aide of Deuba.

"He is visiting New Delhi to look after his wife, who is undergoing a major hip transplant surgery at Fortis Hospital, Gurgaon."

"There is no pre-scheduled meetings with any Indian leader," Nidhi added.

Deuba will return home on April 24.

Deuba, 69, was elected NC president in March at the party's 13th National General Convention, succeeding late prime minister Sushil Koirala. He is the eight president of the NC.

He served as prime minister from 1995 to 1997, from 2001 to 2002, and from 2004 to 2005.

He had earlier visited India in October 2015 and met Modi and other senior political leaders.

Ahead of his visit, Deuba on Sunday met agitating Madhesi leaders at his residence here and discussed their demands and agenda.

"Deuba held talks with the Madhesi leaders," said Nidhi, adding that they appreciated the lead taken by the NC president and agreed to hold talks in future also.

During the meeting, Deuba said the Nepali Congress was positive towards fulfilling the unfulfilled demands of the Madhesis.
Adding to the woes of liquor baron Vijay Mallya, a special court here on Monday issued an undated non-bailable arrest warrant against the beleaguered businessman, official sources said here.

The non-bailable warrant (NBW) was issued by Special Judge P.R. Bhavake in response to a plea by the Enforcement Directorate on April 15 before the special court hearing cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Following the warrant, the decks have been cleared for a red corner notice to be issued by Interpol against Mallya and he can also be arrested anytime and anywhere in the country.

The special court also rejected the submissions made by Mallya's counsel Amit Desai and Pranav Badhekar that officials of the grounded Kingfisher Airlines were fully cooperating with the ED and they should not be accused of being evasive or un-cooperative.

Denying the ED's contention that Mallya had diverted monies to make property investments abroad, counsel urged the special court not to pass any "coercive orders" sought by the ED against Mallya in the matter.

The ED's lawyer Hiten Venegaonkar had filed the plea for an NBW and also put forth his arguments for issuing the NBW against Mallya.

On Monday, Venegaonkar reiterated that Mallya must present himself before the ED, which has summoned him thrice earlier in connection with the money-laundering cases filed against him.

The ED has also raised apprehensions about the possibility of the evidence being tampered with.

After he failed to appear in person on March 18, April 2 and April 9, Mallya sought time extension till May from the ED, as he is abroad since March 2 and reported to be in Britain.

The ED's April 15 plea before the special court came soon after the central government suspended Mallya's diplomatic passport on that day.
A Delhi-based central government employee's 20-year-long search for his younger sibling finally ended on a happy note last week with help from social networking site Facebook.

The story, akin to a Bollywood drama, had its twists and turns before Vijay Nitnaware finally met his brother Hansraj.

Vijay Nitnaware, 48, who works in the library of Press Information Bureau here, last saw his younger brother Hansraj Nitnaware in May 1996, when he left the family without informing anyone as he was under stress after failing his matriculation examination.

"Hansraj was a good student in his childhood, but he felt disturbed after death of my mother in 1995. He left the house at the age of 15, days after he failed in the matric exam," Vijay Nitnaware told IANS.

Vijay Nitnaware said his father died when Hansraj, the youngest among the three brothers and a sister, was only nine months old.

The family, with Vijay as the eldest among siblings, hails from Wardha district of Maharashtra and was staying there when Hansraj left them.

Vijay said he registered a complaint with the police about Hansraj having gone missing. To his surprise, Vijay got a letter from his missing brother after 15 days. "Please don't search for me. I am fine and will return only after doing something big," the letter said.

Vijay said he was happy to know that his brother was alive but his hope to trace him dimmed a bit as the last two digits of the pin code of the place of origin of letter were not clearly visible.

"Through the first four digits, I got confirmation that the letter was sent from Gujarat. I then went to Gujarat, contacted some of my local friends and gave advertisements about his having gone missing in the local newspapers and some television channels. But all my efforts went in vain," Vijay said.

Though saddened, Vijay did not lose his patience and went on searching for his brother. The family's search for Hansraj continued even after Vijay and his other siblings got married.

Vijay also took to the internet and the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter to search for his brother. In 2016, he contacted Facebook to seek its help in locating his brother.

Vijay said Facebook found one Hansraj in Pune, Maharashtra, and contacted him with his messages but the person refused to recognize him (Vijay) as his brother.

Despite the refusal to identify him as his elder brother, Vijay persisted with his search and requested Facebook to provide him details of some of Hansraj's Facbook friends.

Vijay said the social networking site provided him details of six of Hansraj's friends. While looking at the details, Vijay found three of them working with Toyota company at Bhosari in Pune.

Vijay contacted one of them through e-mail. The person contacted Hansraj and shared Vijay's feelings but he again refused to acknowledge Vijay as his brother.

Vijay said he was confident that the Pune man was his brother.

"It was the evening of April 5. I was writing a mail to the manager of the Toyota company requesting him for details about Hansraj. I was just about to send the mail when my phone rang," Vijay said.

"When I picked up the phone, it was Hansraj on the other end. There were not many words we exchanged... mostly we cried," he added.

Vijay reached Pune on April 12 and returned to Delhi happily with Hansraj's family.

Hansraj told Vijay that he went to Gujarat after leaving home. He said one day he jumped into a well to kill himself but was saved by a passerby who also helped in bringing him up over the next five years.

Hansraj later moved to Mumbai in search of a job and worked there at a Mahindra company showroom. At the work place, he fell in love with a colleague and married her despite her family's objections to Hansraj's background.

Hansraj told Vijay he had once worked as a driver of a Mumbai Police Commissioner and an Assistant Commissioner of Police.
A South African court announced on Monday that Paralympian Oscar Pistorius will be sentenced in June for the murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The former Paralympian's culpable homicide conviction -- and its five-year prison sentence -- was overturned by the Supreme Court in December last year when appeal judges instead found him guilty of murder, The Guardian reported.

Pistorius was in court in Pretoria as Judge Aubrey Ledwaba, who presided over an earlier bail hearing, told him he would face a fresh sentencing hearing from June 13-17.

The athlete, who is living at his uncle's home in Pretoria, will remain on bail until the new hearing.

At his original trial, Judge Thokozile Masipa accepted his version of events, ruling that there was no evidence that Pistorius had wanted to kill Steenkamp, but that his actions had been negligent.

Pistorius was originally handed a sentence of five years for the culpable homicide conviction and served just under a year in prison.

He was released under house arrest in October 2015, before the state successfully challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court.
Rome, April 18 (IANS/AKI) Over 400 migrants were believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean on Monday after four boats capsized and another began to sink, according to reports.

BBC Arabic cited Egyptian reports as saying over 400 mainly Somali migrants had drowned when four boats capsized after leaving Egypt.

The migrants had set sail from Egypt on Thursday and were heading for Italy, according to reports circulating on social media.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella said there had been a "migrant tragedy".

Speaking at a prize giving ceremony in Rome, Mattarella said Europe needed to reflect in the face of "yet another tragedy in the Mediterranean in which, it seems, several hundred people have died".

He did not give any further details.

Survivors were taken to a Greek island, according to the unconfirmed reports.

The Italian Coast Guard said they knew nothing about the reported disaster.

However, they were involved in the rescue of 108 migrants from a semi-submerged rubber dinghy off the coast of Libya on Monday. Six people died in the incident, according to the organisation SOS Mediterranee.

The boat had been drifting for nine hours in choppy seas, was partially deflated, taking on water and its engine was broken, SOS Mediterranee said.

They were citizens of several African countries including Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria and Ethiopia, SOS Mediterranee said.

Around 800 migrants and refugees drowned in April last year when the overcrowded fishing boat they were in capsized in waters between Libya and the Italian island of Lampedusa.

--IANS/AKI

mr/
PMK's chief ministerial candidate Anbumani Ramadoss will contest from Pennagaram constituency in the May 16 Tamil Nadu assembly elections, the party said.

Going it alone this time, the PMK and is contesting in all the 234 assembly constituencies in the state.

While Ramadoss, the son of party founder S. Ramadoss and a former union minister, will contest the seat in Dharmapuri district, party president G.K.Mani is fighting from the Mettur seat.

This will be the first time that Ramadoss, a sitting MP from the Dharmapuri constituency, will be fighting an assembly election in the state.
Actress Rosario Dawson was arrested for "crowding, obstructing, or incommoding" after she crossed police lines during a democracy spring protest.

The "Daredevil" actress was apprehended here and fined $50 after being processed on site even after warning, reports usmagazine.com.

The 36-year-old, who was later released, shared in a YouTube clipping that she and other protestors were warned "multiple times" that they will be arrested if they continu to demonstrate where they were but she thinks officers were reluctant to apprehend her as they didn't want to draw attention.

"I think there was maybe a desire to not particularly maybe have me arrested because they didn't want that to be put out there. So we got up when they walked away and we sat down and we were arrested," she said.

Dawson has no complaints about how police conducted themselves.

"The police were really great with us and really lovely. I have to say that is not the case for so many people," she added.

The "Sin City" star joined over 400 people in challenging corruption in politics.

The actress was earlier arrested at a rally protesting against former President George W. Bush in 2004.
Democrat candidate and vermont Senator Bernie Sanders drew a record-breaking crowd to a park in Brooklyn as he looks to build momentum ahead of the New York primaries on Tuesday.

Sanders attracted over 28,300 people on Sunday afternoon, according to the campaign and a production company helping to plan the event.

This total was higher than the campaign's previous record of 28,000 in Portland, Oregon, in August 2015, NBC News reported.

"In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of people here this afternoon!" Sanders bellowed to cheers as he took the stage after veteran actor Danny DeVito glowingly introduced him.

Mega-rallies have been a staple of Sanders campaign since last summer, but only in the past few weeks has he brought show-of-strength events to New York City.

By March end, Sanders drew about 18,000 people to the South Bronx, according to the campaign.

Last week, more than 27,000 people showed up to hear him at Washington Square Park.

On Monday - the night before the all-important New York primary - another large crowd is expected in Long Island city.
A wilful defaulter of a Rs.9,000 crore bank loan can be a member of parliament but a poor student who had defaulted on education loan due to economic/family circumstances is barred from applying for a clerical job in State Bank of India (SBI), which is obnoxious, said a top bank union leader.

After naming and shaming education loan defaulters, SBI is now preventing them from applying for clerical job in the bank which is patently wrong, said a top bank union official.

"The SBI in its notification for hiring junior associates and junior agricultural associates has barred candidates with record of default in repayment of loans/credit card dues or against whose name adverse report of CIBIL or other external agencies are available from applying for the job," C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) told IANS.

"Candidates against whom there is/are adverse report regarding character & antecedents, moral turpitude are not eligible to apply for the post," SBI notification said.

"The SBI's condition is obnoxious and unfair and has to be changed. The economy is not doing well and as a result the corporate loans are turning bad or non-peforming assets (NPA). As a result, freshers are not able to get a job and unemployment is high," Venkatachalam said.

It is ironical that Vijay Mallya owes around Rs.9,000 crore to SBI and other banks is a MP despite being declared by banks as wilful defaulter but a poor student who might have defaulted on loan for genuine reason is prevented from applying for a clerical job by SBI, Venkatachalam remarked.

"A fresh graduate cannot repay his education loan if he does not get a job. And if hiring organisations like SBI bar such candidates even from applying then how can they repay their loans. Normally a fresher will only have education loan against his name," he added.

"Genuine borrowers will be affected by SBI's condition. In fact, banks do not maintain their accounts and there has been cases where a student who has not completed his course has been classified as NPA by the banks," K. Srinivasan, convenor, Education Loan Task Force (ELTF) told IANS.

According to Srinivasan, education loans are classified as NPA's for non-payment of interest subsidy by the central government.

The ELTF guides students on rules and regulations governing education loans offered by nationalised banks free of cost.
Aiming to strengthen political and economic bilateral ties, South Korean President Park Geun-hye will in early May visit Iran in the first such visit by a South Korean head of state to the Middle East country.

Park and her Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani will discuss ways to promote bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries in Tehran in her two days visit to the country from May 1-3, Yonhap news agency reported.

The two leaders will also examine regional issues such as the conflict on the Korean peninsula, said Seoul's president's office in a statement published on Monday.

Park and Rouhani will further discuss how to expand bilateral business, including for infrastructure, plants and energy, Park's office said.

The South Korean leader will also attend a business forum between the two countries in Tehran.

Experts say the South Korean government is looking to make use of economic opportunities after international sanctions were lifted on the resource-rich Iran in January.

Iran had expressed a desire to attract foreign investment in infrastructure and other sectors to reconstruct an economy crippled by sanctions for at least a decade.

Park's visit is historically significant, being the first of its kind by a South Korean president to Iran since diplomatic relations were established between the two countries in 1962.
External Affairs Minister during her meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi here on Monday raised the issue of China vetoing India's bid at the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar.

"The external affairs minister raised the issue of listing of Masood Azhar in the UN 1267 Committee and emphasised that as common victims of terrorism, China and India should cooperate in combating this challenge," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said after the meeting between two leaders on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers' meeting.

"It was agreed that the two sides would remain in touch on this matter," he said.

India approached the UN in February to include Azhar in the UN Security Council's 1267 sanctions list, in the aftermath of the Pathankot airbase terror attack. IN the strike in early January by JeM terrorists, seven Indian security persons were killed.

However, China asked the UN sanctions committee to keep on hold the Indian move, saying that Azhar did not meet the UN criteria to be banned as a terrorist.

India has voiced disappointment at the "technical hold" put on its application to include Azhar in the UN sanctions list.

During Monday's meeting, and Wang also reviewed the state of bilateral relations.

They assessed the implementation of decisions taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in May last year.

Swarup said the two ministers noted the significance of high-level exchanges contemplated this year, including the ongoing visit of Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar to China.

China will be hosting the G20 Summit, and India the BRICS Summit in 2016.

"The ministers appreciated the expanding trade and investment ties between India and China," the spokesman said.

"They underscored the importance of strengthening people-to-people ties. In this context, Foreign Minister Wang Yi apprised the external affairs minister of China's decision to increase the number of Indian pilgrims for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via Nathu La," he added.

reached Moscow on Sunday on the second and final leg of her two-nation tour that earlier took her to Iran.

She is also scheduled to meet Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on trade and economic cooperation, to take stock of the developments in strengthening this important aspect of the bilateral relationship.

She will also meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to take stock of the overall bilateral relationship.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to take stock of bilateral relations ahead of the Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers' meeting here.

"First bilateral of the day in Moscow before RIC Session. EAM @SushmaSwaraj meets her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted.

The meeting assumes significance given China's veto against India's move in the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar.

Sushma Swaraj reached Moscow on Sunday on the second and final leg of her two-nation tour that earlier took her to Iran.

She is also scheduled to meet Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is co-chair of the India-Russia inter-governmental commission on trade and economic cooperation, to take stock of the developments in strengthening this important aspect of the bilateral relationship.

She will also meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to take stock of the overall bilateral relationship.
The European arm of Tata Steel on Monday said it was in talks with as many as 190 suitors for the sale of its UK units after they led to losses totalling nearly $3 billion.

The company also announced some leadership changes in the UK operations and said Bimlendra Jha, an executive committee member of its European operations, will be the chief executive of Tata Steel UK.

"Today's announcement by Tata Steel Europe will ensure the full focus on the vital tasks that lie ahead of Tata Steel UK," the company said in a statement.

"To deliver greater clarity for all key stakeholders such as employees, customers and suppliers, it is important for the new team to seek all credible options in a time bound manner."

The company also made a disclosure regarding the asset sale in UK.

"Over the last seven days, the advisers to Tata Steel Europe have begun initial exploration of interest in Tata Steel's UK operations reaching out to 190 potential financial and industrial investors worldwide," it said.

"More detailed information sharing will commence this week as the process moves into the confidential phase."

The company has also appointed Standard Chartered Bank as an additional adviser to the process to ensure the coverage and reach of the universe of potential buyers, especially to Asia and Far East.

Tata Steel had announced on April 11 that KPMG will be its principal advisor.

The announcement of the UK asset sale came after Tata Steel suffered $3 billion in losses in UK operations, some 10 years after it had forayed into Europe by acquiring Anglo-Dutch Corus for over $8.1 billion.
Hundreds of Bihar's toddy tappers on Monday protested against the ban on sale of the drink, the main source of their livelihood.

As mark of their angst, they drank toddy in public place.

"We have begun our protest and it would intensify in coming days as ban on sale of toddy hit thousands of toddy tappers, mostly belonging to Mahadalit caste-Pasi in the state," said Ajit Kumar Choudhary, president of Pasi Ashmita Bachai Sangarsh Samiti.

Police detained dozens of protestors for violating the state government's ban on consuming of toddy in public place.

"We have detained them when several toddy tappers including women not only brought toddy, they drank in public," a police official said.

After thousands of 'desi' liquor shops were closed in rural Bihar and Indian made foreign liquor shops in urban areas following a total liquor ban effective from April 1, the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government has banned sale of 'toddy' also.

Since then it has evoked protest with Pasi community up in arms against it.

Nitish Kumar on Sunday refuted the opposition charges that with toddy-ban, the state government had deprived the Pasi community of their livelihood.

"I want to know how long would the Pasis climb up the palm trees to tap toddy. The Mahadalits are largely turning towards education and other professions. Their outlook have changed and want to develop. In fact they want to climb up much higher in the field of education," the chief minister said.

For millions of people in rural Bihar -- where toddy, locally called 'tadi', is considered the poor man's beer -- the government prohibition on its sale came as a bad news.

For ages, toddy has been a favourite of villagers as a natural drink from the palm tree.

According to the Nitish Kumar government's decision, anyone found selling toddy would be arrested. But the government has no objection if anyone is skilled enough to tap toddy on his own for self-consumption.

The former chief minister and president of Hindustani Awam Morcha Jitan Ram Manjhi has opposed the toddy ban, saying it was wrong to ban sale of toddy in Bihar.
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Monday arrived in Baghdad to assess with the Iraqi authorities the fight against terrorism.

Carter will meet political leaders and Iraqi military to give his support to the country's armed forces in their war against the Islamic State, Efe news reported.

In late March, Carter and the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford said more US military should be sent to train and assist Iraqi soldiers and police.

The US has 3,870 troops in Iraq, a contingent that has trained 17,500 Iraqi soldiers and 2,000 policemen, according to the latest official figures.

The US secretary of defense will discuss with Iraqi officials the current offensive against IS in the northern province of Nineveh, which aims to recover the city of Mosul, the stronghold of the jihadists in Iraq.

These operations include aerial coverage conducted by the international coalition, led by Washington, which began its bombing campaign against the IS over a year and a half ago in Iraq and Syria.

Carter's visit coincides with a serious political crisis in Iraq, due to the demands of forming a new government made up of technocrats.
The US and Russian officials will hold cybersecurity consultations in Geneva this week, the media on Monday cited senior US officials as saying.

The consultations will take place with the participation of representatives of the White House, the US State Department and the FBI.

The sides are due to discuss the bilateral cybersecurity agreements signed in 2013, Sputnik reported.

"This meeting is not a restart of the bilateral presidential commission working group (suspended in 2014 after Ukraine events) but it is in our interest to discuss cybersecurity issues with Russia, including to review the 2013 bilateral US-Russia cyber (confidence-building) measures," a US official said.

In late March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested during US State Secretary John Kerry's visit that Moscow and Washington could hold expert-level talks on issues related to cybercrime in the near future.
The US embassy has issued a warning to American citizens against visiting Marriott Hotel Islamabad for the next several days, in wake of a general threat.

An advisory issued by the embassy said it was aware of a general but uncorroborated threat against the hotel, Dawn online reported.

US citizens were advised to avoid the area for the next several days to allow time to assess the situation.

Security of the hotel has been further tightened with police and troopers from Pakitsan Rangers patrolling around the building.

"US citizens are urged to defer all non-essential travel to Pakistan. The mission reminds those citizens considering travel to or remaining in Pakistan despite this warning to enroll in the Smart Traveller Enrollment Programme (STEP)," the embassy said in a statement.

It also stated that citizens "maintain vigilant situational awareness, avoid large crowds, keep a low profile and avoid visiting locations frequented by westerners. The citizens are strongly urged to avoid hotels that do not apply stringent security measures".

Marriott Hotel, however, said foolproof security was in place. Assistant chief security officer of Marriott, Colonel (retd) Mohammad Zubair, said the US embassy had contacted the hotel administration and discussed the security arrangements.

"The government has also taken the matter seriously and enhanced the security. Currently, both the police and Rangers are patrolling around the hotel," he said.

Though Marriott is considered one of the safest hotels in Islamabad, it faced a suicide attack in September 2008 which left over 50 people killed and 250 injured.
The makers of Vikram-starrer Tamil thriller "Irumugan", which features the star in a double role, are planning to release the film this July, provided everything goes as planned.

"The plan is to release towards the end of July. Everything has been going on as planned so far and if it continues in the same fashion, there should be no delay in the release," a source from the film's unit told IANS.

Also starring Nayanthara and Nithya Menen, the film is nearly 60 percent complete.

"After wrapping up the next schedule in the city, the team will head to Ladakh, followed by Bangkok," he said, adding that predominant portion of the film has already been shot in Malaysia.

On Sunday, the film's first teaser was unveiled, on the account of Vikram's 50th birthday.

It is rumoured that Vikram will be seen as a transgender in his second role in the film, which is produced by Thameens Films.
Last weekend I found myself in Shillong staring out of the windows at the rolling Khasi Hills listening to presentations from directors of technical education and principals of polytechnics of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Sikkim, West Bengal, Tripura and the Andaman Islands. The task at hand? Changes to be made to the curricula of the 375-plus polytechnics in the area to make them more relevant to industry and consequently make the students more employable. The stakes are high: polytechnics in these states produce 65,000-odd students every year.
The biggest challenge for the renewable energy sector in India today is the absence of a financial ecosystem fit to purpose and fit to scale.
While the Congress has responded positively to Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal United president Nitish Kumars call for a Sangh-mukt Bharat, it has blunted the Bihar politicians prime ministerial ambitions saying the alliance would be of a regional nature.

The Congress is currently in alliance with the JD(U) and Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar.

Kumar, who recently replaced Sharad Yadav as JD(U) chief, has not tried to hide his prime ministerial ambitions. His party has also been trying to increase its national footprint. It is reportedly set to merge with Ajit Singhs Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh with JD(U), which will give it presence in that state.

However, the Congress has sought to categorically scotch the speculation that it would help Kumar stitch an umbrella alliance of secular parties at the Centre, like it did in Bihar. Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said while his party and the Bihar chief minister shared very good relations, the Congress policy is to forge regional alliance with parties at state level. The message was clear: Kumar should limit his ambitions to the chief ministerial post.

Who knows by the time we come to 2019, the public themselves might throw out the Bharatiya Janata Party (and there wont be any need of forming any secular alliance), Ahmed added.

Political observers have taken note of Kumars call to secular political parties to come together to keep out Narendra Modi in 2019. Speaking at a public gathering on Saturday, Kumar had said, Sangh-mukt Bharat banane ke liye sabhi gair BJP parties ko ek hona hoga (To usher in a Sangh-free India, all non-BJP parties have to come together).



Kumars was a counter-offensive to Modis call for a 'Congress-mukt Bharat', but the Congress cant accept him as the face of larger national alliance against Modi as it would undermine Congress scion Rahul Gandhis role in 2019, say party insiders.

However, some leaders such as Digvijaya Singh have welcomed Kumars call. We want this country to be secular We are very happy that Nitish Kumar, who has sort of worked with the BJP very closely, has realised it now. We are very happy that finally, all political parties have come around and accepted the Congress partys stand that we cant have anything to do with communal forces like the BJP.
While a state-wide bandh announced by the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) and Sardar Patel Group (SPG) on Monday received lukewarm response, a Cabinet ministerial committee of the Gujarat government reached out to the Patidar (Patel) community leaders for truce. While the meeting was inconclusive, both the state government and the Patel community leaders termed it positive.

Nitin Patel, Gujarat government spokesperson and health minister, said: The discussions were positive and fruitful. The community leaders seemed satisfied. We have discussed their demands and now the same will be communicated to the chief minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders. We will soon meet the community leaders again. He added the government had requested the community to abstain from holding any further protests.

The meeting was held between senior Patidar community leaders including Vipin Patel, the uncle of Hardik Patel - who is considered the face of the agitation - and senior ministers including Saurabh Patel, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and Shankar Chaudhary, among others.

The community leaders said the government seemed positive on most of their demands. According one of the leaders, Jeram Patel, there were no discussions on their reservation demands. In all, 27 demands have been made to the government by PAAS and SPG, including the release of Hardik Patel, who is under arrest on charges of sedition, and reservation for Patidars.

The bandh was announced after the Patidar community's rally in Mehsana turned violent on Sunday following a police-mob clash, forcing the administration to impose curfew in the home district of Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel.

Considered an epicentre of the Patidar reservation agitation, Mehsana saw mobile Internet and SMS services being suspended, along with other cities such as Surat, Rajkot, Sabarkantha and parts of Ahmedabad. Curfew was lifted in Mehsana by Monday morning, but mobile Internet and SMS services continued to remain suspended. These are likely to be lifted after Tuesday midnight. Despite the call for bandh, several shops and private banks, along with schools and colleges remained open.

On Sunday, the community had planned rallies in various parts of the state. Raising anti-establishment slogans against the ruling BJP, the rally was headed towards the district police headquarters in Mehsana. Police was forced to resort to baton charge and tear gas shelling, after the mob began pelting stones at the police, resulting in a clash.

Following the incident, around 400 agitators were detained including SPG leader Lalji Patel, who suffered injuries during the clash.

Earlier, Lalji Patel had alleged the BJP of following double standards on reservation, where on one side it accepted the demand for Jat reservation in Haryana, but rejected the same for Patidars in Gujarat.
Haryanas Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, helmed by Chief Minister Manohar Lal, a one-time Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak, has been ridiculed for renaming Gurgaon as Gurugram. Yet, a more intriguing decision has been to rename the district of Mewat as Nuh.

Incidentally, the renaming comes within weeks of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), an RSS-supported think tank, issuing a study about the growing population of Muslims in the Mewat region. Issued on March 24, it argued, Muslims of Mewat have numerically flourished in the period following Independence. And, they seem to be in the process of establishing an exclusively Muslim pocket in the near future.

The local Congress leadership believes the renaming is the first step in the larger agenda of the Sangh to stoke communal polarisation in an area that has largely remained peaceful since the communal riots during the 1947 partition. Mewat has water scarcity. It needs education. There is joblessness. The government has offered us a name change, says Aftab Ahmed, a Mewat-based Congress leader. He says the RSS has issues with the separate identity of the peaceful and proud Meos and is trying to economically and politically subjugate them.

On Sunday, the chief minister tried to reach out to the people of Mewat. In a well-attended public rally in Chanddaka village of the district, he stated the official reason for renaming: People might try to politicise it but the reason behind the change of name is to demarcate areas in the state from those in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. He said the renaming was part of the governments development plan (for the region) and promised new schools and better irrigation for the arid region.

The Mewat region stretches from Alwar and Bharatpur in Rajasthan to parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. It derives its name from the Meos, the numerically dominant caste of Muslim peasants. Mewat district, now renamed Nuh, was carved out of areas of Gurgaon and Faridabad by the Bhupinder Hooda-led Congress government in 2005. Nuh, a tehsil, was made the district headquarters.

The Meos, the CM reminded those who attended the rally on Sunday, didnt vote for his BJP in either the Lok Sabha or the Haryana Assembly elections of 2014. You may not have chosen the BJP but you are an integral part of the state and close to my heart. This is the reason behind my fifth tour to the district since assuming charge as the CM, he said.

The Congress says its not so innocuous. Party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, who hails from Haryana, says: The BJP government has no comprehension of the sacrifice, valour and nationalistic fervour of the Mewatis. Their divisive politics seeks to undo even this.





NEW IDENTITY The renaming of the district of Mewat as Nuh comes within weeks of the Centre for Policy Studies, an RSS-supported think tank, issuing a 'study' about the growing population of Muslims in the Mewat region

The local Congress leadership believes the renaming is the first step in the larger agenda of the Sangh to stoke communal polarisation in an area that has largely remained peaceful since the communal riots during the 1947 partition

The Mewat region stretches from Alwar and Bharatpur in Rajasthan to parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh

It derives its name from the Meos, the numerically dominant caste of Muslim peasants

Ahmed says it is important to appreciate the characteristics of the Meos to understand why the deeper agenda is to scrub their identity. According to research by academician Yoginder Sikand, the peasant caste continues to celebrate many Hindu traditions to this day.

The caste traces its origins to upper caste Rajputs but was more likely to have converted to Islam from such castes as the Meenas, Jats and Gujars. Sikand researched the influence of the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic revivalist movement, among Meos since the 1920s.

It had resulted in the peasants moving towards a more orthodox Islam. However, the youth were increasingly rejecting such religious-based teaching, in favour of more modern education.

Locals like Ahmed point to the history of the Meos of fighting the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughals. According to historians, the peasants rebelled against their exploitative Hindu rulers of Bharatpur and Alwar in the 1930s and were crushed. They also bore the brunt of communal riots during partition.

The study by the CPS concedes the Meo Muslims were hit by the partition riots but slams social scientists for ignoring how the community had risen to dominate the region numerically, economically and politically. Basing its study on 2011 Census data, it says the Meo population is increasing at a faster rate than Hindus in the region. It even hints at economic rivalry for the rapid growth of Muslims in the towns of Mewat district being a consequence of Meo Muslims opening small shops in these towns to counter the monopoly of Hindus in small trade of the region.

A social activist working among the Meos, who didnt want to be named, said the rate of population growth among Meos had actually shown a declining trend. Most people here are extremely poor. Agriculture productivity is low. The region needs more primary schools. Instead of spreading hate between communities, these are the issues that need to be addressed.



The renaming, he said, was an attempt to scrub the history of a proud people and eventually weaken their economic and political clout.
As many as 121 people of divided families of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir today crossed the Line of Control in a weekly bus service via Chakan-Da-Bagh crossing point here.

Of these, 13 persons from Jammu and Kashmir returned to India after spending time with their relatives in PoK. There was no new Indian traveller to PoK today, an official said.

While 42 people from PoK returned to their native place after spending time in Jammu and Kashmir, 66 residents of the PoK arrived in Indian side to stay with their relatives, the official said.
In a major action, 15 judicial officers in Uttar Pradesh have been punished with compulsory retirement by the Allahabad High Court for "doubtful integrity", "negligence" and "poor performance".

The decision was taken at a "Full Court" meeting presided by Chief Justice of the High Court D Y Chandrachud held in Lucknow on April 14, S K Singh, the Registrar General of the High Court, said.

12 Additional District Judges (ADJs) and three Additional Chief Judicial Magistrates (ACJMs) were "divested of their charges and stopped from functioning on their respective posts" with immediate effect while a communique to this effect was sent to the state government, he said.

A 10 per cent curtailment in the pension of a retired officer Ashok Kumar Saxena, against whom there were serious complaints, has also been announced, the registrar said.

The ADJs - who were posted in different districts of the state and have been given compulsory retirement are - Shaileshwar Nath Singh, Bans Raj, Ram Murti Yadav, Dhruv Raj, Jagdish, Naresh, V P Kandpal, A K Ganesh, Arvind Kumar, Avinash Chandra, A K Dwivedi and M M Khan while the three ACJMs are Kishore Kumar, S S Singh and Shyam Shankar.
The desert state of Rajasthan is in the grip of a water crisis with 19 out of the 33 districts being drought affected, with the government sending water trains to parched Bhilwara and tankers to other areas facing acute shortage.

Nearly 17000 out of the total 44672 villages are facing water crisis and transportation of water through rail in Bhilwara and by tankers in other areas has already started by the state public health and engineering department.

"We have already allocated Rs.50 lakh to each district to carry out necessary works to improve water supply. Transportation of water has been started from Nasirabad to Bhilwara and water is being supplied through tankers in other parts of the state where it is required," PHED Minister Kiran Maheshwari told PTI.

"90 per cent of water-related schemes in the state are dependent on ground water but the ground water table is going down therefore surface water is also being used. Repairing of handpumps is underway in the state and alternate arrangements are also being made," she said.

She said that 2-3 handpumps are being repaired in a day by labourers and the department has decided to procure mounted mechanized vehicles so that 7 handpumps could be repaired in a day.

Presently, 421 teams are working to repair nearly 7 lakh handpumps.

She said that at the cost of Rs.10 lakh per day, water is being supplied to Bhilwara through trains. Water tankers are also being sent to the places facing water shortage.

Ajmer, Banswara, Baran, Barmer, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Churu, Dungarpur, Hanumangarh, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jalore, Jhunjhunu, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Pali, Rajsamand, Udaipur and Pratapgarh are the districts which are famine affected.

Superintend Engineer of the department Akhil Kumar Jain said 7364 villages are the worst affected due to water shortage and said efforts were being made to minimise the drinking water crisis.

PCC President and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot has demanded relief works from the government.

Gehlot demanded an emergency plan to meet the challenge and to provide relief to people in water crisis.

"The government should ensure water supply through tankers otherwise it may create a law and order problem in the state. The government has not started relief work which should have been already started," Gehlot told reporters.

Pilot also said that the government should prepare a policy to provide relief and should make proper arrangements for fodder and water for cattle, and potable water for public.

This year, rainfall was deficit in nine districts of Bhilwara, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Karauli, Sawaimadhopur, Jaipur, Alwar, Dausa and Pratapgarh.
Yemeni security officials say two people have been killed in flooding west of the capital Sanaa as heavy rainfall drenched much of northern Yemen.

Medical officials say civil defense workers rescued five people who were injured in Sunday's heavy rain, as the water washed away cars in Sanaa and surrounding areas.

Interior ministry officials say more than 50 people have been killed in heavy rainfall and flooding in northern and central Yemen since the wet season began last month.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
A large cache of arms and ammunition were seized and three cadres of the banned Manipur Naga Revolutionary Front (MNRF) were apprehended by Assam Rifles in an operation at Aibol Joupi in Chandel district.

The ultras who hailed from Ukhrul district of Manipur and in their 20s were arrested yesterday, an Assam Rifles statement said.

A 30-year-old Myanmarese national who was working as a guide of the militants was also nabbed.

The force seized three assault rifles, six magazines, 180 numbers of assorted ammunition and one Chinese hand grenade from the militants, the statement said.

The ultras and the recovered weapons were later handed over to Kakching Police Station, the statement informed.
Former AIIMS CVO Sanjiv Chaturvedi has, in a fresh affidavit to the Central Administrative Tribunal, accused the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) headed by the Prime Minister of dealing with his case of inter-cadre deputation to the Delhi government in a "partisan and biased" manner.

"The main reason for pendency of the proposal of inter- cadre deputation of the applicant for more than one year, despite fulfilling all the eligibility conditions by the applicant and concurrence of both the state governments being on record, and despite favourable conditions from this Hon'ble Tribunal is that, right from the beginning the case was dealt in a partisan and biased manner, by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by the Hon'be Prime Minister and the concerned Union Ministers," the officer said in the affidavit.

The Indian Forest Service officer also annexed a document dated August 23, 2014, addressed by Luv Verma, the then Union Health Secretary to Niprendra Mishra, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister which reads: "The Hon'be Prime Minister of India had a telephonic discussion with the Hon'ble Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare regarding relieving of additional charge of CVO AIIMS, New Delhi from Shri Sanjiv Chaturvedi, DS, AIIMS, New Delhi.

"A detailed note in this regard is submitted for perusal of Hon'ble Prime."



These documents are part of affidavit filed by the officer in CAT regarding his case of inter-cadre deputation to Delhi government which is hanging fire for the past one year.

Delhi government had written to the Centre to depute Chaturvedi as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the office of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The officer, in his affidavit, has alleged that after this telephonic call, he was subjected to "extreme harassment" and slander campaign and between February 2015 and March 2016, he was compelled to approach courts seven times on various service issues.

The first instance was proposal of cadre transfer to Uttarakhand, which was kept pending for about six months in ACC and then it was ordered in January 2015 to seek fresh consent from state governments instead of approving the proposal. This order of ACC was quashed by Tribunal in May 2015.

He has further alleged that personal mala fide of Prime Minister Office against him has reached such an extent that even the issue of donation of Magsaysay Award money for welfare of poor patients was not spared with PMO raising frivolous queries.

"When the applicant approached with a fresh cheque in



favour of Prime Minister National Relief Fund, even Prime Minister Office raised frivolous queries and stated that they do not accept conditional donations when in fact no conditions were imposed with the said donation and it was absolutely unconditional.

"Finally after being informed about the intentions of the applicant to take legal recourse in a Court of Law, the Prime Minister Office accepted the said amount," he said in the affidavit.

The officer, who was conferred the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award last year, also claimed that the ever-changing stand of Uttarakhand government was result of pressure of the Centre which was evident from the fact that in four months between November 2015 to February 2016 it changed its position regarding grant of NOC, three times without any change in the material position.

He also accused the Centre of "crushing honesty and promoting, encouraging and awarding corrupt officials and politicians".

In his affidavit, Chaturvedi alleged that 19 of the 39 cases of inter-cadre deputation cleared by ACC in past two years did not fall under eligibility criteria.

Chaturvedi who is currently posted as Deputy Secretary at AIIMS, New Delhi has also annexed copies of 39 orders passed by the ACC to support his claims.

The officer said he has lost all the faith in ACC and requested the CAT to summon the records of all those cases.

"...An unprecedented and relentless witch hunting is going on against the applicant on personal and professional fronts and for each of his service matters including work, allocation, promotion, writing of APR, inter-cadre transfer, inter-cadre deputation etc.

"The applicant has been repeatedly forced to approach this Hon'ble Tribunal to get justice and the most unfortunate part is that even after strongly worded advice/observations of this Hon'ble Tribunal to ACC, while declaring its illegal orders as infructuous, has not been able to have any impact and rather the victimisation of the applicant accentuated after the same...," the affidavit said.
Aid has begun to flow in to areas devastated by Ecuador's strongest earthquake in decades and the death toll continued to rise as people left homeless hunkered down for another night outside in the dark.

Officials said the quake killed at least 246 people and injured more than 2,500 along Ecuador's coast. Vice President Jorge Glas said the toll was likely to rise because a large number of people remained unaccounted for, though he declined to say how many.

Much damage was reported in the cities of Manta, Portoviejo and Guayaquil, which are all several hundred kilometers (miles) from the epicenter of the quake that struck shortly after nightfall Saturday.

But the loss of life seemed to be far worse in isolated, smaller towns closed to the center of the earthquake.

In Pedernales, a town of 40,000 near the epicenter, soldiers put up a field hospital in a stadium where hundreds of people prepared to sleep outside for a second straight night.

Downed power cables snaked across the streets with no prospect of electricity being restored soon, making it unsafe for many to return to their homes.

The town's mayor said looting broke out Saturday night amid the chaos but with the arrival of 14,000 police and soldiers to towns in the quake zone the situation appeared more under control.

President Rafael Correa, who cut short a trip to Rome to oversee relief efforts, declared a national emergency and urged Ecuadoreans to stay strong.

"Everything can be rebuilt, but what can't be rebuilt are human lives, and that's the most painful," he said in a telephone call to state TV before departing Rome for Manta.

More than 3,000 packages of food and nearly 8,000 sleeping kits were being delivered yesterday. Ecuador's ally, Venezuela, and neighboring Colombia, where the quake was also felt, organized airlifts of humanitarian aid. The European Union, Spain, Peru and Mexico also pledged aid.

Rescuers scrambled through ruins in the provincial capital Portoviejo, digging with their hands trying to find survivors. "For god's sake help me find my family," pleaded Manuel Quijije, 27, standing next to a wrecked building. He said his older brother, Junior, was trapped under a pile of twisted steel and concrete with two relatives.

"We managed to see his arms and legs. They're his, they're buried, but the police kicked us out because they say there's a risk the rest of the building will collapse," Quijije said angrily as he looked on the ruins cordoned off by police.

"We're not afraid. We're desperate. We want to pull out our family."



Electricity mostly remained out in Manabi province, the hardest-hit region, as authorities focused on finding survivors.
Drug firm Alembic Pharmaceuticals today said it has received four observations from the US health regulator after the inspection of Panelav facility.

"The formulations facility of the company at Panelav, Halol was inspected by the USFDA from March 21 to 25. The company had received four observations which are being addressed by our regulator and quality team," Alembic Pharmaceuticals said in a filing to BSE.

The company, however, did not provide any details about the observations it has received from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

According to the company's website, formulations accounts for around 65 per cent of the total business for Alembic Pharmaceuticals. It has three manufacturing facility for formulations -- Vadodara and Panelav at Gujarat and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh.

Stock of Alembic closed at Rs 573.50 on BSE, down 2.02 per cent from the previous close.
Shares of Alkem Lab plunged nearly 8 per cent today amid concerns that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is reviewing some of its drugs following a red flag over clinical trial studies.

The stock slumped 7.45 per cent to Rs 1,236 on BSE.

On NSE, it declined 7.66 per cent to Rs 1,236.40.

The review of the drugs, which include anti-biotics cefuroxime and rulizole used to treat neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and sold both by Alkem and Slovenia's Krka, has been ordered after the German drug regulator raised concerns about trial study data.

Alkem conducted trials on the drugs at its Taloja facility in Maharashtra for Krka.

Meanwhile, Alkem on Saturday said it will submit "suitable clarifications" to EMA over the decision to review two drugs.

"We will be submitting suitable clarifications to EMA within the stipulated timeline to enable the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) to take a balanced risk-benefit view with respect to these two products," Alkem had said in a regulatory filing.
Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh today constituted a high-level committee of senior party leaders to monitor the wheat procurement process in the state.

A decision in this regard was taken at a party meeting attended among others by Congress General Secretary Shakeel Ahmad and Secretary in-charge Harish Chaudhry.

"The purpose of monitoring the procurement process is to ensure the farmers do not face any difficulty in selling their produce and get the payment on time," Amarinder said.

"Given the track record of the Akalis in the last nine years, it was necessary for Congress to stand by the farmers so that they do not face any harassment at the hands of the officials," he said.

The committee will hold its first meeting on April 20 at Chandigarh to chalk out the programme of action and during the next 20 days, it will monitor the procurement process in over 500 mandis across the state, a party spokesperson said.

This will be followed up with review meetings about procurements in all the 117 assembly segments. PCC senior vice president Lal Singh will be the coordinator of the committee.

Besides, senior leaders from Punjab, Ahmad and Chairperson of Campaign Committee Ambika Soni will also visit the mandis.
Actress Amber Heard, along with husband Johnny Depp, pleaded guilty to making a false statement to immigration about the couple's Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo.

Heard, 29, and the "Black Mass" star both attended Southport Magistrate's Court in Queensland state on Monday, said The Hollywood Reporter.

The presiding judge dropped two illegal importation charges against the actress.

The presence of Pistol and Boo in Australia caused a furor last year when then Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce threatened to deport them or have them put down.

"The Danish Girl" actress brought the dogs into Australia on Depp's private jet on a visit while he was filming "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," without permits or a period in quarantine, flouting Australia's strict animal import laws.

Heard's lawyer Jeremy Kirk has submitted a video to the court of her expressing remorse and respect for Australia's bio-security laws.

"Ms Heard has made a video, the significance of which will become apparent... It relates to an expression of remorse and recognition of the importance of compliance with Australia's border protection laws," said Kirk.
An international rights group says airstrikes in Republic of Congo's southeastern Pool region nearly two weeks ago killed at least 30 people.

Amnesty International said today that witnesses say helicopters dropped 30 bombs on residential areas, destroying churches, schools and medical facilities. It said this was an unlawful use of lethal force.

The government says former militiamen, known as the Ninjas, launched attacks in areas of Brazzaville on April 4 and the fighting with police killed at least 17 people.

Amnesty said the April 5 bombings targeted areas where the ex-militiamen are present. The bombings hit the former residence of Frederic Bitsangou, who led the militia that disbanded after a peace deal was signed in 2003.

The violence came weeks after the re-election of longtime President Denis Sassou N'Guesso.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today remained evasive on the question of inducting his son and Telugu Desam Party General Secretary Nara Lokesh into the state Cabinet.

"We will talk about it when there is Cabinet expansion," he said while addressing a press conference about decisions taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by him here.

TDP leaders, including some ministers, had launched a campaign seeking induction of Naidu's son into the Cabinet. Some MLAs even offered to vacate their seat to enable election of Lokesh to the Assembly as he is not a legislator yet.

The clamour for a Cabinet berth for Lokesh has increased in the backdrop of allegations that he has been acting as an "extra-constitutional authority" by interfering in the state administration.

The Chief Minister's recent assurance that a Muslim MLA would soon get a berth in his Cabinet triggered speculation about a possible expansion of the Council of Ministers that had been due since the government took office in 2014.
Security forces today recovered IEDs weighing about 10 kilograms which were concealed beneath a dirt track by Naxals in the Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh.

Officials said the recovery was made by troops of the 41st battalion of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) who were out for a road sanitisation exercise as part of an anti-Naxal operation in the area.

They said two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) of 5kg each were recovered from the Ranapal area of the said district.

"The IEDs were kept with a delayed trigger mechanism to hit security forces. A number of students of the nearby village also use the road daily and they could also have been hurt had it gone off. The bombs were later diffused," they said.
Father of television actor Rahul Raj Singh, who is accused of abetting the suicide of actress Pratyusha Banerjee, has written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis alleging that some "anti-social elements" are trying to "tarnish" his family's image and harm his son's career.

Interestingly, Pratyusha's parents had also written to Fadnavis a few days back seeking a probe by the crime branch into the death of their daughter.

The 'Balika Badhu' fame actress was found hanging at her residence in suburban Goregaon on April 1. She was then rushed by Rahul to a hospital in Andheri where she was declared dead.

"I have written to CM that I am a son of a freedom fighter, who was in jail for nine years for independence of our country. But a few anti-social elements are trying to malign the image of my family. They don't want reality to come to fore," Rahul's father Harshvardhan Singh told PTI today.

He said he had shot off a letter to the CM on April 16.

"My son is unwell and if tomorrow he tries to harm himself who will be answerable for that," Singh questioned.

When asked who he was referring to as "anti-social", Singh said, "A person has died....Some people, with their make up on, display a fan in media while others are lying blatantly.

"They say Rahul has a son. If he (Rahul) has a son, then bring him to police station, show him on TV and get DNA test done. These people are trying to distort the facts, mislead (the investigation) and spoil Rahul's career..This is also a kind of murder".

He said the elements he was referring to are trying to malign the image of their family.

"By lying in media they are trying to malign the image of a family. Who can be the bigger anti-social elements than these people," Singh asked.

He said his son still gets upset and that it will take the latter some time to "become normal again".

"Rahul was in love with Pratyusha and was going to marry her. He is very sentimental and gets upset at times. It will take him some time to become normal again," he said.

In her letter, the actress' mother had alleged that Rahul has been threatening them and the witnesses. "The death of my daughter is being coloured and portrayed as a suicide committed due to depression," the letter had stated.
Two persons were charred to death and eight others critically injured when an illegal stock of firecrackers stored in a house caught fire and triggered a huge explosion at Guravam village in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh today.

Such was the intensity of the explosion that the shock wave partially damaged nearby houses, two-wheelers and bicycles.

The deceased have been identified as Palavalasa Chandar Rao and Gedela Pothayya, police said.

According to police, the crackers were manufactured illegally without license in the house to cater to growing demand during the marriage season and local festivals.

"The incident occurred when Rao and Pothayya were manufacturing crackers with the help of members of their extended family without any license," said police inspector Sanker Rao.

He said a minor fire first broke out in the house where crackers were being manufactures which soon spread to the stock of finished crackers, setting off an explosion.

"Rao and Pothayya died on the spot while eight others sustained over 60 per cent burns," the inspector said.

The injured were rushed to King George Hospital at Visakhapatnam in critical condition.

The fire was doused later by fire brigade personnel who rushed to the village from nearby Rajam town.
A 26-year-old Muslim student in the US, who was talking on the phone about a question on the Islamic State he asked to the UN Secretary-General, was booted from a Southwest flight after another passenger felt threatened when he spoke in Arabic.

Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, student at University of California, who came to the US as an Iraqi refugee was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight in California after another passenger became alarmed when she heard him speaking Arabic.

Makhzoomi, was taken off a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Oakland after he called an uncle in Baghdad to tell him about an event he attended that included a speech by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

"I was very excited about the event, so I called my uncle to tell him about it," Makhzoomi was quoted as saying by the New York Times. At the end of the conversation, he and his uncle shared a customary farewell - "inshallah," which translates to "if God is willing."



He told his uncle about the moment when he got to stand up and ask the secretary general a question about the Islamic State.

A nearby passenger overheard Makhzoomi's conversation with his uncle and felt alarmed by his "potentially threatening comments," according to a statement from Southwest Airlines. When he made eye contact with her, the woman left her seat and proceeded to the front of the plane.

"She kept staring at me and I didn't know what was wrong," he said. "Then I realised what was happening and I was just was thinking 'I hope she's not reporting me'," the report said.

Later, an Arabic-speaking Southwest Airlines employee of came to his seat and escorted him off the plane a few minutes after his call ended, he said. The man introduced himself in Arabic and then switched to English to ask, "Why were you speaking Arabic in the plane?"



Makhzoomi said he was afraid, and that the employee spoke to him "like I was an animal."



Three FBI agents took Makhzoomi to private room for questioning. They told him that the Arabic-speaking employee had been offended by his insinuation of anti-Muslim bias.

The woman had told airline staff that she heard him say "Shahid," meaning martyr, a term associated with jihad.

Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said there had been at least six cases of Muslims being pulled off flights so far this year, she said.
An attack occurred on a bus in Jerusalem today, Israeli police said, with medics reporting an explosion and at least 15 people wounded.

Police only said there was "an attack" without providing further details. Rescue service Magen David Adom reported the explosion and at least 15 wounded, including two seriously.
The state-wide bandh call given by the Patel community in Gujarat over the quota issue had little impact om Monday except in some pockets dominated by the community members in different cities of the state.

The curfew imposed on Sunday in Mehasana town was lifted this morning, where as the bandh call given by the Sardar Patel Group (SPG) after Sunday's violence in Mehasana town largely remained incident free on Monday, police said.

The police has made elaborate security arrangements in view of the bandh call. However, schools and colleges, public transport and trains have remained unaffected.

Also, mobile and internet services have been banned in top towns of the state like Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Mehasana. The restriction will continue till midnight on Monday.

The bandh call given by the Patel agitators had little impact in major cities like Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot.

Even in Mehsana, where community members had on Sunday clashed with police by giving a call of 'Jail Bharo' stir, the bandh call evoked partial response as only areas dominated by Patel population remained closed.

"We lifted the curfew at 6 am as the situation was under control. No reports of untoward incident have come so far during the bandh call. Mobile internet services will remain closed in the city till midnight today," Mehsana District Collector Lochan Sehra told PTI.

After violence at Modhera cross roads on Sunday, Mehsana police lodged an FIR against SPG President Lalji Patel and 36 others under various sections of the IPC, including loot and rioting.

"We have lodged an FIR against Patel and 36 other agitators for rioting, loot, arson, damaging public property and defying orders of police. No arrests are made yet," said Police Sub Inspector of Mehsana 'B' division police S B Jadeja.

In Ahmedabad, life remained normal expect of some Patel dominated localities of eastern side of the city where shops have not opened till afternoon. School, colleges, public transport, shops and establishment remained open in the city.

In Surat also the bandh had no impact as almost all the areas remained open, while in Rajkot, some Patel dominated areas remained closed but other parts of the city were unaffected by the bandh call.

Curfew was clamped in Mehsana on Sunday and mobile internet services were banned as a massive rally of the Patel community, demanding reservation and immediate release of their jailed leaders, turned violent, with two buildings being set ablaze and some police vehicles damaged.
Bangladesh today identified at least 20 foreigners from China, Sri Lanka and the Philippines for their alleged involvement in the USD 101 million cyber heist from the nation's foreign reserves, in one of the world's biggest ever bank theft that embarrassed the government.

The Criminal Investigation Department's (CID) investigation also found evidence of negligence by Bangladesh Bank officials, according to CID Additional Deputy Inspector General Shah Alam.

"The names of 20 Filipino, Sri Lankan and Chinese nationals came up during our official visits to the countries regarding the heist. We might again visit the countries but we cannot disclose the names right now for the sake of the investigation," Alam told reporters here.

A 16-member team of the CID returned after their visit to the Philippines and Sri Lanka to collect information on the heist, adding that details on the outcome of the visit will be made public later on, Alam was quoted as saying by Dhaka Tribune.

CID said they do not want to disclose information whether any Bangladeshis are involved in the reserve heist incident.

On the negligence of central bank officials, the CID official said investigators are now trying to find out whether it was out of criminal intent or because of their incompetence.

The hacking took place on the night of February 4, using information stolen through the malware, which sent a total of 35 transfer orders to the New York's Federal Reserve Bank where the Bangladesh's central bank has an account.

Bangladesh last month said that unknown hackers had stolen USD 101 million of which USD 81 million entered the Philippines and the rest went to Sri Lanka to be used in casino business.

Bangladesh central bank governor Atiur Rahman, his two deputies and the country's top banking bureaucrat lost their jobs following the theft that has raised serious questions over the safety of its foreign exchange reserves of over USD 27 billion.
A standard format has been designed for to share transaction related details with revenue intelligence and central security agencies looking into money laundering and financial fraud cases.

This follows intelligence and probe agencies laying emphasis on a standardised format for sharing of information by the banks, including those done through cheques, official sources said today.

The issue was first raised by the CBI which found that while investigating an offence, were providing information in different formats making probe rather difficult. A meeting was then called by Central Economic Intelligence Bureau and a commonly acceptable format was designed, they said.

During a recent meeting of the "working group on intelligence apparatus" headed by Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and attended by officials of intelligence and investigating agencies, a representative of RBI informed that Indian Association (IBA) has indicated that banks will furnish information in respect of transactions like National Electronic Fund Transfer, Internet banking and intra bank transfer in the new format, the sources said.

The Revenue Secretary asked the RBI to prevail upon IBA so that details of cheque transactions may also be provided to law enforcement agencies in the prescribed format, they said.

Intelligence agencies need information from banks to probe cases of black money, money laundering, disproportionate assets and banking frauds.

RBI had earlier said that it was not possible for banks



to provide details of cheque transactions in the prescribed format, the sources said, citing minutes of the meeting.

CBI officials attending the meeting said in a large number of economic offences cases under probe it needs to trace beneficiaries of the embezzled or siphoned off funds. Investigating agencies including CBI want bank account statements to be self contained i.e. Linking transaction to the person or account, they said.

It makes task easier for forensic analysis and will be both time and cost effective. Enforcement Directorate (ED) also emphasised that the details of cheque transaction should also be provided by the banks in the prescribed format, the sources said.

The banks were providing data in various file formats making it difficult for the agencies to process and analyse the information. The processing of multi-format data also results in wastage of manpower and time, they said.

The IB and CBI officials had also complained about the absence of nodal officers in various banks which delayed getting information on time, the sources said.

A number of cases relating to bank frauds worth crores of rupees are being probed by the central and state law enforcement agencies. Banks have reported 11,997 fraud cases during April and December last year.
Bihar cabinet today decided to refund license fees to bars, hotels and retail foreign liquor shops, besides giving 'export duty exemption' to distilleries of the state.

"The state cabinet gave its nod to Registration, Excise and Prohibition Department's proposal to refund license fees to bars, restaurants, hotels, retail foreign liquor shops," Principal Secretary (Excise) K K Pathak said.

License fee, movement fee, excise duty or VAT deposited by bars, restaurants, hotels, foreign liquor shops would be refunded to them following the state government's decision to enforce complete prohibition, he said.

The move has come as a relief to those who have deposited license fee for running bars, restaurants, hotels, clubs, and retail foreign liquor shops in the state for 2016-17.

Pathak, however, could not specify the exact amount of license fees that would be refunded by the state government.

The cabinet also gave its nod to the excise department's



proposal to exempt distilleries from export duty in order to facilitate export of 'ethanol' and 'extra neutral alcohol' (ENA) from Bihar to other states.

At present, there is 50 paisa per litre export duty on ethanol while it is Rs 4 per litre on ENA, Pathak said.

Export duty exemption would cost around Rs 4 crore to the state exchequer, he added.

There are 12 sugar and grain based distilleries in the state which produce ethanol and ENA.

ENA is used in the manufacturing of foreign liquor while ethanol is blended in petrol, excise officials said.

It would help the distilleries in making them financially viable in the state, officials said adding that distilleries have got an order of 5 crore bulk litres of ethanol purchase from oil companies.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar had announced last week that the government would refund license fees to those who had deposited fees for running their business for 2016-17.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi had also demanded that the state government return 'license fees' it had collected for 2016-17 from bars.

After sale and consumption of country and spiced liquor in rural areas were banned on April 1, the government imposed on April 5 total ban on sale and consumption of liquor including Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).
Amid fresh claims on the role of former Home Minister P Chidambaram in the case, Congress alleged there were deliberate attempts being made to dilute the basic issue of fake encounters.

"The issue was whether it was a fake or genuine encounter. The court has held that it was a fake encounter... Now reports are being planted to dilute the main issue," party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said.

He further said that both the judicial magistrate and high court had held that the case of was a fake encounter.

Reports had it claiming that an affidavit describing Ishrat as a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative was signed by Chidambaram when he the home minister.

Ahmed's remarks came in retaliation, as BJP launched a sharp attack on Congress over the case, accusing it of "encouraging the elimination" of Narendra Modi.

Citing a media report which claimed Chidambaram had signed the first affidavit, Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Congress, especially Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, should take responsibility because Chidambaram did so as the party found it not strong enough to fight Modi politically.

Recent claims by former home secretary G K Pillai, former undersecretary in the home ministry RVS Mani, and former joint director Rajendra Kumar on the deposition by LeT operative David Headley suggested that an affidavit was filed on the basis of inputs from Maharashtra and Gujarat Police besides the Intelligence Bureau where it was said that the 19-year-old girl from Mumbai outskirts but it was ignored in the second affidavit.

A second affidavit, which officials claimed to have been drafted by Chidambaram, said there was no conclusive evidence to prove that Ishrat was a terrorist.
BJP won five seats while the Congress got 21 seats and the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) bagged 20 seats each in the election to the six nagar panchayats in Maharashtra.

Election for 102 seats in these bodies was held yesterday and the results were declared today.

The results have also helped regain the lost prestige for former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Narayan Rane, who had lost the 2014 Assembly polls and 2015 Bandra Assembly bypoll, as Congress managed to win the Kudal nagar panchayats in coastal Konkan, Rane's home turf.

Kudal nagar panchayat results are significant as Congress, led by Rane, won nine seats in the 17-seat body by restricting BJP to just one seat. Shiv Sena stood second by winning six seats. Sena and BJP had put their weight around by senior leaders, including Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, in the campaign.

After the state government formed 138 new nagar panchayats in 2014 by bifurcating urban areas at taluka headquarters, this was the second phase of election for 102 seats after the first round of 345 seats in 19 nagar panchayats in January this year.

In Lohara Nagar Panchayat in Osmanabad, Shiv Sena won highest seats (9), followed by NCP (4) and Congress (3) while BJP could not win even a single seat.

Mohol and Madha nagar panchayats in Solapur saw Shiv Sena and NCP faring better over BJP.

NCP won eight seats in Lonand nagar panchayat in Satara followed by Congress which won six seats while BJP was restricted to just two of total 17 seats.
Panic gripped a city school today after its owner, a BJP MLA, received a call threatening to blow it up which later proved to be hoax.

Police said BJP MLA Satish Mahana, who owns Saraswati Vidya Mandir school in Lal Bangla area, said he received a call on his mobile phone threatening to blow up the school this morning.

The leader then informed the police following which a team of police officials accompanied by bomb squad and sniffer dogs evacuated the school premises and carried out a search, they said.

However, no bomb was found at the school where 900 children from class VI to XII study, SP (City) Shomen Verma said.

Police force has been deployed near the school and the number from which the BJP leader had received the call is under surveillance, he said.

The matter is being investigated and efforts are on to nab the accused, Verma said.
The body of a trainee nurse was today found hanging in her room at a hostel of Tata Main Hospital in Jharkhand's East Singhbhum district, police said.

The body of Rashmi Kumari (24), a first year student of BSc Basic Nursing Course at TMH, was found hanging in the room in the Nurses' Hostel under Bistupur police station, a senior police officer said.

The body has been recovered and sent for postmortem to M G M Hospital here, he said, adding, the police were also probing the suicide angle.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Tata Steel expressed grief and sorrow over the incident.

"The actual cause of death will be known after the postmortem. The Police are investigating into the matter," the statement said, adding the kin of Rashmi, a native of Bihar's Nalanda, have been informed about the tragedy.
A six-year-old boy died today after being knocked down by Jashpur District Collector's car in Bhonjpuri village, police said.

Roshan Gond, who was critically injured in the accident last evening, died today at a hospital in Ranchi, they said.

"District Collector Priyanka Shukla was going for an official meeting yesterday when her car hit the boy as he was trying to cross the road suddenly," Jashpur Superintendent of Police Girjia Shankar Jaiswal said.

She took the injured child to Holy Cross Hospital at Kunkuri and later sent the driver, Sawant, and the vehicle to Duldula police station, the SP said.

"The boy was shifted to a private hospital in Ranchi later in the night after his condition deteriorated. He succumbed to his injuries in the wee hours today," Jaiswal said.

The driver of the car has been booked under sections 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing hurt) and 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) of IPC and the vehicle has been seized, police said.

The deceased's kin have been provided an immediate relief of Rs 50,000 while the insurance amount will be provided to them at the earliest, the Collector said, adding the family will be given every possible support.
After Hindustan Zinc Ltd, Vedanta Group's other cash-rich firm Cairn India is set to declare a dividend for 2015-16 fiscal.

In a regulatory filing to stock exchanges, Cairn India said its board of directors on April 22, 2016 will besides approving financial results of FY16, "will also consider the proposal to recommend dividend, if any, for the financial year 2015-16."



Billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd owns 59.88 per cent stake in Cairn India.

Previously, HZL, Vedanta Group's other cash-rich firm, had on March 30 declared a "special golden jubilee dividend" at the rate of 1,200 per cent -- Rs 24 per equity share of Rs 2 each for 2015-16.

Vedanta Ltd holds 64.92 per cent of HZL and was richer by Rs 6,583.57 crore from the dividend.

The dividend will help Vedanta Ltd pay off some of its debt. At the end of December quarter, it had a gross debt of Rs 80,952 crore. Of this, USD 1.2 billion loan is coming up for repayment in 2016-17.

Also, an inter-company loan of USD 1.25 billion is also due to be paid in the next few months. In July 2014, Cairn India had extended USD 1.25 billion of loan from its cash pool to Sesa Sterlite, which was later renamed Vedanta Ltd.
The Union Food Ministry has asked the Punjab government to submit pending bills of last three years related to foodgrain procurement for reimbursement so that the state can repay outstanding loans to the banks.

The repayment of loan by the state government would enable it to avail fresh cash credit from banks for undertaking wheat procurement in the ongoing rabi season.

Some 30-odd banks, led by SBI, had extended loans of Rs 12,000 crore to the state for foodgrain procurement programme.

"We have cleared bills for foodgrains procurement based on support price (MSP). But other bills related to expenses like interest, transporation, and other incidental costs have not been submitted for last three years. In some cases, inflated bills have been submitted," a senior Food Ministry official said.

The submitted bills are being cleared as per the norms, the official said.

The issue of pending bills was raised earlier in 2014 and a joint committee was also set up to look into the matter. The state government was asked to submit bills in six months but it did not take any action, the official shared.

Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Director Shivdular Singh Dhillon last week had said the state availed huge cash credit loans from commercial banks to fund procurement activities.

However, non-reimbursement of actual led to ballooning of the interest component, which is being compounded on a monthly basis by the lending bank, he had said.

The matter regarding the outstandings/receivables pertaining to the food credit account of the state is already under discussion with the Centre, Dhillon had said.

For procurement purposes, the state on the basis of procurement targets fixed by the Centre, has over the years been authorised a cash credit limit (CCL) upto Rs 20,000 crore by the RBI.

The Centre has set up a procurement target of 30 million tonnes of the 2016-17 marketing year starting this month. The wheat procurement has already commenced and the state has purchased about 3 million tonnes as on April 17.

Punjab and Haryana contributes in a big way to the central pool.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said the Centre would consider sealing the India-Bangladesh border to stop the menace of fake currency and cattle smuggling.

"We will consider sealing the India-Bangladesh border so that the problem of fake currency and cow smuggling can be stopped," Singh said at a poll rally here today.

Singh also raised the issue of infiltration of Bangladeshis into India through the border with the state.

"Till date we have not taken up any step in connection with the Bangladeshi infiltrations. But we want that people of Bangladesh stay in Bangladesh and Indians stay in India. Bangladesh is our neighbour and we have very good friendly relations with them and we must maintain that relation.

"But it must be ensured that the people of Bangladesh does not become a liability for us (India) and similarly India must not be the same on them... Both the countries be cautious on this matter," Singh said.

The Centre has already decided to "regularise" those Bangladeshis who entered India till December 2014, the Union Home minister said hitting out at the Trinamool Congress government for failing to stop infiltration.

After the 34-year long 'misrule' of the Left Front, Singh said, West Bengal has slipped into a darker phase during the past five years of TMC regime.

Wondering whether West Bengal has truly witnessed "a change" that was promised by the TMC before the party came to power, he said the "situation is very bad in the state".
Former Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, presently under judicial custody in an alleged money laundering case, was today admitted to ICU in South Mumbai after he complained of severe chest pain and high blood pressure.

"He was brought in today with severe chest pain and a very high blood pressure of 180/120. Thus, we immediately shifted him to ICU. He is conscious but unstable. He will be shifted to JJ Hospital once his condition stabilises," Rohan Sequeira, Associate Professor and Head of Medicine at multi-speciality Saint George Hospital, told PTI.

Bhujbal was shifted to the government-run hospital reportedly from Arthur Road jail here where he has been lodged after his arrest last month under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The former PWD minister and his nephew and former MP Samir Bhujbal are in judicial custody till April 27.

The ED had filed two FIRs against Bhujbal, his son and nephew among others under the provisions of PMLA, based on Mumbai Police FIRs, to probe the Delhi-based Maharashtra Sadan construction scam and the Kalina land grabbing case.
China's navy dispatched a military plane to one of the country's manmade islands in the disputed South China Sea, the Defense Ministry said, in what is believed to be the first openly acknowledged mission of its kind.

A brief statement on the ministry's website said the plane was on patrol when it was diverted to Fiery Cross Reef on Sunday morning to pick up three injured construction workers.

The plane then flew to Sanya on China's southernmost island province of Hainan where it landed at Fenghuang International Airport, the ministry said.

Details about the plane and where it was based were not given, although a photo accompanying the report showed a four propeller Y-8 transport being met by an ambulance.

The Global Times newspaper said Sunday's flight marked "the first time a Chinese military plane has openly landed on Yongshujiao," using the Chinese name for Fiery Cross Reef.

The speed with which the mission was accomplished was a testament to China's long-term policy of patrolling over the South China Sea, said the paper, a nationalist tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.

China completed the runway on Fiery Cross Reef last year and in January flew three commercial jets to the island as a test.

That move drew complaints from Vietnam, which along with four other governments is enmeshed a heated dispute with Beijing over large parts of the South China Sea. Hanoi accused China of threatening the safety of civilian flights by failing to properly inform its aviation authorities of the flights beforehand.

The US also complained that the flights raised tensions and reiterated its calls for a halt to land reclamation and militarization of outposts in the area. The Philippines, which also claims islands and reefs controlled by China, criticized the move.

Tensions have risen in the last two years after China transformed Fiery Cross and other coral reefs in the Spratly Island chain into islands that could be used to project its military might far from the Chinese mainland. Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also claim territory in the South China Sea that China says belongs to it.

The new islands in the South China Sea have become a source of tension between Beijing and Washington, which refuses to view them legally as islands entitled to territorial seas and special economic zones. While the United States is not a claimant state, it says it has a national interest in the peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea and in freedom of navigation in waters that are critical for world trade.
China has dropped a plan to bring a national law regulating halal food following mixed reactions from public and scholars who accused the atheist government of meddling in religious affairs.

The drafting of a law on halal food was not listed in China's legislative work plan for this year after receiving mixed reactions from the public, including scholars who believe the law would open the door to allowing the secular government to have authority over religious issues, state-run Global Times reported.

The Legal Affairs Office of the State Council (Cabinet) announced in March that China had been studying whether to draft the law, years after the central cabinet first tasked the Ethnic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) to draft a national regulation on halal food in 2002.

The committee suggested speeding up passage of the legislation in 2012 and 2015, saying it was "reasonable and necessary" as it relates to "national unity and social stability".

The proposed legislation was opposed by many scholars, including Xi Wuyi, a scholar on Marxism at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who said it "violates the principle of separation of State and religion".

It was not clear whether drafting the law had been rescheduled or withdrawn from consideration by the ruling Communist party.

In May last year, several Muslims destroyed a bakery in Qinghai Province's Xining after discovering non-halal items such as pork sausages and ham in its delivery van, and hundreds of Muslims in Shaanxi Province's Xi'an took to the streets to demand a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages at local halal restaurants.

According to an official from the religious affairs department of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region who was quoted in a report by Legal Daily, at least 20 million Chinese from several ethnic minority groups eat halal food, so it is necessary to have national legislation on halal products.

Wei Dedong, Vice Dean of the School of Philosophy at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times the most important solution is not a national law, but rather stronger enforcement of present laws on food safety and other issues that are applicable to the regulation of the halal food market, as many provincial regions including Xinjiang have already implemented local regulations on halal food.

Wei said a unified standard could be issued by religious authorities, instead of by a national law, which would authorise the secular government to define Islam-related issues.
India and China have moved a step closer in setting up a hotline between the two military headquarters as part of their efforts to improve border security.

China reacted positively toward setting up a military hotline with India on border security, Chinese Defence Minister Chang Wanquan said after meeting his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar.

Parrikar later said that"the Chinese have returned the draft of the memorandum on establishing a hotline between the two military headquarters. The issue should be closed within one or two months," he said.

The two sides were discussing the move to address tensions arising out of aggressive patrolling by both sides.

Chang spoke highly of the healthy and stable development of China-India relations in recent years, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

He called on the two sides to do a good job in implementing the consensus reached by leaders of the two countries, enhance strategic communication, so as to safeguard common interests.

He also suggested the two sides strengthen defence exchanges and jointly safeguard peace and tranquility of the border area.

Vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission Fan Changlong who also met Parrikar said China regards bilateral ties from a strategic and long-term perspective and is willing to strengthen military-to-military cooperation to contribute more to peace, stability and prosperity of two countries.
Beijing landed a military plane on a disputed South China Sea reef it has built up into an artificial island, state media said today, in the first official confirmation of such a flight.

An air force plane landed on Fiery Cross reef in the Spratlys archipelago yesterday to evacuate sick workers, the official People's Liberation Army Daily said.

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, even waters close to its Southeast Asian neighbours, and has created artificial islands in an effort to assert its claims.

It has significantly expanded Fiery Cross, which is also claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines, drawing international criticism.

In 2014, China began work on a 3,000-metre runway on the reef, which is around 1,000 kilometres from its island province of Hainan.

Beijing in January carried out several of what it called civilian flights to Fiery Cross, enraging Hanoi.

This weekend's flight came just days after US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter visited a warship close to flashpoint waters, after announcing joint naval patrols with the Philippines.

On the day of Carter's trip, Beijing said that one of its top military officials had visited a South China Sea island.

Fan Changlong, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, observed building work, the defence ministry said, without giving a precise date or location for the visit.

Washington regularly accuses Beijing of militarising the South China Sea, saying it has built runways and deployed weapons to the islands.

Beijing denies the accusations and says US patrols have ramped up tensions.

As well as China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims to parts of the sea, which are home to some of the world's most important shipping lanes and believed to sit atop vast oil reserves.
In a suspected arson attack, a Chinese man has died after he allegedly set his house on fire following a quarrel with his family in the southern Guangdong Province.

A video clip of the man trapped in a fire in Guangzhou, with no one going for his rescue has gone viral evoking anger and outrage over people'sindifference in helping others.

The 42-second video, filmed by Li (pseudonym) on April 14 shows a man crying for help while he stands trapped in a burning building behind a barred window, the Beijing-based Legal Daily newspaper reported.

The fire fighters on its official handle confirmed that the man in the video had died in the accident and blamed Li for not rushing to his help, instead of filming it.

A preliminary investigation showed that the man died as the result of his own act of arson after a conflict with his family, state-run Global Times reported.

Li later argued that he had tried to save the man in the video but failed because he was too far away to reach the man in time.

Around 14,000 online posts hashtagged "fire photographer's cruel 42 seconds" have received more than 16.4 million clicks on Sina Weibo, and many users have left angry comments blaming Li.

"There is no law demanding that common people have the responsibility to save others in fires, but it is the moral obligation of people to help others," an official from a fire corps in Beijing said.

"Modern devices such as smartphones have made it possible to record and spread information in a short time," said He Hui vice director of the Public Relations and Public Opinion Institute at the Communication University of China.

"Meanwhile, people tend to record more and express themselves to gain attention from others as a form of self-aggrandisement," he said.

He added that inadequate social security mechanisms make people more concerned about their personal interests, which may be damaged by participating in such events.

"It is the unfairness and injustice of our society that create such an indifferent response in people," Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor with the Renmin University of China, said.
Chinese Twitter users have expressed concerns over the company's appointment of a China regional executive who has a background working with the country's military and state security apparatus.

Since last week, when Kathy Chen was appointed Twitter's first managing director for China, Chinese users of the US microblogging site have raised concerns over Chen's past links to the Chinese government and wondered if their freedom of speech on the platform would be compromised.

Although blocked in China, Twitter is a popular platform for Chinese especially those living overseas to freely express themselves in their native language.

While China has produced homegrown equivalents such as Weibo, the government exerts strict controls over what can be said on them and by whom.

"Twitter has vast amounts of users' data. Given that US tech firms have in the past kowtowed to China, and given the military background of Kathy Chen, it's only reasonable for the Chinese users of Twitter to be worried about the future," He Qinglian, a prominent overseas-based Chinese political activist, wrote on her blog. She urged the US Congress to conduct a hearing on Chen's appointment.

Wen Yunchao, a US-based political dissident, noted on his Twitter account that Chen had worked for the People's Liberation Army for seven years and later headed an anti-virus software company in a joint venture with connections to the Ministry of Public Security.

"It's only reasonable to question the direction of a company by its personnel decisions," Wen wrote.

Chen began working as a technical engineer for a military research institute in 1987 after graduating with a computer science degree from North Jiaotong University, according to Chinese media reports.

She went on to work for DEC, Compaq and 123COM before leading the anti-virus software company Jinchen, a joint venture whose local partner was owned indirectly by the Ministry of Public Security.

In an emailed statement, Twitter said it was usual for the Chinese government to assign graduates to jobs in the 1980s. Chen's computer science degree made her a prime candidate for a job as a junior engineer in the People's Liberation Army, the company said.

"When the Chinese economy further opened up with reform in the early 1990s, Kathy chose to pursue her passion for a technology career by switching to the private sector in 1994," the statement said.

It also said that her role with Jinchen was to represent the interests of majority shareholder Computer Associates, a US tech firm, and that she "never worked for the Ministry of Public Security."



Chen, who will be based in Hong Kong, was most recently an executive with Microsoft Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group before being hired by Twitter.

"I am really excited to find more ways to create value for our advertisers, enterprises, creators, influencers and our developers, and partners as well," Chen said in a video posted on Twitter.

She has not publicly responded to Twitter user concerns.
In a relief for Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet, the Competition Appellate Tribunal today set aside Rs 258-crore penalty imposed on them and directed CCI to pass a fresh order.

Competition Commission of India (CCI) in November had penalised the carriers for alleged cartelisation in fixing fuel surcharge on air cargo.

Jet Airways was fined Rs 151.69 crore while the penalties on InterGlobe Aviation and SpiceJet were Rs 63.74 crore and Rs 42.48 crore, respectively.

These fines were stayed by the tribunal in February.

In a 95-page order, Compat set aside the CCI order and remanded the matter back to the regulator to pass a fresh order.

The tribunal said CCI's failure to give notice to the appellants incorporating the reasons of its disagreement with the conclusions recorded by the joint Director General has violated principles of natural justice.

Besides, it noted that not giving the appellants "effective opportunity to show that they had not formed any cartel for jacking-up fuel surcharge from time to time has not only resulted in gross violation of principles of natural justice, but has also caused prejudice to them".

CCI's order last year came after its investigation arm Director General (DG) conducted a detailed inquiry.

Asking CCI to reconsider the Joint DG's report and take appropriate decision, the tribunal said if the commission disagrees with those findings, then reasons should be indicated for the same.

In addition, the regulator has been asked to issue notices to the parties "incorporating the reasons of disagreement and give them opportunity to file their replies/ objections," the order said.

After receiving the replies/objections the tribunal said the Commission should hear them and pass an order.

In case any of the parties feel aggrieved by the final order, which may be passed by the CCI, then they would be free to avail appropriate legal remedy, the tribunal said.

The tribunal's ruling came on appeals filed by the airlines.
Congress today dismissed criticism of Punjab PCC Chief Amarinder Singh's foreign tour, saying the leader has gone abroad to do "party work".

"He (Amarinder) is going there with the consent of Congressmen and women of Punjab to do party work. He will interact with the people there who are still voters of Punjab as a lot of people from the state are settled abroad," party General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed told reporters.

Ahmed, who is in charge of party affairs in Punjab, said Singh will convey to Punjabis in Canada and the US about the "mis-governance" of Badals in the state.

In a bid to garner the support of Punjabi diaspora's support for Congress ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls, the PPCC chief will embark on an 18-day tour to the US and Canada from April 19.

The opposition has questioned Singh's foreign tours by stating that the Congress leader should stay back in the state and focus on campaigning instead of touring abroad.
Congress MP K C Venugopal today filed a criminal case against prime accused in the solar panel scam Saritha S Nair and two TV Malayalam channels at a court here, alleging they hatched a conspiracy to defame him by airing a item in the media.

He filed the case a week after Chief Minister Oommen Chandy filed a defamation case against them for airing the on April 3 and 4 to the effect that he had raped her.

In his petition before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Ernakulam, Venugopal alleged that airing of defamatory contents of a "fake letter" allegedly written by Saritha had harmed his reputation among the public.

He alleged that Saritha had hatched a conspiracy with four journalists of two news channels for preparing the "fake letter" before airing it.

The CJM court will consider the plea on June 10.

In a press release, Venugopal, however, did not elaborate on the nature of the charges levelled against him by Saritha.

Chandy had in his complaint filed before the same court, alleged that they released a 'truncated' letter (allegedly written by Saritha while she was in judicial incarceration) wherein it was stated that she was raped by the complainant in his official residence Cliff House, Thiruvananthapuram.

"Common sense fails to comprehend as to how such an incident can occur in Cliff House, where the complainant is residing with his family, and several security guards," the complaint filed by the chief minister had said.
Amid Nitish Kumar's strong pitch for largest possible unity among secular parties to defeat BJP, Congress today virtually ruled out an alliance at the national level in the next Lok Sabha polls.

"I am 100 per cent (sure) there will be unity. National alliance...I don't think Nitish Kumar has said that....We had an alliance with him in Bihar elections.

"Alliances take place every day...Some party is very strong in a particular state, but is not in existence in the neighbouring state. Alliances take place according to circumstances in a particular state," party General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed told reporters.

Signaling that there will be no tie-up at the national level by the party, he questioned whether there has been any (regional) party which is present in Bihar as also in Haryana as also in faraway Kerala and Bengal.

He said the "reality" is that there are state level tie-ups.

Ahmed was replying to a volley of questions on the Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U chief's call for a national alliance to take on BJP in the 2019 general elections.

He made light of a question whether Nitish would be the "bridegroom" and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi just his "best man" in the 2019 elections, suggesting that it was media which was playing on certain statements.

"By the time 2019 approaches, things will slide so much for the Modi dispensation and BJP that there will be no need for any alliance," he said, adding that people of India will themselves pitch for making 'RSS and BJP mukt bharat'.

Nitish has given a call for a RSS-free India.

To persistent questions on Kumar's statements, Ahmed said Rahul as also he himself have good relations with the Bihar Chief Minister and "everyone should have ambition".

Last week, Congress had dismissed as "too premature" party leader Digvijay Singh's remark that it is ready to work with Nitish Kumar at the national level to bring about "largest possible unity" among parties to defeat BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Congress, however, said it has always worked in the larger interest of democratic, secular and progressive forces in the country.

Congress is part of the Nitish Kumar-led coalition government, which also includes Lalu Prasad's RJD.
A 45-year-old Police Constable today allegedly attempted suicide by consuming a chemical substance and landed in hospital, where his condition is said to be stable.

Prabhakar Desai attempted suicide inside Tilak Nagar Police Station, where he is posted, in suburban Chembur, police said.

A colleague of the Constable found him lying on the floor of the changing room of the police station at around 2 PM with white froth coming out of the mouth, said police.

He was immediately rushed to the Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar, where doctors performed stomach wash of Desai, in which they found the Constable had consumed a liquid chemical generally used for washing clothes, police said.

DCP (Zone VI) Sangramsingh Nishandar has ordered an ACP-level inquiry into the suicide attempt by Desai, a resident of Panvel in Navi Mumbai, said police.

Investigators would also look into the harassment angle by superiors at the police station, they said.

Meanwhile, Desai's condition is stable and doctors will keep him under observation for at least next 48 hours, police said.
Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma today ruled out any action by his ministry to bring back from Britain the famed Kohinoor diamond, saying that if any call on the matter needs to be taken, it will be at the diplomatic level.

"If a diplomatic call needs to be taken (to bring back Kohinoor), it would be taken by the Indian government or External Affairs Ministry at the right time...The Culture Ministry will not take any initiative (to get back the diamond)," Sharma told reporters here.

Noting that the issue dates back to the pre-Independence period, he said, "According to the guidelines, if any of our antiquities is found anywhere after Independence, the Culture Ministry takes initiatives to get it back."



However, issues of antiquities before Independence "do not come under the purview of the Culture Ministry," he said.

Told that the Centre has informed the Supreme Court that the precious diamond was gifted by the successors of Maharaja Ranjit Singh to East India Company, he said, "As per our records, it was gifted."



Earlier, the government told the apex court that the 105.6-carat diamond was neither "stolen" nor "forcibly taken away" by the British.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the government, said the diamond was given by the successors of Maharaja Ranjit Singh to East India Company.

The apex court had on April 9 asked the Centre to disclose its stand on bringing back the diamond while hearing a petition filed by All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front.
Radical Sikh outfit Dal Khalsa today asked the German government to arrest those involved in the explosion at a gurudwara in Germany's western city of Essen.

In a letter to the German Ambassador, party secretary for political affairs, Kanwar Pal Singh said that at a time when Sikhs were "at the receiving end of hate crimes across the globe, the unfortunate incident has further disturbed the community."



At least three persons, including a priest, were injured in the "violent" explosion at a gurudwara in Essen on Saturday.

"The Sikh population in Punjab and elsewhere are worried as this act has created a climate of fear among the diaspora", he said.
India will become a nation of block heads if degrees are provided to people without studying, Jammu and Kashmir High Court has said.

"Insatiable human greed has caused immense damage to our educational system...It is only to be imagined what will happen to a nation where, without studying, educational degrees would be provided to the people. The country will become nation of block heads, thus, making its future dark," Justice M H Attar said in a recent order.

Justice Attar made the stinging observations last week while dismissing a petition filed by Manish Suri, owner of an Elementary Teachers Training College, who was seeking quashing of an FIR lodged by Crime Branch.

In October 2013, Crime Branch registered two separate cases in Jammu and Srinagar offices to investigate the illegal practices adopted by some ETT colleges in the state.

The FIRs were lodged following a report by Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education which brought to surface that money in hundreds of crores has changed hands in ETT colleges in the state.

The report also stated that candidates were lured and amounts ranging fromm Rs 45,000 to Rs 80,000 were extracted from each candidate through touts for providing them degrees and certificates by the ETT colleges which did not fulfill the basic norms laid down by National Council for Teachers Education.

Suri had challenged the two FIRs, saying two cases cannot be filed based on the same set of allegations.

However, the court agreed with Additional Advocate Gen Reyaz Khan that the plea did not stand as Suri was an accused only in one FIR -- lodged in Jammu.

To underline the gravity of the situation, Justice Attar invoked great philosopher Socrates, who said, "An education purchased by money is worst than no education at all".

The Judge also quoted celebrated English writer W Shakespeare.

"Before parting with, it is appropriate to place on record what Shakespeare has said: 'No legacy is as rich as honesty'.
The Delhi government will give "more" advertisements on the odd-even scheme, Transport Minister Gopal Rai said today, noting that all the money required for the road rationing programme will be spent as it is a matter of people's life.

Reacting to BJP's charge that the AAP government is spending "huge" funds on odd-even advertisements, he said, "We are not doing it for ourselves, we are doing it for the people of Delhi. We will advertise it even more and spend all the money required for odd-even scheme because it is a matter of people's life in Delhi."



Rai, who met BJP MP Vijay Goel in the morning to request him to not to violate the scheme which he did later and paid a fine of Rs 2000, alleged that BJP was trying to "fail" Delhi and its people.

"Everyone, including the schoolchildren, are working for the success of the scheme while Goel chose to violate it which is very unfortunate. This thinking of BJP is not proper, they are trying to fail Delhi and its people," he said.

The minister said that he urged Goel to desist from violating the odd-even rule as it will send a "wrong message" to others.

"I asked him to raise his voice in Parliament or Jantar Mantar, but he violated odd-even scheme. It appears he is also against the rule of carrying driving licence and insurance papers while driving," he said.

Goel, who was fined for driving an odd-numbered car on the even date, was also fined Rs 1500 for not showing his driving licence and vehicle insurance.

Rai, who took a bus tour to assess implementation of the scheme on first working day of the week since it started on April 15, claimed that most of the parents felt no problem in ferrying their children to school.

"The reports so far indicate that 90 per cent parents smoothly ferried their school going-children but some people may face problems. I urge parents, specially women, to help one another and drop other children to their homes," he said.

The Transport Minister also said that car-pooling and strengthening public transport system will help in "smooth" implementation of the scheme and sorting out the problem of ferrying school children.

He, however, said that without strengthening the public transport system, it was not possible to cover all people under the programme.

"Unless we strengthen public transport system, we cannot cover all the people and vehicles, including two-wheelers under odd-even scheme," he said.
Hollywood star Johnny Depp and his wife Amber Heard have released an apology video for illegally smuggling their dogs Pistol and Boo into Australia that had landed them in legal soup.

Heard, 29, and 52-year-old Depp appeared in a court in Australia on Monday, where the actress avoided conviction for bringing their Yorkshire terriers into Australia after pleading guilty to making a false statement on her immigration card about the dogs.

The actress received a one-month good behavior bond. If she breaks the bond she will be ordered to pay Australian dollars 1,000.

In the apology video posted to the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources' Youtube channel, the couple expressed remorse and instructed other visitors to respect Australian laws.

The video begins with Heard praising the country. "Australia is a wonderful island with a treasure trove of unique plants, animals and people," Heard said.

Depp added: "It has to be protected."



Later in the video, Depp appeared to make an indirect reference to the couple's "firm" treatment from Barnaby Joyce, the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, and his threats to put the dogs down if they were not returned to the US.

"And Australians are just as unique, both warm and direct. When you disrespect Australian law they will tell you firmly," Depp said.

Australia is known for its stringent quarantine laws designed to keep disease out of the country. Dogs arriving from the US must spend 10 days in quarantine.

The presence of Pistol and Boo in Australia caused a furor last year when then Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce threatened to deport them or have them put down.

"The Danish Girl" actress brought the dogs into Australia on Depp's private jet on a visit while he was filming "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," without permits or a period in quarantine, flouting Australia's strict animal import laws.

Heard's lawyer Jeremy Kirk has submitted a video to the court of her expressing remorse and respect for Australia's bio-security laws.

"Ms Heard has made a video, the significance of which will become apparent... It relates to an expression of remorse and recognition of the importance of compliance with Australia's border protection laws," said Kirk.
Seeking strong global action against terror networks, India today warned the international community that if it continues to adopt "double standards" in dealing with the menace there will be "serious consequences".

In her address at the Foreign Ministers meeting of RIC (Russia-India-China), External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the grouping must lead the world in fighting terrorism. Significantly, Swaraj's remarks came after she raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, before the tilateral, the issue of China blocking India's bid at the UN to have JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as terrorist.

"India believes that the foremost challenge to international security continues to be posed by international terrorism. The RIC countries must lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN," Swaraj said.

"We must not fail in this regard. If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," she said.

Her remarks come in the backdrop of China stopping UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

Talking about the UN Security Council reform, she said a greater urgency was required on the issue and sought support of Russia and China.

"Let me also touch upon the issue of reform of UN Security Council, on which there has been some positive movement with a text being put for the first time on the table for inter-governmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue. I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN process forward," she said.

The External Affairs Minister said the slowdown of the global economy has created its own set of issues for economies of all the three countries and they must join hands in spurring growth.

"As three large, emerging economies, we share similar approaches and could benefit from coordinating our positions," Swaraj said.

On BRICS, Swaraj said it is an important framework to



boost economic growth.

"We look forward to active participation of all members in the meetings of BRICS during our presidency this year. We hope to have a very successful BRICS Summit in Goa in October," Swaraj said.

"Let me end by re-emphasising the importance of RIC for consultations on regional and global issues of common concern. I look forward to our consultations today," she said.

Swaraj said RIC provided a good opportunity to our three influential countries to exchange views on how we could jointly contribute to international peace, security and development.

The last ministerial meeting of RIC, that comprises the three emerging market economies with important influence at international and regional levels, took place last year.
A British Airways plane with 137 people on board struck a suspected drone while it was landing at Heathrow airport here, prompting police to launch a probe.

The Airbus A320, with 132 passengers and five crew on board from Geneva was hit as it approached Heathrow airport at about 12:50 PM local time yesterday.

After landing, the pilot reported an object - believed to be a drone that struck the front of the plane.

The Metropolitan Police's aviation security unit based at Heathrow which is leading the investigation said no arrests has been made so far in the case.

If confirmed, it's thought it would be the first such incident in the UK, the BBC reported.

A British Airways spokesperson said, "Our aircraft landed safely, was fully examined by our engineers and it was cleared to operate its next flight".

A Civil Aviation Authority spokesman said it was "totally unacceptable" to fly drones - which are generally used to capture aerial film or photographs - close to airports.

Flying drones near airports is a punishable offence which could attract up to five years in prison in the UK.
In a initiative to save environment, Delhi University's Kalindi college has banned sale of plastic water bottles inside the campus.

"Every human being has a responsibility towards the environment. Keeping this in mind, we have decided to ban the sale of plastic water bottles in the college starting today," college principal Anulya Maurya said in a statement.

"We will discover alternative methods for water storage and consumption. For now we have started using earthern pots. Kalindi is the first DU college to introduce this kind of a ban," she added.

The announcement was made at an annual prize distribution function at the college attended by senior officials from the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Over 3,500 students are enrolled in various undergraduate courses offered by the women's college located in Central Delhi.
Rescuers in Ecuador burrowed through rubble where towns once stood in an increasingly desperate attempt to find survivors of an earthquake that killed at least 246 people and allowed scores of inmates to escape prison.

About 2,500 people were injured when the strong 7.8-magnitude quake hit Saturday evening, bringing structures crashing down, Vice President Jorge Glas said.

President Rafael Correa, who cut short a trip to the Vatican, landed back in the country close to the disaster zone late yesterday to inspect the devastation, his Twitter account said.

Although the oil-producing South American nation frequently suffers seismic shudders because of its position on the Pacific rim's Ring of Fire, the quake -- though it lasted just one minute -- was the worst in nearly 40 years in Ecuador.

The quake wrecked buildings, toppled power lines and sent terrified residents running from their homes when it struck a coastal zone popular with tourists.

Some 100 inmates in a prison in the western town of Portoviejo escaped when the quake shook their facility, Justice Minister Ledy Zuniga tweeted.

About 30 of them had been recaptured, some had returned voluntarily and police were hunting for the others.

Elsewhere in hard-hit Portoviejo, the odor of decaying bodies started to fill the tropical air as rescuers raced to find survivors.

"We have already recovered three dead and we believe there are 10 to 11 people still trapped," said one worker digging through the debris of what used to be a six-story hotel called El Gato.

Officials have declared a state of emergency in the worst-hit provinces, and a national state of "exception," both of which suspend certain civil rights and liberties to allow security forces and officials to react faster.

Among the worst-hit towns was Pedernales, where Mayor Gabriel Alcivar estimated there were up to 400 more dead yet to be confirmed, many under the rubble of hotels that collapsed.

"Pedernales is devastated. Buildings have fallen down, especially hotels where there are lots of tourists staying. There are lots of dead bodies," he told local media.

Soldiers patrolled the beach town, and the Red Cross and the army had set up a center to treat the injured and receive bodies.

Two Canadians were among those killed by the quake, their country's government told AFP.

Ecuador's Geophysical Office reported "considerable" structural damage as far away as Guayaquil, Ecuador's biggest city with more than two million people, which is 350 kilometres away.

(Reopens FGN 4)



In the town of Abdon Calderon, near Portoviejo,



73-year-old resident Nelly, who would not give her last name, told AFP in tears that she rushed into the street after the quake and saw that the covered market had collapsed.

"There was a person trapped who screamed for help, but then the screaming stopped. Oh, it was terrible," she said.

Neighboring Colombia -- which also felt the quake but emerged unscathed -- has dispatched aid and emergency workers to help in the rescue effort, as have Mexico and El Salvador.

Some 200 aftershocks of lesser intensity have followed the quake.

The epicentre of the quake was 170 kilometres northwest of the capital Quito, which suffered relatively little damage beyond cracks in walls and a power outage.

Officials said the oil infrastructure of Ecuador, an OPEC member, seemed intact.

Ecuador has been rocked by seven earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher in the region of Saturday's quake since 1900, the US Geological Survey said. One in March 1987 killed about 1,000 people.

David Rothery, a professor of geosciences at Britain's Open University, said the 7.8 magnitude meant that "the total energy involved was probably about 20 times greater" than the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that killed at least 41 people in southern Japan on Saturday.

He said there was no causal link between the two quakes.

International concern and sympathy -- and offers to assist -- have flowed in.

Pope Francis urged prayers for the victims.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU chief diplomat Federica Mogherini expressed condolences and said they were ready to help.
Rescuers in burrowed through deep rubble in an increasingly desperate attempt to find survivors of an earthquake that killed at least 246 people and allowed scores of inmates to escape prison.

About 2,500 people were injured when the strong 7.8-magnitude quake hit Saturday evening, Vice President Jorge Glas said, a sharp rise over the previous official figure of 1,557 hurt when buildings came crashing down.

Although the oil-producing South American nation frequently suffers seismic shudders because of its position on the so-called Ring of Fire that skirts much of the Pacific basin, the quake -- though it lasted just one minute -- was the worst in nearly 40 years in .

The quake wrecked buildings, toppled power lines and sent terrified residents running from their homes when it struck a coastal zone popular with tourists.

Some 100 inmates in a prison in the western town of Portoviejo escaped when the quake shook their facility, Justice Minister Ledy Zuniga tweeted.

About 30 of them had been recaptured, some had returned voluntarily and police were hunting the .

Elsewhere in hard-hit Portoviejo, rescuers raced to find survivors.

"We have already recovered three dead and we believe there are 10 to 11 people still trapped," said one worker digging through the debris of what used to be a six-story hotel.

The smell of decaying bodies started to lace the tropical air.

Officials declared a state of emergency in the worst-hit provinces, and a national state of "exception," both of which suspend certain civil rights and liberties to allow security forces and officials to react faster.

Among the worst-hit towns was Pedernales, where Mayor Gabriel Alcivar estimated there were up to 400 more dead yet to be confirmed, many under the rubble of hotels that collapsed.

"Pedernales is devastated. Buildings have fallen down, especially hotels where there are lots of tourists staying. There are lots of dead bodies," he told local media.

"We need help. We need medicine, water and food to help people."



Ecuador's Geophysical Office reported "considerable" structural damage as far away as Guayaquil, Ecuador's biggest city with more than two million people, which is 350 kilometres away.

Two Canadians were among those killed by the quake, their country's government said.

In the town of Abdon Calderon, near Portoviejo, 73-year-old resident Nelly, who would not give her last name, said in tears that she rushed into the street after the quake and saw that the covered market had collapsed.

Neighbouring Colombia -- which also felt the quake but emerged unscathed -- and Mexico have dispatched aid and emergency workers to help in the rescue effort.
Former Gujarat DGP P C Thakur, who has been appointed as the Director General of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards in New Delhi on central deputation, has gone on sick leave, an official said.

The official from state DGP office revealed that Thakur has gone on leave as he might be miffed over his new appointment as he wanted to remain in Gujarat due to his wife's ill health.

Thakur, who was appointed as the DGP of Gujarat in 2013, went on leave within hours after the Department of Personnel and Training announced his appointment on central deputation in New Delhi on Friday.

"Thakur sir might have been upset, as he was not ready to go to Delhi owing to his wife's critical health. It is obvious that he cannot leave his wife in such condition. Even top leaders in government know about her ill health. Thakur sir may not be ready to leave Gujarat owning to such problem," said an official seeking anonymity.

"After learning about his transfer to Delhi, he has sent a letter to the state government informing about his decision that he would proceed on a sick leave. He didn't even attend the phone calls of several officers and staff and went on leave on the same day when the about his transfer came (on Friday)," the official said.

It is also learnt that Thakur left the office in haste, as he did not even wait for official handing over of his charge, which was then given to senior IPS officer P P Pandey a day after he went on leave.

Despite repeated attempts, Thakur did not respond to calls or text messages.

Meanwhile, state Home Minister Rajni Patel said he was not aware about Thakur's unwillingness to go to Delhi.

When asked if he has received a letter by Thakur in this regard, Patel said, "I am not yet aware about that letter. I will look into it once it reaches my office.
First came the flood and then the "long, long" earthquake, a shaking so hard the two-story, covered market came down in a heap in this small town in western .

Dazed residents began the week in flood waters up to their chests -- and ended it Saturday evening with a devastating 7.8-magnitude quake.

"It's only been a week and nature has punished us so badly," said Nelly, a 73-year-old who declined to give her last name.

At least 235 people were killed across Ecuador, the government said.

In Abdon Calderon, 180 kilometres south of the epicentre, at least two people were killed in the collapse of the town market.

"On Monday, water flooded the town. There wasn't a house that wasn't submerged. The water was up to our chests in the main avenue," Nelly said.

Then on Saturday, she said, the market came down "like a house of cards."



Too fearful to stay indoors, she spent the night in the streets. Now she finds herself standing outside the flattened market, hugging herself to keep warm as she tearfully recounted the town's double misfortune.

A short distance away a firefighter picked through the market ruin, looking for a way to retrieve the body of a man pinned under the mound of rubble and twisted steel.

"They've already taken the body of one poor little man out of there," Nelly said.

When the earthquake struck, she rushed into the streets and saw that the market had collapsed.

"How can I not cry?" she sobbed. "There was a person trapped who screamed for help, but then the screaming stopped. Oh, it was terrible."



Firefighters said when they arrived, the building had already been flattened.

"Two shakes and everything came down, all at once. We've found two victims so far," said Alberto Santana, one of the firefighters on the scene.

In the town of Portoviejo, hairdresser Fernando Chavez, 45, was in his home at the back of his salon with his wife and three children when its ceiling was crushed by the rubble from a neighbouring building.

When the quake hit "we wanted to react but we didn't have time. We all got trapped in the dark and all we could do was press ourselves to the walls," he said.

Then the walls too started to collapse.

"We could not get out. The earthquake lasted two minutes and when it stopped shaking we started stumbling towards the door. We couldn't open it. It was blocked by rubble," he said. "It was horrific."



In the end the family squeezed out of the house with just a few scratches. Chavez's wife and children left to stay with relatives in another town.
Four rockets fired from Syria slammed into the southern Turkish town of Kilis on today, killing four Syrians including three children in the latest deadly cross-border strike to panic residents, officials said.

Kilis -- the only town in Turkey where refugees from the war in Syria now outnumber Turkish locals -- has been repeatedly hit by rocket fire from areas in Syria controlled by Islamic State (IS) jihadists in recent weeks.

"Four Syrians living in Kilis, including three children were killed," the Kilis governor's office said in a statement.

Five Syrians and one Turkish citizen were also wounded by the rocket fire which hit the town centre in a two-hour period from 1130 to 1330 GMT, it added.

A Syrian shepherd was among those killed when one of the Katyusha-type rockets hit an area close to a school where he was tending his flock, the Dogan agency said.

Ten of his sheep were killed while a 14-year-old Turkish schoolboy was also wounded.

A second person was killed and four more wounded when one of the rockets hit an apartment block in another district of the town, Dogan said.

It was not immediately clear how the other tw victims had lost their lives.

The fire was confirmed to have come from an area in Syria controlled by IS fighters, Dogan said.

Turkish armed forces hit back by firing mortar shells at IS targets inside Syria, the report added.

At least 10 people have now been killed so far in strikes on the town from Syria but this was the heaviest toll recorded so far in a single day.

Two people were killed in Kilis last week by IS rocket fire from Syria, prompting protests in the town over the lack of security.

Turkey's powerful intelligence chief Hakan Fidan made a rare public visit to Kilis last week while Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also vowed to protect the town.

Turkish officials have repeatedly lauded the hospitality of people in Kilis towards Syrians as an example of how Turks are hosting the 2.7 million Syrians who have fled their country's civil war to Turkey.

Neither the Islamic State group nor the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front are included in a truce brokered by the United States and Russia that came into force on February 27.
French President Francois Hollande arrived in Cairo today for a two-day visit seen as a boost for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, with security and economic cooperation on the table.

Hollande arrived from Beirut, as part of a regional tour that will also take him to Jordan. A beaming Sisi greeted the French president at Cairo airport, live footage on state television showed.

Hollande brings a delegation of business leaders in tow, and he and Sisi are expected to also discuss Middle East crises including the war against the Islamic State group and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He went straight to the historic Al-Qubbah palace, where his car, flanked by a cavalry guard, pulled up to a gun salute.

Hollande and Sisi were to hold a meeting and were expected to give a press conference later Sunday.

The question of human rights will be in the background. Hollande has been among Sisi's strongest supporters in Europe, since the former army chief overthrew his Islamist predecessor and launched a bloody crackdown on protesters in 2013.

France has already signed major arms contracts with Egypt since, and Hollande and his delegation are expected to agree economic deals throughout the visit.

These agreements will include deals on funding transportation and renewable energy, the French presidency has said.

On the eve of the visit, human rights groups including Amnesty International had criticised what they called France's "deafening silence" on rights violations in Egypt.

Since the overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, police have waged a bloody crackdown on Islamists that has killed more than 1,000 protesters.

The crackdown has spread to secular and leftwing dissidents who had supported Morsi's overthrow but then turned on Sisi.

Meanwhile, jihadists have staged an insurgency based in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen.

The Islamic State group's Egypt affiliate has also claimed responsibility for bombing a plane carrying Russian holidaymakers over Sinai last October, killing all 224 people on board.

Sisi, who won a presidential election in 2014, has manoeuvred his country into being a cornerstone in the fight against the Islamic State group, which a US-led coalition is battling in Iraq and Syria.

IS has taken over the city of Sirte in neighbouring Libya, more than five years after French-led air strikes helped rebels there defeat dictator Moamer Kadhafi's regime.

For many governments in the West that initially condemned the overthrow of Morsi -- Egypt's first democratically elected president -- the fight against jihadists has became the main concern rather than pushing democracy.

For France, Egypt has also become a key market, especially for military hardware.

Egypt was the first country to buy French Rafale warplanes, and also purchased two Mistral helicopter carrier ships.

After his Cairo trip, Hollande will on Tuesday visit Jordan's Prince Hassan air base, where French aircraft taking part in the coalition battling IS in Syria and Iraq are stationed.
Stressing that the future of Indian Navy is anchored in self-reliance, its chief Admiral R K Dhowan today said in times to come all ships, submarines, aircraft and helicopters of the force will be manufactured domestically either by Indian companies or in collaboration with foreign players.

"All our 46 ships and submarines, under construction, are being build in Indian shipyards, both private and public. But this is only scratching the surface," he said inaugurating a international seminar on Navy and 'Make in India' organised jointly by the force and FICCI.

He said under the Maritime Security and Perspective Plan of the Indian Navy till 2027, "all our ships and submarines are intended to be build in India.

"There is a large scope for public and private sectors," he said.

Dhowan also said Navy is focused on indigensation of its aviation wing.

"Indian Navy has 224 aircraft and helicopters and the naval aviation is on the threshold of transformation because future aircraft and helicopters will be made in India with collaboration," he said.

He said the next generation of multi-role helicopters for Indian Navy will also be manufactured through the Make in India route.

Asked about the much delayed P75-I project to build the the next six conventional submarines with enhanced features, the Navy chief said the matter is pending with the Defence Ministry which has given it "top priority".

Replying to queries about plans to get heavy weight torpedos for Scorpene submarines, from a subsidiary of scandal-hit Italian firm Finmeccanica, he said the Defence Ministry will take the final call.

Asked about alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer arrested by Pakistan, the Naval chief said, "I don't remember anything of him. I only know he had served the Navy and after he left, we have no contact with him".

Meanwhile, NITI Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant said for a growth of 9-10 per cent over three decades, Indian manufacturing sector needs to grow at 14-15 per cent and defence needs to be the frontrunner.

Citing the example of the US, he said, if India has to become a great innovative society, private manufacturers need to come forward and flourish.

No doubt in my mind that defence and aerospace will be the harbinger of 'Make in India' initiative, he said.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that government should refrain from interfering too much in the working of medical colleges.

The senior leader expressed these views while addressing an award function of Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) at Vasantrao Deshpande hall here last night.

"The deans do not even have the power to get medical equipments repaired. All decisions are taken at the Mantralaya. This needs to change immediately," Gadkari said.

He even disapproved of the way Centre was handling health services.

"The health budget of the country is so low that the government can't provide good health services. Even medical colleges run by the government have failed to improve in the past seven decades because of lack of funds. Colleges should be run on public private partnership or by charitable organisations to serve as district hospitals. Private charitable hospitals should be promoted," he said.

Gadkari also lamented that doctors are not available in many tribal areas.

"This has adversely affected health services in those areas. This problem will be solved only if doctors are available in large numbers."



If we want good doctors, then the entrance examination and the admission procedure for the medical courses should be flawless. In order to increase the number of doctors, the state government has started new medical colleges in Gondia and Chandrapur, he said.

About 12 prominent doctors from various fields were felicitated by Gadkari on the occasion.
A special commission has been set up by Germany's western city of Essen for a thorough probe into the gurdwara explosion in which three persons were injured, even as India's Consul General in Frankfurt visited the Sikh community and held talks with authorities.

Raveesh Kumar was apprised of the current level of investigation and the situation following the attack on the Nanaksar Satsang Darbar Gurdwara during meetings with the Mayor of Essen Thomas Kufen and Police Commissioner Frank Richter yesterday.

The mayor assured Kumar that the city administration, the police and the state prosecutor's office would take all necessary measures to ensure that the Sikh community can feel secure, the city of Essen and the police commissioner's office said in a joint statement.

Religious freedom is guaranteed in the German society and any form of violence against religious minorities will be totally unacceptable, Kufen said.

Richter told Kumar that the police department has set up a special commission to thoroughly investigate the explosion, which occurred in the entrance hall of the gurdwara.

Richter said police so far have no indications of a terrorist background, "but we are investigating in all directions and thereby we are working closely with the Indian authorities".

A 60-year-old suffered serious injuries and had to be hospitalised while two 47- and 56-year-old men had minor injuries. The injured included the 'granthi' (priest) on whom the whole pane of glass had fallen due to the impact.

Yesterday, India expressed "distress" at what is being deemed as a deliberate act.

Eyewitnesses have spoken of "a kind of bomb" that exploded at the gurdwara on Saturday evening. About 200 people, including many children, were present at the wedding that began very late and was ongoing when the explosion occurred.

The explosion was so violent that windowpanes of adjacent buildings were broken. The building was heavily damaged.

Kumar and Kufen jointly visited the Sikh community after their discussions and the mayor conveyed his solidarity and the city's support to protect them, the statement said.

Police were searching for a masked man dressed in black, who was seen by eyewitnesses fleeing the area soon after the detonation. Three occupants of a car parked near the gurdwara, who were taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the explosion, were set free after questioning on Saturday night.

Gurdwara Nanaskar and the residence of the Sikh community's president have been put under police protection. It is one of the main places of worship for the Sikh community in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia.
Stating that real education should contribute towards nation-building, Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani today urged the students to give a social touch to their future financial plans and also learn to take failures in stride.

"The way people draft their plan, it reflects their character. I have been to so many institutions, where I found students saying that they are making efforts to get placed in MNCs. Students of management institutions aspire for financial services...But I am of the opinion that our financial plans should be complemented with societal plans," Irani, who was the chief guest at the fifth convocation ceremony of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Raipur, said.

"True education must provide life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. Real education is that which contributes to nation-building and enables one to stand on one's own legs. IIMs definitely contribute here by being job providers for their own students and many thousands of their countrymen," she said.

These students as IIM Graduates can touch the lives of thousands of others and help in imbibing in them the essence of the learning they had here, she added.

"Whenever we embark on a new journey in life, we know very little about what is going to follow. In such situations, don't allow any kind of fear to overpower you, just follow your heart.

"The nation is looking up to you for running and establishing organisations that will earn respect and admiration for their global standards. Failure is inevitable at some or the other part of life, but not taking a risk can be the biggest failure in life. If one learns to celebrate the learning that comes from both success and failure, then one will be more often successful in life," she added.

Appreciating Chhattisgarh government's management skill in Public Distribution System (PDS) and Power sector, she asserted that the IIM Raipur students should do case studies on how Chhattisgarh has been able to minimise its energy losses and revamp their PDS.

Chief Minister Raman Singh emphasised that management institutes have a lot to teach and one can learn and apply these learning for capacity-building and betterment of the society.

As many as 140 students were conferred degrees in the convocation ceremony and four awarded gold medals.

Stressing that the biggest stakeholder in education



sector is students, Irani said many times they are "stifled" by institutions that promise the world in propectuses and websites.

Irani also said the concerns with regard to UGC's regulations related to deemed universities will be addressed in the coming next month.

She said it had already been decided that colleges which consistently do well in NAAC ratings get autonomy so they don't have to run to the regulator for every new course they want to start.

On the New Education Policy (NEP), Irani said the committee headed by former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian will present a draft which in conjunction with states will be discussed publicly. After assimilation of all points of view a national policy will be presented to the country.

On creating 20 world class institutions - ten in public and private sector, Irani said the guidelines for these bodies will see the light of the day in three months.

She also said a 'Bharatvani' portal, with education material in 22 languages, will be launched soon.

The head of committee that is preparing the draft of the new education policy, Subraminian, in his speech, said the report is under preparation and will be submitted soon.
Domestic carrier has made a partial payment of Rs 15 crore to Airports Authority of India (AAI) after the operator asked the airline to keep its dues below the bank guarantee threshold.

The Mumbai-based airline's bank guarantee amount with the AAI, which was doubled last year, currently stands at slightly above Rs 30 crore.

" has made part payment of Rs 15 crore against its total dues of a little over Rs 45 crore," an official said.

AAI had last week served a notice to GoAir, asking it to pay at least Rs 15 crore by Monday as its dues had gone up by more than its bank guarantee limit.

"As on date, we are within the limit of security deposit," a spokesperson said.

The Mumbai-based no-frills carrier has accumulated these dues to AAI on account charges relating to route navigation, landing and parking at its airports.

The Wadia Group-promoted private carrier currently flies to Ahmedabad, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Jaipur, Jammu, Kochi, Kolkata, Leh, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Ranchi and Srinagar.

As part of its summer's schedule, it plans to operate 146 flights per day from 22 domestic airports.

"GoAir has a robust process and mechanism to manage dues with AAI. As a business practice we are always in constant communication with AAI in all business-related matters and we ensure to remain within prescribed guidelines," the airline said.
The Uttarakhand High Court today observed that the state Governor should have "stayed his hands" while dealing with the Speaker over proceedings in the Assembly saying he (Speaker)is also a Constitutional authority and "any intrusion" into his freedom should be guarded.

Making these observations at the end of a day-long hearing, the division bench of the court said that this case was going to be an example where boundaries between Constitutional authorities like President and Governor were drawn to ensure that powers "are not trampled upon by one or the other authority."



The bench, comprising Chief Justice K M Joseph and Justice V K Bist, observed that "ideally he (Governor) should have stayed his hands" while referring to the communication sent by the Governor to the Speaker regarding the MLAs memo for demand of division of votes.

"This amounts to giving an order over the phone. Any intrusion into freedom of Speaker has to be guarded. Speaker is also a Constitutional authority. Here some boundaries have been crossed," it said.

The court was hearing a plea for ousted Chief Minister Harish Rawat challenging the imposition of President's rule in on March 26 and related pleas.

It was commenting on the issue arising out of a letter of 35 MLAs, including nine rebel Congress MLAs, who had written to the Governor seeking a direction to the Speaker to allow their demand for a division of votes on the passage of the Appropriation Bill on March 18 and a communication from the Governor's secretariat on the subject.

The court also asked the Centre whether it was not



"totally extraneous" for the Union Government to be concerned over the disqualification of nine rebel MLAs and to "interfere" in the affairs of the state which has to be done only in "extraordinary instances".

"What is passing through our mind is, is it the lookout of the Central government as to what would have happened on March 28 (when floor test was to be held) in view of the changed composition and in view of the nine ousted MLAs..?



"Will it not be totally extraneous for Central government, which is ruled by another political party, to be concerned by changed composition...," the bench asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.

The bench said it (the demand for division of votes in the Assembly when appropriation Bill was introduced) was only a "solitary instance".

"This is what is colouring our minds. Can one solitary instance topple a democratically-elected government in its fourth-fifth year... Root of the matter is you are cutting at root of democracy".

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi contended that the Speaker's decision to not allow 35 MLAs to vote on their demand for division, when the money bill was introduced, amounted to "destroying democracy" as the 35 constituted the majority view.

The AG alleged that former Chief Minister Harish Rawat and the Speaker were "in cahoots" and "scuttled the demand for division".

He claimed that since no vote was held, the money bill had failed and this amounted to the state government having fallen on March 18.
Delhi High Court today said the Delhi government cannot wash their hands off on alleged over charging by app-based private taxi operators like Uber and Ola, as general public was suffering due to it.

A bench of Justice J R Midha, which issued a notice to the Delhi government seeking its response on the issue by April 25, also wondered what the concerned authorities were doing to regulate this.

"What is the government doing to regulate this? This is not for the courts to do. What are you (government) doing," the court asked, adding, "today, people are aggrieved that some companies are overcharging."



The issue was raised before the court during the hearing on a plea filed by Magic Sewa Pvt Ltd which has alleged that certain unlicensed taxi aggregators like Uber and Ola, "have been disdainfully violating" the government's notification on fares by charging very low amounts like Rs five per km or as high as Rs 38 per km.

Advocate Pranav Sachdeva, who appeared for the petitioner, claimed this was an urgent issue as during the ongoing odd-even scheme, app-based taxi service operators were flouting fare rules and charging exorbitantly from the customers.

Terming the advertisements given by such operators as "misleading", he said despite repeated complaints made to the government on this issue, no action was taken.

The counsel representing the Delhi government submitted they would file a status report in this regard.

During the hearing, the court observed that the government should have appointed an expert to see how these app-based taxi operators were operating in other countries.

"You (government) cannot wash off your hands. Government will have to find out a way. This problem appears to be genuine as general people are suffering because of this," the bench said, adding that "this is government's primary duty".

It suggested that the government hold consultations with taxi operators on these issues and come out with a comprehensive scheme thereafter.

Magic Sewa had earlier alleged in the court that certain



unlicensed taxi aggregators "have been disdainfully violating" government's notification on fares by charging very low amounts like Rs five per km or as high as Rs 38 per km."



The court had asked the government to convene a meeting with representatives of app-based cab operators, which are allegedly operating "illegally", to see if they are interested in getting fresh licence from the government.

The government had told the court that a meeting was called but certain issues still remain to be clarified and they were going to bring a regulation which will cover all taxi operators.

Ola and Uber, however, opposed the contention raised in the petition, saying they have all India permit licence and are not governed by Delhi government's scheme as this lies in the central government's domain.
Amid thaw in Indo-Pak relations, Union minister Kiren Rijiju today said the government was hopeful a team of National Investigation Agency will soon visit the neighbouring country to gather evidence in connection with the Pathankot terror attack.

"We are hopeful that a team of NIA will visit Pakistan soon," the Minister of State for Home told reporters here.

Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit had indicated last fortnight that Indian investigators may not be allowed to visit Pakistan to pursue the probe in connection with the Pathankot attack.

However, India countered it by saying that before the visit of a Pakistani Joint Investigation Team here last month, both sides had agreed that it would be on the basis of reciprocity.

Official sources said Pakistan has backtracked from its promise to allow the Indian team's visit there to probe the January 2 Pathankot terror attack case apparently after finding that NIA has enough evidence to nail ISI's links with terrorists involved in it.

Basit had also said that at present the peace process between India and Pakistan is "suspended".
Attacking the BJP government in Gujarat over the violence in connection with the Patel quota stir, the Monday termed it as not only "incompetent," but also "anti-people".

Condemning the "police assault" on Patidar community, senior leader Ashutosh said the "Gujarat government has no business to continue."



He also took a dig at the M L Khattar government in Haryana over the recent Jat protests that had turned violent.

"BJP in Gujarat and BJP in Haryana, both are incompetent, anti-people and assaults its own people. They will be punished by people. Gujarat govt has no business to continue. Police assault on Patidar community is condemnable," Ashutosh tweeted.

Interestingly, the is trying hard to make inroads in the state, once headed by Narendra Modi.

Curfew was clamped yesterday in Mehsana town in Gujarat and mobile internet service banned as a massive rally of the Patel community demanding reservation and immediate release of their jailed leaders turned violent.

Today, a state-wide bandh call was given by the Patel community over the quota issue but it had little impact except in some pockets dominated by the community members in different cities of the state.
Haryana government has asked the nationalised banks to provide loans on nominal rate to the traders affected during the recent reservation agitation in the state so as to enable them to restart their business.

Besides, losses of the vehicles having third party insurance, which got damaged during the agitation, would also be compensated by the state government.

This was stated by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar while addressing a meeting of representatives of traders here.

Khattar, who patiently heard grievances of the traders, assured them of all possible assistance.

He also assured that all obstacles in the distribution of compensation would be removed at the earliest.

The state government has written to the nationalised banks asking them to provide loans on nominal rates to the affected persons and other needy people so that they could re-establish their business.

He said there was a provision in nationalised banks to provide loans on nominal rate of interest in such circumstances.

The limit of repayment of these loans is four years, he said. The state government has already taken the decision to exempt the electricity dues of four months for those affected during the agitation.

He said the state government has compensated the affected persons for their losses by providing them concessions through different mediums.

Apart from this, a Committee under the Chairmanship of Additional Deputy Commissioners has been constituted to provide compensation to those who suffered heavy losses during the agitation, he added.

He said the state government has distributed compensation to more than 1,250 affected persons in Rohtak and the remaining would be given compensation within a week.
What was the urgency for banning the manufacture and sale of over 300 fixed dose combination medicines and how can the approval of Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) be disregarded completely, Delhi High Court asked the government today.

Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw also sought an explanation from the concerned ministry on the issue, saying they must have opted for some standard procedures before granting licences to the pharma companies.

"What were the standard procedures adopted by you (government) during grant of licence and what was the urgency which led to withdrawal of the same," the court asked the Centre's counsel while hearing over 180 pleas challenging the government's decision to ban 344 fixed dose combinations (FDCs).

"How can approval of DCGI be disregarded entirely? You will have to state what changes occurred thereafter (post- approval) for disregarding. Else there is one expert panel today and tomorrow there will be another.

"There is no reason appearing from your (government's) arguments as to what happened that a drug which received DCGI approval has now been banned," the court observed.

In his response, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain said under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, the government can disregard the approval given by DCGI and say that a FDC or drug has to be prohibited.

"Grant of approval does not restrain government from taking action under section 26A (power to prohibit manufacture of drugs and cosmetics in public interest) of the Act. Earlier also, more than 90 DCGI approved drugs were banned," he said.

ASG was responding to the contentions of pharma companies like Pfizer, Glenmark, Procter and Gamble and Cipla, that there were three categories of drugs mentioned under section 26A which are "harmful, boastful and those that lack therapeutic justification."



They had said the powers under the provision to allow prohibition of drugs that are harmful, restricting "boastful" claims about medicines and regulation of those that lack therapeutic justification.

The drug firms had said that as per government's expert



panel, all banned FDCs fell in the third category and hence should have been regulated by saying which ingredient of a combination was not required or in what dosage.

They claimed the government has not properly implemented the powers under section 26A of the Act.

The court was hearing the petitions by the pharma companies challenging the government's March 10 notification banning 344 FDCs, a decision which has been stayed by the judge in each case filed before him since March 14.

The government on March 31 had said the decision to ban 344 FDCs was taken keeping in view "safety, efficacy and rationality" of these medicines.

It had then clarified that their initial concern was regarding licences being granted by states for manufacture of FDC drugs, but by the time a final decision was taken, the focus shifted on safety of such medicines.

Earlier, the drug firms had argued that the Centre's ban on the 344 FDCs was taken without considering clinical data.

The companies had also termed as "absurd" the government's claim that it took the decision to ban the FDCs on the ground that safer alternatives were available.

Pursuant to the court's interim stay order, some well- known medicines on which the ban on sale was lifted were Pfizer's Corex cough syrup, P&G's Vicks Action 500 extra, Reckitt Benckiser's D'Cold, Piramal's Saridon and Glenmark's Ascoril and Alex cough syrups.

The March 10 notification says, "on the basis of recommendations of an expert committee, the central government is satisfied that it is necessary and expedient in public interest to regulate by way of prohibition of manufacture for sale, sale and distribution for human use of said drugs in the country.
The Madras High Court today directed officials of Perambalur district to remove encroachment in a supply channel of Suvedha river within three months.

A bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice S Vaidyanathan, gave the directive on a petition by K. Muthusamy, Deputy Secretary of Veppanthattai Union MGR Youth Wing of AIADMK.

The court directed the tahsildar, Veppanthattai Taluk, to whom instructions have already been issued by the District Collector, to remove the encroachment in supply channel from Suvedha river to the irrigation tank and the adjacent road within three months.

"The petitioner claims that his request for removal of encroachment has not been heeded to by his (party) government and thus requests the Court to step in," the court observed.

The petitioner alleged that despite his representation no action had been taken for the removal of encroachments, which prompted him to file the present petition.
Delhi High Court today granted interim stay on the trial court's order defreezing two bank accounts of a company which is being probed in an alleged graft case against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's principal secretary Rajendra Kumar and others.

Justice P S Teji also issued notice to M/s Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd (ESPL) seeking its response by May 5 on CBI's plea seeking stay on the trial court's April 5 order.

During the brief hearing, the court asked CBI's counsel about the status of these two bank accounts of the firm. "What is the status of the accounts? Have they (firm) withdrawn the amount," the bench asked.

Responding to the query, the advocate said "part amount has been withdrawn from the account."



CBI had submitted that the investigation in the case was at a crucial stage and claimed that the trial court's order was bad in law and they had evidence to establish that ESPL was favoured.

The trial court's order had come while defreezing two bank accounts of ESPL which was alleged to have received contracts from Kumar. It had castigated CBI for "flouting" procedures with impunity and being "conspicuously ambiguous" in the probe into corruption allegations against Kumar and others.

CBI had alleged that Kumar had played an "active role in process of promising and facilitating" award of tender to a "pre-determined party", ESPL, due to extraneous consideration.

The agency's raid on the office of Kumar, close to the Chief Minister's office in the Delhi secretariat on December 15 last year, had triggered a political storm.

CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others on the allegations that he had abused his official position by favouring the firm in the last few years in getting tenders from the Delhi government departments.

Kumar has been booked under section 120-B of the IPC (criminal conspiracy), and under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly favouring the company in five contracts worth Rs 9.5 crore during 2007-14.

Separately, the trial court had also urged the Delhi High Court to initiate "contempt of court" proceedings against some CBI officials, including the investigating officer of the case.
Delhi High Court today sought response of the Delhi Government and the North Delhi Municipal Corporation on a plea complaining that despite directions, 16 lakh students enrolled in their schools at elementary level were yet to get text books, writing material and uniform.

Justice Manmohan also issued notice to the authorities concerned observing that the matter was very serious as 16 lakh students have not been provided these things till date, though the session has started from April 4.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on April 25, by when Delhi Government and North Delhi Municipal Corporation have been asked to file their replies.

The court was hearing a plea filed by Satyam Prajapati, through advocate Ashok Agarwal, stating that in private schools, students get text books, uniform and writing material a day or two before the commencement of the academic year.

However in government and corporation-run schools, lakhs of students keep waiting for the study material and uniform even after commencement of the academic year, the plea said.

The student claimed the AAP government and the corporations were not concerned with the rights of the students studying in their schools, because they belonged to lower and poor strata of the society.

Prajapati's petition also alleged that the situation in schools run by SDMC and EDMC was also grim.
The Orissa High Court today directed the state government to furnish details of all land given on lease since 1985 in Bhubaneswar and their status till date by April 22.

Adjudicating over a writ petition filed by Adarsh Prabha Puri, who was given a land on lease in 1988 in Bhubaneswar to run an electrolysis clinic and beauty parlour in Kharvela Nagar, the high court in January had directed the government to furnish the details about the land leases.

Puri, through her husband Jagdish Rai Puri, had approached the high court last year challenging an order of the general administration in which the estate director had ordered her (Puri) to demolish the structure constructed on the land given to her on lease. The government had claimed that the purpose for which the land was given is violated.

The high court, after ordering to maintain status quo on the government notice to Puri, had asked the government to file an affidavit indicating as how many leases have been granted since 1985 and out of the same, how many cases have been inspected.

It also wanted to know how many cases of proceedings of cancellation of leases have been initiated and settled.
In a reprieve to Naranbhai Kachhadia, BJP MP from Amreli, the Gujarat High Court today stayed a local court's verdict sentencing him to three-year imprisonment for allegedly assaulting a government doctor.

Justice R H Shukla stayed the order which convicted and sentenced the MP after he moved the HC against the order of Amreli Sessions Court.

Kachhadia had also moved a bail application which was also granted by the high court.

On Wednesday, Amreli Sessions Court had sentenced him to three years imprisonment for assaulting a doctor at a government hospital on January 1, 2013.

The court had, however, suspended the sentence for a month for Kachhadia and four other convicts to facilitate them to approach the HC against the conviction.

Kachhadia might face disqualification as an MP for the sentence under Representation of People Act (RPA), according to which any MP, MLA or MLC, who is awarded a minimum of two years of imprisonment loses membership of the house with immediate effect.

A doctor at Amreli Civil Hospital, Bhimjibhai Dabhi, was attacked by Kachhadia and others when he refused to tend to a patient who was a BJP worker's relative.

The patient, when asked by Dabhi to wait as he was looking after another patient, complained to Kachhadia who came to the hospital and allegedly thrashed Dabhi.
Reliance Jio today announced commencing of operations of the 100 Gigabits per second Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG) submarine cable system that will give Mumbai and Chennai high bandwidth link to South East Asian countries as well as the Middle East.

The 8,100-km cable system linking Malaysia and Singapore to Oman and the UAE, with branches to India and Sri Lanka "provides direct connectivity to South East Asia and Middle East, then onward to Europe, Africa and Far East Asia through seamless interconnection with existing cable system", the company said in a statement.

UK's Vodafone Group, Telekom Malaysia from Malaysia, Omantel of Oman, UAE's Etisalat, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Dialog Axiata from Sri Lanka in a consortium built the BBG submarine cable system to link Malaysia and Singapore to the Middle East, with connections reaching out to India (Mumbai and Chennai) and Sri Lanka.

Two branches of the ultra high speed communications system would connect with India at Chennai on the East Coast and Mumbai on the West Coast.

Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries, owns and operates the strategically important undersea cable landing facility in Chennai, providing a high-speed, high-capacity, low latency route connecting India to the rest of the world.

The Mumbai landing of the BBG Submarine Cable System has been handled by Vodafone South.

"We are excited about the launch of BBG as it offers not just direct connectivity in and out of India through Chennai and Mumbai but also acts as a state-of-the-art 100 Gbps extension of Jio's 100 Gbps core network," said Mathew Oommen, President Reliance Jio.

This brings key international content hubs closer to customers, delivering a much richer experience as an important part of driving India's broadband adoption, enabling consumers to shift away from the current high-cost low value propositions, he said.

Providing robust, reliable, low latency connectivity, BBG strengthens one of the fastest growing global internet routes. BBG has deployed the latest submarine cable 100Gbps transmission technology, utilizing wavelength add/drop branching units along the route, with an initial equipped capacity of 9 terabits per second.

From its terminating points in Barka, Oman to Penang, Malaysia, the cable measures a whopping 5,934 km in length.

Four other branches split off from the main line - a 216 km branch to Fujairah, in the UAE, a 426 km branch to Mumbai, a 142 km branch to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a 1,322 km branch to Chennai.
French President Francois Hollande discussed economic and cultural ties in Egypt today, a day after he arrived to a lavish welcome quickly overshadowed by his host's controversial human rights record.

Hollande, who is visiting Cairo as part of a regional tour, attended a business forum with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, with both countries hoping to boost trade and investments.

Allegations of human rights abuses under Sisi's government dominated a joint press conference on Sunday, with Hollande insisting that respecting rights was not a hindrance to fighting "terrorism".

But Egypt -- the most populous Arab country -- is seen as a cornerstone of regional security as well as a key trade partner for France, a point Hollande raised at the business forum.

"Trade, growth and investment are of course at stake, but also security and stability and development, not only in Egypt but throughout the region," he said.

"France is the sixth largest foreign investor in Egypt," he added, addressing French and Egyptian business leaders and officials.

Sisi, in his speech, said Cairo was "working seriously to create an attractive environment for foreign investors", adding that trade between the two countries was 2.58 billion euros (USD 2.9 billion) last year.

The two leaders on Sunday oversaw the signing of 18 economic memorandums of understanding, and 1.2 billion euros in financing for an extension of Cairo's metro system.

The deals included financing for a wind farm and a solar power plant.

Officials travelling with Hollande said new agreements which could include defence contracts were expected on Monday.

Egypt has proved to be a lucrative market for French military hardware.

It was the first foreign country to buy French-made Rafale warplanes, and also bought two Mistral helicopter carriers.

Hollande revisited the topic of human rights on Monday, saying "France has principles and values".

"But we also want to ensure security and development," he said, referring to jihadist attacks in Egypt and the region.

Yesterday, Hollande said he had raised the case of Italian student Giulio Regeni, whose body was found covered in torture marks in February in Cairo, more than a week after his disappearance.

He said he also brought up the case of Eric Lang, a French teacher who was murdered in an Egyptian jail in 2013.

Since the overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by the military then led by Sisi, police have waged a bloody crackdown on Islamists that has killed more than 1,000 protesters.
Defence Minister today kicked off his first visit here by holding talks with Chinese counterpart Gen Chang Wanquan stating that India attaches highest priority to its relationship with China and is committed to further develop the ties.

"India attaches highest priority to relations with China and committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China," Parrikar told Chang in his opening remarks before the two delegations started the talks.

Parrikar was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the headquarters of the Chinese military here by a contingent of PLA soldiers.

Welcoming Parrikar, Wang said, "Hope your visit improve strategic mutual trust between the two armed forces".

After his meeting with Wang, Parrikar will hold talks with Gen Fan Changlong, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, (CMC).

In Chinese military hierarchy Gen Fan is ranked higher, as CMC is overall head of the 2.3-million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA).

He is also due to call on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visit China's recently integrated western command military headquarters in Chengdu which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.

During Parrikar's talks today with top Chinese military officials, recurring incidents of incursions, implementation of an agreement to reduce tensions between border patrols and Sino-India strategic concerns are expected to figure.

While Indian officials said the talks were expected to review the whole gamut of bilateral ties, India's concerns over aggressive patrolling by Chinese troops especially in the Ladakh sector remains high.

China denies any incursions, asserting its troops patrol areas within its territory along the 3,488-km disputed border.

The two militaries also have strategic concerns over each other's military tie-ups with other countries.

Ahead of Parrikar's visit, China hinted that it may take up the recent decision by India to open up military bases to the US for logistics and efforts to conclude a pact to share aircraft sharing technologies.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said that India attaches highest priority to its ties with China, allaying Beijing's concerns over New Delhi's any tilt towards the US in view of its decision to signan agreement with Washington to share military bases.

In a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan, Parrikar said that "India attaches highest priority to relations with China and was committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China".

Allaying China's concerns over India's decision to sign Logistics Support Agreement with the US, Parrikar told the Chinese leader that India pursued autonomous policy to further its national interests and there is no change in it.

"India is committed to further developing friendly and corporative relations with China," he told Chang.

Parrikar later met China's highest military official Gen Fan Changlong, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, which is the overall commanding body of the 2.3 million strong military. It is headed by President Xi Jinping.

The defence minister would meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang tomorrow and later visit Chengdu, the headquarters of recently integrated western command military which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.

While the two countries discussed expediting efforts to establish hotline between the two military headquarters and more confidence building measures like opening of more border points for interactions with troops on the grounds, Parrikar reiterated India's stand for demarcation of the 3,488-km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) which was proposed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China last year.

China, however, expressed reservations over such a move.

Terming the recurring incidents of Chinese troops entering what India claims as its territory as "transgressions not incursions", Parrikar said clarity over LAC will bring down tensions between the troops on both sides which aggressively patrol the areas to assert their control.

"We are insisting it should be done in order to really ensure a very stable border...Because all the issues take place because of perception," he said.

Marking the LAC is "one of the preconditions of smooth border operations. Without that everything goes by perceptions...Which has caused problems sometimes", he said.

The issue was expected to be further discussed during 19th round of boundary talks between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi here this week.

The two officials were designated Special Representatives to address the boundary dispute.
India has sought Chinese help to unravel the conspiracy of ISIS to spread its tentacles in the sub-continent and asked for details of the 'chat conversation' an alleged Islamic State recruit from Maharashtra had with his handlers in Syria and Iraq.

The NIA has sent Letters Rogatory to China requesting for the chat details of Areeb Majeed, arrested by the anti-terror agency in December 2014, with his handlers, official sources said today.

Once the authorities in Beijing send in the details including location of his handlers in Syria and Iraq, the NIA will file a supplementary charge sheet in the 'open case' it has registered against the terror group which controls vast swathes of land and population in the two countries and declared a Caliphate, the sources said.

Majeed used 'WeChat' messaging service for allegedly chatting with his handlers and the server was located in China.

The 24-year-old man from Kalyan landed in Mumbai on November 28, 2014 after spending nearly six months in Iraq, following which he was detained by the security agencies and later arrested.

A case under Unlawful Assembly Prevention Act (UAPA) and a section of IPC which deals with waging war against any Asiatic country, which has friendly ties with India, was registered against ISIS, Majeed and three other young men from Kalyan near Mumbai.

In May 2014, the four had left the country to visit holy places in West Asia but disappeared. They were alleged to have joined ISIS. Majeed, however, returned.

Majeed is the only alleged ISIS member arrested in India so far who was claimed to have gone to Syria and fought alongside the outfit against the forces of Bashar al-Assad regime. The NIA has so far arrested over 35 people who were allegedly trying to spread the tentacles of ISIS in India.

NIA has already filed a charge sheet against four people including Majeed.

According to the NIA charge sheet, Majeed and his three associates -- Saheem Farooque Tanki, Fahad Tanweer Shaikh and Aman Nayeem Tandel -- allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy between January and November 2014 with the common objective and intention of joining Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) or ISIS, a banned international terrorist organisation.

They intended to participate in terrorist acts not only in Iraq and Syria but also in India, among other countries, the charge sheet said.
India today did some plain-speaking with China over its blocking of the Indian bid to get JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN and warned the global community of "serious consequences" if it continues to adopt "double standards" in dealing with terrorism.

During a bilateral meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also asked for a "review" of the Chinese action at the UN.

"I told him (Wang) that if we were to fulfil our intention of fighting terrorism together, then China should review the stand it had taken at the UN 1267 Committee," Swaraj told a joint press conference with Wang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The three ministers had earlier jointly chaired a Russia- India-China (RIC) foreign ministers meet here.

In her meeting with Wang, Swaraj emphasised the need for bilateral cooperation to combat the challenge of terrorism.

If India and China were to combat terrorism unitedly, then Beijing should change its position of opposing India's bid against Pathankot terror attack mastermind Azhar at the UN Sanctions Committee, Swaraj told Wang.

It was agreed during the Swaraj-Wang meeting that the two sides would remain in touch on the matter, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

Last month, China had vetoed India's bid to get Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN Sanctions Committee, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council. The Chinese action evoked a strong reaction in India which said that it was "incomprehensible" that while Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) was banned by the UN, its chief was not.

This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the JeM in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping of sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

Earlier addressing RIC meet, Swaraj warned the international community of "serious consequences" if it continues to adopt "double standards" in dealing with terrorism.

"India believes that the foremost challenge to international security continues to be posed by international terrorism. The RIC countries must lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN," Swaraj said.

"We must not fail in this regard. If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," she said.

Later, addressing a press conference along with Wang and her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Swaraj said there was a need to craft an effective global strategy to counter terrorism, including at the UN.
India and US need to work together to increase the volume of bilateral trade from around USD 100 billion now to USD 500 billion, a senior US official said today.

Indian-owned companies in the US employ 44,000 people and contribute USD 2 billion to US exports, Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy Michael Pelletier said.

He was addressing the inaugural session on 'Investing, Trading, and Travelling to the Unites States', organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with the US Embassy at CII headquarters here.

He said the fact that the second largest delegation at the 'Select US' summit last year was from India was a very encouraging sign and the number will increase when the summit is held this year in June.

He said 69 per cent of H-1B and 29 per cent of H-1B1 visas were given to Indians and the US Government is working towards enhancing facilities to grant early visas to Indians.

Last year, 1 million visa applications from India were processed, he said.

CII Chandigarh Council Chairman Dinesh Dua said "As per a survey-based report of CII 'Indian Roots American Soil'... 100 Indian companies have made cumulative tangible investments of USD 15.3 billion in the US with an average of USD 433 million per state."



Addressing a session on 'Promoting India-US Partnership in Business and Industry', Paul Frost, Commercial Officer, US Embassy, said, "Commercial services offered by the US Embassy include match-making services for US and Indian businessmen on the lines of increasing bilateral cooperation as well as working towards better trade relationships.
Playing down India's decision to sign a logistic agreement with the US, Chinese state media today said the proposed deal is stalled because of distrust between the two as India wants to be the "most beautiful woman" wooed by all, especially Washington and Beijing.

"Besides their traditional distrust, the speculation heralding a US-India alliance is also an obvious underestimation of India's ambition for a role of swing-state between superpowers," an article in the state-run Global Times said as Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar started his first visit to Beijing today for talks with Chinese officials.

"The basic idea is that India would like to continue to be the most beautiful woman wooed by all men, notably the two strongest in the house, US and China," the article titled 'Indo-US strategic distrust stalls LSA signing'.

"This is not an unfamiliar role to India. We can still recall how its diplomatic manoeuvring had earned itself a special role between the two competing blocs during the Cold War," it said.

"Evidently enough, it needs to feel its way forward and try not to agitate China by crossing the bottom line and consequently it declines to discuss the prospect of joint patrols in the South China Sea, despite the obvious interest and much enthusiasm from its American counterpart," it said.

Last week, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter concluded his three-day visit to India and announced he and his Indian counterpart have agreed in-principle that all the issues regarding a Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) are resolved and both sides would finalise the text in the coming weeks.

Highlighting India's decision to sign the LSA, the report said, "Despite a whole range of strategic issues being covered in the visit, the topic of the logistics agreement itself has triggered speculation among international media that both sides are boarding the same boat to contain China."



In essence, the LSA's purpose is to share military bases for logistical purposes, including refuelling and repair.

"Therefore it is very much similar to the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA), a traditional agreement the US has with many of its NATO allies," the article said.

"That's why it has triggered speculation that both sides are moving toward a military alliance arrangement", it said.

In 2007, the US and Sri Lanka signed an ACSA to allow exchange of logistics supplies during peacekeeping missions, humanitarian operations, and joint exercises.

Another article, titled 'India seeks interests from geopolitical tension,' in the daily, said the LSA "is drawing the US and India into an undeclared military alliance."



"India's diplomatic manoeuvring risks dampening cooperation among the China-Russia-India triangle and the BRICS," it said but quickly added that "tensions between the US and China and Russia in terms of geopolitics have provided India with admirable strategic opportunities."



Although Indian officials and scholars claim there is no change in India's traditional non-alignment policy and that it will continue its strategic independence, the non-alignment policy "under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has far transcended the spirit of non-alignment", it said.

The article claimed India's foreign policy has entered an era of non-alignment 3.0, featured by three characteristics:



"India, instead of maintaining a neutral position, takes sides with countries like the US and Japan in islands and maritime disputes concerning Asia-Pacific security at the risk of escalating confrontation and conflicts in the region," it said.

Second, India shirks its responsibilities and distances itself from China and Russia in dealing with some global problems such as the Middle East conflicts in order to avoid confrontations with the West, it alleged.

"(And) finally, it takes advantage of geopolitical conflicts between the US, Japan and China, Russia to gain maximum interests for itself. We hope India won't go too far as a swing power", it said.

"India joined the BRICS because it shares consistent interests with China and Russia in building a multi-polar world and a new international rule-making process," it said.

"But with the slowdown of BRICS economic growth, some Indian scholars claimed BRICS brings few opportunities to India."



This year's BRICS summit is to be held in India. The topics on the table mainly focus on economic and social development, lacking coordination over regional and global affairs.

Geopolitics matters a lot in India's foreign policy, the article said.

"India hopes to counterbalance China through strengthened strategic and security cooperation with countries including Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. It's also reinforcing cooperation with the US," it said.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) today signed an agreement with Bangladesh Petroleum Corp (BPC) to set up LPG import terminal at Chittagong and lay a pipeline from there to Tripura.

India plans to use the terminal at the Bangladeshi port to ship cooking gas or LPG which would then be piped to Tripura.

The MoU, signed during Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's three-day visit to Bangladesh, "paves the way for discussion on setting up LPG import terminal at coastal belt of Chittagong district, marketing of LPG and developing related infrastructure in Bangladesh and transportation of LPG from Chittagong to Tripura," an official statement said here.

Pradhan reached Dhaka yesterday to follow up on issues discussed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh in June last year.

He met Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, Adviser on Energy, Power and Mineral Resources to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and Nasrul Hamid, Minister of State for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources of Bangladesh.

During the meetings, he discussed modalities for sustainable supply of diesel from Siliguri Marketing Terminal of Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) to Parbatipur Depot of BPC.

Pradhan expressed confidence that early implementation of these projects will create a win-win situation for both countries.

He briefed them about the status of seismic survey being carried out by ONGC Videsh Ltd in offshore blocks allocated to it by Bangladesh.

Pradhan will tomorrow travel to Chittagong where he is scheduled to witness the award of consultancy contract by Eastern Refineries Ltd to Engineers India Ltd for its expansion of refinery by 3 million tons per annum.
Iran's purchase of 118 Airbus passenger aircraft is in its final stages and the deal could be completed as soon as next week, the French transport minister said today in Tehran.

Alain Vidalies told reporters that the contract, initially valued at USD 25 billion, is subject to approval from the US government's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and talks are planned next week.

The deal would be by far the biggest commercial contract signed since Iran and world powers implemented an agreement on Tehran's nuclear programme that saw crippling sanctions lifted in January.

"We are in a very advanced stage of negotiations since the meetings should be held next week to finalise the decision," said Vidalies, who arrived Sunday on the first Air France flight to Iran in eight years.

OFAC must approve the deal, which Iranian officials say is worth nearer $10 billion, because more than 10 percent of components in the Airbus planes are of American origin, Vidalies said at a press conference with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Akhoundi.

Iran agreed to buy the medium- and long-haul aircraft when President Hassan Rouhani visited France in January, just days after the nuclear deal lifted sanctions.

Western manufacturers were barred for nearly two decades from selling aircraft or equipment and spare parts to Iranian companies.

That embargo was blamed for crippling Iran's aviation industry. Its civil aviation fleet has 140 aircraft, with an average age of around 20 years, and many are in desperate need of replacement.

Despite the nuclear-related international sanctions being lifted in January a raft of other US sanctions relating to terror and human rights remain in place. Those largely ban American companies from business with Iran without the special exceptions or licences issued by the US Treasury.
Iraqi premier Haider al-Abadi called today for the fractious parliament to put aside its differences and do its job, saying he hopes a new cabinet will be approved in days.

Iraq has been hit by weeks of political turmoil surrounding Abadi's move to replace the current cabinet of party-affiliated ministers with a government of technocrats.

His efforts to change the cabinet, which have faced significant opposition from powerful political parties that rely on control of ministries for patronage and funds, were overshadowed by chaos in parliament last week.

Both the United States and the United Nations have warned that the political crisis could distract from efforts to combat the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which overran large areas of Iraq in 2014.

"I call on parliament to convene immediately to overcome the obstacles and contribute to developing solutions to the challenges facing the country," Abadi said in a statement.

"I look forward to parliament being able to undertake its... Legislative and supervisory role and voting on the cabinet reshuffle in the coming days," he said.

Abadi presented a list of cabinet nominees at the end of March, but the political blocs put forward their own candidates, and most of the premier's original list was replaced on a second presented to MPs last week.

Some MPs demanded the opportunity to vote on Abadi's original list -- from which at least two candidates had already withdrawn -- but the session was adjourned on Tuesday without a vote.

Dozens of lawmakers then began a sit-in and spent the night in parliament, while an "emergency" session on Wednesday ended with MPs shouting, shoving and throwing punches in the chamber.

And on Thursday, lawmakers voted to sack parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi and his deputies, but the speaker insists the session at which the vote was held lacked a quorum and was therefore invalid.

Juburi opponents tried to meet on Saturday to select replacements for him and his deputies, but MPs from the Shiite Badr bloc said they would not attend, leaving it without a quorum.

Demonstrators then began a sit-in in central Baghdad for the second time in the past month, leading to increased security measures and major traffic jams.
Islamic State's income has plummeted by a whopping 30 per cent to USD 56 million since last year, prompting the dreaded terror group to impose a plethora of ridiculous fines and taxes on its captives including installing satellite dishes and "exit fees" for leaving a city, a report has said.

Significant territory losses means the number of people living in the Jihadi caliphate slumped from nine million at the start of 2015 to fewer than six million, according to the tax report by the US-based consultancy firm IHS.

It has caused the dreaded groups' tax receipts to plummet from around USD 80 million each month to USD 56 million, the report said.

"In mid-2015, the Islamic State's overall monthly revenue was around USD 80 million. As of March 2016, the Islamic State's monthly revenue dropped to USD 56 million, said Ludovico Carlino, senior analyst at IHS.

Once branded as the "richest terrorist group" in the world, the ISIS is now in crisis as the territory under its control has declined by about 22 per cent since mid-2014.

"Our research has found that the Islamic State is increasing taxes on basic services and coming up with new ways to get money from the population," Carlino was quoted as saying by the 'Daily Express'.

"You can be fined for driving on the wrong side of the road and for not being able to answer questions correctly on the Koran," Carlino said.

Carlino also claimed that the terror group slapped taxes on "installing satellite dishes" and "exit fees" for people trying to leave a city.

The report also said that oil production in areas under the jihadist group's control had gone down to 21,000 barrels per day from 33,000 barrels per day.

ISIS receives half its revenue from taxation and confiscation while selling and smuggling oil makes up 43 per cent of its cash.

But both income streams have been badly affected after its territory shrank by nearly a quarter.

The Islamist group suffered another setback after it was noted that a "precise" air campaign wiped out more than 25,000 jihadis, the report said.

ISIS, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, were recently pushed by Iraqi forces towards the center of a town held by the dreaded outfit in western Anbar province.

The group was also driven out of Palmyra and Russian forces have now entered the city.

More than 270,000 people have been killed in the Syrian war since its eruption in 2011.
Israeli Army Radio says a military court has indicted a soldier for manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a wounded Palestinian attacker in the West Bank.

The radio today said that the soldier, whose name was not released under a gag order, has also been charged with inappropriate military conduct.

The shooting took place last month in Hebron, a West Bank city that has been a focal point of a seven-month wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Initially, the military had said two Palestinians stabbed and wounded a soldier before troops killed the pair. A video later showed one of the attackers still alive before a soldier shot him in the head.
The BJP-PDP government in Jammu and Kashmir is making a "fresh attempt" to ensure the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the valley, BJP general Secretary Ram Madhav, who played a key role in forging the alliance, today said.

Stressing on the need for a "reconciliatory" stance, Madhav expressed hope that the government will take the process forward once "normalcy" is restored in the state, which has recently been rocked by violent protests.

Speaking at the release of 'The Kashmir Story', authored by Arjan Nath Chaku and Inder K Chaku, Madhav warned against equating the student protests at NIT Srinagar and the issue of Kashmiri pandits.

"Let's not equate the NIT Srinagar issue and the matter of Kashmiri Pandits to create passion. The issue of Kashmiri Pandits is much bigger and much more serious issue. Several efforts and attempts have been made to try and do justice to them.

"Under the new dispensation we are making a fresh attempt. I fully agree with the suspicion, yet under the given cicumstances we thought let us give it another try. If we fail, people are there to judge us. If things normalise soon in the valley I am sure the government will take this process forward," he said.

Actor Anupam Kher, Maj Gen (retd) GD Bakshi, Professor Amitabh Mattoo and lawyer-activist Shabnam Lone were also present on the occasion which saw a panel discussion on the 'integration' of Pandits in the valley.

Responding to a question on the demand for the shifting of the NIT Srinagar campus, Mahdav said, "If you say you have to follow the narrative of the students, then you will have to do the same to students of JNU and other universities. We have to allay their fear. They are in the valley to pursue academic career and not politics. We have to ensure their security," he said.

Kher, who was recently denied permission to visit NIT



Srinagar, termed as a "tragedy" the fact that the book was being launched in the national capital and not the Jammu and Kashmir capital.

Speaking about the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, Kher said, "When there is a Dadri, which was a really unfortunate incident, you see a lot of people writing about it but the same people don't talk about the Pandits."



Kher said before any reconciliation, it was imperative to first "acknowledge" that the Pandits were "thrown out" of the Valley in a "planned and brutal" way.

Madhav said the governments in Srinagar and Delhi were trying to tackle the anti-national forces in the best possible manner. "You have to tackle them legally when you are in the government. You cannot just take out the gun and shoot them."



"You cannot say this situation has cropped up in 2015 or 16. Jammu and Kashmir has had a long history of such anti-national sentiments," he said.

Madhav said the focus should be on increasing the area of influence in the Valley instead of confrontation so that the national flag can be handed over to the separatists as well after winning them over.

Lone said that Madhav's precription betrays a lack of "sensitivity" and that the BJP-PDP coalition has started off on the most "dangerous note".
Jammu and Kashmir government today ordered probe by Additional District Magistrate into the firing incident of April 12 in Handwara in which three civilians were killed.

"District Magistrate, Kupwara has appointed Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Handwara, Peer Muzaffar Ahmad, as inquiry officer to probe the firing incident in Handwara which took place on April 12, 2016," an official spokesman said.

The spokesman said any person acquainted with the facts of the incident and desirous to depose can get statement recorded before the inqruiy officer at Handwara from April 20 to April 30.

Three persons including a woman were killed in firing by security forces on protestors on Tuesday last during violent protests against alleged molestation of a girl in Handwara town of Kupwara district in north Kashmir.

The protests spread to nearby areas, resulting in death of two more persons in security forces action -- one each on Wednesday and Friday.
Embarrassed by Taliban's refusal to join the fledgling peace process with the Afghan government, Pakistan has warned the insurgents to call-off their recently-proclaimed 'spring offensive' or face consequences, a media report said today.

The Taliban earlier this month announced the start of "Operation Omari", named after the late Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, pledging to launch large-scale offensives to oust the West-backed Afghan government from power.

Taliban's announcement of their traditional offensive backed by guerrilla attacks has surprised many in Pakistan.

The Express Tribune quoted a Pakistani official as saying that the Taliban move could derail the peace initiative the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) - involving Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US - had launched in December last.

The QCG's aim was to seek direct talks between the insurgents and the Afghan government.

The official said Pakistan had urged the Taliban all along to shun violence and negotiate.

"That is why we are utterly disappointed by their announcement regarding the spring offensive," he said.

The official said the Taliban leadership has been given a clear message through "intermediaries" that they will have to pay a "heavy price" if they don't join the peace talks.

It is not clear if the latest warning would work as some reports suggest many Taliban leaders have already moved out of Pakistan or planned to return to Afghanistan in an effort to avoid any action.

In July last year, Pakistan persuaded the Taliban to join the first-ever direct talks with Afghan government officials.

However, the contact was suspended due to announcement of Mullah Omar's death last year and subsequent rifts within the group.

In March, Pakistan's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in a frank admission in Washington for the first time said that the Taliban leadership was present in Pakistan along with their families.

The Taliban insurgency has gained strength after the withdrawal of international troops at the end of 2014 and the insurgents are stronger than at any point since they were driven from power by US-backed forces in 2001.

Seasons have long shaped violence in Afghanistan with fighting easing off in the winter, when mountain passes get snowed in, and picking up again in the spring and summer.

According to the UN, 600 civilians have died in Afghanistan's war in the first quarter of this year. It has also that 161 children were killed in Afghanistan and branded the figures "appalling".
Around 50,000 Syrians are stranded in no-man's land along the border with Jordan, a three-fold increase since January because of increased security checks, state agency Petra reported today.

The agency, quoting government spokesman Mohamed Momani, said the estimated 50,000 refugees were massed around the desert border posts of Hadalat and Rokban.

In January, Jordan had estimated their number of 16,000 and appealed for assistance from international relief agencies.

"Because of the security situation, Jordan has to tightly control the Syrian refugees before allowing them to enter, giving priority to the elderly, women and children," it said.

Momani said 75 relief workers paid daily visits to the refugee camps under the supervision of different aid organisations.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi said at the start of the year that he fully understands the security concerns which have led Jordan to limit the flow of refugees entering from war-torn Syria.

Jordan has insisted it must screen newcomers to ensure they are genuine refugees and not jihadists seeking to infiltrate the country.

The kingdom is now only allowing in a few dozen refugees each day after the screening process.

Jordan already hosts more than 630,000 Syrian refugees, according to the UNHCR.

Its government gives a much higher estimate of 1.4 million refugees, because many of them are unregistered.
Jordan today summoned its ambassador in Iran for consultations over what Amman said was the Islamic republic's "meddling in Arab affairs," a government spokesman said.

Mohamed Momani, who is also the kingdom's information minister, said Jordan's envoy would return to Amman for "discussions".

Iran in January finalised a deal with world powers over its disputed nuclear programme, which saw economic sanctions lifted.

Since the accord, Momani said Iran committed "a series of actions and declarations that constitute unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries and especially Gulf states".

Relations between Iran and Arab nations have deteriorated since a row broke out over the execution of influential cleric and activist Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia in January.

Angry Iranian mobs stormed and set fire to Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran and its mission in Mashhad, Iran's second city.

After the riots, Momani said Jordan had asked Iran to "totally cease meddling in Arab affairs," a request that Tehran apparently failed to convince Amman it was willing to carry out.

Jordan and Saudi Arabia share a long border and are both part of the Riyadh-led coalition currently battling Iran-backed rebels in Yemen.
The 108-carat Kohinoor diamond, estimated to cost around $200 million, was neither stolen nor forcibly taken by the British rulers but given to East India Company by the erstwhile rulers of Punjab 167 years back, the government on Monday told the Supreme Court, which wanted legal remedies to be kept open to get it back.

Kohinoor cannot be said to have been forcibly taken or stolen as it was given by the successors of Maharaja Ranjit Singh to East India Company in 1849 as compensation for helping them in the Sikh wars, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told a Bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur.

On his part, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma ruled out any action by his ministry to bring back the Kohinoor. He told reporters that if any call on the matter needs to be taken, it will be at the diplomatic level.

The apex court then asked whether the government was willing to stake a claim to the Kohinoor, one of the most valuable diamonds in the world.

The solicitor general told the apex court that the demand to get back Kohinoor had been raised many times in Parliament.

If we claim our treasures like Kohinoor from other countries, every other nation will start claiming their items from us. There will be nothing left in our museums, Kumar said.

He said this was the stand of the ministry of culture while the response from ministry of external affairs, which is also a party, is awaited.

Hearing a public interest litigation petition seeking the return of the diamond to India from Britain, the Bench then asked Kumar to file a detailed reply within six weeks.

We would like to know if there is a claim the government wants to make? See, we are not inclined to dismiss this plea. If we dismiss it, that country (United Kingdom) may say that your Supreme Court has rejected the plea and it may lead to denial of the government's legitimate claim.



Kohinoor, which means mountain of light, is a large, colourless diamond that was found in Southern India in the early 14th century.

The gem, which came into British hands during the colonial era, is the subject of a historic ownership dispute and claimed by at least four countries, including India.
Hollywood screenwriter Max Landis says Scarlett Johansson was cast in the remake of classic Japanese anime "Ghost in the Shell" as there are no A-list female Asian celebrities that can get a major Hollywood movie green-lit.

Johansson's casting has sparked a lot of backlash on social media with fans and some Asian celebrities accusing the makers of "whitewashing" the movie by casting Johansson.

Landis took to YouTube on Friday to explain why studios chose Johansson over Asian actors for the part of cyborg policewoman Major Kusanagi in the movie.

"The only reason to be upset about Scarlett Johansson being in Ghost in the Shell is if you don't know how the movie industry works," he said, adding there were no "A-list female Asian celebrities" who could get a major Hollywood movie green-lit in 2016.

"It's infuriating. There used to be, in the 90s, diversity in our A-list actors. Jackie Chan and Jet Li were famous at the same time, they could both get movies made. We don't have that guy any more, we don't even have Lucy Liu any more.

"That is not the fault of the movie industry, really. That's culture and movies getting more and more afraid because movies make less and less money," he said.

Landis, however, clarified later that his comments were not as a "defence" of Johansson's casting, saying he merely listed is "as a part of a system" that is not good to actors and minorities.

Actor Ming-Na Wen, the voice of Disney's Mulan, said while she was a fan of Johansson, she had "everything against this whitewashing of Asian role."



"Ghost in the Shell" is directed by Rupert Sanders.
Libyan authorities today said they had arrested 203 African migrants in the capital who were preparing to make a perilous sea crossing to Europe.

An alleged people smuggler was also detained.

An early morning raid by forces battling clandestine migration targeted a house in eastern Tripoli's Al-Hashan district and netted several dozen people, an AFP journalist said.

Armed and masked members of the authorities in bullet-proof vests rounded up the migrants and put them on vehicles to be driven to a detention centre.

Dozens more were detained in another raid on a house in the same neighbourhood.

No force was used in either operation and there was no resistance.

"After a tip-off about a people smuggler preparing a crossing to Europe by clandestine migrants the raids were carried out in a Tripoli suburb," a security official said.

"We arrested 203 illegal migrants from different nationalities. They were with there with their smuggler," he said.

Libya has long been a stepping stone for migrants seeking a better life in Europe, with Italy some 300 kilometres away across the Mediterranean.

Smugglers have stepped up their lucrative business in the chaos that has followed the 2011 ouster of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

The interior ministry in Rome put migrant arrivals in Italy at 23,739 since the start of the year as of Thursday morning, compared with 19,589 by April 14 last year.

On Friday, the International Organization of Migration said nearly 6,000 migrants had reached Italy by sea in the space of four days.
Public sector lender Allahabad Bank will raise over Rs 57.5 crore by issuing shares on preferential basis to LIC.

The decision was taken at the bank's extraordinary general meeting held on March 30.

"Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has agreed to subscribe up to 1,32,44,282 equity shares of the bank on preferential basis subject to their shareholding restricted to 14.50 per cent of the post issue share capital of the Bank," it said in the regulatory filing.

The issue price of the equity shares proposed to be issued and allotted to LIC on preferential basis has been calculated at Rs 43.42 per equity share, it said.

"Based on the issue price of the shares, the total capital fund infusion in the bank by LIC would be Rs 57.51 crore", it said.
The Maldives government has revoked an extension of the medical leave given to the country's jailed former president and he is expected to return to prison soon, an official said today.

Former President Mohamed Nasheed, who is serving a 13-year jail term for ordering the arrest of a top judge, left for Britain in January on medical leave to undergo spinal surgery.

Government spokesman Ibrahim Hussain Shihab said Nasheed had sought an extension of the medical leave and the government had initially agreed to extend it until May 19, but withdrew the approval because Nasheed's lawyers confirmed that no surgery is scheduled.

"The extension has been canceled. That means he has to get back because his leave has expired," Shihab said. Nasheed lawyer Hassan Latheef said he was unable to comment because he has not received any official communication from the government.

The government has criticized Nasheed for meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron and appearing in a series of media interviews while in London.

Nasheed was jailed last year for ordering the senior judge's arrest. His trial drew sharp local and international criticism for an alleged lack of due process.

Nasheed became the country's first democratically elected president in 2008 after decades of autocratic rule. He resigned as public opposition grew over his ordering of the arrest of the judge, and he lost a second bid at the presidency in 2013.

Maldives, an Indian ocean archipelago state, is known for its luxurious tourist resorts.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today justified chief secretary giving reply to the showcause notice served to her by the Election Commission, saying the letter was addressed to the chief minister.

"Reply was sought (by EC) from me as Chief Minister. Whether I give the reply or the chief secretary, it was not an issue. If they sought reply from me as Trinamool Congress leader I would have given reply from the party," Banerjee told an election meeting here.

Trinamool Congress yesterday said that the EC letter had addressed her as chief minister and hence the reply by the chief secretary was justified.

During his poll campaign, Prime minister Narendra Modi yesterday stated, "Either TMC, or its lawyer or Mamataji herself should have given the reply. But if it is true that chief secretary has sent the reply, it was a violation of the model code and misuse of government machinery," he pointed out.

Targeting BJP, the TMC supremo said, "Delhi is insulting Bengal and me. They are unleashing terror and atrocity. They are trying to influence all institutions. But I am not the person who will accept it. I will give reply inch by inch after the election. I will not tolerate it".

"Congress and CPI(M) may sell their flags but I will not. BJP has not done anything. Don't vote for them", she said.

Banerjee further said, "Just because we are contesting election, we will not bow down our head", she asserted.

The Trinamool supremo said that when voting machines will be opened they will see. "Keep your head cool, victory is for Trinamool".

(Reopens CAL 10)



Banerjee, who alleged that a certain media group has joined hands with opposition to discredit her, commented "If someone threatens me, I roar back. I am keeping track of every canard spread against us."



The TMC supremo was speaking in favour of her party's candidate from Memari, Nargis Begum.

Later on, she also took part in a road show in the area.
Mobile internet services were restored in Kashmir today and authorities lifted restrictions for three hours on movement of people in Handwara and Kupwara towns, which had been rocked by violent protests that left five persons dead since last Tuesday.

Mobile internet services were restored a little past midnight as there was no major incident of protest or violence across Kashmir Valley yesterday, a police official said.

Internet services on mobile phones were snapped following violent protests against the alleged molestation of a girl in Handwara last Tuesday. Five persons were killed in security forces action against protesters in Handwara and nearby Kupwara towns in the days to follow.

Authorities have lifted the curfew-like restrictions in the twin towns of north Kashmir from 8.00 AM to 11.00 AM, the official said.

He said if the relaxation period passed off peacefully, it will be eased for rest of the day.

"So far the situation is peaceful and there are no reports of any untoward incident from anywhere in the Valley including north Kashmir towns of Handwara and Kupwara," the official said.

Life in most parts of Kashmir has started limping back to normalcy after remaining paralysed for almost a week due to strikes and protests.

Train services between Baramulla in Kashmir and Banihal, across the Pir Panjal mountain range, resumed yesterday morning after remaining off the tracks for four days.
Taking a serious note of a spate of tiger deaths in Madhya Pradesh, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has set up a panel that has launched a probe into the incidents.

A total of 18 big cats have died in the state since May 2015.

The two-member committee has already started their investigation and visited the Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) where deaths of seven big cats out of 18 were reported during last twelve months.

The panel comprises D Swain, Inspector General of Forest, NTCA, Nagpur and AR Choudhary, Assistant Director of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Jabalpur.

"We have already visited PTR between April 4 and April 6," Swain and Choudhary told PTI today.

A tigress and its two cubs were poisoned to death on March 28 in PTR, they said.

"We are thinking about visiting other tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh from where deaths of tigers had been reported," Swain said.

He said the panel will try to prepare a report as soon as possible so that action could be taken in time.

The latest death reported was that of an eight-month-old orphaned cub which died of septicaemia at Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) earlier this month, according to officials.

The cub was brought to Kanha, a home for orphaned cubs, from PTR following the death of mother tigress. It had some injuries when it was brought from Pench which led to septicaemia.
Much of diplomacy happening between India and Pakistan is "cultural diplomacy", former foreign secretary Shyam Saran today said and credited Bollywood as one of the binding factors in forging people-to- people ties between the two countries.

"Much of diplomacy happening between the two countries is cultural diplomacy. I mean look at Bollywood, it has fans on both sides, and people want to consume it. It is a common bonding factor," he said in response to a question on use of soft diplomacy in Indo-Pak relations.

"If a Bollywood film is not allowed to be shown there (Pakistan) then there are other sorts of problems that country possibly faces, so our film remains a factor that bonds," he said.

Saran said this during the interaction session with the audience after delivering the Eighth Pupul Jayakar Memorial Lecture here on 'Cultural Diplomacy: Leveraging India's Soft Power' organised by INTACH on the occasion of the World Heritage Day.

During his address, the former Ambassador of Nepal emphasised that cultural diplomacy still "plays second or even third fiddle" to traditional diplomacy.

"Cultural diplomacy has a much deeper significance than is captured in the associated semantics. We may not always be aware of this but culture provides the operating context for politics," he said.

He spoke of "cultural literacy" and "cultural empathy" as indispensable factors in acquiring a capacity to interpret actions by other states and navigate the inherent diversity that characterises inter-state relations.

He cited examples of events like festivals of India in Japan and Indonesia that he said, "brought out the power of cultural diplomacy" in building bridges across diverse cultures.

The former diplomat also cautioned about "hubris" that many may suffer about Indian culture's influence on other cultures, especially its neighbouring countries.

"Countries like Cambodia and other south-east Asian neighbours where Indian influences can be seen in their culture, but it doesn't mean we (Indians) should feel superior about it. They have been influenced by our culture, but they have added their unique local layers and colours to it, and we need to be humble about our cultural parentage," he said.

He emphasised that cultural diplomacy is all about "sharing and not showing".

"One has to have empathy and humility and respect for other cultures, which in turn helps understand our own culture better," he said.

On a question on Hindutva nationalism affecting diplomacy, he said, "I don't consider that monochromatic idea as culture. India's greatest strength is its diversity and its plurality and we have been accommodative of other cultures for ages. It is this quality that also attracts outsiders to India.
NASA has launched a new challenge for students to design an expandable object for astronauts that can be printed using the newest 3D printer onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

To celebrate the arrival of the first expandable habitat to the ISS and the launch of the first commercial 3D printer to space, the ASME Foundation and NASA have issued a brand new Future Engineers challenge.

The 'Think Outside the Box' challenge asks students to design an object for astronauts that can be printed within the bounds of the newest 3D printer on the space station (10cm x 10cm x 14 cm), but can be assembled or expanded to become larger than that box, NASA said.

In space exploration, scientists and engineers often strive to make more from less.

Smaller rocket payloads are needed to save cargo space and fuel, while sustainable technologies are needed to reduce, reuse and recycle what is brought to space.

NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Division pioneers new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities, and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond low-Earth orbit.

Two demonstrations of such pioneering space technologies include the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) and Made In Space's Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF).

BEAM is a module made up of layers of fabric that will be expanding after it is installed.

It is designed to test and validate expandable habitat technology, paving the way for future habitats on deep space missions.

AMF is a permanent, commercial manufacturing facility, offering entities conducting research on the space station the opportunity to purchase necessary hardware in space instead of launching it, NASA said.

Like its predecessor, the AMF 3D printer will also provide research that advances the long-term goal of developing off-planet manufacturing capabilities for destinations like the Moon or Mars.

The 'Think Outside the Box' challenge offers an exciting lineup of prizes. The junior and teen winners will receive a trip to Las Vegas for a VIP tour of Bigelow Aerospace and the finalists will win an expedition-worthy inflatable tent.

Students must submit their expandable designs by August 1.
Sher Bahadur Deuba is paying a week-long "personal" visit to India, his first after being elected the head of the main Opposition Nepali Congress amid a political crisis in the country over a six-month-long Madhesi agitation.

Deuba, 69, was elected president of the largest democratic party in Nepal in March during the party's 13th National General Convention, succeeding late premier Sushil Koirala.

Although a Deuba aide said the India visit beginning today was for medical check up of his wife and NC lawmaker Arzoo Deuba, it is widely speculated here that he may have some high-level meetings with Indian leaders during the visit.

There is no pre-scheduled meeting with any Indian leaders however, a senior Nepali Congress leader said.

This will be the three-time former prime minister's first visit to New Delhi after the promulgation of the Constitution last year.

Following the promulgation, Nepal has been gripped by a severe political crisis as disgruntled Madhesi parties, who have a stronghold in the southern plains, began an agitation alleging that their interests have been overlooked in the new charter.

Though the six-month agitation abruptly ended in February ahead of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's official visit to India, some Madhesi leaders appeared unsatisfied with the compromise offered by the government.

United Democratic Madhesh Front (UDMF), spearheading the campaign over more rights for Madhesis, has earlier announced a nationwide protest programme from tomorrow.

Previously, Madhesis, who are largely of Indian-origin, had staged violent protest campaigns and also imposed a trade blockade through the open border with India.

Deuba has been calling for a peaceful resolution to the Madhesi problem through dialogue.

Ahead of the visit, Deuba met senior Madhesi leaders at his residence on Friday and discussed their demands.

Earlier, speaking at a public function in the capital Kathmandu, Deuba said the main Opposition Nepali Congress will take a leading role in resolving the Madhesi issue.

Deuba is the 8th president of the NC. He served as prime minister of Nepal from 1995 to 1997, from 2001 to 2002, and from 2004 to 2005.
The National Human Rights Commission will be holding open hearing sessions and camps from April 21-23 in Patna for Bihar-related cases, and hear the complaints on the problems and grievances of Scheduled Castes.

NHRC's chairperson Justice H L Dattu will inaugurate the programme on April 21, and during the three days pending cases on human rights issues would be disposed.

During the open hearing sessions, members Justice Cyriac Joseph, Justice D Murugesan and S C Sinha, will hear petitioners of 67 cases in the presence of the senior officers concerned of the state government.

"These cases pertain to the grievances of Scheduled Castes and other oppressed sections of the society. Public notices were published in the newspapers in Bihar inviting complaints for 'Open Hearing'," NHRC said in a statement.

On the second day, the Commission will take up 21 pending cases for hearing in its camp sitting. These cases include, among others, the death of more than 100 people due to cancer in Darbhanga, rehabilitation of rescued bonded labourers, deaths due to electrocution and police encounters and health related matters.

On the concluding day, the Commission will hold a meeting with the representatives of the NGOs, active in the state, on the subject of human rights issues.

Thereafter, the issues emanating out of the two forums as well as in the meeting with the representatives of the NGOs, will be discussed with the senior administrative, police and prison officers of the state government, including the chief secretary, directors general of police, district magistrates and superintendents of police.

Some of the issues to be discussed include vacancies of doctors and para-medical staff in Public Health Centres and Community Health Centres and poor supply of medicines in hospitals, problems related to the implementation of social welfare schemes, MNREGA.

The Commission had sent its teams to East Champaran, Arrah, Jamui and Katihar districts of Bihar to monitor the delivery of some of the flagship social welfare programmes.
A trio of Nobel laureates will take part in a "humanitarian" visit to North Korea later this month, even as suspicions grow that Pyongyang is preparing to carry out a fifth nuclear test.

The Vienna-based Peace Foundation, which is organising the trip, said Monday it was an exercise in "silent diplomacy" that would focus on such topics as economic policy and medical development.

The three laureates from Norway, Britain and Israel, who won their Nobels for economics, medicine and chemistry, will give speeches and hold seminars with students at some of the North's elite schools, including Kim Il-Sung University.

"The events will not engage in rhetoric by making political statements," the foundation said in a press release.

"Listening to and engaging with the young generation of (North Korea) may be a gateway to establish a dialogue which could contribute to a wider understanding beyond and power play," added its founding Chairman, Uwe Morawetz, who has visited the North six times over the past two years to prepare the visit.

The trip is likely to be criticised in some quarters at a time, when the focus of the community is on tightening North Korea's diplomatic and economic isolation.

The April 29-May 6 dates mean the visit might also coincide with a fresh North Korean nuclear test.

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye confirmed on Monday that increased activity had been detected at the North's nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, suggesting an underground detonation could be imminent.

Numerous analysts have predicted Pyongyang may carry out a fifth test just before a rare ruling party congress next month, at which leader Kim Jong-Un is expected to take credit for pushing the country's nuclear weapons programme to new heights.

No formal date has been set for the congress, but South Korea's intelligence agency says it will likely be held May 7.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, triggering the most extensive UN sanctions to date aimed at cutting funding sources for its nuclear development.

The Nobel laureates will hold a press conference in Beijing after returning from their visit.
President Barack Obama will make another trip to Riyadh to consult Washington's Gulf allies on the crises in Yemen and Syria this week, but may not receive a royal welcome.

The king of Saudi Arabia and his regional allies have long been offended by the US president's tone and actions, and are now impatient to meet his eventual successor.

Even before coming to office, Obama had dubbed Saudi Arabia a "so-called ally" and had made clear that his diplomatic priorities would be in Asia not the Middle East.

He rubbed salt on those wounds by standing by as Saudi ally Hosni Mubarak was ousted in Egypt, then by his reluctance to back a similar revolt against Syria's Bashar al-Assad.

And, most crucially for the Sunni monarchies, he cut a deal with Shiite power Iran to end its economic and diplomatic isolation in return for curbs of its nuclear program.

So the public pomp of his visit on Wednesday to King Salman, will conceal much behind-the-scenes bitterness.

Then, on Thursday, he will face a stern audience at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit of leaders from Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Oman.

Last year, he brought the same monarchs together on his own home turf at Camp David outside Washington -- and the Saudi ruler pointedly refused the invitation.

Then, Obama had wanted to ensure the traditional US allies were on board with his plans to fight the Islamic State group, and reassure them on his outreach to Tehran.

But now with barely nine months of his time in office left -- and Iran taunting the Gulf with its support of Shiite militancy abroad -- he has little leverage over them.

"We don't know why he's coming," said Mustafa Alani, of the Gulf Research Centre, a body funded by a Saudi businessman.

Alani and other friends of Riyadh in Washington were deeply offended by Obama's remarks on US policy in their region in a major article in The Atlantic magazine.

In interviews for the article, published last month by reporter Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama rejected the idea that Saudi foe Iran is the source of all the region's problems.

Saudi officials have long insisted that Iran's sponsorship of Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Iraq and Syria and the Huthi rebels in Yemen is a threat to the whole world.
A meeting of oil-rich countries in Qatar that had been expected to boost crude prices by freezing production fell apart as Iran stayed home and vowed to increase its output despite threats by Saudi Arabia.

Oil prices, which hit a 12-year low in January by dipping under USD 30 a barrel, had risen above USD 40 in recent days, buoyed by the bullish talks surrounding the Doha summit.

But instead of a quick approval of a production freeze, the meeting of 18 oil-producing nations saw hours of debate and resembled the dysfunction of an unsuccessful meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in December that sent oil prices tumbling.

The fact that producers couldn't agree to a freeze, let alone a production cut, likely means oil prices will drop again as markets open today.

"Prices will trade lower. Maybe sharply lower," said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho Securities USA, noting the failure to reach agreement in Doha.

He noted that other factors were negatively impacting prices: US crude oil storage remaining at all -time highs, Iran increasing production, and Libya looming on the horizon to boost output.

Speaking to journalists after the summit, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, Qatar's energy and industry minister, tried to say the lack of a decision showed officials believed "the fundamentals of the market are generally improving."



However, he largely dodged the questions about whether another special summit will be called before OPEC's next meeting in June and whether Iran had anything to do with the breakdown of the talks.

"We of course respect their position and ... We still don't know how the future will unroll but it was a sovereign decision by Iran," said al-Sada, who is serving as OPEC's president. "The freeze could be more effective definitely if major producers, be it from OPEC members like Iran and others, as well as non-OPEC members, are included in the freeze."



Sunday's gathering grew out of a surprise Doha meeting in February between Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, in which they pledged to cap their crude output at January levels if other producers did the same.

The idea of a freeze and not a cut initially looked more palatable to producers already suffering after oil's dramatic fall since the summer of 2014, when prices were above $100 a barrel.

Production continues to rise as countries try to make up the difference. Ahead of Sunday's meeting, Iraq boosted its production to record territory of over 4 million barrels a day in March, and Kuwait pumped 3 million barrels a day with hopes of reaching 4 million a day by 2020.
Opposition parties have started acknowledging that the Samajwadi Party government has worked for Uttar Pradesh's development, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today claimed.

"I am happy they have started acknowledging that SP has worked for development...Though to remain in debate they make other claims like the works being undertaken by the present government were started by them," he said after the cabinet meeting here.

Yadav was referring to BSP supremo Mayawati's claims during Ambedkar Jayanti programme here on April 14 that the Agra-Lucknow Expressway and Lucknow Metro Project were started by her government.

"The manner in which SP government works is different. We work for the people, for connecting cities and villages. As far as their Noida Expressway is concerned, lathis were used, farmers died and there were irregularities in land acquisition," he said.

The land parcels given by the previous government in the project were so huge that they could have ensured expressways all over the state, the Chief Minister said.

On the Centre's report that power rostering in the state this year was more than previous years, he said "it is very difficult to understand what these Delhiwalas say. They got so many Lok Sabha seats from UP. But when we ask them to increase quota, they ask us to purchase power."



"We are working for improving power scenario like increasing production, transmission and other works", he said.

In the cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister said clearance has been given for raising loan from HUDCO for the Agra-Lucknow Expressway and two tehsils, one each in Etawah and Sitapur, have been selected for developing as model tehsils.

Asserting that solving water crisis in Bundelkhand region remains top priority, Yadav said "I went to Mahoba, Chtrakoot recently and will visit Lalitpur tomorrow. Besides giving food items we are also taking steps to ensure water supply."



"There will be no dearth of funds for ensuring water for people and animals. Money has been released for handpumps besides arranging water tankers for the villages", he said.
Security agencies have arrested over 100 suspects linked to dreaded Chotu gang in southern Punjab province in Pakistan, as military helicopter gunships pounded the hideout of the group that has been holding 24 hostages.

"We have arrested over 100 suspects in ongoing operation against the notorious gang," Punjab Police chief Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera told reporters.

"A list of police officials who had allegedly facilitated the gangsters has also been prepared and they will face exemplary punishment if found involved," he said.

At least seven policemen, mostly Elite Force commandos, and as many gangsters, have been killed in the shootout so far since the operation started about two weeks ago in Kacha area of Rajanpur district, some 400 kilometers from Lahore.

The army was called in to join the operation against the gangsters after police failed to flush them out. The army carried out intense shelling through helicopter gunships yesterday and used drone cameras and satellite technology for the surveillance of the area.

The hardened criminals - having backing of local sardars, parliamentarians and some banned militant sectarian outfits - are holding 24 hostages, mostly policemen, and are demanding 'safe passage' in exchange for their release.

The army had given today's afternoon deadline to the gangsters to free the captives and surrender.

The helicopter gunships today also pounded their hideout on the island at Indus River area between Rajanpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts of Punjab.

A state of emergency has been declared in hospitals in Rajanpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts of Punjab.

The security forces moved forward and army commandos used smoke grenades to reach the criminals' hideouts.

"The army will launch a full scale offensive anytime," a senior Punjab police officer said.

Sukhera said the safe release of the hostage policemen was the top priority of those involved in the operation.

The operation which is called Zarb-i-Aahan has miserably failed as the hardened criminals are taking advantage of the thick forest in the island.

The official said the gangsters left their forward positions and retreated into the dense forest when the security forces marched towards the island.

The security agencies picked up six Baloch sardars in Rajanpur for backing the gang and other criminals. Some local parliamentarians are also said to have links with them.
Visiting Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela told a Japanese agency today that his country would cooperate with an OECD initiative to share tax information in the wake of the "Panama Papers" scandal.

Varela said in an interview with Kyodo that Panama has "decided to join the common reporting standards," referring to the measures on exchanging financial account information with tax authorities set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Panama is scrambling to avert redesignation as a tax haven that assist money laundering after the disclosure of the offshore dealings of many of the world's wealthy, famous and infamous in the so-called "Panama Papers" revelations.

The scandal, which has already brought down the Icelandic prime minister and Spain's industry minister, came when millions of documents covering nearly 40 years of business were leaked from the archives of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

"The OECD's technical team is coming to Panama this week and we are going to meet and find ways to come to an agreement," said Varela, who plans to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his visit to Japan.

OECD head Angel Gurria said last week that Isabel De Saint Malo, vice president of the Central American country, had called him to express willingness to cooperate with his organisation.

The Panamanian vice president, who is also the foreign minister, told AFP earlier this month that her country would deepen talks with the OECD on sharing tax information.
State Minorities Commission (Andhra Pradesh And Telangana) today said it has filed a petition in Hyderabad High Court seeking a CBI inquiry into the alleged encroachment of Waqf Board properties in the two states.

According to Abid Rasool Khan, Chairman of SMC, the commission has moved the court after it failed to get response from both the state governments on the issue of CBI inquiry.

"Thousands of crores of rupees worth of Waqf properties have been encroached upon in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. We have written several letters to both the governments seeking NOC for CBI inquiry. They (both the states) have not given their consent so far. We had no option but to knock court's door," Khan told reporters.

He said the high court has posted the matter for June 8.
In a bid to add colour to Biju Patnaik's birth centenary celebration, the legendary leader's son and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today requested the Centre to organise air shows by the Indian Air Force personnel in the state.

"This will not only provide a rare opportunity to the people of Odisha to witness the grand spectacle, but will also inspire the youths of the state to join the Indian Air Force," Patnaik wrote to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.

The Odisha government is undertaking an year-long celebration starting from March 5, to make the birth centenary year of the ex-chief minister Late Biju Patnaik.

"As you may be aware, late Biju Patnaik was an aviator par excellence, known for his daring display of courage in evacuating stranded Britishers in Burma to safety during the second World War," Patnaik mentioned in the letter.

Biju Patnaik also made a daring flight to Indonesia in 1948 for rescuing two key Indonesian Independence leaders from a remote hideout and flew them to India, eluding the Dutch colonial rulers, he said.

These daring missions which Biju Patnaik undertook, first with the RIAF and later with Indian National Airways, earned him the sobriquet of "Daredevil", Patnaik said.

"The stories of his (Biju) adventurous life still continue to inspire the youth of Odisha," Patnaik said.

In context of the birth centenary of Late Biju Patnaik, the Indian Air Force is requested to display Surya Kiran AT, Sarang and Akash Ganga performance in December 2016 over the vast stretch of Kathjodi river bed at Cuttack, the birth place of the legendary leader, Patnaik said.

"Surya Kiran AT and Akash Ganga performance had been conducted by the Indian Air Force in January 2010 at the same spot during National Youth Festival which was witnessed by about three lakh people of the twin city of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. All logistic support for these air shows will be provided by the state government," the chief minister said.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today firmly conveyed India's reservations to Chinese leaders over Beijing blocking its efforts to get Pakistan-based JeM head Masood Azhar banned by the UN and sought clarification on it as well as China's projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

In a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan, Parrikar said that "India attaches highest priority to relations with China and was committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China".

While expressing India's wish to engage China closely, he firmly conveyed New Delhi's reservations over Beijing's move in the UN to block bid to get Jaish-e-Muhammad chief banned.

"We expressed what happened in the UN is not in the right direction and they have to take a common line on terrorism which is in the interests of India and China," Parrikar later told the Indian media here.

He said the Chinese officials in response noted India's concerns.

Last month, China had vetoed India's bid to get Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN Sanctions Committee, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

India believes Azhar is the mastermind behind several attacks in the country, including the terror strike on an air base in Pathankot early this year.

"We have made our stand very clear on India's reservation in regard to China's activities in PoK" where Pakistan and China are building a USD 46 billion Economic Corridor linking the two countries, the defence minister said.

The Chinese officials in turn explained that it is an economic project and not aimed against India.

"Basically our concerns were noted by them and I expect them to act," Parrikar said, adding that more engagement between the two countries would address such issues in future, while immediate response cannot be expected.

He later met China's highest military official Gen Fan Changlong, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, which is the overall commanding body of the 2.3 million strong military. It is headed by President Xi Jinping.

The defence minister would meet Premier Li Keqiang tomorrow and later visit Chengdu, the headquarters of recently integrated western command military which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.
A 27-year-old Patel youth, who was actively involved in the quota agitation here ended his life allegedly by consuming poisonous substance "out of shock" upon learning about the police action against Patel quota leaders in Mehsana, claim Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leaders.

However, police said that it is a matter of investigation on why the young man committed suicide.

Bhavin Khunt (27), who was associated with quota body PAAS in the city, committed suicide by consuming poisonous substance at his residence in Puna Gam area here last evening, said Surat PAAS convener Nikhil Savani.

According to Savani, Khunt was in deep shock after he learned about the violent clashes between police and Patel agitators at Mehsana, where Patel community members had gathered for a 'Jail Bharo' agitation.

"Khunt was actively involved with PAAS. He was deeply hurt when he learned about police action against Patel agitators in Mehsana yesterday. Out of pain and shock, he consumed poisonous pills at around 7 PM yesterday at his house in Puna Gam area," said Savani.

"He was then rushed to a private hospital in Varachha area, where he died during midnight. Khunt was a native of Babra taluka of Amreli district and settled in Surat since many years. He was into textile marketing," said Savani, adding that Khunt's last rites were performed today afternoon.

Puna Gam police lodged a case in this regard and started further inquiry into the matter.

Though PAAS claims that Khunt ended his life out of shock, police have refused to accept this argument.

According to police inspector of Puna Gam, Vinod Patel, it is matter of investigation as to why Khunt ended his life.

"PAAS claims that Khunt was in shock because of the violence in Mehsana. PAAS also claims that he was harassed by police. Since Khunt was never detained by police, there is no question of harassment. We are yet to find out the exact reasons that led Khunt to commit suicide," said Patel.
The Gujarat bandh call given by Patel quota agitators failed to evoke much response in the state and passed off peacefully barring in Mehsana, where a mob torched a minister's vacant house.

A state committee of ministers, formed to negotiate with the quota agitators, held a "fruitful and positive" meeting in Gandhinagar over the demands with several leaders of the Patel community, who are working as mediators. Another round of talks will soon be held to arrive at a solution.

Police had made elaborate security arrangements in view of the state-wide bandh call given by the Sardar Patel Group (SPG) demanding reservation and immediate release of their jailed leaders. Schools, colleges, public transport and the normal life were not affected by the bandh call.

"No major incident took place today. We have deployed adequate number of policemen and paramilitary forces across Gujarat today to ensure safety and security of citizens," DGP in-charge P P Pandey said.

Barring few minor incidents, the situation remained calm throughout the day, he said.

The curfew imposed yesterday in Mehsana town after violent clashes between protesters and police, was lifted this morning and the bandh call largely went off peacefully, although Gujarat Minister of State for Home Rajni Patel's vacant home in Mehsana town was set on fire by the Patel agitators, police said.

"Unidentified men stormed into the empty house and set ablaze the furniture and other belongings. The mob also hurled stones on fire tenders trying to reach there. This is the same house which was set on fire in August last year during agitation related violence," said an official of control room.

According to police, Patel has his official house in Gandhinagar, but sometimes visit his Mehsana residence.

The ban on mobile Internet services imposed in some towns for a day yesterday, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Mehsana, was till midnight.

"We had lifted curfew in Mehsana at 6 am as the situation was under control. No reports of untoward incident came during the bandh call. Mobile Internet services will remain off in the city till this midnight," Mehsana District Collector Lochan Sehra told PTI.
The spectre of demolition looming large over nearly 200-year-old Patna Collectorate has brought back memories of the lost colonial-era Dak Bungalow, with experts saying the Dutch-era buildings should not meet the fate suffered by the iconic British-period retreat in the 90s.

"If the demolition goes as planned, this was the last World Heritage Day the Collectorate saw today. Even the thought of it scares us. But, we are hoping the government would listen to our plea, and this priceless heritage of our city would be handed over to posterity unlike the Dak Bungalow," says Rajiv Soni, a Kolkata-based photographer who grew up in Patna.

The Dak Bungalow, a late 19th century resting lodge in the heart of the city, built for weary travelling officials, was an architectural icon with slanted red-tiled roof and high ceilings fitted with chimneys. It was dismantled in the 1990s to make way for an "inelegant" high-rise complex.

The Collectorate's old Record Room is currently housed in the Dutch-era buildings, with British period structures added subsequently around them, including the iconic Meeting Hall of the District Board, Patna, erected in 1938, known for its flat Corinthian columns and motifs on the walls inside.

While the Dak Bungalow's dismantling had led to minor protests, the Collectorate's impending demolition has galavanised the civil society under one umbrella led by heritage body INTACH.

"We learnt nothing from Dak Bungalow's demolition. It was a piece of history, a last surviving landmark of that era, and with it being razed, the history of that era was also buried along.

"Despite historicity, neither the Dak Bungalow was protected under either the ASI or the state archaeology nor is the Collectorate. It's a huge lacuna in our legislation which is exploited by the government and the builders," noted historian Surendra Gopal told PTI.

"We must not repeat the mistakes of our past and save this Dutch-era heritage for the future generations. Removing it would only create a gap in our understanding of the city's history, which unfortunately is not as well documented as it deserves to be," he said.

Gopal is among the several hundreds of citizens who have written a joint petition to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar through INTACH's Patna Chapter, appealing to him to spare the dismantling and instead restore the old buildings to their original glory.

The Dutch government has also appealed to Kumar to restore it and list it under the state archaeology department.

While the Dak Bungalow may have lost the battle to the onslaught of modernity long ago, its legend has survived, so much so that the new Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Bhawan that replaced it is still referred to by many as 'Dak Bungalow'.

The city's busiest traffic intersection is still called as the 'Dakbungalow Chouraha', underlining that the British-era retreat might have disappeared from Patna's landscape but not from public consciousness.

In his 60s, Soni, who curated an exhibition here a few



years ago called 'Patna Kaleidoscope', which displayed some of the historic and rarest buildings of the city, many of which had disappeared by then and few others vanished later, says, "it is scary to think the wrecking ball could hit the Collectorate anytime soon."



"We made mistake with Dak Bungalow, but instead of learning from it, we are preparing to commit even a greater blunder. So many beautiful buildings in Patna lost battle to real estate for want of heritage legislation. This World Heritage Day (April 18) is a like a cruel joke for our city. Its heritage is dying," he rues.

According to Anunaya Chaubey, former principal of the College of Arts and Crafts, Patna and a noted artist, "Jim Corbett was posted at Mokama, a town on the outskirts of Patna during the Raj days, and he had stayed at the Dak Bungalow."



Legendary British author E M Forster, while researching for his landmark work 'A Passage to India', visited Bankipore (Patna's civil station) in 1913, where the New Capital was coming up after the separation of Bihar & Orissa Province in 1912.

"He is said to have stayed there and at the historic Bankipore Club (established in 1865) during his Bihar sojourn," he said.

Professor of English at Patna University, Shanker Dutt, recalling the Dak Bungalow years says, "It had wonderful high ceilings and slanting roof, a very unique architecture, which should have been preserved as a specimen."



"It was run by the District Board Patna and had bright red tiles on top. The boarding charge was a few paisas and there was a nice khansamah (cook), and we used to savour the food there. If only it had survived the ravages of time," he rued.

Architect J K Lall who was hired by the District Board to replace the old retreat with a multi-storied complex, says, "In the hindsight, it looks a big mistake. Even we feel guilty now."



"That time real estate was coming up in Patna, and we thought of these new projects as opportunities for us, but the Dak Bungalow, I have now realised, it should have been preserved...But, I had taken the stone plaque that carried the year of its construction and deposited it at the District Board office," he said.

Officials at the District Board, when contacted said, they have no information about the stone or its whereabouts. In a ironic twist of fate, the District Board building itself is now facing demolition.

Lall, currently the convener of INTACH Patna Chapter is heading a civil society-driven campaign to save the Dutch-era Collectorate, which has received support from several quarters.

"I am making amends for the past mistake, hope by saving the Collectorate, we could mitigate our guilt," he said.

The INTACH in its petition has also appealed to the Bihar government to enact a legislation to preserve heritage buildings not falling in the purview of either the ASI or the state archaeology.
Leading Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, embroiled in an uproar for his apparent joke about the rape and murder of an Australian woman, came under fire today from the church and Canberra's envoy but remained defiant.

Duterte, who promises mass killings of suspected criminals if elected next month, has faced a storm of criticism since a video showed him making crude remarks about a female Australian missionary who was raped and killed during a Philippine prison riot in 1989.

The video uploaded on YouTube shows Duterte, who was mayor of the southern city of Davao where the riot broke out, telling a crowd of laughing supporters: "I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first."



The head of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, joined a chorus of people criticising Duterte.

Villegas posted the video on social media, telling the faithful: "Please watch the video and judge for yourself. I will keep my own judgement to myself."



In response to Villegas, Duterte - who is still mayor of Davao - issued a statement today saying: "All the while I was doing my duties for humanity. And now they're castigating me for my mouth?"



Asked if the bishop might be warning people not to vote for him, a defiant Duterte said: "Correct."



Duterte warned he would not change his coarse language even though critics say it shows he is unfit for the presidency.

"If it is not acceptable to the cultured people, let it be. If it means my defeat, so be it," he said.

Australian ambassador Amanda Gorely joined the critics, saying in a statement on Twitter: "Rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialised. Violence against women and girls is unacceptable anytime, anywhere."



Duterte, who leads in the latest opinion survey of presidential candidates in the May 9 elections, has refused to apologise for his remarks, saying he was merely relating a "narrative" of events during the 1989 riot and not making a joke.

Many Filipinos have embraced Duterte for his promise to get tough on crime. He openly boasts in his speeches of the extra-judicial killing of suspected criminals by vigilantes during his time in Davao.
A petition was filed today in the Delhi High Court seeking exemption for advocates from the ongoing odd-even scheme and also against imposition of Rs 2000 as fine for violation without proper amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act.

The petition alleged that the April 11 notification by the Delhi government on the fortnight-long odd-even scheme, which came into force from April 15, was "bad" and against the law.

"The impugned notification has been issued ignoring the problems, rights and privileges of legal fraternity despite there being a specific direction by this court. It is evident that the said policy has been passed in haste without carrying out studies/research in relation to the work, schedule of professionals," the petition, filed by advocate Rajiv Khosla, said.

Khosla, who is also the President of Delhi High Court Bar Association, said "lawyers are entitled to be exempted from the application of the odd-even scheme as the lawyers assist the courts in guarding the personal liberty and civil rights of citizens..."



The plea also claimed that the Delhi Government "cannot arbitrarily" fix a fine of Rs 2,000 without appropriate amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act 1988.

It said that data of air pollution during the first phase of odd-even scheme in January this year should have been analysed by a government-appointed agency before starting the second phase.

In its April 11 notification, the city government had said violation of odd-even rules will attract a fine of Rs 2,000 in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 194 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
In his maiden attempt to enter the Tamil Nadu Assembly, PMK's chief ministerial candidate and Dharmapuri Lok Sabha MP Anbumani Ramadoss will contest from Pennagaram constituency which falls under his Parliamentary seat.

Anbumani, son of PMK founder Ramadoss began his political career as Union Health Minister in the UPA I regime (2004-09) as a constituent of the Congress-led alliance. A doctor by profession, he was a Rajya Sabha MP during 2004-10.

"People elected me against the muscle and money power in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and people of the region now want me to contest from Pennagaram," he told reporters here.

He claimed that PMK was the "credible alternative" to both AIADMK and DMK.

In a tweet, he said, "I assure to provide free, compulsory and high quality education to all children in Tamil Nadu."



Last year, the Supreme Court had declined to entertain his plea to quash charges against him in corruption cases.

The CBI had charged the former Minister with illegally granting renewal of approval for admissions to MBBS course in Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital in Bareilly, and allowing Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre in Indore to proceed with admissions without sufficient faculty.

PMK today named 90 candidates, including Anbumani and it has already announced nominees for 117 constituencies. The party is expected to name the rest of its nominees soon.

Party president G K Mani will contest from Mettur while PMK general secretary Vadivel Ravanan will be trying his luck from Vandavasi (Reserved) constituency.

PMK is contesting all the 234 constituencies alone. The party was part of the NDA during the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
With Italian lessons and strolls around Rome, the 12 Syrian asylum seekers Pope Francis brought back with him from Lesbos are settling into new lives, their hosts said today.

The three Muslim families are being housed temporarily by the Saint'Egidio religious community in the Rome district of Trastevere while they await longer-term accommodation being prepared for them in the Vatican, community spokesman Maximiliano Signifredi told AFP.

"Yesterday they had their first Italian lessons. They have been going for walks around Trastevere, a new life is opening up in front of them," Signifredi said.

"Each of the three families has been assigned a small flat with everything they need while they are awaiting the more spacious apartments the Vatican is getting ready for them."



In a dramatic gesture designed to highlight the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving on the southern shores of Europe, Francis on Sunday flew back from Lesbos with the 12 Syrians.

The three couples, who have six children between them, were plucked from a detention camp on the Greek island to start new lives, more than 1,400 miles (nearly 2,300 kilometres) from their homes in Damascus and Deir Ezzor, a city in eastern Syria controlled by the Islamic State group.

Francis said on the plane back from Lesbos that the families had been chosen out of some 3,000 people at the camp simply because their paperwork was sufficiently in order to rapidly conclude an accord on their transfer with the Greek and Italian governments.

"I didn't make a choice between Christians and Muslims. All refugees are children of God," Francis told reporters.

The families are expected to seek asylum in Italy rather than through the tiny Vatican city state.

One of the Syrians, a 51-year-old teacher from Deir Ezzor, has said the families, who had planned to try and get to Germany via Greece, do not know what awaits them.

"We don't know whether we will start over in Europe or whether, one day, we will be able to return to a Syria free of war and violence," the teacher, identified only as Ramy, told Italian media at the weekend.

The Vatican was already housing two Syrian families in line with Francis's instruction to every Catholic parish in Europe to take in at least one.
The Bombay High Court today extended by a week the interim protection from arrest to actor-producer Rahul Raj Singh, booked for allegedly abetting the suicide of his girlfriend and TV star Pratyusha Banerjee.

The court was also informed that a special public prosecutor has been appointed in the case.

Justice Mridula Bhatkar, hearing Singh's anticipatory bail plea, granted him further liberty on the same terms and conditions imposed on April 12 when he got interim protection for the first time.

The court had earlier asked Singh to appear before Bangur Nagar Police Station in suburban Goregaon (where the case against him has been filed) everyday from April 13 to April 18 between 11 AM and 1 PM. The judge had also directed that in case Rahul is arrested, he should be released on a bond of Rs 30,000.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government, in a letter, informed the high court it has appointed Nilesh Pawaskar as the special public prosecutor in the case but a notification in this regard is yet to be issued.

Government Pleader Usha Kejriwal told the high court there was hardly any progress in the investigation because the accused (Singh) was hospitalised and discharged just two days ago. She also claimed the accused was not cooperating in the probe.

The high court later deferred the hearing on the pre- arrest bail plea to April 25 and until then extended the interim relief given to Singh.

Police had filed a report last week alleging Singh, who was staying with Pratyusha at a flat in Goregaon, used to assault her. He used to regularly borrow money from the actress and also withdrew money from her bank account, which is why she committed suicide, according to the report.

The 24-year-old "Balika Badhu" fame actress was found hanging at her residence in Goregaon on April 1.

On the basis of a complaint filed by her mother, Singh was booked under IPC Sections related to abetment of suicide, criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt.

Singh underwent treatment for alleged depression at a hospital in Borivali for nearly two weeks since April 3.
Brazilian legislators pushing to oust President appeared to have the upper hand, with a wide margin voting to impeach her and cut short a term running through 2018.

More than two hours into voting, the pro-impeachment camp was leading 254 to 87. If 342 of the Chamber of Deputies' 513 members vote in favor, the proceedings move to the Senate for a possible trial. If senators voted to hold a trial that would suspend Rousseff and hand over the top job to Vice President Michel Temer.

A close ally of the president lamented that many of her colleagues had "betrayed" Rousseff.

"It was a herd effect, and many (legislators) betrayed us. It was a double defeat," said Brazilian Community Party legislator Orlando Silva, a close supporter of Rousseff.

After more than 40 hours of debate that began Friday, legislators in Congress' lower house began voting one by one yesterday evening, the culmination of months of political wrangling that exposed deep polarisation in Latin America's largest nation and most powerful economy.

Eduardo Cunha, the house speaker leading the impeachment push, called deputies individually, giving them time to speak before casting their vote. After each vote, both cheers and boos erupted while legislators looked up at a board keeping score.

Luiz Carlos Hauly, a deputy in the Social Democratic Party, the main opposition party, said Rousseff had to go. "In Europe they change their government when it doesn't have the majority," he said. "This administration has no majority. It doesn't have the means to govern."



Simone Morgado, a member of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement, said impeachment proponents were trying to derail a democratically elected president.

"Given that Dilma didn't commit any crime, like so many others in this chamber, which has no shame, I'm voting 'no!'," she said.

The extraordinary session came as the government is paralysed and the population sharply divided, with friends and foes of Rousseff dismissing each other as "putchists" and "thieves."



Outside the legislature, waves of pro- and anti-impeachment demonstrators flooded into the capital of Brasilia from across the huge nation. A metal wall more than a kilometre long was installed to keep the rival sides safely apart.

People on both sides watched the score on large movie screens, cheering or booing in accordance with their political leanings.
Slamming the "tendency" to project B R Ambedkar as merely a Dalit leader, a pro-RSS journal said he was a nationalist who consciously kept himself away from western thoughts, organisations and influences.

Recalling the works of Ambedkar, an article in pro-RSS publication 'Panchjanya', said the father of the Constitution challenged American writer Katherine Mayo when she argued that while the Hindu religion was replete with social discriminations, Islam offered space for brotherhood.

"When Katherine Mayo wrote in a book that the Hindu religion was ridden with the evils of caste discrimination while Islam allowed brotherhood, B R Ambedkar challenged her saying Islam too was not free from slavery and casteism," the article said.

It further goes on to quote Ambedkar on the nature and scope of Hindu religion vis-a-vis Islam to argue how Ambedkar thought Hinduism was a more flexible religion than Islam when it came to acceptance of inherent evils and the need to eradicate them.

Quoting Ambedkar, the article said, "Ambedkar clearly said, Hindu religion is afflicted with evils but the good part about Hindus is that within this society there are people who acknowledge their weaknesses and proactively work to eradicate their evils. However Muslims don't acknowledge they are afflicted by evils and therefore don't try to eradicate these evils."



The article also refers to the 10th chapter of Ambedkar's book titled, "Bharat Vibhajan ya Pakistan (1940)" to claim that Ambedkar compares the Hindu and Muslim societies at length and uses empirical evidence and data to analyses the status of women in Hindu and Muslim societies.

Earlier in the article published in the pro-RSS journal, a reference has been made to the "Hyderabad incident" (read the suicide by Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula) to say that "Since some time now a clear conspiracy is underway to dilute the legacy of Ambedkar and diminish his personality by ignoring the core of his messages and philosophy".

"Dalits across Indis should stay warned of this tendency to diminish the leader and to use his name to spread lies. This serious tendency was best evidenced in the Hyderabad case," the article said, adding while Ambedkar was more seriously concerned about the welfare of Scheduled Castes, he was a national leader who always kept western influences at bay in his pursuit to keep national interest supreme.

Ambedkar along with several of his followers had renounced the Hindu religion and embraced Buddhism on October 14, 1956 in Nagpur.
Some thirty odd bankers led by State Bank of India, which are staring at heavy losses to the tune of Rs 12,000 crore from the unfolding food scam in Punjab, today discussed all options, including to stop lending to the state government.

The decision was taken by a consortium of banks which held a meeting in New Delhi today to take stock of the development wherein they have found foodgrain worth Rs 20,000 crore are missing from the FCI godowns in Punjab, which the state claimed to have procured after taking loans from the banks.

"Stopping further lending to the Punjab government is an option we have discussed if the state or the central agency Food Corporation do not resolve the issue at the earliest," a senior official of a public sector lender told PTI while refusing to offer more details.

He said the meeting was attended by GM-level officials and was held in the national capital.

According to media reports, foodgrain worth Rs 20,000 crore procured by the Punjab government has gone missing from its godowns.

The RBI has asked banks to make 15 per cent provision on loans of Rs 12,000 crore which can result in total provisions of up to Rs 3,000 crore on account of the scam. Banks have been asked to make 7.5 per cent each provisions in the March and June quarters.

SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya at a function earlier in the day said her bank has been asked by RBI to make adequate provisions. But she too refused to share more details.

Minister of State for Finance Minister Jayant Sinha said in Mumbai that the Centre is trying to resolve the issue. "We are working with the regulators as well as the banks and various other government agencies to ensure the matter with respect to the food stocks in Punjab is satisfactorily resolved."



"The issue raised by the Reserve Bank is correct from the standpoint of the regulator. Banks' explanation is also correct. We need to find a right solution for the issue."



Around 30 banks have a total exposure of Rs 40,000 crore to the Punjab government, which procures 40 per cent of the Rs 1-trillion worth of foodgrains annually on behalf of the FCI/Centre. Annual food credit is worth Rs 1 trillion.

The issue erupted after the RBI asked 30-odd lenders to set aside money as provisions for non-performing assets as foodgrain was found to be missing from the state godowns.

Banks are claiming loans to states are sovereign in nature and therefore no question of default and thus no need for provisions but RBI is not apparently ready to buy the argument.

However, the Punjab government denies the reports and has said all stocks procured over the years have been duly accounted for.
State Bank of India Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya today said the RBI has asked the top lender to make provisions for possible losses on account of the unfolding foodgrain scam in Punjab.

"Yes," Bhattacharya told reporters when asked whether the regulator has asked the government-run bank to make provisions in the case. However, she did not elaborate.

Asked about the banks' total exposure to the Punjab government, she said "I don't have the exact numbers. We need to get those."



Earlier in the day, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said the government is working to resolve the issue.

"We are working with the regulators as well as the banks and various other government agencies to ensure the matter with respect to the food stocks in Punjab is satisfactorily resolved," Sinha told reporters.

According to reports, foodgrain procured by the Punjab government worth Rs 20,000 crore is missing from the state godowns.

However, the Punjab government denies the reports and has said all stocks procured over the years have been duly accounted for.

Some 30-odd banks, led by SBI, had extended loans of Rs 12,000 crore to the state for its foodgrain procurement programme.
Actress Shriya Pilgaonkar is overwhelmed that the audience has stood up and took notice of her acting in "Fan", which features Shah Rukh Khan in double role.

Daughter of talented actors Sachin and Supriya Pilgaonkar, Shriya plays the role of Shah Rukh's love interest in the film.

"The reaction is overwhelming. Honestly, I did not want to have any expectation because it was a small role and we had two Shah Rukhs in the film but I am so happy that everyone took notice and has acknowledged my performance," Shriya told PTI.

Directed by Maneesh Sharma, "Fan" features Shah Rukh as an obsessive fan Gaurav and the object of his obsession, superstar Aryan Khanna.

Shriya was auditioning for other projects for Yash Raj Films, and not specifically for "Fan", when she got a call that she has been selected for the part, for which nearly 750 girls had auditioned.

"When I got to know I will be starring opposite Shah Rukh, I was speechless. One part of me wanted to scream 'yes yes yes!' and the other part knew it was a big decision and wanted to understand it," Shriya said.

"Maneesh was very honest about the part. He told me it is not a typical debut, it is a small role. But I knew whatever screen time I had, I needed to make the most of it," she added.

The young actress made her Marathi film debut in 2013 with "Ekulti Ek" which was directed by her father.

For "Fan", Shriya was paired for the first time opposite a big star but she was not nervous as five years ago, the actress had a chance to meet with Shah Rukh while working on a short film and the ice was broken.

Having worked with the 50-year-old actor now, Shriya bonded with Shah Rukh over books, long conversations and got to know the real person behind the superstar.

"During the film, I was able to witness the process of why Shah Rukh Khan is Shah Rukh Khan. When we were shooting in Delhi in a real locality, people were chanting his name so much that we could barely hear our dialogues.

"It was a very special experience to see how a superstar takes everything around him-- the euphoria and madness-- and still finds the silence to perform. I got to know the person behind the star. He is definitely the chosen one."



Shriya shot "Fan" along with her French film, "Un plus Une". Interestingly, the actress has also appeared in her parents cult show "Tu Tu Main Main" in the role of the neighbourhood boy Bittu.

Having made her debut in Marathi, Hindi and French films, the actress quips she does not know which language she will make her next debut in, but wants to sharpen her skills and also concentrate on directing short films.
Two members of a Turkish nationalist youth group were detained after trying to put a sack over the head of a US soldier at an air base in southern Turkey, according to Turkish media reports.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported yesterday that two members of the right-wing group, Yalcin Semir Akarsu and Cenk Kizilirmak, were placed under house arrest after the incident that occurred Saturday at the Incirlik air base in Adana province.

There was no immediate reaction from US or Turkish officials. Turkey's private Dogan agency says Kizilirmak filmed his friend as he chased the soldier.

The nationalist Turkish Youth Union posted footage on Twitter in which the man identified by Dogan as Akarsu is heard as saying, "You put a sack over our soldiers' heads in 2003. You are responsible for that and for the terrorism in our country."



He was referring to an incident in July 2003 in which a group of Turkish special forces operating in northern Iraq were arrested by US soldiers and led away with hoods over their heads to be interrogated.

They were released after 60 hours in response to protests by top Turkish leaders, but what became known as "the Hood event" was seen by many Turks as a deliberate insult.

Akarsu also was referring to the recent series of bombings in Turkey since last summer, some claimed by Kurdish militants and others blamed by the authorities on the Islamic State group.

"You cannot leave your base, but we can come to your prison and put this sack (on your head)," he said.

Incirlik is a critical base in the fight by the US-led coalition against the IS, and includes strike aircraft, drones and refueling planes.

Last month, the State Department and Pentagon ordered the families of US diplomats and military personnel Tuesday to leave posts in southern Turkey due to "increased threats from terrorist groups" in the country.
Rescuers in Ecuador clawed through collapsed buildings today as they scrambled to find survivors of a powerful earthquake that killed 272 people, injured thousands, and caused widespread coastal destruction.

President Rafael Correa said the death toll will "certainly" rise in the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck the small, oil-producing South American nation late Saturday.

The quake, the most powerful to strike Ecuador in decades, shattered hotels and homes along its Pacific coast popular with tourists and reduced several towns to rubble.

More than 2,000 people were injured as structures tumbled during the quake or its dozens of aftershocks.

The capital Quito, farther inland, escaped with cracked walls and power outages, and the country's strategic oil facilities appeared unscathed, officials said.

Ecuador's Foreign Minister Guillaume Long said via Twitter that experienced rescuers were arriving from Switzerland, Spain, and other Latin American countries including Mexico and Peru.

In Portoviejo, a city 15 kilometres from the coast, the temblor knocked down walls in a prison, allowing 100 inmates to escape.

Some were recaptured or returned later, but police were hunting for the others, Justice Minister Ledy Zuniga tweeted.

Elsewhere in hard-hit Portoviejo, the stench of decaying bodies began to fill the tropical air as rescuers raced to find survivors.

"We have already recovered three dead and we believe there are 10 to 11 people still trapped," said one worker digging through the debris of what used to be a six-story hotel called El Gato.

Officials have declared a state of emergency in the worst-hit provinces, and a national state of "exception," both of which suspend certain civil rights and liberties to allow security forces and officials to react faster.

President Correa visited the disaster zone yesterday after cutting short an official trip to the Vatican.

He said the latest toll of 272 dead "will certainly rise and probably in a considerable way" in the hours ahead.

"There are still lots of bodies in the rubble," he warned. "These are extremely difficult times, the biggest tragedy in the last 67 years."



Correa made reference to the August 1949 earthquake near the central Ecuadoran city of Ambato that killed some 5,000 people and caused widespread destruction.

Among the worst-hit towns in the late Saturday quake was Pedernales, where Mayor Gabriel Alcivar estimated there were up to 400 more dead yet to be confirmed, many buried under the rubble of collapsed hotels.
In a major move, Russia, India and China (RIC) trilateral grouping today vowed to deepen cooperation in combating terrorism and pitched for setting up of a broad counter-terrorist front with the UN playing a central role.

The bloc decided to work closely in cutting finances to terror networks besides other steps even as they decided to step up engagement in boosting trade and investment among three member countries.

At the RIC Foreign Ministers' Meeting here, the three countries expressed serious concern over threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) falling into the hands of terrorist groups and emphasised the need to address the challenge of chemical and biological terrorism through intensified efforts.

Addressing the meeting, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called for concerted global efforts to defeat terrorism and warned the international community of "serious consequences" if it continues to adopt "double standards" in dealing with the menace.

The bloc later came out with a joint Communique, expressing strong commitment to enhance cooperation in dealing with threat of terrorism including by cutting line of finances to terrorists outfits.

"The Ministers confirmed their strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and stressed that there can be no justification whatsoever for any acts of terrorism, whether based upon ideological, religious, political, racial, ethnic or any other reasons. The Ministers are determined to consistently strengthen cooperation between China, India and Russia in preventing and countering international terrorism, both bilaterally and tri-laterally.

"They stressed that the UN has a central role in coordinating multilateral interaction against terrorism, which must be conducted in accordance with international law, including the UN Charter, as well as refugee and humanitarian law and international human rights law. They reemphasized the need to bring to justice perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of terrorist acts. They called for early conclusion of negotiations on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism," the Communique said.

The ministers underlined that terrorist threats can be effectively addressed through comprehensive implementation by states of their commitments and obligations arising from relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, it said.

They also urged all states to unite their efforts in countering terrorism. In this regard the Ministers expressed their support for the formation of a broad counter-terrorist front with the UN playing a central role pursuant to the initiative.

"The Ministers emphasized that effective fight against



terrorism is impossible without countering terrorism financing. They called upon all states to fully implement the UN Security Council Resolution 2199 that prohibits trade in oil and other natural resources with the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

"In this regard the Ministers welcomed the adoption of the UN Security Council Resolution 2253 aimed at preventing financial and other economic support to ISIL and affiliated terrorist organizations. The Ministers also underlined the need to strengthen practical cooperation between the UN Security Council and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in preventing terrorist financing," the communique said.

The three countries firmly opposed "forced regime change" from the outside in any country or attempts at extraterritorial use of national legislation in violation of norms of international law and called for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations, including its Security Council, with a view to make it more efficient and to increase the representation of the developing countries.

The Foreign Ministers of China and Russia reiterated the importance they attached to the status of India in international affairs and supported its aspiration to play a greater role in the United Nations.

"The Ministers underlined the importance of establishment of a just and equitable international order based on international law. In this respect they indicated the necessity for elaborating coordinated approaches regarding the strengthening of the legal basis of international relations and strict compliance by all states with their international legal obligations.

"The Ministers emphasized the importance of such core principles of international law as refraining from the threat or use of force, peaceful settlement of disputes, respect for state sovereignty and non-interference into internal affairs of other states," the communique said.

They agreed that the imposition of unilateral sanctions, which exceed the ones agreed by the UN Security Council, is inconsistent with principles of international law, undermines the prerogatives of the United Nations Security Council.

The three countries pledged to work together to seek common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security and called for the development of an open, inclusive, indivisible and transparent security architecture in the region.

They said they are committed to maintaining a legal order for the seas and oceans based on the principles of international law, as reflected notably in the UN Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS).

"All related disputes should be addressed through negotiations and agreements between the parties concerned. In this regard the Ministers called for full respect of all provisions of UNCLOS, as well as the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and the Guidelines for the implementation of the DOC," it added.
"Daredevil" actress Rosario Dawson was arrested and released at a Democracy Spring protest in Washington, DC.

The 36-year-old actress was one of more than 400 demonstrators who were arrested on Friday, April 15, for their involvement in the ongoing protests challenging corruption in politics, reported US magazine.

"This is a tremendous issue and I'm grateful that I could be here and be a part of it. I wanted for me, personally, to be in solidarity with the people who put themselves on the line," Dawson told reporters in a YouTube clip that has since circulated on the Internet.

She was apprehended for "crowding, obstructing, or incommoding" after she crossed police lines during the rally. She was fined for USD 50 and processed on site.

Dawson told reporters that she and other protesters were warned "multiple times" that they would be arrested if they continued to demonstrate in that particular area.

Though she was arrested, the actress said that "the police were really great with us and really lovely. I have to say that is not the case for so many people.
A sum of Rs. 1.32 crore has been spent under 'Mukhyamantri Vidya Laxmi Yojana' meant to benefit SC/ST students in Palamau district in the fiscal 2015-16, official sources today said.

As per the scheme, all the SC/ST students studying in STD-VI would get Rs. 26000/- in their account, which can be withdrawn only when they are promoted to STD VIII, sources said.

The objective was to encourage students to continue their studies.

However, of the total 9391 such students in the district, sources said only 2782 students received Rs.2000/ each (total amount Rs.55,64,000/-) while the remaining students were deprived of the benefit due to the negligent approach of the concerned school authorities.

The District Superintendent of Education (Palamau), Ram Prasad Mandal said the 'casual' approach of the head masters of the schools could be responsible for the lapse in the financial year 2015-16.

Mandal, however, assured that initiative would be taken to check such incidents in future.
Miscreants today looted over Rs 14 lakh from a petrol pump owner near Belodar Mode under Harihargunj police station in Palamau district, the police said.

The petrol pump owner, Vijay Ram, who happened to be the son of former MP late Ram Deniram, was going on a motorcycle to deposit Rs 14.38 lakh in the SBI Harihargunj branch when three miscreants intercepted him and snatched away the money stuffed in a bag, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Chatarpur), Sanjay Kumar said.

Kumar said the miscreants were identified and would be arrested soon.
Park Geun-Hye will become the first South Korean president to visit Iran next month, her office announced today, as Seoul seeks new markets to turn around a lengthy decline in export revenues.

The May 1-3 visit comes just months after a historic deal that cleared a path to lift sanctions crippling Iran's economy in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme.

Despite Iran's suspected ties with North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, South Korea is keen to strengthen trade ties with the second-largest economy in the Middle East, and Park is expected to push for corporate deals including chemical and power plants, infrastructure and information technology.

Her visit will be the first by a South Korean president since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1962.

According to the presidential office in Seoul, Park's summit with her Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani will include discussions about the situation on the divided Korean peninsula.

Tensions between North and South Korea have been rising since Pyongyang conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, and Park noted today signs that a fifth test could be imminent.

Leaked US diplomatic cables in 2010 showed that US officials believe Iran acquired ballistic missile parts from North Korea, while a UN sanctions report in 2011 said the two countries were suspected of sharing ballistic missile technology.
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye today said North Korea appeared to be readying for a fifth nuclear test in defiance of tightened UN sanctions imposed after its last test in January.

"Signs that it is preparing a fifth nuclear test have recently been detected," Park told a cabinet meeting.

Her remarks followed South Korean media reports in which unnamed government and intelligence officials spoke of a spike in activity at the North's Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

A fresh test would see Pyongyang doubling down in the face of tough sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council, and would throw down a gauntlet to the international community as it struggles to find new ways to curb the North's nuclear ambitions.

North Korea is gearing up for a rare and much-hyped ruling party congress early next month, at which leader Kim Jong-Un is expected to take credit for pushing the country's nuclear weapons programme to new heights.

Numerous analysts have suggested the regime might carry out a fifth nuclear test as a display of defiance and strength just before the congress opens.

"It is uncertain what kind of unexpected provocations it would stage," Park said at the cabinet meeting.

The South Korean Defence Ministry said it was alert to the likelihood of a fifth test.

"Given current activities, we believe that there is a possibility that the North may stage an underground nuclear test, and are monitoring the situation accordingly," ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun told reporters.

South Korea's vice foreign minister will discuss the North Korean threat during trilateral talks this week with his US and Japanese counterparts in Seoul.

Tension has been high on the divided Korean peninsula since the January test and a rocket launch a month later that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.

The UN Security Council responded by imposing its strongest sanctions to date over the North's nuclear weapons programme.

Pyongyang has responded defiantly, staging a series of short- and mid-range missile tests and claiming a series of significant technical breakthroughs in its nuclear strike capability.

It claimed it had miniaturised a nuclear warhead to fit on a missile and successfully tested an engine designed for an inter-continental ballistic missile that could reach the mainland US.

While some experts say the claims are exaggerated, most acknowledge that the North's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes have made significant strides.
The nation's largest lender State Bank of India today said it will undertake a detailed review of its international operations and may close some non-lucrative branches.

"We do a yearly review of our international operations, but this time we are doing a medium-to-long-term strategic review of our foreign operations," SBI Managing Director for Corporate Banking B Sriram told reporters here.

"We will come out with medium-term targets which shall include business, profit, contribution to the book in terms of risks as per regulations and compliances and branch strategy," he added.

Sriram said the review will be completed over the next two months and a report will be presented to the board.

As part of the review, the bank is looking at closing certain non-lucrative branches which have not performed as per expectations.

In Britain, SBI has been asked by the local regulator to convert into a subsidiary rather than continue as a branch by March 2017, he said, adding the wholesale banking will continue as a branch.

Going by revenues, he said Britain, US, Hong Kong, West Asia and Japan see good business.

On the margins front, he said Nepal, Maldives and Bangladesh are very lucrative geographies, and added that generally the spreads are in sync with the country's sovereign ratings.

At the end of December 2015, SBI had a foreign network of 190 offices spanning 36 countries.
A Sub Inspector of police was shot



dead allegedly by bike-borne assailants in Gaurakshini area of Bihar's Patna district today, a senior police officer said.

Sub Inspector Suresh Thakur was returning to Miranchi police station after obtaining a notice for property attachment in a case from Barh court when he was shot dead, Miranchi Police SHO Dinesh Bahadur Singh told PTI.

Barh Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Manoj Tiwary said two motorcycle-borne persons fired at the Sub Inspector in Gaurakshini locality under Barh police station area, killing him on the spot.

Thakur, who hailed from Begusarai district, was posted with Miranchi police station of the district, he added.
Senior Congress leader Gurudas Kamat today clarified that he could not be part of party Vice President Rahul Gandhi's recent Mumbai visit due to his ill health.

Kamat also slammed his dectractors for spreading "false propaganda" about him that he had boycotted the Gandhi scion's tour.

Gandhi was on a tour to Mumbai on April 12, during which he visited the Deonar dumping ground that was recently in due to the massive fires, after which he met jewellers, who had been on strike to oppose excise duty on gold jewellery.

"I could not be a part of Rahul ji's Mumbai tour as I was suffering from low blood pressure, for which I was advised strict bed rest by doctors. There are some people, who have tried to potray that I had boycotted Rahul ji's tour, which is not true," the All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary said in a statement issued here.

The former Union Minister further said that he had conveyed his health problem and his inability to attend the programme to Gandhi.

"There is no rift at all between me and the party High Command and there are people who are unnecessarily spreading false propoganda against me. Rahul ji is highly respected by everyone in the party," he said.

There are reported differences between Kamat and Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) chief Sanjay Nirupam, which has led to factional infighting within the city unit of the party.
A Spanish judge says a man arrested on suspicion of supplying arms used in an attack on a Paris kosher supermarket should be returned to France to face charges.

The judge said in an order issued today that Frenchman Antoine Denevi will be returned to his country within 10 days to face charges of trafficking in arms and explosives and membership in a criminal organization.

Denevi was arrested last week in the southern Spanish beach town of Rincon de la Victoria. In an appearance in Madrid's National Court, he denied selling weapons to attackers.

Spain's Interior Ministry said Denevi left France for Spain after the January 2015 attack.

The ministry had spelled his last name Denive but the judge in court documents gave it as Denevi.
India's Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, which was several years in the making, has now caught the attention of foreign buyers with Sri Lanka and Egypt evincing interest in the indigenously built fighter jet.

Sri Lanka had recently rejected Pakistan's JF-17 aircraft built with Chinese help, while Egypt had last year signed a contract for 24 French-made Rafale fighter jets.

The two countries are interested in the current version of the Tejas and not the upgraded one which will be rolled out later.

However, state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the manufacturer of Tejas, is focusing on delivering the aircraft to the IAF first.

"While there is an interest which has been shown (by other countries), let us get the product first to our own customer. The confidence that will come to others when our own Air Force flies it will be immense. So at first, we should at least meet the initial requirement of the IAF," HAL chairman T Suvarna Raju told PTI.

Refusing to share information on which are the countries that have evinced interest in Tejas, he expressed confidence in his marketing team and said they are equipped to take forward the talks. However, Defence sources said that the two countries which have evinced interest in Tejas were Sri Lanka and Egypt.

He said the "current version is more than enough" for smaller nations.

Two things that go in favour of the Tejas are its lower cost and flying ability.

"We have proved its flying ability and the aircraft, for that class, is a terrific one. We did take some time but we need to remember that DRDO and us did everything from the scratch," Raju said.

Raju said that the upgraded version of Tejas, with Active Electrically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Unified Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite, mid-air refuelling capacity and beyond the vision range missiles, will cost between Rs 275 crore and Rs 300 crore.

Sources said enquiries by foreign countries came during the Bahrain air show in January, the first time that Tejas flew outside the country.

The decision to send Tejas abroad was of Defence Minister



Manohar Parrikar, who has put his weight behind the aircraft.

LCA Tejas performed 8-G (gravity) pull, vertical loop, slow fly-past and barrel roll at the air show, which the Indian officials described as "historic".

Interestingly, soon after the announcement of Tejas' participation in Bahrain, Pakistan had withdrawn its JF-17 aircraft from the show despite having paid the initial installment which ran into a few millions US dollars.

Tejas is perhaps the world's smallest lightweight, multi-role single engine tactical fighter aircraft.

JF-17 has been developed jointly by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation of China. However, experts feel that the aircraft has been assembled in Pakistan from readymade Chinese kits.

HAL is likely to hand over the fourth Tejas aircraft to the Air Force by June end. The four aircraft will make up the first squadron of IAF which will be used for training and familarisation.

Rather than wait for LAC Mk II, IAF had decided to go for an upgraded version of the existing Tejas with over 40 modifications.

IAF plans to acquire 120 Tejas aircraft, with 100 of these having major modifications.

As per the production plan, six aircraft will be made this year and HAL will subsequently scale it up to eight and 16 aircraft per year.

The LCA programme was initiated in 1983 to replace the ageing MiG-21s planes in IAF's combat fleet but has missed several deadlines due to various reasons.
Key players in the world's struggling steel industry gathered in Brussels today to try to push China to scale back overproduction blamed for causing plant closures and job losses.

The meeting by ministers and representatives from 30 countries "will discuss how governments can facilitate market-driven industry restructuring and aims to agree on steps to reduce competition-distorting policies," said a statement by organisers, the OECD.

China produces about half of the globe's steel output and is accused of flooding the world market with oversupply sold at below cost in violation of global trade rules.

Tata Steel put its loss-making British operation up for sale last month leaving thousands of jobs at risk, in the latest example of the crisis hitting the steel industry.

Britain's business minister Sajid Javid will join counterparts from Belgium and France to make the case to China that will be represented by Assistant Trade Minister Ji Zhang.

The OECD, the grouping of world industrialised countries, plans to issue a joint statement at the end of the talks, but a source said divisions made any positive outcome uncertain.

Angry steel manufacturers in Europe have urged the EU to mirror the United States in punishing China with fresh tariffs, but the Brussels based bloc has so far proved reluctant to challenge Beijing more directly on the issue.

French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron will meet the EU's Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem on the sidelines of the meeting to press for a tougher stance against China.

The EU currently has dozens of anti-dumping measures in place against China, several involving the steel industry, but critics argue these are not enough.

"The Europeans have been more negligent than anybody," said Mario Longhi, chief executive of US Steel, the biggest steelmaker in the United States, in an interview last week.

China made no official declaration before the talks, but an editorial by the official Xinhua agency accused governments of embracing protectionism which will damage the global economy.

"Blaming other countries is always an easy, sure-fire way for politicians to whip up a storm over domestic economic woes, but finger-pointing and protectionism are counter-productive," the editorial said.

"The last thing the world needs is a trade war over this issue," it added.

Chinese steel output rose in March, official data showed last week, despite repeated pledges by the world's top producer to cut capacity.
Country's output fell by 8% to 24.34 million tonnes till April 15 of the current marketing year ending September, while exports stood at 1.35 million tonnes, industry body ISMA said today.

Cane dues to be paid by mills to farmers remained lower at about Rs 13,300 crore so far this year as against Rs 21,800 crore in the year-ago, it said in a statement.

Mills had manufactured 26.46 million tonnes (MT) of in the same period last year.

According to the Indian Mills Association (ISMA), the sugar output fell mainly in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Only 117 mills were operating across the country till April 15 of this year, as against 245 mills in the year-ago period.

Production in Maharashtra, the country's leading sugar producing state, fell to 8.36 MT of sugar till April 15 of this marketing year from 9.96 MT in the year-ago period.

The sugar recovery rate was 11.29% in the state, which crushed less quantity of sugarcane at 7.4 MT this year.

Sugar output in Uttar Pradesh, the second biggest producing state, was at 6.77 MT till April 15 of this year, which is almost at last year's level. The sugar recovery rate was higher at 10.6% in the state.

In Karnataka, sugar output dropped to 4 MT from 4.58 MT, while the production in Andhra Pradesh also fell marginally to 8,10,000 tonnes in the said period.

In Tamil Nadu, the sugar output was higher at 9,25,000 tonnes and the state is expected to manufacture another 4,50,000 tonnes in the remained period of this year.

On exports, ISMA said exported were at 1.35 MT the first six months of 2015-16 marketing year, while mills dispatched higher quantity of sugar at 13.3 MT for sale in the domestic market in the same period.

On cane arrears, the industry body said it has come down to Rs 13,300 crore so far this year, as against Rs 21,800 crore in the year-ago period.

"With the improvement in domestic market, it is expected that cane price payments to the farmers will improve and arrears will come down substantially further in the next few months," ISMA added.

Sugar production of India, the worlds second-largest producer after Brazil, is estimated to decline to about 26 MT in 2015-16 marketing year (October-September) as against 28.3 MT in the previous year.
A day after Nitish Kumar pledged to work for making a 'Sangh-Mukt' country, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today dared the Bihar Chief Minister to ban the RSS in Bihar if he had the courage to do so.

"Congress has seen the results of banning the RSS, as the 'patriotic' organization has gained from strength to strength on all occasions it was banned by the Congress governments. If Nitish Kumar has guts, then he should impose ban on the RSS in Bihar....The BJP is ready to meet such a challenge," Modi said in a terse statement.

Modi's hardline assertions came hours after the Chief Minister today reiterated his pledge to work for making India a 'Sangh-Mukt' country and described the outfits as divisive and aimed at confusing the people by spreading rumours.

The senior BJP leader also alleged that by seeking to make the country 'Sangh-Mukt', the Chief Minister was trying to deflect attention from pressing issues like hunger, water scarcity, corruption and collapse in law and order that people were facing in Bihar at present.

"The people of Bihar had given him (Kumar) mandate to address issues like hunger, corruption and crime, but he has started singing a different tune by seeking to free India from the RSS which is a patriotic organization," the former deputy chief minister said.

The senior BJP leader also said Kumar was practising



doublespeak on the issue of ideology, saying that he stayed with the saffron party for 17 long years despite the fact that the Sangh Parivar's stand on the Ram Temple issue in Ayodhya, Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code remained consistent during that period.

"The JD(U) national president had no qualms in becoming Bihar Chief Minister thrice and union minister on two occasions with the help of the BJP, but he has suddenly started singing in a different tune to suit his political convenience," the former deputy chief minister said.

It's a matter on record that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani publicly expressed a sense of pride in being RSS activists, but Kumar remained part of the NDA government for years, never raising his concerns about the Sangh Parivar's ideology or activities, he said.

Modi said now Kumar was desperate to fulfil his prime ministerial ambition by cobbling up alliance with anti-BJP parties.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today met her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov here and raised issues of the killing of an Indian and the death of two Indian girl students in a fire tragedy in this country besides discussing key bilateral matters.

During their meeting, Swaraj raised the issue of the killing of Yasir Javed, a businessman from Srinagar who died in Russia's Kazan city last month following an attack on him by a group of local goons, and enquired about the progress of investigation into the case.

Javed was attacked by unknown miscreants in Kazan city on March 3 and died later at a hospital there after remaining in coma for several days.

"I want to know about the status of the investigation. At least the guilty must be punished after the probe," Swaraj told Lavrov.

She also raised the issue of the death of two Indian girl students, who were killed in a fire at a medical university in western Russia.

Pooja Kallur and Krishma Bhonsle, both from Maharashtra, were studying at Smolensk Medical Academy in Russia and lost their lives in a fire accident in February.

Swaraj also expressed regret over an acid attack on a Russian girl in India recently and said India has ensured treatment for the girl in India as well as in Russia.

A 23-year-old Russian national was injured in the acid attack in November allegedly by her boyfriend following a quarrel between them.

Lavrov thanked Swaraj for dealing with the case effectively.

Lavrov, on his part, said both countries should continue to work closely to further expand bilateral ties.

Both sides should continuously review the agreements being signed at the highest level, he told Swaraj.

Lavrov also expressed gratitude to India for its support during Russia's chairmanship of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). He also ensured Swaraj of Russia's full support to India during its presidency of the grouping that began earlier this year.

They also discussed a range of issues, including furthering of trade and economic ties.

Swaraj arrived here yesterday to attend the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today met mother of a 23-year-old Russian woman who was attacked with acid in Varanasi in November last year and assured her of severe punishment to the guilty.

Swaraj told Antonina Prokina, the mother of the victim, that trial in the case has begun and that she was in touch with Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav in connection with the case so that the man behind the attack does not escape strong punishment.

The 23-year-old Russian national had suffered 46 per cent burn injuries after a local youth threw acid on her on November 13 in Nand Nagar area of Varanasi.

"He (the accused) had applied for bail but a court has rejected it. The trial in the case has already begun. I am in touch with Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and told him that he must get harshest of the punishment," Swaraj told Antonina.

The mother of the girl met Swaraj - who arrived here yesterday on a two-day visit - at the hotel where the Minister is staying.

Antonina, accompanied by her elder daughter Yana, explained to Swaraj the trauma the family was undergoing following the incident. The family stays at the Moscow region.

Earlier, in her meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Swaraj expressed sadness and regret over the acid attack on the girl and apprised him about the investigation into the case.

The victim was first shifted to a Delhi hospital after initial treatment in Varanasi. On November 16, she came to Moscow.

The Indian Embassy here has been helping the family in treatment of the girl.

The accused, identified as Siddharth Srivastava, had fled to Allahabad after the incident and was arrested later.

Swaraj had sought a report from the Uttar Pradesh government following the attack on the girl and promised all possible help to her and the family.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today met her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov here and raised issues of killing of an Indian and the death of two Indian girl students in a fire tragedy in this country besides discussing key bilateral matters.

"EAM (External Affairs Minister) raised the cases of Indian nationals Yasir Jawed (who was killed in Kazan) and Puja Kallur and Karishma Udai Bhosle (who died during a fire at the Smolensk State Medical Academy). FM Lavrov briefed on the progress of the investigations," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

Swaraj raised the issue of the killing of Javed, a businessman from Srinagar who died in Russia's Kazan city last month following an attack on him by a group of local goons, and enquired about the progress of investigation into the case.

Javed was attacked by unknown miscreants in Kazan city on March 3 and died later at a hospital there after remaining in coma for several days.

"I want to know about the status of the investigation. At least the guilty must be punished after the probe," Swaraj told Lavrov.

She also raised the issue of the death of two Indian girl students, who were killed in a fire at a medical university in western Russia.

Kallur and Bhonsle, both from Maharashtra, were studying at Smolensk Medical Academy in Russia and lost their lives in a fire accident in February.

Swaraj also expressed regret over an acid attack on a Russian girl in India recently and said India has ensured treatment for the girl in India as well as in Russia.

A 23-year-old Russian national was injured in the acid attack last November allegedly by her boyfriend following a quarrel between them.

Lavrov thanked Swaraj for dealing with the case effectively.

Lavrov, on his part, said both countries should continue to work closely to further expand bilateral ties.

Both sides should continuously review the agreements being signed at the highest level, he told Swaraj.

Lavrov also expressed gratitude to India for its support during Russia's chairmanship of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). He also ensured Swaraj of Russia's full support to India during its presidency of the grouping that began earlier this year.

"The two Ministers reviewed bilateral ties, with particular reference to trade and economic links. They also discussed the Annual Bilateral Summit between India and Russia, in advance of which India will host the next meeting of the Inter Governmental Commission (IRIGC) later this year," Swarup said.

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"They discussed India's Chairmanship of BRICS and the schedule of meetings leading up to the Summit in Goa in October," he said.

"Meeting was held in a very cordial atmosphere, as befitting the special and privileged partnership between India and Russia," Swarup said.

The two Ministers also had an extensive exchange of views on the situation in Syria, he said.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today strongly raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi the issue of China blocking its bid to have JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the UN.

Swaraj took up the issue with Wang at a bilateral meeting here on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.

Official sources said the issue was raised by Swaraj besides deliberations on a range of issues.

Earlier this month, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

Last July, China had similarly halted India's move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying its stand was "based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness" with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar last week had said in New Delhi that India has taken up at a "fairly high level" with China the issue of Beijing blocking its bid to have Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN but the issue will not "overflow" into other areas of bilateral ties.

China had defended its decision, saying that it acts on such issues based on facts and rules in an "objective and just manner".

After the attack on the airbase in Pathankot on January 2, India had in February written to the UN calling for immediate action to list Azhar under the UN Sanctions Committee.

The Indian submission was considered by the Counter- Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) for technical aspects of the evidence provided.

The technical team then with the support of the US, the UK and France had sent it to all the members. All were told that if there are no objections, the designation will be announced after the expiry of the deadline but just hours before the deadline, China requested the UN committee to keep on hold the designation.

Earlier this week, India had slammed the use of "hidden veto" and demanded accountability, saying the world body's general members are never informed of the reason for not acceding to requests for sanctioning terrorists.

"The procedures of unanimity and anonymity of the



al-Qaeda, Taliban and ISIS Sanctions Committees need to be revisited. The procedures of unanimity and anonymity result in a lack of accountability," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had told the UN Security Council in an open debate on 'Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts' on Thursday.

Swaraj also discussed a range of issues of mutual interest with Wang.

In her opening remarks, Swaraj said the relations have seen significant improvement in the last one year and favoured frequent meetings between the two sides to step up engagement.

"We are meeting after a long gap and I think we should meet quite frequently. Because things are moving very fast in the world and if we meet frequently, we will be able to deliberate on those," she said.

The Chinese Foreign Minister said both the countries need to stay focused on expanding the ties and should align "our strategies" so as to contribute significantly to development of Asia and the world.

"China and India are two major countries and two big neighbours. It is important for us to maintain very close cooperation. We are two developing countries and emerging markets and we both face the challenging task of promoting economic development and realize national rejuvenation," he said.

He further said, "We are strategic partners and as the world's economic and political centre is shifting towards Asia-Pacific. It is all the more important for both the countries to join hands because our cooperation will have far reaching and positive implications to the region and the world at large."



"So we need to stay focus on growing our relationship, align our strategies and step up our partnership so that we can jointly contribute to Asia and world's development," Wang said.

Swaraj and Wang are here to attend the Russia, India, China (RIC) Foreign Ministers meeting.

The External Affairs Minister arrived here from Tehran last night where she paid a two-day visit.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today did some tough talking with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on China blocking India's bid to get JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN and asked Beijing to "review" its position.

"I told him (Wang) that if we were to fulfil our intention of fighting terrorism together, then China should review the stand it had taken at the UN 1267 Committee," Swaraj told a joint press conference with Wang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The three ministers had earlier jointly chaired a Russia- India-China (RIC) foreign ministers meet here.

Raising the issue with Wang during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the RIC meet, Swaraj emphasised the need for bilateral cooperation to combat the challenge of terrorism.

If India and China were to combat terrorism unitedly, then Beijing should change its position of opposing India's bid against Pathankot terror attack mastermind Azhar at the UN Sanctions Committee, Swaraj told Wang.

It was agreed during the Swaraj-Wang meeting that the two sides would remain in touch on the matter, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

Last month, China had vetoed India's bid to get Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN Sanctions Committee, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council. The Chinese action evoked a strong reaction in India which said that it was "incomprehensible" that while Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) was banned by the UN, its chief was not.

This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the JeM in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping of sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

While talking about the roadmap for the RIC to tackle the issue of terrorism, Swaraj said there cannot be any difference between good terrorists and bad terrorists.

"It is important that we give up the distinction between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists. We will also need to give up the tendency to differentiate between 'my terrorists' and 'your terrorists'. A terrorist is a terrorist, one who commits crimes against humanity and not against any nation," she said.

Swaraj said India, China and Russia have been bearing the brunt of terror networks and that time has come for the three countries to play a leadership role in combating terror globally.
Sweden's housing minister has stepped down amid mounting questions over his contacts with Islamists and ultra-nationalists from his native Turkey.

Mehmet Kaplan, a 44-year-old Green Party member and former spokesman of Sweden's Muslim Council, says he has done nothing wrong but was resigning because the criticism against him was interfering with his ability to perform his job.

Kaplan came under pressure after Swedish media published photos showing him dining with Turkish Swedish leaders, including the local leader of the Gray Wolves, an ultra-nationalist group.

He also faced criticism for having compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians to how the Nazis persecuted Jews.

Kaplan told reporters his resignation was "not a confirmation of reports about me that I consider wrongful. I know who I am and what I have done.
Several of Syria's key opposition factions said today they were launching an armed response to what they alleged were regime "violations" of a ceasefire agreement in the war-torn country.

"After the increase of violations by regime forces that included targeting displaced people and continuous bombing of residential neighbourhoods, we declare the start of the battle in response," said a statement signed by 10 armed rebel groups.

The truce, brokered by Russia and the United States, has seen violence dip significantly across Syria but fighting has recently flared in several regions, particularly around second city Aleppo.

Among the groups to sign the Monday statement was Jaish al-Islam, the most powerful rebel faction in Eastern Ghouta, an opposition stronghold east of Damascus.

A key figure in Jaish al-Islam is Mohammed Alloush, who is also the chief negotiator for Syria's main opposition body, which is currently participating in UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva.

Alloush on Sunday called for renewed attacks on regime forces, despite the shaky truce.

"Don't trust the regime and don't wait for their pity," he wrote on Twitter. "Strike them at their necks (kill them). Strike them everywhere."



Also among the signatories was Ahrar al-Sham, a powerful Islamist group that has been fighting alongside Al-Qaeda's local affiliate around Aleppo.
Three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, including an officer, were today injured in an IED blast in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district.

The incident occurred between Chintagufa-Burkapal at around 9 AM when a road opening party (ROP) of 74th battalion of CRPF was carrying out its task under Chintagufa police station limits,SukmaAdditional Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh told PTI.

Inspector Ravi Singh and a constable S Babu was among the injured. Constable Arjun Ram was critically injured in the blast, the ASP said.

The ROP party had set out for the operation from Chintagufa towards Burkapal. When it reached around 2 kms away from Chintagufa, security forces inadvertently stepped up over a pressure IED laid by Naxals, triggering the blast leaving three of them injured, Singh said.

The injured were admitted to a local CRPF field hospital from where they will be airlifted to Raipur for medical care, he added.

Extra forces have been rushed to the area and intense search operation has been launched to track down the ultras, the officer said.

Sukma is one of the worst Maoist violence affected districts of the state in Bastar region.
US Republican front-runner Donald Trump's new top campaign aide Paul Manafort lobbied for a Washington-based group that has been charged for operating as a front for Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a media report said on Monday.

The company of Paul Manafort, who was recently hired by Trump campaign as its convention manager, allegedly received $700,000 from the Kashmiri American Council (KAC) between 1990 and 1995, the Yahoo News reported.

The money was received by Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, which was Manafort's lobbying firm.

Read more from our special coverage on "DONALD TRUMP"

Ghulam Nabi Fai, the head of KAC, was sentenced by a US court for two years of imprisonment on charges of receiving money from ISI and working on its behalf.

The $700,000 amount was part of the $4 million given by ISI to KAC, as alleged by federal prosecutors during court proceeding.

The ISI has denied the allegations. The US Government never charged Manafort, who was registered as a lobbyist.

During a trip to Islamabad in 1994, Manafort presented plans to influence members of Congress to back Pakistan's case for a plebiscite for Kashmir, the report said.

The report quotes an unnamed former Pakistani official, who was part of that meeting.

Internal budget documents obtained by the FBI show plans by the KAC to spend $80,000 to $100,000 a year on campaign contributions to members of Congress, it said.

"There is no way Manafort didn't know that Pakistan was involved with the KAC," the former official said was quoted as saying by the report.

The Trump Campaign did not respond to questions sent on the allegations against Manafort.
Turkey's state-run agency says police have detained 101 people suspected of having financial links to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of attempting to overthrow the government.

The Anadolu Agency said police had arrest warrants for of 140 people, including businessmen and former employees of the Gulen-linked Bank Asya, which was seized by the government last year.

Today, 101 people were taken into custody in Istanbul and eight other cities.

The government has declared Gulen's moderate Islamic movement a "terrorist" organization and has clamped down his supporters, seizing newspapers, television stations and other businesses associated with the cleric.

Anadolu says those detained Monday are suspected of being members of a "terror group" and of providing funds and making propaganda for the Gulen movement.
Turkish police today detained at least 105 people in a new wave of raids on suspected supporters of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, arch foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports said.

Those detained are accused of providing financing for the "terror organisation" of Gulen, who the Turkish government accuses of seeking to overthrow Erdogan.

Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 140 people and 105 people have been detained so far, the state-run Anatolia agency reported.

Most of those detained were apprehended in Istanbul, it said, adding that the operation involved some 800 police.

Over 40 of those detained were employees of Bank Asya, a bank linked to Gulen that was put under state control last year. Another 45 are described as businesspeople.

They stand accused of "being a member of a terror organisation" and "financing a terror organisation".

Among the businessmen detained are two members of the board of leading Turkish construction firm Dumankaya Insaat, Anatolia said.

Those detained have been brought to the financial crimes department of Istanbul police for questioning.

Ankara accuses Gulen of running what it calls the Fethullahaci Terror Organisation/Parallel State Structure (FeTO/PDY) and seeking to overthrow the legitimate Turkish authorities.

Gulen supporters decry the accusations as ridiculous, saying all he leads is a more informal group known as Hizmet (Service).

The preacher has been based in the United States since 1999 when he fled charges against him laid by the former secular authorities.

He and Erdogan used to be allies but fell out and the president blames Gulen for a 2013 corruption scandal that broke while he was prime minister and posed one of the biggest threats of his rule.

Turkish authorities have since the summer of 2014 rounded up allies of Gulen in numerous police operations but this was one of the biggest to date.
Indians continue to give top preference to Udaipur when it comes to vacationing and have also shown their likings for Colva in Goa as a tourist destination this summer, according to a report.

"Every summer season brings with it a new and fresh travel experience, catapulted by the latest travel trends. This year, within India Udaipur continues to be the most preferred destination. Colva in Goa is the emerging destination for Indian travellers this year," according to a summer trends report by Hotels.Com.

The report is based on searches on Hotels.Com from January 1-March 31 for bookings for April and May.

When it comes to travelling international, Indians love to bathe in the sun and clear blue water while travelling to Pattaya in Bangkok or the tropical Maldives, and to go shopping in effervescent Singapore.

Patong in Bangkok is the emerging destination that has captured the interest of Indians this year, it added.

Paris (France), New York (US), Seychelles, and Bahamas are the other non-Asian popular destinations.

The report revealed that Indian travellers want to forge deeper connections to the people, traditions and customs of the places they are visiting, and these experiences add a meaningful and memorable component to a vacation.

"This summer should see an increased number of people travelling to new and unexplored destinations, especially in Europe and the US," Hotels.Com Senior Marketing manager, India, Amit Agarwal told PTI here.

The die-hard travellers are hungry for vacations to places where not many people have charted before, he added.
As the usually-secret process to select the next Secretary-General opened up for the first time in UN's 70-year history, the nine candidates subjected themselves to tough questioning, including from India, over their credentials to lead the world body.

The candidates answered a total of 800 questions from the member-states and the public on how, if selected, they would lead the powerful world body.

It was the first time candidates seeking to become the UN Secretary General were questioned by member-states on their vision and plan of action - "a game changing process" aimed at increasing transparency in the selection of the UN chief.

"We have established a new standard of transparency and inclusivity for the appointment process, but it has the potential also to influence the final outcome of the selection of the Secretary-General," UNGA President Mogens Lykketoft said at the conclusion of the unprecedented public dialogue.

Starting last Tuesday, each candidate was given a two-hour televised and webcast timeslot. Prior to opening up the floor for questions, candidates gave short oral presentations - their "vision statements" - addressing challenges and opportunities facing the UN and the next Secretary-General.

Almost every country out of the 193 UN member-states took part in asking questions during the dialogue, Lykketoft said.

"We never had that frank and substantial discussion about the future of the UN as the one we got during these informal dialogues," he said.

"We've talked about the virtues, we've talked about the flaws of the UN, and the candidates have presented a lot of interesting views on how to do things ever better," he said.

He added that these past three days were just a part of the "process of transparency" and he hopes they will help generate discussions about the selection of the UN chief.

India's Permanent Representative to UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, speaking on behalf of the G-4 nations of Brazil, Japan, Germany and India, questioned former prime minister of Portugal Antonio Guterres and ex-Macedonian Foreign Minister Srgjan Kerim during the open briefings last week on how they intend to speed up the Security Council reform process.

Speaking in his personal capacity, he questioned them on terrorism saying the UN's "counter-terrorism" architecture is "dispersed" and member-states "don't have even one contact point to turn to if we have to address issues of counter terrorism".

India has been pressing for early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), a long-pending legal framework which would make it binding for all countries to deny space to terror groups.

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Kbaruddin asked the candidates how they will ensure CCIT will be made the "rule-making" exercise to counter the global scourge.

Guterres, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said that the General Assembly had in 2005 supported the early reform of the Council but added that the member states will have to work together to ensure reforms are achieved without further delay.

On terrorism, he said the UN was able to approve a strategy on terrorism but has so far not been able to approve an "international convention on terrorism. That is why we lack some key instruments" in tackling terrorism.

He said he will work closely with the General Assembly and Security Council to see "how we can find mechanisms to be more effective in addressing not only the needs to fight terrorism but the ways to avoid some of the mechanisms terrorists utilises in today's global society".

Kerim said that it must be ensured that the more than one billion people who follow the Islamic faith are not offended by insisting that there is Islamic terrorism.

He said progress on UNSC reforms can be made only if there is "readiness" for change among the members states to implement the reforms. He stressed that there has to be "consensus" on amending the charter for the UNSC reforms.
The uncertainty associated with the sale of Tata Steel's loss-making UK business may delay the company's expected recovery in credit profile, India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) said today.

The planned sale of Tata Steel's long product Europe business to Greybull Capital LLP will help lower cash burn and will be credit positive, Ind-Ra said in a statement.

However, the agency expects that the "uncertain timelines associated with the sale of the overall loss-making UK steel business may delay the expected recovery in its credit profile".

Maintenance capex in Europe is also expected to decline significantly post the deal.

Ind-Ra's rating view on the company is on a consolidated basis and factors in a one-notch uplift for its strong operational and strategic linkages with the Tata Group.

The deal with Greybull Capital will be completed once the outstanding conditions have been resolved, including transfer of contracts, certain government approvals and satisfactory completion of financing arrangements, it said.

"The concern remains as far as the main UK pension fund deficit is concerned, which expanded to 485 million pound as of March 31, 2015," Ind-Ra added.

Tata's UK assets have a combined steel-making capacity of around 10.2 million tonnes (mt) distributed across Port Talbot (blast furnace, flat products), Scunthorpe (blast furnace, long products) and Rotherham (EAF) plants.

The 'Sale and Purchase' agreement Tata Steel has now signed covers primarily around 4.5 mt long steel product facility at Scunthorpe and other associated long products facilities in the UK.

Within Tata Steel's portfolio of European assets, these facilities were the least profitable and hence, the divestment of these is a positive, Ind-Ra said.

The European region, which includes the UK and Netherlands, accounts for 52 per cent of Tata Steel's total revenues in 2014-15.

After sale of UK assets, the firm will consist primarily of the highly efficient and moderately profitable facility in the Netherlands, leading to a sharp improvement in TSE's margin and profitability and providing an improvement in credit profile in the long term, it added.
The US has agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in US forces in nearly a year, US defense officials said today.

The uptick in American fighting forces and the decision to put them closer to the front lines is designed to help Iraqi forces as they move to retake the key northern city of Mosul.

Speaking to reporters Monday in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the decision to move US advisers to the Iraqi brigade and battalion level will put them "closer to the action," but he said they will have security forces with them and the US will try to reduce the risks.

A senior US official said that eight Apache helicopters will be authorized to help the Iraqi forces when Iraq leaders determine they need them. The official was not authorized to discuss the numbers publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Last June the Obama administration announced that hundreds of troops would be deployed to help the Iraqis retake Ramadi a goal they accomplished at the end of the year.

Of the additional troops announced Monday, most would be Army special forces, who have been used throughout the anti-Islamic State campaign to advise and assist the Iraqis.

The remainder would include some trainers, security forces for the advisers, and maintenance teams for the Apaches.

The decisions reflect weeks of discussions with commanders and Iraqi leaders, and a decision by President Barack Obama to increase the authorized troop level in Iraq by 217 forces or from 3,870 to 4,087.

The advise-and-assist teams made up of about a dozen troops each accompanied by security forces would embed with Iraqi brigades and battalion, likely putting them closer to the front lines and at greater risk from mortars and rocket fire.

The US, said Carter, is "on the same page with the Iraqi government" in how to intensify the fight against the Islamic State.

The proximity to the battlefront will allow the U.S. Teams to provide more tactical combat advice as the Iraqi units move toward Mosul, the country's second-largest city, still under Islamic State control.

Until now, US advisers have worked with the Iraqis at the headquarters level, well back from the front lines.

The Apache helicopters are considered a significant aid to any attack on Mosul. Americans will fly the helicopters which provide air support to ground troops and carry precision weapons another new vulnerability for US forces.

Last December, Iraqis refused Apache helicopters for the battle to retake Ramadi, but this time officials said they believe the fast attack helicopters will add an important edge.
The US has asked its citizens to avoid the area around Islamabad's Marriott hotel due to a potential terror attack against the facility frequented by foreigners.

"The embassy is aware of a general but uncorroborated threat against the Marriott hotel in Islamabad. US citizens are advised to avoid the area for the next several days to allow time to assess the situation," said an advisory posted on the website of the embassy here on Saturday.

Marriott hotel was bombed on September 20, 2008, which killed over 54 people and injured dozens others.

Several Americans were among the dead.

In the advisory, the embassy reminded US citizens there is an active travel warning for Pakistan which was issued on April 7, 2016 and a worldwide travel alert issued on November 23, 2015.

"US citizens are urged to defer all non-essential travel to Pakistan," it said. "The Mission reminds those US citizens considering travel to or remaining in Pakistan despite this warning to enroll in the Smart Traveller Enrollment Programme (STEP), keep a trusted friend informed of your movements in country, maintain vigilant situational awareness, avoid large crowds, keep a low profile, and avoid visiting locations frequented by Westerners.

US citizens in Pakistan are strongly urged to avoid hotels that do not apply stringent security measures, it added.

The message pointed out that official US Mission personnel and visitors were not allowed to use public transportation and were not authorised to stay overnight in hotels in Pakistan.
A US waste management company has announced to create 120 new back office jobs including data entry, analysis and invoice generation in Indore in the next few years.

Arizona Waste Management company officials said that the decision would not only save money but it is also based on the high quality of back-end jobs its Indian employees have been doing for the last few years.

"As part of our efforts to optimise our back office processing functions, we'll be transitioning over the next few years approximately 120 non customer-facing back office roles including data entry, analysis and invoice generation - to our office in Indore," Janette Micelli, spokesman of Waste Management company said.

The company, headquartered in Tempe, currently has approximately 250 employees performing a variety of information technology and back office processing functions in Indore.

The "additional positions will be located in our office there," Micelle said.

"Our team located in our Indore office - at less than one per cent of our total employee population - is a very small percentage of our overall employee base," she said.

"Our Waste Management team members in Indore are highly qualified, produce quality work and help the company realise efficiencies related to back office processes," she added.

The company first opened its back office in Indore in late 2011 and since then it has been increasing its presence there.

According to local media reports an average transactional processor costs USD 45,000 in the US compared to just USD 10,000 in India.

In the last two years the company has reduced its global workforce of 40,600 by 2,100 as its annual revenue decline from USD 14 billion in 2013 to USD 13 billion in 2015.

"These are always difficult decisions, and we're doing what we can to encourage affected employees to apply for other available positions within the company," Micelli said.

The move will result in "a lower cost (for labor) with demonstrably improved efficiency and better quality," she added.
A Delhi court today reserved its order on a plea challenging a magisterial court's decision dismissing a criminal complaint seeking registration of FIR against Union Minister V K Singh for his alleged "dog" remarks in the aftermath of burning of two Dalit children in Haryana.

Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Gupta fixed April 30 for pronouncing the order on the revision petition filed by an advocate after hearing arguments.

The police had opposed the plea, saying no cognisable offence was made out against Singh for his alleged remarks on October 21, 2015.

The revision petition was filed in December last year by complainant, advocate Satya Prakash Gautam, challenging the trial court's order alleging that the magistrate "has only desperately tried to shield the proposed accused under various pretexts including those not even on record, like the intention of the proposed accused while making impugned statements which were the basis of filing the present complaint."



"It is clear...That the metropolitan magistrate has tried to step into the shoes of the counsel of the proposed accused to defend him. Thus, the impugned order deserves to be set aside on this ground alone," Gautam had claimed.

The magisterial court had on December 7, 2015 dismissed his plea observing that no criminal offence was "ex-facie" made out against the former Army chief.

The court had said that for no reason Singh's statement could be seen as a remark made to demean any caste or creed and it did not see the comment as an "analogy drawn between dog (as an animal) and humans (of a caste or creed)".

The complainant had alleged that Singh, the Minister of State for External Affairs, had hurt the sentiments of the Dalit community by such remarks.

Singh had kicked up a storm with his alleged remarks in connection with the Faridabad incident that the government cannot be blamed if anyone throws a stone at a dog.

The court had earlier directed the police to file an action taken report (ATR) on the complaint seeking lodging of FIR against Singh under provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Information Technology Act and IPC.

The police, in its ATR, had told the court that Singh had not made any "specific derogatory and humiliating statement" warranting his prosecution on the complaint.
Buoyed by the success of total prohibition in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said, if invited, he would visit other states to campaign against alcohol.

"If some group invites me in any programme against liquor I will accept and campaign against alcohol sale and consumption there," Kumar told reporters.

His assertions come in the backdrop of reports of liquor trade getting a boost in neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand after Bihar was declared a complete dry state on April 5.

The Chief Minister said the state government has requested Shashtra Seema Suraksha Bal to intensify vigil against liquor trade at the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar.

Asked whether he would like the ban on sale and consumption of alcohol be implemented across the country, Kumar said "I will be happy if this happen. The social movement arising out of liquor ban in Bihar would spread to other parts and state after state would go for prohibition."



In response to a question whether he was getting assistance from Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, to whom he had written asking for cooperation for successful implementation of the prohibition, Kumar shot back "They (the two neighbouring states) have encouraged opening of more liquor outlets in border areas ... This is the assistance we got."



In reply to a question that reports suggest that there was now demand for psychotropic substances like cough syrup, narcotic drugs and ganja in the border districts of Kisanganj, Araria and Purnea, he said all these substances come under the Liquor Policy, 2016 on the basis of which the prohibition was imposed.

"The state government can take decision on stopping use of such medicines," he added.

The Bihar Chief minster had on April 5 announced a complete ban on sale and consumption of liquor, including domestic and spiced as well Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).
A woman was seriously injured after the bomb she was carrying with her, went off accidentally at civil court premises in Bihar's Saran district today, police said.

Khushbu Kumari had allegedly come with a bomb in the court premises with an intention to target a complainant in a case but it went off accidentally, injuring her seriously, Superintendent of Police Pankaj Kumar Raj told PTI.

The lady has been rushed to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), the SP said, adding that two other women including a minor girl also suffered injuries in the incident.

Khushbu Kumari, who is accused in two other cases and is currently out on bail, had come to the court premises with an intention to target Shashi Bhushan and some other witnesses of a case, the SP said



Shashi Bhushan is a complainant in the murder case of three persons that occurred at ex MP late Umashankar Singh's Chapra residence in 2011.
Yemen's Shiite rebels backed out of UN-brokered peace talks just hours before the negotiations were to start today in Kuwait, demanding an immediate halt to airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition that has waged a year- long war against them, officials said.

It was not immediately clear if the negotiations were completely scuttled. According to two media officials linked to the Shiite rebels known as Houthis, rebel representatives have delayed their trip to Kuwait.

The rebel delegation would not go unless there is a "full halt to the airstrikes" by the Saudi-led coalition, the two officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to reporters.

A statement issued this afternoon on behalf of the UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, described the Kuwait talks as "delayed" and gave no details on when they might resume.

"We are working to overcome the latest challenges and ask the delegations to show good faith, participate in the talks in order to reach a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Yemen," the envoy said. "The next few hours are crucial. We call on the parties to take their responsibilities seriously and agree on comprehensive solutions."



Officials from the Saudi-led coalition or the Yemeni government could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Kuwait talks are aimed at finding ways to resolve the year-long conflict between Yemen's internationally-recognised government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, and the Houthis and their allies.

According to Abdel-Rahman al-Ahnoumi, a Houthi media official, the Houthis are not going to Kuwait unless there is a "full suspension" of airstrikes in accordance to the cease- fire deal signed earlier this month.

The official accused the UN envoy of trying to "jump over our" the rebels' demands and head directly to the talks.

"This just reflects that they are not serious about the whole deal," the media official said. "Talks amid the continued airstrikes will be useless."



Cheikh Ahmed has told the UN Security Council that Yemen's warring parties have shown commitment to peace by agreeing on an open-ended cessation of hostilities that began at midnight April 10 and their commitment to attend the talks starting today in Kuwait.

At the peace talks, the UN envoy said he would encourage both sides to negotiate a way forward on issues such as creating interim security arrangements, withdrawing militias and armed groups, handing over heavy weapons to the government, resuming an inclusive political dialogue and releasing of political prisoners and detainees.
Zurich Airport has reached an agreement to sell its 5 per cent minority shareholding in Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) in India to Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd for USD 48.9 million before taxes.

"We have reached an agreement with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd," a Zurich Airport spokesperson told PTI in an e-mail.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed within the third quarter of 2016, as per a statement issued by the Swiss company.

BIAL owns and operates the Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru (KIAB) under a 30-year concession agreement, with a further 30-year extension option from the Centre.

Recently, GVK announced its plan to sell a 33 per cent stake in BIAL to Fairfax India Holdings Corp and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd to raise money to repay debt.

The move would leave GVK's stake in the airport company at 10 per cent.

KIAB has the distinction of being the first greenfield airport in the country built by the private sector under a public-private partnership.

Since the beginning of operations in 2008, the airport has complied with the highest international standards and has been named as the 'Best Regional Airport in Central Asia' by Skytrax in 2015.

Since the start of construction in 2005, Zurich Airport successfully transferred its operational expertise to BIAL through an operations, management and services agreement, which helped KIAB transform into India's third-largest and one of the fastest growing airports.

Zurich Airport's role has been gradually reduced to a minority shareholder, leading to the decision to monetise the remaining 5 per stake in BIAL.

In 2009, Zurich Airport already sold 12 per cent of its shareholding in BIAL to GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd, it said.
The last week was excellent for India related defence news but bad for India related defence facts. This was almost entirely to do with rumours of the so called foundational agreements being signed. This two part series will examine the documents and the objections they face in the Indian context. The first part looks at the LSA and the internal turf battles that prevent its signing. The second part looks at CISMOA & BECA and the huge educational backwardness our military and defence bureaucracy are encumbered with. As usual the op-ed columns on either got almost all ...
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Shares in Alkem Laboratories Ltd fell as much as 8 percent on Monday after the company confirmed it was in talks with German authorities who had accused it of fudging data in some clinical trials.

reported on Friday that German authorities had accused the company of manipulating heart readings of patients in some trials for the antibiotic cefuroxime and the brain disorder drug rulizole, following an inspection of Alkem's plant in Taloja in western India in March 2015.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is investigating the medicines after Germany reported its findings to the EMA and urged it to take action in a report that was posted on the EMA website.

Alkem said in a statement on Saturday that the company had responded to the German authorities with a "robust remediation plan" and would also submit "suitable clarification" to the EMA.

Similar findings by European regulators concerning manipulation of electrocardiogram data at two other Indian firms, GVK Biosciences and Quest Lifesciences, led to the recall of nearly 700 medicines last year.

Alkem said the inspection concerned studies conducted by the company between March 2013 and March 2015 on two products, one of which is selling, while the other is yet to reach the market. It did not name the products. (http://bit.ly/1Te0bTs)

It also said it had changed staff, upgraded equipment and improved its quality assurance systems at the Taloja plant since Germany's inspection.

Alkem, among the fastest-growing drugmakers in India, said sales from Europe made up less than 1 percent of its total revenue in the nine months to December 2015.

Still, the company's shares were down 5 percent at 0459 GMT on Monday, after falling as much as 8 percent earlier in the day - their lowest since Feb. 29. The company debuted on the Indian stock exchanges in December.

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Richard Pullin)
MUMBAI (Reuters) - A court on Monday issued a warrant for the arrest of tycoon and lawmaker Vijay Mallya, who has left the country with creditors stepping up pressure to recover about $1.4 billion owed by his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The latest court verdict came after the Enforcement Directorate, a government agency fighting financial crime, accused Mallya's UB Group of using 4.3 billion rupees ($65 million) of bank loans to Kingfisher Airlines to buy property overseas.

Mallya, a liquor baron and a lawmaker, has been at an unknown location after leaving India on March 2. Media reports have traced him to the Hertfordshire village of Tewin, north of London, where he owns a house.

The UB Group on Sunday denied the Enforcement Directorate's allegations, calling the basis of the warrant against Mallya "erroneous and unjustified".

The court issued the non-bailable warrant just days after the Indian government suspended the diplomatic passport of Mallya, once called the "King of Good Times" for his extravagant lifestyle. It said the passport would be revoked if he did not respond within a week.

Creditor banks this month rejected an offer of partial repayment by Mallya, who had given a personal guarantee for the Kingfisher loan, and have demanded that the former billionaire attend a hearing in India's Supreme Court.

Mallya, a member of the Rajya Sabha who co-owns Britain-based motor racing team Force India, has not revealed his whereabouts since his departure on March 2, but has said he has not absconded.

($1 = 66.6825 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Stephen Coates and Richard Balmforth)
By Matt Smith

DUBAI (Reuters) - The chairman of Emaar Properties has admitted that he was "really scared" of market conditions coming into 2016 but said the performance of Dubai's largest developer in the first quarter looked good after some severe cost cutting.

The Dubai real estate sector has softened since late-2014 after a three-year boom fed by inflows of cash from politically-unstable Arab nations. Consultants CBRE registered a 15 percent drop in prices in 2015 and are forecasting a further 10 percent decline this year.

However, last week Emaar unveiled plans for a tower which would surpass in height of the world's currently tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

On the sidelines of Emaar's annual shareholder meeting, Mohamed Alabbar admitted conditions earlier had him worried.

"We were really scared of 2016. Preparing for our cost budget, we basically went back to a cost budget base of two years ago, just to be cautious," Mohammed Alabbar told reporters.

"Did we cut costs? Yes, of course, a severe cost cut," he said, declining to quantify this.

Sales activity had been much better than he expected in the first quarter and he was "pleasantly surprised" with the company's performance.

He gave no specifics. An analyst at SICO Bahrain has forecast the company will make a net profit in the quarter of 1.22 billion dirhams, which would be a 19.1 percent year-on-year increase in earnings.

REBELLION QUELLED

Emaar survived an attempt from some shareholders to increase its proposed dividend for 2015 to 20 percent, equivalent to 0.20 dirhams ($0.05) per share. A vote of shareholders present, approximately 55 percent of the roster, approved the cash payout at 15 percent, in line with the board's recommendations.

The developer, in which Dubai's government owns a minority stake, paid 15 percent in both 2013 and 2014, although the latter was supplemented by a special dividend after Emaar floated a stake in its malls business and returned cash to its shareholders.

Emaar has outlined plans to spin off a number of its units, including its hospitality business, but Alabbar ruled out floating this in 2016 due to turbulent financial markets.

"I don't think it's the time now, so we'll wait and watch," said Alabbar. "We are not rushing because we want to cash out. We want to do genuine business when the time is right."

Emaar is looking to fully take over its India business, Alabbar said, after the company announced last week it was splitting from its joint venture partner.

"It's the right time for us to take charge in India and manage our own affairs," said Alabbar, declined to give a timeline for when Emaar MGF would be dissolved.

($1 = 3.6735 UAE dirham)

(Writing by David French; Editing by Louise Heavens/Ruth Pitchford)
DOHA (Reuters) - A deal to freeze oil output by OPEC and non-OPEC producers fell apart on Sunday, leading to a steep drop in oil prices towards $40 on Monday.

Below are the key facts, questions and answers about the meeting:

WHAT WERE THE DOHA TALKS TRYING TO ACHIEVE?

Some 18 oil nations including OPEC's leader Saudi Arabia and top non-OPEC producer Russia had been expected to rubber-stamp a deal -- in the making since February -- to stabilise output at January levels until October 2016.

Russian oil minister Alexander Novak had said the deal would help balance supply and demand in the market by the end of 2016. Without it, the market would struggle to work through the current glut until the end of 2017, he said.

WHY DID THE TALKS FAIL?

Iran argued it could not join the freeze because it needs to regain production levels after the lifting of international sanctions. The sanctions were lifted after Iran and the group of world powers known as the P5+1 agreed on curbs to Tehran's nuclear programme.

Saudi Arabia, which had signalled it was willing to sign the deal without Iran, surprised participants last week by asking that Iran's invitation to the Doha talks be cancelled. Iran responded by saying it was happy not to attend.

On Sunday, however, Saudi Arabia came up with a second surprise by demanding that Iran join the freeze. Talks then fell apart after the communique could not be agreed.

"(Saudi oil minister Ali) Al-Naimi will have lost credibility with Russia and will have as well upset other OPEC and Gulf countries," said Olivier Jakob, analyst from Petromatrix.

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR OIL MARKETS?

The failure of talks has revived oil industry fears that major producers are going back into a battle over market share that has already driven prices to as low as $27 per barrel in January from highs around $115 in mid-2014.

Saudi Arabia's top oil official, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, threatened last week to raise output by as much as 2 million barrels per day from the current levels if the deal freeze was not reached by all members.

That would amount to more than 2 percent of global supply and significantly exacerbate the glut. Iran also wants to raise output by at least 0.5 million bpd. Iraq and Libya could also add barrels to the market.

On Monday, Brent oil prices fell to $40 per barrel before recovering to $41.65, down 3.36 percent by 1220 GMT.

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE GLOBAL ECONOMY?

Low oil prices have helped the global economy but some international financial organisations have warned that a very prolonged period of low prices could damage global growth.

Both the IMF and the U.S. Federal Reserve are increasingly impatient with the low oil price, according to Jakob.

"Concerns over financial stability in the energy sector and a further fall in drilling capex are headwinds to growth against an already fragile global economic backdrop," said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC.

WHAT ARE THE POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS?

Arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran have been fighting a number of proxy wars in the Middle East, including in Syria and Yemen. Russia supports its strategic ally Iran in many of its conflicts in the region.

"The meeting exposed that the heightening geopolitical tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran continues to transcend into the oil market...," Barclays said on Monday.

(Reporting by Rania El Gamal and Reem Shamseddine; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
BEIJING (Reuters) - Blaming China for woes in the global steel industry is simply a lazy excuse for protectionism, and such finger-pointing will be counter-productive, China's official Xinhua agency said in a commentary on Monday.

The issue has shot to the top of the political agenda in a number of countries.

India's Tata Steel has blamed a flood of cheap steel imports, including from China, for a decision to pull out of Britain, putting 15,000 jobs at risk.

Last week, more than 40,000 German steel workers took to the streets to protest against dumping from China, among other issues such as industry consolidation that they fear will cost them their jobs.

Xinhua, in an English-language piece, said it appeared "understandable" to think that China as the world's largest steel producer and consumer was the cause of the problems.

"Upon closer inspection, however, it's just a lame and lazy excuse for protectionism," it said.

"Blaming other countries is always an easy, sure-fire way for politicians to whip up a storm over domestic economic woes, but finger-pointing and protectionism are counter-productive."

Such commentaries are not official policy statements, but they can be read as a reflection of government thinking.

Xinhua said cheap Chinese steel had in fact created many jobs, as it is used by European companies, for example, who then use it to make products for export.

"It should be noted that overcapacity is a global challenge amid a sluggish world economy. China is one of the most hard-hit, but the government is facing up to the headwinds," it said.

"The last thing the world needs is a trade war over this issue. Far more jobs will be lost than gained if protectionism prevails."

The Chinese government has said the issue is a global problem that should be resolved via dialogue and cooperation.

Earlier this month, India initiated investigations into the possible dumping of cheap steel products into the country by six nations including China, Japan and South Korea.

"China is paying close attention to this and hopes the Indian ministry of commerce and industry conducts the investigation strictly according to World Trade Organization principles," China's Commerce Ministry said in a statement on its website.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
By Libby George

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices slid on Monday after a meeting between major producing nations on a proposed output freeze fell apart, leaving the world grappling with an excess of unwanted crude.

Oil exporting nations, including non-OPEC Russia, had gathered in the Qatari capital of Doha for what was expected to be the rubber-stamping of a deal to stabilise output at January levels until October.

But the deal crumbled when OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in despite its repeated assertions it would not do so until it had reached pre-sanctions levels of output.

"Saudi Arabia intentionally torpedoed the agreement and was willing to accept its failure. This has severely damaged the credibility of oil producers in general and of OPEC in particular," Commerzbank said in a note.

Brent crude futures fell almost 7 percent in early trading on Monday before bouncing back to $41.70 per barrel at 1335 GMT, down 3.35 percent since their last settlement.

Traders said an oil worker strike in Kuwait that cut the country's crude output by some 60 percent prevented Brent from tumbling below $40 per barrel. A cut in U.S. drilling down to 2009 levels had prevented steeper falls there.

Benchmark U.S. crude futures were down by 3.62 percent at $38.90 a barrel after falling as low as $37.61 earlier in the day.

On Monday, Iran urged other oil producers to continue efforts to prop up prices, but insisted it was justified in not yet freezing its own output following the lifting of sanctions in January.

The deal's collapse revived some fears that government-controlled producers will ramp up their battle for market share by offering ever-steeper discounts.

Morgan Stanley said the failure sparked "a growing risk of higher OPEC supply," especially as Saudi Arabia threatened it could hike output following the failed deal.

Still, supply disruptions elsewhere, such as in OPEC member Nigeria, helped underpin prices. Investment bank Goldman Sachs said "gradually declining non-OPEC production as well as planned maintenance in the face of resilient oil demand in Q1 have recently pointed to improving oil fundamentals."

Additionally, analysts said OPEC's failure to act, and the subsequently lower oil prices, would simply shift rebalancing away from the cartel and towards higher cost producers.

"Once again the Saudis have delivered a hammer blow to fellow producers," said David Hufton, managing director of broker PVM. "It promises to be the final nail in the coffin for those shale producers and their lenders hanging on for a short-term price reprieve."

(Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore, editing by David Evans and Keith Weir)
By Henning Gloystein and Dmitry Zhdannikov

SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices tumbled 5 percent early on Monday after a meeting by major producers in Qatar fell apart the day before, leaving the world awash with unwanted fuel.

International benchmark Brent crude futures were trading at $40.86 per barrel at 0029 GMT, down 5.2 percent since their last settlement.

U.S. crude futures were down 5.7 percent at $38.06 a barrel.

Some 18 oil exporting nations, including non-OPEC Russia, had gathered in the Qatari capital of Doha for what was expected to be the rubber-stamping of a deal to stabilise output at January levels until October 2016.

But the deal fell apart after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in despite calls on Riyadh to save the agreement and help prop up crude prices.

"The failure is negative from the psychological point of view. It shows the inability of all sides to cooperate," said Gary Ross, the founder and executive chairman at New York-based consultancy PIRA.

The development will revive industry fears that major producers are embarking again on a battle for market share in a world already awash with unwanted oil, especially after Riyadh threatened to raise output steeply if no freeze deal were reached.

Barclays said in a note to clients that "the much-awaited meeting exposed the political rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and ultimately doomed the agreement."

As a result Brent would likely average $36 per barrel during the second quarter of this year as a global glut continued unabated, it said.

"This meeting and its outcome should have built confidence that the oil market rebalancing was close at hand, as well as building a circle of trust among producers for possible future cooperation and coordinated action. In this regard, the meeting was a complete failure," Barclays added.

"The failure of the talks gives the market another clear indication (similar to the failed December 2015 OPEC meeting) that OPEC's relevance in this market environment has faded, and its ability to coordinate with members outside the group is equally difficult."

Oil prices have fallen by as much as 70 percent since mid-2014 as producers have pumped 1 to 2 million barrels of crude every day in excess of demand, leaving storage tanks around the world filled to the rims with unsold fuel.

Beyond the failed deal, however, there were signs of a tightening market due to an oil worker strike in Kuwait which may have cut its production from 2.85 million barrels per day (bpd) to just 1.1 million bpd.

In the United States, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday that drillers had cut their rigs to fresh 2009 lows as the industry suffers from low prices.

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Richard Pullin and Joseph Radford)
By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices tumbled on Monday after a meeting by major exporters in Qatar collapsed without an agreement to freeze output, leaving the credibility of the OPEC producer cartel in tatters and the world awash with unwanted fuel.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran were blamed for the failure, which revived industry fears that major government-controlled producers will increase their battle for market share by offering ever-steeper discounts.

"OPEC's credibility to coordinate output is now very low," said Peter Lee, oil analyst at BMI Research, a unit of rating agency Fitch. "But this isn't just about oil for the Saudis. It's as much about regional politics."

Morgan Stanley said that "the lack of even a non-committal agreement after one was in place in February underscores the poor state of OPEC relations," adding that "we now see a growing risk of higher OPEC supply".

Sunday's meeting in Qatar's capital Doha had been expected to finalise a deal to freeze output at January levels until October 2016 in an attempt to slow ballooning oversupply.

But the agreement fell apart after top exporter Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran, which was not represented, should also sign up.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shia Islamic republic of Iran compete for influence in the Middle East, where they are currently fighting proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

Brent crude futures fell as much as 6 percent in early trading on Monday before recovering to $41.29 per barrel at 0508 GMT, still down 4.2 percent since their last settlement.

U.S. crude futures were down 4.63 percent at $38.49 a barrel.

Oil prices have fallen by as much as 70 percent since mid-2014 as producers have pumped 1 to 2 million barrels of crude every day in excess of demand, leaving storage tanks around the world filled to the rims with unsold fuel.

While tumbling oil prices hurt producer revenues, straining the budgets of energy exporters from Russia to Malaysia, they can also benefit consumers.

Asked whether the failed talks could result in further crude supply discounts for his company, Daniel Purba of Indonesia's Pertamina, a major importer of refined products, said: "We hope so."

NO END IN SIGHT FOR GLUT

With producers like Saudi Arabia and Russia pumping near record levels and Iran also increasing output following the lifting of international sanctions against it last January, there is no end in sight for the global oil glut.

Iran was the only OPEC member not to attend the Doha talks.

Despite calls on Saudi Arabia to save the agreement, Riyadh, OPEC's de facto leader, insisted that all 13 members must take part in any freeze.

"It seems that for the Saudis politics and national pride are still more important than the price of oil," said Ralph Leszczynski of shipbroker Banchero Costa.

Iran has refused to stabilise production, seeking to regain market share post-sanctions.

"Iran has no reason to auto-sanction themselves when they are just trying to get back some of the market share they lost in recent years due the western-imposed sanctions," Leszczynski added.

As a result of the failure at Doha, BMI's Lee said Brent would fall below $40 per barrel again, although he added that he did not expect prices to re-test this year's 13-year lows of just over $27 a barrel as private, non-OPEC producers, especially in the United States where drillers are suffering from low prices, are seeing their output fall.

Barclays said that Brent would likely average $36 per barrel during the second quarter of this year as a global glut continued unabated.

"This meeting and its outcome should have built... trust among producers for possible future cooperation and coordinated action. In this regard, the meeting was a complete failure," Barclays said, adding that "the failure of the talks gives the market another clear indication that OPEC's relevance in this market environment has faded."

Beyond the failed deal, however, traders said that an oil worker strike in Kuwait that cut its output from 2.85 million barrels per day (bpd) to just 1.1 million bpd had helped prevent Brent falling below $40 per barrel.

(Additional reporting by Keith Wallis in SINGAPORE and Wilda Asmarini in JAKARTA; Editing by Alex Richardson)
By Barani Krishnan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied on Monday after a Kuwaiti workers' strike slashed the country's oil output by more than half, offsetting worries about a scuttled plan by major oil producers to freeze production.

The strike cut more than 60 percent Kuwait's crude output, lending support to price benchmarks such as Brent and Dubai. Supply of refined oil product from the country also tightened due to scaled-back refinery runs and lower fuel exports.

Brent tumbled as much as 7 percent earlier on Monday after oil majors from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC Russia failed to reach agreement on a plan to freeze output.

The producers had gathered in Qatar, Doha at the weekend for what was expected to be the rubber-stamping of a deal to stabilise output at January levels until October. The deal crumbled when OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia demanded Iran join the plan, despite Tehran's repeated assertions it would not.

"The material loss in production from the Kuwait strike has helped the oil market forget about the farce from Doha," said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at the New York-headquartered Clipperdata.

Brent was up 20 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $43.30 a barrel by 12:32 p.m. EDT (1632 GMT). It had fallen $3 earlier in the session.

U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark was off 31 cents, or 0.8 percent, at $40.05 a barrel, after sliding to $37.61 at the day's low.

Brent's premium versus WTI was at its widest in nearly two months.

While fallout from the Doha plan could weigh on a nascent recovery in oil prices, the market may not tumble as much as it did earlier this year, when Brent hit 12-year lows of around $27 in late January, some analysts said.

"Gradually declining non-OPEC production as well as planned maintenance in the face of resilient oil demand in Q1 have recently pointed to improving oil fundamentals," analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note, referring to the first quarter.

A weakening U.S. dollar and the mostly steady climb in global equities since February was supportive to oil too, traders said.

"While a few forecasters may be dusting off some old $20 WTI expectations as a result of the Doha outcome, we expect solid support in nearby WTI at the $35 mark," Jim Ritterbusch at Chicago oil consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates said.

WTI traded off Monday's lows after data from market intelligence firm Genscape showed crude inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for U.S. crude futures falling by nearly 860,000 barrels during the week to April 15, traders who saw the data said.

(Additional reporting by Libby George in LONDON; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Bernadette Baum)
By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as it trimmed costs and demand rose in North America for its snacks, which include Cheetos and Lay's chips.

The company's shares rose as much as 0.8 percent to $104.59 in morning trading on Monday.

PepsiCo has handled sliding demand for fizzy sodas better than rival Coca-Cola Co as its snacks business has offset much of the impact of a shift in consumer tastes to teas, fruit juices and smoothies.

The maker of Tropicana juices is also trying to attract health-conscious consumers with snacks such as Smartfoods Delight popcorn and gluten-free Quaker oats.

Sales in its North America snacks business, which accounts for over a quarter of total revenue, rose 3 percent in the first quarter ended March 19.

Global beverage volumes rose 3 percent, excluding the impact of currency, acquisitions and divestitures - the highest quarterly growth in almost three years.

Demand was strong for its Naked cold-pressed fruit and vegetable juices and Lipton teas, the company said.

"We broadened our beverage portfolio to lessen our reliance on colas..." Chief Executive Indra Nooyi said, adding that just 12 percent of revenue now comes from Pepsi colas and less than 25 percent from fizzy drinks globally.

Cost of sales fell 6.4 percent as raw material prices declined.

"CLASSIC PEPSI QUARTER"

PepsiCo maintained its 2016 forecast of a profit of $4.66 per share and a growth of 4 percent in revenue, excluding the impact of currency, acquisitions and divestitures and an extra week.

Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston said the forecast reflected a "highly volatile and uncertain" macro environment in some markets, including Brazil and eastern Europe.

PepsiCo usually begins the year with a conservative forecast, UBS analyst Stephen Powers said, calling the latest results a "classic Pepsi quarter."

Total sales fell 3 percent to $11.86 billion, the sixth straight quarter of decline, hurt by a strong dollar and weakness in Latin America and Europe.

Sales slumped 26 percent in Latin America, partly due to the exclusion of its Venezuelan business. Sales fell 9.1 percent in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

The net income attributable to PepsiCo declined 24 percent to $931 million, or 64 cents per share, hurt by a $373 million charge related to its interest in Tingyi-Asahi Beverages Holding Co Ltd.

Excluding items, PepsiCo earned 89 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 81 cents, according to Thomson I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)
MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to make provisions for the entire amount of loans extended to an entity, in case fraud is detected.

In a circular issued on Monday, the RBI said that banks will, however, be allowed to adjust the financial collateral applicable under Basel 3 rules while providing for such accounts.

The central bank said lenders will be allowed to spread the provisioning for such fraudulent accounts over no longer than four quarters.

The rules come at a time when there have been local media reports about the discrepancy in food grain stockpiles purchased through bank loans by the Punjab state government, leading to speculation that the loans may go bad.

(Reporting by Suvashree Choudhury, editing by Larry King)
State Bank of India , the country's top lender, has been asked by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to provide for losses on food grain-related loans issued to the government of Punjab, Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said on Monday.

She declined to comment on the quantum of SBI's exposure to those loans.

Local media had earlier reported about the discrepancy in food grain stockpiles in warehouses in Punjab purchased through bank loans from several state-owned banks.

"?We are working with the regulator, as well with the banks and various government agencies to ensure that the matter with respect to food stocks is resolved satisfactorily," India's junior finance minister said separately, speaking at a banking and finance conference in Mumbai.
By Jongwoo Cheon and Masayuki Kitano

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's exports tumbled in March as sales to China, the United States and Europe contracted in a sign the trade-dependant economy remains vulnerable as weak global demand puts its manufacturing sector to the sword.

Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) slumped 15.6 percent in March from a year earlier, trade agency International Enterprise Singapore said in a statement on Monday.

That missed the median forecast of a 13.2 percent contraction in a poll. In February, exports unexpectedly rose thanks to a surge in shipments from the statistically volatile pharmaceuticals sector.

"If there's no dramatic pick-up, I think NODX would almost certainly be negative for the year," said Vishnu Varathan, senior economist for Mizuho Bank in Singapore.

"Maybe from second half of the year, we could see very marginal growth, but taking into consideration that the first half may be weaker than anticipated, NODX could contract for another year, although one would like to think that with China stabilizing this contraction turns out to be something shallow."

Last week, Singapore's central bank unexpectedly eased its exchange-rate based monetary policy as growth stalled in the first quarter, darkening the outlook for the city-state economy.

The latest data point to a rocky ride for the trade-dependent economy, and underscores why the central bank had to act.

Exports to China, Singapore's top overseas market, fell 14.0 percent in March from a year earlier, compared with a 1.2 percent slide in February.

The world's second-largest economy grew at its slowest pace in seven years in the first quarter, but Chinese consumer, investment and factory sectors showed nascent signs that its economic slowdown may be bottoming out.

Shipments to the United States declined 6.2 percent last month, compared with February's 4.2 percent expansion.

Sales to Europe dived 39.1 percent in March on-year after rising 16.1 percent in February.

That came as exports of pharmaceuticals to the continent slid 59.4 percent and personal computers' shipments also fell some 41.5 percent.

On the whole, exports of pharmaceuticals tumbled 30.9 percent from a year earlier, while annual domestic exports of electronics slipped 9.1 percent in March.

Singapore's electronics sector has been underperforming neighbours such as South Korea and Taiwan due to cut-throat competition, as well as the city-state's lack of popular high-tech products such as smartphones.

Activity in local factories in March shrank for a ninth straight month in March, although the contraction was less than in February as new orders improved, a survey showed.

(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
LONDON (IFR) - Tata Steel has appointed Standard Chartered to help it find a buyer for its loss-making British operations.

Tata Steel Europe said on Monday it had asked Standard Chartered to work as an adviser alongside KPMG to look for interested buyers. The bank has links with Tata Group in India and is expected to be tasked with finding possible suitors in Asia, especially among Chinese steel producers.

Tata said on March 30 it was considering a sale of its UK business, including its site at Port Talbot in Wales, to prevent the closure of one of Britain's biggest manufacturing operations. It is keen to sell the UK business as a single entity.

The appointment of KPMG to run the sale process was announced on April 11. Slaughter and May was named as legal adviser.

Tata said advisers had talked with 190 "potential financial and industrial investors worldwide" in the past week, and more detailed information sharing will start this week as the process moves into the confidential phase.

Tata also announced the appointment of Bimlendra Jha, an executive of Tata Steel Europe, as chief executive officer of Tata Steel UK.

(Reporting by Steve Slater)
 

         

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Metals and Minerals Trading Company of India (MMTC), under the Ministry of Commerce, has signed an agreement with Canadas Encanto Potash Corp for the procurement of potash. Following months of continued negotiations subsequent to the signing of the MoU with MMTC previously announced on October 15, 2015, which outlined the base terms to a long term off-take agreement, Encanto confirms that the MoU is now expanded for an annual supply of a minimum of 2,000,000 metric tonnes of potash (approximately $ 600 million at current prices) from Encantos Muskowekwan project, located in Saskatchewan.

A pre-feasibility study, dated February 28, 2013, confirms proven and probable KCI Reserves on the Muskowekwan Project totalling 162 MMt grading 28 percent, which supports primary and secondary mining for over 50 years at an assumed annual extraction rate of 2.8 million tonnes.

The MoU also allows for the immediate supply of potash by Encanto to MMTC, which can be sourced from existing producers while Encanto concurrently continues to develop the Muskowekwan Project. To that effect, Encanto now intends to create a joint trading company in an expanded working relationship with the Muskowekwan First Nation to ensure that the company can begin to supply potash to satisfy MMTCs needs in the near future as well. The plan is to become an active potash company and to secure substantial near term cash flow; a rarity for a junior potash developer.

In addition, the MoU provides that MMTC will also act as Encantos worldwide distributor of potash on an exclusive basis, which is expected to provide access to markets and increased pricing well beyond the primary market in India.

Stavros Daskos, president, Encanto, commented, Various entities in India had been tasked over the years with reviewing dozens of potash property opportunities worldwide as part of their formal policy to secure a long term supply of potash for India. Due to a combination of the size, high grade reserves, the simple geology, low environmental impact, solution mining advantages in terms of employment safety and faster path to production, it was determined that Encanto offers the best potash opportunity for India such that MMTC decided to move forward with a long term supply agreement. This will bring the company great options, including significant near term revenue and a bright long term future.
Phoenix Lamps to merge with Suprajit Engineering

The combined entity will be one of the leading auto component companies with diversified product range

The combined entity will be one of the leading auto component companies with diversified product range

Suprajit Engineering Limited, the automotive cable maker, has decided to merge its subsidiary Phoenix Lamps Limited with itself. Suprajit currently owns 61.93 percent in Phoenix Lamps Limited, which is one of the largest manufacturers of automotive halogen lamps catering to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and aftermarket across the globe, with a production capacity in excess of 80 million lamps per year. In June 2015, Suprajit Engineering had acquired 51 percent stake in Phoenix Lamps Limited from its existing promoters.



Post-merger, Phoenix Lamps Limited will operate as a separate division of Suprajit Engineering Limited and will continue to market itself under the brand of Phoenix. The consolidated sales of combined entity for the current year is expected to be in excess of Rs 1100 crores with good financial ratios.



The combined entity will be a leading auto component company with diversified product range and predominant market position in its respective product ranges. The combined entity will be in the top 15 in market capitalisation among listed auto component space, in India. It will have a strong footprint in domestic and international aftermarket, said Suprajit in a press release.



The combined entity will have 4 wholly owned subsidiaries  Suprajit Automotive Private Limited (India), Suprajit Europe Limited (UK), Luxlite Lamps Sarl (Luxembourg) and Trifa Lamps Germany GmbH (Germany).



Ajith Kumar Rai, chairman of both the companies, said, This merger will bring significant synergies together. The combined entity will have a strong balance sheet, along with an excellent OEM customer base and in-depth aftermarket reach. It will further enhance our global footprint. This will also enhance cost efficiencies at various levels, better management bandwidth and reduced compliance requirements. Both Suprajit and Phoenix are strong brands which will be continued. This will be a win-win for both companies.



Suprajit manufactures complete range of automotive cables and Phoenix produces complete range of halogen lamps for the automotive industry. Both companies have market leading presence in their respective products and supply to most Indian automotive giants. With the combined product range, Suprajit will have a strong portfolio of products, which will help in getting better market share from the OEM customers in India.



The combined entity will have a basket of aftermarket products which will include speedometers, filters, indicators, mirrors, CDI & regulators, stator coils, fuel sender unit, etc, apart from cables and halogen bulbs. By leveraging extensive aftermarket pan-India network of both companies, the entire basket of products can be sold very effectively to gain higher market share by cross selling, said the company in the release.

BS B2B Bureau
Greece's international lenders are resuming talks in Athens with the aim of concluding a review of Greek reforms "as soon as possible", the European Commission said on Monday.

The review, which must be concluded before more bailout money is released, has dragged on for months partly because the International Monetary Fund and European Union cannot agree between themselves on some assumptions and scenarios of how the Greek economy might develop.

A spokeswoman for the Greek government said a preliminary deal can be reached this week before a regular meeting of euro zone finance ministers (Eurogroup) in Amsterdam on April 22, but the Commission avoided setting a clear date for an agreement.

"Following constructive talks in Washington, the mission chiefs are returning to Athens today and tomorrow. The aim of the mission remains to conclude the first review of the programme as soon as possible," a Commission spokesman told a news conference in Brussels.

EU and Greek officials clarified that talks are expected to resume on Tuesday. The IMF mission chief for Greece Delia Velculescu is expected to join the discussions on Wednesday, a Greek official said.

International lenders and the Greek authorities were in contact last week in Washington during the IMF's meetings.

The Eurogroup meeting this week "will be an important moment to take stock of progress made," the Commission's spokesman said, declining to say when an agreement was likely to be reached.

Euro zone lenders and the IMF are divided on some targets set out in the latest Greek bailout, notably a primary surplus goal of 3.5% of GDP for 2018 and beyond. The IMF says it is unrealistic to expect Greece to keep such a surplus for decades.

"The budgetary targets fixed last summer for the period after 2018 must be respected," the Commission spokesman said.

The Greek spokeswoman said the government would submit to parliament in the coming days bills on pension and tax reform. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Small businesses are facing an insurance cost crisis which can no longer be ignored according to the Chairman of the Small Firms Association (SFA), AJ Noonan.

Mr Noonan today referenced recent figures which showed that Insurance costs have increased by 29.6% since 2011.

Between 2012 and 2014, the Central Bank has tracked a rise in the frequency of claims and an increase in the average cost per claim of 8% in private motor, 27% in employer liability and 8% in public liability. Mr Noonan has warned that 'Irelands compo culture' has been allowed to get out of control in recent years.

SFA Chairman, AJ Noonan commented, "Small businesses are paying over the odds for insurance compared with other European countries. The significant cost increases being borne by small business is resulting in job losses and non expansion by companies."

He added, "If the current situation is allowed to continue it will become impossible to do business in Ireland both from a domestic and from a foreign direct investment perspective. Responsibility for addressing this crisis must clearly rest with a single Minister, who can coordinate the actions needed by different departments and the Central Bank. It must be prioritised by the new Government as loss of competitiveness is the number one risk to Irish business in 2016."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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It was announced on Friday that Irelands largest hotel operator, Dalata Hotel Group plc, has signed a development contract with McAleer & Rushe, to deliver a 206 room Maldron Hotel on Brunswick Street in central Belfast.

The hotel will be built on the site of the former Belfast Metropolitan College, which McAleer & Rushe acquired in August 2014 and represents a 21m investment, delivering in excess of 100 new employee positions for the local economy when the hotel is operational.

Deputy CEO Business Development and Finance, Dermot Crowley says, "We are delighted to announce the development of a new Maldron Hotel in central Belfast, providing an extra 206 rooms in the city. RevPar growth was strong in 2015 in our existing Northern Ireland hotels and we have been keen to expand our portfolio in Belfast. This new hotel continues the rapid expansion of the Maldron brand on the island of Ireland and we look forward to working with McAleer & Rushe on the development."

Demolition of the site has already begun and construction is due to commence in June 2016. The hotel is expected to be completed in the first half of 2018.

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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Dublin will be the target for one of the UKs largest providers of community health and adult social care this Saturday.

Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership NHS Trust, which provides services such as district nursing, intermediate care, social care and rehabilitation will be attending the Health Sector Expo on Saturday 23 April at the RDS.

Representatives will host a one-stop recruitment shop to carry out interviews, provide ID checks and give candidates the opportunity to meet some of Trusts senior nursing team including Director of Nursing and Quality, Rose Goodwin.

Experienced and newly qualified nurses are welcomed to come along to the Partnership Trust stand at Health Sector Expo. The team will be on hand to discuss nursing opportunities and living in Staffordshire which boasts unspoilt countryside as well as easy access to major cities including Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.

Director of Nursing and Quality, Rose Goodwin commented, "Weve chosen to visit Dublin because its a vibrant and passionate city full of nurses who we can provide great opportunities for. The Partnership is an integrated health and social care Trust, which gives nurses a unique opportunity to work with a variety of professions in multidisciplinary teams."

She added, "Working this way means nurses quickly gain new skills and learning opportunities, and most importantly, the care they provide is wrapped around peoples needs."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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Irish company, Soopa Pets has today announed it has received a 400,000 investment from HBAN, the all-island group responsible for promoting business angel investment.

The maker of healthy and nutritious dog treats will use the investment to support ten jobs in Soopa Pets over the next three years. The new roles will be in customer support, sales and marketing, as the company  whose treats are now sold in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Singapore  targets further international expansion.

The 400,000 funding was led by business angels from the HBAN Food Syndicate with support from Enterprise Ireland.

As the company looks to expand, it will benefit from the smart money aspect of angel investing. A total of nine investors from the HBAN Food Syndicate were involved in the deal that will provided Soopa Pets with not just essential funding but ongoing strategic support and advice, too.

The investors are retail heavyweights with experience in the areas of production, sales, marketing and distribution. The HBAN Food Syndicates combined expertise will help Soopa Pets target a wider market base.

Soopa Pets manufactures healthy pet treats made from 100% fruit and vegetables. The chews undergo a process of dehydration which prevents spoilage while preserving vitamins and antioxidants. The end result is treats that are produced to human grade quality and extremely healthy.

Soopa Pets founder, Barbara Hanly says, "The HBAN Food Syndicate has a wealth of knowledge and experience within the food sector and it is great to have them on board as investors, as they really understand what drives success. Their experience and advice will help Soopa Pets expand and bring our delicious, super-nutritious treat to the European market."

National Director of HBAN, Michael Culligan added, "The Soopa Pets story highlights the vital role angel investment can play in the development and international expansion of high-potential Irish start-ups. The Irish food industry is continuing to grow at an incredible rate. The investors in the HBAN Food Syndicate are well aware of the inherent potential in this area and have all been involved in starting or growing businesses in the food sector previously."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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It was announced today that Supervalu has invested 3m in a campaign which places cooking healthy, wholesome meals from scratch at its core.

The campaign is part of the Good Food Karma Project which was launched last year.

The new campaign includes TV, radio and print media as well as a strong outdoor presence and digital activation, underpinned by a robust PR strategy which saw a launch in the Mansion House last Friday 15th April.

A big nationwide grassroots roadshow programme visiting communities the length and breadth of Ireland to motivate and show them how to get cooking also forms part of the campaign.

The digital and social media campaign will see customers receive daily inspiration for key meal times.

DDFH&B created the ad campaign, Starcom were the Media Buyers, RMG digital marketing and TRA Brands | The Reputations Agency is the PR agency. The total investment figure for the campaign is 3 million across media and production.

Furthermore, both the PR and above the line campaigns are being supported with a team of ambassadors including celebrity chefs Kevin Dundon, Martin Shanahan and Sharon Hearne Smith as well as athletes David Gillick, Bernard Brogan and Anna Geary.

Marketing Director at SuperValu, Ray Kelly says, " We are calling on everyone to have fun in the kitchen and cook just one more meal at home every week  they can get inspirational advice and tips from our Good Food Karma ambassadors on line and in store to help them do just that."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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It was announced today that Flynn Management & Contractors are working on a prime site on 26/27 Grafton Street that will see new international fashion retail outlet '& Other Stories' locate on Dublins most expensive shopping thoroughfare.

The 5million project, which is on behalf of Aviva Investors, is expected to take 8 months and will be ready to house & Other Stories, part of the Swedish H&M group, later this year.

The site which previously housed HMV on Grafton Street is 5 storeys and will house a single retail tenant in the basement, ground and first floors. The second, third and fourth floors will be office space and will have the option of single or separate tenancies.

Managing Director at Flynn Management & Contractors, Kevin Flynn said, "This is a significant piece of work on one of Irelands most famous streets, which in itself creates its own challenges. It is our second project with Aviva Investors having successfully completed the renovation of a 40-year-old building on 7 Grand Canal for them."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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Intel Corp is planning to cut thousands of jobs this spring, including reducing headcount in some business units by double-digit percentages, news website Oregonlive said, citing sources inside the company familiar with the plan.

The job cuts at the world's largest chipmaker this year will be considerably larger than the more than 1,100 U.S. jobs eliminated last year, Oregonlive said.

Intel is also looking to consolidate some operations and close some smaller outposts after a series of acquisitions Oregonlive said on Friday.

The job cuts, which could also include top executive roles, could begin soon after the company reports its first-quarter results on Tuesday, Oregonlive said.

Intel, which had 107,300 employees as of Dec. 26, declined to comment.

The company had said in 2014 it planned to reduce its global workforce by about 5 percent, or more than 5,000 positions, as it struggled with falling personal-computer sales and shifted focus to faster-growing areas.

Last week Intel said two senior executives would leave. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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British finance minister George Osborne said a vote to leave the European Union in a referendum in June would do permanent damage to the country's economy, which he warned would be 6% smaller by 2030 than if it stayed in the bloc.

The government is due to present on Monday a "serious, sober analysis" of the long-term economic impact of a so-called Brexit, a source familiar with the document said.

Osborne was quoted as saying the loss to the economy would be the equivalent to each household of 4,300 pounds a year by 2030.

"The conclusion is clear: for Britain's economy and for families, leaving the EU would be the most extraordinary self-inflicted wound," he wrote in a column due to be published in The Times on Monday and which the newspaper reported on Sunday.

Opinion polls have shown the rival campaigns running almost neck and neck, although gambling firms predict that British voters are more likely to decide to keep Britain in the EU at the June 23 referendum.

Osborne said the hit to the economy of a vote to leave would be permanent because of lower trade and investment.

The latest appeal by Osborne, an ally of Prime Minister David Cameron, for Britons to vote to stay in the 28-member bloc is likely to spur accusations from "Out" campaigners that the government is using scare tactics.

One of the leading "Out" campaigners, London Mayor Boris Johnson, wants Britain to strike a trade deal with the EU similar to that reached between the bloc and Canada. But Osborne said that kind of agreement would leave Britain's economy 6 percent smaller by 2030 than if it stayed in the EU.

Osborne and Johnson are rivals to become Britain's next prime minister.

With Britons divided over whether to stay in the EU, those campaigning to leave, including some of Cameron's top ministers, have said the government is selling Britain short by saying it cannot stand alone.

But the Treasury's words chime with those of other economic institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, in warning that Britain could deal a damaging blow to the fragile global economy if it votes to leave the bloc.

Last week, Osborne said Britain's homeowners could face higher borrowing costs if there was a British exit.

In his newspaper column, Osborne said every alternative to EU membership would leave Britain with an economy that was less interconnected with the rest of Europe and countries beyond.

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to say during a visit to Britain this week that he believes the country is better off economically and politically if it stays in the EU. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Phyllis Yochem Bird Watch SHARE Contributed photo A nightjar was seen recently near Driscoll Children's Hospital. Nightjars are a relative of the owl.

By Staff Reports of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times

Nocturnal species caught the attention of several readers this week. Judy Lundquist, who lives in Morningside, wrote to me about a pair of great horned owls she had seen in her neighbor's tree. She heard them hoot before dawn, and located them with the aid of a flashlight.

Lundquist was concerned about the safety of her cat and small dogs. I advised erring on the side of caution, even though mice and rats are much more likely targets for the large predators. Breeding season for great horned owls in Texas runs from December through July, and I suspected the two birds were tending owlets nearby.

Whether we notice them or not, owls are quite common around town.

Monica Ellison, a long ago traveling companion in Mexico, also had a great horned owl in her yard. Friends suggested she might entice it to stay by providing a nest box. Although many owl species, including barn owls and eastern screech owls, utilize next boxes, great horned owls do not.

They don't build nests, either. Consummate recyclers, they often appropriate old nests built by other large species, such as hawks or herons. They will also make do with natural cavities in trees, a fork in a large cactus, or a niche between palm fronds.

Rappole and Blacklock's "Birds of the Coastal Bend" notes that they will even nest on the ground on coastal islands.

Rodenticides are harmful and sometimes fatal to owls through secondary exposure. Popular commercial products cause thirst when ingested; poisoned rodents often go outside in search of water. In their debilitated condition, they are easily preyed upon by owls, hawks, cats and dogs. One of the best things to benefit owls is to refrain from the use of these indiscriminate poisons.

Bill Grimes took several pictures of a bird his neighbor Chris Comstock, a fellow physician at Driscoll Children's Hospital, found in his backyard. Comstock tentatively identified it as an owl.

In "The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior," David Sibley writes, "Although owls share many behavioral and morphological characteristics with hawks, these two groups are quite distantly related. Instead the owls are most closely related to another group of largely nocturnal birds, the nighthawks and nightjars and their allies."

Grimes wrote, "I agreed owl until I got close enough to identify it as a sleeping nightjar (eyes closed until we got close.) He really liked Comstock's yard, flying to several different perches till he finally got disgusted with us and left."

I continue to accidentally interrupt the daytime napping of chuck-will's-widows in my own yard. Fortunately, they don't usually go far before choosing a new resting spot.

Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds in Texas since 1960.
COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Halo surfs a wave after being pushed by his owner Jason Hibbeler on Friday, April 8, 2016, at Horace Caldwell Pier in Port Aransas.

SHARE COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Jason Hibbeler and his dog Halo walk down the beach Friday, April 8, 2016, at Horace Caldwell Pier in Port Aransas. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Halo surfs a wave at Horace Caldwell Pier on Sunday, April 10, 2016, in Port Aransas. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Jason Hibbeler helps Jarvis Sharp train his dog Lucky to surf Friday, April 8, 2016, at Horace Caldwell Pier in Port Aransas. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Halo skateboards through the parking lot of Horace Caldwell Pier on Friday, April 8, 2016, in Port Aransas.

By Julie Garcia of the Caller-Times

PORT ARANSAS  Halo knows what "Bow-Wow-A-Bunga" time means.

That's what his owner, Gerilyn Hibbeler, says when it's time for the Belgian Malinois to strap on his orange life jacket and get in the water.

The 60-pound pooch swims toward his other owner, Jason Hibbeler, who is standing in knee-deep Port Aransas waters with a surfboard. Once he gets there, he hops on the board and waits for the perfect wave.

Halo is a surf K-9 and the only dog from his litter to not join any form of law enforcement. And he wants more friends to "hang-20" with.

The Hibbelers put the dog on a skate board when he was 12 weeks old. It wasn't too long after that the Hibbelers, who are avid surfers themselves, put him in the water.

"It's not an extreme sport, but it's extremely fun," Gerilyn Hibbeler said.

The Port Aransas Animal Shelter has had two dogs adopted in the last few weeks because of their surfing adventures near Horace Caldwell Pier every Sunday. Pictures shared on Facebook and other social media sites of the dogs in the water prompted prospective dog parents to investigate.

Jarvis Sharp, an emergency medical technician in Port Aransas, saw Lucy, a 4-year-old black Labrador, surfing in a photo online. He adopted her soon after, but he wanted to keep her on the waves. It takes about a month to get a dog comfortable.

"There are a lot of good dogs in the shelter that are well-behaved, well-trained," Sharp said. "They need homes."

Sharing her love of surfing with Halo and other dogs is more than a charitable service for Gerilyn Hibbeler. She said pouring her time into training and loving Halo is what helped her survive the loss of their daughter, Madison Bristow, in a car wreck caused by a drunken driver in 2013.

"My daughter had picked him out from the litter to protect her," Gerilyn Hibbeler said. "We debated whether to get him after she died. But we got him, and we're so thankful."

Her daughter, who went by Maddy, surfed often with friends from Port Aransas High School. She was training to be an EMT like her mother (Gerilyn was a flight paramedic) and her older brother, Christopher Bristow, who died in a 2007 wreck caused by foggy conditions.

"You never think it could happen to you twice, but it did to me," Gerilyn Hibbeler said. "We lost not only one, but both of our children, in two separate car accidents. Our dogs are definitely our babies."

The Hibbelers have a "surf-fur" competition planned for June 18 at the pier where dogs of all sizes and shapes are invited to enter. Proceeds will go directly to the local animal shelter. Jim Williams, head animal control officer at the shelter, said the proceeds will help pay for spay/neuter procedures and vaccinations for the shelter animals.

"This has been really good for (the shelter) because the two that went out surfing both got adopted, and we had those dogs forever," Williams said. "Once they got out there and started learning how to surf, people see them and want them to continue so they adopt the dog."

After seeing the success of a similar dog surf competition in Galveston, Gerilyn Hibbeler jumped at the chance to bring it to the surfing community in the Coastal Bend.

The Galveston competition was started about three years ago in a joint effort by Galveston County Humane Society and the Ohana Surf and Skate Shop. It began as an endeavor to raise awareness of dogs in the shelter, said William "Boog" Cram, co-owner of the shop.

"A surfing dog isn't a new endeavor, but it had never been done on the Texas Gulf Coast to our knowledge," Cram said. "Dogs are instilled with the ability to get low on the board and surf. It's quite an attraction to say the least."

Starting as really just a day on the beach, the event now draws up to 30 surfing dogs, he said. The next Galveston event will be in July.

Back in Port Aransas, anyone is invited to bring their docile dogs to learn how to surf with the Hibbelers. She recommends buying a foam board surfboard because it is easier for dogs to grip with their paws.

Practice is every Sunday at 2 p.m. at Horace Caldwell Pier. In the event of bad weather, it will be posted on www.facebook.com/Makikonu Surf Skate. For more information, contact the Hibbelers at 361-205-4428.

Twitter: @Caller_Jules

GOT A DOG?

What: Port Aransas K-9 Surf Team

When: 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Horace Caldwell Pier in Port Aransas

What to bring: A dog, foam board surfboard, a dog life jacket and dog treats

Information: 361-205-4428 or www.MakikonuSurfSkate.com
Advertising has changed more in the last five years than it has in the last 50, with largely society, technology, data and automation driving this change. Having attended the WFAs annual Global Marketer Week held in Kuala Lumpur last month, it is evident that consumer behaviour is changing rapidly too, and the way in which we advertise must reflect this change. Consumers are faced with more brand choices and methods of shopping than ever before, while advertisers vie for share of voice across multiple devices. As a result, consumers can be left feeling overwhelmed by a barrage of irrelevant messages through multiple ad formats.

The WFA and MAA invited key stakeholders from across the global advertising industry to meet in Asia, the fastest growing digital market, where FTSE 500 brands and media executives debated the future of advertising. A common theme was how the industry can work together to encourage people to fall back in love with brands and their advertising. There is a disconnect between advertisers and consumers, according to Will Sansom, director of content and strategy at Contagious Insider: 80 percent of brands think they give consumers a positive experience and 8 percent of consumers think they get a positive experience back.

Marketers are faced with the challenge of reconnecting with their consumers in a meaningful way. Can programmatic (data-driven) marketing play a role in bridging the gap? Lets take a look at what marketers think about programmatic and how digital advertising can enable sustainable growth for brands in the online world.

The most common questions we are asked by marketers involve whether ads are being served in a safe environment, if a human is seeing the ad and how well a campaign is going to perform. Negative press surrounding programmatic often frightens marketers, but rarely offers a solution or highlights the positive aspects, such as how it provides more relevant consumer engagement, at scale. Another benefit is the ease of reaching in-market consumers across devices, which the rise of mobile-specific DSPs (demand-side platforms) is now improving by helping brands to provide relevant and useful content to their customers at the right moment.

Marketers deserve better education on the technology and safeguards available to protect their brand and advertising online. Creating a brand-safe and effective digital campaign can be a straightforward process when working with the right programmatic partner, combined with skilled digital marketers driving the technology.

Getting off the ground

There is confusion about how to effectively monitor a campaign, especially a regional one. Marketers face obstacles in APAC due to the vast differences between countries, cultures and politics, making performance tracking across the region challenging. First of all, advertisers need to pick the right metric to measure their campaign, whether it is CPA, viewability or cost per completed view (CPCV), among others. Attempting to measure multiple KPIs across a single campaign is risky as they rarely correlate with each other in the optimisation process, having a negative effect on the overall campaign performance. When looking at campaign management, programmatic provides the perfect opportunity to centralise a trading strategy regionally, or globally, providing consistency to a media plan. Local markets can maintain control of their budgets and the ultimate decisions about what media to buy, but a centralised programmatic buying unit reaps the full benefits of time, learning and price efficiencies through a single regional view, providing a holistic outlook of cost savings across fewer suppliers.

Brand safety and data control

There is an ongoing dialogue around ad fraud, viewability and data control. Understandably, these issues can make marketers nervous when approaching automated advertising. Marketers should choose a partner who has a robust brand-safety policy and who is integrated into the relevant platforms to prevent such issues. This will save both time and money, and significantly reduce risk when running programmatic campaigns. When it comes to activating data, Virgin Holidays is well ahead of the curve. The company has a firm grasp of its customers data and applies this to all programmatic campaigns with great effect. It has used its CRM system and data-management platform to strategically segment several target audiences, while using multiple creatives and formats. This results in more accurate engagement and relevant creative messaging for an enjoyable customer experience.

A sentiment remains among some marketers that programmatic consists of cheap, largely remnant inventory worthy only of direct-response campaigns. Meanwhile, many global, premium publishers now sell 100 percent of their inventory programmaticallyproof that quality inventory is readily available. Given most publishers are invested in the programmatic model and spend is growing up to 31 percent more than traditional media YOY in APAC, it is a popular sentiment that the majority of media will be traded programmatically in future. When it comes to audience targeting, the level of granularity that can be applied is extensive. By running targeting filters and ad formats through the same platform, provides easier reporting and faster application of audience analysis. With the right partner, optimising across audiences and creative formats has never been easier.

The future of programmatic

Programmatic adoption across APAC is gaining momentum; companies are increasing digital headcounts by up to 20 per year, emphasizing the strong human element behind this powerful technology. Considering programmatic is still comparatively new to the region, this is extremely encouraging for the future of advertisers, who are increasingly adopting ad-tech tools. The speed of change in society and digital marketing naturally brings new challenges, such as consumer attitudes, data usage, and brand safetymarketers should evaluate and take considered advice. This region has learned quickly from other markets successes and failures with programmatic, vastly improving marketing efficiency. It is an exciting time for programmatic advertising in APAC, and the next two years will show more evidence of the benefits it can bring to marketers, brands and consumers.

Chris Packman is APAC director at The Exchange Lab
Contributions can take the form of knowledge-sharing sessions, how-to articles, explanatory or showcase videos, and workshop presentations or interactive sessions.

The Creator Collective programme is supported under the Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapores Creators Space initiative to enhance the capabilities of online content creators in the nation.

It is being led by Brand New Media Global (BNM), working with the Asia Content Marketing Association (ACMA), and aims to reach out to more than 200 online content creators in Singapore.

BNM was named in 2015 as one of MDAs seven partners for Creators Space, which is slated to launch in the second half of 2016.

Nick Fawbert, head of knowledge with Brand New Media Global, said the aim is to establish an ecosystem of creative, commercially capable young entrepreneurs in this area.

We are investing heavily in this project because we see it as a unique stepping stone to commercial success for independent creators and a way of supporting regional industry growth with Singapore as a creative hub, he added.

Joachim Ng, director of Industry Operations for MDA, said the MDA sees the Creator Collective as the right move in equipping a new generation of content creators with the skills to succeed in a rapidly changing media industry.

It is exciting for MDA and Creators Space to partner BNM in this cross-media training platform, with the support of a regional association of expert practitioners, he added.

Creators Space will offer an environment that nurtures a community of online content creators and encourages the development of professional online video content.



Nick Fawbert

Fawbert told Campaign Asia-Pacific that at the grassroots level, the industry is supported by initiatives such as the YouTube Fanfest, for people just getting started.

What the Collective does is support those transitioning from an amateur approach to the third-tier professional environment best characterised by such famous local brands as Night Owl Cinematics, Tree Potatoes, Wah Banana and clicknetwork.tv, he added.

Fawbert pointed to the recent announcement by Facebook updating its branded-content policy, which opens up an entirely new stream of audiences for branded-content creators, and allows them to monetise through the platform.

What the Collective will do is provide independent creators with all the skills, knowledge and networks to take advantage of this, he said.

Fawbert described Facebook as an exceptional distribution platform that has, through initiatives like sponsored posts, very straightforward solutions to amplification.

To work well, it needs to be woven into an integrated approach that effectively address all the other key pillars he added. It's notable that Facebook's open approach to branded content is not consistent with all social media giants. YouTube came under criticism last year for tightening its restrictions on branded content, requiring it to be supported by paid for media.



Fawbert added that the incident offered a timely reminder that whilst global platforms offer amazing opportunities, they do not always share strategic objectives with brands.

The Creative Collective programme comprises an engagement portal, which is intended to provide value-added information on branded content creation, such as video how-to guides, tips and tricks, a library showcasing the best industry examples and weekly challenges to inspire independent creators to immerse themselves in the industry.

It also includes the Creator Academy; an e-learning platform endorsed by ACMA, as well as a series of workshops that will offer participants hands-on learning opportunities with leading media and advertising industry professionals.

Andrea Edwards, ACMA executive director said the Content Marketing Institute suggests that content marketing already represents up to 28 percent of all marketing expenditure in the United States.

In addition, industry forecasts from PQ Media suggest that global investment in this discipline has already hit US$145 billion in 2014 and will exceed US$300 billion by 2019.

This is clearly a commercial area that shows opportunity for both domestic growth and the positioning of Singapore as a regional hub, she added.

In addition to ACMA, the programme has already confirmed speakers and contributors from agencies including MEC Wavemaker, Mindshare Content Trust, Zenith Newscast, Dentsu Aegis Network, Novus Media, Click2View, Kudos Content and Unruly Media.

International brands Johnson & Johnson and Mead Johnson Nutrition have also confirmed their support. Industry professionals who would like to contribute are invited to send their proposals to [email protected]
The discussion, which took place on April 14 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong, was moderated by Gary Scattergood, head of content for Campaign Asia-Pacific and PRWeek Asia. Titled, 'Marketing at scale', the session aimed to address the challenges of managing resources to maximise efficiency.

"I find myself in a position where I'm trying to reconcile the new world with the old world of marketing," said Suresh Balaji, regional head of marketing, retail and wealth, at HSBC Asia-Pacific. "What hasn't changed is the role of marketing in building commercial value, and to be the voice of the consumer to the organisation and the organisation's voice to the consumer."

Balaji added that it was dependent on marketers to keep their eyes on this goal. "Marketing can be like a duck paddling really fast," he said. "It all looks calm on the surface, but there's a lot of frantic work keeping things afloat. Don't get lost in the paddling."

There is a need to streamline attention, agreed Elaine Tai, regional marketing manager for Furla Asia-Pacific. In the sped-up world of ecommerce, the marketer's view can get quite divided. "We used to have time to communicate with each market, but now in minutes you have to share information with headquarters and local markets and get approvals. If there was a programme to manage these assets and that lets you ping the relevant people in real-time... that would be wonderful."

It boils down to focusing on the consumer journey, contributed Howell Wong, regional head of digital marketing for Moet Hennessy Asia-Pacific. When this understanding is in place, it allows global and regional teams to put in place practices for content and media management that will prevent overlap and help marketers stay focused, he said.

"The scale of media and content we have to manage across our brands in multiple Asian markets is tremendous. We've introduced social publishing tools that are centralised, and this enables global team to buy media at scale and locals just focus on platforms that work best in their markets," said Wong.

Doing the same thing over and over again in each market can be costly, added Hina Kotecha, marketing director for Asia-Pacific at Williams Lea Tag. "We're not saying things should be cookie-cutter standardised, just managed better."

Kotecha referenced insurance firm Zurich's 'Blue Room'. An asset-management platform from which each marketer can access and download the materials they need. The platform also tracks what assets marketers are using and what seems to be working best in each market.

Marriott has also introduced something similar, backed up by a social command centre, said Carol Zhou, senior director of brand marketing, strategy and portfolio marketing Asia-Pacific. "The centre monitors everything that's being said and, if someone has a great experience in one hotel, we have the ability to make it a content story that can carry globally."

The word to describe what marketers do today, is 'orchestrating', commented Todd Handcock, CEO of Asia-Pacific and global head of marketing for Williams Lea Tag. "It's important that marketing teams across regions and countries have the tools they need to reuse brand assets in a consistent way to keep the brand's orchestration together. When companies don't do this well, you start to see a lack of brand consistency and a slowing of speed to market."

Present at the roundtable

Moderator: Gary Scattergood, head of content, Campaign Asia-Pacific and PRWeek Asia

Widhadh Waheed, director of social media marketing, Shangri-La International

Jenny An, director of marketing communications, The Langham, Hong Kong

Ali Fung, marketing director, Amway Hong Kong

Suresh Balaji, regional head of marketing, Asia-Pacific at HSBC.

Carol Zhou, senior director of brand marketing, strategy & portfolio marketing, Asia-Pacific at the Marriott

Howell Wong, regional head of digital marketing, Moet Hennessy

Elaine Tai, regional marketing manager Asia-Pacific, Furla

Jacinta Reddan, head of marketing and communications, PineBridge Investments

Todd Handcock, CEO Asia-Pacific and global head of marketing, Williams Lea Tag

Hina Kotecha, marketing director Asia-pacific, Williams Lea Tag

The full writeup of this roundtable discussion, which includes the thoughts of the other senior marketers present, will be published in the June issue of Campaign Asia-Pacific. Other topics addressed include engaging young talent, managing multiple customer touchpoints, handling regulations and dealing with procurement.
Just over a year ago, Henry Tajer left Sydney for New York to take on the global CEO role at IPG Mediabrands, having led the Australian business for seven years as executive chairman as well as global chief operating officer since 2014. On his first day, he reorganised the network, bringing to an end the cluster structure in place since 2011 and moving to a more traditional geographic split.

He made several senior leadership changes and aggressively set out to implement new thinking and entrepreneurial values into local markets. In Asia, Prashant Kumar exited his role and a new CEO, Bala Pomaleh, was brought in to lead the Malaysia operation. In China, Tom Wan came in from Ogilvy as CEO of IPG Mediabrands China. As Tajer prepares to name a new regional head for APAC, he talked to Campaign Asia-Pacific about his talent strategy, transparency and the culture at IPG.

The full interview is available to subscribers in the April 2016 issue. Highlights appear below.

On ending the cluster structure:

The clusters are gone. We decided on revolving back to regions on the first day at my new role. We implemented that and executed that change, and it took some time to do that. A global structure is a really important part of what we are and who we are.

On Asia leadership:

We will shortly be announcing new leadership in Asia. That whole change [to geographic structure] has enabled us to really test the level of interest and engagement that others have in our business, in particular for key roles like that. We need the right sort of leadership in place to spearhead and oversee the investment and focus for this important region.

On taking over his role at a high-pressure time:

I recall saying to myself that I really didnt need all these pitches to be taking place at the same time as I took on the job. After all, the buck stops with me. That lasted about three seconds and we got straight into it. In hindsight, it was the best thing I could have asked for because it galvanised our business and allowed us to focus and make changes. It made us accelerate some of the things that would have taken us longer to do in a normal environment because we had this pressure and artificial pace being put onto our business.

On talent challenges:

We are not looking for planners. We are looking for people who can create marketing solutions for business issues. Our business is evolving, so we need people who understand the broader marketing set and who have the ability to design solutions that are holistic as opposed to just media. ... Media is a big component of what we produce as a product, but increasingly its about the data and our ability to understand what consumers are doing through technology. The decisions we can make off the back of those two tectonic plates crossing is what strategic talent is going to do for us.

On the biggest risk to media agencies:

I dont think as an industry we do enough about showcasing and championing what this industry actually does. I think, you know, the technology, the tech industry has done a really good job of stealing the limelight and they are topical at the moment.

On trust and transparency:

If there was a pandemic [trust] issue in the industry, I think the industry would be in a really different place. Its fair to say that the advertising industry is largely in a healthy place: no ones throwing themselves off buildings.

On IPG's culture:

I believe that culture is the catalyst and a global culture is hugely powerful if its uniform and people jump onboard. Our culture is a simple one: its based on open and authentic philosophy, and light-hearted. We dont take ourselves too seriously. Its easy for people to engage with other people if its not too threatening or serious, and that allows us to cut through multiple geographic cultures.
Chinas digital scene has evolved into Galapagos Islands and rules evolved elsewhere often just dont apply. The lack of commonly-used platforms and practices in the market can lead to non-natives believing digital marketing in China to be basic and unsophisticated, says Shakir Moin, vice-president and chief marketing officer of the Coca-Cola Company China. This is the biggest and most outdated misconception Ive come across. Ive worked in multiple markets and, outside of Japan, China is the richest in digital-social connections.

For marketers more clued into the market, trends coming from Chinas digital scene over the past year has been the death of Weibo; investments into engaging brand websites; and the rush to work with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and amass a large number of followers. All these are now being either phased out or downgraded in the marketing mix, says Brian Leong, general manager at MullenLowe Profero Shanghai.

Brand websites are now being completely phased out; now a .com is a glamorous banner ad that redirects users to an ecommerce or social media page, says Leong. Weibos supposed death at WeChats hands, he adds, has been long drawn out and both platforms will likely coexist for a while longer.

There is also a lot less hype around the use of KOLs, and more questions are being asked around the effectiveness of these online personalities to drive awareness or sales (tune in Thursday for our feature on dark marketing). The reality is that having millions of zombie fans have made being a KOL not as lucrative as before, concludes Leong.

Likewise, the desire for brands to rack up millions of social followers is waning as marketers discover that online fans, or even campaign engagements, are not moving the sales needle. Part of the problem has been a lack of clean data and high degrees of overlap from the main sources of consumer data in ChinaBaidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

Coca-Cola China recently put Chinas main data sources to the test. To aid in the promotion of one of its major brands, the firm bought data from everyone touching the brand, resulting in a campaign that gained 1.4 to 1.6 billion impressions.

While historically weve celebrated this number, internally we never saw its correlation to an increased number of transactions or brand equity, explains Moin. The impact of that large number of impressions should have impacted both those measures dramatically.

Coke launched a project to understand why. We started cleaning the data, and it took us four to five months to do this. We got rid of multiple user IDs, devices and so on, and eventually what it came down to was seven million unique users. Of that number, we still dont know how many were existing drinkers of the brand and how many were new. Now, seven million unique users for a brand with a consumer base of 350 million is a nice-to-have number, but its not doing anything for us.

The issue, concludes Moin, was not media wastage or misplaced online media: the true challenge was and is Chinas big-data universe. Doing this data cleanup for every campaign is not possible. It costs too much, it takes too much time, and so the utility of this system is questionable.

Utility, says Moin, is the factor that truly determines what survives in Chinas ecosystem. QR codes in promotions or games have been phased out as a gimmick, but its use in m-commerce, to order food or merchandise from posters for example, has cemented it as a must-have.

Similarly, mobile payments and mobile commerce sites are not going anywhere because they genuinely make it easier for consumers in China to transact (see our report on m-commerce in China on Wednesday). Satisfaction via ease of use and instant gratification has always been the nature of what works in mobile, says Jane Lin-Baden, CEO of Isobar China Group. When these things come together, it has the power to change user behaviour, she adds.

Take the recent hong bao (red envelope) phenomenon on WeChat for example, Lin-Baden explains. We know that Chinese people hate to leave tips, and yet last Chinese New Year, US$5 billion in hong bao was given out via WeChat. Now, traditionally the hong bao is about far more than moneyits about the process of give-and-take. However, even this fundamental cultural behaviour can be replaced by digital when it gives the impression of speed, luxury and convenience.

Overall though, the digital marketing scene in China has evolved beyond focusing on individual platforms or engagements. The conversation, say experts, now revolves around creating a seamless consumer experience, both online and offline.

The focus [for brands] is now around building consistent customer touchpoints in a regular basis, and this applies more for retail brands than any other, explains Colin Light, partner at PwC consulting. He currently leads digital consulting for China and the newly formed PwC China Experience Centre.

This is far easier said than done as it requires integrating multiple, very siloed departments within brands including marketing, technology, sales and CRM. Required to bridge all these are roles around insights and analytics (see our feature on in-demand talents tomorrow).

Chinas CEOs have invested in technology and architecture about three times as often as data and analytics, says Scott Likens, partner at PwC China Consulting and analytics lead for Hong Kong and China. The thing is, while the technology is advanced, companies are finding that insights and analytics are becoming the differentiator. Companies in China have realised the need to keep as well as capture customers.

Customers in China, however, are evolving even faster than its technological platforms. When it comes to average customer expectations, the bar is now very high, adds Likens. It has to be the full, seamless experience.

All this means marketers in China are running ahead as fast as they can. The responsibility is on us, says Moin. We cannot wait for the [data providers and technology platforms] to change in our favour. If the situation does change for the better, fantastic. In any case, we cant wait. We have to change our data management protocols, the way were working on taking line-of-sight impressions versus the end game. We have to question the big numbers, engage actively with our online marketing partners and go in with our eyes open.
Blanchette joined the Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific offices in Singapore in 2007, and is slated to relocate to the United States to join her family.

When contacted, Fuji Xerox declined to comment but confirmed that Chitose Oike will be taking over the role as general manager.

Blanchette is best known for the 1:1 Experience programme she launched at the company, which won her multiple awards including being named one of Asia's Top 50 CMOs at the World Marketing Summit 2013 Awards.

Speaking to Campaign Asia-Pacific, Blanchette said the decision to step down was a hard one, but said that she will be taking away many cherished moments and lessons from her time both with the technology company and in the Asia-Pacific region.

She pointed to the establishment of the regional digital marketing centre as one notable milestone, where she led the transformation, structure and implementation of the regional digital marketing strategy and the digital centre of excellence for the APAC region.

We were starting something that was really very new for a traditional and conservative company, she said. It was very challenging but always a rich learning experience and Im very proud of the strong team that weve built around it that is basically the glue of the whole operation.

The other notable milestone was the integration, performance management and significant expansion in Asia of FXDMS, an Australian-based Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company and subsidiary of Fuji Xerox.

It was a very interesting job, you felt a bit like the secretary of state, Blanchette said. Youre working with so many angles of the business, not to mention the different cultures and communications styles. I was constantly learning.

Blanchette expressed sadness at leaving her role and team behind but added that Fuji Xerox has extended her contract as mentor GM and advisor until May.

So Im on call for input into the current strategies that weve put in place, she added. The company has put their support behind the current direction, and I will be helping to ensure that it doesnt veer too far.

On digital and agencies

Blanchette said that it is unbelievable how much marketing has evolved over the years, and in Asia especially, where the industry has leapfrogged into technology and digital marketing.

What many forget is that the basics of marketing remain the same, but its somehow not implemented, she added. You kind of just go straight to online without that basis of fundamentals.

The tendency for many brands to separate the digital marketing function from the main marketing unit is not healthy, in her opinion.

Integration is needed, to really create something new, she said. But at some point, somewhere along the way, weve lost the fundamentals.

When it comes to agency partners, Blanchette believes that too many agencies only do a superficial touch on the pain points and needs of their corporate clients.

Thats one thing thats needs to change," she continued. "Theres this thinking that Oh we might lose the account after a few years so they dont invest heavily into it, dont link to the business KPIs and make themselves sticky with the business. But that very lack of investment is what will lose them the account eventually. Thats why so many partnerships are so fragile.

Blanchette added that in her own hunt for an agency partner during her time at Fuji Xerox, she was adamant about finding a partner and not a hit and run.

The company currently counts Denstu Mobius as one of its partner agencies, an appointment that was part of an overall consolidation exercise. On a global corporate level, Fuji Xeroxs agency partner of record is Dentsu Inc, but Blanchette said the existing relationship did not influence her choice of agency.

At one point we had 50 different agencies across all the APAC markets, she shared. It was crazy, I lost track of who we were working with and where. I had to put my hands up and go enough!

Agency partner consolidation is also inline with the companys own integration efforts, with the establishment of the regional digital marketing centre, which Blanchette said involved the centralisation and migration of all assets onto a single platform.

Thats where we really start to have one Fuji Xerox across all our APAC markets and executions, she added.

It is also a consolidation she wishes would occur on the agency side as industry consolidation has resulted in a handful of holding groups, under which multiple agency brands sit, holding on to identities and their own ways of working.

They say theyre integrated but really theyre just a honeycomb of silos doing cell-like communications between themselves and with their client, said Blanchette. There is a need to have that mid-sized integrated operation that can do it allnot just campaigns but strategy as well. But to really do that, I understand, is a challenge in and of itself for these agencies.

On aspiring marketers

Asked what advice she had for up-and-coming young marketers, Blanchette said that the most important thing is to understand how you link back to the organisation as a whole.

In addition to a strong long-term strategy and vision, it is crucial to get a lot of quick wins that are relevant to business objectives as well, she added. Im not talking jumping onto the latest fad or fad with no real measurements of KPIs to ityou wont grow that way.

Blanchette said that having the direct correlation to business objectives and the bottom line is key, and the pursuit of quick wins must be tied to it.

So if it makes sense for the brand, then do it, even it is a little dysfunctional, she added. Because getting those quick wins not only garners you respect and relevancy, it gets you that budget. Especially with the next year or two with the economic slowdown, marketing budgets will be the first to go and you want to ensure that you can justify your plans to fend against that.
| BY Ricki Green |

Specialist social video content marketing agency, Emotive, is continuing to expand the creative team with the announcement of Andrew Cameron as creative director in Sydney.

Cameron has been creating video content for brands for over 10 years. In conjunction with publishers such as Fox Sports, Lifestyle Channel, Channel 9 and MTV, he has worked with brands such as Samsung, Hyundai, Amex, Holden, Wild Turkey and Hahn Super Dry. Most notably, he directed the TVC and branded content for the hugely successful Samsung Slideliner campaign by Traffik Marketing.

Reporting to ECD Charlie Leahy, Cameron is yet another multi-skilled appointment for Emotive and will be responsible for end-to-end creative duties including strategy, idea development, producing, directing and editing content.

Says Leahy: Andrew brings with him a wealth of experience and is highly skilled in multiple creative disciplines, which reflects our approach to the modern content creation world. His appointment marks another step forward for Emotive Create, an area of the business that we are continually investing in.

Says Cameron on joining Emotive: What the team at Emotive have achieved in their first year is phenomenal. They have proven time and time again that they are willing to take risks to get amazing results. In a relatively short period of time they have managed to align themselves with great brands that truly want to entertain their fans and followers. Im really looking forward to getting stuck in to the work.

Emotive recently celebrated its first birthday, and this appointment highlights its continued growth and expansion since launching. Emotive have created and amplified social video campaigns for some of the countrys biggest brands, including Optus, Four Seasons Condoms, Virgin Mobile, Student Flights and Subway.
| BY Ricki Green |

LYNX is once again casting the spotlight on a variety of men who do not neatly fit into traditional macho stereotypes in an effort to shed outdated views of masculinity in a new TV campaign which has launched in Australia via Ponce, Argentina.

In January, the new campaign, Find Your Magic launched to introduce LYNXs refreshed point of view on attraction, individuality and grooming. The brand is now driving its focus to hair with a category-specific follow-up to introduce new LYNX Styling Look Collections consisting of six new products.

For most men, hair styling is one of the most expressive means of projecting individuality and identity. For a few however, the habit of hair styling still comes with some obstacles. The new styling campaign entitled Not Just a Pretty Hairstyle aired for the first time on Sunday 17 April with an aim of breaking down the barriers men still have against styling their hair; men are oftentimes self-conscious about looking like theyve tried too hard to look good for fear of being perceived as vain or shallow.

The campaign understates the relevance of great hair, acknowledging that while a hairstyle is important, it should not become the sole focus of attention. With a fully integrated campaign including TV, digital, outdoor and social, LYNX digs into the grooming world to celebrate individuality through the portrayal of different hairstyles, and more so, of different skills which make a man attractive.

Re-working the familiar idiom not just a pretty face, the campaign applies not just a pretty hairstyle to men in a provocative, cheeky way, challenging the stereotype that beauty and substance are mutually exclusive.

Says Jon McCarthy, senior marketing director, LYNX: LYNX has always been about helping men look, smell and feel more attractive about themselves. Our new styling collections are designed to make looking good, easy.

When you look good, you feel good, and the world around you feels it too.

Client: Unilever (Global)

Rik Strubel, Global Brand VP

Victor Hugo, Jr. Global Brand Director

Kuba Dabrowski, Senior Global Brand Manager

Client: Unilever (Local)

Jon McCarthy, Senior Marketing Director

Michael Coden: Senior Brand Manager

Ryan Sutton: Assistant Brand Manager

Agency: Ponce

CCO: Hernan Ponce

ECD: Luigi Ghidotti

AD: Ignacio Perez de Muro

C: Eric Chaulet

Strategy Director: Luz Pasman,

Planner: Mercedes Roldan

Account Director: Pilar Lopardo

Account Executive: Catalina Aguirre

Agency Producer: Roberto Carsillo

Production Company: Primo  Iconoclast

Director: Megaforce

Executive Producer: Gaby Carcova, Nathalie Le Caer

DoP: Sebastian Wintero
| BY Lynchy |

Hot on the heels of its recent brand launch, Melbourne agency DPR&Co has teamed with leading international brand experience and enterprise architecture firm, FromHereOn, to launch Brandtrust  The Brand Authenticity Index.

The index is designed to explore the disconnection between a brands promise and the customers real experience, and the subsequent effect on brand health. The initial survey centres on the Australian Big Four banks.

DPR&Co Agency Principal Phil Huzzard said the partnership between a creative agency and consulting firm is something that had been under consideration for a long time: The best consulting firms have unmatched visibility when it comes to brand and customer dynamics, he said. It is these insights, teamed with the ability to be part of end-to-end business transformations that really excite us.

FromHereOn CEO Hugh Evans explained that the partnership behind Brandtrust was designed to help businesses ensure their big ideas translated effectively to their customers.

When companies explore opportunities to innovate and lead, they invariably fail to inspire people and customers about the opportunities these changes enable, he said. But it takes an agency that really understands business to add value in this way. And thats where DPR&Co is unique in our view.

The interest in the inaugural Brandtrust index stems from a host of stunning findings, among which is that almost 70 percent of Australians believe their bank has lost touch with its customers and that almost half of them believe their bank would break its promise to them in the event of an adverse change to their employment.

Its clear that a number of recent events have impacted on the brands of the Big Four banks, Huzzard said. We think there are significant opportunities for the first bank that properly gets its brand promise to match its customer experience, he said.

Evans stressed that the research was not about bashing the big banks. Indeed, the findings should be of value to them. The Big Four are doing a lot of things very well and are, in a sense, simply responding to the unique Australian regulatory environment in how they approach their markets, he said. Our survey is designed to be a constructive approach to helping organisations identify issues their standard NPS tracking wont be showing up.

Brandtrust will conduct quarterly surveys across a range of industries and market segments, simultaneously building a ranked index of organisations based on measures of brand authenticity.
| BY Ricki Green |

Yesterday, a whole new side to Oreo was shown in the premiere of its 15-second TVC for Oreo Thins created by The Martin Agency and localised for Australia through AJF Partnership.

The TVC draws on the global creative for Oreo Thins, repurposed for Australian screens. Taking cues from the 7mm thin cookie, the TVC plays with dimension and perception through animation by Dutch production house MediaMonks Films. Oreos Wonderfilled theme song by Martin Allais is featured as a mash-up with Strauss epic Thus Spake Zarathustra, encapsulating both the exciting potential of what may happen when you play with perspective and the significant innovation milestone for Oreo.

Along with the 15-second TV spot, Oreo is delivering localised content to the Australian audience, celebrating the introduction of Oreo Thins through PR outreach, influencer engagement, consumer sampling activation and social activity on Oreos social channels. All promotional activities encourage Australians to play with perspective.

Says Sara Black, senior marketing manager Oreo at Mondelez Australia: The TVC celebrates a whole new side to Oreo. Weve experienced pleasing success with the TVC overseas and are eager to see how our Australian fans will respond. We believe they will really embrace this exciting new twist to their favourite cookie.

Thinner than a pencil, a tablet and a chopstick, the newest member of the Oreo family gives a different perspective of the Oreo you know and love. Following successful launches in the USA and China, Oreo Thins has hit Australian shelves, available in Vanilla, Tiramisu and Lemon.

Global

Creative Agency: The Martin Agency

SVP / Executive Creative Director: Jorge Calleja

VP/Creative Directors: Magnus Hierta and David Muhlenfeld EVP / Managing Director Production: Steve Humble

VP/ Planning Director: John Gibson

VP/ Group Account Director: Britta Dougherty

Editorial: MediaMonks Films

Director: Rogier Schalken and Magnus Hierta

Executive Producer: Nell Jordan

Post Production Lead: Okke Voerman

Grading: MPC

Finishing: Running with Scissors

Music and Mix: Duotone

Australia

Creative Agency: AJF Partnership

Media Agency: Carat
| BY Ricki Green |

Elmwood Brand Consultancy has partnered with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Australia to develop and bring to life a new campaign  Work With Nature.

Work With Nature encourages Aussies to swap their desks for the great outdoors by working outside for an hour during Work With Nature week running April 18-24.

Elmwood creative director, Antony Simmons said the project wanted to raise awareness of TNC and the work it does by reconnecting Australians with nature.

Says Simmons: TNC does an incredible amount of work to help conserve our environment, and we wanted to highlight and capture this through the Work With Nature campaign.

Australians love to be outside but we spend more time working indoors than we do outdoors. We wanted to give people the opportunity to work with nature to create a connection with the very thing that we all love, and TNC dedicates itself to protecting.

Simmons said the biggest challenge was defining just how to create the biggest impact for TNC, while keeping the campaign simple enough to create public engagement.

Says Simmons: A campaign event that can build year after year was the best way to help draw people towards the brand over a long period of time.

We developed the idea to Work with Nature  as a way for people to work outdoors during the event and highlight our need to work with nature to protect it.

We also created the idea of a #greendesk as a memorable and ownable hashtag that people could utilise through the campaign  #greendesk creates an easy way for people to participate in the event while also creating a strong connection to the work TNC does.

TNC Australia director Rich Gilmore said he loves that the campaign embodies the benefits of working outdoors and TNCs environmental work with accompanying bright, natural imagery.

Says Gilmore: TNC has been working to secure the future of Australias flora and fauna since 2002 and Elmwood has created something that encourages Aussies to appreciate nature and consider their role in preserving it.

Client: The Nature Conservancy

Director Marketing and Membership: Rachel Baily

Marketing Manager: Amy Hirst

Country Director, Australia: Richard Gilmore

Agency: Elmwood

Creative Team: Lachlan McDougall, Paul Greskie, Sahra Martin, Adam Rickett

Creative Director  Asia Pacific: Antony Simmons

Account Director: Kate Richardson

VP Asia Pacific: Jonathon Cartwright

Production Company: The Directors Group

Executive Producer: Craig Griffin

Director: Victoria Thaine

Director of Photography: Matt Chuang

Production Art Director: Hugh Marchant

Post Production Supervisor: Fiona Fry

Editor: Michael HooliHoulahan

On-Line Editor: Alex Evans

Colourist: Martin Greer

Composer: Mark Farrell
"The No group got hostile, I was slandered, the leader sat there pointing at my father's hills saying 'over my dead body will anything happen here' sort of thing. And he wasn't even pointing where the development was proposed and that didn't impress me greatly."
"It is our responsibility as leaders to ensure the conditions that led to their deaths are not allowed to happen again. We cannot erase our mistakes but we can learn from them and we have to.
DFAT can informally ask a nation to quietly send one of its diplomats home if their behaviour becomes a serious problem, but the department did not answer questions about how many of these requests had been made in the past five years.
The Order of the Sword

Arguably the most renowned aspect of the United States Military is its reverence for tradition. Tradition is engrained in the lives of all who have raised their right hand while swearing to protect the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.



Few traditions, however, are as ancient and honored as The Order of the Sword. Founded during the Middle Ages and adapted in the Twentieth Century, The Order of the Sword is the highest honor an enlisted member may bestow upon an officer.



The origins of this ceremony date back to Sweden in the year 1522. The nations ruling authority, King Gustavas I, had displayed ideal leadership, strength and provision to his people, which in turn formed a disciplined, orderly and loyal followership within his military.



The people were proud to serve someone of such devotion. Wishing to honor their leader with a symbol that represented truth, justice, and power rightfully used, the people presented King Gustavas with a sword. This sword announced to the masses that this particular king was of highest esteem and dignity.



The Order of the Sword was formally adapted by the Air Force nearly half a century ago and is based on this historical example. Since it is the highest award an enlisted member may impart to an officer, the criteria for nominees is staggering.



One must possess outstanding leadership, tireless commitment and unwavering devotion to those serving under him or her. It is up to the enlisted force to nominate this individual, and the final decision is solidified by a two-thirds vote of the executive committee planning the event. The finalized votes are sent to the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, and remain confidential until the sword is presented.



The chief master sergeant of the Air Force notifies the nominee and invites him or her to the ceremony, which is hosted at the presenting major commands headquarters. At the ceremony, the winner is presented with a personal sword mounted in a red velvet-lined shadow box. Additionally awarded is a scroll signed by enlisted members in attendance, a proclamation signed by the committee members, and a citation signed by the chief master sergeant of the mess. Names of every new recipient of the Order of the Sword are inscribed at the appropriate MAJCOM headquarters for future generations to remember.



Exceptional leaders are those who inspire their followers to be better than they were before. They inspire discipline, integrity, and create future leaders within their followership every single day. Those leadership traits are vital to the success of the United States Air Force and are recognized at the highest level by the presentation of The Order of the Sword.
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New Delhi: Skills and talent development firm NIIT aims to train about 20,000 students this year on future technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and Virtual reality (VR) to meet the changing skill set requirement of various industries.

The company will launch the new courses from next month to be offered from its centres and later extend them to engineering colleges later.

"We have been a global leader in skills and talent development. Once again, we want to revolutionise the landscape by introducing these pioneering programmes. Looking at the digital transformation across industry verticals, we want to create a talent pool that is equipped with skill sets required," said NIIT President (Global Skills and Careers Group) Prakash Menon.

Programmes covered:

These programmes will cover Java Stack, Mean Stack, Big Data and Data Sciences Stack, Cloud Stack, IoT Stack, robotics and VR, he added.

"India, with a strong technology ecosystem of MNC R&D centres, service providers, IT global in-house centres and startups, is well placed to play key role in the digital era. Our aim is to train about 20,000 people in the first year," he said.

Course Details:

NIIT will roll out 12-14 week courses from 150 centres and later expand them to other centres and engineering colleges as well. The fees start at about Rs 25,000.

"The focus of the courses is building products rather than software. The students will be required to work on two projects for the course," Menon said.

According to industry reports, India is home to digitally ready talent pool of five lakh engineers suitable to execute digital transformation projects. This is expected to increase to over a million engineers trained in digital transformation technologies by 2020.

"Owing to this growing demand, entry-level and experienced workforces with Digital Transformation Skills are attracting higher salaries as well compared to those with traditional IT skills," he said.

PTI

Also Read: Online Courses
When Mercedes performed the world premiere of the new 2017 E-Class in Detroit in January, the only model they announced for the US launch was the E300 with a 241hp turbod 2-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine.



A couple of months later, the Germans took the wraps off the 396hp E43 AMG, which wont be arriving in the States before early 2017, while also displaying the diesel-powered 192hp E220d (without specifying any plans) at the New York Auto Show in March.

We know for a fact that the E350e plug-in hybrid that shares its 2.0-liter turbocharged four gas engine and electric motor setup with the smaller C350e, will be among the choices given to US consumers in due time, as will the soon to be revealed, monstrous E63 and E63 S AMG with up to 612PS.

Carscoops reader John Ivy stumbled on an undercover prototype of the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class on a highway exit near Denver, where he took a quick shot of the car. We originally thought it might be the E350e PHEV, but upon closer inspection, we couldnt see an outline for the electric socket cap under the right tail lamp.

Think you can decipher which version it is, or if you cant, how about you tell us which powertrain from the European lineup would you like to see being offered here in North America?

Thanks to John Ivy for sharing the scoop!



Photo Gallery
Photo: Castanet Staff - File Photo

The B.C. Utilities Commission has expressed concerns over workplace injuries at FortisBC.

At issue is what is known as the All Injury Frequency Rate.

The rate is a measure of employee health and safety and how that may affect the performance of the utility.

According to BCUC spokesperson Alison Thorson, 2015 results were below the commission's threshold.

"Basically, what this order does is says, (they) were below the threshold in 2015. We asked for more information about that, which we got on Feb. 12," said Thorson.

"If they fail in those, the commission could make a finding of serious degradation of service, and it could have financial consequences for Fortis."

The All Injury Frequency Rate for 2014 and 2015 was 2.39. Anything above that number is outside the acceptable performance range. Both annual and three-year average results are provided.

Figures released by Fortis during its Feb. 12 response to the BCUC show a 2015 figure of 1.54, which is within the threshold. However, the initial report provided by Fortis, looking at just the first half of 2015, showed a much higher figure.

"Within 2015, there was an improved trend in the second half of 2015 with only one recordable incident compared to six observed during the first half of the year," said Fortis in its Feb. 12 filing.

Other results were above the acceptable threshold. These include 2013 (2.82) and 2014 (3.21) annual results, as well as the three-year average results ending in both 2014 (2.58) and 2015 (2.52).

The All Injury Frequency Rate is one of several reports FortisBC provides each year that have a bearing on rates charged to the consumer. The rates are approved by the BCUC to kick in Jan. 1 annually.

FortisBC spokesman Michael Allison told Castanet the utility will typically meet in the fall to prepare the report so a decision can be made prior to Jan.1

"The partial year results, January to September, did indicate the AIFR was above the accepted threshold as outlined in our regulatory framework," said Allison. "We then went back and submitted the remainder of the year-end results for the remainder of 2015, which did result in a lower AIFR for the whole year. It did bring it down below that threshold."

The commission will determine in the fall, when the utility undergoes an annual review, whether the injury rate resulted in a degradation of service. Such a finding could result in a decrease in returns to shareholders.

"Under this performance-based rate-making, the idea is the company gets earnings and savings split between both ratepayers and the company. The earnings for the company could be decreased," said Thorson.

Allison said FortisBC does see a variety of incidents, noting it employs 2,000 people.

"We do include a general breakdown of the incidents. We break it down by people in the office, permanent workers, temporary workers and people in the field."

"We do see a variety of incidents," he said.

The company launched a new safety program in January, said Allison.

"We have launched a new initiative internally to ensure we can get toward zero preventable incidents. For example, moving safe. Trips and falls are preventable incidents. People should be paying attention to the work they are doing in front of them."

He said the company is injury-free in 2016 to date.
Photo: Hornbach

Usually when a commercial airs on TV from a North American big box store they show how wonderful they are at helping. Its all smiles and shiny packaging, and the goal is, of course, to sell you stuff.

Heck, they will even tell you that if you do it, they will help. Problem is, the salesperson cant leave the store and go with you to help. Thats why, just after water intrusion, the biggest enemy of all homes is the big box store.

North American DIY products usually take an it does exactly what it says on the tin approach, which means that the product does what it claims to do without further explanation needed. For example, how fast and efficient a multi-tool 15-in-1 screwdriver is.

Having been on the tools, and having visited thousands of job sites to witness the aftermath of countless DIY projects, I can tell you that they all have one thing in common: Emotion.

Emotion reigns supreme in DIY projects. Miscuts cause heartache. Hand injuries are painful. A trip back to the store for a forgotten part is dejecting. The pure joy of reaching 90% completion is cause for a celebratory beer, while reaching 100% completion months or years later goes by unnoticed.

Men build in straight lines. A lot is achieved this way. Straight lines, square angles, power tools, and a buddy can result in an apartment building over a weekend.

As soon as an arch or a curve is added, productivity diminishes, head scratching starts, and resentment follows. Curves and arches in DIY projects is what krypton is to Superman.

North American DIY home improvement commercials rarely bring out the emotion of the process. However, in Germany, home improvement chain Hornbach has managed to do just that in their latest video advertisement.

Watch the video and youll see a naked man plunge into a metaphoric DIY project, and experience the joys and pains and the victory of his DIY journey.

But most of all, youll see how his journey has made him feel alive again.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

The City of Penticton will acknowledge the Annual Day of Mourning this month with a public gathering at the memorial tree in front of McLaren Park Arena.

Mayor Andrew Jakubeit will read the citys proclamation and any members of the public wishing to come forward will have an opportunity to speak followed by a moment of silence.

Last year, 122 workers in British Columbia lost their lives as a result of work-related injury, illness or disease.

Across Canada, April 28 has been designated the Day of Mourning, a time when workers, families, employers and others come together to remember those who have lost their lives to work-related incidents or occupational diseases.

Throughout B.C., communities remember lost co-workers, friends and family while reflecting on a shared commitment to workplace safety.

The public is welcome to attend the event at 11 a.m., Thursday, April 28.

McLaren Park Arena is located at 1350 King St.
Photo: Skylar noe-vack

Penticton fire crews were called to Duncan Avenue, at the top of Duncan Hill, Sunday following reports of a car fire.

The call came in at around 1:15 p.m., and witnesses said upon arrival crews were met with a small car fire in a driveway.

The fire was quickly put out and the road was briefly shut down as by RCMP are fire crews cleaned up the situation.

There is no word on the cause of the fire.
Photo: Contributed

RCMP have enlisted the help of its major-crime investigators after a body was discovered outside a rural community in northern British Columbia.

The North District Major Crime Unit has identified the body as possibly belonging to a 51-year-old resident of Fort St. James.

The person's identity is not being released in order to provide an opportunity for family members to be notified.

Police say the body was found in a rural area of Fort St. James (near Tachie Road and North Road), about 150 kilometres west of Prince George.

The Mounties say the cause of death is unknown.

They say they have no reason to believe the public is at risk.
Photo: York Regional Police

UPDATE: 11:15 a.m.

A four-year-old girl who was allegedly abducted by her father early Monday morning has been airlifted to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after the car they were in rolled over following a police pursuit.

York Regional police allege the girl was taken at 4:20 a.m. when her father forced his way into his ex-wife's house in Aurora, Ont., north of Toronto.

Ontario Provincial Police launched a province-wide Amber Alert for the girl around 9 a.m. Moments later, officers spotted the man's vehicle near Bancroft, Ont., and tried to stop it several times before calling off the chase.

The province's police watchdog, which is called in to investigate incidents involving police in which there has been death, injury or allegations of sexual assault, says the vehicle was later found rolled over in Pembroke, Ont.

OPP Sgt. Kristine Rae says the girl suffered non life-threatening injuries in the crash and was airlifted to a children's hospital in Ottawa.

She says the man  identified as 35-year-old Mario Rodrigues  was taken into custody and transported to hospital with minor injuries.

When asked why the Amber Alert was only issued more than four hours after the alleged abduction, police said that is when they received information that suggested the child's life was in danger.

"Earlier this morning, officers received information that the suspect vehicle was observed at high speeds, driving aggressively," said Rae.

An Amber Alert is issued when police believe a child under 18 years old has been abducted, the child is in danger, and an immediate broadcast will help locate the child.

UPDATE: 7:45 a.m.

Police say a four-year-old girl from Aurora, Ont., who was the subject of an Amber Alert this morning is in hospital following a car crash in eastern Ontario.

York Regional police allege Julia Dela-Cruz was abducted by her father after he forced his way into his ex-wife's house at about 4:20 a.m.

Const. Andy Pattenden says the child's father  35-year-old Mario Rodrigues  was arrested several hours later when his vehicle rolled over near Pembroke, Ont., about 150 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.

OPP Sgt. Kristine Rae says the girl has been taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

ORIGINAL: 6:30 a.m.

Police have issued an Amber Alert for a five-year-old girl they allege was abducted this morning by her father in Aurora, Ont.

York Regional police allege the girl's father forced his way into his ex-wife's home in around 4:20 a.m. and abducted the child.

Const. Andy Pattenden says the man, Mario Rodrigues, has links to addresses in Mississauga and Scarborough.

He says Rodrigues is travelling in a grey or silver van, a Toyota Sienna, with the licence plate BEZY781.

The girl's name is Julia Dela-Cruz and is described as three-foot-five-inches tall, with a thin build and weighing 60 pounds.

Police say she was last seen wearing a green shirt and grey track pants.

Rodrigues, 46, is described as five-foot five-inches tall, with short dark hair, brown eyes, and weighing 160 pounds.

They say the man was last seen heading south from Aurora at about 5:45 a.m.
Photo: Facebook

UPDATE: 9:40 p.m.

Two brothers wanted in the disappearance and presumed slayings of a former B.C. woman and her American husband may be heading for the Mexican border, authorities said Tuesday as they charged the pair with first-degree murder.

Detectives found a car in Phoenix that had been driven by John Blaine Reed and his brother, Tony Clyde Reed, and they said two friends of the brothers gave them a different car  a gold Acura sedan  and $500, knowing they were on the run from police.

A licence plate reader captured the Acura's plate near Calexico, California, on Monday, authorities said.

The brothers are wanted in the disappearance of John Reed's former neighbours, Patrick Shunn, 45, and his wife, Monique Patenaude, 46, who were reported missing a week ago. Investigators say they found evidence the couple were killed, and teams were searching for their bodies in a wooded 23-square-mile area around their home near Oso, 50 miles northeast of Seattle.

"The exact location of the Reed brothers is unknown, but there is reason to believe they may be trying to flee to Mexico," the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office in Washington said in an email Tuesday.

Authorities described them as convicted felons who should be considered armed and dangerous, as several guns seemed to be missing from John Reed's former home. Charging documents filed Tuesday said authorities found blood in the home's bathtub, as well as in John Reed's pickup, the victims' vehicles, and on gasoline-soaked clothing found in bags underneath a mattress outside the home.

The state crime laboratory is analyzing the blood for DNA evidence.

ORIGINAL

Police in the U.S. are hunting two brothers suspected of killing a former B.C. woman and her American husband.

Detectives in Snohomish County say Monique Patenaude, 46, and her husband Patrick Shunn, 45, fell victim to homicidal violence based on evidence theyve found.

The couple lived in Arlington, Wash.

Police are now after John Blaine Reed, 53, and Tony Clyde Reed, 49.

Both men are convicted felons and are believed to be armed and dangerous, said police in Snohomish County.

Sheriff Ty Trenary says the two families lived close to each other and were involved in some kind of property dispute.

They said they were able to obtain video surveillance footage tying the Reed brothers to the disposal of Shunn and Patenaudes vehicles.

Police and search and rescue are still searching for the couple.

The recovery of Patrick and Monique is our agencys number 1 priority right now, for the sake of their families, said Trenary. Our second priority is getting the Reed brothers into custody and off the streets.

Detectives have confirmed that the Reed brothers are in possession of a red 2007 Volkswagen EOS Coupes, Washington plates AXH5106, a vehicle that belongs to their parents.

John Reed is 5-8, 190 pounds with hazel eyes and grey hair. Tony Reed is 5-11, 150 pounds with green eyes and grey hair.

Anyone with direct information on the whereabouts of John or Tony Reed, or with information about the investigation into the murder of Shunn and Patenaude, is asked to call 911 or the Snohomish County Sheriffs Office anonymous tipline at 425-388-3845.

Patrick Shunns brother Erik Shunn said via Facebook that he will release a statement Monday about my personal feelings through this whole ordeal and the absolutely amazing people in my life, amazing Sheriff's Office, Search and Rescue, Media, etc.

He said he would attend a motorcycle race in Portland, Ore. Monday as planned to get my mind off things but that he would not be riding.

I wouldn't have the concentration I need to keep from crashing, or more importantly, not endangering other riders.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: Jennifer Zielinski

Police released more details about the death of a cyclist who was hit by a commercial truck last week in Kelowna.

A 50-year-old Kelowna man was struck by a flatbed truck at 3 p.m. Friday while riding across Baron Road.

Witnesses told police the truck hit the cyclist as it was turning right on to Banks Road from Baron and drove over top of him, said Kelowna RCMP Const. Jesse ODonaghey in a news release today.

"Preliminary findings by investigators are that the cyclist was not wearing a helmet at the time of the collision. Additionally an examination of the commercial vehicle at the scene showed no mechanical defects," said ODonaghey.

The 48-year-old Kelowna man driving the commercial vehicle remained at the scene and was co-operative with police.

The RCMP and the BC Coroners Service continue to investigate. A crash reconstructionist also conducted a detailed examination of the scene.



Police are asking witnesses who haven't yet spoken to police to contact Const. Lise Marion of the Kelowna RCMP Municipal Traffic Section at 250-980-5353.
Photo: Carmen Weld

Police have made an arrest after the discovery of a suspicious backpack in a residential Kelowna alley.

The contents of the bag prompted police to evacuate residents and call in the bomb squad.

RCMP arrested a 25-year-old man in Merritt, who faces potential charges of mischief and unlawful possession of explosive materials.

He is expected to appear before a justice of the peace today.

The abandoned backpack was found just after noon Sunday in the alley behind the 400 block of Wardlaw Avenue, south of downtown Kelowna.

"Police attended the scene and carefully examined the bag and its visible contents, which prompted a precautionary evacuation of six homes in the immediate vicinity of the bag," said Kelowna RCMP Const. Jesse ODonaghey.

Residents were allowed back home at about 10 p.m. after the area was deemed safe.
Photo: Pacific Northwest LNG

First Nations leaders from British Columbia were scheduled to travel to Ottawa this week to make their case against a proposed liquefied natural gas project near Prince Rupert.

Hereditary Chiefs of Lelu Island, Wetsuwe'ten and Gitxsan First Nations join other leaders to protest what they say are misleading claims of indigenous support for the Petronas-led Pacific Northwest liquefied natural gas project.

A recent letter from Lax Kw'alaams Mayor John Helin to federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna offered backing for the $36-billion LNG project on Lelu Island, south of Prince Rupert, if two conditions are met.

In a new release, Hereditary Chief Donald Wesley,a Lax Kw'alaams delegation member, says the incorrect claim of aboriginal support led to a letter from the Port Authority of Prince Rupert, threatening the eviction of protesters from traditional Lelu Island territories.

Opponents of the Pacific Northwest LNG project say it threatens Canada's second largest wild salmon run and could undermine Canada's climate change commitments.

The B.C. government says the project could generate more than 18,000 jobs and produce billions in revenue.

McKenna said in March that a cabinet decision on the environmental assessment should be made by late June.

The news release issued by the delegation pointed to what opponents argue is significant First Nation opposition from leaders and communities throughout northwestern British Columbia and across the province.

First Nations leaders were expected to clarify their position within the Lax Kw'alaams community in regards to Helin's letter and address regional First Nation concerns and opposition to Pacific Northwest LNG while they are in Ottawa.
Photo: Contributed

As much of the B.C. Interior prepares for several days of summer-like temperatures, the provincial wildfire service is taking a longer view.

Environment Canada forecasts a record high 31 degrees in Kamloops Monday, while Quesnel and Fort St. John are expecting highs of 26, and the forecast calls for 27 degrees in Squamish.

The heat arrives as provincial fire information officer Kevin Skrepnek says the B.C. Wildfire Branch is scanning the monthly weather outlook, hoping to get a sense of the upcoming fire season.

He says predictions show the summer should be warmer than normal across the province.

But everything depends on expected June rainfall, and if those rains arrive Skrepnek says wildfires over the summer should not be as intense.

June rains were absent across B.C. last year and that combined with the very low snow pack led to wildfires that charred nearly 3,000 square kilometres of woodland, costing the province nearly $300 million.

Skrepnek says forecasting rain is very difficult more than a few days ahead.

"We are pretty confident, based on outlooks, that we are in store for ... a little bit warmer than usual," he said.

"That rain is really key to the wildfire situation."
Photo: CTV

Homicide investigators in Surrey say support from the family and friends of a teenaged murder victim was instrumental in cracking the case.

An 18-year-old male has been charged with second-degree murder following the December 2014 stabbing that killed 17-year-old Jaylen Sandhu.

The suspect, who was 17 at the time of the attack, is expected to appear in court Monday, but RCMP say because of his age, his name will not be released.

Integrated Homicide Investigation Team spokeswoman Sgt. Stephanie Ashton says community assistance in the case began with quick reporting of the fight that led to Sandhu's death.

Ashton says many witnesses came forward after the stabbing and with support from the victim's family and friends, it was key to obtaining charge approval.

She says the victim came from a closely knit family and his relatives may be relieved that a murder charge has been laid.
A reporter in Houston helped save a man from drowning on live TV.

KTRK Houstons news reporter Steve Campion was on the scene covering flooding in the area when he saw two cars drive straight into the rising waters.

In a video viewed more than 3.6 million times on Facebook, Campion convinces the man  with some effort and a tinge of annoyance in his voice  to get out of the car.

"Dude, you gotta get out of the car. You gotta get out!" instructs the reporter.

What do I do? replies the dumbfounded man.

"Swim. Leave the car. Swim."

"Stay in the car?"

"Swim. Swim. Leave the car. Swim."

The man's face shows utter shock.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner says officials are trying to determine if the body of a person found in a vehicle submerged in water is a storm-related death.

Turner says the person is believed to be a contractor working for the city's airport system but authorities don't have enough information to confirm the cause of death.

The fatality would be the first related to flooding that's inundated hundreds of homes and roads in and around Houston. Some areas have received more than a foot of rain since Sunday night.

Emergency responders have tried to reach several horses trapped in high water near a Houston-area stable where flooding nearly reached the roofs of some buildings.

People driving by on a road near the flooded area stopped to yell encouragement to animals struggling to keep their heads above water Monday.

The horses were seen trying to get over what appeared to be a flood-inundated fence in the area near Cypress Creek.

More than 110,000 Houston area homes and business have lost electricity during storms that flooded roads and grounded hundreds of flights.

 with files from The Canadian Press
Photo: RCMP

The search for a missing ATVer has been suspended, says the RCMP.

RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk says crews have been unable to locate 33-year-old David Shackleton of Peachland.

They completed the search of the entire area and did not locate him, says Moskaluk.

Emergency personnel received a report that Shackleton had gone missing in Trout Creek west of Summerland following an ATV rollover at about 6 p.m. on Saturday.

More than 30 volunteers from SAR, with help from RCMP K-9 teams and air support, searched throughout the weekend for Shackleton without success.

Moskaluk says the search has been suspended until the water levels subside and it is safer for the rescue crews.

It will be reassessed every 24 hours for water levels to subside in order to increase the chances of locating him and rendering it safer for searchers to conduct the search, says Moskaluk.

RCMP investigators are presuming that Mr. Shackleton drowned when he was swept away in the fast moving water."

Search efforts were hampered by the difficult terrain, as the creek is currently high and moving fast.
A conservation group has acquired nearly 35 hectares of land that is home to more than 20 species of at-risk antelope-brush near Oliver.

The rare antelope-brush habitat in the South Okanagan will be added to the 117 hectares of property that the Nature Trust of B.C. began purchasing in parcels starting in 1999.

The non-profit group says the property at the south end of Vaseux Lake between Okanagan Falls and Oliver also supports more than half of the Canadian population of Behr's Hairstreak butterfly.

It says the butterfly's survival depends on antelope-brush because it's the only plant the butterfly uses to lay its eggs.

Individuals and organizations helped buy the entire property at an undisclosed price, and Nature Trust of B.C. CEO Jasper Lament says animals now have the opportunity to adjust to climate change in the years ahead.

Dylan Kennedy says his family had owned the entire antelope-brush habitat since 1886 and that it has remained in a natural state for five generations.
The Kelowna Chamber of Commerce needs to learn to check their facts!

Whether you are a tour professional, a Chamber of Commerce employee or a consumer, it is easy to find answers on the Internet today. I did a bit of research regarding the Chambers claim that Collette Vacations is a Canadian company. This morning I called their Surrey office on the 800 number listed on their website for Canada and had a lovely conversation with the individual who answered the phone. I asked her where she was located and she told me, Surrey, Vancouver. Great, I said, I am looking at your website and the address looks like an apartment building. How do I find you? Oh, she said, we are just a call centre for Collette Vacations. Well, that explains my confusion. Where is the company located?, I queried. She said, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA.

Why was this so difficult for the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce to find out and why, after it was brought to their attention, is the Chambers CEO, Caroline Grover, still insisting that Collette is a Canadian company? If she needs more proof, she should call Dan Sullivan who might be very amused to learn that his century-old family company is not American.

In addition, Ms. Grover keeps reminding us that Collette Vacations is a member of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce. What she is not telling us is that in 2015, in order to legitimize their trip to New Orleans, Collette Vacations had to join the Chamber and they have retained that membership in order to run the Iceland Tour. In 2013, CITSLINC in Monterey Park, California, joined the Chamber in order to run their China trip. No request for proposal (RFP) was sent to local tour companies for planning or running this trip. Rather, the Chamber contracted it themselves, only to realize that CITSLINC was not licensed to sell travel in BC. They then needed to send out an RFP to local travel agents to be legally able to process the monies. In 2014, they used Trafalgar, an international company, also not licensed by BC Consumer Protection and again had to have a third party involved to process the payments.

Both of these companies joined the Chamber to legitimize their bid and both companies are no longer Chamber members. JTB Corporation was used for their Japan/Vietnam 2016 trip and was also required to join the Chamber. I wonder how long they will retain their membership?

The bigger question is: Why is the Chamber dabbling in travel at all? There are many Kelowna companies that are in business to sell travel and employ local residents. They are experienced, well versed in destinations world-wide, and most importantly are licensed to sell travel in BC. By competing with them, the Chamber is earning revenue on the backs of their members. They are a non-profit organization whose mandate is to promote members and local business to the Kelowna community.

In 2015, a local company, Wells Gray Tours, planned and hosted the trip to China for the Chamber and was asked not to do any follow-up with the travellers as the Chamber now considered them their clients. Wells Gray Tours paid the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce $28,000 and provided three complimentary seats on the tour to the Chamber.

As a travel professional and a consumer, I feel the Chamber is misleading their members and the residents of Kelowna. Their Travel & Learn program should be cancelled along with the Haida Gwaii and Iceland tours that are still being promoted for 2016.

Joan Niemeier, CTP
In a recent letter to the editor, Mr. Ballingall stated that Kelowna should have a first class tourist information centre and that the proposed site for the new tourist information building was an excellent choice. While we agree that Kelowna should have a first class tourist information centre, we disagree with the proposed location on the waterfront at the foot of Queensway.



We have travelled over most of Canada and the USA and almost every city in which we have visited has a tourist centre conveniently located on or near the main highway with ample parking. Most people that will visit the centre are first time visitors looking for information. Many will be driving a motor home or pulling some sort of a trailer. They want a convenient place to park. Downtown Kelowna, unfortunately, is a very difficult place to find a parking spot and the foot of Queensway is a poor location because of this. Add to this the fact that the proposed 2 story building will block the view of the lake.



Why the great rush to build it? Why do we need to make such an irreversible decision right now? Over the next two years Kelowna will undergo dramatic changes with the new Westcorp hotel on Bernard, the relocation of the police building, the stated need for a new community centre, museum and arena and a new complex being built on the Capri site.



Why not just hold off for a couple of years and determine whether there is a more logical place to put this building? The existing centre at Harvey and Ellis has been there for many years, is in a highly visible location with ample parking that serves the need of most tourists. What is wrong with building the new complex on the existing site? What is wrong with incorporating it into the new Capri complex? Both these locations are right on Highway 97 and have better parking than the foot of Queensway. And they do not block the view of the lake.



Or is this just too logical?

Bob and Rachel Whitehead
Photo: Flickr

A free-speech battle by opponents of abortion at the University of Victoria has been shut down by British Columbia's highest court.

The university approved a permit for a demonstration by the group in January 2013, but then revoked the approval when it learned its student society had sanctioned the group for apparently harassing students.

When the group, called Youth Protecting Youth, held the demonstration anyway, the University suspended its outdoor space booking privileges for one year, prompting court action by a pro-life student club.

A panel of three B.C. Appeal Court judges has now ruled that the charter of rights doesn't apply to the university's regulation of its outdoor space.

The panel agreed with a lower court ruling, saying that because the university was a private organization, and booked the space for non-academic reasons, the charter argument didn't apply.

The group was supported by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which unsuccessfully argued that charter values including free speech should be taken into account by institutions such as Canadian universities.
Photo: Twitter - NDTV

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff says she won't step down despite the lower Chamber of Deputies voting in favour of impeaching her.

Speaking a day after suffering a major defeat in the lower chamber of Congress, Rousseff says she will continue fighting those trying to remove her from office.

In her words, "I have the energy, strength and courage to confront this injustice."

The measure to impeach Rousseff now goes to the Senate. If the Senate takes it up, she will be suspended while a trial is conducted.

Rousseff is accused of using state bank money to plug holes in the federal budget. She argues that previous presidents did similar things and stresses that she has not been charged with a crime.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Dinosaurs were in decline long before an asteroid strike polished them off about 66 million years ago, a study says.

It's the latest contribution to a long-running debate: Did the asteroid reverse the fortune of a thriving group of animals? Or were dinosaurs already struggling, and the disruptive effects of the asteroid pushed them over the edge to extinction? Or were the dinosaurs headed for oblivion anyway?

While some have argued that dinosaurs began petering out some 5 million or 10 million years before their final doom, the new paper suggests it started happening much earlier, maybe 50 million years before the asteroid catastrophe.

In terms of species, "they were going extinct faster than they could replace themselves," said paleontologist Manabu Sakamoto of the University of Reading in England.

He led a team of British scientists who analyzed three large dinosaur family trees, looking for evidence of when extinctions began to outnumber the appearances of new species.

They found that starting to happen about 50 million years before the asteroid for most groups of dinosaurs. Two other groups showed increases rather than declines; if their results are included, the overall time for the start of dinosaur decline shrinks to 24 million years before the final demise.

Declining groups include two-legged carnivores like T. rex and the immense, long-necked, four-legged plant eaters known as sauropods. In contrast, another familiar dinosaur, triceratops, belonged to a group that was on the rise.

The results appear in a paper released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Sakamoto said it's not clear what caused the long-term declines.

The results support the idea that the asteroid strike pushed a struggling group into extinction, rather than the idea that dinosaurs were doomed anyway, he said. He also noted that one group in decline still lives on in its descendants, today's birds.

The killer asteroid is thought to have struck the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, creating widespread wildfires and lingering smoke that blocked sunlight, and changing climate.

Mark Norell, chair of the paleontology division at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, called Sakamoto's analysis "the best you can do" given the lack of available fossils from that time.

Most data came from North America with some from Asia and western Europe he said, and the conclusion would be firmer if fossils could be included from a wider geographical distribution.

David Fastovsky, chair of the geosciences department at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, said placing the seeds of the decline so early in time is striking and unexpected. Paleontologists will no doubt examine the study "quite closely," he said.
The shocking blast is caught on a phone cam.

6:15 a.m. update: Rescue workers searched rubble early Thursday for survivors of a fertilizer plant explosion in a small Texas town that killed as many as 15 people and injured more than 160 others. The blast left the factory a smouldering ruin and levelled homes and businesses for blocks in every direction.

Wednesday 11 p.m. update: A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco on Wednesday injured dozens of people and killed an unknown number of others, leaving the factory a smouldering ruin and levelling buildings for blocks in every direction.

The explosion at West Fertilizer in West, a community about 20 miles north of Waco, happened shortly before 8 p.m. and could be heard as far away as Waxahachie, 45 miles to the north. It sent flames shooting high into the night sky, and rained burning embers, shrapnel and debris down on shocked and frightened residents.

Although authorities said it will be some time before they know the full extent of the loss of life, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman D.L. Wilson said just after midnight that an unknown number of people had died.

West Mayor Tommy Muska told reporters that his city of about 2,800 residents needs "your prayers."

"We've got a lot of people who are hurt, and there's a lot of people, I'm sure, who aren't gonna be here tomorrow," Muska said. "We're gonna search for everybody. We're gonna make sure everybody's accounted for. That's the most important thing right now."

A member of the city council, Al Vanek, said there is a four-block area around the explosion "that is totally decimated." Wilson said the damage was comparable to the destruction caused by the 1995 bomb blast that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Muska, who is also a volunteer firefighter, said the town's department went to the plant to fight a fire about 6:30 p.m., and the blast that followed knocked off his fire helmet and blew out the doors and windows of his home nearby.

He said main fire was under control as of 11 p.m. (9 p.m. PST), but residents were urged to remain indoors because of the threat of new explosions or leaks of ammonia from the plant's ruins.

Among the damaged buildings was what appeared to be a housing complex with a collapsed roof, a nearby middle school and the West Rest Haven Nursing Home, from which first-responders evacuated 133 patients, some in wheelchairs.

"We did get there and got that taken care of," Muska said.

Photo: CTV

7 p.m. update: An explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant has injured a number of people, according to reports.

The explosion occurred north of Waco around 8 p.m. local time (6 p.m. PST). There are reports that local hospitals are flooded with patients.

Aerial footage shows a facility still burning in the dark. A triage centre has been set up at a nearby football field to treat some of the injured.

Story is developing
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CDC adds Belize to interim travel guidance related to Zika virus

Media Statement For Immediate Release: Monday, April 18, 2016

Contact: Media Relations,

(404) 639-3286

CDC is working with other public health officials to monitor for ongoing Zika virus transmission. Today, CDC posted a Zika virus travel notice for Belize. CDC has issued travel notices (level 2, practice enhanced precautions) for people traveling to destinations with Zika. For a full list of affected countries/regions, visit http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-travel-information.

As more information becomes available, CDCs travel notices will be updated. Travelers to areas with cases of Zika virus infection are at risk of being infected with the Zika virus. Mosquitoes that spread Zika are aggressive daytime biters. They also bite at night. There is no vaccine or medicine for Zika virus. The best way to avoid Zika virus infection is to prevent mosquito bites.

Some travelers to areas with Zika will become infected while traveling but will not become sick until they return home and they might not have any symptoms. To help stop the spread of Zika, travelers should use insect repellent for three weeks after travel to prevent mosquito bites.

Some people who are infected do not have any symptoms. People who do have symptoms have reported fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes. The sickness is usually mild with symptoms that last from several days to a week. Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon and the number of deaths is low. Travelers to areas with Zika should monitor for symptoms or sickness upon return. If they become sick, they should tell their healthcare professional when and where they have traveled.

CDC has received reports of Zika virus being spread by sexual contact with sick returning travelers. Until more is known, CDC continues to recommend that pregnant women and women trying to become pregnant take the following precautions.

Pregnant women

Should not travel to any area with Zika.

If you must travel to or live in one of these areas, talk to your healthcare provider first and strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites.

If you have a male partner who lives in or has traveled to an area with Zika, either use condoms, the right way, every time you have sex or do not have sex during your pregnancy.

Women trying to get pregnant

Before you or your male partner travel, talk to your healthcare provider about your plans to become pregnant and the risk of Zika virus infection.

You and your male partner should strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites.

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is very likely triggered by Zika in a small proportion of infections, much as it is after a variety of other infections. CDC is working with Brazil to study the possibility of a link between Zika and GBS. For more information on Zika, visit www.cdc.gov/zika .

###

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICESexternal icon
Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement sales down as demand tumbles

ICR Newsroom By 18 April 2016

Steppe Cement has seen sales and revenue fall in the first quarter of 2016 as the company predicts that demand in Kazakhstan will be 11 per cent lower this year than it was in 2015.

According to a report from DigitalLook, Steppe Cements volumes were down one per cent YoY in Q1 2016, falling to 190,953 tonnes. Revenues fared worse, falling by 12 per cent to KZT2.3bn (US$6.8m) over earnings in the same period last year. Ex-factory prices have declined by 13 per cent.

Despite this, Steppe said that its market share rose two per cent to 16 per cent in Q1 2016. However, the company remains pessimistic about the market in general, predicting that demand this year will be 8.5Mt, down from 9.6Mt in 2015.

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Pakistan: Producers to invest up to US$1bn in CAPEX

ICR Newsroom By 18 April 2016

Cement producers in Pakistan will invest between US$700m and US$1bn in expanding capacity over the next few years, according to Mohammad Ali Tabba, chair of the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association.

According to an interview with Mr Tabba in the Nation, four companies have already announced expansion plans: Cherat Cement; Attock Cement; DG Khan Cement; and Lucky Cement. Capacity in 2015-16 stands at 45.6Mta.

Despite this investment, Mr Tabba noted that the industry was not receiving the same degree of support from the government as were other sectors. The industry is on course to pay over US$859m in taxes this year.

While the tax burden on manufacturers has risen, cement prices have fallen over the past two to three years, Mr Tabba said. He also highlighted the fact that between 0.5Mt and 0.7Mt of cement was being smuggled into the country from Iran.

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Indonesia: Widodo to meet with cement plant protestors

ICR Newsroom By 18 April 2016

Indonesian president Joko Widodo will meet with nine women who encased their feet in concrete in protest over the construction of a cement factory in Java.

According to reports in JKT Globe, the women are objecting to the planned construction of a Semen Indonesia plant near Mount Kendeng in Rembang district, Central Java.

"The nine women have been promised a meeting with the president, and they believe that they have achieved their objectives," said Yunita, a lawyer at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH).

Protestors are concerned about the impact that the plant will have on their livelihoods and the local environment.

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Ghana to limit cement imports

18 April 2016

The Ministry of Trade and Industry in Ghana has moved to ban imports of cement into the country.



The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has backed the initiative, arguing that the ban will protect the local industry which already has an excess of capacity.



In March, this year the Ministry of Trade and Industry proposed imposing a ceiling on the annual importation of cement into Ghana through a legislative instrument.



The sector minister Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, who announced the decision to restrict imports in a statement, instructed all cement importers in the country to apply for permits. However, companies legitimately licensed under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme were exempt from applying for permits.

The directive is also expected to ensure that cement imported into the country meets quality standards in order to protect the construction industry.

Analysts say Africa's leading cement manufacturer, Dangote Company and other cement importers will face challenges in Ghana, following plans by the government to restrict cement imports into the country.



The country currently imports over 1Mt of cement per annum. This, according to the minister, has created a surplus of supply in the industry.

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This is a smectic microstructure of a two-dimensional planar boundary of a 3-D simulation. The intersection of smectic layers and the section form sets of concentric circles, which are shown as thin black curves.

The key to understanding smectics is the analogy to Einstein's relativity. If we view 'time' as the number of layers crossed (plotted upward) by a pulse of light at the centers of the concentric circles, then equally spaced layers correspond to a constant speed of light - leading to 'light cones' at a constant angle.

Using the latest computer game technology, a Cornell-led team of physicists has come up with a "suitably beautiful" explanation to a puzzle that has baffled researchers in the materials and theoretical physics communities for a century.

Physics professor James Sethna has co-authored a paper on the unusual microstructure of smectics - liquid crystals whose molecules are arranged in layers and form ellipses and hyperbolas - and their similarity to martensites, a crystalline structure of steel.

In fact, Sethna and his cohorts have termed smectic liquids "the world's weirdest martensite."

Sethna's group employed the computing power of a graphics processing unit, or GPU - the technology that has led to the advent of amazingly realistic video games - to run hundreds of numerical simulations. They developed a clustering algorithm and proposed a theory of smectic microstructure that merges the laws of association between smectic liquid crystals and martensites.

"This has been this puzzle for many years, and it finally has a suitably beautiful explanation," Sethna said. "It ties together ideas from special relativity, and ideas from martensites, to explain this whole puzzle.

"It's aesthetically beautiful," he added, "there's a little bit of Euclidean geometry for those people who actually went to geometry class. It's like, 'Ellipses and hyperbolas, I remember those.' And you pour this (smectic) liquid and it forms these things."

If you fill a glass with a smectic liquid, due to its layering pattern the liquid forms beautiful ellipses and hyperbolas. The ellipses are defects - places where the desired ordering breaks down.

In martensite steel, named for German metallurgist Adolf Martens in 1898, its different low-energy crystal orientations mesh together in microscopic layers to give it a hardness factor far superior to pearlitic and other forms of steel.

In 1910, French physicist Georges Friedel studied a fluid that formed ellipses and hyperbolas, and realized that they must be formed by equally spaced layers of molecules.

Sethna suggests that a possible reason Friedel knew enough to be able to identify these ellipses and hyperbolas is that "he was French.

And in France, they used to study much more sophisticated math in high school, and everybody in high school learned about the cyclides of Dupin."

Like concentric, equally spaced spheres can fill space with only a point defect at the center, the cyclides of Dupin can fill space with only ellipses and hyperbolas as defects. Friedel saw these defects, and deduced the structure.

The recent breakthrough, inspired by the GPU simulations, was to realize the connection between smectics and martensites.

"For over 100 years, these cool focal conics have been a curiosity - they didn't fit into our system," says Sethna. "Now we know that these cool cyclides follow the same rules as the crystals that fit together into martensitic steel."
Light drives the migration of charge carriers (electrons and holes) at the juncture between semiconductors with mismatched crystal lattices. These heterostructures hold promise for advancing optoelectronics and exploring new physics. The schematic's background is a scanning transmission electron microscope image showing the bilayer in atomic-scale resolution.

Epitaxy, or growing crystalline film layers that are templated by a crystalline substrate, is a mainstay of manufacturing transistors and semiconductors. If the material in one deposited layer is the same as the material in the next layer, it can be energetically favorable for strong bonds to form between the highly ordered, perfectly matched layers. In contrast, trying to layer dissimilar materials is a great challenge if the crystal lattices dont match up easily. Then, weak van der Waals forces create attraction but dont form strong bonds between unlike layers.

In a study led by the Department of Energys Oak Ridge National Laboratory, scientists synthesized a stack of atomically thin monolayers of two lattice-mismatched semiconductors. One, gallium selenide, is a p-type semiconductor, rich in charge carriers called holes. The other, molybdenum diselenide, is an n-type semiconductor, rich in electron charge carriers. Where the two semiconductor layers met, they formed an atomically sharp heterostructure called a pn junction, which generated a photovoltaic response by separating electronhole pairs that were generated by light. The achievement of creating this atomically thin solar cell, published in Science Advances, shows the promise of synthesizing mismatched layers to enable new families of functional two-dimensional (2D) materials.

The idea of stacking different materials on top of each other isnt new by itself. In fact, it is the basis for most electronic devices in use today. But such stacking usually only works when the individual materials have crystal lattices that are very similar, i.e., they have a good lattice match. This is where this research breaks new ground by growing high-quality layers of very different 2D materials, broadening the number of materials that can be combined and thus creating a wider range of potential atomically thin electronic devices.

Because the two layers had such a large lattice mismatch between them, its very unexpected that they would grow on each other in an orderly way, said ORNLs Xufan Li, lead author of the study. But it worked.

The group was the first to show that monolayers of two different types of metal chalcogenides binary compounds of sulfur, selenium or tellurium with a more electropositive element or radicalhaving such different lattice constants can be grown together to form a perfectly aligned stacking bilayer. Its a new, potential building block for energy-efficient optoelectronics, Li said.

Upon characterizing their new bilayer building block, the researchers found that the two mismatched layers had self-assembled into a repeating long-range atomic order that could be directly visualized by the Moire patterns they showed in the electron microscope. We were surprised that these patterns aligned perfectly, Li said.

Researchers in ORNLs Functional Hybrid Nanomaterials group, led by David Geohegan, conducted the study with partners at Vanderbilt University, the University of Utah and Beijing Computational Science Research Center.

These new 2D mismatched layered heterostructures open the door to novel building blocks for optoelectronic applications, said senior author Kai Xiao of ORNL. They can allow us to study new physics properties which cannot be discovered with other 2D heterostructures with matched lattices. They offer potential for a wide range of physical phenomena ranging from interfacial magnetism, superconductivity and Hofstadters butterfly effect.

Li first grew a monolayer of molybdenum diselenide, and then grew a layer of gallium selenide on top. This technique, called van der Waals epitaxy, is named for the weak attractive forces that hold dissimilar layers together. With van der Waals epitaxy, despite big lattice mismatches, you can still grow another layer on the first, Li said. Using scanning transmission electron microscopy, the team characterized the atomic structure of the materials and revealed the formation of Moire patterns.

The scientists plan to conduct future studies to explore how the material aligns during the growth process and how material composition influences properties beyond the photovoltaic response. The research advances efforts to incorporate 2D materials into devices.

For many years, layering different compounds with similar lattice cell sizes has been widely studied. Different elements have been incorporated into the compounds to produce a wide range of physical properties related to superconductivity, magnetism and thermoelectrics. But layering 2D compounds having dissimilar lattice cell sizes is virtually unexplored territory.

Weve opened the door to exploring all types of mismatched heterostructures, Li said.
The "World's Best Travel Jacket" Kickstarter campaign has raised more than $11.3 million on crowdfunding sites in 2015 (Baubax photo)

Baubax, one of the top crowdfunding projects of all time, is finally shipping the last batch of jackets to backers. But some backers who've anticipated delivery for months are already fed up.

The company, which launched in Chicago in 2015 and has since moved to Seattle, billed itself the maker of the "world's best travel jacket."

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Baubax raised more than $11.3 million on crowdfunding sites in 2015, with more than 40,000 backers ordering the company's hoodies, jackets and blazers. The multi-featured products were often likened to a wearable Swiss Army Knife.

But shipping delays and communication problems frustrated many once-loyal customers, and when Baubax began selling jackets on third-party sites before delivering to crowdfunding backers, some lost patience.

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More than 75 percent of crowdfunded projects are delayed, according to research by University of Pennsylvania Wharton School professor Ethan Mollick. And projects that far exceed their funding goals are more likely to be delayed. As orders grow, founders can lose sight of the costs and production demands of filling them.

In updates to backers, Baubax CEO and co-founder Hiral Sanghavi shifted blame to third-party shipping partners. Now, Rakuten Super Logistics, Baubax's North American shipping provider, says all remaining inventory was scheduled to be sent out by Friday, April 15.

Kickstarter backers started receiving their jackets  which include travel-friendly features such as an eye mask and passport pocket  in mid-February, Sanghavi told Blue Sky. Some who placed pre-orders on Indiegogo, where Baubax also began offering its products after becoming one of the biggest Kickstarter campaigns of all time, have not yet received anything. (It now ranks fourth on Kickstarter's most-funded projects page.) Shoppers continue to order jackets through the Indiegogo platform.

In late January, e-commerce site Touch of Modern began selling the jackets with no reported shipping delays. When crowdfunding backers started noticing the sales on Touch of Modern, Baubax assured them they would receive their orders first.

Sanghavi said Baubax has two accounts with Rakuten: one for crowdfunding orders and another for traditional online sales. The crowdfunding shipments, which outnumbered the e-commerce orders and often included more items, went out more slowly than the Touch of Modern orders, angering some waiting backers.

In retrospect, Sanghavi wishes he'd waited to launch on Touch of Modern, he said.

At the time, he felt it was necessary because Baubax had only about three months of cash to run the business and no additional funding on top of its crowdfunding war chest.

"I didn't know it would create such a backlash, because shipments had started already back then," Sanghavi said.

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He blamed Rakuten for overpromising how many North American shipments it could process in a given day.

Baubax's international shipping partner, Floship, also made mistakes, Sanghavi said, including mislabeling nearly 1,000 customers' orders with a higher price, resulting in additional fees for international recipients. A Floship spokesman confirmed that error and others.

Rakuten Super Logistics CEO Joe DiSorbo confirmed that his company shipped fewer of the 35,000 crowdfunding orders per day than originally promised, but he attributed that to orders being more complicated than anticipated. He said it also took time for Baubax to provide his company order information in the right format, another hurdle.

Sanghavi said more than 75 percent of North American orders have been delivered to crowdfunding backers. Still, a vocal minority are attempting to take the company to task through social media.

Leading the charge is Kat Dawson, a retiree who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She said she spent $790 on six Baubax jackets and a travel blanket on the company's Indiegogo and Kickstarter campaigns but hasn't received anything.

"I really drank the Kool-Aid," said Dawson, who said she has backed more than a dozen other crowdfunding campaigns. She said she requested a refund through her credit card company.

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In March, Dawson created a Facebook group where Baubax backers can commiserate about their experiences. She said she create it in response to having comments deleted on Facebook, marked as spam on Indiegogo and being blocked on Twitter. The group has attracted 565 members, or about 1 percent of Baubax's more than 54,200 crowdfunding backers.

"We needed somewhere to provide unbiased reviews  good, bad, ugly, indifferent  where they had no control over taking out the negatives," Dawson said. She said she posted comments frequently on Indiegogo, but that platform allows creators to mark repeated or abusive messages as spam.

Sanghavi said his team removed comments that were abusive, threatening or that asked questions already addressed in updates.

Joseph Brassard, of Cambridge, Mass., said he got a refund from Baubax after requesting it through his credit card company. After he received the money, he also got a tracking number for his shipment.

"It's indicative that they really are not in control of their whole channel export business," Brassard said.

Lance Hicks, of Newport Beach, Calif., had ordered a Baubax blazer for his son, and received it in early April. He said he understood the delays were a result of being overwhelmed by orders.

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"I'm thinking about getting one for myself for travel," Hick said. "Now, I'm assuming, their production time is up and running and they're going to be more much responsive."

This summer, Baubax may attempt another Kickstarter campaign for another travel product, Sanghavi said. He's hired a team of contractors to develop the new item, and said Baubax's 11 full-time employees are working on fulfilling jacket orders.

"Our goal is not to take people's money and ship them a product which doesn't help them," Sanghavi said. "Our goal is to build a brand."

Next time around, he said, he plans to put policies in place that will allow Baubax to offer easier returns and exchanges, like e-commerce sites do.

Sanghavi, who started Baubax while an MBA candidate at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, acknowledged he made many mistakes throughout the campaign and said he took full responsibility.

He said he hopes to go back to school to finish his MBA, admitting the Baubax experience has shown him he has room to improve.

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"I still have a lot to learn," he said.

aelahi@tribpub.com

Twitter @aminamania

This story has been updated.
The Plamondon brothers - Jim, left, and Pete Jr. - purchased the rights to the Roy Rogers brand and oversee a brand that encompasses 50 restaurants across six Mid-Atlantic states. (Katherine Frey / The Washington Post)

Jim Plamondon seemed a good bet to become a member of the legal profession's elite back in 1995.

A Notre Dame grad and George Washington University law school alum, he was a federal prosecutor when he chucked it all to sell roast beef sandwiches and fried chicken.

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Quite a pivot. Or maybe not.

Jim, 52, and his brother, Pete Jr., 56, are the third generation of their family that has been in the hospitality business. Their father ran the Roy Rogers chain for what is now Marriott International and eventually owned 15 of the restaurants.

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The sons grew up, joined their dad's company and would eventually buy the restaurants from him. Later, they purchased the rights to the Roy Rogers brand and are in the midst of a slow resurrection of the chain.

Plamondon Cos., as they call themselves, oversees a brand that encompasses 50 restaurants across six Mid-Atlantic states. Not bad, but well off the chain's peak of 648 in its heyday.

Of the 50 existing Roy Rogers, 23 are owned directly by the brothers and 27 are owned by franchisees. Six more are opening this year.

"Dad was successful with these restaurants and did very well," Jim said. "We had that bug."

I am fascinated by the science of selling fast-food. As a junkie growing up in Upstate New York, I loved 55 cent Club Burgers and Big-R roast beef sandwiches at Carrols, which was the Syracuse-area version of McDonald's.

Jim said his business is all about what he calls "the holy trio" of roast beef, fried chicken and burgers.

"People ask what sells the most. . . . It's about a third, a third and a third for the main entrees," he said.

Roy Rogers's customer sweet spot is between the ages of 25 to 54, with a slightly above-average income that fits nicely in this market. There are no $1 coupons or kiddie playgrounds at RR. The average check in 2014 was $9.22, and about half the business is drive-through.

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Jim is certainly mindful of the demons stalking the fast-food industry: sugar, obesity and cholesterol. He said a salad, roast beef sandwich and bottle of water keeps the calorie count under 500. My feeling: What's the point of going to Roy Rogers without indulging?

He said the brand's differentiator is real roast beef and a personal touch that includes a roving hostess (who keeps the trademark Fixin's Bar fresh).

"We are somewhere between typical fast-food and fast-casual, like Panera, Chipotle and Bobby Flay's Burger Palace," Jim said. "We have a very loyal customer base."

Plamondon Cos.' Frederick, Md.-based hospitality empire also extends to hotels. The company and its investors own six of them, with three more on the way, stretching from Pennsylvania to Georgia.

The combined restaurant and hotel businesses employ 1,000 people and gross more than $100 million a year, with about $85 million of that coming out of the restaurant end. The brothers' share of that gross from their nonfranchised, corporate-owned restaurants is about $39 million.

I estimate that the brothers net a profit of more than $1 million off the restaurant trade alone, based on industry standards. Much of that goes back into the business. The brothers pay themselves a salary. The hotels are lucrative, as well, although they share those profits with numerous partners.

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"You can set your own hours," Jim said, but he added: "You are always working. We are visiting our businesses. We are hands-on owners, not absentee owners. We are in our restaurants and hotels every day."

They learned that from their dad.

The Plamondon family's love affair with the hospitality industry extends back to the 1940s, when their grandfather owned the Windswept Hotel in Vero Beach, Fla.

Their father, Pete Sr., now 84, worked summers at the Florida hotel and eventually worked for Marriott, the eponymous hospitality empire founded by a Washington-area family. Pete Sr. became the head of its restaurant division and was on the team when the company created the Roy Rogers chain in the 1960s.

I wanted to know how the Roy Rogers name came to stand for fried chicken and roast beef sandwiches.

According to Jim, who checked with his dad, Marriott wanted to launch a national restaurant chain back in the 1960s. It bought RoBee's restaurants in Fort Wayne, Ind., but Marriott was unable to nail down the national RoBee's naming rights. A Marriott board member suggested naming the chain after the television and movie cowboy Roy Rogers, whose agent was a friend of the board member's.

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Roy Rogers saddled up (he received licensing fees for lending his name), and the first Roy Rogers restaurant opened in Falls Church, Va., in April 1968. The brand expanded through the conversion of Marriott-owned Jr. Hot Shoppes restaurants and the acquisition of other restaurant chains. (Trivia note: The Plamondon family appeared in a Jr. Hot Shoppes television commercial.)

When Peter Sr. left Marriott in 1979, his package included financing for Roy Rogers restaurants that he planned to develop. He became a franchisee of Roy Rogers, opening the first store in August 1980 in Frederick, eventually building it into 15 franchises.

The Plamondons kept the franchises even after Marriott sold Roy Rogers to Hardee's in 1990. (Hardee's ultimately converted or sold off the 650 Roy Rogers in that deal.)

The Plamondon brothers joined their father's business in the 1990s and eventually bought out their dad in 1998 through a 15-year financing deal. In the meantime, Pete Jr., a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, suggested that they use their capital to diversify into the hotel business.

In 1996, they built a Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel, a Marriott brand, in a corporate office park in Frederick.

"We didn't know the future of Roy Rogers, and we were looking for a growth vehicle," Jim said.

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The brothers got a reassuring glimpse into RR's future four years later. The "aha moment" came Dec. 22, 2000, when they opened a Roy Rogers in an old Burger King location in a strip center in Montgomery County, which had not seen a Roy Rogers restaurant in years.

"The lines were out both doors and were 30 people deep," Jim said. "You would have thought we were giving the food away.

"My brother and I said to each other, 'We need to buy this brand.' "

So they did, acquiring the rights to the brand in 2002 from the holding company of Hardee's. With it came 70 restaurants, many of which were tired and had not paid royalties in years. Some of the owners were encouraged to try another brand.

Within a few years, they lowered the number of branded restaurants to 40, including the 15 owned by the brothers. They remodeled, reinvented service, and created a do-over on the image so the franchisees would start paying royalties and become fresh.

And as a bow to their cowboy namesake, the brothers called their reinvention "Project Trigger."

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That was the name of Roy Rogers's horse.
Chicago magazine has acquired Splash from Wrapports, putting the celebrity weekly back under the direction of its founder, Susanna Homan.

Homan created Splash in 2012 as a supplement in the Wrapports-owned Chicago Sun-Times. She ostensibly left the fashion and lifestyle magazine behind when she was named editor and publisher at Tribune Publishing-owned Chicago magazine last month.

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In a memo to employees Monday, Homan said she was "excited to be reunited" with Splash.

"After my departure, Wrapports and Tribune Publishing decided that it made strategic sense for me to continue leading the Splash brand," Homan said. "This morning, they reached an agreement that moves Splash magazine under the Chicago magazine portfolio."

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Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Dana Meyer confirmed Monday that an agreement with Wrapports to acquire Splash magazine had been reached but declined to disclose the terms, or how the magazine will be distributed to readers going forward. Meyer said the deal is effective immediately.

Sources said about seven Splash employees are expected to relocate with the publication this week to Chicago magazine's offices at the Freedom Center plant on Chicago Avenue at the Chicago River.

Homan replaced editor Beth Fenner at Chicago magazine. She will add the duties of editor and publisher at Splash, which she said will operate as an "editorially independent" sister publication of Chicago magazine.

Former Wrapports owner Michael Ferro, who became the chairman and largest shareholder of Chicago-based Tribune Publishing in February, has donated his 40 percent stake in the Sun-Times to a new charitable trust to avoid conflicts of interest.

rchannick@tribpub.com

Twitter @RobertChannick
San Jose, Calif.-based Polycom announced Friday that it was being purchased by its Canadian competitor Mitel Networks in a $2 billion deal. The merger has many of the classic signs of an "inversion," in which a U.S. company attempts to lower its tax rate by moving its headquarters out of the country. The companies deny it's an inversion. (Polycom)

Less than a week after the Obama administration introduced new rules to curb the flood of U.S. companies moving overseas to lower their tax bill, a California telecommunications firm is about to test the waters.

San Jose, Calif.-based Polycom announced Friday that it was being purchased by its Canadian competitor Mitel Networks in a $2 billion deal. The merger has many of the classic signs of an "inversion," in which a U.S. company attempts to lower its tax rate by moving its headquarters out of the country.

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The deal, for example, is structured as a reverse merger in which the smaller Mitel, which is valued by the stock market at about $1 billion, is buying the bigger U.S. company, Polycom. Polycom has a market capitalization of about $1.7 billion. Also, Polycom's shareholders would own the majority of the new company, 60 percent.

The new company would be based in Ottawa, where the tax rate is lower.

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But Polycom and Mitel officials argue the merger isn't a tax-driven deal. "This isn't an inversion. This is a cross-border M&A," Steve Spooner, the financial chief of Mitel, told The Wall Street Journal.

Company officials did not immediately return a call from The Washington Post.

"I understand why they wouldn't want to call it that but this meets the technical requirements of an inversion," said Robert Willens, an independent tax attorney. "It is kind of silly that they're saying it's not."

The deal comes just a week after President Barack Obama called inversions one of the most "insidious tax loopholes out there" and the Treasury Department adopted new rules to curb the practice.

The department's rules forced pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to call off a $160 billion merger with Dublin-based Allergan last week. But tax experts have said that inversions will likely continue until Congress lowers the country's 35 percent corporate tax rate, which is among the highest in the developed world.
Great news, tiki fans! Lost Lake is back open in Logan Square. The acclaimed cocktail bar closed a few weeks ago after an electrical fire. Though the incident was initially described as "small" and the bar hoped to reopen after a few days, damage turned out to be worse than expected.

In a short Facebook message, Lost Lake thanked the local hospitality community for its help. For the past few weeks, Lost Lake bartenders have been shaking drinks at a number of different bars around Chicago and even one in Indianapolis.

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While you can enjoy a tiki drink or two tonight, Thank You, the Chinese takeout restaurant attached to the tiki bar, remains closed. When we called, an employee at Lost Lake said Thank You might not reopen until fall.

Lost Lake, 3154 W. Diversey Ave., 773-293-6048, www.lostlaketiki.com

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nkindelsperger@tribpub.com

Twitter @nickdk
This year taxpayers got three extra days' reprieve, with the filing deadline extended to April 18 thanks to the Emancipation Day holiday. And if you missed The Langham's $1040 Tax Day Relief Package for two (sorry, it had to be booked by April 15), which includes a stay at the hotel, dinner at Travelle Kitchen + Bar, afternoon tea, massages, club lounge access and no additional taxes on Tax Day, it's not the only financial break to be found around town. From drink deals to affordably priced meals, here's a roundup of area establishments that are offering relief to your wallet on Tax Day.

Avli Estiatorio (566 Chestnut St., Winnetka, 847-446-9300): The Greek restaurant is offering Tax Day Saganaki. Its pan-fried, flaming Greek kefalograviera cheese is normally $8, but it's priced at $4.18 in honor of the tax date.

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Bar Toma (110 E. Pearson St., 312-266-3110): James Beard Award-winning chef Tony Mantuano's pizzeria will offer half off draft beer and tequila cocktails.

Boston Market (all locations): Playing on the oft-dreaded Form 1040, the rotisserie chicken chain is pricing a half-chicken meal deal with two sides, regular fountain drink and a cookie at $10.40, while supplies last.

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Clark Street Dog and Bar (3040 N. Clark St., 312-281-6690): The dogs are already wallet-friendly, and on Tax Day patrons will also get a deal on drinks, with $2 Bud Light, $5 pickle back shots, $3.50 drafts, $5 vodka lemonades and $3.50 for its beer of the month.

Geja's Cafe (340 W. Armitage Ave., 773-281-9101) The fondue restaurant staple is providing a tax relief special through April 28 with its discounted ($20.16 savings) premier dinner. The meal features Geja's house salad, cheese fondue, entree fondue, chocolate dessert fondue and coffee. You should mention the tax relief deal when making a reservation.

GreenRiver (259 E. Erie St., 18th floor, 312-337-0101): The Streeterville restaurant and bar is offering several of its cocktails at $10.40 (normally $13-$19) from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. The list includes whimsically named drinks such as The Alderman, Governor of Illinois and Doctor Who, which has Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey, Cardamaro Amaro, Irish stout, pecan, coffee, egg and Himalayan pink salt.

Hard Rock Cafe (63 W. Ontario St., 312-943-2252): If you're willing to sing for your supper, then Hard Rock Cafe Chicago has your Legendary Burger covered. From 6 to 8 p.m. on Tax Day, guests who sing a song on the cafe stage alongside the live band will receive the free burger. It's Angus beef that's topped with smoked bacon, cheddar, a fried onion ring, lettuce and tomato on a brioche bun, and it comes with seasoned fries. Singing-averse patrons can go for half-priced appetizers or imbibe $5 draft beer, red and white house wine, and $6 Jameson, Fireball and Jack Daniel's specials.

The lobster slider at Izakaya Mita is $10.40 on Tax Day.

Izakaya Mita (1970 N. Damen Ave., 773-799-8677): The Japanese izakaya-style shared plate restaurant will offer its lobster slider for $10.40, and the 1040C cocktail, which comprises gin, Karen Coy sake, dry vermouth, orange juice and bitters, will also be $10.40.

Kimpton Chicago Hotels (various locations): For those who received a refund, perhaps a hotel stay is a way to celebrate. Kimpton's Hotel Palomar (505 N. State St., 312-755-9703), Hotel Monaco (225 N. Wabash Ave., 312-960-8500), Hotel Burnham (1 W. Washington St., 312-782-1111) and Hotel Allegro (171 W. Randolph St., 312-236-0123) offer a perk for $10.40 (normally $20) to guests booked April 18, including a choice of a bottle of wine or Prosecco delivered to their room or an appetizer and cocktail at the hotel bar.

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Lottie's Pub (1925 W. Cortland St., 773-489-0738): Offered from 4:18 p.m. to 7:18 p.m., the pub's specials include burgers, Bulleit bourbon and local pints (Half Acre, Lagunitas, Revolution and Goose Island) for $4.18 each.

MAK (1924 W. Division St., 773-772-6251): The Asian-inspired restaurant with a focus on sustainability's happy hour, 5-7 p.m. April 18, will feature a selection of $3 beers.

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Noodles & Company (all locations): The tailor-your-way noodle bowl chain has two deals on Tax Day. Patrons who bring in their little dependent will receive a free kids meal with the purchase of any regular entree. Also, those who order online (order.noodles.com) can get $4 off any $10 order by using the code TAXDAY at checkout.

The Pony (1638 W. Belmont Ave., 773-828-5055): Tax relief happy hour runs 5 to 7 p.m., when visitors can partake of $4.18 burgers, Bulleit bourbon and local pints, including Half Acre, Lagunitas, Revolution and Goose Island.

Rush Bar and Lounge (540 N. Michigan Ave., 312-836-0100): Located in the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile, the bar will offer a variety of snacks and one beer selection for $4.18, including beer nuts made with Eugene Porter and bacon, gin and citrus-marinated house olives, daily pickled vegetables, kettle chips with smoked onion and whiskey dip and the in-house-brewed Rush Rooftop Honey Wheat Beer, which uses honey from the bar's rooftop beehives.

Vanille (all locations, 773-868-4574): Perhaps you need a little something sweet to ease the pain of paying taxes. Vanille's three locations  Lincoln Park (2108 N. Clark St.), Lakeview (3242 N. Broadway), French Market (131 N. Clinton St.)  will have chocolate-dipped macarons for $1. Choose vanilla macarons dipped in milk chocolate or the sweet raspberry macaron dipped in white chocolate.

Althea Legaspi is a freelance writer.
SYDNEY  Actor Johnny Depp's wife Amber Heard pleaded guilty Monday to providing a false immigration document when the couple brought their two dogs into Australia last year, but she managed to avoid jail time over what was dubbed the "war on terrier" debacle.



Prosecutors dropped more serious charges that Heard illegally imported the Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country while Depp was filming the fifth movie in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. A conviction on the two illegal importation counts could have sent the actress to prison for up to 10 years.



Depp and Heard said little to the waiting throng of reporters and fans outside the Southport Magistrates Court on Queensland state's Gold Coast, but they did submit a videotaped apology to the court that was played during Monday's hearing.

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It drew gibes online for the couple's grim, wooden appearance as Heard apologized and they both expressed support for protecting Australia's biodiversity, the aim of the strict quarantine regulations that were violated.



"When you disrespect Australian law," Depp says in the video, "they will tell you firmly."

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The drama over the dogs began last May, when Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce accused Depp of smuggling the tiny terriers aboard his private jet when he returned to Australia to resume filming the "Pirates" movie.



Bringing pets into Australia involves applying for a permit and quarantine on arrival of at least 10 days to prevent the spread of diseases such as rabies.



"If we start letting movie stars  even though they've been the sexiest man alive twice  to come into our nation (with pets), then why don't we just break the laws for everybody?" Joyce said at the time. "It's time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States."



Depp and Heard were given 72 hours to send Pistol and Boo back to the U.S., with officials warning that the dogs would otherwise be euthanized. The pooches boarded a flight home just hours before the deadline expired.



The comments by Joyce, who is now the deputy prime minister of Australia, elevated what might otherwise have been a local spat into a global delight for comedians and broadcasters. One newspaper website ran a doggie death countdown ticker, and comedian John Oliver dedicated a more than 6-minute segment to lampooning the ordeal.



Depp himself poked fun at the drama during a press conference in Venice, Italy, last year where he was asked if he planned to take the dogs for a gondola ride. "No," he replied. "I killed my dogs and ate them, under direct orders from some kind of, I don't know, sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia."



Joyce posted a link to the couple's apology video on his Facebook page, and later told reporters he doubted it was something the pair would have "willingly wanted to do." Still, he gave them credit for acknowledging they had made a mistake.



"I am happy that Ms. Heard has admitted that she was wrong and as such, that clearly shows that our position in pursuit of this was correct," Joyce told journalists. "Every nation has something that they're red hot about, and we're red hot about our biosecurity requirements in this nation."



When asked why Depp wasn't charged as well, the prosecutor's office said that there had been a "lack of admissible evidence" against anyone except Heard.



The false documents charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a fine of more than 10,000 Australian dollars ($7,650), but Magistrate Bernadette Callaghan sentenced Heard instead to a one-month good behavior bond. The condition means she will have to pay a AU$1,000 fine if she commits any offenses in Australia over the next month.



Heard's lawyer, Jeremy Kirk, told the court that his client never meant to lie on her incoming passenger card by failing to declare she had animals with her. In truth, Kirk said, she was simply jetlagged and assumed her assistants had sorted out the paperwork.



"She has made a tired, terrible mistake," Kirk said.



Prosecutor Peter Callaghan said ignorance and fatigue were no excuse. "The laws apply to everyone," he said.



Associated Press

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Since the 1990s, the Pulitzer Prize board has struggled to liberate the award from the grip of classical music.



On Monday, that campaign took another a dramatic step forward, with eminent, Chicago-born-and-raised composer-instrumentalist Henry Threadgill winning for his brilliant album of 2015, "In for a Penny, In for a Pound" (Pi Recordings).



Like trumpeter-composer Wadada Leo Smith, who was a finalist in 2013 for his epic recording "Ten Freedom Summers," Threadgill stands as an early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a collective of free-thinkers established in Chicago in 1965. And like Smith, Threadgill has spent an illustrious career forging an intensely personal musical language that transcends stylistic boundaries and traditional ways of organizing sound. (I served on the jury that recommended Smith's work for the Pulitzer.)



By honoring "In for a Penny," the board has struck another blow against the classical monopoly that has been in place from the very first music Pulitzer, awarded in 1943 to the great composer William Schuman for his "Secular Cantata No. 2, A Free Song." (Music finalists were "The Blind Banister," by Timo Andres and "The Mechanics: Six From the Shop Floor," Carter Pann.)



Not until 1997, when Wynton Marsalis' "Blood on the Fields" became the first jazz composition to win a Pulitzer (I served on that jury), did classical music yield to another genre. (It's worth noting, though, that Scott Joplin received a special award in 1976, the year of the American bicentennial.)



Since Marsalis' ground-breaking victory, however, the prize has reverted mostly to classical idioms, with the occasional exception: Ornette Coleman won for "Sound Grammar" in 2007 and posthumous special citations have gone to George Gershwin (1998), Duke Ellington (1999), Thelonious Monk (2006), John Coltrane (2007), and Hank Williams (2010). Bob Dylan also won a special award (2008).Non-classical finalists have included Don Byron for "7 Etudes for Solo Piano" in 2009.



Why would one genre dominate the prize for more than half a century?



Perhaps no one summed up the answer better than Duke Ellington, who had been recommended for a Pulitzer by the jury in 1965 but was rejected by the board.



"I'm hardly surprised that my kind of music is still without, let us say, official honor at home," Ellington told writer Nat Hentoff in a 1965 New York Times magazine piece titled "This Cat Needs No Pulitzer Prize."



"Most Americans," added Ellington, "still take it for granted that European music  classical music, if you will  is the only really respectable kind. I remember, for example, that when Franklin Roosevelt died, practically no American music was played on the air in tribute to him  by and large, then as now, jazz was like the kind of man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with."



When Ellington was denied the prize, jurors Winthrop Sargeant and Ronald Eyer resigned.



In his memoirs, "Music Is My Mistress," Ellington reflected on the contretemps with the same characteristic grace and elegance that course through his music.



"Since I am not too chronically masochistic, I found no pleasure in all the suffering that was being endured," he wrote. "I realized that it could have been most distressing and distracting as I tried to qualify my first reaction: 'Fate is being very kind to me; Fate doesn't want me to be too famous too young.'" Ellington was 66.



By the 1990s, the Pulitzer board began actively encouraging musicians of other genres to enter their works, changing the rules so that a complete written score was not required, only "a score of the non-improvisational elements of the work and a recording of the entire work." In effect, the board explicitly made improvisation an accepted part of the Pulitzers. By 2004, no score was required at all, a publicly released recording sufficient for entry.



"After more than a year of studying the Prize  the Pulitzer Prize Board declares its strong desire to consider and honor the full range of distinguished American musical compositions  from the contemporary classical symphony to jazz, opera, choral, musical theater, movie scores and other forms of musical excellence," the board said in a statement on June 1, 2004.



Now the evolution continues. By spotlighting Threadgill's "In for a Penny," the Pulitzer process has honored a major work blurring distinctions of genre that long have haunted the award.



Leading his band Zooid in an impossible-to-categorize six-movement suite, Threadgill, 72, conceived "In for a Penny" as a malleable composition featuring "four quintets plus one (alto saxophone, flute, bass flute)," to quote his album's terse liner notes. A different instrument, in other words, holds prominence in each of four movements (with two tracks serving as brief introductions), the music continuously changing sonic shape, flow and direction.



Regardless of this methodology  which might be lost on casual listeners anyway  "In for a Penny" unfolds as the rare suite that conveys a dense amount of musical information with unusual transparency and unmistakable melodic beauty.



In some passages, one marvels at the delicate interplay among lines articulated by Jose Davila on trombone and tuba, Liberty Ellman on guitar, Christopher Hoffman on cello and Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums and percussion. In other sections, each musician appears to be headed in an utterly independent direction, the ensemble somehow maintaining a cohesive sound and achieving lustrous colors.



In certain portions of "In for a Penny," which appeared on the Tribune's survey of the 10 best jazz recordings of 2015, Kavee's drum work evokes swing-tinged sensibility. In others, the lack of a central pulse references bracing contemporary composition.



Is this jazz? Classical? Something else?



Does it matter?



"When I began this work, it was something I perceived in a stream of phases," writes Threadgill in the liner notes, the "stream" metaphor apt for the fluidity and liquidity of this music.



"I wanted to write something that Zooid could revisit and find a new perspective and arrangement with each performance.



"I intended for this to be played in chamber-listening spaces."



With those last two sentences, Threadgill has described the boundary-breaking ethos of this work, which he conceived to accommodate the improvisational impulse at the root of jazz and the chamber-music ambience we associate with classical music.



That Threadgill should have developed such a distinctive expressive language may reflect the cauldron of music he encountered growing up on the South Side of Chicago, where he was born. Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and other blues masters played the Maxwell Street market, where Threadgill's family often visited. Threadgill started piano lessons at age four and played along with boogie-woogie virtuosos he heard on the radio.



"I would practice Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons," he said in George Lewis' definitive book "A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music."



Threadgill played reeds at Englewood High School and immersed himself in the then-thriving 63rd Street music scene from age 14. Over time, he also absorbed avant-garde classical music performed by the University of Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players, and in the early 1960s he attended Muhal Richard Abrams' rehearsals of the Experimental Band, an organization that in 1965 would blossom into the AACM.



By leading his collective Air across Europe in the 1970s and after, Threadgill helped build AACM's global acclaim. Other Threadgill ensembles have attested to the originality of Threadgill's work, including the exuberant dissonance of his Very Very Circus in the 1990s and the luminous tones and intricate counterpoint of his subsequent Zooid. Though Threadgill hasn't lived in Chicago for years, his periodic appearances here have underscored the uniqueness of his vision.



But that genre-bending approach long was excluded from the music Pulitzers, which caused consternation among many.



"I don't give a damn whether a piece is improvised or composed," Pulitzer-winning classical symphonist Gunther Schuller told me in 2004. "What matters is that it's a remarkable, new, revelatory piece of music."



Threadgill's opus is just that, and its triumph suggests the music Pulitzers are headed in the right direction.



hreich@tribpub.com

Twitter @howardreich
"Madam Secretary" star Tea Leoni, at the podium, and crew on stage inside the United Nations. The show was given rare permission to film in the General Assembly hall for its episode "Ghost Detainee." (Sarah Shatz / CBS)

People across the world are accustomed to seeing figures such as President Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin addressing the the United Nations.

But on a recent afternoon, the woman in a pale gray suit standing at the podium in the iconic General Assembly hall was not a world leader  she just plays one on TV.

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In character as Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord, the lead character in the CBS drama "Madam Secretary," Tea Leoni was delivering an urgent address about the need for the United Nations to fight Hizb al-Shahid, a fictional terrorist group reminiscent of Islamic State, for an episode airing Sunday.

"I'm here today to ask for your solidarity and your resolve in condemning this poisonous organization and everything it stands for," said Leoni, looking out at a crowd of extras dressed in an array of international costumes.

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As the 50-year-old actress, seated between takes at the desk assigned to Morocco noted, it's a major moment for the CBS drama, granted a rare opportunity to film inside the United Nations. "We're being very careful about our Cokes and crumbs and the walls that we will not scratch," said Leoni, who also has personal ties to the organization. Her grandmother, Helenka Pantaleoni, was the founding director of the U.S. Committee for UNICEF

It's also a highly personal moment for the show's lead character, whose husband, Henry (Tim Daly), suffered radiation poisoning from a dirty bomb set off by Hizb al-Shahid. This conflating of the personal and the professional is typical of the series, which finds Elizabeth juggling high-stakes international diplomacy with the demands of being a wife and mother. A recent episode found Elizabeth awkwardly trying to ingratiate herself to her daughter's new boyfriend while negotiating the release of hundreds of kidnapped girls and working to control a deadly outbreak of hemorrhagic fever. All in a day's work, right?

"I like the idea that I could be unleashed to be as steely and strong as I needed to be professionally because I could come home and make mistakes, burn eggs, give the wrong advice to my child and be human," Leoni said of her character. "I think that's a fun ride, and it's interesting to watch. I get offended by this idea that if you're a strong woman then you've lost your femininity."

"Madam Secretary" is one of a growing number of television series focused on women in politics, including "The Good Wife," "Veep," "House of Cards" and "Scandal." But unlike those shows, "Madam Secretary," created by former "Homeland" writer Barbara Hall, takes a more optimistic view of both politics and personal relationships. Amid a noxious presidential campaign already marred by jaw-dropping sexism, it also offers a hopeful version of politics happily removed the deeply partisan reality.

Like the protagonist in a Frank Capra film, Elizabeth was thrust into a position of power almost by accident and, the show seems to suggest, is a better leader for it. A former CIA analyst turned professor, she was asked to become secretary of State after her predecessor died in a plane crash.

"It's a little less cynical without trying to be too sugar-coated," said Hall, who also serves as show runner. "We're trying to find something in the middle that feels more like what we'd hope Washington would be."

The series about a powerful woman also boasts women in key creative positions. In addition to Hall, there's executive producer Lori McCreary, who is also president of the Producers Guild of America. And in a rarity for the industry in which, according to the WGA West, women account for 29% of television writing jobs, more than half the show's writing staff is female. The series also employs a higher than average number of female directors. In an unplanned but apt coincidence, the episode filmed at the United Nations was both directed and written by women (Charlotte Brandstrom and Moira Kirland, respectively).

This gender parity makes a difference in writers room, explained Kirland. "I have worked on shows where there is this culture of 20 to 30 minutes talking about the big game last night. There are lots of women who care about sports; I'm not one of them. You find that less in rooms where there equal numbers of women."

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Of course, it also makes a difference in the writing. Daly, who'd stopped by the U.N. to observe the action, suggested that having more women on staff means he gets to play a confident, competent man who's neither threatened nor turned off by his wife's success.

"It's so unusual on television," he said. "There's this fantasy that men can remain frat boys and have some hot chick come along and love you and take care of them. I think women writing the show are like, we don't want an indolent drunken frat boy for a husband. We want a man who's got his own thing, and can make breakfast for the kids."

The show also tacitly acknowledges the delicate dance required of women in powerful positions. Though Elizabeth is able to make the cold, clear-eyed decisions required of her job, she is also, generally speaking, a warm, well-liked and supportive boss who talks to her employees and colleagues about their personal lives.

"Look, if all women had to do is get ahead in these positions is be hard all the time then it wouldn't be that much of a challenge," Hall said. "It's all about the compartmentalization that women have to learn how to do. That to me is what's interesting about a female secretary of State because you can't be tough all the time."

For a relative newcomer to the world stage, Elizabeth has had a remarkably blemish-free record, managing to quell major crises while avoiding the kind of blunders that lead to congressional investigations. Using a colorful expletive, Leoni said she's been pushing the writers for Elizabeth to mess up more often.

"I feel like that's the real test of the character," she said. "It isn't that you messed up, it's how did you clean it up? What I think is a mistake that we could be making with our politicians is that we're holding them  some of them more than others  to these standards. Let's encourage them to own their mistakes. Let's encourage them to sit down and have a conversation about what went wrong."

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When CBS announced in 2014 that it was making "Madam Secretary," some conservatives were quick to assume Leoni would be playing a thinly veiled version of Hillary Clinton and that the series would serve as a kind of advertisement for her inevitable presidential campaign.

And though those criticisms were quickly put to rest by "Madam Secretary's" assiduous nonpartisanship  "I think the most brilliant thing about this show is never saying Democrat or Republican, because we are forced to listen to what people are actually saying," Daly observed  Leoni is happy if her role has played a small part in making the public more comfortable with women in power.

"That's something I didn't see coming," she said, "and I'd be proud."

Follow @MeredithBlake on Twitter.
More than two decades ago, testimony by a jailhouse informant named Tommy Dye helped Cook County prosecutors obtain a death sentence for murder against a former Chicago cop who had reputed mob connections and had washed out of the department.

When Dye refused to testify at a retrial, though, the case fell apart, ultimately leading to Steven Manning's release from prison. Two weeks later, then-Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on all executions in Illinois, citing the troubling use of jailhouse snitches among many reasons.

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Now, Dye finds himself in the middle of another potentially wrongful conviction  his own. A top prosecutor in the San Diego County district attorney's office said it is examining a burglary case to determine if Dye  in prison in California since 2004  was wrongly convicted.

The Cook County state's attorney's office played a role in securing Dye's conviction in San Diego  a fact Dye blamed on retribution for his refusal to help prosecutors here salvage their death penalty case against Manning, who now is known as Steven Mandell.

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In a telephone interview, Dye disputed the account of a Cook County state's attorney's investigator who said that he confessed to the burglary. Dye, who has been in and out of trouble for decades, said he is far too savvy about the criminal justice system to ever confess.

If not for the involvement of Cook County law enforcement officials, "I never would've had to deal with this," Dye said from the California Institution for Men in Chino, the southern California prison where he is being held. "This case had no evidence."

The use of jailhouse snitches by prosecutors across the country has been criticized as among the most persistent and pernicious problems of the criminal justice system. In most cases, they trade information for leniency, raising questions about their credibility. With so many wrongful convictions involving testimony by jailhouse snitches, Illinois and other states have restricted their use in court.

Dye, now 55, was a prolific snitch. As the Tribune described in a 1999 story that was part of an investigation into Illinois' use of the death penalty, he had deep credibility issues, however. He used a series of aliases and had a string of arrests and convictions, mostly for petty crimes. A handsome charmer by nature and a restaurant waiter by trade, he often swindled women out of their money or jewelry.

His testimony against Mandell was pivotal. A onetime Chicago cop until his arrest in an insurance fraud scheme, Mandell became a suspect in a number of homicides, including some with purported organized crime ties. He was charged with the 1990 murder of James Pelligrino, a trucking firm owner whose widow testified at trial that he had warned her that Mandell might kill him. Dye had secretly recorded conversations with Mandell while both were held at Cook County Jail, but the hidden recording device worn by Dye had malfunctioned, leaving jurors to rely on his word against Mandell.

Still, Mandell was convicted in 1993 and sentenced to death, but five years later, the Illinois Supreme Court granted him a new trial. Shortly after the Tribune story on Dye, he refused to be a witness against Mandell at a retrial, and Cook County prosecutors dropped the charges in early 2000. At the time, that made Mandell the 13th inmate exonerated in Illinois, one more than the state had executed since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the 1970s.

After a separate case in Missouri  the kidnapping of a drug dealer  was overturned by the courts, Mandell was set free in 2004.

Mandell sued the two FBI agents who had investigated the cases, saying they had framed him. A jury awarded him $6.6 million, but a federal judge in Chicago set aside the judgment on technical grounds. Dye, while insisting in his testimony that Mandell had confessed to him, also alleged during the trial that the agents had acted improperly by feeding him information about the case.

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Mandell's freedom was short-lived. He was charged in 2012 with planning to kidnap and dismember a suburban businessman as part of an extortion plot. Mandell alleged the FBI had targeted him because of his lawsuit, but secretly made audio and video tapes provided hours of evidence that persuaded a federal jury to convict him.

He was again sentenced to life in prison.

Dye, meantime, was convicted in San Diego County of residential burglary, even though he was living with a woman in the apartment where the crime allegedly occurred. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison, but just days after Dye's testimony in Mandell's lawsuit against the FBI, San Diego prosecutors appealed the sentence. The appeals court found Dye was subject to California's three-strikes law, and he was resentenced to 167 years. That was later reduced to 51 years to life.

A key piece of evidence against Dye was testimony from John Duffy, an investigator with the Cook County state's attorney's office who said Dye had confessed the burglary to him. In the recent interview, Dye, however, said Duffy "orchestrated everything from top to bottom" to help obtain his conviction.

In addition, a Dye lawyer said in an affidavit in 2013 that Duffy told her that he believed Dye was targeted because of his role in Mandell's case.

"Mr. Dye was clearly targeted for more harsh treatment based on his having gone 'sideways' on the federal government in the (Mandell) case," another one of Dye's lawyers, Emry Allen, wrote to Deputy District Attorney Brent Neck of the San Diego office's conviction review unit.

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Duffy could not be reached for comment. A Tribune Freedom of Information Act request in late February for documents from the state's attorney's office that might reflect involvement of any of its employees has, so far, failed to turn up any records, said the office's open records officer.

Neck said the conviction review unit's examination was focused on the San Diego case, not what happened with Dye in Cook County.

"This case will turn on the facts out here, not the ones from there," Neck said.

Dye said he can appreciate that many people might have little sympathy for him because of the role he has played in the criminal justice system. He said, though, they should be as critical of what has happened to him as they are of others who have been victimized by the system.

"Is it karma to the outsider? Yeah, maybe," he said. "But to me ... it's wrong."

smmills@tribpub.com

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One-year-old Khlo'e Chatman-Teague and her mother, Kelly Chatman, relax at a relative's home in Chicago, on April 18, 2016. The toddler was shot in the back of the neck while riding in the backseat of a car traveling west in the 5400 block of West LeMoyne Street in the city's North Austin neighborhood, said Officer Kevin Quaid, a Chicago police spokesman. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Kelly Chatman sat on a bed in Stroger Hospital's emergency room with her daughter Khlo'e, just a few weeks shy of her second birthday, and asked her where it hurt.

The child pointed to herself and said, "Me." Chatman drew her close and kissed the side of the girl's neck, away from where a bullet was lodged in the back of her head.

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"Everything was a blur," Chatman said Monday, recalling the hours after Khlo'e was shot. "It was all about holding her and being there with her."

Chatman and her daughter arrived Friday afternoon at Stroger after being transferred by ambulance from West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where the toddler's aunt drove her after someone shot at their car in the North Austin neighborhood.

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Khlo'e was sitting in the back seat after her aunt picked her up from day care on North Avenue, and they were heading to meet Chatman.

According to police, the car was headed west on Le Moyne Street toward Long Avenue when someone in an eastbound silver car started shooting  it's not clear at whom  and a single bullet pierced the trunk and flattened before lodging at the base of the girl's skull.

A 1-year-old toddler was wounded by gunfire in the 5400 block of West LeMoyne Street in Chicagos North Austin neighborhood. April 15, 2016. (WGN-TV) (Chicago Tribune)

Her aunt looked into the back seat after the shooting and saw blood everywhere, but Khlo'e didn't cry until she was surrounded by doctors, nurses and police at West Suburban, Chatman said.

Khlo'e's aunt called Chatman, who was washing her car at the south end of the Austin neighborhood, near Austin Boulevard.

"All I remember was talking on the phone, and I could tell by the tone in her voice something was wrong," Chatman said. "I asked, 'What happened, what happened?'

"All I heard was there was a shooting, and Khlo'e got shot."

When Chatman arrived at the emergency room, it was filled with police. She said she thought her daughter had been grazed, but an officer told her she had been hit in the head. When she saw her daughter, her undershirt and flower-covered jacket were "filled with blood."

"You saw it right away. It was fresh, red blood; you could see it clear as day," she said.

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Doctors offered Chatman the clothing. She asked them to throw it away.

The bullet remains lodged in the back of Khlo'e's head. Doctors told Chatman the girl's body would start pushing the bullet out on its own, so the risk of surgically removing it wasn't worth it. Khlo'e, who was released from the hospital Saturday, has a doctor's appointment this week and may have surgery in two or three weeks, Chatman said.

Khlo'e is one of at least four children under the age of 10 shot in Chicago so far this year. The city has seen a drastic increase in shootings and homicides over 2015, with both up more than 50 percent through mid-April over the same period last year, according to Tribune data.

Had the bullet not pancaked after hitting the trunk, it could have been much worse, Chatman said. Sitting on a green couch in Khlo'e's grandmother's living room Monday afternoon, Chatman said she's relieved her daughter isn't paralyzed.

"I couldn't believe my baby got shot. You hear when kids fall off the swings and bust their noses, but to hear my child had been shot, it's like this is too much," Chatman said. "It's nowhere safe for any of these kids, bullets be flying through the windows while kids are at the park, in front of their houses. It's safe nowhere in Chicago."

Khlo'e pranced around the hardwood floors of the bungalow's living room, digging candy out of her bag and gauze bandages out of a backpack. She wore black pants with fluorescent flowers and a shirt with a large letter "A" filled with matching flowers above the word "AWESOME."

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Twice a day, Chatman has to change the dressing over the bullet, still protruding just below a braid on the back of the girl's head. Since the shooting, she has been consumed with a desire to be with her daughter.

One-year-old Khlo'e Chatman-Teague plays quietly while her mother, Kelly Chatman, talks at a relative's home in Chicago on April 18, 2016. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

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Chatman, who works the overnight shift at a post office, returned to work Sunday night, but she doesn't want to send her daughter back to day care because of the neighborhood.

"I want to be with her 24/7. I don't want her to go anywhere with anyone," she said. "A blink of an eye, anything could happen in the next second."

Khlo'e doesn't know she's been shot, but Chatman wants her daughter to know. Not yet. Not in kindergarten. Maybe when she's a little older, Chatman said.

"I'll probably tell her, 'You know, when you were 1, you got shot'  which still doesn't sound right because she's just a kid. I just want her to use it as a reminder that she's blessed, and that she's meant to be here," Chatman said.

"Hopefully, when she gets older all of this violence is going to stop.  And (I can) tell her once upon a time Chicago was crazy. It was common for babies like you to get shot, but luckily you survived to tell your story."

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Twitter @alexisomyers
A UC Berkeley student who says he was pulled off a Southwest flight and questioned by police and the FBI after a passenger overheard him speaking in Arabic says he wants a public apology. April 18, 2016. (AP) (Associated Press)

Earlier this month, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi found himself at a gathering with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He had been invited to the dinner-and-lecture event in Los Angeles by a friend who works for the World Affairs Council, and he was thrilled.

The University of California, Berkeley, senior is a double major in political science and Near Eastern studies. At the close of Ban Ki-moon's speech, Makhzoomi recounted in a phone interview with The Washington Post on Sunday night, he stood up to ask the secretary general about Iraqi Popular Mobilization units, militia groups fighting against the Islamic State.

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The question was greeted by applause from around the room, followed by a lengthy response from the U.N. chief. It was the kind of exchange that Makhzoomi lives for: having come to the United States as an Iraqi refugee six years ago, his research centers on how life can be improved in his home country.

But the next day, April 6, the 26-year-old's fortunes took an unfortunate turn.

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Makhzoomi had just settled into his seat on a Southwest Airlines flight when he pulled out his cellphone to call his uncle in Baghdad. His uncle is a political analyst, so Makhzoomi wanted to discuss last night's event with him.

He was speaking into the phone in Arabic when he noticed that the woman in the seat in front of him was turned with her neck craned in his direction, staring.

Feeling discomfited, Makhzoomi cut his conversation short. "Inshallah," he told his uncle, using a customary Arabic phrase meaning "God willing." "I'll call you when I land."

After Makhzoomi hung up, he noticed that the woman had left her seat and was making her way up the aisle, weaving around passengers who were still boarding.

His sense of unease deepened. A thought occurred to him: I hope she's not reporting me.

Except, Makhzoomi is now certain, that is precisely what happened. Shortly after the woman's departure, a Southwest employee informed Makhzoomi, "Sir, you need to step out of the plane right now."

Makhzoomi was then led off the plane to a hallway by the boarding gate, where three police officers were awaiting him. He said the Southwest employee appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, and began speaking to him in Arabic. The employee told him he used to live in Dubai, and asked him where he was from. At Makhzoomi's urging, the employee switched back to English.

"Why would you speak in Arabic on the airplane?" the employee asked him. "It's dangerous. You know the environment around the airport. You understand what's going on in this country."

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The employee's tone made Makhzoomi feel demeaned. He was immediately deferential.

"I'm sorry," Makhzoomi responded. "I shouldn't have done that." But the employee continued to be accusatory, and Makhzoomi said he grew frustrated. Exasperated, the college student said: "This is what Islamophobia has done."

This only angered the employee further. According to Makhzoomi, one of the police officers then said into his radio: "Call the FBI."

With the plane long taken off without him, Makhzoomi was joined by more police officers, sniffer dogs, and eventually, three FBI agents. At one point, a police officer pressed his head against the wall and restrained his hands behind his back. When the authorities asked him whether he had any weapons on him, Makhzoomi said he teared up. "I don't have a knife," he repeated.

The FBI agents took him into a separate room and began the questioning anew.

"Okay, you need to be honest with me," Makhzoomi recalled one agent saying to him. "Tell us everything you know about martyrdom."

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Makhzoomi was stunned. "I looked at her and opened my eyes very wide," he told The Post. "I told her I never mentioned this word, ever. You can call my uncle -- I have never mentioned that word. It's associated with jihad and terrorism, and gives a false image of Islam."

He said the agents were interested in his family's ties to Iraq. His mother, brother and he fled the country for Jordan in 2002, a year after his father was executed under Saddam Hussein's regime, Makhzoomi told The Post.

He said his father was a former Iraqi diplomat who was jailed in Abu Ghraib, then killed for what authorities there called a "security threat." The family now lives in Berkeley, Calif.

After further questioning, the FBI agent let him go, but told him he could not fly with Southwest. Makhzoomi was directed to get his refund from the same Southwest employee who had asked him to leave the plane.

The employee wordlessly swiped Makhzoomi's credit card. He then booked a flight with Delta Air Lines, arriving back in Berkeley nine hours later than he had originally intended. Before his itinerary was disrupted, he had been planning to attend classes that same afternoon.

Southwest wrote in an email statement to The Post that their "Crew made the decision to investigate a passenger report of potentially threatening comments overheard onboard our aircraft. ... While local law enforcement followed up with that passenger in our gate area, the flight departed."

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"We regret any less than positive experience a Customer has on Southwest," the statement further said. "Safety is our primary focus, and our Employees are trained to make decisions to safeguard the security of our Crews and Customers on every flight. We would not remove a passenger from a flight without a collaborative decision rooted in established procedures."

The company cited privacy reasons for not commenting specifically about Makhzoomi's case, but said: "Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind."

"We were asked to respond, and we determined no further action was necessary," Ari Dekofsky, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles office, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Makhzoomi said he has attempted to reach the airline three times and received only cursory responses. Southwest said in its email that the company cannot find "record of the Customer contacting us and have tried multiple times to reach him after learning of his disappointment" from an article in the UC Berkeley student newspaper.

Stories of Muslims being removed from commercial flights have become more common alongside an escalating fear of Islamic State terrorism.

In the same week as Makhzoomi's incident, a hijab-wearing woman from Maryland was ordered off a Southwest flight bound for Seattle. In late March, an Arab American family was removed from a United Airlines flight due to safety concerns. The airline said the decision was prompted by the family's inadequate child booster seat, but the family believes they suffered discrimination because the mother wears a head scarf.

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"We are tired of Muslim-looking passengers being removed from flights for the flimsiest reasons, under a cryptic claim of 'security,'" Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, said in a statement.

As for Makhzoomi, the college student said he does not currently have plans to take legal action, though several lawyers have offered their services. For now, he said he just wants Southwest to publicly acknowledge their error.

"I came here to the U.S. because I believed in the values of this country," Makhzoomi said. "Islamophobia does not serve to fight terror. It plays right into the Islamic State game of striking fear among us."
With the scope and penalties of Chinas social credit system being further clarified in 2021, legal and regulatory compliance has become more important than...
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The securities regulator has called for more investor protection to ensure the healthy development of the capital market.

Liu Shiyu, chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), made the call at a symposium held with securities and fund firms in Shenzhen on Saturday.

The symposium was the first time Liu has spoken with the leaders of market players since his inauguration in February. The aim of the dialog was to solicit advice and suggestions.

"Institutions should put more emphasis on the protection of investors' legitimate rights and contribute to the healthy development of the capital market," said Liu.

He ordered the market players to do businesses in accordance with the principle of prudent operation, and honestly and responsibly fulfill their legal duties.

Leaders from six securities firms and two fund companies were present at the symposium.
Visitors look at a car on display during the Hainan International Automotive Industry Exhibition and South China International New Energy Vehicles Exhibition in Haikou, South China's Hainan province, March 10, 2016. [Provided to China Daily]

China sold 6.53 million vehicles in the first quarter of the year, a 6 percent increase year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

A total of 2.44 million cars were sold in March, a 54.3 percent surge from February and an 8.8 percent rise from the same month last year.

Experts said the March performance is usually much better than in February because the weeklong Spring Festival often falls in February and people rarely buy cars during the festival.

Yao Jie, the CAAM's vice-secretary-general, said the sales in the first quarter are an indicator of consumer demand that was contained in preceding months, and the trend would continue for some time to come.

Yao expects the growth rate this year to reach about 6 percent, which would translate into 26 million vehicles sold, owing to the enthusiasm of Chinese for SUVs and the government's favorable policies for small-engine cars.

A total of 1.96 million SUVs were sold in the first quarter, a 51.5 percent surge year-on-year and a continuation of the sales momentum seen last year.

The five most popular SUVs, according to the China Passenger Car Association, are all from Chinese manufacturers: the Haval, Baojun, Trumpchi, Changan and JAC.

Volkswagen's Tiguan and GM's Encore, which ranked sixth and seventh, saw their combined sales reach 115,100 units, while Haval H6 sales stood at 121,300 units.

MPVs also saw strong growth. Nearly 700,000 units were sold from January to March, a 14.94 percent rise year-on-year.

Sales of sedans and crossovers were not as strong. A total of 2.81 million sedans were sold in the first three months, a 9.27 percent fall year-on-year. Crossovers saw their sales in Q1 slump more than one-third year-on-year to merely 218,300 units.

China's favorable policy on small-engine cars is still going strong, with 1.46 million cars with engines at or below 1.6 liters sold in March. That accounts for 71.2 percent of the total passenger vehicles sold in the month, a similar percentage to that of the previous two months.

New-energy cars saw their sales slow somewhat following scandals involving companies attempting to cheat the government to get subsidies earlier this year.

Their sales in the first three months totaled 58,125 units, a 100 percent rise year-on-year, according to CAAM statistics.

Of those, 42,131 electric cars were sold in the period, up 140 percent year-on-year, and 15,994 plug-in hybrid models delivered, a 43 percent rise from the same period a year earlier.

Chinese passenger car brands saw their market share edge 1.8 percentage points to 45 percent by the end of March. German passenger brands followed by 19.7 percent, a fall of 0.7 percentage point year-on-year, while Japanese brands saw their market share grow 1.5 percentage points to 13.8 percent.

Chinese brands seized a market share of 58.8 percent in the SUV market and 19.9 percent of the sedan market by the end of March.
Chinas ministries on Saturday unveiled general plans to help people laid off from the steel and coal industries, which are in the midst of overcapacity cut.

The suggestions on relocating redundant workers were jointly released by seven ministries including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the National Development and Reform Commission.

In addition to the help given to redundant staff, support will be offered to firms who create new jobs by adopting the Internet Plus strategy, developing new industrial fields and products, and expanding domestic and overseas market, according to the document.

A back-to-work program should be created so that workers receive training and career guidance for free, and, for those who want to start their own businesses, channels that will give them access to government support, it said.

Local authorities should also enhance trans-regional cooperation to relocate redundant workers to regions with employment opportunities.

To switch from an investment-led model to one that relies on domestic consumption, services and innovation, China is cutting industrial overcapacity, mainly in the coal and steel sectors.

According to preliminary forecast by the human resources ministry, the two sectors will see a total of 1.8 million workers laid off.

To cushion the effect of job losses on families and society, the central government decided to allocate 100 billion yuan (US15.4 billion) to help the laid-off workers find new jobs.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Friday called for deepening reforms in the country's education sector in order to better cultivate innovative minds.

Addressing a symposium that gathered heads of 53 Beijing-based public and private colleges and universities, Li said the level of a country's higher education is a key indicator for its overall competitiveness.

He urged colleges and universities to play a bigger role in promoting mass innovation and mass entrepreneurship, and in cultivating more innovative talents, for "competition between nations nowadays is in fact competition of innovation," he said.

The premier said colleges and universities should focus on raising students' awareness for original innovation and improving their practical capabilities.

Equality of education must be promoted, by providing more favorable policies for rural and impoverished students, so as to level the playground and help them unleash their innovative potentials, Li said.

Meanwhile, the country should work to establish a batch of "high-level universities", Li said, adding that higher learning institutions should have more decision-making powers for their own operations, and that authorities should delegate more administrative approval powers and cut outdated regulations.

He also said researchers should have a greater say in the application of their own innovative achievements and a greater share of the proceeds from such applications.
Two political parties in Taiwan have denounced telecom fraud and called for the suspects to be brought to justice.

Liu Tai-ting (L), a suspect from Taiwan involved in a telecom fraud in Kenya, is interrogated by police in Beijing on April 17, 2016. [Photo: Xinhua]

It follows the release on Saturday by Taiwan police of 20 fraud suspects deported from Malaysia on Friday. The police said there was a lack of evidence to detain them. They were among 52 people from Taiwan, arrested in Malaysia for suspected telecommunication fraud.

The arrests came after a joint investigation by Malaysian and Chinese mainland police into five transnational telecommunication fraud cases involving victims on the mainland.

Police arrested a total of 119 suspects, including 65 from the mainland, 52 from Taiwan and two from Malaysia.

The Kuomintang (KMT) said the party was concerned about the harm caused to victims and the negative impact the fraudsters' actions have had on the image of the island.

The party called for a joint denouncement of the criminals and called for justice to be served.

Hung Hsiu-chu, the newly-elected chair of the KMT, also warned that Taiwan should avoid becoming known as an "exporter of fraud rings."

Taiwan's New Party said the prevalence of fraud rings in Taiwan have harmed many innocent people across the Straits, adding the general public in Taiwan were outraged by the light punishment.

A Chinese mainland spokesperson has urged Taiwan to give fraud suspects "the punishment they deserve," stressing that their release will only make fraud more rampant and harm cross-Strait law enforcement cooperation.
Police have launched an investigation after a private car owner in Beijing was caught on video repeatedly hitting a courier delivery guy after his bike touched his car.

In the video posted online, the man can be seen hitting the SF Express delivery guy at least six times after his black Toyota car, that was reversing, touched his motorcycle.

The middle-aged man, in a black shirt, can be seen abusing the courier guy while also hitting him. Throughout the incident the delivery guy does not react to the abuse or to the hitting. Instead, few people can be seen trying to calm the car owner.

The video led to widespread public anger against the car owner. The Beijing police took issue of it and have launched an investigating, the police said on its official microblog account on Weibo.com.

The courier company, SF Express, has demanded criminal sanctions against the car owner.

"We won't accept any mediation to protect the legal rights of our employees," a press officer with the company told Shanghai Daily.

The deliveryman was later diagnosed with soft tissue contusion, the company said.
Scientific personnels work at the landing area of the re-entry capsule of China's first retrievable microgravity satellite SJ-10 in Siziwang Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, April 18, 2016. The satellite returned safely to Earth on Monday, marking a solid step forward in China's space science research and application. (Xinhua/Chen Junqing)

The re-entry capsule of China's first retrievable microgravity satellite, SJ-10, returned safely to Earth on Monday, marking a solid step forward in space science research and application.

The recoverable capsule of the research probe, launched on April 6, touched down at around 4:30 p.m. at the planned landing area in Siziwang Banner in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, retrievers said.

The capsule was transferred to the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), which will hand over the equipment aboard the capsule to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for further analysis and assessment.

The re-entry capsule separated from the orbital module of the probe about 15 minutes before its landing. The latter will remain in orbit before burning away.

It is the 24th retrievable satellite China has successfully recovered. The landing also marked the first time such a satellite has been recovered in Siziwang Banner.

During its 12-day journey in space, 19 experiments on microgravity and life sciences were carried out on board.

The experiments included one on the early development of mouse embryos in microgravity to shed light on human reproduction in space, and another on space radiation's effect on the genetic stability of fruit flies and rat cells.

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The Communist Party of China (CPC) has vowed to spot and punish malpractice in the current round of local elections.

More than 900 million Chinese will elect over 2.5 million lawmakers at county and township levels in the elections running into next year.

In a Monday statement, the CPC stressed a ban on forming factions, bribery, fraud and leaking confidential information, among other types of malpractice. It urged local Party committees, disciplinary organs and organizational departments to carefully oversee the elections.

"Disciplinary violations... must be punished on a case by case basis and publicized in a timely manner," the statement said.

In a massive electoral fraud case in Hengyang City of Hunan Province in 2013, 56 provincial legislators offered 110 million yuan (18 million U.S. dollars) in bribes to nearly 600 municipal lawmakers and members of staff.

A total of 467 people have been given Party or administrative punishment for their roles in the case, and 69 were transferred to judicial organs.

The CPC called for the establishment of specialist groups to investigate violations and supervise punishment.

"Supervisory officials will be pursued and punished for nonfeasance and jobbery," the statement added.

The public can report electoral malpractice to organizational departments at or above county level via the Internet, SMS, hotlines or personal visits.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key (C) attends the ANZAC Day memorial in Wellington, New Zealand, April 25, 2014. (Xinhua/Su Liang)

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key's upcoming trip to China should focus more on economic ties and less on the South China Sea issue, which is of no concern for Wellington.

Key's visit comes on the heels of a visit by his Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull, who just wrapped up a two-day visit to China during which 19 agreements were signed.

The consecutive visits by leaders of the Oceanian countries highlight the importance they attach to China's growing middle class, made possible by Beijing's measures to make the national economy more consumer-led and service-driven.

As the first developed country to recognize China as a market economy and to sign a free trade agreement with China, New Zealand has seen its exports to China grow at an annual rate of 33 percent since the FTA was signed in 2008.

Figures show that China has been New Zealand's largest trading partner for years and the largest market for New Zealand goods. Thanks to the ground-breaking deal, two-way trade has more than doubled, approaching 13 billion U.S. dollars in 2015. New Zealand products have become very popular in China today.

An upgrade of the FTA will top Key's China agenda; a new version of the agreement would be in the interest of both countries and boost bilateral ties.

But relations between the two countries haven't been entirely rosy. In February, Key made some remarks against China regarding the South China Sea, likely under the pressure of his country's military ties with the United States. It was a surprising move that went against New Zealand's previous pledges not to take sides in the region's territorial disputes.

What is more baffling is Wellington's successive engagement in war games in the South China Sea. After observing the U.S.-Philippine military exercises that lasted 12 days near the disputed waters, New Zealand will again send its servicemen for a five-nation drill in the region starting on Sunday.

The war game's timetable overlapping the prime minister's week-long China trip no doubt raises suspicions, despite an official claim from Wellington that there's nothing provocative in New Zealand taking part in the military exercises while Key is in China.

Key should be reminded that New Zealand is an absolute outsider in the dispute and not a concerned party, and that any attempt by Wellington to break its promise not to take sides on the issue would risk complicating the flourishing trade ties between China and New Zealand.

Wellington is advised to be more discreet in its words and actions. New Zealand should chart its own course in its relations with China rather than have its agenda hijacked by the ambitions of its military allies. The future of bilateral ties between New Zealand and China, to some extent, depends on Wellington itself.
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The Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday refuted media reports of a dangerous encounter of Russian and U.S. aircraft over the Baltic.

"The reports of foreign media are not true, which said a Russian Su-27 allegedly flew in dangerously close proximity to a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft in the skies over the Baltic Sea on April 14," the ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters.

The Russian air defense unit on duty on Thursday found over the Baltic Sea an unknown aerial target, which was heading for the Russian border in high speed, Konashenkov said.

One Su-27 multi-role fighter was sent and identified the target as a reconnaissance plane RC-135U of the U.S. Air Force, the spokesman added.

"After visual contact with the Russian Su-27, the U.S. reconnaissance plane changed its course to the opposite of the Russian border," Konashenkov said.

Earlier on Sunday, the CNN reported Russia's interception, quoting a spokesman for U.S. European Command, who said the Russian jet "performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers."

Moreover, the U.S. side said Russian Su-24 tactical bombers flew over the U.S. guided missile destroyer Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea on Monday and Tuesday.

The Russian side denied its acts were aggressive and insisted all flights were held in accordance with international law.
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A senior Al-Shabaab commander surrendered to Somali army at a village near Galcad town in Galgudud region of central Somalia on Sunday, officials said.

Somali National Army Commander in the region Col. Ahmed Mohamed told reporters that Ahmed Mohamud Afrah accepted amnesty and surrendered to the government.

"He was Al-Shabaab commander in charge of zakawat (levy) collection in this region. He had communication with us and told us that he is planning to leave his militant group," Mohamed said.

"We welcome any one of the terrorist group members defecting and coming to us, but we will fight others who are in insurgency," he added.

Mohamed indicated that some of the militants who expressed their willingness to surrender soon to join peace process under amnesty extended by the government.

The Al-Shabaab commander Afrah said circumstances and fear prompted him to joint the militant group, but had no freedom at all in the group.

"Circumstances and fear from the group led me join the Al-Shabaab fighters and accept to hold such position, but I had no freedom inside the group any time. I decided to accept amnesty offer and join my people and the Somali government forces in order to live in peace and without any worry. I am happy, the government officials welcomed me well," Afrah told journalists.

The group has suffered heavy losses in central Somalia in March as Galmudug forces killed many of the group members and captured over 30 others in a week-long fighting in the region.
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Kenyan securities officers are on Sunday interrogating a terror suspect who was arrested in the border town of Garissa with a pistol loaded with 10 rounds of ammunitions.

Northeastern regional coordinator Mohamud Saleh said the male suspect was arrested in Bulakamor within Garissa town by officers as he trying to hide the weapon.

Saleh said members of the public who spotted him become suspicious of his presence and informed the area local administrators who immediately called police officers who swiftly arrested him.

"We want to thank members of the public for providing crucial information that led to his arrest. Had it not for them, the terror suspect could still be roaming freely with the weapon which we believe he wanted to use to kill people," Saleh said in Garissa.

The government administrator said the suspect was found with the gun that he had hidden in a thicket.

Saleh said a multi-agency security team was still interrogating the man with a view of identifying his nationality, adding that he had no documents at all.

He said preliminary investigations had revealed that the man could be on a list of people security officers have been looking for in the area. He, however, noted that none of the people he was looking for in the area was known by the locals.

However, a reliable source gave a conflicting report, saying that the pistol belonged to police officer who misplaced it while drunk.

"The gun belonged to a regular police constable who misplaced it while drunk. It is at this point that he gave the man who is his close friend and was to hand it over to him later. But before he could do these people saw him with it and informed the area administrator," said the source.

He said it is like the police are trying to shield their colleague from any wrong doing and instead have decided to use the innocent man as a scapegoat.

The East African nation continues to suffer several attacks as terrorists change tuck to beat heightened security and carry on with their heinous acts undetected.

Most of these attacks occur in northeastern Kenya, mainly in Dadaab, Wajir, Garissa, and Mandera counties. Several attacks also occurred along the Kenyan coast.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday that the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights will remain "forever" under Israeli control, in a first ever cabinet meeting on the contested territory.

"Israel will never relinquish the Golan Heights," Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting, according to a statement released by his office. "The time has come after 40 years for the international community to finally recognize that the Golan Heights will remain forever under Israeli sovereignty," he said.

Israel seized the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and later annexed it, in a move never recognized by the international community.

Israeli media reported that the remarks were made due to fears that Israel might come under pressure to return the strategic ridge to Syrian hands amidst talks to settle the war in Syria.

Netanyahu said he spoke over the phone with U.S. Secretary of States John Kerry on Saturday night, telling him that Israel will not oppose a diplomatic agreement in Syria, "as long as it does not come at the cost of Israeli security. It means that at the end of the day Iranian, Hezbollah and Islamic State forces be kicked out of Syria."
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Armed group has attacked and killed 208 people in Gambella regional state of Ethiopia, on the border with South Sudan.

The Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) quoted the country's government communication office as saying that the armed group infiltrated into Ethiopia through South Sudan border.

The armed group also abducted children during the attack on Friday.

EBC quoted Communications Affairs Office Minister Getachew Reda as saying that the attackers were members of South Sudan's Murle tribe.

Getachew said Ethiopian security forces were chasing the attackers and had killed 60 so far.

He said the attackers were not thought to have any links to the South Sudanese government or rebels.
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Syria's ruling al-Baath Party and an allied group have won a majority of the parliament's seats in the recent elections, according to a list of names published by state news agency SANA on Sunday.

All of the candidates who were on the al-Baath party list and that of the National Unity Coalition won, securing 200 out of 250 seats of the parliament.

On Saturday evening, Syria's Higher Electoral Committee announced the results of the elections, which were held on April 13.

The turnout was estimated at 57.56 percent. Out of 8,834,994 eligible voters, 5,085,444 have voted, said the committee.

Some 3,500 candidates competed for the 250 seats in the legislature amid a boycott by the opposition groups.

In February, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree to hold the elections on April 13. The vote is held every four years.

The previous elections were held in 2012, just months after the adoption of a new constitution in the war-torn country.
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Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has vowed never to allow any Kenyan to be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the 2007-08 post election clashes in which more than 1,200 people were killed and 600,000 others displaced.

Kenyatta, who made the announcement late Saturday in a rally in Nakuru vowed to pursue local mechanisms to solve the country's problems.

Speaking in Kiswahili, Kenyatta declared the five-year relationship with the ICC over.

"That chapter we have closed. We have our own courts, we will sort out our own issues. I don't want to see any Kenyan going out there again,"said the president.

Kenya is legally bound to cooperate with the ICC as a signatory of the Rome Statute but MPs have been threatening to pull the country out from the ICC.

The rally was also attended by Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto, journalist Joshua Sang, former minister Henry Kosgey, former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, and former police chief Mohammed Hussein Ali. The cases against the six have been dropped by the ICC.

The ICC prosecutor Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has issued warrants against three Kenyans, former journalist Walter Barasa, lawyer Paul Gicheru and Phillip Bett for alleged witness interference in the cases against Ruto and Sang before their cases were terminated early this month.

Kenyatta said Kenya has opened a new chapter of reconciliation and gave a pledge to undertake all efforts to ensure that Kenya's elections will always be free of violence.

"We would not wish any Kenyan to go through the experience we have had at the ICC," said Kenyatta whose case at the Hague-based world court was dropped in March 2015 due to lack of sufficient evidence.

The president said many victims await justice and perpetrators are yet to be brought to book and vowed to pursue healing and reconciliation of communities.

"We have our courts here, I don't want to see any Kenyan take the route we have traveled. If we have issues, we have the solution here at home. If they come for us we will tell them we are not going back," Kenyatta told thousands of his supporters, politicians and religious leaders.

Speaking at the rally, the deputy president William Ruto said the country went through a shameful chapter in the post-election violence during which many lives were lost and a lot of property was destroyed.

He urged Kenyans to forgive each other and build bridges of friendship to forge a stronger nation.

Ruto, who was a member of parliament at the time of post-election violence had been attending his trial for crimes committed during the violence until April 5 when his case was dropped.

Ruto and Kenyatta who were on opposite sides of the political divide in 2007-2008 were accused of organizing attacks against one another's supporters. They were elected in March 2013 on a joint ticket.

The 2007-08 post-election violence in Kenya was blamed on the fierce competition for a share of the national wealth between the various tribal groups. Most of it had to do with the distribution of land and access to State power.
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Iran showcased parts of the newly imported Russian S-300 air defense system in the parade on Sunday held to mark the army day in the country.

Iran needs a powerful army to defend its geographical frontiers, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said addressing the celebration.

"The powerful army inspired by religious and Islamic insights safeguards the interests of the country and defends the geographical, political and cultural borders of the country," Rouhani said.

He hailed the achievements and "might" of the Armed Forces, saying that "if, today, the arrogant powers and the their mercenaries in the region dare not to threat the country and the nation, that is because of the might of the Armed Forces," he said.

Strong army and efficient diplomacy are, side by side, the means to defend the interests of the Iranian nation, he added.

The powerful Iranian army belongs to the Islamic world and will assist any Islamic state in the face of threats and terrorism if they ask for help, he stressed.

Different units of Iranian army staged parades in Friday ceremony to show the latest Iranian military achievements.

A host of missiles and missile launchers, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), fighter jets, choppers and radar systems were among the military equipment showcased at the ceremony.

Also, Iran displayed parts of Russian S-300 which have been sent to the country recently.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said on Monday that Iran and Russia had signed a new deal on the delivery of S-300 missile defense system and it was in the process of implementation.

Russia and Iran signed an 800-million-U.S. dollar contract in 2007, according to which Moscow would supply Tehran with five S-300 missile systems.

In September 2010, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev canceled the contract in line with a UN Security Council resolution, which banned such deals with the Islamic Republic. Iran later sued Russia over the arms embargo.

In April 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban as Iran withdrew the lawsuit against Russia.

The original S-300 system, named SA-10 Grumble by NATO, was first deployed in the former Soviet Union in 1979 to defend the country against aircraft and cruise missiles.

Subsequent modernized versions were developed to intercept ballistic missiles, and the S-300 is currently regarded as one of the most potent air defense systems.
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A total of 16 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Sunday in clashes and air strikes in Iraq's largest province of Anbar, a provincial security source said.

The security forces and allied Sunni paramilitary tribal units clashed with IS militants who tried to attack a military base at Jeraishi area in north of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, leaving six IS militants killed, including two suicide bombers, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Separately, the army artillery shelled IS positions in Jubba area near the town of al-Baghdadi, some 190 km northwest of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing four IS operatives, the source said.

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomber tried to strike a position of the security forces in Khasfa area near the town of Haditha, some 200 km northwest of Baghdad, but a U.S.-led coalition warplane destroyed the car bomb and killed the suicide bomber before reaching the troops' defensive line, the source added.

Also in the province, an Iraqi aircraft bombarded a house said to be used by IS militants in Zuwiya area near the IS-held city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, killing five militants and wounding 12 others, the source said citing intelligence report.

Three days ago, the troops raised the Iraqi flag in the town of Heet, some 160 km west of Baghdad, after 14 days of fierce clashes with the extremist militants.

Iraqi security forces and allied paramilitary units have been battling IS militants for re-control of large territories in northern and western Iraq that have been seized by the IS since June 2014.
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China remains the United States' most accessible source of adoptions from overseas, thanks to an efficient system and strong oversight of orphans, according to two experts.

They spoke as the number of foreign adoptions by US families fell to the lowest level in three decades. However, 2,354 Chinese children were adopted by US citizens last year, a 15 percent increase from 2014. The figure accounted for 42 percent of all foreign adoptions in the US, according to the US Department of State. According to China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of international adoptions has remained steady in recent years, with between 10 and 15 percent of children adopted by overseas families since 2009.

While foreign adoptions comprise only a small proportion of those in China  about 12 percent in 2014  most children who are taken in by overseas homes have special needs and are adopted by families for charitable reasons, said Tong Xiaojun, head of the Children's Research Institute of China.

In contrast, Chinese adopters care more about whether the child is good-looking or how tall the child is. "If families already have a boy, they want a girl, and if they have a girl, they want a boy," she said.

"The more advanced medical and welfare systems in the West also encourage foreign families to adopt children with special needs.

"As a result, parents overseas who adopt are more capable of taking care of these children," Tong said, adding that raising special needs children is difficult for many families in China.

Michelle and Scott Morell from Allen, Texas, who have adopted three Chinese children with special needs, said they were drawn to China because the process was very clear compared with some other countries.

"There were more checks and balances in place," Michelle Allen said. "You did this, you did that, and then you were matched with the child."

Two of their boys, Luke from Shaanxi province and Ethan from Anhui, both 3, were born with gastric intestinal problems.

International adoption of baby girls from China started to slow in 2006 when there were fewer infant orphans, and the ones that were available always went for domestic adoptions first.

Shannon Phillips, promotions and outreach director at Great Wall China Adoption, a nonprofit organization that has matched more than 9,000 Chinese children with families in the US, said, "China's waiting program for a child is getting more and more popular."

Under the program, which also exists in some other countries, Chinese orphanages identify children with special needs. Many of these children are being adopted by Western families.

Chuck Johnson, president of the National Council for Adoption, based in Virginia, US, said: "China has been very innovative in identifying children with special needs. In other countries, you really don't know where kids are and you don't know their status.

"China systematically identifies special needs children faster than it did previously, and they become available for adoption. It has also allowed US agencies to partner with orphanages to find families with special needs children.

"I can talk to a family today, they can pick out their child and they will be home this time next year with the child," Phillips said.

Johnson also said the number of foreign adoptions by US families has continued to fall because some countries have been told by the US government that they must improve child welfare to meet the standards for adoption. The US has halted adoptions from Cambodia and Guatemala because of fraud.

"China has the strongest oversight for all orphans. There is a very strong authority that monitors it. Such oversight and protection ... aren't always in place in other countries," Johnson said.

He hopes the US government can do more to help developing countries that don't meet the standards to develop such safeguards.

Phillips said more US families have become open to adopting children on the waiting list.

Three years ago, it would have been something of a shock if they had matched a child over 7 years old, "but now we do that on a regular basis," she said.
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A group of 20 Chinese tourists have been moved away from an earthquake-hit area of Japan, China's consulate-general in Fukuoka said on Sunday.

The tourists were moved on Saturday, with weekend quakes also reported in Ecuador in South America and the Pacific island nation of Tonga.

The consulate-general warned Chinese tourists not to visit the Kyushu area of Japan, where a quake jolted Kumamoto prefecture on Thursday night. Forty-one people were killed and 1,500 injured. There were no reports of Chinese casualties.

On Saturday morning, a magnitude-7.3 quake hit Kyushu's other prefectures of Oita, Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Miyazaki and Kagoshima.

In Ecuador, the Risk Management Agency said 10,000 armed forces personnel were deployed to help people in a coastal area stuck by a magnitude-7.8 quake. The country's vice-president put the death toll at 77, with 588 people injured.

A magnitude-6.1 quake hit Tonga on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said. It struck 277 kilometers southeast of the capital Nuku'alofa at a depth of 66 kilometers.

In Japan, rail services on the Kyushu Shinkansen line were suspended and road links cut.

The Chinese consulate-general in Fukuoka, which sent two teams to Kumamoto prefecture, said it was trying to help Chinese citizens, Chinese employees in the China-funded companies and travelers from the country.

The Chinese embassy in Tokyo on Saturday asked Chinese citizens in Japan to take measures to safeguard themselves from earthquakes and other disasters.

Japanese seismologists fear that a series of quakes jolting Kyushu could trigger tremors elsewhere on the southwestern island, according to the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun.

The epicenter of Thursday's quake is gradually moving eastward, Ichiro Kawasaki, professor emeritus of seismology at Kyoto University, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

He said that when a quake occurs, different pressure is exerted on other faults around it, which could trigger further quakes.

In an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, Takashi Furumura, a professor of seismology at the University of Tokyo, said Thursday's quake occurred in an area with a complex structure of multiple fault lines running next to each other.

"There is a possibility of a larger aftershock than what we have seen so far, and vigilance is needed," Furumura said.

The Japanese government mobilized 25,000 members of the Self-Defense Forces for rescue operations in the disaster-stricken areas.

Cheng Yonghua, China's ambassador to Japan, sent a letter of sympathy to Kumamoto Governor Ikuo Kabashima on Friday, expressing his condolences to families of those who died.
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The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector on Sunday said it shot down a Sudanese army helicopter in South Kordofan State.

"Our forces on Saturday launched attacks for four hours at al-Atmour-al-Nafra, west of Um Sirdiba area, and inflicted heavy loss of lives and military equipment among the government forces," Arno Taloudy, spokesman of the SPLM/northern sector, said in a statement.

"In primary statistics, a government fighter helicopter has been shot down, three tanks and 10 vehicles have been destroyed, besides that, tens of government soldiers have been killed or injured," he noted.

He said four of the movement's soldiers were killed and 15 others injured.

The Sudanese army spokesman could not be contacted immediately to comment on the rebels' claim.

The military confrontations between the Sudanese army and the rebels of the SPLM/northern sector have escalated since March 2015.

In this March, the Sudanese army announced controlling of Um Sirdiba area, one of the strongholds of the rebels of the SPLM/northern sector in South Kordofan State.

The SPLM/northern sector has been fighting the central government at Blue Nile and South Kordofan areas since 2011.

Last March, the peace talks between the government and the SPLM/northern sector rebels failed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, under the patronage of the African Union.

Khartoum unilaterally signed on a road-map deal proposed by the African mediation, while the SPLM/northern sector and other Darfur rebel movements declined to sign the deal.
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At least 12 people were killed and nine others injured on Sunday in violent clashes between Rizeigat and Ma'liya Arab tribes in Sudan's East Darfur State, Sudan Tribune reported.

"An armed group from Rizeigat tribe ambushed a group of members of Ma'liya near Khour Ta'an of Yassin locality in East Darfur State," Sudan Tribune quoted a responsible source as saying.

"Seven members of Ma'liya tribe and five from Rizeigat tribe were killed, nine others were injured," the source said.

The conflict between Rizeigat and Ma'liya dates back to 1966 when the first confrontation broke out between the two tribes due to dispute over pasture land claimed by both sides.

The most recent clashes between the two tribes took place in July 2014 where over 600 people were killed and 900 others injured from both sides, while more than 55,000 were displaced.
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Thousands of protesters rallied on Sunday outside the Capitol Hill in the U.S. capital city of Washington, D.C. against big money in U.S. politics.

People take part in a rally against Money Politics at the west lawn of Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on April 17, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The mass mobilization was aimed at protesting the undue influence of money in U.S. politics and barriers to voting and urging U.S. Congress to pass laws which would ensure all Americans have a fair voice in elections, said organizer Democracy Awakening, a coalition consisting of over 260 organizations.

"Our democracy should be about big ideas, not big checks," said Dan Smith, Democracy Campaign director from U.S. Public Interest Research Group, one of the over 260 groups that supported Democracy Awakening.

"Right now, our campaign finance system encourages candidates and lawmakers to spend their time courting mega-donors and special interests while everyday voters are left on the sidelines of our elections," he said.

The three-day event, which started on Saturday featuring a rally, teach-ins, lobbying and civil disobedience, was part of a broad movement that began on April 2, when coalition group Democracy Spring launched a march from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C..

On the heels of the 16-mile march, Democracy Spring on Monday launched a week-long sit-in protest outside the Capitol Hill, prompting mass arrests by Capitol police.

Adam Eichen, deputy communications director for Democracy Spring, said over a thousand protesters were arrested for what Capitol police called "unlawful demonstration activity" during the week-long protests.

The majority of them were released on the same day of their arrest.
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New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has begun a nearly week-long visit to China this Sunday.

Key is in China for 6-days, leading a high-level business delegation to the country.

An upgrade of the China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement is said to be one of the highlights of John Key's agenda.

New Zealand became the first developed country to to sign a bilaterla FTA with China in 2008.

That deal isn't due to fully take effect until 2019.

Key's trip to China comes less than two days after Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull wrapped up his visit to China.
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Jordan on Monday recalled its ambassador to Iran for consultations over what it described as Tehran's interference in Arab affairs, the state-run Petra news agency reported.

Jordan is the latest Arab country to recall its envoy from Iran after Saudi Arabia cut its diplomatic ties with Tehran following attacks on its mission in the Islamic republic during protests against the Saudi execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

On Jan. 2, Saudi Arabia executed Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 others over terror charges.

The execution sparked protests in Shiite-dominated Iran, where angry mobs stormed and set ablaze Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran and consulate in Iran's northeastern religious city of Mashhad.

A day later, Saudi Arabia announced it was severing its diplomatic ties with Iran, and asked all Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours.

On Monday, Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs Mohammad Momani said that "after attacks on Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran, we urged Iran to stop interference in Arab affairs, but we did not see any response from Iran even to calls by the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation not to interfere in regional issues."

Jordan decided to recall its envoy to Iran to reevaluate the situation in light of the ongoing developments, he added.

Jordan hopes that Iran would work on building cooperation and trust with the Arab countries and respect the sovereignty of the Arab states and not interfere in their affairs, he said.
A worker at a steel company in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, in January 2015. [Photo/China Daily]

BEIJING - China's ministries on Saturday unveiled general plans to help people laid off from the steel and coal industries, which are in the midst of overcapacity cut.

The "suggestions" on relocating redundant workers were jointly released by seven ministries including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the National Development and Reform Commission.

In addition to the help given to redundant staff, support will be offered to firms who create new jobs by adopting the "Internet Plus" strategy, developing new industrial fields and products, and expanding domestic and overseas market, according to the document.

A "back-to-work" program should be created so that workers receive training and career guidance for free, and, for those who want to start their own businesses, channels that will give them access to government support, it said.

Local authorities should also enhance trans-regional cooperation to relocate redundant workers to regions with employment opportunities.

To switch from an investment-led model to one that relies on domestic consumption, services and innovation, China is slashing industrial overcapacity, mainly in the coal and steel sectors.

According to preliminary forecast by the human resources ministry, the two sectors will see a combined laid-off workers totaling 1.8 million.

To cushion the effect of job losses on families and society, the central government decided to allocate 100 billion yuan ($15.4 billion) to help the laid-off workers find new jobs. The fund can be increased if necessary and local governments should handle their responsibilities accordingly, Premier Li Keqiang said in March.
WASHINGTON - Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan on Saturday called for broadening the use of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s basket of reserve currencies to advance the reform of the International Monetary System (IMS).

"The IMS has inherent deficiencies and faces new challenges from globalization, financial innovation, and volatility in capital flows," Zhou said in a statement for the meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the IMF's policy setting committee, on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

"The SDR has the potential to resolve the existing deficiencies in the IMS," Zhou said, referring to the Special Drawing Right, an international reserve asset created by the IMF in 1969.

The value of the SDR is currently based on a basket of four major reserve currencies: the US dollar, euro, the Japanese yen, and British pound. The IMF decided last year to include the renminbi in its SDR basket as the fifth currency, effective October 1, 2016.

"We can start now to gradually broaden the use of the SDR, including using it as a reporting currency in parallel with the US dollar and exploring issuance of SDR-denominated assets," Zhou said, adding that China has released foreign exchange reserve data denominated in the SDR in addition to the US dollar starting from this month.

Zhou said China will also explore issuing SDR-denominated bonds in the domestic market and look forward to the IMF's further analysis on strengthening the role of SDR this year.

"We support the examination of the possible broader use of the SDR," the IMFC said Saturday in a communique after the meeting of the 24-member committee.

"The IMF will discuss the case for a general allocation of SDRs and the reporting of official reserves in SDR," the communique said.
SYDNEY - Australian wine exports to China have lifted 64 percent in the past 12 months, according to a report released on Monday.

Exports from April 2015 to March 2016 to China accounted for A$397 million ($303.4 million), overtaking Britain at A$371 million ($283.5 million).

Wine Australia's Export Report found China's preference for Australian red wines continued this year with red wine's share of value increasing from 91 to 93 percent.

The total value of red wine exports increased by 66 percent to A$368 million ($281.2 million), while white wine increased by 39 percent to A$20 million ($15.2 million).

The report noted exports were boosted by the introduction of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) in December 2015, making China the second largest market for Australian exports by value after the United States.

"It is very pleasing to see the increasing demand for premium Australian wines, particularly in Asia," Wine Australia chief executive Andreas Clark said in a statement Monday.

"Bottled wine exports grew by 16 percent to A$1.7 billion ($1.29 billion), the highest value in five years," Clark said.

"There was growth in bottled exports at all price points, but growth was strongest at the higher end."
CANBERRA - The Belt and Road Initiative is an existing trend which will benefit the development of Southeast Asia and South Asia with more Chinese investment pouring in these regions, said Gordon Flake, Director of Perth USAsia Center.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Flake said the Belt and Road Initiative is a reality, an existing trend.

In the past 25 years, the defining development of that era has been the growth of China, he said.

In the next 25 years, with China being strong and influential, many countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia, like Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and India, will enter a fast growing period. The center of economic gravity begins to shift to Indo-Pacific and a large reason of that is the Chinese investment and trade with China of these countries under the Belt and Road Initiative, said Flake.

Flake said there are worries about Chinese investment in some countries. But when looking back at history, people see the similar worries over Japanese investment in the 1970s and 1980s. Bangladash and Vietnam worried about investment from South Korea for their labor policy.

"Now, nobody worries about Japanese investment and Korean investment. They welcome them," said Flake.

As for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Flake held that the United States did not handle the response to China's initiative very well.

"AIIB is not controversial at all," he said.

"AIIB now is very different. It has evolved a lot in a good way," he said, "I wouldn't be surprised, depending on performance, if at some point the United States and Japan join the AIIB."

Flake said Western Australia is well-postioned in this Indo-Pacific era. Though quite far from Australia's economic center on the eastern coast, Perth, the Western Australian capital, is closer to major Asian cities than the eastern cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.

Western Australia will be in an advanced position when the center of economic development gravity shifts to Southeast Asia and South Asia, according to Flake.

With its rich mineral and energy resources, its high level professional services in law, finance, infrastructure and basic science, Western Australia will be a perfect connecting point with the Belt and Road Initiative and support for the development in Southeast Asia and South Asia.
WELLINGTON - Leading Chinese agribusiness representatives will gather in Auckland next month for a new event to promote New Zealand agricultural technology, products and services.

The inaugural China-New Zealand Agribusiness Investment and Trade Conference on May 25 would include "match-making" meetings for New Zealand companies with Chinese counterparts who had matching business needs, the Bank of China's New Zealand subsidiary announced Monday.

The growth potential for New Zealand agricultural industry was immense, while innovators operating in the supply chain and logistics sectors were also substantial, according to the Bank of China (NZ), which is holding the event.

"By hosting 70 Chinese agricultural companies here, we aim to introduce local agribusinesses to people who can potentially help them access the Chinese market and grow their business," Bank of China (NZ) chief executive officer David Lei Wang said in a statement.

Despite China's agricultural output being the largest in the world, it was set to become the largest importer of farm products due to its arable land constraints and housing over 20 percent of the world's population.

China was forecast to import $150 billion worth of chicken, pork and beef by 2020, while water constraints were predicted to significantly impact horticultural production.

China's Ministry of Agriculture was talking up the need for more imported lamb in the next five years in anticipation of domestic demand growth.

"Food safety and health benefits, including growing demand for organic and gourmet produce, are increasingly important factors among China's middle class. New Zealand's reputation for clean, innovative and efficient production provides it a powerful competitive edge in a highly competitive international market," Wang said.

The New Zealand government was aiming to increase exports from 30 percent of GDP to 40 percent by 2025 and agribusinesses would be a critical component in reaching its target.

Prime Minister John Key is currently visiting China to discuss upgrading the existing free trade agreement between the two countries.

The one-day conference would be supported by the New Zealand government's New Zealand Trade and Enterprise agency and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand.
Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma at the China Entrepreneur Club Leaders Forum in Beijing on April 18.[Photo by Chen Yingqun/chinadaily.com.cn]

The New Zealand Trade Enterprise and Alibaba Group signed a memorandum of understanding (MOA) on April 18 in Beijing. The MOA was signed to help more New Zealand businesses sell their products to China through Alibaba platforms.

The signing ceremony was conducted after the China Entrepreneur Club Leaders Forum under the witness of New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key and Alibaba Group's Chairman Jack Ma.

The forum, hosted for John Key's business delegation and Chinese leading entrepreneurs, aimed at opening a discussion with the China Entrepreneur Club, a business organization and non-government organization established in 2006.

Ma says during the meeting that there are many small businesses in New Zealand who could offer very good products and services, but don't know how to sell to China. Ma added that in China, there are hundreds of millions of young people who know how to sell but don't have good products.

"We would do some training program in New Zealand, to train the New Zealand small businesses, how they can sell to China, what is the procedures, what is the payment, what is the logistics, it probably takes two weeks and you could do better. So we have Taobao (China's major online-shopping platform, which is owned by Alibaba), we have Alibaba university, we would either to do the training in New Zealand, or invite the New Zealand entrepreneurs to stay in China for two weeks," says Ma.



The second option is to open an Alibaba business embassy in New Zealand, and there are already excellent people in New Zealand ready to join this project, he says.

Milk powder, honey, and sea food are all New Zealand products that are very popular on Alibaba's online selling platforms. Ma says that last year, in one day, they sold 50,000 oysters from New Zealand.

Ma says that Chinese consumers are now buying food from New Zealand, but what we should really buy is New Zealand's environmental technology and concepts, which made the country become a healthy and innovative place.
Beijing says steel overcapacity is a global challenge, which needs the shared efforts of the international community to tackle it at the High-Level Symposium on Excess Capacity and Structural Adjustment in the Steel Sector on Monday in Brussels. Zhang Ji, assistant minister of Commerce, is heading a delegation to the event organized by Belgian government and OECD. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China believes that the weakening global demand for steel since the 2008-09 financial crisis is the "fundamental cause" of excess capacity in the steel and related industries, which is a common challenge for the world.

But China's domestic efforts in reducing overcapacity in the related sectors and its Belt and Road Initiative, which is actually helping boost steel consumption, need global cooperation and coordination.

China laid out its position on Monday at the High-Level Symposium on Excess Capacity and Structural Adjustment in the Steel Sector in Brussels.

Zhang Ji, China's assistant minister of Ministry of Commerce, heads a delegation to the talks, organized by Belgian government and OECD.

"The Chinese side believes that since the international financial crisis, economies have suffered a notable slowdown, sluggish recovery, and a decline in infrastructure construction, industrial development and household consumption, leading to weak global demand for steel," according to the position paper.

"This is the fundamental cause of excess capacity in the steel and some other industries," the document said.

Before the international financial crisis in 2008, strong growth of the world economy was conducive to the increase in the production capacity of the global steel industry.

"Any other analysis and judgment on the steel excess capacity will make us lose direction and fail to find a correct solution," the paper was cited as saying.

The Chinese side took the view that the OECD Steel Committee is a forum for global dialogue and communication on steel, and the nature of the session should be a symposium rather than a formal official meeting.
Zhou Jian, a 26-year-old folk dancer, dreams of a stage career, and he said he believes the Magic Kingdom can help him get there.

Zhou recently made a 14-hour journey by train from inland Shanxi province, to attend a job fair in Shanghai, where he hoped to land work at Walt Disney Co's 389-hectare, $5.5-billion resort set to open on June 16. He covets a role in the Lion King musical production that will be performed in Mandarin for the first time.

"I want to be famous before I turn 30 years old," he said. "I've performed on big and small stages for several years and haven't made much progress. Disney is a world-famous brand. I thought it would be a very good stage for me."

Disney has been using brand cachet to its advantage during a four-year recruiting drive to staff up at Shanghai Disneyland. It's the company's sixth park worldwide, and Chief Executive Robert Iger called it the company's greatest business opportunity since founder Walt Disney bought land in central Florida in the 1960s.

It's also a massive management challenge. Iger said last year the park would employ about 10,000 workers in an economy where rapid-fire turnover and uneven customer service can be challenges for multinational corporations.

"The focus on customer service is very important for Disney, but there is still a huge gap between their standard and normal Chinese standards," said Sara Wong, Kelly Services' Hong Kong director of recruitment process outsourcing. "They are not hiring 10 people, they are hiring 10,000."
Only seven out of the 40 US-traded Chinese firms that proposed privatization over the past 12 months have completed the process, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

However, the most recent successful case like Bona Film Group has rekindled the fire.

Dating app Momo surged 33.6 percent on April 6 after a regulatory filing showed Alibaba Group Holding's finance affiliates joined the group seeking to take the company private.

According to the filing, Alibaba Investment and Rich Moon, or Yunfeng Fund, have become the latest members backing a buyout of Momo that chairman and CEO Tang Yan proposed last June.

Here's a list of 10 US-traded Chinese firms that are in the process of privatization while eyeing a comeback to their home capital market.

1.Jumei International Holding

Listed on May 16, 2014

Issue price: $22

Privatization offer: $7
Visitors look at a car on display during the Hainan International Automotive Industry Exhibition and South China International New Energy Vehicles Exhibition in Haikou, South China's Hainan province, March 10, 2016. [Provided to China Daily] Expert says demand to rise, popularity of SUVs to continue

China sold 6.53 million vehicles in the first quarter of the year, a 6 percent increase year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

A total of 2.44 million cars were sold in March, a 54.3 percent surge from February and an 8.8 percent rise from the same month last year.

Experts said the March performance is usually much better than in February because the weeklong Spring Festival often falls in February and people rarely buy cars during the festival.

Yao Jie, the CAAM's vice-secretary-general, said the sales in the first quarter are an indicator of consumer demand that was contained in preceding months, and the trend would continue for some time to come.

Yao expects the growth rate this year to reach about 6 percent, which would translate into 26 million vehicles sold, owing to the enthusiasm of Chinese for SUVs and the government's favorable policies for small-engine cars.

A total of 1.96 million SUVs were sold in the first quarter, a 51.5 percent surge year-on-year and a continuation of the sales momentum seen last year.

The five most popular SUVs, according to the China Passenger Car Association, are all from Chinese manufacturers: the Haval, Baojun, Trumpchi, Changan and JAC.

Volkswagen's Tiguan and GM's Encore, which ranked sixth and seventh, saw their combined sales reach 115,100 units, while Haval H6 sales stood at 121,300 units.

MPVs also saw strong growth. Nearly 700,000 units were sold from January to March, a 14.94 percent rise year-on-year.

Sales of sedans and crossovers were not as strong. A total of 2.81 million sedans were sold in the first three months, a 9.27 percent fall year-on-year. Crossovers saw their sales in Q1 slump more than one-third year-on-year to merely 218,300 units.

China's favorable policy on small-engine cars is still going strong, with 1.46 million cars with engines at or below 1.6 liters sold in March. That accounts for 71.2 percent of the total passenger vehicles sold in the month, a similar percentage to that of the previous two months.

New-energy cars saw their sales slow somewhat following scandals involving companies attempting to cheat the government to get subsidies earlier this year.

Their sales in the first three months totaled 58,125 units, a 100 percent rise year-on-year, according to CAAM statistics.

Of those, 42,131 electric cars were sold in the period, up 140 percent year-on-year, and 15,994 plug-in hybrid models delivered, a 43 percent rise from the same period a year earlier.

Chinese passenger car brands saw their market share edge 1.8 percentage points to 45 percent by the end of March. German passenger brands followed by 19.7 percent, a fall of 0.7 percentage point year-on-year, while Japanese brands saw their market share grow 1.5 percentage points to 13.8 percent.

Chinese brands seized a market share of 58.8 percent in the SUV market and 19.9 percent of the sedan market by the end of March.
A leaflet showing discount prices for spare parts used in BMW vehicles. The automaker has taken measures to make the maintenance of its cars more affordable.[Provided to China Daily]

Guess how much you have to spend to maintain a premium car? You might be surprised.

Contrary to popular belief, the daily maintenance cost for a luxury car like a BMW 5 sedan is not that pricey, equivalent to what consumers would spend on a cup of coffee, said Claus Eberhart, vice-president of after-sales services at BMW Brilliance Automotive.

And through recent efforts from the automaker, that cost might be dropping, he told China Daily on Tuesday.

BMW has cut prices for approximately 4,500 spare parts used in BMW and MINI vehicles by 10 to 30 percent since April 1, with another round of price slashes involving more than 1,100 accessories slated for June.

Eberhart said BMW has been making efforts to increase efficiency and slash turnover costs, explaining that moves like purchasing more locally made spare parts and expanding its logistics network have enabled the automaker to cut prices.

Major rival Mercedes-Benz conducted a similar move in March in the Chinese market, the second time it has lowered maintenance costs this year.

Analysts say the automakers' moves are aimed at enhancing their competitiveness in the increasingly fierce premium segment as China's economic growth slows and many pour more of their money into the property market.

Increasing the competition in the industry are the independent maintenance shops that are beginning to get a decent slice of the after-sales market, the most lucrative sector.

The Ministry of Transport promulgated a regulation in September that demands carmakers publicize all information related to repairing and maintaining the models they sell.

Before the regulation took effect in January 2016, only authorized dealers had access to such information, which made it easy for them to charge exorbitant prices.

Eberhart said the two most important reasons car owners go to independent maintenance shops are their prices and convenience, adding that BMW is working hard in these two aspects to improve customer satisfaction and retention.

"It is good to have competition, and we have some experience in staying competitive," Eberhart said.

He said to ensure customers will benefit from the price drops, BMW is offering spare parts to dealers at lower prices so that profit margins will not be affected.

Besides slashing its prices, BMW said it will closely monitor the market, examine changes in customer satisfaction and loyalty and make necessary adjustments.

Eberhart said the automaker has many key performance indexes, of which customer satisfaction is its biggest priority.

The automaker hopes that by cutting its prices, potential buyers will view the maintenance of BMW vehicles as affordable.

He said the 2015 International After-sales Customer Survey showed that BMW cars entail the lowest maintenance costs among German premium brands.

The automaker is also working to make it convenient for customers to have their cars maintained and repaired. It has about 20 rapid maintenance stores in the downtown areas of 15 cities across China.

Looking forward, he said he hopes digitalization and connectivity technologies will play an increasingly important role in after-sales services so that car owners will be informed of the need for timely maintenance and parts replacement.
Chinese automaker Qoros said its financial performance is turning better although it remains in the red following rumors that its losses last year grew to 2.5 billion yuan ($386.8 million) from 2.2 billion yuan in 2014.

"We will be able to live on our sales revenue in two or three years. That means we will not have to rely on parent companies' support for daily operation. If things are good, we might make it this year," Qoros President Chen Anning said at a news conference earlier this month in Beijing.

His remarks came after online reports surfaced showing Qoros' annual losses in the financial statement of Kenon Holdings, who set up the automaker with China's Chery in 2007.

"I don't know what rules were used to compile their statement but I can tell you that our losses in 2015 was 10 percent less than in 2014," Chen said.

He admitted that Qoros has yet to turn a profit since its establishment but that the losses were expected. He said 60 percent of the losses came from initial investments, market research and development costs.

"Based on our financial scale, we can live on our sales revenue when our sales reach tens of thousands of units a year."

Its 2015 sales reached 14,000 units, a 170-percent surge from the previous year.

Earlier this year Chen set a goal of selling 30,000 units to 50,000 units in 2016. He said 2,500 cars were sold in March, with sales in April climbing higher due to the launch of the Qoros 5 SUV in several Chinese cities.

SUVs have been the fastest growing segment in the Chinese market. A total of 1.96 millions SUVs were sold in the first quarter of 2016, a 51.46-percent surge year-on-year.

Chen said more than 3,000 units of Qoros 5 have been sold since March, which is a strong rival of SUVs priced at above 150,000 yuan from international brands, including Ford, Toyota, GM and Hyundai.

"Qoros is a high-end Chinese brand and we can compete with international brands in terms of quality, performance and value. I don't know what other Chinese brands only see international brands as their competitors."

Its first model, the Qoros 3 compact car, was the first China-built model to receive a five-star rating under EuroNCAP safety standards.

Chen said Qoros will join hands with European racecar maker Koenigsegg at the Beijing auto show in late April to improve its powertrain.

"Qoros did not have the intention of becoming a Chinese Volkswagen or GM from the very beginning. Instead, its aim is to develop into an automaker with an innovative spirit, an automaker that stands somewhere between traditional firms and Apple Inc."
Photo taken on April 14, showing a Uber car-hailing station in Longyang Avenue, Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province.[Photo/IC]

BEIJING -- Undaunted by ride-hailing app Didi's dominance in the Chinese market, Uber sees potential to chip away at the company's virtual monopoly outside first-tier cities.

Uber said on Thursday its ride-hailing service in Hefei, provincial capital of east China's Anhui Province, grew by over 30 percent daily since launching in March, the fastest uptake rate the company has seen in about 400 cities around the world where it operates. Uber now accounts for more than 50 percent of ride-hailing service in the city.

UberPool, which allows drivers to pick up more than one paying passengers at a time, was launched last year to compete directly with Didi in ride-sharing services.

China's "sharing economy" is booming, and ride services are gaining popularity as an alternative to public transportation for daily commutes.

While conventional wisdom holds that top-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are the easiest places for a business to launch in China, Uber has had far better success in China's second- and third-tier cities, said Wen Yilong, who runs Uber's Hefei operations, in a company press release.

Hangzhou in eastern China and the southwestern economic powerhouse Chengdu, both second-tier cities, used to be Uber's two best performing cities in the world.

Smartphones and mobile Internet are closing the gap between China's megacities and the rest. That puts cities big and small on the same starting line because "apps used by people in large cities are also used by their peers in small cities," Wen said.

Like many foreign companies, Uber has made inroads into the Chinese market through top-tier cities since 2014 and began to penetrate smaller cities during the second half of last year.

The ride-hailing app seeks to expand its presence in 100 Chinese cities this year, including previously uncovered northeastern and western regions. Uber's ride-hailing service is currently available in 50 cities.

Rival Didi has a far bigger presence, operating in more than 400 Chinese cities and held 84.1 percent of the ride-hailing market nationwide as of February, according to data compiled by iResearch.

Liu Zhen, head of strategy for Uber China, said the company is eyeing a disciplined expansion in China and will weigh the decision to enter new cities based on a number of criteria, including local population, level of development and consumption patterns.

Uber's global CEO Travis Kalanick said last month that the company is using profits earned from other foreign markets to fund operations in China, where he thinks competition and growth are both unrivaled.
Great Wall Motor's Haval H6 was crowned again for a fifth consecutive year the best selling sport utility vehicle, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers' data released in January.

The sales volume of the top 10 SUVs, exceeding two millions, contributed 32.9 percent to the total SUV market last year.

No 10

SAIC-GM

Buick Envision

Sales volume about 163,000
Chen Wei (left 3), managing director of Avaya Greater China, and Touch Xian (right 3), general manager of Tencent's IM product department, pose at the strategic alliance ceremony in Zhuhai, Guangdong province on March 24, 2016.[Photo/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Avaya, a global provider of business communications and collaboration systems and services, will take bigger steps into the internet sector this year, said Chen Wei, managing director of Avaya Greater China.

"Enterprise contact centers are undergoing profound transformation with the development of new technologies, such as mobile internet and big data, and 'Omni-channel' has become a big trend, Chen said during the two-day Avaya Greater China User & Partner Conference 2016 at the end of March in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.

In an earlier interview, Chen, who was promoted to his current position in November 2015, outlined Avaya's new year strategy as expanding cloud services in China, such as the video cloud service and the contact center cloud service.

"We believe that the carrier of business communications, including the call centers, will move from desktop to mobile phones. Key factors such as big data, social media, Internet of Things, and multimedia engagement are driving digital transformation of enterprises," Chen added.

A clearer sign of the company's ambition in the internet sector came as Avaya announced a strategic alliance with China's internet giant Tencent to transform customer experiences during the Zhuhai conference.

According to a joint announcement, Tencent QQ will be integrated with Avaya contact center technologies to enhance voice, video and converged communication capabilities, turning the current voice self-service menus into visual menus to improve efficiency. The two companies will also collaborate in terms of marketing.

At the exhibition center, Jessica Liu, Avaya China's application and solution team manger, demonstrated the new yellow pages product co-developed by Avaya and Tencent QQ. Jessica took delivering a package as an example. When opening the QQ APP on the mobile phone, finding out the courier company, and clicking the "QQ telephone" button, the customer will see the pop-out service menu, offering both text and voice solutions.

Other services such as scanning a barcode to follow status of the package and integrating information from other channels are also included in the product.

Consumers can also launch QQ telephone by simply scanning barcode of the courier company.

Tencent QQ's popularity in China, with more than 800 million active users monthly, of which over 600 million from mobile internet terminals, established a base for the product, said Touch Xian, general manager of Tencent's IM product department.

"Although we are at the beginning stage, we have seen surprising performance for courier companies such as YTO Express and ZTO Express. The proportion of self-service can reach 85 percent, which is beyond the possibility of traditional ways, Xian added.

When asked about the security and stability concerns, Adam Xiong, Avaya China's chief technology officer, stressed that QQ yellow pages itself is only an access channel, not the cause of the security risks.

"The original way (traditional enterprise contact center) is safe, but our service modes have to change in accordance with customer needs. Getting access to internet is a must and now many apps have been developed for enterprise contact centers, Xiong added.

Xiong believes that with progress in the mobile internet technology, such as the popularization of 5G, stability may improve to as high as 99 percent.

Given the backdrop of China facing slowdown pressure, Avaya saw steady growth here and the Chinese market is playing a more important role in its worldwide development.

"China is currently undergoing a crucial transformation as enterprises look to stay competitive and move up the value chain. We are thrilled with the opportunities we see in this market as China outlined its Internet Plus strategy, and as enterprises increasingly bet their success on innovations by leveraging new digital technologies. We will continue to invest in this market and win together with customers and partners," said Fadi Moubarak, Avaya's channel director of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa,.

In the 2015 fiscal year ending Sept 30, Avaya achieved year-on- year sales growth in Greater China region despite market challenges.

"Under the whole economic and IT environment in China, I greatly commend my team for the achievements. In fact, I believe we still have many market opportunities here. The key point is how we can seize these opportunities, and how we perform in transitions," Chen said.

As China is one of the leaders in the mobile internet development in the world, products and applications that come out of the cooperation with Chinese Internet and e-commerce companies also have the potential to be applied to the overseas market, Chen added.

For its China expansion and localization, Avaya established a new legal entity, Avaya (Shanghai) Enterprises Management Co Ltd, which began operations on Oct 1, 2015.
Zhang Yongsheng and his wife Gu Fangyi, in their eighties, pose for photos recreating scenes from South Korean television drama Descendants of the Sun to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary in Guangzhou city, the capital of South China's Guangdong province. Zhang said he always wanted to have a romantic wedding ceremony with his wife. The South Korean drama of love on the battlefield has millions of fans in China. [Photo/China News Service]
A CCTV grab shows the arm of a sick student.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection started an investigation on Sunday into what caused about 500 students at Changzhou Foreign School in Jiangsu province to come down with a range of pollution-related illnesses.

The school had relocated in September to a facility built on a toxic site.

The spate of illnesses that flared since then include leukemia, dermatitis, eczema, bronchitis and blood abnormalities.

According to the school, 641 students were examined recently by doctors, and 493 were diagnosed with various diseases and conditions.

The local government confirmed the new campus was built on a brownfield site that had housed three chemical factories. The plants had produced highly toxic chemicals including carbofuran and methomyl.

People who formerly worked in the factories said they had buried toxic chemicals near the plants to save time and money. They also spoke of discharging untreated wastewater into rivers.

An environmental report showed that soil and nearby groundwater contained organic pollutants including chlorobenzene and carbon tetrachloride. Heavy-metal pollutants such as mercury, lead and cadmium were also found.

The concentrations of chlorobenzene in the groundwater and soil greatly exceeded normal levels, according to the report. The amount of chlorobenzene in the groundwater was 94,799 times normal. It was 78,899 times higher in the soil.

Pan Xiaochuan, a professor at the public health school under Peking University, was quoted by China Central Television as saying that the high number of students being diagnosed with diseases and conditions in such a short space of time should be connected with the heavy pollution levels.

Professors specializing in environmental issues told CCTV the environmental assessment report that justified the construction of the new campus did not look for pesticides. And they said that builders had used heavily polluted groundwater during the construction process.
An expat poses for photos with his Chinese permanent residence card in this file photo. [Photo/IC]

China is to build a database of overseas talent as part of a digital platform to match foreign experts with potential employers, a senior official said on Sunday.

The platform, the first big-data project of its kind in the country, will include all legally employed foreign workers' nationalities, areas of expertise and industry, their employer and city of residence, according to Zhang Jianguo, director of the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs.

He proposed the database at the Conference on International Exchange of Professionals, which was held in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Saturday and Sunday.

During the event, he said he had noticed that more governments and companies in China are looking to hire foreign employees, while more expats see the country as a land of opportunity.

"Both the supply and demand sides are positive," he said. "But I also noticed that many employers can't find the right candidates. The key issue here is matching."

Between 2011 and 2015, foreign experts paid more than 3 million visits to China, including short trips and longer-term employment. This is a 30 percent increase compared with 2006 to 2010.

Zhang said most expats work in eight provinces and cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang province.

"In the past, overseas talent introduction was led by government policies and talent projects. But these cannot react to market changes dynamically," he said. "The market should lead overseas talent recruitment, and the government should create a friendly environment for overseas talent such as a simplified visa application process."

The digital platform will also bridge the information gap between demand and supply, Zhang added, although he did not elaborate.

As China develops, emerging industries are springing up and are facing a shortage of overseas talent. For example, data from Spring Professional, an international recruitment agency, show many automakers are developing new energy vehicles and need high-end foreign experts.

Christine Raynaud, Greater China CEO for Morgan Philips Group, a global recruitment company, said local and foreign companies in China are bad at international recruitment.

"Chinese firms and brands are internationalizing to compete in global markets, and it means they have to attract and integrate foreign experts on critical projects," she said. "However, the traditional model of recruitment is too local in terms of sourcing habits and recruiter experience. It also doesn't leverage digital tools."
Premier says policy support, funding key to building global reputations

Chinese universities are being encouraged to gain global recognition by developing world-class disciplines and adopting reforms to enhance their competitiveness.

Specific measures should be introduced as soon as possible to provide targeted policy and funding support for colleges as China starts to promote its higher education institutions, Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday at a meeting on innovative management of higher education institutions.

State-run and private schools are encouraged to develop diverse disciplines that feature their own characteristics, he told heads of 53 universities.

Breakthroughs in building disciplines for global reputations will help enhance the competitiveness of Chinese universities in international academic circles, which in turn will bring new momentum for economic growth, cultural prosperity and social progress, Li said.

Education is key to China's development, especially amid the current economic slowdown, and the premier said the evaluation system should be improved to give professors and researchers more authority in allocating funds as well as to ensure real benefits from academic innovation.

In addition, students should get more opportunities to practice what they have learned in classrooms and be encouraged to develop original ideas and research, he added.

According to the State Council's guidelines on promoting higher education, released in November, China aims to have a number of world-class universities and disciplines by 2020, with more funding from the government and the introduction of elite overseas scholars.

Last year, only two universities on the Chinese mainland - Peking University and Tsinghua University - were included in the global top 100 university rankings. Li visited both before Friday's meeting.

"The government should create an environment of equal competition for universities to develop their own advantages and boost diversity, which will facilitate their efforts to become world-class universities," said Xiong Bingqi, vice-president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute.

Meanwhile, the premier said universities should continue to use favorable enrollment policies for students from rural families, to provide them with equal opportunities.

Lin Jianhua, president of Peking University, said, "Educational equality is in line with quality higher education, and more than 15 percent of freshmen enrolled in our school last year were born into rural families."
China's top planning authority pledged it will issue procedures designed to help migrant workers and their families acquire full urban residential status.

The National Development and Reform Commission will, for the first time, take over the leadership of the process and speed the change, according to Xu Shaoshi, the NDRC's chief, at a high-level conference about the reform held last week.

Providing full urban household registration, or hukou, to migrant workers was listed as one of the major tasks for the NDRC this year.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and some provinces have already adopted their own plans to facilitate the change, ahead of the central government's announced goal of helping up to 100 million rural migrants, before 2020, to permanently settle in the place where their city jobs are located.

The hukou system, dating back a half-century, features strict separation between urban and rural citizens in their economic rights and welfare entitlements. But despite the Chinese leaders' call for change in 2014, not many migrant workers have been given urban hukou, officials said.

Speeding things up will help not only to create more urban consumers but also to fill some unsold urban housing units with new residents through the government's subsidized rental programs for low-income families, a document from the NDRC said.

Helping migrant workers and their families change their hukou status will be particularly useful as some third- and fourth-tier cities need to offload excess real estate inventory, Xu said.

Yao Yang, dean of Peking University's National School of Development, previously suggested that local governments should buy back some unsold homes to turn them into low-rent properties for workers.

Others, including Sun Di, an economics professor at California State University, Long Beach, questioned whether the government's ambition can be realized, saying local governments are already cash-strapped and may not be able to help many migrant workers.
Michelle and Scott Morell with their five older children. All of their children joined the family through adoption. The three older children are through domestic adoption, and the younger ones are from China. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

When a young couple is starting a family through adoption, it's harder to consider a child with special needs. You have this fantasy picture and ideal of what your family is going to be. You feel as though you have already missed out on pregnancy and other experiences many couples take for granted. You don't want to give up on enjoying the newborn stage and becoming the parents of a "perfect" beautiful little baby.

But as we had more children and looked at the options of continuing to build our family, those things became less important. Every child - biological or adopted, healthy or special needs - is going to have issues and struggles in life. It's part of the package when you get your child.

A "Waiting Child" (children ages 8 months to 13 years waiting to be adopted) is so much more than just a medical/special need. They are a whole person. They have strengths and struggles, talents, dreams and a craving for love and acceptance just as all of us do.

We have seven children. All of them joined our family through adoption. The three older children are through domestic adoption. The younger ones are from China - Kate is 10, Claire is 8, and Luke and Ethan are 3.

After we brought Kate home in 2006, we had to wait a year to file for another adoption from China. This was when China's international adoption program for healthy infants slowed down.

We both felt that it was time for us to switch to the Waiting Child Program.

I called our agency and spoke to them about the needs we were open to and could handle. The next day, we got a call from the social worker about a baby girl who had hands that were formed different and was missing part of her right leg. We stared at the few pictures that were in her files, wondering "Is it really no big deal?"

That day we said, "Yes, we very much want to be her parents."
Editor's Note: Encouraged by the clustering effect of some of the country's coastal industrial towns, the Chinese central government has decided to build the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster as a new economic power engine in the country's inland areas. In this Policy Review page, economic advisors suggest that proper coordination and cooperation will be needed to make the clustering program really work to replicate the success of the cities.

The central government's decision to foster a city cluster based around Chengdu and Chongqing, the two largest business cities in Southwest China, is expected to create a new growth engine for the country's sputtering economy, analysts have said.

But for the engine to work, a top-down coordination mechanism should be fashioned, they said.

The Chengdu-Chongqing City Cluster Development Program was endorsed at an executive meeting of the State Council, China's cabinet, which was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang two weeks ago.

As slowing growth hits the country's coastal areas, the blueprint pledges to build up city clusters to spearhead growth and the exploitation of China's vast western regions.

Compared with city clusters in other parts of China, which for geographic reasons typically come under one provincial government, the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster has two "cores" which fall under a provincial and a municipal government.

The new city cluster covers an area of 183,000 square kilometers, equivalent to the size of North Dakota in the upper Midwestern United States.

Home to 40 million urban residents, the new Chinese city cluster encompasses 11 cities - 10 in Sichuan province, including its capital Chengdu, plus the province's neighbor Chongqing, which was separated from Sichuan and elevated to be China's fourth municipality directly under the central government 19 years ago.

"It's the country's strategic choice to craft an economic power engine in inland areas following the success story in developing city clusters in eastern and coastal regions," said Luo Ling, president of the Sichuan Research Institute of Industrial Development.

"It will reshape the country's economic landscape."

Chongqing headed the country's economic growth last year, with its gross domestic product surging by 11 percent year-on-year, while the national figure contracted to 6.9 percent. Chengdu also posted nearly 8 percent GDP growth in 2015.

The central authorities expect both municipalities to be the bellwethers in regional integration, given that there is imbalanced urbanization level and overlapped industrial layout within the city cluster, according to Luo.

But at present there is more competition than cooperation between Chengdu and Chongqing, he said. For example, Chongqing has a solid background of developing its automobile industry, but Chengdu and Ziyang, another Sichuan city also included in the city cluster, are seeking to boost their vehicle industry.

"It is imperative to set up a coordinating organization at the State level to steer the development of the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster," said Luo, adding that this will help ensure the free flow of capital, technology and talent in the region.

In particular, as the city cluster sits in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River - the third-longest river in the world, but the longest to flow entirely within one country - such a coordinating authority will better implement plans of ecological conservation and environmental protection, he said.

Li Yong, a senior researcher of the Regional Economy Research Center of the Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences, too, said that there is homogeneous competition and a lack of synergy in terms of industrial development in the nascent city cluster.

"Chongqing and Sichuan province should join hands to make an industrial cooperation scheme for the 13th Five-year Plan (2016-20) period to unlock the local potentials for complementary development," Li said.

Li, who had participated in the drafting of the city cluster development program, said he proposed that the Chongqing and Sichuan sides pool resources to build two world class industrial clusters - automobile and information technology.

For instance, Chongqing will become the spare parts provider for all of the Sichuan and Chongqing areas, while Chengdu will focus on automobile innovation, Li proposed.

"Chengdu and Chongqing should also coordinate their development in environmental protection, smart manufacturing, modern logistics, tourism and finance," Li said. "All this calls for top-level coordination."

For the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster to thrive, Li suggested a coordinating committee, preferably chaired by a vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, and composed of different department chiefs from Sichuan and Chongqing, to be launched as soon as possible.
A PLA Navy flight that was patrolling the South China Sea suspended its task to help transport three severely ill patients from Yongshu Reef in the Nansha Islands to Sanya city in Hainan province on Sunday. The Yongshu Reef has been in use since 1988 as a meteorological observation station as requested by UNESCO. Located in one of the world's busiest areas for air and sea travel, Yongshu Reef is being developed to provide medical and other emergency services. [Photo/t.people.com.cn/planavy]



A navy patrol aircraft carried out a historic medical mission to transport three workers from Yongshu Reef, part of the Nansha Islands, on Sunday, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

It's the first time that a Chinese military aircraft landed on the reef in the South China Sea. Earlier in January, the Foreign Ministry confirmed that China had completed an airfield on the reef, the country's southernmost airfield.

Li Wanmei, one of the three workers, was in a coma due to suspected digestive problems. One of the other two workers had a possible hip fracture and the other was believed to be suffering from appendicitis. All three were described as being in a serious condition.

Transporting the men by sea was ruled out because of the time factor and weather conditions. Wu Shengli, commander of the PLA Navy, and Miao Hua, political commissar of the PLA Navy, ordered the patrol aircraft, undertaking missions in the South China Sea, to transport the workers to the No 425 Hospital of the Navy in Sanya, Hainan province.
Xiang Dongliang cooks a meal from GM food material at his home in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. Photo by Liu Dongguang/for China Daily

Former agricultural reporter eats genetically modified food for 100 days, posts videos online

A former reporter created a recipe for controversy after posting online videos of him eating genetically modified food.

Xiang Dongliang received more than 100,000 abusive messages  and a death threat  even though he admitted that his 100 consecutive days of eating genetically modified, or GM, food was too small a sample to prove its safety.

"It was more of a declaration. I wanted to show that somebody is actually eating GM foods on a long-term basis." he said. "I was not bankrolled."

Xiang resigned his post as a reporter covering the agricultural beat at a newspaper in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, in August, and devoted himself to convincing the public that GM technology is safe.

"My reporting experience made me aware of the importance of agricultural technology, and I realized it could play a key role in helping farmers increase their incomes," he said.

As health conscious as anyone, Xiang said he does not smoke or drink, He said he expected a strong response from critics of GM foods, which are derived from organisms whose genetic material has been modified in a way that does not occur in nature, but not the vitriol he encountered.

"I did not expect so many abusive messages to be sent to my social media accounts. They abused me and my family, and even threatened death," he said.

He added: "Most of the messages came from Internet users who were trying to vent their emotions, and none of them were trying to hold rational discussions about the issue of GM technology itself."

Xiang noted that China's social media has been dominated by views opposing genetically engineered agricultural technology, and celebrities, including Cui Yongyuan, a former host with China Central Television, are often at the forefront.
A higher legal threshold of 30,000 yuan ($4,629) has been set for bribery and embezzlement cases under a new judicial interpretation issued on Monday.

This sum will be recognized as a "relatively large amount", according to the document published by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, replacing the previous threshold of 5,000 yuan.

Pei Xianding, chief judge of the top court's criminal tribunal, cautioned that those engaged in lower level corruption will still be punished.

"People who are corrupt, accept bribes several times or provide benefits for the promotion of others will be still be given punishments," Pei said.

"Those who refuse to return illicitly obtained money, have been sentenced on other charges or have received disciplinary punishments for embezzlement or bribery will be also punished, even if the money involved equals less than 30,000 yuan."

The new interpretation further redefines sums ranging from 200,000 to 3 million yuan as a "huge amount" and anything over 3 million yuan as "extremely huge" in terms of corruption.

Pei said the changes reflect both Chinese economic developments and legal precedent, but added that the country's fight against corruption remains strong.

In addition, the interpretation clarifies that convicts sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve or life imprisonment for corruption will not be eligible for commutation or parole.

In the past, corrupt officials given a suspended death sentence would have it commuted to life imprisonment if they did not commit any other crimes during a two-year probation period. Sentences were also reduced for good behavior.
People always say that dogs are man's best friend. They're also lifesavers, as three proved to be for a distraught woman who tried to kill herself in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality.

The dogs, out for a walk with their two owners, rushed into a river, attempting to save a woman who had jumped in the water to commit suicide on April 14, Chongqing Evening News reported.

The dogs swam toward the woman and tried very hard to push her to the shore using their heads. Later, a 69-year-old man passing by jumped into the river to save the woman. One of the dogs found the woman's shoe and brought it to the riverbank in its mouth.

The woman was saved and taken to a hospital.
BEIJING -- The deepened reform China is implementing must be "people-centric" and just, President Xi Jinping said at a meeting of the Leading Group for Overall Reform on Monday.

"A people-centric approach should be implemented in all areas of development, addressing people's demands and concerns, and giving them more tangible benefits," Xi said.

The president, also head of the leading group, was joined at the meeting by deputy heads Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan and Zhang Gaoli, as well as other senior officials.

They approved a document regulating business operations by relatives of officials, a practice which has been extended to Beijing, Guangdong, Chongqing and Xinjiang on the basis of a trial in Shanghai.

Other documents on management of civil servants, encouragement of honesty, construction of private schools, and protection of police officers were also approved.
Death penalty in severe cases not replaced by new interpretation, says top court judge

Officials who commit severe corruption crimes, such as taking a huge amount of bribes, may face a new sentence now  life imprisonment without parole. China Daily

Officials who commit severe corruption crimes, such as taking a huge amount of bribes, may face a new sentence now  life imprisonment without parole, according to an interpretation issued on Monday by the top judiciary authorities.

"The life sentence without parole is a new category of penalty for corruption, which means convicts given such punishment will spend the rest of their life in prison, no matter how well they behave while serving their sentences," said Pei Xianding, chief judge of the criminal tribunal under the Supreme People's Court.

In the past, a death sentence with a two-year reprieve could be commuted to a life sentence if the person convicted behaved well during the two years, and the sentence might be further cut if they continue to behave in prison, according to Pei.

But under the new interpretation, effective on Monday, convicts will not have a chance to leave prison if they are given the sentence, he said.

Life in prison without parole will be handed down in conjunction with a death sentence with a two-year reprieve, according to the interpretation by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

"For some defendants, the death penalty is too heavy and a suspended death sentence too light, so we made the new sentence after research and discussion, in a move to ensure punishments will be in line with offenses," he said.

Pei stressed it does not mean there will be no death penalty in corruption cases.

"For those whose offenses meet the requirements of the death penalty, the courts will sentence them to death without hesitation," he added.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) holds talks with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key in Beijing, capital of China, April 18, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

China and New Zealand will increase agricultural cooperation and upgrade their free trade agreement to further cut tariffs and boost exchanges.

Premier Li Keqiang on Monday met with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who will end his six-day visit on Friday.

China will work to expand trade within the framework of the FTA and create conditions to begin negotiations on broadening the agreement, Li said. China will also expand cooperation with the Oceanian partner in whole industrial chains of agricultural and animal husbandry investments, food safety and other areas, he added.

In 2004, New Zealand was the first developed country to recognize China's full market economy status, and it signed a free trade agreement with China in April 2008, which took effect six months later.

Bilateral trade has seen double-digit growth over the past eight years, and China became New Zealand's biggest export market in 2014.

Key said New Zealand will enhance cooperation with China in agriculture and animal husbandry, and will work to upgrade the FTA.

The two countries' industrial complementarity will continue to increase their trade, as China, a manufacturer, needs to import many agricultural goods from the partner, said Chen Fengying, a global economy researcher at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
Passengers on a Line 2 subway train in Beijing turn to their smartphones to read books, magazines, or simply play games, to break up their journeys. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Chinese people, on average, read eight books in 2015, a small increase over previous years that may be attributed in part to mobile technology.

The Chinese Academy of Press and Publication issued its findings about reading on Mondayahead of World Book Day on Saturdayafter a survey of Chinese reading habits.

Proportion of people reading on digital platforms in China.[China Daily]

It's the academy's 13th survey since 1999. This one gathered responses from 45,911 people from 81 cities and townships in 29 regions at the provincial level. Both urban and rural areas were included. Adults and minors answered different questions. To the pleasure of many, 81 percent of Chinese under age 17 have a reading habit.

"This year, we found that the rate of Chinese adults who have a habit of reading is on the increaseto 79.6 percent. Most of them are also readers of digital content," said Wei Yushan, head of the academy.

The survey also found that 67 percent of Chinese adults hope to have reading activities or reading festivals where they live.

Advancing technology has brought rapid changes in publishing and reading. In its first year, the survey asked about internet surfing habits and found 3.7 percent doing it. In 2015, it was 70 percent.

Among the average of eight books read by Chinese people in 2015, three were in digital form. Wei said, a similar survey of French readers, who took in an average of 16.7 titles in 2014, found that only about one was an e-book.

The survey indicates that online readers' major preferences are centered on urban romance, history and fantasy.

Xu Shengguo, head of the Institute of Publishing Research under the academy, said the majority of mobile readers are attracted to that type of reading, too.

"With 52 percent of Chinese adults reading on WeChat in 2015, further innovations of reading and publishing are yet to emerge, then, the text of books will be like a portal, and everything will be available, including pictures, videos and sounds, and readers can even interact with the author," Xu said.

Chinese leaders have been promoting the idea since 2006 of building a country with avid readers.

Zhou Huilin, an official from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, said the government has invested around 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in free e-books for migrant workers. A total of 18 billion yuan has been allocated for the building of rural libraries over the years.

"We've found that in some rural areas, where print books are not handy for purchasing or lending, people there are reading with mobile phones."
When a deadly avalanche hit Mount Qomolangma a year ago, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita, one of the few Nepali women with expertise in climbing the world's highest peaks, headed straight there to help.

A gifted mountaineer who had summited Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest in the West, by the age of 22, she is part of a new generation of Sherpa women who are climbing peaks that have traditionally only been scaled by their men.

"People think mountaineering is a man's job, but I think we need more women in the mountains," the 31-year-old said.




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Conductor Chen Zuohuang and his team with the National Center for the Performing Arts have prepared 34 Chinese works for this year's Symphonic Spring program. [Photo provided to China Daily]

When 9-year-old Shi Wanchun heard music playing on an organ in his school in 1945the year China saw the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45)he could not have expected that, 15 years later, his own composition would be performed by an orchestra.

Even more surprising, 60 years later, his nation would become a big player in the world of classical music.

Shi will turn 80 in June.

According to the National Center for the Performing Arts, the first symphonic score composed by a Chinese was in 1916. That's why the NCPA is staging concerts by 12 Chinese orchestras this month to celebrate a century of symphonic music in China.

It took the team, led by NCPA music director Chen Zuohuang, a whole year to collect and prepare 34 pieces by 29 composers, including Shi.

On Wednesday, the Shandong Song and Dance Theater Symphony Orchestra played Shi's best-known work, Festival Overture, under the baton of Yang Youqing.

Shi created the piece in 1959, when he was a senior student at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.
Pietro Laureano lives in one of the caves in Matera. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Protecting and preserving cultural relics has been an important task for China, especially in recent years as conflicts between conserving of historical relics and the growing economy stand out in the fast process of the nation's urbanization.

On Tuesday, President Xi Jinping stressed in a national meeting that the conservation of relics is part of the official duties of the CPC and all government departments. President Xi suggested that private sectors should be mobilized and involved in the effort.

Despite the efforts of protecting them, China's cultural relics were not taken care of at its best. Frescoes in Fenghuangshan scenic spot in Northeast China's Liaoning province, for example, was damaged at large after restoration. Sustainable development, though being laid as an important issue by the central government, still lacks concrete and convincing examples of progress.

Given such dilemma, we've invited Pietro Laureano, an Italian architect and urban planner to share with us his experience in conserving cultural relics. As a UNESCO consultant on arid areas, water management and endangered ecosystems, Laureano once spent ten years restoring the historic city of Matera in Italy. He helped turn the once abandoned ruins of Matera into a sustainable city. Matera was also chosen as the 2019 European Capital of Culture.

In an exclusive interview with China Daily Website, Laureano also gave advice on how China could achieve sustainable development in terms of conserving its many cultural relics.
Poster of Fellow Countrymen. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Siqin Gaowa, the 66-year-old star, will join a new TV series Fellow Countrymen that begins shooting on Saturday in Tianjin.

Produced by Spring Film Pictures, Fellow Countrymen tells a story of a Chinese township head who fights against corruption and guides his fellow countrymen towards a relatively comfortable life.

Siqin Gaowa made her debut in the 1982 film Rickshaw Boy, an adaptation of Lao She's novel of the same title. In 1995, she was a member of the jury at the 45th Berlin International Film Festival. She won Best Actress at the 4th Hong Kong Film Awards for Homecoming. In 2008, she was named Best Actress once more at the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards for her role in The Postmodern Life of My Aunt.

Actors Gao Ming and Sun Tao and actress Jing Xingwen speak with media (from left to right). [Photo provided to China Daily]

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[2014-07-25 07:34]

A few weeks after arriving in China I received an e-mail from the human resources department of my Chinese employer that had been sent to all the foreign staff. The e-mail informed us how to look after ourselves in summer, including a stern warning not to eat cold foods.
Where drum towers set life's tempo By Yang Jie And Yang Jun In Jiangkou County, Guizhou ( China Daily ) Updated: 2016-03-07

Yang Yuanju's family offers ritualistic sacrifices to their ancestors in a 19-story drum tower in the village center on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve.

The buildings - constructed with notched boards and not a single nail - are central to ethnic Dong life in every sense. They're the anchoring landmarks that soar over every settlement - even the tiniest hamlet.

It has been this way since time immemorial. Nobody knows when the ethnic group erected the first. Their language is without written form.

But oral history declares that whenever and wherever Dong have settled, there has been a drum tower.

The buildings are believed to have initially served as alert-broadcast systems for village chiefs, who'd become percussionists to implore the people to convene because of invasions or to call town-hall meetings.

Most are over 20 meters wide. They're built without blueprints with timber each family donates.

Yang and her husband run a restaurant at the Fanjing Mountains' foot in Guizhou province's Jiangkou county.

The 42-year-old says many from her community's 62 households rehearse Dong dances and dramas in the drum tower's square.

It hosts a 40-member dance troupe since the area has recently won recognition for its ecology, anthropology and scenery.

Guizhou in 2016 for the first time earned a spot on the New York Times' top "52 places to go" list for its "unhurried pace" and "authentic feel".

The largely inaccessible region in China was praised as "authentic Chinese hill tribes without mass tourism - yet".

Yang's village hasn't received many foreigners.

Yet.

"Once, a blond, blue-eyed foreigner, who couldn't use chopsticks, ate at our restaurant," she recalls.

"I gave him a plastic fork from an instant noodle package because we don't have knives and forks."

Many of her customers are headed toward the Fanjing Mountains' UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, 3 kilometers away.

The range is the only habitat of the rare Guizhou snub-nosed monkey and a place of Buddhist pilgrimage.

Local temples host special blessing ceremonies during Spring Festival.

More efforts should be made to take full advantage of the unique local cultural and scenic resources to better develop the tourism industry, says Xia Qingfeng, Party chief of Tongren city.

Seasonal rituals illustrate that, while those who came before should be venerated, people living today need all the luck they can get.

It's a philosophy that marches to the beat of the drum tower.

yangjie@chinadaily.com.cn
Some urban patrol officers try to help vagrant along the street in Hangzhou city. [Photo/IC]

A video showing a 3-year-old boy holding a metal pipe and threatening some urban patrol officers who were "bullying" his grandmother, a street vendor, recently went viral on the internet. Rednet.cn commented on Friday:

The disputes between urban patrol officers and street vendors are no secret in many Chinese cities, but the recent one involving a 3-year-old "fighter" is a bit different. Some have attributed his anger toward the officers as the result of their "aggressive" law enforcement. However, should the patrol officers not enforce the law just because the youngster is trying to defend his grandmother's rule-breaking?

In a country with the rule of law, any violation of the law should be punished regardless of who commits it. It would undermine the rule of law if some wrongdoers were able to hide behind children to evade their due punishments.

People should not make snap judgments against the urban patrol officers, who are after all assigned to keep the city streets in order.

Of course, some may pursue their duties in an inappropriate or excessive manner, but their jobs are not easy. It is necessary for the public to avoid stereotyping all urban patrol officers as thugs and look squarely at their enforcement of the law and whether it is done in a legal and restrained manner.

To clear the various misunderstandings about them, the patrol officers should always strive to do their duty in a civilized way, instead of simply trying to "get things done". On their part, the street vendors need to understand what they have done wrong and cooperate with the patrol officers.

For that to happen, urban management authorities have to improve the regulations on urban management, and provide vendors space and facilities so they can conduct their activities legally. It does a disservice to such efforts if some internet users over-interpret skirmishes between street vendors and urban patrol officers.
The police officers are working on the site after car crashes in Hangzhou city.[Photo/IC]

The driver of a truck that rolled over on an expressway in Central China's Hunan province was charged about 36,000 yuan ($5,600) by a roadside rescue company without being informed in advance how much it would cost to lift the truck. Xinhua News Agency commented on Saturday:

The longevity of overcharging by roadside rescue companies is the result of the lack of competition. Some roadside service providers are in a close relationship with local transportation officials and they have basically monopolized the market, which allows them in effect to extort money from drivers in need of their help.

In many cases, it is often the local authorities that assign the companies to deal with roadside accidents.

However, the official regulations covering roadside rescue services make clear that customers should be told how much the charge will be before any service is provided.

It is obvious that both the Hunan roadside rescuers and the local transportation authorities have failed to abide by these rules.

To put an end to such overcharging requires both the local governments and the market to play their role. On the one hand, competition is needed to make sure all consumers are charged a fair price.

On the other, the relevant authorities should step up their supervision over the industry and keep unqualified companies at bay.
US Secreatary of State Johon Kerry (background, L) and G7 countries foreign ministers, attend the first round of meeting, hosted by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (foreground, R) at a Hotel in Hiroshima Prefecture on April 10, 2016.[Photo/IC]

With the G7 leaders convening in Japan this year, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is eager to drive home the message that Japan is both a regional and a global leader.

Abe's ambitious foreign policy has already made him the most traveled Japanese leader in history. In just three years, Abe has visited more than 63 countries and held more than 400 summits.

As part of this policy, Japan has been seeking to make a military and political comeback in the strategically important region of the South China Sea. To this end, it has been working hard to improve relations with countries, such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Now, as the chair of the upcoming G7 summit, Abe wants to showcase his country's global leadership credentials by pushing the "challenges" facing the Asia-Pacific region on the agenda of the high-profile international forum.

The G7 foreign ministerial meeting in Hiroshima last weekend seemed to set the tone for the summit of the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States in central Japan on May 26 and 27.

In a joint statement issued after their meeting, the G7 foreign ministers poked their nose into the territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas.

"We express our strong opposition to any intimidating, coercive or provocative unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions, and urge all states to refrain from such actions as land reclamations, including large scale ones, building of outposts, as well as their use for military purposes and to act in accordance with international law including the principles of freedom of navigation and overflight," their statement said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Japan to leave the issue of the South China Sea out of the agenda of the summit. None of the G7 countries represents the South China Sea region, and they should not concern themselves with the issue. China and the countries concerned can deal with their territorial disputes by themselves.
Lu Yuxin takes part in the English speaking competition in China Daily,Beijing on March 27, 2010. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

I may be just 13 years old, but I've known 21st Century English for over half my life. Needless to say, over the years, I've shared many exciting stories, experiences and memories with 21st Century English, and each one just gets better and better - but there will always be three that I remember particularly well, the first of which happened when I was 6 years old.

I've always liked learning languages. English, of course, was no exception! I had just begun to learn English when I was 5 years old, and I was eager to improve. At that time, many of my friends were already subscribed to various English newspapers and magazines. Seeing them read prompted me to want to read English newspapers as well, so I asked them which newspaper they usually read and they recommended 21st Century English to me. So I went home and asked my father to subscribe me to the newspaper. At first, I didn't like reading it, but gradually I began to love it.

The next encounter came soon after. It was a lazy Saturday morning, and I had just woken up to a faceful of newspaper.

"Wake up, Lucy," my dad said, placing the newspaper on my head. "Your newspaper's here."

I groaned and got up. My dad had put the newspaper down with the front cover facing up, so when I lifted it from my face, I read the back cover first. It was an advertisement, advertising an English speech competition held by 21st Century English. For some reason, I really wanted to enter the competition, so I quickly rushed to my parents' bedroom.

Lu Yuxin reads the 21st Century English Newspaper published by China Daily. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"Hey dad, can I enter this competition?"

"Competition?" my dad repeated. "What competition?"

"This one, right here." I handed over the newspaper.

"A speech competition?" he scanned the paper quickly.

"Yeah."

"Seriously?" my mother interjected, confused. "What's with all this all of a sudden?"

"Nothing, I just thought it looked interesting and I wanted to give it a go," I shrugged.

"What will you write about then?" my mum asked.

"Oh, I don't know yet, but I'm sure I'll figure it out later," I said confidently. "It shouldn't take that long."

"Okay, if you say so," my mother eyed me warily. "Alright then. You can enter this competition."

And so began my second experience. Although now, I found it very hard to find ideas for anything, I found my speech topic extremely quickly - but again, I suppose 6-year-olds see and notice things older people can't. We lose some of the magic as we grow up. I passed heat after heat - the Beijing preliminaries, semi-finals and finals. I was eliminated in the national semi-finals - but that didn't matter too much then. I had already gained more confidence in my English speaking skills - and with the help of the confidence I gained from entering the competition, I began to write for 21st Century English as a junior reporter. I loved it - to be able to share even the most everyday, mundane things in life, and watch that everyday, mundane thing blossom into words and share it with other people - that is truly something magical, indeed.

I didn't know then that one of the everyday, mundane things I wrote about in 21st Century English led me to my third encounter. I didn't even know by myself - it was a blogger who left a comment on my blog. The blogger said that they'd seen one of my articles and turned into a cloze test question in an exercise book of theirs. My article gave the link for my blog, and they'd looked it up, thinking it might have a joke and was surprised to find that it was not a joke, but a real and active blog. I was so surprised that the article I wrote when I was 6 years old managed to be turned into a cloze question - after all, I was just writing about normal things that happened to me. I was busy with school at the time, so I wasn't able to go back to China to sort out the copyright issues, but as soon I went back, I contacted the publishers. After a lot of hassle, I managed to sort out the copyright issues - my first copyright issue.

I've spent so many happy years with 21st Century English, and I think it's fair to say I've grown up with it! I feel very honored to have been given the chance to write for 21st Century English, the English newspaper I've been reading since I was 6 years old. It's offered me so many opportunities, new experiences, but most of all, it was thoroughly fun and enjoyable. So, happy 35th birthday!

The author currently receives education in the Henrietta Barnett School,UK.
I first discovered China Daily a few years ago. It was my first visit to China, and I was waiting for my tour guide to arrive. I sat down in the lobby of the St. Regis hotel in Beijing, and picked up an English-written newspaper with the title (in its famous capital white and blue letters) CHINA DAILY.

I opened the newspaper, and from that day on, in every hotel I visited, when the staff asked me, "Would you like a newspaper delivered to your room?" I would always answer, "Do you have China Daily?" And if they said no, there would be no newspaper in my room the next morning.

Why had I immediately taken a liking to China Daily after just one reading of it? I think that China Daily is a very influential newspaper for many reasons.

First of all, China Daily writes about both Western and Chinese culture, so both sides of the world can learn something about their cultural traditions. An example to support this reason is an article I read just the other day: When the Bard met his Chinese Match. This article is about how both China and the UK will honor their most famous playwrights with a series of events this year. The playwrights are, William Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu. Both the wonderful playwrights died in 1616, and China Daily wrote an article about the events to honor these writers this year. The newspaper managed to compare two influential playwrights from China and the UK.
For most of my life, I was profoundly fascinated by both the Chinese culture and the Chinese glorious history. Consequently, I was aching for an opportunity to quench my thirst for knowledge about China with a chance to visit it and interact with its people.

My dream of visiting China was put on the back burner for few years as I left Egypt to establish my new home in Canada. Nevertheless, I couldn't help myself but to scan all venues of the media in search for information about my dream destination, China.

The biased negative perceptions of the Western media with regard to China and the Chinese people didn't succeed in altering my deep respect and admiration of the Chinese people.

After few years of procrastination and hesitation, in 2003, I fulfilled my dream and came to China.

Being an avid reader with an eternally inquisitive mind, I searched for English newspapers to satisfy my curiosity. Fortunately for me, I came across a copy of the China Daily newspaper. I was pleasantly surprised by its uncomplicated coverage of the current affairs in China and internationally.

After reading few issues of China Daily, I discovered that Western newspapers' tendency to portray China as a hostile environment, and the Chinese people as aggressive individuals, is based upon misconceptions and motivated by political ideologies.

From reading China Daily, I came to the conclusion that Chinese people are friendly, hospitable and peace-loving human beings. My conclusion about the nature and essence of being Chinese was corroborated by having the opportunities to interact with them and know them closely.

For certain, Chinese have different customs, traditions and trains of thoughts that are different from their Western counterparts. However, portraying them as being aggressive by the Western media is nothing but a biased misrepresentation. In my more than 12 years of living among them, I found no evidence to support the claim of the Western media.

For certain, China Daily helped me to grasp the essence of being Chinese. That prompted me to seize every opportunity to rectify the injustice inflected upon China and the Chinese people through misrepresentation of their nature and their attributes by the venues of the Western media.

Whenever I had the chance, I wrote articles to the English newspapers, including China Daily, to defend it against biased views of the Western media

Finally, on your 35 years of enlightening people worldwide about China and the nature of the Chinese people, I like to extend my best wishes of a happy anniversary. May you prosper and expand to keep us informed for many years to come.

I, also, wish to express my thanks for making my stay in China enjoyable through reading your daily English issues.

If you also want to share with us your story with China Daily, please check the activity information: China Daily, 35 years on: your memories.
A woman and her son wash bags in the Mekong River on Monday. [Photos/by Xinhua and provided to China Daily]

The water discharged by China from its dam in the upper reaches of Lancang-Mekong River has reached the drought-hit countries downstream, including Vietnam. China's decision to release water from the dam is a perfect example of international cooperation.

China and Southeast Asian countries in the middle and lower reaches of the Mekong River aim to deepen their cooperation under the framework of Lancang-Mekong River Cooperation. But the Southeast Asian countries have voiced their opposition to China's projects in the upper reaches of the river. Studies conducted over the past few years, however, suggest the receding water levels in the river have nothing to do with China's hydropower projects, rather they are the result of the El Nino phenomenon.

That China has agreed to Vietnam's request and released as much water as possible from its dam has evoked a positive reaction from Vietnam.

China and Vietnam have tried to strengthen cooperation in this regard. In fact, there is enough scope for cooperation between China and the countries in the middle and lower reaches of the Mekong River, because their demand for water has been rising, especially to meet the needs of the agriculture sector.

Vietnam, too, is considering building reservoirs on the Mekong River, and for China, which is promoting its Belt and Road Initiative, they will offer a good opportunity to help build the needed infrastructure facilities.

Vietnamese people believe it is important to improve the flow of water in its rivers to help the agriculture sector, as well as to boost electricity generation. In this regard, the Vietnamese government has realized the importance of cooperation with China. But the Vietnamese people and government should also realize it is not up to China to provide enough water to meet their demands.

Therefore, it is important that the Vietnamese government improve the country's water infrastructure facilities and optimize the use of water in the agriculture sector.

China has taken practical measures to fulfill its international obligations. It will also help launch a number of cooperation projects, when needed, to strengthen cooperation with the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations because the Mekong River is as much a part of China as it is of Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Both the hydropower projects in the upper reaches of the Mekong River and the cooperation mechanism Beijing intends to launch are for the common good of China and the countries in its middle and lower reaches, because all the countries that the river flows through share the same development destiny.

Pan Jin'e is an expert on Vietnamese studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The article is an excerpt from her interview with China Daily's Zhang Yuchen.
Israel draws Chinese visitors who are interested in seeing sites related to Christianity, in addition to the picturesque views and cultural features. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China and Israel recently announced that mutual 10-year multiple-entry visas would be issued to their citizens in the future for travel related to business and tourism.

Among a raft of cooperation agreements signed during talks in Jerusalem between Vice-Premier Liu Yandong and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March, the new visa arrangement makes China the first country with which Israel has entered into such an understanding.

Efrat Perri, a spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy in Beijing, says it could take up to a few months before Chinese can apply for the long-term visas.

A timeline for implemention of the agreement has yet to announced.

Even so, for some like 30-year-old Li Wenqi, the move is significant.

"Israel's long history and picturesque views make for more than just one visit," Li, who works for a Shanghai-based web company, tells China Daily over the phone.

He first visited Israel in 2014, taking a 10-day tour that cost nearly 20,000 yuan ($3,086), with a trip to Jordan thrown in. Traveling in a group, he and other Chinese were interested in seeing sites related to Christianity.
A low-cost train service linking Kashgar and Hotan, two cities in the south of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, will begin in May.

According to the regional railway authority, a journey between the two cities will cost 28 yuan ($4.3), and a ticket for the cheapest section will be just one yuan.

The line will link a total of nine cities and counties in the underdeveloped region and a complete journey will take about eight hours.

Si Shenmin, an official with the Urumqi railway bureau, told Xinhua that the low prices will not come at the cost of speed or service.

Southern Xinjiang has many poverty-stricken counties. The income of locals are below the national average.
Participants at a campaign calling for civilized travel. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A new campaign calling for civilized travel was launched in Beijing on April 15.

Sponsored by the National Tourism Administration, the effort aims to encourage more tourists to exhibit civilized behavior during their travels.

Roughly 10,000 tourists gathered at nine tourist attractions during the campaign's launching ceremony.

Every tourist's action and word represents their country's image and civilization development, says Xu Zhijun, deputy secretary general of the Beijing government.

"Tourists shouldn't forget their behavior when enjoy themselves and happiness," Xu adds.

Chinese tourists paid 120 million visits abroad in 2015, the National Tourism Administration reports. Bad behavior by some Chinese travelers has been frequently made news headlines.

Related:

Travel service providers face blacklist in Beijing
The young boy shows off the scars on his back from alleged abuse by his adoptive parents. [Photo/IC]

Li Zhengqin, after serving six months in prison for abusing her adoptive son, was welcomed by the boy and his biological mother at the gates of the prison in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province, when she was released on Sunday. Rednet.cn said on Monday:

The case of child abuse has come to an end with the abused child's mother apologizing to her cousin, who abused the boy. However, the case deserves more reflection.

Even though child abuse is a serious crime, the biological mother knelt down and apologized to her cousin because she feared her cousin wouldn't look after her son any more, and her cousin's situation is far better than her own.

The most important issue is how to take care of the child and protect him from being hurt again in the future.

Therefore, we should reflect on the adoption system in China, and learn from the experience of some foreign countries that deal with such cases efficiently, with the government stepping in to take care of children abused by their adoptive parents.

We should also take into account the personalities and characters of the adopting parents when evaluating whether they are suitable to be foster parents.

But above all, there should be zero tolerance for abuse of children.
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian Vice-President Michel Temer said on Saturday that he would not drop any social program if he replaces Dilma Rousseff as the country's president.

He also accused Rousseff of lying when she said Temer would do away with the Family Grant Program if he became president.

"This is false and a despicable lie. I would keep all the social programs," Temer wrote on his Twitter account.

The program in question provides monthly support to Brazil's poorest families with children in education.

Temer also refuted Rousseff's criticism in a seven-minute-long video. In the video, Rousseff accused Temer of instigating the "coup d'etat" against her and of "tearing the Constitution, spreading intolerance, hate and violence."

"I stand by the unification and pacification of Brazilians, not chaos, hate or war," Temer said. "We will only overcome the crisis if everyone works for Brazil and not for their own personal interests."

Temer also made public his support for Operation Car Wash, an ongoing investigation against a money-laundering scheme that has been suspected of moving billions of U.S. dollars from government-owned oil company Petrobras. More than 60 politicians are thought to be involved, including some from his party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB).

"I am a lawyer and I know the fundamental role of the justice system and of the public prosecutor's office so that institutions can progress," wrote Temer.

Temer and the opposition need at least two thirds, or 342 of the total votes on Sunday to take the impeachment against Rousseff to the Senate.

If it clears this hurdle with 41 out of the total 81 senator votes, Rousseff will go on trial and be removed from her position for 180 days. During this time, Temer will take on the role of the president.

Brazil has been troubled by a political scandal that sees President Rousseff's support declining. Rousseff has accused Temer and House Speaker Eduardo Cunha of being the "chief and deputy chief" of a conspiracy to oust her. Both men face their own legal troubles.
MELBOURNE - A spate of attacks on Chinese students at Australia's most prestigious university has prompted police to ramp up its security presence at the Melbourne campus.

In the past few months, Chinese nationals studying at Melbourne University- rated 33rd in the World University Rankings 2015-2016 - have been repeatedly preyed on by youth gangs at night.

It is believed that some of the attacks have been carried out by suspected members of the Apex street gang, which was linked to Melbournes inner-city riots in March.

In response to the crime spree, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Crisp met with Chinese consular officials after some parents expressed concern about their children's safety.

News Corp speculated that Chinese students were being targeted because they were perceived as "wealthy and easy targets" carrying the latest technology.

One incident involved an attacker snatching a female student's phone out of her hands while texting.

Investigators said no students had been physically harmed, but a number of arrests had been made.

"While no physical injuries have been inflicted, the events have understandably been quite confronting for the victims involved," Victoria Police said in a statement.

"Both overt and covert police patrols will be increased in and around the university precinct over coming weeks to provide a highly visible presence and deter criminal activity."

Police and university staff have also suggested students not walk alone at night.

According to a 2014 study, almost 100,000 Chinese students moved to Australia in order to pursue higher education - making up a third of the nation's international students.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff looks on during signing of federal land transfer agreement for the government of the state of Amapa at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, April 15, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

BRASILIA - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff lost a decisive impeachment vote in the lower house of Congress on Sunday and appeared almost certain to be forced from office in a move that would end 13 years of Workers' Party rule.

As thousands of pro- and anti-impeachment protesters demonstrated outside Congress, the leader of the Workers Party in the lower house conceded defeat with the vote standing at 314 votes in favor to just 110 votes against sending Rousseff for trial in the Senate on charges of manipulating budget accounts.

The surprisingly one-sided vote had a raucous atmosphere with opposition legislators crowding around the microphone and cheering every vote against the president. At least two deputies let off poppers full of confetti as they voted to impeach Rousseff.

If the Senate agrees to go ahead with the impeachment, as seems likely, Rousseff would be suspended from her post and be replaced by Vice-President Michel Temer as acting president pending her trial. Temer would serve out Rousseff's term until 2018 if she is found guilty.

The impeachment battle, which comes during Brazil's worst recession since the 1930s, has divided the country of 200 million people more deeply than at any time since the end of its military dictatorship in 1985.

It has also sparked a bitter battle between the 68-year-old Rousseff and Temer, 75, that appears likely to destabilise any future government and plunge Brazil into months of uncertainty.
PHNOM PENH - Some 60 million people living along the downstream Mekong River in Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam are benefiting from China's ongoing discharge of water, local media reported on Monday, citing an official.

"About 60 million people who live along the lower Mekong River - including Cambodians - would benefit the discharge of water from China's upstream dam," the Khmer Times quoted Chan Yutha, spokesman for the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, as saying.

"Even though the water level of the downstream Mekong River does not increase much in Cambodia, it helps reduce the effects of the drought for Cambodian farmers living along the lower Mekong River at Stung Treng, Kratie, Tboung Khmum, Kampong Cham, Kandal, Phnom Penh, Prey Veng and Svay Rieng provinces," he said.

The lower Mekong countries have been hit by one of the worst drought in almost a century.

Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday that China's ongoing discharge of water from a hydropower station into the downstream Mekong River clearly reflected good cooperation on water resource management between China and the Mekong countries.

"Cambodia welcomes the recent decision of the Government of the People's Republic of China to continue to discharge water from Jinghong Hydropower Station in Yunnan Province to downstream Mekong River from April 11, 2016 to help alleviate the impacts of drought sustained by countries at downstream areas of the Mekong River, including Cambodia," the ministry said in a statement.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said last Tuesday that China decided to continue discharging water starting April 11 and last until the end of low water period.
TOKYO - Japan and the United States on Monday agreed to enhance cooperation over possible responses to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) suspected ongoing missile and nuclear ambitions.

Talks between Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki and Deputy US Secretary of State Antony Blinken were held in Tokyo on Monday amid rising concerns the DPRK might be preparing to conduct a fifth nuclear test.

"We need to continue to take effective measures against North Korea, always keeping in mind that the country may conduct further provocative acts,"Saiki told a press briefing following talks with Blinken.

Saiki and Blinken, along with South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung Nam, will hold a trilateral meeting in Seoul on Tuesday regarding the ongoing issue of regional defense and security as pertains to the actions of the DPRK, the foreign ministry here confirmed Monday.

On April 15, Japan lambasted what it deemed to be an attempted launch of an intermediate-range"Musudan" missile, although said it was of no threat to national security as the launch had possibly failed.

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told a press briefing that there were no inbound projectiles found headed towards Japan and as such there was no impact on the nation's security, while Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida described the launch as"provocative" and urged restraint on Pyongyang's part.

Following being slapped with sanctions by the UN Security Council last month for conducting a fourth nuclear test as well as launching a long-range rocket widely believed to be de facto test of banned ballistic missile technology, the DPRK has launched a number of projectiles of late, some of which have been categorized as missiles.

"Japan and the United States are facing the immediate challenge of the DPRK and its ongoing provocative actions with its nuclear and missile program," Blinken was quoted as telling Kishida during talks between the pair earlier Monday.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key (L) addresses a group of leading Chinese entrepreneurs including Jack Ma (R), Chairman of Alibaba Group, at a forum in Beijing on April 18, 2016.[Photo by Chen Yingqun/chinadaily.com.cn]

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key encouraged entrepreneurs from both China and New Zealand to cooperate and invest more in each other's markets during his visit in Beijing on April 18.

Key is currently visiting China to discuss upgrading the existing free trade agreement between the two countries. It's his sixth visit to China as prime minister.

He says that China is New Zealand's largest export market and the largest source of international students. Moreover New Zealand's food, technology and experiences are also matched with China's needs, according to the prime minister.

"Whatever aspects or areas you look at, we see huge opportunities," he says while addressing a group of leading Chinese entrepreneurs including Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, and Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Legend Holdings Ltd, during the China Entrepreneur Club Leaders Forum in Beijing on April 18.

The forum, hosted by the China Entrepreneur Club, a business organization and non-government organization established in 2006, aimed at discussing sustainable developments and potential agreements between the two nations.

Key said one of the key reasons for his visit is to encourage the cooperation between entrepreneurs from both countries.

He says bilateral investments between the two countries have grown quickly in the past few years, and the two sides could also work together to sell goods and services to each others markets.



Key added that the bilateral trade value currently stands about 20 billion New Zealand dollars, and aims to make it 30 billion by 2020.

Under the witness of John Key and Jack Ma, The New Zealand Trade Enterprise and Alibaba Group held a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony, which will help more New Zealand businesses sell their products to China through Alibaba's platform.

John Key He says that New Zealand has very advantaged technology in the world, and seeing platform like Alibaba, makes him see many opportunities to send products and service directly to Chinese consumers.



China is New Zealand's second largest source for tourism. Last year, about 400,000 Chinese tourists travelled to New Zealand, a yearly increase of 42 percent.

Key says he expects a 30 percent growth every year, and the indigenous culture of New Zealand is a great attraction to Chinese visitors.
BEIJING -- China on Monday expressed deep concern and sympathy to quake-hit Ecuador, saying it stands ready to provide disaster relief assistance to the country.

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Ecuador's coast on Saturday, leaving at least 272 dead and thousands of others injured.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing that China extends deep condolences to the victims and sincere sympathy to the bereaved families and injured.

China believes the Ecuadorian people will overcome the difficulties and rebuilt their homes, said Lu.

He said China remains in close contact with the Ecuadorian government in order to provide necessary assistance to Ecuador in light of its needs.

So far the Chinese Embassy in Ecuador has not received any reports of death or injuries of Chinese nationals, said Lu, adding that the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the embassy and consulates in Ecuador will closely follow the situation and provide help to Chinese nationals if necessary.

The Ministry of Commerce also said on Monday that it is working on a plan to help reconstruction in Ecuador.

Saturday's earthquake was the strongest to hit Ecuador since 1979. The Latin American country is located in a region with frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

Ecuador has declared a state of emergency in six provinces and has mobilized around 14,000 army and public security forces to affected areas.
BEIJING -- A Chinese spokesman on Monday urged Japan to stop hyping up maritime issues to avoid further disturbing the bilateral relations.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the remarks at a daily news briefing in response to Japan's criticism of China over maritime issues.

In its annual foreign policy report, or the Diplomatic Bluebook 2016, released Friday, Japan commented on China's construction on island and reef in the South China Sea and Chinese ships' frequent entries into waters near the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

Lu said China holds indisputable sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands as well as the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters.

"We will resolutely safeguard the nation's territorial sovereignty and maritime interests while being committed to addressing the disputes with the countries directly concerned through negotiations and consultations," he said.

Lu said he noticed that the Bluebook also touched upon the importance of China-Japan relationship for regional peace and stability.

"If the Japanese side does hope to stabilize bilateral ties and maintain regional peace, it should practise what it preaches," said the spokesman.
BET's Chief Executive Neil Strowger (middle) with delegation from Wenzhou Xinzhi Education Technology Company. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Wenzhou Bohunt International School, a new Sino-UK hybrid school for Chinese students who will be taught a Bohunt-style curriculum and take GCSE and A Level examinations, is scheduled to open in 2018.

The announcement was made today by Wenzhou Xinzhi Education Company and Bohunt Education Trust (BET). BET has existing schools in the South of England including, one of the schools is Bohunt Liphook, a top performing state schools in the UK. Wenzhou Bohunt International School will become the first English state school to run a school in China.

This relationship will allow the trust to offer its innovative educational approach to Chinese students and continue its collaboration with Chinese teachers to benefit British and Chinese students. The school aims at opening up exchange opportunities for its UK staff and students.

The partnership came following BET's increasing profile as one of UK's leading education trusts for delivering Mandarin courses as well as its appearance in the 2015 BBC series titled 'Are Our Kids Tough Enough?'.

BET has a longstanding Mandarin program that offers immersion teaching where students learn a third of the curriculum in the language.

Neil Strowger, Chief Executive of Bohunt Education Trust, said collaboration has always underpinned the philosophy at Bohunt.

"It is one of the reasons we decided to take part in the Chinese School series. Our experience of the series further emphasized the importance of working and learning with others to deliver the very best education. This is exactly what this partnership is all about," said Strowger.

"Preparing students to be active participants in our global economy has always been a key part of our vision. This is why we have made languages and Mandarin in particular  a central part of our offer, and we are pleased at this latest development which will benefit young people in both the UK and China."

Staff will be recruited locally in China, as well as in the UK. BET will provide teacher training and recruitment support. They plan to play an advisory role for the building design and develop teaching materials along with the school's curriculum.

BET already hosts exchanges for its students with Chinese schools and runs the first state secondary school in the country to teach all of its students Mandarin.

As the trust grows in the UK, it hopes to further grow its Chinese collaborations to provide unparalleled opportunities for UK and Chinese staff and students.
Emergency workers search the scene after a blast on a bus in Jerusalem April 18, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

JERUSALEM - An explosion tore through a bus in Jerusalem on Monday and set a second bus on fire, wounding 16 people in what an Israeli official said was a bombing.

Israeli media said a man who was seriously injured and not carrying any identification papers was under investigation on suspicion he was responsible.

Suicide bombings on Israeli buses were a hallmark of the Palestinian revolt of 2000-2005 but have been rare since. A bomb left by an Israeli Arab aboard a Tel Aviv bus during the 2012 Gaza war caused injuries but no deaths.

Police initially said they were looking at the possibility that a technical malfunction caused the fire in Derech Hebron, an area in southwest Jerusalem close to the boundary with the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

But a spokeswoman for Nir Barkat, the Israeli mayor in Jerusalem, said the explosion was a detonation.

"It was small, but it was definitely a bomb," the spokeswoman, Brachie Sprung, said.
Demonstrators cheer in Sao Paolo on Sunday while watching a big screen that shows congressional actions authorizing impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. [Photo/Agencies]

Brazil awoke on Monday to deep political crisis after lawmakers authorized impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, sparking claims by supporters that democracy was under threat in Latin America's biggest country.

Opposition deputies in the lower house of Congress needed 342 of the 513 votes, or a two-thirds majority, to send Rousseff's case to the Senate, which will now decide whether to open a trial. They reached that number near midnight on Sunday, after five hours of voting.

Wild cheering and a burst of confetti erupted from opposition ranks at the 342nd vote, countered by furious jeering from Rousseff allies in a snapshot of the bitter mood consuming Brazil just four months before Rio de Janeiro hosts the Olympics.

Jacques Wagner, the president's chief of staff, accused deputies of voting for impeachment without proving that the leftist president, who is accused of illegally manipulating budget figures, had committed a serious crime.

"In this way, the Chamber of Deputies is threatening to interrupt 30 years of democracy in the country," he said, referring to the end of a military dictatorship in 1985.

"It was a coup against democracy," said Rousseff's attorney general, Jose Eduardo Cardozo.

Cardozo said that Rousseff  who was imprisoned and tortured under military rule in the 1970s  would give her first public reaction on Monday.

There was expected to be a euphoric reaction from the financial markets, which have been betting heavily on a Rousseff exit and the advent of a more business-friendly government to kick-start Brazil's flailing economy.

Outside Congress, where tens of thousands of people were watching giant TV screens, the split was echoed on a massive scale  with opposition supporters partying and Rousseff loyalists in despair.

"I am happy, happy, happy. I spent a year demonstrating in hope that Dilma would be brought down," said retiree Maristela de Melo, 63.

Rousseff supporter Mariana Santos, 23, burst into tears, saying the vote was "a disgrace for our country".

Several thousand police officers stood by, and the rival camps were separated by a long metal wall.

Rousseff, 68, is accused of illegal accounting maneuvers to mask government shortfalls during her 2014 re-election. Many Brazilians also hold her responsible for the economic mess and a massive corruption scandal centered on state oil company Petrobras  a toxic record that has left her government with a 10 percent approval rating.

Now the decision by the lower house moves the matter to the Senate, which is expected to vote in May on whether to open a trial. If a trial were approved  which experts consider almost certain  Rousseff would step down for up to 180 days while the trial got underway.

If the Senate then voted by a two-thirds majority for impeachment, Rousseff would be ousted and Vice-President Michel Temer would take over until elections in 2018.
COPENHAGEN - China and Denmark have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation and elevate their relations to a new high.

Visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi on Sunday held talks with Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, separately.

Queen Margrethe II said her state visit to China two years ago still dwells in her memory, and the fruitful result from the visit has promoted the good relations between the two countries.

She hoped that Denmark and China would continue to boost cultural, art and regional exchanges and cooperation.

While receiving Yang at the prime minister's office, Rasmussen said Denmark and China have maintained a strong momentum of developing bilateral relationship.

Rasmussen said he has been cherishing the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the nuclear security summit, which was held in Washington from March 31 to April 1.

He hoped that the two nations would continue to enhance high-level exchanges and deepen pragmatic cooperation in a variety of areas so as to elevate the bilateral relations to a new high.

Denmark supports a closer cooperative relationship between the European Union (EU) and China and will play a positive role in promoting such a relationship, Rasmussen added.

Yang agreed that China and Denmark have maintained a good relationship embodied in high-level exchange visits, fruitful economic and trade cooperation, booming regional cooperation, as well as frequent educational, cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

He said China will work with Denmark to comprehensively implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries.

Yang called on the two countries to speed up the integration of their development strategies, broaden the mutually beneficial cooperation in such areas as interconnectivity, green development, transformation to a low-carbon economy, medicine and health, agriculture and food, as well as enhance people-to-people and regional exchanges.

He said the two countries should strengthen coordination and cooperation in important international affairs, and hoped that Denmark will play a more active role in promoting China-EU relations and China-North Europe cooperation.

Denmark is the last leg of Yang's three-nation tour, which also took him to France and Luxembourg.
Our clients often ask us whether as China employers they must contribute to social insurance for their expat employees. The answer is that it depends on the employers location.

The Provisions on the Employment of Foreigners in China (), mandate that expat participation in social insurance programs must comply with applicable Chinese law. But before the Interim Measures for the Participation in Social Insurance of Foreigners Employed in China () were passed in 2011, there were no national guidelines. As with many things in China, the lack of central government guidance meant that each locale dealt with this issue by coming up with its own rules and that is still the case.

Shanghai, for example, does not require employers pay social insurance for expats. Since 2009, the governing guideline for Shanghai has been the Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureaus Circular on Several Issues Regarding Participation in Social Insurance for Urban Workers by Foreign Workers in Shanghai, Workers with Foreign Permanent (Long-Term) Residency and Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao Residents ()[2009]38. According to this Circular, an employer does not have to make social insurance payments for an expat and even where the employer and the expat have agreed on the employers contributing such benefits, the employers obligation is limited to pension, medical and work-related injury insurance, with maternity and unemployment insurance not covered.

As mentioned above, in 2011, Chinas Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security passed the Interim Measures for the Participation in Social Insurance of Foreigners Employed in China. Under these Measures, an employer must pay for all five types of social insurance (pension, medical, work-related injury, maternity and unemployment insurance) for an expat. Shanghai, however, has not adopted this national standard and it is not mandatory for Shanghai employers to contribute social insurance for their expat employees. Shanghais position is that until the Central Government issues detailed national measures, it will not change its current rules regarding social insurance for expats.

Other cities, such as Beijing and Shenzhen, do not see eye to eye with Shanghai regarding expat social insurance. In both Beijing and Shenzhen, employers are generally required to pay all five types of social insurance (pension, medical, work-related injury, maternity and unemployment insurance) for an expat. But Shenzhen further complicates things by treating expats as employees without a Shenzhen hukou for purposes of social insurance. The exact types of social insurance which must be paid for expats depends on the class of medical insurance an employer provides. An expat with class one or class two medical insurance must receive all five types of social insurance, while an expat with class three medical insurance gets four types of social insurance (pension, medical, work-related injury and unemployment insurance).

Bottom Line: The short answer then to what employers need to pay in social insurance for their expat employees is the lawyers favorite: it depends. The slightly longer answer is that we need to check with the relevant authorities for the specific locale because there simply is no one right answer.
(Photo : Getty Images.) Ahead of its two day visit to China, Chinese media warned New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to stay away from the South China Sea issue.

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Chinese media has sent a stern warning to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to not raise South China Sea issues during his two-day visit to China, adding that the move will jeopardize trade ties between the two countries.



"Key should be reminded that New Zealand is an absolute outsider in the dispute and not a concerned party, and that any attempt by Wellington to break its promise not to take sides on the issue would risk complicating the flourishing trade ties between China and New Zealand," a Xinhua editorial said.



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However, Key shrugged off this warning by Chinese media. Speaking to reporters in New Zealand ahead of his visit, Key said he will take these critical views "with a grain of salt."



"I take it all with a grain of salt, there are many opinions out there. But New Zealand's position on the South China Sea hasn't changed, it's been consistent and we consistently raise that message with the Chinese leadership," Key told reporters.



Key added that New Zealand's stance will not jeopardize the signing the of Free Trade Agreement (FTA), sayin that trade ties between Wellington and Beijing are fundamentally strong and deep.



Key will start his two-day visit to China starting today after arriving in Beijing on Sunday evening.



Foreign experts in New Zealand called on Key to follow tactful diplomacy during his visit to China. This will allow Key to raise South China Sea issues with Beijing, but without risking any complication on the front of economic and trade issues.



New Zealand's foreign policy in recent months has tilted towards the US side over the issue of disputed territories, much to the dismay of Beijing. New Zealand and Australia have been issuing several warnings to China after Beijing stepped up military and construction activities around artificial islands in the South China Sea.



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Tagschina, new zealand, John Key, South China Sea
(Photo : Getty Images) China has launched military drills in the disputed South China Sea to further equip its soldiers against potential enemies

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China has conducted military drills in the disputed South China Sea simulating actual combat against potential enemies,a report from the military-backed newspaper, the PLA Daily, said.



The military training, which began on April 7, focused on new methods to increase and improve the fleets' combat readiness and effectiveness.



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Part of the military drills included visibility range training, training within an electromagnetic environment, all-weather drills, and other military exercises.



"To think about special situations in an even more complex way, to make the enemy situation even more dangerous, to make the battlefield environment even more lifelike, is an important path in order for the navy and air force to stick close to the demands of real combat and accelerate its transformative production model for fighting strength," Tian Junqing, division commander, said.



More military exercises



PLA Daily reported that more military exercises will be conducted by Beijing in the South China Sea which will include 24-hour maritime attack drills and other strategies.



The fleets would also work in coordination with other branches of the military such as surface ships and ground anti-aircraft defense.



Beijing has warned Western nations not to interfere with the South China Sea dispute as New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key commenced his visit to China.



Absolute outsider



China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, reiterated in a commentary that New Zealand was "an absolute outsider in the dispute and not a concerned party."



The commentary said the two nations should work mutually to enhance their bilateral relations and focus on strengthening their economic ties and free trade deal.



Trade between the two nations reached US$13 billion last year.



"Any attempt by Wellington to break its promise not to take sides on the issue would risk complicating the flourishing trade ties between China and New Zealand," the commentary said.



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Tagschina, military drills, South China Sea, combat readiness, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, maritime attack drills
(Photo : China Photos/Getty Images) Four patients received organ transplants from a young Chinese woman (not pictured) who died from pregnancy complications.

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The family of a young mother who died weeks after giving birth to twins reportedly donated some of her vital organs to four patients who urgently needed organ transplants.



Shao Ziyan gave birth to twin boys on February 23 and has been in a coma since then. On April 15, only 53 days after she went into a coma, her heart reportedly stopped beating and she was pronounced dead.



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Four of her vital organs, her heart, liver and both her kidneys, were donated by her family. These were transplanted to four patients in critical condition. Her corneas were also donated and are waiting to be transplanted to two patients.



Shao was supposed to marry Chen Shanhai, a hairstylist from Jiaxing in Zhejiang province, during the second half of this year after giving birth. However, her pregnancy led to the diagnosis of acute liver enlargement as well as multiple organ failures more than a month before her scheduled delivery.



She was diagnosed with the conditions on February 22 and gave birth to her boys via C-section the following day. Although both Shao and the babies were in critical condition, the twins recovered after being hospitalized for one month.



Shao, on the other hand, stayed in a coma for the remainder of the time until she died. Her family transferred her to a better hospital in Hangzhou in the hopes of getting better but failed.



According to Shao Wanhua, Ziyans father, the decision to donate her organs was a suggestion from her doctors. They said that by donating Ziyans organs, she would be able to "continue living" through other people.



It feels like she is still alive and had never left me," he said.



Organ donations are relatively uncommon in China, where traditional beliefs do not accept the burying of the dead with incomplete bodies due to aack of organs.



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TagsShao Ziyan, organ transplant, coma
(Photo : Getty Images.) Indias External affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday strongly raised the issue of Masood Azhar with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

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India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday raised the issue of China's blockade against India's latest bid at the United Nations (UN) to enforce sanctions on Pakistani militant Masood Azhar with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.



The issue was raised at the sidelines of the ongoing Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral summit in Moscow. This is the first time that India's highly ranked minister has raised Masood Azhar's issue directly with a Chinese minister.



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There is no information over what transpired during Sushma Swaraj and Wang Yi's meeting, but sources confirmed that India has conveyed its concern over China's latest UN snub in the strongest possible words.



Earlier last week, India slammed the use of "hidden veto," a scathing criticism that was believed to be directed towards Beijing. India claimed that the hidden veto did not enforce any accountability on permanent members and was misused to shield global terrorists.



"The procedures of unanimity and anonymity of the al-Qaida, Taliban and ISIS sanctions committees need to be revisited. The procedures of unanimity and anonymity result in a lack of accountability," India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, told the UN last week.



A consensus emerged in New Delhi that India needs to go tough on China after Beijing snubbed it at the UN last month. India is already contemplating passing strong trade sanctions against China, which would make it difficult for Chinese companies to invest in India.



Officials in New Delhi believe that China snubbed India at UN last month at the behest of Pakistan, India's arch-rival and China's closest ally in the region.



India in past too has often accused China of shielding several Pakistani-based militants at the UN and other international forums.



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TagsIndia, Pakistan, Sushma Swaraj, Masood Azhar., India and China
(Photo : Getty Image) China and US are taking leads to realize Paris climate change deal as early as possible.

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The top two biggest carbon emitters in the world are taking the lead to successfully realize the Paris climate change accord earlier than its most optimistic projections.



Over 150 governments including 40 leaders are expected to attend and sign up to the Paris Agreement that addresses climate change at the United Nations on Friday (April 22), marking the biggest one-day signing of any international agreement in history.



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But beyond the mere signing, state leaders will be looking at which countries will honor the promises they made in Paris last December to keep global warming below the agreed 2C target.



So far, a handful of nations including China, Canada and the United States have committed to join the force this year, boosting hopes that the Paris deal will be implemented three to four years earlier than its actual 2020 target date, experts said.



"It's likely it could come into effect in 2017. It could even happen this year," said Eliza Northrop, a World Resource Institute analyst.



If the timeline will be accelerated, environment ministers said the faster pace shows how seriously committed the state leaders are. Furthermore, it could also possibly help attain a more ambitious aim of limiting warming to 1.5C, which would likely give smaller islands and other nations a higher chance of survival.



"We can't just now rest on our laurels and have a nice signing on Earth Day, and then we all go home," Catherine McKenna, environment and climate change minister from Canada, told a panel from World Bank last week. "Early entry into force - we are very committed to making that happen."



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Tagschina, United States, Paris Agreement, Climate Change, Carbon emission, United Nations
(Photo : Lintao Zhang/Getty Images) Hotel security guards (not pictured) did not stop a drunk man from assaulting two female hotel customers.

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Two female tourists were attacked by a drunk man inside a four-story hotel in southwestern China as hotel staff only looked on and passed without doing anything.



The two girls, aged 17 and 23, were tourists from the northeastern Heilongjiang province. They were attacked by a drunk man at about 1 a.m. inside the Rainbird International hotel in Chengdu, Sichuan province.



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The victims reported that the man followed them into the hotel as they returned at 1 a.m on Saturday. They became suspicious of the man's actions and decided not to share a ride with him on the lift. The two ladies instead returned to the hotel lobby where they asked the man why he kept following them.



In reply, the drunk man started attacking the two victims while shouting in local Sichuan dialect. One of the victims was able to call for help from a friend, who contacted the police.



A hotel security guard tried to stop the drunk man but stopped when the he was pushed away. The guard then did nothing but watch and was even joined by others.



Police arrived and detained the man, surnamed Peng. According to his wife, Peng is a local businessman who had problems with his business and drank to ease himself. He reportedly vented out his anger through beating the victims. They have both apologized to the victims and paid them around 12,000 yuan as compensation.



The victims, however, said that the hotel should be partially blamed for the situation as there was no apparent prevention and intervention done by its workers.



This report adds to the growing concerns related to the safety of women in public, most especially as a similar case happened in Beijing hotel several days ago.



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(Photo : Getty Image) China is the new Hollywood, filmmakers and experts say.

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Many experts believe that China's movie industry will soon surpass that of the United States, and now, some Chinese and Hollywood moviemakers second the motion, The Wall Street Journal reported.



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"The investors in China's film market are entrepreneurs with innovative teams while Hollywood is producing more sequel and lacks innovation," Yu Dong, Bona Film Group CEO, said during a seminar on China-foreign co-productions hosted by the Beijing International Film Festival.



"The young Hollywood and Asian directors who can't get support from big Hollywood studios will come to China because Chinese capital is overflowing," Yu continued.



A number of big names from the West such as Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)'s producer Iain Smith and American actress Natalie Portman graced their presence in the seminar.



Even award-winning American screenwriter and producer James Schamus said that China is helping "create a new Hollywood which is going to be paradoxically not as Chinese as we think it is, but more Chinese than we know."



Marvel's Captain America director Joe Russo also said that Hollywood producers are attracted to the Chinese market because of "economic and artistic reasons," further explaining that the US' film market now prefers on playing around its comfort zone and is "becoming more and more about branded content."



"China is an explosive market, so [it's] absolutely another option for filmmakers," Russo said. He added that he and his brother Anthony Russo frequently visit Beijing to look for "new voices and new experiences."



It seems that this is the perfect timing for Western filmmaking talents to expose their skills and uniqueness to Chinese cinemas, as a growing number of Chinese audiences start to show more interest in locally produced movies rather than Hollywood megahits.



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Tagschina, United States, Box Office, film, hollywood, filmmakers
(Photo : Reuters) Sony Xperia has recently announced the availability of the latest Android 5.1.1 lollipop upgrade, but not all their flagship phones will receive the update on time.

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Sony said that it is reinstituting one of its signature features back to the Xperia line. The Stamina mode is a battery saving feature that Sony promised will be soon rolled out to devices that are running the Marshmallow operating system. The company has confirmed the news but did not provide a specific timeline as to when exactly it plans to release the feature.



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The Stamina mode feature will be rolled out to a handful of Sony smartphone. So far, Sony has only the Xperia Z5, Xperia Z4 and Xperia Z3+ support the feature. Sony added that support for Xperia Z2, Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact will arrive this April, according to Android Community.



With the Stamina mode turned on, Sony claims that its devices can run for two-days straight on a single charge. The mode is able to save precious battery life by stopping all unauthorized background applications. However, the feature was dropped when Sony upgraded its devices to Android Marshmallow, a move that shocked most of its users.



Reports claim that the reason why Stamina mode was dropped is because of Google Doze, a feature that comes integrated with Android Marshmallow. While both Doze and Stamina offers the same kind of function, the latter is deemed more effective based on user reactions when it was dropped.



In a statement posted on the official Xperia Blog, Sony wrote, "Great news. One of the most requested features is coming back to your Xperia running Marshmallow. Stamina mode. We don't have a release schedule yet, but the feature will be definitely available for members of the Xperia Beta Program in the near future."



The full coverage of the feature is still a mystery. However, some tech experts said that the Sony Stamina should be able to work hand in hand with Google Doze in order to increase battery life. On the other hand, some are quite skeptical whether Stamina will work since Google have always made it clear that it will not allow OEMs to interfere with the battery saving features of the Android operating system.



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Tagssony, Xperia, Son Xperia, Xperia feature, Sony Stamina Mode, Stamina Mode, Xperia Stamina Mode
(Photo : China Photos/Getty Images) Doctors have successfully taken out a tumor from the stomach of a man (not pictured) from central China.

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Doctors were able to remove one of the worlds biggest tumors growing inside the stomach of a man from central China.



The tumor, a growth that weighed about 31 kilograms, was successfully removed through a surgical operation held in a hospital in Wuhan, Hubei at the end of last month.



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The 45-year-old man was a resident of Xiantao. He said that he started suffering from stomach pains three years ago. At that time, doctors told him that he had a tumor growing inside his stomach, but he decided not to undergo surgery because of the medical fees that he and his family could not afford. Instead, he took herbal medicines prescribed by herbalists.



However, the herbal medicine failed and the tumor kept growing. By the time the man went to the hospital, he was already bigger than a pregnant woman, and his tumor was already pressing hard on his internal organs.



Now that the surgery is over, the man is recovering and is already able to tie his shoelaces. Doctors said that he needs to be checked up every six months.



A Similar Case



Another case of tumor that belonged to a Chinese man is that of Huang Chuncai, more famously known as Chinas elephant man, reports the Telegraph. Huang, a 37-year-old man from Hunan province, suffered from a rare case of facial tumors that grew to a weight of 25 kg.



The tumor that hung from his face down to his waist was reportedly caused by a rare case of Neurofibromatosis, which causes an overgrowth of cells and tumors. Because of this, Huangs face looked like it was melting.



Huang was born to poor farmers, and because they could not afford medical treatment for his condition, Huangs tumor was left untreated for 30 years. He was picked on by classmates during young age and had to quit school because of it. He also had to carry his facial tumor by hand wherever h walked because it was heavy.



Thanks to the combined efforts of the Chinese government and doctors at Fuda Cancer Hospital, Huang is now in a better position: over a period of seven years, he underwent four major operations up until 2014 to have 21 kg worth of tumors taken out from his face. Now, Huang says that he feels a lot better, and is hoping to live a normal life just like any other person.



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Encountering the unexpected in sex trafficking close to home 18 April, 2016 by Erich Bridges , |

RICHMOND, Va. (Christian Examiner) Take a midnight hike with Valerie Carter and you'll get a glimpse of the victims of sex trafficking at the street level.

I met a pastor's daughter from east Tennessee out there. She looked like she could be a model  tall, thin, blond hair, just beautiful. I asked her, 'How did you get out here?'

Carter, 56, a veteran of urban Christian missions, has been prowling some of the toughest highways in Richmond, Virginia's capital city, for the past eight years. She and her "streetwalking ministry" volunteers look for women and girls caught up in the local sex trade.

The women they encounter aren't always whom you would expect.

"I met a pastor's daughter from east Tennessee out there," recalls Carter, director of the Virginia Baptist Woman's Missionary Union. "She looked like she could be a model  tall, thin, blond hair, just beautiful. I asked her, 'How did you get out here?'"

The young woman replied, "I met a guy in Tennessee and we were going to start a business. My dad told me this guy wasn't good for me, but I got stuck here with him. He abuses me. I've been tricking [working as a prostitute] ever since."

Carter and her volunteers pray with the women, hug them, give them a list of resources to help them get out of the trade. They keep the visits short to avoid putting the women at risk of beatings from their pimps.

"We are the people called to the trenches, the first line of defense," Carter says. "We're seeing more younger girls. In September we sent home an 18-year-old. We put her on the Greyhound bus in Richmond at about 4 in the morning. I told her, 'You're still a child.'"

Another time, Carter met an aunt and a niece looking for clients together. The niece was perhaps 21. The aunt, in her mid-40s, began to sob as she talked to the volunteers.

"One of our volunteers put this lady's face in her two hands, looked her eye to eye and asked her, 'What is it you wanted to be when you were younger? What did you dream about?'" Carter says. "No one dreamed about being in this kind of business."

But they are in it, most of them unwillingly. Someone else makes money by exploiting them, whether it's a pimp or a trafficker.

Carter is realistic about the visible results of her ministry: "The chances are we will never see the fruit of our labor. We just believe that down the road somewhere, when they've given their life to Christ or gotten their life together, they'll remember they met these crazy Christians at 1 a.m. when they were in the business."

BY THE NUMBERS

Global trafficking numbers are staggering: Up to 30 million people are trafficked for the purposes of slave labor or sexual exploitation. It's a business worth more than $30 billion a year to the criminal networks that operate it.

Between 600,000 and 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders, according to the U.S. State Dept. At least 15,000 of them are transported to the United States every year. Some trafficking victims are sold outright or kidnapped. Many more are tricked, manipulated or pressured into selling their bodies against their will.

Those are the cross-border statistics. On the home front, tens of thousands of American girls and women are targeted, groomed and trafficked into the sex business annually  runaways, vulnerable minors, abused women, drug addicts and others lured into addiction as a gateway to prostitution.

"There's a lot of misinformation about what trafficking is," observes Ann Lovell, a former Southern Baptist missionary. She ministered to exploited women in Thailand before moving to Richmond several years ago.

"Overseas, trafficking is almost always related to economics  poor families sell their daughters, hoping it will provide a better life for themselves and their daughters. In the U.S., trafficking is almost always related to a breakdown of the family. Traffickers aren't really grabbing your daughters at the mall. That does happen, but it's endangered runaways who are most at risk."

Whether international or domestic, trafficking victims have one thing in common: exploitation by others. Richmond, a Mid-Atlantic metro area bisected by several interstate freeways, is a prime location for both types of trafficking.

Some critics claim "traditional" prostitution isn't the same as cross-border trafficking, but there's little practical difference if the person involved is an unwilling participant.

"There is no difference," Carter insists. "It's so much easier to look at the [international sex trade]. We're sensitive to those stories, but we're not sensitive to the 14-year-old who has been in the foster care system, ages out at 18 and becomes victimized by men. I get indignant about that as a girl who grew up on welfare in an abusive situation, it could have been me. That's why I do streetwalking ministry."

STARTING FROM SCRATCH

Carter has the scars  and the guts  to do that kind of outreach. But what if you're not ready to walk dangerous streets late at night?

Loree Becton, the wife of a prominent Southern Baptist pastor in Richmond, had never been anywhere near a red-light district. She felt compassion for women caught in the sex business  and a clear call from God to respond. But she had no clue what to do.

Lovell, fresh from mission work in Thailand, joined Becton's church, Grove Avenue Baptist in Richmond. The two began to talk and pray. Later, Becton connected with Carter and participated in the streetwalking ministry. She gathered other like-minded women together to pray for exploited women.

Eventually Becton formed "Precious to God," a ministry based on Psalm 72:14: "He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious in His sight."

The organization works with police, local community officials, other churches and ministries to aid the exploited.

"There are so many organizations out there; it's just unbelievable," Becton says. "But I knew the Father was telling me to connect with those that understand that transformation comes through Christ alone. Not only do trafficked women need to be transformed, but I do, too. It's tested our faith and our prayer life. We feel like we've grown just as much as they have."

The women offer six things people can do to fight local sex trafficking.

RESOURCES:

Confronting the Exploiters, a Bible study by Ann Lovell, is designed for churches and small groups to develop a ministry among exploited women in their communities. Available online.

Precious to God is a non-profit ministry based in Richmond, Virginia that serves exploited and trafficked women and seeks to restore them to a healthy life with God.
Devil denied a foothold at Texas city council meeting 18 April, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

AUSTIN, Texas (Christian Examiner)  A resolution invoking both Satan and Jesus sparked discussion in the Austin City Council when talk of authorizing the city's participation in a "Compassionate Communities Campaign" April 14 turned religious as city leaders in the Texas capital debated adding language to it.

The debate was prompted by Councilwoman Ann Kitchen's request that Austin sign on to the international effort of Charter for Compassion, which claims it advocates for a greater level of kindness in public life.

The organization suggests, for example, tackling the problems of homelessness, religious disagreement and conflict, and a lack of acceptance for the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

But the resolution proposed in Austin would have also encouraged Austin's citizens also to participate in "Serve the Earth Week."

That language pushed Councilman Don Zimmerman over the edge.

Two days prior to the meeting, Zimmerman voiced his disagreement with the religious language of the resolution  what he deemed the bad kind of religious language.

You want to talk about someone who had compassion and broke down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries? No one did that better than Jesus of Nazareth. But what this proposes to do is serve the earth, not the Creator of the Earth.

In video of a city council work group meeting April 12, Zimmerman said (at 31 minutes in the video linked above) there is "a lot of handwringing about the marriage of religion and politics" in Austin.

"Here, we're marrying religion with politics," Zimmerman said, adding that the resolution claims compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. "This is dripping with religion."

It also encourages the people of Austin to do exactly what the ancient Israelites did before they were sent into exile, he said. Zimmerman pointed to the prophet Jeremiah who specifically condemned the idolatry of the Israelites.

"You want to talk about someone who had compassion and broke down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries? No one did that better than Jesus of Nazareth. But what this proposes to do is serve the earth, not the Creator of the Earth."

"This is really a resolution for idolatry, that we should serve the earth instead of the Creator of the earth," Zimmerman said.

No one responded to Zimmerman's comment at the April 12 work group meeting, but during the council session Zimmerman proposed three amendments to the resolution being proposed. The second of those amendments focused on Jesus as the quintessential voice of compassion. The third asked for the city council to set aside time for "Serve the Lord Week."

Both of the amendments with Christian overtones were soundly rejected. His first amendment, however, was accepted. It read:

"WHEREAS, One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason; One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone; the spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word."

That's when Satan showed up. After Kitchen accepted the amendment, Zimmerman told the council who had drafted the language for the amendment. It wasn't him.

"Those 3 sentences that I added came from the satanic temple website. Most of my constituents in District 6 all believe in Jesus, that He's the resurrected Messiah and He's their Savior. But I probably do have a handful of Satanists in an area of 80,000 people," Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman said he was making a point that the language of the Charter for Compassion and the resolution proposed by Kitchen had religious language in them very similar to what is on the Satanic Temple's website.

"I pointed out that the three sentences that came from a religious, Satanist website, were included without objection because they're so very nearly the same as what the compassion  the charter for compassion already has. So those are accepted, under the excuse that they're not religious. But they are religious. I think you would insult my Satanist constituents, they say they're religion and a religion, and that was accepted, so I can't understand why the biblical reference can't be accepted," Zimmerman said, according to a transcript of the meeting.

Councilwoman Leslie Pool then said she believed Zimmerman's amendment "flies in the face of what the resolution is intending to be about."

"I'm really put off by Mr. Zimmerman's amendments, all three of them," Pool said.

Zimmerman then said he was withdrawing support for the amendment, his point being made that the language of the Charter for Compassion and the resolution was, in fact, religious (and even Satanist).

"I'm virtually certain I have a few constituents that are, you know, Satanist worshipers, but I just can't go with them on this one, and I'm going to ask to have this struck out. So I can't represent everybody. I can't go with the devil on this," Zimmerman said.

The council voted to pass the resolution on compassion after the language Zimmerman proposed was removed.
UN body condemns Israel for 'illegal occupation' in Jerusalem of Muslim holy sites 18 April, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

JERUSALEM (Christian Examiner)  Israel has no claim to the historic Temple Mount and is an illegal occupier using "fake" evidence to tighten its grip on East Jerusalem and Muslim holy sites, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) resolution announced April 15.

Passed at the close of UNESCO's meeting in Paris at the behest of six Arab countries (Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan), the resolution ultimately called for Israel to cease any archaeological excavations in "occupied Palestine"  especially in the locations Muslims call Haram Al-Sharif, the "Noble Sanctuary," and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

No Jewish history at the site, including the location of Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple, is mentioned in the resolution, and the names of sites are only referred to by their Arab names. For instance, the Western Wall  the last remaining retaining wall of the Second Temple  is referred to as "Al-Buraq Plaza." The location is purportedly the site where the prophet Muhammad tied up his winged creature after his flight to Jerusalem.

UNESCO ignores the unique historic connection of Judah to the Temple Mount, where two temples stood for a thousand years and to which every Jew in the world has prayed for thousands of years. The UN is rewriting a basic part of human history and has again proven that there is no low to which it will not stoop.

Even though the resolution has no teeth, as it does nothing to affect official UN policy or the work of the UN Security Council, it is another in a series of UNESCO statements about the status of Jerusalem that ignore Israel's ancient claims to the land.

In October 2015, UNESCO also put a resolution that claimed the Western Wall, where thousands of Jews pray daily, was an "integral part" of Islam's heritage. That resolution died, however, when Russia, China, and even Cuba withdrew support for it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the latest resolution as "another absurd UN decision."

"UNESCO ignores the unique historic connection of Judah to the Temple Mount, where two temples stood for a thousand years and to which every Jew in the world has prayed for thousands of years. The UN is rewriting a basic part of human history and has again proven that there is no low to which it will not stoop," Netanyahu said.

Carmel Shama Hacohen, Israel's representative to UNESCO, said in a press release the resolution does nothing to alter the Jewish history of the sites or change the country's position on maintaining Jerusalem as its capital. He also said the timing of the resolution is problematic due to the recent acts of terrorism committed by Palestinians against Israelis.

"It gives a stamp of authenticity to Palestinian violence against Israel," Hacohen said. "It only adds more fuel to the fire (and) both sides will pay in blood for that decision."

Outside of Israel, the resolution was well-received. A Jordanian newspaper called the resolution of triumph for the country after a "diplomatic showdown" with Israel.

Jordan had been the historic custodian of the sites mentioned in the resolution until 2000, when Palestinian violence led the Israelis to exert authority over the Temple Mount.

Jews can visit the Temple Mount under agreements reached with Jordan after the Six Day War in 1967, but they cannot openly worship there.

The resolution also addressed more than just the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. It also claimed Israel was "planting fake Jewish graves" in so-called Palestinian lands and converting many Islamic and Byzantine ruins into Jewish ritual baths and "Jewish prayer places.

Hebron and Bethlehem, both sites associated with the biblical King David roughly 3,000 years ago, were also said in the resolution to be "an integral part of Palestine."

Argentina, France, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, India and Russia supported the current resolution demanding Israel end its activities in "Occupied Palestine."
Christians in various areas throughout the nation will be gathering on May 5 for the 65th annual National Day of Prayer. In Southern California, Korean American Christians will come together in Orange County for corporate intercession for the nation.

This year, the theme for the National Day of Prayer (NDOP) is 'Wake Up America,' and takes the first portion of Isaiah 58:1 as its theme verse: "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet." The verse in its entirety reads, "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins," the latter half which directly mentions sin and emphasizes the need for repentance.

At a press conference held on April 14th to spread the word to the Korean community, Korean church leaders said that America is facing a spiritual crisis and urged the community to repent and pray for the nation. Though the National Day of Prayer Taskforce -- the organizers of NDOP -- used only the first half of Isaiah 58:1 for the day's theme verse, the Korean church leaders used the full verse in introducing the theme of the event in its press releases and promotional materials.

The prayer gathering organized by the Korean church leaders will be taking place at 7:30 PM on May 5th at Grace Ministries International, and will be divided into worship and prayer portions, according to the press release. Some of the topics that will be prayed over include repentance and revival; schools and families; churches, culture, and social justice; the President, elected officials, and the upcoming election; revival in the younger generation, student organizations, and missions; and the leaders in South Korea, and reunification in Korea, among others. Four to five speakers will be leading each prayer topic.

As the event is hosted by Korean church organizations in the Orange County area, most of those who are leading prayers are pastors ministering in Orange County. Most of those who are leading prayers are also first generation Korean pastors, with only a few leaders who minister in the second-generation Korean American context such as Pastor Steve Choi from Crossway Community Church and Seong Joo Cho from SOON Movement. Only one woman is featured as one of the speakers at the event.

Elected officials from Southern California will also be prayed over during the event.

The National Day of Prayer was initially called for by President Lincoln in 1863 when he proclaimed a day of "humiliation, fasting, and prayer," according to the NDOP Taskforce, and officially began when President Harry Truman signed a joint resolution passed by Congress in 1952. Though the NDOP Taskforce was sued and the event was found unconstitutional in 2010, a decision by a circuit court of appeals reversed that decision in 2011. When President Obama also proclaimed a National Day of Prayer at the time when it was found unconstitutional, the status of the NDOP among the elected officials was also confirmed.

Gatherings of corporate prayer will be taking place in an estimated 42,000 different locations across the nation, and government officials in executive, legislative, and judicial branches will also be gathering at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill from 9 AM to 12 PM.

This article has been translated. For the original in Korean, visit kr.christianitydaily.com.
Rescue operations are underway to pull out survivors from under the debris of collapsed buildings after an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 rocked Ecuador on the evening of April 16.

The death toll from the quake has risen to 350, according to the latest reports, and more than 2,500 people have been injured, making this the strongest earthquake in the country since 1979.

The epicenter of the quake was near the town of Muisne in Esmeraldas province about 105 miles northwest of the capital city Quito, which is a sparsely populated region comprising many tourist beaches. The depth of earthquake was relatively shallow at 11.9 miles, the US Geological Survey said.

The tremors caused buildings to cave in, and damaged highways along the Pacific coast, over an area spanning hundreds of miles.

The government of Ecuador has deployed 10,000 military troops and over 3,000 policemen to aid in the rescue operations, as search teams continue to look for victims and survivors.

Vice President Jorge Glas said in a press brief that authorities have a long list of missing people and the number of victims may go up.

The province of Manabi, bordering Esmeraldas on the south, sustained the most damage where about 200 people died, and over 350 buildings collapsed. But widespread destruction was also reported from other parts of the country.

Survivor accounts describe the horror of the quake, which lasted for more than one minute.

"The third floor collapsed on top of us. They are all there, my family, my sister, my children. My God, may the help arrive," one woman was quoted as saying by BBC.

Another survivor was driving back to her home in Portoviejo in Manabi province at the time of earthquake. "It looks like a war zone," she said. "It's incredible what was happened to us - that our city is destroyed and we're experiencing such anguish and pain."

A national emergency management officer Ricardo Penaherrera told CNN: "The lack of water and communication remains a big problem. Many highways are in bad shape, especially in the mountainous area because it has been raining recently due to (the) El Nino weather phenomenon."

The neighboring countries of Venezuela and Mexico sent food and humanitarian aid to the quake-stricken country. Over 3,000 food packages and 8,000 sleeping kits were delivered to the affected areas, according to Associated Press. Columbia helped in the rescue operations by sending search teams, while also providing for aid through helicopters and navy. Several other countries including Peru, Spain, Mexico, and EU have pledged support.

The Ecuador quake was six times as strong as the recent 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Japan, and released 20 times greater energy, said David Rothery, professor of planetary geosciences at The Open University in UK.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his condolences to the victims of the earthquake.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected," he said. "We applaud the courage and skill of the first responders and of the talented Ecuadorian medical professionals, who are working so hard to find survivors and save lives."
An American missionary who was briefly detained in Turkey for being a "danger to public order" has been released.

David Byle, 46, has a residency permit which he received last year, but nevertheless faces threat of deportation. Authorities had tried to deport him several times before, according to a report by BosNewsLife.

He was detained on April 6 and a "no-reentry order" was filed against him. His wife said that the charges against him of allegedly disturbing public order were false. She said in a statement that "the reason he is being held is because of his evangelistic activities."

"Praise God, I was released from the deportation center this afternoon, and just arrived home," David Byle wrote on Facebook on April 14. "Thanks to all who prayed and did advocacy for me, also to my tireless lawyer and most of all to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who never left my side, and never will."

Byle was the first missionary to have fought and won a lawsuit over his residency. The lawsuit lasted five years.

He was first arrested in Istanbul in April 2007 for "forceful missionary activity," and "aggressive evangelism" but the first charge of missionary activity was dropped the next month as it is not a crime in Turkey. In November that year, the other charge was also dismissed as it relates only to selling goods or services aggressively, and evangelism does not fall under this criteria.

He also founded an organization called the Bible Correspondence Course in Turkey, which was attacked in 2014. Thousands of New Testaments were burned in the attack.

Then again in February 2009, he was detained along with several other members of BCC, all of whom were forced to provide written statements before being released.

In spite of facing detentions, deportations, and court cases, he refuses to be deterred from his mission of preaching the gospel in Turkey.

"He's a very bold person, and I look up to him," a leader (requested anonymity) at US-based International Christian Response (ICR), that provides aid to persecuted Christians was quoted as saying by Morning Star News. "I wish there were more people like him."
Weve all heard the alarms: an entire generation of nones and dones have supposedly left the church. There are good reasons for this exodus. The church is full of problems, now on display for all to see online. Everywhere we click, theres another op-ed telling us how church has failed, how church leaders have lost touch with their congregants, and how technology and parachurch ministries will finally free us from the physical confines of our gathering places and the dysfunctions of our mismatched families.

I get where theyre coming from. Growing up in youth group, I was isolated from anyone not my own age. I grew so used to church being tailor-made for my tastes that when I started going to a Christian college, I couldnt abide the worship service of any church I set foot in. Even after college, things got tougher as I experienced my share of heartbreak at the hands of those who were supposed to shepherd my soul. I was ostracized, fired, and overlookedall in the local church context. And in every case, it was brutally difficult to stay. I was ready to give up on the local church.

But Jesus didnt give up on me. Over time, I developed a love for the church not out of my desire to be better, but out of my need. Even when church people failed me, other pastors, elders, deacons, and fellow congregants reminded me through their words, actions, and presence that Jesus was near. My local church was not merely a responsibility; it was where Jesus lived. It was home.

When Paul writes to the Corinthians, Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it, he isnt confirming individual value so much as he is drawing us to recognize ...

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A recent conference held at St. John's College in Durham discussed how science can be studied within the context of the Christian faith.

According to Christian Today, Tom McLeish, Durham University physics professor and co-director of the project "Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science," said that people can view science within a theological perspective, in the same way that many scientists like physicist-mathematician Isaac Newton and mathematician-astronomer Johannes Kepler have done. McLeish cited astrophysicist Joseph Taylor who discovered the binary pulsar and whose work supports the Big Bang Theory.

Taylor said, "A scientific discovery is also a religious discovery. There is no conflict between science and religion. Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world."

He also mentioned physicist/mathematician Max Borne, who said that whoever says that studying science "makes a man an atheist must be rather silly," while theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg said that the first drink from the glass of natural science would turn one into an atheist, "but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you."

During the conference, the attendees discussed what is called the "conflict model," which says that science and religion are perenially at odds. This they called a historical myth, although it pervades to modern times.

The project is challenging "the caricature of the conflict model and present a more nuanced account of science and Christianity" by letting people know of the historical and modern scientists "who view the relationship between science and religion as mutually enhancing" and opening dialogue between church leaders and scientists who are believers and who are not.

During the conference, McLeish also mentioned theoretical physicist Max Planck, who said, "Both religion and science require a belief in God. For believers, God is in the beginning, and for physicists He is at the end of all considerations... To the former He is the foundation, to the latter, the crown of the edifice of every generalised world view."

Meanwhile, another organization in the United Kingdom called God and the Big Bang is also challenging the notion that religion and science can't go together. The project, which holds events that involve around 120 students, is not aiming at coverting school kids, instead it wants to help students have a deeper understanding of both science and faith.

"The aim is to get young people across the UK thinking about the compatibility of science and faith," project coordinator Steph Bryant told Christian Today. "It's hands-on and interactive and allows a different way of approaching science and faith."

God and the Big Bang is funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. It is supported by the Church of England, the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Christians in Science, and the Institute of Education at the University of Reading.
home World ISIS hit list names Muslim politicians in the west

In what could be deemed as bid to unleash fresh terror and stir its followers, the Islamic State has released a hit list that includes moderate Muslims in the west.

Published in IS' propaganda magazine Dabiq, the list is centered on Muslim politicians in western countries who the terror group considers as apostates. Christian Today quotes part of the Dabiq article that says IS supporters should "wage jihad by himself with the resources available to him (knives, guns, explosives etc) to kill the crusaders and other disbelievers and apostates... to make an example of them."

The list includes representative Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be part of U.S. Congress, as well as Huma Abedin, top aide to presidential candidate Hilary Clinton.

"The fact that I'm on Daesh's [ISIS'] bad side means I am fighting for things like justice, tolerance, and a more inclusive world," Ellison said in a statement. "As millions of faithful Muslims flee Daesh's imposed nightmare they call a 'caliphate', Daesh takes the time to threaten Muslim public servants in the West, like myself and my friend Huma Abedin. Daesh is a collection of liars, murderers, torturers, and rapists. No Muslim I know recognizes what they preach as Al-Islam."

Sajid Javid, British Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the first Muslim woman in the British cabinet, are also included. CNS News reported other names: Mohamed Elibiary, former member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council; Arif Alikhan, who had taken different positions in law enforcement and homeland security; and Rashad Hussain, former envoy of the United States to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Those listed are said to have been described as "overt crusaders" as well as "politically active apostates." They apparently "involve themselves in the politics and enforcing laws of the kufr [disbelievers]."

CNS News said that Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is not named but his photo is posted in the magazine.

"Our life and death are in the hands of God," Awad said, as quoted by Christian Today. "I believe this threat is a reflection of the outstanding work CAIR does in opposing the anti-Islamic message and brutal actions of ISIS and other terror groups. The best response to such threats is to continue challenging extremism, whether it is espoused by organizations like ISIS or by Islamophobes who seek to demonize Islam based on that group's brutality."

According to The New York Post, the propaganda magazine also celebrated the bombings in Brussels, Belgium, and featured Khalid and his brother Ibrahim El Bakraoui, two of the jihadists responsible for the attacks. Dabiq claimed that the two were carjackers and bank robbers, and it was in prison in Belgium that they joined the Islamic State. Two other people were named: Najim Laachraoui, said to have been the one who made the bombs for both Paris and Brussels attacks and who blew himself up at the airport in Brussels; and Mohamed Belkaid, who assisted him but was killed in a police raid prior to the attacks.

"Paris was a warning. Brussels was a reminder. What is yet to come will be more devastating and more bitter by the permission of Allah, and Allah prevails," the magazine said.
400 refugees feared dead after boats capsize in Mediterranean, reports say

At least 400 refugees are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea after their boats capsized on the way to Europe.

Unconfirmed media reports said four vessels carrying mainly Somalis, but also some Eritreans and Ethiopians, capsized near the Egyptian coast.

BBC Arabic spoke to relatives of three people said to be on board one of the boars, and quoted the Somali ambassador to Egypt as saying a team was working to verify the information.

Medecins Sans Frontieres tweeted in response to the news: "Mediterranean is a mass grave".

It later added that it could not confirm the reports, however.

BREAKING: Media report that 400 #people have drowned after a boat capsized between # Egypt & Italy. 2016, the Mediterranean is a mass grave.  MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) April 18, 2016

UPDATE: We cannot confirm news of the shipwreck. Jut sharing this report https://t.co/YOupU2jYV4  MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) April 18, 2016

Italian President Sergio Mattarella referred to the incident in Rome today, where he said Europe needed to reflect in the face of "yet another tragedy in the Mediterranean in which, it seems, several hundred people have died".

According to the Irish Independent, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said: "Our offices in Egypt, Italy and Greece are trying to find out more about this reported incident but, so far, we cannot confirm it."

Flavio di Giacomo, a spokesman from the International Organisation for Migration, told IBTimes UK: "We can't exclude it either but at the moment there are no confirmed shipwrecks."

Italy's coastguard has so far said it has no information regarding the possible drowning, but it did say six bodies had been found and 108 people rescued in a separate incident.

A further 33 people were rescued from an island off the eastern coast of Sicily on Sunday, it said.

More than a million refugees and migrants arrived in Europe last year, many of them having made the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean Sea via human traffickers.

Thousands have died making the crossing; Pope Francis warned last year that the Mediterranean was turning into "a vast cemetery". Exactly a year ago today, an estimated 800 people died when their boat capsized off the Libyan coast. The deaths fuelled calls for a stronger response from Europe and prompted a number of summits on the crisis.
Archbishop of Canterbury met Robert Mugabe for 'pastoral' meeting

The Archbishop of Canterbury has attended a private meeting with the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.

The meeting, which was pastoral in nature, was hailed as testament to the improvement in relations between Church and state in Zimbabwe.

The visit by Archbishop of Justin Welby was made at the reqest of Bishop of Harare, Chad Gandiya.

According to ZBC, Archbishop Welby was pleased about the improved relations and the prospects for fruitful association.

Archbishop Welby was accompanied by several Anglican bishops when he met Mugabe at the State House in Harare on Sunday afternoon.

He was also accompanied by the British Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Catriona Laing.

Bishops and other Anglican leaders have been attending a meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka, Zambia. Archbishop Welby visited Zimbabwe after the end of that meeting.

After talking with Mugabe, a Catholic, Archbishop Welby said: "Affairs of the church, the past and future, and mistakes that have been made are some of the issues that we discussed with the President."

They also discussed the ordination of women.

The Anglican Church in Zimbabwe is recovering from a damaging split in 2007 when Nolbert Kunonga of Harare led a breakaway. Kunonga was excommunicated by the Anglican Province of Central Africa and was recently ordered by a court to pay back large sums of money from the disposal of church assets.

According to Zimbabwe News, the meeting was not political although Mugabe and Welby talked about the future of the Church and of Zimbabwe. Mugabe also talked about how much relations between church and state had improved. Some of Mugabe's senior government officials were also at the meeting.

Lambeth Palace said: "The Archbishop of Canterbury paid a pastoral visit to President Mugabe of Zimbabwe yesterday late afternoon.

"This last minute visit, made at the request of the Bishop of Harare, was in support of the church in Zimbabwe.

"It lasted less than an hour."

The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu has not worn his clerical collar since 2007 in protest at Mugabe's crimes against humanity.

On December 2007 he cut up the collar on live television, saying: "Do you know what Mugabe has done? He's taken people's identity and literally if you don't mind, cut it to pieces. This is what he's actually done, to a lot ofand in the end there's nothing. So as far as I'm concerned from now on I'm not going to wear a dog collar until Mugabe's gone."
Catholic Church issues public apology for sex abuse of priests 20 years ago

Uruguay's Roman Catholic Church said it is ashamed over the "abhorrent acts" committed by its priests who were accused of sexually abusing three persons who were in their teens 20 years ago even as it made a public apology for their acts.

In a letter on its website, the church denounced the acts, lamenting that the crimes went unpunished because the statute of limitation has elapsed, the Associated Press reports.

"We all know how, unfortunately, acts like these have been denounced for years in several countries, but they can never be justified within the church," the letter said, adding that the predator priests must be held responsible before "God and the courts."

Assistant Bishop Milton Troccoli, the spokesman of the Church's Episcopal Conference, said the church conducted an investigation after it received the reports a year ago.

According to him, the allegations had led one man to leave the priesthood and another was removed after the inquiry.

"They happened some 20 years ago, but we only received the complaints last year," Troccoli said.

He noted that even if criminal charges were filed against the two cases, it was already too late because the statute of limitations has already expired.

Moreover, he said the victim in the third case does not anymore want to pursue the case.

Troccoli said the scandal has led the Uruguayan Episcopal Conference to set up a hotline to receive any other reports of priestly abuse.

In 1996, a court in Uruguay sentenced priest Adolfo Antelo to prison for physically and sexually abusing followers of the Jerusalem Community, a Catholic cult that he led. Antelo died a year later while under house arrest.

Bishops in Uruguay banned the community from the country but the Vatican allowed it to continue operating in other countries under a different name, according to AP.
Christian charities unite to fight Ofsted becoming 'state regulator of religion'

Ofsted, the schools' inspections body, is becoming the "state regulator of religion", according to a coalition of Christian charities.

The joint statement from five separate charities urged Christians to oppose government plans to register and inspect out-of-school settings including church youth groups.

The department of education announced the plans last year which would force institutions that teach under-19s for more than six hours a week to register. The move is part of the government's counter-extremism strategy and came after concerns children were exposed to extremist views in a small number of Muslim madrassas.

However the charities warned that church youth groups could be inspected under the plans as they would force any institution that teaches children to register.

CARE, Christian Concern, the Evangelical Alliance, the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship and The Christian Institute have signed the statement which labels the plans an "unacceptable overreach of the state". A spokesman for CARE told Christian Today this coming together "demonstrates both the worrying nature of the government's plans and the strong resolve within the Christian community to stand up for the freedom to teach the Christian faith to the next generation without unnecessary State interference".

Published on Monday morning, the statement read: "Requiring churches in England to register before they are legally allowed to help children learn the Christian values our nation was built on is an unjustified restriction of religious liberty."

Education minister Nick Gibb has said inspections would only be carried out if complaints were lodged about a particular insitution. However the statement said the "scope for vexatious complaints is considerable, especially in the current climate of aggressive secularism and religious illiteracy. The experience of some Christian schools is that inspectors themselves can be ignorant of or hostile to Christian beliefs and practices.

"We do not believe Ofsted should become the state regulator of religion."

The statement went on to say it supported "reasonable measures to prevent terrorism". However it continued: "These proposals will lead to a loss of civil liberties and create a large bureaucracy that will divert resources away from restraining extremists who reject UK law. Such individuals will simply ignore or effortlessly circumvent the registration requirements.

"We urge the government to drop these proposals and develop a targeted, intelligence-led approach that will genuinely inhibit the activities of violent extremists."

CARE chief executive Nola Leach branded the plans a "wholly unwarranted undermining of religious freedom".

"We support tackling extremism, but not in this sweeping, overly broad manner," she said.

Colin Hart, director of The Christian Institute said: "The freedom to proclaim the gospel...must be protected, not undermined in the name of 'counter-extremism',".

CEO of Christian Concern, Andrea Williams, said "Christians are not terrorists".

The chairman of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship said the plans may be in breach of human rights legislation while the Evangelical Alliance's head of public policy, Simon McCrossan said the proposals amounted to the "wholesale nationalisation of youth work and the state regulation of private religious practice."

He continued: "If implemented, there is a real risk churches will feel forced to step back from the valuable services they currently provide to young people across society."

Christian Today has contacted the Department for Education for comment.
Dominican Sisters recount harrowing escape from ISIS in Iraq, resulting in death of 23 elderly nuns from heart attacks

The Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena-Iraq recently gave a gripping account of how they escaped from the tyranny of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq, an ordeal that led to the death of 23 sisters over the past 18 months, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

According to the nuns based in the Iraqi city of Qaraqosh, the ISIS launched its first mortar shell attack on their community in 2003.

The Dominican Sisters have been serving the Iraqi Christian community in Qaraqosh and Mosul for almost 150 years. The nuns taught in schools and had good relations with their Muslim neighbours.

However, the sisters later began to sense trouble and started planning for potential problems that could arise from attacks by ISIS militants or their supporters.

In early June 2014, ISIS attacked the city of Mosul, Iraq, triggering a massive exodus from that city and later from towns like Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city in Iraq, and nearby villages.

Some 500,000 internally displaced people ran for safety and shelter in the Kurdish region of Iraq.

ISIS militants kidnapped Chaldean sisters and three orphans.

The Dominican nuns remaining in Mosul had three choices: To pay a Christian tax, convert to Islam or leave to save their lives.

On June 8, 2014, the sisters left Mosul, joining a group of 30 people squeezed inside a bus that could only seat 14 passengers. Dangers were everywhere along the road, but they managed to reach the village Bashiqa the following morning, extremely tired and afraid.

The Peshmerga Kurdish fighters assured the Christian community in Qaraqosh and surrounding villages that they would be protected and that there was no way that ISIS would come and occupy the villages.

But despite this assurance, five Christian villages were shelled heavily by ISIS, which demanded to be paid the Christian tax or else the shelling would continue.

In a nearby Chaldean Christian village, priest was shot in the head and killed by either an ISIS fighter or a sympathiser. This incident worsened the fears already gripping the Christian community.

In the morning of Aug. 6, 2014, Qaraqosh was shelled, killing two children and one young woman. The whole community of Qaraqosh evacuated the village, except the Dominican Sisters.

Qaraqosh was in chaos, and the sisters finally decided to leave late in the evening. Thirty-five nuns, four families and two orphans squeezed themselves into two vans and two small cars and left Qaraqosh.

They came upon other Christians walking, some on donkeys and some on bicycles. "It was a river of people, thousands of people walking slowly out of Qaraqosh," said Sister Maria.

They headed for the city of Erbil, 30 miles miles away from Qaraqosh. They arrived there the next morning.

The elderly sisters began to suffer heart attacks and heart failures from the stress of the mass exodus. Over the past 18 months, 23 of them died, sometimes up to three deaths a week. "They died of a broken heart," said Sister Huda.
German party wants ban on burqas, says Islam 'not part of Germany'

A German anti-immigration party that wants to ban minarets and burqas has said Islam is incompatible with the country's constitution.

Deputy leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD), Beatrix von Storch, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper on Sunday that: "Many Muslims are part of Germany, but Islam is not part of Germany".

"Islam is in itself a political ideology that is not compatible with the constitution," she added.

"We are in favour of a ban on minarets, on muezzins and a ban on full veils".

Another of the AfD's deputy leaders, Alexander Gauland, said: "Islam is not a religion like Catholic or Protestant Christianity, but rather intellectually always associated with the takeover of the state. That is why the Islamisation of Germany is a danger."

The AfD punished Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats in three regional elections last month, profiting from popular angst about how Germany can cope with an influx of migrants, over a million of whom arrived last year.

Merkel's conservatives have also called for an effective ban on the burqa, saying the full body covering worn by some Muslim women should not be worn in public. But they have not said Islam is incompatible with Germany's constitution.

The AfD's rise, which has coincided with strong gains by other European anti-immigrant parties including the National Front in France, has punctured the centrist consensus around which the mainstream parties have formed alliances in Germany.

Last month, the party grabbed 24 per cent of the vote in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, surpassing even the Social Democrats (SPD), Merkel's coalition partner in Berlin. The AfD founded in 2013, also performed strongly in two other states.

The party's rise has been controversial. Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, has said Germany's far-right, led by the AfD party, is using language similar to that of Hitler's Nazis.

Such accusations have not swayed the party from its anti-immigration course.

Additional reporting by Reuters.
Islamic State are committing genocide and the UK government must admit it

Like many of you, I have watched with mounting horror the atrocities committed by ISIS/Daesh in the Middle East. These fanatics do not care for the value of human life. Blinded by their corrupted worldview, they would rather kill than engage in meaningful dialogue. Violence and oppression is their oxygen. Caught up in the middle of their brutal quest to create a radical Islamic state are ethnic minorities, Yardizis, religious minorities and Christians. The evidence that exists points to one conclusion: what is happening is an act of genocide.

Under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, the act of genocide is defined as the systematic killing or harming of people because they are part of a recognisable group. According to the Convention, the group may be 'national, ethnic, racial or religious'. I believe what is happening now in the Middle East qualifies as genocide. Now we need the UK government to accept this fact and publicly call it like it is.

 The evidence that exists points to one conclusion: what is happening is an act of genocide. 

The rationale for urging this definition be applied is simple: it would inject greater international urgency in dealing with the problem and helping and providing support for victims. This is not simply a matter of semantics. It would also send a very clear message, stronger than those already signalled, that what is happening in Syria and Iraq is utterly unacceptable. There are some who also believe an international recognition that genocide is happening will deter new recruits from joining up. The key point is if the UK government officially recognises that genocide is happening, it should lead to concrete action being taken.

At the moment the UK government is stalling. They have argued that it is primarily up to the international judicial system, not governments, to recognise what is happening as genocide. But the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, made a clear statement on April 8 last year that the only way the ICC could prosecute and investigate is if there is a referral either from Syria and Iraq, which is not very likely, or from the UN Security Council. Because the UK is a permanent member of the Security Council, they have influence there. The UK government can use that influence to persuade the Security Council to confer immediate jurisdiction on the ICC so that the process of bringing perpetrators to justice can begin. It is worth noting that the US State Department has labelled the persecution of minorities in Syria and Iraq as genocide already. So has the EU.

Thinking specifically about the plight of Christians, the figures from the region are truly shocking. In Syria right now, since the conflict began the number of Christians has dropped from 2 million to 1 million and from 1.4 million to under 260,000 in Iraq. Church leaders have been brutally murdered or tortured and all because they are believers in the Lord Jesus. There have been multiple incidents of violence, abuse, molestation, people trafficking, murders, kidnapping, sexual enslavement and systematic rape. Young and old have been caught up in this devastating whirlwind of evil. Official Daesh propaganda has revealed the regime's intent to persecute and destroy those who do not want to convert.

Of course, applying the term genocide to the atrocities will not alleviate the pain, trauma and grief of Christians and others in the region. But it will help to kick-start the international community's response. It carries huge symbolic value, as well as prompting action from the UK and other nations. Calling it genocide will send a message to those advocating this assault of violence that there will come a time when they are brought to justice. There are 127 countries signed up to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide and if the UK government takes the right approach, these nations will be encouraged to take the action required to publish those guilty of perpetrating these crimes.

If you are reading this and wondering what you can do, there is a way you can play your part. Aside from diligently praying, there is a debate taking place on Wednesday in the House of Commons. Organised by Fiona Bruce, Conservative MP for Congleton, the motion would real pressure on the government to accept genocide is happening in the Middle East. I would encourage you to write to your MP to urge them to support this motion. This is a chance to let our elected representatives know that the government's stalling on this issue is unacceptable. The human dignity of so many people in that region is under threat. This is not simply about words or semantics. This is about speaking out in favour of justice and standing up for those who are being attacked because they are Christian or because they are a minority. It is time to say it how it is. Daesh are committing genocide and the UK government should admit it.

Nola Leach is Chief Executive of CARE
Jesus would have allowed killing of ISIS militants, Christian militia commander in Iraq believes

If Jesus Christ were living in today's world where terrorism is a real threat, would he allow the killing of Islamic State (ISIS) militants? The answer would be yes as far as this Christian militia fighter is concerned.

In a recent interview with BBC News, Rayan al-Kildani, the head of the 100,000-member Christian militia group known as the "Babylon Brigade," said while Jesus Christ taught about mercy and compassion, wielding the sword to end the lives of these jihadists would have been acceptable to Him given the various atrocities they have committed. Kildani said he has personally killed several members of this terror group.

He made it clear that his group's primary mission is to prevent the ISIS from advancing further and taking more territories in Iraq.

"What Islamic State is doing to the Christians is terrible. They are the devil," Kildani said, as quoted by The Gospel Herald.

"I know the Bible says that if you get hit on one cheek you should offer the other. But we have really good defence forces now. No one is going to do anything bad to the Christians. Some Christians had their homes taken over. I have personally been to those houses to tell the new people living there to get out. Christian suffering is over," he added.

When asked about how he would reconcile his militia group's actions to the Fifth Commandment, "Thou shall not kill," Kildani answered: "We have to fight. We have to defend ourselves...Jesus himself told us that if you don't have a sword you should go out and buy one."

The militia leader even used this Bible quote from Luke 22:36 to justify his group's actions: "If you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."

Some theologians interviewed by BBC, however, said that this verse should not be taken literally.

Thousands of Christians have already suffered in the hands of the ISIS since 2014. Members of the terror group have been torturing, raping and killing Christians and taking over their homes in the Middle East.

Syrian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II revealed that at least 230 citizens, including scores of Christians, were recently kidnapped by the ISIS from the town of Qaryatain in central Syria.

Aphrem reported that some Christians were killed while attempting to escape, while some were killed for breaking the terms of their "dhimmi contracts," which require them to submit to the rule of Islam.
Lawmakers may override Tennessee governor's veto, make Bible official state book

Republican lawmakers may this week try to override the veto of a bill that sought to name the Bible the official state book of Tennessee.

Governor Bill Haslam last week used his personal veto to stop the bill from passing, stating concerns that it "trivialises the Bible".

However according to AP, supporters of the bill are expected to announce their intention to override Haslam's veto on the House floor this evening. A vote is then likely to take place on Wednesday.

Haslam, a committed Christian, previously said the bill would violate the federal and state constitutions.

"If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn't be recognising it only as a book of historical and economic significance," Haslam said.

"If we are recognising the Bible as a sacred text, then we are violating the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of Tennessee by designating it as the official state book. Our founders recognised that when the church and state were combined, it was the church that suffered in the long run."

The sponsor of the bill, Jerry Sexton, immediately filed to override the veto. Each house must vote against it by a majority for the bill now to go through.

Haslam told AP that it's possible a number of House members will change their minds and support his veto.

"I've had several members say, 'You know I voted for it, and I think if I had a chance to do it again, I would vote differently,'" he said.

"But I certainly don't want to project what people's votes will be."

According to The Tennesseean, the last time a veto override was successful in the state was in 2010.
Mississippi bans dismemberment abortion in 'courageous and righteous step toward protecting unborn children'

Starting July 1, dismemberment abortion in the state of Mississippi will be a crime punishable by law.

This developed after Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed into law the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act on Friday, becoming the fourth state in the U.S. to end the medical practice.

The legislation was first passed in Kansas and subsequently in Oklahoma and West Virginia. It was also introduced in other states such as Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri, Idaho, Louisiana, Rhode Island and Utah.

Dismemberment abortion, also known as "dilation and evacuation" or "D&E" abortion, involves dilating a woman's cervix and then using a Sopher clamp and curette blade to dismember an unborn child and remove his or her body parts, reports Lifesite News.

It is typically done during the second trimester of pregnancy, the report says.

Church members and pro-life groups immediately praised the Mississippi state government for taking the bold step despite massive pressures from abortion groups like Planned Parenthood.

"Mississippi has taken a courageous and righteous step toward protecting children in the womb from the barbarity of a dismemberment abortion," Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, told LifeSite News

"Gov. Phil Bryant, state legislators and every resident of Mississippi have reason to be proud today," he added.

Anja Scheib, president of Mississippi State Students for Life, also noted that "Mississippi has the opportunity to lead the nation in this basic human right" of life.

"Dismemberment of preborn children has to end in Mississippi to achieve basic human rights for our state," she added.

In his dissent to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2000 Stenberg v. Carhart decision, Justice Kennedy reportedly observed that in D&E dismemberment abortions, "the fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn limb from limb. The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off."

National Right to Life Director of State Legislation Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D. observed that banning dismemberment abortion "has the potential to transform the debate when people realise that living unborn children are killed by being torn limb from limb."

Spaulding Balch lamented that civilised members of society often only stand up and demand change when they realise that the procedure of "ripping off arms and legs piece by piece" cannot be uglier as it is.

The Abortion Act, which was sponsored by Representative Sam C. Mims, R-McComb, passed the state House of Representatives 83-33 in February, and the state Senate 40-6 last month.

In March, the West Virginia Senate voted to override Governor Earl Ray Tomblin's veto of a similar bill. Kansas and Oklahoma banned dismemberment abortions last year.

In signing the bill, Bryant said in his post on Twitter: "We're making Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child."

He added that it is his goal to "end abortion" in the state.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, meanwhile, said in statement that the signing of the abortion bill is "a clear attack on women's health care as part of a plan to ban abortion across the board," according to Rewire News.
Syrian refugees see Pope Francis as 'father of peace in the world' and an 'angel' who came to rescue them

To the 12 Syrian refugees who spent their first day in Rome on Sunday, Pope Francis is not just the leader of the Roman Catholic Church but also the "father of peace in the world, and peace has no religion."

To them, the Pope is also an "angel" who came to save them from the horrors of war in their native land.

The 12 were among the hundreds of thousands of refugees stranded on the Greek island of Lesbos, which was visited on Saturday by the leaders of three major Christian churchesPope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church; Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians; and Ieronymos II, the archbishop of Athens and Greece. Those churches have been estranged for more than a millennium. But their leaders' shared compassion for the poor refugees brought them together on Lesbos.

In a gesture rich with symbolism, Pope Francis took the 12 Muslim refugees with him on his flight back to Rome.

NBC News interviewed the refugees comprising of three families. They all marvelled at what the Pope has done.

"I still don't believe we are here now," said Osama, one of the refugees. "He is the father of peace in the world, and peace has no religion."

Another refugee was Suhila, a seamstress who came together with her husband Ramy, who is a teacher, and their three children.

"He [the Pope] saved our lives," said Suhila, speaking through an interpreter. "To me, he is now like an angel, a new father who saves the lives of his children."

"I spoke to him, but I don't even remember what I told him," Suhila said. "I was overwhelmed with emotions. No Muslim leader has done what he has done."

Suhila and her family fled Deir al-Zour, a Syrian city near the Iraqi border that came under Islamic State (ISIS) attack. They arrived in Greece in February via Turkey.

The Pope also brought to Rome Hasan and Nour Essa together with their 2-year-old son, Riyad.

"What's happening with us, it's like a dream," Nour Essa, a microbiologist, told NBC News on Sunday. "It's like a beautiful dream."

Essa said Pope Francis was "more important than any Muslim religious man, because what the pope did with us has never been done by an Arabic leader or by a Muslim religious man."

Francis, she said, "is a real human being. ...He's not like the others."

Essa said she wants the Italian people to know that "we are normal people like you."

"We are not terrorists. We are not jihadists. We just ran out of our country because of the war, and we love you."

In a lighter vein, she said she and her family are looking forward to eating all the "lasagna, pasta and pizza" that they could.

"I like the lasagna," she said.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster: Dangerous cult or a bit of a laugh?

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster celebrated its first offical wedding at the weekend, in New Zealand.

The happy couple were Toby Ricketts and Marianna Young, and the world wishes them well. They were married by a 'ministeroni' aboard a ship decorated as a pirate vessel (Pastafarians, as the Church's devotees are called, are fond of pirates, whom they believe to be divine beings misrepresented by centuries of Christian teaching).

Is Pastafarianism just a laugh? It certainly started off like that. Its founder Bobby Henderson started it as a satire on the teaching of creationism in 2005 with a letter to the Kansas State Board of Education. He argued that belief in a Flying Spaghetti Monster was just as credible as Intelligent Design. Since then Pastafarianism has morphed into something bigger, with its own mythology (global warming is down to the decline in piracy) and attracts all sorts of people who claim it gives them a philosophy to live by.

But it would surely be a mistake for Christians to get too wound up about it. For one thing, many Christians would agree that creationism and the attempt to get it, or versions of it, into schools doesn't reflect very well on the faith. It's quite true that the underlying premise  that my religion is just as ridiculous and unprovable as yours  has a bit of a bite to it. On the other hand, Pastafarians deny being anti-religious. They say on their website: "This is NOT an atheists club. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join our church including current members of other religions."

But at another level, the religious language used by the Church, albeit satirically, can set off the wrong sort of alarm bells in Christian minds. This isn't a Satan-inspired plot to destabilise the Church. Instead we should think of Pastafarianism as being like other alternative lifestyles.

How about Steampunk, whose devotees draw on Victorian science fiction for their wardrobes? Or Goths, with their distinctive pale faces, dark clothes and existentialist philosophies? Pastafarians are just non-conformists who want something more out of life than the nine-to-five mortgage-driven ratrace and find it in a Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Do-it-yourself religion isn't dangerous to Christianity, though they are challenging to it. It's a sign people are fundamentally spiritual beings, who look for meaning and community. If they can't find it, they'll make it. So the challenge to orthodox faith is to make it easier to find.

Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
Thousands of protesters worldwide demand that Norway return the kids it seized from a Christian couple

For four months now, Christian couple Marius and Ruth Bodnariu have been separated from their five children. Norway's child welfare services, the Barnevernet, seized the kids when the principal of the school attended by the couple's daughters notified the government that she "had concerns about how the girls were disciplined at home because the parents were 'very Christian.'"

The couple's children, two daughters and three sons, were taken away by state authorities in November 2015 on suspicion of parental child abuse and religious indoctrination after one of the daughters told her headteacher that Marius and Ruth spanked the children as a disciplinary measure.

Corporal punishment is illegal in Norway, and schools are obliged to report it.

To exert pressure on the Norwegian government, thousands of activists protested around the world over the weekend. The protesters called on the Norwegian government to return the Bodnariu children to their parents.

In Arizona, hundreds of residents marched outside the Superior Court building in central Phoenix on Saturday to criticise the actions of the Norwegian government.

Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, who has advocated child welfare issues in the U.S. Congress, led the protesters, according

to AZFamily.com.

Members of the group called "the Romanian-Americans for Reunification of Bodnariu Family Coalition," as well as community, business, civic and religious leaders joined the protest.

As early as Tuesday last week, Canada-based non-profit organisation Home School Legal Defence Association (HSLDA) provided links to information on the rallies supporting the reunion of the Bodnariu family to enable residents from Europe, Australia and New Zealand to join the protests.

The group particularly asked its members in the U.S. to contact the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, D.C., "to express their concern about this situation."

"Norway has a great desire to maintain a good image, especially with the United States. Your efforts can help Norway realize that this kind of behavior can cause that image to be tarnished," the HSLDA said in an announcement, as quoted by WND.

The non-profit organisation described the Bodnariu couple's situation as "every caring parent's worst nightmare: having their children taken by state authorities."

"For two months Marius, an information technician, and Ruth, a paediatric nurse, were not permitted to have any contact with their children  including their youngest, Ezekiel, whom Ruth was still nursing when he was taken away," the HSLDA said. A week ago a judge ordered Ezekiel, now 7 months old, to be returned to his parents.

The group emphasised that this situation arose "because of the parents' Christian beliefs."
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Waterlogged Houstonians who couldn't file their federal income taxes on Monday may be spared late fees, the Internal Revenue Service announced.

Fees aren't an issue for those receiving refunds, but taxpayers who owe money generally pay a penalty for not meeting the Tax Day deadline. But the IRS said people affected by the storm can request an abatement of these penalties and may receive relief. Decisions will be made case by case.

In a release, the IRS pledged to "closely monitor the situation." It noted that the Federal Emergency Management Agency makes disaster declarations, "which allows the IRS to provide additional relief for taxpayers."

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said the tax agency indicated it would extend the deadline if the flooding is recognized as a disaster federally.

Heavy rain and street and house flooding across the Houston area made it difficult for some last-minute filers to get to post offices or tax preparer offices. The local IRS offices were closed, too.

Dianne Ketcham, the owner and operating manager of a Liberty Tax Service in Spring, didn't have electricity to help customers early Monday afternoon. When people arrived to file their tax returns, she took their information so she could file extensions when the power came back on.

Only five or six people had shown up by 1 p.m., she said, presuming that flooding prevented many from getting there. Ketcham said she got out of her own subdivision thanks to her husband's four-wheel-drive Toyota Sequoia.

She also said many people had already filed their taxes, not realizing they had three extra days this year.

"It hasn't been as bad as it would be on April 15," she said.

H&R Block was focused on employee and customer safety Monday morning, said Gene King, director of corporate communications. The tax preparation giant will keep all of its area offices open through Wednesday. Many offices also will be open by appointment.
For years, the offices of architecture firm HOK were on two sprawling floors of the Williams Tower in the Galleria area. The floor plates were so large that there there were few impromptu employee interactions and collaborative moments office designers say are necessary for a productive work environment.

"We never really collaborated unless it was a scheduled meeting," Ron Bateman, HOK vice president, said on a recent tour of the company's new offices in the Phoenix Tower at 3200 Southwest Freeway.
Kathy McDaniel and her husband, Chip, spent about three hours in the attic as floodwaters rose up to nearly five feet in their home until firefighters rescued them Monday morning.

Kathy McDaniel said they live in Jersey Village near White Oak Bayou and they watched water from the swollen bayou rising along the street near their home for hours overnight. It crept into their home and rose higher and higher. They gathered necessities, their pet dachshund , P.J., and scrambled into the attic. They called a relative, who alerted the Jersey Village Fire Department.
Houston-area animals were among those affected by Houston's widespread flooding Monday.

From fish washed onto neighborhood streets to more than 70 horses that required rescue in Cypress, the day's events made for a number of compelling animal-centric photos.
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School has been canceled Monday for many students in the Houston region as powerful thunderstorms rake the area, prompting threats of flooding and tornadoes.

The storms hit overnight and are expected to continue throughout the day and into Tuesday, according the National Weather Service.

A Flash Flood Warning is in effect until 9 a.m. Monday for much of the region, including portions of Harris, Waller and Montgomery counties. A Flash Flood Watch has been issued through 7 a.m. Tuesday for the area.

Heavy downpours are likely to drench the region Monday and Tuesday, said Lance Wood, a meteorologist with the weather service. By about 5 a.m. Monday the storms began pushing into the Houston metropolitan area and will probably stall and linger.

Wood said the area may get a break from the heavy rain by mid morning Monday, but more thunderstorms will likely develop again in the afternoon and overnight into Tuesday.

"We're pretty concerned this is going to be a long-duration event," Wood said. "We are under the gun for a while."

Early Monday morning the storms pounded northwest Harris County and portions of Waller County. Between 8 inches and 16 inches of rain swamped those areas overnight, flooding creeks, streets and homes. The upper end of White Oak Bayou as well as Langham, Horse Bend, Little Cypress and Mayde creeks all were reportedly out of their banks.

High winds threatened some spots with tornadoes overnight, but Wood said no twisters were reported. A Tornado Watch was in effect for Liberty County until about 6:15 a.m. Monday.

The severe weather has forced school officials to cancel classes for at least Monday. The following have canceled classes:

Aldine ISD

Alief ISD

Conroe ISD

Crosby ISD

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD

Fort Bend ISD

Galena Park

Houston ISD

Harmony Charter Schools

Huffman ISD

Humble ISD

Katy ISD

KIPP

Klein ISD

Lamar ISD

Lone Star College

Magnolia ISD

Montgomery ISD

New Caney ISD

Royal ISD

Sealy ISD

Sheldon ISD

Splendora ISD

Spring ISD

Tomball ISD

University of Houston

Waller ISD

YES Prep

Among the possibly impassable roads are Elgin Blvd. at UH Entrance 18, Elgin Blvd. at Spur 5 (Lockwood/Spur 5 underpass), MLK Blvd. at Calhoun, Wheeler St. at UH Lot 4A near Calhoun, Wheeler St. between Scott St. and Cullen Blvd. and UH Entrance 17 at UH Entrance 16
Mayor Sylvester Turner's "Hire Houston's Youth" program is guaranteeing 450 jobs to young jobseekers at City Hall, City parks and libraries, and other facilities. Judging by the responses we got from residents when we asked about their first jobs, they probably wouldn't have minded a program like that growing up in Houston.

From ticket-takers at AstroWorld to selling shoes at Foley's, Houstonians shared the fun, and not-so-fun, first jobs they had growing up in the area. One reader reminisced about just trying to pay for gas in his car while another spoke of his high school co-op with Enron.
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A day on the job doesn't get much tougher than collecting garbage in a driving rain.

Marcus Stewart not only reported to work at 5 o'clock Monday morning, he had heart enough to try to warn others of particularly treacherous stretches of roadway. As he traversed his route for Eco Waste & Recycling, he turned on his big truck's flashers to blink a warning.

"I've seen a lot of (stranded) cars," he said.

There were plenty to see as motorists - brave, misguided or weather-foolish - tried to plow their way to work.

Houston, on the best of days, is a city on the move. Monday, with its torrential rains, overflowing bayous and streets awash with muddy water, was not the best of days.

More Information By the numbers How the floodwaters across the Houston area affected residents on Monday: 5 Number of deaths authorities attribute to the storm. 17 Unofficial rainfall count in inches in parts of northwest Harris County on Monday. 300 Approximate number of flights canceled at Houston airports Monday. 1,200 Approximate number of high-water rescues Monday in the Houston area. 70 Approximate number of horses rescued from a Cypress-area ranch on Monday. See More Collapse

With up to 16 inches of rain reported in some areas, the sprawling city's transportation system was crippled. Metro halted its buses and trains shortly after 7 a.m., hundreds of flights out of the city's two main airports were canceled and freeway access roads transformed into water avenues of travail.

Authorities reported at least five people in the greater Houston area died on roadways, caught in rising waters.

Caption: Rainfall Monday left many areas of Houston under water. The powerful thunderstorms led to several fatalities, damages hundreds of homes and caused several schools and businesses to close for the day. The map above shows where the highest concentration of 311 calls originated and which areas where impacted the most by rainfall, according to National Weather Service data. The map does not show information for 911 calls.

Houston responded to the flooding as the flood-prone city does. Employers urged workers to stay at home. School classes, in most instances, were canceled. Some court sessions and medical procedures were put on hold. Crowds inevitably gathered at bayou bridges to grimly marvel at nature's power.

If anything telegraphed the severity of the storm, it was the city's normally humming freeways.

About 7 a.m., one could count the cars within eyesight on the Southwest Freeway on the fingers of two hands.

As the downpour continued and traffic increased, problems grew. Many who got on Loop 610 soon found they would have trouble getting back off as exit after exit became untenable because of deep water.

Uncounted motorists - the lucky ones - were forced to wait on roadsides until the water subsided. Others, making Houston a wrong-way town, gingerly backed up exit ramps to the freeway while stranded cars stood in the water like beacons of doom.

Paul Covey was one of the patient ones. As he took in the watery scene from a convenience store at Alabama and Shepherd, he mused, "There's no sense being stupid about it, like that guy." Just a few feet in front of him, a motorist had churned into the water, stopped in despair and begun a relentless backing to high ground.

Sidewalk no help

Still, there are times when drivers find the urge to move irresistible.

Using the sixth sense of a storm-hardened Houston motorist, Craig Johnson wheeled through Houston's watery streets Monday morning in his trusty 1990s-era Buick, "Old Faithful," hoping to make it to work before fate - in the form of the city's worst drenching since last Memorial Day - caught up to him.

He turned left. He turned right. He astutely judged the water's depth. Then, on Newcastle, just south of Westpark, Johnson's luck ran out.

Old Faithful, water halfway up its doors, let him down.

"I tried to go up on the sidewalk to stay clear," said Johnson, 41, soaked up to the thighs after his ordeal. "It's what a lot of people done. It didn't work."

Out in Katy, Michael Arinze hoped for the best as he guided his Mercedes sport utility vehicle through floodwaters on Saums Road near Greenhouse Road. Confronted with water that reached halfway up the vehicle's sides, Arinze later explained, "It just stopped right there."

He was rescued by a passing motorist, who lumbered through the flood in a high-clearance pickup.

In Montrose, Tilani Pomirko tried to get to work, her loyal pooch, Tibbits, at her side, when she spied a stranded car's flashing hazard lights ahead in the rain. She hit the brakes, and her 1998 Honda Civic sailed away.

"I was floating," she said later. Then she sank.

With Tibbits on her shoulder, Pomirko waded through waste-deep water to a nearby residence, where she telephoned her friend, Ronnie Devries, for help.

Pushing the car to higher ground and summoning a wrecker, Devries dourly conceded the vehicle would be a total loss. The couple got back home just in time to see Stewart's truck lumbering up the street.

Devries, in his second good deed of the morning, helped the garbage collector manhandle the neighborhood's trash receptacles to the truck.

Unexpected 'holiday'

At Greenbriar and University, Dr. David Santos, a physician at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, abandoned his BMW428i in high water, rolled up his pants and hiked, first to the Rice University police outpost, then half a mile to his home.

He had tried to reach the hospital to perform surgery, but he need not have worried. The patient, who lives in Katy, could not reach the hospital, either.

"The minute I got stalled," Santos said, "our work sends out an emergency (message) not to come to work."

For many Houston-area residents, Monday turned into an unexpected, soggy, holiday.

For others, it turned into a day at work that seemingly never would end.

Late Sunday, Jimmy Smith and his night-shift co-workers at the Target at Westheimer and Wilcrest hunkered down as thunder boomed like artillery and the roof leaked. Smith's shift ended at 5:30 a.m., but when he peeked outside, he decided to hunker some more.

"There's a flood over here, a flood over there, a pond there," Smith said. "I've been here ever since."

At the time he spoke, it already was 9:30 a.m. Monday and - as relief workers had not arrived - his shift seemed destined to continue.

Across town at Montrose and Allen Parkway, a crowd gathered to marvel at Buffalo Bayou, which again had swallowed recently-completed Buffalo Bayou Park nearly to the top of its lamp posts.

Among them was University of St. Thomas student Amelia Cooper, who, along with her fellow students, had been given the day off.

Cooper, who witnessed a similar scene at the park during the 2015 Memorial Day flood, scanned the bloated bayou, the half-submerged trees and swamped roadways.

"I guess," she said, "I will study at home."

Mike Glenn, Margaret Kadifa, Matt Dempsey and St. John Barned-Smith contributed to this report.
An elderly couple died in an apparent murder-suicide Saturday afternoon in Montgomery County.

Bobby Joe Bonham, 85 and Frances J. Bonham, 84, were found dead with gunshot wounds in a vehicle registered to their son by officers with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

Officers were called to the scene on a welfare check where they found the couple dead from gunshot wounds in the still-running car on San Saba Way and Comanche Circle.

An investigation is taking place, but initial indicators point to murder-suicide, Lt. Brady Fitzgerald said.

Great-granddaughter Emily Johnson, 24, said through a series of Facebook comments that the couple was not in bad health and was well cared for.

"They were looking forward to the birth of their (second) great-great-granddaughter and were both very happy," Johnson wrote. "We don't know what caused this but we are so heartbroken. We believe that the recent death of their son-in-law took a toll on them."

Statistics show that murder-suicides are more often committed by men and are almost always committed with a firearm, though it is unknown if that was the case here.

A study released in 2012 by the Violence Policy Center found that a quarter of all murder-suicides involved someone who is 55 or older. Most murder-suicides among the elderly involve sickness or family turmoil, according to the study.

The couple lived with their son, Michael Bonham, 63. He declined to comment on his parents' deaths.

Frances and Bobby Bonham were born in Oklahoma and were five months apart in age. Frances Bonham's Facebook page identifies her hometown as Sayre, Okla.

"Please everyone know that they were in good health and spirits the last time we (saw) them, but no one really knows what anyone is going through," Johnson wrote. "Please pray for our family as we go through this trying time."
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A handful of Houston-area school districts and campuses plan to close or start late Tuesday following significant flooding.

The Royal Independent School District in southern Waller County will shut down for the second straight day, while Alvin ISD in northern Brazoria County will start two hours late Tuesday. Klein Collins High School also will be closed after more than a dozen classrooms and the roof were damaged by the rainstorm Monday. In Houston ISD, only Liberty High School will be closed again Tuesday, though students will be notified about attending other campuses.

Students in many districts likely will have to make up the missed day or days, although some exceptions exist, according to Debbie Ratcliffe of the Texas Education Agency. Districts typically must use built-in make-up days before seeking a waiver from the education agency. However, some districts already added enough extra time to school days throughout the year to be covered.

"At this point, we're following existing rules, which require a district to use its bad weather days before seeking a waiver," Ratcliffe said Monday afternoon.

Houston ISD, the area's largest district, plans to make up the day May 26, cutting short summer vacation by a day. Cypress-Fairbanks ISD expected to do the same, with classes running through June 2.

In the heavily flooded Greenspoint area, where more than 460 Aldine ISD students live in apartment complexes, families were being transported to the M.O. Campbell Educational Center, said district spokesman Mike Keeney. The Red Cross was helping operate a shelter at the facility, which reportedly was filling to capacity Monday afternoon, according to a Twitter post from Houston school board member and former City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones.

On Monday afternoon, Houston ISD officials were working to turn Johnston Middle School in the Meyerland area and M.C. Williams Middle in Acres Home into shelters, offering sandwiches, fruit and water to displaced families.

Most public and private schools were closed Monday due to the major rainstorms that soaked the Houston region. Those districts that opted not to cancel classes defended their decisions.

Curtis Rhodes, superintendent of Needville ISD in the southwest part of Fort Bend County, noted that his district had no underpasses or rivers and said the area received only half an inch of rain as of 6:15 am.

"Is it raining?" Rhodes said. "Yes, it's raining, but our kids all made it in."

Clear Creek ISD, headquartered in League City, and Barbers Hill ISD in western Chambers County ended up dismissing students early after deciding not to shut down.

"To cancel or not to cancel, is always a very difficult decision to make," Clear Creak ISD spokeswoman Elaina Polsen said. "Early this morning the decision was made to maintain a regular schedule as roads were clear, and the forecast showed the majority of the flooding threat was north of our school district boundaries. As the morning progressed, we received reports of roads flooded in neighborhoods, and the decision was made for an early release for all students."

A message from Barbers Hill Superintendent Greg Poole said power outages ultimately forced the district to send students home early. At first, he said, an early survey of area roads and check-ins with electrical companies showed no problems.

"I fully realize that once another school district in the area cancels due to weather, it puts pressure on others to follow suit," Poole said, adding that he does not rely on decisions by other districts or "sensational media coverage."

Review the list below to see Tuesday plans for other school districts, and check back later for more updates:

Aldine Independent School District: Closed Tuesday

Alief Independent School District: Monitoring weather before announcing plans

Alvin Independent School District: Delay opening schools by two hours

Clear Creek Independent School District: Classes will resume as normal

Crosby Independent School District: Monitoring weather before announcing plans

Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District: Classes cancelled due to "rising water and transportation concerns"

Cy-Fair Independent School District: Closed Tuesday

Fort Bend Independent School District: Monitoring weather before announcing plans

Friendswood Independent School District: Plans to continue regular schedule, but will monitor weather for any needed updates

Houston Independent School District: Monitoring weather before announcing plans

Liberty High School in HISD: Closed Tuesday

Huffman Independent School District: No update available

Humble Independent School District: No update available

Katy Independent School District: No update available

Klein Independent School District: Closed Tuesday

Klein Collins Independent School District (part of Klein ISD): Closed Tuesday

Lone Star College: Delayed opening to 10 a.m. at all locations

Montgomery Independent School District: Plans to resume classes, if weather permits

New Caney Independent School District: Closed Tuesday

Pasadena Independent School District: Monitoring weather before announcing plans

Pearland Independent School District: Monitoring weather before announcing plans

Royal Independent School District: Closed Tuesday

Shepherd Independent School District: Schools and offices will be closed Tuesday

Spring Independent School District: Closed Tuesday

Spring Branch Independent School District: Monitoring weather before announcing plans

Tomball Independent School District: Closed Tuesday
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WASHINGTON - A shorthanded Supreme Court heard a Texas-led challenge against President Barack Obama's 2014 immigration plan Monday with sharp questions about whether the state could bring the case to begin with and if the president had overstepped.

The eight justices appeared largely divided with the four liberal justices asking questions that seemed to indicate it supported the president's plan while the four conservative justices questioned the limits of his executive authority.

As stake is not only the future of about 4 million immigrants here illegally, mostly the parents of American citizens, but the extent of presidential authority and the scope states have to challenge federal policy. A decision could be the most important related to immigration in decades.

The case comes at the height of a presidential campaign where immigration has been a defining issue and as the court itself is embroiled in a political battle to fill the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Texas, leading a coalition of 26 mostly Republican states, filed to stop the plan immediately after Obama announced it in November 2014. It would provide provisional work permits to largely the parents of American citizens who have been here since 2010 without committing serious crimes.

Many think the eight justices may not be able to reach a majority decision on the matter or want to wait until they have a full bench to decide an issue of such import. If they split 4-4, it would uphold a lower court's decision to block the president's plan but wouldn't resolve any of the issues at hand and other states could sue to try enact the program.

Chief Justice John Roberts is considered a contender to side with the four liberal judges in deciding that Texas isn't able to bring the suit in the first place because it can't prove it will suffer as a result of the program, necessary for it to sue in federal court.

Texas said it would lose money if it is required to provide driver's licenses to the nearly 600,000 immigrants who would be eligible for a provisional work permit through the president's plan. The state subsidizes the document by about $130.

But U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli argued Monday that Texas could simply change its policy and not offer these immigrants licenses or choose not to offset the cost of the documents.

Roberts, who has taken a narrow position on so-called standing in the past, noted that not granting licenses to certain immigrants with work authorization when others with a similar status have them could be considered discriminatory, putting Texas in a tough spot.

He asked Verrilli whether the injury Texas argues it might suffer is similar to a 2007 environmental case in which Massachusetts sued the Environmental Protection Agency about its refusal to regulate vehicle emissions linked to climate change.

"There wasn't a way for Massachusetts to avoid the effects of climate change but there is a way here," Verrilli said, because Texas isn't required to discount the license.

Massachusetts had argued that rising seawater, a result of global warming, would erode its coastline and hurt the state, giving it sufficient claim to sue the federal government. The state prevailed but Roberts led the court's conservative dissent, arguing Massachusetts could not prove it was hurt by the government's policy.

Monday Justice Stephen Breyer noted that the state's main argument that it would be harmed is that it would lose money.

"We can't just let you sue on the basis that you as a taxpayer would pay more money," he said. "Because if we do, taxpayers from all over the country would sue" about their unhappiness with any number of federal programs.

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Much of the argument revolved around whether Texas has the right to challenge the program in the first place. But Roberts also seemed concerned about the scope of the program and asked whether the president could defer the removal of all 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.

No one disputes that the administration must prioritize whom it deports because there simply aren't enough resources to remove all of them. But Texas contends proactively choosing not to deport such a big pool of immigrants and granting them work permits is abdicating the president's authority to enforce immigration law.

At issue is how much authority the president wields to shape policy, especially if it goes against Congressional will,

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is often the deciding vote in close cases, worried Monday that the administration may have overstepped its authority by having the executive branch set immigration policy rather than carry out laws passed by Congress.

"What we are doing is defining the limits of discretion," he said. "It seems to me that this is a legislative and not an executive act .... it's as if the president is setting policy and and the Congress is executing it."

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sounded an optimistic note on the court house steps.

"It's an amazing opportunity, an amazing day for us," he said. "Our efforts to stop the president's illegal immigration plan go back to fundamental principles - which is that one person doesn't have the unilateral authority to change the law and make new law."

He was joined by solicitor general Scott Keller, who added, "fundamentally this case has always been about the separation of powers. What DACA does is transform unlawful conduct into lawful conduct, and if the president or the executive has the power to do that, it should trouble every American."

As the lawyers filed out of the court building, a small clutch of administration critics, including U.S. Rep. Louis Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, set up a microphone to make speeches.

"It's ironic that people who came into this country illegally .... want us to be like the countries they came from where we don't respect the law," Gohmert said.

He, as well as Iowa U.S. Rep. Steve King, another immigration hard-liner, were largely drowned out by pro-Obama activists who surrounded them.

At one point during a chaotic street scene, Gohmert's group started to sing the national anthem when some of the immigration activists joined in.
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A University of Houston student died Saturday, a day after he and his girlfriend were struck by another student who was allegedly driving drunk near campus.

Early Friday morning, Mark Tartaglio and his girlfriend, Corina Burnett, were walking on a sidewalk in the 5000 block of Calhoun, near MacGregor Way. They were both struck by a pickup truck that had careened off the roadway after colliding with another vehicle.

Tartaglio and Burnett were transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where Tartaglio later died.

Tartaglio was a sophomore studying construction management at UH, according to his LinkedIn page. He was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity at UH, and worked at River Oaks Country Club. The couple had been together since November.

Over the weekend, Tartaglio's death was met with an outpouring of grief online from friends and family members. Matthew Tartaglio, simply wrote, "R.I.P. Mark. I love you," on Twitter.

Others expressed dismay and anger over the news that his death had reportedly been caused by a drunk driver.

"Your life was cut short because of an imbecile's careless decision of drinking and driving," wrote Jessica Rhydlund on Facebook, adding that she knew Tartaglio when she was still attending UH. "Please, everyone, think twice, even three times, before drinking and driving and stop those who attempt to do so."

"Drinking and driving is something everyone can avoid," wrote Kaitlin Santibanez on Facebook. "Please let Mark be a symbol for a lesson learned to all of us. He was kind and sweet and always smiling."

By Sunday afternoon, a GoFundMe page set up by another UH student had raised more than $15,000 toward Tartaglio's medical bills.

"All those that know Mark and Corina know that they are some of the kindest, most caring people you'll ever meet," wrote Dawson Pickett, the student who created the page, "and in anyone's time of need they are always just a phone call away."

Prior to enrolling at UH, Tartaglio studied at Stephen F. Austin High School in Sugar Land.

Houston police took Marshall Patrick Schoen, 23, into custody, charging him with intoxicated assault with a vehicle, a felony. According to UH's directory, Schoen is currently a student.

At around 12:10 a.m. on Friday, Schoen allegedly tried to pass the driver of a black Infiniti who was attempting to complete a lefthand turn. After ramming his white pickup truck into the front of the Infiniti, Schoen spun onto the sidewalk, where he hit Tartaglio and Burnett, said said Sgt. James Roque of the Houston Police Department.

Schoen's bail was set at $30,000. He remained in custody as of early Sunday evening.

In November, Schoen was charged with driving with an invalid license, a misdemeanor offense. In mid-February, authorities declared his $500 bond on that case forfeited when he failed to appear in court.
-- Heres what you need to know about United States v. Texas at the Supreme Court this morning

Whats at stake  From the APs Mark Sherman in Washington: The Obama administration is asking the justices in arguments Monday to allow it to put in place two programs that could shield roughly 4 million people from deportation and make them eligible to work in the United States. Texas is leading 26 states dominated by Republicans in challenging the programs President Barack Obama announced in 2014 and that have been put on hold by lower courts.

Arguments will be 90 minutes and there will be four sides arguing their case to the justices. Per Vox.coms round up: Texas and the 25 other states suing will get 30 minutes. The federal government will get 35. But the Supreme Court has also given 10 minutes to a lawyer representing a group of immigrant women who'd benefit from Obama's executive actions. And that's not all  15 minutes will go to the US House of Representatives (thanks to the Republican House majority), which has jumped in to support the states.

-- Its a big day for Ken Paxton, whose office will be leading the charge against Obama. Lots of potential for some positive headlines after a very rough few weeks for the attorney general and his office.

The challengers: The states, joined by congressional Republicans, argue that Obama doesn't have the power to effectively change immigration law. When he announced the measures 17 months ago, Obama said he was acting under his own authority because Congress had failed to overhaul the immigration system. The Senate had passed legislation on a bipartisan vote, but House Republicans refused to put the matter to a vote.

>> Also read the Chronicles Lomi Kriel story about how state drivers licenses are at the heart of the DAPA challenge.

-- Finally, The New York Times Adam Liptak has an incisive look at Chief Justice John Roberts: (His) record suggests that he may avoid taking a position on such a divisive and partisan issue, focusing instead on the more technical question of whether the states challenging the Obama administrations immigration plan have suffered the sort of direct and concrete injury that gives them standing to sue. That jurisprudential off-ramp would avoid a deadlock or a grand pronouncement from a short-handed court on a politically charged issue in a presidential election year. And that may prove attractive to a chief justice who has said he does not want the Supreme Court to be viewed as a forum where partisan matters would be worked out.

-- THE MUST READ: Trump nowhere to be found as Texas delegate shuffle continues, by the Chrons Kevin Diaz: No one answers the phone at Donald Trump's Texas campaign headquarters in Austin. Callers just get a busy signal, day and night. His original state director quit abruptly in January, and the deputy named to replace him, Houston operative Joshua Jones, has kept a low profile.  Few, if any, will make it past the state convention in Dallas next month, where Ted Cruz supporters will be the overwhelming majority, meaning they will get to pick most, if not all, of the state's 155 delegates who are going to Cleveland.

In a contested national convention that goes past two ballots, Texas GOP rules allow Trump's 48 pledged delegates to switch their support. That could be the difference in a prolonged floor fight. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign in Texas, with one of the largest troves of Republican delegates in the nation, has all but gone dark, adding to a sense of disarray as the billionaire businessman shakes up his top leadership team in New York.

-- Whos running your state government? Spend some time with this story on the governors appointees, from the Express-News Peggy Fikac and David Rauf. Gov. Greg Abbott is using his appointment power to shape state government, remake troubled programs and smooth agency relations with the Legislature, but hes following a familiar formula: tapping a lot of Anglo men and supporters who have helped fill his coffers. Nearly three-fourths are Anglo and more than 60 percent are male.

Abbott also frequently turns to donors, picking people who have donated more than $8.6 million combined to his campaigns since January 2000, according to a San Antonio Express-News analysis of state records. About one in four of his appointments are his campaign contributors.

>> Fertilizer from West blast still near schools, houses, per an AP write up via Dallas. The Dallas Morning News says its investigation found that many of the agricultural supply and feed stores that used to stock a lot of ammonium nitrate have stopped selling it and others have implemented safeguards like moving the chemical out of dilapidated buildings and into fire-resistant concrete structures. But it reports many recommendations by safety investigators have gone unheeded. None of the sites that responded to newspaper inquiries reported installing sprinkler systems. The state does not require them, but the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has said such a system could have stopped the West accident before it became a fatal explosion.

-- International front:  WASHINGTON (AP)  President Barack Obama sets out this week on his first in a series of international farewell tours, a sometimes wistful tradition for presidents in legacy mode. But in a reminder of this president's uneven ties to allies, Obamas first stop will involve more damage control than nostalgia, more friction than fondness.

SPEED READ

Sources: Prosecutors investigating state Rep. Dawnna Dukes, Austin American-Statesman

Texas Take: Picking a GOP nominee the right way, Houston Chronicle

Tomlinson: The truth behind the Texas Miracle, Houston Chronicle

Former Paxton aide off state payroll, office confirms, The Dallas Morning News

Big Bend becomes congressional battleground, Texas Observer

Poll: Americans angry with federal government, happy at home, Associated Press

Texas, Valley closely monitoring Zika-carrying mosquitos, Brownsville Herald

Lesson from Cruzs New York bruising: a little pandering would go a long way, The Dallas Morning News

Former Ken Paxton staffer Chip Roy off state payroll, comptroller confirms, The Dallas Morning News

SpaceX adding dirt, The Monitor

Ceremony marks name change to Sandra Bland Parkway, Houston Chronicle

Fikac: Cruzs Trump strategy a rare misstep in a smart campaign, San Antonio Express-News

Undocumented immigrant parents of U.S.-born children pin their hopes on U.S.

Supreme Court, San Antonio Express-News

Pentagon misled lawmakers on military sexual assault cases, Associated Press

GWB throws party in Dallas for White House alumni, The Dallas Morning News

Six percent of people say they trust the media, Associated Press

RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE

-- Trump massacred in delegate fights once more, by Politicos Kyle Cheney and Katie Glueck. The weekend was another delegate bloodbath for Donald Trump. In Georgia. In Wyoming. In South Carolina. In Kansas. In Florida. Ted Cruz put on a clinic, mobilizing his GOP activist base to capture at least 50 delegates on Saturday while Trump came away with about a dozen in another bruising defeat that undermines his chances to become the Republican presidential nominee.

-- Why Trump may be costing Democrats millions for their convention, by Politicos Anna Palmer and Brianna Gurciullo. Several Fortune 500 companies  including Bank of America, Duke Energy and Time Warner are taking a pass on chipping in for the Democratic convention in Philadelphia or, with just 100 days to go until the event, won't say whether they'll participate. Target, which has had a presence at both parties' conventions in the past, is joining other companies in skipping this summer's events in Philadelphia and Cleveland. None of the firms are publicly pointing to Trump as the reason they're staying away. But the GOP's morewell-documented struggles appear to be taking a toll on Democrats, since many companies prefer to give to both conventions or neither in order to project an image of balance.

-- While the GOP worries about convention chaos, Trump pushes for showbiz feel, by WashPosts Philip Rucker and Robert Costa. Compounding the challenges facing organizers are the expectations of Donald Trump, who asserted in an interview that he should have at least partial control over programming, stagecraft and other issues by virtue of his front-runner status  even if he does not have the delegates to secure the nomination beforehand.
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.
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Peste 300 de liceene s-au inscris in Startup School si sunt gata sa invete bazele antreprenoriatului tehnologic. Vezi cum a fost la evenimentul de lansare a programului national de educatie antreprenoriala
The Illinois Court of Appeals recently considered whether an insurance company was obligated to defend its insured in a wrongful death claim involving methadone intoxication notwithstanding the fact that the insurers homeowner policy contained a controlled substance exclusion. In Skolnik v. Allied Property & Cas. Ins. Co., 2015 IL App (1st) 142438,  N.E.2nd , 2015 WL 9921917 (Ill. App. 1st Dist. Dec. 22, 2015), the insureds under a homeowners policy were sued for the wrongful death of Haley Johnson (Haley) who died of methadone intoxication in the bedroom of the insureds son, Joshua Skolnik (Joshua). According to the Complaint, Haley and her friends met with Joshua who bought all of them drinks. Haleys friends left the pub where they had been drinking while Haley remained with Joshua. After Haley had another drink that Joshua provided, she apparently told him that she thought something had been put into it and that she needed assistance to walk. Thereafter, Joshua took Haley to his parents home where they had sex in his bedroom.

By history, Joshua had abused drugs in the past and had used methadone. Joshuas parents knew of his drug history and the fact that methadone was in the house. During the course of the evening, Joshuas parents had heard voices in the bedroom and at one point Joshuas mother checked in on them at which point Joshua told her that Haley had passed out in the bedroom. When two of Haleys friends came to the Skolnik home to check on Haley, Joshua did not let them see her. Joshua told them that Haley had passed out naked in his bedroom. Later the following day, Joshua told his parents that Haley was still unconscious. Three hours later, his parents left for dinner and then, another six and one-half hours later, Joshua pulled Haley off his bed and called his parents who had not yet returned. Joshua told his parents that Haley felt cold to the touch. The parents instructed their son to dress Haley and to call 911. When the police arrived, Haley was not breathing. She was later pronounced dead at the Skolnik home. Autopsy results indicated that methadone intoxication was the cause of Haleys death. Lab tests also detected concentrations of GHB and Rohypno (both drugs referred to as date-rape drugs) in Haleys blood. However, the manner of death from the autopsy was undetermined.

The underlying tort Complaint brought by Haley Johnsons father alleged two counts of wrongful death, two counts of liability under Illinois Survival Statute, one count of false imprisonment, one count of civil conspiracy to restrain Haley Johnson against her will, and one count of battery. All of the counts were brought against Joshua Skolniks parents with the exception that the last count, battery, was alleged only against Joshua for putting a date-rape drug in Haley Johnsons drink while at the restaurant and then later having sex with her without her consent.

Regarding the wrongful death allegation, Count I alleged wrongful death negligence indicating that the Skolniks carelessly and improperly stored methadone, a known controlled substance, in a manner that they knew or should have known were unsafe and potentially fatal. Count I also alleged that Joshua Skolniks parents negligently, carelessly and improperly failed to request emergency medical assistance for Haley Johnson within a reasonable time period after knowing she was physically incapacitated or unconscious. Count II alleged wrongful death due to willful and wanton conduct because the Skolnik parents knew or recklessly disregarded the danger of having methadone in their home, and knew Haleys condition while she was in their sons bedroom. Count III of the Complaint alleged that Joshua gave Haley a drink containing date-rape drugs and then had nonconsensual sex with her.

Allied Property and Casualty insured the Skolniks under a homeowners policy. Allied filed a declaratory judgment action asserting that the policy controlled substances exclusion relieved Allied of its duty to defend the insureds for the underlying Complaint. The trial court granted Allieds motion finding that Allied had no duty to defend because the exclusion operated to release Allied from the duty to defend and the exclusions exception did not apply. The trial courts ruling was appealed. On appeal, the Skolniks argued that the underlying Complaint alleged facts with either fell within or were potentially within the grant of coverage. In response, Allied argued that Haleys death resulted from controlled substances.

The Appellate Court noted that in the trial court proceedings the Skolniks argued that there was the possibility of multiple proximate causes of Haleys death and that the ultimate determination of what caused her death presented an issue of fact. Under Illinois law, if a proximate cause of an injury comes within the included coverage of an insurance policy, the coverage is not voided merely because the policy excluded an additional proximate cause of the injury. Citing United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., 152 Ill.App.3d 46, 48, 105 Ill.Dec. 254, 504 N.E.2d 123 (1987). Relying upon this case authority and extrapolating from its holding, the Appellate Court found that the claim of negligence asserted against the Skolniks was a potential separate and independent cause of Haleys death. The Skolniks asserted that whether Haleys prior alcohol and drug use or the Skolniks failure to summon aid were contributing causes to Haleys death were issues of fact to be determined by the trier of fact. The negligence counts in the Complaint alleged an omission. The Court of Appeals noted that despite the autopsy notation regarding the cause of death, a genuine issue of material fact existed as to whether Haleys death was caused solely by her methadone ingestion. The four corners of the Complaint set forth details that, if true, described a lengthy and protracted period of time during which the Skolniks could have sought assistance for Haley. Additionally, the Court noted that it was unknown as to whether Haley would have died if the Skolniks had allowed Haleys friends to see her, the Skolniks had called 911, or if Joshua truthfully informed his parents earlier about Haleys condition. An additional potential cause of death included a genetic predisposition and a prior history of drug abuse. Because there were alternative potential proximate causes of Haleys death, the Appellate Court reversed the trial courts grant of summary judgment and remanded for further proceedings.

Allieds policy contained a standard controlled substance exclusion. The Skolnik case demonstrates the fact intensive nature of substance abuse death claims and while the principal proximate cause of injury or death may be the use of a controlled substance, there is always the issue of failure to render aid while the drug user is in physical distress.
The employee vs. contractor debate has the potential to have a major impact on the insurance industry, according to a pair of experts speaking on the topic on last week at the annual Risk Management Society conference held in San Diego, Calif.

Its estimated there are 10 million independent contractors in the U.S. and that 10 percent of those people are misclassified, according to John Zeigler, an attorney with Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin.

Thats a huge number of people out there who are working as independent contractors but likely are misclassified, he said, noting that federal and state governments could swoop in with new rules and regulations. The reality is the pressure on the government is becoming that much greater.

Zeigler and Stephanie Watts, resolution manager at Gallagher Bassett, held an education session titled The War on Employee Misclassification: Risks and Costs to Employers and Insurers, at the annual RIMS conference for risk management and insurance professionals.

Planners of this years conference said more than 10,000 people are in attendance at the conference, with more expected to register in coming days. That would make it the largest conference since 2003, they say.

In the session held by Zeigler and Watts, the employer vs. contractor cloud that has arisen by way of the gig economy explosion has created an uneven playing field where one company does things one way and the other company another way.

Its also made protections for benefits, including workers compensation, uneven for workers, and has created uncertain risks and exposures for insurers, they said.

They also outlined several tests federal and state governments are using to determine whether a worker is an employee or a contractor.

One such test was the U.S. Department of Labors economic realities test, which includes the consideration of the following factors:

The extent to which the work performed is integral to the employers business;

Whether the workers managerial skills affect his or her opportunity for loss;

The relative investments in facilities and equipment by the worker and employer;

The workers skill and initiative;

The permanency of the workers relationship with the employer;

The nature and degree of control by the employer.

The last one has been key in many legal battles that unfolded in many states.

Ultimately when the courts are looking at this they are looking at the right to control and the actual control exercise, Zeigler said. That really, in many respects, is the absolute key factor.

Other federal government entities with independent contractor tests include the Internal Revenue Service, which includes behavior control, financial control and the relationship of the parties, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Many states have their own tests.

A popular test for many states uses three factors:

Is the employee free from directions and controls?

Is the work performed outside the usual course of business?

Is the individual customarily engaged in independently established trade, occupation, profession or business as the involved service performed?

The presenters cited Alexander Vs. FedEx Ground in which the California 9th Circuit Court ruled in 2014 that drivers were not independent contractors despite drivers owning their own vans and being allowed to set their own routes.

The court in its ruling used several factors, most notably control.

The drivers must wear FedEx uniforms, drive FedEx-approved vehicles, and groom themselves according to FedExs appearance standards, the ruling states. FedEx tells its drivers what packages to deliver, on what days, and at what times. Although drivers may operate multiple delivery routes and hire third parties to help perform their work, they may do so only with FedExs consent.

At the end of the day FedEx took a big hit here, Zeigler said.

With decisions like this being made all over the U.S., vigilance is becoming increasingly important, Watts said.

It starts at the bottom, Watts said. It starts with the agents and brokers writing these policies incorrectly.

Zeigler advised paying close attention to a topic that he believes will only become more important to businesses and insurance professionals in the future.

The best you can say is you need to be on top of it, Zeigler said. You can look at the patterns, you can look at the trends, you need to look and see where its going.

At the conference RIMS and American International Group Inc. announced that William H. McGannon and David Mikulina are the 2016 inductees to the Risk Management Hall of Fame.

The hall of fame serves as a means to maintain the history of the field of risk management and recognizes risk practitioners who have made significant contributions to advancing the discipline, according to RIMS.

McGannon was considered a risk management pioneer, according to those who bestowed the award on him.

He is considered one of the first Canadian risk managers to establish a full-service risk management department that included loss prevention and statistical support at NOVA Chemical Corp. in Alberta. McGannon frequently lectured at the University of Calgary, where he was instrumental in setting up the Chair of Risk Management position and served as executive in residence from 1998 to 2000. He died in 2015.

Mikulina is a retired vice president of risk management for Hyatt Hotels Corp., and was a member of the risk management profession for nearly 35 years. He headed the risk management department at Hyatt for 23 years as the organization grew from 130 hotels to 350 hotels worldwide
Developers want to bring life back to a former Six Flags theme park at the edge of New Orleans, La., a tourist attraction long rusting away into an overgrown and ghostly spot of abandoned and vandalized amusement rides.

In 2005, the Jazzland theme park, lying far out in eastern New Orleans, saw catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina. The amusement park was closed and has become abandoned since.

Today, located near Interstate 10 in a suburban area carved out of former swampland, the park is an eerie reminder of the last day it was open: Jazzlands old rides, including a roller coaster, signs and fun houses still stand.

On Tuesday, groups of developers asked the city for help in reviving the site  as a new Jazzland or a newly themed place called Festival Park. Developers also want to build big-box stores, hotels, resorts and water parks.

The Industrial Development Board, an economic development arm of the city and owner of the site, pledged Tuesday to do an appraisal of the property and consider offering it for sale to developers. The board also could consider going in as a partner in developing a new theme park.

This forlorn corner of New Orleans is among the last remaining rebuilding projects a decade after Katrina devastated the city, leaving 80 percent of it under water.

The future of the theme park is of major importance to residents of eastern New Orleans, a sprawling area of predominantly African-American and Vietnamese households. Many parts have seen slow progress since Katrina and are plagued by crime.

Wed like it to come back into some kind of business, no matter what kind, said Edward Blouin, the president of a neighborhood group in Village de lEst. Were tired of the blight and the grass growing into our streets.

The abandoned theme park is also a drain on the citys resources.

On Tuesday, the Industrial Development Board said it was paying a private security firm $500 a day for round-the-clock security because of persistent vandalism and trespassing. The boards administrator said 23 people were arrested for trespassing recently.

Developers, though, see the site as having major potential.

On Tuesday, the board was presented with a plan spearheaded by Frank Mials Scurlock, an entrepreneur and member of a New Orleans family that created the bounce house, an inflatable structure popular at childrens parties. He made his presentation wearing a Willy Wonka-style purple top hat.

Scurlock described his idea  Festival Park  as not only an amusement park  a resort hotel, a water park, an international shopping center, Noahs ark, hospitality school, and a resource center and a back lot to support the motion-picture industry.

Another developer, Tonya Pope, offered to buy the 220 acres for $2.5 million. For the past eight years, she has spearheaded efforts to rebuild Jazzland and create a new retail district. The citys assessor has valued the property at $54 million.

Board members asked the developers for more details and financial commitments from investors.

Developing the site carries risk because of its location  far from the French Quarter, the citys central attraction, and close to the Gulf of Mexico and its hurricanes. Before Katrina, the theme park ran into financial troubles because of sagging attendance numbers.

But along with the rest of the city, the theme park now lies behind higher and stronger levees.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
AKRON, Ohio -- The death of an off-duty Canton firefighter who walked into rush-hour traffic on Ohio 8 was ruled a suicide.

The Summit County Medical Examiner ruled Monday that Tonya Johnson, 43, committed suicide after arguing with her husband of nine days as they drove on Ohio 8.

Family members previously disputed that Johnson would try to commit suicide.

Johnson and her new husband ran errands Feb. 22 in Cleveland and were on their way home about 4 p.m. Monday on Ohio 8 southbound when they ran into stop-and-go traffic, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner's report.

Johnson's husband told investigators they talked about how to work out the problems in their relationship. They also argued about the traffic on the highway.

He tried to pull off the highway once but traffic started to pick up again so he drove back onto the highway. Johnson told him to exit.

The husband pulled towards the exit again, when Johnson got out of their Cadillac Escalade. She walked behind the SUV, then across three lanes of southbound traffic.

She jumped over the cement median. She walked into the northbound lanes and stopped, according to the medical examiner's report.

A car swerved and missed her. The pickup behind that car hit her. The impact sent her flying through the air. Her shoes ended up in the southbound lanes.

Ten cars crashed trying to avoid striking Johnson. No one else was seriously hurt.

Johnson's husband told investigators that his wife skipped two days worth of medication that she took for a mental health disorder.

Johnson's sister, however, refuted that. She told investigators that her sister was not on medication for a mental health disorder, but that she had been under stress because of relationship problems.

Johnson was a 17-year veteran of the Canton Fire Department. Canton Fire Chief Thomas Garra said she was a well-liked and respected firefighter and paramedic.

She married her husband on Feb. 13, according to Stark County court records.

Johnson was the mother to two adult children and a 12-year-old daughter.

If you want to comment on this story, visit our crime and courts comment page.
Cleveland Browns new head coach Hue Jackson is introduced

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is expected to be subpoenaed to appear for deposition May 11 in Knoxville, Tenn., reports say.

(Joshua Gunter, Cleveland.com file photo)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is fighting a court order for him to testify in a civil lawsuit against the Pilot Flying J truck-stop chain owned by Jimmy Haslam and his brother, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.

An attorney for Jimmy Haslam filed a motion Friday after an Alabama judge ordered his deposition in the lawsuit by Wright Transportation, The Tennessean reported.

The brief filed by attorney Joseph McCorkle Jr. said the deposition petition is "riddled with factual and procedural errors" and is a "thinly-disguised effort to obtain discovery from (Haslam) to be used in the litigation against him, wherever it ends up."

According to the judge's order, Jimmy Haslam is expected to be subpoenaed to appear for deposition May 11 in Knoxville.

Mobile, Alabama-based Wright Transportation is one of several companies suing Knoxville-based Pilot Flying J in connection with a scheme to cheat customers out of promised discounts and rebates.

Ten former Pilot employees have pleaded guilty in the scheme, and the company's former president and several others face trial next year in federal court.

The scheme came to light after federal agents raided the company's headquarters in April 2013. The company previously paid a $92 million penalty to the government and another $85 million to settle claims with 5,500 trucking companies in a class-action lawsuit.

Jimmy Haslam has denied any previous knowledge of the alleged fraud or any personal wrongdoing.

Pilot Flying J is the nation's largest diesel retailer with annual revenues of around $30 billion.
Anthony Henderson shooting

A teddy bear and empty bottles on East 80th Street near Cedar Avenue memorialize Anthony D. Henderson, the 19-year-old man shot dead in Cleveland this week.

(Cory Shaffer, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 20-year-old Cleveland man faces felony murder and other charges in the March shooting death of 19-year-old Anthony Henderson.

A Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Robert Pritchard, of Cumberland Avenue on charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault, improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle and intimidating a witness.

Pritchard pleaded not guilty to the indictment last week.

Pritchard is accused in the March 21 shooting of Henderson while they sat in a white 2002 Ford Explorer.

Henderson's friends first told Cleveland police that they took their friend to Cleveland Clinic after they found him about 11:50 p.m. lying in a yard at East 80th Place. He died at the clinic the next day.

One witness changed his story two days later and told police that he witnessed what he described as an accidental shooting.

Henderson's mother wrote cleveland.com in the days following his death and said he was shot and killed by his best friend of 13 years.

Pritchard is already facing five felony forgery charges from a Dec. 7, 2015 case involving phony checks used to pay for items at a Shaker Quality Foods grocery store. He will be in court April 26 for a pretrial conference.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A former Boy Scouts of America scoutmaster and Strongsville City Schools employee was sentenced to prison Monday for child rape.

Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge Maureen Clancy sentenced Oren Youngstein, 64, to six years in prison followed by five years of post-release probation.

Youngstein, who pleaded guilty March 10 to having sexual contact with an adolescent boy in 1994, will also have to register as a tier three sex offender once he's released from prison.

Youngstein served as a scoutmaster in a Northeast Ohio Boy Scout troop for over 30 years prior to his resignation last year. He also worked as a information technology assistant at Strongsville City Schools from 1996 to 2004.

The sex offense was not related to anyone who participated in Boy Scouts, according to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty's office. No incidents involving students were reported during his time working at the school district.

Youngstein was featured in a 2007 Plain Dealer story about foster parenting. He had fostered about a dozen children in his home, the newspaper reported at that time.

"A baby has no hope unless someone like you takes it," Youngstein told the newspaper. "They bring out the best in you."
IMG_3379.JPG

Hilton has placed its name on the new hotel, which is scheduled to open June 1. The hotel, will likely been overseen by the Cuyahoga County Convention Facilities Development Corporation.

(Karen Farkas, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County is providing more oversight for the convention center, the Global Center for Health Innovation and the new Hilton hotel.

The Cuyahoga County Convention Facilities Development Corp., a non-profit oversight organization, had been run by a three-member board of directors, but Cuyahoga County Council and Executive Armond Budish wanted to expand it to seven members to add additional expertise.

Six board members are appointed by Budish and council president Dan Brady. One member is appointed by the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

The existing members are:

Matt Carroll, the county's chief economic growth and opportunity officer

Joe Roman, president and CEO of the GCP

Trevor McAleer, legislative budget advisor for council

The new members are:

Diane Downing, chief operating officer, RNC 2016 Host Committee and senior vice president, Huntington National Bank

Brad Sellers, mayor of Warrensville Heights

Michael Siegal, chairman and chief executive officer, Olympic Steel

Terry Stewart, former chief executive officer and president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and current chairman and CEO of Arkansas-based El Dorado Festivals and Events Inc.

Here are seven things to know following a board meeting on Monday.

1. The board will likely oversee operations at the hotel, which opens June 1, said attorney Jeffrey Appelbaum. County Council has to approve moving management of the hotel to the corporation.

2. The corporation is reviewing all contracts regarding services at the convention center and Global Center. Most expire April 30.

George Hillow, who was hired in July 2015 as executive director of the corporation, oversees and collaborates with SMG, the Philadelphia-based company that operates the convention center and Global Center.

3. Contracts for legal and electrical services have been extended so operations during the Republican National Convention are not affected.

4. The contract with Colortone Staging & Rentals, which hangs banners, stages events and handles lighting, was not renewed. SMG put out a request for proposals and will hire a firm that will also handle work for the hotel before the convention, Hillow said.

5. The janitorial contract with Aramark was not renewed, and SMG will hire and manage those services. It affected about 15 employees, Hillow said.

6. The corporation is expected to unveil a website on Monday. Meeting agendas and minutes will be posted.

7. Hillow and the board expressed condolences to the family of the man who fell to his death Friday at an overlook at the convention center. Cleveland police continue to investigate the circumstances of his fall, but officials say it appears accidental.

Hillow said he went to the site Friday and found it hard to determine how the man fell. Access has not been blocked.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Republicans looking for a path to the White House by way of Ohio - the swing state of swing states - might look to Cuyahoga County.



Cuyahoga County? The most Democrat-heavy county in Ohio? Voters there haven't picked a Republican in a presidential race since Richard Nixon in 1972. And we know what happened to Nixon. He didn't even last his term.



But Cuyahoga, as the state's largest county, is also home to a lot of Republicans.



With 145,000 GOP votes cast in the spring primary, Cuyahoga was second only to Franklin County (165,000) among Ohio's 88 counties.



Where there are numbers, there are opportunities to win or lose.



Ask Mitt Romney. If Cuyahoga County didn't exist, he would have won Ohio in 2012. Romney lost Ohio largely because of his lopsided loss (447,237 to 190,660) in Cuyahoga County. He won the combined vote for the rest of the state.

Romney didn't need to win Cuyahoga; he just needed a tighter race there.



Obama's statewide victory margin was just 166,000 votes. So Romney could have won Ohio by convincing 83,000 of Obama's voters to vote for him instead.



Two other Republicans in recent history suffered the same fate of losing the state despite winning the combined vote in the other 87 counties. George H.W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992 because he lost in a big way in Cuyahoga County. The same happened to Gerald Ford in his 1976 race against Jimmy Carter.

Three paths to victory

So how could this year's Republican nominee actually close the Cuyahoga party gap, which has grown wider in recent years?

1. One way would be to drive up turnout in loyal-Republican areas - generally the outer ring suburbs as illustrated in the maps below.

That could be a tall order. Republican supporters traditionally already are among the most reliable people to show up on election day. But it's worth exploring. Or it may be worth investing time trying to drive up turnout among Republicans who live in Democratic parts of the county.

(Continue reading story below maps)

See results by city and precinct

to load this Caspio

2. Another way would be to convince independents who often lean Democrat to go the Republicans' way in the general election.

There has been some evidence nationally, for example, that Donald Trump has attracted crossover votes from Democrats.

Among the places in Cuyahoga County where Trump ran strongest in the primary against John Kasich were portions of Brook Park, Brooklyn and northern Parma. Those often have been Democratic areas.

3. Perhaps the most plausible way would be to capitalize on an enthusiasm gap.

If Democrats aren't as revved up to vote as Republicans come November, maybe they'll stay at home and the margin won't be as wide in Cuyahoga County.

Republicans have been very successful in Ohio during off-year elections when the voter turnout is lower, such as when Ohioans pick their governors.

Spring primary turnout is not necessarily indicative of enthusiasm in the fall, but Republicans showed up in Cuyahoga County for this year's primary in large numbers - 145,066 to 207,747 Democrats, a difference of only 62,000 voters.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, examines a variety of issues with Numbers Behind the News. Follow on Twitter @RichExner


Hair.jpg

Rebecca Taylor is a celebrity colorist who resides in West Hollywood, California and she will be visiting Cleveland May 1, for a special event. She was named "Best Vivids Colorist in the World" by Glamour magazine and Taylor is best known for her color blending technique.

(Instagram: @vividartistichairdesign)

CLEVELAND, Ohio--Hair Nation founder Angela Presti started a company where she brings in some of the nation's biggest hairstylist into Cleveland.

On Sunday, May 1, she will be hosting a special event featuring award-winning colorist Rebecca Taylor. It takes place from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at 78th Street Studios followed by an after-party.

Taylor is a celebrity colorist who resides in West Hollywood, California and the right hand to hair expert Guy Tang. She was named "Best Vivids Colorist in the World" by Glamour magazine and her work has been seen in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Elle online. Taylor is best known for her color blending technique and she will be sharing tips and tricks with everyone.

This isn't your typical hair convention, but more of a networking party that even comes with its own red carpet. There will be cocktail hour and sushi as well as a meet-and-greet with other people in the industry. Afterwards, a two-hour presentation will showcase a live hair demonstration.

"We make education really fun, but we also make it very accessible and affordable for hairstylist," said Taylor.

They expect about 350 guests and space is limited. Advance tickets start at $50 and tickets will be sold at the door based on availability.
MAPLE HEIGHTS,

Ohio -- Two Maple Heights men are facing charges after one fired a shot at

SWAT

officers who raided a house Friday morning.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been corrected to reflect that Michael Menefield was not arrested at Andrew Carr's house.

Andrew Carr, 28, is charged with felonious assault and Michael Menefield, 23, is charged with having weapons while under disability.

Both waived their right to preliminary hearings during their appearances Monday in Garfield Heights Municipal Court. Their cases have been bound over to the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

Carr is being held on $500,000 bond and Menefield is being held on $150,000 bond, according to court records.

Carr fired a shot at officers attempting to serve a search warrant just after 7 a.m. at a house on Milan Drive, court records show. No one was injured, police said Friday.

Detectives obtained the search warrant after the Cleveland Division of Police gang unit received information that Menefield might be involved in illegal firearms activity, according to court records.

Officers recovered eight guns and a large amount of ammunition in the house, police said.

Carr and two other men were detained. The other two men were not charged, police said.

Menefield later turned himself in to authorities.

Detectives from Maple Heights and Cleveland, the Southeast Area Law Enforcement

SWAT

team, the

FBI,

the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Office assisted in the search, police said.

If you wish to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments page.
juvenile justice center.jpg

An investigation is underway into a use-of-force incident involving a Cuyahoga County sheriff's deputy and a resident at the juvenile detention center

(John Kuntz, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Authorities have launched an investigation into a use-of-force incident involving a deputy from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department and a resident at the county's juvenile justice center.

The sheriff's department on April 8 asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to look into the April 5 incident, according to a letter obtained by cleveland.com.

No charges have been filed against the deputy in the ongoing investigation, officials said.

County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan would not elaborate on the nature of the incident, citing the open investigation. She also would not say whether the deputy faces any internal discipline.

BCI's Special Investigations Unit is leading the probe, said spokeswoman Jill Del Greco of the Ohio Attorney General's Office, which oversees BCI.

The sheriff's department frequently requests BCI's assistance, rarely for investigations at the juvenile justice center, Del Greco said.

The unit's supervisor could not recall any other requests in the past few years to investigate incidents at the juvenile court, she said.

Incidents of violence skyrocketed to critical levels in 2014 after the juvenile detention center moved to a new location, according to a report from The Plain Dealer.

The increase happened after a new state law was passed that forces the detention center to hold adults accused of committing serious crimes when they were juveniles, the newspaper reported.

If you want to comment on this story, visit our crime and courts comment page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The man charged in the weekend killing of a 22-year-old Garfield Heights man was taken into custody Sunday.

Jerome Bell, 22, is awaiting his initial court appearance on an aggravated murder charge in the death of Dontez Hopper.

Bell and Hopper got into an argument about 12:15 a.m. in the driveway of a home on East 99th Street in Cleveland's Glenville neighborhood, police said.

Bell pulled a handgun and shot Hopper in the chest, then drove away in a Porsche Cayenne, according to a police report.

A man and a woman were lying on the ground next to Hopper's body when officers got to the scene. They were crying and yelling at Bell to wake up, the report says.

Officers gave emergency aid to Hopper until paramedics showed up and rushed him to University Hospitals. He was pronounced dead about 20 minutes later.

Homicide detectives within hours obtained a warrant charging Bell with aggravated murder.

If you'd like to comment on this story, please visit today's cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
Marshaun Vaughn

Marshaughn Vaughn was found shot dead inside a car in Cleveland's Corlett neighborhood Saturday morning.

(Family photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The man found shot dead inside a car Saturday morning in Cleveland's Corlett neighborhood has been identified.

Marshaun Vaughn, 28, was pronounced dead at the scene at East 150th Street and Benwood Avenue, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office.

Vaughn, of Warrensville Heights, was shot in the face, and his body was slumped over inside the parked car when police arrived.

Investigators have made no arrests, and ask anyone with information to call homicide detectives at 216-623-5464.

If you'd like to comment on this story, please visit today's cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Penny Schwinn, one of five finalists to be Ohio's new superintendent, has just accepted a new position with the Texas Education Agency and has taken herself out of consideration here.

The agency announced Thursday - - the same day that Schwinn was named a finalist here - that Schwinn, 33, will be Texas' deputy commissioner for academics.

Schwinn withdrew her application to Ohio late Sunday night, according to state school board President Tom Gunlock.

She did not answer her phone for a scheduled phone interview with The Plain Dealer on Friday and did not return multiple phone messages both Friday and today.

Though her start date is not until May 9, the Texas Education Agency website already has a page showing her as deputy commissioner and listing her biography.

Her new position in Texas continues a flurry of moves for the charter school advocate over the last four years.

In 2012, she won election to the Sacramento County school board after a "hotly-contested" campaign, according to local media sources, and with strong backing of the charter school community. Had she stayed in office, she would still be on that school board until June of this year.

But a year after election, she resigned to take a job in the city school district. A year after that, in June, 2014, she left to be the testing and assessment director for the Delaware Department of Education.

By late last year, she was a finalist for the Osceola, Fla., superintendent's job and her Ohio application includes a written recommendation dated Aug. 20 from Delaware Secretary of Education Mark Murphy.

In her application to Ohio, Schwinn said she left her Delaware job in January - without a new job in hand - because she was appointed by a governor "who has a term ending in November, 2016."

See the full application below.

That's not entirely accurate. Gubernatorial terms in Delaware start in January, as is standard for other states, so her departure from Delaware came a full year before a new governor could potentially appoint a replacement.

According to multiple online biographies from past jobs, Schwinn started in education teaching in Baltimore schools through Teach for America. In 2009, she helped create and then served as executive director of Capitol Collegiate Academy, a charter school in Sacramento, where she grew up.

The school still has an incomplete track record. Though it plans to eventually offer classes from first through 12th grade, it only serves elementary grades now. Open since 2010, it is adding a single grade each year.

Beyond creating that school, Schwinn is a vocal advocate for school choice. After winning her school board election, Schwinn spoke at the 2013 conference of the Charter School Association of California to praise other charter school leaders for helping back her campaign.

She also urged other charter advocates to run for office.

"We need more voice, in power and empowered, to fight for our students, for charters, for public schools, for families and for choice," she said.

She also boasted that as a school board member she had already been able to "push for choice."
police tape.jpg

Maurice "Stephon" Phillips is facing a third-degree murder charge in connection with the accidental shooting death of his 4-year-old daughter.

(File photo)

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania -- A man has been charged with third-degree murder after he admitted to accidentally shooting his 4-year-old daughter, reports say.

Maurice "Stephon" Phillips also is charged with involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child, CBS News reports.

Police initially were told by people in the house where the incident occurred the girl had been accidentally shot by her 5-year-old brother, Philly.com reports. Phillips had left the home after the incident.

Saturday night, Phillips, 30, arrived at a police station and told officers his son had nothing to do with the shooting. Instead, Phillips told police he had been "playing around" with a handgun when it went off and the the bullet struck and killed his daughter.

The young victim was well-liked, neighbor Crystal Dougherty tells CBS Philly.

"She was a great big sister to her litter brother. She was very smart, at 4-years-old, she knows her alphabet, her colors," Dougherty said. "She was just an outgoing little girl."

If you'd like to comment on this story, please visit Sunday's cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
empty classroom prison

These file photos show an empty classroom and a jail cell at Cuyahoga County jail. James Schuster, a member of Students For Education Reform Ohio, writes that zero-tolerance policies in schools are in part to blame for his brother ending up in prison.

(Gus Chan and Lynn Ischay/Plain Dealer)

James Schuster, is a sophomore at Ohio University.

Ohio's state legislature is currently considering House Bill 410, which aims to reform how the state deals with chronically truant kids by eliminating the "delinquent" label from a child that misses school. This is an important bill in addressing one of the counterproductive ways in which Ohio treats its students, but truancy is only part of the larger problem of zero-tolerance policies in our schools. Ohio needs to go further and eliminate zero tolerance throughout the state.



Zero tolerance in schools was initially introduced in 1998 as a way to deter students from fighting and other violent behaviors in schools. Despite research by the American Bar Association and American Psychological Association that shows this type of policy doesn't actually reduce crime or violence, these policies still include nonviolent offenses -- ranging all the way from attendance to classroom disruption. This is how young children in Ohio are finding themselves with juvenile records before they even get to high school.



'Zero tolerance' in Ohio may be legal but hurts at-risk kids: Alex Rytel (Opinion)

Punishing children for being children isn't only counterproductive, it's pushing nonviolent students out of the classroom and into our prison system, which is exactly what happened to my brother thanks to Ohio's zero-tolerance laws. Many people know that zero-tolerance policies result in disproportionate punishment for nonviolent offenses like possession of aspirin and other household medications that could be considered drugs and therefore violate zero-tolerance policies. It's less well known that these policies disproportionately impact students with learning and developmental disabilities like my brother, Brian, who may act out as a result of their conditions. These policies take kids who need the most help and leave them out of school entirely.



My brother, Brian Schuster, an inmate at Ohio's Southeastern Correctional Institution, grew up in Norwood, Ohio, with a developmental deficiency. He couldn't pay attention in class, and never seemed to be too interested in learning; however, no one seemed to be too interested in teaching Brian, either. He told me that his teachers, "just wanted him out of the classroom so they'd not have to deal with a 'problem child.'" This treatment made his problems worse, because he was not given the support he needed, setting him on a destructive path.



Brian was suspended for the first time when he was 12 years old, in fifth grade. When he was in elementary and middle school, he mostly got suspended for disobedience, disruptive behavior, and being "rude" to faculty members. He had fallen victim to zero-tolerance policies and the 'problem child' label. Rather than taking steps to prevent further incidents, schools reacted swiftly with suspension.



Brian eventually stopped attending class altogether and started getting in trouble outside of school. He was taught all of his life that society didn't care about him, so he stopped caring about himself. Brian is a prime example of the school-to-prison pipeline. According to the Ohio State Bar Association, "Children who do not finish high school ... are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested, and approximately 82 percent of the adult prison population is composed of high school dropouts."



Zero-tolerance policies are destroying the lives of children all over the Ohio. According to figures cited by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, in the 2013-2014 school year, nearly 101,000 students were suspended for disobedient or disruptive behavior alone. These suspensions and expulsions account for more than 50 percent of Ohio's total out-of-school discipline.



Ohio lawmakers need to understand the unintended consequences of zero-tolerance policies, which is why I shared Brian's story in front of the Education Committee of the Ohio House of Representatives while testifying with a group of students from Students for Education Reform Ohio in support of HB 410.



Our state legislators need to address zero-tolerance discipline policies more broadly by eliminating zero tolerance for nonviolent offenses in addition to the truancy reform already proposed. We tell personal stories like Brian's to demonstrate to legislators just how harmful these policies can be, and to urge them to consider changing them. It's stories like these that can help politicians and legislators put a name and face to the policies that they've tacitly let harm students for decades.



Erasing zero-tolerance policies is something I am passionate about. Ohio's students deserve to be treated like human beings, they deserve to have their problems addressed appropriately, and they absolutely deserve to stay in the classroom. Education is the backbone to the success of young people across the nation.



If you agree that students deserve to stay in the classroom, I ask that you call your state representative or senator and urge them to reconsider harmful zero- tolerance policies, which are criminalizing our state's children.

James Schuster, from Fairfield Township, Ohio, is a sophomore at Ohio University, and a member of Students For Education Reform Ohio.
Westlake police car new.JPG

Westlake police chased an unidentified man and woman through three cities Monday morning after they failed to stop for an officer who tried to pull them over for driving a car with fake license plates, police said.

(Patrick Cooley, cleveland.com)

WESTLAKE, Ohio -- Westlake police chased an unidentified man and woman through three cities Monday, when an officer tried to stop their car for displaying an improper tag, police said.

The white Pontiac pulled away from police at 11:17 a.m. near Crocker and Detroit roads. Westlake police chased the car eastbound on Interstate 90 through Lakewood, before the chase ended on a dead end street in Cleveland.

Lakewood and Cleveland police did not join in the chase, Westlake Lt. Mark Krumheuer said.

A Lakewood dispatcher told cleveland.com Westlake police did not call Lakewood until after the chase had already passed through the city.

Cleveland spokesman Daniel Ball said Cleveland police don't get involved in chases unless the suspect is accused of committing a violent felony or driving intoxicated.

Police pursuits in Northeast Ohio came under increased scrutiny after a November 2012 chase through downtown Cleveland that involved 62 Cleveland police cars. The chase ended in an East Cleveland elementary school parking lot where several officers fired 137 shots, killing a couple that officers later learned was unarmed.

Ohio law allows Westlake police to drive outside city limits during a pursuit. According to Westlake police's pursuit policy, the arrest of a violator is not as important as the safety of citizens, and chases "deserve the same degree of scrutiny similar to deadly use of force."

Degree or seriousness of the offense is one reason to terminate a chase; and a pursuit will usually involve no more than two units, the policy states.

On Monday, four Westlake cruisers chased the Pontiac on Interstate 90 at speeds above the 60 mph posted speed limit, Krumheuer said. Investigators were still trying to determine exactly how fast they were going as of Monday afternoon.

When asked whether he felt the possible criminal offense rose to the level of officers pursuing a car at high speeds during daytime traffic, Krumheuer said: "I'm not answering that because it's a loaded question. We'll address it once our investigation is complete."

Police threw out stop sticks in an attempt to stop the Pontiac from leaving Westlake. The sticks flattened two of the vehicle's tires, but the Pontiac continued eastbound and got on interstate 90, police said.

The chase ended when the suspects ran into a dead end on Bradwell Avenue, in the area of Denison Avenue near Pearl Road in Cleveland.

The male tried to run, but he didn't get far before officers grabbed him.

Neither the man nor the woman had identification. They had not been charged and police were working to identify them as of Monday afternoon, Krumheuer said.

Police did not find anything in the vehicle, and the suspects did not say why they ran.

Read the entire Westlake pursuit policy below.

The chase ended on Bradwell Avenue, off of Denison Avenue near Pearl Road, in Cleveland.

If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section.

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Are you the type of person to study abroad?

Not for a semester, as roughly 300,000 American college students do every year. But, for four years to earn your degree. About 45,000 U.S. students are now pursuing a college or graduate degree in another country, according to the latest preliminary data from the Institute of International Education, roughly in line with the institute's data for 2013. With tuition at American colleges and universities continuing to rise, and some prestigious universities in other countries charging little or nothing for tuition, college overseas holds obvious allure. For the right students, it's a terrific experience and it will help them have a global career, said Peggy Blumenthal, senior counselor to the president of the institute.



Certainly, the numbers are compelling. In Germany, for example, many universities charge overseas students little or nothing in tuition. In Britain, the most popular destination for American students pursuing degrees overseas, the tuition savings are smaller. For example, overseas students at Oxford pay about $22,000 to study politics or history and $33,000 to study engineering or computer science, less than a private college in the United States but more than an in-state public university. The University of St Andrews, in Scotland, charges roughly $23,000 for most degrees for overseas students and $35,000 for medical science. But tuition is not the only cost when students attend college. There is food and lodging, as Americans studying overseas clearly do not have the option of living at home. Transportation is another cost to consider: Flights to and from Europe cost a lot more than a few car trips home from the state university. Visa costs are another factor for students studying overseas. And depending on where they attend, students may not be eligible for all the financial aid they might receive in the United States.

American students studying overseas may also have to adjust to wildly different educational systems. In Britain, for example, students generally apply to a university knowing what they want to concentrate on, and that may well be all they study. A diverse liberal arts education is not the tradition. In addition, students at many overseas universities need to be much more self-sufficient than they do on an American campus, Blumenthal said.

"The U.S. is unique in that they see the student as the responsibility of the university," she said. That goes for student services like resident advisors in dorms, and also for professors who might assign a chapter or book excerpt to read the following week, and assess students' progress during a course with tests and papers. "In Europe and most of the world, it's up to the student," Blumenthal said. "The student shows up to class or not, and does not get a paper or exam per week. They may sit for one exam a year, and that's going to account for their whole grade. Americans are not used to doing that."

Social life at universities overseas is different as well, as Zoe Schiffer, a native of Summit, N.J., found when she enrolled at St Andrews.

For one thing, students are much more likely to cook for themselves. Schiffer opted to go that route, and it has been a real learning experience, she said. Another cultural difference for American students overseas relates to alcohol, Schiffer said. Scotland's drinking age is 18, and since students have ready access to alcohol, they seem less likely to binge drink, she said.

Her friends at American colleges and universities "find when there is drinking, people try to do as much as they can in one sitting," she said. "It's sort of messy." Schiffer has not had to contend with a foreign language. But students studying in many other countries should ask themselves, "Can I make friends in a language that I don't necessarily speak well? Am I brave enough to use a foreign language I don't speak very well," Blumenthal said. Some universities in non-English speaking countries may have programs in English, but there is life outside the classroom.

Zoe Schiffer and mother Amy Schiffer, at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Source: Zoe Schiffer

Academically, Schiffer is very happy. She said she knew she wanted to concentrate on international relations and French, and thus had no qualms applying to the college offering those areas of study. "A lot of my friends would not have been happy" with the strictures of the university's academics, she said.



Franck Reporte | Getty Images

The cultural and other differences may be one reason why some countries are trying to make their graduate degree offerings more attractive to Americans, Blumenthal said. Some are also trying to offer American-style student supports, she said, adding that she recently attended meetings in France where there was discussion of improving their orientation programs, "but nowhere near the degree to which we help prepare international students to thrive here."
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Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross is among the players predicting oil will languish in the mid-$30s after the Doha summit ended without a deal. Ross, chairman and CEO of private equity firm WL Ross & Co, told CNBC's "Asia Squawk Box" on Monday that prices would range between $35 and the low $40s in the near future. A summit in Doha between the world's largest oil-producing countries ended without an agreement on Sunday, as leaders failed to broker an agreement to freeze output in order to boost sagging crude prices. The conference's failure sent U.S. crude and global benchmark Brent fall as much as 5 percent each to around $38 and $41 a barrel, respectively. Prices were unlikely to return to the $20 level, Ross said, but added that they wouldn't rise significantly above $40 either given the market's persistent problem of high inventories.

Wilbur Ross, chairman and CEO of WL Ross & Co. Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Those hoping for an agreement by OPEC's (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) next meeting in June will be sorely disappointed, he continued, warning that no deal was likely until Iran returned its production to a pre-sanctions level. "It's been my belief for some time that Iran wouldn't agree to any limits on their production until they're back up to four million barrels a day...In the meantime, I don't see Saudi Arabia cutting their production while Iran keeps building theirs," Ross said. "These talks were doomed for failure." The June meeting could possibly produce a structural framework for a potential deal on freezing output, he noted. "But even if you reach a deal on production, the next challenge is enforcement," Ross said. "Part of the reason we got to where we did with the Saudi's announcing they weren't going to play any more is because in prior agreements, the only ones who abided by them were the Saudis and they apparently have gotten tired of cutting their production just so other parties can keep theirs up." Victor Shum, vice president of IHS Energy Insight, echoed those sentiments. "I wouldn't be surprised if Brent drops to the mid-$30s today or within next few days," he said.
International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) said on Monday a June agreement to provide financial support to Malaysia's 1MDB had been terminated after the troubled sovereign vehicle failed to meet obligations to the Abu Dhabi fund.

IPIC said in a bourse filing in London the Malaysian state fund and the Asian country's Ministry of Finance had failed to meet obligations including to pay $1.1 billion plus interest and was now in default.

While the obligations of IPIC and its subsidiary, Aabar Investments, under the June agreement had now been terminated, the Abu Dhabi fund still expected the Malaysian side to honor its commitments.
Venezuelan Petroleum Minister Eulogio del Pino arrives for the oil producers' meeting in the Qatari capital Doha, on April 17, 2016. Countries failed to reach an agreement to freeze output at January levels, which sent oil prices tumbling.

Oil prices took a tumble after some of the world's largest oil exporters failed to reach an agreement in Doha, Qatar, to freeze output to January levels.



In February, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela had agreed to freeze output if other producers joined them - and Sunday's meeting in Doha was expected to formalize that agreement.



The major sticking point during the meeting was the heightened tension between Saudi Arabia, the defacto OPEC leader, and Iran, which recently returned to the international oil market after sanctions against the country were lifted earlier this year.
In politics, there is no such thing as second place, but that will change in June regardless of where Sen. Bernie Sanders finishes. Sanders wins even if he loses.

If Sanders catches Secretary Hillary Clinton in the delegate count and overcomes the super delegate obstacle, he could snag the Democratic nomination, a remarkable feat that seemed impossible just a few months ago. And even if he doesn't go on to win the general election, his nomination would change the focus of the Democratic platform and move the party further to the left over the next four to eight years.
Chinese social media platform WeChat is better for marketers than Western offerings such as Facebook, the chief executive of Havas , a top advertising firm, told CNBC on Monday.

WeChat is owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent and boasts 700 million monthly active users, according to data tracker Quest Mobile. It is the dominant messaging service in the world's second-largest economy.

The app allows people to text and voice call each other, make payments, and interact with "bots"  a similar feature to what Facebook unveiled last week.

The ability to make payments and even book restaurants means WeChat has become a big part of Chinese phone users' lives.

For marketers looking to advertise to Chinese consumers, this is attractive.

"Social platforms are very important in my industry. I would say that the best social platform in the world for me is WeChat, it's much better than the Facebooks of the world," Yannick Bollore, the chief executive of Havas, told CNBC in a TV interview on Monday.

"We always say that Chinese people are very good at copying. Now they are very good at creating things, it could roll out one day eventually in the rest of the world," he added.

Bollore's comments were part of a wider discussion about the Chinese economy, in which the head of the French company said China was still attractive for businesses.

"If you look at China in the last 20 years, it's by far the most impressive recovery story for a country. And we still have only a few portions of Chinese people that have accessed the Middle Class, and it's already a booming economy," Bollore said.

"If you imagine in the future, more and more people will join the Middle Class in China  for me China will continue to grow in the next decade at a very high rate."

Havas is one of the world's largest advertising and communication companies, with a market capitalization of around 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion).
WHEN: Today, Monday, April 18th



WHERE: CNBC's "Power Lunch"

Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview with Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez on CNBC's "Power Lunch" (M-F, 1PM-3PM ET). CNBC's Melissa Lee spoke with Mayor Gimenez following the news that Carnival may delay its Cuba cruise over discrimination concerns. Following is a link to the video on CNBC.com: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000510561.

All references must be sourced to CNBC.

GIMENEZ ON CARNIVAL CRUISE

Today, they said they were going to allow Cuban Americans to buy tickets and they are going to try to get the law changed in Cuba. And if Cuba does not change it, they will cancel the cruise.Carnival is a great corporate sponsor, Mickey Arison is a great owner. I think it is the right thing to do. And then they have got their issues with Cuba, let them work it out.

GIMENEZ ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Carlos Gimenez: It violated our human rights ordinances. You can't discriminate based on national origin. And so I, the Mayor of Miami-Dade County, born in Cuba, couldn't buy a ticket 

Melissa Lee: You couldn't go on that cruise that would originate from a port in your county.

Gimenez: I couldn't go on that cruise. That will originate from a port that's not only in my county, it is operated by Miami-Dade County.

About CNBC:

With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, CNBC World and CNBC HD, CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time financial market coverage and business information to approximately 386 million homes worldwide, including more than 100 million households in the United States and Canada. CNBC also provides daily business updates to 400 million households across China. The network's 15 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC at night features a mix of new reality programming, CNBC's highly successful series produced exclusively for CNBC and a number of distinctive in-house documentaries.

CNBC also has a vast portfolio of digital products which deliver real-time financial market news and information across a variety of platforms including: CNBC.com; CNBC PRO, the premium, integrated desktop/mobile service that provides live access to CNBC programming, exclusive video content and global market data and analysis; a suite of CNBC mobile products including the CNBC Apps for iOS, Android and Windows devices; and additional products such as the CNBC App for the Apple Watch and Apple TV.

Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBCUniversal Media Village Web site at http://www.nbcumv.com/programming/cnbc.

For more information about NBCUniversal, please visit http://www.NBCUniversal.com.
Following are excerpts from a Squawk Box interview with Steve Sedgwick and Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, as part of Europe Needs Swagger week.



On why slow growth is the new normal...

SS: This is another great example of the same conversation we had just now about companies investing and if there are regulatory changes going on. A company like Centrica, it's more difficult for them to make longer term investments in their supply, in grid, in whatever it may well be, and I'm not saying that the regulators shouldn't have great scrutiny, but it's another reason why people are holding off.

MS: It's a fact of life, particularly since Lehman, who we were talking about before, the government and the regulator was going to play an even greater part, and there are other even more difficult examples of regulators, quote on quote 'interfering' but understandably interfering in it. In the case of Centrica, you know, Ian came from BP where he was a client of ours too, and wanting to be a CEO, and my bet would be that Centrica will do very well. I think you're starting to see the signs, certainly from a stock price point of view, and a strategic point of view, sort of bottoming out and starting to move up.

SS: Here's another example, and this is another flash from Centrica, direct headcount expected to be reduced by 3,000 in 2016, a reduction of around 800 in the first three months in the year. Once again you've got a company for whatever reason, whether it's global economic conditions as Yellen would call it or its regulatory issues, structural problems in the UK, cutting jobs.

MS: But in a world that's growing so slowly, 3, 3 and a half per cent, and focus on the short term, people are taking out the head count. Why is it that productivity is not showing any long term improvement if people are taking out the head count? We see it, we are in exactly the same position, if we're not making budget obviously people or plan or plan against last year, you pull out head count in order to make the numbers, and I think that's effectively what's happening. Slow growth no pricing power, you saw the Nestle and Unilever results last week, did well from a top line point of view, and in terms of expectations, but again, complaints about lack of pricing power which means there's a focus on cost. Total natural reaction in a slow growth world, but that's the reality and all those central bankers that you've just referred to, or Yellen or whatever, can't explain the lack of animal spirit, and that's the most remarkable thing. Nobody can explain why it is that companies

SS: Can you?

MS: Well, I just think that it's the environment, the new normal is that slow growth, the other thing is if you're trying to run a business, a legacy business, you have disruptors at one end, Airbnb and Uber, you have the zero base budgeters at the other end, who understand the importance of long term brand investing but are very focused on cost, and then you have the activist investors who get very upset when they're described as short term, but the perception is they're short term, they may think they're long term, but as I've always said to them they need a big advertising and marketing campaign to prove that.

SS: This technology, all of the disruptors creating economic well being as well, you mentioned Uber there, unbelievably great product, shaken up the whole transportation industry, but it's not profitable and it's not providing great income, let's face it, if you're an Uber driver I think that the conditions look pretty tough, and I'm not just saying Uber, it could be anyone in the private hire business.

MS: Well that's one of the issues they run in to. Take Airbnb and the hospitality or hotel industry, Airbnb is not subject to the same food safety, health safety, emergency safety, it's not subject to the same structures that somebody who runs a big hotel, say IHG or Marriot or Starwood, that are subject to the same restraints so this is a big issue, so the disruptors do not have the regulatory constraints, as they become bigger, as they become more prominent, ironically, they are subject to those things.





On why he makes no apologies for success

SS: The bosses of the UK's biggest companies face a fresh shareholder revolt over pay. Apparently. Treasury committee chairman, Andrew Tyrie, urges investors to stand their ground against excessive pay packages. Sir Martin, you've waded into this one, many, many times and you've become a target

MS: [Interrupts] Consistent message

SS: Yes, consistent messages, I notice, I'm sure, one of your favorite UK newspapers, the guardian, says Sir Martin Sorrell, this is today, defends 63 million pound pay package ahead of AGM, what is the basis of your defense?

MS: Well, it's not, I didn't defend itthis is in connection with something else. No, listen, this has been going on for 31 years. 31 years ago at the ripe old age of 40 years old, I decided to go off and do something entrepreneurial. I was at a Saatchi and I invested 250,000 pounds, have consistently invested in the company  we talked earlier about the long term view - this is a long term view. One can talk about it as being a long term entrepreneurial exercise, if you like. And it's something I passionately believe in. My father said to me, find an industry you enjoy, find a company you enjoy, build a reputation in it, and then if you fancy doing something on your own, go off and do it.

So this is just one of a five year period, in the context of 31 years. Over that 31 years, we've gone from a million pounds capitalization, to 21 billion. 30 billion dollars. We now have 190,000 people in a 112 countries. Probably, 6 or 700,000 people rely on WPP for their living. I make no apologies for the success of that business. In fact, the continued success of that business.

Over that period of time, I've not sold any shares, except when I.

SS: [INTERRUPTS] 18.96 million last time I looked

MS: Its actually about 25 million, one way or another that I haven't sold in the business. But I continue to hold in the company, so every time the company does well, I benefit. And of course, a large number of other people  because I'm not the only one involved in these plans  and every time we do badly, we all suffer. So its geared to the success of the company. Its pay for performance.

SS: On that, do you think too many CEOs get paid for bad performance? I appreciate you still own 1.5%...

MS: [Interrupts] It's about 2 per cent of the company

SS: OK, so 2 per cent of the company, and I get the fact you started it. And the shares in 2011 were about 6 quid, 6.40, but now they're 16 pounds as well..

MS: [Interrupts] So were quite clear, the share price has gone from 6.60 when the latest plans started, to where it is where they are at the moment which is about 16.40, so, so, Mea culpa, or nostra culpa (laughs) I wasn't very good at Latin, the problem is we've been successful. If that's bad news, OK, its bad news, but we can easily deal with that by not being successful.
The Gap's time to shine was back in the 1990s, when Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic were a retail colossus. Cramer explained the decline, stating that after a period of over-expansion the stock cooled off following the dotcom bubble burst, and then in the Great Recession.

"Remember those old commercials with the tagline 'fall into the Gap?' That is how this stock feels to its shareholders, just a seemingly endless free-fall," the " Mad Money " host said.

At one time, The Gap was considered to be the quintessential American retail brand. But in the past two years, Jim Cramer said the stock has gone from a retail titan to a prolonged underperformer.

Even if they fixed everything, this company would still be one of the biggest victims of the decline in shopping mall traffic.

Just when the company seemingly found its footing and was on the way to a comeback in 2014, the rebound proved to be temporary. Since then, Gap has given back gains, including a 41 percent decline last year.

The first warning sign for Cramer was when its long-time CEO Glenn Murphy announced he would step down in October 2014. He handed the reins to Art Peck. By the end of the year, things were falling apart.

Read more from Mad Money with Jim Cramer

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At the time, Peck cited quality and fit issues as the reason for Gap's weak performance, which Cramer interpreted to mean that the people running the company thought they had a problem with the product.

The stock finally appeared to hit a rebound in February 2016, but those gains were erased quickly when Gap confirmed that same-store sales shrank 6.5 percent, with all three divisions down.

"I think the problems here began at their core Gap brand and then spread like wildfire through the rest of the company," Cramer said.

Even with all of its internal issues, the worst problem with Gap is something it may not have control over: the long-term decline of mall shopping.

Countless retailers have felt the effects of a downturn in mall traffic, as many consumers have migrated to shopping online.

Ultimately, Cramer does not want investors to fall into the Gap.

"Here is a company that lost its way quite some time ago. Gap is having an identity crisis when it comes to its brands, and management has some serious issues. Even if they fixed everything, this company would still be one of the biggest victims of the decline in shopping mall traffic," Cramer said.
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After the collapse of major oil producer talks this weekend, analysts are questioning whether diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran are damaged for good. Talks between OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers in Qatar on Sunday failed to produce any deal to freeze production to support oil prices. This was largely due to a clash between OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Iran over oil production levels. Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the 13-member oil producing group, said it would not freeze output levels if Iran did not do the same. But Iran, which was absent from the talks, has repeatedly said it is unwilling to freeze production levels as it wants to regain the market share it lost during years of economic sanctions.



Saudi Arabia's minister of Oil and Mineral Resources Ali al-Naimi is surrounded by journalists at an OPEC meeting. JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images

On a wider global level, oil prices have slumped since mid-2014 on the back of a glut in supply and the failure of demand to keep up. The decline in prices has been partly attributed to Saudi Arabia, as it spear-headed OPEC's decision in late 2014 not to cut production, as part of a strategy to pressure rival oil producers such as those in the U.S. Read MoreWhy Doha no-deal is actually great for oil prices

Who's to blame?

Saudi Arabia has blamed Iran for the failure of Sunday's talks. However, Russia has defended Iran, saying that the Saudi demand for all countries to participate in a production freeze was "unreasonable."

Iran's OPEC representative said on Monday that "Those who suggested an oil output freeze wrongly thought that Iran had no option but to accept," according to Iran's Shana news agency, Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said Saudi Arabia's insistence on full Iranian participation proved the stumbling block. "Saudi Arabia stood firm, despite the determined efforts of its key GCC allies, such as Qatar and Kuwait, which normally stand shoulder to shoulder with the Kingdom on oil policy, to forge an agreement to freeze output at January levels, irrespective of Iranian involvement," Croft said in a report on Monday. Abhishek Deshpande, oil and gas analyst at Natixis, said Saudi Arabia was disingenuous in blaming Iran. "Everybody was expecting Iran not to cut back and not to join the freeze, so surely the Saudis were quite aware of this," he told CNBC TV on Monday.

Implications for OPEC

The failure of the talks was somewhat expected, with many oil market analysts predicting in the run-up that political rivalry between the two Middle Eastern powerhouses would scupper any chance of compromise.

There is no love lost between the two nations, which are separated along religious, geopolitical and ideological lines. Saudi Arabia is at the heart of Sunni Islam and ruled by an ultra-conservative monarchy, whereas Iran is an Islamic republic and the home of Shia Islam, a different strand of the religion vying for ideological dominance in the region.
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While the long-awaited Doha meeting disappointed energy investors who expected an output freeze deal, shale industry pioneer Harold Hamm, who didn't "have a whole lot of hope" in the Sunday meeting, told CNBC that the crude glut will be balanced the second half of this year. The founder and CEO of Continental Resources , who previously told CNBC that "the fundamentals of supply and demand were really close," reiterated during a "Power Lunch" interview on Monday that this year's third-quarter will absorb most of the excess oil supply, which in turn will lead to "stronger pricing." The billionaire suggested that oil is past an inflection point and prices have surged 50 percent from previous lows. Hamm foresees crude prices soaring to $60 a barrel by the end of the year, as lower oil prices are unsustainable. He contends, however, that even when the oil "overhang goes away," ramping up production will take U.S. producers a long time, as rig counts are at an all-time low. He added that U.S. rig counts "are down 77 percent."

Despite oil producers failing to reach a deal to combat excess supply in the oil market, which led crude to shed 6 percent on Sunday, prices paired losses on Monday, amid a worker strike in Kuwait that has cut the country's oil output by more than half. Conversely, market watchers consider that more anomalies will force oil-producing countries to minimize output. Bob McNally, founder and president of The Rapidan Group, told CNBC's "Power Lunch" that both involuntary and voluntary output disruptions can impact the oil market. "Will Nigeria get that pipeline fixed in May or June? ... Will Iraq be able to sustain output through the north ...? Will Libya be able to inch back up?" he said. While involuntary outages are an open question, Iran and Saudi Arabia have both threatened to increase oil output, McNally told CNBC. "[Iran] last said they were doing 3.5 million barrels a day, can they do more?" he said. "Prince Mohammad bin Salman said on Friday they could go another million barrels a day (plus) immediately, will Iran gun-it?" In this same vein, Hamm argued that oil producers in the Middle East are "pretty much tapped out."
Measures of market volatility are poised to tick up following a period of relative stability, Bernstein Chief Investment Officer Seth Masters said Monday.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) has fallen more than 20 percent this year, but Masters said AB Bernstein is positioning for a return of heightened risk.

"There are lots of structural uncertainties in this environment that are actually exerting a chilling effect on the decision-making of companies and consumers," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

While lower oil prices are a net benefit to consumers, most companies and many nations, stakeholders are uncertain where crude futures will land in the near future, he said.



"If you're making a big investment decision, that's a problem," he said.

In addition, persistent questions about the strength of China's economy, the risk of Britain leaving the European Union, signs of renewed trouble in Greece and regulatory uncertainty are creating mounting structural risk, he said.
Overall, ISIS revenues have dropped 30 percent in the last year.

Almost all the main oilfields operated by the group have been targeted by U.S. military airstrikes, reflecting the intensification of the U.S.-led coalition against the group in Syria and Iraq.

The report , by conflict monitoring group IHS, showed that production of oil in ISIS-operated oilfields has dropped to approximately 21,000 barrels per day, from 33,000 during the summer period last year.

The so-called Islamic State has lost 26 percent of the income it had been generating from the sale of crude oil, according to new research released on Monday.

IHS senior analyst Ludovico Carlino said, "In mid-2015, the Islamic State's overall monthly revenue was around $80 million. As of March 2016, the Islamic State's monthly revenue dropped to $56 million."

Approximately half of the group's revenue comes from taxation and confiscation; however, this has fallen too due to loss of territory and population under ISIS' control dropping from 9 million to 6 million people.



"The Islamic State has lost about 22 percent of its territory in the past 15 months," said Columb Strack, senior analyst at IHS. "There are fewer people and business activities to tax; the same applies to properties and land to confiscate."



ISIS has increased taxes on basic services including adding tolls for truck drivers, fees for anyone installing new or repairing broken satellite dishes, and "exit fees" for anyone trying to leave a city, reported IHS.



To make up for lost revenue, the Islamic State is also imposing fines. "You can be fined for driving on the wrong side of the road and for not being able to answer questions correctly on the Quran," Carlino said.



ISIS has started to accept payment of fines in cash as an alternative penalty to corporal punishments imposed by Sharia law, according to IHS.



In January, leaked internal documents from the terror group, obtained and translated by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, showed that ISIS had allegedly cut its fighters' salaries by as much as 50 percent.


The clock is ticking for tax procrastinators  today is the deadline for filing your 2015 returns. Plenty of consumers wait until the 11th hour to file, and despite having an extra three days this year to prepare, many people are still scrambling. The Internal Revenue Service has said it expects it could receive more than 5 million returns Monday, ahead of the deadline. According to data released last week, the agency had received more than 107 million returns by April 8, or about 70 percent of the 150.6 million it anticipates this year.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Should you push to wrap up your tax prep today, or just file an extension? "We're already at that point in time where if you haven't started doing your work, you should file an extension," said certified public accountant Benjamin Tobias, president of Tobias Financial Advisors. "You don't want to rush anything." Bear in mind that the IRS estimates the average Form 1040 filer will spend 16 hours on tax prep, including eight on record-keeping and four actually preparing and submitting the forms. Average start-to-finish time burdens for 1040A and 1040EZ filers are seven and five hours, respectively. For most filers, there just aren't enough hours left in the day, if you're starting from scratch.

Filing an extension is easy and relatively painless, said Tobias, who is also a certified financial planner. Spend your time today doing as much prep as you can to determine what, if anything, you owe the IRS, he said. Your payment must be sent electronically or by mail today, even if it's not accompanied by a return  otherwise, late-payment penalties may kick in, depending on how much you've already paid and how much you owe. (See our guide for tips to navigate the extension process.)

Other avenues procrastinators might take, in comparison, have more expensive consequences. Rushing through last-minute prep is one of the worst things you can do, Tobias said. You might make a mistake  which would require you to file an amended return. Such filers can face penalties if they owe the IRS more than originally anticipated, while those hoping for a refund often have their money tied up for months. The IRS estimates processing of amended federal returns can take 16 weeks. (See our guides below to commonly missed tax deductions.)
The economic impact extends beyond the Latino consumer to the Latino entrepreneur. The State of Latino Entrepreneurship 2015 Report, created by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI), highlighted data that reveal the economic impact that Latino-owned businesses (LOBs) have on the U.S. economy.

Housed within Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative is a unique research collaboration between Stanford University and the Latino Business Action Network (LBAN), a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization located in Palo Alto, California. This report also debunked several myths regarding the markets and industries in which LOBs are found.

Latinos are significantly impacting the growth in number of small businesses in the United States. The State of Latino Entrepreneurship 2015 report revealed that between 2007 and 2012, the number of LOBs grew by 46.9 percent compared to just 0.7 percent for non-Latino owned businesses, an extraordinary level of entrepreneurship that suggests Latinos play a substantial role in local job creation and economic development.

A closer look at the growth in the number of small businesses between 2007 and 2012 shows that 86 percent of the growth in all small businesses during this time can be attributed to LOBs In fact, without LOBs the United States would see a serious drop in the number of small businesses.


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The UK's "generation rent" may be priced out of home ownership, but renting is also on the rise among a very different group: London's super-rich. After stamp duty increased on expensive homes and prices began falling in the capital's wealthiest areas, potential buyers of homes worth more than 10m are increasingly opting to become tenants instead. Agents said uncertainty over the UK's referendum on EU membership and concerns about the use of offshore companies for property purchases following the Panama Papers leak may add to the shift. The number of lettings deals on homes worth more than 10m each year has more than doubled since 2011, and rose almost a third in the year to March 2016 from the previous year, according to figures from Knight Frank, an estate agency.

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At the same time, sales of such homes fell to 138 in the past year from a peak of 206 a year earlier, a drop of 33 per cent. "No one is predicting that homes at the top end will be worth 10 per cent more in the near future and most people think they will be worth less," said Henry Pryor, a buying agent. "It is much easier to make a decision to rent and make sure that if you do buy it's something you really want." More from the Financial Times :



My broken-arm method for getting more work done

Brazil congress votes to impeach Rousseff

Passenger jet landing at Heathrow feared struck by drone Tom Bill, head of London residential research at Knight Frank, said stamp duty on a 15m home now totalled 1.7m  equivalent to three years' rent. The duty is even higher if the buyer already owns another home, following reforms brought in this month. The length of "super prime" rentals has also been increasing, reaching an average of two years after moving between 12 and 17 months for the previous five years.
Most U.S. producers seem equally uninterested in cutting production. Oil industry analysts say there are several reasons the decision to stop pumping when prices fall is not as straightforward as it may seem.

For starters, the cost of producing a barrel of oil varies widely from one well to another, based on the initial cost of finding and developing the oilfield, along with the costs of borrowing, operations and maintenance.

Some of the recent expansion of U.S. crude production, for example, has come from so-called "stripper" wells  once abandoned sites that are seeing new life thanks to advanced production techniques. Many of these are profitable even at current market prices.

But at $40 a barrel, roughly 2 million barrels a day of current global crude output costs more to pull out of the ground than it's worth, according to an analysis of global oil production by Wood Mackenzie, a commodities market research firm.
Nazir Razak, chief executive officer of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd., speaks during the Invest Malaysia Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Monday, June 9, 2014.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's brother took a voluntary leave of absence from his role as chairman of CIMB Group Holdings ahead of an independent inquiry into money transfers to his personal account, a company source said.

The decision follows revelations last month that Nazir Razak received $7 million in funds in his personal account from the prime minister before the country's 2013 elections.

Nazir announced his plans on Monday to shareholders attending the annual general meeting (AGM) of Malaysia's second-biggest lender by assets, said the source, who asked not to be identified as the announcement was not yet public.

CIMB has commissioned an auditor to carry out an independent review of the bank's processes, the source said, adding that Nazir felt it was right to go on leave during the investigation.
At the same time, oil demand has come in on the weaker side in the first two months of 2016 following exceptionally strong demand growth in 2016. The warm winter in the Northern hemisphere clearly hurt demand; slower economic growth also might have contributed to this slump. We are sticking to our forecast for an increase of 1.1 million to 1.2 million barrels per day in oil demand this year, but will monitor incoming data over the coming months as weaker demand growth could delay a market rebalancing.

With the oil market remaining oversupplied by 1 million to 1.5 million barrels per day, the burden to adjust remains on non-OPEC producers, particularly the U.S., due to their relatively short lead times between price changes and the supply response. Low oil prices are needed in the current quarter to ensure sufficient capital expenditure cuts, which should enable the oil market to rebalance towards the end of this year. Hence, we expect Brent crude oil prices to drop towards $30 a barrel in the course of the current quarter.

With respect to the longer term, however, capital expenditure cuts are slowly becoming visible. Non-OPEC supply growth (year-over-year) stood at 2.9 million barrels per day at the end of 2014. Supply did not grow in December and January and preliminary data indicate large year-on-year declines in February and March 2016. Low oil prices curbed capital spending worldwide by an estimated 24 percent last year and could trim another 20 percent from capex this year.
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Low oil prices, economic sanctions, political isolation and capital outflows have made for a torrid couple of years for Russia's economy, but the country's finance minister has told CNBC that the worst is now over.

"We see that growth rates of the economy are improving, to be more precise, the slowdown of the last year was a contraction (in gross domestic product) of 3.7 percent and this year we are expecting a contraction of 0.3 percent," Anton Siluanov told CNBC on the outskirts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank spring meetings in Washington D.C.



Syntheticmessiah | iStock | Getty Images Plus

"We expect growth rates to be restored at the end of the year," he added.

Russia is one of the world's largest oil exporters but its economy has been hit by a double-whammy of low oil prices and international sanctions. Western nations imposed the penalties for its annexation of Crimea and what they called its "deliberate destabilization" of eastern Ukraine.

Lower and cheaper oil exports have hit government revenues hard but the finance minister said that the oil price had presented Russia with an opportunity to "further develop non-raw material industries" and diversify its economy away from the commodity.

"What is important is that the structure of the economy is changing. So-called tradable sectors which were depressed, during the period of the high oil prices and strong ruble rate, are now growing while the so-called non-tradable sectors are today in a worse situation," he said.

The structural shift in the economy could also, he hoped, "stimulate the growth of those sectors and bring added value to our economy which will not be dependent on the commodities sector, but will be more dependent on technology reach and industrial sectors."

Sanctions were first imposed on Russia in mid-2014 soon after its annexation of Crimea in Ukraine  deemed to be illegal violation of Ukraine's sovereignty by the U.S. and Europe -- and since then, several rounds have been imposed to ratchet up the pressure on the country.

EU sanctions were extended in December until July 2016 and the EU said it was ready to reverse its actions and to "reengage with Russia when it starts contributing actively and without ambiguities to finding a solution to the Ukrainian crisis."
Netflix co-founder and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Marc Randolph told CNBC on Monday he's not bothered by the fierce competition in online streaming video. "As each of these services begins creating their own content, it purely creates an explosion of choice. And I think that's a wonderful thing," Randolph said in a "Squawk Box" interview from the eMerge Americas technology conference in Miami. His comments come in the wake of Amazon saying Sunday it's offering its video-streaming service as a stand-alone option for $8.99 per month, a dollar cheaper than Netflix's standard plan and a dollar more than Hulu. Previously, the only way to get Prime Video in the U.S. was to buy an Amazon Prime membership for an annual cost of $99. Prime has lots of other perks, including free shipping on many items purchased on Amazon. "As a personal subscriber, I see no problem subscribing to multiple services. I just don't only watch Netflix. I do watch HBO. I do watch movies from Apple; just the same way I eat at different restaurants all the time," said Randolph, who started Netflix in 1997 with current chairman and CEO Reed Hastings. Competition validates the mission of Netflix to make it easy to watch content, Randolph told CNBC.

"When we were starting  it was a DVD-by-mail business," said Randolph, who was Netflix's first CEO. He was on the board until 2004. "We never imagined that we could take down Blockbuster and that we could pass HBO in subscribers."

"It's always been tough for Netflix, even from the very beginning. Any start-up is tough. And as you crest one hill and you think you've achieved something, you only see a bigger mountain in the future," Randolph reflected, saying he's "more surprised than anybody" at how much Netflix has grown over the years. Randolph said later Monday in a separate interview with CNBC on the sidelines of the eMerge Americas conference that he was particularly "proud and surprised and delighted" that "Netflix and chill" has been a part of America's lexicon  evidence of how mainstream the service has become. Randolph said it's a "little bit funny" that one of his largest accomplishments as an entrepreneur is helping people bide time in the evening or get through exam weeks and even "help the population explosion"  a nod to the "Netflix and chill" slang phrase. Randolph said he can still remember the first time he saw "Netflix" as a clue in a New York Times crossword puzzle. "It astounded me that Netflix  had been popular enough to become part of popular culture," he said. Since Randolph retired in 2004, the company has expanded considerably with more than 75 million members. Netflix faces its next challenge Monday evening when the company reports quarterly earnings. Netflix shares were down more than 4 percent midday Monday on the Amazon news. But the stock is up more than 30 percent over the past 12 months, and has risen about 220 percent in the past five years.
Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes said Monday the company is taking several steps to correct its lab testing issues.

"We've stopped testing and we've taken the approach of saying 'let's rebuild this entire laboratory from scratch so that we can ensure it never happens again,'" Holmes told NBC's "TODAY" show. "I feel devastated that we did not catch and fix these issues faster."



This was Holmes' first interview since U.S. health regulators proposed banning her Silicon Valley start-up from the blood-testing business for at least two years.
These treaties, which the United States, Canada, Mexico, and most of Europe have signed, requires these countries to establish criminal offenses for the production, cultivation, extraction, possession, and sale of marijuana. The required criminal offences carry with them harsh penalties that often lead to the imprisonment of individuals or groups that violate the terms of the treaties.

If the UN addresses marijuana legislation in these terms, this may be the very lynch pin in the United States for reclassification of marijuana, removing it from its current status as a schedule one drug like heroin and LSD. In 1988, the UN held discussions on this topic that resulted in no significant changes. However, many things have changed since 1988, particularly in terms of marijuana, and not just in the United States; Canada, Portugal and Uruguay have all made history (and headlines) with legislative changes on a national level, all in violation of the U.N. Treaties.

So now, in 2016, we have our chance to change these international treaties, and begin to reform how countries enforce drug laws, which in turn, will pave the way for the United States to start considering change on a federal level. The only way for medical marijuana to be accepted nationally is with a well-regulated marketplace.

History has taught us that the more regulated an industry, the more voters and politicians will support the change to allow its legal and regulated commerce. Look at tobacco and alcohol. These are well-regulated industries that generate jobs and taxes for the country, whether we approve of them or not. We need to stand up to the anti-legalization lobby, namely the pharmaceutical and alcohol lobby. We cannot let politics get in the way of patients getting their medicine.
Washington Post Tokyo Bureau Chief Anna Fifield just published a genuinely excellent piece today about the Tokyo subway system. I say that with complete honesty, because I thoroughly enjoyed everything about it. It was informative, filled with great pictures, and even funny. But I'm also disappointed because the article deserves to be read by the most people possible, and something omitted from the piece probably will reduce its clicks by half.

You see, while Fifield includes nine key reasons why the Tokyo subway is so enviable there's nothing in the feature piece that even briefly attempts to explain why it's so good. I'm not sure why this essential fact is left out of the article, but don't you think a core difference between Tokyo's wonderful mass transit and our spotty systems here in the U.S. should have been mentioned... at least once?

Read MoreThe best American export is...

I'll cut out the suspense and say it: Tokyo's subway is privately run! Yes, it's true and it's been true since 1987. It also runs at a profit.

Now to be fair, it was the Japanese government that was responsible for this genius move. It set up the private companies that run the subway systems in the mega city and then left them mostly alone. This was not the result of an existing private rail corporation that swooped in to save mass transit. But the move also was an educational example of good government. Because it was one of those rare times when a government admitted there was something important it could not do well, and decided to let someone else run it instead. Even though the government owns the "private" companies, they run mostly independent of the government and day-to-day political pressures. It makes all the difference in the world and has made not only the continuing efficiency possible, but also the much-needed expansions of the last three decades.

Again, it's really a shame that this very important fact was left out of the piece, for no other reason that it would have made it much more likely to appear on the Drudge Report and a few dozen other conservative-leaning sites. Sometimes the media's tone deafness about non-liberal Americans wanders far from the political pages and infects the entire enterprise.

Read MoreIs lobbying all washed up?

I don't know if tone deafness, outright bias, or just an oversight is responsible for the exclusion, but it's a shame all the same. But maybe everyone reading this will at least get some ammunition the next time someone asks them who other than the government will build the (rail) roads?
With the U.K. referendum on its membership of the European Union fast approaching, several high profile names have detailed what a "Brexit" could mean for the country.

WPP CEO Martin Sorrell told CNBC on Monday that "you're better off trying to change the rules of the club inside rather than banging on the door outside."



Sorrell said that most of the advertising giant's clients believe a Brexit would be damaging for the economy, certainly in the short to medium term.



"Long term, we don't know. We're sort of stepping into a black hole, so being part of the European community  I think is economically the best case," he said.



On issues of immigration and terrorism, the WPP chief said that's where the debate gets "very emotional."



"As a second-generation immigrant, my own view is that immigrants add benefit to the economy," he said.



British citizens are due to vote on June 23 on their country's future relationship with the EU. In an interview from Washington on Friday, British finance minister George Osborne told CNBC that "leaving would cause an economic shock and a long-term economic cost for the U.K."



Osborne added that the referendum is "a big democratic exercise" that helped to resolve uncertainty about the U.K.'s role in the EU. He told CNBC that he hopes Britain will remain in the union and then "get to work on reforming the EU."
"The U.S. has always been a factor. ... It will remain the biggest factor in the rebalancing of the market," said Edward Morse, global head of commodities research at Citigroup. "The U.S. is going to make a disproportional contribution to the market's rebalancing."

With the failure of OPEC and other major oil-producing nations to reach a deal to cap output, focus shifts to the U.S. industry's role as a relatively new "swing producer."

U.S. shale drillers created the world's oil glut, and now they could be the biggest force in ending it.

Workers wash off hoses that are part of the oil rig owned by Liberty Resources, located just outside of Tioga, ND in the Bakken region of US.

Morse said he expects 1.3 million barrels of non-OPEC production to come offline this year, and 600,000 barrels will be from the United States. The U.S. was the biggest force behind the world's oil glut, with the upstart shale industry helping to boost U.S. production by more than 4 million barrels over five years.

The drop in crude prices is hurting oil-producing nations which have been forced to cut budgets amid the sharp drop in revenues. Oil workers in Kuwait this weekend went on strike due to wage and benefit cuts resulting from the decline in prices.

But nonetheless, OPEC and non-OPEC producers this weekend ended their meeting in Doha, Qatar, with no deal to freeze oil output. Saudi Arabia, OPEC's biggest producer, held firm in its position that Iran would have to be part of the deal. But Iran refused to join a freeze and its representative stayed home.

Read MoreSaudis want to inflict more pain on producers: Kilduff

"The big decision from Riyadh is to take decision-making away from the exporters and leave it to the market," said Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS.

The decision also was seen as a clear directive straight from Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who has said there would be no deal without Iran. Bin Salman now says the kingdom could even increase its production  by another 1 million barrels a day.

Read MoreU.S. oil output drop is 'buying time'

"What this does is it restates Saudi Arabia's pre-eminence in the world oil market  it has a unique position and flexibility that nobody else has. The current mantra is 'Let the market manage the market,' and the phrase they'll use is 'We'll produce the barrels our customers want.' What this does is it reasserts their power in the world oil market," said Yergin.

Saudi Arabia was the driving force behind OPEC's decision in late 2014 to move to a market-based policy, in an effort to maintain its market share and knock out high-cost production, like U.S. shale.

U.S. production continued to grow for several months after that decision, peaking at 9.7 million barrels a day in April 2015. Last week, output was just under 9 million barrels a day, the lowest level since October 2014. "By some time in the summer, it will be down to 8.3 million barrels a day," Yergin said.

Read MoreThis Saudi millennial could scuttle oil deal

Morse said once production growth restarts after the shakeout, the U.S. should also be the leader in increasing output in 2017 and 2018.

Michael Cohen, head of energy commodities research at Barclays, said talk of the freeze agreement had inflated oil prices by about $5 to $7 a barrel and that has started to come out of the price.

West Texas Intermediate oil futures were trading at $39.86 per barrel Monday, a drop of 1.3 percent. Oil had been off as much as about 7 percent overnight. Kuwait's strike reduced production there by about 2 million barrels a day, and that was seen as a factor supporting oil prices Monday.

Crude prices had risen 55 percent since their lows in February, which came just before producers agreed to discuss a freeze.

Read MoreEnergy stocks fall on Doha deal news

"It's hard to say because everything is intertwined to the extent that dollar weakening was part of it," he said. "There was a significant amount of disrupted oil that came off the market in the last month, whether it was Colombia, Iraq, Nigeria or the rebalancing of U.S. tight oil."

Cohen said the producers may have ironically hurt themselves by driving up the price with deal talk. "We would be two months closer to a rebalancing of the market if we stayed at $35," he said.



Many analysts expect the market to stabilize in the second half of the year, and they still see the potential for oil to reach $50 per barrel by the end of the year.

Read MoreWhy Doha no deal could be good for oil prices

Morse said he projects oil prices to be impacted by the lack of a deal, but they could move up to the low $40s to mid-$40s in the third quarter and reach the low $50s at the end of the year.

"We still expect one way or the other, the price looks like it will be at that $40 to $50 range in the second half of the year," said Yergin. "With the freeze, it would have gotten there earlier ... there's a question about Kuwait, declining U.S. production. Declines elsewhere just because investment slowed down."



The global oil industry continues to overproduce by 1.5 million barrels a day, and supply has to get closer to demand in order for the glut to clear.



Read MoreThe 30-year-old prince who is changing the world

The International Energy Agency last week said that the expected drop-off in U.S. production was beginning to accelerate, and that the oil market could get close to being balanced in the second half of the year.



The U.S. industry is also seeing stockpiles grow but it has now begun refinery maintenance season, typically a period of lower oil demand as refineries get ready to switch to summer gasoline production.
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Global oil prices and stock markets tumbled on Monday after major oil producers failed to agree on a deal to freeze output, but analysts are insisting that no deal is actually the best possible outcome for markets. Equity and oil markets have been hit after talks among 16 global OPEC and non-OPEC producers in Qatar on Sunday failed to produce any deal to freeze production. There were hopes that a freeze would support oil prices, which have fallen dramatically since mid-2014 due a glut in supply and lagging demand.



Despite the collapse of talks, oil market watchers said the lack of a "Doha deal" would be better in the long term and would mean that a rebalancing process of supply and demand can continue to its natural conclusion.

"We can see it as the rational decision that there has been no decision (in Doha)," Michele Della Vigna, co-head of European Equity Research at Goldman Sachs, told CNBC on Monday. "It has taken 18 months to start to rebalance the oil market with falling non-OPEC production in a variety of countries and demand showing signs of recovery which means we are getting there, we're getting to a new equilibrium." "So why delay it with a self-defeating rally that would bring an oil price to above $40 a barrel too quickly and one that would incentivize producers to ramp back up production?" he asked.

Talks at the weekend fell apart after Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of 13-member oil producer group OPEC, said it would not freeze output levels if fellow member Iran did not participate in the freeze. But Iran, which didn't even attend the talks, had always said it was unwilling to freeze production levels as it seeks to regain its share of the market which was lost during years of economic sanctions.

While struggling OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers might not be so sanguine about a failure of talks admittedly not many producers or oil analysts were optimistic from the start. For one, Russia's finance minister told CNBC last week that his country, which is a major oil exporter and present at the talks, did not expect any price change after Doha.

Pressure and lower prices 'better'

Although market watchers had warned that political rivalry between the two Middle Eastern powerhouses would scupper any chance of a compromise and deal, stock and oil markets took the failure badly with Asian and European markets trading lower on Monday morning. Oil prices fell over 5 percent in early Asian trade and were still trading around $41.21 a barrel for benchmark Brent crude and $38.47 for U.S. WTI (West Texas Intermediate) in early European trade.

The slump in oil prices is continuing to pressure shale oil producers in the U.S. where production, exploration and rig counts have fallen back dramatically over the last 18 months. While price pressures continue to punish non-OPEC producers like the U.S., that drop in supply was helping markets as a whole. Goldman's Della Vigna said this continuing pressure on producers to cut supply was ultimately good for markets. "I think no deal is probably better for the longer-term because it continues this process of rebalancing and there is no rebalancing without pressure and pressure comes through lower oil prices, through tighter credit and we're seeing all of that playing out nicely," he said. Goldman said on Monday that it was maintaining its fourth-quarter 2016 forecast of $45 a barrel for WTI crude and said that its full-year 2017 average WTi forecast was $58 a barrel, Reuters reported. In the short-term it said its forecast for $35 a barrel for WTI in the second quarter was now "more likely" following the decision not to freeze production.
Wildfire levels Wooldridge amid rash of natural cover blazes

The Wooldridge fire was the most severe in a rash of natural cover blazes in mid-Missouri since Friday, including multiple in Columbia.
Family Action Council of Tennessee President David Fowler speaks at a Legislative Plaza news conference Monday backed by about 30 pastors from the conservative Tennessee Pastors Network. At left is state Rep. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, and at right is Dale Walker, president of the pastors network and pastor of Union Hill Wesleyan Church in Whitleyville, Tenn. (Richard Locker/The Commercial Appeal)

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By Joel Ebert, The Tennessean

NASHVILLE  The House sponsor of a bill that would require students in public school grades K-12 and higher education institutions to use the restroom that corresponds with their sex at birth is killing the controversial legislation.

Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, said Monday she plans on delaying any action on the highly contentious measure in an effort to further study the issue.

"I have learned that our school districts are largely following what the bill says," she said while inside her office at the Capitol on Monday. "I am still absolutely 100 percent in support of maintaining the privacy of all students. But I'm going to roll the bill over until next year so we can work on those issues."

Lynn, who had been an outspoken proponent of the measure as it made its way through legislative committees, said school districts are protecting the privacy rights of all students and she was "confident that things will be OK" until next session.

The Republican lawmaker said the controversy surrounding the legislation, which included threats by some companies to withhold business from Tennessee, did not factor into her decision to halt the measure.

"I didn't have one letter from one company saying that they were pulling out of Tennessee or anything because of this bill," she said.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Herbert Slatery issued an opinion saying the state could be in jeopardy of losing more than $1.2 billion in federal Title IX funding if the bill became law. Title IX under federal law bars discrimination in education based on sex.

Lynn said the opinion did not address "exactly what we were looking for."

Backers of the bill, including sponsors Lynn and Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, said the legislation was needed to protect the privacy of students.

Lynn said that she talked about the controversial legislation with Gov. Bill Haslam, who expressed concerns about the Title IX funding.

"He indicated to me that he definitely supports the policy. It's just the time line and the strategy is just a concern," she said.

"It is no secret the governor had concerns about the legislation, and those were communicated to Rep. Lynn," said Jennifer Donnals, a spokeswoman for Haslam.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee praised Lynn's decision to kill the bill.

"Today's move helps ensure that every child in Tennessee will be treated with respect and dignity," said Hedy Weinberg, the organization's executive director. "We will remain vigilant to ensure that all Tennessee children are treated equally under the law."

Lynn's announcement comes as competing groups descended on Capitol Hill on Monday to continue the battle over the bill, while a panel of senators delayed taking action on the controversial legislation during an afternoon session.

Family Action Council of Tennessee President David Fowler backed the bill and thanked Lynn and Bell for sponsoring it.

"But we join the thousands of parents across the state who are profoundly disappointed that at this point in the process Rep. Lynn has decided not to proceed with a bill that would have simply protected the privacy of the children they have entrusted to our public schools," Fowler, a former state senator, said in a statement.

He said he trusts lawmakers will bring the proposal back next year, and his group would back the effort again.

The latest development came on a day when supporters and opponents descended on the Capitol to make their voices known.

About 30 pastors from the conservative Tennessee Pastors Network joined Fowler and his organization to show support for the controversial bill.

Fowler downplayed the possible loss of business and federal education funding and sought to distance Tennessee's proposal from similar legislation passed in North Carolina.

"Ours only applies to the bathrooms and locker rooms in our public schools and colleges that may be used by young people," he said.

Around the same time, two transgender high school students  Henry Seaton and Jennifer Guenst  headed to Haslam's office to deliver more than 67,000 signatures from Tennesseans, including nearly 6,000 people who identified as clergy or people of faith, who are opposed to the measure.

"I'm a boy  I live my life as a boy, my friends know me as a boy, my parents accept me as a boy. I shouldn't have to use the teacher's bathroom because some politicians feel uncomfortable with who I am," Seaton said in a statement.

Seaton said the legislation would "legalize bullying" and "stigmatize and humiliate" transgender students.

In recent weeks, opposition to the legislation mounted. Last week, executives from 60 businesses, including Cigna, Hilton Hotels, Dow Chemical Co. and Alcoa Inc., signed a letter that was delivered to the Republican leaders of both chambers expressing their concerns about the bill.

Staff writer Richard Locker contributed to this report.
The Commercial Appeal files April 14, 1962  Miss Memphis of 1962, Dotty Williams (center) and her court were crowned on April 14, 1962, at White Station High School. First alternate was Miss Rhea Looney (left) and second alternate was Miss Carole Weir.

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April 18

25 years ago: 1991

Holiday Inn, the Memphis-born company that became the world's largest hotel chain and an international symbol of hospitality, is leaving home. Executives of Holiday Inn Worldwide made the announcement Wednesday in a series of meetings with nearly 1,700 Memphis-area employees: Beginning May 1 the company will move its North American headquarters to Atlanta and close its extensive Memphis operations within one year.

50 years ago: 1966

Washington  Two Johns Hopkins University scientists said Sunday new findings concerning the planet Venus indicate there are large regions of the planet "where man would find the temperature comfortable." Dr. William Plummer and Dr. John Strong said that past measurements of emissions from Venus indicated very high surface temperatures. But they said, "There are large intermediate regions of the planet more extensive than the land area of the Earth." The planet, they said, appears to be the only other one in the solar system besides the Earth where "life, as we know it, is likely to exist."

75 years ago: 1941

Tennessee's ninth draft call for Negroes, issued yesterday at Nashville, calls for 238 men, 101 to be furnished by Memphis and Shelby County local boards.

100 years ago: 1916

The Supreme Court last Saturday, in refusing a writ to rehear the cases of Ralph Bowden and A.M. Keisker against the Memphis Street Railway, gave a final decision in a case that involves the right of a conductor to require white passengers to move forward from the seats set aside for Negro patrons.

125 years ago: 1891

The foul-mouthed and vulgar-tongued man has been making himself disagreeably conspicuous in public places. Yesterday a few of the species found lodging in the police station and will probably furnish an example to others.
April 18, 2016 - A student talks on a cellphone as her classmates are dismissed for the day to load the buses at Raleigh-Egypt High School Monday. On Tuesday, Shelby County Schools will discuss a grade reconfiguration proposal that would allow students in the Raleigh-Egypt feeder pattern of schools to bypass the middle school, which is entering the ASD next year. The change will turn an elementary school into a K-6 school and the high school into a 7-12 school. The proposal is in response to school board members asking the district to create options for students if they don't want to attend a school going into the ASD. (Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal)

SHARE April 18, 2016 - A student talks on a cellphone as her classmates are dismissed for the day to load the buses at Raleigh-Egypt High School Monday. On Tuesday, Shelby County Schools will discuss a grade reconfiguration proposal that would allow students in the Raleigh-Egypt feeder pattern of schools to bypass the middle school, which is entering the ASD next year. The change will turn an elementary school into a K-6 school and the high school into a 7-12 school. The proposal is in response to school board members asking the district to create options for students if they don't want to attend a school going into the ASD. (Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal) April 18, 2016 - A school official waves to a bus exiting Raleigh-Egypt High School Monday. On Tuesday, Shelby County Schools will discuss a grade reconfiguration proposal that would allow students in the Raleigh-Egypt feeder pattern of schools to bypass the middle school, which is entering the ASD next year. The change will turn an elementary school into a K-6 school and the high school into a 7-12 school. The proposal is in response to school board members asking the district to create options for students if they don't want to attend a school going into the ASD. (Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal)

By Jennifer Pignolet of The Commercial Appeal

Shelby County Schools may have found a creative way to help students bypass the state-run Achievement School District.

The school board on Tuesday will consider a proposal to convert Egypt Elementary into a school serving kindergarten through sixth grade, and Raleigh-Egypt High School into a seventh-through-12th-grade school.

This would allow students to bypass Raleigh-Egypt Middle, which will become an ASD school next year, without leaving their neighborhood. The move could also help SCS stop the exodus of students to charters and the ASD, which district leaders have said is a major contributing factor to the school district's $86 million budget gap for next fiscal year.

Board member Stephanie Love said the plan is in response to parents asking the district to do more when their school is slated for state takeover.

"I think this is the way of the school district showing the parents, instead of talking about it, we're actually going to do something about it," she said.

The concept was discussed in two community meetings in Raleigh earlier this month. The proposal is posted on the district's website attached to the agenda for Tuesday night's work session. A vote on the proposal would not come until the following week.

"At the December 15, 2015 meeting of the Shelby County Board of Education, the Board directed staff to develop scenarios that would provide students in schools that are entering the ASD with an opportunity to continue attending a Shelby County school," the proposal states. The reconfiguration "will expand the academic offerings and choices for 6th-8th graders in the Raleigh area."

On behalf of the ASD, an emailed statement from the Tennessee Department of Education expressed disappointment "in the implied reason behind the possible grade configuration change in the Raleigh-Egypt schools."

The statement continued that local districts are expected to "communicate accurate information to families about their choices, inclusive of the ASD, and avoid any communication that would confuse or mislead parents about the options for their children."

SCS did not provide a comment as of late Monday afternoon.

The proposal does not delve into details like capacity in each building or staffing necessary for each school. When a school enters the ASD, students are still zoned to that school, although they always have the option to attend another school through an open transfer process.

Love said that process would apply here, so students attending Egypt Elementary would have to apply to stay in the school for sixth grade, and then apply for a transfer into seventh and eighth grades at the high school.

The middle and high schools currently share a campus, but would merge into the same building. Love said middle school-aged students would be on a different floor than older students.

Love said she's not happy with the reason for the proposal, but that it's the best option given the situation. She also wouldn't rule out doing the same thing at other schools when the ASD has disrupted a feeder pattern.

"I see it as an option but I think we should do it (on a) school-by-school basis and not just say 'this is what we're going to do for all,'" she said.

The ASD by law is able to take over schools on the state's Priority List of schools performing in the bottom 5 percent. Scholar Academies is taking over Raleigh-Egypt Middle this fall.
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By Dana Milbank

WASHINGTON  As Donald Trump stumbles in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, one group has been sorely disappointed by his belated display of weakness: Democratic operatives, who had been hoping fondly to run against him in November.

Democrats' delight at the prospect of a Trump candidacy is well-founded. Last week's Washington Post-ABC News poll found that an impressive 67 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump and only 31 percent have a positive view  far worse than Ted Cruz (36 percent positive, 53 percent negative) or Hillary Clinton.

All signs suggest Trump would be an electoral disaster for Republicans, but I won't join those who for that reason want him to be the Republican nominee. The important thing is not what's best for Democrats but what's best for the country  and that means not having a race-baiting demagogue as the nominee of a major party.

I'm no Cruz booster. I've called him, at various points, a modern-day McCarthy and a prolific fabulist who isn't above using an anti-Semitic dog whistle when he condemns "New York values." Many of Cruz's policies  on gay rights, health care and Social Security, for example  are more objectionable than Trump's.

But Trump isn't dangerous because he's conservative. He's dangerous because he seems willing to govern outside our constitutional system, with his talk of torturing prisoners and targeting innocent civilians, with his winking at violence at his events and his plans to block entry to the United States on the basis of religion.

Clinton is well-positioned to beat either man, but even if Trump is easier to defeat, his nomination alone would be a blow to America's global standing, which has already suffered from his success.

Cruz, in the Senate and in his campaigns, has embraced the most extreme conservative views. But I met Cruz 16 years ago (before his self-reinvention as a tea party guy) and I've spoken with many friends and acquaintances from college and law school. This has all led to one conclusion: Cruz, though undoubtedly conservative, is above all ambitious. And in service of that overriding ambition, he is perfectly happy to be a phony.

Doubt his phoniness? In an interview last week with Hamodia, a Jewish newspaper, he declared that "one seminal event that impacted me as a child was the Entebbe raid," in which Israeli commandos freed hostages of an airplane hijacking. "What the Entebbe raid said to me was, if you're a terrorist, you may capture an Israeli. ... But you are going to die." That struck Cruz as "a very Texan approach."

The raid that spurred such deep thoughts about the Jewish State and the Lone Star State was in 1976  when Cruz was 5 and not long after his family moved from Canada.

On the stump, Cruz talks about how Jimmy Carter supposedly "endorsed" Trump by saying Trump is "malleable" and Cruz is "not malleable." But Cruz is malleable, in one way: He won't let ideology get in the way of his ambition. (His straddle on the Senate immigration bill was artful, positioning himself to say he was for it if it succeeded, but against it if it didn't.) If he were to become president, his all-consuming ambition would drive him to succeed, which would mean jettisoning unpopular proposals. Cruz believes in Cruz  not in the tea party agenda he opportunistically rode to power.

Finally, unlike Trump, Cruz is a creature of democratic institutions. We see this now in the way he has, through his mastery of convention rules and his outreach to party insiders, outmaneuvered Trump in lining up commitments from delegates. It was always thus, going back to his days running for student government at Princeton and as a midlevel staffer aggressively climbing his way through George W. Bush's presidential campaign.

Trump has talked blithely about ordering the military to do illegal things; his bravado suggests he's not inclined to let small things such as the separation of powers get in his way. He concurred with a supporter's crude remark in calling Cruz insufficiently committed to torture. And Cruz hasn't joined Trump's lawless call for killing the noncombatant relatives of terrorists: "We've never targeted innocent civilians and we're not going to start now."

This is why Cruz is less dangerous than Trump. Cruz is often dishonest and he takes extreme and sometimes appalling positions. But he has shown an inclination to play by the rules  and that's a safeguard Trump doesn't offer.

Dana Milbank is a columnist for The Washington Post.
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By E.J. Dionne

WASHINGTON  Any doubt that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are fed up with each other was put to rest in last Thursday's debate. In big block type, the New York Daily News proclaimed them "Brooklyn Brawlers." They went at each other as if there would be no tomorrow after New York votes. That's pretty much true.

You sensed from Sanders' aggressiveness that he knows he's on the edge of effective elimination. If he does win Tuesday, he'd throw the Democratic race into turmoil. A Clinton victory in New York, which polls suggest is more likely, would all but seal the deal for her.

So it's time to ask: Will both candidates now acknowledge that the differences between them are minor compared with the philosophical chasm that separates them from any of their potential Republican foes?

The issue of particular contention between the two Democrats is, paradoxically, the one that shows how far both are from the GOP: What to do about the financial system.

Sanders wants to break up the big banks, seeing anything less as selling out. Clinton argues that breaking them up won't solve the financial system's problems and wouldn't touch the many nonbank institutions that helped cause the crash that led to the Great Recession. Instead, she proposes much tougher regulation.

Their underlying argument is more than a century old, reprising an internecine progressive fight that goes back to the 1912 election. It was an American classic when the Republican Party split into two: the relatively conservative incumbent president, William Howard Taft, secured the party's nomination; former President Theodore Roosevelt walked out and formed the Progressive Party. Two other progressive candidates, Democrat Woodrow Wilson and Socialist Eugene Debs, rounded out the most remarkable field of candidates American voters were ever offered.

Although Sanders reveres Debs and has a medallion commemorating him in his Senate office, his position on the banks is closer to Wilson's approach to monopoly. Proclaiming his devotion to a "New Freedom," Wilson wanted more aggressive anti-trust actions and warned, Sanders-like, that the nation was nearing "the time when the combined power of high finance would be greater than the power of the government."

Roosevelt, arguing for a "New Nationalism," saw economic concentration as inevitable and believed Wilson's approach was naive. He saw stronger government regulation of large entities as more likely to secure both justice and efficiency. On finance, Clinton is the TR candidate this year.

I've always been sympathetic to Roosevelt's side in that argument, but the larger point is that Sanders and Clinton (like Wilson and Roosevelt before them) both see government as playing an important role in checking concentrated economic power and preventing abuses of the system.

The Republicans? Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich would all reduce government supervision of the financial system by repealing the Dodd-Frank reforms. Clinton and Sanders are arguing about what needs to be done. The Republicans want to do less altogether.

Or take health care. Clinton and Sanders have battled fiercely about how to move forward from Obamacare, but both want to build on its successes. Republicans would repeal it. The two Democrats have squabbled about how much the minimum wage should go up; the Republicans all oppose a federal minimum wage increase. Such party differences are multiplied across a broad field of issues.

At a time when ideological polarization between the parties is so high, such contrasts should be obvious. But the bad blood between many of Sanders' supporters and Clinton obscures the stakes and presents Democrats with a special challenge.

Their victories (compare 2008 with 2010, or 2012 with 2014) depend on high participation among younger voters who are turned on to Sanders and, in many cases, turned off to Clinton. The pro-Sanders young are unlikely to vote Republican, but if too many stay home in November, much of what Sanders and Clinton believe in could be consigned to the dustbin.

That's why the day after New York, the Brooklyn Brawlers would do well to sit down over a couple of Brooklyn Brewery ales and figure out a way forward.

Contact E.J. Dionne at ejdionne@washpost.com.
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When President Obama said in Havana last month that Google would be working to improve Internet access in Cuba, I wondered what Google might do in Cuba that other companies could not.

Today, Cuba is an Internet desert where only 5% of trusted elites are allowed to have (slow dial-up) Internet connections at home, and a paltry 400,000 people access the Internet through sidewalk Wi-Fi hotspots. These hotspots have existed for only a year or so. Also, some 2.5 million Cubans have government-created email accounts, but no Web access.

I spent a month in Cuba until last week, and I was there when the president spoke. I'm here to report that those government Wi-Fi hotspots are rare, slow and expensive. While in Cuba, my wife, son and I spent about $300 on Wi-Fi. In a country where the average wage ranges from $15 to $30 per month, connecting is a massive financial burden available only to a lucky minority with private businesses or generous relatives in Miami.

Mike Elgan Google's equipment exists in just one building at Havana's Museo Organico Romerillo. But Google branding is everywhere, including this snack bar on the other side of the museum compound.

And this is why I think the possibilities of what Google might accomplish in Cuba are misunderstood.

It's not as if Cuba would have ubiquitous, affordable and fast Internet access if it just had the money or expertise to make it happen. The problem is that Cuba is a totalitarian Communist dictatorship.

The outrageous price charged for Wi-Fi in Cuba can't possibly reflect the cost of providing the service. The price is really a way to restrict greater freedom of information to those who benefit from the Cuban system.

The strange Wi-Fi card system is also a tool of political control. In order to buy a card, you have to show your ID, and your information is entered into the system. Everything done online using a specific Wi-Fi card is associated with a specific person.

The Cuban government allows people to run privately owned small hotels, called casas particulares, and small home restaurants, called paladares. The owners of these small businesses would love to provide their guests with Wi-Fi, but the Cuban government doesn't allow it. Nor does it allow state-owned restaurants, bars and cafes to provide Wi-Fi.

Google is connected to the global Internet through satellite networks. Cuba is connected to the Internet by an undersea fiber-optic cable that runs between the island and Venezuela. The cable was completed in 2011, and it existed as a "darknet" connection for two years before suddenly going online in 2013.

So here's the problem with Google as the solution: The Cuban government uses high prices and draconian laws to prevent the majority of Cubans from having any access to the Internet at all. The government actively prevents access as a matter of policy. It's not a technical problem. It's a political one.

In other words, Cuba doesn't need Google to provide hotspots. If the Cuban government allowed hotspots, Cubans would provide them.

Everyday Google tech is 'Art' in Cuba

While I was visiting Cuba, a permanent "exhibit" called Google+Kcho.MOR was on display at an art and cultural center in Havana that also promotes technology. Kcho (pronounced "KAW-cho") is the nickname of a brilliant, enterprising, prolific and self-promoting Cuban mixed-media artist named Alexis Leiva Machado. Kcho lives at the center, which he deliberately built in the traditionally poor Havana neighborhood of Romerillo, where he grew up. The M-O-R at the end of the exhibit's name are the initials of the walled, multibuilding compound: Museo Organico Romerillo.

I took a Cuban death-cab to the Museo Organico Romerillo. And, no, the cab wasn't one of those awesome American classico beauties from the 1950s that you see in all the pictures of Cuba. The vehicle was a tiny, charmless Eastern European clunker from the 1970s with a top speed of about 45 mph, stripped on the inside of all paneling and lining (presumably by a fire, because everything was black inside) and held together by wire, tape, glue and optimism -- and I swear the exhaust pipe was somewhere inside the car. (Oh, what this correspondent isn't willing to do for his cherished readers.)

The exhibit is an astonishing oddity to Cubans who have never traveled abroad, but it's packed with oldish, cheap, everyday Google gear: 20 Chromebooks, Google Cardboard goggles powered by Nexus phones -- and something that has never, ever existed anywhere in Cuba: free Wi-Fi.

Of course, there's no such thing as free Wi-Fi, especially in Cuba. Kcho reportedly pays the Cuban government some $900 per month for the access. The free Wi-Fi, which I saw scores of locals using with their phones, is really subsidized. The Cuban government still gets paid. (The password for the free Wi-Fi is abajoelbloqueo -- which translates, roughly, to "down with the embargo.")

The free Wi-Fi is the same slow, unreliable connection that a minority of Cubans elsewhere get to enjoy, minus the cost and the cards. The Chromebooks, on the other hand, offer a magic Google connection some 70 times faster than regular Cuban Wi-Fi. Only 20 people at a time can enjoy the fast-connection Chromebooks, and each for just one hour at a time. When I was there, every Chromebook was in use, and each user's focus on the screen was total, as you can imagine.

The "exhibit" also had Google Cardboard viewers. (I had read the center has 100 of them, but I saw only about a dozen.) To use them, you ask a guy working there, and he grabs a Nexus phone from a drawer and walks you through the process of launching the Cardboard app and starting it. Each Cardboard viewer has preloaded content -- in my case I enjoyed a Photosphere of Tokyo.

During the half hour I spent in the Google+Kcho.MOR space, nobody else tried Google Cardboard. And that makes sense. With no ability to create or explore Carboard content, it's just a parlor trick to be enjoyed for a minute or two. I got the feeling that all the people there had "been there, done that" with Cardboard and resumed their obsession with Internet connectivity.

It was, however, obvious that the two people helping us were used to minds being completely blown by the Google Cardboard and Chromebook experiences. I didn't have the heart to mention that I've owned several pairs of Cardboard for two years and Chromebooks for three years.

The Google+Kcho.MOR installation is called an "exhibit," but it's not. In reality, it's a co-marketing, co-branding effort.

Mike Elgan The Google+Kcho.MOR space in Havana has books and art, but the main draw is the fastest Internet in Cuba, featuring Google Chromebooks.

For the Kcho "brand," it's a "gateway drug" to lure Cuba's youth to the museum and get them excited about art, culture and the world of Kcho. Along with a cheap snack bar, the free Wi-Fi and the hour a day on the fastest laptops in Cuba successfully bring hundreds of Cuban kids to the center each day, and the Google+Kcho.MOR is the main event.

For Google, it's a massive branding effort. (Google declined to comment for this story.)

Nobody was willing to talk about it, but it's clear that Google is spreading some cash around here. There's so much Google branding on everything in and on the Google+Kcho.MOR building, it looks like it could be at the Googleplex itself.

Even elsewhere in the compound, the Google logo is everywhere. It's in several outdoor spots where the free Wi-Fi is used, including all over the snack bar that serves coffee and soda.

If you're reading this, you probably live in a country awash in marketing, co-marketing and branding on every surface. But the ubiquity of Google branding at the entire Museo Organico Romerillo compound may be unique in Cuba. This is a country without a single Coca-Cola sign or billboard, zero ads anywhere for anything (other than political propaganda for the revolution and its leaders and ideals).

During the month I spent in in Cuba, I saw exactly six major public consumer branding units, and all of them were at the Museo Organico Romerillo, and all of them were about Google (and Kcho). That makes Google by far the most heavily branded and marketed company in Cuba -- in fact, the only one.

As far as I can tell, Google is getting away with it only because Kcho is massively favored by the Castro regime and the marketing is all presented as "art" or in the promotion of art.

What Google is really accomplishing in Cuba

Google appears to have begun its entry into Cuba in June 2014, when its executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, visited Cuba after slamming the U.S. embargo in a Google+ post. The visit was not reported in Cuba at the time.

Schmidt was accompanied on his trip by Brett Perlmutter, who was later appointed Cuba lead for Alphabet, Google's parent company, as part of the Jigsaw organization, a "think tank" that actually initiates programs for making the world a better place, and was formerly known as "Google Ideas."

In January 2015, Perlmutter, as well as Jigsaw's deputy director, Scott Carpenter, toured Cuba together.

One of their goals on that trip was to visit computer science students at the University of Information Science, as well as young Cuban Internet users. Another goal, it's easy to guess, was to meet with cultural figures like Kcho, and also key figures in the Cuban government.

Put another way, Google has been making friends and laying the groundwork for a future when the Cuban government allows greater and better Internet access.

Amira Elgan The author discusses the popularity of Google Cardboard with Cubans at the Museo Organico Romerillo.

No, Google isn't laying fiber, launching balloons or installing equipment all over Cuba. It's not planning to sprinkle fast, free, magic Google Wi-Fi all over the island.

The best Google can do for now is make friends and influence people.

Cuba won't join the rest of the world in ubiquitous Internet access until the Cuban government either becomes less repressive, or falls out of power. When that happens, Google, as the dominant and best-connected tech brand, will be ready.

Until then, no amount of magic Google pixie dust can help the Cuban people.
At New York Life, IT employees are training overseas workers to do their jobs. It's a difficult task that takes an emotional toll, and there are odd rules and processes to follow.

The training starts with sessions over the Web with the offshore contractors. Eventually, the IT employees expect to train the contractors in-person.

One IT employee, who is training replacement contractors, said she has been told by management not to ask the contract workers any questions. Even simple queries, like, "Did you have a chance to read this document?" or, "Are you familiar with this technology?" to the contract workers, from India-based Tata Consultancy Services, are not allowed.

"We should have the understanding that [the offshore contractors] have all the skill sets," said this IT employee, whose name cannot be disclosed because of the risk to her job. Asking questions is "like insulting the process."

There's also a regular survey process that seems like a Catch 22 system. As the replacement training moves along, the IT workers have to rate the offshore contractors on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest. If the contractor receives the highest score, the thinking among the employees is it may accelerate their replacement. If the contractor gets a low score, the IT employee may be blamed for providing poor training, which may also accelerate job loss.

"The employees are playing this game, playing defense, trying to figure out what to do," she said.

The IT employees also must be pleasant on the calls with contractors, not just matter-of-fact, but pleasant. The process is anything but that. As this IT employee, a computer science graduate, grappled with the reality of it, she said, "I break down. It's so hurtful."

Meanwhile, the offshore contractor on the calls is beginning to use possessive pronouns, saying "our" or "my" to show he is taking ownership of her job. "It's bad for my heart when I hear that," she said.

There was a time when working in IT was a good job, she said. Back then, there was promise, and computer science was a worthwhile major.

Computerworld

"I've been telling high school students and college students that you should not major in computer science anymore," she said. IT work has "turned into a factory job."

Two female employees were interviewed at the company and both are training their replacements. The interviews were arranged by Sara Blackwell, a Florida attorney who is representing Disney IT workers who were also replaced by offshore workers.

What New York Life is doing is no different than what goes on at many other companies. The employer offers a severance package to laid-off workers contingent on a successful "knowledge transfer."

In New York Life's case, the severance pay for the laid-off IT workers was described as three weeks' salary for the first year of employment, and two weeks for each year afterward, with reports of bonuses above that amount, according to employees. The company said it is offering "a generous severance package," and that employees are given 90 days' notice, and often more. There's a lump sum benefit, and for workers 50 and over, an early retirement benefit. The company's retirement benefit normally begins at 55.

New York Life employees were told in 2014 that the IT department was undergoing a transition. Last December, IT employees were informed specifically which technologies would be outsourced. It was a long list, according to a tape recording of the announcement made by another employee. The workers weren't told how many of them would lose their jobs, but the estimates they offer is higher than the company's report.

A New York Life spokesman said the company began last year with about 1,400 IT employees. By the end of the transition process in 2018, it expects that number to decline to about 1,000, including departures and new hires.

"So to be clear, we will be adding hundreds more New York Life employees with cutting-edge skills in analytics and big data, and complementing internal hiring with partners staffed for certain functions," said William Werfelman, a company spokesman.

New York Life is "a thriving 171-year-old life insurance company, not a technology company," he said.

"While we would prefer to control all of our technology capabilities in house and on-shore, we are not going to distinguish ourselves in technology by staying wedded to that concept," Werfelman said. "Even the expertise required to maintain our legacy systems has moved offshore," he said.

In order to maintain our position as a leader in our industry, we need to materially upgrade our capabilities, Werfelman said.

The company knows that "there will be pain along the way," Werfelman said, adding that it also knows that "parts of our business can now be performed by others who have made a specialty of certain capabilities." The contractors are also bringing in proprietary technology skills they don't have, he said.

Werfelman said throughout this process, New York Life, which employs 9,000 and also has 12,000 agents in the U.S., will continue hiring hundreds of employees.

"This is an important point, because to maintain our position as a vibrant and growing company, we must make decisions that allow the majority of our employees to remain active and thriving in our company," he said.

Werfelman said the company is treating the laid-off employees "with great respect." Some will be hired by the contractor firm, and "a few have been offered other jobs" at the company. They can also apply for other openings at the firm, he said.

The technologies put "under scope," or under consideration for outsourcing, include some networking functions, Windows, storage, disaster recovery, databases, VMware, Citrix and messaging. The belief among employees is that the majority of the work is being shifted to contractors.

The fate of women in the IT workplace is a public policy issue. Less than 15% of the bachelor's degrees awarded in 2014 in computer science and computer engineering went to women, according to the Computing Research Association's annual survey of enrollments at Ph.D-granting institutions.

President Obama has spoken about the need to increase women in STEM fields, but the White House has put a special emphasis on computer science.

In January, the Obama administration announced a $4 billion computer science training initiative. The corporate contributors to it included two of the largest IT offshore outsourcing firms, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services. Both are major users of H-1B visa workers. That visa is heavily used by offshore firms.

A second IT employee, who is also training Tata employees, said she had written to her senators and members of Congress about what was going on. "I didn't hear anything," she said.

"It's very devastating to see your friends saying good-bye. It's very devastating to see your friends crying. It's devastating to have to talk to [the contractors] -- to give them your job," this worker said.

For women, the experience of training offshore contractors may be particularly difficult.

Karen Panetta, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts University, has testified in Congress on behalf of IEEE-USA on the impact of the H-1B program on women.

The vast majority "of imported STEM workers" are men, and they "do not treat U.S. women well, or any other woman in the workplace well, because they come from cultures where women are not treated as equals," Panetta said.

"We are importing bad work cultures along with this cheaper labor. U.S. women will walk off the job rather than be treated like dirt," Panetta said.

"This is just another added barrier that helps justify to girls another reason why STEM careers are not for them. It hurts," she said.
IT employees at EmblemHealth are organizing to stop the New York-based employer from outsourcing their jobs to offshore provider Cognizant.

Employees say the insurer is on the verge of signing a contract with Cognizant, an IT services firm and one of the largest users of H-1B workers. They say the contract may be signed as early as this week.

They fear what a contract with an IT services offshore firm may mean: Humiliation as part of the "knowledge transfer" process, loss of their jobs or a "rebadging" to Cognizant, which they see as little more than temporary employment. Many of the workers, about 200 they estimate, are older, with 15-plus-year tenures. This means a hard job search for them.

The IT employees have decided not go quietly.

"We're organizing," said one IT employee, who requested anonymity. "We're communicating with one another. They need the knowledge that we have. They can't transition [to Cognizant] without the information that we have. That puts us in a position of strength -- they can't fire us for organizing; we're protected by the law," she said.

Computerworld interviewed two of the IT employees on Sunday; the interviews were arranged by Sara Blackwell, a Florida labor attorney who is helping the workers. She has held two conference calls with employees.

"The people at EmblemHealth have seen this happen to their other friends in the tech field, and they know what's happening," said Blackwell. "They are standing up not only for their rights" but "for the future of America."

The employees say there are about 60 IT employees involved in their organizing effort and the numbers are rising. Exactly what actions they will take remains to be determined.

A group recently "stormed" the insurer's HR offices seeking answers. It resulted in a series of meetings last week, where company officials tried to calm nerves. They told the workers that nothing has been finalized, and a contract with Cognizant has not been signed.

Employees also say the outsourcing may involve other departments outside of IT.

"Our immediate goal is to prevent them from signing the contract," said a second IT worker, and they want to do "whatever is possible."

"I think we're trying to use the window of opportunity," he said.

The second IT worker believes the insurer will put itself in a stronger position if it works with the employees it has, instead of shifting work to offshore workers.

But the contract with Cognizant sounds like it is a done deal, according to statement from the company.

In an email sent Monday, William Lamoreaux, chief operating officer at EmblemHealth, said: "We are committed to creating a stronger company that will provide the best possible service and products for our members. Employees impacted by these changes will receive assistance through severance packages and retraining opportunities."

EmblemHealth, a nonprofit firm, is facing financial difficulty, and the employees are aware of it. They are also aware of the trend to offshore outsourcing in their industry and others. But they also believe that they could update its legacy systems if given the chance.

The steps toward a shift to outsourcing have been going on for a considerable period of time, said employees.

In October, EmblemHealth changed its severance policies, the employees said. Now, if an employee is offered a position and doesn't take it, that employee will not get severance, the employees said. Employees who are laid off do receive severance. The changes are designed to all but force employees to take jobs with outsourcing firms.

Cognizant employees have been on-site gathering information. There have been preliminary meetings with employees.

The IT employees said it's been rough working at the firm but they have maintained their commitment and have strived to see it succeed. That includes working long hours with no bonuses or pay raises, and being on call around the clock.

"We worked and never missed a milestone," said the first IT worker. "We worked 80-hour weeks to get these things (systems) up."

One person who believes this type of organizational shift isn't healthy is Dr. Billie Blair, an organizational psychologist and author who heads Change Strategists, a consulting firm.

These offshore processes "are heart-wrenching; CFOs have definitely taken control of these companies and CFOs and their staffs function by numbers only -- they're not people people," said Blair.

"The mistake these companies make is that they have no hope their outsourced workers [will be] loyal, trustworthy kind of workers, as would a U.S citizen," Blair added.

Blair said corporations could do more to better the circumstances for both the employees and firm "but they are reticent about taking up the challenge."

For employees who go through the offshoring process, including knowledge transfer, "this kind of stress is very threatening to a person's well-being," said Blair.
Apple last week opposed the Department of Justice's renewed demand that it assist investigators in accessing a drug dealer's iPhone, arguing that the government has not proved the company's help is required.

"The government has utterly failed to satisfy its burden to demonstrate that Apples assistance in this case is necessary," lawyers for the Cupertino, Calif., company said in a brief filed with a federal court in New York on Friday. "The government has made no showing that it has exhausted alternative means for extracting data from the iPhone at issue here, either by making a serious attempt to obtain the passcode from the individual defendant who set it in the first place ... or by consulting other government agencies and third parties known to the government."

Apple's brief was its response to the government's appeal of a February ruling by Magistrate Judge James Orenstein, who rejected the DOJ's command that Apple help unlock an iPhone running 2013's iOS 7.

The case revolved around an iPhone used by a methamphetamine dealer, who pleaded guilty to charges last year. Even so, the DOJ continued to press Apple for assistance, citing a court order compelling the company to help authorities crack the device's security. Apple contested the order in October, a hint that it had drawn a line in the sand.

That line was scratched even deeper this year when Apple balked at a court order forcing it to craft a special edition of its iOS mobile operating system to unlock a different iPhone. That smartphone had been used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, Tafsheen Malik, killed 14 in San Bernardino, Calif., in December. The two died in a shootout with police later that day. Authorities quickly dubbed it a terrorist attack.

The San Bernardino case was dismissed after the FBI announced it had acquired a tool from a third party that was able to access Farook's iPhone without Apple's help.

Not surprisingly, Apple brought that up in Friday's brief.

"Further undermining the government's argument that Apple's assistance is necessary in these proceedings is the fact that only two and a half weeks ago, in a case in which the government first insisted that it needed Apple to write new software to enable the government to bypass security features on an iPhone running iOS 9, the government ultimately abandoned its request after claiming that a third party could bypass those features without Apples assistance [emphasis in original]," Apple said.

The government, Apple said, has essentially reiterated its original request for assistance -- asking a higher judge, Judge Margo Brodie, to review Orenstein's ruling -- but has not shown why his order should be overturned.

"Before the government demands that Apple do the work of law enforcement, the government must offer evidence that it has performed an 'exhaustive search' and that it remains unable to obtain the data it seeks without Apple's assistance," the company's attorneys wrote. "The government has failed to make that showing here and thus its application must be denied."

Apple also objected, as it had before, to the government's admission that authorities were casting for a precedent that would let them make future demands on the company.

"Law enforcement officials from the Attorney General to the FBI Director and the New York District Attorney have made clear that cases like the San Bernardino Matter and this case are intended to set a precedent, one that will support an avalanche of similar data access requests from across the country," Apple warned. "The government's arguments in this case ... confirm that the burden to Apple must be assessed not through the lens of a single phone or a specific operating system, but in light of the government's unambiguous intent to obtain a precedential ruling that can and will be used to support subsequent orders involving other iPhones running different operating systems and with a variety of security features."

This story, "Apple rebuts DOJ's appeal in N.Y. meth dealer's iPhone case" was originally published by Computerworld .
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.
Nadhim Zahawi is a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and MP for Stratford On Avon.

Tax evasion is an unacceptable practice. It must not just be condemned, but must be rigorously investigated, charges brought, and proper punishments handed out. We all pay taxes, at rates and in ways set out in law, in order to provide roads, hospitals and prisons; police, doctors and carers; and soldiers, pilots and submariners. They are what we pay for protection, security, and a civilised society.

I am sure that the Panama Files will provide HMRC with interesting reading  but the focus came upon on our Prime Minister, despite it being clear that he had done nothing that comes anywhere near what could be described as tax avoidance, let alone evasion. Sadly, a complete lack of evidence is not enough to discourage insinuation.

David Cameron has now released his tax returns, and other politicians around the UK have followed suit. But for those who believe that all politicians are corrupt, providing evidence to the contrary will not sway them  it will merely lead to dark mutterings about the levels at which the establishment will go to cover things up.

Some were also outraged by inferences that that inheritance the Prime Minister received from his father appeared to be just below the inheritance tax threshold. Even mentioning that tax is due on the entire estate, not individual bequeathments, has again not been enough.

People still want to be outraged. It has become clear that the reason is not tax avoidance, or tax evasion  but that Cameron and his family are wealthy.

There is absolutely no correlation between talent and accumulating wealth, many of the most talented people in the world have no wish to do so and have had wonderful careers doing amazing things. And making money through ill means, via corruption, unfair competition, or through patronage should be condemned; at least partly for bringing capitalism into disrepute.

But we cannot start to question whether people should be able to make money. If someone makes money because they have a brilliant idea or a clever investment, and if they have that bit of luck, combined with the hard work, passion and commitment to make it a success, then it should not be condemned.

This success do not just benefit individuals, it benefits the whole country. If people did not create wealth, our entire system would collapse. The left have a caricature of what only they term trickle down economics. But this is not about celebrating individual wealth or even the personal taxes they pay  its about economic growth, and the extra tax this provides.

If someone builds a company, their contribution to society is not just the tax they pay on their profits or the VAT paid by those who purchase their products and services. When new ideas come along they fulfil previously unmet needs of consumers and businesses. The world today would be poorer in every sense without Microsoft, Apple or IBM. Their contribution to society is not just their own products, but the products that others were able to provide because of them. They make some companies more competitive and allow others to be created; their growth and success enables more growth and more success.

But the benefits do not stop there. When a company succeeds and hires more staff, they pay employers national insurance and contribute to their pensions. When these employees earn their paycheques they pay income tax and their own national insurance contributions. They then use whats left over to buy goods and services of their own, pay VAT and support businesses and workers that they buy from.

And still the process continues. If anyone involved decides to save the money they make, then their bank will use the money to provide loans to businesses or to give a family a mortgage. Anyone that has enough savings will then pay tax on their interest. If anyone decides to invest in shares instead, they will be providing a company with the capital required to hire more staff, to design a new product or to build a new warehouse. Then they pay tax on income from dividends, or the profit when the shares are sold.

As a by-product of this system, the individual who builds or expands a business may get rich. Those that invested to provide the finances to get the business off the ground may get rich too. They should pay tax on this success, but that is only one way in which they benefit the country and this contribution should be celebrated.

Peter Mandelson once said, Im intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich, as long as they pay their taxes. Too many are moving away from this view, and now dont care about the taxes  they dont like people getting rich, and they dont like capitalism.

But through the spread of capitalism, the world has become better, safer, and freer than it is has ever been. It is richer than ever, but also fairer than ever. Across the planet, millions have been saved from malaria and millions more have been relieved from hunger because of funds released by economic growth and the extra taxation this provides.

Poverty, relative or absolute, must still be fought all over the world, but huge and undeniable progress has been made.

Capitalism is not just for the rich, it has been the best provider of better lives for all in the history of the world. Millions have benefitted from better jobs, better housing, better public services and better consumer products. According to the ONS, in 1972 42 per cent of homes had no telephone and 34 per cent had no washing machine. In 2011 86 per cent had a mobile (a figure that is surely now much higher) and in 2015 78 per cent of adults accessed the internet every day.

We stopped talking about how much better capitalism has made the world because it appeared the argument has been won. But it has not, the arguments need to be made again, not for the benefit of rich people but for the benefit of everyone in the UK and around the world. Its for the benefit of those who want ever improving products and services, ever better technologies and ever lower prices. Its for the benefit of those who want a well-paying job. Its for the benefit of those who need a strong economy to provide them with a strong safety net.

As Fraser Nelson said in the Spectator earlier this year, capitalisms worldwide onslaught against poverty is still the greatest story and its still not being told enough. We all must start defending capitalism, loudly and confidently, because this is a battle that no one can afford to lose.
Daniel Finkelstein argued recently that there are two Leave campaigns  and, no, he wasnt referring to Vote Leave and Leave EU (at least in the main). The first, he says, believes that Britain must be an open, free market, free trading nation, linked to the English speaking world, powerful in global trading bodies. The Leave message should be optimistic, daring and broad. The second is much more pessimistic, much more focused on what Britain has lost and stands to lose. It doesnt want some new English-speaking, free market internationalism. How much better would that be than the EU? It thinks the EU is too newfangled, not too modern.

I think that there is something in this analysis, and suspect that the first view  the hopeful, internationalist, global one  wasnt much to be found on the Out side during the 1975 referendum campaign. This reflects a change in the nature and outlook of the Leave coalition. You may like or dislike Boris Johnson, Gisela Stuart, Michael Gove, Priti Patel or Paul Keetch, but they are unquestionably modern-minded people, engaged with the world around them as it is, and not reflexively squinting back at a golden age that never was. Perhaps the defining characteristic of the other part of the Leave coalition  the UKIP-flavoured bit  is that this is precisely its default setting.

But if the balance of Leave has become more broad, that of Remain has shrivelled during the last 40 years. Glance upwards at the slogan above. It is from a 1975 referendum poster, and captures the core of the In campaign of that year  the emotional heart of the case then put for staying in the Common Market. As Lewis Baston pointed out on this site last week, the debate of 40 years ago was about far more than whether or not we should join a free trade area. The In campaign claimed that the European enterprise was a bulwark against communism, that it would modernise a backward Britain, that it would help heal the wounds of two Europe-sparked World Wars  and to prevent another.

Contrast that with the Remain campaign today. Big-minded and big-hearted enthusiasts for the EU project still exist  Nicholas Soames, John Major, Ken Clarke, Laura Sandys. But they are almost all either of an older generation than their outward-looking Leave equivalents, or from families that helped to take and keep Britain into the Common Market, or both. There is still a European Movement. But while the motto of In during 1975 might appropriately have been Wider Still and Wider, that of todays Remain campaign might just as well be Narrower Still and Narrower  in content, tone and purpose.

Today brings the latest episode in this Project Despair  a George Osborne-led Treasury Report promising the ten plagues of Egypt and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse if Britain votes to Leave. It follows hard on the heels of an IMF report threatening much the same horrors. French Ministers, Spains Government and EU Commissioners have all piled in. So, this week, will an American President. And so, too, have British Ministers (though one at least has apologised for her claims), as have senior British military figures (though some have turned out never to have been on board the Remain campaign at all).

What a miserable, shrunken, diminished, wee, sleekit, cowrin, timrous beastie of a campaign Remain is turning out to be! One can almost hear the wheels clicking and whirring in Downing Street as each latest release in this execrable series is mechanically ground out. There is more than a touch of the Wizard of Oz about the whole business  a hollowness behind the billowing smoke and booming voices. Where is the romance of the European cause? Has its global vision perished? Where is the idealism of 1975? (Vote Yes to keep the peace, the poster above declared at its foot.) Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Yet we Leave supporters mock the Remain campaign at our peril. Downing Street and its acolytes will have crunched the numbers. Hope and, more particularly, fear about one and ones familys income and jobs is more likely to swing the referendum than not. Better Together worked for the Union in Scotland. It may work for the European Union across the whole of the United Kingdom. Lord Cooper of Windrush may  as I did  have called the last election wrong. But the polling that fuelled the economy-focused campaign that No ran in Scotland did the job and saved the Union.

None the less, a question lingers: for how long? Once the heart of a cause falls sick, its survival is only a matter of time. For all the fall in the value of the price of oil since Scotlands referendum, it would be a brave man who forecast that its place in the union is secure. The long failure of Unionists to make a heart-led case for their cause has consequences that threaten today. Remain may win this battle but lose the war. After all, who can convincingly make a romantic case for what the EU is becoming? For Euro-heightened unemployment? For budgetary chaos? For foreign policy paralysis? For failing migration control?
Close

The Philippine presidential election for 2016 has been a hotspot for quotable quotes from the candidates. However, one nominee took center stage following his recent comments on rape. Rodrigo Duterte, who was a former mayor and the current frontrunner in the presidential elections this year, received backlash after he shared his desire to also take part in the rape of Australian minister Jacqueline Hamill.

"They raped all of the women," shared Duterte of the 1989 incident where prison inmates raped the ministers who went to Davao City for a mission, reported BBC. The Philippine presidential candidate added, "There was this Australian lay minister...when they took them out ... I saw her face and I thought, 'Son of a b****. What a pity! They raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought the mayor should have been first."

The comments of Duterte, particularly those that made fun of the gruesome incident, sparked outrage across the globe. A fellow candidate, Jejomar Binay, called the former mayor a "crazy maniac who doesn't respect women" while a women's group, called GABRIELA, demanded an apology from Duterte. They said, "Rape or any form of sexual abuse is not a joke, nor something to be trivialised in a joke, especially by those aspiring for the highest post in the land."

However, Duterte said his comments were not made to offend but were simply an expression of his emotions at the time. He said via Sydney Morning Herald, "I said it in the heat of anger. I'm sorry in general. I'm sorry to the Filipino people, it's my style, it's my mouth, I said it in anger - listen to the story behind it." He added, "It was not a joke. I said it in a narrative. I wasn't smiling."

Amid the uproar following Duterte's comments, the rape culture across the globe was pushed under the spotlight. Given the sheer number of rape victims today, it becomes important for the public to understand the need to be mindful of the feelings of these survivors. Here are some tips on what not to say to victims of rape and sexual assault.

1. Do NOT tell them ways they could have prevented it. Rape and sexual assault victims are already dealing with incredible loathing not only for their attackers but also for themselves. Blaming the victims would only deepen the pain and intensify their struggle. Nobody sets out to be raped. This is an unavoidable circumstance.

2. Do NOT minimize their pain. Telling rape and sexual assault victims that the traumatic experience was "just sex" is one of the most painful things one can do. Being aggressively forced to submit to another's desire and evil plans is an extremely humiliating experience. No one has the right to belittle a rape or sexual assault victim's suffering.

3. Do NOT accuse them of lying. Many rape and sexual assault victims are dubbed as attention seekers. Instead of offering sympathy and support, some people even question the intentions of the victims by saying that they only need to be under the spotlight. There are many ways to catch the public's attention. No rape or sexual assault victim would put their bodies, dignity and sanity on the line for fame.

Statistics from the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network reveal that 98 percent of rapists do not spend a day in jail. For every 107 seconds in a day, there is at least one rape victim in the United States alone. Despite the number of rape victims, 68 percent of the abuse are not reported to the authorities.

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A Reply To Chetan Bhagats Open Letter To Kashmiris

By Aejaz Ahmad

18 April, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Dear Chetan,

With unflinching reverence, I wish to thank you for your letter to all Kashmiris addressing your generous concerns, published on Times of India on 16th of April 2016. I, as a Kashmiri, therefore, consider it as my moral duty to write you back with some honest acknowledgements of the issues you have raised in your letter. Let me show your letter a Kashmiri mirror and see what it has to reflect you back.

First of all, your letter is the most hysterical, insensitive and materialist evaluation of Kashmir conundrum, Kashmiris and their plight ever written. You have successfully presented Kashmiris as drunkards who need to be paternalized and sensitized about what is ultimately good for them. Thank you for your concern towards them. But you seem to be saying that Kashmiris are under some false consciousness who must be brought out of it, apparently in accordance with your rational suggestions. By scaring people of Kashmir by their landlocked reality, you have successfully presented Indian help (of course you seem to be taking on behalf of all of them) just like a situation where a boatman sets a price for saving a life of a drowning person. This is indeed a beautiful materialist speculation that proves how lame your utilitarian concerns are. After all, social and political life is not about building bridges and roads. It needs a sensitive mind . Unfortunately, you seem to have missed your ethics classes.

Second, your suggestions for Kashmiris for their own sake successfully denies Kashmiris their 'agency to speak for themselves.' You have successfully made mockery of their emotional trauma that they have gone through since the last three decades. You have successfully sold off their emotions at five rupees per kilogram like iron trash. You might deem them as falsely protesting against atrocities, but, to use Partha Chatterjee words, if you define both their subjectivity and prescribe their predicament and also imagine for us the forms of their resistance, what do you really leave for them to imagine?(emphasis added). By the way, your utilitarian democratic credentials, after all, arent an outcome of some concrete and well informed theory, rather it is the result of your intuition, but unfortunately, an uninformed intuition, manufactured by soulless corporate media that sells institutional lies about what your Atoot Ang (Kashmir). But if you deny people their agency to speak for themselves, then let me also suggest you to get a life and refine your intuition. Ask yourself if your intuitionary understanding of the world is natural as it should be, but prejudiced beliefs that you never challenged.

You have been particularly concerned about half of the Kashmiri populace- women, to whom you have addressed a part of your letter. You have successfully scared women of Kashmir from the specter of Islam which, as per your Islamophobic beliefs, would undermine their rights in some determinate future. But, unfortunately, again your paternalistic suggestions to the Kashmiris women seem to entail that they are essentially lacking their self , as if the proper integration of Kashmir with India would give them back their lost self, as if Kashmir is any less integrated with India ! Well, I honestly acknowledge the gender discrimination across India and Kashmir is no exception to it. But your generous concern gives an impression that women outside Kashmir are liberated souls and that Kashmiri women should follow this epitome in suit. Please help yourself with National Crime Records Bureau Reports and see where you see Kashmir in terms of crimes against women in the list. I dont intend to claim that Kashmiri is any model as such; it is just to sink down your impressions about Kashmiri women. Like Laura Bush, in her post-war justificatory speech, who argued that Afghani women needed to be saved from Afghani men and hence humanitarian intervention was vital in Afghanistan, you have successfully posited Kashmir women in danger from the Kashmiri men.

Not long back you tweeted that we dont need historians to understand history. Perhaps, your letter to Kashmiris demonstrates your intention to create histories of your whims and caprices. In your letter, you have helped Kashmiris understand how they happened to be where they are now. I appreciate you for having been the most successful leaner of textbook history! I appreciate you for that. But I would have appreciated you more, had you been more honest in helping the people of India too to understand what caused present alienation of Kashmiris in the first place, the sagas of election riggings and political manipulations. Fortunately, you have been an IITian, who understands well the importance of causality factor in science, but unfortunately since history is yours here, you only will decide where to use causal factor and where not, Such an exercise has caused a chilling effect on your patriotism to speak truth. But since it is your history, you will decide both causal factor and its response. Indeed I appreciate your history.

Like all popular historical narratives on Kashmir, you have successfully put on the canopy of terrorism on what is called as insurgency in Kashmir. I would not contest you on this, because it is not worth addressing. The entire world knows the Kashmir secret. But, given your self-claimed skepticism in methodological history, and your interest in whimsical history, you will probably never understand and realize your historical idiosyncrasies.

Last, but not least, let me highlight your overarching message to Kashmiris in your own words: dont hate India, dont fail India, because if India fails, it will be your own failure. Let me tell you that Kashmiris dont hate India and Indians as such (perhaps because not all Indians are like you). But they do hate those who garrisoned Kashmir as the most militarized zone in the world. They do hate those who killed more than 80000 people, orphaned nearly 20000 children, widowed nearly 30000 women, who caused thousand to disappear and never to return, who laid more than 2750 unmarked grave sites in Kashmir. They do hate those who shut the Kashmir issue with the adage: When bulls fight, crops suffer, who sum up atrocities on Kashmiris as collateral damage. They do hate those whose collective conscience is active on certain occasions, and on other occasions like in case of Kashmir, it goes into deep slumber. They do hate those who march to the streets of Delhi with candle lights when women are raped in Delhi and other places, but who stay at home when security forces turn insecurity forces and commit rapes in Kashmir. They also do hate those who consider Kashmir as Atoot Ang but shy away from the responsibilities and obligations that such a moral call comes with. They also hate those who, like you, add salt to an injury by scaring Kashmiris by their landlocked helplessness. If you deny both crime committed and the existence of criminal, their agency, their selves, I must congratulate for your philosophy culmination! You have successfully portrayed Kashmiris akin to the people living in Platonic fighting with their shadows.

Being a Kashmiri who has spent half a decade outside Kashmir, I know well that Indians are not insensitive like you. They are as good as us. I cannot let you speak on behalf of those Indians who know what the Kashmir problem is.

Dear Chetan, you were awesome in your fictional world. The world out there is not the handiwork of your fiction. Awake and arise, please dont fictionalize real history. It is not your job. Please continue to write more fictional works, but not your choice based and agency denying whimsical history, because, being patriot, you have been dishonest in your letter. And patriots dont speak lies; they acknowledge both their positives and negatives.

Yours Faithfully

Aejaz Ahmad

Born and brought up in Kashmir, did his bachelors and post-graduation in political science from University of Delhi. Contributing author of the book Political Process in India, and a forthcoming anthology Modern South Asian Thinkers to be published by Sage.










Bangladesh Economy And Regional Geopolitics

By Eresh Omar Jamal

18 April, 2016

Countercurrents.org

The question is whether after being victims of the divide and rule strategy and being played off against each other for so long, can we all finally think for ourselves and figure out that cooperation is our best way forward? Eresh Omar Jamal asks

There was a time when economics was more popularly known as political economics. One of the best political economists of the 19th century, Henry George, once said, For the study of political economy, you need no special knowledge, no extensive library, no costly laboratory. You do not even need textbooks nor teachers, if you will but think for yourselves. Unfortunately, this statement cost George the chair of political economy at the University of California, where he had made it. But more unfortunately for us, ignoring his statement and not thinking for ourselves has led to the rise of todays neoliberal economists who have all but tarnished this once noble profession.

But if we do take a few moments to think for ourselves, we can easily discern why economics was once called political economics. A great majority of geopolitical decisions have been, and continues to be, influenced by economics. By looking at it the other way, it can also be argued that economics has also been greatly affected and influenced by politics  political movements, decisions, changes, etc  and continues to be so. Overall, economics was called political economics because in the real world, the best way to analyse economics is by analysing the politics of the situation as well, because the two are often, if not always, correlated.

Growing trade deficit with India and China

HISTORICALLY, trade between Bangladesh and India has been lopsided  dominated by Indian exports to Bangladesh, with Bangladeshi exports to India being significantly lower. In the 2014-2015 fiscal year, Bangladesh imported 6.5 billion dollars worth of goods from India and exported to India only 527 million dollars worth of items (Bangladesh-India trade deficit swells manifolds in last decade, bbarta24.net, March 29). According to economic analyst Mamun Rashid, While India exports to Bangladesh more than 250 items, Bangladesh is exporting only six to seven items including jute, jute goods and ready made garments. As such, Bangladesh should look to diversify its exports there.

China, which accounts for more trade than any other country in the world, is also Bangladeshs largest source of import. But while Chinese products account for 29 per cent of all our imports, Bangladesh sends only 1.9 per cent of its total exports to China. In the first half of this financial year, Bangladeshs trade gap with China increased by 18.44 per cent to $4.35 billion from $3.67 billion, despite a zero-tariff export facility for a number of Bangladeshi items to the Chinese market (Trade gap with China rises to $4.35b in H1, New Age, March 17). While Bangladesh imported $4.70 billion worth of goods and services from China, it managed to export only $349.78 million there. According to the Shanghai Daily, Bangladeshis are showing an increasing interest in Chinese products. About 99 per cent of all Bangladeshis say they ultimately prefer a Chinese product whether for personal use or for commercial purposes, according to recent statistics People here [Bangladesh] say that whatever it is they have to buy, they first look for a Chinese option because they are durable, on the one hand, and affordable, on the other (Bangladeshs forward-thinking youngsters see China as path to bright future, Shanghai Daily, March 7). No such trends have, unfortunately, been observed in China for Bangladeshi products.

Bangladeshs major exports to China are garments, jute goods, knitwear, frozen food, raw jute, leather and agricultural products, according to the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Bangladesh, on the other hand, imports a much more diversified basket of goods and services from China. Many of them, however, are either raw materials or capital machineries that are used in the production process  products that cannot be easily, if at all, replaced in the short run and, in fact, are essential for economic activities and the overall economy. According to a Bangladesh Bank official, although Bangladesh exported readymade garment products worth more than $13 billion to the global markets the countrys export to China was very paltry considering the size of the market. So, the RMG sector should give attention to the issue. While the RMG sector should, in order to increase its market share in China, follow the advice, the government should realise that part of the reason for Bangladeshs poor export performance in China is because of its overdependence on garments export.

China itself is a massive producer of garments. And as the Chinese leadership has been constantly emphasising in recent times, it aims to increase its domestic consumption to reduce its overdependence on exports to maintain its current levels of production. This means that it will be increasingly difficult, especially for a nation such as Bangladesh which does not necessarily produce products of superior quality, to export goods that China already abundantly produces such as garments. Fortunately for Bangladesh, while its overdependence on the export of garments is a major reason for its poor export figures to China and to an extent to India, it also provides the perfect opportunity for Bangladesh to finally diversify its exports to other products. Such diversification will, however, require massive amounts of investment.

Investment opportunities

LUCKILY for Bangladesh, quite a few countries including China are keen to make such investments. In regards to the growing trade deficit that Bangladesh has with China, Chinese ambassador Ma Mingqiang said that Only exporting to China would not help to reduce the deficit much it would require huge Chinese investment here [Bangladesh] China is keen to transfer advanced technology to support the efforts in Bangladesh, building economic zones and training the Bangladesh labour force to create more employment and strengthen the inner impetus for Bangladeshs sustainable development (China keen to invest: envoy, New Age, March 22). Furthermore, according to Mingqiang, by taking the right steps, Bangladesh can emerge as a manufacturing hub.

Two of the major types of investment that China and the other nations are interested in are in the power sector and in deep sea port development. Once again, they are both very favourable for Bangladesh and can be of massive benefit for developing its economy. For one, power is essential for the manufacturing sector and, indeed, for business and economic activities and the shortage of power has been a major drawback for businesses in the past. On March 30, Reuters reported, Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited will invest $1.56 billion in a coal-fired plant near a proposed sea port south of Dhaka to produce 1,320 megawatts of electricity by 2019. India is also keen to join the party. The state-owned Indian electrical company, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, has recently signed a memorandum of understanding on a $1.6 Billion Power project at Khulna, Bangladesh (IndiaBangladesh economic ties gain momentum, East Asia Forum, March 18). And Malaysia too, as the Financial Express reported on March 14, The government gave Sunday the go-ahead to a Malaysian company for setting up a coal-fired power plant with the generation capacity of 1320 megawatts on Maheshkhali island Not only Malaysia, another group from China is also negotiating for setting up another power plant also at Maheshkhali, he [finance minister] said. All of these suggest two things; first, many countries are showing interest in helping to develop the power sector in Bangladesh and, second, this has the potential for friendly and, perhaps, bitter rivalry between these countries to set in over gaining the rights to these development projects. Some indications of that rivalry have already been seen between China, India and Japan in the port development projects.

Enter geopolitics

THE cancellation of the proposed Sonadia port is a clear example of the brewing rivalry, mainly between China and India backed by (or at the bidding of) the United States, that is actively seeking to contain Chinas influence both globally and regionally. Economics professor Moinul Islam, a former chairperson of the Bangladesh Economist Association, at a recent regional seminar said, Sonadia deep sea port will not be established in the near future due to geo-political reasons. India has reservation to allow China to come at the Bay of Bengal (Sonadia deep sea ports future is bleak, says Economist Moinul Islam, Bdnews24, March 20). Although the official reason provided by the Bangladesh government for the cancellation which, it has to be said, is stuck between a rock and a hard place, was a lack of commercial viability, the proposed Japan-developed Matarbari port is only 25 kilometres away. Thus, it is quite obvious that the real reason for the cancellation was geopolitics.

Even the planning minister has said that the port deal would not proceed because some countries, including India and the United States, are against the Chinese involvement (Indian power deal with Bangladesh highlights geo-political rivalry, World Socialist Web Site, March 5). Although, in this case, Bangladesh and China are both the victims of geopolitics, Bangladesh clearly is the bigger loser. China has already carried out extensive feasibility assessments and even agreed to provide 99 per cent of the necessary funds to build the port. Neither of these objectors have provided an alternative as beneficial to Bangladesh as the one proposed by China. Of course, one must not forget that the proposed Sonadia project was also very beneficial for China also (to its string of pearls strategy). That is why China had proposed it in the first place.

But the economic loss for Bangladesh from such geopolitical pressure is enormous. Not only does it cost Bangladesh a much-needed deep sea-port, that too, mostly financed by China, but one must also consider the lost employment, trade connectivity and access to markets into that loss. The port could have easily given a massive boost to Bangladeshs economy through increased export to all regions because of greater connectivity and through the lowering of transport costs. And it is pressure politics from India which is the main cause of such a loss. And what is most unfortunate in this case, is that, by playing the role of Washingtons puppet in trying to contain China by throwing obstacles in its way, India and other nations  which have for centuries been victims to the British invented, Washington-perfected divide and rule strategy  continues to fall victim to it, leading to losses for the entire region.

Can the Bangladesh conundrum be a boon?

DESPITE Indias protests, the truth of the matter is that it is China that is doing the most to develop this region, in its own interest, of course, as it realises that its western partners are unwilling to see China rise any further. And the Belt and Road (Silk Road) initiative is a true testament of that fact. And if the governments of all the nations of this region truly think for themselves, they will see that its success will be of benefit to all. Bangladesh included. According to the top leadership of China, China stands ready to work with Bangladesh to strengthen the synergy of bilateral development strategies through the Silk Road initiative and take their partnership to a new level (Silk Road initiative: China vows to take partnership with Bangladesh to new level, Indian Express, March 26). And if India cannot see that one day its rise may be of concern to its western partners then that is most unfortunate.

And if India does have concerns about Chinas hegemonic ambitions and its growing influence, including in Bangladesh, then it should try to come to terms with China through dialogue  something its western partners, historically, are not known to do, except by using its superior muscle powers. And that is exactly why both of these regional powers should see the benefit of mutual cooperation as it not only provides both with greater economic benefits but also with political ones. In that sense, cooperation on investing in Bangladesh would be a great start for everyone concerned and a good platform for building trust. As the Chinese ambassador has already said, For the cooperation with other countries for [Payra] deep sea port we are open if there is willingness to cooperate, we can do it together. India should realise its own benefits from such cooperation and, thus, should have the willingness to cooperate.

This provides the Bangladesh government with a perfect opportunity to prove itself. Historically, the incumbents and its predecessors have had a very poor track record of negotiating favourable terms for Bangladesh as diplomacy has never been the strong point of any government. If the Bangladesh government can strike a deal, through negotiations with the parties concerned regarding investment and development matters here, it may finally earn some respect both domestically and internationally for its diplomatic abilities. It can ignite the flame of better regional cooperation which may eventually lead to the solving of various other regional problems. Thus, the Bangladesh government now has a perfect opportunity to not only benefit its own people, but the people of the entire region. There is, however, no doubt that it will also need the cooperation of the other players in that regard. The question is whether after being victims of the divide and rule strategy and being played off against each other for so long, can we all finally think for ourselves and figure out that cooperation is our best way forward? That, remains to be seen.

Eresh Omar Jamal is editorial assistant at New Age, a leading English daily newspaper in Bangladesh. He has a specialised honours degree in Financial and Business Economics from York University, Canada.








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NAMI Dubois County family support group: Meeting 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday at Jasper Memorial Hospital.

FA (Families Anonymous): a 12-step fellowship for the family and friends of those individuals with drug, alcohol or related behavioral issues. Meetings are at 10 a.m. Saturdays at Methodist Temple, 2109 Lincoln Ave. Use the Kelsey Avenue entrance, second floor. Information: 812-550-5777.

Bereavement support group: Meeting 5:30-7 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month in the large group meeting room, second floor of Central Library, 200 SE MLK Blvd.

Men's bereavement support group: Meeting 9-10:30 a.m. the second Monday of each month in Room 204 at Deaconess VNA Plus, 610 E. Walnut St.

Support group for bipolar/manic-depressive disorder: Meeting 7 p.m. the first and third Wednesday of each month, Kempf Bipolar Wellness Center, third floor of St. Mary's Rehabilitation Institute, 3700 Washington Ave. Information: 812-485-4934.

Survivors of Suicide support group: Meeting 6:30 p.m. the first and third Monday of each month, Methodist Temple, 2109 Lincoln Ave. Information: Mental Health America at 812-426-2640.

Mending Hearts pregnancy loss support group: Meeting 6:30 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month, Gift Conference Room, off the lobby of St. Mary's Hospital for Women & Children, 3700 Washington Ave. Information: 812-485-4204.

Men's cancer support group: Meeting 5:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month, St. Mary's Epworth Crossing Community Conference Room, 100 St. Mary's Epworth Crossing, Newburgh. Information: 812-485-5725.

Stroke support group: Meeting 10 a.m. the fourth Wednesday of each month, St. Mary's Community Education Room at Washington Square Mall, 5011 Washington Ave. Information: 812-485-5607.

ALS support group: Meeting 6:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month, Meeting Room E, Deaconess Gateway Hospital. The support group is for patients, caregivers and survivors who have lost someone to Lou Gehrig's disease.

Women's cancer support group: Meeting 5:30 p.m. the second and fourth Monday of each month, St. Mary's Epworth Crossing Community Conference Room. Information: 812-485-5725.

Pulmonary fibrosis support group: Meeting 4 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month, Room 1420, Deaconess Hospital, 600 Mary St. Information: 812-450-6000 or deaconess.com/calendar.

COPD/asthma support group: Meeting 4 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month, Room 1420, Deaconess Hospital, 600 Mary St. Information: 812-450-6000 or deaconess.com/calendar.

Parkinson's support group: Meeting at 5:30 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month, Room 350, Deaconess Physician Center, 600 Mary St. Information: 812-450-6000 or deaconess.com/calendar.

Tri-State Multiple Sclerosis Association support group meetings: 10 a.m. the second Saturday of each month, Tri-State MS Association Office, 971 S. Kenmore Drive, Evansville (contact Nita Ruxer at 812-479-3544 or Sharon Omer at 270-333-4701); 10 a.m. the fourth Saturday of each month, Gibson General Hospital, fifth floor, first room on the right, 1808 Sherman Drive, Princeton, Indiana (contact Alice Burkhart at 812-782-3735); 11 a.m. the second Tuesday of each month, Twilight Towers, in the cafeteria, 1648 10th St., Tell City (contact Terri Hasty at 812-649-4013 or Gayle Taylor 812-719-2417); 10 a.m. the third Saturday of each month, Daviess Community Hospital, Washington, Indiana (contact Cindy Kalberer at 812-254-6735 or Fran Neal at 812-259-1565); 10 a.m. the first Saturday of each month, Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, 2360 Green River Road, Henderson, Kentucky, (contact Meg Burnley at 270-826-9507 or Debbie Whittington at 270-827-8298); 6 p.m. the second Monday of each month, Owensboro Health Healthpark, 1006 Ford Ave, Owensboro, Kentucky; and 11 a.m. the first Saturday of each month, Fairfield Memorial Hospital in the board room of Horizon Clinic, 303 NW 11th St., Fairfield, Illinois (contact Kathie Hill at 618-847-8452).

Compiled by Leah Ward, leah.ward@courierpress.com.
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By Chelsea Schneider/ USA TODAY NETOWRK/ The Indianpolis Star

Does Indiana have the largest private school voucher program in the country?



Depends on how you look at it.



With nearly 32,700 schoolchildren enrolled, the state has the largest voucher program in the country, according to the Friedman Foundation, a school choice organization that tracks data nationwide. Since the program's inception in 2011, enrollment has jumped in the program that offers state funding for low- to middle-income students to attend private schools.



But Indiana  while still a leader in school vouchers  trails Ohio when it comes to the total number of students receiving assistance. In Ohio, upward of 45,000 students are participating across five programs in the state, though some have more limited eligibility criteria than Indianas single statewide program.



The Indiana Department of Education on Thursday confirmed 32,686 students are using vouchers for the 2015-16 school year in a new report on the programs impact.



The report continued to show about half of students receiving a voucher never attended a public school in Indiana.



And while more students were granted the assistance than the previous school year, growth has slowed as eligibility criteria have remained the same. The program added about 3,500 students statewide this year, compared with last year, when it grew by about 9,300.



The Institute for Quality Education anticipates the same level of growth for the 2016-17 school year, said Betsy Wiley, president of the school choice organization.



Thats really because we havent put any new pathways in for a couple of years. For the most part, those big growth numbers typically come when (theres) expanded eligibility in some way, shape or form, Wiley said.



Teresa Meredith, head of the Indiana State Teachers Association, said she was surprised to see the low number of students who would have attended an F-rated school applying for the program. In 2015, nearly 600 students applied under that eligibility criteria, but the number fell by more than half for this school year, according to the report.



The Department of Education has said the voucher program cost the state about $40 million for the 2014-15 school year. The cost for this school year is expected to be released this summer. Supporters argue that the voucher program ultimately results in savings because the amount of assistance is still less than what the state would spend on a child to attend a public school.



But Meredith argued that the $40 million figures shows the program is not actually saving anybody anything.



Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz, an opponent of the voucher program, has called on lawmakers to review its economic and academic impact.



During this years legislative session, lawmakers widened the time window of when students can apply for the program. The state had restricted the applications to the first semester. Beginning in the 2017-18 school year, students will be eligible to apply for a voucher midyear.
A photo of Indiana's black bear taken in July 2015.(Photo: Provided by Indiana DNR Law Enforcement District 10)

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By Amy Bartner/USA TODAY NETWORK/The Indianapolis Star

Michigan wildlife officials last week opted to euthanize a black bear that had been meandering around the Michigan-Indiana border since June after its behavior increasingly put people in danger.



But officials here dont know what they would have done if the animal had been caught in Indiana, because when it comes to wayward bears, the state lacks a formal plan.



The state has never needed one. The 2- to 3-year-old 300-pound American black bear was the first of its kind spotted in the wild in Indiana since 1871.



Would Indiana wildlife officials also have euthanized the bear? Relocated it? Shipped it off to some wildlife refuge?



"Youre asking a hypothetical question for a situation that Indiana has had little experience with, if any," said Phil Bloom, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. "We've not had to face that decision here. Indiana has not had a resident bear population (since) before the Civil War."



Soon it likely might.



Rising populations in other states, coupled with the bear management plan of Indiana's northern neighbor, suggest bears and people will meet again in the Hoosier state.



"I'll tell the people of Indiana that bears will be back," said Dave Garshelis, co-chairman of the Bear Specialist Group, a wildlife conservation organization.



Managing the risk bears present isn't simple, and the choices to be made aren't easy.

Black bears are no longer rare



The black bear population is rising in states where the animals have not been seen in years, according to the National Wildlife Federation.



"Many states are recognizing that American black bears are very adaptable animals and they can live in very small areas near people," said Garshelis, who also is a bear research scientist with the Minnesota DNR. "Because they were so absent for so long in Florida, people viewed them as very rare, and now there are more and more."



The increase in Michigan can be attributed to a host of factors, including changes in hunting rules, bears becoming more comfortable in urban spaces, and bears moving longer distances to get to food, said Mark Sargent, a field operations manager for the Michigan DNR.



Florida and Louisiana have put wildlife management plans in place within the past four years. The policies offer guidelines on how to handle the growing populations of bears and instructions on fostering an environment where bears can live near people without risking public safety.



Michigan's plan, last updated in 2011, accounted for an increased bear population and recommended hunting as the main way to control it. Education and outreach to communities about bear safety are also major parts of the strategy.



"Whether you welcome the black bear or not," the management plan reads, "all of us that live and recreate in bear range share the responsibility of avoiding activities that attract bears and create the potential for bear problems."



Experts say people need to avoid leaving food and garbage out and reconsider the use of bird feeders.



The Michigan DNR generally believes it's more beneficial to control the population through hunting and to promote cohabitation rather than engaging with the bears.



By allowing the black bears to expand naturally into southern Michigan, the DNR will encourage a balance between the bear population and the public's acceptance, according to the state's management plan.



Indiana plans to develop its own bear management strategy, Bloom said, more than likely pulling from neighboring states' protocols. But nothing is imminent.



"It was discussed last year that when appropriate," he said. "We're looking at doing that more down the road."

A growing aggression



Indiana's first wild American black bear in 145 years was first spotted in a forest northwest of South Bend in June and was seen in several locations in both states during the summer. Bloom said wildlife officials knew they had the same bear each time because of how rare the sighting was and because of the visual commonalities.



By July, the bear began to enter yards, go through trash, eat from bird feeders, walk on porches and, in one incident near Michigan City, stand against a door. The Indiana DNR at that point took action. Officials borrowed a bear trap from Michigan's department and caught the bear. But the trap wasn't welded properly, and the bear escaped.



Officers chase off black bear in northern Indiana



When Indiana's DNR attempted to catch the bear, the situation was defined by Michigan's standards as a Category 3: not a threat to humans. The plan was to relocate the bear in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula. But when the bear awoke from hibernation, it became more aggressive. It entered several residential yards before trying to push its way through a glass door into an occupied home in Stevensville, Mich., less than 30 miles north of the Indiana border.



"It's once those bears lose that fear of humans is when they become dangerous," Bloom said.



At that point, the situation was upgraded to a Category 2: a threat to public safety.



"He's trying to get in, and now that he's done that twice, he's highly habituated," Sargent said.



Michigan's Problem Bear Management Guidelines assign a 1 to 4 ranking to bear sightings, with subsequent actions to take in each case:



 Category 1: The bear is a threat to humans and public safety because it has been known to cause injury or death. In this case, the guidelines instruct that the bear should immediately be euthanized.



 Category 2: The bear is possibly a threat because it's showing aggressive behavior, is injured or is unable to leave an area on its own. The bear could either be relocated or euthanized "when no other options exist."



 Category 3: The bear is a threat to personal property. In this case, it should be captured and relocated.



 Category 4: The bear isn't a threat to either property or people. Michigan's guidelines state that the DNR will offer help to bear-proof the area.



Michigan's DNR caught the bear and euthanized it on April 8. It was tranquilized and shot at the base of the skull. The bear's body was taken to Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., and cremated. Sargent said the DNR plans to donate the skin and skull to the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, a Native American tribe in Dowagiac, Mich.



"This is stuff that we dont take very lightly," Sargent said. "It's nothing that we really want to do."

A difficult choice



Was euthanization the only option?



Could the bear have been relocated?



Wildlife is typically relocated only to DNR land because of the state resources used, Sargent said. In this case, the DNR believed the bear presented too great a danger to people to take it to a different location, whether state land or a wildlife refuge.



"Just moving him would certainly be out of the question," Bloom said. "You'd just basically create the problem for someone else."



Bears can travel long distances, so even if it was transported to a remote area in Michigan, people still could be in danger.



"As isolated as some parts of Michigan are, there's a cabin, there's a home, there's something within his range," Sargent said. "And this bear has already shown he has an abnormal relationship with people. We have a responsibility to accept the public safety."



Even if the bear were less dangerous, though, the DNR still would need to find a refuge or a zoo willing to take it. A zoo likely would not be interested in an adult male black bear, Garshelis said.



"It would be really hard to find a zoo that would want a 300-pound bear at this point," Garshelis said. "American black bears are just so common, and I don't think there are zoos that are around that would want them."



Sargent said in this specific case, this bear should not have been taken anywhere where it could have access to humans.



"We didn't go after this bear until it became a human safety concern," he said.



Dean Oswald, owner of a bear ranch attraction in Newberry, Mich., questioned whether killing the bear was necessary.



"There are plenty of places to relocate him," Oswald said. "He doesn't have to be euthanized. That's just my opinion."



Oswald has owned bears since the 1980s. He opened the ranch in 1997. There are 36 bears on the ranch, all raised in captivity without fences.



"Ninety percent of the time I'd say they could relocate them," Oswald said. "There's a lot of state land. You can drive out here for miles and not see a house. I just hate to see a bear euthanized."



The rarity of this particular bear made him somewhat of a celebrity, he said. When people recognize and follow an individual animal, watching it die becomes more difficult.



"It is very different when a bear does become a star."
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By Kristine Guerra/USA TODAY NETWORK/The Indianapolis Star,

Growing up in Puerto Rico, where people can't vote for presidents in the general elections, Andre Zang didn't feel as involved in the political process as he wanted to.



That's no longer the case. The 21-year-old public affairs major at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis is one of a group of volunteers who knocked on doors Sunday to convince Hoosiers that Hillary Clinton is best suited to lead the country. The former First Lady and Secretary of State has the track record and experience, Zang said.



The Hillary for Indiana campaign began its canvassing efforts across the state with kickoff events Saturday and Sunday at several locations in Indianapolis, Muncie, South Bend, Lafayette and Fort Wayne. U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly said volunteers throughout the state are knocking on doors and working the phones.



"Hillary Clinton is ready to lead our nation from Day 1," Donnelly said at the Democratic presidential front-runner's campaign office. Clinton has the institutional knowledge of the issues facing working families, Donnelly added.



Clinton's campaign office, which opened earlier this month, is located near the Wal-Mart Supercenter in a strip mall at East 72nd Street and North Keystone avenue on Indianapolis' north side.



A group of volunteers, including Zang, gathered there Sunday afternoon before they headed out to the Meridian Hills neighborhood to knock on doors, while others worked the phones. Manning the front desk was 76-year-old Delores Smith, a retired state employee and a long-time Obama supporter.



"I needed to be here to voice my support for the person I believe in," Smith said.



In about two weeks, Indiana voters will be in a rare position of having a voice in the presidential primaries, with the state being the only one in the nation to hold a primary on May 3.



Usually, presidential candidates have already earned enough delegates to secure their party's nomination before Hoosiers even cast their votes. But this year, Indiana voters could choose between two Democrats and among three Republicans.



Bernie Sanders also opened a campaign office in Indianapolis ahead of the May 3 primary. His is located on Guilford Avenue in Broad Ripple, just a few miles away from Clinton's.



Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has opened three campaign offices in Carmel, Evansville and Fort Wayne. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz also will be in town this week.




By Chelsea Schneider And Tony Cook, Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK

Ohio Gov. John Kasich claimed victory Monday in a behind-the-scenes battle for Indiana's delegates, prompting Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump to cry foul.

Kasich's campaign said it has secured the support of a majority of Indiana's 57 delegates to the Republican National Convention, where their personal preference may ultimately decide the party's presidential nominee.

"We feel very good about the number of delegates who will support Gov. Kasich on a second ballot," said Pete Seat, a consultant to Kasich's Indiana campaign. "Electability is an extremely important part of the nomination for the Indiana delegation. The whole point of this is to win the White House. Gov. Kasich has the best shot of doing that."

Trump's campaign didn't dispute the amount of support Kasich has among Indiana's delegates, but they saw it as evidence of a shoddy delegate selection process.

"It shows how flawed the process might be if what they're saying is true, and that the process can be easily manipulated, which is what it looks like they and others are trying to do," said Tony Samuel, vice chairman for Trump's Indiana campaign. "The reason it could be flawed and manipulated in Indiana is because the delegate selection has occurred before the primary voters have spoken. So if they are already being influenced, or came into the process with their choice in mind, knowing what they would do on a second ballot, then they're not listening to, or representing, the voters."

Indiana's delegates to the national convention have traditionally been selected during the party's state convention in June, after the state's May primary. But because the Republican National Committee moved up the date for the national convention, Indiana's GOP leaders said it was necessary for the party at the state and congressional district levels to choose delegates prior to the May 3 primary.

Indiana Republican Chairman Jeff Cardwell defended Indiana's process.

"As far as knowing who the delegates prefer, I have no idea," he said. "I never asked one delegate who they were for or against."

Although Indiana's primary is still two weeks away, campaigns have been privately jockeying for support among delegates, who were selected last week and could play a key role in selecting the GOP nominee at the party's national convention this summer in Cleveland.

Most delegates  including those from Indiana  are bound to vote for the candidate who wins the nominating contest in their state or congressional district on the first ballot at the convention. But after that, delegates from Indiana and many other states are free to vote for whomever they want.

IndyStar reached out to all 57 delegates and found only two Trump supporters.

The lack of support from Indiana's delegation makes it all-the-more important for Trump to win big in the state's primary. Indiana and California are widely viewed as the two remaining toss-up states for Trump if he is going to win the 1,237 bound delegates needed to lock up the nomination before the convention.

Otherwise, the billionaire real estate developer and reality TV star will have to win a majority of delegates at a contested national convention in July  a prospect he will want to avoid if Indiana's delegation is any indication.

"It's very important to the Trump campaign," Samuel said of Indiana's primary. "They are putting significant resources here and there will be significant time spent here by Mr. Trump."

Trump's first visit is expected Wednesday, though the campaign has not officially announced any plans.

As a neighboring governor, Kasich is better known in Indiana than in many other states and he is fond of drawing comparisons to Mitch Daniels, the state's popular former governor known for focusing on fiscal issues rather than hot-button social topics.

But so far, Kasich has won only the primary election in his home state of Ohio. There's no indication he will perform much differently in Indiana's primary, though there's been no recent public polling conducted in the state.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, the third candidate on the GOP side, is also campaigning hard in Indiana, where his evangelical Christian roots could appeal to an important part of the Republican base. He will make his first campaign stop in Indiana at the state party's Spring Dinner on Thursday.

His father, Rafael Cruz, spoke an Evansville church on Saturday.

Cruz volunteer Curt Smith, head of the socially conservative Indiana Family Institute and a delegate to the national convention, said he expects Indiana to play a deciding role in whether Trump will secure enough delegates to win the nomination outright.

"My sense is Indiana is critical to answering that question," Smith said. "I think that Trump does not stand a very good chance. I think Sen. Cruz stands a good chance to win against the presumed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton."

All three candidates could walk away with a share of Indiana's delegates. Thirty are awarded based on how the state as a whole votes in the primary, but the other 27 are divvied up to the top vote-getters in each of Indiana's nine congressional districts.

While many of those delegates told IndyStar they hadn't decided who they would support, most said they would make their decision based on one main factor: Who has the best chance of beating the Democratic nominee and winning back the White House?

Under that criteria, Kasich fares well. Unlike Trump, he consistently beats Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in head-to-head polls.

Trump is sensitive to that argument.

"Kasich only looks O in polls against Hillary because nobody views him as a threat and therefore have placed ZERO negative ads against him," Trump tweeted Monday.
The River Ridge Commerce Center in Clark County, Ind.(Photo: By Pat McDonogh, The CJ)

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A Minneapolis-based company plans a 426,000-square-foot speculative warehouse and distribution facility at the River Ridge Commerce Center in Jeffersonville, Ind.



It will be the first project in the Louisville market for Opus Development Co. LLC.



"Louisville currently is showing strong and promising momentum, with several new developments and a high level of industrial users interested in the region, said Douglas J. Swain, an Opus vice president and general manager, in a news release. He said Opus intends to "deliver a much-needed facility in an excellent location for future tenants.



The building will be erected on nearly 25 acres. The flexible design of the facility will be able to accommodate single- or multi-tenant occupancy, Opus said in a release.



The site is located off of Ind. 62, and the location off Logistics Avenue will provide tenants with easy access to the freeway system as well as increased access to the greater Louisville market, with the upcoming completion of the Ohio River Bridges Project.



Other features of the warehouse will include 32-foot clear height, 44 dock positions, more than 300 car parking spaces and 49 excess trailer parking spots. Additionally, with the nearby UPS Worldport Air Hub, "tenants will have quick access to send products to virtually any location in the country overnight," the release said.



Construction will begin this month, with completion forecast this November.



Opus recently bought the land from the River Ridge Development Authority for just over $1.5 million.



Opus recent portfolio of projects includes more than 8.4 million square feet of industrial developments currently in the pipeline or completed in the past 24 months in the United States.



Opus Development Company LLC will be the developer of the River Ridge project, Opus Design Build LLC will be the design-builder and Opus AE Group LLC will be the architect and structural engineer of record. CBRE will market the property for lease.



The Opus Group is a family of commercial real estate development, construction and design companies headquartered in Minnesota, with offices and projects.



On another industrial land development in the Louisville area, Louisville Business First reported Wednesday that an Atlanta-based company, Pattillo Industrial Real Estate, has purchased about 40 acres on Export Drive in the Renaissance South Business Park for $37 million. The seller was Air Commerce LLC.



The business park is near Louisville International Airport and its development is being overseen by airport managers. The property includes a recently built 622,000-square-foot industrial warehouse.



Reporter Sheldon S. Shafer can be reached at (502) 582-7089, or via email at sshafer@courier-journal.com.
SHARE Supit and Richard Moss

Supit Ying Moss

Jasper, Indiana

I thank the Evansville Courier & Press for this opportunity to respond to their article of last Saturday morning reporting on an incident that allegedly accused my good husband, Dr. Richard Moss, of misdemeanor battery in our Jasper home 23 years ago. It has been a dark cloud hanging above our family all these years and I would now like to set the record straight.

Though we had a marital spat, at no time was there physical contact between us, and definitely no battery occurred then or at any time during our time together. Though it was reported as a domestic disturbance, I feel my poor and broken English at the time, and the emotional distress I was suffering, miscommunicated what actually occurred to the investigating officers who struggled to understand what I meant to say.

Thankfully, the prosecuting attorney at the time recognized this misunderstanding and dismissed all charges.

It was only a misunderstanding between a husband and wife, 23 years ago. Nothing more.

I have been married 26 years to Rick who is now running for Congress in Indiana's 8th District for the Republican Party. He has my most ardent support. Rick's family, being his first constituency, stands behind him fully.

Rick and I first met in Thailand where we were married and where I assisted his surgeries as a nurse. We traveled throughout Southeast Asia on a motorcycle together for three years treating head and neck cancer victims that had little or no other access to health care. Our efforts were entirely voluntary. We received little or no compensation. Our work was highly acclaimed and decorated in my country, Thailand, as well as in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Burma.

Upon our return to the USA we settled in Jasper and began our family and a private practice in medicine. We have been blessed with four children: Arielle, Noah, Adina, and Isaiah. Arielle is now teaching English on a Fulbright Scholarship in Morocco. Noah is a junior at IU, and Adina and Isaiah are in middle school in Jasper. Rick is a loving father and husband. He has always been active in raising our children. He also is a devoted son and wrote a book about his beloved mother and her struggles to raise her five sons in the Bronx as a single Mom.

I should mention that Rick is Jewish and very devoted to his faith. I converted to Judaism and together we have raised our four children as young Jews. Richard and I are strong supporters of Israel. We are grateful for the support many Christians give to Israel. We believe strongly that our country is founded on Judeo-Christian principles.

In closing let me reiterate that the misunderstanding reported in the paper recently was a difference of opinion that never resulted in physical contact or battery. It occurred 23 years ago. Rick and I are happily married for 26 years with four outstanding and accomplished children. That is the real story of Rick and our family.
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Google's AlphaGO AI may have terrified the general populous its recent victory over flesh-based master of an ancient Chinese board game, but it would be rubbish at carrying soup. That, at least, is one possible take away from news that a number of restaurants in China have fired robot workers for being massively incompetent.

According to Workers Daily, two restaurants that employ robot workers in the city of Guangzhou have been forced to close down, while a third that initially took on six robots has booted all but one. It does raise the question of what that one particular worker did differently Or who it's dating.

The robots weren't able to carry soup or other food steady and they would frequently break down. The boss has decided never to use them again," one of the restaurant's employees told the expat news site Shanghaiist

"Their skills are somewhat limited," another employee said. "They can't take orders or pour hot water for customers."

Above: A robot waiter that remains employed

The cost of hiring one of the robot waiters is reportedly 50,000 yuan (approximately AU$10,000), with a few hundred extra yuan each month for electricity and necessary repairs. It turns out this cost amounts to little more than a fancy doorman, as the robots were only competent enough to guide customers to their tables.

With the UK government being encouraged to investigate the impact of robots on jobs, and a recent study from Deloitte claiming automation will claim 11 million jobs by 2036, it's heartening to see the machines get a knocking. I wonder where they are now  playing Go on street corners probably.

Perhaps the restaurants should look into a different type of robotic food delivery, such as this breakfast machine, care of Swedish inventor Simone Giertz:
Sydney security vendor Veriluma has partnered with Global Business Resilience, a solutions provider founded by retired counter-terrorism chief Mark Carrick, to prevent national security threats.

Veriluma's predictive software engine will help understand risky environments to assess and prevent potential threats, according to the vendor. The software is able to gather data from facts and add these to human patterns and trends returning possible outcomes and the probability of those to happen.

"Human thinking is very uncertain, we are subjective in our decisions. Our solution allows us to consider the unknown. Patterns and trends will tell us something big data won't," Veriluma chief executive Elizabeth Whitelock said.

She said Carrick was impressed with Veriluma's solution and was disappointed he did not have access to it while at the NSW Police Force.

The partnership will focus on offering national security agencies predictive capabilities that allow to identify and understand threats; implement risk strategies; and respond quickly and effectively when action is required, according to Veriluma.

Global Business Resilience was founded in 2010 to help organisations predict and manage political, social, environmental and security risks.

"Veriluma's predictive software has proven itself across many complex and multi-faceted industry sectors. Veriluma's technology will initially be utilised to better understand the ever-changing global, regional and national threat environments, thereby providing significant insights into potential emerging issues, and helping structure and inform mitigation strategies," said Carrick.

Veriluma is a security software vendor in the middle of a reverse listing transaction with Western Australian mining company Parmelia Resources. The company's security solution has applications across different segments, such as production, risk assessment, law and M&A.

Whitelock said the company is working on developing a solution for the family law segment and also looking for new partners. "We will partner with people who has expertise in a particular area. We are looking for partners in government, banking, finance and law," she said.
Dodgy resellers could face big fines and even jail time after raids uncovered thousands of unapproved and counterfeit products.

NSW Fair Trading said it had seized more than 10,000 items at one location, including unapproved and potentially dangerous USB phone chargers.

Some of these chargers were counterfeits of Apple, LG, Samsung, Huawei and Motorola, while others were not branded but styled on a branded product.

Fair Trading said that other items were labeled with false approval numbers.

The regulator said it had also seized counterfeit mobile device batteries, leads and accessories from the site.

At another premises, the execution of a search warrant led to the seizure of hundreds of chargers, cables and adapters, as well as mobile device batteries that had counterfeit Apple and Samsung logos.

The raids were initiated after the Australian Border Force intercepted a shipment of suspected counterfeit USB phone chargers earlier this year and referred the matter to Fair Trading to check compliance with electrical safety standards.

The shipment was abandoned by the importer, who is now under investigation by Fair Trading, according to the regulator.

It is illegal under the Australian Consumer Law to supply goods that do not comply with safety standards. The maximum penalty is $1.1 million for a company and $220,000 for an individual.

It is also an offence under the Electricity (Consumer Safety) Act to sell unapproved electrical articles. Individuals caught doing so can be jailed for two years and fined $55,000, while companies can be penalised up to $550,000.

Commissioner Rod Stowe said some of the chargers in the shipment intercepted by the Australian Border Force had inferior components and circuitry.

"Retailers should not be selling unapproved products and consumers should avoid buying them by being careful in their purchases, he said.

Avoid the cheap deal  there is a reason it is cheap. Cheap and unapproved electrical products pose a serious health hazard and are a false economy."

Stowe said inspections at stores and markets would continue.
Sony said a factory producing image sensors for smartphone makers will remain closed while it assesses the damage from two deadly earthquakes which hit southern Japan. One of its major customers is Apple, which uses the sensors in its iPhones.

Sony said it will extend the closure of its image sensor plant in Kumamoto, which is in the southern island of Kyushu, after major tremblors on Thursday and Saturday rocked the key manufacturing region.

The PlayStation maker said operations at its image sensor plant in Nagasaki, also in Kyushu, will be partially suspended and it does not yet have a timeline for full resumption of operations.

Sony controls about 40 percent of the market for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, a type of integrated circuit that converts light into electrical signals. In smartphones they are used to convert images into digital data.

We are not expecting any immediate supply disruption as we have some inventories right now," a Sony spokesman told Reuters on Saturday. "We will make an announcement promptly if any supply issues emerge.

He said the company was hoping to resume operations as soon as aftershocks end, and would probably provide an update on late Monday afternoon. "We are still checking for potential damage to the plants, which usually operate on a 24-hour basis," he said.

Apple could not be immediately reached for comment.

Sony has two other CMOS image sensor plants in Japan.

Samsung said it has diversified its sources for image sensors used in its smartphones and the quakes will have no impact on its flagship products.

A devastating earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan in March 2011 temporarily knocked out part of Japan's auto supply chain. Some companies have since adjusted the industry's "just in time" production philosophy to limit any repeat of that costly disruption.

Other electronics makers were also forced to stop production in Kyushu, which has grown as a manufacturing hub over the past two decades. Kyushu accounts for roughly 25 percent of semiconductor output in Japan by some estimates.

Renesas Electronics closed its Kumamoto plant, which produces microcontroller chips for automobiles. It will not resume production until it completes its damage assessment.

Mitsubishi Electric halted production at its two Kumamoto plants which produce liquid crystal display modules used in display panels for car navigation systems and semiconductor chips used in power inverters for various electrical products, including air conditioners and hybrid or electric vehicles. It uses some of the products itself and provides others to customers.

We are still assessing the situation as we continue to have aftershocks," said a Mitsubishi spokesman.

Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu, Makiko Yamazaki and Kentaro Hamada in Tokyo; Writing by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Martin Howell
Whaling threats or CEO fraud continues to grow with 67 percent of firms seeing an increase in these email-based attacks designed to extort money. There has been an uptick of activity lately as fraudsters spend the first few months of the year taking advantage of tax season, targeting finance departments with emails that look like they are coming from a companys senior executive. Case in point are Snapchat and Seagate as companies that inadvertently gave up employees personal information.

Email security company Mimecast has shared a handful of real-life examples of fraud attempts targeted at the person in the corner office.

Note: Names and domains have been modified to preserve recipient privacy. Source domain styles and homograph attack techniques have been maintained.

More on phishing:
Since the end of 2015, criminals have gone on a rampage targeting W-2 information at organizations both large and small. So far this year, more than sixty organizations have come forward as victims of business email compromise (BEC) scams, including three just last week.

Despite today's tax deadline with the IRS, these attacks show little sign of slowing down.

"Business email compromise attacks are hitting all industries, at a scale never seen beforeand we dont anticipate it will slow down anytime soon. Its especially critical that finance, payroll, and human resources departments be alert for these scams," said Proofpoint's SVP of strategy Ryan Kalember.

Last week Bristol Farms Inc. told employees that someone impersonated a company executive and requested 2015 W-2 information. An employee, believing the request to be legitimated, complied. The incident occurred on March 30.

In a letter dated April 13, the Academy of Art University reported an incident from April 4 that targeted W-2 details. Sticking to the established pattern, someone posed as a university executive and requested the tax information via email. The employee who received the request believed it to be legitimate and attached the requested information to an emailed response.

Morongo Casino, a Native American Casino & Resort located near Palm Springs, told employees last week that someone posed as an executive and emailed a request for 2015 W-2 records. Once again, the employee who received the request believed it was valid and complied. The incident happened on March 23.

The casino is also dealing with a PII problem, as 19 guests received account details on less than one-percent of the casino's rewards club members.

In a somewhat related story, one unidentified American company was bilked out of $100 million, after someone posed as a legitimate vendor via email. The details were disclosed by the US government in a civil forfeiture lawsuit filed last week in Manhattan.

$74 million of the stolen funds have been recovered. The lawsuit is an attempt to recover the remaining money, which is being held in different banks across the globe.

Head over to this story to see additional BEC-related coverage form Salted Hash.
Ive been a fan of drones for a while now. I enjoy messing about with them and I even have my own micro drone with a camera. Now, while I saw the I enjoy playing with drones Ive always kept a keen eye not to get video of my neighbours backyards and so forth. I have no interest in that but, mistakes happen. So, I keep the drone below 20 ft and since my ability to keep the drone steady is suspect at the best of times. Safe to say that the video that I record with the drone is Blair Witch Project caliber.

Not too long ago the neighbours mentioned that there was a drone that was spotted in the neighbourhood. In this case it was clearly trying to peer into windows. I was out of town for this one but, I asked why they didnt shoot it down. Isnt that illegal? I paused, I mean get a Nerf gun, sling shot or something like that to smack it down. Mental notes were taken and the drone has oddly never returned. Im guessing that someone learned their lesson.

Sadly, some lessons never get through to the audience. Case in point an apparent drone that collided with a British Airways flight this weekend.

BBC story:

A Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesman said it was "totally unacceptable" to fly drones close to airports, and anyone flouting the rules can face "severe penalties, including imprisonment". Steve Landells, from the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), said it had been "only a matter of time before we had a drone strike". He called for greater enforcement of existing rules.

This is a moment where Im feel my blood starting to boil. Some raging halfwit could cause untold numbers of problems for hobbyists because some moron thought it was OK to fly theirs in the glide path of a British Airways flight on approach to London. Entirely possible that people could be put in harms way as a result of actions like these.

Now, it was bad enough when people used to flash green lasers in an attempt to blind pilots as they tried to land. It was so long agooh, it was a week ago. Never mind.

What are people thinking? I think that nails it square on the head. They arent thinking at all. As we read about intellectual challenged mouth breathers trying to interfere with flights using lasers, and now drones, I cant help but to cringe for the future.

It was bad enough that we worry about privacy encroachment but, now we have to wonder if some jackass is going to take down a flight? Everyday I get more entrenched in the idea that Mike Judge's movie, Idiocracy, is a documentary. That is terrifying.

I like playing with my micro drone with the kids. I hate to think that we are not long from a catastrophe that will prevent us from being able to use one without having some sort of permit. If you operate a drone please use some common sense. I realize that common sense is no longer all that common or in short supply but, a guy can dream. Use your intellect. It might be rusty but, it is in there if you look for it, curled up in the corner asking, "why?"
According to Wikipedia, a Pyrrhic victory is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat.

Last week, many cybersecurity media outlets announced that Blackhole exploit kit creator (aka Paunch) was sent to jail for seven years. His accomplices will also spend between five and eight years in a Russian prison. LinkedIn had a lot of mentions of the news with joyful comments and numerous likes. Back in 2013, Jerome Segura, security researcher at Malwarebytes, said the arrest would be "a major event in the exploit kit business, one that could trigger a chain reaction leading to more arrests and disruption."

So, sounds very promising, doesnt it? However, if we look into the details of the story, its rather a defeat than a victory for our industry. Lets have a look on five main reasons why:

Nothing really changed, moreover things are getting worse

Despite Malwarebytes predictions, the number of exploit kits is continuously growing, Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) industry is currently flourishing. Hospitals regularly become victims of cryptolockers, while US Police continuously pay ransoms to cybercriminals. McAfee says that Ransomware surge 165 percent in the first quarter of 2015, meanwhile the largest banks hide cybercrime losses according to the City of London Police.

The victims didnt and probably wont get any indemnification

Taking into consideration all the complexities of international law and inter-agencies cooperation, quite probably none of the US and EU based victims will ever get a cent of compensation for the damage caused.

Cybercriminals become much more careful and sophisticated

Since Paunch was halted, almost no more noticeable arrests have taken place (I am speaking about professional Black Hats, not hacktivists or DDoS groups). Cybercriminals have learned the lesson and will never ever expose themselves or leave any technically identifiable traces. The modern Dark Web economy and technical capabilities allow generating cybercrime revenue with almost 100 percent anonymity.

We still did not solve the fundamental problem

I have already written about the problem of intertwined cybercrime and global economy, but it is worth another mention. While the US cybersecurity market is continuously increasing salaries, creating a perfect breeding ground for a cybersecurity bubble, many young talented engineers from developing countries can barely make ends meet at the end of each month. Obviously and unsurprisingly, some of them join the dark side. Until we remove artificial and bureaucratic barriers that prevent talented individuals from all continents to commit their knowledge and skills to the global cybersecurity industry, we are doomed to see the exponential growth of cybercrime.

The future is questionable

Taking into consideration the advanced technical skills of the prisoners and the particularities of the ex-USSR penal system, dont be surprised if their knowledge will be called on by some powerful bodies after or during the prison term. God only knows what they may create afterwards.

Therefore, instead of celebrating the imprisonment, we shall rather focus on continuous improvement of our own industry to deliver the highest value to our customers by mitigating the real risks in right priority. Otherwise, we will never slow down the cybercrime.
As data breaches target all sectors of society, cyber threats to financial institutions continue to garner especially close scrutiny due to the potential damages suffered by both the institution itself as well as its customers.

According to a 2014 news article, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that more than 500 million financial records were hacked over the previous 12 months. Major publicized incidents reveal that financial institutions, particularly those in the United States, are a highly sought after target by criminal actors seeking to reap financial rewards.

Of note, from 2012 to 2015, one gang of cyber criminals successfully gained access to several high profile financial targets to include JP Morgan, as well as Scottrade, a Boston-based mutual fund, and online stock brokerages in Nebraska, New York, and North Carolina. This is just a microcosm of the bigger reality: there are more cyber attacks directed against financial institutions globally, than any other sector, at least according to one information security company.

Financial data is very appealing to criminals as it can be quickly monetized especially in an array of regional underground criminal marketplaces. These venues offer platforms to sell stolen merchandise to customers that in some cases have been vetted. Given that cyber crime is projected to cost the global economy an astounding $445 billion, the ability to quickly acquire and turnover stolen data can maximize profits substantially.

The threat actor list targeting financial institutions is varied. Cyber criminals and criminal gangs are the primary adversaries for these organizations, but they are not the only ones. Nation states have their own reasons to target financial institutions that do not include stealing money or customer data. Even nation state actors can "moonlight" in the criminal world as evidenced in the five Chinese Peoples Liberation Army officers arrested by the Chinese government for hacking into U.S. companies.

Insiders can work with criminals or on their own to steal data or financial information. For example, a 2015 incident revealed how U.S.-based stock traders and Ukrainian hackers collaborated to make $100 million in illegal profits by stealing corporate press releases before they were released publicly. Even cyber activists have been known to target financial institutions for political/ideological reasons. From 2012-2013, hacktivists launched distributed denial-of-service attacks against several U.S. banks to protest an anti-Islam video posted on YouTube.

Being high-profile targets puts financial institutions at a distinct disadvantage as they must marry security with keeping business operations efficient, expeditious, and reliable. Hostile cyber actors have demonstrated keen insight into developing tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) in order to increase the success rate of their operations. The adage, while cliche, remains true: attackers only have to gain entry once; organizations need to be vigilant and robust defensively all the time, a nearly impossible undertaking in this interconnected reality.

While there are myriad of threats that organizations need to be aware of, it is inconceivable that they will be able to address all security concerns with the same amount of dedicated financial, material, and personnel resources. A tailored risk management approach helps prioritize these concerns. Nevertheless, there are specific threats applicable to all financial institutions that should be addressed:

Unencrypted Data: Financial institutions should have encryption policies in place that are manageable for the organization but also meet protection needs of its customers. As security technology will change and evolve over time, ensuring that an encryption policy adjusts accordingly is essential to maintaining a resilient security posture. Encryption should apply to e-mail transmissions but also for that sensitive data stored on financial institution systems. As mobile banking is increasingly adopted by consumers, encryption will play an even more prominent role in handling sensitive data particularly as mobile malware becomes more common. Encrypting data at-rest ensures that even if a device is stolen or compromised that datas integrity is assured.

Third Party Connections: Many financial institutions likely have connectivity with third-party partners. Indeed, a 2015 survey revealed that more than 40 percent of banking Chief Executive Officers saw joint ventures, strategic alliances, and informal collaborations as opportunities for growth. Managing third-party risk is essential for financial institutions via established compliance measures, regular testing, frequent auditing, and limiting network access are ways to narrow the threat aperture.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks: A 2015 report by Verizon found that DDoS attacks were the most common form of attack against financial services businesses, accounting for 32% of all attacks analyzed. These findings were consistent with an Arbor Networks report that found that 57% of financial institutions have experienced a DDoS attack  the highest of any sector. These attacks are used for extortion purposes, to impede business operations, or in some instances, as diversions to divert attention from more subtle exploitation operations occurring under the radar. Financial institutions need to develop a response plan to DDoS attacks that includes assesses DDoS risks, training individuals, and develop and test mitigation strategies.

Spoofing/Phishing Attacks: Attackers have demonstrated their abilities to engage in spoofing attacks in which they hijacked financial institutions websites in order to steal login information. Typically, these two go hand in hand as the most polished phishing attacks seeking to compromise a users information will be a near-flawless e-mail rendition of that institutions email message template, corporate logo, and seemingly legitimate URL that will direct the user to a spoofed institution site. Financial institutions can mitigate these types of attacks by 1) employing multi-factor authentication to bolster the security of user accounts, and 2) ensure that customers know the institutions business practices, customer notification process, and contact information to report suspicious e-mail messages.

A common question that keeps coming up is, should we already assume that networks are compromised? Its not that networks are already compromised as much as they could be compromised whenever a cyber attacker has decided to make a victim of your organization. They have the luxury of time on their sides that can be used to learn about the organization and develop innovative and advanced TTPs against it.

The cost of breaches extends far beyond strictly financial considerations. Reputational loss and reduction in customer confidence can severely impact the long-term well-being of a financial institution ill prepared for the threats that they face. Each organization must develop a strategy that finds the right balance of security and business operational tempo. Knowing what those threats are, prioritizing them, and implementing mitigation strategies are essential for helping strike that balance.
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WESTPORT  A young artist appealed to peoples sense of sight at his first solo art show Saturday to raise funding for research to cure hearing loss.

Alex Mussomeli, 11, a student at Long Lots School, who uses a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the other, sold 51 of the 54 acrylic paintings he displayed in the show, titled, The Wonder of Art Exploration! It raised approximately $16,000 for the New York City-based Hearing Health Foundation. According to the HHF website, it is the largest nonprofit funder of hearing research, and its aim is to prevent and cure hearing loss and tinnitus through groundbreaking research and to promote hearing health.

Our mission is to fund research through a consortium of scientists to find a cure for hearing loss. We have a Hearing Restoration Project, said Roger Harris of New Canaan, an HHF board member, who attended Alexs art exhibit at the Fairfield County Hunt Club.

Harris said Alex is a very gifted young man, and he is impressed with the boys philanthropic efforts. It was his idea to have this show. To have someone at his age be so socially aware is really amazing.

This is my first time exhibiting. It feels pretty special and exciting, said Alex, who worked for a year to produce his colorful paintings, prints and notecards, many of them with floral and spring themes: Enchanted Flowers, The Tulip Playing the Note, The Dreamy Sunflower, The Bright Butterfly and A Spring Dream.

Theyre full of life and my happiness, he added, observing that painting is my favorite thing to do.

Spring after the Storm was fifth-grade classmate Caroline Motyls favorite. I like the name and the color best because I think its really creative, the 10-year-old said, adding that Alexs project is a really brave thing to do. Its nice because hes helping other people, she said.

Alex said he was inspired to use his artistic talent for a good cause after seeing a CBS Sunday Morning story about a legally blind artist, Jeff Hanson, who has raised $1 million for charities like the Make-a-Wish Foundation and a childrens hospital through the sales of his paintings.

I felt like Why couldnt I do the same for hearing so other kids like me can hear? I like to talk to my parents about my day and listen to music, said Alex.

Nada Mussomeli, Alexs mother, said he was 3 months old when his hearing loss was detected in both ears due to an enlarged vestibular aqueduct, an inner-ear malformation.

He received a cochlear implant in the right ear when he was 3 years old and has a hearing aid in his left ear.

My parents wanted me to be mainstreamed, so I got a hearing aid, but we learned that the implant is stronger, Alex said.

Alex uses his senses of hearing and vision as he paints. In his artists statement Alex said, Sometimes I get inspired by something I see.

He also listens to music, some of it relaxing and some of it stirring compositions. I like music full of expressions. I always have music on when I paint. Ideas dance in his head as his brush dances on the canvas, he said.

Hundreds of people turned out for Alexs show, among them John Hansen of Fairfield, who said he appreciates the young artists use of color, diversity in plant life and positivity.

Family friend Carol Mueller of Westport said Alex is an inspiration to all who know him. Alex loves art and enjoys visually expressing his optimism through his painting.

Nada and Adam Mussomeli said they could not be more proud of their son. Nada Mussomeli said she is inspired watching him create his art, and enjoy every minute. It was a journey. She also said her dream is that a cure for hearing loss is discovered in her lifetime, but if not in hers then in Alexs.
FAIRFIELD  Firefighters battled a blaze at 145 Mountain Laurel Road Sunday evening, but no one was injured in the fire.

Shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday, Fairfield firefighters were called to the Mountain Laurel Road residence for a report of a house fire. The fire was first spotted in the homes garage and spread to the home itself, causing damage to the second floor and a third floor attic. The fire also spread to two cars parked in the homes garage. Though there were people at home at the time of the fire, sources at the Fairfield fire department said no one was injured. The fire is still under investigation and the cause is unknown.
HARTFORD  The budget-setting Appropriations Committee on Monday abruptly killed nine bills after the governors budget office said they would create excessive fiscal impact.

Among the bills was legislation that would have provided Workers Compensation coverage for first responders diagnosed with post-traumatic stress. A similar bill, inspired by police and firefighters who responded to the murder scene at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, failed to pass last year.
BRIDGEPORT  Back taxes and interest totaling $27,000 had kept a duplex unit Habitat for Humanity hoped to restore from being home to a new family.

But the financial services company that held the lien on the property tax bill recently paid the outstanding tab, officials said Monday. Propel Financial Services Inc. of San Antonio, Texas, which buys municipal tax liens from municipalities, paid off the $12,500 in back taxes owed to Bridgeport and the interest, penalties and late fees that more than doubled the bill.
Connecticut is suddenly New Hampshire lite.

A week before Democratic and Republican primary voters cast their ballots for president here, the third-smallest state in the nation is drawing a cavalcade of White House contenders and prominent surrogates to its cities and towns.

Written off by most pundits as irrelevant early on in both parties nominating contests, Connecticut has emerged as an unlikely battleground because of the inability of frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to deliver a knockout.

Not one, but all three Clintons - Hillary, Bill and Chelsea  are scheduled to visit here before April 26.

I think winning Connecticut would be a nice way for the Clinton campaign to try to deprive some oxygen from (Bernie) Sanders, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Larry Sabatos Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Not to be outdone, Trump is expected to squeeze in a second and possibly a third visit to the state after making his Connecticut debut Friday night in Hartford.

John Kasich is also headed back here. The Ohio governor, who is running a distant third to Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the GOP nominating race, will hold a town hall Friday in Glastonbury after attending a similar event two weeks ago at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. The week before that, Kasich was fundraising in Greenwich.

Connecticuts primary falls one week after Democrats and Republicans in New York cast their ballots for president, which experts say could be a preview of how the voting will go in the Constitution State.

In a Democratic race, if its a close New York primary, its going to be treated like its crucial, said Jerold Duquette, an associate professor of political science at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton will stump for her mother Wednesday in Hartford, where she is expected to try to draw a contrast between her mothers record on gun control and Sanders record. The Clinton campaign has assailed the Vermont senator on his support for a 2005 law shielding gun companies from wrongful death lawsuits such as one filed by the families of the Newtown victims.

Both Hillary and Bill Clinton are scheduled to visit the state Thursday, with the former president headlining a private fundraiser in Westport and the former secretary of state focusing on the gun issue in a separate appearance. Details of Hillary Clintons visit were not available yet from her campaign.

That tells me that they expect New York is not going to be a 10-point win, Duquette said of Clintons campaign.

In Connecticut, where the Clintons met as Yale Law students, 71 Democratic delegates are up for grabs. They are awarded on a proportional basis. So far, Sanders has not scheduled a Connecticut stop, which political experts say is likely in the works.

I would think Connecticut could be one place where Sanders really thinks he can win, potentially, Kondik said.

For Republicans, 28 delegates are at stake  three in each of the states five congressional districts and 13 at-large for the state. Needing 1,237 delegates to clinch the nomination, Trump is trying to sweep Connecticut.

We might be getting to the point where every single delegate will be important, Kondik said.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
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BRIDGEPORT  On the campaign trail last year, Joe Ganim left no doubt what he would do if voters returned him to City Hall.

Stop Raising Taxes! Vote Joe Ganim, read his lawn signs.

So Ganims proposed $560.3 million budget  his first since leaving office 13 years ago  holds the line on taxes, right?

Wrong.

Released April 4, Ganims plan increases taxes by $13.4 million. And it hikes the mill rate  the number used to calculate the taxes needed to pay for the budget  from 42.1 mills to 51.4 mills.

That means a potentially hefty tax increase for some property owners and businesses if the City Council does not reduce that number before finalizing the budget in early May.

A mill rate equals the amount of taxes needed to pay for the budget  $310,581,346 in Bridgeports case  divided by the assessed value of taxable properties in the city ($6 billion for Bridgeport), multiplied by 1,000.

Ganims budget would hike the citys mill rate to 51.4 mills. That mill rate can then be divided by 1,000 and multiplied by an individual property assessment to get a ballpark idea of the average tax bill.

So, roughly speaking, a home valued at $200,000 in Bridgeport could have a new tax bill under Ganim of around $10,280.

In contrast, the mill rates under former Mayor Bill Finch, whom Ganim beat last year in part over voters weariness with rising taxes, rose from 39.6 to the current 42.1 since 2010.

And suddenly Ganim, the candidate who could not stop complaining about Bridgeports high taxes, is the mayor who does not have as much to say on the topic.

In fact, with budget public hearings scheduled this week  Tuesday and Thursday  the Ganim administration still claims it is too soon to discuss what his proposed budget means for the mill rate and for the average tax bill.

Its unfair to put out a number, Ganim said recently after the Connecticut Post asked for his thoughts on the newspapers own calculations. He and his administration have continually complained there are too many unknowns, including what Bridgeport will receive from the state in financial aid.

But Ganim did not dispute the Posts 51.4 mill rate number.

Were asking for that information and waiting for the administration to get it to us, said City Council President Thomas McCarthy. Its something we need to have in order to make determinations on where the budget goes.

Finch, at least in the last four budgets of his eight years in office, offered upfront estimates for the impact on residential and commercial taxes, despite grappling with similar fiscal unknowns like state aid and employee concessions.

So at the start of a budget season, taxpayers understood what was at stake in Finchs budgets, and the City Council had numbers to whittle down before adopting a final budget and mill rate.

The best Ganim, who also campaigned on being more transparent than Finch, could offer about the impact of his proposed budget?

Some peoples taxes will go down, some will stay the same, and some will go up, Ganim told The Post.

He also refused to say what he considered a reasonable tax increase.

Those taxpayers whose bills might decrease or break even can thank the recent property revaluation. The total value of all taxable properties  the grand list - dropped $1 billion to $6 billion in Bridgeport.

Commercial values went down less, meaning the commercial sector in particular could shoulder new taxes.

But that goes back to Ganim the candidate, who frequently boasted to voters about not raising taxes for a decade during his prior tenure in City Hall.

My tax record is pretty strong, Ganim reiterated during his recent interview. I campaigned on being the best person to reduce the tax burden. I never committed to cutting taxes.

But in a pre-election column published in The Post, Ganim pledged: If elected, I will lead the effort to cut property taxes.

Councilwoman Eneida Martinez, who has been pleased with some of Ganims decisions since his return, acknowledged people who voted for Ganim likely did so assuming he would not raise taxes.

That was one of their incentives, I believe, Martinez said. I think they thought it would be another 10 years without any tax increase.

The fact of the matter is people would be understandably outraged if they knew what in effect is being proposed, said David Walker, the former U.S. Comptroller General who lives in the seaside Black Rock neighborhood where taxes are expected to rise. This is directly contrary to what people expected and to what many people voted for.

But, Martinez argued, There are some things that are beyond his (Ganims) control.

The mayor and his staff have claimed they inherited a $20 million deficit from Finch.

Paul Timpanelli, outgoing president of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, said it is not unusual for candidates to promise to cut taxes.

Finch during his first run for mayor in 2007 promised taxpayers a $600 rebate. It never happened.

Then when they get into office, they discover that might not be possible, Timpanelli said. Im not passing judgment. Its just that reality hits you in the face.
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BRIDGEPORT The legal arguments were heard in Washington.

But oral arguments were heard Monday on Lafayette Boulevard in Bridgeport.

Nearly three dozen undocumented immigrants, along with their U.S.-born children, demonstrated for nearly an hour outside the U.S. District Courthouse in support of President Barack Obamas 2014 executive acts that are intended to temporarily shield millions from deportation.

Eloina Flores and Alejandra Vasquez, both natives of Mexico and impacted by immigration laws, were among those marching and shouting demands for protection from deportation. Many carried signs that read: Im an immigrant. I have a job. I pay taxes, Stop Separating Families, and Support Our Children, No more Deportations.

Julio Lopez and Claudina Lara, of protest organizers Make the Road, Ct., said more rallies are planned.

Dione Dwyer, who said she is in America legally after immigrating from Jamaica, led the demonstrators, yelling, Im fired up. I cant take it no more ... No justice. No peace.

I dont understand why this is even a debate, said Dwyer. Many of these people came here as children, not by choice. Now we are threatening to send them away ... The U.S. is supposed to be the melting pot. We all came from different places.

Vasquez said she has lived here for 10 years with her husband, a construction worker, and their four children.

If they rule against us, said Barbara Lopez, a Make the Road organizer, she will have to take her children back to Mexico.

A divided court

Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., the evenly split four Republican and four Democratic justices on the Supreme Court heard arguments against a Texas federal judge barring the presidents acts from taking effect while a lawsuit filed by 25 states is pending.

Immigration has become a key issue in the ongoing presidential campaign, with Donald Trump repeatedly vowing to build a wall around the Mexican border and deport millions of illegal residents.

In November 2014, Obama extended and redefined two programs called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. One affects nearly 4.3 million undocumented parents of citizens and lawful residents, while the other impacts their children. The programs provide three-year work permits, with the prospect of renewal, for undocumented residents who have been in the United States since 2010 and have children born here.

However Texas joined by 25 other states sued to block the implementation of the presidents action, arguing that the programs would the states for benefits unsubsidized by the federal government. Texas argued that the state alone would have to foot the bill for unpaid millions from new applicants in its subsidized drivers license program.

After the Texas judge enjoined the programs from taking effect, a federal appeals court in New Orleans upheld that stay. As a result, the federal government appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay and allow the programs to take effect while the suit is pending.

On Monday, as televised by CNN, Justice Samuel Alito questioned the governments arguments asking, How is it possible to lawfully work in the U.S. without lawfully being in the U.S.?

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out there are 11.3 million undocumented residents in the U.S. but Congress budgeted only enough money to deport four million.

So inevitably, priorities have to be set, she said.

That led Justice Sonia Sotomayor to add, They are here whether we want them or not.

Awaiting a ruling

While many of those who demonstrated locally on Monday feared the Supreme Court might not resolve the issue before the November presidential election, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said otherwise.

I do believe the Supreme Court will rule before July, Blumenthal said by phone. I think the courage and presence of all the demonstrators will help the justices understand the real-life consequences here.

On Sunday, Blumenthal met in New Haven with immigrants Ana Lucero Castillo, from Guatemala, and her husband, Isaias Olivares, who is from Mexico. He said both went to Washington Monday to demonstrate outside the Supreme Court.

They are hardworking, law-abiding residents, Blumenthal said, adding that it should be criminals who are targeted.

In Bridgeport, Vasquez said she is thankful to be here because jobs, salaries, health care and education are much better than in Mexico.

Eloina Flores, who has four children, said she has been in the United States for 11 years, and works nights cleaning offices.

I really want to stay here, Flores said, speaking through an interpreter. I hope to send a message to the Supreme Court.

Joining in the demonstration was Isa Mujahid, an organizer for Ct. Community Organizing for Racial Equity. He said he has a rally and cookout planned for Sunday at McLevy Green.

We should all ask ourselves, he said, is it right to split up a family, not just by requiring them to live in a different apartment or even a different city, but a different country?
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BRIDGEPORT  In this case it wasnt the truth, but the plea, that set Sandy Hook truther Matthew Mills free.

Faced with going to trial, the New York banker  who police said angrily confronted the family of murdered Sandy Hook teacher Victoria Soto claiming the massacre of children and teachers in Newtown never took place and the hero teacher didnt exist  decided Monday to accept a plea deal instead.

He pleaded guilty under the Alford Doctrine to one count of interfering with police, and was sentenced by Superior Court Judge William Holden to a suspended 1-year term and two years probation.

Sotos younger sister, Jillian Soto, who was sitting just a few feet away in the courtroom during the plea, declined comment.

We are not going to tolerate this type of behavior, Assistant States Attorney Craig Nowak said later of Mills.

Holden ordered Mills to have no further contact with the Soto family.

Under the Alford Doctrine, Mills didnt admit his guilt but conceded he could have been found guilty and faced a stiffer sentence if he went to trial. The judge, in accordance with Alford plea procedure, then found him guilty.

Mills had no comment as he left the Golden Hill Street courthouse.

He felt he would have prevailed if the case had gone to trial, but he wanted to put this behind him in the best interests of himself and his family, his lawyer, James Hardy, said later.

Victoria Soto, of Stratford, has been hailed as a hero after police said she was killed while protecting her first-grade students from gunman Adam Lanza at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in December 2012.

Hundreds were attending the third annual race in Stratford to raise money for educational scholarships in Sotos name last Nov. 7 when, police said, Mills approached Jillian Soto. They said Mills shoved a photograph in the younger Sotos face and began angrily charging that not only did the Sandy Hook tragedy not take place, but that Victoria Soto never existed.

Police said the photo was of the Soto family, including Victoria Soto, sitting on a seawall in Stratford.

Jillian Soto became very upset at Mills actions and repeatedly asked him to leave her alone, but police said he persisted until officers arrived on the scene. He then ran off and was captured following a short foot chase with officers on Main Street.
WASHINGTON  It is not exactly the Boston Tea Party, but Connecticut lawmakers banded together Monday to introduce a bill that would bring a measure of tax relief to telecommuters, who under current law are taxed twice for work they do at home.

The Multi-State Worker Tax Fairness Act, introduced in the Senate by Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both Democrats, would rework the tax code so telecommuters pay tax to their employers state only for the proportion of days they are physically present in the office.

So a telecommuter who, for instance, spends 40 percent of her time working at home in New Canaan and 60 percent working at her Manhattan employers office, would pay state tax to N.Y. on 60 percent of salary earnings. Under current law, that worker pays both Connecticut and New York state taxes on days worked at home.

Workers I talk to in Connecticut see the need for a simpler, more streamlined tax code, said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., who along with Reps. Elizabeth Esty, Rosa DeLauro, both D-Conn., and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, introduced the bill in the House. Tax fairness for telecommuting workers is a good place to start.

Metro-North moves about 97,800 people each weekday on the New Haven line to and from New Yorks Grand Central terminal, a spokeswoman for the railroad said. Regular Connecticut Metro-North commuters who work in New York generally pay New York state income taxes, but not those levied by Connecticut.

In Fairfield County, there are close to 19,000 people who work from home. Not all of those are telecommuters, but the number is at least some indication of how large this population is.

While lower taxes are generally considered a Republican issue, Democrats also have proven willing to get into it, especially when a fairness question arises and it impacts a wide swath of constituents.

Teleworking offers flexible schedules to workers who need to care for family members or who have difficulty traveling, saves energy, and reduces congestion, said Blumenthal. As more and more people are teleworking, this commonsense bill would ensure that they arent penalized for finding a solution that works for them and for their employer.

The bill may go nowhere in the near term because the Republican-controlled Congress is slow-walking most legislation as the countdown to the 2016 election continues. And since the sponsors are all Democrats, Republicans who control the legislative production line may not be in any hurry to jumpstart it.

It just makes no sense that our outdated tax system punishes and overtaxes Connecticut workers who telework from home for companies based in other states, said Murphy. Our bill will make workers lives easier by establishing one, simple standard and avoiding the conflicting patchwork of state tax rules.

dan@hearstdc.com
The Stratford fire department is investigating a brush fire that broke out behind a condominium complex late Sunday afternoon.

Fire department sources the brush fire, at one point, engulfed 200 feet by 200 feet of space on Engine House Road, behind the Far Mill River condominium complex. There were no injuries and no known cause. The fire was under control by 7 p.m. Sunday. Earlier in the day, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection posted the forest fire danger level as high. According to the DEEP web site, Connecticut traditionally experiences high forest fire danger mid-March through May. DEEPs Division of Forestry constantly monitors the danger of forest fire to help protect Connecticut's 1.8 million acres of forested land. In an average year, about 500 acres of Connecticut woodland are burned by forest fires.
Israel hopes to restore relations with Cuba

Submitted by: Juana

Politics and Government

04 / 08 / 2016





An article in "The Jerusalem Post" has revealed that Israel welcomes the recent reconciliation between the US and Cuba.

According to statements by Modi Ephraim-head of the division of Latin America and the Caribbean of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel- it is expected that in the near future ties between Israel and Cuba are also restored. However, he said there is currently no ongoing discussions with the Cubans to restore ties.

Cuba is one of the four Latin American countries with which Israel has no formal diplomatic relations; group also integrated by Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia.

Despite the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Ephraim has stated that the people to people contacts between Cuba and Israel have never failed: especially in health, culture and agriculture. Further he believes that is a destination for Israeli tourists.



Source: www.cibercuba.com


Cuba sends medical team to quake-affected area in Ecuador

A Cuban 26-member emergency medical brigade departed for Ecuador on Sunday, as hundreds of other Cuban doctors are in that country assisting the victims of the 7.8 quake that has caused huge human loss and property damage in the coastal zone of that South American nation.

The brigade includes specialists with the international Henry Reeve contingent and a rescue team. They were seen off by Health Minister Roberto Morales, who said they are taking first aid kits of disposable materials and pharmaceuticals, for a whole month of emergency work.

Meanwhile, Cuban ambassador in Ecuador, Rafael Dausa, said that all 613 health professionals working in that country are ready to go to affected regions and assist the quake victims.

The Ecuadorian government deployed some 14 thousand police to help assist the victims; President Rafael Correa cancelled his scheduled visit to the Vatican to go to the areas affected by the quake.

source: www.cibercuba.com

Related News
Powerful earthquake hits Ecuador, over 200 people killed

Submitted by: Juana

Central America

Environment

international

04 / 18 / 2016



A powerful, 7.8-magnitude earthquake shook Ecuador's central coast on Saturday, killing at least 41 people and spreading panic hundreds of kilometers (miles) away as it collapsed homes and buckled a major overpass.

On social media residents shared photos of homes collapsed, the roof of a shopping center coming apart and supermarket shelves shaking violently. In Manta, the airport was closed after the control tower collapsed, injuring an air force official. Hydroelectric dams and oil pipelines in the OPEC-member nation were shut down as a precautionary measure.

President Rafael Correa, who is in Rome after attending a Vatican conference Friday, called on Ecuadoreans to stay strong while authorities monitor events.

The death toll has soared to 272, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said Sunday evening. That number is expected to rise as rescue teams dig through the rubble, he said.

source: www.cibercuba.com

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Austin Anderson Guns on campus

The University of Memphis and U of M Police Services are hosting a safety awareness seminar Tuesday from 1 to 2 p.m. in the University Center River Room.

A The safety awareness seminar is designed to encourage U of M students and employees to become more aware of their surroundings and to protect themselves and their property.

A U of M and Police Servicesa safety awareness seminar will happen just days after university faculty, staff and students received an email from Derek G. Myers, assistant chief of police, alerting everyone to stay clear of the FedEx Institute of Technology while police investigated a suspicious item inside the building.

A U of M police located the item, which turned out to be an unattended propane tank, and contacted the Memphis Police Department, according to an email from chief of police Bruce Harber. U of M police officers made sure the building was unoccupied and secured the area.

A MPDas Bomb Squad examined the tank and determined that it was not a threat. However, they still took custody of the tank and removed it from the campus, Harber also said in the email.

A The seminar is open to university students and employees only and will include personal safety tips, vehicle safety tips, and basic self-defense techniques.A

A A small block of self-defense instruction will be provided near the end of the seminar, which the U of M and Police Services hope will teach participants more on how to avoid harmful situations and practicing self-defense as a last resort.

A Due to limited space, participants must register for the seminar in advance.

A Those who wish to participate can register or learn more information by sending an email to police@memphis.edu, or by calling Police Servicesa non-emergency number at 901-678-3848.
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Jeremy Corbyn is not the only senior Labour figure who has been caught napping over their financial affairs.

Last week, Comrade Corbyn was embarrassed when he admitted he had to pay a 100 fine for submitting his tax returns late.

It then emerged he had omitted details of one of his pensions when he published his tax returns in an attempt to undermine David Cameron.

Now Diane Abbott, the Shadow International Development Secretary, former lover of Corbyn, and one of the party leader's closest aides, is also going to be in hot water.

Last week, Comrade Corbyn was embarrassed when he admitted he had to pay a 100 fine for submitting his tax returns late

If Diane Abbott can't get her financial affairs right in a small enterprise like the Diane Abbott Foundation, what hope of running the International Aid department, which has a budget of more than 11 billion and rising

In December 2013, she set up The Diane Abbott Foundation, which is designed to help black children in education. It was then registered with the Charities Commission in October 2015 to promote diversity and equality.

But the company's accounts are now seven months overdue, for which she faces a fine of up to 1,500. The annual return, which details directorships and shareholdings in the foundation, is four months late  which can lead to a criminal prosecution and a fine of up to 5,000.

If Abbott can't get her financial affairs right in a small enterprise like this, what hope of running the International Aid department, which has a budget of more than 11 billion and rising.

But then, of course, she has had problems with the education system before, having been lambasted by a fellow Labour MP as a 'total sellout' after sending her son to a private school.

As for those late accounts, is she going to tell us her dog ate them?

Labour-controlled Lambeth council has spent 5,000 of public money on a video about the effects of government austerity on the borough and also distributed a 24-page propaganda rag, Lambethtalk. I thought ministers were banning town hall Pravdas.

Fabricant's wee spot of bother

Tory MPs left Westminster last week for an away-day at a hotel and conference centre in leafy Oxfordshire. Police snipers ensured the security of the Prime Minister and Cabinet colleagues.

Last year's event did not work out well for Tory MP Michael Fabricant. Having over-indulged on coffee, as he walked through the grounds he decided to respond to the call of nature.

At which point a neighbouring bush swayed and out popped out an alarmed  and armed  policeman, who said: 'Oi, were you about to pee on my head?' In his panic, Fabricant sustained a minor injury involving his zip.

Michael Fabricant, the Conservative MP for Lichfield, was the subject of an embarrassing incident which left him with a minor injury

'It could have been worse,' he said. 'I could have been arrested for exposing myself in public or even assaulting a police officer.'

An important missive has been sent from the Lib Dem whips office in the House of Lords.

'Mouse activity on the West Front is increasing,' it declares. 'To thrive like they are at the moment, mice need food to eat and a place to hide.

'To date, the Department of Facilities has taken the following steps: Placed additional traps with specialist bait; filled up holes and crevices that were helping hide mice; provided new sealed bins for food waste in offices.

'But we need your help. report mice sightings to the helpdesk so that the Pest Control Officer can act.'

Is this really what the party of Gladstone has come to?

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson is trying to tackle what many see as Jeremy Corbyn's inability to deal with far Left anti-Semitism. He's had 'productive meetings' with the Jewish Labour Movement, which includes Jews and non-Jewish moderates disenchanted with Corbyn. Has he told his boss?

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson is trying to tackle what many see as Jeremy Corbyn's inability to deal with far Left anti-Semitism

As the official referendum campaign begins, the Lords privileges committee has ruled former EU Commissioners Lord Kinnock and Lord Patten will not have to declare an interest in European debates. Yet their pensions depend on their maintaining a 'duty of loyalty' to the EU.

A bit of a rich do with Dave

David Cameron has weathered the storm over his shareholdings in his late father's offshore trust.

But the idea that the Tory Party is becoming the plaything of the super-rich will be reinforced with their summer party at the upmarket Hurlingham Club at the end of June. Tickets range in price from 5,000 for a standard table of ten, to 10,000 for a premier table, and 15,000 for a Premier Plus table. Guests are also being encouraged to make an additional donation.

So much for 'we're all in this together'.
Until a day or two ago, I did not intend to vote in the London mayoral election next month.

Zac Goldsmith, the Tory candidate, is a satirical prospect as standard-bearer for Britains capital, a rich kid with nice manners but no bottom, who emphasises David Camerons poor judgment of people.

The rest of the field is worse. George Galloway, the Respect Party candidate, has no rightful place in decent politics. The Liberal Democrats are no longer worth even a protest vote. A plague on all their houses, I thought.

But then I started to take notice of Labours candidate, Sadiq Khan  and to grasp the desperate importance of preventing his victory.

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Zac Goldsmith, left, being chosen as Conservative candidate for London Mayor emphasises David Cameron's, right, poor judgement, writes MAX HASTINGS

Suddenly, I intend to vote after all when London goes to the polls on May 5, and I hope many others will do likewise.

Opinion polls suggest that Khan is overwhelmingly likely to win. In several of the capitals boroughs, more than half of the residents were born beyond these shores.

To a disturbing degree, Londonistan is ceasing to be part of Britain.

Beyond a few bastions of wealth such as Kensington, Chelsea and Notting Hill, most of those who will vote next month are natural Labour supporters, who share few of the values of the rest of us.

The Labour Party machine in many London constituencies is ruthlessly efficient, which helps to explain how the hard Lefts Ken Livingstone won two terms as mayor.

Sadiq Khan, pictured, is Mr Goldsmith's opponent for the Labour Party

As a young journalist in the Seventies I learned a lot about Livingstone when he ran the Labour group on the old Greater London Council.

His support for Irish republicanism through the worst of the IRAs terror campaign was by no means the most odious of his causes. He is a bad man.

Yet so strong is the Labour payroll vote that in 2008 it required a celebrity Tory candidate as unusual as Boris Johnson to oust Livingstone from City Hall.

And today, Livingstone appears almost a moderate alongside Sadiq Khan. As we report in todays Mail, this former chairman of the human rights group Liberty has shared platforms with Muslim extremists, denounced the 2000 Terrorism Act  which banned 15 Muslim extremist organisations  and has spoken nine times at meetings addressed by the hardline imam Suliman Gani, who last year reportedly joined a campaign to establish an Islamic state.

Today, Khan seeks to distance himself from extremism, to assure the people of London that he has no truck with the men of violence.

But it seems possible he has snatched up a mask of moderation only in his eagerness to win the mayoralty.

The job of London mayor demands the skills of a meeter-and-greeter, a feel-good man, a supreme restaurant maitre d, which is why Boris Johnson has been terrific in the role.

I have always believed that he would be a disastrous prime minister: indeed I lie awake at nights, fearing this as a likely consequence of Brexit.

But in 2012 especially, the year of the Olympics, Johnson was a splendid street crier for the capital, untiring in his enthusiasm for enterprise, culture and financial services, master of a thousand photo stunts.

Compare and contrast with Sadiq Khan, who represents a brand of socialism that is out of fashion even in Cuba.

If this deplorable man wins the mayoral election, at least some of the blame will rest with David Cameron, for anointing a candidate with as much prospect of bonding with modern Londoners as Downton Abbeys Dowager Countess of Grantham.

Zac Goldsmith is a son of Jimmy Goldsmith, the bullyboy billionaire and gambling chum of Lord Lucan.

The son can scarcely be blamed for his father, but ownership of an estimated fortune of 200 million makes it harder for him even than George Osborne to tell ordinary Londoners that we are all in this together.

He was non-domiciled for tax purposes until his status was exposed in 2009, when he hastily rejigged his affairs to start a relationship with the Revenue & Customs only on the eve of standing for Parliament.

New York Citys former mayor Michael Bloomberg is a much richer man, to be sure, but Bloomberg created his fortune for himself whereas Goldsmith merely enjoys the spending of a chunk of his fathers.

This has enabled him to devote his energies and cash to green causes, but scarcely enables him to campaign as a successful businessman, or indeed a successful anything.

His promise that he will resign his Richmond Park seat in the House of Commons if the Government approves a third runway at Heathrow illustrates his self-indulgent passions, not his judgment.

How some of us yearn to see more people in politics who approach power having done something with their lives, not merely served as a ministers special adviser, a PR man  or an eco-warrior.

It is said in Goldsmiths favour that he has been an energetic and popular local MP  he increased his majority at the last election more than fivefold.

He is a good doorstep canvasser, who promotes some sensible policies.

Mr Goldsmith, pictured, is 'a good doorstep canvasser' but 'is bereft of any barnstorming oomph'

But he is bereft of any hint of barnstorming oomph. He is a low-temperature politician running for a job that demands a relentlessly high-octane public performance.

How did Goldsmith get the role? He won an online primary in which just 9,227 London Tories voted, compared with 87,000 Labour supporters who cast ballots in their own contest.

David Cameron approved the primary slate, which included no name that looked like a genuine winner, though current deputy mayor Stephen Greenhalgh was the most qualified.

Cameron has never taken the mayoralty seriously. His staff were sceptical whether any Conservative could repeat Boris Johnsons triumphs, because demographics make London a natural Labour city.

The Prime Minister feels personally comfortable with Goldsmith, seen in Downing Street as young, green and handsome  heedless of the fact that he is also posh, an Old Etonian and appears a Martian in places like Tottenham or Tower Hamlets.

If Cameron had properly addressed the mayoral challenge he would have undertaken a long-term campaign to promote such a candidate as the current Business Secretary.

Sajid Javid is personable, clever  a budding star with no embarrassing social baggage. But the Prime Minister appears never to have sought anybody of this calibre for London.

If Boris Johnson becomes prime minister, heaven help us, maybe in future the mayoralty will attract better candidates, because it will be seen as a possible fast-track to power.

As it is, however, we face a likely outcome that will be a matter not merely of regret, but of shame.

If Sadiq Khan is elected boss of the capital on May 5, City Hall will become a magnet for all manner of factions at war with most of what Britain is rightfully about.

This prospect causes some people to ask: who needs city mayors, anyway?

Yet I still support the idea, because we need more local government. Too many things in Britain are controlled by ministers in Whitehall, remote from real people.

On the day of the mayoral election I shall feel obliged to turn out and vote for the Tory, to try to see off Labours man.

Whatever Goldsmiths limitations, no one suggests he has ever been a friend of, or apologist for, violent extremists.

But the choice being offered to London reflects the abysmal quality of the people today entering our politics.
Married At First Sight Australia viewers remain divided over controversial couple Clare Verrall and Jono Pitman.

The pair were off to a rocky start with Jono admitting Clare wasn't what he 'ordered' on their wedding day and after moving in together a number of heated arguments ensued and Jono ended up moving out.

And while it is believed Jono has since found love with a blonde Melbourne-based woman named Rachael, two leading Australian relationship experts have revealed where they believe the pair's relationship went wrong.

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Heated relationship: Two leading Australian relationship experts have revealed where they believe the Married At First Sight's Clare and Jono went wrong in their relationship

Off to a bad start: The pair were off to a rocky start with Jono admitting Clare wasn't what he 'ordered' on their wedding day

Nonverbal signs: Relationship and Body Language Expert, Katia Loisel, suggests the relationship was doomed from the start

Relationship and Body Language Expert, Katia Loisel, suggests the relationship was doomed from the start.

'Whilst on paper Clare and Jono appear to have a lot in common, negative first impressions can be hard to overcome, particularly for someone like Jono who is quite headstrong with fixed expectations about what they want,' Katia told Daily Mail Australia.

'In those first few seconds of meeting someone we make a decision about the other person and the kind of relationship wed like to have with them.

Subtle signs: Katia says Jonos nonverbal reaction to Clare including his excessive lip licking, was a clear sign of his 'discomfort and apprehension'

'Apprehensive sign': Katia also says Jono's smile was an indicator that his first impression was no good - something that would be overcome even if they did hit it off later

'It can be a challenge to overcome a negative first impression such as Jonos nonverbal reaction to Clare; his excessive lip licking, swallowing, lip compression, eye blocks, and apprehensive smile a clear sign of his discomfort and apprehension.'

She says the couple's interactions appear to be 'overwhelmingly negative and volatile' and that they seem to 'miss or ignore each other's often subtle verbal and nonverbal clue and requests to repair their relationship for support, understanding and emotional connection.'

'These "requests" are opportunities for understanding, connection and can fan the flames of attraction,' Katia said.

No words needed: Jono also pursed his lips and repeatedly avoided eye contact with his bride

Not promising: She says the couple's interactions appear to be 'overwhelmingly negative and volatile'

But Katia says their problems 'seem to be exasperated by Jono's communication style and the way that sensitive subjects and each other's vulnerabilities are handled.'

'Rather than turning towards one another in these times and offering sensitivity and understanding, their heated conversations appear to be peppered with negativity, criticism, belittling, defensiveness and negative nonverbal communication,' she said.

'When you throw two big personalities into an emotional rollercoaster youre asking for trouble, however relationships between a headstrong, volatile couple can work if they approach their arguments from a place of love and respect.'

Warning signs: Dating expert, former scientist and founder of Australia's leading matchmaking agency Blue Label Life , Samantha Jayne, says she saw 'alarm bells' between the pair immediately

Dating expert, former scientist and founder of Australia's leading matchmaking agency Blue Label Life, Samantha Jayne, says she saw 'alarm bells' between the pair immediately.

'I think from their behaviour you can see their both in their heads and not in their hearts. Their walls are up and as a result they are defensive because they are trying to protect themselves from being hurt,' Samantha told Daily Mail Australia.

'The problem with having your walls up and trying to protect yourself is that the only thing you protect yourself from is love and connection.'

Expert in love: Samantha Jane is a dating expert, former scientist and founder of Australia's leading matchmaking agency, Blue Label Life

'She is stepping into her masculine energy which repels him': Samantha says Clare's attempt to 'chill' jono with breathing exercises is a bad idea

Samantha said there is 'a lot of damage being done' which then leads to a breakdown in the level of trust and connection.

'With Jono storming out this only escalates Clares potential abandonment issues... clearly they are both hurt in this instance as he runs away and she wants to fight for the relationship,' she said, 'I think they are both used to drama.

'From a deep human need drama is just a sign of boredom.'

Walk away: 'When a person pulls away and then you pull towards them they pull away even more,' Samantha said

Overly dramatic? 'From a deep human need drama is just a sign of boredom,' Samantha said

Samantha also says Clare's attempt to 'chill' jono with breathing exercises is a bad idea.

'By Clare offering him a solution, she is stepping into her masculine energy which repels him. This is all very unconscious,' Samantha said.

'What she should do is let him be, walk away give him space and process what just happened and let him come up with the solution instead. When she pushes him and goes into "solution mode" breathing, this masculine. Have you heard of the rubber band effect?

'Jono does need to take a big deep breath and think about what he says and does': When it comes to Jono, Samantha says he is 'fiery' and is doing things he will 'regret

Honest: 'Ultimately I wouldnt recommend either of them getting in too deep, this relationship is very chaotic from the early onset and its in the honeymoon phase,' she said

'When a person pulls away and then you pull towards them they pull away even more, however if a person pulls away and then you pull away they come back to you like a rubber band. There is always a healthy and unhealthy tension in a relationship.

Samantha believes Clare teasing Jono and never expressing thanks is an issue as empathy is key in healthy relationships.

When it comes to Jono, Samantha says he is 'fiery' and is doing things he will 'regret.'

Too cold: 'He needs to make her feel secure in the relationship by being warmer and opening up,' Samantha said

'Jono does need to take a big deep breath and think about what he says and does before he does. He would benefit from getting into his heart, giving Clare a sense of security and feeling of safety. If he complimented her sometimes instead of focusing on the fact that she doesnt exercise every day,' Samantha said.

'Ultimately I wouldnt recommend either of them getting in too deep, this relationship is very chaotic from the early onset and its in the honeymoon phase.
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He made his entrance to the world more than two months ago, but for the first weeks of his life the name of the youngest member of Bhutan's royal family has been kept a closely guarded secret.

On Saturday the King and Queen of Bhutan finally shared the crown Prince's name with their subjects during a colourful ceremony.

The baby son of King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema was given the name Jigme Namgyal Wangchuck at the ceremony.

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The proud parents with their son who was draped in a yellow blanket during the ceremony

Ahead of the ceremony the Prince's proud grandfather, His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo, was seen lovingly tidying his mop of dark hair with a soft white brush

Bhutan's new crown prince was bestowed with a name Saturday at a solemn religious ceremony at a majestic 17th century palace that houses the relics of a famous Buddhist master.

Kinley Dorji, the government's information secretary, said the naming ceremony was held to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the day that Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, a revered Tibetan Buddhist master, arrived in Bhutan.

Dorji said the relics of this revered Buddhist master were preserved at the Punakha palace, where the naming ceremony was held. 'The prince has symbolically received his name from Zhabdrung Rinpoche,' Dorji said.

At the Thangzona outside the Dzong, thousands of people had gathered to commemorate Zhabdrung Kuchoe, as well as to celebrate the new Prince.

On Saturday the King and Queen of Bhutan finally shared the crown Prince's name with their subjects during a colourful ceremony

The Prince of Bhutan was bestowed with the moniker Jigme Namgyal Wangchuck and was honoured by his grandmother (right) with a bright yellow shawl

The naming ceremony tops off an exciting week for the tiny Himalayan Kingdom, which last week welcomed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Queen Jetsun Pema meeting some of her subjects with the baby Prince

Bhutan's king and queen prayed at a Buddhist monastery in the capital, Thimphu, before driving to Punakha, where the ceremony took place.

On Saturday, Wangchuck carried the baby prince, draped in a yellow blanket, as he walked the short distance alongside his wife to the Punakha Dzong complex, followed by Buddhist monks in maroon robes and musicians playing pipes.

There, they were received by His Holiness, the Je Khenpo.

Revealing the crown prince's name, the King said: 'The Gyalsey is not just the prince of the King and Gyaltsuen, but a son to all the Bhutanese people.

'Jigme means fearless. It symbolises great courage to overcome any challenge that he may confront in future as he serves our country.

In an emotional speech, the King described the Crown Prince as a son to all the Bhutanese people

His Royal Highness The Gyalsey is brought into the Punakha Dzong for the first time

On Saturday, Wangchuck carried the baby prince, draped in a yellow blanket, as he walked the short distance alongside his wife to the Punakha Dzong complex, followed by Buddhist monks in maroon robes and musicians playing pipes

The King carries his newborn son during the celebrations (left). After the naming ceremony, the King met with the people gathered at the courtyard (right)

He continued: 'When the time comes for Gyalsey Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck to serve his country, he must always place the concerns of his country above all else and serve his people justly with great love and dedication.

'It will be his sacred responsibility to build a harmonious and just society, and thereby, fulfill all the aspirations of his people.'

Ahead of the ceremony the Prince's proud grandfather, His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo, was seen lovingly tidying his mop of dark hair with a soft white brush, and his grandmother presented him with the yellow shawl he was wrapped in for the special day.

The naming ceremony tops off an exciting week for the tiny Himalayan Kingdom, which last week welcomed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

His Holiness the Je Khenpo receives the Crown Prince at the Punakha Dzong

The prince was named Jigme, which means fearless. His father said the name symbolises great courage to overcome any challenge that he may confront in future as he serves the country

The Bhutanese royal family preparing to celebrate the new Prince

William and Kate tried their hand at archery, the national sport, and enjoyed a private dinner with the Bhutanese royals.

They also trekked three hours to the iconic Tiger's Nest Monastery.

Situated about 10,000ft (3,000m) above sea level and on a cliff face, the monastery is considered to be one of the holiest for the Bhutanese people.

The royal couple showed off the queen's baby bump in a picture released in January. The child, the couple's first, was delivered Feb. 5 by a medical team at Lingkana Palace in Thimphu.

THE KING'S FULL SPEECH AT HIS SON'S NAMING CEREMONY It is most auspicious for all of us to have gathered here today to observe the sacred occasion of Zhabdrung Kuchoe at Pungtang Dewachenpoi Phodrang, the principal seat of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel. All the people of our country were joyously united in offering prayers when our son was born in February this year. I express my appreciation to all the people of twenty dzongkhags for your prayers, support and love, and wish you Tashi Delek on the auspicious occasion of Zhabdrung Kuchoe. Today is a very significant day in an exceptional year filled with propitious events. The year marks the birth anniversary of Guru Rinpoche and the 400th anniversary of Zhabdrung's arrival in Bhutan. Along with His Majesty Fourth Druk Gyalpo, I and my son offered our prayers today to Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel in the sacred Machen Lhakhang for the present and future wellbeing of our people and country. Never before has there been a time when the royal grandfather, father and son of the Wangchuck Dynasty came together at the same time to offer prayers in the sacred temple of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel. This has come to signify a most fortunate event on a most auspicious day. As I have said before, the Gyalsey is not just the prince of the King and Gyaltsuen, but a son to all the Bhutanese people. After profound contemplation, he has been named Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck in the sacred Machen Lhakhang. Jigme means fearless. It symbolizes great courage to overcome any challenge that he may confront in future as he serves our country. Namgyel means victorious in all directions and victory over all obstacles. It is a name taken from the revered Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel, who enabled the Dharma to flourish in all directions as prophesied by Guru Rinpoche. Wangchuck is the name of the royal lineage and dynasty. When the time comes for Gyalsey Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck to serve his country, he must always place the concerns of his country above all else and serve his people justly with great love and dedication. It will be his sacred responsibility to build a harmonious and just society, and thereby, fulfill all the aspirations of his people. He must live such a life as a good human being and serve his country in a manner that it will be exemplary and worthy of emulation. He will also have the responsibility to preserve and foster the legacies and teachings of Guru Rinpoche and Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel. My heartfelt prayers and aspirations are that during his reign, our people will be able to enjoy even greater peace, security, prosperity and happiness than they have in the past. I thank all the people of the twenty dzongkhags for your continued support, loyalty and dedication. Advertisement

The young couple made news in Bhutan while they were dating, when Wangchuck displayed open affection for his wife-to-be.

He publicly held her hand and even planted kisses on her cheek, something rare in conservative Bhutan, particularly among royalty.

Wangchuck ascended Bhutan's throne in November 2008, when his father, King Jigme Singhye Wangchuck, abdicated in his favor.

By that time, the older Wangchuck had also guided the remote Himalayan kingdom toward democracy.

In March that same year, the kingdom held its first democratic election and voted in a new parliament that can constitutionally impeach the king.
She's not a fan of the method and thinks that doctors shouldn't use it

Several years ago I made a documentary about what is known as cosmetic medicine - all the things a doctor can do to alter the appearance of a patient without actual surgery.

It was called SuperBotox Me and in the space of 48 hours I was jabbed nearly 80 times by a variety of medics, including the late Fredric Brandt, the dermatologist whose clinic counted Madonna among its patients.

I now consider myself something of an aficionado of botulinum toxin - popularly known as Botox - which, when injected into a muscle, paralyses it, preventing the movement that creates a wrinkle.

Concerns: Kate Spicer has Botox via the Juvapen. The device works by the doctor touching a lever and a small motor whirs as it drives a precise amount of the toxin into the skin. It's halfway to a robot giving you Botox

So when I heard about the Juvapen - a new device for administering the stuff - I was intrigued. What's wrong with the old delivery system, of a syringe and very fine needle?

Bernard-Pierre LaGrand, CEO of the Swiss company that makes the Juvapen, says that comparing it with a hand-held syringe is like comparing an automatic car with a manual one.

The 'pen' itself is small and rectangular, not much bigger than a matchbox with a side panel where the doctor presses the appropriate button to determine exactly what quantity to inject. This device is then attached to the barrel of a syringe and needle, but rather than injecting by hand, the doctor touches a lever and a small motor whirs as it drives a precise amount of the toxin into the skin. It's half-way to a robot giving you Botox.

According to LaGrand the pen was developed for non-cosmetic procedures requiring tiny doses of the drug. Trials show it brings the accuracy of the dose to within 2 per cent of what was intended, as opposed to 50 per cent if the needle is held in the old 'freestyle' way.

That's a big difference. If the lines between the eyebrows, say, require 0.5ml of Botox, a 2 per cent margin of error means that only 0.01ml of Botox could be injected by mistake, while 50 per cent allows for a far larger 0.25ml extra dose.

In real terms, it's the difference between a hard, immobile face and a soft, natural look.

The Juvapen allows tiny, precise quantities to be administered with very little margin for error, and that this opens Botox up to new uses, such as micro-needling over the chest to get rid of crepey skin

LaGrand tells me the pen allows tiny, precise quantities to be administered with very little margin for error, and that this opens Botox up to new uses, such as micro-needling over the chest to get rid of crepey skin.

Dr Jules Nabet, a French doctor with clinics in Kensington, Paris and Monaco is, you would think, a dab hand at injecting infinitesimally small amounts of Botox. He tells me he was one of the pioneers of what he calls 'baby Botox'. No, not injecting newborns, but using a minimal amount of the toxin to leave natural movement in the face.

So why is he using the pen? 'I have done this job for 30 years and I do around 30 Botox treatments a day. I know exactly what I have to do with the needle,' he says. 'But my patients tell me it's less painful because you are not, tok, tok, tok [he mimes the fast pricking style of hand-delivered botox] you are doing it sl-ow-ly.' He draws out the word as he presses the pen into my face and delivers a jab.

Kate doesn't find the pen less painful than a traditional needle - it's just a different, blunter sort of pain

'Ouch!' After 16 injections with the pen and two without, I don't find it dramatically less painful - more a different, blunter pain to the sharp pricks you endure with a needle.

I find it reassuring that Botox hurts. It is not a pampering treatment. This is medicine and as such it is legally available only from doctors, dentists or nurses under the supervision of a doctor. Indeed, aware of the dangers to patients having these so called non-invasive injectable treatments, last week the General Medical Council issued new guidelines that will 'protect patients from poor practice' and 'help drive up standards in the cosmetic industry'. However, these guidelines do not apply to dentists and nurses.

Many beauty therapists think they are able to inject Botox, but they're wrong - and it's deeply worrying that some still do it

Many beauty therapists think they are able to inject Botox, but they're wrong - and it's deeply worrying that some still do it, sheltering behind inadequate 'supervision' by dodgy doctors.

So I can't help but be concerned when Mr LaGrand tells me his company's pen makes it easier to teach beginners how to inject Botox. Indeed, the firm's website is called toxinmadesimple.com.

Is this 'made simple' approach the first step to letting beauty therapists loose on Botox? 'No,' he insists. 'It just makes it faster and more accurate. It allows the less experienced to do a good job.'

Do we really need 'less experienced' injectors? Click on the link for the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors - it goes straight to a page packed with expensive, short courses for doctors, dentists and nurses who are new to injecting Botox.

Any doctor can legally set himself up as a cosmetic specialist, even without any relevant experience or training. It's these inexperienced new guys who might be attracted to the Juvapen.

'It will help them inject exactly the right dose,' says Dr Nabet. However, he admits: 'We cannot say it will make them better. Botox isn't just about the injection, it's about where you inject, too.'

Kate before the treatment. She feels that the pen is unnecessary if the doctors know that they are doing - and thinks that if you are getting Botox, you should be going to someone who knows what they're doing

More than once I have been a model for a famous injector while he does courses for doctors wanting to improve their cosmetic skills. These doctors sometimes have Botox themselves and the results can be alarmingly poor. They can't seem to see there's any problem, so what will they do to their patients?

Injecting botulinum toxin requires a level of knowledge of human anatomy - and doing it well requires artistry, too. The Botox pen will do nothing to stop the sort of doctors who inject 1ml of toxin between the eyebrows when they should be injecting 0.5ml.

I spoke to some of Dr Nabet's competitors. They expressed surprise that someone of his generally well-respected status would use it.

One doctor described it as 'simply rubbish. Botox should be painless and accurate if done properly. A good doctor doesn't need a pen to do it'.

The last thing the industry needs is a pen for beginners. What it needs is some kind of medical aesthetics test to ensure the professional knows how to use his needles, not just medically, but artfully.

It's time to stop letting any old doctor, dentist or nurse loose on people's faces.
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Where there's smoke, there's fire, and in this case, lots and lots heat! Things are getting hot in Australia as a bunch of firies strip off for a good cause, to shoot the 2017 Firefighter's Calendar.

The calendar, which has been produced since 1993, raises funds for the Childrens Hospital Foundation and the Westmead Childrens Hospital Burns unit in NSW.

The photoshoots for the 2017 calendar are currently underway on the Gold Coast, and it's looking like next year's calendar will be a must see.

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Feelin' hot, hot, hot: Photographs for the 2017 Firefighter's Calendar Australia have emerged as the shoot begins on the Gold Coast

Tip of the hat: The calendar raises funds for the childrens Hospital Foundation and the Westmead Childrens Hospital Burns unit

Blue Steel: The calendar has been produced since 1993 and has raised more than $1.3 million in the 23 years it has been on sale

Where there's smoke: The calendar features 14 real life firefighters shirtless and sometimes soot-covered, posing for different months of the year

Cold shower: Photoshoots are hard work, and one of the subject's of 2017's calendar found an innovative way to cool off

Sneak peek shots of what's coming up show 14 real-life firefighters half naked, covered in soot and fighting fires, their hoses at the ready.

Some new models are taking a turn at being front and centre this year, including some very adorable puppies.

Behind the scenes shots have shown the firefighters posing with the puppies, with the dogs seeming nonplussed at their chance at fame. The puppies, who were all supplied for the shoot by the RSPCA, are all available for adoption too.

Puppy love: Not only are the firefighters posing with hoses and axes, but they have new models with them this year- puppies

Hose at the ready: Tom (above) did well in what was his first go at being a model for the calendar

Making a splash: Water, smoke and fire are usual features of the shoots,

Fun and games: Although it's serious work on the job, the firefighters have fun between shots when being photographed

Cute canines: All of the puppies featured in the shoot were supplied by the RSPCA and are available for adoption

Remember to hydrate: Every firefighter knows how important hydration is during a hard day's work

The Firefighter's Calendar Australia Facebook page have been posting pictures over the last week as the shoot started. It will continue for one more week before the models are done with their part.

The response on social media to the preview shots has been very positive, with one of the first pictures of some of the firefighters with puppies gaining more than 13,000 likes on Facebook.

'How can you resist, puppies AND firefighters. Happy Wednesday, you're welcome!!' the page captioned the photo, which showed three firefighters holding two puppies each.

It's getting hot in here: The Firefighter's Calendar Australia Facebook page has been posting sneak peek shots of the 2017 calendar

Playtime: Some of the puppies seemed to enjoy the experience more than others, bounding about on the bush set

Popular: Some of the preview shots posted to social media have gotten upwards of 13,000 likes in only a couple of days

Cheeky: Some of the firies even went all Magic Mike and stripped down to their underwear for a shot

Get ready: The calendar will be on sale later in the year for $17 each, and the 2016 calendar is on sale now on the Firefighter's Calendar website

In the line of fire: We're eagerly awaiting the new calendar- it's for a good cause after all

The 2017 calendar, which sells for $17, will be on sale later in the year. If you can't wait, 2016 calendars are available for sale from the Firefighter's Calendar website.

The non-profit organisation has raised more than $1.3 million for the children's hospitals in the 23 years they have been producing the calendar.
A mother has earned the praise and support of thousands after speaking out about the difficulties of breastfeeding her twin girls.

Elaina Bellis, from Santa Monica, California, posted a picture of herself tandem breastfeeding her daughters Quincy Kay and Rowe James on Instagram alongside an honest account of the struggles she has faced trying to produce milk for them.

Opening up about the challenge of breastfeeding, the art director, said she 'tried everything in her power' to produce milk for her identical twins but, despite her best efforts, still struggled to make enough to feed both of her children.

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Tandem: Elaina Bellis was hailed as an 'inspiration' after sharing honest account of how she has tried to produce milk for her twin daughters, pictured with their mother

Team effort: The art director from Santa Monica, California, said she had to rely on the help of friends to feed her twins Quincy Kay and Rowe James, pictured asleep on Elaina's chest

She said due to the birthing process which she said resulted in an 'excess of fluids in my body and trauma' she has not been able to produce enough milk for one baby - let alone two - despite pumping, seeing consultants and staying up all night trying to feed.

Thanking her friends who she said have provided her with additional milk, she said 'I never thought I would have problems breastfeeding and realize now I did the absolute best I could do.'

Thanking the women who helped, she said: 'I'm so lucky to have friends like you!'

The picture, which shows her posing with a tiny baby on each breast, has been liked nearly 6,000 times and has attracted hundreds of comments.

In a heartfelt message, she wrote in the caption: 'Breastfeeding: I tried everything in my power to build a supply for my girls.

'Pumping, lactation consultants, mothers milk tea/vitamins, formula wired to my nipples, up all hours of the night and having emotional breakdowns not understanding why my body couldn't build up any milk over the last month.

'Due to the way my birth went and excess of fluids in my body and trauma, my breasts aren't able to supply even enough milk for one baby.

'I never thought I would have problems breastfeeding and realize now I did the absolute best I could do. I wanted to thank my friends who have supplied my girls with their milk...I'm so lucky to have friends like you!!!'

She said breastfeeding is a subject that is not talked about enough and addressing women who can do it, she added: 'You're incredibly lucky'.

Expressive: Elaina said she pumps 'all day' to provide the twins, pictured, with 'one ounce of my milk'

Family: Elaina, pictured holding one of the twins, right, said she has accepted that that it is 'the best I can do'

She said: 'I also feel like people don't talk about how hard breastfeeding can be and if you can BF [breastfeed] you're incredibly lucky.

'I pump all day to be able to provide my girls with one ounce of my milk, and I've excepted [accepted] that's the best I can do. All I can give them is my love and that's most important.'

Elaina has been hailed an 'inspiration' for her comments with many Instragram users praising her honesty.

One person, writing under the name 'plainjaneoutside', wrote: 'No one knows the heartache until they experience it firsthand. Thank you for being so honest. Bless your little bundles of light.'

Another mother, Bobbi Jo Murray, said: 'I applaud you for sharing this, and I feel your pain, both emotional and physical. You are beautiful. Your babies are so lucky to have a smart mom like you!'

Brooklyn Mamas shared their support, writing: 'Great. Work. Mama. It's so hard. And what lucky babies you have, to have a mama that tried so hard for them.

'Nothing is as we expect in motherhood. The realization of this comes at different times for all of us- but it comes none the less.'

In an interview with HeyMama, she said she 'loves spontaneity and adventure' and said she goes hiking four to five times a week.

She said she often works with her boyfriend who is a photographer.

Her inspiration as a mother is her mom, she said: 'She has four children and managed to make time for all of us equally. She showed me what true love looks like.'

Active: Elaina, pictured, said she 'loves spontaneity and adventure' and goes hiking several times a week
Ivanka was back at work on Monday, and brought Joseph along on a construction site visit later in the week

The downtime was captured after Ivanka's first week back to work after just

After her first week back at work following just two weeks of maternity leave, Ivanka Trump enjoyed some quality downtime with her family this weekend.

The 34-year-old mother-of-three was at home on Sunday and shared an adorable photo of her two eldest children, four-year-old Arabella and two-year-old Joseph, hanging out in bed.

The smiling tots looked cozy as they posed side-by-side in their pajamas, while Arabella laid a protective hand on her little brother  though her other little brother, newborn Theodore James, was nowhere to be found.

Little kiddies: Ivanka Trump shared an image of her daughter, four-year-old Arabella, and son, two-year-old Joseph, on Instagram on Sunday morning

Sunday celebrations: The 34-year-old mother-of-three also uploaded a shot of their tasty-looking breakfast of birthday cake pancakes

'Sweet babies,' Ivanka captioned the photo, which has earned more than 20,400 likes. Arabella is seen smiling in what appears to be a pink gingham nightgown, while Joseph wears blue gingham pajamas and a bib. He also has a temporary tattoo on his right wrist.

Baby Theo isn't pictured, and was presumably still sleeping in his crib.

Not long after, Ivanka shared a second photo of the delicious-looking breakfast she'd prepared as a special treat: birthday cake pancakes.

A cookbook lying open nearby shows she followed a recipe for the sugary start to the day, which included a stack of pancakes with white frosting dripping down the sides and sprinkles on top.

'When your kids beg you to make a sprinkle pancake tower cake and then ditch you to play after five minutes of mixing and mess making!'' she captioned the photo, adding the hashtags #sundaymorning and #toddlerlife.

Mommy and me! On Thursday, Ivanka was spotted going back to work, which including make a construction site stop with Joseph

Back to work: She was photographed earlier in the day on her way to the office in New York City; the mother of newborn Theordore James only took two weeks of maternity leave

The doting mom seems to have boundless energy for making yummy breakfasts, even after a busy week of returning to work and juggling that with the care of three children  including an infant, who needs to be fed several times throughout the night.

She and her husband Jared Kushner, 35, only welcomed their son Theodore on March 27, but Ivanka was already back in the office two weeks later on April 11.

So far, her dad Donald has yet to take a definitive stance on enacting paid maternity leave in the US  but did recommend on Fox News that the country 'be careful of it' because 'we have to keep our country very competitive  but Ivanka herself seems to have little need for the time off.

After a first day back last Monday, she was spotted on Thursday morning heading to work in an outfit pieced together from her own collection, which she also wore later in the day when she visited a Trump property construction site with Joseph.

Bets billboard: She carried a $325 bag and wore $140 flats from her own collection

Making her way down Park Avenue in Manhattan, the busy mom was all decked out in her own Ivanka Trump Collection clothes and accessories, putting on a display for photographers.

She wore her $138 'Bullet' blue floral fit-and-flare dress, $140 'Tropica' black pointed-toe lace-up flats, and $325 'Soho Solutions' tote bag. She finished off the ensemble with a camel-colored coat, and seemed quite busy on her phone as she walked confidently down the street.

Despite giving birth just a few weeks ago, the fit blonde already seems to be back in pre-baby shape, and was happy to go tights-free in the still chilly New York weather.

She also wore her hair in a casual ponytail and kept her make-up natural and fuss-free.

After a stop at the office, she picked up her now-middle-child Joseph to visit what is presumably a site for a future Trump development.

Still in her floral dress, she picked the little one up and perched him on her hip as she showed off the workers' progress.

Can't stay away: Ivanka appeared on her official Snapchat last week to reveal that she left newborn Theodore at home so she could surprise her staffers at her office

On Monday, Ivanka shared a peek at what she's been doing back at work on Shapchat, where she said: 'I have been following the team on Snapchat, and I missed it here, so I snuck away from the baby while he was sleeping for just a few minutes.'

At the start of the video the camera is pointed at Ivanka's blue pumps, black pants, and black leather bag before it it slowly moves up to show off her black and blue floral print top.

When the camera reached her face, Ivanka happily waved as she revealed that she left baby Theo home for a bit so she could stop by her office and visit her beloved employees.

Ivanka was always on the go throughout her third pregnancy, so it is unsurprising that the busy mom took some time catch up with her staff on Monday  though from her trip to the office today, it doesn't seem like it was just a quick visit.

And just three days after giving birth to her son, Ivanka took her four-year-old daughter Arabella and two-year-old son Joseph to school.

A week later she introduced her father Donald to a massive crowd in their home city of New York as she explained why voters should back him for the Republican nomination.

Sibling bond: Ivanka took to Instagram last Sunday to share this photo of her four-year-old daughter Arabella lovingly cradling her tiny, newborn brother Theodore in her arms

Ivanka, who spent a great deal of her pregnancy on the campaign trail for her dad, admitted that although it was difficult to leave Theo at home, she did so because she thinks this election 'is more important now than ever'.

However, Ivanka and her brother Eric won't be voting in the in the April 19 New York GOP primary as they admitted this week that they missed last fall's deadline to register to vote.

But while Ivanka is undoubtedly busy, the proud mom has found plenty of time to dote on her three children and her 35-year-old husband Jared Kushner.

The former model took to Instagram on Sunday to share a precious photo of Arabella lovingly cradling Theodore in her arms.

Lending a hand: Ivanka and her siblings appeared on CNN last Tuesday to speak out in support of her father Donald, painting him as a perfect father, doting husband and someone with the utmost respect for women

Family portrait: The businesswoman was joined by husband Jared Kushner, and the rest of the Trump clan, including Lara and Eric, Tiffany, Donald and Melania, Donald Jr. and Vanessa, and their daughter Kai

'Sunday morning cuddles,' she captioned the photo which sees her daughter still in her pajamas as she holds her baby brother who is clad in just a diaper.

Later that day she posted a sweet snapshot of Arabella hugging Joseph in honor of National Siblings Day.

Ivanka has a history of sharing family photos and videos on her social media accounts, a practice that has only increased with the arrival of the family's new addition.

Last week, Ivanka shared a video that sees her eldest child sitting on a sofa holding her then one-week-old brother and sweetly singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Arabella 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.
Princes William and Harry will be the envy of Star Wars fans everywhere when they meet the stars of the new film and are shown around the set in a royal visit announced by Kensington Palace today.

William, who has just returned from a busy tour of India and Bhutan, and his brother Harry will be shown around Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire on Tuesday by The Force Awakens star Daisy Ridley, who plays the heroine Rey.

The lucky princes will also be given a private sneak preview of the set of Star Wars: Episode VIII and meet Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker, director Rian Johnson and other cast members.

The Duke of Cambridge and brother Prince Harry will visit the set of Star Wars at Pinewood Studios tomorrow

They will see a number of production workshops, meet the specialist creative teams and see the production process for some of the most famous props, costumes and creatures from the new blockbuster.

The Force Awakens - the seventh installment of the series, which was released at the end of last year - saw the return of original cast members Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Hamill and was the highest grossing film of all time in the UK.

The royal engagement is aimed at recognising the wealth of British creative talent involved in the production of the Star Wars films, a spokesperson from Kensington Palace said.

During their visit to the famous studios in Buckinghamshire the princes will be met by cast members Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker (left) and Daisy Ridley who plays Rey (right)

Following the visit the princes will prepare to join the Duchess of Cambridge on Friday in hosting US president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle (pictured with Prince Harry last year) for dinner

Following their exciting trip to the studios, the princes will then prepare to join the Duchess of Cambridge in hosting US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle for dinner on Friday.

Obama and the First Lady Michelle will dine at Kensington Palace after joining the Queen for lunch at Windsor Castle - the day after her 90th birthday celebrations.

'Their Royal Highnesses are very much looking forward to welcoming President and Mrs Obama to Kensington Palace,' a statement from Kensington Palace said.
While some saw the correct outline straight away others were left stumped

Post has been seen by more than 25,000 and 9,000 have commented

Thousands have been trying to see the image in black and white drawing

An optical illusion has sent social media into a frenzy with thousands struggling to work out the image.

Savannah Root from Lamar, Missouri, shared the black drawing on Facebook last week and since then the image has received 26,000 likes, 4,500 shares and nearly 9,000 comments.

In the post, she wrote: 'I stared at this picture for an hour trying to figure out what it was.'

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Savannah Root from Lamar, Missouri, shared the black and white drawing on Facebook last week and since then the image has had 26,000 likes, 4,500 shares and nearly 8,500 comments

She then invited others to post below about what they thought the image represented.

While some managed to spot the hidden silhouette of a cowboy straight away, many were left entirely stumped and thought the painting looked like a bat.

More obscure suggestions included a rat hanging upside down with wings, a bird carrying a baby and a penguin doing a wee.

Samantha JH wrote: 'Omg, so creepy! I was staring and staring at it thinking it was a bat upside down then turned away and looked back and BAM I see the man's face in a cowboy hat, half white, half black.'

Meanwhile, Stephen Foley asked: 'Is it a penguin doing a pee (male, obviously and licking his lips?'

Samuel Rea also guessed wrong: 'Bird carrying a baby.'

Many were left stumped by the image after it was posted on Facebook and 9,000 people have commented

But Louis Jones simply wrote: 'It looks like a black mess.'

Others were left frustrated by the image having not been able to work out what it was.

Victoria MacRae wrote: 'I note that Savannah said not to say what it is once you got it but I'm so grateful for those who did. As interesting as this is, I don't have an hour to spend staring at one Facebook post, I really don't. So, thank you!'

The red lines in this picture showed people who couldn't work out the image the correct way of viewing it

Some people spotted the cowboy straight away including Nathan Preshous, who said he spent half-an-hour staring at it as he wasn't expecting it to be so easy

Jennifer Alexander said: 'I never would have seen it. I had to check the comments.'

And some people spotted it straight away, leaving them wondering what all the fuss was about.

Nathan Preshous said: 'Saw a cowboy straight away and spent half an hour looking for what it was supposed it be, turned out to be a cowboy.'

With the image causing such a stir online, a number of people started offering tips for those who were unable to see the figure in the drawing.

Barbara Topping wrote: 'Close your eyes and squint at it and it becomes clear.'

Some people were left really frustrated by the image and others sought to offer tips on spotting the cowboy

Holly Spanjer suggested another technique: 'Place your hand over the dark side, you should be able to see it.'

This illusion is just the latest in a long line of puzzles and brain teasers that have taken the web by storm, showing just how little we know about how our brains work.

Yesterday, two hearts which appeared to be a different colour - one purple and the other a bright read - left people on social media stumped.

The hearts are, in fact, exactly the same hue - a vivid pink.

These two hearts in the image appear to be totally different colours. One appears purple while the other is a bright orangey red

In fact it is the placement of the geometric stripes that fools our brains into seeing something which isn't really there.

The narrator on the video from Bite Size Psych explains: 'If you zoom in on the picture you find that the striped bars aren't actually the same colour.

'These surrounding blue bars make the heart seem purple while these surrounding green bars make the heart seem orange.'

This gives us a vital clue to how our vision works. It suggests that we perceive an object's colour based on its proximity and contrast with surrounding shades.

The video has so far amassed 29,000 views on YouTube.

The narrator on the video from Bite Size Psych explains: 'If you zoom in on the picture you find that the striped bars aren't actually the same colour'

These surrounding blue bars make the heart seem purple while these surrounding green bars make the heart appear orange

Meanwhile Tim Urban and Andrew Finn of the website butwaitwhy.com have created a fiendishly difficult puzzle based around three jelly beans.

The premise of the brain teaser is that you have to choose to eat one of three jelly beans laid out on a stump, two of which are poisonous.

'Two of the jelly beans on the stump are poisonous - youll die within 30 seconds of eating either one of them,' the riddle explains.

'But one of the jelly beans isnt poisonous and wont harm you at all. All three of the jelly beans are delicious. The situation works like this: You pick one of the jelly beans and eat it, and if you happen to pick the non-poisonous one, youre free to go.'

This gives us a vital clue to how our vision works. It suggests that we perceive an objects colour not based on its actual colour but on how it compares to the surrounding colours

Three jelly beans are laid on a stump and you have to choose one to eat, but two of them are poisonous and will kill you

According to the riddle, you decide to pick up the green jelly bean.

But just before you eat it, a man takes away the blue jelly bean explaining that it's definitely poisonous.

That leaves the red one on the stump and the green one still in your hand. You get one last chance to change your mind about which one to take.

You take the green jelly bean, leaving the red and blue

Solving the riddle involves choosing between the red and green jelly beans - one of which is definitely poisonous.

You might think that now it's down to two jelly beans that there's a 50-50 chance you have the poisonous one and decide to stick with green.

In fact, it's twice as likely to poisonous and the red jelly bean is two thirds more likely to be safe.

'When you initially picked the green jelly bean, there was a 1/3 chance that it was the safe one to eat, and a 2/3 chance that it was poisonous and the safe one was still on the stump,' Tim Urban of Wait But Why explained.

'When the man removed a poisonous blue jelly bean from the stump, it told you no new info about the green jelly bean in your handthat still had a 1/3 chance of being safe.

The blue jelly bean is taken away and you're told it's definitely poisonous. Should you swap with the red sweet or stick with the green?

'But removing the blue jelly bean told you a lot about the red jelly beanit told you that if the safe jelly bean had been on the stump, the red one is safe.

'Put another way, if you picked a poisonous jelly beanwhich you would do two-thirds of the timethen choosing to switch after he removes one will save you every time.

'If you picked the safe one to start off withwhich happens one-third of the timethen switching will kill you. So switching is a good choice two-thirds of the time.'

The test is just the latest in a string of a popular brain teasers sweeping the net.

Recently, puzzlers were challenged to find a hidden picture inside a red circle?

The brain teaser was said to test the internet's vision with people able to see everything from a detailed image to just an outline, while others struggled to spot anything at all.

Is your eyesight good enough to see the hidden picture inside this red circle? The brain teaser has appeared online quizzing internet users about whether they can see another shape hidden inside the red blob, above

While some claimed they could see the whole image in perfect detail, others were left scratching their heads in confusion.

When the dot is flipped you can clearly see a detailed sketch of a horse complete with a mane and tail, saddle and bridle and grass around its feet.

Some people can only see the outline of the image before the red spot is flipped, while others say they can see much more. Try the test below to see how you get on.

While some claim they can see the whole image perfectly, others are completely baffled by the image. When the dot is flipped, right, you can clearly see a detailed sketch of a horse complete with a mane and tail

The online teaser shows how some people only see the outline of the horse rather than the other details in the picture such as the grass, mane, tail and saddle

An image of an iPhone screen became an internet sensation recently as thousands of people deliberated over the photo, which was widely shared along with the question: 'How many threes can you see in this picture?'

Social networkers came up with the most common answers of either 15, 19 or 21. But which answer is correct?

There are in fact 19 number threes pictured in the image, but there could be 21 depending on how you interpret the question.

Can you count how many threes are on the iPhone screen? If you see 15, 19 or 21 number threes, you have arrived at the same conclusion as the majority of social networkers... but what's the correct answer?

Apart from the eight threes in the phone number, there are two threes on the key pad as the number eight button has been replaced.

At 3.33pm, the time also contains three number threes and the battery power at 33 per cent contains another two.

That totals 15, the answer many social networkers have come to. On closer inspection, however, there are a further four hidden digits, totaling 19.

Three of the letters in the contact's name have been replaced with threes and the letter 'I' on the number four key has also been replaced.

But many online posts give the answer to be 21, with people seeming convinced that there are a further two threes in the image. The differing opinions come down to the interpretation of the question. Many users have included the bar signal and the wifi signal, both of which show three bars. But whether 19 or 21 is the correct answer is a matter of opinion

But many online posts give the answer to be 21, with people seeming convinced that there are a further two threes in the image.

The differing opinions come down to the interpretation of the question. The images has been widely shared on Facebook and Twitter with the message. 'How many threes do you see in this picture?'

Many users have included the network bar and WiFi signal, both of which show three bars. But whether 19 or 21 is the correct answer is a matter of opinion.

The puzzle, which has been widely shared on Facebook and Twitter after resurfacing again online, has instigated heated debate - with many left flummoxed at how others arrive at a different answer.

Twitter user Dani posted: 'This thing annoyed the hell out of me when someone said 21. I was like no there's 18 until I looked again properly haha.'

How many threes can you see? Apart from the eight threes in the phone number, there are two threes on the key pad as the number eight button has been replaced. At 3.33pm, the time also contains three number threes and the battery power at 33 per cent contains another two. Three of the letters in the contact's name have been replaced with threes and the letter 'I' on the number four key has also been replaced

Facebook Ravi Vidyadhar Pathak came to a grander total and said: '28 if it's saying to count everything that resembles to 3 including the network signal which is 3 dots the page info on left which is 3 the buttons having 3 letters ABC.'

Another philosophical Facebook user Marc Joseph posted: 'I see only 2....and technically am correct cause you never asked how many 3's are there in the pic.'

Athene Whitfield finally concluded the answer was 19 but had made so many previous guesses she posted: 'I got to that in the end but thought - I can't send an answer through again!!? Was getting embarrassed!'

One user by the name of Sarah was so involved in the problem she posted a mock-up of the screen with the potential answers highlighted in purple.

When a friend posted 'Not sure where you get 20 from' she posted: 'Now I'm not sure.'

It follows an optical illusion poster featuring tigers that resurfaced online this week, asking viewers to guess how many animals it featured.

On close inspection the picture has the big cats hiding in the bushes, bark and even the sky.

The image, which appears to have been produced as a poster, has two adults tigers and their two cubs in the foreground.

After that it becomes trickier to track down the felines in the picture but there are 12 other tiger faces hidden.

The image appears to have been used as a poster but has resurfaced on the internet

The puzzle has the big cats hidden in foliage, trees and even the ground with all 16 very difficult to find

In the foliage to the right of the tigers, there's a fern in the shape of a tiger's face, with two hiding in the dirt beneath the tigers' feet.

In the top of the picture, there are five feline faces hidden within the branches of the trees.

While another two are seen in the wide trunk of the tree on the left of the picture and another tiger is face is seen on the left behind it and the last one is hidden in the soil below.

The poster, which features 16 in total, appears to be aimed at children, like many of the logic puzzles which have stormed the internet recently.

Another recent brain teaser saw a children's picture with tourists at a holiday campsite and challenged them to answer a list of nine questions.

The image is thought to be from an old children's magazine, according to The Independent, but the tough questions are likely to also leave adults scratching their heads.

A recent challenge which baffled the internet is a logic puzzle from an old children's magazine that involves studying a picture of tourists at a holiday camp site and answering a list of nine questions

A series of clues is provided by the apparently calm scene involving boys at a campsite

The black and white drawing showed three people at the campsite. One is standing by the cooking pot with a ladle, another is rifling through his backpack, and a third is taking photos.

A sign nailed to a tree states said: 'On duty. Colin, 7. Peter, 8. James, 9'. The final name is obscured, but the number 10 is visible.

CAN YOU SOLVE THE PUZZLE BY ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS? 1. How many tourists are staying at this camp? 2. When did they arrive: today or a few days ago? 3. How did they get here? 4. Is there a town nearby? 5. Where does the wind blow from: north or south? 6. What time of day is it? 7. Where did Alex go? 8. Who was on duty yesterday? 9. What date is it today? *Scroll down for answers Advertisement

A picnic blanket with four plates, four spoons and a watermelon is laid out on the ground and a hen is scratching in the grass nearby.

Nearby, a tent is pitched and a spider has built a cobweb between the edge of the tent and a nearby tree.

The first question asks how many people are staying at the camp.

They must also figure out whether they arrived that day or a few days earlier, how they got there and how far away the closest town is.

In addition, they are asked whether the wind is blowing from north or south and what time of day it is.

The next question is to state where someone called Alex went.

Finally, they must figure out who was on duty yesterday and what day of the week it is.

Unlike the many cartoons that have swept the web in recent months challenging users to spot figures hidden in a sea animals or Star Wars characters, this puzzle relies on deduction.

The answer to how many tourists there are is relatively easy to figure out.

As there are four spoons and plates on the blanket and four names on the duty list, the answer is quite obvious.

Hungarian cartoonist Gergely Dudas, also known as Dudolf, posted his latest puzzle a few days ago to celebrate Easter, challenging fans to find an egg cleverly disguised alongside a group of bunnies

The egg is cunningly disguised between a pair of white rabbit ears in the second row on the left hand side

The cobweb gives a clue to when the group arrived as it must have been a few days earlier to give the spider time to build it.

An oar leaning up against the tree is the key to figuring out how they got there - by boat.

The hen indicates that the nearest town is not far away as it's managed to wander into the campsite.

A flag on the tent, known as a windsock, shows that the wind is blowing from the south, but to figure this out you need to be aware that branches on the southern side of trees in the UK get more sun and grow more densely.

ANSWERS TO THE CAMP RIDDLE 1. There are four tourists four spoons on the picnic blanket and four names on the duty list. 2. They arrived a few days ago A spider's web has appeared between their tent and a tree in that time. 3. They got there by boat Note the oars by the tree. 4. No, a village is not far ..because there's a chicken wandering around. 5. The wind is blowing from the south A flag that shows the wind direction is on top of the tent. (To tell which direction is which, look at the branches - they're normally bigger on the southern side of trees - if you're in the Northern Hemisphere.) 6. Its morning Take the answer from question five to figure out east and west then work out the time based on the shadows. 7. Alex is catching butterflies His net is behind the tent. 8. Colin was on duty yesterday Colin is rummaging through his backpack (marked with a 'c'); Alex is catching butterflies; James is taking photos as his tripod can be seen sticking out of his bag. This leaves Peter - then, according to the list, that means Colin was on duty yesterday. 9. Today is August 8th... According to the list, Peter is on duty, and there is a watermelon - which ripen in August - on the ground. Advertisement

To figure out the time, you need to use the previous answer which tells you south from north to figure out where is east and west and deduce the time based on shadows.

The answer is that it's morning because the boy by the cook pot's shadow extends to the west.

Because we're asked where Alex went, we can assume he's not visible in the picture. However a butterfly net can be seen behind the tent. So the answer is that he's gone to catch butterflies.

To figure out who was on duty yesterday first consider that Colin, Peter, James and Alex are staying at the camp.

Gergley's original spot the panda puzzle left the internet baffled at Christmas 2015

The original Where's Wally-style snowmen picture was liked by 42,000 people and shared 100,000 times within days, with many struggling to find the panda at all

Dudolf followed up the panda puzzle days later with another picture posted online, this time of a cat hidden among dozens of brightly coloured owls

He planted a few red herrings in the owl picture like a colourful bow tie and festive hats, but the owl's facial features make it particularly difficult to spot the cat

We know that Alex is catching butterflies and the person taking photos must be James, as there's a tripod sticking out of the bag marked J.

The person looking through the backpack is Colin as it's marked with a C.

That means Peter must be the one standing by the cooking pot. If Peter is on duty today, then according to the list on the tree Colin was on duty yesterday.

Figuring out the day of the month isn't too tricky as according to the duty list it's the 8th of the month.

But establishing what month it is may prove rather more difficult. The solution lies in the watermelon on the picnic blanket.

The answer is August 8, but you would have to be aware that it's the month in which watermelons ripen to find the correct answer.

Its long list of questions makes the puzzle even more baffling than a challenge by Gergely Dudas who first drove the internet mad trying to find a panda among a group of snowmen, and a cat blended into rows of owls.

The Hungarian cartoonist posted his latest puzzle a few days ago to celebrate Easter, challenging fans to find an egg cleverly disguised alongside a group of bunnies.

The panda craze was followed up by Reddit contributor, with the username Oneste, who created a mind-boggling puzzle in which he hid a panda amongst rows and rows of Stormtroopers - and TIE fighter pilots
It's supposed to be one of the happiest times of a woman's life - but for the unlucky few, being pregnant can be total to feeling extremely unwell.

The condition hyperemesis gravidarum (HG)  which the Duchess of Cambridge has suffered during both her pregnancies  affects about one in 100 expectant mothers.

Now researchers have found those with extreme morning sickness may be less likely to give birth to sons.

According to New Scientist, one theory is the Trivers-Willard hypothesis which suggests when times are good, it is best to have a son.

The Duchess of Cambridge needed hospital treatment for her severe morning sickness when she was expecting George (pictured left) and suffered again when she was expecting Charlotte (right)

However, in tough times, a daughter is safer for a mother to pass on her genes to as weaker males are less likely to succeed.

Given a third of pregnancies with HG result in miscarriage, this could help to explain why fewer boys are born to women with the condition, the study said.

The study of 1.65 million pregnancies in Sweden also found less well-educated women are more likely to develop HG, which affects about one in 100 mothers a year.

HOW IS HYPEREMESIS GRAVIDARUM TREATED? Treatment for hyperemesis gravidarum typically includes an injection of the drug heparin to protect against blood clots triggered by dehydration, as well as supplementation of vitamin B, one of the vitamins most depleted by the condition. An intravenous infusion of saline for rehydration is standard practice. Anti-emetic, or anti-sickness, drugs that are commonly given include metoclopramide and Stemetil. These may be used in hospital or when the woman is discharged to help prevent recurrent attacks. Steroids are a useful drug, often in the form of oral prednisolone tablets. Another drug that can be used where necessary is ondansetron, originally developed to combat sickness caused by cancer agents. Hyperemesis sufferers often suffer from acid reflux, where stomach acid keeps repeating up the throat. A drug called omeprazole, also known as Losec, can be used for thiS. Advertisement

The condition is far more severe than ordinary morning sickness and some women are left bedbound or needing hospital treatment due to extreme dehydration caused by being sick up to 50 times a day.

The Duchess of Cambridge famously suffered HG during both her pregnancies with Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

She was treated admitted to hospital with the condition during her first pregnancy and then treated by doctors at Kensington Palace while expecting Charlotte.

The condition is thought to be caused by elevated levels of pregnancy hormone HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, which increases after conception.

In the latest study, associate professor Lena Edlund, of Columbia University, New York, found 56 per cent of the women with extreme morning sickness she assessed gave birth to daughters.

Researchers also found women who left school at 16 were 76 per cent more likely to develop the condition than women who went on to get masters or doctorates at university.

It can lead to severe dehydration and puts both mother and baby at risk of being deprived of essential nutrients.

Many mothers-to-be cannot eat or drink without retching and may lose up to 10 per cent of their body weight when they are supposed to be gaining about 1lb a week.

The Duchess of Cambridge suffered Hyperemesis Gravidarum, or severe morning sickness, during both of her pregnancies with George and Charlotte

This can trigger a build-up of toxins in the blood or urine known as ketosis as the body tries to compensate for lack of food.

Hospital treatment for these women is essential, as without intravenous feeding and fluids they are at risk of becoming dangerously dehydrated.

The condition can also affect the babys development and there is a risk it will be premature or have a very low birth weight. In severe cases, the sickness can trigger a miscarriage.
Many of us swear we couldn't live without crisps.

But one woman claims her favourite snack saved her life - after it led to an early diagnosis of throat cancer.

Kristine Moore, of Everett, Washington, admits crisps are her guilty pleasure - and has eaten a bag of Ruffles every day for the past 20 years.

But in February, she was midway through a packet when a crisp became lodged in her throat.

When the pain continued, she saw her doctor - a move which saved her life.

Tests revealed she had a tumour the size of a bottle cap in her left tonsil - and she was diagnosed with throat cancer, the Everett Herald reports.

Kristine Moore says eating crisps saved her life after she went to the doctor when one became lodged in the throat. There, tests revealed she had a tumour the size of a bottle cap in her left tonsil

Thankfully, the disease was caught early enough for Mrs Moore to receive treatment  which is still ongoing.

Her husband Bob Metcalfe told the local paper: 'The doctor said that without that potato chip it [her cancer] wouldn't have even shown up for another year.

Mrs Moores ordeal began in February when she was eating Ruffles - and one of the ridged crisps scratched her tonsils as she swallowed.

Worried, she asked her husband to take a look and he urged her to go to the doctors after seeing her throat was red and sore.

The following day she was referred to the Everett Clinic and tested for a throat infection.

This came back negative, but doctors recognised something was wrong and decided to take a biopsy  a test where a sample of tissue is tested.

Again, this came back normal, but when a larger sample was taken and a CT scan performed, the sinister truth emerged.

Mrs Moore was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the left tonsil and will begin chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the end of the month. She has also quit smoking - a risk factor for the disease

She has eaten a packet of Ruffles potato chips every day for the past 20 years - and says they saved her life

Doctors revealed she had a tumour in her throat and she was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the left tonsil.

This is a form of the disease that develops in the squamous cells - the upper layer of skin - that line the area.

The doctor said that without that potato chip it [her cancer] wouldn't have even shown up for another year Bob Metcalfe, Mrs Moore's husband

Mrs Moore said the diagnosis was a total shock - as aside from the sore throat, she had not been feeling unwell or experienced any other symptoms.

She was, however, a smoker - which is a major risk factor for the disease - but has now quit.

Thankfully, the cancer had not spread to other parts of her body and she is now preparing to start chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Curiously, her older sister was also recently diagnosed with oesophageal cancer  and her mother died of lung cancer despite quitting smoking 25 years ago.

Mrs Moore has now had a feeding tube put in her throat, as well as a line in her chest so she can receive drugs.

Despite the feeding tube, she hopes she will one day be able to eat her favourite snack again.
A student who became dangerously addicted to legal highs was hospitalised after suffering terrifying hallucinations.

Serena Christie, 23, became convinced the police were following her, that her housemates were hacking into her phone and that she was infested with fleas.

She was referred for psychiatric treatment and diagnosed with psychosis - triggered by smoking 20 synthetic cannabis joints a day.

Her habit had begun while working at a drugs paraphernalia shop.

Over time, it spiralled out of control until she dropped out of university, was 3,000 in debt and on the verge of being kicked out of her home.

Now, receiving treatment and having moved back in with her parents, Miss Christie is sharing her story to warn others of the dangers of legal highs.

Scroll down for video

Serena Christie, 23, became addicted to legal highs and was hospitalised after suffering vivid and terrifying hallucinations. She is pictured, left to right, before and after becoming addicted

She is concerned that shops and dealers selling the drugs are stockpiling them before a law banning the substances comes in - encouraging customers to bulk buy.

The Government was due to implement the Psychoactive Substances Act - a blanket ban on the production, distribution, sale and supply of 'designer drugs' - on April 6, but it has been delayed.

Until then, legal highs are freely available in shops, with online suppliers advertising a 20 per cent discount on orders over 100, free next day delivery on orders over 49 and 'buy two-get two free' offers.

Ms Christie, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, warns these tempting promotions will lead to some people going on dangerous drug binges.

She said: 'With retailers offering huge discounts for buying in bulk, it's going to be hard for people to resist squirrelling them away for a rainy day.

'But this could lead to binges. When you're addicted to something it's not easy to resist it if you have a huge pile stashed away in your wardrobe.'

Ms Christie's addiction started when she began working in a shop selling legal highs while studying European politics, sociology and economics at the University of Birmingham.

'To me it just looked like a fancy dress shop,' she said.

'I thought it would be a bit of fun and a chance to earn some extra money to support my studies.

'I'd never taken legal highs before but had seen other people taking them at parties and they looked like fun.'

WHEN WILL LEGAL HIGHS BE BANNED? The Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 makes it an offence to produce, supply, import or export psychoactive substances. That includes any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect. The maximum sentence will be 7 years imprisonment. The law excludes legitimate substances, such as food, alcohol, tobacco, nicotine, caffeine and medical products as well as controlled drugs. It was due to come into effect on April 6  but it has now been pushed out while officials work out exact details of what the law will prohibit. For example, it was recently announced it would not cover poppers  room fresheners that are inhaled to induce a high. It is now expected the law will come into effect no earlier than May 1. Advertisement

On her first day her boss offered her a joint made from Black Mambo - a synthetic cannabis.

Ms Christie said: 'They call it synthetic cannabis, but I'd say it's about 100 times stronger than any cannabis you'll find.

'Naively I assumed that because they were legal, they were safe.'

After that initially experience, she began to experiment with synthetic cannabis - trying all the different types and brands.

Soon, she found herself addicted to the substance.

She said: 'In the beginning, I didn't realise how addictive they were so I was trying everything  Spice, Dragons, Green Beans, Pink Panthers, and the lot.

'They were the first thing I would take in the morning and the last thing I'd smoke before I went to bed.

'I could easily smoke 20 joints packed with legal highs a day.

'If I couldn't smoke for some reason, I'd get withdrawal symptoms  the shakes, the sweats  it was horrible.'

The symptoms began to worsen, and in December 2012 she started hallucinating.

She said: 'I was convinced the police were following me, that my housemates were spies and that they were using their mobile phones to read my mind.

'Later, I thought I was infested with fleas and I'd scratch my body all over to try and get rid of them.'

The psychotic episodes continued and by May 2013, Ms Christie had spent every last penny on legal highs and was more than 3,000 behind on rent.

Ms Christie first tried synthetic cannabis while working at a tobacco and drugs paraphernalia shop. Her habit spiralled until she was smoking 20 synthetic cannabis joints a day

She dropped out of university, was 3,000 in debt and was soon to be kicked out of her home. She is now campaigning to raise awareness of the dangers of legal highs

She had also dropped out of university as she had been consumed with taking drugs.

Concerned about her health, one of her housemates took her to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where doctors diagnosed her with psychosis and referred her to a psychiatrist for treatment.

In hospital, doctors called Ms Christie's parents, Alison and Denis, to tell them their daughter was seriously ill.

Mrs Christie said: 'I'll never forget that phone call from Serena's friend saying she was in hospital because she'd been seeing things.

Watching my gifted daughter lose her mind to legal highs was devastating  and now we want to warn others of the dangers Alison Christie, Serena's mother

'We were stunned  she'd never suffered from anything like this before  and we had no idea she'd been taking legal highs.

'We just thought she had a little afternoon job working in a fancy dress shop.'

They had no inkling that their bright and promising daughter had dropped out of university and was on the verge of being kicked out of her home.

Mrs Christie continued: 'She used to call us twice a week to tell us how well everything was going.

'She was tremendously re-assuring  she said one of her course tutors had told her how pleased he was with her.

'When I look back I can see that she had become very devious in order to keep us at bay.

'She'd tell us everything was going well, but she'd be vague, she wouldn't tell us her grades or what topic her essay was on.'

She began suffering terrifying hallucinations - she became convinced the police were following her, that her housemates were hacking into her phone and that she was infested with fleas

In hospital, Ms Christie was referred to see a psychiatrist who prescribed drugs to help her control her addiction. Pictured as her addiction was taking hold, she was forced to move back in with her parents

Mr and Mrs Christie rushed up to Birmingham to collect their daughter and bring her home to Surrey.

She said: 'We needed to get her as far away from that grotty little shop as possible.

'When we got her home, we engaged with the mental health teams here who gave Serena medication to cope with the hallucinations.

'She lurched from one pill to another, as no-one seemed to know how to treat legal highs withdrawal.

She continued: 'I went on auto-pilot. I carried on getting up and feeding the dog and making breakfast but you've got this horrible weight on your shoulder wondering if this is going to work for Serena.

Just because these drugs are legal, doesn't mean they are safe Alison Christie, Serena's mother

Watching her daughter withdraw from legal highs was agony, Mrs Christie said.

'There's a terrible fear that you might not get your intelligent, charming child back to where they ought to be,' she said.

Fortunately, over time, Ms Christie's hallucinations subsided and she began to recover.

Her parents began to see signs of her old personality - which they said had been changed by the drug.

Mrs Christie said: 'Serena's always been a very sweet, kind person, but that had been consumed by the legal highs; she became a shadow of her former self.

'Thankfully we started to see glimpses of the old Serena again which was very encouraging.

'Now she's making tentative footsteps for an independent adulthood: she has her own place and a works full-time in retail now.'

Ms Christie is also hoping to start her own business, and has recently been shortlisted for an award, she added.

With help from the youth charity Fixers - which helps young people campaign on issues they have been affected by - Ms Christie has made a film about her legal high addiction

Ms Christie's mother, Alison said: 'Watching my gifted daughter lose her mind to legal highs was devastating  and now we want to warn others of the dangers'

She said: 'We've accepted that she's made a side-step that's cost her several years and who knows where she'll end up in the future.

'But you can't afford to look back, you've just got to go with what you've got.

'And she's a good girl; she's intelligent, kind, and passionate about helping others.'

The family is sharing their story as they want to warn other young people that legal highs are not safe simply because they aren't illegal yet.

Mrs Christie said: 'Watching my gifted daughter lose her mind to legal highs was devastating  and now we want to warn others of the dangers.

'Just because these drugs are legal, doesn't mean they are safe..'

Ms Christie has made a video of her story through Fixers - a charity which helps young people campaign on issues they have been affected by.

She created the film - called 'Encounters with drug abuse: From normality to insanity' - to warn others of the dangers of legal highs.

Fixers has helped more than 18,000 young people across the UK to address issues such as cyber-bullying, self-harm, suicide or transphobia.
This is the revolting moment a tube of cream-like fluid is squeezed out of a lump on a woman's back.

The unnamed patient is visiting Californian dermatologist Dr Sandra Lee - known as Dr Pimple Popper - to have the bump removed from her shoulder.

She says it has been growing on her back for two years and has never been squeezed before.

Its a virginal one, we like that, Dr Lee says.

After having presumably numbed the area with anaesthetic, Dr Lee stabs into the lump with a round pen-like device, in a technique that is known as a 'punch biopsy'.

The punch blade, which is like a tiny biscuit cutter, leaves a straw-sized hole in the woman's skin.

Dr Lee begins to squeeze the cut - and what erupts from it is certainly not for the squeamish.

As she presses, a tube of cream-cheese like substance streams out.

Dr Lee wipes it away and continues to squeeze until all the fluid has gone.

She explains the woman has an epidermoid cyst, which occurs when hair follicles become blocked with wet, dead, skin cells.

A bag - called a sac - forms around the mashed up cells, and it can continue to grow bigger as the skin regenerates itself - causing a raised lump.

Dr Lee pokes tweezers into the wound and cuts away at skin with scissors, explaining she is trying to remove all of the cyst's sac.

She said: Your skin gets tucked underneath and forms this little sac. The skin still peels into this area so it gets stuck.

If you dont take out the sac it can come back, its still peeling and it sheds into this area.

She manages to drag out the disgusting sa c- which is white and covered in blood - and lays it on a cloth.

Californian dermatologist Dr Sandra Lee stabs into the woman's back with a round, pen-like blade, in a procedure known as a punch biopsy (left). A tube of cream-cheese-like substance erupts from the cut (right)

Cleaning the wound with a cotton tip, she checks she has cut all parts of the cyst away from the wound so it can't grow back.

Once she is happy there is none left she sews up the cut with stitches.

Next, she shows the woman the revolting dregs of her cyst, which has been cut up into pieces.

Fascinating, isnt it, she says.

The video has been viewed more than 290,000 times since it was uploaded to Dr Lee's YouTube and Instagram channels.

Some of her videos are now viewed by more than nine million people.

She claims she has brought spot squeezing 'out of the closet', and says her 'pimple porn' serves a positive role by bringing dermatology to the masses and encouraging people to look after their skin.

Dr Lee explains the woman has an epidermoid cyst - where a fluid-filled bag of dead skin cells forms under the skin. She drags out the sac with scissors and tweezers, and shows the unidentified woman its remains

In a video discussing her rise to fame, Dr Lee, who works at Skin Physicians & Surgeons in Upland, California, said: 'I think that people have a strong reaction to pimple popping - whether they are grossed out by it or they are enchanted by it.

'I feel like I have really brought this sort of thing out of the closet, in a way.

'Previously people were hiding in their rooms, at their computer sweating and worried that someone was going to come in and catch them looking at pimple porn.

'But now they they feel like they have this community and it's okay to kind of like this and be into this.'
Researchers said the drugs had an effect for a month after treatment

Common over-the-counter medicines should be avoided by older people as they have been linked to memory loss and problems in thinking, scientists have discovered.

Treatments for colds and flu, hay fever, allergy and heartburn tablets containing anti-cholinergic drugs had the effect for one month after treatment, a study found.

Effects associated with taking the drugs included having slower brain processing times and smaller brains overall.

Well known treatments including the heartburn medicine Zantac, Night Nurse Liquid containing Promethazine and the sleeping tablet Nytol, containing diphenhydramine, are included among drugs that may result in the effects, the research said.

Over the counter treatments for cold, flu, heartburn and sleeping tablets were found to block the chemical acetylcholine, which is involved in the transmission of electrical impulses between nerve cells

The drugs block the chemical acetylcholine, which is involved in the transmission of electrical impulses between nerve cells.

The treatments are prescribed for a wide range of conditions, including Parkinsons disease, overactive bladder, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, nausea and vomiting, sleeping problems, high blood pressure, depression and psychosis.

But the authors warn: Use of AC [anti-cholinergic] medication among older adults should likely be discouraged if alternative therapies are available.

Previous studies have linked the drugs with cognitive impairment, increased risk of dementia and falls.

However, the new study by Indiana University School of Medicine, is the first to explore their impact on brain metabolism and atrophy through brain scans.

Dr Shannon Risacher, the universitys assistant professor of radiology and imaging sciences, said: These findings provide us with a much better understanding of how this class of drugs may act upon the brain in ways that might raise the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia,

Given all the research evidence, physicians might want to consider alternatives to anticholinergic medications if available when working with their older patients.

The impact of these drugs have been know about for over a decade, with a 2013 study finding drugs with a strong anticholinergic effect cause cognitive problems when taken continuously for as few as 60 days. Drugs with a weaker effect could cause impairment within 90 days.

Many over the counter medicines have been linked to slower brain processing times and smaller brains

The new study involved 451 participants, 60 of whom were taking at least one medication with medium or high anticholinergic activity.

The participants were drawn from a national Alzheimers research project - the Alzheimers Disease Neuroimaging Initiative - and the Indiana Memory and Ageing Study.

To identify possible physical and physiological changes that could be associated with the reported effects, researchers assessed the results of memory and other cognitive tests, positron emission tests (PET) measuring brain metabolism, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans for brain structure.

Patients taking anticholinergic drugs performed worse than older adults not taking the drugs on short-term memory and some tests of executive function, which cover a range of activities such as verbal reasoning, planning, and problem solving.

Anticholinergic drug users also showed lower levels of glucose metabolism - a biomarker for brain activity - in both the overall brain and in the hippocampus, a region of the brain associated with memory and which has been identified as affected early by Alzheimers disease.

The researchers also found significant links between brain structure revealed by the MRI scans and anticholinergic drug use, with the participants using anticholinergic drugs having reduced brain volume and larger ventricles, the cavities inside the brain.

Professor Risacher added: These findings might give us clues to the biological basis for the cognitive problems associated with anticholinergic drugs, but additional studies are needed if we are to truly understand the mechanisms involved.

The study was published in the journal JAMA Neurology.

John Smith, Chief Executive of the Proprietary Association of Great Britain, which represents makers of over the counter medicines, said the medicines linked to the study were not intended to be used on a daily basis.

Anticholinergic medicines include some over-the-counter allergy and cold and flu products. However they are intended for short term relief of symptoms only

He said: It is important to note that the JAMA study only involved people with a mean age of 73 in what the researchers conceded was a small sample.

The study followed people who took medicines that were low, medium or high in anticholinergic activity, and concluded that the use of medication with medium or high anticholinergic activity should be discouraged in older adults if alternative therapies are available.

'However, due to the study limitations, the researchers propose that further and more advanced studies are needed.

Anticholinergic medicines include some over-the-counter allergy and cold and flu products but these are intended for short term relief of symptoms and not for continuous use as in the research.

If anyone has any concerns about their medicine, we would advise them to talk to their pharmacist.

'There is a range of different allergy, cold and flu products on the market which contain different ingredients, many of which were not considered in this study, and a pharmacist will be able to recommend a suitable product.

All over-the-counter medicines in the UK have been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and are rigorously assessed for safety and efficacy.

'Once on the market, their safety is continually monitored in light of any emerging evidence.
The NHS is being forced to look after thousands of patients who have suffered botched treatment in private hospitals, a damning report has revealed.

It is estimated about 6,000 patients a year need NHS care after receiving treatment at a non-NHS hospital.

It is not known the proportion who have chosen to have private care and those who have been affected after the care was outsourced by the NHS.

The report by the British Medical Association (BMA), due out next week, argues that medics believe some private hospitals lack the facilities, the Mirror reports.

About 2,500 patients a year are transported to NHS hospitals after receiving botched treatment from private providers, according to a British Medical Association report, due out next week

Almost half are emergency cases, where patients have had to be rushed to the nearest NHS hospital following care elsewhere.

The report suggests the private facilities do not have the medical cover and intensive care beds to deal with emergencies if things go wrong in surgery.

Private hospitals now carry out around one in five hip and knee replacements for the NHS which cost about 6,000 each.

But many do not have intensive care beds and sometimes lack the medical cover when mistakes do occur.

It comes as the NHS is in the midst of the worst financial crisis on record with a 2.8 billion overspend expected for the last year.

Hospitals are the worst affected within health service and 132 out of the 138 trusts in England are now in the red.

The NHS's financial crisis has mainly been caused by the rising and ageing population with many more patients needing care.

It is estimated about 6,000 patients a year need NHS care after receiving treatment at a non-NHS hospital

One of the major causes is hospitals spending too much on expensive agency doctors and nurses to plug staffing shortages.

Some trusts have paid out 2,200 for an agency nurse a day or up to 3,200 for a locum doctor.

Meanwhile, the 25-page report says health professionals have 'serious concerns' over the training of doctors, nurses and clinicians treating patients at non-NHS healthcare providers.

Not only does it seem that taxpayers are picking up the tab for this botched private work but more and more NHS funding is being siphoned off to the private sector Justin Madders, Shadow Health Minister

It states medics are becoming increasingly worried that independent providers are 'leaving the NHS to deal with any complications.'

The report does not detail what proportion of the patients affected are private patients or NHS patients whose treatment was outsourced to private hospitals, the newspaper reports.

The costs involved are not known as national data is not collected and it is also not known if the NHS claims back these costs from private providers.concerns the NHS will end up paying the bill for the care of patients harmed in the private sector.

Shadow Health Minister Justin Madders told the Mirror it wasn't right for the NHS to foot the bill and called on ministers to investigate.

'Not only does it seem that taxpayers are picking up the tab for this botched private work but more and more NHS funding is being siphoned off to the private sector,' he said.

Private health concerns cost the NHS almost 19million a day, according to the report.

The report suggests the private facilities do not have the medical cover and intensive care beds to deal with emergencies if things go wrong in surgery

In 2014/15, 6.9billion was used to pay private health providers for the treatment of NHS patients.

This was a rise of 5.4 per cent on the year before and double the 2.4 per cent increase in overall NHS spending.

The report gives an example of outsourced cataract operations in Somerset which left dozens of patients in severe pain.

Complications after surgery were 10 times over the expected number, leading to the contract being stopped, it said.

Two-thirds of doctors surveyed in the report said they were 'fairly' or 'very' uncomfortable about private contractors performing NHS services.
Shirley Dolan wasn't worried when her GP invited her to take part in a trial of a new blood test that screens for lung cancer.

Despite having smoked up to 20 cigarettes a day for 45 years, the 57-year-old healthcare assistant from Dundee was 'very fit and always have been - I've never even had a cough or anything'.

Shirley, who is married to non-smoker James, was still smoking when she signed up for the trial in March 2014.

Shirley Dolan, 57, from Dundee, 57, smoked up to 20 a day for 45 years. A blood test found she had a tumour

She gave a single blood sample in the University of Dundee medical school's cancer research centre at Ninewells Hospital, where she works, and didn't give it another thought.

But four weeks later she got the result - and everything changed.

'I got a letter saying I needed to go for an X-ray and I knew right away that something must be wrong,' she says.

After the X-ray she was called back, 'and that's when the doctor told me. He showed me the X-ray on a computer and there was my lung, with a black spot on the upper-right side'. It was a tumour, about 3cm across. Shirley, who knew that the majority of cases of lung cancer are incurable, was devastated.

'I just thought: "This is it. There's no cure. I'm going to die." ' But thanks to taking part in the trial, Shirley had just had the luckiest escape of her life.

After the X-ray she was called back, 'and that's when the doctor told me. He showed me the X-ray'

The grim reality is that 70 per cent of lung cancer cases in the UK aren't spotted until the final stages of the disease, when it is far too late to do anything. By the time a patient starts experiencing symptoms, such as chronic coughing, breathlessness and bringing up blood, there is little that can be done.

Typically, these symptoms don't appear until the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, explains Neal Navani, a consultant in thoracic medicine and clinical lead for lung cancer at University College London Hospitals. Fewer than 20 per cent of cases are caught when they are still in the early, treatable stage.

Dr Navani says these are nearly always 'accidental catches', when an early tumour is spotted on an X-ray or CT scan carried out for another reason.

Because the new blood test detected Shirley's tumour in the early stages of its growth, doctors were able to operate on her successfully, preventing the cancer from spreading.

Two years on, she remains clear of the disease and says she has turned her back on cigarettes for good.

'I have had the luckiest of escapes,' she says.

Lung cancer is by far the biggest cause of cancer deaths in the UK. It claimed more than 35,000 lives in 2012, but until now there hasn't been an effective way of screening high-risk patients for the disease.

The new blood test works by detecting a group of seven proteins produced by the body's immune system

The new blood test, EarlyCDT-Lung, was developed by a company called Oncimmune, a spin-off from Nottingham University.

It works by detecting a group of seven proteins, known as autoantibodies, produced by the body's immune system in response to the abnormal proteins, or antigens, present in the earliest stages of lung cancer.

Crucially, these autoantibodies can be detected by the test long before a tumour grows to the point where a patient starts to suffer the telltale symptoms - which occur as a tumour grows and starts to irritate and block airways.

'Encouraging' early results from the trial, unveiled last September at a major cancer conference in the U.S., showed that 9.7 per cent of the smokers or ex-smokers given the test were found to have the autoantibodies.

I got a letter saying I needed to go for an X-ray and I knew right away that something must be wrong

When these people were then given X-rays and CT scans, the tests confirmed cancer in about 75 per cent of cases. The other 25 per cent continue to be monitored in case they also go on to develop tumours.

If the final results of the trial prove that the test saves lives, it could be 'a complete game-changer, opening up a new era in lung cancer management', says Dr Navani.

The test, being trialled by the NHS in Scotland, could eventually be used to screen smokers and ex-smokers for lung cancer.

However, such a national screening programme could be years away. Researchers won't be able to properly evaluate the test until after the trial ends in Christmas 2018, by which time all 12,000 participants will have been monitored for two years.

In fact, the test is already available privately in the UK. Good Health has learned that in the past three years, 4,920 tests have been carried out in England, both on private individuals and through company health schemes.

Some 2,270 tests were carried out by Lifescan, part of the Spire Healthcare group.

A spokesperson for the company says 6 per cent of the tests have come back positive for lung cancer. This raises the possibility that of the 4,920 people tested nationwide, as many as 295 lives may have been saved.

Lifescan charges 320 for the test - including a follow-up CT scan for positive patients and the first appointment with a consultant if the result is positive.

'I have had the luckiest of escapes,' she says

Although the blood test is not yet recognised by the NHS, armed with a CT scan confirming a suspicion of lung cancer a patient could opt to be treated within the health service.

But although doctors running the trial for NHS Scotland say interim results are encouraging, they can't yet advise high-risk smokers to take the test privately.

Professor Frank Sullivan, one of the two chief investigators in the study at the University of Dundee, urges caution in interpreting the early results.

'We don't have enough evidence yet to refute or recommend the test,' he says. 'It's a trial and we will know by the end of 2018.'

But there is little doubt that a screening test for lung cancer could make a huge difference, says Dr Stuart Schembri, a consultant chest physician and the other chief investigator.

He is reminded of the desperate need for this at every clinic he holds.

'It's very hard seeing people in the clinic - they have their hopes and their families, but you've seen their scan and know that realistically half of them will be dead by Christmas,' he says.

During his career he has seen life expectancy improve for victims of some cancers, but not for lung cancer.

'I am frustrated that I have no better options for patients than the people who taught me more than 20 years ago,' he says.

He adds that the figures from the study so far are 'hopeful' - 'but I have to be very cautious until the final results are in.

'If I knew with certainty that the test worked, rather than encouraging people to go into the study, I would be pushing the Government to introduce the tests.'

For now, his advice to any smoker considering paying to have the test would be to quit smoking first.

'It is never too late. Whenever you quit, your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke will come down from whichever baseline you start at.'

Meanwhile, thanks to the blood test, Shirley had surgery to remove part of her lung in July 2014, just two months after her diagnosis, and by November she was back at work. It may have saved her life.

Subsequent tests confirmed that the cancer had not spread, and she has not had to undergo radiotherapy or chemotherapy.
The question is simple: what did you have for breakfast? But I'm struggling to give an answer.

Because as well as trying to summon the words 'muesli and coffee', I'm also concentrating, looking straight down and moving my eyes from one hand to another (not moving my head), while my fingers strike particular keys on a piano as prompted.

I'm perched on a piano stool at an oversized keyboard in the South Kensington office of Dr Robert Lefever, a GP-turned-counsellor. My eyes trail my left finger, which is rhythmically playing the F sharp key, before swapping to my right finger playing the F sharp an octave higher. I switch over whenever Dr Lefever taps each hand.

Kate - who had EMDR therapy - with husband Jack Freud with their children Jago and Georgia

It takes a while to master, and I feel very silly. I'm beginning to wonder whether I am wasting Dr Lefever's time as I struggle to answer the simplest of questions because I am concentrating so hard on looking down and hitting the right notes.

This isn't some new-fangled music lesson - it's therapy. The complex-sounding Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) to be precise, a treatment designed to help those who have suffered psychological trauma.

The idea behind EMDR is to stimulate one side of the brain followed quickly by the other to help the thinking brain on the left communicate with the feeling brain on the right. This helps you to effectively 'move on' from the experience.

I started seeing Dr Lefever five months into my second pregnancy, following a very long, very traumatic first labour with my son, Jago, now four.

While pregnant, I was naively philosophical about the prospect of giving birth - this baby will come out one way or another, I thought, without a hint of anxiety.

The reality proved quite different, as I embarked on what was to be a 64-hour ordeal, vomiting with every contraction. No one at the hospital was able to explain why I had been so sick, other than a very un-reassuring: 'It's just how your body deals with pain.'

Kate used a technique to overcome anxiety about second pregnancy following long and traumatic first labour

I felt totally shell-shocked afterwards, but I was so thrilled to be heading home with my beautiful newborn son that I buried all sorts of complex feelings about the experience. I felt as though the whole experience had happened to someone else - I now know this can be a common response to psychological trauma.

It was only when I was pregnant again that I suddenly found myself overcome by anxiety and fear at the prospect of doing it all over again; the sheer terror kicking in at my first midwife appointment, when I found myself crying as I told her about Jago's birth.

I was referred to a traumatic labour midwife at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London who, to my surprise, said I was showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

I was then recommended Dr Lefever by a friend, whose daughter suffered from PTSD following surgery that went wrong, leaving her in constant pain during her teens.

PTSD can also be triggered by car accidents, unexpected death, sudden diagnosis with a serious health condition and, as in my case, childbirth

Having tried every kind of therapy under the sun, she'd turned to EMDR as a last resort. She said her daughter felt as though 'the blanket of fear and depression had been lifted', and afterwards no more therapy was needed.

As Dr Lefever explained it, psychological trauma hinders communication between our thinking and feeling brains as a way of protecting itself from the traumatic memory. However, by doing this, it closes down the capacity of the feeling brain to receive reassurance and comfort from the thinking brain.

This means the memory isn't processed as it normally would be, but effectively becomes 'stuck' and continues to feel as visceral and traumatic as if it were happening here and now.

Apparently, the left-to-right eye movement enables this to happen, as any alternating stimulus to one side of the brain and then the other keeps both sides active.

Brain scans of patients undergoing EMDR show that both sides of the brain become simultaneously active. A part of the brain known as the corpus callosum, which connects one side of the brain to the other, also becomes more active.

The treatment was developed by a U.S. clinical psychologist, Dr Francine Shapiro, in the Eighties, but remains relatively unknown compared with more conventional psychological therapies such as psychoanalysis and cognitive behavioural therapy.

EMDR is based on the idea that recent events may act as echoes of other past traumatic events

At the time when Dr Shapiro's research was published, it was deemed radical and controversial. But her research at the Mental Research Institute in California strongly supported the benefits of the treatment in cases as varied as war veterans with PTSD to those who had experienced childhood sexual assault, surgical trauma or survived natural disasters.

These days it has the approval of the National Institute for Health And Care Excellence in the UK and treatment can be received on the NHS.

Neil Greenberg, a professor of defence mental health at King's College London and the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Lead on military and veteran's health, is quick to sing the treatment's praises.

'EMDR is a well-researched and clinically effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder,' he says. 'There is a good deal of high-quality evidence supporting its use for people who suffer from it and properly accredited EMDR therapists have an important role in helping to alleviate the suffering associated with this mental health condition.'

Although we tend to think of PTSD as something only affecting war veterans, it can also be triggered by car accidents, unexpected death, sudden diagnosis with a serious health condition and, as in my case, childbirth.

'By the end of each session, things that I'd rated as eight or nine out of ten would go down to zero'

Though it sounds trivial compared with victims of war or natural disasters, I reminded myself I still had an issue to overcome and I was eager to see the results for myself.

In the initial session, Dr Lefever talks me through the basics of the process and I leave armed with homework - a questionnaire to assess how I generally react to stress.

This involves answering how you feel about stressful life events - for instance, I thought about the time I'd very nearly crashed my car - from a list of common responses people have to stressful or traumatic life events.

Options include everything from 'pictures about it popped into my mind' and 'I had trouble concentrating' to 'not at all affected'.

Whichever scenario I applied it to, my responses were surprisingly uniform - lack of sleep, recurring thoughts about the event in question and a desire to try to push memories of it to the back of my mind.

In our next session, I have to complete a list of ten or more of the most disturbing events from my life, something Dr Lefever says is important, as you have to deal with these in order to properly process the main trauma you are there to treat, in my case the childbirth.

I begin my list with the death of my father when I was nine.

These are then grouped into emotional (not chronological) clusters, according to the type of feelings they bring up. EMDR is based on the idea that recent events may act as echoes of other past traumatic events, making the more recent trauma feel even worse.

There are also other psychological questionnaires I have to go through with Dr Lefever to assess my suitability for EMDR.

After three sessions, and an awful lot of self-analysis, I feel quite emotionally churned up and tearful. Then it's on to the treatment itself.

It starts slowly, with Dr Lefever working through the list of traumatic events.

I sit at the keyboard and start playing the alternating notes, watching my hands as I do so.

He eases me in gently, by asking me easy questions - such as what I had for breakfast.

He then prompts me to talk by reminding me of the event and my feelings about it, and as my eyes move from left to right I feel myself speaking freely about things I haven't discussed for years.

The memory isn't processed as it normally would be, but effectively becomes 'stuck' and continues to feel as visceral and traumatic as if it were happening now

It is like a conventional sit-down, talking therapy session, but the eye movement - with the added noise of the piano - stimulate the two sides of your feeling and thinking brain at the same time.

With each experience we work through, I feel I am getting better at processing my feelings and recollections of it - we need to talk about each one for less time.

Before and after we talk about each event, Dr Lefever asks me to rate the 'disturbance level' of the memory. By the end of each session, things that I'd rated as eight or nine out of ten would go down to zero.

I process about three life events each week, in three sessions in total, and each time leave feeling lighter and freer in a way that is hard to explain.

It's not like anything miraculous happens, but when I look back and recollect events that would have given me an instant knot of misery in my stomach before - such as my 64-hour labour - I feel nothing.

Dr Lefever explains: 'At the end of treatment, I want patients to find it difficult to recall the trauma - even though there will still be an actual memory. So our former emotional challenges take their appropriate place in our history. We don't forget them, but they no longer traumatise us.'

By the end of the course, my entire mindset has changed, and I look towards my next labour without the fear and anxiety that had consumed me until this point.
Many patients fail to finish their course [file photo]

Antibiotics are one of the most important drugs in the medical armoury, used to treat everything from minor bacterial infections such as conjunctivitis to life-threatening illnesses including pneumonia, meningitis and septicaemia.

But increasingly bacteria that cause these infections are becoming resistant to the drugs.

This is for a number of reasons, including the use of broad spectrum antibiotics (those that are used to treat a wide range of bacteria) when a narrower spectrum one (effective only against specific infections or families of bacteria) might have been enough, and because many patients fail to finish their prescribed course.

It's getting so bad that antibiotic-resistant bacteria could kill more people than cancer within decades. That was the stark warning last week from Chancellor George Osborne as he called for countries to offer multi-billion pound 'prizes' for firms that develop new drugs.

In fact, antibiotic resistance is already here right now, causing problems in GP surgeries and hospitals in the UK.

Yesterday, it was reported that a highly drug resistant form of gonorrhoea is spreading across the country.

This form is extremely resistant to the standard treatment, azithromycin, so doctors are now having to use a second drug, a different kind of antibiotic, to treat it. But there are warnings that there are no other effective drugs for the superbug. Untreated, gonorrhoea can lead to infertility, or in rare cases, septicaemia.

Meanwhile, a recent study by Bristol University found that as many as 50 per cent of children with E.coli urine infections had bacteria resistant to ampicillin - one of the main antibiotics used to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) - raising the possibility that these infections may one day become untreatable.

This isn't simply an inconvenience, as UTIs can cause complications such as kidney damage, and if they enter the bloodstream, trigger septicaemia.

Professor Colin Garner, chief executive of Antibiotic Research UK, which was set up to fund research into new treatments, says the charity is increasingly receiving calls from patients struggling with infections proving resistant to antibiotics, from recurrent common conditions such skin infections and UTIs to pneumonia.

Yesterday, it was reported that a highly drug resistant form of gonorrhoea is spreading [file photo]

'It is the pathogens responsible for many hospital infections that we are most concerned about - and that there are probably hundreds of resistant strains,' says Professor Garner.

The speed of antibiotic resistance has been rapid, explains Professor Timothy Walsh, a microbiologist and infectious disease specialist at Cardiff University. 'Even ten years ago, no one realised it was all going to happen so quickly. Now we are on the cusp of a post-antibiotic era where antibiotics won't work any more.'

Today, the range of antibiotics dispensed in pharmacies is already vastly different from just a decade ago, says Sultan Dajani, a community pharmacist in Bishopstoke, Hampshire and treasurer of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

It is the pathogens responsible for many hospital infections that we are most concerned about - and that there are probably hundreds of resistant strains

'There are antibiotics such as ampicillin and cefaclor (prescribed for chest infections and UTIs) that are hardly used now because of problems with resistance, and it's much more common for patients to have to try several before they find one that works,' says Mr Dajani.

London GP Dr Rob Hicks says doctors are kept informed of resistant strains of infections by local microbiology laboratories. 'We'll get updates saying certain bacterial infections are no longer responding to a particular type of antibiotic,' says Dr Hicks.

'With UTIs, first the penicillin amoxicillin developed resistance, so we used another antibiotic, trimethoprim. Now there is some resistance to that, too, and we're being recommended to try nitrofurantoin.

'In the past, there's always been a new family of antibiotics we could move on to, but enough new antibiotics are just not being developed.'

He says GPs are increasingly trying to avoid routinely prescribing antibiotics for conditions such as ear infections and sinusitis and encouraging people to see their pharmacists for advice about symptom relief.

He points out that there is evidence these infections get better on their own anyway, and that antibiotics make no difference.

'This has nothing to do with cost, as most of these drugs are as cheap as chips,' he says. 'It's about preserving antibiotics so we still have drugs to use to treat bacterial infections.'

'This is everyone's responsibility, including doctors, pharmacists and also patients.'

There are around 200 antibiotics in use worldwide; 66 were used in the UK in 2013, with 15 drugs accounting for 98 per cent of antibiotic used in general practice. Here, we look at the types of antibiotics most commonly prescribd by GPs, their pros and cons - and what drug resistance means for treating your illness.

There are around 200 antibiotics in use worldwide. We look at the pros and cons [file photo]

The antibiotic GPs dish out most: PENICILLINS

There are a number of different types of penicillin: amoxicillin, ampicillin, benzylpenicillin, co-amoxiclav, flucloxacillin, phenoxymethylpenicillin, and piperacillin with tazobactam.

Penicillin antibiotics are usually given as a capsule or as a liquid medicine, although they can also be administered intraveneously or by injection in hospital. Penicillin, which was discovered in 1929 by Alexander Fleming, was the first antibacterial drug developed and has been used since the 1940s.

HOW THEY WORK: Penicillins affect the formation of the bacteria cell wall, causing the bacteria either to burst or grow in abnormal shapes.

WHAT THEY'RE USED TO TREAT: Penicillins remain the most widely prescribed antibiotics, accounting for 45 per cent of the antibiotics prescribed in the community between 2011 and 2014.

They're given for a wide range of infections, including chest infections, skin and ear infections, tonsillitis, UTIs, and for dental procedures to prevent infection.

PROS: 'Penicillins are cheap and quick acting, usually working within three days,' says Mr Dajani. 'You can also drink alcohol when taking them. If you drink with some other antibiotics it can worsen side-effects such as nausea and dizzines or reduce and or delay the effectiveness of the drugs.

'Unlike many antibiotics, they can also be prescribed for pregnant women.'

Penicillins can be taken on an empty stomach, but work faster if they are taken with food.

CONS: 'Allergic reactions are relatively common,' says Mr Dajani. 'Diarrhoea is common, too, but this is true of all antibiotics because they can wipe out the good bacteria in the gut as well as the bad.'

More worrying is that some strains of common everyday bacterial infections have become resistant to this mainstay of antibiotics.

In the past, there's always been a new family of antibiotics we could move on to, but enough new antibiotics are just not being developed

Bacteria that cause chest infections and rheumatic fever have developed resistance to some penicillins. 'This means you may not get better as quickly and your infection may spread, say from the chest to the lungs,' says Mr Dajani.

Almost all infections caused by staphylococci bacteria (such as skin infections including boils and cellulitis) and 60 per cent of E.coli strains are now resistant to ampicillin - an important drug because it was the first broad spectrum penicillin effective against many types of bacterial infection, and originally had relatively minor side-effects.

'It's a pain, because it was a good, cheap, fast-acting broad spectrum drug,' says Mr Dajani. 'It's just one less option we now have.'

When it comes to UTIs, Dr Hicks says he hasn't prescribed amoxicillin in years because of resistance problems, and doctors are now being recommended to try nitrofurantoin, another antibiotic.

'Similarly, whereas once I would have prescribed flucloxacillin for a skin infection because it was less likely to cause a stomach upset than erythromycin, I now have no choice but to prescribe erythromycin as flucloxacillin often won't work - so patients are more likely to have stomach upset side-effects.'

The problem is that bacteria have acquired the ability to produce enzymes that break open drugs such as penicillins - also known as beta-lactams - explains Professor Laura Piddock, director of Antibiotic Action, an international body set up to generate interest in developing new antibiotics.

These enzymes can destroy many types of beta-lactam antibiotics, including those more powerful than penicillin, such as carbapenems.

Doctors are running out of drugs for my cystitis Emily Morris, 23, a head stylist for a High Street fashion chain, lives in Milton Keynes with her fiance Ben, 27, a credit controller, and her son Emerson, two. Emily Morris, 23, who lives in Milton Keynes, has had attacks of cystitis for years I've had attacks of cystitis since I was a little girl. They cause burning pain whenever you pass urine, but also abdominal pain and fever, and leave you feeling completely done in. The attacks have had a big impact on my life, but at least they were treatable with antibiotics. Since my late teens I've been having around two cystitis attacks a month, but penicillins now rarely work for my infections and I sometimes have to have intravenous antibiotics. 'Penicillins now rarely work for my infections and I sometimes have to have intravenous antibiotics' Three times now I've been diagnosed with a particularly nasty bug called an E.coli ESBL - a drug resistant form. When I was told, at first I wasn't too bothered beause I'd had so many urine infections before and they'd always been treated. But when I got to hospital I was taken to an isolation room and all the staff wore masks and gowns. They explained that it's particularly hard to treat. The bacteria produce enzymes which destroy a wide range of antibiotics. They said there were only a few drugs left that would work against it. It was very scary to hear. Luckily, I was prescribed a carbapenem antibiotic that worked - but when that one stops working, I know there are very few options left. Advertisement

The one that now hardly works: TETRACYCLINES

Doxycycline, tetracycline, lymecycline, minocycline, oxytetracycline and tigecycline.

These are taken as capsules or liquid medicine. Tigecycline is given intravenously for the superbug MRSA.

HOW THEY WORK: Tetracyclines interfere with the ability of bacteria to produce proteins needed to grow and multiply.

WHAT THEY'RE USED TO TREAT: Tetracyclines were once prescribed for everything, including throat and chest infections, as they were able to treat a wider range of infections than penicillins.

These days, because of resistance, they are mainly recommended only for acne and chlamydia (the sexually transmitted disease).

'They don't work very well now for other infections,' says Mr Dajani.

Doxycycline is recommended as a second line treatment (after the penicillin amoxicillin) for sinusitis, bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Doxycycline is recommended as a second line treatment for sinusitis, bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [file photo]

PROS: Fewer side-effects compared with some other broad spectrum antibiotics.

CONS: They need to be given in high doses because they're poorly absorbed (apart from doxycycline), so this increases the likelihood of diarrhoea.

They can also permanently discolour children's and pregnant women's teeth because they affect bone and tooth formation, washing fluoride out of the teeth - so it can't be given to under-eights or pregnant women.

Tetracylines work best when taken on an empty stomach at least one hour before a meal.

Antibiotic resistant bugs have significantly reduced the use of this former 'wonder drug'.

'Tetracylines were amazing in their day in the 1960s and 1970s, but now they are becoming redundant, as they have much more limited uses,' says Mr Dijani.

'Resistance has even developed in some acne bacteria strains, which means they won't clear up your spots, as well as in gonorrhoea and bacteria responsible for chest infections.'

Another that's lost its punch: QUINOLONES

Ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and moxifloxacin.

Taken in tablet or liquid form, although these can also be given via a drip.

HOW THEY WORK: Quinolones stop replication of DNA, preventing the bacteria from reproducing and spreading.

WHAT THEY'RE USED TO TREAT: These are broad spectrum antibiotics that kill a wide range of bacterial infections, from traveller's diarrhoea to persistent chest infections and anthrax, although they were originally developed in the 1960s mainly to treat UTIs.

Now they're only recommended for acute prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate gland) or kidney infections, mainly because of resistance problems in other infections, but also because some experts believe they may have driven cases of MRSA and C.difficile (a type of bloody diarrhoea) by wiping out good gut bacteria.

PROS: Quinolones are still effective against some hard-to-treat infections, such as E.coli, salmonella and pseudomonas (which cause respiratory infections). A high proportion of the drug reaches the bloodstream if taken on an empty stomach.

Quinolones stop replication of DNA, preventing the bacteria from reproducing and spreading [file photo]

CONS: Rare but serious side-effects include tendon damage - they can weaken collagen in tendons. Another potential but rare side-effect is peripheral neuropathy - nerve damage and pain in the limbs - which can be permanent.

'Quinolones were given out like sweets in the 1990s and ciprofloxacin was widely bought up after 9/11 because of fears of biological warfare with anthrax,' says Professor Walsh.

Although the drugs were developed for UTIs, some E.coli strains, which are the major cause of UTIs, are now highly resistant to them.

Still effective - at least for now: MACROLIDES

Azithromycin, clarithromycin and erythromycin.

Given as tablets/capsules or liquids, but some can also be given by drip.

HOW THEY WORK: Like quinolones, macrolides target DNA, the chemical that carries genetic material. This stops bacteria reproducing and spreading.

WHAT THEY'RE USED TO TREAT: These are the second most commonly prescribed antibiotic in the NHS. They work against a wide range of infections - easier to treat skin infections, sore throats and some UTIs, as well as against some of the harder to treat infections, including whooping cough.

'Prescriptions for macrolides are increasing because they still work,' says Mr Dajani.

Clarithromycin is often recommended for chest infections where patients are allergic or intolerant to penicillin. It is also used to treat helicobacter pylori infections that cause stomach ulcers.

PROS: Works well for many easy to treat infections and some harder to treat bacterial infections.

Macrolides target DNA. 'Resistance problems have been reported with campylobacter (bacteria linked to food poisoning), pneumonia, Legionnaire's disease and whooping cough,' [file photo]

CONS: Unlike with some other antibiotics, including penicillin, you can't drink alcohol while taking macrolides, and they have to be taken with food as they can cause gastric problems, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

The side-effects are more severe than with penicillins, which is why they were used as a second choice in the past. Macrolides can't be taken if you have liver or kidney problems, nor by pregnant or breastfeeding women.

They are active against many penicillin-resistant infections, but some are now also resistant to macrolides.

'Resistance problems have been reported with campylobacter (bacteria linked to food poisoning), pneumonia, Legionnaire's disease and whooping cough,' says Mr Dajani. 'If one type of macrolide doesn't work, patients may be offered another, or another type of antibiotic - or you could end up in hospital for injections or IV infusion.'

Vital back-up to penicillin: CEPHALOSPORINS

Cefaclor, cefotaxime, cefoxitin, cefalexin and cefadroxil.

Taken in capsule or liquid form, although also available intravenously.

HOW THEY WORK: Cephalosporins work in the same way as penicillin, interfering with chemicals needed to form normal cell walls.

WHAT THEY'RE USED TO TREAT: 'Cephalosporins were the wonder drugs of the 1980s and 1990s and used against a wide range of infections,' says Mr Dajani. But as a result of widespread resistance developing, they are now only recommended for meningitis and gonorrhoea. They are also used as a second-line treatment if penicillins don't work.

PROS: They're broad spectrum and can be used for harder to treat infections as well as skin infections.

Gonorrhoea may be the first bacterial infection that may be rendered completely untreatable with antibiotics because of resistance

CONS: Cephalosporins are tougher on the gut than penicillins and can cause severe diarrhoea and vomiting, as well as thrush. Ten per cent of people are allergic to them.

They raise the risk of C.difficile infections by wiping out 'friendly' gut bacteria, allowing C.diff bacteria to take hold.

Although all antibiotics do this to some extent, cephalosporins have a stronger effect.

Drug resistance is now a major problem, mainly due to overuse, says Mr Dajani.

This is now affecting some infections which previously responded to cephalosporins. A cephalosporin-resistant type of gonorrhoea infection has now emerged, with the result that a cephalosporin now has to be combined with azithromycin.

'We believe gonorrhoea may be the first bacterial infection that may be rendered completely untreatable with antibiotics because of resistance,' says Professor Piddock.

'This is worrying because although gonorrhoea isn't life-threatening, it can be extremely debilitating.'

There are also more reports about patients having to be hospitalised to have intravenous antibiotics to treat E.coli urinary tract infections because of drug resistance, says Mr Dajani.

'This is because some pencillins and cephalosporins don't work even in combination,' he explains.

The big gun used as a last resort: CARBAPENEMS

Certain strains of bacteria, including E.coli, pseudomonas and gonorrhoea, have learned how to pass on genes to produce enzymes to attack carbapenems, so resistance has developed [file photo]

Meropenem, ertapenem and imipenem.

These are given intravenously or by an injection.

HOW THEY WORK: These antibiotics bind to specific proteins, disruping the growth and strength of the bacteria cell walls.

WHAT THEY'RE USED TO TREAT: These are the antibiotics of last resort, reserved for more serious multi-drug resistant infections including E.coli urinary tract infections and pseudomonas, and now almost exclusively restricted to hospital use because they are being safeguarded.

PROS: They still work against some of the most challenging types of bacterial infection, including E. oli.

CONS: They have to be given in hospital in most cases by injection or IV, partly because they are poorly absorbed through the stomach so can't be given orally.

Certain strains of bacteria, including E.coli, pseudomonas and gonorrhoea, have learned how to pass on genes to produce enzymes to attack carbapenems, so resistance has developed.

What's more, they pass on the gene to other types of bacteria that they have bacterial sex with.

As Professor Piddock explains: 'These carbapenem-resistant bacteria are proving particularly difficult to treat, including those produced by E.coli.

'This is because there are now few drugs left active against these carbapenem-resistant bacteria.'
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is scrutinising government hospitals in the city for not paying the desired minimum wage to contractual employees in the outsourcing services, as laid down in the Labour Act.

The health department has written to all 35 government hospitals asking for a status report on their compliance with minimum wage norms.

Panel formed

A committee has been formed by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to look into the matter and suggest remedial measures to solve the problem.

All of Delhi's government hospitals have been asked to submit a report on the minimum wage issue (file picture).

Services like sanitation, house-keeping, security, peon, data entry, kitchen and management services, laundry, vehicle parking, and chemist work are being outsourced in the government hospitals.

The government has expressed grave concern over the irregularities in the non-payment of the minimum wages to the contractual employees. Most of the hospitals are not paying the desired minimum wages to the employees, a senior government official told Mail Today.

Senior officers in the government said a large number of contractual employees have not been paid their dues, amounting to more than Rs 100 crore.

Even after repeated orders from the labour department and previous health officials, the hospitals have not paid the desired minimum wages to the employees.

As a result, the contractual employees are being exploited. Innumerable letters have been written by the labour department as well as the health department, but nothing was done till now. But now, the health department has become active in finding the irregularities, the official added.

Serious view

DGHS has taken a serious view on non compliance of statutory obligations of paying the minimum wages, ESI, EPF in various hospitals in outsourced services leading to exploitations of workers by the contractors, says the order, dated March 4.

Only a few of the hospitals have replied to the letter.

Many of them have still not responded. The committee will have a meeting and decide on the action to be taken against them. Few of the hospitals have agreed to their past mistakes and have decided to comply with the rules with immediate effect, a senior health officer told Mail Today.

The government smelled a rat after it received complaints regarding the outsourcing companies not paying contractual employees properly.

Recently, a security service in the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) has been blacklisted after Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain found out that the security service company was charging Rs 7,500 from the employees in the name of the government.
A curfew was enforced in Mehsana town in Gujarat on Sunday.

Mobile internet service was banned as a massive rally of the Patel community demanding reservation and the immediate release of their jailed leaders turned violent.

Two buildings were set ablaze and some police vehicles were damaged.

The Patel protesters gathered at the Modhera crossroads to demand reservation status and the immediate release of their jailed leaders

We have imposed a curfew in Mehsana town till tomorrow morning. Mobile internet service has been suspended during this period. The violent mob set ablaze two government properties.... a sub-divisional magistrate and a mamlatdar (revenue officer) were injured in the stone-pelting, said Lochan Sehra, Collector of Mehsana, 73 km from Ahmedabad.

In the wake of these reports of clashes, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called up Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, who informed him of the prevailing situation there.

A go-down belonging to the Food Corporation of India and a district office were set on fire, police said. Fifteen people have been detained.

Five policemen and two officials sustained injuries, police sources said, while agitators claimed that 25 of their supporters were injured in police action.

Patel protesters gathered at Modhera crossroad as part of the Jail Bharo agitation announced by the Sardar Patel Group (SPG), one of the prominent groups seeking OBC quota for the Patel community.
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi is yet to announce former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh as the partys chief ministerial candidate for the 2017 Assembly elections.

However, informally, Rahul endorsed Singh as the captain of the Punjab Congress.

It is the tradition of the Congress to make such an announcement only after the elections. Captain Amarinder is obviously the leader of the party, being the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, Rahul told a group of senior editors during an off-camera interaction later on.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi (right) is yet to announce former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh (left) as the partys chief ministerial candidate for the 2017 Assembly elections

Party leaders said Singhs nomination as the PCC chief was done after much thought and said too much should not be read into the event.

Party sources said at least a dozen leaders favoured Captain as the CM candidate.

However, Rahuls alleged move has come as a major disappointment to the Captains camp.

Interestingly, Rahul had indirectly announced Captain as the candidate in March.

I asked Amarinder Singh to deal with the drug issue sternly on a priority basis when you form the government since the problem of drugs is a big issue for the inhabitants of the state, Rahul had said.

Members of the opposition took a different approach.

Captain has pushed his opponents to the brink. Suspension of former Congress Working Committee member Jagmeet Singh Brar, besides the merger of Peoples Party of Punjab and Akali splinter group SAD (Longowal) are being looked as hasty decisions. Leaders from these parties will demand tickets. Moreover, Rahul has said the party will focus on young leaders. The party may announce a young face as the CM candidate, said a senior Congress leader, requesting anonymity.

AAP MP Bhagwant Mann ridiculed the campaign Punjab Da Captain, saying the person the party is not trusting as the CM candidate cannot lead Punjab.
Shell and Iberdrola-owned Scottish Power have been found guilty of fraud and market manipulation which led to power blackouts in the San Francisco bay area.

The finding by a Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) judge alleges that Shell and Iberdrola made 809million of illegal profits which may now have to be repaid to the citizens of California.

Evidence presented during the hearings says that energy traders at Shell and Iberdrola used similar tactics to the collapsed energy firm Enron to drive up the prices which Californian residents had to pay on their long-term contracts.

US energy market: Evidence suggests that energy traders at Shell and Iberdrola used tactics to drive up the prices which Californian residents had to pay on their long-term contracts

As a result Shell received 548million in excessive profits and Iberdrola 261million. At the time Scottish Power, which has previously won Money Mails Wooden Spoon Award for poor customer service, was a quoted UK company and owner of PPM Energy in California.

It was heavy losses in the US which weakened the Scottish firm and led to it being sold to the Spanish power giant Iberdrola in 2007.

The case has been a long-running sore in San Francisco and done nothing to enhance Shells reputation in the US. Newly-released transcripts of telephone conversations are reminiscent of some of those recorded during the Libor fixing scandal.

As the blackouts were taking place across the area 15 years ago, one trader said to another: I dont know how honest that is, but we are not in the honesty game are we?

Another replies: Its not a question of honesty  its a question of optimization.

Under another scheme allegedly deployed  known as ricochet or megawatt laundering  the companies involved would buy electricity in California to sell out-of-state and simultaneously buy it back at a higher price.

The initial decision and the call for redress must still be approved by the full FERC board.

Shell is not the first UK company to fall foul of the American authorities over energy market rigging.

In 2013 US regulators imposed a fine on Barclays and four traders of 300million for allegedly manipulating energy markets over a two-year period.

A Shell spokesman said: Shell Energy has received and is reviewing the administrative law judges initial decision in the long-term contract case currently before FERC. We take our business and compliance with regulations very seriously.
You can enjoy great tax breaks with alternative investments - putting money into fine wine, classic cars, gold or perhaps even stamps.

But before you take the plunge, you need to realise that while they can be rewarding, alternative investments can also prove volatile and illiquid.

We explain what you need to know

Expert nose: Merchant Alex Marton with 1983 Chateau Haut-Brion - a wine that could rise in value

WINE

The wine market has obvious appeal as it allows investors to indulge in a pastime while making money - and if returns are good you can crack open a bottle and celebrate.

The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 Index, which plots the fortunes of a hundred of the most sought-after wines in the world, has risen by just 2 per cent in the past year, but by four per cent in the past three months alone.

Over a decade this index has doubled, despite a slump in the most recent five years, which saw the price of many top wines fall almost a third due to poor harvests.

But some tipples have soared in value. A bottle of Carruades de Lafite 2004, for example, has shot up by 650 per cent - from less than 20 to about 150 - in just ten years.

About 80 per cent of the wines in the index come from the Bordeaux region of France. Do not trust your own palate when investing, but look to the influential American wine critic Robert Parker - who scores everything that he sips out of 100. Anything rated 97 and above is 'an extraordinary wine' and of investment quality.

You do not need to tour vineyards in search of a great vintage as wine merchant connoisseurs are eager to scout the market on your behalf. Specialist merchants you might consider buying from include Farr Vintners, Justerini & Brooks, Berry Bros & Rudd and Alex Marton Fine Wines.

Merchant Alex Marton says: 'As with most investments, there is no guarantee that you will make money, but prices are realistic at the moment and not overinflated, so there is no reason you should not be able to make at least modest long-term returns over a decade or so.

'This is an unregulated market, so investors should be wary of buying from cold-calling salespeople - contact a reputable dealer and go with someone you feel is trustworthy.

As part of their duties, merchants' connoisseurs search for 'en primeur' wines - vintages still in the barrel. Investing in these young wines could be considered as a small part of a portfolio, as they can be better value than bottled wines - particularly if a vintage becomes highly desirable.

To benefit from the full range of tax breaks available to wine investors, you will never see the bottles yourself. The wine is 'bonded' - which means that it stays in temperature controlled warehouses and escapes any VAT or duty that would otherwise be paid.

You might expect to pay between 10 and 20 a year for a crate of 12 bottles to be bonded, but this will include insurance against loss or damage. The wine is usually stored at least ten years before being sold.

When selling there will be no capital gains tax to pay - which is usually charged at 28 per cent for higher-rate taxpayers and falls to 20 per cent from April - on any gains made above the annual allowance. This is because wine is deemed a 'wasting asset' by Revenue & Customs.

Merchants focus largely on the best clarets around Bordeaux. These include the five top-ranked Premier Cru - first growths - from chateaux Haut-Brion, Lafite Rothschild, Latour, Margaux and Mouton Rothschild. Then there are the 'Super Second' producers that include chateaux La Mission Haut-Brion, Montrose, Cos d'Estournel and Leoville Las Cases.

Philip Porter paid 500 for an E-type seen in the Italian Job. It's now worth 250,000

CLASSIC CARS

The HAGI Top Index - which plots the fortunes of 50 of the most desirable cars in the world - saw values rise by an average of 17 per cent last year and the index has risen by more than 200 per cent since December 2008, when it was launched.

The market is monitored by the Historic Automobile Group International, and cars that cost more than 100,000 - including Aston Martin, Bugatti, Ferrari, Jaguar and Porsche models - are among those most in demand.

Philip Porter, from Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, owns a 1961 E-type Jaguar Roadster that featured in The Italian Job and - unlike other classic cars in the 1969 film - escaped being crushed or pushed over a cliff. He paid 500 for the rare British sportscar in 1976 and it is now worth about 250,000.

Also in 1976, he bought a 1960 prototype Fixed Head Coupe - the oldest E-type known to exist - for 2,650. It is now insured for 2million.

Philip is a motoring author and also founder of the E-type Club, as well as the International Jaguar XK Club. He says: 'If you plan to invest in a classic, the perfect place to start is joining an enthusiasts' club. Here you will get practical advice and guidance on buying a vehicle.

'Members often sell through their club - which is an ideal source for buyers as the vehicles tend to be well maintained.'

Membership of car clubs n typically costs 30 to 60 a year. Details of more than a hundred classic car clubs can be found on the website ClassicCarList and clicking on the link 'out and about'.

A classic car - just like any ordinary motor - also escapes capital gains tax when it is sobecause it is deemed to be a depreciating asset, even if the value of a car goes up.

Another tax break is there is no vehicle excise duty - 'road tax' - to pay each year on cars built before 1975 as they are classed as historic vehicles. If you pick up a motor that was made before 1960, you can also avoid the expense of putting it through an MOT eacyear.

When budgeting for classic cars, do not forget that there will be maintenance costs. Vehicles also need to be garaged to keep them in good condition.

To have and to hold: Gold is a physical asset you can hold and is seen as a safe haven in turbulent times

GOLD

The precious metal has physical allure but watch its volatility: Gold has lost some of its lustre as an investment in recent years, but with fears of stock market falls it can offer a safe haven with tax-free returns. The appeal is partly because gold is a physical asset you can hold - not just a piece of paper that says that you own some shares.

The precious metal has risen by about 15 per cent in value over the past year because of stock market wobbles and it now stands at just under 900 a troy ounce, which is slightly heavier than a normal ounce.

But gold is not an investment for the fainthearted. It has been through plenty of peaks and troughs over the past 15 years or so - having soared from less than 160 a troy ounce in September 1999 to more than 1,100 in September 2011 - and last July it tumbled to less than 700.

The tax benefits of holding gold bars or coins include not having to pay VAT on investment grade gold. In addition there is no capital gains tax to pay on certain British gold coins sold by UK residents, such as the Britannia and Sovereign, because they are deemed legal tender. But other gold bullion is subject to the tax.

A traditional gold bar, as defined by the London Bullion Market Association, is 200 troy ounces - weighing about 12.5kg - and is currently worth just under 360,000.

Though gold can be kept at home, for practical reasons it is usually better to have it stored by a bullion dealer, such as Baird & Co, BullionVault, GoldMoney or The Gold Bullion Company.

These firms typically charge 0.2 per cent of its value each year to look after it in secure vaults. When selling you can expect to be paid about 2 per cent less than the current market price it is being sold at - due to the spread between the buy and sell prices.

Jewellery is another investment option you might consider - but the biggest value for many traders still lies mainly in the gold content. Twenty-four carat contains 999 parts of pure gold per thousand and is the purest form of the metal that can be bought. Jewellery often contains 22-carat gold but harder 9-carat is more practical to wear, though it may sell for less than half the 22-carat price.

The World Gold Council trade body offers information on buying the metal - including details of local gold merchants. For details visit lbma.org.uk.

Limited edition: Tracey Gosling turned her hobby into a profession and now runs the FD Covers website

STAMPS



Stamp trader Stanley Gibbons says philatelists can make money tax-efficiently if they are shrewd about how they invest.

The Stanley Gibbons GB250 index - which plots the fortunes of the top 250 investment-grade British stamps - saw prices rise by an average of 2 per cent last year. But over the past decade the rarest stamps have fared even better with values increasing by more than 160 per cent.

Unfortunately, you have to pay capital gains tax on stamps as they are viewed as 'personal possessions' - just like art and antiques - and not deemed wasting assets like fast cars and wine. Tax is paid on gains above the 11,100 annual allowance.

But Keith Heddle, investment director at Stanley Gibbons, says: 'Gains from incomegenerating assets - such as dividends from shares - can be taxed at 40 per cent for higher-rate taxpayers. But if selling stamps you only pay capital gains tax at the typical rate of 28 per cent - and if the total is below 11,100 a year it is tax free. You can also take advantage of a spouse's capital gains tax allowance on top of your own.'

Despite stamp collecting being the world's most popular hobby - attracting an estimated 50 million enthusiasts - just a few stamps are of investment quality.

Early examples from the Victorian era are among the most sought after and investmentquality stamps in top condition cost at least 200 each. You can buy an old Penny Black - the first adhesive stamp, launched in 1840 - for about 40. But one in pristine condition - ideally still in an original post office block and uncut - will fetch much more. A block of ten Penny Blacks not spoilt by having edges cropped sold for 200,000 in 1998.

Tracy Gosling, 51, from Hampton, South-West London, is a keen collector and runs enthusiasts' website FD Covers with husband Mark, 54. She says: 'Unfortunately, the number of people taking up stamp collecting is falling - but the rarest stamps are always in demand and tend to continue to increase in price. The same goes for first-day covers - letters or cards issued on the release date of a stamp with a postmark to prove it.'

A Penny Black first day cover, stamped May 6, 1840, sold for 44,000 in 2010. Only 78 Penny Black first day covers are known to exist.

Mistakes tend to make the most valuable stamps of all. This month, a 'Plate 77 Penny Red' - one of only nine known to have survived following the destruction of the printing plate on which it was made - sold for 495,000. The stamp was introduced in 1841 to succeed the Penny Black and 'Plate 77' was destroyed because it contained a fault - the stamp perforations were not lined up properly. The world's most expensive stamp is a unique 1856 British Guiana one-cent magenta stamp sold for $9.5million (6.7million) in 2014.
Sky has signed its first pan-European rights deal with Hollywood, in a bid to get first dibs on the latest film releases over competitors.

The pay-TV firm has teamed up with Sony to ensure it shows more blockbuster movies like the Lady in the Van starring Maggie Smith (pictured) ahead of its rivals across the Continent.

Since its 7billion takeovers of Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia in 2014, Sky has netted 21million customers across the UK, Germany, Austria and Italy, giving it more bargaining power to secure big deals.

Skys reach is expanding beyond Europe into the US and Asia

In 2015 it spent 4.2billion on rights to show 126 Premier League football games per year until 2019, with BT securing rights to show just 42 matches annually.

And Skys reach is expanding beyond Europe, after it signed multi-million-pound deals with US sports streamer fuboTV, and Asian streaming company Iflix in recent months.

The Sony deal, set to be announced today, comes ahead of Skys third-quarter results on Thursday which will give the first insight into the take-up of the firms latest package  SkyQ.

The new set-top box, which was revealed in January, allows viewers to store favourite shows on phones and tablets, and pause a programme in one room then carry on watching in another. Its premium package, SkyQ Silver, costs 54 per month.

Analysts predict Sky will add up to 80,000 new customers, and will see its revenues grow 4.6 per cent with profits expected to rise 11 per cent to 391million.
OIL TALKS FAIL

Tensions were felt between Saudi Arabia and Iran at an oil summit in Doha, where talks on curbing supply collapsed.

A draft agreement stipulated countries should fix monthly output at January 2016 levels until the next meeting in October.

Saudi Arabia said at the last minute it wanted all members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to participate, despite previously excluding Iran because it refused to freeze production.

Oil talks: Tensions were felt between Saudi Arabia and Iran at an oil summit in Doha

TAILOR TAKEOVER

British suit-maker Austin Reed has been bought by American hedge fund Alteri Investors.

Alteri, which lent the retailer 6million in 2015, purchased 12million of loan notes and an equity stake held by Darius Capital in the company for an undisclosed sum.

Austin Reed, founded in 1900, employs almost 1,000 people and has more than 160 shops.

TEAM BONDS

Rugby union club Harlequin FC is to launch a retail bond to fans and investors offering a 5.5 per cent annual return and club perks.

The club is hoping to raise between 7.5million and 15million by selling minimum investments of 2,000. The 150-year old club have launched the bonds today and the offer closes on Monday May 16. The funds raised will be used to pay for its expansion.

BUSINESS BOOST

HSBC has launched a 10billion lending fund to support small-and-medium-sized firms. From today, the banks website will give provisional decisions on loans up to 30,000 within three minutes.

BRUSSELS BLOCK?

Mobile operator Three is limbering up for a European refusal of its 10.3billion takeover of O2.
Over four-fifths (82 per cent) of small business workers would be prepared to report their boss to the authorities for illegal or unethical practices.

And 10 per cent say they are already aware of illegal or unethical practices currently happening in the companies they work for.

Against the backdrop of the Panama Papers, 45 per cent of workers said they would blow the whistle on tax evasion but the impropriety they are most likely to report is bullying (73 per cent), fraud (70 per cent), theft of company property (61 per cent) and embezzlement (58 per cent).

Should you tell? Most small business workers would have no qualms about shopping their boss

More than a third of workers (38 per cent) said they would report illegal or unethical IT practices, such as using counterfeit software.

The findings come from a survey of SME workers from across the UK and a broad range of industries conducted by BSA, a software alliance that encourages individuals to report unlicensed software with rewards for complaints that lead to legal settlements.

Last year, such reports increased by 58 per cent and cost companies found guilty of wrongdoing 42,000 on average and one UK small business had to pay 200,000 in damages.

However, the survey found that only 7 per cent of respondents would blow the whistle for financial reward, while 42 per cent would do so for moral obligations.

A further 56 per cent of respondents said they would be less willing to apply for a job if the business had been accused or found guilty of illegal or unethical behaviour.

'With more than four-fifths of workers willing to blow the whistle, SMEs need to review all of their business practices before its too late,' says Sarah Coombes, managing director of BSA's EMEA region.
He's the spoiled teenage grandson of a Russian oligarch who is stooping to new lows to prove people will do anything for money - even 'shoot' a pet dog.

Sex-obsessed filmmaker Grigory Mamurin has sparked disgust with his series of videos showing showing him persuading people to drink his urine and flash their breasts for wads of cash.

The self-styled 'Russian Spielberg' mainly targets young women in his degrading videos and in his latest escapade, which was filmed secretly, he 'bought' someone's girlfriend for the night.

Shocking: Grisha persuaded people to shoot a small dog - which he claimed belonged to a girl who dumped him. However the gun had been disabled and the dog was not harmed

Exposed: Grisha persuades women to flash their breasts in public parks and in the street in his videos

Show: One video shows Grisha spraying a bottle of Champagne over a women's naked breasts, while in another he whips a woman in her underwear

Immoral: Critics have branded Grisha's controversial videos as representative of the 'moral decay' of Russia

Most have branded Mamurin - known as Grisha - 'spoilt' or a 'brat', but he claims he is only highlighting the frailties of human nature.

'I'm not judging these people,' he said. 'I believe that they have circumstances or problems that would make them do that. I don't know what I'd do if I had problems like that in my life.'

He has defied opposition from his wealthy grandfather Igor Neklyudov, who tried and failed to ground him.

His latest video shows him sitting in his parked Mercedes and brazenly asking a passing couple how much it would cost for him to have sex with the woman while her boyfriend sits and waits.

Grisha offers them 150,000 roubles (1,550) and the man threatens to punch him. But it's not long before the atmosphere changes and the boyfriend surprisingly begins to negotiate a price.

The unidentified man agrees to pimp out his girlfriend for 2,600 but insists on cash, rather than a bank transfer.

'Moral decay': Most of the videos target young women, with Grigory, better known as Grisha. In one, he pours champagne over a woman's bare breasts

'Brat': Last year, Grisha was filmed in a hotel surrounded by scantily-clad women who he then undresses while smoking a cigar

Show: Most have branded Grisha 'spoilt', but he claims he is only highlighting the frailties of human nature

Teenage: According to Russian journalists, interviews with Grisha have to first be arranged with his mother

Family: Although Grisha insists the money used to fund the videos is from his savings, his grandfather is also a well-known Russian oligarch

He settles the discussion by telling Grisha: 'Let's agree on this then. Without any toys or anything. Use a condom.'

The three then drive away to a hotel and what happens next is not shown, but Grisha strongly denies that any of his stunts are staged.

RUSSIAN 'BRAT' BUYING SOMEONE'S GIRLFRIEND FOR THE NIGHT Grisha: Are you guys a couple or just friends? Man: Couple, why? Grisha: How long have you been together? Man: Two years. Grisha: Cool, congratulations. I'm asking this because I have a very interesting offer for you. Don't say anything yet, hear me out. I am ready to pay 150,000 roubles now, for you to agree I can have sex with you. Man: Are you ill? Woman: Oh my god! Man: Do you want me to beat you up? Grisha: No, let's do it like this, I'm just offering, you can either refuse or agree. It's not a joke. 150,000 is a small adventure for me and for you. I'm just offering. I'm not going to take her somewhere alone, let's go together. Man: Do you want to do it in a car? Grisha: There is a hotel nearby. You can sit in the lobby, wait for a couple of hours at the very most. Man: So... I can [compromise myself] but 150,000 is too small. 250,000 Grisha: Okay, no problem. What else? Man: Do you have cash? Grisha: Yes, of course, in the car. Man: Not a transfer or something. Grisha: No, of course, cash. Man: Let's agree on this then. Without any toys or anything similar. Use a condom. Advertisement

The shocking scene is played out in a video which has been viewed 1.6million times.

Such excruciating exchanges are typical of the teenager's attempts to find where fellow young Russians - a generation after the fall of communism - draw the line.

In an older video, the controversial filmmaker found men willing to let him kiss their girlfriends for between 30 and 200.

In another he finds people ready to sell him all the clothes they're wearing, except for underwear, for between 100 and 310.

A low point - even for him - was parading around the world-famous Gorky Park in Moscow, finding people willing to be filmed drinking his urine.

'Today we've come to Gorky Park to find out how much humiliation people are ready to experience for the sake of money,' he said on the video.

Women rapidly flee the scene, but one man apparently agreed, tempted by the teenager's endless pile of banknotes.

This stunt earned the prankster - who critics have labelled a 'weirdo' and 'sick' - more than four million viewers.

Recently, he found seven women willing to sell him the bras they were wearing for between 50 and 150. For an extra 50, one of them let him paint a US dollar sign on her forehead.

His other pranks include asking women to flash their breasts in public or undress in his limo, and persuading people to lick his shoe.

In one of his most shocking videos, he persuades people to shoot a dog. He tells them it belongs to his ex-girlfriend and he wants to get revenge on her for dumping him.

One of Grisha's targets pulls the trigger, but the gun had been disabled.

'Excuse me, can I have a minute of your time?' he said in the video. 'I have a problem. My girlfriend left me and her dog is still with me, she didn't have time yet to take him.

'I want revenge on her but I can't do it myself. Will you kill the dog? I'm serious, I'm ready to pay for it.

'Here, I'll give you 5,000 roubles. I have a pneumatic gun. Just shoot a couple of times and walk away with the money.'

Money talks: Although some people appear horrified by Grisha's suggestions, others are more than willing to go along with the challenge in return for enough cash

Violence: One man even said he didn't need the gun, that he would just break the dog's neck or kill it with a stone. Luckily, the gun was disabled and when people pulled the trigger the dog wasn't actually killed

Degrading: In another of his notorious videos, Grisha heads to the famous Gorky Park to find people who are willing to drink his urine for money

Stunt: Although women refuse to take him up on the offer, one man appears tempted by Grisha's pile of money

Project: According to Grisha, however, he doesn't judge the people who agree to his propositions, and his message is the idea that people will do anything for money

A horrified woman askes him: 'Are you an idiot?'

One man, demanding double the payment, said: 'I won't need a gun. Let's just walk around the corner and I'll just twist his neck or hit his head with a stone. Quickly.'

Someone else takes the gun and shoots the dog, but the pistol's trigger had been disabled and nothing happens.

Grisha tells him to look at the hidden camera and explains it was a 'social experiment' which found that 'unfortunately' some people were willing to shoot the dog.

Last year, at the age of just 16, Grisha was filmed in a luxury hotel surrounded by beautiful and scantily-clad women who he then undresses while smoking a cigar.

In one sequence, he hits a woman with a whip and in another he pours a 200 bottle of Champagne on another woman's naked breasts.

But the teenager seldom speaks about his stunts, and his three-times-married mother Larisa, who owns a chain of fitness centres, goes to some effort to keep him away from the press.

Purchase: Here, Grisha proposes to a couple on the street that he pays them 150,000 roubles to be allowed to have sex with the woman

Transaction: Grisha and the man leave the woman standing by the car while they move a short distance away to discuss the teenager's offer - the man agrees for 250,000 roubles - about 2,600

Agreement: The man has some conditions, however - that the money is given to him in cash, that Grisha doesn't use any toys and wears a condom

'An interview must be agreed with Grigory's mother,' complained one Russian journalist.

'How interesting. He is big enough to touch up girls online, but when it comes to talking to journalists, his mum has to be asked.'

Yet she and his indulgent grandfather Neklyudov - a 69-year-old business mogul in the Russian Far East - are failing to stop him.

'No-one from my family has told me it's time to stop the project,' he said, once his family's reservations became public.

'Everyone knows what I'm doing and what sort of message I'm trying to send. I've explained to my family what moral lies behind the videos, but of course, grandpa didn't approve of my activity.'

Revealing: There seems to be no end to the extremes people are willing to go to to get their hands on some of Grisha's cash. Here, a woman strips naked in the back seat of his car

Undressing: One Siberian MP, Oleg Smolin, has branded Grisha a 'spiritual invalid' who treats his own people like 'trash'

Fall: According to many critics of the teenager's project, he is representative of the ethical decay of Russia that has been allegedly increasing since the end of communism

One Siberian MP, Oleg Smolin, has dubbed Grisha 'a spiritual invalid'.

'He treats his own people and his own peers as trash,' he said. 'But in fact he behaves exactly like this precise trash.'

Meanwhile pro-Putin TV and radio host Vladimir Soloviev warned last year: 'This schoolboy took the subjects used in many modern reality shows.

'We just did not think that this level of moral decay would reach children.'
Opening a new chapter in an infamous stamp-world mystery, a valuable 'inverted Jenny' stamp has surfaced six decades after it was stolen from a collectors' convention.

The stamp  one of the world's most famous pieces of postage  was among four of its kind taken from a 1955 collectors' convention. While two were recovered over 30 years ago, there had been no sign of the others until this one was submitted to a New York auction house this month and authenticated.

'It's one of the most notorious crimes in philatelic history, and there's a piece of the puzzle now that's in place,' said Scott English, the administrator of the American Philatelic Research Library, which owns the stamp and is working with auctioneers Spink USA and federal authorities to recover it.

A 1918 'inverted Jenny' stamp is seen here. Stolen in 1955, the stamp surfaced last week at Spink USA, a New York auction house

It made its way into popular culture in movies such as 1985's Brewster's Millions, in which Richard Pryor's character uses one to mail a postcard

The would-be consigner, a man in his 20s who lives in the United Kingdom, said he'd inherited the stamp from his grandfather and knew little about it, said George Eveleth, head of Spink USA's philatelic department. He said authorities had told the auctioneers not to release the name of the consigner, who is in his 20s.

While it's unclear whether the man can shed any light on the long-cold trail to the thieves, the stamp was accompanied by an intriguing item: a 1965 letter about a monetary loan from a noted stamp dealer to a well-known auctioneer, both now dead, Eveleth said. The letter isn't necessarily connected to this stamp, however.

Still, the Bellefonte, Pennsylvania-based philatelic library hopes the stamp's discovery could lead to new clues.

'We're going to remain optimistic,' English said. 'Because think about it: Here we are, 61 years later, and a stamp has appeared.'

Richard Pryor is seen in a scene from the comedy film Brewster's Millions

In The Simpsons, Homer Simpson finds but disregards a sheet of inverted Jennys at a flea market

Worth 24 cents when issued in 1918, inverted Jenny stamps fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars today. While other stamps are rarer, the Jenny is one of few that is readily recognized even by non-collectors, Eveleth said.

It made its way into popular culture in movies such as 1985's Brewster's Millions, in which Richard Pryor's character uses one to mail a postcard, and television shows including The Simpsons, in which Homer Simpson finds but disregards a sheet of them at a flea market. The Postal Service issued a commemorative inverted Jenny stamp in 2013.

The original was made to celebrate the launch of U.S. air mail. Some were printed with the Curtiss JN-4H 'Jenny' biplane inverted, and a savvy customer bought a 100-stamp sheet before anyone realized the error.

The Postal Service issued a commemorative inverted Jenny stamp in 2013

Over the years, they were separated, coveted, counterfeited and narrowly saved from the blitzkrieg of London in World War II and from a flood in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

A block of four was on loan to the American Philatelic Society when stolen from a display case at its 1955 convention in Norfolk, Virginia. The lender, who died in 1980, gave her rights to the stolen stamps to the society, which shares some ties with the American Philatelic Research Library.
The Queen has received an unpleasant birthday surprise from Jamaica  a plan to drop her as Head of State.

Governor-General Patrick Allen said Her Majesty could be replaced with a non-executive President during the opening of the countrys parliament.

The Queen, who turns 90 on Thursday, retained the ceremonial role after Jamaica gained independence from Britain in 1962.

The Queen has received an unpleasant birthday surprise from Jamaica  a plan to drop her as Head of State

She last visited the Caribbean country in 2002 as part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations.

If Her Majesty is replaced, Jamaica will retain links with the British Crown through its membership of the Commonwealth.

This is the second time in four years the country has considered breaking links with the monarchy.

In 2012, the former prime minister Portia Simpson Miller said she would sever colonial-era links by abandoning the Queen and adopting a republican form of government.

In 2012, the former prime minister Portia Simpson Miller (second left) said she would sever colonial-era links by abandoning the Queen and adopting a republican form of government

Queen Elizabeth II talks with Sir Patrick Allen, the Governor General of Jamaica and his wife Patricia in 2012

Her Majesty is Head of State in 15 Commonwealth countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
South Sudanese gunmen have slaughtered 208 people and kidnapped more than 100 children in a brutal cross-border cattle raid into Ethiopia.

The attack took place on Friday in Ethiopia's Gambela region which, alongside a neighbouring province, hosts more than 284,000 South Sudanese refugees who fled war in their country.

One government official claimed to be 'closing in' on the attackers, while another boasted they had 'decimated scores' of the gunmen who carried out the raid.

Internally displaced people of the Murle tribe wait to receive World Food Programme food rations in the Sudanese town of Pibor in Jonglei State in 2009

The cross-border raid occurred when ethnic gunmen crossed into Gambela, Ethiopia (illustrated), from neighbouring South Sudan and killed 200 people, kidnapped 100 children and stole 2,000 head of livestock

By yesterday afternoon, the toll from their deadly raid had risen to '208 dead and 75 people wounded' from 140 a day earlier. Some 2,000 head of cattle were also taken.

The Murle, a tribe from South Sudan based in the eastern Jonglei region, often stage raids to steal cattle.

They attacked the Nuer tribe, one of the two main ethnic groups in South Sudan, but who also live across the border in Ethiopia.

'Our forces have been in pursuit of the attackers and they decimated scores of them,' Tewolde Muluteg, an Ethiopian government spokesperson said, without indicating whether the Ethiopian forces entered South Sudan territory.

'In border areas cattle feuds and raids are not uncommon. Of course, something of this magnitude is different,' he added.

'We don't think [the armed men] have any links to the South Sudan government or the rebels.'

Ethiopia has been heavily involved in the South Sudan peace process, partly because of the risk that the conflict could destabilise Gambella.

South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar is due to return to South Sudan's capital Juba on Monday from his rebel base at Pagak in the far east of the country, close to the Ethiopian border, rebel spokesman Colonel Nyarji Roman said.

Machar, who has not set foot in Juba for two years, is to form a transitional government with his rival, President Salva Kiir, as part of a peace deal signed in August.

Machar, who was Kiir's deputy before the war, has been living in exile in Kenya and Ethiopia, but was re-appointed vice president in February.

The Murle, a tribe from South Sudan based in the western state of Jonglei, often stage raids to steal cattle

He is expected to be swiftly sworn into office as vice president at the presidential palace alongside Kiir on Monday but a welcome rally by his supporters may be cancelled amid government security fears.

After winning independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan descended into war two years later, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the poverty-stricken country along ethnic lines.

Tens of thousands have been killed and over two million people forced to flee their homes during the war.
Mexican authorities say nine men have been found bound and dead inside a home in a suburb of the northern city of Monterrey.

Nuevo Leon state Gov. Jaime Rodriguez Calderon said Sunday that the initial investigation suggests the house in the Apodaca suburb was used for drug consumption.

Mexican authorities say nine men have been found bound and dead inside a home in a suburb of the northern city of Monterrey. Authorities are pictured at the scene on Sunday

Rodriguez Calderon, according to a Nuevo Leon state release in Spanish, said that obviously there would be results soon.

State prosecutor Roberto Flores said authorities responded to a call early Sunday and found the victims inside.

Two appeared to have been stabbed and the other seven strangled.

The bodies were in a bathroom and another room.

Flores says four have been identified.

Flores, according to the state release, said authorities had several lines of investigation that they were hoping would be fruitful soon.

The men's hands and feet were tied, Informador.Mx reported.
A survey of school staff revealed many have deep concerns about language learning in England  with the exam system blamed as a key barrier

Harsh and inconsistent marking is putting people off studying languages to a high level, teachers have warned.

A survey of school staff revealed many have deep concerns about language learning in England  with the exam system blamed as a key barrier.

The research, carried out by the British Council, found that in some state schools, the small numbers of students opting to take languages at A-level is making them financially unviable.

The Language Trends Survey 2016  now in its fourteenth year  identified numerous challenges currently facing language teaching in England.

Teachers said that falling entries in both GCSE and A-level language subjects could be down to pupils hedging their bets with courses which are easier to get high grades in.

They also complained that schools prioritise maths and science over subjects like French, Spanish and German.

Respondents to the poll said the situation in schools was deeply demotivating pupils and teachers when it comes to studying languages.

And they said the governments efforts to encourage all pupils to study the English Baccalaureate  which includes a language  at GCSE appeared to have levelled off.

Just over a quarter of state schools reported that offering the EBacc in this form has had a lasting impact.

All pupils starting secondary school have to take GCSEs in the so-called EBacc subjects - made up of English, a foreign language, maths, science and history or geography.

To get the EBacc, pupils have must gain a grade of C or above for all five subjects.

Co-author of the report Teresa Tinsley, said: Languages are already one of the harder GCSEs and teachers fear that with the new exams it will be even tougher for pupils to get a good grade.

Combine this with the expectation that a wider range of pupils will be sitting the exam and it is not surprising that teachers feel embattled.

Improving their morale and confidence in the exam system is crucial if languages are to thrive in our schools.

The research was based on an online survey completed by teachers in 492 state secondary schools, 556 state primary schools and 132 independent secondary schools across the country.

Since 2002, entries for A-level French have declined by about one third, and those for German by nearly half.

Although more pupils are taking A-levels in Spanish and other languages, these increases have not involved enough pupils to make up for the shortfalls in French and German.

The 2015 GCSE entry figures showed an overall drop in the number of modern foreign language exams.

The number of French exams fell by 6.2 per cent compared with 2014, with a 9.8 per cent drop in German.

The number of Spanish exams also declined, falling 2.4 per cent although the number of students opting to take Spanish at GCSE has still more than doubled in the past two decades.

An Ofqual spokesman said: We are committed to ensuring that all GCSEs, AS and A levels, including those in modern foreign languages, are sufficiently valid, produce fair and reliable results and have a positive impact on teaching and learning.

Last years results in modern foreign languages were very stable, with only small changes in the proportions achieving each grade compared to the previous year.

We have looked into concerns that it is harder for students to achieve the highest grades in A level languages.

Teachers said that falling entries in both GCSE and A-level language subjects could be down to pupils hedging their bets with courses which are easier to get high grades in

We found this is because of the way the exams are designed, rather than the nature of the subject content, and we are keeping this under review.

New modern foreign language A levels and GCSEs will be taught from this September.

Before we accredit a qualification we check the exams will be designed to allow good differentiation  including that the best students will be able to achieve the highest grades  and whether they are properly based on the new subject content.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: As global communication becomes easier, we know that employers increasingly prize the ability to speak a foreign language. Thats why we made languages a compulsory part of the primary curriculum and since 2014, we have seen an increase in the take up of language A levels.

By introducing the Ebacc, we have stopped the decline in modern foreign languages seen in the last decade, where 200,000 fewer GCSE students studied a modern language in 2010 than in 2002.

Last years results showed 20 per cent more pupils are taking languages at GCSE than in 2010 while A level entries in modern languages have increased by nearly 4 per cent since 2014.
Employment Minister Priti Patel, pictured, said migration has pushed the education system to 'breaking point'

Migration from the EU is putting unsustainable pressure on schools, a leading Brexit minister warned last night  as new figures show a quarter of schools are now full.

As parents learn today whether their child got into their first-choice primary or infant school, employment minister Priti Patel said migration had pushed the education system to breaking point.

She added that it was deeply regrettable so many families would be disappointed today, and a Brexit vote was the only way to take back control over migration.

Miss Patel, who was born in London to Ugandan migrants, said the pressure on schools could get worse with five countries  Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey  applying to join the EU.

The shortage of primary school places is yet another example of how uncontrolled migration is putting unsustainable pressures on our public services, she said.

Education is one of the most important things the Government delivers, and its deeply regrettable that so many families with young children are set to be disappointed today.

For as long as we remain a member of the EU, we are completely unable to control the numbers of people coming to this country  and with another five countries in the pipeline to join the EU the problem is set to get even worse.

We can take back control of our borders. We can also take back control of the 350 million we send to the EU every single week, and reinvest it in our vital and invaluable public services.

More than 600,000 children will receive their primary school place details today on what is known as National Offer Day.

But the influx of migrants  and a baby boom fuelled in part by new arrivals  have left many councils struggling to find enough places.

Figures released by Labour show that one in four primary schools is now full or over capacity.

The data  compiled by the Department for Education  showed 3,807 out of 16,759 schools in England have their full allocation of pupils or more. In some local authorities more than half of schools fall into that category.

Worryingly, the statistics also showed there will be an extra 295,000 primary age pupils in the system by 2020.

Last year up to one in five youngsters in parts of the country missed out on their first choice of school.

Miss Patel said migration from the EU is uncontrollable and increasing the numbers of pupils in primary schools by hundreds of thousands (file picture)

Within four years, the Observer newspaper reported, there will be a shortfall of 10,000 primary places.

Shadow education secretary Lucy Powell made no mention of immigration in her press release.

She said: This Governments broken school places system means that children are being crammed into ever larger class sizes and many schools are already at or over capacity.

On the day that parents will find out if their child has a place at their school of choice, it is increasingly clear that the Government has no answer to the crisis in school places they have created.

But the Vote Leave campaign said EU migration was putting extra strain on schools.

It pointed to figures showing that 25,000 pupils who are nationals of EEA countries (the EU plus Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein) entered the UK in 2014.

Its figures also showed that between 2005 and 2014, there were 475,935 births to mothers who were EU citizens.

In that period, the annual figure rose from 24,942 to 64,067  an increase of 157 per cent.

There were also claims  furiously denied by officials  that the Government is sitting on a review of the impact of migration on schools until after the EU referendum.

The Employment Minister, far right, is one of the leaders of the Vote Leave campaign, pictured at its launch

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan commissioned the review before last years election into how migrant children performed, and how schools with large numbers of migrants cope with the pressure.

But yesterday it emerged the findings would not be published separately but merged into a separate review of extremism being led by Louise Casey  leading to claims of a cover-up.

Dr Liam Fox, the former defence secretary, told the Sunday Telegraph: Any hint that a study announced by the Government and paid for with public money will be supressed from the public will inevitably raise suspicions of a cover-up.

Department officials said the research was not complete and argued that it was absolute nonsense to suggest we are refusing to publish a report on immigration.

A YouGov poll, commissioned by Channel 5 for its Immigration Week, found that most Britons believe there has been too much immigration and want tougher controls on new arrivals.

Some 71 per cent said immigration levels have been too high over the past decade, with only 14 per cent believing the current level of immigration is about right.

Tighter controls were called for by 63 per cent, while one in three people  31 per cent  felt immigration levels had a negative impact on their lives.
Waitrose has joined a growing list of firms accused of cutting perks for staff to help pay for the new national living wage.

The supermarket  which is owned by John Lewis  has stopped paying Sunday and overtime rates for new workers.

Other firms which have taken similar steps with existing staff include Tesco, Morrisons, DIY giant B&Q, and homeware retailers Wilko and Dunelm. Sainsburys has also said it is considering all options.

Changes brought in on April 1 have forced firms to give staff on the minimum wage a 50p pay rise. All workers aged 25 and over must now be paid at least 7.20 an hour.

Waitrose has joined a growing list of firms accused of cutting perks for staff to help pay for the new national living wage

The British Retail Consortium predicted the introduction of the national living wage could cost retailers between 1billion and 3billion a year.

And the change sparked bitter criticism from business groups which complain that the living wage puts an unfair burden on firms and is forcing them to cut their staffs perks or even slash jobs. Pressure on companies trying to reduce the cost of the change will increase today when MPs debate the issue in the House of Commons.

Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh, who requested the backbench debate, said: George Osborne guaranteed everyone a pay rise in his Autumn statement last November. People at the very least would expect theyd take home more rather than less.

The Government needs to do whatever it can to close this loophole and use its moral firepower to put pressure on firms. Many of the firms that have introduced changes to reduce costs - not paying staff for lunch breaks or cutting extra pay for Sundays and bank holidays  insist the changes had nothing to do with the introduction of the living wage. They say they are designed to iron out inconsistencies where staff are paid different rates for the same work.

The supermarket  which is owned by John Lewis  has stopped paying Sunday and overtime rates for new workers

But Labour MP Chris Leslie said Waitrose was chipping away at staff benefits and this could alienate staff and customers: The living wage was supposed to be a big step forwards  but it sounds as though some firms are pulling the rug from under the feet of the lowest paid. John Mann, a Labour member of the Treasury Committee added that the firm was giving with one hand and taking with the other.

Waitrose  which employs 58,000 people  said its cuts were introduced in February and are not linked to the living wage.
head of Revenue & Customs, was approached by a consultant hired by Mr Blair's lawyers, his former advisers claim

Tony Blair faces questioning over claims he used a secret trust to manage his multi-million-pound wealth after contact with Britain's top taxman.

Two of the former Prime Minister's advisers claimed Dave Hartnett, head of Revenue & Customs, was approached by a consultant hired by Mr Blair's lawyers about the controversial trust.

Its existence last night raised questions on whether the alleged access amounted to special treatment by senior tax officials.

Senior politicians demanded an inquiry into the 'special treatment' of high-profile individuals by Britain's tax investigators, HMRC.

Tony Blair (pictured) faces questioning over claims he used a secret trust to manage his multi-million-pound wealth

Tory MP David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, questioned what private discussions might have taken place.

He said that 'these arrangements appear to have been put in place without any proper scrutiny, and are not available to ordinary taxpayers'.

Mr Davis said he would write to the public accounts committee calling for 'an inquiry into special treatment of high-profile individuals by HMRC'.

Tory MP David Mowat, who sits on the PAC, told the Sun on Sunday: 'It would be wrong if senior wellconnected individuals got different tax treatment from the Inland Revenue than the rest of us.'

According to an investigation by The Times, discussions with HMRC officials, which took place shortly after Mr Blair left office a decade ago, included how his advisers would treat the trust for tax purposes.

They told undercover reporters that Mr Blair had used the interest-in-possession (IIP) trust to receive payments from his consultancy work, including with controversial regimes.

The trust sits at the heart of his business empire and had remained secret.

IIP trusts are legal entities that can hold property, shares or other sources of income for a beneficiary, most commonly for their lifetime.

Two of Tony Blair's (pictured) advisers claimed Dave Hartnett, head of Revenue & Customs, was approached by a consultant hired by his lawyers about the controversial trust.

According to experts, such trusts can offer significant tax advantages, including the possibility of passing on wealth to children free of tax.

The trusts do not have to file accounts.

Lawyers for Mr Blair said the trust had been set up due to a desire for privacy.

They stressed he did not seek or obtain a tax advantage.

But the emergence of its existence raised questions on whether Mr Blair received 'special treatment' due his position and MPs demanded an investigation.

One leading tax QC said that ordinary taxpayers 'wouldn't have got anywhere near' Mr Hartnett or other top HMRC staff.

The Times was not able to verify independently that Mr Hartnett was contacted as the two advisers separately claimed.

Mr Blair's representatives said that Mr Hartnett had not been consulted on his behalf and no special treatment had been sought or received.

Mr Hartnett has previously been criticised for offering 'sweetheart' deals to companies including Goldman Sachs and Vodafone during his time as head of HMRC.

There is no suggestion that he offered such a deal to Mr Blair.

Senior politicians demanded an inquiry into the 'special treatment' of high-profile individuals by Britain's tax investigators, HMRC (pictured, Tony Blair)

One adviser told reporters posing as advisers to a wealthy Indian family looking to do business with them: 'We went on a one-to-one basis to HMRC'.

Asked whether the consultant was able to approach Mr Hartnett , one adviser claimed: 'No, he definitely did. Yeah, definitely.'

'Everybody was brought together, saying this is in everybody's best interests.'

'We either went ahead or we didn't go ahead.'

He said HMRC officials would not be as approachable today out of fear of being hauled in front of the public accounts committee.

Mr Hartnett said last night he had 'no recollection' of the advisers' claims.

Asked whether he had provided any guidance while in his role at HMRC, he said: 'I can't answer that question. I'm still bound by taxpayer confidentiality.'

Mr Hartnett, who left HMRC four years ago, added: 'I don't give advice to individuals at all.'

IIP trusts only pay tax on dividends at around 10 percent so low tax is usually reason they are used. IIP holders can chose who is beneficiary of dividend so there for way of paying low tax on assets.

The IIP Trust offers Mr Blair the option of future tax savings, enabling him to pass on some of his fortune to his children while 'working around the IHT' (inheritance tax rules), the advisers allegedly boasted.

The disclosures come after David Cameron (pictured) and other senior politicians disclosed personal tax data after the publication of the Panama papers

Mr Blair and his wife Cherie have assiduously secured their children's finances by purchasing several properties for them. Eldest son Euan, 32, has a 4.5million townhouse while Nicky, 30, has a 2.1million townhouse and daughter Kathryn, 28, owns two properties.

The byzantine web of companies and limited liability partnerships set up for Mr Blair has always made it impossible to know exactly how much money he is making.

If the advisers' claims to The Times are accurate, up to 50million was paid into Windrush - the name of a series of interlocking companies and partnerships set up to manage Mr Blair's finances.

Mr Blair also has Firerush, a mirror-image structure of companies, through which an undisclosed amount was paid.

Mr Blair's lawyers said his financial arrangements were private and denied that he had received any preferential treatment from HMRC.

They said his advisers had followed normal tax procedures and it was 'common practice' to communicate with HMRC in the way he did.

A spokeswoman for Mr Blair denied that he received 'any special 'privilege' from the tax authorities'.

She added:'Tony Blair did not set up this structure for reasons of tax advantage. He has paid full UK tax on all his earnings. He specifically instructed the accountants who set up the structure that there was to be no tax advantage or avoidance through it.'

Mr Hartnett said that he could not comment on an individual's tax affairs.
So it was murder after all  a murder which has made headlines from New York to New Zealand, with a bounty of 275,000 on the killers head. This was never death by natural causes, which is what the police had previously suggested.

But since they have given up on the case anyway, the culprit is unlikely to be caught. And the residents of Sandon, Hertfordshire, will probably never know what happened to the beloved, famously cantankerous goose which occupied their village pond (and telephone box) for 11 years  until it was killed in broad daylight eight weeks ago.

Initial reports suggested the bird had been shot by the occupants of a mysterious car. Yet it was only after angry residents contacted the Press that Hertfordshire police took an interest and, eventually, the body was exhumed for a post-mortem.

The death of the gander, which lived in a disused phone box, caused a local and national uproar and lead to its body being exhumed so a post-mortem examination could be carried out

As soon as initial findings indicated the bird had not been shot, the police rushed out a statement saying natural causes were the likely cause of death, and life moved on.

Now, however, further tests have shown that the bird was bludgeoned to death after all. According to the Royal Veterinary College: It was confirmed that the traumatic injury to the lens of the left eye occurred while the goose was alive and therefore this may have been the site for the physical impact to the head.

Yet with no further evidence, the police pronounced the matter closed. For the villagers, the only consolation is that their initial suspicions of foul play have been confirmed  and the fact so many people care.

When resident Gay Ayton called her local paper, the Hertfordshire Mercury, to tell them what had happened, it was more out of sheer anger than any expectation of a story. In next to no time, the news was global.

For there was something rather unique about the late, much-lamented occupant of the village phone box.

Not only was the goose exceptionally ill-tempered, particularly during the mating season when he would fall in unrequited love with his own reflection in the glass of the phone box, but he was fiercely protective of the ducks with which he shared his pond.

A much-loved village gander, pictured, whose suspicious death sparked a police investigation died after suffering head injuries, it has emerged

He actually thought he was a duck, explains George Wallbridge, 65, who watched the goose grow up and had the sad task of burying him. He always escorted the ducklings around the village and woe betide anyone who got in the way. The gooses concern for his ducks was a frequent theme among the many messages pinned to his old home by village children.

Dear Angry Goose, wrote a girl called Cerys, I will miss you. You only hissed at people to keep the other ducks safe and you never hurt anyone.

But why on earth has the death of a goose  which didnt even have a name  caused quite such a stir, not merely across the country but around the world?

The answer, perhaps, is that Angry Goose represents a fading idyll. He lived in the sort of place millions of us would love to live if only real life wouldnt get in the way  a pretty, ancient village in the middle of the English countryside.

Had this goose been killed in Croydon, Manchester or the middle of nowhere, his death would have been just another RSPCA statistic  if, indeed, anyone had reported it at all. According to the RSPCA, around 900 similar incidents are reported each year.

But this happened in the sort of place which embodies Englishness  on a pond next to a red phone box next to the post box next to a village green.

It feels like a cross between Midsomer Murders and a Disney movie when I turn up in this pretty and surprisingly remote corner of North Hertfordshire.

You can see how much geese have been part of Sandons identity as soon as you drive in. There, on the village sign, erected to mark the millennium, are three things: the church, the date the place was founded  1086  and, in pride of place, a goose. There have been geese on that pond as long as I can remember, says Robert Wornham, 65, a farmer and formerly chairman of the parish council for 22 years.

When I was a kid, there were six or seven. They were a very useful alarm when the post office used to be next door.

Local residents, including four-year-old Michelle Imura, pictured, were left devastated by the killing

For the past decade, there had been just one  impervious to humans, cars, foxes, badgers and dogs.

So what happened to Angry Goose on a Sunday afternoon two months ago?

Two witnesses saw a blue 4x4 vehicle slow down and stop next to the village pond. June James tells me her daughter, Alex, drove past the car and remembers hearing laughter. An unnamed couple moving into a rented cottage next to the pond reported seeing the goose make a sudden flapping movement before flopping into the water. Whereupon the 4x4 drove off.

Not long afterwards, George and Penny Wallbridge received a tearful phone call to say the goose was floating dead in the water.

No one knew the goose better than George, 65. For more than 20 years, he ran a model aircraft business from a workshop next to the pond and saw the bird every day. Using a rake, he dragged the lifeless body to the edge and saw that the goose was bleeding from a wound behind its left eye. He dug a grave behind a local bench and put a big stone slab over it. We didnt want him being dragged off by a fox in the night, George explains.

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The body wasnt there for long, though, after the Mail and others started asking questions. Two police officers arrived to exhume the remains for a post-mortem examination, and the RSPCA appealed for witnesses.

In the absence of a registration number for the mysterious 4x4, the search had all the hallmarks of a genuine wild goose chase. But the anger stretched far beyond Sandon. One listener to BBC Radio 2  a Peter Hunt of Eastbourne  texted the Jeremy Vine show to offer a reward of 250,000 to anyone who fingered the culprit.

Next, came a John Barker of Cambridge, calling the killers scumbags and toerags and offering his own reward of 25,000.

Villagers are not entirely sure what to think about such generosity, given that the maximum punishment for shooting the bird would be a 5,000 fine and/or six months in jail. I dont want to be unkind, but is that the best use of 275,000? asks one woman at the farm shop. What about injured soldiers?

Down at the pond, it is easier to post a letter now. It was at this time of year, during the mating season, that the goose would become particularly stroppy whenever someone approached his pillar box. For all that, he is greatly missed.

My four-year-old daughter was in tears when I told her, says Kate Imora. People called him Angry Goose, but I would feed him with my own hands.

Teddy Faure Walker adds: He was a disagreeable old b*****, but we all loved him.

Opinions vary on a motive. Most seem to think it was just mindless yobbery. Some suggest that it may be connected to a spate of illegal hare-coursing in the surrounding countryside. One man tells me that some of the hare-coursers were not happy when villagers reported them to the police. Could this have been some sort of revenge?

Messages to the goose that was killed in the village of Sandon. According to the latest report the gander actually died from blunt force trauma

No one actually owned Angry Goose. George Wallbridge remembers how three female geese lived on the pond for many years until, one day, they were joined by a gander  known as Grey Goose. One thing led to another.

To our surprise, one of these scraggly old white geese suddenly appeared one morning with this little gosling, George recalls.

Sadly, Mum was run over soon afterwards and the gosling ended up being raised by his dad. It was an unusual situation, but Grey Goose did a good job, says George. He taught this young thing how to eat and how to fly.

Then, Dad got run over, too. I found him by the side of the road and held him in my arms as he died, George recalls.

With no other geese around, the orphaned gosling bonded with the ducks and would act as nursemaid to generation after generation. It was a lovely sight watching him leading them through the village to different ponds, says George.

Though Sandon has been inundated with offers of a replacement goose, the village is reluctant to accept them.

The sad truth is that almost every goose weve ever had here has ended up being run over except him, says Penny Wallbridge. The pond is on a sharp corner and people come tearing round the bend. Im not sure we want more heartache after this.

Sadly, from now on, the only goose in Sandon will probably be the one on the village sign.
A man accused of shooting and killing a firefighter and wounding another thought the pair had broken into his Maryland property and was defending himself, the fire department said.

The man, who has not been named, shot and killed 37-year-old John Ulmschneider and injured 19-year-old volunteer Kevin Swain after they responded to a call at his home in Temple Hills, a suburb of Washington DC, police said.

He thought someone was breaking into his house and 'took action to defend himself' when Ulmschneider and Swain came in to perform a welfare check, a fire department spokesman told ABC News.

The man was released from custody without charges on Saturday night.

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Kevin Swain (left) is improving after being shot in Maryland on Friday night, while fellow firefighter John Ulmschneider, 37 (right), was killed

'His story has remained consistent in that he thought someone was breaking into his house,' chief spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire Department Mark Brady told ABC News on Sunday.

The man collaborated with police after being taken into custody on Friday night.

Officers interviewed him and released him the following day.

Ulmschneider, a 13-year veteran of the Prince George's County Fire Department, died Friday night at MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center after being shot in the chest.

His funeral will take place on Wednesday at St John's Catholic Parish in Hollywood, Maryland, with a private family burial to follow, the fire department announced on Sunday.

The firefighter, known to his colleagues as 'Skillet', had a wife and a two-year-old daughter, ABC News reported.

Swain, who was shot four times, was in serious but stable condition after coming out of surgery Saturday, department officials said.

He has now been released from intensive care as his condition is improving.

Images from Swain's Facebook show him with girlfriend Betty-Ann Humbert, who he had been dating for 17 months.

Swain (pictured) was responding to a call of a medical emergency at a property on Friday night with Ulmschneider before a man inside opened fire

Ulmschneider (pictured far left), had served in the fire department for 13 years. He died on Friday night after being shot in the chest

The two men were wounded while answering the call for help around 7:30pm Friday.

Firefighters went to the Temple Hills home after the brother of the man who lived there told authorities he was concerned about the man's safety, Brady said.

The man said his brother had trouble controlling his blood sugar and recently blacked out.

He told authorities he was worried because his brother wasn't answering the phone or the door and his car was parked in the driveway, Brady said.

When the firefighters arrived, the person inside was unresponsive and the property locked, so they decided to force entry, police Chief Henry P. Stawinski III said.

As that was happening, the person inside fired several rounds through the door, striking the two firefighters and his brother, authorities said.

Stawinski said that once officers got into the home, the gunfire stopped. He added that no officers had fired their weapons.

There were no police officers present when the firefighters decided to enter the home, Prince George's County Police Department spokeswoman Julie Parker said.

The brother of the man who lived at the home was not seriously injured, Prince George's County police Chief Henry P. Stawinski III said at a news conference.

He is in fair condition, after suffering a shoulder gunshot wound, The Washington Post reported.

The alleged shooter, who hasn't been identified, was described by the newspaper as being a 61-year-old man.

Two other firefighters with the Morningside Volunteer Fire Department suffered minor injuries while seeking cover after the shooting.

A firefighter injured a knee and the other injured her jaw. The two were treated at the hospital and released Saturday.

Brady said that's something firefighters do fairly routinely when there's a concern about someone's safety.

He said anytime there is an incident such as this, the department will review its protocols and possibly make changes.

'The firefighter medics made a decision that this was indeed a reason they needed to get into that house as soon as possible. Time could have been of the essence,' Brady said.

Ulmschneider was flown from the scene (pictured) to MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center where he later died. Swain was once in serious but stable condition and has now been released from the ICU

The pair had approached a house on Sharon Road (file image) and attempted to enter only to find it locked when a man inside opened fire on them

Brady said Ulmschneider was described as a 'good old hard working country boy who loved his job.'

Diana Krieger, whose daughter is married to Ulmschneider's brother, told The Washington Post that he was a 'caring man' who had dreamed of being a firefighter since high school.

'He wanted to help others, he loved doing what he was doing, being a paramedic and a firefighter, and I really believe that he was doing God's work,' Krieger told the newspaper.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan ordered the state's flag to be flown at half-staff in Ulmschneider's memory.

'His legacy as a husband, father and firefighter, and his commitment to protecting others, will not soon be forgotten by his loved ones, the community, or Maryland,' Hogan said in a statement.

Prince Georges County Executive Rushern Baker told Fox 5: 'Once again, unfortunately, I've got to go before the people of Prince George's County and let them know that we have lost another one of our brave firefighters doing what they do every day.'

'These men and women put their lives on the line, and unfortunately tonight, we lost one of them  This is a sad day in Prince George's County.'

Baker paid tribute to Ulmschneider and Swain in a statement, saying: 'From being the first to arrive at scenes, to being the last to stay behind and follow up on those he cared for, firefighter / medic Ulmschneider reflected the type of values and dedication that so many of our firefighters, paramedics, first responders, and government employees possess.

'His service, commitment, and ultimate sacrifice to this County will never be forgotten.
Bank of England and IMF have also warned voters against leaving EU

UK gross domestic product would also 'shrink by six per cent' by 2030

Report claims Britain will be poorer by 4,300 per year per household

George Osborne, pictured, has published a 200-page report claiming Britain would be poorer by 4,300 per household if it leaves the EU

Britain will be worse off for decades and have billions less to spend on public services if it votes for Brexit, a government dossier will warn today.

The document, published by George Osborne, will be presented as an impartial assessment of the financial implications of leaving the EU.

However the analysis, which has been written by Treasury civil servants, will spark immediate accusations from the Leave camp that it is government propaganda designed to scare the public.

The report will claim that Brexit would lead to a permanent hit to the economy because of lower trade and investment, and will set out for the first time the Governments official financial assessment of EU membership.

In the 200-page report, it is predicted that Britain will be poorer by 4,300 a year per household, and that UK GDP will shrink by 6 per cent by 2030 after a Brexit.

Its publication comes as:

The French finance minister sparked fury by saying Britain would no longer be great after Brexit and instead reduced to the status of Jersey or Guernsey;

Cricket hero Sir Ian Botham backed Brexit, saying that the country should stand proud;

A row erupted over the delayed publication of a report assessing the impact of migration on schools;

A poll found seven in ten Britons think immigration levels have been too high over the past decade.

Voters have already been handed recent warnings from the International Monetary Fund, the Bank of England and big business about Brexit.

And writing today in The Times, the Chancellor said: There would be less trade, less investment and less business.

Leave the EU, and the facts are: Britain would be permanently poorer. Britains families would be permanently poorer.

Last week Mr Osborne also warned that Brexit could lead to a rise in mortgage rates due to uncertainty about what would happen after a vote to leave the EU.

And yesterday a pro-Remain Cabinet minister  the newly appointed Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb  claimed a reckless vote to leave the EU could trigger an economic shock similar to the hardship suffered after the banking crash in 2008.

He went on to describe Brexit as an act of economic self harm, claiming Britain faces a rupture that will bring misery to millions if the country votes to leave the EU.

Businesses would leave the country, factories would close and jobs would be lost, with disastrous consequences for families, he told the Sunday Telegraph, adding: Lost jobs and livelihoods take an enormous, indelible toll on families and communities.

No one should be complacent about the potential consequences for working people and their families if Britain votes to exit the EU. This is not a theoretical debate.

However responding to his remarks, Chris Grayling, the Leader of the House of Commons, pointed out that David Cameron said only a few weeks ago that Britain could succeed outside the EU, although he believed the country would be better off staying in.

It cant be logical now for the Treasury to claim doomsday and disaster would follow if we leave, he said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, left, pictured at an EU meeting in Brussels. Today's report dismisses the idea leaving the EU would lead to a public spending windfall

Todays report will also dismiss the idea  which has been highlighted by senior Brexit campaigners over the past few days  that leaving the EU would lead to a public spending windfall.

Last week the Leave campaign argued that pulling out of the EU would mean up to 350million a week more for the countrys coffers, as Britain would no longer be sending billions of pounds a year to Brussels.

However, todays report will claim that there would in fact be billions a year less to spend  because of lower tax revenues.

A Treasury source said the analysis would show that every alternative to EU membership has significant economic costs.

They added: This is a serious, sober analysis and will show the hit to the economy of a vote to Leave would not just be temporary, but permanent, because of lower trade and investment.

That means that far from there being more to spend on schools, hospitals and defence, there will be less  billions of pounds a year less. Britain would be worse off for decades to come.
Thousands of parents will feel anger and betrayal today as they receive letters saying their child has failed to secure a place at their first, second or even third choice of primary school.

They are the victims of an education system buckling under the sheer weight of numbers as Britains population booms. And there will soon be many more of them.

New figures suggest that by 2020 there will be 10,000 more pupils than places at primary schools, with one estimate putting the shortfall as high as 85,000.

This raises the very real prospect of some children not being able to find a desk at any school.

New figures suggest that by 2020 there will be 10,000 more pupils than places at primary schools (file picture)

Of course Labour and local education authorites blame Government cuts. They always do.

But isnt it patently obvious that the underlying reason for this crisis is the colossal scale of immigration which has seen our population rise from 58million in 1997 to 65million today.

In 2014, foreign-born mothers gave birth to a record 188,000 babies in Britain  27 per cent of all live births. With such a migrant baby boom, is it any wonder schools are close to breaking point?

Other public services are also creaking at the seams, especially the NHS. We report today that more than nine million patients now suffer poor or mediocre care, as GPs struggle to cope.

While we remain in the EU, we dont have the power to control the numbers coming in.

David Cameron has tried to reduce them but, despite his promises, net migration has shot up to 330,000 a year. Such relentless population growth is simply unsustainable.

And as London mayor Boris Johnson pointed out yesterday, things may soon get much worse.

Under the deal by which Turkey agreed to close its borders to the waves of migrants crossing into the Greek island of Lesbos, some 77million Turks will be given the right to enter the EU without visas. One can only imagine how many will eventually end up here.

As Mr Johnson so succinctly put it: That is really mad. It cant be allowed to happen. On June 23, referendum day, the British people have a unique opportunity to ensure it doesnt.

Another Libyan folly?

Having helped reduce Libya to its present state of anarchy with the ill-fated bombing campaign of 2011, is Britain about to repeat the same mistakes?

We ask because it seems defence chiefs are ready to commit 1,000 troops to a peacekeeping force in that benighted country, under the aegis of the EU and led by the Italians (yes, really).

Chillingly, one defence source says they could be deployed in hostile areas.

Burnt out cars and wreckage in Libya, left over from the ill-fated bombing campaign of 2011

Have we learned nothing from the carnage and chaos of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria?

Those conflicts should have taught us that blundering into faraway countries can cause many more problems than it solves  especially in the seething cauldron of the Arab world.

And what remit do Italy and the EU have to lead such a force anyway? Isnt peacekeeping the job of the United Nations?

The Mail has just one piece of advice for the Prime Minister if hes asked to sanction this hare-brained scheme. Dont do it!

Fair weather soldiers

Hundreds of black soldiers have sued the Ministry of Defence for injuries suffered as a result of cold weather training, including one Nigerian who demanded compensation for being exposed to freezing weather in Wales.
A mother who faced being thrown out of the UK after her visa was rejected because her British husband did not earn enough money has been told she can stay after all.

US-born Katy James was left devastated when government officials said she must leave the country within 14 days when the Home Office turned down her application.

The 40-year-old project specialist had moved back to the country just last year with her British husband Dominic, 42, and their two-year-old daughter Madeleine.

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US-born Katy James was left devastated when government officials said she must leave the country within 14 days when the Home Office turned down her application

They had been married for nine years and lived in Edinburgh, Scotland and Seattle, USA, before moving to Eastbourne, East Sussex, where Mr James was born.

But they faced being split up for up to a year because initially, only small business owner and musician Mr James and Madeleine could remain in the UK as they are British.

Now after a campaign to stay, Mrs James was told she had been granted a visa, initially for 30 months, and she will then need to reapply.

The family said they are very grateful for the swift intervention of Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell, and those who signed an online petition calling on the government to think again.

Dominic said: 'We are very, very happy, we're over the moon. We thought the process would take weeks but to hear of the reversal in a matter of days is fantastic.

'This is exactly what we wanted. It means we can now get on with our lives and Katy will be able to get a job and leave the country for a holiday as well if we want.

'The 30-month visa is what we applied for in the first place. We understand this to be normal procedure so we are delighted.

'We would like to thank everyone who has helped.'

Initially the family was told that Katy had not met strict immigration guidelines over earnings, which left them in complete shock and Mrs James branded the decision 'cruel and heartless'.

The 40-year-old project specialist had moved back to the country just last year with her British husband Dominic, 42, and their two-year-old daughter Madeleine

Tory MP Mrs Ansell said: 'I'm very pleased this decision has been reversed so swiftly and that the immigration minister James Brokenshire saw the exceptional circumstances that Katy, Dominic and Madeleine found themselves in.

'This has been an anxious time for a young family with a two-year-old daughter, and I'm delighted the ending is a happy one.

'My primary mission was to ensure Katy did not have to return to the US at the end of this month without her daughter and husband, and this has been achieved.

'To be given leave to stay for 30 months and to be able to work, with every expectation it will be extended until Katy can apply for indefinite leave to stay, is the best result within the application framework.

'However, I accept the time frame is not the long-term security the family needs and this is a wider principle I will take up with the minister, who I thank for his hard work.

'I wish the family my very best - they've certainly been through it - and they will have my continued support with any other issues that arise.'

The family faced being split up for up to a year because initially, only small business owner and musician Mr James and Madeleine could remain in the UK as they are British

New UK Immigration Rules came into effect in 2012, affecting all non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals applying to enter or remain in the UK under the family migration route.

Under the regulation, the British spouse must have available funds equivalent to a minimum gross annual income of 18,600. This rises to 22,400 for families with a child.

The government says the minimum income rule is to prevent unqualified spouses coming to the UK and becoming dependent on the state and Mr James was earning below the threshold.

The couple first met online in 2005 and Mr James went to America to spend three months with his girlfriend before the pair married in 2006.
for his mural of Kanye West kissing himself

The artist renowned for his Kanye Loves Kanye mural has made another piece in a statement about Sydney's lockout laws.

On Chippen Lane in Chippendale, Sydney, Scott Marsh has painted a mural of NSW Premier, Mike Baird. The Premier is depicted holding a kebab and glass of wine surrounded by poker chips.

Mr Marsh has painted over his famed mural of Kanye kissing himself following a payment from West's management of $100,000.

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The Mike Baird mural is located on Chippen Lane in Chippendale, Sydney. Scott Marsh has painted it right by his Biggie mural on The Lord Gladstone

Mr Baird has defended the laws which state that people who leave or are ejected from licensed premises after 1:30am are not allowed to re-enter. Bottle shops cannot sell alcohol after 10pm while licensed premises cannot serve alcohol after 3am

The mural titled Kanye loves Kanye (pictured) has been painted over after West's management paid Scott Marsh $100,000

The NSW Premier has received heavy criticism about his role in Sydney's lock out laws who many say have damaged business, culture and the reputation of the city.

The laws cover the city's popular nightlife spots including Kings Cross, Darlinghurst, Cockle Bay, the Rocks and Haymarket.

People who leave or are ejected from licensed premises after 1:30am are not allowed to re-enter. Bottle shops cannot sell alcohol after 10pm while licensed premises cannot serve alcohol after 3am.

Mr Baird has defended the laws, saying in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year that:

'I understand that this presents an inconvenience. Some say this makes us an international embarrassment. Except, assaults are down by 42.2 per cent [in the CBD since 2014]. He added: 'There is nothing embarrassing about that.'

The NSW Premier has received heavy criticism about the the laws that are said to have damaged business, culture and the reputation of Sydney

The laws cover the city's popular nightlife spots including Kings Cross, Darlinghurst, Cockle Bay, the Rocks and Haymarket

Scott Marsh has alluded to the fact that Sydney's two casinos have been exempt from the laws, painting the Premier surrounded by casino chips. The kebab he is clutching referring to the ban on late night food vendors

Daily Mail Australia spoke to Scott Marsh about his motivation to create the piece: 'The mural was inspired by my marching in the Keep Sydney Open marches a month or so ago, I have met so many people who have been impacted by the lockouts, not just the obvious impact on the culture and nightlife of Sydney but people who have lost theirs jobs.'

Despite the political nature of the mural, he added: 'I'm not a very political guy but the lockouts are affecting people around me and the city I love.'

Painted on April 17, right by his Biggie mural on The Lord Gladstone in Chippendale, Mr Marsh has attempted fit in all the issues Sydneysiders have with the controversial laws into the mural.

Mr Marsh has alluded to the fact that Sydney's two casinos have been exempt from the laws, painting the Premier surrounded by casino chips. The kebab he is clutching referring to the ban on late night food vendors.

On Instagram he said of the piece: 'Great photo of me finishing up last night by @colebennetts. Caught @mikebairdmp out on a big Friday night he was happy to pose for a few reference flicks #casinomike #keepsydneyopen'

The artist received world wide attention for his last mural depicting Kanye West kissing himself, which Marsh painted over after West's management paid $100,000.

The NSW Premier has defended the laws, saying that assaults in the CBD since 2014 are down by 42.2 per cent

Working on the mural under the cover of darkness, Mr Marsh paints a statement on the controversial laws

Scott Marsh captioned a photo of the piece on instagram saying: 'Caught @mikebairdmp out on a big Friday night he was happy to pose for a few reference flicks#casinomike #keepsydneyopen'
It has long been a gripe among television viewers that theyve had to resort to using subtitles to understand mumbling actors.

Yet a top TV boss has now hit back and said viewers are partly to blame for the problem, saying they are not tuning their TV aerials correctly.

Rather than apologise to frustrated fans of crime drama Happy Valley, for which she was executive producer, Nicola Schindler has instead denied any mumbling in the show.

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Happy Valley producer Nicola Schindler has instead denied any mumbling in the show despite fans complaints. Pictured, Sarah Lancashire playing lead character sergeant Catherine Cawood

In a fierce response to critics of the BBC show, she told Graham Nortons Radio 2 listeners: I dont think they do [mumble], not intentionally.

My job is to sit there and make sure everyone can hear something. It doesnt do me any good if I think people cant hear it.

I actually think a lot of it is peoples televisions, that theyre not tuned necessarily the right way. I dont know whether its bass or tone, or whatever it is, but there is some of that going on.

Her views come despite BBC director general Tony Hall ordering an investigation into mumbling, following hundreds of complaints about the series online.

Several fans of the show vented about sound quality issues on social media, with many commenting that Sarah Lancashires dialogue was inaudible.

But Miss Schindler, who founded Happy Valleys makers Red Production Company in 1998, refused to be drawn into accepting that mumbling was an issue.

Instead she suggested that the strong Yorkshire accent of Miss Lancashires character and the busy scenes in the series could make it difficult to follow.

Sergeant Cawood has a strong Yorkshire accent and Miss Schindler says this could cause confusion for viewers while watching the show

She said: Sarah is doing an accent in Happy Valley, which some people find hard to understand because its not their natural accent, and we speak quite fast and a lot of things happen, she said.

A combination of all three of those things means that some people dont do it.

No one sits there and says Im going to try and talk in a way that people wont hear.

A poll by The Stage recently found that 80 per cent of viewers think there is too much mumbling on stage and screen.

A BBC statement in February said: Happy Valley is a drama that has been lauded for its realism and dramatic pathos  as such the dialogue is representative of the characters and area in which it is based.
Revealed his first act as a free man was to buy a slice of pepperoni pizza

Described being stabbed in the face and eye with a sharpened toothbrush handle while he was asleep by his cell mate in an attempt to blind him

Said being a former cop and convicted child killer was a 'death sentence'

McCullough has opened up for the first time about his life behind bars

A 76-year-old former security guard has spoken out about his hellish years in prison for a 1957 cold case murder that he didn't commit.

Jack McCullough, from Washington, was arrested in 2011 for abducting and killing his seven-year-old neighbor Maria Ridulph in one of the oldest cold cases ever brought to trial.

But he was released this week after a six-month review that showed his initial prosecution was so badly handled, and the evidence against him so thin, that he should never have been convicted.

Now he has spoken to CNN about his life behind bars, including fashioning his own earplugs to drown out the sound of men screaming, and how he nearly lost an eye in a brutal stabbing.

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Jack McCullogh, 76, a former cop and security guard jailed in 2012 for a 1957 murder he did not commit, has spoken out about his life behind bars and how he nearly lost an eye after being stabbed with a toothbrush

McCullough (left with his family after being freed from jail this week) said that being a former officer and a convicted child killer in jail was a 'death sentence', and that he feared for his life while inside

McCullough recalls how he was a target for the other inmates from day one, and so kept to his cell and the prison library for fear of being attacked.

He said: 'I'm a former policeman and a convicted child killer, and by extension they would think child molester, whatever. In prison, that's a death sentence.'

From the get-go he was put under protective custody, meaning he has guards assigned to keep the other inmates away.

However, the guards were not always with him and he remembers feeling particularly vulnerable with his cell mate, who he is sure was assigned to him because officers knew he would get attacked.

McCullough was convicted for the murder of seven-year-old neighbor Maria Ridulph in 1957, despite evidence showing he was 40 miles away at the time

The man was small, he recalls, and so posed no threat to him awake - but while asleep, the man launched a vicious stabbing attack with a sharpened toothbrush handle.

He recalled: 'I'm asleep and he has a sharp object and he's stabbing me in the face and head and eye. I took two stitches to the back of my eye.

'I was a bloody mess, and the blood behind my eye pushed my eye out. I pushed my eye back in and blood squirted across the room. And I was just covered in blood.

'And what for? He wanted to blind me. He knew I loved to read. When I snatched the toothbrush out of his hand, he grabbed my hand and bit me.'

He also recalls snipping the wires of a pair of in-ear headphones and using the buds as makeshift earplugs to drown out the sound of other inmates screaming and shouting.

Lying low had its advantages though - on his regular visits to the library he made friends with a paralegal, who helped him draft the hand-written appeals that would eventually lead to his freedom.

Speaking about the moment he left jail, McCullough said he told his stepdaughter to drive him to a pizza parlor for a slice of pepperoni pizza, a treat he craved nearly every day while inside.

But he revealed he has not yet been home to Seattle to see wife Sue because he is due back in court Friday in an attempt to have his charge dismissed 'with prejudice', meaning it cannot be brought against him a second time.

Jack McCullough was convicted for Maria Ridulph's death in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison.

But he claimed he was actually 40 miles away at the time the girl was snatched from her house, before her body turned up five months later.

McCullough was arrested in 2011 (pictured) and jailed in 2012, but a review of the case found the prosecution against he was so flawed he should never have been convicted

Maria's disappearance made headlines nationwide in the 1950s, when reports of child abductions were rare.

She had been playing outside in the snow with a friend on December 3, 1957, when a young man approached, introduced himself as 'Johnny' and offered them piggyback rides.

Maria's friend dashed home to grab mittens, and when she came back, Maria and the man were gone.

At trial, prosecutors said McCullough was Johnny, because he went by John Tessier in his youth. They said McCullough, then 18, dragged Maria away, choked and stabbed her to death.

Schmack, who wasn't involved in McCullough's case and was elected to the state's attorney post as McCullough's trial came to an end, filed a scathing report with the court last month that appeared to pick the case apart, point-by-point.

The former Washington state security guard's long-held alibi was that he was in Rockford, attempting to enlist with the US Air Force at a military recruiting station, on the night Maria disappeared.

McCullough said that he avoided leaving his cell for fear of being attacked except to go to the library where he met a paralegal who helped him draft the handwritten petitions that eventually got him freed

McCullough said that after getting out of jail he instructed stepdaughter Janey O'Connor to drive him around the corner to a pizza parlor where he had a slice of pepperoni pizza, a treat he craved while behind bars

Schmack said newly discovered phone records proved McCullough had, as he long-claimed, made a collect call to his parents at 6.57pm from a phone booth in downtown Rockford, which is 40 miles northwest of where Maria was abducted between 6.45pm and 6.55pm.

Schmack also reviewed police reports and hundreds of other documents, including from the Air Force recruitment office, which he said had been improperly barred at trial.

In his review he said the documents contained 'a wealth of information pointing to McCullough's innocence, and absolutely nothing showing guilt'.

He also noted that Maria's friend had identified McCullough as the killer five decades later from an array of six photographs; McCullough's picture stood out, partially because everyone but him wore suitcoats and their photos were professional yearbook pictures.

Maria's murder haunted the Sycamore community for decades, and McCullough's conviction four years ago seemed to bring some closure. Those wounds now threaten to reopen.

Members of her family remain convinced that McCullough is guilty and have sought the appointment of a special prosecutor in an attempt to keep him behind bars.

Maria's brother, 70-year-old Charles Ridulph, still lives in Sycamore and has said in recent weeks that his family feels let down by the state prosecutor's office about-face.

McCullough was released on Friday afternoon.
Jeremy hunt last night was accused of backtracking over plans to impose a controversial contract on junior doctors.

His threat to force the deal on medics has already prompted four strikes and a fifth is planned for next week involving a total withdrawal of care.

But the health secretary was accused of doing a u-turn and is no longer claiming he has the right to impose the contract.

The department of health strongly denied this was the case and insisted the contract would be imposed as planned

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) appears to have backtracked over plans to introduce a controversial contract on junior doctors by no longer claiming he has the right to do so and watering down previous threats

Using far softer language, Mr Hunt says he is merely introducing the changes  and ex ministers now say the whole proposals are dead in the water. The Health Secretary denies any change of approach.

The contract was aimed at making junior doctors work more weekend shifts for lower rates of pay, particularly on Saturdays.

Despite months of negotiation, the British Medical Association union has refused to accept the terms and last month the Health Secretary pressed ahead and confirmed he would impose it regardless.

But legal letters obtained by The Guardian suggest he is trying to re-write history by watering down his previous threats.

Solicitors representing Mr Hunt state he will proceed with the introduction of a new contract and that he is legally entitled to do so under the NHS Act 2006.

However, the papers do not mention the word imposition at any point or cite any of Mr Hunts repeated uses of the word in the Commons or in public over the past few weeks.

Labour said the Governments position was now in complete disarray.

Labours health spokesman Heidi Alexander said: Government lawyers appear to be trying to rewrite history in an attempt to get Jeremy Hunt out of what could be a very significant legal problem.

Mr Hunt's threat to force the controversial contracts - which boast more weekend work and lower pay - has already prompted four strikes (pictured) and a fifth is planned for next week involving a total withdrawal of care

Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat health minister under Mr Hunt until last May, said: It appears that this is now in a state of shambles and that the secretary of state is in a hole and cant move forward on this.

'The Governments latest legal position seems to show that Jeremy Hunt had no power to impose [the contract] all along.

NINE MILLION PATIENTS FAILED BY POOR GP CARE The workload of GPs must be reduced to allow patients to get 15-minute appointments, union leaders have said. The British Medical Association (BMA) said changes were needed to reduce unprecedented strain on surgeries. It called for the number of patients seen each day to be limited by a national standard, with new centres taking any additional cases. Its report claims doctors are suffering from overload and said significant action is needed to help a service facing increasing and unprecedented pressures. Appointments currently last ten minutes. Dr Chaand Nagpaul of the BMA, told the Daily Telegraph the ideas were practical and deliverable. But Dr Jamil Sorouji, a GP in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, said they were totally unworkable. Dr Niall Finegan, a GP partner in Salford, Greater Manchester, said pigs might fly before the proposed limits came in. The unions call comes as the Government prepares a rescue plan to ease pressure on GPs by recruiting and retaining more staff. More than nine million patients are suffering inferior GP care, the Care Quality Commission has revealed. Some 15 per cent of practices in England have so far been rated either inadequate or requires improvement. Some made patients call up to 34 times for an appointment or stocked medicines nearly 20 years out of date. Advertisement

Mr Lamb, who was an employment lawyer before becoming MP added: This is quite a dramatic change from the assumption that people have had that the Health Secretary is able to force junior doctors to abide by this contract.

'If hes changed the language from imposing to introducing, it may be that theres no way the Government can continue to try to get this contract implemented.

It looks like the contract is dead in the water, that it has no life in it, like the dead parrot in Monty Python.

The four emergency care only strikes since January have led to the cancellation of nearly 25,000 operations and some patients have been waiting months for a new slot.

But on Monday and Tuesday next week junior doctors are planning a total withdrawal of care in which they would even refuse to treat emergency patients.

The revelations could mean Mr Hunt is accused of misleading Parliament, by repeatedly claiming he has the legal right to impose the new contract.

They are outlined in a five-page letter sent last Friday by government lawyers to Bindmans, the solicitors acting for a company called Justice for Health, formed by five junior doctors.

They are going to the High Court today to seek a judicial review over whether Mr Hunt could lawfully impose the new contract.

Mr Hunt said on Twitter last night that there was no change of approach and that a new contract will be introduced for junior doctors from August.

He wrote: Government done what entitled to following disappointing & needless refusal to negotiate by BMA.

Almost three-quarters of doctors struck off the medical register in Britain are from overseas, figures have revealed.

Some 330 of 460 banned from practising between January 2010 and December 2015 had trained abroad.

Of those struck off, the most came from India, Pakistan and Nigeria.
A child recovery operative who is under arrest in the 60 Minutes child abduction fiasco in Beirut was at the centre of his own child abduction scandal when he snatched his daughter in Poland.

British-born tattooist Craig Michael, 36, was then a client of child recovery agent Adam Whittington - who took his five-year-old daughter Crystal from her grandparents in a remarkably similar operation to the botched Beirut incident which has landed Michael, Whittington, Tara Brown and her 60 Minutes crew in prison.

The Polish mother of Crystal, Marta Swinarska, told Daily Mail Australia in an exclusive interview that Michael is the other man arrested in the 60 Minutes Beirut fiasco.

Ms Swinarska, 30, only learned at the weekend that the father of her two children was one of the CARI operatives arrested in Beirut following the botched child abduction which has landed Tara Brown and her three 60 Minutes colleagues in jail.

'It is him,' she said. 'I see he's going back and forth to hospital. That's what he does when he's in trouble. It's not true but he always uses that. It's his way of trying to get out of the situation.'

Craig Michael runs the Diamond 3 Underground Tattoo shop in the coastal city of Limassol, Cyrpus, which is a short boat trip across the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea from Beirut.

In 2014, Michael was a client of CARI and hired Adam Whittington to abduct his five-year-old daughter Crystal whom Ms Swinarska had taken back to her native Poland.

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Tattoo shop owner Craig Michael (right), who is pictured with his daughter Crystal (centre) and CARI operative Adam Whittington (left) after they abducted her in Poland, are both now under arrest in Beirut in the 60 Minutes child abduction fiasco

Polish mother Marta Swinarska (pictured) whose daughter was abducted by the child recovery operative Adam Whittington says the child's father, British/Cypriot tattooist Craig Michael is the other man arrested in the 60 Minutes Beirut fiasco

Marta Swinarska's daughter Crystal (pictured) was snatched from her parents in Poland by CARI boss Adam Whittington in an operation strikingly similar to the botched abduction Whittington carried out in the 60 Minutes Beirut fiasco

Craig Michael, pictured in his Limassol, Cyprus tattoo shop Diamond 3 Underground Tattoo is now in custody in Beirut, arrested with 60 MInutes for alleged involvement in the Lebanese child abduction incident

She and Michael have two daughters, Crystal and her older sister Castalia, seven, who Ms Swinarska had failed to take back home with her when she fled back from Cyprus to Poland after Michael alerted the girl's school.

Ms Swinarska, a bank worker who is now studying forensics at university part-time, said her relationship had broken down with Michael.

To grab Crystal in Poland, Michael had hired Adam Whittington who she says used the same modus operandi as in the Beirut snatch when taking her child.

'There was a group of them. They pushed my mother over and she broke some ribs,' Ms Swinarska told Daily Mail Australia in an exclusive interview.

'Then they pepper sprayed my parents while they were holding Crysi and then threw her from man to man like a sack of potatoes.

In the botched Beirut snatch, Whittington or Michael allegedly assaulted Ibtissam Berri, the grandmother of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner's children, Laleh , 5, and Noha Elamine, 3.

Ms Swinarska was astonished to learn that her estranged partner had become a CARI operative and was now under arrest.

Craig Michael (left) with Adam Whittington (right) in Poland before they took his daughter. The pair are now under arrest in Beirut over the botched 60 Minutes child abduction

Craig Michael, 35, pictured with five-year-old daughter Crystal (pictured)after CARI operative Adam Whittington snatched the child from Poland is now under arrest in the 60 Minutes Beirut abduction fiasco

Marta Swinarska says she left Cyrpus because her partner had become abusive, but she only managed to take her young daughter Crystal, 5, and not her older daughter Castalia, 7, (the sisters are pictured, above) and later Craig Michael used CARI to abduct Crystal

'It may be because he looks Arabic and that was useful in Lebanon, or because they planned to take those children by boat from Beirut to Cyprus where he lives,' she said.

'Adam also falsely claims there is child abuse or sexual abuse going on and that's why the children need to be rescued.'

In Ms Swinarska's case, Whittington falsely claimed for an ITV documentary 'Abducted' that a 'well known paedophile in Poland' had been molesting the little girl and that CARI did not employ 'Rambo type' methods to retrieve children.

'Last time I saw my children, in Cyprus for a court hearing, they said I wasn't their mother,' she said. 'He falsely told them I molested them which is crazy, crazy, and has turned them against me. They are victims.'

In the same documentary, Whittington claims that CARI was founded by 'ten Australian SAS soldiers, a US Navy Seal and a CIA agent'.

Ms Swinarska said, 'so now he's working with a man who runs a tattoo and body piercing shop?'.

Following Whittington and Michael's successful snatch of Crystal, he went to the media she was in the wrong and had ignored court orders to return her daughter.

Ms Swinarska told Daily Mail Australia that a Cyprus court had convicted her on child abduction, but that she had legal rights to her daughter in Poland.

The Polish operation which took Marta Swinarska's daughter from her parents shows the route taken by the girl's father Craig Maichel to Ms Swinarska's home town of Opole and back to Cyrpus

The 60 Minutes crew, whose passports (pictured) were seized during the botch Beirut child snatch by Adam Whittington with the alleged help of Cyprus tattooist Craig Michael are hopiong to get off with a fine

Craig Michael said in interviews in August last year that he had spent months planning the operation and at the 'last minute' hired Adam Whittington.

According to the Daily Mirror, Mr Michael spent two-and-a-half years and $65,000 trying to get his daughter back but to no avail.

Mr Michael picked his youngest daughter up and whisked her away in a waiting car while Whittington used pepper spray 'to ward off the little girl's grandfather'.

Polish mother Marta Swinarska says the abduction of Ali Elamine's children Laleh and Noah (pictured with their father) was similar to her daughter's abduction by sam CAI operative

The trio then drove across the border to the Czech Republic and on to Austria before flying to Cyprus.

Although it 'looked like an abduction' Michael insisted that everything he did was legal because he had a court order.

The father-of-two, who is originally from north London but emigrated to Cyprus in 2005, told the Daily Mirror: 'It's extreme but the court and the Hague Convention had let me down.'

Michael claims that Ms Swinarska abducted her daughter Crystal but was unable to also take Castalia because the girl's school wouldn't allow it and contacted her father.

He then went through the Hague Convention in an attempt to secure Crystal's return and the case came to court in January 2012.

Ms Swinarska claimed in court she had taken her daughter because her partner misused drugs and alcohol and was both physically and mentally abusive to her and the children - allegations that Mr Michael vehemently denies.

'It's absolute nonsense,' Mr Michael told the Daily Mirror. 'She made up all sorts of things to try to put me in a bad light but the judge could see through her lies.'

The judge found no evidence in her accusations and issued a court order stating that Crystal be returned to her father.

When Ms Swinarska failed to adhere to the ruling a second court order was issued eight months later for Crystal to be forcibly removed - only Polish authorities said they were unable to find her.

It was then that Mr Michael turned to Adam Whittington, the founder and chief executive of Child Abduction Recovery International.
Tara Brown and the 60 Minutes Crew are likely to get off with a 'slap on the wrist and a big fine', and will not do jail time despite the botched Lebanon child abduction attempt, a child recovery expert says.

Col Chapman was speaking on Kiis 1065's Kyle and Jackie O breakfast show program, and stated that the mother of the two children, Sally Faulkner, would also be treated leniently.

But he believes that Child Abduction Recovery International would be held accountable for the incident and would be kept in prison for a longer period.

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Reporter Tara Brown (pictured) has been detained on kidnapping charges with a 60 Minutes crew that filmed the 'child abduction' of Sally Faulkner's two children in Lebanon on April 7

Sally Faulkner (pictured) travelled to Lebanon to retrieve her children, Noah, four, and Lahela, six

On April 7, the TV crew filmed Ms Faulkner's attempt to retrieve her children Noah, four, and Lahela, six, from her husband Ali Elamine, who she claims kept them in Lebanon without her permission.

Last Wednesday, Ms Faulkner was charged with kidnapping. The 60 Minutes crew, including journalist Ms Brown, is accused of hiding information, forming an association with two or more people to commit a crime against a person, kidnapping or holding a minor even with their approval, and physical assault.

A total of seven people are facing charges as a result of the operation.

Adam Whittington, (pictured) the chief planner of the 60 Minutes botched 'child abduction' in Lebanon, said on Sunday that he can prove Channel Nine paid him more than $115,000 for the snatch

Mr Chapman believed what would speed up the process was if the Lebanese government were told who in Channel Nine was responsible for the mission.

He alleged that 60 Minutes had approached him to carry out the mission, before they choose to go ahead with the other child recovery company.

Mr Chapman also claimed that he advised 60 Minutes not to go ahead with the mission at all.

Meanwhile the chief planner of the botched kidnapping attempt of two children in Lebanon earlier this month claimed he can prove Channel Nine paid him more than $115,000 to plan and carry out the snatch.

Child Abduction Recovery International founder Adam Whittington, who is being detained in jail in Beirut with a 60 Minutes crew, is expected to show evidence of two payments from Channel Nine's accounts department at a hearing on Monday, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Mr Whittington claims he received the large sum in two separate internet wire transfers months ago.

Ms Faulkner's claims her children Noah and Lahela were taken to Lebanon by her estranged husband Ali Elamine (pictured with Noah and Lahela) in 2015 and he refused to bring them back

It was reported that Mr Elamine said he would drop the charges against Ms Faulker if she agreed he could have sole custody

'It was direct from Channel Nine, it was from their accounts department and they paid it in two instalments,' he told News Corp from the Baabda detention centre on Sunday.

'I have the receipts and internet payments, for them (Channel Nine) to claim they weren't involved is a joke.'

Mr Whittington's allegations come one day after he complained to News Corp about the appalling jail conditions and accused Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner of 'throwing everyone under the bus.'

Mr Whittington said on Saturday that the operation to bring Ms Faulkner's children back to Australia was doomed and now she is weaving a different tale so she can be released at the expense of the seven other people in jail.

In the jail, Mr Whittington said 'the rats are as big as cats, it is so small [they] can't move, and the toilet in the ground is blocked.'

Although there were talks that Ms Faulkner's estranged husband might agree to drop the kidnapping charges against her if she agrees to give him sole custody, herher Lebanese lawyer Ghassan Moghabghab said on Saturday night that negotiations had broken down.

Ghassan Mughaghab (pictured), the lawyer for Brisbane woman Sally Faulkner, said negotiations between Mr Elamine and Ms Faulkner had broken down

Ali Elamine (pictured) has to decide whether to pursue child kidnap charges again his estranged wife Sally Faulkner which may get her 20 years in prison

Ali Elamine - who allegedly took their children to Lebanon in 2015 and never returned - said he would grant her access rights if she agreed to never take the children to Australia, out of fear that she wouldn't bring them back.

She must also agree to a full religious divorce - a list of demands Ms Faulkner's lawyer Ghassan Moghabghab says he will be able to secure because he has legal rights to the children in Lebanon.

'Legally he is the one with custody,' her Lebanese lawyer Ghassan Moghabghab told the News Corp.

Mr Moghabghab warned that because Mr Elamine had been granted sole care of the children from religious authorities, he would likely be calling all the shots in the international custody battle.

If an agreement is reached between the estranged pair over the weekend, it could be registered in the next court appearance on Monday and Ms Faulkner could be on a flight back to Brisbane within the week, without her children.

Speaking to ABC's 7.30, Mr Moghabghab revealed that there would be a very favourable flow-on effect for the 60 Minutes Crew if Ms Faulkner and Mr Elamine reached a private agreement.

'When there is not (kidnapping charges) - when he withdraws his charges, there will be only the public charges here, and everything will - they will not go out there indefinitely, but they will take this into consideration,' he said.

'When there is not charges from Mr Elamine, it will be a much more better for her.'

'It will help everybody, I think. It will help everybody.'

'It will help everybody, I think. It will help everybody': Ms Faulkner's lawyer says that if Mr Elamine drops the personal kidnapping charges against her, it will have a favourable flow-on effect for the whole team

Sally Faulkner's lawyer has reportedly said she was paid for by the Nine Network and had used money given to her by 60 Minutes to the child recovery agency, Child Abduction Recovery International

Meanwhile, Mr Elamine has remained tight-lipped about the entire ordeal, instead focusing on the wellbeing of his two children and mother - who was allegedly hit with a pistol on the head during the dramatic kidnapping that was captured on security cameras.

'We're keeping to ourselves about the whole situation, there is a personal side, a family side and a judicial side to all of this and all I can say at the moment is everyone is doing okay and we are getting through this process,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

'I took her to the doctors for a check up on head scan today, she is okay.

'On that (pistol) I can't really tell you what happened I wasn't there but she was and I have read reports that that is what she said.

Veteran journalist Stephen Rice (left), David Ballment (centre) and Benjamin Williamson (right) are also in custody in Lebanon

In her only interview on the matter so far, Ms Faulkner told The Australian on Friday she was doing well behind bars at Baabda Central Women's Prison in south-eastern Beirut.

'Please tell my mum and dad how well I am and also (husband) Brendan and my in-laws,' she said. Ms Brown is also behind bars at the prison.

'I am fine but my loved ones need to know that.'

The Channel Nine TV crew was planning to film Faulkner's attempt to retrieve her children Noah, three, and Lahela, five, from her ex-husband Ali Elamine, who she claims kept them in Lebanon without her permission.

Prosecutors had earlier claimed they had a signed statement from a member of the recovery team saying Nine had paid $115,000 for the operation.

CCTV footage supplied by Lebanese authorities appeared to show the bungled kidnapping earlier this week

Ms Faulkner and the Channel Nine TV crew members appeared handcuffed in a Lebanese court on Wednesday, where they were remanded in custody to face court again on Monday.

Lebanese Investigative Judge Rami Abdullah said there was 'no way' the charges against the crew will be dropped. The offences carry penalties of up to 20 years in jail.

Nine Network spokeswoman Victoria Buchan said: 'I hope you understand that we never comment on money but also we are not making any comments in this matter as it is currently a matter before the Lebanese judicial system which we respect. It is not appropriate at this time.'

A conviction could mean the male 60 Minutes crew risk ending up in Beirut's infamous Roumieh prison, one of the largest jails in the Middle East with 5,500 inmates.

LEBANON KIDNAP CASE: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR THE MUM, THE TV CREW AND THE KIDNAPPING CASE Brisbane mum Sally Faulkner and a Nine Network TV crew made up of reporter Tara Brown, producer Stephen Rice, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound recordist David Ballment, are facing kidnapping and assault charges in Lebanon following a bungled abduction of Ms Faulkner's two children in Beirut. WHAT HAPPENED? The Australians have spent a week behind bars in Beirut after being arrested for the alleged abduction on April 7. The TV crew was filming Faulkner's attempt to retrieve her children Noah, four, and Lahela, six, from her ex-husband Ali Elamine, who she claims kept them in Lebanon without her permission. A professional agency, Child Abduction Recovery International, is believed to have been hired to snatch the children. Two of its members, named in media reports as Britons Adam Whittington and Craig Michael, have also been detained and charged. THE ABDUCTION Security camera footage shows masked men jumping out of a car and snatching the kids from their grandmother and another woman on a Beirut street. The grandmother claims she was attacked and hit on the head with a pistol. The TV crew and recovery agency members were arrested shortly afterwards, while Faulkner hid with her two children in a safe house. Authorities later found the family, arrested Faulkner and returned the children to their father. THE CHARGES Faulkner is facing kidnapping charges. The 60 minutes crew is accused of: - hiding information - forming an association with two or more people to commit a crime against a person - kidnapping or holding a minor even with their approval - physical assault. The offences carry penalties of up to 20 years in jail. LEGAL CASE SO FAR Judge Rami Abdullah told the Australians during a second round of interviews on Wednesday that there was no chance their charges would be dropped. However, he indicated that if Mr Elamine was willing to drop legal action and come to an agreement with his estranged wife, that would help the case against all of the accused. The accused will remain in detention until facing the Baabda Palace of Justice again on Monday. Nine has refused to comment on speculation it organised and funded the recovery operation. Advertisement




Victoria Police are increasing security at the University of Melbourne after a number of night-time crimes against Chinese students on campus in the past few months.

Police said no injuries had been experienced by any of the students.

'While no injuries have been inflicted on any of the students, the events have been quite confronting for the victims involved,' said a statement.

Police are increasing security patrols after a spate of recent attacks on Chinese students

'Police have been in close contact with university staff and student representatives and are investigating all matters.

'A number of arrests have been made.

'Both overt and covert police patrols will be increased in and around the university precinct over coming weeks to provide a highly visible presence and deter criminal activity.'

Police said while no injuries have been inflicted on any of the students, the events had been quite confronting for the victims involved

Victoria Police reportedly met with the Chinese consulate in the last month to discuss the safety of Chinese nationals studying at the university.

They also discussed an incident in March at Moomba festival, when a violent gang-related riot shut down parts of the CBD and terrorised the public.

Police said the meeting was to reinforce their commitment to the safety of Chinese nationals, and the whole community when attending the CBD and public events.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the University of Melbourne for a comment.
Took authorities several hours to catch- will be euthanised on Monday

Snake found in bonnet of Nissan imported from Japan to New Zealand

rat snake was found in the bonnet of a car on Saturday

A live snake was discovered in the bonnet of a car after it was imported from Japan to New Zealand.

An Auckland used-car salesman got an unpleasant surprise on Saturday when he discovered the sneaky passenger in one of his yard's new imports.

The adventurous reptile has been identified as a 40-cm-long Japanese rat snake, the New Zealand Herald reported.

An Auckland used-car salesman got an unpleasant surprise on Saturday when he discovered a Japanese rat snake (pictured) in one of his yard's new imports

'It's a non-venomous snake found throughout most of the warmer regions of Japan and often kept as pets over there as well,' said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Primary Industries (MIP).

It was found stowed away in the bonnet of a Nissan Leaf which was shipped from Nagoya, Japan, on March 21, and arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, on April 7.

It took MIP several hours to catch the snake which will be euthanised on Monday.

They will be working with the importer to find out how it slipped through Japanese bio-security checks.

The vehicle was being held in the North Shore car yard before it received compliance to be registered.

A woman, who asked not to be named got 'quite close' to the Nissan Leaf and told the New Zealand Herald she was surprised to see part of a live snake sticking out from the bonnet.

The car had a sticker saying it had passed its bio-security, when clearly it shouldn't have,' she said.
The lawyer for the Australian mother detained in Lebanon with the 60 Minutes TV crew over a botched child recovery attempt will apply for bail despite negotiations with her ex-husband starting to break down.

Sally Faulkner remains in a Lebanese jail alongside 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown and three others from the TV crew after a failed bid to snatch her two young children her estranged husband's family on a Beirut street on April 6.

A judge had ordered Ms Faulkner and her ex-husband Ali Elamine to reach an agreement on custody of their children Lahela, five, and Noah, three, after Ms Faulkner was arrested and charged with kidnapping.

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Sally Faulkner remains in a Lebanese jail alongside 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown after a failed bid to snatch her two young children her estranged husband's family on a Beirut street on April 6

But Ms Faulkner's lawyer Ghassan Moughabghab told Fairfax Media they had failed to reach an agreement and he would seek to have her released from jail on Monday when she is expected to face court again.

'It seems Mr Elamine is not interested in a settlement. Maybe he wants to savour his joy at her predicament a bit longer,' Mr Moughabghab said.

He said the mother feared Mr Elamine would be 'upset' if she was to be released on bail given successful custody negotiations had not taken place.

Ms Faulkner claims her ex-husband took their children to Lebanon last year on a holiday and never returned.

A judge had ordered Ms Faulkner and her ex-husband Ali Elamine to reach an agreement on custody of their children Lahela, five, and Noah, three, after Ms Faulkner was arrested and charged with kidnapping

Ms Faulkner's lawyer Ghassan Moughabghab said they had failed to reach an agreement and he would seek to have her released from jail on Monday when she is expected to face court again

Reporter Tara Brown was detained on kidnapping charges with the rest of her 60 Minutes crew after they went to Lebanon to film the recovery her Sally Faulkner's two children two weeks ago

The 60 Minutes crew had followed Ms Faulkner to Beirut to film the child recovery attempt. It is alleged that Channel Nine paid $115,000 to Child Abduction Recovery International founder Adam Whittington to carry out the retrieval.

Ms Faulkner was arrested alongside 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown and her crew Stephen Rice, Benjamin Williamson and David Ballment.

They are accused of hiding information, forming an association with two or more people to commit a crime against a person, kidnapping or holding a minor even with their approval, and physical assault.

It comes as anxious families of the 60 Minutes crew urged people to withhold judgment and focus on bringing them home.

It was reported that Mr Elamine said he would drop the charges against Ms Faulker is she agreed he could have sole custody

Veteran producer Stephen Rice (left), David Ballment (centre) and Benjamin Williamson (right) are also in custody in Lebanon

LEBANON KIDNAP CASE: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR THE MUM, THE TV CREW AND THE KIDNAPPING CASE Brisbane mum Sally Faulkner and a Nine Network TV crew made up of reporter Tara Brown, producer Stephen Rice, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound recordist David Ballment, are facing kidnapping and assault charges in Lebanon following a bungled abduction of Ms Faulkner's two children in Beirut. WHAT HAPPENED? The Australians have spent a week behind bars in Beirut after being arrested for the alleged abduction on April 7. The TV crew was filming Faulkner's attempt to retrieve her children Noah, four, and Lahela, six, from her ex-husband Ali Elamine, who she claims kept them in Lebanon without her permission. A professional agency, Child Abduction Recovery International, is believed to have been hired to snatch the children. Two of its members, named in media reports as Britons Adam Whittington and Craig Michael, have also been detained and charged. THE ABDUCTION Security camera footage shows masked men jumping out of a car and snatching the kids from their grandmother and another woman on a Beirut street. The grandmother claims she was attacked and hit on the head with a pistol. The TV crew and recovery agency members were arrested shortly afterwards, while Faulkner hid with her two children in a safe house. Authorities later found the family, arrested Faulkner and returned the children to their father. THE CHARGES Faulkner is facing kidnapping charges. The 60 minutes crew is accused of: - hiding information - forming an association with two or more people to commit a crime against a person - kidnapping or holding a minor even with their approval - physical assault. The offences carry penalties of up to 20 years in jail. LEGAL CASE SO FAR Judge Rami Abdullah told the Australians during a second round of interviews on Wednesday that there was no chance their charges would be dropped. However, he indicated that if Mr Elamine was willing to drop legal action and come to an agreement with his estranged wife, that would help the case against all of the accused. The accused will remain in detention until facing the Baabda Palace of Justice again on Monday. Nine has refused to comment on speculation it organised and funded the recovery operation. Advertisement

'People forget that Tara, Stephen, Ben and Tangles were over there doing a job; covering a story,' they said in a joint statement on Sunday.

'Obviously, this time, something went wrong.

'The analysis can come later. Right now, the priority is getting them all home.'

Nine Network reporter Ross Coulthart said the crew were in good spirits and coping well.

'Every possible effort is being made to ensure our team's wellbeing as they go through the legal process,' he said on Sunday night.
Her husband, an enlisted sailor, hasn't been arrested and isn't a suspect

But Rutherford-Brown had been living on a US Navy base in Key West, Florida, for a month

Chicago police issued a warrant for her arrest last month and initially looked for her in Virginia

Jacqueline Rutherford-Brown (pictured), 21 has been charged with first-degree murder in connection to the 2013 stabbing death of a man

A woman suspected of stabbing a man to death during a botched robbery has been arrested at a US Navy base in Key West, Florida.

Jacqueline Rutherford-Brown, 21, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection to the 2013 death of Ismael Rangel, 38, at a party in Chicago, Illinois, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Authorities said she fled the city after the 2013 stabbing and initially thought she might live in Virginia.

But they found her living with her husband, an enlisted sailor, at a US Navy Base in Key West, the US Marshals Service said earlier this week.

Rutherford-Brown, who also goes by the name Jackie Brown, had been at the Key West Naval Air Station since mid-March, spokeswoman Trice Denny told the Miami Herald.

Police officers and federal agents entered her residence and arrested her without incident after entering her home.

She is now held without bond on one count of being a fugitive from justice.

Detectives issued a warrant for her arrest charging her with murder on March 29.

They say she and an accomplice stabbed a man during an attempted robbery at a party in 2013.

Rangel's body was discovered in September that year according to the Chicago Tribune.

Rutherford-Brown's accomplice has not been arrested, the newspaper wrote.

Her husband, an enlisted sailor in Key West, is not a suspect and has not been arrested, Denny told the Miami Herald.

The couple had been staying at a temporary housing unit where families await a long-term assignment.

Residents at the base rarely saw Rutherford-Brown, Us Marshals Service inspector Barry Golden told the Miami Herald.

'They saw her only a few times. She stayed inside the room a lot,' Golden said.

She will be extradited to Chicago in the coming weeks.
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The sprawling 15million former home of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson which was gifted to them by the Queen 30 years ago has finally been wiped off the map after falling into disrepair and standing empty for eight years.

The 12-bedroom Sunninghill Park in Berkshire was given to the Duke and Duchess of York as a wedding gift in 1986 but has fallen into rack and ruin over the last decade following the breakdown of their marriage.

Dubbed SouthYork because it resembles Southfork, the ranch-house in TV soap Dallas, the mansion had become a shadow of its former self over the years with broken windows and boarded-up entrances.

The 12-bedroom Sunninghill Park in Berkshire (pictured before) was given to the Duke and Duchess of York as a wedding gift in 1986 but has fallen into rack and ruin over the last decade following the breakdown of their marriage and has now finally been totally demolished

After standing empty for the last eight years and with demolition work being stalled late last year, the property has now finally been wiped from the land  paving the way for a new six-bedroom home which will come complete with a 25-metre swimming pool and staff quarters

Royals: The property was gifted to Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson by Her Majesty The Queen as a wedding present in 1986

Demolition work began at the 600-acre site towards the end of last year but had to be delayed while alternative roosts were found for at least 100 bats which were found living in the building and roof.

However, the property has now been completely wiped from the land  paving the way for a new six-bedroom home which will come complete with a 25-metre indoor swimming pool and staff quarters.

The Duke of York had been gifted the grand country house  which was designed by Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith, who also created a development on the Balmoral estate - by his mother in 1986.

He lived in the property with his wife, the Duchess of York, and their daughters Beatrice and Eugenie until the pair divorced in 1996.

Prince Andrew moved to a new property - Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park - following the split, while his ex-wife and children continued living at Sunninghill Park until 2006.

The property was then sold a year later to Kazakh businessman Timur Kulibayev for more than 3million above the 12million asking price  despite the fact it had languished on the market for more than five years.

The deal led to accusations that Prince Andrew was cashing in on his Royal links.

The 12-bedroom Sunninghill Park in Berkshire, which is only around 30 years old, was given by the Queen to her second son as a wedding gift. Demolition work began on the property late last year (pictured) but was stalled after hundreds of bats were found to be living there

Demolition work began on the property last October before finally being completed this month following years of it standing derelict

The former home of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson has finally been demolished after falling into decay - 19 years after they divorced

In its prime in the 1980s, Sunningfield Park was dubbed SouthYork because it resembles Southfork, the ranch-house in TV's Dallas

The Prince, who has always denied any impropriety, is a friend of Mr Kulibayev's father-in-law, Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been embroiled in accusations of corruption in the former Soviet republic.

Andrew met the president through his former role as a UK global trade ambassador but has since visited the country privately, joining Mr Nazarbayev on goose-hunting expeditions.

It was suggested at the time that Mr Kulibayev's former mistress, Goga Ashkenazi  a close friend of Andrew  helped secure the sale.

In December 2013, the current owner was granted planning permission to replace the former royal home with a larger six bedroom house, with a further eight bedrooms for staff.

The new design, which was created by architects Hok, will include a family living room, drawing room, formal dining room, study and sitting rooms for children and the master suite.

A 25-metre indoor swimming pool to the south of the house will replace the current outdoor pool.

Before: The Duke sold the mansion to Kazakh businessman Timur Kulibayev in 2007 after Fergie and her daughters moved out in 2006

After: But while Mr Kulibayev paid more than 3million above the 12million asking price, since then the property has become derelict

The new owners will be installing a 25-metre indoor swimming pool to their new mansion, after the former outdoor pool was demolished

The planning permission granted by Bracknell Forest Borough Council expires in December this year if work has not begun on the new property - but with the demolition now complete it would appear the plans will be going ahead.

It will be welcome relief to neighbours who have previously described the property as a blight on the countryside.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said: 'It's going to be good if it goes because the history goes with it. It had lovely grounds and staff but it was never a place of great beauty.'

Meanwhile, others warned of the site being directly under the flight path for London's Heathrow Airport, with planes cruising over every two minutes, as low as 5,000 feet, and noise levels of 78 decibels being recorded.

'It's terrible - huge jumbo jets fly right over our rooftops and it's so, so noisy,' said one neighbour, who declined to be named.

Before: The royal house was designed by Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith, who also created a development on the Queen's Balmoral estate
Two members of a Turkish radical youth organization have been arrested after attempting to put a bag over the head of a U.S. solider on an air base in the south of the country.

The men, identified as members of Turkiye Genclik Birligi or Turkish Youth Union, filmed themselves attempting to put a bag over the head of the solider at Incirlik Air Base, in the city of Adana.

One of the men, identified only as Akarsu, tells the soldier: 'You put sacks on the head of our soldiers in 2003. You are responsible for this and the terror events in our country.

Two members of a radical Turkish youth organization called the Turkish Youth Union have been arrested after they filmed themselves attempting to place a bag over the head of a U.S. solider at Incirlik Air Base

'Bombs explode everyday, we receive the news of martyrs. You are responsible for this. You are not able to leave your air base, but we are here, entering your air base, to put sacks on your head.'

The incident he is referring to occurred in 2003 when U.S. troops wrongly arrested a group of Turkish special forces, including a Major, at their safe house in northern Iraq.

Acting on false information that the men were planning to assassinate an Iraqi politician, the American soldiers placed sacks over their heads and detained them for 60 hours before releasing them, causing outcry in Turkey where it was viewed as a deliberate insult.

A series of bombings, also referred to in the video, have occurred across Turkey in recent months including one in Ankara last month which killed 37 and left at least 125 injured.

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, claimed responsibility for that bombing, while authorities have blamed ISIS for other attacks.

Images released by the independent Dogan news agency in Turkey shows the two men being arrested and held in a cell. They are now reported to be under house arrest.

Protesters have tried to place bags over the heads of U.S. soldiers multiple times, mirroring a 2003 incident in which American troops did the same thing to Turkish special forces troops after mistaking them for Al Qaeda

Sinan Sungur, the leader of the TGB, tweeted this image earlier in the day purporting to show the men who attempted to put the sack over the solider's head

This is not the first time members of the TGB have been arrested for attempting to place sacks on the heads of U.S. troops.

Back in November 2014 three sailor from the USS Ross were assaulted in Istanbul by members of the TGB who branded them 'murderers and killers' in English.

The sailors were then doused in red paint as the men attempted to put bags over their heads while chanting 'yankees go home'.

The group, which formed in 2006 and identifies itself as hard left wing, says it is fighting against 'American imperialism' and opposes the notion of Turkey joining the EU.

Incirlik is a critical base in the fight by the U.S.-led coalition against the IS, and includes strike aircraft, drones and refueling planes.
A primary school has banned its students from hugging one another to respect 'personal space' and to teach them to 'be cautious'.

The ban on hugging carries no punishment at the St Patrick's Primary School in Geelong West, 75 kilometres south-west of Melbourne, principal John Grant toldHerald Sun.

Instead, teachers have encouraged their students to show affection in different ways  including giving a high five, clunking knuckles, or giving 'verbal affirmations'.

St Patrick's Primary School (pictured) in Geelong West, one hour south-west of Melbourne, has placed a 'ban' on hugging

'It really comes back to not everyone is comfortable in being hugged,' the principal told Herald Sun.

'But in this current day and age we are really conscious about protecting kids and teaching them from a young age that you have to be cautious,' Mr Grant said.

Parents have not been formally told of the new rule, though a letter will be sent home on Monday after students were told by their teachers.

In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Mr Grant said they had 'not applied a blanket ban on hugging'.

'We are simply focussed on teaching all students to respect their own and other people's personal space.

'We are encouraging students to consider other forms of positive acknowledgement as all students have the right to feel safe and comfortable at school.'

'We are encouraging students to consider other forms of positive acknowledgement as all students have the right to feel safe and comfortable at school,' the principal said in a statement

President of the Parents and Friends Association, Robyn Tigani, explained it was in response to older students going up to the youngest at the start of the year to give them a hug because 'they're little and cute'.

She said the children, with some as young as four, did not always like it.

'They're not dollies, they're people,' she told 3AW Mornings.

People were expressing their disbelief at the hugging ban on Monday.

'NANNY STATE HAS GONE TOO FAR!' one person wrote.

'Not a good way to go. Humans need hugs,' another said.

'Weep for our future.'

News Corp columnist Rita Panahi wrote on Twitter it was 'loony left indoctrination of school kids'.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the St Patrick's Primary School Parents and Friends Association for comment.
Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, 69, has vowed to go on a hunger strike and stop taking his antipsychotic medication in protest at being moved from Broadmoor Hospital to a high-security prison

The Yorkshire Ripper has vowed to go on a hunger strike and stop taking his antipsychotic medication in protest at being moved to a high-security prison after he was declared mentally sane.

Peter Sutcliffe, 69, has been in Broadmoor - a high-security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire - since 1984 after being convicted of murdering 13 women in the West Yorkshire and Manchester areas.

Formerly diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, the Yorkshire lorry driver has now been declared no longer mentally ill by psychiatrists which means he faces being moved to a top-security jail.

However, the serial killer is said to be furious at the prospect of leaving the hospital, where he has a Freeview TV and DVD player in his room, and has apparently vowed to go on a hunger strike and stop taking his antipsychotic drugs.

According to The Sun, he said: 'I wouldn't have to take it. I'd be protesting against them saying I wasn't ill. I'd go on hunger strike as well.'

He has also started claiming again that he can hear a 'voice from God' telling him to kill prostitutes  the same excuse he gave when he was handed concurrent life sentences for the brutal murders.

He apparently claims the voices in his head have urged him to murder two women in a Broadmoor visiting room.

However, friends say he is making up the claims in a bid to avoid the move to prison in the summer.

A source, who does not work at Broadmoor, said: 'No one's heard him talk about voices and killing for years. It's just a cynical ploy.'

If he is moved to a jail, he is likely to be put in a small unit where he can be protected round the clock.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'Decisions over whether prisoners are to be sent back to prison from secure hospitals are based on clinical assessments made by independent medical staff.

'The High Court ordered in 2009 that Sutcliffe should never be released. This was then upheld by the Court of Appeal. Our thoughts are with Sutcliffe's victims and their families.'

Two years ago Tony Maden, the former head of the dangerous severe personality disorder unit at Broadmoor, said patients such as Sutcliffe should be returned to prison.

Professor Maden, professor of forensic psychiatry at Imperial College London, said: 'We are far too ready to keep mentally disordered prisoners in places like Broadmoor indefinitely, particularly if they are famous.

Peter Sutcliffe, 69, has been in Broadmoor - a high-security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire (pictured above) - since 1984 after being convicted of murdering 13 women in the West Yorkshire and Manchester areas

The serial killer is said to be furious at the prospect of leaving the hospital (pictured), where he has a Freeview TV and DVD player in his room, and has apparently vowed to go on a hunger strike and stop taking medicine

It costs taxpayers more than 300,000 a year to detain him in Broadmoor, at least five times the cost of a prison cell.

Sutcliffe has been in Broadmoor for more than three decades after he was given 20 life sentences in 1981. As well as the 13 women he killed, he tried to murder seven more in a five-year spree.

He used weapons including a hammer, screwdriver and knives to mutilate women across the north of England.

Dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, Sutcliffe believed he was on a 'mission from God' to kill sex workers.

Since Sutcliffe's conviction, various reports have indicated he may have killed many more women than those whose deaths featured in the 1981 trial.

The case remains one of the most notorious of the last 100 years and the assessment of what went wrong in the investigation is still having an impact on major police inquiries to this day.
Schoolboy Pheonix Werner died (pictured) after he inhaled deodorant in search of a high, police claim

A 14-year-old boy has tragically died after inhaling deodorant fumes with friends in search of a cheap high, police have claimed.

Schoolboy Pheonix Werner died after he was found unresponsive inside a Norlane property in the northern suburb of Geelong in Victoria on Friday night.

Emergency services were called to the home about 7.50pm but the teenage boy was pronounced deceased at the scene. A Victorian Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia the death is not being treated as suspicious.

A coronial inquest will be required to determine the cause of death as police suspect the teenage boy died from deodorant chroming, the Herald Sun reported.

'To be quite honest, I've never heard of it before in my life... In my 17 years or so in the police force, I've never heard of that before,' Corio sergeant Dan Willsmore said.

'There were a number of cans of spray deodorant lying around, in the house, in the street and that was a bit peculiar.

'It just goes to show the dangers of doing anything to the extreme.'

Grieving family and friends have taken to social media to pay tribute to the young boy who was 'gone too soon' as a GoFundMe page is set up to raise money for his funeral service.

'A huge hole has been left in the hearts of family and friends of Pheonix Werner, who tragically passed away on the 15th of April, 2016,' a family member wrote.

'Pheonix was my beautiul [sic] cousin, who brightened up not only my life, but also the live's of everyone he met.

'As a family, we are seeking assistance to help cover the costs of Pheonix's funeral expenses. We want to give Pheonix the beautiful service and send off that he deserves, and allow everyone to come together to say goodbye before our precious boy rests peacefully in heaven.'

Police said there were a 'number of deodorant cans lying around in the house [and] in the street' (stock image)

What is chroming? Chroming - or huffing and sniffing - is when a person inhales solvents or other household chemicals to get high. Chroming regularly could lead to serious long-term effects, including brain damage, messed up thinking patterns, addiction, damaged to the internal organs and anger problems. People chroming could get drowsy, feel more relaxed and happier, get a runny nose, cough and glazed eyes, fidgety or restless, suffer nosebleeds, bloodshot eyes and sores around their nose and mouth and get hangovers and headaches afterwards. Source: Reach Out Australia Advertisement

His cousin Chels Okeefe, who set up the fundraising page, has made an emotional tribute on social media, describing Pheonix as a 'beautiful' person.

'Last night feels like a very bad dream. It's hard to believe you'll never be coming back. You had your whole life ahead of you, and I really thought I'd get to watch you live it,'

'Rest peacefully my beautiful cousin, I love you endlessly. I'll always love and cherish you. Save a place for me up with the angels so we can meet again one day...'

Another family member Tayla Haig said she felt disheartened to learn that people would remember Pheonix as the '14 year old Geelong boy' who died from 'chroming'.

'You were meant to die a hero to everyone but for the ones who knew you like us your family do, you will always had passed a hero to us either way my sweetie,' she continued.

An inquest will be required to determine the cause of death as police suspect he died from inhaling deodorant

Emergency services were called to the home about 7.50pm on Friday but the teenage boy was pronounced deceased at the scene. Victoria Police said the teen's death is not being treated as suspicious

She also highlighted the dangerous risks of deodorant chroming and warned children about the potentially deadly act.

'Really push for all these young kids to not be doing this Croming [sic] business any longer,' she wrote.

'Just shows how fast it can take a life and there is no more needed to be taken after our beautiful boy Pheonix Werner has been.

'I thank all the people who were there to support myself and my family today, and pheonix's wonderful friends also, glad he has some true ones and ones who will remember him for him and the ones he didn't feel like he had to impress. It's so appreciated.
Images show empty supermarket shelves as Japanese locals panic buy supplies, leaving many to queue up for food and water after two deadly earthquakes.

A 6.4 magnitude quake struck Thursday followed by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake early on Saturday.

The two shocks are thought to have killed at least 41 people. Both quakes happened close to the city of Kumamoto, causing huge damage to roads, bridges, tunnels, homes and buildings.

The disaster has left 410,000 homes without water and 200,000 with no power, forcing crowds of people to queue for food and water at emergency aid centres set up in the wake of the aftershocks.

Japanese locals panic buy supplies until the shelves are empty, leaving many to queue up for food and water after two deadly earthquakes

A 6.4 magnitude quake struck Thursday followed by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake early on Saturday. The two shocks are thought to have killed at least 41 people

Evacuees remain in evacuation centres because their homes have been destroyed or remain unsafe after the earthquakes

The disaster has left 410,000 homes without water and 200,000 with no power, forcing crowds of people to queue for food and water at emergency aid centres set up in the wake of the aftershocks.

According to Japan Today over 196,000 people had been evacuated to shelters by Sunday morning, including about 12,000 in Oita Prefecture.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the government will do all it can to find those missing and step up relief efforts: 'I ordered relevant ministries to ensure supplies of food, medicine and water to those who have been evacuated and spent a worrying night at shelters,'

With around 180,000 people seeking shelter, some evacuees said that food distribution was a mere two rice balls for dinner. Many shelters in Kumamoto were unable to keep up with food supplies, as shelves in stores and supermarkets remained empty of food and other items due to severed supply chains and distribution channels.

Farm Minister Hiroshi Moriyama has said his ministry will send a total of 900,000 food items to the disaster-stricken area by Tuesday, including bread, rice balls and instant noodles.

Aside from the farm ministry's supply, Abe also pledged to deliver 700,000 food items to arrive in stores within Sunday.

Severed supply chains and distribution channels mean that supermarket shelves stand empty, after they've been picked clean by panicked shoppers

Farm Minister Hiroshi Moriyama has said his ministry will send a total of 900,000 food items to the disaster-stricken area by Tuesday, including bread, rice balls and instant noodles

Many shelters in Kumamoto were unable to keep up with food supplies as some evacuees said that food distribution was just two rice balls for dinner

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ordered relevant ministries to ensure supplies of food, medicine and water to those who have been evacuated

A baby (pictured) is inspected by a doctor as it arrives in an evacuation centre. It's among 180,000 people who have been forced to leave their homes

By Sunday morning over 196,000 people had been evacuated to shelters, many residents are still recovering from the shock of the destruction

Earthquake victims are pictured as they arrive for processing at an earthquake evacuation center in Mashiki, southwestern Japan

Scale: Japan woke up to scenes of devastation on Sunday after a second huge earthquake struck the nation, bringing the total death count to 40 and rising. In this aerial image, Aso Ohashi Bridge fell into the chasm 80 metres below after a massive landslide

Gone: The 200-metre long bridge over the Kurokawa river was totally destroyed by the 7.3 magnitude earthquake and washed into a gorge

Challenging: The Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said it is now a 'race against time' to find the survivors, but rescue efforts have been hampered by damage to roads and bridges. Pictured is the Oita Expressway which was buried by a massive landslide

Authorities say they expect the death toll to rise, as the country's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said it is now a 'race against time' to find survivors.

Mr Abe said: 'Nothing is more important than human life and it's a race against time. Daytime today is the big test. I want rescue activities to continue with the utmost effort.'

The area has been rocked by aftershocks - including the strongest with a magnitude of 5.4 on Saturday morning - which have left the people on edge.

Kumamoto prefectural official Riho Tajima said 184 people were injured seriously, and more than 91,000 people were evacuated from their homes.

More than 200 homes and other buildings were either destroyed or damaged, she said.

Police received reports of 97 cases of people trapped or buried under collapsed buildings, while 10 people were caught in landslides in three municipalities in the prefecture.

Split: The massive force of the earthquake this morning cut a huge gash into the bank by the side of the road (right) and destroyed a 200-metre bridge over the Kurokawa river (left), and the nation is still being shaken by small aftershocks

Shaken: This image shows the massive quantity of soil that has been dumped on a road, all but burying a huge stretch of concrete, making it impossible to travel around the country as authorities try to organise the rescue effort

Landslide: Buildings were razed to the ground and huge areas of land slipped hundreds of metres onto the towns and villages below. Officials warn that landslides from the aftershocks are now the greatest threat they face

Warnings: The aerial view shows the Kurokawa Dai-ichi Power Plant (bottom left) in a region devastated by the earthquake yesterday

Tears: Parents cry after they confirmed that their daughter was found dead ion the aftermath of the tragic disaster in Mashiki

Flooding: A huge landslide collapsed the bank of a river and sent water flooding down the hillside and onto the road below

Muddy: Pictured is an aerial shot showing the mud covered fields after a massive landslide dumped earth onto the land below

Race against time: Residents walk through debris of collapsed houses where rescue efforts were at a crucial time

Groundbreaking: The massive earthquake was so powerful that it cracked the concrete, breaking up the road in the region

Devastation: A house collapsed in on itself, totally destroying the entire ground floor. The street is strewn with debris after the quake

Hampered: Authorities are concerned because the destruction of roads and landslides are making rescue efforts more challenging

Ruined: Pictures who the horrific images that greeted people in Japan as they awoke this morning, with entire streets reduced to ruins

Slip: An entire building seems to have fallen down the side of a slope after the quake sparked massive landslides in the region

The epicentre of the quake was near the city of Kumamoto on the southern island of Kyushu and measured at a shallow depth of 10 kms (6 miles), the USGS said.

Television footage of the area showed fires, power outages, collapsed bridges and gaping holes in the earth.

Residents near a dam were told to leave because of fears it might crumble, broadcaster NHK said, and the 400-year-old Kumamoto Castle - which survived a century of wart - in the centre of the city was badly damaged.

TV video showed a collapsed student dormitory at Aso city's Tokai University that was originally two floors, but now looked like a single-story building.

A witness said he heard a cry for help from the rubble. Two students were reported to have died there.

In the town of Mashiki, where people were trapped beneath the rubble for hours, an unconscious 93-year-old woman, Yumiko Yamauchi, was dragged out from the debris of her home and taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Her son-in-law Tatsuhiko Sakata said she refused to move to shelter with him after the first quake on Thursday.

Sakata said: 'When I came to see her last night, I was asking her: 'Mother? I'm here! Do you remember me? Do you remember my face?'

Rescuers: Firefighters walk among collapsed houses caused by an earthquake in Mashiki town, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan

Help: A sign of 'SOS' is written on the ground of an elementary school in Aso, where people were desperate for assistance

From above: Rescuers are concentrating their searches in Mashiki, near the epicentre of the quake where the most deaths were recorded

Cracked: People witness the true extent of the damage after the quake, which has forced huge industrial companies to halt production

Emergency: Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said 1,500 people were injured by the twin quakes, and he promised to mobilise 20,000 troops to help people affected

Guarded: A police officer stands guard in front of a house destroyed by the earthquake in Mashik, which has so far killed 41 people

Classic: Staff of the historic Aso Shrine examine its gate which collapsed after the disaster that ruined more than 200 buildings

Missing: The huge shock and later aftershocks carved a huge hole in the road, leaving one car teetering on the edge of the chasm

'She replied with a huge smile filled with joy. A kind of smile that I would never forget. And that was the last I saw of her.'

Among the other casualties were a 69-year-old man who died of head injuries and a 28-year-old woman who suffocated.

TV footage showed people huddled in blankets, quietly, shoulder to shoulder, on floors of evacuation centers.

One massive landslide tore open a mountainside in Minamiaso village in Kunamato Prefecture all the way from the top to a highway below.

Another gnawed at a highway, collapsing a house that fell down a ravine and smashed at the bottom.

In another part of the village, houses were left hanging precariously at the edge of a huge hole cut open in the earth.

Shocking drone footage shows the extent of the damage, with buildings razed to rubble, roofs of houses collaped and the streets strewn with debris.

Factories producing auto parts and tech components for companies including Sony Corp and Honda Motor Co halted production as they assessed the damage.

Crucial moments: The prime minister said that the country is now in a 'race against time' to find the survivors buried in the rubble

Aid: People queue up in the streets for food after the earthquake left 200,000 homes without power and more than 400,000 with no water

ISLAND ROCKED BY AFTERSHOCKS PUTTING PEOPLE ON EDGE AFTER MASSIVE 7.3 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE The area has been rocked by aftershocks, including the strongest with a magnitude of 5.4 on Saturday morning. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the magnitude-7.3 quake yesterday may have been the main one, with the one from Thursday night being a precursor. David Rothery, professor of planetary geosciences at The Open University in Britain, said the Saturday morning quake was 30 times more powerful than the one on Thursday night. Kyushu island's Mount Aso, the largest active volcano in Japan, erupted for the first time in a month, sending smoke rising about 300ft into the air, but no damage was reported. It was not immediately clear whether there was a link between the quakes and the eruption. The 5,223ft-high mountain is about a 90-minute drive from the epicentre. The historic Aso Shrine, a picturesque complex near the volcano, was seriously damaged, with a number of buildings with curved tiled roofs flattened on the ground like lopsided fans. A towering gate, known as the 'cherry blossom gate' because of its grandeur, especially during spring, collapsed. The Nuclear Regulation Authority reported no abnormalities at Kyushu's Sendai nuclear plant. Advertisement

The quake triggered a tsunami advisory which was later lifted and no irregularities were reported at three nuclear power plants in the area, a senior government official said.

People still reeling from Thursday's 6.4 shock poured onto the streets after the Saturday earthquake hit at 1:25 am (4.25am GMT).

TV Asahi showed rescue efforts for what it said were 11 people trapped in a university apartment in the town of Minami Aso and NHK reported that people were trapped in a nursing home in the town of Mashiki.

Local media reported 20 deaths and more than 1,000 people treated in hospitals.

Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said 1,500 people were injured by the twin quakes on Thursday evening and early Saturday, 80 of them seriously.

He said the military will be boosted to 20,000 for rescue efforts. Police and firefighters are also being ordered to the region.

In a nationally televised news conference, Mr Suga asked people not to panic, saying: 'Please let's help each other and stay calm.'

Great escape: The eight-month-old baby is wrapped in a blanket while it is carefully removed from the rubble by emergency crews

Triumphant: Incredibly, the tiny baby does not appear to be visibly injured as it is pulled from the rubble of the ruined building in Mashiki

CASTLE WALLS WHICH STOOD FOR FOUR CENTURIES AND WITHSTOOD CIVIL WAR ARE REDUCED TO A DUSTY HEAP The deadly earthquakes that struck the southern Japanese island of Kyushu on Thursday and Saturday breached the walls of Kumamoto Castle which had previously withstood bombardment and fire in its four centuries of existence. The fortification in the city of Kumamoto has stood as one of Kyushu's icons ever since it was built in 1607 by Kiyomasa Kato. He was a veteran military campaigner and feudal lord who took part in the reunification of Japan, which had been ravaged by a century of war. Television footage on Saturday showed a large section of the stone wall housing the castle collapsed in a dusty heap. A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck southern Japan early on Saturday, killing at least 20 people, injuring more than 1,000 and trapping people in collapsed buildings, barely a day after Thursday's quake killed nine people in the same region. While the castle keep, which has so far withstood the series of quakes, is a concrete reconstruction built in 1960, many of the stone walls are originals from the 17th century. Sections of the outer stone walls had already been damaged by Thursday's earthquake. Long after advancements in firearms made such fortifications obsolete, the castle withstood artillery fire when it came under siege from a rebel samurai army during the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Much of the castle structure later burned down during the conflict, although the walls managed to stand firm. Now a popular tourist attraction, the castle's administrative office has closed the structure to the public. 'Please do not go close to the stone walls as aftershocks continue,' the office said on its Facebook page. Fallen: The deadly earthquakes that struck the southern Japanese island of Kyushu on Thursday and Saturday breached the walls of Kumamoto Castle which had previously withstood bombardment and fire in its four centuries of existence Toppled: The fortification in Kumamoto has stood as one of Kyushu's icons ever since it was built in 1607 by Kiyomasa Kato. He was a veteran military campaigner and feudal lord who took part in the reunification of Japan, which had been ravaged by a century of war Wrecked: Television footage on Saturday showed a large section of the stone wall housing the castle collapsed in a dusty heap Advertisement

On Thursday night, Kyushu was hit by a 6.5 magnitude quake that left 10 dead. A series of aftershocks ensued, including a magnitude-5.4 later on Saturday morning.

In total, more than 100 earthquakes rocked the region after the first hit, and officials warned this could continue for a week or so.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the earthquake that struck earlier on Saturday may be the main one, with the one on Thursday night a precursor.

The quakes' epicentres have been relatively shallow - about 6 miles - and close to the surface, resulting in more severe shaking and damage. NHK TV said as many as eight quakes were being felt an hour in the area.

Mount Aso, the largest active volcano in Japan which is located on Kyushu, erupted for the first time in a month, sending smoke rising about 100 yards into the air, but no damage was reported.

It was not immediately clear if there was a link between the seismic activity and the eruption. The 5,223ft mountain is about a 90-minute drive from the epicentre.

Despite the horrific scenes, the heartwarming story emerged of a baby wrapped in a blanket being carried out of the rubble of a home uninjured.

Flattened: A family walks along the street but the houses are leaning against each other after the massive quake hit the region

Bear-ly necessary: Rescuers from the army and the police emerge from a damaged building with a giant teddy bear in their arms

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory on Thursday, which identifies the presence of a marine threat and asks people to leave coastal regions, for the Ariake and Yatsushiro seas.

Tragic news of the latest tremor came after incredible images emerged of rescue workers carrying an eight-month-old baby girl to safety from a ruined building, which collapsed after the first quake left 800 injured.

The dramatic rescue came as emergency crews scrambled to find survivors after the powerful earthquake in southern Japan which also sparked fires and buckled roads.

The child's mother, grandfather, grandmother, and older brother were in the living room and kitchen of the home as she slept in another room on the first floor when the quake shook the southern island of Kyushu, the Mainichi Shimbun daily reported.

The family members, who all managed to escape, tried to rescue the baby but the house collapsed, the paper said.

But a 50-member rescue team managed to pull her safely from the rubble around 3.45am on Friday, Kyodo News reported.

Aftershocks have rattled communities in southern Japan as businesses and residents got a fuller look Friday at the widespread damage from an unusually strong overnight earthquake. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes.

Rescue workers were combing through the wreckage in hard-hit areas to make sure there were no more trapped people, said Shotaro Sakamoto, a Kumamoto prefecture official.

Concern about aftershocks was keeping many people from starting the huge task of cleaning up, police said.

In total, more than 100 earthquakes rocked the region after the first hit, and officials warned this could continue for a week or so

Distressed: A devastated woman cries as she examines the extensive damage to her home in Mashiki following the powerful quake

Left in ruins: Tens of thousands of people fled their homes after the 6.5-magnitude quake struck the southwestern island of Kyushu on Thursday night

Broken: Houses collapsed, factories stopped work and a high-speed train was de-railed, while the roof of the treasured Kumamoto castle in the southern city of the same name was also damaged.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters the government wants to prevent any secondary disasters from aftershocks.

About 44,000 people evacuated their homes and stayed in shelters overnight after the first quake.

Many left the next day, but Sakamoto said he wasn't sure if many would come back to stay another night, depending on the conditions of their homes and if power is restored.

'I felt strong shaking at first, then I was thrown about like I was in a washing machine,' said a Tokai University student who remains isolated in the village of Minamiaso in Kumamoto province on the island of Kyushu.

'All the lights went out and I heard a loud noise. A lot of gas is leaking and while there hasn't been a fire, that remains a concern,' the student, who is sheltering in a university gym with 1,000 other students and residents, told Japanese media.

'I don't mind standing in line. I'm just thankful for some food,' said a man in his 60s waiting in line for meals served by Self Defense Forces personnel in the town of Mashiki, close to the epicentre.

In the hardest-hit town of Mashiki, about 9 miles from the centre of Kumamoto city, entire buildings collapsed, roofs slid off, and windows and walls crumbled, scattering glass and debris.

History: The magnitude 6.5 quake struck at 9.26pm Thursday at a depth of 7 miles near Kumamoto city on the island of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands

Dangers: A man cycles past the site of a collapsed house. Rescue operations have been hampered over fears of fresh aftershocks

Bird's eye view: An aerial view shows residents forming a queue to receive meals from defense forces soldiers at the Mashiki town hall

Crumbling: TV broadcasters were urging residents to check on elderly people living alone who might not have been able to escape their homes unaided

TV reports showed troops delivering blankets and adult diapers to those who took shelter.

Rescue efforts, repeatedly disrupted by more than 100 aftershocks, continued through the night in the area, which is 800 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Electricity and water service was cut off in some area, and some residents were hauling water from local offices to their homes to flush toilets.

TV broadcasters were urging residents to check on elderly people living alone who might not have been able to escape their homes unaided.

Mr Suga said there were no abnormalities at nearby nuclear facilities. The epicenter was 74 miles northeast of Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Sendai nuclear plant, the only one operating in the country.

Most of Japan's nuclear reactors remain offline following the meltdowns at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima plant in 2011 after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered a huge tsunami.

Japan's meteorological agency officer Gen Aoki speaks during a press conference on a strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake in Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu, at the agency's headquarters in Tokyo

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, Mashiki sits near two faults on Kyushu. The area is also near Mount Aso, a huge, active volcano. JMA officials said the quake was unusually strong for Kyushu.

'We are combing through Mashiki where the damage was serious to see if there are any people who are still seeking rescue,' said government spokesman Yoshihide Suga.

Rescuers have been able to take advantage of better weather on Sunday to resume the search for survivors after heavy rainfall expected tonight could trigger more landslides, which have already destroyed the road network, which is hampering rescue efforts.
Children as young as five have been 'sexually exploited' by taxi drivers who were allowed to ferry youngsters around despite not undergoing proper background checks, a shock new report claims.

Youngsters in South Ribble, Lancashire, have been put at risk by workers carrying out council-funded school runs after the local authority failed to carry out proper checks on at least 44 drivers.

On one occasion, a five-year-old girl was left 'totally traumatised' after allegedly being touched inappropriately by a taxi driver, while a 16-year-old girl claims she feared being raped by another.

Youngsters in South Ribble, Lancashire, have been put at risk by workers carrying out council-funded school runs after the local authority failed to carry out proper checks on at least 44 of its drivers (file picture, posed)

In light of the allegations, which emerged in an interim report conducted by South Ribble Council at the instruction of the Cabinet, two workers have been suspended for allegedly issuing licences without conducting proper checks.

The report bears a horrifying resemblance to the Rotherham sex abuse scandal where more than 1,400 children were sexually exploited by gangs of men between 1997 and 2013.

In South Ribble, the report classed the failure to carry out proper background checks on 44 taxi drivers as 'particularly severe', and reveals how licensing officers tasked with investigating the alleged abuses failed to take action.

One driver accused of sexual abuse was also allowed to keep his taxi licence for months, until the alleged victim's family successfully managed to fight the council into revoking it.

In that case, the Crown Prosecution Service ruled that the five-year-old victim was too young to give evidence, despite the council report noting that 'police believe the driver committed the offence'.

The report states: 'The driver was arrested for a sexual offence against a primary school age girl.

We all must look at what's happened in other places like Rotherham and be vigilant that it's not happening on our doorstep, but it appears South Ribble has failed in that respect Councillor Matthew Tomlinson

'The CPS decided not to proceed with prosecution against the driver because of potential difficulties in such a young witness giving evidence.

'However, police have been clear that they consider the driver did commit the offence.

'It is reasonable to assume the driver poses a safeguarding risk.'

According to New Day, the girl's aunt said the youngster had been 'left totally traumatised' by the ordeal.

She said: 'She told her mum this man had touched her inappropriately.

'He was on police bail but he kept his licence and was still driving around until a few weeks ago when the authority finally stepped in and revoked his licence.

'It's an absolute disgrace.

'He's been driving around picking up schoolchildren and all the while the council did nothing.'

The report also details another incident in which a 16-year-old girl feared she was going to be raped by a driver who was contracted by Lancashire County Council to take her to and from school.

It is claimed he propositioned the 'vulnerable' teenager and made 'inappropriate sexualised remarks' but the council failed to revoke his licence even when she made a formal complaint.

The report found that a handwritten note by the schoolgirl expressing her fears was never presented to the General Licensing Committee, and no 'significant data sharing' took place between the local authority and the police.

In South Ribble, Lancashire (pictured), the report classed the failure to carry out proper background checks on 44 taxi drivers as 'particularly severe'. Two licensing officers have since been suspended pending a probe

Lawyers have now been brought in to carry out an independent review into the allegations.

In a formal statement, South Ribble Borough Council said: 'We are currently investigating a number of issues within the licensing section.

'The council takes matters of public safety extremely seriously and we are currently undertaking a full review of all taxi licences, including drivers and vehicles.

'Where issues have been highlighted, these have been rectified without incident.

'Two licensing officers are currently suspended subject to ongoing disciplinary proceedings.

'We continue to operate a full licensing service in the meantime.

'An independent investigation is ongoing and will be published in due course.'

South Ribble councillor Matthew Tomlinson, who is also a Lancashire County Councillor and Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools, said he was 'appalled' by the report.

He told New Day: 'If something goes wrong with regard to child safeguarding you should throw the doors open and say, 'My God, this is terrible' and 'We need help,' but this looks as if the council has tried to bury it for as long as it possibly could. Trying to cover the initial issue is what gets you in a mess.
A former Brisbane masseur has pleaded guilty to 50 charges including rape, sexual assault and recordings in breach of privacy in Brisbane's District Court on Monday.

The masseur made secret recordings and abused scores of female clients, including two intellectually impaired women during sessions treatment sessions.

A victim of the massage therapist, who preyed on female clients, felt ripped open and exposed by the abuse, the court heard.

Samuel Joseph MacBean appeared in Brisbane's District Court (pictured) on Monday and pleaded guilty to 50 charges of rape, sexual assault and recordings in breach of privacy

The court heard Samuel Joseph MacBean, 43, abused five female children and 16 women, including two that were intellectually impaired, when he owned a business called Moorooka Therapeutic Massage.

This included touching them in and around their genitals and breasts, as well as capturing footage on a laptop that was covertly filming the sessions.

In an emotional victim impact statement, one of Mr MacBean's former clients told the court seeking out what she thought was his professional treatment would probably be the greatest regret of her life.

'I have been ripped open and exposed to someone who doesn't deserve to know me,' the young woman said.

'A fear has been created in me that was never there before.'

She said she felt like a child again, confused by how the world worked, when news of Mr MacBean's crimes surfaced and had since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by a psychiatrist.

Crown prosecutor Amelia Lode told the court another victim, one with an intellectual impairment, had become so frightened he would come to her home that the family relocated.

She said Mr MacBean's behaviour was systematic, premeditated and a perversion of the therapeutic relationship between health professionals and their patients.

Crown prosecutor Amelia Lode told the court Mr MacBean's behaviour was systematic, premeditated and a perversion of the therapeutic relationship between health professionals and their patients

In his clandestine recordings of the sessions, she described Mr MacBean at times looking up and smiling at the camera in a 'sinister aspect' of his offending.

The court also heard Mr MacBean would direct clients to use a special cream after their massage, placing the lotion near the laptop recording the footage so they would apply it in full view of the camera.

But his lawyer, Eoin Mac Giolla Ri, made a public apology to all Mr MacBean's victims on behalf of his client, whom he said had a 'very, very confused idea of what was appropriate sexually'.

He said the inflated sense of self importance required to commit the brazen violations must surely have been 'shattered' since his arrest, with Mr MacBean lapsing into self-harm since being charged.
'We're not really interested in the US election. We don't care who becomes the next US president,' he added

Diplomat Ri Jong Ryul said this was a double standard against North Korea

Suggested they arm themselves with their own nuclear arsenal instead

A North Korea official blasted Trump's view on nuclear policy, two weeks after the GOP frontrunner suggested Japan and South Korea defend themselves with nukes against the communist nation.

Diplomat Ri Jong Ryul said Trump's remarks were 'totally absurd and illogical' during a CNN in interview aired Sunday.

'The US tells us to give up our nuclear program, is preparing a nuclear attack against us, and on the other hand would tell its allies to have nuclear weapons. Isn't this a double standard?'

'Trump's remarks give us deeper look at America's hostile policy against my country,' he added.

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Diplomat Ri Jong Ryul (pictured) said Trump's remarks on nuclear policy were 'totally absurd and illogical' during a CNN in interview aired Sunday

The deputy-director general of the Institute of International Studies in Pyongyang, a think-tank that briefs North Korean leaders on global events, said policies like the one outlined by Trump would encourage the country to develop its nuclear program.

'We're not really interested in the US election. We don't care who becomes the next US president,' he added, explaining US politicians had always had a 'hostile' policy towards North Korea.

Trump told the New York Times last month the US should stop protecting Japan against threats posed by North Korea.

'Now, does that mean nuclear? It could mean nuclear,' the GOP frontrunner added.

He said nuclear proliferation was currently the biggest problem in the world.

'Would I rather have North Korea have them with Japan sitting there having them also? You may very well be better off if that's the case,' Trump said.

Just a few days later, the billionaire reiterated his stance during an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN.

'Japan is better if it protects itself against this maniac of North Korea,' he said.

'We are better off frankly if South Korea is going to start protecting itself ... they have to protect themselves or they have to pay us.'

Trump (pictured at a campaign event in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Sunday) has said the US should stop protecting Japan and South Korea and let them grow their own nuclear arsenal instead

He said it again earlier this month, arguing that states belonging to NATO should pay for their own defense.

'I would rather have them not arm, but I'm not going to continue to lose this tremendous amount of money,' he said during a campaign event in Wisconsin according to CNN.

'And frankly, the case could be made that let them protect themselves against North Korea. They'd probably wipe them out pretty quick.'

The US currently has 54,000 troops in Japan and 28,500 in South Korea.

Article nine of Japan's Constitution, dating back to 1946, prohibits the country from having military forces.

It maintains a self-defense force composed of 150,000 troops.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida responded to Trump's comment last month, saying: 'It is impossible that Japan will arm itself with nuclear weapons.'

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: 'Whoever will become the next president of the United States, the Japan-U.S. alliance is the cornerstone of Japan's diplomacy.'
Ryan Bundy (pictured), who faces charges in an armed confrontation with government agents, told a court he wants to serve as his own lawyer but didn't understand the charges against him

Two sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and three other men refused to enter pleas in federal court to charges in an armed confrontation with government agents two years ago.

In Las Vegas on Friday, Ryan Bundy, said he understood his rights but not the charges against him. He also said he wants to serve as his own lawyer.

His brother and co-defendant, Ammon Bundy, alleged he had been mistreated in custody to Nevada from Oregon, where he and the others have been held since their arrests in the occupation of a US wildlife refuge this year.

He said he'd been handcuffed for 23 hours during the move, including 11 hours to a bench, and that jailers once passed him by when other inmates were fed. He said he got a meal after he complained.

'I do not see how we are being treated as innocent in any way,' he said.

Magistrate Judge George Foley Jr entered not guilty pleas on behalf of each man during a sometimes contentious arraignment that featured cat-calls and cheers from about 30 Bundy backers and defendants' family members, under watchful eyes of about a dozen US marshals.

'We don't need any outbursts,' Foley warned from the U.S. District Court bench. Twice he told the restive audience, 'This is not a show.'

The judge noted that a court clerk and prosecutor Steven Myhre had just spent 94 minutes reading the 63-page, 16-count indictment aloud.

The word-for-word recital came after the defendants exercised their right to hear the charges against them.

Before he refused to enter a plea, Ammon Bundy (pictured) alleged he had been mistreated in custody to Nevada from Oregon, where he and the others have been held since their arrests in the occupation of a US wildlife refuge this year

A grand jury accused 19 people  including Friday's defendants, family patriarch Cliven Bundy and 13 others who were arraigned previously  of conspiracy, obstruction, weapon, threats and assault charges in the April 2014 standoff with federal agents near Bunkerville, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

All 19 are now in federal custody in and around Las Vegas.

Seven men, including the five in court Friday, are also facing conspiracy, weapon, theft and damaging government property charges in Portland, Oregon, stemming from the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

US District Judge Anna Brown in Portland has scheduled jury selection to begin September 7 in the Oregon case, despite defense attorneys' objections that they won't have enough time to prepare and that it would be improper to make their clients defend two cases at once in different states.

Co-defendants Blaine Cooper and Ryan Payne stood Friday next to their court-appointed attorneys in Las Vegas and said their rights were being violated.

Payne told the judge it was 'preposterous, sir,' to have to defend himself against federal charges in two jurisdictions at the same time.

A grand jury accused 19 people, including Cliven Bundy (pictured) and 13 others who were arraigned previously of conspiracy, obstruction, weapon, threats and assault charges in the April 2014 standoff with federal agents

Another federal magistrate judge has scheduled an April 22 hearing to determine if the Nevada case will be designated 'complex', and if a May 2 trial date is feasible

Seven men, including the five in court Friday, are also facing conspiracy, weapon, theft and damaging government property charges in Portland, Oregon, stemming from the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (pictured)

'I don't understand the pretense of this level of government to bring forth such charges,' he added.

Brian Cavalier finished his arraignment  'I will not be entering a plea today,' he said  by offering federal prosecutors a pocket copy of the US Constitution.

The cordon of marshals tensed when Cooper picked up the pamphlet and tossed it onto the table of the US attorneys handling the case.

Another federal magistrate judge has scheduled an April 22 hearing to determine if the Nevada case will be designated 'complex', and if a May 2 trial date is feasible.

Ammon Bundy's attorney in the Oregon case, Michael Arnold, was removed from the Las Vegas courtroom gallery by marshals after beginning to text on his cellphone while the indictment was being read.

Arnold protested as he left that he hadn't heard a pre-hearing warning that cellphone use was prohibited, because he was meeting with his client at the time.

The lawyer later said he was using the device to meet a deadline set by the judge in the Oregon case.
A woman accused of trying to kill her allegedly abusive husband by spiking his meatballs with 75 sleeping pills and injecting him with a concoction of brake fluid and weed killer has been granted bail.

Joanne DeBono, 54, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Monday on charges of attempting to murder Stephen DeBono and causing him serious injury.

Mrs DeBono and her husband had been together for 25 years, during which time she alleges she was subjected to continual physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

Joanne DeBono, 54, has been granted bail after allegedly spiking her husband's meatball dinner (stock image) with 75 sleeping pills and injecting him with a concoction of brake fluid and weed killer. She has alleged her husband Stephen DeBono had subjected her to continual physical, sexual and emotional abuse

On March 12, the 54-year-old crushed up about 75 temzaepam pills she had purchased from three separate pharmacies, mixed them with her husbands meatball dinner and watched him eat the entire meal, the court heard on Monday.

Mr DeBono, who was feeling groggy, then went to lie down in their Gowanbrae, north-west Melbourne home, Detective Acting Sergeant James Marsden told Mrs DeBono's bail application.

Police allege Mrs DeBono had then planned to beat him with a shovel, according to The Age.

Instead, Mrs DeBono went to the garage and mixed brake fluid, metal lubricant and weed killer and filled one of her husbands hyperamic needles, Det Sgt Marsden said.

Mrs DeBono and the couple's 19-year-old daughter fled the home and went to Fawkner police station (pictured) where the 54-year-old allegedly confessed

She then injected Mr DeBono with two millilitres of the cocktail before he woke up and asked what she was doing.

Fearing for their safety, Mrs DeBono and her 19-year-old daughter, Shannon, fled the house.

The pair went to the Fawkner police station where the 54-year-old allegedly confessed to injecting her husband with the cocktail.

Police subsequently found Mr DeBono still in bed. He was rushed to hospital.

A police search of the home found empty temazepam packets, a syringe containing liquid, a mixing bowl, bottles of brake fluid, weed killer and the heavyweight lubricant penetrene.

Police also found a mobile phone belonging to the couple's daughter which contained numerous voice recordings of the husband making threats to Mrs DeBono, according to court documents.

When he was released from the Royal Melbourne Hospital the following day, Mr DeBono allegedly told doctors and nurses at the hospital he would kill 'everyone who did this to him'

An imitation handgun, nunchucks and a sword were also found at the home, which police believe are owned by Mr DeBono.

A doctor at the Royal Melbourne Hospital told police Mr DeBono had not sustained significant injuries but was very angry at his wife.

When he was released the following day, Mr DeBono allegedly told doctors and nurses at the hospital he would kill 'everyone who did this to him'.

Mr DeBono has reportedly been served with a Family Violence Safety Notice.

The couples daughter has also been charged over the alleged murder plot.

Mrs DeBono was released on bail.
Workers who were cleaning a property have discovered a 2.5 kilogram gold bar.

Instead of pocketing the bar - worth more than $100,000 if it's found to be pure - the workers decided to hand it into Cottesloe Police when they were on their way to the next job.

The bar - which measures about 22cm x 5cm - was found at an East Victoria Park property in Perth last month as detectives from the Gold Stealing Detection Unit are investigating the item.

Workers who were cleaning a property have discovered a 2.5 kilogram gold bar at a Perth property last month

As an investigation is underway, Western Australia Police are appealing for the owner to come forward

The bar - which measures about 22cm x 5cm could be worth more than $100,000 if it's found to be pure

The item could by made from a combination of melted-down, possibly stolen jewellery, but police said the item needs be analysed to determine where the gold actually comes from.

'This item needs to be analysed first prior to making a presumption of this being a gold bar or part thereof,' police said in a statement.

Police suspect the bar could be less than 50 per cent gold and may belong to an amateur gold pourer, The West Australian reported.

As an investigation is underway, police are appealing for the owner to come forward.
Hillary Clinton's fundraiser at George Clooney and wife Amal's house was a glamorous affair, with Jane Fonda and Ellen DeGeneres on the guest list and prawn risotto for dinner.

The night cost guests $353,400 per couple, but little did they know there was money raining right outside.

A group of 100 Bernie Sanders supporters showered Clinton's motorcade with 1,000 single-dollar bills as she drove into the Clooney residence on Saturday.

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George Clooney and wife Amal smile with Anastasia of the renowned Beverly Hills Anastasia Brow Studio during the couple's fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in Los Angeles

150 guests dined on salad, followed by Santa Barbara spot prawn risotto and a choice of beef tenderloin or Chilean sea bass

The songs Hail to the Chief and We're in the Money were played as the motocade passed, and then the supporters danced on the street as they stomped on the cash.

Clooney's neighbor Howard Gold organized the event and withdrew the $1,000 himself, he told CNN.

Gold said the event was supposed to poke fun at the absurdity of campaign finance laws.

It was a sentiment echoed by Clooney himself just a day after his star-studded event.

The Hollywood star condemned the 'obscene' sums of money in politics during an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC News' Meet the Press.

'Let me start with a dinner you co-hosted on Friday night,' Todd began.

'Do you look at how much is being raised..to be a co-chair - do you look at it yourself and think, "That's an obscene amount of money?"'

Clooney immediately agreed, saying 'Yes. I think it's an obscene amount of money.'

Alisa Blair, who won a contest to attend the event, said Clooney gave a speech that touched on his human rights work

A group of 100 Bernie Sanders supporters showered Clinton's motorcade with 1,000 single-dollar bills as she drove into the Clooney residence on Saturday

The songs Hail to the Chief and We're in the Money were played as the motorcade passed, and then the supporters danced on the street as they stomped on the cash

Bernie Sanders supporters shower @HillaryClinton's motorcade with  as she passes their LA counter-fundraiser. pic.twitter.com/Z2h2Ltd1lW  Shaquille Brewster (@shaqbrewster) April 17, 2016

I think that - you know, we had some protesters last night...and they're right to protest,' he said.

'They're absolutely right. It is an obscene amount of money. The Sanders campaign when they talk about it is absolutely right.'

'It's ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics. I agree completely.'

Bernie Sanders has pounced on former secretary of state Clinton over the big-ticket event and for accepting large sums of money for her campaign.

The Vermont senator told CNN in March: 'I have a lot of respect for George Clooney. He's a great actor. I like him.'

Clooney, a supporter of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, broke ranks over campaign financing on Saturday to condemn the 'obscene' sums of money in US politics and praised Bernie Sanders

'They're absolutely right. It is an obscene amount of money. The Sanders campaign when they talk about it is absolutely right,' he said during an interview with Meet the Press

'But this is the problem with American politics, is that big money is dominating our political system.'

'So it's not a criticism of Clooney. It's a criticism of a corrupt campaign finance system, where big money interests - and it's not Clooney, it's the people coming to this event - have undue influence on the political process.'

But also in attendance was Alisa Blair, a freelance writer and composer from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania who won a contest organized by Clinton's campaign to attend the event.

Blair and her husband Rob, a retired high school counselor-turned landscaper, gave PEOPLE a peek inside the affair, where 150 guests dined on beef tenderloin and Chilean sea bass in a 'gorgeous' tent.

The pair said they met Fonda, who introduced herself the minute they walked in, as well as Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi, and Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons.

Clooney and Amal's fundraiser held a price tag of up to $353,400 per couple

Bernie Sanders has pounced on former secretary of state Clinton over the big-ticket event and for accepting large sums of money for her campaign

And they of course got to meet Clinton herself, who they described as 'fresh' and 'gracious'.

'Comparing to what you get to know about somebody through the filter of the media, I just felt her to be more gracious,' Rob told the magazine.

Alisa said she found Clinton to be 'softer' in character than she expected.

'We asked her how she was doing and what she does to refuel,' Alisa continued. 'She said, "I do like everybody else, I take a walk, I watch mindless movies to kick back.'

And the couple couldn't have been more surprised when they realized they would be sharing a table with both the Clooneys and Clinton.

'It was mind-blowing,' said Alisa. 'I looked up from my meal at George and Amal and Hillary and thought, holy cow, I am sitting across from these people. I'm eating salad with them.'

'But at the same time, it was amazing how at home we felt,' said Rob. 'They made us feel so much at home.'

A fundraiser for Sanders also took place in the area, with tickets going for a far-cheaper $27 a pop
Defense Secretary Ash Carter arrives Monday, April 18, 2016, in Baghdad and is greeted by Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, top U.S. Commander for the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria

The U.S. has agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, U.S. defense officials said Monday.

The decisions reflect weeks of discussions with commanders and Iraqi leaders, and a decision by President Barack Obama to increase the authorized troop level in Iraq by 217 forces  or from 3,870 to 4,087.

The new plan, expected for weeks, would mark the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year. Last June the Obama administration announced that hundreds of troops would be deployed to help the Iraqis retake Ramadi  a goal they accomplished at the end of the year.

Of the additional troops, most would be Army special forces, who have been used all along to advise and assist the Iraqis. The remainder would include some trainers, security forces for the advisers, and more maintenance teams for the Apaches.

The increased military support comes as the U.S.-led coalition looks to better enable local Iraqi and Syrian forces to retake the key cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.

The advise-and-assist teams  made up of about a dozen troops each  would embed with Iraqi brigades and battalions, putting them closer to the fight, and at greater risk from mortars and rocket fire. They would have security forces with them.

Putting the U.S. teams with Iraqi forces closer to the battlefront will allow them to provide more tactical combat advice as the Iraqi units move toward Mosul, the country's second-largest city. Until now, U.S. advisers have worked with the Iraqis at the headquarters level, well back from the front lines.

The U.S. has agreed to deploy a further 200 troops to Iraq and to send Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against ISIS, U.S. defense officials. Above, ISIS fighters in Raqqa, Syrian on June 30, 2014

The Apaches are considered a significant aid to any attack on Mosul, providing precision fires in the fight.

Last December, U.S. officials were trying to carefully negotiate new American assistance with Iraqi leaders who often have a different idea of how to wage war. At that time, the Iraqis turned down a U.S. offer to provide Apache helicopters for the battle to retake Ramadi.

Speaking to U.S. troops at the airport in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Ash Carter also said that he will send an additional rocket-assisted artillery system to Iraq. The system is likely to be used by Army soldiers who replace the Marines current stationed at a small outpost outside of the Iraqi base of Mohkmour.

U.S. officials have also said previously that the number of special operations forces in Syria would be increased at some point, but Carter did not mention that in his comments. Officials spoke about the plan on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Carter's announcement Monday came after several meetings with his commanders and Iraqi leaders about how the U.S. can best help Iraqi forces retake Mosul.

He met with Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the top U.S. military commander for the Islamic State fight, as well as a number of Iraqi leaders including, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Iraq's minister of defense Khalid al-Obeidi.

He also spoke by phone with the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani

Late last month, U.S. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that he and Carter believed there would be an increase in U.S. forces in Iraq in the coming weeks.

Later this week, Obama will be in Saudi Arabia to meet with Gulf leaders and talk about the fight against the Islamic State.

Carter has said the U.S. wants Gulf nations to help Iraq rebuild its cities once IS militants are defeated.

U.S. military and defense officials also have made it clear that winning back Mosul is critical, but will be challenging, because the insurgents are dug in and have likely peppered the landscape with roadside bombs and other traps for any advancing military.

A senior defense official said that while Iraqi leaders have been reluctant to have a large number of U.S. troops in Iraq, they also need certain capabilities that only more American or coalition forces can provide.

Iraqi leaders, said the official, back the addition of more U.S. troops if they directly coincide with specific capabilities that Iraq forces needs to fight IS and take back Mosul. The official was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. leaders have also made it clear that ongoing political disarray and economic problems must be dealt with in order for Iraq to move forward.

This week, the country has been struggling with a political crisis, as efforts to oust the speaker of parliament failed. Al-Abadi's efforts to get a new cabinet in place met resistance, and influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a deadline, giving parliament 72 hours to vote in a new Cabinet.
Police have issued a fresh appeal for help to find two siblings who have been missing since April 6.

Tanika, 10, and Jason Seymour, 13, who were last seen in Carrum Downs in Melbourne. Victoria Police said in a statement concerns are held for the siblings due to their age.

Daily Mail Australia spoke to Victoria Police who said they were unaccompanied when they went missing, but were not able to give any more details

Tanika, 10, is described as slim build, long dark hair and brown eyes. She and her brother have been missing since April 6

Jason, 13, is described as medium build, dark hair and brown eyes. The siblings were unaccompanied when they disappeared

Jason is described as medium build, dark hair and brown eyes while his sister Tanika is described as slim build, long dark hair and brown eyes.
Telstra has backflipped once more and says it will publicly support marriage equality laws again after it faced backlash for reportedly bowing to pressure from the Catholic Church.

Last week, many customers claimed to discontinue their contracts with Telstra in a boycott after it toned down its support for equal marriage rights for the LGBTQI community.

The company changed its tune on Monday, saying that instead of stepping back from the debate, it should step forward and risk inflaming the debate.

Telstra will publicly support marriage equality laws again

On Monday, Telstra announced that instead of stepping back, it should step forward and risk inflaming the debate

By renewing our active position, we acknowledge that we are at equal risk of inflaming a new debate but it is the right thing to do, Telstra CEO Andrew Penn said in a statement.

Telstra supports diversity and inclusion. We have long advocated and often pioneered the fostering of a more supportive, diverse workplace in this country.

It also remains very important that we continue to recognise and respect the right of the individual to hold their own view on this issue, the statement said.

Telstra was among about 400 companies, including the major big four banks and Qantas, that initially came out in support of Australian Marriage Equality's campaign for same-sex marriage in 2015.

The number of companies has since grown to about 870.

But last week reports emerged that Telstra was toning down its support after the archdiocese of Sydney business manager Michael Digges wrote a letter to several companies expressing concern about their involvement in the campaign, The Australian reported.

Last week, customers claimed to discontinue their contracts with Telstra in a boycott of the company

Telstra reportedly didn't want to risk its deal with the church to provide services to Catholic schools across the country.

That sparked a tirade of abuse against Telstra from customers and supporters of same-sex marriage.

At the time, Mr Penn insisted Telstra supported marriage equality but would no longer take part in public debate on the issue.

Monday's change of heart appears to have put Telstra back in the good books with those who back marriage equality.

Telstra loves the gays again. Amazing what bad publicity will do, Reezy Miller tweeted.

Nic Starr said: I guess we can query their true motivation for the change, or just be happy they are.

Others were unimpressed, calling it proof it was just flopping to popular opinion after allegedly losing customers.

However, a Reddit user disagreed and called the point moot.

In the end its a positive move towards equality.

Last week, Telstra said it had no further plans to figure prominently in the wider public debate on marriage equality

'We place great importance on diversity and stand against discrimination in all forms,' Telstra said last week

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Catholic Church in Sydney for comment following Telstra's latest announcement.

Last week, Telstra had said they had no further plans to figure prominently in the wider public debate on marriage equality.

However, Australian Marriage Equality (AME) continued to list Telstra on its website as one of the 867 corporations that supported same-sex marriage.

AME Director Rodney Croome told Daily Mail Australia at the time the telco had made no request to have their logo removed from the website.

'No business has ever asked to be taken off our website as a supporter and more sign on every day. I think that shows the strength of support for marriage equality in the business community,' Mr Croome had said.
But furious Eurosceptics dismiss the Treasury analysis as 'absurd' and 'Project Utter Cr**'

Also assumes that David Cameron's pledge to cut immigration will be broken whether we stay in or leave

Document claims there could be a 36bn hole in the public finances by 2030 - equivalent to 8p on the basic rate of income tax

ays it is 'dishonest' and 'economically illiterate' to argue the UK can have benefits of membership without costs

George Osborne is facing a furious Tory backlash after warning that Britain would be 'permanently poorer' after leaving the EU.

The Chancellor accused London Mayor Boris Johnson and other Leave campaigners of 'dishonesty' as he published an apocalyptic Treasury assessment of Brexit risks.

The 200-page dossier predicted that quitting would trigger a 6 per cent slump in GDP and cost every household 4,300 a year.

It also said an 8p rise in the basic rate of income tax could be needed to fill a 36billion hole in the public finances by 2030.

But the report drew condemnation from a host of senior Conservatives, with 'laughably spurious', 'childish' and 'disreputable' among the politest descriptions.

One backbencher said that the Remain campaign's 'Project Fear' approach had 'turned into Project Utter Cr**'.

Scroll down for video

George Osborne, pictured with Environment Secretary Liz Truss in Bristol today, has published a 200-page report claiming Britain could be poorer by 4,300 per household if it leaves the EU

'This is a sober and serious look at the costs and benefits of remaining in the EU or leaving it - not just for Britain but for the individual families of Britain,' he said at the event in Bristol.

Eurosceptics should not pretend the UK can 'have our cake and eat it', he insisted.

Mr Osborne said while this report dealt with the long-term impacts of Brexit, the government will be producing a study on the short-term fallout later in the campaign.

The launch of the dossier came after tensions in the campaign ratcheted up. Mr Johnson bluntly dismissed claims UK trade would suffer after Brexit as 'b******s', and claimed David Cameron had been told to 'bog off' by EU counterparts after asking for more powers to control immigration.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier, Mr Osborne said the analysis by civil servants 'stepped away from the rhetoric' and 'set out the facts'.

Tory MPs vented their fury on Twitter after the Treasury's pro-EU report was published today

'Britain would be permanently poorer if we left the EU, to the tune of 4,300 for every household in the country,' Mr Osborne said.

Singling out Mr Johnson for criticism, he branded those who claimed that the UK could leave and negotiate better terms with the rest of the EU 'economically illiterate'.

'You completely misunderstand Britain's negotiating position if you think we can get a better deal than France of Germany,' he said.

'Take the free trade agreement that Canada has signed. By the way, cited by the Mayor of London as his preferred model. The problem with the Canadian model is that you don't have access for your services industry - that's 80 per cent of the British economy, 80 per cent of the jobs in the British economy.

'You can't have your cake and eat it. These people who go around saying Britain would have all the benefits of the European Union without having any obligations  that is economically illiterate.'

Mr Osborne went on: 'Yes of course we can be outside the EU, but we are not going to get all the benefits of EU membership...

'What is not honest and what is economically illiterate is to say we can have all the benefits of the EU and at the same time leave.'

Mr Osborne also insisted the poorest would be the hardest hit by Brexit. He said the country would not be 'all in this together' after leaving.

'The richest in our country would go on being rich,' he said. 'It would be the poorest.'

The document, published by the Treasury, includes predictions for three potential post-Brexit models.

Officials considered Norway-style membership of the European Economic Area (EEA), a Canada-style bilateral trade agreement with the EU, or Russia-style World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership without any formal deal.

Chancellor George Osborne with Environment Secretary Liz Truss, left, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd and Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb

They estimated that the first scenario would lead to a 2,600 reduction in GDP per household, the second 4,300 and the third 5,200.

'The negative impact on GDP would also result in substantially weaker tax receipts,' the report said. 'This would significantly outweigh any potential gain from reduced financial contributions to the EU.

'The result would be higher government borrowing and debt, large tax rises or major cuts in public spending.

'After 15 years, even with savings from reduced contributions to the EU, receipts would be 20 billion a year lower in the central estimate of the EEA,

'36 billion a year lower for the negotiated bilateral agreement and 45 billion a year lower for the WTO alternative.

'36 billion is more than a third of the NHS budget and the equivalent of 8p on the basic rate of income tax.'

HOW TREASURY 'EXPERTS' KEEP GETTING IT WRONG By Hugo Duncan, Deputy Finance Editor After he became Chancellor in 2010, George Osborne stripped the Treasury of its power to publish official economic forecasts and gave it to the new  and independent  Office for Budget Responsibility. He said the temptation to fiddle the figures has proved too great for previous chancellors and the Treasury. Here are five examples of the Treasury getting it dramatically wrong: Britain joined the doomed exchange rate mechanism in 1990 after the Treasury under then chancellor John Major convinced the Tory government to sign up. But with the economy on its knees, the government was forced to withdraw the pound from the ERM on Black Wednesday in September 1992.

In 1999 the Treasury under Labour chancellor Gordon Brown sold half of Britains gold reserves for less than $300 an ounce. Gold then steadily rose, peaking at close to $1,900 in 2011. The 20-year low in the market when the gold was sold is known by traders as Browns bottom.

In the Budget of March 2008, the Treasury said it expected the economy to grow by 2 per cent in 2008 and 2.5 per cent in 2009. In reality, the worst recession since the Great Depression was already under way and the economy shrank by 0.5 per cent in 2008 and 4.2 per cent in 2009.

In the same Budget, the Treasury forecast borrowing of 38billion in 2009-10 and 32billion in 2010-11. By the time of the next Budget, those figures were 175billion and 173billion.

Sir Nick Macpherson, the former top civil servant at the Treasury, last week admitted there was a monumental collective intellectual error before the 2008 crash. Of the collapse of Northern Rock, he said: We didnt spot it, we didnt ask the right questions and that was a failure. Advertisement

But the report also embarrassed David Cameron by conceding that his target for reducing immigration into the tens of thousands is set to missed.

In producing the forecasts researchers assumed that net annual migration to the UK - currently running at over 300,000 - will only be moving 'towards' 185,000 by 2021.

They also insisted that leaving the EU would not reduce net migration to this country - even regaining control over our borders is a main goal of Brexit supporters.

The dossier was immediately dismissed by the Leave camp as government propaganda designed to scare the public.

Energy minister Andrea Leadsom, who served in the Treasury under Mr Osborne, claimed the document was 'extraordinarily biased'.

The energy minister said: 'The assumptions in it are not looking at the potential from trade with the rest of the world, not looking at the potential from deregulation, not looking at the potential from not paying the huge sums that we pay to the European Union.

'But also, it is an extraordinarily biased report, because ... what it is not doing is also assessing for the benefit of the people the impact of remaining in the EU on things like public services.'

The 'sheer volume of numbers' of people coming to the UK was squeezing public services, she claimed.

THE CHANCELLOR'S CLAIMS AND HOW THEY DON'T STAND UP By James Slack In its 200-page report yesterday, the Treasury claimed leaving the EU would cost households an average of 4,300 a year. Here, Political Editor JAMES SLACK sets out the Governments case  and the response of eurosceptics who say the dossier is absurd. THE GOVERNMENTS CLAIMS If Britain leaves the EU we will most likely have to negotiate our own trade deals with the union, in the same way as Canada does.

Productivity will fall and exports will be hit: by 2030, the countrys total economic output, or GDP, will be 6.2 per cent lower than if we remained inside the EU.

The result, according to George Osborne, is that Britain would be poorer by 4,300 per household.

The Chancellor said another way of viewing this calculation was that there would be 36billion less to spend on public services. This is the equivalent of a third of the NHS budget, 91 per cent of the total sum spent on schools or twice as much as is spent by the Home Office and Justice department combined.

Alternatively, the 36billion is the equivalent of having to put 8p on the basic rate of income tax, the Chancellor said.

If Britain is unable to negotiate a Canadian-style deal, and is hit with World Trade Organisation tariffs, receipts will fall by 45billion by 2030. That is the equivalent of 10p on the tax rate  or almost half of the NHS budget. WHY LEAVE CAMPAIGNERS SAY THE SUMS DO NOT ADD UP Even the BBC accused the Government of confusing GDP per household with household income in its dossier.

GDP per household is calculated by adding up everything produced in the economy in a year and dividing it by the number of households. It is categorically not the same as a familys own income.

The Treasury also based its sums on the number of households in 2015, not by how many it expects there to be in 2030.

This is extremely disingenuous, as official statistics show that the number of households in 2030 is projected to grow to 31.2million  up from 27million in 2015. Much of this population growth will be fuelled by immigration.

The report also fails to properly consider the costs of EU regulation, or red tape  much of which would be stripped away in the event of Brexit. The Treasury has previously admitted the costs of this red tape are as high as 7 per cent of GDP, or 4,638 per household.

The report plays down the savings from the UKs budget contributions, which would also reduce the 4,300 figure. The Treasury claims that the UKs net contribution to the EU in 2014 was 5.71billion. But in 2014, the last year for which data is published, the UK recorded a 12.3billion balance of payments deficit with the EUs institutions.

The report does not consider the benefits of striking free trade deals outside of the EU, according to Vote Leave

In 2015, the aggregate GDP of all the countries with which the EU had a trade agreement was $7.7trillion. By contrast, the aggregate GDP of all countries with which Chile had trade agreements was $58.3trillion. Advertisement

The minister mocked the report's long-term prediction, saying: 'It's extraordinary to have such an accurate central figure and it implies a clarity of crystal-ball gazing that even I, as a fully paid-up witch, couldn't possibly presume.'

Nigel Lawson described the Treasury document as scaremongering and a political propaganda exercise orchestrated by George Osborne.

Fellow peer Norman Lamont said it was impossible to make meaningful forecasts about the economy so far ahead. He added: Few forecasts are right for 14 months, let alone 14 years. Such precision is spurious and entirely unbelievable.

Former defence secretary Liam Fox said: Some of these more incredible statements being made dont actually help the Remain campaign because I think it makes them look less credible  and I think the Treasury itself needs to worry about its own credibility.

The Chancellor launches the report in Bristol today

Senior Conservative backbencher Bernard Jenkin jibed that Mr Osborne had previously pledged to eradicate the deficit by the general election, but missed the goal.

He also referred to the Treasury's decision to enter the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) - which Britain crashed out of in 1992.

'Same Chancellor who promised to balance budget by 2015? Same Treasury which supported UK membership of ERM?' he wrote on Twitter.

Another Tory, Kwasi Kwarteng dismissed the document as 'intellectually dishonest'.

'I think these figures are absurd, frankly,' he told the BBC's Daily Politics. 'The Treasury were the same people who said at the beginning of the last parliament that we would have eliminated the deficit by 2015. The deficit has not been eliminated.

'The Treasury did not predict the 2008 credit crunch, neither did they predict the Greek blowout and so, for a bunch of officials and economists to say they can describe within a pound what the state of the British economy and people's economic wellbeing will be in 2030, 14 years' time, is simply absurd.'

Former minister and Tory MP John Redwood said it was 'worthless' to make an economic forecast 15 years into the future.

'It's an absurd claim from the Treasury, I'm very sorry that they've degenerated to these levels,' he said.

'This is a Treasury which had to make huge changes to its forecast for the next two years just between November and March because it decided its November forecast was completely wrong.'

Former whip Michael Fabricant said: 'Now Osborne is claiming tax will go up. This is getting childish and ridiculous. Next, plague of frogs if we Brexit?'

Another backbencher, Andrew Percy, was even more blunt: 'Fair to say Project Fear turned into project Utter Cr** today,' he tweeted.

In other developments over the weekend:

The French finance minister sparked fury by saying Britain would no longer be 'great' after Brexit and instead reduced to the status of Jersey or Guernsey;

Cricket hero Sir Ian Botham backed Brexit, saying that the country should 'stand proud';

A row erupted over the delayed publication of a report assessing the impact of migration on schools;

A poll found seven in ten Britons think immigration levels have been too high over the past decade.

Voters have already been handed recent warnings from the International Monetary Fund, the Bank of England and big business about Brexit.

Last week Mr Osborne also warned that Brexit could lead to a rise in mortgage rates due to uncertainty about what would happen after a vote to leave the EU.

And yesterday a pro-Remain Cabinet minister  the newly appointed Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb  claimed a 'reckless' vote to leave the EU could trigger an economic shock similar to the hardship suffered after the banking crash in 2008.

He went on to describe Brexit as an act of economic 'self harm', claiming Britain faces a 'rupture' that will bring misery to millions if the country votes to leave the EU.

Businesses would leave the country, factories would close and jobs would be lost, with 'disastrous' consequences for families, he told the Sunday Telegraph, adding: 'Lost jobs and livelihoods take an enormous, indelible toll on families and communities.

'No one should be complacent about the potential consequences for working people and their families if Britain votes to exit the EU. This is not a theoretical debate.'

However responding to his remarks, Chris Grayling, the Leader of the House of Commons, pointed out that David Cameron said only a few weeks ago that Britain could succeed outside the EU, although he believed the country would be better off staying in.

'It can't be logical now for the Treasury to claim doomsday and disaster would follow if we leave,' he said.

'LET SCEPTICS NEGOTIATE EU WITHDRAWL IF VOTE LEAVE WINS' David Cameron would be forced to appoint a senior Brexit campaigner to negotiate Britain's withdrawal from the EU if he lost the referendum, Tory veteran David Davis said last night. The former Europe minister said he did not think Mr Cameron would have to resign if voters chose to leave the EU on June 23  but he would have to stand aside and let someone else negotiate terms with Brussels. Mr Davis told Sky News: 'If Brexit wins there will be an argument that people who have been arguing against it can't renegotiate it. 'If you're going to have a negotiator, you appoint somebody who really believes in it and has spent months, if not years, thinking about how this will work  which is what the Brexit team have been doing.' Advertisement
North Koreans have been banned from having piercings and face new restrictions on 'Western clothing' including jeans.

Dictator Kim Jong-un has launched a nationwide crackdown on citizens but the ban will focus primarily on the North Hamgyong province and Yanggang province close to China.

Pyongyang is reportedly concerned that people living in those areas will be more exposed to the outside world and therefore more influence by Western fashion.

Dictator Kim Jong-un has launched a nationwide crackdown on what his citizens can wear but the ban will focus primarily on the North Hamgyong province and Yanggang province close to China

According to Japan's Asia Press, the rules have been tightened ahead of the 7th Congress of North Korea's Workers' Party.

Ishimaru Jiro, a Japanese journalist working with citizen reporters inside North Korea, wrote: 'A growing number of North Korean people are infatuated with Western culture. The crackdown will continue until the end of the upcoming gathering (the 7th Congress).'

According to the Daily Telegraph, citizens will be monitored by a growing group of youths loyal to Kim Jong-un

Rimjin-gang, a North Korean news website supported by AsiaPress, said the 'inspection' units 'target supposed capitalist tendencies such as length of skirts, the shape of shoes, T-shirts, hairstyles, and clothes.

It comes just months after it was reported that Kim Jong-un was ordering men to copy his 'ambitious' hair style limiting growth to a maximum length of 2cm.

It comes just months after it was reported that Kim Jong-un (pictured) was ordering men to copy his 'ambitious' hair style limiting growth to a maximum length of 2cm

North Koreans have been banned from having piercings and face new restrictions on 'Western clothing' including jeans

Anyone breaching the restrictive guidelines faced having their hair shorn by authorities, especially in universities, who have been warned to watch out for any capitalist styles.

Women were advised to copy his wife, Ri Sol-ju's bob.

The latest fashion crackdown comes as North Korea's preparations for a fifth nuclear bomb test were revealed to be in their 'final stages' amid reports of a surge in activity at the country's main atomic site.

South Korean and U.S. authorities detected two to three times more vehicle and personnel activities than normal this month at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site  where all previous four tests took place.

'If they are signs of nuclear test preparations, it seems the preparations are in the final stages,' South Korea's Yonhap news agency said quoted one government source as saying.
An Orthodox rabbi has sparked outrage among women's rights group with his 'sexist and wrong' comments on rape.

Steven Pruzansky is the leader of Bnai Yeshurun in New Jersey, one of the largest modern Orthodox synagogues in America, with more than 800 members.

However comments he made in his blog, appearing to suggest problems of rape 'would be solved if the woman was married' have left many angry.

Orthodox rabbi Steven Pruzansky caused outrage among some groups following comments he made in his blog post

Now the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance has called for the removal of the rabbi as a speaker in an upcoming synagogue conference in June.

He also wrote few claims on campuses 'involve the old-fashioned and execrable assault by a stranger in some dark alley' but were instead 'he said/she said' accounts with a lack of evidence to back them up.

Mr Pruzansky suggested many campus encounters characterized as rapes were probably consensual sexual encounters in which the woman labeled it rape later down the line because the man was no longer interested in pursuing a relationship.

In his blog, the rabbi wrote: 'Relations between the sexes has, allegedly, become so strained that the liberal media speaks incessantly about a 'rape culture' on campuses, wherein brutish men have their way with women in numbers approaching an epidemic.

'Or so it is claimed.'

Steven Pruzansky is the leader of Bnai Yeshurun, one of the largest modern Orthodox synagogues in America, with more than 800 members (pictured)

He added: 'Soon after the 'friendship' ended, the woman, feeling used, as she was by the lecherous man, files a complaint for sexual assault.

'There have even been occasions when the woman who later claimed she was 'raped' spent the night, or several nights thereafter, with her beau, only to realize weeks later after their breakup that she had been assaulted.

'If indeed there was a 'rape culture' on American campuses, no intelligent woman would want to attend college.

'The fact that more women attend college today than men itself belies the accusation.'

Sharon Weiss-Greenberg, executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, told the Jewish Telegraph Agency: 'Pruzansky has been saying many wrong, sexist, hateful, racist, inciting things for years, but this is the straw that has broken the camel's back.

'I don't think he should be the rabbi of a shul with hundreds of families, half women.

'I don't think he speaks to the values of the Jewish people or of Orthodox Judaism. He's been a chilul Hashem [desecration of God's name] for a long time.'

Mr Pruzansky is a former President of the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County, and also served as a Vice-President of the Rabbinical Council of America.

A trained lawyer, he practiced law for some 13 years as a general practitioner and litigator in New York City.

He is a member of the New York and Federal Bars, and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

In his blog, he suggested: 'Heres a novel idea, one that has been tried before with great success but has fallen into desuetude, apparently, on college campuses. It will solve all these problems, the rape culture, the he said/she said, the feelings of rejection by the party who had an emotional connection with another person who just sought a physical connection. Its called abstinence, self-discipline, or chastity.

'It involves waiting until marriage to engage in intimate acts, and then in a relationship in which the couple genuinely loves each other. It is preceded by a joyous ceremony known as a wedding, which too involves contractual obligations that are grounded in mutual respect. Problem solved'
These are the blonde-haired sisters who are at the forefront of vile race-hate campaigns after becoming poster girls for the neo-Nazi movement.

Chelsea, 20, and Samantha Lambie, 25, both idolise Hitler, lead campaigns for the Scottish Defence League and have become stars of an array of online propaganda which promotes white supremacy.

The younger sister, who was once convicted for throwing bacon at a mosque, posts swastikas on social media, lists her interests as 'blowing up mosques' and describes her favourite book as Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Chelsea (left), 20, and Samantha Lambie (right), 25, both idolise Hitler, lead campaigns for the Scottish Defence League and have become stars of an array of online propaganda promoting white supremacy

Meanwhile, Samantha - who refers to black people as n****** - is a regular at SDL marches and has been photographed proudly posing for the camera while waving anti-refugee slogans.

Among her 'likes' on Facebook, she lists the British Movement Scotland - a white supremacist organisation - and Fascist is a Gentleman, a group which idolises Mussolini, Mosley and Hitler.

The sisters, from Paisley - both of whom have children - are also both engaged to men who support the SDL.

Chelsea - who named her cat C***, a highly offensive term for black people - is engaged to Josh Wood, who has an SDL tattoo and refers to Muslims as 'scum'.

Samantha's fiance is Ryan McCue, one of the SDL's most enthusiastic activists, who is involved with groups such as the National Front and 'White and Proud'.

Mari McKinlay, who helps run the Scotland United Against the Racist SDL page on Facebook, told The Daily Record: 'Samantha Lambie is an eye-catching young woman but there are some ugly views behind the pretty face.

Samantha (left) - who refers to black people as n****** - is a regular at SDL and anti-refugee marches and has been photographed proudly posing for the camera while waving banners featuring bigoted slogans

The younger sister (left) lists her interests as 'blowing up mosques' and describes her favourite book as Hitler's Mein Kampf. Pictured right: Samantha carried away by police at a rally

Samantha is seen disrupting a pro-refugee rally in Glasgow in November last year. Critics have called her actions 'sickening'

'Samantha has been pictured in a T-shirt bearing the badge of the SS unit responsible for administering Hitler's concentration camps. It is hard to get more sickening and offensive than that.'

Chelsea's extreme right-wing views have already landed her in trouble with the law.

When she was 16, she was fined for launching a racist tirade at an Asian shopkeeper, as well as pushing him and threatening to slit his throat.

Two years later, she was sentenced to 12 months in a Young Offenders' institution for throwing pork into an Edinburgh mosque and draping strips of bacon on the door handles. Before committing the offence, she had texted her boyfriend before saying: 'Going to invade a mosque'.

Chelsea was convicted for throwing bacon at a mosque. The offence propelled her to celebrity status in the neo-Nazi movement, with one group mocking up a poster featuring her face which said: 'Where is the justice?'

The younger sister has used Nazi symbols as her profile picture on social media and lists her interests on as 'blowing up mosques'. She describes her favourite book as Mein Kampf (shown above)

The offence propelled her to celebrity status in the neo-Nazi movement, with one group mocking up a poster featuring her face which said: 'Where is the justice?'

The sisters' parents are also believed to be involved in neo-Nazi politics. Last year, their father Craig and mother Ann-Marie were both named on an alleged list of members of the organisation Blood and Honour, a white nationalist group which is banned in several countries.

Ann Marie knits golliwog baby blankets and her email is dessa 1488. The first part of the address is a reference to the Nazis' underground network Odessa while 1488 is a combination of two popular white supremacist numeric symbols.

The first symbol is 14, which is shorthand for the '14 Words' slogan: 'We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.'
Aldi is continuing to close in on supermarket giant Woolworths as it is expected the German supermarket chain will open 255 new stores across Australia in the next four years.

Aldi, which currently has a market share of $8 billion, will go from 373 stores to 628 stores across the country by 2020, broker Morgan Stanley claims, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

'Clearly the headwind for the Australian supermarkets has only just begun,' Morgan Stanley analyst Tom Kierath said.

Aldi (pictured) is continuing to close in on supermarket giant Woolworths as it is expected the discount supermarket chain will open 255 new stores across Australia by 2020

Aldi, which currently has a market share of $8 billion, will go from 373 stores to 628 stores in four years, increasing it's market share by 90 percent to $15 billion, according to broker Morgan Stanley

During the same four-year period, Coles sales will rise by 15 percent to $37 billion and Woolworths will rise by 10 percent to $46 billion

With an increase in stores and the amount of shoppers choosing Aldi every month, the chain's sales are expected to grow by 90 percent during the same four-year span to $15 billion, according to Morgan Stanley.

The number of shoppers heading to Aldi every month has increased from 36.8 percent to 54.9 percent and the amount they are spending

'Aldi's prices are about 25 per cent cheaper on like products compared with Coles and Woolworths, so its basket size will never catch Coles or Woolworths. But we do think that it can close the gap to Coles and Woolworths, where customers spend $220 and $258 respectively over a four-week period,' Mr Kierath said.

During the same four-year period, Coles sales will rise by 15 percent to $37 billion and Woolworths will rise by 10 percent to $46 billion, according to the Herald.

It was reported earlier this week that Aldi's popularity among supermarket shoppers is continuing to grow while Woolworth's position at number one is sliding

The new figures come just days after consumer research company Roy Morgan claimed that Aldi's share in the grocery market has grown from 11.6 percent to 12.2 percent from March 2015 to December.

While Woolworth's is still the supermarket leader, its market share has declined from 38.5 percent to 37.3 percent, according to News.com.au.

Coles is still in second place with an increase in market presence from 31.8 percent to 32.5 percent.

'With its South Australian expansion now underway, and WA to follow soon, it's no wonder Aldi's dollar share of the Australian supermarket market is rising,' Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine said, according to News.com.au.

'Meanwhile Woolworths' dollar share of the market has declined once again  not so much as to knock them off top spot, but still cause for concern, especially given that Coles is showing signs of catching up.'

Coles is still in second place with an increase in market presence from 31.8 percent to 32.5 percent

In an average month, more than five million grocery shoppers purchase their items at Aldi while 10.5 million visit Woolworths, according to Roy Morgan.

Although Coles and Woolworths own the majority of the market, Ms Levine said neither company should become complacent considering Aldi's efforts.

'Although Aldi has a much smaller dollar share of the market, it is already punching above its weight in term of customer volume and has more than doubled shopper numbers since January 2007,' she said.
The granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin has likened Angela Merkel's decision to allow the prosecution a German satirist for mocking the Turkish president to the appeasement of Nazi Germany.

Jan Bohmermann, a comedian who wrote an intentionally offensive poem about the Turkish leader, could face prison if he is convicted under outdated German laws that forbid insulting foreign leaders.

But Laura Chaplin, 28, likened Merkel's stance to that of the U.S. and Britain's attempts to stop her grandfather making his 1940 film The Great Dictator, a thinly-disguised satire of Hitler and fascism.

Laura Chaplin (pictured left with her sister Kiera) has described Merkel's decision to pander to Turkish prosecution requests as 'shocking' and likened it to the U.S. and British appeasement of the Nazis

Jan Bohmermann accused the Turkish president of bestiality and paedophilia in his so-called 'Defamatory Poem' in a reaction to Ankara's treatment of critics and comedians who lampooned its goverment

President Erdogan (pictured) has demanded Bohermann is prosecuted over the insulting poem, which German Chancellor Angela Merkel has given her permission to proceed - sparking a furore over freedom of expression

She told Bild she was 'shocked' at the 'incomprehensible' decision by Merkel to allow the prosecution to go ahead.

'The U.S. government hindered my grandfather from making The Great Dictator for years because the German government threatened economic sanctions if there was a satire against Hitler.

'If you applied the German governments current decision to the time, Charlie Chaplin would never have been able to make The Great Dictator because hed have constantly been in court.'

In a Facebook posting Saturday, Boehmermann said he had received support from 'the overwhelming majority of those who aren't President Erdogan'.

Merkel caused outrage after announcing she would allow the prosecution - then hastily vowing to scrap the law by 2018 - after coming under pressure from Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to prosecute.

Ankara this month filed a formal request for a criminal inquiry to be launched in Germany against Boehmermann, who accused Erdogan of bestiality and paedophilia in the so-called 'Defamatory Poem'.

Boehmermann gleefully admitted he was flouting Germany's legal limits on free expression, but has kept a lower profile since the furore erupted.

The comedian was reacting to Ankara's decision last month to summon Germany's ambassador in protest at another satirical song broadcast on German TV which lampooned Erdogan in far tamer language.

Merkel - who had previously labelled Boehmermann's poem 'deliberately insulting' - had pledged Turkey's request would be 'very carefully' examined, even as she underlined the German constitution's guarantees of 'freedom of expression, academia and of course the arts'.

But on Friday she said her government, after heated internal debate, had concluded that only the judiciary should decide whether Boehmermann had committed a criminal offence.
A family who found out their sperm donor had a criminal record and schizophrenia after the birth of their son have spoken out about their devastation at discovering the truth.

Angie Collins and Beth Hanson described the moment they received a Facebook message with details of who donor 9623 really was as 'like a lead ball going to the bottom of our stomachs'.

The couple, from Ontario in Canada, are now suing the US-based sperm bank Xytex alleging they were misled about the medical and social history of their donor, who was revealed to be Chris Aggeles, now 39.

Angie Collins, who found out the sperm donor for her and her partner, Beth Hanson's, son, had a criminal record and schizophrenia after the birth. She has spoken out about her devastation at discovering his medical history

Ms Collins, a 45-year-old teacher, told The Mirror they thought they were being 'more responsible than picking up a hitchhiker' when they chose Aggeles, who was billed as having an IQ of 160.

She added: 'Our hearts just sank [when we found out the truth]. It was like a lead ball went to the bottom of our stomach, for both my partner and I.

'Sadly there is no book for how to tell your child his donor is an ex-con who suffers from serious mental health issues.'

The couple had filed a lawsuit against Xytex, sperm bank employees and the donor last year in the U.S. state of Georgia. They issued new proceedings in Ontario last week.

The Georgia case was dismissed by a judge who said that while the lawsuit claimed fraud, negligence and product liability, it was 'rooted in the concept of wrongful birth', which isn't recognized under law.

In the court documents, Ms Collins and Ms Hanson claimed that Aggeles had schizophrenia, bipolar and narcissistic personality disorders.

The couple, from Ontario in Canada, are now suing the US-based sperm bank Xytex alleging they were misled about the medical and social history of their donor, who was later revealed to be Chris Aggeles (pictured), now 39

Ms Collins, a 45-year-old teacher from Port Hope east of Toronto, said they thought they were being 'more responsible than picking up a hitchhiker' when they chose Aggeles (pictured), who was billed as having an IQ of 160

Records also showed Aggeles was charged with felony burglary in 2005. The suits alleged he was also a college dropout and struggled to hold down jobs.

Aggeles' sperm, which was sold between 2000 and 2014, has been used to create 19 boys and 17 girls from 26 families, an email to Collins from Georgia-based sperm bank Xytex Corp revealed, according to The Toronto Star.

Ms Collins said she chose 'donor 9623' because he was 6ft 4in 'male version' of Ms Hanson, with blue eyes and musical talent, with his profile stating he was an internationally acclaimed drummer.

His profile also allegedly said he had a bachelor of science degree in neuroscience, a master's degree in artificial intelligence and was working on his PhD in neuroscience engineering.

In a six-page health questionnaire asking if he or any blood relative had any of the 143 medical conditions, donor 9623 allegedly 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 allegedly said 'no'.

In an audio interview of donor 9623, Xytex corporate donor counsellor Mary Hartley calls him the 'perfect donor'.

Aggeles sold his sperm to Xytex between 2000 and 2014, and some was stored to be made available after 2014

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.

Ms 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'.

Ms Collins and Ms Hanson discovered the identity after a US mother, who had used the same donor, messaged them.

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. They also found out 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.

Ms Collins (pictured) and Ms Hanson discovered the identity after a US mother, who had used the same donor, messaged them

Aggeles' stepfather said in a testimony that Aggeles started suffering from psychotic episodes when he was 19 years old.

Before that he was a bright student who was attending the University of Georgia on a full scholarship, he said.

The stepfather, who has not been identified, added: 'High stress situations and lack of medication cause him to have psychotic episodes... With supervision with medication, I think he is a productive citizen.'

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.

Ms Collins reached out to the public in hopes of pressuring sperm-banks and the government to make changes in the industry.

Ms Collins, pictured above with her son, said she chose 'donor 9623' because he was 'the male version of my partner'

'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,' Ms Collins told The Star.

Xytex texts donors for infectious diseases including HIV, hepatitis B and C and syphilis.

It also requires a physical exam and psychological exam. In compliance with Health Canada regulations, donors 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.

They are required to update their medical history and undergo a physical exam every six months.

Allegations against Xytex, which include fraud and negligent misrepresentation, have yet to be proven in court. The company denies any wrongdoing.

The company added that it 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 wrote: '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.'
An investigation is underway following claims two married police officials had sex with a prostitute during a private trip to Las Vegas that was funded by a major donor to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The New York Post reports the two men, named by sources as Deputy Inspector James Grant and Detective Michael Milici, were on the flight from New Jersey to Las Vegas in 2014 and had sex with the woman on the way to Sin City and while travelling home.

The woman was reportedly dressed as a flight attendant and asked the men; 'Coffee, tea or me?'

Deputy Inspector James Grant, head of the 19th Precinct, was relieved of his badge and gun amid claims that he accepted cash and diamonds from Jeremy Reichberg. He is alleged to have been on the private jet

The trip was paid for by Jona Rechnitz and the men were joined by Jeremy Reichberg - who like Rechnitz is an Orthodox Jewish businessmen.

Rechnitz and businessman Jeremy Reichberg are being looked at in a federal corruption probe.

It is not clear who paid for the prostitute, and whether or not this was her only private trip during which she provided services to officers.

It has been reported the pair are being investigated after allegedly giving the NYPD money and gifts so they could get favors.

The probe started with New York City Correction Officer's Benevolent Association president Norman Seabrook being investigated by Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara.

Deputy Inspector James Grant is among a number of officials who have been relieved of their guns and badges, and the probe is now looking into Rechnitz's and Reichberg's fundraising.

Jeremy Reichberg (left) and Jona Rechnitz (right) with former top NYPD officer Philip Banks (center) at a charity dinner. The two businessmen are said to have been on board the flight to Las Vegas

Deputy Insp Grant, head of the 19th Precinct, was relieved of his badge and gun amid claims that he accepted cash and diamonds from Jeremy Reichberg, a friend of the mayor.

The probe centers on allegations that Reichberg and real estate investor Rechnitz, both Orthodox Jewish businessmen, who are both major donors to de Blasio, gave cash, diamonds and overseas trips to cops in return for favors  including providing security for large Jewish funerals.

Lawyers for Grant and Milici told the Post their clients denied the allegations. Rechnitz declined to comment.

Reichberg's lawyer told the Post: 'Jeremy Reichberg is a good man who has helped many in his community.

'He has not committed any crime and does not deserve the constant false attacks to which he has been subjected in the press.'
Locals say plans will bring in migrant workers and undermine community

Residents fear plans to redevelop a porn movie studio will lead to the building being packed full of migrant workers.

Those living in the St George area of Bristol say they prefer porn stars using the building than the up to 40 foreign workers who could move in under new plans.

Until recently, the property was being run as a studio for making porn and live streaming by Phil Barry, husband of 48-year-old porn star Cathy Barry.

But owner Mike Hobbins wants to transform it into a house of multiple occupancy with 20 double rooms, which he says will help 'solve the city's housing crisis'.

A developer has unveiled plans to turn this building, until recently a porn movie studio, in a 20 double rooms

Local residents say they were happy with the porn studio, run by Phil and Cathy Barrie (pictured in 2006)

Neighbours claim the development will 'bludgeon the neighbourhood to death' and could attract workers from overseas.

Resident Annie Bentley said: 'We understand the need for housing in Bristol, but transient sounds like people who need a hostel or hotel, not offering any kind of quality to the demographics of our neighbourhood.

'Everybody knows the need for housing in Bristol is important, but this is not for the people of Bristol, it's for people coming in from overseas short term.'

If the plans go ahead, 20 large bedrooms with private bathrooms, plus communal kitchens and amenities such as laundry rooms, will be created in the property. No car parking will be included.

Architect Martin Farrell, who drew up the plans, said the building could be ideal for transient workers who are 'in a position where they go from job to job'.

Neighbours claim the development will 'bludgeon the neighbourhood to death', as it could attract workers from overseas.

Naomi Maggs, a 38-year-old mum-of-two who lives opposite the building, said she will consider selling her house if the plans go ahead.

Residents fear the 20 double rooms which the studio could be turned into will attract migrant workers

The building was used by porn stars including Ms Barry (left), who was previously nominated for an award at the UK Adult Film Awards, and Michelle Thorne (right)

Ms Maggs said: 'The porn studio wasn't really a problem and any problems we did have we spoke to the owner and it got sorted.

'But this is going to be 40 people coming and going every six months. It's going to drive people out of St George.

'HMO is as many people as you can possibly get into a building per square foot,' Ms Maggs, who has lived on the street for 11 years, added.

'It's people who are on short term rental contracts, so it's not people who want to come and be a part of the community. They don't have any respect for the building, the street, the neighbours in the area.'

Developer Mr Hobbins said the development will not target overseas workers and only professionals will be accepted.

He said: 'I think it's part of the way we are solving the housing crisis.'

More than 35 objections have been made by residents.

Labour MP Kerry McCarthy has also objected to the plans, raising concerns over parking and privacy in the close-knit community.

Bristol City Council is to consider the application in May.
The judge presiding over Tara Brown and her 60 Minutes crew's child abduction case has delivered a stiff warning to the Australians not to expect leniency, saying: 'This is not a custody case... they are charged with kidnapping.'

The group were preparing to hear their fate at court on Monday, but the hearing never eventuated and Judge Rami Abdullah told reporters the matter would be adjourned until noon on Wednesday.

'This is the demand of the lawyers... to allow for negotiations,' Judge Abdullah said in his office at the end of the proceedings, at which Brown and Ms Faulkner briefly appeared.

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60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown is pictured being forced into a police car in handcuffs as she was taken back to a Lebanese jail

Brown and her 60 Minutes crew were preparing to hear their fate at court on Monday, but the hearing never eventuated and Judge Rami Abdullah told reporters the matter would be adjourned until noon on Wednesday

Judge Rami Abdullah again stressed the seriousness of the charges the defendants were facing

Brown (right) and Sally Faulkner were pictured being led away in handcuffs from the Beirut court after the hearing was postponed

Brown (pictured) was led into a judge's chambers in handcuffs on Monday over the failed bid to snatch the Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner's two children from her estranged husband's family

Wearing a black top Brown appeared calm as she was led away from Baabda Court in Beirut before she was put into a car by police officers

Again, he stressed the seriousness of the charges the defendants were facing.

'This is not a custody case. They are charged with kidnapping two kids,' Judge Abdullah said

Dramatic photographs have shown the moment Brown was forced into a police car in handcuffs before being taken back to a Lebanese jail.

The reporter faces at least two more nights behind bars along with her TV crew and Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner after a hearing for the botched child abduction attempt was postponed.

Wearing a black top, she looked dishevelled as she was manhandled by police who pushed her head down as she climbed into a car outside Baabda Court in Beirut.

It was the first time the presenter has been pictured since her arrest in Beirut on April 7, as she has spent almost two weeks in prison with her crew and Ms Faulkner.

Earlier in the day, Ms Faulkner's estranged husband, Ali Elamine, said he would press charges against everyone 'involved' in the failed abduction - but admitted his children 'want their mum'.

Ms Faulkner has been charged along with six others over an attempt to snatch her two children Lahela, five, and Noah, three, from her ex-husband's family on a Beirut street on April 6.

Brown, 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound recordist David Ballment are among those who have been charged.

A policeman holds the back of Brown's hair as he puts her into the car on Monday

Lebanese authorities sought to shield Sally Faulkner and Tara Brown, ordering reporters into a stairway before leading them down a hallway out of sight

Brown was pictured being forced into a police car before she was taken back to prison

Ms Faulkner's estranged husband, Ali Elamine, pictured leaving court on Monday, told reporters that he would press charges against everyone 'involved' in the failed abduction attempt

Brown was pictured being escorted by police officers from the court in Beirut

Reporter Tara Brown (pictured) has been detained on kidnapping charges with a 60 Minutes crew that filmed the 'child abduction' of Sally Faulkner's two children in Lebanon on April 7

Sally Faulkner (pictured) travelled to Lebanon to retrieve her children, Noah, four, and Lahela, six

Her ex-husband, Ali Elamine, said he would not drop the charges against Ms Faulkner because that would mean everyone else would 'get off'

Mr Elamine admitted his children 'probably' wanted to be with their mother but hardened his stance against 60 Minutes

All involved are facing charges of kidnapping and being members of a criminal gang, which can attract maximum sentences of up to three years and 10 years respectively.

Speaking outside court on Monday, Mr Elamine said he would not drop the charges against Ms Faulkner because that would mean everyone else would 'get off'.

Mr Elamine failed to reach an agreement on custody of their children after Ms Faulkner was arrested and charged with kidnapping.

'The way they are trying to push for this is that if Sally [Faulkner] goes out on bail, they all get out,' Mr Elamine, 32, said as he prepared to meet the judge Rami Abdullah on Monday.

'That is how I am seeing it as an outsider... They are pushing for Sal's release and everyone else gets a green card.'

'I will charge everyone involved,' he said, according to Seven News.

Mr Elamine's lawyer said no deal had been reached between the couple but denied the Lebanese-American father was seeking a compensation payout.

'There is no agreement. Ali wants his kids, no matter what price he has to pay,' lawyer Hussein Barjawi told News Corp.

When asked whether Mr Elamine was seeking a financial payout, he said: 'It's all rumours. There is no compensation at all.'

A lawyer for Network Nine, Kamal Aboudaher, said the TV channel had not offered any financial compensation to Mr Elamine to try to resolve the issue.

'We didn't exchange any offer with Ali regarding funds,' he said outside the court.

Negotiations had been progressing between lawyers for Ms Faulkner and Mr Elamine when 'suddenly Mr Elamine's lawyer said 'we are not in a hurry'.

Mr Elamine earlier claimed he was still married to Ms Faulkner and that he secured custody in June 2015.

But he conceded that the two young children 'probably' wanted to be with their mother.

Adam Whittington, (pictured) the chief planner of the 60 Minutes botched 'child abduction' in Lebanon, said on Sunday that he can prove Channel Nine paid him more than $115,000 for the snatch

A prison van believed to be carrying those accused of the botched kidnapping attempt in Lebanon arrived at Beirut's Baabda court on Monday

'They're kids, they always want what they don't have. When you take kids to a toy store they want the whole store,' he said, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

'Am I open [to letting the children travel to Australia?] I'm not 100 per cent sure about that,' he said.

Nine had 'dropped the ball by getting involved in family matters' and now 'everyone is blaming the other for what happened', he added.

He discounted claims by Ms Faulkner's lawyer, Ghassan Moughabghab, that negotiations over the custody dispute had broken down, saying they had not started.

'All that's happened is the judge asked us to talk.'

At least seven people have been charged over the failed abduction attempt.

A prison van believed to be carrying those accused of the botched kidnapping attempt in Lebanon was pictured arriving at Beirut's Baabda court on Monday.

The accused were held in cells in the underground prison complex at the Baabda Court in Beirut while they waiting to appear.

The group is facing charges including kidnapping, physical assault, hiding information and criminal conspiracy.

Ms Faulkner's claims her children Noah and Lahela were taken to Lebanon by her estranged husband Ali Elamine (pictured with Noah and Lahela) in 2015 and he refused to bring them back

It was reported that Mr Elamine said he would drop the charges against Ms Faulker if she agreed he could have sole custody

Ghassan Mughaghab (pictured), the lawyer for Brisbane woman Sally Faulkner, said negotiations between Mr Elamine and Ms Faulkner had broken down

They have been warned that they face longer stints behind bars and that they are unlikely to be freed immediately.

Judge Abdullah is set to examine the extent of the Nine network teams involvement in the attempted abduction.

Ms Faulkner's lawyer said she has been fighting to get access to her children for nine months.

The lawyer said that Mr Elamine took the two children on a three-week holiday to Lebanon and did not return them as agreed.

But an attempt to snatch them from a suburban Beirut street by a 'child recovery team', caught on CCTV, was ultimately unsuccessful.

The children were returned to their father and the 60 Minutes team were arrested.

Craig Michael and Adam Whittington, believed to be members of the child recovery agency hired for the operation, were also arrested.

Whittington claims he has receipts showing that Nine made online payments totalling $115,000 to him for the planning of the operation and recovery of the children.

'It was direct from Channel Nine, it was from their accounts department and they paid it in two instalments,' he told The Australian.

Nine has refused to comment.

All involved are facing charges of kidnapping and being members of a criminal gang, which can attract maximum sentences of up to three years and 10 years respectively.

For the past two weeks, Ms Brown and Ms Faulkner have been held at Baabda Central Women's Prison (pictured)

The prison is a grim, overcrowded block housing mostly murderers and drug dealers with up to 20 women per cell

'It will help everybody, I think. It will help everybody': Ms Faulkner's lawyer says that if Mr Elamine drops the personal kidnapping charges against her, it will have a favourable flow-on effect for the whole team

Sally Faulkner's lawyer has reportedly said she was paid for by the Nine Network and had used money given to her by 60 Minutes to the child recovery agency, Child Abduction Recovery International

Veteran journalist Stephen Rice (left), David Ballment (centre) and Benjamin Williamson (right) are also in custody in Lebanon

In her only interview on the matter so far, Ms Faulkner told The Australian on Friday she was doing well behind bars at Baabda Central Women's Prison in south-eastern Beirut.

'Please tell my mum and dad how well I am and also [husband] Brendan and my in-laws,' she said. Ms Brown is also behind bars at the prison.

'I am fine but my loved ones need to know that.'

The Channel Nine TV crew was planning to film Faulkner's attempt to retrieve her children Noah, three, and Lahela, five, from her ex-husband Ali Elamine, who she claims kept them in Lebanon without her permission.

Prosecutors had earlier claimed they had a signed statement from a member of the recovery team saying Nine had paid $115,000 for the operation.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has told The Project that she is in 'constant contact' with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil regarding the case.

CCTV footage supplied by Lebanese authorities appeared to show the bungled kidnapping earlier this week




Tony Blair faced questions today about his links to Kazakhstan and its president

Tony Blair advised the president of Kazakhstan to present the killing of oil workers as 'tragic' but not something which should 'obscure' real progress made in the country, it was claimed today.

The former prime minister gave his advice to Nursultan Nazarbayev before his company, Tony Blair Associates, began contributing to work on a vast transformation of a stretch of Caspian Sea coast into a massive tourist resort.

Mr Blair's controversial links to Kazakhstan came after police in the country were accused of massacring oil workers in the region in 2011.

The claims emerged after Mr Blair faced new questions about his earnings since he left Downing Street and suggestions he used a secret trust to manage his multi-million pound fortune.

The Times today said Mr Blair has visited Kazakhstan on several occasions since 2014 to meet with and offer advice to President Nazarbayev in a deal worth 'millions' of pounds.

The paper also claimed Mr Blair's firm struck a deal in 2014 with the Mangystau regional government to work on the tourist resort.

Mr Blair's office today said he was not paid personally by President Nazarbayev but the fee 'primarily funds the team on the ground as well as other support staff and hiring other consultants as necessary'.

On the Mangystau contract, they added: 'Tony Blairs office has completed this project to help build capacity to attract investment and improve accountability as Mangystau sought to deliver better services for its citizens.

'The work in Mangystau was absolutely in line with the work many international bodies do there and important for the development of Kazakhstan in a direction entirely consistent with Western values unless you are alleging that it is wrong for people to work in Kazakhstan.'

Hugh Williamson, director of the European and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch, told The Times: 'Mr Blair has said publicly that he sees his mandate in Kazakhstan as to do good for the country rather than just to raise money for his own operations, so we feel it's appropriate and necessary for him to be raising human rights issues.

'We've got no evidence he has been doing so [and] we see the danger if he doesn't do so as whitewashing the image of the government.'

At least 14 people died in the town of Zhanaozen, in Mangystau, in December 2011 when police fired on striking oil workers.

Several months after the incident, Mr Blair sent President Nazarbayev a note ahead of a speech he was due to make at Cambridge University.

He suggested the Kazakh leader say of the deaths that 'tragic though they were, should not obscure the enormous progress' made in the country.

Mr Blair invited President Nazarbayev to Downing Street in 2006 while he was still Prime Minister, pictured

On an earlier occasion, Mr Blair reportedly said: 'There was a very violent confrontation and people died.

'It was a terrible thing, but nearly all the people associated with that have moved on or changed.'

The latest claims emerged with Mr Blair facing questions about allegations he used a secret trust to manage his multi-million-pound wealth after contact with Britain's top taxman.

Two of the former premier's advisers claimed Dave Hartnett, head of Revenue & Customs, was approached by a consultant hired by Mr Blair's lawyers about the controversial trust.

Its existence raised questions on whether the alleged access amounted to special treatment by senior tax officials.

Senior politicians demanded an inquiry into the 'special treatment' of high-profile individuals by Britain's tax investigators, HMRC.

The new questions come a day after Tory David Davis, pictured, raised questions about Mr Blair's financial arrangements

Tory MP David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, questioned what private discussions might have taken place.

He said that 'these arrangements appear to have been put in place without any proper scrutiny, and are not available to ordinary taxpayers'.

Mr Davis said he would write to the public accounts committee calling for 'an inquiry into special treatment of high-profile individuals by HMRC'.

Tory MP David Mowat, who sits on the PAC, told the Sun on Sunday: 'It would be wrong if senior well connected individuals got different tax treatment from the Inland Revenue than the rest of us.'

According to an investigation by The Times, discussions with HMRC officials, which took place shortly after Mr Blair left office a decade ago, included how his advisers would treat the trust for tax purposes.

They told undercover reporters that Mr Blair had used the interest-in-possession (IIP) trust to receive payments from his consultancy work, including with controversial regimes.

The trust sits at the heart of his business empire and had remained secret.
When Manchester United conceded three goals in less than ten minutes to Tottenham Hotspur last week it was all too much for this young fan.

His team were dealt a mighty blow to their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League after they lost to Spurs in a crucial Premier League clash.

While supporters of the north London club were jumping for joy the sight of the scoreline on TV was just too tough for the little boy to handle, and when he burst into tears his mum cunningly captured his outburst on her phone.

Her son pointed at the scoreboard while the match was in its 86th minute, and it is hard not to let out a laugh at the hilarious exchange he then had with his mother, unless you are a United supporter.

Too tough to handle: After Manchester United conceded three goals in less than ten minutes to Tottenham Hotspur it was all too much for this young supporter

The boy said: 'Tottenham three, and Manchester United zero,' after he walked over to the screen, showing Spurs winger Nacer Chadli on the side-line before his substitution.

'Why are they zero?' questions his mother as she stands beside her son.

Charmingly he responds: 'Because they didn't try their hardest.'

His team let in three goals in less than ten minutes after England International Dele Alli broke the deadlock in the 70th minute.

Then the boy's mother said: 'I'm sorry, you should have been playing then,' before her son amusingly stated: 'Yes I was playing but people kept on pushing me and shovelling me.'

As Chadli went on to the pitch to replace Erik Lamela, who had scored Tottenham's third and final goal, the mother said: 'Ok next time Manchester is going to win okay? No crying son.'

Crushing blow: The boy bursts into tears after he cannot believe the scoreline on the television

Luckily for him the club managed to clinch victory against West Ham in their next match, sending them through to the FA Cup semi-final, but the boy was not to know.

He said: 'I don't like it,' as the tears continued to flow.

'You don't like it? Okay no more watching Manchester games now', his mother cruelly joked.

He responded: 'But I want to watch it though,' before his mum said: 'Okay so what are you going to do now, are you still going to continue crying?' in an attempt to calm him down.

'They didn't try their hardest!' His mother cunningly captures her son's outburst during the match which many Manchester United fans will empathise with

'Yes because I still think they could score another goal,' said her son whose prediction did not come true.

Manchester United are locked in a battle to gain the crucial fourth place in the Premier League, which would likely see them qualify for the Champions League next season.
MailOnline travels to the West African country with Street Child ahead of the launch of the Girls Speak Out campaign, which aims to get some 20,000 Sierra Leonian girls stay in school and get a quality education

Many end up pregnant and abandoned, taking the lowest paid work in order to feed themselves and their child

Some girls become prostitutes, while others are preyed on by men in the community who promise to pay their fees

, some teenage girls are forced to make a stark choice: sell sex in return for schooling

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Aminata bows her head as she admits, in a low voice, how she made her money: at just 15, she was working as a prostitute, seeing as many as three clients a night.

But it is what comes next - the reason she found herself on the streets, forced to sell her body - which is truly chilling.

Aminata wanted to go to school, and this was the only way she could afford the fees.

This is Sierra Leone, one of the world's poorest countries, where the 40 a year price tag on education makes it a privilege - and it is an amount many families simply cannot afford.

It forces some of the most vulnerable, like Aminata, to make an exchange no young girl should ever have to make: sex in return for education.

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Pregnant: Aminata used the money to pay her school fees, as well as feed and clothe herself. But it all came crashing down when she got pregnant, despite having used contraception. Now 17, she is no longer in school - but is desperate to return

Trapped: Adama (pictured) is about five months pregnant. She began sleeping with a man after he promised to give her food when her aunt - who used her as a domestic servant from about the age of 10 - decided to stop feeding her

Stark: Aminata (right) was just 15 when she first became a prostitute, working the streets at night and going to school during the day

Aminata found herself making the choice after her family decided they could no longer afford to support her, and she found herself very much alone.

On a good night she could earn as much as 9, but that meant seeing three clients.

With that, she had to feed, clothe and put herself through school  buying uniform, books and paying the fees.

I was not feeling good about it, but I had no other option  there was nobody to support me, she told MailOnline ahead of the launch of Street Child's new Girls Speak Out Campaign launched today.

I was on the street, I was engaged in child sex work. It was to raise my funds to go to school.

At school, Aminata was doing her best to pretend like everything was fine. No one knew how she was surviving, not even, it seems, the friends who she was staying with.

And then the pretence crumbled: Aminata got pregnant, and there was no more hiding. School became a thing of the past  another girl dropping out of a system which sees 20 per cent of men reach at least secondary education, compared to just 9.5 per cent of women, according to the UNODC.

It is one of the biggest ironies for girls like these: the need for education forces them into sex, but in the vast majority of cases pregnancy will end their schooling altogether.

If a young girl gets pregnant while she is at school, it is actually has a lot of negativity possibilities for her, Sia Lajaku-Williams, operations director of Street Child of Sierra Leone told MailOnline.

Usually her family will drive her out. They will stop all support. The girls start suffering from that point.

'And when they have the baby, they struggle to take care of that baby. Rarely do you have a boyfriend who is supportive.

Just feeding themselves is a challenge. It is more day to day survival. There is nothing left for school.'

Smart: Marie, 16, pictured with her one-year-old son, came top in her class in Sierra Leone's equivalent of GCSEs, but she was forced to stop going to school after her parents separated and her father refused to keep paying the fees for Marie and her younger sister

Desperation: After two months selling goods on the streets of the slum where she lived, a boy Marie knew made a deal with her. If she slept with him, he would pay her school fees. 'I'm not stupid,' she told MailOnline. 'But I wanted to be educated. He gave me hope'

A little distance away, Marie knows exactly what Sia is talking about.

A bright and articulate 16-year-old - who chats away in English as well as her native Krio - sits on the family porch, cradling her young son.

I was betrayed. He had given me hope that my condition could change. When people get educated, their conditions change I just wanted to be like those who are educated. Marie, 16

It was not that I am stupid, Marie tells MailOnline. I came top in my class in the BECE [Sierra Leones GCSE equivalent].

I wanted to be educated, I wanted to be a lawyer, it was my dream.

But my father wouldnt support me and I had to leave school... What was I meant to do?

Marie also grew up in the slums outside of Freetown  a place where children run around in ripped t-shirts, and mismatched shoes, outfits cobbled together from donations.

People here live on the edges  working the only jobs they can get, jobs which leave them always a step away from not having enough money to put food on the familys plates.

The sides of the roads are strewn with rubbish, houses are crammed together, and the extra little bit needed for school fees, uniforms and books is always at risk.

Which is how, at 14, Marie found herself peddling wares on the streets, to support her mother and younger sister after her parents separated.

For months, she was forced to make her living, while watching her former classmates trek to and from school in their brightly coloured uniforms.

And then, a boy approached her  possibly around 25, she says. Marie already knew him from the area.

A deal was struck: you sleep with me, and I will pay for your education.

Child: Marie was just 14 when she struck the deal. At 15, she gave birth to her little boy - and is now trapped in her house, unable to afford school after the boy disappeared. She now spends her day doing domestic work, looking after her son and helping her grandmother

Dreams: But Marie still dreams of becoming a lawyer. Street Child is hoping to help 500 girls like her return to some form of education

Marie is unequivocal. She knew exactly the bargain she was entering into  sex for schooling  and that this was a business arrangement. She knew her earning potential rose considerably for every year of school she managed to complete.Street Child estimates it could be by as much as 25 per cent a year. And Marie was desperate to become a lawyer.

I came to have feelings for him, she concedes eventually. But that was because of what he was doing for me. He gave me hope.

But I dont think he liked me.

When she became pregnant, his true colours showed.

He disappeared, leaving her dreams of a brighter future in tatters.

He was nowhere to be found, she said, speaking on the porch of the small hone she shares with her mother and baby son  a house with its windows blocked up with pieces of magazine, and barely a scrap of furniture inside. It is the home she had dreamed of leaving, but where she now spends every day, collecting water, cleaning and  once she has completed those chores  goes to help her grandmother, a wizened woman who sits at the edge of the dusty road selling the cakes she has made.

I was betrayed. He had given me hope that my condition could change. When people get educated, their conditions change I just wanted to be like those who are educated.

Servant: Adama was sent to live with her aunt near Freetown aged 10, because her family in the countryside believed she would have a brighter future in the city. But in reality the little girl became a domestic worker, cooking, cleaning and fetching water

Making money: At 13, her aunt decided she should also earn a living, so she was made to get up at 2am to walk the two hours to market to sell cooking utensils like these. It was terrifying, and she used to seek safety from danger near the tea sellers until first light

Adamas lover also ran when she became pregnant  but the deal she had struck with him was far more basic.

In return for sex, he was giving her food. School and education had long been a distant dream.

Adama had been sent to live with her aunt at the age of 10. The eldest of six, her mother had died shortly before. Going to her aunt's, who lived just outside Freetown with her three cousins, would, they believed, give her better access to an education.

The only way to make a living is to get an education, otherwise it is hard labour  thats where the girls go to the dump  or they take to the streets, just so they can survive. Sia Lajaku-Williams

The truth turned out to be far from it: Adama took the role of a domestic servant.

I was doing the laundry, cooking, cleaning, fetching the water, she explained..

But at least at first she did get to go to school, along with her cousins. It was short-lived: at 13, her aunt decided the work she did in the house wasnt enough. She needed to earn her keep, as well as do the chores.

So, at an age where most girls are sat in class, still hears away from even considering what job they may want to pursue, Adama was getting up at 2am to start the dangerous two hour walk to Freetown, her wares balancing precariously on her head.

We went in groups of three, and it would take us to around 4am to get there, she said. We would look for guys who were selling tea, because it was safe by them.

The nights were terrifying, she added, visibly reliving nights spent hiding from pimps, drug dealers and drunks.

School became something which happened maybe once a week, and then once a fortnight.

And if she couldn't make the treacherous journey, her aunt would refuse to feed her.

It left Adama was vulnerable: tired, scared and hungry  so when the man who approached her with the offer of food in return for sex, it wasn't a good deal, it was the only one.

He was the only person in the world who cared for me, she said. When he denied the baby was his, when he disappeared, I felt bad, I felt betrayed. Even if he had to go, he should have helped me to know where he is.

He just disappeared into the air.

And with him, her only source of income.

The only way to make a living is to get an education, otherwise it is hard labour  thats where the girls go to the dump  or they take to the streets, just so they can survive, explained Sia.

Education is really the opportunity for them, but where do you get the support?

There need to be other options. We need to let them know there is somewhere they can go. Having a baby is not the end.

Starving: Sometimes Adama did not feel well, and she couldn't go to market. On these days, her aunt would refuse to feed her. And then a man came along and offered her food in return for her being his girlfriend. He disappeared when she became pregnant

Making a difference: Adama has barely been to school, but still dreams of getting an education. It has been shown that for every extra year of secondary school, earnings can increase by 25 per cent for girls in Sierra Leone, pulling them out of poverty

Street Child is hoping it could be the support, however. Through its new Girls Speak Out campaign, it wants to send 500 pregnant teenagers back to school or into vocational training by providing the support they need.

And the impact of it cannot be underestimated.

Tom Dannatt, Street Childs CEO, said: 'Every year that a girl remains in education helps significantly improve her future earnings. This in turn results in better family planning and healthier children who are more likely to remain in education themselves, meaning that the entire nation will benefit from what we can achieve together.'

Adama is now five months pregnant, while Aminata is seven. Marie is busy bringing up her son. But all of them are hoping that they can benefit from the chance to return to school. Street Childs ambitious new appeal is designed to do exactly that  help break the cycle of poverty once and for all, by giving girls like these access to a safe and secure seat in the classroom.
Labour say there's a 'discussion about logistics' over Saturday's meeting - despite Obama's visit being planned for months

He is the leader of the free world but Jeremy Corbyn has yet to confirm whether he will accept an invitation to meet President Obama when he arrives in London later this week.

The White House has set aside a half an hour meeting with the Labour leader on Saturday as part of his farewell visit to the UK.

Mr Corbyn has been critical of Mr Obama's presidency - in particular his foreign policy, but he has also blasted the President for failing to close Guantanamo Bay or end capital punishment.

Labour leader (right) has yet to accept an invitation to meet with Barack Obama (left) during his visit to the UK later this week

When Mr Obama hailed the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, Mr Corbyn described his death as 'a tragedy' - saying the Al-Qaeda chief should have been put on trial.

Shortly before he entered the Labour leadership race last summer Mr Corbyn attacked Mr Obama for failing to deliver on his promise to release the British Guantanamo prisoner Shaker Aamer.

On a visit to Washington in May last year to lobby for Mr Aamer's release, he wrote an article along with Tory MPs David Davis and Andrew Mitchell titled 'Obama's Slap in Britain's Face'.

Mr Aamer was finally released from the Cuban prison in October - despite being cleared for release under Mr Obama in 2010.

When Mr Obama hailed the killing of Osama bin Laden (pictured) in 2011, Mr Corbyn described his death as 'a tragedy' - saying the Al-Qaeda chief should have been put on trial

Jeremy Corbyn has criticised President Obama for failing to close Guantanamo Bay (pictured)

Despite the visit of Mr Obama having been arranged for months, the Labour leader's office said there is a 'discussion around logistics' over a possible meeting on Saturday.

If the meeting does go ahead it is set to be one of the most awkward diplomatic exchanges since Ronald Reagan snubbed Neil Kinnock in the Oval Office.

Mr Obama is set to land in Britain on Thursday night as part of a farewell tour ahead of his departure as US President later this year.

He will hold bilateral meetings with David Cameron - the only world leader he calls his 'Bro'. The pair are expected to discuss counter-terrorism issues, ISIS, Russian aggression in Ukraine, Afghanistan and growth.

President Obama (pictured with his wife Michelle) will fly to the UK later this week for meetings with David Cameron and lunch with the Queen at Windsor Castle on Friday

Mr Obama will have lunch with the Queen on Friday to celebrate her 90th birthday.

But controversially the President is expected to make an intervention in EU referendum debate by urging British voters to stay in the EU.

The White House said he will express a view if he is asked to. But Mayor of London Boris Johnson has accused Mr Obama of 'hypocrisy' over the planned intervention, saying the Americans 'wouldn't dream of sharing their sovereignty'.

David Cameron and US President Barack Obama played table tennis during his 2011 visit to the UK

'The Americans don't accept foreign jurisdiction over any aspect of American life, and quite right, too,' he said.

House of Commons leader Chris Grayling insisted that the president did not 'understand' the situation the UK was in.

Today Chancellor George Osborne accused Brexit supporters of 'dishonesty' as he warned Britain would be 'permanently poorer' after leaving the EU.

He launched a fresh offensive in the increasingly bitter referendum battle as he published a Treasury assessment of the risks.

The 200-page dossier predicts that quitting would trigger a 6 per cent slump in GDP and cost every household 4,300 a year.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Osborne said the analysis by civil servants 'stepped away from the rhetoric' and 'set out the facts'.

Mr Obama is not the only foreign politician making interventions in the EU debate this week. Yesterday the French finance minister Emmanuel Macron questioned whether Britain would still be 'great' outside the EU.

He said the UK would be 'killed' in trade negotiations and warned that Britain would also struggle to negotiate beneficial trade terms with global powers such as China if was outside the Brussels trading bloc.

Mr Corbyn's apparent snub of Mr Obama came as he was accused of 'snobbery' after turning down tens of thousands of pounds in sponsorship from McDonald's.

The fast food giant wanted to display a stand at the party's conference in Liverpool this autumn backing British farm produce.

But the ruling National Executive Committee - which is dominated by allies of leader Jeremy Corbyn - rejected the offer.

FRENCH MINISTER QUESTIONS WHETHER BRITAIN WOULD STILL BE GREAT French finance minister Emmanuel Macron France's finance minister has raised doubts about whether Britain would still be 'great' outside the EU. Emmanuel Macron, who warned last week that the UK would still have to contribute to Brussels budgets even if it leaves, also said we would be 'killed' in trade negotiations. Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Mr Macron said: 'You are a great country and ... your future as a great country is not outside the EU, it's to be part of the club and to transform the EU with the other great countries.' Mr Macron said Britain would have a weaker hand in its negotiations with China over issues such as 'dumping' of cheap steel. 'I think UK is not about becoming Jersey or Guernsey. Today, you are strong because you are part of the EU,' he said. 'When you discuss your steel industry with China you are credible because you are part of the EU, not because you are just UK. You will be completely killed otherwise. 'You will never be in the situation to negotiate face to face with the Chinese because your domestic market is not relevant for the Chinese in comparison with their domestic market. EU is the first global domestic market.' Mr Macron renewed warnings that the agreement allowing British border controls on the French side of the Channel could be scrapped. He also admitted to fears that Brexit could only be the first departure from the EU. Advertisement

Vegetarian Jeremy Corbyn embroiled in 'snobbery' row after Labour turns down McDonald's sponsorship offer

The Labour leadership has been accused of 'snobbery' after turning down tens of thousands of pounds in sponsorship from McDonald's.

The fast food giant wanted to display a stand at the party's conference in Liverpool this autumn backing British farm produce.

But the ruling National Executive Committee - which is dominated by allies of leader Jeremy Corbyn - rejected the offer.

Labour's ruling National Executive Committee, dominated by allies of Jeremy Corbyn, refused the offer from McDonald's to provide a stand at party conference

Labour backbencher Wes Streeting, who once had a part-time job at McDonald's, criticised the decision.

"I'm exasperated that we should throw away 30,000 worth of sponsorship like this,' he told the Sun on Sunday.

"It smacks of a snobby attitude towards fast-food restaurants and people who work or eat at them."

In a pointed dig at Mr Corbyn, who has been a vegetarian for decades, he added: "McDonald's may not be the trendy falafel bar that some people in politics like to hang out at but it's enjoyed by families across the country."

The famous 'Golden Arches' of McDonald's

The Conservative Party and SNP have reportedly accepted offers from McDonald's to put on an "interactive experience" display in support of British farm produce at their conferences.

Asked why the bid for Labour's Liverpool conference was turned down, a party spokeswoman said: 'We do not comment on commercial decisions.'

Mr Corbyn ruffled feathers last year when he appointed vegan MP Kerry McCarthy as Labour's farming spokeswoman.

She has suggested that meat should be slapped with tobacco-style health warnings.

In a post on her personal blog, Ms McCarthy also revealed her dread of Christmas because meat is everywhere in huge quantities.

Her friends, who are normally nice and interesting and funny, suddenly start sharing pictures online of stuffing turkeys, smothering potatoes in beef fat and boiling ham in Coke, she wrote.

Miss McCarthy, who as shadow environment secretary is supposed to represent the food and farming industries, wrote the blog after spending a previous Christmas Day as usual with a bunch of meat-eaters.

She described the ordeal of fussing over them to make sure theyre not using the same serving utensils for the vegetables and the meat, and that the vegetarian gravy hasnt got muddled up with the ordinary gravy, and trying to help with the serving up and clearing away without having to get too up close and personal with bits of dead animals.

To be honest I got rather sick of it, she wrote in 2010, five years after becoming MP for Bristol East in a blog entitled A Vegan at Christmas.

And for the first time I felt, I dont really want to do this again. Yes, Christmas should be about spending time with family, but perhaps next year Ill just turn up in time to see them vegging out in front of Dr Who and EastEnders.
Farmers call for for Pilgrim's Pride to take more responsibility for the birds

Piles of dead birds are collected in buckets every day from the house

Disturbing undercover footage from one of America's biggest chicken farms has shed light on the appalling conditions in which the birds are kept.

Two contract farmers, Mike Weaver and Eric Hedrick from West Virginia, working for poultry behemoth, Pillgrim's Pride, decided to speak out about the treatment after the company sent a mysterious letter explaining that no one apart from 'essential people', should be allowed into their chicken houses.

They referenced confidentiality and biosecurity obligations. If the farmers violated this it would be considered a terminable offence.

Undercover: Equipped with secret cameras two farmers filmed inside the chicken houses - revealing the horrifying reality of chicken farming.

Vile: The gruesome footage shows close-ups of the dying, abandoned birds - some discolored dark red, purple and green and others a bloody mess of rotting flesh and feathers

The farmers and Pilgrim's Pride work using the method of integrated production, which means the farmers own the farms and chicken houses, while the company provides birds, feed and other inputs so the farmers can raise the birds.

The two men came forward to work with Leah Garces, the director of Compassion in World Farming USA, despite risks of losing their contracts and income to show to the world what exactly the company were hiding.

Equipped with secret cameras the brave men filmed inside the chicken houses - revealing the horrifying reality of chicken farming.

The gruesome footage shows close-ups of the dying, abandoned birds - some discolored dark red, purple and green and others a bloody mess of rotting flesh and feathers.

'About a year and a half ago we started getting gangrenous dermatitis, Hedrick explains to Garces - just one of the many problems facing chickens and their farmers.

'It's almost like the bird is eaten from the inside out, like its rotten from the inside out... alive,' he says.

Gangrenous dermatitis is a bacteria that infects soft tissue, causing disturbing skin lesions on chickens like the ones pictured in the video.

Fast-growing chicken breeds often have poor immune function, making them more susceptible to disease. Plus, the crowded, dirty, and warm environments they are kept in are perfect for such bacterial disease to thrive.

'They're ugly,' Hedrick adds, 'when you pick them up their skin moves underneath your hands.'

'We're not allowed to do anything with the birds unless it's approved by the company,' Hedrick says.

The video shows him walking among the chickens carrying two buckets, because, he explains to Garces, 'there are so many dead birds and it will take almost two buckets in get around the house in one trip.'

A second disease ravaging the birds is enteritis, which eats the lining of the intestine.

Brave: Two contract farmers, Mike Weaver and Eric Hedrick from West Virginia, working for poultry behemoth, Pillgrim's Pride, decided to speak out about the treatment after the company sent a mysterious letter explaining that no one apart from 'essential people', should be allowed into their chicken houses

Disgusting: 'About a year and a half ago we started getting gangrenous dermatitis, Hedrick explains to Garces - just one of the many problems facing chickens and their farmers. 'It's almost like the bird is eaten from the inside out, like its rotten from the inside out... alive'

Like rubbish: A large pile of of dead chickens next to a bucket also filled with corpses show shows the extent of the mortality in just one house

The reddened corpses of these chicken in the midst of the alive birds who cluck around their deceased companions.

A large pile of of dead chickens next to a bucket also filled with corpses show shows the extent of the mortality in just one house.

Helen Hedrick, another farmer, speaks of how when they went in there was 'bloody poop lying all over the floor' - a truly revolting sight.

She adds, 'Consumers do not know anything about their food or they would be disgusted and they wouldn't eat chicken at all, because I'm not sure I'm going to eat it anymore.'

Another problem for chickens is bad genetics. 'After the first week you start seeing a lot of chickens with leg sticking out to the side,' Weaver says.

'Some of the birds just grow so fast they've can't move too much.'

The disturbing footage shows one chicken with its legs so splayed it can hardly walk.

These chickens' legs just can't support their weight of their own unnaturally large breasts - developed especially for meat.

'They'll get up, they'll eat and they'll sit back down,' explains Hedrick, 'They can't stay up for any length of time.

Secret: The video shows him walking among the chickens carrying two buckets, because, he explains to Garces, 'there are so many dead birds and it will take almost two buckets in get around the house in one trip'

Deformed: Another problem for chickens is bad genetics. 'After the first week you start seeing a lot of chickens with leg sticking out to the side,' Weaver says

The disturbing footage shows one chicken with its legs so splayed it can hardly walk. These chickens' legs just can't support their weight of their own unnaturally large breasts - developed especially for meat

'It's like an 800lb person, they can't walk,' Weaver says.

The genetics of these birds are unnaturally played with to make a baby bird grow to the size of a full-size chicken in the space of just five weeks - a technique that helps keep the price of chicken low.

'It's heart and its frame cannot sustain this bird,' Hedrick points out, as the footage focuses on a sizeable, yet incredibly unhealthy looking chicken; its flesh too extended to be fully covered by feathers.

This fast growth can have other dire consequences for the birds, such as leg deformities, heart attacks, foodpad dermatitis, hockburns, and more.

On top of that, the birds are kept in overcrowded houses with no access to natural light or the outdoors, and denied enrichment that encourages natural behavior.

The farmers are shocked that deformities in the birds are happening on such a big scale.

However, bound by contract and living in debt, it's hard to blame the workers as they have no control over operations.

When explaining why he took the risk to film the houses Hedrick said: 'They have put us in such a place, we are one step from bankruptcy but we are going down fighting. So many family farmers are in the same place but don't want to say anything for the fear of retaliation.

'We don't want to lose everything we have and have fought to keep because of greedy corporate agriculture. The future is very grim for our children in agriculture. We should never have to worry how we were going to buy groceries for our family.

'This is why..........If not me then who, if not now then when?'

Gross: Helen Hedrick, another farmer, speaks of how when they went in there was 'bloody poop lying all over the floor' - a truly revolting sight

Risking everything: 'We're not allowed to do anything with the birds unless it's approved by the company,' Hedrick (right) says, speaking with Garces and Weaver

If it was up to him, Weaver says, he would change the genetics of the bird and making them more robust, and not just breed them for larger breasts. 'I would try to breed in natural immunities, and good bones and joints.'

Compassion in World Farming director Garces told MailOnline: 'When the farmers presented their footage to me, it was more horrific than I was prepared for- birds so diseased that they were rotting alive, their welfare so compromised by their fast growth rate that they could barely walk.

'The bravery of these farmers that risked everything to bring this story to the public cannot be celebrated enough.

'These animals are sentient beings, no less so than our dogs or cats. What the industry has done here is nothing short of morally repugnant and needs to be urgently overhauled.'

The team have called for Pilgrim's Pride to take more responsibility for their birds and encourage the public to get involved in speaking out.

Company spokesman, Cameron Bruett told MailOnline: 'Pilgrim's holds a fundamental belief that healthy birds result in high quality chicken products. Each day, thousands of family farmers across the country work hard to produce healthy chickens.

'Death loss can occur on farms, but this is rarely due to animal cruelty, as there is no economic or ethical incentive to purposely harm animals.

'We strive to treat our chickens with care and respect and train our contract growers annually on animal welfare. Pilgrim's technicians and veterinarians work alongside our growers to ensure that production practices promote animal well-being and result in healthy, wholesome products.

Genetically modified: 'It's heart and its frame cannot sustain this bird,' Hedrick points out, as the footage focuses on a sizeable, yet incredibly unhealthy looking chicken; its flesh too extended to be fully covered by feathers

No chance: Fast-growing chicken breeds often have poor immune function, making them more susceptible to disease. Plus, the crowded, dirty, and warm environments they are kept in are perfect for such bacterial disease to thrive

'No incident cited in recent media reports has impacted food safety or human health.

'Our commitment to the quality and safety of our products and the humane treatment of the animals under our care remains unfettered. We look forward to working with our growers to continue to produce the high quality products consumers have come to expect and enjoy from Pilgrim's.'

The company is yet to respond to Weaver and Hedrick regarding their future at Pilgrims.

Currently the Brazilian-owned, American food company is the second-largest chicken producer in the world and has the capacity to process more than 34 million birds per week for a total of more than over 7 billion pounds of live chicken annually - a number that cannot be obtained through natural farming techniques alone.

Fortunately there are some independent food label programs that have meaningful animal welfare standards.

Certification program, Global Animal Partnership (GAP), recently committed to slower-growth rate genetics and ensuring more space, enrichment, and natural light for all chickens by 2024.

The eight year phase-in applies to over 600 GAP rated farms and 277 million chickens. This is especially significant because Whole Foods Market requires all fresh and frozen chicken sold in their stores to be GAP certified.

Whole Foods announced its decision to sell chicken with more traditional genetics last month.

Horrible: Gangrenous dermatitis: 'It's almost like the bird is eaten from the inside out, like its rotten from the inside out... alive,' he says. 'They're ugly,' Hedrick adds, 'when you pick them up their skin moves underneath your hands'
Fans of murderer Oscar Pistorius prayed in court today as the 'Blade Runner' appeared for a sentencing hearing following a mystery hospital admission.

Despite his conviction for murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, the court in Pretoria granted the South African sprinter even greater freedoms while on bail.

According to a prison source, the 29-year-old spent much of Saturday in hospital, but would not give the reason. However, Pistorius looked well as he took his place in the dock at Pretorias High Court for a brief appearance, with his sister Aimee and father Henke sitting behind him.

A group of women at the back of the court muttered prayers for the fallen paralympian and some were carrying printed signs that said 'Je Suis Oscar'.

Disgraced Oscar Pistorius will be sentenced in June following his conviction for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a court heard. He is pictured arriving at the court in Pretoria this morning

A group of women at the back of the court muttered prayers for the fallen paralympian and some were carrying printed signs that said 'Je Suis Oscar'

The Paralympic gold medallist, known as 'Blade Runner' for the carbon fibre prosthetic blades he used to race, faces a minimum 15-year jail sentence

The 29-year-old appeared at the High Court in Pretoria this morning where he was told the hearing will take place between June 13 and June 17

A group of women at the back of the court muttered prayers for the fallen paralympian and some were carrying printed signs

Pistoriuss lawyer Samantha Jackson told the court how the double amputee was wearing his third tracking device, which he wears on his wrist, after repeated malfunctions  raising an alarm even when the killer is at home.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel did not oppose an application by Miss Jackson to relax conditions of Pistorius bail, which will now seem him free to leave his base at his uncles mansion without prior permission from police.

Pistorius is due to return to court in June to be sentenced for murder after the states successful appeal against a manslaughter sentence.

Last month it emerged that the athlete had been contacted by a man claiming to be able to quash his conviction in return for 12,000.

Pistorius reported the matter to police and agreed to be part of a sting operation which saw the runner agreeing to negotiate over a corrupt deal and led officers to arrest the man.

South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius arrives at Pretoria High Court for today's postponement hearing

The 29-year-old was told that his sentencing would take place between June 13 and June 17 this year

In December, The Supreme Court upgraded the Paralympian's sentence on appeal to murder from 'culpable homicide'

Supporters of Oscar Pistorius hold a banner reading 'Worldwide supporters of Oscar Pistorius' outside the High Court

The runner was last seen in public, in the court, before Christmas when he announced he was taking his case to South Africas ultimate tribunal, the Constitutional Court. However, his appeal was unanimously rejected.

Todays extension of his bail conditions suggests he has plans to travel ahead of his certain incarceration in two months time.

Under the bail terms, he can travel up to 13 miles from his home without permission from anyone between dawn and dusk. Beyond that, he has to notify the officer in his case, but not prison authorities.

A sentencing hearing starting on June 13 is expected to last some days during which the state and defence can call witnesses to give testimony about how long Pistorius should serve for the murder of his girlfriend in February 2013.

There is growing speculation that Pistorius himself may take the witness stand again  to face his nemesis Mr Nel during cross examination  to give himself the best chance of persuading the court that he is a changed man who should be spared a long spell behind bars.

The Paralympic gold medallist maintained that the law graduate-turned-model was shot after he mistook her for an intruder hiding in his bathroom

South African prosecutor Gerrie Nell (left) arrives at the Pretoria High Court for today's postponement hearing

Pistorius spent almost a week giving evidence in his own defence during his trial in 2014 and was grilled mercilessly by Mr Nel, who attempted to persuade the court that the double amputee had murdered his lover in cold blood after a furious row.

The Paralympic gold medallist maintained that the law graduate-turned-model was shot after he mistook her for an intruder hiding in his bathroom.

Judge Thokozile Masipa, whose conviction of manslaughter was overturned on appeal by the Supreme Court, will preside over Pistorius sentencing hearing.

A massive crowd was outside the High Court of supporters, members of the public gathered to see Pistorius as he arrived and left court within the space of an hour.

A loud group of mostly women, who claim their hero has been discriminated against over the horrific shooting of his girlfriend, shouted Viva Oscar Viva and waved supportive banners.

A lengthy international petition against his treatment has been sent to a number of influential organisations, including the United Nations.

Crowds held up banners including one carrying the names of supporters from more than 20 countries.

According to the website Sowetanlive, other placards read 'Global character assassination' and 'Oscar was abused and bullied in front of the world'.

The website quotes one supporter from the UK, Heather Malcherczyk, as saying she travelled to South Africa with friends to attend the court hearing.
The families of two Britons and an Irishman detained in Iraq on their return home from fighting Islamic State terrorists in Syria are pleading for their release.

Jac Holmes, 23, Joe Akerman, 37, and Joshua Molloy, 24, were arrested by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) after allegedly crossing into Iraq from Syria illegally.

'Their families are obviously incredibly worried,' pro-Kurdish rights campaigner, Mark Campbell, told MailOnline. 'They make a personal appeal to the KRG to release their sons.'

Arrested: The men, including Jac Holmes (pictured left) and Joe Akerman (right) had been fighting with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG)

Detained: Irishman Joshua Molloy, 24, was arrested by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq. The anti-ISIS fighter is pictured carrying the flag of his enemy

The men had been fighting with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria before deciding it was time to return home to their families.

The three men travelled to a closed border crossing and waited for help from the Iraqi Peshmerga - which never arrived.

'They were waiting there for a couple of weeks and they were getting increasingly exasperated,' Mr Campbell said.

'They decided to make their way on to the Shengal area. On Wednesday they arrived - Joe sent me a message.'

But contact with the fighters was lost, and several days later Mr Akerman's mother received a phone call informing her the three men had been arrested by KRG police.

'The latest news is they are being held somewhere in Erbil,' Mr Campbell said.

Anti-ISIS fighter: Jac Holmes first travelled to Syria in January 2015, despite no previous military training

He said they do not yet know why the men have been arrested, although it has been reported that they crossed into Iraq illegally. Mr Campbell said this is something Kurdish forces do regularly.

'They have been supporting the Kurdish people against ISIS and they really just want to come home and be with their families,' he added/

Former IT worker Mr Holmes, from Dorset, first travelled to Syria in January 2015, despite no previous military training.

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline last year, he said: 'I got sick of seeing what was going on while the British government and the rest of the West did nothing and most people knew nothing of the situation in the region, so I took it upon myself to come out here and do whatever I could to assist the people in their struggle.'

Mr Molloy, a former British Army soldier, from County Laois, Ireland, travelled to the Middle East in April last year.

In custody: It is believed the three men are being held in Erbil (pictured) following their arrests last week

His father Declan Molloy told Independent.ie: 'Joshua felt very strongly about what was happening to the minority groups in the Middle East, especially the Yazidis, but the conflict had recently become a lot more complex with Turkey and Russia getting involved, and we think Joshua thought he had played his part and was coming home.'

Mr Akerman is a former British Army soldier from Halifax, West Yorkshire.

A spokesman for the British and Foreign and Commonwealth Office told MailOnline: 'We are in contact with local authorities following the arrest of British nationals in Iraq.'

The men were among the Westerners fighting against the terror group in Syria.
A priceless diamond that is part of Queen Elizabeth's crown was given to Britain and not stolen, India's government told the country's Supreme Court.

The 108-carat Koh-i-Noor gem, which came into British hands during the colonial era, is the subject of a historic ownership dispute and has been claimed by at least four countries including India.

But during a suit seeking the jewell's return, India's Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said the 19th-century Sikh king Ranjit Singh had given the stone to the British.

The Queen Mother, pictured with then Princess Elizabeth, wearing the Koh-i-Noor gem in 1937

The 108-carat diamond once belonged to Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan and is stored in the Tower of London

India has said the gem was given to Britain and not stolen when it transferred to British hands in colonial times

'It was given voluntarily by Ranjit Singh to the British as compensation for help in the Sikh Wars. The Koh-i-Noor is not a stolen object,' he told the Supreme Court.

The court was hearing a suit filed by the All India Human Rights & Social Justice Front, a non-governmental organisation, seeking the diamond's return.

It asked the solicitor general to file an affidavit giving the government's stance on the issue.

The stone was presented to Queen Victoria in 1850 after the Anglo-Sikh wars in which Britain gained control of the Sikh empire of the Punjab, which is now split between Pakistan and India.

Singh in turn had taken it from an Afghan king who had sought sanctuary in India.

KOH-I-NOOR: THE 'MOUNTAIN OF LIGHT' JEWEL WITH A BLOODY PAST The diamond, shown as part of Queen Alexandra's 1902 crown, is now set in a Maltese Cross in the Queen Mother's crown The Koh-i-noor, which means 'Mountain of Light' in Urdu, was first recorded in 1306. A Hindu text at the time said: 'Only God or woman can wear it with impunity'. Rulers fought over it for centuries before Britain took it as part of the Treaty of Lahore, when it took control of the Punjab, in 1849. The jewel was seized by the Empire's East India Company as one of the spoils of war and presented to Queen Victoria in 1850. Prince Albert ordered the diamond, then weighing 186 carats, be recut to improve its brilliance. It was reduced in weight by 42 per cent and cut into an oval brilliant weighing 109 carats. The Koh-i-noor was then mounted into Victoria's crown among 2,000 other diamonds. It passed to consorts Queen Alexandra in 1902 and Queen Mary in 1911 for their coronation crowns and then to the late Queen Mother in 1937, being set in a Maltese Cross. The Queen Mother's crown is on display in the Tower of London with the Crown Jewels. It sat on top of her coffin as she lay in state in Westminster Hall in 2002. The diamond is the third largest in the Crown collection, behind the Cullinan 1 and 2 jewels cut from the Cullinan diamond - the largest rough diamond ever found. They are set in the Sovereign's sceptre with cross and the Imperial State Crown. Indian and Pakistani authorities have long demanded the diamond's return. In 1976, prime minister Jim Callaghan refused a request to hand it back, writing: 'I need not remind you of the various hands through which the stone has passed over the past two centuries, nor that explicit provision for its transfer to the British Crown was made in the peace treaty with the Maharajah of Lahore which concluded the war of 1849. 'I could not advise Her Majesty the Queen that it should be surrendered.' Advertisement

The diamond had been an heirloom of the Afghan monarchy and before then was in Persian royal hands, but its true origins remain a mystery.

Its name translates as 'Mountain of Light' and it is traditionally worn by a queen -- it is said to bring bad luck to any man who wears it.

In 1976 Britain refused a request to cede the diamond, citing the terms of the Anglo-Sikh peace treaty.

'I could not advise Her Majesty the Queen that it should be surrendered,' said Jim Callaghan, prime minister at the time.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has also said he would oppose returning the diamond.

'If you say yes to one you suddenly find the British Museum would be empty,' he told NDTV television in 2010.
Twitter users condemned their actions, arguing that they should be 'arrested and jailed' for today's stunt

Protesters covered the statues of Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson and Oliver Cromwell in breathing masks

Alison Garrigan, 29, and Luke Jones, 30, reached the top of Nelson's Column shortly before 9am this morning

Eight activists have been arrested this morning after the charity climbed a number of historic monuments

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Greenpeace activists scaled the top of Nelson's Column this morning in the charity's latest protest about air pollution - with eight being arrested across the capital.

The charity covered the faces of Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson, Oliver Cromwell, Queen Victoria and Sherlock Holmes with breathing masks in a protest about air quality in London.

But the most challenging was Admiral Lord Nelson, which towers 170ft above Trafalgar Square on top of Nelson's Column.

Alison Garrigan, 29, and Luke Jones, 30, started climbing the huge monument at 4am this morning and reached the top to attach the mask shortly before 9am.

Scroll down for video

Protest: The charity has targeted 17 monuments - including statues of Sir Winston Churchill, Oliver Cromwell and Queen Victoria - all of which are wearing masks across the capital. Luke Jones (pictured) places a mask on the statue of Lord Nelson in London's Trafalgar Square after he and another Greenpeace activist climbed the landmark as part of a morning of protests to highlight air pollution in Britain.

View from the top: A photograph was taken after activists scaled the 170ft tall column in Trafalgar Square this morning

Other environmental activists 'masked' a number of landmarks including the statue of Eros at Piccadilly Circus and the statue of Arsenal FC legend Thierry Henry outside the Emirates Stadium in north London.

Police were called at 4.10am this morning to a group of six protesters who were trying to climb Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.

At around 9am the protesters came down from the column and two were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.

Four people were arrested in Parliament Square shortly after 7am after attaching a mask to the statue of Oliver Cromwell, Metropolitan Police confirmed.

Two further arrests took place at the Duke of Wellington Memorial in Hyde Park Corner.

Greenpeace are calling for a clean air zone across the capital as they claim up to 10,000 people die from air pollution in London every year and 40,000 people across the UK.

They have targeted 17 statues across the capital and people have taken to social media to vent their anger at the stunt in central London.

Scott Boxley said: 'They better not damage the column or statue. Arrest them & jail them.'

Allan D.S. Smith added: 'I trust that the work-shy Greenpeace wasters illegally scaling Nelson's Column appreciate what a drain on police resources they are.'

However, Twitter user Ed Austin wrote: 'Well done @GreenpeaceUK! Air pollution in this country is an ever growing problem!'

Greenpeace are calling for a clean air a clean air zone across the capital as they claim up to 10,000 people die from air pollution in London every year and 40,000 people across the UK.

Greenpeace are calling for a clean air a clean air zone across the capital as they claim up to 10,000 people die from air pollution in London every year and 40,000 people across the UK

Four people were arrested in Parliament Square shortly after 7am after attaching a mask to the statue of Oliver Cromwell, Metropolitan Police confirmed. Two further arrests took place at the Duke of Wellington Memorial in Hyde Park Corner

Greenpeace campaigner Areeba Hamid said: 'Monitoring shows that if these statues were real people, many of them would often be breathing dangerous, illegal air.

'That's why we've given them face masks.

'Of course many millions of Londoners, including kids, are breathing that same air.'

The campaign hopes to attract the attention of the Mayoral candidates ahead of next month's election on May 5.

Areeba added: 'Kitting everyone out with face masks is not the solution, instead we need to see real political action from the new Mayor.

'We need a Clean Air Zone covering a large part of the city. Whoever wins the election has to stop the talk and start the action.'

A female protester attached a breathing mask to the statue of Sir Winston Churchill (left) while the statue of Sherlock Holmes was left wearing a similar mask (right)

Activists placed a breathing mask around the statue of Queen Victoria near Buckingham Palace in London this morning to demand action on air pollution

Greenpeace activists fit the Boudica statue at Westminster Bridge with an emergency face mask this morning

Alison Garrigan, 29, and Luke Jones, 30, started climbing Nelson's Column at 4am this morning and reached the top to attach the mask shortly before 9am. A total of eight people have now been arrested across the capital

A protester placed a breathing mask around the statue of Arsenal FC's leading goalscorer Thierry Henry outside the Emirates Stadium in north London this morning (left). Meanwhile, activists fit the Window Cleaner statue, outside Edgware Road Underground station, with a mask

Two Greenpeace protesters scaled the Oliver Cromwell statue (left) with Big Ben pictured in the background, while other activists climbed the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus this morning to demand action on air pollution (right)

Greenpeace activists fit a statue of Isaac Newton at The British Library with an emergency face mask to highlight air pollution in Britain. Meanwhile, the Achilles statue at Hyde Park was also fitted with a face mask

Greenpeace activists fit the London Pride statue (left), outside The National Theatre, with a breathing mask as part of a huge day of protests to demand action on air pollution. And the statue of Doctor Salter's Daughter was given an emergency face mask (right)

A Greenpeace activist fits the Young Dancer statue in Covent Garden with a face mask. Earlier this morning, a separate Greenpeace team eluded security and climbed over the fence around the Houses of Parliament to put another mask on Oliver Cromwell's statue

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'A total of eight people have been arrested following a series of protests in central London.

'At approximately 4.10am on Monday, 18 April police were called to a group of six protesters trying to climb Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.

'At around 9am the protesters came down from the column - two people were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.

'At approximately 6.25am two protesters scaled the Cromwell Statue in Parliament Square.

'Shortly after 7am both voluntarily came down and were arrested.

'Two other people were arrested at the scene in connection with this incident. All four were arrested for public order offences.

'At around 8.15am two people were arrested after scaling the Duke of Wellington Memorial in Hyde Park Corner. Both were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.
Jeremy Corbyn has risked ridicule by releasing a series of photographs of him at the helm of a ferry.

The Labour leader - whose resemblance to Captain Birdseye from adverts for the food firm has previously been noted - posted the images on his new Snapchat account.

The feed is intended to take advantage of his strong following among students and 20-somethings.

He has also joined Instagram, with one of his first forays showing a Tunnock's tea cake captioned 'on the road fuel'.

Captain Birdseye from the food firm's famous adverts, left, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn steering a ferry in Liverpool yesterday

The Snapchat posts showed the veteran left-winger on board a ferry in Liverpool yesterday, and taking a turn steering the vessel across the Mersey.

The pictures emerged amid questions about whether Mr Corbyn will snub US President Barack Obama when he visits Britain this week.

The White House has set aside a half an hour meeting with the Labour leader on Saturday as part of his farewell visit to the UK.

Mr Corbyn has been critical of Mr Obama's presidency - in particular his foreign policy, but he has also blasted the President for failing to close Guantanamo Bay or end capital punishment.

When Mr Obama hailed the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, Mr Corbyn described his death as 'a tragedy' - saying the Al-Qaeda chief should have been put on trial.

Shortly before he entered the Labour leadership race last summer Mr Corbyn attacked Mr Obama for failing to deliver on his promise to release the British Guantanamo prisoner Shaker Aamer.

On a visit to Washington in May last year to lobby for Mr Aamer's release, he wrote an article along with Tory MPs David Davis and Andrew Mitchell titled 'Obama's Slap in Britain's Face'.

Mr Corbyn surveys the horizon as he steers the ferry

Mr Aamer was finally released from the Cuban prison in October - despite being cleared for release under Mr Obama in 2010.

Despite the visit of Mr Obama having been arranged for months, the Labour leader's office said there is a 'discussion around logistics' over a possible meeting on Saturday.

If the meeting does go ahead it is set to be one of the most awkward diplomatic exchanges since Ronald Reagan snubbed Neil Kinnock in the Oval Office.

Mr Obama is set to land in Britain on Thursday night as part of a farewell tour ahead of his departure as US President later this year.

He will hold bilateral meetings with David Cameron - the only world leader he calls his 'Bro'. The pair are expected to discuss counter-terrorism issues, ISIS, Russian aggression in Ukraine, Afghanistan and growth.

Mr Obama will have lunch with the Queen on Friday to celebrate her 90th birthday.

But controversially the President is expected to make an intervention in EU referendum debate by urging British voters to stay in the EU.
Wei Wu (pictured), a corporate finance tutor at the University of Sydney's business school has, has apologised over the comments

A head tutor has been forced to resign from a top University over claims he called Chinese international students 'pigs' in a series of derogatory social media posts.

Wei Wu, a corporate finance tutor at the University of Sydney's business school has apologised over the 'abusive and hurtful' comments.

The Chinese-Australian PhD student resigned from his job on Monday after his posts sparked outrage and prompted an online petition urging people to 'stand against discrimination'.

He was accused of victimising students in posts on social networking site Weibo as well as appearing to burn a Chinese passport before throwing it in the toilet.

In screenshots from Wei Wu's Weibo account, he introduces himself as 'an Australian resident, Sydney University Business School finance PhD student', and says he received a 'full scholarship'.

He then goes on to say that he has been told by a Chinese international student he brought shame upon the Australian-Chinese community, before calling the student an 'international pig representative'.

'The Usyd finance course is very difficult, not sure how many international pigs will hire essay writer [sic] because of their low IQ,' read one of the posts, translated by a student who created the petition.

Mr Wu then posted a photo of his Australian citizenship certificate, and wrote about how proud he was to be Australian.

A later post showed what appears to be a Chinese passport, being burnt whilst being held with a pair of tongs over a toilet while it was still alight.

The Chinese-Australian PhD student at the University of Sydney has resigned from his post

This is one of the Weibo posts alleged to have come from the man - calling the international students 'pigs'

China does not recognise dual citizenship. It is unknown if the Chinese passport belonged to Mr. Wu or why the passport was destroyed.

In a statement, Mr Wu said: 'I would like to sincerely apologise for the inappropriate and disrespectful comments I made on the internet.

'I will refrain from such remarks in the future. I have also resigned from my employment at the University of Sydney.'

It has been claimed that Mr Wu's use of the word 'pig' could actually be referring to guanerdai - 'the second-generation [offspring] of [Communist Party] officials who have gone overseas to study'.

But despite this, Mr Wu's resignation was accepted by the business school after it concluded its investigation on Monday.

His comments were condemned by the Dean of the university's business school, Greg Whitwell.

He posted a photo of his Australian Citizenship certificate (left), while another post showed what appears to be a Chinese passport being burnt whilst being held with a pair of tongs over a toilet

The Sydney University Business Society has started a petition against the tutor's alleged 'racist comments'

'Racist, sexist or offensive language is not tolerated at the University of Sydney,' said Professor Whitwell.

Members of the Sydney University Business Society launched an online petition against the tutor's alleged 'racist comments' last week.

Dean of the University of Sydney Business School, Professor Greg Whitwell, confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the university was investigating allegations

'It has come to our attention that International Students of the University of Sydney, particularly those of the Business School, have been subject to frequent, harmful and racist remarks made by a Head Finance Tutor at the University of Sydney,' the society posted to Facebook.

'As the liaison between our students and the Business School, the Sydney University Business Society will not tolerate such racist behaviour, and will seek to hold those responsible, accountable for their actions.

In a later statement the Student Office Bearers of the USYD SRC said they were 'appalled'.

'We feel that it is extremely inappropriate for a University of Sydney staff to make such racist and discriminatory comments on a public platform, regardless of what ethnic background or nationality he is.

'Chinese international students community, who are the subject of Wu's comments, are extremely disappointed.

'They have demanded that the University dismiss WU on the grounds that he is no longer suitable to be a tutor,' the statement said,

Dean of the University of Sydney Business School, Professor Greg Whitwell, confirmed to Daily Mail Australia an investigation into the allegations was underway.

'The Business School and the University of Sydney note the allegations made against a tutor and views them extremely seriously.

'The Business School is currently investigating these allegations,' Mr Whitwell said.
Police in Washington state believe that the couple who 'suspiciously' disappeared and have been missing since the afternoon of April 11 have been killed.

Arlington couple Patrick Shunn, 45, and his wife Monique Patenuade, 46, were reported missing on Tuesday by neighbors who found their pets and livestock unattended, according to FOX News.

Now the authorities are asking for the public's help in tracking two ex-con suspects, brothers John, 53, and Tony Reed, 49, who detectives have tied to the disposal of the missing couple's vehicles.

John Reed was convicted in 1994 of attempting to elude a police vehicle, while Tony Reeds criminal history includes a 1989 drug conviction and a 1996 assault, as well as an attempt to elude a police vehicle in 1996. Court records also show Tony Reed was involved in burglary and theft.

Washington state couple, Patrick Shunn, 45 (left), and his wife, Monique Patenuade (left and right), 46, were reported missing on Tuesday by neighbors who found their pets and livestock unattended

Court records say the couple are currently involved in a legal dispute with neighbors whom Shunn and Patenaude claim to have repeatedly trespassed on their property (pictured) near the Stillaguamish River

Now the authorities are asking for the public's help in tracking two suspects, ex-con brothers John (left), 53, and Tony Reed (right), 49, who detectives have tied to the disposal of the missing couple's vehicles

Shunn and Patenuade lived just down the road from suspect John Reed. They neighbors had recently been in a dispute about tresspassing

John Reed, pictured above in a booking photo without facial hair, was convicted in 1994 of attempting to elude a police vehicle

John Reed was also quoted as one of the few surviving witnesses of a March 22, 2014, landslide that killed 43 people, according to the Seattle Times.

Snohomish County detectives and the Major Crimes Unit said the couple's disappearance, which provoked a statewide hunt, is considered 'suspicious and unusual'.

The search for the couple began after their vehicles - a tan 2000 Land Rover Discovery and a black 1995 Jeep - were found in a wooded area of Oso on Thursday, about four miles west of their Arlington home.

Authorities also found a vehicle that belongs to John Reed in Ellensburg on Saturday but the suspects' current location is unknown.

Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary said the two families lived nearby and were involved in a property dispute.

Court records show that the couple are currently involved in a legal dispute with neighbors whom Shunn and Patenaude claim to have repeatedly trespassed on their property near the Stillaguamish River with recreational vehicles and unleashed dogs.

The latest hearing for the case was scheduled for two weeks ago but was postponed until May, according to Heavy.

The defendant listed in the civil case, however, told the Seattle Times he didn't know anything about the couple's disappearance.

Fearing the worst: The search for the couple began after their vehicles, a tan 2000 Land Rover Discovery (pictured above) and a black 1995 Jeep (pictured below) were found in a wooded area of Oso

The Reed brothers, convicted felons, were seen on surveillance footage disposing of the vehicles on Saturday

Police found their Jeep and Land Rover off an embankment in the remote woods near Oso, about four miles west of their Arlington home

Feud: Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary said the two families lived nearby and were involved in some kind of property dispute

Snohomish Sheriff believes the men may be driving a 2007 Volkswagen EOS Coupes with Washington license plate AXH5106

Trenary said that anyone who sees either of the Reed brothers should call 911 and not approach them. They are considered armed and dangerous.

Trenary said they seen on video surveillance disposing of the vehicles discovered on Saturday.

The men may be driving a 2007 Volkswagen EOS Coupes with Washington license plate AXH5106.

Shunn went to work as usual at an aircraft-interior refurbishing firm in Kirkland on April 11 but failed to show up on Tuesday.

Snohomish County Sheriff's spokesperson Shari Ireton said 'nothing seemed amiss' inside their home.

Patenaude was last seen near the couples home around 1pm on April 11, and family members say both their cell phones have been turned off.

Shunn's brother Erik noted on Facebook on Wednesday that a neighbor had 'harassed Monique and is not a good guy.

Patenaude was last seen near the couples home around 1pm on April 11, and family members say her and Shunn's cell phones have been turned off

Shunn's brother, Erik, posted this photo of Shunn, and said it was the last photo that was taken of him, just a day before he went missing

The area around Shunn and Patenaude's home is wooded and someone remote, with neighbors down the road

'He is squatting on a property adjacent to Pat and Monique's,' Erik Shunn's post added. 'He is missing too and I think if they can find him, we will get some answers.'

Shunn's uncle, who is also named Patrick, told the Seattle Times that family members from Oregon were on their way to the couple's home Wednesday morning.

'Both vehicles are gone from the house and both cellphones have been shut off,' he said at the time.

Shunn and Patenaude met at Burning Man, a friend told CBC. Shunn's brother told CTV News that the couple married 'shortly after'.

Patenaude is a native of British Columbia while Shunn is American.

Cynthia Fawcett, Patenaude's friend of 25 years, described them as 'outdoorsy' and added: 'Monique is very regular with making sure her chickens get out at five in the morning. She would never leave her dog.'

The search for Shunn and Patenaude, continues. Anyone who has information should call the Snohomish County Sheriffs Office anonymous hotline at 425-388-3845.

Shunn's brother Erik noted on Facebook on Wednesday that a neighbor had 'harassed Monique and is not a good guy. Pictured above is Shunn and Patenaude's home

Shunn and Patenaude claim in the legal dispute that their neighbors would trespass on to their property with recreational vehicles and unleashed dogs
A hilarious court transcript has detailed the moment a no-nonsense judge had the last laugh when he came face-to-face with a man who had called him a 'f****** c***' with a 'saggy chin'.

Troy LaRue commented on a story about New Zealand Judge Allan Roberts announcing his retirement in January with a number of uncomplimentary remarks about Mr Roberts' appearance.

But just days later LaRue was summoned to attend court for more than $6,000 of unpaid driving fines and appeared before Judge Roberts at New Plymouth District Court.

The judge ordered him to read out the offensive Facebook post before telling him he could 'work off his laughter in the cells'.

A hilarious court transcript has detailed the moment Judge Allan Roberts (pictured) had the last laugh when he came face-to-face with a man who had called him a 'f****** c***' with a 'saggy chin'

LaRue commented on a story about New Zealand Judge Allan Roberts announcing his retirement in January with a number of uncomplimentary remarks about Mr Roberts' appearance

'Who are you talking about when you talk about, 'The f****** old c*** with the saggy old chin',' Judge Roberts said, according to the transcript which was posted on The Spinoff.

LaRue replied saying: 'Well, I guess I'm talking to you, sir.'

The judge has his revenge by telling LaRue: 'Now you're hardly a picture yourself are you?'

He then asked whether the defendant worked and when he replied saying he did not, the judge said: 'Right. You're otherwise indolent aren't you? Bone idle. Get it back off him.

LaRue was summoned to attend court for more than $6,000 of unpaid driving fines and appeared before Judge Roberts at New Plymouth District Court

The judge ordered him to read out the offensive Facebook post before telling him he could 'work off his laughter in the cells'

'One: Outstanding fines $6244 remitted. Two: Substitution 300 hours' community work. Work off your laughter in the cells while we get the order typed.'

LaRue apologised and said that he was intoxicated when he sent the message.

He told the court: 'I do apologise for that.'

But the judge responded saying: 'Damage done Mr La Rue. Don't give a toss.'
The British Airways plane that was struck by a drone was flying just 1,700 feet over the busy London borough of Richmond when it was hit by the aircraft - which could have taken it down.

The pilot reported being hit by 'a drone' above Richmond Park, police said today, as the Airbus A320 approached Heathrow with 132 passengers and five crew on board.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch launched a full investigation into the collision into flight BA727 from Geneva in Switzerland to Heathrow, which was hit at 12.38pm yesterday.

Police have searched the area below - in south west London - for debris but found nothing so far, and they are appealing for anyone in the area who finds 'identifiable' parts to come forward. No arrests have yet been made.

Chief Superintendent Martin Hendy, head of Metropolitan Police Service's Aviation Policing Command, said it illustrates the 'reckless, negligent and some times malicious use of drones'.

An investigation has been launched after an object hit the front of British Airways' G-EUYP, pictured, as it approached Heathrow's Terminal 5

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the pilot of the flight reported to police that he believed a drone, pictured, had struck the aircraft (stock image)

This drone, available for just 439.99, is capable of flying 2,000 metres from the remote - which is high enough to fly into the BA flight's path. There is no suggestion that this is the specific drone used

Other websites list dozens of products capable of flying up to 2,000 metres away form the pilot (pictured)

The incident - which has followed a number of near misses - has led to calls for a US-style register of drones, after an expert said police have 'no chance' of finding the pilot.

The plane was flying just 520 metres above the ground, and drones capable of going up to 1,000 metres away from the remote - putting it within the range of the BA flight - can be bought for as little as 280.

Justin Pringle, chief technology officer at Newcastle-based firm Drone Operations, said there is 'no chance' because drones are 'untraceable' without a register.

His comments come as other experts claim drones could be used for terror attacks; collisions are likely to become more common; and an MP wants more sophisticated models to require a licence.

He added: 'There doesn't have to be any registration on the drone, there's nothing that tells you where you got it from and ultimately someone has got one of these things and abused it.'

Mr Pringle warned that anyone can walk into a shop, hand over 1,000 and walk out with a drone.

'At no point have you had a conversation about safety or the rules and regulations attached to that vehicle,' he added.

Chris Phillips, former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, said that action is needed immediately because terrorists are now capable of attaching bombs to drones.

He said that as technology improves, they are carrying increasingly heavy loads, capable of doing more damage, and they can be programmed to fly to certain co-ordinates such as football stadiums.

Chris Phillips (pictured), former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, said that action is needed immediately because terrorists are now capable of attaching bombs to drones

Unless they are regulated, he believes Britain will may face an attack from terrorists, who stay ahead of the latest innovations to plan atrocities.

He said: 'I've been worried for years as you can actually fix payloads, such as a big explosive package, and programme it to take off and fly around to get to a designated point.

'From a terrorist perspective, you can get it to take off and by the time it hits, you could be on a plane to Syria. Yet you can buy them from the internet. There needs to be tighter restrictions.'

Yesterday's collision is not believed to be related to terror, but Association flight safety specialist Steve Landells, a former RAF and BA pilot, said it was 'a matter of time' before one happened.

POLICE LOOKING FOR DRONE PILOT FLYING NEAR KENT AIRPORT Police are investigating after a drone was spotted flying close an airfield on the same day another one hit a passenger plane carrying 137 people. A pilot of a light aircraft saw the flying object at 1,500 feet near Headcorn Aerodrome near Maidstone, Kent on Sunday afternoon. The sighting was reported to air traffic control at the airfield, who are understood to have radioed a warning to other pilots in the area and called in police. Officers in the area were alerted but police say the pilot of the drone was not located and it is not known where it was being flown from. Advertisement

He believes the number of hapless pilots with no idea of the rules surrounding commercial drones makes such accidents inevitable.

MP David Burrowes, who sits on the Home Affairs Select Committee, said that they can no longer be treated as an 'innocent leisure pursuit' because of the risk they pose to lives of people in the air.

He wants pilots to sign a mandatory register and even suggested that those flying more sophisticated models should need a licence.

Mr Burrowes, MP for Enfield Southgate, said: 'One of the problems for police is they havent got much chance of enforcing things if they dont know who owns these drones and so they need help to do this.,' reports The Evening Standard.

The voices today have added to growing calls for legislation on drones such as in the US, where any drone above 55lbs has to be registered with the Federal Drone Registration.

Transport Minister Robert Goodwill said the Government is looking at the possibility of introducing a similar registration scheme in the UK, a system also already in place in Ireland.

Drones capable of flying high enough to get into the path of yesterday's flight can now be bought for under 500 in shops such as Maplin and various online retailers.

MailOnline found one for sale for just 439.99 which can fly up to 2,000 metres away from the remote - high enough to hit the plane yesterday, flying at under 6,000ft (1.8km) when it was struck.

Regulations make it illegal to fly drones more than 7kg in weight in controlled airspace - usually around two miles within a large airport - but many aircraft are considerable lighter than that.

An image shows the route taken by the flight over London yesterday afternoon, during which time it was struck by an object shortly before landing

However, it is also illegal to fly planes more than 400 metres away from the pilot, according to the CAA, and the BA flight is believed to have been more than 1,000 metres in the air.

British Airways have so far refused to release any more information about the collision, saying only that it was checked by engineers when it landed and deemed safe for its next flight.

The airline will have to file a full report on the incident to the CAA within three days.

The Airbus A320 from Geneva was five to ten minutes away from landing at Heathrow when it was hit, but managed to land safely.

THEY CAN FLY 50MPH AT 6,000FT High-end drones can fly up to and beyond 6,000ft, travel up to 50mph and stay in the air for 25 minutes. They cost between 25 and 20,000, with electrical store Maplin alone reporting sales of more than 15,000 drones in the UK last year. Last year Domino's Pizza posted a video of a drone delivering a pizza, and online store Amazon has looked into using the technology to speed up deliveries. They are also used by broadcasters such as the BBC for filming. The US Air Force collected so much data from drones during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it employed 65,000 people just to process the information, while police in Texas use drones than can carry small weapons, including tasers. Advertisement

Pilots warn that drones  which are too small to appear on air traffic control radar screens  could destroy an airliner's engine or smash a cockpit windscreen.

Engineers also say a drone's lithium battery could catch fire if it hit the nose or other softer parts of an aircraft and became embedded.

While commercial jets can usually land with just one engine, smaller planes could be brought down by such a collision.

Commercial airline pilot Mike Wood said drones were becoming a growing problem, after a number of near misses over recent months.

He said: 'A drone could cause an engine failure if flown into it. That's obviously a concern, though airlines are able to fly on one engine. There is a real danger if one hit a light aircraft which could cause a crash.'

An anti-terror expert, who served in Afghanistan, said the incident illustrated the danger drones pose, as terrorist groups have been planning to use them to carry out attacks.

Richard Kemp said: 'Whether this turns out to be related to terrorism or not it is just one more Illustration of the enormous challenges facing out anti terror agencies daily,' reports The Sun.

He added: 'We know terrorists have for a long time sought to use drones to visit violence on innocent people and it a very real threat.'

Tens of thousands of drones, which cost as little as 25, have been bought in Britain in the past few years and can be operated without a licence or registration with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), as long as they are not used for commercial purposes.

THE 'DRONECODE': RULES SET OUT BY AVIATION AUTHORITY ON DRONES The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) sets the rules on the flying of drones under what is called an 'air navigation order'. The authority states a drone should never be flown near an airport or close to an aircraft, adding that it is a criminal offence 'to endanger the safety of an aircraft in flight'. Flying a drone near an airport could lead to a five-year prison sentence under current laws. The rules set out by the CAA's air navigation order state: An unmanned aircraft must never be flown beyond the normal unaided 'line of sight' of the person operating it - this is generally measured as 1,640ft horizontally or 400ft vertically

An unmanned aircraft fitted with a camera must always be flown at least 164ft distance away from a person, vehicle, building or structure

An unmanned aircraft fitted with a camera must not be flown within 492ft of a congested area or large group of people, such as a sporting event or concert

For commercial purposes, operators must have permission to fly a drone from the CAA Advertisement

The British Airline Pilots Association has called for the Department for Transport and the CAA to back research into the potential risks of collisions with a passenger jet.

Mr Landells, a former RAF and BA pilot, added: 'Frankly it was only a matter of time before we had a drone strike given the huge numbers being flown around by amateurs who don't understand the risks and the rules.

WHERE YOU ON THE PLANE? Were you on the plane? Contact James Dunn on 0203 615 1524 or email james.r.dunn@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement

'Much more education of drone users and enforcement of the rules is needed to ensure our skies remain safe from this threat.'

A Department for Transport spokesman said that the Government is leading efforts with international bodies to develop a 'stringent regulatory framework' on drone safety.

He added that police forces across the country have been given guidance and there will be a public consultation before an official government strategy is published later this year.

The BA jet was between five and ten minutes away from landing at Heathrow's Terminal 5 when it was struck at 12.50pm.

A CAA spokesman said: 'It is totally unacceptable to fly drones close to airports and anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including imprisonment.

The route of the flight, which took off from Geneva at 10.50am and landed in London at 12.31pm, is shown

British Airways said the aircraft was examined by engineers and cleared for its next flight following the incident (stock image)

'Drone users have to understand that when taking to the skies they are potentially flying close to one of the busiest areas of airspace in the world  a complex system that brings together all manner of aircraft, including passenger aeroplanes, military jets, helicopters, gliders and light aircraft. Anyone operating a drone must do so responsibly and observe all relevant rules and regulations.'

The strike is the latest in a string of incidents involving drones in British airspace.

CAN DRONES REALLY TAKE DOWN A PASSENGER PLANE? Although collisions are rare, there have been an increasing number of close calls as more and more inexperienced drone users take to the skies. On Sunday, a drone smashed into an Airbus A320 - carrying 132 passengers and five crew from Geneva - as it prepared to land at Heathrow Airport, yet flight BA727 landed safely minutes later. But Dai Whittingham, chief executive of the UK Flight Safety Committee, told MailOnline Travel that aircraft are currently not engineered to withstand being hit by solid items such as remote-control drones. In the event of a collision, the amount of energy, or mass and velocity, would determine the amount of damage caused to the plane, he said. Whittingham added: The faster the aircraft and the heavier and faster the drone, the greater the damage. It is also important to remember that drones are not like birds, which are flesh and blood and deform on impact. Drones contain a motor and a lithium battery  these batteries contain a lot of energy and are known to explode when damaged. Advertisement

A report last month by the UK Airprox Board (UKAB) found there were 23 near misses between drones and aircraft between April and October last year. They included one on September 22, when a Boeing 777 that had just taken off reported that a drone narrowly passed down its righthand side.

Investigators concluded that the drone was at the same height and within 80ft of the jet. A report was made to police but the drone operator was not traced.

Days later, a drone was flown within yards of an Airbus A319 landing at Heathrow. The jet was flying at 500ft and was on its final approach when the drone was spotted.

Philippa Oldham, from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, told the BBC last month that the risk would depend on several factors, such as the size and speed of the drone and the location of the collision.

'The impact potentially could be anything from nothing to a destruction of an engine,' she said.

Tony Tyler, of the International Air Transport Association, said: 'We cannot allow [drones] to be a hindrance or safety threat to commercial aviation. There is no denying that there is a real and growing threat to the safety of civilian aircraft.'

A Heathrow spokesman said last night: 'BA flight 727 from Geneva reported being struck by an unknown object as it entered its final approach towards Heathrow. The aircraft landed safely at Terminal 5.

'The safety and security of our operation is our absolute priority and we are working with British Airways and the Met police who are carrying out a full investigation.'

A BA spokesman added: 'Our aircraft landed safely, was fully examined by our engineers and it was cleared to operate its next flight.

'Safety and security are always our first priority and we will give the police every assistance with their investigation.'

EYES IN THE SKY: HOW DRONES HAVE CAUSED A SERIES OF NEAR MISSES The UK Airprox Board has recorded several cases of drones almost causing mid-air crashes with aircraft in the past year. Many passenger jets have avoided collisions by a matter of feet either by chance or by the pilot spotting the unmanned crafts and taking evasive action. Here are some of the most notable incidents: August 12, 2015 - An Airbus 310 approaching landing at Heathrow reported seeing a drone below his aircraft. October 4, 2015 - The pilot of Boeing 777 reported seeing an unidentified object, likely to be a drone, pass very close to the left-hand side of the aircraft while landing at Heathrow. The object was only visible for a matter of seconds and no risk assessment was made. October 13, 2015 - The crew of an Airbus 380 reported a 2m-large drone taking evasive action after it was seen around 70m away while climbing to 2000ft upon departure from Heathrow. November 28, 2015 - An Airbus 319 flying above Richmond Park while coming in to land at Heathrow noticed a drone flying 'rapidly' from west to east between 400 and 900ft below the plane. It was decided the drone's flight path was of 'no risk' and the landing continued. The same day a drone was mistaken for a bird by the crew of an Airbus 321 landing at Gatwick, with the pilot noticing it at 100ft from touchdown but only realising what it was at 30ft from the ground. There was no collision but the pilot reported there would not have been time to take evasive action. December 6, 2015 - A drone passed overhead of an Embraer ERJ170 passenger plane by around 100ft while on final approach at London City Airport. Another aircraft following the same landing pattern changed its approach when the incident was flagged up. Advertisement
He plummeted towards the ground at a high speed due to his inexperience of the area and

After a heart-stopping tumble over jagged rocks a rookie paraglider was lucky to come out of the horrible crash alive as his dramatic head-cam footage shows.

Plummeting ever closer to the ground at too high a speed it appeared inevitable that Mihhail Lebedko was going to suffer a rough landing despite his valiant efforts to slow down.

Near the Geirangerfjord in Norway the glider was taken by surprise by a sudden change in the wind.

Heartstopping head-cam footage: Rookie paraglider Mihhail Lebedko crashes down onto the jagged rocks

He suddenly swooped towards the ground where there was no safe place to land.

Mihhail, who had only been paragliding for a year, missed a series of sharp rocks on top of a hill by just a matter of inches.

But he failed to make it over a road and stuck out his feet to prepare for a painful landing.

He caught the road barrier and descended into a terrifying spiral.

The speed of the impact sent him flying head over heels before rolling down over the rocks.

His fall was brought to an end by a thudding collision with the ground.

Travelling too fast: Near the Geirangerfjord in Norway he is taken by surprise by a sudden gust of wind

Crash landing: The glider stretches out his legs and prepares for a rough landing by a bend in the road below

Rookie mistake: Mihhail is new to the sport and did not have enough experience to cope with the high winds

Terrifying spiral: After catching the road barrier he descends into a terrifying spiral over the rocks

Pain-fall! He tumbles down head over heels over the pointy rocks as his dramatic head-cam footage shows

Mihhail's sunglasses were sent flying off his face by the crash.

He later said he could not walk for over a week afterwards: 'The fall itself was not painful but the real pain came 30 minutes later.

'When I finally managed to drag myself to the road, my friend picked me up and drove me to the hospital.

Thud! His fall is brought to an end with a thudding collision with the ground before he then dragged himself up to the road

Mihhail's sunglasses are sent flying from his face by the crash and said he could not walk for over a week afterwards

'Luckily, my legs were not broken but I had a lot of deep cuts and was bleeding quite heavily,' he said.

A combination of inexperience and a lack of knowledge of the area helped cause the accident.

Mihhail, a newcomer to the sport, explained: 'All of my mistakes were made because of a lack of meteorology knowledge.

Lucky to be alive: He is treated at the site by ambulance workers before being rushed off to hospital

'It was one of the first flights in this area and I was stupid enough to fly when the winds were too strong for my experience.

Thankfully he had a friend with him as usually the Norwegian flies alone.
Jailed for life: Dempsey Nibbs, 69, beheaded his estranged wife before crushing her skull and flushing it down a toilet in Hoxton, east London

A jealous husband was jailed for life today after beheading his estranged wife before crushing her skull and flushing it down a toilet.

Crane driver Dempsey Nibbs, 69, will serve a minimum of 21 years after being found guilty at the Old Bailey of murdering 60-year-old Judith Nibbs at their flat in Hoxton, east London.

She had told him she was having sex with at least eight other men - and he had also found chat records from Skype which showed how she had flashed her breasts to an online suitor.

The cancer sufferer has admitted that his ill health means he will die in jail, and the Recorder of London Nicholas Hilliard QC told him: I'm sure you don't regret your wife's death save for its effect on your own comfort and well-being.

Judge Hilliard rejected Mr Nibbs's claim he only initially 'tapped' his wife on the head with a metal bar to get her attention, and noted her tooth had been knocked out and swallowed with the root attached in the attack. He added that he left her breasts exposed to humiliate her even in death.

During a row in April 2014, he battered the Meals On Wheels worker over the head with an iron bar in an act of 'grotesque savagery' for ruining his plans to retire by the sea.

The court in London was told that Mrs Nibbs, who had two children with him, could have still been alive when he beheaded her because he could not stand the sight of her face.

Mr Nibbs had admitted killing Mrs Nibbs but denied murder, despite having no mental health issues. He showed no emotion as a jury found him guilty of the charge last Tuesday.

During the trial, the court heard how Mr Nibbs had become enraged after his vivacious partner of 30 years taunted him as their relationship fell apart by saying she had been seeing other men.

The fatal attack came just two days after mother-of-five Mrs Nibbs predicted her own killing after an earlier row, chillingly telling her colleagues as she left work: 'If I'm not in Friday, I might be dead.'

Mother-of-five: Mrs Nibbs (pictured), who had two children with Mr Nibbs, could have still been alive when he beheaded her because he could not stand the sight of her face, the Old Bailey heard

The pair had never married, but regarded one another as husband and wife and she had taken his last name. The court heard Mr Nibbs knocked her out with an iron bar before cutting her head off.

Then, when he realised the head was took big to flush away, he smashed it up with a hammer as he attempted to dispose of the pieces in the lavatory.

Afterwards, Mr Nibbs wrote a note to his 30-year-old son Kirk, who lived with the couple, and called 999 to say police would find two bodies at the property. They also had a daughter, Lauren, who was autistic and later went to live in a care home.

A police officer broke down the door when he saw Mrs Nibbs's headless body through the letterbox and bravely grappled a shotgun and knife from Mr Nibbs as he attempted to stab himself in the bathroom.

Mr Nibbs, who suffered from prostate and bladder cancer and had to wear a colostomy bag, said he killed his wife because he thought she was a 'snake' but jurors heard he had shown no signs of mental illness.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said the couple's relationship soured in spring 2014 when Mr Nibbs suspected his wife of having affairs, and he had begun drinking heavily after his cancer diagnosis.

During a row in April 2014, Mr Nibbs battered the Meals On Wheels worker over the head with an iron bar at their flat in Hoxton, east London (pictured as her body was carried out), for ruining his plans to retire by the sea

Their son said that since his mother no longer had to care for his younger sister, Mr Nibbs felt she had changed and was not 'the housewife' she used to be.

Mr Nibbs had moved into the spare room and an 'undercurrent of violence emerged' as the relationship fell apart.

He killed Mrs Nibbs (pictured), 60, after she told him she was having sex with at least eight other men

In early March, Mr Nibbs opened his own bank account after discovering she had transferred 20,000 out of their joint account into her account in May 2012.

Later that month, while Mrs Nibbs was visiting her sister in Preston, Lancashire, he asked Kirk to investigate her computer for evidence she was having an affair.

He found videos of her blowing kisses and saying 'I love you' as well as sexually explicit pictures which he stored in a file entitled 'Mum Slut'.

Mr Nibbs searched his wife's drawers and discovered bank transfer slips from their joint account to one in Morocco in the name of a close male friend and neighbour with whom she had gone on a road trip to Rabat in 2013, and stayed at his family home.

She had told Mr Nibbs she was visiting Europe with old school friends but then refused to show him any photos of the trip.

An examination of her computer was to show that she went on to exchange sexually explicit messages on Skype with another man called Khalid in Morocco, including chat logs which revealed she had flashed him images of her breasts.

Mrs Nibbs had confided in her sister and a colleague at Meals On Wheels that her husband - who was regarded as a model employee at Balfour Beatty - had threatened to kill her and grabbed her by the throat.

During a row on April 7, Mrs Nibbs, who was originally from Kirkham, near Preston, admitted seeing other men, taunting Mr Nibbs by saying: 'I have had sex eight times.'

The following day she made the grim prediction of her death to her colleagues at the Hackney Council-run meal delivery service.

Three days later, Mr Nibbs said he confronted his wife in the front room of their home, starting a row when she asked: 'What do you want' in what he described as 'an aggressive manner.'

I'm sure you don't regret your wife's death save for its effect on your own comfort and well-being The Recorder of London Nicholas Hilliard QC

Mr Nibbs said he had armed himself with a metal bar in case there was a struggle because his illness had left him too frail to defend himself.

'When I confront her I wouldn't let her get the better of me,' he had told the court, claiming he took a heavy metal bar with him 'to get her attention, like a threat.'

He added: 'I went up to her, she said What do you want? and I hit her. I just tapped her on the head, I tapped her to get her attention.'

Mr Nibbs claimed that his wife then lunged for his stomach area and yanked on his colostomy bag. He said he put the metal bar in her mouth to stop her screaming so they didn't disturb the neighbours.

Mr Nibbs told jurors he had not meant to kill his partner when he went to confront her over money taken from their bank account which he took as 'proof' of her infidelity.

After killing Mrs Nibbs, her husband wrote a note to his 30-year-old son Kirk, who lived with his parents, and called 999 to say police would find two bodies at the property in Hoxton (pictured)

He said he had only meant to 'slap her around a bit' and it was only after she was dead that he cut her head off in anger because she 'betrayed' him.

But the jury rejected his claim of self-defence and found him guilty of murder.

Mr Nibbs had calmly told the jury how he said he dragged his wife into the hallway where there was 'less clutter' and laid her on a tarpaulin bag.

Killed at 60: Mr Nibbs told jurors he had not meant to kill his partner (pictured) when he went to confront her over money taken from their bank account

'That's when I started to cut her head off. I used a knife. The knife was in the kitchen,' said softly-spoken Mr Nibbs. 'To be honest with you, if the toilet was big enough it was in my mind to take the head and flush it down the toilet. It wasn't big enough. That's why I had to smash it up.

Mr Nibbs said he scooped up the pieces, put them in a bag and placed them next to his wife's body.

He said he intended to kill himself and got in a bath with a shotgun after calling the police. But the gun misfired and he was stabbing himself in the chest when the police arrived.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett, QC, said: 'Quite why the defendant decapitated Judith and then disposed of her head is not entirely clear but it may well be that he did it out of pure hatred at the sight of his wife's face.'

Mrs Nibbs's sister Frances described her as a very kind and caring person in a statement on behalf of the family.

They were all shocked and devastated by her murder, she said, adding: Whatever problems there were in her relationship, Judith did not deserve to die in such a callous and brutal way.

Her son Kirk had been greatly affected by the trial and did not feel able to submit a victim impact statement, the court heard.

Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams from the Metropolitan Police, who led the investigation, said following the verdict last week: 'Dempsey Nibbs believed his wife was having an affair and used this misplaced jealously to launch a ferocious and brutal attack on Judith.
In an historic cabinet meeting in the occupied territory Golan Heights, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed 'never' to return the disputed region to Syria.

The Israeli Prime Minister delivered the impassioned speech during a cabinet meeting held in the Golan Heights for the first time.

He said the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights would 'forever' remain in his country's hands as his cabinet held its first meeting in the territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on April 17

'The Golan Heights will remain in the hands of Israel forever,' Netanyahu said at the start of the cabinet meeting, in comments broadcast on public radio.

'Israel will never withdraw from the Golan Heights.'

Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu planned the cabinet meeting as a statement amid fears Israel could come under pressure to return the Golan - which it seized from Syria in 1967 - as part of a future peace deal for its war-torn neighbour.

Haaretz newspaper quoted officials from Netanyahu's office as saying Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had demanded as part of peace talks that the Golan 'be considered occupied territory that must be returned to Syria'.

The Golan Heights in south-western Syria: Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Six-Day War

Urging the international community to recognise Israel's claim on the territory, Netanyahu said he told US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday night that it was doubtful Syria can return to what it was.

The premier also plans to meet President Vladimir Putin in Russia, a key backer of Assad, on Thursday.

'The time has come for the international community to recognise reality, especially two basic facts,' Netanyahu said.

'One, whatever is beyond the border, the boundary itself will not change. Two, after 50 years, the time has come for the international community to finally recognise that the Golan Heights will remain under Israel's sovereignty permanently.'

Israel fears the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah could establish a front against it along the Syrian border and that militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group could also pose a threat.

It is also concerned about the presence of its arch-enemy Iran in Syria, with Tehran supporting the Assad regime.

A sign shows the distance to Damascus and Baghdad at an army post on Mount Bental in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

Netanyahu's comments come amid a fragile ceasefire in Syria and indirect negotiations in Switzerland between Assad's regime and the opposition.

Brokered by Russia and the United States, the ceasefire deal does not include the fight against IS or Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.

A picture taken in January shows the Nimrod Fortress in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights

The truce had largely held across parts of Syria since late February, despite frequent accusations both sides were committing breaches.

But recent violence around Aleppo has sparked concerns the ceasefire may not last, partly because rebels are involved in the battles there too.

GOLAN HEIGHTS: THE DISPUTED TERRITORY Golan Heights was part of extreme southwestern Syria until 1967, when it came under Israeli military occupation, and in December 1981 Israel unilaterally annexed the part of the Golan it held. On the last two days (June 910, 1967) of the Six Day War, the Israeli armed forces, after defeating Egypt and Jordan, turned their attention to Syria. A disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria, signed following the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, established a United Nations buffer zone in the Golan Heights. Source: www.britannica.com Advertisement

Netanyahu said he told Kerry 'we will not oppose a diplomatic settlement in Syria, on condition that it not come at the expense of the security of the state of Israel.'

This meant 'that at the end of the day, the forces of Iran, Hezbollah and (IS) will be removed from Syrian soil,' he said.

More than 270,000 people have died since Syria's conflict broke out in 2011, and millions more have been forced to flee their homes.

Israel has sought to avoid being dragged into the conflict, though Netanyahu publicly acknowledged for the first time last week that it had attacked dozens of convoys transporting weapons in Syria destined for Hezbollah.

'We act when we have to act, including here, on the other side of the frontier, with dozens of strikes aimed at preventing Hezbollah from obtaining weapons that could alter the balance of power,' Netanyahu said while visiting troops in the Golan.
Illegal immigrant Shipon Ahmed has been jailed for causing grievous bodily harm to a five-year-old boy

A Bangladeshi illegal immigrant has been jailed after he smashed a five-year-old boy's thigh bone so badly that he 'looked like a car crash victim'.

Shipon Ahmed, 39, left the five-year-old child in excruciating pain in the horror attack that was described as 'an unbelievable act of brutality'.

Ahmed, who was in the UK illegally, claimed the child tripped over a toy but the youngster was too terrified to tell anyone what had happened to him, Bradford Crown Court court heard.

Sixteen days before he was tried for causing the child grievous bodily harm with intent, Ahmed glassed a man in the face in the Tequila Nightclub in Bradford.

Sentencing Ahmed, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told him: 'You really are not just a man of breathtaking arrogance - but you are a very violent person.

'You will be deported, I have no doubt. You will be sent back to Bangladesh.'

He was found guilty of both offences in separate trials.

A paediatric doctor said during the first trial that the boy had been swung by his leg, kicked or stamped on.

The judge said the strongest bone in his body had been 'cracked and separated, displaced and shattered.'

Speaking about the horrific injuries, Judge Hall said: 'It was an unbelievable act of brutality. His injuries were comparable to falling from a considerable height or being seriously hurt in a car crash.'

In the second attack, David Weglewski suffered massive blood loss, arterial damage and numerous lacerations after Ahmed attacked him at Tequila Nightclub in Bradford at 2am on December 5 last year.

He was taken by ambulance to the Major Trauma Ward at Leeds General Infirmary where shards of broken glass were surgically removed from his face.

Ahmed also attacked a man in Tequila Nightclub in Bradford (pictured)

The court heard that Ahmed attacked Mr Weglewski in a jealous rage after he asked his girlfriend to a party - and was then remanded in custody charged with a second Section 18 wounding.

Ahmed, of Bradford, was branded 'seriously dangerous' by Judge Hall and given an extended sentence of 18 years - 10 years for breaking the little boy's femur and five years for the glass attack.

The court heard Ahmed had sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies.

Judge Durham Hall extended the licence period by three years, telling Ahmed: 'You clearly are a very dangerous man.'
A two-person review board at the California Institution for Women in Chino deemed Van Houten 'suitable for parole' last week

Van Houten was not present when Sharon, who was just 26 and eight-months pregnant, was killed on August 9, 1969

The night before the LaBianca murders, Sharon was killed alongside four of her friends by followers of Manson

Van Houten, 66, was a follower of Charles Manson who was responsible for murdering supermarket heir Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary

, appeared on Good Morning America Monday to protest the parole of Leslie Van Houten

The sister of Sharon Tate is speaking out following the news that one of Charles Manson's followers has become eligible for parole.

Debra Tate appeared on Good Morning America on Monday, and told host Robin Roberts that it is 'mind boggling' to think that a member of the group who murdered her sister Sharon and six others in two separate massacres in August of 1969 would be allowed to walk free.

The Manson follower Debra is referring to is 66-year-old Leslie Van Houten, Manson's youngest disciple who was not there the night that Sharon was killed but was one of the individuals who went out the next night and murdered supermarket heir Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary.

Van Houten was deemed 'suitable for parole' earlier this month with a two-person review board at the California Institution for Women in Chino noting that she had taken and completed self-help programs, classes and counselling.

'I do believe in rehabilitation programs. It's good that she got those, but this woman is a monster,' said Debra.

She then motioned across the table to Roberts and said; 'I sat as far away from her as you and I are now. You can feel the vibe. They're still sociopathic individuals of great brutality.'

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Speaking out: Debra Tate (above), the sister of actress Sharon Tate, appeared on Good Morning America Monday to protest the parole of Leslie Van Houten

Tragedy: Sharon Tate (left at her 1968 wedding to Roman Polanski, right just days before she was killed) was 26 years old and eight-months pregnant when she was killed on August 9, 1969

Up for parole: Van Houten (above in her 2015 mugshot) was a follower of Charles Manson who was responsible for murdering supermarket heir Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary

'These people are domestic terrorists and once they're released they can go anywhere in the United States. Parole isn't even the catch net. We have to stop this before it happens,' Debra went on to say during the interview.

This is why Debra has started a petition on Change. org hoping to obtain enough signatures for California Governor Jerry Brown to deny Van Houten's parole.

'That's our only solace, that he will stop this parole in the case of Van Houten, said Debra.

Debra then spent some time talking about her sister, one of Hollywood's biggest stars at the time of her shocking murder.

'Sharon was physically a perfect specimen, but her heart and her soul were equally as beautiful, ' said Debra.

'Had she lived, and the rest of the people that died in her home that night ... they would have been philanthropic, they would have been of great service to humanity. They would have been a plus to society.

'And this monstrous group took the future of all of these individuals.'

Sharon was just 26 years old and eight-months pregnant on the night of August 9, 1969, when she was stabbed sixteen times and murdered along with her ex, hairdresser Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger and her writer boyfriend Voyteck Frytowski, and the 18-year-old caretaker at the property where they were all staying, Steven Parent.

The five were killed by Manson followers Linda Kasabian, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins and Charles 'Tex' Watson.

Sharon had been staying with the group at a home originally rented by Terry Melcher, a musician and record producer who was the son of famed actress Doris Day.

At the time of the murders Melcher and his girlfriend, actress Candace Bergen, had been staying at his mother's home in Malibu and Sharon and her husband, director Roman Polanski, had taken over the lease.

Polanski was supposed to be there that night but was unable to get the proper travel documents to travel out of London and had to delay his trip.

Cult leader: Charles Manson (above) appears in Los Angeles, California court on March 29, 1971

Senseless: Van Houten admitted holding a pillow over the head of Rosemary La Bianca (left) while other cult members stabbed her and husband Leno (right) to death

The next night, that same group was chosen to join Manson as they set out to kill the LaBiancas.

Van Houten was not picked to join the group, but asked if she could come along and join in the massacre.

Debra writes in her petition, aimed to keep Van Houten behind bars: 'Charles Manson's deranged "family," including Ms. Van Houten, broke into the home of Leno & Rosemary LaBianca on August 10, 1969.

Homecoming: Van Houten in her freshman year of high school in 1964 (above)

'Manson had gone into their home and tied the couple up. Van Houten placed a pillowcase over Mrs. LaBianca's head, tied it with a lamp cord, and held Mrs. LaBianca down so Patricia Krenwinkel could stab the innocent woman to death.

'When the knife bent on Mrs. LaBianca's collar bone, Van Houten held Mrs. LaBianca down so Tex Watson could come in and stab her.

'Then Van Houten stabbed Mrs. LaBianca in the lower back several times. Mrs. LaBianca was stabbed a total of 41 times.

'Words were written in blood on two walls and a refrigerator door. Van Houten then took a shower, stole one of LaBianca's dresses to wear and ate food from the refrigerator like it was her own home.

'For years Van Houten showed no remorse at all.

'When asked during her trial if she ever cried about the murder of Rosemary LaBianca, she replied: "Cry for her death? Why? She's not the only person who has died."'

Van Houten's defense lawyers portrayed her as a young woman from a good family who had been a homecoming princess and showed promise until she got involved with drugs and was recruited into Manson's cult.

She was convicted of murder but that conviction was overturned on appeal after her lawyer was found dead during the trial. Members of the Manson family took credit for the killing, but it is believed he died in a flash flood.

Van Houten was retried twice and ultimately convicted in 1978 of two counts of murder and conspiracy.

Her first retrial ended in a hung jury, and prior to her conviction in 1978 she was out on $200,000 bond - and even attended the Oscars with a friend.

In an interview with filmmaker John Waters, Van Houten was asked what she said to people that night when they asked her if she had seen any of the films.

'If someone brought up one of the nominees, I'd just say, "No, I missed that one" or "I was away when that was playing,'" said Van Houten.

Followers: Van Houten (pictured right along with fellow Charles Manson cult members Susan Atkins, left, and Patricia Krenwinkel, center) arrive in court in the summer of 1970

Followers: Van Houten (pictured right along with fellow Charles Manson cult members Susan Atkins, left, and Patricia Krenwinkel, center) arrive in court in August 1970 for assisting in the murders of Leno La Bianca and his wife Rosemary

Followers: Van Houten (pictured left along with fellow Charles Manson cult members Atkins,center and Krenwinkel, right) arrive in court in November 1970 to tell the judge they want to testify despite the advice of their lawyers

Followers: Van Houten (pictured right along with fellow Charles Manson cult members Susan Atkins, center, and Patricia Krenwinkel, right) leaves court after being convicted of first degree murder

Followers: Van Houten (pictured right along with fellow Charles Manson cult members Atkins, left, and Krenwinkel, center) laughs after being sentenced to death for her role in the murders

Followers: Van Houten (pictured left along with fellow Charles Manson cult members Atkins, right and Krenwinkel, center) arrives in court to hear the formal pronouncement of her death sentence

Van Houten, who launched her first parole attempt in 1979 and has applied for parole 20 times in total, recounted her part in the killing of the LaBiancas during her most recent hearing.

The former homecoming princess, who described herself as a hippy at the time of the murders, told of how she looked off into the distance until another Manson follower told her to do something before she joined in the stabbing.

During her five-hour testimony, Van Houten described Manson as a 'Christ-like man that had all the answers'.

She then went into graphic detail how she held down Rosemary LaBianca and secured a pillow with a lamp cord while another member of the Manson family stabbed her repeatedly.

Van Houten said: 'I don't let myself off the hook. I don't find parts in any of this that makes me feel the slightest bit good about myself.'

Parole Commissioner Ali Zarrinnam told Van Houten at the end of the hearing: 'Your behavior in prison speaks for itself. Forty-six years and not a single serious rule violation.'

The grandson of the LaBiancas, Tony LaMontagne. seemed to echo Debra's sentiments in an interview with CBS News last week.

'It's kind of surreal, to be honest with you, the whole thing,' said LaMontagne.

'I get off of the phone from the parole hearing, and the first thing I do is lay down on my couch and start bawling. It's just a flood of emotions.'

'My grandfather was 44 years old. His wife was 38. I'm 44. So, I grew up with these stories about how my grandfather was an old man. He had lived a long life. That would be like if I were to die right now,' he said.
The 14-year-old boy in the black school jacket stared at his shoes, his heart pounding, as the policeman accused him of stealing a piece of bread.

Even now, more than 30 years later, Choi Seung-woo weeps when he describes all that happened next.

The policeman yanked down the boy's pants and sparked a cigarette lighter near Choi's genitals until he confessed to a crime he didn't commit.

Then two men with clubs came and dragged Choi off to the Brothers Home, a mountainside institution where some of the worst human rights atrocities in modern South Korean history took place.

Nobody has been held accountable to date for the rapes and killings at the Brothers compound (pictured) in Busan, South Korea, an investigation has claimed. Children are pictured at the camp

A guard in Choi's dormitory raped him that night in 1982 - and the next, and the next. So began five hellish years of slave labour and near-daily assaults, years in which Choi saw men and women beaten to death, their bodies carted away like garbage.

Choi was one of thousands - the homeless, the drunk, but mostly children and the disabled - rounded up off the streets ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, which the ruling dictators saw as international validation of South Korea's arrival as a modern country.

An Associated Press investigation shows that the abuse of these so-called vagrants at Brothers, the largest of dozens of such facilities, was much more vicious and widespread than previously known, based on hundreds of exclusive documents and dozens of interviews with officials and former inmates.

Yet nobody has been held accountable to date for the rapes and killings at the Brothers compound because of a cover-up orchestrated at the highest levels of government, the AP found.

Two early attempts to investigate were suppressed by senior officials who went on to thrive in high-profile jobs; one remains a senior adviser to the current ruling party.

Products made using slave labour at Brothers were sent to Europe, Japan and possibly beyond, and the family that owned the institution continued to run welfare facilities and schools until just two years ago.

Even as South Korea prepares for its second Olympics, in 2018, thousands of traumatized former inmates have still received no compensation, let alone public recognition or an apology. The few who now speak out want a new investigation.

Thousands of children and the disabled were rounded up off the streets (pictured) ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympics and sent to camps such as the Brothers Home in Busan, South Korea

The current government, however, refuses to revisit the case, and is blocking a push by an opposition lawmaker to do so on the grounds that the evidence is too old.

Ahn Jeong-tae, an official from Seoul's Ministry of the Interior, said focusing on just one human rights incident would financially burden the government and set a bad precedent.

The Brothers' victims, he said, should have submitted their case to a temporary truth-finding commission established in the mid-2000s to investigate past atrocities.

'We can't make separate laws for every incident and there have been so many incidents since the Korean War,' Ahn said.

The government has consistently tried to bury what happened. How do you fight that?

Former inmates, however, cannot forget. One spent months standing quietly in front of the National Assembly with a signboard demanding justice. Choi has attempted suicide several times and now attends weekly therapy sessions.

'The government has consistently tried to bury what happened. How do you fight that? If we spoke up, who would have heard us?' he asked. 'I am wailing, desperate to tell our story. Please listen to us.'

Once an orphanage, Brothers Home at its peak had more than 20 factories churning out woodwork, metalwork, clothing, shoes and other goods made by mostly unpaid inmates.

The sprawling compound of concrete buildings rose above the southern port city of Busan, its inmates hidden from view by tall walls and kept there by guards who carried bats and patrolled with dogs.

The horrors that happened behind those walls are inextricably linked to South Korea's modern history.

The country at the time was still recovering from the near-total devastation of the 1950-53 Korean War, which followed nearly four decades of brutal Japanese colonization.

Once an orphanage, Brothers Home (pictured) at its peak had more than 20 factories churning out woodwork, metalwork, clothing, shoes and other goods made by mostly unpaid inmates

From the 1960s until the 1980s, before democracy, it was ruled by military dictators who focused overwhelmingly on improving the economy.

In 1975, dictator President Park Chung-hee, father of current President Park Geun-hye, issued a directive to police and local officials to 'purify' city streets of vagrants.

Police officers, assisted by shop owners, rounded up panhandlers, small-time street merchants selling gum and trinkets, the disabled, lost or unattended children, and dissidents, including a college student who'd been holding anti-government leaflets.

They ended up as prisoners at 36 nationwide facilities. By 1986, the number of inmates had jumped over five years from 8,600 to more than 16,000, according to government documents obtained by AP.

It was a hell within a hell. The patients had been left there to die Former Brothers inmate Lee Chae-sik

Nearly 4,000 were at Brothers. But about 90 percent of them didn't even meet the government's definition of 'vagrant' and therefore shouldn't have been confined there, former prosecutor Kim Yong Won told the AP, based on Brothers' records and interviews compiled before government officials ended his investigation.

The inner workings of Brothers are laid bare by former inmate Lee Chae-sik, who had extraordinary access as personal assistant to the man in charge of enforcing the rules. The AP independently verified many of the details provided by Lee, now 46, through government documents.

Lee was sent to Brothers at 13 after trouble at school. His first job was in a medical ward. Twice a day, Lee and four others, none of whom had medical training, would try to care for patients, often dousing their open wounds with disinfectant or removing maggots with tweezers.

'People screamed in pain, but we couldn't do much,' Lee said. 'It was a hell within a hell. The patients had been left there to die.'

Stronger inmates raped and beat the weak and stole their food, he said. Lee attempted suicide after a guard at the medical ward raped him.

A year later, he was made personal assistant to chief enforcer Kim Kwang-seok, who like other guards at Brothers was an inmate raised to power by the owner because of his loyalty. Many former inmates remember Kim as the facility's most feared man. The AP tried repeatedly to track Kim down but could not find him.

Adults worked on construction jobs, both at Brothers and off-site. Children sometimes hauled dirt and built walls, but mostly they assembled ballpoint pens and fishing hooks

Lee said he was present when Kim, a short, stocky man with sunburned skin, led near-daily, often fatal beatings at the compound's 'corrections room.' Lee accompanied Kim as he compiled a twice-a-day tally of the sick and dead for the owner; four or five daily deaths were often on the list.

A scene recounted by Lee provides a firsthand account of the efficient, almost casually evil way the facility worked.

One morning, Kim approached owner Park In-keun on his daily jog to report that yet another inmate had been beaten to death the night before. The boy heard Park order Kim to bury the body in the hills behind the compound's walls.

The violence at Brothers happened in the shadow of a massive money-making operation partly based on slave labour.

The factories were ostensibly meant to train inmates for future jobs. But by the end of 1986, Brothers saw a profit from 11 of them, according to Busan city government documents obtained exclusively by the AP.

The documents show that Brothers should have paid the current equivalent of $1.7million to more than 1,000 inmates for their dawn-to-dusk work over an unspecified period.

However, facility records and interviews with inmates at the time suggest that, instead, most of the nearly 4,000 people at Brothers were subject to forced labour without pay, according to prosecutor Kim.

Another probe at the time, quickly scrapped by the government, showed that 'nearly none' of about 100 inmates interviewed received payment. None of 20 former inmates interviewed by the AP received money while at Brothers either, though three got small payments later.

Adults worked on construction jobs, both at Brothers and off-site. Children sometimes hauled dirt and built walls, but mostly they assembled ballpoint pens and fishing hooks.

Choi Seung-woo (left) and Lee Chae-sik (right) talk as they examine what they say was a water tank left from the Brothers Home, a mountainside institution where some of the worst human rights atrocities in modern South Korean history took place, in Busan, South Korea

Some products were tied to other countries. For example, dress shirts made at Brothers' sewing factory were sent to Europe and inmates were trained by employees at Daewoo, a major clothing exporter during the 1980s to the United States and other markets, according to the owner's autobiography.

Park, the owner, said officials from Daewoo had toured the facility before offering a partnership. Daewoo International spokesman Kim Jin-ho said it was impossible to confirm such details because of a lack of records from the time.

Inmates during the 1970s recounted spending long hours tying fishing lines to hooks for packages with Japanese writing on them, for export to Japan.

Kim Hee-gon, an inmate at Brothers for eight years, said he and his colleagues were beaten severely in the early 1970s after thousands of such packages shipped to Japan were returned because they were faulty or missing hooks.

Park Gyeong-bo, who was confined at Brothers from 1975 to 1980, remembered sneaker bottoms produced with the logo of Kukje Sangsa, a now-defunct company that manufactured shoes for the United States and Europe in the 1970s and 80s.

The operation thrived because everybody benefited, except the inmates.

Local officials needed somewhere to put the vagrants they were charged with corralling, so each year they renewed a contract with Brothers that required an inspection of how the inmates were treated and of how the facility was financially managed.

Brothers got government subsidies based on its number of inmates, so it pushed police to round up more vagrants, the early probe found. And police officers were often promoted depending on how many vagrants they picked up.

Two Busan city officials would say only that the facts are difficult to confirm now because the facility closed three decades ago. Heo Gwi-yong, a spokesman for the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, said he couldn't confirm any details for the same reason.

The owner of Brothers, Park, received two state medals for social welfare achievements and sat on a government advisory panel. His version of his story even inspired a 1985 television drama about a man's heroic devotion to caring for what were called 'bottom-life people.'

Brothers Home owner Park In-keun (right) shakes hands with former South Korean dictator Chun Doo-hwan.

Park eventually served a short prison stint for embezzlement and other relatively minor charges, but not for the abuse at Brothers. When the facility was at last raided in 1987, investigators found a vault in Park's office filled with the current equivalent of about $5 million in U.S. and Japanese currencies and certificates of deposit.

In his autobiography, in court hearings and in talks with close associates, Park has denied wrongdoing and maintained that he simply followed government orders. Repeated attempts to contact him through family, friends and activists were unsuccessful.

The AP, however, tracked down the former second-highest management official at Brothers, Lim Young-soon, who bristled in a telephone interview at descriptions of corruption, violence and slavery at the facility.

Lim, a Protestant pastor now in Australia who is the brother of Park's wife, said Park was a 'devoted' social worker who made Busan better by cleaning its streets of troublemakers. He said Brothers' closure 'damaged national interests.'

Lim acknowledged beating deaths at Brothers, but said they were caused by clashes between inmates. He attributed the facility's high death toll to the many inmates he said arrived there in poor physical and mental health.

'These were people who would have died in the streets anyway,' Lim said.

On his second day at Brothers, still dazed from his brutal rape the night before, Choi waited with other children to be stripped and washed.

He said he watched a guard drag a woman by her hair and then beat her with a club until blood flowed from her head.

'I just stood there, trembling like a leaf,' Choi, 46, said. 'I couldn't even scream when the platoon leader later raped me again.'

Ex-inmates Choi and Lee Chae-sik stood on a concrete-covered former water reservoir that they think is the only remaining physical trace of Brothers

Another time, Choi recalled, he saw seven guards knock down a screaming man, cover him with a blue blanket and stomp and beat him. Blood seeped through the blanket. When it fell away, the dead man's eyes had rolled back into his head.

Death tallies compiled by the facility claimed 513 people died between 1975 and 1986; the real toll was almost certainly higher. Prosecutor Kim interviewed multiple inmates who said facility officials refused to send people to hospitals until they were nearly dead for fear of escape.

'The facility was Park's kingdom, and violence was how he ruled,' Kim said of the owner. 'When you are confined to a place where people are getting beaten to death every day, you aren't likely to complain too much about forced labor, abuse or getting raped.'

Most of the new arrivals at Brothers were in relatively good health, government documents show. Yet at least 15 inmates were dead within just a month of arrival in 1985, and 22 in 1986.

Of the more than 180 documented deaths at Brothers in 1985 and 1986, 55 of the death certificates were issued by a single doctor, Chung Myung-kuk, according to internal facility documents, interviews and records compiled by Kim. Chung, now dead, mostly listed the cause of death as 'heart failure' and 'general weakness.'

Life at Brothers began before dawn, as inmates washed and got ready for mandatory 5:30am prayers, transmitted by loudspeaker from the facility's Presbyterian church. After a morning run, they ate breakfast and then headed to factories or construction sites.

When city officials, foreign missionaries or aid workers visited, a select group of healthy inmates worked for hours to prepare a sanitized version of Brothers for the guests. Guards locked everyone else in their dormitories. Choi said inmates watched hopelessly as these clueless do-gooders trooped through.

On his second day at Brothers, still dazed from his brutal rape the night before, Choi waited with other children to be stripped and washed

On one occasion, Choi (left) recalled, he saw seven guards knock down a screaming man, cover him with a blue blanket and stomp and beat him

'We were trapped in a prison. But who could help us? No one,' Choi said.

Once the doors were locked at 6pm, Choi said, the guards unleashed 'uncontrolled violence' upon the 60 to 100 kids in his dormitory, including frequent rapes.

A principal at a Busan school who once taught at Brothers acknowledged that inmates were held against their will, and even called the facility a massive concentration camp.

However, the principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was worried about his reputation, staunchly defended its practices.

He said severe violence and military-style discipline were the only ways to run a place filled with thousands of unruly people who didn't want to be there.

Park Sun-yi, who had been snatched by police at age nine from a Busan train station in 1980, was one of the few to escape.

She had watched as the guards reserved their most ruthless beatings, the kind where inmates sometimes didn't recover, for those who tried to run. But after five years, she said, she became 'consumed with the thought that my life might be like this forever and that I might die here.'

She and five other girls used a broken saw from the ironwork factory to file away bars on a second-floor window at night, little by little, reattaching them with gum each morning. At last, they squeezed themselves out, scaled a wall embedded with broken glass and fled into the hills.

When she finally walked through the door of her family home in Munsan, she said, her father fainted.

While pheasant hunting, Kim, then a newly appointed prosecutor in the city of Ulsan, heard from his guide about men with wooden bats and large dogs guarding bedraggled prisoners on a nearby mountain.

When they drove there, the men said they were building a ranch for the owner of the Brothers Home in nearby Busan. Kim knew immediately, he said, that he'd stumbled onto 'a very serious crime.'

Former inmate Lee Chae-sik (pictured) walks up a hill behind a row of apartments at the former location of the Brothers Home - an area where he says bodies were buried

Choi said that on one occasion, guards unleashed 'uncontrolled violence' upon the 60 to 100 kids in his dormitory. Residents exercise at a school near an apartment complex at the former location of the Brothers Home

On a frigid January evening in 1987, Kim led 10 policemen in a surprise raid past the facility's high walls, imposing steel gates and gape-mouthed guards. Inside, he found battered and malnourished inmates locked in overcrowded dormitories. The inmates gave the unexpected visitors crisp, military-style salutes.

'I remember thinking, "This isn't a welfare facility; it's a concentration camp,"' Kim, now 61 and a managing partner at a Seoul law firm, said. People lay coughing and moaning in a squalid sick ward, 'just waiting to die.'

After the owner was arrested, he demanded a meeting with Kim's boss, the chief Busan prosecutor, who then supervised Ulsan.

A day later, Busan Mayor Kim Joo-ho, who died in 2014, called Kim to plead for Park's release. Kim said he politely declined and hung up.

At every turn, Kim said, high-ranking officials blocked his investigation, in part out of fear of an embarrassing international incident on the eve of the Olympics.

President Chun Doo-hwan, who took power in a coup after Park Chung-hee was assassinated, didn't need another scandal as he tried to fend off huge pro-democracy protests.

Internal prosecution records reveal several instances where Kim noted intense pressure from Chun's office to curb his probe and push for lighter punishment for the owner. Kim had to reassure presidential officials directly and regularly that his investigation wouldn't expand.

Park Hee-tae, then Busan's head prosecutor and later the nation's justice minister, relentlessly pushed to reduce the scope of the investigation, Kim said, including forcing him to stop his efforts to interview every inmate at Brothers.

Park, a senior adviser to the current ruling party, has repeatedly denied AP interview requests. His personal secretary said Park can't remember details about the investigation.

A prosecutor collected bank records and financial transactions indicating that, in 1985 and 1986 alone, the owner of Brothers embezzled what would be the current equivalent of more than $3million. Choi Seung-woo examines a lock on what he says was a water tank left from the Brothers Home

Despite interference, Kim eventually collected bank records and financial transactions indicating that, in 1985 and 1986 alone, the owner of Brothers embezzled what would be the current equivalent of more than $3million.

That came from about $10million of government subsidies meant to feed and clothe the inmates and maintain the facilities.

However, Kim said, the chief Busan prosecutor forced Kim to list the embezzlement as nearly half the amount he had actually found so that a life sentence couldn't be pursued under the law at the time.

Kim said his bosses also prevented him from charging the owner, Park, or anyone else for the suspected widespread abuse at the Brothers compound, and limited the prosecutor to pursuing much narrower abuse linked to the construction site Kim found while hunting.

Kim demanded a 15-year prison term for Park. After a lengthy battle, the Supreme Court in 1989 gave Park 2{ years in prison for embezzlement and violations of construction, grassland management and foreign currency laws.

He was acquitted of charges linked to off-site abuse. Only two guards received prison terms, one for 1{ years and another for eight months.

After prison, Park continued to earn money from welfare facilities and land sales. The Brothers site was purchased in 2001 by a construction company for what would now be about $27million, according to a copy of the land sale shown to the AP.

One of Park's daughters operated a school for troubled kids that closed in 2013. His family in 2014 sold a home for the severely disabled.

Kim Yong Won, the former prosecutor who was in charge of the Brothers Home case, speaks during an interview at his office in Seoul

It finally closed its gates in 1988. In the 1990s, construction labourers dug up about 100 human bones on the patch of mountain just outside where it stood, according to one of the workers who found the bones, Lee Jin-seob.

Blankets covering the bones and the lack of burial mounds made Lee think they'd been buried informally and quickly. It's unclear what happened to the remains.

On a recent trip to the site, which is now covered with tall apartment buildings, ex-inmates Choi and Lee Chae-sik stood on a concrete-covered former water reservoir that they think is the only remaining physical trace of Brothers. Both recalled the sight of guards carrying corpses into the woods.

'There could be hundreds of bodies still out there,' Lee said, pointing toward the steep slopes.

Inmates released from the facility ended up homeless and in shelters and mental institutions; many struggle with alcoholism, depression, rage, shame and poverty.

Choi, whose back is covered by a large tattoo from his time in a gang after he left Brothers, was imprisoned for assaulting a policeman.

The few former inmates who have begun speaking out want justice: an apology and an admission that officials encouraged police to kidnap and lock away people who shouldn't have been confined.
A cache of documents containing the personal information of ISIS militants has been analysed to reveal the bizarre backgrounds and personal circumstances of 22,000 jihadi fighters.

Among the recruits is a 70-year-old man who wished to fight on the battlefield, as well as a former beekeeper, a perfume salesman and a hashish dealer.

The treasure trove of data for security services battling the terror group also contains the names, nationalities, addresses, telephone numbers and family contacts for the fighters.

Cache: Briton Junaid Hussain, left, travelled to Syria from Birmingham in 2013, and was married to 'Mrs Terror' Sally Jones, and his ISIS file, right, were among 22,000 that were leaked

The memory stick revealed recruits had to fill in the 23-question registration card to be allowed into the group, also known as Daesh, including details like next of kin, and previous employment

Questionnaire: All ISIS fighters need to fill in a survey on their most personal details - including their bizarre and unique circumstances and professions

The documents - considered the 'biggest counter-terrorism breakthrough in years' - first emerged in March after they were leaked to Sky News and other new organisations.

With the help of military academy West Point, NBC News has now analysed the documents to create a comprehensive database of the organisation's volunteer ranks.

Perhaps most surprisingly, recruits with the deepest understanding of Islamic law were less inclined to be a suicide bomber - an act of warfare its advocates claim is justified on religious grounds.

Sourced from a disgruntled jihadi, they contained the details of at least 16 British fighters, including Birmingham hacker Junaid Hussain and Cardiff-born Reyaad Khan, who were both killed by a US drone last year.

Former UK intelligence chiefs described the documents as a 'goldmine' and it is believed to be the biggest ISIS intelligence haul ever uncovered.

Other details showed the average age of an ISIS was between 21 - 30, while there were handfuls of people in their 60s and in their teens.

The foreign country with the highest total of its citizens volunteering to the group was Saudi Arabia, though Tunisia had the highest per capita.

Notations on the bottom of some volunteers' files also offered extra detail for superiors to consider.

'Important, he has expertise in chemistry', one noted. Another detailed a volunteer's experience in bomb making, while one even said: 'His brother executed the metro operations in Madrid' - a reference to the 2004 Al-Qaeda train bombing in Spain.

THE 23 QUESTIONS EVERY ISIS FIGHTER IS ASKED BY THE GROUP 1. Name 2. Nom de guerre (fighter's name) 3. Mother's maiden name 4. Blood type 5. Date of birth and nationality 6. Marital status 7. Address and city/town/village of residence 8. Level of education 9. Level of Sharia understanding 10. Previous job title 11. Countries travelled through to Syria/Iraq 12. Area entered from 13. Whic ISIS member recommended them 14. Date of entry 15. Have they fought before and where 16. What role will they take in ISIS 17. Special skills 18. Place of work 19. Security deposit 20. Considered level of obedience 21. Contact telephone numbers 22. Date and place of death 23. Notes Advertisement

One man, a college student from Libya, left a message for family stating: 'Tell my mother and father to forgive me.'

Brian Dodwell, deputy director of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, told NBC News the analysis revealed the extreme diversity among ISIS recruits.

The thousands of fighters came from all walks of life, both in terms of their nationalities and ethnicity, as well as their 'life experience' such as international travel and levels of high schooling and university education.

The files also include British rapper Abdel Bary, a 26-year-old from London who joined IS in 2013 after visiting Libya, Egypt and Turkey.

The son of convicted terrorist Adel Abdul Bary, he was pictured in August last year holding the severed head of a captured Syrian army soldier who had been executed.

Security sources had suspicions that he was ISIS' executioner-in-chief Jihadi John before it was revealed to be Mohammed Emwaz, Bary's friend from West London.

Experts believe the files could be invaluable in tackling jihadists who have sneaked back into Europe intent on bringing bloodshed to the streets in 'enormous and spectacular' attacks.

The documents are from ISIS' entrance interviews, probably held in Raqqa, Syria, and show that the terror group has its own human resources department.

The documents also show the name of the ISIS 'fixer' who 'recommended' the individual on the form, giving spies a better idea of who runs the group's recruitment network.

And the forms also have the route they took to Syria or Iraq date, time and place of death if applicable, meaning security services now know exactly who has perished.

In a major coup for the West, a memory stick stolen from an ISIS leader by a disgruntled recruit was obtained by Sky News. The details it contains are understood to be authentic.

Recruits from at least 51 countries, including the UK, who travelled to the region to join the murderous terror organisation  notorious for its brutality, including beheadings, crucifixions and massacres  were ordered to give up their most sensitive information.

Details were logged on an extraordinary induction form.

Only when a recruit had filled in the 23-question registration card were they allowed into the group, also known as Daesh.

Questions on the form included date of birth, marital status, previous jobs, who recommended them, if they had fought before, what role they would take  for instance, 'fighter'  and any 'specialist skills'.

The forms even includes contact details for next of kin. Many of the names on the registration cards are well known.

Many of the names on the registration cards are well known - including a number of British fighters

A memory stick packed with the names, addresses, telephone numbers and family contacts of recruits has been discovered, and may include details of hundreds of British fighters

Another jihadi named in the documents is Junaid Hussain, a computer hacker from Birmingham who was head of Islamic State's media wing. Along with his wife, former punk Sally-Anne Jones, he plotted attacks against the UK.

TOP NATIONALITIES REVEALED IN LEAKED ISIS TREASURE TROVE Not all the fighters in the forms revealed their nationality, but of those who did, these are the top ones: 485 Saudi Arabia 375 Tunisia 140 Morocco 101 Egypt 35 France 18 Germany 16 Britain 4 USA 126 others from: Lebanon, Belgium, Australia, Netherlands, Russia, and Afghanistan Advertisement

He was killed after being targeted in a drone strike last August. His jihadi widow, known as 'Mrs Terror', has been put on a government list of the most dangerous British recruiters for Islamic State.

Some 700 British Muslims have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join IS and around half have returned to the UK, according to British spies, and may be plotting atrocities on the streets.

But the major breakthrough from the documents is the revealing of the identities of a number of previously unknown jihadis in the UK, northern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, the United States and Canada.

Their whereabouts are crucial to breaking the organisation and preventing further terror attacks.

Richard Barrett, a former MI6 global terrorism operations director, said the files could prove to be the 'biggest breakthrough in years' in the counter-terror fight.

He said: 'It will be an absolute gold mine of information of enormous significance and interest to very many people, particularly the security and intelligence services.'

Some 700 British Muslims have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS and around half have returned to the UK, according to British spies

Nationals from more than 51 countries including the UK filled in a 23-question 'registration' form as they were inducted into IS, according to Sky News, which obtained the data.

Many came from so-called terror 'hot spots' like Tunisia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen - although it appears the highest numbers came from Saudi Arabia.

ABDEL BARY: LONDON RAPPER TURNED VIOLENT JIHADI Adel Abdul Bary was initially suspected by MI5 of being Jihadi John before being ruled out The former rapper and son of convicted terrorist Adel Abdul Bary was initially suspected by MI5 of being Jihadi John before being ruled out. In August last year, Bary was pictured holding the severed head of a captured Syrian army soldier who had been executed. Underneath the image, posted on a social media account, Bary wrote: 'Chillin with my other homie, or what's left of him'. The 26-year-old, from Maida Vale in West London, joined Islamic State in 2013 after visiting Libya, Egypt and Turkey. His whereabouts are currently unknown. It is understood that he fell out of favour with ISIS last year and left Syria for Turkey. Bary is thought to have disguised himself as a refugee and escaped during the chaos of an ISIS retreat from Tal Abyad near the Turkey Syria border in June 2015. His father, who is believed to be closely linked to Osama Bin Laden, admitted working for Al Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad after being extradited to the US from Britain. Last February the 55-year-old was sentenced to 25 years in a US jail for conspiring to kill Americans in the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa which left 224 dead. Advertisement

Shashank Joshi, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) security think-tank, described the leak as 'incredibly important'.

He said: 'It is a law enforcement gold mine. It means it might make it easier to prosecute those who have returned.

'Beyond that it is also an intelligence gold mine because it may include people whose departure wasn't known and a lot of information about other contacts because there is an entry about who recommended this individual.'

He added: 'Rarely do intelligence organisations get complete caches of documents in this way.'

The documents were reportedly stolen by a former member of the Syrian Free Army who joined IS and then became disillusioned, saying it had been taken over by soldiers from the Iraqi Baath party of Saddam Hussein.

Mr Joshi cautioned against drawing any broad conclusions about morale within the group.

He said: 'It is tempting to want to believe that this is evidence that the organisation is suffering a grievous lapse of morale. I'm not so sure.'

The whistleblower, an ISIS security official was asked if the files could cause the collapse of the group he said: 'God willing'.

Experts believe that ISIS is refocusing its base of operations abroad and is intent on carrying out high-profile attacks in Western countries, instead of radicalising vulnerable and mentally-ill people to carry out 'lone wolf' strikes against soldiers and police officers.

Yesterday the British head of the EU's crime fighting organisation warned that the chance of a Paris-style terror atrocity on the streets of Britain was growing.

Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, said the continent was facing its biggest security crisis in ten years  and has previously warned almost 5,000 Islamist jihadi fanatics could be at large in the European Union.

Radicalised Europeans who have gained conflict experience in Syria are now returning to the continent, he said.

He said: 'We are working of course around the clock to prevent that from happening but this is a very, very serious threat.'

Meanwhile, a chemical weapons expert from ISIS's operations in Iraq has been captured by US special forces and is being questioned.

The man was once a specialist in chemical and biological weapons for Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader overthrown by the US invasion in 2003, Iraqi and US sources told US media.

Named as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, he was reportedly seized last month. The Pentagon would not confirm his capture.

But the man has already told interrogators how IS loaded mustard gas into shells, according to the New York Times.

Last month it was claimed that sulphur mustard had been used last year in an ISIS attack on Kurdish forces.

JUNAID HUSSAIN: THE COMPUTER HACKER MARRIED TO 'MRS TERROR' Junaid Hussein was married to Kent convert Sally Jones, known as 'Mrs Terror', pictured The computer hacker named as an ISIS fighter in leaked files today, fled his home in Birmingham to Syria in 2013 and quickly rose to prominence within Islamic State. He ran the information and recruitment arm of the terror group and was ranked third on the Pentagon's 'kill list'. Last year Hussain helped plan an attack on the VJ Day celebrations in London using a pressure cooker bomb. The plot failed after Hussain unwittingly recruited an undercover journalist. Describing the plan, he wrote: 'It will be big. We will hit the kuffar (unbelievers) hard. Hit their soldiers in their own land. Soldiers that served in Iraq and Afghanistan will be present. Jump in the crowd and detonate the bomb. 'They think they can kill Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan then come back to the UK and be safe. We'll hit them hard.' Hussain was on police bail on charges of violent disorder during an English Defence League rally, but fled just before his trial. He was jailed for six months in 2012 for hacking into the email account of an assistant to former Prime Minister Tony Blair and leaking confidential information about him on the web. He was also convicted of bombarding the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorism hotline with bogus calls. Hussain, who helped bring down the Pentagon's official Twitter page, was killed by a US drone strike on his car near Raqqa in August last year. His wife Sally Jones, a 45-year-old mother-of-two and former punk rocker from Chatham, in Kent, is believed to still live in Syria. The pair were dubbed 'Mr and Mrs Terror' after they fled to Syria. Advertisement
Some residents in Shanghai today claimed they have seen two UFOs hovering above the city.

Pictures of the unusual sight were widely shared on Chinese social media Wechat, showing a mysterious red dot appearing in the sky near a solar halo.

Afterwards, another white dot was seen flying across the halo, according to residents of Lingang New city in south-east Shanghai, near the Yellow Sea.

Eerie: Residents in Shanghai's Lingang New City said they saw two UFOs today, claimed a social media post

Mysterious: Pictures show a red dot as well as a white (pictured) dot appearing in the sky near a solar halo

The pictures were allegedly taken around 10am local time on Monday and were posted to social media by a user called 'sui yuan', according to The Paper.

A short video was also shared along with the images.

The post read: 'Nearby residents swarmed to witness the shocking scene. A red dot was hovering near the sun, a white dot was flying further away and across the halo.

'The scene lasted for about half an hour. Then both of them left in great speeds.'

Can you see them? Post claimed the white dot flew across the halo while the red dot hovered closer to the sun

Drones? However, Tang Haiming, a local meteorological expert, suggested they could just be quadcopters

While Chinese web users were in awe by the possible alien objects, a local meteorological expert explained the possible cause of the vision.

Tang Haiming, a researcher at Shanghai's Sheshan Observatory, confirmed to a reporter from The Paper that there was a solar halo when the pictures were taken.

But Tang said the dots were likely to be quadcopters.
The housemaid turned eccentric wife of iron ore magnate Lang Hancock has said she would thank anyone who calls her a 'b****' and wants to be buried upside down 'so the world can kiss [her] sweet little a***'.

Speaking to A Current Affair's Ray Martin from her Perth home on Monday night, Rose Porteous admitted it was not love at first sight with Mr Hancock and instead enjoyed 'the chase,' as the physical attraction 'took some time'.

Ms Porteous was adamant she had no role in the death of Mr Hancock in 1992, believing it would be foolish to 'kill the goose that lays the golden eggs'.

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Rose Porteous - the housemaid turned eccentric wife of an iron ore magnate Lang Hancock - has said she would thank anyone who calls her a 'b****'

Speaking to A Current Affair's Ray Martin from her Perth home on Monday night, Rose Porteous admitted it was not love at first sight with Mr Hancock and instead enjoyed 'the chase' (the pair are pictured together)

After Mr Hancock's death, Ms Porteous became embroiled in a Supreme Court battle with her step-daughter Gina Rinehart and a number of her grandchildren.

The 67-year-old told the program she would 'walk around' Ms Rinehart if she were to see her at an event as there is still negative 'energy'.

Ms Porteous denied she was ever unfaithful to her former three husbands, describing herself as a 'one man woman'.

But she was adamant she is not 'easy'.

'I'm not the type you can just take to dinner and have the hamburger, as they say,' she said.

After Mr Hancock's death, Ms Porteous became embroiled in a Supreme Court battle with her step-daughter Gina Rinehart and a number of her grandchildren and said she would 'walk around' Ms Rinehart if she saw her

Ms Porteous was adamant she had no role in the death of Mr Hancock in 1992, believing it would be foolish to 'kill the goose that lays the golden eggs'

Ms Porteous denied she was ever unfaithful to her former three husbands, describing herself as a 'one man woman'

'I'm not the type you can just take to dinner and have the hamburger, as they say,' she said

'For me, the kill is boring. It's the chase that's exciting.'

Ms Porteous has been married three times and separated from her third husband William Porteous in 2012.

'I don't burn husbands out, but I am a very opinionated, eccentric woman,' she said.

The former housemaid also weighed in on Nine Network's House of Hancock, saying she was entirely unhappy with her portrayal as she 'never did karaoke' or was 'given an apartment'.

Ms Porteous said she offered to lend her clothes to the producers for filming but claims she was told to 'go to hell'.

The 67-year-old married Mr Hancock in 1983 after she was his housemaid for just three weeks.

Ms Porteous has been married three times and separated from her third husband William Porteous in 2012

The former housemaid also weighed in on Nine Network's House of Hancock, saying she was entirely unhappy with her portrayal by Peta Sergeant (pictured)
Bernie Sanders refused to join in on Donald Trump's name calling this morning and label Hillary Clinton 'Crooked Hillary.'

'Donald Trump is very brilliant by coming up with statements that you guys respond to,' Sanders told the Today show. 'That's an ugly statement.'

And Sanders denied that his own attacks on Clinton for yucking it up with Wall Street to the tune of $225,000 an appearance were at all similar to Trump's claim that the former cabinet member's behavior was unethical.

'In that case the entire United States government is crooked,' the Democratic presidential contender said. 'We have a corrupt system.'

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Bernie Sanders refused to join in on Donald Trump's name calling this morning and label Hillary Clinton 'Crooked Hillary.'

'Donald Trump is very brilliant by coming up with statements that you guys respond to,' Sanders told the Today show. 'That's an ugly statement.'

Trump, the Republican frontrunner, slapped Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, with the new nickname during a campaign rally in Watertown, New York, on Saturday.

His latest concoction after the success of 'Lyin' Ted' Cruz, 'Little Marco' Rubio and 'low energy' Jeb Bush, Trump implied that Clinton was 'crooked' because she took money from groups she's now promising to regulate.

'So I'm self funding. All of this is mine. When I fly in, it's on my dime, right? It's on mine. And what does that mean?' Trump told his crowd. 'That means I'm not controlled by the special interests, by the lobbyists.'

'They can control crooked Hillary and they can control Lyin' Ted Cruz, right?' Trump said.

Clinton was asked about it yesterday and wouldn't bite.

'He can say whatever he wants to say about me, I really could care less,' the former secretary of state told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week.

'I don't respond to Donald Trump and his string of insults about me,' she said. 'I can take care of myself.'

She added, 'I look forward to running against him if he turns out to be the Republican nominee if I am the Democratic nominee.;

Clinton said she's more troubled by 'how he goes after everybody else', too.

'He goes after women. He goes after Muslims. He goes after immigrants. He goes after people with disabilities,' she noted.

'He is hurting our unity at home...He is undermining the values that we stand for in New York and across America. And he's hurting us around the world,' she said.

Hillary Clinton said she 'really could care less,' when George Stephanopoulos informed her that Donald Trump had nicknamed her 'crooked Hillary'

She says she will only release her Wall Street speech transcripts if other candidates do too.

Sanders has used the secrecy  and her post government payday  against her and argued it makes her beholden to these interests.

In turn, she's called his assumption an 'artful smear.'

Sanders is barred from delivering paid speeches as a member of the U.S. Senate.

Stephanopoulos asked Clinton if releasing the speeches would reveal her praising Wall Street.

'No, I don't have any concerns like that,' she replied. 'I'm just concerned about a constantly changing set of standards for everybody else but me,' she said.

'You know, we have certain expectations when you run for president, one of which is release all of your tax returns, ever since you've been in public life,' she said.

Clinton acknowledged that 33 years of her taxes are in the public domain.

Sanders just released a year's worth of tax returns over the weekend.

'Now, all of a sudden, there is a new standard,' Clinton said of the calls to release the speeches. 'And I've said when it applies to everybody, you bet I will meet that standard as well.'

Stephanopoulos reminded Clinton that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Clinton supporter, had said she would release the speeches 'at the appropriate time.'

'Well, in accordance with the standard that I've set, I absolutely will do,' Clinton said, meaning that all the candidates, from both parties, would have to release the transcripts of any paid speeches they've given.

'I absolutely will do, i will do that,' she said. 'I've said that repeatedly.'

Trump, the Republican frontrunner, slapped Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, with the new nickname during a campaign rally in Watertown, New York, on Saturday. 'So I'm self funding. All of this is mine. When I fly in, it's on my dime, right? It's on mine. And what does that mean?' Trump told his crowd. 'That means I'm not controlled by the special interests, by the lobbyists

All the candidates are competing for votes in New York in advance of the state's Tuesday primaries.

The latest polling has Clinton 10 points ahead.

In a CBS/YouGov poll released Sunday Clinton is at 53 percent to Sen. Bernie Sanders' 43 percent in the state she was twice elected by to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Trump, a creature of the Manhattan real estate world, was up 33 points in the same poll against rivals Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Trump receives 54 percent support from Republicans, versus 21 percent for Cruz and 19 percent for Kasich.

Sanders insisted this morning that the polls and pundits had 'underestimated' his support level in New York, just like they said early on he had no shot at the nomination.

'The bottom line is, let's look at the real poll tomorrow,' he told Today's Matt Lauer.

The candidates found themselves scrambling to take a position over the weekend on a piece of legislation that would pit them against President Barack Obama or senior New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who will become the Democratic leader in the Senate next year after Sen. Harry Reid retires.

The bill would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue foreign sponsors of terror in federal court.

Schumer supports it, and Obama opposes it. His administration worries it will open the United States up to lawsuits brought by other countries.

Clinton pleaded ignorance on Sunday morning.

'I don't really know about that, George, I'd have to look into it,' she said.

'Obviously, we've got to make anyone who participates in or supports terrorism pay a price, and we also have to be aware of any consequences that might affect Americans, either military or civilian or our nation.'

Stephanopoulos seemed surprised by her answer.

'You don't know about this issue? It's been around for several years,' he said.

'Well I know there's been an issue about it for quite some time, I don't know about the specific legislation that you're referring to. But obviously, I'll look into it,' she stated.

Stephanopoulos followed up, asking the former secretary of state if she supported or opposed the legislation, but she said she didn't know.

'I can't, I haven't studied it,' she said.

'Unlike some people  I do try to learn what's at the core of any question before I offer an opinion, because you know it's not enough to say what's wrong, I think you've got a responsibility to say how you're going to fix it,' she said, knocking both the unpreparedness of Donald Trump and the flowery language of Bernie Sanders.

She seemingly got smart fast on the issue, with a spokesman for her campaign sharing the following statement on Twitter hours later: 'Hillary Clinton supports the efforts by Senator Schumer and his colleagues in the Senate to secure the ability of 9/11 families and other victims of terrorist acts to hold accountable those responsible. As president she would work with Congress to this end.'

Sanders couldn't say whether he supported the bill either as he appeared on a separate Sunday morning show.

'Well, I need more information before I can give you that decision,' he told CNN's Dana Bash on State of the Union. 'Youre asking me to give you a decision about a situation and a piece of legislation that I am not familiar with at this point, and I gotta have more information on that.

He told her, 'You gotta get some information before you can render a sensible decision.'

It wasn't long before he too came to the determination that he's for the bill and the declassification of a section of the 9/11 Commission Report on potential sources of terrorist funding.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia.
Protesters campaigning for paternal rights scaled a balcony at Boris Johnson's North London home while the London mayor was inside.

Bobby Smith, 34, and Martin Matthews, 48, arrived at the address at 10.30 this morning and scaled the balcony with a ladder.

They were both arrested this afternoon by Metropolitan Police.

Speaking from the balcony earlier Mr Smith, an HGV driver from Stevenage, told MailOnline: 'There is a good chance Boris is going to be the next prime minister so we try to target the most high-profile people.

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Bobby Smith, 34, (right) and Martin Matthews, 48, (left) were arrested this afternoon by Metropolitan Police

The pair, one of whom was dressed as comic book hero Iron Man, arrived at the address at 10.30 this morning and scaled the balcony with a ladder

Mr Matthews (left) and Mr Smith (right) being taken down from the balcony and arrested at the address

'He has had eight years as Mayor of London but has done nothing to help solve the problem of fatherless children.

'We want him to use his position to secure equal rights for fathers in London and the rest of the UK.'

He and fellow campaigner Martin Matthews hung up banners around Mr Johnson's London home and shouted down to supporters using a megaphone.

The father-of-two said: 'I spent three and a half years fighting in the courts to get access to my children but I became so infuriated I eventually gave up.

'It's no good sitting at home getting depressed and getting upset at how much you miss your kids.

'You need to stand up and not accept what has happened.

Mr Smith said: 'Not seeing your children is a travesty. The lack of justice and equality for fathers to see their children is one of the biggest social scandals of our time'

A third campaigner Abdul Sattar (above) was arrested on the pavement outside the property

Mr Smith and Mr Matthews are leading members of the New Fathers 4 Justice and Stop the War on Dads campaign groups

'There's no equality for fathers in family law. I want nothing less than a legal presumption of equal contact for a child with their parents if they split up.

'We have a secretive legal system that is utterly out of touch with the way we live now, in a world where mothers work and dads change nappies, push buggies and spend hours cuddling their children in exactly the same way that good mothers do.

'Not seeing your children is a travesty. The lack of justice and equality for fathers to see their children is one of the biggest social scandals of our time.'

Mr Smith said he saw Boris Johnson leave the property at 12.30pm.

He said: 'I saw some curtains twitch but I didn't see Boris inside.'

According to the protester there was also a police unit in climbing gear preparing to abseil down onto the balcony.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: 'Police were called at 10.40hrs on Monday,18 April, to reports of protesters at the location'

A spokesperson for the Mayor's Office said: 'We are aware of the protest and it is a matter for the Metropolitan Police'

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: 'Police were called at 10.40hrs on Monday,18 April, to reports of protesters at the location.

'At 15.30hrs a 48-year-old man and a 34-year-old man came down from the balcony and were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespassing and criminal damage.

'A 48-year-old man who was in the vicinity of the premises was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespassing and criminal damage.

'All three currently remain in custody at a north London police station pending further enquires.'

A spokesperson for the Mayor's Office said: 'We are aware of the protest and it is a matter for the Metropolitan Police.'

Mr Smith and Mr Matthews are leading members of the New Fathers 4 Justice and Stop the War on Dads campaign groups.

A third campaigner Abdul Sattar was on the ground outside the property.

Mr Smith is also standing for the Give Me Back My Elmo Party at the upcoming Sheffield by-election.

His political party is so called because of a pet name he has for his children, based on the Muppets character.

He said: 'No parent who is fit and willing should ever be denied their right to share equally in the lives of their own children

'The present biased, flawed family law system allows children to be exposed to a succession of mums' fleeting boyfriends, lovers and stepfathers with whom they have no biological connection but gives no automatic right of access to their biological fathers or grandparents.'
Maxi Lord has been jailed for 12 years for a knife attack on his former mother-in-law

A Croatian man who had been deported twice from the UK has been jailed for a ferocious knife attack on his former mother-in-law, just months after he entered the country under a false name.

Maxi Lord, 42, left Gabriella Danihelova whimpering in pain, with 23 wounds to her face and hands, following the 'terrifying and sustained' assault.

The attack was so ferocious that the large kitchen knife he brought with him broke into four pieces and his 53-year-old victim was left shaking in fear, with blood pooled at her feet.

The court heard the incident happened on October 21, last year, just six months after he had last been kicked out of the country.

Lord, who served in the Croatian Army, had previous convictions in the UK for conspiracy to commit fraud, battery and theft from his employer.

He was deported in 2013 and again on April 23 last year, making his way back into the country via Italy under a false name.

Now he has been jailed for for 12 years at Bradford Crown Court, West Yorkshire.

Dave MacKay, prosecuting, said Mrs Danihelova spent four days in hospital and her hands were in bandages for weeks.

He added there were two young children in the house in Bradford when Lord tricked his way in.

Lord, of Bradford, and his accomplice, Mariusz Ochnio, were originally charged with attempted murder.

Lord's pleas of guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent and possession of an offensive weapon were later accepted by the Crown.

Ochnio, 35, of Bradford, admitted common assault and was jailed for four months.

Mr MacKay said Lord asked Ochnio to knock on the door because he knew the family would not open it to him.

Lord was convicted at Bradford Crown Court, and was told he will be deported after he has served his sentence

Ochnio followed Lord into the house and took hold of Mrs Danihelova's daughter-in-law, Beata Krokova, covering her mouth to stop her screaming.

Mr MacKay said the prosecution accepted he did not know what Lord planned to do.

The court heard that Lord had spilt up with Mrs Danihelova's daughter, Svetlana, 32, after a turbulent relationship.

Mrs Danihelova said her injuries meant she could no longer work as a cleaner.

She was having counselling and undergoing physiotherapy for the damage to her hands.

Lord's barrister, Rodney Ferm, said the attack was the result of 'bad blood between families.'

'He regrets it. He cannot turn the clock back and he knows he is facing a very lengthy sentence.'

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, told Lord: 'You were bent on very serious and premeditated violence.

'You caused very real damage in a frenzied attack on Gabriella. It was a terrifying and substantial assault.'
Cuban-Americans looking forward to visiting their homeland after the thaw in relations between Havana and Washington have been told they can only visit by air, and not ship.

The bizarre edict has apparently come from the communist regime in Havana and has upset people hoping to visit next month on a cruise liner.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN Espanol: 'The United States government will never support, never condone discrimination. And the Cuban government should not have the right to enforce on us a policy of discrimination against people who have the right to travel.'

The number of tourists heading to Havana (pictured) is expected to rise as relations between the U.S. and Cuba improve. The first commercial flights between the two countries are expected to resume later this year.

Francisco Marty fought at the Bay of Pigs, the doomed U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba by anti-communist exiles in 1961.

He has lived in the U.S. ever since and has been on Carnival Corporation cruises so many times that he has a Platinum VIP loyalty card.

So when the company announced its Fathom line subsidiary was going to sail from Miami to Havana he jumped at the chance and tried to book a trip.

But he was told he was not allowed to visit because of a Cuban government edict which dates from the Cold War.

Mr Marty and fellow traveller Amparo Sanchez have now filed a class action lawsuit against Carnival, claiming it is discriminating against Cuban-Americans.

The lawsuit says the company is violating their federal civil rights laws.

A Carnival spokesman said: 'This is not a decision by our Fathom brand, but rather a Cuba decision.'

Under Cuban law Cuban-born individuals are only allowed to enter the country by air, and not sea.

In 1961 a group of Cuban emigres, armed and backed by President John F Kennedy's government, invaded the island but were defeated by Fidel Castro's forces at the Bay of Pigs

Carnival said the company has requested a change in the regulation.

Mr Marty's lawyer, Robert Rodriguez, said his client had health issues which prevented him from flying to the island of his birth.

He said Mr Marty had been hoping to return to the beach at the Bay of Pigs that he landed on to take 'before' and 'after' photos for an exhibit at a Miami museum.

Mr Rodriguez said: 'They said, 'Sorry, you can't go because you're Cuban. That's just not the American way.'

He said of Carnival: 'You were given permission to sail to Cuba, not break the laws of the U.S.'

Fathom, which is a subsidiary of Carnival, is embarking on its first trip from the U.S. to Cuba next month. Its website makes no mention of the ban on Cuban-born Americans which has been imposed by Havana

Mr Rodriguez is filing an emergency motion and hopes a judge will hear the case within the next week.

He said: 'I hope that Carnival cooperates, in terms of getting this litigated before the first cruise.'

The first cruise to set sail for Havana since last year's thaw in relations between the two countries is due to leave Miami on May 1 and will also call at the Cuban ports of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba.

Miami civil rights lawyer John de Leon said there were two legal precedents in recent history.

In December last year Kuwait Airways scrapped flights between London and New York after the U.S. Department of Transportation came out strongly against the airline's ban on carrying Israeli passengers on the route.

Last month President Barack Obama visited Cuba and was greeted by President Raul Castro, whose brother Fidel led a communist revolution in 1959. Many Cuban-Americans are demanding a return to democracy on the island

The Norwegian Cruise Line also cancelled port calls in Tunisia after that country's government refused to allow entry to a group of Israeli citizens.

Mr de Leon said: 'The cruise ship had to balance its commercial interest verses its interest not to discriminate.

'If they do the right thing, they are going to say "We are not going to discriminate against the Cubans in Miami, who have been loyal customers for years and generations".'

Mr Kerry told the Miami Herald last week: 'Carnival needs to not discriminate.

Cuban street musicians play in the Old Havana district of the Cuban capital (pictured). The island is in some regards stuck in a time warp and has been starved of investment for decades

'We should not be in a situation where the Cuban government is forcing its discrimination policy on us. So we call on the government of Cuba to change that policy, and to recognize that if they want full relations and a normal relationship with the United States, they have to live by international laws, not exclusively by Cuban laws.

The U.S. Embassy in Havana was closed shortly after the Bay of Pigs invasion but it was reopened last year by Mr Kerry.
He shot dead his son and daughter before turning the gun on himself

Brown collected their two children, aged one and four, from a babysitter

Chericia was rushed to a Florida hospital where she was

A Florida father-of-two stabbed and ran over his estranged wife, shot dead their children before turning the gun on himself in a horrific murder-suicide.

Henry Ramone Brown, 30, had hidden in the trunk of his wife's car which was parked outside a Sanford Chilis, in Lake Mary, armed with a knife.

When Chericia Brown, 31, returned to her car at around 10pm on Sunday, her husband jumped out and stabbed her multiple times, according to police reports.

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Henry Ramone Brown stabbed and ran over his estranged wife Chericia (pictured with their son Henry) on Sunday before killing his children and himself

The 30-year-old then drove to pick up the couple's two young children, aged one and four, who he shot dead

Brown attempted to hide the seriously injured Chericia by dragging her into the bushes and ran round the building to retrieve his car, Click Orlando report.

But two medical professionals, who had been dining at the restaurant, had discovered the victim and were attempting to help her when Brown returned.

The suspect drove round the building and ran over his wife, and the two diners attempting to help her.

All three were rushed to a local hospital where Chericia Brown was pronounced dead.

The horrific incident began after Brown, 30, hid in the trunk of his wife's car which was parked outside a Sanford Chilis, (pictured) in Lake Mary, armed with a knife

When Chericia Brown, 31, returned to her car at around 10pm on Sunday, her husband jumped out and stabbed her multiple times (pictured is the crime scene outside the restaurant)

Maricia and two medical professionals, who had been trying to assist her outside the Chillis, were rushed to hospital after Brown returned and ran them down

One of medical professionals is still in hospital in a 'stable condition' while the other has since been released.

Henry Brown fled the scene and police say he swapped vehicles before driving to pick up his two children, aged one and four, from a babysitter in Altamonte Springs.

The 30-year-old, who was armed with a gun, then drove to Central Florida Regional Hospital where his wife had been transported after his attack.

He arrived at around 12.20am, in an attempt to find Chericia, but was swiftly recognized by police.

Brown opened fire on officers, and hospital security staff, and managed to escape back to his Ford pick-up truck.

Henry Brown (left) is thought to have married Chericia, (right) an operations clerk, in 2012 who gave birth to his son Henry Brown IV that same year

But the couple are said to have split in December after a domestic violence incident

After Brown stabbed and ran over his wife, he fled the scene and collected his two young children (pictured) from the babysitter

But police gave chase and were able to track down Brown on Interstate 4, using 'stop sticks' to disable the vehicle.

When deputies approached the truck, they found the suspect had shot dead his two young children inside the car, before turning the gun on himself.

The Sheriffs Office could not confirm if the father had murdered his children before he arrived at the hospital or afterwards.

The investigation is ongoing.

Henry Brown married Chericia, an operations clerk, in 2012. She gave birth to his son Henry Brown IV that same year.

But the couple are said to have split in December after a domestic violence incident.
Footage has emerged of the dramatic moment a Tennessee cop stopped a woman from killing herself on Saturday night, grabbing her from the edge of a bridge right as she was set to jump.

The incident occurred on the Market Street Bridge in Chattanooga - which is 100 feet from the water - around 11.30 p.m.

Chattanooga Police Officer Steven Meador was just a few blocks away when he got the call about the woman, and realized she was preparing to jump when he found her driver's license on the sidewalk.

'We've had jumpers before, and a lot of times they'll do that, usually just to let us or whoever finds them know that this where [they were],' Meador told The Washington Post.

Close call: The footage shows the moment the officer, seen here, runs over and grabs the woman just as she said: 'I'm gonna go now'

The incident occurred on the Market Street Bridge in Chattanooga - which is 100 feet from the water - around 11.30 p.m.

The video shows officer Meador throwing the woman to the ground in order to stop her from jumping

The woman suffered some abrasions during the incident and was taken to hospital for treatment afterwards

Meador said that he tried to engage in regular conservation with the woman in an attempt to calm her down, but she ignored his advances.

Instead, the woman kept repeating: 'I don't want to be here.'

When he asked for her name, she replied: 'None of your business.'

Meador then started to panic when the woman stood up on the ledge.

She then said: 'I'm gonna go now.'

As she stared out over the river, the woman said: 'I'm done.'

Meador then decided he had to act, and he grabbed the woman by the back of her jeans, pulling her down to the ground.

Scene: The incident occurred on the Market Street Bridge in Chattanooga - which is 100 feet from the water - around 11.30 p.m. Saturday

The woman suffered some abrasions from the maneuver and was taken to hospital for treatment.

She was not arrested.

'She was still upset, but I don't think she meant it. I think she was just in a really bad state,' Meador said.
Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered outside the Supreme Court as it considers whether President Obama's plan to protect 4million illegal immigrants from deportation is constitutional.

Texas and 25 other states have accused Obama of overstepping his authority as president with executive action to protect millions of people in the U.S. illegally from deportation.

Protesters - mainly in support of the president - chanted and waved banners outside the court as it heard arguments from both sides.

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Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered outside the Supreme Court as it considers whether President Obama's plan to protect 4million illegal immigrants from deportation is constitutional

Protesters - mainly in support of the president - chanted and waved banners outside the court as it heard arguments from both sides

The court is evenly divided with four liberal justices and four conservatives following the death of conservative Antonin Scalia in February.

That raises the possibility of a 4-4 split that would leave in place a 2015 lower-court ruling that threw out the president's executive action that bypassed the Republican-led Congress.

Obama's plan would let roughly 4million people - those who have lived illegally in the U.S. since at least 2010, have no criminal record and have children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents - into a program that shields them from deportation and supplies work permits.

On a sunny spring day in the U.S. capital, hundreds of demonstrators, most supporting Obama's action, gathered outside the white marble courthouse.

Chants of 'We're home and here to stay, undocumented and unafraid', filled the air as protesters circled the block around the courthouse carrying signs that read 'Keep Families Together' and '#EndDeportation'.

Zaira Garcia, 23, a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, said her Mexican father's employers would sometimes withhold pay because they knew he was not in the country legally.

On a sunny spring day in the U.S. capital, hundreds of demonstrators, most supporting Obama's action, gathered outside the white marble courthouse

Chants of 'We're home and here to stay, undocumented and unafraid', filled the air as protesters circled the block around the courthouse

'It's inhumane, the way people who are undocumented can be taken advantage of,' Ms Garcia said.

'It made us realize and appreciate the sacrifice my parents made to come here. A lot of people think coming to the U.S. is an easy choice, but the reality is hard work and lots of humiliation because of lack of status.'

Ariana Galindo, 19, said her family constantly lived on the edge, worried about her parents being deported. She is an American citizen but her parents are in the country illegally.

'I'm here representing my family,' Ms Galindo said as she waited in a long line to hear Monday's argument.

'Seeing my parents with so much stress, trying to pay rent and bills and provide for our family - with no sort of securities in place - gives me strength,' she said. 'There are millions more like them, and we have to speak for them.'

Kevin Mooneyhan of the conservative group Tea Party Patriots said Obama exceeded his authority.

'We have a process in this country, and this is something the legislature should take care of,' he said.

Obama's plan would let 4million people - those who have lived illegally in the U.S. since at least 2010, have no criminal record and have children who are U.S. citizens - into a program that shields them from deportation

The court is evenly divided with four liberal justices and four conservatives following the death of conservative Antonin Scalia in February. Pictured, supporters of Obama's plan outside the court

Obama took the action after House of Representatives Republicans killed bipartisan legislation, billed as the biggest overhaul of U.S. immigration laws in decades and providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, that was passed by the Senate in 2013.

Obama's program is called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA).

Shortly before the plan was to take effect last year, a federal judge in Texas blocked it after the Republican-governed states filed suit against the Democratic president's executive action.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision in November.

The Supreme Court's ruling is due by the end of June, when its current session ends.

The court's decision will come at a crucial stage in the presidential campaign, with leading Republican candidate Donald Trump calling for all of the estimated 11million people in the country illegally to be deported.

Obama, who has seen many of his major legislative initiatives stifled by Republican lawmakers, has drawn Republican ire with his use of executive action to get around Congress on immigration policy, as well as gun control and healthcare.
The president of Harpoon Brewery has stepped down from his position at one of Harvard's exclusive Final clubs over comments he made about sexual assault.

Charles M. Storey sparked controversy last week when he issued a statement to the Harvard Crimson, coming out against Dean Rakesh Khurana's push for the all-male clubs to start accepting women.

In his statement, Storey suggested that letting women into the clubs would lead to sexual assault.

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Charles M. Storey, president of Harpoon Brewery, stepped down from his role as graduate board president of the Porcellian club on Thursday

'I know the last 24 hours have been difficult for many of you as a result of what I said in my letter to the Harvard Crimson. I have listened to you and I have thought deeply about what I have done. By saying earlier that my words were misinterpreted, I did not take full responsibility for what I said. I am doing that now. Plain and simple what I said was wrong. No excuses.

'I want to be clear here that I am apologizing for what I said, not just for who I offended with my words. As a man who takes issues of sexual assault extremely seriously and as a leader of an amazing company where women have the same opportunities as men and where we have zero tolerance for any kind of discrimination, I am disappointed in myself. I am sad that I have disappointed so many people that I care about.

'As I think it is best for all involved, I have resigned my position as the graduate president of the Porcellian Club. I love this company and all of you and I deeply regret that I have brought this situation upon on us,' he wrote.

The Porcellian is Harvard's oldest Final club. Former President Teddy Roosevel (circled) was a member of the all-men's club when he was a student at the school

Harvard is pushing to have the Final clubs, which aren't officially associated with the university, accept women into their legions. Above, the Porcellian club's headquarters

Final clubs are exclusive societies at the Ivy League school that are not officially associated with the college. Six of the clubs are all-male, five are all-female and two admit both sexes.

Final clubs are known for their exclusivity and secretive traditions. Non-members are not allowed past the bike room at their Harvard Square headquarters

Storey was the graduate board president of the Porcellian Club, the oldest all-male Final club that counts former President Teddy Roosevelt as one of its past members.

Khurana held a meeting on Wednesday with the graduate and undergraduate presidents of the Final clubs to discuss the possibility of making the clubs open to both sexes.

The meeting follows the release last month of a report on sexual assault at Harvard which found that female seniors that participated in Final club parties were more likely to be the victims of sexual assault than other women.

Forty-seven per cent of female seniors who attended Final club activities experienced non-consensual sexual contact since entering college compared to 31 per cent of all female seniors, the task force found.

Making the Final clubs accept women is one way that Khurana believes the campus can combat rape culture.

Storey disagreed. In his article in the Harvard Crimson, the 1982 alumnus defended his group's 225-year-old ban on female members, saying admitting women could possibly lead to more sexual assault

'Given our policies, we are mystified as to why the current administration feels that forcing our club to accept female members would reduce the incidence of sexual assault on campus,' Storey wrote. 'Forcing single-gender organizations to accept members of the opposite sex could potentially increase, not decrease, the potential for sexual misconduct.'

Storey even compared the possible sanctions to McCarthyism.

'Such McCarthyism is a dangerous road that would be a blow to academic freedom, the spirit of tolerance, and the long tradition of free association on campus,' he wrote.

Storey quickly came under fire for his remarks, with many saying that his comments pitted the blame of sexual assault on the victims themselves.

'Instead of blaming women, you could focus on teaching members of your club to NOT sexually assault people,' US Representative Katherine Clark wrote in one critical tweet.

The outrage was so swift that by Thursday Storey announced his resignation from his board position at Porcellian on his company's website.

'I think its a shame,' one final club member, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Washington Post. 'I think unfortunately Charlie Storeys comments were misinterpreted and became fodder for a lot of social media attack. He was trying his best to make an argument that didnt come out right. Its a shame that people didnt take the time to read what he said and think about it  and lynched him on Twitter and elsewhere.'

Khurana is asking that the Final clubs express whether they would be willing to accept women by April 15. Already, one of the Final clubs has refused Khurana's pitch.

It is uncertain yet, but there is talk that the university could force the Final clubs to cooperate by suspending students if they are caught joining the clubs, or take away their scholarships.

Final clubs feature prominently in the film The Social Network, about the founding of Facebook. Eduardo Saverin, one of Facebook's co-founders, was a member of the Phoenix Final club

Porcellian alumni Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, claiming he stole their idea for the social network. They settled out of court with Zuckerberg for an unknown amount

Both the Harvard Crimson and the Wall Street Journal have written opinion pieces backing the Final clubs and their right to organize outside the authority of the university.

'To impose sanctions on club members would be to treat the institutions themselves as the sole roots of sexual assault,' the Crimsons editorial board wrote.

The Journal's editorial board wrote: 'Campus leftists, who once protested in loco parentis regulations, now aspire to total control of student life.  Under the guise of inclusiveness, all noncompliant choices must be suppressed.'

The Porcellian Club featured prominently in the film The Social Network, the film about the founding of Facebook. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, two former members of the club, sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, claiming he stole their idea for the website. They settled with Zuckerberg, now a billionaire, outside of court for an unknown amount.
at a $353,400-per-couple fundraiser in Los Angles hosted by George and Amal Clooney

A town hall with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been rescheduled days after the presidential hopeful cancelled the event.

The Democratic front-runner had been set to appear on Good Morning America Friday morning, but ABC said in a statement on Thursday afternoon that the event was being rescheduled.

An ABC executive told DailyMail.com that it was Clinton who cancelled at the last minute due to scheduling issues.

On Monday though it was revealed that Clinton had picked a new date and would be appearing on the show this Thursday, April 21.

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Back on track: Hillary Clinton (above in March) has rescheduled her live town hall on Good Morning America for Thursday morning

Showing up: Ted Cruz (above with wife Heidi) appeared on his live town hall Monday morning, where audience members and viewers from around the country had the chance to ask the Republican hopeful questions

Clinton did not have to reschedule her star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles on Friday however, finding the time to show up to the event host by George Clooney and his wife Amal.

The event cost $353,400 per couple, and drew out big names including Jane Fonda, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, and Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons.

It also drew out a large number of Bernie Sanders supporters who stood outside Clooney's home and threw dollar bills at Clinton's motorcade as it drove by on the way to the fundraiser.

That group also included a high-profile star in the form of Titanic actress and Clint Eastwood ex Frances Fisher, who held a sign promoting a nearby fundraising dinner for Sanders that cost just $26.

ABC had announced the town hall just with Clinton just last Wednesday, saying GMA would hold two separate live town hall discussions with Mrs Clinton and Ted Cruz, ahead of Tuesday's New York primary.

'Both town halls will air during Good Morning America.

'The town hall with former Secretary of State Clinton will air live on Friday, April 15 followed by a town hall with Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday, April 18. Sen. Cruz will be joined by his wife Heidi for a portion of the discussion.'

The event was to be moderated by George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts.

Cruz appeared on his live town hall Monday morning, where audience members and viewers from around the country had the chance to ask the Republican hopeful questions.
National Autism Association shared poem on their Facebook page where it has received more than 23,000 'likes' and an outpouring of praise

'I dream of day that that's okay. I try to fit in. I hope that some day I do. I am odd, I am new,' he writes

A 10-year-old New York boy who was given a school assignment ended up touching the hearts of thousands after writing a moving poem that gives an inside look into his life with autism.

Earlier this month, fifth-grader Benjamin Giroux and his fellow classmates at Cumberland Head Elementary were asked to write a poem about themselves to celebrate National Poetry Month.

Benjamin, who has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, was given the first two words of each sentence for his poem titled 'I am' - and his finished product left his parents choked up.

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Fifth-grader Benjamin Giroux has touched the hearts of thousands after he wrote a poem (pictured) about himself as a class assignment earlier this month to celebrate National Poetry Month

Benjamin, who attends Cumberland Head Elementary, has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. His poem titled 'I am' has given an inside look into his life with autism and has inspired others

After sharing the touching poem on Facebook, the National Autism Association then posted it to their page where it has received more than 23,000 'likes' and an outpouring of praise.

His father, Sonny Giroux, told Daily Mail Online in an email on Monday that Benjamin is 'deeply touched by all the outpouring support.'

'We are trying to give him news of his poem in small amounts, as this entire thing can be very overwhelming for him.'

Benjamin's poem begins: 'I am odd, I am new.

'I wonder if you are too. I hear voices in the air. I see you don't, and that's not fair.'

He continues, writing about feeling 'out of place' and 'like a castaway.'

'I dream of day that that's okay,' Benjamin writes. 'I try to fit in. I hope that some day I do. I am odd, I am new.'

'I'm am so proud of Benjamin for the effort he put into this poem,' Mr Giroux told Daily Mail Online of his son's poem, noting when it comes to homework he is not exactly thrilled about doing it.

'But when he wrote down the first four lines, and had me read them, I told him that it was great and that he could really make something special if he continued to focus.'

Benjamin pictured above with his mother Kathryn Giroux, his father Sonny Giroux and his 16-month-old brother Samuel and four-year-old sister Claire

After initially reading Benjamin's poem, Mr Giroux told TODAY that he and his wife, Kathryn, felt sad and hurt their son felt 'isolated, alone, misunderstood and odd at school.'

'As the poem went on, we realized that he understands that he's odd and that so is everyone else in their own way, which is what Ben wants everyone to embrace,' Mr Giroux said.

Benjamin was set to read his poem in front of his class the following day, on April 8, but after his anxiety took over that morning, he stayed at home instead, according to TODAY.

His father then posted his poem to Facebook in hopes of receiving some encouraging comments from relatives and friends that he could then read to Benjamin, who thought his poem was not good.

Shortly after sharing it on Facebook, the National Autism Association saw the poem and shared it with the caption: 'You did an excellent job, Benjamin! You fit right in with us because we're #oddtoo.'

Mr Giroux said he and his wife tried to read as many of the comments to Benjamin to show the impact he made on so many people with his poem.

The encouraging comments included kind words from strangers describing Benjamin as a 'genius', 'talented' and 'brilliant.'

Benjamin pictured age eight with his great-grandfather and WWII Veteran Officer Francis Turner 2nd Armoured Division

'You are a talented, brilliant, young man. You wrote what was in your heart in a beautiful poem. Thank you for sharing,' Jane Ovaska wrote in the comment section.

'Only a genius could have written this. How about that. You are a genius, Benjamin. The people who laugh, really want to have what you have. But, God only gave it to you,' another reader, John Johnson, commented.

Others encouraged him to keep writing and called him 'amazing' and a 'beautiful soul.'

'You are right, we are all odd in our own way. Everyone comes with a little "quirk!" Great job and keep writing,' Michael Gage commented.

When asked how he hopes his son's poem will impact others, Mr Giroux told Daily Mail Online that their family's hope is that people will embrace being odd.

'We would love if Benjamin's poem could help start a social movement that people embrace who they are no matter what that may be,' he said.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's cringeworthy video saying they are 'truly sorry' for sneaking their Yorkshire terriers into Australia has been likened to a hostage recording and mocked relentlessly online by hundreds of people.

The awkward 40-second video featuring a somewhat upbeat Heard and a grim Depp left many viewers unconvinced, saying it was Depp's 'best acting performance' to date and even incited a sarcastic comment from comedian Ricky Gervais.

'The Johnny Depp apology feels like a hostage video,' he tweeted on Monday as hundreds flocked online to agree with him.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's cringeworthy video (pictured) saying they are 'truly sorry' for sneaking their Yorkshire terriers into Australia has been likened to a hostage recording and mocked relentlessly online by hundreds of people

The awkward 40-second clip even incited a sarcastic comment from comedian Ricky Gervais, who compared it to a 'hostage video' (pictured)

Johnny Depp and his wife Amber Heard (pictured) appeared at the Southport Magistrates Court in Queensland on Monday, where the actress pleaded guilty to falsifying border protection documents

The clip was shown to a Gold Coast court on Monday before a magistrate hit Heard with a one-month good behaviour bond and a $1,000 fine over the debacle

In the clip, the Hollywood pair pleaded for leniency in the so-called 'war on terriers' case after they smuggled in their dogs Pistol and Boo last year.

The clip was shown to a Gold Coast court on Monday before a magistrate hit Heard with a one-month good behaviour bond and a $1,000 fine over the debacle.

Heard, 29, who reached a deal with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to one count of falsifying border protection documents after they dropped two charges of illegal importation.

The acting duo's video was shared online by Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, who last year threatened to have the pups put down if they didn't leave the country.

As soon as the clip was online, many flocked to social media to comment about how forced the apology appeared.

'Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's video apology looks more like North Korea than real life,' a woman commented.

'When you Skype your parents and dad still can't deal with you being gay but mum is at least trying,' a man quipped, adding a snippet of the video.

'This makes my eyeballs quiver with embarrassment!' one person said.

'The Johnny Depp apology video...' another posted with an image from The Simpsons of a man holding a gun to another's back.

'Johnny Depp's "Oh, sod this" demeanour in that apology video is an absolute joy to watch. God bless Australia,' one man said.

'I can't place Johnny Depp's newest accent. where is it that people sound like they're choking on their tongues,' another woman said.

As soon as the clip was online, many flocked to social media to mock the awkward apology

According to reports, Heard and Depp filmed the video on Sunday after arriving in Australia

Heard, 29, (left) who reached a deal with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to one count of falsifying border protection documents after they dropped two charges of illegal importation

Heard's lawyers told the court on Monday that the pair agreed to produce the video in order to 'achieve some public good', according to reports.

The video begins with Heard praising the island nation: 'Australia is a wonderful island with a treasure trove of unique plants, animals and people.'

Depp then adds: 'It has to be protected'.

Heard continues: 'Australia is free of many pests and diseases that are common place around the world. That is why Australia has to have such strong biosecurity laws.'

Heard, pictured carrying one of her Yorkshire Terriers, pleaded guilty to one count of falsifying border protection documents

Quip: In the video, Depp appears to joke about the couple's rough treatment at the hands of authorities in an apparent reference to an Australian minister who threatened the dogs' lives last year

Depp then appears to joke about the couple's rough treatment at the hands of authorities last year in an apparent reference to Mr Joyce threatening the dogs' lives last year.

'And Australians are just as unique, both warm and direct,' Depp says. 'When you disrespect Australian law they will tell you firmly.'

The video finishes with Heard apologising for the sneak entry. 'I am truly sorry Pistol and Boo were not declared,' she says. 'Protecting Australia is important'.

A somber Depp adds: 'Declare everything when you enter Australia'.

Viewers not only compared the video to a hostage situation but many Australians furiously agreeing that Australia is, in fact, a wonderful island.

Viewers not only compared the video to a hostage situation but many Australians furiously agreeing that Australia is, in fact, a wonderful island.

The video begins with Heard (left) praising the island nation: 'Australia is a wonderful island with a treasure trove of unique plants, animals and people'

Heard continues: 'Australia is free of many pests and diseases that are common place around the world. That is why Australia has to have such strong biosecurity laws'

The Depp/dogs incident sparked global headlines when Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said the dogs had better 'bugger off' back to the US or he'd arrange to have them put down

Heard and Depp had their security team at hand to keep media at bay at court Monday

A conviction was not recorded against Heard after her lawyers argued it would impact on her work as an actress and the bond included a $1,000 recognisance.

Before Heard was sentenced on Monday, Magistrate Bernadette Callaghan was told that the actress failing to declare Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo had been 'a tired, terrible mistake'.

The jet lag seemed to get the better of the couple again when Heard had to elbow her snoozing husband Depp, 52, during her defence team's statements on Monday afternoon.

'Heard's defence still on his feet... Johnny Depp keeps closing his eyes.. Amber has elbowed him,' 7News journalist Bianca Stone tweeted from the Gold Coast courthouse.

'Pretty certain Amber Heard just had to elbow husband Johnny Depp to wake him up during lawyer's submissions,' AAP journalist Ed Jackson said.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce threatened the lives of the acting pair's dogs Pistol and Boo last year

Heard's lawyer Jeremy Kirk told Southport Magistrates Court the Hollywood actress was jet lagged and anxious about her husband's injured hand when she flew into Australia in April last year.

The lawyer also said his client usually left travel arrangements and documents to the couple's staff.

He said she believed everything had been taken care of in regards to the dogs when she arrived in the country and she honestly didn't need to declare the animals.

'My client never had any intention to conceal the fact the dogs were in Australia,' Mr Kirk said.

'She has made a tired, terrible mistake,' commonwealth prosecutor Peter Callaghan SC earlier told the court.

Mr Callaghan said regardless of Heard's state of mind, or arrangements, she was ultimately responsible for what was put on her arrival card.

'The laws apply to everyone... no one is entitled to put their legal entitlements to one side,' he said.

The drama over the dogs began last May, when Mr Joyce accused Depp of smuggling the tiny terriers aboard his private jet when he returned to Australia to resume filming the 'Pirates' movie.

Australia has strict quarantine regulations to prevent diseases such as rabies from spreading to its shores.

Bringing pets into the country involves applying for a permit and quarantine on arrival of at least 10 days.

'If we start letting movie stars  even though they've been the sexiest man alive twice  to come into our nation (with pets), then why don't we just break the laws for everybody?' Joyce said at the time.

Heard's (left) lawyer Jeremy Kirk told Southport Magistrates Court the Hollywood actress was jet lagged and anxious about her husband's injured hand when she flew into Australia in April last year

'It's time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States.'

The comments by Joyce, who is now the deputy prime minister of Australia, elevated what might otherwise have been a local spat into a global delight for comedians and broadcasters.

One newspaper ran a doggie death countdown ticker on its website that marked the hours remaining before the dogs had to flee the country and comedian John Oliver dedicated a six-minute segment to lampooning the ordeal.

Depp himself poked fun at the drama during a press conference in Venice last year where he was asked if he planned to take the dogs for a gondola ride.

'No,' he replied. 'I killed my dogs and ate them, under direct orders from some kind of, I don't know, sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia.'
Air France has resumed flights to Iran after ignoring pleas gay crew who feared they could be executed.

A petition launched last week complained that it was 'inconceivable' gay cabin staff should have to travel to a country where homosexuality is illegal.

But on Sunday, the airline recommenced flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Tehran - the first since 2008 - having taken no action over the protest.

A week earlier female employees of the company were told they would be allowed to opt out of working on the resumed flights so that they can avoid having to wear a headscarf.

Air France has resumed flights to Iran after ignoring pleas gay crew who feared they could be executed

The route was reintroduced after last year's landmark deal to curb Iranian nuclear activities, as part of larger French and European efforts to rebuild trade ties long frozen by sanctions.

French Transport Minister Alain Vidalies and a business leaders' delegation were on board flight AF 378 that took off from Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport after noon on Sunday.

The petition, posted on change.org, was called 'Gay stewards from Air France don't want to fly to the death penalty in Iran' and has been supported by more than 28,000 people.

A representative from the group, calling himself 'Lauren M' set out their argument in an open letter to the French government and CEO of Air France, Frederic Gagey.

It said: 'Sure, our sexuality isn't written on our passports and it doesn't change the way we work as a crew.

'But it is inconceivable to force someone to go to a country where his kind are condemned for who they are.'

It comes after Air France staff were left outraged last week following a memo regarding the flights to Tehran, saying that female cabin crew would be required to wear cover their hair with a scarf when they leave the plane.

On Sunday, the airline recommenced flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Tehran - the first since 2008 - having taken no action over the protest

However, the airline later backed down, announcing that they will will appoint a 'special unit' to replace those who do not want to fly to Tehran

'Any woman assigned to the Paris-Tehran flight who for reasons of personal choice would refuse to wear the headscarf upon leaving the plane will be reassigned to another destination, and thus will not be obliged to do this flight,' human resources official Gilles Gateau told Europe 1 radio.

Unions, who held talks with the human resources chief, argue that an escape clause was already in place for flights to Conakry in Guinea during the Ebola crisis last year and for services to Tokyo following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Company chiefs had sent staff a memo informing that female staff would be required 'to wear trousers during the flight with a loose fitting jacket and a scarf covering their hair on leaving he plane'.

According to a union representative, management also raised the possibility of 'penalties' against anyone not observing the dress code.

Air France told AFP last week that all air crew were 'obliged like other foreign visitors to respect the laws of the countries to which they travelled'.

'Iranian law requires that a veil covering the hair be worn in public places by all women on its territory.

HOW TEHRAN'S 7,000 SECRET AGENTS MONITOR 'MORAL TRANSGRESSORS' Police in Iran's capital have a network of 7,000 undercover agents whose job is to inform police of alleged moral transgressors in the Islamic republic, a top official said on Monday. Bad veiling - covering the head is mandatory for women in Iran - and anti-social behaviour is among the crimes the force has been tasked with tackling. The men and women's 'undercover patrols will confront implicit transgressions in the city,' according to General Hossein Sajedinia, Tehran's police chief. 'Confronting bad hijab and removal of veils inside cars, driving recklessly, parading in the streets, harassing women and stopping noise pollution are the priorities' for the agents, he said Police in Iran's capital have a network of 7,000 undercover agents whose job is to inform police of alleged moral transgressors in the Islamic republic (file picture) Sajedinia's remarks were published by Mizan Online, the official news service for Iran's judiciary, along with pictures of himself and a large formation of plain-clothed agents in Tehran. When in public, all women in the Islamic republic, including foreigners, are required to wear at least a loose scarf, known as hijab, which covers the hair and neck. Since the mid-1990s, however, there has been a gradual change in the dress code with some women, particularly in more affluent northern neighbourhoods, wearing colourful tight-fitting coats and loose scarves. If the agents observe such violations they report the alleged offender to police who will then be contacted and later summoned, Sajedinia said. The agents, bearing judicial orders, are not allowed to engage people directly and will only report to the police. Advertisement

'This obligation, which does not apply during the flight, is respected by all international airlines which fly to Iran,' the airline said.

Air France added that the headscarf rule when flying to certain destinations was 'not new' since it had applied before flights to Tehran were stopped and also to crew flying to Saudi Arabia.

Air France announced in December the resumption of Paris-Tehran flights after they were suspended in 2008 when Iran was hit with international sanctions over its nuclear ambitions.

Gagey was optimistic the line would prove profitable. 'It's a touristic destination which I believe is going to become very popular, very attractive,' he said. Air France is also counting on Paris to become a hub for American and other tourists headed to Tehran.

Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, Iran's deputy transport minister, welcomed the resumption of the flight. 'The current situation has fortunately given the opportunity to both countries to restore their relations to their normal former state. It interestingly seems that the Islamic Republic's aviation sector has been dominated by France and French industries,' he said.

The resumption of flights will restore a longstanding aviation link between the two countries. The airline operated flights to Tehran from 1946 until October 2008, when they were suspended amid U.N. and EU sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

Asked about the petition last week, Air France said: 'A large number of the world's countries still have restrictive legislation relating to homosexuality; the countries we serve in which this is the case are listed here by continent then in alphabetical order: Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Egypt, Guinea, Morocco, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia (recently served), Singapore

'We have not had any issues in recent years in the countries listed above. We listen to individual problems but we must also manage a large number of very complex schedules (regulatory complexity, 13,000 cabin crew members, 183 destinations in 98 countries served by Air France), and no other airlines that serve Tehran or the countries listed apply a voluntary participation policy.

'By its nature, flight crews' work requires them to serve countries whose cultures and regulations are very different to our own, and Air France management carries out constant monitoring to ensure that all members of its flight crews can perform their duties in the safest possible conditions.'
David Cameron has been embarrassed after it emerged that the government's own EU report assumes his target for cutting immigration will be missed.

The Prime Minister has pledged to bring net annual migration to the UK down below 100,000.

But the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown it is still stubbornly above 300,000. Eurosceptics have raised doubts about whether the ambition is achievable while Britain has to abide by EU free movement rules.

George Osborne launches the government's analysis of potential Brexit outcomes in Bristol today flanked by Cabinet colleagues Liz Truss, left, and Amber Rudd

The Treasury's analysis of the country's prospects if it leaves the union, published amid great fanfare by Chancellor George Osborne today, warns that GDP could fall by the equivalent of 4,300 for every household by 2030.

The basic rate of income tax could have to rise by 8p to fill a 36billion hole in the government's finances, according to the document.

But the officials also made clear they were assuming that net migration will still be almost double Mr Cameron's target by 2021.

And they insisted none of the post-Brexit scenarios they had considered would result in a reduction to the immigration figure.

'The population and migration projections which underlie the modelling were used by the OBR in their Economic and fiscal outlook accompanying Budget 2016,' the report stated.

'It is assumed that population growth will slow in line with the ONS's current principal population projections.

'In the principal projection, total net international migration to the UK falls from 329,000 per year in 2014 towards 185,000 per year from 2021 onwards.'

According to ONS estimates, net migration to the UK will be more than 1.6million up to 2021.

Official figures for net migration to the UK in the year to September 2015, published by the ONS

If the figure then remained in line with their longer term forecast of 185,000 a year until 2030, the population would have grown by more than three milllion people.

Jonathan Portes, former chief economist at the Cabinet Office, said: 'The Treasury assumes that immigration continues to evolve in line with ONS forecasts.

'This means that it assumes both that government policy - to reduce immigration to the tens of thousands - is ineffective, and that Brexit makes no difference either to the numbers or the skills mix.

'Given the centrality of immigration and free movement in the political debate on Brexit, this is difficult to understand.

'There is a strong consensus among UK economists that free movement has been beneficial to the UK economy and public finances, as outlined by the Bank of England, but simply ignoring this issue seems like a major omission.'

'Project Utter Crap': Conservative Andrew Percy gave a blunt reaction

Mr Osborne launched the fresh offensive in the increasingly bitter referendum battle today by accusing Brexit supporters of 'dishonesty' and warning the UK would end up 'permanently poorer'.

Unveiling the 200-page Treasury document flanked by Cabinet colleagues Liz Truss, Amber Rudd and Stephen Crabb, Mr Osborne rejected criticism that he is 'scaremongering'.

He insisted civil servants had carried out a 'sober and serious' analysis of Britain's prospects outside the EU.

'This is a sober and serious look at the costs and benefits of remaining in the EU or leaving it - not just for Britain but for the individual families of Britain,' he said at the event in Bristol.

Eurosceptics should not pretend the UK can 'have our cake and eat it', he insisted.

The Treasury report published by George Osborne

Mr Osborne said while this report dealt with the long-term impacts of Brexit, the government will be producing a study on the short-term fallout later in the campaign.

The launch of the dossier came as tensions in the campaign ratcheted up.

Mr Johnson bluntly dismissed claims UK trade would suffer after Brexit as 'b******s', and claimed David Cameron had been told to 'bog off' by EU counterparts after asking for more powers to control immigration.

Meanwhile,Tory MP Andrew Percy jibed that 'Project Fear' had turned into 'Project Utter Cr**'.

Former whip Michael Fabricant said: 'Now Osborne is claiming tax will go up. This is getting childish and ridiculous. Next, plague of frogs if we Brexit?'

Senior Conservative backbencher Bernard Jenkin jibed that Mr Osborne had previously pledged to eradicate the deficit by the general election, but missed the goal.

He also referred to the Treasury's decision to enter the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) - which Britain crashed out of in 1992.

Former Tory whip Michael Fabricant gives his assessment of the Treasury report

'Same Chancellor who promised to balance budget by 2015? Same Treasury which supported UK membership of ERM?' he wrote on Twitter.

Another Tory, Kwasi Kwarteng dismissed the document as 'intellectually dishonest'.

'I think these figures are absurd, frankly,' he told the BBC's Daily Politics. 'The Treasury were the same people who said at the beginning of the last parliament that we would have eliminated the deficit by 2015. The deficit has not been eliminated.

Former Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith also joined attacks on US President Barack Obama, who is expected to endorse British membership of the EU when he visits this week.

'On June 23, I think the British people will be advised to vote to get Britain to look a little bit more like the US and a lot less like it does at the moment with regard to the power of the EU,' Mr Duncan Smith told an audience in Washington. 'I don't quite understand why any American president would want Britain to be any other way - unless of course they want the US to join the EU too. Maybe that is the subtext of the speech or comments about to be made.'

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier, Mr Osborne said the analysis by civil servants 'stepped away from the rhetoric' and 'set out the facts'.

'Britain would be permanently poorer if we left the EU, to the tune of 4,300 for every household in the country,' Mr Osborne said.

Singling out Mr Johnson for criticism, he branded those who claimed that the UK could leave and negotiate better terms with the rest of the EU 'economically illiterate'.

'You completely misunderstand Britain's negotiating position if you think we can get a better deal than France of Germany,' he said.

The Chancellor with Environment Secretary Liz Truss at the launch in Bristol

Mr Osborne watches Ms Truss, left, speak about the potential impact of Brexit while Energy Secretary Amber Rudd and Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb check their notes

In other developments over the weekend:

The French finance minister sparked fury by saying Britain would no longer be 'great' after Brexit and instead reduced to the status of Jersey or Guernsey;

Cricket hero Sir Ian Botham backed Brexit, saying that the country should 'stand proud';

A row erupted over the delayed publication of a report assessing the impact of migration on schools;

A poll found seven in ten Britons think immigration levels have been too high over the past decade.

Voters have already been handed recent warnings from the International Monetary Fund, the Bank of England and big business about Brexit.

Last week Mr Osborne also warned that Brexit could lead to a rise in mortgage rates due to uncertainty about what would happen after a vote to leave the EU.
Brown claims she is innocent, and would have fought the charges if she could have worn a Chanel skirt, Jimmy Choo heels and makeup in court

She stalked the teacher, who had dated her father, for years, and killed her after being released from prison on the burglary charge in November 2003

Brown was charged with burglary June 2003 after she broke into Witherspoon's home and stole a pair of her underwear

The 44 year old is now asking the South Carolina Department of Corrections to pay for her gender

A transgender inmate who is serving a life sentence for murdering a woman she had stalked for years is asking the state to pay for her sex-change operation behind bars.

Katheryn Brown has been in prison for 13 years after she bound, raped and strangled 53-year-old Mary Lynn Witherspoon in November 2003, leaving her dead body in a bathtub in her Charleston, South Carolina home.

The 44 year old, who was born Edmonds Tennent Brown IV, was already taking hormones to become a woman at the time she committed the grisly murder, and now wants the state Department of Corrections to help her complete her journey by allowing her to physically become a woman.

Murderer: Transgender inmate Katheryn Brown (left in 2003 mugshot) has been in prison for 13 years after she bound, raped and strangled 53-year-old Mary Lynn Witherspoon (right) in November 2003

Scene: Brown was charged with burglary June 2003 after she broke into Witherspoon's home (above) and stole a pair of her underwear

'I truly believe my outward appearance does not match or correspond with my inner self,' Brown wrote in a letter to The Post and Courier, who conducted an interview with the inmate through multiple correspondences.

'But as a female I would be complete and a productive member of society because I would actually be comfortable in my own skin.'

Brown went on to claim that despite her own admission of guilt, she is not responsible for the murder of Witherspoon, claiming that she would have fought the charges had she been able to physically transition before the trial.

'If I had not been such an emotional basketcase I would have pled "not guilty" and taken my chances with a jury trial,' wrote Brown.

'If I had been able to dress the way that I would have felt more confident, I would have been dressed in a cream-colored Chanel skirt-suit with a pair of 4-inch spike heel Jimmy Choos and make-up.'

Brown's father had dated Witherspoon for several years, and after the two split his daughter continued to show up at the woman's home.

Witherspoon was not alarmed at first until June 2003, when Brown broke into her laundry room and stole a pair of her underwear.

After that incident Withersppoon pressed charges and Brown took a plea, serving time for burglary until she was released in November of that year.

Brown was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and gender dysphoria after her arrest, and left prison on November 10 to undergo outpatient mental health treatment.

While at the treatment center Brown gave her home address as Witherspoon's address and then walked over to the woman's home, where she murdered the teacher who was unaware she had even been released from prison.

Witherspoon had asked to be alerted upon Brown's release but there was a problem with the system and she never received a notification.

Brown was arrested when she returned to Witherspoon's home after the murder, wearing a pair of her pants and underwear and having on her the keys to the home and Witherspoon's car.

She had also changed the address on her license to Witherspoon's address.

Two years after her death an anti-stalking measure was signed into law by then governor Mark Sanford that was named after Witherspoon, called Mary Lynn's law.

Brown would later claim during a post-conviction hearing in 2007 that she was innocent, despite being seen coming out of the home just after the murder.

She had also made numerous charges to Witherspoon's credit card.

'I believe that someone and I do not know who, saw me leave the house and confronted her about her upcoming move to Paris, France,' she said.

'I dont know who would want to hurt her.'

Witherspoon's sister Jackie Olsen said of her sister's relationship with Brown; 'She was probably the only person who was ever nice to him. Mary Lynn was kind to everybody. She was good to the core. She loved people and was truly kind to people.'

Brown's father refused to discuss his daughter's request for a sex change.

She is currently one of two women in the South Carolina prison system requesting gender reassignment surgery, with the other individual an unnamed inmate on death row.
A man with an intellectual disability has plunged 40 metres to his death after slipping on a grass embankment while having his photo taken by his carers.

Daryl Kitto, 47, was with staff from community mental health service Emerge Aotearoa at Rakaia Gorge in Christchurch on Sunday when he reportedly moved closer to the edge to have a second photo taken from a different angle and 'got too close'.

Mr Kitto was the last surviving member of his immediate family after his mother Cheryl died of cancer in 2008 and his younger brother Gavin died of a heart attack in 2003, Stuff.co.nz reported.

A man with an intellectual disability has plunged 40 metres to his death after slipping on a grass embankment at Rakaia Gorge (pictured) in Christchurch while having his photo taken by his carers

Senior Sergeant Pete Stills said Mr Kitto hit a tree after the fall and died shortly after.

'He wanted to get a photo with the gorge in the background, he got too close to the cliff edge and he appears to have slipped,' he said.

'He was unresponsive and appears to have died at the scene'.

His carers and other witnesses were left 'traumatised' after the incident.

Mr Kitto was originally from Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand's southeast coast, but moved to Christchurch for full time care.

Before his father passed away, Mr Kitto would often make the trip to Dunedin to visit him and hoped to move back in the near future.

A spokesperson from Emerge Aotearoa said the accident is under investigation and their 'focus is on supporting the people who were close to him'.

Senior Sergeant Pete Stills said Mr Kitto hit a tree after the fall and died shortly after
It emerged at London's High Court today that the legal issues are resolved

But arguments over the car's ownership led him to demand a refund

Tycoon Les Wexner bought the classic 1950s car from Bonhams in 2014

A legal tussle involving a billionaire underwear tycoon, a British auction house and an 11million Ferrari was today resolved following an 18-month court battle.

Les Wexner, boss of Victoria's Secret, was suing London auctioneer Bonhams over his record-breaking purchase of the 1954 Ferrari 375-Plus.

The 10.7million deal at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed was the highest price publicly paid for a road legal vehicle in the UK.

But Mr Wexner later demanded a refund, plus interest and damages as arguments over the car's ownership lingered on.

Lingerie tycoon Les Wexner bought a 1954 Ferrari 375-Plus for nearly 11million back in 2014

He claimed he was led to believe the dispute had been settled and 'all relevant litigation' had been resolved prior to the auction.

Bonhams disputed Wexner's claims of 'deceit' and it emerged at the High Court today that the parties had settled and Mr Wexner could now take delivery of the Ferrari.

A joint statement from Bonhams and Wexner's legal team said: 'Copley Motorcars and Bonhams announce the settlement of their ongoing litigation concerning the auction of a 1954 Ferrari 375-Plus by Bonhams at its Goodwood sale in 2014.

'The resolution of the litigation, including the transfer of valid Ohio title and Bonhams' contribution to Copley's costs, finally enables the completion of the sale of the car with the disputes to title now definitively resolved.'

The car, nicknamed the Fearsome Four-Nine, had been owned by American Karl Kleve, who paid $2,500 for it as a wreck in 1958.

It was stolen in the 1980s and shipped to Belgium. The car was eventually seized by Belgian authorities, but found its way into the ownership of Jacques Swaters, a former racing driver and car collector.

But the businessman demanded his money back when it emerged that the ownership of the car was disputed

Mr Wexner made his millions after buying the then-struggling Victoria's Secret brand in 1982

He lovingly restored the Ferrari, unaware of its history, before Mr Kleve contacted him and accepted $625,000 to allow Mr Swaters to keep it.

Mr Kleve died in 2003, and Mr Swaters in 2010, before the car passed into the possession of the latter owner's daughter, Florence Swaters.

There were then a number of legal disputes stretching across Europe, the US and South America.

The classic car is now expected to join Mr Wexner's impressive private collection, which consists of a number of very valuable Ferraris from the 1950s and 1960s.

The Ferrari, one of only five built, was campaigned successfully in the 1950s, picking up a number of victories including a win at Silverstone.

Under the bonnet was a 4.9-litre engine which developed a staggering 330bhp, giving it a 0-60mph time of just four seconds and a top speed of 186mph.

The car is now expected to join other classic vehicles in US-born Mr Wexner's collection

Mr Wexner made his fortune when he bought Victoria's Secret, a struggling chain of lingerie stores predominately aimed at men, for $1m in 1982.

He had started his business empire in 1963 having borrowed $5,000 from his aunt to set up a shop selling clothing for younger women.

He transformed Victoria's Secret by revamping it and focusing its lingerie on women.
The now-ex police officer would be handed a 12-month sentence most of which has already been served

Adam Torres, 33, (pictured) struck the plea bargain just before his murder trial was scheduled to begin

A former Fairfax County police officer accused of fatally shooting a man who had his hands up during a 2013 standoff pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter.

Adam Torres, 33, struck the plea bargain just before his murder trial was scheduled to begin in Fairfax.

It calls for him to serve a 12-month sentence for killing John Geer, 46, of Springfield.

Torres spoke very briefly at the end of the hearing, saying: 'I am truly sorry ... There are no words I can say to adequately express my remorse.'

Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Morrogh said he agreed to the plea in part to spare Geer's daughters from testifying.

He also acknowledged the difficulties in obtaining convictions against police officers for actions committed in the line of duty. Torres is the first officer to be convicted for an on-duty shooting in the 75-year history of the police force in Fairfax County, where the population exceeds 1 million.

Torres shot and killed Geer, 46, in August 2013 after a report of a domestic dispute. Witnesses, including other officers, said Geer was unarmed and had his hands up when he was shot.

Morrogh told the court that Geer, a kitchen contractor, had been upset when the mother of his two teenage daughter, and partner of 24 years, Maura Harrington, told him she was moving out.

The couple had been slowly breaking up but on the morning of the shooting she told Geer she had signed a lease on an apartment.

Hr began drinking and the situation escalated until he threatened to kill himself. Harrington called 911 and told dispatchers that Geer owned several firearms.

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Torres shot and killed John Geer, 46, (pictured) of Springfield after a report of a domestic dispute

Torres was one of the first two officers on the scene during the 40-minute standoff before a trained negotiator took command.

Geer had a .357 Magnum pistol that he laid at his feet during the standoff, but he kept his hands up, witnesses said.

He told the officers, 'I have a gun because you have guns, and I might need mine.' Later, he said: 'I don't want to die' and 'I don't want to get shot.'

The medical examiner determined Geer had a blood-alcohol level between .13 and .16, above the legal limit.

When Geer said he was going inside his house to get a drink of water officers tried to talk to him to keep him in their sight, the prosecutor said. At one point, Geer appeared to lower his hands slightly, according to officers on the scene.

Most of the officers did not perceive the movement as a threat, though one officer supported Torres' account that Geer was growing increasingly agitated. It was then that Torres fired a fatal shot that nicked Geer's heart and pierced his lungs, Morrogh said.

Morrogh acknowledged that Geer's family had mixed opinions about the plea bargain  he said Harrington supported the deal to avoid having her daughters testify, but Geer's mother opposed it.

Torres has been jailed since his arrest in August, and would only have to serve a few more months if the plea bargain goes through as expected. His sentencing is set for June.

Geer's father, Don Geer, told reporters after the hearing that he has mixed emotions about the conviction.

'I feel it could have been a more severe sentence,' he said.

In pretrial hearings, prosecutors noted Torres was angry about the breakup of his marriage and said it carried over when he responded to the Geer home.

He had been taken off duty several times in the previous year because of his anger over the marriage.

The cop had been arguing with his wife on the phone as he was responding to the call at Geer's house, prosecutors said.

While Geer was killed in 2013, Torres was not indicted until 2015.

The two-year delay led to allegations that Fairfax County was stonewalling the investigation. The prosecutor said the county's own lawyers refused to provide internal police documents he needed to conduct his investigation.

A lawsuit and an inquiry from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, eventually forced the county to relent.

Last year, the county paid $3 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Geer's family.
GOP frontrunner Donald Trump's first foray into the beauty pageant business was marked with two lawsuits  one that alleged sexual misconduct  and some memorable quotes.

'All women are bimbos,' Trump dished out one Manhattan night in December 1992, as he also labeled women 'gold diggers,' according to a pin-up model who was there.

The businessman was hanging out with a group of women associated with his first pageant venture, a pin-up competition called American Dream Calendar Girls.

The Boston Globe rehashed this ordeal in a story that came out this week.

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Donald Trump's early dealings with the beauty pageant industry were brought up this week in a Boston Globe story that rehashes two lawsuits lobbed against the GOP frontrunner, including one that was sexual in nature

The only American Dream pageant Donald Trump sponsored was held in November 1993. Soon after, Trump allegedly ghosted on his business partner, with the venue sending a letter saying the relationship was dead

It begins with the recollections of a pin-up model named Rhonda Noggle.

Noggle joined Trump in his limousine with a group of scantily-clad girls as they left the Plaza Hotel's Oak Room.

Upon hearing the 'bimbos' and the 'gold diggers' comments, Noggle decided she'd had enough.

'I told him I would rather be with a trash man who respected me than someone who was a rich, pompous ass,' she told the Globe.

'And I got out. And I took a cab ride home.'

Trump, in an interview with the Globe, denied he had ever made the comments and doesn't recall Noggle getting out of the car.

Donald Trump only partnered with American Dream one year before the business relationship dissolved into two lawsuits

As the Globe put it, 'Noggle's assertion of sexist behavior by Trump foreshadowed allegations of misogyny, racial bias, and sexually aggressive behavior that would roil this brief and fractious deal  Trump's debut in the pageant business in which he would in time become a major player.'

American Dream Calendar Girls was run by a couple: George Houraney and his longtime girlfriend Jill Harth.

Previously, the pin-up pageants had been sponsored by English Leather, the cologne company, but a change in ownership had ended that deal.

Additionally, the planned celebrity spokesman, Sammy Davis Jr., had died of cancer in 1990.

Houraney and Harth wanted to bring Trump in for some much-needed cachet.

But after just one pageant the couple alleged that Trump had cheated them out of a $250,000 fee and deprived them of $5 million in future business.

Worse, during that night at the Oak Room, Harth alleged that she had been repeatedly groped by Trump and he made numerous unwanted sexual advanced toward her throughout their business relationship.

The couple would file two different lawsuits, with Harth dropping hers as part of Trump's deal with Houraney to settle his.

They initially met with Trump a day before that notorious night at the Oak Room in December 1992.

With Trump between his first and second marriages, it quickly became apparent that the real estate investor was interested in Harth.

'Basically, Donald Trump stared at me throughout that meeting,' Harth said under oath in 1996 in a 93-page court deposition that the Globe dug up.

'He stared at me even while George was giving his presentation,' she alleged.

Trump reportedly asked point blank: 'Are you sleeping with her?' To which Houraney answered in the affirmative.

'Well, for the weekend or what?' Trump asked.

Houraney noted that he and Harth had been together for 12 years. They were later married.

'My goal was to get the deal,' Houraney told the Boston Globe, explaining why he didn't walk away from the meeting.

Trump upgraded the couple to a suite in the Plaza Hotel and asked them to dinner the next night.

Jill Harth (left), the vice president of American Dream Calendar Girls, filed a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump in 1997 for alleged sexual misconduct, which she laid out in a 93-page court deposition

These allegations occurred during Donald Trump's single days in the '90s. 'You know I'm going to go after her,' The Donald allegedly said to business partner George Houraney about his girlfriend of 12 years Jill Harth

'Why don't you bring some calendar girls with you?' Harth recalled in her deposition Trump saying. 'I'd like to meet them, I'd like to see the quality of the girls that I'm going to be sponsoring.'

At the dinner, Noggle told the Globe that she remembered 'he had taken a liking to Jill [Harth] for sure.'

Houraney, talking to the newspaper, recalled Trump telling him that Harth was 'very beautiful.'

'You know I'm going to go after her,' Trump allegedly said.

According to Harth's $125 million lawsuit, Trump began calling her his 'new girlfriend' that night and throughout dinner he put his hands on her thighs and tried to touch her 'intimate private parts.'

Trump denied all of these allegations to the Globe.

The couple also claimed that Trump was discriminating against black models.

Harth said in her complaint that the businessman 'directed that any black female contestants be excluded' from a party at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

Houraney said he would send over packs of pictures to The Donald and he would never choose any black contestants .

'It's all false, I don't even know what he's talking about,' Trump said in his interview with the Globe. 'He never sent me pictures, this and that. It didn't happen. It didn't happen.'

A month after the Manhattan meeting, a deal was decided on and the couple was invited to celebrate at Mar-a-Lago in January 1993, along with at least nine past and present calendar models.

At dinner, Harth alleged she was fondled again.

'When we got to the dinner table, Donald started right in on the groping under the table, to tell you the truth,' Harth said.

Later in the evening Harth says Trump brought her to an empty bedroom at the estate and kissed, fondled, and restrained' her from leaving.

She and Houraney eventually left, but another girl with the group  22-year-old Lauren Petrella  claimed that Trump had crawled in bed with her that night.

Donald Trump was briefly unmarried in the early '90s, having left first wife Ivana Trump in 1991. He eventually married his mistress Marla Maples (pictured) in December 1993

'You said you don't sleep with men on the first date,' Trump had told Petrella, according to testimony from Harth. 'Now it's the second date, and here I am.'

Trump also continued to call Harth after that weekend, she alleged, telling her he 'was the best lover you'll ever have' and that sleeping with him would make her 'an awakened woman.'

At a subsequent meeting at Mar-a-Lago Trump made more 'unwanted sexual advanced' toward Harth, touching her 'private parts' and 'uttering Svengali-type proclamations of love.'

In the lawsuit Harth said she 'became nauseated and vomited profusely.'

In November 1993 the American Dream competition took place in Atlantic City.

Previous to the event, Trump had refused to sign a contract inking out the business deal, telling Houraney he wanted the couple to prove themselves first.

Houraney received a congratulatory letter from The Donald and then stopped hearing from him.

The venue, Trump Castle, sent him a letter saying that it had lost money so the sponsorships would stop.

Houraney filed his lawsuit in 1995, while Harth filed her civil lawsuit in 1997.

'They were losing the business dispute angle so they brought that up,' Trump said of the sexual misconduct allegations.

Harth's lawsuit was withdrawn several months after it was filed.

'It was withdrawn without prejudice at Trump's demand as a precondition to settling a companion 1995 complaint by the company I worked for. Trump did not want to litigate my complaint,' she told the Globe over email.

'I stand by everything written in the complaint or I would not have signed it,' she said. 'It's best for me not to comment about how Donald was then or if we reconciled now.'

But both Houraney and Harth have seemingly made amends with The Donald, the Globe reports.

Houraney was invited to the businessman's Mar-a-lago Christmas party several months after they settled.

Harth and Houraney divorced several months later.

More recently Harth attended one of presidential candidate Trump's rallies and even met with the billionaire backstage.

'She's not changing the complaint or anything around that. She stands by the complaint,' publicist Chuck Jones, who also worked for Trump's second wife Marla Mapes, told the Globe on Harth's behalf.

'She wants to emphasize what happened 20 years ago is not the same situation as exists today. But she doesn't want to update it,' Jones added.
Major Philip Levine has now pledged to ban all future Floatopia events

City officials also criticized huge crowds and piles of inflatables and trash left behind on Sunday

But festival goers complained about drugs and troublemakers with knoves

Thousands attended the free biannual event with their floats on Saturday

Floatopia Miami is under fire after Miami Beach was left strewn with trash

Miami's pristine beaches have been left strewn with trash after a free beach festival descended into chaos last weekend.

Thousands from all over Florida descended on Miami Beach on Saturday to relax, float and party at the biannual event.

But Miami officials and environmental groups were enraged after festival goers left behind a trashed beach covered in hundreds of discarded inflatables, bottles and plastic.

While attendees complained about widespread drug use, drug dealing and 'idiots' bringing knives and smashing bottles.

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Thousands from all over Florida descended on Miami Beach Saturday to relax, float and party on the beach at the biannual event (Mayor Philip Levine later posted a picture of the event with the words 'Never Again')

Miami's pristine beaches were left strewn with trash and plastic floats after a free beach festival descended into chaos last weekend

Miami Beach Police Chief Daniel Oates said there was just one arrest at Floatopia after a fight between two men, the Miami Herald reports.

Mayor Philip Levine and Commissioner Michael Grieco has now vowed to ban future Floatopias to protect the local environment.

In a furious Facebook rant, Levine warned that 'the disruption to our beaches, residents and visitors caused by Floatopia will NOT be tolerated.

'I plan to bring this up at our next Commission meeting to approve a plan which would STOP this event from happening on our beaches going forward.'

He went on to say that Floatopia Miami had rapidly grown since it was founded in 2012 and was now 'simply too large and disruptive' and 'has a very adverse impact on our quality of life, public safety and natural resources.'

One reveler brought a whole collection of different inflatables to the event on Saturday

The biannual festival encourages people to bring their inflatables which can then be donated to needy children

City officials criticized the huge crowds at Floatopia as they claimed they felt 'unsafe' walking through

Floatopia urge attendees to clean up after themselves on their website and social media pages. Advice which was ignored on Saturday (pictured is a reveler with her float)

Thousands filled Miami Beach on Saturday as officials complained the event was spiraling out of control since it was founded in 2012

Festival goers, who brought hundreds of inflatables, complained about widespread drug use, drug dealing and 'idiots' bringing knives and smashing bottles

Grieco also posted a video of the 'Floatopia Fallout' which shows the trash-laden beach as he told the camera, 'this is an absolute travesty.'

'Floatopia will never happen in Miami beach again, mark by words,' he added.

Festival organizers posted on the event's Facebook page that they were extremely disappointed with those who had abandoned their trash.

They also suggested that the troublemakers were not regular festival goers but may have found out about Floatopia 'through other channels.'

'Protect the beach is the only thing we ever ask. It has been of utmost important to us from day one,' the post said.

'The level of disrespect shown on our beach yesterday was unimaginable.

'Thank you to everyone who cleanup after themselves but unfortunately, this time, you were the minority. We refuse to be associated with this kind of behavior and much less will we facilitate an event that hurts a city and beach that we love.'

Floatopia enraged locals and environmental groups after festival goers left a trashed beach covered in discarded inflatables, bottles and trash

The Floatopia aftermath has encouraged Miami's mayor and commissioner to call for it to be banned

They also insisted that the last event in September had the same issues.

Many party goers were furious about the mess with Harold Ruiz branding it 'disgusting' on the group's Facebook page.

Others said that the clean up was 'the least of the problem.'

Tracy Lisa Johnson said on the group's Facebook page that she had witnessed 'idiots cracking beer bottles on each other's head and bringing knives.'

Many said there had been a new, disruptive crowd at this year's event.

Michelle Zaldivar said: 'There was a considerable difference in the amount and type of people that attended this year. We left early due to this. Drugs, drug deals right in front of us and people with little children, and people in each others personal space was insane.'

Gabriela Simonelli agreed, adding: 'Floatopia, is NOT what it used to be when it started.. I'm a Miami Beach resident and yesterday the type of people that came out for the event were so low class & super ghetto! They should not allow certain type of people for coming to the event or the city should make them pay $2-3 each to be part of the event, so we can collect funds to actually pay people to clean the disaster. I think that would regulate the crowd and the mess.'

Police kept an eye of activities at the event on Saturday although Miami Beach Police Chief Daniel Oates said there was just one arrest at Floatopia after a fight between two men

Floatopia have

A rain storm which hit Saturday afternoon may be to blame for the unusually messy beach after revelers abandoned their trash, rafts and inflatables to make a dash for their cars.

Normally, inflatables are donated at the festival for needy children.

Levine, who posted a picture of the trash-strewn beach with the words 'Never again', said that he hoped to stop another festival from ruining the area.

But the mayor and city officials cannot legally close public beaches. While there are no laws against bringing inflatables to the beach.

Levine said he is considering his next move and warned he could even exercise 'emergency powers if necessary.'

Grieco said they were in discussions of how to control the size of the crowds without creating a police state.

'It's dangerous to walk through there,' he said. 'You can't see what's going on. I walked in the middle of it and I felt unsafe. It's an absolute shame.'

While they may not be able to ban the event entirely, Levin said they could create 'all types of hindrances or controls or mechanisms so that this doesn't happen again.'
Americans who face being named in the Panama Papers have been told to come clean before any illegal activity is discovered by officials.

More than 200 people with U.S. addresses have so far been identified by authorities combing the Mossack Fonseca documents, which were leaked earlier this month.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has now advised anyone using offshore accounts to contact them as the investigation gains momentum.

Americans who face being named in the Panama Papers have been told to come clean before any illegal activity is discovered by officials. Above, a policeman stands guard outside the Mossack Fonseca law firm officers during a raid last week

In a statement given to NBC News, the service said: 'People hiding assets offshore should recognize the continued changes and progress in the international tax arena.

'More than ever, their best option remains to come forward voluntarily and participate in the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program.'

It comes after experts revealed the reason for the low number of Americans involved - in comparison with other countries - might be because shell companies are being formed under authorities' noses in Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada. This means residents do not need to go to Panama.

Shima Baradaran Baughman, a professor at the University of Utah, told Fusion that Americans 'have no need to go to Panama to form a shell company to use for illicit activities'.

She added: 'It [the leak] should make Americans look internally to see what kinds of corporate illegalities we are allowing within our own borders.'

James Henry, a economist, agreed, adding that the U.S. has an 'onshore haven industry.. that is as secretive as anywhere'.

More than 200 residents have so far been named in the Mossack Fonseca documents, which were leaked earlier this month. Above, an officer keeps an eye out during last week's raid

His comments came as other experts confirmed it would take months for journalists to trawl through the 11.5million documents, meaning it will be a while before the number of Americans involved can be confirmed.

Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer and offshore activity expert, told Fusion is was going to 'take some time' due to the enormity of the database.

He added that he expected more Americans to show up when stock fraud and manipulations are examined, as well as hedge fund operations.

Other reports have suggested thousands of Americans could be involved.

The leaked documents from one of Panama's most secretive law firms emerged after hundreds of journalists from across the world spent months interpreting the data.

Sigmunder David Gunlaugsson became the first victim of the leak as he sensationally resigned from his position as Prime Minister of Iceland.

His resignation came after the documents appeared to show he and his wife set up a company in the British Virgin Islands to hide millions of pounds.
The father at the centre of the 60 Minutes botched child abduction has admitted that his two young children want to be with their mother.

Ali Elamine, 32, the estranged husband of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner, said he wanted to press charges against 'everyone involved' in the attempt to snatch his children on a Beirut street.

But he conceded that Lahela, five, and Noah, three, 'probably' wanted to see their mother - who has spent almost two weeks behind bars.

Ms Faulkner faces at least two more days in jail along with presenter Tara Brown and her 60 Minutes crew after a hearing was unexpectedly postponed at Baabda Court on Monday.

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The father at the centre of the 60 Minutes botched child abduction has admitted that his two young children want to be with their mother Sally Faulkner (pictured together)

Ali Elamine, 32, the estranged husband of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner, said he wanted to press charges against 'everyone involved' in the attempt to snatch his children on a Beirut street

When Mr Elamine was asked if his children wanted to be with their mum in Australia, he responded saying 'Probably. They're kids', according to the Herald Sun.

'They're kids, they always want what they don't have. When you take kids to a toy store they want the whole store.'

Speaking outside the court on his way to the hearing, he said: 'Am I open [to letting the children travel to Australia?] I'm not 100 per cent sure about that.'

Later he ruled out the prospect of the children travelling to Australia, saying: 'Are you kidding?'

Ms Faulkner has been charged along with six others over the attempt to snatch her two children from her ex-husband's family on a Beirut street on April 6.

Ms Brown, 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound recordist David Ballment are among those who have been charged.

Mr Elamine said he would not drop the charges against Ms Faulkner because that would mean everyone else would 'get off'

Sally Faulkner (pictured) travelled to Lebanon to retrieve her children, Noah, three, and Lahela, six

All involved are facing charges of kidnapping and being members of a criminal gang, which can attract maximum sentences of up to three years and 10 years respectively.

Mr Elamine said he would not drop the charges against Ms Faulkner because that would mean everyone else would 'get off'.

'The way they are trying to push for this is that if Sally (Faulkner) goes out on bail, they all get out,' Mr Elamine said as he prepared to meet the judge Rami Abdullah on Monday.

'That is how I am seeing it as an outsider. ... They are pushing for Sal's release and everyone else gets a green card.'

'I will charge everyone involved,' he said, according to Seven News.

He claimed he was still married to Ms Faulkner and that he secured custody in June 2015.

60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown was pictured being forced into a police car in handcuffs as she was taken back to a Lebanese jail

Ms Brown (right) and Sally Faulkner were pictured being led away in handcuffs from a Beirut court on Monday after the hearing was postponed

Ms Brown (pictured) and Ms Faulkner were led into a judge's chambers in handcuffs on Monday over the failed bid to snatch the Brisbane mother's two children from her estranged husband's family

Wearing a black top she appeared calm as she was led away from Baabda Court in Beirut and helped into a car by police officers

Reporter Tara Brown (pictured) has been detained on kidnapping charges with a 60 Minutes crew that filmed the 'child abduction' of Sally Faulkner's two children in Lebanon on April 7

Ms Faulkner's lawyer said she has been fighting to get access to her children for nine months.

The lawyer said that Mr Elamine took the two children on a three-week holiday to Lebanon and did not return them as agreed.

But an attempt to snatch them from a suburban Beirut street by a 'child recovery team', caught on CCTV, was ultimately unsuccessful.

The children were returned to their father and the 60 Minutes team were arrested.

Mr Elamine failed to reach an agreement on custody of their children after Ms Faulkner was arrested and charged with kidnapping.

He discounted claims by Ms Faulkner's lawyer, Ghassan Moughabghab, that negotiations over the custody dispute had broken down, saying they had not started.

Ms Faulkner's claims her children Noah and Lahela were taken to Lebanon by her estranged husband Ali Elamine (pictured with Noah and Lahela) in 2015 and he refused to bring them back

Sally Faulkner's lawyer has reportedly said she was paid for by the Nine Network and had used money given to her by 60 Minutes to the child recovery agency, Child Abduction Recovery International

Mr Elamine admitted his children 'probably' wanted to be with their mother but hardened his stance against 60 Minutes

'All that's happened is the judge asked us to talk.'

His lawyer said no deal had been reached between the couple but denied the Lebanese-American father was seeking a compensation payout.

'There is no agreement. Ali wants his kids, no matter what price he has to pay,' lawyer Hussein Barjawi told News Corp.

When asked whether Mr Elamine was seeking a financial payout, he said: 'It's all rumours. There is no compensation at all.'

CCTV footage supplied by Lebanese authorities appeared to show the bungled kidnapping earlier this week

Veteran journalist Stephen Rice (left), David Ballment (centre) and Benjamin Williamson (right) are also in custody in Lebanon

A prison van believed to be carrying those accused of the botched kidnapping attempt in Lebanon arrived at Beirut's Baabda court on Monday




The detective in charge of the search for Madeleine McCann said today that police still believe the missing girl could be found alive.

Madeleine disappeared in Portugal nearly nine years ago, just days before her fourth birthday, and officers have continued to hunt for her ever since.

Today the head of Scotland Yard's homicide squad insisted there is 'always a possibility' that the girl will be discovered safe and well as he justified the ongoing operation.

Search: Officers looking for Madeleine McCann, left, believe she could be found alive according to Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Duthie, right

Earlier this month Home Secretary Theresa May granted the Metropolitan Police 95,000 so they could continue the search for Madeleine, codenamed Operation Grange, for six more months.

And Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Duthie, who supervises the investigation, said that it could be extended into next year if police need to continue following up leads.

'There is always a possibility that we will find Madeleine and we hope that we will find her alive,' he told the Evening Standard.

'That's what we want and that's what the family and the public want and that is why the Home Office continue to fund it.'

Family: Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry, pictured at court proceedings in Portugal in 2010, say they have never lost hope over their daughter

Hunt: British officers travelled to the Algarve in 2014 to scour a patch of land near Praia da Luz

Operation Grange, which is estimated to have cost 12million so far, was launched in 2011 after the Portuguese police ended their investigation into Madeleine's whereabouts.

The girl - who would turn 13 next month - was apparently abducted from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz while her parents Kate and Gerry were having dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Last year, the Met investigation was scaled down from 29 officers to just four, following years of fruitless searching.

The Government's 95,000 grant to Operation Grange, announced two weeks ago, was seen by some people as a final stay of execution for the probe.

However, Mr Duthie insisted that the investigation may continue into 2017, saying: 'I imagine that if we have not completed our inquiries within six months we will go back to the Home Office and ask for more money.'

Image: This picture shows Madeleine as she may have looked in 2012, when she would have turned nine

British officers searching for Madeleine have taken more than 1,300 statements and spent several days digging up scrubland in the Algarve in the hunt for clues.

The missing girl's parents welcomed Mr Duthie's commitment to the operation and expressed hope that their daughter will be found safe.

'Kate and Gerry remain incredibly grateful to the officers working on Operation Grange and to the Met in general,' a spokesman for the couple said.
Jeremy Corbyn has backed a decision to ban McDonald's from the Labour party conference, despite being accused of 'snobbery' by some of his own MPs.

Labour's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) rejected tens of thousands of pounds in sponsorship from the fast-food giant by banning it from having a stall at the party's annual conference in Liverpool this autumn.

McDonald's wanted to display a stand promoting British farm produce, which would have raised 30,000 in revenue for the cash-strapped Labour party.

Mr Corbyn agreed with the NEC's decision, a source close to Mr Corbyn's spokesman told MailOnline this afternoon.

Labour's ruling National Executive Committee, dominated by allies of Jeremy Corbyn, refused the offer from McDonald's to provide a stand at party conference

'It is about employment issues and trade union rights,' the source said.

The fast food-chain is one of the biggest users of the controversial zero-hours contracts, which do not guarantee a minimum number of hours.

But McDonald's is rolling out reforms to employee contracts by offering some of its 80,000 UK staff on zero-hours contracts the option of moving to fixed hours of four, 16 and 30 hours per week.

It aims to roll out the option for all its staff from the end of the year, saying a mix of flexible and fixed term contracts 'work best' for its staff.

Another source close to Mr Corbyn told PoliticsHome: 'McDonald's have failed every test when it comes to union recognition and decent employment standards.'

Dudley North MP Ian Austin - whose first job was serving burgers at McDonald's, also mocked the decision. He tweeted today: 'Thought I'd better try something called Hummus & Feta Flatbread for lunch. Hope @UKLabour NEC... approve'

Michael Dugher, who was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet by Mr Corbyn earlier this year, said Labour 'could do a lot of good with 30K,' mocking the Labour leadership by adding: 'Wouldn't that cover about one day a week for a 'strategy director' in the leader's office...?'

Mr Dugher also questioned why Cuba Solidarity has an exhibition stand at the Labour party conference. 'That country doesn't even have free trade unions...!' he wrote

A McDonald's spokesman said they were 'disappointed' at the decision, telling MailOnline that their workers had seen average pay rises of more than 10 per cent over the last six months and 80 per cent of employees had chosen to remain on flexible contracts.

The firm said that all staff are allowed to join a trade union if they want to.

But Mr Corbyn came under fire from a string of Labour figures. Baroness Prosser, Labour's treasurer from 1996-2001, said the Labour party was 'not in a position to be turning down money'.

She told the BBC: 'Clearly if you've got a principled position then the money has to come second, but what is the principled position against McDonald's? I don't get it.'

Labour MP Wes Streeting, who once had a part-time job at McDonald's, also criticised the decision to ban the firm.

A McDonald's spokesman said they were 'disappointed' at the decision

'I'm exasperated that we should throw away 30,000 worth of sponsorship like this,' he said.

'It smacks of a snobby attitude towards fast-food restaurants and people who work or eat at them.'

In a pointed dig at Mr Corbyn, who has been a vegetarian for decades, he added: 'McDonald's may not be the trendy falafel bar that some people in politics like to hang out at but it's enjoyed by families across the country.'

Michael Dugher, who was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet by Mr Corbyn earlier this year, said Labour 'could do a lot of good with 30K,' mocking the Labour leadership by adding: 'Wouldn't that cover about one day a week for a 'strategy director' in the leader's office...?'

Mr Dugher also questioned why Cuba Solidarity has an exhibition stand at the Labour party conference. 'That country doesn't even have free trade unions...!' he wrote.

Dudley North MP Ian Austin - whose first job was serving burgers at McDonald's, also mocked the decision. He tweeted today: 'Thought I'd better try something called Hummus & Feta Flatbread for lunch. Hope @UKLabour NEC... approve'.

The Conservative Party and SNP have reportedly accepted offers from McDonald's to put on an 'interactive experience' display in support of British farm produce at their conferences.

Responding to Mr Corybn's reasoning for the ban today, a McDonald's spokesman told MailOnline: 'As with many other organisations, all employees of McDonald's UK including our franchised restaurants are entitled to join the membership of a union, however, we do not organise for them to meet with a particular union.

'In terms of contracts, we have recently announced a trial which is giving our people the choice of contracts and hours they are on, with 80 per cent of people choosing to remain on the flexible contracts already in existence.

Despite being a vegetarian, Mr Corbyn attended the fourth annual British Kebab Awards last month (pictured)

'In addition to this and with changes to the National Living Wage, our restaurant workers have experienced a pay rise, on average, in excess of 10 per cent in the last six months.'

Despite being a vegetarian, Mr Corbyn attended the fourth annual British Kebab Awards last month to had out prizes.

The Labour leader has not eaten meat in 50 years and could not resis issuing a public health message as he pleaded with kebab eaters to always have salad so 'they can have hte balanced diet we all need'.

In his speech, Mr Corbyn described himself as a 'Vegetarian aficionado of kebab shops' and joked: 'I hope I'm still welcome.'

He said: 'I'm always very pleased whenever I get to any kebab shop to enjoy a good falafel.

'When people buy kebabs, I want them to have salad on top, so they can have the balanced diet we all need.'

Mr Corbyn ruffled feathers last year when he appointed vegan MP Kerry McCarthy as Labour's farming spokeswoman.

She has suggested that meat should be slapped with tobacco-style health warnings.

In a post on her personal blog, Ms McCarthy also revealed her dread of Christmas because 'meat is everywhere in huge quantities'.

Kerry McCarthy, a vegan, was appointed Labour's farming spokeswoman by leader Jeremy Corbyn

Her friends, who are 'normally nice and interesting and funny', suddenly start sharing pictures online of 'stuffing turkeys, smothering potatoes in beef fat and boiling ham in Coke', she wrote.

Miss McCarthy, who as shadow environment secretary is supposed to represent the food and farming industries, wrote the blog after spending a previous Christmas Day 'as usual with a bunch of meat-eaters'.

She described the ordeal of 'fussing over them to make sure they're not using the same serving utensils for the vegetables and the meat, and that the vegetarian gravy hasn't got muddled up with the ordinary gravy, and trying to help with the serving up and clearing away without having to get too up close and personal with bits of dead animals'.

'To be honest I got rather sick of it', she wrote in 2010, five years after becoming MP for Bristol East in a blog entitled 'A Vegan at Christmas'.

'And for the first time I felt, I don't really want to do this again. Yes, Christmas should be about spending time with family, but perhaps next year I'll just turn up in time to see them vegging out in front of Dr Who and EastEnders'.

Ahoy there! Jeremy Corbyn risks comparisons to Captain Birdseye with photo opportunity on ferry

Jeremy Corbyn has risked ridicule by releasing a series of photographs of him at the helm of a ferry.

The Labour leader - whose resemblance to Captain Birdseye from adverts for the food firm has previously been noted - posted the images on his new Snapchat account.

The feed is intended to take advantage of his strong following among students and 20-somethings.

He has also joined Instagram, with one of his first forays showing a Tunnock's tea cake captioned 'on the road fuel'.

Captain Birdseye from the food firm's famous adverts, left, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn steering a ferry in Liverpool yesterday

The Snapchat posts showed the veteran left-winger on board a ferry in Liverpool yesterday, and taking a turn steering the vessel across the Mersey.

The pictures emerged amid questions about whether Mr Corbyn will snub US President Barack Obama when he visits Britain this week.

The White House has set aside a half an hour meeting with the Labour leader on Saturday as part of his farewell visit to the UK.

Mr Corbyn surveys the horizon as he steers the ferry

Mr Corbyn has been critical of Mr Obama's presidency - in particular his foreign policy, but he has also blasted the President for failing to close Guantanamo Bay or end capital punishment.

When Mr Obama hailed the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, Mr Corbyn described his death as 'a tragedy' - saying the Al-Qaeda chief should have been put on trial.

Shortly before he entered the Labour leadership race last summer Mr Corbyn attacked Mr Obama for failing to deliver on his promise to release the British Guantanamo prisoner Shaker Aamer.

On a visit to Washington in May last year to lobby for Mr Aamer's release, he wrote an article along with Tory MPs David Davis and Andrew Mitchell titled 'Obama's Slap in Britain's Face'.

Mr Aamer was finally released from the Cuban prison in October - despite being cleared for release under Mr Obama in 2010.

Despite the visit of Mr Obama having been arranged for months, the Labour leader's office said there is a 'discussion around logistics' over a possible meeting on Saturday.

If the meeting does go ahead it is set to be one of the most awkward diplomatic exchanges since Ronald Reagan snubbed Neil Kinnock in the Oval Office.

Mr Obama is set to land in Britain on Thursday night as part of a farewell tour ahead of his departure as US President later this year.

He will hold bilateral meetings with David Cameron - the only world leader he calls his 'Bro'. The pair are expected to discuss counter-terrorism issues, ISIS, Russian aggression in Ukraine, Afghanistan and growth.

Mr Obama will have lunch with the Queen on Friday to celebrate her 90th birthday.

But controversially the President is expected to make an intervention in EU referendum debate by urging British voters to stay in the EU.
This adorable video shows students at Penn State University helping a man propose to his girlfriend, a much-loved member of the college's staff.

James Irvin told ABC News that he decided to propose to his girlfriend-of-one-year Duquina Johnson, 33, during the university's Blue and White Weekend - a time when many alumni return to the school.

The New Jersey man, 45, said his ' fraternity brothers' helped him create signs that marked important dates in their relationship, including the day they were introduced and their first kiss.

The New Jersey man, 45, said his ' fraternity brothers' helped him create signs that marked important dates in their relationship, including the day they were introduced, their first kiss (left) and when they fell in love (right)

While this is going on, Ms Duquina, who is wearing a bright yellow top, stands in the middle of the crowded room exclaiming and giggling

The proposal took place in the university's HUB-Robeson Center.

While Michael Jackson's Do You Remember the Time? plays, Mr Irvin walks around the students, dancing and pointing to them as they hold up signs displaying special dates during the couple's relationship.

While this is going on, Ms Duquina, who is wearing a bright yellow top, stands in the middle of the crowded room exclaiming and giggling.

Eventually, as Bruno Mars began to play, Mr Irvin heads to the centre of the room where, microphone in hand, he declares his love for Ms Duquina, who is from Pennsylvania

Eventually, as John Legend's All of Me begins to play, Mr Irvin heads to the centre of the room where, microphone in hand, he declares his love for Ms Duquina, who is from Pennsylvania.

He tells her: 'You are the breath that I breathe, you are the shooting star that I wish on every night. You are my everything', before asking her to marry him.

As he places the ring on her finger the students cheer, scream and take photographs on their phones.

He tells her: 'You are the breath that I breathe, you are the shooting star that I wish on every night. You are my everything', before asking her to marry him

As Mr Irvin places the ring (right) on Ms Duquina's finger, the students cheer, scream and take photographs on their phones

Ms Duquina has had 12 surgeries due to endometriosis, which she was diagnosed with as a child.

According to ABC News, Mr Irvin has been by her side for three of her surgeries, including her most recent one, which was in December.

Ms Duquina told the news station: 'I've been through a hell of a lot in the past six years', adding 'he's such a prince charming.'
Jeremy Hunt today insisted he would impose a new contract on junior doctors despite claims he had made a U-turn just days before the first ever all-out strike in the NHS.

The Health Secretary said today he would be following through on his decision to 'impose' the controversial new contract on junior doctors joining the NHS for the first time and those who change jobs.

Mr Hunt told MPs this meant the new contract would filter through to all new junior doctors - a description for all hospital doctors below consultant level - over time.

But Labour seized on the issue as evidence of a U-turn and claimed Mr Hunt may have misled Parliament by suggesting the contested agreement would apply to all junior doctors straight away.

Jeremy Hunt, pictured making his statement in Parliament today, has insisted he has made no-U-turn and will press on with plans to impose the new contract on junior doctors

The Health Secretary announced he would press on with imposition in February after a 48-hour strike of non-emergency care took place. He said NHS negotiators had concluded there was no prospect of progress on the outstanding issue around Saturday pay.

Despite the decision, the British Medical Association (BMA) vowed to continue their dispute and two nine-hour all-out strikes are scheduled to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

Mr Hunt said today there would be 'no retreat' on his plans, which he insists are vital for introducing a seven-day NHS.

He said: 'This Government has a mandate from the electorate to introduce a seven-day NHS and there will be no retreat from reforms that save lives and improve patient care.

'Modern contracts for trainee doctors are an essential part of that programme and it is a matter of great regret that obstructive behaviour from the BMA has made it impossible to achieve that through a negotiated outcome.'

Mr Hunt confirmed that NHS foundation trusts do have the freedom to introduce new contracts of their own but said none of them choose to do so.

Shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander insisted Mr Hunt had failed to make his position clear.

She said: 'We need a very clear answer to a straightforward question - is he imposing a new contract? Yes or no?

'If he's not, but merely suggesting a template, why did he not make this clearer beforehand?

'And why, in his oral statement of the 11 February, did he lead Parliament, the media, the public and crucially 50,000 junior doctors to believe he was announcing imposition?'

Mr Hunt faced claims he had misled Parliament after legal letters suggested the contract would not in face apply to every junior doctor straight away

The long running dispute has seen picket lines outside Parliament and a wave of strike action by junior doctors since January

Ms Alexander said this was 'no way to run the NHS' and added: 'Either the Health Secretary has known all along that he doesn't have the power to impose a new contract and so all of this is part of a cynical attempt to take on a trade union.

'Or, he was oblivious to the fact he didn't have the power to do this, in which case what is going on in his Department?'

Following Mr Hunt's statement, Dr Ben White - who has played a leading role in the campaign against the new contract - branded the new position as 'bizarre'.

He said: 'Utterly bizarre rhetoric & positioning from Hunt. There are so many ways out right now, and he chooses none.

'Am seriously concerned that Hunt is out on a limb here: none of them can decide what the position is, or how to defend it.'

One junior doctor, Ben White, said Mr Hunt's new position was 'bizarre' and said the Health Secretary had left himself 'out on a limb' over the dispute

MPs also questioned the Health Secretary's position.

Shadow health minister Justin Madders said: 'Jeremy Hunt has been asked again and he still won't say what the legal basis is for impositon- looking more and more like one huge bluff.'

But Tory MP and former GP Sarah Wollaston, who has previously urged both sides to back down, warned next week's strike would 'cause real harm' to patients.

Legal letters obtained by The Guardian were seen by Mr Hunt's opponents as an attempt re-write history by watering down his previous threats.

Mr Hunt today suggested that Ms Alexander had 'planted' the story relating to the possible U-turn in The Guardian, a story which he described as 'absolute nonsense'.

The Health Secretary used today's appearance to plead with the BMA for help in staffing hospitals during next week's strike.

A BMA spokeswoman said: 'No junior doctor wants to have to take any action, they would rather be in hospital caring for patients, but they have already done everything else in their power to make their voices heard. By continuing to ignore them, the Government has left them with no alternative.

'The critical message for patients is that anyone who needs emergency care on the days of industrial action will get it, the only difference is that it will be provided by senior doctors rather than junior doctors. Furthermore, the BMA notified Trusts several weeks in advance, giving them time to plan ahead.

'For the sake of patients as well as doctors, the Government must listen to concerns from all sides calling on it to lift imposition and get back around the negotiating table. It is not too late to remove the threat of imposition and end this dispute through talks.'

Shadow health minister Justin Madders questioned whether Mr Hunt's position amounted to any more than 'one huge bluff'

But Tory MP and former GP Sarah Wollaston warned without some kind of resolution patients would be at risk of 'real harm' when junior medics withdraw all care next week

Solicitors representing Mr Hunt state he will 'proceed with the introduction of a new contract' and that he is legally entitled to do so under the NHS Act 2006.

However, the papers do not mention the word 'imposition' at any point or cite any of Mr Hunt's repeated uses of the word in the Commons or in public over the past few weeks.

The revelations could mean Mr Hunt is accused of misleading Parliament, by repeatedly claiming he has the legal right to impose the new contract.

They are outlined in a five-page letter sent last Friday by government lawyers to Bindmans, the solicitors acting for a company called Justice for Health, formed by five junior doctors.

They are going to the High Court today to seek a judicial review over whether Mr Hunt could lawfully impose the new contract.

Mr Hunt said on Twitter last night that there was 'no change of approach' and that a 'new contract will be introduced' for junior doctors from August.

He wrote: 'Government done what entitled to following disappointing & needless refusal to negotiate by BMA.'

The Green Wing cast donned scrubs to join the picket line at the most recent strike earlier this month, pictured. The strike is due to escalate next week when emergency care is withdrawn for the first time
Schools in Malaysia have been struck by a mass hysteria 'epidemic' in which students claim they are having visions of female vampiric ghosts and are being physically pinned down by evil spirits.

Called 'body possession phenomenon', one bizarre incident saw 20 female students sent home from a single school after complaining of being overwhelmed by it.

Yesterday reporters attempting to speak with students at one school were not allowed entry but heard screams coming from inside classrooms.

More than 100 students at schools in Kota Baru (pictured), Malaysia, have been affected by the phenomenom

Education chiefs in the Kota Baru region are now using shamans and religious leaders to try and clear the schools of the supposed 'bad spirits', the Straits Times reported.

The latest school to be struck by the hysteria was SMK Pengkalan Chepa 1, which avoided spreading it by sending five female students home for the day.

Those affected by the bizarre hysteria claim to be overwhelmed by bad spirits and see spirits such as the pontianak, a type of female vampiric ghost popular in Malaysian folklore.

Pontianaks are said to be the spirits of women who died while giving birth who return to prey on men.

Teacher Norlelawati Ramli, 32, even claimed she felt something pinning her down after she tended to a student who was complaining of seeing demons.
The former teenage car, boat and plane thief who became known as the 'Barefoot Bandit' during a two-year crime spree wants to cryogenically freeze his dying mother.

Colton Harris-Moore told The Daily Herald in a phone interview that he is trying to crowd fund enough money to pay for the unusual procedure for his mother, Pam Kohler, who he says is fighting advanced lung cancer.

The 25-year-old, who is currently serving a six-year prison sentence at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen, Washington, hopes she could one day be brought back to life.

The former teenage car, boat and plane thief Colton Harris-Moore (pictured with his mother, Pam Kohler) who became known as the 'Barefoot Bandit' during a two-year crime spree wants to cryogenically freeze his dying mother

Harris Moore, who is serving a six-year prison sentence in Washington, said he is trying to crowd fund enough money to pay for the unusual procedure for his mother who he says is fighting advanced lung cancer

Harris-Moore told the newspaper that his mother's doctors said they cannot do anything further to stop the cancer from eating her lungs.

He thinks her best hope is to be put into a deep freeze that preserves the body and vital organs, a process called cryopreservation that essentially puts the body on pause.

The hope is that advances in medical technology will allow her to be revived and her cancer treated.

Harris-Moore acknowledges the idea is outlandish, but says it is the most realistic option given her condition.

He also said she could only have days left to live, so 'holding out on treatment is a waste of time.'

As his mother has been referred to palliative care, Harris-Moore believes she could instead by be saved by experimental treatments and wants to freeze her until those treatments can be offered, according to The Seattle Times.

The company that he is hoping to use to conduct the procedure is the Alcor Life Extension Foundation which reportedly charges $280,000 for the procedure and other fees.

Moore pictured thinks his mother's best hope is to be put into a deep freeze that preserves the body and vital organs, a process called cryopreservation that essentially puts the body on pause

Harris-Moore who is due to be released this summer, obtained the 'Barefoot Bandit' moniker after reportedly committing some of his crimes without wearing shoes and leaving chalk drawings of bare feet and the phrase 'Cya!' at the scene

The Gofundme page set up for his mother has a goal of raising $308,000 to cover the costs for the procedure, and so far has raised $505.

'Reaching our goal will guarantee Pam's life is saved,' Harris-Moore wrote on the page.

'The doctors gave up on saving Pam before they even tried, so it's truly up to us alone.'

Harris-Moore also notes on the Gofundme page that he has decided to start his own cryonics and research company starting in 2017.

The high school dropout and self-taught pilot became a cult hero for his multiple crimes

In an interview earlier this month with The Herald Newspaper, Harris-Moore said: 'I would do another 10 years in prison if it meant my mom could live.

Previously, he said that his mother might die before he is released this summer. He is due to be released to a halfway house at the end of July.

Known as the Barefoot Bandit, he obtained the moniker after reportedly committing some of his crimes without wearing shoes  and leaving chalk drawings of bare feet and the phrase 'Cya!' at the scene.

Harris Moore was captured by authorities in the Bahamas in a hail of bullets in 2014 after crash-landing a stolen aircraft he had flown from Indiana and was jailed for six and a half years.

The high school dropout and self-taught pilot became a cult hero for his multiple crimes and the way he was able to stay a step ahead of the law as he broke into dozens of homes and stole cars, boats and planes.

In 2007, he was jailed for three years for burglary, but fled a minimum security juvenile facility in April 2008.

He hopscotched his way across the U.S., frequently crash-landing planes in rural areas and stealing vehicles from car parks at small airports.
A Tennessee FedEx worker accidentally fell asleep in one of the company's planes at a Memphis airport, only waking up en route to Texas.

The man, who has not been named, was exhausted after working two jobs, and fell asleep on FedEx Flight 1459 unseen by his colleagues. They locked him in the plane, which began the flight to Lubbock at 3:46am Friday.

After waking up he was no doubt startled to find himself airborne - though maybe not as startled as the pilots, who heard him knocking on the plane's cargo door, KCBD reported.

Stowaway: A FedEx worker from Memphis, Tennessee, got a shock Friday when he fell asleep while loading a plane at 3:46am and woke up to find out he'd accidentally stowed away on a plane to Lubbock

Released: Emergency crews (pictured) were called and cops questioned the man after the plane landed at 5.30am, but he was released without charge. The man is not being named

'Of course the crew did not open the door,' Kelly Campbell, executive director of Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport, told NBC News.

Instead, they told him they were coming in for landing and told him to strap himself into one of the 'jump seats' in the cargo hold.

Airport police met the plane after it landed in Lubbock at around 5.30pm, but the man was released after being questioned.

'There was no criminal intent. He has been turned over to FedEx,' Campbell told The Dallas Daily News, adding that the incident was 'very unusual.'

A FedEx spokesperson told KCBD Friday, 'There was never any danger to our employees or cargo. We are fully cooperating with investigating authorities.'

The FBI and TSA were also notified of the accidental stowaway, The Commercial Appeal reported.
Power said she met with the boy's family to 'offer our profound condolences and our grief and heartbreak'

The young boy darted in the road near the small city of Moloko in northern Cameroon, where Power was to speak about Boko Haram

An armored jeep in the motorcade of Samantha Power, America's United Nations Ambassador, struck and killed a young boy who darted into the road in Cameroon.

The incident occurred near the small city of Moloko, in northern Cameroon, where Power, her aides and accompanying journalists were headed to meet refugees and others displaced by the years of brutal attacks across West Africa.

All those meetings included small children.

Power said she learned of the death with 'great sorrow.'

She said she met with the boy's family to 'offer our profound condolences and our grief and heartbreak.'

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Refugee children meet with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power as she visits Minawao Refugee Camp in northern Cameroon on Monday

Power speaks with Cameroon External Relations Minister Mbella Mbella on Sunday

Power returned to the scene of the bloody accident several hours later to meet the 7-year-old boy's mother and father, while residents of his village stood solemnly on a sandy expanse.

The motorcade was moving at a fast clip, at times exceeding 60 mph, while villagers lined up along the sides of the road. But when the boy darted onto the two-lane highway, there was no time for the sixth car in Power's convoy to react. The driver was Cameroonian.

At the moment of impact, a man could be seen running up the embankment, with his arms held high, to the street to try to stop the child.

A Cameroonian helicopter traveling overhead as part of a large security contingent saw the collision.

The vehicle that hit the boy initially stopped, but was ordered by American security forces to continue traveling through the unsecured area.

An ambulance in the US caravan immediately attended to him.

The boy was rushed to a local hospital, though his condition was already hopeless, according to people familiar with the incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Several US officials were visibly affected, with one Power aide turning away to cry as his boss met with refugee children shortly afterward.

The motorcade moved at a significantly slower pace for the rest of the day.

Officials did not immediately identify the boy.
A woman accused of killing her 4-year-old stepson by putting him in scalding water as punishment the day before he was found dead has been indicted on murder and other charges.

Grand jurors indicted Anna Ritchie on charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault and endangering children, Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said Monday.

One of Ritchie's attorneys, Seth Cantwell, declined to comment on the case.

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Anna Ritchie (left) of Franklin, Ohio has been indicted on murder charges in the death of her 4-year-old step-son Austin Cooper (right)

On March 15, Ritchie, of Franklin, Ohio, put Austin Cooper in water estimated at around 130 degrees for at least 20 minutes and resented being his primary caregiver, Fornshell said.

The boy was bleeding and had skin coming off his legs when Ritchie put him to bed without treatment, he said.

'I can't think of any scenario ... where you would do that to a child,' Fornshell told WLWT-TV.

A Franklin detective testified in March that Ritchie told police she put ointment and socks on the boy to hide burns.

Authorities say Ritchie forced the boy into scalding hot water for 20 minutes and then hid the boy's burns. Ritchie pictured above in court last month

Ritchie later admitted hearing Austin crying, ignored his distress and told his father not to check on him that night, the investigator said.

The father checked in on him the following morning around 9:30am when the boy was found dead.

The county coroner concluded the boy died of shock from blood and fluid loss resulting from his burns, Fornshell said. He would have had a 95 percent chance of surviving had he been hospitalized.

'This was a completely treatable injury,' Fornshell said.

Ritchie faces a prison sentence of 15 years to life on the murder charge. She is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

Sheri Gredig, the boy's grandmother, told WCPO-TV that Ritchie deserves at least a life term.
Britain's coastal towns are leading the charge for Brexit, while areas with large numbers of graduates are backing the UK remaining in the EU, new analysis has revealed.

A major study of voting records from polling experts shows how each local authority is likely to vote in June's EU referendum.

Land-locked South Staffordshire has the highest proportion of Brexit supporters but most of the other areas with high support for leaving the EU are on England's coast, including Boston, Kings Lynn and Tendring, which includes Ukip's only constituency of Clacton.

Former Industrial areas in the West Midlands also revealed a high proportion of Brexit supporters.

The more Eurosceptic an area, the darker the shading, with the lightest areas showing the most pro-EU local authorities

Meanwhile the areas with the highest support for staying in the EU include towns with a large population of young people and graduates.

These areas include Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Edinburgh and Brighton, while the most pro-EU authority in the country is the inner-London borough of Lambeth.

The more Eurosceptic an area, the darker the shading on the map, with the lightest areas showing the most pro-EU local authorities.

The graph - drawn up by academics at the University of Bristol - was based on responses from 60,000 people in YouGov polls, census data and results from the 2014 European Parliament elections and last summer's General Election.

It attempted to work out how people are likely to vote based on their age, educational qualifications and where they live.

As expected, Scottish and Welsh voters are among the most pro-EU voters in the UK.

Voters with fewer qualifications are less likely to vote to stay in the EU than those with degrees, according to the study

The analysis confirmed assumptions that the older the voter, the more likely they are to vote to leave the EU.

In a stark contrast, the oldest voters are on average three times more likely to vote for Brexit than the youngest voters.

The analysis also found 'substantial differences' over how middle-aged and older people will vote depending on their educational qualifications.

Voters with fewer qualifications are less likely to vote to stay in the EU than those with degrees, according to the study.

Bristol academics Professor Ron Johnston, Professor Kelwyn Jones and David Manley wrote: 'Our map of the percentage support for Brexit according to this model shows some very clear geographical patterning.

'At one extreme are the two clusters of local authorities where support for leaving the EU is very low  in almost all of London and most of Scotland.

'Against this, the areas with most support for Brexit are concentrated along much of England's east coast plus some of the older industrial areas (notably in Yorkshire and the West Midlands), with pockets along the south coast too (mainly local authorities with large retired populations).'

The analysis came as the EU referendum debate intensified after George Osborne published a major Treasury report that claimed Britain's GDP could fall by the equivalent of 4,300 for every household by 2030 if Britain leaves the 28 state bloc.

The analysis came as the EU referendum debate intensified after George Osborne (second left) published a major Treasury report that claimed Britain's GDP could fall by the equivalent of 4,300 for every household by 2030 if Britain leaves the 28 state bloc. He presented the document alongside Environment Secretary Liz Truss (far left), Energy Secretary Amber Rudd (second right) and Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb (far right)

The basic rate of income tax could have to rise by 8p to fill a 36billion hole in the government's finances, according to the 200-page document.

But the report embarrassed David Cameron after Treasury officials admitted that his target of cutting immigration to under 100,000 will be missed.

The analysis predicted that net migration will still be almost double the Prime Minister's target by 2021.

And they insisted none of the post-Brexit scenarios they had considered would result in a reduction to the immigration figure.

The basic rate of income tax could have to rise by 8p to fill a 36billion hole in the government's finances, according to the 200-page Treasury document

'The population and migration projections which underlie the modelling were used by the OBR in their Economic and fiscal outlook accompanying Budget 2016,' the report stated.

'It is assumed that population growth will slow in line with the ONS's current principal population projections.

'In the principal projection, total net international migration to the UK falls from 329,000 per year in 2014 towards 185,000 per year from 2021 onwards.'

According to ONS estimates, net migration to the UK will be more than 1.6million up to 2021.

Official figures for net migration to the UK in the year to September 2015, published by the ONS

If the figure then remained in line with their longer term forecast of 185,000 a year until 2030, the population would have grown by more than three milllion people.

Jonathan Portes, former chief economist at the Cabinet Office, said: 'The Treasury assumes that immigration continues to evolve in line with ONS forecasts.

'This means that it assumes both that government policy - to reduce immigration to the tens of thousands - is ineffective, and that Brexit makes no difference either to the numbers or the skills mix.

'Given the centrality of immigration and free movement in the political debate on Brexit, this is difficult to understand.
Bernie Sanders is nearly tied with Hillary Clinton in national polling.

Sanders trails her by two in a new NBC/Wall Street Journal survey at 48 percent to her 50 percent.

The poll had a large margin of error of 5.3 percent, which means Sanders' support could be even higher and he could be beating Clinton. Its findings are supported by other surveys taken this month, however.

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Bernie Sanders, seen here speaking to Communications Workers of America picketers today in Manhattan, is nearly tied with Hillary Clinton in national polling. Sanders trails her by two in a new NBC/Wall Street Journal survey at 48 percent to her 50 percent

CHEERS: It's good news for the U.S. senator - but it may have come too late in the race. He's down 250 pledged delegates to her and poised to fall even further behind after New York votes tomorrow. Clinton's seen here at a Queens restaurant trying bubble tea with Congresswoman Grace Meng, center, and Senator Chuck Schumer, left

Dual-X Example

Poll-tracking website Real Clear Politics has Clinton up an average of 1.4 percent over Sanders now.

It's a dramatic shift in sentiment since the end of March, when she regularly led him by double digits.

But Sanders has won the last eight out of nine contests and Democratic voters across the nation now see him as a viable alternative to Clinton.

He's chopped down her lead among women to 15 points from 24 a month ago and has chipped away at her popularity with voters over the age of 50, gaining six points during the same time period.

Sanders has also boosted his standing among minority voters be seven points, bringing him up to 41 percent and her down to 59 percent from 63 percent last month.

It's good news for the U.S. senator - but it may have come too late in the race. He's down 250 pledged delegates to her and poised to fall even further behind after New York votes tomorrow.

She's beating him by anywhere from 10 to 18 percent in the Empire State.

Sanders contended this morning during a Today show appearance that polls had 'underestimated' his support in the past and could be doing the same thing now.

'The bottom line is, let's look at the real poll tomorrow,' he told Today's Matt Lauer.

His campaign appears to be bracing for a loss, though, and has no public events in the state on Election Day.

Clinton campaigned at Kung Fu Tea inside the Queens Crossing mall this afternoon before an event at a hotel in Manhattan this afternoon

Sanders contended this morning during a Today show appearance that polls had 'underestimated' his support in the past and could be doing the same thing now. Sanders is seen here wooing potential voters outside Micheaelangelo's restaurant in the Bronx today

As Clinton celebrates with her supporters at a Manhattan hotel, Sanders will be miles away in State College, Pennsylvania. He's scheduled to speak to supporters before polls even close in New York, saving him from having to publicly remark on the matter if the news is bad.

He suggested during a CBS interview today that a defeat in New York would make no difference to his campaign strategy at this point, though.

'What does it mean if I lose?' he said. 'It means that I lose.'

Sanders told Rose, ''We'll see what happens tomorrow. I won't speculate. You've got California, you've got Oregon, you've got Pennsylvania.
A single father in Ohio has come under fire for a so-called 'stranger test' he made his two songs go through, which involved sending a man to the house to scare the pair.

Bilal Abdul Mani said he was trying to teach his two boys - aged 16 and 14 - that they should not let anyone in the house when he is not home.

Abdul Mani sent a friend to the house when he wasn't home, and the man told the boys that their father owed him money.

'I wanted to make sure that they did the right thing when I'm not at home. Me being a single parent, I need them to do the right thing,' he told Fox 8 News.

Under fire: Bilal Abdul Mani said he was trying to teach his two boys - aged 16 and 14 - that they should not let anyone in the house in Westlake, Ohio, when he is not home

Scene: The boys ran upstairs and managed to escape out of a window and onto the roof, before climbing down to the ground

'It was poorly cast, it was badly planned and the execution was worse,' said police Captain Guy Turner

However, not only did the boys let the man into the home, but they became convinced that the man was going to attack them.

The boys ran upstairs into a spare bedroom. They then busted out of the window and onto the roof of the house, before scaling down the wall to the ground.

The brothers then ran to a neighbors house and called 911.

In a release of the emergency call obtained by Fox 8, the dispatcher asks one of the teens if the man is still in their house.

'I have no idea, me and my brother went upstairs and we jumped out,' one says in the call.

'I ripped the screen open that was in the spare bedroom and me and my brother jumped onto the roof and ran 'cause this guy was crazy, this guy wanted to kill us.'

Escape: The boys popped out this window and climbed onto the roof to escape what they believed was a man trying to hurt them

Police then went to the scene, but quickly discovered no one was in danger.

Westlake police Captain Guy Turner said it was a bad decision that their father made.

'It was poorly cast, it was badly planned and the execution was worse,' he said.

They referred the case to the city prosecutor, who could file child endangering charges against the father and the friend.

'We tried to explain to him the dangers of what he just put his kids through, and he wasn't hearing it. He referred to what happened, what his sons did, was an epic fail,' Turner said.

Abdul Mani says he regrets how the 'test' turned out, however he stands by the reason for doing it in the first place.

'It was a lesson that I was trying to teach, that went bad,' he said.

'Knowing that they reacted the way they reacted, no, I would have did it another way.'
This is the shocking moment two travellers had a bare-knuckle brawl in front of families at a packed boot fair.

The fighters, named as Patrick and John by a crowd yelling expletives as well as 'get him' and 'give it to him', were filmed trading blows at Hop Farm in Paddock Wood, Kent.

Boot sale visitors also crowded round the watch the fight, which also had a referee, on Sunday April 3.

Kent Police were called but no arrests were made after the men involved fled - and officers patrolled the site for the remainder of the day in case of more fighting.

Bout: A man acting as an unofficial 'referee' mediates as the brutal fight breaks out at the Hop Farm in Kent

It is not clear why the bout breaks out but the pair punch each other repeatedly in the face from close range, for a number of seconds.

The flurries of unskilled blows only stop when the 'referee' steps in to momentarily break up the battle - before allowing it to carry on once he appears satisfied the conditions are fair.

Women, who seemingly know the fighters, are then heard shouting 'go on Patrick' as well as cheering on a man called 'John'.

The throng appear to find the brawl entertaining rather than upsetting with some crowd members, arguing among themselves about why the fight took place.

Cheering: A woman can be heard screaming 'hit him' as the two fighters swing violent punches at each other

Flurries: The pair are seen raining down punches at each other from close range throughout their vicious bout

After a few intense exchanges, the battle stops as a man warns the fighters that they'll be arrested if they carry on.

However, this interlude lasts merely seconds as the pair begin thumping each other in another tussle.

After this exchange, the cameraman is ordered to put away his phone by members of the crowd and he does so, before filming the fight when it is taken back up across the field a few moments later.

Entertained: Most members of the crowd do nothing to break up the brawl and seem content to watch it unfold

A woman can be heard screaming 'hit him' during the final segment of the brawl before the film ends abruptly.
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A Mexican volcano that has been active on and off since 1994 has erupted over Santiago Xalitzintla village in Puebla, Mexico, blanketing the city in dusty, white ash.

The Popocatepetl volcano began erupting around 2.30am on Monday, sending ash two miles into the air.

The eruption sent glowing rock hurling through the air as far as a mile away from the crater.

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Explosion: Popocatepetl, a volcano in Mexico, erupted around 2.30am on Monday sending ash and smoke nearly two miles into the sky

The plume covered an area home to approximately 25 million people in the area of Puebla, Mexico. The thick smoke and ash have since caked the city in white dust

The plume was so thick it forced Puebla International Airport to close from 7am until approximately 1pm, according to Mexico News Daily.

Civil Protection authorities warned against approaching the volcano.

'It is important to respect the security radius of 12 kilometers (seven and a half miles) due to the danger of incandescent fragments being emitted,' national coordinator Luis Felipe Puente tweeted on Monday.

A webcam pointed at the volcano caught the moment it erupted on Monday morning.

First a bright burst of light appears, whiting out the screen, only to reveal the plume shooting upward and incandescent, blazing lava and rock cascading down the mountain's side.

Dust and ash have settled on the city since the early morning explosion and officials are urging people to wear masks to avoid inhaling the fine grit that has covered houses and cars.

Officials have warned locals to wear masks to avoid inhaling the dangerous ash and dust released from the Popocatepetl volcano on Monday

People are using surgical masks to protect themselves from inhaling the dangerous soot that is currently covering the Mexican city

The amount of soot and ash released was so dense, the Puebla International Airport was forced to shut down from 7am until 1pm Monday

Locals have been cleaning ash and soot off of cars and roadways since the massive eruption sent lava sliding down the mountain

Locals have been cleaning ash and soot off of cars and roadways since the massive eruption.

It can cause respiratory problems and damage car and plane engines.

About 25 million people live within 62 miles of the crater of the 17,797-foot stratovolcano.

The volcano has erupted frequently over the years and has already seen activity multiple times in 2016.

On January 7, Cenapred, the Center for Natural Disasters in Mexico, said ash had been released from the volcano, covering the surrounding area.

Popocatepetl sent a massive column of ash 6,500 feet into the air on March 29, according to the Guardian.

Earlier this month on April 3 another violent explosion sent dust and soot more than a mile into the air over the city, according to UPI.

The last eruption that forced the city to evacuate was in 2000 and 40,000 people were forced to flee their homes due to the eruption.

Active voclano: The Popocatepetl volcano has been extremely active for the last 22 years. It has already erupted numerous times in 2016

On January 7, Cenapred, the Center for Natural Disasters in Mexico, said ash had been released from the volcano, covering the surrounding area (picture from April 18)

Popocatepetl sent a massive column of ash 6,500 feet into the air on March 29. Similarly to Monday's eruption, a seven and a hlaf mile radius has been deemed a 'security zone' and locals are not allowed to cross the perimeter (picture from April 18)
Police say Maurice Phillips was waving the gun around in a small bedroom when he shot and killed his four-year-old daughter, Tahirah Phillips

A Philadelphia father who accidentally killed his his four-year-old daughter over the weekend was 'carelessly and recklessly' waving a gun around a small bedroom with seven children present when it went off, authorities said on Monday.

Maurice Phillips, 30, has been charged with third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and reckless endangerment and related counts in Saturday afternoon's death of Tahirah Phillips.

Police investigating the shooting originally said that the youngster had been shot by her five-year-old sister, but after Phillips was arrested, he told officers that he had been playing with the gun and it had gone off accidentally.

Capt James Clark, of the Philadelphia police homicide division, said on Monday that the girl and her six siblings - who range in age from seven months to 13 years old - were in the bedroom of the Kensington home when Phillips came into the room.

He took his gun from its holster and started 'carelessly and recklessly waving and pointing the gun around in the room.'

The gun went off, striking the girl in the back of her head, 'killing her instantly, Clark said.

'We don't believe that he intended that to happen but because of his grossly negligent acts, this is ultimately what happened,' Clark said.

The other children became upset and began yelling, investigators said.

Phillips has admitted shooting dead his 4-year-old daughter (left), Tahirah Phillips, at the home he shared with her mother Tera Riddick (right)

They said Phillips got off the bed where he was sitting and struck his five-year-old daughter 'with a closed fist' and then 'wiped the blood from his hand onto her shirt' in an attempt to shift blame. Police initially believed the girl's sibling fired the weapon.

'He went as far as to punish the five-year-old to show how much he felt that she did this,' Clark said.

Authorities alleged that Phillips called his fiancee, and after she arrived, he changed his clothes and fled. Several hours later, he turned himself in to police.

After homicide investigators 'broke down his story,' Phillips confessed he had accidentally shot the girl, Clark said.

Police haven't yet identified the girl's mother.

Phillips posted a photo on his Facebook of a semiautomatic pistol with a box of hollow-point bullets on February 14.

The girl lived in the home with Phillips and her mother Tera Riddick. Neighbors said she had five siblings, three sisters and two brothers.

Last month Phillips posted this photo of a semiautomatic pistol, the same kind of gun recovered from the scene

Phillips also posted this image of an assault rifle on his Facebook in the months before the accidental shooting

Five of the seven children, including the victim and the daughter originally blamed, are Phillips' biological children, Clark said.

Riddick was known for being a protective mother who never let her children play outside the home, which is in Philadelphia's violent Kensington neighborhood.

Neighbor Louise Sawyer said she once asked Riddick why she never brought her kids out. The mother responded: 'I'm not bringing these kids out here with all this trouble'.

Sawyer said the neighborhood, where drug needles can be seen on the street, had been plagued with shootings and drugs.

Sixty violent crimes have been reported in the neighborhood in the last month, according to data collected by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The family's home is in an area that police refer to as the 'gun grid'.

Family friend Crystal Dougherty said the girl had been outgoing and loved Barbie dolls.

'She was a sweet, loving, little girl,' Dougherty said. 'She was full of life.'

Attorney Dan Stevenson, of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, said the organization was handling the case but would have no immediate comment.
They funded luxury vacations, expensive meals and designer clothes on the cards

charges over the course of two years

not guilty to charges of felony, identity theft and larceny

They are being held on $500,000 bail and have

A bikini model who is being accused of racking up $2million in fraudulent charges so she and her boyfriend could afford exotic trips, luxury cars and designer clothes appeared in court on Monday.

Patricia Perez-Gonzalez, 26, and her boyfriend Alberto Companioni, 31, were in Manhattan Supreme Court for a motion schedule hearing during which the judge adjourned the case until July 11.

The couple, who looked drab in their beige-colored prison garb, sat emotionless during the proceedings before heading back to Riker's Island, where they are both being held on $500,000 bail.

They have both pleaded not guilty to charges of felony second, third and fourth-degree grand larceny, felony first- and second-degree identity Theft, and Petit Larceny.

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Patricia Perez-Gonzalez, 26, and her boyfriend Alberto Companioni, 31, were in Manhattan Supreme Court for a motion schedule hearing Monday (above)

The couple are accused of stealing the personal information of elderly victims and then opening American Express Platinum cards in their names

The couple, who looked drab in their beige-colored prison garb, sat emotionless during the proceedings before heading back to Riker's Island

They are being held on $500,000 bail and have pleaded not guilty to charges of felony, identity theft and larceny

The two allegedly stole the personal information of elderly victims and then opened up American Express Platinum cards in their names, which they then had mailed to vacant properties where they could go and collect the credit cards.

Between December 2014 and January 2016 the couple allegedly used these stolen cards to fund trips to New York, Los Angeles and Hawaii, dine out at expensive restaurants and enjoy drinks at popular clubs.

The pair are also accused of charging up a storm at designer stores including Hermes, Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Chanel, to name just a few.

ABC News reports that Perez-Gonzales would also allegedly buy wholesale merchandise that she would then sell on her own website, Le Fashion Wheels.

A press release reports that searches at multiple Miami addresses linked to the couple uncovered 'dozens of credit cards in victims' names ... forged identification and licenses, a credit card encoder, blank credit cards, more than ten phones labeled in victims' names and merchandise purchased with the fraudulent American Express cards, including a Rolex watch, racing bikes, ski gear, Chanel bags and other designer clothing and accessories.'

The pair are being tried to New York since that is where American Express has its headquarters.

Perez-Gonzales would also allegedly buy wholesale merchandise that she would then sell on her own website, Le Fashion Wheels

A press release reports that searches at multiple Miami addresses linked to the couple uncovered 'dozens of credit cards in victims' names ... forged identification and licenses, a credit card encoder, blank credit cards, more than ten phones labeled in victims' names

'While the victims were rebuilding their credit and their financial lives, our defendants were traveling around the entire country living it up, living large in resorts and high end restaurants, purchasing high end merchandise,' said Steven Schrank, deputy special agent-in-charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.

He went on to say that the couple and their accomplishes formed an 'organized crew that knew that they were doing and took many steps to evade law enforcement scrutiny and scrutiny from the financial industry.'
The South Florida zoo where a veteran keeper was attacked and killed by a Malayan tiger is reopening on Monday as authorities continue investigating what led to Friday's deadly attack.

Speaking in front of the Palm Beach Zoo and Conservation Society, Naki Carter, a zoo spokeswoman, told reporters late on Sunday they will open its doors to the public, beginning at 9am.

The 13-year-old male tiger involved in the incident, which was tranquilized at the time, has since recovered and remains at the zoo, which was closed over the weekend.

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Stacey Konwiser (pictured left with her husband Jeremy, also a keeper at the zoo), 38, died on Friday afternoon after being attacked by a male Malayan tiger at Palm Beach Zoo in West Palm Beach

The tiger injured Konwiser around 2pm on Friday as she was getting ready to give visitors a 'Tiger Talk'. She was taken to the hospital (pictured) and died later in the day

Carter declined to comment on the investigation, but said she wanted to 'dispel misinformation' that the tiger had been mistreated.

She also said zoo officials did not fault the animal for the attack.

'The tiger is healthy,' she said. 'There has never been blame assigned to the wild Malayan tiger involved in this deadly incident.'

The tiger is one of less than 250 such tigers known to exist in the world.

The zoo has four similar tigers, three males and one female, and serves as a 'breeding ground to make sure they don't become extinct.'

Carter also noted that fund has been created to support tiger conservation in honor of Stacey Konwiser.

Konwiser was killed on Friday by the male tiger in an enclosure known as the night house, where tigers sleep and are fed.

Konwiser, the zoo's lead keeper, had worked at the zoo for three years and had 'extensive experience' in managing large cats, said Carter.

'She loved big cats,' she said.

Konwiser's husband, Jeremy, who worked at the same zoo as a keeper, said in a statement that 'human beings and animals lost a wonderful friend.'

Konwiser had met her husband Jeremy while the two (pictured) worked at a different zoo in Palm Desert, California. They had been together for about ten years

Spokeswoman Naki Carter said the zoo's staff were left grieving like a family after the death of Konwiser (pictured in March last year during the dedication of a new tiger habitat)

Carter declined to say whether the public would be able to see the tigers on exhibit on Monday and would not identify the nickname of the tiger that attacked Konwiser.

She said zoo officials are cooperating with several agencies investigating the attack, including the West Palm Beach police, Florida Fish and Wildlife officials and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Carter said Konwiser was 'like a sister to many' and that she will be long remembered for her dedication to the zoo's animals.

'Will it be business as usual for us? No it will not,' she said. 'We've lost a member of our family.'

Konwiser, known around the zoo as a 'tiger whisperer', was performing a routine procedure at the facility when the attack occurred on Friday, the Palm Beach Post reported.

It is the first time one of the zoo's animals has killed someone according to Carter. Pictured, Palm Beach Zoo employee Nina Blakeman receives a hug following Konwiser's death

Following the attack, Konwiser was taken to the hospital (pictured) with a severe bite wound. Visitors were never at risk according to zoo officials

At the time, Konwiser was getting ready to teach visitors about tigers during a 2pm 'Tiger Talk'.

The 38-year-old suffered a 'severe bite' wound, but it took 20 minutes for the tiger to be subdued before she could be taken to St Mary's Medical Center, where she died later in the day.

Zoo officials issued a code red alert after the attack and the male Malayan tiger received tranquilizers.

Guests were escorted out of the zoo and some were pictured waiting in the gift shop after officials subdued the animal.

'The tiger never escaped,' Carter told the Sun Sentinel following the incident.

'We have safety protocols for when incidents like this occur. We initiated those safety protocols.'

Guests were never at risk during the attack, Carter added.

Palm Beach Zoo officials haven't said which of their four tigers injured Konwiser. She shared this photo of a tiger on Facebook earlier this year and called him 'the newest man in my life'

Police officers (pictured) arrived at Palm Beach Zoo after Konwiser's death. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission among other authorities are investigating the case

Carter also noted that Konwiser's death was the first at the hands of an animal in the history of the Palm Beach Zoo.

'There are no words to describe. We've lost a family member. This is a family that is in mourning right now,' Carter said.

Guest Alena Rodriguez, 25, told the Sun Sentinel that at the time she saw a trainer run by the tiger cage around 1:50pm, saying: 'We need to evacuate.'

Then, Rodriguez said she was taken into the gift shop among 25 people, including eight children, while staff members controlled the tiger.

Officials subdued the tiger within 20 minutes and guests received a free pass for another visit in the future, according to the Sun Sentinel.

Zoo employees also made sure all of their 500-plus animals were accounted for.

Officials subdued the tiger within 20 minutes and took guests to safety into the gift shop. Police (pictured) came to investigate the scene

Medical staff took Konwiser (pictured) to the hospital. Meanwhile, the zoo went through its safety protocol and made sure all of its animals were accounted for

'You don't get into this business without the love for the animals and understanding the danger that's involved even more,' Carter told the Palm Beach Post.

'I kind of referred to her [Konwiser] as a tiger whisperer. They spoke to each other in a language that only they could understand.'

Konwiser was a graduate from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and was the primary keeper for tigers and koalas at the zoo.

She and her husband had been together for about ten years and met while working at a different zoo, Living Desert Zoo in Palm Desert, California.
Tinder has offered its first full scholarship to a University of Nebraska Omaha junior kicked out of her sorority for posting a photo of herself on the dating app wearing her organization's letters.

Shannon Workman posted a seemingly innocent picture of herself and two of her 'sisters' wearing Bid Day shirts that read 'Sweet Home Chi Omega' on her dating profile.

But Chi Omega told Workman the photo was 'risque' and violated the sorority's Human Dignity rule. The sorority had begun a 'membership revocation' process against the 20-year-old student when Workman decided she'd had enough and quit.

Now Tinder has offered a full year's scholarship for Workman's senior year in a show of support for the student.

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University of Nebraska Omaha student Shannon Workman said she was kicked out of her sorority because of a 'provocative' picture (shown above) posted on her Tinder profile eight months ago

Chi Omega told Workman the photo was 'risque' and violated the sorority's Human Dignity rule. The sorority had begun a 'membership revocation' process against the student when she quit

'It's easy to give in and give up,' Tinder co-founder and CEO Sean Rad told BuzzFeed News.

'We think what Shannon did sends a very empowering message to young women and college students, which is actually one of Tinder's largest audiences. Don't conform, don't let people tell you your beliefs are wrong just because it's not the same as their beliefs.'

The company is also offering the student a paid internship at the dating app.

Rad said it was the first time Tinder had ever asked someone to join their team after being inspired by her story.

'Her actions showed a depth of leadership and courage that is admirable and something we value as part of our company culture. We always want to stand up for our users who stand up for us.'

Workman was stunned to get the call from the Tinder CEO.

'I think it's absolutely amazing,' she told Buzzfeed. 'I do stand up for Tinder because I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Some people use it for hookups but I don't, and a lot of great things happen through Tinder.'

Now Tinder has offered its first full scholarship to the University of Nebraska Omaha junior

The saga began earlier this month after someone spotted that Workman had decided to use the sorority picture in her Tinder profile.

Chi Omega had branded it 'risque' and claimed it violated the sorority's Human Dignity rule.

But Workman told Good Morning America that when she looks at the apparently 'provocative' photo all she sees is 'happiness'.

STATEMENT FROM CHI OMEGA 'Personal matters are handled by our local chapters. 'Chi Omega's process offers a series of checks and balances to ensure any sanctions imposed are reasonable and fair. 'Shannon opted to voluntarily resign her membership. 'The national organisation offers an appeal process for those who do not voluntarily resign.' Chi Omega National Chapter, April 12 Advertisement

When the sorority went began proceedings to revoke her membership, she decided that rather than be humiliated further, she quit herself.

But she says she faced further backlash. Since leaving she has spoken out to insist she did 'nothing wrong' in posting the photo.

She also addressed the sorority's claim that she was aggressive with sorority personnel over the matter, which they said contributed to their final decision.

Workman said: 'All I did was text the personnel chair and ask for clarification. I was in shock that I was given a personnel because I didn't do anything.'

Omega released a statement saying that because 'Shannon opted to voluntarily resign her membership' nothing could be done as 'the national organisation offers an appeal process for those who do not voluntarily resign'.

But she says had she known there was an option to appeal the decision, she maybe wouldn't have left.

Despite the unhappy situation, her former sorority sisters have been 'very supportive', she says.

The college junior (right) and her mother, Jill (pictured left), found the picture to be innocent, but she said Chi Omega found it 'risque' and told Workman the photo violated the sorority's Human Dignity rule

Workman (pictured as she became emotional during an interview) had been a member of the sorority for three years before she was kicked out last week

Workman and her mother pictured above. The two other girls standing next to Workman in the picture in question, her big and her little, have reportedly since left the sorority

She added that it was important for girls to 'stand up for what they believe in'.

'There's nothing provocative about the picture whatsoever. It's in very good taste and not risque. It's ridiculous,' Workman's mother, Jill, told WOWT.

Workman, who had been a member of the sorority for three years before she was kicked out, had posted the picture on her Tinder profile in August.

'It was me at Bid Day wearing the outfit they gave us,' she told the station.

But last week, her sorority called her in for a meeting with its new executive board during which she was told she had violated its Human Dignity rule.

According to the rule, it states sorority sisters would not post photos wearing their letters on platforms that would bring 'disrespect to the chapter,' her mother told the New York Daily News.

Workman had reportedly already removed the picture from her profile on Tinder, so she as not sure why she was still in trouble.

'There's no way she could read that rule and see it apply to Tinder,' Mrs Workman said. 'It's not different from Facebook or any other site.'

Mrs Workman said after the photo had appeared on her daughter's profile for eight months, how it 'suddenly' became a problem, calling the ordeal 'ridiculous', according to WOWT.

When she was initially contacted by her sorority, she said she started questioning them about what rule she had broken.

On Facebook last week, Workman's mother wrote of how her daughter was kicked out of her sorority and said she is proud of her daughter for sticking up for herself

Workman, a cheerleader at the university for two years, is no longer a Chi Omega and her mother said she told them 'I'm never coming back' after she left the meeting

So when she was told to come in for a former personnel, she said she had a feeling that something was going to go wrong.

As she met with the executive board, she recorded the meeting on her phone in which she can be heard telling the board she does not see where she is in the wrong.

A person who appears to be a board member at one point is heard telling Workman they are receiving a combative attitude and disrespect from her, WOWT reported.

'We've asked you multiple times do you see where this is in violation and you keep saying no. So that tells me that you do not...' a person is heard saying before Workman interrupts stating, 'I was just being honest.'

'That's okay and that's great,' a woman is heard saying.

'If I'm going to get kicked out for that then let it be,' Workman then says.

Later in the conversation, Workman asks if the sorority has a 'hit list of people' they are trying to get out of the chapter, to which a person responds no.

Former Chi Omega Zeta Delta, Lacey McPhail, wrote on Facebook how she was 'forcibly removed' from the sorority and said that she is glad someone is speaking out 'about the corrupt' activities of the sorority

Dustin Wolfe, the Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, at the university (pictured) said in a statement to that the incident is a 'personnel matter' of a social organization

'I don't understand this. Out of all the people in the chapter I'm the only one getting kicked out because I'm standing up for what I believe in,' Workman is heard saying through tears.

'What you believe in doesn't align with what we believe in,' a woman is heard saying in response.

Workman walked out of the meeting no longer a Chi Omega and her mother said she told them 'I'm never coming back,' according to the New York Daily News.

The two other girls standing next to her in the picture, her big and her little, have reportedly since left the sorority.

Former Chi Omega member, Lacey McPhail, wrote on Facebook that she was 'forcibly kicked out' of the sorority and that she knows at least 10 other girls who were forced to resign their membership.

'I am glad someone is speaking out about the corrupt goings on of this 'Christian' sorority,' she wrote in a post last Monday.

'Since I have been removed I know of at least 10 other girls who have been removed for dating profiles, liking tweets/statuses, going to a party, and similar, very common college activities.

She continued: 'This sorority is not run by the active members but instead by the advisors, they have a complete dictatorship over what the girls can wear, post, and say.'
Two high school classmates are presumed dead after they were swept out to sea by a rip current at a notoriously dangerous beach Saturday afternoon.

Wayne Ausa, 17, and Grisham Duran, 16, two students at Vallejo High School, went swimming with two other friends at San Francisco's Ocean Beach around 4pm when all five teens got caught in a rip current.

The boys reportedly had linked arms to wade out into waist-deep water when the strong current caught them by surprise.

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Wayne Ausa, 17(left), and Grisham Duran, 16 (right), were swept to sea on Saturday while swimming at a San Francisco beach

Authorities called off the search for Ausa and Duran just hours after the two teens were swept in a rip current

The three other teens, a 17-year-old and two 18-year-olds, were able to swim back to shore but Ausa and Duran, weaker swimmers, did not make it.

The three other boys were taken to the hospital where they were last reported in stable condition.

Authorities called off the search for the two men at nightfall Saturday night, saying their bodies could be miles from shore based on the strength of the current.

The two boys were in the Engineering Academy at Vallejo High School. The school has organized a vigil for the victims next Saturday.

The teens were swimming with three other friends who were able to swim back to shore. All three were taken to the hospital and were last reported in stable condition

'He's a good boy, and we are all very sad about what's happened,' Eloy Aquarin, who attended the same church as Duran, told KTVU.

'He's a good guy, he's really soft spoken, nice and polite.

'We pray hard, that's really all we can do to help, for the family, that hopefully there's a miracle,' Aquarin added.

Ocean Beach has signs warning about the deadly currents. One sign reads: 'People swimming and wading have drowned here.'
A woman is suing a Texas hospital after it mistakenly left an eight-inch tube in her body for seven years without telling her, according to the lawsuit.

Debra Wilson, 59, was in an exam room in September 2014 when a doctor at Parkland Memorial Hospital asked her if she knew there was a broken piece of catheter lodged in her aorta, the main artery of the body.

Wilson recalled telling the doctor she was told a few weeks prior that it was a stent that someone had intentionally left inside her to keep blood flowing to her heart, but the doctor said otherwise.

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Debra Wilson, 59, of Duncanville, Texas (pictured in an interview last year) is suing a hospital after it mistakenly left an eight-inch tube in her body for seven years without telling her, according to the lawsuit

The broken-off piece of catheter was reportedly left in her aorta after a heart-related procedure in 2007. An X-ray shows about the size and location of where the tube was lodged in her body

'That is not a stent,' Wilson told the Dallas Morning News of what the doctor told her at the time.

'That is a broken-off piece of catheter tube that was left in your aorta in 2007.

In October 2007, Wilson was taken to the hospital with severe heart problems and eventually underwent a heart-related procedure that saved her life, according to the Dallas Morning News.

But by the time she had learned of the piece of plastic tubing inside her body back in 2014, it had moved and calcified, posing as a potential life-threatening danger.

While it is not clear when doctors at the hospital realized the piece of tube was in her body, according to hospital records, it was first visible on an X-ray in November 2007.

And from that time to when she learned of the catheter, she reportedly had 22 chest X-rays.

Wilson, who was put on blood-thinning medications, now might have to live with the tube due to the possibility of there not being a safe way to remove it.

The hospital has denied responsibility and has declined to comment on her case due to the pending lawsuit, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Wilson, 59, pictured with her husband Charlie. While it is not clear when doctors at the hospital realized the piece of tube was in her body, according to hospital records, it was first visible on an X-ray in November 2007

The hospital alleges Wilson has not provided facts to support her claim the hospital was aware of the catheter in 2007.

Parkland also argues the case should be thrown out because they claim Wilson missed the legal deadline to notify the hospital of her injury within six months of it occurring in 2007.

'She couldn't tell them about something that she didn't know about, that they knew about and withheld from her,' her lawyer, Brad Kizzia, told the Dallas Morning News.

Wilson - who has trouble walking, standing and sometimes breathing - and her husband, Charlie, said doctors never told them about the tube prior to 2014.

'All the time we had been going, checking her, no one said anything,' her husband told CBS 11 in an interview last year. 'For years, we were still in the dark.

The hospital's records indicate Parkland doctors had discussed the tube left in Wilson's aorta, noting it 'has been present since November 3, 2007,' which was two days after her procedure, according to the station.

Wilson's attorney has filed a lawsuit against Parkland Memorial Hospital (pictured), which has declined to comment on the case and has argued for it to be dismissed because they say Wilson

In September 2012, a doctor wrote in her records that the '20cm long fragment of plastic tubing is present in the aorta,' and noted it had moved higher in her body 'than on examination of November 2007.'

And in October 2012, doctors wrote in her medical records they were discussing what to do about the catheter piece, the Dallas Morning News reported.

After being unable to get answers from the hospital about what happened after filing a complaint with the hospital's patient advocate in September 2014, she went to Kizzia who filed a lawsuit.

Now Wilson is speaking out so others do not have to go through the same situation.

'Obviously, I am concerned about my situation,' she wrote last month to Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.
Nicole Mittendorff, 31, was last seen on Friday and her car turned up in a parking lot at Shenandoah National Park on Saturday night. There was no sign of her

Since Nicole Mittendorff, 31, disappeared in Shenandoah National Park on Friday her friends and family have been frantically trying to find her.

Mittendorff's car, a 2009 Mini Cooper Clubman, was discovered in a parking lot at 8pm on Saturday night by Virginia State Police but she has still not been found.

She was last heard from on Wednesday, April 13 by text, according to her family members.

Friends and family noticed something was wrong when Mittendorff, a Fairfax County paramedic and firefighter, didn't show up for her shift changeover Friday morning at Merrifield station.

Those close to her say she is 'extremely dedicated to her job'.

Mittendorff is also an athlete, runs avidly and frequently explores trails to train for triathlons and other events, her family said.

It is possible she was running in the national park when she vanished, leaving state troopers and US Park Police a huge area of wilderness to trawl.

Five trails in the park - Limberlost Trail, Cedar Run Trail, Cedar Run Link Trail,and Crescent Rocks Trail, The Whiteoak Canyon Trail - have been closed as police widen the search.

Police have done ground and air searches for Mittendorff, with the search concentrated near White Oak Canyon Trail, where Mittendorff's car was found, the New York Daily News reported.

On Monday afternoon, Mittendorff's father Robert Clardy posted on Facebook:

'For all those wonderful people following and offering support for Nicole, thank you. The outpouring is huge and amazing.

Mittendorff is a firefighter and a paramedic in Fairfax County, Virginia. Friends and family knew something was wrong when she didn't show up to her job on Friday

Mittendorff's husband Steven has expressed gratitude at the support people have sent since his wife's disappearance

Nicole Mittendorff's car was found in the parking lot of Shenandoah National Park on Saturday night but there was no trace of its owner

'For prayers, please uplift Nicole; however hard it is for us, its harder for her.

'Please also uplift the Virginia State Police, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, and all the agencies searching for Nicole.

'They embody the shepherds and searchers in Luke 15, looking all over to find and return the lost.

'Please let them work uninterrupted and if you see a state trooper, policeman, or fireman speak kindly and thank them.'

Friends of Mittendorff's said she is 'an extremely caring person' and 'always willing to help other', which is what drew her to a career in public service.

Her loved ones also added that she had always expressed a desire to be a firefighter and that she is an 'extremely outgoing person'.

The Find Nicole Facebook page said a vigil will be held Monday night in Virginia for Mittendorff.

Mittendorff lived in Woodbridge, Virginia with her husband Steven, who has taken to Facebook to thank those who have offered messages of support on social media.

He said: 'I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has viewed, liked, and shared this page dedicated to finding my wife.

'I am overwhelmed by the number of calls, texts, and social media messages that I have received, but have not been able to answer. I am reading them or they are being read to me and I appreciate them all during this difficult time, however, responding to them and taking calls is difficult right now.

'I must also thank my agency, the Virginia State Police, and the many other agencies (local, state, and federal) who have dedicated so many resources thus far into this investigation.

Shenandoah National Park has shut down five trails as they have begun to expand the search for Mittendorff

Mittendorff's family has continued to update friends and family with information on social media and the Find Nicole Facebook page

'The work is not done however and I continue to ask for your prayers for both our family and the many who continue to investigate.

'Please keep sharing to help us get the word out.'

Shenandoah National Park is only 75 miles from urban Washington DC but is a huge area of wilderness, including wetlands, waterfalls and mountains.

Mrs Mittendorff is described as a white woman with blonde hair and green eyes. She is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs approximately 125 pounds.

Anyone with information is asked to call Virginia State Police on 703-803-0026.
A former Liberal party leader has dealt Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull some advice about the upcoming election calling his strategy 'quite a big risk'.

Speaking on ABC's Q&A on Monday evening John Hewson said Mr Turnbull should have gone to the polls as soon as he overthrew Tony Abbott.

'I was very surprised he didn't go to an election almost straight away when he became leader. I think he could have said, "Look, I don't have a mandate", set some broad directions and I think he would have done very well in that election,' Mr Hewson said.

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John Hewson said on Q&A on Monday voters want the 'old' Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull back

'Since then of course his popularity has waned, his net satisfaction rating is now negative, it is 50-50 I guess in the polls  I think it's a close contest,' he added.

Mr Hewson also claimed the current prime minister had done a 'deal' to get the top job, and his popularity has slipped because he has let down his progressive supporters on issues such as same-sex marriage.

'Look, obviously Malcolm did a deal to get there and the deal he did actually compromised some of the basic positions that he'd previously held and held publicly,' Mr Hewson said.

'There's a fellow running in the seat of Wentworth, my old seat, against Malcolm, who just wants the old Malcolm to come back.

Mr Hewson also said Mr Turnbull (pictured) should have gone to the election as soon as former PM Tony Abbott was deposed

Mr Hewson urged the prime minister to get 'back to basics' on issues such as education and health

'The guy that stood for gay marriage  and climate change and tax reform and so on. And I think that's been a major reason why his popularity has collapsed,' the former liberal leader said.

Mr Hewson also spoke about Mr Turnbull's slip in the polls, and opposition leader Bill Shorten's increasing confidence.

'I think Shorten is a person who runs on confidence, he's had a bit of a boost to his confidence in recent days so he's looking slightly better while Turnbull's been struggling.'

When asked about the Australian Building and Construction Commission being at the forefront of the campaign by host Tony Jones, Mr Hewson said it was unsustainable.
Michigan governor Rick Snyder has vowed to drink Flint water for at least a month to show it is safe to use with a faucet filter.

Snyder, who has apologized for his administration in the water crisis that has left the city in a state of emergency since December, visited a house with confirmed high levels of lead on Monday and left with five gallons of filtered water.

The Republican governor will now drink it at work and at home for at least a month and has encouraged residents to use the water for drinking and cooking.

The water in Flint, Michigan, became contaminated after lead from old pipes leached into the supply because the water was not treated properly.

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Michigan governor Rick Snyder (right) visited resident Chery Hill (left) at her house on Monday and pledged to drink the city's water for at least a month to show it is safe to use with a faucet filter

Flint residents drank and bathed with improperly treated water for nearly 18 months after officials switched to the Flint River as a water source in 2014.

Snyder announced in October last year that Flint had witched back to its original source of treated water, the Detroit municipal system.

By then, dangerously high levels of lead had been detected in the blood of some residents, including children, for whom it can cause lower IQs and behavioral problems.

Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency the following month, resulting from a man-made disaster.

'It is important that residents get their water tested as regularly as possible and not consume City water without using a filter,' an advisory read at the time.

Snyder (pictured) left Hill's house with five gallons of filtered water and will get refills from other homes as needed. He has encouraged residents to use the water for cooking and drinking

Snyder said Monday that he understands why residents think he should drink Flint water too if officials say it is fine to use.

'What better way to help show support,' he said Monday.

He left resident Cheryl Hill's house with five gallons of water and will get refills from other homes as needed.

Meanwhile, a state water-quality official who previously said there was no need to prevent lead corrosion from pipes with a chemical treatment has taken a new job.

Mike Prysby was a district engineer with the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance and had been responsible for Genesee County, home to Flint.

A supervisor at Flint's water plant, Mike Glasgow, testified at a legislative hearing in March that Prysby told him that phosphate wasn't required before Flint switched its water supply.

The day before, Prysby began working in the Water Resources Division's Transportation and Flood Hazard Unit.

The Republican governor (pictured left filling a jug of water on Monday and right drinking a glass of water before a hearing in March) said he should drink the water too since officials say it is safe to use with a filter

A spokeswoman for the Department Of Environmental Quality (DEQ) said Prysby took a position that opened up when someone was promoted, and his switch was not a forced transfer.

'The department continues to cooperate with internal investigations regarding staff actions in Flint,' she said in an email.

A message seeking comment was left Monday for Prysby, who has declined previous requests for an interview.

Snyder has blamed 'career bureaucrats' in state and federal governments.

A task force appointed by Snyder has said the DEQ was the primary culprit because regulators told Flint water officials not to treat the Flint River for corrosion until after two six-month monitoring periods, misinterpreting a federal rule.

The DEQ's director and communications director resigned in December.
George Osborne and friends said yesterday this was a time for transparency, clarity, public understanding.

Let me be clear, gasped Mr Osborne, narrowing his eyes with that hollandaise-curdling sideways glower he has.

Let us be clear? Try this for size from his Treasurys EU membership analysis, a 200-page Whitehall wail at the thought British voters might vote to leave the elites grand project.

Annex 76 informs us: In (IFDIijt) = alphaij + alpha Xijt + beta1EU2ijt + beta2EUmijt + beta3FTAt + epsilonijt.

Chancellor George Osborne with Liz Truss, left, and Amber Rudd, right, at his speech on the EU

Or as we say in Herefordshire In = cowpats + EU collywobbles + Osborne resorting to frantic flannel because the public may finally have had its bellyful of Brussels.

Mr Osborne was making his big speech offering facts and information about the EU, complete with a graph about trade openness.

To make it he sloped off to a Government-funded science park somewhere in the west of England.

Only in the final minutes before his speech was the actual address disclosed to an untrusted outside world.

You cant be too careful. There are people out there with minds of their own. The maniacs.

My invitation to this chi-chi event having gone missing, I bring you an eye-witness account, assembled in the manner of one of those TV crime show re-enactments.

A man answering the Chancellors description was seen entering the National Composites Centre near Bristol circa 10am.

Mr Osborne has produced a 200-page dossier outlining how much it would cost the UK if it left the EU

We cannot be entirely sure it was Mr Osborne but he had that faintly constipated gait and spoke in the metallic honk associated with our gauche finance minister.

With him, three accomplices: Liz Truss, Amber Rudd and Stephen Crabb, ministers for Environment, Energy and Work & Pensions respectively.

The National Composite Centre is where boffins develop high-tech aeronautical devices and lightweight materials. Lightweight materials? Did they mean Miss Truss?

Osbo had arrived hot from a Radio 4 interview in which he had declined to say Boris Johnsons name, instead referring to the swashbuckling Brexiteer only as the Mayor of London.

Gordon Brown used to do weirdly petty things like that, too.

He burped back some indigestion and said, queasily, its great to be here at the brilliant National Composites Centre and to be joined by my colleagues Liz, Stephen and Amber.

The Chancellor's performance was compared to the character Blakey from On The Buses by Quentin Letts

Each stood at a lectern, gameshow-style. Each would duly blurt forth a few scripted words.

Miss Truss, gazing at the TV camera like a hungry spaniel, managed to claim Britain outside the EU would lose sovereignty. A novel argument, I think we can say.

As she spoke she made various gestures with her left hand  a chopping motion and then another when she joined the tips of her thumb and forefinger, as though holding the tip of a medium-bore sausage. Perhaps she, too, was thinking of Boris.

Mr Crabb, who had borrowed Noel Edmonds beard, also said he was going to be absolutely clear. Good-oh.

He claimed that international rules would prevent us charging different countries different import duties.

Miss Rudd, ferocious in librarian spectacles, said we were not Canada. Mr Osborne, realising the cameras were on him, did some open-mouthed nodding like Blakey from On The Buses.

Beside the four of them was a big sign with a map of Britain and a figure saying 4,300 a year  allegedly the cost to each household if we tell the European Commission where to go. Oh come off it.

Mr Osborne repeated his belief that people must have facts  hence HM Treasurys compilation of these rock-solid, incontestable, true-as-Ronnie-Biggs claims.

The analysis was sober and serious and it predicted what was going to happen in 2030.

Having looked at it, you may wonder if its authors were quite as sober as Mr Osborne claimed.

It talks of dummy variables and gravity model specification and FDI inflows and exogenous instruments and Iteratively Weighted Least Squares which give a low weight to observations that generate high residuals.
Actor Harvey Keitel has spoken out in support of a Green Beret who was discharged after he confronted a Afghan police commander who allegedly raped a 12-year-old boy.

Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland was serving in the country's war-torn Kunduz Province in 2011 when he learned a commander he had trained had allegedly kept a 12-year-old boy as a sex slave.

The 11-year Special Forces veteran and his team leader Daniel Quinn confronted police commander Abdul Rahman - who had also allegedly beaten the boy's mother for reporting the sexual assault - and 'shoved him to the ground'.

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Actor Harvey Keitel (left) has spoken out in support of Green Beret Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland (right) who was discharged after he confronted a Afghan police commander who allegedly raped a 12-year-old boy

Martland was serving in war-torn Kunduz Province when he shoved an alleged rapist to the ground (file picture)

But, while Rahman was said to have walked away with a few bruises, the Green Berets were disciplined and a decision on Martland's appeal is expected on May 1.

And just weeks before the final ruling is due, Keitel has stepped forward to make his voice heard.

A former Marine himself, the actor requested to go on the record in support of Martland and reached out to the office of Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif, according to Fox News.

He wrote in an email obtained by the channel: '[When] I was a young Marine I understood we were present in order to help others who did not have the wherewithal to protect themselves.

'Whomever owns the idea that decided to reprimand these two men instead of giving them a medal for their actions should be asked what the hell they would've done if it was their child in question.'

The email continues: 'I am a citizen of the US, married, a father, actor and former Marine.

'American values are on the line here, and no person I know would not have taken the same actions SFC Martland and Capt. Daniel Quinn did to protect a child, period. That's an American value.'

Kietel (pictured in Reservoir Dogs) wrote: '[When] I was a young Marine I understood we were present in order to help others who did not have the wherewithal to protect themselves'

Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a>

The decision over Martland's dismissal was due March 1 but was delayed for a third time until May.

Speaking earlier in the year Hunter - Martland's most vocal supporter - told Fox News: 'Charles did the right thing in Afghanistan by standing up to a child rapist and corrupt commander, and now it's the Army's turn to do the right thing and reverse the decision to expel him from the service.

'Permitting Charles to continue serving is in the best interest of the Army and the nation.'

Martland has had an extraordinary level of support over the last three years and a petition against the decision gained 23,192 signatures of the 3,000 needed for appeal to be officially forwarded to the office of Congressman Duncan Hunter.

And speaking in March GOP Rep. Vern Buchanan demanded that the army 'quit playing games and reinstate him immediately'.

Buchanan said in a statement obtained by DailyCaller: 'The Pentagon needs to stop dishonoring a two-time Bronze star recipient and reinstate Sgt. Martland immediately.

He added: 'It is unfathomable that the Pentagon has yet to reinstate Sgt. Martland.

'The Defense Department has had several months and several opportunities to right this wrong. I'm concerned that bureaucratic red tape is blocking common-sense action.'

Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter (file picture) has been fighting Martland's corner and wrote to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on his behalf
Shocking footage has emerged of a delivery driver in China's capital Beijing being repeatedly slapped by a man for accidentally scratching his vehicle.

The delivery driver was slapped a total of six times by the angry man yesterday, Huanqiu, affiliated with the People's Daily Online reports.

Despite the driver apologising for hitting the man's car, he continues in his tirade. The attacker has allegedly been detained by local authorities.

Fits of rage: Despite the driver apologising for hitting the man's car, he continues in his tirade

Violent outburst: The delivery driver was slapped a total of six times by the angry man yesterday in Beijing

Lend a hand: Another voice can be heard shouting and telling the man to stop hitting the delivery driver

In the footage, the owner of the car can be seen slapping the delivery driver repeatedly.

He can be heard cursing the young man and saying: 'You think it's enough to just say sorry?'

Two onlookers tell the man to stop fighting, trying to pull him away and calm him down.

However he still continues to threaten and beat the delivery man.

The delivery man's tuk tuk can be seen next to the man's black car.

Another voice can be heard shouting and telling the man to stop.

The delivery driver hides behind one of the men who is defending him and does not defend himself.

This frustrates the man further. He demands that the driver hand over cash as compensation.

The delivery man apologises however this still doesn't resolve the problem.

More people gather around to watch and intervene.

Helpful passersby: Two onlookers tell the man to stop fighting, trying to pull him away and calm him down

Give me some money! The man demands that the delivery driver give him compensation in the form of cash

The delivery man was in an SF Express uniform, a large courier company in China.

The company have since released a statement on their Weibo account saying: 'Our delivery men are kids in their twenties. They travel streets in all weather and serve the community with smiles despite their toil.

We sincerely wish for understanding when such incidents happen. Respect comes first.'

They also said that they located the driver and ensured that he went to hospital where doctors said he had soft tissue injuries.

While CEO of the company Wang Wei said: 'I, Wang Wei, announce to my friends , if I leave one stone unturned in this incident, I would not be qualified to be the chairman.'

According to local police, the delivery driver did not break any traffic rules. They say they are investigating the case further.

A spokesman from SF Express told local media the attacker had been detained.

The video has been talked about on China's social media site Weibo.

Liu Yuejin wrote: 'I am a delivery man at Shunfeng. I remember during my induction training, I was told not to fight back when a client curses at me or beats me.

'As a delivery man, we often meet clients who don't understand our job.'

While another user wrote: ' We're all human beings. It's too low to slap someone six times. It doesn't matter whether or not the matter gets exposed, the most the driver will do is apologise.
Pupils have illnesses such as dermatitis, bronchitis and even

An investigation has begun after around 500 students at a school in China became sick with a range of pollution related illnesses.

The Changzhou Foreign School relocated to a new facility in September which was thought to be built on a toxic site, the People's Daily Online reports.

Students have reported illnesses such as dematitis, eczema, bronchitis and in some extreme cases, Leukaemia.

Officials are investigating a severe case of toxic poisoning after students at the school (pictured) fell ill

Poisoning: Some students have been diagnosed with illnesses such as eczema, bronchitis and leukaemia

According to the school, 641 students were examined by doctors and 493 of those were diagnosed with various diseases and conditions.

The school was built on a brownfield site that was home to three chemical factories that produced toxic chemicals.

According to people who had previously worked in the factories, toxic chemicals had been buried near the plant in a cost saving measure.

An environment report was undertaken showing that pollutant chlorobenzene was 94,799 times over the normal limit.

Pan Xiaochuan, a professor at Peking University's public health school told CCTV News that the number of students diagnosed in such a short space of time had to be connected with the pollution levels.

According to state-run Xinhua, the municipal body signed off the location as safe and the air quality met national standards.

The Jiangsu authority has set up a special investigation team to look into the case, according to Chinese media.

Illnesses due to toxins: Students have been attending Changzhou Foreign School since September last year

Map: The school (in green) is located on a site where a factory (orange) produced toxic waste

The news has caused huge outcry on the Chinese social media. On Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter, web users express their utter shock and anger.

A user named 'Tang Weijun' said: 'I want to know what will happen to the medical treatment of these children. Will the government take responsibility?'

Another user called 'Teng Zhu' said: 'I beg you. There are over three thousands teachers and students as well as the children in nearby school! Please save them! Do not let the matter settle without a conclusion.

'Otherwise, the pupils can only sit and wait to die.'
Cut off from the rest of the world, tiny islands boast some of the richest collections of animals on the planet.

And their isolation from larger land masses has enabled some incredible beasts to evolve, the likes of which are seen nowhere else on the planet.

They include the migrating Christmas crabs of Christmas Island, tree lobsters of Lord Howe Island Group and the smallest chameleons and lemurs of Madagascar.

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The Isle of Man's tourist board has created an infographic detailing some of the weird and wonderful island dwellers. Swimming pigs and scary swarming crabs of Christmas Island are shown above

The Isle of Man's tourist board has created an infographic detailing some of the weird and wonderful island dwellers.

It includes the Manx Cat, which is unique to the crown dependency in the Irish Sea. A natural genetic mutation has led to the cats having shortened or missing tails.

The Manx Cat (stock image), which is unique to the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, is a good example of how familiar creatures can change when isolated on an island. A natural genetic mutation has led to the cats having shortened or missing tails

The Galapagos archipelago is one of the most famous places to find unusual animals on Earth, with a visit shaping Charles Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection. One of its famous giant tortoises is shown

Great Galapagos beasts

The Galapagos archipelago is one of the most famous places to find unusual animals on Earth, with a visit shaping Charles Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection.

During his visit to the islands in 1831, Darwin noted creatures were similar from island-to-island but were also perfectly adapted to their environment, shedding light on how they evolved.

The archipelago 600 miles (966km) west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean is home to the Galapagos penguin, giant tortoise and pretty pink iguana.

There are thought to be fewer than 100 pink iguana alive today, all of which can be found in the Volcan Wolf region on Isabela Island.

The giant tortoise can grow up to 4.2 feet (1.3 metres) long and weighs as much as 661 lbs (300kg). They are among the longest-living creatures in the word, with an average lifespan of over 100 years old.

The archipelago 600 miles (966km) west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean is home to the Galapagos penguin, giant tortoise and pretty pink iguana. There are thought to be fewer than 100 pink iguana (one shown) alive today, all of which can be found in the Volcan Wolf region on Isabela Island

WHY SUCH STRANGE ANIMALS LIVE ON ISLANDS Bizarre endemic animals such as the Tasmanian devil arrived on islands either when landmasses broke away from the mainland millions of years ago, or when islands formed from the ocean floor. Confined to isolated areas, animals evolved free from outside influences, creating a genetic reservoir and highly specialised animals with usual characteristics and abilities. Islands hold higher concentrations of endemic species than continents, for example 90 per cent of Hawaiian island species are only found there, while the Seychelles has the highest level of amphibian endemism in the world. However, Madagascar is home to the most endemic species  8,000 in total. Advertisement

Curious Caribbean creatures

In the Bahamas, human behaviour has led to an unusual swimming pig.

The spotty pigs of Big Major Cay swim out to boats mooring in the azure blue waters, in exchange for food.

Just how the pigs came to live on the island, which is blessed with a freshwater spring, is shrouded in mystery.

One theory is that sailors dropped the animals off on the island, known as Big Major Cay, with the intention of coming back to eat them later but never returned. Another legend suggests they were involved in a shipwreck but were able to swim to shore, remaining on the island ever since.

All they ever have to worry about is where their next meal is coming from, and they have worked out that crews of passing yachts regularly dump excess food into the sea.

Not so cute is the Hispaniolan solenodon, which is found on an island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Resembling an overgrown shrew, it is one of the only venomous mammals in the world and can inject prey with a venomous bite.

Its deadly saliva is secreted through a narrow groove in specialised teeth, making it one of the most evolutionary distinct creatures in the world.

Dr Sam Turvey, a ZSL researcher, told the BBC: 'The fossil record shows that some other now-extinct mammal groups also had so-called dental venom delivery systems.

'So this might have been a more general ancient mammalian characteristic that has been lost in most modern mammals, and is only retained in a couple of very ancient lineages.'

The survival of furry little predators is threatened by deforestation, hunting and introduced species

Resembling an overgrown shrew, the Hispaniolan solenodon is one of the only venomous mammals in the world and can inject prey with a venomous bite. One is shown above

Oddities down under

Australia is known for its terrifying snakes and creepy crawlies, but it harbours some bizarre animals too.

As well as the well-known duck bill platypus, the country is home to the ominously named thorny devil lizard, also known as the thorny dragon.

It has a false head on the back of its neck, which it presents to potential predators. It also has the strange ability to absorb water from any part of its body.

The Lord Howe Island Group, 370 miles (600km) east of mainland Port Macquarie, is home to the tree lobster - a stick insect that can grow up to six inches (15cm) in length.

FESTIVE FUN! THE SPECTACULAR MIGRATION OF CHRISTMAS CRABS On Christmas Island 1,553 miles (2,500km) north-west of Perth, Christmas crabs make a spectacular migration to enter the Indian Ocean where they mate. An estimated 120 million red crabs live on the 52 square mile island shared with just more than 2,000 residents. On Christmas Island 1,553 miles (2,500km) north-west of Perth, Christmas crabs make a spectacular migration to enter the Indian Ocean where they mate So many take a trip to the beach at the same time that streets look like a sea of red. IT specialist and amateur photographer Gary Tindale, 53, from Perth, who witnessed the creepy site said they 'just pour out of the jungle and take over' the island, which even has dedicated bridges allowing the crabs to cross the road safety. Some parts of the island are brought to a standstill by the proceedings. An estimated 120 million red crabs live on the 52 square mile island shared with just more than 2,000 residents and bring roads to a halt Advertisement

Believed extinct in 1920, they were rediscovered in 2001 with a population of 24, making them likely to be the rarest insect in the world.

On another island, the Tasmanian devil is a well-known example of a unique island creature.

The nocturnal carnivorous marsupial is named after the screaming noises it when a group is fighting over a carcass.

Despite their vile noise and razor sharp teeth, they are shy and timid with pink ears that turn redder when angry.

Other unusual behaviour includes them sneezing to challenge feisty peers, and emitting a nasty odour when stressed.

Australia is known for its terrifying snakes and creepy crawlies, but it harbours some bizarre animals too. As well as the well-known duck bill platypus (pictured), the country is home to the ominously named thorny devil lizard, also known as the thorny dragon. The Lord Howe Island Group is home to the tree lobster (pictured)

Familiar as many certoon fans as 'Taz' the Tasmanian devil (stock image)is the largest carnivoroud marupial in the world, only found on the island of Tasmania

Incredible natives of Indonesia

The Javan rhino is one of the most endangered species on the planet and now resides only on the island of Java.

On Waigeo and Batanta islands, lives the incredibly colourful Wilson's bird of paradise with a bizarre patch of bare blue skin on its head.

In the field, the blue bare skin on its crown is so vivid that it is clearly visible by night. The deep scarlet back and velvet green breast are lush, the curlicue tail gleaming bright silver.

The tarsier is an equally unusual looking creature living on islands of south east Asia.

Its eyes are as large as its brain and the animal has disconcertingly long fingers and feet, making them experts at clinging to vertical branches and leaping.

The unique cranial anatomy of the tarsier results from the need to balance their large eyes and heavy head so they are able to wait silently for nutritious prey

The Javan rhino (one pictured in the Ujung Kulon National Park) is one of the most endangered species on the planet and now resides only on the island of Java

On Waigeo and Batanta islands, lives the incredibly colourful Wilson's bird of paradise with a bizarre patch of bare blue skin on its head. In the field, the blue bare skin on its crown is so vivid that it is clearly visible by night

The tarsier is an equally unusual looking creature living on islands of the Philippines. Its eyes are as large as its brain and the animal has disconcertingly long fingers and feet, making them experts at clinging to vertical branches and leaping

Menagerie of Madagascar

The lemurs of Madagascar are one of the most famous examples of animals evolving in just one place.

It's thought they arrived on the island by floating on rafts of vegetation around 62 million years ago and evolved to withstand its severe seasonal environments.

One less famous resident is Brookesia micra - the smallest chameleon in the world - measuring just one inch (3cm) in length.

It's thought the reptile became so tiny because of insular dwarfism - the reduction in size of large animals over generations trying to live in a small area.

Sadly the factors that shapes some of extraordinary endemic creatures, such as very specialist environments are also proving to be their downfall, as habitats are destroyed.

One less famous resident of Madagascar is Brookesia micra - the smallest chameleon in the world - measuring just one inch (3cm) in length. The scary-sounding Thorny devil lizard of Australia's also pictured
Spotting a lie isn't as quick and easy as it looks on television.

With time and training, it is possible to get a good sense of when someone is deceiving you, experts say.

Now experts have revealed the giveaways you can use to spot liars.

Expert say the face, and the smile in particular, is key. A real smile is seen in the eyes, a fake smile is only in the mouth. Also watch for a smile of contempt with one lip corner curled, as if the liar thinks he or she is getting away with something.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR The three keys to spotting a liar are: BASELINE - You need a baseline, a sense of what people look and talk like when their guard is down and they are telling the truth.. Once it is established, the idea is to ask open-ended questions and look for cues, changes in verbal and nonverbal behavior. VERBAL CHANGES - Liars may split hairs, decline to answer, change the subject or tone, protest a question, even put up their hands while protesting. NONVERBAL CHANGES: There's a myth that fidgeting is a sign of lying, but the key is change, not a specific action. Expert say the face, and the smile in particular, is key. A real smile is seen in the eyes, a fake smile is only in the mouth. Also watch for a smile of contempt with one lip corner curled, as if the liar thinks he or she is getting away with something. Advertisement

'It's really about how to observe very carefully,' said Pamela Meyer, author of the book 'Liespotting' and chief executive officer of the private firm Calibrate, which trains people and companies about how to spot deception.

'It's really not a parlor trick.'

It's a skill that can be developed with practice, said David Matsumoto, a San Francisco State University professor of psychology.

He's also a consultant to law enforcement and intelligence agencies and chief executive officer of Humintell, a company that trains police agencies, lawyers and businesses in how to read emotions.

There is no magic tell or giveaway, Meyer and Matsumoto said.

There are hints  or 'leakage,' as Meyer calls it  but they aren't the same for everyone.

What experts look for is change from truth-telling to deception, but not one specific change. So they need a baseline, a sense of what people look and talk like when their guard is down and they are telling the truth.

While it is possible to get a baseline with 20 seconds to 30 seconds of observation, it works better with more time. Different people have different baselines. Some people can act nervous  especially when being questioned by police  even if they are telling the truth.

Once a normal is established, the idea is to ask open-ended questions and look for cues, changes in verbal and nonverbal behavior, Meyer said.

You should also look for changes in language and grammar, Matsumoto said. Meyer points to distancing language, such as Bill Clinton's 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.'

Liars may split hairs, decline to answer, change the subject or tone, protest a question, even put up their hands while protesting, Meyer said.

Also, look for extraneous information. That's often is a clue of deception, but not always, Matsumoto said.

FILE - In this June 12, 2007, file photo, a polygraph examiner applies electrodes on the fingers of a subject in Bogota, Colombia. Scientists say we all lie, and this year, politicians are bending the truth big time, with real consequences. By studying how and why we deceive, the experts say they can help us better understand the 2016 election season. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

Police will ask for a disjointed or backward timeline of someone they are interrogating, he said. Constructed fake memories are done in chronological order so they are harder to call up backward.

There's a myth that fidgeting is a sign of lying, Meyer said. Some people naturally fidget or naturally freeze.

The key is change, not a specific action, she said.

That said, look at the face, Matsumoto recommended: 'If something happens in the face it can happen anywhere' on the face.

'Research has shown that the bulk of messages in any action is communicated nonverbally,' Matsumoto said.

Meyer tells people to look at the smile.

A real smile is seen in the eyes, a fake smile is only in the mouth.

Also watch for a smile of contempt with one lip corner curled, as if the liar thinks he or she is getting away with something, Meyer said.

The National Academy of Sciences gave a decidedly mixed review to the usefulness of polygraphs, especially as a means of screening out potential security threats in advance.

A 2003 report said that if the person being examined isn't trained in countermeasures that can fool a lie detector machine, 'specific-incident polygraph tests can discriminate lying from truth telling at rates well above chance, though well below perfection.'

In this photo provided by Humintell, taken in 2013, San Francisco State psychologist and company CEO David Matsumoto, right, and colleague looking at the non-verbal behavior of another employee on video as part of their analysis for deception and emotional clues.

But the same report said 'almost a century of research in scientific psychology and physiology provides little basis for the expectation that a polygraph test could have extremely high accuracy.'

Matsumoto said much research points to the quality of the polygraph examiner, not the machine itself, as the most important factor.

Well-trained people can divine truth without the machine, Matsumoto said  just ask his children.
Chinese scientists have successfully grown mouse embryos in space, becoming the first group in the world to overcome the biological hurdles of reproduction in orbit.

If confirmed, the findings suggest mammals could one day reproduce in the harsh microgravity environment of space  which could vastly improve the chances of humans being able to colonise distant worlds.

Scientists feared the development of embryos on Earth require gravity to ensure cells organise correctly so the resulting limbs, organs and tissues.

 Slide me  Scientists in China claim to have successfully grown mouse embryos in space, making them the first group in the world to successfully do so. The team sent early embryos (pictured left) into orbit aboard a probe, which developed into blastocysts (right)

The development to blastocysts, a balls of cells (stock image) which marks a key developmental stage, and a crucial preliminary step in the long path to human colonisation of other planets

According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the early stage mouse embryos were launched aboard the SJ-10 space probe with a number of other experiments earlier this month, in a retrievable capsule.

The capsule spent several days in orbit aboard the SJ-10 probe before returning to Earth.

High resolution images show that some of the embryos developed into balls of cells called blastocysts  a key developmental stage at which the embryo can be implanted into the womb.

Exposing mice embryos to microgravity is a key step in the long path to colonising other planets.

Space agencies have carried out a number of experiments in which embryos have been taken into space to expose them to microgravity, before being returned to Earth for implantation in surrogate mice.

If the Chinese group's findings are confirmed, they suggest that mammals could one day be able to reproduce in the harsh microgravity environment of space  which could vastly improve the chances of humans being able to colonise distant worlds. Pictured is a mouse embryo at a much later stage

Thousands of the early stage mouse embryos were launched aboard the SJ-10 space probe earlier this month (pictured) with a number of other experiments earlier this month, in a retrievable capsule

EMBRYOS IN SPACE In 1996, Nasa astronauts attempted to develop mouse embryos in microgravity aboard the Columbia space shuttle. Those which had been exposed to the microgravity environment stopped growing The space embryos stopped development at a key stage, when a central axis is established down the middle of the embryo, to orientate the cells as they become more specialised and develop into major sections of the body. The findings led researchers to believe that gravity is crucial to this axis being established. But the Chinese team look to have overcome the issues which have plagued previous attempts, and have been able to develop mouse embryos to the blastocyst stage - which could be implanted into surrogate mice. If confirmed, the findings suggest that mammals could one day be able to reproduce in the harsh microgravity environment of space  which could vastly improve the chances of humans being able to colonise distant worlds. Advertisement

However, previous attempts to grow mammalian embryos have been hampered by biological factors.

In the mid-1990s, Nasa astronauts attempted to develop mouse embryos aboard the Colombia space shuttle.

But embryos exposed stopped growing at an early stage of cell division, indicating that gravity played a crucial role in embryonic development.

The breakthrough findings reported by the Chinese team look to have overcome the issues which have plagued previous attempts.

Speaking to China Daily, principle researcher of the experiment, Professor Duan Enkui of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: 'The human race may still have a long way to go before we can colonize space.

'But before that, we have to figure out whether it is possible for us to survive and reproduce in the outer space environment like we do on Earth.'

He added: 'Now, we finally proved that the most crucial step in our reproduction  the early embryo development  is possible in the outer space.'

According to China Daily, more than 6,000 embryos were carried aboard the probe in a self-contained chamber the size of a microwave, which contained the cell culture and nutrients.

The capsule of the retrievable microgravity satellite SJ-10 (pictured) was retrieved in Siziwang Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Monday

The experiments held inside the landed retrievable satellite module (pictured), including the mouse embryos, will be taken to the Chinese Academy of Sciences for further analysis

Images were taken at regular intervals and transferred to the Chinese space agency  the Chinese National Space Administration.

Following their recovery, the embryos will undergo further analysis to see if their brief time in space has affected their cell structure, function, and gene expression.

Prior to the launch, chief scientist of the SJ-10 mission, Hu Wenrui, explained: 'All experiments conducted on SJ-10 are completely new ones that have never been done before either at home or abroad.

'They could lead to key breakthroughs in our academic research.'

Mouse embryos have formed the basis of a number of developmental biology experiments to test the effects of space on mammals. The breakthrough findings reported by the Chinese team look to have overcome the issues which have plagued previous attempts (stock image of laboratory mice pictured)

Nasa is working with the Japanese space agency, JAXA, to conduct similar experiments aboard the International Space Station (pictured). Frozen mouse embryos are being exposed to radiation of space before being returned to Earth to be implanted in surrogate mice

In addition to the early embryo experiment, other projects included testing the effects of radiation on the genetics of fruit flies and rat cells, as well experiments on fluid physics and combustion.

Nasa is working with the Japanese space agency, JAXA, to conduct similar experiments aboard the International Space Station.

Frozen mouse embryos are being exposed to radiation of space before being returned to Earth to be implanted in surrogate mice.
Stepson resented her power and got revenge by removing her from history

Her successful reign lasted two decades, yet history has largely forgotten Queen Hatshepsut who was a powerful woman in a man's world.

Many monuments of Hatshepsut, who was considered 'both king and queen,' were destroyed, so images of her represented as a woman are extremely rare.

But now archaeologists have discovered a number of carved blocks that probably belonged to an unknown building of Queen Hatshepsut that show how her image was changed.

Archaeologists have discovered a number of carved blocks that probably belonged to an unknown building of Queen Hatshepsut that show her female form. A re-purposed pillar from the building is shown

They were discovered by the German Archaeological Institute on the Island of Elephantine, Aswan.

One block shows how the woman's form was changed to that of a male and another, how her cartouche - a lozenge bearing her name - was scratched away.

Ancient Egyptian Antiquities expert Dr Mahmoud Afify said the building from which the blocks came must have been erected during the early years of her reign, before she began to be represented as a male king.

Hatshepsut had herself crowned in around 1,473BC, changing her name from the female version Hatshepsut - which means Foremost of the Noble Ladies - to the male version, Hatshepsu.

Born into the most advanced civilisation in the ancient world, Hatshepsut commandeered the throne of Egypt from her young stepson, Thutmosis III, and, in an unprecedented move, declared herself pharaoh.

Dr Mahmoud Afify said the building from which the blocks came must have been erected during the early years of her reign, before she began to be represented as a male king. This image shows a female representation of Hatshepsut (highlighted by red lines) that was later replaced by the image of a male king

All mentions of Hatshepsut's (illustrated left) name were erased by Thutmosis on taking power (an erased cartouche that would have held her name is shown left) and all representations of her female figure were replaced by images of a male king

To cement her position as the first female ruler, she donned the traditional clothes, head-dress and even the false beard traditionally worn by male pharaohs of Egypt.

She is thought to have reigned with little opposition for more than two decades before dying in around 1458 BC.

But all mentions of Hatshepsut's name were erased by Thutmosis on taking power and all representations of her female figure were replaced by images of a male king - her deceased husband Thutmosis II.

Only very few buildings from this early stage of her career have been discovered so far, with the only other examples having been found at Karnak, making the 'new' blocks extremely rare.

The Egyptian Antiquities Authority said the newly discovered building sheds light on the early reign of the queen and that of Thutmosis III who is now known as the 'Napoleon of Egypt' so successful was he during his military campaign.

Dr Felix Arnold, the field director of the mission, said the building from which the blocks came probably served as a waystation for the festival barque of the god Khnum  the potter god of creation.

The mysterious blocks were discovered by the German Archaeological Institute on the Island of Elephantine (marked on the map above) in Aswan, Egypt

THE RESTING PLACE OF HATSHEPSUT The modest resting place of Hatshepsut was discovered by Howard Carter, who famously revealed Tutankhamun's grave. Her mummy was one of a pair found inside  although that wasn't obvious when they were first found. Experts analysed a tooth known to belong to the queen to find it matched with the larger of the two mummies, suggesting the queen was obese with rotten teeth and pendulous breasts. The modest resting place of Hatshepsut was discovered by Howard Carter, who famously revealed Tutankhamun's grave. This mummy is thought to be that of her husband, Pharaoh Tuthomis II Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist, said in 2007 when the match was made: 'This is the most important discovery in the Valley of the Kings since the discovery of King Tutankhamun and one of the greatest adventures of my life. 'Queens, especially the great ones like Nefertiti and Cleopatra, capture our imaginations. 'But it is perhaps Hatshepsut, who was both a king and a queen who was most fascinating. 'Her reign during the 18th dynasty of ancient Egypt was a prosperous one, yet mysteriously she was erased from Egyptian history.' Advertisement

Born into the most advanced civilisation in the ancient world, Hatshepsut (shown) commandeered the throne of Egypt from her young stepson, Thutmosis III, and, in an unprecedented move, declared herself pharaoh

The building was later dismantled and about 30 of its blocks have now been found in the foundations of the Khnum temple of Nectanebo II  a pharaoh who ruled between 360 and 342 BC.

Some of the blocks were discovered in previous excavation seasons by members of the Swiss Institute, but the meaning of the blocks has only now become clear, showing the queen as a woman early in her reign.

Thanks to the discovery of the blocks, the original appearance of the building can be reconstructed and experts believe it comprised a chamber for the barque of the god Khnum, which was surrounded on all four sides by pillars.

The pillars bear representations of several versions of the god, as well as others such as Imi-peref 'He-who-is-in-his-house', Nebet-menit 'Lady-of-the-mooring-post' and Min-Amun of Nubia.

'The building thus not only adds to our knowledge of the history of Queen Hatshepsut but also to our understanding of the religious beliefs current on the Island of Elephantine during her reign,' the authority said.
Army site may have been of spiritual

Salisbury Plain may be best known for Stonehenge, but the chalk plateau hides other secrets too.

Archaeologists have unearthed an Anglo Saxon cemetery of about 150 graves holding beautiful grave goods, including an intricate comb, jewellery, a 'sewing box' and intriguing shells in the village of Bulford, Wiltshire.

There are also indications the site has been of spiritual significance for 5,000 years with collections of Neolithic goods suggesting it may also have been an important burial site for Stone Age man.

Archaeologists have unearthed an Anglo Saxon cemetery of about 150 graves holding beautiful grave goods, including an intricate comb, jewellery, a 'sewing box' and intriguing shells in the village of Bulford. This grave of a woman contains a shell and work box (just seen on the right of her spine and shoulder)

Experts at Wessex Archaeology excavated the site, earmarked for 227 new Army family homes. It is around four miles from the famous Stonehenge circle.

Investigations revealed about 150 graves from the mid-Anglo-Saxon period in England, with one grave dated to between AD 660 and 780.

It held the remains of an Anglo Saxon woman who died in her mid to late 20s and was laid to rest with two boxes and a cowrie shell.

Investigations revealed about 150 graves from the mid-Anglo-Saxon period in England, with one grave dated to between AD 660 and 780. This image shows how the woman may have looked when she was laid to rest

Simon Cleggett of Wessex Archaeology told MailOnline the grave contained a copper allow 'workbox' (pictured left) that some experts believe were used like little sewing boxes and a shell (shown right)

Around 150 graves have been excavated at the site (some shown). There are also indications the site has been of spiritual significance for 5,000 years with collection of Neolithic goods suggesting it may also have been an important burial site for Stone Age man

WHAT WAS THE BOX USED FOR? Small cylindrical boxes have been found in Anglo Saxon burials up and down the country, but their function is disputed. The various names given to them indicate different interpretations: work box, thread box, relic box, according to a study by Catherine Hills of the University of Cambridge. Early interpretations were practical, with experts suggested they were worn by woman as portable sewing boxes, for example. One has been found with pins inside it. But they may have been used to hold magic 'weaving spells', Christian relics or drugs, acting as a kind of first aid box. A handful of boxes were found with pieces of fabric and thread inside. Because they tended to be silk or other quality fabrics, an expert called Meaney suggested the boxes held relics  'perhaps fragments from the clothes or vestments of holy people.' European examples of similar boxes from around the same time, known as 'amulet capsules' seem to strengthen the Christian purpose of the boxes because they are decorated with crosses. 'They are found in early medieval female graves, predominantly of the seventh century, including at least a hundred Merovingian examples mostly from the Rhineland, and many Anglo-Saxon,' the study says While many of the Anglo Saxon examples are decorated with a cross or crosses on both ends, they may simply be a type of non-religious decoration. Advertisement

Simon Cleggett of Wessex Archaeology told MailOnline the grave contained a copper alloy 'work box' that may have been used as a little sewing box, because pins have been found in similar cylindrical boxes at other sites.

'But they might be amuletic [served as a lucky charm]  on some occasions they might contain a piece of bone from a saint or a piece of cloth' he explained, because at the time Christian influences were spreading across the largely pagan population.

The small cylindrical boxes have been found in tens of Anglo Saxon graves as far north as Northumberland and south as the Thames Valley, according to a study by Catherine Hills of the University of Cambridge.

'Most have some indication that they could be suspended - they have attachment loops and/or chains,' she wrote.

The work boxes may have been suspended from a woman's girdle, but then again, they may have been too fragile and unwieldy and could have been carried in a bag, for example.

The box in the grave was found placed next to the woman's head, which is relatively unusual as it was more normal for them to be buried by the wearer's legs, based upon others unearthed.

The boxes have largely only been found in the graves of Anglo Saxon women, as have shells.

Two cowrie shells, possibly from as far away as the Red Sea or India, were also found at the site. Mr Cleggett said they may have come from Cyprus, Egypt, Syria or even India.

'They are almost always buried with women and children,' he said, explaining they may have symbolised fertility.

Because of the shells' origins, they shed light on trade links at the time, stretching across the Mediterranean sea and beyond.

One large shell was found in the woman's grave along with the work box, while another - buried with a child  has a hole in it, meaning it could have been used as a pendant.

The finds were made at an MOD site near the village of Bulford in Wiltshire (marked on the map). The site's development is part of wider plans to accommodate the 4000 additional Service personnel plus their families who will be based on and around Salisbury Plain by 2019 under the Army Basing Programme

Two cowry shells were also found at the site and probably came from the Red Sea region as far as Cyprus, Egypt, Syria or even India, Mr Cleggett said. One of the shells, placed close to the woman, is shown above

Other grave goods recovered include spears, knives, jewellery, bone combs and other personal items. An intricately carved comb in one of the graves along with some bones is pictured

The small cylindrical boxes (one found at the site shown) have been found in tens of Anglo Saxon graves as far north as Northumberland and south as the Thames Valley

While not rare, he said: 'It's unusual to find two in that size at one site.'

Other grave goods recovered include spears, knives, jewellery, bone combs and other personal items.

They are being cleaned and recorded in detail, while the woman's skeleton will be analysed further.

DIO Project Manager Andy Corcoran said: 'The discovery of this important Saxon cemetery was completely unexpected.

No-one is sure wheat the cylindrical boxes were used for, with some experts suggesting they had practical applications, such as being a sewing box, while others believed they were used as lucky charms to hold holy relics. This one has a geometric pattern on the top, whereas others have crosses on them

DIO Project Manager Andy Corcoran said: 'Every care has been taken to ensure that all the archaeological remains on the site have been carefully excavated and recorded.' A comb with intricate patterns is shown

'Every care has been taken to ensure that all the archaeological remains on the site have been carefully excavated and recorded.'

The site has much older origins too.

Archaeologists found a 'significant' number of Neolithic pits containing carefully placed objects dating to around 2,900 BC.

The pits were found by two Neolithic monuments, which are being researched further. They may be Bronze Age round barrows with earlier, possibly Neolithic origins.

They include pottery, animal bones, 'prestige quality' flint tools, a carefully crafted chalk ball and carved bowls which may have had a ritual use, suggesting 'something strange was going on,' Mr Cleggett said.

Archaeologists found a 'significant' number of Neolithic pits containing carefully placed objects dating to around 2,900 BC, nearby to the Saxon graveyard containing spear tips (shown) for example

Neolithic grave goods include pottery, animal bones, 'prestige quality' flint tools (two shown), a carefully crafted chalk ball and carved bowls which may have had a ritual use

The carved chalk objects aren't particularly unusual but 'it's nice to see them with deposits in the pits,' Mr Celggett said. Antlers from animals such as Aurochs are shown above

The carved chalk objects are not particularly unusual but 'it's nice to see them with deposits in the pits,' he added.

More results of the excavation are expected to emerge later this year, but even at an early stage, the finds suggest the site has been a 'very special ceremonial space for 5,000 years.'

The Bronze Age and Neolithic monuments are to be granted scheduled monument protection by Historic England and will be preserved in situ in a part of the site that will remain undeveloped.

The site's development is part of wider plans to accommodate the 4000 additional Service personnel plus their families who will be based on and around Salisbury Plain by 2019 under the Army Basing Programme.

In total, the MOD is planning to invest more than 1 billion in the area which will provide 1017 new homes for service families, 2500 new bed spaces for single soldiers and the construction, conversion or refurbishment of 250 other buildings within bases, such as offices, garages, workshops and Mess facilities.
But the exact process by which this happens has not been understood

It has been known for years that sleep can benefit memory formation

Sleep is important, not just for resting our bodies but also creating memories.

While you sleep, your brain is quietly working away to store the memories you made during the day, and a new study shows exactly which parts of the brain this happens in.

A team of scientists in London have found memories are formed in one part of the brain, then they are replayed and transferred to a different area during rest - a sort of filing cabinet for your mind.

A team of scientists in London have found that memories are formed in one part of the brain, then they are replayed and transferred to a different area during rest. They hope this could help understand the communication between parts of the brain that breaks down during Alzheimer's. Stock image

Understanding the way memories are stored is important for tackling conditions like Alzheimer's disease, where memory consolidation - a process in which the brain stabilises and preserves memories for quick recall in the future - is affected.

The University College London researchers studied rats' brains and found replay of previous experiences during rest is important for memory consolidation.

HOW THE STUDY WORKED Six rats each ran for 30 minutes on a 20 foot (six metre) long track before resting for 90 minutes. During rest, the team studied the responses of place cells in the hippocampus, where memories are formed, and grid cells in the entorhinal cortex, where the memories were found to transfer to. The response of the place cells showed that the rats re-ran the track in their minds as they rested but did so at speeds 10-20 times faster than they experienced in reality. The same replay happened almost simultaneously, with a 10 millisecond delay, in grid cells located in a different part of the brain, suggesting that the rats' memories transferred from one part of the brain to another. Advertisement

'Although research over the years has shown sleep can benefit memory formation, for example, if you sleep before you take an exam you are likely to do better on the exam, it hasn't been clear what the actual mechanisms behind this is,' study supervisor Dr Caswell Barry told MailOnline.

'Put another way, when you rest or sleep what is the brain actually doing with those new memories that will make them easier to recall in the future?'

Dr Barry said the leading theory is memories for events and things people encounter throughout the day are initially formed in part of the brain called the hippocampus but with time they are transferred to the cortex.

'The analogy that is often made is that the hippocampus kind of functions as a short-term buffer, holding the memories until they are sorted and ready to be transferred to the cortex,' he said.

'Our study seems to have caught a glimpse of this memory transfer,' he told MailOnline.

'Specifically, we found concurrent reactivation ('replay') of memories during sleep in the hippocampus and a region of the cortex called the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC).'

Six rats each ran for 30 minutes on a 20 foot (six metre) long track before resting for 90 minutes. During rest, the team studied the responses of place cells in the hippocampus, where memories are formed, and grid cells in the entorhinal cortex, where the memories were found to transfer to

Memories for events and things people encounter throughout the day are initially formed in part of the brain called the hippocampus (pictured) but with time they are transferred to the cortex. The hippocampus kind of functions as a short-term buffer, holding the memories until they are sorted and ready to be transferred

For the study, six rats each ran for 30 minutes on a 20 foot (six metre) long track before resting for 90 minutes.

During rest, the team studied the responses of place cells in the hippocampus, where memories are formed, and grid cells in the entorhinal cortex, where the memories were found to transfer to.

The response of the place cells showed that the rats re-ran the track in their minds as they rested but did so at speeds 10-20 times faster than they experienced in reality.

The same replay happened almost simultaneously, with a 10 millisecond delay, in grid cells located in a different part of the brain, suggesting that the rats' memories transferred from one part of the brain to another.

'This is the first time we've seen coordinated replay between two areas of the brain known to be important for memory, suggesting a filing of memories from one area to another,' Dr Barry said.

It's been known for a little while that neurones in the hippocampus of rats and mice replay patterns of activity during rest that were experienced during waking activity. It is thought this also occurs in humans.

The response of the place cells showed that the rats re-ran the track in their minds as they rested but did so at speeds 10-20 times faster than they experienced in reality. The same replay happened almost simultaneously, with a 10 millisecond delay, in grid cells located in a different part of the brain

Place cells are neurons within the hippocampus that become active when an animal enters a particular place in its environment. The response of the place cells showed that the rats re-ran the track in their minds as they rested but did so at speeds 10-20 times faster than they experienced in reality

But what was not known before is whether this activity was actually picked up by section of the cortex that the hippocampus predominantly communicates with.

'We showed that is does - and as such this is good evidence that replay is the process by which consolidation occurs,' Dr Barry said.

'We want to understand how a healthy brain stores and accesses memories as this will give us a window into how conditions such as Alzheimer's disease disrupt the process,' lead researcher Dr Freyja Olafsdottir said.

'We know people with Alzheimer's have difficulty recalling the recent past but can often readily remember childhood memories, which seem more resilient.

'The parts of the brain we studied are some of the first regions affected in Alzheimer's and now we know they are also involved in memory consolidation.'

There are an estimated 850,000 people living with dementia the UK, set to rise to one million by 2025 and two million by 2050.

Alzheimer's is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that starts slowly and gets progressively worse.

It accounts for between 60 and 70 per cent of cases of dementia. The most common symptom is memory loss.

'It would be interesting to see whether the communication between the hippocampus and MEC we see in our study is impaired in the disease,' Dr Barry said.
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Astronauts on the International Space Station have front-row seats to the stunning light shows on Earth.

With 16 sunrises and sunsets every day, ISS crew members are often treated to the sight of dazzling auroras dancing across our planet.

Now, Nasa has released a ultra-high definition 4K timelapse of the Auroras Borealis and Australis as seen from 250 miles above Earth.

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With 16 sunrises and sunsets every day, ISS crew members are often treated to the sight of dazzling auroras dancing across our planet. Now, Nasa has released a ultra-high definition 4k timelapse of the Auroras Borealis and Australis as seen from 250 miles above Earth

WHAT ARE AURORAS? There are two types of auroras - Aurora Borealis, which means 'dawn of the north', and Aurora Australis, 'dawn of the south.' The lights are created when charged particles from the sun enter Earth's atmosphere. Usually the particles are deflected by the Earth's magnetic field, but some enter the atmosphere and collide with gas particles. These collisions emit light, in many colours although pale green and pink are common. Advertisement

'Harmonic produced this show exclusively for Nasa TV UHD, using time-lapses shot from the International Space Station, showing both the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis,' Nasa wrote.

'[These] occur when electrically charged electrons and protons in the Earth's magnetic field collide with neutral atoms in the upper atmosphere.'

While the astronauts on the space station are often treated to spectacular light shows created by the aurora from their unique perspective, they are often on the Earth's horizon.

But in February the green glow, caused by electrically charged particles thrown out by the sun interacting with the gas atoms in the atmosphere, right in the path of the space station.

Major Tim Peake managed to capture the stunning moment as the space station passed through the green haze by taking a picture out of a window.

Posting the image on Twitter, he described the aurora as being like a 'thick green fog' which was 'eerie but very beautiful'.

'Harmonic produced this show exclusively for Nasa TV UHD, using time-lapses shot from the International Space Station, showing both the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis,' Nasa wrote. '[These] occur when electrically charged electrons and protons in the Earth's magnetic field collide with neutral atoms in the upper atmosphere'

There are two types of Aurora - Aurora Borealis, which means 'dawn of the north', and Aurora Australis, 'dawn of the south.' In this image, part of the ISS can be seen against the stunning backdrop of an aurora

The ISS orbits at around 248 miles above the Earth's surface at more than 17,000mph, meaning it orbits the planet once every 92 minutes. This gives the astronauts an unrivalled view of the planet and how it interacts with the space around it

The picture is one of a string of images Major Peake has managed to capture of the aurora during his time on board the space station.

The ISS orbits at around 248 miles above the Earth's surface at more than 17,000mph, meaning it orbits the planet once every 92 minutes.

This gives the astronauts an unrivalled view of the planet and how it interacts with the space around it.

The aurora, which are usually called the northern and southern lights because they occur close to the poles, are the effect of energetic particles from the solar wind colliding with the gas in the atmosphere.

The Earth's magnetic field tends to funnel these particles towards the poles, meaning the collisions become concentrated there, producing bright colourful displays.

Nasa said studying the aurora from space could provide scientists with details about the behaviour of the sun.

It said: 'The dancing lights of the aurora provide spectacular views on the ground, but also capture the imagination of scientists who study incoming energy and particles from the sun.

'Aurora are one effect of such energetic particles, which can speed out from the sun both in a steady stream called the solar wind and due to giant eruptions known as coronal mass ejections.'

The latest video follows Nasa Television's recent launch of an ultra-HD video channel called NasaTV UHD described as 'the first ever non-commercial consumer ultra-high definition (UHD) channel in North America'.

The space agency has also today released a short video of 4K crew observations of Earth - although you will need a screen capable of displaying 4K resolution for the full effect.

The aurora, which are usually called the northern and southern lights because they occur close to the poles, are the effect of energetic particles from the solar wind colliding with the gas in the atmosphere

The Earth's magnetic field tends to funnel these particles towards the poles, meaning the collisions become concentrated there, producing bright colourful displays. Nasa said studying the aurora from space could provide scientists with details about the behaviour of the sun.

The International Space Station passed through a 'thick green fog' of an aurora as it orbited 248 miles above the Earth. British astronaut Tim Peake captured the extraordinary moment on camera

The space agency has also today released a short video of 4K crew observations of Earth - although you will need a screen capable of displaying 4K resolution for the full effect

Most people on Earth are lucky if they get to see the aurora - also called the Northern Lights (pictured above Tromsoe, Norway, or the Southern Lights, once in their lifetime. The picture above shows the kind of stunning displays they can produce, but from the ISS astronauts are treated to a unique perspective
Advances in artificial intelligence have many fearing that we could soon see Terminator-style killer robots.

But according to Chris Bishop, director of Microsoft Research in Cambridge, such dramatic views could scupper advances in AI.

He claims that fear of intelligent robots will cause humanity to lose out on the benefits of robots.

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Advances in artificial intelligence have many fearing that we could soon see Terminator-style killer robots. But according to Chris Bishop (pictured), director of Microsoft Research in Cambridge, such dramatic views could scupper advances in AI

'The danger I see is if we spend too much of our attention focusing on Terminators and Skynet and the end of humanity,' Bishop told the Guardian ahead of a discussion about machine learning at the Royal Society.

'[We are] generally just painting a too negative, emotive and one-sided view of artificial intelligence  we may end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater.'

He added that he 'completely disagreed' with likes of Tesla founder, Elon Musk, and physicist, Stephen Hawking, who claim that AI could 'spell the end of the human race.'

'Any scenario in which [AI] is an existential threat to humanity is not just around the corner,' said Bishop.

'I think they must be talking decades away for those comments to make any sense.

'The danger I see is if we spend too much of our attention focusing on Terminators and Skynet and the end of humanity,' Bishop told the Guardian ahead of a discussion about machine learning at the Royal Society. Pictured is a scene from 'Terminator Salvation'

Chris Bisop said he 'completely disagreed' with likes of Tesla founder, Elon Musk, and physicist, Stephen Hawking (pictured), who claim that AI could 'spell the end of the human race.'

'Right now we are in control of that technology and we can make lots of choices about the paths that we follow.'

Last year, Bishop was one of the co-signatories on an open letter calling promising to ensure AI research benefits humanity

The letter warns that without safeguards on intelligent machines, mankind could be heading for a dark future.

The document, drafted by the Future of Life Institute, said scientists should seek to head off risks that could wipe out mankind.

The authors say there is a 'broad consensus' that AI research is making good progress and would have a growing impact on society.

It highlights speech recognition, image analysis, driverless cars, translation and robot motion as having benefited from the research.

'The potential benefits are huge, since everything that civilisation has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools AI may provide, but the eradication of disease and poverty are not unfathomable,' the authors write.

Elon Musk previously linked the development of autonomous, thinking machines, to 'summoning the demon'

But it issued a stark warning that research into the rewards of AI had to be matched with an equal effort to avoid the potential damage it could wreak.

For instance, in the short term, it claims AI may put millions of people out of work.

In the long term, it could have the potential to play out like a fictional dystopias in which intelligence greater than humans could begin acting against their programming.

'Our AI systems must do what we want them to do,' the letter says.

'Many economists and computer scientists agree that there is valuable research to be done on how to maximise the economic benefits of AI while mitigating adverse effects, which could include increased inequality and unemployment.'

Other signatories to the FLI's letter include Luke Muehlhauser, executive director of Machine Intelligence Research Institute and Frank Wilczek, professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Nobel laureate.

The letter came just weeks after Professor Hawking warned that AI could someday overtake humans.

GOOGLE SETS UP AI ETHICS BOARD TO CURB THE RISE OF THE ROBOTS Google has set up an ethics board to oversee its work in artificial intelligence. The search giant has recently bought several robotics companies, along with Deep Mind, a British firm creating software that tries to help computers think like humans. One of its founders warned artificial intelligence is 'number one risk for this century,' and believes it could play a part in human extinction 'Eventually, I think human extinction will probably occur, and technology will likely play a part in this,' DeepMind's Shane Legg said in a recent interview. Among all forms of technology that could wipe out the human species, he singled out artificial intelligence, or AI, as the 'number 1 risk for this century.' The ethics board, revealed by web site The Information, is to ensure the projects are not abused. Neuroscientist Demis Hassabis, 37, founded DeepMind two years ago with the aim of trying to help computers think like humans. Advertisement

Speaking at event in London, the physicist told the BBC: 'The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.'

This echoes claims he made last year when he said success in creating AI 'would be the biggest event in human history, [but] unfortunately, it might also be the last.'

And Musk has previously warned that the risk of 'something seriously dangerous happening' as a result of machines with artificial intelligence, could be in as few as five years.

Bishop, however, has downplayed such dramatic claims.

He says that the risks of AI are not immediate, and that researchers are still a long way of human-like machines, despite recent breakthrough, such as the victory of the computer system AlphaGo in the ancient game of Go.

There are many, many things that machines cant begin to do that are very natural to the human brain and at this point to talk about machines with the full spectrum of capabilities of human intelligence is highly speculative and most experts in the field would put this at many decades away, he told the Guardian.

I think it is important that people like myself are willing to present both sides of the argument and allow a more informed and balanced debate to take place about these topics.'
The guardian of the monastery isn't expecting me, but he is used to surprise visits at his hilltop hideaway in the mountains of Bhutan. Even the king has dropped in.

'I raced inside to put on my best clothes,' says elderly caretaker Sangay Wang-Chuk.

He beckons me inside, where Buddhas are illuminated by flickering candles, and blesses me with holy water.

High and mighty: Taktshang Lhakhang, the 'Tiger's Nest' monastery, on its famous plinth in Bhutan

Such a warm welcome will no doubt be extended to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge when they visit this secretive kingdom as part of their current royal tour.

Surrounded by the Himalayas and bordered by China to the north and India to the south, the Land of the Thunder Dragon, as Bhutan is known, is preparing for its moment in the spotlight.

This is not a country that courts mass tourism. Slightly smaller than Holland, with a population of just 800,000, it receives a modest number of foreigners.

But the 50,000 or so that do visit each year are rewarded with mountain scenery, centuries of history and a culture unlike any other in the world.

My week begins in Thimphu, the only capital in the world without traffic lights. A set was installed some years ago, but was swiftly scrapped in favour of a white-gloved policeman.

High up in the hills on the outskirts of the city is the Buddha Dordenma, a giant gold-painted statue that's 50m tall.

Inside, among the 125,000 smaller statues that fill the chapels, the mood is sombre. Dozens of orange-robed monks sit, beating drums and chanting.

'They are praying for the insects and animals that died in the recent forest fire,' says my guide Tshagay.

The star of Thimphu is the Trashi Chhoe Dzong. These impressive traditional citadels (every city has its own) were built in the 17th century and continue to serve multiple functions.

Part monastery and part seat of government, they represent the delicate balance of religion and politics that underpins life in Bhutan. Opposite, and barely visible through the blossom trees, is the small royal residence where William and Kate will be received by King Jigme, Queen Jetsun and their newborn son.

The previous monarch, the present king's father, abdicated in 2006 - a move that shook the country. The royals are adored by the Bhutanese because they are so accessible. I half wonder if I will get to take tea with King Jigme.

Chimi Lhakhang, a small temple in the countryside around Punakha, three hours north-east of Thimphu, might make visitors (royal or otherwise) blush.

It's a 15th-century temple of fertility dominated by phallic statues and murals.

It's dedicated to the Divine Madman, a saint famed for creating Bhutan's national animal, the takin - a cross between a cow and a goat.

Royal progress: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have visited Bhutan on their latest tour

Punakha is a good base for the most accessible (and gentle) day hikes. Tshagay and I set off on the new five-hour Geligang Trail, along a mountain-biking route favoured by the former king.

We weave across terraced hillsides, cross rivers and explore deserted forests of silver oaks and ruby red rhododendrons.

We pause to discuss the Gross National Happiness Index - it measures contentment and is deemed more important than the Gross National Product.

'Bhutan is not a rich country - its real wealth comes from our nature and culture,' Tshagay tells me.

After pausing at the hilltop monastery for a blessing from Sangay, we continue downhill to the Amankora retreat, a former farmhouse owned by the Queen Mother. There are eight rooms, a terrace facing snowdusted mountains and spa where my limbs are scrubbed with Himalayan salt.

Paro is my third and final port of call. Arguably Bhutan's most charming spot, occupying the basin of a wide and deep valley, its main thoroughfare is lined with traditional wooden buildings housing antique stores and restaurants serving plates of chillies in a cheesy sauce (a national obsession).

My hopes of hanging out with the king may not materialise, but I get the next best thing when I bump into the prime minister during an early morning visit to the Paro Dzong.

The only building in Paro more celebrated than the dzong, with its towers, courtyards and Tibetan murals, is the emblematic Taktshang Goemba. Known as the Tiger's Nest Monastery, this cliffside retreat seems to defy gravity from its precarious position on a ridge 900m above the valley. It was built on the spot where Guru Rinpoche (the religious master who brought Buddhism to Bhutan) meditated in the second century.

He reached this revered point on the back of a tigress. I travel on foot: a steep 2-hour hike followed by 756 steps.

The place is majestic - with waterfalls and ancient caves, silent stone chapels infused with incense and backed by soaring Himalayan peaks. If that's not happiness, I don't know what is.
Derbyshire's 17-mile High Peak Trail marks the beginning of the 205-mile Pennine Bridleway that carves a gentle path through the Peak District, Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.

The High Peak section follows the old Cromford and High Peak Railway, built in 1830, linking the Peak Forest and Cromford canals.

The line was closed in 1963 and, apart from a couple of inclines, the trail is almost entirely flat.

This way for glorious scenery: The Pennine Bridleway is one of Britain's greatest cycling routes

Begin by avoiding the long, steep hill at the start, and head straight to the cycle hire and visitors' centre at Middleton Top. Here you will find the lovingly preserved Engine House, built in 1829.

Hire a bike and head to the brooding Black Rocks outcrop with views across the Derwent Valley to the haunting silhouette of Riber Castle. As you pedal north, you'll see evidence of the area's industrial past. Working and disused limestone quarries scar the landscape, adding a dramatic backdrop.

Stop off at Harborough Rocks and wander through an ancient settlement where Bronze and Iron Age remains have been found. Climb to the top and find the pagan font carved into a standing stone.

On a clear day you can see all the way to the Long Mynd mountain ridge more than 70 miles away on the Welsh Borders.

Back on the trail, continue north through the spooky Hopton Tunnel, across fields criss-crossed by ancient dry stone walls.

Grab some refreshments at the disused station at Parsley Hay and marvel at the weirdly out of place Istrian Kazun, a traditional conical dry stone shelter more commonly found in Croatia.

Two wheels good: The High Peaks Trail runs for 17.5 splendid miles across the torso of Derbyshire

The perfectly round structure was a gift from the Croatian government to celebrate our shared tradition of dry stone wall building. The site also marks Croatia's accession to the European Union in 2013.

The final leg of the trail takes you through wild backcountry, past a historic working brick factory at Friden and the old abandoned Hurdlow Reservoirs.

The Royal Oak pub at Hurdlow serves juicy burgers and local beers to fuel your journey to the end of the trail at Dowlow.

The 35-mile round trip can be done in a day - you'll be surprised how quickly the time flies.
Lunchtime is here and I am looking around a market in Cambodia.

'They are fried tarantulas,' says Nyphea, my guide, pointing to a pile of blackened bodies which unmistakably hail from the arachnid family.

'And that,' he adds, pointing to some other insects, 'is KFC'.

In Cambodia, he explains, this stands for 'Khmer Fried Cricket'.

Far Eastern fantasy: Vietnam is a glorious place for a holiday - and Halong Bay is utterly stunning

For some reason, I've just lost my appetite.

We have set off this morning from Siem Reap, the city on the doorstep of the famous temple of Angkor Wat, for a six-hour drive alongside Tonle Sap Lake to Prek K'dam.

We are going to find our home for a one-week cruise along the Tonle and Mekong Rivers to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam (the extended trip with Halong Bay will have to wait for another time).

It is a long, but interesting drive, past lush, green paddy fields, dusty markets covered in plastic and canvas, and locals driving carts pulled by oxen. At times the road turns into a track filled with potholes that our driver skilfully avoids - mostly.

It proves to be a fascinating journey, but I have to admit that a cold beer and late lunch (not a tarantula in sight) is more than welcome when I finally board the boat.

AmaWaterways was not the first company to sail the Mekong, but it was the first to put the river on the cruise map in the UK. AmaDara, which holds 124 passengers, is one of two vessels it operates there, and is a neat blend of Asian style and latest features on Europe's newest river vessels.

The floors are solid wood from the tropical cam xe tree, the furniture is mahogany and the crew are charming Vietnamese and Cambodians.

As in Europe, the cabins have proper outdoor balconies, and there is a Chef's Table restaurant. Even the menus straddle the two continents, with the likes of Cambodian noodles and stir-fried vegetables sizzling alongside grilled chicken, burgers and gnocchi.

Once everyone is on board, the skipper casts off and we embark on our adventure.

'Adventure' is not a word one usually associates with river cruising, but it is no exaggeration when it comes to the Mekong.

Over the next week, we visit small villages and markets, ride in ox carts, and on tuk-tuks and rickshaws, and are blessed by chanting Buddhist monks.

On a boat tour around Kampong Chhnang, we learn its Vietnamese inhabitants fled to Cambodia when Saigon fell to the Communists in 1975, and never returned.

On a visit to an airless schoolroom in Koh Chen village, we join in when the children sing, 'If you're happy and you know it', then treat them to a rendition of Incy Wincy Spider.

All of this is a world away from Phnom Penh, the buzzing capital of Cambodia, where we dock for a two-night stay.

Its roads are packed with cars and scooters; its Central Market is a blur of people buying and selling everything from 'genuine fake' designer watches to live chickens.

The waterfront has restaurants, bars and spas. I decide to try a foot massage. It proves to be not only the best that I've ever had, but, at 4 for one hour, also the cheapest.

This energy somewhat masks the appalling brutality of the Khmer Rouge, who took power in Cambodia in 1975 and, over the next four years, murdered millions of their own people.

I hear about their horrific crimes on a visit to Tuol Sleng detention centre - now a museum and memorial. 'We have to forgive, but we will never forget,' Nyphea says.

All smiles: A cruise through Cambodia and Vietnam means a chance for local encounters

After each excursion, we are greeted back onto AmaDara with cold towels - a welcome sight given the high humidity and temperatures of 30c or more. A cold Angkor beer also hits the right spot -especially as it is included in the price.

In fact, all local beers, spirits and soft drinks on AmaDara are included, and with free wine with lunch and dinner, complimentary wifi and no charge for excursions, there is little on which to spend money during the trip (other than tips and souvenirs).

We leave Phnom Penh and sail downstream, over the border into Vietnam. And, over the next couple of days we are back on the excursion trail, visiting villages.

I crawl through underground tunnels in Xeo Quyt, where Viet Cong generals hid from American bombs during the Vietnam War.

In the town of Cai Be, about 65 miles south-west of Ho Chi Minh City  from where we would fly home next day  a few brave souls tried snake wine, 42 per cent alcohol and infused with eau d'cobra. 'Tastes like whisky,' says one of my fellow passengers.

I notice he doesn't ask for any more.
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A thrill-seeking train driver with a passion for photography has spent six years risking his life to capture the 'perfect image of Budapest'.

Hungarian national, Rizsavi Tamas started climbing statues and scaling buildings and monuments in 2008 in a bid to take pictures of the trains he worked on, but after realising that the extensive heights would actually allow him to capture the ultimate shots of his home city, he changed his photography concept.

Tamas told MailOnline Travel: 'I started photographing trains and that is why I climbed high towers and buildings. Afterwards I decided I wanted to show the people how beautiful Budapest is, so I tried climbing higher and higher and shooting in different lights and weather conditions.Luckily my job is quite flexible and that is why in my freetime I can take photos. Sometimes I take pictures during work because there are moments which are unmissable.'

The daredevil shutterbug said he has climbed 'unbelievable heights' since starting his project. One of which includes the 180ft radio tower located at the top of Szechenyi Hill in Budapest.

Despite risking his life day by day, the 24-year-old - who has attracted an enormous 72,000 followers on Facebook - said he has never been seriously injured climbing lofty heights in pursuit of a photograph. In fact, Tamas claims the 'worst he has suffered' is being stung by a bee.

Tamas told MailOnline Travel that the most hazardous structure he has climbed is the 1,030ft Lakihegyi tower. He said: 'It is dangerous and my family fear for me when I am climbing but my friends support me and love my pictures. I am in love with taking photos in this way so I am not afraid of climbing that high.'

A thrill-seeking train driver with a passion for photography has spent six years risking his life to capture the 'perfect image of Budapest'

Hungarian national, Rizsavi Tamas started climbing statues and scaling buildings and monuments in a bid to take pictures of the trains he worked on but changed the concept to focus on his home city instead

Since he started his project, Tamas has attracted an enormous 72,000 followers on Facebook who he interacts with after posting photos. His work can be found here

Tamas crouches down in the grass on the top of a hill to capture this stunning shot of an enormous rain-cloud shrouding Budapest's Freedom Bridge

Without any protection, Tamas has climbed the enormous 180ft radio tower, which is located at the top of Szechenyi Hill in Budapest

Rizsavi Tamas from Hungary started climbing statues, buildings and monuments in 2008. Pictured: Taking a selfie on the roof of a building

After realising that the extensive heights would allow him to take 'perfect pictures' of his home city, Tamas started climbing monuments

The young photography-obsessed train driver said he has climbed 'unbelievable heights' since starting his project

Despite risking his life day by day, the 24-year-old said he has never been seriously injured in the pursuit of a lofty photograph

Tamas claims the 'worst injury he has suffered' is being stung by a bee while trying to climb up a building in the capital city

Tamas said that the most dangerous structure he climbed was the 1,030ft Lakihegyi tower. Pictured is Freedom Bridge

Sitting up high on a rock with only a gargoyle for company, Tamas took this shot of traffic moving across a bridge during rush-hour

Tamas explained how the project began, he said: 'I started photographing trains and that is why I climbed high towers and buildings.'

The shutterbug was drawn to lofty heights while attempting to take pictures of the trains he works on

Tamas said that soon after his first climb he decided he 'wanted to show the people how beautiful Budapest is'

Train driver Tamas said: 'Sometimes I take pictures during work because there are moments which are unmissable.'

Tamas acknowledges that as his job is flexible it allows him plenty of free time to focus on his photography

Tamas said he has 'tried climbing higher and higher and shooting in different lights and weather conditions' to get the perfect shot

The Hungary native admits that the hobby 'is dangerous' and that his family fear for his safety when he is out climbing

Night life: By perching on top of a tall building Tamas was able to capture this breath-taking image of the capital illuminated by lights

The city's rich mix of modern and ancient architecture is highlighted by the foreboding orange clouds in this shot

In this nail-biting shot Tamas sits on the Szechenyi Chain Bridge which crosses the River Danube between Buda and Pest

The sun glints through the clouds above the Budapest Parliament Building in this shot captured from the other side of the river
A young couple have ditched their dream jobs to live out of a rucksack and travel the world.

Charlotte Bailey, 24, from Leek, Staffordshire, and Charlie White, 25, from Daventry, Northamptonshire, decided to quit their jobs - which combined brought in 50,000 a year - for a life on the road.

Packing just a rucksack each, the pair started their travelling four months ago after saving 24,000 in nine months.

Charlotte, a former air hostess, and Charlie, a property manager, took up nine jobs between them in their home towns to save for their trip. Pictured: Kerala, South India

The couple have set up a travel blog called The Wanderlovers and hope to inspire other young people to take the plunge and travel the world. Pictured in: Lantau Island, Hong Kong

Bailey, a former air hostess, and White, a property manager, took up nine jobs between them in their home towns after quitting full-time work.

After months of researching the best locations in the world, they were desperate to make their travelling dream a reality.

Setting up an extensive bucket list for their time away, the pair, who have been inseparable since meeting on their first day at Nottingham Trent University in 2010, are travelling the world and visiting the likes of Bali, Singapore, Thailand, Miami, Argentina, Peru.

The couple have set up a travel blog called The Wanderlovers and hope to inspire other young people to take the plunge and travel the world.

Charlotte poses outside the Taj Mahal during a visit with Charlie on their worldwide trip

Charlotte Bailey and Charlie White decided to quit their jobs - which combined brought in 50k a year - for the simple life. Pictured in Shanghai, China

Both Charlotte and Charlie started working at Alton Towers to raise money. The pair also earned money by working in HMV, doing bar work, handing out leaflets and door knocking for market research

White said: 'We were over the moon when we landed our dream jobs in London but after a year of working long hours and living in an expensive flat, we realised we wanted more from life than just high paid jobs.

'After coming home from work one day we both decided it was time to take the risk and ditch our jobs to travel the world.

'We had to call our parents and tell them we no longer wanted to pursue our careers and that we wanted to live with them again back in Leek so we could save.

'Thankfully they were very supportive and shortly after we left London we got nine jobs between us, including working at Alton Towers, HMV, bar work, handing out leaflets and door knocking for market research.

'Although sometimes we would have to work double shifts on very little sleep, we knew the end goal of seeing the world would be worthwhile.

'Once we'd saved 24,000 we decided to book our one way tickets to Delhi, India, taking just one backpack each.'

Despite being excited and planning their trip extensively before setting off - the couple admit that their first experience of backpacking was a massive culture shock.

Bailey added: 'When we landed in Delhi it was like colourful chaos, it was a huge slap in the face for us and we had to quickly adapt to their way of life but we embraced every second of it.

'It was the start of our adventure and we couldn't have been happier to have left our dream jobs.

'Just six weeks into our travelling Charlie booked us to do the worlds highest bungee jump from the top of the Macau Tower for Valentines Day - that was the scariest but best thing we've ever done.'

White said that he and Bailey had a 'huge desire' to travel while they were still young.

Despite taking advantage of their holiday days from work, White insists that 20 days a year was not enough for the adventure-seeking pair.

He said: 'I had landed my dream job as a property manager and Charlotte was working as cabin crew for Monarch Airlines, we lived in a matchbox flat in Brent Cross and paid a small fortune for it.

The couple are currently living in Shenzhen, in the south of China, after both securing jobs teaching English at the Luoling Foreign Experimental Language School. Pictured: Walking the Great Wall of China

Bailey said: 'Just six weeks into our travelling Charlie booked us to do the world's highest bungee jump from the top of the Macau Tower for Valentine's Day - that was the scariest but best thing we've ever done'. Pictured: Charlotte bungee jumping in China

CHARLOTTE AND CHARLIE'S BUCKET LIST 1. Swim with dolphins - done 2. Party in Ibiza - done 3. Try a skydive - done 4. Drink Tequila in Mexico - done 5. Visit Itza - done 6. Spend Valentine's in Venice - done 7. Zip line in the jungle - done 8. Walk the Great Wall Of China - done 9. Visit the Taj Mahal, India - done 10. World's highest bungee jump, Macau - done 11. Rent a houseboat in Kerala - done 12. Celebrate Chinese New Year - done 13. Stay in a beach hut in Goa, India - done 14. Teach English in a foreign country - done 15. Ride an elephant 16. Camp in the Borneo jungle 17. Climb Mt Kinabalu 18. Tubing in Laos 19. Hike the world's deadliest trail 20. The world's highest infinity pool 21. Volunteer with pandas In China 22. Sleep in a pod In Japan 23. Volunteer with orangutans 24. Volcano board In South America 25. Drive Route 66 26. Take a Thai cooking class 27. Camp on an active volcano 28. Island hop in Indonesia 29. Volunteer in Rio 30. Gamble in Vegas 31. Get a tailored suit in Thailand 32. Visit Vietnam's floating markets 33. Stay in the Maldives 34. Eat steak and drink wine in Argentina Advertisement

We couldn't have been happier to have left our dream jobs Charlotte Bailey

'We were both earning over 24k per year and had a comfortable lifestyle but we still had a huge desire to travel while we were both young.

'Taking advantage of our 20 days holiday we would always go abroad but it wasn't enough.

'Quitting is the best thing we've ever done, we had spent all our spare time reading about other peoples adventures through travel blogs but now it was time to start our own, The Wanderlovers was born.'

The couple are currently living in Shenzhen, in the south of China, after both securing jobs teaching English at the Luoling Foreign Experimental Language School.

Bailey added: 'So far we have stayed in mostly hostels to save our money and now we've got jobs we will end up leaving this country with more money than we started with.

'At the moment our accommodation is being funded by the school and that's allowed us to buy tickets for the Grand Prix and stay at luxury resort, Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, for the weekend.

'Our plan is to go to Bali for the summer and attain diving qualifications so we can become diving instructors while in Thailand.

Packing just a rucksack each, the pair started their travelling four months ago after saving 24,000 in nine months

'There's so many ways to earn money while travelling and I hope our story illustrates that you don't need to be rich to see the world.'

Although the pair are having the time of their lives since quitting their day jobs, there are things they miss from home.

Bailey said: 'We both really miss our families and after not seeing them for three months, putting the phone down after speaking to them is really hard.

'But we haven't been home sick as such, however Charlie has been craving a cup of tea for a while.'

Having left all their materialistic belongings at home, Charlie and Charlotte are enjoying the simple life and have not set any kind of deadline for the end of their adventure.

White added: 'While working in London we became consumed with having the best gadgets but now we're away from it all we couldn't be happier.

'We don't need the best phones or biggest TVs, we are appreciating the smaller things in life such as sunsets and skylines.
An easyJet aircraft was forced to circle an airport for an hour after the left main gear door failed to close.

The captain of the Airbus A319-100 noticed the malfunction as the plane reached 7,000ft following its take-off from Manchester Airport.

Making the decision to abort the flight to Malaga and return back to the airport in Ringway, the captain began burning fuel.

The captain of the Airbus A319-100 noticed the malfunction as the plane reached 7,000ft following its take-off

After an hour of circling with the flap hanging down, the plane made a routine landing on runway and all passengers disembarked the aircraft.

Speaking to MailOnline Travel, a spokeswoman for easyJet confirmed that engineers worked to fix the technical issue and passengers were flown out on a later flight.

The spokesperson for easyJet said: 'We can confirm that EZY1923 from Manchester to Malaga on 16 April returned to Manchester as a result of a technical issue affecting the landing gear door.

'The captain took the decision to return to Manchester in line with our procedures and the aircraft landed routinely. All passengers disembarked normally and engineers worked to fix the issue.'

Dai Whittingham, the chief executive of the UK Flight Safety Committee, told MailOnline Travel that the reason for the landing may have been down to the door creating a 'drag on the airframe which means you use more fuel, which might mean that the aircraft could not reach its destination'.

After an hour of circling with the flap hanging down, the plane made a routine landing on runway 05R at Manchester Airport (pictured) and all passengers disembarked the aircraft

He said: 'The doors are sequenced by micro-switches that tell which parts to move, in order to get a large undercarriage leg into a small space.

'If one of those switches sticks or otherwise malfunctions you can get a door stuck open (or closed). The doors are designed to open under the weight of the landing gear for emergency purposes.

'If a door remains open, it increases the drag on the airframe which means you use more fuel, which might mean that the aircraft could not reach its destination or would arrive with less than the required reserves. However, had the door remain open the aircraft would still be able to land safely.

'The reason the crew will have opted to make a precautionary landing is because there would have been uncertainty about the exact nature of the failure and therefore about the prospect of further problems with the system.
Some people wear their heart on their sleeves.

Mischa Barton wears hers on her chest.

The 30-year-old was spotted out in a black wool knitted sweater with the words Hillary For President picked out in sparkly red, white and blue sequins after having dinner at Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills on Thursday.

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Pledging her allegiance: Mischa Barton was spotted out in a knitted sweater with the words Hillary For President picked out in sparkly red, white and blue sequins after having dinner at Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills on Thursday

The former O.C actress is clearly a supporter of Hillary Clinton's run for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election.

The blingy garment is from Alice + Olivia, the fashion label co-founded by Stacey Bendet Eisner, and it retails for $368.

Mischa paired it with black skinny jeans and black high-heeled pumps.

Earlier she posted a snap of herself wearing the sweater as she lounged in a chair holding Ziggy, her cute little Pekinese.

It's out there: The 30-year-old's blingy garment clearly shows her support for Mrs. Clinton's run for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election

She captioned it: 'Love my #MadeForHistory @aliceandolivia sweater @hillaryclinton.'

The beautiful blonde has a little more time on her hands after being eliminated from Dancing With The Stars last week.

The St. Trinian's actress and her DWTS pro partner Artem Chigvintsev were booted off after their samba underwhelmed the judges.

Pricey piece: The former O.C. star's sweater is from Alice + Olivia, the fashion label co-founded by Stacey Bendet Eisner, and iretails for $368

Meanwhile, Mischa will next be seen on the big screen in director-writer Ashley Avis's Deserted in which she stars as 24-year-old Jae who has just been released from prison for killing her mother.

She returns to her childhood home in small-town Ridgecrest but, anxious to escape, she joins her brother on a road trip to Death Valley.

The movie is out on June 2.
They played a couple on Call The Midwife and viewers relished watching their relationship blossom.

But it seems Helen George and Jack Ashton have also developed a budding romance off the screen, with the co-stars reportedly enjoying a string of dates together.

The pair are believed to have grown close during filming on location in South Africa, where they booked a romantic getaway.

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Naughty vicar: They played a couple on Call The Midwife. But it seems Helen George and Jack Ashton have developed a budding romance off the screen, with the co-stars reportedly enjoying a string of dates together

Helen - who plays nurse Trixie Franklin - reportedly stayed in a luxury suite with her co-star at the Moditlo Lodge, and staff told The Mirror they looked 'very much in love.'

A manager continued: 'They were here together and seemed very close. They spent quite a lot of time by the pool just chilling, doing nothing and being together.'

Helen has appeared on the show since its creation in 2012, while Jack made his debut as handsome Rev. Tom Hereward in series three.

MailOnline has contacted representatives for both Helen and Jack for comment.

Romantic: Helen - who plays nurse Trixie Franklin - reportedly stayed in a luxury suite with her co-star at the Moditlo Lodge when she was filming on location in South Africa last month

Single and ready to mingle: Helen's reported romance is the first time she has been romantically linked to another star following her split from fellow actor Oliver Boot

Helen's reported romance is the first time she has been romantically linked to another star following her split from fellow actor Oliver Boot.

The couple confirmed their separation in September following three years of marriage.

A representative for the star announced the news in a statement that read: 'I can confirm that Helen separated from her husband some time ago.'

Sizzling: Helen shared a snap of herself soaking up the sun as she joined the cast to film in the sunny climes

Meanwhile, filming for Call The Midwife's Christmas special saw the cast fly out to South Africa last month.

In the episode, residents of Nonnatus House will help out a mission hospital called Hope Clinic that is facing closure after they send an SOS message.

The sixth season of the show will return with eight episodes in 2017.
She is often seen wearing very little in sexy photoshoots.

But supermodel Kate Moss opted for a very different look when she stepped out on Saturday.

The catwalk queen cut a boho figure as she enjoyed a barefoot stroll in Sao Paulo as part of her latest sunshine break.

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Going native: Supermodel Kate Moss opted for a very different look when she stepped out on Saturday

The mother-of-one sported a floor-length paisley dress, which she capped with a belted waist for added style.

Forfeiting her footwear, she strolled through the streets with her bare feet on full display while carrying a clutch bad and fronting designer sunglasses.

Scraping her hair back into a messy bun, the Croydon-born star also appeared to go make-up-free for the occasion.

She's got sole! Forfeiting her footwear, she strolled through the streets with her bare feet on full display while carrying a clutch bad and fronting designer sunglasses

Looking good: Scraping her hair back into a messy bun, the Croydon-born star also appeared to go make-up-free for the occasion.

The latest sighting comes just days after she was seen displaying a hidden interest in arm wrestling.

That competitive streak came out this week when she threw a party at her Sao Paolo hotel, The Fasona, and encouraged rowdy celebrity pals to face-off, before winning with her own muscles.

According to The Sun, the blonde 'annoyed' other guests with the late night tournament. at which she told them she knew the rules because she was 'from Croydon.'

She knows the score: Kate Moss was filmed encouraging her rowdy friends to arm wrestle at a hotel in Sao Paolo this week

Designer Marc Jacobs was capturing the action on a smart phone and in the video, Kate can be seen keeping a check on the scores with a notepad.

In a formal fashion, Kate tells competitors Char Defrancesco and Lorenzo Martone: 'Gentleman, please put your arms on the table... When I say three, you can go.

Kate, who has been in Brazil for the AmFar gala, is said to have honed her own arm wrestling skills after a ski accident left her leg in a cast at the start of 2016, she also claimed to have a hidden bonus in the fact that she is from south London.

Watch and learn: Her guests included Marc Jacobs, who watched and recorded the whole thing

We'll wake up the neighbours: One newspaper claimed that Kate 'annoyed' fellow guests at the hotel with her antics

She's got game: In the video, she can be heard saying that she knows the rules because she is 'from Croydon'

When a reveler behind her tries to correct her on the rules of the sport, she quickly tells them: 'Darling, I'm from Croydon, I know.'

A source told the newspaper: 'Kate was having loads of fun. She was shrieking and clapping loudly while people chanted "fight, fight, fight!" The drinks were flowing.'

The insider continued: 'She had very strict rules that she insisted everyone stuck to, as she sees herself as a bit of an expert in the sport now.'

Refereeing: The supermodel kept score on her notepad and insisted that the players played fair

'Kate was keeping score,' the source went on. 'As everyone else arm-wrestled and, even though she took part, she insisted on refereeing.'

A second video posted on Instagram shows Kate proving her prowess as she beats long-time gal pal Fran Cutler to a wrestle.

The group of celebrity pals were celebrating Fran's 52nd birthday, but Kate wasn't about to take pitty on the events planner and swiftly defeated her in the tournament.

Wrestle mania: The star was captured on social media for a rare selfie with Marc (left)

Winner, winner: Later, the blonde took on best girl pal Fran Cutler and won
Jennifer Garner celebrated turning 44 on Sunday by taking two of her children to a sermon in Brentwood.

The actress was spotted bringing her youngest Samuel, four, and her eldest Violet, ten, to the Methodist ceremony.

There was no sign of middle child Seraphina, seven, who probably spent Sunday morning with her dad Ben Affleck.

Birthday pray: Jennifer Garner celebrateed turning 44 by taking children Violet and Samuel to a Sunday sermon

It was Jen's first birthday in more than a decade as a single woman, having split from Ben in June, one day after their ten-year anniversary.

The Dallas Buyers Club star - who previously claimed to take her family to church every Sunday -looked cute in a short summer dress and sandals, letting her long brunette hair down loose.

In her hand she carried a gift bag, so she definitely got at least one pressie.

Prays together: The actress was spotted taking her youngest Samuel, four, and her eldest Violet, ten, to the Methodist ceremony

Absent: There was no sign of middle child Seraphina, seven, who probably spent Sunday morning with her dad Ben Affleck.

Jen's most recent movie - Miracles From Heaven - had a strong religious theme; in it she plays Christy Beam, whose real-life memoir inspired the film.

It tells the story of her daughter Anna, whose unscathed fall out of a tree miraculously cured her of her chronic illness.

The mother-of three has a busy year ahead of her, with dramas The Tribes of Palos Verdes and Wakefield and comedy Nine Lives scheduled to be released later this year.

Any pressies? It was Jen's first birthday in more than a decade as a single woman, having split from Ben in June, one day after their ten-year anniversary

Cute: The Dallas Buyers Club star - who previously claimed to take her family to church every Sunday -looked cute in a short summer dress and sandals, letting her long brunette hair down loose

But the most pressing film on the horizon may be ex Ben's Justice League: Part One.

I was reported recently that the Batman star is renting a house in London for his family so they can be there while he shoots 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.'
He's famed for his stellar on-air talent, and has been known to become one of Australia's highest paid radio stars alongside co-host Andy Lee.

But while comedian Hamish Blake shot to stardom thanks to his stand-up routines and popular radio show, recent years have seen the 34-year-old make an impressive transition to the small and big screen.

His appearances on Neighbours and Thank God You're Here before hosting his own short-lived US talk show with partner-in-crime Andy, have eventually led to him being cast in Network Ten's new drama The Wrong Girl, adapted from his wife Zoe Foster's novel.

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From the airwaves to the screen: While comedian Hamish Blake shot to stardom thanks to his stand-up routines and popular radio show, recent years have seen him make an impressive transition to the screen

Back in 2003 Hamish and 34-year-old Andy officially collaborated as a comedic duo after meeting at a Melbourne university.

Hamish had enrolled in a science/commerce double degree, while Andy was studying commerce.

The students immediately hit it off, and it was there at the Victorian educational institute that their friendship began.

After entering some comedy competitions at the university, Hamish eventually dropped out to professionally pursue a career with Andy.

Radio duo: Hamish and partner-in-crime Andy Lee first collaborated in 2003, and kicked off their commercial radio show in 2006 with the Today Network

They soon landed a small television show on a community station, which then led to a Channel Seven program, aptly titled The Hamish and Andy Show.

Unfortunately the show was axed in 2004 after just six episodes.

Then the talented two found their way onto Rove, appearing as weekly guests on the successful variety program created by Rove McManus.

From 2007 to 2009 they regularly appeared on the program while simultaneously tending to the Hamish and Andy radio show which launched in 2006.

Talk show appearances: From 2007 to 2009 Hamish appeared on Rove alongside Andy, appearing as a weekly guest on the successful variety program created by Rove McManus

In 2008 Hamish made his soap show debut on Australia's longest-running drama Neighbours.

Again a collaborative project, he appeared on the soap alongside Andy, the pair funnily enough playing Erinsborough's local radio hosts named Fred (Hamish) and Big Thommo (Andy).

No doubt making quite an impression on some of Ramsay Street's favourites, Hamish and Andy left Margot Robbie and Caitlin Stasey's characters quite star-struck in one scene.

The following year Hamish further leant his acting talents to the small screen, appearing in one episode of ABC comedy series The Librarians as Jake Jackson.

Soap stint: In 2008 Hamish made his soap show debut on Australia's longest-running drama Neighbours

Art imitating life: Again a collaborative project, he appeared on the soap alongside Andy, the pair funnily enough playing Erinsborough's local radio hosts named Fred (Hamish) and Big Thommo (Andy)

Famous co-stars: No doubt making quite an impression on some of Ramsay Street's favourites, Hamish and Andy left Margot Robbie and Caitlin Stasey's characters quite star-struck in one scene

In 2009 and 2010 the pair's Caravan Of Courage experiences were screened on Network Ten.

Meanwhile Hamish and Andy's celebrity status Down Under eventually started to catch on elsewhere as they made two appearances on the Jay Leno Show in 2009.

They also wooed the UK crowd in 2010 while guest starring on the Graham Norton Show.

Australia soon became hungry for more of the comedy duo, and in response, Hamish and Andy's Gap Year was conceived.

Smart move: In 2009 Hamish further leant his acting talents to the small screen, appearing in one episode of ABC comedy series The Librarians as Jake Jackson

Funny man: Hamish made several appearances on Australia's version of Thank God You're Here from 2006 to 2009

Beginning in 2011, the Channel Nine show followed the men to America, England, Asia and South America.

While they've always been known as a duo, Hamish and Andy briefly split when Hamish starred in the 2012 film Two Little Boys with Flight of the Conchords star, Bret McKenzie.

Meanwhile as the Gap Year series continued, Hamish's onscreen presence was received so well by the Australian public that he was nominated for a major award at the Logies.

In 2012 he won the coveted Gold Logie at Australian television's night of nights, being named the Most Popular Personality on Australian television.

On the road: In 2009 and 2010 the pair's Caravan Of Courage experiences were screened on Network Ten

Gap Year: Hamish and Andy also hosted their own Gap Year television show from overseas which was aired on Channel Nine

He was subsequently nominated for the same award the following year but lost to Offspring actress Asher Keddie.

In late 2014 Hamish and Andy announced they were returning to the airwaves.

'We're coming back to Drive radio, starting in July,' Andy said in a social media video at the time.

'It's going to be awesome,' added Hamish.

Indeed returning to the Today network in the drive-time slot, Hamish and Andy were even reported to be earning $4 million each per year, following Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson's departure from the network as they moved to KIIS FM.

Gaining recognition: In 2012 Hamish won the coveted Gold Logie at Australian television's night of nights, being named the Most Popular Personality on Australian television - pictured with Andy at the 2014 Logies

As the duo continue to prove they are a hit with the ratings, Hamish has found time to engage in a few more onscreen projects.

In 2015 he starred in Australian film Now Add Honey, which also starred Portia de Rossi and Erik Thomson.

'Acting was a lot of fun,' he told Herald Sun last year following the movie's completion.

'My character is, on the outside, a normal guy, and not too far from my actual personality, but beneath, there are deep currents of emotional turmoil.'

Big screen: In 2015 he starred in Australian film Now Add Honey

Co-stars: Other big names in the film included Portia de Rossi and Erik Thomson (pictured)

Meanwhile over the weekend it was confirmed that Hamish will star in Network Ten small-screen adaptation of The Wrong Girl, based on his wife Zoe Foster's book by the same title.

The television show to be filmed in Melbourne later this year will also star Love Child actress Jessica Marais, as well as Craig McLachlan, Kerry Armstrong, Ian Meadows, Rob Collins and Madeleine West.

Taking to Instagram on Sunday, 35-year-old Zoe shared her thoughts on her famous husband being cast in the show.

She joked that the program would feature 'some kid called Hamish Blake, who I think had a bit part in Magic Mike XXL'.

Latest role: Over the weekend it was confirmed that Hamish will star in Network Ten small-screen adaptation of The Wrong Girl, based on his wife Zoe Foster's (pictured) book by the same title
They've never been shy about flaunting their love on social media.

And the romance between Kris Smith and model girlfriend Maddy King shows no sign of fizzling out.

The 37-year-old former rugby player took to Instagram on Sunday to share a photo of himself with Maddy, as they both flash their radiant smiles.

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Say cheese! Kris shared this happy snap of himself with girlfriend Maddy wearing all black on Sunday afternoon

Wearing all black, Kris accessorised with a pair of Dior sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat.

Maddy wore a tiny black choker and her hair pulled back into a ponytail.

Kris simply captioned the black-and-white photo with a smiling heart-shaped eyes Emoji. His girlfriend commented on the photo, writing: 'I love this!'

According to the photo's location tag, the happy couple were enjoying an afternoon out at the Watson's Bay Boutique Hotel in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Later on Sunday night, Kris shared another photo, this time showing fans his and Maddy's full outfit.

Stylish pair: Kris showed-off his impressive style in a black T-shirt and pants, paired with white Christian Louboutin sneakers and a Rolex watch.

The photo, which Kris captioned: 'Black on black @madelainking,' shows the fashionable couple both wearing all black, for the exception of Kris' white high-top sneakers by Christian Louboutin.

Kris, who shares a son with his ex-wife Dannii Minogue, spent the morning being active. Sharing a photo of Sydney's beautiful coast during his walk from Bondi to Bronte, the former Daily Edition host wrote: 'A simple walk by the ocean can give the clarity that is sometimes needed.'

Ocean therapy: The former athlete cleared his head with a coast walk between Bondi and Bronte on Sunday morning

Kris and Maddy have been dating for over three years and the UK-born star previously told Daily Mail Australia an engagement isn't off the table for the couple.

Speaking at the Magic Millions races in the Gold Coast in January, Kris said: 'She's a good chick, a great girl. I'm never going to say no.'

The loved-up pair were faced with breakup rumours in July after Kris was spotted with former FHM model Siobhan Parekh in Double Bay.
Considering he hails from the most romantic country in the world, many would imagine that Manu Feildel would say 'I do' in France.

However, the My Kitchen Rules judge has revealed he has other plans.

The 41-year-old told TV Week magazine on Monday, that he and fiancee Clarissa Weerasena have their sights set on an exotic island location to host their nuptials.

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'We're thinking of having the wedding on an island somewhere': Manu Feildel revealed on Monday that he and his fiancee Clarissa Weerasena have their sights set on an exotic island location to host their nuptials

'We're thinking of having the wedding on an island somewhere, with turquoise blue seas,' the father-of-two explained to the publication.

Adding: 'The Maldives, maybe - that's one we're discussing.'

The Maldives, known for its variety of colourful coral reefs and diverse sea life, is a popular location for weddings and honeymoons.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes honeymooned on the idyllic island on a yacht there after they tied the knot in 2006.

'That's one we're discussing': The 41-year-old My Kitchen Rules judge said that they were considering tying the knot in The Maldives

'Somewhere with turquiose blue seas': The Maldives, known for its variety of colourful coral reefs and diverse sea life, is a popular location for weddings and honeymoons

Despite his French heritage, the charming TV personality, originally from Nantes, also admitted he was not considering marrying in his native country because he wanted to travel to somewhere he hasn't been before.

'We might do a wedding in one place and a honeymoon somewhere else,' he explained, as he revealed the couple's regret of not traveling more when they was younger.

Despite Manu popping the question to Clarissa in 2013, after two years of dating, the pair are yet to make concrete plans for their special day.

Manu admitted that finding the time to walk down the aisle has been hard, with work and family commitments getting in the way.

Keen to travel: Despite his French heritage, the charming TV personality admitted he was not considering marrying in his native country because he wanted to travel to somewhere he hasn't been before

In demand: Manu admitted that finding the time to walk down the aisle has been hard, with work and family commitments getting in the way

The European gourmand and Clarissa welcomed their first daughter, Charlee Ariya in February last year.

While the daughter was Clarissa's first child, Manu has an 11-year-old son Jonti from a previous marriage.

Manu separated from son Jonti's mum Ronnie Morshead in 2009 after 12 years together.

Doting dad: The European gourmand and Clarissa welcomed their first daughter, Charlee Ariya in February last year

Proud parents: While the daughter was Clarissa's first child, Manu has an 11-year-old son Jonti from a previous marriage

The Feildel's recently moved to Maroubra in the Sydney's affluent eastern suburbs after buying a $1.9 million pad there for his young family.

After undergoing renovations, the new family home - initially a two-bedroom semi - now boasts five bedrooms across two levels.

Since arriving in Australia 16 years ago, the Frenchman has been topping up his bank account with paychecks from an impressive list of TV gigs.

He has starred on MasterChef, Dancing With The Stars, My Kitchen Rules and more recently My France with Manu.

Meanwhile, Weerasena previously worked for prestigious jewellery brand, Linneys.

Beach side: The Feildel's recently moved to Maroubra in the Sydney's affluent eastern suburbs after buying a $1.9 million pad there for his young family

Soon to wed: Despite Manu popping the question to Clarissa in 2013, after two years of dating, the pair are yet to make concrete plans for their special day
It was Carmine and Lauren's turn to impress on My Kitchen Rules with their ultimate instant restaurant.

And they certainly did on Monday night's show, making the top four and placing second on the score board having beaten Mitch and Laura's score.

The married South Australian couple received mostly glowing reviews from the judges, with Lauren exclaiming on a piece to camera: 'We are in with a really good chance of taking this competition out.'

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They did well: Carmine and Lauren made the top four on My Kitchen Rules on Monday night and Lauren said she thinks they can win the competition

'Since our first instant restaurant, we've grown so much. We are in with a really good chance of taking this competition out,' she said.

The comment came after she and Carmine heard from the judges Pete Evans and Manu Feildel that they scored a total of 77 points out of 100 for their dishes.

Pete, after giving the pair a ten out of ten for their tartufo - ice cream and chocolate dessert - congratulated the pair at how well they had done.

'Second place, into the final four, how does it feel?' he said.

A proud Carmine answered: 'We're riding the Lauren and Carmine train now.'

Sorry guys: Carmine and Lauren placed second on the score board having beaten Mitch and Laura's (pictured) score

What a mark: The comment came after she and Carmine heard from the judges Pete Evans (R) and Manu Feildel (L) that they scored a total of 77 points out of 100 for their dishes

Fellow contestants Tasia and Gracia are leading the score board on 85 points.

Carmine and Lauren place second, while sitting in third is brother and sister duo Mitch and Laura, on 60 points.

Mitch and Laura were nervous about Lauren and Carmine's cooking round, as it means their place in the competition could be threatened.

At the end of the instant restaurant round, the lowest scoring team will be eliminated and won't make the final four.

Verdict: Fellow contestants Tasia and Gracia are leading the score board on 85 points

Could they win? Tasia (L) and Gracia (R) are seen here on Monday night's show

For entree, Lauren and Carmine served an Italian menu featuring for entree Vitello tonnato - veal and tuna - and duck breast with figs and vincotto, a sauce condiment.

For main, they made beef cheek raviolli and lamb rack with crispy polenta and pea puree, with a dessert of tartufo - and ice cream and chocolate dish - and a citrus Sfogliatella, a pastry dish.

Manu ate the duck for entree and scored them seven, saying there was too much food on the plate, and ate the ravioli for the main,giving them a 7.

He had the pastry dessert and also gave it a seven.

The Frenchman said the sauce over powered the meat in the ravioli, while the filling in the pastry needed a little more flavour.

Delicious: For entree, Lauren and Carmine served an Italian menu featuring for entree Vitello tonnato - veal and tuna

Protein! They also served duck breast with figs and vincotto, a sauce condiment

More meat: For main, they made beef cheek raviolli and lamb rack with crispy polenta and pea puree

Italian food: Also for main was handmade beef cheek ravioli

Pete meanwhile ate vitello for entree, scoring it a ten out of ten, lamb for main giving it a nine and the ice cream dessert, giving it a ten.

The contestants meanwhile scored the couple a total of 27/40, with Laura and Mitch giving them the lowest scores of the team at five points.

Mitch initially said he'd give them a six, but Laura said she didn't like the pasta main she ate and opted for five points.

Yummy: They made a dessert of tartufo - an ice cream and chocolate dish

Bakers: The second dish was a pastry delight

Scoring low on purpose? Mitch initially said he'd give them a six, but Laura said she didn't like the pasta main she ate and opted for five points

Zana meanwhile didn't like the main either but overall she and Gianni were impressed with their cooking, giving them a seven.

Tasia and Gracia gave them an eight and Jordan and Anna gave them a seven.

After Lauren heard the scores from the contestants, she remarked to camera: 'I definitely think there was strategic scoring tonight.'

Also while Pete was eating his dessert and they were all waiting to see if the caramel would melt the chocolate, she remarked that Laura was looking on to see if they nailed the dish or not.

Faired well: Zana (seen here with husband Gianni) meanwhile didn't like the main either but overall she and Gianni were impressed with their cooking, giving them a seven

'Watching Laura's face, she'll be sitting there hoping for a fail, bad luck,' she remarked, as the caramel drizzled through the chocolate.

Meanwhile, at the start of the episode, Lauren commented to her man that she thought Laura would be 'pretty critical around the table' as they didn't get the score they wanted during their instant restaurant seen on Sunday night.

And while cooking she sous-vide meat, like Laura typically does and she cheekily remarked that if they don't get it right and regardless, she'll be 'out for blood.'

Taking a look: While Pete was eating his dessert and they were all waiting to see if the caramel would melt the chocolate, Lauren remarked that Laura was looking on to see if they nailed the dish or not

Interesting: Lauren remarked: 'Watching Laura's face, she'll be sitting there hoping for a fail, bad luck'

Pressure: Meanwhile, at the start of the episode, Lauren commented to her man that she thought Laura would be 'pretty critical around the table'

But not to be deterred, Lauren later commented: 'We're fighters, we've earned our stripes...we just have to keep cooking until we make it to the finals.'

Zana at the beginning of the episode wasn't sure what to expect from the round, and commented to camera: 'Let's just say, no body would expect Carmine and Lauren to kick out Mitch and Laura in this competition and I don't think they are definitely not expecting it.'

She later was impressed, remarking: 'Welcome to the competition guys.'

Meanhwhile, there was no hair in Zana's food this time, unlike at Mitch and Laura's restaurant.

But Lauren made sure that her and her man should be careful while cooking, joking she would buy her man a hair net in case.

While setting up their restaurant, she also humorously remarked: 'Just make sure there are no bugs otherwise Zana might try and run over the fence.'

Pete was also keen to see how Lauren and Carmine would do with their round, saying: 'Carmine and Lauren have cooked more than anyone else in this competition so far, three sudden deaths.'

My Kitchen Rules continues on Tuesday evening at 7:30 on Channel 7.

Up next: Jordan and Anna are pictured and are yet to host their ultimate instant restaurant

Determined: The couple said throughout the episode how they wanted to do well with their instant restaurant




His children will be the only ones to bear his famous family's name.

And it appears the Kardashian empire could have an heir to carry on their lucrative moniker much sooner than expected.

The mother of Rob Kardashian's fiance Blac Chyna, Tokyo Toni, has stated that she would like another grandchild to happen immediately after the couple's wedding later this year.

'I want another grandchild, for sure. It's very likely to happen after the wedding,' the 45-year-old told NW magazine on Monday.

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'I want another grandchild': The mother of Rob Kardashian's fiance Blac Chyna, Tokyo Toni, has firmly stated that she would like another grandchild

'It's very likely to happen after the wedding': Tokyo Toni says that the pair will have a child immediately after their wedding, rumoured to be taking place later this year

However, if the wedding takes place, their in-law situation isn't going to be exactly conventional.

If the pair get married, Rob will become step-father to Blac's ex Tyga's son King Cairo, while his half-sister Kylie Jenner, now dating the 'Rack City' rapper, would also become step-mother to the three-year-old if they get hitched.

Their own children will make the Kardashian family tree even more complicated.

Unconventional: If the pair get married Rob will become step-father to Blac's ex Tyga's son King Cairo, while his half-sister Kylie Jenner, who is dating the rapper, would also become step-mother to the three-year-old

Meanwhile, Tokyo Toni said that she hopes the nuptials will be a low-key affair, despite previous reports from TMZ that the pair were brokering a deal for a lavish ceremony to be filmed for their own reality series.

'I want her to have something very small, invite a few friends, close family,' she said.

Contrary to a string of social-media posts slamming the Kardashians as '[Botoxed] or botched' and saying they'd be banned from the wedding, Tokyo Toni appears to have had a change of heart.

'I want the Kardashian girls there. I want the two families to come together and be happy and be family,' she confessed.

Tokyo Toni also claimed there to be no 'bad blood' between the two families, saying that the Kardashian girls are actually fans of Blac and think she is 'fabulous.'

Admitting she was shocked about Rob's proposal, Tokyo Toni says that the couple are a perfect match and has her tick of approval as step-father to three-year-old son King Cairo, saying: 'Rob is the perfect dad.'

'I want her to have something very small': Tokyo Toni said that she hopes the nuptials will be a low-key affair

Money makers: TMZ previously reported that the pair were brokering a deal for a lavish ceremony to be filmed for their own reality series, said to be worth millions

Despite only dating for three or four months, reports say that the 29-year-old Keeping Up With The Kardashians veteran has already started planning his nuptials to the 27-year-old exotic model and eyelash entrepreneur.

According to UsWeekly, the brother of Kim, Kourtney and Khloe will tie the knot with Blac 'at the end of the summer.'

He also wants to say I do in a warm climate, so it will be a destination wedding.

Serious shade: Blac's mother Tokyo Toni has mocked the Kardashian sisters in an Instagram post while also saying they won't be invited to the wedding

'I want the Kardashian girls there': Contrary to a string of social-media posts slamming the Kardashians and saying they'd be banned from the wedding, Tokyo Toni appears to have had a change of heart

'Rob is the perfect dad': Admitting she was shocked about Rob's proposal, Tokyo Toni says that the couple are a perfect match and has her tick of approval as step-father to three-year-old son King Cairo

The couple became engaged in April after Rob proposed with a seven carat ring worth about $325,000.

The pair first hooked up with each other only in January, with reports surfacing they are set to wed later this year.

The relationship has put a strain on Rob's relationship with his family, after Blac reportedly harassed Rob's young sister Kylie after she started dating Tyga.

The tension was so bad it ended Blac's friendship with Kim Kardashian.

To make matters worse, Blac is best friends with Amber Rose, who Kim's husband Kanye West used to date.

Amber has also been linked to Reggie Bush, Kim's ex-boyfriend.

When you know, you know: Despite only dating for three or four months, reports say that Rob has already started planning his nuptials to the exotic model and eyelash entrepreneur

Bling it on: The couple became engaged in April after Rob proposed with a seven carat ring worth about $325,000

In the past few months it appears as if Kim has befriended Amber.

On Wednesday, Rob said his family is fine with Blac.

When asked by an X17Online about their feelings about the engagement, he said: 'My family is very happy.'

Bad girl? Bringing Blac into the family is a strange choice as she was engaged to - and had a child with - Kylie Jenner's now beau Tyga

Unconventional: The relationship has put a strain on Rob's relationship with his family, after Blac reportedly harassed Rob's young sister Kylie after she started dating Tyga

However, the KUWTK clan are reportedly unconvinced it the romance will last as Rob has previously professed his undying love for exes Rita Ora and Adrienne Bailon, and even told his relatives he had proposed to them, though no engagement announcements were ever made.

Meanwhile, a source told US Weekly that Rob's mom Kris Jenner told he's 'making a mistake' by rushing into this life decision, and her daughters agree.

A source recently said: 'No one [in his family] is jumping up and down with excitement today. They have made a united decision as a family to not comment on social media yet about Rob's engagement. The news is not shocking, and not totally unexpected.

'There has been a fear that Blac is manipulating the situation with Rob. That he is getting himself into a situation that is not ideal for him. Blac has been great as kind of a rebound.'

It's complicated: Blac and Rob are engaged - Blac's ex Tyga is dating Rob's sister Kylie. Blac and Tyga have a son together

Money money: Rob, who has not been on KUWTK much in the past year, is excited to have the lens on him once again. 'He and Blac will shoot the wedding for a reality show,' said a source. 'Networks are interested'
Having been a personal trainer for over 25 years and worked with contestants on The Biggest Loser since 2007, Michelle Bridges is no doubt very experienced in her field.

In an excerpt from her appearance on Australian Story ahead of its airing on Monday night, the 45-year-old has revealed the harsh reality she has faced when training people from all walks of life.

'I'm yet to meet someone who is morbidly obese and happy,' the mother-of-one says.

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Opening up: In an excerpt of her appearance on Australian Story ahead of its airing on Monday night, The Biggest Loser trainer Michelle Bridges has revealed the harsh reality she has faced when training people from all walks of life

Having become a certified fitness instructor by the age of 18, Michelle later worked for a large fitness company by 25 years of age and started to identify more unconventional ways for people to lose weight.

In 2007 she made her onscreen debut on Channel Ten's The Biggest Loser, identifying an opportunity for her to reach out to the Australian population who weren't regular users of the gym.

'It might be seen that I have this agenda on people who are overweight or people who are deemed fat,' she says on Australian Story.

Tough journey: 'I'm yet to meet someone who is morbidly obese and happy,' the mother-of-one says - pictured training a contestant on Channel Ten's The Biggest Loser series

'Honestly, if you are happy where you are, more power to you. But I can tell you, I'm yet to meet someone who is morbidly obese and happy.'

In a video preview for the program, the media personality is also seen opening up about her new life as a mother, and her partner Steve 'Commando' Willis also makes some comments.

Steve, 39, gushes: 'Axel coming into this world has definitely brought out another side of Michelle.'

The Biggest Loser star adds: 'I don't know if at this point she's changing her priorities, but she's definitely asking more questions of herself.'

Television gig: In 2007 she made her onscreen debut on Channel Ten's The Biggest Loser - pictured in a promotional shot from last year's The Biggest Loser: Families program alongside fellow trainers Shannan Ponton, Tiffiny Hall and Steve 'Commando' Willis

Training them hard: She began appearing on The Biggest Loser after identifying an opportunity for her to reach out to the Australian population who weren't regular users of the gym

Michelle then explains that her thriving career is the result of a passion to succeed in what she has always wanted to do.

'I love what I do it's been what I've dreamed of doing since I was a child so why wouldn't I be driven?' she explains.

The interview follows Michelle as she does rounds of media interviews prior to the release of her latest book Make It Happen.

A new side: In a video preview for Australian Story, Michelle's partner, Steve 'Commando' Willis opens up about her journey into motherhood with their son Axel

Driven: Michelle also explains that her thriving career is the result of a passion to succeed in what she has always wanted to do

At one point during the video an exhausted Michelle says that she had started the day at 4:45am and had just arrived home after getting through 'about 12 or 13 interviews'.

She is greeted by her partner Steve, and the couple's angelic son was blissfully asleep which appears to please her as she tip-toes out of the room.

The interview is set to explore how Michelle has adjusted to life as a mother at 45, juggling her thriving career and ambitions to take on the junk food industry.

Peaceful: She is greeted by her partner Steve, and the couple's angelic son Axel is blissfully asleep which appears to please her as she tip-toes out of the room

Busy: At one point during the video an exhausted Michelle says that she had started the day at 4:45am and had just arrived home after getting through 'about 12 or 13 interviews'

Michelle and Steve appear to be completely besotted with their their baby boy who was born in December and the spitting image of his handsome father.

Upon his arrival the new-parents took to social media to announce the news, writing: 'We are thrilled to welcome out little boy into the world, Axel Bridges Willis, born 19/12/15. Healthy and happy'.

This is the fourth child for Commando as he shares Ella, seven and Jack, four with ex-partner Froso and Brianna, 18, with another former partner.

He and Michelle have been dating for three years after meeting on the set of Network 10's Biggest Loser Australia.

Australian Story airs on Monday night at 8pm on ABC 1.

Taking it all on: The interview is set to explore how Michelle has adjusted to life as a mother at 45, juggling her thriving career and ambitions to take on the junk food industry
She's been a regular face in Summer Bay for the past 16 years.

But Home and Away actress Ada Nicodemou has revealed that she went through a 'life crisis' during her early twenties as she reflects on her upcoming 40th birthday next year.

Speaking to TV Week, the 38-year-old said she isn't worried about the milestone birthday, nor is she one to look back with regrets.

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New beginnings: Home and Away actress Ada Nicodemou as revealed she went through a 'life crisis' at 24 as she reflects on her upcoming 40th birthday

'I had my life crisis at 24,' Ada told the publication.

'I hit 24 and went all, "I haven't done this and that", which is weird at 24. But since then I haven't. I'm not really one of those people to look back.'

The Greek-born beauty, who plays Leah Patterson-Baker in the long running soap, will celebrate her 39th birthday in May.

And while she admitted to the magazine she won't be throwing an extravagant party to mark the occasion, she will be celebrating in a different way.

Summer Bay local: The Greek-born beauty, has played Leah Patterson-Baker for the past 16 years in the long running soap and will celebrate her 39th birthday in May

'I've never worry about getting old - I don't understand why women don't talk about their age.'

She went on: 'I've always want to go to Italy... But I don't want a party - I hate parties. I want to go on a holiday.'

While Ada remained tight-lipped about relationship status, her interview comes after estranged husband Chrys Xipolitas took to social media to share a heart-wrenching post about their son, Johnas.

Posting a snap to Instagram of the three-year-old standing a playground, Chrys wrote: 'This isn't the way we planned it to be, we can only make the most of a not-so-ideal scenario.'

'I don't like parties': The brunette beauty said instead of celebrating her milestone birthday with an extravagant party she would prefer to go on an overseas holiday

Happier times: The couple had been married for nine years before it was rumoured they went their separate ways

'It's obviously going to take a while to get use to.. I haven't stopped thinking of this kid since I dropped him to his mum this morning,' the doting father started.

'I end up counting down the days, hours and minutes till our next visit.'

While Ada has refused to speak publicly about her marriage, Chrys has shared numerous public posts about their co-parenting arranging on social media.

Woman's Day has previously reported that the couple had separated in November of last year after the immense grief they faced when their second son was stillborn in 2014.

Doting dad: Ada Nicodemou's estranged husband Chrys Xipolitas recently shared this cute Instagram photo of their three-year-old son Johnas before writing a lengthy and emotional post
Prince attended a $10 dance party the day after being released from hospital.

According to TMZ, the 57-year-old singer was keen for people to have 'living proof' that he is still alive, and he arrived at the bash to show off his new guitar and piano.

He didn't sing, but he did tell the crowd: 'Wait a few days before you waste any prayers.'

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Unexpected guest! Prince made a surprise appearance at a dance party in Minnesota on Saturday to prove to his fans that he's doing just fine after his release from hospital on Friday

The Purple Rain hitmaker - who is in the midst of his Piano & A Microphone Tour - was on a plane when his flu symptoms became worse on Friday.

His condition prompted his private jet to make an emergency landing at Quad City International Airport in Moline, Illinois.

The star spent three hours being treated, but after returning home to Minnesota to recover, he wasted no time in getting out and about.

Posting a flyer for last night's Paisley Park After Dark event on Twitter yesterday afternoon, Prince wrote: '2 GIVE THANX 4 THE GOOD WEATHER AND 4 ALL THE LOVE AND SUPPORT...(sic)'

The star didn't sing but he did tell the crowd: 'Wait a few days before you waste any prayers.' He is pictured in November 2015

Ill: The star was rushed to hospital in a 'medical emergency' after his plane was forced to make an emergency landing. He is pictured playing in Atlanta on Thursday night just hours before

Prince had had been suffering from flu for a number of weeks and was believed to be recovering, but took a turn for the worse in the early hours of Friday.

Initial reports on his condition painted a much graver pictures, with one source claiming at the time he was 'not doing well'.

The Purple Rain hitmaker had performed at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta on Thursday night - the second of two back to back sold out shows - and had seemed fine during the concert.

Fans uploaded snaps to Instagram of him playing, with no apparent difficulty.

Pictures of the Piano & A Microphone gig are scarce online because there was a no photo/video rule in effect, enforced by ushers.

No problems: The Purple Rain hitmaker had performed at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta on Thursday night - the second of two back to back sold out shows - and had seemed fine during the concert

But after leaving Georgia on a private jet around 11pm, he was only in the air for around two hours before making the unscheduled stop at 1am.

Meanwhile the star recently revealed he is writing a memoir titled The Beautiful Ones.

Telling fans about the exciting news in New York last month, he said: 'The good people of Random House have made me an offer I can't refuse! It's going to be called 'The Beautiful Ones'. I literally just got off the plane. I'm going to go home and change and put some dancing clothes on. Props to my brother Harry Belafonte.

'You all still read books, right? My brother Dan - Dan Piepenbring of the Paris Review - is helping with it. He's a good critic. That's what I need. Not a yes man.'

This dude right here is the #Truth - Thank you for tonight my dear #Prince  A photo posted by Luxury Sales Atlanta .com (@araenee_sells_atlanta) on Apr 14, 2016 at 8:30pm PDT

A photo posted by @face2facemuzik on Apr 15, 2016 at 1:53pm PDT

The shows themselves had been postponed from their original due date last week, after he was truck down with flu; but its unknown if this latest episode is connected.

According to Atlanta Journal music journalist Melissa Ruggieri who was at the show, when he apologized for the postponement the 'remnants' of his flu were audible - but his singing voice was flawless.

Tickets to the 80-minute show started at $99, with the best seats fetching up to $1,000.

Prince made his last post to his Instagram account - or Princestagram as he calls it - on Thursday: a black white screen.

But his 214k followers won't look at this as an ominous sign, as he - like Jaden Smith - does this all the time, possibly to frame the photos that remain.

I saw Prince last night and almost cried #dearlybeloved A photo posted by dellllle (@dellllle) on Apr 15, 2016 at 6:39am PDT
He famously proposed to Sam Frost on The Bachelor in 2014, before dumping her soon going on to romance the show's second-runner up Louise Pillidge.

And after having now announced he has also called time on his relationship with Louise, Perth-based auctioneer Blake Garvey has unsurprisingly been branded as a 'love rat' of Australian reality television by many viewers online.

The 33-year-old has been no stranger to controversy over the past two years, from mocking his and Sam's split in television commercial and later reportedly accusing the beauty of 'profiting' from their broken relationship.

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Backlash: Since news emerged on Monday morning that The Bachelor's Blake Garvey and Louise Pillidge have split, fans have taken to social media to lash out at Blake

Taking to Twitter on Monday following news of Blake and Louise's split, one social media user wrote: 'Sam Frost must be grinning like a Cheshire cat... #schadenfreude #blakegarvey #TheBachelor #loverat (sic)'.

Meanwhile another didn't hesitate from referring to him as a 'tool'.

In October 2014 it was announced that Blake had broken up with his chosen 'one' Sam less than 24 hours after viewers watched his proposal.

At the time Network Ten confirmed the TV lovers' romance had ended citing Blake's change of heart for the break-up.

Not a fan: One fan used the hashtag '#loverat' on Monday morning following the breakup news, also mentioning Blake's ex Sam Frost who he had initially chosen on The Bachelor in 2014

Speculation: Other fans are already speculating who Blake's next love will be

Seeing the humorous side: Fans are already starting to make fun of Blake

Not holding back: Fans haven't been afraid to speak their mind

'Unfortunately, not all relationships are meant to be, and feelings invariably change,' the media release detailed.

'Once Blake returned to his everyday life, he realised that they both wanted different things from a relationship and had different priorities.

'Blake has the greatest love and respect for Sam, but has made the difficult decision to end the relationship,' it read.

The statement made clear that Blake had 'genuinely fallen in love' with the blonde beauty, but decided to call it quits just six weeks after getting down on one knee to present her with a stunning 3.01ct diamond ring valued at $58,000.

What could have been: In October 2014 the finale of The Bachelor Australia's second season aired in which Blake proposed to Sam Frost

Not so simple: He then went on to choose Louise Pillidge (centre) after dumping Sam (right), the two ladies in the final three alongside first runner-up Lisa Hyde (left)

At the time jilted Sam appeared to be just as shocked as The Bachelor fans.

'People need to stop asking why we broke up,' she tweeted back then.

'Trust me, I'm just as in the dark as you all are.. Blake is the one calling all the shots here.'

The show's final scenes were shot six weeks prior to the final air date, in which time Blake's heart made a sudden u-turn.

Fans of the show were also quick to condemn Blake for his behaviour as it was then revealed he had chosen to pursue a relationship with second-runner up Louise.

New couple: Louise actually finished in third place on the show but according to Blake, was always his preferred lady

Clueless: Sam was as equally as confused about the split when the news emerged, sharing this message on her Twitter account at the time

The hashtags '#loverat and #TeamSam were frequently used on social media when the news broke.

The following week during an interview on The Project, Sam told host Carrie Bickmore she wished Blake Never proposed.

'I'm so annoyed he proposed ... when he called it off, I said "How dare you propose to me!" How dare you take that moment away from me because I want to be engaged once, and get married once.'

Understandably upset, she also referred to him as a 'jackass' during the interview.

Immediate backlash: At the time of Blake dumping Sam, fans were quick to hit out at the reality star

Later that month Blake and Louise did a sit-down interview with The Project's Carrie Bickmore as well, and were forced to address reports claiming Blake had sent Louise a five-page love letter before proposing to Sam in the finale.

When Louise confirmed she received Blake's letter 'before the finale', Carrie responded with 'So, you watched the finale knowing how Blake felt about you?' to which Louise nodded.

'In some way Blake felt he was protecting me by sending me home on that [earlier] episode,' she added, explaining why she hadn't made it to the finale instead of Sam.

Coming clean: Later that month Blake and Louise did a sit-down interview with The Project's Carrie Bickmore as well, and Louise admitted Blake had sent Louise a five-page love letter before proposing to Sam in the finale

Watching back the couple's interview and then reflecting on it in a segment on The Project, Sam Frost and runner-up Lisa Hyde claimed their friendship was more important than Blake.

'That's the biggest load of s*** I have ever heard in my life,' Sam exclaimed at one stage as she clasped her hand over her mouth while watching Blake and Louise's interview.

It looks like Blake had no regrets over his actions, and just a month later, he defended himself saying dumping Sam was not the worst thing that could have happened.

Watching it back: 'That's the biggest load of s*** I have ever heard in my life,' Sam exclaimed at one stage as she clasped her hand over her mouth while watching Blake and Louise's interview with Lisa Hyde

Not holding back: Understandably upset, she also referred to Blake as a 'jackass' on The Project

Appearing on Channel Seven's Sunrise in November 2014 to discuss the fallout after starting the new romance, Blake said: 'I don't think it's the most controversial thing I could have done'.

Asked what he could have done that might be worse than dumping his bride-to-be, Blake said: 'If I'd gone out, if I went to a club and picked up someone random'.

Then in July 2015 he made headlines once again when he was uncovered as an unlikely star of Fairfax's new campaign for Drive.com.au, despite his own driving licence being revoked for six months in March 2014.

In the advertisement he played on his infamous dumping of Sam and subsequent running off with Louise.

'Choosing the right one - it's not easy,' Blake cheesily grinned down the camera in the advert.

He has no shame: Appearing on Channel Seven's Sunrise in November 2014 to discuss the fallout after starting the new romance, Blake said: 'I don't think it's the most controversial thing I could have done'

'Get it wrong and remorse will fill you,' he added sarcastically, clearly unfazed by his own antics.

'I've got another choice to make and this time I know I'll make the right one,' the former topless waiter said, referring to a guide on the site that helps customers choose the perfect car.

Unsurprisingly Blake's label as a 'love rat' has stuck with him ever since, and in August 2015 he was even painted as such a villainous character in the Celebrity Apprentice Australia advertisements.

Furthermore the media personality owned up to the title himself in promotional clips which revealed him back in familiar stomping ground: branded Australia's biggest love rat, donning a tuxedo and posing with a glass of bubbles in hand.

Controversial: In July 2015 he made headlines once again when he was uncovered as an unlikely star of Fairfax's new campaign for Drive.com.au, in which played on his infamous dumping of Sam and subsequent running off with Louise

'Let's make some magic,' he whispered to the camera, using his notorious reputation to flog his new role on the Channel Nine reality show.

Back on the promotional circuit for his new reality gig, Blake appeared on the network's Mornings program the following month, and laughed off the drama he caused with Sam saying 'it's TV at the end of the day'.

Recalling time with his ex fiancee on The Bachelor Australia, Blake said: 'You have to [laugh at it]...I know the funny side of it.

'It's TV at the end of the day, a lot more goes on behind the scenes. If you can't laugh at yourself in this world, what else can you do?'

'Love rat': In August 2015 Blake used his notorious reputation to flog his role on Celebrity Apprentice Australia in its advertisement

Not taking it too seriously: Blake appeared on Mornings in September 2015, and laughed off the drama he caused with Sam saying 'it's TV at the end of the day'

Just days later he took to Instagram, accusing Sam of trying to 'profit' from him as she became Australia's very first The Bachelorette star.

Blake deleted the lengthy post soon after writing it, because of the instant backlash from Sam's fans that appeared alongside a picture of controversial US Bachelor star Jason Mesnick, his wife Molly and their daughter Riley Anne.

Blake wrote that he was using Jason as his inspiration after he also proposed and then dumped a bachelorette to run off with another  just like the Perth auctioneer.

After finding love on The Bachelorette with Sasha Mielczarek, Sam appeared on The Project in October 2015 and revealed Blake didn't even have the courtesy to wish the new couple well.

The truth: After finding love on The Bachelorette with Sasha Mielczarek, Sam appeared on The Project in October 2015 and revealed Blake didn't even have the courtesy to wish the new couple well

Tweet: He did however send a congratulatory message to Sam Wood after his relationship with winner Snezana Markoski was unveiled earlier in the year

Poking fun at her former flame, the beauty told the show's panel of hosts: 'Yes he text me saying congratulations and he wishes it was him,' before admitting: 'No, no he didn't!

'That would be a scoop. I haven't heard a peep.'

He did however send a congratulatory message to Sam Wood after his relationship with winner Snezana Markoski was unveiled earlier in the year.

Happier days: Blake and Louise pictured in Western Australia last October

In love: The pair certainly only had eyes for each other while out and about

In Monday's issue of New Idea magazine, Blake revealed the romance between him and Louise has crashed despite them undergoing three months of counselling in a bid to mend the cracks.

'We were walking on eggshells around each other, always trying to say the right thing... It was suffocating' he told the publication.

Meanwhile Louise has told the magazine it was Blake's decision to call it quits and admits she struggled to come to terms with the fact she was not his first choice.
Teresa Giudice has visited her husband in prison for the first time.

The 43-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey star was reunited with her husband Joe Giudice on Friday, following his incarceration on March 23.

'It was a very emotional visit,' a source told People of the couple's reunion.

'With my honey': Teresa Giudice visited her husband Joe on Friday, nearly a month after his incarceration on March 23, when she posted this Instagram snapshot of the pair that same day

'She was so happy to see him,' the insider added.

Joe, 43, began his sentence for fraud at Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dix, New Jersey late last month.

A source told UsWeekly that the process getting her approved took 'longer because she is on probation.'

Before the mother of four's visit, Joe and Teresa's attorney James Leonard told People he went to the prison last week.

'It was a very emotional visit': A source told People of the couple's reunion, pictured here just days before his incarceration last month

'He is doing as well as can be expected,' Leonard said.

'I would say that he is adjusting very well. I know that he misses Teresa and their four daughters immensely, but Joe will get through this, just like Teresa did.'

Joe also had a visit from his mother Filomena and his sister Maria, according to the magazine.

The couple were sentenced in October 2014 for bankruptcy fraud and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

They were both convicted and she was released from her 11-month stint inside the Danbury Correctional Facility in Connecticut on December 23.

United front: As parents to Gia, 15, Gabriella, 11, Milania, 10, and Audriana, aged six, Joe and Teresa were permitted to serve their time separately so the girls would not be left alone

As parents to Gia, 15, Gabriella, 11, Milania, 10, and Audriana, aged six, they were permitted to serve their time separately so the girls would not be left alone.

But upon Joe's release in 2019, the Italian-born native also faces the possibility of deportation.

Despite having lived in America for more than two decades, Joe never became a US citizen and his recent fraud conviction could get him deported.

'There is no way Joe is going back to Italy without a huge long legal battle,' an insider told Radar Online in September.

'He had already begun the steps to become a citizen as the criminal case against him developed.'

Showing support: After visiting Joe behind bars, Teresa enjoyed dinner with her daughters, Gia and Gabriella, and friends

Meanwhile, Teresa is also getting used to being back in the spotlight.

The former jailbird made her first red carpet appearance since husband Joe went to prison a week ago, when she showed up at a a screening party for The Real Housewives Of New York.

Last month, she released a book Turning The Tables: From Housewife To Inmate And Back Again, about her own experiences behind bars.

And she has now started work on a second book detailing the time between her return home from prison two days before Christmas and her husband Joe heading off to start his sentence.
Former Hey Hey It's Saturday host Daryl Somers made his highly-anticipated television comeback to host Channel Nine's new hypnosis game show, You're Back in the Room.

And according to Woman's Day Magazine, the 64-year-old had some 'diva demands' to make his great return to screens.

They include $10,000 designer suits, a personal hair and make-up artist and generous catering.

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Is it true? Daryl Somers reportedly has made a number of Diva Demands to return to TV on You're Back in the Room (pictured here in 2010)

The glossy reports the veteran star wanted his hair and make-up artist to fly to Sydney weekly to cater to his needs.

It is reported that Daryl ended up getting his beauty consultant but instead of getting specially made and designed suits worth $50,000, he got only two Tom Ford suits.

A source told the publication: 'The execs thought he was joking, but then Daryl has a reputation for being a bit of a diva,' adding production staff were amused by idea and that Daryl believes the industry is still like it was back in the 1980s when budgets were less tight.

Another insider said: 'The problem with Daryl is he still believes he's the star he was at the height of his Hey Hey fame.'

Picky! The glossy reports the veteran star wanted his hair and make-up artist to fly to Sydney weekly to cater to his needs (seen here on set of his new show, You're Back in the Room)

The magazine also said that Daryl has previously had 'crazy onset antics' throughout his career, including Hey Hey It's Saturday staff attaching bells to his slippers so they could hear his coming when he walked, and when hosting Dancing With The Stars, had someone else apply his roll on deodorant.

A representative declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.

Daryl previously hosted Hey Hey It's Saturday for nearly three decades. He now appears on You're Back In The Room alongside hypnotist Keith Barry, who appears on the UK version of the show.

More recently, Daryl insisted his former Hey Hey It's Saturday co-host Jo Beth Taylor was not snubbed from the show's official website after she criticised him on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

Familiar faces: He now appears on You're Back In The Room alongside hypnotist Keith Barry, who appears on the UK version of the show

Veteran: Daryl previously hosted Hey Hey It's Saturday for nearly three decades (pictured with guest at the time, Kylie Minogue)

Former colleague: More recently, Daryl insisted his former Hey Hey It's Saturday co-host Jo Beth Taylor (pictured) was not snubbed from the show's official website after she criticised him on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

While news.com.au noted the 44-year-old is not listed as a former cast member on the show's 'official' website, Daryl, who is also the Executive Producer of the series, says 'there is absolutely no weight behind the idea' that Jo Beth has been snubbed.

A Channel Nine spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: 'Daryl wants to assure you that there is absolutely no weight behind the idea that anyone has been intentionally snubbed or removed from the Hey Hey website.'

'Jo Beth was never on the cast page and has certainly not been removed. Only the longest running cast members are on there.

'You'll notice Denise Drysdale isn't there. Nor is Raymond J Bartholomeuz, Shane Bourne, Marty Fields, Trevor Marmalade, Rhonda Burchmore, Melissa Hannon and numerous other regulars over the many years of the show,' they added.

The website, which offers paid subscribers access to the show's archives, features 'cast' page from which Jo Beth is conspicuously absent.

Her time on the show abruptly came to an end after two years in 1997 due to her nervous breakdown - and she would remain out of the spotlight until late 1999.

Meanwhile, another co-host Denise Drysdale - who reportedly left the show in 1990 after just one year on bad terms - is also notably missing from the cast list.

The missing links: Former co-hosts Jo Beth Taylor (1995-1997) and Denise Drysdale (1989-1990) are notably absent from the 'Cast' page of website Heyhey.tv, which is copyright of Daryl's company Somers Carroll

The website claims to be the copyright (as of 2014) of Somers Carroll, a television production company launched to produce Hey Hey It's Saturday.

It was earlier speculated that Jo Beth was 'wiped' from the Hey Hey It's Saturday history books after her criticism of the show's co-host and executive producer.

During her time on I'm ACelebrity, the Perth-born TV personality criticised Daryl as 'egocentic'.

But days later she backpedalled on her catty remarks during an appearance on Studio 10 shortly after being eliminated from the South African jungle and said she was 'sorry.'
Former The Bachelor Australia star Laurina Fleure has slammed Blake Garvey and Louise Pillidge for posing in a special New Idea magazine photo shoot to announce the news of their split.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Laurina, who appeared on Blake's season of the reality show in 2014, said: 'I think that Blake and Louise posing for a photo and tell-all about their break-up is exploiting of themselves'.

'Not very tasteful milking the last drop of publicity, but probably indicative of the type of relationship they were in,' the 31-year-old added.

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Weighing in: Former The Bachelor Australia star Laurina Fleure has responded to the recent news of Blake Garvey and Louise Pillidge calling time on their 18-month romance

She also said it was always going to be 'hard' for the couple, given Blake first proposed to Sam Frost, before dumping her and picking runner-up Louise.

'The start to their relationship wasn't ideal so maybe that hindered their foundation and may have made it hard for them to move forward,' she said.

Having not been in contact with either of them in recent times, Laurina also said: 'I have no idea why Blake and Louise split. I didn't know either of them very well'.

In Monday's issue of New Idea magazine, Blake revealed the romance between him and Louise has crashed despite them undergoing three months of counselling in a bid to mend the cracks.

Doomed to fail? Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Laurina said she believed things were always going to be tough given Blake had first proposed to Sam Frost, before dumping her and picking second runner-up Louise

She's been there: Laurina appeared on the 2014 season of The Bachelor Australia starring Blake himself

'We were walking on eggshells around each other, always trying to say the right thing... It was suffocating' he told the publication.

Meanwhile, Louise has told the magazine it was Blake's decision to call it quits and admits she struggled to come to terms with the fact she was not his first choice.

In October 2014 it was announced that Blake had broken up with his chosen 'one' Sam less than 24 hours after viewers watched his proposal.

At the time Network Ten confirmed the TV lovers' romance had ended citing Blake's change of heart for the break-up.

What could have been: In October 2014 the finale of The Bachelor Australia's second season aired in which Blake proposed to Sam Frost

Not so simple: He then went on to choose Louise Pillidge (centre) after dumping Sam (right), the two ladies in the final three alongside first runner-up Lisa Hyde (left)

'Unfortunately, not all relationships are meant to be, and feelings invariably change,' the media release detailed.

'Once Blake returned to his everyday life, he realised that they both wanted different things from a relationship and had different priorities.

'Blake has the greatest love and respect for Sam, but has made the difficult decision to end the relationship,' it read.

New couple: Louise actually finished in third place on the show but according to Blake, was always his preferred lady

Clueless: Sam was confused about the split when the news emerged, sharing this message on her Twitter account at the time

The statement made clear that Blake had 'genuinely fallen in love' with the blonde beauty, but decided to call it quits just six weeks after getting down on one knee to present her with a stunning 3.01ct diamond ring valued at $58,000.

At the time jilted Sam appeared to be just as shocked as The Bachelor fans.

'People need to stop asking why we broke up,' she tweeted back then.

'Trust me, I'm just as in the dark as you all are.. Blake is the one calling all the shots here.'

Coming clean: Blake and Louise did a sit-down interview with The Project's Carrie Bickmore soon after, and Louise admitted Blake had sent Louise a five-page love letter before proposing to Sam in the finale

Her response: Sam Frost took to Twitter on Monday to speak out after Blake and Louise announced their split

The show's final scenes were shot six weeks prior to the final air date, in which time Blake's heart made a sudden turn.

Later that month Blake and Louise did a sit-down interview with The Project's Carrie Bickmore as well, and were forced to address reports claiming Blake had sent Louise a five-page love letter before proposing to Sam in the finale.

When Louise confirmed she received Blake's letter 'before the finale', Carrie responded with 'So, you watched the finale knowing how Blake felt about you?' to which Louise nodded.

'In some way Blake felt he was protecting me by sending me home on that [earlier] episode,' she added, explaining why she hadn't made it to the finale instead of Sam.
They reportedly called time on their two-year romance earlier this year.

But Gerard Butler, 46, and Morgan Brown, 39, looked to have overcome any blip, with the pair stepping out to do a spot of grocery shopping at Bristol Farms, Los Angeles, on Sunday.

The Hollywood heartthrob dressed down for the outing in a black mesh cap, a plain grey tee, stonewashed jeans and trainers.

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Back on track? Gerard Butler, 46, and Morgan Brown looked to have overcome any blip, with the pair stepping out to do a spot of grocery shopping at Bristol Farms, Los Angeles, on Sunday

The actor walked a few steps ahead of his interior designer girlfriend and produced a toothy smile from amidst his stubble.

Morgan showed off her lithe limbs in a pale pink vintage summer dress. The airy linen garment skimmed the brunette beauty's thighs while the plunging top section hung loosely off her shoulders.

While Gerard walked with his hands free, Morgan followed behind with the groceries in a large brown paper bag.

Keeping it casual: The Hollywood heartthrob dressed down for the outing in a black mesh cap, a plain grey tee, stonewashed jeans and trainers

Pretty in pink: Morgan showed off her lithe limbs in a pale pink vintage summer dress

Her lengthy brunette tresses fell messily over her shoulders, looking full of vitality as the sun shone down on them.

Before returning to the car, Gerard grabbed an iced drink. He then made his way to the vehicle's trunk to make sure everything was packed properly while Morgan clutched the keys ready to whisk them away.

Back in February it was claimed Gerard spent the night with Rita Ora at a four-star Hollywood hotel.

Us Weekly claimed that the actor and the pop star enjoyed a romantic dinner in West Hollywood, where Butler paid the bill.

Leading the way: The actor walked a few steps ahead of his interior designer girlfriend and produced a toothy smile from amidst his stubble

Thirst-quenching: Before returning to the car, Gerard grabbed an iced drink

Allocated driver: Morgan clutched the keys ready to whisk them away from the store

The insider also claims that the two were seen hugging before allegedly retiring to a private room in the hotel.

However, nothing appeared to materialise following the dinner and Gerrard now looks to be back on track with Morgan.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Gerard and is awaiting comment.
Kourtney Kardashian celebrated her 37th birthday with a sight-seeing excursion through at Iceland with her trusted friend Jonathan Cheban on Monday.

The 37-year-old had jetted into Iceland alongside her sister Kim Kardashian, brother-in-law Kanye West, and Jonathan the previous day.

Kourtney was stylishly primped as she visited the Leifur Eiriksson Statue, wearing a maroon jacket from her brother-in-law's fashion line as she snapped a series of photos with her friends with their reality show's camera crew in tow.

See Kourtney Kardashian updates as she celebrates big day with sight-seeing adventure

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Birthday babe: Kourtney Kardashian went sight-seeing in Iceland on the day of her 37th birthday on Sunday

The reality star donned a black choker necklace, a tattered olive green sweater, and black skinnies which she tucked into her boots.

Kourtney couldn't stop smiling as she strolled through the courtyard during her trip, one which was no doubt a refreshing change of pace.

On Saturday the reality star and her friends jetted into Iceland, where they feasted on an entirely all-tomato meal and visited the majestic Gullfoss Waterfall.

Both Kourtney and Kim did not appear to be joined by their children, who are likely under sister Khloe's watch at the moment.

Laugh riot! The reality star was joined by her trusted friend Jonathan Cheban for the day excursion

Happy camper: Kourtney couldn't stop smiling as she strolled through the courtyard during her trip, one which was no doubt a refreshing change of pace

Khloe wrote on Instagram she was 'off to babysit the kiddies' hours before sharing a flashback photo in honour of her big sister's birthday.

In the image, Khloe is suffering from a case of chicken pox as she covers her ears while hanging outdoors with Kourtney.

'Happy birthday @kourtneykardash!! What would our family do without you?!?! This picture sums us up, even though I'm covered in chicken pox, you're still chillin by my side. I love you!!!', Khloe captioned the snap.

Travelling in style: The mother-of-three donned a black choker necklace, a tattered olive green sweater, and black skinnies

Say cheese! Cheban grinned as he took a snap

Taking to her website www.khloewithak.com, Khloe wrote: 'Kourtney, you are my best friend and I couldn't ask God for a better big (little) sister. I'm thankful everyday to have you in my life. You have know idea how much I love and admire you!

'You're 100 percent real, all the time. My life would be nothing without you in it!!! Happiest birthday to the yin to my yang, the Bey to my Jay, the milk to my cookies, the Lady to my Tramp, LOL!!! Love you, Kourt!'

Mother Kris Jenner led the charge when she posted a throwback snap a day ahead of Kourtney's birthday.

Got it! Jonathan crouched down to obtain the perfect shot

The image was a touching photo of herself cradling baby Kourtney as she posed with her then-husband and Kourtney's father, Robert Kardashian.

'Happy Birthday tomorrow beautiful @kourtneykardash !!', she wrote on Sunday. 'I know it's crazy but I remember this pic like it was yesterday.. You have brought so much love, joy, and happiness into my life and I'm proud to be your Mom..

'You teach all of us everyday what it means to be an amazing daughter, Mom, sister, friend, and a genuinely beautiful human being. Thank you for being such a bright light and an inspiration to me every day..

Hitting her stride: The birthday girl polished off the look with a pair of glossy black boots

Getting silly: Kardashian gave off a playful expression as Jonathan held the phone in her direction

'You are kind and patient and have the biggest heart and I love you more than you will ever know. You will always be my firstborn who captured my heart....

'Oh, and I'm really sorry about this outfit I put you in....I love you, mommy #love #blessed #mybaby.'

She also shared a photo collage of the reality star through the years, which she captioned, 'Happy birthday @kourtneykardash!! Enjoy this special day! I love you!! #mybaby #love #family.'

Proud mama: Kris Jenner led the charge when she posted a throwback snap a day ahead of Kourtney's birthday

Through the years: On Monday Jenner also shared a precious photo collage of her then-adolescent daughter

Kim also shared a sweet throwback snap of the sisters wearing identical dresses and pink bow ties in their hair.

'Happy Birthday @kourtneykardash Thank you for always doing everything first so I can copy you! I don't know what I would do without you! I love you! Happy Birthday!', the mother-of-two wrote in the caption.

Kim wrote on her website www.kimkardashianwest.com, 'Happy birthday, Kourt!!! I feel really lucky to have you as my big sister. You've always been there for me, and I'm constantly turning to you for mom advice. Plus you're the best workout partner LOL. Love you!'

'This picture sums us up': Khloe Kardashian sent her well wishes with a throwback snap of herself suffering through a case of chicken box

Little sister Kendall also sent Kourtney her well wishes on her website.

'Happy Birthday Kourt!!! I love how well we get along since we're so similar. It's amazing to have a sister and role model like you in my life. I love you so much. You're the best!'

Kylie Jenner also sent her love as well, taking to her website thekyliejenner.com to post a sweet message and a video of them together.

'Wishing my big sister Kourtney the happiest birthday! Love you, Kourt!' she wrote.

Seeing double! Kim Kardashian also shared a photo of her and her sister wearing identical outfits for Kourtney's birthday

Spreading the love: Kylie Jenner shared a sweet message and video for Kourtney's birthday on her website
She recently complained that working with Dancing with the Stars partner Ian Ziering 'made me want to slit my wrists,' according to TMZ.

But on Sunday Cheryl Burke was already apologizing for the harsh words spoken on Matt Weiss & Theo Vonn's Allegedly podcast.

'I was out of line and for that I apologize,' Cheryl wrote on Twitter, though her comments clarified her deep regret at seemingly making light of suicide and depression - with no remorse regarding ill feelings toward Ian.

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Sorry not sorry: Cheryl Burke took to Twitter on Sunday to apologize for her harsh words regarding Dancing with the Stars partner Ian Ziering - though the apology was not for her partner, but instead for her seemingly flippant attitude toward suicide and depression (pictured with Ian in 2007)

'Ive always lived by the rule that if you dont have anything nice to say, dont say anything at all,' Cheryl wrote in a long and somber tweet.

'Recently and regrettably, I broke that rule. In the heat of an interview conversation, I used a phrase that seemingly makes light of suicide and I deeply regret it.'

She continued: 'I have many friends and family members that struggle with depression and thoughts of suicide.'

'I never meant to hurt anyone' The star explained that she 'deeply regrets' using the phrase 'made me want to slit my wrists' as she didn't mean to 'trivialize' the struggle of depression and thoughts of suicide

Disharmony on the dance floor: Out of the 18 celebrity partners she paired with on DWTS, Cheryl admitted on the Matt Weiss & Theo Vonn's Allegedly podcast that she liked Ian Ziering the least (pictured in 2007)

'To have said something that seemingly makes a mockery of what theyve gone through and what they live with is something that I apologize for.'

The two-time Emmy-nominated choreographer concluded that she 'never meant to hurt anyone or to trivialize the topic.'

Cheryl, who danced with 18 other celebrity partners on the ABC series, had previously confessed in the podcast - to air this Tuesday on iTunes - that she loathed Ian to the point of nausea.

'It made me want to slit my wrists': The half-Filipina dancer - who turns 32 next month - and the 52-year-old actor still managed to come in fourth place on the fourth season back in 2007

Searching for an exit strategy: 'I was like crying to the executives, "Is there any way to please eliminate us?" They were like, "We can't. We can't do that"'

Cheryl - who quit the ABC competition in 2014 - and the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum still managed to come in fourth place on the fourth season back in 2007.

'I was like crying to the executives, "Is there any way to please eliminate us?"' Burke recalled.

'They were like, "We can't. We can't do that." And then I swear every time I asked, we just kept going. We would last until the end.'

The two-time Mirrorball champ also said producers didn't show Ian's 'true colors' through clever editing.

Two-time Mirrorball champ: Cheryl - who quit the ABC competition in 2014 - previously partnered with Rob Kardashian (L), Drew Carey (R), Wayne Newton, Gilles Marini, Jack Osbourne, and Antonio Sabato Jr.

Headed for Japan! The Jennie-O turkey spokesmodel is currently holding auditions for her dance show, Love on the Floor, which runs June 30-July 9 at Tokyu Theatre Orb in Tokyo

'The fact that his name is not Ian and it's "Eye-yan" makes me want to throw up!' Cheryl scoffed. 'Think of spending time with that for like 8-10 hours a day, seven days a week, for three months.'

The Jennie-O turkey spokesmodel's other previous partners included Rob Kardashian, Drew Carey, Wayne Newton, Gilles Marini, Jack Osbourne, and Antonio Sabato Jr.

Burke is currently holding auditions for her dance show, Love on the Floor, which runs June 30-July 9 at Japan's Tokyu Theatre Orb in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Ziering - who was briefly a Chippendales dancer - will next reprise his chainsaw-wielding role as Fin Shepard in Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens, airing July 31 on SyFy.

The Celebrity Apprentice 7 star has two daughters Mia and Penna - turning 5 and 3 on April 25 - with his nurse wife, Erin Ludwig.

Back to TV: Meanwhile, Ian - who was briefly a Chippendales dancer - will next reprise his chainsaw-wielding role as Fin Shepard in Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens, airing July 31 on SyFy
Susan Sarandon seems to never age.

The 69-year-old actress looked youthful when at The Meddler press event in Los Angeles on Friday.

The red head also showed off her curves in a form-fitting off-the-shoulder grey dress that many women her age could never pull off.

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Youthful: Susan Sarandon showed off her curves in a form-fitting grey dress that many women her age could never pull off when at the Meddler press event in LA on Friday; the cast on her left leg is the result of a March sprain she suffered when in Cololmbia

The Thelma & Louise star paired her grey dress with black stockings and pointy pumps.

Gold jewelry added an even more feminine touch.

And the New York resident also wore her red locks slightly curled at the ends and nicely blown out, which made her appear far from a senior citizen.

Radiant: The New York resident also wore her red locks slightly curled at the ends and nicely blown out, which made her appear far from a senior citizen

She got it right: The Thelma & Louise star added gold jewelry for an even more feminine touch.

The Hollywood icon had taken a tumble on a mountain top recently when on vacation in Colombia. 'Oops a little sprain coming down the mtn,' the actress posted on her dog's Twitter account

Te Tammy actress already wore the boot on Wednesday when on the red carpet at the Meddler premiere in Los Angeles. She was joined by Thelma & Louise co-star Geena Davis.

The Meddler is a drama where the ageless beauty plays a recent widow alongside Rose Byrne and J.K. Simmons.

Controversy: In late March Sarandon set the record straight to say she would never vote for Donald Trump, even if her friend Bernie Sanders doesn't get the Democratic nomination

For the record: The actress' statement comes after she scandalized some fellow liberals on Monday by demurring about who she would vote for in the general election, if it comes down to Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton

In late March Sarandon set the record straight to say she would never vote for Donald Trump, even if her friend Bernie Sanders doesn't get the Democratic nomination.

The actress' statement comes after she scandalized some fellow liberals on Monday by demurring about who she would vote for in the general election, if it comes down to Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton.

When asked by MSNBC's Chris Hayes who she would vote for if Sanders lost the nomination, Sarandon said 'I don't know. I'm going to see what happens'.

Her boot is famous! She already wore the boot on Wednesday when on the red carpet at the Meddler premiere in Los Angeles

That led many to conclude that Sarandon either would refuse to vote at all or actually use her vote for Trump, who she said would 'bring the revolution immediately'.

'If he gets in, then things will really explode,' Sarandon said.

But the actress clarified her statements, saying that her words had been twisted and she never would support Trump.

'LOL that I would ever vote Trump,' Sarandon tweeted.

She also replied directly to criticisms from fellow actress Debra Messing and Jamie Lee Curtis, who she says misinterpreted her interview.

After reading a story about Sarandon's interview, Messing tweeted: 'Susan Sarandon muses that Trump presidency would be better for the country than Hillary. Wonder if she'd say that if she were poor, gay, Muslim or an immigrant.'
They got together in May 2013 after meeting on Channel Ten's weight loss show The Biggest Loser whilst it was reported both were in long-term relationships.

But TV trainer Michelle Bridges insists they were friends first and her nine-year marriage to businessman Bill Moore was all but over, as was Steve 'Commando' Willis's romance with Froso.

The 45-year-old Biggest Loser told Australian Story on Monday: 'We came together at a time when we were both kind of raw and thinking "Wow, what is happening with our relationships?'"

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Happy family: Michelle Bridges welcomed Axel, her first child, with partner Steve 'Commando' Willis in December and has said she now feels complete. Pictured at the Logie awards in Melbourne in 2015

Steve's partner Froso, the mother of two of his four children, at the time claimed she was hurt by the news of a blossoming relationship between the TV pair.

Fitness fanatic Steve emphatically told the programme: 'For a long time, making season after season of The Biggest Loser, we were just friends.

'It was more of a communication connection that drew us together in that sense rather than anything physical,' he says.

Speaking up: The 45-year-old TV trainer, pictured at the WHO Australia's Most Intriguing People 2015, said she fell for Steve when she was getting over her marriage breakdown to business partner Bill Moore

The way it was: Michelle was married to Bill Moore for more than nine years. Pictured at the Men's Style 10th Birthday Party at The Ivy in Sydney in 2013

Happier times: Froso, who was with Commando for seven years and has two children with the TV trainer, is said to have been dreading the couple starting their own family as it would leave him with less time for them

'The thing about Michelle that got my attention was her willingness to listen and you could sit for minutes, hours, and just talk and she would be like a sounding board.'

Michelle has previously told how she fell for Steve after leaving Bill and shortly after Steve left Froso, the mother of his daughter Ella, six, and son Jack, three, for his co-star.

The ex military man also has a 17-year-old daughter, Brianna, from a previous relationship.

Expectant mother: Steve and Michelle pose at The Star in November weeks before she gave birth to their son

'Best thing I've ever done': The TV star welcomed Axel, her first child, in December and has said she feels like a new woman

Michelle's ex Bill, with whom she built her fitness business empire, blames her drive to succeed for the breakdown of their nine-year-marriage saying: 'That damaged us, damaged her reputation ...

'We probably chose the business over the relationship, maybe that was the baby we didn't have.'

Defending her ambition, Michelle said: 'I love what I do. it's been what I've dreamed of doing since I was a child so why wouldn't I be driven?'

Michelle is said to be worth an estimated $53 million, according to BRW, who listed her as the 29th richest self-made woman in Australia in 2015.

Where it all began: They got together in May 2013 after meeting on Channel Ten's weight loss show The Biggest Loser
Nothing makes such good drama as an angry, ugly, mob turning on an individual and forcing the audience to take sides and decide whos lying.

Just look at The Crucible, To Kill A Mockingbird, the trial of OJ Simpson... and now Made In Chelsea. The latest episode found Lucy Watson declaring war on best friend Stephanie Pratt and leading a lynch mob of SW3 locals aggrieved about the Americans various lies and betrayals.

She is crazy! Watson insisted She is a joke! She cannot make stuff up!

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On trial: The latest episode found Lucy Watson declaring war on best friend Stephanie Pratt (pictured) and leading a lynch mob of SW3 locals aggrieved about the Americans various lies and betrayals

Making stuff up on Made In Chelsea? Whatever next?! Surely complaining that MiC was a joke was our job.

As for Stephanie she was equally outraged about her innocence.

Its like Ive done something wrong! she cried wide-eyed with wounded disbelief.

Made In Chelsea is famous for storylines that are so far-fetched or just plain fabricated its impossible to take them seriously. But portraying Stephanie Pratt in the role of innocent victim was taking things too far.

This though was the premise of an episode that saw the Reality TV veteran protesting she was being persecuted, reeling under a string of accusations from her friends and enemies alike.

There are few finer, scarier, sights on television than Lucy Watson in full flow though. When Watson started making digs at Stephanies age and doing an impression of her phoney Anglophiles accent we knew the gloves were off.

I dont ever want to see her again! she spat elegantly.

Well, not until next week anyway.

Far-fetched: Made In Chelsea is famous for storylines that are so far-fetched or just plain fabricated its impossible to take them seriously. But portraying Stephanie Pratt as innocent victim was too far

Heres the list of charges La Pratt was facing and my verdicts.

The charge of shamelessly lusting over Alex Mytton and targeting him despite knowing he was with poor Nicola Hughes

The evidence: Lucy Watson, Jamie, and pretty much all her friends male or female were horrified last week when Stephanie revealed she had been weighing up whether Alex Mytton could be a new option for her nymphomania. He was cute, she said, and thought that rumours he had split from his on/off girlfriend Nicola Hughes were great.

Louise Thompson was happ-hawwl-ed she said  trying to sound as posh as the other gals. Hi lit-er-al-air do nort knurgh who-hoo Steph-an-air is if shes going tew go dawn this roo-hoo-te, she roared (as if butter wouldnt melt).

On the defence: This though was the premise of an episode that saw the Reality TV veteran protesting she was being persecuted, reeling under a string of accusations from her friends and enemies alike

Stephanies defence: I definitely dont fancy Mytton, Steph insisted this week, pleading her innocence and ignorance. I called him cute when I thought he was single. Alex wasnt even with Nicola when I said that.

Except of course he was and she knew he was.

Im not even trying to date you! she protested to Alex, practically winking at him, not to mention salivating.

Verdict: Guilty.

Trouble maker: Stephanie was trying to stir up trouble in paradise, claiming Lucy Watson had phoned her in tears because she wanted to get engaged to and James didnt

The accusation by Lucy Watson that Stephanie was disappointed when she heard Alex and Nicola hadnt broken up

The evidence: Stephanies claim Alex and Nicola make the cutest couple was blatantly insincere. (They dont. Even they dont think they do.) That didnt stop her from hinting heavily Alex was interested in her.

Do you not notice when you talk to him he turns bright red? Stephanie asked Lucy Watson, with casual/transparently fake innocence. I dont know if he blushes because hes laughing or because hes uncomfortable.

No, I dont think Ive ever seen him blush. Maybe its just you... Lucy Watson demurred, making it clear she had got the message Stephanie wanted.

Stephanies defence: in the classic manner of someone unable to defend herself, Stephanie turned the tables on her accuser: OK youre getting really nasty now ! she complained as Watson suggested Stephanie had been hoping Alex and Nicola had broken up when actually they had been on a romantic break (to Morocco).

Verdict: Guilty. Alex Mytton never blushes.

Egg on your face: Stephanie falsely claimed that James had thrown her out of Lucy Watsons flat when she was watching telly because he and Lucy Watson were having an argument about a frying pan

Stephanie was trying to stir up trouble in paradise, claiming Lucy Watson had phoned her in tears because she wanted to get engaged to and James didnt

The evidence: Stephanie maintained Lucy Watson had been confiding in her about James and had been calling her crying. I havent called her crying ! argued Lucy Watson, who should know. Oh shes absolutely just lying now ! I havent even called her about us. I dont call her crying.

She didnt want to get married either.

Im 24 ! I am not 30 like Steph! Watson cried. Ouch!

Stephanies defence: In the end Stephanie accepted Lucy Watson hadnt been crying but insisted she had been really upset.

The verdict: Guilty. Lucy Watson doesnt cry.

Love interest: I definitely dont fancy Mytton, Steph insisted this week, pleading her innocence and ignorance. I called him cute when I thought he was single,' she added

Stephanie had falsely claimed that James had thrown her out of Lucy Watsons flat when she was watching telly because he and Lucy Watson were having an argument about a frying pan

The evidence: James looked convincingly perplexed by the suggestion, and is not a good enough actor to have faked this  or any other - expression. What? What?! WHAT?! he spluttered.

Stephanies defence: When did James start to hate me?! she asked Lucy Watson. He blatantly kicked me out when its your house. Poor Stephanie. Im not going round saying that Lucy is unhappy! Steph objected exasperated, as if she  and not Lucy Watson  was the wounded party. Eventually she admitted that James didnt actually SAY that he wanted her to leave, but she maintained: But he definitely thought it.

By the time she insisted that she had not been stirring things between Lucy Watson and James but doing the exact opposite because Ive never seen her so happy or love someone so much! Stephanie was clearly protesting too much.

Verdict. Guilty.

Awkward encounters: Stephanie insisted that she had not been stirring things between Lucy Watson and James but was doing the exact opposite which resulted in an awkward confrontation

Minor skirmishes from this weeks episode also included:

1. Lucy Watsons sister vs. Olivia

You know Olivia Bentley is Olivia Bentley of Bentley cars? Sam grinned to his current girlfriend, diplomatically. Its just a fun fact, he blustered.

Thats not fun ! Lucy Watsons sister insisted feebly, although it was more fun than she is.

2. Olivia Bentley vs. Jessica Molly

Olivia easily out-manoeuvred Lucy Watsons sister by supposedly apologising about mentioning that she had bonked Sam when they were at school. Olivias real problem was Jessica Molly - a hanger-on to Watsons sister who herself is just an adjunct to her more famous sibling.

I was annoyed by your little friend who I DESPISE ! she told Lucy Watsons sister. She just irritated me. So Im sorry. More of an insult than an apology.

3. JP vs. his girlfriend Binky

Binkys noble attempt to make her boring boyfriend less dull by taking him shopping for clothes didnt go well.

What do you think of this? Oh youre not going to like it - because I picked it !

In fact this was the only thing they agreed on.

I dont really know why I do go shopping with you, JP whined. Because we dont have the same taste.

Truly, the worst relationship on television.

Love's young dream: Binkys noble attempt to make her boring boyfriend JP less dull by taking him shopping for clothes didnt go well but they reconciled by the end of the episode

4. Binky vs. her boyfriend JP

At a cosy dinner with Alex and Nicola, Binky kept correcting JP: for saying the toilet instead of the loo and dessert instead of pudding. She also took the opportunity of telling them that she was stuck with a man who takes two hours to do a poo.

Please Binky, not while were eating. Or ever...

5. Feminist pioneer Louise Thompson vs. the shortist fashion industry

Olivia came round to give Louise the photo she had taken of her for the exhibition. Well who else would want it? It was bigger than Louise was.

Did you enjoy modelling for it? Olivia asked.

I did ! exclaimed Louise. Its now something I think want to do like... professionally.

Good luck with that. All she has to do is grow three feet taller.
Johnny Depp and wife in video apology over Australia dog case

Johnny Depp and his wife Amber Heard released a video apology Monday for flouting quarantine laws by bringing two dogs into Australia aboard their private jet, in an awkward finale to a case dubbed the "war on terrier".

The case made headlines last May after Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce threatened to have the pets, Pistol and Boo, put down unless they "buggered off back to the United States".

The apology was played in court as Heard escaped conviction after pleading guilty to falsifying immigration forms when she brought the dogs into Australia, where Depp was filming "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales".

Amber Heard (L) escaped conviction after pleading guilty to falsifying immigration forms when she brought her dogs into Australia, where Jonny Depp (C) was filming "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" Patrick Hamilton (AFP)

In the video, which resembled a public service announcement, the Hollywood couple stressed the importance of obeying the nation's strict biosecurity laws, with a deadpan Depp adding that Aussies were "just as unique" as their wildlife.

"Australia is a wonderful island with a treasure trove of unique plants, animals and people," said Heard.

"It has to be protected," Depp said in a grave tone.

"Australia is free of many pests and diseases that are commonplace around the world. That is why Australia has to have such strong biosecurity laws," Heard said.

"And Australians are just as unique, both warm and direct. When you disrespect Australian law they will tell you firmly," Depp added in an apparent reference to the minister's threat.

Heard expressed her "remorse" over the case, in one of many awkward moments which raised giggles on social media, where the video was compared with a hostage plea or North Korean-style propaganda.

"I am truly sorry that Pistol and Boo were not declared," she said.

Two more serious charges against Heard of illegally importing the Yorkshire terriers were dropped on Monday by the court on the Gold Coast in Queensland state.

But she admitted a third charge of providing a false document by failing to declare the animals on her arrival card.

She was placed on a Aus$1,000 (US$760) one-month good behaviour bond.

The 29-year-old blamed Depp's staff for the mix-up, saying they were supposed to take care of all the paperwork.

"It was a terrible, terrible mistake," defence lawyer Jeremy Kirk said. "There was no attempt to deceive."

- 'Hostage video' -

Joyce, who is also deputy prime minister, told reporters the couple had communicated with the Department of Agriculture about filming the apology.

"I don't think it'd be something that they would've willingly would've wanted to do," he said.

The video quickly went viral on social media.

"Can we talk about how Johnny Depp and Amber Heard look like they're being held hostage by the Australian government?," Lewis J. Abbey tweeted.

A black limousine had dropped the couple at the Southport Magistrates' Court where minders escorted them through a media scrum as supporters shouted "Go Johnny" and "We love you".

The dogs' presence in Australia only came to light when they were photographed at a grooming salon more than three weeks after they arrived. They were quickly whisked out of the country as the story hit the headlines.

Depp had made fun of the incident, saying the dogs had been killed and eaten "under direct orders from some kind of sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia".

Under strict biosecurity laws, dogs entering Australia from the United States must be declared and spend 10 days in quarantine. Penalties range up to 10 years in prison.

Agriculture authorities issued a statement saying Heard made "a false declaration on her Incoming Passenger Card, saying she was not travelling with any live animals when she did, in fact, have two dogs in her luggage."

"The consequences of a disease outbreak could have been terrifying. We can't take the risk," Joyce said.

US actor Johnny Depp arrives at a court in the Gold Coast, Australia on April 18, 2016 Patrick Hamilton (AFP)

The legal team representing actor Johnny Depp and his wife Amber Heard arrives at a court in Gold Coast, Australia on April 18, 2016 Patrick Hamilton (AFP)
Obama courts Gulf kings keen just to see him go

President Barack Obama will make another trip to Riyadh to consult Washington's Gulf allies on the crises in Yemen and Syria this week, but may not receive a royal welcome.

The king of Saudi Arabia and his regional allies have long been offended by the US president's tone and actions, and are now impatient to meet his eventual successor.

Even before coming to office, Obama had dubbed Saudi Arabia a "so-called ally" and had made clear that his diplomatic priorities would be in Asia not the Middle East.

US President Barack Obama is to travel to Riyadh to consult Gulf allies on the crises in Yemen and Syria Saul Loeb (AFP/File)

He rubbed salt on those wounds by standing by as Saudi ally Hosni Mubarak was ousted in Egypt, then by his reluctance to back a similar revolt against Syria's Bashar al-Assad.

And, most crucially for the Sunni monarchies, he cut a deal with Shiite power Iran to end its economic and diplomatic isolation in return for curbs of its nuclear program.

So the public pomp of his visit on Wednesday to King Salman, will conceal much behind-the-scenes bitterness.

Then, on Thursday, he will face a stern audience at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit of leaders from Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Oman.

Last year, he brought the same monarchs together on his own home turf at Camp David outside Washington -- and the Saudi ruler pointedly refused the invitation.

Then, Obama had wanted to ensure the traditional US allies were on board with his plans to fight the Islamic State group, and reassure them on his outreach to Tehran.

But now with barely nine months of his time in office left -- and Iran taunting the Gulf with its support of Shiite militancy abroad -- he has little leverage over them.

"We don't know why he's coming," said Mustafa Alani, of the Gulf Research Centre.

Alani and other friends of Riyadh in Washington were deeply offended by Obama's remarks on US policy in their region in a major article in The Atlantic magazine.

In interviews for the article, published last month by reporter Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama rejected the idea that Saudi foe Iran is the source of all the region's problems.

Saudi officials have long insisted that Iran's sponsorship of Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Iraq and Syria and the Huthi rebels in Yemen is a threat to the whole world.

- Both sides at fault -

And, rightly or wrongly, Riyadh sees Iran's hand behind agitation among the kingdom's own Shiite minority, a notion that helped inspire its own harsh crackdown on dissent.

While regularly denouncing Iran's "destabilizing activities," Obama insists that both sides should evolve.

And he told The Atlantic that both Tehran and Riyadh "need to find an effective way to share the neighborhood and institute some sort of cold peace."

The United States has long been an enemy of Iran and a friend of the Saudis, and any suggestion that Washington is seeking a balance of power is anathema in the Gulf.

With this week's difficult visit looming, US officials have been rolled out to make soothing gestures.

"I don't think there can be any confusion about who is our partner in the region and who is not," Obama's senior advisor for the Gulf, Rob Malley, said.

"It's clear who our allies and who are partners are," he insisted.

"But if there can be a different relationship between the GCC and Iran, it's the president's conviction that is good for the region and good for stability overall."

- Troubled marriage -

And the White House is keen to emphasize that, despite tensions, the allies worked together to support the still embryonic ceasefires in the wars in Syria and Yemen.

Nevertheless, with whatever gains there have been in ending these brutal conflicts, the minds of the Gulf leaders have already turned to the United States' November election.

Then, they hope, the eventual victor might be someone who returns to the assumptions of previous presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, about Middle East priorities.

In this, they may well be disappointed.

"Our Gulf partners would obviously welcome a return to the old relationship," said Lori Plotkin Boghardt, a former CIA analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"But the region has changed so much, it would be a lot more complicated. Many of them fundamentally want to put Iran back in the box and give it again its pariah status."

And another dark cloud hovers on the horizon.

The US Congress is considering legislation that would allow the families of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to sue the Saudi government for damages.

No official complicity in the Al-Qaeda attacks has been proven, and the White House opposes the draft law, but the Saudi government is outraged to even see it considered.

Syrians clamber over debris as they return to the modern town of Palmyra on April 9, 2016 Louai Beshara (AFP/File)

Saul Loeb (AFP/File)
Myanmar's Suu Kyi reaches out to ethnic minority rebels

Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday vowed to press for greater autonomy for Myanmar's ethnic minorities, in an early move to soothe the rebellions roiling the country after her party's ascent to power.

Myanmar has been swept up in optimism for a more peaceful and prosperous future since the National League for Democracy (NLD) took power on April 1, ending nearly a half century of military domination.

But Suu Kyi warned its prospects hinge on ending ethnic conflicts that have blistered the country since its independence in 1948.

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi was blocked from the top job but has vowed to rule "above" the president

To do so, the NLD government would seek "a real federal democratic union", the democracy figurehead said in a televised address marking Myanmar's New Year.

"Peace and a federal democratic union are closely intertwined and that's why we need to change the constitution. The most important thing is national reconciliation."

They were Suu Kyi's first major comments as "state counsellor" -- a role she took on following the handover to her civilian-led government.

The current charter, penned by the military in 2008, centralises state power.

The former junta in part justified its tight control of the country with fears that ethnic divisions would fracture the nation.

- Daughter of a hero -

But the concept of federalism has gradually become central to peace discussions steered by the quasi-civilian government that replaced outright military rule in 2011.

Negotiations, which do not include all rebel groups, have yet to agree on exactly how powers such as policing or revenue raising might be shifted to regional authorities under a federal system.

But by reiterating the federal pledge, Suu Kyi has sought to reassure ethnic leaders that the NLD will not squeeze out minority groups.

Though Suu Kyi belongs to the ethnic Bamar majority, her party picked up seats in many of Myanmar's ethnic minority regions in last year's election.

She has however come under fire from rights groups for not throwing her moral weight behind the plight of the embattled Rohingya, a largely stateless Muslim minority pushed into grim displacement camps by waves of communal violence in 2012.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi is beloved by many in Myanmar but blocked from becoming president by the constitution as her two sons carry foreign citizenship.

The 70-year-old is the daughter of the country's independence hero, who famously signed an agreement before his assassination that would have granted a level of autonomy to several ethnic minority regions.

Attempts to amend the army's charter under the former quasi-civilian government were stymied by the military -- which is gifted 25 percent of all parliamentary seats by the constitution it scripted.

Any fresh moves to change the charter are likely to meet stiff resistance from the military, which can veto amendments through its parliamentary bloc.

Suu Kyi has taken a firm grip of the country's first civilian-led government in decades, taking on a string of senior roles in the new administration, including the powerful -- if vaguely defined -- advisory role.

She has vowed to rule "above" the president, picking school friend and close aide Htin Kyaw as her proxy.

Conflicts continue to rage in several areas between ethnic minority armed groups and the army, which operates beyond the reaches of civilian government, after a ceasefire pact signed late last year failed to include all of the country's fighters.

Myanmar: ethnic minorities

Myanmar's ethnic minorities have often complained of their treatment by the Buddhist Bamar majority who form much of the military, economic and political elite Romeo Gacad (AFP)

A Shan ethnic woman from the Akha hill tribe waits for the arrival of Aung San Suu Kyi during a 2015 rally in Kyaing Tong Romeo Gacad (AFP/File)

The United Nations have described the Rohingya as one of the world's most persecuted minorities Soe Than Win (AFP/File)

The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) has been fighting for an independent Karen homeland in Myanmar since 1949 KC Ortiz (AFP/File)
Nobel laureates to visit North Korea for 'silent diplomacy'

A trio of Nobel laureates will take part in a "humanitarian" visit to North Korea later this month, even as suspicions grow that Pyongyang is preparing to carry out a fifth nuclear test.

The Vienna-based International Peace Foundation, which is organising the trip, said on Monday it was an exercise in "silent diplomacy" that would focus on such topics as economic policy and medical development.

The three laureates from Norway, Britain and Israel, who won their Nobels for economics, medicine and chemistry, will give speeches and hold seminars with students at some of the North's elite schools, including Kim Il-Sung University.

A trio of Nobel laureates, from Norway, Britain and Israel, who won their Nobels for economics, medicine and chemistry, are to take part in a 'humanitarian' visit to North Korea later this month Ed Jones (AFP/File)

"The events will not engage in rhetoric by making political statements," the foundation said in a press release.

"Listening to and engaging with the young generation of (North Korea) may be a gateway to establish a dialogue which could contribute to a wider understanding beyond politics and power play," added its founding chairman, Uwe Morawetz, who has visited the North six times over the past two years to prepare the visit.

The trip is likely to be criticised in some quarters at a time when the focus of the international community is on tightening North Korea's diplomatic and economic isolation.

The April 29-May 6 dates mean the visit might also coincide with a fresh North Korean nuclear test.

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye confirmed Monday that increased activity had been detected at the North's nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, suggesting an underground detonation could be imminent.

Numerous analysts have predicted Pyongyang may carry out a fifth test just before a rare ruling party congress next month, at which leader Kim Jong-Un is expected to take credit for pushing the country's nuclear weapons programme to new heights.

No formal date has been set for the congress, but South Korea's intelligence agency says it will likely be held May 7.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, triggering the most extensive UN sanctions to date aimed at cutting funding sources for its nuclear development.

The Nobel laureates will hold a press conference in Beijing after returning from their visit.
Bus carrying Indian artists crashes, killing 27

At least 27 performing artists, one of them a child, were killed when their bus plunged into a deep gorge in eastern India, police said on Monday.

The 40-strong troupe were returning from a performance late on Sunday when their bus steered off a hilly road and into a 76-metre (250-foot) gorge in Deogarh district of Odisha state.

"Twenty-seven people lost their lives and around 11 were injured," Sarah Sharma, Deogarh's superintendent of police told AFP. "One of the dead was a child".

Fatal traffic accidents are common in India, which has some of the world's deadliest roads with more than 200,000 fatalities annually, according to the World Health Organization Raveendran (AFP/File)

An investigation has been ordered, but Sharma said the driver of the chartered vehicle appeared to have taken a sharp turn too quickly.

Emergency workers had to use ropes to pull the injured people out of the gorge.

Fatal traffic accidents are common in India, which has some of the world's deadliest roads with more than 200,000 fatalities annually, according to the World Health Organization.

A packed passenger bus plunged off a bridge into a river in western India in February, killing at least 37 people in one of the deadliest road accidents in recent years.
Syria rebels vow retaliation as peace talks under threat

Key Syrian rebel groups vowed on Monday to strike back against alleged regime ceasefire violations, casting doubt on the future of fragile peace talks due to resume in Geneva.

A truce agreed in February dramatically curtailed violence across much of Syria, but fighting has surged in recent days around second city Aleppo, causing tens of thousands to flee.

"After the increase of violations by regime forces that included targeting displaced people and continuous bombing of residential neighbourhoods, we declare the start of the battle in response," said a statement signed by 10 armed rebel groups.

Rescue workers and residents help an injured woman following a reported air strike by Syrian government forces on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Haydariya in the northern city of Aleppo on April 10, 2016 Thaer Mohammed (AFP/File)

In Geneva, where regime and opposition delegations were set to restart indirect negotiations, Syria's main rebel delegation warned that renewed fighting could scupper peace talks.

"We might suspend (our participation in) the talks if things carry on this way, and then there will be no prospect for any political solution," HNC member Abdulhakim Bashar told AFP.

The landmark ceasefire agreed between the United States and Russia took effect on February 27, raising hopes that a lasting deal could be struck in Geneva to end Syria's five-year civil war.

But fighting has spread in the last week around Aleppo, leading the HNC to question President Bashar al-Assad's commitment to a political solution to a conflict that has displaced half of the population and killed more than 270,000 people.

"The humanitarian situation is continually deteriorating, the issue of the detainees has not seen any progress, the ceasefire has almost collapsed, and now there is an attack on Aleppo from three sides," Bashar said in Switzerland.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said 22 civilians were killed over the weekend in Aleppo city -- one of the highest single tolls since the truce began.

At least six civilians were killed and eight wounded in regime air strikes on rebel-held eastern parts of the city on Saturday.

A barrage of rockets and sniper fire by opposition groups onto government-controlled western districts killed 16 civilians, including 10 children and two women.

And rebel groups fired more rockets at western areas of Aleppo city late Sunday, but there was no immediate information on new casualties.

- 'Strike them everywhere' -

"There's a clear escalation. This was the bloodiest incident in Aleppo and its province" since the ceasefire began, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"This escalation directly threatens the truce."

Among the armed groups who signed the Monday statement is Jaish al-Islam, the most important opposition faction in East Ghouta, a key rebel-held town east of Damascus.

Mohammed Alloush, the HNC's chief negotiator in Geneva, is a senior member of Jaish al-Islam who on Sunday called on rebel groups to "strike" regime positions.

"Don't trust the regime and don't wait for their pity," he posted on Twitter. "Strike them at their necks (kill them). Strike them everywhere."

A fellow opposition figure said Alloush's hawkish statement did not represent the HNC's position and Alloush clarified that he was calling on rebels to defend themselves from attacks.

Areas controlled by the Islamic State group, Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front, and other jihadists are exempt from the ceasefire, but renewed Aleppo clashes are straining the truce as other rebel groups are dragged into the fighting.

IS has seized fresh territory from rebel groups in the north, threatening the key opposition town of Azaz, just eight kilometres (five miles) south of the Turkish border.

The jihadist onslaught has forced 30,000 Syrians to flee, and tens of thousands more are at risk of displacement.

- Assad's fate 'red line' -

In addition to Jaish al-Islam, the rebel statement was signed by the powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham faction, which is allied to Al-Nusra and fights alongside it around Aleppo and in neighbouring Idlib province.

UN mediator Staffan de Mistura is expected to sit down with the Damascus government in Geneva before meeting the opposition delegation later Monday.

The fate of Assad remains a major bone of contention, with Syria's opposition clinging onto its call for his ouster since the conflict began in 2011.

Alloush said there could be "no compromise" on Assad's removal but the regime has called that a "red line".

The peace plan outlined by De Mistura and backed by world powers envisions a political transition, a new constitution, and presidential and parliamentary elections by September 2017.

But Syria's government hosted its own parliamentary elections last week only in government-held areas, which Assad's ruling Baath party easily won. The opposition denounced the election as a "farce".

Map of Syria showing the territory controlled by different groups involved in the war Kun TIAN, Thomas SAINT-CRICQ (AFP)

High Negotiations Committee (HNC) delegation head Asaad al-Zoabi (L) with HNC chief negotiator, Mohammed Alloush, during a press conference following Syria peace talks at the United Nations in Geneva on April 13, 2016 Fabrice Coffrini (AFP/File)

A man rides a motorbike through the rebel-held area of Daraa, in southern Syria Mahmoud Irshaidat (AFP)
Carter says US to deploy more forces to back Iraq's anti-IS war

The United States will deploy additional forces to Iraq and make Apache attack helicopters available to support the country's troops, US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter said Monday in Baghdad.

President Barack Obama hailed the 2011 withdrawal of American troops from Iraq as a major accomplishment of his presidency, but the US has been steadily drawn back into the country since the Islamic State jihadist group overran swathes of territory in 2014.

Washington heads an international coalition that is carrying out strikes against IS and also providing training and other assistance to forces fighting the jihadists in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

The US already provides training and other assistance to forces fighting Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and neighbouring Syria Ahmad Al-Rubaye (AFP/File)

"We are going to bring in additional forces," Carter said after arriving in Baghdad on a surprise visit, without specifying the size of the new deployment.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis told reporters an additional 217 personnel would be deployed, bringing the official number of US troops in Iraq to 4,087.

Troops will also be authorised to advise Iraqis at the battalion and brigade level as opposed to the larger divisions, potentially exposing them to greater risks closer to the front lines.

Carter also said that the Apaches -- which can respond "quickly" and "dynamically" when needed -- will support Iraqi efforts to surround and eventually recapture second city Mosul from IS.

- Political chaos -

"They are being offered for the move on Mosul. It will be at the government of Iraq's discretion as to whether or not they are deployed," Davis said of the Apaches.

And Carter pledged $415 million in assistance for the peshmerga forces of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, which are fighting IS in the north.

The region has, like Baghdad, been hit by financial difficulties from low oil prices.

Carter's visit comes after a week of political turmoil that has been a setback for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The US defence chief has previously stressed the need to support the embattled premier.

Carter met with Abadi after arriving in Baghdad from the United Arab Emirates, his first stop on a Gulf tour during which he will seek to shore up support for Iraq.

He has said that "the success of the campaign against (IS) in Iraq does depend upon political and economic progress as well," and that "it's important that we continue to support" Abadi.

The premier has sought to replace the current cabinet of party-affiliated ministers with a government of technocrats, but has faced major opposition from powerful parties that rely on control of ministries for patronage and funds.

Abadi's cabinet efforts were overshadowed by days of chaos in parliament, where lawmakers held a sit-in, brawled in the chamber and sought to sack the speaker.

The premier called on Monday for parliament to put aside its differences and do its job, saying he hoped a new cabinet would be approved "in the coming days".

- Economic woes -

In addition to major security and political challenges, Iraq also faces a serious economic crisis caused by low oil prices and years of mismanagement and corruption by officials.

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained significant ground from the jihadists.

Iraqi forces have begun preparatory operations in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, but the actual assault to retake the city is not expected for months, and possibly not until next year.

While most American forces in Iraq play advisory and support roles, Washington has also sent in special forces to carry out raids against IS, and US Marines have deployed to provide artillery support for Iraqi troops.

Obama repeatedly pledged that there would be no "boots on the ground" to combat IS, but US forces are engaged in combat with the jihadists and two American military personnel have already been killed.

An American Marine was killed in a rocket attack in northern Iraq last month, and a US special forces soldier wounded during a raid last year later died.

US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003, overthrowing dictator Saddam Hussein and unleashing an insurgency and years of brutal sectarian violence due to poor planning and a lack of understanding of the country.

Rampant violence was eventually brought under control, and American forces withdrew at the end of 2011 after talks on a residual troop presence broke down over Washington's insistence that they have parliament-approved immunity.
Libya unity govt asserts authority ahead of key vote

Libya's parliament was set Monday to hold a crucial confidence vote on a new UN-backed unity government which asserted its authority by assuming control of two ministries in the capital.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond also flew into Tripoli hot on the heels of visits last week by the foreign ministers of Italy, France and Germany for talks on shoring up prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj's cabinet.

The international community sees the Government of National Accord (GNA) as the best hope for resolving years of chaos in Libya, and European Union ministers were on Monday to discuss economic and security projects supporting it.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond (L) attends a press conference with Ahmed Maiteeq (R), Libyan deputy prime minister of the Government of National Accord, and Mohammad al-Ammari (C), a member of the GNA, in Tripoli on April 18, 2016 Mahmud Turkia (AFP)

Oil-rich Libya has been roiled by turmoil since the 2011 ouster and killing of Moamer Kadhafi, causing widespread alarm in the West.

Concern has been compounded by the expansion of the Islamic State group in Libya, where the jihadists have set up a bastion just 300 kilometres (185 miles) from Italy across the Mediterranean.

People smugglers are also feeding on the chaos, with a surge of illegal migration to Europe from Libya.

Formed under a power-sharing deal agreed by some Libyan lawmakers in December, the GNA has been working to assert its authority but needs formal endorsement from parliament and support from a rival adminstration.

Lawmaker Mohammad al-Raeed told AFP that by midday 160 of the legislature's 198 deputies had arrived in the eastern city of Tobruk for the crucial confidence vote.

"We are trying to reach a consensus before starting the session," one MPs said ahead of the meeting.

- British aid -

United Nations Libya envoy Martin Kobler was also in Tobruk for the vote and tweeted he was "encouraged" by the presence of "many" deputies.

The GNA pushed ahead Monday with its efforts to assert its authority by taking over the ministries of housing and public works and social affairs in Tripoli.

They were handed over to state minister Mohammad al-Amari, an official statement said, adding without elaborating that the takeover of a third ministry -- youth and sports -- had been delayed.

Deputy premier Ahmed Maiteeq has said the government would begin running the three ministries regardless of the result of the confidence vote.

The Foreign Office in London said Hammond and Sarraj discussed the GNA's plans to rebuild the country, tackle IS and people trafficking.

"Fighting Daesh and fighting illegal migration is part of the same agenda, and of course it must be for the Libyan people, the Libyan government, to decide how to recapture their country from the Daesh invaders, but the international community stands ready to support them, to provide training and technical assistance in any way," Hammond said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

He said Britain was committing an extra 10 million to help the GNA "strengthen political institutions, the economy, security, and justice".

Kobler called Hammond's visit a sign of the international community's "unwavering support" for Libyan stability and unity.

- Winning trust -

Libya has had two rival administrations since a militia alliance took over Tripoli in mid-2014, setting up its own authority and forcing the elected parliament to flee to Tobruk.

The head of the Tripoli administration, Khalifa Ghweil, has refused to recognise the authority of the Sarraj government which he deems illegal.

Sarraj arrived in Tripoli on March 30 under naval escort and has set up his government in a naval base.

Since then he was won the trust of local officials, including mayors of cities ruled by the Tripoli administration, and key state institutions have pledged allegiance to the GNA.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said European foreign and defence ministers would hold talks via video link from Luxembourg with Sarraj later Monday on how best to shore up his government.

They will work "to identify concrete projects in different fields that are the priorities of the Libyan people and of the Libyan government... on the economic and political and security side", she said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the EU ministers would discuss steps to stop arms trafficking and migrant smuggling.

At least eight African migrants, and possibly as many as 27, died after an overcrowded boat left the Libyan port of Sabratha, a search and rescue organisation said on Monday.

In the east, meanwhile, five days of violence between pro-government forces and armed groups in second city Benghazi has left 26 loyalist soldiers dead, the Lana news agency close to the recognised parliament reported.

A truck removes the remains of a burnt-out vehicle following a car bomb attack on a security post near the eastern Libyan city of Misrata on April 13, 2016
20 foreigners linked to $81m Bangladesh bank heist: police

Bangladesh police probing a $81 million electronic heist from the central bank said Monday that more than 20 unnamed foreigners were involved in the audacious theft.

Hackers stole the money from the Bangladesh Bank's account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February and managed to transfer it electronically to accounts in the Philippines.

Lead police investigator in the case, Shah Alam, said "at least 20 people from multiple foreign countries" have been found to have been involved with the robbery.

The $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh central bank's American accounts last month was immediately sent via electronic transfer to the Philippines' RCBC bank Noel Celis (AFP/File)

"We've found concrete evidence that these people were involved in the heist," Alam told AFP, without giving any details. "We cannot disclose their identity at the moment as it might hamper our investigation".

Bangladesh's ambassador in Manila, John Gomes, said the hackers were from nations other than the Philippines.

Alam said officers would seek assistance from Interpol in a bid to arrest the foreigners.

Investigators had earlier said local hackers were likely involved as "the names of local development projects were used in the payment advices sent to the Federal Reserve Bank".

Earlier this month, detectives found suspicious malwares in the central bank's computer system which had been sending information to Egypt, although it is unclear whether this played a role in the heist.

The spectacular cyber-theft has embarrassed the government, triggered outrage in the impoverished country and raised alarm over the security of Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves of more than $27 billion.

The unidentified hackers managed to shift $81 million to a nondescript bank in Manila and then on to Filipino casinos before the trail went cold.

They attempted to steal a further $850 million by bombarding the New York bank with dozens of transfer requests, but the bank's security systems and typing errors in some requests prevented the full theft.
Israeli soldier who shot wounded Palestinian charged with manslaughter

An Israeli soldier caught on video shooting a wounded Palestinian assailant in the head was charged with manslaughter on Monday in a case that has sparked widespread controversy.

Prosecutors presented the indictment to a military court over the March 24 killing, which occurred minutes after the Palestinian had stabbed another soldier and lay prone on the ground wounded by gunfire, according to Israeli authorities.

"The accused violated the rules of engagement without operational justification as the terrorist was lying on the ground wounded and represented no immediate threat for the accused or others who were present," a copy of the indictment said.

Elor Azria, an Israeli soldier caught on video shooting a wounded Palestinian assailant in the head, is hugged by his mother as he arrives at a military appeals court in Tel Aviv on April 18, 2016 Jack Guez (AFP)

"By his acts, the accused unlawfully caused the death of the terrorist Abdul Sharif."

The 19-year-old soldier, who was hugged by his mother as he sat in the hearing, was named as Elor Azria after a gag order was lifted. He also holds French citizenship.

He was also charged with conduct unbecoming of his rank and position in the army.

He will be freed from custody to spend one night with his family to mark the beginning of the Jewish festival of Passover on Friday.

- Political debate -

Video of the incident in Hebron in the occupied West Bank spread widely online and the soldier was arrested, with rights groups labelling it a summary execution.

The video showed Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, lying on the ground, shot along with another man after stabbing and moderately wounding a soldier minutes earlier, according to the army.

The soldier then shoots him again, in the head, without any apparent provocation.

His lawyers have argued that the soldier may have thought the Palestinian was wearing explosives, but he was reportedly already checked for a suicide belt and no one in the video appears to be acting with caution toward him.

The soldier was held at a military prison in the days after the shooting before being confined to his base on April 1.

The court was considering his detention conditions on Monday.

Defence lawyer Ilan Katz said he believed the court would release him because he "acted as we expect from a combat soldier... when he sees a terrorist who might be a suicide bomber."

The case has led to major controversy in Israel and sparked political tensions, with far-right supporters and politicians calling for the soldier's release.

Supporters are due to hold a music concert calling for his release on Tuesday in Tel Aviv, while outside the court a soldier distributed sandwiches to protesters calling for Azria's release.

Top military brass, however, have strongly condemned his actions.

The killing came amid a wave of violence that began in October and which has killed 201 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

But Israeli forces have also been accused of using excessive force in some cases, charges which they have firmly denied.

The attacks have steadily declined in recent weeks, though there have been concerns that the Passover holiday beginning April 22 could lead to a new surge in violence.

An incident on Thursday ended a three-week lull in deadly violence.

According to the Israeli army, a Palestinian armed with an axe tried to attack an Israeli soldier in the southern West Bank and was shot dead.
Australian PM Turnbull handed early election trigger

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was Monday handed his trigger to call July elections after the Senate for a second time rejected government legislation to re-establish a construction industry watchdog.

Turnbull, who wrested the leadership from conservative Liberal Party colleague Tony Abbott in September, has threatened to hold national polls for both houses of parliament on July 2 unless the Senate passed two stalled bills relating to unions.

But the Senate on Monday evening rejected for a second time legislation to reestablish a construction watchdog. It has already twice blocked a second industrial relations bill.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull came to power in September 2015 Greg Wood (AFP/File)

"The result of the decision in the Senate a short while ago... means that the constitutional grounds for a double dissolution election exist," Attorney-General George Brandis said.

But Brandis said this did not equate with Australia being in an election campaign.

"It is not really an election campaign until the parliament is dissolved and the writs are issued, in my view," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Last month Turnbull recalled parliament to consider the bills and said if the Senate failed to pass them, he would set in train the process to dissolve both houses of parliament and issue writs for an election.

The government is set to deliver its annual budget on May 3, and Brandis said this would be a priority.

Turnbull's Liberal/National coalition government has been wavering in opinion polls, with a Newspoll published in The Australian on Monday showing the opposition Labor Party ahead of the government 51 percent to 49 percent.

But Brandis said almost all Australian elections fell within a 52-48 margin and were generally "extremely contestable by both sides".
Philippine presidential candidate defiant over rape remarks

Leading Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, embroiled in an uproar for his apparent joke about the rape and murder of an Australian woman, came under fire Monday from the church and Canberra's envoy but remained defiant.

Duterte, who promises mass killings of suspected criminals if elected next month, has faced a storm of criticism since a video showed him making crude remarks about a female Australian missionary who was raped and killed during a Philippine prison riot in 1989.

The video uploaded on YouTube shows Duterte, who was mayor of the southern city of Davao where the riot broke out, telling a crowd of laughing supporters: "I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first."

Philippines presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte has faced a storm of criticism since a video showed him making crude remarks about a female Australian missionary who was raped and killed during a prison riot in 1989 Noel Celis (AFP/File)

The head of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, joined a chorus of people criticising Duterte.

Villegas posted the video on social media, telling the faithful: "Please watch the video and judge for yourself. I will keep my own judgement to myself."

In response to Villegas, Duterte -- who is still mayor of Davao -- issued a statement on Monday saying: "All the while I was doing my duties for humanity. And now they're castigating me for my mouth?"

Asked if the bishop might be warning people not to vote for him, a defiant Duterte said: "Correct."

Duterte warned he would not change his coarse language even though critics say it shows he is unfit for the presidency.

"If it is not acceptable to the cultured people, let it be. If it means my defeat, so be it," he said.

Australian ambassador Amanda Gorely joined the critics, saying in a statement on Twitter: "Rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialised. Violence against women and girls is unacceptable anytime, anywhere."

Duterte, who leads in the latest opinion survey of presidential candidates in the May 9 elections, has refused to apologise for his remarks, saying he was merely relating a "narrative" of events during the 1989 riot and not making a joke.

Many Filipinos have embraced Duterte for his promise to get tough on crime. He openly boasts in his speeches of the extra-judicial killing of suspected criminals by vigilantes during his time in Davao.

The bishops of the devoutly Catholic Philippines have criticised Duterte before after he called Pope Francis a "son of a whore," for causing traffic jams during his visit last year.

He later apologised for the remark.

A supporter takes a selfie with presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte at a rally in Manila on February 9, 2016 Noel Celis (AFP/File)
Indian court issues arrest warrant for liquor tycoon

An Indian court on Monday issued an arrest warrant for the embattled tycoon Vijay Mallya, who left the country owing more than $1 billion, an official told AFP.

The 60-year-old liquor baron, once dubbed the "King of Good Times", left India on March 2 despite calls for his arrest and is believed to be in Britain.

"The court today issued a non-bailable warrant against Vijay Mallya at our request," said a senior official at the Enforcement Directorate, the government's financial crimes investigator, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Vijay Mallya, once dubbed the King of Good Times, left India on March 2 despite calls for his arrest and is believed to be in Britain Mark Thompson (Getty/AFP)

The official said the directorate would now decide how to proceed against Mallya and may seek his extradition from Britain.

"We will deliberate before deciding our next step," he said.

The move comes days after India suspended Mallya's passport at the request of the Enforcement Directorate, which had issued a series of summonses for the businessman to appear before it.

Its investigation relates to loans which the state-run IDBI bank made to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, despite allegedly knowing it was suffering financial troubles -- leading the bank to sustain huge losses.

Mallya acquired his "Good Times" nickname before the 2012 collapse of the airline, which left thousands of workers unemployed and millions of dollars in unpaid bills.

The directorate has reportedly accused him of siphoning off money from Kingfisher to buy property abroad -- a claim the company denies.

In a statement issued before the warrant, Kingfisher Airlines' owner the UB Group said it was "shocked at the allegation made by the Enforcement Department before the PMLA Court".

"Multiple investigations have been going on since July 2015 and this allegation has never been made," it said late on Sunday.

"In order to explain foreign exchange remittances, all of which have been fully accounted for, we will provide full details in the next few days."

The company said the Enforcement Directorate's basis for seeking a warrant against Mallya was "erroneous and unjustified".

Mallya is also being chased by a group of banks over $1.34 billion in unpaid loans made to his defunct airline.

Earlier this month the banks rejected his offer to repay $600 million and told the Supreme Court they wanted him to return to India so they could negotiate with him personally over the total owed.

His massive debt has become a symbol of Indian banks' vast volume of bad loans -- those already in default or close to it -- which are seen as a threat to financial stability in Asia's third largest economy.

Critics say the government has not done enough to tackle the issue of wealthy individuals such as Mallya, who obtain huge loans which they later fail to repay.

The businessman, who is also a member of India's parliament, has denied absconding and has criticised the media for what he has called a "witch hunt".
Death toll tops 200 in cross-border Ethiopia raid

More than 200 people were killed and over 100 children abducted by armed men from South Sudan in a cross-border raid into Ethiopia, the country's leader said.

Ethiopian officials blame Murle tribesmen from South Sudan for a series of deadly attacks on Ethiopian villages in the western Gambella region on Friday.

"The atrocities committed by an armed Murle tribe from South Sudan claimed the lives of 208," Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said on state television on Sunday evening, increasing the death toll from an earlier estimate of 140.

The Murle, a tribe from South Sudan based in the western state of Jonglei, often stage raids to steal cattle and abduct children but rarely on such a large or deadly scale Jose Cendon (AFP/File)

Hailemariam said "mothers and children" were among the dead and, "they also abducted 102 children."

The foreign ministry said over 2,000 livestock were also stolen.

The Murle, a tribe from South Sudan based in the eastern Jonglei region close to the Ethiopian border, often stage raids to steal cattle and abduct children but rarely on such a large or deadly scale.

"There had been abduction of children and raiding of cattle from Gambella through crossing the Ethiopian border. However, Friday's attack was massive" Hailemariam said.

"The Ethiopian defence force is taking measures against the attackers to free the abducted children without any precondition," he said, without specifying whether Ethiopian troops had crossed the border into South Sudan.

Friday's attacks targeted the Nuer tribe, one of the two main ethnic groups in South Sudan, who live on both sides of the border.

The western Ethiopian region of Gambella, which borders South Sudan, is also home to some 272,000 South Sudanese refugees who have fled the civil war that erupted in their country in December 2013.

The raid -- dubbed the "Gambella massacre" in the Ethiopian media -- reinforces long-standing fears that South Sudan's civil war since December 2013 would spill into Ethiopia.

The conflict has split South Sudan roughly along ethnic lines pitting the president's Dinka tribe against the rebel leader's Nuers. Ethiopia believes the raids are not linked to the ongoing conflict in South Sudan.

Located 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the South Sudanese border, Gambella is home to Ethiopian Nuers.

Local journalists have reported attackers carrying AK-47 assault rifles and killing anyone who resisted.
Swedish minister quits after comparing Israel to Nazi Germany

A Swedish cabinet minister of Turkish origin who compared Israel to Nazi Germany and was photographed with Turkish ultranationalists resigned on Monday, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced.

"Mehmet Kaplan has submitted his resignation and I have accepted it," Lofven told reporters, nonetheless praising the outgoing housing minister's "humanistic and democratic values."

Kaplan, a member of the junior coalition partner Green Party, told reporters he was opposed to "all forms of extremism" and stressed his dedication to "human rights, democracy and dialogue."

Sweden's Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan announces his resignation on April 18, 2016 in Stockholm following his comments on Israel Jessica Gow (TT News Agency/AFP)

The 44-year-old had been in hot water since the weekend when media published old video footage of him making controversial remarks about Israel's politics towards Palestinians.

During a March 2009 debate on Islamophobia organised by a Somali organisation, Kaplan, who was a member of parliament at the time, said there were "similarities" between the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany during the 1930s and the everyday lives of Palestinians.

Israel's ambassador to Sweden, Isaac Bachman, branded the remarks as "deeply anti-Semitic."

"I have on several occasions criticised the actions of the state of Israel severely, but I am clearly not anti-Semitic... My criticism of Israel does not make me less critical of the anti-Semitism that exists in Sweden," Kaplan wrote in a comment published on the website of daily Expressen after his resignation was announced.

Last week, media had published photos of Kaplan attending a July 2015 dinner in Sweden with Turkish ultranationalists, which sparked strong reactions from the opposition, media, and the public.

Among those attending the dinner was Ilhan Senturk, the Swedish head of the ultranational "Grey Wolves" organisation known for political violence in the 1970s and 1980s.

Also present was Barbaros Leyani, the former vice-president of the Turkish National Association of Sweden who was forced to resign after calling for the murder of "Armenian dogs" during a demonstration in Stockholm in April.

Kaplan, who was born in Turkey and moved to Sweden when he was eight, also came under fire from media and political opponents for his ties to Islamic organisations, especially Milli Gorus which is suspected of promoting religious fundamentalism.

He acknowledged those ties, but "that doesn't mean I agree with them on everything," he told Swedish television.
Syria opposition seeks peace talks pause as fighting surges

Syria's opposition on Monday urged the UN to pause peace talks until Damascus shows it is serious about political transition, as rebel groups vowed to strike back against alleged ceasefire violations.

With fighting surging around Syria's second city of Aleppo and negotiations in Geneva stalled over the fate of President Bashar al-Assad, the opposition High Negotiations Committee said it would ask UN mediator Staffan de Mistura to put the talks on hold.

"A small delegation has come to meet (de Mistura) and to ask him to pause the negotiations until the regime shows it is serious about political transition and humanitarian issues," an HNC member told AFP.

More than 270,000 people have been killed since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011 Amer Almohibany (AFP)

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said the delegation planned to remain in Geneva, for now.

Three HNC delegates entered a meeting with de Mistura at 3:00 pm (1300 GMT), with the UN envoy expected to address the media afterwards.

- 'Start of the battle' -

HNC coordinator Riad Hijab said earlier it was "unacceptable" for the negotiations to continue while Assad's regime continues to "bombard and starve civilians" in Syria.

The ceasefire agreed in February dramatically curtailed violence across much of Syria, but the fresh fighting around Aleppo has prompted tens of thousands of people to flee.

"After the increase of violations by regime forces that included targeting displaced people and continuous bombing of residential neighbourhoods, we declare the start of the battle in response," said a statement by 10 rebel groups.

The landmark ceasefire agreed between the United States and Russia took effect on February 27, raising hopes that a lasting deal could be struck to end Syria's five-year civil war.

But the spread of fighting around Aleppo and the regime's apparent unwillingness to hold concrete talks on forming a new government has led the opposition to question Assad's commitment to a political solution to a conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 22 civilians were killed on both sides over the weekend in divided Aleppo city -- one of the highest single tolls since the truce began.

"This was the bloodiest incident in Aleppo and its province" since the ceasefire started, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"This escalation directly threatens the truce."

State television reported another eight people killed on Monday by rebel rocket fire into regime-held areas.

Among the armed groups that signed Monday's statement was Jaish al-Islam, the most important opposition faction in East Ghouta, a key rebel-held town east of Damascus.

Mohammed Alloush, the HNC's chief negotiator in Geneva and a senior member of Jaish al-Islam, on Sunday urged rebel groups to "strike" regime positions.

"Don't trust the regime and don't wait for their pity," he wrote on Twitter. "Strike them everywhere."

A fellow opposition figure said this did not represent the HNC's position and Alloush clarified that he was calling on rebels to defend themselves from attacks.

- New ideas? -

Syria's UN ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari, the regime's lead negotiator in Geneva, on Monday referred to Alloush's comments as "irresponsible and provocative".

He also denounced Israel for holding a cabinet meeting on Sunday in the occupied Golan Heights.

Without elaborating, Jaafari referred to ideas "raised for the first time" in the government delegation's meeting with de Mistura on Monday.

The peace plan outlined by de Mistura and backed by world powers envisions a political transition, a new constitution, and presidential and parliamentary elections by September 2017.

Alloush also repeated that there could be "no compromise" on Assad's removal -- which the regime has called a "red line".

He also said a rebel offensive had already begun in northern Lattakia province, Assad's heartland.

Areas in Syria controlled by the Islamic State (IS) group, Al-Qaeda's local affiliate Al-Nusra Front, and other jihadists are exempt from the ceasefire, but renewed Aleppo clashes are straining the truce as other rebel groups are dragged into the fighting.

IS has seized fresh territory from rebel groups in the north, threatening the key opposition town of Azaz, just eight kilometres (five miles) south of the Turkish border.

The jihadist onslaught has forced 30,000 Syrians to flee, and tens of thousands more are at risk of displacement.

In addition to Jaish al-Islam, the rebel statement was signed by the powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham faction, which is allied to Al-Nusra and fights alongside it around Aleppo and in neighbouring Idlib province.

Fighting surging around Syria's second city of Aleppo Vincent LEFAI, Kun TIAN (AFP)

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura is chairing the peace talks in Geneva Fabrice Coffrini (AFP)
'Shocking' rise in Burundi torture cases: UN rights chief

The UN human rights chief voiced alarm Monday at a sharp increase in the use of torture in violence-torn Burundi, with nearly 400 cases recorded so far this year.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said his team on the ground had registered "at least 345 cases of torture and ill-treatment" since January, and nearly 600 since tensions spiralled a year ago, warning the actual numbers were likely higher.

"These shocking figures are a clear indicator of the widespread and growing use of torture and ill-treatment by government security forces," Zeid said in a statement.

Heavily armed police patrol the streets of Burundi's capital, Bujumbura

His comments came a day after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the situation in Burundi as "alarmingly precarious", and proposed three options for a new UN police mission there.

Burundi has been in turmoil since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced plans in April last year to run for a third term, which he went on to win.

Violence has left more than 400 people dead and driven more than 250,000 people across the border.

Zeid said most of the torture in the country was taking place in facilities run by Burundi's intelligence service, but also pointed the finger at the national police and, to a lesser extent, the army.

"Perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment have so far enjoyed total impunity," he warned.

A recent visit by UN rights officials to detention centres run by the national intelligence service in the capital Bujumbura found that 30 of the 67 detainees visited showed physical signs of torture.

Many had "fresh wounds on their bodies. Some were unable to walk without assistance after being beaten with belts, iron rods or sharp objects, or burned," Zeid said.

He said he was "profoundly disturbed by these terrible accounts and I urge the Burundian government, in the strongest terms possible, to put an immediate end to these unacceptable and illegal practices."

The UN rights chief also voiced deep concern over reports of people being held in secret detention centres across Burundi.

One man had told investigators how he had been arrested at the end of March by "unidentified armed individuals", and taken blindfolded to an unfinished building in an unknown location, where he witnessed his captors execute two other detainees before he escaped.

Zeid also said he has received "persistent reports of arrest, detention, torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearances and assassination of certain members of the police and military by other government forces."
Pope's refugee families settle into Roman life

With Italian lessons and strolls around Rome, the 12 Syrian asylum seekers Pope Francis brought back with him from Lesbos are settling into new lives, their hosts said Monday.

The three Muslim families are being housed temporarily by the Saint'Egidio religious community in the Rome district of Trastevere while they await longer-term accommodation being prepared for them in the Vatican, community spokesman Maximiliano Signifredi told AFP.

"Yesterday they had their first Italian lessons. They have been going for walks around Trastevere, a new life is opening up in front of them," Signifredi said.

In a dramatic gesture designed to highlight the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving on the southern shores of Europe, Francis on Sunday flew back to Rome from Lesbos with 12 Syrians Filippo Monteforte (Pool/AFP/File)

"Each of the three families has been assigned a small flat with everything they need while they are awaiting the more spacious apartments the Vatican is getting ready for them."

In a dramatic gesture designed to highlight the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving on the southern shores of Europe, Francis on Sunday flew back from Lesbos with the 12 Syrians.

The three couples, who have six children between them, were plucked from a detention camp on the Greek island to start new lives, more than 1,400 miles (nearly 2,300 kilometres) from their homes in Damascus and Deir Ezzor, a city in eastern Syria controlled by the Islamic State group.

Francis said on the plane back from Lesbos that the families had been chosen out of some 3,000 people at the camp simply because their paperwork was sufficiently in order to rapidly conclude an accord on their transfer with the Greek and Italian governments.

"I didn't make a choice between Christians and Muslims. All refugees are children of God," Francis told reporters.

The families are expected to seek asylum in Italy rather than through the tiny Vatican city state.

One of the Syrians, a 51-year-old teacher from Deir Ezzor, has said the families, who had planned to try and get to Germany via Greece, do not know what awaits them.

"We don't know whether we will start over in Europe or whether, one day, we will be able to return to a Syria free of war and violence," the teacher, identified only as Ramy, told Italian media at the weekend.

The Vatican was already housing two Syrian families in line with Francis's instruction to every Catholic parish in Europe to take in at least one.

The St Egidio community is very active on migration issues and has organised flights to Rome for dozens of Syrian refugees who are housed in the same building as the families brought back by the Pope.
Four killed as Turkish town hit by Syria rocket fire

Four rockets fired by jihadists in Syria slammed into the southern Turkish town of Kilis on Monday, killing four Syrians including three children in the latest deadly cross-border strike, officials said.

Kilis -- the only town in Turkey where refugees from the war in Syria now outnumber Turkish locals -- has been repeatedly hit by rocket fire from areas in Syria controlled by Islamic State (IS) jihadists in recent weeks.

"Four Syrians living in Kilis, including three children were killed," the Kilis governor's office said in a statement.

A man carries an injured child on April 18, 2016 in Kilis, after four rockets fired from Syria, slammed into the southern Turkish town

Five Syrian children and one Turkish citizen were also wounded by the rocket fire which hit the town centre in a two-hour period from 1130 to 1330 GMT.

The three children were killed when a rocket ripped through a three-storey building where nine Syrian families had been living, helped by a local association, state-run news agency Anatolia said.

All three children had lost their fathers in the civil war and had come to Turkey with their mothers around two years ago.

"What we experienced is something very painful. The children's fathers were martyred in the war. What they needed is kindness," Abdulgani Sevang of the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Association, which had been helping the families, told Anatolia.

The other fatality caused by the Katyusha-type rockets was a Syrian shepherd who was tending his flock close to a school that was hit, the Dogan news agency said.

Ten of his sheep were killed while a 14-year-old Turkish schoolboy was also wounded.

The fire was confirmed to have come from an area in Syria controlled by IS, Dogan added.

Turkish armed forces hit back by firing mortar shells at IS targets inside Syria, the report said.

- 'Five years of kindness' -

At least 10 people have now been killed so far in strikes on Kilis from Syria but this was the heaviest toll recorded so far in a single day.

Two people were killed there last week by IS rocket fire from Syria, prompting protests in the town over the lack of security.

Turkey's powerful intelligence chief Hakan Fidan made a rare public visit to Kilis last week while Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also vowed to protect the town.

Turkish officials have repeatedly lauded the hospitality of people in Kilis towards Syrians as an example of how Turks are hosting the 2.7 million Syrians who have fled their country's civil war to Turkey.

"Kilis for the last five years has shown one of the best examples of compassion, hospitality and mercy," Kilis regional governor Suleyman Tapsiz told Anatolia.

"This will still continue be shown after this."

He emphasised the return fire by the Turkish army was serious and aimed at destroying the launch sites of IS as identified by the authorities.

"Everyone must be sure they are completely destroyed by the armed forces."

Neither IS nor the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front are included in a truce brokered by the United States and Russia that came into force on February 27.

Washington has applauded Turkey's role in the anti-IS coalition but US officials on occasion have urged Ankara to do more.

In mid-February, Turkish artillery also shelled targets of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) inside Syria but there have been no reports of any further such fire since the ceasefire.

A man helps a woman to an ambulance on April 18, 2016 in Kilis
At least one dead in Mali protest against foreign forces

At least one civilian was killed Monday during a protest against foreign peacekeepers in the Malian city of Kidal, underlining simmering tensions between the local population and UN and French troops based in the area.

Local protesters had forced their way onto an airport runway used by UN and French soldiers supporting domestic forces as they battle marauding bandits and a jihadist insurgency, according to several sources.

A source within the UN mission told AFP that "at least one civilian was killed" as angry demonstrators protested about day-to-day "harassment".

French soldiers patrol the streets in Kidal, northern Mali on July 28, 2013 Kenzo Tribouillard (AFP/File)

The UN mission in Mali, also referred to by its acronym MINUSMA, confirmed that the demonstration had taken place but said in a statement that reports of anyone being wounded or killed were "being verified".

"The protesters forced their way onto the airport runway around 1000 GMT, a restricted area, ransacking the place and setting fire to security facilities," the UN force said in its statement.

A Kidal resident told AFP that UN troops had "fired on the crowd" in the troubled northern city, which provides a base for the foreign contingents.

France's Operation Barkhane, launched in 2014, deploys 3,500 soldiers across five countries in the Sahel region to maintain cross-border security following the ousting of jihadists from key towns in Mali's north.

The MINUSMA mission is the most deadly active deployment for UN peacekeepers and has also suffered internal tensions since its launch in July 2013.

The ex-rebels of Mali's Coordination of Movements of the Azawad (CMA), which has a significant presence in the area, said two protesters were killed and several injured.

The CMA said the demonstrators had "not respected the usual procedures" of peaceful protest but also called for an immediate inquiry into who had fired the lethal shots.

The group was mostly composed of women and young people angry at what they considered to be frequent cases of arbitrary detention, according to the ex-rebels.

Meanwhile a Guinean MINUSMA soldier told AFP the protesters were calling for the release of three men who were arrested in connection with the killings of French soldiers last week.

It was believed the trio had links with "terrorists who recently laid the mines that killed three French soldiers," according to the Guinean.

The UN said it was in contact with the local authorities with the aim of easing tensions, promising "total transparency" in subsequent reports on the incident.

In January 2015 three protesters were killed by MINUSMA police in the city of Gao in an anti-UN protest.

Mali's vast, desolate north fell under the control of Tuareg-led rebels who allied with jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012.
Israeli-Palestinian shouting match at UN Security Council

A UN Security Council debate turned into a shouting match on Monday between the Israeli and Palestinian ambassadors, who exchanged cries of "Shame on you!" over ongoing violence.

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon broke away from his address to the council and demanded that the Palestinian representative condemn acts of terrorism -- the term he used to describe Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

"Shame on you for glorifying terrorism!" Danon said.

Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, demanded that the Palestinian representative condemn acts of terrorism Mark Garten (United Nations/AFP/File)

"Shame on you for killing Palestinian children!" Riyad Mansour shot back.

After being called to order by the council president, Danon once again turned to Mansour and hammered: "You cannot say it here. Palestinian children are looking at you right now."

"'I condemn all acts of terrorism': one sentence you cannot say. Shame on you for that," he pressed on.

"Let my people be free! Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! You are an occupier," Mansour hit back.

The council debate took place as the Palestinians pushed for a UN resolution demanding that Israel halt the construction of settlements in the Palestinian territories.

The draft resolution is being negotiated with Arab countries and has yet to be formally circulated to the council, but the United States -- which vetoed a similar resolution in 2011 -- has said it "will consider all options" over the Israeli-Palestinian effort.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in an address that Israeli demolitions of Palestinian buildings in the West Bank were continuing at "an alarming rate," reasserting that settlements are illegal.

The latest surge of violence over the past six months has killed some 30 Israelis and 200 Palestinians, with most of the Palestinians killed while carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Ban said.

The United Nations supports a two-state solution in the Middle East, with Israel and Palestine both recognized countries, and the expansion of Israeli settlements is seen as undermining that plan.

"Tragically, this solution seems more distant than it has for many decades," Ban said.

The Middle East quartet -- comprised of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia -- is working on a report about how to restart peace efforts.

France is pushing for an international conference to jumpstart negotiations.
Boko Haram, facing fuel shortages, makes its own: security sources, escapee

Boko Haram has been forced to produce its own fuel to power its motorbikes because of an acute petrol shortage caused by a military squeeze on supply lines.

A senior military source said the Islamists were paying huge sums of money for jerrycans of fuel while a woman who recently escaped from the group said they were making groundnut oil into biodiesel.

"Boko Haram were paying outrageous sums to get fuel and the incredible profit margin made young men defy the risk and take fuel to them," said the source in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.

A man carries jerrycans to search for fuel in Lagos, on May 21, 2015 Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP/File)

"The cutting off of fuel supplies has badly crippled Boko Haram and that has been made possible by blocking all identified supply routes and the crackdown on the suppliers," he told AFP.

Fuel vendors seeking to exploit the group's need for fuel could sell each 25-litre jerrycan for 50,000 to 70,000 naira ($250-$350, 222-311 euros) each, said escapee Ya-Mairam Ya-Malaye.

A jerrycan of fuel in Maiduguri costs only $13.

But the risk of being caught up in a military aerial bombardment on Boko Haram positions has forced the vendors to stay away, said the security source.

Babakura Kolo, a civilian vigilante assisting the military against the Islamic State group affiliate in Maiduguri, said the militants would pay any amount to get fuel.

"It was a lucrative business for the fuel vendors," said Kolo, who was involved in the crackdown against Boko Haram suppliers in the city.

"But we have taken care of them and Boko Haram are feeling the crunch because they are out of supplies."

Previous reports have indicated the rebels are also running low on food.

- Groundnut oil -

Nigeria and its neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger began a concerted fight-back against Boko Haram in January last year, recapturing territory lost to the militants the previous year.

President Muhammadu Buhari has said the rebels, whose insurgency has killed an estimated 20,000 people and forced some 2.6 million to flee since 2009, can no longer fight conventional warfare.

Instead of its trademark hit-and-run attacks using pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, the insurgents have even mounted strikes on remote villages on horseback, bicycles or on foot.

Ya-Mairam Ya-Malaye, a 57-year-old mother-of-eight who was among hundreds of women and children abducted from the town of Bama in September 2014, managed to escape Boko Haram last week.

She said the group has devised a crude way of adding salt to oil extracted from groundnuts to make biodiesel for their motorcycles to mount attacks from their Sambisa Forest enclaves in Borno.

"They confiscate the groundnuts (that) farmers in villages in and around Sambisa cultivated all-year-round from their farms and irrigation fields," she explained from Maiduguri.

"They crush the nuts using diesel-powered grinding machines to extract the oil to which they add salt to make it light and combustible."

Boko Haram had been getting fuel from young men who would bring the petrol to designated points near Sambisa (forest) for the fighters to pick, she added.

Ya-Malaye said she was taken to Sambisa Forest from Bama and moved between camps as troops pushed further into the former game reserve in pursuit of the militants.
Thousands demonstrate at Baghdad's Green Zone

Thousands of people protested for reforms on Monday at the Iraqi capital's heavily fortified Green Zone, where the government is headquartered, for the second time in less than a month.

The call to rally at the Green Zone, where the US and British embassies are also located, went out over a loudspeaker at a sit-in at Baghdad's Tahrir Square, an AFP journalist said.

The demonstrators set out running from the sit-in site, crossed Jumhuriyah Bridge and gathered at the Green Zone entrance near parliament.

Iraqis gather at the entrance of Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone to protest for reforms on April 18, 2016 Sabah Arar (AFP)

Powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr organised a two-week sit-in at the Green Zone in March, calling for a technocratic government and threatening to have his supporters storm the area.

A senior Sadr Movement official told AFP that the demonstrators would not try to enter the Green Zone on Monday.

"It is a message we want to deliver to the government and the parliament," Ibrahim al-Jaberi, the head of Sadr's east Baghdad office said, apparently referring to the fact that demonstrators could be quickly mobilised and gathered at the Green Zone.

"We will withdraw to Tahrir Square this evening," he said.

Sadr, the scion of a powerful clerical family, called off the March sit-in after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi presented a list of cabinet nominees to parliament.

But efforts to replace the current party-affiliated ministers have faced serious opposition from powerful parties that rely on control of ministries for patronage and funds.

Iraqi political blocs presented their own nominees and most of Abadi's candidates were replaced on a second list.

Cabinet reform efforts were then overshadowed by days of chaos in parliament, including an overnight sit-in, a brawl between lawmakers and an attempt to sack the speaker.
Israeli court upholds Islamic cleric incitement conviction

Israel's Supreme Court denied on Monday a request by firebrand Islamic cleric Raed Salah to appeal his conviction for inciting violence, but cut his prison sentence by two months to nine.

Salah leads the radical northern wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which authorities outlawed last year after accusing it of instigating violence at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque that sparked months of Palestinian unrest in October.

In March 2014 Jerusalem's Magistrates' Court found him guilty of inciting unrest at Al-Aqsa in 2007, sentencing him to eight months in prison.

Sheikh Raed Salah (C), pictured on February 12, 2016, leads the radical northern wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which authorities outlawed last year Jack Guez (AFP/File)

The state as well as Salah appealed the decision, and in 2014 the Jerusalem District Court convicted him of incitement to racism as well, increasing his sentence to 11 months, a decision appealed once more by both sides.

In October 2015 the District Court upheld the decision, with Salah requesting permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

On Monday the Supreme Court denied the request to appeal, but in a rare move reduced Salah's prison time to nine months from 11.

The ruling said this was "due to the fact that in the nine years that past since the event, (Salah) has not committed similar felonies".

Salah will begin his prison term on May 8.

Monday's decision comes as a wave of Palestinian violence since October, due in part to fears Israel was attempting to undermine the status quo at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, was largely abating.
Twitter's new China head wants to 'work together' with state media

The new head of Twitter in China has called for "closer partnership" with Communist Party-backed state media, leading many of the social network's users to question her appointment.

IT engineer Kathy Chen, who was appointed managing director for the greater China region last week, worked with the Chinese army and more recently American tech giants including Microsoft and Cisco.

Like Facebook, YouTube and other sites, Twitter is blocked in mainland China but many people and institutions -- including state media -- access accounts via Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

The new head of Twitter in China has called for "closer partnership" with Communist Party-backed state media, leading many of the social network's users to question her appointment Leon Neal (AFP/File)

Xinhua, China's official news agency, used its Twitter account to offer "congratulations" to Chen on her appointment.

"Thanks and look forward to closer partnership in the future!" she replied.

"Let's work together to tell great China story to the world!" she tweeted at state television channel CCTV.

Premier Xi Jinping reminded both CCTV and Xinhua to "strictly adhere to the orders of the Chinese Communist Party" during a visit to state media headquarters this year.

Twitter users inside China and abroad attacked Chen's public messages, with one writing in Mandarin: "What are you hoping to achieve by working with Communist Party media? Strengthen the Great Firewall?"

"It's not a place for CCP propaganda, go away," wrote another in English.

The account @kathychen2016, from which the tweets were sent, is not verified, but was the one used by Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey when announcing the appointment.
UN battles to save Syria peace talks as opposition walks out

The UN was struggling to keep troubled Syria peace negotiations on track, as the opposition suspended its "formal participation" in the talks in protest at escalating violence on the ground.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama meanwhile agreed to help strengthen a fragile ceasefire in Syria, seen as essential to paving the way towards a lasting deal to end the bloodshed.

With fighting surging around Syria's second city Aleppo and negotiations in Geneva stalled over the fate of President Bashar al-Assad, the opposition said they had had enough.

L-R: Opposition members Hassan Abdel Azim, Safwan Akkash, Riad Hijab, Salem al-Meslet and Asaad al-Zoabi attend a meeting of the HNC delegation on April 18, 2016 Fabrice Coffrini (AFP)

"Since these talks began in Geneva, the Assad regime has worsened the situation on the ground," Salem al-Meslet of the main opposition High Negotiations Committee said in a statement.

The group said the talks must be placed on "brief hold in order to end the Assad regime's truce violations", accusing the regime of more than 2,000 violations of the ceasefire since it began on February 27.

"The HNC remains fully committed to the political process and establishing peace through diplomacy," Meslet said. "We remain in Geneva ready to engage in serious talks."

HNC coordinator Riad Hijab said earlier it was "unacceptable" for the negotiations to continue while Assad's regime continues to "bombard and starve civilians" in Syria.

The regime responded by accusing Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar -- all backers of the opposition -- of seeking to derail the negotiations.

"The Saudi, Turkish and Qatari sponsors do not want to stop the bloodbath in Syria and do not want a political solution in Syria," the regime's lead negotiator in Geneva, Bashar al-Jaafari, said in an interview late Monday with Lebanese channel Al-Mayadeen.

Jaafari added that the opposition and the countries that support it are "annoyed because of the progress being made by the Syrian army on the ground".

- Clear blow -

But UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura insisted the ongoing round of indirect discussions, which began on April 13, would continue through the week as planned.

The HNC may continue to meet UN staff at their hotel "to pursue technical discussions", including on a political transition in Syria, de Mistura said.

The UN envoy stressed that the indirect talks format -- which has seen the HNC and Assad's representatives meet separately with UN mediators -- created flexibility to continue the discussions.

But the opposition's announcement is a clear blow to the already precarious negotiations aimed at achieving political transition, a new constitution, and presidential and parliamentary elections by September 2017.

The landmark ceasefire negotiated by Russia and the US in February dramatically curtailed violence across much of Syria, raising hopes that a lasting deal could be struck to end the five-year civil war.

But the spread of fighting around Aleppo and the regime's apparent unwillingness to hold concrete talks on forming a new government has led the opposition to question Assad's commitment to a political solution to a conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people.

Areas in Syria controlled by jihadists like the Islamic State (IS) group and Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front are exempt from the ceasefire, but the renewed Aleppo clashes are drawing in other rebel groups and straining the truce.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 22 civilians were killed on both sides over the weekend in Aleppo city -- one of the highest single tolls since the truce began.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned the situation was "critical" for more than 100,000 people trapped by fighting in the Azaz district of Aleppo governorate.

Piling further pressure on the ceasefire, 10 rebel groups vowed Monday to strike back against alleged violations of the truce.

- US, Russia try to boost ceasefire -

Despite the surging violence on the ground, De Mistura insisted "the cessation of hostilities is holding," but acknowledged: "We are concerned."

Putin and Obama meanwhile agreed during a phone call Monday to help strengthen the ceasefire, according to the Kremlin.

Both leaders had stressed the "significance" of the Geneva talks and agreed that their security services and defence ministries would ramp up cooperation over Syria, it said.

"With this end in view additional measures on how to quickly react to existing ceasefire violations will be worked out," the Kremlin added.

French President Francois Hollande also said everything must be done to maintain the truce.

"If negotiations do not resume, if fighting does, there would again be the worst fears for civilians (and) consequences in terms of refugees," he said.

Regardless of whether the ceasefire is strengthened, the Geneva talks will likely continue stumbling on the tricky issue of Assad's fate.

The HNC insists that any peace deal must include Assad's departure from power. Damascus has so far said the president's future is off limits.

"The gap is clearly wide," de Mistura admitted.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura insisted that discussions aimed at setting up a new government in Syria would continue through the week Fabrice Coffrini (AFP)

An opposition fighter waves at a Syrian Aarb Red Crescent truck transporting aid as it arrives in Ain Tarma, in the eastern Ghouta area, a rebel stronghold east of the Syrian capital Damascus on April 16, 2016 Amer Almohibany (AFP)
UN peacekeeper killed in C. Africa after alleged LRA attack

A UN peacekeeper from Morocco was killed in the Central African Republic while on patrol near a village that came under attack, allegedly by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army, a UN spokesman said Monday.

The soldier was shot on Sunday in southeastern Mbomou prefecture, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the killing and said attacks against those working for peace in the Central African Republic were "unacceptable."

UN peacekeeper from Morocco was shot in southeastern Mbomou prefecture, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo

The peacekeeper was killed in the town of Rafai where he had been dispatched in response to an attack on the nearby village of Agoumar by the suspected LRA rebels.

Human rights groups have said that LRA rebels are active in the Central African Republic and have kidnapped more than 200 people just this year, a quarter of them children.

In February, a, LRA commander, Okot Odek, was captured and handed over to US forces by a faction of the Seleka rebels in CAR.
Putin, Obama confirm willingness to strengthen Syria ceasefire: Kremlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama agreed during a phone call on Monday to strengthen a Syria ceasefire brokered by their two nations, the Kremlin said.

"The leaders discussed in detail the situation in Syria, confirming in particular their intention to facilitate the strengthening of a Russian-US initiated ceasefire in this country as well as access for humanitarian aid," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Putin also stressed the need for "moderate" rebels to distance themselves from Islamic State and Al-Nusra Front jihadists and also urged the closure of the border between Syria and Turkey from where "supplies of arms for extremists" are continuing, the Kremlin said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, pictured in Moscow on April 18, 2016, agreed during a phonecall with his US counterpart Barack Obama to strengthen a Syria ceasefire Alexander Nemenov (Pool/AFP)

A landmark partial ceasefire, which was negotiated by the United States and Russia and took effect on February 27, had dramatically curtailed violence across much of Syria and raised hopes that a lasting deal could be struck in Geneva to end the bloodshed.

But fighting has surged around second city Aleppo in the last week, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee, leading the opposition to question President Bashar al-Assad's commitment to a political solution to a conflict that has displaced half of the population and killed more than 270,000 people.

Syria's opposition has postponed its "formal participation" in peace talks in protest over escalating violence, but will remain in Geneva and may continue informal discussions with mediators, the UN envoy said Monday.

The Kremlin said both Putin and Obama had stressed the "significance" of the Geneva talks and the two also agreed that the two countries' security services and defence ministries would ramp up cooperation over Syria.

"With this end in view additional measures on how to quickly react to existing ceasefire violations will be worked out," the Kremlin added.

Obama also thanked Putin for Russia's help in helping secure the release of a US national, Kevin Dawes, who had been held in Syria, the Kremlin said.

The 33-year-old man -- identified by the FBI as a freelance photographer -- had been abducted in 2012 after crossing the border from Turkey.
Jordan halts Jerusalem Al-Aqsa cameras project

Jordan has decided not to install security cameras at Islam's third holiest site, the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, because of some Palestinian doubts, Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur said Monday.

"We have been surprised by the reactions of some who have made comments expressing their doubts about the aims of the project," the official Petra news agency quoted Nsur as saying.

"Because we respect the point of view of the Palestinians... we believe the project is no longer consensual, but a potential source of conflict, and have decided to end it," he said.

A poster, calling for the destruction of CCTV cameras, is seen on a column at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on April 8, 2016 Ahmad Gharabli (AFP/File)

On March 20, Jordan said it would set up 55 security cameras around the flashpoint compound to monitor any Israeli "violations".

The site -- revered by Jews as their holiest site, the Temple Mount -- is administered by a Jordanian trust or "Waqf".

In October, after meeting Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, US Secretary of State John Kerry endorsed a plan for cameras at the site in a bid to calm repeated disturbances. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed.

Kerry hailed the agreement as an important breakthrough at the time, and on Monday his spokesman expressed disappointment that the plan has apparently failed.

"We still see the value in the use of cameras," US spokesman John Kirby said.

"So the Jordanians can speak to this decision that they've made to halt the project. We think it's unfortunate, as we continue to believe in the value of that tool for that purpose and we continue to urge all sides to restore calm and reduce the violence."

Nsur said Amman's main objective had been to install surveillance cameras "at the compound, not inside the mosques, to document repeated Israeli aggressions at the holy places".

Firebrand Israeli Arab cleric Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement, had called on Jordan to reconsider the project, fearing that it would become "the eyes of Israel".

The compound in east Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally, houses the famed golden Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces erupted at the compound last September amid fears among Muslims that Israel was planning to change rules governing the site.
Gambia minister says 'no clue' if opposition activists dead

Gambia's information minister said Monday he had "no clue" if detained opposition protesters had died in custody or where others were being detained, but asserted the two rare demonstrations they held were illegal.

Sherrif Bojang told AFP he could not confirm the death in detention of opposition activist Solo Sandeng and two others.

The United Nations on Sunday called on authorities in the west African country to conduct a "prompt, thorough and independent investigation" into the circumstances of what they said were three activists' deaths in custody.

People demonstrate on April 16, 2016 in Banjul following the death of an opposition figure

"Absolutely do not have any clue about the alleged death in custody (of) Solo Sandeng," Bojang said in the first official reaction to last week's two opposition protests.

The minister added he had only been informed that the protests were unauthorised and that Sandeng had been arrested.

United Democratic Party (UDP) organising secretary Sandeng led a protest Thursday that ended with security forces beating and arresting dozens for making a public call for electoral reform and the resignation of strongman President Yahya Jammeh.

"I don't know their whereabouts or what might have happened to any of them," Bojang said.

Regarding the arrest of opposition leader Ousainou Darboe, who held a march Saturday demanding answers over Sandeng's death, Bojang said the human rights lawyer had failed to follow the law.

"This is the Gambia, we have rules and laws governing us and one of the laws states that before you embark on such a thing, you must seek and obtain (a) permit from the police and this isn't done in his case and they were dispersed and detained," the minister said.

The UN did not release details of the other two victims, but the UDP has previously spoken of two women in a coma in detention.

President Jammeh must "uphold the rights of the Gambian people to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

A military officer and former wrestler, Jammeh has ruled Gambia since he seized power in a coup in 1994, and is regularly accused of human rights abuses.

Rights groups Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and ARTICLE 19 said Monday that Jammeh "should ensure an independent and impartial investigation into Sandeng's death", and immediately release all peaceful protesters.

"Sandeng's senseless death in custody appears to be the latest in a long line of abuses against the political opposition in Gambia," said Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

"This case heightens concerns that the Gambian government will intensify its crackdown on independent voices ahead of elections in December."
Coverage of wars, terrorism scoop Pulitzer Prizes

Coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Syria, the ensuing refugee crisis and the rise of the Islamic State extremist group won a string of categories in America's Pulitzer Prizes Monday.

Photographers from The New York Times and Thomson Reuters shared the breaking news photography award for their coverage of the unprecedented refugee crisis, fueled primarily by the war in Syria.

Alissa Rubin of The New York Times won the international reporting prize for her coverage of Afghan women, more than 14 years after the US-led invasion to bring down the Taliban, announced the Pulitzer committee at Columbia University.

Mike Pride, administrator of The Pulitzer Prizes, announces the 2016 Pulitzer Prize winners at the Columbia University in New York on April 18, 2016 Jewel Samad (AFP)

The Los Angeles Times won the breaking news category for the coverage of the killings in San Bernardino, where Syed Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people on December 2, 2015 before dying in a firefight with police.

The prize for non-fiction was won by Joby Warrick for his book "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS" and its assessment of the "flawed rationale" of the Iraq war and the rise of the IS extremist group, the committee said.

US wire service, The Associated Press, won the coveted award for public service journalism for investigating labor abuses tied to the supply of seafood in America, reporting that freed 2,000 slaves.

On domestic American news, outlets in Florida scooped three Pulitzer Prizes. The Tampa Bay Times and Sarasota Herald Tribune won for their investigation into violence and neglect in Florida mental hospitals.

The Tampa Bay Times scooped a second Pulitzer for exposing a local school board's role in turning some schools into failure factories.

John Hackworth of Sun Newspapers, Charlotte Harbor, Florida won for editorial writing over the deadly assault of an inmate by corrections officers.

The US national reporting category was won by The Washington Post staff for their coverage of how often and why police shoot to kill.
US envoy's motorcade kills child in Cameroon

A diplomatic convoy in Cameroon carrying the visiting US ambassador to the United Nations accidentally struck and killed a young boy.

Samantha Power is in Cameroon with officials from USAID, the Pentagon and the UN as part of Washington's effort to support local authorities in their fight against the extremist group Boko Haram.

"As we, the United Nations, and Cameroonian officials drove to Mokoko this morning, a vehicle in the convoy that we were a part of struck a young boy," Power told a news conference in Maroua, northern Cameroon.

Samantha Power is in Cameroon with officials from USAID, the Pentagon and the UN as part of Washington's effort to support local authorities in their fight against the extremist group Boko Haram Mark Garten (United Nations/AFP/File)

"Although he received immediate medical care from an ambulance in our convoy, he died shortly thereafter," she said, according to a transcript provided by the State Department.

Power said she later visited the boy's family with UN, US and Cameroonian officials "to offer our profound condolences and to express our grief and heartbreak over what the family is going through."

US officials were not able to say whether their government will pay compensation to the boy's family.

Power told reporters the international community would help Cameroon fight Boko Haram, but it was important to have a strategy in place to provide security, development and human rights to vulnerable populations in liberated territory.

"I just want to underscore that America's support for this effort is one that cuts across all areas. We cannot defeat Boko Haram only using military force," she said.

"Of course, military force has to be part of it. They have guns, they have suicide vests, they have armored vehicles - they have those things, and we will fight them.

"But we also have to ensure that as we take the fight to Boko Haram with us supporting you, that we do so in a manner that respects the lives of civilians."

Boko Haram is a dangerous guerrilla movement that emerged out of previous Islamist insurgencies in northeast Nigeria in 2009 and won global notoriety in April 2014 when it kidnapped 276 schoolgirls.

Nigeria and its neighbors Cameroon, Chad and Niger began a concerted fight against Boko Haram in January last year with support from several foreign powers, including the United States.
Trial forces Nigeria's Saraki from Senate duties

A tribunal ruled Monday that the fraud trial of embattled Nigerian Senate president Bukola Saraki will continue on a daily basis -- meaning he will be unable to preside over Senate sessions until the proceedings are over.

Saraki's lawyers had asked for an adjournment in the high-profile trial to allow senators accompanying him to attend Senate sittings, but the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) rejected the request.

Dozens of senators and other politicians have been accompanying Saraki to his trial at the CCT in Abuja in a show of solidarity, but Judge Danladi Umar said politicians needed to go back to work while he was on trial.

Nigerian Senate President Bukola Saraki, pictured on September 22, 2015, has been accused of false declaration of assets while he was governor of western Kwara state between 2003 and 2011

"Since it is the personality of the Senate President Bukola Saraki that is standing trial before the tribunal, there is no reason why the national assembly will not carry on with their duties of legislating," the judge said.

Prosecution lawyer Rotimi Jacobs hailed the decision, saying: "It is sad when the entire Senate adjourns because of a trial of one of them, in a nation where corruption has crippled everything."

Speaking to journalists outside the tribunal, he added: "Is that the kind of lesson they want to bequeath to the next generation?"

Saraki, a 53-year-old former banker, has been accused of false declaration of assets while he was governor of western Kwara state between 2003 and 2011. He denies the charges.

Under Nigerian law, senior politicians including state governors are required to declare their assets when they enter office.

At the tribunal on Monday, prosecution witness Michael Wetkas told the tribunal that Saraki had owned several exclusive buildings and landed properties in Lagos and Abuja which he illegally failed to declare.
Kalamazoo shooting victim praised at church, gets cash gift

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP)  A survivor of a series of shootings in southwestern Michigan that killed six people has been honored at a church with prayer, praise and $19,200.

Tiana Carruthers cried as she appeared in a wheelchair Sunday at Galilee Baptist Church in Kalamazoo. WOOD-TV (http://bit.ly/1U0I0mi ) says she called them "tears of joy."

Carruthers was one of two people injured during the shootings in the Kalamazoo area Feb. 20. Authorities have said she shielded children from danger during the attack.

The 25-year-old Carruthers suffered broken fingers and thigh bones and has a bullet lodged in her liver. She says she just wants to walk and move her arm. She says, "I'm getting there."

The money for Carruthers was mostly raised at a concert. She says the community's support "just warms me up."

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Amber Heard avoids jail in Australian dog smuggling spat

SYDNEY (AP)  Actor Johnny Depp's wife Amber Heard pleaded guilty Monday to providing a false immigration document when the couple brought their two dogs into Australia last year, but she managed to avoid jail time over what was dubbed the "war on terrier" debacle.

Prosecutors dropped more serious charges that Heard illegally imported the Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country while Depp was filming the fifth movie in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. A conviction on the two illegal importation counts could have sent the actress to prison for up to 10 years.

Depp and Heard said little to the waiting throng of reporters and fans outside the Southport Magistrates Court on Queensland state's Gold Coast, but they did submit a videotaped apology to the court that was played during Monday's hearing.

In this image made from video released by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources on Monday, April 18, 2016, actor Johnny Depp and his wife, Amber Heard speak in a videotaped apology played during Monday's hearing at the Southport Magistrates Court on Queensland state's Gold Coast. Depp and Heard pleaded guilty Monday to providing a false immigration document amid allegations she smuggled the couple's dogs to Australia, but managed to avoid jail time over what was dubbed the "war on terrier" debacle. (Australian Government via AP Video) AUSTRALIA OUT

It drew gibes online for the couple's grim, wooden appearance as Heard apologized and they both expressed support for protecting Australia's biodiversity, the aim of the strict quarantine regulations that were violated.

"When you disrespect Australian law," Depp says in the video, "they will tell you firmly."

The drama over the dogs began last May, when Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce accused Depp of smuggling the tiny terriers aboard his private jet when he returned to Australia to resume filming the "Pirates" movie.

Bringing pets into Australia involves applying for a permit and quarantine on arrival of at least 10 days to prevent the spread of diseases such as rabies.

"If we start letting movie stars  even though they've been the sexiest man alive twice  to come into our nation (with pets), then why don't we just break the laws for everybody?" Joyce said at the time. "It's time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States."

Depp and Heard were given 72 hours to send Pistol and Boo back to the U.S., with officials warning that the dogs would otherwise be euthanized. The pooches boarded a flight home just hours before the deadline expired.

The comments by Joyce, who is now the deputy prime minister of Australia, elevated what might otherwise have been a local spat into a global delight for comedians and broadcasters. One newspaper website ran a doggie death countdown ticker, and comedian John Oliver dedicated a more than 6-minute segment to lampooning the ordeal.

Depp himself poked fun at the drama during a press conference in Venice, Italy, last year where he was asked if he planned to take the dogs for a gondola ride. "No," he replied. "I killed my dogs and ate them, under direct orders from some kind of, I don't know, sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia."

Joyce posted a link to the couple's apology video on his Facebook page, and later told reporters he doubted it was something the pair would have "willingly wanted to do." Still, he gave them credit for acknowledging they had made a mistake.

"I am happy that Ms. Heard has admitted that she was wrong and as such, that clearly shows that our position in pursuit of this was correct," Joyce told journalists. "Every nation has something that they're red hot about, and we're red hot about our biosecurity requirements in this nation."

When asked why Depp wasn't charged as well, the prosecutor's office said that there had been a "lack of admissible evidence" against anyone except Heard.

The false documents charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a fine of more than 10,000 Australian dollars ($7,650), but Magistrate Bernadette Callaghan sentenced Heard instead to a one-month good behavior bond. The condition means she will have to pay a AU$1,000 fine if she commits any offenses in Australia over the next month.

Heard's lawyer, Jeremy Kirk, told the court that his client never meant to lie on her incoming passenger card by failing to declare she had animals with her. In truth, Kirk said, she was simply jetlagged and assumed her assistants had sorted out the paperwork.

"She has made a tired, terrible mistake," Kirk said.

Prosecutor Peter Callaghan said ignorance and fatigue were no excuse. "The laws apply to everyone," he said.

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YouTube link to Depp and Heard's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORpBAIB9j64
California student says airline removed him for Arabic

LOS ANGELES (AP)  A University of California, Berkeley student who came to the U.S. as an Iraqi refugee says he was unfairly removed from a flight at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this month because a fellow passenger was alarmed by an innocent conversation he was having in Arabic.

Southwest Airlines said in a statement Sunday that the passenger, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, was taken off the April 9 flight from Los Angeles to Oakland, California, for questioning and the plane took off while that was happening. But the airline said it has not received a direct complaint from Makhzoomi, and he has not responded to several attempts to reach him.

Makhzoomi, a 26-year-old senior at UC Berkeley, said that he was calling his uncle before the flight to tell him about a speech he had attended by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

"I was very excited about the event, so I called my uncle to tell him about it," Makhzoomi told the New York Times (http://nyti.ms/1VcaVoO).

Makhzoomi told his uncle about asking a question on the Islamic State group at the event. He said he used the phrase "inshallah," meaning "god willing," at the end of the conversation, and those things might have led to suspicion.

He said the woman sitting in front of him on the plane began staring at him. "That is when I thought, 'Oh, I hope she is not reporting me,' " Makhzoomi said.

Makhzoomi said an Arabic-speaking Southwest employee came and escorted him off the plane and asked him why he had been speaking Arabic.

Makhzoomi said he told the employee "This is what Islamophobia got this country into." Makhzoomi said that made the man angry and that was when he was told he could not get back on the plane.

The FBI in Los Angeles said in a statement that it investigated the situation by request and found no further action was necessary.

Southwest said it could not offer specific comments before talking to Makhzoomi. The airline's statement said it regrets any less-than-positive experience by a customer, but its primary focus is on safety and its crew members followed protocol. It added that the company "neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind."

Makhzoomi said he was able to get book a flight on another airline and got home eight hours later than planned.
South Korea says North is preparing for 5th nuclear test

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Korea's president said Monday that there are signs that North Korea is preparing for a fifth nuclear bomb test amid reports of increased activity at the country's main nuclear test site.

In a regular meeting with her top adviser, President Park Geun-hye said that North Korea could carry out such a test to try to bolster morale as the country deals with tough international sanctions imposed after it conducted a fourth nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch earlier this year.

Park didn't elaborate on what signs pointed to another nuclear test, but ordered the military to be ready to deal with any provocation by Pyongyang, according to media pool reports on the first part of the meeting posted on the website of her office.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye speaks during a regular meeting with her top aides at the presidential house in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 18, 2016. President Park said Monday there are signs that North Korea is preparing a fifth nuclear bomb test amid reports of increased brisk activity at the country's main nuclear test site. (Baek Seung-ryul/Yonhap via AP) KOREA OUT

Speculation about a fifth nuclear test increased last month when the North's state media cited leader Kim Jong Un as ordering a test of a nuclear warhead and ballistic missiles capable of carrying warheads.

Kim's order came amid rising animosity with South Korea and the United States over their annual military drills that North Korea describes as an invasion rehearsal. The drills are set to run until next week.

Analysts say an atomic test could happen before North Korea holds a landmark ruling Workers' Party congress in early May so that Kim can burnish his image as a powerful leader at home and further cement his grip on power.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Monday that South Korean and U.S. authorities detected two to three times more vehicle and personnel activities than normal this month at the North's northeast Punggye-ri nuclear test site  where all previous four bomb tests took place.

A U.S. website that monitors sensitive sites in North Korea said Friday that it saw further signs from satellite imagery that the North was looking to produce more plutonium for nuclear weapons at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex, north of Pyongyang.

Earlier last week, the website 38 North said recent satellite imagery of the Punggye-ri area showed little evidence that Pyongyang was planning a nuclear test, though it added that the country may be able to carry out a test on short notice.

Foreign experts said that a fifth test could put North Korean scientists and engineers a step closer toward a goal of manufacturing a warhead small enough to place on a long-range missile that could reach the U.S. mainland.

South Korean defense officials say North Korea currently does not have a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile, although it has made strides in its weapons development programs in recent years.

Last Friday, a North Korean missile launch meant to celebrate the birthday of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder and Kim Jong Un's late grandfather, ended in failure, according to U.S. officials. South Korean media reports said the failed missile was a new, powerful mid-range missile that could theoretically place U.S. military bases in Asia within reach.

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Actress Carrie Fisher to be honored by Harvard student group

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP)  "Star Wars" actress Carrie Fisher is being honored by a Harvard student group.

Fisher is receiving a lifetime achievement award Monday from the Harvard Community of Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics.

The group is honoring the 59-year-old self-described "enthusiastic agnostic," in part, for her work on mental health issues.

Fisher has chronicled her struggles with drug addiction and bipolar disorder throughout her career, including in her semi-autobiographical novel "Postcards from the Edge," which she also turned into a movie.

Previous honorees include former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, author Salman Rushdie, comedian Eddie Izzard and director Seth MacFarlane. The award is in its tenth year.
Next steps in impeachment push against Brazilian president

Brazilian legislators pushing to remove President Dilma Rousseff for alleged fiscal irregularities won a major victory Sunday in the lower house of Congress, gaining a 367-137 vote in favor of her impeachment. A look at what happens now:

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NEXT STEP: The measure now goes to the Senate, which must decide if it will try Rousseff on the charges. The Senate president has said the body will take it up within a month, though no date has been set.

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FIRST SENATE DECISION: If by a simple majority, the Senate decides against taking up the measure, the impeachment push is over and Rousseff continues as president. If the Senate votes in favor, Rousseff will be suspended and Vice President Michel Temer will take over in the interim.

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SECOND SENATE DECISION: In the event the Senate does take up the measure, it will have up to 180 days to conduct a trial of Rousseff. To remove her from office, two-thirds of the 81 senators, or 54, would have to vote for her ouster. Below that threshold, Rousseff would be reinstated as president.

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PICTURED: Editor selections from Latin America

Peruvians whittled away eight of the 10 contenders in last week's presidential election, setting up a June runoff contest between Keiko Fujimori, daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, and another pro-business candidate, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

In Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff fought unsuccessfully during the week to head of an impeachment vote in the lower house of Congress this weekend. Her sworn political enemy, Chamber of Deputies Speaker Eduardo Cunha, led the charge to impeach her. Cuhna has been implicated in the corruption scandal at the state energy company, Petrobras.

Mexican taxi drivers protested against environmental regulations in the capital that block them from driving one weekday every week.

In this Wednesday, April 13, 2016 photo, a torn rain poncho covers a T-shirt worn by a supporter of Argentina's former President Cristina Fernandez outside court as she waits for Fernandez to arrive in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fernandez on Wednesday refused to testify in a state fraud probe, emerging from the courthouse to proclaim she was the victim of political persecution in a fiery speech similar to the ones she often gave in office. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

In Uruguay, a tornado swept through the small town of Dolores, causing destruction and death.

The Copa Libertadores soccer tournament wrapped up its group stage.

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Photo gallery curated by Tomas Stargardter Mazoch in Mexico City.

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Associated Press photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/150o6jo

In this Wednesday, April 13, 2016 photo photo, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is barely seen between two Brazilian flags during a meeting atPlanalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia, Brazil. Rousseff is facing impeachment proceedings that stem from allegations her administration violated fiscal rules to mask budget problems by shifting around government accounts. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

In this Saturday, April 16, 2016 photo, people chant to drums during a rally by Social Movements for Democracy at a camp set up by supporters of President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, Brazil. The lower chamber of Brazil's Congress on Friday began a debate on whether to impeach Rousseff, a question that underscores deep polarization in Latin America's largest country and most powerful economy. The crucial vote is slated for Sunday. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this Saturday, April 16, 2016 photo, an indigenous man listens to speeches during a rally by Social Movements for Democracy at a camp set up by supporters of President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, Brazil. The lower chamber of Brazil's Congress on Friday began a debate on whether to impeach Rousseff, a question that underscores deep polarization in Latin America's largest country and most powerful economy. The crucial vote is slated for Sunday. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this Wednesday, April 13, 2016 photo, police detain a taxi driver who, along with other cabbies, blocked a main road to protest the one day per week driving restriction in Mexico City. Last week, under new regulations imposed after the capital experienced its worst air-quality crisis in over a decade, 40 percent of cars were ordered temporarily off the road. The anti-pollution measures run through the end of June, when the rainy season begins. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

In this Sunday, April 10, 2016 photo, a Quechua indigenous woman holds her identification card before voting during general elections in Iquicha, Peru. With the daughter of Peru's jailed former strongman the runaway favorite to get the most votes in Sunday's presidential election, all eyes were on the race for second place and the right to face Keiko Fujimori in an expected presidential runoff. Also up for grabs on Sunday were all the seats in Peru's congress. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

In this Sunday, April 10, 2016 photo, presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, gives the thumbs up during a news conference in Lima, Peru. The country now gears up for a tight June runoff between Keiko Fujimori and a conservative economist beloved by Wall Street. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

In this Sunday, April 10, 2016 photo, a pet lizard sits on a vender's stand where a popular remedy is sold for muscular pain, made from lizard and turtle oil, mixed with powder from seashells, outside a polling station during general elections in Lima, Peru. With the daughter of Peru's jailed former strongman the runaway favorite to get the most votes in Sunday's presidential election, all eyes were on the race for second place and the right to face Keiko Fujimori in an expected presidential runoff. Also up for grabs on Sunday were all the seats in Peru's congress. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

In this Sunday, April 10, 2016 photo, supporters of the presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of the "Peruanos por el Kambio" political party celebrate the quick count of ballot results by local pollsters that place Kuczynski in second place in Lima, Peru. Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori won the first round of the presidential election, though she didn't get enough votes to avoid a June runoff. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

In this Sunday, April 10, 2016 photo, presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and his wife Nancy Lange celebrate the first official results that place him in second in Lima, Peru. The country now gears up for a tight June runoff between the conservative, former World Bank economist beloved by Wall Street, and Keiko Fujimori, daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

In this Saturday, April 16, 2016 photo, a woman walks past rubble after a tornado swept through Dolores, Uruguay. The powerful tornado swept over the small city on Friday, ripping up houses, hurling cars into the air and killing and seriously injuring several people. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

In this Thursday, April 14, 2016 photo, Lucas Barrios of Brazil's Palmeiras, left, and Dario Antonio Flores of Uruguay's River Plate jump for a header during a Copa Libertadores soccer match in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
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Rescuers pulled three people out alive more than 32 hours after they were trapped in the rubble of a shopping centre that was flattened the earthquake on Ecuador's coast.

Televised images of the dramatic pre-dawn rescue in the port city of Manta gave Ecuadoreans hope that some of the dozens of people still unaccounted for might yet be found even as the death toll from Saturday's 7.8-magnitude quake rose to 413.

An American and two Canadians were among those confirmed dead from the worst quake to hit Ecuador in decades.

To reach the survivors trapped between the floor and roof of the collapsed shopping center in Manta, firefighters cut a nearly 2-foot (70cm) hole through concrete then pulled a woman out head first.

A group of firefighters applauded as she emerged from the debris, disoriented, caked in dust and complaining of pain but otherwise in good health.

Rescued! In a day marked by the gloom of a growing death toll, at least one story of hope emerged Monday as search teams combed rubble for survivors days after a powerful earthquake shook Ecuador's Pacific coast

To reach the survivors trapped between the floor and roof of the collapsed shopping center in Manta, firefighters cut a nearly 2-foot (70-centimeter) hole through concrete. They pulled this women out first

Televised images of the dramatic pre-dawn rescue in the port city of Manta gave Ecuadoreans hope that some of the dozens of people still unaccounted for might yet be found

Rescuers pulled three people out alive Monday after they had been trapped for more than 32 hours

Firefighters say that in total, eight people were rescued from the site in the past 24 hours

There are good reasons to believe more people will be found alive in the coming hours as more rescue workers arrive

Later, at the same site, about 50 rescuers working with sniffer dogs, hydraulic jacks and a drill managed to free another woman and a young man.

All three were rushed in ambulances to a nearby hospital. In total, eight people were rescued from the site in the past 24 hours, said Angel Moreira, the firefighter coordinating the effort.

Authorities had hoped to save another woman whose legs were pinned by a heavy concrete slab. They were working to free her when they were forced to abandon the effort during an aftershock.

When they returned the debris pile had moved and the woman was dead, Moreira said.

An aerial view of Pedernales, one of Ecuador's worst-hit towns, taken Monday, two days after a 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country

Collapsed: In some areas, power cables were strewn across city streets as electricity in many neighborhoods remained down

Flattened: Aerial views of the region show dozens of homes and building reduced to rubble by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake

Rescuers and desperate families clawed through the rubble to pull out survivors of the earthquake that has killed at least 413 people

In the towns of Pedernales (above), Manta and Portoviejo, the stench of rotting bodies filled the air among heaps of rubble and metal

The US has offered help but so far President Rafael Correa, a strong critic of US foreign policy in Latin America, hasn't responded publicly

Rebuilding the destroyed areas will probably cost billions of dollars, President Rafael Correa said during a visit to Pedernales (above)

In Pedernales (above), Mayor Gabriel Alcivar estimated there were hundreds of dead buried under the rubble of collapsed hotels

Christian Rivera, the head of emergency services for the capital, Quito, said that depending on the circumstances a person without serious injuries can survive up to a week under the rubble.

'After that, there's a quick decline... and the rescuer's work becomes very difficult,' he said.

Still, there are good reasons to believe more people will be found alive in the coming hours as some 450 rescue workers from Spain, Peru, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela, and elsewhere reached the most-affected areas along the Pacific coast.

The U.S. has also offered assistance but so far President Rafael Correa, a strong critic of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, has yet to respond publicly.

Correa, upon arriving in Manta late Sunday, said that the priority remains finding survivors.

A bulldozer moves rubble after an earthquake in Portoviejo, Ecuador

Framed family photos sit on a couch at a house damaged by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in La Chorrera

A flatten car is lifted from rubble caused by the earthquake. Rescuers and aid from all over the world are flooding into Ecuador as survivors start a second day in towns flattened by the Saturday night quake

Rubble from a collapsed building lays on the ground in Tarqui, the business district of Manta, Ecuador. The Saturday night quake left a trail of ruin along the country's normally placid Pacific Ocean coast

A destroyed house is seen in Pedernales, Ecuador. The quake was the strongest since 1979, flattening buildings, buckling highways along its Pacific coast and killing hundreds

People carry a body to the morgue after an earthquake in Portoviejo, Ecuador. At least 350 people died and thousands are homeless. President Rafael Correa said early Monday that the death toll would surely rise

'Our grief is very large, the tragedy is very large, but we'll find the way to move forward,' the Ecuadorean leader said, adding that the quake was the worst to hit the country since a 1949 earthquake in the Andean city of Ambato that took more than 5,000 lives.

'If our pain is immense, still larger is the spirt of our people.'

Manta, a thriving port city, was among the hardest-hit areas. Power cables were strewn across city streets as electricity in many neighborhoods remained down.

Among the many building that were flattened was a control tower at the airport that was home to U.S. anti-narcotics missions in South America until Correa kicked the Americans out.

As rescuers scrambled through the ruins near the epicenter, in some cases digging with their hands to look for survivors, humanitarian aid began trickling in.

Rescue workers search a collapsed building in Manta, Ecuador. The quake killed hundreds and spread panic as it collapsed homes

Rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble Sunday after the strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast on Saturday night

People search a collapsed building in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Sunday April 17, 2016. A magnitude-7.8 quake, the strongest since 1979

Paramedics transfer an injured person after an earthquake in Portoviejo. The Spanish Red Cross says in a statement that there is no official estimate yet on the number of affected people

More than 3,000 packages of food and nearly 8,000 sleeping kits were delivered Sunday.

The quake knocked out power in many areas along the coast and some who fled to higher ground fearing a tsunami had no home to return to or feared structures still standing might collapse. The country's Geophysics Institute said it recorded 230 aftershocks as of Sunday night.

Spain's Red Cross said as many as 5,000 people may need temporary housing after the quake destroyed homes, and 100,000 may need some sort of aid.

State Department spokesman John Kirby didn't identify the American who was killed but said the U.S. government will work with Ecuadorean authorities to locate and ensure the well-being of all Americans. The area of pristine beaches where the quake struck is popular with American tourists and expat retirees.

Aggravating matters were reports of looting, including in Manta, where 180 prisoners from a nearby prison escaped amid the tumult. Authorities said some 20 inmates were recaptured and others returned voluntarily.

Vehicles from a car dealership hang on a precipice caused by an earthquake induced landslide in Portoviejo
Plea deal in works for Ohio student arrested at Trump rally

DAYTON, Ohio (AP)  A plea deal is in the works for an Ohio college student who rushed the stage at a Donald Trump rally.

A federal judge in Dayton has scheduled an April 27 status conference.

The judge on Friday continued the case after a prosecutor said both sides wanted more time "to discuss resolution of this matter."

A trial is set for May 31 for 22-year-old Thomas DiMassimo on a charge of illegally entering a restricted area.

DiMassimo was arrested March 12 at a rally for the Republican presidential candidate at an airport hangar near Dayton.

An attorney for the Wright State University student has said he was only trying to ensure that his political views were heard.
Brazil president says she won't quit after impeachment vote

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP)  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff says she won't step down despite the lower Chamber of Deputies voting in favor of impeaching her.

Speaking a day after suffering a major defeat in the lower chamber of Congress, Rousseff says she will continue fighting those trying to remove her from office.

In her words, "I have the energy, strength and courage to confront this injustice."

A government supporter cries after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, outside Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

The measure to impeach Rousseff now goes to the Senate. If the Senate takes it up, she will be suspended while a trial is conducted.

Rousseff is accused of using state bank money to plug holes in the federal budget. She argues that previous presidents did similar things and stresses that she has not been charged with a crime.

Anti-government demonstrators celebrate after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. The signs behind read in Portuguese: "Get out Dilma! Get our Lula! Get out Workers Party!" (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

A pro-government demonstrator cries as she watches the vote count broadcast live on a screen, as lawmakers decide on whether or not to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The vote will determine whether the impeachment proceeds to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of violating Brazil's fiscal laws to shore up public support amid a flagging economy. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Opposition lawmakers celebrate after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Anti-government demonstrators burn a Workers Party flag after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. (AP Photo/Joedson Alves)

An anti-government demonstrator holding a statue of Our Lady of Aparecida celebrates after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. (AP Photo/Joedson Alves)

Anti-government demonstrators celebrate after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Supporters of President Dilma Rousseff play cards in their makeshift camp, as they wait for buses to return them to their homes, in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 18, 2016. Brazilian legislators pushing to remove Rousseff for alleged fiscal irregularities won a major victory Sunday in the lower house of Congress, gaining a 367-137 vote in favor of her impeachment. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
World Bank urges donors to fulfill Gaza pledges

JERUSALEM (AP)  After Israel's war against Gaza militants in 2014, Arab countries led the way in pledging reconstruction aid to the devastated seaside enclave. But a new report released Monday by the World Bank shows that Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab donors have delivered only a small fraction of what was promised.

The World Bank released its report a day before a gathering of international donor countries in Brussels, sending the meeting a stark message that donations are well behind the schedule set when pledges were made at an international conference in October 2014.

"Actual disbursements fall short of planned disbursements by around $1.3 billion, and hence, donors are urged to accelerate the disbursement of funds," the report said. If donor funding continues at the current pace, it added, pledges are expected to be complete by mid-2019, some two years behind schedule.

FILE - In this Aug. 11, 2014 photo, Palestinian Ziad Rizk sits with others in a shelter made of a blanket stretched over four boles next to one of the destroyed Nada Towers, where he lost his apartment and clothes shop, in the town of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip. A new report released Monday, April 18, 2016, by the World Bank shows that Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab donors have delivered only a small fraction of aid that was promised to help the devastated seaside enclave after Israels war against Gaza militants in 2014. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

Israel launched the war in July 2014 in what it said was a campaign to halt heavy rocket fire from the territory, which is ruled by the Islamic militant group Hamas. During 50 days of fighting, more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed, over half of them civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian estimates. Seventy-three people, including six civilians, were killed on the Israeli side.

The fighting also inflicted heavy damage on Gaza, damaging or destroying some 171,000 homes, according to U.N. figures. The Palestinians say 75,000 people remain homeless. Israel says Hamas is responsible for the damage, noting the group used residential neighborhoods for cover as it fired rockets, triggering Israeli retaliation.

At the 2014 conference in Cairo, the international community pledged some $3.51 billion in aid over three years to rebuild Gaza. According to Monday's report, as of the end of March, $1.41 billion has been delivered, compared to $2.71 billion that should have arrived by now.

Qatar led the list of donors in 2014, pledging $1 billion. The energy-rich country's foreign minister at the time, Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, denounced the "international silence" that surrounded Gaza's destruction.

"While the Palestinian people need financial support, they need more political support from the international community," he said at the time.

Yet a year and half later, Qatar has delivered only $152 million, or 15 percent of what was promised, according to the World Bank.

Saudi Arabia, the No. 2 donor, has delivered just over 10 percent of the $500 million it pledged, while the United Arab Emirates has sent just 15 percent of the $200 million it promised and Kuwait has delivered none of the $200 million it pledged. Turkey, one of Hamas' closest allies, has delivered about one-third of the $200 million it pledged.

In Ankara, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said that Turkish aid is expected to reach up to $250 million by the 2017 target date "and therefore to exceed the pledge that was made." The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.

Officials from the Gulf Arab countries were not immediately available for comment.

In contrast, the United States, the No. 4 donor, has delivered all of the $277 million it pledged, while the European Union, the No. 3 donor, has sent nearly three-quarters of the $348 million it promised, according to the figures. Individual European nations, including Norway, Switzerland, Germany and the U.K. have all sent most or all of the aid they pledged.

The international aid is meant to pass through the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, bypassing Hamas. Last week, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah urged donor countries to "make good on their pledges." For years, the Palestinians, who rely heavily on donor aid to prop up their self-rule government, have complained that Arab allies have been slow in delivering promised assistance.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri urged donors to fulfill their pledges, warning that ongoing harsh conditions in Gaza could lead to renewed violence.

"Unfortunately, there are broken promises and betrayal from the donor parties in the reconstruction file," he said. "We call on all parties to honor their pledges because the situation in Gaza is catastrophic."

Donor aid is just one component of rescuing the embattled Palestinian economy, and in its report, the World Bank also took aim at Israel.

Monday's report said the Palestinian Authority is losing about $285 million each year under existing economic agreements with Israel. In interim peace deals in the 1990s, Israel agreed to collect taxes on behalf of the Palestinians and transfer the money each month.

The World Bank said some of the arrangements have become outdated, while others have not been fully implemented due to "tax leakages" on trade with Israel and undervaluing Palestinian imports from other countries.

The report also said that Israel is holding some $669 million in revenues owed to the Palestinians, mostly pension contributions collected from Palestinians working in Israel and their employers. It said the Palestinian Authority has not yet created a dedicated pension fund for these workers, holding up the money.

It said that an Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza after Hamas seized power in 2007, "continues to weigh on the economy." It also said that Egypt's closure of its border crossing with Gaza, the main gateway for people moving in and out of the territory, has "further exacerbated the situation."

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Associated Press writer Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2016 photo, a Palestinian woman hangs clothes in a section of a damaged apartment block, which was partially destroyed during the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip. A new report released Monday, April 18, by the World Bank shows that Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab donors have delivered only a small fraction of aid that was promised to help the devastated seaside enclave after Israels war against Gaza militants in 2014. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa, File)

FILE - In this July 23, 2015 photo, two Palestinian boys stand outside a tent, background, watching workers rebuild a house which was destroyed during the 2014 summer war between Israel and Hamas, as the long-awaited reconstruction began in Shijaiyah neighborhood eastern Gaza City. A new report released Monday, April 18, 2016, by the World Bank shows that Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab donors have delivered only a small fraction of aid that was promised to help the devastated seaside enclave after Israels war against Gaza militants in 2014. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

FILE - In this July 23, 2015 photo, Palestinian workers prepare rebar to rebuild a house which was destroyed during the 2014 summer war between Israel and Hamas, as the long-awaited reconstruction began in Shijaiyah neighborhood eastern Gaza City. A new report released Monday, April 18, 2016, by the World Bank shows that Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab donors have delivered only a small fraction of aid that was promised to help the devastated seaside enclave after Israels war against Gaza militants in 2014. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, July 23, 2015 photo, Palestinian workers prepare rebar to rebuild a house which was destroyed during the 2014 summer's war between Israel and Hamas, as the long-awaited reconstruction began in Shijaiyah neighborhood eastern Gaza City. A new report released Monday, April 18, 2016, by the World Bank shows that Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab donors have delivered only a small fraction of aid that was promised to help the devastated seaside enclave after Israels war against Gaza militants in 2014. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 4, 2014 photo, a Palestinian woman passes by rescuers inspecting the rubble of destroyed houses following Israeli strikes in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. A new report released Monday, April 18, 2016, by the World Bank shows that Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab donors have delivered only a small fraction of aid that was promised to help the devastated seaside enclave after Israels war against Gaza militants in 2014. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
Trump can still clinch GOP nomination before the convention

WASHINGTON (AP)  To all the political junkies yearning for a contested Republican convention this summer: not so fast.

It's still possible for Donald Trump to clinch the nomination by the end of the primaries on June 7. His path is narrow and perilous. But it's plausible and starts with a big victory Tuesday in his home state New York primary.

Trump is the only candidate with a realistic chance of reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the July convention in Cleveland. His rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, can only hope to stop him.

FILE - In this April 15, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in Hartford, Conn. To all the political junkies yearning for a contested Republican convention this summer: Not so fast. Its still possible for Donald Trump to clinch the nomination by the end of the primaries on June 7. His path is narrow and fraught with peril. But its plausible and starts with a big win on Tuesday in his home state New York primary. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

If Cruz and Kasich are successful, politicos across the country will have the summer of their dreams  a convention with an uncertain outcome. But Trump can put an end to those dreams, and he can do it without any of the 150 or so delegates who will go to the convention free to support the candidate of their choice.

What comes next isn't a prediction, but rather, a way in which Trump could win the nomination outright on June 7.

To be sure, Trump will have to start doing a lot better than he has so far. He gets that chance starting Tuesday, beginning the day with 744 delegates.

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NEW YORK

There are 95 delegates at stake in the Empire State, and it's important for Trump to win a big majority of them. It won't be easy.

There are 14 statewide delegates and three delegates in each congressional district.

If a candidate gets more than 50 percent of the statewide vote, he gets all 14 delegates. Otherwise, he has to share them with other candidates.

If a candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in a congressional district, he gets all three delegates. Otherwise, again, he has to share.

Trump leads statewide in the most recent preference polls, with right around 50 percent. New York is a large and diverse state, so he probably won't win all the congressional districts.

Let's say Trump does make it to 50 percent, but Kasich or Cruz wins five congressional districts; Trump will take 77 delegates on the night.

Trump's running total: 821 delegates.

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APRIL 26

Five states have primaries on April 26, with 172 delegates at stake: Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Rhode Island.

Pennsylvania could be trouble for Trump. The state has a unique system in which 54 delegates  three from each congressional district  are listed by name on the ballot, with no information for voters to know which candidate they support.

That means even if Trump wins Pennsylvania, he's only guaranteed to claim 17 of the state's 71 delegates.

Connecticut awards 13 delegates to the statewide winner and three to the winner of each congressional district, for a total of 28. The New York real estate mogul needs to win his neighboring state. If he does well, he could get 22 delegates.

Delaware's 16 delegates are winner-take-all, increasing the importance of this small state. If Trump loses Delaware, he has to make it up elsewhere.

Maryland awards 14 delegates to the statewide winner and three to the winner of each congressional district, for a total of 38. Recent polls show Trump with a significant lead. If he does well, he could get 32 delegates.

Trump can afford to lose Rhode Island, which awards its 19 delegates proportionally.

In all, it's a day on which we'll say Trump claims 93 delegates.

Trump's running total: 914.

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MAY

Five states hold contests in May, with a total of 199 delegates at stake: Indiana, Nebraska, West Virginia, Oregon and Washington State.

Indiana's May 3 primary is important for Trump. The state awards 30 delegates to the statewide winner and three delegates to the winner of each congressional district, for a total of 57. If Trump can win the state and a majority of the congressional districts, he could collect 45 delegates.

West Virginia is another unique state in which voters elect 31 delegates in the May 10 primary. In West Virginia, however, the delegates will be listed on the ballot along with the presidential candidate they support. If Trump does well here, he could pick up 20 or more delegates.

Nebraska's 36 delegates are winner-take-all. But if Nebraska is like its neighbors Kansas and Iowa, two states Cruz won earlier in the race, Trump can't count on these delegates.

Oregon and Washington state award delegates proportionally, so even the losers get some.

We'll give Trump 70 delegates for the month.

Trump's running total: 984.

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JUNE 7

This could be Trump's D-Day. Or his Waterloo.

Five states vote on June 7, with 303 delegates up for grabs. The biggest prize is California, along with New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana and New Mexico.

The only state Trump can afford to lose is New Mexico, which awards 24 delegates proportionally.

New Jersey, South Dakota and Montana are winner-take-all, with a total of 107 delegates.

California is more complicated, with 172 delegates at stake. The statewide winner gets only 13. The other 159 are awarded according to the results in individual congressional districts.

Each of the state's 53 congressional districts has three delegates. You win the district, you get all three.

For Trump to clinch the nomination on June 7  the last day of the primary season  he has to win a big majority of California's congressional districts. If he wins 39 districts, he gets 130 delegates.

On the last voting day of the primary campaign, we'll say Trump wins 242 delegates.

Trump's running total: 1,226  or 11 delegates short of the magic number.

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OH, WAIT!

Missouri has certified the results of its March 15 primary, with Trump beating Cruz by 1,965 votes. If the results survive a potential recount, Trump wins Missouri and another 12 delegates.

Trump's total: 1,238.

Cue the balloons.

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter at http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures during a campaign event in Hartford, Conn., Friday, April 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Obama's first farewell tour starts with damage control

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Barack Obama sets out this week on his first in a series of international farewell tours, a sometimes wistful tradition for presidents in legacy mode. But in a reminder of this president's uneven ties to allies, Obama's first stop will involve more damage control than nostalgia, more friction than fondness.

When Obama lands in Riyadh on Wednesday for a Persian Gulf summit, he'll be met by leaders roiled by his recent public complaints about global "free riders" and harboring deep distrust of his dealings with Iran and his posture in Syria. Before heading on to what will likely be valedictory visits to Great Britain and Germany, the White House will be tasked with providing some measure of reassurance to a set of allies that remain critical of U.S. counterterrorism goals  even as they increasingly look to his successor.

"I think the trip is to reassure Arab allies that the United States is there for the long run and not cutting and running," said David Ottaway, a Middle East expert at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank.

In this April 5, 2016, photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington. The president's trip to the Middle East and Europe may have been planned as the first in a series of farewell visits, but it's shaping up to be a reassurance tour. When Obama lands in Saudi Arabia, Britain and Germany this week, he'll be met by leaders who share worries about the United States' long-term commitment to them and irritation at him describing them as international "free riders." (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Obama has appeared to be more in the mood for frank talk than handholding.

In an interview published in the Atlantic magazine this month, the president broadly blasted allies who don't pull their weight and too often look to the U.S. to provide security. Even more eyebrow-raising in Riyadh, the president argued that the Saudis and Iran "need to find an effective way to share the neighborhood and institute some sort of cold peace"  an insult to the Saudis who view Tehran as a bitter, destabilizing foe.

The president's comments reflect the firm belief that "ultimately there's not a military resolution to the challenges in the region," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said.

Obama's first meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council last year at Camp David was focused on addressing these worries as the U.S. tried to build support for its nuclear deal with Iran. His recent comments ensure that reassuring them about Iran will remain a major piece of the follow up meeting this week with the group, which includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Oman.

In talks leading to the summit, officials from the United States and Persian Gulf states have discussed ways the U.S. can back up that reassurance, including help with new counterterrorism, military, missile defense and cybersecurity capabilities. The U.S. recently pledged $139 million in humanitarian aid for Yemen, where the Saudis are embroiled in a proxy war in with Iran.

The Saudis have long pushed, with no success, for more aggressive U.S. military action to counter Iran in Syria and Iraq, a position that sets up tense talks between Saudi King Salman and Obama over shaky prospects for negotiations about the political future in Syria. The U.S. and the Saudis are divided over what to do if the talks fall apart. Saudi Arabia and several gulf states maintain President Bashar Assad must go, under military threat, if necessary, while the U.S. backs a transition plan that would allow Assad to remain in power for months.

The U.S.-Saudi alliance is under pressure on other fronts. Amid persistent suspicions in the U.S. that elements of the Saudi government were involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, the Saudis recently lobbied against legislation that would allow Sept. 11 victims' families to hold the government liable in U.S. court. The White House says it opposes the bill because it could expose Americans overseas to legal risk.

"If we open up the possibility that individuals in the United States can routinely start suing other governments, then we are also opening up the United States to being continually sued by individuals in other countries," Obama said in an interview with CBS News.

Saudi Arabia is cooperating with efforts to trim the population of prisoners being held at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Pentagon announced Saturday that nine Guantanamo detainees had been transferred to Saudi Arabia, cutting the number of detainees there to 80.

The U.S. is coming to the summit with some requests. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said the president will push Gulf states to contribute economic aid to the effort to rebuild regions of Iraq devastated by the war against the Islamic State extremists.

Obama has recently said his biggest mistake was not focusing on reconstruction after the military invention in Libya, leaving the country in ruins and a breeding ground for radicals. The White House has said Obama hopes the U.S.  and more pointedly, its allies  learn from that error.

That's a message Obama is likely to carry on with him to Europe, where he is likely to get a warmer reception.

The president remains popular in the UK and Germany and on his final visits, where he will lunch with Queen Elizabeth and hobnob with business leaders at a German industrial fair, he's likely to try to trade on that political capital.

The White House has said Obama will make the case for why Britain should stay in the European Union, potentially providing a boost to a struggling Prime Minister David Cameron. He and first lady Michelle Obama will also have dinner with Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, along with Prince Harry, according to Kensington Palace.
Philippine presidential front-runner's rape remark condemned

MANILA, Philippines (AP)  The Australian ambassador and Philippine presidential candidates condemned the leading contender's remark at a campaign rally last week that he "should have been the first" to rape an Australian missionary who was assaulted and killed by prisoners in 1989.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was speaking about the killings of 36-year-old Australian Jacqueline Hamill and four other missionaries during a hostage situation at a prison in his city. Soldiers stormed the prison after learning that a male hostage had been killed and female hostages were raped. All 16 convicts and five of the 15 hostages died.

"What came to my mind was they raped her, they took turns raping her," Duterte said at the rally last Tuesday. "Why did I get angry  because she was raped? Yes, that's part of the reason, but also because she was so beautiful and the mayor should have been first."

FILE - In this March 10, 2016 file photo, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte talks to the media prior to addressing seafarers organization in Manila, Philippines. The Australian ambassador and Philippine presidential candidates condemned Duterte's, the leading contender, remark made Tuesday, April 12, 2016, at a campaign rally that he "should have been the first" to rape an Australian missionary who was assaulted and killed by prisoners in 1989. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

His supporters attending the rally laughed and cheered at the comments, making Duterte smile, as seen in YouTube video. But other politicians and social media users criticized the comments.

Australia's Ambassador Amanda Gorely tweeted late Sunday that "rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialized" and "violence against women and girls is unacceptable anytime, anywhere."

Senator Grace Poe, Duterte's closest rival according to recent surveys, said Monday that Duterte's comment "is distasteful and unacceptable, and reflects his disrespect for women."

"You are a crazy maniac who doesn't respect women and doesn't deserve to be president," said Vice President Jejomar Binay, another contender in the May 9 presidential election.

Former Interior Secretary and administration presidential candidate Mar Roxas said "anyone who laughs at the ultimate assault on the dignity of women should not be allowed to wield power."

Duterte has refused to apologize for his comment, saying the gutter language was uttered in anger over the killing of the hostages in 1989. But he apologized to the Filipino people because the hostage situation had turned violent and gory.

"It was said in anger, I was not joking," he said. "I said, this one, she's beautiful, like an actress, son of a bitch they beat me to her. Kill them all."
Poll: Americans angry with federal government, happy at home

CHICAGO (AP)  All that talk of an angry America?

An Associated Press-GfK poll finds that most Americans are happy with their friends and family, feel good about their finances and are more or less content at work. It's government, particularly the federal government, that's making them see red.

Almost 8 in 10 Americans say they're dissatisfied or angry with the way the federal government is working, while about the same proportion say they're satisfied or enthusiastic about their personal lives. Republicans are far more likely to be angry  half of GOP voters, compared with about one-quarter of Democrats or independents  and those Republicans are much more supportive of Donald Trump, the front-runner for the party's presidential nomination.

In this photo taken Feb. 9, 2016, The Capitol Dome is visible through a window in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington. An Associated Press-GfK poll finds that most Americans are happy with their friends and family, feel good about their finances and are more or less content at work. Its government, particularly the federal government, thats making them see red. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Still, anger isn't so much driven by political ideology as it is by an overall disdain for a political system that doesn't seem to be working, voters said in follow-up interviews. They're upset with both parties, as well as career politicians and Washington insiders who, those surveyed said, don't put their constituents' interests first.

"There are too many lobbyists and people who are not really working for the people anymore. They're working to line their own pockets," said 37-year-old Greg Boire of Belding, Michigan, who works as a bank customer service representative and voted for Trump in that state's Republican primary. "It happens on both sides. ... It's just the whole government in general."

John Santoro of San Jose, California, a 58-year-old market development manager for a company that makes semiconductor-related products, said he's doing well financially but is angry about a lack of progress to lower the country's debt.

He mostly blames President Barack Obama, but "politicians on both sides of the aisle are to blame because they just can't get anything done. They just fundraise and get contributions from special interests."

The AP-GfK poll showed that angry Republicans such as Boire and Santoro were much more likely than those who are just dissatisfied to have a favorable view of Trump, by 62 percent to 42 percent. Fifty-eight percent of dissatisfied Republicans, but just 36 percent of angry ones, have an unfavorable opinion of Trump.

Both men say they do support Trump  to a point. They believe he could shake up Washington, but worry about his rhetoric and lack of campaign organization.

Boire said he's impressed that Trump is spending his own money and that what he says "is his opinion and not that of the lobbyists." But Boire would be satisfied if the more politically experienced Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won the nomination because Trump "does not have the filter to shut off" negative comments.

Santoro said he might vote for Cruz in the California primary if Trump doesn't "cinch things up" and run a more professional campaign.

Even so, Trump has harnessed anger toward the federal government to win many die-hard supporters, like 58-year-old Debra Waterson of Petoskey, Michigan. She supported Obama in 2008 and former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., four years ago.

She's upset that the gun lobby has a strong influence in Washington and that the Senate won't vote on Obama's nominee for Supreme Court. But she's even angrier about the economy and foreign trade deals, so she voted for Trump in the Republican primary.

"Up here in northern Michigan, there is so much unemployment and so many can't afford to eat or buy medicine," said Waterson, who said her family is getting by.

In the Democratic race against Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also has drawn support of voters who say they're fed up with the federal government.

Retired Miami postal worker Kenneth Olinsky, a Sanders supporter, said he's angry at Republicans in Congress for being "obstructionist" on legislation that could help working-class or low-income families.

"They haven't done anything for the people as much as they've done for the wealthy and for businesses," said Olinsky, 61. "There is a definite class system in this country; it's the haves against the have nots."

In the poll, people were slightly more likely to describe the economy as good than they were in February, 45 percent to 41 percent. Despite the current uptick, 54 percent describe the economy as poor.

Still, two-thirds or more of Democrats and Republicans say they're at least satisfied with their personal and family relationships, financial situations, careers, and work-life balance. Independents lag behind on each of those measures, but are still more likely than not to be satisfied with each.

But the vast majority of Americans  71 percent  still think the country is headed in the wrong direction. Nearly half of Democrats, but less than 1 in 10 Republicans, think the country is headed in the right direction.

Christopher Ashby, 32, a stay-at-home dad in Albemarle, North Carolina, who describes himself as a very conservative Republican and firm Trump supporter, said he is angry about government handouts for people and corporations and the influence of lobbyists and special-interest groups.

"For everyone in politics at this moment, it's a career, and nobody is in this career to help the little person," said Ashby. "We need a complete whitewash of the system (because) politics should ... be something you do because you love helping the people."

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The AP-GfK Poll of 1,076 adults was conducted online March 31-April 4, using a sample drawn from GfK's probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Respondents were first selected randomly using telephone or mail survey methods and later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn't have access to the Internet were provided access for free.

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Swanson reported from Washington.

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Online:
PICTURED: Editor selections from the past week in Asia

Two nights of terrifying earthquakes struck southern Japan's Kyushu island within 28 hours, flattening houses, crumpling roads and causing a giant Shinto shrine to collapse to the ground.

Photos captured the destruction inflicted by the quakes that hit late Thursday and early Sunday. They killed at least 42 people, caused landslides and forced some 180,000 residents to evacuate their homes.

In other images from around Asia last week, U.S. military members in India paid final respects to what they believe are the remains of one to two crew members from a B-24 bomber that crashed during World War II on a supply run from India to China over the Himalayas.

In this Saturday, April 16, 2016, photo, a resident stands in front of damaged house in Mashiki, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. A powerful earthquake struck southwestern Japan early Saturday, barely 24 hours after a smaller quake hit the same region. (Naoya Osato/Kyodo News via AP, File) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT

Bangladesh said it was closing its notorious 18th-century Dhaka Central Jail, and high school students in South Korea held candles to remember the victims of the ferry disaster two years ago that took the lives of more than 300 people, most of them school kids.

Revelers in Thailand sprayed water on each other during the annual Songkran water festival, while Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate stood in front of the Taj Mahal as they wound up a weeklong visit to India and neighboring Bhutan.

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This gallery was curated by Associated Press photo editors Karly Domb Sadoff in Bangkok and Masayo Yoshida in Tokyo.

In this Saturday, April 16, 2016 photo, a landslide is seen after the earthquake in Minamiaso, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan. A powerful earthquake struck southern Japan early Saturday, barely 24 hours after a smaller quake hit the same region. (Kyodo News via AP, File) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT

In this Friday, April 15, 2016 photo, a resident walks past collapsed houses in Mashiki, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan, after a magnitude-6.5 earthquake. The powerful earthquake struck Thursday night, knocking down houses and buckling roads. (Ryosuke Uematsu/Kyodo News via AP, File) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT

In this Sunday, April 17, 2016 photo, a man walks at a damaged area by earthquakes in Minamiaso, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. Two nights of increasingly terrifying earthquakes flattened houses and triggered major landslides in southern Japan. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

In this Sunday, April 17, 2016 photo, a Shinto priest examines the damage of the historic Aso Shrine collapsed by powerful earthquakes in Aso, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. Two nights of increasingly terrifying earthquakes flattened houses and triggered major landslides in southern Japan. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

In this Monday, April 11, 2016 photo, a man walks past a worker smoking on a bulldozer parked by a construction site at the Central Business District in Beijing. China will remain the main driver of growth in Asia this year despite its prolonged slowdown, helped by sustained expansions in other developing countries in the region, the World Bank said Monday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

In this Thursday, April 14, 2016 photo, a Chinese national flag flutters against the office buildings at the Shanghai Bund shrouded by pollution and fog in Shanghai, China. World finance officials who meet in Washington this week confront a bleak picture: Eight years after the financial crisis erupted, the global economy remains fragile and at risk of another recession. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

In this Wednesday, April 13, 2016 photo, U.S. military members pay final respects to what they believe may be the remains of one to two crew members from a B-24 bomber that crashed during World War II at a ceremony at the Palam airport, in New Delhi, India. The bomber was on a supply run from India to China over the Himalayan Mountains when it went missing in 1944. The return of the remains to the U.S. represents the first repatriation of WWII-era remains from India. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)

In this Tuesday, April 12, 2016 photo, a Chinese People's Liberation Army soldier adjusts a hat of a member of an honor guard as they prepare for a welcome ceremony for visiting Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

In this April 10, 2016 photo, a prison guard looks over a busy street adjoining the Dhaka Central Jail in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The government is closing its notorious 18th-century prison where sensational political killings over decades have targeted people on both sides of the South Asian country's 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad, File)

In this Friday, April 15, 2016 photo, High school students hold candles to pay their respects to the victims of the sunken ferry Sewol during a ceremony on the eve of the second anniversary of the ferry sinking in Ansan, South Korea. Two year ago, as South Korea writhed in grief and fury after more than 300 people, most of them school kids, drowned in a ferry sinking, it seemed things would never be the same.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

In this Thursday, April 14, 2016 photo, Filipino children walk under the shade of trees at the business district of Makati, south of Manila, Philippines. Summer months in the Philippines starts from March to May. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

In this Wednesday, April 13, 2016 photo, local and foreign revelers douse each other with water during the Songkran "water" festival in a popular tourist area of Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok, Thailand. The Songkran festival, also known as the Thai New Year or Thailand Water Festival, was originally celebrated as a way to offer good fortune to elders and pay their respects to the beloved Buddha. Today the festival has transformed into 3 days of water fun, splashing locals and visitors alike with buckets of water, water hoses and super soakers as they gather in the streets. (AP Photo/Jason Corben, File)
The Latest: Ecuador says death toll from quake jumps to 413

PORTOVIEJO, Ecuador (AP)  The Latest on Ecuador's devastating earthquake (all times local):

6:25 p.m.

Ecuador's government says the death toll from the weekend's powerful earthquake has climbed to 413.

Firefighters recover a body from the debris of a collapsed building felled by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Monday, April 18, 2016. The Saturday night quake left a trail of ruin along Ecuadors normally placid Pacific Ocean coast. At least 350 people died and thousands are homeless. President Rafael Correa said early Monday that the death toll would surely rise, and in a considerable way. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

The increase came in the government's latest bulletin on casualties from the powerful 7.8-magnitude quake that hit the country's Pacific coastline.

About 2,500 people are listed as injured.

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5:50 p.m.

The U.N. humanitarian chief is going to Ecuador to see the impact of the earthquake and mobilize financial support from donors.

The U.N. humanitarian office says Stephen O'Brien is to fly there Monday night and is expected to meet with people in affected communities as well as senior officials, emergency responders and humanitarian organizations.

O'Brien is also the U.N. emergency relief coordinator and has already sent a disaster and assessment coordination team to Ecuador.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says UNICEF has delivered 20,000 water purification tablets to Pedernales, which is in an area of heavy damage. And the U.N. refugee agency said Monday that it is preparing for a major aid airlift to help people displaced by the quake, in response to a request for U.N. help from Ecuador's government.

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4 p.m.

At least one American is among the 350 confirmed dead from Ecuador's powerful earthquake.

State Department spokesman John Kirby hasn't identified the dead American, but says U.S. officials have been in touch with the victim's family.

Kirby says the U.S. will continue to work with Ecuadorean authorities to verify the welfare and whereabouts of all U.S. citizens.

The area of pristine beaches hardest hit by the quake is popular with American tourists and ex-pats.

Earlier, Canada said two of its citizens were killed.

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1 p.m.

A relative is confirming that two members of a Quebec family were among those killed during a massive earthquake in Ecuador over the weekend.

Guy Laflamme tells Montreal radio station 98.5 FM that his nephew's wife, Jennifer Mawn, and their son, Arthur Laflamme, were among the hundreds reported dead after the roof of a residence collapsed on them.

Laflamme says his nephew, Pascal Laflamme, and his family had moved to Ecuador recently.

He said Monday Pascal had been chatting on FaceTime with his father in Quebec when the magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit Saturday night.

He said "Pascal shouted, 'get out! get out!' and all communication was cut off."

Mawn was a neuropsychiatrist who founded a clinic working with children and teens in Longueuil, south of Montreal.

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9:45 a.m.

Rescuers and aid from all over the world are flooding into Ecuador as survivors start a second day in towns flattened by the quake, and the search for people trapped beneath the rubble continues.

Ecuador's Foreign Affairs Minister Guillaume Long says hundreds of international aid workers are already in place. Mexico has sent 120 helpers, Spain sent 80 rescue experts and Chile sent 49 firefighters. Missions have also arrived from Peru, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Switzerland.

Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. will help in any way possible.

International aid groups have dispatched doctors and psychologists, and dogs trained to search for survivors. Workers are also setting up plants to clean drinking water.

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8:05 a.m.

Ecuador's security minister says the death toll from the country's devastating earthquake has risen to 350.

Cesar Navas tells the Teleamazonas station that rescuers are continuing to seek more victims and survivors in collapsed buildings after Saturday night's magnitude-7.8 quake.

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6:15 a.m.

The Spanish Red Cross says as many as 100,000 people may need assistance in the area of Ecuador devastated by a magnitude-7.8 earthquake that killed at least 272 people and injured thousands.

The group says in a statement that there is no official estimate yet on the number of affected people but it estimates that between 70,000 and 100,000 will need some kind of help. It says that 3,000 to 5,000 people need temporary housing after the quake flattened homes.

Spain's Red Cross says it is helping the Ecuadorean Red Cross evaluate need for the coastal area devastated by the quake.

The statement says about 800 volunteers and staff members with the Ecuadorean Red Cross are involved with search and rescue operations and helping provide first aid and other services to people in the quake zone.

As aid poured into Ecuador, the country's security coordination office issued a tweet thanking Mexico for sending 120 rescue workers.

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5:35 a.m.

New aftershocks are rattling Ecuador  part of the hundreds following a deadly magnitude-7.8 earthquake that has killed at least 272 people in the Andean nation.

Ecuador's Geophysics Institute says 230 aftershocks had hit as of Sunday night, ranging in magnitude from 3.5 to 6.1 and striking at shallow depths.

The institute also sent out a steady stream of tweets Monday morning each time a new aftershock was registered. Most were happening in the Pacific Ocean near the hard-hit coastal cities of Pedernales and Manta.

Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, has warned the death toll could rise significantly from Saturday's quake, which also injured more than 2,500 people.

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4:25 a.m.

Spain has sent a military plane with 47 search-and-rescue experts and their five dogs to Ecuador to help authorities look for survivors from the earthquake that killed at least 272 people.

The jet left a military base airport outside Madrid on Monday morning and was expected to arrive in the hard-hit city of Guayaquil in the afternoon.

The 39 soldiers and eight firefighters were sent after Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said the death toll was sure to rise much higher amid evidence some people are still alive underneath rubble.

Correa said earlier that rescue teams were also coming in from Mexico and Colombia. He says the 7.8-magnitude earthquake is the worst natural disaster to befall the Andean nation since a 1949 earthquake in Ambato that killed thousands

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1:25 a.m.

Ecuador's president says the earthquake death toll in country has risen to at least 272 and is sure to go much higher.

After visiting areas hard hit by the quake, President Rafael Correa gave the new count to reporters early Monday and said it would "surely rise, and in a considerable way."

Correa says Ecuador will overcome the tragedy. He says "the Ecuadorean spirit knows how to move forward, and will know how to overcome these very difficult moments."

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1:10 a.m.

As Ecuador digs out from its strongest earthquake in decades, tales of devastating loss are everywhere amid the rubble. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake left a trail of ruin along Ecuador's normally placid Pacific Ocean coast, buckling highways, knocking down an air traffic control tower and flattening homes and buildings. At least 262 people died, including two Canadians, and thousands are homeless.

Portoviejo, a provincial capital of nearly 300,000, was among the hardest hit, with the town's mayor reporting at least 100 deaths. Among them are 17-year-old Sayira Quinde, her mother, father and toddler brother, crushed when a building collapsed on their car.

A grief stricken aunt, Johana Estupinan, is now heading to the town of Esmeraldas, where she will bury her loved ones and break the news to her sister's three now-orphaned children. The Quinde family had driven to her house from their home hours north to drop off Sayira before she was to start classes at a public university on a scholarship to study medicine.

The aunt says "I never thought my life would be destroyed in a minute."

Residents walk past a row of collapsed buildings felled by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Monday, April 18, 2016. The Saturday night quake left a trail of ruin along Ecuadoris normally placid Pacific Ocean coast. At least 350 people died and thousands are homeless. President Rafael Correa said early Monday that the death toll would isurely rise, and in a considerable way.i (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A bulldozer moves rubble after an earthquake in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Sunday, April 17, 2016. Rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble Sunday after the strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast on Saturday. The magnitude-7.8 quake killed hundreds of people. (AP Photo/Carlos Sacoto)

Family members accompany a coffin containing the remains of a loved one who died in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, to a nearby cemetery in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Monday, April 18, 2016. The Saturday night quake left a trail of ruin along Ecuadors normally placid Pacific Ocean coast. At least 350 people died and thousands are homeless. President Rafael Correa said early Monday that the death toll would surely rise, and in a considerable way. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Rescue workers search a collapsed building in Manta, Ecuador, Sunday April 17, 2016. A powerful, 7.8-magnitude earthquake shook Ecuador's central coast on Saturday, killing hundreds and spreading panic as it collapsed homes.(AP Photo/Patricio Ramos)

Volunteers cover a body trapped in a collapsed building, after a massive earthquake in Pedernales, Ecuador, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast, sending the Andean nation into a state of emergency. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

People search a collapsed building in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Sunday April 17, 2016. A magnitude-7.8 quake, the strongest since 1979, hit Ecuador flattening buildings, buckling highways along its Pacific coast and killing hundreds. (AP Photo/Carlos Sacoto)

Vehicles from a car dealership hang on a precipice caused by an earthquake induced landslide in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast, sending the Andean nation into a state of emergency. (AP Photo/Juan Fernando Molina)

Rubble from a collapsed building lays on the ground in Tarqui, the business district of Manta, Ecuador, Sunday, April 17, 2016. A powerful, 7.8-magnitude earthquake shook Ecuador's central coast on Saturday, killing hundreds. (AP Photo/Patricio Ramos)
EU nations seek ways to boost unity government in Libya

BRUSSELS (AP)  European Union nations are seeking out ways to boost the fledgling U.N.-backed national unity government in Libya and even consider moving their naval mission into territorial waters on request to stamp out illegal migration from the north African nation and save lives at sea.

In a common statement after a teleconference with Prime Minister-designate Fayez Serraj late Monday, the 28 EU foreign ministers said they will weigh boosting its Sophia naval operation close to Libya "by enhancing its capacity to disrupt the business model of human smugglers and trafficking networks and to contribute to broader security in support to the legitimate Libyan authorities."

The text didn't specifically mention entering Libyan waters, but EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini suggested what advantages such a move could have. She said that operating only in international waters in the Mediterranean over the past half-year, Sophia has already saved 13,000 lives, arrested 68 smuggling suspects and neutralized 104 vessels as thousands crossed to enter the EU.

In this photo provided by the Libyan Government of National Accord, Libyan prime minister-designate Fayez Serraj , right and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond shake hands for photographers in Tripoli, Libya, Monday, April 18, 2016. Western nations hope the U.N.-backed government, known as the Government of National Accord or the GNA, can unite the country in order to combat an increasingly powerful Islamic State affiliate. (Libyan Government of National Accord via AP)

"Obviously we could do even more, especially in cases where we see people dying at sea inside the Libyan territorial waters," Mogherini said.

The discussions come amid heightened diplomatic activity in the North African nation, which has often been lawless over the past half-decade.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond was the latest EU official to travel to Libya on Monday after his counterparts from Germany and France had done so over the weekend in a concerted effort to boost the authority of Serraj.

He was taken under tight security to the heavily protected naval base where the Serraj's administration is struggling to establish its authority. He said Britain supported Serraj's efforts to "restore peace and stability to the whole of Libya."

Hammond announced a new 10 million pound ($14 million) cash infusion to help the new administration "strengthen political institutions, the economy, security and justice."

The EU reiterated its commitment of 100 million euros ($115 million) in aid.

The West is hoping the new government will unify Libyans and help the country battle a surging Islamic State affiliate.

Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 death of dictator Moammar Gadhafi, with Islamic State group-linked militants gaining in strength as two rival governments grappled for control. One, based in Tripoli, was backed by Islamist militias, while another in eastern Libya was internationally recognized.

The activity in Libya comes at a time when the Balkan Route for migrants into Europe's heartland has been largely closed and fears are increasing that crossings from Libya, with inevitable sinkings, will become much more commonplace again.

The EU's border agency said Monday the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Italy more than doubled last month.

Frontex said in a statement that almost 9,600 migrants attempted the crossing, one of the most perilous sea voyages for people seeking sanctuary or jobs in Europe. The figure is more than four times the 2,283 people who set out in March 2015.

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Lorne Cook contributed to this report.
Queen Elizabeth II to mark 90th birthday at Windsor Castle

LONDON (AP)  The longest-reigning monarch in British history turns 90 on Thursday, but Queen Elizabeth II is not planning a major, fireworks-filled celebration to mark the happy occasion.

Just a gentle stroll outside the grounds of Windsor Castle, the lighting of a beacon, and a night at home with family are all that are on the royal plate.

No, she'll save the pomp and ceremony for her next birthday. The monarch is such an eminent figure in British life that she gets two birthdays each year, one on the actual date of her birth, April 21, and one official birthday in June, when there is at least a reasonable hope of dry, sunny parade weather.

In this 1927 file photo, Princess Elizabeth is taken for a ride in the grounds of Windsor Castle, with her cousin, the honourable Gerald Lascelles, right, son of Princess Royal. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo, file)

Her customary reticence hasn't kept the nation's media from going slightly bonkers at the approaching milestone. ITV has already aired a celebratory "Our Queen at 90" documentary to pump up its Easter ratings, and Tatler magazine not only put the queen on its cover, foregoing the youthful socialites that are its typical cover fare, but published a special supplement in her honor.

The birthday events Thursday can be considered a dress rehearsal for the official celebrations planned in early June. It also opens the door to a rolling birthday season that will last a full six weeks, climaxing with hundreds of celebrations large and small.

"June is when everything is happening. That's the great big extravaganza, the street parties and everything," said Sophia Money-Coutts, Tatler's features director. "From now on, the coverage will be relentless. The republicans will be screaming."

Indeed, it's not a good time for those who oppose the monarchy to peek above the parapet. The British public's considerable affection for the queen surfaces at times of national celebration  witness the million-plus crowd that cheered her outside the Buckingham Palace gates at her Golden Jubilee in 2002.

The queen and the royals have endured some low points in the last two decades, particularly around the time of the death of Princess Diana in 1997, but their popularity has rebounded with the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton and the arrival of their two children, Prince George  now third in line to the throne  and Princess Charlotte.

"It's just a golden moment for the whole family after a tricky few years," Money-Coutts said. "And the queen is the figurehead of all that, with the line of succession pretty assured. They are going through a glorious period."

Elizabeth  with her familiar smile, colorful outfits and eccentric if expensive hats  seems oddly impervious to time. If she is tired, it doesn't show. She has softened her schedule, as a concession to 89 and counting, and she has cut back on grueling plane journeys, but she shows no sign of physical or mental frailty.

Neither does her 94-year-old husband Prince Philip, despite several serious health scares that included a medical intervention to open clogged heart arteries. His face is craggy, but he still carries himself with the upright bearing of the former naval officer that he is.

Both still seem to be going strong, although their children and grandchildren are increasingly stepping in to handle royal duties ranging from the routine, like opening a hospital ward, to the more substantial such as attending a meeting of Commonwealth heads of state.

Elizabeth and Philip say little in public, but the ITV documentary was revealing about the family dynamics because William, Kate and Prince Harry all spoke about the queen, breaking the normal code of silence that governs their relations with an often intrusive news media held responsible by some for cruelly hounding Diana in the final months of her life.

William, who lost his mother Diana when he was just 15, said the queen had helped him in subtle ways by providing stability and encouraging him to find his own footing.

"Growing up, having this figurehead, having this stability above me has been incredible," he said. "I have been able to explore, understand, slightly carve my own path. I greatly appreciate and value that protection."

Kate, a likely future queen who stepped into the limelight when she and William fell in love in their university days in Scotland, praised Elizabeth for making it easier for her to cope with the constant attention her position brings.

"I feel she's been there, a gentle guidance really for me," she said.

The milestone 90th birthday is a happy occasion, one the queen is willing to acknowledge and share with the nation. It was different in September when  by virtue of her father's early death and her own longevity  she surpassed Queen Victoria to earn distinction as the British ruler with the most time on the throne.

While the British press went gaga over her accomplishment, it seemed that for Elizabeth it was a somewhat painful reminder that her father, King George VI, had died suddenly at age 56, making her queen far earlier than had been expected or desired. She was on vacation in Kenya at the time, having left Britain as a princess and returning as a queen in mourning, greeted at the airport by Winston Churchill, the first of many prime ministers.

The queen may be reluctant to make a great fuss over her 90th birthday, but there is little doubt her favorite time of year is approaching. For June means not only her official birthday, and the gala Trooping The Color parade that accompanies it, it also brings the Royal Ascot races that are a highlight of the queen's year, and other races and racing-related events dear to her heart.

Viewers of the ITV documentary couldn't help but notice that the normally reserved queen seemed most animated at the races, even showing surprising foot speed for a woman in her 80s as she tried to get a better view of the home stretch.

"She'll be at Ascot every morning in her pastel-colored suits, studying the Racing Post, talking with her racing manager," Money-Coutts said. "She absolutely loves it."

FILE - In this Saturday, June 13, 2015 file photo, Britain's Prince William holds his son Prince George, with Queen Elizabeth II, right, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and the Prince of Wales during the Trooping The Colour parade at Buckingham Palace, in London. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland, file)

FILE - In this Tuesday, June 8, 1982 file photo, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, left, on Centennial, and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, on Burmese, go horseback riding in the grounds of Windsor Castle, England. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty, file)

FILE - In this Tuesday July 9, 1996 file photo, South African President Nelson Mandela stands with Britain Queen Elizabeth II on his arrival at Buckingham Palace, in London for a state banquet in his honour following his arrival in Britain. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - In this Aug. 4, 1987 file photo, Diana, Princess of Wales, left, and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II smile to well-wishers outside Clarence House in London. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 20, 1946 file photo, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, then Princess Elizabeth, right, enjoys a joke with her father King George VI, in the grounds of the Royal Lodge, Windsor, England. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 24, 1983 file photo, the Queen and Mother Teresa look at the Insignia of the Honorary Order of Merit which Her majesty has just presented to the Lady of Calcutta, at the Rashtrapati Shavar, in New Delhi. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - In this July 30, 1966 file photo, Queen Elizabeth II presents the World Cup, the Jules Rimet trophy, to England's team captain Bobby Moore. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - In this June 5, 1961 file photo, Britains Queen Elizabeth II, center, walks with American President John F. Kennedy, right, and his wife Jacqueline Kennedy, as they enter an ante-room in Buckingham Palace, London. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - In this Nov. 24, 1954 file photo, Elizabeth II of England and Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, wait at Waterloo station for the Queen mother on her return from a month in America. In front, Prince Charles and Princess Anne. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - In this Nov. 20, 1947 file photo, Britain's Princess Elizabeth leaves Westminster Abbey in London, with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, after their wedding ceremony. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo/file)

FILE - In this Aug. 1951 file photo, Princess Elizabeth stands with her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, and their children Prince Charles and Princess Anne at the couple's London residence at Clarence House. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Eddie Worth, file)

FILE - In this 1942 file photo, Princess Elizabeth is pictured as "Prince Florizel", left, and her sister, princess Margaret as "Cinderella", in a pantomime the royal sisters produced in aid of the Royal Household Concerts Well Fund early in London. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - In this Sunday, July 5, 2015 file photo, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II stands with Kate the Duchess of Cambridge whilst pushing Princess Charlotte in a pram as they leave after attending the Christening of Britain's Princess Charlotte at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, England. Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, file)
Man freed in girl's 1957 slaying speaks of prison, future

CHICAGO (AP)  Jack McCullough awoke a few months into his life sentence for the 1957 slaying of an Illinois schoolgirl as his cellmate plunged a shank fashioned from a toothbrush into his face, eventually dislodging his eye.

Multiple inmates had vowed to kill him to avenge Maria Ridulph, he said in phone interviews Sunday and Monday, and his bunkmate was seeking to make good on that pledge. Court records show his cellmate was convicted in the attack, in which McCullough said surgeons at a Chicago hospital were able to save his eye.

McCullough, a former police officer and security guard in Washington state, was released from prison on Friday after a judge vacated his 2012 conviction the same day based on a chief prosecutor's finding that he was 40 miles away when the 7-year-old was abducted, so he couldn't be the killer. The 76-year-old spoke to The Associated Press about his four years behind bars and what comes next: a lawsuit against the state of Illinois.

Jack McCullough, left, smiles from the backseat of his stepdaughter Janey O'Connor's rental car after he was released from the DeKalb County Jail in Sycamore, Ill., Friday, April 15, 2016. An Illinois judge vacated the conviction of the 76-year-old man in a 1957 killing and ordered his immediate release from prison Friday, meaning that one of the oldest cold cases to be tried in U.S. history has officially gone cold again. (Danielle Guerra/Daily Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; CHICAGO TRIBUNE OUT

McCullough said one thing he did not suffer in prison was a guilty conscience.

"I knew damned well I was innocent," said McCullough, speaking by phone from an acquaintance's home near the northern Illinois town of Sycamore, where Maria went missing.

Maria and a friend were playing in the snow outside of her Sycamore home on Dec. 3, 1957, when a young man approached and offered them piggyback rides. The friend dashed home to grab mittens, returning to find Maria and the man gone. The search for Maria made headlines at the time, and her decomposed body was found months later in a forest.

McCullough was born in Belfast, Ireland, and came to the U.S. with his mother in 1946 and settled in Sycamore, where he lived until he was 18. The Ridulphs were neighbors. He then spent 14 years in the military, including a stint in Vietnam. Later, he worked as a police officer in Washington state, and worked as a security guard at a housing complex when he was arrested in 2011.

Among the reasons investigators decided to look anew at McCullough, whom police had cleared as a suspect in the 1950s, was that one of his half-sisters told authorities that their mother said on her deathbed she believed her son may have killed Maria.

A scathing report from Dekalb County State's Attorney Richard Schmack in March described the investigation and trial of McCullough as deeply flawed, zeroing in on what he described as investigators' erroneous statements to a grand jury that altered the known timeline of events to render McCullough's alibi moot.

Most inmates viewed McCullough as the lowest of the low  a child killer  which he says put him in constant peril inside the maximum-security Pontiac Correctional Center until he eventually moved to protective custody.

McCullough said he often spent 23 hours a day locked in an 11-foot-by-5-foot cell, maintaining his emotional balance, he said, by delving into the study of Chinese.

"It gave me my mental escape," he said. "Chinese saved my life."

He also wrote letters to the Illinois attorney general, the governor and president pleading for their intervention. All went unanswered. "I didn't have anger. I had determination," he said.

A turning point in his bid for freedom came Jan. 1, when a new rule took effect that required Illinois state's attorneys to be proactive about reviewing plausible claims someone had been wrongly convicted. McCullough had filed a court document pointing out that obligation to Schmack, whose predecessor prosecuted McCullough.

Now that he is out, McCullough says one of his missions is to highlight what he alleges is a prosecutorial culture of winning at all costs, even in cases like his where evidence doesn't point to guilt.

And a lawsuit would help ensure the state will pay a monetary price for what he and his family went through, especially his wife, who was left on her own in Washington state when he was arrested, he said. He also has stepchildren and grandchildren.

"They didn't just punish me, they punished ... my whole family. I want the state to be (held) responsible."

Schmack said last week that his office would use its discretion and not retry McCullough, who the judge said must stay in Illinois until such a decision is official. There's another hearing Friday, at which a judge will consider a Ridulph family request for a special prosecutor to look at the case.

McCullough's first days of freedom included shopping, taking walks and getting a proper haircut, but in the future, he'd like to write a Chinese-language textbook, as well as travel to both China and Japan.

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Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mtarm

Jack McCullough gives his stepdaughter Janey O'Connor the sign of "I love you" as he sits during a hearing in the DeKalb County Courthouse on Friday, April 15, 2016 in Sycamore, Ill. McCullough who a prosecutor says was wrongly convicted in the 1957 killing of an Illinois schoolgirl was released Friday shortly after a judge vacated his conviction, meaning that one of the oldest cold cases to be tried in U.S. history has officially gone cold again. (Danielle Guerra/Daily Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; CHICAGO TRIBUNE OUT

FILE - In this March 29, 2016, file photo, Jack McCullough appears in court for a hearing on his petition for post-conviction relief at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore, Ill. McCullough, who a prosecutor says was wrongly convicted in the abduction and killing of a 7-year-old Illinois schoolgirl in 1957 will be released from prison, a judge ordered Friday, April 15, 2016. (Danielle Guerra/Daily Chronicle via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT, CHICAGO TRIBUNE OUT(/Daily Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; CHICAGO TRIBUNE OUT

Jack McCullough's stepdaughter Janey O'Connor hugs her cousin Jenn Houton after Judge William Brady released McCullough and granted him a new trial during a hearing in the DeKalb County Courthouse on Friday, April 15, 2016 in Sycamore, Ill. McCullough who a prosecutor says was wrongly convicted in the 1957 killing of an Illinois schoolgirl was released Friday shortly after a judge vacated his conviction, meaning that one of the oldest cold cases to be tried in U.S. history has officially gone cold again. (Danielle Guerra/Daily Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; CHICAGO TRIBUNE OUT
Amid fighting, Syria opposition backs away from Geneva talks

GENEVA (AP)  Syria peace talks ran into trouble on Monday, with the U.N. mediator saying the opposition has suspended its formal participation in the indirect discussions with President Bashar Assad's government to protest "worrisome" new violence, especially near the northern city of Aleppo, and rising concerns about the humanitarian situation.

Staffan de Mistura, the U.N envoy for Syria, said he will press on with the talks despite the suspension by the opposition High Negotiations Committee. The HNC said it would no longer attend meetings at the U.N. office in Geneva that has hosted weeks of on-and-off peace talks aimed ultimately at ending the country's devastating five-year war.

The HNC delegation will remain at their hotel in Geneva, and de Mistura said he will continue "technical" discussions with its envoys by phone or off-site in hopes of firming up a blueprint for a political transition in Syria. He said he would "take stock" of progress toward that goal on Friday.

Syrian chief negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari, Ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of Syria to the United Nations speaks to the media during a press conference after a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

The HNC, in a statement late Monday, said it had asked de Mistura for a "brief hold in order to end the Assad regime's truce violations."

De Mistura has repeatedly said that political transition  as called for under a U.N. Security Council resolution  is "the mother of all issues." On Monday, he acknowledged a "gap" between the two sides on that issue: the HNC wants no role for Assad in any transitional government, and Assad's envoys have proposed a "broad-based government."

The suspension came just hours after Syrian opposition fighters launched a new offensive against government forces in a number of northwestern areas. Rebel groups said attacks in rural parts of Latakia province, a government stronghold, were in retaliation for violations of a U.S. and Russian-brokered cease-fire.

De Mistura said the new fighting in parts of Syria, especially near Aleppo, was "particularly worrisome," and said that he expected that the U.S. and Russia  who are leading oversight of the truce  will hold a special meeting about it "if this trend continues."

In a statement, the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama discussed the situation in Syria and agreed to increase coordination between the special services and militaries of the two countries.

The U.S. state department spokesman John Kirby said that the concerns raised by the opposition before pausing the talks are "concerns we share in terms of the lack of some sort of sustained delivery of humanitarian assistance and what are violations of the cessation of hostilities." He added that despite these violations, the cease-fire had reduced the overall level of violence in Syria.

The HNC's chief negotiator, Mohammed Alloush, said the fragile cease-fire that started in late February "has effectively been ended by the regime." He said government forces carried out 70 air raids on Sunday, Iran had sent in two new fighting groups to help reinforce Assad's troops, and Russia has supplied Syrian soldiers with weaponry.

"All this intervention gives a clear indication that the solution in Syria, with the presence of this regime, has become shut  or we have hit a wall," he told The Associated Press.

In a telephone interview with AP, Khaled al-Nasser, a member of the opposition group the Syrian National Coalition who is in close contact with the HNC, said "there is no intention to boycott the talks. We will not be responsible for the collapse of the negotiations. The regime will be."

The rebels said their offensive came in response to government attacks against refugee camps and residential areas. Different rebel factions shared videos of their fighters lobbing rockets at government positions in the Jabal al-Akrad area, close to the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib. They claimed on social media to have gained ground.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the rebels seized control of at least two areas and said al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, is taking part in the fighting. Neither the Nusra Front nor the Islamic State group is included in the cease-fire.

The cease-fire, which has been planned to help buttress the Geneva talks, had reduced violence across Syria despite alleged violations on both sides. The opposition says the government has breached the agreement more than 2,000 times. De Mistura has said that many Syrian civilians have felt positive effects from the truce overall.

The cease-fire has held in most of Syria, except in the north, where it has practically collapsed. The Nusra Front is deeply rooted in the areas in northern Syria controlled by opposition forces, complicating the oversight of the truce.

A Syrian opposition member in Geneva, Mohammed al-Abboud, said the rebels have the right to defend themselves.

"We have the right to retaliate and defend ourselves in case we are attacked and we will not be silent about any aggression and we will continue our main mission to defend civilians," al-Abboud said in comments published on the SNC's Twitter account.

Syria's U.N. ambassador Bashar Ja'afari, who is leading the government's delegation in Geneva, said rebel fighters had called for a "revocation of the cessation of hostilities." Before de Mistura spoke, Ja'afari said that the government delegation planned to meet with him again on Wednesday.

In Moscow earlier Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the two sides in Geneva should move to direct talks. The two delegations only have met separately with de Mistura, not face-to-face. Lavrov also denied claims that Moscow and Washington were negotiating Assad's departure behind closed doors.

Syria's civil war, which began in 2011, has killed over 250,000 people and displaced millions.

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El Deeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Bishr El Touni in Geneva and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.

A member of the Syrian government holds a bag with the colors of the Syrian flag during a press conference of the Syrian chief negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari, Ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of Syria to the UN after a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

Syrian chief negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari, Ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of Syria to the United Nations speaks to the media during a press conference after a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

Syrian chief negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari, Ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of Syria to the United Nations speaks to the media during a press conference after a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, arrives for a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Pool Photo via AP)

Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, arrives for a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Pool Photo via AP)

Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria attends a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Pool Photo via AP)

Syrian chief negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari, left, Ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of Syria to the UN and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, right, attend a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/ Pool Photo via AP)

Syrian chief negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari, 2nd left, Ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of Syria to the UN and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, 2nd right, attend a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/ Pool Photo via AP)
The Latest: Putin and Obama discuss Syria situation

BEIRUT (AP)  The Latest on the Syrian civil war (all times local):

9:20 p.m.

The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama have discussed the situation in Syria and agreed to increase coordination between the special services and militaries of the two countries.

Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, arrives for a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Pool Photo via AP)

"For this purpose, additional measures for the rapid response to violations of the cease-fire will be worked out," the Kremlin statement said.

In Monday's call, the Kremlin said Putin emphasized the need to distance the moderate opposition from the Islamic State group and the Nusra Front, and also to stop the flow of fighters and arms into Syria from Turkey.

The statement said both presidents stressed the importance of the Geneva talks, which should contribute to finding a political solution to the conflict.

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8:30 p.m.

A Syrian chief opposition negotiator says indirect talks with the government of President Bashar Assad have "hit a wall," speaking after his delegation postponed its participation in the Geneva negotiations.

Speaking to the Associated Press in Geneva, Mohammed Alloush, a chief negotiator for the main opposition coalition, the High Negotiations Committee, says the government has repeatedly violated the cease-fire agreement in effect since late February attacking opposition locations and preventing humanitarian aid from reaching areas controlled by the rebels.

He also said Assad's government continued to receive assistance from its allies Iran and Russia to support its military campaign. Alloush said: "All these interventions give a clear indication that the solution in Syria with the presence of this regime has become shut or we have hit a wall."

The U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura said Monday the HNC will postpone its participation in the formal talks but will remain in Geneva to engage in "technical discussions" with him and his team over the political transition in Syria.

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8:00 p.m.

The Syrian opposition coalition in Geneva says the continuation of peace negotiations amid government attacks and denial of humanitarian access seems "absurd."

The High Negotiations Committee has called for a "serious review" of the talks, saying in a statement Monday that it will postpone its participation in the talks  not walk out  to give time for such a review.

In a statement posted by Riad Agha, a delegation member, on his Facebook page and shared by other opposition members, the HNC said the postponement "is a chance for all to implement (the relevant UN resolution) and to respond to the main issue, which is forming a governing body in which (President Bashar) Assad has no role."

The U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura said he convinced the opposition delegation to remain in Geneva to engage in "technical discussions" with him and his team over Syria's political transition. He didn't elaborate.

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7:45 p.m.

The UN envoy says the Syrian opposition has expressed its "intention to postpone" participation in Geneva peace talks because of government violations of the cease-fire.

Staffan de Mistura said Monday that the negotiations will nevertheless continue as the opposition representatives agreed to stay in Geneva to engage in "technical" discussions on issues of political transition for Syria. He says they will all "take stock" on Friday.

De Mistura says he understands the move by the opposition to be "one way for them to express their displeasure, concern" about the humanitarian situation and the security environment, especially in northern Syria.

6:20 p.m.

Turkish officials say rocket projectiles fired from Syria have killed four Syrians  three of them children  in a Turkish border town.

The governor's office says four rocket projectiles that hit the town of Kilis also wounded a Turkish citizen and five other Syrians.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said earlier that one of the victims was a 40-year-old Syrian shepherd who died when one of the projectiles exploded near a middle school in Kilis.

The town's local population is outnumbered by the Syrian refugees living there.

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6 p.m.

The head of the main Syrian opposition coalition says it is "unacceptable" for the peace talks in Geneva to continue amid government violations of a cease-fire in place since late February.

In a series of comments posted on Twitter Monday, Riad Hijab, the head of the Higher Negotiations Committee, says the Syrian government and its allies have used the talks as a "pretext" for waging their military campaign. He says the government has also kept up its siege of civilian areas.

The U.S. and Russian-brokered cease-fire brought weeks of relative calm to much of Syria, but appears to be breaking down across the north, where insurgents have launched an offensive they say is in retaliation for government breaches.

Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violating the truce.

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5:20 p.m.

The main Syrian opposition group has sent a sharply-reduced delegation to meet with a U.N. mediator in Geneva peace talks, amid renewed rebel fighting on the ground.

A Western diplomat familiar with the talks says the opposition High Negotiations Committee was considering whether to continue participating. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The HNC sent a three-person delegation to meet Monday with U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura, far smaller than the usual 10-15 person delegation that has met with him repeatedly in on-and-off talks since February that have made no tangible progress. No major HNC leaders were among the three.

The group postponed a planned news conference until Tuesday. A Syrian government delegation met with de Mistura earlier on Monday.

 Jamey Keaten in Geneva

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4:50 p.m.

Turkey's state-run news agency says a rocket fired from Syria has killed one person and wounded a second in a border town.

The Anadolu Agency says the rocket exploded near a middle school in the town of Kilis on Monday, wounding a Syrian shepherd and a 14-year-old boy.

Anadolu said the Syrian man died of his wounds in a hospital. The school has been evacuated.

Earlier, two other rockets fired from Syria hit an olive grove and a building used as a storage center for hospital oxygen units, but there were no casualties.

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4:00 p.m.

Turkey's state-run news agency says two rockets fired from Syria have struck an olive grove and a building used to store hospital oxygen units in southern Turkey. No casualties were reported.

Anadolu Agency says the rockets struck the border town of Kilis on Monday. Police increased security in the area surrounding the state hospital.

Kilis witnessed an almost daily salvo of rockets fired from Islamic State-controlled territory last week, which killed one person and wounded several others.

Turkey's military systematically retaliates for rockets or shells that land on Turkish territory in line with its rules of engagement.

The defense minister said last week that Turkish retaliatory strikes against the rockets and shells fired into Turkey have killed 362 militants and wounded 123 others so far this year

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3:30 p.m.

A Syrian government envoy to Geneva peace talks says unspecified new "ideas" were floated in his latest meeting with a U.N. mediator, while using most of his public comments to decry Israel's cabinet meeting in the Golan Heights.

Syria's U.N. ambassador Bashar Ja'afari also criticized statements from rebel fighters that he claimed had called for a "revocation of the cessation of hostilities." Rebel groups announced that they had attacked Latakia province, a Syrian government stronghold, in retaliation for violations of a fragile cease-fire that began in late February.

Speaking to reporters but taking no questions, Ja'afari criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to host a Cabinet meeting in the Golan on Sunday. Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981. Netanyahu said on Sunday that the international community should recognize that "the Golan will forever remain under Israeli sovereignty."

Ja'afari said he would next meet U.N envoy Staffan de Mistura on Wednesday. De Mistura was meeting with the opposition later Monday.

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3:15 p.m.

Russia has called for direct talks between the Syrian government and the opposition.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow on Monday that direct talks between the government and a broad opposition delegation should be launched as part of the Geneva talks.

He also denied allegations that Moscow and Washington were negotiating the departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad behind closed doors.

The talks in Geneva, which resumed last week, have until now been indirect, with a U.N. envoy shuffling between the two delegations.

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2:30 p.m.

Syrian activists and rebels say opposition fighters have launched a new offensive against government forces in a number of areas in the country's northwest.

Rebels groups said in a statement Monday that the attacks in rural parts of the Latakia province, a government stronghold, are in retaliation for violations of a fragile cease-fire that began in late February.

Other fighters attacked government positions in the rural part of the adjacent Hama province.

The U.S. and Russian-brokered cease-fire had reduced violence across Syria despite alleged violations on both sides. The opposition says the government has breached the agreement more than 2,000 times.

The cease-fire was intended to facilitate talks in Geneva, which resumed last week. A Syrian opposition member in Geneva, Mohammed al-Abboud, says they have the right to defend themselves.

Syrian chief negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari, left, Ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of Syria to the UN and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, right, attend a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/ Pool Photo via AP)
Vattenfall to sell German plants, mines to Czech firm EPH

PRAGUE (AP)  Swedish energy producer Vattenfall AB has agreed to sell to a Czech company its four German coal plants and its lignite mining assets, an effort to make its operations more environmentally friendly.

The Swedish company will sell the assets to Energeticky a prumyslovy holding, also know as EPH.

"We want to reduce our CO2 exposure, so for us this is the right thing to do and it frees up resources to focus more on renewable energy," Vattenfall's Chief Executive Magnus Hall said in a statement Monday.

The logo of the Swedish company Vattenfall displayed at their headquarters in Stockholm Monday April 18, 2016. Czech energy company EPH has signed an agreement to acquire from Sweden's Vattenfall AB its German coal plants, a major source of greenhouse gases, and its mining assets. The Swedish company was selling four power plants as well corresponding mining activities, seeking to adjust its energy strategy. (Pontus Lundahl / TT via AP) SWEDEN OUT

"This divestment of our lignite assets is good strategically but also financially given current and expected market conditions," Magnus said. "We are now accelerating our shift towards a more sustainable production. The sale means more than 75 percent of our production will be climate neutral compared to about 50 percent today."

Vattenfall had made large write-downs on its operations in Germany. The Swedish government has also pressured the company to exit its coal-fired power generation in Germany.

EPH was bidding to buy the plants and mines together with PPF Investments, a private equity group.

Vattenfall said its owner, the Swedish government, still has to approve the deal, which is expected to be finalized in a couple of months.

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Serbia sells steel plant to China's Hebei Iron and Steel

SMEDEREVO, Serbia (AP)  Chinese company Hebei Iron and Steel Group has signed an agreement to buy a loss-making Serbian steel plant that was previously owned by Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel.

HBIS signed the 46 million-euro ($52 million) agreement Monday with the Serbian government, which had struggled for years to find a buyer.

The ceremony was broadcast live on Serbian state television, days ahead of an early general vote. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic says the deal is important for the impoverished Balkan nation, which is desperate for foreign investment.
German rejects unilateral moves on Golan Heights

BERLIN (AP)  Germany says a unilateral decision by Israel to keep the Golan Heights would breach international law.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman was responding to a question about comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Sunday that his country will never withdraw from the strategic plateau bordering Syria.

Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981. The move was unanimously rejected the same year by the U.N. Security Council.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer says Monday "it's a basic principle of international law and the U.N. charter that no state can claim the right to annex another state's territory just like that."
Spain will send suspected Paris attack arms dealer to France

MADRID (AP)  A Spanish judge says a man arrested on suspicion of supplying arms used in an attack on a Paris kosher supermarket should be returned to France to face charges.

The judge said in an order issued Monday that Frenchman Antoine Denevi will be returned to his country within 10 days to face charges of trafficking in arms and explosives and membership in a criminal organization.

Denevi was arrested last week in the southern Spanish beach town of Rincon de la Victoria. In an appearance in Madrid's National Court, he denied selling weapons to attackers.

Spain's Interior Ministry said Denevi left France for Spain after the January 2015 attack.
Supreme Court rejects challenge to Google's online library

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court turned away a challenge Monday to Google's online book library from authors who complained that the project makes it harder for them to market their work.

The justices let stand lower court rulings in favor of Mountain View, California-based Google and rejected the authors' claim that the company's digitizing of millions of books amounts to "copyright infringement on an epic scale."

Lower courts have said that Google can provide small portions of the books to the public without violating copyright laws.

The Authors Guild and individual authors first filed their challenge to Google's digital book project in 2005. Google Inc. has made digital copies of more than 20 million books from major research libraries and established a publicly available search function.

In October, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York agreed with a judge who concluded that Google was not violating copyright laws when it showed customers small portions of the books. The authors said the project would spoil the market for their work.

The appeals court said that Google's "snippet view, at best and after a large commitment of manpower, produces discontinuous, tiny fragments, amounting in the aggregate to no more than 16% of a book. This does not threaten the rights holders with any significant harm to the value of their copyrights or diminish their harvest of copyright revenue."

The three-judge appeals panel did acknowledge, though, that some book sales would likely be lost if someone were merely searching for a portion of text to ascertain a fact.

Writers involved in the lawsuit include Jim Bouton, author of the best-seller "Ball Four," Betty Miles, author of "The Trouble with Thirteen," and Joseph Goulden, author of "The Superlawyers: The Small and Powerful World of Great Washington Law Firms."
Officials: Man killed in standoff hit by officers' gunfire

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP)  The State Bureau of Investigation said a man found dead in his North Carolina home after a shootout with police last month did not kill himself.

The News & Record of Greensboro reported (http://bit.ly/1Vdt6ub) that the SBI said it was unclear how many police bullets hit 43-year-old Cristopher Michael Tokazowski in the four-hour standoff March 11 in Greensboro.

Officials said it initially was unclear whether Tokazowski killed himself.

The SBI's Scott Williams said officers and Tokazowski fired more than 100 shots.

Police spokeswoman Susan Danielsen said Tokazowski was white. She said six officers are white, one is Hispanic and one is black. All are suspended.

Officers had been called to Tokazowski's home several times March 11. Police say he fired at them the last time they went to the home.

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Jordan halts plan to install cameras at Jerusalem holy site

AMMAN, Jordan (AP)  Jordan's prime minister on Monday said his government has decided to call off a plan to install surveillance cameras at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, derailing a U.S.-brokered pact to ease tensions at the volatile hilltop compound.

The decision came just days before the Jewish holiday of Passover  a time of increased activity at the site. The spot is revered by Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount, and Muslims, who call it the Noble Sanctuary. It has been a frequent scene of violence in the past.

In a deal brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Jordan offered to install the cameras last fall after clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces.

FILE -- In this July 14, 2015 file photo, Israeli activists hold signs during a demonstration calling for greater Jewish access to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. Jordan's prime minister on Monday, April 18, 2016 said his government has decided to call off a plan to install surveillance cameras at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, derailing a U.S.-brokered pact to ease tensions at the volatile hilltop compound revered by Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount, and Muslims, who call it the Noble Sanctuary. It has been a frequent scene of violence in the past. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)

The Palestinians had accused Israel of secretly plotting to take over the site  a charge Israel strongly denies  while Israel pointed to videos showing Palestinian protesters using the mosque as cover while throwing stones and firecrackers at police. The idea was that transparency by both sides would help ease tensions.

But the plan quickly ran into trouble, with the Palestinians objecting to Israeli demands to place cameras inside the mosque. The Palestinians also said that Israel would use the cameras to spy on them.

Jordan's prime minister, Abdullah Ensour, told the state-run Petra News Agency that Jordan was calling off the plan due to Palestinian concerns.

"We were surprised since we announced our intention to carry out the project by the reactions of some of our brothers in Palestine who were skeptical about the project," he said. "We have found that this project is no longer enjoying a consensus, and it might be controversial. Therefore we have decided to stop implementing it."

The Jordanian decision could deal an embarrassing blow to Kerry, who had hailed the deal when it was announced in October and pushed behind the scenes in recent months for the sides to wrap it up.

In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said it's "unfortunate" that Jordan decided to call off the plan to install the surveillance cameras. He could not say whether Kerry had any plans to revisit the idea with Jordanian authorities.

"We still see the value in the use of cameras," Kirby told reporters.

"I can't tell you at this time that we're going to you know, be assertive in terms of trying to have it revisited," he said. "But it doesn't mean that we've changed our minds with respect to the value of that as a tool to increase transparency.

There was no immediate reaction from Israel.

But the Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs, Adnan Husseini, said "I think it's a wise decision and we are with any decision taken by Jordan, I think Jordan studied the issue wisely and took all the issues into consideration until they reached this wise decision."

The site is revered by Jews as the location where the biblical Temples once stood. Today, it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Under a decades-old arrangement, Jews are allowed to visit the site, but not pray there. Increased visits to the compound last fall by Jewish nationalists, coupled with some restrictions on Muslim access, set off clashes that quickly escalated into months of violence across Israel and the West Bank.

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This story has been corrected to show that the Jordanian prime minister's last name is Ensour, not Enour.

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2012 file photo, Israeli forces take position during clashes with Palestinian worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City. Jordan's prime minister on Monday, April 18, 2016 said his government has decided to call off a plan to install surveillance cameras at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, derailing a U.S.-brokered pact to ease tensions at the volatile hilltop compound revered by Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount, and Muslims, who call it the Noble Sanctuary. It has been a frequent scene of violence in the past. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, File)
Mothers touched by tragedy rally behind Hillary Clinton

NEW YORK (AP)  It wasn't a giant rally with screaming supporters, celebrity friends and a feisty candidate. But the small gathering on behalf of Hillary Clinton in a Brooklyn church still reverberated with emotion.

Sitting in the airy chapel at Mount Ararat Church in Brooklyn, the crowd heard from five women who had lost their children to gun violence or after contact with the police, including the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner. One by one, they shared stories of loss and grief and argued Clinton was the candidate best prepared to take on gun violence and reshape the criminal justice system.

"She was the only candidate that reached out to us," said Sybrina Fulton, whose 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012. "That showed us that our tragedies were important." She said: "It's important that we let our voices be heard and you absolutely can do that at the polls."

FILE - In this Feb. 23, 2016 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, right, speaks next to Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, in Columbia, S.C. Sitting in the airy chapel at Mount Ararat Church in Brooklyn, the crowd heard from five women who had lost their children to gun violence or after contact with the police, including the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner. One by one, they shared stories of loss and grief and argued Clinton was the candidate best prepared to take on gun violence and reshape the criminal justice system. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

More than a dozen of these women have dubbed themselves the "Mothers of the Movement." They met privately with Clinton and each other last year at a Chicago restaurant, pouring out their stories while the Democratic presidential contender took notes. Though Clinton didn't directly ask for endorsements at the time, the women decided to get involved and have campaigned for her in South Carolina, Wisconsin and Ohio. Clinton's campaign pays their travel expenses.

They spent the weekend before Tuesday's New York primary at churches and block parties around New York City, pushing for strong turnout from black voters, who heavily support Clinton and could give her an edge.

"Fill your car up with people," Fulton said. "Just make sure you're taking someone with you...It is so important. It means everything to us. It means everything to our community."

On Sunday morning at a church in Mount Vernon, Clinton introduced three of the mothers, describing their stories in detail and pledging to fight for tougher gun laws  an area where she has repeatedly questioned the record of her primary rival, Bernie Sanders.

"Nobody else running on either side is willing to take the stands that I think must be taken," Clinton said.

Sanders has struggled to win over black voters. He's won the endorsement of Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, a black Staten Island man who died in an apparent police chokehold in 2014. But Eric's mother, Gwen Carr, is backing Clinton, and others in the group are not sold on Sanders, either.

"He's not connected," said Pamela Bosley, whose teenage son Terrell Bosley was shot and killed in Chicago in 2007. "Hillary took the time and came out to Roseland. She came out and walked the neighborhoods."

Still, Clinton has come under criticism from some activists over the 1994 crime bill. It was a signature achievement of her husband, but critics say it contributed to high levels of incarceration for non-violent crimes, like drug offenses. Clinton has said the bill included some good provisions, like money for police officers, an assault weapons ban and an effort to prevent violence against women, but has also said she is sorry for unintended consequences.

The mothers said they did not hold the bill against Clinton. "You're going to tell me that's all you've got?" asked Geneva Reed-Veal. Her daughter Sandra Bland was jailed after a white state trooper pulled her over in July for a minor traffic violation and their exchange turned combative. She was found hanging from a cell partition three days later, her death provoking national outrage.

Many of the women in New York over the weekend say their ties to Clinton go back before the Chicago meeting. Nicole Paultre Bell's fiance, Sean Bell, was fatally shot by New York City detectives on what was supposed to have been his wedding day nearly 10 years ago. She remembers the phone call from then-Sen. Clinton, asking how she and the children were doing.

Some had met before but they credit Clinton with bringing the larger group together.

"Being together helps us because it's such a difficult thing to deal with," said Annette Holt, whose teenage son Blair Holt was shot and killed on a Chicago bus in 2007 as he tried to protect a friend. "I think that by us being involved, we will always be connected."
US to send 200 more troops, Apache helicopters to Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP)  The U.S. has agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send eight Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year, U.S. defense officials said Monday.

The uptick in American fighting forces  and the decision to put them closer to the front lines  is designed to help Iraqi forces as they move to retake the key northern city of Mosul.

Speaking to reporters Monday in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the decision to move U.S. advisers to the Iraqi brigade and battalion level will put them "closer to the action," but he said they will have security forces with them and the U.S. will do what's needed to reduce the risks.

Visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, left, and his Iraqi counterpart Khaled al-Obeidi review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Ministry of Defense, Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, April 18, 2016. (AP Photo)

A senior U.S. official said there will be eight Apache helicopters authorized to help the Iraqi forces when Iraq leaders determine they need them. The official was not authorized to discuss the numbers publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Last June the Obama administration announced that hundreds of troops would be deployed to help the Iraqis retake Ramadi  a goal they accomplished at the end of the year.

President Barack Obama on Monday emphasized the additional troops won't be doing the fighting, but the extra training and intelligence support they provide can "continually tighten the noose."

"As we see the Iraqis willing to fight and gaining ground, let's make sure we're providing them more support," Obama said in an interview with CBS that aired Monday evening.

Obama also predicted success in Mosul: "My expectation is that by the end of the year we will have created the conditions whereby Mosul will eventually fall."

Of the additional troops announced Monday, most would be Army special forces, who have been used throughout the anti-Islamic State campaign to advise and assist the Iraqis. The remainder would include some trainers, security forces for the advisers, and maintenance teams for the Apaches.

The decisions reflect weeks of discussions with commanders and Iraqi leaders, and a decision by Obama to increase the authorized troop level in Iraq by 217 forces  or from 3,870 to 4,087. The advise-and-assist teams  made up of about a dozen troops each  would embed with Iraqi brigades and battalions, likely putting them closer to the front lines and at greater risk from mortars and rocket fire.

The U.S., said Carter, is "on the same page with the Iraqi government" in how to intensify the fight against the Islamic State.

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the deployment of troops was welcome but called it "yet another example of the kind of grudging incrementalism that rarely wins wars, but could certainly lose one."

The proximity to the battlefront will allow the U.S. teams to provide more tactical combat advice as the Iraqi units move toward Mosul, the country's second-largest city, still under Islamic State control. Until now, U.S. advisers have worked with the Iraqis at the headquarters level, well back from the front lines.

Carter called the addition of the Apache helicopters significant, because they can "respond so quickly and so dynamically to an evolving tactical situation."

He said he discussed the Apaches with Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday and "he understood that it would be necessary for just these cases and agreed with me that we would provide it."

Last December, U.S. officials were trying to carefully negotiate new American assistance with Iraqi leaders who often have a different idea of how to wage war. At that time, the Iraqis refused Apache helicopters for the battle to retake Ramadi, saying they didn't think they were needed.

Speaking to U.S. troops at the airport in Baghdad, Carter also said that the U.S. will send an additional long-range, rocket-assisted artillery system to Iraq.

U.S. officials have also said that the number of special operations forces in Syria would be increased at some point, but Carter did not mention that in his comments. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Carter's announcement Monday came after several meetings with his commanders and Iraqi leaders about how the U.S. can best prepare Iraqi forces to retake Mosul.

In addition to his session with al-Abadi, Carter also met with Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the top U.S. military commander for the Islamic State fight, and minister of defense Khalid al-Obeidi.

He also spoke by phone with the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani. Later, Carter announced to the troops that the U.S. aid will extend to the Kurdish Peshmerga forces fighting in northern Iraq. Carter said the U.S. has authorized sending up to $415 million to the Kurds over time.

MacFarland told reporters that the money will be used in part to help feed the Peshmerga troops, who have been dealing with food shortages.

Carter on Tuesday will travel to Saudit Arabia to meet with defense ministers from Gulf nations. And Obama will also be in Riyadh to talk with Gulf leaders about the fight against the Islamic State and ask for their help in rebuilding Ramadi, which took heavy damage in the battle.

U.S. military and defense officials have made it clear that winning back Mosul is critical, but will be challenging, because the insurgents are dug in and have likely peppered the landscape with roadside bombs and other traps for any advancing military.

A senior defense official told reporters traveling with Carter that while Iraqi leaders have been reluctant to have a large number of U.S. troops in Iraq, they also need certain capabilities that only more American or coalition forces can provide. The official was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, left, shakes hands with Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi at the Ministry of Defense, Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, April 18, 2016. (AP Photo)

Visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, left, and his Iraqi counterpart Khaled al-Obeidi stand for their country's national anthems during a welcome ceremony at the Ministry of Defense, Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, April 18, 2016. (AP Photo)

Defense Secretary Ash Carter arrives Monday, April 18, 2016, in Baghdad and is greeted by Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, top U.S. Commander for the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. (AP Photo/Lolita C. Baldor)
Drone collision with jet highlights growing aviation danger

LONDON (AP)  A collision between a British Airways passenger jet and a drone over London has left the plane undamaged but the aviation industry deeply shaken.

British police and air accident authorities were investigating Sunday's incident, in which an Airbus A320 carrying 137 people struck an object believed to be a drone at a height of about 1,700 feet (518 meters) while it was approaching Heathrow Airport.

The plane landed safely and was cleared to fly again after an inspection by engineers. But the incident has focused attention on the growing number of unregulated drones in the sky and the potential for disaster if they hit a plane  either accidentally or on purpose.

FILE - In this Friday, Dec. 12, 2014 file photo, aircraft wait on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport in London. A collision between a British Airways passenger jet and a drone left the plane undamaged, but the aviation industry shaken. British police and air-accident authorities are investigating the incident which occurred on Sunday, April 17, 2016, in which an Airbus A320 carrying 137 people struck an object believed to be a drone while it was approaching Heathrow Airport. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, file)

London's Metropolitan Police said Monday the incident occurred over Richmond Park, a large open expanse a few miles from the airport. Chief Superintendent Martin Hendry said the incident "highlights the very real dangers of reckless, negligent and sometimes malicious use of drones."

"The potential is there for a major incident," he said.

HOW MANY DRONES ARE OUT THERE?

The authorities don't know exactly, since small drones bought for private use often don't have to be registered, but the market is growing fast as drones become cheaper and easier to operate.

In Britain alone, electronics stores sold thousands during the 2015 Christmas season. Phil Finnegan, director of corporate analysis at aerospace research company Teal Group, estimates there are "several million" drones in the United States.

Tony Tyler, director-general of the International Air Transport Association, told an aviation conference in Denmark on Monday that drones "are here to stay."

"But we must not allow them to become a drag on the efficiency of the airways or a safety threat to commercial aviation," he said.

Tyler called for "a sensible approach to regulation and a pragmatic method of firm enforcement for those who disregard rules and regulations and put others in danger."

WHAT ARE THE RULES?

Many countries distinguish between commercial drone operators, which must be licensed, and those used recreationally.

In Britain, operators don't need a license to use a small drone weighing less than 20 kilograms (44 pounds) for recreational purposes.

Drones must not be flown above 400 feet (120 meters), must remain within sight of the operator and must and kept away from planes, helicopters, airports and airfields. Violators can receive six months in prison and a fine  though prosecutions have been rare  but endangering the safety of an aircraft carries a maximum life sentence.

HOW MANY NEAR MISSES BETWEEN DRONES AND AIRCRAFT?

While actual collisions are rare, Britain's Civil Aviation Authority says there were 40 near misses between drones and aircraft in 2015, compared to nine in 2014. Before that, such incidents were too uncommon to merit annual statistics.

In the United States, the FAA recorded almost 600 incidents of drones getting too close to aircraft between August 22, 2015 and Jan 31, 2016.

WHAT COULD A DRONE DO TO A PLANE?

The biggest worries are a drone damaging the windshield or fuselage of a plane  with the additional danger that lithium batteries on the drone could ignite  or getting sucked into an engine.

Aviation systems expert Philip Butterworth-Hayes says there has been relatively little research on the impact of such a collision.

"We don't know what happens when a drone gets inside an engine," he said. "The only thing you can do (to find out) is fly it into an engine, which is horrendously expensive. It's not a test you want to do all the time."

While the most obvious threat is from accidental collisions, experts have also warned that terrorists could seek to bring down a plane with an explosives-laden drone.

Butterworth-Hayes said drones, lasers that can be shone in pilots' eyes and cyberattacks are among evolving threats to aviation.

"There's a whole new series of risks out there which we're just at the start of assessing and we don't know how big they are," he said.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO CUT THE RISKS?

The British government is considering introducing a drone-registration scheme so the aerial vehicles can be traced back to their owners.

In the U.S, the FAA introduced a registration plan in December, with owners facing a fine if they don't comply. More than 400,000 people had registered by the end of March.

While new rules and better education are part of the solution, technology will also be a key factor. Drones can be fitted with "geo-fencing" software that prevents them from entering restricted areas. But geo-fencing technology is not a legal requirement for many drones, and criminals or those bent on terror could potentially disable the software.

Finnegan says developing new ways to stop rogue drones by disabling or destroying them is a high priority for defense and technology companies.

"There's a whole new drive among aerospace and defense company to develop counter-drone measures  ways you can protect against either someone who doesn't know what they are doing or someone who does know what they are doing and is trying to do something bad," he said.

___
Hugh Laurie, Tom Hiddleston light up AMC's 'Night Manager'

NEW YORK (AP)  The premise of "The Night Manager" is simple. Or might seem so.

Jonathan Pine, a former soldier now in a different kind of service as night manager of a luxury hotel, is drawn into a risky mission to bring down international arms dealer Richard Roper by posing as a fellow merchant of evil.

But this six-part miniseries (premiering on AMC Tuesday at 10 p.m. EDT) is based on the John le Carre spy thriller of the same name, which should strongly suggest this is no simple cloak-and-dagger affair.

FILE - In this April 5, 2016 file photo, Hugh Laurie attends the LA Premiere of "The Night Manager" in Los Angeles. The six-part miniseries premieres Tuesday, April 19, at 10 p.m. ET on AMC. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

Somehow "The Night Manager" manages to be as menacing and methodical as any film noir, yet at the same time teem with color, sweep and action cloaked in stillnesss.

Meanwhile, its brilliant co-stars, Hugh Laurie (who plays Roper) and Tom Hiddleston (the intrepid Pine)  well, they speak for themselves. Literally.

The series, Hiddleston explained in a recent interview with them, "deals with the more fascinating aspects of the psyche and identity and to what extent we tell lies to ourselves to justify who we are."

"I think that sums everything up," said Laurie, pretending to take his leave. "Our work is done."

Not quite.

Laurie said he had yearned to appear in a movie version  even attempting to option the novel himself  ever since its 1993 publication.

But the book seemed to resist being shoehorned into a feature-length film.

"There is a pace and a density to the interior lives of the characters that makes it hard to do justice to (in a movie)," said Laurie. "Le Carre is writing thoughts rather than deeds. Everything is oblique and concealed, and it's the painstaking discovery that's the fascination of it."

Originally, Laurie saw himself as Pine, but when the chance arose to play Roper, "I fell to my knees in an indecent display of pleading."

Who indeed could resist playing anyone so charismatic yet so wicked that he is described as "the worst man in the world"?

"That's quite a complicated metric to establish," Laurie acknowledged with a laugh, "but clearly he qualifies for the semifinals. He does it with charm and skill and daring, and he's fun to be around, the way one imagines the devil would be. If he was just a tattooed thug with 'Devil' on his forehead, we'd all give him a wide berth. Richard Roper is NOT like that."

In effect, Laurie spent two decades preparing for the role.

"From the moment I read the book, I felt like I could picture and hear and almost smell this character."

And from the moment viewers confront this character, Laurie, 56, guarantees with his performance they will forget his eight TV seasons on "House M.D." playing the crusty yet lovable Dr. Gregory House.

As for the 35-year-old Hiddleston, whose past projects have included "Thor," Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" and the role of Hank Williams in the recent "I Saw the Light," he described the first "Night Manager" script as "immaculate." After reading it, he was in.

Infiltrating Roper's world, Pine is a model of disarming polish and suave restraint.

"I wanted to do as little as possible," said Hiddleston, "and trust the audience to join the dots. I worried that I wasn't doing enough, but there's something very active about the way Pine is passive. It was a fascinating challenge to try to communicate how deep those still waters run."

"The tendency that all actors have," said Laurie, "is to constantly tell the story with every line and every look, and the audience very quickly reacts against it. But Tom is able to BE, to simply be.

"The audience wants to participate in the construction of the story. And often that requires an actor who has the confidence to just be. There probably aren't more than a half-dozen actors who can accomplish that, and I couldn't name the others. So let's just say 'one'  and he's sitting right there."

"Goodness," said Hiddleston on hearing this accolade, then, recovering, turning the tables on Laurie: "I'll tell you one thing I've never said before."

"Bloody hell!" Laurie responded in mock dread.

"Hugh has a rigor about his work," said Hiddleston, "that's as far away from ego as you can imagine. Sometimes actors are shy about that kind of active involvement because they don't want to rock the boat. But if something doesn't feel right, Hugh is unafraid to say so, and it's all in the service of the whole."

That tribute left Laurie speechless. But only for a flash. The inevitable James Bond question must be dealt with, and Laurie waggishly went for it.

"I refuse to deny that I'm being considered for Bond," he replied, deadpan. "I also refuse to deny that I'm being considered for Cleopatra."

With that, he turned to Hiddleston, who in fact has been buffeted by gossip recently that he might headline the next Bond sequel. "Poor bloke," said Laurie. "What can he say? There's no way of answering the question that doesn't increase this tabloid dialogue."

"I'm just trying to take it as a compliment," said Hiddleston, for now very pleased to play a breed of spy even James Bond would applaud.

_____

EDITOR'S NOTE  Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier. Past stories are available at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/frazier-moore

_____

Online:

http://www.amc.com
Image of Asia: Bringing home the night's catch in Sri Lanka

In this photo by Eranga Jayawardena, a fisherman brings in part of his catch after returning from an overnight fishing trip in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He carried his catch to a fishmonger, while the remainder of the catch remained on the boat to be auctioned later in the fisheries harbor. Area fishermen like him can earn $100 to $200 from a trip that happens about once a week. The fisheries sector is a key part of Sri Lanka's social and economic life and fish products are an important source of protein for the nearly 20 million people in this Indian Ocean island nation.
Man in police custody dies while waiting in emergency room

DECATUR, Ala. (AP)  An Alabama shoplifting suspect who was in police custody following his arrest at a Wal-Mart store died during a two-hour wait in a hospital emergency room, police said Monday.

Decatur police spokesman Lt. John Crouch said Justin Lee Dunn, 26, died in the early morning hours at Decatur Morgan Hospital on April 10.

An officer took Dunn to the hospital from jail following his arrest at a Wal-Mart store, where workers found him vomiting in a bathroom, Crouch said. The Decatur Daily (http://bit.ly/1VdJWJu) reported that the man told officers he had been inhaling compressed air, and his condition didn't improve following his arrest.

The spokesman said medical workers sent the man to the waiting room after an initial screening, and he was unresponsive by the time a bed was available. Efforts to resuscitate the man failed.

Crouch said an officer was with Dunn the entire time at the hospital and the man initially seemed OK, moving around despite shackles on his leg. He was charged with public intoxication and shoplifting, according to Crouch.

"Eventually he appeared to settle down and go to sleep," said Crouch.

But Dunn didn't awake when a bed became available about two hours after he arrived at the hospital, Crouch said.

Decatur Morgan Hospital spokeswoman Leigh Hays declined comment on Dunn's time in the emergency room, citing a police investigation. The State Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the case at the request of Decatur police.
Indonesian president defends death penalty for drug crimes

BERLIN (AP)  Indonesia's president is defending his country's use of the death penalty for drug offenses, arguing that drug abuse constitutes an emergency.

Indonesia has extremely strict drug laws and more than 130 people on death row, mostly for drug crimes. Authorities recently said Indonesia is preparing to execute more foreigners convicted of drug offenses. Executions last year caused an international outcry.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said Monday that "Indonesia currently has an emergency, above all in drug abuse." He said 30-50 people a day die in Indonesia because of drugs.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo, left, address the media during a joint news conference as part of a meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, April 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Jokowi said through an interpreter: "Implementation of the death penalty is carried out very cautiously."

He spoke after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who underlined Germany's opposition to capital punishment and its wish for Indonesia "not to implement it if possible."
Atlantic City takeover threat reopens residents' old wounds

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)  Since long before the first casino went up, there has been a strong feeling of being left out and left behind among the mostly minority population of this seaside gambling resort.

The riches from the billion-dollar gambling palaces largely never trickled down to neighborhoods, and state agencies crept deeper into the city's business.

Now, with Atlantic City on the verge of going broke  and paying its police and firefighters with IOUs  a proposed state takeover of the resort's finances and major decision-making power is further rankling many residents who fear they will lose what little voice they now have over their own affairs. Blacks comprise about 38 percent of the city's 39,000 residents and Hispanics 30 percent.

In this April 11, 2016 photo, Atlantic City, N.J. resident Tiffany Burns discusses a proposed state takeover of her city. Many residents in predominantly minority Atlantic City say they have felt left out and left behind in their city for decades, and fear they will lose what little voice they have left if the state takes over the struggling city's finances and major decision-making power. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

"No town in America wants to be taken over, none," said Walter Palmer, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who helped elect Atlantic City's first black mayor in the 1980s, and who rues what he sees as the steady dilution of the city's rights and representation since then. "You can't take away people's rights and sovereignty. But in these black municipalities that are faltering, there are these efforts to take over."

The man he helped elect as mayor, James Usry, was one of 13 current or former officials and businessmen targeted by a state police bribery sting in 1989. The mayor entered a pretrial intervention program, and only one of the 13, a city councilman, was found guilty. Many residents claim the sting was part of a state plan to dilute black political power in Atlantic City  something they say endures to this day.

Council President Marty Small was charged by the state twice with voter fraud and was acquitted both times. He sued the state for malicious prosecution but lost.

"The people that live here have earned the right to say what goes on in our own town," said James Haley, who owns a downtown clothing store. "It's not right for someone to just come in and say, 'Here's how it's going to be.'"

Resident Tiffany Burns says simply, "I don't like that my opinion won't matter."

The proposed takeover would give the state vast authority over Atlantic City's affairs, including the right to dissolve agencies, cancel decisions by local elected officials, and sell off city assets, including land and a water utility coveted by private operators.

"They took our rights, they took our sovereignty, and now they want to take our water," said Steve Young, a community activist who was arrested when he refused to stop testifying against the takeover at a hearing in the state Capitol last month.

Republican Gov. Chris Christie says Atlantic City's residents have been failed by generations of elected officials who ran the city's debt up to levels that became unsustainable once the casino gravy train ended. Four of the city's 12 casinos shut down in 2014, and Atlantic City's casino revenue has fallen from $5.2 billion in 2006 to $2.56 billion last year.

"Atlantic City's finances are in such disrepair because of this local waste and mismanagement," Christie said in a recent speech. "Unless the state steps in and deals with the cost side of the equation, this problem will not be magically resolved by another financial Band-Aid from the taxpayers of New Jersey."

The state has long wielded power in Atlantic City. Its Casino Reinvestment Development Authority collects casino payments for development projects. In 2010, the state created a Tourism District including the casinos and the downtown shopping area, taking over public safety and sanitation oversight.

Anthony Williams, a taxi driver, noted that the state already has imposed monitors on the local government and schools who have to approve major spending decisions.

"The state has been here for over 10 years; they knew what was going on all along," he said. "If there's a problem, then do something. Now it's a big emergency and they want to take total control?"

Abdullah Anderson lost his barber shop to a fire in January and agonized over whether to open somewhere else, largely because of uncertainty over what the state might have in mind for downtown. He reopened in a different spot because he said his customers rely on the barber shop as a de facto community center.

"I didn't know whether it was worth it to reopen if the state takes over," Anderson said. "Do they want us off this avenue? How much might taxes go up? Who knows what they're going to do when they take over?"

Nael Zumot came here from Jordan but has found it tough. More people seem to come through the doors of his downtown deli to bum a cigarette or ask for a dollar than to buy something.

He lost his first business location to an eminent domain action to make way for a casino project that never got built. His taxes rose from $4,800 to $15,000 in just a few years; a successful appeal reduced them slightly, to $12,000. His business is down 70 percent since the casino closings of 2014.

Atlantic City now pays its employees once a month, to help conserve what little cash it has. That's bad news for Zumot's customers, who will have even less pocket money for a sandwich or a soda.

"We seem to have tried everything," he said. "None of it worked."

___

Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC

In this April 11, 2016 photo, Atlantic City, N.J. tax driver Anthony Williams discusses a proposed state takeover of his city. Many residents in predominantly minority Atlantic City say they have felt left out and left behind in their city for decades, and fear they will lose what little voice they have left if the state takes over the struggling city's finances and major decision-making power. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

In this April 11, 2016 photo, Jermaine Haley discusses a proposed state takeover of Atlantic City, N.J. , where he owns a downtown clothing store. Many residents in predominantly minority Atlantic City say they have felt left out and left behind in their city for decades, and fear they will lose what little voice they have left if the state takes over the struggling city's finances and major decision-making power. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

This March 7, 2012 photo shows casinos along the Atlantic City, N.J. beachfront. Many residents in predominantly minority Atlantic City say they have felt left out and left behind in their city for decades, and fear they will lose what little voice they have left if the state takes over the struggling city's finances and major decision-making power. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Trump and Wharton: A complicated relationship

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  You don't hear Ted Cruz talk much about his Princeton degree. Hillary Clinton doesn't often mention Yale. But Donald Trump can't stop trumpeting his Ivy League pedigree.

"I went to the Wharton School of Finance, the toughest place to get into. I was a great student," he has said. He's called Wharton "super genius stuff." Accused of making a vulgar comment, he responded: "Who would say that? I went to the Wharton School of Finance!"

But Trump's relationship with his alma mater is complicated.

This March 20, 2016 photo shows an article about Donald Trump on the front page of The Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania. Trump graduated from the universitys business college, the Wharton School, in 1968. The article states that the university declined to comment on Trumps years there. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)

Trump loves to put his name on hotels and skyscrapers, but no buildings bear his name at the University of Pennsylvania, where Wharton is located. School officials don't like to talk about him, though he's one of their most famous alumni. A pro-Trump student group has shut itself down, and student Republicans say he's an embarrassment. Even the Penn bookstore, where tables are piled high with works by alumni, had just one copy of Trump's best-seller from the 1980s, "The Art of the Deal," on a shelf in the back.

Trump sent two of his children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, to Wharton, and his daughter Tiffany graduates in May from Penn's College of Arts and Sciences. Yet in "The Art of the Deal," Trump said fancy diplomas don't matter: "Perhaps the most important thing I learned at Wharton was not to be overly impressed by academic credentials ... That degree doesn't prove very much."

And if you assumed his degree was an MBA, you'd be wrong. Trump holds a bachelor of science degree in economics from Wharton, earned after transferring in as a junior from Fordham University. Several early Trump profiles, including a 1973 New York Times piece, stated that he graduated first in his class at Wharton, but that has since been disputed. A 1968 commencement program does not list his name among students who graduated with honors.

Why mention Wharton at all? Polls show that Trump's biggest supporters are working-class whites  a demographic that might disdain an Ivy League diploma as elitist.

Thomas O'Guinn, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin, says that paradox is part of Trump's brand.

"He's a working-class hero with a Wharton degree," said O'Guinn. "He went to a great school, which gives him credibility and shuts down the critics. But he distrusts Wall Street. He distrusts the banks. He distrusts anything that smacks of elitism. OK, he went to Wharton, but he has rejected the privilege he could have had. He's self-funding. He isn't going to all the rich people he knows for money, because he's one of us."

At one rally, Trump said his degree proves he's intelligent: "If I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world," but as a conservative Republican, "they do a number ... that's why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student."

Wharton listed Trump among its 125 most influential people in a 2007 alumni magazine issue. But it's not clear how much money Trump has given his alma mater. The school would not comment, saying donations are confidential, but a "draft honor roll" of recent alumni donors that appeared online in March did not have Trump's name on it. The student paper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, reported that a real estate center was established at Wharton in 1983 with Trump as one of 100 founding members, and that Trump once gave Penn over $10,000, but the exact amount was not disclosed.

In contrast, Penn's West Philadelphia campus reflects the generosity of other wealthy alumni. There's Wynn Commons, named for Las Vegas impresario Steve Wynn; the Perelman Quadrangle, named for financier Ronald Perelman, and an entire Wharton building named for billionaire Jon Huntsman.

Trump's name can be found in one spot on campus, but you have to hunt for it. Inside Van Pelt library, in an area called the Weigle Information Commons, there's a seminar room. A small plaque on the wall thanks the Class of 1968 for funding the room on the occasion of their 35th reunion, and Trump's name is one of 27 alumni listed.

In the Penn '68 yearbook, Trump's name appears on a list of "students not photographed." He went home to New York City most weekends, skipping study groups other students attended, according to his Wharton '68 classmate Lou Calomaris.

"He wasn't going to have to study a lot. He was going to get a gentleman's degree," said Calomaris, who, like Trump, was one of a handful of students who concentrated on real estate.

Wharton officials declined to make their dean, Geoffrey Garrett, or any professors available to talk about Trump. "We have no info," said Wharton media relations director Peter Winicov in one email. Trump's campaign did not make him available for an interview for this story.

Junior Corey Stern, who wrote a story about Trump's connections to the school for The Daily Pennsylvanian, said that Penn's administration "refused to comment in any capacity, even to say that he was a graduate or served on a board."

In this March 20, 2016 photo, people walk in and out of The Wharton School building on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia. Donald Trump frequently mentions that he is an alumnus of the school, which is one of the top business schools in the country. He graduated in 1968 with a bachelors degree. But Trumps relationship with his alma mater is complicated. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)

This March 20, 2016 photo shows a plaque in a library seminar room on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia acknowledging Donald Trump and other graduates from the Class of 1968 whose donations funded the room. The plaque states The Class of 1968 Seminar Room was made possible through the generosity of the Class of 1968 on the occasion of their 35th reunion. Neither the university nor Trump has disclosed how much he has donated to the school in the 48 years since hes graduated. Elsewhere on campus, individual alumni who have made major gifts have buildings and courtyards named after them, such as Jon M. Huntsman Hall and Stephen A. Wynn Commons. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)

This March 20, 2016 photo shows the program for the May, 20, 1968 graduation at the University of Pennsylvania, with Donald Trumps name listed among students receiving a bachelor of science degree in economics from the Wharton School. You dont hear Ted Cruz talk much about his Princeton degree. Hillary Clinton doesnt often mention Yale. But Donald Trump cant stop trumpeting his Ivy League pedigree from Wharton. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)
Ex-St. Louis police association head charged with fraud

ST. LOUIS (AP)  A St. Louis police sergeant who used to lead an association for black officers was indicted Monday on allegations that he defrauded the organization of more than $80,000.

Darren Randal Wilson, 41, faces nine felony counts of wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney's office in St. Louis said.

Wilson shares a first and last name with the Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in August 2014. They are not related. The former Ferguson officer, who was white, was cleared of wrongdoing and resigned in November 2014. The officer charged Monday is black.

The indictment alleges that Darren Randal Wilson misappropriated money from the bank account of the Ethical Society of Police in 2013 and 2014.

Wilson has been suspended from the police department since last year, said Police Chief Sam Dotson, who added that the department began an investigation in January 2015 after the Ethical Society of Police raised concerns about financial irregularities.

"We hold our officers to the highest standards and when they fall short of what we expect, we take action," Dotson said in a statement.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the Ethical Society of Police still exists. A listed phone number did not work, the organization's website was down and its Facebook page has not been updated since December 2014.

Wilson's attorney, Tim Smith, cautioned against a rush to judgment, noting Wilson's long tenure as a police officer who protected the community.

"If there's anyone who deserves the benefit of the doubt, it's Mr. Wilson," Smith said.
Out-of-the-ordinary project blends jazz, art for a new work

NEW YORK (AP)  Pianist Vijay Iyer has an unlikely backstory for a musician who's been voted jazz artist of the year in Downbeat magazine's critics' poll, received a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, and is a professor in Harvard's music department.

Largely self-taught on piano, he majored in physics and mathematics at Yale. At age 23, while pursuing his doctorate in physics at the University of California at Berkeley, he took the risky decision to become a professional musician to his parents' bewilderment. He later received an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from Berkeley focusing on music and embodied cognition, or how the human body perceives music.

"I was a bit of a later bloomer and had a lot of catching up to do," said the 44-year-old.

In this Oct. 22, 2015 photo released by ECM Records, composer-musician Vijay Iyer, left, and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith in New York. The pair performed after the world premiere of their collaborative suite, "A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke," at the newly opened The Met Breuer (John Rogers/ECM Records via AP)

Iyer's untraditional path has led him to another out-of-the-ordinary project: A collaborative suite, "A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke," with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, inspired by the art of late Indian visual artist Nasreen Mohamedi, recently released by ECM Records.

"It was a beautiful thing that we could make a duo project in relation to the work of this incredible artist from India who's lesser known than she should be in the West," said Iyer, interviewed in a gallery displaying Mohamedi's geometric line-based drawings. "Her work is very spare, elegant and mysterious. It has a lot of order and geometry and patterns, and it also has a lot of space."

After Iyer became the 2015-16 artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, curators introduced him to the work of Mohamedi ahead of an exhibition opening The Met Breuer, a center for the museum's modern art program in the former home of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

The museum commissioned Iyer to compose the suite with Smith, and the duo recorded the album in October. The titles of the suite and its seven movements are taken from phrases in Mohamedi's diaries.

Iyer was particularly struck by the precise, delicate drawings Mohamedi made in her later years as she struggled with a debilitating neurological disease that made it difficult to hold her pen.

"There's this field of energy behind each stroke  the cosmic rhythms," he said.

Limor Tomer, the Met's general manager of concerts and lectures, said she chose Iyer as the resident artist not only for his talents as a composer and pianist, but also for his "curiosity" about collaborating with other artists.

Iyer was inspired and encouraged by musicians like Anthony Braxton and Smith, who were involved in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, formed in the mid-'60s in Chicago by musicians who mixed avant-garde jazz, contemporary and world music.

Iyer's collaboration with Smith underscored Iyer's belief that "music can help you transcend differences." Their backgrounds are worlds apart: he is the son of Indian immigrants who grew up in upstate New York, and the 74-year-old trumpeter has roots in the Mississippi Delta.

"Vijay is a sincere, creative artist, a very generous human being who is well-attuned to human feelings and emotions," said Smith, a 2013 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his civil rights opus "Ten Freedom Summers."

Iyer played in Smith's Golden Quartet from 2005-2010  an experience he says "stretched me in a way that I hadn't really been before." They first performed as a duo in January 2015.

For his recent three-week performance residency at the Met Breuer, Iyer premiered "Cosmic Rhythm" with Smith, but also played with or presented 40 ensembles and soloists. Some of those performances included his trio with bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore, who have been together since 2004.

Iyer says the project brought together "artists who cut across disciplines, ethnic, racial and class backgrounds, and generations."

"When you consider us all as connecting to each other in some kind of larger fabric, then what you think of as musical genres don't really make any sense. ... Music doesn't really want to be separated."

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Online:

http://www.vijay-iyer.com

_____

Follow Charles J. Gans at www.twitter.com/chjgans
Police search national park for missing Virginia firefighter

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP)  Authorities are searching for a paramedic-firefighter whose car was found in a parking lot in the Shenandoah National Park.

Thirty-one-year-old Nicole Mittendorff, of Woodbridge, Virginia, was reported missing Friday when she didn't show up for her job with Fairfax County Fire and Rescue. Family members say she is an avid runner and tri-athlete who might have been in the park to use a running trial.

She last had contact by text message with her family on Wednesday.
Oklahoma City a defining moment in Merrick Garland's career

WASHINGTON (AP)  In Judge Merrick Garland's courthouse office in Washington, there's a framed photo of Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building after the 1995 bombing that ripped away most of its front. There's also a courtroom artist's sketch from the prosecution of bomber Timothy McVeigh and a medal honoring Garland for his work on the case.

The bombing, 21 years ago Tuesday, was a defining moment in the Supreme Court nominee's career. Garland has called it "the most important thing I have ever done in my life," President Barack Obama said in announcing his nomination, now stalled by congressional politics.

At the time of the bombing, Garland was 42 and principal associate deputy attorney general, a top lieutenant to Attorney General Janet Reno. He was chosen to go to Oklahoma City, the highest-ranking Justice Department official there, and led the prosecution for a month until a permanent lead prosecutor was named.

FILE - In this April 27, 1995, file photo, Merrick Garland, then-associate deputy attorney general, speaks to the media following the hearing of Oklahoma bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh, in El Reno, Okla. This week marks 21 years since the bombing of Oklahoma Citys Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Its a case that was a defining moment in the career of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. At the time of the bombing, Garland was 42 years old and a top lieutenant to Attorney General Janet Reno. He was chosen to go to Oklahoma City, the highest-ranking Justice Department official there, and led the prosecution for about a month until a permanent lead prosecutor was named. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

For two years after, through the preparation for McVeigh's trial, he was the team's man at the Department of Justice, the person who set the tone and was available for advice, said prosecutors involved in the case.

Once it was decided he would go to Oklahoma, Garland had one evening to pack and say goodbye to his daughters, then ages 3 and 5. When the FBI plane taking him to Oklahoma City stopped to refuel, he learned that McVeigh was in custody, recalled J. Gilmore Childers, a former federal prosecutor who accompanied Garland. And when they got to Oklahoma they went directly to McVeigh's arraignment and then to the site of the still-smoldering Murrah building.

Garland has said he remembers passing through a ring of Humvees securing the scene and seeing broken glass and crumbled bricks even far from the site. It "really looked like a war zone," he said in a 2013 interview for the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. By the time Garland arrived, 65 bodies had been recovered, a death total that would ultimately grow to 168, including 19 children.

"The worst part was being told where the kids had been," Garland said.

A command center for the response was set up in a nearby telephone company building. There, Garland ran morning, afternoon and end-of-day briefings with up to two dozen people from various agencies involved in the case. He was involved in major investigative decisions, including whether and when to put McVeigh in lineups and who to have work with a sketch artist. At the time, officials were also pursuing a second suspect, "John Doe No. 2," who they worried might bomb again, a fear that was ultimately unfounded.

Garland was "the face of the department out there at the time where people needed to believe that their government was capable of responding to this," said Aitan Goelman, a prosecutor on the case.

Garland also spoke for the prosecution in court. At a hearing for McVeigh a week after the bombing, he walked an FBI agent through four hours of testimony, and a judge ordered McVeigh held in jail. Outside of the hearing, Garland asked reporters and the public for patience.

"I know that there's a lot more that you all want to know, and a lot of things other people want to know. But I think most people also want to be sure this investigation goes forward effectively and efficiently, and the only way we're going to be able to do that is to not talk about the different leads that we're pursuing," he said.

Garland wanted to lead the trial team prosecuting McVeigh, but he was needed back in Washington. Instead, he helped pick the team and set the tone for the prosecution, said Scott Mendeloff, another prosecutor on the case. It was critical to Garland that the case "be handled in such a way to reflect well on our justice system," Mendeloff said. He wanted prosecutors to be zealous but was also concerned about McVeigh's rights.

Stephen Jones, McVeigh's lead lawyer, said Garland was always professional and cordial. And though McVeigh was convicted and executed in 2001, Jones has supported Garland's nomination, urging President Barack Obama to nominate Garland in a letter just days after Justice Antonin Scalia's death.

In announcing Garland's nomination, Obama cited Oklahoma City and in particular Garland's concern for the bombing's victims. Everywhere he went, he carried a program from a memorial service with each of their names, Obama said.

Patrick Ryan, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, said the case had a lasting impact on those who worked on it.

"I know that I could name every single person on every single floor that died, and I bet Merrick could too," he said, adding: "I suspect that the emotions of Oklahoma City are still in his heart."

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Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at twitter.com/jessicagresko. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jessica-gresko

FILE - In this April 19, 2015 file photo, the north side of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City is missing after a bombing. This week marks 21 years since the bombing of Oklahoma Citys Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Its a case that was a defining moment in the career of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. At the time of the bombing, Garland was 42 years old and a top lieutenant to Attorney General Janet Reno. He was chosen to go to Oklahoma City, the highest-ranking Justice Department official there, and led the prosecution for about a month until a permanent lead prosecutor was named. (AP Photo, File)
3D printer used to create new feet for duck

CEDARBURG, Wis. (AP)  A duck who lost its feet to frostbite is waddling again thanks to a Wisconsin middle school teacher and a 3D printer.

Vicki Rabe-Harrison rescued Phillip the duck and, after watching a video of a 3D printer online, turned to South Park Middle School teacher Jason Jischke in Oshkosh for help.

Rabe-Harrison tells WBAY-TV that she planning to put Phillip down when Jischke called to say his class was working on the project. It took them six weeks to get the prosthetic feet just right.
The Latest: Plight of refugees among themes of prize winners

NEW YORK (AP)  The Latest on the awarding of the 100th-annual Pulitzer Prizes (all times local):

4:55 p.m.

The plight of refugees is among the social issues tackled by this year's Pulitzer Prize winners.

Associated Press employees applaud as the AP wins the Pulitzer Prize for public service, Monday, April 18, 2016, in New York. The AP report documented the use of slave labor in Southeast Asia to supply seafood to American tables, an investigation that spurred the release of more than 2,000 captive workers. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Among the prize's arts categories, former refugee Viet Thanh Nguyen (VEE'-eht tahn gwihn) won the fiction prize Monday for "The Sympathizer"  an immigrant tale told in a "wry, confessional voice."

"Hamilton," the hip-hop stage biography of Caribbean emigrant Alexander Hamilton, won for drama.

In journalism, The Associated Press won for public service. It documented the use of slave labor in the commercial seafood industry in Indonesia and Thailand.

The New York Times and Reuters won for heart-wrenching breaking news photos of desperate refugees.

In one Times photo, a man with blood streaming down his face shields a child in a cloud of tear gas as migrants try to surge into Hungary from Serbia.

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4:25 p.m.

Lin-Manuel Miranda says he's "living in the highlight reel section" of his life after winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama for his musical "Hamilton."

Miranda told The Associated Press on Monday that's he's humbled and overwhelmed by the win. He wrote the music and story for the Broadway show about the nation's first U.S. Treasury secretary.

Miranda joked that he had a "home-court advantage" because the prizes were announced at Columbia University, which is Alexander Hamilton's alma mater.

The drama award was widely expected to go to Miranda this year. The album for "Hamilton" won a Grammy Award and became the highest-debuting cast recording on the Billboard Top 200 in over 50 years. The show is a leading favorite in this summer's Tony Awards.

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3:40 p.m.

"Ozone Journal" by Peter Balakian has won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

The Pulitzer board said Monday that Balakian's poems "bear witness to the old losses and tragedies that undergird a global age of danger and uncertainty."

Finalists in the category were "Alive: New and Selected Poems" by Elizabeth Willis and "Four-Legged Girl" by Diane Seuss.

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3:35 p.m.

"Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS" by Joby Warrick has won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.

Warrick is a journalist with The Washington Post and a previous Pulitzer winner. The Pulitzer board says he was honored for "a deeply reported book of remarkable clarity showing how the flawed rationale for the Iraq War led to the explosive growth of the Islamic State."

Warrick also won the Pulitzer in 1996 as part of a team reporting on the environmental and health risks of waste disposal systems used in North Carolina's growing hog industry.

Finalists were "Between the World and Me," the much-celebrated work by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and "If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran" by Carla Power.

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3:30 p.m.

The Washington Post has won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

The Post's staff was honored Monday for creating and using a national database to illustrate how often and why police shoot to kill.

The Post found that in 2015, on-duty police officers shot and killed 990 people nationwide. It reported that unarmed black men were seven times more likely to die at the hands of police officers than unarmed whites were. More than 50 of the officers had killed someone before.

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3:25 p.m.

"In for a Penny, In for a Pound" by Henry Threadgill has won the Pulitzer Prize for music.

Judges described the recording as "a highly original work in which notated music and improvisation mesh in a sonic tapestry that seems the very expression of modern American life."

Other finalists included "The Blind Banister" by Timo Andres and "The Mechanics: Six from the Shop Floor" by Carter Pann.

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3:15 p.m.

The Tampa Bay Times and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune have won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for a project on mental hospitals.

The Tampa Bay Times also won the local reporting category for studying the effects of education in Pinellas County, Florida, when schools in poor neighborhoods were essentially desegregated and neglected.

This is the contest's 100th year. The winners were announced Monday afternoon at Columbia University in New York City.

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3:10 p.m.

"Hamilton," the hip-hop stage biography of Alexander Hamilton, has won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama.

The dazzling, exuberant musical by creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda has captured popular consciousness like few Broadway shows, having already won a Grammy Award, a spot on the Billboard 200 charts and mentions on "Saturday Night Live." It's a leading favorite in this summer's Tony Awards.

The musical tells the story of how an orphan emigrant from the Caribbean rose to the highest ranks of American society, as told by a young African-American and Latino cast.

It becomes the ninth musical to win the drama award, joining such shows as "South Pacific," ''Sunday in the Park with George" and "Rent." The last musical to nab the prize was "Next to Normal" in 2010.

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3 p.m.

The Associated Press has won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for articles documenting the use of slave labor in the commercial seafood industry in Indonesia and Thailand.

The award was announced Monday at Columbia University in New York City.

AP journalists Margie Mason, Robin McDowell, Martha Mendoza and Esther Htusan (TOO'-san) documented how men from Myanmar and other countries were imprisoned, sometimes in cages, in Indonesia and forced to work on vessels that sent seafood to Thailand.

The project involved interviewing captives and tracking slave-caught seafood to processing plants that supply supermarkets, restaurants and pet stores in the U.S.

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11:30 a.m.

The winners of the Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, letters, drama and music are set to be announced in New York City.

The year marks the 100th year of the contest. The prizes are set to be announced Monday afternoon at Columbia University.

The Pulitzer Prizes will recognize the best journalism of 2015 in newspapers, magazines and web sites. There are 14 categories for reporting, photography, criticism and commentary.

In the arts, prizes are awarded in seven categories, including fiction, drama and music.

The very first Pulitzer Prize in reporting was given in 1917 to Herbert Bayard Swope of the New York World.

Swope reported from the German front lines during World War I.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the first Pulitzer was awarded in 1917, not 1916.

In this April 8, 2016 photo, the Associated Press team that investigated seafood caught by slaves poses, from left, Martha Mendoza, Robin McDowell, Esther Htusan and Margie Mason, at the George Polk Award luncheon in New York. The team won the Pulitzer Prize for public service announced Monday, April 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

This image released by The Public Theater shows Lin-Manuel Miranda, foreground, with the cast during a performance of "Hamilton," in New York. "Hamilton," the hip-hop stage biography of Alexander Hamilton won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama on Monday, April 18, 2016. (Joan Marcus/The Public Theater via AP)

Gary Pruitt, right, President and CEO of the Associated Press, applauds as the AP wins the Pulitzer Prize for public service, Monday, April 18, 2016, in New York. Standing with Pruitt are AP reporters, Esther Htusan, left, Martha Mendoza, center, and Robin McDowell, second from right along with AP's international enterprise editor Mary Rajkumar. Their work documented the use of slave labor in Southeast Asia to supply seafood to American tables, an investigation that spurred the release of more than 2,000 captive workers. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

This book cover image released by Alfred A. Knopf shows, "Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America," by T.J. Stiles, which won a Pulitzer Prize, Monday, April 18, 2016, in the history category. (Alfred A. Knopf via AP)

This book cover image released by Doubleday shows "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS," by Joby Warrick, which won the Pulitzer Prize, Monday, April 18, 2016 in the general nonfiction category. (Doubleday via AP)

This book cover image released by Grove Press shows "The Sympathizer," a novel by by Viet Thanh Nguyen, which won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday, April 18, 2016 in the fiction category. (Grove Press via AP)

This book cover image released by Penguin Press shows, "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life," by William Finnegan, which won the Pulitzer Prize, Monday, April 18, 2016, in the biography or autobiography category. (Penguin Press via AP)

FILE - In this Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014 photo, Thai and Burmese fishing boat workers sit behind bars inside a cell at the compound of a fishing company in Benjina, Indonesia. The Associated Press has won the Pulitzer Prize on Monday, April 18, 2016, for public service for articles documenting the use of slave labor in the commercial seafood industry in Indonesia and Thailand. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

FILE - In this May 16, 2015, file photo, former slave fisherman Myint Naing and his mother, Khin Than, cry as they are reunited after 22 years at their village in Mon State, Myanmar. The Associated Press has won the Pulitzer Prize on Monday, April 18, 2016 for public service for articles documenting the use of slave labor in the commercial seafood industry in Indonesia and Thailand. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)
Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'Hamilton' wins Pulitzer for drama

NEW YORK (AP)  "Hamilton," the hip-hop stage biography of Alexander Hamilton, has won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama, honoring creator Lin-Manuel Miranda for a dazzling musical that has captured popular consciousness like few Broadway shows.

The Columbia University's prize board on Monday cited "Hamilton" as "a landmark American musical about the gifted and self-destructive founding father whose story becomes both contemporary and irresistible." Other finalists were "Gloria," by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and "The Humans," by Stephen Karam.

"I feel really humbled and really overwhelmed," Miranda told The Associated Press. "Columbia is Hamilton's alma mater so I think that gave me a home-court advantage. But it's extraordinary to be recognized in this way."

FILE - In this June 18, 2015, file photo, author and star of the Broadway-bound musical "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda, begins rehearsals at the New 42nd Street Studios in New York. "Hamilton," the hip-hop stage biography of Alexander Hamilton won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama on Monday, April 18, 2016. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

Viet Thanh Nguyen's "The Sympathizer," a debut novel set in the final days of the Vietnam War and narrated in flashback by a former Communist agent who infiltrated the South Vietnamese Army, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

The 45-year-old author, currently in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to promote the paperback edition of his novel, told The Associated Press that he wrote "The Sympathizer" for himself but feels many can relate to it.

"I think most people in their inner selves are conscious of being an impostor, being an observer, not being the person everyone thinks they are," he said. "For the novel I took that to the extreme in using a spy and adding the dimensions of the thriller and historical fiction."

"Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS" by Joby Warrick won for general nonfiction. Warrick also won the Pulitzer in 1996, as part of a team reporting on the environmental and health risks of waste disposal systems used in North Carolina's growing hog industry.

"There's nothing like getting hit by lightning twice," Warrick said in a telephone interview.

Warrick said that if there was a chief lesson he sought to impart in his new book, which traces the origins and growth of ISIS, it was that "decisions have consequences" and the West, in many ways, helped propel the group. "We are not innocent in the rise of this organization," he said.

The history prize was won by "Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America," by T.J. Stiles, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and two children.

He told The Associated Press that he had long been interested in the story of George Armstrong Custer, the butt of jokes for the disastrous Battle of the Little Big Horn.

"Custer is a difficult subject, because he's very familiar and someone who has been reduced to caricature, if not an effigy in American memory," he said. "Writing about him in an honest way, without apologizing for him, is an incredibly difficult thing to do."

The book "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life," by William Finnegan won in the biography or autobiography category, cited as a "memoir of a youthful obsession"

Finnegan, 63, is a longtime staff reporter for The New Yorker and his book tells of his childhood in California and Hawaii and his lifelong passion for surfing. He told The Associated Press that he was used to writing about other people, but eventually enjoyed taking on his own life.

"It's a strange genre for a reporter, reporting out your own past, when everything was your private life and not on the record," said Finnegan, whose previous books include "Dateline Soweto: Travels with Black South African Reporters" and "Crossing the Line."

"But in some ways it's a genre that suits me, too. I enjoyed it, almost guiltily."

"In for a Penny, In for a Pound," by Henry Threadgill was named the winner in the music category. The 72-year-old Chicago-born jazz artist said he wrote the composition for members of his band, Zooid.

"It was something to showcase each musician in the ensemble, that was the big thing," Threadgill said. "It was like a series of small concertos in a way, small solo pieces."

But it was the drama award that generated the most buzz. "Hamilton," about the first U.S. Treasury Secretary, becomes the ninth musical to win the drama award, joining such shows as "South Pacific," ''Sunday in the Park with George" and "Rent." The last musical to nab the award was "Next to Normal" in 2010.

It tells the story of how an orphan immigrant from the Caribbean rose to the highest ranks of American society, as told by a young African-American and Latino cast. Miranda leaned on Ron Chernow's biography of the Founding Father, but told the tale in common language and verse, transforming Hamilton into "the $10 Founding Father without a father."

Miranda, 36, who wrote the music and story, already has a Tony for creating the Broadway musical "In the Heights," a show which was nominated for a Pulitzer in 2009 and this month won three Olivier Awards in London. He also has an Emmy for writing the opening number for the 2013 Tony Awards.

In the past year, Miranda, whose family came from Puerto Rico to New York, has won a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation, as well as the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, which came with $100,000.

The drama award was widely expected to go to Miranda this year. The album for "Hamilton" won a Grammy Award and became the highest-debuting cast recording on the Billboard Top 200 in over 50 years. The show is a leading favorite in this summer's Tony Awards. The libretto, published last week, immediately became a top seller on Amazon.com

"I'm just trying to stay as present and in the moment as possible because I'm fully aware that this speeds by in the highlight reel. I'm living in the highlight reel section of my life," Miranda said. "I want to slow the montage down."

"Hamilton" was a sold-out sensation this year when it debuted off-Broadway at New York's Public Theater and amassed a $60 million advance on Broadway. It has been cheered by politicians as diverse as Dick Cheney and President Barack Obama, and celebrities like British actress Helen Mirren, musician Questlove and many others.

The music is a mix of breezy pop, rap battles and slinky R&B. Lyrics are smart and playful, including Hamilton declaring: "In the face of ignorance and resistance/I wrote a financial system into existence."

The Pulitzer drama award, which includes a $10,000 prize, is "for a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life," according to the guidelines.

Previous playwrights honored include August Wilson, Edward Albee, Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Recent winners include Annie Baker's "The Flick," Ayad Akhtar's "Disgraced" and Stephen Adly Guirgis's "Between Riverside and Crazy."

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Online: http://www.pulitzer.org

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

___

Associated Press reporters Hillel Italie and Jocelyn Noveck in New York, and Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.

This book cover image released by Doubleday shows "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS," by Joby Warrick, which won the Pulitzer Prize, Monday, April 18, 2016 in the general nonfiction category. (Doubleday via AP)

This book cover image released by Grove Press shows "The Sympathizer," a novel by by Viet Thanh Nguyen, which won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday, April 18, 2016 in the fiction category. (Grove Press via AP)

This book cover image released by Alfred A. Knopf shows, "Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America," by T.J. Stiles, which won a Pulitzer Prize, Monday, April 18, 2016, in the history category. (Alfred A. Knopf via AP)

This book cover image released by Penguin Press shows, "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life," by William Finnegan, which won the Pulitzer Prize, Monday, April 18, 2016, in the biography or autobiography category. (Penguin Press via AP)
Mexico apologizes again for torture incident

MEXICO CITY (AP)  A high-ranking Mexican security official has joined the country's army in apologizing for the torture of a young woman captured in a widely circulated video.

National Security Commissioner Renato Sales spoke at a federal police academy in San Luis Potosi Monday two days after the defense minister apologized. He says the February 2015 incident in Ajuchitlan del Progreso offended citizens and dishonored security institutions.

A female military police officer is seen in the video interrogating the woman. She pulls the woman's hair and puts the muzzle of a rifle against her head. Later, a blue-uniformed female federal police officer puts the woman's head inside a plastic bag until she almost passes out.

This screengrab of a video posted on several youtube sites on April 14, 2016 shows two soldiers standing over a woman with her head covered in an unknown location in Mexico. The two Mexican soldiers face military charges after this video surfaced of them helping a federal police officer torture a female suspect. It's unclear if the police officer faces charges. Mexico's Defense Department says the events occurred Feb. 4, 2015 in a small mountain town in southern Guerrero state. (via AP)
UN ambassador's motorcade hits, kills boy

MAROUA, Cameroon (AP)  U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power's trip to Cameroon's front lines in the war against Boko Haram started horrifically Monday as an armored jeep in her motorcade struck and killed a young boy who darted into the road.

The incident occurred near the small city of Mokolo, in northern Cameroon, where Power, her aides and accompanying journalists were headed to meet refugees and others displaced by the years of brutal attacks across West Africa.

All those meetings included small children.

Power said she learned of the death with "great sorrow."

She said she met with the boy's family to "offer our profound condolences and our grief and heartbreak."

Power returned to the scene of the bloody accident several hours later to meet the 7-year-old boy's mother and father, while residents of his village stood solemnly on a sandy expanse.

The motorcade was moving at a fast clip, at times exceeding 60 mph, while villagers lined up along the sides of the road. But when the boy darted onto the two-lane highway, there was no time for the sixth car in Power's convoy to react. The driver was Cameroonian.

At the moment of impact, a man could be seen running up the embankment, with his arms held high, to the street to try to stop the child. A Cameroonian helicopter traveling overhead as part of a large security contingent saw the collision.

The vehicle that hit the boy initially stopped, but was ordered by American security forces to continue traveling through the unsecured area. An ambulance in the U.S. caravan immediately attended to him.

The boy was rushed to a local hospital, though his condition was already hopeless, according to people familiar with the incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Several U.S. officials were visibly affected, with one Power aide turning away to cry as his boss met with refugee children shortly afterward.

The motorcade moved at a significantly slower pace for the rest of the day.
Obama-Putin discuss need to implement Ukraine peace deal

MOSCOW (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama have spoken by telephone, and the White House says they spent much of the call discussing Ukraine, with Obama urging Putin to abide by a 2015 agreement aimed at ending the conflict.

The Kremlin readout of Monday's call stresses Putin's hope that Ukraine will "finally begin to take concrete steps to implement the Minsk agreement."

The cease-fire has significantly reduced fighting between government troops and Russia-backed separatists, but the political settlement that was part of the agreement hasn't been implemented.
Kuwait's oil minister urges striking union to resume work

KUWAIT CITY (AP)  Kuwait's acting oil minister has urged striking union workers to get back to their jobs, promising the government will not reduce their "core benefits."

The statement by Anas al-Saleh, who's also finance minister, was carried on the official Kuwait News Agency Monday.

Thousands of workers in six oil and petrochemical companies went on strike Sunday to protest proposed government cutbacks.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp., which is the parent company of the Kuwait Oil Co. and other related firms, says it has implemented an emergency plan to cope with the strike, but official statements suggest that oil production was more than halved on Sunday.
Colorado pot report: More adults using drug, but not kids

DENVER (AP)  Colorado kids are not smoking more pot since the drug became legal  but their older siblings and parents certainly are, according to a long-awaited report giving the most comprehensive data yet on the effects of the state's 2012 recreational marijuana law.

The state released a report Monday detailing changes in everything from pot arrests to tax collections to calls to Poison Control. Surveys given to middle-schoolers and high-schoolers indicate that youth marijuana use didn't rise significantly in the years after the 2012 vote.

Anonymous surveys given to about 40,000 Colorado students before and after legalization showed "no significant change" in marijuana use by children under 18 in the preceding 30 days.

FILE- In this Dec. 27, 2013 file photo, different strains of pot are displayed for sale at a marijuana dispensary in Denver. The state of Colorado released a report Monday, April 18, 2016 detailing changes in everything from pot arrests to tax collections to calls to Poison Control. The most striking statistic wasn't a change at all, but the fact that surveys indicate marijuana use by people under 18 didn't rise significantly in the years after the 2012 vote to legalize recreational pot sales. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, file)

Among high school students, use went from about 23 percent in 2005 to about 20 percent in 2014. Similarly, there was no significant change in use by kids younger than 13 in recent years.

But Colorado youth were much more likely than kids in other states to use marijuana, both before and after legalization, according to a national survey.

About 13 percent of Colorado minors 12-17 in 2014 had used marijuana in the last 30 days, the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health said. That compared with about 7 percent of minors the same ages nationwide.

Youth marijuana arrests in Colorado rose 5 percent between 2012 and 2014, from 3,235 to 3,400. Even worse, the report cited a huge uptick in pot arrests in schools, which rose by 34 percent between 2012 and 2014.

While use of the drug did not increase significantly among children, it did jump among adults.

Relying on data from the national drug use survey, Colorado reported that nearly a third of Coloradans 18 to 25 in 2014 had used pot in the last 30 days, a rise of about 5 percent from the year before recreational pot was legalized.

The survey showed a similar spike in adults over 26. Past 30-day marijuana use went from 7.6 percent in 2012 to 12.4 percent in 2014.

The report comes three years after lawmakers ordered the state Department of Public Safety to start tracking law enforcement activity related to pot. A major argument of pro-legalization activists was that legal pot would result in fewer arrests, allowing police to focus on what some consider more serious crimes.

The numbers showed a marked drop in arrests, but that legalization has not solved the racial disparities in enforcement that drug-policy reformers had hoped to end. Colorado police departments have struggled to standardize their marijuana data-collection systems, making more granular conclusions problematic.

Other highlights from the report:

 Traffic safety data related to legalization was limited, mostly because Colorado didn't collect data on marijuana-impaired driving before 2012. The number of Colorado State Patrol summons issued for driving under the influence of marijuana dropped slightly from 674 in 2014 to 655 in 2015. Traffic fatalities in which a driver tested positive for marijuana's psychoactive chemical, THC, increased 44 percent in the first two years of legalization.

 The report said there was "no discernible trend" in illegal pot cultivation on public land, which includes most of Colorado's ski resorts.

 More Coloradans are calling Poison Control reporting marijuana-related exposure. Pot calls went from 44 in 2006 to 227 in 2015.
Utah threatens liquor permit of theater showing 'Deadpool'

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Utah alcohol bosses have filed a complaint and will consider revoking the liquor license of a movie theater it says violated a state obscenity law by serving drinks while screening "Deadpool," which features simulated sex scenes.

The theater said the law is unconstitutional and has threatened to challenge it in court if the complaint isn't dropped.

Rocky Anderson, an attorney for Brewvies in Salt Lake City, said Monday the law violates free-speech rights and is so broadly written that even a movie featuring Michelangelo's nude "David" sculpture would be banned if alcohol was served at a screening.

Brewvies Cinema Pub is viewed Monday, April 18, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Utah alcohol bosses have filed a complaint and will consider revoking the liquor license of a movie theater it says violated a state obscenity law by serving drinks while screening "Deadpool," which features simulated sex scenes. The theater said the law is unconstitutional and has threatened to challenge it in court if the complaint is not dropped. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control filed the complaint against Brewvies after three undercover state officers attended a screening of "Deadpool" in February.

Investigators cited a state obscenity law that is generally used to regulate alcohol and nudity at strip clubs, which are required to have dancers wearing G-strings and pasties if the club serves liquor.

The law also bans the showing of any film with sex acts or simulated sex acts, full-frontal nudity or the "caressing" of breasts of buttocks. It only applies to businesses with liquor licenses, so most Utah movie theaters, which are alcohol free, are not cited under the law.

Brewvies, which has been open since 1997, only allows people 21 and older to attend movies and serves food and liquor to customers.

The DABC has scheduled a meeting in May to discuss or possibly settle the complaint before further disciplinary action.

The agency's Vickie Ashby had no comment Monday and said she could not speak to the next steps in the disciplinary process. She directed questions to the attorney general's office and State Bureau of Investigation, which ran the undercover investigation.

Dan Burton, a spokesman for the Utah attorney general's office, declined to comment. The State Bureau of Investigation looked into the matter after the DABC sent it a compliant, according to Marissa Villasenor, a spokeswoman for Utah's Department of Public Safety, which oversees the investigative bureau.

Anderson said he'll challenge the law in court unless the complaint is dropped and Utah stops enforcing the obscenity law. Anderson said his client should also be repaid for a $1,627 fine the theater paid five years ago when it was cited under the same law for showing "The Hangover Part II."

Anderson, who provided a copy of the investigative report to The Associated Press, said the fact that the film can be shown at other theaters nearby makes it clear Utah officials are using liquor laws to limit First Amendment rights of free speech.

Anderson said the Utah law is similar to an Idaho measure that lawmakers repealed this year after a theater sued after its liquor license was threatened for showing "Fifty Shades of Grey" while serving alcohol.

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Woman admits tweeting fake threats to fellow black students

ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP)  A former leader of a black student group pleaded guilty Monday to creating a false public alarm by tweeting anonymous threats against fellow black college students last fall.

State prosecutors will recommend that Kayla McKelvey be sentenced to 90 days in jail and that she pay restitution of about $82,000 to cover the costs of the police response and heightened security at Kean University after the threats.

According to prosecutors, the 25-year-old McKelvey tweeted threats from a campus library because she wanted more people to attend the November 17, 2015, rally on racial issues. She then returned to the rally to tell people about the threats.

One tweet addressed to campus police read: "@kupolice I will kill all the blacks tonight, tomorrow and any other day if they go to Kean University."

The university increased security, and several law enforcement agencies were also alerted, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The threats also prompted a group of black ministers to call for Kean President Dawood Farahi to resign, saying the threats showed that he hadn't done enough to address racial tension on campus.

McKelvey and her attorney had sought to have her participate in a pretrial intervention program that would have allowed her to avoid jail. But a judge denied that request last week.
Joshua was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries

Told officers the food theft had 'pushed him over the edge' and he wanted to teach his son a lesson

Said Joshua, of White Lake, North Carolina, had taken thousands of dollars from his property

Ted Alan Walters, 49, shot his 25-year-old son Joshua in the leg Saturday according to police

A man shot his 25-year-old son for taking food from his grandmother's fridge in an attempt to teach him a lesson against theft, police said.

Ted Alan Walters, 49, shot his son Joshua in the lower left leg on Saturday after forcing entry into his house in White Lake, North Carolina, the Fayetteville Observer reported.

He said he had discovered the previous day that his son had stolen hamburger and bacon from thus grandmother's fridge.

Walters told officers that his son had taken thousands of dollars from his property in the past months and that the food theft had 'pushed him over the edge'.

Ted Alan Walters (left), 49, shot his 25-year-old son Joshua (right) in the lower left leg Saturday in an attempt to teach him against theft. He said Joshua took hamburger and bacon from his grandmother's freezer

The father, of Elizabethtown, drove to his son's house and shot him in the lower left leg.

Joshua was taken to the hospital with injuries considered non life-threatening, White Lake lieutenant Mike Salmon said.

Walters has been charged with first-degree burglary and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury.

He remains jailed under a $50,000 bond.

'I did not want to kill my son,' Walters told officers. 'I just want him to have a reminder each time he takes a step while he is stealing someone else's belongings.'
Mexico: US OKs nominee for next ambassador to Washington

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexico says Washington has approved its pick for the country's ambassador to the United States.

Foreign Relations Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu says the Mexican Senate has been informed of the decision and must now summon Carlos Sada as part of the ratification process.

Sada's nomination in early April is part of a new strategy to respond to what Mexico considers distorted portrayals of the country during the U.S. presidential campaign. Mexico also appointed a new deputy secretary for North American affairs at the time.

FILE - In this Sept. 3, 2015 file photo, Irma Rodriguez Guevara, from El Salvador, is presented with her computer studies certificate by Carlos Sada, Mexico's consul in Los Angeles, center, and Angela Zambrano, second from right, at CARECEN, the Central American Resource Center in Los Angeles. Mexico says Washington has approved Sada, Mexico's pick for the country's ambassador to the United States. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

The goal is to highlight Mexican citizens' contributions to the U.S. economy and society and combat rhetoric against illegal immigration.
Macedonia enters second week of anti-government protests

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP)  Macedonia has entered into a second week of protests with thousands marching peacefully late Monday in the capital after the country's president pardoned dozens of politicians who were facing criminal proceedings for alleged involvement in a wiretapping scandal.

Protests were held also in five other cities, including the second-largest city of Bitola. Protesters are demanding the president's resignation and that a caretaker government be formed to prepare a free and fair vote.

Protesters in the capital, Skopje, chanted "No justice, no peace" and threw paint on the Culture Ministry building and another site seen as symbols of the conservative government's lavishness.

President Gjorge Ivanov pardoned dozens of politicians, including former prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who were facing criminal proceedings for alleged involvement in a wiretapping scandal.

The pardons, issued before an early election planned for June 5, have prompted daily opposition protests since last week.

The election, halfway through Gruevski's term in office, was called under an internationally-mediated bid to end a months-long political crisis triggered by wiretapping and corruption scandals.

European Union mediators have invited Macedonia's squabbling politicians to talks Friday in Vienna in a bid to defuse a new political crisis.
Britain aligns with US on response to South China Sea case

WASHINGTON (AP)  Britain said Monday it will stand alongside the U.S. in supporting an upcoming ruling by an international tribunal in a case that challenges the legality of China's expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Beijing says the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, which is hearing the case, has no jurisdiction in the matter. The case was brought by the Philippines in 2013 and a ruling is expected by mid-year.

Hugo Swire, British minister of state for the foreign office, told a Washington think tank that growing tensions in the South China Sea are driven by China's assertive actions. He said any ruling by the court should be binding on both parties but it would also be an opportunity for renewed dialogue between the Chinese and Philippine governments.

"In our response to this ruling, the U.K. will stand alongside the U.S. and the wider international community," he told the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Swire pushed back against perceptions that Britain is unwilling to challenge Beijing because it wants Chinese investment, saying London will "continue to speak up loudly in support of rules and against coercion."
Cuban leaders criticize both bureaucracy and private sector

HAVANA (AP)  Some of Cuba's most powerful officials criticized the creaking inefficiency of its state-controlled economy on Monday but tarred its vibrant private sector as a potential source of U.S. subversion.

The comments illustrated the conundrum faced by a Cuban government simultaneously trying to modernize and maintain control in a new era of detente with Washington.

The Cuban Communist Party ended the third day of its twice-a-decade congress with a vote for the 114-member Central Committee, which in turn selects the powerful 15-member Political Bureau. The bureau's first and second secretaries are the country's top officials.

Cuba's President Raul Castro attends a session of the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party in Havana, Cuba, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate via AP)

Monday's vote, like the rest of the congress, was open only to 1,000 delegates, 280 hand-selected guests and state journalists, whose reports revealed virtually no concrete details of the policies that will guide the government for the next five years.

The Seventh Party Congress has been criticized for its extreme secrecy by ordinary Cubans and even members of the Communist Party itself. State media said the results of the voting would be revealed Tuesday.

Cuban President and First Party Secretary Raul Castro opened the meeting Saturday with a somber evaluation of the state of reforms he introduced after taking over from his ailing brother Fidel in 2008. Raul Castro blamed "an obsolete mentality" and "attitude of inertia" for the state's failure to implement reforms meant to increase productivity.

First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, long seen as Castro's successor, repeated that criticism of the bureaucracy in a speech Monday announcing the congress' formal acceptance of Castro's evaluation. He said obsolete ways of thinking led both to inertia in enacting reforms and "a lack of confidence in the future."

"Along with other deficiencies, there's a lack of readiness, high standards and control, and little foresight or initiative from sectors and bureaucrats in charge of making these goals a reality," Diaz-Canel said in an excerpt of a speech broadcast on state television.

However, lengthy state media reports on the four-day congress focused less on proposals for reform than on debates about political orthodoxy focusing on the need to protect Cuba's socialist system from the threat of global capitalism and U.S. influence in particular.

A month after President Barack Obama's visit to Havana, the first by a U.S. president in nearly 90 years, Cuban leaders have begun to consistently portray his trip as an attempt to seduce ordinary Cubans into abandoning the country's socialist values in favor of a desire for free markets and multiparty democracy.

On Saturday, Castro said "the enemy" was targeting young people, intellectuals, the poor and the 500,000 members of Cuba's new private sector as vulnerable to persuasion.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez went further, calling Obama's visit "an attack on the foundation of our history, our culture and our symbols."

"Obama came here to dazzle the non-state sector, as if he wasn't the representative of big corporations but the defender of hot dog vendors, of small businesses in the United States, which he isn't," Rodriguez said.

Rene Gonzalez, a former intelligence agent held in the United States in a case resolved by the declaration of detente with Washington, made an unusual call for the consideration of political reform in Cuba.

Saying the party had focused excessively on the economy for 10 years, he said, "Let the party call for a broad public discussion that goes beyond concepts of economic development."

"Let's arrive at the eighth party congress for the first time in human history with a consensus on that human aspiration that some call democracy, and that's possible through socialism," Gonzalez said.

State media did not indicate whether his proposal was included in any of the formal documents put up for a vote during the congress.

Aged 55 and 58, respectively, Diaz-Canel and Rodriguez are members of the generation expected to move into the highest ranks of power in Cuba as early as Tuesday when the congress' vote is announced.

Castro said Saturday that he was proposing an age limit of 60 for election to the Central Committee and 70 for lower-ranking but important posts in the party.

Castro is 84 and his second secretary, hardliner Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, is 85.

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Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein

Cuba's President Raul Castro acknowledges applause at the end of a session of the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party in Havana, Cuba, Monday, April 18, 2016. Cuba's Vice President Miguel Diaz Canel is pictured at right. (Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate via AP)

Communist Party delegates raise their hands during a vote in a session of the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party of in Havana, Cuba, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Ismael Francisco / Cubadebate via AP)

Cuba's President Raul Castro, right, and Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Central Committee, raise their hands during a vote in a session of the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party in Havana, Cuba, Monday, April 18, 2016. (Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate via AP)
Brazil president's future in doubt after impeachment vote

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP)  President Dilma Rousseff on Monday appeared on the verge of losing office after a congressional vote to impeach her and signs suggested only tenuous support for her in the Senate, which will decide whether to remove her amid a political and economic crisis.

The 367-137 lower house vote in favor of impeachment late Sunday sent the issue to the Senate, where 45 of the 81 senators have indicated they will vote to hold an impeachment trial, according to local reports.

If a majority of senators vote to put Rousseff on trial, she would be suspended while Vice President Michel Temer temporarily took over.

A government supporter cries after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, outside Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Under the complicated guidelines of the impeachment process, it could be a little more than 10 days until that vote is cast and a minimum of 40 days until the Rousseff's fate is decided. However, the speed of the process also depends on the political will of Senate leader Renan Calheiros, who could potentially drag the eventual trial and final vote out for months.

Speaking at a news conference Monday, Rousseff said she would not be stepping down.

"I have the energy, strength and courage to confront this injustice," she said, while also accusing Temer of conspiring against her.

The lower chamber's vote worsened the confusion over the political landscape in Brazil, which also is struggling with its worst recession in decades and a big corruption scandal while it prepares to host the Olympic Games in August.

The impeachment vote has deeply divided Brazilians, tens of thousands of whom demonstrated in front of Congress and in cities nationwide during the vote.

Many hold Rousseff responsible for everything from the devastating recession to chronic high taxes and poor public services. At the same time, a broad swath of the population attributes tens of millions of poor Brazilians' rise from destitution over the past decade to Rousseff's Workers Party and decried the vote as anti-democratic.

"I'm happy because I think Dilma had to go, but I'm also both sad that it came to this and also really worried that the next president could be even worse," said Patricia Santos, a 52-year-old small business owner who was among the demonstrators outside Congress. "I quiver to think what awaits us next."

The impeachment proceedings against Rousseff are based on accusations she used illegal accounting tricks to shore up her flagging support through public spending.

Rousseff says previous administrations used such fiscal maneuvers without repercussions. She insists the accusations are a flimsy excuse by Brazil's traditional ruling elite to grab power back from her left-leaning party, which has ruled the country for 13 years.

Solicitor General Jose Eduardo Cardozo said after the vote that Rousseff would fight impeachment in the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil's highest court.

But analysts were skeptical that she would be able to hold onto power, noting her spectacular failure to win the support even of parties that had long been part of her governing coalition.

Editorials in Brazil's top newspapers highlighted the danger posed by the political instability.

The Estado de S. Paulo newspaper warned of "the threat of strikes and daily demonstrations." Folha de S. Paulo urged speed in resolving the problem, adding, "The crisis is far from over."

The political standoff has dragged on for months, hamstringing efforts to respond to the country's worst recession in decades. It comes amidst an unfurling corruption scandal centered on the state-run Petrobras oil company that has entangled political and business leaders  though not Rousseff herself.

Sunday's vote came about 24 years after the lower house opened impeachment proceedings against Fernando Collor de Mello, Brazil's first democratically elected president after more than two decades of military rule. Collor faced corruption allegations and ended up resigning before the conclusion of his trial in the Senate.

While their alleged misdeeds were different, Rousseff ultimately made the same political mistakes that Collor did, said Luciano Dias, a Brasilia-based political consultant.

"She was arrogant with Congress for a long time and her economic policies were just wrong," he said.

Rousseff, a one-time guerrilla fighter who was tortured under the military dictatorship, was picked by charismatic former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to succeed him  becoming Brazil's first woman president. Rousseff had never held elected office before becoming president and quickly gained a reputation for her prickly leadership style and perceived reticence to play the political game.

Eight years of galloping economic growth under Silva began to flag after she took office in 2011, and she only narrowly won re-election in 2014. Her popularity has plunged in step with the economy, and opinion polls suggest most Brazilians support her ouster, though many have reservations about those in line to replace her.

Temer, the vice president, has been implicated in the Petrobras case and also signed off on the some of the same allegedly illegal fiscal maneuvers Rousseff used.

The second in line to replace Rousseff, Chamber of Deputies Speaker Eduardo Cunha, has been charged with taking $5 million in bribes in the Petrobras scheme.

Brazil's lawmakers and other top politicians enjoy special legal protections that effectively largely shield them from prosecution. Around 60 percent of the country's nearly 600 legislators are facing corruption and other serious charges.

With the country's leadership besmirched by corruption, calls for general elections have been growing. A Rousseff spokesperson acknowledged that her team was examining the possibility of calling for elections  a move which has no constitutional basis, although it appears to enjoy considerable public support.

Gerivaldo Oliveira, a taxi driver in Brasilia, said he would applaud such an initiative.

"I want to see all the corrupt politicians in jail," he said. "Brazil needs a clean slate, otherwise we're lost."

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Associated Press video journalist Renata Brito contributed to this report from Brasilia and AP reporter Mauricio Savarese contributed from Rio de Janeiro.

Anti-government demonstrators celebrate after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. The signs behind read in Portuguese: "Get out Dilma! Get our Lula! Get out Workers Party!" (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

A pro-government demonstrator cries as she watches the vote count broadcast live on a screen, as lawmakers decide on whether or not to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The vote will determine whether the impeachment proceeds to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of violating Brazil's fiscal laws to shore up public support amid a flagging economy. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Opposition lawmakers celebrate after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Anti-government demonstrators burn a Workers Party flag after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. (AP Photo/Joedson Alves)

An anti-government demonstrator holding a statue of Our Lady of Aparecida celebrates after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. (AP Photo/Joedson Alves)

Anti-government demonstrators celebrate after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, April 17, 2016. The measure now goes to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Supporters of President Dilma Rousseff play cards in their makeshift camp, as they wait for buses to return them to their homes, in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 18, 2016. Brazilian legislators pushing to remove Rousseff for alleged fiscal irregularities won a major victory Sunday in the lower house of Congress, gaining a 367-137 vote in favor of her impeachment. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Feds won't pursue civil rights charges in police shooting

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP)  The U.S. Justice Department says there is insufficient evidence to pursue criminal civil rights charges against police in a 2013 fatal shooting in West Virginia.

The Justice Department announced the decision Monday after a review of evidence in the March 2013 shooting of Wayne Arnold Jones of Stephens City, Virginia.

Civil rights leaders had pressed for the investigation.

Jones, who was black, was shot more than 20 times after Martinsburg police said the 50-year-old shrugged off two jolts from a stun gun, fought with officers and stabbed one of them. The officers are white.

U.S. District Judge Gina Groh in 2014 dismissed a $200 million lawsuit filed by Jones' family against police officers and the city of Martinsburg.
North Carolina police say child remains found under house

SMITHFIELD, N.C. (AP)  Police in North Carolina say bags containing child remains have been found underneath a house.

WTVD in Durham reports (http://abc11.tv/1Shb2cR ) that officers went to a home in Smithfield last weekend and found the remains. A warrant says the remains were in three separate trash bags and had towels around them.

Officers were alerted to the remains after a woman who leases the house had asked her son to run a cable under the house. The man noticed the trash bags, eventually opened them and realized they contained remains.

According to authorities, a woman who leases the house told investigators about two incidents in which her daughter, who had lived with her at various times, obviously delivered a child but she didn't know what had happened to the children.

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Michigan governor to drink Flint water for at least a month

LANSING, Mich. (AP)  Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will drink Flint water at home and at work for at least a month to show to residents it is safe with the use of a faucet filter, he said Monday.

The Republican governor, who has apologized for his administration's role in the city's lead-tainted water crisis, visited a house owned by Cheryl Hill and Todd Canty that was confirmed to have high levels of lead. Snyder, who left with five gallons of filtered water, said he understands people feel that if officials say the water is OK, then he should drink it, too.

"What better way to help show support," said Snyder, who will get refills from other homes as needed.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, left, fills jugs with filtered Flint, Mich., tap water alongside Cheryl Hill at Hill's house where he drank his first glass of the local water Monday, April 18, 2016, on the city's east side. Gov. Snyder says he will drink Flint's water for roughly a month to show residents it is safe. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Hill and Canty told The Flint Journal that they appreciate the governor's visit but still have a lead service line running to their home and don't know if and when it will be replaced.

"I wouldn't want to be in his position right now," Canty said. "I believe this is just one of those cases where personally he just has a lot of work to do."

For nearly 18 months, Flint residents drank and bathed with improperly treated water that had coursed through aging pipes and fixtures, scraping away lead. By the time Snyder announced in October that Flint would return to its earlier source of treated water, the Detroit municipal system, dangerously high levels of the toxic metal were detected in the blood of some residents, including children, for whom it can cause lower IQs and behavioral problems.

On Monday, Snyder again urged residents to drink the water as long as a filter is in place. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, however, says bottled water is safest for children under age 6 and pregnant or breastfeeding women.

Meanwhile, a state water-quality official who told the city of Flint that a chemical wasn't needed to prevent lead corrosion from pipes has taken a different job in the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Mike Prysby, who was a district engineer with the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance and had been responsible for Genesee County, home to Flint, began working in the Water Resources Division's Transportation and Flood Hazard Unit on March 28. That was the day before a supervisor at Flint's water plant, Mike Glasgow, testified at a legislative hearing that Prysby told him before Flint switched to a local river for water in 2014 that phosphate wasn't required.

DEQ spokeswoman Melanie Brown said Prysby took a position that opened up when someone was promoted, and his switch was not a forced transfer.

"The department continues to cooperate with internal investigations regarding staff actions in Flint," she told The Associated Press in an email.

A message seeking comment was left Monday for Prysby, who has declined previous requests for an interview.

Snyder has blamed "career bureaucrats" in state and federal governments. A task force appointed by Snyder has said the DEQ was the primary culprit because regulators misinterpreted a federal rule in telling Flint water officials not to treat the Flint River for corrosion until after two six-month monitoring periods.

The DEQ's director and communications director resigned in December. Snyder fired the department's top drinking water official, and a district supervisor is on paid leave after being suspended five days without pay in January for actions related to the Flint crisis  the maximum allowed under civil service rules.

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Follow David Eggert at http://twitter.com/DavidEggert00 . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/david-eggert .

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder fills jugs with filtered Flint, Mich., tap water at Cheryl Hill's house Monday, April 18, 2016, on the city's east side. Gov. Snyder says he will drink Flint's water for roughly a month to show residents it is safe. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, left, drinks filtered Flint, Mich., tap water with Flint resident Cheryl Hill while listening to her concerns with the city's ongoing water crisis at her home Monday, April 18, 2016. Gov. Snyder says he will drink Flint's water for roughly a month to show residents it is safe. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder fills empty jugs with filtered Flint, Mich., tap water at Cheryl Hill's house Monday, April 18, 2016, on the city's east side. Gov. Snyder says he will drink Flint's water for roughly a month to show residents it is safe. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, right, drinks filtered Flint, Mich., tap water with Flint resident Cheryl Hill while listening to her concerns with the city's ongoing water crisis at her home Monday, April 18, 2016. Gov. Snyder says he will drink Flint's water for roughly a month to show residents it is safe. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
Tata appoints UK chief executive amid hunt for steel plants buyer

Tata has appointed a chief executive for its UK steel business as efforts continue to find a buyer for its loss-making plants.

Bimlendra Jha, an executive member of Tata Steel Europe, takes up the new post at a critical time for the crisis-hit industry.

He is executive chairman of Tata's Long Products business, including the huge plant in Scunthorpe, which was sold last week to Greybull Capital.

Tata's plant in Scunthorpe was sold last week to Greybull Capital

Tata revealed it had contacted 190 potential financial and industrial investors worldwide since launching its sale process a week ago.

Mr Koushik Chatterjee, group executive director of Tata Steel, said: "Today's announcement by Tata Steel Europe will ensure the full focus on the vital tasks that lie ahead of Tata Steel UK.

"Bimlendra's successful experience of the process of divestment of Long Products Europe will be invaluable as Tata Steel Europe explores strategic alternatives for its operations in the UK.

"He will be supported by a team with immense operating experience of the UK business.

"To deliver greater clarity for all key stakeholders such as employees, customers and suppliers, it is important for the new team to seek all credible options in a time-bound manner."

Tata also announced the appointment of Standard Chartered Bank as an additional adviser to its sale process.

Meanwhile, Business Secretary Sajid Javid joined ministers from other countries at a meeting in Brussels to discuss the global glut of steel that has pushed British production to the brink of collapse.
Police appeal for help after drone strike on BA plane arriving at Heathrow

Detectives have appealed for information after a drone apparently hit a British Airways flight as it came in to land at Heathrow.

The pilot of flight BA727 from Geneva in Switzerland reported being hit as the Airbus A320 approached the west London airport on Sunday afternoon with 132 passengers and five crew on board.

Scotland Yard believes the incident occurred about 1,700ft in the sky above Richmond, south-west London.

The BA aircraft was approaching Heathrow Airport when it was struck

Police said officers have searched a "wide area" for suspects or debris but nothing has been found.

Anyone who discovers drone parts in the Richmond area, or who was in Richmond Park or surrounding open spaces between noon and 1pm on Sunday and has relevant information, is asked to contact a viation policing on 020 3276 1460 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.

No arrests have been made over the incident.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has also begun an investigation.

Justin Pringle, chief technology officer at Newcastle-based firm Drone Operations, told the Press Association there " isn't any chance of catching the pilot because drones do not have to be registered".

He described the collision as " an untraceable event".

Transport minister Robert Goodwill said the Government is looking at the possibility of introducing a registration scheme in the UK, similar to ones already in place in Ireland and the US.

Mr Pringle warned that anyone can walk into a shop, hand over 1,000 and walk out with a drone.

"At no point have you had a conversation about safety or the rules and regulations attached to that vehicle," he added.

The collision is the latest and most serious in a string of incidents involving drones at Heathrow, with several near misses between flights and unmanned aircraft in the last year.

It raises the issue of regulation and control of drones, especially in sensitive areas like airports.

BA said the aircraft landed safely and was examined by engineers before being cleared to take off on its next flight.

Chief Superintendent Martin Hendy, head of the Met's aviation policing command, said: " Thankfully the aircraft landed safely but the incident highlights the very real dangers of reckless, negligent and sometimes malicious use of drones.

"We continue to work with the Civil Aviation Authority and other partners to tackle this issue and ensure that enthusiasts who fly drones understand the dangers and the law.

"One of the challenges is to ensure people realise what is legitimate and what is illegal. The message is do not fly them anywhere near airports or flight paths, or over crowded places such as football and other stadiums. The potential is there for a major incident."

Steve Landells, flight safety specialist at the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), called for greater enforcement and awareness of rules that govern drone flights.

He said: "Frankly it was only a matter of time before we had a drone strike given the huge numbers being flown around by amateurs who don't understand the risks and the rules."

The Civil Aviation Authority advises that drone operators must be able to see the craft at all times and must not fly above 400ft.

Drones fitted with cameras must not be flown within 50 metres of people, vehicles or buildings, or over congested areas or large gatherings such as concerts and sports events.

A report in March by the UK Airprox Board (UKAB) found there were 23 near misses between drones and aircraft in the six months between April and October last year, including two at Heathrow.

A CAA spokesman said it was "totally unacceptable" to fly drones close to airports and anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including imprisonment.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said a pilot on an inbound flight into Heathrow Airport from Geneva "reported to police that he believed a drone had struck the aircraft" shortly before landing at 12.38pm.
Foreign Secretary visits Tripoli to back new Libyan government

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has made an unannounced visit to Libya in a show of support for the country's new UN-backed national unity government.

Mr Hammond said Britain was ready to provide training support to the fledgling administration's armed forces in their fight against Islamic State (IS) militants who have established a firm foothold in the country.

The Foreign Secretary and his entourage were driven from Tripoli airport amid tight security in a convoy of armour-protected SUVs to the heavily protected naval base where prime minister designate Fayez Serraj's government is struggling to establish its authority.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond during his visit to Tripoli, Libya

The success of the UN-brokered plan depends upon the new government of national accord (GNA) being able to rally the support of the warring militias who have plunged the country into chaos.

However, Mr Hammond said he believed that after five years of conflict following the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi by rebels backed by British and French-led air strikes, there was now a weariness with conflict and an eagerness for peace.

"What has happened since is a cathartic process. I sense that the Libyan people are ready for reconciliation and a government which allows them to work together," he said.

"Partly that is because they are simply tired of years of fighting each other and partly it is the galvanising effect of Daesh (IS)."

The militants have established a stronghold in Sirte - Gaddafi's home town - just across the Mediterranean from Europe, and from where they have mounted a series of suicide bombings and attacks on oil facilities.

While Mr Hammond said that he did not expect the GNA to ask for direct combat support to take on IS, Britain and other European allies were ready to provide training and other technical support to the Libyan forces.

"It must be for the Libyan people to decide how to recapture their country from the Daesh invaders," he said.

"I hope that as the militia groups come inside the tent, as it were, and co-operate with the government, it will be possible for us and our partners to support the military training programme."

He also made clear that such a mission - which could be based in another country in the region - would not require a Commons vote which was only needed for combat operations.

"That does not extend to non-combat missions," he said.

While it is believed that a small number of special forces troops are already in the country, British sources have played down suggestions the UK is about to deploy a 1,000-strong training mission as part of a 6,000 strong international assistance force.

One source said that they would want to see the GNA up and running, with properly functioning ministries, before making any commitment of that nature.

"We need a functioning government running ministries to decide what they need to do. We are months and months away from any kind of decision of that kind," the source said.

Mr Hammond's arrival follows similar visits over the past week by the Italian, French and German foreign ministers, while the British ambassador also returned to Tripoli for the first time since most foreign embassies pulled out in 2014 amid safety concerns.

At a joint press conference, the Foreign Secretary announced that the UK was committing 10 million in further assistance for the fledgling government of national accord (GNA).

The package includes 1.8 million for counter-terrorism operations and 1.5 million for combating the people traffickers smuggling migrants across the Mediterranean into Europe.

The precarious nature of Mr Serraj's putative new government was underlined when his team were forced to sail into Tripoli when they arrived in March as the authority controlling the capital refused to allow them into its airspace.

But while Mr Serraj has been able to rally support from the Tripoli militias and the municipal councils of western Libya, a rival administration in the eastern city of Tobruk has so far refused to recognise the GNA.

The Europeans meanwhile are looking to the GNA to allow the EU's Operation Sophia against people traffickers to extend its naval patrols into Libyan territorial waters.

The move follows the effective closure of the migrant trail through Turkey and Greece, prompting fears of a new influx trying to reach Europe via Libya.

Following his talks in Tripoli, Mr Hammond headed off to Luxembourg for a meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers to discuss the situation in Libya - including a video conference with Mr Serraj.

The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee last week accused Mr Hammond of being "less than candid" about the prospect of British troops being sent to Libya following a visit to Tunisia during which they were told as many as 1,000 could join a 6,000-strong international assistance mission.

The committee's Conservative chairman Crispin Blunt told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "The concept was of 6,000 troops going into Tripoli to occupy the airport and provide training for Libyans there.

"We were not wildly impressed with that concept of operations, because although it would be an attempt to train Libyans, it would inevitably be seen as a Western intervention and it's very likely they would spend most of their time defending themselves from attacks from various militia and Islamic State, rather than providing effective training. It would probably make the situation worse rather than better."

While it was "formally" the case that no decisions have been made on deployment, Mr Blunt said: "These things are choreographed so that as soon as everything was in place and it appeared it was falling into place, the Government of National Accord would say 'Please help' and the next thing you know people would have been identified and would then be on their way.
Stock Spirits chief Chris Heath steps down after Western Gate call

Chris Heath has stepped down as chief executive of London-listed vodka maker Stock Spirits, just weeks after the firm's biggest shareholder called for him to be ousted.

The company said in a statement on Monday that the 55-year-old will take early retirement and Miroslaw "Mirek" Stachowicz, an independent non-executive director, will serve as interim chief executive.

Earlier this month, Western Gate Private Investments, Stock Spirit's largest individual shareholder, called for Mr Heath to be ousted. It urged "fresh perspectives" in order to address a decline in sales in the firm's key Polish market.

Stock Spirits said Miroslaw 'Mirek' Stachowicz will serve as interim chief executive

David Maloney, chairman of Stock Spirits, said: "The board and nomination committee have been discussing executive succession plans for several months and I appointed an international search firm in early February this year to help identify a new CEO. I also discussed this directly with Chris.

"But Western Gate's actions have clearly interrupted our careful planning and so we decided to accelerate the CEO process."

Western Gate is controlled by Portuguese businessman Luis Amaral, the owner of Eurocash, Poland's largest food wholesaler and also a customer of Stock Spirits.

"Financial performance has been poor, market share has been lost in its core Polish market, salaries and costs are too high and remote control management of the business from the UK, where the company has no major revenue generating operations, is clearly not working," Mr Amaral said on April 5.
Oil stocks lead China, Hong Kong markets lower

SHANGHAI, April 18 (Reuters) - China and Hong Kong stocks tracked regional markets lower on Monday morning, with sentiment soured by a tumble in crude oil futures after weekend talks among exporters failed to reach agreement on production cuts.

There's also mounting worries that the markets' robust rebound since February is not sustainable, as China's economic recovery - indicated by upbeat data recently - remains fragile.

The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 1.1 percent, to 3,234.86 points by lunch break, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.3 percent, to 3,037.80 points.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 1.2 percent, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index lost 2.1 percent.

China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan told a meeting in Washington over the weekend that the country's economy is off to a good start in 2016, with economic indicators seeing a pick-up.

However, some analysts contend that many data pieces including iron ore, rebar and property prices are lagging indicators and will peak in the coming months, potentially dealing a blow to investors seeking growth signals.

"Fundamentals can improve in the near-term before peaking. But the rally is now stretched, and risks are escalating," wrote Hong Hao, chief strategist at BOCOM International.

"The crowd's hope for a growth revival will be dashed - once again, like its many false starts in the past few years," he said.

Mainland stocks fell across the board on Monday morning, with energy shares leading the decline.

Some 18 oil exporting nations gathered in Doha, Qatar, in an attempt to agree on stabilising output at January levels until October 2016. The deal fell apart after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in.
Botched Doha deal undermines OPEC credibility, oil prices tumble

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE, April 18 (Reuters) - Oil prices tumbled on Monday after a meeting by major exporters in Qatar collapsed without an agreement to freeze output, leaving the credibility of the OPEC producer cartel in tatters and the world awash with unwanted fuel.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran were blamed for the failure, which revived industry fears that major government-controlled producers will increase their battle for market share by offering ever-steeper discounts.

"OPEC's credibility to coordinate output is now very low," said Peter Lee of BMI Research, a unit of rating agency Fitch. "This isn't just about oil for the Saudis. It's as much about regional politics."

Morgan Stanley said that the failed deal "underscores the poor state of OPEC relations," adding that "we now see a growing risk of higher OPEC supply," especially as Saudi Arabia threatened it could hike output following the failed deal.

Oil prices have fallen by as much as 70 percent since mid-2014 as producers have pumped 1 to 2 million barrels of crude every day in excess of demand, leaving storage tanks around the world filled to the rims with unsold fuel.

Sunday's meeting in Qatar's capital Doha had been expected to finalise a deal to freeze output at January levels until October 2016 in an attempt to slow that ballooning oversupply.

But the agreement fell apart after top exporter Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran, which was not represented, should also sign up.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shia Islamic republic of Iran compete for influence in the Middle East, where they are currently fighting proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

Brent crude futures fell almost 7 percent in early trading on Monday before recovering to $40.97 per barrel at 0647 GMT, still down 2.15 percent since their last settlement.

Traders said only an oil worker strike in Kuwait had prevented Brent from tumbling below $40 per barrel, while a cut in U.S. drilling down to 2009 levels had prevented steeper falls there.

Benchmark U.S. crude futures were down more than 5 percent at $38.31 a barrel.

Goldman Sachs said the Doha no-deal could a "bearish catalyst" for U.S. crude prices, which it forecast would average $35 a barrel in the current quarter.

FINANCIAL VOLATILITY

Analysts said that the failed agreement would also impact the broader economy.

"In the near-term, lower oil prices are bound to weigh on investor confidence and could exacerbate financial volatility," said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC.

"Concerns over financial stability in the energy sector and a further fall in drilling capex are headwinds to growth against an already fragile global economic backdrop."

With producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia pumping near record levels and Iran also increasing output following the lifting of international sanctions against it last January, there is no end in sight for the global oil glut.

Iran was the only OPEC member not to attend the Doha talks.

Despite calls on Saudi Arabia to save the agreement, Riyadh, OPEC's de facto leader, insisted that all 13 members must take part in any freeze.

"It seems that for the Saudis politics and national pride are still more important than the price of oil," said Ralph Leszczynski of shipbroker Banchero Costa.

Iran has refused to stabilise production, seeking to regain market share post-sanctions.

"Iran has no reason to auto-sanction themselves when they are just trying to get back some of the market share they lost in recent years due the western-imposed sanctions," Leszczynski added.

While tumbling oil prices hurt producers, straining the budgets of energy exporters from Russia to Malaysia, they can also benefit consumers.

Asked whether the failed talks could result in further crude supply discounts for his company, Daniel Purba of Indonesia's Pertamina, a major importer of refined products, said: "We hope so."

As a result of the failure at Doha, Barclays said that Brent would likely average $36 per barrel during the second quarter of this year as a global glut continued unabated.

"This meeting and its outcome should have built... trust among producers for possible future cooperation and coordinated action. In this regard, the meeting was a complete failure," Barclays said, adding that "the failure of the talks gives the market another clear indication that OPEC's relevance in this market environment has faded."
Syrian rebels declare new "battle" against government forces after truce violations

BEIRUT, April 18 (Reuters) - Syrian rebel groups on Monday announced a new "battle" against against government forces which they said was a response to violations of a fragile cessation of hostilities deal in place since the end of February.

The groups, which included factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham, said in a statement they would respond "with force" against any army units that fired on civilians.

The statement was sent to Reuters by Mohamed Rasheed, head of the media office of the Jaysh al-Nasr rebel group. It said the groups were setting up a joint operations room.
Italy's Atlas fund struggles to stop sky falling on banks

By Silvia Aloisi and Paola Arosio

MILAN, April 15 (Reuters) - Italy has dubbed its new bank bailout fund Atlas, after the mythical Greek titan, because it is meant to hold up the sky above the nation's lenders. But some of the fund's own investors doubt that it can do the job.

The 5-6 billion euro ($5.7-6.8 billion) fund was hailed by the government as an industry-led response to concerns in Rome and other European capitals about the euro zone's fourth-biggest banking system.

But it was only reluctantly accepted by some of the financial institutions that committed to it, according to seven sources, including four of the institutions that eventually agreed to put money in the fund.

Some bankers involved in the scheme voiced fears the fund would expose their own banks to the self-inflicted problems of a few lenders, the sources said.

They also said that the fund may not be big enough to make a real dent in Italy's 360 billion euros in bad debts, a third of the euro zone's total, if it spends most of its money on helping recapitalise weaker banks, according to the sources.

Italy's biggest retail bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and another lender, Banco Popolare, spoke out against Atlas in tense, closed-door meetings leading up to the fund's announcement on Monday, according to two sources who were present.

Some bankers complained they were being asked to sign up to a multi-billion-euro fund without any documentation, the sources said.

A person who played a key role in setting up the fund said some of the details were only fine-tuned at midday on Monday, so no paperwork was distributed at the final meeting with bankers in the evening. The plan's first formal draft circulated the following day.

Unenthusiastic bankers only agreed to back it after government and central bank officials warned of a crisis of confidence in the sector unless big lenders signed up.

The person who had a key role in setting up the fund said they were told that if a single bank's effort to raise cash on the market failed, it would drag the whole industry down.

Intesa Sanpaolo and Banco Popolare declined to comment on the talks leading up to the fund's creation and on whether they had reservations about the scheme.

A Bank of Italy spokeswoman said it supported the initiative by private financial institutions, which the central bank governor has described as a safety net to ensure choppy markets do not impede the necessary recapitalisation of some lenders.

"The backstop offered by Atlas will have positive effects on the problem of non-performing loans, which is the main problem of Italian banks," the spokeswoman said.

The government did not respond to emails requesting comment on whether some banks had doubts about the plan, and whether it had exerted any pressure on institutions to participate.

The initial reluctance of big players to invest in Atlas casts uncertainty over the long-term future of a fund meant to shore up Italian banks, which fared the worst in Europe-wide stress tests of their financial resilience and have lost a third of their value this year due to concerns over their bad debts.

However, other financial institutions expressed support for the scheme, which has around 40 institutional investors, including insurers, banking foundations and state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, saying something needed to be done.

"It is a positive initiative for the system," said Banca Popolare di Milano Chief Executive Giuseppe Castagna, adding he hoped only a small part of the fund's cash would be needed to assist cash calls at weaker banks. "We hope the announcement itself will soothe the market, so that a bigger portion of the fund can be used for bad debts."

Ennio Doris, chairman of asset manager Mediolanum which is contributing 50 million euros, told Reuters the scheme was aimed at making the banking industry more solid.

DISTRESSED

The fragility of Italy's banking system has increasingly been a factor in a debt crisis that has haunted the euro zone since 2009. Any further risks to its stability could hinder both the Italian and regional economic recoveries.

The sector has long suffered from low profitability, weak governance and high costs. A severe recession added to the problems by making many companies default on loans, saddling banks with soured debts that - if they are written down at their market value - would blow a capital hole in their accounts.

If the bailout fund runs out of money, initial participants would be asked to contribute more cash, but are not obliged to do so. A person with direct knowledge of the matter said he expected banks that put in money now to be willing to increase the fund's fire-power at a later stage if needed, but that if this was not the case other players may join the scheme.

Rating agencies Fitch and Standard & Poor's expressed concern the fund was chipping away at stronger banks to prop up the ailing ones.

"We believe that banks investing in the vehicle could be asked to increase their participation in the future and, thus, their exposure toward weaker financial institutions," S&P said.

Atlas will use most of its cash to buy shares in stock issues at distressed banks, with the rest earmarked to buy bad loans, focusing on junior debt where investor demand is weakest.

To help the fund, the government has pledged to speed up bankruptcy procedures. It takes eight years to recover overdue loans in Italy, four times longer than the European average, which makes them unattractive for distressed-debt investors.

RIGHTS ISSUES

No detailed plans have been announced. But the fund may have to invest up to 2 billion euros in two smaller banks' rights issues, including an imminent share sale by Banca Popolare di Vicenza, the source with direct knowledge of the issue said.

Intesa Sanpaolo Chief Executive Carlo Messina had flatly rejected the idea of Atlas in a preliminary meeting at the end of March, two of the sources said. He agreed in subsequent meetings to put 1 billion euros into the scheme only after receiving assurances that the fund would not spend all its money on buying shares in faltering banks, they said.

Messina said on Wednesday the fund would help banks sell bad debts close to book value and not at the heavily discounted prices demanded by "loan-shark" private equity funds. This, coupled with the government plan to quicken bad loan recovery, will improve the context in which banks operate, he said.

Banco Popolare Chief Executive Pier Francesco Saviotti had also initially criticised the plan, saying it would benefit big rival UniCredit, which is heavily exposed to Popolare di Vicenza.

He was voicing reservations right up until the final meeting on Monday that he could not understand why the whole financial industry should mop up shares of ailing banks when his own lender planned, unaided, to raise 1 billion euros in the next few months, said one of the sources.

Other banks shared Saviotti's doubts.

"The most frequently asked question was: are we here to throw a lifeline to UniCredit?" said one source who was briefed about the discussions.

UniCredit is currently the sole guarantor of Popolare di Vicenza's 1.76-billion euro cash call, meaning it would have to take on any unsold shares in the rights issue if investor demand remains weak, putting its own capital ratios at risk.

UniCredit, which is contributing 1 billion euros to the fund, declined to comment on the meetings. Its chief executive, Federico Ghizzoni, said on Thursday the vehicle was not set up to bail out Popolare di Vicenza. "We did not seek Atlas's help, it's the other way round," he said.

Mediobanca, Italy's top investment bank, did not attend Monday's meetings, having decided to snub the scheme, three sources said. Mediobanca declined to comment.

"Maybe it's not perfect but at least it's something," said the chief executive of a mid-tier bank investing in Atlas who declined to be named due to the confidential nature of the talks. "Would it be better to do nothing at all?"
Poland - Factors to Watch Apr 18

Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Monday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours):

DATA

Statistics office will release corporate wages and corporate employment data for March at 1200 GMT.

SWISS FRANC LOANS

Poland should solve the problem of mortgages denominated in Swiss-franc as well as "toxic" financial products, the head of ruling Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski told wSieci weekly.

Kaczynski added that this will be a "serious operation", with central bank involvement.

TAURON

Tauron TPE.WA is determined to keep its debt under control and could consider cutting investment, a temporary dividend freeze or issuing new shares to do so, the chief executive of Poland's second-largest power producer told Reuters in an interview.

CCC

Poland's CCC, Eastern Europe's largest shoe retailer, swung to a net loss in the first quarter of 2016 due to poor weather and an earlier Easter than last year, but still expects a big rise in 2016 sales, its deputy chief said.

COAL

For generations, the region of Silesia has been at the heart of Poland's love affair with coal as a source of pride and heroism. But Poland's biggest mining firm risks running out of cash at the end of the month. In the past, funds somehow appeared. This time, however, they may not.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Poland Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said on Friday Russia has the potential to destroy countries and therefore poses more of an existential threat than groups like the Islamic State.

NATO

Poland wants NATO defence units -- not only soldiers but also military infrastructure, to stay for good on its territory, and is negotiating the issue with NATO, president's top foreign policy adviser Krzysztof Szczerski told Rzeczpospolita daily.

He added that a potential attack of foreign army on Poland should automatically entail a NATO response.

ENERGY

Poland mulls launching special auctions for the biggest power consumers in summer, in which they would offer to cut their consumption for certain amount of money, which would help Poland avoid power shortages, Rzeczpospolita daily said quoting its sources.

KGHM

Europe's No.2 copper producer, Poland's KGHM, already moved to curb investments as part of its new strategy, which is to be presented in detail next month, daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna reported.

RATES

Poland's monetary council could potentially use non-standard actions if needed, similar to those implemented in Hungary, Eryk Lon, the panel's newly appointed member, told Nasz Dziennik daily without providing details.

He also said that if a risk of economic slowdown appears, one should seriously consider another rate cut.

TAXES

The Polish government may launch analyses over unifying the personal income tax (PIT) and the health care and social security contributions, daily Puls Biznesu reported without naming its sources.

****Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.****
Australia parliament debates make-or-break labour reform

By Colin Packham

SYDNEY, April 18 (Reuters) - Australia's parliament returned for a special sitting on Monday to debate crucial labour reform bills which are likely to be blocked in the upper house Senate, leading to the dissolution of both houses and an election on July 2.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in March recalled parliament from a seven-week recess, only the forth time in more than 50 years that a special session has been demanded.

The bills are likely to be blocked in the Senate by smaller parties such as the influential Greens and the main centre-left opposition Labor Party. A decision is expected this week.

The government has proposed a regulator for the construction industry, opposed by the main opposition Labor Party and trade unions, many of which believe the watchdog would place undue oversight over their operations.

Greens leader Senator Richard Di Natale reiterated his party's rejection of the legislation.

"It tells us that the number one priority isn't innovation, it's not bringing us into a new economy, it is not tackling climate change and the loss of the Great Barrier Reef, the jobs that are going because we've got inaction in managing that transition to a new economy," he said.

"Their number one priority is their own survival."

Opinion polls showed support for Australia's ruling Liberal Party-led coalition lingering at its lowest level since Turnbull assumed office last September.

Support for the coalition was 49 percent, a Newspoll found on Monday, on a two-party preferred basis where votes for minor parties are redistributed to the two main blocs according to preferences.

Turnbull retained his lead as preferred prime minister over Labor leader Bill Shorten. But his popularity has waned amid perceived dithering over tax reform, a rejection of calls for an investigation into major banks and planned cuts to spending on hospitals and schools.

The sagging polls and likely early election will add pressure on Australia's Treasurer Scott Morrison to issue a voter friendly budget on May 3.
U.S. defense chief offers Iraq more help, possibly troops - officials

BAGHDAD, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter flew into Iraq on Monday to discuss offering more help in the fight against Islamic State, possibly including sending in more U.S. troops, officials said.

Carter would meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defense Minister Khaled al-Obaidi and discuss ways to build on recent gains against the militant group, which also controls large parts of neighbouring Syria, the U.S. officials added.

They declined to say what kind of assistance would be offered, but said it would likely include more U.S. troops on the ground.

"Whenever we're talking about additional capabilities, it usually means some small numbers of additional troops," the U.S. official said before the unannounced visit.

Iraq's army, trained by the U.S. military officers and backed by air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition, last week retook the Hit region, pushing it further north along the Euphrates valley.

The Iraqi government has designated Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still under Islamic State control, as its next major target. It retook the western city of Ramadi in December.
UAE's IPIC says Malaysia's 1MDB in default on June rescue deal

DUBAI, April 18 (Reuters) - International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) said on Monday a June agreement to provide financial support to Malaysia's 1MDB had been terminated after the troubled sovereign vehicle failed to meet obligations to the Abu Dhabi fund.

IPIC said in a bourse filing in London the Malaysian state fund and the Asian country's Ministry of Finance had failed to meet obligations including to pay $1.1 billion plus interest and was now in default.

While the obligations of IPIC and its subsidiary, Aabar Investments, under the June agreement had now been terminated, the Abu Dhabi fund still expected the Malaysian side to honour its commitments.

IPIC was now considering all its options to remedy the default, including referring the matter to the appropriate dispute resolution forum, the statement added.
China calls for talks after Costa Rica abandons project

BEIJING, April 18 (Reuters) - China's Foreign Ministry on Monday called for talks after Costa Rica's state-run oil company Recope said last week it had decided to abandon a $1.5 billion refinery upgrade project it was working on with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC).

In 2009, the two firms formed a company called Soresco, with each putting in $50 million. But the project has been paralysed since 2013 by Costa Rica's comptroller after complaints of conflicts of interest in the feasibility studies.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he had noted the media reports on the issue, adding that relations have been developing well in recent years.

"As for individual problems that arise during our cooperation, we hope the relevant companies in both countries can continue to increase communication, understand each other's concerns and find an appropriate resolution," he told a daily news briefing, without elaborating.

Costa Rica made the surprise move of breaking off its decades-long relationship with Taiwan in 2007, now only recognised by a handful of small countries, including the rest of Central America.
China steps up war of words with Taiwan over fraud suspects

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING, April 18 (Reuters) - China stepped up its war of words with Taiwan on Monday after Taipei freed 20 suspects in a telecom fraud case linked to China, with state media accusing Taiwan of tolerating crime and being taken hostage by anti-Chinese forces.

Malaysia had deported the 20 people, who were part of a group of 53 Taiwanese it arrested in March on suspicion of fraud, according to Taiwan's foreign ministry. But their release has prompted anger from Beijing.

Taiwan, for its part, has been infuriated by the forcible deportation of more than 40 Taiwanese people to China from Kenya, also on suspicion of telecom fraud. China says they are wanted for crimes committed against Chinese people in China.

Such telecoms fraud typically involves calls from people pretending to be law enforcement officials or companies saying money is owed to them, China says.

In a strongly worded editorial on Monday, the influential state-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times said Taiwan's release of the 20 had disgraced the island's rule of law and politicised what should be a normal legal case.

It accused the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which won presidential and parliamentary elections by a landslide in January, of manipulating public opinion and stirring anti-China feeling.

"The key is that the mainland should stick more firmly to its principles, and resolutely resist the rascally demands by Taiwan's twisted politics," it said.

"Western democratic politics can easily provide a hotbed for radicalism and extremism. Taiwan and Hong Kong both have demonstrated this tendency," the paper added, referring to recent protests in the former British colony.

The DPP did not respond to a request for comment.

Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau says the 20 were freed as there was insufficient evidence to detain them.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang would not directly say whether China had lodged a protest with Malaysia about the case, saying only that China and Malaysia are developing relations in many areas and they had a mutual interest in cross-border law and order cooperation.

"The one China principle is an important political pre-condition for China to develop relations with countries around the world," Lu told a daily news briefing.

China claims self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as a wayward province, to be brought under its control by force if needed. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the Communists in 1949.

China says the cases of the fraud suspects, whether from Kenya or Malaysia, should be a simple criminal matter.

China's official Xinhua news agency on Monday published fraud victims' denunciations of the release of the suspects by Malaysia.

"When we saw that Taiwan gang had been caught we felt relieved. Now they've been released this is a covert toleration of their crimes, which is hateful!" said one 67-year-old victim, surnamed Liu.
Rebels launch attacks in western Syria, heavy government air raids - monitor

BEIRUT, April 18 (Reuters) - Rebels launched a fierce attack against Syrian government forces in Latakia province on Monday and insurgents made separate advances nearby in Hama, a monitoring group reported, as violence escalated in the west of the country.

The fighting, which has also increased around the northern city of Aleppo and seen heavy government air strikes in Homs province, undermines a weeks-old ceasefire deal and threatens to derail U.N.-led peace talks.

The fresh insurgent attacks came after rebel groups announced a new battle against government forces which they said was a response to violations of the truce.

Warring sides have traded blame over violations of the Feb. 27 cessation of hostilities deal brokered by Washington and Moscow. It excludes Islamic State and al-Qaeda's Nusra Front.

In Latakia's northern countryside, a number of insurgent groups launched a fierce attack on government forces and their allies in early morning and had by midday made advances, the Observatory said.

In Hama, insurgents had almost completely taken over the town of Khirbat al-Naqus in the strategic Ghab plain, the Observatory reported. The groups attacking there included factions that did not commit to the truce.

A Syrian military source confirmed the insurgent attacks in the west. The source said the army was fighting back and had thwarted a car bomb attack in the Ghab plain.

"Today they attacked in the northern Latakia countryside in several areas, in violation of the cessation of hostilities agreement, and also in the northwestern Hama countryside," the source said. Violent clashes continued, the source said.
Strict laws drive West African women to dangerous, illegal abortions

By Kieran Guilbert

DAKAR, April 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - From crowded cities to far-flung villages, women with unwanted pregnancies across West Africa are resorting to clandestine and unsafe abortions - driven by shame, stigma and restrictive laws.

Many pregnant women and girls in the region seek abortions from untrained practitioners in unhygienic surroundings or self-induce using desperate methods, ranging from drinking bleach to inserting glass, plant stalks or bicycle spokes into the vagina.

Abortion in West Africa, a region with some of the world's highest fertility, unsafe abortion and maternal mortality rates, is largely illegal - some countries permit it only to save the woman's life while others allow it in cases of rape or incest.

While the enforcement of abortion laws varies, from police harassment to imprisonment, the laws build upon the stigma of abortion and the sway of religion to scare pregnant women and stifle debate or reforms, experts say.

"Strict laws enable governments to ignore the issue of abortion by playing on fears of doing something illegal," said Charlotte Hord Smith, policy director at advocacy group Ipas.

"On top of this, the stigma of abortion is so pervasive in West Africa that it tends to keep the issue from being freely discussed and addressed ... but the bill in Sierra Leone has opened it up to public and political debate like never before."

Sierra Leone's president has twice refused to sign a bill in recent months which would make his country the first in West Africa to legalise abortion, instead calling for a referendum.

The proposed law, which would allow women to terminate a pregnancy in any circumstances up to 12 weeks or in cases of rape, incest or risk to the health of foetus up to 24 weeks, was unanimously passed by parliament in December.

But President Ernest Bai Koroma decided not to sign the bill into law after protests from Christian and Muslim leaders, and some activists fear the legislation may soon be shelved.

"Koroma missed a chance to take a step that would have led to significant improvement in women's health," Hord Smith told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

LEGAL BURDEN

Nigeria and Ivory Coast are among the West African nations with the strictest laws on abortion, permitting it only to save a woman's life, while pregnant women in Senegal must get three doctors to certify that the procedure is lifesaving.

While countries like Liberia and Ghana have more progressive laws, allowing abortion in cases of rape and incest, and to preserve a woman's mental health, legislation has little impact on the likelihood of women having a legal abortion, experts say.

Fewer than one in 20 pregnant women in Ghana are aware of the abortion laws and almost half the abortions performed in the country are unsafe, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Survivors of rape or incest who want a safe, legal abortion must first take several steps - such as obtaining a police report and the approval of a local judge.

The process is costly and can take many months, said Susan Sandars, policy advisor at international charity Marie Stopes.

"In the unlikely event that a woman goes through all of these steps, due to the trauma, stigma, and taboos around sexual violence, it would probably be far too late for a safe abortion.

"It places a burden on women to prove they have been victims of crime, when the focus should be on their rights and health."

While infanticide and abortion account for a third of female prisoners in Senegal - women who terminate a pregnancy can be jailed for 10 years - fear of stigma means abortion laws are rarely enforced in other West African countries, activists say.

Abortion cases referred to the police in Sierra Leone are usually mediated and resolved by the families involved instead of being pursued in court, said Simitie Lavaly, executive director of AdvocAid, a legal organisation for women and girls.

"In Sierra Leone, abortion is seen as a family issue. People are afraid of stigma and news spreading around the community."

People who perform abortions in Sierra Leone tend only to be prosecuted if a woman dies, Lavaly added.

MOMENTUM FOR CHANGE

More than 1.8 million unsafe abortions are performed each year in West Africa, accounting for one in 10 deaths of women during or just after childbirth - almost 10,000 maternal deaths per year - according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Many women and girls in West Africa, the region with the world's highest pregnancy rate for girls aged 15-19, fall pregnant amid poor sex education, taboos surrounding sex and limited access to contraception, activists say.

Sex education is often viewed with suspicion across Africa, and in 2014 the Niger government withdrew a course on sexual and reproductive health from the school syllabus after Islamic organisations said it was contrary to the country's values.

Contraception use is slowly growing in West Africa, yet only one in 10 married women use it due to a lack of family planning services, opposition from partners or religious figures and the high cost, according to the Population Reference Bureau.

"Many young girls also become pregnant because they are left to fend for themselves and can only manage by having older boyfriends or giving sexual favours," said Lavaly of AdvocAid.

While President Koroma's refusal to sign the bill in Sierra Leone was seen as a setback for abortion rights in West Africa, activists say there are positive signs for reform in the future.

"West Africa has strong civil society support, a pan-African campaign to decriminalise abortion and momentum within countries to challenge and change the laws," said Sandars of Marie Stopes.
UAE fund says Malaysia's 1MDB in default on $1 bln deal

By Rozanna Latiff and Saeed Azhar

April 18 (Reuters) - An Abu Dhabi sovereign fund said on Monday Malaysia's troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was in default of its obligations on $1.1 billion in debt and interest.

The International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) said in a filing to the London stock exchange, where it is listed, that it was now considering all its options to remedy the default. That included referring the matter to the appropriate dispute resolution forum, the IPIC statement said.

The Abu Dhabi fund said it was terminating last June's agreement, under which it agreed to provide $1 billion in cash as well as assume payments on $3.5 billion of 1MDB debt. It also forgave an undisclosed amount of debt that 1MDB owed to IPIC, in exchange for assets which have not been named.

The Abu Dhabi fund said 1MDB and Malaysia's finance ministry - which owns 1MDB - are in default on the terms of this agreement.

1MDB said in response that Abu Dhabi had agreed to assume its interest payments on a $1.75 billion bond, but one such payment, due on Monday, had not been paid because of the dispute between the two.

"1MDB wishes to make clear that it and its group entities will meet all of their other obligations under any other financing arrangements and have ample liquidity to do so," it said in a statement.

The Malaysian fund did not specify whether it would make the interest payment that was due on Monday.

In an earlier statement, the 1MDB fund said it has repaid all of its bank debt and short term obligations, and has a cash surplus of approximately 2.3 billion ringgit ($585.2 million).

Over the past four weeks, 1MDB has made debt principal repayments of approximately 7.25 billion ringgit, it said.

Monday's announcements throw 1MDB's efforts to rationalize its debt into doubt, said Christian de Guzman, a credit analyst at Moody's Investors Service in Singapore, which rates the $1.75 billion 1MDB-linked energy bonds.

"We're still trying to figure out what it means for IPIC because IPIC has guaranteed these bonds and as far as we understand these (guarantees) were irrevocable."

PM'S BROTHER TAKES LEAVE

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been under pressure from critics at home after reports claimed that $681 million deposited into his personal bank account just before a 2013 general election originated from 1MDB.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said last week the money from an unspecified Saudi source was a "genuine donation" with no obligations attached.

The prime minister's brother, Nazir Razak, announced on Monday that he was taking a voluntary leave of absence from his role as chairman of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd amid an independent review into money transfers into his personal account.

Nazir was dragged into the scandal around political funding and alleged misuse of money from 1MDB after the Wall Street Journal reported last month he received $7 million in funds from his elder brother, Prime Minister Najib Razak, before the 2013 elections.

"Nothing I did was illegal or compromised my position at CIMB, but given the media attention, I understand that it makes the stakeholders uncomfortable," Nazir told a news conference after the bank's annual general meeting, explaining his decision to take leave.

Nazir, a leading Malaysian corporate figure, had said earlier he believed the money came from legitimate fund-raising. He said that CIMB bank staff disbursed the funds to ruling-party politicians on the instructions of his brother, the prime minister.

Transactions involving 1MDB, which had a debt of over $11 billion, are being investigated in several countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore.

Najib has denied any wrongdoing, saying that he had not accepted money from any state entity for personal gain.

A government-appointed attorney-general this year cleared Najib of any criminal offence or corruption, saying the funds were a political donation from the royal family of Saudi Arabia.. Such donations are not considered illegal in Malaysia.
Decriminalising cannabis would hurt Islamic State, mafia- Italy prosecutor

By Steve Scherer

ROME, April 18 (Reuters) - Decriminalising cannabis sales would strike a blow against Islamic State militants and Italian mobsters who, according to ongoing investigations, are smuggling hashish together, Italy's top prosecutor told Reuters.

The main smuggling route for North African hash - compressed cannabis resin - now runs from Casablanca, Morocco, through Algeria, Tunisia to Tobruk in eastern Libya, said national anti-mafia and anti-terrorism chief Franco Roberti.

Along that route is the seaside city of Sirte, which now serves as a Mediterranean base for the most powerful Islamic State (IS) branch outside Syria and Iraq.

"Certainly IS controls the Libya route; it controls the coast along the Gulf of Sirte," said Roberti in his frescoed office in the 17th century building that once served as the Vatican prison.

In investigations whose details have not yet been made public, police have found evidence that Italian organised crime, which has long controlled most of the country's illegal drug supplies, and "suspected terrorists" in North Africa are trafficking hash together, Roberti said.

"Decriminalisation or even legalisation would definitely be a weapon against traffickers, among whom there could be terrorists who make money off of it," he told Reuters.

Citing estimates by the United Nations Office on Narcotics and Crime, Roberti said that the illegal drugs trade, which includes cannabis and hash, earns more than 32 billion euros ($36.10 billion) annually for Italian organised crime.

Islamic State controls just a part of the North African route, but the narcotics trade as a whole provides just under seven percent of the group's funding, according to a report by analysis company IHS published on Monday.

In his new book "Il contrario della paura" or "The opposite of fear", the 68-year-old Roberti writes at length about the similarities between Islamic militant groups and Italy's mafias, and he reflects on ways to improve the fight against both.

Italy has not been attacked by Islamist militants, but IS propaganda films regularly mention Rome and the Vatican as possible targets. Many Italian sites are considered at high risk of attacks, Roberti said.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government gave Roberti's office, which has coordinated the national fight against organised crime since the early 1990s, the job of overseeing investigations into terrorism in February last year.

Since then, Roberti and his team of experienced mob prosecutors have begun to add terror cases to a national database previously dedicated only to organised crime, he said.

COSA NOSTRA

One reason it makes sense for his office to coordinate anti-terror investigations is that Islamist militants and traditional mafias - like Sicily's Cosa Nostra - commit similar crimes, Roberti said.

"International terrorism finances itself with criminal activities that are typical of the mafia, like drug trafficking, smuggling commercial goods, smuggling oil, smuggling archaeological relics and art, kidnapping for ransom, and extortion," he said.

Facing the huge challenges of fighting people smuggling, cocaine trafficking, and international terrorism, investigators are spending too much time and energy to combat cannabis dealers, and to little effect, said Roberti.

"We spend a lot of resources uselessly. We have not succeeded in reducing cannabinoid trafficking. On the contrary, it's increasing," said Roberti, who has been combating the mafia for more than three decades.

"Is it worth using investigative energy to fight street sales of soft drugs?" he asks. According to the most recent government data, about 3.5 million Italians between the ages of 15-64 used cannabis in 2014.

Cannabis is much less damaging than hard or synthetic drugs, which should not be decriminalised, he said. But Italy's laws against selling or growing cannabis are severe and can lead to imprisonment.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed legalising cannabis possession and cultivation earlier this year, but it is not supported by the leaders of any major parties.
Spain to send suspected Paris supermarket arms supplier to France

MADRID, April 18 (Reuters) - Spain's High Court said on Monday it will order the return to France of a man suspected of supplying the arms used by an Islamist militant in a 2015 attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris.

Frenchman Antoine Denive, 27, was arrested along with two men from Serbia and Montenegro on April 12 near Malaga, on Spain's southern coast, and accused of arms trafficking.

Denive will be sent to a criminal court in Lille within 10 days to face charges of belonging to a criminal organisation and illegally trafficking in arms, ammunition and explosives, the court said in a ruling.

Islamist militant gunman Amedy Coulibaly killed a policewoman in a Paris suburb on Jan. 8, 2015, before attacking the Jewish supermarket the following day and killing four people. He was shot dead by police on the spot.

The attack on the HyperCacher supermarket came two days after other gunmen killed 12 people at the Paris office of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

Denive is accused of having fled France several weeks after Coulibaly stormed the supermarket. He set up a new base in Malaga where he continued arms dealing using fake papers and a European passport in someone else's name.
Greek reform talks to resume, aim for swift deal -Commission

By Francesco Guarascio

BRUSSELS, April 18 (Reuters) - Greece's international lenders are resuming talks in Athens with the aim of concluding a review of Greek reforms "as soon as possible", the European Commission said on Monday.

The review, which must be concluded before more bailout money is released, has dragged on for months partly because the International Monetary Fund and European Union cannot agree between themselves on some assumptions and scenarios of how the Greek economy might develop.

A spokeswoman for the Greek government said a preliminary deal can be reached this week before a regular meeting of euro zone finance ministers (Eurogroup) in Amsterdam on April 22, but the Commission avoided setting a clear date for an agreement.

"Following constructive talks in Washington, the mission chiefs are returning to Athens today and tomorrow. The aim of the mission remains to conclude the first review of the programme as soon as possible," a Commission spokesman told a news conference in Brussels.

EU and Greek officials clarified that talks are expected to resume on Tuesday. The IMF mission chief for Greece Delia Velculescu is expected to join the discussions on Wednesday, a Greek official said.

International lenders and the Greek authorities were in contact last week in Washington during the IMF's meetings.

The Eurogroup meeting this week "will be an important moment to take stock of progress made," the Commission's spokesman said, declining to say when an agreement was likely to be reached.

Euro zone lenders and the IMF are divided on some targets set out in the latest Greek bailout, notably a primary surplus goal of 3.5 percent of GDP for 2018 and beyond. The IMF says it is unrealistic to expect Greece to keep such a surplus for decades.

"The budgetary targets fixed last summer for the period after 2018 must be respected," the Commission spokesman said.
Nigerian forces repel Boko Haram attack near Niger border - army

By Lanre Ola

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, April 18 (Reuters) - The Nigerian army, backed by the country's air force, on Monday repelled an attack an attack by Boko Haram fighters near the border with Niger in the jihadists' northeast heartland, the military said.

The group allied to Islamic State had been fighting for at least seven years to carve out an Islamist caliphate in the region in a conflict which has displaced more than 2 million people and killed thousands.

The militants struck as the troops were on their way to the border town of Damasak where they wanted to set up a permanent base, a military source said. The army took the area back from Boko Haram last year, but has struggled to hold it.

"The Nigerian troops have successfully repelled an attack by Boko Haram terrorists who attempted an incursion into (the) 113 Battalion," army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement carried by PR Nigeria, which releases government statements.

Kareto is the army's next base in the area.

"So far our troops had two officers and 22 soldiers wounded in action," he said without giving further details.

No further information was immediately available from the remote area which is largely disconnected from mobile phone networks.

Boko Haram controlled a swath of land in northeast Nigeria around the size of Belgium at the start of last year, but was pushed out by Nigerian troops, aided by soldiers from neighbouring countries.
Pakistani helicopters strike gang on island hideout in full-scale offensive

By Mubasher Bukhari

LAHORE, Pakistan, April 18 (Reuters) - Pakistani helicopter gunships on Monday pounded the island hideout of an armed gang that has been holding 24 hostages on a 10-km (six-mile) long island in the centre of the Indus River, media and army sources said.

The operation involving more than 2,000 security forces has been ongoing for two weeks and the army's push to deploy troops, artillery and helicopter gunships is an unprecedented use of force by the military in Punjab, which is the political power base of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

"We (army) had given the Chotu gang until 2 p.m. today to surrender but they did not abide by the deadline," said a military official based in the district of Rajanpur in southern Punjab where the battle is taking place.

"Now there is no option left but a full-scale operation, which has started."

It was unclear just how many members of the Chotu gang, blamed for hundreds of cases of kidnapping for ransom, murder and robbery, were trapped on the island, but police said their families were believed to be accompanying them.

Pakistan's largest news network, Geo News, also reported that a full-scale operation had been launched. TV footage showed army commandos firing machine guns at the island and gunship helicopters flying overhead.

The army's publicity wing announced that General Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmed, the most senior commanding officer in the area, had arrived earlier in the day "to see preparation for impending operation against criminals".

While Pakistan's attention has for years been focused on the Taliban and al Qaeda threat on the Afghan border in the remote northwest, militants and criminals have quietly expanded their influence and won recruits in the country's heartland of Punjab.

At least six police officials have been killed in the battle for the island, launched in a sweeping crackdown after a Taliban suicide bombing killed 72 people in Lahore, the provincial capital, last month.

A police spokeswoman said policemen were among the 24 hostages.

The battle was taking place near Rajanpur, one of the poorest districts in Punjab, where the Panjnad River flows into the Indus, Pakistan's lifeline.
Sweden's housing minister resigns over Israel comments

STOCKHOLM, April 18 (Reuters) - Sweden's housing minister, Mehmet Kaplan, resigned on Monday partly over comments he made seven years ago comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany, increasing pressure on an already unpopular government.

The centre-left coalition of the Social Democrats and Greens has been strained by an asylum crisis that has forced the government to reverse decades of generous refugee policies and is lagging the centre-right opposition bloc in opinion polls.

"Mehmet Kaplan's overall assessment of the situation is that he will not be able to act as a minister and I share that assessment," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven of the Social Democrats told a news conference.

At the weekend, daily Svenska Dagbladet reported comments made by Kaplan in 2009, before he became a minister, when he said "Israelis treat Palestinians in a way that is very like that in which Jews were treated during Germany in the 1930s".

Relations between Sweden and Israel hit rock bottom in 2014 when the Social Democrat-Green government recognised the Palestinian state.

Kaplan, who was born in Turkey, has also come under criticism for attending a dinner attended by a representative of an ultra-nationalist Turkish organisation.

Kaplan told reporters he rejected "all forms of extremism whether they are nationalistic, religious or in any other form".

His ministerial responsibilities will be shared out until the appointment of a new housing minister.

Both the Social Democrats and Greens have seen their support decline since the 2014 election, in large part due to the refugee crisis.

A Sifo poll commissioned by daily Svenska Dagbladet on Saturday showed support for the Social Democrats at 27 percent and for the Greens at 6 percent, down from 31 percent and 7 percent respectively in the 2014 election.

The coalition is also at loggerheads over plans to sell state-owned utility Vattenfall's German lignite coal operations.
Somalia says about 200 citizens may have drowned in migrant crossing

MOGADISHU/ROME, April 18 (Reuters) - Somalia's government said on Monday about 200 or more Somalis may have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross illegally to Europe, many of them teenagers, when the boat they were on capsized after leaving the Egyptian shore.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella had said earlier on Monday that several hundred people appeared to have died in a new tragedy in the Mediterranean, after unconfirmed reports spoke of up to 400 victims of capsizing near Egypt's coast.

More than 1.2 million African, Arab and Asian migrants have streamed into the European Union since the start of last year, many of them setting off from North Africa in rickety boats that are packed full of people and which struggle in choppy seas.

"We have no fixed number but it is between 200 and 300 Somalis," Somali Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir told Reuters by telephone when asked about possible Somali deaths in the latest incident.

Another Somali government statement, which offered condolences, put the number at "nearly 200", saying they were mostly teenagers. It said the boat they were on had capsized after leaving Egypt.

"There is no clear number since they are not travelling legally," the minister said, adding that he understood the boat might have been carrying about 500 people, of which 200 to 300 were Somalis "and most of them had died".

He did not give a precise timing for the incident.

One year ago, an estimated 800 migrants drowned off the Libyan coast when the fishing boat they were travelling in collided with a mercantile vessel that was attempting to rescue them - the most deadly Mediterranean shipwreck in decades.

Egyptian, Italian and Greek officials had earlier been unable to confirm the report of a new sinking.

A U.N. refugee agency official told Swiss broadcaster SRF he knew of 40 survivors from what appeared to be the same incident.

"We know there are 40 survivors and that as many as 460 people may have been on the boat who sailed from Egypt," the UNHCR's Beat Schuler told the broadcaster in what it said was a report from Malta.

In an article on the Somali National News Agency (SONNA) website, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud on Monday "sent his heartfelt condolence on his behalf and on behalf of the citizens of Somalia to the families who lost their loved ones".

The president urged Somalis to stand together in helping "stop such hazardous trips to overseas".

Somalia has a large diaspora, with many Somalis in Europe and the United States, after fleeing two decades of conflict. The Western-backed government is seeking to rebuild the Horn of Africa nation but is still battling an Islamist insurgency.

Islamist al Shabaab rebels often carry out gun and bomb attacks, particularly in the capital Mogadishu, where some hardy Somalis business people are returning to from abroad to invest.
U.S.-led raids in Iraq kill and capture Islamic State fighters

By Isabel Coles

ERBIL, Iraq, April 18 (Reuters) - A member of Islamic State's war council and two aides were killed in northern Iraq on Monday by U.S. and Kurdish commandos in the second helicopter raid in two days in the area by a U.S.-led coalition, Kurdish security sources said.

A statement by the Kurdish regional security council said Monday's raid south of the Iraqi city of Mosul killed Suleiman Abd Shabib al-Jabouri, also known as Abu Saif.

As a member of the militant group's war council, the statement said, he had been responsible for offensives in Makhmour, 80 km (50 miles) from Mosul, where an Iraqi army push launched last month has stalled.

In a separate operation on Sunday, troops from a U.S.-led coalition landed a helicopter north of Mosul and seized at least one Islamic State member from a vehicle, witnesses and Kurdish security sources said.

The force quickly took off again with their captive, the sources told Reuters.

"It all happened in less than 10 minutes," said a witness of the raid in Badush district, around 20 km (12 miles) northwest of Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still in the hands of Islamic State.

A spokesman for the U.S. coalition could not immediately be reached for comment on the latest raid. He previously declined to confirm or deny reports of the earlier raid.

A news agency that supports Islamic State said the militants had thwarted the earlier raid in Badush.

There appears to be an increase in these sorts of operations since the United States announced last December it was deploying a new force of special operations troops to Iraq to conduct raids against Islamic State there and in neighbouring Syria.

The militant group's second-in-command and other senior leaders were likely killed last month by an air strike after a U.S. special forces' helicopter was fired on from the ground.

U.S. special forces operating with Kurdish commandos rescued 69 Iraqis in an October raid in the northern city of Hawija in which one U.S. soldier was killed.

The operations are aimed at escalating pressure on Islamic State after the Iraqi army won its first major victory over the insurgents last December in Ramadi.
Saudi Arabia turns oil weapon on Iran: Kemp

By John Kemp

LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's decision to scupper negotiations on a coordinated oil output freeze in Doha on Sunday seems to confirm a significant shift in the kingdom's oil policy.

For decades, the kingdom has insisted it does not wield oil as a diplomatic weapon, but at the weekend it did just that as part of an intensifying conflict with Iran. ("Saudi-Iran tensions scupper deal to freeze oil output", Reuters, April 17)

The kingdom's position on Iranian oil production has steadily hardened over the course of the last year and at the weekend it reached its logical conclusion.

Saudi Arabia will not accept any constraints on its output, even freezing at record levels, unless Iran agrees to similar controls, which it has rejected until production has reached pre-sanctions levels.

By insisting on this hard-line position, Saudi Arabia ensured the talks would fail, and the kingdom seems comfortable with the outcome. Diplomatic strategy seems to have trumped oil market considerations.

Saudi Arabia would rather have a lower oil price and lower revenues for all producers, including itself, rather than reach a production agreement that would deliver increased income to its arch-rival across the Gulf.

GULF RIVALRY

Iran has reiterated for more than a year that it intends to increase production to pre-sanctions levels before it will consider any restraint to help stabilise prices, a position that most other oil producers have quietly accepted.

Boosting oil exports and revenues in exchange for controls on its nuclear activities was the centrepiece of the deal between Iran and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council reached in July 2015.

Saudi Arabia has consistently opposed the nuclear deal fearing that it will strengthen Iran economically and allow it to increase funding for proxy conflicts in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Until recently, however, the kingdom's oil policy appeared to be in the hands of technocrats in the petroleum ministry and Aramco, rather than be run as a branch of foreign policy.

Saudi officials privately cast doubt on whether Iran would be able to increase its exports as rapidly as it claimed once sanctions were lifted.

But the official line was that growing world oil demand would help the market accommodate extra Iranian crude without any need for output restraint by other producers.

ROAD TO A DEAL

By the end of 2015, it was clear the Saudi strategy of maintaining production and allowing low prices to drive high-cost producers out of business was working more slowly than originally expected.

Amid pressure from some of the weaker members of OPEC in Latin America and Africa, as well as Russia, the Saudis reluctantly and provisionally agreed to an output freeze in February 2016.

At Saudi insistence, the agreement between Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar, was conditional on adherence by other major oil producers.

So over the last two months, an intensive round of diplomacy assembled a large group of OPEC and non-OPEC producers representing 50 million barrels per day of production, more than half the world total.

Sixteen oil-producing nations sent representatives to the summit in Doha meant to conclude a deal on a production freeze.

Even if it had been successfully concluded, the draft agreement would have been weak. It would not have removed actual barrels from the market but it was meant to offer symbolic support to prices by encouraging hedge funds to focus on the gradual rebalancing of the underlying physical market.

HARDENING LINE

In the end, most major producers sent representatives to Doha with the exception of the United States and Canada (unable to coordinate production because of antitrust laws), China (a net importer), Iran and Brazil.

It seems unlikely most of the participants would have agreed to attend unless they believed there was a realistic prospect of reaching a deal, since a failed summit would be worse than none at all.

Pre-summit diplomatic contacts must have left most other countries with the impression Saudi Arabia was open to a deal that would necessarily exclude or make special provision for Iran.

In the run up to the summit, however, the Saudi position appears to have hardened. On the eve of the meeting, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman warned the kingdom could increase its output immediately to 11.5 million barrels per day and 12.5 million within 6-9 months.

The prince said the kingdom would increase its capacity to 20 million barrels per day if it chose to invest and reiterated any production deal would be contingent on Iranian participation ("Saudi prince says he could add a million barrels immediately" Bloomberg, April 16).

The comments could be interpreted as negotiating rhetoric, nonetheless such a late intervention was ominous.

Saudi delegates arrived in Doha still apparently committed to reaching a deal but at the last minute insisted on substantial changes to the draft ("No agreement on oil freeze at Doha meeting", Wall Street Journal, April 17).

"In the very early hours of Sunday morning, veteran Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi received a call from Riyadh, and then informed his delegates that they would need to scrap the draft agreement for a freeze that didn't include Iran, according to a person familiar with events," the Wall Street Journal reported.

The same story emerges from other sources. Russia's energy minister blamed "some OPEC countries" for trying to change the terms of the agreement at the last minute "trying to get concessions from countries that are not here" ("Russia 'disappointed' by Qatar oil talks," Russia Today, April 17).

OIL AND DIPLOMACY

Saudi Arabia has never been enthusiastic about coordinated production restraint, endorsing the principle while stating tough conditions that would make it all but impossible in practice.

The kingdom is likely to pay a diplomatic price for derailing the negotiations at such a late stage, embarrassing everyone else, but senior policymakers evidently decided no deal was better than even a weak one.

With so many other producing countries present at Doha and ready to agree to a production freeze, there was a deal on the table that met most of the conditions that the Saudis set months ago.

Saudi Arabia was not being asked to cut production, merely avoid it increasing for six months until a review in October, which would have been a fairly empty gesture.

The only condition not met was participation by Iran, a relatively marginal consideration from an oil market perspective, but critical from a diplomatic one.

Some analysts see a more straightforward motive for Saudi Arabia's refusal to sign up: the kingdom is worried oil prices are rising too soon and too far, throwing a potential lifeline to U.S. shale drillers and other higher-cost producers.

Rising prices put at risk the market rebalancing Saudi Arabia and its allies have painfully pursued over the last 18 months ("Saudis won't shed any tears over Doha", Bloomberg, April 17).

The two explanations (diplomacy and market rebalancing) are not mutually exclusive. But it seems oil policy has to some extent become embroiled in the kingdom's broader conflict with Iran.

"Saudi Arabia's increasingly bitter dispute with Iran is now being played out in the oil market", according to my colleague Andy Critchlow ("Proxy war", Reuters, April 18).

The kingdom's oil minister has been sidelined and that oil policy is now apparently being directed by the royal court and the deputy crown prince, where it is treated as an aspect of diplomacy.

Saudi Arabia has taken an increasingly assertive position on a range of foreign policy issues since the accession of the new king last year. Economic diplomacy is an increasingly important part of that effort.

Saudi Arabia has tried to restrict the resumption of Iran's exports by warning tanker companies that they will be blacklisted if they carry Iranian oil ("Saudi Arabia acts to slow Iran's oil exports", Financial Times, April 4).

The decision to derail the Doha discussion is consistent with an emerging pattern of economic warfare being waged by Saudi Arabia.

Unlike other oil producers, which are seeking higher prices, Saudi Arabia appears willing to risk lower prices that will hurt its own economy in the belief they will hurt Iran more.
Vattenfall sells German lignite assets to Czech EPH

By Johan Sennero and Jan Lopatka

STOCKHOLM/PRAGUE, April 18 (Reuters) - Czech investor EPH has agreed to buy the loss-making lignite coal mines and associated power plants in Germany from state-owned Swedish utility Vattenfall as it bets on a recovery in European power prices.

EPH, which teamed up with Czech private equity group PPF Investments, expects power prices to rise in Germany at the start of the next decade due to a phase-out of nuclear power production. It already owns lignite assets in Germany.

The sale, which still needs to be approved by the Swedish government, would reduce Vattenfall's electricity output by about 30 percent, but also cut its carbon emissions by about 70 percent, making it one of the greenest utilities in Europe, the Swedish company said.

"On a mid-term perspective, the fundamental dynamics of the energy market are set to recover ... we are convinced that lignite is in a position to contribute successfully to the rapidly evolving German power mix," Jan Springl, board member of EPH, said.

German power prices have fallen by around 40 percent since Vattenfall launched the sale in 2014, while Berlin has taken measures to reduce output from polluting lignite plants to reach its national climate targets.

The Swedish company said the sale had been driven both by its strategy to reduce exposure to CO2 emissions and by the risk of power prices staying low.

"It's strategically and financially right," Vattenfall's Chief Executive Magnus Hall told a news conference.

The value of the deal to sell stakes in four lignite power plants with a combined capacity of about 8,000 megawatts and five open-cast mines in eastern Germany was not immediately clear.

Both Vattenfall and EPH declined to disclose the deal's value, with some market sources saying it was symbolic.

EPH said the deal involves taking over 3.4 billion euros' ($3.8 bln) worth of assets and 2 billion euros in liabilities and provisions, including for future decommissioning of power plants and mines.

Vattenfall will also pay EPH about 1.7 billion euros in cash which should enable the business to continue for several years until an expected price recovery takes place, EPH said.

Meanwhile, Vattenfall will retain 9 billion crowns (980.22 million euros) in forward power sales contracts for 2016-2019, receiving cash as those contracts get settled over time, its Chief Financial Officer Ingrid Bonde said.

The company has initially planned to transfer the hedges made to secure the electricity price for its lignite operations to the buyer, but could not do for tax reasons, which made the deal more complicated, she added during a call with analysts.

No payment of dividends or dissolution of any reserves or similar transactions will be possible during the first three years, Vattenfall said.

The Swedish utility said the divestment will have a negative impact on its second-quarter income to the range of 22-27 billion crowns ($2.7-3.3 billion), but retaining the assets could have meant bigger losses.

Danske Bank credit analyst Jakob Magnusson said another disadvantage of the deal was that Vattenfall's production portfolio would be less diversified and it would depend more on its domestic Nordic market.

"The deal is negative for the profit and loss line, but from the credit risk perspective it's fairly neutral, and above all they are reducing their carbon footprint quite dramatically," said Swedbank's analyst Ingvar Mattsson.

Vattenfall has said its carbon emissions should fall to below 25 million tonnes per year from over 80 million tonnes as a result of the lignite sale.

However, the sale of lignite assets in Germany has drawn criticism from environmentalists and some lawmakers of Sweden's Green Party, a junior member of the Social Democrat-led government, who called for the polluting plants to be shut instead.

The Swedish branch of environmental organisation Greenpeace also said the plants should have been shut down and said the sale was a catastrophe for European climate policy and tarnishes Sweden's environmental reputation.
Child malnutrition soars in northern Somalia due to severe drought

By Katy Migiro

NAIROBI, April 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Child malnutrition rates are soaring in northern Somalia, where the harshest drought in decades has ravaged crops and livestock, and aid workers fear hunger will worsen with further poor rains predicted.

Parts of the region are reeling from three years of failed rains which have left many families short of food, Save the Children's area representative, Mukhtar Mohumed Hassan, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"People are saying this is the worst drought they have seen in decades," he said via Skype. "They have not seen a drought on this scale for the last 30 or 40 years."

Malnutrition-related deaths have been reported in Awdal region, which borders Ethiopia, the United Nations said.

Hospital admissions of children with life-threatening severe acute malnutrition almost doubled in two months, with 33 in March up from 18 in January in Borama Hospital, Hassan said.

Borama is the capital of Awdal region and the second largest city in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia.

"Right now we are fearing starvation," Save the Children quoted one mother in the hospital as saying. "We have no money to buy food."

Milk prices have doubled since 2015 to just over $1 per gallon, Hassan said.

Millions of people across the Horn of Africa have been hit by El Nino-related drought, with the largest numbers in neighbouring Ethiopia, where 10.2 million need emergency aid.

Some 1.7 million people, 40 percent of the population of northern Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland and Somaliland regions, need emergency aid, the U.N. says.

"Another 1.3 million are on the brink of slipping into a deeper crisis if rains continue to fail and aid is too slow to come," it said on April 11.

The drought may worsen as predictions for Somalia's main 'Gu' rainy season, from March to June, are poor, it said.

"If that happens, I think the situation will get much worse," said Hassan. "The remaining livestock will not get food to continue living."

Among the most vulnerable are thousands of Ethiopians who crossed the border into Awdal, hoping to find water and pasture, only to find an equally difficult situation.

They became stranded in the Oogo Mountains, without food, water or shelter and had to be rescued by locals with trucks, Hassan said.

"They were just walking with their children, some even newborn babies," said Hassan, who visited the area in March.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) expressed concern about these families in late March, saying they faced an emergency "with few saleable animals and no access to food credit, community support, or humanitarian assistance".

Most have been transported back to Ethiopia, but thousands more are still trying to make the journey on foot to the border town of Harirad, some 80 km (50 miles) north of Borama in Somaliland, Hassan said.

The president of Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991 but is not internationally recognised, created a national drought committee in February, composed of ministers, businessmen and religious leaders, tasked with soliciting aid and ensuring it reaches people in need.

All government staff, police and soldiers had 10 per cent deducted from their salaries in February and March to contribute to fundraising, Hassan said.

Schoolchildren have also been asked to donate.

"In all the schools, they are paying $1 or $2 or whatever they can afford," Hassan said.
Finland to suspend more benefits for unemployed people turning down work

HELSINKI, April 18 (Reuters) - Finland's centre-right government said on Monday that next year it will suspend benefits from unemployed people who turn down work for 90 days, 30 days longer than now, a move trade unions said would upset talks with the government over labour reforms.

The reforms are intended to create 35,000 new jobs, increase working hours, freeze wages for a year and raise pension contributions for workers while lowering them for employers.

Prime Minister Juha Sipila's government says they will create 110,000 new jobs by 2019 and push through spending cuts of 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion) and major labour reforms in a bid to boost Finnish growth and rein in debt.

"We have just agreed to commit to some major cuts, and now they announce new ones. This doesn't bode well for the upcoming negotiations," the head of white-collar workers' Pro Union, Jorma Malinen, said.

However, Minister of Justice and Employment, Jari Lindstrom, defended the move, saying the changes would bring Finland closer to practice in Sweden and Denmark.

Business lobby, EK, supported the plan, noting that one in three of its member companies had hiring problems in 2015.

"We have a strange situation where both the number of open vacancies and the unemployment rate grow simultaneously," EK director, Ilkka Oksala, said.

Close to 50,000 people in Finland refuse jobs every year because they do not want to relocate or give up unemployment benefits for a smaller salary, government estimates show.
Malaysia says will honour all its commitments amid 1MDB-IPIC row

KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 (Reuters) - Malaysia said on Monday it would honour all its commitments in financial markets, after an Abu Dhabi sovereign fund claimed the country's finance ministry and state fund 1MDB had defaulted on an agreement reached in June.

International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) said earlier in a filing that it was now considering all its options to remedy the default.

"The MOF (ministry of finance) wishes to make clear that it will continue to honour all of its outstanding commitments in the financial markets," the ministry said in a statement.
Order books on Argentina's bond reach US$40bn: sources

By Davide Scigliuzzo

NEW YORK, April 18 (IFR) - Order books on Argentina's first bond in 15 years have reached US$40bn, with the 10-year note attracting most of the demand, sources familiar with the situation told IFR on Monday.

Investors have concentrated on the 10 and 30-year tranches in the offering, which earlier on Monday morning had received 39% and 29% of the total orders, one of the sources said.

The three and five-year pieces had received 13% and 19%, the same source said.

Argentina announced a US$10bn-$15bn bond, whose proceeds will help pay off the holders of its defaulted bonds who had rejected the payment terms of the country's debt restructuring.
U.S. to send more troops to Iraq to tackle Islamic State

By Yeganeh Torbati

BAGHDAD, April 18 (Reuters) - The United States will send more troops to Iraq and will put them closer to the front lines of battle there to advise Iraqi forces in the war against Islamic State militants.

U.S. defence officials said on Monday that Washington will deploy about 200 additional troops, mostly as advisers for Iraqi troops as they advance towards Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still under Islamic State control.

"As we see the Iraqis willing to fight and gaining ground, let's make sure that we are providing them more support," U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview with CBS News.

"My expectation is that by the end of the year, we will have created the conditions whereby Mosul will eventually fall," Obama said.

The United States has also authorized the use of Apache attack helicopters to help the Iraqis as they can provide quicker air support and precision fire.

The advisers will accompany Iraqi units of about 2,500 troops moving closer to the front lines of battle. Until now, the advisers were limited to larger divisions of about 10,000 troops located further back from the battlefield.

The change will allow them to offer quicker advice to Iraqi troops as they try to retake Mosul, likely facing stiff resistance from an entrenched enemy. But it could also leave the U.S. advisers more vulnerable to enemy mortars and artillery.

"This will put Americans closer to the action," U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter said. "Their whole purpose is to be able to help those forces respond in a more agile way."

The decision to enlarge the U.S. military force was made in close concert with Iraqi authorities, said Carter, who met U.S. commanders and Iraqi officials including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on a visit to Baghdad.

Iraq is engulfed in a political crisis over anti-corruption reforms that is crippling state institutions and threatening to slow the campaign against the militants.

The increase raises the authorized troop level in Iraq to 4,087, not including special operations personnel, some logistics workers and troops on temporary rotations.

The Pentagon will also provide up to $415 million to Kurdish peshmerga military units, who have played an important role in pushing back Islamic State in northern Iraq. Part of that funding will likely be spent on basics like food, said Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, head of the U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State.

"Right now the peshmerga are not getting enough calories to keep them in the field," MacFarland said.

The increase is the latest move by the United States, which invaded Iraq in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein, to step up its campaign against the hardline Sunni jihadists.

Since December, Iraqi forces trained by the U.S. military and backed by coalition air strikes have taken back territory from Islamic State, which seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

ESCALATING SUPPORT

Some U.S. troops already in Iraq will be shifted to establishing logistics for Iraqi forces as they move towards Mosul, Carter said. These include supply lines, particularly important as Mosul is 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad.

Most of the new U.S. advisers, who will make up the bulk of the new troops, will be Army Special Forces, as are the about 100 advisers now in Iraq. The rest of the troops announced on Monday include support crew for the Apaches and security forces to protect the advisers.

The United States will also deploy an additional long-range rocket artillery unit to support Iraqi ground forces in the battle for Mosul, Carter said. Two such batteries are already in place in Iraq.

The officials did not rule out the possibility that lasting success might require further U.S. commitments.
Turkey will call off migrant deal if EU fails to grant visa-free travel by June - PM

By Gulsen Solaker

ANKARA, April 18 (Reuters) - Turkey would no longer need to honor an agreement on migrants with the European Union if the bloc fails to uphold its promise to provide visa-free travel for Turks by June, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday.

Turkey and the EU last month sealed a controversial deal intended to halt illegal migration to Europe in return for financial and political rewards for Ankara.

The EU will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with money, visa-free travel and progress in its EU membership negotiations.

"These pledges are mutual. If the EU does not take the necessary steps, it would be unthinkable for Turkey to do so," Davutoglu told a news conference before departing for Strasbourg.

But he said Turkey has been working to fulfill its pledges to the EU and he had no reason to expect a U-turn on the agreement.

"I don't see much of a possibility of EU taking a step to reverse this process after we have come this far," he said.

The EU-Turkey deal aims to discourage migrants from perilous crossings, often in small boats and dinghies, and to break the trafficking rings which have fueled Europe's biggest influx since World War Two.

Seventeen of the 75 requirements required for visa-free travel for Turks by June were yet to be completed, Davutoglu said, adding that he expected those to be fulfilled by May.

"I believe the visa exemption will come into effect in June. If this doesn't happen, obviously nobody can expect Turkey to hold its side of the deal," he added.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey would cancel its agreements with the EU if the bloc did not keep its word on the deal.

"The deal we struck with the EU is very clear. We want this human tragedy to end, our citizens to travel visa free, and the customs union to be updated," he said in a speech to the parliament. "If the EU doesn't keep its word, including the migrants deal we will cancel all agreements."
Maasai winner of environment prize protects land from grabbers

By Kizito Makoye

DAR ES SALAAM, April 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - D ressed in his traditional red shawl, Edward Loure was watching over a herd of cattle grazing on dew-laden grass when he heard that his efforts to protect land rights had earned him one of the world's most prestigious environmental prizes.

The 44-year-old Maasai community leader in Tanzania's northern Manyara region is among six winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's largest award for grassroots campaigners, presented on Monday in San Francisco.

"I am very humbled to receive this honour, it's a great honour for the entire Maasai and Hadzabe community," Loure said of the prize which was also awarded to activists from Cambodia, Slovakia, Puerto Rico, the United States and Peru.

Seeing the indigenous people of northern Tanzania come under increasing pressure from commercial interests, Loure, who keeps more than 200 cattle, decided more than a decade ago to take action to protect his people's land and way of life.

"Some people call this land a 'conservation area', but for me and my family this is our home," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Semi-nomadic Maasai herders and hunter-gatherer Hadzabe communities in Tanzania's northern rangelands have lived side by side with wildlife for centuries, co-existing peacefully and safeguarding the region's fragile ecological balance.

However, rising numbers of large-scale land deals in Africa are pitting indigenous people against investors. Resource and tourism projects may have brought money and jobs but campaigners say marginalised communities face loss of land as well as the ability to practise traditional land management techniques.

For Loure, armed with both indigenous knowledge and a university degree in management, protecting his community and its ancient culture became his life's goal.

Working with the Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT), a grassroots land rights group in northern Tanzania, he began to examine tenure documentation to fight for land security.

Knowing a lack of official titles would let outsiders grab land they considered to be unclaimed, Loure set about formalising land rights for the Maasai and Hadzabe.

ANCIENT TRADITIONS

Loure and UCRT pioneered an approach that gives land titles to indigenous communities instead of individuals using a provision called the Certificate of Customary Right of Occupancy (CCRO) from the Tanzanian Village Land Act.

"I had what it takes to fight for the marginalised community's land rights to ensure that their territory is protected from land grabbers," he said.

"We identified specific areas for hunting, gathering and grazing. Then we prepared all the documents and through lobbying and advocacy, we finally achieved ownership of our land."

One of the oldest surviving cultures on earth, the Hadzabe have been living by hunting and gathering for some 40,000 years.

Although it was not common for a cattle-raising Maasai such as Loure to work on behalf of the Hadzabe people, he won their trust and a reputation for openness and fairness.

By 2013, after nearly a decade of work, Loure had secured more than 200,000 acres of land for the Maasai and Hadzabe using CCROs.

Loure also negotiated an agreement between the Hadzabe group and a non-profit environmental organisation, Carbon Tanzania, so the local community could be paid for the carbon sequestered in their forests.

Securing land rights has assured the survival of the Hadzabe people and their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, while generating modest revenue from carbon credits and carefully managed cultural tourism.

"The Hadzabe have a very rich culture that will be lost if their land is taken away from them," said Loure.

"They are very clever and have expertise in animal tracking, making traditional weapons to hunt and gather fruits, roots and honey from the forest."

NOMADS

Born to a Maasai tribe, Loure grew up in the Simanjiro plains, where his family led a peaceful nomadic life, raising their cattle among wildlife such as wildebeest and zebra.

In 1970, the Tanzanian government sealed off part of their village land to create Tarangire National Park and forcibly evicted the Maasai living within the park's boundaries.

Since then the Maasai have lost more than 150,000 acres of rangeland across northern Tanzania. Population growth and commercial demands have put pressure on areas managed by the Maasai and Hadzabe, often perceived as 'empty', said David Gordon, Executive Director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation.

Loure's success has inspired other indigenous groups to use the same strategy to protect land, and he is working to secure rights for communities to secure more than 970,000 acres of land, mostly in northern Tanzania.
Turkish army hits IS positions in Syria after rockets land in town of Kilis -governor

ISTANBUL, April 18 (Reuters) - The Turkish army returned fire on Islamic State militant positions in Syria after rockets hit the southeastern Turkish town of Kilis near the Syrian border, the local governor said on Monday.
GRAINS-Wheat surges over 3 pct, most since October on short-covering

By Michael Hirtzer

CHICAGO, April 18 (Reuters) - Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade surged more than 3 percent on Monday, heading for their biggest daily gains since October as investors liquidated a portion of the record-large short stake, traders said.

Corn and soybean futures each rose to fresh multimonth highs driven by fund buying and adverse weather conditions in South America. Wheat prices led the way higher, with CBOT May wheat up 16 cents to $4.75-3/4 per bushel as of 12:15 p.m. CDT (1715 GMT), a roughly two-week high.

The gains came despite rainfall in the southern U.S. Plains, that were seen as mostly beneficial for developing wheat plants, especially in the parched southwestern part of the region. Heavy precipitation of as much as 24 inches (61 cm) also caused flash flooding in Texas, killing one person and delaying hundreds of flights.

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released after the close of trading on Friday showed speculative investors, including hedge funds, holding a net short in CBOT wheat futures of 152,453 contracts, the biggest net short on the books since 2006.

The speculative investors also trimmed their net shorts in corn and extended their net long in soybeans, the CFTC said.

"This is all short-covering, funds are record-short in Chicago (wheat)," a trader in Minneapolis said.

Analysts polled by Reuters expected the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a report due after the close of trading to show slightly improved crop condition ratings for winter wheat and estimate corn plantings at 14 percent complete.

CBOT corn was trading at the highest levels since December and soybeans the highest since August. Excessively wet weather in Argentina has delayed the soybean harvest while dry conditions were hampering corn crop development in Brazil.

"Argentina's key production areas have received too much rain of late, with more on the way. That has caused delays both in the field and at port," Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Tobin Gorey said. "Speculation is also mounting over how much of the crop could be damaged as a result."

The Commodity Weather Group said in a note to clients that "minimal rains over the next 10 days (in Brazil) allow stress to expand to nearly half of the belt."
Cuba minister calls Obama visit 'an attack' as Communists defend ideology

HAVANA, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Communist-led Cuba was an "attack" on its history and culture aimed at misleading a new business class, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said on Monday, the latest sign of anger after the ground-breaking trip last month.

"In this visit, there was a deep attack on our ideas, our history, our culture and our symbols," Rodriguez said at the Communist Party congress.

Cuban leaders have hardened their language against the United States since Obama became the first U.S. president to visit the island in 88 years, with Fidel Castro accusing him of sweet-talking the people.

President Raul Castro referred to the United States as "the enemy" in the opening speech of the party congress over the weekend and told Cubans to be alert to U.S. attempts to weaken the revolution.

The congress, held every five years, must make decisions about the future of Cuba's elderly leadership and the progress of market-style economic reforms adopted in 2011 that allowed more small businesses.

The measures have been only partially implemented, a reflection of resistance from hard-liners who distrust market economics and fear the detente with the United States at a time when Cubans are increasingly vocal about their needs.

"The harsh rhetorical push-back by the ideological wing of the Communist Party suggests their heightened sense of vulnerability," said Richard Feinberg, a former national security adviser to U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Rodriguez accused Obama of coming to "dazzle" the private sector, highlighting concern that U.S. promises to empower Cuban entrepreneurs were aimed at building opposition to the single-party system in office since 1959.

"Socialism and the Cuban revolution are the guarantees that there can be a non-state sector that is not that of big North American companies," he told state television.

Cuba has struck deals with U.S. companies such as hotel chain Starwood and is in talks with others including Google-parent Alphabet. On May 1, Carnival is to become the first U.S. cruise company to sale to Cuba, but the trip is in doubt over a ban on Cuban-Americans sailing.

The United States and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations after Castro and Obama announced in December 2014 the two countries were seeking to normalize ties.
Afghan army launches first surveillance drones

By Josh Smith

KABUL, April 18 (Reuters) - Aided by American advisers, the Afghan army on Monday launched its first unmanned surveillance drones from a base in Helmand province to try to expand its ability to provide its own air support.

Afghan forces are struggling to build up an independent air force as Taliban insurgents step up offensives across the country.

Government troops remain heavily reliant on international aircraft to supply surveillance, intelligence, and occasionally air strikes.

The first unarmed ScanEagle unmanned aircraft are based in Helmand, which has seen heavy fighting, as well as a training base in Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.

The army will receive eight "systems" from Washington, each including six aircraft, that are planned to be eventually used in all of the most contested areas in the country.

"Before this technology, they relied on human and signals intelligence," Maj. Jason White, a U.S. Army adviser, said in a statement. "The ScanEagle systems considerably increase their intelligence collection and reconnaissance ability."

The rudimentary drone network will remain totally reliant on foreign operators for years to come, however.

While Afghan commanders will oversee the flights, aircraft operations will be dependent on international contractors until at least 2018. Afghan soldiers are undergoing training in both the United States as well as at bases at home.

The ScanEagle is an unarmed surveillance aircraft that costs about $100,000 apiece, with a stabilised turret to carry high-definition and infrared cameras with live video feeds, says its maker Insitu, owned by aviation giant Boeing.
U.S. urges Russia to use influence on Syria govt to halt fighting

GENEVA, April 18 (Reuters) - Russia must use its influence on the Syrian government to stop attacks that threaten a seven-week cessation of hostilities as well as Geneva peace talks, a U.S. State Department official said on Monday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC), which announced earlier it was suspending its participation in the formal talks, was "rightly frustrated by the regime's persistent violations" of the truce and its blockage of aid deliveries.
Putin, Obama agree to enhance coordination on Syria - Kremlin

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON April 18 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed on Monday to continue building closer coordination on Syria, including through their intelligence services and defence ministries, the Kremlin said.

The White House said Obama and Putin had an "intense conversation" by telephone that covered both Syria and Ukraine.

During the call, the Kremlin said Putin stressed the need for the moderate opposition to distance itself swiftly from Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. He also stressed the need to close Syria's border with Turkey, "from where fighters and arms supplies for the extremists make their way in", the Kremlin said.

Russia has repeatedly raised the issue of the border, across which, according to Russia, militants are crossing from Turkey into Syria.

Obama stressed that progress on Syria needed to be made "in parallel" to progress on political transition to end the conflict there, the White House said in a release. Syrian peace talks came close to collapse on Monday, with the mainstream opposition announcing a pause in talks being held in Geneva.

The Kremlin said Obama thanked Putin for Russia's help in freeing American citizen Kevin Dawes, who had been in captivity in Syria. The U.S. State Department had said previously Russia played a role in his release.

The two presidents also exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine, with Putin expressing the hope that with the new Ukrainian government "will finally start taking concrete steps towards implementing the Minsk agreements", the Kremlin said.

Obama urged Putin to take steps to end the significant uptick in fighting in eastern Ukraine and stressed the importance of moving forward with full implementation of the agreements, the White House said in a release.
UN proposes options for sending police to Burundi, gov't OKs 20

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, April 18 (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has proposed sending between 20 and 3,000 police to Burundi, where political violence has been simmering for a year, but warned that the government signaled it would only accept 20 unarmed experts.

In a report, seen by Reuters on Monday, Ban outlined three possible options for a police deployment to the small landlocked African state as requested by the 15-member U.N. Security Council in a resolution unanimously adopted earlier this month.

Tit-for-tat attacks between President Pierre Nkurunziza's security forces and his opponents have escalated since April 2015 when he announced a disputed bid for a third term as president and then won re-election in July. The United Nations says more than 400 people have been killed and over 250,000 have fled.

"The security situation in Burundi remains alarmingly precarious," Ban told the council.

More than two decades after the 1994 genocide of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus by the Hutu majority in neighboring Rwanda, the United Nations is under growing pressure to show it can halt the bloodshed in Burundi. Rwanda and Burundi have a similar ethnic makeup.

The Security Council had asked Ban to provide options for a "police contribution to increase the U.N. capacity to monitor the security situation, promote the respect of human rights and advance rule of law."

Ban gave the council three options: a light footprint of 20 to 50 police personnel to assess the Burundi police, a monitoring presence of 228 police, or a protection and monitoring deployment of some 3,000 police.

He said a U.N. police deployment would "help create an environment conducive to political dialogue by averting a further deterioration of the security situation and decreasing the occurrence of human rights violations."

The Security Council would need to adopt another resolution to authorize a police deployment to Burundi. Ban said full cooperation of the Burundi government would also be needed to ensure the success of any deployment.

Ban told the council that the Burundi government said in an April 13 letter it was ready to receive "around 20 unarmed police experts to provide support to the Burundian national police and welcomed United Nations support in the form of logistics and, above all, capacity building."
Malta government wins confidence vote after Panama papers debate

VALLETTA, April 18 (Reuters) - The Maltese government comfortably won a confidence vote in the House of Representatives on Monday after 13 hours of non-stop debate over revelations in the Panama Papers.

The opposition had presented a motion of no confidence in the government after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat failed to remove Energy and Health Minister Konrad Mizzi and his own chief of staff, Keith Schembri, who were found to each have a secret company in Panama and a trust in New Zealand. They were formed after the government took office in 2013.

The Panama Papers, published on April 3, are a set of 11.5 million confidential documents with information on about 214,000 offshore companies compiled by Panamanian lawyers Mossack Fonseca that illustrate how individuals and corporations hide assets from public scrutiny and avoid taxes.

Mizzi insisted in Parliament that he had done nothing wrong and his arrangements were for the management of family assets, although he admitted that choosing Panama "wasn't the best choice."

"I regret that the Panama Papers distracted from the government's successes," Mizzi said. "Investigations will show I did nothing wrong."

Muscat said he would base his decisions on facts, but he agreed that there was an issue of political correctness, saying that "doing nothing is not an option".

He did not say what actions he might take, however.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said there was no logical reason why a minister and a chief of staff would set up a Panama company and a trust in New Zealand and also attempt to set up bank accounts in eight countries. This case, he said, harmed Malta's reputation and the government's inaction made a bad situation worse.
Before the 2014 general elections, some had expressed doubt about the suitability of Narendra Modi as the prime minister of a secular India. His RSS background and perceived role in 2002 pogrom in Gujarat were repeatedly raised to question his credibility to rise above majoritarian interests.

Reservations were expressed over the credibility about the success of his "Gujarat Model". Some subdued voices questioned his personal credibility for obscuring information about his legal wife and academic degrees, and also the "Snoopgate".

Large number of public intellectuals helped create the "Modi phenomenon".

Despite critical voices in public discourse over the suitability of Modi as prime minister for the 'idea' of India, many Indians appeared to believe Modi would be good for the country's economy. It is not because many media and business houses bought into the "Modi Myth" but also a large number of public intellectuals helped to create a "Modi phenomenon".

His go-getting free marketer persona enthused the likes of Shekhar Gupta, Tavleen Singh, and even Shahid Siddiqui and MJ Akbar to join the saffron media brigade of Swapan Dasgupta, Chandan Mitra and Arun Shourie as fans of Modinomics.

The so-called business friendly philosophy of Modi also moved free-economy propagators like Jagdish Bhagwati and his sidekick Arvind Panagariya, Meghnad Desai, Surjit S Bhalla, Arvind Virmani, Gurcharan Das and Vivek Dehejia to start comparing Modi with the likes of Reagan or Thatcher, or even Deng Xiaoping.

Modi sceptics in business establishments like Deepak Parekh and Narayana Murthy also went with the wave and endorsed Modi before the election.

Surprisingly, some sharp and highly voluble observers of Indian politics like Ashutosh Varshney and Pratap Bhanu Mehta also committed the mistake of believing in Modi's development mirage in pre-election weeks while ignoring and even downplaying his hardline Hindutva ideology.

Their projection of Modi as a moderate and progressive mascot for a new India was a serious blow for Modi critics who were struggling to highlight the dangers of Modi as prime minister of a country like India.

Besides a few names like Amartya Sen and Ramachandra Guha, most of the Indian public intellectuals were somehow backing Modi before the general elections in 2014, either overplaying his economic success stories or downplaying his rabid political philosophy.

India Foundation and Vivekananda International Foundation, two right-wing propaganda machines under the guise of "think tanks", were extremely efficient in churning out stories glorifying Modi without much opposition from left-leaning or liberal institutions.

Sensing public mood against the indecisiveness of tainted UPA regime, many of the brightest minds of India went along or kept silent. Public intellectuals in India conveniently forgot that they are not to pander to public opinion but to create one.

Hindutva agenda has completely taken over the governance space.

Several of these Indian intellectuals are having second thoughts over Modi and his development "mukhota". But unfortunately they are late in realising the extent of implications for India with Modi being at the helm. They have started to see now what was straightforward to foresee from the Hindutva icon's track record.

After the 2014 election, a series of disgusting incidents fuelled by communal hatred have rattled the country. Modi's pre-election development hyperbole has taken a back seat and the minority bashing Hindutva agenda has completely taken over the governance space. To conceal the caste-rupture in Hindu vote bank, a serious project is in the making to create a phony binary of "national" and "anti-national".

Indian intellectuals cannot anymore hide behind blaming the fringe as Modi has been continuously exposing his "Hindutva" fangs. He left no stone unturned to communalise the Bihar election. He does not hesitate to push the country into a violent ideological struggle over farcical issues like "pseudo-nationalism" and "Bharat Mata ki jai" to enthuse his vote bank.

Though, some intellectuals have started waving the red flag, they still refuse to openly express the seriousness of the threat which Modi as prime minister poses to the country. The usual refrain is that Indian democracy has the strength to withstand the divisive agenda of Modi and his RSS mentors as it was able to survive the dark days of Emergency.

However, they fail to see that the Emergency was an assault on political freedom and individual rights, but was not posing any threat to the rights of minorities. The secular character of the country was never in danger then.

Emergency was an assault on political freedom. (Picture of: Indira Gandhi)

For an ethnically segmented country to have political rights is important but minority rights are an absolute necessity. Indian intellectuals have often taken the East Asian examples in their attempt in separating the political from economic while espousing the suitability of Modi's candidature as India's prime minister.

They should not have travelled that far before looking within South Asia itself. Countries in India's neighborhood have survived years of authoritarian dictatorship, but when the sizeable minority groups have been particularly targeted, the results have been quite devastating. East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971 and the sword of "Tamil Elam" still hangs over Sri Lanka.

Selig S Harrison, an American journalist and scholar, had raised doubts about the survival of Indian state way back in 1957. Indian project, with its secular democratic character, has managed to defy these prophecies for long.

However, Modi's majoritarian adventurism has revived the danger again. Minority demography might help to avert any attempt at disintegration of the country, but the distinct possibility of a violent civil war cannot be ruled out.
Virginia State Police are searching for a missing Woodbridge, Virginia woman whose vehicle was discovered Saturday evening in Madison County.

Nicole K. Mittendorff, 31, was reported missing to the Virginia State Police on Friday. Her 2009 Mini Cooper was found abandoned shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday in a parking lot in the Madison County portion of Shenandoah National Park.

State police and U.S. Park Police spent the night searching by ground and air for Mittendorff. Search efforts are still underway on Sunday.

Mittendorff is a white female with blonde hair and green eyes. She is 56 and weighs approximately 125 lbs. The last contact her family had with her was Wednesday.

Anyone with information concerning her whereabouts is asked to call Virginia State Police at (703) 803-0026 or #77 on a cell phone or 911 or email at questions@vsp.virginia.gov.
LONDON - England - With George Osborne and his Treasury number crunchers claiming today that leaving the EU will make UK householders 4,300 poorer, he neglected to mention the figure is based on the Government breaking its promise to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands.

Naturally Mr. Osborne also did not mention a conclusive report from the Institute of Economic Affairs which revealed that leaving the EU would make householders 9,265 richer.

Osbornes report further fails to take account of savings from cutting the cost of EU regulation if we Vote Leave, which the Treasury has previously admitted are as high as 7% of GDP, or 4,638 per household.

The Government calculates its 4,300 figure by dividing a supposed 6.2% lesser increase in GDP by 2030 by the current number of households  this is just another example of the Government using dodgy numbers.

Responding to the publication of HM Treasurys assessment of the costs and benefits of EU membership, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt. Hon. Lord Lamont of Lerwick said:

They say economists put a decimal point in their forecasts to show that they have a sense of humour. The Chancellor has endorsed a forecast which looks 14 years ahead and predicts a fall in GDP of less than 0.5 per cent a year  well within the margin of error. Few forecasts are right for 14 months, let alone 14 years. Such precision is spurious, and entirely unbelievable.

Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of Vote Leave, said:

The headline figures in this report are deeply flawed. It is not credible to make these claims without showing your workings or the alternative you are comparing it to. It also ignores the Treasurys own analysis that EU regulation costs the UK economy much more  a staggering 125 billion a year.

As the Prime Minister himself said, we are the fifth biggest economy in the world and outside of the EU we wont stop trading with Europe. Theres a free trade zone from Iceland to Turkey and we will be part of that, securing jobs and boosting the economy.

If we Vote Leave we will also be able to make deals with growing countries like China and India which will help businesses to grow, create jobs and make our economy stronger.

Looks like its back to drawing board eh Georgie boy..
To say its been an exceptional couple of years for Dalhousie chemist Axel Becke would be an understatement.



In 2014, he became the first Canadian to receive the premier award in the field of theoretical chemistry from the American Chemical Society. Then, last year, he received Canadas top chemistry and chemical engineering award (the Chemical Institute of Canadas CIC Medal), was inducted into the Discovery Centre-hosted Nova Scotia Science Hall of Fame and  perhaps most notably  was the 2015 recipient of the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal, an esteemed career achievement award presented by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).



Now, Dr. Becke is adding another of Canadas most prestigious scholarly honours to that list: the Killam Prize.



On Monday morning, the Canada Council for the Arts announced Dr. Becke as the 2016 recipient of the Killam Prize in the Natural Sciences. The $100,000 award is funded through the Killam Trusts and recognizes outstanding career achievement in scholarship and research.



This is a significant honour and great recognition for Dr. Beckes incredible achievements throughout his career, says Martha Crago, vice-president research at Dalhousie.



Dr. Becke, whose research has transformed computational chemistry and physics, is only the third Dalhousie faculty member to receive a Killam Prize since the awards were created in 1981. Biologys Brian Hall (2005) and Philosophys Susan Sherwin (2006) are past recipients.



As with NSERCs Herzberg Medal, Dr. Becke says part of what makes the Killam Prize special is that it comes from an organization thats been a long-time funder of his research. Support from the Killam Trusts helped bring Dr. Becke to Dalhousie  twice. He came to Dal in 1981 with a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship, and in 2006 he returned to campus to serve as the Killam Chair in Computational Science until 2015. He also received a two-year Canada Council Killam Research Fellowship in 2005.



The Killam Trusts have been incredibly important to me throughout my career, says Dr. Becke. Ive been a member of the Killam family of scholars since 1981. So this Killam Prize is very special.



Small-scale research, big results



Dr. Beckes research has focused almost exclusively on expanding the accuracy and applicability of whats known as density-functional theory (DFT): a faster, more intuitive method of calculating the properties of chemical systems and materials than older non-DFT methods. What was once an outsider theory is now used in more than 80 per cent of quantum chemical computations  thanks in large part to Dr. Beckes work.



Because of DFTs wide range of applications, Dr. Becke has become one of the most cited scientists on the planet. He has two papers on Natures 2014 list of the top 100 most-cited scientific articles of all time  both in the top 25, and one of them in the top 10. These days he averages about 10,000 new citations a year, with his rolling total currently at more than 110,000.





At a time when large-scale scientific research is generating considerable national and international attention  from Dal alumnus Art McDonalds Nobel Prize for his work at the Sudbury Neutrino Laboratory, to the February 2016 announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves  Dr. Beckes research stands out for its relatively small scale and independence. On about half of his publications, including both of his papers on Natures Top 100 list, Dr. Becke is the sole author. Most of his work is done with pen-and-paper, then writing computer programs to implement and test his ideas. He has nowhere near the massive equipment or infrastructure requirements of those recent headline-generating discoveries. And yet, the influence of his research has been vast, spanning multiple disciplines.



Im very proud of my work and the impact its had, says Dr. Becke. Big science is great, but its important to remember that smaller-scale, low-budget science also has its place  that breakthroughs often arise from the creative thinking of independent researchers, and that all applications are driven by fundamental theory.



Looking forward



Dr. Becke technically retired on July 1 last year  although you wouldnt know it from how busy he is.



Scientists never retire, he says with a laugh. They may step down from teaching and committee work, but they never retire from science. It always intrigues and drives you. As long as youre able to, youre experimenting.



What intrigues Dr. Becke at the moment is an area of research he never expected to find himself in: the study of excited states, the interaction between matter and light. Many other researchers have used DFT in excited-state calculations, but its something Ive never engaged in myself, he says. But its a hot subject, and Ive got some ideas Im now trying out.



At the same time, hes continuing his more traditional DFT work on ground states (the basic equilibrium structures and properties of materials). He says hes in a unique position compared to most scientists, in that his careers work has a logical endpoint: when DFT has been expanded to the point where all types of chemical interactions, from the weakest to the strongest, can be computed.



Ive thought this through for 35 years, and I honestly think Im at the stage where Im wrapping up, he explains. When I started in the early 1980s, we couldnt even calculate the energies of molecular bonds  the simplest of chemical concepts! But weve solved problem after problem, from bond energies to reaction energies in general, and the weakest interactions in chemistry  van der Waals or dispersion interactions.



Were now working on something called the strong correlation problem  the last frontier. Our density functionals can now cover pretty much all interactions in chemistry, biology, surface science and materials science.



Thats important, says Dr. Becke, because its the potential of DFT in developing revolutionary complex materials that may offer the most exciting applications of his work. And while it wont be him doing that work  Dr. Becke is a theoretician, through and through  others, like Dals Josef Zwanziger and the new Herzberg-Becke Chair Erin Johnson, are moving DFT forward in materials science.



In the more immediate future, Dr. Becke heads to Ottawa for the Killam Prize ceremony at Rideau Hall on May 3  his second visit to the Governor Generals residence in as many years, following last years NSERC Top Researchers ceremony where he received his Herzberg Gold Medal. Hes also taping an interview for CBC Radios Ideas program with Paul Kennedy that will air in the coming months.



Finally, every Killam Prize winner is obliged to present a public lecture at a Killam institution  of which Dalhousie is one. Dr. Becke says he expects to deliver his lecture on campus sometime this fall.
Oil prices have fallen by as much as 70 per cent since mid-2014 as producers have pumped one to two million barrels of crude every day in excess of demand.

Singapore: Oil prices tumbled on Monday after a meeting by major exporters in Qatar collapsed without an agreement to freeze output as Iran refused to freeze its oil output.

The development will revive oil industry fears that major producers are embarking again on a battle for market share, especially after Riyadh threatened to raise output steeply if no freeze deal were reached.

Saudi Arabias Deputy Crown Prince Moha-mmed bin Salman told Bloomberg that the kingdom could quickly raise production and would restrain its output only if Iran agreed to a freeze.

Irans oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Saturday that Opec and non-Opec should simply accept the reality of Irans return to the oil market: If Iran freezes its oil production... it cannot benefit from the lifting of sanctions.

Russian oil minister Alexander Novak called the Saudi demand unreasonable and said he was disappointed as he had come to Doha under the impression that all sides would sign the deal instead of debating it.

Mr Novak said Russia was not shutting the door on a deal but the government would not restrain output for now. With worlds two biggest oil producers  Saudi Arabia and Russia  hinting at higher output, crude oil price may fall further.

Oil prices, which hit a 12-year low in January by dipping under $30 a barrel, had risen above $40 in recent days, buoyed by the bullish talks surro-unding the Doha summit. Morgan Stanley said the failed deal underscores the poor state of Opec relations, adding that we now see a risk of higher Opec supply.

Oil prices have fallen by as much as 70 per cent since mid-2014 as producers have pumped one to two million barrels of crude every day in excess of demand, leaving storage tanks around the world filled to the rims with unsold fuel.

Sundays meeting in Qatars capital Doha had been expected to finalise a deal to freeze output at January levels until October 2016 in an attempt to slow that ballooning oversupply.

"Without a deal, the likelihood of markets balancing is now pushed back to mid-2017. We will see a lot of speculators getting out next week," said Natixis oil analyst Abhishek Deshpande, who added that prices could fall close to $30 per barrel.

Brent crude futures fell almost seven per cent in early trading on Monday before recovering to $40.97 per barrel, still down 2.15 per cent since their last settlement.

Traders said only an oil worker strike in Kuwait had prevented Brent from tumbling below $40 per barrel, while a cut in US drilling down to 2009 levels had prevented steeper falls there. Goldman Sachs said the Doha no-deal could be a bearish catalyst for US crude prices, which it forecast would average $35 a barrel in the current quarter.

Analysts said that the failed agreement would also impact the broader economy. In the near-term, lower oil prices are bound to weigh on investor confidence and could exacerbate financial volatility, said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC.

While tumbling oil prices hurt producers, straining the budgets of energy exporters from Russia to Malaysia, they can also benefit consumers. India is one of the biggest beneficiaries of low crude oil price as it depends heavily on imported crude to run the country.

However, analysts suggest the benefit from lower crude oil may tapper off as budget constrains in oil-dependent economies in the Gulf region will affect remittances from its diaspora. This could affect Indias current account balance.
The two countries are interested in the current version of the Tejas

New Delhi: Indias Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, which was several years in the making, has now caught the attention of foreign buyers with Sri Lanka and Egypt evincing interest in the indigenously built fighter jet.

Sri Lanka had recently rejected Pakistans JF-17 aircraft built with Chinese help, while Egypt had last year signed a contract for 24 French-made Rafale fighter jets.

The two countries are interested in the current version of the Tejas and not the upgraded one which will be rolled out later. However, state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the manufacturer of Tejas, is focusing on delivering the aircraft to the IAF first.

While there is an interest which has been shown (by other countries), let us get the product first to our own customer. The confidence that will come to others when our own Air Force flies it will be immense.

So at first, we should at least meet the initial requirement of the IAF, HAL chairman T. Suvarna Raju said. He expressed confidence in his marketing team.
Chennai: Dont drink and drive is a slogan we are familiar with from the traffic police. Now MDMK general secretary Vaiko says Do not drink and campaign.

The issue of prohibition continues to occupy elections centre stage with each political leader adopting newer methods to make the point that they are the most sincere in advocating the dry law.

In his latest election campaign speeches, Vaiko, who is also DMDK-Peoples Welfare Alliance-TMC alliance coordinator, has asked his cadres not to be drunk while canvassing for votes. If someone turned up for the election campaign after consuming alcohol, it will only affect our votes. We will not get any vote or lose the support of who want to vote for us.

After we declared that we will implement prohibition in the state, we should not take anyone who has the habit of consuming alcohol to campaign, Mr Vaiko said while advising his cadres about the election campaign. His advice to cadres came in the wake of all the parties including ruling AIADMK pitching for prohibition in the state.

Though all the parties seek implementation of prohibition, none of the leaders acknowledge the fact that their cadres themselves turn up for the meeting consuming alcohol. It is a positive statement and welcome one, says political commentator Gnani.

He said that a political party leader recognising the fact that the cadres are consuming alcohol. If the state is getting revenue of Rs 30,000 crore through liquor means that a large section of the people are drinking. Party cadres who are part of the public cannot be an exception to drinking habits.

For the state government to earn Rs 30,000 crore liquor revenue, on daily basis one crore people including many party cadres should be drinking. A party leader recognising the fact and advising his cadres to shun liquor is a positive development, he told DC.

Appreciating Vaikos statement, he said, There is someone who recognises the ground reality and wants to change it and improve it. Noting that many leaders were pretending as if their party cadres dont drink, he called upon all the party leaders to start advising their cadres to shun liquor.
A woman is rescued from the rubble in Pedernales, Ecuador. (Photo: AP)

Quito: The biggest earthquake in Ecuador in decades has killed 272 people - but that toll will 'certainly' rise even further, the president has said as overwhelmed rescuers struggled to pull survivors out of the destruction.

The 7.8 magnitude quake struck off the Pacific coast on Saturday and was felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, causing panic as far away as the highland capital Quito and destroying buildings, bridges and roads.

Read: 'Hope damage to life and property is minimal,'Modi tells Ecuador President Correa

President Rafael Correa rushed home from a trip to Italy to supervise the emergency. "The immediate priority is to rescue people in the rubble," he said on Twitter.

"Everything can be rebuilt but lives cannot be recovered and that's what hurts the most," Correa told state radio.

Read: Ecuador quake survivors desperately dig for kin with bare hands

The government said 272 people were killed and up to 2,500 injured, according to the latest tallies on Sunday evening.

Coastal areas nearest the epicenter were hit hardest, especially Pedernales, a rustic tourist spot with beaches and palm trees now laden with debris from pastel-colored houses.

Read: The world's strongest earthquakes since 1900

Dazed residents recounted a violent shake, followed by a sudden collapse of buildings that trapped people in wreckage.

"You could hear people screaming from the rubble," Agustin Robles said as he waited in a line of 40 people for water outside a stadium in Pedernales. "There was a pharmacy where people were stuck and we couldn't do anything."

Authorities said there were more than 160 aftershocks, mainly in the Pedernales area. A state of emergency was declared in six provinces.

The quake has piled pain on the economy of OPEC's smallest member, already reeling from low oil prices, with economic growth this year projected at near-zero.

Rubble, Rain, Darkness

As darkness set in and rain began, survivors bundled up to spend the night next to their destroyed homes. Many had earlier queued up for food, water and blankets outside the blue-and-white stadium.

Inside the stadium, tents housed the dead and medical teams treated hundreds of survivors. About 91 people died in Pedernales and some 60 percent of houses were destroyed, according to Police Chief General Milton Zarate.

"We heard the warning so luckily we were in the street because the entire house collapsed. We don't have anything," said Ana Farias, 23, the mother of 16-month-old twins, as she collected water, food and blankets from rescuers.

"We're going to have to sleep outside today."

Other survivors hammered together shelters in empty lots. Police patrolled the dark town, where power remained off, while some rescuers plowed on.

Locals used a small tractor to remove rubble and also searched with their hands for trapped people. Women cried after a corpse was pulled out.

In Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, rubble lay in the streets and a bridge fell on top of a car.
Beijing: Certain high risk zones around the world do require a close watch, geophysicists now believe after a spate of high-intensity earthquakes rattled different parts of the world and reignited the question whether the Earth is experiencing another round of seismic-active period.

During the past two months, unusually active seismic activities have been witnessed around the globe, with a string of powerful quakes jolting Ecuador, Indonesia, Myanmar, Japan and Afghanistan. Many cannot help but wonder: Is this just coincidence, or is our planet once again on a quake mode?

It is hard to judge whether the Earth is experiencing another seismic-active period, Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey, told Xinhua.

The last cycle of frequent earthquakes were witnessed in the first 60 years of the 20th century, when there were seven quakes above 8.5 on the Richter scale. In the following 40 years there were no major quakes.

Mr Baldwin says quake-prone zones could see strong shocks anytime, but so far there have been no signs of connection between seismic activities in different zones.

They say the geographic location of Japan and Indonesia, both of which sit on the Circum-Pacific Seismic Belt, is the reason behind such tremors. The belt, which extends all the way through the US Pacific coast, Taiwan, the Philippines and New Zealand, releases about three quarters of quake-discharged energy from the interior of our planet. It has earned a befitting name  the Pacific Ring of Fire. Though it may seem early to sound alarm for a new wave of disastrous earthquakes, some scientists insist that certain high risk zones do require attention.
Identified as Mary, she had spent over four years in a male prison in Brisbane for stealing a car. (Representtaional Image)

Brisbane, Queensland: In a horrifying revelation, a transgender woman has confessed that she was raped more than 2,000 times in a male-only prison, where she was lodged on charges of theft, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

Identified as Mary, she had spent over four years in a male prison in Brisbane for stealing a car. She revealed her horrific torment during the term she spent in Boggo Road Prison in Brisbane.

Mary said that in such prisons victims are often forced to indulge in sex acts under the pretext of protecting them from other attackers. But the victims only get into more trouble and pain. They are only protected and kept alive for other prisoners' pleasure.

"It was rape and yes I was flogged and bashed to the point where I knew I had to do it in order to survive, but survival was basically for other prisoners' pleasure," Mary was quoted as saying.

Describing her torment, Mary said that when she first reached the prison, she was asked to strip completely naked for a body check up in front of other inmates and they came to know that she was a transgender.

Mary further added that things got worse when she was denied hormonal treatment inside the prison. Within a week, her facial hair started regrowing but she was refused any help.

To escape everyday abuse and trauma, Mary had tried three unsuccessful attempts to flee from the prison.

"We are human beings and most of us were born this way and we want to just live our lives but are ridiculed by society because we have the guts to be who we are," Mary said after being released from the prison after finishing her four-year term.
The number of migrants trying to reach Europe by sea in 2015 hit a record, according to reports. (Photo: AP, Representtaional Image)

Rome, Italy: At least 400 migrants were feared dead on Monday, after four boats capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, when desperate refugees tried to flee to Europe.

According to reports, the migrants were trying to reach Italy from Somali, Ethiopia and Eritrea. The route chosen by the migrants is said to be one of the most favoured routes by smugglers.

All the four boats that drowned were reported to be ill-equipped. "2016, the Mediterranean is a mass grave," Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) tweeted while expressing grief.

BREAKING: Media report that 400 #people have drowned after a boat capsized between # Egypt & Italy. 2016, the Mediterranean is a mass grave.  MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) April 18, 2016

Offering his condolences, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said several people appear to have died in a new migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean.

Mattarella, speaking at a prize giving ceremony in Rome, said Europe needed to reflect in the face of "yet another tragedy in the Mediterranean in which, it seems, several hundred people have died." He did not give any further details.

The Italian coastguard had earlier said that they knew nothing about the reported disaster.

According to reports, rescue workers have saved around 29 passengers while others drowned in the unfortunate incident.

Greek coast guards help a migrant woman rescued after a boat carrying migrants sank off the island of Rhodes, southeastern Greece (Photo: AFP)

The tragedy comes almost a year after a fishing boat with more than 800 people trapped inside capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.

The number of migrants trying to reach Europe by sea in 2015 hit a record, according to reports. Italy had recorded more than 100,000 migrants rescued at sea by mid-August in 2015.
Moscow: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday strongly raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi the issue of China blocking its bid to have JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the UN.

Swaraj took up the issue with Wang at a bilateral meeting in Moscow on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.

"EAM (External Affairs Minister) raised the issue of listing of Masood Azhar in the UN 1267 Committee and emphasised that as common victims of terrorism, China and India should cooperate in combating this challenge. It was agreed that the two sides would remain in touch on this matter," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

Official sources said the issue was raised by Swaraj besides deliberations on a range of issues.

Read: India slams 'hidden veto' at UN after China blocks bid to ban Masood Azhar

Earlier this month, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

Read: China again blocks Indias bid at UN for ban on Masood Azhar

Last July, China had similarly halted India's move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying its stand was "based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness" with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar last week had said in New Delhi that India has taken up at a "fairly high level" with China the issue of Beijing blocking its bid to have Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN but the issue will not "overflow" into other areas of bilateral ties.

China had defended its decision, saying that it acts on such issues based on facts and rules in an "objective and just manner".

Read: Love thy neighbour: Chinese diplomats response to Masood Azhar issue

After the attack on the airbase in Pathankot on January 2, India had in February written to the UN calling for immediate action to list Azhar under the UN Sanctions Committee.

The Indian submission was considered by the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) for technical aspects of the evidence provided.

The technical team then with the support of the US, the UK and France had sent it to all the members. All were told that if there are no objections, the designation will be announced after the expiry of the deadline but just hours before the deadline, China requested the UN committee to keep on hold the designation.

Earlier this week, India had slammed the use of "hidden veto" and demanded accountability, saying the world body's general members are never informed of the reason for not acceding to requests for sanctioning terrorists.

"The procedures of unanimity and anonymity of the al-Qaeda, Taliban and ISIS Sanctions Committees need to be revisited. The procedures of unanimity and anonymity result in a lack of accountability," India's Permanent Representative to

the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had told the UN Security Council in an open debate on 'Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts' on Thursday.

Swaraj also discussed a range of issues of mutual interest with Wang.

In her opening remarks, Swaraj said the relations have seen significant improvement in the last one year and favoured frequent meetings between the two sides to step up engagement.

"We are meeting after a long gap and I think we should meet quite frequently. Because things are moving very fast in the world and if we meet frequently, we will be able to deliberate on those," she said.

The Chinese Foreign Minister said both the countries need to stay focused on expanding the ties and should align "our strategies" so as to contribute significantly to development of Asia and the world.

"China and India are two major countries and two big neighbours. It is important for us to maintain very close cooperation. We are two developing countries and emerging markets and we both face the challenging task of promoting economic development and realize national rejuvenation," he said.

He further said, "We are strategic partners and as the world's economic and political centre is shifting towards Asia-Pacific. It is all the more important for both the countries to join hands because our cooperation will have far reaching and positive implications to the region and the world at large."

"So we need to stay focus on growing our relationship, align our strategies and step up our partnership so that we can jointly contribute to Asia and world's development," Wang said.

Swaraj and Wang are here to attend the Russia, India, China (RIC) Foreign Ministers meeting. The External Affairs Minister arrived here from Tehran last night where she paid a two-day visit.


"I am happy, happy, happy. I spent a year demonstrating in hope that Dilma would be brought down," said retiree Maristela de Melo, 63.



Several thousand police stood by and the rival camps were separated by a long metal wall. If, as many expect, the Senate goes on to impeach the leftist president, Vice President Michel Temer -- who abandoned Rousseff to become a key opponent -- will assume power.



But opposition celebrations could be short lived, analysts say. Temer would inherit a country wallowing in its deepest recession in decades and a dysfunctional political scene where Rousseff's Workers' Party vows revenge.



"It will not be easy" for Temer, said Andre Cesar, an independent political analyst. "It will be a nightmare."



Rouseff, 68, is accused of illegal accounting maneuvers to mask government shortfalls during her 2014 reelection. Many Brazilians also hold her responsible for the economic mess and a massive corruption scandal centered on state oil company Petrobras, a toxic record that has left her government with 10 per cent approval ratings.



The president and her allies had lobbied frantically in a last-minute effort to turn the tide, with her mentor, the fiery ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, flying back from his home in Sao Paulo to join the final assault.



Now the decision by the lower house moves the matter to the Senate, which is expected to vote in May on whether to open a trial. In case of a green light there, too -- which experts also consider almost certain -- Rousseff would step down for 180 days while the trial got under way.

Brazilian lawmakers have authorised impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff in a rowdy, circus-like showdown that plunged Latin America's biggest country into profound political crisis.Opposition deputies in the lower house of Congress needed 342 of the 513 votes, or a two thirds majority, to send Rousseff to the Senate, which will now decide whether to open a trial. They got there after five hours of voting.Wild cheering erupted from the opposition at the 342nd vote, countered by furious jeering from Rousseff allies in a snapshot of the radical and bitter mood consuming Brazil just four months before Rio de Janeiro hosts the Olympics.Outside Congress, where tens of thousands of people were watching giant TV screens, the split was echoed on a mass scale -- with opposition supporters partying and Rousseff loyalists in despair.
Delhi government on Sunday announced Rs one crore compensation to the kin of an NIA officer who was shot dead by two unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants who also wounded his wife when they were returning home from a wedding in UPs Bijnor town.





Delhi government will give Rs one crore compensation to the family of NIA officer Mohd Tanzil Ahmad as part of its policy, said a Delhi government official.



He is being given compensation as the officer was residing in Delhi. Later, Delhi Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra also thanked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for announcing a compensation of Rs one crore to the officers kin.



Thank you Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for announcing a compensation to the kin of slain NIA officer, Mishra twitted.



Meanwhile, a team of Delhi Police Special Cell was today sent to Bijnor hours after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) officer was shot dead.



The team, comprising three officials, was sent this morning to take stock of the situation, a senior police officer said.



Delhi Police Special Cell is so far not connected with the investigation and the visit was informal, sources said.



The details collected by the team will be dealt with utmost confidentiality in view of the sensitivity of the matter, the officer said.



According to police, in a planned attack, the killers pumped 24 bullets into 45-year-old Mohd Tanzil Ahmad and four into his wife Farzana, as their daughter, 14, and son, 12, watched the gruesome incident from the back seat of the car they were travelling in. The children were not injured.



NIA IG Sanjeev Kumar later said Farzana was out of danger. There is no damage to her vital organs. She is recovering.



The incident took place at around 12:45 AM when Ahmed, earlier posted as an assistant commandant in BSF and on deputation to NIA, was returning to his home in Sahaspur village of Bijnor district with his family after attending his nieces wedding in another nearby village in the same district, which is about 150 km from Delhi.
Fresh protests broke out today in Handwara and neighbouring areas of Kupwara district in north Kashmir, prompting authorities to reimpose curfew-like restrictions which were relaxed for a few hours this morning, while mobile internet services have been restored in the Valley.



Authorities lifted the restrictions on movement of people for three hours in Kupwara town in the district and the relaxation was further extended as there was no report of any untoward incident there, a police official said.



The twin towns of Handwara and Kupwara had been rocked by violent protests that left five persons dead since last Tuesday. After a lull yesterday, fresh protests broke out today in Handwara, Kralgund and Trehgam areas.



"Restrictions have been imposed again in Handwara, Kralgund and Trehgam areas of Kupwara district following violent protests," a police official said.



Around 150 youths started pelting stones in Handwara town as authorities relaxed the restrictions for three hours from 8.00 AM to 11. 00 AM, the official said.



"The protesters were chased away and there was no damage done in the incident," he added.

Mobile internet services, which were snapped in the Valley following violent protests over the alleged molestation of a girl by an army soldier on Tuesday, were restored a little past midnight as there was no major incident of protest or violence yesterday, an official said today.



Three persons including a woman were killed in firing by security forces on protesters on Tuesday while two more persons were killed in separate security forces action against violent protestors on Wednesday at Drugmulla and on Friday at Nathnusa.


External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today strongly raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi the issue of China blocking its bid to have JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the UN.



Swaraj took up the issue with Wang at a bilateral meeting here on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers. Official sources said the issue was raised by Swaraj besides deliberations on a range of issues.



Earlier this month, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.



This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.



The UN had banned the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.



Last July, China had similarly halted India's move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying its stand was "based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness" with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.



Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar last week had said in New Delhi that India has taken up at a "fairly high level" with China the issue of Beijing blocking its bid to have Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN but the issue will not "overflow" into other areas of bilateral ties.



China had defended its decision, saying that it acts on such issues based on facts and rules in an "objective and just manner".



After the attack on the airbase in Pathankot on January 2, India had in February written to the UN calling for immediate action to list Azhar under the UN Sanctions Committee.



The Indian submission was considered by the Counter- Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) for technical aspects of the evidence provided.



The technical team then with the support of the US, the UK and France had sent it to all the members. All were told that if there are no objections, the designation will be announced after the expiry of the deadline but just hours before the deadline, China requested the UN committee to keep on hold the designation.



Earlier this week, India had slammed the use of "hidden veto" and demanded accountability, saying the world body's general members are never informed of the reason for not acceding to requests for sanctioning terrorists.



"The procedures of unanimity and anonymity of the al-Qaeda, Taliban and ISIS Sanctions Committees need to be revisited. The procedures of unanimity and anonymity result in a lack of accountability," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had told the UN Security Council in an open debate on 'Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts' on Thursday.



Swaraj also discussed a range of issues of mutual interest with Wang. In her opening remarks, Swaraj said the relations have seen significant improvement in the last one year and favoured frequent meetings between the two sides to step up engagement.



"We are meeting after a long gap and I think we should meet quite frequently. Because things are moving very fast in the world and if we meet frequently, we will be able to deliberate on those," she said.



The Chinese Foreign Minister said both the countries need to stay focused on expanding the ties and should align "our strategies" so as to contribute significantly to development of Asia and the world.



"China and India are two major countries and two big neighbours. It is important for us to maintain very close cooperation. We are two developing countries and emerging markets and we both face the challenging task of promoting economic development and realize national rejuvenation," he said.



He further said, "We are strategic partners and as the world's economic and political centre is shifting towards Asia-Pacific. It is all the more important for both the countries to join hands because our cooperation will have far reaching and positive implications to the region and the world at large."



"So we need to stay focus on growing our relationship, align our strategies and step up our partnership so that we can jointly contribute to Asia and world's development," Wang said. Swaraj and Wang are here to attend the Russia, India, China (RIC) Foreign Ministers meeting.



The External Affairs Minister arrived here from Tehran last night where she paid a two-day visit.
A 26-year-old Muslim student in the US, who was talking on the phone about a question on the Islamic State he asked to the UN Secretary-General, was booted from a Southwest flight after another passenger felt threatened when he spoke in Arabic.





Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, student at University of California, who came to the US as an Iraqi refugee was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight in California after another passenger became alarmed when she heard him speaking Arabic.



Makhzoomi, was taken off a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Oakland after he called an uncle in Baghdad to tell him about an event he attended that included a speech by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.



"I was very excited about the event, so I called my uncle to tell him about it," Makhzoomi was quoted as saying by the New York Times. At the end of the conversation, he and his uncle shared a customary farewell  "inshallah," which translates to "if God is willing."



He told his uncle about the moment when he got to stand up and ask the secretary general a question about the Islamic State.



A nearby passenger overheard Makhzoomi's conversation with his uncle and felt alarmed by his "potentially threatening comments," according to a statement from Southwest Airlines. When he made eye contact with her, the woman left her seat and proceeded to the front of the plane.



"She kept staring at me and I didn't know what was wrong," he said. "Then I realised what was happening and I was just was thinking 'I hope she's not reporting me'," the report said.



Later, an Arabic-speaking Southwest Airlines employee came to his seat and escorted him off the plane a few minutes after his call ended, he said. The man introduced himself in Arabic and then switched to English to ask, "Why were you speaking Arabic in the plane?"



Makhzoomi said he was afraid, and that the employee spoke to him "like I was an animal."



Three FBI agents took Makhzoomi to private room for questioning. They told him that the Arabic-speaking employee had been offended by his insinuation of anti-Muslim bias.



The woman had told airline staff that she heard him say "Shahid," meaning martyr, a term associated with jihad.



Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said there had been at least six cases of Muslims being pulled off flights so far this year, she said.
The uncertainty associated with the sale of Tata Steel's loss-making UK business may delay the company's expected recovery in credit profile, India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) said today.





The planned sale of Tata Steel's long product Europe business to Greybull Capital LLP will help lower cash burn and will be credit positive, Ind-Ra said in a statement.



However, the agency expects that the "uncertain timelines associated with the sale of the overall loss-making UK steel business may delay the expected recovery in its credit profile".



Maintenance capex in Europe is also expected to decline significantly post the deal.Ind-Ra's rating view on the company is on a consolidated basis and factors in a one-notch uplift for its strong operational and strategic linkages with the Tata Group.



The deal with Greybull Capital will be completed once the outstanding conditions have been resolved, including transfer of contracts, certain government approvals and satisfactory completion of financing arrangements, it said.



"The concern remains as far as the main UK pension fund deficit is concerned, which expanded to 485 million pound as of March 31, 2015," Ind-Ra added.



Tata's UK assets have a combined steel-making capacity of around 10.2 million tonnes (mt) distributed across Port Talbot (blast furnace, flat products), Scunthorpe (blast furnace, long products) and Rotherham (EAF) plants.



The 'Sale and Purchase' agreement Tata Steel has now signed covers primarily around 4.5 mt long steel product facility at Scunthorpe and other associated long products facilities in the UK.



Within Tata Steel's portfolio of European assets, these facilities were the least profitable and hence, the divestment of these is a positive, Ind-Ra said. The European region, which includes the UK and Netherlands, accounts for 52 per cent of Tata Steel's total revenues in 2014-15.



After sale of UK assets, the firm will consist primarily of the highly efficient and moderately profitable facility in the Netherlands, leading to a sharp improvement in TSE's margin and profitability and providing an improvement in credit profile in the long term, it added.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today met her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov here and raised issues of the killing of an Indian and the death of two Indian girl students in a fire tragedy in this country besides discussing key bilateral matters.





During their meeting, Swaraj raised the issue of the killing of Yasir Javed, a businessman from Srinagar who died in Russia's Kazan city last month following an attack on him by a group of local goons, and enquired about the progress of investigation into the case.



Javed was attacked by unknown miscreants in Kazan city on March 3 and died later at a hospital there after remaining in coma for several days. "I want to know about the status of the investigation. At least the guilty must be punished after the probe," Swaraj told Lavrov.



She also raised the issue of the death of two Indian girl students, who were killed in a fire at a medical university in western Russia.



Pooja Kallur and Krishma Bhonsle, both from Maharashtra, were studying at Smolensk Medical Academy in Russia and lost their lives in a fire accident in February.



Swaraj also expressed regret over an acid attack on a Russian girl in India recently and said India has ensured treatment for the girl in India as well as in Russia.



A 23-year-old Russian national was injured in the acid attack in November allegedly by her boyfriend following a quarrel between them. Lavrov thanked Swaraj for dealing with the case effectively.



Lavrov, on his part, said both countries should continue to work closely to further expand bilateral ties. Both sides should continuously review the agreements being signed at the highest level, he told Swaraj.



Lavrov also expressed gratitude to India for its support during Russia's chairmanship of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). He also ensured Swaraj of Russia's full support to India during its presidency of the grouping that began earlier this year.



They also discussed a range of issues, including furthering of trade and economic ties. Swaraj arrived here yesterday to attend the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.
India has sought Chinese help to unravel the conspiracy of ISIS to spread its tentacles in the sub-continent and asked for details of the 'chat conversation' an alleged Islamic State recruit from Maharashtra had with his handlers in Syria and Iraq.





The NIA has sent Letters Rogatory to China requesting for the chat details of Areeb Majeed, arrested by the anti-terror agency in December 2014, with his handlers, official sources said today.



Once the authorities in Beijing send in the details including location of his handlers in Syria and Iraq, the NIA will file a supplementary charge sheet in the 'open case' it has registered against the terror group which controls vast swathes of land and population in the two countries and declared a Caliphate, the sources said.



Majeed used 'WeChat' messaging service for allegedly chatting with his handlers and the server was located in China.



The 24-year-old man from Kalyan landed in Mumbai on November 28, 2014 after spending nearly six months in Iraq, following which he was detained by the security agencies and later arrested.



A case under Unlawful Assembly Prevention Act (UAPA) and a section of IPC which deals with waging war against any Asiatic country, which has friendly ties with India, was registered against ISIS, Majeed and three other young men from Kalyan near Mumbai.



In May 2014, the four had left the country to visit holy places in West Asia but disappeared. They were alleged to have joined ISIS. Majeed, however, returned.



Majeed is the only alleged ISIS member arrested in India so far who was claimed to have gone to Syria and fought alongside the outfit against the forces of Bashar al-Assad regime. The NIA has so far arrested over 35 people who were allegedly trying to spread the tentacles of ISIS in India.



NIA has already filed a charge sheet against four people including Majeed. According to the NIA charge sheet, Majeed and his three associates -- Saheem Farooque Tanki, Fahad Tanweer Shaikh and Aman Nayeem Tandel -- allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy between January and November 2014 with the common objective and intention of joining Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) or ISIS, a banned international terrorist organisation.



They intended to participate in terrorist acts not only in Iraq and Syria but also in India, among other countries, the charge sheet said.
Handwara, the epicentre of ongoing unrest in Kashmir, and its adjoining areas continued to witness trouble today, prompting re-imposition of curfew-like restrictions after a three-hour relaxation even though mobile internet services were restored after four-day suspension.





As the cycle of violence showed no signs of stopping, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti appealed to the people to help restore peace, promising severe punishment to those found guilty in Handwara and Kupwara incidents during which five civilians were killed in firing by security forces.



Authorities today gave a three-hour relaxation from curfew-like restrictions in Handwara town in Kupwara district and adjoining areas from 8 am to 11 am with an intention of extending it if the period passed off peacefully.



However, the relaxation period saw around 150 youth pelting stones in Handwara town, a police official said.



"The protestors were chased away and there was no damage," he said, adding that the curbs were then re-imposed.



"Restrictions were imposed again in Handwara, Trehgam and Kralgund areas of Kupwara district following violent protests," the official said.



In Srinagar, a group of students at Kashmir University staged a protest inside the Hazratbal campus against the killings in Handwara and Kupwara towns, the official said.

He said a handful of students also organised a similar protest at Islamic University of Science and Technology in Awantipora area of Pulwama district.



At both the varsities, the students dispersed peacefully.

The authorities also restored mobile internet services across Kashmir valley at the stroke of midnight after keeping the services suspended for four days.



The decision to restore the mobile internet services was taken as there was no major incident of protest or violence across Kashmir valley yesterday.



Handwara town in north Kashmir and some adjoining areas have been under curfew-like restrictions since Tuesday last following allegations of molestation of a girl which triggered violence.



Three persons including a woman were killed in firing by security forces on protestors on Tuesday while two more persons were killed in separate security forces's action against protestors on Wednesday at Drugmulla and on Friday at Nathnusa.



The Chief Minister, who was in Jammu, underlined the need for peace and tranquility in the state, saying these are a prerequisite for development and if they are absent, it is the common people who bear the burden.



"I appeal to my people especially to the youth that wherever there is injustice, strict action would be taken and severe punishment would be given," she said while talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event.



She was asked about the action taken against those involved in the violence in Handwara and Kupwara that left five persons dead.



"If there is peace, there will be development, happiness, tourism and people will lead a prosperous life. And if God forbid, there is no peace, our people would be the worst sufferers.



"That is why I appeal to the youth and their parents and their families that help us in restoring peace in Jammu and Kashmir so that the state can develop and the miseries of the state should go away," Mehbooba said.



Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh alleged that there was a conspiracy behind the recent spurt of violence in the Kashmir Valley.



"Definitely there is a conspiracy to disturb peace in areas like Kupwara and Handwara. These areas remained peaceful when there was turmoil in other parts (of the Valley).



"The anti-national elements, the anti-people elements have succeeded in creating a rumour which ultimately led to the unfortunate situation (violence)," Singh, who was also present at the event, later told reporters.



He said that the aspirations of the people would be fulfilled only when there is peace in the state and it was the duty of every person to maintain peace.



"We went to Handwara with the Chief Minister and definitely tension is there. Kupwara is a peaceful area. The violence is very unfortunate. Government is ensuring that this type of situation does not arise in future," he said.



Asked what action would be taken against those responsible for the "rumour", he said, "Definitely the law will take its own course and everything shall be taken care of once peace is fully restored."


Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today firmly conveyed India's reservations to Chinese leaders over Beijing blocking its efforts to get Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN.





In a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan, Parrikar said that "India attaches highest priority to relations with China and was committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China".



While expressing India's wish to engage China closely, he firmly conveyed New Delhi's reservations over Beijing's move in the UN to block bid to get Jaish-e-Muhammad chief banned.



"We expressed what happened in the UN is not in the right direction and they have to take a common line on terrorism which is in the interests of India and China," Parrikar later told the Indian media here.



He said the Chinese officials in response noted India's concerns.

Last month, China had vetoed India's bid to get Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN Sanctions Committee, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.



India believes Azhar is the mastermind behind several attacks in the country, including the terror strike on an air base in Pathankot early this year.



"We have made our stand very clear on India's reservation in regard to China's activities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)" where Pakistan and China are building a USD 46 billion Economic Corridor linking the two countries, Parrikar said.



The Chinese officials in turn explained that it is an economic project and not aimed against India.



"Basically our concerns were noted by them and I expect them to act," Parrikar said, adding that more engagement between the two countries would address such issues in future, while immediate response cannot be expected.



He later met China's highest military official Gen Fan Changlong, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, which is the overall commanding body of the 2.3 million strong military. It is headed by President Xi Jinping.



The defence minister would meet Premier Li Keqiang tomorrow and later visit Chengdu, the headquarters of recently integrated western command military which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.
Urban Development Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake has said that measures are taken on war-footing to counter the drinking water crisis in the district.





The minister, who spoke to reporters after the quarterly KDP meeting, said that temporary measures are taken to curb the problem of water scarcity in the district. Besides, long-term plans are chalked out to ensure better drinking water facilities. Up to 95 percent of the projects are completed and Rs 2.5 crore is released under task force.



The government has been requested for special consideration for the coastal districts under drinking water schemes. Multi-village drinking water scheme is implemented in many places. The urban areas will get Rs 1.20 crore and Udupi city will receive Rs 75 lakh. Tanker water is offered to 21 villages in the district  10 each in Udupi and Kundapur and one village in Karkala, explained Sorake.



Pointing out the action taken to tackle the sand scarcity in the district, the minister said that manual sand mining activities would begin from April 20. Thirty sand blocks are identified for mining, which will go on for another one month but is banned in monsoon. A request is made to the government to give special considerations to use sand extracted in the district within the district, he added.



Sorake said that there are 73,794 hectares of deemed forest land, which includes Kumki and Parambuku land. The proposal is sent to the government to consider exempting 34,918 hectares of land (which includes 5,208 hectares of Kumki land) from the purview of the deemed forest area.



The minister added that Kundapur and Udupi are involved under ADB scheme, which covers drinking water and underground drainage projects. The funds from Amruth scheme, KUDSEMP and German aid would be spent on the projects. Tender would be called by June. Funds of Rs 7.48 crore are released under Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, under which, 5,156 toilets are built and 19 villages are covered under solid waste management project. Every village is given Rs 26 lakh under Gram Vikas Yojane. Five villages are selected in each Assembly constituency, he explained.



He also said that, under the Namma Grama Namma Rasthe scheme, 20 kilometres of roads would be repaired at a cost of Rs 21 crore. Besides, 90 kilometres of roads will be taken up under City Road Improvement Project (CRIP). Funds of Rs 75 crore are released for the purpose and tendering process is underway.



The tourism projects are promoted in the district. The construction work on ports at Gangolli and Koderi is commenced. Work worth Rs 80 crore to construct a protection wall against the sea under the ADB scheme is initiated, and Rs three crore is released for each taluk, said Sorake.




What started out as a hobby is now helping women out of poverty. Veena Dhuler has been teaching impoverished women to embroider since 2012, selling their wares throughout the expat community and giving them a reliable income that has transformed their lives.





Veena says most of the women are Muslim and arent allowed to work outside the village, but embroidery is a unique opportunity to work from home. They just have to come in once a week to pick up material and patterns. Parveen has been with Lotus Vibe since the beginning.



Veena says she came from difficult circumstances  her husband had left her with a large debt, she had a son and daughter yet to be married and her diabetes means that sometimes shes too sick to work.



Now she has married both her children and supported her daughter while she had her first child. Veena says the work suits Parveen as shes able to do a lot or a little depending how shes feeling. She says her life is much much better now. Shes managed to take care of her family. Now her daughter is also doing some work for Lotus Vibe.



The women are paid Rs 40 or 60 per embroidery depending on the size. Parveen is prolific and does around 30 a week. She says they take her two hours each. Some of the women earn up to Rs 7,000 a month.



Veena, 41, moved to Whitefield, Bangalore in 2007 after 11 years in North Carolina, America working as a computer engineer. There she met her Dutch neighbour Tinekke Otter who was full of energy and wanted to help everyone.



She roped Veena into teaching English at a slum school in Kammanahalli but it was too far for Veena to attend as regularly as she liked. Thats when Tinekke suggested that Veena help with fundraising for the mothers of the children. So Veena started working with a group of women to embroider simple white swim bags. They sold these throughout the expat community, at festivals, flea markets and through word of mouth over 3 years. The money raised would go back to the women in slums. This was a natural thing to do for Veena who has been embroidering as a hobby since school.



Veena says using her time and energy for volunteering was a god send. This gave a great deal of satisfaction and also filled me with the desire to do more. I was impressed by Tinekkes zeal and spirit to make a difference in the society and how the very minute she landed in India had taken up social service.



Then in 2012 they had to shut down because Tinekke, who was doing much of the coordinating, had to go back to the Netherlands. I was devastated as the women who were depending on the work started to suffer from the loss of income. I could not let all the effort and good work go to waste, so I started Lotus Vibe.



Veena went from just making the swim bags to producing around 45 different products including yoga covers, back packs, laptop covers and pouches. Now she employs 3 full time tailors to make the bags and around 7 women from Ghandipura Village to embroider the fabric. She makes around 100 handcrafted items every week. She says she couldnt have done it without the enthusiastic encouragement of her brother and husband.



I didnt believe in myself but they believed in me. Its not only the impoverished women who have benefited from this social enterprise. Veena says the work has eased her out of her shell. Before she started volunteering she was very shy and would go out of her way to avoid clients. Now shes happy and confident in herself. She often stays up working on new designs and plans past midnight.



That's when I can really focus. Everything happens in the nights. When its quiet. It makes me happy. Im just happy to do this. I wish I could help more and more people.



Veena hired a French couple to design a high-end kiosk that opened in UB City Mall four months ago. She also has clients who buy the products and sell them in Japan, Germany, France, America and Puerto Rico. The organisation plans to open a new store in New Delhi next year and hopes to sell online too.



Veena keeps the work simple and teaches them the running, blanket, chain and cross stitch to embroider or attach material to their fabric, after a few practice pieces theyre ready to start earning. The fabric is then taken and turned into a bag.


For the first time in a century, tiger numbers in the wild have risen. According to conservationists, there are 3,890 tigers in the wild today, up from 3,200 in 2010. The latest figures are heartening asthey signal that strong efforts at conservation of endangered species can yield positive results. A section of wildlife experts warn that tiger numbers being cited may be inflated; their numbers may have increased because of improved technologies and methods for tracking and counting tigers rather than an augmentation in their population itself. It is too early to celebrate as the tiger remains an endangered species. The present tiger population is still small especially when compared to the roughly one lakh tigers that roamed the forests a century ago. Much remains to be done to pull tigers out of the danger zone. For one, most of the threats that pushed the tiger into the category of endangered species remain potent. While the killing of tigers for sport may have declined over the past decades, poaching continues as the demand for tiger parts is on the rise. Importantly, tiger habitats are being lost to industrialisation, urbanisation and development or getting fragmented. This is a major problem in India, which is home to 70% of the worlds tigers in the wild.



Extension of National Highway-7, for example, is seriously fragmenting Indias Kanha-Pench tiger corridor, destroying this lifeline for the long term survival of the tiger. If these forest corridors vanish, so will the tiger and other wildlife. While India, Russia, Nepal and Bhutan have done a commendable job in bringing the tiger population back from the brink, this is not the case with many Southeast Asian countries. Cambodia has lost all its tigers in the wild. Inspired by the successful translocation of tigers in the Panna tiger reserve, conservationists plan to translocate Indian tigers to Cambodia. Indian experts are warning against it as Cambodia lacks the required prey-rich, people-free habitat that is necessary for tigers to survive. It may do tiger conservation more harm than good.



Studies reveal that human beings are more willing to work to conserve animals that are powerful and handsome or cute and cuddly than creatures that are less appealing to the human eye. In this respect, the tiger is fortunate. Its majestic appearance drew conservationists attention. Certain species of spiders and frogs that are on the brink of extinction have been less lucky. Their un-endearing appearance won them few supporters and they slipped into extinction. This selective approach to animal conservation must change.




Despite various measures deployed in the recent years to protect yellow-eyed penguins, the outlook remains bleak. Marcel Haenen throws light on the present status of this rare bird species



Only a keen-eyed observer can spot the rare yellow-eyed penguin in the impenetrable forest hills that hug New Zealands South Island beaches. Native to this region, the birds mostly lurk under a canopy of thick shrubs, trees and branches, dashing for hiding places as soon as a human approaches.



Incredibly shy, the yellow-eyed penguin is truly odd. Measuring about 65 centimetres, or just over two feet tall, with striking yellow eyes and a yellow band across its head, it is the rarest species of penguin, and the only one that lives in the forest. It is also severely endangered.



In trouble



Despite various measures deployed in the recent years to protect this penguins flocks, the outlook remains bleak. On an average, only 18 of 100 penguin chicks survive their first year at sea. A decade ago, the population was estimated at 6,000. Today, conservationists reckon that only 2,000 yellow-eyed penguins are alive.



This bird could soon become extinct unless urgent protection measures are taken, said Fergus Sutherland, who for 25 years has been the caretaker of a penguin reserve, Te Rere, spanning 67 hectares (166 acres) in the Catlins forests.



The yellow-eyed penguin first got into trouble when large parts of its natural habitat were destroyed in the previous century. Farmers bulldozed and torched the forests, where the penguin lived, to make way for cattle and sheep. The Te Rere Reserve was founded in 1989, when Sutherland succeeded in persuading farmers not to destroy the forest on the southern tip of the South Island.



Eventually, reforestation efforts allowed about 120 yellow-eyed penguins to nest in the scrub. In February 1995, however, a fire started by a neighbouring farm spread to Te Rere, burning half the population.



Fergus regularly checks box traps set in the forest to catch ferrets, stoats and rats that prey on the young, flightless birds, refilling the traps with fresh eggs for bait. The penguins also fall victim to cats and dogs. Over the summer here, some of the roads to the beaches were closed to the public, to protect the penguins. There are signs warning that persons causing distress to penguins will be prosecuted, and the general public can watch the penguins only from special observation huts as they waddle off to sea at dawn, then disappear again into the forest at the end of a days foraging. During the 100-day nesting season that ended in February, Yolanda van Heezik, a marine biologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, and Jim Watts, a ranger with the Department of Conservation, monitored the condition of seven yellow-eyed penguin nests on a beach on the Otago Peninsula. Breeding pairs always make their nests out of sight of other penguins, Yolanda said. Jim visits the baby chicks about 30 times, weighing them regularly even though the task can be hazardous.



They can use their flippers like a machine rifle and have a nasty bite, Jim said. In the recent years, many chicks have suffered from avian diphtheria, which causes ulcers in their mouths that make it difficult to eat and breathe.



While the yellow-eyed penguin may be well protected on land now, they spend most of their days at sea, where they are on their own. Last year, veterinarians had to suture about 50 yellow-eyed penguins that were wounded in barracuda or shark attacks. Fish populations are low, so penguins are being attacked as they compete for the same food, said David McFarlane, field manager of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, a nonprofit conservation group.



For years, conservationists have been calling for a restriction on fishing to help protect the penguins. But Fergus, a member of the South-East Marine Protection Forum, a government-appointed group that recommends marine-protection sites to the government, complained that the political lobby of the fishing industry is much stronger than us.



On the other side of the debate is Nelson Cross, who represents recreational fishermen on the forum, and opposes further restrictions on fishing. While Cross acknowledged that there were unfortunately occasional instances where a penguin has been caught in a commercial trawl, he added that there was no evidence that recreational fishing impacts in any way on the penguins.



Human interference



The scientists, not the fishermen, he argued, were the real offenders. Penguins suffer from human interference, Nelson said. Humans ignore the fact that penguins are wild animals and not a domestic variety accustomed to constant harassment and handling in the name of research. Conservationists also hope that the growing ecotourism industry will persuade New Zealands government to take measures to preserve the countrys penguin population, because the penguins help draw tourists. Shops sell little brown bags of penguin poo candies, and the penguins picture adorns dustbin liners marketed in Dunedin as well as the countrys five-dollar bill.



Ecotourism is big business, David said. Penguins are bringing in good income in this region. It is only reasonable to allocate more funds for the protection of the yellow-eyed penguin at this dramatic point in their lives. For now, private organisations play a vital role.



The Te Rere Reserve managed by Fergus is owned by Forest & Bird, the largest privately owned conservation organisation in New Zealand. During the nesting season, Fergus scribbled in a small booklet, carefully recording the condition of each of the 70 penguins at Te Rere.



Below, on a pebbled beach, an adult yellow-eyed penguin, motionless, stared at the sea. The penguin barely offered any resistance, but let out a deep, primal squawk as Fergus gently took hold of its flanks. The bird was wounded, probably from a shark bite. Fergus carefully climbed the slope, placing the bird in a cardboard box. He had hoped the penguin could be flown for treatment to a veterinarian specialist in Palmerston North, on the North Island. Air New Zealand offers to transport injured penguins for free, he said.



But a few hours later, on the back seat of Fergus car, the penguin quietly died, yet one more decrease in the yellow-eyed birds census.



The New York Times
Minister for Kannada and Culture Umashree said the Kannada and Culture Department is considering a proposal to set up a Beary Study Centre at Mangalore University.





Speaking after conferring Karnataka Beary Sahitya Academys honorary awards on achievers B M Hanif, Mohammed K Mata and Mohammed Ali Uchil here, she said land has been purchased from Mangaluru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) for the construction of Beary Bhavana. The work on the Bhavana will start next year with the governments financial assistance, she added.



She said that there is a need to digitalisation of Beary culture. The culture and tradition of Bearys should be showcased to other community members, she stated.



Writer Prof S G Siddaramaiah said honour killing and intolerance are a dangerous trend in a pluralistic society like India. An attempt is being made to divide the society in the name of caste, he expressed concern.



Support language



He said academies should not be restricted to a particular literature. They should support the language and culture of the land, he remarked.



The award comprises Rs 50,000, a citation and a shawl. Hanif has been chosen for the award in literature, Mata for his contribution to art and Uchil for culture. Dr Vahab Doddamane Memorial Award was presented to Yakub Khader Gulvadi. Sushila Upadhyaya Memorial Award was presented to Mariam Ismail.

Belkeri magazine was released on the occasion.




Teachers boycotted the evaluation of SSLC answer scripts and staged a flash protest, urging fulfilment of their demands, including bridging disparity in wages, in Mandya, on Monday.





More than 1,000 teachers, who had arrived for evaluation duty at their respective centres, later walked out.



Carmel Convent School, Lakshmi Janardhan School, Rotary School, St Johns School, St Josephs School and Government Junior College, in the city are the valuation centres. But, within a few minutes of reporting, the teachers put down their pens and walked out of their respective centres.



They alleged that the government was delaying the implementation of G Kumar Naik report and was cheating the teachers, every year. The teaching fraternity has been demanding to set right the disparity for the past 16 years, but the government is not responding, they complained.



Shivanna Mangala, secretary of the Association of Unaided Schools and Colleges, told Deccan Herald that they would not evaluate the answer scripts until their demands were met.



While a few teachers from private schools are attending to the evaluation duty, teachers of the government schools have abstained. We have not agreed to the agreement made by one H K Manjunath of High School Teachers Association with the government, he added.



Speaking to Deccan Herald, DDPI Shivamadappa said, Evaluation is being held at six centres in the district and bundles of answer scripts have been distributed to them. As it was the first day of evaluation, the process has been delayed. However, a report would be submitted to the government against those who have abstained from work.



Meanwhile, the protesting teachers chose to ignore the appeal made by the DDPI and submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah through the deputy commissioner. However, it is said that a meeting was convened in the evening and the future course of action would be decided.




Social projects are now aiming towards getting into villages at the micro level. Ashwini Y S tracks the trajectory of two such ventures that are focusing on Karnataka

While one social initiative is working towards sustainable development of a nondescript village in a district in North Karnataka, another initiative is aiming to reach out to sportspersons in rural areas of the State. Interestingly, both these initiatives have a Singaporean link. While one idea was incubated in the island nation, the other germinated in Bengaluru. Both these social projects are however getting a boost from organisations in Singapore, which are aggressively promoting and supporting social entrepreneurship.



Abhijeet Bhatt, a student at the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru (IIMB), is the founder of MySportsCard, a venture, which he hopes would serve as a launchpad for sportspersons and sporting enthusiasts, especially from rural areas. Abhijeet incubated MySportsCard at IIMB as a student-run venture.



His was among the 16 teams shortlisted at the international workshop  Young Social Entrepreneurs (YSE), 2016, in Singapore. The YSE programme is an initiative of the Singapore International Foundation (SIF), a not-for-profit organisation, which will provide a seed fund to the winner to start his/her project, at the end of the programme in October.



Prasoon Kumar is the founder of billionBricks, a Singapore based non-profit enterprise, which aims to improve the quality of life of the homeless by providing access to shelter. The enterprise was born at the Hub, Singapore, and still operates from the premises. The Hub is a community of entrepreneurs, creatives and techies. It is a co-working space offering mentorship, incubation, workshops, events, networking and corporate innovation labs.



Having worked on several projects in cities in developing countries, including Mumbai, Prasoon has now embarked upon a project in a village called Konchur in Chittapur taluk, Kalaburagi district. In association with another organisation Architecture Brio, Prasoon is not just looking at homelessness in Konchur, he also aims to address migration. The companies have tied up with the State and Central governments to implement this project, which is titled  Konchur  Sustainable Model Village Development.



The towns of Wadi and Kalaburagi receive many business tourists with the cement and limestone industries in the region, which, according to billionBricks, allows for integrating village tourism with the business visits. Konchur is located six km from Wadi Railway Station. The villages in the region, including Konchur, have a distinct vernacular style of construction with limestone blocks, where the architecture itself serves as an attraction. Team billionBricks felt that Konchur can be a place of interest not only for tourists, but also for students of architecture and social sciences from Kalaburagi and neighbouring cities.



The district has many heritage structures which attracts visitors from surrounding cities and states. It is also one of the Sufi cities, home to the Bande Nawaz Dargah, and Ladle Mashak, apart from other attractions like the Buddha Vihara, Sharana Basaveshwara Temple, Kalaburgi Fort, and tomb monuments. In the present-day scenario, a large number of people are migrating from the village to the nearby cities in search of work, livelihood and a better quality of life. But if this scenario is reversed in the coming years, and we could make the village a self-sustained place, it can attract the city dwellers to come and invest in the village and promote it as a tourist-friendly place, says Prasoon.



Creating better infrastructure



The idea is to transform Konchur into a village which provides a better, caring and empowering life through improved livelihood opportunities, upgraded infrastructure and skill development. In phases, the organisation hopes to upgrade infrastructure to good standards by providing basic amenities for all, developing adequate sewage treatment systems, ensuring equitable and adequate water supply for all, and improving educational infrastructure.



Making the village greener, creating public spaces for recreation and community interactions, development of new economic activities by promoting local entrepreneurship, developing and creating infrastructure for dairy farming, tourism and other economically promising sectors, are also in the offing.



Around 500 families or 2,500 people are said to benefit from this project. If it succeeds, the model village concept will be replicated in other villages in the Chittapur taluk. billionBricks believes a strong vision, clear planning strategy and stakeholder resourcefulness can help transform rural areas for the better. We want to turn Konchur into a model village by initiating strategic interventions and investments that are self-scalable by the community, says Prasoon. According to him, the community participation programme started in June 2015. Under phase one of the project, sanitation programme, including construction of a water harvesting system and 150 toilets has begun. The target is to complete this phase by July 2016.



Under phase two (18 months to 60 months), the team will explore new employment opportunities, restore existing wells and improve water distribution, improve educational facilities, improve streetscape, and build a dairy farm. The current phase of the sanitation programme (150 toilets) is funded by the community, and the Swachh Bharat Mission scheme of the Government of India.
India on Monday asked China to review its decision to block the proposal to impose United Nations sanctions on Pakistan-based terrorist leader Masood Azhar.





External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow and reminded him that China too was a victim of terrorism and should join India in the fight against the menace.



I met the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and, in that meeting, I said to him that if we wanted to fulfil our commitment to fight terrorism together, then they must rethink the position they have taken in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) 1267 committee, Swaraj told journalists in Moscow.



The External Affairs Minister attended a trilateral meeting with foreign ministers of Russia and China in Moscow. She also had a separate bilateral meetings with Wang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.



Her statement was released to media-persons in New Delhi. Swaraj said India, Russia and China (RIC)  all being victims of terrorism  should unite to lead the world in the fight against the menace. To do this, it is important that we give up the distinction between good and bad terrorists. We will also need to give up the tendency to differentiate between my terrorists and your terrorists, External Affairs Minister said.



If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole, she said in her opening remarks at the RIC meet. She also argued for joint action by Russia, India and China at the United Nations to strengthen the fight against terrorism.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarajs visit to Iran on Sunday created a buzz in social media, more for what she wore than what she did.





In most of the pictures in Tehran, Swaraj was seen in a pink saree and a shawl of the same colour. The shawl fully covered her head  like a hijab  the women in the conservative societies in Iran and other Islamic nations wear.



She was seen in the same attire during her meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as well as while appearing before the photo-journalists with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.



This is embarrassing @SushmaSwaraj. You couldve worn a Sari and pulled the Pallu over yr head, Tarek Fatah, Canadian secularist and liberal author, posted on Twitter.



Yes, MEA is supposed to represent India and Indian culture. Will HE Iranian President wear Indian dress in India? posted another twitterati, Kailash Wagh. Many women in Iran use headscarf in accordance with Islamic traditions.



Julie Bishop, foreign minister of Australia, also put on a headscarf during her recent visit to Iran. Sources said that although it was not a mandatory protocol requirement for the External Affairs Minister to cover her head during her visit to Iran, she had done so voluntarily as a mark of respect to the culture and traditions of the host country.
Top commanders of the Army and Navy would discuss and fine-tune their strategies in two separate commanders conferences later this week as the security scenario in the sub-continent undergoes crucial changes.





While China may look at Indias agreement in signing a logistics sharing agreement with the US with suspicion, internal security scenario in Jammu and Kashmir is giving worrying moments to the Army top brass. Beginning on April 24, the five-day long Army commanders conference would provide a platform to top commanders to analyse the ground situation in Kashmir in the last few months following disturbing reports from the ground.



For instance, when the Pompore incident happened in February, there were visible local support to the terrorists, who entered a government building and were killed by the security agencies.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday said that India attaches highest priority to its ties with China, allaying Beijings concerns over New Delhis any tilt towards the US in view of its decision to sign an agreement with Washington to share military bases.





In a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan, Parrikar said that India attaches highest priority to relations with China and was committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China.



Allaying Chinas concerns over Indias decision to sign Logistics Support Agreement with the US, Parrikar told the Chinese leader that India pursued autonomous policy to further its national interests and there is no change in it.



India is committed to further developing friendly and corporative relations with China, he told Chang.



Military hotline



India and China have moved a step closer in setting up a hotline between the two military headquarters as part of their efforts to improve border security.



China reacted positively toward setting up a military hotline with India on border security, Chinese Defence Minister Chang Wanquan said after meeting his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar.
A Dalit scholar in the English and Foreign Languages University (Eflu) has alleged that he was forcibly removed from the campus at the behest of the varsitys proctor.



Dalit research scholar



Koonal Doogal, a native of Punjab, has filed a complaint against Prakash Kona

Reddy, the proctor, here.



Osmania University Police said Doogal alleged that he was prevented from entering the Eflu campus.Doogal, a PhD research scholar at the Department of Cultural Studies at Eflu, said in his complaint that he was dragged out of the campus by the security guards while he was attending the Ambedkar's 125th birth anniversary celebrations.



In a clear case of high-handedness and arbitrariness, four security guards dragged me out from the venue in the full glare of fellow students and teachers. I was treated like a criminal, thereby causing public humiliation and embarrassment, he said. When I enquired why I had to be removed from the venue, I was informed that the security guards have received an order restricting my entry into Eflu campus, where I currently study. I was told that I should go and talk to the proctor who had issued the order. I was never informed about such a restricting order. I have not participated in any unlawful activities, he said in the police complaint.



The research scholar alleged that the whole incident was meant to humiliate him in front of his peers and faculty. I feel that the alleged restricting order, issued without any prior information and without following any procedural norms, is an arbitrary attack on me as a Dalit student. Such an order will also restrict me from using the University facilities which I require for doing my research, he said.



Doogal is pursuing his PhD on caste and religious politics in contemporary Punjab. Associated with the Dalit Adivasi Bahujan Minority Association, he is also working as a guest faculty at the University of Hyderabad.



However, the proctor denied the allegations and said Doogals entry into the campus had been barred since March 30. He submitted his thesis in September last year. He has been a key member in a lot of anti-university activities. He has been instigating students and creating problems on the campus. Therefore, I sought permission from the vice-chancellor and restricted his entry into the campus, the proctor said.



The Eflu chief security officer, in his counter complaint against Doogal, said that the research scholar tried to trespass and obstruct the security officials from performing their duty. We will investigate the matter, said the inspector of the Osmania University police station, Ashok Reddy.




NTR Trust Bhavan, the iconic building in Hyderabads Banjara Hills that remained the epicentre of Telugu Desam Partys activities for over two decades, would soon lose its headquarters status.





Party supremo and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has asked a majority of staff to leave the building by April 22 as it shifts its base to Guntur, closer to the upcoming capital city of Amaravati.



While the Guntur office will become active from April 24, the party would move to Amaravati once the new building there is complete.



The decision to draw curtains over the Hyderabad headquarters was taken after Naidu moved to Amaravati and has plans to move the Secretariat and Assembly from here by June.



The NTR Bhavan would, however, continue to house the Trust and small number

of Telangana TDP functionaries.



All the 120 member staff except 30 employees belonging to Telangana will have to

relocate to Guntur or Vijayawada. The Central office in Guntur will be inaugurated by 24 or 29 April, a NTR Trust staffer said.



However, many of the party staffers working in the information department and library find it harder to shift to the new headquarters due to the skyrocketing rents there.



Built in a two-acre land in the posh Banjara Hills locality closer to the LV Prasad Eye Institute, NTR Bhavan has seen the highs of Naidu, as he helmed the united Andhra Pradesh as chief minister.



Built by L&T, it has a media centre, modern library, canteen and dormitory and a fully equipped gym. Naidu has always conducted state level meetings at the spacious basement auditorium.



Two more floors were added to the building when Naidu was the opposition leader. Party chiefs office in the first floor is bullet proof, while all the rooms have LED TV connections.

Ironically, Telangana Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Raos words that the NTR Bhavan would become empty after bifurcation has come true.






In her first reference to controversial video of top TMC leaders receiving illegal cash, party chief Mamata Banerjee opened the floodgates to a fresh round of negative campaign by Opposition parties.





Mamatas comment at a campaign rally that she would have considered not giving tickets to the tainted leaders comes barely three days before the first round of polling in Kolkata.



Mamata, who had maintained silence over the sting operation by two Delhi-based journalists, said on late Sunday evening at a public meeting in north Kolkata that if she had prior information, she could have changed the candidates. If I knew about this earlier, I certainly would have given a thought. But what can I do after the candidates list has declared? I cant possibly change the candidates, she said, at the meeting in Bowbazar, while campaigning for party candidate, Noyna Bandopadhyay.



Banerjee, however, questioned the timing of the videos release. Why did an illegal company, which does not exist, release a video shot in 2014 right after the 2016 election dates were announced and list of candidates declared? she asked. The video footage surfaced in March after the BJP state leadership released it in a press conference at Kolkata. An official tweet from Trinamool had called the video doctored and found a political conspiracy behind its release, a view that has been reiterated by most senior party leaders, including those singed by the footage.



In what seemed like a face-saving exercise, Mamata said that her party will run a probe on the so-called sting operation, claiming that some interest groups from Dubai had funded the video to scuttle her chances in the polls. Lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modis pre-poll promise of bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks, she said, Where is the promise of bringing the black money? Now you are using black money to do the Narada. Dont you have any shame? If anybody from my party is found to be involved, well definitely take action, she assured, urging voters not to put credence in the footage.



Mamata also lashed out at a section of the media for hyping up a lie. Some people are repeatedly imposing these lies on you. Dont believe it, she told voters. While Mamatas comments have put the accused leaders in an uncomfortable position, they preferred to keep from commenting. State ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, both candidates in the ongoing polls, refused to comment. Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, also a party candidate, said, Im not aware of what she said so I cant comment. If need be, Ill give my statement before the internal probe committee.



Mamatas statement put the Opposition parties on an overdrive, with particularly the BJP launching a campaign blitzkrieg on social media, claiming that the Trinamool chief has admitted to the footages authenticity. CM trying to disown her tainted party leaders to save her own skin in Narada. Its too late for you and them to escape, Madam! tweeted CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra on late Sunday evening.



State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury told a local news channel on Monday that Mamata still has enough time to cancel the candidature of the tainted leaders and file a fresh list. ...shes not serious about the charges and is indulging in mere theatrics to gain public sympathy. This is a desperate attempt to salvage the situation but it wont have any impact. People have made up their minds to throw her out.




Despite high voter turnout in West Bengal and Assam elections, an estimated 20,000 Bengalis and 5,000 Assamese residing in Chennai could not go home and cast their votes.





Natives of these states residing in Chennai for work and educational commitments said the timing of the poll was unsuitable since it coincided with annual exams.



Most of us, especially students, could not go home for elections due to commitments like exams, Chennais Assam Association secretary Kishore Kalita told Deccan Herald.



I had office commitments, besides which my son had his exams. So I and my wife could not go to Assam, Kishore, working at a private company and living in Chennai with his family, said.



Third year engineering student Amrit said his semester exam dates clashed with the elections. The Election Commission should have organised the polls in May to make it convenient for people like us to go home and vote, he said.



Exams, a hurdle



An office bearer of Bengali Association in the city also said exams prevented Bengali students from exercising their franchise. Same was the case with thousands of construction workers from the state, some of whom are involved in metro rail construction.



I will have loss of pay (for leaves). So, I have decided to stay back. Going to my native place and returning would take at least four to five days, Binod, a native of Jalpaiguri who works at a construction site in Anakaputhur at the outskirts, said.



Students stranded here due to exams pointed out the May 16 poll date for Tamil Nadu and said such a date would have been ideal as exams get over by then.




Activists across the country have demanded stopping displacement of the tribals in Chhattisgarhs naxal-infested Bastar region, expressing concern over increasing victimization of students in university campuses.





Activists who gathered under the banner All India Peoples Forum on Monday accused the government of presiding over the oppression of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes by multinationals in regions like Bastar.



Worst victims



In the name of anti-Maoist oppressions, local people are being wiped out. The para-military forces are helping big companies to evict local people. This is being done in the name of anti-Maoists oppression, said an activist from Bastar.



PUCL leader Vinayak Sen, out on bail in a sedition case, cautioned that India is going through the phase of unprecedented malnourishment, in which tribals and the poor are worst victims of it.
The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Karnataka government for its inability to acquire land and ensure completion of the multi-crore Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP).





A three-judge bench presided over by Justice J S Khehar, however, directed senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for Karnataka and Advocate General Madhusudan Nayak, to hold meetings with senior advocate Dushyant Dave and the officers of the project proponent on May 14, 15 and 16 to resolve the issue.



There is a project, linking Mysuru to Bengaluru. About 160-km road is to be built, but you could not do it in 20 years, sometimes it was due to government change or the other time, the party in power did not want it. You just cant stall the project as some other political leader started it, the bench told the state government counsel.



The central government is said to be laying 30 km roads in a day but you could not make 140-km road in 20 years, the bench, also comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and C Nagappan, added. Chief Secretary to Karnataka government Arvind Jadhav, along with other officials and co-promoter of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) Ashok Kheny were present.



The Karnataka government had gone slow with the project, and had earlier claimed before the court that law and order problems may be created by farmers in case of the acquisition of land. The NICE, which bagged the project, had contended that the state government was not implementing the apex courts 2006 judgment, which had upheld the High Courts decision dismissing different petitions challenging the land acquisitions.



The BMICP conceived an expressway along with the infrastructure corridor between Bengaluru and Mysuru.



The project, to come up on 20,193 acres also envisaged development of five townships. The BMICP was to be built by a private developer at an initial cost of over Rs 2,500 crore.



It was expected to reduce the travel time between Bengaluru and Mysuru to just 90 minutes. However, the project envisaged in 2004, is yet to see the light of the day due to multiplicity of litigations in the Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court challenging the land acquisition and rules allegedly violated by the state government to favour the company.
The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that the Kohinoor diamond was not stolen but gifted to the East India Company, so it is difficult to reclaim the precious piece of Crown jewels of the United Kingdom.





Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar submitted before a bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice U U Lalit that the Kohinoor was gifted as compensation in the 19th century by Maharaja Ranjit Singh for the help rendered by the British in the Anglo-Sikh war. It was neither stolen nor forcibly taken away, he added.



If we make claim over it, similar demands may be made by several other countries. There would be nothing left in our museums, he said, citing a letter by Pt Jawaharlal Nehru in 1936 stating that the Kohinoor cannot be categorised as an object stolen from the country.



The submission, made in response to a PIL filed by All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front, immediately invited reaction from the bench, which said: We have never made other countries our colony, instead we were colonised.



The court asked Kumar to clarify the Union governments position within six weeks after the solicitor general submitted that he was yet to take instruction from the Ministry of External Affairs on the issue.



If we dismiss the petition, it may affect your (government) legitimate claim in future. You must formulate your response after considering all views. You are also dealing with a sovereign country, the bench told Kumar.



As the government's stand took many by surprise, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said if any call on bringing back the Kohinoor is required to be taken, it will be at the

diplomatic level. At the outset, the solicitor general related chronology of events, based on the culture ministrys briefing, leading to discovery of the diamond in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh in the 14th century and how it changed several hands before landing finally in the British Crowns jewels. The 108-carat Kohinoor diamond is the subject of a historic ownership dispute and claimed by at least four countries, including India.



Besides the PIL in the apex court seeking direction to the government to make efforts to bring back the Kohinoor, move is reportedly on in other countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan to reclaim it.



There have earlier been demands from Parliament to bring stolen articles, kept at museums abroad. The UK government had in 2010 rejected the demand made by the Archeological Survey of India to return the Kohinoor diamond and other articles, stating the British Museum Act, 1963, which prevents national museums from removing items.
Protests by thousands of garment factory workers against the Centres new policy on provident fund (PF) withdrawal here on Monday turned violent, forcing the police to resort to lathi-charge and firing tear gas shells to bring the situation under control.



At least 22 police personnel, a DH photographer and scores of agitators were injured in the violence. The police were caught unawares as the workers held meetings inside their factory premises around Bommanahalli area after the management announced that they will implement the new PF policy which prevents employees from getting the employers contribution if they quit before attaining 58 years of age.



The protesters resolved to march to the Employees Provident Fund Organisation office at Singasandra, near Bengaluru-Hosur national highway, and submit a memorandum. As they reached the highway, they decided to block the road, bringing traffic to a grinding halt for more than three hours as vehicles were stranded from Silk Board junction to Attibele Gate.



The police, who were outnumbered, decided to summon additional forces to deal with the situation. By the time forces reached the spot, the mob went berserk. After several warnings, the police used force to disperse the protesters.



On Bannerghatta Road, around 10,000 women garment workers, employees of Shahi Exports Pvt Ltd and K Mohan and Co Exports Pvt Ltd, staged a protest between Hulimavu and Arkere signals. Police fired tear gas shells after their efforts to persuade protesters from lifting the road blockade proved futile.



Cop thrashes DH chief photographer



A policeman in plain clothes attacked DH chief photographer Srikanta Sharma R who was clicking pictures of the brutal lathi-charge on women protesters on Bannerghatta Road on Monday.



The policeman, attached to the Hulimavu station, not only injured Sharma on his left thigh, but also broke his camera lens and then confiscated it, knowing very well that Sharma was just doing his job. When asked if he had permission to use force, the policeman turned furious and verbally abused Sharma, and even punched him in the face.

The camera was recovered only after DCP (South) Lokesh Kumar and other senior police officers intervened. Such was his audacity, that when asked why he attacked a photojournalist, the policeman threatened Sharma of serious consequences in the presence of his higher-ups.



Mysuru highway blocked for 10 hrs



Thousands of vehicles were stranded on the Mysuru-Bengaluru highway for more than 10 hours after 4,000 garment employees blocked the road near Maddur on Monday.




Acting tough, the Department of Pre University Education gave an ultimatum on Monday to the protesting PU lecturers, saying that they take up evaluation work or face disciplinary action.





Evaluation has begun in one centre. As seven rounds of talks with the agitating lecturers in the Karnataka State PU Lecturers Association in the last two weeks failed to break the deadlock, the department served notices to over 15,000 striking employees under Section 28 of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, Sections 3, 5 and 8 of the Karnataka State Civil Services (Prevention of Strikes) Act, 1966 and Rule 106(B) of Karnataka Civil Service Rules. The act among other things provides for imprisonment for failure to take up evaluation work.



Undeterred by the notice, the striking lecturers said that they are contemplating legal action and would not buckle to arm-twisting tactics of the government. We will continue with our agitation till our demands are met, A H Ningegowda, general secretary, Karnataka State PU Lecturers Association said.




Liquor baron Vijay Mallya is in for more trouble after a court on Monday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him in the Rs 900-crore IDBI loan fraud case. This comes days after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) suspended his passport and asked him why it should not be revoked.





The warrant came after the Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating the money laundering case arising out of the loan fraud case, approached the special court in Mumbai.



Special Court PMLA issues Non Bailable Warrant of Arrest against Vijay Mallya (sic), the ED tweeted. On Saturday, the ED had told the court that out of the loan amount given to Mallyas now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines by the IDBI, Rs 430 crore was diverted and spent on purchase of property abroad.



The Kingfisher Airliness lawyer rebutted this claim in the court.

The money laundering case was filed by the ED based on a CBI FIR, which found irregularities in awarding the loan to Mallya, when his credit ratings was in the negative.

The government is exerting pressure on Mallya, a Rajya Sabha MP, who left for the United Kingdom (UK) on March 2 amid a growing controversy over around Rs 9,000 crore he owes to a consortium of banks.



Mallya had also refused to appear before the ED despite three summons in the past one month following which the agency approached the MEA for revocation of his passport.



On the other hand, the CBI has decided to send Letters Rogatory to five countries, including the United States and the UK, as part of its investigation into loan default case, seeking information on remittances made by Kingfisher Airlines abroad.




The city police have arrested three people from Gujarat in a theft case. The three are Talpad Navagan, 50, and his associates Rajesh and Mitesh. Navagan had made the statues of his father and brother using stolen gold and silver ornaments, the police said.





Everyone in Navagans family -- his wife, his father and his brother were involved in thefts, police said.



They were arrested by the Gujarat police in 2005. Navagans brother and father died after he came out of jail. Navagan moved to Bengaluru to evade action by the Gujarat police and settled down at Hosakerehalli. He had brought Rajesh and Mithesh with him.



He made a four-foot-tall statue of his brother and father. He had spent around Rs 1 crore to install the idol and construct a temple in Gujarat.



He would often go to Gujarat and visit the temple and offer puja to those idols, added the police.Navagan launched a company and named it Pappa and constructed four big bungalows. He had an earthmover and stone crusher machine.



He would use gloves while committing the crimes and hence his crimes went unnoticed. He committed a theft in Vijayanagar recently and his movements were captured by a CCTV camera. The police detained him based on the CCTV footage.



Police said he tried to assault sub-inspector Rupa when he was being arrested.
Several people were injured in stone throwing and lathicharge when police tried to disperse agitating garment employees in Bommanahalli on Hosur Road on Monday.



The workers were protesting against a new provident fund rule which barred employees from drawing their PF before retirement.



Around 9.30 am, the management of Jockey Garments, K Mohan Garments and Sai Garments told their employees that they could not withdraw their PF till retirement. The shocked employees immediately resorted to slogan shouting.



When some employees requested the police to allow them march to the PF office at Singasandra to submit a memorandum, police first turned down their request. But they relented when employees assured them it will be a peaceful march. But once they reached Hosur Road, the employees suddenly blocked the road.



Soon 30,000-40,000 employees from the three garment factories joined the protest between 10.30 am and 12.30 pm, leading to a traffic pile-up at Bommanahalli. The protesters then demanded that a senior PF employee from the Singasandra PF office address them. At around 12.30 pm, a joint commissioner from the PF office arrived at the spot and assured them that since the new rule was not notified, the government would not be able to implement it.



Around 2.30 pm, as vehicles began to pile up, police tried to let vehicles through at one corner. Protesters who noticed this, started throwing stones at the vehicles and at the police, injuring a few of them. Police, who were restrained as women were at the forefront of the protests, used force as the protests turned violent. They lathicharged the crowd, including women, who ran for cover.



Three buses, four police jeeps and one KSRP vehicle were pelted with stones. Around15 head cons tables/constables, one additional commissioner of police, one ACP and four inspectors were among the injured. Four protesters were also injured. In all, 700 policemen were deployed.


The police have made elaborate security arrangements in southern Bengaluru to prevent untoward incident as garment workers have vowed to stage another on Tuesday.





We have made all arrangements and deployed more personnel. Ten platoons of KSRP, more than 400 policemen and senior officers, including DCP (Southeast) Dr Boralingaiah will be on duty, Additional Commissioner of Police (East) P Harishekaran told Deccan Herald.



Senior police officers have decided to visit garment factories in Bommanahalli, Singasandra, Mangammanapalya, Bandepalya, Hulimavu and surrounding areas and address workers on Tuesday. They would also visit Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) officials to discuss the matter, he said. Besides, the police will receive memoranda from workers and forward them to the central government directly.



Harishekaran said that since 85% of the protesters were women, they needed to be careful.

We didnt use force directly and resorted to mild caning. The women were convinced and agreed to leave but some drunk people had joined the protest and started throwing stones at policemen.



There were nearly 30 women police officers on the spot and they tried to chase away the female protesters.



A top police source suspect the protest was following a report in a Kannada newspaper about the PF withdrawal rules. Three BMTC buses, a private bus, four police jeeps and a KSRP van were damaged in the incident.
Monday turned out to be a horrific day for staff at the Employees Provident Fund Organisation, Singasandra, in southern Bengaluru.





It all started at 9.30 am when nearly 5,000 garment workers converged at Bommanahalli Circle in protest against the new rules on provident fund withdrawal. Within no time, traffic on the busy intersection was blocked.



The police were caught off guard and pleaded with the protesters to leave the place. But the protesters didnt budge. Two hours later, the inspector of the jurisdictional Parappana Agrahara police station and two constables rushed to the EPFO office and requested the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner (officer in-charge), Amardeep Mishra, to address the protesters and alleviate their concerns. The officer took time to agree.



Mishra went with the police on a motorcycle and reached Bommanahalli Circle around 12.30 pm. But just as he left the office, a 4,000-strong crowd, most of them women, arrived at the EPFO office and started raising slogans. It left a short while later. Around 40 minutes later, another crowd arrived and started throwing stones at the office. The buildings glass facade was fully damaged.



Police quickly barricaded the area and caned the protesters, forcing them to retreat. Nearly 200 EPFO employees, almost half of them women, were stunned at the sudden turn of events, said a male staffer. The women were quickly escorted to the basement while men remained on upper floors.



We were busy with our office work when around 11.30 am, some of our colleagues rushed in and asked us to go the basement. When we asked about what happened, they said a huge crowd had gathered outside the office, said a female staffer who requested anonymity.



As we walked to the basement, we could see a crowd of thousands raising slogans outside. We were locked up in the basement and all of a sudden, the crowd started throwing stones. Thats when we understood that the situation was dangerous.



She continued, We had our heart in our mouths. We never imagined we would face something so horrific. It was too scary. Luckily, the police prevented them from entering the building.



During their confinement, the women staffers could neither use restroom nor have lunch. We were scared to use the restroom, as people were throwing stones and we feared they would hit us. Fortunately, no one was injured. We had to skip lunch. The basement was humid because of the hot weather. We could neither sit nor stand, said another woman staffer.



The woman said they feared the crowd would keeping coming until evening. But the fear proved unfounded. Around 3 pm, the staffers were asked to leave the premises. One by one, they started leaving. But the women remained stuck as most of them commute by bus. Male colleagues helped them leave the office and reach home safely.



But the journey back home wasnt safe either. We had to use interior roads. We feared the crowd would recognise us and attack us.
Jim O'Reilly, Storage Engineer

EBN (4/14/2016)

When we discuss on shoring, the elephant in the room is always the People's Republic of China (PRC). China's economy is slowing fast enough to raise the issue of its future direction. The PRC has had a good run as a low-cost manufacturer with decent product quality, but labor costs have risen drastically over the last decade making the country vulnerable to re-sourcing decisions that take into account the logistics costs and risks associated with long pipelines.

From a nation-state perspective, China is a poor partner. Trade is very one-sided and, despite promises to open up, most companies find doing business in China very difficult. The state and party require large portions, usually a majority, of ownership to vest into their hands directly or indirectly, while treading through bureaucracy is a nightmare. In the long haul, China's success is unsustainable on this basis alone, especially with labor costs quadrupling in the last decade, bringing costs close to parity with low-wage areas in the US.

Click here to read more ...








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by Kathleen Gilbert BEIJING, September 7, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com)  Escaped Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng is leading international opponents of forced abortion in calling upon the worlds largest company to end compliance with the Chinas one-child policy. Family planning police have targeted employees (569)

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Church Militant, we need to band together to protect our religious liberties and win the culture war!
RailTel & Google have started providing free high-speed internet at the Bhubaneswar railway station, as part of a project to develop 100 such Wi-Fi hotspots.

The Bhubaneswar railway station is now powered by high-speed internet with the launch of the new free Wi-Fi services commissioned by RailTel, in collaboration with tech giant Google.

The Wi-Fi services were launched today by Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu, at the capital city of Odisha. This is the second such WiFi hotspot created by Google, the first one being Mumbai Central station in Maharashtra. Last year, during Google CEO, Sundar Pichai's visit to India, 100 such WiFi hotspots were committed by the company, in association with the Railway Ministry.

Speaking at today's launch event in Bhubaneswar, Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu said, "We are soon going to launch Wi-Fi at 16 more stations and will cover 100 stations by the end of this year. This facility at Bhubaneswar will enable the thousands of passengers commuting through this station to enjoy high speed Wi-Fi service."

While RailTel provides the power and fiber infratructure for such these Wi-Fi hotspots, Google will be providing the Radio Access Network for the same.
The iPhone SE is a flagship in every right, but a screen size of four inches is too hindering today. Like all iPhone, the Rs. 39,000 price tag can seem overpriced, and is a big reason why the phone is tough to recommend today. If you stricly want a smaller device, then this is the best option for you. If not, there are a sea of Android and iOS phones available to choose from.

Apple iPhone SE detailed review

It had been a while since rumours of a 4-inch iPhone started circulating. At the launch of the iPhone 6s, many had expected Apple to simultaneously present a smaller, 4-inch iPhone as a less expensive, smaller screen alternative to the iPhone 6 and 6S, and their respective Plus variants. Six months after the iPhone 6s, the iPhone SE became official. And a surprisingly large number of people rejoiced, including me.





I have loyally stood by my iPhone 5s, now over two-and-half years old, and it serves me nobly. On an overall, everyday basis, the iPhone 5s is still a fantastic driver. Apps barely lag, I can even afford to keep my push mail notifications to every 15 minutes and not reset network settings, and it still works fine enough. Lags, however, have started showing up. The A7 processor is still reasonably fast, but is just not fast enough. For instance, apps take that split second longer to load, theres always the one second of blank screen when I switch between different apps, and games reflect this even more.

Unfortunately, even after having used a number of large display devices, Im only too used to the 4-inch form factor. The iPhone SE, on that note, was all that old iPhone users could have asked for. Powered by the latest generation hardware, the iPhone SE is the iPhone 6s on the inside, with the exact design and footprint of the iPhone 5s. Why would I not love it?

Im not saying I dont, but there were too many questions that prevents from calling it instantly recommendable. Heres why.

The 4-inch Retina display

Lets begin with the most debatable point here - the 4-inch display. From a standalone point of view, the 4-inch Retina display is as good as ever, packing in ample pixels to deliver rich, sharp and immaculate details on the screen. It is responsive and fast, and looks significantly warmer than the display of the iPhone 5s. This makes it less harsh to look at, and Night Shift mode makes it even better. Quality-wise, youll be hard-pushed to find a better one - brilliant viewing angles, ample brightness, good visibility under direct sunlight, and nearly flawless touch response, too. But, this also raised the biggest question about the iPhone SE.

Whenever I have switched smartphones, theyve always been a significant upgrade in every aspect of the device. The 4-inch display is undoubtedly good, but it is not a whole lot better. Additionally, the screen size now does feel hindered. You need to scroll more when youre reading, squint a bit to tap on the right tabs while within a game, and even when watching videos, it feels a tad bit too small, especially after residing in a world of smartphones where 5-inch displays have become a norm.

"The 4-inch panel remains excellent, but the size is simply not enough in today's nature of content consumption"

Does it make sense? Yes, and no. Apple has repeatedly stated that the iPhone SE is for those who really want a 4-inch smartphone, and for them, there will possibly never be another device that brings such high processing power within such small a form factor. That, though, will be a very small section of the population. The 4.7-inch display on the iPhone 6s feels just the right size, and it excels in terms of ergonomics, too. For first-time iPhone users, a large section of them will probably be looking to migrate from the ocean of Android-powered devices, where spotting a screen smaller than 5 inches is nearly impossible. The smallest that comes to my mind is the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact with a 4.6-inch display panel, and it is highly improbable for users of the Z5 Compact to look to switch to the iPhone SE.

For existing users, it is from the still-sizeable section of iPhone 5/5c/5s users, and some iPhone 4s users. From an iPhone 4s, or even from an iPhone 5/5c, this is certainly a respectable upgrade in every possible aspect. As for iPhone 5s users, Im not entirely convinced, with the iPhone 6s in hand. The cost plays a major role, and well discuss this later. But from the point of view of sheer usage, the natural step for most users of the 4-inch device is to upgrade to a 4.7-inch one. Yes, the 4-inch display is still excellent in terms of quality, but the size definitely feels restricted.

Build and Design

The iPhone SE is built on the same chassis as the iPhone 5s was, which according to me was the best iPhone design till date. It is 7.6mm in thickness, and weighs 113 grams. It has a familiar design and is built well enough, but somehow feels slightly less sturdy than the iPhone 5s. The tried-and-tested rectangular design still looks good, and the iPhone SE retains the premium feel usually related to iPhones.

Ergonomically, this is by far one of the best devices around. One-handed typing is a breeze here, something that we do not mention too often in our reviews. The sharp edges do cut into palms on long-term usage, but the pleasure of owning a smartphone that feels inconspicuous in pockets is a rare luxury nowadays. For anyone who is a fan of compact devices, the iPhone SE is as good as it can get. The only element that Apple has changed here is the colour of the logo on the rear. The iPhone 5s had a stainless steel logo across all colour variants, while the iPhone SEs logo is of the colour of its make. It is a minor difference, but does add slightly to the flow of the phones design.

Performance

Apple has fit the iPhone SE with present generation hardware  the A9 processor with M9 motion co-processor and 2GB of RAM. We ran benchmarks on the iPhone SE in tandem with the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6s, along with the latest generation of Android-powered flagships, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and Xiaomi Mi 5. The iPhone SE leads the pack in terms of frames rendered in the graphic tests, and even heads in terms of single-core processing power. In terms of multi-core processing, however, the Galaxy S7 Edge and Xiaomi Mi 5 lead, powered by the octa-core Exynos 8890 and quad-core Snapdragon 820 respectively.

In real life, the iPhone SE performs like a flagship smartphone. It is a delight in terms of everyday usage - most apps open without any delay, Spotlight search is smooth as always, always-on Hey Siri does add to the functionality, and gaming is quite enjoyable. Graphics rendered look crisp and rich, and thanks to the smaller display, the hexa-core PowerVR GT7600 GPU has lesser screen area to provide for, hence leading to higher frame rates that aid smoother gameplay. The presence of 2GB RAM reflects here, as the iPhone SE is completely free from the split-second delays that were present when unlocking the device, switching between apps and other regular actions.

The iPhone SE is an able performer, and can handle multiple tasks with ease. For more detailed analysis, check the performance comparison of the iPhone SE. Coming to the operating system, iOS 9.3.1 is a fast, stable environment that faces slight hints of stutter on the iPhone 5s, but here, it is incredibly swift. While Touch ID does miss a tap every 10th time, it is not massively disrupting an aspect. It is, however, important, seeing the efficiency of Androids integrated Imprint fingerprint sensor. To reiterate, the iPhone SE happens to be one of the best devices in terms of performance, running at par with the likes of iPhone 6s and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and even beating them in a few areas.

Camera

It is here that the iPhone SE does not remain one of the best. In terms of everyday photographs, the iPhone SE is decent, rendering true-to-source colours without any hint of oversaturation or accentuated contrasts. Focussing is fast, and shutter response is smooth. Unfortunately, while the photographs are not disappointing, the iPhone SE does not seem to be in the same league as flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, or even the iPhone 6s Plus. It reportedly uses the same image sensor as the iPhone 6s, although it misses out optical image stabilisation.

In terms of image quality, while it will suffice in terms of everyday usage and rapid shooting, the iPhone SE is not as good as the two devices mentioned above. It has decent levels of detail, sharpness and clarity, but lacks in low light capability as images tend to become noisy. While the front camera may have suffered significantly because of this, the addition of Retina Flash solves the issue of taking selfies in the dark. The iPhone SE also gets Live Photos, if you would want them. Check out the image gallery below for camera samples.

Battery Stamina

While Apple has advertised improved battery life on the iPhone SE than other devices, it is still nowhere close to the best in class. Upon average usage, while I end up charging the iPhone 5s more than twice, the brand new iPhone SE easily saw me through the day, with about 18% battery left on Low Power Mode. This would deplete, if you were to game on it for about half an hour, and extensively stream music on the go. On our Geekbench battery test, the iPhone SE lasted for about four and half hours, which is strikingly low. It surely fares better on everyday usage, but brace yourself for dropping battery stamina upon extended usage, and the constant need of a power bank. Flagship phones like the S7 Edge and Xiaomi Mi 5 break the 8 hours barrier on the same test.

Overall

It sure is a flagship, and a powerful one at that, but the screen is what creates the dilemma. While there may still be a considerable section of 4-inch device lovers, the numbers are steadily decreasing, and with most of our daily usage shifting to videos, a 4-inch device does feel rather restricted. It is a bold, bright flagship, but the price creates an issue here. At Rs. 39,000, the iPhone SE is barely less expensive than the iPhone 6s. If you have the option of paying about Rs. 3,000 more and getting a bigger display with 3D Touch along with a decently ergonomic build, why would you go for a smaller display?

The iPhone SE may be the perfect upgrade for users of the iPhone 4s, and for ones who really do not want a larger smartphone. It may also be the last flagship-class smartphone with a display as small as 4 inches. If you qualify under any of the two criteria above, the iPhone SE is your best bet. For everyone else, the iPhone 6s is the smartphone to own. Like all iPhones, the iPhone SE is great, but it's about time Apple recognised its competition.

Check our video review of the iPhone SE here:
The Motorola Moto G4 appears to have a very unconventional, square fingerprint authentication button on the front.

Latest leaked images of Motorolas 2016 lineup of G-series devices suggest a rather unorthodox fingerprint sensor. Leaked on Chinese sites, the Moto G4 appears to have a tilted square on the front, in place of the home button, that reportedly acts as a fingerprint sensor. While the Moto G4 Plus fingerprint integration was not explicitly stated, the leaked image pertaining to it suggest it to get an LG G5-esque camera module, integrating the lens with the LED flash in one vertical module.

The leaked images are relevant to a similar render sketch that Evan Blass had posted on Twitter, while Roland Quandt of WinFuture tweeted out the rough specifications of the two devices. According to the tweet, the Moto G4 and G4 Plus will vary in terms of the cameras housed in each. Both the devices have been touted to house 5.5-inch displays, along with 16GB of storage. While the Moto G4 Plus has been said to house a 16-megapixel camera, the standard G4 may house a 13-megapixel one. Tweets suggest a nice looking evolution in Motos design language, with the new devices possibly housing curved glass on top and minimal bezels. Indicative prices suggest that the devices may be priced around 240-280, or about Rs. 18,000-Rs. 21,000 approximately, and Motorola may launch the device in May 2016.

Moto G Plus: 5.5in, 16 MP cam, 16 GB. 280 Euro. Moto G 4th Gen: 5.5in, 13 MP cam, 16 GB. 240 Euro. both black or white. available May. boom.  Roland Quandt (@rquandt) April 16, 2016

The Moto X3 has also been leaked recently, and is expected to house a 5-inch display. The Moto X3 is expected to be Motorolas flagship offering for 2016, and although we have not heard about it extensively, a May launch for the device cannot be ruled out altogether.
Oil and gas explorer Hurricane Energy said it had raised 52.1m through a share placing in a deal that will see private equity firm Kerogen Capital help finance drilling at two wells on the Lancaster field in England's north-west.

Oil and gas explorer Hurricane Energy said it had raised 52.1m through a share placing in a deal that will see private equity firm Kerogen Capital help finance drilling at two wells on the Lancaster field in England's north-west.

Hurricane also reported a narrowing of its full year pre-tax losses to 5.5m from 9m. Operating expenses fell by 37% to 5.4m. It has not generated any revenue.

The company's main focus is on hydrocarbon resources in naturally fractured basement reservoirs.

The placing involved the issue of 347.2m shares at 15p each. Kerogen has subscribed for 293.9m. Hurricane also issued 23.3m warrants exercisable at 20p each to activist fund Crystal Amber.

"The successful completion of these two operations will enable us to advance the development of one of the UK's largest yet to be developed fields. To be able to progress to this point, whilst retaining a 100% interest in all our assets, is a tremendous accomplishment and can only aid our continuing farm-out discussions which are progressing well," said chief executive Robert Trice.

Hurricane shares were up 22% to 12.50p at 1230 BST.
The energy space was in sharp focus on Monday after oil producers failed to reach an agreement to freeze production over the weekend, initially sending oil futures hurtling 6% lower.

Nonetheless, analysts were generally upbeat on the outlook for crude prices going forward and news of disruptions to supplies from Kuwait saw futures saw benchmark crude futures recover.

Citi's global commodities research team, led by Ed Morse, told clients that: "Commodity markets are stumbling to normalcy. [...] Energy is uniquely critical to a commodities rebound, given the energy intensity across commodities, Oil markets now look likely to enter a period of sustained inventory draws, ushering in higher prices, propelled by demand growth and declining non-OPEC production."

However, "but energy and therefore all commodity prices can be capped by a return to drilling in unconventional resources," he added.

In the most extreme short-term, Morse told Bloomberg TV he expected the weekend's disruptions to Kuwaiti supplies to be short-lived and the oil complex to come under renewed selling pressure again.

As of 19:27 BST, front month Brent crude futures were 0.89% lower to $42.73 per barrel on the ICE, alongside a drop of 2.1% in West Texas Intermediate to $39.55 per barrel.

Natural gas futures were heading the other way, gaining 2.0% to $1.94/MMbtu.

Industrial metals were well bid, with three-month LME-traded copper futures endind the day higher by 0.9% at $4,822.50 per metric tonne. Zinc futures rose 1.7% to $1,901.00/mt and nickel was standing 2.3% higher at $9,062.50/mt.

To take note of, ahead of the latest IMF meetings over the weekend, China announced it would remove export subsidies on aluminium products including speciality steel and titanium.

Nonetheless, for analysts at Macquarie that was more of a strategically-timed message meant to forestall US rhetoric.

Gold futures were little changed despite the gyrations seen in the price of oil, but silver lost some of its lustre, slipping 0.45% to $16.24/oz. on COMEX.

Soft commodities were the strongest corner of the market, with the July 2015 corn contract up by 0.65% on the Chicago Board of Trade as of 19:33 BST. Similarly-dated CBoT wheat futures jumped 2.89% to $481.00 per bushel.

Cotton#2 furures on ICE did even better, rising by 3.52% to $62.13/lb.

June 2016 live cattle futures on the CME fell by 2.46% to $119.18/lb.

Bloomberg's commodity index was up by 0.35% at 162.72, while the US dollar spot index drifted 0.23% lower to 94.475.
Spain's CaixaBank offered to purchase the remainder of Portugal's Banco BPI SA despite its inability over the weekend to reach a deal with one of the largest shareholders in its rival.

On Monday, Barcelona-based CaixaBank, which already owned 44.0% of BPI, tabled a bid worth 1.113 per share in cash for the rest of the bank.

For the transaction to proceed, Spain's third-largest bank needed the approval from shareholders' representing at least half of BPI's stock.

BPI's shareholders would also need to strike down an existing 20.0% cap on any investors' voting rights.

Such a move was opposed by Isabel dos Santos, who owned an 18.6% stake in the Portuguese lender via her investment company, Santoro Finance, and an additional 2.3% through Angolan lender Banco BIC SA.

Dos Santos blocked another buy-out offer from CaixaBank in 2015 by voting against changes to the voting rights.

BPI was facing a deadline from the European Central Bank to reduce its exposure to Angola and its shares had been halted from trading since 8 April.

CaixaBank's take-over offer followed the September 2015 purchase of Barclays's Portuguese retail banking unit by another Spanish lender, Bankinter, and Banco Santander's acquisition of Banco Internacional do Funchal SA for 150m in December.
China is committed to reducing the amount of steel it produces to address overcapacity, Business Secretary Sajid Javid said on Monday.

Speaking after a crisis meeting in Brussels about the global steel glut, Javid said there was no overnight solution but China was taking a positive step forward.

"The discussion today with all these countries coming together is something that we pushed for, and ... China's participation will help make the difference, he said.

The OECD-organised meeting in Brussels was attended by representatives from about 30 countries including the US and India. It marked the first time all major steel-producing countries come together to hold talks on the problem with excess capacity, according to Javid.

The crisis in the steel industry has put jobs under threat in the UK due to the planned closure of plants.

Tata Steel said last month that it was beginning the formal process of selling its loss-making UK plants.
Diplomats say absence of Iran at talks led to lack of agreement

Russia says Gulf nations changed stance at last minute

US dollar gains against ruble, Loonie, Brazilian real

The world's largest crude oil producers failed to reach an agreement to freeze their levels of production at January's levels, as Saudi Arabia insisted that Iran - who was absent from the talks - needed to contribute to any deal.

After six hours of negotiations in Doha, Qatari energy minister Saleh al-Sada said consultations among the countries present would continue until the next meeting of the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries, in June.

"All participating countries will consult among themselves and with others," Al-Sada said, according to Al-Jazeera.

However, according to Russia's energy minister, Alexander Novak, it was an eleventh hour change of mind by some Gulf producers that resulted in no agreement being reached, reports said.

News of the lack of an agreement weighed on oil futures at the start of the week.

As of 07:21BST front month Brent crude futures were lower by 4.384% to $41.29 per barrel on the ICE and those for West Texas Intermediate by another 4.9% to 38.48.

In parallel, the Footsie was being called to start the session 58 points off from the previous Friday's close.

Foreign exchange markets also experience a bout volatility in the aftermath of the decision, with the US dollar leaping 1.25% against the likes of the Canadian dollar to 1.2982, while dollar/yen was 0.78% lower at 107.94.

Similarly, other oil producing countries' currencies were also lower, with the US dollar jumping by 3.27% to 68.66 against the Russian ruble. The greenback was also appreciating 1.41% to 3.53 against Brazil's real despite news that president Dilma Rousseff might be headed for the exits in a little over a fortnight following an impeachment vote.

Diplomats and officials told Al-Jazeera that Iran's decision unwillingness to abide by any agreement had proven to be the main sticking point.

"The inability of the other oil producers to even agree on a loose commitment to freeze output for now says a lot I think. With this now seemingly off the table, at least until the next OPEC meeting in June and probably beyond, I struggle to see what could continue to support oil prices at this levels, even taking into consideration the considerable sell-off overnight.

"Declining US production may help support prices to an extent but when you factor in Irans intention to return to pre-sanction levels, this more than offsets any reduction," Craig Erlam, Senior Market Analyst at Oanda said in a note sent to clients.

"Since we had not factored in any significant effect from a production freeze accord in our recent oil price forecast, the failed Doha talks do not alter our outlook for the oil price. We still look for the price of Brent crude to average $46/bl in Q4 16 and $52/bl in 2017 on the back of a lower USD, stronger global economic activity and a decline in non-OPEC oil output," Jans Naervig Pedersen, Senior Analyst at Danske Bank, said in a note sent to clients.
London stocks were in the red on Monday as oil prices declined after weekend talks between global producers collapsed.

Members and non-members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries held talks in Doha on Sunday but failed come to an agreement to freeze oil production to address the supply glut, which has been weighing on prices.

The talks fell apart after Saudi Arabia reiterated that it would not cap output unless Iran agreed to do the same. Iran, which did not attend the negotiations, has been reluctant to come to such an agreement since it has recently been relieved of sanctions.

Brent crude fell 2.2% to $42.17 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate dropped 2.6% to $39.30 per barrel at 1147 BST.

Investors shrugged off news that Kuwaits crude production dropped more than half on Sunday as thousands of its oil industry employees began an open-ended strike over government plans to cut wages. The nations output was 1.1 million barrels a day, down from the usual 3 million it produces.

Meanwhile, the Treasury has warned in an analysis that the UK economy would be 6% smaller by 2030 if Britons voted to leave the EU. Chancellor George Osborne added that this would be the equivalent of 4,300 per household. The country is due to vote on in/out referendum on June 23.

He said the poorest households would be hit hardest.

"They are the people whose incomes would go down, whose house prices would fall, whose job prospects would weaken, they are the people who always suffer when the country takes an economic wrong turn," he told the BBC.

In company news, oil producers declined on the slide in prices, including Royal Dutch Shell and BP.

However, airlines benefitted from the fall in oil prices including easyJet, TUI and International Consolidated Airlines.

TUI and Thomas Cook were also given a boost by Berenberg which upgraded both stocks. The bank lifted Thomas Cook to hold from sell and nudged up the price target to 105p from 100p. It upgraded TUI AG to buy from hold and lifted the price target to 1,300p from 1,275p.

Centrica slumped after saying it expected to axe 3,000 jobs in 2016 as part of its cost-cutting plans, with 800 gone in the first quarter of the year.

Interserve gained after being awarded a five year, 230m contract with the Ministry of Defence Infrastructure Organisation to provide facilities services to the United States Air Forces UK estate.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,329.99 -0.22%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,897.60 -0.08%

techMARK (TASX) 3,173.93 -0.03%

FTSE 100 - Risers

TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,080.00p 3.75%

BT Group (BT.A) 453.90p 2.23%

easyJet (EZJ) 1,479.00p 2.21%

Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,849.00p 1.69%

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 542.50p 1.59%

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 2,901.00p 1.40%

Imperial Brands (IMB) 3,790.00p 1.26%

Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,796.00p 1.24%

Worldpay Group (WI) (WPG) 272.10p 1.15%

Carnival (CCL) 3,781.00p 1.15%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

ARM Holdings (ARM) 962.00p -2.83%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 460.00p -2.34%

Centrica (CNA) 233.50p -2.01%

Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,781.00p -1.82%

Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,789.50p -1.59%

Fresnillo (FRES) 1,005.00p -1.37%

Aviva (AV.) 435.00p -1.32%

Glencore (GLEN) 153.70p -1.25%

BP (BP.) 352.05p -1.10%

Prudential (PRU) 1,380.50p -1.04%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 550.00p 3.19%

JRP Group (JRP) 133.60p 2.38%

Rank Group (RNK) 253.00p 2.22%

Dignity (DTY) 2,524.00p 2.14%

Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 353.80p 2.14%

Acacia Mining (ACA) 317.10p 2.13%

Zoopla Property Group (WI) (ZPLA) 279.90p 2.00%

Cineworld Group (CINE) 557.00p 1.64%

Interserve (IRV) 412.90p 1.60%

International Personal Finance (IPF) 281.20p 1.59%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Sophos Group (SOPH) 202.70p -3.48%

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 431.20p -3.10%

Evraz (EVR) 129.80p -2.99%

Beazley (BEZ) 320.00p -2.91%

Redrow (RDW) 355.00p -2.63%

Countrywide (CWD) 348.50p -2.13%

Man Group (EMG) 159.10p -2.03%

Vedanta Resources (VED) 381.00p -1.85%

ICAP (IAP) 468.20p -1.76%

Ashmore Group (ASHM) 294.70p -1.70%
London stocks were set to open lower on Monday as oil prices slid in the wake of the failed Doha meeting over the weekend.

The FTSE 100 was seen starting 64 points lower than Fridays close at 6,279.

A failed attempt to agree an output freeze by some of the worlds largest oil producers in Doha over the weekend has sent oil prices tumbling at the start of the week, which in turn appears to be weighing on European futures as we approach the open, said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

The inability of the other oil producers to even agree on a loose commitment to freeze output for now says a lot I think. With this now seemingly off the table, at least until the next OPEC meeting in June and probably beyond, I struggle to see what could continue to support oil prices at these levels, even taking into consideration the considerable sell-off overnight.

There are no major UK data on Monday but later in the week, investors will eye the release of the UK unemployment rate and retail sales.

Centrica to axe 3,000 jobs

Centrica said it expected to axe 3,000 jobs in 2016 as part of its cost cutting plans, with 800 to go in the first quarter.

In a trading statement, the company said UK Home energy supply accounts were down 1.5% in the first quarter primarily as a result of significant long term contracts roll-off.

It said there were propositions planned for launch in the second quarter and the third gas price reduction since the start of 2015 kicked in on 6 March.

Centrica said debt would be cut to 4.4bn in the first quarter, benefiting from strong working capital management and seasonal phasing of cash flows.

It added that 200m of efficiency savings were expected to be delivered in 2016 as part of the groups 750m annual cost efficiency programme, with like-for-like operating costs expected to be lower in 2016 than in 2015.

Consumer products firm Reckitt Benckiser described its first quarter as good on Monday, despite a number of challenging trading conditions, with sales growing 5% on a like-for-like basis and 4% on an actual basis to 2.3bn.

The FTSE 100 group said the results were in line with its full-year targets, with Europe and Australia/New Zealand strong, while the US and Russia were impacted by retailer de-stocking due to the weaker flu season.

Revenue was up 3% on a like-for-like basis in Europe and North America, including Australia/New Zealand, while developing markets were up 10% on a like-for-like basis, and food grew 2%.
Consumer products firm Reckitt Benckiser described its first quarter as good on Monday, despite a number of challenging trading conditions, with sales growing 5% on a like-for-like basis and 4% on an actual basis to 2.3bn.

The FTSE 100 group said the results were in line with its full-year targets, where it was aiming for like-for-like revenue growth of between 4% and 5% and moderate margin expansion.

Revenue for Europe and North America, including Australia and New Zealand, was up 3% on a like-for-like basis with Reckitts board saying growth was particularly strong in Europe and Australia/New Zealand.

Sales in the US and Russia were weaker, with retailers destocking as a result of a relatively weaker flu season.

Developing markets revenue grew 10%, with India and China the strongest markets. Reckitt said Brazils competitive market environment was offset by strong performance for pest control products, while Africa saw modest growth in tough macroeconomic conditions.

We had a good start to the year despite continued challenging market conditions, said Reckitt Benckisers chief executive officer Rakesh Kapoor.

We are pleased to see growth across both developed and developing markets as we pursue our strategy of focusing on the health and hygiene powerbrands in our key power markets, supported by continued investment in innovation, he added.

Kapoor said Reckitts consumer health brands once again outperformed, while performance of the groups hygiene brands was variable.

We are on track to achieve our full year net revenue and operating margin targets.
Leaving the EU would cost households 4,300 a year making them permanently poorer, chancellor George Osborne will say on Monday when the government publishes its long-term assessment of the economic costs of Brexit. Saying that British people should be builders, not wreckers, the chancellor will say, Britain is safer, stronger and better off inside a reformed EU.  Financial Times

Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP and chairman of the influential Treasury committee, is urging investors to maintain their stand against excessive pay for corporate bosses following the shareholder revolts against BP and Smith & Nephew last week. Mr Tyrie, who steered through legislation to curb and claw back bankers bonuses, welcomed the move by BP investors to vote against the remuneration of chief executive Bob Dudley. The oil groups defeat  the biggest for a top executives pay plan in four years  recalled the shareholder spring of 2012 when several chief executives were forced to resign.  Financial Times

Stamping out toxic tax avoidance by multinational companies will take years, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund has warned. Christine Lagarde said a comprehensive global agreement on how corporations should be taxed would take a long time to negotiate, as she stressed that it was important to strike a balance between competition and compliance.  Telegraph

Andrew Mackenzie, the chief executive of struggling mining giant BHP Billiton, has joined the chorus of FTSE 100 bosses pleading with voters to opt to remain in the EU, claiming a Brexit could result in a decade of disruption to trade agreements. Mr Mackenzie, who became BHPs chief executive in 2013 after a career at BP and Rio Tinto, will argue today that membership of the EU is the UKs best hope for magnifying its voice on the global stage.  Telegraph

Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive and founder of advertising giant WPP, has launched a passionate defence of his controversial 63m bonus deal in the wake of last weeks explosive start to the annual general meeting season. Speaking after shareholders voted against pay deals at BP and Smith & Nephew on Thursday  and as boardrooms are on high alert for a potential revival of the 2012 shareholder spring when scores of investors rebelled over executive pay  Sorrell told the Press Association: Most of my wealth, if not all of it, is and has been for the last 31 years tied up in the success of WPP. So if WPP does well, I do well, and others in the company do well. If we do badly, we suffer.  Guardian

Boots faces the prospect of an investigation by the pharmacy watchdog, following a Guardian investigation into the multibillion pound chain. The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is calling in evidence on the allegations made in the report, which revealed that managers at Britains biggest chain of chemists have been forcing staff to milk NHS schemes, in order to increase company profits.  Guardian

Standard Chartered has spoken to Sir Paul Tucker, the former deputy governor of the Bank of England, about becoming its chairman.The embattled emerging markets bank faces the threat of a significant protest vote from shareholders at its annual meeting on May 4 if it has failed by then to line up someone for the role.  The Times

If you work in finance, being a woman is  still  bad for your career. Although the financial services industry is better informed than ever about gender discrimination, it has made almost no difference. That, at least, is how the sector is perceived, according to a survey of more than 700 women working for financial institutions in Europe and published today by Financial News, a sister publication of The Times.  The Times
Londons FTSE 250 was down 0.2% to 16,882.17 in afternoon trading as investors continued to mull over the weekends failed meeting of oil producers in Doha.

Insurer Lancashire Holdings was higher after Citigroup upgraded the stock to buy from neutral.

The bank said it expects Lancashires excess capital to increase in 2016, allowing the group to offer yields of over 9% per annum on average over 2016-18.

We believe that the group can maintain combined ratios below 80% with sustainable support from conservative reserving and improved reinsurance purchasing.

In addition, it expects stable margins and lower top-line attrition to lead to earnings per share beats.

Centamin was in the black despite a downgrade to neutral from buy by Citigroup, as Numis lifted its price target on the stock 110p from 100p.

We believe that the company is well positioned to continue to optimize Sukari whilst developing its West African exploration portfolio supported by solid free cash flow generation and an ungeared balance sheet with $199m of cash as of the end of 2015," said Numis.

Beazley was on the back foot, with Lloyds of London insurers under pressure after the earthquake in Japan.

Peel Hunt said the Lloyd's insurers are likely to be exposed to commercial and industrial losses following a major earthquake in the southern Japanese island of Kyushu on 16 April.

Risers

Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 346.50p 3.37%

Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 547.50p 2.72%

Centamin (DI) (CEY) 104.20p 2.56%

BGEO Group (BGEO) 2,111.00p 2.48%

Rank Group (RNK) 252.90p 2.18%

Dignity (DTY) 2,524.00p 2.14%

Acacia Mining (ACA) 316.90p 2.06%

Zoopla Property Group (WI) (ZPLA) 280.00p 2.04%

JRP Group (JRP) 133.00p 1.92%

Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 352.90p 1.88%

Fallers

Evraz (EVR) 127.20p -4.93%

Ashmore Group (ASHM) 289.40p -3.47%

Beazley (BEZ) 319.00p -3.22%

Redrow (RDW) 354.00p -2.91%

CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,525.00p -2.62%

Vedanta Resources (VED) 379.00p -2.37%

Sophos Group (SOPH) 205.20p -2.29%

Polymetal International (POLY) 684.50p -2.21%

Victrex plc (VCT) 1,563.00p -2.19%

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 435.50p -2.13%
Shares in miners paced gains as the prices of several key industrial metals bounced back and a leading commodities strategist said that for the first time in three years probabilities around a base-case were shifting to the 'bullish' rather than the 'bearish' side.

"Commodity markets are stumbling to normalcy. Across commodities, cost curves are stabilizing and supply/demand fundamentals are moving toward equilibrium if not deficit," Citi's global commodities team led by Ed Morse said in a research note sent to clients.

"Energy is uniquely critical to a commodities rebound, given the energy intensity across commodities," Morse added, going on to say that oil markets looked likely to to enter a period of "sustained inventory draws".

In prescient fashion, "supply-side disruptions look more likely than lower demand or higher supply," the strategist said.

Be that as it may, in parallel another research team at the broker led by Heath R.Jansen downgraded its six-month view on the UK metals and mining sector from 'neutral' to 'bearish'.

Three-month copper futures closed 0.9% higher at $4,822.50 per metric tonne on the LME, alongside gains of 2.3% and 1.7% for nickel and zinc.

That saw Anglo American clock in with gains of 2.26% to end the day at 693.60p, BHP rise 1.82% to 916.40 and Glencore end the session up by 1.54% to 158.05.

The DJ Stoxx 600 sub-index for Basic Resources ended 1.47% higher at 291.05.

To take note of, ahead of the latest IMF meetings over the weekend, China announced it would remove export subsidies on aluminium products including speciality steel and titanium.

For analysts at Macquarie that was more of a strategically-timed message meant to forestall US rhetoric.

Perhaps, in any case, after the close of trading in London it was followed by similar remarks from the Business Secretary.

Speaking from Brussels, Said Javid said that China had vowed to reduce the amount of steel it produces.

Acting as a backdrop, and much as Morse described, front month Brent crude oil futures recovered from a steep 6% drop early in the session to trade in the black by the end of day.

A weekend meeting of several of the world's major oil producers in Doha,Qatar failed to produce an agreement to 'freeze' oil production. However, that appeared to be compensated for by a walk-out of Kuwaiti public sector workers on Sunday that saw oil output at the state-owned Kuwait Oil Company plunge.

Morse told Bloomberg TV the strike had been the reason for the rebound in crude futures, taking 600,000 barrels off the market, more than the Doha meeting might ever have hoped for, but he expected the disruption to supplies to prove fleeting, with markets then acting to remove the froth and crude oil futures falling slipping back below the $40 per barrel mark.
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No power, no hot water, bedbugs at apartment towers near Downtown

Residents at the Latitude Five25 apartment towers on the Near East Side said they've had no hot water, no power at times. The city is going to court.
Italian team races to fix failing dam that could collapse and endanger millions of Iraqis

Mosul Dam was shoddily built and needs constant injections of grout to keep it from being undermined.



By BALINT SZLANKO

Associated Press

AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, 2007 file [enlarge] U.S. officials estimate half a million people could be killed if the dam collapses.

MOSUL DAM, Iraq  A team of Italian specialists arrived Thursday at the site of the Mosul Dam as part of an emergency campaign to repair Iraq's largest dam before it collapses.

The advance team from the Italian engineering firm Trevi Group will set up a camp for the group of engineers who are expected to arrive within a few weeks.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have repeatedly warned that the dam is in imminent danger of collapse.

In late February, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad called the dam's risk of collapse serious and unprecedented, and Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi asked Mosul residents along the Tigris river to move at least six kilometers (3.7 miles) away from its banks.

The dam's core problem is that it was shoddily built on unstable ground: The earth underneath it is constantly being eroded by water. From the day it was inaugurated in 1985, maintenance crews have had to continuously pour cement under its foundation.

Without that constant injection  known as grouting  the 113-meter-high dam would soon collapse into a hole in the ground, causing an unprecedented disaster. The 30-mile-long lake behind it would explode down the Tigris River valley with hundreds of millions of cubic meters of water, ramming into Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, currently home to more than 700,000 people about 40 miles downriver. It would then flood all the way down to Baghdad, some 340 miles south.

U.S. officials have estimated more than a half million people could be killed. Millions more would be driven from their homes.

Things have worsened because the dam was captured for several weeks in 2014 by the Islamic State group. U.S.-backed Iraqi forces retook the dam, but no grouting took place for six weeks. Even since then, the grouting has not been up to full levels in part because the militants control the nearby factory that produces the concrete for the dam.

As a result, there are almost certainly ... an unprecedented level of untreated voids in the dam's foundation from continuing erosion, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a Jan. 30 report.

Riyadh Izeddin, the dam's director, said that in addition to shoring up the dam's concrete, the engineers will also repair a faulty outlet gate, which allows water to be released from the reservoir and reduces pressure on the dam. The Italian crews will also be installing advanced technology and training Iraqi staffers on how to operate the new machinery.




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The biological opinion does not directly ban development in flood plains along salmon-bearing waterways, but developers must mitigate any lost salmon habitat.



By ROB MANNING

Oregon Public Broadcasting

PORTLAND  Building in flood zones is about to get harder across much of Oregon, due to new federal recommendations.

The government published the recommendations, called a biological opinion, in response to a lawsuit from environmental groups. The Audubon Society of Portland, National Wildlife Federation, Northwest Environmental Defense Center and Association of Northwest Steelheaders had argued that federal flood insurance was encouraging development detrimental to threatened salmon.





. . .
After Hours: Abdullah Ibrahim in Seattle May 5-8

The 81-year-old South African jazz masters musical influences range from traditional African songs to gospel, ragas and modern jazz.

EATTLE  Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya will perform May 5-8 at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave. in Seattle.

The 81-year-old South African jazz pianist and his band will do six shows. His musical influences range from traditional African songs to gospel, ragas and modern jazz.

The band is Noah Jackson (bass/cello), Will Terrill (drums), Cleave Guyton, Jr. (alto sax, flute, clarinet, piccolo), Lance Bryant (tenor sax), Andrae Murchison (trombone/trumpet) and Marshall McDonald (baritone sax).

Ibrahim has toured the world for more than a quarter-century, appearing at concert halls, clubs and festivals as a soloist and with other artists, and collaborated with classical orchestras on acclaimed recordings. He performed at Nelson Mandela's inauguration in 1994 and has been the subject of several documentaries.

He divides his time between Cape Town and New York.

Tickets are available at www.jazzalley.com.









Previous columns:
Vacancies drop in local markets

SEATTLE  First-quarter reports from Colliers International show local office and industrial vacancies are falling.

The regional office vacancy rate declined to 8.9 percent, with Seattle's rate dropping to 8.3 percent and the Eastside's to 7.7 percent. Both markets were 10 basis points below last quarter.

In Seattle, net absorption totaled 157,000 square feet as large, previously signed leases commenced with Avvo, Groupon, Tommy Bahama and Uber. Net absorption on the Eastside totaled 473,000 square feet as Google and Microsoft completed campus expansions.

Seattle has 5.5 million square feet under construction with 4.2 million square feet being built speculatively. About 45 percent of that is preleased.

On the Eastside, there is 1.1 million square feet of speculative office space under construction, with 5 percent preleased.

The report says office developers in downtown Bellevue have not been as fortunate. Preleasing at Kemper's 400 Lincoln and Schnitzer West's Centre 425 amount to just 5 percent.

Colliers says the vacancy rate in Bellevue CBD will likely rise significantly at the end of the year.

The industrial vacancy for Seattle/Puget Sound was 3.8 percent, marking the sixth straight quarter of sub 5 percent vacancy. The latest quarter was 10 basis points lower than the previous quarter and 100 basis points lower than a year ago.

The report says there are 10 industrial buildings under construction that will add 3 million square feet over the next three quarters.




Amazon offers old hotel as a shelter

SEATTLE (AP)  Tech giant Amazon is offering a building it owns in downtown Seattle as a temporary shelter for homeless families.

The Seattle Times reports that the company plans to house more than 200 people for a year in the former Travelodge hotel that sits near the core of its campus. Amazon is partnering with nonprofit Mary's Place to help run the shelter.

Families are expected to start moving into the property on Monday.

The company acquired the building in 2014 as part of its new corporate campus and construction isn't planned to begin on the lot until next year.

The shelter is a response to the state of emergency declared by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to address rising homelessness in the city.

The project is modeled after a similar arrangement struck between Mary's Place and the city of Seattle, which is allowing the nonprofit to use a former bank building in North Seattle as a shelter until construction starts there on a new police precinct.




The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron "Hurricane Hunters" and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center partnered together for another year to promote hurricane preparedness through the Caribbean Hurricane Awareness Tour April 9-17.

The purpose of this tour, also known as the CHAT, is to raise hurricane awareness across Latin America and the Caribbean, and to maintain and expand partnerships among the NHC, U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Air Force and neighbors in the region.

The Hurricane Hunters and NHC officials stopped at four different locations during their tour; two were in Mexico  Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta, and two were in the Caribbean  the British Virgin Islands and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. NHC officials taking part in the tour were Dr. Rick Knabb, NHC director, Lixion Avila, NHC senior hurricane specialist, and Gladys Rubio, Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch meteorologist.

The key to this tour is encouraging people to prepare in advance, before the next hurricane while the weather is still good, because figuring out your hurricane plan is very difficult when the hurricane is on your doorstep, said Knabb.

Col. Frank Amodeo, commander of the 403rd Wing, of which the 53rd WRS is a component, said, Beyond just providing data for the National Hurricane Center, the great thing about this mission is that we are ambassadors for the United States visiting our allies, our friends and our neighbors. Were educating them not just about hurricane preparedness, but also giving them a peek at our military and our commitment to the region.

For the first leg of the tour, Hurricane Hunters and NHC officials stopped at the international airport in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to provide information to local residents and media about their missions and hurricane preparedness.

Several officials from various Mexican government organizations toured the aircraft and talked both with Hurricane Hunter crew members and U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. William H. Etter, Commander, Continental North American Aerospace Defense Region-1st Air Force (Air Forces Northern).

Amodeo spoke to the importance of the U.S. Air Force Northern Commands participation in this event.

(This mission) also entails partnering with other countries, so in addition to promoting hurricane preparedness, this is also a ready-made theater security cooperation mission, said Amodeo. So for NORTHCOM to embrace (the CHAT) and include this in their annual planning is the right thing to do, and General Etter, our 1st Air Force commander, got to see that firsthand.

The next day the general and two Mexican officials, Roberto Ramirez de la Parra, Director General of Conagua, Mexico, and Rafael Pacchiano Alaman, Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, Mexico, flew with the Hurricane Hunters to the next stop on the tour, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. During the flight, Etter thanked the officials for the strong partnerships and working relationships between the U.S. and Mexican governments.

The Hurricane Hunters next scheduled stop on the CHAT was Tegucigalpa, Honduras, but inclement weather prevented them from landing there, and the Hurricane Hunters had to divert to their next scheduled stop in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, arriving April 13.

This was the first time the Hurricane Hunters and NHC members visited these Caribbean islands since the tours began in the 1970s. Hurricane Hunters met with local government officials, such as Dr. D. Orlando Smith, Premier and Minister of Tourism, and Sharleen DaBreo, director of the British Virgin Islands Department of Disaster Management, to discuss ways to coordinate and distribute weather data. They also provided tours of the WC-130J weather aircraft they flew and visited local schools to talk with students about the Hurricane Hunter mission and hurricane preparedness.

The final stop of the tour was at Ponce, Puerto Rico. The Hurricane Hunters provided a tour of their WC-130J weather aircraft to more than 10,000 visitors April 16 as well as interviews to local media that day. Maria Melendez, Mayor of Ponce, welcomed the Hurricane Hunters and NHC officials upon their arrival April 15 to thank them for the data they provide for hurricane forecasting, and Angel Crespo, Puerto Rico Emergency Management director, thanked them for the mission they perform, which provides his department information distributed to the public to help with hurricane preparedness.

Many years ago you would see people scrambling to the stores to buy supplies just before a hurricane arrives, but you dont see that as much anymore, said Crespo. The information provided by the Hurricane Hunters and National Hurricane Center helps us provide information to the people so they prepare themselves in advance for the upcoming storm season.

For 1st Lt. Leesa Froelich, 53rd WRS aerial reconnaissance weather officer, this was her fourth year as an ARWO, but her first year participating in the CHAT. She also stressed the significance of these tours to the public.

These tours are very important for the public since it gives them the opportunity to see and learn about what we do, and to learn about how to prepare for when a storm comes their way, said Froelich.

For another member of the 53rd WRS, this was his eleventh and final CHAT with the Hurricane Hunters. Lt. Col. Jon Talbot, 53rd WRS chief ARWO, who is scheduled to retire June 2016, expressed his appreciation for being able to take part in these tours throughout the years.

Its a culmination of a lot of hard work from a lot of people, and Ive really enjoyed taking part in getting this vital message about hurricane preparedness out to people in this part of the world, said Talbot.
A seminar on the impact of the Eel Fishing Ban was discussed at a recent seminar held in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel, Athlone.

Following on from the seminar a report suggests that the willingness to shut down the eel fishery in Ireland is indicative of successive governments attitude towards Irish fisheries in general.

Midlands North West MEP Matt Carthy, who organised the seminar commented that the stated aim of preserving eel stocks is not consistent with the apparent failure to address the loss of huge numbers of eels on a regular basis.

He added: "For Sinn Fein, our position is that we want any solution to be sustainable, we want to see eel stocks grow in the coming years. The European Commission confirmed at our seminar that the 3 year review is not binding and can be amended at any point in its cycle. If the political will existed within the Irish government to reverse the ban on eel fishing, they could do so in the morning, as long as other measures were implemented to reach 40% escapement.

"With that in mind, the Irish government must now recognise the loss of livelihoods and closure of businesses that have resulted from the ban which has not resolved the wider issues of eel stock levels.

"Stakeholders at the meeting expressed annoyance that a compensation scheme was not introduced eel fishers as it had been for salmon fishers previously. As a first step in addressing the failures to operate in an imaginative manner up to this point the new government should immediately introduce a hardship fund for those affected by the current ban.

Contributors to the seminar held on April 1 included representatives from the European Commission, local Eel Fishers and international experts in the field.

Ireland South MEP Liadh Ni Riada added, "We want affected stakeholders, specifically fishermen, to fully participate in conservation methods and joint management with a view to an alternative sustainable solution which would encompass lifting the eel ban in Ireland whilst taking into account the low stocks of eels.

"The priority of the ESB lies with the operation of the hydroelectric dams, not adequately maintaining and monitoring the elver traps - whose efficiency is less than 20% according to the European Eel Consultancy and therefore poor management by state authorities and a lack of transparency and accountability, including on behalf of the ESB, have collectively hindered the recovery and potential for the eel fishery.

"Utilising scientific data from stakeholders, there is basis for a challenge to the ban and the current management scheme that the ESB are primarily responsible for. I am meeting with the ESB next week to discuss ways in which we can take this forward, to ensure the protection of our eel fishermen."
If you've always wanted to do something to help combat suicide and promote better mental health, now is your chance.

The organisers of the 4th annual Cycle Against Suicide are looking for hosts who will accommodate participants for one night in towns along the route.

The charity circuit of Ireland takes place from April 24 to May 7 and will see hundreds of cyclists will take part for anything from one day to the entire circuit.

They will be accompanied by a host of support crew and other volunteers.

The race will visit Donegal on Days 4-7.

On Day 4, Wednesday, April 27, the cyclists will arrive in Stranorlar, after pedalling from Omagh via Cookstown.

The next day, they'll travel to Glenties where they will stop at lunchtime, then depart for Donegal Town.

On Day 6, Friday, April 29, the cavalcade will depart for Bundoran, where they will stop at lunchtime and then move on to Sligo.

The organisers are looking for hosts in the Twin Towns on Wednesday, April 27 and in the Donegal Town area on Thursday, April 28.

A spokesperson said Our Homestay programme links local hosts with cyclists. Hosts are asked to provide a cyclist with a warm meal, a chance to freshen up and a bed for the night.

This unique initiative facilitates a conversation around mental health in homes  with and between families. It also provides an opportunity for people to lend their support in a very tangible way to Cycle Against Suicide without necessarily having to get on a bike.

Another way in which the event's participants and organisers engage with local communities is through the Anchor Schools programme.

Abbey Vocational School has again been named as an Anchor School, along with St Columbas College in Stranorlar, St Columbas Comprehensive School in Glenties and Magh Ene College in Bundoran.

Each Anchor School is organising a range of events to promote better mental health for students and in the community.

At AVS for example, principal Geraldine Diver told the Democrat, there will be presentations, videos, music, celebrity speakers and an exhibition of local mental health services.

Our school is delighted to host this important event and welcome the cyclists to Donegal town. 

Ms Diver continued, The impact of this type of activity is powerful and far reaching, not just in our schools, but also in the community at large.

It gets the conversation around mental health going, and highlights the support services that are available to those who need them.

It also promotes positive wellbeing and the importance of positive mental health in young people

Promoting positive mental health practices in our school, and the community, is important to the Abbey Vocational School.

By becoming an Anchor School, and partnering with Cycle Against Suicide, we can continue to raise awareness of the issues around mental health.

It is about encouraging people to know that its absolutely okay to ask for help.

Visit www.cycleagainstsuicide.com for more.
The Top Oil Charity Spring Climb held on Saturday has been hailed a great success.

Speaking to the Donegal Democrat, Lorraine Thompson of the Donegal Youth Service said that while the weather conditions weren't the best, it didn't dampen the spirits of the large number who scaled Donegal's famous mountain.

There was a great atmosphere on the day and everyone found it a very positive experience, she said.

We were joined on the climb by Jason Black, who climbed Mount Everest three years ago and local adventure racer, Sean McFadden, who won The Race in 2015, Lorraine added.

Around 700 euro was raised through the climb.

The money will certainly be put to good use. Donegal Youth Service is open for all young people. We offer one-to-one support at our base on Port Road (Letterkenny). We are delighted to have been selected as the benefiting charity for the first Top Oil climb, she added.

Lorraine also extended her thanks to Roarty's Top Oil Service Station in Dunlewey for providing refreshments for the climbers.
dpa ElectionsData

With dpa ElectionsData you get access to a unique collection of data. Via a programming interface (Rest-API), your developers can access detailed information, candidate profiles and live results for all national elections in the European Union and important international elections, like the US Midterm elections etc.

The data pool also includes all heads of state and government as well as about 20,000 elected members of parliament throughout the EU. In addition to their data (name, party, constituency or list position), we collect social media profiles and official websites of individuals and parties.
Distell has announced the appointment of Angus Upton as its global brand ambassador for its single malts portfolio.

Upton joins from The Scottish Malt Whisky Society where he specialised in offering personalised tastings for high-value clients.

He is one of the youngest members of The Scottish Malt Whisky Society tasting panel, as well as working in the Royal Lochnagar distillery and providing consultant and tasting services to independent bottlers.

Upton will represent Distell globally for its single malts portfolio, which includes Bunnahabhain, Deanston, Ledaig and Tobermory.

Distell Malts global marketing manager Alison Gibb said: Angus enthusiasm and category expertise is clear to see and will be invaluable as he represents our unique brands in key global markets.

Upton said: Joining such an established whisky producer has been a long-term ambition of mine and Im honoured to join the team.
With a reputation for being the most smallest, most mobile and most affordable way for small business owners to accept credit cards, Square Reader is now available across Australia.

Launched in March, Square Reader has been adopted by small and micro business owners who are using the innovative new business tool to accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit and debit cards wherever their business takes them. From today, Square Reader is now available in stores and online at over 490 Officeworks, Apple and Bunnings locations around the country. This availability simplifies and expedites access for over two million Australian small business owners who can now use Square Reader to start accepting card payments quickly and securely from their smartphone or tablet device.

Jack Dorsey, CEO and Co-Founder of Square, said: With the launch of Square Reader in Australia, were empowering local sellers with the tools they need to start, run, and grow their businesses. Our launch in Australia is an important step for our company and an exciting moment for a market so committed to innovation and an entrepreneurial small business community.

Square Reader combines the best in mobility with accessibility and affordability, without compromising security or power. The device, combined with Squares powerful and free Register point-of-sale app, has been designed with the needs of a variety businesses in mind, with suitability ranging from cafes to bars, tradies to photographers, food trucks to market sellers, retail stores and many more.

Small business owners across Australia now have immediate access to Square Reader through our large partner network of Australias leading retail stores commented Ben Pfisterer, Square Australian Country Manager. Businesses shouldnt have to wait weeks to be sent a card payment terminal, or spend valuable time on the phone registering for an account and completing long, arduous application forms. They shouldnt have to be worried about their terminal going down and having to wait days for a replacement. With availability in 490 retail stores across Australia, Square is making it simpler for business owners to accept card payments, and significantly reducing the time that is traditionally taken to start accepting card payments.

By increasing access and presence in Australia, Square Reader is fast becoming the go-to device for business owners of all sizes when it comes to card acceptance. Squares retail partner, Officeworks, welcomes this commitment to the local market. Square Reader is a valuable addition to the Officeworks stable of outstanding technology products, empowering our small business customers with the tools they need to run their business effectively, said Toby Watson, Business Manager of Technology for Officeworks. Were excited to work with Square to bring our small business customers an affordable and simple card payment tool.

Square Reader can be purchased from Officeworks, Apple and Bunnings stores for $19, and online at square.com.au with free shipping across Australia.

Dynamic Business spoke to two small businesses about their Square experience:

Comparing Apples to Oranges

Roasted by Numbers

About Square, Inc.

Square creates tools that help sellers of all sizes start, run, and grow their businesses. Squares point-of-sale service offers tools for every part of running a business, from accepting credit cards and tracking inventory to real-time analytics and invoicing. In the United States, Square also offers sellers financial and marketing services, including small business financing and customer engagement tools. Square Reader was launched in Australia on March 8, 2016, as the smallest, most mobile and most affordable card payment reader available in the local market. Square Reader allows business owners to accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit and debit cards directly from their compatible smartphone or tablet device. Square was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Australia.
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LEEDS - Sustainability in the fashion industry will be the focus of an event in the UK in September where delegates will be asked to consider the issue of 'Leverage Points' in the fashion industry. Leverage Points are points in a system or organisation where a small shift in one thing can produce large changes elsewhere.
(Photo:  Sean Hawkey / WCC)During the UN COP 21 climate talks in Paris in December 2015, a delegation of faith leaders and climate change activists met with President Francois Hollande.

French President Francois Hollande has praised Protestant churches and organizations for their work in areas such as health, social inclusion and support for refugees and migrants.

The French president spoke to Protestant church leaders during an April 13 meeting at the presidential Elysee Palace with 300 Protestants representatives, Stephen Brown reports for the World Council of Churches.

"You are present where others are absent," Hollande told the representatives of churches, foundations, associations and institutions belonging to the Protestant Federation of France and the Federation of Protestant Solidarity.

Hollande also highlighted actions leading up to the United Nations climate conference in Paris in December 2015, "where we shared the same values."

There are no official religious statistics for France but Protestants have been estimated at about 2 percent of the country's 64 million people, compared to 65 percent who describe themselves as Catholic and 6 percent Muslim.

President Hollande defended his government in response to questions from five young people from French Protestant organizations on refugees, youth unemployment, people on the streets, those with disabilities and the place of religion in society.

The Protestant Federation of France president, Pastor Francois Clavairoly, said in a speech it is "an important milestone along the path we walk together in society."

This was good for, "for social cohesion, democratic life, search for direction, and service to our contemporaries, especially the poorest, the most vulnerable, excluded and most powerless."

It was the first such large-scale meeting of Protestants with the current French president and came at a time of debate in France about the place of religion in society.

FRANCE'S 'SECULARITY'

French are often insistent on tightly to drawing the limits of the country's strict separation of religion and state, called "laicite" (secularity), dating back to aftermath of the French Revolution.

Clavairoly warned against "a narrow 'laicite' which looks upon its citizens in a completely abstract way, without taking any account of culture, religion or human depth."

In response, Hollande described laicite "as the freedom given to each person to practice the religion of their choice, on the condition that they don't impose it on others. It also allows each person not to be a believer."

Referring to the Nov. 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris in which 130 people died, the French president underlined the role of religious leaders can play in promoting a message of social cohesion.

"We all live in the same community, with the same rules. We live with the conviction that no religion can impose itself on others," said Hollande.

The date chosen for the meeting at the Elysee Palace  13 April  marked the anniversary of the Edict of Nantes signed in 1598 by King Henri IV.

This accord granted a degree of toleration to Protestants and put a temporary end to the French wars of religion between Roman Catholics and Protestants.

Earlier in the day, the city of Paris commemorated the Protestant victims of one of the most notorious atrocities of the French religious wars, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572.

About 4,000 Protestants were killed during three days of mob violence in the French capital after King Charles IX authorized the assassination of Protestant leaders on Aug. 24, St. Bartholomew's Day.

It was followed by killings throughout France of a further 10,000 Protestants.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo unveiled a plaque to commemorate the victims, describing the massacre as a warning against stigmatizing and repressing minorities which can lead to an "uncontrollable dynamic of extermination."

In his address at the ceremony, Pastor Clavairoly welcomed the new official memorial to those killed in the massacre.

The commemoration was an injunction, he said, to work for a "society that is willing to deal with and confront its differences and contradictions, not in violence but in debate and discussion,"

Clavairoly said the massacre was, "the tragic symbol of a stalemate in which a whole country gets locked and is unable to resolve matters except through what can be called a state crime or violence of a terrifying intensity that in the end becomes reciprocal."

The Protestant Federation of France gathers about 30 churches and 80 associations and the Federation of Protestant Solidarity groups 360 organizations. Taken together they manage 1,000 social service institutions and services with a total of 28,000 staff and volunteers.
(Photo:  2013 Eglise Protestante Unie de France)WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit addressing synod of the United Protestant Church of France in Lyon on May 11, 2013.

French Protestants have united to form one church bringing together Reformed and Lutheran Christians in a country where Roman Catholics were once the majoriity, but where more than half the population now say they are agnostics or atheists.

"For five centuries, being Protestant in France meant not being Catholic," the president of the national council of the new United Protestant Church of France, the Rev. Laurent Schlumberger, said at the official inauguration ceremony in Lyon on May 11. "But that world has changed."

Schlumberger described the formation of the united church as a response to "immense changes" in the religious landscape of France and the result of the ecumenical movement for visible unity between churches.

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, said at the ceremony, "The way Christians here in France  Evangelicals, Roman Catholics, Lutheran-Reformed, Orthodox, Pentecostals - manage to work together across the different confessions can also inspire and challenge Christians elsewhere.

"I am also encouraged by how your church, now united, has been so well-represented also by lay people and women in many ecumenical gatherings. I hope that over time other denominations may be inspired to join you in your united church."

Tveit added, "No one confession can be Christ's Church on its own."

French Protestants in past centuries were persecuted for their beliefs in a society in which the Roman Catholic Church accounted for the majority of the population.

Since 2008, however, more than 50 percent of people in France describe themselves as agnostic or atheist, Schlumberger noted.

As a result, Catholicism, like other religious groups, has become the faith of a minority.

"French Protestantism can no longer exist by defining itself over against another religious group," he stated. This offers "an opportunity to find a new way of being church, relevant to today's world," said Schlumberger.

"This is the great challenge facing us," he continued. "For us Protestants it involves moving on from focussing on ourselves to sharing, from being a closed group to meeting others."

Hundreds of people from throughout France and international guests from many countries joined the inauguration ceremony in Lyon.

In an address to the gathering, the French minister of the interior, Manuel Valls, responsible for relations between the government and religious communities, praised the contribution of Protestants to French society.

He noted their values and work ethic, and their role in resisting tyranny during the Second World War.

At the same time, Valls underlined the importance of France's strict separation of Church and State as a "bulwark" against intolerance and exclusion.

"This does not mean the negation of the existence of religion but a clear separation between the temporal and the spiritual," he stated.

The new church is a union of the Reformed Church of France and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France, which together have about 450 pastors and 400 000 adherents.

Although both Reformed and Lutherans trace their history back to the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, they were divided for many centuries on doctrinal issues, such as their understanding of the Eucharist or Lord's Supper.

In 1973 an accord called the Leuenberg Agreement created a "reconciled diversity" between Lutheran and Reformed churches in Europe, Schlumberger noted in his address.

Earlier, the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh "called us to place the mission of the church at the forefront and to see confessional identities as less important," said the church president.

In 1934 in Germany, within the Confessing Church, "the Barmen Declaration brought together Lutherans and Reformed in affirming the final authority of Jesus Christ alone in the face of Nazi idolatry." This inspired post-war Protestantism, particularly in France, said Schlumberger.

Other inspiration came from the founding of the World Council of Churches in 1948. The Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church, which opened in 1962 demonstrated "how ecumenical hopes could be reflected within the largest church, and change it, although many had thought it to be static and unmoveable," Schlumberger recalled.
When Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is on the campaign trail talking about education, the Republican presidential candidate is perhaps best known for two promises: Hell have the U.S. Department of Education end the Common Core State Standardsand hell abolish the federal Education Department itself.

The first of those would seem to be a nonstarterthe common core is a state-driven initiative, not a federal mandate, and the Education Department has no authority to roll it back. The second harks back to President Ronald Reagan, whose 1980 campaign platform included ending the then-new department, a push that has never gained traction.

That leaves Cruzs other major K-12 theme: support for charter schools and vouchers, which the first-term U.S. senator has put at the top of his legislative agenda since he was elected in 2012.

This year, for example, Cruz introduced the Educational Freedoms Accounts Act, which would require the District of Columbia to use local school funding to support private school vouchers. The current D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides vouchers to students in the nations capital, is federally funded.

Cruz also co-sponsored 2015 legislation by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to allow federal Title I money to follow students to the public or private schools of their choice. And he did the same for a 2014 bill written by Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., to expand the federal governments role in supporting charters. (Neither bill passed.)

Repeating his refrain that educational choice is currently the nations biggest civil rights issue, Cruz told media host and commentator Glenn Beck in an interview last year that school choice is about giving low-income kids the same ability to choose an excellent school that the rich and middle class have always had.

As a supporter of school choice, Cruz has some company across the ideological divide. Thats in stark contrast to some of his other positions on touchy K-12 issues.

In todays climate, for example, ending the Education Department would represent the zenith of tea-party conservatives plans for education policy, said Michael Q. McShane, the director of education policy at the Show-Me Institute, a Missouri think tank that promotes K-12 choice and free-market principles. (Neither he nor the institute has endorsed any candidate.)

Its tough to go farther than that, McShane said.

Cruzs campaign did not respond to requests for comment on his education plans and priorities.

Empowering the States

In addition to his efforts to expand school choice, Cruz has emphasized state prerogatives in education policy. Along with a former rival for the GOP nomination, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, he co-sponsored the proposed A-Plus Act last year, which would have allowed states to essentially shrug off federal accountability requirements. (A push by Cruz to attach a similar amendment to the Every Student Succeeds Act fell short.)

He also supported a 2013 bill from Sen. John Cornyn, his fellow Texas Republican, that would have given states much more discretion over how they use federal money.

And Cruz opposed ESSA, the successor to the No Child Left Behind Act, on the grounds thatin contrast to the views of many policymakers and observersit continues to propagate the large and ever-growing role of the federal government in our education system, as he said in a statement last year. Cruz did not vote on the final bill that passed in December.

Cruz is one of the few members of Congress to take a truly conservative approach to issues such as ESSA, the common core, and student-data privacy, instead of merely pushing for a watered-down, more gradual enactment of Democratic policy preferences, said Joy Pullmann, an education research fellow at the Heartland Institute, a think tank that supports school choice and opposes the common core.

When youre working with Cruzs office, they get the threat that the federal government has become to folks on the ground who work with the children in front of them, said Pullmann, who supports Cruz personally, although the Heartland Institute itself is not endorsing any candidate.

Moment of Strength

But on the campaign trail, Cruz recently had an awkward moment related to his support for choice. He had planned to speak at the Bronx Lighthouse Charter Preparatory Academy in New York City earlier this month, ahead of New York states April 19 primary. But after some students threatened to walk out of the event, the school canceled it.

The cancellation of Cruzs visit to the charter school shouldnt necessarily hurt him, according to McShane of the Show-Me Institute, although Cruz was an underdog in the New York race.

In fact, McShane argued, the incident highlights something important about Cruzs support for charters and school choice, and its backers in general. The incident at the Bronx charter school is a reminder that the educational choice movement would suffer if it became pigeonholed as an urban or suburban movement, or a priority only for Democrats or Republicans, McShane said.

See Also For more on the presidential candidates positions on education and the 2016 campaign, see Education Weeks online election guide. Presidential Candidates on Education: Election Guide

People support school choice for a variety of reasons. There are people who support a market-driven ideology, and so they support school choice because it will lead to the best outcomes, McShane said. Its great to see people from across the political spectrum support it, if you support school choice.

Separately, however, McShane questioned whether the senator could articulate a detailed plan to dismantle the Education Department and therefore throw the fate of billions of dollars in federal Title I aid to low-income students into question.

And Cruz is as guilty as other candidates, Democratic and Republican, in throwing out red meat to voters, such as talk of ending the common core, instead of focusing on more important issues, in the view of Kevin P. Chavous, a founding board member of the American Federation for Children, which supports charters and private-school-choice programs.

Weve got far more urgent needs in terms of educating Americas kids than getting into a war about standards, Chavous said. But its easy politically to talk about that because its become a galvanizing issue. And I think thats unfortunate.

I give him credit for lifting up school choice where others havent, he said of Cruz. But I dont know how much of a priority it would be for him, in terms of his approach to education. (Neither Chavous nor the federation is endorsing any candidate.)

And Cruzs rhetoric is particularly hollow, because theres no real chance the federal government will approve a massive voucher expansion any time soon, said Charles Barone, the policy director for Democrats for Education Reform, which supports charter schools (but not vouchers) and relatively robust federal accountability, among other policies.

Thats about as irrelevant to what the federal government can actually do as talking about common core is, Barone said.

Barone noted that a bipartisan agreement for fiscal 2016 federal appropriations helped boost federal funding for charters by $80 million, increasing it to $333 millionbut to Barones knowledge, Cruz did not help to secure that additional money.

A Smart Guy and a Blank Slate

More generally, Barone criticized Cruz for supporting a substantially rolled-back federal role in education and for what Barone sees as pandering to GOP primary voters: He is with the farther-right wing of the Republican caucus.

Pullmann conceded that if he becomes president, Cruz cant direct the federal government to end common core. But she said his opposition to the standards point to larger concerns among conservative voters about the pressure that the federal bureaucracy inappropriately puts on states and school systems.

That whole structure is going to keep giving us things like the common core, unless someone eliminates the structure. Thats the source of the problem, Pullmann said. If Reagan couldnt do it, I dont know if Cruz can do it. But at least its worth a shot.

Sandy Kress, who as a top education adviser in President George W. Bushs administration helped craft the No Child Left Behind law, is especially skeptical of Cruzs support for the A-Plus Act, which would have freed states from Washingtons accountability mandates. He said the senators proposal is not really conservative at all because of its lack of accountability for federal money.

And he said Cruzs stances contrast with what Kress considers the nuanced, thoughtful plans put out by Bush during his 2000 campaign, along with those from Bushs Democratic rival, Al Gore.

In the end, Kress, like Chavous, isnt impressed with what he calls Cruzs mostly vacuous rhetoric and his congressional record on education, or any other presidential candidates for that matter.

Still, Kress, who said he knows Cruz from their time working on the 2000 campaign but hasnt spoken with him in several years, said the idea that Cruz hasnt focused substantively on education might be helpful in one key respect if he does become president.

Hes a smart guy. Hes going to be confronted with having to have some sort of education policy, said Kress, whos not backing a particular candidate. A smart guy [with a blank slate] might be better than a guy like [Democratic hopeful Sen.] Bernie Sanders.
Jonathan Taylor, EIB Vice President responsible for climate action, environment and energy was representing the EIB at an event on Green Finance in the margins of the Spring Meetings in Washington. The meeting focused on the need to deliver on the commitments made at COP21 and the role of governments and public financing institutions in mobilising private capital for green investment.

The event was co-organised by the Paulson Institute, the Green Finance Committee (GFC), China Society for Finance and Banking under The Peoples Bank of Chinas (PBOC), the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), UNEP and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Participants were confident that the market was giving off promising signals, with investors moving towards sustainable financing paths. However, the broad view was that to achieve the Paris targets, these numbers need to increase. Vice president Taylor said ,"Leveraging in private sector investment will be key to getting the money we need to meet the targets".

The Vice President highlighted the volume and proportion of EIB financing devoted to green issues,as well as the bank's development of products to facilitate green investment,on both sides of the balance sheet.

The EIB started the market for Green Bonds in 2007 and has issued almost EUR 13 billion in the format. This makes it the biggest issuer of Green Bonds in the world, and a principle driver of best practices in the market.

This meeting followed discussions among senior representatives from Multilateral Development Bank`s to assess progress on climate action post-COP 21 and reinforce their commitment to work collectively to increase climate investments from public and private sectors as set out in the joint MDB declaration at COP 21.

At the meeting, mainstreaming climate action considerations in all investments took the centre stage. This is an area where the EIB, is a pioneer. Overall the EIB currently expects to finance climate-friendly projects worth USD 100 billion by 2020. The Bank commits at least 25% of total lending to climate-action. In developing countries, at least 35% of lending will be dedicated to climate action by 2020.

Vice President Taylor emphasized the EIB's leading role in collaborating with other MFIs to develop common standards. The EIB has coordinated a group of 11 international financial institutions which released guidelines for the harmonised reporting of the impact of projects associated with Green Bonds, thereby improving transparency and fostering comparability across Green Bond issuers, which is vital for engaging institutional investors and bringing scale to climate finance.

The Green Climate Fund, to which the EIB has recently been accredited, presents a further opportunity for partnership for successful and innovative climate finance.
The Investment Plan for Europe backs Heidelberger Druckmaschinen to carry the flag for Europe in the race to make digital printing faster and more efficientand to find innovative ways to make factories run themselves

The mymuesli shop on Heidelbergs quaint Hauptstrasse stands on the edge of the citys historic old town and just across the Neckar River from Germanys oldest university. But its at the forefront of the future of digital printing and industrial innovation.

In the back of the airy, bright shop, beyond the pink and yellow canisters of organic oats and berries, theres a black glass machine taller than a man and as wide as a drinks vending machine. Choose a tube of muesli as a gift and a pink-shirted mymuesli worker slips it inside the black machine. On a touchscreen you enter a personalised message and upload a photosay, a picture of your kids. The machine rolls the tube under a violet light thats actually an innovative piece of ink-jet technology, and seconds later the mymuesli sales person hands over your customised muesli can with the picture and message printed directly onto the container.

The message printed onto that canister of breakfast food might read: Europes competitiveness in the digital printing market depends on Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, the company that made the sleek black machine at the back of the mymuesli shop. The printing machinery company also is pushing the boundaries of digitally automated industrysomething thats key to Europes economic future as the world enters a so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution in which machines, rather than humans, will increasingly take operating decisions.

This is industry 4.0, says Jason Oliver, Heidelberger Druckmaschinens head of digital. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen is making dramatic changes in where we bet the future will be. It has bet its future on digital.
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.
Re: schools in Ticino Since you are coming from Italy (as I am) I would warn you the Swiss schooling system is very different from the Italian, as one could naturally expect it to be, given it is a different country. Please note access to Liceo and University in Switzerland is selective. It is not like in Italy where, effectively, after Middle School a student can choose whatever he or she thinks appropriate.

Depending on academic results/inclination the child's choice of a secondary school can be limited. Accessing a "liceo" is not automatic and it is not entirely a choice of the child or the family. Similarly and to varying extent, access to universities is depending on results. There are three different types of universities: Professional Universities, federal universities and "politecnico federale".

The proportion of students that access a liceo is more reduced than in Italy and similarly there are fewer students that access a federal university or a politecnico.

I hope this helps.
Re: Finding a job in Switzerland, part II Quote: RonJames55 I have been thinking about seeking work in Ticino to be honest, but unfortunately, our financial situation wouldn't allow such a big move at the moment..



I have knowledge of web languages and some experience with web design.



If you're willing to take ANY job then move to Ticino and work as a waiter, shop assistant, etc. I know you want to be with your girlfriend and she doesn't want to move so think about meeting up at weekends in either Geneva or Ticino. If she can't afford to support you then you MUST find a job or face leaving Switzerland again.



And I hope you'll sort out the Swiss permit and health insurance this time around! You can be here as a tourist for 3 months, but after that you must register as being resident and get your health insurance organised or Switzerland. If you can't support yourself financially and neither can your girlfriend then you won't get a permit to live here, simple as that. Knowledge and experience are not the same as qualifications. Without a degree you're not as desirable as many other applicants.If you're willing to take ANY job then move to Ticino and work as a waiter, shop assistant, etc. I know you want to be with your girlfriend and she doesn't want to move so think about meeting up at weekends in either Geneva or Ticino. If she can't afford to support you then you MUST find a job or face leaving Switzerland again.And I hope you'll sort out the Swiss permit and health insurance this time around! You can be here as a tourist for 3 months, but after that you must register as being resident and get your health insurance organised or Switzerland. If you can't support yourself financially and neither can your girlfriend then you won't get a permit to live here, simple as that.
Re: Migrants, Refugees, Asylum Seekers or Other terms? Quote: TobiasM Not refugees, because nobody is fleeing fighting in Somalia? So much sympathy for death and those fleeing conflict and instability, wow you truly are a nice person!



https://www.amnesty.ch/de/laender/af...FTUW0wodmZcGMw



There is war and terror being waged all over Africa at the moment.



Why is war being waged all over Africa?



The tribes have always fought one another. When one tribe wins, the other begins conflict all over. It never ended, and it will never end. It is their way of life.



Europe looks attractive on TV from over there. Beautiful homes, modern transport, fashionably dressed people, fully stocked shops, fun, leisure, etc. They will bring themselves to Europe, with all their baggage, and begin to wage their skirmishes here, first among themselves and their opposing ethnic compatriots/neighbors, and then on the Europeans, till the cities here look like what they ran away from. And the indigenous Europeans live behind barred windows and security fencing.



What Europeans fail to understand is that the African cultures/values are just different to the European way. Empathy and pity is not a common attribute to the African way. Empathy and pity are considered "being soft" and must be taken advantage of. Push and take until there is nothing left to take.



Okay, so my words here will offend many on EF, but only those who have never lived in Africa.



As for travelling North to Europe - anyone wonder why they simply don`t travel South? It`s warmer there too. Most of the South of Africa (not only South Africa on the far end) have no wars. They also do not have any free social amenities, stocked shops, nice cars and houses (except the governing elite of course) etc ........ or empathy or pity for their own kind. ( "kind" as in fellow Black people). Why is war being waged all over Africa?The tribes have always fought one another. When one tribe wins, the other begins conflict all over. It never ended, and it will never end. It is their way of life.Europe looks attractive on TV from over there. Beautiful homes, modern transport, fashionably dressed people, fully stocked shops, fun, leisure, etc. They will bring themselves to Europe, with all their baggage, and begin to wage their skirmishes here, first among themselves and their opposing ethnic compatriots/neighbors, and then on the Europeans, till the cities here look like what they ran away from. And the indigenous Europeans live behind barred windows and security fencing.What Europeans fail to understand is that the African cultures/values are just different to the European way. Empathy and pity is not a common attribute to the African way. Empathy and pity are considered "being soft" and must be taken advantage of. Push and take until there is nothing left to take.Okay, so my words here will offend many on EF, but only those who have never lived in Africa.As for travelling North to Europe - anyone wonder why they simply don`t travel South? It`s warmer there too. Most of the South of Africa (not only South Africa on the far end) have. They also do not have any free social amenities, stocked shops, nice cars and houses (except the governing elite of course) etc ........ or empathy or pity for their own kind. ( "kind" as in fellow Black people).
Re: A crime against humanity





- Bohmermann is not just "some" comedian, but probably the most intellectual. He's the guy who brought "Varoufake":



- This is not an isolated incident. Bohmermann picked up the story as Erdogan called in the German ambassador after xtr3, another satire show, made a rather funny song about him. The ambassador did the right thing and publicly told the Turkish government that Germany has a free press and freedom of speech. (Which is only true with certain exceptions usually relating to the Nazis)





- Merkel of course just made "that refugee deal" with Erdogan which was widely criticized in Germany.





- Bohmermann was fully aware of the legal situation. I know cause he literally said so at the beginning of his insults to Erdogan "let's do something illegal and insult a foreign head of state".





Long story short: He wanted to test Merkel and Erdogan. He knew that this specific and old law has never been used in decades as the stakes are high: The federal government needs to approve an individual case before the otherwise independent courts are allowed to pick it up. Nobody would ever get that approval from guys like Schroder or even Kohl... he knew that Erdogan was already pulling all legal strings possible and would do so to the bitter end... and he knew that Merkel needs Erdogan. Showing that when push comes to shove Merkel is willing to trade civil liberties in for a deal to pick up some of those pesky refugees... that's pure genius. Ok, to put some facts into the discussion:- Bohmermann is not just "some" comedian, but probably the most intellectual. He's the guy who brought "Varoufake": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx-1LQu6mAE - This is not an isolated incident. Bohmermann picked up the story as Erdogan called in the German ambassador after xtr3, another satire show, made a rather funny song about him. The ambassador did the right thing and publicly told the Turkish government that Germany has a free press and freedom of speech. (Which is only true with certain exceptions usually relating to the Nazis)- Merkel of course just made "that refugee deal" with Erdogan which was widely criticized in Germany.- Bohmermann was fully aware of the legal situation. I know cause he literally said so at the beginning of his insults to Erdogan "let's do something illegal and insult a foreign head of state".Long story short: He wanted to test Merkel and Erdogan. He knew that this specific and old law has never been used in decades as the stakes are high: The federal government needs to approve an individual case before the otherwise independent courts are allowed to pick it up. Nobody would ever get that approval from guys like Schroder or even Kohl... he knew that Erdogan was already pulling all legal strings possible and would do so to the bitter end... and he knew that Merkel needs Erdogan. Showing that when push comes to shove Merkel is willing to trade civil liberties in for a deal to pick up some of those pesky refugees... that's pure genius.
Re: Should I be stocking up on stuff in the US before I arrive in July?? Quote: swissamericanlife I would bring:

bicycles (they are about 50-75% more for similar quality),

pain, cold, allergy medication (Advil Cold & Sinus doesn't exist here).

As a fellow American, if I had a relocation company paying for the move, I'd bring a good barbecue grill. Again, ridiculous price for good quality.

Maybe stock up on prescriptions you may be taking. I take a Rx that is $6 in the US and $60+ here in CH.

Random items my wife always asks her sister to bring: Baking Soda, Baking Powder, baking yeast, (all sold in tiny packets here for twice the cost), brown sugar, chocolate chips, molasses. You can find these items in various specialty cases, but you'll pay for it. Not sure if it's allowed, but something like Shout stain remover for laundry is a good thing to have. The laundry 'stain sticks' aren't very effective here.



To the posters above points, to which are to the most part quite good - i have three comments



- pain, cold, allergy medication (Advil Cold & Sinus doesn't exist here). - Not strictly true, the difference is in the US, like quite a few products in the UK, they are sold under brand names. Learn the names of the active ingredients and you can find everything you need. Just you'll be going to a pharmacy to get it and not a Wallgreens/Boots (US/UK respectively). There are also some alternative OTC products available in Switzerland, ask the pharmacist / doctor.



-Random items my wife always asks her sister to bring: Baking Soda, Baking Powder, baking yeast, (all sold in tiny packets here for twice the cost), brown sugar, chocolate chips, molasses. You can find these items in various specialty cases, but you'll pay for it. - Partially true, Amazon keeps a good stock, and if you can go shopping in France once in a while, then you can find most of this easily.





-"Not sure if it's allowed, but something like Shout stain remover for laundry is a good thing to have. The laundry 'stain sticks' aren't very effective here." Good point on the stain Sticks, however Vanish Oxi Action - available in COOP, or in Germany in DM, is definately very effective.





-----

Regarding the bicycle, if its a mountain bike - bring it. If its a city Bike, maybe shop about via google abit as to what it would cost here.



Some of the "lifes little luxuries" that we all take for granted - ... chocolate / candy / soda / favourite beer / wine. It takes some adjusting to either due to price or lack of availability, but there are great local alternatives, it also makes that moment where you have your favourite chocolate or beer from back home all the more special.



A slightly expensive solution for getting items from the US is



All the posters here have exceedingly good points! However do what you think is best For the above mentioned, shopping for some of these items in Germany will be the key, especially the bigger cities as there is quite a large US expat community in the south of germany ( www.toytowngermany.com - German version of this forum)To the posters above points, to which are to the most part quite good - i have three comments- pain, cold, allergy medication (Advil Cold & Sinus doesn't exist here). - Not strictly true, the difference is in the US, like quite a few products in the UK, they are sold under brand names. Learn the names of the active ingredients and you can find everything you need. Just you'll be going to a pharmacy to get it and not a Wallgreens/Boots (US/UK respectively). There are also some alternative OTC products available in Switzerland, ask the pharmacist / doctor.-Random items my wife always asks her sister to bring: Baking Soda, Baking Powder, baking yeast, (all sold in tiny packets here for twice the cost), brown sugar, chocolate chips, molasses. You can find these items in various specialty cases, but you'll pay for it. - Partially true, Amazon keeps a good stock, and if you can go shopping in France once in a while, then you can find most of this easily.-"Not sure if it's allowed, but something like Shout stain remover for laundry is a good thing to have. The laundry 'stain sticks' aren't very effective here." Good point on the stain Sticks, however Vanish Oxi Action - available in COOP, or in Germany in DM, is definately very effective.-----Regarding the bicycle, if its a mountain bike - bring it. If its a city Bike, maybe shop about via google abit as to what it would cost here.Some of the "lifes little luxuries" that we all take for granted - ... chocolate / candy / soda / favourite beer / wine. It takes some adjusting to either due to price or lack of availability, but there are great local alternatives, it also makes that moment where you have your favourite chocolate or beer from back home all the more special.A slightly expensive solution for getting items from the US is www.myus.com which effectively offers parcel forwarding for a fee. Great for getting items for US or Canadian stores or items for specific holidays which are not observed / celebrated in Europe.All the posters here have exceedingly good points! However do what you think is best
It looks like there's a good reason why you never see Kate Middleton standing next to Camilla Parker Bowles in pictures, even at royal family functions. There's a new rumor that says Prince Charles' wife supposedly tried to tear things apart between the Duchess and her husband Prince William, simply because she was jealous of all the attention they were getting from the public.

According to The Daily News on Friday, bestselling author Christopher Anderson alleges in his upcoming book Game of Crowns that Camilla was trying to "create a wedge" between the Duke and Duchess all because "she was disgusted with William and Kate sucking up all the attention." Throughout the years she's been hoping to fix her reputation as the media has always portrayed her as the person who broke up Prince Charles' marriage to the late Princess Diana.

In fact, it might have even been Camilla who was behind the couple's break up back in 2007, when William abruptly halted things with Kate. The royal pair ended up getting back together and tying the knot in April of 2011.

In his book, Anderson says that Camilla managed to make Prince Charles step in between William and Kate, especially after he started expressing doubts about them settling together at such a young age.

For Camilla though, she's had a hard time fitting in from the get-go. According to Anderson, Queen Elizabeth didn't want to see her son marrying her and even ordered her children Laura Lopes and Tom Parker Bowles to stay away from her grandchildren, Princes William and Harry. Despite the resistance, Prince Charles and Camilla wed back in 2005.
CIA chief more concerned with Obamaism than protecting Americans: Critics By Jim Kouri

CIA Director John Brennan has said that his spy agency will not use controversial interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, even if ordered to do so by a future president. While the news media are applauding his statement, critics believe the time has come for a more devoted warrior rather than a political hack for an administration that prides itself on espousing Obamaism, a/k/a political correctness.



Brennan made the waterboarding statement during an interview last Sunday with the proven Obama-loving NBC News staff. "I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I've heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure. I won't agree to having any CIA officer carrying out waterboarding again." President Barack Obama prohibited waterboarding shortly after taking office in 2009. However, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has repeatedly promised that he would revive the practice if elected. Ted Cruz, Trump's greatest rival for the GOP nomination, said during a debate that he would use the practice, but he also stated he didn't believe the practice amounted to torture. In December 2014, Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report claiming the interrogation methods used by the CIA in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were "brutal and far worse" than the agency had represented to lawmakers. Many working in the intelligence community, the military complex and in law enforcement said the report was heavy on denigrating the CIA and the war on Islamic terrorism but light on facts to back up the assertions. But, President Obama was well-pleased with his CIA director. "In John Brennan the men and women of the CIA will have the leadership of our nation's most skilled intelligence professionals," said Obama. ""That unique combination of smarts and strength that he claims comes from growing up in New Jersey." But not everyone is enthusiastic about Brennan being the nation's CIA chief. (Read more about 2010 calls for his resignation at Fox News here.) "Mr. Brennan is, at best, willfully blind to the threat posed to homeland and national security of the United States by those who adhere to Shariah law," said Tom Trento, director of Florida Security Council, who has been critical of Brennan's service in the Obama White House. Some of the nation's top intelligence, military, national security and law enforcement experts once loudly called for Homeland Security Advisor John Brennan to resign from his post or for President Barack Obama to fire Brennan from his White House staff.

During a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Thursday, respected experts, including officials from the Florida Security Council, told reporters that because of Brennan's adherence to the politically-correct orthodoxy that permeates the Obama administration the U.S. government is being prevented from identifying, understanding and countering radical Muslims and their threat of imposing Sharia law. Frank Gaffney, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Reagan administration, and others claim that Sharia is a supremacist, totalitarian legal doctrine that leads to terrorism, torture, abuse of women and young girls, and other horrors. A major piece of evidence that points to the dangers associated with Brennan's failure to perform his primary function  to know the enemy and its threat doctrine  came to light when analysts at the Florida Security Council discovered that a known Hamas operative and unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history (Holy Land Foundation), Sheik Kifah Mustapha,participated in a six-week-long, government-sponsored "Citizens Academy" hosted by the FBI as part of its outreach to the Muslim community. During the six-week FBI program, Mustapha  a man tied to an officially designated terrorist organization  was escorted into the top secret National Counterterrorism Center and other secure government facilities, including the FBI National Academy located on the Quantico, Virginia U.S. Marine Base. Terrorism expert Steve Emerson, director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, exposed Mustapha's appointment in Illinois to a post as a State Police chaplain. However, according to Illinois officials, the appointment was revoked in spite of the protests of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan must resign his post immediately," said Mr. Gaffney, whose Center for Security Policy released a report entitled, Shariah: The Threat to America. "Mr. Brennan is, at best, willfully blind to the threat posed to the homeland and national security of the United States by those who adhere to shariah. In the wake of this recent episode at the National Counterterrorism Center, in which the FBI gave a guided tour of one of our most sensitive counter-terrorism facilities to a known Hamas operative, it is clear that the cluelessness fostered by Mr. Brennan is causing an empowering of the wrong sorts of Muslims in America  and endangering the American people," said Gaffney to reporters. Several parts of this report are taken from writer Jim Kouri's analysis for Major General Paul Vallely (U.S. Army-Ret.) and his organization and web site Stand Up America. Jim Kouri, CPP, is founder and CEO of Kouri Associates, a homeland security, public safety and political consulting firm. He's formerly Fifth Vice-President, now a Board Member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, a columnist,and a contributor to the nationally syndicated talk-radio program, the Chuck Wilder Show. He's former chief of police at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at St. Peter's University and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri appears regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Fox News Channel, Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, etc. He also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty (Law & Order).. He holds a bachelor of science in Criminal Justice from Southwest University and SCI Technical School in New York City and completed training at the NYC Police Academy, FBI Continuing Education Program, and the Certified Protection Professional (CPP) of the American Society for Industrial Security. Home
In the company of patriots By Mark Alexander

The demands of operating a small business, especially one with many daily publishing deadlines, does not afford me the opportunity for much travel. However last week I learned that a fellow Tennessean was gathering a group of likeminded Patriots for a meeting, and it was just a couple hours' drive time away. Last Tuesday, I snuck into that gathering. That Tennessean, Joe Gregory, has devoted his time and resources  in fact his life  to Liberty and to making his community, our state and our nation a better place for all people. On this occasion, he was hosting a small event with the National Rifle Association's president, Allan Cors  another great Patriot. Joe has been, for many years, an outspoken supporter of the NRA's mission in defense of the Second Amendment. He knows that without the assurance of the primary civil right of self-defense, the rest of our Constitution is indefensible. On that point, it is worth rereading these words I often reference from Justice Joseph Story: "The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." I should note here that a strong majority of Americans now hold a favorable view of the NRA and its mission. Joe convened the meeting with a reference to the 241st observance of Patriots' Day on April 19th, and the first shots fired in the American Revolution. He referenced the battles at Lexington and Concord, because those opening salvos are irrevocably linked to Liberty, the core mission of the NRA as the nation's premier Second Amendment advocacy organization. He mentioned how, in April of 1775, General Thomas Gage, royal military governor of Massachusetts, dispatched a force of 700 British Army regulars under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith with secret orders to arrest Boston Tea Party leader Samuel Adams, Massachusetts Provincial Congress President John Hancock and merchant fleet owner Jeremiah Lee. But what most directly ties these orders to the enumeration in our Constitution that "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed" is that Gage ordered his Redcoats to capture and destroy arms and supplies stored by the Massachusetts militia in the town of Concord. Indeed, the first shots of the eight-year struggle for American independence were in response to the government's attempt to disarm the people. It was just after dawn on April 19th at the Lexington town green that the British killed eight of Captain John Parker's militiamen as they were dispersing. Later that day, after searching for powder and weapons in Concord, British light infantry companies faced rapidly growing ranks of militia and Minutemen at Concord's Old North Bridge. From depositions on both sides, the British fired first on the militia, killing two and wounding four. But this time, militia commander John Buttrick yelled the order, "Fire, for God's sake, fellow soldiers, fire!" And fire they did, commencing with "the shot heard round the world" immortalized in poet Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn." With that shot, farmers and laborers, landowners and statesmen alike brought upon themselves the sentence of death for treason against the Crown. In the ensuing firefight, the British took heavy casualties and in discord retreated to Concord village for reinforcements, and then retreated back toward Lexington. In retreat to Lexington, British regulars took additional casualties, including those suffered in an ambush by the reassembled ranks of John Parker's militia  "Parker's Revenge" as it became known. The English were reinforced with 1,000 troops in Lexington, but the King's men were no match for the militiamen, who inflicted heavy casualties upon the Redcoats along their 20-mile tactical retreat to Boston. And thus began the American Revolution in support of Liberty  not just for the Massachusetts militia, but for all mankind. Joe Gregory's gathering with Allan Cors and a room full of fellow Patriots was inspiring  as such company always is. If you want to experience a bit of that inspiration, take one minute and listen to a message from another fellow Tennessean. The discussion of "mission" reminded me of a mentor's wise words from long ago: "If your primary mission in life can be accomplished in your lifetime, then your mission is much too small." Like many of you reading these words, I have devoted much of my adult life to the fulfillment of a solemn oath "to support and defend" our Constitution "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." From the day I first took that oath at age 19, my obligation to abide by and fulfill it has never ceased. Of course, you need not have sworn that oath in order to fulfill it in spirit. But one should never assume that the Liberty enshrined in our Constitution is granted by it alone. As Alexander Hamilton wrote in 1775, "The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the Divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power." My "primary mission in life" has been and will remain until my last breath, the support and defense of the unalienable rights of all people to "life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness," because those rights are "endowed by their Creator." Such rights are not temporal, they are eternal. I have never been under the illusion that the full endowment of Liberty was something to be achieved during my lifetime, or that of my children and beyond. That endowment is a continuing process, and the singular blessing that we must, as Patrick Henry warned, "guard with jealous attention" for all of human history. In 1776, George Washington wrote in his General Orders, "The time is now near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die." Of that resolve, President Ronald Reagan asserted, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." Think for a moment about the third of those last four words: "where men were free." Indeed, the time is always at hand when American Patriots must reaffirm whether we are to be freemen or slaves. This November's presidential election may at this moment seem like a sorry exercise, but the results are critical to the future of Liberty. Mark Alexander is the executive editor of the Patriot Post. Home
How strange can it get? By Dr. Robert Owens

Some people believe in the Six Degrees of Separation Theory: the idea that everyone in the world is separated from everyone else by six links. Some people believe all of us are in this thing together, and that diversity is our strength and I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. Even if we are all connected in ways we cannot know I believe the world is filled with strangers. Take a ride and as you pass through country, town, and city you are constantly presented with the faces of people you will never know, and all of whom have lives and families that will never know you or your life or your family. Every day we see people we have never seen before and will never see again. They rise out of the mist beyond the pale of our personal knowledge and immediately are submerged again never to rise again. Our only connection will forever be that one fleeting moment when we moved through a single frame of the separate sagas which are our lives. Unlike Cain I do believe we are our brother's keeper, and unlike Scrooge I believe we should help our brothers in need instead of seeing them boiled with their own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through their hearts. However, unlike the rhetoric of Marx, Lenin, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders I do not believe that life should operate on the basis of from each according to their ability to each according to their need, or as we say in America today, spreading the wealth around. In other words, I am not a socialist. I believe in personal liberty, individual freedom, and economic opportunity. Sadly I find myself out of phase with the Progressive Clique which has successfully maneuvered its way to power using the education system, the media, government handouts, and uninformed, uninvolved, and emotional voters. Out of phase or not, I believe in the equality of opportunity which gives everyone a shot at success as opposed to the equality of outcome which our Dear Leader and his fellow-travelers wish to foist upon us, and which gives everyone the assurance of mediocrity. No matter the consequence, no matter the sacrifice we must stand up for what we believe or we will stand by while our nation is transformed into what we won't be able to believe is still called the United States of America. Day by day the bean counting pencil pushers who make up the nameless faceless bureaucracy grind out rule after rule and regulation after regulation with the force of law. President Obama's signature piece of legislation, Obamacare, churns out thousands upon thousands of pages of federal requirements all meant to fill in the blanks in a 2600 page bill that we had to pass to find out what was in it. Hope and change has become bait and switch. In the last presidential election Mr. Obama wasn't even trying to win votes from those who disagree with him. He wasn't trying to change minds. He was blatantly buying votes. He was betting that generations of entitlements had finally birthed the lumpen proletariat that his theories of government proclaim must exist for History to reach its summit. He bet his second term on the belief that there were enough people dependent upon the government that they would vote for a handout instead of voting for a hand up. He bet that America had been dumbed down enough and bribed enough to trade our heritage of freedom for the yoke of a guaranteed something instead of the opportunity for everything. Class warfare, penalizing success, dividing America into interest groups and voter blocks this was the strategy Mr. Obama thought would win as he worked to build a coalition of leftist intellectuals and those convinced they were disenfranchised. Looking at the polls it appeared he had the solid core of 40+% who will vote for a Democrat even if he is the devil himself. The question was would the unengaged and uninformed voters when combined with the illegals and the dead who at least get to vote in Chicago be enough for him to win? In the end it didn't matter when Romney decided to take the last month of the campaign off after throwing the last few debates. Can you imagine what a third Obama term (or as some call it Hillary's first term) will look like won on the basis of her promise to double down on social democracy, a complete disregard for the balance of power, and a desire to totally transform America? What will be left of the America we have known? How would we ever get back to where we came from? No entitlement once enacted has ever been repealed. The size of government never shrinks. The power it usurps from the people and the States is never surrendered and the check and balance of the Supreme Court will be frozen into a Progressive rubber stamp. A world filled with strangers keeps getting stranger all the time. No matter how many degrees of separation we should never be as divided as our Progressive Leaders try to portray us. We are Americans, and we can do better than this. Reject the siren song of free entitlements which are never free, and embrace the liberty our forefathers won for us. Let us renew our great experiment in human freedom and strive to see our nation rise again to be the last best hope of man that it is meant to be. The shining city on a hill that can light the way to a future worthy of free men and women held together by unity. Not a falling empire of competing special interests cobbled together as a ruling coalition led by an elitist clique who promotes separation and hyphenated Americans. Even if it takes more than six degrees of separation to connect to others what does it matter how connected we are to people around the world if we are in terminal disagreement with our fellow Americans? As a nation we are divided between those who want to strive to achieve and those who thrive because they receive. The Progressives have bred generations of passive takers who believe they are entitled to the fruit of others' labor. They pay no taxes so they don't care how high taxes go. They have no conception of paying for what they have, so they don't care about the national debt. They see America as a vending machine, so they don't believe in our unique place in History. They desire a shabby world of bread and circuses based on equality of outcome, so they don't long to be all they can be. Those of us who want America to be what America has been and what it should be, the home of the brave and the land of the free can't let divisions divide us anymore! We must unite to save liberty or we will stand alone at the end of the day. We may be strangers to one another. We may not know each other but if we are fellow believers in the personal liberty, individual freedom, and economic opportunity we must unite over what connects us to save what has always made us E PLURIBUS UNUM. Either that or we admit we are merely strangers in a strange land looking around at the social and cultural turmoil of today wondering how strange can it get. Dr. Robert Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com  2016 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens Home
What "Not Trump" Republicans must embrace to win in November

By Dr. Peter Morici



Establishment Republicans may be able to stop Donald Trump from winning the party's nomination, but their stalking horse, Ted Cruz, is hardly a party favorite and could be denied at the Cleveland convention too.

Polls indicate all the mud throwing between Trump and Cruz has helped render both likely losers to Hillary Clinton. However, establishment Republicans have focused too much on who they could nominate and not enough on the critical issues their nominee must address to win the general election.

Clinton has staked out positions on free trade, health care, education and gender equity, and the GOP standard bearer will have to veer from traditional party positions on those issues to have any chance of winning.

Blind allegiance to free trade, internationally, is akin to denying the federal government a role in regulating markets and monopolies, domestically, to assure fair competition and efficient outcomes.

Three of our largest trading partnersChina, Japan and Germanyabuse their size to victimize smaller nations and American workers. Either the GOP gets on board with fixing currency manipulation and toughening up trade agreements, as Clinton has lately endorsed, or it is dead in the water. Simply, many of Trump's non-college educated supporters will sit out the election and hand victory to Clinton.

Americans can't compete without better access to skills-based education but Hillary Clinton's proposal to make college freeincluding room and boardis absolute folly.

Experience teaches, when the federal government increases student aid, universities spend the additional money badly. Nowadays, 40 percent of college graduates lack the basic skills necessary for entry level white collar work.

Better to redirect much of what is spent on higher education toward vocational training and strictly condition aid on successful job placement. Also, impose student exit examinations on universities to qualify for federal aid and shut some second-tier institutions.

Obamacare is a bust. Health insurance is still prohibitively expensive, even if you are willing to settle for a $5000 deductible, and the federal and state websites are downright maddening. However, promising to bring back the regime of George W. Bush by repealing it and offering tax breaks and other subsidies won't wash with voters.

Trump's mussing about a British-style single payer system has no traction, but the Germans and Dutch pay much less for health care with private insurance systems that regulate markets differently, not more, than our system. The GOP should embrace those as a model for reform.

Gender is Hillary's trump card.

Many women, especially older women who were the victims of discrimination in their youth, believe a female president is needed to "break down barriers" even if those are now largely gone.

Currently, about 60 percent of the college degrees are granted to women and young women earn more than young men in many circumstances. The Economist newspaper, hardly a conservative mouthpiece, accuses Democrats of cynically distorting this issue to win elections.

The gender pay gap has many sourcesand subtle residual discrimination may be one factor but so are choices women make about career paths, hours worked and being with young children.

Clinton's notion of a national version of the California Paycheck Fairness Act, which requires even the smallest businesses to justify all pay differences between men and women to government supervisors, would be a bureaucratic nightmare and compliance costs would lower wages generally.

A better solution would be to mandate that businesses publish the compensation of all employeestransparency is the best antidote to latent discrimination.

These are radical ideas for Republicans to embrace but leveling the playing field in markets, looking for more cost effective solutions when domestic industries are inefficient, and laying bare remaining wage discrimination would promote economic growth.

In case establishment Republicans haven't heard, those are key performance metrics for conservative policies and would improve opportunities and fairness for all Americans.

Peter Morici is an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland, and a national columnist. He tweets @pmorici1
Theoretical rights, multiculturalism, and marginality  the Polish-Canadian case (Part Three) By Mark Wegierski

Canada today is clearly in the ambit of a North American mass-media based pop-culture. This pop-culture quite relentlessly obliterates any distinctive fragment-cultures. This happens especially when they lack a presence in the mass-media and pop-culture, or in the heavily state-subsidized official custodians of Canadian culture (typified by CanLit), or are unable to generate a certain cultural resiliency on their own. With the fewness of Polish-Canadian cultural figures such as writers, the community is mostly not represented in so-called CanLit (Canadian Literature). There is also the extreme infrequency of even a mention of Polish or Polish-Canadian matters in the mass-media. The author of this presentation is unaware of any emphatically Polish-Canadian persons working as opinion-columnists at any major Canadian newspaper. The author is also unaware of any such senior editors at newspapers, magazines, or recognized publishing houses, nor any prominent literary agents, nor owners of more prominent bookstore chains. One could ask whether the Internet, with its potential for a genuine pluralism of outlooks, is rather different from earlier media, with its so-called gatekeepers. However, the Internet arrived after over four decades of the very heavy conceptual and infrastructural weight of earlier media, most notably, television. Certainly, no Polish-Canadian writer has reached the prominence of Ukrainian-Canadian author Janice Kulyk-Keefer. She was one of only four core professors at the University of Guelph-Humber Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. Along with her Ukrainian-Canadian colleague Marsha Skrypuch, Janice Kulyk-Keefer offers the hope to Ukrainian-Canadians that some important new writers could emerge in the future from that community. The Ukrainian-Canadian community, especially through the Taras Shevchenko Kobzar Literary Foundation, offers a huge annual monetary award for the best book on a Ukrainian theme, as well as, among numerous other initiatives, a scholarship completely funding attendance at the prestigious Humber College Writers' Workshop for those who are working on a manuscript on a Ukrainian-Canadian theme. There has almost always been in Polish immigration to Canada, the profound socio-economic problems of substantial poverty and difficulties of adjustment. Whatever the immigrants achieved was through very hard work. Polish-Canadians clearly lack to this day prominent philanthropists that can offer many millions of dollars to the community. While the initial trajectories of Ukrainian and Polish immigration to Canada may have been similar, they have now considerably diverged. Unlike the Ukrainian-Canadians, the community is unable to generate a degree of cultural resilience based mostly on its own philanthropic efforts. The Polish immigrants to Canada usually came from a background of profound insecurity. Given that the writing profession, and, indeed, most endeavours in the arts and humanities, often fail to offer a steady and substantial income, most parents usually felt more comfortable steering their children into more practically- and technically-oriented professions. There are also the problems with Polish community newspapers. They are typically published almost exclusively in Polish and have virtually no affect on Canadians of Polish descent  although this may have begun to change at some of the most forward-looking newspapers. The 1970s publication, Echo, edited by Les Wawrow, in which many articles appeared in English, was probably the only major attempt among young Canadians of Polish descent to try to "ride the wave" of Sixties' change, endeavouring to create a unique amalgam of Old Country rootedness and progressive idealism. However, the publication failed rather quickly. There has been a chronic failure to develop literary institutions in the community, around which some kind of discussion or literary circles could form. The Polish-Canadian Publishing Fund (Polski Fundusz Wydawniczy w Kanadzie) publishing books almost exclusively in Polish, is definitely a purely emigre phenomenon. In 1988, the Turzanski Foundation was established with great fanfare. However, its usual practice has been to invite well-known, well-established authors from Poland to receive its awards. A very courageous experiment in literary culture and life was the literary magazine, High Park, edited by Piotr Manycz. Twenty-five magnificent issues were published from November 1992 to December 1998. The physical and intellectual quality of the magazine was very high, and the magazine carried a fair number of articles in English. The magazine could have begun to create an artistic and literary circle around itself. Partially based on a draft of an English-language presentation read at the 6th Congress of Polish Canadianists (Polish Association for Canadian Studies) (Poznan, Poland: Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan), April 5-7, 2013. To be continued. Mark Wegierski is a Toronto-based writer and historical researcher. Home
RICO for government climate deniers? By Paul Driessen and Ron Arnold

A self-appointed coalition of Democrat state attorneys general is pursuing civil or criminal racketeering actions against ExxonMobil, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and other organizations. The AGs claim the groups are committing fraud, by "denying" climate change. The charge is bogus. What we contest are false assertions that "humans are creating a dangerous climate change crisis." We do not accept false claims that "the science is settled" and will not be limited to discussing only "what we must do now to avert looming climate catastrophes." That's not just constitutionally protected free speech. It is the foundation of scientific progress and informed public policy. Meanwhile, EPA and other federal agencies, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate activist organizations, state legal and environmental agencies, and legions of scientists who receive government grants for advancing the "manmade climate cataclysm" mantra are themselves engaging in what many say is truly misleading or fraudulent climate science, policy and regulation. Millions in poor countries die annually from preventable diseases, because hysterical climate claims justify denying them access to affordable modern electricity and transportation that could be provided by coal, natural gas and petroleum products. In developed nations, climate hysteria has cost millions of jobs, adversely affecting people's living standards, health and welfare. In European countries, thousands are dying each winter, because they can no longer afford proper heat. The problem is not human intervention in the climate; it's improper political intervention in climate science. It has corrupted scientific findings from the very beginning. A 1995 document from the US State Department to the IPCC confirms this, or at least gives allegations of fraud and corruption sufficient credence to raise serious integrity questions. When a recent FOIA lawsuit sought that 1995 document, the State Department said there is "no such correspondence in our files." But if we have a copy of the document, how come State doesn't? Attesting to its bona fides, Our copy has State's date-stamp, a Department official's signature  and 30 pages of detailed instructions on how the Clinton Administration wanted the IPCC to change its scientific findings and summary for policymakers, to reflect US climate and energy policy agendas. The document is too complex and technical to summarize. So we've posted it in PDF form  unchanged in any way and exactly as received from a well known and credible source who must remain anonymous to avoid retribution by people like the RICO prosecutors. You'll be amazed at what it says. It consists of a three-page cover letter to Sir John Houghton, head of the IPCC Science Working Group, from Day Mount, Acting State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Development, introducing 30 pages of line-by-line "suggestions" from scientist Robert Watson and others. One wanted a correct statement about warming rates changed to a flat lie. "Change continue to rise' to rise by even greater amounts' to provide a sense of magnitude of the extended change," it says. Talk about agendas dictating science. Moreover, this "ominous" warming ended just a couple years later, there has been virtually no planetary warming since then, and the warming followed 30 years of cooling. The document raises serious questions about State Department actions on subsequent IPCC Assessment Reports. What did State do? Where are the correspondence and instructions to change the science in other IPCC reports? What are the State Department, EPA and other Obama agencies doing now to further corrupt climate science and advance their radical energy, social, economic and political agendas? We know they won't answer truthfully. If they did, they'd have to investigate themselves under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Worse, the corruption, deception, manipulation, exaggeration and fabrication have grown with every passing year, as alarmists sought to obfuscate their shenanigans and preserve their $1.5 trillion Climate Crisis Empire. The AG actions are designed to punish and silence organizations that are revealing the scientific flaws and deceptions. The IPCC was set up in 1988 to examine possible human influences on Earth's climate, amid powerful natural forces that have always driven the complex, dynamic, turbulent, frequently changing climate. As we note in our book, Cracking Big Green, from the outset, Swedish meteorology professor and zealous warming advocate Bert Bolin wanted to help scientists "get global warming onto the political agenda." By 1995, Bolin could finally say "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate." Of course, "discernible" merely means "detectable." But it gave the State Department license to dictate the "science." Then "discernible" morphed into "dominant," which morphed into "sole." Suddenly humans had replaced the complex, interrelated natural forces that had driven innumerable climate changes throughout Earth's history. Voila. Climate hysteria began to drive the political agenda. Behind the hysteria are carefully orchestrated efforts to find steadily increasing planetary temperatures, and claim floods, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, snowstorms and snowless winters are more frequent and intense  even though Real World records show they are not. Original data are "homogenized" with other data to create higher temperatures; student papers and activist news releases are presented as "peer-reviewed studies" in IPCC documents; computer models are presented as "proof" of chaos, even though actual observations contradict their predictions; and ClimateGate emails reveal more chicanery. As climatologist and professor David Legates explains, even the 97% consensus claims are fraudulent. Organizations that pointed out these flaws and fabrications became a threat to politicians, activists, "warmist" scientists and bureaucrats who were determined to advance an anti-fossil-fuel agenda. Their money and efforts were not winning the non-debate. They needed a blitzkrieg counterattack. In June 2012, the Union of Concerned Scientists and Climate Accountability Institute organized a "workshop" in La Jolla, CA for climate activists, scientists, lawyers and other experts. Their subsequent report detailed how successful attacks on tobacco companies could be used as a template for campaigns, RICO actions and other operations against "climate denier" companies and organizations. By 2015, Senator Sheldon "Torquemada" Whitehouse (D-RI) was calling for RICO prosecutions. His actions prompted free market champion Alex Epstein to tell a congressional committee the senator should resign because of his "unconstitutional" attacks on free speech and the energy that powers our economy. In January 2016, a secret meeting was held in the Rockefeller Family Fund's Manhattan offices. It brought 350.org founder Bill McKibben and a dozen other anti-hydrocarbon activists together, to refine their legal strategies against ExxonMobil and others who dared to challenge "the scientific consensus" that fossil fuels have brought humanity and our planet to the brink of "climate chaos." Then, on March 29, 2016, New York AG Eric Schneiderman headlined a press conference of 16 state attorneys general, who announced their intention to go after organizations that were "committing fraud" by "knowingly deceiving" the public about the threat of manmade climate change. Within days, he had launched a RICO action against ExxonMobil, and the Virgin Islands had done likewise against CEI. It is difficult not to perceive a pattern of collusion here, among the activists and their financiers, among the AGs, and probably among all of them. We are eager to see what emails and other documents might reveal  especially since Section 241 of US Code Title 18 makes it a felony "for two or more persons to agree together to injure, threaten or intimidate" another person in exercising their constitutional rights. We have only begun to fight  for energy, jobs, sound science, free speech and human rights. CEI and Exxon are vigorously battling the outrageous RICO suits, and CFACT will present its new Climate Hustle movie in a one-day May 2 extravaganza in hundreds of theaters across the USA. We will not be silenced. Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org). Ron Arnold is executive vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. They are coauthors of Cracking Big Green: To save the world from the Save-the-Earth money machine. Home
George Soros versus "The Ugly American" By Michael Moriarty

George Soros, with his Black Vampire? His Mr. Hyde? Barack Hussein Obama? Soros and Obama, the two men in the United States who, even more than the Communist Party and Islam, most want America destroyed?! One an American citizen. The other, thanks to George Soros, an American President. If anything or any pair of men were capable of erasing America and the American Way, it would be George Soros and Barack Hussein Obama. Soros is now pitted against another billionaire, much like himself, Donald Trump, who wants America revived, strong and rich again! Who will win? If Donald Trump does not become President Trump, then George Soros and his Progressive New World Order Cabal of the Obamas and their egomaniacally blind collaborators, the Bushes and the Clintons?! They will win. And America will be no more. We will only have the Progressively Marxist United Nations. And, from the look of things now, that means a contradiction-in-terms, a Communist Islam. George Soros wishes to destroy capitalism with the help of his own immense success as a capitalist. As I've said, many times before, George Soros is the reincarnation of Karl Marx, the self-loathing Jew whose jealousy of Christ and giants of the Old Testament created Mankind's own greatest threat to Western Civilization: Communism. A billionaire Communist? Yes. Soros beat Wall Street at its own game and is here to destroy what made America great in the first place: individual genius and entrepreneurial triumphs such as, yes, those of Donald Trump. George Soros versus Donald Trump is really the only important game not only in town but in the entire universe. Why? Upon it depends the entire future of the human race. Without Soros having been so tied at the monetary umbilical cord to Barack Hussein Obama, the two most tyrannical institutions on earth, Communism and Radical Islam, would never have reached the White House. Is a Communist Islam even possible? No. At least, not for long.

The Black Lenin-or-would-be Mao With Karl Marx Not possible in any other way than in this, by now, embittered father/son relationship between Barack Obama and George Soros. By now, a smiling sociopathic rage. The diabolical bliss of Marxist vengeance. Iran itself cannot scream "Destroy America!" with profounder glee than these two recreations of pure contempt for the entire Judeo-Christian Civilization. Can a Red Islam, Muslim Communism even exist for long. As I've have already said, "No!" The Soros/Obama jealousy of America and its hatred for Israel, however, both of their psychopathologies can live off of this delusion: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." The Soros/Obama rage could last long enough to inspire a Second Civil War in America, one that will necessitate a Martial Law which will, indeed, give Barack Hussein Obama an open-ended third term as President of the United States. The only vibrant enough antidote to this possible nightmare that has already transformed the American Democracy into a quasi-dictatorship is, in my not-so-humble opinion, Donald Trump. Why does Donald Trump understand both Soros and Obama better than anyone else on earth?! Donald Trump, certainly in terms of ambition, is very much like George Soros and Barack Obama. All three were born with record-breaking egos and power-dreams. Trump, however, loves a Free Market. He adores competitive challenges. He actually thrives off of them. Soros and Obama, on the other hand, want all competitors permanently destroyed. How can Trump possibly have become the "winner" he loves being without an open-field of competition? Give him what he loves, an even playing field and he wins! Soros, on the other hand, who profited from Capitalism with massive ruthlessness, wants it destroyed! Why? George Soros cannot possibly

be the equal of Karl Marx

or Joseph Stalin

or Mao Zedong

if he doesn't destroy

the entire meaning

of individual freedom

and the Judeo-Christian Civilization. Anything less than what I have just described makes George Soros and Barack Obama the losers. That is why they are so impressively dangerous and, at the same time, such ultimately dangerous losers!! No one

has a more venomously cynical vision

of the entire human race

than George Soros. With America in the situation I knew it was headed for when I left the United States because of the Clinton Administration George Soros' lowest opinion of America was being realized. Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy and, despite appearances in the 1960's, "free love and an end to the Vietnam War", opportunism was replacing idealism and, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, the Devil began to rule the United States. Inevitably George Soros

had to see his golden opportunity

to screw America

with Barack Hussein Obama. Despite the similarities between Trump and Soros, and there are more than either would be willing to admit, Donald Trump is not a mega-cynic like George Soros. Trump,

in my opinion,

and despite his style as The Ugly American,

is America's greatest realist. He knows the rules of life on Earth,

and no one

plays them better. The "Bells" that Trump is ringing right now, his exploding popularity, so startlingly loud and resonant, will ultimately deafen, not only the RINO's and their Bush Cabal but the American Democrat Party as well. And Trump has made many friends in the Democrat Camp. If Trump is nominated? Trump will win! And should win!! Why? Not because he's a Republican but because he's Donald Trump! Trump is The American

who never sold the American Dream short

but built upon it

into a billionaire's triumph. His own Leftist leanings and he has them carry the truth of what Churchill said about all men: "If a man is not a Liberal

in his thirties,

he has no heart.

If he's not a Conservative

by his 40's,

the man has no brain!" Trump's conversion to Conservatism

in his late sixties

doesn't make him "slow".

It confirms

that he was never a politician.

He was

a New York businessman. Now he is both a politician and a businessman! Why? He's an American in the profoundest sense of the word! That, to many people round the world, Donald Trump is also The Ugly American is as much a matter of envy as it is a matter of his very bourgeois and nouveau riche American style. If America ever needed such an American as President of the United States, it is now. Don't let him lose! It's not only not his style. Losing is not America's style. Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty. Home
Trump incoherence spreads to prolife supporters By Michael R. Shannon

It's rare to discover an individual in public life whose verbal gaffes are so contagious they spread to the normally circumspect, but Donald Trump has that effect on people. Trump was giving one of his letitallhangout interviews during a townhall conducted by Chris Matthews. Poised like a drunken Wallenda, Trump teetered from question to question. This time the slip was abortion  after all it was MSNBC. Trump was asked his stance on "reproductive health." This is a term used nowhere outside the abortion industry and evidently it means escaping any consequences that might result from a woman's poor decisions. Trump said he's prolife with three exceptions: Rape, incest and the life of the mother. Matthews pressed and asked what Trump thought the law should be regarding abortion. If Trump would cut into his tweeting time for a couple of hours to take a basic media training session, questions like this are easy. He simply says, "Chris, I just answered that. I think abortion should be illegal except in the case of rape, incest and the life of the mother. And I think the federal government should leave the specifics to the individual states." Since preparation is not a word normally associated with Trump, he didn't give that answer. Instead he wandered down a series of dead ends and rabbit trails until Matthews demanded, "should the woman be punished for having an abortion?" Instead of replying, "Chris, that's a hypothetical question and answering it should be left up to the individual states," Trump does a Lewandowski and says yes, there has to be some form of punishment for the woman. He didn't specify if it should be fines, jail time or five minutes with his campaign manager. Trump's discourse on women has included sexual orientation, BMI index, adultery and that time of month, so reproduction was just a matter of time. What was interesting about opening up this new front in the war on women was the panic he caused in the prolife community. Mike Huckabee, a Trump supporter, said he "found myself just recoiling. I never have heard that we want to punish the woman. She's punished enough." Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, declared, "punishment is solely for the abortionist who profits off of the destruction of one life and the grave wounding of another." Yet both of these statements are morally incoherent. By this reasoning, if a mother drives her twomonthold unborn child to the abortionist to have it killed she is in no way culpable, but if she waits and drives her twomonthold baby to the executioner she's guilty of murder. That's exactly what the proabortion lobby says! It contends rules are different for humans until they cross the plane of the cervix  and if you're Obama, not even then since that's another border he doesn't recognize. Or as Hillary so delicately put it: "The unborn person doesn't have constitutional rights." Please name me another category of law breaking, other than immigration, where you can aid and abet the commission of a crime and not be held criminally liable. These abortion doctors aren't cruising La Leche meetings slipping Rohypnol into the punch. At the very least these women are coconspirators. And don't bore me with protests about the inseminator. If the male is as much as part of the killing process as he is of the creation process, then hook him up, too. Jim Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, says that preRoe he can find no evidence a mother was ever prosecuted for having an abortion. His organization's position on future law is much more logically consistent regarding the culpability of the mother. "Our basic position is that if abortion is made illegal then the intentional killing of the human being in the womb would be homicide and it should be treated like any other homicide. The local DA would determine who is culpable and who isn't. In most of the cases we would assume the mother would not be prosecuted. But let the law take its course." Giving mom a free pass is more sympathetic and gets you better media coverage, but it's not consistent and it's not the truth. To paraphrase Randy Alcorn: Truth without mercy breeds self-righteousness and legalism. Mercy without truth breeds deception and moral compromise. Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at mandate.mmpr (at) gmail.com. He is also the author of Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!). Home
One of my first part-time high school jobs was in telemarketing. I worked for a company that had a contract with a state police organization to raise money for the disabled officers fund. Yes, I was one of those annoying people who would call you during dinner and try to guilt you into giving money to support disabled police officers. Whether you think it is a good cause or not, that job opened my eyes the importance of incentives.

After a year or so on the job, the office manager pulled me and another guy aside and offered us promotions to part-time office managers. Each of us would take the managing duties for two nights a week and we were free to develop strategies for our team of callers that would give them the incentive to raise as much money as possible. Our pay was contingent on the performance of the team.

My competitor chose the following strategy: At the end of the night we will add up all of the committed pledges and you will get paid an equal percentage of the total of all pledged donations.

His thinking was that by providing equal incentives to everyone, everyone would work harder.

My strategy: At the end of the night you will be paid a percentage of the donations you bring in.

My thinking was that everyone would have more of an incentive to work if they were paid according to their own results.

At the end of a month guess who had been paid more as manager? Yep, I won.

Now you may be tempted to say "But it's not all about profit, it might be the case that your strategy made a lot of money for one really good caller and everyone else made almost nothing." That's right, that may very well have been the case, but remember the overall goal--to make as much money as possible for everyone involved: In particular the disabled police officers. My strategy resulted in a bigger overall pie to be divided among everyone involved. That's efficiency. But is efficiency all it's cracked up to be? Is efficiency fair?

In deciding how best to allocate our scarce economic resources, many argue that there is a trade-off between equity and efficiency. As Greg Mankiw puts it in his now standard Principles of Microeconomics textbook:

Another trade-off society faces is between efficiency and equality. Efficiency means that society is getting the maximum benefits from its scarce resources. Equality means that those benefits are distributed uniformly among society's members...When government policies are designed, these two goals often conflict...In other words, when the government tries to cut the economic pie into more equal slices, the pie gets smaller.

Or as Winston Churchill put it:

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

I agree with Mankiw, to an extent. That was the point of my example at the beginning of this post, given the goal of maximizing the size of the economic pie, a policy which aims at equity creates incentives inconsistent with the goal. There is a way to reallocate the scarce resources (in that case the employees) to better achieve the goal of maximizing donations. Conditional on a given goal, we can define an allocation as efficient or not efficient and evaluate that based on objective/observable outcomes.

But what is missing from this discussion and what is implicitly assumed in Mankiw's definition of efficiency is that everyone is OK with the goal of maximizing the size of the economic pie. Efficiency does not imply the goal of maximizing total economic productivity; to the contrary, maximizing total economic productivity is the subjective goal to which the objective definition of efficiency is being applied.

This distinction is important because it is often assumed that there is a one-to-one correspondence between total economic productivity and total societal well-being or happiness. Therefore to improve societal well-being, concerns of equity must be thrown away since total economic productivity can only be maximized through efficiency. Hence the trade-off. But what if there is not a one-to-one correspondence between happiness and total economic productivity? Does that render the concept of efficiency--and consequently economics--useless?

Quite the contrary and this is where some of the critics of economics overreact when they see Mankiw-like definitions of efficiency. Efficiency is usually defined with the underlying subjective goal of maximizing total productivity. But what if society values equality? That is, what if total productivity is only part of what determines well-being and people actually care about making sure others are looked after--at least minimally. Then we can't be efficient right? According to the definition of efficiency above, that's right. There is no way to efficiently achieve the goal of maximizing total economic productivity if our goal is to maximize something else.

The trade-off that is typically discussed between equity and efficiency is really a trade-off between equity and total economic productivity. The logical problem comes in assuming that total economic productivity and total well-being are synonymous. But what if part of our societal goal is some concept of equity? Can we still achieve it efficiently? I'm pretty sure. Efficiency doesn't have to be predicated on the particular goal of maximizing total economic productivity. So with that, I offer the following definition of efficiency:

Efficiency is achieving a particular social goal using the least amount of society's resources as possible.

That social goal may be total economic productivity, or it may be any one of a million other distributions of social well being. No matter the goal, economics provides a valuable set of tools for understanding how to achieve those goals using the least amount of society's resources--and thereby freeing those resources for other uses (or nonuses).

With that said, I will reveal my hand. I believe maximizing total productivity is the best goal. I fully recognize that this is a subjective stance. But conditional on that, well-functioning markets are the best way of achieving that goal and imposing equity concerns up front lessens the incentive to achieve the maximum productivity. That is Mankiw's point. There are after-the-fact ways to transfer wealth that don't distort the incentives created by well-functioning markets.

Make the pie big first. Then slice it.
The city of Baltimore, Maryland is working with federal and state authorities to determine how the personal information of dozens of city employees was stolen and used to file fraudulent tax returns, the Baltimore Sun reports.

On March 14, all city employees were notified of the potential breach and warned that they may be at risk of fraud. Current and prior employees are being offered free access to credit monitoring services.

City spokesman Howard Libit told the Sun that the pool of affected employees could be larger than officials currently know. The affected employees work for several different city agencies  its not clear what connection there may be between them.

Theyre related, as far as we know, only by the fact that theyre city employees, Richard Forno, assistant director of the Center for Cybersecurity at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), told the Sun. Theres still not enough to go on to say the city is to blame here.

Donald F. Norris, director of the School of Public Policy at UMBC, told the Sun that local governments and other organizations that face serious financial constraints simply arent able to keep up with technological advances, because the modes of attack keep changing.

The 2016 Vormetric Data Threat Report found that government agencies leading barriers to adoption of better data security include concerns about complexity (51 percent), skill shortages (44 percent), and budget limitations (43 percent).

The report, based on a survey of 1,100 senior IT executives (including more than 100 in federal government agencies), was issued in conjuction with 451 Research.

Sixty-one percent of government agencies acknowledged having experienced a data breach, and almost one in five experienced a breach in the past year. Ninety precent of respondents said they feel vulnerable to data threats.

Still, 58 percent are planning to increase spending to offset threats to data, and 37 percent are increasing spending on data-at-rest defenses this year.

Top categories for increased spending among government respondents were network defenses at 53 percent, followed by analysis and correlation tools at 46 percent.

Public sector organizations need to realize that doing more of the same wont help us achieve an improved data security posture, Vormetric vice president of marketing Tina Stewart said in a statement.

More attention must be paid to techniques that protect critical information even when peripheral security has failed, and data-at-rest security controls such as encryption, access control, tokenization and monitoring of data access patterns are some of the best ways to achieve this, Stewart added.

Recent eSecurity Planet articles have offered advice on securing sensitive data in a post-perimeter world, and provided 10 tips on mitigating data breaches.
WASHINGTON (April 18, 2016) --The use of bleeding avoidance strategies has only a modest effect on the variation in bleeding rates post-angioplasty among hospitals performing this procedure, leaving about 70 percent of the causes for this variation unexplained, according to a study published today in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.

The study also examined whether patients treated with bleeding avoidance strategies were those at low risk for this complication, not high-risk patients who potentially would benefit more. This a risk-treatment paradox--when patients who need an intervention the most receive it the least frequently--has been demonstrated in previous studies.

Using data from the American College of Cardiology NCDR CathPCI Registry, researchers examined records from almost 2.5 million procedures at 1,358 sites between 2009 and 2013. In conducting their analysis, researchers adjusted for patient risk, considering such variables as gender, age, body mass index, the presence of cerebrovascular disease, prior angioplasty and diabetes. They also looked at whether combinations of bleeding avoidance strategies--use of the radial artery for access during angioplasty, administering the blood thinner bivalirudin, and sealing off the point of access with a vascular closure device--had an impact on bleeding totals.

Throughout the study period, researchers observed 125,361 bleeding events. Patients who had the procedure done with radial access had less bleeding than those who did not: 5 percent vs. 11.2 percent. Bivalirudin therapy was used less frequently among patients who experienced bleeding: 43.8 percent vs. 59.4 percent--and vascular closure devices were used at lower rates: 32.9 percent vs. 42.4 percent.

Consistent with previous research, the study also demonstrated the risk-treatment paradox. Patients receiving bleeding avoidance strategies had a predicted bleeding risk of 3.2 percent, compared with a predicted bleeding risk of 4.5 percent among those not receiving these strategies.

Overall, researchers found that the median hospital rate of use of any bleeding avoidance strategy was 86.6 percent. Increased use of these strategies was associated with decreased probability of an individual bleeding event.

The study also showed a significant variation in bleeding rates among hospitals, just as previous studies had found. After incorporating individual patient risk for bleeding, hospital rates for bleeding varied from 2.6 percent to 9.3 percent. With bleeding avoidance strategies having only a small effect on overall hospital-level variation, about 70 percent of the variation among hospitals remains unexplained.

Amit N. Vora, M.D., M.P.H., the study's lead author and a cardiologist with the Duke Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina, said that "these findings have several implications for both clinical care and quality improvement." He said that when hospitals used bleeding avoidance strategies in more than 85 percent of patients, bleeding rates were lower, "demonstrating that an approach to broaden the use of these strategies in all patients--overcoming the 'risk-treatment paradox'--may be a reasonable way to reduce overall variation in hospital bleeding rates."

Vora also addressed limitations associated with using post-procedure bleeding as a performance measure for hospitals. Because almost 70 percent of bleeding rates remain unexplained, "the stringent use of bleeding rate measures to determine reimbursement rates or to penalize institutions by payers and regulators may be premature at this time," he said.

According to Vora, the next best step is to perform "further analyses to determine the causes of variation in bleeding following angioplasty among hospitals, including the use of vascular ultrasound during the procedure when using the femoral artery as the access point, along with using protocols to stop bleeding."

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JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions is the leading subspecialty cardiology journal in impact factor and circulation.

The American College of Cardiology is a 52,000-member medical society that is the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team. The mission of the College is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College operates national registries to measure and improve care, offers cardiovascular accreditation to hospitals and institutions, provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research and bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet stringent qualifications. For more, visit acc.org.
Liquid crystals, discovered more than 125 years ago, are at work behind the screens of TV and computer monitors, clocks, watches and most other electronics displays, and scientists are still discovering new twists--and bends--in their molecular makeup.

Liquid crystals are an exotic state of matter that flows like a fluid but in which the molecules may be oriented in a crystal-like way. At the microscopic scale, liquid crystals come in several different configurations, including a naturally spiraling "twist-bend" molecular arrangement, discovered in 2013, that has excited a flurry of new research.

Now, using a pioneering X-ray technique developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), a research team has recorded the first direct measurements confirming a tightly wound spiral molecular arrangement that could help unravel the mysteries of its formation and possibly improve liquid-crystal display (LCD) performance, such as the speed at which they selectively switch light on or off in tiny screen areas.

The findings could also help explain how so-called "chiral" structure--molecules can exhibit wildly different properties based on their left- or right-handedness (chirality), which is of interest in biology, materials science and chemistry--can form from organic molecules that do not exhibit such handedness.

"This newly discovered 'twist-bend' phase of liquid crystals is one of the hottest topics in liquid crystal research," said Chenhui Zhu, a research scientist at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS), where the X-ray studies were performed.

"Now, we have provided the first definitive evidence for the twist-bend structure. The determination of this structure will without question advance our understanding of its properties, such as its response to temperature and to stress, which may help improve how we operate the current generation of LCDs."

Zhu was the lead author on a related research paper published in the April 7 edition of Physical Review Letters.

While there are now several competing screen technologies to standard LCDs, the standard LCD market is still huge, representing more than one-third of the revenue in the electronic display market. The overall display market is expected to top $150 billion in revenue this year.

The individual molecules in the structure determined at Berkeley Lab are constructed like flexible, nanoscale boomerangs, just a few nanometers, or billionths of a meter, in length and with rigid ends and flexible middles. In the twist-bend phase, the spiraling structure they form resembles a bunch of snakes lined up and then wound snugly around the length of an invisible pole.

Zhu tuned low-energy or "soft" X-rays at the ALS to examine carbon atoms in the liquid crystal molecules, which provided details about the molecular orientation of their chemical bonds and the structure they formed. The technique he used for the study is known as soft X-ray scattering. The spiraling, helical molecular arrangement of the liquid crystal samples would have been undetectable by conventional X-ray scattering techniques.

The measurements show that the liquid crystals complete a 360-degree twist-bend over a distance of just 8 nanometers at room temperature, which Zhu said is an "amazingly short" distance given that each molecule is 3 nanometers long, and such a strongly coiled structure is very rare.

The driving force for the formation of the tight spiral in the twist-bend arrangement is still unclear, and the structure exhibits unusual optical properties that also warrant further study, Zhu said.

Researchers found that the spiral "pitch," or width of one complete spiral turn, becomes a little longer with increasing temperature, and the spiral abruptly disappears at sufficiently high temperature as the material adopts a different configuration.

"Currently, this experiment can't be done anywhere else," Zhu said. "We are the first team to use this soft X-ray scattering technique to study this liquid-crystal phase."

Standard LCDs often use nematic liquid crystals, a phase of liquid crystals that naturally align in the same direction--like a group of compass needles that are parallel to one another, pointing in one direction.

In these standard LCD devices, rod-like liquid crystal molecules are sandwiched between specially treated plates of glass that cause the molecules to "lie down" rather than point toward the glass. The glass is typically treated to induce a 90-degree twist in the molecular arrangement, so that the molecules closest to one glass plate are perpendicular to those closest to the other glass plate.

It's like a series of compass needles made to face north at the top, smoothly reorienting to the northeast in the middle, and pointing east at the bottom. This molecularly twisted state is then electrically distorted to allow polarized light to pass through at varying brightness, for example, or to block light (by straightening the twist completely).

Future experiments will explore how the spirals depend on molecular shape and respond to variations in temperature, electric field, ultraviolet light, and stress, Zhu added.

He also hopes to explore similar spiraling structures, such as a liquid crystal phase known as the helical nanofilament, which shows promise for solar energy applications. Studies of DNA, synthetic proteins, and amyloid fibrils such as those associated with Alzheimer's disease, might help explain the role of handedness in how organic molecules self-assemble.

With brighter, more laser-like X-ray sources and faster X-ray detectors, it may be possible to see details in how the spiraling twist-bend structure forms and fluctuates in real time in materials, Zhu also said.

"I am hoping our ongoing experiments can provide unique information to benefit other theories and experiments in this field," he noted.

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Other team members include Anthony Young, Cheng Wang, and Alexander Hexemer at Berkeley Lab, and Michael Tuchband, Min Shuai, Alyssa Scarbrough, David Walba, Joseph Maclennan, and Noel Clark at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Soft X-ray scattering measurements were conducted at Beamline 11.0.1 at the Advanced Light Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Berkeley Lab. The work was supported by the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences and the National Science Foundation.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://science.energy.gov/.
Malaga, Spain - April 17, 2016

Today, Professors Elaine Dennison and Olivier Bruyere were named as the winners of the IOF-ESCEO 2016 Pierre Meunier Young Scientist Awards. These new awards recognize the contribution to the field of musculoskeletal diseases of young scientists who have shown their ability to perform top-quality research and are expected to become key opinion leaders in the coming years.

Chairman of the ESCEO Scientific Advisory Board and IOF Board member Professor Rene Rizzoli, presented the award and congratulated the winners while noting that, "This Award reflects the IOF and ESCEO commitment to the promotion of talented young scientists in the bone field. It is a pleasure to present the Award to Professors Dennison and Bruyere who have published an exceptional body of research and are on track to be key thought-leaders in the field."

Elaine Dennison is Professor of Musculoskeletal Epidemiology and Honorary Consultant in Rheumatology within Medicine at the University of Southampton. Having worked as a principal investigator of the Hertfordshire Cohort Study for many years, her research interest centres on musculoskeletal ageing, specifically osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Based at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, she is particularly interested in how events early in life interact with adult lifestyle factors to determine how we age. Professor Dennison is author of over 150 scientific journal articles on this subject.

Olivier Bruyere is currently Professor of Clinical Epidemiology in the Department of Public Health, Epidemiology and Health Economics and of Geriatric Rehabilitation in the Department of Sport Sciences of the University of Liege in Belgium. His main fields of interest are prevention, rehabilitation and pharmaco-epidemiology related to geriatric or rheumatic conditions. Besides being Editor-in-chief of the journal "The Archives of Public Health", he is Associate Editor of the journal "BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders" as well as on the editorial board of various journals. He is author of more than 200 international scientific publications and book chapters.

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About the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis & Musculoskeletal Diseases (WCO-IOF-ESCEO 2016) :

Held jointly by IOF and ESCEO, the Congress is taking place in Malaga, Spain from April 14-17,2016. It is the world's largest annual forum for the presentation of clinical research and new advances in the prevention and management of bone, muscle and joint disorders, including sarcopenia and frailty. The next Congress will be held in Florence, Italy from March 23-26, 2017. For complete information visit http://www.wco-iof-esceo.org #OsteoCongress

About IOF :

The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) is the world's largest nongovernmental organization dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis and related musculoskeletal diseases. IOF members, including committees of scientific researchers, leading companies, as well as more than 234 patient, medical and research societies in 99 locations, work together to make bone, joint and muscle health a worldwide heath care priority. http://www.iofbonehealth.org / http://www.facebook.com/iofbonehealth / https://twitter.com/iofbonehealth

About ESCEO :

The European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO) is a non-profit organization, dedicated to a close interaction between clinical scientists dealing with rheumatic disorders, pharmaceutical industry developing new compounds in this field, regulators responsible for the registration of such drugs and health policy makers, to integrate the management of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis within the comprehensive perspective of health resources utilization. The objective of ESCEO is to provide practitioners with the latest clinical and economic information, allowing them to organize their daily practice, in an evidence-based medicine perspective, with a cost-conscious perception. http://www.esceo.org
INDIANAPOLIS -- Older adults might want to avoid a using class of drugs commonly used in over-the-counter products such as nighttime cold medicines due to their links to cognitive impairment, a research team led by scientists at Indiana University School of Medicine has recommended.

Using brain imaging techniques, the researchers found lower metabolism and reduced brain sizes among study participants taking the drugs known to have an anticholinergic effect, meaning they block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter.

Previous research found a link between between the anticholinergic drugs and cognitive impairment and increased risk of dementia. The new paper published in the journal JAMA Neurology, is believed to be the first to study the potential underlying biology of those clinical links using neuroimaging measurements of brain metabolism and atrophy.

"These findings provide us with a much better understanding of how this class of drugs may act upon the brain in ways that might raise the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia," said Shannon Risacher, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology and imaging sciences, first author of the paper, "Association Between Anticholinergic Medication Use and Cognition, Brain Metabolism, and Brain Atrophy in Cognitively Normal Older Adults."

"Given all the research evidence, physicians might want to consider alternatives to anticholinergic medications if available when working with their older patients," Dr. Risacher said.

Drugs with anticholinergic effects are sold over the counter and by prescription as sleep aids and for many chronic diseases including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

A list of anticholinergic drugs and their potential impact is at http://www.agingbraincare.org/uploads/products/ACB_scale_-_legal_size.pdf.

Scientists have linked anticholinergic drugs cognitive problems among older adults for at least 10 years. A 2013 study by scientists at the IU Center for Aging Research and the Regenstrief Institute found that drugs with a strong anticholinergic effect cause cognitive problems when taken continuously for as few as 60 days. Drugs with a weaker effect could cause impairment within 90 days.

The current research project involved 451 participants, 60 of whom were taking at least one medication with medium or high anticholinergic activity. The participants were drawn from a national Alzheimer's research project -- the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative -- and the Indiana Memory and Aging Study.

To identify possible physical and physiological changes that could be associated with the reported effects, researchers assessed the results of memory and other cognitive tests, positron emission tests (PET) measuring brain metabolism, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans for brain structure.

The cognitive tests revealed that patients taking anticholinergic drugs performed worse than older adults not taking the drugs on short-term memory and some tests of executive function, which cover a range of activities such as verbal reasoning, planning, and problem solving.

Anticholinergic drug users also showed lower levels of glucose metabolism -- a biomarker for brain activity -- in both the overall brain and in the hippocampus, a region of the brain associated with memory and which has been identified as affected early by Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers also found significant links between brain structure revealed by the MRI scans and anticholinergic drug use, with the participants using anticholinergic drugs having reduced brain volume and larger ventricles, the cavities inside the brain.

"These findings might give us clues to the biological basis for the cognitive problems associated with anticholinergic drugs, but additional studies are needed if we are to truly understand the mechanisms involved," Dr. Risacher said.

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Additional investigators contributing to this research were Brenna C. McDonald, Eileen F. Tallman, John D. West, Martin R. Farlow, Fredrick W. Unverzagt, and Sujuan Gao, IU School of Medicine; Malaz Boustani, IU School of Medicine, Regenstrief Institute and Eskenazi Health; Paul K. Crane, University of Washington; Ronald C. Petersen and Clifford R. Jack Jr., Mayo Clinic; William J. Jagust, University of California-Berkeley; Paul S. Aisen, University of Southern California, San Diego; Michael W. Weiner, University of California-San Francisco; Andrew J. Saykin, IU School of Medicine for the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.

Data collection and sharing for this project was funded by the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) (National Institutes of Health Grant U01 AG024904) and DOD ADNI (Department of Defense award number W81XWH-12-2-0012).

ADNI is funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and through contributions from the following: Alzheimer's Association; Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation; Araclon Biotech; BioClinica, Inc.; Biogen Idec Inc.; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Eisai Inc.; Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Eli Lilly and Company; EuroImmun; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and its affiliated company Genentech, Inc.; Fujirebio; GE Healthcare; IXICO Ltd.; Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy Research & Development, LLC.; Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development LLC.; Medpace, Inc.; Merck & Co., Inc.; Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC.; NeuroRx Research; Neurotrack Technologies; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Pfizer Inc.; Piramal Imaging; Servier; Synarc Inc.; and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is providing funds to support ADNI clinical sites in Canada.

Private sector contributions are facilitated by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. The grantee organization is the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, and the study is coordinated by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study at the University of California, San Diego. ADNI data are disseminated by the Laboratory for Neuro Imaging at the University of Southern California. ADNI was also supported by NIH grants P30 AG010129, K01 AG030514, and the Dana Foundation.

Additional support for analyses in this study was provided by the following sources: NIA R01 AG19771, P30 AG10133, K01 AG049050, the Alzheimer's Association, the Indiana University Health-Indiana University School of Medicine Strategic Research Initiative and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.
Bacterial infection takes hold in the body when a pathogenic microorganism delivers toxins to healthy cells. One way bacteria accomplish this is by releasing vesicles, which act as tiny envelopes transporting toxins and other virulence factors to host cells. These toxins allow the bacteria to "make themselves at home" in cells.

In the search for alternatives to antibiotics, researchers are exploring untraditional infection treatments that focus on these virulence factors as prime targets.

Angela Brown, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Lehigh University, describes the alternative route this way: "Instead of killing bacteria, we make them really uncomfortable, giving the immune system time to mount a strong response."

Working in her independent lab at Lehigh, Brown is pioneering a unique approach that, unlike previous methods targeting virulence factors, has the potential to apply to a broad range of pathogens. She and her team are focused on a novel target: outer membrane vesicle--which are regularly shed by Gram negative bacteria, among the most challenging type of bacteria to treat.

Her work has caught the attention of the National Science Foundation, which recently awarded her an NSF CAREER grant to fund the development of this transformative approach. The prestigious $500,000 grant supports untenured faculty pursuing solutions to major challenges through research and teaching.

During the five-year grant period, Brown and her team will seek to identify shared delivery mechanisms common among Gram negative bacteria in order to develop broad-range antibacterial molecules that will radically change the way the medical practitioners fight pathogenic bacteria.

In addition, Brown plans extensive outreach activities to help improve antibiotic stewardship by teaching the dangers of antibiotic misuse to K-12 students. She will also develop new courses at Lehigh and provide undergraduate and graduate research opportunities that encourage young women to choose STEM majors and pursue related technical careers.

Making bacteria an unwelcome guest

Both the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have identified antibiotic resistance as a significant health threat. The CDC estimates that more than two million people develop antibiotic resistant infections annually in the U.S., with more than 23,000 dying as a result.

Brown's work addresses the urgent need to develop new antibiotic strategies. She will begin by systematically characterizing the toxin association of outer membrane vesicles--building on her previous work which confirmed that the composition of bacteria's outer membrane vesicles plays a significant role in the toxin's ability to bind with the vesicle.

Brown and her team will identify the specific lipid components and membrane properties that facilitate the binding of toxins to the vesicle and then investigate the role of those toxins in the vesicles' ability to deliver vesicles to a healthy cell.

The third and final goal of the project will be to inhibit a toxin's ability to associate with the outer membrane vesicle surface and block it from binding with a host cell--treating the bacteria like an unwelcome guest.

For the past seven years, Brown has been working with a bacterial leukotoxin (LtxA), produced by the oral pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans. This toxin has been demonstrated to be enriched in the outer membrane vesicles produced by A. actinomycetemcomitans. She plans to build on the preliminary evidence she has collected--some of which were published recently in Molecular Oral Microbiology--to investigate her hypothesis generally using three representative organisms to identify shared mechanisms that could be used as targets for the development of broad-range treatment options.

Facilitating long-term STEM careers

In addition to research goals, Brown's project seeks to address urgent challenges the country faces related to training an adaptable STEM workforce and improving the numbers of females entering and remaining in the STEM workforce.

As more women become primary earners for their families, STEM careers become particularly important to our country's economic health. Women in STEM careers earn on average 30% more than women in non-STEM careers. Although the numbers of women and underrepresented minorities pursuing STEM careers has increased over the past four decades, problems, particularly in the "pipeline" remain. For example, a recent ASEE report showed that in 2014, women earned approximately 30% of all Chemical Engineering degrees (at the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. levels) in the United States. However, the United States Department of Labor reported in 2009 that only 13.1% of employed chemical engineers in the previous year were female.

Brown aims to contribute to the solution by increasing the number of female chemical engineering degrees (to closer to 50%) and 2) facilitating the long-term STEM careers of engineering graduates by helping all of my students see the broader impact of their studies and their research to improve their engagement with the STEM field to keep these women in the engineering workforce longer.

She is also committed to employing female and underrepresented minority students, both undergraduate and graduate, in her lab.

Brown joined Lehigh's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in January 2014 after a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Pennsylvania in the School of Dental Medicine. At Lehigh she has been honored with a P.C. Rossin Professorship, awarded to young faculty members who show significant career potential and a proven ability to reach out to other disciplines.

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Two pioneering research projects will bring together 17 McMaster researchers, a dozen industry partners and more than 80 students thanks to $3.3M in research funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's CREATE program.

The CREATE (Collaborative Research and Training Experience) program trains the next generation of researchers to tackle Canada's most pressing scientific challenges.

Wael El-Dakhakhni is leading a research team whose unique set of multidisciplinary expertise will ensure the performance of nuclear power plant reactor safety systems and minimize the environmental risk of spent nuclear fuel under natural hazard.

"Japan is still struggling with the cascading economic and environmental impacts five years after a powerful earthquake and tsunami caused the meltdown of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima," says El-Dakhakhni, professor in the department of civil engineering and founding director of the McMaster Institute for Multi-hazard Systemic Risk Studies.

"Canada relies on nuclear power as a major component of its overall energy supply mix, but there's a critical expertise gap that needs to be addressed to guarantee our nuclear infrastructure systems are resilient - that is, remain fully operational, or recover rapidly and safely, following a natural disaster," El-Dakhakhni explains.

The Canadian Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Resilience under Seismic Systemic Risk (CaNRisk) program, directed by El-Dakhakhni, combines the collective research talents of some of the world's leading experts in nuclear safety (John Luxat and Shinya Nagasaki from engineering physics) with the civil engineering expertise of Pei Jun Guo (soil-structure interaction), DimitriosKonstantinidis and Mike Tait (structural and seismic control), Tracy Becker and LydellWiebe (earthquake engineering) and Sarah Dickson (water systems safety).

CaNRisk was awarded $1.65M over five years, and will provide 44 students the opportunity to participate in hands-on internships with some of Canada's key nuclear stakeholders, including Amec Foster Wheeler Nuclear Canada, Bruce Power, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Hatch Ltd., Kinectrics Inc., and Ontario Power Generation. CaNRisk also includes partners from Western University with expertise in uncertainty analysis and electrical engineering.

A second project, the CREATE Program in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Powertrain Design and Development, involves researchers from McMaster and the University of Windsor, along with industry partners Ford Canada, D&V Electronics, AVL Test Systems and Cadex Electronics.

Led by Saeid Habibi, professor of mechanical engineering and NSERC/Ford Chair in Hybrid Technologies, the team will develop the talent for Canada's automotive industry to address the challenges associated with new electric energy storage and electric propulsion technologies.

"Canada's automotive sector is not only rebounding, it's growing rapidly," says Habibi. "But in order to capitalize on this momentum and to remain competitive, it's critical that the sector has access to a highly qualified workforce with training in advanced electric and hybrid power train technologies. This CREATE funding ensures we're producing well-rounded graduates with the requisite technical and professional skills that our industry partners require."

Students will benefit from working with researchers from a number of departments: Mo Elbestawi, Jim Cotton, Fengjun Yan, and Samir Ziada (mechanical engineering); Ali Emadi, and Nigel Schofield (electrical and computer engineering); and Gillian Goward (chemistry & chemical biology).

"We are delighted that McMaster was awarded funding for two CREATE projects", says Allison Sekuler, interim vice-president, research, noting that only 13 projects were awarded across the country.

"Once again McMaster is punching well above our weight, demonstrating the exceptional quality and innovation of our researchers. These projects will have very real and direct impacts on enhancing our economy and environment, and also develop the next generation of talent to address some of Canada's and the world's most pressing issues."

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Tropical Cyclone Fantala has become a major tropical cyclone in the Southern Indian Ocean reaching Category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. NASA's RapidScat instrument observed powerful winds wrapped tightly around the eye, and NASA's Aqua satellite saw the well-structured storm with a wide eye as it was due north of Madagascar early on April 18.

On Apr. 17 at 6 a.m. UTC (2 a.m. EDT) the RapidScat instrument that flies aboard the International Space Station (ISS) measured Fantala's surface wind speed and direction over the Southern Indian Ocean. Wind speeds exceeded 30 meters per second (67 mph/108 kph) around the entire center of the storm. Surface wind speed is always lower than speeds at higher altitude. At the time RapidScat passed overhead from the ISS, Fantala was at about its closest point of approach to Madagascar.

RapidScat is an important tool for meteorologists, because it shows forecasters the location of the strongest winds in different quadrants of an area of low pressure or tropical cyclone as they are not always equally distributed.

On April 18 at 10:25 UTC (6:25 a.m. EDT) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite saw Tropical Cyclone Fantala off Madagascar. The MODIS instrument revealed a 16 nautical-mile-wide eye surrounded by a powerful ring of convective (rising air that forms storms) thunderstorms with a second convective ring beginning to develop. The MODIS image also showed powerful thunderstorms wrapping into the center from the northern and southern quadrants of the storm.

At 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT), Tropical Cyclone Fantala was located north of the northern tip of Madagascar, and about 783 nautical miles (901 miles/1,450 km) northwest of Port Louis, Mauritius. Fantala as about 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of Antsiranana. Antsiranana is a city in the far north of Madagascar.

Its eye was centered near 9.3 degrees south latitude and 49.7 degrees east longitude. Fantala's maximum sustained winds were near 150 knots (172 mph/ 277.8 kph). The hurricane-force winds only extended 25 miles (28.7 miles/46.3 km) from the center, making for a very powerful, compact storm. Tropical-storm-force winds extended 100 miles (115 miles/185.2 km) from the center.

Fantala was moving to the west-northwest at 4 knots (4.6 mph/7.4 kph) and generating 40-foot (12.1 meter)-high seas.

The factors steering Fantala are changing, so there's a change in the forecast direction of the storm. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) noted that that the steering mechanism is beginning to shift from the mid-latitude ridge (elongated area of high -pressure) positioned to the south to a building near-equatorial ridge (elongated area of high pressure) to the north of Fantala.

Residents of northern Madagascar should continue to monitor the storm as it is expected approach the island. According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecasters, Fantala will gradually turn on a southeasterly course and begin moving in that direction while slowly weakening. By April 22, the storm is expected to steer toward northeastern Madagascar.

For more information on RapidScat, visit http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/RapidScat/ and http://www.nasa.gov/rapidscat.

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TUCSON, Ariz., April 18, 2016 -- The Critical Path Institute (C-Path), the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), TB Alliance, and St. George's, University of London, are pleased to announce the launch of the TB-Platform for Aggregation of Clinical TB Studies (TB-PACTS).

"TB-PACTS is a valuable tool in the fight against the world's leading infectious killer," says Dr. Martha Brumfield, President and CEO of C-Path. "By combining C-Path's core strengths in data aggregation, standardization, and curation with a wealth of clinical trial data from TDR, TB Alliance, St. George's, University of London, and other organizations, we strive to enable more efficient and effective drug development for TB. We envision TB-PACTS as a prime example of how a collaborative, data-sharing approach leads to a knowledge base greater than the sum of its parts."

TB-PACTS is designed to catalyze and accelerate TB research by curating and standardizing Phase III tuberculosis (TB) clinical trial data and making this data available to the research community. Data can be accessed and analyzed in aggregate, or filtered and viewed as individual records. Types of data available include demographic information, concomitant medications information, dose/concentration information, outcomes data, and relevant covariates of interest. Having these data curated, validated, and easily accessible under one platform helps inform recommendations for policymaking as well as informing the development of novel drug and drug regimens, which would ultimately benefit TB patients.

"By making this data collectively available, we achieve what no single organization could. The entire field is advanced--allowing researchers to potentially extract new information from clinical trials that could pave the way to more rapid and meaningful progress," says Dr. Mel Spigelman, President and CEO of TB Alliance. "In a field like tuberculosis, where there is no financial incentive, this partnership provides real value to the donor and scientific community alike."

Researchers can review and analyze patient-level data from the REMoxTB, RIFAQUIN, and OFLOTUB clinical trials. These large trials were sponsored, respectively, by TB Alliance, St. George's, University of London, and TDR. Their funding was trial specific.

"We are very delighted to know that this investment has the potential to give us an even greater return through trial data sharing," says Dr. Michael Makanga, Executive Director of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), a main funder of the REMoxTB and RIFAQUIN trials.

The data have been combined into a single dataset. In this aggregated form, it may be possible to detect patterns not otherwise apparent in individual datasets. Data from the individual studies can be separated if needed. TB-PACTS is equipped to host additional trial data as well as data from additional studies in the future.

Data sharing is a means to improve knowledge and better inform both policy decisions and the design of future research. While this principle is generally promoted, however, it has been implemented infrequently. Now, three institutions that have sponsored large trials of TB treatments are taking additional steps to make the data broadly accessible, to help answer critical research and programmatic questions.

"This is an extremely important initiative, of which St. George's is a founding member," said Dr. Amina Jindani, who leads the International Consortium for Trials of Chemotherapeutic Agents in Tuberculosis (INTERTB) at St. George's, University of London. "INTERTB has much to contribute to TB-PACTS, both from past and future clinical trials of tuberculosis."

"This is the first time trial sponsors have come together to make clinical trial data collectively available," says Piero Olliaro, head of Intervention and Implementation Research at TDR. "We're excited to have been able to work with partners to set up a secure, efficient, and equitable system to store and protect data integrity, and to allow access under conditions that promote the generation and further dissemination of knowledge. We also look forward to others joining this initiative in the future."

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Researchers applying for access must agree to the Terms and Conditions for Use of the TB-PACTS data platform and submit an online application form to request access to the data platform. Visit http://c-path.org/programs/tb-pacts/ for more information.

For more information, contact:

At C-PATH:

Kissy Black

kissyblack@lotosnile.com

+1 615.310.1894

At TDR:

Jamie Guth

guthj@who.int

+41 22 791 1538

At TB Alliance:

Joanna Breitstein

Joanna.breitstein@tballiance.org

+1 917.842.8416

At St. George's Hospital:

Sarah Sharples

s.sharples@sgul.ac.uk

020 8725 5180

About the Organizations

C-Path (Critical Path Institute) is an independent, nonprofit organization established in 2005 with public and private philanthropic support from the Arizona community, Science Foundation Arizona, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). C-Path's mission is to catalyze the development of new approaches that advance medical innovation and regulatory science, accelerating the path to a healthier world. An international leader in forming collaborations, C-Path has established 12 global, public-private partnerships that currently include over 1,300 scientists from government and regulatory agencies, academia, patient advocacy organizations, and dozens of major pharmaceutical companies. C-Path is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. For more information, visit http://www.c-path.org.

TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, is a global program of scientific collaboration that helps facilitate, support, and influence efforts to combat diseases of poverty. It is hosted at the World Health Organization (WHO), and is sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, and WHO. For more information, visit http://www.who.int/tdr.

TB Alliance (Global Alliance for TB Drug Development) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding faster-acting and affordable drug regimens to fight tuberculosis (TB). Through innovative science and with partners around the globe, we aim to ensure equitable access to faster, better TB cures that will advance global health and prosperity. TB Alliance operates with support from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, European Commission, Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, Indonesia Health Fund, Irish Aid, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, UNITAID, United Kingdom Department for International Development, United States Agency for International Development, and the US Food and Drug Administration. For more information please visit http://www.tballiance.org.

St. George's, University of London, is a Medical School and is a constituent college of the University of London. St George's offers foundation and undergraduate degrees in medical, biomedical and healthcare sciences. Its Institute for Infection and Immunity aims to have a significant beneficial impact on human health by developing a better understanding of pathogen biology and human immune responses. The Institute sustains a range of international research interests, supporting efforts to control globally important infectious disease. Within the Institute for Infection and Immunity, Amina Jindani, MD, FRCP, and Professor Denny Mitchison are conducting international Phase III clinical trials to refine the complex treatment of tuberculosis. http://www.sgul.ac.uk
Many scientists fear that global warming will hit staple food crops hard, with heat stress, extreme weather events and water shortages. On the other hand, higher levels of carbon dioxide--the main cause of ongoing warming--is known to boost many plants' productivity, and reduce their use of water. So, if we keep pouring more CO2 into the air, will crops fail, or benefit? A new study tries to disentangle this complex question. It suggests that while greater warmth will reduce yields of some crops, higher CO2 could help mitigate the effects in some regions, unless other complications of global warming interfere.

The study, by 16 researchers from a half-dozen countries, uses newly available crop models and data from ongoing large-scale field experiments. It appears this week in the journal Nature Climate Change.

"Most of the discussion around climate impacts focuses only on changes in temperature and precipitation," said lead author Delphine Deryng, an environmental scientist at Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the University of Chicago's Computation Institute. "To adapt adequately, we need to understand all the factors involved." Deryng cautions that the study should not be interpreted to mean that increasing carbon dioxide is a friend to humanity--only that its direct effects must be included in any calculation of what the future holds.

Many studies say that as temperatures rise, crops across the world will suffer as average temperatures become unsuitable for traditionally grown crops, and droughts, heat waves or extreme bouts of precipitation become more common. Agricultural scientists say that losses could be mitigated to some extent by switching crops, developing varieties adapted to the new conditions, or moving some crop-growing regions poleward. But such adaptations pose daunting challenges.

Due to human activities, average global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have risen by more than a quarter since 1960; they now stand at around 400 parts per million, and are expected to keep increasing, along with temperature. At the same time, experiments since the 1980s have shown that higher levels of carbon dioxide in the air helps plants build biomass. The concept is relatively simple; plants take in carbon to build their tissues, and if there is more carbon around, they have an easier time. Leaves take in air through tiny openings called stomata, but in the process the stomata lose water; with more carbon available, they don't have to open up as much, and conserve moisture.

However, much of the initial evidence for so-called CO2 fertilization has come from lab experiments on isolated plants. These do not account for environmental factors that might affect plants even more powerfully in a warming world, including possibly increased insect and fungus attacks. Thus, suggestions that the greenhouse gas itself might prove a boon to crops have aroused deep skepticism.

In 2014, Deryng and her colleagues published the first global calculation of how heat waves might affect crops, and found that maize, spring wheat and soybeans would all suffer. When they added the effects of carbon-dioxide fertilization, they found that maize yields would still go down--but that spring wheat and soybeans might actually go up. Some media misinterpreted the study to say that climate change might help agriculture overall. The picture is much more complicated, say the authors.

The new study looks at how rising temperatures and carbon dioxide along with changes in rainfall and cloud cover might combine to affect how efficiently maize, soybeans, wheat, and rice can use water and grow. It confirms that heat and water stress alone will damage yields; but when carbon dioxide is accounted for, all four crops will use water more efficiently by 2080.

Based on the current biomass of these crops, water-use efficiency would rise an average of 27 percent in wheat; 18 percent in soybeans; 13 percent in maize; and 10 percent in rice. All things considered, the study projects that average yields of current rain-fed wheat areas (mostly located in higher latitudes including the United States, Canada and Europe), might go up by almost 10 percent, while consumption of water would go down a corresponding amount. On the other hand, average yields of irrigated wheat, which account for much of India and China's production, could decline by 4 percent. Maize, according to the new projections, would still be a loser most everywhere, even with higher water efficiency; yields would go down about 8.5 percent. The study is less conclusive on the overall effects on rice and soybean yields; half of the projections show an increase in yield and half a net decline.

Deryng says the study is sturdier than past research, because it uses new data from experiments done in actual farm fields, and a half-dozen global crop models, several of which only recently became available. Nevertheless, she says, the uncertainties remain large. Field experiments, which involve blowing CO2 over sizable farm fields for entire growing seasons, have been done only at a handful of sites in the United States, Germany, Australia, Japan and China--not in Africa, India or Latin America, where subsistence farming are mainstays of daily life. She noted that greater yield also might not translate to more nutrition. For example, greater carbon uptake might not be balanced by other nutrients such as nitrogen, and trace elements like zinc and iron that are needed to make crops nutritious.

Bruce Kimball, a retired researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture who has studied crop-CO2 interactions, said the paper does "a good job on a huge scale," though, he said, "more data from more crops from more locations" is needed." Kimball cautioned also that previous research has shown that the benefits of higher CO2 levels tend to bottom out after a certain point -- but that the damage done by heat only gets worse as temperatures mount. "Thus, for greater warming and higher CO2 the results would likely be more pessimistic than shown in this paper," he said.

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The paper, "Regional Disparities in the Beneficial Effects of Rising CO2 Concentrations on Crop Water Productivity," is available from the lead author or the Earth Institute press office.

Contact:

Delphine Deryng

dd2825@columbia.edu

212-678-5549

More information:

Kevin Krajick

Senior editor

science news

The Earth Institute

kkrajick@ei.columbia.edu 212-854-9729

The Earth Institute, Columbia University mobilizes the sciences, education and public policy to achieve a sustainable earth. http://www.earth.columbia.edu.

The Center for Climate Systems Research is a unit of Columbia University's Earth Institute, established to enchance interdisciplinary earth and climate-systems research both at Columbia and its affiliated NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Living cells must alter their external form actively, otherwise functions like cell division would not be possible. At the Technical University of Munich (TUM) the biophysicist Professor Andreas Bausch and his team have developed a synthetic cell model to investigate the fundamental principles of the underlying cellular mechanics.

Living cells do not lead a relaxed life: They are perpetually busy adapting their physical shape. When they divide, cells must massively restructure their overall form. When they absorb material, their outer membrane must deform strongly. And when they move about, they must first decide what is front and what is back before their built-in molecular motors kick in, setting the cell into motion.

Cells are living organisms with all kinds of dynamic functions. The ability of a cell to morph its shape is decisive. During cellular division these processes play an important role, whether in wound healing, embryonic development or spreading of cancer cells throughout the body.

The ways in which cells spontaneously alter their shapes using only a few components is the subject of detailed investigation by the research team of the biophysicist Andreas Bausch, chair of Cellular Biophysics at TU Munich and member of the Cluster of Excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich. The researchers hope the reconstruction will help them better understand the functions of complex cellular systems.

Model cells for investigations of cellular mechanics

The outer shell of the model cell comprises a double-layered lipid membrane analogous to natural cell membranes. Inside the researchers placed biomolecules that perform important functions in animal cells. In their experiments on the deformation of cells they used oblong actin filaments, which are normally found in the cytoskeleton.

In addition, they added the protein anillin, which facilitates the joining of actin filaments to impart the cell structural stability, and myosin as a molecular motor, which the cells need to generate the energy required for cellular deformation.

In their experiment, the researchers analyzed under which conditions the model cells spontaneously undergo deformations in which the cytoskeleton membrane either takes on a concave form or, in certain regions, forms a bubble-like protrusion in a process referred to as "blebbing". The forces exerted on the external form of the cells counteract respective forces in the lipid membrane.

"The interplay between cytoskeleton and cell membrane holds the key to all changes in form," says Etienne Loiseau of Bausch's working group and lead author of the current study. "To date cytoskeletons and vesicles were normally observed separately. The interaction of these two essential components was hardly investigated."

Focusing on the essentials

The model cell created in the project funded by the Cluster of Excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich works with a small number of components. The respective concentrations of the involved proteins can be adjusted as required and precisely controlled.

Bausch and his colleagues demonstrated that the interactions between the proteins in the presence of all other components are the key. It is only through the interplay of the various components that biological functions emerge. Evidently, the concentration of components is decisive for the manner in which cells alter their form.

"Amazingly, the same system of proteins that affect the protuberance of membranes (blebbing) lead, in slightly different concentrations, merely to extreme deformations," says Bausch. "Understanding the interactions of the proteins in context is essential - it is the reciprocal actions of the proteins that define the functions."

Understanding the mechanisms of action

Although biologists managed to identify the involved proteins and genes in elaborate cell-biological and biochemical experiments, due to the complexity of the cells it is generally not possible to also understand the fundamental mechanisms of action. "Our bottom-up approach based on the synthetic cell model is useful for understanding and explaining important functional relationships," says Professor Bausch.

As yet, the experiments on cellular deformation only work in static systems. In their next step the scientists hope to reconstruct the dynamic processes, as well. They want to allow the formation and dispersion of bubbles in the cytoskeleton membrane as it occurs in nature, thereby creating artificial model cells that can exist and move about autonomously.

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The research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and the German Research Foundation (SFB 863 and Excellence Cluster Nanosystems Inintiative Munich). Protein interactions like these are also a focus of the new research facility TUM Center for Protein Assemblies (CPA) which will be erected on the Garching campus over the next two years and is funded equally by the German Federal Government and the State of Bavaria due to its trans-regional relevance.

Publication:

Shape remodeling and blebbing of active cytoskeletal vesicles

Etienne Loiseau, Jochen A. M. Schneider, Felix C. Keber, Carina Pelzl, Gladys Massiera, Guillaume Salbreux and Andreas R. Bausch

Science Advances, Vol. 2, no. 4, e1500465, Apr. 15, 2016
Erosion after severe wildfires can be the dominant force shaping forested mountainous landscapes of the U.S. Intermountain West, suggests a new research paper by two University of Arizona geoscientists.

The study is the first to assess the impact of wildfires on such landscapes by combining several different ways to measure short-term and long-term erosion rates, said study co-author Jon Pelletier, a UA professor of geosciences.

After the 2011 Las Conchas fire in New Mexico, soil and rock eroded from burned watersheds more than 1,000 times faster than from unburned watersheds nearby, the team found. Most of the erosion happened in the first year after the fire.

Caitlin Orem had been studying erosion in seven mountain watersheds near New Mexico's Valles Grande but wasn't focused on wildfire. When the Las Conchas fire burned two of her study areas, she seized the opportunity to compare the rates that watersheds were denuded of soil and rocks before and after a severe wildfire.

"We knew that wildfire increased the rate of erosion, but we didn't know how important it was over long time scales," said first author Orem. The research was part of her doctoral studies in the UA Department of Geosciences.

"It was a really huge opportunity to learn a lot about wildfires. There are very few times you can see that big of a change and can actually document it."

Orem and Pelletier calculated total erosion rates for their study area for time scales up to 1 million years ago. The scientists found more than 90 percent of the erosion happened in the geologically brief time intervals right after forest fires. Those post-fire intervals constituted just 3 percent of the total time.

The research is part of the UA Santa Catalina Mountains & Jemez River Basin Critical Zone Observatory, a project funded by the National Science Foundation.

Pelletier, co-director of the CZO, said, "I think we can generalize this to similar landscapes in the Intermountain West - landscapes that are forested, have very little bare ground, and have few areas with slopes steeper than about 25 degrees."

The paper, "The predominance of post-wildfire erosion in the long-term denudation of the Valles Caldera, New Mexico," by Orem, now a geologist for BP in Anchorage, Alaska, and Pelletier, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.

In 2010, Orem and Pelletier began studying the role of erosion in sculpting the mountain watersheds that drain into the Valles Grande, including those on Redondo Peak and on Cerro del Medio.

Pelletier said, "The goal is to determine topographic change--the volume that has been removed or deposited."

Working with the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping, the UA geoscientists used a technology called LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to create a digital map, or digital elevation model, showing the area's surface relief at that time.

Although Redondo Peak, one of the team's study areas, now has steep-sided ridges and deep valleys, previous investigators showed that Redondo Peak formed 1.24 million years ago as a rounded volcanic dome.

To calculate long-term erosion rates for Redondo Peak, the team needed to figure out how much rock and soil had been stripped off the mountain and how long it took for that material to be removed.

Using the digital elevation model, known as a DEM, Orem calculated the volume of material that eroded from the original dome over time. Dividing that volume by the mountain's age gives the average long-term erosion rate.

Such a long-term rate incorporates many different events in the mountain's history. The researchers already knew events such as flood or wildfire could increase erosion rates.

The team corroborated their DEM-based calculation by measuring how much beryllium-10 had accumulated in the soil. Pelletier said beryllium-10 analyses provide an "erosion clock" over time scales of thousands of years.

To calculate the day-in, day-out background rate of erosion in the absence of disturbance, Orem, Pelletier and colleagues took regular samples of stream water from the Redondo Peak watersheds from 2008 to 2012. By measuring the amount of sediment suspended in the water, Orem calculated the background rate of erosion.

The researchers found the long-term erosion rate for Redondo Peak was 100 times greater than the background rate, indicating erosion rates on the mountain had been greater in the past. Redondo Peak had no wildfires during the time the team took stream samples.

A nearby mountain with similar terrain, Cerro del Medio, had a severe forest fire in 2011, giving the team the opportunity to measure post-wildfire erosion directly. Post-fire, the increase in erosion was obvious--boulders the size of office desks had rolled down the slopes and into the meadow below.

The team had already made a pre-fire digital elevation model, or DEM, of two Cerro del Medio watersheds. The team made new DEMs of the changing landscape right after the fire and again 10, 13 and 22 months later.

By comparing the pre-fire DEM to the series of post-fire DEMs, the scientists found the burned watershed lost 1,000 to 10,000 times more rocks and soil in the first year after the fire than did a similar but unburned watershed on Redondo Peak.

The researchers calculated that over a million years, if such post-wildfire erosion occurred for a year just once every 30 to 300 years, enough material would be removed to sculpt Redondo Peak's original dome into the steeply incised mountain it is today.

"Over millennia there's a gradual transfer of soil from high spots to low spots," Pelletier said. "Most of the post-fire erosion is in the streambed. In the time period between fires, soil is still moving, but it's moving to fill in the hole created by the flooding just after the fire."

The team's estimate of past wildfire frequency matches what other researchers found by studying the natural records of wildfires contained in the region's tree rings and lake sediments.

Orem said, "Other researchers have found that in the Western U.S., the area being burned and the severity of the burns are increasing. With that increase, we expect to see more wildfire-caused erosion."

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The Geological Society of America also funded part of the research.

Researcher contacts:

Jon Pelletier

University of Arizona Dept. of Geosciences

520-626-2126

jdpellet@email.arizona.edu

Caitlin Orem

oremc@email.arizona.edu

Media contact:

Mari N. Jensen

University of Arizona

520-626-9635

mnjensen@email.arizona.edu

Related Web sites:

Jon Pelletier http://www.geo.arizona.edu/Pelletier

UA Santa Catalina Mountains & Jemez River Basin Critical Zone Observatory http://criticalzone.org/catalina-jemez/
Marketers and brand managers responsible for naming new products should be interested to learn that people associate certain sounds with nearness and others with distance, say researchers from the University of Toronto, whose new study adds to the body of knowledge about symbolic sound.

In a study published online April 15 in the journal, Cognition, Sam Maglio, a professor of marketing at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management, and Cristina Rabaglia, a research fellow in psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, demonstrate that people intuitively associate front vowel sounds - those produced with the tongue relatively far forward in the mouth, such as the ee in feet -- with things that are close by. Conversely, they relate back vowel sounds - those produced with the tongue far back in the mouth, such as oo in food - to things that are farther away.

"Our feelings and intuitions about sounds influence what we feel is okay for names of specific items or brands," Rabaglia says. "If you name something in a way that isn't intuitive, it could decrease the likelihood that people will want to interact with that product."

Maglio notes, "Perhaps it's no coincidence that a long haul airline carrier such as Lufthansa has a name that uses back vowels."

Their findings are based on a series of five experiments conducted in New York City, including one in which the subjects were told that they would be given names of cities in New York State and asked to estimate their distance from NYC. They were also advised that the greatest distance between any in-state city and NYC was 400 miles.

The names of these non-existent cities were crafted so that one, Fleen, contained a front vowel and the other, Floon, contained a back vowel. Participants were randomly asked to estimate the distance between NYC and one of the two cities, not knowing that they weren't actual places. The participants regularly predicted that Floon, N.Y., was much further from NYC than Fleen, demonstrating that people associated back vowels with distance and front vowels with nearness. The other four experiments yielded similar results; when hearing words created especially for the research; subjects generally paired those containing back vowels with distance and those including front vowels with nearness.

The study is a significant addition to the existing body of knowledge about sound symbolism, the intuitive understanding of the meaning of specific sounds. Previous studies have focused largely on sound and the properties of concrete objects, relating sounds to the roundness or sharpness of an object.

The concept of symbolic sound has been gaining currency in the field of linguistics since the 1960s, says Rabaglia.

"Previously, the idea that language was arbitrary - that one word for an object was as good as any other - held sway," she says. "However, this isn't true all the time. Feelings and intuitions about sounds also have currency, perhaps because we are human and we interpret things in a particular way."

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Media Contacts:

*Both researchers are available April 18-19 and April 23 onward

Cristina Rabaglia

Research Fellow, Psychology

U of T Mississauga

647-470-7734

cris.rabaglia@utoronto.ca

Sam Maglio

Assistant Professor, Marketing

U of T Scarborough

647-774-9797

Sam.maglio@utoronto.ca

Nicolle Wahl

Associate Director, Communications, UTM

905-469-4656

nicolle.wahl@utoronto.ca
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a new method for detecting DNA mutations in a single cancer cell versus current technology that analyzes millions of cells which they believe could have important applications for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The results are published in the April 18 online issue of Nature Methods.

Existing technology, known as next-generation sequencing (NGS), measures genomes derived from millions of cells versus the newer method for single-cell sequencing, called Monovar. Developed by MD Anderson researchers, Monovar allows scientists to examine data from multiple single cells. The study was, in part, funded by MD Anderson's Moon Shots Program, an unprecedented effort to significantly reduce deaths from cancer.

"NGS technologies have vastly improved our understanding of the human genome and its variation in diseases such as cancer," said Ken Chen, Ph.D., assistant professor of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and co-author of the Nature Methods article. "However, because NGS measures large numbers of cells, genomic variations within tissue samples are often masked."

This led to development of newer technology, called single cell sequencing (SCS), that has had a major impact in many areas of biology, including cancer research, neurobiology, microbiology, and immunology, and has greatly improved understanding of certain tumor characteristics in cancer. Monovar improves further on the new SCS's computational tools which scientists found "lacking" by more accurately detecting slight alterations in DNA makeup known as single nucleotide variants (SNVs).

"To improve the SNVs in SCS datasets, we developed Monovar," said Nicholas Navin, Ph.D., assistant professor of Genetics and co-author of the paper. "Monovar is a novel statistical method able to leverage data from multiple single cells to discover SNVs and provides highly detailed genetic data."

Chen and Navin state that Monovar will have significant translational applications in cancer diagnosis and treatment, personalized medicine and pre-natal genetic diagnosis, where the accurate detection of SNVs is critical for patient care.

This refinement of an existing technology could very well boost studies in many biomedical fields other than just cancer. The researchers believe it is a major advance for assessing SNVs in SCS datasets - crucial information for a variety of diseases.

"With the recent innovations in SCS methods to analyze thousands of single cells in parallel with RNA analysis which will soon be extended to DNA analysis, the need for accurate DNA variant detection will continue to grow," said Chen. "Monovar is capable of analyzing large-scale datasets and handling different whole-genome protocols, therefore it is well-suited for many types of studies.

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Other research team members included Yong Wang, Ph.D., Genetics, and Hamim Zafar, Ph.D. and Luay Nakhleh, Ph.D., Rice University, Houston.

The study was funded by an MD Anderson Moon Shot Knowledge Gap Award, the National Institutes of Health (CA016672 and R21CA174397), the National Cancer Institute (RO1 CA172652 and RO1CA169244-01), the Andrew Sabin Family Fellowship, the Lefkofsky Family Foundation, The Bosarge Family Foundation, the H.A. and Mary K. Chapman Charitable Foundations, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and an Agilent University Relations Grant.
April 18, 2016 Rotman Professor Wins a 2016 Killam Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Toronto - An economist at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management is the recipient of a prestigious award from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Dan Trefler, a professor of business economics who holds the J. Douglas and Ruth Grant Canada Research Chair in Competitiveness and Prosperity, will receive a Killam Prize for his exceptional career achievement in the field of social sciences.

This awards program is funded by a private endowment from the Killam Trust, which supports creativity and innovation through research and higher learning. Four other Canadian professors will receive awards for their works in the fields of humanities, engineering, natural sciences, and health sciences. The Killam Prizes were created to honour eminent Canadian scholars and scientists actively engaged in research.

"Professor Trefler is an incredibly gifted scholar whose research on international trade, innovation and competitiveness is having far-reaching impact. His deep insight and advice to graduate students, fellow researchers, public policymakers and business leaders has enriched the Rotman community, Canada and the world," says Tiff Macklem, Dean of the Rotman School.

Prof. Trefler is an internationally respected trade economist, known for his ground-breaking contributions to public policy formation in Canada. His research has been instrumental in the design and pursuit of trade agreements that promote productivity, innovation and investment while minimizing the harmful effects on workers through unemployment and wage effects. He holds a joint appointment with the Department of Economics at the University of Toronto. Prof. Trefler is also a senior research fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, a research fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute and an advisor to the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity. He sits on the board of the Ontario Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity, and Economic Progress.

Prof. Trefler, along with the other winners, will be presented with their awards at a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on May 3.

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Further information on the Killam Prizes is available online.

The Rotman School of Management is located in the heart of Canada's commercial and cultural capital and is part of the University of Toronto, one of the world's top 20 research universities. The Rotman School fosters a new way to think that enables our graduates to tackle today's global business and societal challenges. For more information, visit http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca.
Team of undergraduate students working to better understand how a new generation of 'green' rocket motors could help revolutionize the space industry

LOGAN, UTAH - Aerospace engineering students at Utah State University are leading exciting new research into the future of small rocket motors. The team of undergraduate students, led by Professor Tony Whitmore, will get a $200,000 NASA grant to better understand how a new generation of "green" rocket motors could help revolutionize the space industry.

Quick Read

USU aerospace engineering team will get $200K NASA grant to further develop and test small, next-gen rocket motors.

Purpose of research is to determine if exhaust plumes from new motor design can contaminate solar panels and other external spacecraft surfaces.

Student project will fly on NASA sounding rocket in 2018.

The small, next-generation motors developed at USU are made of multiple layers of printed ABS plastic. The engineered layering process creates a meshwork of finely spaced voids in the material. When electrodes are added to the structure and voltage is applied, electrical charges accumulate in the small spaces and allow an electrical arc to build up in the core of the motor. By simultaneously introducing oxygen, the evaporated fuel material burns and a rocket motor is born. The small motors are highly efficient and have remarkable stop and restart capabilities. Using 3-D printing to achieve the proper surface structure is an essential feature of the design.

Whitmore, who created the technology, says the units are a promising alternative to the motors used on small spacecraft today that use the highly toxic and unstable liquid fuel hydrazine. He says the mini motors could be used in several applications and are ideal for use as a thruster on small satellites. With funding from NASA, Whitmore's team will flight test the motors to determine if their exhaust plumes can contaminate sensors, electronics, solar panels and other external surfaces on the spacecraft.

To test the concept, NASA will provide a sounding rocket that will launch in mid-2018 from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The sounding rocket and its USU thruster payload will reach a maximum altitude of 100 km and will experience zero gravity for more than five minutes. During this time, the thruster will deliver multiple pulses totaling 15 to 20 seconds of burn time. Such in-flight measurements have never been obtained for this class of hybrid rocket system.

As a risk mitigation activity, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has provided an additional $30,000 from its Dual-Use Technology Program for ground-based vacuum tunnel testing of the thruster and plume contamination sensors. Testing at MSFC will occur during a six-week period this summer.

"This is an exciting project in that USU undergraduate students will perform the majority of design, fabrication and testing as part of their capstone senior design course," said Whitmore. "Students will gain invaluable industrial experience working with the NASA safety review and launch integration teams, and will get to see the unforgettable experience of watching a payload they built rocket off and disappear into the sky."

The payload will splash down and be recovered in the Atlantic Ocean more than 60 km downrange from its initial launch point. The team will analyze the payload and multiple aspects of the mission to determine how much plume contamination the new motors generate.

NASA awarded more than $8 million through the competitively selected Undergraduate Student Instrument Project to 47 teams of students to conduct hands-on flight research. The proposals encompass a wide range of technologies and help NASA form future leaders in space science technology.

Flight operations will be run by the NASA Sounding Rocket Operations Contract (NSROC). USU faculty and students will work directly with NSROC to integrate the payload. On launch day, NSROC will manage launch operations, but it's anticipated the USU team will attend the launch with several key payload team members sitting in the mission operations center.

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Media Contacts:

Stephen (Tony) Whitmore| Utah State University | Dept. of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering | 435-797-2951 | stephen.whitmore@usu.edu

Matt Jensen | Utah State University | College of Engineering

435-797-8170 office | 801-362-0830 cell | matthew.jensen@usu.edu

engineering.usu.edu | @EngineeringUSU




People in Europe and the World expect from CoE to make a succes of its "Monitoring" for Human Rights and Democracy, despite difficulties, said Finland's President Tarja Halonen to "EuroFora" at a crucial moment for the mecanism built 15 years ago by the paneuropean organization which celebrates its 60th Anniversary in 2009.Halonen, known as "Mother" of CoE's "Monitoring" mecanism, a long-time MEP and former Foreign Minister before becoming Finland's President, holds a long experience in the mattter, after also serving twice as CoE and EU Chairwoman in the past. That's why she is well placed to judge how CoE's "monitoring" should deal today with some crucial issues of importance both to CoE and to the EU.The move came just a Month before a crucial, last visit to Turkey, scheduled for June, by the President of CoE''s "Monitoring" Committee, Ukranian MEP Serge Holovaty, to finalize his Report on Ankara, the CoE Member State with the longest Monitoring procedure. From its results depends its overall credibility.This is a Test-case, because, in fact, it's in order to avoid Sanctions threatened against Turkey by a CoE's Assembly's April 1995 Resolution for grave Human Rights violations, Democracy gaps, the continuing Military Occupation in Cyprus, the unresolved Kurdish problem, Aegean differend with Greece, etc., that MEPs decided to create, for the 1st time on April 1996, a "Monitoring" proces, allegedly destinated to check, without excluding Countries who did not fulfill all CoE's standards.In the Past, the obliged withdrawal of Greece's Military regime and of its "Civil" cover-up out of the CoE had helped bring back Democracy in 1974. But, on the contrary, since April 1996, the idea was to "monitor" Human Rights' respect while keeping most concerned Countries inside the CoE. After Turkey's oldest example, this was extended also to several former "Eastern" European Countries, even if CoE's Assembly has imposed to some of them (fex. Ukraine, Russia, etc., after Belarus, Serbia, etc) various "Sanctions", that Ankara always avoided. Curiously more succesful even than .. USA itself, (a CoE "Observer" since 1995), which has been at least threatened with sanctions some years ago..EU-effects of CoE's Monitoring process became obvious between 2001-2008, since the "closure" of this procedure, when CoE felt that a Country had met most of its Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law obligations, (i.e. the "Copenhagen Criteria" for the EU), helped trigger Negotiations with the EU for "Accession" or other closer relations : This occured already before the 2004 and 2007 EU Enlargements to former "Eastern" European Countries, as well as for the commencement of "accession" negotiations with Croatia, and of "open-ended" negotiations with Turkey in 2005.But a stricking new development are Holovaty's recent findings that on core Human Rights issues as Torture and Freedom of Expression, Turkey, even "5 Years after" CoE closed its "Monitoring", back in 2004, inciting EU to start accession Negotiations in 2005, still presents grave problems.His findings are of crucial importance after a 2008 CoE Resolution called, "if need be", to "seriously consider the possibility of Re-Opening the Monitoring procedure for Turkey" : A move which might affect Ankara's controversial EU bid, since EU Accession Negotiations are based on the Hypothesis that the Candidate fullfils the "Copenhagen Criteria" (See above)..-------------------------Holovaty expressed his will to check "Matters still Outstanding" and those that he "didn't have an opportunity to discuss" at an earlier visit this year, "in order to discuss the more complex issues in greater depth", at his forthcoming New Visit to Ankara, before the December 2009 EU Summit. This is all based on the 2004 CoE Resolution which stresses that, CoE "will continue.. post-monitoring Dialogue with the Turkish authorities,...in addition to a 12-points list,..and on any Other Matter that might arise in connection with Turkeys Obligations as a CoE member state".CoE's Resolution also asks from Turkey "to secure the proper Implementation of Judgements, particularly in the Cyprus v. Turkey InterState case", of 2001, which concerns also the plight of many Hundreds of MISSING People. It adds Turkey's obligations to "execute" ECHR's Judgements in the Loizidou case,..and in particular adopt General Measures to avoid repetition or continuation of Violations found by the Court" to the detriment of Refugees.Nevertheless, Holovaty said to "EuroFora" that "MISSING" persons,"might be included" and cannot be excluded, but he has yet to examine the situation "to find out which issues will be raised" to the Turkish Government.Therefore, "EuroFora" asked Halonen, as the Historic "Mother" of CoE's Monitoring mecanism, if she thought that, "whenever there are grave Human Rights Violations, as fex. "MISSING" persons, attested even by ECHR's judgements, they should be always checked by a Monitoring process. Or could they be forgotten ?"- "We (CoE) must be, at the same time, Fair, Realistic, but not in the mind that "now we have Forgotten", etc., replied to "EuroFora"'s question Halonen, speaking as a matter of general principle.- "When we think of those People that are suffering from the lack of Democracy, of Human Rights, and of the Rule of Law", "we should find a base on how to deal with the (Monitoring) system more rapidly"', she stressed.- "Sometimes it's very difficult to combine Transparency and Effectivenes together, particularly in this specific case", she went on to say. But, "I have not found a (CoE Member) Country who could be insensitive in this sens", Halonen answered concerning grave Human Rights violations attested by the ECHR.- "I have no ready-made answer. I have the expectations that you, in the CoE, will, step by step, find the different types of the monitoring systems."Also "because this is a part of the UN's Post-Conflict system, (fex. when it comes to Cyprus' MISSING persons), and it's a more Global system". So that, "If we make a succes in Europe, the others will follow", throughout the World. "But they expect that we (Europe) are this opportunity, this Opportunity to make a Succes", Halonen concluded.In addition, she advised to extend CoE's Monitoring to all its 47 Member States, "because, as long as we hear that, all these monitoring systems are "OK for the neighbor, but not for me", "it's very difficult" to understand. Something which could make easier to Compare...Finnish MEP Jaako Laakso, former CoE Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories of Cyprus and one of the 5 Signatories of the Historic CoE's call to create the "MONITORING" mecanism since 1996, was more specific : - "We (CoE Assembly) have to find a way for the issue of Cyprus' MISSING People to be better followed", he stressed, anouncing his intention to "speak to Mr. Holovaty" about that. "There might be also other ways", added Laakso.- The 2008 "Year had been a very Bad one for Turkey with regard to Human Rights in general, and Freedom of Expression in particular", denounced, meanwhile, Holovaty's preliminary Post-Monitoringh Draft Report by Holovaty, published by the CoE on April 2009."Amnesty International believes that freedom of expression is not guaranteed given the various articles of the Criminal Code that restrict it. .. "For example, 1,300 Websites are said to have been closed down by the (Turkish) authorities in 2008" ! While "the new Turkish Criminal Code was used to bring a total of 1,072 proceedings between June 2005 and April 2008, and led to the conviction of 192 people", for expressing views. "Representatives of the Ozgur Gundem newspaper, which specialises in Kurdish affairs, ..complained about Numerous Attacks on their Freedom of Expression ...as was everyone who advocated a settlement to the question by means other than the intervention of the army" "According to their figures, 19 Newspapers had been suspended 43 times between 4 August 2006 and 4 November 2008" !...Moreover, on 2008, CoE's "Ministers adopted its 4rth Resolution on the execution of the judgments of the ECHR, ...and outstanding issues regarding 175 Judgements and decisions relating to Turkey delivered between 1996 and 2008... concerning Deaths resulting from the excessive use of force by members of the Security forces, the failure to protect the right to life, the DIisappearance and/or death of individuals, Ill-Treatment and the Destruction of property". CoE's " Ministers urged the Turkish authorities ...to ensure that members of Security forces of all ranks can be prosecuted without administrativeauthorisation" for "serious crimes". Holovaty reminded."Nonetheless", Holovaty heard anew of "Several cases of Violence committed last year (2008) by the (Turkish) security forces". Amnesty International speaks of Many Cases of ill-treatment and Torture in the prisons and by the police". "Including, fex."'the death of Engin Ceber, a young man of 29 who died on October 2008 as a result of the TORTURE allegedly inflicted on him by police officers, prison staff and members of the gendarmerie. He was part of a group of people arrested on September 2008 during a demonstration and Press Conference in Istanbul'. Proceedings against suspects are "on-going" in this case.- " I therefore noted an Obvious Contradiction between the Governments stated zero tolerance policy.... of Torture and other forms of ill-treatment, and the different testimonies given", denounced CoE's Rapporteur. Turkish "authorities must make considerable efforts to guarantee that proper investigations are carried out into allegations of abuses by members of the security forces and that perpetrators are effectively punished" "In this respect, I have requested detailed Statistics on the number of Investigations, acquittals and convictions in cases involving allegations of abuse in order to show the positive impact of the measures taken to date", Holovaty said, repeating a permanently unsatisfied CoE's demand to Turkey since a Decade...- "The Political Crisis that shook the country in the spring of 2008 highlighted the Weaknesses of the (Turkish) Constitution", which comes from the Military regime of 1982, "and the Urgent Need of Reforms", stressed from the outset CoE's Rapporteur in 2009. In particular, "the ...Democratic functioning of state institutions, including the independence of the judicial system, are crucial", he observes.But, "the Electoral system and the ways in which it is circumvented do not appear to give those elected complete Legitimacy, and tend to pervert the course of direct universal suffrage", denounces Holovaty, observing that, even 5 Years later, Turkey did not yet change the 10% nationwide Threshold for a party to take any seat, which is "far higher" than the "3%" maximum in Europe and already condemned as contrary to European Standards by the CoE.+ Moreover, EU Parliament's 2009 Report on Turkey, drafted by Dutch MEP Ria Oomen-Ruijten and adopted in Strasbourg on March, expresses "Concern over the Failure of the (Turkish) Judiciary to prosecute cases of Torture and Ill-treatment, the Number of which is Growing". EU also "is concerned about continuing Hostility and Violence against Minorities" in Turkey. It also "calls on the Turkish Government to launch, as a matter of Priority, a Political Initiatve favouring a lasting Settlement of the Kurdish issue, (while "condemning violence.. and terrorist groups"). EU "regrets that No progress has been made on establishing full, systematic Civilian suprevisory functions over the (Turkish) Military".The final results of Holovaty's 2nd and last visit to Turkley will be known later this year, and, at any case, before EU's December 2009 Summit.
Report

Yannik Paul holes gutsy putt at 18th to win on Mallorca

Rookie Yannik Paul claimed his maiden DP World Tour title in dramatic fashion after holing his clutch birdie putt at the 18th to win the 2022 Mallorca Golf Open by a single shot.
Amid heightened political uncertainty following calls for a double-dissolution election, the Aussie dollar exchange rates declined versus most of its major peers today. Latest AUD/USD conversion rate forecasts suggest a bearish outlook in 2016.

An improvement in the Westpac Leading Index helped to boost the Australian Dollar exchange rates (AUD) against rivals.

While the measure remained in negative territory the modest uptick increased hopes that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will maintain a less dovish outlook in coming months.

The Aus dollar may be moved in near-term outlook by a pair of national ecostats.

The first instance will be the Westpac leading index for March, while the second will be the skilled vacancies outcome for the same month. No forecasts have been made, but both previous printings were negative.

Today's Aussie dollar exchange rate investors were not inclined to react with any particular bullishness to the April meeting minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), despite the minutes continuing to suggest that the central bank is in no hurry to cut interest rates.

Confidence in the Australian Dollar (AUD) was somewhat shaken after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull triggered a double dissolution election, throwing the future of the Australian budget further into question.

The Australian dollar has remained unstable for investors today on account of impending Aussie data, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) meeting minutes for April.

As with all central bank meeting minutes, a hawkish tone is expected to do far more for the value of the AUD exchange rates than a dovish one.

In response to political uncertainty after the Aussie Building Commission and Construction Commission (ABCC) bill was rejected by the Senate for the second time, the Australian Dollar rates declined versus its major rivals.

Australias Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull is expected to call for a double-dissolution election now that the ABCC bill has been rejected twice.

The AUD exchange rate complex is predicted to soften further amid expectations of dovish Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) minutes to be published Tuesday.

Latest New Zealand/Australian Dollar Exchange Rates

On Sunday the Pound to British Pound exchange rate (GBP/GBP) converts at 1

FX markets see the pound vs pound exchange rate converting at 1.

The pound conversion rate (against us dollar) is quoted at 1.136 USD/GBP.

At time of writing the pound to new zealand dollar exchange rate is quoted at 1.97.

Please note: the FX rates above, updated 23rd Oct 2022, will have a commission applied by your typical high street bank. Currency brokers specialise in these type of foreign currency transactions and can save you up to 5% on international payments compared to the banks.

Other Currency Exchange News

Australian Dollar Exchange Rates Slump Sharply Today

As explained above, the Australian Dollar declined versus nearly all of its major foreign currency peers on Monday in response to major political uncertainty.

Now that the Australian Building Commission and Construction Commission bill has been rejected by the Senate twice, PM Turnbull has the power to call for a double-dissolution election.

Analysts at Hong Leong bank predict a weak AUD/USD exchange rate over the coming week amid expectations of dovish RBA minutes, stating;

We are bearish on AUD against USD, as we do not see likelihood of further gains given recent advances, as well as expectation of renewed weakness in oil prices to lead a decline in equities, pressuring AUD. We also foresee downside pressure on AUD to come tomorrow from RBA minutes, which could reveal the central banks concern over a resilient currency hampering pick up in Australias economy. Technically, we continue to anticipate fatigue in AUDUSDs upward move towards 0.7728, which could potentially be a trigger for a drop back to 0.7512.

New Zealand Dollar (NZD) Exchange Rates Advance on Inflation Data

New Zealand Dollar exchange rates advanced versus most of its peers following positive domestic data published on Sunday.

On the year, New Zealands Consumer Price Index met with the median market forecast 0.4% in the first-quarter. This eased concerns over further overnight cash rate cuts from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ).

This data detracts from the case for an April OCR cut, said Dominick Stephens, chief New Zealand economist at Westpac. The details of the data will constitute a small upside surprise from the RBNZs perspective.

Pound Sterling (GBP) Exchange Rate Forecast to Struggle against Political Uncertainty

With a lack of influential domestic data this week, the Pound is likely to see movement in response to political developments regarding the EU referendum.

Today the British Pound declined in response to a warning from Chancellor George Osborne that a Brexit would have a detrimental impact on the poorest in the UK.

Thursdays UK data will dominate focus with retail sales and public finances reports due for publication.

Wednesdays labour market data may also provoke volatility. See the UK Average Earnings Index 3m/y, UK Claimant Count Change and UK Unemployment Rate here.
Hello Friends,

I along with my wife and son got Australian PR by mid of 2014 and during January 2015 we went to Australia for our first landing. After coming back we were blessed with a baby girl. I am planning to migrate by next year and before that I want to apply PR for our new born baby. I shall be thankful if some one can help me with my following queries.



1) I understand that it will be visa subclass 101 for which I have to fill up form 47CH. However I could not get the list of documents that I have to submit along with it.



2) In the DIBP website they have mentiioned about the above visa but did not say whether we can apply it online.



3) After searching I found that I have to submit the form and documents to VFS. I am unable to understand what VFS is and is it present in all major cities.



4) How much is the fees for this visa and how is it paid.



5) My daughter is one year old now. Will they ask for a medical report for her.



Thanks and Regards

Hawker Hunter
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Oil slid after talks Sunday in Doha between the worlds biggest producers ended without an agreement to limit supplies.

Futures dropped 1.4 percent in New York, paring an earlier loss of 6.8 percent. The summit in the Qatari capital, which dragged on for more than 10 hours beyond its scheduled conclusion, finished with no final accord. Declines eased as a labor strike in Kuwait, OPECs fourth-biggest member, cut output for a second day.

We have two compelling, competing stories in the market, said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York. Theres the failure to reach an agreement in Doha, which supports an OPEC in disarray narrative, and we have an oil workers strike in Kuwait thats taking a significant amount of supply off the market.

Oil futures rose from the lows because there was another event that happened, the disruption of supply in Kuwait that pulled 1.6 million barrels out of the market, thats a lot more than could have been accomplished at the Doha meeting, Ed Morse, head of global commodity research at Citigroup Inc., said on Bloomberg Television.

Output from the countrys northern fields was back to normal, the Kuwait Oil Co. said in a statement.

Oil rebounded after falling to the lowest level in more than 12 years in February amid speculation that a deal would be reached in Doha as U.S. production fell. Oil ministers from 16 nations, representing about half the worlds output, gathered in a bid to stabilize the global market, the first significant attempt at coordinating oil output between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and nations outside the group in 15 years.

West Texas Intermediate for May delivery fell 58 cents to settle at $39.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Its the lowest close since April 8.

Brent crude for June settlement dropped 19 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $42.91 on Londons ICE Futures Europe exchange after earlier falling as much as 7 percent. The global benchmark closed at a $1.72 premium to June WTI.

Discussions broke down after Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries rejected any deal unless all OPEC members joined, including Iran, which wasnt present at the meeting, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said.

Given the expectations ahead of Doha, the failure to reach a freeze agreement is likely to cause an oil market sell-off, said Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and a former White House official. The fact that Saudi Arabia seems to have blocked the deal is an indicator of how much its oil policy is being driven by the ongoing geopolitical conflict with Iran.

Iran, which is reviving oil exports after international sanctions were lifted in January, ruled out any limits on its output before reaching pre-sanctions levels, dismissing the notion of joining the freeze as ridiculous.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

OPEC members will consult among themselves and with other oil producers, Qatars Energy Minister Mohammed Al Sada said at a news conference after the meeting. The next scheduled biannual OPEC meeting is June 2.

They failed to even agree to a bland, vague statement, said Michael D. Cohen, an analyst at Barclays PLC in New York. He added that Doha was a distraction from the fundamental market rebalancing that was already taking place.

U.S. crude production fell to 8.977 million barrels a day in the week ended April 8, Energy Information Administration data show. It was the first decline bellow 9 million barrels in 18 months. The agency cut its 2016 output forecast to 8.6 million barrels a day from 8.67 in March, according to its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook released April 12.

Kuwait oil output plunged 60 percent to 1.1 million barrels a day when the strike began Sunday, while the state refining company slowed operations at its three oil-processing plants to less than 60 percent of their combined capacity.

Workers in Kuwait are striking to protest cuts in pay and benefits as Middle Eastern crude exporters, reeling from lower oil income, cut subsidies and government handouts. The walkout is the first by oil workers in Kuwait since at least 1996, according to Middle East Economic Digest.
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WASHINGTON - A shorthanded Supreme Court heard a Texas-led challenge against President Barack Obama's 2014 immigration plan Monday with sharp questions about whether the state could bring the case to begin with and if the president had overstepped.

The eight justices appeared largely divided with the four liberal justices asking questions that seemed to indicate it supported the president's plan while the four conservative justices questioned the limits of his executive authority.

As stake is not only the future of about 4 million immigrants here illegally, mostly the parents of American citizens, but the extent of presidential authority and the scope states have to challenge federal policy. A decision could be the most important related to immigration in decades.

The case comes at the height of a presidential campaign where immigration has been a defining issue and as the court itself is embroiled in a political battle to fill the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Texas, leading a coalition of 26 mostly Republican states, filed to stop the plan immediately after Obama announced it in November 2014. It would provide provisional work permits to largely the parents of American citizens who have been here since 2010 without committing serious crimes.

Many think the eight justices may not be able to reach a majority decision on the matter or want to wait until they have a full bench to decide an issue of such import. If they split 4-4, it would uphold a lower court's decision to block the president's plan but wouldn't resolve any of the issues at hand and other states could sue to try enact the program.

Chief Justice John Roberts is considered a contender to side with the four liberal judges in deciding that Texas isn't able to bring the suit in the first place because it can't prove it will suffer as a result of the program, necessary for it to sue in federal court.

Texas said it would lose money if it is required to provide driver's licenses to the nearly 600,000 immigrants who would be eligible for a provisional work permit through the president's plan. The state subsidizes the document by about $130.

But U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli argued Monday that Texas could simply change its policy and not offer these immigrants licenses or choose not to offset the cost of the documents.

Roberts, who has taken a narrow position on so-called standing in the past, noted that not granting licenses to certain immigrants with work authorization when others with a similar status have them could be considered discriminatory, putting Texas in a tough spot.

He asked Verrilli whether the injury Texas argues it might suffer is similar to a 2007 environmental case in which Massachusetts sued the Environmental Protection Agency about its refusal to regulate vehicle emissions linked to climate change.

"There wasn't a way for Massachusetts to avoid the effects of climate change but there is a way here," Verrilli said, because Texas isn't required to discount the license.

Massachusetts had argued that rising seawater, a result of global warming, would erode its coastline and hurt the state, giving it sufficient claim to sue the federal government. The state prevailed but Roberts led the court's conservative dissent, arguing Massachusetts could not prove it was hurt by the government's policy.

Monday Justice Stephen Breyer noted that the state's main argument that it would be harmed is that it would lose money.

"We can't just let you sue on the basis that you as a taxpayer would pay more money," he said. "Because if we do, taxpayers from all over the country would sue" about their unhappiness with any number of federal programs.

Much of the argument revolved around whether Texas has the right to challenge the program in the first place. But Roberts also seemed concerned about the scope of the program and asked whether the president could defer the removal of all 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.

No one disputes that the administration must prioritize whom it deports because there simply aren't enough resources to remove all of them. But Texas contends proactively choosing not to deport such a big pool of immigrants and granting them work permits is abdicating the president's authority to enforce immigration law.

At issue is how much authority the president wields to shape policy, especially if it goes against Congressional will,

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is often the deciding vote in close cases, worried Monday that the administration may have overstepped its authority by having the executive branch set immigration policy rather than carry out laws passed by Congress.

"What we are doing is defining the limits of discretion," he said. "It seems to me that this is a legislative and not an executive act .... it's as if the president is setting policy and and the Congress is executing it."

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sounded an optimistic note on the court house steps.

"It's an amazing opportunity, an amazing day for us," he said. "Our efforts to stop the president's illegal immigration plan go back to fundamental principles - which is that one person doesn't have the unilateral authority to change the law and make new law."

He was joined by solicitor general Scott Keller, who added, "fundamentally this case has always been about the separation of powers. What DACA does is transform unlawful conduct into lawful conduct, and if the president or the executive has the power to do that, it should trouble every American."

As the lawyers filed out of the court building, a small clutch of administration critics, including U.S. Rep. Louis Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, set up a microphone to make speeches.

"It's ironic that people who came into this country illegally .... want us to be like the countries they came from where we don't respect the law," Gohmert said.

He, as well as Iowa U.S. Rep. Steve King, another immigration hard-liner, were largely drowned out by pro-Obama activists who surrounded them.

At one point during a chaotic street scene, Gohmert's group started to sing the national anthem when some of the immigration activists joined in.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced late Monday afternoon he has signed a disaster declaration for the Houston area because of powerful thunderstorms that led to several fatalities, damaged hundreds of homes and paralyzed the region.

The declaration covers nine counties: Harris, Bastrop, Colorado, Fort Bend, Grimes, Montgomery, Waller, Wharton and Austin. That will allow local officials to implement state emergency-assistance plans and order curfews, if necessary, as the heavy rains continue in the forecast through at least Tuesday.

If property losses are excessive, a federal disaster declaration is expected in a few days after detailed damage assessments, officials said. They said Harris and Waller counties are the most affected so far.

Abbott also announced that the IRS has agreed to grant extensions for tax filings for those Texans who are directly affected the flooding.

Authorities said at least five people drowned as a result of the storm. Earlier Monday, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett confirmed two fatalities were near U.S. 59 and Interstate 610. Emmett said surveillance camera footage showed a car drive around a barricade into high water in that area.

Sgt. Herbert Martinez of the Harris County Precinct 5 constable's office said two fatalities were reported at Greenspoint Drive and the Beltway and at West Hardy Road and the Beltway.

Martinez said the toll road authority had responded to the West Hardy Road death and said authorities had witnessed the man drive an 18-wheeler into high water. He said a medical condition may have been involved. It's unclear what led to the other death.

In addition, Royal Independent School District in Brookshire tweeted that one of its teachers, Charles Odum of Royal Junior High, died in rising floodwaters on Monday.

A flood-related fatality was reported in Waller County, which was hard hit by the storm. A man of an unknown age was found by rescuers around noon Monday in a submerged vehicle near the intersection of Wilson and Adams Flat roads, said Brian Cantrell of the Waller County Sheriff's Office. Investigators believed the vehicle had been caught in rushing water.

Houston Police Department spokeswoman Jodi Silva said officers responded to reports of bodies found in flooding at the feeder road connecting 610 and I-59 near the Houston Chronicle building.

Silva said responders could not yet offer any further information.

Harris County officials said the high water rescue number had risen to 1,222, with 897 in Houston limits and 325 outside.

County Judge Ed Emmett said "timing means everything" when evaluating the impact of a storm. Much of the last 24 hours' rainfall came during the night time, which made it both difficult to predict but also allowed people to make choices about going out, as opposed to last year's Memorial Day floods.

Emmett said the officials' preparation for the floods and rains on Monday went "as well as they can go," but said heavy, concentrated, sustained rains will have consequences despite any amount of preparation.

"Some things you can't avoid," he said.

School districts and colleges across southeast Texas canceled classes Monday as a flash flood watch remained in effect due to heavy rainfall. More than 121,000 customers were without power in the Houston area at one point, but the figure had dropped to 47,000 as of about 3 p.m., according to CenterPoint.

RELATED: Some schools will be closed or delayed on Tuesday

Forecasters said that on Tuesday, up to three more inches of rainfall may be possible.

RELATED: City responds as rain pounds Houston

Heavy rain leaves Houston, other areas underwater

The storms hit overnight and are expected to continue throughout the day and into Tuesday, according the National Weather Service.

RELATED: ABC 13 reporter saves man from flooded Houston car

"This is a major rain event," Emmett said. "I hate to use the word 'Allison' but it's got all the similar features."

Emmett said 13 of 22 of Harris County's creeks and waterways were out of their banks and heavy rains from the north and northwest would continue to flow down and cause swells.

Chaos in Greenspoint area

Mayor Sylvester Turner sought to assure what could be hundreds of residents stranded on the upper floors of flooded Greenspoint-area apartments that the city is moving to help them.

News footage through the afternoon has shown residents hauling children out of the flooded complexes in everything from plastic tubs to air mattresses to, in one case, a refrigerator. Turner said he has deployed 10 Metro buses and nine fire department rescue vehicles to the area to move residents to Aldine ISD's M.O. Campbell Education Center, which the city is using as a shelter.

"There's no question we're getting a number of calls, people stranded and in need of rescue, and we're deploying assets to that area to meet the immediate need," Turner said. "We know there's many individuals who are stranded. I know people are wanting to get out of that area. I've directed all of our resources that are available to move expeditiously into those areas. I want to assure people that's being done."

"Do not think the city is not seeing you," Turner continued, addressing Greenspoint residents. "It's a situation where all throughout the city, and quite frankly all throughout our region, we're dealing with high water."

City personnel reached roughly 1,000 units this morning, Turner's spokeswoman Janice Evans said, with some residents being helped to higher levels of the apartment buildings and some being moved to the Greenspoint Mall. The city must now move those at mall to M.O. Campbell, along with those who did not leave the area this morning and any residents who may be stuck in another 500 units nearby that may not have been reached in the first response this morning.

"I don't want people to leave a unit on the second floor. Shelter in place," Turner said. "We are responding and we will continue to respond until every single person is in a safe and dry area."

Turner said he understands why Greenspoint residents  hungry and stressed, surrounded by floodwaters  would say they feel abandoned, but Turner said a command center was set up in the Greenspoint area at 3:59 a.m, so personnel have been working in the area for hours.

Leaving the city emergency center for a joint press conference with County Judge Ed Emmett, Turner said he plans to visit the Greenspoint area afterward.

Shelter-in-place orders

Turner said reports he's getting suggest more people in the area are being relocated to the M.O. Campbell Education Center, a shelter now housing about 300 people, but he said other residents have resisted first responders' offers to help them leave their dwellings.

"There have been many individuals who have waived the rescuers on and said they're fine, they don't want to go," Turner said. "But I want to go out there myself and assess the situation."

In addition to Greenspoint, city personnel are focusing on the Meyerland area and parts of northwest Houston that were hit particularly hit by flooding.

Those needing assistance to reach a shelter are asked to call the city 311 help line at 713-837-0311.

Shelters in place were:

Meyerland area: Johnston Middle School, 10410 Manhattan.

Northwest area: (Bingle, Little York, TX 249, Alabonson, Victory): St. John United Methodist Church, 8787 N. Houston Rosslyn.

Westside: Jersey Village Baptist Church, 16518 Jersey Drive.

Northside: M.O. Campbell Education Center, 1865 Aldine-Bender.

The mayor sounded a cautiously hopeful tone during a 12:30 p.m. update on Houston's latest flood, saying the National Weather Service believed most heavy rainfall would stay to the city's south, leaving the city limits to receive perhaps half an inch of rain through the rest of the day. However, he said, conditions can shift quickly, and the area remains on a flood watch until Tuesday morning.

Nearly 100 intersections were closed due to high water, Turner said, and the city had received reports of flooding in 72 homes or businesses, though Turner said the full tally likely was far higher, as he has heard suggestions that 200 homes in Meyerland could be affected. The flooding comes less than a year after sudden downpours caused major flooding on Memorial Day weekend.

"I regret anyone who's having to go through the flooding of their homes again," Turner said. "For some individuals, they've just finished the repairs and moved back into their homes, and then less than a year later here we go again. I know it's very difficult. But I will say that there were areas that flooded this time that haven't flooded in years. And this is happened not just in our region but throughout the state. This is just one of those things that no one can control."

Flights canceled

At Bush Intercontinental Airport, 224 flights had been canceled, and 54 more had been scrapped at Hobby Airport; the nearby intersection of Monroe and Airport also was underwater, with several stranded vehicles there, Turner said.

Metro still was not operating, Turner said, and 44,157 homes inside the city limits remained without power.

Turner acknowledged the event was difficult to forecast, but said city officials would not have prepared any differently than they did. City personnel were on alert last night, as he and Emmett decided to close the city and county court systems and tell only public safety personnel to report to work. All school districts were able to close before thousands of residents left their homes, he said.

"I don't think anyone expected the rainfall to come as soon as it did and persist as long as it did, and it just got worse," Turner said. "That's a lot of rain to be coming in a very short period of time. There's nothing you can do whether you're in the city or the county or any other governmental entity that can stop that amount of rainfall."

Houston Fire Department responded to 610 emergency calls after midnight, the mayor said.

About 100 residents of apartments in North Houston had been evacuated from three apartment complexes and were being sheltered in the Greenspoint Mall, Turner said, noting that the Red Cross also had opened a shelter at 16518 Jersey Drive.

More than 70 subdivisions in the Houston metro area were flooded as of 6:55 a.m. Metro suspended bus operations Monday because of the flood watch, which will remain in effect through 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Some homes in hard-hit northwest Harris County, where 8 to 16 inches rain fell overnight, reportedly had several feet of water inside, rising up to kitchen sinks, Sanchez said.

Sanchez said residents inside Beltway 8 along Brays Bayou may also see flooding inside their homes. Officials fear, he added, homes inside the 610 Loop could also get flooded.

"This will definitely be an historic event," Sanchez said.

The flash flood watch covers Harris, Brazoria Fort Bend, Galveston, Montgomery, Waller and other counties in the region. Flooding is especially possible along Greens Bayou near the Eastex Freeway as well as areas along Buffalo Bayou near Piney Point Village and Cypress Creek near Westfield.

In Montgomery County, where 4 to 8 inches of rain had fallen over several hours, the Red Cross opened three shelters for people forced from their homes.

The shelters are located at First United Methodist Church 4308 W. Davis in Conroe; the East Montgomery County Friendship Center, 21679 McCleskey Road in New Caney; and South County Community Center, 2235 Lake Robbins Drive in The Woodlands.

A coastal Flood Warning was in effect until 4 p.m. Water has already moved over Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island's roads.

>> Is it flooding in your area? Show us conditions in your area by sending photos to photos@chron.com. They could appear on Chron.com.
The potential growth of fracking in the UK poses a number of challenges and opportunities for landowners  and now there is the first comprehensive review to help them navigate their way through this emerging subject.

Published by the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV), the guide  entitled Hydraulic Fracturing for Shale Gas - explores the legal and environmental impacts of fracking alongside planning considerations, surveys, and taxation issues.

"As an independent organisation representing rural professionals who advise on every aspect of countryside management, it is vital that we lead the way when it comes to understanding the implications of new technologies and markets," says Sarah Chorlton, rural policy adviser at CAAV.

Although Wales and Scotland currently have a moratorium on fracking, the English government offered 153 blocks for shale gas exploration in December 2015.

With potentially 150bn cubic metres of shale gas in the UK, declining fossil fuel supplies and pressure to cut carbon emissions, it has provided a number of encouragements to assist shale gas operators.

"There is plenty of interest by developers in exploring these blocks so if landowners are approached they really need to understand the details.

"We are not here to take sides in the argument, simply to research the challenges and provide assistance with the practical implications," says Miss Chorlton.

"Although the guide is essentially designed for land agents who may be required to advise clients about fracking projects, it will also be of use to solicitors and anyone else involved in the process."

The guide is split into five main chapters, including a background to fracking for shale gas, the energy debate behind it, planning and regulation, environmental impacts, and the implications for affected landowners.

"Because its such a complex area we stop short of supplying template agreements, but offer advice on points to consider during the drafting process, from test wells through to project completion and final decommissioning.

"Considerations include compensation, indemnity against third party claims, potential payments to the landowner and neighbouring community, and environmental impacts", she adds.

The Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) is a specialist professional body representing, qualifying and briefing over 2700 members practising in a diverse range of agricultural and rural work throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

To order a copy of the guide, which is priced at 100, visit www.caav.org.uk. Or for more information contact Olivia Cooper, partner at Agri-hub PR services, on 01392 840009 or email Olivia@agri-hub.co.uk.
Fayetteville mother says four charged in son's killing were his friends

The mother-of-two is struggling to understand not just how her son could be gone so quickly, but why his friends turned on him.
The owners of a tax preparation business that filed fraudulent tax returns on behalf of inmates at various New Jersey prisons were sentenced Friday to multi-year prison sentences.

Kamal J. James, a/k/a Bro Messiah Aziz El, 34, of Seaford, Delaware, and Crystal G. Hawkins, a/k/a Sis. Crystal Gabri El, 39, of Laurel, Delaware, were sentenced to eight years and four years in prison, respectively.

They were charged with one count of conspiracy, 16 counts of making false claims, and three counts of mail fraud.

Both were convicted on all counts following a one-week trial before Judge Peter Sheridan. He sentenced them Friday in Trenton federal court.

Between October 2011 and October 2013, James and Hawkins operated Release Refunds, a tax preparation business based in New Jersey.

They solicited current and former New Jersey prison inmates as clients and then filed fraudulent tax returns on their behalf.

James and Hawkins sent Release Refunds promotional flyers to inmates at various New Jersey prisons and halfway houses offering tax return preparation services, the DOJ said.

The pair asked inmates interested in Release Refunds services to provide basic identification information and to sign income tax returns and other IRS documents, but not to include any information about their income or withholdings.

James and Hawkins then filled in the missing income information on the return forms. They fabricated the inmates earnings to trigger fraudulent and inflated refunds.

The DOJ said,

An undercover IRS-Criminal Investigation agent posing as an inmate in a New Jersey prison submitted a completed Release Refunds form and sent it to James and Hawkins. They then sent the inmate blank income tax forms and other IRS documents and instructions to sign the documents. James and Hawkins did not request any financial information from the undercover agent before preparing three fraudulent tax returns  including false income information that James and Hawkins provided  to be filed on behalf of the agent for tax years 2010 through 2012. The fraudulent returns resulted in several thousand dollars in refunds and a $1,485 fee for the defendants.

In addition to the prison terms, Judge Sheridan ordered James and Hawkins to pay restitution of $570,897.

___

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.
Leslie R. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal DivisionThe DOJs FCPA Guidance and Enforcement Plan places significant emphasis on organizational culture. The section describing an effective compliance and ethics program includes whether the company has established a culture of compliance, including an awareness among employees that any criminal conduct, including the conduct underlying the investigation, will not be tolerated.

The 2012 DOJ/SEC FCPA Resource Guide was the first major policy statement by these two federal law enforcement bodies to include the culture of compliance term. Assistant AG of the Criminal Division Leslie Caldwell now consistently uses the term in her public remarks to compliance groups.

This most recent use of culture of compliance in the Justice Departments Guidance and Enforcement Plan continues the DOJs departure from the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines culture description. The Sentencing Guidelines refer to an organizational culture that encourages ethical conduct and a commitment to compliance. The latter is a culture that encourages compliance; the Plans language is stronger, simpler and can be read to mean a culture that is compliance-based, or where compliance is integral to the overall culture.

The culture of compliance concept thus appears to be taking on increased importance with DOJ. Why is this so? One interpretation is that the Department has seen too many examples over the years of companies asserting that they had an effective compliance program, but the subsequent review shows a check the box, rather than substantive program foundation.

With the addition of the DOJs compliance counsel, those days seem to be in the rear view mirror, as the Department is now more savvy and operationally-focused. There appears to be a realization that a culture of compliance is the glue that holds together compliance programs intended to apply to globally dispersed and fast moving organizations.

And what is actually meant by a culture of compliance?

In the absence of an actual legal or standards-based definition, consider a common sense approach: a culture of compliance exists within an organization when its shared and integrated values and attitudes place compliance with the law as an operational and strategic priority, as evidenced by the organizations actions and practices.

More simply, the cultural component is evident in how a company does business  to include producing and selling and how it treats its employees  not merely as a bolt on to long standing policies and practices.

The signals are clear. Organizations should take note of DOJs embrace of the term, and begin making a culture of compliance a top programmatic priority.

___

Worth MacMurray is the U.S. General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of GAN Integrity Inc. in McLean, Virginia. He can be contacted here.
Greta Lee takes on the role of Hae-Won in hit comedy Sisters, which saw her star alongside Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and work with director Jason Moore for the first time.

Greta Lee

We caught up with the actress to chat about this latest role, working with Moore and the cast and what she has on the horizon for the rest of the year.

- Sisters is about to be released on DVD here in the UK, so can you tell me a bit about the film?

Sisters is a movie written by Paula Pell and directed by Jason Moore and it stars two of my most favourite people in the world; Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. As well as pretty much everyone from SNL who I love, including Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, and Bobby Moynihan. It is a story about sisters. It is about family. It is about growing up and coming into your own and it all takes place at a house party.

- You take on the role of Hae-Won in the film, so what was it about the character and Paula Pell's screenplay that was the major draw for you?

I have been a really big fan of Paula's for a while. And I was really excited about everyone else who was also involved in the project. I was particularly drawn to this character because Hae-Won is not someone I am used to playing. I don't have a lot of experience playing specifically Asian women who have moved to America from, in this case, Korea. Having an accent was also something new.

Initially, I was curious about what that challenge would be like to take on something that could come across stereotypical. Once I read the script, I had a conversation with the creative team and realised that this was a really cool and unique opportunity to, hopefully, portray a very real person in a funny way - and that doesn't happen so often. I was really happy that this came together.

- Where does your character fit into the film?

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's characters go to a nail salon to get a manicure and pedicure, where they meet a nail technician who they think is called Vicky. We find that she is called Hae-Won and she is a nail technician as well as a mother of two children - she is a single mum. She is also a party animal - she loves to rage, which is a fun and unexpected twist that we discover later on in the movie.

- You mentioned that this role allowed you to tackle an accent - how was that challenge?

I loved it so much. I am a child of immigrants, my parents moved to Los Angeles from South Korea themselves. They both have accents, so I was thrilled. I don't always get to channel my parents, specifically my mom. I have a sister myself - she is just a year younger and we are really close - and this was all very personal and I got to go it in a funny way, which is such a gift and so rare.

- The movie sees Jason Moore back in the director's chair, so how did you find working with him?

Jason is the greatest. I think it really does take a special kind of director to be able to balance so many different comedic personalities and colours; he really does that seamlessly and it is very impressive. He is very trusted, especially in this case with this character.

I had a lot of ideas of what I hoped to bring to this role and I cannot believe that he was so trusting. A lot of that came in the form of improv and letting us improvise like crazy. The DVD does include deleted features that include improvised scenes that are so funny. I really am excited that people will get to see all of that.

- As you say, there was a lot of improvisation on Sisters and I was wondering how much is that something that you enjoy as an actor?

I love it. I love doing it with other actors that love it and are good at it. It really is the best way to create lots of options for the edit. There was tons of improv on this movie. the actors were improvising.

Paula Pell did something with post-it-notes; she likes to secretly send you a little post-it-note with alternate lines, but without telling anyone else. That then just becomes a game of trying not to break and trying not to laugh when someone says something that was completely unexpected. Yeah, there was so much of that, which you will see on the DVD.

- It sounds like it was a fun and laid back set to be on.

Yes, it was. We shot in the summer out on Long Island and it really did feel like it was Summer Camp. It was with the funniest and brightest people and everyone was so happy to be showing up to work every day with this group of people. I really cannot tell you how funny everyone is. Everyone except Ike (Barinholtz) - no one liked Ike, which is unfortunate for him (laughs). Everyone else we loved and it was such a blessing. I love Ike.

- Sisters sees Tina Fey reunite with Amy Poehler, so what was it like watching them work together - they have a great chemistry?

They really do. You could watch them forever. They have a comedic chemistry that is really unlike anything that I have seen; it was a pleasure to watch. They each bring such a unique and different quality and together, it is like an atomic bomb of funny. They are so smart, original and, at times, really dirty; which was a fun surprise for us all (laughs).

- The film hit the big screen at the end of last year, how did you find the response to the film?

I was so surprised that people seem to really love this character. I was really blown away by people reaching out and saying that they were really excited to see a diverse character in the scope that is not seen as much. I was curious to see how it would go, because I have never played a role like this before.

Even people reaching out and talking about the rights of nail technicians - it has been getting a lot of attention in New York City lately. This is a comedy and we are making jokes, but it is really cool that people were moved by it. It really has been great.

- We are also going to be seeing you return in Money Monster, so can you tell me a bit about that project?

Money Monster is a financial thriller that is directed by Jodie Foster and starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts. That comes out in a few months. Along with that, with have got some other things going on as I am shooting Inside Amy Schumer right now, we are in our fourth season. I will be returning to some other television show that I have been in the past and getting to re-visit some of my favourite characters. I cannot say which one, but I think people will be really excited to see.

- During your career, we have seen you move between TV and film, so how do the two mediums compare?

I love it. With film, depending on the job, it feels a bit more like camp as you are there for a finite period of time. But with television, it is a longer stretch of time and you get to explore different parts of the character in a different way.

It also just depends on where it shoots. I find that a lot of the projects that I have gotten to do have been in New York and that seems to lend a different quality to the project, whether it is TV or film. I love New York - just in case you can't tell (laughs).

- We are always hearing about the lack of opportunities for women behind the camera, so where do you stand on this debate?

I loved it, I was obsessed with it and it is all I want. I think that it is a total shame that we don't have more female directors or rather, more opportunities for them. It is unconscionable that this is the situation and it makes no sense. When I look back at my career so far, hands down my favourite jobs have been directed by or written by women and I don't think that that's an accident.

- Finally, what's next for you?

Money Monster will be coming out later this year and there's another film called Pottersville, starring Michael Shannon. I am also going to be in an indie film called Fits and Starts. I am also going to be back on Inside Amy Schumer. There are also some other things on the horizon that I can't talk about (laughs). You know how it is.

Sisters is released on DVD on 25th April.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Ahead of the third anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh that killed over a thousand workers, international NGO ActionAid has come up with five recommendations to improve the condition of garment factory workers in the country It has recommended incorporating a compensation mechanism that clarifies the calculation criteria and reflects the prevailing socio-economic reality within the national legal framework

Ahead of the third anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh that killed over a thousand workers, international NGO ActionAid has come up#

ActionAid has also recommended strengthening the designated government department to continue the factory inspection and streamline the process of providing permits for setting up factories.The third recommendation asks for ensuring that the 'true spirit' of 'freedom of association' prevails by adequately empowering the trade unions to collectively bargain for their rights.It has also suggested minimizing the loopholes in the labour law to make it worker-friendly.ActionAid also stressed on the need to continue the social dialogue for broader accountability framework for the global fashion brands need to be in place to ensure workers safety and basic rights. This framework would ensure accountability of major stakeholder throughout the value chain.The recommendations have made been made following a survey ActionAid commissioned to critically analyse the responses to the tragic incident and also raise the crucial questions on how to institutionalize them with in the national legal framework and the broader international accountability framework.While the spontaneous emergency response was commendable and the efforts taken by the governments, international buyers, apex bodies, non-governmental organizations is a step towards ensuring workers' rights and safety, issues continue to persist around job security of workers from factories that do not meet safety requirements, extent of economic reintegration and physical and psychosocial well-being, the survey found.The survey acknowledged that three years after the Rana Plaza building collapse, the scenario of the Bangladesh RMG sector has started to change. But in order to sustain the developments, shape the RMG sector towards a safer, responsive and accountable sector, development efforts need to be continued. Responsible partnership of stakeholders is still important to address the challenges.The survey found an upward trend in socio-economic reintegration. While a large number of survivors have opted for self-employment, the growing flow re-joining the garments sector cannot be ignored. While the personal loss of survivors and kin of deceased is irreplaceable, majority of respondents from the survey considered the initiatives taken by the multiple stakeholders as effective.
ITM 2016 International Textile Machinery Exhibition and the Hightex 2016 International Technical Textile and Nonwoven Trade Fair that are expected to attract 1200 exhibitors and more than 60.000 visitors from 72 countries, will be held at Tuyap Fair Convention and Congress Center in Istanbul from June 1 to June 4.Latest technologies of Turkey's textile machinery industry will debut at ITM 2016. Being held with the partnership of Tuyap and Telnik Fuarcilik and supported by Temsad spread across 12 halls, ITM 2016 Exhibition and Hightex International Technical Textile and Nonwoven Trade Fair will be the largest gathering for textile technologies, which Turkey and the region have hosted so far, the organizers said in a press release.

ITM 2016 International Textile Machinery Exhibition and the Hightex 2016 International Technical Textile and Nonwoven Trade Fair that are expected#

ITM 2016 in Istanbul will be a meeting point for all the industry representatives, including both domestic and foreign manufacturers and exporters. ITM 2016 will be 55 per cent larger compared to ITM 2015, and that has further increased interest among the participants.Being organized under the motto: Textile Exhibitions are held in the Land of Textile since 2004, ITM Exhibitions have become an important brand for Turkey and the surrounding countries.ITM Exhibitions have gained worldwide attraction with its visitors as well as with its exhibitors. In addition to local textile manufacturers showing keen interest, each exhibition is also visited by purchasing committees, groups of investors and professional visitors from all over the world, the release said.Hightex 2016, the 6th International Technical Textile and Nonwoven Trade Fair, will be held in Hall 11 at Istanbul Tuyap Fair Convention and Congress Center during the same period as ITM 2016. At Hightex 2016 Exhibition, the first and only event in its field, raw materials for technical textiles, intermediary and final products and production technologies will be seen together.The fact that Hightex 2016 Exhibition, the largest gathering for technical textiles industry in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, will be concurrently held with ITM 2016 Exhibition will create a highly positive and efficient synergy, the release said. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Swiss technology group Oerlikon has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire the entire staple fibres technology portfolio of Trutzschler Nonwovens & Man-Made Fibres GmbH which is a part of the German Truetzschler Group, a specialist in fibre preparation for the yarn spinning and nonwovens industries. The acquisition expands the Manmade Fibres Segment's technology portfolio and opens up access to new customers in the market for synthetic staple fibres, Oerlikon said in a press release.Oerlikon is strengthening its technology and market position in its core business areas by taking advantage of the ongoing consolidation in the chemical fibres market, which was triggered by the market downturn in China. With the acquisition of the former Fleissner staple fibres technology portfolio and the intellectual property (IP) of Trutzschler Nonwovens & Man-Made Fibres GmbH, the Segment becomes the leading technology and equipment provider in the global staple fibres market. The acquisition expands the Manmade Fibers Segment's staple fibres technology expertise and broadens the Segment's customer base and service business in the respective areas.

Swiss technology group Oerlikon has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire the entire staple fibres technology portfolio of Trutzschler#

As staple fibres projects are increasingly tied to continuous polycondensation facilities, already now the Manmade Fibers Segment is well positioned to operate as a provider of complete solutions. Both parties have agreed not to disclose details of the transaction. Truetzschler Group is discontinuing its staple fibre business as it has decided to focus on its core business activities.Dr. Roland Fischer, CEO of the Oerlikon Group, said, The acquisition of the staple fibres technology portfolio of Truetzschler is another important step in line with our strategy to strengthen our position outside the filament business, where we occupy a leading technology and market position. The ongoing consolidation in the chemical fibres market presents interesting opportunities and we are taking this step to ensure that the Manmade Fibers Segment will merge stronger from the current market weakness andprofit from the positive long-term market perspectives.Staple fibres technology is one of the core technologies within the manmade fibers industry. In 2015, the produced staple fibers amounted to 18.5 million tonnes, or some 33 per cent of the total synthetic fibres capacity. Synthetic staple fibres are produced by the main conversion steps: polymer production, spinning further down to baling. The liquid polymer is either produced in a polycondensation plant or polymer chips are melted in an extrusion
Sonakshi Sinha, is currently chilling in Sri Lanka and is having a good time wandering around several places in the country. Sonakshi, who is a social media buff, has posted several pictures enjoying her time in Sri Lanka, and all the pictures are damn right awesome!

Check out the pictures of Sonakshi Sinha chilling in Sri Lanka here!

Sonakshi Sinha, is currently shooting for her upcoming film in Sri Lanka, and after her shooting is wrapped up, the actress roamed around the city and captured amazing pictures of the place.

15 Pictures That Prove Shilpa Shetty Is Damn Hot & Beautiful!

A lot of pictures look like Sonkashi Sinha is rejuvenating herself after a hard days of work. Nothing beats the feeling of staying around the nature and waters, after a long day of work, and Sonkashi is doing just that.

Sonakshi Sinha, captioned the pictures as, "Pouting tiger... Sleeping dragon. En route to location in #SriLanka for a shoot! Yipppeeee! #colombo #roadtrip #sonastravels" and "Sri Lankan sunset. #sonastravels #waterbaby #mermaid #Colombo #SriLanka"

So Funny! 15 Pics Of Aishwarya Rai Clicked When She Was Not Ready

A week ago, Sonakshi Sinha had also visited Goa and attended her friends wedding. The actress, posted pictures of old Churches from Goa and captioned the image as, "Tales of Goa, churches, and beautiful weddings!! Wearing @anitadongre and @sachdeva.ritika, styled by the talented @chinardesai! #sonastravels #goa #weddingdiaries".

These Hot Pictures Of Amy Jackson Prove That Michelangelo Indeed Has Carved Out Her Features!

Be it Sri Lanka or Goa, Sonakshi Sinha will always keep her fans updated on social media about anything and everything she does. Sonakshi, is the only Bollywood actress who is constantly online and interacts with her fans on a regular basis.

Sonakshi Sinha, is currently shooting for her upcoming film Force 2 and stars opposite John Abraham. The movie, is a sequel from the 2011 released movie Force, and is slated to hit the theatres within the end of 2016.

15 Pictures Of Deepika Padukone That Can Make You Happy In An Instant!
On Saturday (April 16), Rahul Raj Singh was discharged from the hospital. He was undergoing treatment for depression at the Shree Sai hospital from past 12 days.

Rahul, who is booked for the abetment of suicide, was granted interim bail till April 18th. The actor-producer had to appear before police every day between 11 am to 1 pm till April 18. According to Asian Age report, on April 15th, after he was back from the Bangur Nagar police station, Rahul locked himself up in the hospital's washroom.

Go Through The Slider To Read What Pratyusha's Father Wrote In The Letter And What The Doctor At The Hospital Has To Say....



His relatives, who were worried about Rahul called for the doctor, who tried to convince Rahul to unlock the door. But, Rahul threatened to jump off the hospital building.

According to the report, Rahul later calmed down and came out of the washroom. The actor-producer underwent a psychic evaluation, after which he was discharged from the hospital on April 16th, evening.

Pratyusha's mother had already sent a letter to the CM requesting for a strict investigation. She even requested for the CBI to take up the case, as she doubts a foul play. On the other hand, Pratyusha's father too, filed a complaint against Shree Sai hospital in Mumbai, to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) via email on April 16th.

Mr Banerjee suspects that the hospital is saving Rahul from police investigation by declaring him unwell. He also suspects that the authorities have, unofficially taken money from Rahul! (continued on slides)
BUENOS AIRES (dpa-AFX) - The number of victims of a devastating earthquake that jolted Ecuador has risen to 246 dead and 2,527 injured, according to reports citing Vice President Jorge Glas as saying. Glas reportedly said the priority was to continue searching for survivors trapped in the rubble and to help the injured in the Saturday earthquake, which has generated at least 189 aftershocks of various strength. Ecuador, who has declared a state of emergency in six provinces, has mobilized around 14,000 army and public security personnel to affected areas. A powerful magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck the island of Kyushu in southwestern Japan early Saturday just a day after a sizable foreshock hit the region. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
REPORT ONPAYMENTS TOGOVERNMENTSFOR THE YEAR 2015

Introduction

This Report provides an overview of the payments to governments made by Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiary undertakings (hereinafter referred to as "Shell") for the year 2015 as required under the UK's Report on Payments to Governments Regulations 2014 (as amended in December 2015). These UK Regulations enact domestic rules in line with Directive 2013/34/EU (the EU Accounting Directive (2013)) and apply to large UK incorporated companies like Shell that are involved in the exploration, prospection, discovery, development and extraction of minerals, oil, natural gas deposits or other materials. This Report is also intended to satisfy the requirements of the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom.

Payments to governments made by BG Group plc and its subsidiary undertakings in 2015 were prior to the combination with Shell and are not included in this Report.

This Report is available for download from www.shell.com/payments

BASIS FOR PREPARATION - REPORT ON PAYMENTS TO GOVERNMENTs FOR THE YEAR 2015

Legislation

This Report is prepared in accordance with The Reports on Payments to Governments Regulations 2014 as enacted in the UK in December 2014 and as amended in December 2015.

Reporting entities

This Report includes payments to governments made by Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiary undertakings (Shell). Payments made by entities over which Shell has joint control are excluded from this Report.

Activities

Payments made by Shell to governments arising from activities involving the exploration, prospection, discovery, development and extraction of minerals, oil and natural gas deposits or other materials (extractive activities) are disclosed in this Report. It excludes payments related to refining, natural gas liquefaction or gas-to-liquids activities. For a fully integrated project, which does not have an interim contractual cut off point where a value can be attached or ascribed separately to the extractive activities and to other processing activities, payments to governments will not be artificially split but disclosed in full.

Government

Government includes any national, regional or local authority of a country, and includes a department, agency or entity that is a subsidiary of a government, which includes a national oil company.

Project

Payments are reported at project level except that payments that are not attributable to a specific project are reported at entity level. Project is defined as operational activities which are governed by a single contract, licence, lease, concession or similar legal agreement, and form the basis for payment liabilities with a government. If such agreements are substantially interconnected, those agreements are to be treated as a single project.

"Substantially interconnected" means forming a set of operationally and geographically integrated contracts, licences, leases or concessions or related agreements with substantially similar terms that are signed with a government giving rise to payment liabilities. Such agreements can be governed by a single contract, joint venture, production sharing agreement, or other overarching legal agreement. Indicators of integration include, but are not limited to, geographic proximity, the use of shared infrastructure and common operational management.

Payment

The information is reported under the following payment types.

Production entitlements

These are the host government's share of production in the reporting period derived from projects operated by Shell. This includes the government's share as a sovereign entity or through its participation as an equity or interest holder in projects within its sovereign jurisdiction (home country). Production entitlements arising from activities or interests outside of its home country are excluded.

In certain contractual arrangement, typically a production sharing contract, a government through its participation interest may contribute funding of capital and operating expenditure to projects, from which it derives production entitlement to cover such funding (cost recovery). Such cost recovery production entitlement is included.

In situations where a government settles Shell's income tax obligation on behalf of Shell by utilising its share of production entitlements (typically under a tax-paid concession), such amount will be deducted from the reported production entitlement.

Taxes

These are taxes paid by Shell on its income, profits or production (which include resource severance tax, and petroleum resource rent tax), including those settled by a government on behalf of Shell under a tax-paid concession. Payments are reported net of refunds. Consumption taxes, personal income taxes, sales taxes, property and environmental taxes are excluded.

Royalties

These are payments for the rights to extract oil and gas resources, typically at set percentage of revenue less any deductions that may be taken.

Dividends

These are dividend payments other than dividends paid to a government as an ordinary shareholder of an entity unless paid in lieu of production entitlements or royalties. For the year ended December 31, 2015, there were no reportable dividend payments to a government.

Bonuses

These are payments for Bonuses. These are usually paid upon signing an agreement or a contract, or when a commercial discovery is declared, or production has commenced or reached a milestone.

Licence fees, rental fees, entry fees and other considerations for licences and/or concessions

These are fees and other sums paid as consideration for acquiring a licence for gaining access to an area where extractive activities are performed. Administrative government fees that are not specifically related to the extractive sector, or to access to extractive resources, are excluded. Also excluded are payments made in return for services provided by a government.

Infrastructure improvements

These are payments which relate to the construction of infrastructure (road, bridge or rail) not substantially dedicated for the use of extractive activities. Payments which are of a social investment in nature, for example building of a school or hospital, are excluded.

OTHER

Operatorship

When Shell makes a payment directly to a government arising from a project, regardless of whether Shell is the operator, the full amount paid is disclosed even where Shell as the operator is proportionally reimbursed by its non-operating venture partners through a partner billing process (cash-call).

When a national oil company is the operator of a project to whom Shell makes a reportable payment which is distinguishable in the cash-call, it is included in this Report.

Cash and in-kind payments

Payments are reported on cash basis. In-kind payments are converted to an equivalent cash value based on the most appropriate and relevant valuation method for each payment, which can be at cost or market value or such value as stated in the contract. In-kind payments are reported in both volumes and the equivalent cash value.

Materiality Level

For each payment type, total payments below 86,000 to a government are excluded from this Report.

Exchange Rate

Payments made in currencies other than US Dollars are translated for this Report based on the foreign exchange rate at the relevant quarterly average rate.

Report on Payments to Governments 2015[1]

SUMMARY REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total Countries Europe Denmark - 576,148,422 - - - - 576,148,422 Germany - 4,404,123 - - - - 4,404,123 Ireland - - - - 4,313,103 564,653 4,877,756 Italy - 102,686,074 104,352,782 - - - 207,038,856 Norway 3,008,589,121 1,137,352,447 - - 10,946,519 - 4,156,888,087 United Kingdom - (128,360,400) - - 5,460,057 - (122,900,344) Asia Brunei Darussalam - 102,227,436 - - 1,710,416 - 103,937,853 China 450,383,889 - 8,608,468 250,000 - - 459,242,357 Indonesia - - - 1,000,000 - - 1,000,000 Iraq 1,335,946,438 23,303,080 - - - - 1,359,249,519 Jordan - - - 3,000,000 - - 3,000,000 Malaysia 3,423,481,392 174,446,468 777,621,735 - 35,000,000 - 4,410,549,595 Oman - 2,112,924,584 - - - - 2,112,924,584 Philippines 408,295,106 78,622,555 - - - - 486,917,661 Qatar 452,582,830 520,599,000 - - 16,475,980 - 989,657,810 Oceania Australia - 757,694,007 120,230,627 - 208,637 - 878,133,272 New Zealand - 58,845,962 64,908,372 - 139,534 - 123,893,867 Africa Egypt - 85,566,882 - 100,000,000 - - 185,566,882 Gabon 189,549,061 69,633,947 63,593,392 1,200,000 12,265,634 16,791,230 353,033,264 Nigeria 3,607,646,387 717,920,620 378,551,263 - 247,875,666 - 4,951,993,936 North America Canada - 3,391,977 99,504,363 - 47,392,403 359,982 150,648,725 USA - (216,038,692) 492,943,410 - 75,168,977 - 352,073,695 South America Argentina - 1,114,712 9,577,374 12,000,000 375,684 - 23,067,771 Brazil - 1,144,389 65,401,759 - 2,931,450 - 69,477,599 Total 12,876,474,223 6,183,627,593 2,185,293,545 117,450,000 460,264,060 17,715,865 21,840,825,287

Denmark GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

DANISH ENERGY AGENCY - 30,576,894 - - - - 30,576,894

TAX AUTHORITIES - 545,571,528 - - - - 545,571,528 Total - 576,148,422 - - - - 576,148,422 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT SHELL OLIE - OG GASUDVINDING DANMARK B.V. - 576,148,422 - - - - 576,148,422 Total - 576,148,422 - - - - 576,148,422

Germany GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

TAX AUTHORITIES HAMBURG - 4,404,123 - - - - 4,404,123 Total - 4,404,123 - - - - 4,404,123 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT SHELL ERDGAS BETEILIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT mbH - 2,125,909 - - - - 2,125,909 SHELL EXPLORATION ET PRODUCTION DU MAROC GMBH - 2,278,214 - - - - 2,278,214 Total - 4,404,123 - - - - 4,404,123

Ireland GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

COMMISSION FOR ENERGY REGULATION - - - - 3,399,097 - 3,399,097

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS - - - - 914,006 - 914,006

MAYO COUNTY COUNCIL - - - - - 564,653 564,653 Total - - - - 4,313,103 564,653 4,877,756 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

CORRIB PROJECT - - - - 4,313,103 564,653 4,877,756 Total - - - - 4,313,103 564,653 4,877,756

Italy GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

BASILICATA REGION (VDA) - - 62,089,905 - - - 62,089,905

CALVELLO MUNICIPALITY - - 1,753,127 - - - 1,753,127

GRUMENTO NOVA MUNICIPALITY - - 1,001,787 - - - 1,001,787

MARSICO NUOVO MUNICIPALITY - - 751,340 - - - 751,340

MARSICOVETERE MUNICIPALITY - - 250,447 - - - 250,447

MONTEMURRO MUNICIPALITY - - 250,447 - - - 250,447 Tesoreria Provinciale dello Stato - 102,686,074 31,305,835 - - - 133,991,908

VIGGIANO MUNICIPALITY - - 6,949,895 - - - 6,949,895 Total - 102,686,074 104,352,782 - - - 207,038,856 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

ITALY UPSTREAM ASSET - - 104,352,782 - - - 104,352,782 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT

SHELL ITALIA E&P SpA - 102,686,074 - - - - 102,686,074 Total - 102,686,074 104,352,782 - - - 207,038,856

Norway GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS DIREKTORATET FOR SAMFUNNSSIKKERHET - - - - 453,596 - 453,596

OLJEDIREKTORATET - - - - 10,492,924 - 10,492,924

PETORO AS 1,892,922,939 [B] - - - - - 1,892,922,939

SKATTE OG AVGIFTSREGNSKAP - 1,135,199,247 - - - - 1,135,199,247

SKATTEOPPKREVEREN I SOLA - 2,153,200 - - - - 2,153,200

STATOIL ASA 1,115,666,182 [A] - - - - - 1,115,666,182 Total 3,008,589,121 1,137,352,447 - - 10,946,519 - 4,156,888,087 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS NORWAY EXPLORATION PROJECTS - - - - 7,999,522 - 7,999,522

ORMEN LANGE AND DRAUGEN 3,008,589,121 [C] - - - 2,946,998 - 3,011,536,118 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT

A/S NORSKE SHELL - 1,137,352,447 - - - - 1,137,352,447 Total 3,008,589,121 1,137,352,447 - - 10,946,519 - 4,156,888,087

[A] Includes payment in kind of $ 1,115,666,182 for 27,632 KBOE valued at market price.

[B] Includes payment in kind of $ 1,892,922,939 for 45,330 KBOE valued at market price.

[C] Includes payment in kind of $ 3,008,589,121 for 72,962 KBOE valued at market price.

United Kingdom GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND CLIMATE - - - - 5,460,057 - 5,460,057

HM REVENUE & CUSTOMS - (128,360,400) - - - - (128,360,400) Total - (128,360,400) - - 5,460,057 - (122,900,344) PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS BRENT AND OTHER

NORTHERN NORTH SEA PROJECTS - (154,366,735) - - 668,744 - (153,697,991)

ONEGAS WEST - 52,759,167 - - 1,239,639 - 53,998,805

UK EXPLORATIONS PROJECTS - - - - 631,198 - 631,198

UK OFFSHORE - OPERATED - 1,385,824 - - 910,161 - 2,295,985

UK OFFSHORE - NON OPERATED - 596,370 - - 909,622 - 1,505,991

WEST OF SHETLAND - NON OPERATED - - - - 158,910 - 158,910 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT

SHELL U.K. LIMITED - (28,735,025) - - 941,782 - (27,793,243) Total - (128,360,400) - - 5,460,057 - (122,900,344)

Brunei Darussalam GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

BRUNEI NATIONAL PETROLEUM COMPANY - - - - 300,277 - 300,277

GOVERNMENT OF BRUNEI DARUSSALAM - 102,227,436 - - 1,410,139 - 103,637,575 Total - 102,227,436 - - 1,710,416 - 103,937,853 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

BRUNEI OFFSHORE BLOCKS - 100,243,458 - - 1,710,416 - 101,953,875 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENTS

SHELL DEEPWATER BORNEO LIMITED - 1,983,978 - - - - 1,983,978 Total - 102,227,436 - - 1,710,416 - 103,937,853

China GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS CHINA NATIONAL OFFSHORE OIL CORPORATION - - - 250,000 - - 250,000 CHINA NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION 450,383,889 [A] - - - - - 450,383,889 SHAANXI PROVINCE OFFICE OF STATE ADMINISTRATION OF TAXATION - - 7,686,464 [D] - - - 7,686,464 SICHUAN PROVINCIAL OFFICE OF STATE ADMINISTRATION OF TAXATION - - 922,004 [E] - - - 922,004 Total 450,383,889 - 8,608,468 250,000 - - 459,242,357 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

CHANGBEI 431,541,584 [B] - 7,686,464 [F] - - - 439,228,048

JINQIU+FUSHUN+ZITONG 18,842,305 [C] - 922,004 [G] - - - 19,764,309

YINGGEHAI - - - 250,000 - - 250,000 Total 450,383,889 - 8,608,468 250,000 - - 459,242,357

[A] Includes payment in kind of $ 447,955,875 for 11,949 KBOE valued at government selling price and $2,428,014 for 50 KBOE valued at market price.

[B] Includes payment in kind of $ 429,138,778 for 11,452 KBOE valued at government selling price and $2,402,806 for 50 KBOE valued at market price.

[C] Includes payment in kind of $ 18,817,096 for 497 KBOE valued at government selling price.

[D] Includes payment in kind of $ 7,686,464 for 205 KBOE valued at government selling price.

[E] Includes payment in kind of $ 922,004 for 24 KBOE valued at government selling price.

[F] Includes payment in kind of $ 7,686,464 for 205 KBOE valued at government selling price.

[G] Includes payment in kind of $ 922,004 for 24 KBOE valued at government selling price.

Indonesia GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

BPN 019 DITJEN MIGAS VALAS - - - 1,000,000 - - 1,000,000 Total - - - 1,000,000 - - 1,000,000 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

PULAU MOA SELATAN - - - 1,000,000 - - 1,000,000 Total - - - 1,000,000 - - 1,000,000

Iraq GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

SOUTH OIL COMPANY 1,335,946,438 [A] 23,303,080 [B] - - - - 1,359,249,519 Total 1,335,946,438 23,303,080 - - - - 1,359,249,519 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

MAJNOON 1,335,946,438 [A] 15,689,830 [C] - - - - 1,351,636,269

WEST QURNA - 7,613,250 [D] - - - - 7,613,250 Total 1,335,946,438 23,303,080 - - - - 1,359,249,519

[A] Includes payment in kind of $ 1,335,946,438 for 30,844 KBOE valued at market price.

[B] Includes payment in kind of $ 23,303,080 for 485 KBOE valued at market price.

[C] Includes payment in kind of $ 15,689,830 for 342 KBOE valued at market price.

[D] Includes payment in kind of $ 7,613,250 for 142 KBOE valued at market price.

Jordan GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES - - - 3,000,000 - - 3,000,000 Total - - - 3,000,000 - - 3,000,000 Show PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

JORDAN FIELD EXPERIMENT - - - 3,000,000 - - 3,000,000 Total - - - 3,000,000 - - 3,000,000

Malaysia GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS KETUA PENGARAH HASIL DALAM NEGERI - 170,964,023 - - - - 170,964,023 MALAYSIA FEDERAL & STATE GOVERNMENTS - - 636,889,457 [E] - - - 636,889,457 PETROLIAM NASIONAL BERHAD 1,973,373,325 [A] - 140,732,278 - 35,000,000 - 2,149,105,603 PETRONAS CARIGALI SDN BHD (KL) 1,450,108,067 [B] 3,482,445 - - - - 1,453,590,513 Total 3,423,481,392 174,446,468 777,621,735 - 35,000,000 - 4,410,549,595 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS SABAH INBOARD AND DEEPWATER OIL 580,669,210 [C] - 215,776,998 [F] - - - 796,446,208 SARAWAK OIL AND GAS 2,842,812,182 [D] 172,351,709 561,308,475 [G] - 35,000,000 - 3,611,472,365 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT SABAH SHELL PETROLEUM COMPANY LIMITED - 368,210 268,185 - - - 636,395 SARAWAK SHELL BERHAD - 421,287 - - - - 421,287 SHELL ENERGY ASIA LIMITED - 181,807 - - - - 181,807 SHELL OIL & GAS (MALAYSIA) LLC - 587,157 - - - - 587,157 SHELL SABAH SELATAN SDN. BHD. - 536,297 268,078 - - - 804,374 Total 3,423,481,392 174,446,468 777,621,735 - 35,000,000 - 4,410,549,595

[A] Includes payment in kind of $ 1,490,806,283 for 66,716 KBOE valued at fixed price and $ 482,567,042 for 9,563 KBOE valued at market price.

[B] Includes payment in kind of $ 884,382,103 for 41,435 KBOE valued at fixed price and $ 565,725,964 for 10,333 KBOE valued at market price.

[C] Includes payment in kind of $ 42,309 for 25 KBOE valued at fixed price and $ 580,626,901 for 10,160 KBOE valuated at market price.

[D] Includes payment in kind of $ 2,375,146,076 for 108,125 KBOE valued at fixed price and $ 467,666,106 for 9,736 KBOE valued at market price.

[E] Includes payment in kind of $ 371,201,768 for 17,179 KBOE valued at fixed price and $ 265,687,689 for 4,948 KBOE valued at market price.

[F] Includes payment in kind of $ 21,586 for 13 KBOE valued at fixed price and $ 196,088,735 for 3,452 KBOE valued at market price.

[G] Includes payment in kind of $ 371,180,182 for 17,166 KBOE valued at fixed price and $ 69,598,954 for 1,496 KBOE valued at market price.

Oman GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

OMAN - MINISTRY OF FINANCE - 2,112,924,584 [A] - - - - 2,112,924,584 Total - 2,112,924,584 - - - - 2,112,924,584 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

BLOCK 6 CONCESSION - 2,089,920,954 - - - - 2,089,920,954

MUKHAIZNA PSC - 23,003,630 [B] - - - - 23,003,630 Total - 2,112,924,584 - - - - 2,112,924,584

[A] Includes payment in kind of $ 23,003,630 for 442 KBOE valued at government selling price.

[B] Includes payment in kind of $ 23,003,630 for 442 KBOE valued at government selling price.

Philippines GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

BUREAU OF INTERNAL REVENUE - 78,622,555 - - - - 78,622,555

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 315,828,963 - - - - - 315,828,963

PNOC EXPLORATION CORPORATION 92,466,143 - - - - - 92,466,143 Total 408,295,106 78,622,555 - - - - 486,917,661 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

SC 38 MALAMPAYA GAS 408,295,106 78,622,555 - - - - 486,917,661 Total 408,295,106 78,622,555 - - - - 486,917,661

Qatar GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

QATAR PETROLEUM 452,582,830 520,599,000 - - - - 973,181,830

RAS LAFFAN INDUSTRIAL CITY - - - - 16,475,980 - 16,475,980 Total 452,582,830 520,599,000 - - 16,475,980 - 989,657,810 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

PEARL GTL 452,582,830 520,599,000 - - 16,475,980 - 989,657,810 Total 452,582,830 520,599,000 - - 16,475,980 - 989,657,810

Australia GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE - 757,694,007 - - - - 757,694,007

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY - - 120,230,627 - 208,637 - 120,439,264 Total - 757,694,007 120,230,627 - 208,637 - 878,133,272 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

AUSTRALIA EXPLORATION PROJECTS - - - - 208,637 - 208,637

NORTH WEST SHELF - - 120,230,627 - - - 120,230,627 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT

SHELL AUSTRALIA PTY LTD - 757,694,007 - - - - 757,694,007 Total - 757,694,007 120,230,627 - 208,637 - 878,133,272

New Zealand GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

INLAND REVENUE DEPARTMENT - 58,845,962 - - - - 58,845,962 MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - - 64,908,372 - 139,534 - 65,047,905 Total - 58,845,962 64,908,372 - 139,534 - 123,893,867 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

KAPUNI - - 742,945 - - - 742,945

MAUI - - 8,454,316 - - - 8,454,316

POHOKURA - - 55,711,110 - - - 55,711,110 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT SHELL NEW ZEALAND (2011) LIMITED - 58,845,962 - - 139,534 - 58,985,496 Total - 58,845,962 64,908,372 - 139,534 - 123,893,867

Egypt GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

EGYPTIAN GENERAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION - 85,566,882 - 100,000,000 - - 185,566,882 Total - 85,566,882 - 100,000,000 - - 185,566,882 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement

Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

BADR EL-DIN (BED) - 37,921,247 - 100,000,000 - - 137,921,247

NORTH EAST ABU GHARADIG (NEAG) - 13,223,246 - - - - 13,223,246

OBAIYED - 34,422,390 - - - - 34,422,390 Total - 85,566,882 - 100,000,000 - - 185,566,882

Gabon GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS

COMMUNE DE GAMBA. - - - - - 16,791,230 16,791,230

GABON OIL COMPANY 187,850,672 [A] - - - - - 187,850,672

TRESORIER PAY.GEN. DU GABON 1,698,389 69,633,947 63,593,392 1,200,000 12,265,634 - 148,391,361 Total 189,549,061 69,633,947 63,593,392 1,200,000 12,265,634 16,791,230 353,033,264 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

GABON CENTRAL 55,488,726 [B] - 16,583,412 - 683,055 - 72,755,193

GABON EXPLORATION - - - - 258,560 - 258,560

GABON NORTH EAST 131,464,575 [C] - 38,400,345 1,200,000 10,896,697 - 181,961,617

GABON SOUTH 2,595,760 [D] - 8,609,635 - 427,322 16,791,230 28,423,947 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT

SHELL GABON SA - 69,633,947 - - - - 69,633,947 Total 189,549,061 69,633,947 63,593,392 1,200,000 12,265,634 16,791,230 353,033,264

[A] Includes payment in kind of $ 187,850,672 for 3,881 KBOE valued at market price.

[B] Includes payment in kind of $ 55,488,726 for 1,134 KBOE valued at market price.

[C] Includes payment in kind of $ 131,464,575 for 2,729 KBOE valued at market price.

[D] Includes payment in kind of $ 897,371 for 18 KBOE valued at market price.

Nigeria GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS DEPARTMENT OF PETROLEUM RESOURCES - - 378,551,263 [I] - 200,638,000 - 579,189,263 FEDERAL INLAND REVENUE SERVICE (FIRS) - 717,920,620 [F] - - - - 717,920,620 FEDERATION ACCOUNT WITH CBN - - - - 291,115 - 291,115 NIGER DELTA DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION - - - - 46,946,550 - 46,946,550 NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION 3,607,646,387 [A] - - - - - 3,607,646,387 Total 3,607,646,387 717,920,620 378,551,263 - 247,875,666 - 4,951,993,936 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

PSC 1993 (OPL209) - 88,954,570 [G] - - - - 88,954,570 PSC 1993 (OPL212/OML118, OPL219/OML135) 799,332,160 [B] 368,870,290 [H] 37,424,320 [I] - - - 1,205,626,770

SPDC EAST 1,592,115,125 [C] - - - - - 1,592,115,125 SPDC SHALLOW WATER 417,866,579 [D] - - - - - 417,866,579

SPDC WEST 798,332,523 [E] - - - - - 798,332,523 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT THE SHELL PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY OF NIGERIA LIMITED - 260,095,760 341,126,943 - 247,875,666 - 849,098,369 Total 3,607,646,387 717,920,620 378,551,263 - 247,875,666 - 4,951,993,936

[A] Includes payment in kind of $ 3,607,646,387 for 114,069 KBOE valued at market price.

[B] Includes payment in kind of $ 799,332,160 for 14,732 KBOE valued at market price.

[C] Includes payment in kind of $ 1,592,115,125 for 76,215 KBOE valued at market price.

[D] Includes payment in kind of $ 417,866,579 for 8,068 KBOE valued at market price.

[E] Includes payment in kind of $ 798,332,523 for 15,054 KBOE valued at market price.

[F] Includes payment in kind of $ 457,824,860 for 8,996 KBOE valued at market price.

[G] Includes payment in kind of $ 88,954,570 for 2,000 KBOE valued at market price.

[H] Includes payment in kind of $ 368,870,290 for 6,996 KBOE valued at market price.

[I] Includes payment in kind of $ 37,424,320 for 703 KBOE valued at market price.

Canada GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERMENTS

ALBERTA ENERGY REGULATOR - - - - 6,943,108 - 6,943,108 ALBERTA PETROLEUM MARKETING COMMISSION - - (520,897) [A] - - - (520,897)

CLEARWATER COUNTY - - - - 422,530 - 422,530 DUNCANS CARMON CREEK COMMUNITY - - - - 386,488 - 386,488

GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA - 580,528 89,697,729 - - - 90,278,257

INDUSTRY CANADA - - - - 230,669 - 230,669 KIPOHTAKAW

MANAGEMENT CORP - ALEXANDER FIRST NATION - - - - - 359,982 359,982 MIKISEW CREE FIRST

NATION TRUST - - - - 865,771 - 865,771

MIKISEW CREE GOVERNMENT - - - - 283,331 - 283,331

MINISTER OF FINANCE - - 594,864 - 852,236 - 1,447,100

MINISTRY OF EMPLOY. & INVEST. - - - - 770,691 - 770,691 MUNICIPAL DISTRICT OF

GREENVIEW NO. -- - - - 581,296 - 581,296 Peace Hills Trust Company - Woodland Cree First Nation - - - - 3,872,603 - 3,872,603

PROVINCIAL TREASURER OF ALBERTA - - - - 26,204,584 - 26,204,584

RECEIVER GENERAL FOR CANADA - 2,811,449 9,732,667 - 3,308,335 - 15,852,451 Royal Trust Corporation of Canada - Fort McKay First Nation - - - - 2,164,413 - 2,164,413

SUCKER CREEK FIRST NATION - - - - 243,922 - 243,922

YELLOWHEAD COUNTY - - - - 262,426 - 262,426 Total - 3,391,977 99,504,363 - 47,392,403 359,982 150,648,725

Canada PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

ATHABASCA OIL SANDS - - 62,808,847 - 10,487,291 73,296,138

FOOTHILLS - 580,528 17,768,857 - 694,278 - 19,043,664

GREATER DEEP BASIN - - 324,513 [A] - 10,067,710 359,982 10,752,205

GROUNDBIRCH - - 594,864 - 3,898,403 - 4,493,267

INSITU - - 10,959,461 - 22,244,721 33,204,182

SABLE DEEPWATER - - 7,047,820 - - - 7,047,820 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT

BLACKROCK VENTURES INC. - 2,811,449 - - - - 2,811,449 Total - 3,391,977 99,504,363 - 47,392,403 359,982 150,648,725

[A] Includes payment in kind of $ 136,536 for 4 KBOE valued at government selling price.

United States of America (USA) GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND - - - - 466,563 - 466,563 COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA - - - - 11,706,305 - 11,706,305 DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF OIL AND GAS - - - - 202,840 - 202,840

INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE - (237,747,204) - - - - (237,747,204) LOUISIANA STATE REVENUE TAX DEPT - 3,444,657 - - - - 3,444,657 OFFICE OF NATURAL RESOURCES REVENUE - - 479,001,616 - 60,109,206 - 539,110,822 PA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION - - - - 700,000 - 700,000

STATE OF LOUISIANA - (9,759,083) - - - - (9,759,083)

STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA - 220,000 - - - - 220,000

STATE OF TEXAS - 8,395,241 13,941,794 - - - 22,337,035

STATE OF WYOMING - 19,407,697 - - - - 19,407,697 SUSQUEHANNA RIVER BASIN COMMISSION - - - - 758,579 - 758,579 TEXAS GENERAL LAND OFFICE - - - - 452,264 - 452,264 THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SYSTEM - - - - 773,220 - 773,220 Total - (216,038,692) 492,943,410 - 75,168,977 - 352,073,695

United States of america (USA) PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

ALASKA EXPLORATION - - - - 6,882,404 - 6,882,404

APPALACHIA - - - - 13,164,884 - 13,164,884

GULF OF MEXICO (WEST) - - 163,352,599 - - - 163,352,599

GULF OF MEXICO (CENTRAL) - - 315,649,017 - - - 315,649,017

GULF OF MEXICO EXPLORATION - - - - 53,429,642 - 53,429,642

NON CORE ASSETS - 22,852,354 - - - - 22,852,354

PERMIAN - 16,054,906 13,941,794 - 1,692,047 - 31,688,746 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT SHELL EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION COMPANY - 1,217,700 - - - - 1,217,700

SHELL GULF OF MEXICO INC. - (23,578,340) - - - - (23,578,340)

SHELL OFFSHORE INC. - (216,255,520) - - - - (216,255,520)

SHELL OIL COMPANY - (16,329,792) - - - - (16,329,792) Total - (216,038,692) 492,943,410 - 75,168,977 - 352,073,695

Argentina GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERNMENTS AFIP DIRECCIA"N GENERAL IMPOSITIVA - 1,114,712 - - - - 1,114,712 BANCO PROVINCIA DEL NEUQUEN S.A. - - 4,239,029 - - - 4,239,029 GAS Y PETROLEO DEL NEUQUEN

S.A. - - - 12,000,000 139,000 - 12,139,000 Provincia de Salta- Direccion de Recursos Tributarios Energeticos - - 5,338,345 - - - 5,338,345 Provincia del Neuquen - Ministerio de Economia - - - - 236,684 - 236,684 Total - 1,114,712 9,577,374 12,000,000 375,684 - 23,067,771 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

ACAMBUCO - - 5,338,345 - - - 5,338,345 ARGENTINA UNCONVENTIONAL PROJECTS - - 4,239,029 12,000,000 375,684 - 16,614,714 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT

O & G DEVELOPMENTS LTD S.A. - 1,114,712 - - - - 1,114,712 Total - 1,114,712 9,577,374 12,000,000 375,684 - 23,067,771

Brazil GOVERNMENT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total GOVERMENTS Agencia Nacional do Petroleo, Gas Natural e Biocombustiveis - - - - 2,669,289 - 2,669,289

MINISTERIO DA FAZENDA - 1,144,389 65,401,759 - - - 66,546,148

PETROLEO BRASILEIRO S A - - - - 262,162 - 262,162 Total - 1,144,389 65,401,759 - 2,931,450 - 69,477,599 PROJECT REPORT (IN USD) Production Entitlement Taxes Royalties Bonuses Fees Infrastructure Improvements Total PROJECTS

BASIN EXPLORATION PROJECTS - - - - 582,284 - 582,284

BC-10 - 1,144,389 40,551,350 - 877,222 - 42,572,961

BIJUPIRA & SALEMA - - 24,850,409 - 393,972 - 25,244,382 ENTITY LEVEL PAYMENT

SHELL BRASIL PETROLEO LTDA - - - - 1,077,972 - 1,077,972 Total - 1,144,389 65,401,759 - 2,931,450 - 69,477,599

CAUTIONARY Note

The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this Report "Shell", "Shell group" and "Royal Dutch Shell" are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. 'Subsidiaries', "Shell subsidiaries", and "Shell companies" as used in this Report refer to companies over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. Entities and unincorporated arrangements over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to as "joint ventures" and "joint operations" respectively. Entities over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as "associates". The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest.

.

1 This Report is not corrected for rounding.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM and SAN FRANCISCO, CA and NEW DELHI, INDIA -- (Marketwired) -- 04/18/16 -- The Capital Partnership, a private investment office and independent asset manager, today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire 100% of the ownership of Northgate Capital, the California-based venture capital and private equity investment firm, from Religare and certain members of Northgate's management team. Religare, the India-based diversified financial services group, acquired a majority interest in Northgate in 2010. Completion of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions precedent, including certain regulatory approvals. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 2000, Northgate is a leading venture capital and private equity firm with $4.8 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of 1 April 2016 on behalf of institutional and private investors in North America, EMEA and Australia. The firm makes both direct company venture capital investments, where it leverages its network of global relationships to help create value for its portfolio companies, and indirect company investments by investing in venture capital and private equity funds. Northgate portfolio companies represent some of the most successful start-up companies across multiple verticals including Telecom, Fintech and Media. Northgate portfolio companies have had multiple IPOs and successful exits.

The Capital Partnership has maintained a strong relationship with Northgate for the past 12 years and its managed funds collectively represent one of the largest investors in the Northgate funds. The proposed acquisition will build on The Capital Partnership's growing venture capital and private equity investment portfolio, which currently accounts for around 25 percent of its assets under management, and reinforces the firm's commitment to the US market. This acquisition will enhance the alignment of interests between investors and shareholders of Northgate, creating "a firm owned by an investor, for the investors." Following the acquisition, Northgate will retain its investment and operational autonomy as distinct from The Capital Partnership.

In conjunction with the transaction, it is anticipated that Ali Ojjeh, Managing Partner of The Capital Partnership and a 12-year member of Northgate's Limited Partner Advisory Board, will assume the additional role of Chairman of Northgate. Dr. Hosein Khajeh-Hosseiny, a current member of Northgate's Management Committee, will continue to lead the firm as its Managing Partner and as CEO. Following the closing of the transaction, it is proposed that each of Mr. Ojjeh and Dr. Khajeh-Hosseiny will participate as members of the Northgate Investment Committee, together with Brent Jones and Thomas Vardell, two of the co-founders of Northgate.

Commenting on the proposed acquisition, Ali Ojjeh, Managing Partner and co-founder, The Capital Partnership, said: "The Capital Partnership has a successful 18 year track-record in venture capital and private equity investments, which is highlighted by our existing 12-year relationship with Northgate. Silicon Valley plays an increasingly important role in global value creation across all sectors which is highlighted by technology companies' share of the S&P 500, which has more than doubled in the last 30 years and represents approximately 20% of the index today. Technology remains a significant driver of global economic output and growth and we believe that expanding our commitment to Northgate will help our investors capitalize on the growth opportunities in one of the world's major hubs for innovation and entrepreneurship."

Dr. Hosein Khajeh-Hosseiny, Managing Partner, Northgate, said: "We are excited to expand our collaboration with The Capital Partnership, which manages funds with longstanding investments in our (Northgate) funds. Since purchasing its ownership stake in 2010, Religare has made tangible contributions to our institutionalization and the growth of our network beyond the US. We are delighted with Religare's choice of The Capital Partnership as our buyer. With a strong understanding of Northgate, global technology and capital markets as well as investors in start-ups and funds, The Capital Partnership is well-suited to help us build on our growth and network to fully realize our potential as a strong, long-term, value-creating platform for our ecosystem of partners."

Sunil Godhwani, Chairman and Managing Director, Religare, said: "Given the tremendous future growth potential that India offers for a diversified financial services platform like ours, we have taken a strategic view to consolidate and refocus our energies on our existing lending and other domestic businesses. Before deciding to divest our stake in Northgate and arriving at the best possible course of action, we had carefully considered a number of factors keeping in mind the best interests of the investors and the franchise. Our partnership over the years with Northgate has been enriching and we extend our best wishes to the team for their future endeavors."

For The Capital Partnership, the deal was headed by Ali Ojjeh and led by Amy Harvey, head of legal and compliance, Casey Gordon, head of private equity and business development, and Tim Savage, CFO. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP acted as legal advisors to Religare. Morrison & Foerster LLP served as legal advisor to The Capital Partnership.

The Capital Partnership's team will continue to work with Northgate to help identify resources necessary to build on its leadership position, expand globally, and continue to deliver world-class investments to its investors.

Notes to editors

Venture capital and private equity have seen record inflows as institutional and private investors turn to alternatives to generate absolute returns. The tech sector in particular presents a significant opportunity for venture capital and private equity funds. Over the past three decades, tech sector revenues have grown significantly, with venture capital and private equity funds playing a pivotal role in identifying and accessing growth opportunities in the sector. Investor interest in the sector is expected to grow further as future-focused companies become major sources of growth, a trend which is already reflected in the changing composition of the S&P 500 and other major global stock market indices.

About The Capital Partnership

The Capital Partnership is an independent asset manager providing institutional and private investors with a comprehensive range of asset management and wealth preservation services. Established in 1998, The Capital Partnership was created to provide sophisticated investment services to the families of its founding partners. The success of the firm's approach allowed it to expand its services and capabilities and offer them to institutions and other large families in EMEA with similar asset management requirements.

With offices in London and Dubai, The Capital Partnership is the advisor to a number of leading global institutions and family groups - helping them to address a range of challenges to the growth and preservation of their assets. The Capital Partnership Group Limited, the group's ultimate holding company is incorporated in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The Capital Partnership (UK) Limited, the group's UK operating subsidiary is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

About Northgate

Northgate Capital was founded in 2000 to provide institutional and high net worth family investors with superior identification of and global access to a very select group of alternative investment opportunities. Its majority stake was sold to Religare in 2010. With offices in the United States, United Kingdom and Mexico and representatives in other countries, Northgate enjoys a global network of deep and relevant relationships, rigorous selection processes, focused analysis, and an experienced and opportunistic investment team.

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PUNE, India, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report"Transparent Ceramics Marketby Type (Monocrystalline Transparent Ceramics, Polycrystalline Transparent Ceramics, Others), Material (Sapphire, Spinel), End-User Industry (Optics & Optoelectronics, Mechanical/Chemical) and Region - Global Forecasts to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, The global market is projected to reach USD 673.4 Million by 2021, at a CAGR of 23.8% between 2016 and 2021.

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The optics & optoelectronics segment was the largest end-user industry segment of the transparent ceramics market. It is used in lamps (primarily LEDs), Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductors (CMOS), Charge-coupled Devices (CCDs), image sensors, displays, couplers, laser transmitters, and so on. The increasing usage of transparent ceramics in the aforementioned products has led to the growth of the market of transparent ceramics market in optics & optoelectronics.

The polycrystalline transparent ceramics segment is the fastest-growing segment, based on type

The transparent ceramics market was dominated by the monocrystalline transparent ceramics segment in 2015. However, the polycrystalline transparent ceramics is the fastest-growing segment, owing to the increasing application of these type of ceramics in new and emerging applications, such as biomaterials, thermography, temperature IR sensors, and so on.

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Advanced Ceramics Market by Material (Titanate Ceramics, Alumina Ceramics, Zirconia Ceramics, Silicon Carbide Ceramics, and Others), by Class (Monolithic Ceramics, Ceramic Coatings, and Ceramic Matrix Composites), by Application (Electrical & Electronics, Medical & Bio-Medical, Transportation, Industrial Machinery, Environmental, Chemical, Defense & Security, and Others) and by Region - Global Trends & Forecasts to 2020

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Technical Ceramics Market by Material (Oxides, Non-oxides), by Product (Monolithic Ceramics, Ceramic Matrix composites, Ceramic Coatings, Others), by End-User Industry (Electronics, Automotive, Energy & Power, Others), and by Region - Trends & Forecasts to 2019

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Regulatory News:

Vattenfall has today signed an agreement to sell Vattenfall's lignite operations to Czech energy company EPH with its financial partner PPF Investments. The divestment represents a major step in Vattenfall's shift towards more sustainable production. Germany remains a strategic growth market for Vattenfall.

"Today we have signed an important deal for Vattenfall. This divestment of our lignite assets is good strategically but also financially given current and expected market conditions. We are now accelerating our shift towards a more sustainable production. The sale means more than 75 percent of our production will be climate neutral compared to about 50 percent today," says Magnus Hall, Vattenfall's President and CEO.

A new owner for the lignite operations The buyer consists of a consortium of two companies. Czech EPH is an established European energy group, based in Prague, with operations in Western and Central Europe. EPH's activities are ranging from gas transmission, power and gas distribution, gas storage, heat infrastructure and power and heat generation.

PPF Investments is an international finance and investment group, with focus on Central and Eastern Europe and Asia. "After thorough due diligence we are pleased to have found a well-established new owner for the lignite business with approximately 7,500 skilled and committed employees. EPH has proven expertise in lignite mining and is already present in Germany through its wholly-owned subsidiary MIBRAG," says Magnus Hall.

The sale includes all of Vattenfall's lignite assets in Germany. Those are power plants Janschwalde, Boxberg, Schwarze Pumpe and Vattenfall's 50 percent stake in Lippendorf, as well as the open cast mines Janschwalde, Nochten, Welzow-Sud and Reichwalde and the recently closed mine Cottbus Nord.

Financial settlement responsible transition The buyer will take over the lignite business, with all its assets, liabilities and provisions. The assets include cash amounting to a total of 15 billion SEK. The liabilities and provisions, including re-cultivation obligations, amount to a total of 18 billion SEK. No payment of dividends or dissolution of any reserves or similar transactions is possible during the first three years. The two following years the possibility to extract cash from the business is limited by the agreement to profits from normal operations. Hedges that Vattenfall has made to secure the electricity price for the lignite operations will remain in Vattenfall at a value of 9 billion SEK.

The result of the divestment in Vattenfall's income statement by Q2 2016 will be in the range of minus 22-27 billion SEK. If Vattenfall were to remain the owner, the total negative impact on Vattenfall's income statement would be higher than if the business is divested with Vattenfall's present future price expectations.

"We want to reduce our CO2 exposure, so for us this is the right thing to do and it frees up resources to focus more on renewable energy. We see significant risks when it comes to the development of future electricity price levels. There are also regulatory risks to take into consideration," says Magnus Hall.

The agreement furthermore foresees the continuation of the collective-bargaining- and tariff-agreement for employees as well as the codetermination and representative participation.

An active part in Germany's 'Energiewende' "As an international energy company with the ambition to be one of the leaders in the new energy landscape it is important for us to take an active part in the German 'Energiewende'. Germany will remain an important market for Vattenfall. It is not only one of the largest energy markets in Europe, but also a frontrunner in the energy transition," says Magnus Hall.

"We see growth opportunities in being the partner of choice for sustainable solutions for customers and cities. The number of our German customers is growing, today standing at more than 3 million. Starting from Berlin and Hamburg, we are also committed to offer economically and environmentally attractive developments and to further invest in partnerships with German cities," says Magnus Hall.

By concluding the deal, Vattenfall's CO2 exposure will be reduced from more than 80 million tonnes to less than 25 million tonnes per year. At the same time it also represents a major step in radically shifting business focus in Germany. The lignite divestment is a major step in Vattenfall's overall strategy to focus on further developing in wind, district heating, distribution networks and customer-centric energy services.

Time line The proposed deal was today submitted to Vattenfall's owner, the Swedish state. The finalization of the deal is expected in a couple of months after the needed confirmation by the owner. The deal will also be subject to relevant regulatory approval.

Vattenfall discloses this information pursuant to the Swedish Securities Market Act.

Press conference starting 16.00 CET, 18 April. A separate telephone conference for investors and financial analysts will be held at 19.00 CET, 18 April. Dial-in information and presentation slides will be available at corporate.vattenfall.com.

The press conference will be hosted by Vattenfall's chairman of the board Lars G Nordstrom, president and CEO Magnus Hall and CFO Ingrid Bonde, at Vattenfall's head office, Evenemangsgatan 13, Solna, Sweden. The presentations will be followed by a Q&A session and individual interviews. The press conference will be held in English.

The webcast will be broadcasted at Vattenfall Live Webcast 16.00 CET 18 April (http://vattenfallwebcasts.creo.tv/160418/press_conference) . Please allow a few minutes before start.

The telephone conference: Please allow a few minutes before start.

+46 (0) 8 505 100 31 (Sweden)

+44 (0) 203 059 58 62 (UK)

Presentation slides will be available on corporate.vattenfall.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160418005811/en/

Contacts:

Issued by Vattenfall's Press Office,

telephone: +46-8-739 50 10,

e-mail: press@vattenfall.com.
On Monday 18 April 2016, Tivoli A/S held its Annual General Meeting with the attached agenda.The annual report was adopted, including the Supervisory Board's proposal for distribution of the profits for the year, which comprise payment of dividend of DKK 11.0 million, equivalent to DKK 19.2 for a shareholding with a nominal value of DKK 100. The remainder of the profits will be added to the company's distributable reserves.At the Annual General Meeting, the Supervisory Board was authorised by the Annual General Meeting to acquire own shares. The share split proposed by the Supervisory Board was also adopted, along with the change in the company's shares from bearer to registered shares. The articles of association are available on the Company's website.Finally, the Annual General Meeting decided to adopt the Supervisory Board's proposed increase of DKK 15,000 to the Supervisory Board's basic fee.The current Board members elected by the Annual General Meeting, Jrgen Tandrup, Mads Lebech, Tommy Pedersen and Ulla Brockenhuus-Schack, were re-elected. In addition, two employee representatives, John Hegh Berthelsen and Tue Krogh-Lund, are members of the Board.On the motion of the Supervisory Board, PricewaterhouseCoopers Statsautoriseret Revisionsaktieselskab was elected as auditor.At a subsequent Board meeting, the Board constituted itself with Jrgen Tandrup as chairman and Mads Lebech as deputy chairman.Yours faithfully,Lars LiebstCEOContact: Vice President, Brand & Communications Dorthe Weinkouff Barse, +45 33750211/ dwb@tivoli.dkTivoli A/S - Annual General MeetingThe Company's Annual General Meeting is to be held at 1 p.m. on Monday 18 April 2012 in the Tivoli Concert Hall, Tivoli, Vesterbrogade 3, 1630 Copenhagen V. Access to the Concert Hall is via the Main Entrance or the entrance opposite Central Station.AGENDA1. The report of the Supervisory Board on the company's activities over the preceding year. 2. Presentation of annual report for approval. 3. Decision on the distribution of profit in accordance with the approved annual report. 4. Proposals from the Supervisory Board and shareholders. 1. The Supervisory Board proposes the motion that the Supervisory Board be authorised until next year's Annual General Meeting to allow the company to acquire its own shares of up to 10% of the share capital at the current market price at the time of acquisition with a divergence of up to 10%. 2. The Supervisory Board proposes a share split, in which each share with a nominal value of DKK 100 is split into 10 shares, each with a nominal value of DKK 10, and a consequential change to Article 4 of the articles of association. 3. The Supervisory Board proposes changing the company's articles of association in such a way that the company's shares change from bearer to registered shares. 4. The Supervisory Board proposes that the basic fee for the members of the Supervisory Board be increased by DKK 15,000. 5. Election of members of the Supervisory Board 6. Election of auditors 7. Any other business.The agenda and complete proposals plus the annual report are available for inspection by the shareholders at the Tivoli Ticket Centre, Vesterbrogade 3, 1630 Copenhagen V. The material (apart from the annual report) will also be sent to the Company's listed shareholders and to all other shareholders at their request. The annual report can be downloaded at www.tivoli.dk(under "About Tivoli") and collected at the Tivoli Ticket Centre, Vesterbrogade 3, 1630 Copenhagen V.Also, the following documents and information are published on the company's website under www.tivoli.dk/aktionaer: (i) the convening notice; (ii) the total number of shares and voting rights on the date of the General Meeting being called; (iii) the documents to be presented at the General Meeting, including the audited annual report; (iv) the agenda of the General Meeting and the complete proposals; and (v) the forms for voting by post and by proxy.The company's share capital is DKK 57,166,600 divided into shares of DKK 100. Each share of DKK 100 entitles the holder to one vote. Shareholders are entitled to participate in and vote at the General Meeting if they have, no later than one week before the General Meeting, had their shares registered in the register of owners, or contacted the company with a view to registration, and this request has been received by the company. In addition, the shareholders must have announced their participation in the General Meeting no later than three days before the General Meeting. The company has appointed Danske Bank as its account-holding bank, through which the Company's shareholders can exercise their financial rights.From Monday 21 March 2016 until Thursday 14 April 2016, participation in the General Meeting can be announced and entry cards and voting slips can be requested from VP Investor Services A/S, tel. +45 43 58 88 66, or on the internet at www.vp.dk/gf. Shareholders may vote by post prior to the General Meeting using the forms sent to the shareholders together with the convening notice for the General Meeting. Voting by post is not conditional on the shareholder having requested an entry card. VP Investor Services A/S must receive any postal votes by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday 14 April 2016.Shareholders may vote by proxy at the General Meeting. The proxy must be in writing and dated. Should proxy be given to a third party, this person must announce his or her participation and order an entry card in the same fashion as the shareholders. If proxy is given to the Supervisory Board, the proxy must be given for a specific General Meeting with an already published agenda.Copenhagen, 21 March 2016The Supervisory BoardTivoli A/SAttachment:https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=556826
SCHIPHOL-RIJK (dpa-AFX) - A drone reportedly hit an Airbus A320 flight from Geneva as it was landing at Heathrow airport in U.K. The plane, with 132 passengers and five crew members on board, however landed safely. The pilot reported the incident and the police has started investigation. British law has banned flying of drones near the airport and breaking of the law can attract penalties and imprisonment of up to five years. Drones are not supposed to fly above 400 feet from ground. Pilots have been complained of near misses at the airports that would have lead to fatal accidents. Earlier in February, IATA has warned about the threat of drones near the airports. In U.S. drone owners are required to register before taking up the first flight. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 04/18/16 -- April 19,2016 is the third year Ontario has recognized Equal Pay Day and yet Ontario's gender pay gap shockingly remains at roughly 30%. Women face discrimination and inequality wherever they work as detailed in a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives research report released today, "Every Step You Take: Ontario's Gender Pay Gap Ladder" by Mary Cornish. The Coalition is calling on the provincial government to make it an urgent priority to implement the Premier' stated September 2015 mandate to close Ontario's gender pay gap - a gap which is even greater for those who also suffer from other forms of discrimination because of factors such as race, Indigenous, disability, immigrant, migrant or LGBQT status. Several events are scheduled to mark this day, including wearing "red" (recognized colour of Equal Pay Day around the world) to recognize that women are still "in the red" in terms of pay.

April 19:

Ontario Labour Ministry releases Consultation Summary prepared by its Gender Wage Gap Review Committee.

TORONTO: Street teams of pay equity supporters at King 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.: Street & Bay Street, Toronto calling for action on the gender pay gap. Coalition members will be in Legislature for 10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.: Question Period. Street teams at University Avenue and College 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 a.m.: Street calling for action on the gender pay gap. Speeches by Mary Cornish and other Coalition 12:30 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.: leaders at northwest corner of University Avenue and College Street. Ministerial Statements in the Legislature followed 3:30 p.m. - by 4:00 p.m. meeting Ministers responsible for Women's Issues and Labour have called with Equal Pay Coalition

OTTAWA

4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: street teams at Albert Street and Metcalfe Street, Ottawa

For background and Equal Pay Day information: www.equalpaycoalition.org

Follow the campaign on Facebook and Twitter @EqualPayON EPD2016

Contacts:

Mary Cornish

Chair

Equal Pay Coalition

416-576-3851



Keph Senett

Equal Pay Coalition

416-532-0062

equalpaycoalition@gmail.com

www.equalpaycoalition.org




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 04/18/16 -- The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APF Canada) has announced the selection of three Media Fellows for 2016-17.

Each year, the APF Canada Media Fellowship Program, supported in part by Cathay Pacific Airways, offers up-and-coming and established journalists the opportunity to spend time in Asia researching and preparing stories for Canadian audiences. The goal of the program is to help Canadian journalists become better informed about this dynamic part of the world in order to write and broadcast insightfully on Asia and the Canada-Asia relationship.

The $10,000 Fellowships are partially funded by Hong Kong's award-winning airline, Cathay Pacific Airways. The 2016-2017 APF Canada Media Fellows will receive a two-night stopover in Hong Kong and fly Cathay Pacific's Premium Economy Class. The Fellowships are valued at up to C$10,000 for in-country travel and expenses and coverage of trans-Pacific travel, with the support of Cathay Pacific Airways.

The 2016-17 Media Fellows are:

-- Kristi Alexandra, a freelance journalist from Vancouver, will travel to Indonesia to explore a progressive, all-female textiles collective based in the West Java slum of Bandung and its connection to the Vancouver fashion scene. Her words and pictures will appear in print and online in Glacier Media's WestEnder and Business in Vancouver publications. -- Josh Dehaas, a Toronto-based freelance journalist for CTV News and MacLean's magazine, will visit China to explore opportunities for Canada's higher-education sector that could narrow China's innovation gap and create lasting connections that could help Canadian businesses grow. His coverage will appear in MacLean's education special issues in print and online. -- Dan Fumano, a reporter and investigative journalist with The Province newspaper in Vancouver, is taking his award-winning interest in water security to Asia to explore the impacts this critical issue is having on the sustainable development of countries like India, where 70 per cent of the surface and groundwater is already contaminated. His words and videos will appear across the Postmedia network.

For more details on the APF Canada Media Fellowship Program and how to apply, please follow this link: http://www.asiapacific.ca/grants/media-fellowships

About the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada

The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APF Canada) is a not-for-profit organization focused on Canada's relations with Asia. Our mission is to be Canada's catalyst for engagement with Asia and Asia's bridge to Canada.

A leader in research and analysis on Canada-Asia relations for over 30 years, APF Canada partners with government, business leaders, academics, and opinion makers in Canada and across the Asia Pacific region to offer clear, specific, and actionable policy advice.

Established by an Act of Parliament in 1984, APF Canada's thematic priorities include: promoting trade, investment, and innovation; mobilizing energy assets; building skills and competencies; and, understanding Asia now.

Visit APF Canada at www.asiapacific.ca

Follow us on Twitter @AsiaPacificFdn

Contacts:

Michael Roberts

Communications Manager

604-630-1527

michael.roberts@asiapacific.ca




DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --The International Preschool Curriculum (IPC) and AIM Middle East, the exclusive licensee for IPC in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, are pleased to welcome Little Smarties Preschool, Jeddah to the IPC family of preschools.

Maliha Ahad (Director, AIM Middle East) said, "As our first IPC preschool in Saudi Arabia, we are pleased to be working with the team at Little Smarties, Jeddah to ensure that they are providing the best global standards in early childhood education."

Little Smarties Preschool, Jeddah started in 2010 and has a special child-centred approach which will feed children's developing skills and interests at the right times and help them to become confident, capable and in control of their world.

The owners of Little Smarties, Noha Badkook and Aisha Banaja, are a dynamic female duo committed to providing the best in preschool education to their community. This is what they had to say,"We are very excited about Little Smarties being the first IPC preschool in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Parents will realize significant benefits as their young children excel in language and cognitive learning, curiosity, decision-making, cooperation and problem solving. Our aim is to provide all what they need to build fundamental skills that help to determine success in adult life. This will surely be achieved with IPC programs."

We would like to welcome the students, parents and staff of Little Smarties to the fast-growing IPC family in the Middle East.

For more information about IPC Middle East, please visit: www.ipcmiddleeast.com.

About the IPC

The International Preschool Curriculum (IPC) was founded to strengthen and harmonize early childhood education standards. As a professional association that directly serves schools, learners, parents and governments, the IPC offers a unique set of products and services that promote active learning and effective practices in teaching.

Headquartered in the United States, the IPC's objective and research based curriculum meets the standards set by state departments and accreditation organizations. The IPC is internationally recognized and works closely with governments to amend curricula materials if required to ensure local compliance.

With the assistance of an advisory committee, which consists of peers, consultants and academics, the IPC ensures that its curriculum maintains its rigor and quality. The IPC also offers an extensive teacher training program; the 6-month certificate course reinforces essential teaching skills and establishesa minimum standard for teaching practices in IPC schools.

The IPC also offers practical guides, consultancy guidance, marketing assistance and PR services for all authorized schools.In order to become an IPC authorized school, your school must be willing to adhere to the IPC's Code of Ethical Conduct, Marketing Code and be in compliance with all local requirements.

To learn more about International Preschool Curriculum, please visit www.ipc.education or follow the IPC at www.facebook.com/internationalpreschoolcurriculum

Contact:

Moya Bailey

Marketing and PR Director

1-888-844-3911 (United States of America)

moya@internationalpreschoolcurriculum.com

www.ipc.education
The Germanys Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, KfW and the European Investment Fund recently launched a new 225m venture capital fund.

Managed via a separate company headed by an experienced management team including Christian Stein, David Zimmer, Carten Gellermann, and Isabelle Canu, the coparion co-investment fund will invest in young technology-oriented companies with a permanent establishment in Germany which are no more than ten years old and which are developing new products, processes or services or introducing them to the market.

As a co-investment fund, it will co-invest with private-sector lead investors at the same commercial conditions.

Stakes of up to 10m are possible per company.

There are no sectoral restrictions/requirements.

The duration of the vehicle is 10 years.

FinSMEs

18/04/2016
Beleaguered liquor baron Vijay Mallya got a pay package of over Rs 1.7 crore last year from his U.S.-based brewery firm that itself is struggling for funds and has been served default notices by lenders.

More than half of Mallyas total package for 2015 has been paid by California-based Mendocino Brewing Company Inc to him for promoting the companys beer brands.

Mallya serves as Chairman of the board of directors of the company, which has an exclusive licence to brew and distribute Kingfisher Premium Lager in various countries.

Besides, it produces and sells a number of craft beer brands.

United Breweries Holdings Ltd (UBHL), the holding firm of Mallya-led UB Group, is the indirect majority shareholder of Mendocino Brewing Company (MBC).

In its annual Form 10-K filing for the year 2015, submitted with the U.S. markets regulator SEC, MBC has disclosed that Mallya was paid a total compensation of $256,900 (about Rs 1.71 crore), unchanged from the previous year.

Vijay Mallya, Chairman of the Board, is paid $120,000 per year by MBC for services rendered as Chairman, and 89,600 British pound per year (approximately $136,900) by UBIUK for promoting our products in the Foreign Territory outside the United Kingdom, it said.

Mendocinos North American operations primarily consist of brewing and marketing proprietary craft beers. Its foreign operations are conducted through wholly-owned subsidiary United Breweries International UK Ltd (UBIK) and a step-down unit Kingfisher Beer Europe Ltd.

The two largest shareholders of Mendocino are United Breweries America (UBA) and Inversiones, both of which are controlled by Rigby International Corp, a company registered in the British Virgin Island.

Rigby, in turn, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UBHL.

Mallya, who is at the centre of a major controversy for the huge loan defaults by his group in India, controls over 68 percent shareholding held through UBHL in Mendocino.

However, MBC does not appear to be doing well financially and has requested for funds from the parent, while options being explored include merger and asset sale.

As of December 31, 2015, it had cash and cash equivalents of $129,600, an accumulated deficit of $17,395,600, and a working capital deficit of $11,601,700 due to incurred losses and reclassification of debts owing to MB Financial as result of a default.

Mallyas business empire once included companies across liquor, fertilisers and airline businesses among others. His financial troubles began to mount after erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines had to be grounded under big losses and huge debt.

While lenders in India are seeking to recover total dues worth over Rs. 9,000 crore from him, Mallya recently signed a lucrative exit deal with Diageo, to whom he had earlier sold a majority stake in United Spirits, and said he intended to spend more time in England.

Interestingly, his no-compete agreement with Diageo excludes the UK market.

In addition, the book value of Mendocinos assets was lower than the book value of liabilities on December 31, 2015.

Mendocino said its current revenue from operations are insufficient to meet the working capital needs of the company over the next 12 months".

The company has requested UBHL to make a capital infusion. If UBHL is unwilling or unable to infuse additional capital, the company will seek capital from other sources, including outside investors. If sufficient capital for working capital needs is not obtained, the company may sell some of its operating assets, it said.

In December 2015, Mendocino hired Gordian Group as an investment banker to explore certain strategic and financial options and transactions including for possible debt or equity capital financing, merger, consolidation, joint venture or other business combination involving, or sale of substantially all or a material portion of the assets.

The companys gross sales fell by 8 percent to $31.2 million in 2015, while net loss was down 25 percent at $1.15 million.
BEIRUT/GENEVA Syrian peace talks came close to collapse on Monday, with the mainstream opposition announcing a "pause" in talks at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, although it agreed to keep its negotiating team in the city.

The Western-backed opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said in a letter to rebel fighters that government military advances meant a ceasefire was "effectively over" and it was calling a postponement in the talks.

Rebels, who accuse the government of breaking the ceasefire to try to recapture the northern city of Aleppo, announced an offensive of their own, launching an assault against government forces in Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast.

Opposition fighters made separate advances further east in Hama, while there were heavy government air strikes in Homs province to the south.

Nevertheless, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura played down the decision by the opposition delegation to stay away from his headquarters, saying his team would continue to meet the delegates elsewhere as long as they were still in town.

He acknowledged that violence had become "worrisome", particularly around Aleppo, and that he would call on Moscow and Washington to meet urgently to discuss it if the situation did not improve.

Last month de Mistura convened the first peace talks attended by the warring parties since the conflict began five years ago. He has come further than any envoy so far in getting President Bashar al-Assad's government and its opponents to negotiate, with the United States and Russia sponsoring a partial ceasefire since Feb 27 to allow the talks to take place.

So far all sides have committed to some kind of political "transition" that would follow the war. But they still differ fundamentally on what that means, including whether it would require Assad to leave power.

Assad's opponents say they cannot participate in talks as long as fighting goes on. But they are also under strong pressure not to abandon altogether a peace process that has no real alternatives, at a time when Assad's forces have benefited from Russia's support.

"If they walk away, they will be held responsible and it will be difficult to return soon," a Western diplomat said.

De Mistura said the opposition delegation had told him it would "postpone" its "formal participation" in negotiations at the U.N.'s headquarters, known as the Palais.

"It is one way for them to display their displeasure and concern for what they perceive to be a substantial deterioration of the humanitarian situation and a deterioration of the security environment, particularly in Aleppo," he said.

"They told us however their intention to remain in Geneva, in their hotel, and possibly at my own suggestion, to pursue technical discussions with myself and my team."

His team would continue to meet all sides "in the Palais or anywhere else", he added, describing the format of proximity talks, in which the sides negotiate in separate rooms, as "very flexible".

De Mistura acknowledged both sides were "not yielding a comma" on their political demands, but said that was normal in a negotiation. He would take stock of progress on Friday.

HALF-SOLUTIONS

The opposition considers government attempts to recapture Aleppo as a violation of the ceasefire. The government says it is trying to capture areas held by Islamist militants who are not covered by the truce.

A letter signed by unspecified "armed revolutionary factions" expressed dissatisfaction within the opposition ranks, including towards de Mistura himself: "We follow with great concern and outright rejection the moves of de Mistura, some of which show a total bias towards ... the demands of the regime and its allies."

The opposition's coordinator at the Geneva talks, Riad Hijab, said it was unacceptable for talks to go on if the government and its allies pushed on with sieges and bombing civilian areas. Only three delegates met de Mistura for talks on Monday, instead of the usual 15.

"We asked for the postponement of talks, only a postponement until the conditions are right," Mohammad al Aboud, a member of the negotiating team, told Reuters.

One senior Western diplomat said de Mistura needed to reassure the opposition by criticizing the government for violating the truce.

"He needs to make a public statement putting pressure on the government. Its in his interest to keep the talks alive. He needs to say that the regime isn't listening."

NEW BATTLE

The Latakia and Hama assaults appeared to be part of a new battle announced by rebel groups early in the day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. A Syrian military source confirmed intense fighting in the area.

"Today they attacked in the northern Latakia countryside in several areas, in violation of the cessation of hostilities agreement, and also in the northwestern Hama countryside," the military source said.

The Observatory reported that in northern Homs province heavy government air strikes killed four people, and said the death toll was expected to rise, with more people wounded.

Mohamad al-Shamsi, a doctor in the Homs area, told Reuters there had been at least 10 air raids from early morning on Rastan and nearby Deir Foul and al-Houla. Schools had been evacuated and hospitals shut.

Groups including factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and powerful Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, said in their battle announcement they would respond "with force" against any government forces that fired on civilians.

They announced the "formation of a joint operations room to begin the battle ... in response to violations by the army".

The Geneva talks aim to end a war that has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world's worst refugee crisis, allowed for the rise of the Islamic State group and drew in regional powers. Russia's intervention in the conflict swayed the war in Assad's favor.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and John Davison in BEIRUT and Tom Miles, Marina Depetris, Cecile Mantovani and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, writing by Philippa Fletcher and Peter Graff; editing by Ralph Boulton)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
New Delhi: Freedom of expression is being "throttled" in Chhattisgarh due to "relentless crackdown by police and vigilante group", global human rights body Amnesty International said Monday as it slammed the arrests of journalists on "trumped-up" charges.

Releasing a document "Blackout In Bastar", claiming it to be an account of arrested and attacked journalists, activists and lawyers, Amnesty International, India, alleged that human rights violations in the state are being backed by the police.

"Chhattisgarh authorities have stood by and watched as their critics are intimidated and attacked by groups which seem to enjoy police support," said Aakar Patel, Executive Director, Amnesty International India.

"Freedom of expression is being throttled in Chhattisgarh as the state cracks on media and civil society. Over the last six months, they have faced relentless crackdown by the police and self-styled vigilante groups, leading to information blackout in the state," he added.

Welcoming the report by a fact-finding team of Editors Guild of India, which said there is a sense of fear among scribes in Bastar, Amnesty said it will back their fight against "human rights violations" in the state.

Kamal Shukla, editor of Bhumkal Samachar, a Bastar-based newspaper, alleged that Inspector General of Police in Bastar, Shiv Ram Prasad Kalluri "has made a list of journalists who are not nationalists" and is getting them arrested.

"We are being constantly threatened to either leave Bastar or leave journalism. Even reporting about corruption, rapes and questioning fake encounters has become Naxalism in Bastar," he said.

Amnesty also raised concerns about alleged illegal arrests and killings of adivasis, overcrowding in jails and fake surrenders. It also asked the government to repeal the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and called for prompt and impartial investigation into the matter.
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday ordered probe by Additional District Magistrate into the firing incident of 12 April in Handwara in which three civilians were killed.

"District Magistrate, Kupwara has appointed Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Handwara, Peer Muzaffar Ahmad, as inquiry officer to probe the firing incident in Handwara which took place on 12 April, 2016," an official spokesman said.

The spokesman said any person acquainted with the facts of the incident and desirous to depose can get statement recorded before the inqruiy officer at Handwara from 20 April to 30 April.

Three persons including a woman were killed in firing by security forces on protestors on Tuesday last during violent protests against alleged molestation of a girl in Handwara town of Kupwara district in north Kashmir.

The protests spread to nearby areas, resulting in death of two more persons in security forces action  one each on Wednesday and Friday.
A statement widely attributed to former US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld is that 'India will never give up its claim on Kashmir'. The Indian State will pump in more military and financial resources, if required, to keep the Tricolour flying in Srinagar. Similarly, it is given that Pakistan, come what way, will never give up its claim on Kashmir and will never stop providing assistance to Kashmir and foment trouble for the Indian military.

What is unknown is what the future holds for the people of Kashmir. And, this uncertainty that continued for nearly a decade under UPA government, in spite of the hopes raised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on starting a political dialogue with the people of the state, and has unfortunately continued in the last two years since BJP came to power at the Centre.

The Narendra Modi-led NDA government must start a conversation with the people. In a state with over 60 percent youth population, there is a need for them to be engaged and a dialogue initiated, and the people must be made to believe that Delhi is keen to listen to them. Any interest or initiative from the Government of India to talk to the people is however missing. Having decided to sideline and ignore leaders of Hurriyat Conference and separatists, the Modi government must make a connection with the people.

Srinagar district has over 98 percent urban population and this has been the centre of protests and demonstrations. Wonder why young Kashmiris are always on streets and seemingly protesting?

Over 3,50,000 Kashmiri youth are unemployed

According to 2015 figures of J&K Planning and Development Department, around three lakh fifty thousand (350,000) Kashmiris are unemployed. Of these, 30,000 are unemployed graduates. Over 2,30,000 Kashmiris have registered in employment exchanges (2014 September figure) and waiting for the elusive jobs.

Given the security situation, corporates stay away from the Valley. Government jobs, too, are difficult to get. Late Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed conceded that government recruitment process was very slow. There were 4,000 vacancies for which 1.75 lakh people took different recruitment exams and tests.

In a state where agriculture is the main occupation that has around 70 percent of population dependent for survival, this year the farm sector is expected to see negative growth. Economic Survey of 2014-15 by J&K State shows that agriculture to decelerate to negative 16 percent.

The PDP, after aligning with the BJP has been unsuccessful it addressing the problem of compensation to flood-affected people even two years later. In last three months, when the state was under Presidents Rule, Governor NN Vohra actively sought administrative help to provide relief and also to expedite dredging of Jhelum River to clear accumulated silt.

What are the Government of India and the state government doing? Kashmir is not UP, Gujarat, Haryana or Tamil Nadu. It is a region which has faced turmoil for decades and where Pakistani Army is involved in keeping militancy alive. And, the people of Kashmir Valley are not particularly fond of India. In fact, as recent months protests have shown, the youth have become active opponents of the Indian State and many of them are not aligned to any separatist faction or militant group. Problems need to be addressed and not ignored. How can flood relief not be distributed for months? How can Centre be slow in releasing money for compensation?

In 1993 as a young journalist with The Economic Times, I was in western Uttar Pradesh covering a crucial Assembly election, months after the demolition of Babri Masjid which had led the Narasimha Rao government to dismiss governments led by BJP in the states of UP, MP and Himachal Pradesh. It was then that the militants in Jammu & Kashmir burnt the much revered Charar-e-Sharif shrine leading to serious law and order problem.

I was asked to digress from covering UP politics for a day and instead get a sense from the Muslims of western UP as to their reaction to events in Kashmir. What I discovered was an interesting facet about how Hindus and in particular, Muslims outside the state perceive Kashmir and its people. Most people I spoke to, across a couple of districts with sizable Muslim population, showed little interest or concern for the people of Kashmir. A common response was, They are different. We have no connection with them.

Absence of any kind of connection between people living in rest of India with Kashmiris is largely responsible for the lack of empathy, sympathy or interest in events of the Valley which are mostly confined to the inside pages of newspapers, where protests, killings and clashes with police and army are seen as routine.

So are the events of last one week where young men have died in police firing leading to shut down in Kupwara and Handwara. Different versions of events and its varied interpretation will continue for days to come and again it will be forgotten. Until the next big clash or killings grab headlines.

NIT developments have also now receded in the background as the PDP-BJP governments tries to take hold of the situation. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, once seen as a political leader willing to take up cudgels on behalf of the majority, has now ended up like other political leaders, into issuing strongly worded statements that express regret at unprovoked firing on protestors.

In this background, author Chetan Bhagats piece in The Times of India calling on Kashmiris to embrace India has touched a raw nerve among mainland Indians who believe that Kashmiri people need to accept India as their country. Frankly, it is India that also needs to accept Kashmir as part of their country where people are not agents of Pakistan, but are deeply unhappy and angry with the way Indias political elite and governments treat them.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has lost her credibility among many in Kashmir due to the manner in which she delayed and then succumbed to taking over as CM after three months of dilly-dallying

Protest for jobs by villagers affected by Kishen Ganga Project

A protest that has been on for months, but has not caught the attention of Delhi media is related to compensation and jobs for people whose land was acquired by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) in 2009 for building the Kishen Ganga Hydro Electric Project in Bandipora district of North Kashmir.

Last week, residents of Kralpora village entered inside the powerhouse and other operative units and forcibly stopped the work. Local news media reports state that as per agreement, which was approved by the then DC Bandipora, Mohammad Maqsood Zargar, 163 persons of affected families were to be employed in the corporation, but only 38 were employed, said Ghulam Mohi-ud-din.

He said that those 38 persons employed in the corporation were later disengaged from their duties and the corporation engages non-locals in their place. He said locals have been either appointed as helpers or labourers in the company, while the non-locals have been appointed for prime positions.

They have appealed to the chief minister for help but she is too busy trying to settle down in her new job. Kishen Ganga protest is small compared to bigger protests in Srinagar district but it needs to be addressed and a mutually acceptable solution found. Else, it wont be long before these people also join the disenchanted in other parts of Kashmir.

Government of India needs to engage the people of Kashmir in a political dialogue. It cannot leave the task to PDP-BJP government. When Prime Minister Modi visits Jammu later in the week, he might want to use the opportunity to reach out to the people of the Valley.
Latur: Ram Venkat Rao Hande rues the day he paid the insurance premium to safeguard his crop. In 2014, the farmer shelled out Rs 3,001 to cover the channa (chickpea) that he had cultivated on his 4.5 acres land in Ausa taluka of Latur district. Unseasonal rains destroyed the crop and after two years, he got a total of Rs 17,810, not even enough to cover the market cost of one acre of channa.

I would have got Rs 18,000 per acre of channa just by selling it, Hande told Firstpost. Whats the use of insurance that doesnt even cover my production cost?

Insurance, as a product to hedge against risk, is widely used to provide cover against unforeseen factors. Three years of continuous drought and extreme weather events in Marathwada has made agriculture more unpredictable, but the financial products that are meant to defray the risk are failing farmers, Firstpost found by talking to farmers and bankers.

Crops like soyabean, pulses like urad, moong and tur, rice and fruits like grapes and chikoo are usually grown in this part of Latur. Interviews with cultivators revealed that the insurance they get for crop damage doesnt even cover the cost of cultivation.

Pradeep Sonawane has around 24 acres of land in Ausa taluka where he cultivates crops like urad, tur, jowar and grapes. The cost of cultivating one acre of urad and moong is around Rs 10,000. Soyabean is slightly higher at Rs 14,000 per acre. Last year, when unseasonal rain destroyed these crops, the amount he got was way below what he had spent in cultivating the crops.

I got Rs 2,000 per acre for soyabean and Rs 1,500 for tur. The insurance doesnt cover the actual cost of the crops destroyed, Sonawane said.

For urad, a type of pulse, the premium for one acre is Rs 378 for a 100 percent coverage of Rs 6,000, in theory. But Sonawane said that he got only Rs 600-1,000 per acre.

Shivaji Sonawane, the president of the Grape Growers Association in Latur, feels that the reason why crop insurance cover is so low is because the likelihood of payout is much higher for agriculture.

Insurance works on the principle that the premiums collected for a particular risk category by a company will always be higher than the likelihood of an actual payout. The chance of a fire breaking out at a warehouse is much more improbable than the premiums collected for fire insurance from several warehouses. Similarly, the chance of crashing your car is remote, compared to the surety of your annual vehicle insurance payments.

But in case of agriculture, which is largely dependent on monsoons, a slight deviation from a normal monsoon means widespread destruction of crops. Either excessive or deficient or even untimely rains are enough to destroy the crops, which is what is happening in Marathwada, along with unseasonal hail.

The reasons why we dont get adequate cover are linked to climatic factors, Shivaji Sonawane said. In our case, one extreme weather event will ruin thousands of farmers. Which company wants to take that risk?

In the case of crop insurance, some part of the premium is paid by the government. For grapes, the premium comes to Rs 18,000 per hectare, of which half is paid by the government and Rs 9,000 by the farmer. However, grape crop insurance is only for 40 days, which is less than the grape season. For instance, two years ago, Shivaji Sonawanes insurance cover expired on 28 February and a hailstorm destroyed his crops on 5 March.

Jayanta Sinha, an independent banking consultant who was formerly the chief general manager for rural business at the State Bank of India, said that the average all India penetration of insurance is just 22 percent (of cropped area). This is the reason why premiums are high. The sum paid out as insurance is low while premiums are high. This is the reason farmers are reluctant to purchase crop insurance, Sinha said in an interview.

Sinha said that the governments new insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year has the potential to change things for the better. This can be a game changer because it is assuring a lower premium and higher payouts, Sinha said.

Under the scheme farmers will pay 2 percent premium for kharif crops, 1.5 percent for rabi and 5 percent for cash crops. The aim is to take insurance penetration to 50 percent of gross cropped area in the next two years, because the success of the scheme will depends on that. The premium percentage is based on output per hectare multiplied by the average price per hectare.

Of course, insurance is just a financial product to defray risk. The structural factors affecting Indian agriculture are deeper than that and those need to be addressed to make agriculture viable.

Shivaji suggested that one way to improve insurance is to include the cost of cultivation and 50 percent of profit on that. That would act as an incentive for farmers to continue cropping. This view was echoed by Sudhakar Shinde, a farmer and political activist who grows soyabean and pulses.

Pradeep Sonawane, on the other hand, wants opening up of the insurance sector so that a larger number of products are available to the farmer. Let the government allow foreign companies to come in and compete with the companies operating locally. Maybe then we will get a better insurance deal.

Shivaji Sonawane laments that the current debates going on in the country do not feature farmers or agriculture at all. Right now, everything in the news is about Kanhaiya and beef. What about the issues that really matter? Agriculture and the people who grow food are a vital part of the economy, but we hardly figure anywhere in the collective consciousness of the nation.

This is the eleventh segment of a 13-part series on Marathwadas drought.

Part 12: Climate change and its impact on the farmers of Marathwada.

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

Part 5: Maha has the most dams in the country, but the least effective irrigation network

Part 6: A surveyor of suicides tells the story behind the statistics and the lonely struggle of Indian farmers

Part 7: Will outreach help reduce farmer suicides?

Part 8: 'Toothless' laws lead to water exploitation

Part 9: Shirpur, Jal Biradari projects show impact of small local initiatives

Part 10: Why debt-ridden farmers are deemed least creditworthy
Mumbai: Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde came under attack on Monday from ruling ally Shiv Sena as well as the opposition for clicking selfies while on a visit to drought-hit Marathwada, but she defended herself saying she took pictures out of elation on seeing water in a trench in the dried up river.

Munde, who is rural development minister, came under the line of fire from across the political spectrum for clicking selfies while she was at a village in drought hit Latur on Sunday, for reviewing the desilting work in Manjara river, which has nearly dried up.

While the Shiv Sena took pot-shots at Munde saying that such photo sessions could have been avoided, the Opposition Congress and the NCP said that she has mocked the drought-affected farmers by such a "shameful act."

Undeterred by the attack, Munde said it was out of "contentment" of seeing water in the trench due to the desliting work that she took selfies.

"I have taken several review meetings on the drought condition in Latur. Have made efforts to dig trenches at various places so that water could be fetched from them. But met with failure most of the times. Yesterday, while I was in Latur to take stock of the Manjara river, I saw some water which gave me a feeling of contentment," Munde said in a statement.

"It was like finding an oasis in a desert for me. By levelling false allegations on me, who are these people trying to help, drought hit villagers or farmers? These pictures were clicked in the heat of 45 degrees C to show my appreciation for the work my department has done. There was no excitement in it, only contentment," she added.

Munde's 'selfie moments' did not go down well with the Sena, which said on the one hand women are the worst sufferers of the drought and on the other, a woman minister is seen happily clicking selfies in a parched area.

"This was a serious tour. Such selfies could have been avoided or it just dilutes the impact of a drought tour. It is mainly the women who have to walk for miles to fetch drinking water and here a woman minister happily clicks selfies. This is a strange incident," Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande told PTI.

Congress spokesperson Al-Nasser Zakaria the act of clicking selfies was a shameful one and that the present ministers need to become less media savvy and focus on work.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said Munde, instead of being on a drought tour, has made it like she was on a junket and that by clicking pictures, she has mocked the plight of farmers.

"This government is not serious about drought. There was no planning to tackle drought since last September even where there was sufficient data available, he said.

Here are the tweets that landed Munde in trouble:

2 selfie with bandhara pic.twitter.com/OKFeyT3OPS  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 16, 2016

Selfie with trench of said barrage Manjara .. one relief to latur .. pic.twitter.com/r49aEVxSSk  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 17, 2016
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday claimed that people are voluntarily following the second phase of odd-even scheme and there was no congestion on the roads in the national capital due to the road rationing rule.

The Delhi CM also said that people have come up with their own solution due to which the second phase of odd-even scheme has been successful as per reports.

"People are voluntarily following odd-even scheme. I want to thank people for following it. Due to this scheme, here are reports that there is no congestion on roads...

"If people would not follow the odd-even scheme, there would then have been more violations of the scheme," Kejriwal said in New Delhi.

On the first day of the second phase of odd-even scheme, 1300 people were penalised while the second day 1,000 motorists were prosecuted for violating the same.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal and PWD Minister Satyendar Jain carpooled with Transport Minister Gopal Rai in his car to reach Delhi Secretariat which houses offices of all cabinet ministers.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today reached his office in an even numbered car with a UP registration number, which was provided by the organisers of an event that Sisodia had attended in Noida earlier in the day.

Social Welfare Minister Sandeep Kumar travelled in bus to reach his office while Water minister Kapil Mishra boarded metro in the morning.

Delhi Food & Supplies and Environment Minister Imran Hussain used his car to reach his office as his vehicle was even-numbered.
Kolkata: An undergraduate girl student of a university alleged that she was assaulted and abused for wearing shorts and smoking by some men returning from a poll rally of the ruling party.

Police, however, said so far there is no proof of political link to the alleged incident.

The 22-year-old girl claimed that she dialled Police emergency number 100 for help following the incident late on Friday night and filed an FIR at Netaji Nagar Police Station the same night.

According to the girl's FIR, the incident took place when she and her male friend, a student of the same university, were returning home at Gandhi Colony of Netaji Nagar in the southern parts of the city when they chose to halt at a place near her home for smoke.

Suddenly six men returning from a political rally, allegedly of Trinamool Congress, demanded explanation why she was wearing shorts and puffing cigarette and assaulted her, she said in the FIR.

Following her complaint, police personnel called her up at around 2.30 am and two male cops visited her home 30 minutes later as she failed to mention the date and time in her complaint, she claimed.

The girl also claimed that the policemen again called her up at around 3.30 am saying they needed to visit her home again because she had used an ink of different colour while putting the date and time.

Officer-in-charge of Netaji Nagar Police Station Debasish Chakraborty told PTI, "We have taken up the case and started our investigation. So far we have not got any such proof that there was any political link to this incident."

Stating nobody has been arrested so far the OC said since the girl has complained against "unidentified" persons, "it is becoming tough to nab them".

To the girl's claim that she was visited by male police personnel at her home in the night, he said, "Certain things the complainant is saying are incorrect. We have tried our best to help her."

"There was a woman police personnel present when our officers went to her home to get the date and time of the incident on her FIR lodged with us... We only went to her place after taking her consent," Chakraborty said.

The incident caused a flutter when the girl posted the entire 'experience' on her Facebook wall.
Despite having been buried in an otherwise obscure corner of one of its numerous inside pages, a single column Times of India news story caught the attention of its readers on April 16: 'Mayawati wont embrace Buddhism now'

The headline looked unequivocal enough. And perhaps credible too for the simple reason that the BSP supremo, who is counting on the support of Brahmin voters in the ensuing Assembly elections in 2017, is in no position to accept publicly the 22 vows that an entrant into Buddhism is supposed to take.

Do you know what these vows are?

Here are just the first five of those supposedly sacrosanct vows that were administered even to Dr BR Ambedkar at the time of his conversion into Buddhism.

1. I shall have no faith in Bramha, Vishnu and Mahesh; nor shall I worship them.

2. I shall have no faith in Rama and Krishna who are believed to be incarnation of God; nor shall I worship them.

3. I shall have no faith in Gauri, Ganapati and other Gods and Goddesses of Hindus; nor shall I worship them.

4. I do not believe in incarnation of God.

5. I do not and shall not believe that Lord Buddha was the incarnation of Vishnu. I believe this to be sheer madness and false propaganda.

These apart, the 8th and the 17th of the 22 vows further say:

I shall not allow any ceremonies to be performed by Brahmins.

I renounce Hinduism which is harmful for humanity and impedes the advancement and development of humanity because it is based on inequality and adopt Buddhism as my religion.

The rest of the vows talk about truthfulness, honesty, human values and the well-known noble eight-fold path. Its significant that after being converted to Buddhism himself, Ambedkar, in turn, administered the same vows to 600,000 of his Dalit supporters at a great, grand function at Deeksha Bhoomi in Nagpur on 14 October, 1956. This event was historic in the sense that it was the largest religious conversion the world had ever seen.

Rohit Vemulas mother, Radhika, and brother Naga Chaitanya took the same 22 vows while embracing Buddhism at a function that was held to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Ambedkar in Mumbai earlier last week this year.

Now, you know why Mayawati finds herself caught in a Catch-22 position.

If she embraces Buddhism, she loses non-Dalit Hindu votes  particularly those belonging to Brahmins.

And if she doesnt, she would sadly find herself drifting away from the larger than life Dalit icon  Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

But a practical politician that she has developed into over the years, Mayawati is aware of the three fundamental factors in politics of votes: First, more than 90 percent of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh are willfully continuing as Hindus even in face of oppression at the hands of upper castes and other backward communities. Second, she might lose her Dalit identity once she becomes a Buddhist. And third, ironically enough, the Dalits owe their existence to Manuwad and Vedic Hinduism. No Manuwad, no Daliticism. Yes, as simple as that.

And who can deny the fact that Dalits are a major power bloc in Indian politics these days? At a time when the need of the hour for her is to go in for inclusive and extensive politics in place of an exclusive Dalit vote bank, nobody should be surprised to notice that even the slogans have changed in UP : Haathi nahi Ganesh hai, Bramha Vishnu Mahesh hai (Its not just an elephant; this BSP symbol, in fact, represents the four major Hindu Gods).

Gone are the days when BSPs predecessor, the erstwhile DS4, had coined an extremely abusive slogan as their war-cry against caste Hindus: Tilak, tarazu aur talwar, inko maro jootey chaar (Tilak represented Brahmins, tarazu Banias and talwar Rajputs in their dictionary).

Indeed, the changes in sloganeering had worked wonderfully well for the BSP. In the 2007 Assembly election, Mayawatis party could win 206 of the total 403 seats, thanks to the additional support by caste Hindus, particularly Brahmins. Her party had got just 98 seats when she leaned heavily only on her exclusive Dalit vote bank in 2002. Caste Hindus had moved away again from her in 2012, with the result that the BSP was reduced to just 80 seats. By now, she has learnt her lessons. Thats why as far as her politics is concerned, Hinduism has taken precedence over Buddhism  and pure pragmatism over everything else with elections just a year away.

But in a somewhat bewildering turn of events, its the BJP  and not Mayawati  that is increasingly leaning towards Ambedkar and his politics of reservation. Remember Prime Minister Narendra Modis speech delivered at Vigyan Bhavan on 21 March this year: I am Dr Ambedkars bhakt,, he had said adding that the reservation policy for Dalits and tribals wouldnt be diluted even if Ambedkar himself were to come back and demand its revocation.

Reservation is their right and nobody can snatch it from them, he thundered.

Needless to say that BJP needs Dalits even as BSP is leaving no stone unturned to see to it that caste Hindus, particularly Brahmins jump on to its bandwagon in Uttar Pradesh.
New Delhi: The BJP again raked up the 2004 Ishrat Jehan case on Monday accusing the Congress party of having underplayed "a terror plot" against the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi because it was "mortified" of fighting him politically.

The BJP attack came after a media report said the then Home Minister P Chidambaram had signed the first affidavit in the encounter case, which he had reportedly denied earlier.

"You underplayed a terror plot that could eliminate (Modi). You are clearly admitting that you cannot fight this politically. So eliminate or allow to eliminate or encourage elimination of the leader who you are mortified of fighting politically.

"...we (Congress) do everything possible in our hand to make sure that we make it appear that he is against some section, projected as if there is no terror threat against him," Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told a press conference at the BJP headquarters.

The Congress and Chidambaram reacted to the development saying the BJP was ignoring and diluting the "real" issue of "fake" encounter in which Ishrat Jehan was killed.

Chidambaram said he cannot comment on the issue of the first affidavit without perusing the files and notings.

But, he said, the BJP was ignoring the "real" issue of the "fake" encounter in which Ishrat Jehan was killed.

Chidambaram said the second affidavit was filed in the case after thorough consultation with the then Home Secretary and Attorney General.

"My public statements on why the second affidavit was filed after due and full consultation with the Home Secretary and the Attorney General are self-explanatory. I have nothing to add," he said in a statement.

And moreover, Chidambaram said, the real issue is, even if a person is suspected to be a terrorist, can that person be killed  as alleged  in a fake encounter?

"Please focus on the real issue. That issue is sub judice before a court of law," he advised the BJP.

Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told reporters, "The issue was whether it was a fake or genuine encounter. The court has held that it was a fake encounter... Now reports are being planted to dilute the main issue,"

At the BJP press conference, Sitaraman said The debate cannot be confined to Chidambaram.

"Sonia Gandhi worked actively on this theory. That is why she went to town saying an encounter has happened as though there was no intelligence information stating that there was terror plot," she said.

Sitharaman added, "They wanted to quietly watch the terror plot bloom to eliminate a political opponent....a very serious fallout is the way this country's intelligence and counter intelligence have been weakened."

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju also hit out at Congress and Chidambaram, saying he could not have acted on his own to do such an "anti-national act".

"There have been some political pressure from higher ups of the Congress that such an action was taken," he told the media.

Chidambaram, he alleged, has been caught red-handed and now he cannot escape. It is not Chidambaram but the entire Congress leadership which should take the responsibility, he said.
New Delhi: Amid Nitish Kumar's strong pitch for largest possible unity among secular parties to defeat BJP, Congress on Monday virtually ruled out an alliance at the national level in the next Lok Sabha polls.

"I am 100 percent (sure) there will be unity. National alliance...I don't think Nitish Kumar has said that....we had an alliance with him in Bihar elections.

"Alliances take place every day...Some party is very strong in a particular state, but is not in existence in the

neighbouring state. Alliances take place according to circumstances in a particular state," party general secretary

Shakeel Ahmed told reporters.

Signaling that there will be no tie-up at the national level by the party, he questioned whether there has been any

(regional) party which is present in Bihar as also in Haryana as also in faraway Kerala and Bengal.

He said the "reality" is that there are state level tie-ups.

Ahmed was replying to a volley of questions on the Bihar chief minister and JD(U) chief's call for a national alliance to take on BJP in the 2019 general elections.

He made light of a question whether Nitish would be the "bridegroom" and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi just his "best man" in the 2019 elections, suggesting that it was media which was playing on certain statements.

"By the time 2019 approaches, things will slide so much for the Modi dispensation and BJP that there will be no need for any alliance," he said, adding that people of India will themselves pitch for making 'RSS and BJP mukt bharat'.

Nitish has given a call for a RSS-free India.

To persistent questions on Kumar's statements, Ahmed said Rahul as also he himself have good relations with the Bihar Chief Minister and "everyone should have ambition".

Last week, Congress had dismissed as "too premature" party leader Digvijaya Singh's remark that it is ready to work with Nitish Kumar at the national level to bring about "largest possible unity" among parties to defeat BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Congress, however, said it has always worked in the larger interest of democratic, secular and progressive forces in the country.

Congress is part of the Nitish Kumar-led coalition government, which also includes Lalu Prasad's RJD.
All is fair in love and elections, it seems. Following the social media blitzkrieg by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), it now appears to be the turn of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) to get into the act.

An email leaked on Sunday on messaging service WhatsApp, allegedly written by the head of AIADMKs IT Wing Balu Ramachandran to his team, that spoke of a mysterious FB Account Switcher Tool developed by them, along with a Google Drive link to download the tool.

The email goes on to explain that this special tool is purportedly used to switch between multiple Facebook accounts to generate posts, likes, shares and comments (to make content viral). The email also states that the tool is useful while providing counters for defending our point and for war front conditions to influence/positioning our content during negative comments against our party with different users

Firstpost contacted Ramachandran on his mobile, sent him text messages requesting a response to the allegations and even emailed him, as well as the AIADMK IT Wing, a questionnaire. No response was forthcoming.

Firstpost spoke to a party insider and he confirmed that the source email did in fact belong to the AIADMK IT Wing head. Ramachandran took over as the party's IT Wing head last month.

According to an cyber-security expert based in Tamil Nadu, who did not wish to be named, this email likely points to a social media management strategy much in vogue today.

Automated creation of Facebook, YouTube, email and other social media accounts has been happening for several years, the expert said. Basically there are companies which provide real or fake social media accounts by the million for a fee and these are then used to flood social media with positive or negative campaigns, he said.

Karthik Ayyar, expert in cyber-security, explained how this marketing strategy would ordinarily work. There are people in China and Thailand creating millions of Facebook and Twitter accounts and they gladly hand over the usernames and passwords to companies in other countries for a fee, he said.

Posting to multiple Facebook accounts is not a big deal. Lots of people and companies use it for marketing purposes, Ayyar explained.

But according to the experts, the answer is in the why of it all. The question is who controls how many Facebook accounts and for what purpose. Prima facie, it appears that the AIADMK is trying to do what the BJP did in the run-up to the 2014 elections  use multiple social media accounts to flood the space with positive chatter about a leader, Jayalalithaa in this case, counter negative remarks about the leader by launching a volley of positive comments, likes and shares in order to drown out the negative views.

Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu Rajesh Lakhoni told Firstpost that he would send this email to Facebook to verify its legitimacy. When queried on whether the creation/use of fake social media accounts violated election rules in any way, he replied in the negative.

Creation of fake accounts violates Facebook and Twitter rules but it is not illegal per se, said the expert who did not wish to be named. However it can become illegal if the intention of the act is malafide. Meaning that if there is impersonation of some other person for some financial gain, it would become a cyber crime and would be punishable by law, he stated.

The opposition DMK is exultant following this latest leak. DMKs own back-end IT team is enthusiastically sharing this email copy with all and sundry, hoping to put a small dent in the larger than life image of incumbent Jayalalithaa.

Social media may not decide an election for any party or leader. But perception of the young voters matter, especially in an election which will see its largest number of first time voters to date. And that crucial constituency is what all leaders are battling for in the virtual space.

The author tweets @sandhyaravishan
Revival of the agitation by Patels for reservation was guaranteed the day Mohan Lal Khattar's Haryana government genuflected in front of the Jats.

By accepting the demands of Jats for reservation, the Haryana government reinforced the old adage: Jiski laathi uski bhains (in this case reservation). The Patels of Gujarat are simply following in the footsteps of the Jats, angered by the BJP's double speak on quota, buoyed by its political chicanery in Haryana.

Five months ago, when the Gujarat government slapped sedition charges on Patidar leader Hardik Patel and sent him to jail with some of his associates, it seemed the BJP was willing to defy the politically-influential community.

At the height of the Patel agitation in August 2015, Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel clearly stated that the community does not qualify for quota benefits. With the government taking a tough stand and its leaders in jail, the agitation seemed to be dying down.

Patels are demanding 10 percent reservation in education institutions and governmental jobs. The state government has rejected the demand citing the 49 percent reservation cap imposed by Supreme Court, a factor that has been ignored in Haryana while extending quota benefits to Jats after their violent stir earlier this year.

Haryana has, naturally, given Patidars a second wind. On Sunday, when the Patels spilled over into the streets of Mehsana, home district of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for a jail bharo stir, it was clear Haryana is their latest inspiration. "The BJP accepted the demands of Jats of Haryana. But our plea for reservation was ignored. We will not accept these double standards. How are we different from the Jats?" Patidar leader Lal ji Bhai Patel roared.

With elections in Gujarat on the horizon, the BJP will have to find a quick answer to this question. Patels are nearly 15 percent of Gujarat's population. Like Jats, they do not fulfill the criteria for inclusion among OBCs. But, since Khattar accepted the demands of the Jats, Patels are convinced a mass agitation in Gujarat will bring the BJP down on its knees.

There are, of course, the inner dynamics of the BJP at play in Gujarat. Dozens of messages on social media sites and apps suggest the decisive battle between rival groups led by the CM and Amit Shah has begun.

"The leader behind the lathicharge on Patels during their protest meeting in Ahmedabad's (August 2015) has not yet been exposed," says one message exhorting the community to participate.

It is widely believed that Shah was the driving force behind the tough stand against the agitation and its leaders, including the sedition charges against Hardik Patel.

A few days ago, when the Gujarat DGP was shifted abruptly, it was speculated that he had been shunted out by the CM for ''mishandling" the stir.

Patels are keen to get their leader Hardik Patel out of jail. But, since he is facing sedition charges, his fate can now be decided only by the courts. The government, even if it wishes to appease the Patidars by releasing him, is helpless. So, their only option at the moment is to revive the agitation and work up public fury and outrage.

The CM's tepid response to Sunday's jail bharo stir also indicates Patel is not keen to take on people from her own community and may not be keen to keep Hardik in jail. On the eve of the protest, Patel, who was in Surat, said agitations are part of politics and her job is to do seva. She later tweeted out an appeal for maintaining peace.

Just a few months ago, the Patidars appeared divided into several groups. Hardik, who was once a part of Lalji Patel's Sardar Patel Group (SPG), had developed differences with his erstwhile mentor. He appeared keen to interact with another influential Patel leader Vithal Radadiya. But, the guru  who was injured in clashes with cops on Sunday  and his disciple seem to have buried their differences.

With Haryana providing the inspiration and BJP's internal politics the fuel, the Patidars may just be getting for their second battle in Gujarat.

The resistance will come from the OBCs led by their budding leader Alpesh Thakur, the anti-addiction crusader whose popularity rivals that of Hardik Patel.

But that is a story for tomorrow.
A swing in minority votes will decide the outcome in the Assembly polls in Kerala in favour of either of the two traditional rival fronts led by the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

A major swing in the Muslim and Christian votes that traditionally went to Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) saw the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by CPM coming to power in the 2006 elections with 98 seats in the 140-member Assembly.

Analysis of the seats won by various parties showed that the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the sole arbiter of Muslims in the state, and the Kerala Congress and its splinter groups, championing the interest of Christians, had suffered a huge loss in both Muslim and Christian belts in the 2006 polls.

The IUML, which had won 16 seats in the Muslim-dominated Malappuram district and other Muslim pockets in other districts in the 2001 elections, could get only seven seats in the 2006 election. Similarly, the number of seats of the three factions of Kerala Congress came down from 13 in 2001 to nine seats in 2006.

The IUML increased its seats to 20 and the Kerala Congress factions to 11 in 2011, when the United Democratic Front (UDF) came to power with a wafer thin majority of just 72 seats. The UDF could wrest only 16 seats in the belt from the LDF then.

The LDF had its highest haul of 34 seats in the Muslim and Christian belts in 2006. It had wrested as many as 31 seats from the UDF then. The opposition front managed to retain 18 seats in the 2011 elections, when it lost the power by just three seats.

Poll observers view this as the result of swings in the Christian and Muslim votes. Such wild swings were never witnessed in the past elections in Kerala. While Muslims stood solidly behind the IUML and the Christians behind the Kerala Congress or the Indian National Congress till 2006.

The IUML had won 14 seats in 1982, 15 in 1987, 19 in 1991 and 13 in 1996. However, there has been a slight fluctuation in the seats won by the Kerala Congress factions. This is mainly because of splits and defections in the Kerala Congress. The two major factions of the Kerala Congress had won the maximum number of 14 seats when they were in the UDF.

This came down to nine in 1987 when one faction switched over to the LDF. The Kerala Congress (J), which went to the LDF, had to content with just one seat in the next polls in 1991, while the other three factions in the UDF got as many as 12 seats. When the Joseph faction returned to the UDF before the 2011 elections, the Kerala Congress could regain the past glory to some extent by winning 11 seats.

The analysis demolishes the myth that the Muslims and Christians consider the IUML and the Kerala Congress are their sole arbiters. They had stood solidly behind these parties when they aligned with the UDF because of their fear that the Communists were against their faith.

However, these fears were found unfounded with the Communist-led governments never making any attempt to interfere with their faiths. They started reposing their trust in the LDF after the CPM allowed their comrades to follow their faith and made conscious efforts to reach out to them by defending their rights and challenging the attacks on them in various parts of the country.

If the periodical swings in the minority votes since 2001 are taken into consideration, the swing this time is likely to favour the LDF. Political observers see the gains the LDF has made in the civic polls in Malappuram and the Christian-dominated Central Travancore as an indication of how the minority votes will behave in the current election.

Left leaning political analyst N M Pearson feels that the Muslims had rallied behind the IUML in the past as they had no other alternatives. The emergence of Indian National League (INL), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Social Democatic Party of India (SDPI) and the Welfare Party in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition has ended the IUML monopoly over the Muslim votes.

Though many of these parties have not gained the strength to win elections, they have the potential to defeat the IUML. The CPM has been using them overtly and covertly to their advantage by playing up the threats to the minorities from the bid by the Sangh Parivar to consolidate the Hindu votes, says Pearson.

He said Muslims had backed the LDF in the local body elections held in November last year as the wave of intolerance sweeping the country had confounded their fears. The CPM had cashed in on this by launching protests against the Dadri lynching and a series of beef festivals across the state.

Pearson thinks that the situation may return to normal as the intolerance wave has lost its intensity among the people in the state now. However, he does not rule out a minor swing of Muslim votes in favour of the LDF in the coming elections. The CPM has sought to create a division in the IUML votes by fielding many prominent Muslim personalities in the election this time.

Pearson feels this may sometimes backfire as the candidates picked up by the CPM are mostly businessmen, who were aligned with the IUML previously. The profile of the candidates does not match their accusation that the IUML is a party of elites.

E T Mohammed Basheer, Kerala IUML union general secretary and MP, said the CPMs attempt to project itself as the protector of the minorities will not succeed as the people are aware that the Left parties do not have the strength to take on fascist forces at the national level.

The only party that can challenge the Sangh Parivar throughout the country is the Congress. Therefore, the Muslims will strengthen the Congress by voting the UDF to power in the Assembly elections in the state, he added.

The IUML leader said that the setback the IUML suffered in Malappuram in the local body elections cannot be taken as a barometer as the issues in the Assembly elections are different. He also attributed the defeat the IUML suffered in certain pockets in the district to the division in the UDF.

We have solved these issues and are fully geared to face the election unitedly throughout the state. We are confident that the IUML will improve its tally of seats and help the UDF to retain power for another term, he added.

The state of the Christian votes is slightly different with several interest groups emerging in the community. The CPM has been trying reach out to the community through these groups. It ensured the support of the Church in the high ranges of Idukki and Wayanad districts by sponsoring the High Range Samrakshana Samithi (HRSS) that came into existence by opposing the Congress stand on the Gadgil committee report on the protection of the Western Ghats.

The CPM ensured the defeat of the Congress candidate at Idukki in the Lok Sabha election by lending support to the HRSS candidate Joyce George. This time, the party has additionally aligned with a splinter group of the Kerala Congress (M) led by former MP Francis George to strengthen its position in the Christian belt.

The dissidents came out of the UDF after many of their prominent leaders were denied seat to contest the election. Pearson said that several such groups were active in the Christian community which are trying to use the LDF for their gains.

The CPM is dancing to their tunes. This will not help the LDF as it may alienate their traditional Hindu votes. The Bharatiya Janata Partys attempt to stitch together a grand alliance with the help of caste organisations like the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SND) Yogam will upset the political equations in the state, says Pearson.

Pearson is of the opinion that the grant alliance will eat into the votes of the LDF more as the lower caste Ezhava community that SNDP represents has been the main backbone of the CPM for long. He feels that the BJP might upset the LDFs applecart if the SNDP and other Hindu organisations fuel a Hindu consolidation in the election as they expected.

However, Pearson and other political commentators like N P Chekutty and Jacob George do not think that the Hindu consolidation may remain as an illusion for the BJP at least now. However, they say that the grant alliance could inflict damage to both the rival fronts.

They say that the BJP-led alliance may not win many seats but it will certainly tilt the balance in favour of either the UDF or the LDF. But none of them are ready to risk a guess at this point. All they say is that Kerala may witness a neck and neck race in the elections to be held on 16 May.
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday refused to accept the defence of JD(U)'s Rajya Sabha MP Anil Sahni, chargesheeted by CBI in LTC scam, and said he should have resigned and fought the charges in court.

Coming down heavily on the MP, the new JD(U) president said the issue is related to ethics and "if the Rajya Sabha takes any decision to dismiss him on this ground, the party will welcome the logical step."

About Sahni continuously pleading innocence and refusing to quit from the Upper House, Kumar castigated him by commenting, "you alone is speaking truth!"

"CBI chargesheeted Sahni and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari gave approval to CBI to prosecute him. The Chairman must have given his permission only after perusing all necessary documents," he said and refused to defend the MP.

"Even after this if you (Sahni) have to fight the charge, go to court and do it legally after quitting Parliament," Kumar said adding "this (display of morality by resigning) would have created good impression about him within the party instead of embarrassing it which he did by his conduct."

"You have not been elected by the people, but the party sent you to Rajya Sabha twice. You should have displayed morality and quit after the Chairman gave nod for the prosecution," he said.

Anil Sahni was sent to Upper House after the demise of his MP father Mahendra Sahni in January 2010.

Stating that the party has served the MP showcause notice and he has to it reply within a week, the JD(U) chief said, "We will not hesitate to take stern action against him after the time to reply to the showcause notice ends."

CBI had filed a charge-sheet against Sahni alleging that he conspired with other persons and used forged e-tickets and fake boarding passes to defraud Rajya Sabha to the tune of Rs 23.71 lakh as travel and dearness allowance reimbursement without undertaking the actual journey.

Refuting opposition BJP's charge of keeping mum over the issue, Kumar said, "Recently during a trip to Delhi to assume the charge of JD(U) chief, Sahni too was on board the plane with others. On getting down at Delhi I told him that CBI has charge-sheeted him so it would be better for him to resign and fight the case in the court."

"But, he continued to harp about his innocence," he said.

Earlier too when the matter came before the party, "we had called him and sought explanation. At that time also he defended himself and claimed the charge was wrong", Kumar said.

"But now the CBI has chargesheeted him and the Rajya Sabha Chairman has given his nod to prosecute him. There is no ground for him to continue in the post," he added.
For the first time since the Narada sting tapes sprang into public consciousness, Mamata Banerjee on Sunday made a stunning admission. She said that had the tapes emerged earlier, she wouldn't have given party tickets to tainted ministers, many of whom have since recorded a sudden spike in blood pressure.

"An illegal company had done this in 2014, why bring this up now after the elections have been announced and candidates declared? Had it been earlier, I would have thought about it. Nothing can be done now. I cannot change candidates after announcing their names," said the TMC supremo at an election rally in Bowbazar area of central Kolkata on Sunday evening.

"We will launch our own probe and prove who were behind these tapes, and if anyone of our party is guilty, we will certainly take action against them," added the Chief Minister, referring to the tapes where several top TMC leaders and lawmakers were seen allegedly accepting bundles of cash in return for favours to be granted to a fictitious firm.

It couldnt have been easy for the Chief Minister to virtually admit the authenticity of the videos which she and her party had dismissed earlier as "doctored" by the "dirty tricks department" of political rivals and a "cheap attempt at a smear campaign". In recent rallies, Mamata has also alleged "foreign money" behind the sting operation and questioned the credibility of journalist Mathew Samuel, the chief of Narada News.

Incidentally it is the same Mathew Samuel, then associated with Tehelka, who in 2001 had carried out Operation West End which showed political leaders, including then BJP president Bangaru Laxman, accepting bribes from journalists posing as defence dealers. Mamata Banerjee and her nine TMC MPs had walked out of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA cabinet following that expose and struck an alliance with Congress ahead of the 2001 Assembly polls in the state.

It is this dichotomy that Narendra Modi has harped upon this polling season asking why is the TMC chief, who had quit the government at the Centre claiming moral high ground in 2001, now reduced to defending sting-tainted leaders.

"Why have you suffered such a 'poriborton', Didi? Does it mean you have adjusted to corruption?" Modi has asked of her during all of his election rallies in the state.

Mamata, it seems, has been forced into this admission for three reasons. One, it is becoming increasingly clear that the weak defence of "doctored videos" isn't cutting much ice with the electorate. Visuals have a stunning impact and the CM fears that news channels showing in loop TMC leaders purportedly accepting thick wads of cash is bound to adversely impact voters at the eleventh hour of polling.

Second, by its very nature, videos compel more attention and have better stickiness. The Narada sting lent visual imagery to corruption scandal that started with Saradha. The probe into chit fund scam generated a lot of initial interest, but the CBI's tepid progress had eventually taken the edge off it. The sting videos were perfectly timed to solidify the corruption charges and made graft an opposition poll plank, much to the dismay of the ruling party.

On Sunday, during a rally on Shaheed Minar ground in Kolkata, the Prime Minister sought to link the Sarada, Narada and Kolkata flyover collapse. "Look at the people in the Sarada scam. You will find the same people getting caught in the Narada sting. And again these very people are linked to the flyover collapse."

The amalgamation of charges into one coherent whole of corruption posed a serious challenge to Mamata who initially tried to brazen it out, but later realized that the strategy isn't working.

Last but not the least, incorruptibility is Mamata's biggest political capital. The swirling mud of Sarada scam which left a splash on many TMC leaders and even some of the Left Front, failed to taint Mamata. Amid widespread allegations of corruption and the meteoric rise of the infamous 'syndicate culture' during her tenure as Chief Minister, no one has been able to point a finger directly at her. It is this conviction, that people in the state still believe her to be honest even if they don't trust her party colleagues, led her to declare herself as the "sole candidate in all 294 seats".

Even as an administrator, Mamata has been able to retain the impression of a "street fighter" to go with her carefully constructed "uncompromising crusader against corruption" image. Heading a personality-centric party, she cannot afford to take even the slightest of hits to her integrity or risk an erosion to her political capital. It is this compulsion that may have forced Mamata's hands into abruptly pulling the rug from under the feet of her party colleagues who on Sunday were either busy offering "no comments" to Didi's change in stance or refusing to even take a phone call from journalists.

Sovon Chatterjee, city mayor and candidate from Behala (east) constituency, one of the TMC leaders caught allegedly pocketing cash in the Narada videos, said he isn't aware of the party chief's comments. "I can't comment on something I am not aware of. If at all, I'll give my statement to the party, since the TMC has already ordered an internal probe," he was quoted, as saying in Bengali daily Ei Samay.

Subrata Mukherjee, state minister for public health engineering and a candidate from Kolkata's Ballygunge seat, said he is not ready to offer any comments while urban development minister Firhad Hakim, whose name has been linked to the Vivekananda Road flyover collapse, did not give a reaction either.

The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee has sent notices to five TMC MPs caught in the scandal while the Kolkata High Court has set up a three-member panel to collect unedited footage from Narada's Delhi-based editor Samuel. The wheels are moving.

And it is this, say opposition leaders, that has forced an admission from the Chief Minister.

Surya Kanta Mishra, CPM leader and CM candidate of the Left Front-Congress alliance, tweeted that it is "too late for Mamata to escape".

CM trying to disown her tainted party leaders to save her own skin in Narada. Its too late for you and them to escape, Madam!  Surjya Kanta Mishra (@SurjyaKMishra) April 17, 2016

"There is still enough time for the Chief Minister to cancel the candidature of the tainted leaders and file a fresh list. Who is stopping her? The point is that she is not serious about the charges and is indulging in mere theatrics to gain public sympathy. This is a late, desperate attempt to salvage a situation but unfortunately it won't have any impact. People of Bengal have made up their minds to boot her out," said MP and state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury to 24 Ghanta, a local TV channel.

"By abandoning her party colleagues as the eleventh hour, Mamata Banerjee is trying to at least save her Bhawanipore Assembly seat," said CPI (M) MP and candidate from Jadavpur Loksabha seat Sujan Chakraborty. "She admits that what she did is wrong, yet she wants votes from people. Why should voters oblige her?"

Ex-BJP state president Rahul Sinha, BJP's candidate from Kolkata's Jorasanko area, said: "If Mamata Banerjee cannot drop leaders from candidates' list because it is too late, why isn't she taking action against those leaders who are not contesting in the polls? Why is she still giving a party ticket to Madan Mitra who has been jailed for corruption? She is in a spot and is trying to bluff her way out of trouble."

The Narada videos threaten to become the TMC's Achilles' heel.
New Delhi: Taking a dig at opposition parties, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said the

opponents "want to have RSS-free India" but Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants India free from poverty, corruption and unemployment.

"Modi ji wants Garibi Mukt Bharat, Brashtachar Mukt Bharat, Berojgari Mukt Bharat. Our opponents want to have Sangh Mukt Bharat (Modi wants India free from poverty, free from corruption, free from unemployment. Our Opponents want to have RSS-free India)," he said in a tweet.

"They want RSS-free-India. They are not worried about ISI, ISIS," he added.

Congress had yesterday backed JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar's call for an RSS-free India, saying the saffron fountainhead was "posing a threat to the country's unity and democracy".

Kumar had mounted a counteroffensive against Modi for his 'Congress-mukt Bharat' slogan, saying, "Sangh-mukt Bharat banane ke liye sabhi gair BJP parties ko ek hona hoga (to usher in a Sangh-free India all non-BJP parties will have to come together)."

BJP, however, defended, saying it was unfazed by Kumar's efforts to form a united front to counter it and that such attempts to stop the Modi government "from working for the development of the country and for the poor will not succeed".
Can Nitish Kumar rid India of the Sangh in 2019? Three factors will decide the fate of Kumar's call for a Sangh-mukt India: UP, Arvind Kejriwal and alcohol.

Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab and Kumar's politics of prohibition will conclusively tell us if India will be rid of the BJP-RSS combine in 2019. And whether Kumar will be the one challenging Prime Minister in the electoral ring.

The BJP has unveiled every card at its disposal in the run up to the 2017 battle for Uttar Pradesh. It has bared its strategy on nationalism/pseudo-nationalism, initiated a debate over the tricolour and staked claim over the legacy of BR Ambedkar. Convinced that Brahmin and Rajput voters have no other option, the BJP has also nominated a Koeri as its new state chief. The Ram Mandir issue  courtesy rabble-rousers like Subramanian Swamy  is also on the backburner. The temple will be served hot if nothing else works in the state. In its quest for power in UP, the BJP has revealed all its cards; it has gone the Full Monty.

The 2019 Lok Sabha polls will depend on how the voter looks at the BJP's bare-all politics. If the BJP wins UP, the template and slogans for the 2019 General Election will be ready. If it doesn't, God save the BJP from a rejuvenated opposition.

In many ways, 2016 is year zero for Indian politics. Although there are five elections scheduled during the year, none of them will influence the outcome of the next Lok Sabha elections. The real battle will be fought in 2017.

First, there is Punjab.

By all indications the BJP-Akali combine is out of the reckoning in the state. The real fight is between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. If the Congress loses Punjab, it will have no other option but to cede the anti-BJP space in politics to chief ministers like Nitish and Arvind Kejriwal.

Even as an election looms in Punjab, the AAP is trying to spread its base in Rajasthan and Gujarat, where the BJP is facing lots of problems. Its volunteers are busy canvassing support in these two north Indian states, aware that there is political space for a third party in these bipolar states.

A victory in Punjab will give the AAP access to nearly 25 Assembly seats in Rajasthan that are close to Punjab and another 15-20 close to Haryana and NCR. Once  caveat, all of it depends on Punjab  it becomes the third player in Rajasthan and Gujarat, the AAP will be in a position to contest the Lok Sabha polls on equal terms in at least 100 seats (Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka) across India.

Kejriwal is eyeing a scenario where his party becomes an option for voters wary of the BJP and weary of the Congress. But, if the Congress wins Punjab, the AAP will find it difficult to spread beyond Delhi in the near future. So far, Kejriwal has been Arjuna to Nitish's Krishna, treating him like a political guru and proverbial elder brother. But, once he has more Lok Sabha seats under his spell, Kejriwal may not be willing to remain a mere follower. He may fancy himself as a collaborator and perhaps even a challenger.

So, hurdle number one for Nitish's dream of Sangh-mukt Bharat: His current ally and younger brother Kejriwal.

To be taken seriously by voters as well as potential allies, Nitish will have to extend his arc of influence beyond Bihar. If he has to achieve his college-days dream of becoming the Prime Minister of India, as Patrick French revealed in Sunday's Hindustan Times, the Bihar chief minister will have to become a formidable electoral force at least north and west of Bihar. He will have to get into a position where his name, face, strategy and politics influence elections in the cow belt and Jharkhand, comprising nearly 150 Lok Sabha seats.

Nitish has begun in the right earnest. Unlike Narendra Modi, who positioned himself as a messiah of the economy, Nitish is pursuing the role of a social reformer. Having banned the sale of alcohol in Bihar, he is willing to lead similar campaigns in Rajasthan, UP and West Bengal. The strategy is simple: Win the support of women by supporting and promising a blanket ban on the sale of alcohol.

In many states, citizen initiatives against the sale of alcohol are already gathering momentum. In Rajasthan, where the Congress had made '8 PM, No CM'  a crafty blend of an alcohol brand and the absence of governance after dark  one of its electoral slogans in 2008, a social activist and former MLA had died in November 2015 while on a fast unto death against the sale of alcohol. Several NGOs and social organisations, waiting to revive their agitation, have now invited Nitish to lead them. The Bihar chief minister will be hoping that prohibition gives him the electoral high he wants.

On 9 November, when his Mahagathbandhan had swept the Assembly polls in Bihar, the streets of Patna had given a glimpse of the slogans that may soon echo through India. Ecstatic after the victory, outside the JD(U) office on Patna's Beer Chand Patel Marg, supporters had raised a din shouting 'Ab Ki Baar Nitish Kumar' and 'BJP Bihar Haari Hai, Ab Dilli ki Baari Hai.'

Back then, Firstpost had pointed out that Kumar is a fascinating contrast to Modi. He represents the very idea that supporters of Modi seem to ridicule: Secularism, socialism and politics of consensus. The basis of his politics can be easily summed up in one line that Nitish himself offered a few years ago, "Yeh India hai. Yahan topi bhi pehen ni parti hai aur tilak bhi lagana parta hai." His political ethos will automatically turn Nitish Kumar into an automatic choice for the constituency that is uncomfortable with the politics of the BJP under Modi.

As expected, Kumar has begun the journey towards his dream of a Sangh-mukt Bharat.

Over to his three roadblocks now.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not fighting elections against oppositions but with the Election Commission. Addressing a rally at Krishnanagar in poll-bound West Bengal, PM Modi said the Trinamool Congress has already accepted its defeat in the upcoming elections and as a result they are now fighting against the Election Commission.

At the election rally in Krishnanagar on Sunday, Modi accused Banerjee of misusing the state machinery by asking the state's chief secretary to reply to the EC's showcause notice on her behalf.

"Polls will come and go, but if these institutions are destroyed, the country will not be able to be run. The EC gave notice to you and it was your responsibility to put forth your stand, your views but instead you are saying, you will see the EC after 19 May (day of counting)," he said

Modi was referring to Banerjee's 14 April outburst against the poll panel after getting a show-cause notice for violation of the model code of conduct.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) will examine the CD of Modi's speech, an official said.

With inputs from agencies
Beijing: China's navy dispatched a military plane to one of the country's man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea, the Defense Ministry said, in what is believed to be the first openly acknowledged mission of its kind.

A brief statement on the ministry's website said the plane was on patrol when it was diverted to Fiery Cross Reef on Sunday morning to pick up three injured construction workers.

The plane then flew to Sanya on China's southernmost island province of Hainan where it landed at Fenghuang International Airport, the ministry said.

Details about the plane and where it was based were not given, although a photo accompanying the report showed a four propeller Y-8 transport being met by an ambulance.

The Global Times newspaper said Sunday's flight marked "the first time a Chinese military plane has openly landed on Yongshujiao," using the Chinese name for Fiery Cross Reef. The speed with which the mission was accomplished was a testament to China's long-term policy of patrolling over the South China Sea, said the paper, a nationalist tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.

China completed the runway on Fiery Cross Reef last year and in January flew three commercial jets to the island as a test.

That move drew complaints from Vietnam, which along with four other governments is enmeshed a heated dispute with Beijing over large parts of the South China Sea. Hanoi accused China of threatening the safety of civilian flights by failing to properly inform its aviation authorities of the flights beforehand.

The US also complained that the flights raised tensions and reiterated its calls for a halt to land reclamation and militarization of outposts in the area. The Philippines, which also claims islands and reefs controlled by China, criticized the move.

Tensions have risen in the last two years after China transformed Fiery Cross and other coral reefs in the Spratly Island chain into islands that could be used to project its military might far from the Chinese mainland. Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also claim territory in the South China Sea that China says belongs to it.

The new islands in the South China Sea have become a source of tension between Beijing and Washington, which refuses to view them legally as islands entitled to territorial seas and special economic zones. While the United States is not a claimant state, it says it has a national interest in the peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea and in freedom of navigation in waters that are critical for world trade.
Pedernales: The death toll from the powerful earthquake that shook coastal Ecuador has risen to 262, according to the latest reports from AP. Rescuers are using tractors and bare hands and desperately hunting for survivors in shattered coastal towns.

The 7.8 magnitude quake struck off the Pacific coast on Saturday and was felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, causing panic as far away as the highland capital Quito and collapsing buildings and roads in a swath of western towns.

President Rafael Correa rushed home from a trip to Italy to supervise the emergency and was due to address the nation on Sunday evening. "The immediate priority is to rescue people in the rubble," he said on Twitter.

"Everything can be rebuilt but lives cannot be recovered and that's what hurts the most," Correa told state radio.

Vice-President Jorge Glas visited the quake zone and said 246 had died and about 2,527 people were injured.

Coastal areas nearest the epicenter were worst-affected, especially Pedernales, a rustic tourist spot with beaches and palm trees now laden with debris from pastel-colored houses.

Reuters witnesses said dazed residents were sitting in destroyed streets, going through rubble looking for loved ones or belongings, and using makeshift funeral coffins to bury their dead.

Authorities said there were some 163 aftershocks, mainly in the Pedernales area. A state of emergency was declared in six provinces.

The quake has piled pain on the economy of OPEC's smallest member, already reeling from low oil prices, with economic growth this year projected at near-zero. It has also propelled Glas - a possible candidate in Ecuador's February 2017 presidential election - into the limelight.

Burying the dead

Soldiers patrolled the streets in Pedernales, where some streets were entirely blocked off due to collapsed houses. Other homes were missing their upper stories.

Locals used a small tractor to remove rubble and also searched with their hands for people buried underneath.

Women cried after a corpse was pulled out. Inhabitants said children were trapped.

"Everything is completely destroyed," a resident named Katrina told TV station Ecuavisa. "The majority of the buildings have fallen and there are a lot of dead."

Many people spent the night on the streets.

Enner Munoz, 40, a teacher from Pedernales, said he was in his car when he saw wooden houses and lamp-posts collapse around him.

"It was devastating. All the roads are cracked open, there were two landslides," he said over phone, adding that bricks had landed in the bed of his home in Pedernales.

His terrified family spent the night on the patio.

In Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, rubble lay in the streets and a bridge fell on top of a car.

"It was horrible, it was as if it was going to collapse like cardboard," said Galo Valle, 56, who was guarding a building in the city where windows fell out and parts of walls broke.

"I prayed and fell to my feet to ask God to protect me."

About 13,500 security force personnel were mobilized to keep order around Ecuador, and $600 million in credit from multilateral lenders was immediately activated for the emergency, the government said.

Ramon Solorzano, 46, a car parts merchant in the coastal city of Manta, headed away from built-up areas with his family. Photos from Manta showed Red Cross workers arriving, police hunting through debris, a smashed sculpture, injured people receiving treatment under tents in front of a hospital, and badly damaged buildings.

"Most people are out in the streets with backpacks on, heading for higher ground," Solorzano said, speaking in a trembling voice on a WhatsApp phone call. "The streets are cracked. The power is out and phones are down."

Refinery shut, Galapagos unscathed

The government called it the worst quake in the country since 1979. In that disaster, 600 people were killed and 20,000 injured, according to the US Geological Survey.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter that two Canadians were among the dead and that the "scope of the devastation in Ecuador is shocking."

The scope of the devastation in Ecuador is shocking. My condolences to the families of those who lost their lives, including 2 Canadians.  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) April 17, 2016

The US State Department said in an email that it was working to confirm reports of Americans injured in the quake, although it had no reports of any US citizens killed.

In international aid, Venezuela, Chile and Mexico were sending personnel and supplies, the left-leaning Correa government said. The Ecuadorean Red Cross mobilized more than 800 volunteers and staff and medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said it was sending a team from Colombia.

US Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted his nation's solidarity and offered assistance.

My heartfelt condolences to victims of earthquake in Ecuador. US stands ready to assist & support Ecuadorian people in this difficult time.  John Kerry (@JohnKerry) April 17, 2016

Although tsunami warnings were lifted, coastal residents were still urged to seek higher ground in case tides rise.

The government said oil production was not affected, but closed its main refinery of Esmeraldas, located near the epicenter, as a precaution though it is likely to restart soon.

Residents on the Galapagos islands far off Ecuador's coast, home to numerous rare species, said they had not been affected by the quake.

The Ecuadorean quake followed two large and deadly quakes that struck Japan since Thursday. Both countries are located on the seismically active "Ring of Fire" that circles the Pacific, but according to the US Geological Survey large quakes separated by such long distances would probably not be related.

"Even the earth's rocky crust is not rigid enough to transfer stress efficiently over thousands of miles," it said on its website.

Quakes can cause other big quakes within a range of hundreds of miles, but can cause only small, brief quakes at a distance of thousands of miles, the USGS said.

With inputs from AP
Beijing: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday said that India attaches highest priority to its ties with China, allaying Beijing's concerns over New Delhi's any tilt towards the US in view of its decision to sign an agreement with Washington to share military bases.

In a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan, Parrikar said that "India attaches highest priority to relations with China and was committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China".

Allaying China's concerns over India's decision to sign Logistics Support Agreement with the US, Parrikar told the Chinese leader that India pursued autonomous policy to further its national interests and there is no change in it.

"India is committed to further developing friendly and corporative relations with China," he told Chang.

Parrikar later met China's highest military official Gen Fan Changlong, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, which is the overall commanding body of the 2.3 million strong military. It is headed by President Xi Jinping.

The defence minister would meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday and later visit Chengdu, the headquarters of recently integrated western command military which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.

While the two countries discussed expediting efforts to establish hotline between the two military headquarters and more confidence building measures like opening of more border points for interactions with troops on the grounds, Parrikar reiterated India's stand for demarcation of the 3,488-km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) which was proposed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China last year.

China, however, expressed reservations over such a move.

Terming the recurring incidents of Chinese troops entering what India claims as its territory as "transgressions not incursions", Parrikar said clarity over LAC will bring down tensions between the troops on both sides which aggressively patrol the areas to assert their control.

"We are insisting it should be done in order to really ensure a very stable border...because all the issues take place because of perception," he said.

Marking the LAC is "one of the preconditions of smooth border operations. Without that everything goes by perceptions...which has caused problems sometimes", he said.

The issue was expected to be further discussed during 19th round of boundary talks between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Beijing this week.

The two officials were designated Special Representatives to address the boundary dispute.

On establishing hotline, Parrikar said that China has responded to India's memorandum on the technicalities and progress was expected to be made in this regard in the next few months. It was agreed during Prime Minister Modi's visit.

"A lot of issues were discussed. We have generally agreed to enhance the bilateral exchanges at military level and at ministry level," he said.

Border management was one of the issues discussed and discussions focused on steps to improve the conditions on the ground, the minister said.

Currently, both sides opened five border points for interactions with the troops and talks are on to open more such points, he said.

Asked about Chinas Maritime Silk Road initiative specially in the Indian Ocean over which India has reservations, Parrikar said the issue of peace and stability of the Indian Ocean was raised.

He said the Chinese officials also raised the issue of South China Sea where China is in maritime dispute with a number of south east Asian countries.

He reiterated India's policy that restraint should be exercised in dealing with it.

Commenting on External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow on day and the forthcoming visit of Doval, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the meetings show that mutual political trust between China and India have increased, and bilateral exchanges and cooperation are advancing.

Although China and India have some differences, both sides are willing to effectively control and solve the issues through friendly negotiations and consultations, Lu said.

In fact, China and India have always maintained close high-level contacts, he told the media here.

The development of China-India relations is not only in line with their interests but also conducive to regional and global peace and stability, Lu stressed, noting China and India are the two biggest developing countries, important emerging economies and major powers in a multi-polar world.

"We are ready to work with India to constantly make new progress on building the China-India Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity," he said.

PTI
London: Islamic State's income has plummeted by a whopping 30 per cent to USD 56 million since last year, prompting the dreaded terror group to impose a plethora of ridiculous fines and taxes on its captives including installing satellite dishes and "exit fees" for leaving a city, a report has said.

Significant territory losses means the number of people living in the Jihadi caliphate slumped from nine million at the start of 2015 to fewer than six million, according to the tax report by the US-based consultancy firm IHS.

It has caused the dreaded groups' tax receipts to plummet from around USD 80 million each month to USD 56 million, the report said.

"In mid-2015, the Islamic State's overall monthly revenue was around USD 80 million. As of March 2016, the Islamic State's monthly revenue dropped to USD 56 million," said Ludovico Carlino, senior analyst at IHS.

Once branded as the "richest terrorist group" in the world, IS is now in crisis as the territory under its control has declined by about 22 per cent since mid-2014.

"Our research has found that the Islamic State is increasing taxes on basic services and coming up with new ways to get money from the population," Carlino was quoted as saying by the Daily Express.

"You can be fined for driving on the wrong side of the road and for not being able to answer questions correctly on the Koran," Carlino said.

Carlino also claimed that the terror group slapped taxes on "installing satellite dishes" and "exit fees" for people trying to leave a city.

The report also said that oil production in areas under the jihadist group's control had gone down to 21,000 barrels per day from 33,000 barrels per day.

IS receives half its revenue from taxation and confiscation while selling and smuggling oil makes up 43 percent of its cash.

But both income streams have been badly affected after its territory shrank by nearly a quarter.

The Islamist group suffered another setback after it was noted that a "precise" air campaign wiped out more than 25,000 jihadis, the report said.

IS, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, were recently pushed by Iraqi forces towards the center of a town held by the dreaded outfit in western Anbar province.

The group was also driven out of Palmyra and Russian forces have now entered the city.

More than 270,000 people have been killed in the Syrian war since its eruption in 2011.
Jerusalem: An Israeli military court charged a soldier on Monday with manslaughter for last month's fatal shooting of a wounded Palestinian attacker in the West Bank, an incident caught on tape that has deeply divided the nation.

The soldier, a medic whose name was not released under a gag order, has also been charged with inappropriate military conduct. The shooting took place last month in Hebron, a West Bank city that has been a focal point of a seven-month wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Initially, the military had said two Palestinians stabbed and wounded a soldier before troops killed the pair.

A video released later by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem showed one of the attackers, still alive and lying on the ground, before a soldier calmly raised his rifle, cocked his weapon and fired at the assailant's head. An autopsy later determined the bullet to the head was the cause of death.

Attorney Eyal Besserglick, who is representing the soldier, told Israel Radio he would aim for a full acquittal.

It was not immediately clear what sentence the soldier faces, if convicted. Such indictments in the military are very rare, said Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

The shooting has polarised Israeli society. The country's defense minister, its military chief and other top officials called it contrary to the army's values. That outcry in turn kicked up a torrent of support for the soldier who claims he feared the attacker was carrying an explosive belt.

Right-wing politicians have rushed to the soldier's defense, with many Israelis calling his actions appropriate for a country reeling from months of Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, which have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. At least 188 Palestinians have died by Israeli fire in the same period, including 142 who Israel says were attacking or trying to attack Israelis.

A Tel Aviv rally in solidarity with the soldier is scheduled for Tuesday night, with top Israeli musicians due to perform. However, Eyal Golan, one of Israel's most recognizable artists, later dropped out of the event and said he had intended to "support this soldier and embrace his family" but reconsidered so that he did not appear to be coming out against the military chief.

The indictment against the soldier came on the same day that the Israeli military said it has discovered and destroyed a tunnel burrowing from Gaza into Israel  the first tunnel to be discovered since Israel's 2014 war with the militant Islamic Hamas movement that rules the coastal strip.

Israeli troops detected the tunnel's exit, still underground, several days ago, according to military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, who added the tunnel is believed to have been built since the war's conclusion. It extended several hundred meters (yards) from Gaza into Israel and was lined with cement and outfitted with electricity, ventilation and rail tracks to cart away dirt from digging, Lerner said.

In 2014, Israel destroyed more than 30 tunnels Hamas had dug under the border. More than 2,200 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them civilians, were killed in the 50-day summer war. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and seven civilians were killed.

Hamas has vowed to rebuild the tunnel network. This year, 14 people died in Gaza while digging tunnels aimed at attacking Israelis or for hiding weapons and rocket launch sites. Israelis living near the Gaza Strip have reported hearing digging sounds under their homes in recent months.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said the newly discovered and destroyed tunnel was "just a drop in the ocean of what the resistance has prepared to defend its people, free its sanctuaries and prisoners."

Spokesman Eyal Brandeis of Kibbutz Sufa  just across the border from the southern Gaza Strip  told Israel Radio the tunnel's exit would have been near his community. In 2014, Palestinian gunmen attempted to attack Israel through another tunnel near the kibbutz.

"All the worries and fears residents here had ... are coming back," Brandeis said.
Jody Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 together with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines for their central role in establishing the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. The US-based political activist is known across the world for her efforts to enhance understandings of security and related issues in the world today. She is also the chair of the Noble Womens Initiative that she founded in 2006 together with five other women Nobel Peace laureates.

She, along with 20 of her fellow Nobel Peace laureates have called for a preemptive ban on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS)weapons that could operate without human supervision once activated even in matters of killing human beings. The UNs Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) held their third informal governments meet in Geneva from 11-15 April. Williams speaks of why they object to these weapons, her expectations from the meetings and why LAWS could change the way wars are fought.

What are your objections to the deployment of LAWS in warfare?

There is a whole range of issues. There are international humanitarian law (IHL) issuesthe firm belief that autonomous weapons that can target and kill on their own cannot possibly comply with the laws of war, the norms of which have been developed over many decades-- generations and generations and suddenly you would have weapons systems that would not be able to comply (with IHL) and would undercut generations of work trying to bring some sanity to war. And thats an oxymoron anyway.

So in terms of international law, ethics and morality are to me huge with regard to this, just as they are with nuclear weapons. It blows my mind to think how any country thinks that it has the right to vaporise people in another country. Of course, my country (the US) is the only country that has done it and they did it twice because they tested it twice for two different types of nuclear bombs. So the morality of allowing machines to make fundamental decisions about life and death about a human being is beyond my comprehensionhow can somebody be involved in this and feel good about it? Which is why in the artificial intelligence community, there are 3100 members of that society that have signed a letter calling for a ban on killer robots. Thats a big percentage of the number of scientists because it gets morally reprehensible.

And those who like the idea of killer robotsmy country (US), Israel, Russia, China--I think, Brazil makes some small riot-control robots--if they were to proceed and have fully autonomous weapons, they would be programming their weapons. Of course, nobody would tell the other countries their programmes. When they talk of transparency and Article 36, it makes me want to scream! But if I am programming my swarm of autonomous jets, for example, and if Russia is programming its swarm, there is absolutely no way to predict the consequences of those swarms meeting in battle. None.

In addition, if they can be built, they can be hacked. Just imagine, somebody hacks the central programme of the swarms and send them somewhere else. We had one of the men in the artificial intelligence community who led the movement to get scientists to sign, he said when people say there is any level of predictability in this, they do not know what they are talking about. There is no way to predict how systems let loose on their own will behave. So for all of those reasons, to me, it's insanity and plus, it would be a complete revolution in warfare. First we had gunpowder and that transformed, then nuclear weapons beyond the pale and then if it moves to fully autonomous weapons systems that, obviously, is a complete change in how wars would be fought. We worry that it would make the threshold for going to war much lower because if then you dont have to worry about dead bodies coming to upset your public.

Delegations here seem to be working on the presumption that LAWS do not exist. Do we know of any country who possess or are developing such weapons?

Part of the reason that countries say that they do not exist is because they do not want a treaty to encompass existing defensive systems that are autonomous. We have indicated that the sole purpose of defensive autonomous weapons systems is that if your country is suddenly faced with a barrage of incoming missiles there is no way a human being can respond. So these are specific to responding to ballistic missiles. One could argue about that too. But they are afraid if they say some already exist as that would complicate existing systems they already have. For example, South Korea has a sentry system on the border that if you could flick a switch could be autonomous. These are machines that just sit there and if something comes into the view across the DMZ (demilitarized zone) they would shoot it.

There are many systems that are already in testing phase. We call them precursorsthey are on the cusp. And when we first started the campaign (to stop killer robots), we used to say they are couple of decades into the future. Roboticists say, you are crazy. They are essentially real. They are frightening. Israel has roboticized weapons, not necessarily fully autonomous, US, of course, there's South Korea, Brazil makes an anti-riot autonomous robot. We know that China and Russia are doing research and development. We dont know what stage. I wouldnt be surprised if India (is also doing research and development). Pakistan, of course, is calling for a ban, so thats interesting.

Lethal drones are now in the hands of 40 nations. If these things (LAWS) come into being they will proliferate. Do we really want a bunch of weapons around the world that are flying around? I know I dont.

What are the broad divisions that you perceive among groups of countries regarding LAWS?

Broadest are the countries that have them in development or have precursors, are not interested in any prohibitions on their continued research, development, production etc. And then there are all the other countries. Some havent spoken up yet but its a huge technological divide. There are countries which have the capability. And there is the rest of the world which doesnt have the same. That is a fundamental divide, and one can see it in the discussions and possible recommendations to come out this week at the review conference for CCW. Some want the word prohibition somewhere in there. Countries that have those weapons in process do not want the word prohibition in the recommendations.

Would you consider the use of LAWS for defensive purposes legitimate?

It would depend. How could one predict it now? Too often things that are supposedly being developed for defense are used for offense.

You received the Nobel Peace Prize for your work on clearing and banning landmines. Was it an uphill task?

It was shockingly fast. We launched the campaign in October of 1992 and by September of 1997 we had a treaty banning the use, production, trade and stockpile of the weapon. And in diplomatic terms, its like lightening speed. I mean, consider here. This is the third year, a week each year, in informal discussions. They have no real status within the treaty. So the fact that we went from zero to treaty in five years (for a ban on landmines) is like breath-taking.

How optimistic are you about a preemptive ban on LAWS?

The reason we succeeded with landmines and banning cluster munitions in 2008 was because it wasnt done in here (the UN). When we attempted this in CCW (to ban landmines), in the earliest days of the campaign, in 1992, to have them amend the existing protocolprotocol II on landmines--to ban them, it went nowhere. At the end of the whole review, expert groups and all of that business, they actually ended up making the Convention itself weaker. And there was also an attempt to create a new protocol on cluster bombs. Nowhere. So they (countries that were interested in the ban) went outside (the UN) and created a treaty banning cluster bombs. (It was) stand-alone negotiating. Thats what we did with the landmine treaty.

All a treaty is, is a contract. The countries that supported the ban on landmine decided to move out of here because, as we know, consensus really means dictatorship by one, and they had a series of meetings over a year to deal with different aspects. I mean, theoretically, if I had a big enough house I could invite the countries of the world to come and sit in my living room and negotiate a treaty. It doesnt have to happen at the UN. But countries who didnt want the ban on landmines were absolutely horrified because if you go out of the UN, they lose control. I think it is appalling that any one country could hold the rest of the world hostage. If it would not have been for the campaign to stop killer robots, this would never have happened. You know how drones suddenly snuck on the scene--first there was surveillance drones, doesnt seem too horrifying, then they were weaponised and then used for murder. I think, countries like my own expected that we go from drone to drone to drone without people really knowing but we found out about it and ended up creating a campaign. They are aiming low and moving slow, purposely.

Do you see a lot of haggling over the definition of LAWS?

The final definition of a weapon is never done until the end of negotiations. These are just ploys (of procrastinating). For three years they have kept saying Oh, its such a complex (thing), we dont even know what we are talking about. I do not have to build a killer robot to understand the difference between a drone (and LAWS). Even if the drone flies autonomously, theres a human being looking at the computer and deciding to push the button. Thats clearly controlled by a human being. When you take a human being out of the dronethats the difference between human-controlled weapons and a fully autonomous weapon. Of course, there are complexities within that, but thats a working definition. As I said in my opening statement (to the CCW), its obfuscation and confusion is purposeful. I think they thought that this issue will go away and now they really understand that we are not going away even if they kill it in the UN. We are guardedly optimistic that there might be a group of experts. The recommendations from the UN are only recommendations to the CCW Review Conference in December. It could get totally trashed between now and then.

What are the observations on the outcomes of this weeks informal meetings on LAWS?

Go slow and aim low (was the motto of some governments). I am glad that they took it up after we launched the campaign. If they cannot agree on a group of government experts and instead go on for a year (more) of informal consultation, I dont know what we will do. Even if it doesnt lead to what we want, countries are being organized-they would not have come out talking about these weapons at all.
Beijing: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday firmly conveyed India's reservations to Chinese leaders over Beijing blocking its efforts to get Pakistan-based JeM head Masood Azhar banned by the UN and sought clarification on it as well as China's projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

In a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan, Parrikar said that "India attaches highest priority to relations with China and was committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China".

While expressing India's wish to engage China closely, he firmly conveyed New Delhi's reservations over Beijing's move in the UN to block bid to get Jaish-e-Muhammad chief banned.

"We expressed what happened in the UN is not in the right direction and they have to take a common line on terrorism which is in the interests of India and China," Parrikar later told the Indian media in Beijing.

He said the Chinese officials in response noted India's concerns.

Last month, China had vetoed India's bid to get Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN Sanctions Committee, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

India believes Azhar is the mastermind behind several attacks in the country, including the terror strike on an air base in Pathankot early this year.

"We have made our stand very clear on India's reservation in regard to China's activities in PoK" where Pakistan and China are building a USD 46 billion Economic Corridor linking the two countries, the defence minister said.

The Chinese officials in turn explained that it is an economic project and not aimed against India.

"Basically our concerns were noted by them and I expect them to act," Parrikar said, adding that more engagement between the two countries would address such issues in future, while immediate response cannot be expected.

He later met China's highest military official Gen Fan Changlong, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, which is the overall commanding body of the 2.3 million strong military. It is headed by President Xi Jinping.

The defence minister would meet Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday and later visit Chengdu, the headquarters of recently integrated western command military which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.
Los Angeles: A 26-year-old Muslim student in the US, who was talking on the phone about a question on the Islamic State he asked to the UN Secretary-General, was booted

from a Southwest flight after another passenger felt threatened when he spoke in Arabic.

Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, student at University of California, who came to the US as an Iraqi refugee was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight in California after another passenger became alarmed when she heard him speaking Arabic.

Makhzoomi, was taken off a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Oakland after he called an uncle in Baghdad to tell him about an event he attended that included a speech by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

"I was very excited about the event, so I called my uncle to tell him about it," Makhzoomi was quoted as saying by the New York Times. At the end of the conversation, he and his uncle shared a customary farewell  Inshallah, which translates to "if God is willing."

He told his uncle about the moment when he got to stand up and ask the secretary general a question about the Islamic State.

A nearby passenger overheard Makhzoomi's conversation with his uncle and felt alarmed by his "potentially threatening comments," according to a statement from Southwest Airlines. When he made eye contact with her, the woman left her seat and proceeded to the front of the plane.

"She kept staring at me and I didn't know what was wrong," he said. "Then I realised what was happening and I was just was thinking 'I hope she's not reporting me'," the report said.

Later, an Arabic-speaking Southwest Airlines employee came to his seat and escorted him off the plane a few minutes after his call ended, he said. The man introduced himself in Arabic and then switched to English to ask, "Why were you speaking Arabic in the plane?"

Makhzoomi said he was afraid, and that the employee spoke to him "like I was an animal."

Three FBI agents took Makhzoomi to private room for questioning. They told him that the Arabic-speaking employee had been offended by his insinuation of anti-Muslim bias.

The woman had told airline staff that she heard him say "Shahid," meaning martyr, a term associated with jihad.

Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said there had been at least six cases of Muslims being pulled

off flights so far this year, she said.
MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to continue building up their coordination on Syria, including through their intelligence services and defence ministries, during a phone call on Monday, the Kremlin said.

The White House also said Obama and Putin had an "intense conversation" that covered Syria and Ukraine.

During the call, the Kremlin said Putin stressed the need for the moderate opposition to distance themselves swiftly from Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, and for the closure of Syria's border with Turkey, "from where fighters and arms supplies for the extremists make their way in".

Russia has been repeatedly raising the question of the border, across which, according to Russia, militants are crossing from Turkey into Syria.

The Kremlin said Obama thanked Putin for Russia's help in freeing American citizen Kevin Dawes, who had been in captivity in Syria. The U.S. State Department had said previously Russia played a role in his release.

The two presidents also exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine, with Putin expressing the hope that with the new Ukrainian government "will finally start taking concrete steps towards implementing the Minsk agreements", the Kremlin said.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt; Editing by Alison Williams)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Moscow: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday strongly raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi the issue of China blocking its bid to have JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the UN.

Swaraj took up the issue with Wang at a bilateral meeting in Moscow on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.

Official sources said the issue was raised by Swaraj besides deliberations on a range of issues.

Earlier this month, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

Last July, China had similarly halted India's move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying its stand was "based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness" with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar last week had said in New Delhi that India has taken up at a "fairly high level" with China the issue of Beijing blocking its bid to have Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN but the issue will not "overflow" into other areas of bilateral ties.

China had defended its decision, saying that it acts on such issues based on facts and rules in an "objective and just manner".

After the attack on the airbase in Pathankot on 2 January, India had in February written to the UN calling for immediate action to list Azhar under the UN Sanctions Committee.

The Indian submission was considered by the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) for technical aspects of the evidence provided.

The technical team then with the support of the US, the UK and France had sent it to all the members. All were told that if there are no objections, the designation will be announced after the expiry of the deadline but just hours before the deadline, China requested the UN committee to keep on hold the designation.

Earlier this week, India had slammed the use of "hidden veto" and demanded accountability, saying the world body's general members are never informed of the reason for not acceding to requests for sanctioning terrorists.

"The procedures of unanimity and anonymity of the Al-Qaeda, Taliban and ISIS Sanctions Committees need to be revisited. The procedures of unanimity and anonymity result in a lack of accountability," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had told the UN Security Council in an open debate on 'Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts' on Thursday.

Swaraj also discussed a range of issues of mutual interest with Wang.

In her opening remarks, Swaraj said the relations have seen significant improvement in the last one year and favoured frequent meetings between the two sides to step up engagement.

"We are meeting after a long gap and I think we should meet quite frequently. Because things are moving very fast in the world and if we meet frequently, we will be able to deliberate on those," she said.

The Chinese Foreign Minister said both the countries need to stay focused on expanding the ties and should align "our strategies" so as to contribute significantly to development of Asia and the world.

"China and India are two major countries and two big neighbours. It is important for us to maintain very close cooperation. We are two developing countries and emerging markets and we both face the challenging task of promoting economic development and realize national rejuvenation," he said.

He further said, "We are strategic partners and as the world's economic and political centre is shifting towards Asia-Pacific. It is all the more important for both the countries to join hands because our cooperation will have far reaching and positive implications to the region and the world at large."

"So we need to stay focus on growing our relationship, align our strategies and step up our partnership so that we can jointly contribute to Asia and world's development," Wang said.

Swaraj and Wang are in Moscow to attend the Russia, India, China (RIC) Foreign Ministers meeting.

The External Affairs Minister arrived in Moscow from Tehran on Sunday night where she paid a two-day visit.
Syrian armed opposition groups on Monday accused UN envoy Staffan de Mistura of bias towards Damascus and urged opposition negotiators to take a firmer stance at peace talks in Geneva.

A letter addressed to negotiators and signed by "armed revolutionary factions", but not any specific groups, also said international pledges to deliver aid, halt the bombing of residential areas and release prisoners had not been met.

It urged the High Negotiations Committee, which has been meeting de Mistura in Geneva for a second round of peace talks, to "take firm and decisive stances towards the half-solutions being propagated ... by the regime's allies, and de Mistura".

"We follow with great concern and outright rejection the moves of de Mistura, some of which show a total bias towards ... the demands of the regime and its allies," it said.

De Mistura floated the idea of President Bashar al-Assad remaining in power symbolically, in exchange for the opposition's nomination of three Syrian vice-presidents. The opposition dismissed the suggestion outright.

The opposition says Assad must leave power and cannot be part of a transitional period.

Assad has rejected the idea of a transitional governing body, saying instead he could broaden the government to include what he described as opposition and independent figures.
Autonomous machines  that once activated select their targets and go on a killing spree  no longer belong exclusively to the domain of dystopian science fiction. The threat from such machines is real enough for 100 states to come together and debate the matter of their ban for three consecutive years now. The use of autonomous machines could potentially change the vocabulary of warfare, just like gun powder and nuclear arsenal upon their entry into the battlefield.

In April 2013, NGOs associated with successful efforts to ban landmines and cluster munitions got together in London and issued a call to governments urging the negotiation of a treaty preventing the development, deployment and use of what are known as Killer Robots in popular parlance. Governments, however, use a more sanitised term during their negotiations calling them Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS).

In July 2015, some of the worlds leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) scientists including Apple co-founder Steven Wozniak, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallin and Professor Stephen Hawking signed a letter with nearly 21,000 signatures asking for an outright ban on these autonomous weapons systems (AWS). Autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow, states the letter. Apart from that, 14 Nobel Laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Muhammad Yunus, have called for a preemptive ban on AWS.

This call from civil society triggered meetings under the aegis of the UNs Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), also known as the Inhumane Weapons Convention, which held its first informal governments meet in 2014. The Convention bans or restricts the use of specific types of weapons that are considered to cause unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants or to affect civilians indiscriminately.

This year, the informal meetings were held in the week starting 11 April in Geneva under the able chairpersonship of Michael Biontino, Ambassador of Germany to the Conference on Disarmament (CoD), resulting in an adoption by consensus of a set of recommendations that will be discussed further in the fifth CCW Review Conference  a multilateral meeting held every five years  in December this year.

Do LAWS exist?

The premise on which the CCW negotiations seem to be based is that LAWS do not exist at present.

A number of delegations during the meetings stressed that although there are some existing systems that are automatic, but they cannot be termed as autonomous, that is, they lack human supervision. The existing weapons systems of missiles, drones, mine hunting, land vehicles used in combat situations still need a human being to press a button to apply force. However, an increasing number of countries including China, Israel, Russia, South Korea, the UK and the US are currently developing systems for greater autonomy in combat situations. The weapons industry has already developed semi-autonomous robots that are used for law enforcement, for instance, in Brazil and the US.

There are a number of countries who are, we know, experimenting at this stage (with AWS) but they wont be transparent about it. So they are all saying that this is a futuristic weapon, that nobody knows enough about ittheres a lot of hypocrisy, quite frankly, said Jayantha Dhanapala, former Sri Lankan diplomat and UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, and currently president of Nobel Prize-winning Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, to Firstpost .

Article 36, a UK-based organisation that works on promoting public scrutiny over the development and use of weapons, counters, for instance, UKs statement that the country does not have and will not develop LAWS. They have said that without explaining what constitutes human control, the UK has suggested a narrow and futuristic concept of LAWS that fails to address contemporary development in AWS while at the same time discouraging dialogue on existing weapons that do not operate with necessary levels of human control.

The British Ministry of Defence is investing in the development of Taranis, nicknamed Raptor, which has been testing autonomous capabilities including target location and engagement puts into question the UKs statements that it will not develop LAWS.

There is a second area where the whole is greater than its parts  increasingly autonomous systems working in concert with other increasingly autonomous systems. We need to not lose sight over how connected/interactive increasingly autonomous features might further attenuate human control or intent, said Kerstin Vignard, Deputy to the Director at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in a statement to CCW.

UNIDIR also suggested moving away from the term LAWS to, at a minimum, reframe it as Autonomy IN Weapons Systems which acknowledges the varying levels of autonomy that might be applied to the different characteristics within the same object or weapon system. This takes the conversation away from the rather abstruse debate of whether something is autonomous (either fully autonomous, semi-autonomous or supervised autonomy) or highly automatic, and instead, focuses on functions that when increasing autonomy is applied to them raises concerns and challenges.

Pivotal to arriving at a definition of LAWS then is the idea of meaningful human control (MHC) or, effective human judgment over the machine. An intervention during the discussion suggested to simplify the concepts being discussed and to understand AWS merely as a lack of human control. Some delegations, like France, took the plea that since LAWS do not exist and that the technology is continuing to evolve it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to define LAWS. India suggested a CCW-specific definition, in the context of its objectives and purposes. Switzerland suggested defining AWS as weapons systems that are capable of carrying out tasks governed by international humanitarian law (IHL) in partial or full replacement of a human in the use of force, notably in the targeting cycle. Pakistan opined that focusing on MHC definitions only would not be appropriate and AWS should be defined as lethal and autonomous.

The US, on the other hand, offered a complex definition of what LAWS are stating that these are systems that once activated can target and kill without further human intervention but one which is also designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment to permit an individual attack.

It appeared that some delegations were making the matter of definitions more complex and problematic than it needs to be. There seemed to be a clear division between countries that are already developing AWS and those that are not yet experimenting with them or are in incipient stages, in the position that the country took during the discussions.

Many other delegations stated that the lack of a widely-accepted definition on LAWS was not an impediment to beginning substantial work on the matter. Steve Goose, executive director of the Human Rights Watchs Arms Division said that definitions are usually the last to be agreed upon since they are what decide the strength of a law and its scope. For instance, in the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the definitions in the treaties were elaborated at the last moment.

Richard Moyes of Article 36 recommended four key elements required for meaningful human control: predictable, reliable, transparent technology; accurate information for users on the outcome, context of use; timely human judgment and action and potential for timely intervention; and, accountability to a certain standard.

LAWS defying laws

The separation of the body from the battlefield raises both moral and legal questions. Enthusiasts for developing LAWS argue that employing machines could lower casualties among soldiers. However, this lowered threshold might encourage more armed conflicts, thereby, endangering civilians more. India supported this view and argued that a more sanitised war between machines lowers the threshold for using force. Proponents of killer robots have also argued that combat among machines would eliminate negative emotions, like fear, anger, vengeance etc. On the other hand, the fact that machines are also not endowed with positive emotions like compassion or sensitivity to anothers body language, could mean that the machine annihilates even a surrendering combatant. This goes against the principles of IHL as well as human rights law.

The idea of IHL is to ensure that the ways in which war is waged  its methods and means  are not unlimited. LAWS may directly corrode the three pillars on which the IHL regime stands  the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. Armed forces are supposed to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, minimise civilian casualties and damage to civilian buildings especially hospitals, schools etc, and not take excessive action for expected military gain.

All of these considerations require human judgment.

The US stated that it is important not to confuse moral and legal obligations. Christof Heyns, UN special rapporteur for extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions countered the US argument saying that human rights incorporates ethical considerations as well as law which applies during armed conflicts and law enforcement settings. The US also stated that the adherence to ethical and moral norms will depend less on the inherent nature of a technology and more on its potential use by humans. However, human rights experts have pointed out that the issue is not merely the misuse of such weapons. Heyns argued that control and accountability go together  if control cannot be exercised and the perpetrator cannot be held accountable, then this itself constitutes violation of the right to life. Cuba reiterating its call for preemptive ban said that LAWS would implicate different generations of human rights including the right to peace and the right to self-determination. The development of AWS could also divert attention from peace and disarmament in violation of UN Charters Article 26.

Most delegations maintained that machines are not equipped to execute legal judgments as required by IHL, especially in evolving and clustered scenarios as a war field. The UK was one of the few, if not the only state to argue that new international law is not necessary to prevent the development of LAWS.

An article called Drone Papers published by The Intercept reveals that during one five-month stretch, 90 percent of people killed by US drone strikes were unintended targets.

If human-supervised systems produce unintended consequences, the unpredictability and the lack of accountability of complex systems that run without human supervision would be significantly higher. It is impossible to predict how swarms of systems will behave when confronted with each other.

Moreover, when machines run without the purview of human judgment, it creates an accountability vacuum from a legal perspective for determining who is responsible for unintended outcomes and accidents. It is difficult enough to establish a chain of accountability for drones without adding an extra layer of distance in both battlefields and policing situations.

"Any such use (of LAWS) must always observe an unequivocal accountability chain. This is of crucial importance for the use of any weapons system," said Thomas Gobel, head of Conventional Arms Control Division in the German government.

Ironically for the UK  that seems to be a strong proponent of AWS  BBC reported on 18 April that a drone had hit a British Airways flight from Geneva while landing. Authorities were trying to locate accountability.

John Borrie, chief of research at UNIDIR said failures of such systems would be a question of when not if as part of what are called normal risks. The complex systems would be interactions between factors and variables and interactions in unexpected ways. The outcome of interactions between swarms of complex systems of warring parties belongs to the realm of unknown unknowns and defies predictability in a realistic sense.

Also, LAWS, throws up problems for legal weapons review under Article 36 of the 1977 additional protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions that ensures compliance with IHL. Article 36 does not provide any specific legal guidelines for the review of weapons but merely refers to the existing rules and provisions of international law. The respective defence ministries, with foreign affairs ministry and armed forces, mostly conduct such reviews. In reality, few states do weapons reviews that are transparent and conform thoroughly with humanitarian and human rights laws and ethical concerns. Again, the UK delegation stated that the present legal weapons review process is sufficient for regulating LAWS. Such an opaque system may in fact encourage development of new weapons that break international laws.

Pablo Kalmanovitz of the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, said that those most at risk from AWS, eg foreign civilians, have no role in the Article 36 weapons review.

How can an abstract legal review determine 'superfluous injury' or 'unnecessary suffering' two key aspects of IHL  if a weapon has not fully been developed and its effects yet unknown, asked Stefan Sohm, chief of the Strategic Foundations and Political Analyses Branch at the German Ministry of Defence.

Proliferating systems

Controlling the proliferation of AWS will be a challenge. There are real risks of vertical proliferation, from States to non-State actors, and horizontal proliferation among States.

The development of such AWS could trigger an arms race with disastrous consequences for international stability. As we know, some countries are planning swarm strategy to use in the future wars in the Asia-Pacific region (with) large autonomous weapons in maritime systems, in air and on land, the Chinese delegation told the CCW.

What if the military purchases such systems from civilian channels, open markets, and the designers and programmers dont know that? Could they still be responsible for any problems? the delegation added.

The threshold for escalation is also brought much closer. It is a very, very important dimension and it has to be dealt with immediately, Dhanapala told Firstpost.

Military applications for increasingly autonomous technologies in the maritime environment are already being researched and some put in place. Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 saw the first use of autonomous underwater vehicles for mine warfare operations. Research is also ongoing for more autonomous functions for complex operations, like the US Sea Hunter that will have to demonstrate compliance with maritime laws.

If we think there are legitimate defensive functions to be accorded to weapon systems with autonomous features then we need to define and clarify the circumstances under which they would, indeed, be legitimate. I am putting this as a question not as a conclusion, said DB Venkatesh Varma, Ambassador of India to the CoD in Geneva.

As opposed to a gradual development of AWS under military control, the possibility that an actor takes an off-the-shelf, lowcost civilian technology and weaponises it, is high. Moreover, every system that is built and that will be built is hackable.

The technology is already at a point where it is capable of serving the needs of many people we would be concerned about even if its not ready to be integrated into the formal military of the advanced nations, said Andrew Fursman, co-founder and CEO at IQBit, at a side-event to the CCW.

This is not a discussion of what might be possible in the future or what a small number of rich nations could do. This is really a conversation about what anyone with $20,000 and the internet would be capable of doing in the course of a few weeks, he added.

The challenge for them (States) is to work expeditiouslyand do exactly what we did with blinding lasersban a very dangerous category of weapons. It is better to keep the genie in the bottle rather than to have it escape and then try to put it back, the veteran diplomat said.

The adopted set of recommendations will be delivered to the Review Conference which will then consider setting up a group of governmental experts (GGE) who would then meet next year to possibly thrash out a negotiating mandate.

Time is of the essence because artificial intelligence is improving everyday and the applications of artificial intelligence to warfare is a very dangerous thing, Dhanapala said.
United Nations: As the usually-secret process to select the next Secretary-General opened up for the first time in UN's 70-year history, the nine candidates subjected themselves to tough questioning, including from India, over their credentials to lead the world body.

The candidates answered a total of 800 questions from the member-states and the public on how, if selected, they would lead the powerful world body.

It was the first time candidates seeking to become the UN Secretary General were questioned by member-states on their vision and plan of action - "a game changing process" aimed at increasing transparency in the selection of the UN chief.

"We have established a new standard of transparency and inclusivity for the appointment process, but it has the potential also to influence the final outcome of the selection of the Secretary-General," UNGA President Mogens Lykketoft said at the conclusion of the unprecedented public dialogue.

Starting last Tuesday, each candidate was given a two-hour televised and webcast time-slot. Prior to opening up the floor for questions, candidates gave short oral presentations  their "vision statements"  addressing challenges and opportunities facing the UN and the next Secretary-General.

Almost every country out of the 193 UN member-states took part in asking questions during the dialogue, Lykketoft said.

"We never had that frank and substantial discussion about the future of the UN as the one we got during these informal dialogues," he said.

"We've talked about the virtues, we've talked about the flaws of the UN, and the candidates have presented a lot of interesting views on how to do things ever better," he said.

He added that these past three days were just a part of the "process of transparency" and he hopes they will help generate discussions about the selection of the UN chief.

India's Permanent Representative to UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, speaking on behalf of the G-4 nations of Brazil, Japan, Germany and India, questioned former prime minister of Portugal Antonio Guterres and ex-Macedonian Foreign Minister Srgjan Kerim during the open briefings last week on how they intend to speed up the Security Council reform process.

Speaking in his personal capacity, he questioned them on terrorism saying the UN's "counter-terrorism" architecture is "dispersed" and member-states "don't have even one contact point to turn to if we have to address issues of counter terrorism".

India has been pressing for early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), a long-pending legal framework which would make it binding for all countries to deny space to terror groups.

Akbaruddin asked the candidates how they will ensure CCIT will be made the "rule-making" exercise to counter the global scourge.

Guterres, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said that the General Assembly had in 2005 supported the early reform of the Council but added that the member states will have to work together to ensure reforms are achieved without further delay.

On terrorism, he said the UN was able to approve a strategy on terrorism but has so far not been able to approve an "international convention on terrorism. That is why we lack some key instruments" in tackling terrorism.

He said he will work closely with the General Assembly and Security Council to see "how we can find mechanisms to be more effective in addressing not only the needs to fight terrorism but the ways to avoid some of the mechanisms terrorists utilises in today's global society".

Kerim said that it must be ensured that the more than one billion people who follow the Islamic faith are not offended by insisting that there is Islamic terrorism.

He said progress on UNSC reforms can be made only if there is "readiness" for change among the members states to implement the reforms. He stressed that there has to be "consensus" on amending the charter for the UNSC reforms.
Islamabad: The US embassy has issued a warning to American citizens against visiting Marriott Hotel Islamabad for the next several days, in the wake of a general threat.

An advisory issued by the embassy said it was aware of a general but uncorroborated threat against the hotel, Dawn online reported.

US citizens were advised to avoid the area for the next several days to allow time to assess the situation.

Security of the hotel has been further tightened with police and troopers from Pakitsan Rangers patrolling around the building.

"US citizens are urged to defer all non-essential travel to Pakistan. The mission reminds those citizens considering travel to or remaining in Pakistan despite this warning to enroll in the Smart Traveller Enrollment Programme (STEP)," the embassy said in a statement.

It also stated that citizens "maintain vigilant situational awareness, avoid large crowds, keep a low profile and avoid visiting locations frequented by westerners. The citizens are strongly urged to avoid hotels that do not apply stringent security measures".

Marriott Hotel, however, said foolproof security was in place. Assistant chief security officer of Marriott, Colonel (retd.) Mohammad Zubair, said the US embassy had contacted the hotel administration and discussed the security arrangements.

"The government has also taken the matter seriously and enhanced the security. Currently, both the police and Rangers are patrolling around the hotel," he said.

Though Marriott is considered one of the safest hotels in Islamabad, it faced a suicide attack in September 2008 which left over 50 people killed and 250 injured.
Sydney: Actor Johnny Depp's wife Amber Heard pleaded guilty Monday to providing a false immigration document amid allegations she smuggled the couple's dogs to Australia, but managed to avoid jail time over what was dubbed the "war on terrier" debacle.

Prosecutors dropped two more serious charges that Heard illegally imported the Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country last year, when Depp was filming the fifth movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. A conviction on the illegal importation counts could have sent the actress to prison for up to 10 years.

The false documents charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a fine of more than 10,000 Australian dollars ($7,650), but Magistrate Bernadette Callaghan sentenced Heard instead to a one-month good behaviour bond. The condition means she will have to pay a AU$1,000 fine if she commits any offences in Australia over the next month.

Depp and Heard said little to the waiting throng of reporters and fans as they arrived at the Southport Magistrates Court on Queensland state's Gold Coast, but did submit a videotaped apology to the court that was played during Monday's hearing.

"When you disrespect Australian law," a grim-looking Depp says in the video, "they will tell you firmly."

The drama over the dogs began last May, when Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce accused Depp of smuggling the tiny terriers aboard his private jet when he returned to Australia to resume filming the Pirates movie.

Australia has strict quarantine regulations to prevent diseases such as rabies from spreading to its shores. Bringing pets into the country involves applying for a permit and quarantine on arrival of at least 10 days.

"If we start letting movie stars  even though they've been the sexiest man alive twice  to come into our nation (with pets), then why don't we just break the laws for everybody?" Joyce said at the time. "It's time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States."

Depp and Heard were given 72 hours to send Pistol and Boo back to the US, with officials warning that the dogs would otherwise be euthanized. The pooches boarded a flight home just hours before the deadline ran out.

The comments by Joyce, who is now the deputy prime minister of Australia, elevated what might otherwise have been a local spat into a global delight for comedians and broadcasters. One newspaper ran a doggie death countdown ticker on its website that marked the hours remaining before the dogs had to flee the country, and comedian John Oliver dedicated a more than six-minute segment to lampooning the ordeal.

Depp himself poked fun at the drama during a press conference in Venice last year where he was asked if he planned to take the dogs for a gondola ride. "No," he replied. "I killed my dogs and ate them, under direct orders from some kind of, I don't know, sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia."

When asked why Depp wasn't charged as well, the prosecutor's office said that there had been a "lack of admissible evidence" against anyone except Heard.

Heard's lawyer, Jeremy Kirk, told the court on Monday that his client never meant to lie on her incoming passenger card by failing to declare she had animals with her. In truth, Kirk said, she was simply jetlagged and assumed her assistants had sorted out the paperwork.

"She has made a tired, terrible mistake," Kirk said.

Prosecutor Peter Callaghan said ignorance and fatigue were no excuse.

"The laws apply to everyone," he said.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenpress presents on the air of LRATVAKAN radio all that you will read, hear and see in todays news.

What assistance will the wounded soldiers get? What stat compensation programs are implemented for the families of the killed soldiers? Head of the Servicemens Social Protection Department of the Defense Ministry, Colonel Serzh Arushanyan and Deputy Head of the State Social Security Service Smbat Saiyan will speak on these issues in detail on April 18.

The developments of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and the 4-day war are still discussed by the Armenian political and social arenas. Director of the Modus Vivendi center Ara Papyan, MP Ruben Hakobyan, Mkrtich Minasyan and others will speak on the latest developments. They will also present their observations regarding internal politics of Armenia and the recent meeting between Serzh Sargsyan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

The Nagorno Karabakh conflict will also be discussed by the director of the History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences Ashot Melkonyan and head of the Armenian Genocide Department of the Institute Armen Marukyan. They will also speak about the international recognition process of the Armenian Genocide, and will present the Institutes programs.

Reforms are expected in the Ultimate Qualification Commission Agency of Armenia. Head of the Commission Lilit Arzumanyan will deliver a press conference and will present details of the reforms and programs of the Commission.

April 18 is International Day for Monuments and Sites by the decision of UNESCO. The Pomegranate and Grape in Armenian architectural ornamentations exhibition will be opened on this occasion in the Zvartnots historical-cultural museum-reserve.

You can read about these and other topics on armenpress.am and listen to the news on the air of LRATVAKAN radio. Follow us on TWITTER and FACEBOOK.
Reliance Jio today announced the launch of 8,100 km cable system, the Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG). BBG will provide direct connectivity to South East Asia and the Middle East, then onward to Europe, Africa and Far East Asia through seamless interconnection with existing cable systems.

Reliance Jio owns and operates the strategically important undersea cable landing facility in Chennai, providing a high-speed, high-capacity, low latency route connecting India to the rest of the world, said the company. BBG uses the most advanced high-speed broadband fibre optic technology; dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) which allows the capacity to be increased at will without any additional submarine intervention.

BBG has deployed the latest submarine cable 100Gbps transmission technology, utilizing wavelength add/drop branching units along the route, with an initial equipped capacity of 9 terabits per second. BBGs partners include Dialog Axiata, Etisalat, Omantel, Telecom Malaysia, and Vodafone.

Commenting on the launch, Mathew Oommen,President Reliance Jio, said:

We are excited about the launch of BBG as it offers not just direct connectivity in and out of India through Chennai and Mumbai but also acts as a state-of-the-art 100 Gbps extension of Jios 100 Gbps core network.This global connectivity brings key international content hubs closer to our customers, delivering a much richer experience as an important part of driving Indias broadband adoption, enabling consumers to shift away from the current high-cost low value propositions.
With public sentiment still incensed by the notion of too-big-to-fail banks, I think it's worth putting all of this into perspective. To this end, a new report from SNL Financial shows that China's biggest bank is 45% larger than America's biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase (JPM 5.25%).

The report ranks the 100 biggest banks in the world. And even though JPMorgan Chase's $2.35 trillion in assets make it the largest in the United States, outpacing runner-up Bank of America (BAC 3.71%) by roughly $200 billion in assets, it doesn't even crack the top five once all other global banks are included -- click here to see the 10 biggest banks in America.

The world's four biggest banks are all based in China -- and, it's worth noting, controlled by the Chinese government. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tops the list with $3.42 trillion in assets. It's followed by China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, and Bank of China, respectively -- the latter of which moved up from fifth place in last year's ranking.

Fifth place this year goes to Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. In sixth place is the United Kingdom's HSBC Holdings. And, finally, JPMorgan Chase comes in seventh. The only other U.S.-based bank to make the top 10 is Bank of America, which ranks ninth -- Wells Fargo (WFC 2.70%) and Citigroup (C 3.12%) place 11th and 13th, respectively.

Rank of 10 Biggest Banks in the World Bank Headquarters Assets (as of Dec. 31, 2015) 1 Industrial and Commercial Bank of China China $3.42 trillion 2 China Construction Bank China $2.83 trillion 3 Agricultural Bank of China China $2.59 trillion 4 Bank of China China $2.56 trillion 5 Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Japan $2.46 trillion 6 HSBC Holdings United Kingdom $2.41 trillion 7 JPMorgan Chase United States $2.35 trillion 8 BNP Paribas France $2.17 trillion 9 Bank of America United States $2.14 trillion 10 Credit Agricole Group France $1.85 trillion

As bad as this might sound -- and it is indeed a serious issue for the United States, which has ceded manufacturing to countries in Asia and should thus seek to maintain its position at the summit of global finance -- the situation isn't quite as dire as it might otherwise seem.

This is because most other banks around the world use IFRS accounting principles, which inflate their size vis-a-vis U.S. banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup. If all banks used the same system, JPMorgan Chase would rank second in the world with $3.25 trillion in assets, Bank of America would come in fourth with total assets of $2.78 trillion, and even Citigroup would break into the top 10 with $2.30 trillion in assets.

China's dominance of the top of the list -- irrespective of accounting treatment -- adds substance to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's argument that Americans' aversion to too-big-to-fail banks naively ignores geopolitics. As he noted in his latest shareholder letter:

I do not want any American to look back in 20 years and try to figure out how and why America's banks lost the leadership position in financial services. If not us, it will be someone else and likely a Chinese bank.

My colleague Alex Dumortier takes issue with this assessment, calling Dimon's appeal to economic nationalism "bizarre." I disagree. In my opinion, Dimon's point is valid, and it's one that policymakers should take into serious consideration.
YEREVAN, APRIL 17, ARMENPRESS. In addition to the April 16 statement of NKRs Ministry of Defense we inform that the unidentified object discovered by Defense Army servicemen resembled the corpse, which can only be confirmed through search operations of the missing persons. "Armenpress" was informed by the Press service of NKR Ministry of Defense.

By the mediation of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and field assistants of the personal representative of the Co-Chairman of OSCE Minsk Group the Armenian side has today permitted the Azerbaijani side to continue the search operations of the missing persons at the northern line of contact which started on April 8.
With the price of all commodities on the rebound these days, but particularly gold, the fact that Newmont Mining (NEM 2.99%) has nearly doubled in value from its 52-week low shouldn't be all that surprising (and as recently as last week, it had doubled). As the price of the yellow metal ebbs and flows, so does Newmont's stock.

Yet with the gold and copper miner ready to report earnings on Wednesday, April 20, after the market's close, here's what investors ought to focus on with the upcoming release.

Metric Q1 2015 Q1 2016 est. % Change Revenue $1.97 billion $1.90 billion (3.7%) EPS $0.21 $0.46 (54.3%)

Newmont was able to lower its all-in sustaining costs for gold 10% last year to $898 per ounce, from a high of $979 per ounce in North America to a low of $718 per ounce in Africa. But it has forecast that its average AISC is going to creep higher again in 2016 to $960 per ounce as both Africa and South America see their costs soar, suffering from lower mill grades at Yanacocha in Peru and Ahafo in Ghana. So it's fortuitous that gold has rallied sharply this year, along with other commodities like copper, aluminum, oil, and iron ore, which has become the best-performing metal or mineral.

Beyond just higher gold prices, though, Newmont is attempting to get back on track in Indonesia, where its Batu Hijau open pit mine -- the second-largest copper and gold mine in Indonesia, behind Freeport-McMoRan's (FCX 9.99%) Grasberg mine, which has the world's largest gold reserves -- suffered from delays due to the government's decision to change the rules of operating in the country.

In an attempt to boost domestic smelting operations, the Indonesian government imposed export bans on raw, unprocessed ore, with usurious taxes a consequence of noncompliance, and demanded miners like Newmont and Freeport use local smelters. The problem was that the country did not have the infrastructure or capacity to support the miners' output, and both miners had their export licenses suspended.

Newmont had its license withheld again last year after it failed to meet government demands for developing a domestic smelter, but it was consequently restored after Newmont committed $3 million to supporting Freeport's $3 billion smelter project.

Globally, the miner sees attributable gold production increasing from between 4.8 million and 5.3 million ounces in 2016 to between 5.2 million and 5.7 million ounces next year, with production remaining stable thereafter through 2020, at between 4.5 million and 5 million ounces.

It anticipates the expansion program it undertook at Cripple Creek & Victor in Colorado, and the new production at the phase 1 project at Long Canyon in Colorado, at Merian in Suriname, and at the Tanami expansion in Australia, will offset the operations at Yanacocha, which is maturing, along with the mine sequencing at Batu Hijau.

Newmont, however, is reportedly going to receive a $2 billion to $3 billion offer for its Indonesian operations from a group of local investors and banks, and while the miner has been interested in selling off its domestic assets as a result of the confiscatory policies of the government, this seems like a lowball bid based just on existing production levels, let alone proven and probable reserves.

Still, it limits the chance of the government expropriating its assets there and gives it the chance to pay down some of its significant debt load, or even buy a junior in a more mining-friendly region with valuable resources that's been beaten down. Many miners are in the process of selling off both noncore and core assets, and with a glut of projects coming onto the market, pricing may be attractive.

For its size and scope, Newmont Mining is trading at a significant discount to peers like Goldcorp and Yamana Gold. They may carry a premium for other reasons, such as lower all-in costs, but the breadth of disparity between them seems unwarranted, particularly because of Newmont's diversity. Its first-quarter earnings results ought to give a better indication of whether it can narrow the gap.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian community of Germany will held protest marches in several cities of Germany on April 24. In an interview with Armenpress the Chairman of Armenian Academic Society of Germany-1860 Azat Ordukhanyan stated that the ceremonies devoted to the 101th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide will start several days before the April 24 in Germany.

According to him, the cross has already been put in the Jena city of Eastern Germany. On April 18 the funeral will take place in Leipzig Nikolai Church by the Union of Armenian Students and the Armenian Union of Leipzig, then the candlelight will take place in the church yard.

The cross will be erected by the efforts of the Embassy of Armenia and The German-Armenian Friendship in Berlin on April 23. The Armenian community is going to hold a protest in front of the Turkish Embassy. The organizer is the Recognition Working Group Armenian-German organization which is headed by Tessa Hofmann and Jirayr Kocharyan. The same day the Union of Armenian Academic Society will plant a sycamore tree, brought from Kapan to Germany, for the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide in the Armenian park of the Bochum city. Then the protests with demanding and candle posters will take place. On April 24 the Requiem by Tigran Mansuryan will be performed in Stuttgart.

Our main message is the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, once again the confirmation of our rights, that is, to demand justice and reparation. As you know, the resolution of the Armenian Genocide is going to be discussed in Bundestag on June 2. Already several political figures made their speeches on that issue, I have heard the speech by the head of the Christian Democratic Union Party. He stated that regardless of its relations with Turkey, Germany should name things as they are and recognize the Armenian Genocide, said Azat Ordukhanyan. According to him, it can be noticed from the speeches made by MPs that there is a positive attitude towards that issue.

We should notice that the majority of MPs have always had a positive attitude towards Armenians, however, the issue of political will always creates difficulties in the process since Turkey is a strong state, Germans have several issues with it, Azat Ordukhanyan added.
If a mutual fund had a younger cousin, it would be an exchange traded fund (ETF).

An ETF is like a mutual fund in that it offers investors a pooled investment in stocks, bonds, and other assets. But thats where the similarities end.

You can buy and sell ETFs any time during the trading day. But with mutual funds, you have wait until after the market closes.

There are advantages and disadvantages to that, says Drew Voros, Editor-in-Chief at ETF.com. When trading ETFs, you can get out any time you want. Back in 2007 with mutual funds, people had to wait for the markets to close and there were a lot of losses throughout the day. Some people felt trapped.

Unlike a mutual fund, you can purchase ETF shares through a brokerage account on margin or short sell them as you would with a stock. This means you typically pay a commission with each transaction.

Just like a stock, ETFs have a spread. The spread is difference between the price you pay to acquire a security and the price at which you can sell it. ETF.com says the spread can vary from one penny to many dollars for ETFs.

In general, ETFs are less costly compared to mutual funds because of the way shares are created and redeemed. As most ETFs track indexes, they are also passively managed. This means limited participation from a fund manager and less administrative costs.

ETFs also have tax benefits.

When a mutual fund investor asks for money back, the mutual fund company must sell the securities to raise the cash to meet that redemption, says Voros. When an individual wants to sell an ETF; its simply sold to another investor like a stock.

ETF's disclose their holdings on regular basis; while mutual funds disclose their holdings quarterly - with a 30 day lag.

From Chinese tech stocks to high-yield bonds - ETFs give investors exposure to virtually every area of the market. The Investment Company Institute says a majority of ETFs track indexes such as the S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY).

If you dont have time to research a specific stock, you can get broad exposure to any industry, says Nancy Tengler, Chief Investment Officer of Heartland Financial USA. Its much easier in a bull market period to be invested in exchange traded funds because youre going to get what the index gives you.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) says total global assets for exchange traded products were $3.1 trillion as of March 31st  with over 5,900 offerings.

Martin Small, Managing Director at BlackRock, Head of U.S. iShares business says ETFs can be an attractive investment option for people saving for their later years.

Some people are concerned they wont be able to live comfortably in retirement or have too much cash because they are saving. One of the things they can do is use low cost, easy to buy and sell exchange traded funds for the basic building block of any retirement portfolio.

This is the third in a series of articles that will appear weekly during April; National Financial Literacy month.

Linda Bell joined FOX Business Network (FBN) in September 2014 as an Assignment Editor after more than a decade at Bloomberg News. She is an award-winning journalist/writer of personal finance content. You can follow her on Twitter @lindanbell.
Image source: Manhattan Associates.

Managing supply chains is vital for companies across the globe, and many companies turn to Manhattan Associates to provide technology to help them track vital supplies to keep their businesses operating smoothly. Yet with the company about to announce its first-quarter results on Tuesday, Manhattan Associates investors are wondering if the stock will suffer another hiccup like it did last quarter. Nevertheless, a quick recovery was encouraging for shareholders, and promising news from General Motors could put favorable numbers in a better context. Let's look more closely at what investors expect from Manhattan Associates going into its earnings report.

Stats on Manhattan Associates

Analyst EPS Estimate $0.39 Change From Year-Ago EPS 14.7% Revenue Estimate $145.5 million Change From Year-Ago Revenue 9% Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters 4

Data source: Yahoo! Finance.

What's next for Manhattan Associates earnings?In recent months, investors have gotten more optimistic in their views on Manhattan Associates earnings, raising their first-quarter projections by a penny per share and their full-year 2016 estimates by a nickel per share. The stock has stayed relatively steady, rising 2% since mid-January.

Manhattan Associates shareholders have seen some volatility during the quarter, and most of it came following the company's fourth-quarter report in early February. From a fundamental standpoint, the supply chain manager's record-setting performance continued, with an 8% rise in sales helping to lift net income by 30%. Moreover, guidance for the coming year was positive, pointing to double-digit percentage growth in earnings and exceeding the consensus forecast among investors.

Yet some Manhattan Associates investors were apparently concerned by the fact that hardware-related revenue growth lagged behind double-digit gains in the services segment. The professional services subsegment was especially strong, but customer support and software enhancement revenue was also somewhat tepid. Given the company's track record of producing consistent growth across the board, shares fell as much as 20% over the ensuing week.

That downdraft proved to be short-lived. The stock market's rebound helped lift Manhattan Associates back upward as well, and in March, the company got good news from General Motors. Manhattan Associates found itself named among the automaker's official Suppliers of the Year for 2015. In particular, General Motors uses Manhattan Associates software for move parts through the manufacturing process more efficiently. Manhattan Associates said that the use of its Warehouse Management for Open Systems platform has accelerated inventory replenishment and boosted reliability in delivering parts where they're needed. Working closely with General Motors in its Brazilian operations shows the worldwide scope that Manhattan Associates has, and that should be increasingly important as the supply chain specialist reaches out to new customers.

Moreover, Manhattan Associates continues to roll out new platforms. In early April, the company released its newest e-commerce capabilities within its Distribution Management platform. Among them are the ability to track distribution-center operations via mobile device, apps to allow temporary staff to get up to speed quickly in tracking distribution issues, more efficient sorting capabilities, and tools to allow for packaging more efficiently. E-commerce has become a key growth area in the retail sector, and given the industry's unique supply chain logistical issues, Manhattan Associates has correctly focused on it as a target for attracting new clients.

In the Manhattan Associates earnings report, investors will want to ensure that the company's growth rates across the board remain where they've historically been. The short-term nature of last quarter's negative response to earnings suggests that investors are more comfortable with the stock, but Manhattan Associates will need to keep finding ways to expand and become a more important player in the supply chain space in order to keep shareholders happy over the long run.

The article Manhattan Associates Looks to Stay on Track originally appeared on Fool.com.

Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors and Manhattan Associates. 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.
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When 20-year-old U.S. Navy hopeful Cameron Massengale lost his arm in a work accident, he wasnt sure hed ever be able to march as a cadet at The Citadel again. But thanks to a custom prosthetic arm and his refusal to settle, Massengale has not only returned to the group but also became the first amputee to make the universitys Summerall Guards, a silent precision drill platoon, in January. Massengale is the first amputee to make the platoon at The Citadel, a military college in Charleston, S.C.

Im still not completely sure how Im doing it. It just kind of happens, Massengale told FoxNews.com. I call it magic.

Massengale has four prosthetics, including one myoelectric prosthetic with a bionic hand and a drill prosthetic has a two-fingered hook so he can perform quick, open-and-close movements like picking up or setting down his rifle. Creating his drill arm took some trial and error, said Jon Nottingham, a certified prosthetist orthotist and area clinic manager at the Hanger Clinic in Greenville, South Carolina.

The length of his drill prosthetic was also shortened so The Citadel senior can look uniform with his platoon, and it has a specialized wrist that he can rotate or flex in three or four positions.

The hooks on the hand are held shut with a series of rubber bands that are stacked at the base of the hand to tighten or loosen the grip of the hook. Massengale simply flexes his shoulders to open the hook, and relaxes them to very softly or firmly grip whatever hes hoping to grab, depending on the number of rubber bands hes using.

People say theres a ceiling that there are limits but [Cameron] doesnt believe there are limits or ceilings just because hes an amputee, Nottingham told FoxNews.com.

Col. Keith Brace, a battalion TAC officer at The Citadel who supervises Massengale, said he was a little bit skeptical when he learned Massengale was trying out for the Summerall Guards.

Its a drill platoon that the best of the best compete for, Brace, a retired lieutenant colonel, told FoxNews.com. The tryout process is very physically demanding and strenuous, and thats in addition to the rifle drill and the military precision, and the sharpness of their uniform and appearance.

To compete for the honor, Massengale completed 15 training days focused on physical fitness and drills. Each year, 61 cadets are accepted to the Summerall Guards. This year, Massengales group started with 135 hopefuls.

Brace said he felt the primary hurdle Massengale would face was following the platoons rifle manual with his prosthetic, but Massengale came up with his own manual instead.

My roommate and I were doing the same training, and when he was practicing, I would watch him to see how he was moving his rifle, Massengale said. I would attempt to mimic it, but Id also try to modify him, and have him kind of watch it and see how I was doing it.

By practicing with his fellow cadets but also on his own for hours on end for every day of the week, Massengale learned how to manipulate the rifle with his prosthetic without standing out. Simply learning the drills with his prosthetic was difficult, but Massengale said looking uniform among the platoon was most challenging.

The first time I saw him, Brace said, and this was the actual cuts day  when they determine whos gonna be in the platoon, I saw him go out there and execute the rifle manual with his prosthetic, and I was just in awe because it was just something I didnt think he was gonna be able to do, and he did it to such a high level.

It was clear he had worked and figured out a way to get through it, Brace continued, and no one else could teach him that that was something he had to learn through his own practice. It was inspiring to watch.

Massengale, whose uncle is a colonel in the National Guard and whose great-grandfather fought in the U.S. Army during World War II, had dreamed of flying helicopters in the Navy since he was a child. In high school, he was on the JROTC team and had planned on going to aviation school.

When Massengales arm needed to be amputated after an accident with a meat grinder at a butchers shop where he worked summer 2014, neither he nor his parents knew what to expect for his health, much less his career. Massengale underwent five reconstructive surgeries to salvage his arm and three of his fingers, but the limb eventually went septic a life-threatening infection and needed to be amputated. About a month after the amputation, he got his first prosthetic.

At first, I thought my life was going to be over, Massengale said. I thought I was going to be sitting on my couch for the rest of my life, and I said, Screw this. My friends pushed me to come back  I dont think they gave me a choice.

Mike Massengale, Camerons dad, 53, said hes not surprised by his son's achievements.

Hes always been this way, Mike, an artist and arts professor who lives in Greenville, S.C., with his wife and Camerons mom, Stacey Massengale, told FoxNews.com. My motto that Ive shared with him is, What I dont have in talent, skill or knowledge, I make up for with hard work, and thats what he does.

Last summer, Massengale attended Camp No Limits in Newry, Maine, where adults and college students help mentor children with upper-limb differences. Massengale no longer plans on entering the Navy to fly helicopters. Instead, he plans on helping other amputees like himself adapt to their limb differences.

I think theres no limit to what a person can do as long as you put your heart and mind and soul into it, Massengale said.
Nearly 10 years after being shot in the face by a sniper, a Georgia Navy veteran will undergo surgery Monday to repair his badly damaged mouth and jaw.

Dusty Kirby, 32, of Canton, Georgia, was shot in the face while on guard duty with a U.S. Marines unit in Iraq on Christmas Day in 2006.

"I was hit with a high-powered sniper rifle, Kirby told Fox5 Atlanta, pointing at his chin. "It impacted right here, and made contact [on] the middle of my tongue, and then blew my jaw out here.

Military trauma surgeons saved Kirbys life, and hes since undergone over 30 operations. The father of four recently received a letter confirming that a team of New York City surgeons will repair his mouth and jaw. The surgeons are part of Marine Assist, which provides free plastic surgery and dental services to Marine veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Kirby will only have to pay for his hospital stay after the operations.

Kirby met the surgeons at a benefit for wounded warriors in New York nine years ago. In the fall, he reached out to see if their offer to help still stood.

The Georgia man will undergo surgery at NorthWell Lenox Hill Hospital, during which the team will rebreak and reposition both sides of his jaw to improve alignment. Then a plastic surgeon will repair soft tissue damage to improve his appearance.

Kirby has struggled with traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and painful headaches, Fox5 reported. He also feels as if his smile is falling apart.

"I'm mentally prepared, I'm spiritually prepared, I'm about as physically prepared as I could possibly be, Kirby told the news channel.
When Elena Sablina's daughter Alina was killed in a car crash in Moscow two years ago, she was devastated.

One month later, Sablina accidentally discovered from a forensic report that six of her 19-year-old daughter's organs, including her heart and kidneys, had been removed for transplant.

"I was shocked that organs were taken from my child without my permission," Sablina told The Associated Press.

Yet all of that was legal. Russian law explicitly allows doctors to take organs from deceased patients without informing their families. Sablina sued for damages in five Russian courts and has lost every challenge. In frustration, she recently filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, contending that the removal of her daughter's organs violated several articles of Europe's Human Rights Convention. Sablina also hopes her daughter's case will prompt a change in Russian law.

"(Doctors) just came with a briefcase and took what they wanted," said Sablina, who said she would not have agreed to the donation even if asked. "Who gave them the right?"

More than a dozen countries in Europe, including Russia, have a "presumed consent" donation system, where, in an attempt to boost the number of available organs, the government assumes people will be donors unless they specifically opt out. Others, like England, require people or their relatives to provide permission before anything can be taken.

In some countries with presumed consent, including Spain and Belgium, doctors still consult family members before removing organs. But in Russia, doctors don't always seek the family's permission beforehand.

A recently proposed amendment, however, would require Russian doctors to inform a patient's relatives within 12 hours of their loved one's death of any intention to remove organs or tissue, giving the family time to object. But the amendment does not make it mandatory for doctors to obtain the family's consent before taking organs. The proposal is still awaiting approval and there is no timeline on when Russian lawmakers might debate it.

Still, that would only be a partial solution, critics say, since Russia still lacks an organ donation infrastructure, including a viable way for people to opt out.

After her daughter's accident in Moscow, Sablina and her husband flew from their home in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg to be with her at the hospital. The doctors told them to prepare for the worst. After five days, Sablina said the doctors said they were too busy to talk, that she and her husband could not see Alina that day and asked them to leave.

The following morning, Sablina got a telephone call from a funeral home informing her that her daughter had died. She inadvertently discovered the organ removal as she reviewed a criminal case file against the driver implicated in the fatal collision.

One doctor had removed her daughter's heart while another took her kidneys. Doctors also cut out part of her aorta, her adrenal gland and a piece of her right lung. Sablina sued the hospital and two other institutions involved. Her lawyer, Anton Burkov, said Russian law gives doctors a disturbing amount of discretion.

"Every single act of organ removal is conducted without any permission from the relatives," he said. "Doctors can freely ignore the families since it is completely legal to harvest organs in secrecy."

Burkov said they have requested priority status with the European Court but that a judgment could still take two to four years. A similar case filed by a Latvian mother resulted in a ruling against the country and a modified law.

The Russian ministry of health did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the case.

Alexei Starchenko, chairman of Russia's National Patient Safety Agency, said every hospital that performs organ transplants has its own waiting list, describing the system as "corrupt" since there is little transparency to explain how organs get distributed, unlike the clear criteria used by most other Western countries.

Russian lawmakers say the taking of organs without permission is partly out of consideration for grieving families. In a 2003 ruling upholding the law, the Constitutional Court said it is "inhumane to put the question of harvesting organs or tissues to a person's relatives at practically the same time as they are notified of his death."

Some experts backed Russia's approach, saying it ultimately serves a greater good.

"My sympathies lie more with the governments that are trying to save lives through transplantation of healthy organs that are absolutely of no use to the deceased or their families," said Robert Wintemute, a professor of human rights law at King's College London. "If we stop and ask whose organs these are, they don't really in any sense belong to the family."

Others said stronger safeguards were needed in Russia.

"To behave as the doctors in Russia behaved, is totally unacceptable," said Dr. Roberto Cacciola, a transplant surgeon at The Royal London Hospital in Britain.

In England, he said, multiple doctors and nurses must ensure consent has been obtained from the family before removing any organs.

For Sablina, the lawsuit in the European Court is an attempt to honor her daughter's memory.

"If I don't start to fight against such an inhumane, cruel law, if I just stop and forget about it, I will betray my girl," Sablina said. "This law should be changed. The law should be humane."
Bernie Sanders may not be as anti-Israel as some of his radical supporters but he can no longer be called pro-Israel. The accusations he has repeatedly leveled against Israel in the past few daysthat its military response to Hamas rockets and terror tunnels has been disproportionatereflects both abysmal ignorance about the conduct of the Israeli Defense Force and a pervasive bias against the nation state of the Jewish people.

Sanders is right, of course, that he is not alone in accusing Israel of using disproportionate force, but he is very bad company when he cites the countries all over the world that have directed this chorus of criticism against Israel. Those who most consistently attack the conduct of the Israeli Defense Forces are among the worst human rights violators in the world, including countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.

The reality is that Israel has done what other Western democraciesfaced with far less direct threats to their civilianshave done, but they have done so far more carefully, with greater concern for civilians, and to better success. Yet Israel is singled out for unique condemnation as part of a widespread effort to delegitimize, and demonize the nation state of the Jewish people. Sanders has now made statements that lend support to these biased efforts

Reasonable people can disagree with Israels occupation and settlement policiesalthough even critics must acknowledge that Israel offered to end the West Bank occupation and settlements in 2000, 2001, and 2008 as part of a plan to create a two-state solution. The Palestinian leadership rejected the 2000 and 2001 offers and failed to respond to the 2008 proposal. Israel did unilaterally end its Gaza occupation and settlements, only to see that area turned into a launching pad for Hamas rockets and tunnels designed to kill Israeli civilians.

Nonetheless, pro-Israel critics, both within and outside of Israel, criticize the current government for not doing more to move toward a two state solution. Whether one agrees or disagrees with this criticism, one can level it without being deemed anti-Israel. But anyone who seeks the mantle of pro-Israel has no right to sit in judgment over Israels military tactics in responding to rocket and tunnel attacks from Gaza. This is especially so if they are as uninformed as Sanders is about the situation on the ground in Israeli cities and town that are close to Gaza. As Barack Obama said when he was running for president and visited Israeli areas that were most directly impacted by rocket attacks: If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, Im going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.

Israel has now located and neutralized yet another terror tunnel leading from Gaza into Israel that had been built recently, and already extended tens of meters underneath the border fence and into Israel proper. Its purpose is to kill, kidnap and hold hostage Israeli civilians, including children from those towns located near the tunnel exits. The entrances to these deadly military targets have been deliberately placed by Hamas in densely populated areas, rather than in the many sparely populated parts of the Gaza Strip. (Yet there are many such sparsely populated areas, despite the medias demonstrably false claim that the Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated areas of the world.)

Hamas knows that if they were to deploy their rockets and place the entrances to their terror tunnels in unpopulated areas  as the laws of war require  the Israeli military could attack these military targets without endangering civilians. But Hamas wants Israel to injure and kill its civilians. They deliberately employ what has come to be known by the cruel but accurate term, the dead baby strategy. Under this double war crime strategy, the Israeli military is put to the terrible Hobsons choice of either allowing its own civilians to be subjected to rocket and tunnel attacks or to destroy those rockets and tunnels by attacking targets that are surrounded by Palestinian civilians, who Hamas effectively uses as human shields.

What would Sanders do if the United State were faced with a comparable dilemma? Would he allow rockets to rain down on American civilians? Would he allow for terror tunnels to ferret armed terrorists to kill and kidnap American children? Or would he do what President Obama urged Israel to do: whatever it takes to stop the rockets and tunnels.

American voters are entitled to know what Sanders would do and what he thinks Israel should do. Would he apply a double standard to the nation state of the Jewish People? Or would he deny the American military the authority to do whatever it takes to protect our citizens? Does he condemn the United States military for using comparable tactics in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria? In other words, does Bernie Sanders only believe that Israel has acted disproportionately, or does he also believe that the United States military acts disproportionately? We are entitled to know the answers to these questions, and Bernie Sanders is not entitled to pretend that he is pro-Israel.
In recent days, we have seen students across the fruited plain suffer near psychotic breaks at the mere mention of the words Donald Trump.

So you can imagine the hysteria that ensued when a trio of gyrating 11-year-olds donned giant Donald Trump masks during a grade school talent show.

Click here to join Todds American Dispatch: a must-read for Conservatives!

And by giant, I mean yuge. Yuge!

The Dancing Donalds drew rave reviews from students and faculty at Fiske Elementary School in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

The trio performed a wordless, two-minute routine on the morning of April 13 wearing masks they purchased from an online company called Fathead.

Its pop culture to them  not politics, said Laurie Mattaliano, whose son was part of the routine. They were not making a political statement. They just wanted to dance with a funny head.

But an unnamed parent took offense at the dance and filed a complaint.

I got a call from the principal that afternoon and she said there had been a negative parent reaction and they had decided to edit out all political references, Mattaliano told me. It seems so silly.

The boys were given an ultimatum  either remove the Trump heads or be banned from the evening performance.

They chose to bow out  with their giant heads held high.

What bothered me is another parent could get that charged up over the innocence of 11-year-olds, Mattaliano told me. This was not a political statement. Im sure my son has heard the words Republican and Democrat but Im pretty sure he doesnt understand that.

The school also removed a dance-off between kids pretending to be Trump and Marco Rubio.

We wanted to make sure that nothing we are doing would be perceived as biased in some way, Supt. David Lussier told the Boston Globe. Youre not seeing Democratic candidates certainly.

I think its so important for us to be seen as nonpartisan in a highly charged election environment, he added.

I believe the superintendent misspoke. I think he meant to say highly charged politically correct environment.

Mattaliano told me she does not agree with the principals decision, but harbors no ill will. Instead, she has decided to use the unfortunate episode as a life lesson for her young son.

Disappointment in life is real and good, she told me. This is an easy disappointment to swallow. To raise a resilient adult, you have to suffer some disappointment.

And you also have to teach them to suffer fools gladly.

I watched a video of the Dancing Donalds and its impossible to determine if the boys are honoring Trump or making fun of him. So whats the big deal?

Has our nation become so self-absorbed and so over-sensitive that we cant laugh at ourselves? Must we take everything so seriously?

I mean  its an elementary school talent show  not "Saturday Night Live."

So far the Trump campaign has not issued an official statement on the ouster of the Dancing Donalds. Although, I suspect they probably think the Trump heads were not big enough.


Emails obtained by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) show that the offices of New York Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and those of other politically aligned AGs, secretly teamed up with anti-fossil fuel activists to launch investigations against groups whose political speech challenged the global warming policy agenda.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE EMAILS

These emails, obtained under open records laws, shed light on what followed after a January meeting, reported by the Wall Street Journal on April 14, in which groups funded by anti-fossil fuel Rockefeller interests met to urge just this sort of investigation and litigation against political opponents.

Recently, after the think tank the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) criticized the AGs intimidation campaign, U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Earl Walker  one of the AGs working with Schneiderman  subpoenaed ten years of the non-profit organizations records relating to climate change.

The latest email release strongly suggests a financial incentive for AGs to pursue their political opponents, rather than merely silencing and scaring away support for those who dare disagree with their extreme global warming agenda.

The e-mail correspondence between Schneidermans staff, the offices of several state attorneys general, and various activists covers the weeks leading up to a March 29 publicity stunt press conference with former Vice President Al Gore, to announce the targeting of opponents of the global warming agenda.

The correspondence shows government officials actively trying to hide their coordination, by using a Common Interest Agreement. This sought to protect as privileged the discussions about defending President Obamas controversial global warming rules, and going after political opponents using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

Most intriguingly, this sought to hide discussions among the AGs, their staff and certain outside advisors. These communications and coordination included:

Lem Srolovic, chief of the New York Attorney Generals Environmental Protection Bureau

Scot Kline, a Vermont assistant attorney general

Matt Pawa, an environmental lawyer who works with the Climate Accountability Institute and the Global Warming Legal Action Project of the Civil Society Institute

Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists

Pawa and Frumhoff have been pushing for this investigation for years, at least since a 2012 workshop entitled Establishing Accountability for Climate Change Denial, a brainstorming session in California for activists on ways to convince state attorneys general to investigate deniers using RICO laws.

As the Vermont and New York correspondence show, Pawa and Frumhoff were invited to secretly brief the state attorneys general. They each received 45 minutes to provide arguments on climate change litigation and the imperative of taking action now immediately prior to the AGs press conference, according to schedules prepared by Schneidermans office.

The next day, March 30, Pawa wrote to Eric Srolovic of Schneidermans office and Vermonts Scott Kline seeking help. A Wall Street Journal reporter wanted to talk to Pawa, and he asked the two officials: What should I say if she asks if I attended?

Srolovic replied: My ask is if you speak to the reporter, to not confirm that you attended or otherwise discuss the event.

The documents obtained by E&E Legal also include responses to a questionnaire sent to the state attorneys general by Schneidermans office. U.S. Virgin Islands AG Walker reveals his interest, having just completed an $800 million settlement from Hess Oil company, in identifying other potential litigation targets and ways to increase our leverage. The Hess money, Walker wrote, was used to create an environmental response trust.

Other AGs across the country have criticized these investigations. West Virginia AG Patrick Morrisey has said, You cannot use the power of the office of the Attorney General to silence your critics.

Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt and Alabama AG Luther Strange issued a joint press release stating, It is inappropriate for State Attorneys General to use the power of their office to attempt to silence core political speech on one of the major policy debates of our time.

AG Jeff Landry of Louisiana said, It is one thing to use the legal system to pursue public policy outcomes; but it is quite another to use prosecutorial weapons to intimidate critics, silence free speech, or chill the robust exchange of ideas.

In the end, it seems the only parties that may be breaking the law are those colluding AGs in their scheme to silence political opposition, while seeking funds for their preferred policy agenda. It is they who need to come clean.

Chris Horner is an attorney in Washington, D.C. who obtained the email records for the Energy & Environment Legal Institute. He is also a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.


The Supreme Court appeared divided during oral arguments Monday in a legal challenge to President Obamas executive action that would protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation and permit them to work indefinitely in the country legally. With only eight Justices currently sitting on the High Court, a 4-4 deadlock in U.S. v. Texas is a real possibility when the decision is expected in June. Here are four things you need to know:



1. WHAT SPECIFICALLY IS THE SUPREME COURT CONSIDERING?

Two very broad issues. First, whether President Obama exceeded his constitutional authority, usurping the power of Congress on matters of immigration. (In the past, the Supreme Court has said that Congress has plenary power --meaning full and complete-- to regulate immigration.) So in this case, did the President violate the separation of powers?

Second, whether Mr. Obama violated the take care clause in the Constitution which says he  shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. (Note the mandatory language of the word shall.) Congress passed a law in 1996, requiring federal agents to deport illegal immigrants. Did the President breach his sworn duty by failing to execute that law and by ordering agents, in effect, to break the law? When it accepted the case, the Supreme Court took the unusual step of asking both sides to address this specific issue.

Importantly, a deadlocked Supreme Court might decide to circumvent any broad ruling and opt, instead, to resolve the case narrowly . For example, it could declare that the President did not follow certain federal regulations requiring public comment. Or, it could dodge the case entirely by ruling that Texas and 25 other states did not have legal standing to sue. That is, they are not measurably impacted by the Mr. Obamas action and cannot, therefore, bring the case. (The states argue the Presidents order imposes on them millions of dollars in administrative and other costs.)

2. DIDNT THE PRESIDENT, HIMSELF, SAY HE DID NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO DO WHAT HE EVENTUALLY DID?

Yes. He is, arguably, the best witness against himself. It is one of the principal arguments Texas has been making. On 22 occasions, President Obama insisted publicly he did not have the authority to act on his own. Famously, he remarked, Im President, Im not King. I cant do these things just by myself. He repeated it three more times. He was even more precise when he commented, With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, thats just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed. (3-28-11)

What changed? Nothing. The law and the Constitution are still the same. Of course, the media confronted him with his statements when he signed his executive action. His response? Actually, my position has not changed. That remark earned him an upside-down Pinocchio from the Washington Post for denial of a blatant flip-flop.

3. PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS SAID THAT HE ACTED, BECAUSE CONGRESS FAILED TO ACT. IS THAT A LEGITMATE ARGUMENT?

It is an appealing political argument. But it is misleading. Congress did act, as mentioned, in 1996. It passed a law on immigration which remains in effect today. Did Congress more recently consider overhauling immigration? Yes, and lawmakers chose not to act. As I pointed out in a previous column, a determination not to act is, by itself, a deliberate act. This is how the framers constructed our system of government. Congress considers and debates a great many bills. Not all of them pass. This is not a failure in the conventional sense, but a decision by declination. It constitutes a prudent and calculated process.

4. WITH THE DEATH OF JUSTICE SCALIA, THERE ARE ONLY EIGHT JUSTICES. WHAT IF THERE IS A TIE VOTE?
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Member of the Republican Party of Armenia Aram Danielyan has been reelected to the post of Mayor of Hrazdan. As Armenpress reports, according to the Central Electoral Commissions data, he received 12,510 votes. His competitors, Sasun Mikayelyan of the Civil Contract party received 10,264 votes and Artur Misakyan of the Armenian Revival party 1237 votes.
Despite what you hear in the news from the Obama administration and the military, our strategy of conducting infrequent airstrikes and re-taking pockets of Iraq and Syria terrain will only help us achieve short-lived tactical victories.

We will not ultimately and strategically defeat ISIS on our current path. Nearly fifteen years have passed since the United States was attacked on 9/11 by Al Qaeda terrorists.

It has been over eighteen months since its ideological fellow travelers of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) captured a broad swath of Iraq. ISIS continues to add to its recruitment pool of more than thirty-six thousand foreign fighters from approximately eighty different countries  already a formidable coalition.

Given its Internet sophistication and the attraction the group has with vast numbers of potential recruits from among disaffected populations around the globe, ISIS has the realistic potential to eventually swell its ranks of jihadists waging a holy war to hundreds of thousands in both the western and eastern hemispheres.

Somewhere along our national journey our political leaders lost the clarity of vision, our military commanders the habits of strategic thought, and our public the determined will to achieve victory.

Already ISIS has expanded well beyond its self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria, with pledges of allegiance from extremist groups in Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Dagestan. ISISs intent is to network these islands of extremism into a radical Islamic archipelago, with global ambitions for conquest.

A decade-and-a-half into this conflict we must acknowledge and take seriously not only the fanatical commitment of radical Islamic jihadists and their malevolent long-term intentions toward us, but also the fact that the threat has spread far beyond the Middle East. This shadow now darkens the prospects and threatens the well-being of hundreds of millions of people around the world. The continued forced migration of millions of refugees from the Middle East into the heart of Europe only hints at the mid- and long-term threat ISIS and its global army of jihadists pose.

Put simply, we are still at war with radical Islamic groups and an ideological movement that cant be ignored nor wished away. We have to face the fact that ISIS and its army of like-minded jihadists are determined to win that war, and believe they are on the path to victory. They may well be right.

That raises two blunt and vital questions that almost never get asked in Washington, D.C. Do we even know how to win wars anymore? Does America still have what it takes? Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that the answers to both those questions are that we probably dont.

Somewhere along our national journey our political leaders lost the clarity of vision, our military commanders the habits of strategic thought, and our public the determined will to achieve victory. There are times when it almost seems as if the idea of truly winning-- stealing the willingness to continue fighting away from the enemy, and creating a real sense of a victor and a vanquished  has become too politically incorrect. I believe our inability to achieve victory stems mainly from having lost sight as a nation of what it means to win, and of the vital importance of doing so in our own interests.

Losing Our Way

Many factors have led to our current status as a country seemingly perpetually at war, yet rarely victorious. First, because we abandoned a draft military back in the 1970s, the public has lost the personal stake it once had in any political decision to go to war. As a result, many Americans view the all-volunteer force as a mercenary army to be thanked for its service in airports, but without any true appreciation or concern for the real human costs involved in war. Taking their cue from voters, politicians use the all-volunteer force as a policy plaything that they are willing to deploy with only the vaguest objectives, because the perceived political costs of doing so are low. The urgency that used to attend a decision to use military force, and bring operations to a rapid and decisive end, have dissipated.

It is difficult to overstate how this change in U.S. tradition has altered the calculus on the use of military force. Decisions to deploy the all-volunteer force on endless rotations and in the furtherance of vague goals that fall well short of victory have become the norm. Experience has shown that this system of perpetual deployments places an unconscionable burden on our soldiersparticular among the junior ranks and junior non-commissioned officers. Not surprisingly, such policies appear to be a significant factor in the greatly increased number of divorces, collapse of families, and suicides among our returning service members.

Over many years such feckless political guidance and the overly bureaucratic system it has engendered have also affected the mindset of military leaders. Military leaders have been conditioned throughout their careers to accept wish for the best strategies and missions usually aimed at maintaining a shaky status quo, or containing as opposed to decisively defeating an enemy.

The Pentagon bureaucracy has evolved a similar intellectual complacency that encourages protect-my-rice-bowl tactics and petty interagency jealousies that work against the successful whole of government approaches required to achieve lasting victories. This bureaucracy places such a chokehold on how the military operates today that we are now incapable of envisioning, planning and executing a strategy with clear metrics for success. Along the way, a U.S. military organization that once prided itself on strategic acumen and historical understanding of how to fight and win the nations wars has devolved into a vast bureaucracy designed to rotate units efficiently in endless deployments that have no clear pathway to victory.

A Path to Victory

The ability to capture the physical and moral high ground in conflict, and hold it long enough to achieve victory, stems mainly from political decisions. The commander-in-chief must have the will to direct the necessary actions.

For their part, our military leaders must be brutally honest in their assessments of what is required to achieve victory, and they should feel morally bound to resist participating in wars with no clear metrics describing a victorious end state. First and foremost, military leaders should stop pretending that were winning the current war against ISIS and its affiliates. We are not.

The American people must also be given a more direct stake in the outcome of this global conflict. For example, if the military  including the Reserve and the National Guard through a mandatory call-up  were told to go to war, and that it would not be coming home until that war was won, we would organize and fight much differently than we have done for the past few decades.

We did exactly that when America habitually used to win wars. My father was a World War II veteran; when he deployed to Europe, he wasnt told hed be home in four to six months, or after his units first year-long rotation to the European theater was completed. He was simply told by his leaders to go win the war on the European continent  which he and his fellow troops did. My father served proudly as a corporal until the job was done.

Why shouldnt we do the same today if we are serious about winning the war against ISIS? If our military was directed to go fight that war with the specific understanding that it would be required to stay until the war was won, we would plan and fight much differently than we do today. More urgent and focused planning -- as reflected in reformed policies and procedures that subjugate convenience and efficiency to the imperative of winning  would in my assessment result in wars that would be far less costly than the perpetual funk of endless conflict in which we now find ourselves.

Such a change in mindset would preclude, for example, the construction of large U.S. bases in war zones with all the creature comforts of home, where the chief preoccupation of many forward deployed soldiers is on getting to the on-base Pizza Hut or Burger King. That is an apt metaphor for the unserious attitude that is sadly coming to define the American way of warfighting.

Winning the War of Ideas

To win the war against ISIS, we must defeat it on the battlefield through direct action by recapturing its territory and destroying its physical assets. But we must also attack the value system and moral code ISIS uses to recruit. That means winning the information war, a critical part of the battlespace that we too often cede to our sophisticated enemies. We must refute the excuses that radical Islamists use to justify their actions, and promote an unambiguous alternative value system that stands in stark contrast to the primitive and barbaric dogma that ISIS espouses. A disciplined but positive and imaginative message-based information war would constantly drive home the message that ISIS doctrines are anathema to civilized peoples of any race, nationality, ethnic or religious group.

Just as in the fight against imperialism, fascism and communism, winning the ideological struggle against radical Islamism will be difficult. But winning the war of ideas is necessary to a sustainable victory. ISIS effectively appeals to the deep resentment many young Muslim men in particular feel about being trapped in societies where they have few prospects for upward advancement, or hope of achieving their dreams. Many ISIS foreign fighters are first- or second-generation immigrants or troubled converts who feel an acute sense of alienation, and they long to belong to a cause greater than themselves.

Radical Islamic scholars with an intimate understanding of the sense of grievance and alienation of these vulnerable young Muslim men convince them that the cause of their suffering is the system of modernity promoted by the West in general, and the United States in particular. These skillful scholars entice recruits to join a cause that appears to offer worldly pleasures and adventures, as well as spiritual salvation through jihad.

Though ISIS adherents subscribe to a return to seventh-century values that condone mass murder, the grotesque brutalization of captives, sexual slavery of minority women and children, and the forced subjugation of non-believers, they are not stupid. Quite the opposite, they are true believers who have shown both fanatical zeal and commitment, as well as great skill in manipulating world opinion and outmaneuvering their enemies.

Many ISIS adherents have shown a willingness to die as martyrs for their global cause, the definition of true believers. We thus cannot afford to underestimate our enemies intellectual capabilities in pursuing their twisted vision. They are not the junior varsity or second-string team. They are shrewdly waging psychological and physical war with the limited resources at their disposal. Twice in the past decade they have fought the U.S. military  the worlds preeminent fighting force  very nearly to a draw on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defeating ISIS and its ilk will require not only engaging them directly through force of arms and overwhelming information operations, but also taking decisive steps to cut off the support they receive from both state and non-state actors. Unfortunately, many of these supporters of ISIS and other Islamic extremists groups come from nations that are nominal U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the Persian Gulf kingdoms and Pakistan. Convincing them that such extremists groups are ultimately a threat to their own stability will be difficult, and require great diplomatic dexterity and sophistication. We must resist the entrenched bureaucratic mindset, however, that would look the other way at this double-dealing and clandestine support for ISIS and its allies.

As you read these words, the war we are engaged in with ISIS is claiming the lives of innocent people on multiple fronts. The misery and suffering are intense, and the staggering number of atrocities continue to mount in a toll that assaults the collective sense of justice of the civilized world. It is consequently in our best interests, and those of our allies, that this war be brought to an end as soon as possible. We must face the fact that a long war works to the advantage of ISIS. The suffering of people being enslaved, raped, tortured and murdered does not factor into their calculations, nor does the traumatization of impacted societies. ISIS only has one aim: to conquer and compel all people under their dominion to accept their fundamentalist and perverted interpretation of Islam, or die. For them time thus has no meaning. Unless directly confronted, attacked, and decisively defeated, ISIS will continue to do whatever it takes  for as long as it takes  to establish and expand their dreamed of caliphate of tyranny.

When the United States leads a real fighting coalition to defeat ISIS, it will be our right and prerogative to argue the how and why of this war. We can discuss the mistakes made by political and military leaders, the philosophical and ideological underpinnings of the conflict, and hopefully the lessons learned that led to success. But if we lose  and we must admit the real possibility that ISIS will ultimately achieve its goals absent decisive U.S. action  then the narrative of this war will belong to the victors. Because that would be a black day for all of civilization, I say lets stop just participating in this never-ending conflict and instead win it, once and for all.

Portions of this essay have been adapted from the forthcoming book "The Field of Fight."


IIn 1939 a young man opened a car dealership to realize the American dream. He built his business up from nothing. He worked hard and he created jobs.

He developed a good reputation in his community  so much so that he was asked to supply the cars during President John Kennedys tragic visit to Texas in November 1963.

When the man passed away, his business was passed along to his only child who wanted to continue in his fathers footsteps. After the funeral, while still in grief, the IRS came to collect 55 percent of the value of the business from the son. He nearly declared bankruptcy.

Unlike many other victims of the death tax, the son was able to pull enough resources together to keep his fathers business afloat.

Today, the son still runs his fathers car dealership and employs more than one hundred dedicated workers. That son is me.

To the average lawmaker on Capitol Hill, my story is unique. To the average hardworking American, my story is not.

The reality of our tax code is that it is a bloated, costly mess of business-killing measures that does nothing but line the pockets of an out-of-control, wasteful federal government that is 19 trillion dollars in debt.

As someone who has been in business for 44 years and now serves in Congress, I know this to be true firsthand.

While politicians  many of whom have never worked in the private sector, let alone owned a business themselves  devote all of their attention to Wall Street, they have forgotten about the 28 million small businesses that are forced to play defense every single day.

Instead of setting up American entrepreneurs for success, the U.S. government is constantly throwing barriers in front of them.

I first ran for Congress four years ago to fight for moms and dads who have risked everything to achieve the American dream. To fight for those who do not have the means to hire teams of lawyers and accountants to navigate our 70,000 page tax code and comply with unnecessary rules and regulations.

So last summer, I introduced seven bills that make up a comprehensive tax reform plan I call Jumpstart America. It will lower individual, corporate, payroll and capital gains taxes. It will allow for 100 percent expensing of fixed asset purchases and allow business owners to continue the use of the last in, first out method of accounting.

Jumpstart America will implement repatriation at 5 percent so U.S. companies are incentivized to return home.

As a business owner of many years, I have seen friends and colleagues lose gains earned from a lifetime of hard-work because of Washingtons failed tax policies that have not seen significant reform in 30 years.

It is for that reason that my plan calls for help for cash flowing middle class families and the businesses they run.

While certain presidential candidates are charging corporations for destroying the moral fabric of our great country, let us not forget, on this tax day, the hardest hit victims of our nations disastrous tax policies  hardworking American families and the small businesses that are run by them.
Today is traditionally known as Tax Day. (It was moved to Monday, April 18this year to accommodate a federal holiday.)

As millions of Americans work to beat the deadline to file tax returns, its important to note that numerous legal challenges to hold a corrupt IRS accountable for targeting conservative and Tea Party groups continue.

We were in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Thursday presenting arguments on behalf of 38 organizations which were unlawfully and unconstitutionally singled out by the IRS because of their political beliefs.

In arguments before the panel, the court was very critical of the IRS and its claim that it has instituted changes as a result of the targeting scheme. In fact, the court openly questioned whether the agency has made any significant changes to alter its unlawful behavior.

Its hard to find the IRS to be an agency we can trust, said Judge David B. Sentelle.

A stunning conclusion  one that no doubt got the attention of IRS attorneys and even former top IRS official Lois Lerner who is at the heart of the scandal and who was actually in the courtroom for the hearing.

The court also chastised the IRS for lengthy delays in considering applications  including from two of our clients still waiting for an IRS response after six years. The IRS had no explanation as to why some organizations are still waiting if sufficient corrective action, as the IRS asserted, has been taken.

This from the Washington Times: The lawyer for the IRS at one point acknowledged there were still potential problems with the way the agency monitors cases going forward, but insisted the initial targeting at the point groups apply for nonprofit status has ended.

A decision by the appeals court is expected in the weeks ahead.

Just last month, another federal appeals court struck a significant blow against the IRS and ruled that the agency, along with the Department of Justice, has been dragging its feet in providing key information requested in another lawsuit against the agency about the unlawful targeting scheme.

In March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected an appeal by the Obama Administration and highlighted a very frank and telling conclusion by the trial judge:

My impression is the government probably did something wrong in this case. Whether theres liability or not is a legal question. However, I feel like the government is doing everything it possibly can to make this as complicated as it possibly can, to last as long as it possibly can, so that by the time there is a result, nobody is going to care except the plaintiffs. . . . I question whether or not the Department of Justice is doing justice.

From the very beginning, when the IRS targeting scandal broke nearly three years ago, one of the most egregious actions of the IRS was the demand that conservative organizations that had applied for tax-exempt status provide answers to sensitive, private questions  a targeting tactic that clearly violated the First Amendment rights of those groups.

The IRS had no business seeking private, personal information as highlighted by one news report: . . . . the names of all financial contributors; lists of family members, details of their political affiliations and speculation about their plans to run for office; and details of organization members outside jobs. Groups were even told that they must detail members private communications with their local legislators or any contact with reporters. . . .

When the IRS unlawfully demanded such information, we advised our clients not to comply. However, some groups did provide sensitive information.

Now we learn that the Obama administration is considering releasing this sensitive information it unlawfully obtained  information that it should not have in its possession in the first place.

In a written legal response, the Justice Department clearly indicated that this sensitive information  which should remain private  may be made public:

The IRS expressly advised plaintiff that, if the application were approved, the IRS will be required by law to make the information that you submit in response to this letter available for public inspection, administration attorneys said. Plaintiff still submitted the information to the IRS to support its application, knowing that if it were granted, the information would be subject to public inspection.

Unbelievable. The Obama administration is actually blaming (and threatening to punish with public discloser) the victims of this targeting scheme for the administrations own unlawful action.

The brazen arrogance of the IRS and Obama administration continues unabated.

This Tax Day, we renew our pledge to hold the IRS accountable for an unlawful and unconstitutional targeting scheme that discriminated against conservative Americans.

Justice must be served.


New Yorkers often invoke a Yiddish word that defies quick translation but is widely understood throughout the nation  "chutzpah." Its classic definition, the boy who murders his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because hes an orphan, could apply to recent statements by all the leading presidential candidates.

Consider Republican front-runner Donald Trump. In an op-ed in Fridays Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trump doubled down on his earlier denunciation of the rigged rules of the GOPs nominating process by claiming that the rules have been flagrantly abused. Those are the same rules that have enabled him to parlay his television celebrity status into hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free media coverage, which, in turn, has helped make him the GOPs most popular candidate and likely nominee. Not too shabby for a candidate who not very long ago was a registered Democrat and Hillary Clintons financial supporter and BFF til he decided to challenge her for the presidency.

Trump complains that the partys undemocratic nominating system benefits only the interests of the "club" (says the owner of the exclusive Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach).

Is Mr. Trump not a silver-spoon-born insider of the group he claims to deplore? Is he not part of the political "club he seeks to dominate  the consultants, the pollsters, the politicians, the pundits, and the special interests" whom the system has enabled to grow "rich and powerful while the American people grow poorer and more isolated?"

Does the elite establishment not include a flamboyant builder who exploits the nation's bankruptcy laws to prosper while leaving his investors and condo owners holding the financial bag?

Is the newly minted "conservative" really opposed to the Republican partys tradition of giving states a say in how best to choose their candidates, or only when Colorado gives all its delegates to his rival? And why does the man who claims to favor "maximum transparency" refuse to release his tax returns, as even Hillary Clinton has done?

As New Yorkers say, Puh-leez.

Then there is anti-immigrant Ted (Rafael) Cruz, who was born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban-born father. In an effort to walk away from having denigrated New York values  New York baby boomers and older city residents may recall this phrase as code for anti-Semitism  Mr. Cruz on Thursday night denounced the political insider cabal in Washington.

Are U.S. senators almost by definition not members of that club, however wildly unpopular? New Yorkers were not the problem, Mr. Cruz told diners at the GOPs black-tie gala in the hotel that Mr. Trump built. The villain was Washington, where he has fought for the Constitution all his life.

Really? A politician who endorses patrolling Muslim neighborhoods in America in the name of preventing terrorism, upending Americas financial system by adopting the gold standard and abolishing the Internal Revenue Service would seem to be a man seeking to upend Americas Constitution-based system, not faithfully adhere to it. The only part of the Constitution that Mr. Cruz apparently finds unassailable is the Second Amendment banning restrictions on guns.

Republicans have no monopoly on oversized hypocrisy. Socialist Bernie Sanders wants the government to do everything from providing free health care and college tuition to breaking up big banks (leaving to more pragmatic dreamers the pesky issue of how such budget-busting programs would be implemented and financed). But he also claims that the government is overreaching if it tries to ban assault rifles, limit the amount of ammunition an individual can buy or enable individual citizens to sue gun manufacturers that have reason to know that weapons they have sold have financed a mass shooting, such as the Sandy Hook school massacre.

Asked by a reporter to defend his pro-gun views after Thursday nights debate, Mr. Sanders said there was a difference between having a view that is popular and being able to get something done about it. Wait. Isn't that Hillary's Clintons campaign theme  pragmatic compromise makes government effective?

Mrs. Clinton, too, is no stranger to chutzpah. Is she not the front-runner who endorses open and transparent government but refuses to release transcripts of her Wall Street speeches? Is she not almost surely trying to hide relatively benign comments about Goldman Sachs and Wall Street that would nonetheless undermine her claim that no big bank is too big to fail," and "no executive too big to jail."

The candidate of transparency has never explained the speeches, the fees she received or what she said to Goldman Sachs. Inevitable nominees apparently don't need to do so.
Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, responded Friday to Hillary Clinton's earlier claims that she had received more primary and caucus votes than the New York businessman.

"I have gotten more votes than anybody running, 2.3 million more than Senator Sanders. And it is 1.4 million more than Donald Trump," the Democratic favorite said during a CNN debate Thursday night. After 32 state primaries and caucuses, Clinton currently leads all candidates with 9.3 million total votes.

Trump shot back at Clinton while addressing approximately 7,000 attendees at a rally in Hartford, Conn. The billionaire real estate mogul minimized her lead in the popular vote, criticized low Democratic turnout and attacked Clinton's ability to grow the economy.

"Hillary Clinton got up yesterday, said I have more votes than Trump by a million or something. I've been running against 17 people. She's running against one. If I was running against four or five, I would have millions of votes against Hillary Clinton," Trump told the Connecticut Convention Center audience.

Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com
With his party bitterly split amid a sharply contested Democratic primary fight, President has decided to steer clear of the battle, according to a report Saturday.

"As the leader of the party and as the incumbent two-term president who also happens to have among Democrats and independents the highest favorable and approval ratings of any national elected official, unity is important," David Simas, White House political director, told the Los Angeles Times.

Obama appears to favor his former secretary of state and 2008 rival, Hillary Clinton, over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Obama has urged Democratic donors to rally behind Clinton and praised her work at the State Department while downplaying a furor over her use of a private email account while in the job.

But the White House statement indicates that Obama will formally stay out of the primary fight.

Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com
Hillary Clinton said Sunday that she is not worried about Donald Trump's new nickname for her  "Crooked Hillary."

Trump used the moniker Saturday in New York, hoping to replicate what he considers his successful previous nicknames for rivals, "Little Marco" and "Lyin' Ted."

"I don't respond to Donald Trump and his string of insults," Clinton said on "This Week."

"What I'm concerned about is how he goes after everybody else," Clinton continued. "He goes after women. He goes after Muslims. He goes after immigrants. He goes after people with disabilities," Clinton said.

Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com
State Democratic officials are facing mounting accusations they secretly coordinated with climate activists to investigate whether ExxonMobil hid the truth about global warming, as new documents show the collaboration went deeper than previously thought.

Emails obtained and released by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute show a number of state attorneys general and their staff received advice and guidance from environmental activists at a March 29 meeting in New York, on the same day as a major press conference.

The meeting included a presentation by Peter Frumhoff of the Union of Concerned Scientists on the imperative of taking action now on climate change. Matt Pawa, who litigated against Exxon in a global warming case, was also in attendance, giving a presentation regarding climate change litigation to the AGs and their staff.

The emails suggest a degree of secrecy surrounding the meeting. One email chain shows Pawa asking Lemuel Srolovic, chief of New York Attorney General Eric Schneidermans Environmental Protection Bureau, if he can confirm his attendance to a Wall Street Journal reporter. Srolovic requests he not do so.

My ask is if you speak to the reporter, to not confirm you attended or otherwise discuss the event, Srolovic wrote.

Another email chain shows Srolovic and Scott Kline, a Vermont assistant attorney general, even drawing up a Common Interest Agreement, in order to protect as privileged the discussions at the meeting.

The meeting occurred the same day as a press conference featuring former Vice President Al Gore where 17 attorneys general announced a coalition to more aggressively target oil companies they claim have deceived the public over the risks of climate change.

Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands, whose AG is an independent, announced probes into the oil giant the same day. California Attorney General Kamala Harris had announced a similar probe in January. The probes follow a related investigation by Schneidermans office, who subpoenaed Exxons financial records and emails last November.

The latest emails are hardly the first sign of a coordinated push against Exxon.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a January meeting in Manhattan was a key moment in the plan to unleash a Big Tobacco-style government probe of oil companies. The meeting brought together several veteran environmental activists to discuss how to establish in [the] publics mind that Exxon is a corrupt institution that has pushed humanity (and all creation) toward climate chaos and grave harm.

As more emails are released, Exxon is striking back.

These revelations from the meeting in January, and now these emails, show that there is a lot of collaboration, collusion, conspiracy -- pick a word -- that shows these groups and trial lawyers working together to attack a company that has 75,000 employees and millions of shareholders, Alan Jeffers, media relations manager for ExxonMobil told FoxNews.com. Thats who these people are attacking, these employees and shareholders who benefit when the company does well.

"In the end, it seems the only parties that may be breaking the law are those colluding AGs in their scheme to silence political opposition, while seeking funds for their preferred policy agenda, Chris Horner, an attorney who obtained the email records for the E&E Legal Institute and whose own group was targeted with a subpoena, wrote in a FoxNews.com op-ed.

A spokesman for the New York Attorney Generals office denied any accusation of collusion.

The office routinely collaborates with other states and receives input from outside organizations. Ultimately, decisions on which cases we pursue are based solely on the merits and the lawand nothing else," Matt Mittenthal told FoxNews.com in an email.

Schneiderman has indicated ExxonMobil is not the only energy company in his office's crosshairs, vowing to prosecute any that committed fraud to maximize profit at the public's expense to the fullest extent of the law.

ExxonMobil last week issued a challenge to a subpoena issued by the Virgin Islands, calling it unwarranted and an attack on ExxonMobils freedom of speech.

FoxNews.coms Jennifer Hickey contributed to this report.
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Buzz Cuts:

 Arent rigged systems supposed to be Trumps thing?

 Major fight brewing at RNC rules meeting this week

 Escape from New York: Bernie Sanders edition

 Voting is hard

 White privilege, indeed

ARENT RIGGED SYSTEMS SUPPOSED TO BE TRUMPS THING?

There is more than a little irony in a candidate who brags about exploiting corrupt systems complaining so bitterly about systematic corruption. But 2016 being what it is, maybe we shouldnt be so surprised.

Donald Trump wanted to make clear on Sunday to reporters on Staten Island that he was not encouraging violence at the Republican National Convention when he had warned the day before of a rough July for his adopted party if he was denied its presidential nomination.

I hope it doesnt involve violence. I hope it doesnt. Im not suggesting that, Trump reportedly said. I hope it doesnt involve violence, and I dont think it will. But I will say this, its a rigged system, its a crooked system. Its 100 percent corrupt.

Trumps focus on the corruption of the process is a good excuse to his supporters for why he is not doing better than he is in the delegate hunt. It is also a powerful message for those who believe that the entirety of the system, not just the nominating process, is rigged against them. And its tacit acknowledgement that Trump understands that he faces longish odds of capturing the nomination outright.

The campaigns focus on the process also cuts the other way, though. It has given his main rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, the chance to mock Trump for whining. Certainly, a person who once said that Americans would win so much under a President Trump that they would get bored with winning doesnt sound good rationalizing losses.

Theres something else, too.

Trumps critics have long pointed out the incongruity of Trumps organizational failures with his frequent boasts that his solutions to most of the nations ills involve, at least in part, hiring the best people. And thats a fair criticism. If managerial prowess is a candidates central selling point, a process that is both knowable and relatively weak should be no problem.

Not only should he have been able to hire people who had figured out this delegate business in the 10 months Trump has been running, but this is exactly the kind of system in which Trump has claimed he excels.

Trump explained his decades of donations to unpopular politicians in both parties by saying he was winning in a rigged, corrupt system. Its the same for the relationships he made with unseemly figures in New Yorks construction business. And its definitely what he has said about his use of bankruptcy laws. When Trump defends his corporate bankruptcies he has said he used the laws of this country to do a great job.

The candidate promises that because he has been the master of corrupt systems in business, he will now master corruption on behalf of his supporters as the GOP nominee and president.

But if the Wyoming Republican Party is too hard to break and 10 months is not long enough to learn the system, what does that say about Trumps chances to actually deliver on his promise to run the government like his businesses?

A better turn for the GOP frontrunner would be to focus on revving up his base on issues, not process. Yes, the warnings about violence and endless attacks on the system might petrify the lily-liveredest members of the GOP establishment into trying to hand him the nomination. That point, though, has now been well made.

Better for Trump to keep the focus on what brought him this far: hot rhetoric and controversy about immigration and the dangers of Islamists. Throw in some insults for his rivals, some attacks on the press and youve got the right combination to keep his supporters beyond his home state coming out to vote.

Trump offers sweeteners for Nevada delegates - WashExs David Drucker reports: Donald Trumps campaign is going all out to win delegates in Nevada, offering to cover transportation and lodging costs for Nevada supporters who travel to Reno in mid-May to participate in delegate elections. Trumps Nevada activities contradict his claim that he has deliberately declined to invest resources in the election of delegates to the Republican nominating convention in Cleveland because the process is corrupt.

Major fight brewing at RNC rules meeting this week - AP: In an extraordinary display of internal discord, the chairman of the Republican Partys rules committee accused top GOP officials Saturday of a breach of our trust by improperly trying to impede a proposed change in bylaws that would make it harder for party leaders to nominate a fresh candidate for president. Bruce Ash, RNC committeeman from Arizona, wrote the harshly worded email to the other 55 members of the GOP rules committee that he chairs. The confidential email, obtained by The Associated Press, was written days before party officials gather in Hollywood, Florida, for preliminary discussions about what rules the GOP will use at its presidential nominating convention this JulyAsh said he has become troubled during discussions with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and other party officials that by not making the proposed change, GOP officials could use their power to attempt to achieve a political result at the nominating convention.

Cruz sweeps delegates at Wyoming state convention - Wyoming Tribune Eagle: Cruz picked up all 14 of the states delegates who were up for grabs Saturday at the State GOP Convention at the Parkway Plaza in Casper. The Wyoming Republican Partys presidential selection process involves several steps, but after Saturdays vote, Cruz had ultimately garnered at least 24 of the states 29 delegates.

Borneo on the Powder River - the Allies didnt invade every Japanese island. We skipped some to get to the prize.  Alan Cobb, senior adviser to Donald Trumps campaign, explaining to CNN the candidates defeat in Wyoming.

Meet Trumps base - WSJ travels to a remote county in Virginia that came out in full force for Trump in Virginias March primary  a county that was once heavily Democratic. Why? Disenfranchisement of coal, unemployment, and a rapidly shrinking population: Voters here say Mr. Trump understands their frustration and will fight the Washington establishment on their behalf. In an area awash in uncertaintyWill mines remain open? Will the river flood? Must the young leave to find work?he is a reassuring presence, someone who has visited their living rooms for years via television.

Maybe he meant a laugh riot? - National Reviews Jonah Goldberg refutes the idea that conservatives like himself will come around to the idea of voting for Trump: After I criticized the [NY Posts Trump endorsement] on Twitter, a Trump supporter tweeted at me No Goldberg, you are wrong. Support the front runner and stop trying to burn the party. Unite it. This lover of unity and champion of party loyalty goes by the Twitter handle TrumpOrRiot.

Rethinking Cruzs general election chances - National Journals Josh Kraushaar lays out why Cruz isnt such a bad general election candidate: The main reason Cruz will be competitive for the presidency is the fundamental reality of the 2016 election. With the backdrop of a disaffected electorate and a deeply polarizing president leaving office after two terms, any Republican nominee benefits from being the candidate of change. Democrats are also dealing with their own deepening intra-party divideone that, if it werent for the headline-grabbing rise of Donald Trump, would be the defining theme of the 2016 elections.

[GOP delegate count: Trump 755; Cruz 559; Kasich 144 (1,237 needed to win)]

WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE

Sales of vinyl records reached a 28-year high in 2015 and on Record Store Day over the past weekend encouraging hipsters young and old to savor the rich pop and hiss of a needle in a groove, 2016 is expected to be even better. Its one thing to try to recapture the old sound, but what about trying to recapture the old discs themselves? Longreads brings us the story of a journalist whos nostalgia trip led him to try to get back all of his old records  not the same album titles, but the albums themselves. Most of my records disappeared in a blur. But I remember the last one. It was the Replacements Let It BeDuring a visit to my parents, I found it in my old bedroom closet--the one record Id always managed to talk myself out of selling. But at this point, it seemed silly to hold on to itThere was no value in these physical relics, which (Id told myself) symbolized only lonely nights in my teenage bedroom[I] believed I hadnt actually lost anything. And thats what I kept telling myself, and kept believing.

Got a TIP from the RIGHT or the LEFT? Email FoxNewsFirst@FOXNEWS.COM

POLL CHECK

Real Clear Politics Averages

National GOP nomination: Trump 40.4 percent; Cruz 30.6 percent; Kasich 21 percent

National Dem nomination: Clinton 47.2 percent; Sanders 46 percent

General Election: Clinton vs. Trump: Clinton +9.9 points

Generic Congressional Vote: Republicans +0.5

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK: BERNIE SANDERS EDITION

Sen. Bernie Sanders would have been excused for skipping Tuesdays New York primary altogether.

All the polls indicate that his native state will be a blowout for frontrunner Hillary Clinton. And by spending time and resources in the Empire State, Sanders increases the value of her expected win in the campaign narrative.

But Sanders isnt in the narrative-building business right now. Hes playing the delegate game in hopes that he can have the strongest possible position when the primaries are all done. And any delegate he can snatch from Clinton in New York is valuable.

Sanders best-case scenario looks like this: He wins enough bound delegates before the voting ends so that Clinton would have to rely on the majority of the partys 712 superdelegates to clinch the nomination at their partys convention. Not only would that leave the door open to superdelegate switches and a long-shot Sanders win, but also would increase Sanders bargaining power.

At some point, Clinton will have to try to more directly appease Sanders. For now, its been an effort to slide left and sway voters, but eventually it will be about meeting his specific demands. If Clinton has a superdelegate-dependent victory, she would need her rivals support and blessing far more than if she can win it outright.

Sanders as running mate? Maybe Elizabeth Warren? Particular platform proposals? If the count is close enough and Clinton needs Sanders not to cry foul, anything is possible.

Plus, if Sanders somehow were to pull off a come-from-behind victory, it would be a devastating blow to Clinton. And theres little downside to trying. Hes supposed to lose anyway, so as long as Sanders nets a decent delegate haul New York wont hurt him.

But a 20-point blowout and a delegate disappointment could be quite damaging.

What Sanders needs to do is get out of Tuesday without suffering a crippling loss. Like Snake Plisskin, having broken in to New York, now he just has to get out alive.

Clinton donor got big loans from Hillarys State Department - Daily Caller: Hillary Clintons Department of State awarded at least $13 million in grants, contracts and loans to her longtime friend and Clinton Foundation donor Muhammad Yunus, despite his being ousted in 2011 as managing director of the Bangladesh-based Grameen Bank amid charges of corruption, according to an investigation by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Bernie escalates attacks on Hillary speeches - The Hill: Bernie Sanders rallied a huge crowd in his home borough of Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon, with a speech that drew stark and sometimes scathing comparisons with his rival, Democratic front-runner Hillary ClintonNoting that Clinton has received as much as $225,000 per speech, Sanders said: Now, if you give a speech for $225,000, it must be a pretty damn good speech; must be a brilliant and insightful speech analyzing all of the worlds problems; must be a speech written in Shakespearean prose. And that is why I believe Secretary Clinton should share that speech with all of us.

Voting is hard - LAT: With nearly half a million registered members, the American Independent Party is bigger than all of California's other minor parties combined. The ultraconservative party's platform opposes abortion rights and same sex marriage, and calls for building a fence along the entire United States border.  But a Times investigation has found that a majority of its members have registered with the party in error. Nearly three in four people did not realize they had joined the party, a survey of registered AIP voters conducted for The Times found. That mistake could prevent people from casting votes in the June 7 presidential primary, California's most competitive in decades.  Residents  including Sugar Ray Leonard, Demi Moore and Emma Stone  were among those who believed they were declaring that they preferred no party affiliation when they checked the box for the American Independent Party.

[Dem delegate count: Clinton 1758; Sanders 1076 (2,383 needed to win)]

WHITE PRIVILEGE, INDEED

Denver Post: Panic ensued on a college campus last week when social media fueled rumors that a member of the Klu Klux Klan had been spotted. The man, as students later realized, wasnt a Klan member, but rather Father Jude McPeak, an ordained priest from Evergreen, in line for frozen yogurt while wearing his habit. Students from Indiana University took to Twitter to caution fellow students of a man dressed in white robes who was seen on campus carrying a whip. A university dorm resident advisor subsequently sent out a cautionary email to students in his building, and campus-wide chaos ensuedIve learned early on to kind of ignore things when Im out, so when I was at Red Mango getting yogurt, I had no idea what was going on around the campus, McPeak said.

Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Sally Persons contributed to this report. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.
The way that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were savaging each other in Brooklyn, youd think they were miles apart politically.

But thats kind of an illusion. Theyre really not all that different on the issues.

Its in the nature of party primaries that the contenders have to exaggerate their differences. They need to portray their rivals as hopelessly wrong and misguided on a laundry list of subjects, or else the contest seems purely personaland indeed, its gotten bitterly personal between these two Democrats.

But when you drill down, the distinctions that raised Bernies decibel level to 11 at the CNN debate turn more on nuance than matters of mighty principle.

Sanders wants to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Clinton also wants to raise the minimum wage, but to $12. So theres a grand total of three bucks between themand Hillary, who quickly said she sorta likes $15, has a more complicated plan (naturally) depending on local cost-of-living.

Both the Vermont senator and the former first lady say they want to rein in Wall Street. Sanders goes further rhetorically when it comes to breaking up the big banks, but (as Clinton pointed out) couldnt tell New Yorks Daily News what laws he would use. His main argument is that Clinton is too close to Wall Street big shots, with the infamous six-figure speeches to Goldman Sachs, to have credibility on the subject. But when challenged by CNN, Sanders couldnt name anything Clinton had done that was influenced by those ties.

Gun control is Clintons pivotal issue against Sanders, but he has supported, for instance, an assault-weapons ban, despite being from a rural state with no gun control laws. He does differ from her on shielding gun manufacturers from liability suits. But by and large, they are both in favor of tighter gun controls.

Fossil fuels? Clinton doesnt accept money from the industry, as Sanders once charged, because that would be illegal. Her campaign has taken money from people who work in the industry, and the Sanders camp has taken a much lesser amount. Neither is exactly sympathetic to the oil and gas crowd.

One of the greatest debate clashes was over Israel. Sanders, taking an unusual step in a New York Democratic primary, spoke sympathetically about respecting the Palestinians (and criticized the Jewish state for a disproportionate response to provocations in Gaza). But as secretary of State, Clinton also pursued an administration policy that would ultimately lead to a two-state solutionjust as her husband did, and as Sanders favors. And despite her pro-Israel rhetoric, no administration could orchestrate a peace deal without treating the Palestinian side with respect. Indeed, Clinton said at the debate she would try to get an agreement that will be fair both to the Israelis and the Palestinians, while protecting Israels security.

The list goes on. On issue after issue, Hillary and Bernie are, yes, liberal Democrats. They are light-years away from the Republicans on banking, minimum wage, gun control and other issues. There was a similar dynamic between Clinton and Barack Obama eight years ago. Sure, Sanders goes much further in promising, say, free college tuition, but even there Clinton decided to pitch a program of grants to the states that would allow students to avoid taking out loans.

And that is telling. While it looks virtually impossible for Sanders to win the nomination, he has basically won the argument, with Clinton sliding left on a whole host of issues, including the Pacific trade deal she once backed.

In the end, it shouldnt be hard for Bernie supporters to back Hillaryexcept that many of them, who adore the 74-year-old lawmaker, are mad at her. And the two candidates are really fed up with each other. But that has far more to do with personality than ideology.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The first Air France flight between Paris and Tehran for eight years landed in the Islamic republics capital on April 17, bearing a government minister and a business delegation.

The airlines route had been suspended since 2008 because of international sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear program. However, sanctions have been lifted under an accord with world powers that has now been in force for three months, Armenpress reports, citing France24.

Flight AF738 from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle touched down at Tehrans Imam Khomeini international airport at 1530 GMT, 20 minutes ahead of schedule, an AFP journalist said. French Transport Minister Alain Vidalies was on board, along with members of a delegation some 15-strong who will spend two days in the Iranian capital.

At a welcoming ceremony Vidalies said he was proud of the resumption of these direct flights and said being able to move between Paris and Tehran was crucial... for entering into partnerships. Irans deputy transport minister, Ali Abedzadeh, said he was happy to see the Air France service resume.

Frederic Gagey, the airlines chief executive, spoke of its great pride in returning to Iran.

However, resumption of the service caused controversy in France after unions said the airline sent an internal memo saying female cabin crew would have to wear trousers on board with a loose fitting jacket and must cover their hair with a scarf when they leave the plane.

The headscarf rule is already in place when flying to certain destinations such as Saudi Arabia.

But on April 18, a company official said female staff would be allowed to opt out of the route and the airline will appoint a special unit to replace those who do not want to fly to Tehran.

Italys Alitalia, Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa of Germany already fly to Tehran, and British Airways is planning to resume its London-Tehran service in July.
A Capitol Hill push to reinstate a Green Beret discharged after confronting an Afghan boys accused rapist has garnered high-profile celebrity support  from actor Harvey Keitel, just days before an expected decision on the case.

The star of such films as Mean Streets and Reservoir Dogs reached out to the office of Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., one of Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martlands most vocal advocates, to go on the record in support of the Green Beret.

A former Marine himself, Keitel said Martland and his team leader deserve a medal  not punishment  for their actions.

[W]hen I was a young Marine I understood we were present in order to help others who did not have the wherewithal to protect themselves, Keitel wrote, in an email to Hunter chief of staff Joe Kasper. Whomever owns the idea that decided to reprimand these two men instead of giving them a medal for their actions should be asked what the hell they wouldve done if it was their child in question 

The email was shared with FoxNews.com. Kasper said he also spoke by phone with Keitel who affirmed his support.

After a recent delay in consideration of the case, a decision on Martlands fate is now expected by May 1.

Martland, an 11-year Special Forces veteran, was stationed in Afghanistan in 2011 when he and team leader Capt. Daniel Quinn confronted  and, according to accounts of the incident, body-slammed  a local police commander who allegedly had raped a 12-year-old boy.

Martland has said he and Quinn confronted the commander after confirming the allegations with village elders and others. He claims Quinn got a "first-hand confession" but the confrontation turned physical after the commander laughed it off.

Because of their intervention, the Army had Quinn and Martland removed from the camp in Kunduz Province and eventually sent home from Afghanistan. Quinn has since left the Army, but Martland was ordered discharged, a decision he continues to fight. The incident is not officially the reason for the discharge, but was seen as contributing to his separation.

Martland has called the decision to discharge him morally wrong. Broadly speaking, military leaders have defended the response to abuse allegations in Afghanistan and say soldiers weren't instructed to look the other way amid reports of other such incidents.

But the Army has deliberated over Martlands case for months.

In his email lending support to the Green Beret, Keitel, 76, said U.S. values are on the line.

I am a citizen of the US, married, a father, actor and former Marine. American values are on the line here, and no person I know would not have taken the same actions SFC Martland and Capt. Daniel Quinn did to protect a child, period, he wrote. Thats an American value.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in an implicit jab at Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump, said he is increasingly optimistic" that voting at the Republican National Convention in July will go to a second ballot.

The comments, made over the weekend to WHAS-TV in Louisville, represent a break of sorts for the Kentucky Republican who has sought in public to remain neutral on the race. While McConnell did not openly criticize any candidate, the senator seemed to be rooting for a contested convention  something Trump is battling to avoid, as he tries to lock up the nomination outright before July.

"I'm increasingly optimistic that there actually may be a second ballot," McConnell told WHAS-TV.

"I want somebody who can win in November and the whole process is about trying to beat Hillary Clinton in November," he said. "And I think our delegates, if they end up actually having the latitude to make a decision, which would occur on the second and third ballot, are going to be interested in who can win."

A candidate would have to amass the support of 1,237 delegates in order to clinch the nomination. While it's still possible for Trump to reach that number ahead of the GOP convention in Cleveland, it'll be tough. If Trump cannot reach that threshold, voting would proceed to a second ballot at the convention, with a majority of delegates free to vote for whomever they choose.

And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has been working tirelessly to get allies elected as delegates so they could be in place to support him on subsequent rounds of voting. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, too, while trailing badly in the delegate race, is holding out hope for a contested convention.

Its a process Trump has decried as rigged. But McConnells comments, combined with Cruzs recent success in the behind-the-scenes delegate-selection battle, only raise the pressure on Trump to try and avoid that process entirely -- by securing the nomination outright.

Hell have his next chance on Tuesday when New York state holds its primary. Both Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton are fighting for a rebound in the delegate-rich contest after recent setbacks.

Yet for both primary front-runners, simply winning is not necessarily enough.

For Clinton, shes looking for a big victory to not only disrupt rival Bernie Sanders winning streak but blunt his claims of momentum in the Democratic race.

For Trump, he needs to score over 50 percent of the statewide vote to have a shot at taking home all 95 of the states delegates. Trump has been campaigning heavily in the state toward that goal, and most recent polls shows him with just over 50 percent support in the state, holding a huge double-digit lead over the rest of the field.

In his interview, McConnell said that if voting at the convention does go to a second round, it would then be up to Trump, Cruz, Kasich "or anyone else," to make the electability argument.

McConnell said that he anticipates he himself will be a delegate, and "on the second ballot I'll be free to do whatever I want."

"There are some candidates suggesting it's somehow tricky to simply follow the rules of the convention," McConnell said, in an apparent reference to Trump's complaints about the process. "We're going to follow the rules of the convention."

In response to his interviewer's questions, McConnell ruled himself out of contention, although there has been little if any talk about such a scenario. He also said he believes House Speaker Paul Ryan's disavowals of interest in the nomination, something that remains a topic of speculation despite Ryan's attempts to shut it down.

"It really will be up to the delegates," McConnell said. "I mean this notion that there's some group of people in Washington that can handpick somebody and deliver it is not true. If there were such a group I would probably be a part of it, but there isn't a group."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Catholic parishioners in Vermont reportedly are seeking a federal probe into whether Bernie Sanders wife committed loan fraud when she was president of Burlington College -- by allegedly exaggerating the amount of money the college could raise in order to secure millions for a land deal.

According to a report published Monday morning by Heat Street, the allegations against Jane OMeara Sanders were laid out in a letter sent by Brady Toensing, vice chair of the Vermont GOP, to the U.S. attorney in January. The claims stem from Sanders time as president of Burlington College between 2004 and 2011. Toward the end of her tenure, she secured loans for a $10 million purchase of 32 acres from the Roman Catholic diocese as part of a campus expansion, Heat Street reported.

But according to the report, Sanders at the time claimed the college had more than $2 million in fundraising commitments and pledges. Peoples United Bank reportedly extended a $6.7 million tax-exempt loan with this understanding. The diocese reportedly underwrote a nearly $3.7 million loan as well, giving its debt repayment lower priority than the banks.

Yet, according to the report, the lofty fundraising pledges did not materialize as planned. According to one local report, the college raised just $279,000 in fiscal 2011. In the end, the diocese reportedly did not receive the full repayment of the loan, losing between $1.6 and $2 million, according to the investigation request.

A spokesperson for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders earlier this year called these accusations recycled, discredited garbage, in a statement to Burlington TV channel WCAX.

Heat Street is a new blog that launched Monday, aiming to challenge political correctness and 'safe space' culture. It is owned by News Corp.
The Supreme Court appeared split along ideological lines Monday as justices took up one of the most significant challenges yet to President Obamas use of executive power -- an election-year dispute over his bid to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation and make them eligible to work in the U.S.

The justices questions and comments over the course of the 90-minute arguments left the possibility of a 4-4 tie -- which would represent a defeat for the Obama administration. A split decision also would set no guiding precedent on the use of presidential authority moving forward.

Still, comments by Chief Justice John Roberts helped keep a final decision in doubt, as he suggested a possible quick-fix in a key part of the policy. In doing so, he gave possible hope to the White House and its allies, even if a split decision still appears the most likely outcome.

"We believe at the end of the day, that even though there are only eight justices, there will be enough justices to uphold the policies, said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who is backing the White House.

But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was also inside the court, warned, "If we allow a president  to make changes in the law without congressional approval, then we will end up with a perverted Constitution."

Texas is leading 26 states dominated by Republicans in challenging the programs Obama announced in 2014 and that have been put on hold by lower courts.

At issue is whether as many as 5 million illegal immigrants can be spared deportation -- including those who entered the U.S. as children, and the parents of citizens or legal residents. The programs -- known as Deferred Action for Parents of American Citizens and Permanent Residents (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) -- effectively went around the Republican-led Congress. The court is expected to decide by late June whether the efforts can move forward in the waning months of Obama's presidency, amid a presidential campaign marked by tough Republican rhetoric over immigration.

The justices on Monday were considering a fundamental question: how much power does the president truly have?

But the 90-minute public session dealt mostly with a more mundane question -- whether the states have legal authority, or "standing," to even bring their case.

Some liberal justices seemed to reject Texas' claim of great financial and sovereign harm by voluntarily using taxpayer dollars to subsidize drivers licenses given to undocumented workers.

"Those nearly 11 million unauthorized aliens are here in the shadows. They are affecting the economy whether we want to or not," said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. "The answer is, if Congress really wanted not to have an economic impact, it would ... allot the amount of money necessary to deport them, but it hasn't."

But Justice Anthony Kennedy questioned Obama's authority. "That's the whole point, is that you've talked about discretion here. What we're doing is defining the limits of discretion. And it seems to me that that is a legislative, not an executive act," he said. "That seems to me to have it backwards. It's as if the president is setting the policy and the Congress is executing it. That's just upside-down."

Only Roberts among the conservative bloc seemed open to a compromise.

At issue was a two-word phrase in the Obama-issued policies -- "lawful presence" -- which opponents say gives undocumented aliens greater access to benefits than was intended by Congress.

Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito pointed out the confusion, wondering what the difference was between "lawfully present" and "legally present," which the Justice Department said were two separate things.

"How can it be lawful to work here but not lawful to be here?" asked Alito.

The chief justice -- who years ago helped preserve ObamaCare -- later said "crossing out" the "lawfully present" phrase might keep the executive action intact, a suggestion the Justice Department lawyer eagerly embraced, saying it would be "totally fine."

The coalition of states calls the presidents immigration actions an executive power grab. But the White House contends this authority is clear, and the policies humane and reasonable. Obama has promoted his program as a plan to "prioritize deporting felons not families."

A federal appeals court earlier had struck down DAPA, which has yet to go fully into effect. The Justice Department then asked the high court for a final review. The immigrants who would benefit from the Obama administration's plan are mainly parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

However, as with other high-profile Supreme Court appeals this term -- on ObamaCare, abortion rights and affirmative action -- the outcome here likely will be affected by the death in February of Justice Antonin Scalia, which left a 4-4 bench split along conservative-liberal lines.

A 4-4 ruling would effectively scuttle the issue until after Obama leaves office in nine months, and mean at least a temporary setback to his domestic policy legacy. The justices also could rule narrowly on procedure, finding a compromise on a technical issue not directly related to the larger policy questions.

On the legal side, the GOP-controlled House filed an amicus brief supporting the states, telling the high court, "the Executive does not have the power to authorize -- let alone facilitate -- the prospective violation of the immigration laws on a massive class-wide scale."

The case is U.S. v. Texas (15-674).

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tens of thousands of voters, including high-profile celebrities such as Kaley Cuoco, Demi Moore and Emma Stone, have accidentally registered as members of a small conservative party in California, according to a new survey.

The Los Angeles Times said that a telephone survey of 500 members of the American Independent Party found nearly three of four members did not realize they had enrolled in a political party that opposes abortion rights and same-sex marriage and calls for building a fence along the southern U.S. border.

The newspaper said voters were confused by the use of the word "independent" in the party's name. In California, voters who do not want to register with any party must check a box on a registration form for "no party preference."

This mistake could prevent people from casting their votes in Californias June 7 primary.

The Times reported that those who made the mistake include celebrities like Moore, Cuoco, Stone and Sugar Ray Leonard. Moore has contributed money to and campaigned for President Obama, the Associated Press reported.

"Demi Moore is not, nor has ever been, a member of the American Independent Party," a representative for Moore told the Times.

The views of this party do not accurately reflect my personal beliefs and I am not affiliated with any political party, Cuoco, known for her role on The Big Bang Theory, said in a statement to The Times. As such, I am taking the necessary steps to immediately remove my name as a member of this voting party.

Yet it isnt just celebrities getting mixed up. Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, accidentally registered as an American Independent in 2007, the Times reported.

The AIP dates back to 1967 when segregationist and former Democrat George Wallace launched his second run for the White House and created a new party in the process. The party now only exists in California.

"We're not segregationist anymore," said Markham Robinson, who serves as chairman of the American Independent Party's executive committee. "What we are now is a conservative, constitutionalist party."

The AIP expressed skepticism about the findings but also offered regret to those who had been confused when filling out the form.

Of people surveyed in the Times poll, fewer than 4 percent could correctly identify their own registration as a member of the American Independent Party.

When Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, registered to vote in 2013, he selected the American Independent Party. A family spokesman said Schwarzenegger, 22, plans to change his registration.

According to the Secretary of State's Office, the party has about 472,000 members, or 2.7 percent of the statewide total.

Voters with the American Independent Party will only be allowed to vote for candidates on the party's ballot, the Times reported. The Republicans will have a closed primary, while the Democrats will allow unaffiliated voters to participate.

The deadline to register or change voter registration status for the June 7 primary is May 23.

Some voters who mistakenly registered with the party said they found the state's official registration materials confusing.

Gail Pellerin, Santa Cruz Countys registrar of voters, said the problem has been around for a while.

I had a voter totally break down and cry in my lobby, Pellerin told The Times, recalling a young woman who wanted to vote in the 2008 Democratic primary between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, but couldnt because she'd registered with the American Independent Party.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Facing increasing public pressure and potential lawsuits, Carnival Corporation announced Monday morning that its volunteerism-based cruise line Fathom will not take its inaugural cruise to Cuba until Cuban government officials agree to allow Cuban-born Americans to travel to Cuba on its ships.

Fathom also announced that effective immediately, it is accepting bookings for Fathom cruises to Cuba from all individuals, including Cuban-born Americans, for cruises on the 704-passenger Adonia cruise ship that are set to begin with every-other-week cruises starting May 1.

We have an obligation to all our employees, and to the communities in which they work and live, to be the best corporate citizen we can be."  Arnold Donald, Carnival Corp. President & CEO

In making the announcement, Carnival Corp. president and CEO Arnold Donald sent a letter to the companys 120,000 employees explaining the companys position, a sharp change from its decision last week to accept Cubas regulations and not allow Cuban-born Americans to sail on the cruise.

We have an obligation to all our employees, and to the communities in which they work and live, to be the best corporate citizen we can be, Donald said in the employee letter. We believe this approach best supports that objective.

Donald said he remains confident that Cuban officials will change their minds, considering the fact that Cuban-born Americans are already allowed to travel to Cuba by air.

As we continue our discussions with Cuba, and in anticipation of Fathom travelers being on equal footing with those who travel by air, we are accepting bookings from all travelers, including Cuba-born individuals, Donald said. However, if Cubas decision is delayed beyond May 1, we will delay the start of our sailings.

Its a high-stakes game of political chicken with Cuba that Carnival Corp. feels it will win. The company faced public scrutiny as well and was sued late last week by Cuban-born Americans looking to be able to take the cruise under protection of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Donald said he is confident that Cuban officials will change their position, but that the company could not justify keeping Cuban-born Americans from booking the voyage.

We are privileged to be the first cruise company to be taking guests from the U.S. to Cuba and back in over 50 years, as travel is one of the great equalizers in bringing the world closer together, he said. We take great pride in our diversity as a corporation. With 120,000 employees representing more than 60 countries from around the world, respecting the sensitivities of people from all backgrounds is a core value.

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With more than a foot of rain falling in parts of Houston by Monday afternoon and much of the surrounding areas shut down, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster in nine counties.

At a late afternoon press conference, Abbott said there had been over 1,000 water rescues. Authorities also were investigating two fatalities to see if they were weather related.

Crews watching the high water on a Houston freeway service road saw an 18-wheeler truck drive directly into high water, Harris County Precinct 5 Sgt. Herbert Martinez said. Workers later found the driver's body inside the truck.

Officials also were trying to determine if the storm was responsible for the death of a contractor working for the city's airport system whose body was found in a submerged vehicle.

The floods turned commuting into a nightmare, forced schools in the nation's fourth-largest city to close and knocked out power to thousands of people who were urged to shelter in place.

Mayor Sylvester Turner told people to stay home to fend off a weather system he called "stubborn." More rain was projected over the next two to three days although heavy downpours had subsided somewhat by midday and only another half-inch was expected through Monday night, he said.

Rain gauges in parts of Harris County, which includes most of Houston, showed water levels approaching 20 inches since late Sunday night. Ten-inch and higher rainfall amounts were common, particularly in west and north sections of the Southeast Texas area.

The Harris County Flood Control District reported 13 bayous and creeks out of their banks, several of them in Houston.

"There is water all over the place, there is flooding all over the place," Turner said.

The counties where Abbott declared a state of disaster were Austin, Bastrop, Colorado, Fort Bend, Grimes, Harris, Montgomery, Waller and Wharton.

Several shelters were established for people forced from their homes. At least 100 people taken from apartment complexes in the north part of the city were being sheltered at a shopping mall.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the county's chief administrator, said more than 1,000 homes were flooded.

"This is a rain event that's very significant, no question about it," he said. "Many of those homes haven't flooded before."

About 1 million students got the day off, including the Houston Independent School District's 215,000 students, Texas' largest public school district. Most colleges and universities also closed because of the bad weather.

No other major injuries were reported.

Dozens of Houston subdivisions flooded. At least two interstates -- I-10, the main east-west freeway, and I-45, the major north-south freeway -- were under water near downtown.

"We've seen those go under water before and they're under water again," Emmett said.

Other major freeways, plus some feeder roads leading to the highways, were blocked by high water.

"I was trying to get to work," Marcel Gwinn said as he was stranded for more than 90 minutes on an overpass in west Houston. "It kills me because my boss just told me that work's closed for the day."

Fire Department spokesman Jay Evans said the agency had made "numerous, numerous rescues."

"When you get off the freeways and off the main thoroughfares, you could be in water 10 to 15 feet deep," he said. "You do not want to trap yourself in these vehicles."

The storms were part of a wide weather system that left warnings and watches through Tuesday morning for Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Tyler-Longview and as far east as Texarkana.

One TV reporter in Houston helped to rescue a man who drove his car into a flooded underpass.

In the incident captured on video Monday, KTRK reporter Steve Campion yells, "Dude, you've got to get out of the car!"

The man opens the passenger door and crawls out into the water as the reporter yells: "Leave the car! Swim!"

The driver swims toward Campion, who wades out into the waist-deep water and extends his hand.

As the car slowly sinks under water, the driver tells Campion that he's OK and that he didn't think the water was so deep.

Houston, at near sea level and known for its "gumbo" soft soil, is no stranger to flooding from torrential rains, tropical storms and hurricanes. Last Memorial Day, heavy rains caused severe flooding in the southwest parts of the city. Bayous there quickly rose and the mayor urged residents to prepare for another round of floods.

"A lot of rain coming in a very short period of time, there's nothing you can do," Turner said. "I regret anyone whose home is flooded again. There's nothing I can say that's going to ease your frustration. We certainly can't control the weather."

George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston reported more than 500 flights canceled. A ground stop was in effect nearly all morning Monday, meaning all traffic in and out was halted. William P. Hobby Airport, the city's other major airport, canceled about 150 flights.

Just north of the airport, emergency crews were trying to rescue several horses trapped by high waters at a stable. Video images showed the animals struggling to keep their heads above water as people driving by on a nearby road yelled encouragement. The fate of the horses wasn't immediately known.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Florida man stabbed his estranged wife to death and ran over her body with his car Sunday night before murdering his two young children and committing suicide as police closed in.

Henry Ramone Brown, 30, hid in the trunk of Chericia Browns car as she dined at a Chilis restaurant in Lake Mary at around 10 p.m., FOX35 reported. When Chericia, 31, exited the establishment, Henry emerged and stabbed her before running off.

As two passersby attempted to help Chericia, Henry returned in a car, running over his wife and hitting the two people trying to help her. Paramedics took Chericia to a hospital where she later died. One of the two Good Samaritans remained hospitalized on Monday with unspecified injuries. The other had been released.

After hitting Chericia, Brown again fled the Chilis parking lot. This time he picked up his 4-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter from a babysitters apartment, before driving to Central Florida Regional Hospital, in a different vehicle, to try to find Chericia. There, he was confronted by police officers and Brown exchanged gunfire with authorities. No one was injured during the incident, officials said.

Police located Brown driving on I-4 just minutes later and used stop sticks to disable the vehicle. Inside the car, authorities found Brown and his two children dead. Officials believe Brown killed his son and daughter before committing suicide as officers surrounded him.

It was not clear how Brown killed the children, or how he killed himself.

Police were investigating the officer-involved shooting at the hospital, the Seminole County Sheriffs Office said in a statement.
Police have arrested a North Carolina man who they say shot his son in the leg for stealing food from a family member.

The Fayetteville Observer reports (http://bit.ly/1U39PdG) that a police statement said 49-year-old Ted Alan Walters of Elizabethtown found out Friday that his son allegedly stole hamburger and bacon from his grandmother's freezer.

The statement said Walters forced his way inside his son's home and shot the 25-year-old in the lower left leg. He told police he shot his son to teach him a lesson.

White Lake police Lt. Mike Salmon said Joshua Walters was taken to a Wilmington hospital with injuries not considered to be life threatening.

Ted Walters is charged with first-degree burglary and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. He is jailed under a $50,000 bond. It's not known whether he has an attorney.

___

Information from: The Fayetteville Observer, http://www.fayobserver.com
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. An armed attack has taken place towards the office of Turkeys ruling Justice and Development Party in Istanbuls Sultuce district at 23.00 local time.

As Armenpress reports citing Cumhuriyet newspaper, two unknown persons threw an explosive device to the yard behind the office. The explosive resulted in no injuries.

The police arrested a 15 year old suspect. The investigation is underway.
The State University of New York at Buffalo was forced to apologize this week after mistakenly emailing 5,000 prospective students to tell them that their application for admission had been accepted.

According to the Buffalo News, the admissions office gaffe meant the emails were sent to approximately 20 percent of applicants for the class of 2020.

Spokesman John DellaContrada says the mistaken email was sent Wednesday to students whose applications hadn't been fully reviewed. The university sent a second email about three to four hours later notifying the students of the gaffe and apologizing for it.

The university posted a statement on its website saying the "miscommunication occurred when an incorrect email list was generated from an applicant database."

According to the News, the second email explained that the school had intended to send a message reminding prospective applicants to fill out federal financial aid forms.

"In fact, we are still reviewing your application for admission and havent made a final decision on your acceptance to the university," the email signed by university vice provost Lee Melvin said. The email added that students who received the mistaken email would be updated on their application status by April 22.

In the past, prestigious colleges such as Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University and Fordham University. In 2009, the University of California at San Diego sent accidental acceptance letters to 28,000 prospective students were were supposed to receive rejection notices.

The University at Buffalo has about 30,000 students. The News reports the school anticipates receiving 5,450 freshman and transfer students this fall.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from the Buffalo News.
An Iraq-born University of California-Berkeley student has claimed he was told to leave a Southwest Airlines flight earlier this month after another passenger overheard him speaking Arabic.

Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, 26, says he was waiting for his flight to Oakland to take off from Los Angeles International Airport April 6 when he called his uncle, who lives in Baghdad. Makhzoomi, said that he was calling his uncle before the flight to tell him about a speech he had attended by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Makhzoomi told his uncle about asking a question on the ISIS terror group at the event. He said he used the phrase "inshallah," meaning "god willing," at the end of the conversation, and those things might have led to suspicion.

He said the woman sitting in front of him on the plane began staring at him. "That is when I thought, 'Oh, I hope she is not reporting me,' " Makhzoomi said.

Makhzoomi said an Arabic-speaking Southwest employee came and escorted him off the plane and asked him why he had been speaking Arabic.

Makhzoomi said he told the employee "This is what Islamophobia got this country into." Makhzoomi said that made the man angry and that was when he was told he could not get back on the plane.

Southwest Airlines said in a statement Sunday that Makhzoomi, was taken off the flight for questioning and the plane took off while that was happening. But the airline said it has not received a direct complaint from Makhzoomi, and he has not responded to several attempts to reach him.

"We regret any less than positive experience a customer has onboard our aircraft, the statement read in part. Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind."

The Daily Californian reported that Makhzoomi's family left Iraq in 2002 after his father, an Iraqi diplomat, was killed under the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein.

The FBI in Los Angeles said in a statement that it investigated the situation by request and found no further action was necessary.

Makhzoomi said he was able to get book a flight on another airline and got home eight hours later than planned.

"My family and I have been through a lot, and this is just another one of the experiences I have had," he told The New York Times. "Human dignity is the most valuable thing in the world, not money. If they apologized, maybe it would teach them to treat people equally."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been systematically shredding documents related to veterans' claims -- possibly affecting benefits for veterans, according to an investigation by the inspector general.

Investigators with the Department of Veterans Affairs audited 10 vererans benefits offices around the country and found that staff were destroying mail related to claims, according to a report by Military.com, citing an OIG report released on Thursday.

The surprise audit, which was conducted at the offices on July 20, 2015, came after reports of such document shredding in Los Angeles, the website reported.

Investigators reportedly sifted through some 438,000 documents awaiting destruction at the regional offices. Of 155 claims-related documents, 69 were found to have been incorrectly placed in shred bins at six of the regional offices, according to Military.com.

Those offices were in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Reno, Nev. At least two of the 69 documents headed to the shredder directly affected benefits and nine had the potential to, according to the website.

The OIG report concluded that, "The potential effect should not be minimized."

"Considering that there are 56 [VA regional offices], and if weekly shredding is conducted, it is highly likely that claims-related documents at other VAROs are being improperly scheduled for destruction that could result in loss of claims and evidence, incorrect decisions and delays in claims processing," the report said.

Click for more from Military.com
A bus exploded in Jerusalem on Monday, wounding at least 21 people in what police said was a "terror attack," raising fears of a return to the Palestinian suicide bombings that ravaged Israeli cities a decade ago.

"There is no doubt that this was a terror attack," Jerusalem police commissioner Yoram Halevy said. He said it was too early to know the identity of the attacker or if it was a suicide bombing.

"We are investigating where the explosive device came from, who planted it, how it got on the bus. All this is in the initial stages of investigation," he said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 21 people were wounded in the attack, two seriously, seven moderately and the rest lightly. Another bus and a car nearby were also damaged by the explosion.

It was not clear how many people were on the bus at the time it exploded. Police said the blast was caused by an explosive device detonated at the back of the bus.

Bus driver Moshe Levy told reporters he checked his bus for bombs twice before he started his journey. He said he was in a traffic jam when "suddenly there was an explosion in the back, I immediately understood it was a terror attack, I opened the doors of the bus so people could escape and told them to get out."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation. "We will locate those who prepared this explosive device. We will reach the dispatchers. We will also reach those behind them. We will settle the score with these terrorists."

The blast came as jittery Israelis prepared for the Passover holiday amid a seven-month wave of Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, shootings and attacks where cars were used as weapons against civilians and security forces.

In that time, Palestinian attackers killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. At least 189 Palestinians have been killed. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were attackers, with the rest killed in clashes with security forces.

For some, the bombing was reminiscent of attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad last decade when the Palestinian groups sent suicide bombers to detonate their explosives in buses and cafes.

Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, issued a statement praising the bus bombing but did not take responsibility for it. Some mosques in Gaza also welcomed the attack with messages of praise broadcast from loudspeakers.

A spokesman for Hamas in Qatar, Husam Badran, said "This attack affirms to everyone one that our people will not abandon the resistance path."

The current round of bloodshed was triggered in September by unrest at a major Jerusalem shrine revered by both Muslims and Jews, and quickly spread to Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza border.

Israel says the violence is fueled by a campaign of Palestinian incitement compounded on social media sites that glorify and encourage attacks. Palestinians say the violence is due to a lack of hope for gaining independence after years of failed peace efforts.
A British Airways flight carrying 132 passengers and five crew members was hit by a drone as it approached London's Heathrow Airport Sunday afternoon.

The pilot said an object -- believed to be a drone -- had struck the Airbus A320 as it arrived at the London hub from Geneva, Sky News reported. The flight, BA727, landed safely at Heathrow's Terminal 5.

British Airways said the aircraft was checked by engineers and cleared and cleared to make its next scheduled flight. Sky News reported that London's Metropolitan Police were investigating the incident and no arrests had been made.

"Safety and security are always our first priority and we will give the police every assistance with their investigation," a British Airways spokesperson said.

The strike is the latest in a string of incidents involving drones and aircraft over British airspace. A report released last month recorded 23 near misses between drones and aircraft between April and October 2015.

"Frankly it was only a matter of time before we had a drone strike given the huge numbers being flown around by amateurs who don't understand the risks and the rules," Steve Landells of the British Airline Pilots Association told Sky News.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority's so-called "drone code" requires the unmanned craft to be kept away from planes and airports, and not be flown above 400 feet.

Click for more from Sky News.
A 69-year-old man found guilty of beheading his wife and flushing her head down the toilet has been jailed for life.

Dempsey Nibbs was informed by the senior judge at the Old Bailey that he would serve at least 21 years in prison.

The Recorder of London, Nicholas Hilliard QC, described the crime as an act of "grotesque savagery", telling Nibbs: "I'm sure you don't regret your wife's death save for its effect on your own comfort and well-being."

Nibbs had apparently become enraged after his 60-year-old wife Judith, who worked for Meals On Wheels, taunted him as their relationship began to break down, saying she had been seeing other men.

Nibbs, who has suffered from prostate cancer, told the court he had not meant to kill his wife and had only meant to "slap her around a bit".

But the jury disbelieved his story and found him guilty.

Nibbs' lawyer, Ian Henderson QC, said his client realised that poor health meant he would die in jail.

The attack happened on 10 April 2014 at the couple's flat in Hoxton, northeast London.

Nibbs initially hit the mother of his two children with an iron bar, knocking her out.

He then cut her head off, smashed it with a mallet, and disposed of the pieces down the toilet.

Next, the crane driver wrote a note to his 30-year-old son Kirk and called 999, telling police they would find two bodies at the property.

An officer broke down the door when he saw Judith Nibbs' headless body through the letterbox.

He found Nibbs in the bathroom, brandishing a shotgun and a knife, attempting to stab himself.

Judith Nibbs appeared to realize that her life was in danger, telling her sister and a colleague that her husband had grabbed her by the throat and threatened to kill her.

During a row about extramarital affairs three days before she died, she said she had had sex "eight times".

The following day, she left work with the words: "If I'm not in Friday, I might be dead."

In a statement, Judith Nibbs' sister Frances described her as a "very kind and caring person", saying they were "shocked and devastated" by the murder."Whatever problems there were in her relationship, Judith did not deserve to die in such a callous and brutal way."

Click for more from Sky News.
Police in Bangladesh questioned a prominent journalist and close aide of opposition leader and ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia over the weekend for his alleged role in a conspiracy to kidnap the only son of the current prime minister.

Shafik Rehman, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was sent to police detention Saturday for five days after a court in Dhaka approved his interrogation about the plot to kidnap Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy.

Rehman, 81, who also holds a British passport, was picked up in a raid at his home. His wife, Taleya Rehman, said the detectives initially posed as journalists from a local television station before identifying themselves and taking her husband away with them.

She said the British High Commission in Dhaka was informed of the arrest.

Police spokesman Maruf Hossain Sorder told reporters that Rehman would be questioned to get more details about the plan to kidnap and kill Joy.

According to the details of the case filed in August last year, several people close to Zia were part of the conspiracy and met in Britain, the United States and Bangladesh to discuss the plot.

Zia strongly condemned Rehman's arrest and demanded that he be released immediately. She said in a statement that the arrest was meant to divert people's attention from "terrible misrule" of the impoverished South Asian nation's current government.
Its not something Kim Jong Un wears, so North Koreans can't wear it either.



Kim's regime has banned piercings and jeans as part of a crackdown on Western culture ahead of its annual workers conference, The Telegraph reported Sunday.

The ban reportedly targets the North Hamgyong and Yanggang provinces which border China, where citizens are believed to have easier access to information and trends from the outside world.

Rimjin-gang, a North Korean news website which uncovered the ban, also reported that inspection units of teenagers who have pledged loyalty to Kim are prowling the streets to enforce the dress code.

"They target supposed capitalist tendencies such as length of skirts, the shape of shoes, T-shirts, hairstyles, and clothes," The Telegraph quoted the website as saying.

The regime has been known to send those guilty of anti-socialist behavior to labor camps, the newspaper added.

Click for more from The Telegraph.


Just five years ago, celebrities such as George Clooney and Don Cheadle hailed the creation of a new African nation as one of President Obamas foreign policy success stories, but now South Sudan is looking like a failed state.

The nation, sought as a means of bringing peace to Sudans long-running civil war, was promoted as a potential U.S. ally and was formed following a referendum passed with 98 percent of the vote to secede from the northern part of Sudan and the Khartoum government. But hope has given way to desperation, as South Sudan has descended into bloodshed and chaos.

The euphoria has faded and South Sudan is an embarrassment for the administration, and that comes with reputational costs, Joshua Meservey, policy analyst for Africa and the Middle East at The Heritage Foundation, told FoxNews.com. Bringing attention to it is not in the White Houses interest.

The issue of human rights in South Sudan has no value to reality. The war machine just wont stop.  Joseph Afhandy, South Sudanese journalist

Meservey said the U.S.-backed solution was based on a very superficial grasp of the war between Sudan and South Sudan, and the deep divisions that existed in the nascent nation.

People ignored the warning signs and it was an exciting time framed as the liberation of the region, he said.

The civil war that rocked Sudan from 1983-2005 started in what is now South Sudan, and would eventually see more than 2 million people die as a direct result of war or of famine and disease related to the conflict. Twice as many people were displaced before a peace agreement was signed in 2005 and laid the groundwork for the creation of the new nation.

With three-quarters of Sudans oil reserves in the newly formed country, the future looked bright for South Sudan. It was accepted as a United Nations member state, and expatriates flocked back to help build the country. But South Sudan plunged into civil war in late 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his then-deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup. Machar denied the accusation, but quickly formed a rebel army.

The UN stepped in in an effort to head off a deadly and embarrassing civil war. Under the threat of sanctions, a peace deal was signed by both sides last August  intended to stop the fighting and targeting of civilians and bring about the formation of a transitional government. But in just the last eight months, thousands of people have since been slaughtered and driven from their homes  with the number of displaced now well over two million  into deteriorating and dangerous camps and settlements.

These arent refugee camps, they are military bases where they have to be under armed protection, Casie Copeland, an Africa-based analyst focusing on South Sudan for the International Crisis Group, said. They are afraid to leave, and are fearful for their lives every day.

A recent UN investigation found that South Sudanese army soldiers were given permission to rape more than 1,300 women and girls "as a reward" in lieu of receiving salaries. Amnesty International investigators also reported that scores of men and boys have been suffocated in a shipping container by government forces. Countless civilians have been burned, starved, shot, speared, blown up and even consumed in ritual cannibalism.

People have been burned and drowned, children are raped and homeless mothers are being forced to eat meat of their dead children after their husbands die, South Sudanese journalist Joseph Afhandy  who is now living in exile in Nairobi, after enduring his own brutal torture for exposing corruption and government abuse - told FoxNews.com.

The issue of human rights in South Sudan has no value to reality, he said. This is about power and shadow-wrestling. The war machine just wont stop.

Both government and rebel leaders have been accused of recruiting more than 15,000 child soldiers to take up arms in the bloody civil war. While it is nearly impossible to quantify, some analysts have likened the suffering and slaughter to what has taken place in Syria during the same period.

It is possible, John Prendergast, prominent human rights activist and founding director of the Enough Project, an initiative to end genocide, said of the comparisons to Syria death tolls. But we will never know because the world does not prioritize what is happening in South Sudan sufficiently to even properly count the dead there.

Aid groups this month issued critical warnings that the country was on the brink of running out of medicine and facing alarming levels of hunger and food shortages. However, U.S. emergency aid assistance to South Sudan alone has already far exceeded $1 billion, and yet the famine crisis continues to worsen and policy experts have condemned the U.S. administration for giving aid money without conditions.

Warning signs of the new nations chronic dysfunction were there even as the U.S and the UN praised its formation as a foreign policy triumph. Despite its oil, South Sudan is one of the world's least developed and poorest nations, and ethnic rivalries, mainly between the Dinka, Kirrs people, and the Machers Nuer faction go back generations.

Ted Dagne, an Ethiopian-American who was formerly a leading advocate in Washington for the countrys creation, an embedded go-between for United Nations, United States and Sudanese diplomats and initially appointed by President Kiir as his special advisor, has charged that that officials stole $4 billion in start-up funds before South Sudan was even formalized.

Those who came to power began to loot and do very little to help their people, except themselves and their cronies, Dagne told FoxNews.com, claiming that he and Kiir sought to stamp out corruption from the very beginning but that brought pushback and increased hostility against the president from forces loyal to the vice president.

With sudden wealth and power to fight over, the new government wasted no time. Eric Reeves, an English literature professor at Smith College, in Massachusetts, and an expert in Sudan, noted that horrific atrocities are taking place on both sides of the spectrum and while the civil war didnt officially break out until December 2013, things on the ground were tumultuous from day one. The Obama administrations miscalculations did not help, he said.

There have been some serious missteps by the Obama administration, Reeves said.

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly condemned ongoing attacks in the region, insisting that the conflict be settled through diplomacy as there is no military solution. Obama and National Security Advisor Susan Rice  both of whom led the charge to create South Sudan  have expressed disappointment over the leadership that has failed to stop the hostilities.

In the most recent testimony to the House Foreign Relations Committee from the Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, Ambassador Donald Booth assured members in December that the people of South Sudan have no greater friend than the United States, and that the peace agreement remains the best chance for a fresh start.

Yet critics say its easier to keep the issue out of the political and media spotlight than it is to address it properly, and even though talks between the two parties have resumed in Juba, hopes for stability are being met with skepticism.

The creation of the worlds newest country was in fact a foreign policy success, Prendergast said. It helped avoid a return to the North-South war within Sudan, a war that had taken two and a quarter million lives.

What followed, however, was not sufficiently understood by international supporters of the new state. The foreign policy success was followed by a foreign policy failure.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Defense of Armenia informs that the Azerbaijani armed forces made 9 ceasefire violations in the direction of the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border, Armenpress was informed by the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Ministry.

The Defense Ministry statement reads: 9 ceasefire violations were registered during the night of April 17-18 in the northeastern direction of the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border. Azerbaijan fired irregular shots from various caliber weapons and sniper rifles at Armenian positions.

The Armenian Armed Forces exercised restraint and conducted response actions only in case of strict necessity and confidently continue monitoring the border situation.

According to the statement of the Nagorno Karabakh Defense Army the situation in the line of contact of Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijani opposing forces remained the same during the night of April 17-18. Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire agreement more than 50 times along the entire line of contact and fired different caliber weapons. Azerbaijan also fired 82mm (3 shells) mortars in the northeastern direction (Martakert).

Servicemen of the Defense Army, Erik B. Matevosyan (born 1991) and Azat T. Barsamyan (born 1996) were wounded by the Azerbaijani violations in the northern direction.

Azerbaijan also attempted a 20-men sabotage reconnaissance infiltration at 01:00 in the eastern direction (Akna). The attempt was thwarted by Nagorno Karabakh forces.

The Defense Army forces are in full control of the situation and continue monitoring the line of contact.
The Russian jet that flew dangerously close to a U.S. Air Force spy plane actually conducted a "barrel roll" and flew within just 50 feet of the aircraft's wingtip, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday.

The U.S. RC-135 surveillance plane was conducting a routine mission over the Baltic Sea Thursday when the Russian SU-27 sped by, Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters.

It's not clear whether the Russian warplane was armed at the time. Russian jets were not armed when they buzzed the USS Donald Cook destroyer 33 times in 2 days last week, also in the Baltic Sea.

It marked the third Baltic Sea incident involving Russian jets and U.S. military ships or aircraft in just one week.

"This unsafe and unprofessional air intercept has the potential to cause serious harm and injury to all aircrews involved. More importantly, the unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries," the Pentagon warned.

In the destroyer fly-bys, the pilots of the Russian Su-24 jets saw the ship and turned back "while using all measures of precaution," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian defense ministry, said. He added that he was baffled by what he described as the "distressed reaction of our American counterparts."

"It may have been in international waters and therefore may not be any violation of international law, but it is still irresponsible behavior," said NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia.

"It illustrates that Russia is contributing to tensions," he said, speaking on the sidelines of a security conference in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin, Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
At least one American was among the 413 people confirmed dead from Ecuador's strongest earthquake in decades, the State Department reported Monday, as crews raced to save anybody who still might be alive and trapped underneath the rubble.

U.S. officials did not name the American who died.

The 7.8-magnitude quake left a trail of ruin along the normally calm Pacific coast, buckling highways, knocking down an air traffic control tower and flattening homes and buildings. Thousands of people are homeless.

"For God's sake help me find my family," pleaded Manuel Quijije, 27, standing next to a wrecked building in hard-hit Portoviejo. He said his older brother, Junior, was trapped under a pile of twisted steel and concrete with two relatives.

"We managed to see his arms and legs. They're his, they're buried, but the police kicked us out because they say there's a risk the rest of the building will collapse," Quijije said angrily as he looked on the ruins cordoned off by police. "We're not afraid. We're desperate. We want to pull out our family."

A grief-stricken aunt, Johana Estupinan, said her family was getting together to celebrate 17-year-old Sayira Quinde going off to college when a building collapse killed the teen, her mother, father and toddler brother. Now, Estupinan is traveling in a hearse to the town of Esmeraldas, where she will bury her loved ones and break the news of the loss to her sister's three now-orphaned children.

Also among the dead was Sister Clare Theresa Crockett, a 33-year-old Irish nun who worked at a school in in rural Playa Prieta, Sky News reported.

It is believed that Crockett was trying to help girls out of the school after the quake struck. Her body was found in the rubble of a collapsed staircase.

"She was the last sister found," her cousin Emmet Doyle told Sky News. "She was trying to get them down the stairs and the staircase collapsed. She died as she lived, helping others."

President Rafael Correa said early Monday that the death toll would "surely rise, and in a considerable way."

"The Ecuadorean spirit knows how to move forward, and will know how to overcome these very difficult moments," Correa said.

Ecuadorian Security Minister Cesar Navas told the Teleamazonas TV channel Monday morning that the death toll had risen to 350 from 272.

Portoviejo, a provincial capital of nearly 300,000, was among the hardest hit, with the town's mayor reporting at least 100 deaths. The Quinde family drove there from their home hours up the coast to drop off Sayira at Estupinan's house a week before she was to start classes at a public university on a scholarship to study medicine.

"She was my favorite niece," Estupinan said, emotionally torn apart after waiting at the city's morgue for hours. "I thought I was getting a daughter for the six years it was going to take her to earn a degree."

"I never thought my life would be destroyed in a minute," she added.

Estupinan watched as her loved ones were loaded onto a truck-sized hearse for the nighttime drive, the three older ones in dark mahogany coffins and 8-month-old Matias in a casket painted white. "It was supposed to be a short moment of family happiness but it converted into a tragedy," she said.

She hoped to bury her relatives in Esmeraldas on Monday, but devastation there is also severe and she worried about whether the hearse could make it along roads ripped apart by the quake.

The Saturday night quake knocked out power in many parts along the coast and some who fled to higher ground fearing a tsunami had no home to return to, or feared structures still standing might collapse. The country's Geophysics Institute said it recorded 230 aftershocks, some strong, as of Sunday night.

With makeshift shelters in short supply, many hunkered down to spend a second straight night outdoors huddled among neighbors.

Correa cut short a trip to the Vatican and flew directly to the city of Manta to oversee relief efforts. Even before touching Ecuadorean soil he signed a decree declaring a national emergency. Speaking from Portoviejo late Sunday he said the earthquake was the worst natural disaster to hit Ecuador since a 1949 earthquake in the Andean city of Ambato, which took over 5,000 lives.

"Our grief is very large, the tragedy is very large, but we'll find the way to move forward," Correa said. "If our pain is immense, still larger is the spirit of our people."

As rescuers scrambled through the ruins near the epicenter, in some cases digging with their hands to look for survivors, humanitarian aid began trickling in. More than 3,000 packages of food and nearly 8,000 sleeping kits were being delivered Sunday. Correa's ally, Venezuela, and neighboring Colombia, where the quake was also felt, organized airlifts. Mexico and Chile sent teams of rescuers.

Spain's Red Cross said as many as 5,000 people may need temporary housing after the quake flattened homes, and 100,000 may need some sort of aid.

On social media, Ecuadoreans celebrated a video of a baby girl being pulled from beneath a collapsed home in Manta.

But fear was also spreading of another night of looting after 180 prisoners from a jail near Portoviejo escaped amid the tumult. Authorities said some 20 inmates were recaptured and some others returned voluntarily.

Seeking security from any unrest, about 400 residents of Portoviejo gathered Sunday night on the tarmac of the city's former airport, where authorities handed out water, mattresses and food. The airport was closed in 2011 and flights diverted to a larger facility in nearby Manta after Correa kicked out a U.S. drug interdiction operation stationed there.

Shantytowns and cheaply constructed brick and concrete homes were reduced to rubble along the quake's path. In the coastal town of Chamanga, authorities estimated than 90 percent of homes had damage, while in Guayaquil a shopping center's roof fell in and a collapsed highway overpass crushed a car, killing the driver.

The government said it would draw on $600 million in emergency funding from multilateral banks to rebuild.

But in the meantime, the digging and hoping against the odds continued.

In downtown Portoviejo, a few blocks from where a four-story hotel fell onto the Quinde family's car, the six-story social security building was a pile of debris. Downed power cables were strewn across the street.

"The situation is heart-rending," Jaime Ugalde, editor of El Diario, the city's most-important newspaper, said as he surveyed the damage. "I'm going to return home and hug my wife and two kids. We're the lucky ones. We're alive."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The U.S. military says two Turkish nationalists who accosted a U.S. soldier and tried to cover his head with a sack at a southern Turkish air base have been released on bond.

The U.S.-European Command said Monday the pair were at Incirlik air base for an invitation-only event held Saturday.



The soldier was not injured. The members of the Turkish Youth Union posted online their failed attempt to hood a U.S. airman, describing their action as revenge for an incident in northern Iraq 2003 in which U.S. soldiers detained Turkish special forces members and led them away with hoods over their heads.

Many in Turkey viewed it as a deliberate insult. Cagdas Cengiz, president of the union, told the AP the group rejects "imperialist powers in Turkey."


Hold on to your hats.

Toronto Zoo officials have launched an investigation after a video posted to YouTube on Saturday showed a woman jumping a fence at a tiger enclosure, apparently to retrieve her hat.

The unidentified woman can be seen climbing over the first of two fences separating the Sumatran tigers from zoogoers, as one of the cats anxiously paces back and forth, the CDC reports.

Witnesses can be heard shouting at the devoted hat-wearer, with one person in the video calling her a moron.

"You're a bad example for everyone else's kids," another voice calls out.

While the woman wasnt in danger of being attacked by the tigers due to the second barrier, Toronto Zoo representative Jennifer Tracey told the CDC she still could have hurt herself and the animals.

"She easily could have broken an ankle from jumping over," Tracey said. "The barriers are there for a reason. They're not only there for the visitors, but they're also there to protect the animals in our care.

Zoo officials have not been able to find the woman in the video and are asking witnesses to come forward with any information.

The incident comes just days after a Florida zookeeper was mauled to death by a tiger. 38-year-old Stacey Konwiser, known as The Tiger Whisperer at the Palm Beach Zoo, was attacked inside the tigers habitat while preparing for a show.

According to the Toronto Zoo, there are only about 350 Sumatran tigers left in the wild.
Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts to Debut in Fort Lauderdale Following $30 Million Renovation

Scheduled to Open in 2017, Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will Unlock the Citys Art, Culture & Cuisine

STAMFORD, Conn. - April 18, 2016 - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) announced today that its Parisian-born Le Meridien brand will open in Dania Beach, Fort Lauderdale, in partnership with owner and prominent U.S. real estate developer Charles S. Cohen. Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will debut in 2017, following a comprehensive $30 million renovation and conversion of the hotel. This forthcoming opening follows on the heels of tremendous brand growth in North America over the last 18 months in Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus, New Orleans, Tampa and Indianapolis.

We are delighted to partner with Starwood to introduce Le Meridien in Fort Lauderdale, following the top-to-bottom transformation and repositioning of this ideally located hotel, stated Charles S. Cohen, President and CEO of New York-based Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation. Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will help to meet rising demand for high-quality lodging within close proximity of the airport, Broward County Convention Center and the downtown business district and will also serve the growing need for meeting rooms and event facilities for tenants of our corporate center.

Following its meticulous renovation and conversion, the hotels arrival experience will boast a transformed glass curtain wall facade and upgrades to the porte-cochere as well as large-scale artwork in high impact areas. Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will feature 245 contemporary guestrooms and suites with floor-to-ceiling windows and stunning views, as well as two redesigned restaurants  one with a mid-century modern, open kitchen concept  and the brands signature Latitude Bar. The hotel will also introduce Le Meridien Hub, which reinterprets the traditional hotel lobby into a social gathering place and builds on the brands award-winning arrival experience and coffee culture.

Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will be the brands second hotel in Florida, joining its growing North America portfolio, said Allison Reid, Senior Vice President of North America Development, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Le Meridien is a perfect brand for strategic conversions and adaptive re-use projects, which are driving the brands growth in the region, allowing us to enter mature metropolitan markets more quickly.

Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will also offer an expanded fitness centre, a renovated outdoor pool and 20,000 square feet of state-of-the-art flexible meeting space in a prime location. The dramatic hotel transformation is being carried out by an outstanding team of design and construction specialists, including Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates and Daniels Brothers Inc., in addition to Dash Design, for interior design; Nievera Williams Design for landscape design; and Tex Lighting for lighting design.

Ideally located just minutes from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Fort Lauderdale Everglades Cruise Port, the hotel also neighbors several beaches, downtown Fort Lauderdale, and the world-famous restaurants, night clubs and boutiques of nearby Miami Beach. Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will be part of Cohens distinctive Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA) campus, a 40-acre, three-building Class A design and office center in Dania Beach. Guests will enjoy convenient access to Broward Center for the Performing Arts, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale and BB&T Center.

About Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts

With more than 100 Hotels & Resorts worldwide and the strongest, most globally diverse portfolio in its history, the Paris-born Le Meridien brand connects the curious and creative-minded traveller to unexpected and engaging experiences within their destination. With its brand promise of Destination Unlocked, Le Meridien has transformed numerous guest touch points through global partnerships with creative minds such as illy, the LEGO Group, Johnny Iuzzini, Gray Malin, and Nouvelle Vague. Plans call for dynamic portfolio expansion within the next five years in some of the worlds most exciting destinations, concentrating on markets in Asia-Pacific and the Americas. For more information, please visit LeMeridien.com or follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

About Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation

Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation, a multi-faceted real estate development company, owns and manages over twelve million square feet of prime Class A Manhattan office space as well as design centers in New York, Los Angeles and Houston. Among its signature New York properties are 623 Fifth Avenue, 135 East 57th Street, 805 Third Avenue, 750 Lexington Avenue, 622 Third Avenue, 979 Third Avenue, 3 East 54th Street and 475 Park Avenue South.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160418006009/en/.

SOURCE Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Contact:

Katie Roberts

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

212-380-4049

Katie.Roberts@starwoodhotels.com

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Taco Johns Looks To Improve Guest Experience Through Partnership With Steritech

April 18, 2016 // Franchising.com // Taco Johns doesnt care if a guest visits one of its restaurants in Longmont, Colorado or Long Island, New York. The Mexican quick-serve restaurants chain wants the food, setting and service to be consistently excellent. To reach that goal, Taco Johns has signed a three year deal with Steritech, a nationally recognized leader in brand experience services.

The two top benefits of our partnership with Steritech are the focus on food safety and the increased frequency of restaurant visits, says Shawn Eby, Vice President of Operations for Taco Johns. Currently our field consultants audit each location once a year. Working with Steritech that number will double this year and climb to three audits per year by 2017.

Steritech, the North American leader in specialized brand experience services, has been providing assessments to businesses in the restaurant, foodservice and supermarket industries for more than 20 years. Its services include operational excellence, food safety, brand standards, and workplace safety assessment programs, as well as technology solutions for self-assessments and reporting.

As restaurants continue to diversify to suit expanding customer palates, it becomes increasingly important for brands to develop specialized programs that help hone in on ways to address, improve, and enhance the unique customer experiences they offer," Doug Sutton, President of Steritech's Brand Standards Business explains. "We are happy to help support Taco John's in their efforts in this area. Working together and leveraging Steritech's expertise in food safety and operational excellence, Taco John's is implementing an assessment program that will support consistency, quality, and continued growth in its mission to deliver fast Mexican in an original way."

According to a recent study, the public is increasingly looking to restaurants and retailers to manage food safety. The research by Deloitte Consulting found 42 percent of consumers rely on retailers to assume a greater role in managing food safety, compared to only 25 percent in 2009.

About Steritech

The Steritech Group, Inc. provides specialized brand protection services for the hospitality, restaurant, retail, food processing, and healthcare industries. The premier provider of food safety, quality assurance, and pest prevention services, Steritech is a trusted partner to many of the world's leading brands. Founded in 1986, Steritech is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina; in 2015, the company became a member of the Rentokil Initial family of companies. For more information on Steritech, please visit www.steritech.com or call 800.868.0089.

About Taco John's

Taco John's operates and franchises more than 380 quick-service restaurants in 27 states. Privately owned, the business opened its first restaurant in 1969 in Cheyenne, WY. Celebrating its 19th year of sales growth for the same stores, Taco John's prides itself on serving generous portions, menu items prepared fresh to your order, high quality ingredients and unapologetically original recipes, seasonings and sauces.

SOURCE Taco John's

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Your Pie, Originator of the Down-the-Line Pizza Concept, Finds New Home in North Carolina

Customized Pizza Franchise to Open First North Carolina Location in the Raleigh Area This Fall

ATHENS, GA. (PRWEB) April 18, 2016 - Your Pie, the originator of the down-the-line pizza category, is expanding its leading customized pizza concept. The brand is opening its first restaurant in the Raleigh, North Carolina area this fall, with plans to continue growing throughout the region from there.

Weve always viewed the Raleigh area as one of our prime targets because of its wide demographic and love for craft beer, said Ken Caldwell, Your Pies Vice President of Development. Your Pie appeals to so many different types of people because of the ability to customize your order. We can make every transaction a personal experience, and every guest can build something they love.

Your Pie is teaming up with a local franchising expert to bring its brand to the Raleigh community. Jack Fladeland grew up in Mebane, North Carolina and went on to study business management at Appalachian State University. He then went to work with his dad, who owns four Subway restaurants in Mebane. Fladeland took over as manager of the stores after graduation, and he worked in all areas of the business, from hiring employees and setting schedules, to tallying inventory and even making sandwiches.

Fladeland always wanted to break into the franchising industry on his own, so he started researching different restaurant concepts. He narrowed in on the fast-casual pizza business and was immediately drawn to Your Pie after traveling around to different franchises to conduct his own taste tests. Your Pies delicious product and craft beer offering was impossible to beat, and Fladeland knew others in his community would get behind it.

I like the stone ovens and the emphasis on quality, said Fladeland. I like that we make our own sauces and use fresh veggies. Its a make-your-own pizza, down-the-line concept, but I think its something unique thats really going to fit in around here.

Your Pies proven business model also stood out to Fladeland. He talked to the brands leadership team, including Caldwell and founder Drew French and began to explore potential franchising opportunities. Right away he knew Your Pie had a special feel to it.

Its a company with a strong base and theyre willing to work with me, said Fladeland.

Your Pie will be a family business for Fladeland. His father is a partner and his wife Alyssa will be helping out in the store after the birth of their first child this fall. But they wont be limiting their business to just one location. Once their first Your Pie location is up and running, the Fladelands plan to expand their business to new locations across North Carolina.

We have really high hopes for our first Your Pie, said Fladeland. If it opens like we expect it to, we plan to open another one by next year. Were ultimately looking to open three to five locations in the next five or so years.

Your Pie currently has 28 locations in nine states, and those numbers are only expected to rise throughout 2016. By the end of the year, the brand is aiming to open an additional 20 locations, and is targeting markets across North Carolina, including Charlotte and Durham, in that push. Additional target growth markets for the brand include Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina and Tampa and Orlando, Florida.

Its the perfect time for Your Pie to launch in North Carolina, said Caldwell. When you mix our concept with a family like the Fladelands, who bring years of franchising experience to the table, entering a new market is going to be successful. They know how to grow a business.

About Your Pie

Your Pie is the worlds originator of the quick-serve, brick-oven, customized personal pizza category. A culinary entrepreneur since his teenage years, Your Pie founder Drew French combined his passion for innovative restaurant concepts with brick oven technology to create the highest quality pizza available at incredible speed. Drawing from family recipes from the island of Ischia, Your Pie uses hand-tossed dough, only fresh ingredients, homemade pizza sauces and salad dressings, and offers vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free pizzas, as well as traditional pizzas. Customers who dine at Your Pie have come to expect the best tasting pizza served with speed without sacrificing flavor. Your Pie is a state of mind and the brand stands by its motto to express your inner pizza, investing in local communities and encouraging diners to let their culinary creativity run wild. For more information about Your Pie or franchising opportunities, please visit http://www.yourpie.com.

SOURCE Your Pie

Contact:

Lauren Boukas

No Limit Agency

+1 (312) 526-3996

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YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Leaked documents show Azerbaijan Ambassador Rovshan Jamshidov and financial attache Araz Khasiyev used their diplomatic status to get Australian government approval to import duty free 2000 liters of beer, 1100 liters of wine, 520 liters of spirits and 40,000 cigarettes from two suppliers, Armenpress reports, citing The Sydney Morning Herald.

While the amounts might seem excessive for an embassy which represents an overwhelmingly Islamic nation and is staffed by five diplomats, they were within Australia's generous rules for the representatives of foreign governments.

Unlike most of us who are only entitled to a handful of bottles at airport duty-free shops, embassies and high commissions in Australia can obtain excise-free a maximum of 260 liters of spirits, 1000 liters of beer and 20,000 cigarettes every six months if the products are used in an official capacity.



The leaking of the Azerbaijan embassy's alcohol and tobacco orders comes while the behavior of foreign diplomats is in the spotlight over revelations about the refusal by staff at the Royal Saudi embassy to pay fines for traffic offences such as drink driving, speeding and failing to stop for police.

The Saudi officials have claimed the convention on diplomatic immunity protects them from paying traffic fines. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is taking a different view and pressing for the fines to be paid.

Fairfax Media can reveal the Azerbaijan embassy's alcohol and tobacco import requests also attracted the attention of DFAT and Customs.

The Australian Border Force, which is now responsible for Customs, told Fairfax Media that it had assessed allegations it had received some products were sold on the black market, and decided not to take the matter any further.

It is understood that although the size of the proposed Azerbaijan embassy imports raised eyebrows, they were still within Australia's limits and there was insufficient evidence to proceed.








UK Care Guide Launches To Provide Consolidated Resource Center On Caregiving

UK Care Guide helps people source carers and agencies, find careers in caring, and even find information on caring for people with a wide range of conditions, thanks to a new online repository.

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There are many circumstances in which individuals in society can start to struggle and require care in order to go about their everyday lives. For people struggling with dementia, cancer, degenerative diseases or psychological illnesses, their needs are as diverse as their challenges, and leaves loved ones wondering how best to cope. Finding information on carers and caring is difficult online because it is such a varied field. However, UK Care Guide has just been launched to offer a singular hub for all the information individuals could need.

Individuals can use the jobs board to search for jobs related to the care and nursing industry (http://ukcareguide.co.uk/care-jobs/), or use the online forums to discuss and debate caring matters with other like-minded people, (http://forum.ukcareguide.co.uk/). The resource center also has comprehensive information on key health issues such as dementia, mental health, cancer, young adult care and so much more.

The editorial team also regularly publish blogs from care professionals, as well as independent product and service reviews. Individuals can use these resource to search for a recommended care home or search for a care agency to assist with home care.

A spokesperson for UK Care Guide explained, "We are proud and excited to be able to launch UK Care Guide, and we are excited for the future of the website already. Whether individuals want a guide to care costs, or are looking to begin a job in caring and want to know what qualifications they need, all the information is here. In addition to our comprehensive informative guides and reviews, editorials and job listings, we hope to build a thriving community on our forums, so that we can help care continue to develop and evolve through peer consultation."

About UK Care Guide: UK Care Guide has been created to bring together all the key areas involved in care in the UK into one consolidated online resource center. This brings together invaluable information from across the web, saving users hours of browsing across potentially hundreds of sites. Individuals can search for a care home, a care agency, jobs in care and nursing, and use the forum to discuss experiences and request help.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.ukcareguide.co.uk/

Contact Info:

Name: William Jackson

Email: William@ukcareguide.co.uk

Organization: UK Care Guide

Phone: 0161 818 7099

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/uk-care-guide-launches-to-provide-consolidated-resource-center-on-caregiving/111163

Release ID: 111163

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Travel to Morocco Tours Features Customized Excursions

Travel to Morocco is the topic of a newly launched website from Tourinmaracco. The tours offer a change from the typical organized group travel to experience the true culture of Morocco.

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Travel to Morocco tours organized by Tourinmarocco and owners Erika Vota and Idir Merzouga offer a difference to tourists who are interested in a deeper and unique experience. The principals are respectively an Italian and a Berber who create unique opportunities for travellers. The trips, excursions and tours in Morocco tailored, classic or customized tours, including 4x4 Jeep tours at competitive rates. Viaggio in Marocco is structured for couples or large and small groups. The tours are accompanied by local Berbers, in order to provide interaction with the people, culture and other elements of the Berber world.

The Berbers are noted for their long-standing contributions to Morocco. The Berbers offer hospitality, friendliness and available, along with the opportunity to share their long connection with nature and their family clans. Tours can be arranged which offer a night spent in the desert, as well as visits to beautiful oases in the southern part of Morocco. The tours are arranged during specific times of the year and must include a minimum of two people.

One tour features stop at Ouarzazate, views of the High Atlas Mountains and a visit to the Kasbah Telouet dating back to the 12th century. There is a visit to a sand castle of Ksar of Ait Benhaddou. Several noted films used settings which visitors will be able to see. Examples are "Lawrence of Arabia" and "A Tea in the Desert". A camel trek can be part of the tour. Other tour options are available, such as a tour of the Imperial Cities, a mini-tour of Morocco and excursions from Marrakech. Honeymoon trips and a typical Berber wedding can be arranged for travellers.

Erika and Idir personally handle all the arrangements in order to provide the best tour. The result is sights and experiences which focus on local life, rather than the points of interest which are typical of standard tours.

For more information about us, please visit http://tourinmarocco.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Erika Vota

Organization: Tourinmarocco

Address: Strada Cantone Ostocco, 32 -13900 Biella (BI) Italy

Phone: +393801928012

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/travel-to-morocco-tours-features-customized-excursions/111218

Release ID: 111218

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Send Mass & Automated Personalized Emails To Customers How-To Report Launched

A new report entitled 'How to Create Automated Emails That Come Straight From The Heart' detailing the best practices, methods, effectiveness and importance of creating automated emails that make customers "feel like they're dealing with a human every single time", has been released.

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A new report entitled 'How to Create Automated Emails That Come Straight From The Heart' detailing the process and importance of creating automated emails that don't feel robotic and impersonal to potential or current customers, has been released

More information is available at http://platform.ly/blog/create-automated-emails/.

The report published by Platform.ly and authored by prominent marketer James Johnson provides business owners and professionals with extensive advice and information on how to create and send automated emails that can deliver a positive brand image, customer experience and enhanced open or conversion rates.

Advice on how to create automated emails that follow the 'PERFECT principle: personalized, engaging, relatable, formatted, entertaining, correctly punctuated and targeted, along with detailed explanations, tips, examples and individual breakdowns of each 'PERFECT principle' component are provided.

Information on other best practices that ensure automated emails don't feel robotic or impersonal along with multiple statistics and data on the importance and effectiveness of 'PERFECT emails', including Marketing Land's findings showing how personalized emails convert up to six times more effectively than others, and more, are also available.

More on the author and Platform.ly or the 'How to Create Automated Emails That Come Straight From The Heart' report along with additional Platform.ly articles, including 'Why You Need to Segment Your Email List', and more, can be consulted on the website link provided above.

The author, James Johnson, explains that "automated emails play a crucial part as the touch point between a business and its customers, who don't like to feel that they're part of an automated and impersonal process. If you have ever tried to make a query at your bank and gone through countless 'if you have questions about your account, press four' switchboard menus, you know exactly how frustrating - and distant - it can make you feel".

He adds that "there are people who might think that about your business, too. This report shows you how to fix that by detailing how to send emails to your customers - potential, existing and leaving - that come straight from the heart and make them feel like they're dealing with a human every single time". Find out more at: http://platform.ly/

For more information about us, please visit http://www.platform.ly/blog/

Contact Info:

Name: Ronald Jameson

Organization: Sovereign Net



Release ID: 111198

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GAVAR, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Gegharkunik Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church actively supports Artsakh, our soldiers and volunteers who are in the frontline, the families of the soldiers from Gegharkunik who were killed during the military operations in April.

As Armenpress was informed by the Gegharkunik Diocese, the people of Martuni region of the Gegharkunik district gathered and sent 3 tucks of food to Artsakh. Aid to suppliers was accompanied by the Gegharkunik eparchy Ter-Kirakos master Davtyan and Martuni Tsovinar community pastor Ter-Gevorg priest Barseghyan. The priests visited Martuni-2, Martuni-3 military units, met with commanders and soldiers. The second visit to Artsakh took place on April 14 with the supervision of the Gegharkunik eparchy.

With the support of Pastor of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Western America Ter-Avetis priest Abovyan the soldiers of Karvachar received 100 pairs of rubber boots, 20 solar-powered lamps and 20 field glasses. The priests visited Yashak positions, met with soldiers and commanders.

On April 17 the Gegharkunik Diocese declared a week of fundraising to support financially our soldiers who fight in Artsakh, as well as the families of killed freedom fighters from that district. Donation is being held in St. Astvatsatsin Church in Gavar. In the donation book the name of the donator and the amount of money is being noted. We need not only to be united in time of hardship, but also we need patriotic charitable organizations to support financially the families of the protectors of the homeland, the soldiers who are in the frontline. We support the protectors of our homeland both with our pray and with the help of various charitable organizations to establish and maintain peace, the Gegharkunik eparchy Ter-Kirakos master Davtyan said this.

Khosrov Khlghatyan
Concern is mounting that agriculture could be used as a bargaining chip in two large free-trade deals currently being negotiated by the EU.

Protections for EU agriculture have been a key sticking point in negotiations with the US in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and with Mercosur  a block of five Latin American countries including agricultural giants Brazil and Argentina.

Argentinian foreign affairs minister Susana Malcorra is reported to have said last week that EU-Mercosur trade offers, expected to be exchanged in May, must cover all sensitive sectors including agriculture, according to Brussels news agency AgraFacts.

See also: How the worlds biggest free-trade deal will affect farmers

A couple of days earlier, US deputy under secretary for agriculture Jonathan Cordone told Brussels-based broadcaster Vieuws that he believed the original purpose of the TTIP talks was to remove all tariffs, including on agriculture.

Although he said he was not directly involved in the trade negotiations, he said the US farming industry and lobby were watching closely.

Twenty EU agricultural ministers called on the EU Commission to think again last week, after it emerged the commission was considering including sensitive farm products in an offer to Mercosur.

Imports of certain agricultural products from the US and Mercosur are currently limited by tariffs, higher EU standards and quota limits.

Farming groups, consumers and many EU member states fear that, if these are removed, Europe could be flooded with cheaper, sub-standard goods, which will have a large negative effect on farm incomes and food safety.

Agriculture as a bargaining chip

NFU economist Lucia Zitti said the commission seemed unwilling to concede on protections for products with protected geographic indication (PGI), which might mean quotas for sensitive farm products could become bargaining chips later in negotiations, in exchange for PGI protections.

Ms Zitti said she thought the commission would stick to its red lines, and not allow in hormone-treated beef and pork from pigs fed ractopamine (a growth promoter banned in the EU).

But the poultry sector, deemed sensitive, could possibly be opened up under the deals, as a recent EU report was positive on the use of peroxyacetic acid for washing poultry meat (a practice common in the US, which currently inhibits US poultry exports to the EU).

See also: Farming must not become TTIP bargaining chip, say MEPs

Concern about the cumulative effect of TTIP, Mercosur and other free-trade deals has forced the commission to undertake an impact analysis. But this is not due to be published until after the autumn  long after negotiations with Mercosur and the US will have started up again.

The EU and Mercosur are expected to exchange offers in May, while the next round of TTIP talks is due to take place at the end of April.

How different UK farming sectors are threatened by TTIP

See also: More detail on the threats and opportunities for each UK farming sector

Beef

US is strong competitor  low costs, high productivity. EU uncompetitive on price  smaller herds, expensive land and labour.

EU restricts US beef imports (high tariffs and ban on hormone treatments)  these could be lifted or US could segregate production to supply non-hormone-treated beef.

US beef supplies are tight, but can expand quickly.

Two-thirds of EU beef comes from dairy herds and so production is inelastic  suckler cow sector particularly at risk.

EU sector is not geared up for export  was one of worlds biggest beef exporters, now one of biggest importers.

Pork

US is a major producer and exporter  US experts believe production will increase, with large proportion for exports.

More stringent standards in EU/UK mean the sector is not price-competitive  agreement that did not recognise this could seriously disrupt market.

Methods/products allowed by the US but not in the EU include: Gestation stalls for sows; castration (being phased out in EU and generally not used in UK); antibiotics as growth promoters; ractopamine (banned in many countries and in EU since 1990s); processed animal protein; wider variety of GM products fed.

US is likely to focus on exporting cuts rather than whole carcasses  competitive and likely to undervalue EU products.

Poultry
The Labour Party has refused permission for fast food giant McDonalds to display a back British farming exhibition at its party conference.

McDonalds was willing to donate 30,000 to the party in return for the display, according to The Suns website.

But Labour told the restaurant chain it was not welcome.

See also: Defra shadow Kerry McCarthy  I support British farming

The website quoted Labour MP Wes Streeting, who once had a part-time job at McDonalds, and he said he was exasperated at the decision which smacked of a snobby attitude.

He added: McDonalds may not be the trendy falafel bar that some people in politics like to hang out at but its enjoyed by families across the country.

McDonalds may not be the trendy falafel bar that some people in politics like to hang out at but its enjoyed by families across the country Wes Streeting, Labour MP

McDonalds had already been cleared to exhibit an interactive experience display in support of British farm produce at the Tory and Scottish National Party conferences.

But the decision for a similar stand at Labours rally in Liverpool this autumn was blocked by the partys national executive.

A McDonalds spokesman told Farmers Weekly: We are disappointed with the decision that has been taken.

Farmers Weekly asked Labours shadow Defra secretary Kerry McCarthy to comment on the refusal.
Police in Nottinghamshire are appealing for help to track down a man suspected of stealing a tractor.

The unknown dark-haired man (pictured below) was filmed on CCTV camera minutes before an orange Kubota tractor was stolen from a farm in Gamston.

Shortly before 1pm on Thursday, 10 March 2016, three men drove onto the farm, detached the orange Kubota tractor from its trailer and loaded it onto their trailer. The thieves then drove away.

See also: More than 5,000 of agrochemicals stolen in farm raid

The 44 pictured has since been recovered and a forensics team has examined the vehicle for evidence for those responsible.

However, the tractor is still missing and all three offenders are still at large.

Appealing for help to solve the crime, a spokesman for Nottinghamshire Police said: Do you recognise the pictured man? Have you seen the tractor on someones driveway or land, under a tarpaulin or garaged?

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, quoting incident 364 of 10 March 2016, or phone Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Farmers who believe they would be better off if the UK left the EU are living in cloud cuckoo land, former agriculture minister Lord Deben has warned.

The veteran politician was speaking at an in-out referendum debate at Debenham Community Centre, Suffolk, on Friday 15 April.

Organised by the Farming Community Network (FCN), the event was attended by almost 100 local farmers and agricultural professionals.

Lord Deben, who as John Gummer served as agriculture minister from 1989-93, said farmers would receive less support from a UK government outside the EU.

See also: Cameron commits to supporting farmers if UK quits EU

No British Treasury  even a Tory Treasury  would give us anything like the 3bn we receive now, he told the audience.

He added: I do not believe farming would be supported as it is now.

Lord Deben said he was speaking as someone who had been involved with negotiations with the Treasury and Brussels during his time as agriculture minister.

No free trade outside the EU

Outside the EU, the UK would only be able to trade freely with other European countries if it met the same requirements as those countries which were members, he said.

It was cloud cuckoo land to think that UK food and drink products would not be subjected to tariffs if the referendum resulted in the UK leaving the EU, said Lord Deben.

Were we out, we would have significantly less support, he added.

I have to say  with a largely metropolitan House of Parliament  you would not get it. And you would be exporting over a tariff.

Ukip MEP and Norfolk farmer Stuart Agnew argued the case in favour of the UK leaving the EU. Agriculture would be better off outside the EU, he said.

On CAP support, Mr Agnew said: You have had the best of it without the shadow of a doubt.

CAP cake is on the crumble

Farmers were receiving less from the CAP than they did 20 years ago and further reductions were likely, he added.

The cake is on the crumble, said Mr Agnew. The CAPs share of the EU budget had fallen from 80% to less than 40% in a generation, he added.

New member states would all be net recipients, taking more from the CAP than they contributed towards it. This meant there would be less to share around.

It was a fallacy to believe that UK farmers would be worse off outside the EU, said Mr Agnew.

No British government would pull the rug from under the agricultural industry if the UK left the EU, he told the audience.

In short, you would get a rural meltdown, he said. Do we really want that?

As well as ensuring British farmers were better supported, leaving the EU would enable the UK to take back control when it came to issues such as food labelling.

Free from Brussels, a UK government would be able to ensure that food and drink labelled British actually were British, said Mr Agnew.
More than 40 Gaffney High students will compete for titles in the 2023 Miss Cherokeean Pageant being held this Saturday, Oct. 22. The pageant will begin at 6 p.m. in ...

How should you pay for short-term financial goals?

As you go through life, you will likely have longand short-term financial goals. But how will your strategies for meeting your long-term goals differ from those needed for your short-term...
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Half of Americans say they have "a great deal" or "a fair amount" of confidence in President Barack Obama to do or to recommend the right thing for the U.S. economy, generally similar to the readings through most of his presidency. Americans expressed more confidence in the president in 2009 (71%) and 2013 (57%), the first years of his first and second terms, and less confidence in him in 2014 (42%).

The results are based on Gallup's April 6-10 Economy and Personal Finance poll. Gallup has asked the same question each April throughout Obama's eight years as president. An average of 53% of Americans over that period have expressed confidence in Obama's ability to manage the economy.

That is similar to the 54% average from 2001 to 2008 for George W. Bush, the only other president about whom Gallup has asked this question. Bush's ratings varied more over the course of his presidency. Two-thirds or more of Americans were confident in him during the first three years of his presidency -- a time when Bush had high job approval ratings after the 9/11 terrorist attacks -- and just 34% were confident in his final year as the nation was in an economic recession.

Confidence in Obama is strongly related to one's party identification, as 86% of Democrats but only 14% of Republicans trust the president to do the right thing for the economy. Forty-six percent of independents are confident in Obama's economic leadership.

Americans Split as to Whether They Trust Yellen

Arguably the second-most important economic leader in the U.S. after the president is the chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Janet Yellen has held that post since February 2014, but one in four Americans still do not know her well enough to say whether they are confident in her ability to do the right thing for the economy. Currently, 38% have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in her, 35% say they have "only a little" or almost no confidence and 26% do not have an opinion.

Confidence in Yellen has been roughly 40% during her tenure, while the percentage expressing no confidence has varied between a high of 43% in 2014 and a low of 31% last year.

Yellen's 38% average rating thus far is slightly lower than former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke's 44% average from 2006 through 2013, partly because Bernanke was better known than Yellen is. Bernanke's predecessor, Alan Greenspan, averaged a 65% confidence rating over the last five years of his chairmanship. Greenspan was much better known than either of his successors and presided over the Fed during a time when the economy was generally strong.

Despite their lack of familiarity with her, Republicans are much more likely to say they are confident in Yellen (37%) than in Obama (14%). Fifty-two percent of Democrats express confidence in the Fed chair.

Majority Do Not Trust Democratic Leaders in Congress

Forty-two percent of Americans have confidence in Democratic congressional leaders on the economy, while 57% are not confident. The current level of confidence in Democratic leaders is in the lower range of what Gallup has measured since 2001, but above the low of 35% in 2014.

There have been several times when a majority of Americans were confident in Democratic leaders, including 2001 through 2003 when ratings of government leaders tended to be higher because of the strong economy and post-9/11 rally effect; in 2007 after Democrats became the majority party in Congress; and in 2009 after Obama's election as president.



Americans Least Trusting in Republican Leaders in Congress

Americans are significantly less confident in the economic stewardship of Republican leaders in Congress than in Democratic leaders, with 33% saying they are confident in GOP congressional leaders. That represents a slight decline from 38% last year but is above the 2014 low point of 24%. A majority of Americans were confident in Republicans from 2001 through 2003, but since then, the percentage has held below 50%, including only two readings above 40% since 2008.

Bottom Line

Of the four major federal leaders or groups of leaders responsible for economic policy, Americans are most likely to say they are confident in Obama. His higher confidence rating is partly related to Americans' lack of familiarity with Yellen and their generally negative views of Congress as an institution.

Apart from the strong 71% rating Americans gave Obama during the honeymoon phase of his presidency, their confidence in him to manage the economy has not varied a great deal during his presidency. This is the case even though Americans' assessments of the U.S. economy have improved over the past seven years. Given the large partisan gap in Obama's confidence ratings, these may be rooted more in fundamental agreement or disagreement with the president's approach to economic policy than on how the economy is doing on his watch.

Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted April 6-10, 2016, with a random sample of 1,015 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

View survey methodology, complete question responses and trends.

Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Director of the Modus Vivendi center, political scientist Ara Papyan stated during a press conference on April 18 that the Azerbaijani large-scale military attacks against Nagorno Karabakh are related to internal and external factors of Azerbaijan. For a long time it is known that Azerbaijan has economic problems related with prices and tariffs, and the ethnic minorities of Azerbaijan are getting more and more active. The offshore scandal related to Ilham Aliyevs family might also have been a factor for starting military operations, Armenpress reports Papyan saying.

Speaking about external factors, Papyan said that the deterioration of Russian-Turkish relations were a basis for starting the aggression against Artsakh. In this case the Russian leaderships actions were strange for me, who were making equal statements addressed to both sides, when the majority of Russian political analysts suggested that this was an action against Russia, Papyan said.

According to him, the situation is currently stable; however a new war may begin in the upcoming months, which may be greater in scale. Our leadership has to act concretely, as our Army, which of course acted brilliantly during the 4 day war, had some gaps which need to be filled. Significant gaps are in the organization of defense. This speaks to the fact that we suffered casualties, which might have been avoided. They werent avoided, because not everything was done right. Of course, the spirit of the soldier remains crucial in the 21st century, however it is very important to have modern, state-of-the-art armaments, in order to be able to defend appropriately and counterattack the enemy, Papyan said.

According to him, not only has Azerbaijan created a military goal, but it has also created a goal to commit genocide against the Armenian people, which is evidenced by the violence, torture and mutilations committed by Azerbaijanis against civilians. Therefore, we have serious steps to make, in order to finally crush the enemy. We need to properly arm ourselves and prepare for a new war, during which we need to crush the enemy and achieve the final goal, because otherwise for a long time we will have the current situation. The only way is final crushing of the enemy. The fact that we will win the next war is without doubt, which proves the 4 day war, however, as to what price will the victory have is still the question. We need to seriously prepare for this, Papyan said.

At the same time the political scientist said that one cannot achieve victory in war only by weapons and army, he said that it is necessary to act literately in the diplomatic arena also.
Gamblers patronizing the Emu Casino online (EmuCasino.com) may soon be out of luck as Australian authorities threaten to shut down the sit e.

Since 2012, the site, which is named after the worlds second largest flightless bird, is alleged to have operated illegally from Australia where online casino-style gaming is illegal, though the parent company, EMU Inc, is based out of Panama City, Panama and licensed by the island nation of Curacao.

The registered owner of the Australian domain website is a Gold Coast hairdresser Jeff Muller, who denies any association with the venture.

That is all news to me, Mr. Muller told The Daily News. I have nothing to do with this website.

Australian domain name regulator, auDA, can shut a website down if found to be registered fraudulently as Mr. Muller is claiming.

The Panama connection is especially of interest, as The Daily News points out:

According to the Panamanian companies registry, the shares of EmuCasino are held in the names of two trust companies, which effectively obscure the identities of the Australian owners.

According to filings made to Panamanian regulators, the holding company was incorporated by a law firm known as Quijano & Associates  one of Panamas leading providers of shelf company registrations.

Quijano & Associates competes against Mossack Fonseca  the law firm now at the centre of an international tax evasion scandal after sensitive documents about its clients were leaked earlier this month to world media.

A former Sydney web developer Adrian Loughnan, is referred to as EmuCasinos Head of Affiliates on its website, and as such the only known identity connected to the venture. But if what Muller claims is true, Loughnans name appearing on their website is not necessarily proof he has ties to them. The Daily News, in filing its report, was unsure if he currently worked there.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. President Serzh Sargsyan receives Director General of the Universal Postal Union Bishar Abdirahman Hussein and his delegation which included the chairman of PostEurop management board Zan Pol Forsevil and Secretary General Botond Szebeny on April 18.

The President welcomed the guests who arrived in Armenia to participate in conference of the Union of National Postal Operators of Europe in Yerevan. As Armenpress was informed by the Department of Public Relations and Information of the Presidential Administration, Serzh Sargsyan strongly emphasized the role of Universal Postal Union in the development of global communications which established the universal postal system since 19th century. The letter contributed to strengthening ties between different nations and enabling them to get acquainted with civilizations of various cultures and values. The President, stating that Armenia is a member of the Universal Postal union over 25 years, emphasized that it contributed to the development and modernization of postal service in our country to a great extent. The President considers this conference as a good opportunity to become familiar with the achievements of Armenia in this field, to make an exchange, to assess the activities of the Armenian National Postal operator HayPost and to discuss the further developments in that field.

Director General of the Universal Postal Union thanked the President of Armenia for warm reception and the opportunity to participate in the conference of the Union of National Postal Operators of Europe in Armenia. He presented the purpose of this conference and the mission of his organization, as well as the cooperation with HayPost assuring that the Universal Postal Union will continue its support to the development of the Armenian National Postal Operator. He noted that in a rapidly changing world new opportunities are being created also to use new approaches in the field of postal services.
YEREVAN, APRIL18, ARMENPRESS. Head of the NKR State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and the Missing Viktor Kocharyan rejects the information released by the Azerbaijani media that the Armenian side refuses to hand over the body of the Azerbaijani killed serviceman. In an interview with Armenpress Viktor Kocharyan said that there is no body of the Azerbaijani serviceman in the Armenian side. There is no such a thing. There are no bodies in the Armenian side, Kocharyan assured.

He also stated that there is no information about the Armenian missing serviceman. We have no information yet. Negotiations are still going on, Kocharyan mentioned.

The Armenian side, as a result of the Azerbaijani aggression and large-scale military operations, was searching for 19 missing in action starting from April 2. Azerbaijan gave 18 bodies of them to the Armenian side. The bodies of the Armenian servicemen were mutilated. One servicemans faith remains unknown.
'Feels Like Home Season 2' offers something real and tangible to think about; takes home a pertinent point - if your intentions are good, there is nothing in life that isn't achievable.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. On April 18 the President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree appointing Ashot Galoyan as the Armenian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Colombia, Armenpress was informed by the Department of Public Relations and Information of the Presidential Administration.
Rights, Freedoms Are Victims Of Central Asian Economic Crisis

April 16, 2016

by Bruce Pannier

Freedom House just released its annual Nations In Transit (NIT) report, an indispensable look at the human rights situation in 29 countries, including all five Central Asian states.

The annual survey has a ranking system to help track governments' progress, or regress, in respecting basic rights and freedoms.

While two Central Asian countries -- Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- have regularly been ranked at the bottom of the list, this year's NIT report saw Kazakhstan, and particularly Tajikistan, drop in the rankings.

To find out more about the report and how Freedom House reached this year's ratings for the Central Asian states, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service (known locally as Azatlyk), assembled a Majlis, or panel, to discuss the findings in this latest NIT.

The Majlis

Moderating the discussion was Azatlyk Director Muhammad Tahir. Nate Schenkkan, the project director for NIT, joined from Washington. Edward Lemon of Exeter University, and also the author of this year's report on Tajikistan, participated from London. And since I've written a few of these reports myself, I chipped in with a few comments.

Schenkkan started the discussion by saying, "A lot of observers of Central Asia have been saying since the oil price started dropping and since the sanctions got really serious on Russia that there would be really dire consequences in Central Asia and increasingly in 2015 and now in 2016 I think that's what we're seeing."

Lemon explained what happened in Tajikistan that caused that country to have one of the steepest declines in the NIT ratings in 2016 compared to 2015. "On the one hand you've got this crackdown on political parties, you've got the arrest of various lawyers, including the most prominent human rights lawyers who've been defending people, representatives of the [opposition] IRPT [Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan], representatives of Group 24, another leading opposition movement whose leader was assassinated in Istanbul in March [2015]."

Lemon continued that this has been accompanied by "the strengthening of [Tajik President Emomali] Rahmon's own position, including Rahmon becoming this 'leader of the nation' and 'originator of peace,' this new national holiday, this real cult of personality emerging around Rahmon." "You've really seen quite a dramatic shift in the human rights situation in the country last year," Lemon said.

Drastically reduced revenues from hydrocarbon exports have hit Kazakhstan hard. The national currency, the tenge, lost half its value between July 2015 and January 2016.

Unfair Elections

Schenkkan noted: "In Kazakhstan you had in 2015 and have had in 2016 again, the staging of these facade elections that are more about revalidating the existing government than they are about any kind of actual accountability or input from the citizenry into policy process."

Kazakhstan's early presidential election in April 2015 and early parliamentary elections in March 2016 saw overwhelming victories for President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his ruling Nur-Otan party. Many observers felt Nazarbaev wanted the elections over before the full impact of the economic crisis hit the country and potentially the popularity of the president and his party.

The few remaining independent media in Kazakhstan were also targeted and even bloggers were brought to trial, in some case on charges of inciting "social, national, tribal, racial, class, or religious hatred."

The countries that receive large remittances from their migrant laborers in Russia -- Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan -- are also facing severe economic downturns as relatives back home in those countries now find themselves with significantly less money to spend.

In Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as in gas exporter Turkmenistan, that fact has led authorities to clamp down on anyone suggesting the state of the country is anything less than the bright picture authorities are painting.

The fault naturally lies with the governments.

As Schenkkan said, "There's no buffer built in for these countries in the way that their governments had managed their economies and built up ways of responding to changes like this."

Measures the governments have been taking in most of the Central Asian countries seem more focused on silencing criticism and eliminating opposition rather than addressing economic problems, which, to be fair, are to some extent outside their control.

Trading Partner Woes

The Central Asian governments cannot do anything about the economic situations in Russia and China, two of the region's leading trade partners, nor can those countries with oil and natural gas do anything about the price for those energy resources on world markets. All five are going to need large amounts of outside money to help get through this crisis.

This led our Majlis into a discussion of the wisdom of Western financial aid for Central Asia. There are many well-meaning international organizations and Western governments who could and would help. But Central Asian governments are characterized by high levels of corruption and, in the end, even the financial help that does reach the people also serves to prop up the undemocratic regimes that pay little attention to the rights of their people.

As Lemon pointed out, since the start of the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, the direction of Western aid to Central Asia has changed and so has the message. Western governments and international financial organizations are "not sending out the right message; they're putting security above political reform, human rights, and they're giving the message to all of the governments of the region that they can continue following this downward trajectory and they'll still continue to get military aid and continue to get development money and other sources of rent."

And the result, as Schenkkan said, is that "We're really seeing a clustering at the bottom of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, still a step beyond, but really Kazakhstan not being that far off now and Tajikistan pretty rapidly approaching."

Kyrgyzstan actually received a slightly better score in NIT for 2016 than it got in the 2015 report, due to the country's parliamentary elections in October 2015, which probably were the best elections ever held in Central Asia. But there was talk about some of the problems with rights in Kyrgyzstan.

And there was much more detailed discussion of the topics mentioned in the text and other matters concerning this year's NIT report on the rights situation in Central Asia.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/rights-freedoms- victims-central-asia-crisis/27679454.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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Mobility Airmen support Canadian exercise in High Arctic

By Tech. Sgt. Catharine Schmidt, New York National Guard / Published April 17, 2016

STRATTON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, N.Y. (AFNS) -- Fifty Airmen from the New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing and two ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules are in the High Arctic supporting the Canadian Armed Forces' annual Operation Nunalivut exercise in Canada's Nunavut territory.

The Canadian exercise began April 1 and wraps up April 22. It is the third year that the New York ANG Airmen, based at Stratton Air National Guard Base, New York, have participated in the Canadian military exercise.

The New York ANG team is operating out of three locations during the exercise -- Resolute Bay; Thule Air Base, Greenland; and Little Cornwallis Island, which is about 50 miles northwest of Resolute.

Shortly after arriving, maintainers and operations Airmen began establishing a skiway camp to support LC-130 flight operations. The first LC-130 landed on the skiway April 14. A skiway is an area cleared of snow so that ski-equipped planes can land.

The team who prepared the skiway consisted of eight Airmen from the 109th AW who are also trained four Canadian engineers on how to prepare a skiway for large aircraft.

"We're the only team in the world that does this," Maj. Matthew Sala, a member of the 109th AW, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "Our aircraft is the only C-130 in the entire world that has skis on it and can land in the Arctic and Antarctic."

The LC-130s are able to provide up to 9,000 pounds of cargo per flight as opposed to 1,200 pounds the Canadians' Twin Otters can carry, allowing the LC-130 to transport in one trip what the Twin Otters would need 10 flights to move.

The 109th AW will help bring fuel and supplies to the forward-deployed locations during the exercise.

"Our support for Operation Nunalivut allows us to demonstrate our full range of polar expeditionary airlift capabilities in a joint U.S. and Canadian environment," said Col. Shawn Clouthier, the 109th AW commander. "I'm proud of our Airmen for the great work they are doing in showcasing our unique mission all over the world."

Operation Nunalivut is a sovereignty operation conducted annually since 2007 in northern Canada. According to the Canadian Forces Joint Task Force-North, the exercise provides an opportunity for the Canadian Armed Forces to assert Canada's sovereignty over to northernmost regions; demonstrate the ability to operate in the harsh winter environment in remote areas of the High Arctic; and enhance its capability to respond to any situation in the region.

The New York ANG's 105th AW, based at Stewart ANGB, New York, is also supporting the Canadian forces exercise using C-17 Globemaster IIIs.

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U.S., Coalition Continue Strikes Against ISIL in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, April 17, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Attack, ground-attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted nine strikes in Syria:

-- Near Hawl, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Raqqah, a strike destroyed an ISIL pump jack and an ISIL oil separator.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Manbij, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Mara, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL tactical vehicle.

Strikes in Iraq

Rocket artillery and ground-attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 17 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Fallujah, a strike destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun and an ISIL recoilless rifle.

-- Near Haditha, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and a vehicle-borne bomb.

-- Near Hit, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL excavator and an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Irbil, a strike destroyed an ISIL mortar system.

-- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed two ISIL fighting positions.

-- Near Mosul, six strikes struck six separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, four ISIL assembly areas and three ISIL vehicles.

-- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed an ISIL rocket rail.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed an ISIL mortar system.

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. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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U.S. Forces in Japan Prepare to Support Earthquake Relief Efforts

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan, April 17, 2016  U.S. forces in Japan are is preparing to provide operational airlift in support of the Japanese government's relief efforts following yesterday's devastating earthquake near Kumamoto.

"We express our deepest condolences to all of those affected by the recent earthquakes in Kyushu," said Air Force Lt. Gen. John L. Dolan, commander of U.S. Forces Japan. "We are working closely with the government of Japan to provide assistance and support. To the people of Japan and the region affected by this tragedy, we send our heartfelt sympathies. The men and women of U.S. Forces Japan stand with you during this difficult time."

Long-Standing Alliance

The long-standing alliance between Japan and the United States allows U.S. military forces in Japan to provide rapid, integrated support to the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and civil relief efforts, officials said in a news release.

"Our long experience working hand-in-hand with Japanese Self-Defense Forces ensures that our operations are seamless and effective," the release continued. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Japanese people."

(From a U.S. Forces Japan news release.)

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Carter Discusses ISIL, Iran with U.S. Airmen in United Arab Emirates

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, April 17, 2016  Defense Secretary Ash Carter discussed the "two I's"  ISIL and Iran -- with U.S. airmen at Al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates yesterday.

Defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is the highest priority for American forces in the region, the secretary told the airmen.

But the region is complicated, he said, and countering Iran's malign influence is a concern not only in the region, but also around the world.

The main mission for the UAE-based airmen is destroying ISIL in Syria and Iraq. "If you think about cancer, that's where the parent tumor is," Carter said.

No Caliphate

ISIL leaders continue to call the area they have captured in Iraq and Syria the new caliphate, but Carter said the 66-nation coalition opposing the terror group will not let that happen.

"There isn't going to be a state based on this ideology," he said. "That's what you are up to here, and we also secondly need to go after every place [where ISIL has] spread around the world. We're doing that, too."

But the United States wants to accelerate the destruction of ISIL, the secretary told the airmen, and he asked them to think of ways that can happen. "We're limited only by our own ingenuity and our ideas," he said.

The strategy, he said, is to enable capable, motivated local forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria to take on ISIL. Special operations personnel are working with Iraqi and Syrian forces against the terror group. U.S. and coalition partners are training these local fighters and working with them.

But they can't do this without U.S. and coalition support from the air, Carter said.

Counter-ISIL Progress

There has been progress. Iraqi forces have retaken the key cities of Ramadi and Beiji, and they are fighting ISIL around Hit. Syrian forces took Shaddadi and severed the lines of communication between ISIL's alleged capital of Raqqa in Syria and the largest city the group holds: Mosul in Iraq.

"But we're looking to do more," Carter said. "We're looking for opportunities, in essence, to get this over with faster. So if you see something, say something to your commanders."

Even with the defeat of ISIL, there are still problems in the region, the secretary said. The United States has a nuclear deal with Iran, he said, calling it "a good deal, in the sense that it took the nuclear weapons out of the picture."

But that does not mean Iran won't try to disturb the peace in other ways, the secretary said, adding that Iran is capable of "outright aggression or the kind of malign activity" that has worried many nations of the area.

He noted that President Barack Obama will be visiting Saudi Arabia later this week for the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting. Carter told the airmen he is in the region to pave the way for the president as the region discusses ISIL and Iran.

Carter arrived in the United Arab Emirates yesterday on the latest leg of an extended overseas trip.

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Marines of 31st MEU prepare to assist disaster relief in Japan

US Marine Corps News

By Capt. Jennifer Giles | April 17, 2016

Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived on Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, today to assist with recovery efforts in support of the Government of Japan's relief efforts after the island of Kyushu was hit by a series of earthquakes, causing significant damage and up to 40 deaths.

Four MV-22B Ospreys from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 (Rein.), 31st MEU departed the Philippines at 11:00am today, refueled at MCAS Futenma, Okinawa, and proceeded to MCAS Iwakuni, where they arrived at 6:30pm.

The 31st MEU has four additional MV-22B Ospreys staged at MCAS Futenma. The aircraft are on standby to provide aerial support for recovery efforts if needed.

U.S. military support is provided at the request of the Government of Japan and is in support of efforts undertaken by the Japanese Self Defense Force.

The 31st MEU provides a forward-deployed, flexible sea-based force capable of conducting amphibious operations, crisis response and limited contingency operations in the Asia-Pacific area. The 31st MEU is the only continually forward-deployed MEU and remains the Marine Corps' force-in-readiness in the Asia-Pacific region.

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Number of Afghan refugees returning home at record low: UN

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 5:14PM

The United Nations (UN) says the number of Afghans returning home from countries where they had sought refuge has hit a drastic low since 2001, amid continuing fighting and economic problems in the war-ravaged country.

According to UN officials, some 2,200 refugees have returned to Afghanistan so far this year, the lowest number of returnees since the commencement of a voluntary repatriation process launched in 2001, when the US led a war on the Asian country.

"It is much lower than we would have expected," George Okoth-Obbo, the UN assistant high commissioner for operations, said during a visit to the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday.

Citing figures released by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), Okoth-Obbo added that more than 200,000 Afghans fled to Europe in 2015, and an unspecified number of others sought asylum in Pakistan, Iran, and within Afghanistan itself.

This is while only 60,000 Afghans voluntarily returned home last year.

"The Afghan refugee crisis is not impacting only Europe," he said, noting that already in 2016, 80,000 Afghans have been forced from their homes, joining more than a million others currently internally displaced within the country.

More than 172,900 asylum seekers have reached Europe's shores since the beginning of 2016, with the majority of them fleeing countries ravaged by terrorism such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The refugee crisis has been Europe's worst since World War II.

Many blame the Western countries' interventions in conflicts in the Middle East as the main reason behind the refugees' decision to leave their home countries.

Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity 15 years after the United States and its allies attacked the country as part of Washington's so-called war on terror.

Many people have fled Afghanistan over the years of war, with a majority of them taking refuge in neighboring countries and Europe.

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Russia dismisses US report of Baltic encounter

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 3:54PM

Russia's military has dismissed a report by the US European Command that a Russian jet made aggressive maneuvers near a US reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea.

Igor Konashenkov in a statement on Sunday dismissed the report as "running counter to reality," noting that Russian air defenses had to scramble the jet after detecting a high-speed unidentified target over the Baltic Sea heading for its borders.

The US reconnaissance plane changed course after making visual contact with the Russian jet, Konashenkov added.

The Russian spokesman stressed that the flight of the Russian warplane was in "strict conformity with international laws ... and there were no emergency situations."

The remarks come after US Defense Department announced Thursday that a Russian SU-27 jet flew dangerously close to the American aircraft, which was flying a routine route in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.

US European Command spokesman Danny Hernandez said that the Su-27 fighter "performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers" by flying within 50 feet of a US RC-135 aircraft.

Hernandez said that the "unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries."

This has been a second incident in the volatile region between the Cold War-era foes in the past week.

Also on Tuesday, two Russian Su-24 bombers reportedly buzzed the Donald Cook, a US guided missile destroyer, in the Baltic Sea. A US military official describing the incident as one of the most aggressive interactions in recent memory.

US Secretary of State John Kerry denounced as dangerous and provocative the military encounter in the Baltic Sea region.

The government of Russian President Vladimir Putin accuses the US-led NATO military alliance of expanding towards Russia's borders. Moscow has also repeatedly objected to NATO's military build-up near Russia's borders.

The developments come as tensions are resurfacing between Russia and NATO as the two sides plan to hold their first formal talks in almost two years.

Russia's Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko has said that the western military alliance is using the crisis in Ukraine as a pretext for an absolutely unjustified buildup in Baltic States.

Grushko said he plans to protest to NATO at the rare talks in Brussels on April 20.

Russia and NATO have been locked in a deepening dispute. The military alliance accuses Russia of backing militias in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies this and argues that the alliance is using the situation to move closer to its borders.

Relations between Russia and NATO specially soured after Crimea rejoined the Russian Federation following a referendum in March 2014.

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.

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US to step up operations against Daesh in Iraq, Syria: Report

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 12:40PM

The United States is preparing to ramp up its military campaign against the Daesh terrorist group, by increasing the number of Special Operations forces in Syria and deploying Apache helicopter gunships to the battlefield in Iraq, officials say.

The goal would be to advise and assist the Iraqi security forces and US-backed militant units in Syria fighting the terrorist organization, the New York Times reported.

The administration of President Barack Obama is considering deploying dozens of Special Operations forces inside Syria, on top of about 50 who are already on the ground there advising and training US-backed militants, Pentagon and military officials said.

The additional troops, who could total as many as 200, would assist Syrian Arab fighters as they gear up to capture Raqqah, the de facto capital of Daesh, officials said.

The US military has also resumed a highly-criticized program to train new groups of militants to fight Daesh in Syria.

In Iraq, military planners would like to move US "military advisers" closer to the battlefield in Mosul for the anticipated assault on the country's second largest city. The plan also calls for deployment of Apache helicopter gunships, which are already in Iraq to protect American personnel, to take part in military operations in the city.

The Pentagon has acknowledged that the US force level in the country has already exceeded the authorized level of 3,870 approved by President Obama.

Officials have quietly said that the actual number is closer to 5,000 when accounting for troops considered to be on "temporary" deployment.

The proposed military options are still under consideration pending decisions in Washington and Baghdad and could be announced in the next several days, five Defense Department and military officials told the Times on the condition of anonymity.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Saturday that the Obama administration will increase its military operations against Daesh terrorists, but did not discuss the specifics.

"You should expect us, to see us, doing more," he said at a news conference at the Al Dhafra air base in the United Arab Emirates.

Carter said the military options will include the use of members of the American armed services as well as the US cyber capabilities. "It will be consistent with the same approach, but it'll be across all the domains, right up to cyber."

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford said last month that he and the Pentagon chief believed there would be an increase in US forces in Iraq in the coming weeks.

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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YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The Press Service of the CSTO informed Armenpress that on April 19 the Foreign Ministers of CSTO will discuss coordination issues of foreign policy in Yerevan. The meeting will be chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan. Deputy Secretary General of CSTO Ara Badalyan will take part.

Several conceptual documents of the CSTO are scheduled to be discussed during the consultations, as well as foreign policy coordination issues of CSTO member states, reads the CSTO website announcement.
Four killed as Yemeni police foil attack on Aden airport

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 8:17AM

At least four Yemeni policemen have been killed and five others injured as they thwarted a car bomb attack on the airport in the southern port city of Aden.

The incident took place on Sunday when the officers opened fire at a car that was traveling at high speed towards the airport. The vehicle exploded before reaching the facility near a checkpoint.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the planned attack.

In a similar incident, an explosive-laden vehicle went off in the al-Arish coastal district of Aden Province.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's al-Ahed news website reported an escalation in clashes between Saudi-backed loyalists to Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Yemen's former president, and the Yemeni army forces and Houthi Ansarullah fighters in a district in Bayda Province.

The confrontations, which come despite a ceasefire deal between the conflicting sides, left a number of people dead or wounded on both sides, according to the report.

Yemen's warring parties agreed on a ceasefire that took effect at midnight on April 10. The truce was announced by the UN special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, as a step to calm the situation ahead of peace talks due in Kuwait on April 18.

The Houthi Ansarullah fighters took state matters into their own hands after the resignation and escape of Hadi, which threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country, where an al-Qaeda affiliate is present.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has been engaged in a deadly military campaign against the Arab country since March 26, 2015 in a bid to reinstate Hadi. Over 9,400 Yemenis, including 4,000 women and children, have lost their lives in the Saudi airstrikes. Riyadh's military has violated the recent cessation of hostilities several times.

The Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has exploited chaos in the impoverished country since the beginning of the Saudi war to tighten its grip on parts of southeast Yemen.

The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, too, has gained ground in and around the main southern city of Aden.

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Violence claimed 600 Afghan civilian lives in Q1: UN

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 8:2AM

Latest figures released by the United Nations show that acts of terrorism and violence left 600 people dead in Afghanistan during the first quarter of the current year as the armed forces continue to battle Taliban militants.

According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), a total of 600 Afghan civilians lost their lives between January 1 and March 31, 2016, while 1,343 others were injured.

The number of deaths was down 13 percent compared to the same time span last year, but the number of injuries was 11 percent higher.

The UN mission added almost a third of the casualties were children, as 161 were killed and 449 others injured over the first three months of 2016. The figure marked a 29-percent rise in comparison to the number recorded from January to March last year.

"If the fighting persists near schools, playgrounds, homes and clinics, and parties continue to use explosive weapons in those areas - particularly mortars and IED tactics, these appalling numbers of children killed and maimed will continue," UNAMA human rights director Danielle Bell said in a statement on Sunday.

The UNAMA further noted that 52 Afghan women also lost their lives and 143 sustained injuries in the first quarter of this year, registering a five-percent jump in the number of women casualties.

The figures came days after the Taliban militant group announced the start of its annual spring offensive against Afghan security forces and US-led foreign forces across the conflict-ridden South Asian country.

The Taliban said in a statement that the campaign had begun at 5 a.m. local time (0030 GMT) on April 12.

The militants also dubbed the offensive "Operation Omari" in honor of Taliban founder and long-time leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, who purportedly died at a hospital in Karachi, the main seaport and financial center of Pakistan, in April 2013.

The Taliban promised "large scale attacks on enemy positions  tactical attacks against enemy strongholds and assassination of enemy commanders in urban centers."

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US plane intercepted by Russian jet: Pentagon

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:39AM

The Pentagon says a US Air Force reconnaissance plane has been intercepted by a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet in an "unsafe and unprofessional manner" while flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.

"The US aircraft was operating in international airspace and at no time crossed into Russian territory," Laura Seal, a Defense Department spokeswoman, said on Saturday.

She noted that the incident occurred on Thursday and the US aircraft in question was an RC-135.

"This unsafe and unprofessional air intercept has the potential to cause serious harm and injury to all aircrews involved," Seal added. "More importantly, the unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries."

The news comes after the US military officials claimed that Sukhoi Su-24 planes had multiple simulated attack passes on Monday and Tuesday near the US Donald Cook destroyer in neutral waters of the Baltic.

Dismissing the action as reckless or provocative, Russia said its aircraft observed all required safety measures when flying over the US warship.

"After detecting the ship within their visibility range, the Russian pilots diverted from it with all safety precautions," said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.

The US Navy sent the Donald Cook to the Baltic Sea along with three other vessels last week "to boost security in Europe."

Washington believes the overflights breach a 1970s agreement which was designed to prevent unsafe incidents at sea.

The incident occurred as tensions are on the rise between the US and Russia over the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

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UN: Afghan Civilian Deaths Down, But More Wounded

April 17, 2016

by RFE/RL

The United Nations has reported 600 civilian deaths in Afghanistan in the first quarter of this year -- down 13 percent from the first three months of 2015.

The latest figures released by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on April 17 also showed that the number of civilian injuries was 11 percent higher to 1,343 during the same period.

The report said intensified fighting in populated areas caused a 29 percent increase in child casualties and a 5 percent increase in casualties among women.

Danielle Bell, UNAMA's human rights director, says women and children have borne the brunt of the violence.

"In the first quarter of 2016, almost one third of civilian casualties were children," Bell says in the report.

"If the fighting persists near schools, playgrounds, homes and clinics, and parties continue to use explosive weapons in those areas... these appalling numbers of children killed and maimed will continue."

UNAMA estimates that 60 percent of casualties were caused by antigovernment forces, but noted a jump in those caused by security forces using explosive weapons like mortars and grenades.

Militants have denied previous allegations of targeting and killing civilians.

"Even if a conflict intensifies, it does not have to be matched by corresponding civilian suffering provided parties take their international humanitarian law and human rights obligations seriously," Nicholas Haysom, the UN envoy to Afghanistan, said in a statement.

"Failure to respect humanitarian obligations will result in more suffering in a nation that has suffered enough," he added.

Last year, there were 11,002 civilian casualties, including 3,545 deaths, according to UN figures released in February.

The figures come days after the Taliban announced the start of its annual spring offensive.

Civilian casualties are expected continue to rise in the months ahead as the Taliban intensify their operations against government forces in the warmer months.

With reporting by AP and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/afghanistan- united-nations-civilian-deaths-down/27679781.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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U.S. Reports Another Close Call With Russian Warplane Over Baltic Sea

April 17, 2016

by RFE/RL

The U.S. military says there has been another close encounter between a Russian warplane and a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea  the second such incident within a week.

U.S. Navy Captain Danny Hernandez, a spokesman for the U.S. European Command, told CNN that the latest incident took place on April 14 when a Russian Su-27 fighter jet "performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers" dangerously close to the U.S. plane during a routine flight in international airspace.

He said the Russian jet barrel-rolled near the U.S. RC-135, coming within 16 meters of the U.S. plane's wing tip.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on April 17 that the Su-27's flight "complied with international regulations."

Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said the Russian fighter took off to identify "an unknown aerial target which was heading at a great speed toward the Russian border" and "flew around" the RC-135.

On April 12, two Russian Su-24 warplanes buzzed a U.S. guided-missile destroyer in the Baltic Sea.

That incident prompted condemnation from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who accused Russia's military of a "dangerous" and "reckless" provocation.

Kerry said on April 14 that the U.S. warship, which was in international waters, could have shot down the Russian Su-24 fighter jets under rules of engagement.

Kerry said on April 14 that he was communicating with officials in Moscow in the hope that such a close encounter would not be repeated.

Russia's Defense Ministry defended the actions of those Russian pilots, saying they had respected all safety rules.

U.S. military officials said the Russian warplanes were not armed, but flew so close to the USS Donald Cook and at such a low altitude that they created a "wake in the water."

Reducing the risk of deadly military confrontations is on the agenda of NATO and Russian diplomats due to meet in Brussels on April 20.

The meeting will be the first of the NATO-Russia Council since June 2014 when NATO suspended all practical cooperation with Moscow over its illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and its support for Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, CNN, and TASS

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/us-russia-baltic- sea-close-call-military/27679463.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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Doha Oil Meeting Ends Without Agreement

April 17, 2016

by RFE/RL

High-stakes talks between oil-producing countries in Qatar aimed at trying to boost global oil prices by capping production have ended without agreement.

Qatar's Energy Minister Muhammad bin Saleh al-Sada said after six hours of negotiations the top oil producers needed "more time."

"The general conclusion was that we need more time to consult among ourselves in OPEC and non-OPEC producers," Sada told a press conference after the end of the talks.

The minister added that OPEC members would meet in Vienna in June to consider a possible freeze.

The April 17 meeting in Doha gathered 18 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC countries representing about half the world's oil output.

But the meeting started several hours behind schedule due to what the Qatari news television Al-Jazeera called "divergence in views."

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, had demanded that any cap deal must be binding to all producers.

Iran decided not to attend the talks.

Under the plan, Russia and OPEC members like Saudi Arabia would keep production levels at the output levels of January 2016 in an attempt to reduce a glut in global oil supplies that led to falling prices in 2015.

But Iran, a member of OPEC, is insisting that it will not limit its output until it has raised its production to the level before international sanctions were imposed against Tehran over its nuclear program.

"The Doha meeting is for those who want to participate in the production freeze plan... but since Iran is not going to sign up to the plan, the presence of an Iranian representative isn't necessary," the Shana news agency quoted Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh as saying.

Those sanctions were lifted under the nuclear accord reached between Iran and world powers in 2015.

Iran now wants to add another million barrels of oil production per day to its current production level.

Meanwhile, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman said in an interview with Bloomberg published on April 16 that Saudi Arabia will not freeze its oil output unless Iran also does so.

The meeting in Doha follows a February agreement by Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela to push for the freeze in a bid to shore up the prices of crude oil, which earlier this year fell to their lowest levels since 2004.

Qatar said on April 16 that there was "an atmosphere of optimism" on the eve of the meeting.

Kuwait's acting oil minister, Anas al-Saleh, told reporters upon arrival in Doha that "he was optimistic" a production freeze would be agreed upon at the conference.

But oil prices tumbled on April 15 as traders bet that the meeting in Doha will not result in any effective measures to curb the global oversupply.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iran-oil- russia-qatar-saudi-arabia-opec/27679462.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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NATO Launches Military Exercises at Latvia's Adazi Base

Sputnik News

21:33 17.04.2016(updated 21:55 17.04.2016)

NATO's Summer Shield XIII exercises will take place at the Adazi polygon in Latvia, aiming to develop combat skills at the level of battalions and brigades, according to the Latvian Defense ministry.

RIGA (Sputnik)  NATO's Summer Shield XIII exercises kicked off earlier on Sunday at Latvia's Adazi polygon, the Latvian Defense ministry said Sunday.

"From today and until April 29, international exercises will take place at the Adazi polygon, aiming to develop combat skills at the level of battalions and brigades," the ministry said in a statement.

Military units will practice a wide range of combat skills, the ministry said, noting that training will involve artillery, mortars, combat engineering, anti-tank defense and defense against weapons of mass destruction. Latvian infantry, airborne troops and several special forces units will take part, according to the statement.

Last year's Summer Shield XII took place in Adazi between March and April and involved units from Latvia, the United States, Lithuania, Germany, Luxembourg, and Canada.

 Sputnik

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In telephone calls, UN chief speaks with South Sudan's leaders about transitional government

17 April 2016  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today spoke by phone with President Salva Kiir, and separately with Riek Machar, who is tomorrow expected to be sworn in as the First Vice President of South Sudan.

The Secretary-General emphasized the importance of quickly establishing the Transitional Government of National Unity, which was agreed to as part of a peace agreement signed in August of last year by both President Kiir and his rival, Mr. Machar.

According to a readout of the telephone calls, Mr. Ban also urged both leaders to continue working together with the Chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, former president Festus Mogae, and the African Union High Representative for South Sudan, former president Alpha Oumar Konare, towards the implementation of the peace agreement.

While speaking with President Kiir, Mr. Ban commended his decision to welcome Mr. Machar back to Juba and to swear him in as the First Vice President on 18 April.

Mr. Ban also "called for the expeditious implementation of the security arrangements envisaged in the peace agreement and the withdrawal additional SPLA troops from Juba," referring to the Sudan People's Liberation Army.

In his call with Mr. Machar, Mr. Ban welcomed the decision of the First Vice President Designate to return to Juba and urged him to work with President Kiir to prevent any further violence.

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UN Reports Afghan Civilian Casualties Continue to Rise

by Ayaz Gul April 17, 2016

The United Nations said the Afghan conflict has caused nearly 2,000 casualties in the first three months of this year, showing an increase of 2 percent compared to the same period last year.

The number includes an increase of 11 percent in civilians wounded  1,343  but a decrease of 13 percent in those killed  600.

The fighting has intensified in Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of its annual spring offensive last Tuesday, raising fears of increased bloodshed in 2016.

U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) chief Nicholas Haysom called on all parties to the Afghan conflict to take precautions to protect civilians during operations.

"Even if a conflict intensifies, it does not have to be matched by corresponding civilian suffering provided parties take their international humanitarian law and human rights obligations seriously," Haysom said.

UNAMA recorded more than 11,000 civilian casualties, including 3,500 deaths in 2015, the highest numbers since it began documenting the data seven years ago.

Taliban blamed

While releasing the latest civilian casualty figures on Sunday, UNAMA blamed the Taliban-led anti-government forces for causing at least 60 percent of the casualties.

The figures, however, show a 15 percent decrease compared to the same period last year.

UNAMA attributed 19 percent of the casualties to actions by Afghan government forces and their allies, noting with concern a 70 percent increase compared to the first three months of 2015.

It documented a 5 percent increase in women casualties and a 29 percent increase in child casualties compared to the same period last year.

"In the first quarter of 2016, almost one-third of civilian casualties were children," said Danielle Bell, UNAMA's Human Rights Director.

Ground engagements caused the highest number of civilian casualties, followed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs), complex and suicide attacks, as well as targeted killings, according to UNAMA.

The U.N. Mission welcomed the decrease in civilian casualties so far this year from insurgent tactics such as targeted killings of Afghans and IED attacks. But it noted with concern a 26 percent increase in civilian casualties from complex and suicide attacks, calling on the insurgents to cease such activities.

Aerial operations

UNAMA said it is particularly worried over a rise in civilian casualties this year from aerial operations by both the Afghan Air Force and international-led military forces, mostly Americans.

Their actions have killed six people and wounded 21 compared to 16 civilian casualties during the same period in 2015.

The Mission said 16 percent of civilian casualties could not be attributed to a specific party, and blamed unattributed unexploded ordinance for 6 percent of casualties.

UNAMA called on the Afghan government to restrict the use of explosive weapons such as mortars, rockets and grenades during ground engagement with insurgents, saying they killed 96 civilians and wounded 192.

The UNAMA figures showed an 85 percent increase by such weapons compared to the first quarter of 2015.

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Afghan Forces Battle Insurgents Around Kunduz

by VOA News April 17, 2016

Afghan officials and insurgent sources said intense fighting is raging near the northern city of Kunduz.

An Interior Ministry statement issued Sunday said Afghan forces killed at least 44 Taliban insurgents and wounded many more in overnight clashes around the provincial capital.

The fighting erupted Friday after the Taliban staged a major offensive on security outposts around Kunduz in its bid to capture the city.

Both sides have since claimed inflicting heavy casualties on the other, but it is difficult to ascertain official and insurgent claims because of the volatile situation in Kunduz and surrounding northern Afghan provinces.

A Taliban spokesman accused Afghan and U.S.-led foreign forces of conducting extensive aerial bombing in and around Kunduz.

He denied official claims of government forces killing dozens of insurgents in such an attack.

"These indiscriminate bombings have only targeted civilian areas," according to the Taliban spokesman.

The Taliban had briefly overrun the strategically important city in September.

Residents said insurgents have since established hideouts and influence in the surrounding districts, helping them stage the latest offensive against Kunduz.

At a gathering in Kabul Sunday, civil society groups expressed concerns Kunduz is likely to fall to the Taliban again unless the Afghan government clears joining areas of insurgents.

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YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh ebing as a aprt of Azerbaijan means a repetition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, in an press conference in Armenpress press hall Director of the Institute of History Ashot Melkonyan said this stating that the international community starts slowly to understand this idea.

We definitely learned lessons from our history. The example is Artsakh. When we underwent genocide in 1915, we could have less causalities at that time. Now we have learned our lessons. When the 1988 movement began, there was enormous disparity between the parties in terms of their forces, however, we made our conclusions and stood for our rights. Today we should convince the international community that Artsakh to be a part of Azerbaijan means the repetition of 1915. The recent hostilities of April are also the evidence of that, Ashot Melkonyan said.

Director of the Institute of History stated that we should go to the path of Artsakh recognition, it is a guarantee that the genocide will not be committed against our Armenians of that part.

We see how several MPs from European high tribunals speak about the independence of Artsakh, we see how several states of the USA recognize Artsakh. We can surely say that we see enough progress. We should continue this path and achieve the independence of Artsakh. Concerning the liberated territories, there cannot be any concessions as well. Firstly, these territories are parts of the historical Armenia, it is the Field Artsakh. Except from that, these territories solve security issues for us. Giving a small piece of land means that the cannons are coming near to our communities and make them vulnerable. We cannot accept that, especially when the Azerbaijani side does not leave a room for any concessions, said Ashot Melkonyan.

Speaking about the statements to present the Azerbaijani hostile actions as a crime to the international court head of the Armenian Question and the Armenian Genocide history's department Armen Marukyan mentioned that it is not so easy process.

There is a need to collect data, to prepare a suit. Besides, according to the Charter of the International Criminal Court, only those countries can apply to the court that are members of the court. Armenia and Azerbaijan are not member states of the International Criminal Court. However, it doesnt mean that they do not have a full right to apply to the court. There is another option, when the UN Security Council can apply to the court, said Armen Marukyan. He recalled that on March 21, 2014 when the events in Kessab took place, the Russian Federation made two statements which called for the implementation of criminal investigation to check what happened in Kessab.

It will be better to apply to Russia to raise the issue of Azerbaijani provocative actions in the UN Security Council, and reach the point when the case will be sent to the International Criminal Court. The process is not easy, however, not all opportunities are closed, said Armen Marukyan.
Russia Rejects US Criticism of Jet Incident in Baltic Sea

by VOA News April 17, 2016

Russia's military denied one of its jets made aggressive maneuvers during an incident with a U.S Air Force reconnaissance plane flying over the Baltic Sea.

The U.S. military said the Russian SU-27 jet had flown in "an unsafe and unprofessional manner," getting within 15 meters of the U.S. RC-135 aircraft Thursday.

Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russia had to scramble to dispatch an aircraft after detecting an unidentified aerial target flying at high speeds towards its border.

Visual contact

He said when the American aircraft made visual contact with the Russian jet, the reconnaissance plan changed course, flying away from the border.

A statement from the U.S. European Command on Saturday said the incident occurred in international airspace and at no time did the American plane cross into Russian territory.

Days ago, Russian fighter jets flew very close to the USS Donald Cook in international waters in the Baltic Sea.

The crew aboard the warship was dumbfounded to see the apparently unarmed SU-24 planes fly as close as nine meters from the destroyer, close enough to create a wake in the water.

Denies provocation

Russia's Defense Ministry denied the action was provocative, saying the planes were conducting test flights and only observed the Donald Cook before turning away, "in observance of all safety measures."

A Pentagon official described the Russian flights as simulated attack passes. He said sailors on the Donald Cook attempted to reach the Russian planes by radio, but got no response.

Some military analysts say they believe the Russian maneuver may have come out of the Kremlin's resentment of U.S. forces operating so close to Russian territory.

NATO has bolstered its military presence in Eastern Europe as a response to the Russian annexation of Crimea in Ukraine in 2014.

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Ethiopia Accuses South Sudan Gunmen of Killing 140

by VOA News April 17, 2016

Armed groups from South Sudan conducted a cross-border raid, killing more than 140 people and kidnapping many children, Ethiopia's government said Sunday.

Ethiopian officials blamed Friday's attack near Gambella on ethnic Murle gunmen. They said women and children were among those killed, and a number of children were abducted and taken back to South Sudan.

"The Ethiopian defense force is currently chasing after the perpetrators," Ethiopia communication minister Getachew Reda told The Associated Press Sunday.

Reda said there is no relation between the attackers and the South Sudanese government or the country's rebels.

Pursuing gunmen

He said Ethiopian forces had killed "60 members of the attackers" so far, and may cross into South Sudan to continue to pursue the gunmen.

Ethiopia is host to thousands of South Sudanese refugees -- about 272,000 in the Gambella region, which borders South Sudan -- who fled after war broke in their country in December 2013. Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million people forced to flee their homes during the war.

The Murle is a tribe from South Sudan based in the eastern Jonglei region.

On Monday, South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar is due to return to the country's capital, Juba, as part of a peace agreement reached last year.

Some material for this report came from AP and AFP.

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Yemen Envoys, Houthi Rebels Gather in Kuwait for Peace Talks

by Lou Lorscheider April 17, 2016

Envoys from Yemen's warring parties are in Kuwait for a third try Monday at United Nations mediated talks aimed at ending an 18-month conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people and created a devastating humanitarian crisis in the region's poorest country.

"We are ready for a political transition which excludes no one... and we will give everything we can to alleviate the suffering," Yemen Foreign Minister Abdel Malek told the state news agency, Saba, ahead of Monday's talks.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels also hinted at reconciliation, with spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam using Kuwaiti media to call for "a consensus authority during a definite transitional phase to decide every political dispute."

U.N.-sponsored peace talks in 2015 twice failed to end the combat, with December talks crumbling under the weight of some of the fiercest battles in months.

The conflict has pitted the Sunni government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Houthi rebels, who seized the capital, Sana'a, in September 2014, driving a former president into exile.

A Saudi-led Sunni military coalition entered the fray one year ago, bombing Houthi targets and obliterating entire Yemen communities.

Last week, U.N. special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told the U.N. Security Council that success at the peace talks will require "difficult compromises from all sides, as well as determination to reach an agreement."

For his part, Yemen's U.N. envoy Khaled Alyemany told reporters the talks could yield concrete results. "If they fail," he warned, "it will be a repetition of the cycle of violence."

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No Deal on Production Freeze at Oil Producers Meeting

by VOA News April 17, 2016

World oil producers failed to agree on a production freeze at a Sunday summit in Qatar, a move likely to send oil prices dropping when global markets open Monday morning.

Ministers from 18 OPEC and non-OPEC producers were looking for a deal to cap production at January levels at least through October. The idea is to stabilize prices, which have plummeted from more than $100 a barrel in 2014 to the current price of a little more than $40 a barrel.

These low prices have cost oil exporters billions of dollars in revenue and damaged some already fragile economies.

But the ministers say they need "more time" to make a decision.

Iran refused to send its oil minister to the Qatar talks, sending an emissary instead. The end of Western sanctions in exchange for signing the nuclear deal opens up the world to Iranian oil exports and badly needed income for Iran.

"We can't cooperate with them to freeze our own output and in other words, impose sanctions on ourselves," Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh told Iranian television.

Saudi Arabian officials said they cannot support any oil production freeze if arch-rival Iran also opposes it.

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Military Strikes Target ISIL Terrorists in Iraq, Syria

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, April 18, 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

Ground attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted three strikes in Syria:

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Manbij, two strikes destroyed two ISIL anti-air artillery pieces.

Strikes in Iraq

Fighter, ground attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 17 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Baghdadi, three strikes struck an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL communications facility and an ISIL staging area.

-- Near Fallujah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Hit, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Kirkuk, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed three ISIL vehicles.

-- Near Kisik, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroyed three ISIL assembly areas and suppressed an ISIL tactical unit and an ISIL rocket team.

-- Near Mosul, four strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units; destroyed two ISIL mortar positions, two ISIL assembly areas, an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL boat; and suppressed an ISIL rocket team.

-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and an ISIL safe house.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.

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. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

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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DoD CIO Discusses Modernizing Networks, Consolidating Data Centers

By Cheryl Pellerin DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2016  Defense Department Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen discussed the DoD's network modernization and data center consolidation efforts as part of the department's cyber strategy during a recent media roundtable with defense reporters.

The DoD CIO also explained how his office is empowering mobile data access and thinking about how to make it easier for government and industry cybersecurity workers to trade places for short periods of time.

"What we stressed [during the March 22 hearing before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities] was the need to modernize DoD networks, and the focal point of that is the Joint Regional Security Stacks, or JRSS. That has not changed. That will not change as long as I am here, and I think beyond that," Halvorsen told the reporters.

Securing DoD Networks

The JRSS is a regionally based centrally managed suite of security appliances that Halvorsen has said will simplify and secure the DoD network environment and reduce the department's "attack surface" from 1,000 security suites and more than 5,000 firewalls to fewer than 50 potential access points.

The shift to JRSS will improve the ability of those securing the network to see what's happening across those networks, "and is essential to the overall cybersecurity of DoD networks, but it also will help DoD reduce costs, improve configuration management and advance functionality across the network," he said in written testimony for the HASC hearing.

On consolidating data centers, Halvorsen said that DoD continues to work, and should work faster, to reduce information technology security vulnerability and increase efficiency departmentwide by such consolidation.

"We are going to have to move better on data center consolidation. If you saw the [March 22 HASC] testimony, I clearly admitted we are behind on doing that, so internal to the DoD we are looking at some very specific action," he said.

Consolidating Data Centers

For example, the CIO's office is identifying its highest-cost data centers and then will be "more prescriptive" from a DoD level about actions everyone will have to take with data centers, he added.

"This is less about counting numbers of data centers, numbers of servers, and frankly I'm not going to do that," Halvorsen said. "I'm counting the money we're spending on that and we've got to  use that money for higher priorities."

The major data center cost driver is people, the CIO said.

"What you've got to look at when you capture the cost of data centers is how many people are doing what? If you still have a lot of people, say, doing monitoring and maintenance of servers, that's a bad use of people. That can be automated today in an efficient data center," Halvorsen explained.

Mobile Data Access

The CIO's office is continuing to push mobile data access, Halvorsen said.

"At the end of this month we will have released the wireless guide on how to use wireless that will  be more for internal wireless networks. Very rapidly to follow will be our guest network inside the Pentagon, and how to [use] that," he added.

The CIO said he's visited Samsung, and likes, though he can't endorse the device, many of the security features that have gone into Samsung 7.

"We'll be testing that," he said, " and some other phones that I think by the end of the summer we will be able to say they are now also on the approved list for people to get both their [unclassified] official email and their unclass[ified] personal email  [and] I think that will be another empowerment step forward."

Cybersecurity Workforce

Halvorsen said his office wants to work on legislation that would allow them to continue to expand partnerships with industry and improve the ability to bring industry people into the department for short periods and do the same with DoD people in temporary industry slots.

"We've got to get to that," the CIO said. "I was very pleased that both of the [congressional armed services] committees have been supportive of that type of legislation."

Halvorsen said his office also is determining how to handle pay issues for the cybersecurity workforce.

"Everybody who is in the business knows that the cost of highly trained cybersecurity people has gone up, salaries are going up. It is something I think we'll have to address, and we are working on how to do that within DoD," he said.

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US to Send More Troops, Helicopters to Help Iraq Retake Mosul

by Carla Babb April 18, 2016

The U.S. is providing more than 200 additional troops and several Apache attack helicopters to assist Iraqi forces in their fight to retake the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Monday in Baghdad.

Carter said the new U.S. troops would be mainly advisers needed to help with the logistics of advancing Iraqi troops further from their bases as they encircle Iraq's second largest city. He said they would advise at the brigade and battalion headquarters level.

"Everyone knows the fight of Iraq is the fight for Mosul," a senior U.S. defense official said. "Mosul is the end game in Iraq."

Iraqi forces began an offensive to retake the IS stronghold on March 24.

A senior defense official says a total of eight Apache attack helicopters will be sent to aid in the battle. U.S. troops are needed to fly and maintain them.

Last year, Iraqi officials declined a U.S. offer for Apache helicopters in the battle to retake Ramadi from IS, but the U.S official noted that the fight for Mosul will be even more difficult. The city fell to IS militants in the summer of 2014.

Carter on Monday also announced the United States will increase funding for Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq, with a senior official saying the amount will be about $400 million.

Secretary Carter traveled to Iraq Monday to talk with his commanders and Iraqi leaders about ways the U.S. can ramp up the fight against IS militants in Iraq and Syria.

He met with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Minister of Defense Khaled al-Obaidi before speaking with Kurdish President Masoud Barzani.

"The Iraqis are not shy about asking for what they need," a senior defense official said. "Our generals, our colonels, they are sitting next to the Iraqis."

Carter's visit was his third to Iraq as secretary of defense.

UAE

Speaking to reporters in the United Arab Emirates Saturday, Carter expressed confidence the White House will approve recommendations.

"We are looking to do more," Carter said at Al Dhafra Air Base near Abu Dhabi. "That ranges from in the air to on the ground. You should expect to see us doing more."

But Carter added that "Our presence on the ground will continue to be to enable, not to substitute for local forces."

The U.S.-led coalition has used the Al Dhafra Air Base for airstrikes against Islamic State, as well as for intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance missions.

Air power

According to some at the Al Dhafra Air Base, the U.S. has already upped its munition power from the air and expects to continue to increase air power over the next six months.

"The F-22 has seen quite an expanded role since we've been here," an F-22 fighter jet operations officer told Carter during his visit to the base Saturday.

"The last six months the unit that we just swapped out with, they dropped just over 200 munitions, precision munitions out in the theater. Just this past week, we've dropped 20 percent of that, so 40 munitions in just a week."

In addition to munitions, about a third of the aircraft deployed to this base is dedicated to surveillance over Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Carter said the troops at Al Dhafra Air Base played an important role in the fight against Islamic State.

"These people are pretty busy and some of them are in risky situations every single day," he Carter.

US strategy

Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA the U.S. strategy seemed to be "containing" Islamic State, which continues to lose ground in Iraq and Syria, but worries that needed improvements to the strategy could come "too little, too late."

"When it comes to the fight against the Islamic State, it's almost as if we diagnosed with cancer at Stage One and then sat about arguing about whether or not we should prescribe an aspirin for the next four-five years while it metastasized to Stage Four," Rubin said.

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Yemen Peace Talks Delayed

by Chris Hannas April 18, 2016

Peace talks between Yemen's warring parties have been delayed from their scheduled start on Monday, said a United Nations special envoy for the country.

"We are working to overcome the latest challenges and ask the delegations to show good faith" and participate in the U.N.-brokered talks, diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said after representatives of the Shi'ite rebels known as Houthis failed to arrive. " The next few hours are crucial. We call on the parties to take their responsibilities seriously and agree on comprehensive solutions."

Yemeni government officials accused the Houthis of intentionally delaying the peace process. It's aimed at ending an 18-month conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people and created a humanitarian crisis.

Earlier,Yemen Foreign Minister Abdel Malek told the state news agency, Saba, that "we are ready for a political transition which excludes no one... and we will give everything we can to alleviate the suffering."

The Houthis also had hinted at reconciliation, with spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam using Kuwaiti media to call for "a consensus authority during a definite transitional phase to decide every political dispute."

The U.N. sponsored two rounds of peace talks last year, with December negotiations crumbling amid fierce fighting.

A cease-fire has been in place for a week, though both sides have reported violations.

'Critical crossroad'

Last week, Ahmed said the country is at a "critical crossroad," where one path leads to peace and the other to a worsening security and humanitarian situation. He told the U.N. Security Council that success at the peace talks would require "difficult compromises from all sides, as well as determination to reach an agreement."

Yemen's U.N. ambassador, Khaled Alyemany, told reporters the talks could yield concrete results. "If they fail," he warned, "it will be a repetition of the cycle of violence."

The Houthis seized Yemen's capital, Sana'a, in September 2014 and the following March launched an offensive to the south that sent President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi fleeing to Saudi Arabia.The Saudis responded by launching airstrikes with a coalition in defense of Hadi's government.

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UN Chief Urges Quick Formation of South Sudan Gov't

by VOA News April 18, 2016

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke with South Sudan's president and the top rebel leader Monday, urging them to quickly establish their transitional government, seen as a vital step to ending the country's civil war.

The telephone calls came as rebel leader Riek Machar prepared to return to the capital, Juba, to be sworn in as first vice president and set up the government with President Salva Kiir.

The United Nations says Ban commended Kiir for his decision to welcome Machar to Juba and called on him to implement security arrangements outlined in the peace deal that Kiir and Machar signed last August.

Ban welcomed Machar's decision to return to Juba and urged him to work with the president to prevent further violence.

Machar had been expected to arrive Monday in Juba, but a spokesman for the rebel advance team said a lack of flight clearance will delay Machar until Tuesday.

South Sudan erupted into civil war in December 2013, six months after Kiir fired Machar as vice president. Two and a half years of fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than two million South Sudanese from their homes.

Aid agencies warn the country is at the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe, caused by poor harvests and food shortages since the start of the war.

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Jerusalem Bus Blast a Terror Attack, Officials Say

by VOA News April 18, 2016

An Israeli police official says a bus explosion in Jerusalem Monday that wounded at least 15 people was a terror attack.

The blast was originally thought to be due to a malfunction on the bus, but officials now say the cause was due to an explosive device. "There is no doubt that this was a terror attack," said Jerusalem Police Commissioner Yoram Halevy.

Officials say the type of explosive device and the identity of the attacker are being investigated.

Israel's national emergency medical service, Magen David Adom, says at least 15 people are being treated for injuries and one was severely injured.

The bus explosion occurred in the heart of Jerusalem. Pictures on social media showed a green bus engulfed in flames, with thick, black smoke pouring out. Parked next to it on the street is another bus, which was also damaged by the explosion.

Some reports said the explosion occurred on an empty bus and the injuries occurred on an adjacent one.

The blast follows a series of stabbing attacks by Palestinians on Israeli civilians and security officials.

It was a reminder of the regular suicide attacks that occurred during the so-called Second Intifida, which lasted from 2000 to 2005.

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YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. PAP faction head Naira Zohrabyan addressed harsh criticism to PACE President Pedro Agramunt during the PACE session, for his support of the Azerbaijani aggressive policy. As Armenpress reports, Naira Zohrabyan reminded all members of the PACE plenary session that Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno Karabakh and committed war crimes. Azerbaijan clearly targeted civilians and bombarded civilian settlement. They bombarded schools, killed peaceful civilians, cut off their ears, mutilated the corpses of Armenian soldiers, decapitated their heads and put it on display to peaceful civilians, Zohrabyan said.

She said the fact that PACE President expressed his support to Azerbaijans authoritarian and aggressive policy is unacceptable. It is known that the active PACE President is also Aliyevs speaker, he was in Azerbaijan and expressed support to Aliyevs regime. However, the Council of Europe must respect the rights of Europes citizens, and the PACE President must be serious and must not defend obvious authoritarianism and war crimes, Zohrabyan added.
Not a Crook? Brazilian MPs Deeply Divided Over Rousseff's Impeachment Vote

Sputnik News

17:26 17.04.2016(updated 17:52 17.04.2016)

With Sunday's impeachment vote on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff quickly approaching, the country's MPs remain at odds over the matter; Sputnik interviewed several of them to get their take on the fate of the most powerful woman in South America.

It seems that the Brazilian MPs remain at loggerheads over the Sunday impeachment vote on their country's President Dilma Rousseff, something that was reflected in Sputnik's interviews with several MPs.

Deputy Paulo Teixeira of the Workers' Party (of which Rousseff is a member) warned against breaking the law as far as the impeachment is concerned.

"The impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff will never take place. I am absolutely sure that Brazilian society sees substitution of concepts and attempts to bypass the law that were not uncommon ahead of the impeachment vote. Society demands that parliamentarians should adhere to the rule of law, and we pledge to stick to it," Teixeira told Sputnik.

Deputy Caio Narcio, for his part, accused supporters of President Rousseff of making the impeachment vote political.

"In my opinion, the situation in Brazil is very much politicized. Suffice it to mention the government's countless yet unsuccessful appeals to the Supreme Court in an effort to prevent an absolutely legitimate impeachment vote, which is seen by the government as a coup," Narcio said.

The interviews came after a committee from the lower house (Chamber of Deputies) of Brazil's National Congress approved a report recommending the impeachment of Rousseff. If two-thirds of the lower house vote for the measure, the motion will go to the Senate (upper house).

Rousseff has been facing a wave of public discontent for over a year; Brazil's economy continues to struggle following the major corruption scandal which hit the state-owned petroleum company Petrobras.

Earlier this week, the Progressive Party (PP) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) left Rousseff's coalition. The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party left the governing coalition in late March.

In March 2015, the first wave of protests against the government of Rousseff brought together at least 500,000 people, becoming the largest political demonstration registered in Brazil since 1984.

 Sputnik

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Brazilian Lawmakers Back Impeachment for President

by VOA News April 17, 2016

Brazilian lawmakers have voted to back the impeachment process for President Dilma Rousseff.

The lower house of Congress voted late Sunday to send the matter to the Senate, which will consider whether to put Rousseff on trial.

A two-thirds majority, or 342 of 513 members, was needed to send the matter to the Senate.

One by one, the chamber's 513 deputies rose to announce their vote at a microphone, greeted by cheers and sometimes jeers from the rest of the members. A two-thirds majority, or 342 of 513 members, was needed to send the matter to the senate, which will consider whether to put Rousseff on trial.

As the vote neared 342 in favor of impeachment, Workers' Party leader in the House Jose Guimaraes said, "The coup plotters have won." He called it a "temporary defeat" and said it does not mean the war is over.

"The fight will continue in the streets and in the senate," he said.

Opposition to Rousseff has increased in recent months, with accusations that she illegally covered up government budget shortfalls in 2014 to increase her chances for reelection. Rousseff denies the accusations.

Her critics blame her for the country's recession and a massive corruption scandal involving state oil company Petrobras.

The 68-year-old leader was first elected in 2010, then again in 2014, continuing 13 years of leadership by the leftist Workers' Party.

The first in line to carry out the remaining two years of her mandate would be Vice President Michael Temer of the Brazilian Democratic Movement, whom Rousseff has accused of being part of the movement to remove her from office.

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Brazil in Political Turmoil, With Rousseff Facing Removal

by VOA News, Ken Bredemeier April 18, 2016

Brazil is in political turmoil awaiting reaction from President Dilma Rousseff on the launch of impeachment proceedings against her less than four months before the Olympic Games open in Rio de Janeiro.

The Senate could vote in early May to proceed with impeachment against the 68-year-old leftist leader, and if it does, she would be forced to step down for up to 180 days while an impeachment trial is conducted. Only a simple Senate majority is needed to proceed with a trial and Brazil media reports say 45 of the 81 senators favor a trial.

Vice President Michel Temer, once Rousseff's ally but now accused by her of being a traitor, would assume the presidency if Rousseff is suspended. But he has been implicated in Brazil's mammoth corruption scheme centered on the state-run Petrobas oil company and he also signed off on some of the government's same budgetary maneuvers at the heart of the impeachment case against Rousseff.

In six hours of raucous voting Sunday, Brazil's lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, voted overwhelmingly, by a 367-137 margin, to start the impeachment process.

Fireworks lit up the night sky in Sao Paulo and Rio following the vote. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, many calling for Rousseff's ouster and others supporting her, took to the streets in cities and towns across the country in peaceful protests.

"Impeachment!" shouted the front page headline Monday in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. "Close to the end," another leading paper, O Globo, said, adding, "Dilma Rousseff yesterday started to say goodbye to the presidency of Brazil."

Rousseff did not make an immediate statement after the vote against her, but was expected to give her reaction later Monday.

Olympic preparations continue

The International Olympic Committee said the impeachment process against Rousseff should not halt work leading up to the summer games, set to open August 5. It said preparations "have now entered into a very operational phase where these kinds of political issues have much less influence than at other stages of organizing the Olympic Games."

Political surveys show Rousseff's popularity has dipped into single digits amid charges that she engaged in budgetary sleight of hand in 2014 before her re-election to mask the country's sharply declining economic fortunes, tactics her supporters point out have also been employed by other Brazilian leaders in the past.

Not long ago, Brazil was viewed as an emerging global economic powerhouse, but now is in the midst of its worst economic downturn since the 1930s, which many of Rousseff's critics blame on her. Opinion polls show 60 percent of Brazilians support her impeachment.

Rousseff has not been accused of corruption, but her government has been tainted by the graft scandal at Petrobas.

Congresso em Foco, a prominent watchdog group in Brazil, said that more than 300 of the lawmakers who voted against Rousseff are under investigation for corruption, fraud or electoral offenses. Chamber of Deputies Speaker Eduardo Cunha, second in line to the presidency, has been charged with taking $5 million in bribes in the Petrobas scheme.

Endemic corruption

Latin American analyst Sean Burges of the Australian National University told VOA that the Brazilian governments of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Rousseff, his handpicked successor, have engaged in "pretty incredible acts of corruption, but no worse than any other party that's been in charge in Brazil."

He said that "in terms of legitimacy, whoever is in charge in Brazil is going to have a horrendous time."

The move to impeach Rousseff is the second time in less than a quarter century Brazil has opened impeachment proceedings against a leader. In 1992, then-president Fernando Collor de Mello resigned after he was impeached and before the Senate took up his case of alleged influence-peddling.

In the lower house Sunday, the chamber's 513 deputies rose to announce their impeachment vote at a microphone, greeted by cheers and sometimes jeers from the rest of the members.

It took them five hours to reach the needed two-thirds majority, or 342 votes, to initiate the process. Rousseff's opposition cheered wildly when support reached the 342 vote threshold.

Jose Eduardo Cardozo, Rousseff's attorney general, described the vote as "a coup against democracy."

Ruling Workers' Party leader in the House, Jose Guimaraes said, "The coup plotters have won." He called it a "temporary defeat" and said it does not mean the war is over.

"The fight will continue in the streets and in the Senate," he said.

Rousseff was first elected in 2010, with the leftist Workers' Party now in control for the past 13 years.

VOA's Victor Beattie contributed to this report.

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What China brings Africa are not empty promises, but tangible interests

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 10:09, April 17, 2016

Rhetoric that attributes slowdown in African economy to China is unreasonable. The truth is China has brought Africa tangible interests on the basis of mutually beneficial cooperation rather than empty promises.

For starters, frequent high-level visits paid by the Chinese side to African countries showed the great importance China attaches to Africa and its determination to keep its promise to implement the outcome of the summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in December 2015.

From Jan. 30 to Feb. 6, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi paid a visit to Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique and Namibia. For 26 consecutive years, Africa has been the destination of Chinese foreign ministers in their first overseas visit in any new year.

China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang paid a 10-day visit to Zambia, Rwanda and Kenya in March. And currently, top Chinese political advisor Yu Zhengsheng is on an official goodwill visit to Gabon, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.

Secondly, cooperating with China gains more and more popularity among African countries because they see tangible interests arising therefrom.

Take Nigeria, the most populous country and the largest economy in Africa, for instance. Deepening China-Nigeria cooperation plays an exemplary role in China-Africa cooperation.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who just concluded his visit to China on Friday, is the first head of state of an African country to visit China after the Johannesburg summit.

During the visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Buhari pledged to further promote the strategic partnership between the two countries. The two leaders also witnessed the signing of several deals on cooperation in infrastructure, production capacity, investment, aviation, technology and finance.

Nigeria has now become China's largest overseas engineering contract market, third largest trading partner and main destination for foreign investment in Africa.

Thirdly, China has confidence in its economy and promising China-Africa cooperation.

A sluggish world economy has affected many African countries and the Chinese economy also faces a downward pressure.

However, it is unreasonable to attribute the fall in commodity prices and the slowdown in African economies to China.

China, as the second largest economy, the largest goods trader and one of the main sources of foreign direct investment in the world, still is a driving force of the global economy, especially for the economic growth of developing countries.

Amid insufficient global effective demand, China has carried out positive import policies, which has contributed to stabilizing international commodity markets. China's imports of energy resources, minerals and agricultural products kept rising in 2015.

Besides, the 10 major China-Africa cooperation plans that President Xi announced in December are designed precisely to help Africa deal with new challenges from the tepid global economy.

The plans are aimed at shifting the trade pattern dominated by resources to one that more relies on investment and industrial cooperation. By encouraging more Chinese investment in Africa, China is helping the continent accelerate its industrialization and boost its capacity for development.

"When China makes a promise, it always delivers," Foreign Minister Wang told a press conference in March.

Just three months after the FOCAC summit, China has gotten into touch with over 20 African countries to follow up on the outcome of the summit. A number of projects will materialize soon, and the China-Africa Fund for Industrial Capacity Cooperation has started operation.

In fact, the African people know the best about China-Africa cooperation. As many African leaders have said, China has never colonized Africa, rather, it has helped the continent emerge from poverty and realize development.

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China conducts massive drills in South China Sea

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 12:12PM

Chinese military has carried out a series of extensive military drills in South China Sea in a move which could trigger more tensions with its South Asian neighbors.

China's PLA Daily said on Sunday that some upgraded methods that resemble actual combat conditions were used in the drills to increase the combat effectiveness of Beijing's South China Sea fleets.

The daily said in its article that the new methods included training within an electromagnetic environment. It said other tactics such as all-weather drills, beyond visibility range training and low-altitude, high-speed exercises to hammer the fleets' pilots into shape were previously exercised.

"To think about special situations in an even more complex way, to make the enemy situation even more dangerous, to make the battlefield environment even more lifelike, is an important path in order for the navy and air force to stick close to the demands of real combat and accelerate its transformative production model for fighting strength," Tian Junqing, a division commander of the Chinese fleets, was quoted as saying.

The daily said other items will be included in the training, including 24-hour maritime attack drills and minimum altitude defensive dashes. It added that the fleets will work in coordination with early aerial warnings, surface ships and ground anti-aircraft defense, among other branches of the military.

The news come also several days after the United States, which backs those claims by China neighbors, voiced concern about Beijing's "land reclamation" and "militarization" in South China Sea.

There have been growing disputes between China and its neighbors, including Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, that lay claim to some parts of South China Sea.

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Yonhap: North Korea Likely to Conduct Nuclear Test Soon

by VOA News April 17, 2016

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said North Korea is preparing to defy international sanctions and conduct a fifth nuclear test.

Yonhap said Sunday it has learned from various government sources that activity at the North's Punggye-ri nuclear test site has "increased two- to threefold recently."

The unidentified officials believe trucks seen moving in and out of the site may be carrying nuclear technicians.

Concerns that Pyongyang is about to conduct another nuclear test comes as the regime prepares to hold a rare meeting of its ruling Workers Party in early May.

Leader Kim Jong Un is expected to use the congress to repeat recent claims of advancements in the North's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, including development of a miniaturized nuclear warhead to fit on long-range ballistic missiles.

None of these claims have been verified, and many observers have accused North Korea of exaggerating its advanced military capabilities.

Experts also believe last week's failure of a medium-range ballistic missile to mark the birthday of founding president Kim Il Sung may also prompt the North to carry out another nuclear test.

The United Nations imposed a set of new and stronger sanctions on North Korea in response to Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in January, and a ballistic missile test the following month.

Some material for this report came from AFP and Reuters.

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North Korea Accelerates Nuclear Testing After Sanctions

by Brian Padden April 18, 2016

In the short term, there seems little the world can do to stop North Korea from conducting a fifth nuclear test in the very near future.

On Monday the South Korean Defense Ministry said Washington and Seoul are monitoring an increase in activities at North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site that likely indicate preparations are underway for another nuclear test.

"I cannot tell you details, but I can tell you that North Korea has the capability to conduct its fifth nuclear test anytime," said Moon Sang-kyun, the South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman.

However, a U.S. official on Monday said the United States would respond strongly in the case of another North Korean nuclear test, Reuters reported.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said actions by the Kim Jong Un regime in North Korea were "unacceptable" and North Korea would be digging deeper into a hole if it pursued further provocations.

"There will be additional strong response in case of another [North Korean] nuclear test," Blinken told reporters in Tokyo, where he is meeting with senior Japanese government officials. He said Washington would consider "a number of possibilities," but said it was premature to be specific.

The Kim Jong Un government has responded defiantly after the United Nations Security Council imposed tough new international sanctions on North Korea in March for conducting its fourth nuclear test in January, followed by a long-range rocket launch in February

South Korea on alert

President Park Geun-hye on Monday called on the South Korean military to remain on high alert in case the military activity in the North leads to some sort of attack on the South.

"It is uncertain what kind of aggressive provocations North Korea will make so as to avoid isolation and strengthen the solidarity of its regime," Park said.

North Korea's moves to accelerate its nuclear weapons development, some analysts say, are attempts to intimidate the international community to accept it as a nuclear power and to solidify Kim's power within the country in advance of the ruling Workers Party congress in early May.

There was also speculation that the North Koran military is under pressure to quickly conduct a successful nuclear test after a mid-range missile test on Friday ended in catastrophic failure.

North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium to make eight to 12 nuclear bombs and has a stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said Monday there is a good chance the next nuclear explosion will be conducted underground and that it will involve the testing of a nuclear warhead.

North Korea has claimed it has miniaturized a nuclear warhead to fit on a ballistic missile.

South Korea and the U.S. view this claim as a credible threat but say it has not been yet been demonstrated. Experts say North Korea is still years away from developing a reliable long-range nuclear missile that could reach the U.S. mainland.

Sanctions impact

In March the United Nations Security Council, which has prohibited North Korea from conducting ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests, imposed tough new sanctions on the Kim Jong Un government.

These punitive measures, which have the potential to impose real economic pain, include suspending currency transfers and restricting North Korea's lucrative mineral trade that had accounted for over half of the country's $2.5 billion in exports to China alone.

Beijing's pledged support for these international sanctions is considered crucial because 90 percent of North Korean trade flows either to or through China.

However, China seems just as concerned about maintaining stability in the region as it does about pressuring the North to give up its nuclear weapons.

It will take time to gauge the impact of the sanctions, but initial reports of lax enforcement coming from the Sino-Korean border area have raised concerns about China's commitment to keep pressure on North Korea.

Further measures

Since the sanctions were imposed, North Korea has test fired a number of short- and medium-range missiles.

The international community has condemned the repeated provocations but has imposed no additional penalties.

Kim has responded by threatening to conduct nuclear attacks against South Korea and the United States.

Following North Korea's failed launch of a mid-range ballistic missile on Friday, China's official Xinhua news agency sharply cautioned its ally in Pyongyang, saying this "latest in a string of saber-rattling, if unchecked, will lead the country to nowhere."

Another North Korean nuclear test in defiance of U.N. resolutions could lead to stricter enforcement of existing measures and further sanctions.

A South Korean official said Pyongyang's next serious violation of U.N. resolutions would likely result in restrictions on the export of North Korean labor.

The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) estimates there are over 50,000 North Korean laborers working in China, Russia and countries around the world, and that they earn billions of dollars, most of which goes to the government in Pyongyang.

Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report. Some material for this report came from Reuters.

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S-300 missile system displayed at Iran's Army Day

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 17, IRNA -- Some parts of the S-300 long-range missile was put on display here Sunday at a ceremony on Army Day.

S-300 missile system is a defensive armament that is capable of targeting ballistic and tactical missiles and aircraft.

Ceremonies to mark the Army Day in Iran began Sunday morning with participation of President Hassan Rouhani who reviewed army units marching before him in the mausoleum of the Late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini in south of capital.

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Iran, Pakistan to conduct joint drill in Bandar Abbas

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 17, IRNA -- Iranian and Pakistani vessels are to carry out a joint military exercise on April 18, Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said here Sunday.

The one-day drill will be held in Bandar Abbas, strategic port city on top of Strait of Hormuz in south of Iran.

Sayyari made the remarks talking to reporters at the end of the ceremony on the occasion of Army Day in Iran.

Asked about time of launch of two submarines of Fateh and Sahand, Sayyari replied those submarines are under the test. Heexpressed hope that they would be unveiled by the end of the Iranian calendar year started on March 20.

On national Army Day, Sayyari said the country's naval forces are ready to successfully face any threat.

However, Iran will show its friendship to friendly countries in the region, said the commander adding 'our interaction with friendly countries will be doubled.'

Pakistani military flotilla is berthed at Bandar Abbas on Saturday.

Ceremonies to mark the Army Day in Iran began Sunday morning with participation of President Hassan Rouhani who reviewed army units marching before him in the mausoleum of the Late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini in south of capital.

1483**1771

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Powerful Armed Forces safeguard Iran: Rouhani

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 5:3AM

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the country's powerful Armed Forces are defending and safeguarding the country's national interests as well as geographical, political and cultural borders.

Addressing a ceremony to mark the National Army Day in Tehran on Sunday, Rouhani said, "If arrogant powers and their mercenaries in the region cannot have a covetous eye on the Islamic Republic, it is because of the country's powerful Armed Forces."

He added that Iran currently enjoys high security and stability in an insecure region due to its powerful Army.

Rouhani emphasized that Iran has both logic and hard power on its side, emphasizing that the country's diplomats and Armed Forces are pursuing the same objectives, which are based on national security, Iran's might and its stability and development.

The Iranian president said the country's power is merely for defensive purposes and will never target its neighbors and countries in the Muslim world.

"I clearly announce here, just as I clearly announced in the presence of the heads of Islamic countries [at the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul] a few days ago, that the power of the Islamic Republic of Iran, including our military, political and economic power will not be [used] against neighbors and countries in the Muslim world," Rouhani added.

There is no rift among the Iranian nation, government and the Armed Forces, he said, emphasizing that the Iranian Army would repel any aggression against the country.

"However, our logic is [based on] peace and brotherhood with our neighbors and with the Muslim world," Rouhani pointed out.

He also said that Iran's diplomacy seeks to safeguard the country's national interests, adding that during the nuclear negotiations with world powers, Iranian diplomats sought to maintain and boost the country's military might.

Iran's latest defense achievements were showcased during nationwide parades on the National Army Day, which is held to commemorate the role played by the Iranian Armed Forces in maintaining security and stability of the country.

The ceremony is held every year in the vicinity of the mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, in the south of the capital.

Iran displays S-300 missile system

During the ceremony, Iran displayed the first batch of S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system delivered by Russia recently.

In November 2015, Russian news agency, RIA Novosti, quoted Sergei Chemezov, the chief executive of Russian state-owned defense conglomerate, Rostec, as saying that Tehran and Moscow have signed a new contract for the long-overdue delivery of the missile defense systems to Iran. Following Chemezov's remark, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said Iran has purchased as many S-300 missile defense batteries as it needs, adding that Iranian forces are currently undergoing training in Russia on the missile system.

In April 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree paving the way for the long-overdue delivery of the missile defense system to Iran. The decision to deliver the system came after Iran and the P5+1 group of countries - the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia plus Germany - reached a mutual understanding on Tehran's nuclear program in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2, 2015.

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YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. On April 16 in the central Old city square of the Czech capital hundreds of Armenians of the Czech Republic held a protest against the Azerbaijani large-scale military operations committed against Nagorno Karabakh in the beginning of April. The protesters came with The OSCE, stop the Azerbaijanii harassments, The Minsk Group you ought to stop Aliyevs aggression, Russia and Israel stop selling weapons to Azerbaijan, Protect our rights to life and self-determination, Azerbaijan hands off Artsakh, #NKpeace, #KarabakhNow calls. Patriotic songs were performed and information leaflets were distributed among more than two thousands residents and visitors of Prague.

As Armenpress reports, the peaceful demonstration, which received the permission by the Prague Municipality, took place without incidents.

We want to remind you that several days ago all organizations of the Armenian community of Czech Republic applied to the state authorities to demand the condemnation of the Azerbaijani aggressive actions.

The protest action was held by the Armenian communitys April 24 committee initiative (which included the diplomatic staff of the Armenian Embassy, the heads of nearly all organizations and priests of the Armenian community in Czech). The members of the ArmPrague student-youth organization were actively involved in the protest. 200-250 people participated in the protest. It was expected that more people would take part, however, as a result of the heavy rain the organizers even had to delay the protest for half an hour.
Parts Of S-300 Missile System Unveiled At Iranian Army Parade

April 17, 2016

Iran has showcased parts of S-300 air-defense missile systems ordered from Russia during its annual National Army Day parade in Tehran.

S-300 missile tubes and the radar equipment were shown during the April 17 military parade, according to pictures by the semiofficial ISNA news agency.

Addressing the event, President Hassan Rohani insisted that Iran's military power was purely for defensive and deterrent purposes.

Iran announced on April 11 that Russia had delivered the first part of its shipment of S-300 missile systems to Tehran.

In 2010, Russia froze a deal to deliver S-300s, among the world's most capable air-defense systems, to Iran under pressure from the West.

President Vladimir Putin lifted the suspension in April 2015.

The United States and Israel have expressed concern over the missile systems, fearing they could upset the regional balance of military power.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iran-parade-s300 -russian-missiles/27679804.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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Iraqi warplanes hit 3 Daesh HQs in Mosul, kill scores of terrorists

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 9:37PM

Iraqi air force has destroyed three headquarters belonging to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the militant-held city of Mosul, killing over a dozen terrorists, including an official.

The Iraqi F-16 fighter jets carried out three airstrikes against the headquarters in the Tal Kayf district, located less than 13 kilometers (8 miles) northeast of Mosul, which led to their total destruction, Arabic-language al-Sumeria news website reported on Sunday.

At least 17 Daesh terrorists were killed in the bombardments, including Ahmed Qasim al-Farahat, a Takfiri financial official.

Iraqi armed forces have launched an offensive to recapture the country's second-largest city, which has served as the main Daesh stronghold in Iraq since 2014.

Gruesome violence has plagued the northern and western parts of Iraq ever since Daesh terrorists launched an offensive in June 2014, and took control of portions of the Iraqi territory.

The militants have been committing heinous crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians. Iraqi army soldiers and fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Units are seeking to win back militant-held regions in joint operations.

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Myanmar President Pardons Dozens of Prisoners

by VOA News April 17, 2016

Myanmar President Htin Kyaw has granted pardons for 83 prisoners believed to be jailed for political reasons.

Htin Kyaw's office announced the amnesty Sunday, saying he had signed the order with the goal of achieving "national reconciliation" as the Buddhist New Year begins.

Myanmar's new democratically elected government, dominated by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, has dropped charges against hundreds of political activists charged under the country's former military junta, which ruled for five decades until handing over power to a semi-civilian government in 2011.

In a nationally televised address Sunday, Htin Kyaw vowed to release "political prisoners, political activists, and students facing trials related to politics."

General elections

The NLD took power in Myanmar, also known as Burma, last month after sweeping last November's general elections.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent two decades under house arrest, is unable to serve as president due to a provision inserted in the junta-crafted constitution.

But she was named to Htin Kyaw's Cabinet as foreign minister, and is also serving in the legislative-created post of "state counselor," allowing her to follow through with her pledge to run the government through a figurehead president.

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Russian MoD Denies Allegations of 'Dangerous' Su-27 Baltic Fly-By

Sputnik News

12:30 17.04.2016(updated 16:49 17.04.2016)

The Russian Defense Ministry has denied media allegations that one of its Su-27s made a 'dangerous' fly-by of a US reconnaissance aircraft, Igor Konashenkov stated.

The ministry's spokesman added that on April 14 the US reconnaissance jet was approaching the Russian border. After a visual contact with the Russian Su-27 it changed its course.

"Western media's allegations of a 'dangerous' fly-by of a Russian Su-27 jet and an American RC-135 in the Baltics are false," the spokesman assured.

Igor Konashenkov also said that Su-27's flight was conducted in accordance with international safety standards.

On Thursday, Russia's military detected an unknown aerial target that was heading for the Russian border on a high speed, he noted.

"To identify the target, one of the Su-27s of the Baltic Fleet aviation forces on duty was sent. It has performed its [the target's] flyby and identified the object as a reconnaissance plane RC-135U of the US Air Force," Konashenkov explained.

After the visual contact with the Russian Su-27, the US reconnaissance plane changed its course to the opposite, the spokesman added.

Earlier on April 11 and 12, the USS Donald Cook guided missile destroyer experienced several 'close interactions' with Russian Su-24 bomber jets on the Baltic Sea, with Pentagon officials calling the jets maneuvers 'aggressive', 'unsafe and unprofessional'.

The US considers the incident so serious that Secretary of State John Kerry vowed to raise the issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

 Sputnik

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Russian Aerospace Forces to Receive 30 Yak-130 Aircraft By End of 2018

Sputnik News

10:40 17.04.2016(updated 10:49 17.04.2016)

The Russian Defense Ministry and Irkut Corporation have successfully reached a deal for the supply of 30 Yak-130 combat training aircraft to the Russian Aerospace Forces, the ministry's press service said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Russian Defense Ministry and Irkut Corporation, the country's aircraft manufacturer, have sealed a contract for the supply of 30 Yak-130 combat training aircraft to the Russian Aerospace Forces before the end of 2018, the ministry's press service said.

"In accordance with the terms of the contract, 30 Yak-130 aircraft will be transferred to the Aerospace Forces before the end of 2018," the press service said in a statement.

The respective contract was signed by Deputy Defense Minister Yuriy Borisov and Irkut Corporation President Oleg Demchenko, the statement specified.

The Yak-130 is the world's only training aircraft with the aerodynamic configuration and subsonic flight performance characteristics of modern jet fighters. The two-seat reconnaissance and light attack jet has a combat load of up to 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds).

 Sputnik

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Fleeing Syrian Armenians Find Surer Path to Freedom

by Mehdi Jedinia, Sirwan Kajjo April 16, 2016

Ethnic Armenians fleeing Syria are finding safe routes to their ancestral homeland where they are welcomed, resettled and provided citizenship in a few months.

Their journey is in sharp contrast to the plight of millions of other Syrian refugees who endure difficulties being resettled in foreign lands after perilous journeys, mainly to Greece and Turkey.

"Armenia is home to all people of Armenian background," said civic activist Ara Sisserian, who lives in Armenian capital Yerevan and advocates for newcomers from Syria. "Those Armenians coming from Syria come here because they consider this as their motherland."

Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, more than 17,000 Syrian citizens of Armenian background have arrived in Armenia. More than 80 percent have remained and found protection in Armenia, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The numbers are minuscule when compared to the more than three million Syrians who fled abroad, analysts say, and that makes efforts to resettle them in Armenia more manageable.

90 Armenian churches destroyed

Christians of Armenian background have had a long history in Syria. Many families' ancestors arrived in the country escaping persecution during the Ottoman Empire. They have lived in Raqqa, Hasaka and Aleppo for hundreds of years.

But as Syria's civil war unfolded, Armenians faced religious and social persecution, analysts say.

"The Armenian population has dramatically dropped" the Rev. Haroutioun Selimian, head of a relief organization for Syrian Armenians in Aleppo, told VOA. "Their rights are being violated and their lives are at risk Ninety Armenian churches are completely or partially destroyed."

And in areas under control of the Islamic State, Armenians face increased peril.

"With the rise of extremists, being a non-Muslim minority is the last thing you want to be in Syria now," Sisserian said.

IS militants have imposed a set of strict rules on Christians, forcing them to adhere to Muslim dress codes and to pay Jizya, an Islamic form of taxation designed for non-Muslims to live in Islamic territories.

IS has also confiscated their land and used them as human shields to deter international coalition and Syrian warplanes from hitting its positions in Raqqa and elsewhere.

"Christians are the most vulnerable group in the country," said Hussam Issa, an activist with "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently", a group that monitors IS activities in the city.

Routes to freedom

Initially the first flow of refugees to Armenia came from the Syrian city of Aleppo, where nearly 40,000 ethnic Armenians lived, in late July and early August of 2012.

"The primary route was the weekly direct flights between Aleppo and Yerevan," said Sarkis Balkhian, a board member of the U.S.-based Aleppo Compatriotic Charitable Organization.

After the shutdown of the Aleppo International Airport in 2013, leaving became more difficult.

Fleeing Syrian Armenians now take underground smuggling routes using taxies and trucks that other Syrian refugees use.

But they usually head to Lebanon rather than Turkey because of the embittered history between Armenia and Turkey.

Once in Lebanon, Syrian Armenians connect to a social group set up by Armenia groups and funded by donations from the Armenian diaspora in Europe and the U.S.

"Contrary to advice from our local Armenian leaders asking us to stay, my husband and I lost our patience and fled Aleppo in late December," said Adriana Aessianians, a Syrian Armenian refugee from Aleppo who recently settled in Yerevan.

"We drove our car all the way to the border. With the help of an Armenian underground escape network, we managed to cross the border. After spending almost three months in Lebanon, we flew to Armenia," she told VOA.

Now she said she feels safe away from IS fighters who were approaching her neighborhood when she fled. Aessianians and her husband have applied for Armenian citizenship and they are expecting to get it within months.

The United Nations is seeking more money to help the refugees, saying $6.4 million is needed for resettlement efforts.

Despite the recent outbreak in violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh  the worst since 1994  Syrian Armenians have little pause as to whether they should flee Syria, activists say.

"For them, Armenia is still better than Syria and other countries with conflicts," Sisserian said.

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'Opposition' negotiator urges attacks on Syria forces

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 5:53PM

The chief negotiator of Syria's so-called opposition, Mohammed Alloush, has called for the resumption of attacks on government forces despite a UN-brokered ceasefire deal in the Arab country.

Alloush, who is the top negotiator of the Saudi-backed opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC), made the remarks on Sunday. He is currently in Geneva together with representatives from the Syrian government for peace talks aimed at finding a political solution to the Syrian conflict.

"Don't trust the regime and don't wait for their pity," Alloush wrote on Twitter, adding, "Strike them at their necks (kill them). Strike them everywhere."

A few figures of the opposition group, however, said that Alloush's comments did not represent the HNC's stance.

"Alloush's position is personal. We as the HNC cannot adopt this position," Yahya al-Aridi, a member of the HNC who is in Geneva, said.

Alloush is among senior figures of the Jaish al-Islam militant group and had reportedly spent most of his life in Saudi Arabia and studied Islamic religious courses.

A truce, brokered by the US and Russia, went into effect across Syria on February 27. It does not apply to terrorist groups such as Daesh and al-Qaeda's Syria branch al-Nusra Front, however.

On Saturday, Ahrar al-Sham militants group said in a statement that the peace talks have so far been very negative and that HNC figures were not aware of the situation on the ground.

The group also claimed that the HNC insisted on pursuing the negotiations, while the government breached the truce.

It also said there was "a gulf" between the HNC and what was going on in the streets, describing the umbrella group's performance "weak and stumbling".

The HNC was formed in December 2015 following a meeting in Riyadh. It included members of Jaish al-Islam, so-called Free Syrian Army factions.

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria has left over 470,000 people dead since its inception in March 2011, according to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research. A foreign-based monitoring group, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says, however, that 270,000 have been killed in the conflict.

Syrian forces have managed to liberate many militant-held areas over the past few months.

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Syria's ruling coalition wins majority of Syrian parliamentary seats

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:55PM

Syria's ruling Ba'ath Party and its allies have won the majority of the votes in the recent parliamentary elections in the country, official results show.

The Syrian electoral commission announced late Saturday that the National Unity coalition, comprising the ruling party and its allies, had won 200 of the 250 seats at the People's Assembly (Majlis al-Sha'ab).

"Out of 8,834,994 eligible voters, more than five million cast their votes," commission head Hisham al-Sha'ar was quoted as saying. The figure was equal to 57.56 percent.

About 3,500 candidates took part in the elections. A total of 7,300 polling stations were set up in government-controlled areas across the country. In the capital, Damascus, alone, there were about 1,500 polling centers in addition to 540 polling stations for people from the provinces of Dayr al-Zawr, al-Raqqah, Idlib, Aleppo, and Dara'a, where foreign-backed militants have certain parts under their control.

The vote is the second parliamentary ballot since the beginning of the war in 2011. The last parliamentarian elections were held in 2012.

Parliament members are elected for a four-year term. The foreign-backed opposition in Syria had boycotted the recent and the last elections.

Western countries and the United Nations (UN) have said they do not recognize the election results, claiming that the prevailing militancy across the country does not allow fair elections.

Presidential elections were held in Syria in June 2014 and Bashar al-Assad was sworn in for his third seven-year term in July after securing 10,319,723 votes out of the 11,634,412 turnout of the 15,845,575 Syrians eligible to vote.

Meanwhile, Syria's government and foreign-backed opposition are in Geneva this week for UN-backed peace talks to put an end to the violence that had gripped the country since 2011. A truce, brokered by the US and Russia, went into effect across Syria on February 27. It does not apply to terrorist groups such as Daesh and al-Qaeda's Syria branch al-Nusra Front, however.

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria has left over 470,000 people dead since its inception in March 2011, according to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research. A foreign-based monitoring group, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says, however, that 270,000 have been killed in the conflict.

Syrian forces have managed to liberate many militant-held areas over the past few months.

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Syrian army liberates airport near Damascus from Daesh

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 17, 2016 6:42AM

The Syrian army forces have wrested control of a military airport near the capital, Damascus, marking the latest in a string of victories over the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

The recapture of the strategic al-Sin air base took place late on Saturday as the Syrian army continues its advances against militants, Arabic-language Syria Now news website reported.

The Syrian soldiers further liberated the Safa resort in eastern Qalamoun region.

Meanwhile, 20 terrorists were killed while four of their vehicles were destroyed in heavy clashes with the Syrian troops in a village located in the southern Suwayda Province.

The Syrian forces further foiled a Daesh attack on a village in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

The country's air force further struck positions held by Daesh in the southeastern part of the recently-liberated city of Palmyra in Homs Province.

In another development on Saturday, a roadside improvised explosive device went off in the suburb of the city of Dara'a, killing one person and injuring four other members of a family.

In addition, mortar attacks by terrorists in a district in the northern province of Aleppo left two Syrian dead and five more wounded.

The Syrian forces recently thwarted terrorist attacks on al-Dumayr military airfield, located in the eastern countryside of Damascus.

Last week, Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the Damascus government currently controls sizable parts of Syria, with fresh gains made by the Syrian forces against Daesh over the past few months.

Backed by the Russian air cover, the Syrian army has vowed to press ahead with its counter-terror military operations and drive Daesh elements out of their major strongholds in the war-wracked country.

Syria has been grappling with a deadly conflict it blames on some foreign states for more than five years. The militancy has left over 470,000 people dead so far, according to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research.

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Free Syrian Army Warn Ceasefire on Brink of Collapse

Sputnik News

20:20 17.04.2016(updated 20:48 17.04.2016)

Osama Abu Zeid, a legal adviser of the Free Syrian Army, said that the ceasefire in Syria was on the verge of collapse and the FSA may withdraw from the negotiation process.

GENEVA (Sputnik)  A legal adviser of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) told Sputnik on Sunday that the ceasefire in Syria was on the verge of collapse and the FSA may withdraw from the negotiation process.

"Intensity of ceasefire violations by the regime is increasing, particularly in Aleppo, from the southern suburbs, where Iranian and Afghan fighters get together This decision [to exit the negotiation process] requires consideration, perhaps the Free Syrian Army leadership will summit to decide whether or not to continue to participate in the negotiations," Osama Abu Zeid said.

He added that these violations and failure to comply with the humanitarian provisions can lead to the collapse of the truce in the war-torn country.

 Sputnik

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YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The Press Service of the Great House of Cilicia informed Armenpress, that Aram I expressed gratitude to Lebanese PM Tammam Salam during a phone conversation for his position on the Nagorno Karabakh issue in the OIC assembly in Istanbul.

Aram I told Salam that the position of Lebanon is a healthy one, which is appreciated by Artsakh, Armenia and the Diaspora.
Jaysh al-Islam Leader Denies Calling for End of Syrian Ceasefire

Sputnik News

19:57 17.04.2016

Mohammed Alloush, leader of the Jaysh al-Islam group who heads the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee at the intra-Syrian talks said that he did not call on to stop Syrian ceasefire.

GENEVA (Sputnik)  The leader of the Jaysh al-Islam group who heads the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee at the intra-Syrian talks told Sputnik on Sunday that he did not call on the ceasefire in the war-torn country to be canceled.

Earlier in the day, Mohammed Alloush wrote in his Twitter that he does not agree to forget the idea of revolution and would support any position of battalions.

"This is a message to defense groups. This is not an appeal for the escalation It's just a call for self-defense forces against the triple attack in Aleppo by Kurds, IS [the Islamic State group banned in Russia] and the regime attracting outside forces," Mohammed Alloush said commenting on his statement.

 Sputnik

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Appointment of Deputies for Syrian President Might Be Way Out of Crisis

Sputnik News

16:45 17.04.2016(updated 16:56 17.04.2016)

The current Syrian constitution envisages one single way out of political crisis in the counrty - appointing deputies for the president and waiving his powers to them, according to a source in one of the Syrian opposition.

GENEVA (Sputnik)  Appointing three deputies for Syria's President Bashar Assad is provided for by the country's constitution and might be an option to put an end to the political crisis, a source in one of the Syrian opposition groups told Sputnik.

"At the moment, when it comes to discussing the transitional governing body, a problem arouses: under which constitution should it be done? Under the new one, or the current one? Freezing the current constitution would mean a coup in fact, and would never be accepted by the government. But the current constitution envisages one single way out of this crisis  appointing deputies for the president and waiving his powers to them," the source stated.

There has already been such a precedent in Syria in the past, he noted.

 Sputnik

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Hmeymim Group Propose Unified Syrian Opposition of Five Members Each

Sputnik News

15:23 17.04.2016(updated 15:32 17.04.2016)

Syria's opposition group formed at the Hmeimim air facility in Syria would take part in a united opposition delegation if at least five of its members were permitted to join, the head of Hmeymim group delegation to the Geneva talks, Ilian Masaad, told Sputnik on Sunday.

GENEVA (Sputnik)  A unified opposition delegation might be formed by the start of the next round of Syrian peace talks in Geneva, a source at the talks told Sputnik earlier in the day. Under the proposals, the delegation would comprise five Riyadh-formed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) members, one delegate from the Moscow group, one delegate from the Cairo group, one from Astana group, and one from Hmeymim-formed opposition, according to the source.

"If there are five people from the Riyadh group, five from the Moscow-Cairo group, and five from us, then we are ready. We will not accept any other offers. This is final," Masaad said.

Masaad added that he had not heard of the proposal to form a unified opposition delegation before.

 Sputnik

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Syrian Opposition Could Create United Delegation Before Next Geneva Talks

Sputnik News

11:05 17.04.2016(updated 11:16 17.04.2016)

A unified opposition delegation may be formed by the next round of the Geneva talks conserning Syrian peace settlement, a source close to the negotiations told Sputnik.

GENEVA (Sputnik)  A unified opposition delegation may be formed by the next round of the Geneva talks on the Syrian peace settlement, to include five representatives of the High Negotiations Committee's (HNC), three members of the Moscow-Cairo-Astana group, and one person from the Hmemim opposition group, a source close to the negotiations told Sputnik.

Talks on Syria's reconciliation with the participation of a Damascus delegation as well as the three opposition groups are currently underway in the Swiss city of Geneva.

"The United Nations is moving toward the creation of a unified opposition delegation, which will consist of 5 members of the HNC, a delegate from the Moscow group, one delegate from the Cairo group, one delegate from the Astana group, a delegate from Hmeimim, another one from the civil society, one from the representatives of the Syrian women and three patriotic activists  Ahmed Djerba, Maaziah Moaz Khatib, and Burhan Latrine," the source said.

The source added that such arrangements "could ripen before the next round."

 Sputnik

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Russian, Syrian Bombers Drop Big Surprise on Daesh Supply Line Near Raqqa

Sputnik News

09:37 17.04.2016(updated 13:15 17.04.2016)

Russian and Syrian Air Forces have reportedly carried out several coordinated air strikes on Daesh near a strategic military airbase in the northeastern province of Raqqa, west of the de facto capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate.

Syrian and Russian warplanes conducted a spate of coordinated air strikes against Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) near Tabqa Air Base which resulted in the destruction of many of the terrorists' military and logistics vehicles, according to the Iranian news agency FARS.

The attacks have impaired Daesh's ability to supply its forces near the recently-liberated city of Palmyra with arms, medical equipment and food, FARS reported.

The airstrikes came shortly after sources said that scores of Daesh terrorists had been killed and many more wounded after the pro-government battalions of Raqqa province's tribal forces clashed with the terrorists in the area.

"The tribal forces and the Syrian Army have advanced against the ISIL terrorists in Qabaqeb and al-Tim oil well and are pushing towards the city of Raqqa," the sources said.

Meanwhile, fighting has erupted between a militant group and Daesh near Damascus, where Jaysh al-Islam (the Brigade of Islam) stormed Daesh positions to the northeast of the capital, according to the sources, which cited a heavy death toll from the fighting.

Syria has been mired in a civil war since 2011, with forces loyal to the country's President Bashar Assad fighting a number of opposition factions and extremist groups, including Daesh and the Al-Nusra Front, which have been blacklisted as terrorist organizations by many countries, including Russia.

In February 2015, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2268, endorsing a Russia-US agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Syria; the ceasefire came into force shortly thereafter, on February 27, and fighting throughout much of the country subsided. However, Daesh and the Al-Nusra Front were not included in the truce.

Between September 30, 2015 and March 14, 2016, the Syrian Army's anti-terror efforts were backed by an extensive Russian air campaign. During that period, more than fifty Russian warplanes, including Su-24M, Su-25 and Su-34 jets, conducted precision airstrikes on Daesh and Al-Nusra targets in Syria at the behest of President Assad.

However, on March 14 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian Aerospace Forces unit had fulfilled its mission in Syria and that its withdrawal would begin the following day. Nonetheless, Russian air power was used by Assad's forces in the liberation of the ancient city of Palmyra.

Moscow will maintain a military presence in Syria, although a deadline for a complete pullout has not yet been announced. Putin also indicated that Russian forces will remain at the port of Tartus and Hmeymim Airbase.

 Sputnik

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Syrian Rebels Postpone Role in Peace Talks After Truce Violations

by Jamie Dettmer April 18, 2016

The U.N.-sponsored Syrian peace talks in Geneva were plunged into crisis Monday after opposition negotiators announced they are delaying involvement in the formal negotiations until the Assad government agrees to discuss the establishment of a transitional administration in Damascus.

Their announcement came as the U.S. and Russian brokered "cessation of hostilities" agreement appeared to be fraying fast, with both the government and rebels violating the truce. The Western-backed Free Syrian Army and other rebel groups issued a statement saying they had set up a joint operations room to respond to the violations by government forces and allied Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi Shi'ite militiamen.

As fighting intensified in the Aleppo countryside, international humanitarian organizations warned that the already desperate plight of an estimated 100,000 refugees trapped in northern Syria will worsen. For months, the Turkish government has blocked Syrians fleeing the war from crossing the border.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders) warned that renewed fighting Monday was "just seven kilometers" from where the bulk of the refugees have gathered.

Rebel negotiator Mohammed Alloush warned the truce "has effectively been ended by the regime." He said the Assad government along with Russian warplanes carried out 70 airstrikes on Sunday, and he alleged that Iran had sent more troops to reinforce Assad's forces. "All this intervention gives a clear indication that the solution in Syria, with the presence of this regime, has become shut  or we have hit a wall," he told the Associated Press.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura sought to play down the significance of the opposition's decision, saying the Geneva peace talks, now in their third round, will continue despite the rebels postponing their participation. De Mistura said he will continue "technical" discussions with all sides by phone in hopes of securing some agreement on the broad outlines of a political transition in Syria.

U.N. officials told VOA there are deep divisions among Syrian opposition officials, with some not happy about the decision to suspend participation and others supporting a withdrawal from Geneva until the cessation of hostilities is restored.

Riyad Hijab, the head of the rebel High negotiations Committee (HNC), was due to hold a news conference Monday night, but postponed it until Tuesday  a sign of disagreements within the opposition camp. Rebel commanders also are putting pressure on the HNC, says an HNC official. Nearly a dozen Free Syrian Army militias have warned of the need to "take firm and decisive stances towards the half-solutions being propagated  by the regime's allies and de Mistura."

The intensified fighting in the days leading up to the third round of the talks  the opposing sides have not even met face-to-face  augured badly, even before the negotiation teams arrived in the Swiss city. De Mistura said the new fighting in parts of Syria, especially around Aleppo, where the regime and its Iranian and Hezbollah allies as well as the Russians appear to be on the brink of launching a major offensive, was "particularly worrisome."

The Assad government has made little secret of planning for an offensive on the rebel-held parts of Aleppo city. On April 10, Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi told Russian news networks the government was preparing a major operation to retake the rebel controlled city districts.

"We, together with our Russian partners, are preparing for an operation to liberate Aleppo," he said.

Dmitry Sablin, a Russian lawmaker, told RIA news agency, "Russian aviation will help the Syrian army's ground offensive operation."

Meanwhile, rebel factions, along with al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, have been pressing an offensive in the coastal province of Latakia, the stronghold of Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. They have insisted that the offensive was in retaliation for government bombing of civilians targets elsewhere in the country.

Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, accused rebel fighters of calling for a "revocation of the cessation of hostilities." Syrian opposition negotiator Mohammed al-Abboud countered by arguing that the rebels have the right to defend themselves and Syrian civilians.

"We have the right to retaliate and defend ourselves in case we are attacked and we will not be silent about any aggression and we will continue our main mission to defend civilians," al-Abboud said on Twitter.

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Ukrainian Court Sentences Two Russians On Terrorism Charges, Setting Up Possible Prisoner Swap

April 18, 2016

by RFE/RL

A Ukrainian court has sentenced two Russian citizens to 14 years in prison each on charges of fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The sentencing on April 18 of Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev opens the door for a potential prisoner exchange with Moscow for a Ukrainian pilot whose prosecution by a Russian court has been closely watched in Ukraine and elsewhere.

The Holosiiv District Court in Kyiv found the two men guilty of conducting terrorist acts and aggressive military activities and sentenced them the same day.

The two, who pleaded not guilty, retracted video confessions made earlier in which they admitted they were active-duty Russian military personnel when they were captured in the Ukraine's Luhansk region in May 2015. Both said the statements were made under duress.

Russia has said neither Yerofeyev nor Aleksandrov were employed by the military when they were captured by a volunteer Ukrainian militia.

Moscow has repeatedly denied that it has provided weapons, training, and personnel to support separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine. Independent observers, journalists, and official monitors, however, have gathered a substantial body of evidence to the contrary.

Many observers believe the sentencing of Yerofeyev and Aleksandrov paves the way for them, and possibly others, to be exchanged for Nadia Savchenko, a Ukrainian military pilot who was recently sentenced by a Russian military court to more than 20 years in prison.

The court in Russia's Rostov region last month found her complicit in the deaths of two Russian journalists covering fighting in eastern Ukraine in June 2014.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said prior to the decision that he would be willing to make a prisoner exchange with Russia to secure Savchenko's release. At the time the Kremlin didn't reject the possibility, but said no decision would be made before Savchenko's verdict.

At least 11 other Ukrainians, including filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, have been prosecuted in Russian courts related to Russia's forcible annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Moscow has signaled that it might also consider releasing them as part of a possible prisoner swap.

An uneasy truce in the two-year-old conflict has held since a ceasefire was negotiated in February 2015, although international observers have recorded an uptick in fighting in recent months.

More than 9,100 people have been killed in the fighting, and some 21,000 wounded.

With reporting by Interfax, AP, Reuters.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-russian- soldiers-guilty-waging-war/27681865.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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As several companies from around the world of telecoms share their Q3 results, here is a financial round-up with all of the key points.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. 49 wounded receive treatment in the Central Clinical Military Hospital of the Armenian Defense Ministry, the director of the Central Clinical Military Hospital Aram Asaturyan said this during an interview with journalists.

Three of them are member of the Yerkrapah Volunteers Union, the remaining 46 are officers and soldiers. One serviceman is in critical condition. He was brought to here from Stepanakert hospital two days ago. 4 servicemen are in intensive care units and are in critical, but stable condition. Earlier they were in critical condition. The treatments had positive results, Armenpress reports, Aram Asaturyan mentions. According to him, the situation of the remaining wounded persons is stable or is near to stable, and no one discharges from hospital.

He informs that they do not expect new wounded persons.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 18, 2016) - Denison Mines Corp. ("Denison" or the "Company") (TSX:DML)(NYSE MKT:DNN) is pleased to report the expansion of the mineralized zone discovered immediately north of the Gryphon deposit, as well as the completion of a successful winter exploration drilling program, on the Company's 60% owned Wheeler River property in northern Saskatchewan. A total of 21,800 metres of diamond drilling, in 32 drill holes, was completed at Wheeler River during the winter exploration program.

The final weeks of the winter exploration program were highlighted by positive results from the follow up of the high-grade basement hosted mineralization previously reported in drill holes WR-633D1 and WR-641, both of which tested the area immediately north and northwest of the Gryphon deposit on section 5200GP earlier in the winter program. Despite limited time for follow up this winter, Denison successfully identified additional mineralization on section 5200GP (drill holes WR-644 and WR-648) and encountered additional high-grade mineralization on section 5150GP (drill holes WR-646 and WR-651), representing a 50 metre step out to the southwest of section 5200GP. These results have added several new lenses of mineralization to the Company's geological model for the area north of the Gryphon deposit and highlight the potential for the discovery of additional lenses with further follow up drilling.

In addition to testing in the immediate vicinity of Gryphon, the 2016 winter exploration program was designed to explore for new uranium mineralization to the southwest of the Gryphon deposit along the K-North trend. Step-out drill testing in this area was successful in extending the mineralized K-North trend roughly 1.4 kilometres southwest of Gryphon. Mineralization was encountered at or near the sub-Athabasca unconformity and continues to suggest that there is potential for a material discovery to occur at the unconformity or within the basement rock along the trend.

Denison's President and CEO, David Cates, commented, "The 2016 winter exploration program at Wheeler River has been a tremendous success. Following the April 4, 2016 release of the Company's findings from the Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Wheeler River project, which returned a pre-tax IRR of 20.4% using the current long term price for uranium, we are very pleased to be drilling a new zone of high-grade mineralization in very close proximity to the Gryphon deposit. Gryphon is a key part of the strategic development plan for Wheeler, and the potential to add pounds near Gryphon is very exciting and potentially meaningful from an economic standpoint. Planning for a roughly 25,000 metre 2016 summer drill program, at Wheeler River, is underway and is expected to focus on further expansion of the mineralization at Gryphon as well as testing of other high priority target areas."

Wheeler River Project

On April 4th, 2016 Denison announced the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") for the Wheeler River Project which, based on today's long term contract price for uranium, included a pre-tax Internal Rate of Return ("IRR") of 20.4%, an indicative post-tax IRR to Denison of 17.8%, and Denison's share of estimated initial capital expenditures of CAD$336M (CAD$560M on 100% ownership basis). The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. Results from the winter 2016 drilling program have not been incorporated into the current resource estimates or the PEA.

The Wheeler River property is a joint venture between Denison (60% and operator), Cameco Corp. (30%), and JCU (Canada) Exploration Company Limited (10%), and is host to the high-grade Gryphon and Phoenix uranium deposits discovered by Denison in 2014 and 2008, respectively. The Gryphon deposit is hosted in basement rock and is currently estimated to contain inferred resources of 43.0 million pounds U3O8 (above a cut-off grade of 0.2% U3O8) based on 834,000 tonnes of mineralization at an average grade of 2.3% U3O8. The Phoenix unconformity deposit is located approximately 3 kilometres to the southeast of Gryphon and is estimated to include indicated resources of 70.2 million pounds U3O8 (above a cut-off grade of 0.8% U3O8) based on 166,000 tonnes of mineralization at an average grade of 19.1% U3O8, and is the highest grade undeveloped uranium deposit in the world.

Mineralized Zone North of Gryphon Expands with Initial Follow Up

During the winter 2016 program, drill testing within 200 metres north and northwest of the Gryphon deposit returned numerous high-grade intersections within the Basal Pegmatite unit. This stratigraphic unit occurs footwall to the Gryphon deposit and has undergone little previous drill testing. Initial high-grade intersections were obtained on Section 5200GP highlighted by 3.9% eU3O8 over 9.2 metres, including 6.7% eU3O8 over 5.3 metres, in drill hole WR-641, and 1.7% eU 3 O 8 over 7.6 metres, including 6.3% eU 3 O 8 over 1.7 metres, in drill hole WR-633D1 (see Denison news release dated March 10, 2016).

A further four holes were completed on Section 5200GP, all of which intersected mineralization in excess of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 over 1 meter. As warranted by these results, additional follow-up drilling commenced on adjacent sections, roughly 50 metres along strike to the southwest (Section 5150GP, two holes) and to the northeast (Section 5250GP, two holes). The results from Section 5150GP are highlighted by drill hole WR-651, which returned 7.1% eU 3 O 8 over 2.0 metres, including 9.3% eU 3 O 8 over 1.5 metres, and drill hole WR-646, which intersected 4.2% eU 3 O 8 over 2.8 metres, including 8.2% eU 3 O 8 over 1.4 metres. The highlights of the winter 2016 drilling program, for the area immediately north and northwest of the Gryphon deposit, are presented in Table 1. Denison reports its initial exploration results as radiometric equivalent uranium ("eU 3 O 8 ") from a calibrated, total gamma, down-hole probe. All mineralized intersections have been sampled for chemical U 3 O 8 assay and final results will be reported following receipt of the data.

Table 1: Highlight intersections from Section 5150 GP, 5200GP and 5250 GP Section Drill

Hole From

(m) To

(m) Length

(m)4 eU 3 O 8

(%)1 5150GP WR-6462 584.6 587.4 2.8 4.2 (includes)3 585.8 587.2 1.4 8.2 (and)2 642.7 643.8 1.1 0.20 (and)2 679.3 680.3 1.0 0.18 WR-6512 562.8 564.5 1.7 0.69 (includes)3 563.2 564.2 1.0 1.0 WR-6512 640.7 641.7 1.0 0.14 (and)2 649.4 650.4 1.0 0.11 (and)2 669.9 671.9 2.0 7.1 (includes)3 670.2 671.7 1.5 9.3 (and)2 683.0 684.0 1.0 0.20 5200GP WR-633D12,5 751.5 754.7 3.2 2.0 (includes)3,5 753.6 754.6 1.0 5.7 (and)2,5 757.7 765.3 7.6 1.7 (includes)3,5 760.3 762.0 1.7 6.3 (includes)3,5 764.2 765.2 1.0 1.2 WR-633D22,5 748.3 749.6 1.3 0.76 (and)2,5 758.3 759.3 1.0 0.18 (and)2,5 785.0 786.0 1.0 0.30 WR-6382,5 725.7 726.7 1.0 0.12 (and)2,5 727.6 729.5 1.9 0.13 (and)2,5 738.5 739.5 1.0 0.12 (and)2,5 740.4 741.6 1.2 0.16 (and)2,5 747.4 748.4 1.0 0.32 (and)2,5 760.2 761.2 1.0 0.13 (and)2,5 763.7 764.7 1.0 0.11 (and)2,5 781.4 782.4 1.0 0.98 (and)2,5 785.0 786.0 1.0 0.14 WR-6412,5 575.3 576.3 1.0 0.20 (and)2,5 718.1 719.1 1.0 0.62 (and)2,5 721.1 730.3 9.2 3.9 (includes)3,5 723.7 729.0 5.3 6.7 WR-6442 558.3 560.6 2.3 0.20 (and)2 647.8 649.1 1.3 0.23 WR-6482 606.7 607.7 1.0 0.19 5250GP WR-6502 772.8 773.8 1.0 0.15 WR-6542 663.1 664.1 1.0 0.13

Notes: 1. eU 3 O 8 is radiometric equivalent uranium from a calibrated total gamma down-hole probe. All intersections will be sampled for chemical U 3 O 8 assay 2. Intersection interval is composited above a cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 3. Intersection interval is composited above a cut-off grade of 1.0% eU 3 O 8 4. As the drill holes are oriented steeply toward the northwest and the basement mineralization is interpreted to dip moderately to the southeast, the true thickness of the mineralization is expected to be approximately 75% of the intersection lengths 5. Previously reported results, see Denison news release dated March 10, 2016

Growing Mineralized Footprint at Gryphon

The current resource estimate for the Gryphon deposit, completed in November 2015, includes the A, B and C series lenses - a set of parallel, stacked, elongate lenses that are broadly conformable with the basement geology, and are associated with a significant fault zone (G-Fault) that separates a thin unit of quartzite (Quartz-Pegmatite) from an overlying graphitic pelite (Upper Graphite). The lenses dip moderately to the southeast and plunge moderately to the northeast. The deposit is approximately 450 metres long in the plunge direction and 80 metres wide across the plunge. The deposit is centered at 720 metres below surface and approximately 220 metres below the sub-Athabasca unconformity.

The mineralization intersected within the Basal Pegmatite unit during the winter 2016 program is interpreted to represent a series of stacked southeasterly dipping lenses, conformable to the pelitic gneiss sub-units with which they are typically associated and broadly conformable to the Gryphon deposit A, B and C lenses. These lenses have been designated as D series lenses. Reasonable continuity of the mineralized lenses could be interpolated between Section 5200GP and Section 5150GP, which suggests a similar northeast plunge as the Gryphon deposit lenses. Further drilling is still required to test whether these lenses are continuous with the previously identified D series lenses, which were drilled in 2014 and occur approximately 100 metres up plunge to the southwest. The D series lenses are not included in the current resource estimate for the Gryphon deposit, or the Wheeler River PEA.

On Section 5250GP, the northeastern most drill section at Gryphon, the limited drilling completed this winter (two holes) failed to intersect any significant high-grade mineralization within the Basal Pegmatite unit; however, the weak mineralization intersected, as well as the continuation of faulting, hydrothermal alteration and sub-units of graphitic pelitic gneiss, suggest the mineralizing system continues to the northeast and further drilling is warranted on this section and to the northeast. In this regard, the mineralization within the Basal Pegmatite unit is still considered to be open in all directions.

Exploration Southwest of Gryphon along the K-North Trend

Drill testing for unconformity or basement hosted mineralization has continued to the southwest of the Gryphon deposit, along the K-North trend. During 2015, numerous mineralized intercepts were obtained along this trend over a 1.5 kilometer strike length - including drill hole WR-597 (Section 4000GP), which intersected 4.5% U 3 O 8 over 4.5 metres. The mineralization is located at or proximal to the unconformity and is associated with structurally disrupted, clay altered, and geochemically anomalous sandstone and basement rocks, typical of other Athabasca unconformity deposit settings. This portion of the 2016 winter program focused on testing for additional zones of mineralization at the unconformity along strike of the southernmost hole drilled in 2015, WR-628 (Section 3200GP), which intersected the most significant sandstone alteration and anomalous geochemistry of the 2015 program.

A total of 13 drill holes were completed, commencing on Section 3200GP and continuing along strike to the southwest on sections at 200 metres, 600 metres, 1,000 metres and 1,400 metres respectively. Weak mineralization and/or anomalous radioactivity was intersected in almost every hole, including 0.10 % eU 3 O 8 over 10.4 meters in drill hole WR-634 and 0.11% eU 3 O 8 over 6.1 meters in drill hole WR-655. The mineralization is generally located at or proximal to the unconformity.

Although no significant high-grade mineralization has been intersected, the favorable alteration and structure along the K-North trend, within the sandstone and basement, indicate further priority drilling is warranted to test targets at the unconformity and within the basement below. The trend remains untested for approximately 3.5 kilometres along strike to the southwest before reaching the K-Central area. Historic drilling from the K-Central area encountered significant alteration and anomalous geochemistry within the sandstone and basement lithologies.

Table 2: Summary of intersections from Section 3200GP to 1800GP Section Drill

Hole From

(m) To

(m) Length

(m)4 eU 3 O 8

(%)1 Length to

Unconformity

(m) 3200GP WR-629 No significant mineralization 548.5 WR-629D1 No significant mineralization 492.8 3000GP WR-6343 472.2 482.6 10.4 0.10 474.1 (and)3 486.8 487.8 1.0 0.09 474.1 (and)3 492.4 493.4 1.0 0.13 474.1 (and)2 498.9 499.1 0.2 0.05 474.1 WR-634D1 No significant mineralization 493.2 WR-634D23 455.1 456.3 1.2 0.07 458.5 2600GP WR-643 No significant mineralization 463.9 WR-6452 467.9 468.2 0.3 0.09 465.9 2200GP WR-6472 516.5 516.7 0.2 0.09 476.2 WR-6492 520.5 520.8 0.3 0.11 437.4 (and)2 548.9 549.3 0.4 0.14 437.4 WR-6553 480.5 486.6 6.1 0.11 476.7 (and)2 582.8 583.1 0.3 0.06 476.7 WR-6562 585.3 585.7 0.4 0.07 431.4 1800GP WR-652 No significant mineralization 448.6 WR-6532 465.8 466.2 0.4 0.18 462.3 (and)2 466.3 466.6 0.3 0.13 462.3 (and)2 522.7 522.8 0.1 0.06 462.3

Notes: 1. eU 3 O 8 is radiometric equivalent uranium from a calibrated total gamma down-hole probe. All intersections will be sampled for chemical U 3 O 8 assay 2. No cut-off grade applied to the intersection interval 3. Intersection interval is composited above a cut-off grade of 0.05% eU 3 O 8 4. As the drill holes are oriented steeply toward the northwest and the basement mineralization is interpreted to dip moderately to the southeast, the true thickness of the mineralization is expected to be approximately 75% of the intersection lengths

Illustrative Figures & Further Details

A property location and basement geology map is provided in Figure 1. Figure 2 provides a plan map of the northeast plunging Gryphon deposit mineralized lenses projected up to the simplified basement geology at the sub-Athabasca unconformity and shows the location of mineralized intercepts from the winter 2016 drilling program. Cross-sections along section lines 5200GP and 5150GP are provided in Figure 3 and 4 respectively. The cross-sections depict the simplified geological interpretation with the new lenses of mineralization shown based on the interpretation of the mineralized intercepts received to date. All mineralized lenses are defined using a 0.05% U 3 O 8 or eU 3 O 8 grade shell and minimum thickness of two metres.

Further details regarding the Gryphon deposit and the current mineral resources estimated at Wheeler River are provided in the report titled "Technical Report on a Mineral Resource Estimate For The Wheeler River Property, Eastern Athabasca Basin, Northern Saskatchewan, Canada", dated Nov. 25, 2015, authored by William E. Roscoe, Ph.D, P.Eng. and Mark B. Mathisen, C.P.G of RPA. A copy of this report is available under Denison's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Qualified Person

The disclosure of a scientific or technical nature contained in this news release was prepared by Dale Verran, MSc, Pr.Sci.Nat., Denison's Vice President, Exploration, who is a Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101. For a description of the assay procedures and the quality assurance program and quality control measures applied by Denison, please see Denison's Annual Information Form dated March 24, 2016 filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About Denison

Denison is a uranium exploration and development company with interests focused in the Athabasca Basin region of northern Saskatchewan. Including its 60% owned Wheeler River project, which hosts the high grade Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits, Denison's exploration portfolio consists of numerous projects covering over 350,000 hectares in the eastern Athabasca Basin. Denison's interests in Saskatchewan also include a 22.5% ownership interest in the McClean Lake joint venture, which includes several uranium deposits and the McClean Lake uranium mill, which is currently processing ore from the Cigar Lake mine under a toll milling agreement, plus a 25.17% interest in the Midwest deposit and a 61.55% interest in the J Zone deposit on the Waterbury Lake property. Both the Midwest and J Zone deposits are located within 20 kilometres of the McClean Lake mill. Internationally, Denison owns 100% of the Mutanga project in Zambia, 100% of the uranium/copper/silver Falea project in Mali, and a 90% interest in the Dome project in Namibia. Denison has recently entered into an agreement with GoviEx Uranium Inc. (GXU:CSE) to sell its African interests, with an expected closing date in May, 2016.

Denison is also engaged in mine decommissioning and environmental services through its Denison Environmental Services division and is the manager of Uranium Participation Corp., a publicly traded company which invests in uranium oxide and uranium hexafluoride.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes "forward-looking information", within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and similar Canadian legislation concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Denison. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "believes", or the negatives and/or variations of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur", "be achieved" or "has the potential to". In particular, this press release contains forward-looking information pertaining to the following: exploration (including drilling) and evaluation activities, plans and objectives; potential mineralization of drill targets; and the estimates of Denison's mineral resources.

Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made, and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Denison to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Denison believes that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable but there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and may differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information. For a discussion in respect of risks and other factors that could influence forward-looking events, please refer to the "Risk Factors" in Denison's Annual Information Form dated March 24, 2016 available under its profile at www.sedar.com and in its Form 40-F available at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml. These factors are not, and should not be construed as being, exhaustive.

Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Denison does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information after the date of this press release to conform such information to actual results or to changes in its expectations except as otherwise required by applicable legislation.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors Concerning Estimates of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources: This press release may use the terms "measured", "indicated" and "inferred" mineral resources. United States investors are advised that while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize them. "Inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of measured or indicated mineral resources will ever be converted into mineral reserves. United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable.

To view Figures 1 - 4, visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1050916_F1-4.pdf
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Apr 18, 2016) - Minera Alamos Inc. (TSX VENTURE:MAI) (the "Company" or "Minera Alamos") announced today that it has received approval from the TSX Venture Exchange to extend the closing date of its previously announced brokered private placement to May 18, 2016. The private placement is ongoing and the Company expects to close the private placement in a number of tranches on or prior to May 18, 2016 with the first tranche closing expected to take place later today.

"This financing will be used to finalize the acquisition and complete the development of the La Fortuna gold project in Durango Mexico" said Chris Frostad, Chief Executive Officer at Minera Alamos. "Today's first tranche will allow us to close the acquisition and position us to complete the remaining financing in the coming weeks".

As previously announced on February 16, 2016, the Company has engaged IBK Capital Corp. (the "Agent") to conduct a brokered private placement of up to 30,000,000 units (the "Units") at $0.10 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $3,000,000 (the "Offering"). Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company and one half (1/2) of common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles its holder to purchase one common share in the capital of the Company at an exercise price of $0.15 per share for a period of 3 years from the date of issuance. Upon closing of the Offering, the Agent will receive a cash commission equal to 8% of the gross proceeds of the Offering. The Agent will also receive an option to acquire such number of Units of the Company as is equal to 8% of the Units sold under the Offering at an exercise price of $0.10 per Unit for a period of 3 years from the closing date.

In accordance with applicable securities legislation, all securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a hold period of four months and a day from the date of issuance. The proceeds of the Offering will be used by the Company to fund a portion of the purchase price for its proposed acquisition of the La Fortuna project, the development of its Los Verdes project and the La Fortuna project upon completion of its acquisition and for working capital purposes.

About Minera Alamos

Minera Alamos is a junior exploration and development company. Its flagship project is the Los Verdes open pit copper-molybdenum project in Sonora, Mexico that is currently in development. Minera Alamos has entered into a binding letter of intent with Argonaut Gold and its wholly owned subsidiary Durango Fern Mines S.A. de C.V. to acquire 100% of the mineral claims known as the La Fortuna Gold Project located in Durango Mexico. The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval.

Cautionary Note Regarding ForwardLooking Statements

This press release contains "forward looking statements" and "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, information with respect to the proposed transaction, timing of the closing of proposed transaction and the Company's consideration of the proposed production plans. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", or "will be taken", "occur", or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made at the date that such statements are made.

Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including the risk factors disclosed elsewhere in the Company's public disclosure. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The forward-looking information contained herein is presented for the purposes of assisting readers in understanding the Company's plans and objectives and may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
/THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/

Symbol: TSX-V: MMS

BRISBANE, Australia, April 18, 2016 /CNW/ - Macarthur Minerals Limited (TSX-V: MMS) (the "Company" or "Macarthur Minerals") in response to a request by Market Surveillance (IIROC) today confirmed that it is not aware of any material, undisclosed information related to the Company.

ABOUT MACARTHUR MINERALS LIMITED (TSX-V: MMS)

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

MACARTHUR MINERALS LIMITED

"Cameron McCall"

Cameron McCall, Chairman

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statements

Certain of the statements made and information contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including whether the Transaction will be completed. The forward-looking statements in this press release reflect the current expectations, assumptions or beliefs of the Company based upon information currently available to the Company. With respect to forward-looking statements contained in this press release, assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the timely receipt of required approvals, the reliability of information, including historical mineral resource or mineral reserve estimates, prepared and/or published by third parties that are referenced in this press release or was otherwise relied upon by the Company in preparing this press release. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct as actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include fluctuations in exchange rates and certain commodity prices, uncertainties related to mineral title in the project, unforeseen technology changes that results in a reduction in iron ore demand or substitution by other metals or materials, the discovery of new large low cost deposits of iron ore, uncertainty in successfully returning the project into full operation, and the general level of global economic activity. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty thereof. Such statements relate to future events and expectations and, as such, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and except as may otherwise be required pursuant to applicable laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Macarthur Minerals Ltd.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2016 / Maritime Resources Corp. (TSXV: MAE) ("Maritime"), is very pleased to announce that, subject to regulatory approval, the Company proposes to raise up to $2,000,000 (the "Offering") by way of a non-brokered private placement of units (the "Equity Units") coupled with a streaming Royalty (the "Royalty Units").

The financing will comprise up to 13,500,000 Equity Units at a price of $0.14 per Equity Unit. Each Equity Unit will consist of one common share and one half of one non-transferable share purchase warrant (the "Warrants"). Each whole Warrant attached to the Equity Units will entitle the holder to purchase one common share at a price of $0.20 per common share for 36 months following the closing.

The Royalty Units will have a price of $0.01 per Royalty Unit. It is also a condition of the Offering that qualified investors purchase one Royalty Unit and one Equity Unit for a total price of $0.15. Participation in the Offering is restricted to qualified investors under available exemptions from prospectus requirements.

Use of Proceeds:

The net proceeds from the financing will be used to advance the Company's 100% owned Green Bay gold project in Newfoundland, and for general working capital and corporate purposes.

Maritime has also received tendering bids to conduct a Prefeasibility Study ("PFS") on the Hammerdown project. T he study is expected to begin on closing of the financing with completion of the study within 4 to 6 months from starting. The PFS will be conducted on the Hammerdown portion of the deposit which contain in excess 727,500 tonnes @ 11.59 g/t Au in the Measured and Indicated categories and in excess of 1,767,000 tonnes @ 7.58 g/t Au in the Inferred category, both at a 3 g/t cut-off grade and a minimum width of 1.2 metres. The NI 43-101 Resource study was compiled by Tetra Tech of Ontario and announced by the Company in a News Release dated May 28, 2013.

In addition, Maritime is in the process of engaging an Environmental Engineering consulting firm to assist in the permitting process to bring the Hammerdown project back into production. It is the Company's intention to begin right away with the dewatering permits as well as all permits required to reopen the underground workings from the historic mining operations at the Hammerdown Deposit (Richmont Mining operate the mine from 2000 to 2004).

Royalty Units:

Total royalties payable from the Royalty Units (the "Royalty Payment") will be capped at an amount equal to 100% of the total Offering with the Royalty Payments being made annually, beginning on the first anniversary of the date of commencement of commercial production from the Project. Upon payment of aggregate Royalty Payments totaling 100% of the total investment made pursuant to the Offering, the Royalty will terminate. Royalty Payments will be funded solely from 10% of annual net cash flow from the Project. For purposes of the Royalty, "net cash flow" will mean net production revenues realized from the Project after deducting all Project operating and debt servicing costs. Maritime also agrees that it will offer all Royalty Payments to be paid either in cash or in gold, at the option of the Company. For better clarity, if an investor makes an investment of $15,000 they will receive 100,000 shares of Maritime and 50,000 Warrants as well as a streaming Royalty that will pay them up to $15,000 in cash or gold, at the option of the Company, from the net cash flow from Production on the Green Bay Project.

Finder's fees in cash or Equity Units together with Finder/Broker Warrants ("Finder/Broker Warrants"), as applicable under securities laws, may be payable on a portion of the financing to finders or Brokers who assist in the placement. The Finder/Broker Warrants will have the same terms as the Warrants attached to the Equity Units.

All securities issued pursuant to this private placement will be subject to a hold period of four months plus one day from the date of completion of the Offering, in accordance with applicable securities regulations.

About Maritime Resources Corp:

Maritime has entered into a Letter of Intent ("LOI" or "Agreement")(see News Release dated November 17th, 2014) with Rambler Metals and Mining PLC which includes evaluating the economic potential of re-opening the past producing Hammerdown gold mine located within Maritime's Green Bay Property, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Should the economic and technical viability of the project be established in the PFS the arrangement will allow Hammerdown material to be toll treated in the gold hydromet CIP circuit at the Nugget Pond Mill of up to 500 metric tonnes per day ('mtpd'). A toll milling fee would be negotiated to cover the capital expenditures required to process the material at the Nugget Pond Mill with permanent storage of Hammerdown tailings at the Nugget Pond site.

Maritime Resources holds 100% of the Green Bay property, located near Springdale, Newfoundland and Labrador. The property hosts the past producing Hammerdown gold mine and the Orion gold deposit, separated by a 1.5 km distance, as well as the Lochinvar base metals/precious metals deposit.

An initial Independent Mineral Resource Estimate for the Green Bay Gold property was prepared in accordance to the requirements of NI 43 - 101 and released in early June 2013. The study estimates the property to contain in excess of 425,000 ounces of gold (727,500 tonnes @ 11.59 g/t Au at Hammerdown and 1,096,500 tonnes @ 4.47 g/t Au at Orion) in the Measured and Indicated categories and in excess of 660,000 ounces (1,767,000 tonnes @ 7.58 g/t Au at Hammerdown and 1,288,000 tonnes @ 5.44 g/t Au at Orion) in the Inferred category, both at a 3 g/t cut-off grade. The estimate was compiled by Tetra Tech of Ontario.

The Hammerdown gold deposit was successfully mined by Richmont Mines between 2000 and 2004 while gold prices averaged $325/oz. During its operation, a total of 291,400 tonnes of ore were mined and milled, at an average grade of 15.83 g/t Au, recovering a total of 143,000 ounces of gold. All of the ore was processed at the Nugget Pond mill, now owned and operated by Rambler Metals and Mining Canada Limited, with an average gold recovery of 97.1%. Mining terminated in 2004 due to low gold prices with mineralization remaining, although uneconomic at that time. The Orion gold deposit consists of two main vein systems, both of which are open along strike, and down plunge to the northeast.

Further information on the Green Bay Gold Property can be found on our website along with the NI43-101 compliant Technical Report filed on SEDAR on July 11, 2013 at www.maritimeresourcescorp.com.

Bernard H. Kahlert, P.Eng. is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this release.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Doug Fulcher

President, CEO

For further information, please call:

Cathy DiVito, Investor Relations

Telephone: (604) 336-7322

info@maritimeresourcescorp.com

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Statements in this press release, other than purely historical information, including statements relating to the Company's future plans and objectives or expected results, may include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions and are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties inherent in resource exploration and development. As a result, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

Not for dissemination in the United States or through U.S. newswires

SOURCE: Maritime Resources Corp.
TheNewswire / April 18, 2016 - New Carolin Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "New Carolin") (TSXV: LAD): The Company advises that it has amended the terms of its two non-brokered private placements announced Friday, April 14, 2016 as follows:

-The first (Unit A) placement will now consist of up to 3,750,000 Units at a price of $0.07 per Unit A for proceeds of up to $262,500. Each Unit A consists of one common share and one two-year common share purchase warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of $0.09 per share.

-The second (Unit B) placement will now consist of up to 10,940,000 Units at a price of $0.07 per Unit B for proceeds of up to $765,800. Each Unit B will consist of one common share and one two-year common share purchase warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of $0.10 per share in the first year and $0.125 per share in the second year.

The proceeds from these placements will be used for exploration-related work on the Company's 100%-owned Ladner Gold Project in southwestern British Columbia, and for general working capital. All securities issued under both private placements are subject to a four-month plus one day hold period from their date of issuance. The Company will pay finder's fees to certain parties in connection with these private placements.

About New Carolin Gold Corp.

New Carolin Gold is a Canadian-based junior company focused on the exploration, evaluation and development of our 100% owned property consisting of 144 square kilometers of contiguous mineral claims and crown grants, collectively known as the "Ladner Gold Project" (Project). The Project is located near Hope, BC in the prospective and under-explored Coquihalla Gold Belt, which is host to several historic small gold producers including the Carolin Mine, Emancipation Mine and Pipestem Mine, and numerous gold prospects.

For additional information, please visit the Company's website at www.newcarolingold.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Robert L. Thast"

President & Chief Executive Officer

Phone: 604.542.9458

Cell: 604.220.5031

E-mail: ceo@newcarolingold.com

Web site: www.newcarolingold.com

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of this press release.

Caution concerning forward-looking information

This news release may contain forward-looking statements that are based on the Company's expectations, estimates and projections regarding its business and the economic environment in which it operates. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to control or predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements and readers should not place undue reliance on such statements. Statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update them publicly to reflect new information or the occurrence of future events or circumstances, unless otherwise required to do so by law.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), where the Assembly agenda is being prepared and approved, discussed the proposal of making a debate the issue of the situation tension in Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone in the upcoming session on April 18.

Armenpress reports, the head of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, Vice-President of the National Assembly Hermine Naghdalyan expressed the opinion that the issue will more likely not to be put on the daily agenda since the current sentiments suggest that the PACE aims to avoid from the further escalation of the situation.

PACE delegates believe that such sensitive topic discussions can create a new escalation and will again turn the PACE into a battlefield, which happened in the previous time and in January every time whenever there is a reference to sensitive issues like this. Taking into consideration the fact that the military operations were ceased, a proposal was made to the President of the PACE to hold meetings with the heads of the delegations after which it will be clear what steps to conduct. Several delegates stated that they have received information about the events, they will speak about that in their speeches and will deal with that issues during the monitoring and discussions of the political assembly, as well as during the work with the Commissioner of Human Rights.
Play Video Replay Video Play Video Don't Play Messina Gelato: Dr Evil's Magic Mushroom Cake Behind the scenes at Gelato Messina on the Magic Mushroom Cake assembly line.

Gelato Messina's newest venue opens this Wednesday (April 20) - and it already has a Michelin-starred chef's endorsement.

Remember the Gelato Messina Dessert Bar, where you could mastermind your own sundaes? That site - next to Messina's original Darlinghurst store - has had a makeover and it's now the Messina Creative Department. This eight-seater establishment will step it up from waffle cones and topping-stacked scoops. It will serve a seven-course dessert degustation ($130 per person) with matching non-alcoholic drinks, such as wattle cola vanilla soda with lemongrass vinegar.

Powering the menu will be Gelato Messina founder Nick Palumbo, Messina head chef Donato Toce and chief creative Remi Talbot, who has returned to the company after stints overseas in Denmark, France and Japan. In Tokyo, Talbot worked alongside Zaiyu Hasegawa, the chef who runs the Michelin-starred Den restaurant (its playful menu includes a dessert served on a shovel). Hasegawa was in Australia recently, collaborating with Martin Benn at a dinner at Sepia - and he was one of the first to try the Messina Creative Department menu.



"For me, having Zaiyu in was an absolute honour," says Toce.

The ambitious desserts include purple basil and beetroot granita. Photo: Supplied

"To have someone of his calibre come in and give us the seal of approval was an amazing experience. As far as Remi's thoughts on cooking for him - he doesn't show his emotions!"

Talbot, despite his poker face, was quite moved by having his former boss there. "It was important to me that Zaiyu and his team tried the Creative Department," he said. "I consider him as a brother, a mentor and the most amazing chef I have worked with. They loved the experience."



But you won't need to be a Michelin-starred chef to book in for the Creative Department's degustations - a project that Palumbo and Toce have been plotting for years.

"It has been something that both Nick and I have wanted to do for such a long time. We always thought about it with Remi at the helm, too," says Toce. "The menu has taken us close to eight weeks to perfect to what it is today. Instead of having 'key dishes', the menu is designed so each dish works harmoniously together."



Courses will include purple basil and beetroot granita (finished with a drizzle of Cudgegong extra-virgin olive oil) or pear vinegar sorbet presented in a hand-made cone alongside burrata cream, extra drops of locally sourced olive oil, black salt and thyme.

Pear vinegar sorbet is on the current menu. Photo: Supplied

So, are these high-end desserts?

"I wouldn't say it is 'fine dining' - it's all about the food and these dishes don't deserve a slap-bang approach service."

Open Wednesday to Saturday, with two sittings per evening (7pm and 9pm). Tickets will be on sale from April 20.



243 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, 1800 435 286, gelatomessina.com/au/creativedepartment
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By Matt Phinney

Angelo State University is proposing changes to its parking system that include a shuttle bus system for students and will require faculty and staff, as well as students, to pay for parking.

University officials will go before the Texas Tech University Board of Regents next week to ask for approval of a new fee system. ASU's parking now is based on status, with different lots for faculty and staff, residential students and commuters.

The new proposal would be a "proximity" system, where faculty, students and staff would pay more for premium spots located closer to certain buildings, said Sharon Meyer, ASU vice president of finance and administration.

While the Texas Tech regents will vote on the fees next week, they won't vote on the implementation and procedures for the new plan until May, she said.

Under the proposals, students will be able to use a shuttle system for a $20 permit to get to class. Under the system, a bus would visit each stop every five minutes, she said.

Officials hope to reduce the number of students who live on the east side of campus and drive to the traffic-congested west side for classes.

The university also wants to eliminate on-street parking and reduce congestion on Dena Street, she said.

The biggest change with the plan is the proposal to have faculty and staff pay for parking, Meyer said. Staff and faculty current do not pay parking fees.

ASU does not get state funding for parking lots, Meyer said, and all maintenance is paid through parking fees, which have been paid by students.

Meyer said she did not have an estimate of the revenue generated from the proposed system because a budget won't be established until the fees are approved. Revenue from parking will be used for maintaining the lots and for paying salaries of police and patrol officers.

Meyer said the Tech regents thought faculty and staff should also pay for parking.

If the procedures pass, the new rules will go into effect for fall 2009, though the actual sign-up will begin this spring with online registration, according to the university Web site.

Some on campus are "not happy," Meyer said. "We're taking a perk away. The bottom line is we are saying it really wasn't a perk. You were getting it and the students were paying for it. Now you will have to pay for it. There are not many schools in the state that don't charge their faculty and staff for parking."

Students, faculty and staff would apply for their fall permits online later this spring. Faculty and staff sign-up would begin two weeks before student registration begins, according to the plan on the Web site.

Brian May, agriculture professor and Faculty Senate President, said the faculty will have a meeting Friday to discuss the proposals, among other topics. He said he could not comment on faculty reaction until after he hears what they say at the meeting.

Under the proposal, the Police Department would sell permits to each lot based upon the total number of parking spaces, less those reserved for visitors and service vehicles. Permits would be sold on a first-come, first-sold basis. When the number of sold permits equals the available spaces, no more permits will be sold, according to the plan on the Web site.

Meyers said she has heard from several people upset with the new proposals.

"I just try to explain why we are doing it," she said. "You make some people happy and some people not happy. It's just change for people and they have to understand these things will happen when we grow."

The university conducted a parking study last year to help ease congestion in and around the campus. The study found the between 5,000 and 6,000 spots is enough for the campus, but that many won't use some of the more out-of-the way spots, she said.

According to the ASU Web site, the parking zones are:

n Gold (premium) - The lots are closest to the academic and administrative buildings. Cost would be $100 annually. The lots would be opened to faculty and staff first, then remaining slots would be available to students. A gold permit would be valid for a specific gold lot, but could be used in a blue (remote) lot as well.

n Blue (remote) - The lots, located on the campus perimeter, would be open to faculty, staff and students at a cost of $50 per year. Blue permits would only be usable in blue/remote lots.

n Green (residential) - The permits would be lot-specific and issued to residential students based on their residence hall assignment. Cost would be $100 annually. A green lot permit would only be usable in green or blue zones.

n Red (special use) - A few lots, such as the one west of the Houston Harte University Center, would be zoned for special use. These lots, primarily around buildings with high university and public use, would have some time-limit parking for university-affiliated drivers with business in the facility and for visitor parking.
<p>An image live tweeted from staff reporter, Monique Ching. Watermark added.</p>

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By Rashda Khan, Rashda.Khan@gosanangelo.com

The San Angelo City Council will consider approving a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department to include hunting areas at the Twin Buttes Reservoir in the TPWD Public Hunting Program at its meeting on Tuesday.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation owns the property surrounding Twin Buttes and leases it to the city to provide water collection and recreational land for public use.

"It's like a No Man's Land or the Wild West out there," said Carl White, director of parks and recreation with the city. "Most people use the properties properly, but there are others who don't. This will help bring law and order to the area."

In recent years, illegal dumping, vandalism and the uninhibited use of firearms  pistols and rifles are not permitted, only shotguns, shooting up of signs  has plagued the area.

The Public Hunting Program includes almost 900,000 acres located throughout Texas. Public use of these properties is governed by the Public Lands Proclamation and public hunting rules, regulations and prohibited acts are enforced by TPWD game wardens, which could help with the dumping and other issues. TPWD also will work to provide habitat enhancement and improve activities and offerings.

White said being part of the program also has a marketing advantage.

TPWD puts out an annual publication targeted to hunters with a listing of all the public hunting areas in the program. It has operated the program for more than 60 years and since 1987 has required people to secure permits to hunt or camp on nearly 1 million acres throughout Texas.

Becoming part of the program would mean users would need to buy permits to hunt in the area. Access to public hunting land is granted by two types of yearly permits: a $48 Annual Public Hunting permit allowing full hunting, fishing, camping, hiking and other recreational use privileges, and a $12 Limited Public Use permit for access for all recreational activities except hunting.

The permit fees are collected and used by TPWD to administer the program.

In other business, the council will consider:

Adoption of an ordinance amending the 2015-2016 budget for grants and capital projects.

Ordinances amending fees for various city departments.

The possibility of issuing rebates of water fees.

A request to authorize a Rezoning from Light Manufacturing (ML) Zoning District to the General Commercial (CG) Zoning District, on 1.30 acres generally located at the corner of Knickerbocker Road and South Jackson Street.

Amendments to the bylaws for the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone Board

The council will meet at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the McNease Convention Center, 501 Rio Concho Street.
The rainfall received for a 24-hour period set a record for San Angelo.

SHARE Yfat Yossifor / Standard-Times Heavy rains started early Sunday, April 17, in San Angelo. Photos by Yfat Yossifor/Standard-Times Intersections fill with water as the storm rolls in early Sunday. As of Sunday, San Angelo is 4.03 inches above normal rainfall. Yfat Yossifor / Standard-Times Cars cross an intersections flooding with water as the storm rolls in early Sunday, April 17. Yfat Yossifor / Standard-Times San Angelo Police crosses an intersection flooding with water as the storm rolls in early Sunday, April 17.

By Rashda Khan, Rashda.Khan@gosanangelo.com

Rain blessed the Concho Valley area this weekend.

The rain recorded for San Angelo for the two-day period, Saturday and Sunday, at Mathis Field was 2.68 inches.

The rainfall received for a 24-hour period set a record for San Angelo.

"We had a new daily record rainfall of 1.41 inches at the airport; this broke the old record of 1.13 which was set last year on this same date (April 17)," said Hector Guerrero, warning and coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "The average rainfall in April for San Angelo is 1.42 inches."

The month-to-date recorded rainfall is 4.41 inches. "That's 3 inches higher than normal," Guerrero said on Sunday. "Anytime it rains in West Texas, it's unusual. So this is a blessing and we're grateful for it. "

As of Sunday, San Angelo is 4.03 inches above the normal rainfall mark for this time of year.

While increased precipitation is expected in spring, he said the greater chances of rain usually occur in May and June.

The weekend downpour resulted from a combination of a large upper-level, low-pressure system and a slow-moving cold front interacting with plenty of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, he said.

Showers and thunderstorms were widespread over West Central Texas Saturday evening and early Sunday, resulting in most of the Concho Valley receiving between 1 and 3 inches of rain. A few areas received more than 3 inches.

The area with the heaviest rainfall spanned between San Angelo to Mertzon, west toward Big Lake. Another batch of heavier rain fell from Sweetwater to Ballinger to Robert Lee. Areas from San Angelo south to Sonora and Ozona experienced moderate rainfall. Not as much rain was seen between Eden and Junction.

Several areas  Mertzon, Big Lake and Mason  reported a wide range of rainfall. While the NWS weather station in Mertzon recorded 2.89 inches, the Standard-Times received reports recording 4 2/10 inches west of Mertzon and 2 5/8 inches a little north of Mertzon.

Runoff led to some rises in the area rivers and creeks, however, Matt Groh  another meteorologist with NWS  said there was only one river flood warning issued, which was for the Clear Fork of the Brazos near Fort Griffin, affecting Shackleford and Throckmorton counties, north and northeast of Abilene.

Weather service officials said they expect water levels to rise in the North Concho, Middle Concho and Spring Creek, but anticipate water levels should stay below flood stage.

However, Guerrero warned that people need to be careful when driving across flooded low-water crossings.

The good news is that San Angelo's reservoirs should benefit from these rains.

"We will be monitoring water levels in area reservoir," Groh said. "We anticipate there will be water runoff, but we will know more in the next few days."

The workweek should be a mix of "sunshine and chances of thunderstorms with high temperatures" for the most part, Guerrero said. Tuesday's temperatures will be in the lower to mid 80s.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The heroes of the 4-day war in the contact line of Karabakh-Azerbaijan had never thought that they would be injured or killed during the military operations. They heroically fought against the enemy believing that they have no right to be mistaken.

49 injured servicemen are currently receiving treatment at the Central Military Hospital of the Defense Ministry.

They have already shared their impressions with many journalists and media agencies, and every time they confirm their readiness to return to Artsakh to protect the civilians. Moreover, many of them have put a task before themselves to inflict heavy losses on the enemy. Armenpress took an interview with patients receiving treatment at the Central Military Hospital, but not only with those injured during the April war, but those injured as a result of subversive acts conducted by the adversary before the April events.

Sergeant Edik Martirosyan, 20 years old





I was injured on April 4 in Mataghis, from a mine explosion. I was taken to hospital, than, to Yerevan. I went to the military positions on April 1. The adversary started to fire at us from different caliber weapons at night. I fought for 4 days without thinking that I can be injured because I realized that I was doing something sacred, protecting my motherland. Whatever I do, I do it for my motherland, our mothers and sisters.

I wish my friends good health, always remain unyielding, so as to be able to protect our country, our soil. And I will try to recover as soon as possible, to join them. I cannot help myself; I want to be with my friends.

My friend was injured with me. He is now in Artsakhs hospital, but he is in a good condition. I am not depressed that I was wounded, I am not afraid.

We are ready to repel the enemy at any moment. Till the end.

Private soldier Edgar Mkhitaryan, 18 years old





I had been in service for 9 months. I received gunfire injury. I was injured in Martakert on March 25, where I received treatment and was later moved to Yerevan. It is quite a long time I am here, I am able to move my foot a little and walk. There is great progress.

On March 25 the adversary conducted a subversive offensive. I was the only one to be injured as a result of the subversive act. Now everything is normal, I feel well and my foot is recovering.

I wish all the soldiers strength and vigor so as to be able to protect the border till be recover and join them.

Private soldier Vahan Sargsyan, 19 years old





We were on duty the day before the events. It happened unexpectedly. We heard shootings.

On March 30 I received gunfire injury in the stomach. Now I feel normal, doctors say that my organism has rehabilitated. I go for the better little by little. I lost consciousness after the first operation.

Roza Grigoryan
Oregon is close to becoming the 15th state to signal that it will award its Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes nationwide.On a 37-22 party line vote, the Democratic majority in the Oregon House sent Senate Bill 870 to the desk of Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who has indicated her support.If the bill is signed into law, Oregon would join 14 other states and the District of Columbia in the National Popular Vote compact.That could mean that Oregon's seven Electoral College votes could one day be awarded to a candidate who did not win the most votes in Oregon.The compact will only take effect when enough states have joined to collectively award a majority of votes in the Electoral College.The threshold to reach that majority is 270. According to the National Popular Vote organization, jurisdictions representing 189 Electoral College votes have joined the compact so far. If Oregon joins, the effort would be seven votes closer.If the compact had been in effect in 2000, Al Gore would have been elected president instead of George W. Bush. If it had been in place in 2016, Hillary Clinton would be the current president.Democrats said their vote in support of the bill was not about trying to get back at Republicans for having won the presidency without winning the popular vote in 2000 and 2016. They said the compact would mean a GOP candidate would win if the situation was reversed.Instead, said Rep. Allisa Keny-Guyer, D-Portland, the compact would make Oregon more relevant during presidential campaigns. "The Republican presidential candidates write Oregon totally off, and the Democratic candidates take Oregon for granted," she said. "So we are just relegated to being a spectator state."Republicans said the current system has worked well for more than 240 years. Some hinted that awarding the presidency to someone who does not win the Electoral College in the conventional manner could lead to violence."We cannot, in a time as divisive as this, put at risk the peaceful transfer of power of the presidency of the United States," said Rep. Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte. "And I fear that's what this will do."The debate over whether to join the National Popular Vote compact has become somewhat of a tradition in the Oregon House. Some veteran lawmakers, including House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, have voted for it four times."I always enjoy the National Popular Vote debate," said Kotek, before opening up the voting system for what could be the final time on this topic. In previous years, the legislation has died in the Senate because Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem did not support it.This year, with the majority of his caucus in favor of it, Courtney relented. The bill originated in the Senate and narrowly passed there in early April.Brown "looks forward to signing the legislation," said her Deputy Press Secretary Nikki Fisher, who added that the bill still has to go through a standard legal review process before the governor will sign it.
Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger plans to delay monthly paychecks for lawmakers and statewide officials, saying there isn't enough money to pay the state's bills and other services should come first.The comptroller's office will still process the paychecks, estimated at $1.3 million a month, but lawmakers won't get the money right away because the payments will be thrown onto the state's huge pile of unpaid bills.Munger acknowledged the idea is to apply pocketbook political pressure to lawmakers to spur a resolution to the 10-month budget fight between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats led by House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton. She argued that lawmakers' paychecks are taking away money from nonprofit social service providers and small businesses who have seen their payments delayed during the impasse."I am hoping that this will help everyone understand what it feels like, really, to be among the group of people who are waiting months for payment," said Munger, a Lincolnshire Republican, at a rare Sunday morning news conference in Chicago.The money is a drop in the bucket when compared with the state's $6 billion deficit, but the move is seen as shrewd politics.Munger, appointed by Rauner after the December 2014 death of Judy Baar Topinka, faces a special election in November against Democrat Susana Mendoza, the Chicago city clerk. Neither candidate is well-known statewide, and the contest is low profile in a presidential election year. Munger's decision on lawmakers' paychecks gets her name out there in a populist way.Mendoza blasted the decision as "10 months late and many dollars short.""Yes, we should not pay elected officials where possible before paying more urgent bills, but when is Comptroller Munger going to stand up to Gov. Rauner and demand an end to his extreme agenda and pass a budget?" Mendoza asked in a statement emailed by her campaign.Currently, there is a delay of at least two months on most invoices at the comptroller's office as the state is racking up bills without enough money to cover the costs. That's the result of a mix of court orders and existing laws that have allowed state government to operate almost as normal even though Rauner and lawmakers haven't agreed on a full tax-and-spending plan. Rank-and-file state workers are being paid by court order, and lawmaker salaries are being paid because they're written into law.Until now, paychecks for state workers and lawmakers have been going out on time, but Munger contended it's unfair for elected officials to receive their salaries on time while others who provide services for the state have to wait."I do not relish taking this action," Munger said. "Many of our leaders are true public servants who care about their constituents and their communities, and they are earning their pay. But so are the many organizations and businesses all throughout Illinois who have, in good faith, provided services to the state but still wait months for payment."Munger also is trying to distance herself from the blame game of the budget stalemate, which is expected to loom large in the upcoming election. Both Rauner and Democratic leaders generally agree that it will take a mixture of spending cuts and new taxes to balance the state's books. But before getting there, Rauner wants Democrats to help him pass his pro-business, union-weakening legislative agenda, which they've refused to do.Both sides are making a political calculation that voters will side with them in November House and Senate contests, leaving little incentive for a compromise in the meantime.On Sunday, Munger insisted she had not consulted Rauner, his staff or Republican leaders in the legislature before making the decision. She acknowledged the political implications of holding up lawmaker pay while casting herself as a defender of the ordinary people who've been hurt by Springfield politics."It all adds up, and that $1.3 million can mean a lot to a nonprofit," Munger said. "It may prevent some from being laid off or keep a critical community program going. It could mean a lot to the small business providing services to the state that has been waiting months and months for payment."It's not the first time legislators have seen their pay targeted amid political gridlock, and the move undoubtedly will bring up legal questions about the separation of executive and legislative powers.In July 2013, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn used his veto powers to eliminate lawmakers' pay from the state's annual spending plan to try to force action on a plan to overhaul the state's employee pension plan. Democratic legislative leaders sued, and lawmakers went two months without salary before a judge ruled the move was unconstitutional and the comptroller eventually had to cut the checks.Munger contends that her decision is different, because she'll still be processing the paychecks, but instead of cutting the checks immediately, she'll add them to the pile of unpaid bills, which get paid on a delay. Munger said her attorneys came up with a legal opinion late last week that approved the move, but her staff refused to produce a copy of the opinion when the Tribune asked for it.The comptroller estimated that elected officials, whose next paycheck is due on April 30, will have to wait until May or June for their April pay. But she also warned that the delay in paying bills "will grow dramatically" in the summer and fall months, when tax collections are down. April is the peak month for tax collections, and still the state has an $8 billion bill backlog, Munger said.The delay will also apply to statewide office holders, including the treasurer, secretary of state, lieutenant governor and Munger herself, she said. Rauner, a wealthy private equity specialist who campaigned on a pledge to serve as governor for free, does not collect a salary.The 177 legislators receive a base salary of $67,836, but most earn thousands more in stipends by serving in Democratic or Republican leadership positions, or acting as chairman or vice chairman of legislative committees.Serving in the House or Senate is a part-time job, with lawmakers typically in session a few days a week from January through May, and again for a couple of weeks in the fall. For some legislators, the state salary is their primary or only source of income, which means not getting paid is a financial hardship that turns up the pressure to get a budget resolution. Other lawmakers, including many of the legislative leaders, have lucrative law practices, other jobs or financially successful spouses.Madigan, for example, has a law firm that specializes in Cook County property tax appeals. Cullerton is a partner at the Thompson Coburn law firm. House Republican leader Jim Durkin is a partner at Arnstein & Lehr. Spokesmen for the two Democratic leaders would not comment on Munger's decision.Rank-and-file lawmakers could feel the squeeze, which might create pressure for movement on the budget issue at the statehouse.Democratic state Sen. Michael Noland of Elgin is an attorney who pulled in about $76,000 from the state and $10,000 from his law practice in 2014, according to financial disclosure forms from a bid for Congress. That year, Noland cited "financial hardship" when he modified his mortgage through a federal program that helps homeowners reduce monthly payments and avoid foreclosure. Noland told the Tribune earlier this year that his family had struggled financially after the pay freeze episode with Quinn.
Hundreds of cheering families, legislators and patients watched Gov. Wolf sign a medical marijuana bill into law Sunday afternoon, many hopeful at last for relief from pain, seizures and other medical conditions.Allie Delp watched from her mom's lap, purple sunglasses strapped around her wide blue eyes to protect them from the light. Large crowds are tough for Allie. The 4-year-old suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a severe seizure disorder, and most days she stays in the dimly-lit, cool comforts of her home to avoid triggers. Today was too important not to make the drive from Ford City, Allie's mom, Amanda Delp, said."It feels like a dream, it really does," Delp said. "If you would have asked me four years ago if I would be advocating for medical marijuana, I would have told you it's just people wanting to get high. It took my daughter for me to open my eyes and realize it can save people."A row away from Allie, Robert Billhime, Jr., 45, sat with his girlfriend and 6-week-old napping son Aspen. Multiple back surgeries left Billhime addicted to painkillers three years ago. He lost his job, his home. Addiction nearly cost him his life, he said. "If it wasn't for the cannabis I wouldn't be here. I won't go back. I won't be an addict," he said wiping a tear from his eye and looking down at his son.Billhime called the day a huge step in the right direction but said discrimination and misunderstanding persists. "It's still not going to change the bigotry already in the legal system. If you're a cannabis user, legal or not, you're pre-judged simply because you refuse to be an addict."Billhime said he almost lost custody of his children because the family court judge ordered he take a drug test while he was using cannabis for back pain. He had supervised visitations for six months.In the packed rotunda Sunday there were hundreds of stories like these. People trying to make it through their pain, determined, loving parents doing whatever they could -- and then some for their kids. Wearing green for cannabis -- and purple, for epilepsy awareness -- they erupted in cheers as Wolf signed the bill into law.Wolf thanked the advocates, particularly the moms who brought their kids to rally at the Capitol to give a face to the people the legalization would benefit."When you have people who represent a cause as eloquently and in as heartfelt a way as the advocates for this has done, it shows we can get something done that means something," Wolf said. "We're not responding to a special interest here; we're not responding to someone who makes campaign contributions -- we're responding to people who are telling us there is a real human need here in Pennsylvania."There was much congratulating among legislators for bipartisan work on the bill."We won!" Sen. Mike Folmer, who rallied Republicans, said to a roar as he took the podium. "This is your day!"The law allows people suffering from 17 specified conditions -- including cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and seizures -- to access medical marijuana in pill, oil, or ointment form at dispensaries statewide.The Department of Health is expected to oversee what will become a new industry in Pennsylvania, with dozens of dispensaries, hundreds of workers and potentially thousands of patients. Patients would use identification cards, after reciving a doctor's prescription, to access marijuana from one of 150 dispensaries statewide. All dispensaries would be licensed by the state and face intense regulations.Getting the system up and running could take more than 18 months before a patient can actually access medical marijuana. A provision in the bill allows families with children under 18 to obtain medical marijuana from other states where it is legal without fear of prosecution.Temporary regulations are also expected to be written to permit adults access if they can demonstrate they suffer from one of the 17 conditions listed in the legislation.Delp hopes to use that provision to get Allie cannabis oil in the next 30 days. Her daughter has as many of 80 seizures a month, she said. One in five children with Dravet don't live to adulthood, Delp said. Many are mentally challenged and require care the rest of their lives."Cannabis not only gives us hope to help control the seizures but there are children in legal states where it's been shown to helps their cognition," Delp said. "Maybe she'll be able to catch up, lead a normal life."Allie is an active tomboy (she did barefoot laps around the rotunda before the bill signing got under way). She doesn't know to avoid triggers for the seizures that threaten her life."She loves riding her four-wheeler, chasing her sisters around, just being a kid," Delp said. "This -- it won't solve everything -- but it gives us hope, and we need hope."
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley is currently mired in a scandal of his own making  an inappropriate relationship with a top adviser. The Republican was caught saying sexually explicit things to his senior political advisor, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, on a leaked audio recording. Both have denied that the relationship was ever physical. Mason has since resigned her position, and Bentley is now facing the possibility of impeachment. Whats unusual about Bentleys troubles is, well, how unusual they are for governors these days.We last addressed the decline in gubernatorial scandals three years ago. At the time, we noted that between 2002 and 2010, there were at least two gubernatorial scandals percolating at any given time, peaking in 2004 with four governors simultaneously facing ethical troubles.The period between 2008 and 2010 was a particularly sticky time for governors, encompassing the corruption probe of Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the sexual escapades of New York Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer and South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, and the ethical improprieties of Nevada Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons. But the run of gubernatorial scandals seemingly came to an abrupt end: During 2011, 2012 and the first part of 2013, there were no significant gubernatorial scandals known to the public. The last time that had happened was in 1998 and 1999, about a decade and a half earlier.The dearth of scandals between 2011 and early 2013 may have been explainable by the fact that many governors had only recently been sworn in, leaving them with barely any time to turn bad. Still, this explanation couldnt have been the only reason since other governors who had been in office for longer periods hadnt faced any troubles. Whats more, Blagojevich, Gibbons and Spitzer had managed to get into hot water within their first two years in office.Today, about half of the governors are moving into their sixth year in office, and still the scandal count is pretty low.In the three years since we addressed the decline in gubernatorial scandals, we could find only four that met our criteria  that is, cases where a governor's troubles become publicly known while he or she is still in office, and where the governor is either formally charged on ethical or legal grounds or gets in trouble for sexual misconduct.And unlike many previous scandals that dragged on for two to five years, most of the recent scandals have been resolved quickly, doing little to hamper state governance.Consider the conflict-of-interest scandal involving Oregon Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber and his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes. From start to finish, the controversy was public for less than six months, ending with Kitzhabers resignation just weeks after taking the oath of office for his fourth term. Kitzhabers quick exit enabled his successor, Democrat Kate Brown, to clear the decks and move on.A pay-for-play scandal involving Virginia Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell may have ended more problematically for the politician -- with a criminal conviction on public corruption charges -- but was over quickly. The revelations that culminated in his prosecution began to become public less than a year before he would have been term-limited out of office, and his indictment came after he had officially left the governors mansion in January 2014.Then, of course, there are Bentleys troubles, which have only just come to light in recent weeks. It remains to be seen how long hell be affected by the controversy. Only one recent scandal has bled beyond one year: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christies Bridgegate.Ever since Christie was sworn in to a second term in January 2014, questions have swirled about whether appointees of the Republican governor -- or perhaps even the governor himself  ordered lane closures on the George Washington Bridge as a form of political payback. Though Christie himself hasnt faced serious legal jeopardy yet, three top aides have been indicted and a flurry of investigations has cast a pall over Christies second term.And in case you were wondering, were ignoring the indictment of Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry in our tally. The legal action received bipartisan criticism from the beginning and Perry was ultimately cleared.Bentley is the only governor elected in the large gubernatorial class of 2010 or later to face a scandal, which is notable. Its taken the class of 2010 -- which includes 23 governors -- six years to produce its first scandal-tinged member.In our earlier column on the subject, we proposed a couple theories to explain the relative lull in gubernatorial scandals. One, as weve noted, was the large number of recently elected governors. The others included leaner state budgets, which made it harder for a governor to skim off the top; heightened public intolerance with corruption in the wake of the Great Recession; an increase in governors who are motivated by ideology rather than money; lessons learned from the public integrity prosecutions of the 1990s and 2000s; tighter ethics laws; and reduced scrutiny from a shrinking local media.We ran those theories by the same four experts we interviewed three years ago to get their take on the continued low level of scandals.The optimist would say that the relative lack of scandals is the direct result of the election of more principled, transparent leaders, said Ben Cannatti, a Texas-based Republican consultant. The pessimist would say the lack of scandals is the direct result of more eyes and citizen investigators watching their leaders. The answer probably is someplace in between.Martha Joynt Kumar, a political scientist at Towson University, said that media shrinkage remains a serious problem. Who broke most of the scandals? Newspapers, she said. They had investigative teams, which many no longer have, and some of the newspapers no longer exist or have become shells of what they once were.Stan Brand, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who specializes in public corruption cases, sees this as a cycle that will eventually turn around again. Public corruption is a cyclical phenomenon for governors, as it is for all elected officials, Brand said. My view is that at some point you will see a new outcropping of cases, as you do every decade or so.He added that while the gubernatorial scandal front is relatively quiet, prosecutions have ravaged other parts of government, notably the leadership of the New York Legislature.Rich Lee is a former New Jersey statehouse journalist and was spokesman for New Jersey Democratic Gov. Jim McGreevey, who resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal. Lee says he believes our perception of what constitutes a scandal is also a factor.Lee points to social media, which frames its news in bite-sized pieces rather than with carefully cultivated backstories. Scandals that involve a learning curve may fail to gain attention, says Lee, who is now an associate professor of journalism and mass communication at St. Bonaventure University.For instance, when New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo began his re-election campaign in 2014, his opponents thought they could capitalize on the governors role in dismantling a commission investigating public corruption. But to fully comprehend the issue, one needed to be familiar with the origins of the commission, the differences in the three branches of government and plenty of insider politics, said Lee. The scandal never gained traction with voters and Cuomo easily won re-election.Lee sees Bridgegate as fitting the same pattern. Those familiar with the volume of traffic at New Yorks Hudson River crossings had no trouble understanding the consequences of closing traffic lanes approaching the George Washington Bridge, he said. But when Christie campaigned for president in other parts of the country, voters who had never experienced gridlock at the bridge or the Lincoln or Holland tunnels just couldnt understand what all the fuss was about.
A backlash against monied interests in politics that has buoyed the White House bids of Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is reverberating far beyond this years presidential race. The huge sums swamping campaigns have prompted voters to appeal to city halls and state capitols, hoping to curb the influence of wealthy donors in their communities.Sunday marked one of the biggest public protests against big money, drawing thousands to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. But similar, if smaller, efforts have been playing out across the country on a regular basis.In Chicago, Sharon Sanders, a retired special-education teacher, is working to try to build support for a small-donor matching program for city elections. In Cocoa, Fla., Melissa Martin, a former Marine Corps staff judge advocate, is urging her five-member city council to pass a resolution supporting anti-corruption legislation. In Seattle, high school biology teacher Jonathan Tong helped collect thousands of signatures for a November state ballot initiative supporting a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Courts Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which made it easier for corporations and wealthy donors to spend unlimited funds on politics.
When Texas makes its case against President Barack Obama's signature 2014 immigration plan at the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, the most important part of its argument will hinge on the state's $25 driver's license.That one little document, owned by nearly 16 million drivers, is the crux of the lawsuit that Texas has filed against the Obama administration's program to grant temporary work permits to about 4 million immigrants in the country illegally. Texas contends that it would lose millions of dollars if it must provide a license to almost 600,000 eligible immigrants in the state. The state subsidizes the cost of each document by some $130.The argument is crucial because unless the state can convince the short-handed high court that it would suffer real harm, Texas cannot sue. Deciding the state does not have so-called standing is one possible outcome of the case. The justices also could reach a 4-4 decision -- possible because of the death of Antonin Scalia -- which would uphold a lower court's blocking of the program but avoid the significant issues at hand. That result could be chaotic because states favoring the initiative might then sue and reverse the injunction.At issue is how much authority the president wields.When the justices agreed to take the case, they asked the Obama administration and Texas to specifically address whether the president's executive action violates the constitution by not fully enforcing immigration law and trying to deport all immigrants here illegally. But without Scalia many experts think the justices would not be able to reach a majority decision or want to tackle such a consequential question without a full bench."If Texas does not have standing, there is no case," said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the New York office of the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C. "For the advocates that would be the best outcome."It would allow the president to immediately implement the program, designed largely for the parents of Americans and legal residents who have been here illegally since 2010 without committing major crimes. Deciding Texas has no standing may restrict when states can challenge federal programs. Conversely, determining Texas can sue could allow states to challenge any number of federal policies they don't like. Texas argues it's simply trying to prevent the executive branch from running rampant against congressional will.Both a federal trial judge in Brownsville, where Texas and 26 mostly Republican states filed suit, and the largely conservative U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed the state could indeed suffer harm as a result of issuing the licenses. But they were only preliminary rulings because the case has never seen a full trial.In its analysis, the 5th Circuit majority relied on a 2007 Supreme Court decision allowing Massachusetts to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to regulate vehicle emissions linked to climate change. Massachusetts argued that rising seawater, a result of global warming, would erode its coastline and hurt the state, giving it sufficient claim to sue the federal government.A historic caseTexas' argument is similar, the appeals court judges found, because of the "direct, substantial pressure" states would face to change subsidies for licenses or suffer financial loss. A dissenting opinion noted that Massachusetts sued under the Clean Air Act, which specifically allows lawsuits over the government's refusal to regulate. There is no such authority under immigration law.Immigration advocates and their supporters say that either of two of the court's four conservative judges could agree Texas doesn't have the right to challenge Obama's program based on their previous decisions.In the Massachusetts case, Chief Justice John Roberts led the conservative dissent in saying the state could not prove it was hurt by the government's policy. He described standing as "a fundamental limitation ensuring that courts function as courts, and not intrude on the politically accountable branches."In 2012, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the court's majority opinion striking down part of an Arizona law targeting immigrants here illegally. In it he embraced a broad view of the federal government's authority to solely regulate immigration."The states are precluded from regulating conduct in a field that Congress, acting within its proper authority, has determined must be regulated by its exclusive governance," he said.In the bitter fight over filling Scalia's seat, all of the justices may want to wait until an appointment has been made to decide such a historic case, not only on immigration but in defining the limits of presidential authority. All of them maintain an interest in limiting when states can sue the federal government."Otherwise that would mean every new federal policy could be challenged before it's ever implemented by some coalition of states," said Steve Vladeck, an American University Washington College of Law professor who specializes in the Supreme Court.Critics of the Texas challenge to Obama's immigration plan say the state could simply choose not to subsidize driver's licenses. It already provides the documents for some 115,000 youth who received provisional work permits under the president's 2012 executive order for certain young adults who have been here illegally for years. Texas did not challenge that program or argue it suffered financial losses because of it. Mississippi did, but the 5th Circuit appeals court found it did not specifically detail how it could be harmed.Immigrant advocates say the cost of the licenses, about $75 million for the Texas' eligible immigrants, would be offset by the increase in taxes if they can work here legally. If Obama's program goes into effect, Texas would see a boost of more than $38 billion in its gross domestic product over the next decade, according to a study by the Center for American Progress, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C.Paxton's focus on policyJosh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law, argues that forcing a state to change its law so that it doesn't suffer financial loss, however small and regardless of whether it can later be recouped, is enough to give it a claim at the high court."In my opinion, Texas has the silver bullet," said Blackman, who filed an amicus brief against Obama's plan on behalf of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C.State Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office doesn't deal with the economic impact of the president's proposal, but rather is concerned with whether it's against the law for the executive branch to grant such a large group of migrants temporary work permits when Congress hasn't chosen to do so. Qualifying for standing is simply a way to make that greater argument."We're not here to deal with the issue of whether we can recoup or not recoup (the money) but whether it's good or bad public policy," he said.'Not a direct precedent'The state argues that in creating the program the administration bypassed a little-known federal statute, the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires it to seek public input when changing a significant rule.The government contends it's only setting priorities for whom it must deport, necessary given that Congress only allocates about $6 billion a year for enforcement. That's enough to annually remove roughly 300,000 of the 11 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally, according to the government. Texas argues choosing not to deport such a large group of immigrants is in effect creating new policy.The state also says choosing not to prosecute a mass class of people and proactively granting them the authority to work is abdicating the president's responsibility to enforce immigration law."This is not just a case of the federal government versus the states. This is about the limits of executive authority, and there's not a direct precedent," said Chishti, of the Migration Policy Institute.In the end, it may be the next president who decides the future of what Obama had hoped would be his namesake immigration reform. Even if his plan is implemented this summer, a Republican would likely repeal it upon taking office. If the court rules the administration should have sought public comment on its policy change, a winning Democrat could try to do that."This policy will really be determined by the next election," said University of California at Berkeley law professor John Yoo, who served in President George W. Bush's Office of Legal Counsel. "In the end this may be worked out by Congress either way."
On Friday, in the morning, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey departed Brisbane for official travel to the Gulf region of Queensland.

In the afternoon, in Normanton, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey visited Normanton State School and Gulf Christian College, where His Excellency addressed staff and students, and with Mrs de Jersey, toured classrooms.

Following, at Bynoe Community Advancement Co-operative Society and Bynoe Arts Centre, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey received a briefing on operations, met staff and toured facilities.

Following, at Normanton Police Station, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey received a briefing on operations, met staff and toured facilities.
On Saturday, in the morning, at Carpentaria Shire Council, Normanton, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey received a briefing on local issues from Council representatives and met staff.

Following, at the Carpentaria Shire Community Hall, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey attended a community morning tea where His Excellency addressed guests, and then departed Normanton for Burketown.

In the afternoon, at Gumbamundda Bridge, Burketown, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey met Gangalidda and Garawa Indigenous Land and Sea Rangers, and then boarded a vessel and cruised down the Albert River, during which they received a briefing from Rangers.

Following, at Nijinda Durlga Community Hall, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey received a briefing on local issues from Burke Shire Council representatives and met staff, and then attended a community afternoon tea where His Excellency addressed guests, and then departed for Karumba.

In the evening, at Sunset Tavern, Karumba, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey were hosted at dinner by Carpentaria Shire Council representatives.
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GIS - 18 April, 2016: At the drawing of lots exercise, held on Friday 15 April 2016 at Sir Harilall Vaghjee Memorial Hall in Port-Louis, for the relocation of squatters based in Port-Louis to different localities, the Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Housing and Lands, Mr Showkutally Soodhun, reiterated Governments determination to address the problem of residential squatting rigorously but humanely. At the drawing of lots exercise, held on Friday 15 April 2016 at Sir Harilall Vaghjee Memorial Hall in Port-Louis, for the relocation of squatters based in Port-Louis to different localities, the Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Housing and Lands, Mr Showkutally Soodhun, reiterated Governments determination to address the problem of residential squatting rigorously but humanely.

The Vice-Prime Minister recalled the structured approach adopted by his Ministry to deal with the problem of residential squatting on State Land, which entails taking into consideration the socio-economic implications, on a strictly merit basis, and the establishment of a cut-off date of 1st July 2015 for registration of squatters so that the situation can be controlled.

According to Mr Soodhun, some 322 families, who were occupying State lands in the region of Port Louis, are being regularised either in situ or through relocation at Batterie Cassee, Roche Bois, Monseigneur Leen, and Pointe aux Sables. To the 139 families being allotted a land parcel through the drawing of lots, the Vice-Prime Minister reminded them that as from the date of issue of the letter of intent, they will have to move to the new plot of land allocated to them within a period of three months. By presenting the letters of intent to the relevant authorities, you will be able to apply for water and electricity connections as well, he said.

The Vice-Prime also affirmed that new case of squatting will not be tolerated and will be severely dealt with. He added that as soon as the squatted sites are vacated, the respective Ministries and Departments, responsible for the implementation of various projects thereon, will take over while teams comprising officers of the Ministry of Housing and Lands and the Police des Terres will carry out regular patrols to deter any more squatting.

It is recalled that the total number of squatters in Port-Louis stood at 322, out of which 75 have not yet submitted the necessary documents for regularisation. Some 106 families have been regularised in situ (at the actual place where they are residing) namely at Monseigneur Leen, Alma Street - Vallee-Pitot, Vallee Pitot - Block 1, La Cure  Robert Scott and Vallee des Pretres while 216 families are being relocated on other plots of land in other regions such as Monseigneur Leen, Pointe aux Sables and Batterie Cassee.

Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email:

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GIS  18 April 2016: The President of the Republic of Mauritius, Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, is currently on a State Visit to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. She is accompanied by a delegation from the private sector and the Board of Investment. The President of the Republic of Mauritius, Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, is currently on a State Visit to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. She is accompanied by a delegation from the private sector and the Board of Investment.

Today, she called on the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Mr Mamnoon Hussain, at the State House, Islamabad. Dr. Gurib-Fakim, will during the visit, have bilateral working sessions with the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Trade Development Authority as well as leading Industrialists and SMEs and representatives from the textiles sector.

On 19 April 2016, the Mauritian President will meet with the academicians of Greenwich University as well as with representatives of the pharmaceutical, health and agriculture sectors in view of promoting investment opportunities in Mauritius. She will also visit the HEJ International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences. It is recalled that HEJ, Greenwich University and Quantilab in Mauritius will be signing an agreement in capacity building and training for scientists in the field of natural product chemistry.

After her official visit to Pakistan, the President of the Republic, Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, will, in her capacity as Co-Chair of the High Level Panel on Water proceed to New York for a meeting of the Panel on 21 April 2016 in the presence of the UN Secretary-General and the President of the World Bank Group. She will also participate in the signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change on 22 April 2016.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan left for Nagorno Karabakh Republic on a working visit on April 18.

As Armenpress was informed from the Department of Public Relations and Mass Media of Republic of Armenia Presidents Office, the Armenian President was met at Stepanakert Airport by NKR President Bako Sahakyan, Defense Ministers of the two Armenian Republics, as well as other officials.
Require annual lead and copper testing for all schools, day cares, adult foster care facilities, substance abuse clinics and public hearing facilities, as well as initial testing at license grant or opening.

Require continuous assessing and making recommendations regarding science, testing, monitoring protocols, water treatments and corrosion control through a new Advisory Commission on Drinking Water Quality.

Require each public water system serving more than 500 customers to create a Water System Advisory Council responsible for local oversight and input.

Protect homebuyers and renters by requiring disclosure of lead service line status in all home sales and rental contracts.

Alert the public better by requiring notices to all customers as well as public notices to all schools, community centers and child care centers when a public water system exceeds the lead action level.

Protect water systems better by requiring public water systems to follow defined corrosion control treatment standards. Also define proper testing protocols to follow regarding the frequency, size, site selection and draw of water samples.

Require strict notifications and access to blood testing for households that test over 40 parts per billion for lead.

Require public water systems to conduct a complete inventory of all service line materials up to the interior meters.

Require every public water system to adopt a full lead service line replacement program within 10 years. Also prohibit partial lead service line replacements.

Establish state fines for violations of state rules to assure accountability and transparency.

(TNS) -- Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder on Friday endorsed a committee plan to introduce stricter statewide guidelines for lead levels in Michigan drinking water, in response to the Flint drinking water crisis.But there were immediate concerns raised that the proposal  which among other changes would lower the limit for lead in drinking water to 10 parts per billion from the current federal standard of 15 parts per billion  does not go far enough.There were also no cost estimates for implementing the changes, which would require approval of the Michigan Legislature. Proposals include annual testing for lead at schools and day cares and requiring local governments to create inventories of lead service lines and to develop plans to replace them.Snyder said in opening the meeting of the Flint Interagency Coordinating Committee, held at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan, that he hopes that under the proposal Michigan will lead the rest of the country in terms of addressing lead as a problem. The plan was presented to the full coordinating committee by a subcommittee.Included in a 75-point plan Snyder released in March in connection with the Flint crisis was a proposal for Michigan to move to a more stringent standard for lead levels in drinking water that triggers a response by regulators sooner than what is currently set under federal rules. On Thursday, officials set out proposed details of such a stricter standard for the first time.Currently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers a drinking water system safe with respect to lead if 90 percent of tap samples taken at high-risk sites are within the federal action level of 15 parts per billion on lead.Michigan would move to a limit of 10 parts per billion by 2020.The federal Lead and Copper Rule needs to be improved immediately, Snyder said in a news release.Its dumb and dangerous and in Michigan we arent going to wait for the federal government to fix it anymore, Snyder said. We need to move forward with these reforms so we can better protect the health and safety of all Michiganders. These new standards could be used as a model for other states to follow and to prevent additional water crises.Many critics say the current federal standard, known as the Lead and Copper rule, is a poor one because lead at levels above 5 parts per billion are potentially dangerous  especially for young children  and it still allows 10 percent of samples in a system to exceed 15 parts per billion.That could be a very large population exposed to lead risks, Snyder spokesman Ari Adler said in March. The governor believes the standard needs to be improved at the federal level. But even if its not, Michigan could be a model state for a more appropriate standard. What that looks like specifically has yet to be determined.Snyder said work at the federal level on changing the rule is proceeding too slowly and could take years. How much harm will happen in that time frame? he asked. Thats unacceptable.But the 10 parts per billion proposal from a subcommittee, which is in line with World Health Organization requirements, may not go far enough to satisfy Michigan residents, particularly those in Flint.Retired Brigadier Gen. Michael McDaniel said pure Michigan should do better than a standard that applies to many Third World countries. He proposed a standard of five parts per billion at Fridays meeting.Flint Mayor Karen Weaver told reporters after the meeting that she agrees with McDaniel.All I could think was if these things had been in place we wouldnt be in this situation, Weaver said. And if Michigan is now leading the rest of the country in proposing new standards as a result of what happened in Flint, how is this not a disaster? she asked, referring to federal refusal to declare a federal disaster in Flint because the catastrophe was man-made.Others raised ongoing concerns about funding Flints recovery in the Michigan Legislature as well as the U.S. Congress.These reforms are important, but I had hoped the governor would announce this morning that he has convinced lawmakers like Speaker Cotter and Senator Lee to approve the emergency resources to replace pipes now and expand health and education services, Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, said Friday of the state House leader and U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who has blocked Flint funding in the Senate. We are still in the middle of this crisis and without additional support from Lansing or Washington, people are suffering every day.Flints drinking water became contaminated with lead while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. And some inside the federal government insist even an outdated Lead and Copper Rule did not trigger the crisis in Flint.The city moved from treated water drawn from Detroits water to untreated water from the Flint River. The State Department of Environmental Protection then failed to require the addition of needed corrosion-control chemicals as part of the treatment process, and the corrosive Flint River water ate into pipes, joints and fixtures, sending unsafe levels of lead into Flint homes and businesses.The DEQ has acknowledged its staffers working with Flint misread the current federal Lead and Copper Rule. The city returned to the Detroit water system in October, but a potential hazard remains because of damage done to the water distribution system.Starting this year, Flint has already started to replace its lead service lines. Weaver has said more than 30 service lines made of lead and galvanized steel have been switched out so far. Both types appear to be contributing to the lead contamination in Flints water supply.For now, Weavers Fast Start plan will continue using the $2-million reimbursement from the state for money the city spent to switch back to the Detroit water system late last year. Weaver said she hopes the state and federal government will provide the additional funds needed to complete the project, which is necessary to restore residents trust.Another option, she said, could be a $25 million loan from a union-owned asset manager to serve as bridge capital until state and federal funding comes through.The federal Environmental Protection Agency, which some blame for failing to act more quickly in Flint, said the citys crisis can now be an opportunity for broader reform.The drinking water crisis in Flint should not have happened, but while the spotlight is still on the issue of lead in drinking water, we have an opportunity to harness the resources and attention to make needed changes, the EPA said in a statement Friday. EPA recognizes the need to strengthen the rule, and were working to improve its public health protections. We are considering recommendations from a diverse group of external advisers and stakeholders.A senior drinking water official with the EPA told a congressional committee earlier this week that recommendations to change the Lead and Copper Rule are not expected until next year.We are also working to identify the best scientific approach to determine a level of lead in drinking water that public health officials could use to intervene to make sure that residents who could be at risk are made aware as soon as possible, the agency said Friday.The EPA continued that Its important to recognize that lead gets into water not only through lead service lines, but also through fixtures of peoples homes, and most commonly through paint and soil. Lower-income communities often have the least amount of resources, making them the most vulnerable to these issues.EPA recently sent letters to every governor and state environmental and health commissioner primarily responsible for enforcing drinking water rules, urging them to work with the federal agency on infrastructure investments, technology, oversight and risk assessment, public engagement and education to keep drinking water safe. The federal agency also initiated a nationwide reassessment of state drinking water programs.Improvements to the nations water systems are expected to be a pricey endeavor. A recent EPA survey found $384 billion in improvements are needed for the nations drinking water infrastructure through 2030 to provide safe drinking water.Virginia Tech water resources engineering professor Marc Edwards, a recognized expert on lead who was among the first call national attention to Flints contamination, worked on the states plan as part of a governor-appointed coordinating committee.For more than a decade, the existing EPA lead and copper rule has enabled criminal behavior by our environmental cops, supporting false claims of water safety even as thousands of children were being lead poisoned, Edwards said in an email after Fridays meeting. This proposal changes dumb and dangerous into smart and protective.He praised the state for acting decisively to protect Michigans children, because it is clear that EPA will not do so.Edwards criticized the nations federal environmental watchdog agency as too busy defending illegal water sampling by utilities and evading responsibility for creating the Flint Water Crisis.Other proposals outlined Friday would:
(TNS) -- Widespread use of smartphones has made it easier for Chicagoans to hop onto the Internet, but research shows there still exists a sizable gap in the number of people with access to broadband at home  particularly on the South and West sides.In 2013, broadband adoption on home computers and devices was lowest in neighborhoods such as West Garfield Park, Burnside and Brighton Park, as well as other African-American and Latino neighborhoods where poverty rates are high, according to a study released Friday by the MacArthur Foundation and Partnership for a Connected Illinois.While the majority of people without broadband home access still connect to the Internet with their smartphones or public computers, research shows they're limited in their Internet use and are far less likely to use online courses, visit government websites, look up political information or access online job applications."People who hadn't been online before are now exploring the Internet on their phones, and that's exciting. But there are limits," said Karen Mossberger, an Arizona State University professor and lead researcher on the study. "Reading intensive things, filling out forms  even today with the development of mobile, it's difficult to do those types of things on your phone."Parents who need to help their children with homework and lack broadband, for example, are limited to their public library's hours and the basic Internet searches they're able to perform on their phones, said Mossberger, who formerly headed the Department of Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago.The study is based on English and Spanish telephone surveys conducted between 2008 and 2013 of about 8,400 Chicago residents from 77 community areas.Chicago is the only major city to have Internet usage data available on a neighborhood level, Mossberger said. The specified data could help city leaders and community groups make more informed policy decisions on how to increase broadband access."In a diverse city like Chicago, just saying what the Internet access is on a city level really masks the differences between neighborhoods and demographics," Mossberger said.Between 2008 and 2013, several neighborhoods on the South and West sides have made strides in bridging the "digital divide," as those areas experienced higher rates of growth in home broadband and Internet usage away from home, such as at libraries or community centers.In 2013, however, disadvantaged neighborhoods were still far behind the rest of the city in regard to home broadband access. In West Garfield Park, Burnside and Brighton Park, for instance, fewer than 45 percent of homes had broadband access, compared with the city's average of 70 percent, according to the study.The reason for the continued divide could be affordability, Mossberger said. Those primarily accessing the Internet through their phones don't have to buy a separate device, such as a laptop, or worry about paying an additional bill for broadband Internet. But mobile Internet usage may be subject to a data cap, particularly with cheaper plans, further limiting people's usage.The greatest users of library computers also tend to be low-income African-Americans and Latinos, further suggesting affordability is a barrier to home broadband access, Mossberger said. In 2013, Latinos were the least likely demographic group to go online via broadband at home or public computers, according to the study. Just 55 percent of Latinos adopted broadband compared with 66 percent of blacks, 81 percent of whites and 87 percent of Asians.
(TNS) -- Los Angeles' much-touted plan to equip thousands of police officers with body cameras has stalled amid controversy at City Hall over the program's price tag and whether the Police Department got the best deal possible.Delays have derailed Mayor Eric Garcetti's pledge to provide nearly every officer with a camera by the end of this year, an ambitious proposal that garnered national attention and would make the LAPD the largest law enforcement agency in the country to use the devices on a widespread scale.LAPD officials do not expect to finish outfitting 7,000 officers until the fall of 2017 at the earliest. And a new proposal, they say, could push the completion date back another year.The head of the council's public safety committee now wants the LAPD to start over and accept new bids from camera manufacturers."This is too big to get wrong," said Councilman Mitch Englander, who told The Times he plans to introduce a formal proposal next week. "It's more important that we get it right and not just do it quickly."Despite the initial fanfare, the camera plan came under scrutiny at City Hall over its costs  $57.6 million over five years  with one council member saying he was experiencing "sticker shock." In addition, competing technology companies complained they were unfairly left out of the LAPD's selection process, which relied in part on a separate search for body cameras for the much smaller Kern County Sheriff's Department.Body cameras have been hailed as a key tool for improving oversight of officers and building community trust in police. Garcetti unveiled his initiative in late 2014 following nationwide protests over the way police officers use force, particularly against African Americans.Three of Garcetti's appointees on the Board of Police Commissioners voiced alarm about Englander's proposal, saying the LAPD had already followed proper contracting procedures and found the best product at a good price."This is not good for police transparency, accountability or keeping a commitment to our police officers and community members," commission President Matt Johnson said.Commissioner Steve Soboroff, a longtime advocate for the camera technology, said city lawmakers are "horribly underestimating the ramifications" of delaying the body camera initiative. Having the LAPD ask camera companies to send in new proposals could drag out the process further, resulting in years of additional challenges and procedural delays by competing firms, he said."This is an unequivocal disaster for public safety in Los Angeles," Soboroff said.Garcetti struck a more diplomatic tone, saying through a spokesman that he hoped the council would act "as quickly as possible."The LAPD already has about 860 cameras, purchased through private donations. Last year, the LAPD negotiated a contract with Taser International to provide thousands more as well as replacement equipment, digital storage of the recordings and thousands of Tasers.Weeks later, the council balked at approving the $31.2-million contract with the Scottsdale firm, sending the proposal back for more deliberations amid concerns over the initiative's overall cost. Council members voiced dismay that the initiative would require scores of LAPD officers to review camera footage, ensure officers were using the devices properly and other tasks. (The LAPD later revised its plan to include more civilian staffers.)A new vote was never scheduled, and on Friday, council members voted to temporarily use some of the city's camera funds for housing programs.Englander, perhaps the biggest champion of the body camera program on the council, repeatedly argued last year that the council should push ahead with the Taser contract. But he came under fire from critics who said he should not have accepted $8,400 in campaign contributions from a dozen donors affiliated with the company.On Friday, Englander said his decision to change course had "absolutely nothing to do" with those donations. Starting a new competitive process, he said, would allow the city to answer the complaints of rival companies who say they were excluded from the LAPD's search.The market, he said, has "changed dramatically" in recent years. He said he also wanted the city to analyze the effect body cameras could have on costly police-related litigation."We will be the biggest department in the country to deploy them, and making sure and ensuring we do that openly, transparently and correctly is important," he said.Council President Herb Wesson  who sets the agenda for when and how major issues are decided  said he was comfortable with Englander's approach."This allows us to start anew, or fresh, if you will," he said. "The only thing I would insist is that we try to fast-track this. Because the commitment is there to make sure we have body cameras in place."Wesson said through a spokeswoman that he hoped a search for a camera vendor would last three to six months. But an LAPD official said it would probably take longer, even if the effort was accelerated.Maggie Goodrich, the LAPD's chief information officer, said the process of seeking bids, negotiating a deal and finalizing a contract typically takes a year. The department might be able to shave one to three months off because officials already know what they're looking for in a body camera, she said.If the council requires new bids, Goodrich said, the complete rollout of the cameras could be delayed until the end of 2018.LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said he expected officers to eventually get the body cameras. But starting the contract process over, he said, was "not ideal""If that's what we need to do to get this through, then that's what we'll do," he said.The delays are reminiscent of the problems the LAPD has faced when putting cameras in the department's patrol cars, a decades-long effort hampered in part by a lack of funding. The LAPD launched its most recent attempt to install those cameras in 2008, but is still working to complete the citywide installation.Police Commissioner Robert Saltzman said he worries the same could happen to the body camera program if the contracting process was restarted."I fear a delay in implementation of the on-body cameras now will begin another troubling and unnecessary multi-year process that will be similarly embarrassing for the city," he said. "Delaying it now will undermine its likelihood of success and would be regrettable."
(TNS) -- Congressman Darin LaHood is questioning IRS Commissioner John Koskinen about what is being done to protect the sensitive information of American taxpayers from mounting cybersecurity threats.During a Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing Thursday, LaHood said that from 2014 to 2015 alone, more than 700,000 taxpayers personal information was compromised because of criminal cybersecurity breaches.The Government Accountability Office released a report in March providing 43 recommendations for the IRS to increase security. The IRS responded that it would consider the recommendations over a 60-day period.If the federal government requires Americans to provide sensitive and personal information, its agencies must be able to protect that data from cyber criminals, LaHood said. The IRS remains highly vulnerable to hackers and cyberattacks and yet the commissioner failed to sufficiently answer our committees questions on why the GAOs recommendations have not been implemented.During the hearing, the commissioner cited a high rate of prevented breaches last year.We arent talking about a grade on a test, where a certain percentage merits a passing score, we are talking about the lives of hard-working Americans, LaHood said. Until each taxpayers information is 100 percent secure, the IRS has no reason to be so confident. Americans need a better reason to feel confident in the IRS and they still dont have one.IRS officials have said the agency does not have enough resources to implement cybersecurity measures. LaHood said that from 2011 to 2014, Congress increased the budget of the IRS by 9 percent to combat these attacks but the IRS cut its cybersecurity staff 11 percent during those four years.
(TNS) -- Baltimore officials have not learned how fraudsters obtained enough information on dozens of city employees to file fake tax returns in their names, and were working with federal and state authorities Friday to investigate any link between the victims.But even in an age in which massive data breaches have become commonplace, cybersecurity experts said the blame might not rest on how well the city protects sensitive data. Given that it takes little more to file a tax return than a Social Security number and income information, thieves are increasingly assuming victims' identities to steal their tax returns.The IRS caught 1.4 million cases of identity theft last year in returns seeking $8.7 billion. Officials said they didn't have precise figures on how often it occurs in Maryland, but nearly 600 people called the state attorney general's office to report such crimes in the past year, a spokeswoman said."It's on the rise and it's hugely pervasive, not only here in Maryland but across the country," said Alan Brody, a spokesman for Comptroller Peter Franchot.Officials notified all city employees Thursday night that they were at risk of fraud after "a few dozen" of their colleagues reported that when they attempted to file their taxes, the IRS rejected the returns. The affected employees work for various city agencies, so no immediate connection was apparent that would explain how the fraud occurred.The pool of affected employees could be larger than officials know, city spokesman Howard Libit said. It's possible some whose information was stolen filed their taxes before fraudsters tried to, he said. The city is offering credit monitoring services to all current and recently departed employees, as well as retirees.The FBI, Secret Service, IRS, state attorney general's and comptroller's offices, and city police are involved in the investigation, Libit said.Cybersecurity experts said there could be a number of explanations for the fraud. Hackers could have broken into city databases using what is known as "spear phishing," when an email appears to be from someone the recipient knows. Or the city might not have been the source of the information at all  the victims could share a common health insurer or may be customers of the same retailer that was targeted."They're related, as far as we know, only by the fact that they're city employees," said Richard Forno, assistant director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's Center for Cybersecurity. "There's still not enough to go on to say the city is to blame here."If city systems were breached, experts said, it was not surprising that the source of the data used in the fraud has not been discovered, given the size and complexity of city government. Such a breach would not have been easy to prevent, they added. Four employees in the Mayor's Office of Information Technology are dedicated to cybersecurity, Libit said."Most organizations, but particularly local governments, that face serious financial constraints can't keep up with the technology even though they do the best they can, because the modes of attack keep changing," said Donald F. Norris, director of the School of Public Policy at UMBC.Social Security numbers are shared so frequently, it's becoming less reasonable to assume they can be protected, said Jonathan Katz, director of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. Katz said his Social Security number was exposed in a recent breach, so he applied to the IRS for a personal identification number for added security. He was surprised by how difficult it was to obtain something that he suggested everyone should have."It's unsustainable, this model of relying on Social Security numbers alone to verify somebody's identity," Katz said. "The assumption that it could possibly be kept secret is just not a realistic one."On top of that, city employees' salaries are public, making them easier targets for tax return identity theft.A bill that was Franchot's top legislative priority in this year's General Assembly session would have made government salaries available to the public only in $5,000 increments. It also would have given the comptroller's office the power to arrest those suspected of tax fraud.Both chambers of the General Assembly approved the bill, but it died because lawmakers did not meet to iron out differences in versions passed in the House and Senate."That clearly is something we should deal with," Sen. Bobby Zirkin said.The Baltimore County Democrat said he has received notifications from the IRS each of the past two years that someone attempted to file a tax return under his name.
(TNS) -- Rapides Parish teacher Deborah Vailes was called into the office and reprimanded by the principal on the day she posted sharply critical remarks on her personal Facebook page about Louisianas Common Core curriculum.Vailes didnt mince words. Under a photo that had been floating around the Internet of a visibly upset little girl struggling with the curriculum, she wrote a caption that urged parents to take their children out of public school and either home-school them or put them in a private school until we get rid of this.Her principal ordered her to remove what she had posted from her home computer early that morning in September 2014, according to a lawsuit Vailes filed in federal court the following February. And, Vailes said, she was instructed to no longer express her personal opinions regarding public education on social media. The school system disputes her claims.More than a year later, the suit is still working its way through the courts. But the issues it raises over how far governmental bodies can go in restricting the free speech rights of public employees are playing out elsewhere across Louisiana.Abbeville disciplined one of its officers for speaking out on his personal Facebook page about working conditions at the citys Police Department. It ended up costing Abbevilles taxpayers $32,900 to settle the case, and the city was forced to revise its policies governing the use of social media by employees.An East Baton Rouge Parish sheriffs deputy, who included an image of his badge on his Facebook page, was fired after posting comments that disparaged a McDonalds in Central. The comments, which generated public controversy, related to how the deputy said he was treated by an employee of the fast-food restaurant. A spokeswoman for the Sheriffs Office said the Facebook post was only one of several factors that went into the decision to terminate the officers employment.In Lafayette, First Amendment protections became an issue when a U.S. magistrate judge ordered a group of city police officers to take down a website they had been using to air clandestine recordings of on-duty officers. The recordings, they believed, backed up accusations they were making in a lawsuit accusing the Police Department and city officials of corruption and racism.The growing popularity of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter has led to more and more image-conscious companies and governmental agencies adding policies in their employee manuals prohibiting certain online behavior and to a growing number of conflicts.In almost any sector you can think of  government agency, private businesses, nonprofits  those in leadership are always concerned about what individuals who work for the entity are saying online, said Victor Canada, owner of business consulting firm NXT Media.Canada, who also developed the Social Media Certificate Program at LSU, has conducted social media workshops for businesses and government agencies across the nation, including the Louisiana Municipal Association.You have individuals who, when they go online, they have a feeling like this is personal to them. Its no one elses business what Im saying, Canada said. The challenge lies in personal profiles where you associate yourself with your employers. Your audience, people who are connected to you, can see who you work for. If you get online talking about your horrible day at work, obviously your employer is going to be embarrassed.Employment lawyers and civil liberties experts generally agree that private companies have more leeway in putting restrictions on the social media posts of at-will employees.What intrigues me most is how the limitations on public employees rights is going to play out in Louisiana and elsewhere, said Baton Rouge attorney J. Arthur Smith.Smith, who has been practicing law in the state for more than 40 years and specializes in labor and employment law, said public employees have plenty of resources, including our pretty good state constitution to protect their free speech rights.Smith and Marjorie Esman, executive director of Louisianas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union , pointed out what they saw as serious flaws in the written social media policies of several public agencies they reviewed at The Advocates request.Theres a lot of vagueness and overbreadth, Esman said. If you take them on their face value, they prohibit things people absolutely have the right to do.Both said the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Office guidelines are ambiguous and appear to encroach on the free speech rights of employees. They pointed to language in the policy that prohibits speech containing obscene or sexually explicit language, images, or acts and statements or other forms of speech that ridicule, malign, disparage, or otherwise express bias against any race, and religion, any sexual orientation or any protected class of individuals in the personal use of social media.Thats overly broad, Smith said. A lot of things can be characterized as sexually explicit language. This really doesnt take adequate account that there will be comments that could be made that are protected under the states constitution.Another section of the Sheriffs Office policy says employees are free to express themselves as private citizens on social media as long as what they say and post doesnt damage their working relationships, disrupt the offices operations or discredit the Sheriffs Office or an individual employee.Not all opinions are protected speech, the policy reads.To that, Esman responded, Well, what are?The policy doesnt say.Casey Rayborn Hicks, spokeswoman for the Sheriffs Office, says her office stands by its policy, on which it consulted with a legal expert before adopting.This policy pertains to when a deputy is representing the agency by using our badge, emblem or department name on their profile, she responded in an email. Not when they are commenting on a personal basis and not claiming affiliation to or representing the department.Social media polices for school districts in Iberville Parish and Zachary are written mostly to discourage personal online interactions between teacher and students.Last year, the Iberville Parish school district fired a teacher who carried on sexual affairs with several of his students, resulting in a child with one of them. The investigation into the incident revealed the man sometimes used Facebook to interact with the girls.Restricting employees online behavior on electronic devices issued by public agencies  like Iberville does  doesnt raise any red flags. But Esman said a section of the policy that prohibits employees from accepting friend requests from students or posting any photos of students on their personal Facebook pages isnt specific enough.What if its a relative? she asked.Ibervilles human resources and policy supervisor Brandie Blanchard said no one has been fired for social media posts, but some have been disciplined and asked to remove posts deemed unprofessional.Zachary school systems policy includes language similar to that used by Iberville but excludes students who are immediate family members of their employees.However, Zacharys policy also includes a broad prohibition against employees making any statements on social media that would violate any of the schools policies, and it prohibits employees from posting any photographs deemed inappropriate, like ones related to alcohol or tobacco use.The employee must uphold the districts value of respect ... and avoid making defamatory statements about the school district or any member of the school community, the policy reads.Smith believes it probably will take the right legal cases presenting strong arguments challenging social media policies to clear up the murky waters flooding the employment sector as social medias popularity grows.And he thinks many of the courts decisions in these types of cases will hinge upon how much of a reach a persons voice has on sites like Facebook and Twitter.If a person only has stuff thats seen mostly by close friends and family, he or she has a certain expectation of privacy, Smith said. But if a person has thousands of friends online, I would bet the courts would see that a little differently when it comes to private versus public speech.Officials with the Louisiana Municipal Association and the Louisiana School Boards Association say they encourage governmental bodies within their networks to consult with their attorneys when trying to craft any kind of policy.We cant give them legal advice. It would be up to each mayor or parish president to determine how they want to address the issue, said John Gallagher, director of governmental affairs for the Louisiana Municipal Association. Each administration has their own ideas how they want their employees to be good ambassadors (for their agencies).As for whether the policies are too strict or over-reaching, Gallagher said, I dont know. Thats for the courts to determine.Canada said he advises municipalities and government agencies to take a more proactive approach to social media when the topic comes up in his workshops.I tell them to focus more on what they want their employees to do instead of trying to control what they dont want them to do, he said. Its much harder and dangerous for them to try and pigeonhole their employees.In the meantime, incidents like that involving Vailes, the Rapides Parish teacher who says she was ordered to take down her Facebook post criticizing Common Core, continue to arise to test the limits on social media use.Vailes says having to remove her post enraged her.I felt so violated, she said.The Rapides Parish school district denied the allegations that it was trying to suppress Vailes free speech rights and said the problem was with other material posted on her Facebook, not the Common Core material.In its response, the district said Vailes was asked to remove from her Facebook page a post that implied that the Rapides Parish School Board was teaching children the use of sexual aids and informing them of sexual positions.The district also denied her claim that she and other teachers at Pineville Junior High School were barred from publicly voicing their opinions about public education following the controversial post.Neal Johnson, the attorney for the school district, said Vailes hasnt been terminated despite claims in her lawsuit the district is trying to push her out. It would be inappropriate for me to comment further on litigation that is still ongoing, Johnson said when asked additional questions about the school districts defense.Vailes called the school districts allegation a blatant lie.It was a school nurse that had shared the picture theyre talking about, and I had commented beneath it and said it was disgusting, Vailes said. I did not share it. But supposedly, they said it popped up in my (Facebook) news feed.Vailes case was taken up by the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center , a nonprofit organization that provides free legal counsel for cases seen to have broader significance. According to its website, the center defends and promotes Americas Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values and the sanctity of human life.The ACLU, meanwhile, argued on behalf of the Abbeville police officer who was disciplined for posting on his personal Facebook about working conditions in the citys Police Department.To settle the suit, Abbeville had to pay the officer $32,900 and also revise its social media policy, which now assures its employees that social media activity and speech as citizens relating to matters of a public concern are First Amendment protected forms of speech.
In a new series,is looking for insights from IT decision-makers on the opportunities and issues facing their respective jurisdictions. Each week, our staff aims to catch up with a state or local government CIO to discuss trending topics, particular pain points and initiatives geared to improve public-sector IT.This week, we talked with Montanas State Information Technology Service Division (SITSD) CIO Ron Baldwin, who was appointed by Gov. Steve Bullock in January 2013. Since taking the top technology spot, Baldwin has been focused on connecting agencies to enterprise resources and bridging the gaps between state silos.Essentially, what we are trying to do is build enterprise information technology to support the state of Montana delivering enterprise-level services to the citizens that cross boundaries, break through siloes, and are delivered irrespective of an agency or its programs or systems. It would be an enterprise technology that is used to share information and platforms and systems that actually work together to deliver critical or otherwise helpful information to Montana citizens.An example is something Gov. Steve Bullock is actually taking around the state right now: The Montana Navigator allows businesses to look up what the permits and regulations are for their type of business to do business in the state of Montana. Whether you want to open up a mining operation, a restaurant or convenience store, there is a variety of permits and regulations. This business navigator actually helps a new business. This is part of the governors Main Street Initiative to build a healthy business climate here in Montana. [Business owners] will be able to figure out what is needed to comply with laws, regulation and permitting for different businesses, as opposed to having to pick up the phone, figure this out, hire a lawyer, call a dozen different agencies; they can go to this business navigator and get a checklist of those things they need to actually do.Were looking at things through the lens of the enterprise: What should we be doing to help citizens where there is a lot of information that needs to be made available across these governmental boundaries? Were entering an era where we are using technology and a heightened level of collaboration to bring data, information and services more comprehensively and more quickly to citizens.Thats a great question, and actually its pretty easy to answer. The way its being addressed in Montana is by the governor. It starts at the top, at the cabinet level, where we are talking not about our individual departments, programs and issues when we gather together to update the governor. Were really talking about initiatives that are cross-cutting. One of the governors key initiatives is effective government, and one of the ways you make government effective is to try to break these barriers down. The governor made that very clear right out of the gate.I think its very much a hybrid. I describe the era that we are in as, or my role, as not just about information technology anymore; it really transcends that. Its about how we are going to do government, if you will, in the digital age. How are we going to adapt and even leverage the digital age, where things are changing at an exponential pace? We have a large majority of citizens carrying around smartphones with data plans. We think about delivering not just public-facing aspects of our systems and websites, but also about deploying mobile apps and responsive Web design.What Im pushing right now is how to address the cost of information technology. There is a need, and actually now a dependency, on information technology. Information technology costs a lot of money, so how do we keep innovating and providing all of the things I discussed while containing the costs? That involves collaboration. It involves creating shared enterprise platforms, whether you are the Department of Agriculture or Livestock or the great big Department of Public Health and Human Services. Everybody gets to enjoy the same level of innovation and the same level of protections that we need.The governor and I are taking significant actions when it comes to cybersecurity and we are making sure that our environment here in the state of Montana is as resilient as possible. To do that we have to collaborate, so we are doing that at a governance level and were doing it at a technology level. At the governance level, it is being done with a new council that the governor formed last year called the MISAC, which is the Montana Information Security Council, a multijurisdictional council composed of state and local government agencies, private company interests and also legislators.
Home  Motorcycles & Bikes  Top 10 Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers Of 2022 Reviews & Buying Guide Motorcycles & Bikes Top 10 Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers Of 2022 Reviews & Buying Guide

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Motorcycles are excellent vehicles for travel and adventure both on and off-road. It is an investment you need to keep safe from those who would love to take that treasure off your hands. Wheel-locking systems may not be enough for those with enough mechanical ability to hot-wire it, and in some cases, one or two people could simply load it onto a truck without unlocking anything.

You dont want to wait months for the police to try to get it back. You want to know where it is right now.

A GPS tracking system is the perfect security investment for your motorcycle, and we have reviews of the best motorcycle GPS trackers here for you.

Top 10 Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers You Should Buy Of 2022 Reviews

1 AMERICALOC GL300W Mini Portable Real-Time GPS Tracker. XW Series

Leta start with this Americaloc mini portable GPS tracker. This is a mid-range GPS tracker both regarding cost and ability. It comes in about the size of a heavy keychain, so if you are looking for something tiny, this is not it. It is detectable by someone who knew what they were looking for but depending on where you attached it to your motorcycle, it may take them a bit of time to identify it.

There are diverse opinions in the reviews about its battery life. It appears that it will last at least 3-4 days, but there are sometimes problems when recharging it. Make sure to follow the instruction guide that comes with this tracker.

You also need to recognize that this service is run by a tech that is not as widespread as most cellphone GPS trackers. While is advertises real-time the reality is that it updates once per minute, thirty, or ten seconds  depending on your setting. This setting will affect battery life, and depending on where it is, the updates may not be entirely accurate. It is not a bad tracker, but you need to have realistic expectations for it.

Pros GPS Tracker for vehicles, people, assets

GPS Tracker for vehicles, people, assets This GPS tracker has the longest battery life version with extended multicarrier coverage. Battery life is measured in weeks.

This GPS tracker has the longest battery life version with extended multicarrier coverage. Battery life is measured in weeks. Alerts: movement, parked, speeding, device on/off, low battery, entering or leaving zones

Alerts: movement, parked, speeding, device on/off, low battery, entering or leaving zones Real-Time Tracking and 1 year of tracking history. Track from any computer, tablet or phone or just download our Android and iPhone APP.

Real-Time Tracking and 1 year of tracking history. Track from any computer, tablet or phone or just download our Android and iPhone APP. Works in the US, Canada, Europe and in almost every country in the world

Works in the US, Canada, Europe and in almost every country in the world 1-minute location updates while moving. Can be configured for location updates every 60, 30 or 10 seconds with no additional cost. Cons Slightly bigger than something described as mini.

Slightly bigger than something described as mini. Sometimes faces battery charging issues

Sometimes faces battery charging issues Behind cellphone GPS technology and occasionally is off a block or so in tracking

Behind cellphone GPS technology and occasionally is off a block or so in tracking No mobile app and website can be buggy

2 Spy Tec STI GL300 Mini Portable Real-Time Personal and Vehicle GPS Tracker

Spy Tecs GL300 GPS is about the same size as the Americaloc, but about half the price. As with most GPS devices, there is a monthly subscription fee that can quickly add up over time. In practice, this GPS seems to function a little more smoothly than others, with many short-term satisfied customers.

For this GPS to work well for you, you need three things. First, you need to be using it in an area covered by T-mobile, or else you may have accuracy problems. Second, you need to be able to recharge it every few days. Finally, this is a short-term solution. The charging cable seems to break down over months, not years, and the customer and tech service can be a pain to deal with. If you are looking for a long-term GPS, you may want to take a pass on Spy Tec.

Pros Perfect for tracking vehicles, people, or assets

Perfect for tracking vehicles, people, or assets Compact size can go anywhere

Compact size can go anywhere Tracks with Google Maps in real-time over the Internet

Tracks with Google Maps in real-time over the Internet Get text or email when a person leaves an area (geo-fencing) Cons Inconsistent customer service

Inconsistent customer service Works primarily in T-mobile coverage areas

Works primarily in T-mobile coverage areas Problems with charging cable

Problems with charging cable Short life span

3 Amcrest AM-GL300 V3 Portable Mini Real-Time GPS Tracker for Vehicles

Here is another low-end GPS tracker for your motorcycle. What makes this one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers is that it works with mobile apps from Google and Apple, so you can track your motorcycle from your phone and not just your computer or a webpage.

It comes with lots of tracking options as well. You can create zones and be alerted if your motorcycle moves outside of it. You can set speed alerts or other proximity alerts, which will be pushed to your phone via text and email. The Amcrest is a solid package for taking care of your needs, and there is no contract required to use it.

How you use it will determine the battery strength, and, like other devices in this low-cost range, the batteries are a weak point, particularly if not re-charged correctly. Also, it relies on 2G coverage and does not connect with all carriers. To get your moneys worth out of this motorcycle GPS tracker, make sure to inquire about coverage in your area and this tracker, and be sure to read the instructions about recharging your GPS.

Pros Works with apps from Google and Apple store

Works with apps from Google and Apple store This GPS device allows you to create zones that you specifically want to monitor, such as your home to you know when your loved one leaves or returns. Set maximum speed alerts and proximity alerts for your vehicles to suit your needs.

This GPS device allows you to create zones that you specifically want to monitor, such as your home to you know when your loved one leaves or returns. Set maximum speed alerts and proximity alerts for your vehicles to suit your needs. Receive text, push and email notifications straight to your personal device.

Receive text, push and email notifications straight to your personal device. Long-lasting  Stay connected with a longer battery life of 10-14 days on a full charge.

Long-lasting  Stay connected with a longer battery life of 10-14 days on a full charge. Access the reports from your GPS device from your PC, Mac or smartphone.

Access the reports from your GPS device from your PC, Mac or smartphone. No contract required Cons GPS Tracker is limited to 2G and will only work in areas where there is 2G coverage.

GPS Tracker is limited to 2G and will only work in areas where there is 2G coverage. Batteries can be faulty leading to short lifespan of the device

4 GPS Tracker  Optimus 2.0

This low-end tracker has a better performance record than some of the others, making it one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers on the market. This GPS has a monthly subscription fee but no contract required and it comes with apps you can use to track your motorcycle from your phone. There is no limit to how much data you can save on the secure databases, and so will update you every 30 seconds while your motorcycle is moving, or you can upgrade it to update you every 10 seconds.

Fortunately, there are only two reported issues from the reviews of this GPS tracker. It is slightly larger than some of the other models, making it a bit more challenging to hide securely. It also sends out false reports occasionally if the cell service is interrupted.

Pros No Contract

No Contract Adjustable position report frequency from 30 Seconds while moving.

Adjustable position report frequency from 30 Seconds while moving. iPhone and Android App

iPhone and Android App Email and Text Message notifications for Movement, Speeding, Leaving or Entering Areas, etc.

Email and Text Message notifications for Movement, Speeding, Leaving or Entering Areas, etc. Unlimited Tracking Data Saved During Service

Unlimited Tracking Data Saved During Service SIM Card and Data Plan all Included

SIM Card and Data Plan all Included Easy to install and use Cons Will occasionally send out false reports if it loses cell service

Will occasionally send out false reports if it loses cell service Slightly larger than other models

Which of the best motorcycle GPS trackers have the best batteries?

5 Trackmate Mini 3G H GPS Tracker for Vehicles

Unlike the previous models of the best motorcycle GPS trackers, the Trackmate does not rely on a rechargeable lithium battery. Instead, it is hardwired directly into the motorcycle battery itself. This has the benefit of preventing the GPS from turning off when the battery dies at inopportune times.

The downside of this setup is that installation is more difficult, and while the device is easily concealable, it also has wires running between it and the battery. This connection can cause your motorcycle battery to run down if you do not monitor it closely, causing both the device and motorcycle to fail to operate.

This is a 3G tracker and has better accuracy than the previous 2G GPS trackers, making this one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers on the market.

Pros On/Off Detection, Speed Indicator, and Live Map Tracking.

On/Off Detection, Speed Indicator, and Live Map Tracking. Numerous alerts such as low-battery, tampering and towing. Historical location reports available.

Numerous alerts such as low-battery, tampering and towing. Historical location reports available. All-Weather Resistant and Waterproof.

All-Weather Resistant and Waterproof. STAY IN TUNE: Unique system Tracks via AT&T and T-Mobile networks, simultaneously.

STAY IN TUNE: Unique system Tracks via AT&T and T-Mobile networks, simultaneously. EASILY CONCEALABLE: 3.4 X 1.75 X 0.50 , 2oz. No visible external light. Cons Can drain the motorcycle battery

Can drain the motorcycle battery Challenging to install since it is hardwired to the motorcycle battery

6 MotoSafety Mwaas1P1 Wired 3G GPS Car Tracker

The MotoSafety Mwaas1P1 is another hardwired GPS tracker that you can use on your motorcycle. It also uses 3G service and, as long as you are in the United States, typically does an excellent job of tracking through mobile apps. It sends detailed reports, particularly useful for tracking teen drivers, such as speeding, hard braking, and curfew notices. You must subscribe to a monthly fee, but there are no contracts.

Overall, this is one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers. There are about 10% of customers though who encounter significant issues trying to get this GPS to function properly. Many of these are being used in cars, rather than motorcycles. However, since this GPS is hardwired into the vehicle system, the fault seems to be a compatibility issue, between the GPS and the vehicle. There are no reports of which vehicles are incompatible or why.

You take a small risk with this GPS that it may not be compatible with your motorcycle. Otherwise, this is one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers.

Pros Monitor driving activity using Google Maps.

Monitor driving activity using Google Maps. Use GPS to review driving routes, set geofences around key locations and know when the vehicle is in use after curfew.

Use GPS to review driving routes, set geofences around key locations and know when the vehicle is in use after curfew. No contracts or cancellation fees.

No contracts or cancellation fees. Track anywhere with free GPS tracking mobile apps with real-time email & text message alerts. Cons Has some issues updating consistently

Has some issues updating consistently Only works in the United States

7 ATian Vehicle Car personal GPS/GSM/GPRS/SMS Tracker

The ATian GPS Tracker is one of the less expensive of the best motorcycle GPS trackers available. It comes with both a Lithium-ion battery and power supply to be installed to the motorcycle battery. Be warned though, that it will drain both rather quickly if you use it continuously. The lithium-ion battery, for example, is only rated up to 29 hours of continuous use, meaning you have to recharge it daily.

This GPS is not waterproof so some kind of external cover may be necessary to keep it working correctly. It comes with a remote control though, to turn it on and off without getting on the motorcycle yourself.

The biggest challenge with this GPS is that they do not provide a SIM card in it. Being foreign made, they have adapted to the global cellular service challenge by forcing you to get your own SIM card for it. This means that, although there is only a minimal service fee for using this GPS, you have to pay a cell service company to use it. With the frequent false alerts reported in the reviews on this GPS, that cell service bill can cost you a pretty penny.

Pros Single Locating

Single Locating Auto track continuously

Auto track continuously Track with limited times upon time interval, Smart track upon time and distance interval

Track with limited times upon time interval, Smart track upon time and distance interval The tracker will update the positions automatically to web server once the vehicle changing driving direction over preset angle value to form a smooth trajectory consistent with the actual road, this function works only in GPRS /GSM mode Cons Drains motorcycle battery

Drains motorcycle battery May often send false alerts

May often send false alerts Requires a SIM card and the additional cost of that cellular service.

Looking for a higher end GPS for your motorcycle?

8 AES RGT90 GPS Tracker

The difference (besides the price) between the AES RGT90 and some of the other best motorcycle GPS trackers that operate with a lithium-ion battery, is that the folks over at AES implemented a sleep mode into their device. That saves you hours and hours of battery use wasted when your motorcycle is simply sitting in your garage. That is how they are able to get 90 days worth of use out of their battery.

The other reason that this GPS tracker costs so much is that it has the broadest range of the best motorcycle GPS trackers  extending all through North America and over 100 other countries as well. By comparison, most other trackers have difficulty even covering the USA alone.

Pros Works Anywhere in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, plus over 100 other countries

Works Anywhere in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, plus over 100 other countries Internal battery Operates GPS tracker up to 90 days on a single charge. Recharges by Micro USB for better convenience. Charge using any USB Charger.

Internal battery Operates GPS tracker up to 90 days on a single charge. Recharges by Micro USB for better convenience. Charge using any USB Charger. Covert, Discrete, Waterproof Magnetic Case

Covert, Discrete, Waterproof Magnetic Case Goes to sleep when the vehicle is parked for 5 minutes or more. Displays the last location before going into Sleep Mode. Access anytime via text.

Goes to sleep when the vehicle is parked for 5 minutes or more. Displays the last location before going into Sleep Mode. Access anytime via text. Track on your phone or on the website. You can also receive GPS coordinates via SMS Text. Cons Phone app is not the easiest to use

Phone app is not the easiest to use Relies on magnetic attachment

What is the best reviewed of the best motorcycle GPS trackers?

9 Goome 3G/WCDMA/GSM/GPS GM36W

The Goome has the least amount of negative reviews of the best motorcycle GPS trackers on the market. It also has the fewest reviews in total, so take that with a grain of salt. Many of the reviews commented that they got more value than they expected from this GPS. It is easy to install and very accurate, and the company offers global service.

The only problem the reviews have reported is that the app associated with this tracker is in Chinese and can be difficult to navigate. Even so, most customers were able to use this GPS quite well directly through SMS communication between their phones and devices.

Pros Support 3G/WCDMA/GSM/ Network

Support 3G/WCDMA/GSM/ Network Waterproof features, level  IP67 will prevent water damage the inter electric components.

Waterproof features, level  IP67 will prevent water damage the inter electric components. Geo-fencing, playback history tracks, speeding alarm, low power &battery alerts, etc.

Geo-fencing, playback history tracks, speeding alarm, low power &battery alerts, etc. OTA Upgrade Program, Anti-theft

OTA Upgrade Program, Anti-theft One year free trial for North America customers Cons App is Chinese and hard to navigate

App is Chinese and hard to navigate Can be difficult to find to purchase

What is the least expensive best motorcycle GPS tracker on the market?

10 MOTOsafety OBD GPS Tracker Device

Here is the least expensive of the best motorcycle GPS trackers you can find. This GPS, like several of the others reviewed, was made with teen drivers in mind. It gives comprehensive reports on driving stats, but it is not meant to be long-lasting.

If you are looking for a short-term GPS tracker, and you are living in the US, this is an inexpensive option for you. If you are looking for a GPS for security reasons, you may want to see another option.

Pros Monitor driving activity using Google Maps.

Monitor driving activity using Google Maps. Get a complete driving report cards that score safe driving habits such as speeding, harsh braking, and rapid acceleration to improve driving habits.

Get a complete driving report cards that score safe driving habits such as speeding, harsh braking, and rapid acceleration to improve driving habits. 3G vehicle tracking coverage that updates every minute in the US, Canada, and Mexico

3G vehicle tracking coverage that updates every minute in the US, Canada, and Mexico Track anywhere with the free GPS tracking mobile apps and real-time email & text message alerts.

Track anywhere with the free GPS tracking mobile apps and real-time email & text message alerts. Use the GPS tracking to review reports such as driving routes, set geofences around key locations (school, home, or friends house) and know when the vehicle is in use after curfew. Cons Inconsistent updating

Inconsistent updating Only works in the US

So, how do these reviews line up?

Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers Buying Guide

Best Value

The MOTOSafety OBD GPS Tracker is the least expensive option if you are looking for a short-term tracker for your motorcycle. It is made for tracking the driving habits of teenage drivers.

The Trackmate is a more expensive device, but it has a lower monthly subscription cost and is hardwired into your motorcycle, so you dont have to worry about recharging the battery.

The ATian GPS tracker is inexpensive as well, but you may end up paying more for your SIM card (not included) usage.

Accuracy

The AES is the most expensive of the best motorcycle GPS trackers but can provide you with some of the best accuracy across the greatest number of countries. The ATian is one of the least expensive devices but can offer service in any country you can get a SIM card to use in it. The Goome GPS also provides excellent service if you can navigate the Chinese app or use SMS to connect to the device.

Durability

How long do the best motorcycle GPS trackers last?

The most durable of these trackers are the ones that are hardwired into your motorcycle battery. The lithium-ion battery is one of the earliest failing points on these devices, and if it doesnt have one, it lasts that much longer. You also want one that is waterproof, to prevent moisture from damaging the electronics.

The Trackmate is a great hardwired GPS that is recommended for motorcycles and is waterproof. It is one of the more durable of the best motorcycle GPS trackers.

There is one exception to the battery rule, and that is the AES RGT90 GPS tracker. This tracker, because of its sleep mode, causes less wear on the battery and ends up lasting much longer than any other GPS with a lithium-ion battery.



Conclusion You can get inexpensive GPS trackers if you are only interested in short-term use. If you want something to last longer, you need to spend a little more money. You also need to be able to install it to your motorcycle battery. It is also important to watch for the subscription costs. The device may be inexpensive, but most subscriptions are around $20 each month. Some may require cell phone contracts (although most do not). Also, the more expensive GPS trackers have better service (3G instead of 2G) and a much wider area of coverage. If youre looking for the best motorcycle GPS trackers, the reviews suggest checking out the AES RGT90 and the Trackmate Mini 3G H GPS Tracker.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Former Russian Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Vladimir Kazimirov touched upon the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the context of recent hostilities in the Karabakh-Azerbaijan contact line. Armenpress reports Kazimirov noted at the start of the article that much has been said about the terms and complexities of Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The former Ambassador speaks about the conflict as unusual in terms of its stakeholders, which are three, not two (Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan).

Referring to the military onslaught of Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabalh on April 2, Kazimirov mentions that it was the largest in-scale and most bloodiest military operation since the establishment of the ceasefire regime 22 years ago. In his words, the long-lasting negotiations for the settlement of the conflict did not refrain Baku from using force again.

There is a necessity to comprehensively examine the controversial actions of Azerbaijani leadership during each regime of that country. The political struggle for the fate of Nagorno Karabakh moved to battlefield, which was the first armed conflict in the Soviet Union. No doubt, Baku was the initiator of use of force. Since then Baku has changed both its military and political-diplomatic policy many times. It is a pity but a fact that it is a long time Baku neglects its commitments assumed by signing official documents. Still 3 months before the establishment of the ceasefire, on February 18, 1994, the Defense Minister of Azerbaijan signed a record together with the Defense Ministers of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh about meeting in Moscow, where the sides were obliged to withdraw their troops from the contact line after the ceasefire would enter into force. But later Baku refused to withdraw its troops, which resulted in deliberate or un-deliberate incidents in the future. This is one of the main reasons of the tension, Kazimirov wrote.

He added that the announcements of state officials and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs demonstrate that that the one that has violated the agreements does not bear any responsibility, because the statements of condolences and kind calls are nothing else but an attempt not to offend that country. Here a question rises. What content should have the calls urging to respect commitments? It should be mentioned that during the rule of Heydar Aliyev the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan ordered to avoid from ceasefire violations, and even punished those responsible for the violations. The same was done in Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Is something similar possible nowadays? Just the contrary, we never hear that someone was punished. It is also well known how Baku glorified murderer Ramil Rafarov. Ilham Aliyev always speaks about the return of occupied territories, forgetting that everything happened as a result of wrong calculations of Baku. This is also a cause of the conflict, but it is not the first by significance and from the perspective of the conflict settlement, the article reads.

Kazimirov states that the root cause of the conflict is over the status of Nagorno Karabakh, and Baku denies solve that issue.

Kazimirov believes it is an urgent problem for now that the international community and the mediators understand the false game played by Baku and call the things by their names. Enough to make general announcements referring to the parties of the conflict. It is time to make more addressed calls and call things by their names, displaying the negative behavior of the political leadership of Baku, Kazimirov concluded.
Marcus Ericsson has hit back at "unprofessional" rival Romain Grosjean after the Chinese grand prix.

After two dream points finishes for the brand new Haas team, Frenchman Grosjean endured a nightmare weekend in Shanghai.

He slammed "ridiculous" Pirelli tyre pressures and, on the occasion of his 30th birthday on Sunday, collided with Marcus Ericsson and reportedly confronted the Swede afterwards.

"Romain ran up to me and called me all sorts of words," Ericsson, who drives for Sauber, told the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet.

"He said that I was an idiot, I'm blind -- (Grosjean was) not behaving like a mature adult. He shouted at me, I told him to calm down but he didn't want to.

"Instead he went and said the same thing to journalists. I think it's immature, unprofessional and disrespectful," said Ericsson.

"He was probably upset about a bad race, but to hear this from the driver who was suspended (in 2012) for dangerous driving, I think it's a little strange," he said.

(GMM)
Fernando Alonso and Johnny Herbert have buried their differences with a hug live on television.

The pair clashed in Bahrain after Herbert, a former grand prix winner, urged the injured Spaniard to retire, but Alonso hit back by gatecrashing live British television to tell the Briton he is "not world champion".

But as Herbert conducted the drivers' parade interviews ahead of the Chinese grand prix, Felipe Massa urged the pair to hug it out and Herbert replied: "Of course, of course."

"Fans are happy I'm in the car?" Alonso joked to Herbert in Shanghai. "How can they be happy I'm in the car if I'm at home?"

It was another awkward moment for Herbert, as Alonso's contemporary Sergio Perez dismissed the lingering notion that the McLaren-Honda driver's motivation is waning.

When asked about Herbert's view, Perez told the Spanish daily Marca: "It's difficult for me to comment, but I believe that every driver in F1 does it because he has the passion and the dream of being the best and winning each race.

"There is no other reason to be here," the Mexican added.

But the jury is out as to whether McLaren-Honda can fulfil Alonso's winning dream before age forces him to retire.

Team boss Eric Boullier acknowledged that McLaren and Honda are slightly out of alignment in terms of the urgency of their desire to win.

"McLaren wants to win tomorrow," he told Spain's El Pais in China. "Honda wants to win, but not necessarily tomorrow."

(GMM)
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian side has not discussed the issue of a high level meeting over Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, Armenian President's spokesman Vladimir Hakobyan told Rai Novosti. At this stage the parties of the negotiation and the Minsk Group Co-chairs have not discussed the timetable or the opportunities of a high-level meeting, Hakobyan said.

He mentioned that the Presidents of Russia, the USA and France, as the Co-chair states, have announced many times that there is no alternative to the peaceful settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, and the exclusion of use or threat of force must be one of the basic principles of the settlement. Armenia, as well as Nagorno Karabakh have always expressed their support for that position of the Co-chairs, Vladimir hakobyan mentioned.

He informed that in the near future Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov will pay a visit to Armenia. He added that it will be a good opportunity to continue the discussion of the large-scale military operations unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh and the war crimes committed against civilians in early April.

RF Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakahrova has informed that Foreign Minister Lavrov will pay a visit to Armenia on April 21-22.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. President of the Russian Federation Vldaimir Putting received Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission Tigran Sargsyan. Armenpress reports, citing the official website of the Kremlin, greeting Tigran Sargsyan, Vladimir Putin stated that the potentials of the integration union must be fully utilized.

Currently you have a very responsible mission; you have become a high-level international official. I hope that the Eurasian Economic Union will operate in an effective way headed by you. Viktor Khristenko, who chaired the Eurasian Economic Board during 2012-2016, established key fundaments. The most important thing for now is that we all together manage to fully utilize the opportunities of this integration union for solving the problems that face our countries. In other words, we created this integration union to deal with those issues, so that additional conditions are created to develop our economies and social conditions. I wish you success. You assumed your responsibilities recently. Meeting of the heads of the Governments is anticipated in the near future in Yerevan, and the meeting of the Presidents of the member states in Astana. So we have to prepare for those meetings together, Vladimir Putin said.

Tigran Sargsyan expressed gratitude for the opportunity to discuss issues referring to the Eurasian Economic Union.

As you already mentioned, the integration union really has great potentials, which will serve the interests of our nations. On the one hand we must ensure the works of our Board, on the other hand we must be ready to adequately react to new challenges facing us today. We see the transformation of trade and economic environment. Our union must be ready to find its place in the changing global processes. I want to assure you that we do our best to bring into life the proposals outlined by the Presidents, Tigran Sargsyan said.
At the 2016 SAE World Congress, GM engineers presented a paper describing the development of the new hybrid powertrain for the popular mid-size sedan. Development was guided by four main objectives:

The 2016 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid ( earlier post ) is EPA-rated at 46 mpg (5.11 l/100 km) combined, 47 mpg city and 46 mpg highway; the powertrain shares the transmission architecture with the 2016 Chevrolet Volt extended range electric vehicle (EREV), but includes changes to optimize the system for engine-driven charge-sustaining operation in the range of conditions represented by the US EPA 5 cycle fuel economy tests.

Increased fuel efficiency under US EPA 5 cycle fuel economy test conditions. Ability to package in a range of front-wheel drive vehicles, and reduction in overall packaging volume and mass. Ability to support a range of engine displacements depending on vehicle requirements. A largely common drive unit between EREV and strong hybrid vehicles, with the drive unit kinematically capable of high speed EV operation and transitions between EV and engine modes. For the HEV, this allows the envelope of EV power and duration to be set by the battery capability rather than limited by the drive unit.



Malibu Hybrid System components in vehicle. The Malibu hybrid system comprises a 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine; 60 kW, 1.5 kWh Li-ion battery pack; accessory power module (APM); Voltec transaxle drive unitincluding transmission, motors, and power inverterand associated thermal systems to provide cooling. Conlon et al. Click to enlarge.

Engine subsystem. The engine subsystem includes associated thermal and emissions hardware. The Malibu Hybrid has a larger 1.8L displacement engine than its predecessor. The new engine is fitted with an exhaust gas heat recovery (EGHR) system. GM chose the displacement as a result of system balancing of engine vs. battery size and power to meet packaging constraints and the performance and fuel economy targets for the vehicle.

The enginededicated to the hybrid systemfeatures cooled Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR)to reduce pumping losses, and incorporates a hybrid dedicated combustion system with relatively high compression ratio of 11.5:1. An integrated exhaust manifold improves packaging, and, in conjunction with the EGHR system and SVCC catalyst, helps to reduce engine warmup time and fuel use during warmup.



Features of the new 1.8-liter engine. From a presentation by Tim Grewe, General Director  Electrification, presented at the 2016 SAE Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Technology Symposium earlier this year. The Malibu Hybrid engine shares many of the technologies of the 1.5L engine in the MY 16 Chevrolet Volt EREV (earlier post) but is operated differently in the HEV. Click to enlarge.

The exhaust gas heat recovery (EGHR) unit recycles waste exhaust heat that exits the engine and uses it to warm the engine coolant, improving engine efficiency, and also increasing the heat available for warming the passenger cabin.

The EGHR improves the overall vehicle efficiency under cold ambient conditions by recapturing about a third of the wasted exhaust power and using it to warm the engine coolant. The system allows the engine to warm up more quickly and enables a higher coolant temperature during cold operation.



The exhaust gas heat recovery unit is attached at the outlet side of the catalytic converter. Exhaust gas exiting the converter enters the EGHR and is diverted either through the heat exchanger in order to warm up coolant, or through the bypass tube which bypasses the heat exchanger. When the coolant temp is below a required value the diverter position is commanded to enable heat recovery. Once the engine coolant reaches a specified temperature the diverter is switched to the bypass position. Conlon et al. Click to enlarge.

The powertrain cooling system includes three loops:

The low-temperature coolant loop to cool the power electronics.

The transmission oil loop for cooling of the transmission and motors.

he engine coolant loop which contains the engine, EGHR heat exchanger, and cabin heater core. The engine includes a mechanically driven coolant pump to circulate engine coolant.

Voltec drive unit. The drive unit is a transaxle configuration comprising transmission gearing and clutches; hydraulics; electric machines; and integrated power electronics. The basic layout is an on-axis design which is similar to GMs 6T40/45 family of small-car front-wheel drive automatic transmissions. The center distance and vertical drop between the engine and output axes were designed to be common; this design approach enables the use of a common chain transfer design and final drive gearing, which provided a wide range of final drive sprocket and planetary gear sets allowing an effective final drive ranging from 2.64 to 3.50.

The transaxle includes two electric machines coaxial with the input shaft as well as an integrated Power Inverter Module which connects via busbars to the motors. The Power Inverter Module and motor stators are common between the EREV (Volt) and HEV (Malibu) versions. However, the transaxles were designed with unique rotors specific to the application. The stators utilize a bar winding design, while the rotors are two barrier interior permanent magnet designs using NdFeB magnets.

Drive Unit Specifications Comparing Volt EREV and Malibu HEV applications Volt EREV Malibu HEV Gear ratio, EV mode A: 2.87

B: 3.077 Modes, engine on 3 (Low, Fixed Ratio, High) Modes, engine off 2 (1 Motor EV, 2 Motor EV) 1 (1 Motor EV) Final drive arrangement Chain transfer and planetary gear reduction Planetary gearsets 2 Rotating clutches 1 plate clutch Brakes 1 plate clutch, 1 OWC 1 plate clutch Motor A type Distributed bar wound, Ferrite magnet Distributed bar wound, NdFeB magnet Motor A peak power 48 kW 55 kW Motor B type Distributed bar wound, NdFeB magnet Motor B peak torque / power 280 Nm / 87 kW 306 Nm / 76 kW Effective final drive ratio 2.64 Power electronics integrated Pumps 1 electric motor driven Total system mass 119 kg 116 kg

While the Volt application uses a Ferrite rotor in Motor A, the Malibu HEV application switches to NdFeB, due to the difference in Motor A utilization. In the hybrid, when operating as an EV, unless axle torque is very high, all propulsion power is provided by motor B, and motor A is unloaded but spinning. When the hybrid is operating with engine on, motor A torque is commanded to react engine torque in either low or high range. In the SAE paper, the GM team explains:

NdFeB magnets have higher strength than Ferrite magnets, which allows a reduction in copper losses, since less current is required to produce torque. However, iron losses at no load increase with stronger magnets. In an EREV vehicle, the system will operate as an EV most of the time. With this usage schedule, reduction of motor A iron loss is of primary importance in order to improve EV efficiency and maximize range. However, in the HEV vehicle, due to more frequent engine operation, it was important to balance reduction in copper and iron losses in order to maximize fuel economy.

 the motor operates at higher torque and lower speed in HEV mode than in EV mode, predominantly in the area of NdFeB motor advantage. Simulation studies showed that the NdFeB magnet motor provided a fuel economy benefit, and due to this, the NdFeB Magnet motor was selected for the HEV configuration in order to reduce cycle average losses for HEV vehicle usage. Conlon et al.



Source: Tim Grewe, 2016 SAE HEVT Symposium. Click to enlarge.

The Malibu hybrid drive unit uses Low and High modes. Low mode is capable of high output torque and acceleration; High mode allows the system to operate efficiently at lower engine and motor speeds and with less power transmitted through the motors and inverter. GM developed a transmission shift control strategy allowing a shift between Low and High modes to occur without transitioning through the fixed speed ratio.



Drive unit powerflow lever diagram. The powerflow allows transitions between Low Mode and High Mode to occur either by synchronizing the engine speed and then transitioning through the fixed gear state, or by shifting the speed of PG2 and motor B independently while the engine speed is controlled separately via engine torque and motor A. Click to enlarge.

Battery pack. The air-cooled battery pack is mounted in the vehicle trunk. The accessory power module (APM) is located on top of the battery pack cover and shares the same thermal system.

Operation. Lowest fuel consumptionrepresenting the highest efficiency of the enginecovers a power band of 12 to about 40 kW. The system thus tends to select engine operating points within this power band, using battery power as necessary to adjust engine power demand.

As examples, in operation on the EPA FETS cycle, driving intensity and vehicle speeds are relatively low; on this cycle, the system operates with the engine on only 22% of the time. During accelerations below 30 to 40 mph, the system tends to operate in low range or fixed gear, depending on the vehicle speed and the power required.

The battery is usually charged at these points to provide for electric driving at low loads and/or speeds. When driving at constant speeds, if the engine is on, the system operates in high range at lower engine speeds and powers.

On the US06 cyclerepresentative of higher driving intensitiesthe engine is on 76% of the time. Low and high range operating points tend to shift to higher engine powers, and there is less low range operation due to the higher average speed of the schedule.





Left. System engine operation and mode selection, EPA FETS. Right. System Engine Operation and Mode Selection, US06. Conlon et al. Click to enlarge.

Resources
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Georgias state security service said on Monday it has detained three Georgian nationals and three Armenians for an attempted sale of uranium, Armenpress reports, citing TASS.

"Members of criminal group - three Armenian citizens and three Georgian citizens - who planned to sell radioactive substance uranium U238 for a sum of $200 million were detained," the service said in a press statement. "An industrial transport container with uranium was seized at the apartment of one of the gangs members."

According to the Georgian security service, the radiology review revealed that the substance is hazardous for human health.

A criminal case was initiated on charges of illegal possession and sale of radioactive materials which are punishable by a prison term from five to ten years. Investigation is conducted by the Georgian security services counter-intelligence department.






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Independent record stores all over the globe Saturday will be celebrating Record Store Day, an annual event created to boost the record store business.

Indie and major labels press special, limited run vinyl LPs and singles just for the occasion, leading to long lines around stores, akin to Black Friday craziness in November. The vinyl format has been in a boom for nearly a decade.

All the talk about vinyl means that some of us begin thinking about the records we've collected over the years before cassettes, compact discs, MP3s and streaming tried to kill off each successive format.

Shows like "American Pickers" and "Pawn Stars" lead some of us to believe we might have a fortune in vinyl in a dusty box, but according to leading store owners in Houston you might just have junk.

Some seasoned record store owners break it down for us novices. As it turns out, older isn't always better.

According to Chuck Roast at Vinal Edge, 239 W. 19th, the Heights shop uses some straightforward considerations to decide what to buy from people who bring in vintage records.

"Is there a market for this stuff? Are the people with this taste long dead or downsizing? Does it fit our stores direction? Roast says.

If a record is what Roasts store is looking for, the staff then looks at its condition. The record itself and the sleeve should be in mint or near-mint condition.

We like to see collections where the covers are in plastic sleeves. It indicates a well cared for collection, Roast adds.

Common things that Roast and other store owners run into are water damage, mold, adhesive tape, mysterious stains and names. People used to love writing their names on their LPs and 45s. How else would you get your records back from a friend or an ex?

What records does he see on a near-daily basis?

I never need to see another Pablo Cruise record in my life. It is the cruise you dont need to ever take, Roast says.

Kurt Brennan of Sound Exchange, 1846 Richmond, does brisk business selling music from the underground, but says that shoppers are still looking for the same things to round out their collections.

The records most sought after have not really changed much in the past 40 years. Jazz, punk, soul and hard rock always top the list, Brennan says.

Theyve gotten plenty of calls from people thinking that theyve found gold at grandmas house only to have to let them down when they learn that those Glenn Miller or Elvis Presley records arent all that rare.

Regarding the notion that most people think all records are valuable, I can tell you that is all too true. The endless hyping of the return of vinyl records certainly isnt educating anyone either, Brennan says.

When I get the daily hyper-ventilating phone call from someone cleaning out grandmas house I always try to give the caller some perspective. That is, the number of records in existence is always going to be many thousands of times greater that the number of records people actually want to buy, Brennan says.

Quinn Bishop at Cactus Music, 2110 Portsmouth, says that hes seen a lot of baby boomers looking to unload their parents collections after theyve passed. That generation had a much different taste in music.

We are seeing those customers bringing in tons of light classical, post-WWII pop vocalists and easy listening records that have almost no value, Bishop says. We not-so-affectionately refer to these records as "parent music and it is sometimes difficult to find an organization who will accept them as a donation.

These are not the records that teens and twenty-somethings want to play on their new turntables.

The millennials who are driving vinyl sales just have no interest in these items. I'm not sure that anyone else does either, Bishop says.

Millennials these days are buying lots of Fleetwood Mac, if you can believe that. On a recent visit to Vinal Edge we saw a gaggle of collectors barely old enough to drink purchasing Macs Rumours as if it was the newest Taylor Swift release.

Boomers who are pruning their living spaces down after the kids have left the nest are also coming by with crates of records to sell.

The following seem to be in every box of records that is brought to us: Herb Alpert, Barbara Streisand, Sergio Mendes, Neil Diamond, The Carpenters, Dan Fogelberg and others, Bishop says.

That Alpert Whipped Cream & Other Delights LP cover is still a timeless gem, though.

The Moody Blues albums may have been making babies out there, because I suspect that the number of them being attempted to be sold back to record shops actually eclipse the number of those originally pressed, Bishop jokes.

What Bishop says he will take are blue chip classic rock records from Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and David Bowie, plus timeless jazz records from the '50s through the '70s. Classic soul records are always welcome.

How does Bishop assess a personal collection?

We first evaluate content. Any parent music or titles like those listed above are culled out to leave titles which we would be likely to sell in our store for $4 or more, Bishop says. Any titles for which we are overstocked go into the former category as well.

As at Vinal Edge, condition is key.

Condition is everything as all of our records in the Record Ranch are in VG (very good) condition or better. We are often more forgiving for records of great rarity or unique pressings, Bishop says.

What does a dream haul look like for Cactus Music?

Ultra-esoteric rock and folk of the prog and psych variety. These type of records are easy to sell, interesting listening for our staff and excite our core customers. We've had a few buys that provided an educational experience for our buying staff, Bishop says.

If you cant unload Grandma or Grandpas ancient classical records, you can always make art out of them. You can melt them and mold them into bowls or cut them down to make nerdy coasters.
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who is on a working visit in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR), in the evening of April 18 together with NKR President Bako Sahakyan held a meeting with senior officers of the NKR Defense Army.

As Armenpress was informed from the Department of Public Relations and Mass Media of Republic of Armenia Presidents Office, a wide range of issues related to army building were discussed at the meeting.
Amanda Freitag, dropping some knowledge. Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

This past weekend, some of the countrys best chefs chopped veggies, shucked oysters, baked bread, and just generally cooked a ton of food with hungry guests at this years New York Culinary Experience (hosted, as always, by New York Magazine and the International Culinary Center). The lineup included culinary legends like Jacques Torres, Mimi Sheraton, and Jose Garces, as well as hot-this-minute chefs like Judy Joo, Chung Chow, and Daniel Rose. Heres a handful of pro-level tips to take home:

1. Theres no such thing as too much garlic, as long as you cook it slowly. Missy Robbins uses 30 cloves for every can of tomatoes for her Diavolo sauce. I make it at home, just for me, and count out the garlic cloves, she said. Ten whole cloves get caramelized slowly, and the rest get sliced to disperse as they slowly cook in the sauce. The result is a huge hit of flavor, without any sharpness.

2. Pasta maestro Robbins also has a secret weapon to combat fullness: Go easy on the fat. I went on Weight Watchers and had to cook for myself with much less fat, the Lilia chef says. She still uses oil and butter, of course, but says she now focuses on looking elsewhere to impart big flavor in her recipes, turning to ingredients like citrus juice and zest, as well as vinegar. And she has another secret ingredient for flavor: anchovy. Its often hidden in her dishes, covertly lending lots of umami. As a diner, youd never really know its there, the chef says, but without it, something is missing.

3. Uplands Justin Smillie suggests buying dried garlic from Chinatown. You can get a giant quart container for $4, the chef told his class. The group used it to season bigeye tuna crudo, but Smillie  whose food at Upland and, before that, Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria, has drawn legions of followers  also loves it in chicken jus, tartare, and even waffles.

4. Duck breasts are a simple, overlooked weeknight meal. Food Network mainstay Amanda Freitag proposes switching up dull chicken with seared crisp-skinned duck breasts. They take a little longer to cook, but you get a bonus while it happens. You can ladle out some of the fat as the breasts render and use it to cook potatoes or veggies, too.

5. Chocolate authority Jacques Torres stocks up on supplies at Home Depot. The pastry chef revealed he uses a heat gun to temper chocolate. But when airport security once trashed his  those guys are tough  he had to improvise and pick up a hair dryer, which worked fine. Torres also measures temperature with a Home Depot laser thermometer.

Lilias Missy Robbins. Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

6. The next hot ingredient might just be green buckwheat. Also called tartary buckwheat or duckwheat, this whole grain turns green when it gets wet. Bien Cuit baker Zach Golper uses it for its nutty, complex flavor; plus, its rich in vitamins and minerals.

7. Restaurants are about to go big on responsibility. Betony chef Bryce Shuman says that word informs everything he does in his kitchen, and he knows other chefs feel the same way. A carrot is the growers life, Shuman says. How am I going to throw that in the garbage? He says he makes sure his staff thinks the same way, and comes up with innovative ways to use every ingredient.

8. Add a little bit of ice water to your salad dressing. It might sound unexpected, but Shuman says the cold helps the emulsion stay creamy and smooth.

9. Audrey Saunders swears by the Mr. Potato Head Method of cocktail recipes. Pegu Clubs bartending icon creates new drinks by starting with classics and plugging in new ingredients. Its how bartenders remember thousands of recipes, she says. She even compares it to the very foundation of French cuisine. Cocktails have mother sauces, too.

10. Splurge for gluten-free soy sauce. Noreetuh chef Chung Chow explains that gluten is added to commercial soy sauce to speed the fermentation process because  surprise!  its cheaper and faster. As Chow explains, yes, the gluten-free version costs more, but it also has superior flavor and added dimension, making it more than worth the additional cost.
March has been quite a successful month for Oppo. The company boasts it has taken the first spot in offline sales in China thanks to the soaring interest for the F1 Plus (R9 in China). The data is gathered by independent research company Sino MR.

The analysis shows that the company sold 180,000 units on the first day of sales (March 24). Just four days later, the number of Oppo R9 phones sold was topping 400,000.

Following Oppo in terms of sales volume for March is Vivo and Apple with 12.1% and 11.2%, respectively. Huawei is fourth with 9.4%, but its sub-brand Honor is also doing well with a 4.5% market share, so combined it actually holds the lead.

The Oppo R9 is powered by a Mediatek Helio P10 chipset with four of its Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2.0GHz, the other four at 1.0GHz. 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage are on board and the R9 can take up to 128GB of microSD cards in the hybrid microSD/second-SIM slot.

The Oppo R9 is priced at CNY 2,799 in China ($430).
Sony's image sensor production plant in Kyushu Island has been closed due to the recent deadly earthquakes in the country. The Kumamoto Prefecture factory is the second of Sony's image sensor plants to halt its operation after the one in the Kyushu city of Nagasaki.

If the plants don't resume operations, it could be problematic for both Sony and its partners who count on it for CMOS sensors. Currently, nearly 40% of the market uses the company's image sensors. Happily, a Sony spokesman has told Reuters that there won't be immediate disruption in the supply since Sony has some inventory available.

Sony is still checking for potential damage to the plants, which operate on a 24-hour basis. However, as soon as the earthquake aftershocks end, the work in the plants will be restored.

We hope the aftershocks end soon, but statistically, this could take a while. The Tohoku earthquake from March 2011 saw 900 aftershocks, three of which were over magnitude 7.0.

Via
It is common knowledge that the 10% commission fee is a way of getting things done in PNG. If we choose to go through the proper processes it is a walk to no way.

Considering the magnitude of corruption in PNG, honest hardworking Papua New Guineans across both rural and urban areas feel entrapped in a system that sucks the life out of honesty and leaves behind hopelessness and frustration. We are under siege.

The events of this recent weekend  with the head of the Police fraud directorate being suspended and his forced to step aside  may mean what appeared as a light was only a shadow.

MOST Papua New Guineans like me, who dream of a transparent, fair and equitable nation were wondering if the recent Police fraud squads arrests of high profile individuals was the light at the end of this abyss called corruption.

Both government and private sectors are littered with the 10% cowboys. A humble taxi driver cant get a permit to operate without going through the back door. Government contracts increasingly fall victim to what is euphemistically termed a self-imposed inflated price. Police are being bribed to smuggle the green gold of betel nut into Port Moresby.

Meanwhile, on the streets, thousands of impoverished mothers and fathers braving the harsh tropical heat to earn a few kina must be on constant look-out for pickpockets and other petty thieves who care nothing about their wellbeing.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Things have become atrocious in our country. Were a people who have earned all sorts of titles, good and bad. Land of the Unexpected was always a fitting description of the chameleon life in PNG. And now we have a corruption, in the words of Sir Mekere Morauta, so pervasive that it would take a miracle to extricate PNG from its tentacles.

Of late I have noticed that many educated Papua New Guineans are losing interest in issues of national interest. They dont bother buying newspapers or watching the evening news. Even on social media only a handful of are making noise about issues of national importance. Most prefer to lie low, opting to suffer in silence with the rest of the kanakas.

We all see corruption everywhere and the logic is simple and sickening. Dont worry about something you cant stop.

I have friends who think that way. They are part of a growing number of Papua New Guineans who operate in mute mode. PNG to them is Gotham in real life where chaos and lawlessness are the rule of law.

While corrupt groupies may delight in this orgiastic reality, concerned people need to wake from their hibernation before its too late and peaceful recovery is impossible. Ignorance of evil is not an option. We have a nation to save.

Yet we should listen to their silence and understand that it is a symptom of institutions falling apart due to rampant corruption; it is a sign of a system that is skewed towards pursuing the interests of the few at the expense of the majority.

Our judiciary, seen as one of the last bastions holding out against the oppressors, is constantly bombarded by desperados hell bent on preserving their positions only at the cost of what is truly a silent majority of Papua New Guineans. Yet the silent majority cops the full force of the law even if a can of tin fish or one kilo bag of rice is pilfered because it is needed.

Most of us remain silent in our own world of powerlessness against a corrupted system that is entrenched into the core of our nation. It is no solace that our friends, wantoks, relatives and families may be part of it. Our silence also makes us part of the problem.

This nation needs one good conviction to raise its hopes; one good judgment to bring it back from oblivion. When silence finally speaks, its voice will herald a new era and a new dawn for our beloved Papua New Guinea.

All our eyes are now on the courts. Make us live again for a great Papua New Guinea.




Haiti - Training : Re-opening of the School of Agriculture of Dondon





Peter F. Mulrean Ambassador of the United States accredited to Haiti, Pierre Guito Laurore the Minister of Agriculture and the Mayor of Dondon, Emile Joseph among other personalities, proceeded to the inauguration of the School of Agriculture of Dondon (Ecole Moyenne dAgriculture de Dondon - EMAD) located in Dondon (North Department).



After more than thirty-five years of closure, EMAD could reopen its doors with technical and financial support from the US government, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).



38 young local students, ages 18 to 25, will benefit from training in agriculture to enable them to better contribute to the development of the northern region of Haiti. Students will receive a phased training over a period of two years from the principle Learning By Doing on various topics including agricultural production, livestock, natural resources management, agricultural popularization, processing of agricultural products, etc...



In his remarks for the occasion, Ambassador Peter F. Mulrean stressed "The American people are committed to always stand alongside the people of Haiti to allow a substantial improvement in their quality of life. Today's event also symbolizes the longstanding partnership... The US Government is proud to contribute to the reopening of the EMAD and the training of these young people. I am convinced that these 38 young executives in the region will assimilate the techniques and practices that will be taught to them in EMAD. I remain convinced that these young people will contribute greatly to the development of Haiti's agricultural sector."



Note that the subjects taught in the two-year program include agricultural production, livestock, natural resource management, agricultural mechanization, research and agricultural popularization service, and food processing. A third option year offer internship opportunities to students in local agricultural enterprises to complete their technical training in the field.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping politics...





The CEP confirms the postponement of elections

Sunday, Richardson Dumel the Spokesman of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) declared that there were no conditions for holding the second round of elections on 24 April "There is no electoral environment favorable in Haiti at this time and for the third time, the second round is postponed indefinitely," adding that " [...] the electoral body is still waiting that the political crisis is resolved to have full control of the electoral machinery [...] the Council is working hard to recover and restart the process as soon as possible. We will not create a new crisis [...]"



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17084-haiti-flash-elections-postponed-indefinitely.html



Arnel Belizaire wants to hunt Privert from power

Arnel Belizaire, former deputy of Delmas / Tabarre indicated that he will initiate a movement to force President a.i. Jocelerme Privert to leave power, because according to him it did not meet the demands of the popular bases struggling through streets demonstrations against former President Martelly.



PHTK criticizes the approach of the Head of State

In a letter to President a.i. Privert, the PHTK denounced "an electoral Verification Commission, resembling to a CEP of the presidency, parallel to that newly appointed. This is a flagrant violation of the Agreement on 5 February 2016. The PHTK platform could not in any way be associated with such an approach, especially as the actors who demanded that famous Commission, already obtained in December 2015, justified their request by the alleged non-confidence in the former CEP. These actors have obtained satisfaction at the implementation of the new CEP and the full trust was found. Your approach is unjustifiable in any point of view."



Joseph Ketnor Estinvil new Government Commissioner

Me Camille Junior Edouard, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, in a note dated April 15, 2016, informs that Me Joseph Ketnor Estinvil is reinstated as Government Commissioner at the Court of First Instance of Les Cayes.



Ecuador, words of sympathy

"The President of the Republic a.i. Jocelerme Privert address on its own behalf and on behalf of the Haitian people, its sincere sympathies to the people and government of Ecuador following the devastating earthquake on Saturday, April 16, 2016. Solidarity with Ecuador! "



"I express my deepest sympathies to the Ecuadorian people following the earthquake that caused hundreds of deaths and injuries," Michel Martelly.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17188-haiti-flash-78-earthquake-in-ecuador-where-about-30-000-haitians-live.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Harlow is a former New Town in Essex with a population of 86,000. Located in the upper Stort Valley, it was built in the decades after the Second World War to ease overcrowding and London and provide homes for people bombed out during the Blitz. It includes Britain's first pedestrian precinct and first modern residential tower block, The Lawn. Old Harlow, the historic part of the town, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. David and Victoria Beckham's former home, Rowneybury House, nicknamed 'Beckingham Palace', is nearby.

09:00, 23 OCT 2022
With her best fundraising performance since entering the 24th Congressional District race, Democratic candidate Colleen Deacon now holds a financial advantage over her two primary opponents.

Deacon, D-Syracuse, raised $161,723.44 in the first fundraising quarter of the year  an increase of roughly $30,000 over her haul from the final three months of 2015.

Deacon's campaign spent $98,928 and now has $146,410.79 in the bank.

The total raised and cash on hand top figures released by fellow Democratic candidates Eric Kingson and Steve Williams.

Kingson, D-Manlius, raised $51,142.99 and has $43,729.19 in his campaign account.

Williams, D-Baldwinsville, collected $75,350.08 in contributions and enters the second fundraising quarter with $109,890.76 cash on hand.

The financial reports, which were submitted to the Federal Election Commission late last week, were due around the same time candidates were required to submit petitions to appear on the federal primary ballot.

Deacon's campaign said she filed 3,406 signatures to appear on the Democratic ballot line. Williams submitted 2,725 signatures and Kingson collected 1,674.

"I'm overwhelmed by the support that I have received in this campaign," Deacon said. "We have had hundreds of volunteers passing petitions and thousands of individuals that have both donated to my campaign and signed a petition to get my name on the ballot. The momentum is building, and I am confident that my campaign has the support not only to win in June but also in November."

The Democratic primary is scheduled for Tuesday, June 28. The winner of that race will challenge U.S. Rep. John Katko in the general election.

Katko, R-Camillus, announced last week that he raised more than $276,000 in the first quarter of 2016. He now has more than $1.1 million in his campaign war chest.
If one of your employees is an alleged child sex offender and your employer is engaged in the education sector, then terminating that staff member immediately might seem like an appropriate course of action.



One would think the ability to terminate an employee accused of such behaviour in a school setting would be uncontroversial, says Jennifer Wyborn, Partner at Clayton Utz.



But employers could be exposing themselves to hefty unfair dismissal claims if employees later fail to be convicted, Wyborn says.



Employers will probably be protected from unfair dismissal claims by employees who are subsequently convicted, but it will be harder to resist claims from employees who are subsequently found to have no case to answer, Wyborn says.



However, a recent decision from the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission has shown employers that terminating an employee who is facing allegations of child sex abuse could backfire on the organisation, despite the seriousness of the allegations.



The Full Bench looked at a scenario where a teacher was charged with offences relating to child sex abuse and whether or not termination of employment in circumstances where an employee is not qualified to work with children can amount to unfair dismissal, Wyborn says.



In Paul O'Connell v Catholic Education Office, Archdiocese of Sydney [2016] FWCFB 1752, a classroom teacher at a secondary school for girls in Sydney filed an unfair dismissal claim after being terminated from his position.



He was charged with indecent assault on a person under 16 years of age, but the charges were subsequently dropped a few months later.



As a result of this charge, O'Connell was deemed to be a "disqualified person" under section 18(1)(b) of the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 (NSW) (CP Act), which led to the revocation of his working with children clearance and a bar from performing any child-related work, Wyborn says.



The Catholic Education Office (CEO) argued that section 9 of the CP Act compelled it to end its employment relationship with O'Connell, as it could not continue to employ him if he was not qualified.



The FWC found that section 9 of the CP Act does not compel an employer to stop employing a person, nor does it provide an employer with the immediate ability to terminate the employment of someone who becomes a disqualified person, Wyborn says.

Interestingly, the FWC found that it would have been open to the School to allocate non-child related work to O'Connell rather than terminate his employment,



Therefore, the FWC ruled that OConnells unfair dismissal claim was successful.



Conversely, a 2015 decision by the Full Bench reached the opposite conclusion when examining a case with virtually identical facts to those in O'Connell.



In Dr Daniel White, Executive Director of Catholic Schools and legal representative of the Catholic Education Office, Sydney v Mr Gerald Mahony [2015] FWCFB 4952, the FWC found that continuing to employ a teacher who had become a disqualified person was illegal and inconsistent with the purpose behind the CP Act. The Full Bench found that:



"In our view it cannot be fairly said that Mr Mahony's employment was terminated on the employer's initiative  the appeal is allowed on the basis that employment could not have continued as this would have amounted to illegality."



Interestingly, the FWC in O'Connell seems to have turned this decision on its head, now saying that continuing such employment (with restrictions) would not be inconsistent with the Act, and would, in certain circumstances, be considered legal, Wyborne says.



The law is clearly not settled in this area and there remains a competing question around the rights of an employing educational institution to terminate an employee who has lost relevant qualification due to allegations of child sex abuse, she says.



Employers need to proceed with caution until this area of law is settled, Wyborn says.



And in the meantime, if criminal proceedings are not finalised, due consideration should be given as to whether or not it is open to re-deploy the employee to another area before considering terminating their employment, she says.






Is there a need for training in the organisation that would be appropriate for traineeships?

How would the roll-out plan work under the organisational constraints?

Is it possible for the organisation to comply with the legal obligations stipulated?

Will the individuals benefit from the training roll-out?

What return on investment could be achieved and how will this be measured?

tralias workforce has 8,600 fewer people starting apprenticeships and traineeships compared to last year, prompting alarm from the small business community over a growing national skills shortage.The number of people commencing an apprenticeship or traineeship in September 2015 compared to the same time in 2014 has dropped 19.3%, according to data from by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).Peter Strong, chief executive of the Council of Small Business of Australia, told HC Online that the results were disturbing and demonstrated a crisis within the skilled training sector.Its a disturbing number, Strong says.Unfortunately, its becoming far too expensive for employers to take on apprenticeships.Strong says more incentives are needed for employers to take on apprentices  otherwise the figures are likely to tumble even further.He says HR managers need to pro-active in determining whether their business has training requirements that would be suitable for traineeships and what return on investment could be achieved by the organisation.HR really needs to make sure the training meets the needs of the organisation and that return on investment is there for the organisation, he says.He says the current training system isnt providing confidence for small businesses due to growing costs and questionable quality of training.Instead of funding going from the government to registered training organisations (RTOs), Strong says funding should be channelled through appropriate industry associations that deal directly with employers of apprentices and trainees.Right now, the ways subsidies are provided has made it more expensive for the employer to take on an apprentice, as employers dont get return on their investment for a while, he says.HR managers who want to seek funding for their employees development often become frustrated at the lack of clarity, writes Dr Denise Meyerson from Management Consultancy International.While funding is available for all registered Australian companies that hold an ABN number, companies are only eligible to share in the funding that relates specially to their industry.HR managers should be aware that only training which leads to a nationally recognised qualification attracts funding, Meyerson writes.He advises HR managers seeking to engage apprentices in their organisation to be pro-active in determining:Similar stories:
An American CEO recently made global news headlines after implementing an innovative program where he paid his employees up to US$500 a year to get more sleep.



While research highlights the crucial link between sleep and employee productivity, Australian employers should take care before attempting to recreate such a program in their workplaces, says one employment lawyer.



Requesting your employees to get more sleep could be seen as an invasion of their private lives and even be classed as discrimination, says Hannah Ellis, Principal at The Workplace employment lawyers, particularly when financial rewards are concerned.



While employers should create a healthy workplace culture where employees are encouraged to sleep more in order to enhance their productivity and performance at work, paying your staff to sleep could have unwanted legal consequences, Ellis says.



There are risks involved in the event that the employer awards an employee in some way for getting what they consider to be enough sleep, she told HC Online.



Ellis says employers that impose standards on employees which attract a monetary benefit put themselves at risk of discrimination and adverse action claims.



Employers should be aware that these standards cannot be met by certain categories of employees, such as those who have medical conditions, are pregnant or have caring responsibilities, which might prevent them from achieving the standard nights sleep.



For example, an employee who has a young child is less likely to have a full and undisturbed seven-hour sleep compared to an employee without a young child, she says.



Another example is that an employee may have an illness (that amounts to a disability under Disability Discrimination legislation) that may prevent them from getting enough sleep every day.



They might also face backlash from employees who cannot maintain the required sleep period, as employees may claim this is due to heavy workloads.



Employees may allege that this is solely because they are spending too much time at work or are expected to keep working after hours and that the employer is not doing enough to monitor workloads, Ellis says.



Ellis says some common difficulties employers who want to implement sleep programs would face include the perception of what is considered enough sleep.



Not everyone is the same and this means that not everyone requires a solid seven hours of sleep every day, she says.



Another person may require less than seven hours of sleep in a day and be as equally as productive.



Employers should expect some pushback from employees who would consider such a program an unnecessary imposition into their private lives.



She reminds HR professionals that any information obtained from employees is kept confidential and appropriate safeguards should be in place to protect this information.



Employers should also be mindful of the possibility of someone else, for example, the employees spouse, wearing the sleep monitoring device, thus leading to false rewards.






ing a weeklong trip to Melbourne, Australia, founder and CEO of Twitter and Square, Jack Dorsey, spoke of why it was sometimes necessary to let top employees go.



One of the things I learnt early, early on in Twitter is sometimes you have these people who are just superstars  they have all the right answers, they have all the skills and theyre amazing, he said at a Square Talk Shop event in Federation Square.



If they are too negative in their attitude however, they wont fit in with the company culture, he added. If they cant provide a positive influence on others, it wont work out.



You tend to optimise for skills rather than recognising that the negative is actually dragging everything down.



This, he noted, can be a crucial mistake as negative individuals tend to make work harder for others because of their attitude.



No matter how good this person is, if they cant bring a positive and optimistic attitude to their work youre probably going to be slowed down.



Dorsey recounted a moment from the early days of Twitter where he had to let go of certain superstar employees.



That was really hard for me because we did have people that were just amazingly skilled, brilliant people but ultimately they were just super negative, he said.



Although resistant at first, Dorsey realised that this decision then led to other more positive results.



All this new leadership emerged and all this new positive energy emerged. It just unlocked all these interesting attributes in other people.


Weekly Events at Lost Province Brewing Co.

Monday April 18

Family Night-Buy any regularly priced pizza and receive one free kids meal.

Tuesday April19

Get LOST for a Cause with KAMPN Silent Auction

Silent Auction benefiting KAMPN at 6:00pm

KAMPN (Kids with Autism Making Progress in Nature) is a 501-(c)3 organization located in Deep Gap, NC. KAMPN was started in 2011 as a nature-based, cost-free, summer camping program for children with autism and their families- this camping program was named KAMPNs Camp Cogger. After 4 summers, KAMPNs Camp Cogger is going strong and the organization has begun to develop plans for KAMPNs newest undertaking- the LIFE Village. KAMPNs LIFE (Living Innovations For the Exceptional) Village will be a supported housing community for adults with autism and related disorders in the local Boone area. The overall mission of both KAMPNs Camp Cogger and KAMPNs LIFE Village stems from the simple belief that we are all here to live in a community of joy and that with acceptance and support this belief will become a reality for all. For more information on KAMPN Camp Cogger or LIFE Village check out our website at www.KAMPN4autism.appstate.edu.

Wednesday April 20

 Off Beer and Wine Specials.

7pm-9pm Trivia Night: Beginning at 7pm, Lost Province will be hosting Trivia Night with John Fortenberry. Compete on your own or on a team! The competition gets started at 7pm so come a little early for a pizza and a pint and get your seat!

Thursday April 21

$3.00 Thursday-$3.00 pints on all Lost Province brewed beers (except high gravity).

College Night 7:00pm-Live Music with Jameilyara Moore. Jameilyara Moore is a student at App State with a never ending passion for making music. She has been playing guitar and singing and song-writing since she was 11. Jameil has performed at the Evening Muse in Charlotte, NC and has performed for church services as well as talent shows. She mostly enjoys indie music but also shares a love of post hardcore music and techno music. Eager to pursue a career in the music industry, Jameil hopes to have her music heard world-wide one day.

Friday April 22

Tapped at 5pm, we feature something fun and new every Friday. Get it while it lasts; there is only a limited amount!

7:30pm-Closing Live Music: Analog Poets. Dedicated to providing Flow and Harmony thru Music, the Analog Poets are comprised of Dustin Hofsess- Guitar, Jonathan Priest- Drums, and Ben McPherron- Bass.

Saturday April 23

7:30pm-Closing Live Music: Danny Whittington and A Killa Band

Jonathan Priest, Mike Runyon and Douglas James join Danny for some tasty R&B, and seriously groovin funk.

Sunday April 24

Lost Province Sunday: Residents of The Lost Province (Watauga, Ashe, Avery and Alleghany) receive 10% off food with verification of residency.

Child Fest at Mitchell High Set for April 23

Blue Ridge Partnership for Children will host Child Fest 2016 at Mitchell High School from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 23. Enjoy activities for all including inflatables, a magician, a teddy bear clinic, face painting, healthy snacks, the tooth bus, bike rodeo, door prizes and crafts. Parents will receive information on child safety, quality child care, literacy and health and nutrition. During the day, BRPC will give away its 100,000th book. Sponsors include BRPC and Child Care Resource and Referral.

Springtime Poetry Celebration: April 19

Springtime celebration of unity  voices from East and West

There will be a celebration of unity in poetry with voices from East and West in the meeting room at Watauga Public Library at 6.30  7.30pm on Tuesday 19 April. April is National Poetry Month. All are welcome and admission is free. The meeting is sponsored by the Bahais of Boone. For more information call Mary Gray at 264 5620.

Community Favorite Poem Event Saturday at the Library

Saturday, April 23, 2O16

11:OO am12:3O pm

Meeting Room, Watauga County Public Library

In observance of April as National Library Month, you are invited to bring your favorite poem! Poetry lovers of all ages may present their own poem, a favorite poem, or be the audience. Please come in early to sign in, if you wish to read a poem. Co-Sponsored by Behind the Stacks, a local poetry group, and The Friends of the Watauga County Public Library.

For more information call Paula at (828) 963-1164 or Ross at the Library Reference Desk, (828) 264-8784,Extension 2.

Persons with special needs please contact the Library five or more days before the events in order that reasonable arrangements may be made.

April 30 Author Visit: Eva Nell Null Wike

Saturday, April 30, 11 am

Meeting Room, Watauga County Public Library

Author Visit: Eva Nell Mull Wike, author of Fiddler of the Mountains

Storyteller and author Eva Nell Mull Wike, PhD., travels to Watauga Library to present her book, Fiddler of the Mountains  Attuned to the Life and Times of Johnny Mull.

In the authors own words:

My book won the North Carolina Historical Society Award and it comes with a CD of my Uncle Johnnys music. You may view it and read reviews on AMAZON.COM. The music was restored in the National Recording Studio in Rome, Georgia, from the old acetate records which were recorded in Canton, Ohio in the 1940s & 50s. It all seems like some kind of a miracle that I accidentally got my Uncle Johnnys personal photos from a dear friend who had worked with Johnny up in Canton, in the 1950s. I no sooner got the photos from him, til a few days later he upped and died during open-heart surgery in Atlanta!

About the same time, the Ohio landlady sent me the old acetate records which had been stored away in her closet for decades! Then just a few days later, her son called me to say that she had passed away. So in between sad times, I got down to business and wrote Johnnys story. And dog-on if my book didnt win the North Carolina Society of Historians AWARD!

Copies of the book will be available for purchase, and each copy includes a CD of rare music performed by mountain fiddler Johnny Mull.

Persons with special needs please contact the Library five or more days before the event so that reasonable arrangements may be made. Thanks to the Friends of the Library for sponsoring our events.

Young Adult Financial Literacy: Check It on April 25

April 25, 2016  Watauga County Public Library

Financial Literacy Workshops for teens and young adults on April 25th from 5:00 pm  7:00 pm at Watauga County Public Library.



Presenter: Amber Mellon, Lecturer in Mathematical Sciences at Appalachian State University. The Watauga County Public Library would like to invite you to join us for the next in a series ofonfromatAmber Mellon, Lecturer in Mathematical Sciences at Appalachian State University. As digital natives, teens have grown used to the online world but do they know enough to protect themselves? This month we will attempt to answer this question within the context of identity theft and online fraud. We will learn to identify common scams as well as strategies for protecting ourselves both online and in real life. Food will be served at the event! To RSVP or for more information please call

(828) 264-8784 ext. 2.

LA Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez to Speak April 28 at ASU

Luis J. Rodriguez, the official Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, will read from his work April 28 at Appalachian State University. His presentation is sponsored by the Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series. Rodriguez will present a talk for area middle school youth April 28beginning at 3:30 p.m. in Blue Ridge Ballroom. The public also is invited to attend. His reading will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the student unions Blue Ridge Ballroom. Books will be available for sale and signing. His campus visit is co-sponsored by Appalachians Diversity Speakers Series, which is a part of the Office of Multicultural Student Development. Appalachians GEAR UP office has arranged for middle school groups from Wilkes, Ashe and Yadkin counties to attend the afternoon talk for youth. Western Youth Network will also bring students from its two Watauga County sites. In addition to writing poetry, Rodriguez is also a novelist, memoirist, short story writer, and childrens book writer, as well as a community and urban peace activist, mentor, healer, youth and arts advocate. He has published 15 books, including the best-selling memoir Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. His latest book is the sequel It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing. His poetry collections include The Concrete River, Poems Across the Pavement, and Trochemoche. About the Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series The visiting writers series is named in honor of Hughlene Bostian Frank (class of 1968). Frank is a member of the Appalachian State University Foundation Board, a 2013 Appalachian Alumni Association Outstanding Service award recipient, past member of Appalachians Board of Trustees and generous supporter of the university. The 2015-16 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series is supported by the Appalachian State University Foundation, Appalachians Office of Academic Affairs, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English, the Office of Multicultural Student Development, the universitys Common Reading Program, the University Bookstore, Belk Library and Information Commons and the Appalachian Journal. Business sponsors are The Gideon Ridge Inn, the New Public House & Hotel and The Red Onion Restaurant. Community sponsors include John and the late Margie Idol, Paul and Judy Tobin, Alice Naylor and Thomas McLaughlin. Parking is free on campus after 5 p.m. The Library Parking Deck on College Street, which opens to the general public after 5:30 p.m., is recommended. To reach Plemmons Student Union, cross College Street and follow the walkway between the chiller plant and the University Bookstore, passing the University Post Office and entering Plemmons Student Union on the second floor. For further parking information or a map, see http://parking.appstate.eduor call the Parking and Traffic Office 828- 262-2878. For further information on the spring season, call 828-262-2871 or seewww.visitingwriters.appstate.edu. To receive Appalachians This Week in the Arts announcements by email, contact [email protected]. Hayes Alumni Choir Concert Saturday

Appalachian State Universitys Hayes School of Music will present an alumni choir concert on Saturday, April 23, at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Centers Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free.

The concert will be conducted by Stephen M. Hopkins. The choir features 48 graduates of the Hayes School of Music.

Program selections will be chosen from the following: Evry Time I Feel the Spirit by William L. Dawson, If Music Be the Food of Love by David C. Dickau, Flanders Fields by Paul A. Aitken, I Am in Need of Music by David Brunner, Feller From Fortune arranged by Harry Somers, Loch Lomond arranged by Jonathan Quick, Let Me Fly arranged by Robert DeCormier, and My Shepherd Will Supply My Need arranged by Mack Wilberg.

Appalachian Concert Band to Perform April 25

The Appalachian Concert Band will perform Monday, April 25, at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Centers Rosen Concert Hall.

The performance will be conducted by John Stanley Ross and John Whitwell and graduate conductors Matthew Brusseau and Onsby C. Rose.

The performance will begin with Procession of the Academics by David Maslanka. The band will then perform March Des Parachutistes Belges by Pierre Leemans and arranged by Charles A. Wiley. Next is a performance of Blessed Are They by Johannes Brahms, scored by Barbara Buehlman, followed by Gustav Holsts Brook Green Suite, transcribed by James Curnow.

The concert band will also perform Canterbury Chorale by Jan Van der Roost, American Civil War Fantasy by Jerry Bilik and Variations on a Shaker Melody by Aaron Copland. The concert will conclude with Semper Fidelis by John Philip Sousa.

The Appalachian Concert Band will perform Monday, April 25, at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Centers Rosen Concert Hall.

The performance will be conducted by John Stanley Ross and John Whitwell and graduate conductors Matthew Brusseau and Onsby C. Rose.

The performance will begin with Procession of the Academics by David Maslanka. The band will then perform March Des Parachutistes Belges by Pierre Leemans and arranged by Charles A. Wiley. Next is a performance of Blessed Are They by Johannes Brahms, scored by Barbara Buehlman, followed by Gustav Holsts Brook Green Suite, transcribed by James Curnow.

The concert band will also perform Canterbury Chorale by Jan Van der Roost, American Civil War Fantasy by Jerry Bilik and Variations on a Shaker Melody by Aaron Copland. The concert will conclude with Semper Fidelis by John Philip Sousa.

Appalachian Symphony Band to Perform April 26

The Appalachian Symphony Band will perform Tuesday, April 26, at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Centers Rosen Concert Hall on the Appalachian State University campus. Admission is free.

The Hayes School of Music band will be conducted by Kevin Gray Richardson and John Whitwell in addition to graduate conductors Matthew Brusseau and Onsby Rose.

The program begins with Gavorkna Fanfare by Jack Stamp. Then, the symphony band will perform Psalm for Band by Vincent Persichetti.

Third on the program is Second Suite in F by Gustav Holst, followed by Chorale and Allegro by Vaclav Nelhybel. The symphony band will also perform Ralph Vaugh Williams Rhosymedre and Concord by Clare Grundman.

The Appalachian Symphony Band will conclude the performance with Pas Redouble by Camille Saint-Saens.

Appalachian Wind Ensemble Performance Set for April 27

The Appalachian Wind Ensemble will perform Wednesday, April 27, at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Centers Rosen Concert Hall on the Appalachian State University campus. Admission is free.

The Hayes School of Music ensemble features performers on 21 wind instruments. The ensemble will be conducted by John Stanley Ross in addition to graduate conductors Matthew Brusseau and Onsby Rose. The ensemble features 2016 Appalachian Wind Ensemble Concerto Competition winner Devin Glasgow on flute and guest conductor John L. Whitwell, director of bands emeritus at Michigan State University.

The program begins with Concerto for 23 Winds by Walter S. Hartley, followed by Colonial Song by Percy Aldridge Grainger.

Then, the wind ensemble will perform Concertino for Flute and Winds by Cecile Chaminade, featuring Glasgow as flute soloist.

Next, the ensemble will perform Canzona by Peter Minnin, followed by Amazing Grace by Frank Ticheli. The program will conclude with American Salute by Morton Gould.

Faculty and Alumnus Piano Recital April 21

An Appalachian State University faculty and alumnus piano recital featuring Bair Shagdaron and Maxim Shagdaron will be held Thursday, April 21, at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Centers Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free.

Maxim Shagdaron will begin the recital with Prelude in B Minor, BWV 855a by Bach, followed by Arabesque No. 1, Andantino con moto and Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy.

Next, Bair Shagdaron will perform Sonata in C Minor, Op. 111 by Beethoven.

Maxim Shagdaron will return to will perform Prelude Op. 28, No. 4 in E Minor, Prelude Op. 28, No. 13 in F-sharp Major, Prelude Op. 28, No. 15 in D-flat Major and Etude Op. 25, No. 1 in A-flat Major by Chopin.

Bair Shagdaron will conclude the recital with Widmung, Op. 25, No. 1 by Robert Schumann and two pieces by Chopin, Nocturne in E Major, Op. 62, No.2 and Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante, Op.22.

Bair Shagdaron was born in Moscow and began studying music at age 4. He studied at the prestigious Moscow Gnesin Music School for Gifted Children and then the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he obtained a doctorate degree in piano performance. He is an accomplished soloist and has performed throughout the U.S., Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Mongolia. He joined Appalachians faculty in 2000 and serves as professor of piano.

Son of Bair Shagdaron, Maxim Shagdaron is a graduate of Appalachians Hayes School of Music. He is a prizewinner of several piano competitions, including the Concerto-Aria Competition at Appalachian. He is currently the pianist/organist at Grace Lutheran Church in Boone.

Register Now for May 30 Color Run

On Memorial Day  May 30th  2016, Hospitality House AmeriCorps VISTA project Welcome Home Thriftique will host the Third Annual Mast General Store Memorial Day Color Blast 5K. This 5K Run/Walk will raise funds, awareness, and support for men, women and children experiencing homelessness and poverty in the High Country. The Color Blast 5K will begin at 5pm on the Boone Greenway Trail at Clawson-Burnley Park.

I really enjoy having a chance to host our third annual Memorial Day Color Blast 5K, says NC Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA and Welcome Home Thriftique project manager Ethan Flynn. Since Memorial Day is a school day for our community, we gear this unique event to parents, teens and kids.

A color blast is an event that showers runners in an environmentally safe, cornstarch-based colored powder at certain locations along the trail. The main idea is to tie-dye each runners white event t-shirt by the end of the run. The untimed 5K welcomes competitive runners, casual runners, joggers, walkers, people with disabilities, families, and all those who are willing to give back to their community. Sorry, no pets. A guide to the Color Blast is posted online at HospHouse.org and will be included in each registration packet.

Participants can expect free yogurt provided by Menchies in Boone, Anna Bananas photo booth with fun props, face painting, music, finish line celebrations and water and fruit provided by Ingles. A Fun Run will be held at 6:30 for kids under 10 to run a lap on the dirt track through clouds of color. The cost is $5 and kids can sign up at the event with parental assistance.

Early registration is $25 for adults and $10 for kids under 12. Early registration is online now atwww.HospHosue.org and www.WelcomeHomeThriftique.com. Early registration by May 6thguarantees an event T-shirt.

On-site registration will begin at 4pm and t-shirts will be first come first serve. On-site registration will be $30 for adults and $15 for kids under 12. Cash, check, and credit cards will be accepted.

Those who pre-register can pick up their packets on May 26th and 27th between 11:00am and 6:00pm or May 28th between the hours of 10:00am and 4:00pm at Welcome Home Thriftique, 182 Boone Heights Drive  behind Burger King.

Food donation bins for canned goods, boxed goods and dry goods, like coffee, sugar, tea and bread, will be located at the picnic shelters beside the start and finish of the race.

Flynn has been organizing the event, and all proceeds will support Welcome Home Thriftiques Foundation For Success, a job skills training program and AmeriCorps initiative of Hospitality House.

Welcome Home Thriftique, a four-year cooperative project between Hospitality House, Appalachian State Universitys ACT (Appalachian and the Community Together) program, North Carolina Campus Compact, and AmeriCorps, has been open since July 25, 2014. All items sold in the store have been donated by the community and 100 percent of profits go to support the men, women and children of Hospitality House. Merchandised items include art, furniture, antiques, collectibles, home goods, decor, name brand clothing and the Anna Bananas Overstock Shop.

The Mast General Store Memorial Day Color Blast 5K is also sponsored by OP Smiles, Anna Bananas and Menchies of Boone. Event organizers are still welcoming sponsors. For more information, please contact Ethan Flynn at [email protected] or call Welcome Home Thriftique at (828) 355-9703.

Welcome Home Thriftique is located at 182 Boone Heights Drive. Store hours are MondayFriday 11am-6pm and Saturday10am-4pm. To learn more go to http://www.welcomehomethriftique.com, check out their Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/welcomehomethriftique and follow them on Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/Thriftique182

To learn more about Hospitality House, visit them online at www.HospHouse.org, follow them on Twitter @HospHouseBoone or on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/HospHouse

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Stubb argued on his blog while attending the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Washington DC, the United States, that although Finland has a functional and practical relationship with Russia, its position as part of the West should not be called into question.

Alexander Stubb (NCP), the Minister of Finance, has shared his thoughts on why Finland has had to constantly re-assure the rest of the world that it is part of the West.

We've been firmly part of the West for quite some time, he wrote. That didn't seem unclear to anyone here.

However, it's an indication of something that Finland has to repeat this message after all these years  at the very least [an indication] that Americans are aware of the attempts of Russia to disrupt the unity of the European Union. The most important part is that the direction of Finland is clear to everyone, stated Stubb.

I pointed out on behalf of Finland that we're investing increasingly in transatlantic relations. After all, that's what we put down in the government programme, he also reminded.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Timo Jaakonaho  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
It's perfectly clear that tens if not hundreds of thousands of people whose identity and whereabouts is unknown are lost in Europe. It's a real threat that those who aren't granted asylum stay on as undocumented [migrants], he stated while attending an event held by the Finnish Association of Political Journalists on Thursday.

Timo Soini (PS), the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has voiced his concerns about the growing number of undocumented migrants in Finland and Europe.

Soini reminded that although Finland is in talks with both Afghanistan and Iraq over the forced returns of unsuccessful asylum applicants, voluntary returns are currently the more effective means to ensure unsuccessful applicants return to their country of origin.

Sweden has [an agreement with Iraq], and it has managed to forcibly return 20 [applicants]. Five plane-loads of people have left Finland voluntarily to return to Iraq, he pointed out.

This isn't a straightforward issue. It'd be reasonable if the return rights were at the same level across the EU, he added.

Soini also pointed out that agreements on forced returns, such as that reached by Italy and Pakistan, entail a number of problems and may even prove ineffective.

A plane-load of returnees arrived in Pakistan from Italy, but the Pakistani [authorities] stated that [the returnees] can't enter the country  regardless of the agreement. The group went back [to Italy]. This  how should I put it in a politically correct way  gives rise to quite a number of situations, he said.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Vesa Moilanen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
Hendersonville native to lead new Pisgah Conservancy

Representatives of a variety of Pisgah National Forest user groups, in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, have formed a North Carolina non-profit corporation called the Pisgah Conservancy to work for sustainable recreational use, watershed improvement, eradication of invasive species, removal of waste, litter and graffiti, wildlife habitat improvement and education in the forest.

John Cottingham, a Hendersonville native who is founder and volunteer executive director of the organization, has hiked and camped in Pisgah for over 40 years. When Cottingham retired from a corporate legal position, he wanted to give back to Pisgah.

Last fall Cottingham, Pisgah District Ranger Derek Ibarguen and Carlton Murrey, executive director of the Cradle of Forestry in America Interpretive Association, recruited others and formed an Advisory Council to consider the feasibility of establishing an organization. The Council includes representatives of the Carolina Mountain Club, Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association, Pisgah Backcountry Horsemen, Trout Unlimited, NC Mountain Trail Runners and local businesses Headwaters Outfitters, Sycamore Cycles, and Trail Dynamics. In addition to Ibarguen, five U.S. Forest Service employees with expertise in a variety of disciplines have supported the council from the outset.

"This is the 100th anniversary of Pisgah National Forest, and we benefit every day from the contributions of those who came before us," Cottingham said in a news release. "What happens in the next hundred years is up to us. We want to leave a legacy we can all be proud of, that we were exceptional stewards of Pisgah's extraordinary resources. Today, I'm excited to say, that we have an organization through which people can directly benefit this national forest that means so much to us."

The Pisgah District is the most visited ranger district in North Carolina.

"With funding declines and exponential growth in visitor use in recent decades, the US Forest Service is facing increased pressure to maintain trails and recreation facilities, improve wildlife habitat, and reduce threats from invasive species. Partnerships are critical to meeting this challenge," explains Pisgah District Ranger Derek Ibarguen. "It has been a goal of mine since I took this job to find additional ways to engage partners to sustain and improve the Pisgah we all cherish so deeply. It's exciting now to see The Pisgah Conservancy come into existence."

The organization will be featured at the upcoming "Schenck You" event at the Cradle of Forestry on May 3.

Find more information at www.pisgahconservancy.org.
Moms plan 'nurse-in' at Grove Street courthouse

Breastfeeding moms plan a "nurse in" at the Henderson County Courthouse at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning to raise public awareness about breastfeeding after a District Court judge scolded a woman for feeding her baby in the courtoom, television stations and social media sites reported Monday.

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Stephanie Rhodus says that Judge Peter Knight told her what she was doing was "ridiculous" when she was was breast-feeding as she came up to speak during a hearing.

"Ma'am, you need to cover up. For you not to realize that is absolutely ridiculous. Step outside and cover up right now. Stand up and go now," Knight said. "I'm fine with you having a child if you don't have other arrangements made that's certainly going to happen. But to nurse the child in the courtroom is absolutely inappropriate. Step outside and button up."

The order by Knight became national news and Rhodus was interviewed by multiple TV stations.

Henderson County Clerk of Superior Court Kim Gasperson Justice said Monday she had received multiple interview requests and questions from national media outlets but had referred to state officials to explain policies in courtrooms.

North Carolina law allows women to breastfeed in public, regardless of whether a nipple is exposed.

The mothers plan the "nurse-in" at 10 a.m. in front of the Grove Street courthouse, WYFF-TV reported.
A Grandmother was arrested for her own safety after she acted "like Tarzan" in trying to lift a microwave before dropping it on her head while drunk, a court heard.

Marie O'Neill (72) was ann-oyed and trying to remove the oven from outside her home during a dispute over furniture.

Gardai who arrived to deal with the incident said they feared she was going to throw the microwave on their car as she continued to try to lift it over her head.

O'Neill, a pensioner with 12 grandchildren, was found guilty of public intoxication outside her apartment at Glenmore Green, Ballyboden, last Novem-ber 8.

Judge Ann Ryan adjourned the case and said she would strike it out if O'Neill made a 100 charity donation. The judge dismissed a breach of the peace charge. The accused had denied both charges.

Gda Derek Ryan told Dublin District Court that he was called to the scene where there was a dispute between the accused's daughter and another woman "over the purchase of furniture".

The court heard the other woman had given this furniture to O'Neill's daughter, then took it back because of the dispute.

However, a fridge freezer with a microwave on top of it were left stored in a hallway at the accused's home and she did not want them there.

When gardai arrived, O'Neill was "very intoxicated and upset". After she calmed down, Gda Ryan took her details and explained that the issue of the furniture was a civil matter.

When they left, O'Neill came out of her ground floor apartment, ran up to the door and began pulling the microwave off the fridge freezer, which began rocking and the microwave fell on her head.

She moved it on to the street and "tried to lift it towards the patrol car", the officer said.

He said he got out of the car and tried to reason with her, but she became abusive and told him to "f*** off".

Wine

Gda Ryan alleged that she also swung kicks at him and moved back to the hallway, where she began rocking the fridge back on top of herself. The garda intervened to prevent the fridge falling and arrested her.

Another garda said: "I thought she was going to throw the microwave on to the car. She tried to lift it above her head."

O'Neill told the court she had three glasses of wine at lunch and one more when she got home and was "jarred" and dozing on the sofa when the gardai arrived. She let them in.

She said the "third party" - the other woman - arrived at the same time as the gardai and began taking items, including a sofa from the hall.

O'Neill tried to move the microwave because she wanted that gone too and it fell on her head.

She admitted telling the garda to "f*** off", but did not recall kicking out at him.

"She acted like Tarzan in trying to take the microwave off the fridge, but wasn't able to hold it," her lawyer said.

Judge Ryan said it was clear the accused had been so drunk she was a danger to herself.

"You should be grateful the gardai were there to assist you or something much worse might have happened," she said.
The installation of Irish Water meters dropped dramatically in the months before the General Election.

The Herald can today reveal that, despite the best efforts of gardai and contracted workers for Irish Water, the installation of meters has stalled in some areas of Dublin because of protesters - some of whom have been prosecuted at local district courts.

In January 2015, there were 7,797 meters installed across Dublin, but in January this year that figure was just 224, a reduction of more than 97pc.

Nationally, there was 29,645 meters installed in January 2015 compared to 7,549 in January of this year, a reduction of almost 75pc.

Drop

Irish Water denied the massive drop in the number of meters being installed had anything to do with the General Election being held.

"As has been widely reported, there has been a number of instances of targeted aggression towards individual members of the metering teams in Waterford, Donegal and Dublin - which has necessitated the temporary cessation of works by the regional contractor," an Irish Water spokesman said.

"This, in turn, has curtailed Irish Water's ability to install meters at those locations and this work will be rescheduled at a later stage in the project to enable it to be carried out in a safe manner," the company added.

At one stage in Dublin, ad-hoc "flying columns" prevented installations across the city.

The group, which often includes hardline republicans and people who conceal their identities, adopted the name given to famous IRA units from the War of Independence.

A member of the group previously described how a Facebook page was used to mobilise protesters to sites where water meters were being installed.

"The flying column... reaches both sides of the city and beyond in some cases," one member said. "There's no structure to it. It's pretty loose. It could be anything from 10 or 12 people up to 25."

The figures supplied by Irish Water show that from September 2015 there had been a steady decline in the numbers of meters fitted, from 17,010 in September to 15,393 in October, 13,317 in November, 9,202 in December last, and 7,549 in January.

An estimated 825,000 domestic water meters have been installed out of the planned 1.1 million units that Irish Water had said would be necessary at the beginning of the installation programme. The roll-out began in August 2013 and Irish Water said they were ahead of schedule.

"Domestic water meters were installed at three times the rate of comparable programmes in the UK," the company said.

"In some regions the majority of the planned meter installations have now been substantially completed.

Fluctuations

"It is to be expected that over the life cycle of a programme of this nature there are fluctuations month to month, and this is accounted for in the planning and programming of works to account for factors such as the construction industry holidays.

"Typically, at the start of a project of this kind, the monthly installation rate will rise steadily in the beginning, level off and then decline month on month as the project nears completion.

"No changes have been made to the metering programme due to the General Election - and that program continues on a phased basis nationally."
The intended target of a botched gangland assassination has fled the jurisdiction and is lying low in the UK, it has emerged.

Keith Murtagh (32) was targeted in the Sheriff Street area of the capital last Thursday in an incident believed to be linked to the ongoing Hutch-Kinahan feud.

However, the gunman shot 24-year-old Martin O'Rourke - an innocent father-of-three who had no involvement in organised crime - in a case of mistaken identity.

It is believed that Murtagh, a convicted armed robber, was targeted because of his association with members of the Hutch gang.

The Herald can reveal that he fled to the UK following Mr O'Rourke's murder.

An associate of Murtagh's contacted detectives in the immediate aftermath of the shooting in Sheriff Street and asked for a garda escort out of the area.

Murtagh is believed to have fled on Thursday evening and is hiding out at the home of a close relative.

"He is obviously in fear of his life, and the attempt to kill him has seriously spooked him," a source said.

"Murtagh hasn't been sighted in the north inner city since the shooting, and it is believed he is keeping his head down with a relative in the UK."

The Herald can also reveal that an associate of the Kinahan cartel who ordered the hit on Murtagh is furious that the gunman shot the wrong person.

"When it emerged that the wrong person was killed, he went into a rage - not because an innocent person was shot, but because they missed an opportunity to get their target. He is absolutely furious," a source said.

Judas

It is believed that a 100,000 sum was offered for the killing of Murtagh, which was ordered by a close associate of Regency Hotel murder victim David Byrne (33).

Sources are unsure if the hitman will now become a cartel target himself after the botched hit.

"He is being called a Judas because he is mates with many of the main players in the Hutch gang, yet he took up the offer of money to kill Keith Murtagh," a source said.
Rescue workers pull survivors from the rubble of a collapsed building. Photo: AFP/Getty

The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast, sending the Andean nation into a state of emergency.

Officials said at least 238 people were killed and 600 injured, with many still reported trapped beneath collapsed buildings.

The magnitude-7.8 quake, the strongest to hit Ecuador since 1979, was centred on the country's sparsely populated fishing ports and tourist beaches, 170km northwest of the capital, Quito.

Vice-president Jorge Glas said there were deaths in the cities of Manta, Portoviejo and Guayaquil, all several hundred kilometres from the centre of the quake, which struck shortly after nightfall on Saturday.

Frightened

In Pedernales, a town of 40,000 near the quake's epicentre, dozens of frightened residents slept in the streets while men equipped with little more than car headlights tried to rescue survivors who could be heard trapped under the rubble.

The mayor of Pedernales, Gabriel Alcivar, pleaded for authorities to send earth-moving machinery and emergency rescue workers as dozens of buildings in the town were flattened, trapping residents.

He said looting had broken out amid the chaos, but author- ities were too busy trying to save lives to re-establish order.

President Rafael Correa signed a decree declaring a national emergency and rushed home from a visit to Rome.

"Everything can be rebuilt except human lives, and that's the most painful," he said.

Glas said 10,000 soldiers had been deployed to help. In addition, 4,600 police were sent to the towns near the epicentre.

Officials said shelters had been set up and portable hospitals were being deployed.

In Manta, the airport was closed after the control tower collapsed.

Alberto Reynas (58) was fishing off Pedernales when giant waves violently rocked his boat.

He was shaken again when he returned to land to find the facade of his two-story home had fallen into the streets.

He spent the night sleeping outdoors with neighbours, guarding their property against looters.

Luis Quito said he spent the night delivering water to a few guests trapped under the rubble of a small, four-storey hotel owned by his father-in-law, who was missing and feared dead.

"We hear screaming all through the night," said Quito, wailing as he expressed outrage over the slow response of authorities.

"There are people trapped below the terrace. Babies. We need rescuers, but nobody has arrived so far."

In Quito, terrified people fled into the streets as the quake shook buildings.

It knocked out electricity in several neighbourhoods and six homes collapsed.

Among those killed was the driver of a car crushed by an overpass that buckled in Guayaquil, the country's most populous city.

Deadly

The US Geological Survey originally put the quake at a magnitude of 7.4 then raised it to 7.8. It had a depth of 19km.

David Rothery, a professor of geosciences at The Open University, said the quake was about six times as strong as the most powerful of two deadly earthquakes across the Pacific, in the southernmost of Japan's four main islands.

A magnitude-6.5 quake struck near Kumamoto on Thursday, followed by a magnitude-7.0 28 hours later. The quakes have killed 41 people and injured about 1,500.
The Auburn Police Department is seeking the public's help in locating a man, wanted on violent felony charges.

Walter Charles O'Conner, 41, of 656 Munford Road, Scottsville, is wanted on five bench warrants including three felonies and two misdemeanors.

O'Conner is charged with second-degree assault, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, third-degree grand larceny, fifth-degree welfare fraud and misuse of food stamps. The welfare fraud and food stamp charges stem from an arrest on Jan. 12. Police said the assault and weapon charges are from early 2015, but more information on the circumstances of the charges was not immediately available.

O'Conner also goes by the alias Bobby Fingers, and is described as 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 230 pounds.

Police warned the public in a release to not try to apprehend O'Conner, and to use caution due to his history of violent charges.

Anyone with information on O'Conner is asked to call Auburn Police at (315) 253-3231, (315) 253-3235 or the New York/New Jersey Fugitive Task Force local members at (315) 255-4705. Callers may remain anonymous.
AUBURN  Though smaller than a penny, the emerald ash borer is causing large-scale problems across the state and Cayuga County.

Executive Director of the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County Doug Ververs said the little bug  which devastates ash trees by laying its eggs inside tree crevices, allowing larvae to feed on the tree tissue  has spread to seven locations in the county.

"What's new this year as opposed to when we first started, we had a quarantine area that was basically along Route 90," Ververs said. "Now, we have more detail. Here in Cayuga County, the first confirmed site was Montezuma at Hejamada Campground. It was brought in by untreated firewood, and it was actually stacked at the base of a tree that said, 'Do not burn untreated firewood,' on a sign on the tree."

The invasive insect, which is native to Korea, Japan, parts of eastern Russia and northern parts of China, has been confirmed in three locations in Montezuma, Ververs said. There's also an outbreak in Throop and two outbreaks in Auburn.

Ververs said although the county is not yet experiencing the spread that Onondaga County is seeing, especially in the Syracuse area, he warned that Owasco Lake could be a looming target.

"White ash do well with wet feet in damp areas along the canal, along the lake shore," he told Cayuga County legislators at the April 13 Planning Committee meeting. "That doesn't necessarily bode well for Owasco Lake in the future."

To help stop the spread, the Department of Environmental Conservation has strict firewood transportation guidelines. Untreated firewood cannot be transported more than 50 miles from where the original tree stood, and to transport it, a person must have a self-issued certificate of origin. This form is available on the DEC's website and includes information such as the origin of the firewood, its destination and the approximate volume.

Without this permit, DEC officials can confiscate the firewood.

If a state park is on your summer vacation list, the state is considering a ban on all untreated firewood from entering state-owned lands, according to the New York State Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation's website. Currently the DEC and OPRHP may allow untreated firewood with a certificate of origin or treated firewood, which is kiln-dried to a minimum core temperature of 165 degrees for 75 minutes, and must be labeled to that effect.

Besides firewood restrictions, there's also new research at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry that could help with some breakthrough control methods. Scientists have found a wasp parasitic to EAB. The wasps lay their eggs in an EAB-infected tree, and the wasp larvae eat the EAB larvae, leaving only the head.

"We're two or three seasons away from that being commercially viable," Ververs said. "There's research underway, but in the meantime, I would say the ash population, one of the best things we can do if people identify badly infected trees, it's getting it out of the environment."

Ververs said thinning out weak and sickly trees and burning them, is an important way to get rid of EAB. Wood chippers may not do the trick because the bugs are so small. The DEC is also asking for people to be citizen volunteers, reporting on potential EAB sites and collecting suspected adult insects or larvae.
Tri-Cities native Josh Hammitt has been all over the world, but he still feels theres no place like home.

A 2006 graduate of Sullivan South High School in Kingsport, Tennessee, Hammitt spent much of his early life moving around. As the son of an active duty member of the Air Force, Hammitt has lived everywhere from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Sumter, South Carolina. Because his parents were originally from Kingsport, the family returned to the area when Hammitts father retired, so he spent most of his adolescent and teenage years in the Tri-Cities.

After graduating from high school, Hammitt briefly attended Northeast State Technical Community College in Blountville, Tennessee. After a year of college, he decided to follow in his fathers footsteps and enlisted in the military in 2011.

Though Hammitt joined the Navy, in some ways, he still followed the family tradition of flight by focusing his service on the aviation administration. Hammitt handles Navy aircraft logs, records, schedules, inspections, and basically anything that pertains to the aircraft. Currently, he is working with the Blue Angels, the Navys flight demonstration squadron.

The Blue Angels are famous for their spectacular air shows and are celebrating their 70th anniversary this year. As part of the team, Hammitt recently returned to East Tennessee to participate in the Smokey Mountain Air Show in Knoxville, Tennessee.

This is actually the first time for me that we were back in the home area, said Hammitt. I only get home about every other year.

With the military tradition in his family, Hammitt is used to being on the move. In 2011 and 2012, he was deployed to China, India, Australia and Dubai.

It was amazing, Hammitt recalled. I love seeing different cultures and experiencing them. Getting to do that through your job you just cant beat it.

Though Hammitt admits that his current position was not his first pick, he says he was always interested in the aviation community and could not be happier, especially after experiencing the adrenaline rush of seeing the aircraft take off from an aircraft carrier.

The high speed and the intensity of it is awesome, he said. You just cant beat it.

The primary draw for enlistment was the career aspect of the Navy. Having grown up in a military family, Hammitt knew about the many perks of being career military. Serving 20 years and getting a full retirement with excellent benefits, not to mention the opportunity to further his education on the Navys dime, Hammitt says its a deal that is hard to beat and the decision to enlist was a no-brainer.

I think its a great choice for young people, said Hammitt. Its an amazing experience, plus you get to serve your country, which definitely gives you a sense of pride.

Hammitt is a Petty Officer 2nd class, and is currently based out of Pensacola, Florida. He explains that all the servicemen there cross train, so each officer is trained in the fundamentals of each others job. At the shows, each member is a part of launching and performing the show and has hands on experience with the Blue Angels.

Josh is a charismatic, genuine, hardworking and motivated sailor, said AZCS Sean Belt, Command Back-up Hotseat, division officer and leading chief petty officer. He has an ability to stay positive regardless of any level of adversity and has a tireless work ethic.

During deployment, Hammitt is also a part of launching aircraft off carriers to participate in missions, so its not all about air shows over home turf. His career has taken him all over the world, and there is certainly more for him on the horizon as he serves out the remainder of his 20-year enlistment.

Hammitt says his favorite part of his job is the reaction from the crowd and seeing the childrens faces light up when they see the crew. The opportunity to travel and see the world runs a close second.

Ive been to a lot of different places, but I would absolutely love to come back to the Tri-Cities to retire, said Hammitt. Those mountains are beautiful. Ive traveled all over the world, but Ive never seen anything to compare to those mountains back home.

Laura J. Mondul is a freelance writer in Bluff City, Tennessee. Send ideas for Folks You Should Know and Kids Making a Difference to features@bristolnews.com.
RICHMOND Thirteen Southwest Virginia projects will divide more than $3.3 million in funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced the grant awards today

The Appalachian region of Virginia boasts many natural, cultural and economic assets that make it a prime location for businesses and families to locate and thrive. These Appalachian Regional Commission grants make the region even more attractive and support workforce development, job creation and infrastructure, all key components in our efforts to build a new Virginia economy," McAuliffe said in a written statement.

Among local recipients, the city of Bristol received $100,000 for a passenger rail study, Damascus got nearly $500,000 for a downtown development project, the Barter Foundation received $500,000, the Crooked Road will get $250,000

ARC funds are broadly aimed at providing economic development in the Appalachian Region by funding projects that support the goal of building a strong and sustainable asset-based economy by bringing jobs to Appalachian communities while preserving their character and embracing their assets, according to the statement. During this years competitive cycle for ARC funding, 23 proposals were submitted, totaling more than $7.5 million.

Other recipients include:

* Big Stone Gap Big Stone Gap Visitors Center $ 85,931

* Blue Ridge Center for Chinese Medicine Appalachian Medicinal Herb Growers Consortium  Phase II: Processing herbs and adding more farmers $ 125,930

* Henry County Bassett Historic Train Depot Restoration Project $ 500,000

* Mountain Empire Community College Healthcare Simulation Access $ 100,000

* Galax The Wired Road Authority Wired Road Connector Project $ 300,000

* Lee County Elydale Water Line Replacement $ 140,000

* Scott County Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence  Duffield Satellite $ 142,937

* New River Valley Regional Commission Old School Food Center at Prices Fork $ 500,000

* Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development Planning Grants $ 122,625
A Moravia man was arrested Friday night for drunk driving after crashing a pickup truck into four parked vehicles before coming to a rest in front of a Marcellus residence, according to the New York State Police.

Troopers said 51-year-old Michael D. Keehfus was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated and first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, both felonies, along with multiple traffic violations.

The allegations stem from an incident that occurred at around 8:40 p.m. last Friday. Troopers driving along Route 174 in Marcellus were flagged down by passing motorists to the scene of an accident in the area of a residence, according to state police.

Troopers said on-scene investigators responded and found the pickup truck and the four parked vehicles. The parked vehicles were there for a gathering, while the pickup truck was found at a rest against the residence's front porch, according to state police.

Keehfus was taken into custody at the scene following an investigation, troopers said. Following his arraignment in Town of Marcellus Court, Keehfus was remanded into the Onondaga County Justice Center at $25,000 cash bail, $50,000 bond.

The Moravia man will return to court at Wednesday.
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.
Insider: A QB change won't save IU's season. It's already lost.

IU quarterback Connor Bazelak's struggles have IU fans suggesting change, but at this point change might not make much difference.
IREDELL COUNTY -- A motorcyclist was critically injured when he crashed while trying to elude a N.C. Highway Patrol trooper Monday afternoon, authorities said.

First Sgt. Brian Owenby of the N.C. Highway Patrol said the communications center in Salisbury received a call about a motorcycle being operated at a high rate of speed and in a reckless manner.

Trooper J.N. Chapman said he spotted the motorcycle traveling at about 80 mph near the 157 mile marker on Interstate 40. He turned his vehicle around in the median and the motorcycle accelerated to more than 100 mph, he said.

Chapman closed in on the bike and it continued west on Interstate 40, exiting at Stamey Farm Road.

As the motorcycle approached the stop sign at the intersection with Island Ford Road, the operator braked and went across Island Ford Road, Chapman said. The bike struck an embankment and went airborne, landing in a yard. The unidentified operator was thrown several feet, coming to rest in a driveway.

The operator was taken via Iredell EMS to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

No other information was immediately available.
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After the Kupwara flare-up on Friday, Indian Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag called up defence minister Manohar Parrikar to brief him on the incident. Before the chief even began to speak, Parrikar told him about the incident and the counter-strategy to be adopted by the army to control the spread of violence in Kashmir Valley.

A surprised general asked the minister whether the incident has been reported on TV. A top navy officer went through a similar experience a week before when Parrikar questioned him about an incident involving a warship in Mumbai harbour. Parrikar is on top of his job. And so indeed are many of the other ministers. But the same cannot be said of the bureaucrats who are meant to keep the machinery of government running smoothly.

Let us take the example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A lengthy sectoral presentation by the Niti Aayog before the PM was cut short at 9.30 pm over a week-end last month due to lack of information on the civil aviation sector. Modi jokingly berated the bureaucrats, asking them what he would do going home so early. Nearly two years after he was sworn in as PM, the common refrain is that while the Modi ministers (barring some) are working diligently, the implementation of the schemes and policies leaves much to be desired.

The reasons are not far to seek. The resident bureaucracy is proving to be a drag on the government, thanks to over-cautious decision-making and lack of vision and interest or both. For a large section of the bureaucracy  military or civilian  it is just another job with little accountability. However, much pain is taken to ensure that the turf is protected and silos guarded. No one seems to care that the Modi PMO works 24x7 with principal secretary Nripendra Mishra a permanent resident of South Block or National Security Adviser Ajit Doval constantly on the move from South Block to Sardar Patel Bhawan to the international airport for official trips. Despite the limitations of the partys bench strength, Modi is expected to reshuffle his Cabinet next month. He is likely to weed out indifferent non-performers.

READ: PM Modis cabinet recast, Shahs party rejig likely in late May

This is also the time for the PM to shake up the bureaucracy. After all, two years is enough time for civil servants to get over their UPA hangover. The PM was quite aware that the bureaucracy was the permanent opposition in residence from May 2014. But he gave them enough time to reform and change. This path of patience has not worked despite the carrots of the Seventh Pay Commission or the One-Rank-One-Pension scheme.

With three years left for the next general elections in 2019, Modi should grasp the nettle when it comes to babudom. He must give preference to merit using the route of deep selections and not go by the seniority principle in top military and civilian postings. Towards the end of its tenure, the AB Vajpayee government moved towards meritocracy by appointing home and defence secretaries through deep selections. This was reversed by the UPA-I through the insidious tarnishing of the reputations of those civil servants.

READ: To keep Swachh Bharat on track, PM Modi gets outside help

One of the first steps in the reform of the bureaucracy by the government should be an end to job extensions to civilian bureaucrats. This is an incentive to make them malleable to the pressures of the party in power. It also enables dithering in decision-making so that errors of commission are eliminated. This system of rewards in the form of governorships, staff cars and State-subsidised bungalows in Lutyens Delhi must end.

One solution is to divide jobs between regulators and line appointments. On reaching at the age of 55, the bureaucracy should be asked to choose between the two careers. Those interested in regulation should be allowed to continue till 65 years while other follow the direct line operations till 60 or, in exceptional cases, 62 years.

The next step that needs to be taken is to consider three batches of civil services at one go for a better choice of officers at the joint secretary level and remove the deadwood on the basis of non-selection in three years. Given that some secretary-level jobs require a high degree of skill and technical expertise like in the areas of nuclear, climate change, civil aviation, cyber security, counter-terrorism, power and defence acquisition, the government should look at filling these posts through lateral entries. It could look at filling 25%of the requirement from the private sector at the level of additional secretary and above. For the bureaucracy to perform, bona fide mistakes must be condoned, and merit, initiative and hard work rewarded with important assignments overlooking any political considerations. Wearing ones honesty on ones sleeve alone cannot be the sole criterion of suitability. A bureaucrat is expected to be honest. This cannot be used as a justification to delay decision-making as is seen to be done by officials serving in defence. This sector is the key to the flagship Make in India programme, and the finance ministry.

The government also needs to energise internal security by first injecting fresh blood into the intelligence agencies at the senior level and then getting them on the same page by breaking existing silos. Intelligence agencies have been largely reduced to dumping grounds for officers from politically uncomfortable postings at the state level and who have sought central jobs.

This has meant that accountability is often judged by the number of security alerts issued on a given day. While one acknowledges the supreme sacrifices made by the men and women of the Indian armed forces particularly the Indian Army, there must be strong accountability at the leadership level so that the country is not taken by surprise as in the 1962 China war or 1999 in Kargil.

Visionary military leadership seems to be missing in the field as well as in innovation. This has meant a distinct lack in producing India-specific doctrines. Nearly 69 years after Independence, the government and in-house strategists are still grappling with short- and long-term objectives on our neighbours, particularly Pakistan. The Indian growth story is promising. But the government can capitalise on it only by making the bureaucracy more effective in the speedy implementation of its policies. The argument that the CBI, the CVC or the CAG prohibits effective decision-making by civil servants is a self-defeating one. This let down the UPA-2 regime. The NDA should learn from those mistakes.

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With the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan being launched with a vengeance, it would seem that at long last, the drive for sanitation is getting a new lease of life.

There are 2.5 billion people in the world who still defecate in the open, of which Indians comprise 630 million. The recent findings of the National Family Health Survey for 2015-16 show that there is a discrepancy: Only a quarter of households in Bihar use a toilet while 78% do so in Goa.

At a South Asian sanitation conference in Dhaka recently, the Bangladesh government announced that it has eradicated open defecation. This places a big question mark on how a country, which is otherwise seen as backward, has stolen a march over its South Asian neighbours, including India.

This, all the more so when India fares better than Bangladesh in many other human development indices. In the 2015 Human Development Report, India at 130 is higher up the ladder in its indices than Bangladesh, at 142. If educational standards are looked at, India also does better with 63% of adults being able to read and write, as opposed to 59% in its neighbour. However, when it comes to infant and under-five mortality rates and child malnutrition, which leads to stunting, Bangladesh fares better.

Read | PM Modis Swachh Bharat Mission floundering in urban India

There is an umbilical link between better sanitation and nutrition, since a child who is suffering from chronic diarrhoea is unable to retain food and this also has a bearing on her physical development. However, the connection between the two is seldom realised. When a community defecates close to its habitation it is, to put it bluntly, eating its own waste.

The question that also needs to be asked is how the neighbouring state of West Bengal doesnt display the same sanitation indices. According to the National Family Health Survey, only half the households in the state have toilets. Some of these may have fallen into disuse, are not used or put to other purposes like storing goods.

The problem is that for too many decades, and even in the ongoing Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the emphasis is only on building toilets. Under the programme, India needs to build 12 lakh toilets by 2019, but has so far only constructed a tenth of this number. In recent years, it has become evident that even rural families which can afford the cost of a modest toilet do not see the need for one because they consider defecating in the fields more hygienic and a traditional practice. They do not understand that by doing so, they are polluting overground and underground water bodies and exposing themselves and their children to debilitating diseases.

Read | Cleanliness still a distant dream for EWS Colony

The Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank often cites the case of a farmer in Haryana who proudly reports how he packs his family into his Maruti every morning in order to perform their ablutions in the nearest available fields. Obviously, cost isnt a factor for such families, but they simply dont perceive the need for a toilet.

A supreme irony is that the champion of an alternative approach, known as Community-Led Total Sanitation or CLTS, is the Kolkata-based development expert, Kamal Kar. His CLTS Foundation has been advising Bangladesh for the past 16 years. Originally, he had to run the gauntlet of the state public health departments and bilateral or multilateral aid agencies which believed in what he calls a tsunami of toiletisation  indiscriminately providing subsidies for villagers to built toilets.

According to the National Sample Survey Organisation, out of 9.5 million toilets built in rural India in the first year of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (2014-15), only 46% were being used. In the current financial year, as much as `4,600 crore has been allocated for sanitation. This comprises 80% of the cost; states  sanitation is a state subject  provide the rest.

Read | Government allocates Rs 9,000 crore for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in Budget

Under the CLTS, the community mobilises itself to make people aware of the health hazards of open defecation. In Bangladesh, there has been a culture of social mobilisation across several development programmes, so it was easier for the government and NGOs to work together to eliminate such practices. Rather than a supply-driven drive, it is a demand-driven approach that works. By contrast, in India, there is a politics of patronage, with those in power wanting to be seen as intervening on behalf of people.

Even in West Bengal, Kalyani has demonstrated the benefits of CLTS and declared itself open-defecation free in 2006. This was made possible when communities took the lead in triggering awareness and enabled slum dwellers to build their own toilets. The community threw up its own leaders who began to monitor the progress of the programme. The district of Nadia in the same state was declared open-defecation free in April last year, but it has followed the earlier subsidy-driven approach with World Bank support. From time to time, towns and districts may be similarly tagged, but their progress isnt necessarily monitored to ensure that they stay that way.

Darryl DMonte is chairperson, Forum of Environmental Journalists of India. The views expressed are personal.
Kolkata

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticising Bengal chief secretary Basudeb Banerjees reply to a show cause notice issued by the Election Commission to Mamata Banerjee, the poll panel rejected the reply and told the bureaucrat that the chief of the ruling party has to reply to the notice herself.

The notice has become a subject of political spat with Mamata Banerjee slamming the poll panel for the notice that she almost interpreted as an insult.

According to sources, R K Srivastava, the principal secretary of EC, telephoned Basudeb Banerjee on Monday and told him that the commission cant accept his reply because the notice was issued to the individual and not the head of the government.

While the chief secretary did not take HTs calls, Mamata Banerjee reacted promptly.

There is no difference between the chief secretary replying to the notice or I doing it myself, she said while addressing in an election rally in Memari in Burdwan district.

People will definitely reply to those (EC) who are parroting the words of others. We wont tolerate this torture, she said.

On Sunday Modi sharply criticised the chief secretarys reply to EC. I learnt that the chief secretary replied to the show cause notice. This is the biggest violation of the EC rules. The notice was issued not to the chief minister but to the Trinamool Congress chief, and the party, or its lawyer, or Mamata Banerjee herself should have replied. But the chief secretary replied to it and this constitutes misusing the government machinery, remarked Modi at a public meeting in Nadia.

He also remarked how late Indira Gandhi had to sit out for six years for misusing the government machinery.

The EC issued a show cause notice to Mamata Banerjee for her comments in a recent rally in Asansol where she said a new district will be carved out of Asansol.

In another rally in the area she had also announced that all illegal coal mines would be legalised after consultation with the coal ministry. The commission felt that the announcements constituted violation of the model code.

CPI-M, Congress and BJP have welcomed the ECs rejection. CPI-M leader Samik Lahiri demanded that both Mamata and Basudeb Banerjee must reply to the commission clarifying why was he was so proactive to respond to the show-cause notice.

We have already moved EC demanding it should seek clarifications from the chief secretary. Trinamool Congress chief is using government officers for elections. She must have to clarify to the EC, said Rahul Sinha, former Bengal BJP president.

On the other hand, Trinamool supported the chief secretarys move. In a statement issued by the party on Sunday soon after Modis speech in Krishnanagar the prty said, The chief secretary replying to the show cause notice was in order because it was issued to the chief minister.

The poll panels letter is a public document and the prime minister can have this online, the statement said.

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It seems like the entire country is behind screen legend Dilip Kumar following his recent illness. And now, a lovely new picture of the star with his wife Saira Banu is trending on social media.

Dilip Kumar was admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai on Saturday after he complained of respiratory problems.

I got a call that he was unwell. He had fever and had vomited a few times. He was suffering from pneumonia as well. His white blood cells had shot up. We thought it would be better to admit him to hospital, Dr Jalil Parkar of Lilavati Hospital.

Read: Dilip Kumar admitted to hospital, doctor says next 72 hours crucial

Wishes poured in from across the country including Amitabh Bachchans, who tweeted spoke to Saira ji on sms .. Dilip saheb is doing well .. and we all pray for his speedy recovery ..

spoke to Saira ji on sms .. Dilip saheb is doing well .. and we all pray for his speedy recovery .. https://t.co/MACIB379e9  Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) April 16, 2016

And now, a picture of Saira Banu and Dilip Kumar, in which the couple are seen together as the actor recovers, is trending on social media. The photograph shows the actor resting in bed as Saira Banu looks on.

(Twitter)

According to an update provided by Saira Banu on Dilip Kumars Twitter account, the actor is recovering well.

Read: Saira Banu says Dilip Kumar recovering well, to be discharged soon

Called the tragedy king of Bollywood, he also featured in Kranti, Shakti, Karma and Saudagar. His last film was Qila in 1998. Kumar was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2015. Earlier, he was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1991 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema.

(Twitter)

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Could it be that director Ram Gopal Varma, who gave us contemporary Hindi classics such as Satya, Company, Shool and Sarkar before slipping into oblivion with duds like Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag, has got his mojo back? Seems like he has, if the Hindi trailer of his upcoming film Veerappan, released online on Monday, is anything to go by.

The manhunt to nap the dreaded Sandalwood bandit is the biggest chase Asia has ever seen. Even as the nearly two-and-half minute trailer takes us deep into the heavily-wooded jungles of South India where Veerappans writ runs large, Ramu establishes the fact that this manhunt might just have been bigger than even that to capture Osama Bin Laden -- 97 slain cops, 184 civilians dead, 900 dead elephants and Rs 734 crores spent to capture the dreaded dacoit.

Watch the trailer of Veerappan here:

The film begins right away with the planning of Operation Cocoon. This was a mission headed by the Commander of the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force, Vijay Kumar, who masterminded the final assault on Veerappan. The films trailer gives us the feel and context of the film, right from the word go.

Read: RGV is clearly in awe of Sandeep Bharadwaj, his Veerappan

Read: This is Sandeep Veerappan Bharadwaj before his make-over

Veerappan is the Hindi remake of Ram Gopal Varmas Kannada directorial debut Killing Veerappan which released on January 1, 2016. The films find is the NSD-trained Sandeep Bhardwaj, whose transformation into Veerappan has been credited to make-up artist Vikram Gaikwad.

The remake stars Sachiin J Joshi, Usha Jadhav and Lisa Ray, apart from Sandeep Bhardwaj in the titular role. Aniket Khandagale is the cinematographer of the film and Jeet Ganguly has scored its music. It is scheduled for release in May 2016.
Declining for 16th straight month in March, exports contracted 5.47% to $22.71 billion in the month, as shipments of petroleum and engineering products shrunk sharply due to tepid global demand.

For 2015-16, exports fell 15.8% to a five-year low of $261.13 billion due to fragile global demand and low commodity prices.

Imports dipped 15.28% to $379.6 billion in 2015-16, leaving a trade deficit of $118.45 billion. The trade gap was $137.69 billion in 2014-15.

Oil imports in the last month were valued at $4.79 billion, 35.3% lower than the year-ago period. Non-oil imports, too, dipped 17.92% to $22.98 billion. Gold imports also dipped in March, falling 80.48% to $972.96 million. Declining gold and oil imports are likely to keep a lid on the current account deficit.

The commerce ministry said the trend of falling exports is in line with major world economies.

Analysts, however, said prospects for export growth remain bleak, with global trade forecast to expand by just 2.8% in 2016 by the World Trade Organisation.

The figures are alarming. Immediate steps like creating of a fund to enhance marketing activities need to be announced, said Rafeeq Ahmed, former FIEO president and chairman of Council for Leather Exports.

We expect Indian exports to continue performing poorly in 2016-17 due to subdued global economic growth and still-depressed commodity prices, said Chua Han Teng of BMI Research, a unit of rating agency Fitch. Additionally, strength of the Indian rupee in real effective exchange rate terms will also have a negative impact on the countrys exports.

In Asia, Chinas exports returned to growth in March for the first time in nine months, another sign of stabilisation in the worlds second-largest economy.

India economy is expected to grow 7.5% this year and next, according to the International Monetary Fund. Its current account deficit remained under control at 1.3% of GDP in the October-December quarter.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley had said earlier, There are concerns about export growth, which is declining consecutively for more than a year due to slowdown in global demand.
There appears to be no love lost between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the nine rebel Congress MLAs, who are considering floating their own political party for the 2017 assembly elections.

Supporters of most of the rebel leaders remain confident that the BJP would deliver on its promise to give them tickets, but a few are already gearing for an unfavourable turn of events.

All nine of us have been promised tickets by the BJP, said a rebel leader on condition of anonymity. (We) were categorically told by the BJP leadership in Delhi that seats on which saffron candidates were weak would be offered to (us).

However, well-placed sources close to three rebel legislators said their confidence in the BJPs promise was waning of late. This, the supporters said, is because of the lack of communication from BJP leaders.

Sources in the BJP said they could not rely on the Congress rebels because their assembly membership was quashed and unlikely to be revoked. If the saffron party wanted to form the government in the state, it would instead lean towards independent MLAs who supported the Harish Rawat dispensation.

There was no deal as such with the BJP for tickets, said Vijay Chauhan, a close aide of Congress rebel Harak Singh Rawat. The rebellion was against then chief minister Harish Rawat not against Congress.

My leader doesnt need any help from any quarter as he is capable enough to win from any assembly segment in 2017 state elections. Records speak for themselves, he added.

Nonetheless, the rebels are feeling the heat as the BJP shifts focus away from them.

It appears they (the BJP) may disclaim their promise made to us, ...forcing us to take our own recourse, said a legislator whose supporters in Congress said they are preparing to float a new political party.
Six persons, including two children, died and 36 others were injured in two separate LPG cylinder blasts in the city on Monday.

One of the explosions took place in East Delhis Gandhinagar area and the other in southeast Delhis Bhagwan Nagar, Sunlight Colony.

Three persons, including a woman, died and eleven others sustained severe burn wounds after a cylinder exploded inside a house in Gandhinagar area on Monday around 8 pm.

The cylinder reportedly burst into pieces and its shrapnels flung across the building damaging several other houses in the vicinity. Bricks came down, ACs were damaged and windowpanes broken. The children playing in the colony along with the passersby also sustained severe injuries as structures fell on them. A police team reached the spot and the inspection was on till late on Monday night.

The police said the fire started from the house of one Sanjay Kashyap, an advocate, who was not at home at the time of the incident. Some labourers were reportedly cooking food on the second floor of his building when the cylinder exploded.

Kashyaps wife Poonam (34) and father Soni Kashyap (64) died on the spot and his children, Naina (4), Girish (6) and Krish (12) sustained severe burn wounds and have been admitted to the hospital. Kashyaps neighbour, Rajesh Goyal (50), who lived in the opposite building also died after a shrapnel hit him in the head.

Officials from the Delhi Fire Services said that a dozen tenders were rushed to the spot. Since the lanes are narrow, the fire spread to the rest of the house very quickly, a senior fire official said.

Officials said the fire started after an LPG cylinder caught fire at a lawyers house in lane number 17 of the area. The electricity supply of the colony was disconnected after the cylinder blast.

Hours later, a similar case of LPG cylinder blast was reported from southeast Delhis Bhagwan Nagar, Sunlight Colony leaving three, including two children, dead.

The fire broke out in the three-storeyed building around 8:20 pm and Mamta (30), Priyanka (1) and Pritika (9) were charred to death. Mamta had reportedly jumped out of the building, along with the two children, but died on impact.

Seven fire tenders were pressed into action. Some residents who were trapped inside the buildings jumped down in a state of panic. Out teams have managed to control the blaze, the fire official said.

According to the police the fire started on the first floor of the house after a short circuit led to a cylinder blast. The fire spread to the entire building within minutes and many residents were trapped inside. More than 25 persons were said to be injured in the fire.

The police have registered a case and the investigation is on.
Day four of the Delhi governments odd-even experiment began with reports of major traffic snarls emerging from various parts of the city.

Traffic congestion was witnessed at ITO, Nizamuddin Bridge, Ashram and city borders on Monday morning, the Delhi Traffic Police said, adding that they had to deploy over 2,000 personnel on city streets to regulate the peak hour rush.

Read: Monday begins with traffic snarls on Delhi-Gurgaon e-way

Police actively prosecuted violators of the odd-even rule at the Delhi-Gurgaon border, causing a one-kilometre-long traffic jam at Mahipalpur. Adding to the congestion issue was the ongoing construction work at the Nehru Place-Chirag Delhi flyover, an area that the traffic police advised city residents to avoid through Twitter messages.

The second phase of the odd-even experiment was launched on April 15 to reduce the alarming levels of air pollution in the city.

Read: Odd-even in Delhi: Stop drama and publicity stunt, BJP tells AAP

As most of the city schools re-opened after a four-day break, parents were seen dropping their children off much before 8 am. Many among them, however, were unsure of how to pick them up from school in the afternoon. While some said they would take autorickshaws, others planned to use their two-wheelers for the purpose.

The more resourceful among city residents decided to car-pool with other parents to pick their children. Prerna, whose son studies in Springdales Pusa Road, said: I have an odd-numbered car and another parent has an even-numbered car. We have decided to take turns at dropping and picking our children on alternate days.

App-based cab services  for their part  made the most of the situation, with many commuters complaining of steep surge pricing. I have taken a screen grab of the fare, which showed the price surging by five times. I was forced to take the cab because there was no other option, said a woman journalist who paid Rs 800 for an Uber ride from Janakpuri to Connaught Place.

Read: Gopal Rai expresses hope as odd-even in Delhi undergoes real test today

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Vijay Goel decided to protest against chief minister Arvind Kejriwals wasteful advertisements to promote the rule by driving out of his Ashoka Road residence in his odd-numbered car, only to be stopped by the traffic police. Goel was fined Rs 2,000 for violating the odd-even rule, and an addition Rs 1,500 for not possessing his driving licence and insurance papers.

An hour prior to this, Delhi transport minister Gopal Rai had visited Goel at his residence and  handing the MP a bouquet of roses  requested him to reconsider breaking the rule.

Goel had told HT on Saturday that he was not against the odd-even scheme, but rather the manner in which the Kejriwal government was wasting money through advertisements to propagate it.
The $940-million fine slapped by a US jury on Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in an alleged case of trade secret misuse is a wake-up call for Indias information technology sector as it enters a new phase of growth. TCS, the nations largest software exporter, has decided to contest the verdict. The fine is more than half the annual revenue of Epic Systems, the company that is suing TCS on the grounds that it downloaded confidential data that could be used to advantage a rival. TCS and Epic interacted in serving a common client. Beyond the merits of the case, which is for courts to decide, we think it is time for Indias software industry and the government to take note of the case that may have profound implications. Indias IT industry has come a long way over the past five decades, with several hurdles on the way. TCS used to be described as a body shopper for shipping out software engineers to the US as it pioneered outsourced services. Since then the IT-business process outsourcing (BPO) industry has faced questions on quality and data privacy and visa-related restrictions and charges. Each of these has been addressed or confronted.

Read | TCS shares fall 2% on $940-million fine in US

Indias software industry is now a mature one with revenues in excess of $150 billion and the competitive edge is shifting from low-cost labour to sophisticated design, product creation and the use of artificial intelligence as new opportunities such as the Internet of Things and cloud computing throw up new challenges. In this new phase, intellectual property (IP) can be an asset, while disputes over IP can cause friction with attendant damage risks. The now-defunct Satyam Computer Services fought a case with UKs Upaid Systems in one such dispute that showed how improper documentation can be a pitfall in a relationship gone sour.

Read | Hiking H-1B visa fee may drive jobs abroad, says study

Indias IT companies need to be educated on both the potential and the problems in an IP-driven strategy. Yesterdays client can be todays collaborator and tomorrows competitor. A years-long dispute between South Koreas Samsung and USs Apple shows that IP tussles can actually be used as tactics in a cut-throat marketplace, with many shades of grey. A South Korean court once ruled that both companies had infringed on each others patents, while a $548-million US fine on Samsung is pending an appeal. Corporate battles can sometimes mask trade wars between nations and local jurisprudence can potentially turn unfair. The government must keep its options open to step in and help Indian companies in bodies like the World Trade Organisation (WTO) where overseas courts may be guided by narrow protectionism. Vigilance is critical.
The United States of America might be a superpower, but it has presidents who have feet of clay. No this is not about the Lewinsky scandal involving the 42nd President Bill Clinton, but of commissions and omissions of a graver nature that have destabilised international peace and pushed nations into chaos.

Recently, in an interview to a news channel, US President Barack Obama has said that the worst mistake of his presidency was failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya. Mr Obama deserves praise for admitting the mistake, especially because he has done it while still in office. Economic and geopolitical interests have seen US misadventure in West Asia for more than three decades now.

Read | Obama calls Libya his worst mistake

But often realisation dawns on presidents once they leave Capitol Hill  Mr Obamas predecessor George W Bush, in his 2010 memoir Decision Points while referring to US 2003 invasion of Iraq, says that there are things we got wrong in Iraq and in 2008 Mr Clinton said that I do feel a lifetime responsibility for the 1994 Rwanda genocide. For the Iraq misadventure former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also apologised for the mistake in planning what would happen after Saddam Hussein was removed.

That said Mr Obamas decision to join Frances Nicolas Sarkozy and Britains David Cameron to invade Libya and topple its dictator Muammar Gaddafi is one of the many mistakes by the the US 44th President. His failure to give Iraq a truly representative government, his failure to tackle the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and his silence over Abdel Fattah el-Sisis dictatorship in Egypt, are some of Mr Obamas mistakes in West Asia.

Read | Nurse and her son from Kerala killed in Libya shell attack

If one pans the focus towards the east, Mr Obamas policies in Afghanistan have been a continuation of the agony started by Mr Bush. As far as India is concerned, Mr Obamas worst mistake would be his inability to hold Pakistan accountable for its role in spreading terror.

To be fair to him, Mr Obama inherited some of the problems in West Asia. But for a Nobel laureate president who showed promise in his New Beginning speech in Cairo in 2009 and who put his full weight behind the nuclear deal with Iran, West Asia today is not a safer place than when it was in 2008 when he took office.

Read | A Republican president will tear up Iran deal: US commentator Pipes

World leaders, especially US presidents forget that ...great responsibility follows inseparably from great power. The next president will do well to keep this in mind. He/she must think of adopting a much more nuanced approach and shed the predilection for adopting a Wild West approach towards spreading democracy around the world. One way to further international peace and stability will be to respect and mediate through world bodies like the United Nations.
Five lakh teachers in Madhya Pradesh may lose their jobs as they are teaching without a diploma in education or bachelors in education degree, a prerequisite to teach in schools under right to education (RTE).

The matter came to light during the meeting of Madhya Pradesh Private School Association held recently where delegates compiled data on teachers teaching without required qualification.

The RTE Act, which came into force in April 2010, makes it mandatory for all private schools to seek state governments recognition, which is renewable every three years. Institutions failing to obtain the certificate can be deemed derecognised. Heavy fines can also be slapped on them under provisions of the Act.

To secure recognition a school must comply with 10 norms under the RTE Act, including the minimum qualification for a teacher (diploma in education or bachelors in education degree).

Private School Association to submit a memo to state MPs

The Private School Association is planning to submit a memorandum of demands to state MPs by the first week of May requesting them to consider teachers, who have three years teaching experience as trained, and not shunt them away.

According to our research, there is already a shortage of about 53,000 teachers in the state. If 5 lakh teachers are forced to leave their jobs, how will the schools operate? Moreover, how will these teachers live if their bread and butter are snatched? said PSA secretary Ajeet Singh.

It is not possible for these teachers to teach anymore: DEO

Meanwhile, district education officer (DEO), Dharmendra Sharma said it was not possible for these teachers to teach anymore. RTE norms have to be strictly followed in schools. We are not even renewing the recognition for schools if RTE norms are not met and being D Ed or B Ed is the minimum qualification for a teacher as per the RTE rules. So if these qualifications are not found then it is possible that the recognition of such schools will be cancelled.

Many of these teachers did apply for D Ed and B Ed, but it is very unfortunate that their applications were made to disappear by some powerful stakeholders. If they are forced by the schools to resign from their jobs then we will not only approach the CM, but will also meet Union education minister to find a way out, said state head of Private School Association HK Shukla.

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As Charlie Chaplin finished out his long life on his bucolic Swiss manor, the former silent film star worried about drifting into oblivion, his connoisseurs say.

Little chance of that. The legacy of the Hollywood legend behind The Dictator and Modern Times lives on today in the minds of stars like Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr., in Broadway plays and in the general cultural consciousness. But he never had bricks-and-mortar museum honouring his life and achievements.

Watch a trailer for City Lights here

That changes Sunday with the public opening of Chaplins World, a multimillion-dollar project in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey. Its director-general says the museum is the first of its kind in the world to honour Chaplin, and has added value because its at a place he called home for years.

The Manoir de Ban is pictured during a media visit of Chaplin's World, an interactive museum celebrating the life and works of comic actor Charlie Chaplin, in Corsier near Vevey, Switzerland. (REUTERS)

The Manoir de Ban is where Chaplin lived his last 25 years raising children, writing music and movie scripts, and contemplating his legacy far from the glare of the Hollywood spotlight. Visitors can see his trademark bowler hat and cane, a replica studio, black-and-white photographs from his career, and the bedroom where he died at age 88 in 1977.

Portraits of Charlie Chaplin are pictured above his bed during a media visit of Chaplin's World, an interactive museum celebrating the life and works of the comic actor, in Corsier near Vevey, Switzerland. (REUTERS)

Working with Paris Grevin museum, which is known for its wax figures, managers have displayed a number of figures of Chaplin as well as friends like Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill on the green 14-hectare (35-acre) grounds along Lake Geneva, said Jean-Pierre Pigeon, the Swiss-Canadian director of Chaplins World.

He was not just resting here, he was working. He was part of the region, said Pigeon. He was able to live a normal life here. He found the right life-work balance here in Switzerland. In England, he was really poor, in the United States, he was really successful in his career and money-wise, but his real happiness was here for 25 years.

About two dozen of his children and grandchildren were on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday, which was Chaplins birthday.

Vaud State councillor Philippe Leuba, Chaplin's World Musuem developer Philippe Meylan and Charlie Chaplin's sons Michael and Eugene cut the ribbon as they inaugurate Chaplin's World Musuem in Corsier-sur-Vevey, western Switzerland. (AFP)

Organizers are hoping for more than 300,000 visits per year, Pigeon said, boosted by a nearby chocolate factory and a medieval castle.

What would the famed English-born actor and director think about Chaplins World?

I think his first reaction would probably be Oooh! Pigeon said with a chuckle. But there was one thing he was scared of: being forgotten. So this is a good way to broaden his notoriety.

A place where people can laugh and get emotion: Thats what he would have wanted, Pigeon said.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Actor Johnny Depps wife Amber Heard pleaded guilty on Monday to providing a false immigration documents amid allegations she smuggled the couples dogs into Australia.

Prosecutors dropped two more serious charges that Heard illegally imported the Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country last year, when Depp was filming the fifth movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. A conviction on the illegal importation counts could have sent Heard to prison for up to 10 years. The false documents charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a fine of more than 10,000 Australian dollars ($7,650).

The hearing in Southport Magistrates Court on Queensland states Gold Coast was temporarily adjourned on Monday to allow the judge time to review documents.

The debacle over the dogs began last May, when Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce accused Depp of smuggling the tiny terriers aboard his private jet when he returned to Australia to resume filming the Pirates movie.

Read: Amber Heard the call to join Jason Momoa in Aquaman and Justice League

Australia has strict quarantine regulations to prevent diseases such as rabies from spreading to its shores. Bringing pets into the country involves applying for a permit and quarantine on arrival of at least 10 days.

If we start letting movie stars - even though theyve been the sexiest man alive twice - to come into our nation (with pets), then why dont we just break the laws for everybody? Joyce said at the time. Its time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States.

Amber Heard, wife of actor Johnny Depp arrives at the Southport Magistrates Court on Australia's Gold Coast. (REUTERS)

Depp and Heard were given 72 hours to send Pistol and Boo back to the US, with officials warning that the dogs would otherwise be euthanized. The pooches boarded a flight home just hours before the deadline ran out.

The comments by Joyce, who is now the deputy prime minister of Australia, elevated what might otherwise have been a local spat into a global delight for comedians and broadcasters. One newspaper ran a doggie death countdown ticker on its website that marked the hours remaining before the dogs had to flee the country, and comedian John Oliver dedicated a more than 6-minute segment to lampooning the ordeal.

Watch John Olivers segment here

Depp himself poked fun at the drama during a press conference in Venice last year where he was asked if he planned to take the dogs for a gondola ride. No, he replied. I killed my dogs and ate them, under direct orders from some kind of, I dont know, sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia.

Actor Johnny Depp and wife Amber Heard arrive at the Southport Magistrates Court on Australia's Gold Coast, April 18, 2016. (REUTERS)

Read: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard to boycott Australia

The couple was swarmed by reporters when they arrived at court Monday. They said little apart from Depp responding Fine, thank you, to reporters shouting questions about how they - and Pistol and Boo - were doing.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Armed with fresh revelations in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, the BJP on Monday launched a full scale attack on the Congress, accusing it of playing with national security in trying to frame then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a press conference that media reports on Monday established that the first affidavit, which accepted Jahan was an LeT operative and there was a plot to eliminate Modi, was also signed by then home minister P Chidambaram.

The media reports have now established that it was Chidambaram who also cleared the first affidavit, she said, accusing the Congress leader of acting at his party chief Sonia Gandhis behest to implicate Modi.

Based on RTI disclosures, a TV news channel claimed on Monday that Chidambaram had seen and signed the first affidavit, a fact that he has denied.

Sonia Gandhi cleverly worked on this. She went around the town claiming an encounter has happened. She worked together with Chidambaram and she cannot isolate herself on this, Sitharaman said. She alleged that the entire Congress party derived benefit out of this.

Pointing out that the second affidavit, also signed by Chidambaram, had removed reference of Ishrat being an LeT operative and the terror plot theory, the Union minister said the government also mislead the court and the country with two different positions.

Only one of the affidavits could have been true, Sitharaman said, adding, You did not event want to do justice to take care that there was a terror plot to eliminate him. You wanted to underplay it.

Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said former home minister P Chidambaram cannot escape from the responsibility now.

Rijiju said not only Chidambaram but entire Congress should take responsibility of changing the affidavit in the Ishrat case. He suspected that there was pressure on Chidambaram from elsewhere that made him take the decisions. He accused Chidambaram of failing in his duty as Union home minister by disapproving the intelligence inputs in the Ishrat case. On policy decision, action cannot be taken against Chidambaram but it needs to be exposed. How can a terrorist be declared as innocent? he said.

Chidambaram defends statements

Within hours of the BJP onslaught, Chidambaram said he would not like to comment without perusing the files and the noting.

My public statements on why the second affidavit was filed after due and full consultation with the home secretary and the attorney general are self-explanatory. I have nothing to add, he said in a statement.
Mehsana in Gujarat, the home district of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel, is on the boil again. Lalji Patel (39), who mentored Patidar OBC quota movement leader Hardik Patel, was injured on Sunday during clashes between Patidars and police, prompting community leaders to observe Gujarat bandh on Monday.

In an exclusive interview with HT from a hospital in Mehsana, this farmer says that Patidars are disappointed with the PM and that the community will vote out the BJP from power in the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections.

Patels have been staunch supporters of the BJP for three decades now. Do you think the handling of the quota issue by the state government will have any impact on the outcome of the 2017 assembly elections?

Definitely. The BJP is not going to come back to power. The issue will not only affect the BJP in the state, but also impact the party at the Centre. Youths have been charged with sedition for demanding their rights, protesters have been lathicharged and unsuspecting women and elders were beaten up by the police inside their homes. Patidars will give an answer to the BJP in the coming elections.

So, do Patels feel let down by Narendra Modi?

It has been a year since the agitation started but there has been no response from Modi. The PM should have intervened directly. We had elected them and now we will vote them out. We will support the party that accepts our demand for reservation.

The CM had said on Sunday that such agitations keep on happening. Do you think the situation would have been handled differently by any other chief minister?

The Anandiben government has from the very beginning taken an indifferent stand on the demands of her own community. Besides, seven Patidars are ministers in the Gujarat government. The top rung in the BJP has many leaders who are Patidars. On one hand the government calls for negotiations, on the other they do not let agitators even hold a protest. We believe any other leader would have handled the situation differently.

Do you think internal issues of the BJP (reported differences between Anandiben and party chief Amit Shah) are delaying the solution to the issue?

The BJP today is ridden with factionalism. That is also one of the reasons why the leaders have not been able to take a call on the Patidar issues.

Have you met Modi and Shah to discuss the issues?

We have made representations at every level.

The state government and BJP have maintained that reservation to Patels is not possible under constitutional provisions. Whats your take on that?

The Haryana government has proved that it is possible.

Read: Patel quota violence: Youth commits suicide in Surat

Read: Patel quota stir: Curfew in Mehsana, protesters call for shutdown

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The proposed bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will have to ferry 88,000-118,000 passengers per day, or undertake 100 trips daily, for the Railways to keep it financially viable, according to a report by the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

The report states if Railways set the ticket price at Rs 1,500 for 300-km drive per person 15 years after the operation, it will have to ferry between 88,000 and 110,000 passengers every day to ensure it repays the loans on time.

Japan has offered a concessional loan of Rs 97,636 crore to fund 80% of the project. For the remaining 20%, the authors assume an 8% average rate of interest (on Rs 20,000 crore to be funded by Centre). Japan has offered a 15-year moratorium on loan, so revenue concerns will arise from the 16th year. The paper was jointly authored by faculty members G Raghuram, professor of the institutes Public Systems Group, and Prashanth Udayakumar.

Fifteen years after the train becomes operational, the paper assumes two scenarios by pegging operating cost at 20% and 40% of revenue. If Railways earn Rs 100, Rs 20 or Rs 40 will go for maintenance, and remaining for cash payment of loan. To cover the loan with operating cost in two scenarios, we consider passengers travelling an average 300km. So we will need 88K-118K passengers respectively for both scenarios, Raghuram said.
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar raised several key issues with Chinese officials during meetings here on Monday, including Beijing blocking a move to sanction JeM chief Masood Azhar and the demarcation of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to reduce tensions.

Parrikar, who is on a five-day visit, also spoke about Chinas involvement in projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

He first met State Councilor and defence minister Chang Wanquan and then called on Gen Fan Changlong, vice-chairperson of the powerful Central Military Commission headed by President Xi Jinping.

Lots of bilateral issues were discussed. We generally agreed to enhance bilateral interaction both at the military-to-military level as well as the ministerial level, Parrikar told Beijing-based Indian journalists during a hurriedly conducted interaction.

Parrikar said he had conveyed his concerns about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to the Chinese side as the project will pass through PoK.

We made our stand very clearthat India has strong reservations on their (Chinas) activities in PoK. They noted our concerns. They explained that (the involvement) was on the economic aspect, with nothing against India from the defence or military side, he said.

Read: Sushma Swaraj raises Masood Azhar issue with Chinese foreign minister

The $46-billion CPEC is a high-profile part of Xis Belt and Road Initiative connecting China to Pakistans Gwadar port.

Parrikar was confident China would address Indias concerns. Our concerns were noted by them. I expect them to act on the concerns, he said.

He referred to China blocking a move by India to sanction Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar at the UN and said: It was not exactly the right direction they have taken and having a coordinated line on terrorism is in the interest of India and China.

The long-festering China-India border dispute figured prominently in Parrikars talks with Chinese officials. Border management was one of the important issues discussed and how to improve (the situation) was part of the discussion, he said.

We raised the actual marking of the LAC. It was one of the processes for a real, smooth border (situation). Otherwise, there is only the perception of the border and so it causes problems. We have concerns about this issue, he said.

We are insisting that this needs to be done to really ensure a very stable border...all the issues take place because of perception.

The lack of demarcation of the border means soldiers from both sides transgress the LAC, he said. Both countries, he said, are close to setting up a military-to-military hotline to quickly resolve incidents along the LAC.

India had proposed the setting up of the hotline but China handed back the proposal with some suggested changes on Monday.

Discussions were also held on opening new meeting points for soldiers from both said along the LAC. Currently, there are five such points. We discussed the confidence-building measures that have been put in place. (How to) enhance those measures, Parrikar said.

Chinese officials raised Indias increasingly vocal position on the South China Sea, where Beijing is embroiled in a number of disputes with its maritime neighbours over the ownership of reefs, islands and seas itself.

Parrikar said he had assured Chinese officials that India has an independent foreign policy based on its national interest. Indias foreign policy is autonomous, he said.

On Tuesday, Parrikar will call on Premier Li Keqiang and visit Chinas recently integrated western command military headquarters in Chengdu, which looks after the borders with India.

In Chengdu, he will interact with the commanding officer of the western theatre, Zhao Zongqi, and inspect the Special Operation Forces brigade.
Veteran actor Dilip Kumar, who was admitted to Lilavati hospital on Saturday morning for treatment of high fever and nausea, is likely to be discharged on Tuesday.

Dilip sir is fine now and all his reports are also normal. Once doctors give a heads up, he will probably get discharged by tomorrow, said Saira Banus manager Murshid Khan.

Also Read|Dilip Kumar admitted to hospital, doctor says next 72 hours crucial

The veteran actor suffered high fever and vomiting on Saturday morning following which he was rushed to Lilavati hospital.

Dilip Kumar was last seen in the film Qila in 1998. He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015.
Two days after Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray demanded shutting down of water supply to breweries in drought-hit Aurangabad in Marathwada region, the party on Monday said drinking beer instead of water is not our culture.

The Sena also took a veiled dig at state rural development minister Pankaja Munde for her comments that water supplied to industrial units is from their own quota and said the feeling among masses is that saving human lives should be the priority rather than saving industrial units.

There are 10 big industries in Marathwada that manufacture beer. A 20% water cut has been imposed on them keeping in view the prevalent drought conditions. But these industries also need to be saved as lives of thousands of people depend on them. The government needs to find a middle way immediately, the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana.

It said the government needs to understand that at present, water should only be used to save human lives.

It is not in our culture to drink beer instead of water and people residing in drought hit areas are not in a position to buy bottled drinking water, it said.

Some BJP ministers are of the view that beer manufacturing units should get uninterrupted supply of drinking water. But, people want that human lives should be saved first, it added.

Responding to Thackerays demand, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday had said that he had called for a report from the Aurangabad divisional commissioner on the sector-wise allocation of water to industrial companies and a decision on water supply would be taken after review.

However, Munde opposed the stopping of water to breweries and said, no additional water is being given to the breweries. The water supplied is within the quota reserved for industrial units.
A 35-year-old woman was found hanging from the ceiling fan of a hotel room in this Madhya Pradesh town on Monday morning, blaming in a yet-to-be-authenticated suicide note a forced same-sex relationship for the extreme step.

The note accuses the landlords wife and her sister-in-law of putting pressure on her to have a physical relationship with them, police said.

The woman  reportedly a divorcee from Mumbai  worked as an accountant of a private school in Gwalior, where she lived in a rented house in the Meera Nagar area of Morar.

Police recovered the note in a hotel near the railway station where she had checked in the previous evening. Besides, her mobile phone and personal belongings were found there. She had told her neighbours on Sunday that she was going to Mumbai.

The hotel staff broke open the door to her room at 10.20 am on Monday after her mobile phone went unanswered despite repeated attempts.

Additional superintendent of police Dinesh Kaushal said a probe team was examining the note and a WhatsApp message she sent on Sunday evening, which reveals her intent to commit suicide.

Residents of the locality gathered on the streets and demanded action against the suspects after coming to know of the WhatsApp message, which she had sent to her family in Mumbai as well. They dispersed after an assurance from police officers.

Police lodged a first information report based on the note, which means the two accused women will be arrested anytime soon.

People in the neighbourhood alleged that the two women have a dubious record, including running away from their home.
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday said the state government did not promise to withdraw cases against those found guilty of violence during the Jat stir in February.

Khattar was speaking after visiting the damaged properties in Rohtak on his third visit to the riot-hit city since February. In his first visit soon after the riots, he was heckled by angry traders forcing him to cut short the visit.

We never said that we would withdraw cases against those found guilty. The police have videos and CCTV footage and it is checking properly to make sure no innocent was arrested, Khattar said. His comments came in the wake of the protests taking place regularly across the state by Jat protesters demanding withdrawal of cases against youths belonging to their community. Jats have been demanding the release of their community members arrested in the agitation case.

On Monday, youths belonging to Jat Ekta Manch group in Rohtak gave a memorandum to deputy commissioner Atul Kumar to be handed over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing the Khattar government of not keeping its promise of withdrawing cases against the youths.

The chief minister visited the riot-hit areas and interacted with the victims to hear their grievances. He visited the burnt shops at Sukhpura Chowk and Model Town, and then visited finance minister Capt Abhimanyus house, which was burnt twice during the riots. Khattar said, Only monsters can carry out such heinous activities. The way the house was burnt shows a political conspiracy.

On complaints that traders were being forced to sign documents saying they were satisfied with the compensation given, Khattar said there was no obligation for anyone to sign the document. If traders are not happy with the compensation, they dont need to sign. The government is working seriously to make sure everyone is adequately compensated, he said.

On being asked about the governments action on the Prakash Singh committee report, Khattar said the committee was formed to look into the wrongdoings of police and civil administration. We will probe the matter once the report is out, he said.

VIPs visit Capt Abhimanyus house

Haryana finance minister Capt Abhimanyus house has become the centre of attraction for VIPs who have been thronging the place after it was burnt twice during the riots in February. The house on Monday was visited by the Haryana chief minister. Earlier, Union minister of state Sanjeev Balyan, along with four other BJP MPsBaghpat MP Satyapal Singh, West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma, Fatehpur Sikri MP Babulal and Sikar MP Sumedhanandignored other riot-hit properties in the city but visited Capts house. Yoga guru Ramdev also visited Abhimanyus house. Besides, a gathering of khap leaders from different states marks their attendance at Capts residence on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, the opposition called Abhimanyus house as a tourist site and accused these leaders of not visiting other riot-hit properties but only their party leaders house.
They were perched comfortably on spacious cages. Without a care in the world, they rolled and rolled  and purred, as a friendly crowd surrounding them went awwww.

Indias 6th International Cat Show, organised by the WorldCat Federation (WCF) and the Bangalore Veterinary College on Sunday, played host to an array of exotic breeds, with pedigree from around the world.

There was the Presian breed and the British Longhair. There was the Ragdoll breed and the Exotics, among others. And not just Bengaluru, participants came from Mysore, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Once the cats were bored, they inspected the food and the water tray, suspiciously looking at visitors, especially children who were trying to catch their attention.

It was a serious business for two South African judges from the WCF. They judged every cat in various categories.

This Persian cat named Stuffy impressed the crowd. (HT Photo)

Awaiz Abrar, who is in the business of manufacturing garments, said he had to juggle between work and taking care for his five Persian cats, of which four participated in the event.

Abrar said he spent around Rs. 1,500 every month on each cat.

I dont really care about the awards. For me, they are the best, he said.

One of the cats made Abrar proud in the show by winning in the Best Male category.

Mohammed Usama said his one-year-old Azlan, a Himalayan Persian, was imported from Germany at a cost of Rs. 3 lakh.

Aniket Chorge of Mumbai was accompanied by the 13-month-old Stuffy, whose enormous size caught everyones attention.

Another showstopper was the 10-month-old Chubby, a British Longhair. Her owner claimed the cat cannot stay without AC.

This is an annual event and our third year in Bangalore. The participants have to match the standards set by the WCF and they need to be well-groomed, said Shree Nair, president of the Indian Cat Federation.

(The writer is based in Bengaluru)
A committee on Yoga Education in Universities has recommended including yoga in the national eligibility test (NET) from this academic year to make it a more attractive career option for prospective teachers.

The panel  headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modis yoga guru HR Nagendra  also pitched for enrolling experts from institutes such as Baba Ramdevs Patanjali Yogpeeth as guest lecturers at various universities, and paying them in accordance with the salary norms of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

While yoga is currently taught at 52 institutions across the country, about 16 offer an MA degree in the discipline.

The human resources development (HRD) ministry and the UGC will now review the recommendations of the panel, which also drew the course outline for NET. We have completed (making a course outline of) the syllabus that will be taught at the universities, and the syllabus that will be used for NET, Nagendra told HT.

The HRD ministry had set up the yoga committee in January, following a consultative meeting chaired by Union minister Smriti Irani.

Read: Yoga guru Ramdev eyes obesity management

The committee has suggested that six courses at various levels  including certificate, diploma, degree, post-graduate degree/diploma and research  be launched at all central universities. Noting that varsities currently slot yoga under various disciplines such as sports, philosophy and education, it also recommended that a separate faculty  called yogic art and science  be created for it.

There are a number of yoga paramparas (traditions) that are followed across the country. Our task was to put in place a syllabus that will be accepted by all universities and bring in greater uniformity in this regard. We recommend that it be taught at all universities. Also, we have prepared the syllabus for all the six courses that will be offered, committee member Pundit Radheshyam Mishra, also the director of the Ujjain Yoga Life Society International, told HT.

He said that a report has been submitted to the UGC, and it will be given a final shape soon.

Read: Modi may lead second International Yoga Day in Chandigarh

While Mishra was tasked with preparing the syllabus for the certificate and diploma courses, Patanjali Yogpeeth prepared the syllabus for the masters degree in yoga. Since setting up a full-fledged faculty will take time, the committee has suggested the names of several yoga experts who can teach at the universities in the beginning, Mishra said, adding that a sub-committee will also be formed to prepare texts on yoga that can be published by the UGC and passed on to all central universities.

The yoga committee member said that including yoga in NET will go a long way in promoting the discipline as a career option. Post-graduates in yoga have been unable to get teaching jobs because there was no NET conducted for yoga. We have recommended that it be included as a subject from this academic year itself, Mishra said.

Click here for the complete list of subjects under NET.

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India attaches highest priority to its relations with China, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Monday as he kicked-off his visit to Beijing with a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, General Chang Wanquan, at the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) headquarters in Beijing.

Parrikar, who is on his maiden visit to China after assuming office, made brief opening remarks before beginning a two-hour meeting with Chang.

India attaches highest priority to relations with China and committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China, Parrikar said.

Parrikar is the first defence minister to visit China in three years with AK Antony being the last to visit in June, 2013.

On his part, Wang said the Indian defence ministers visit was expected to improve strategic mutual trust between the two armed forces.

After his meeting with Wang, Parrikar will hold talks with Gen Fan Changlong, vice-chairperson of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), headed by President Xi Jinping.

Later on Monday, he is expected to call on Premier Li Keqiang.

On Tuesday, Parrikar will visit Chinas recently integrated western command military headquarters in Chengdu, which looks after Chinas borders with India.

In Chengdu, he will interact with the commanding officer of the western theatre command, Zhao Zongqi, and inspect the Special Operation Forces brigade.

Read | India-US ties: Back home for the brave

On Monday, Chinas state media indicated that military officials might take up the issue of Indias increasing - even if guarded -- close military ties with US.

Last week, US defense secretary Ashton Carter concluded his three-day visit to India and announced that he and his Indian counterpart had agreed in principle that all the issues regarding a Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) are resolved and both sides would finalize the text in the coming weeks. Despite a whole range of strategic issues being covered in the visit, the topic of the logistics agreement itself has trigged speculation among international media that both sides are boarding the same boat to contain China, the nationalistic Global Times newspaper said in an opinion piece.

It however added that the postponement of the agreement shows that India has concerns over the deal.

Now the postponement of its signing demonstrates that such concerns are at least partly shared by the current Indian government led by the National Democratic Alliance. Such concerns come from the deficit of strategic trust between India and the US. Regardless of differences in national policies, Indian strategic elites have a constant sense that US is not a trusted partner and this time is no exception, the newspaper said.

The two sides are expected to discuss military ties and how to gradually institutionalise interactions between the two armed forces. The upgradation of the bilateral exercise Hand-in-Hand could also be discussed.

Read | Masood Azhar row: Need heart-to-heart talk with China, says Khurshid
Tension prevailed at Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah (BGSB) University in Jammu and Kashmirs Rajouri district on Monday after two groups of students clashed, attacking each other with stones and setting on fire four vehicles.

Police rushed to the university campus and are trying to bring the situation under control.

There were clashes between two groups of students (locals and those from the Valley) on the university campus over some issue, DIG Poonch Rajouri range, Johny Williams said.

Williams said for the past few days, there was some tension between these groups but the university authorities said they will sort out the issue. However, students indulged in stone-pelting and some vehicles were torched, he added.
Three members of a family were burnt to death and one severely injured in Jharkhand on Sunday after villagers set their house on fire alleging that they were planning to kill a minor girl in a ritualistic sacrifice.

The incident took place in Chipo Thaka Toli village in Lohardaga, about 90km from Ranchi, and is the most recent in a spate of similar attacks in the state, which has witnessed maximum cases of witch-hunting in India from 2008 to 2013, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The villagers alleged that Govardhan Bhagat had kept a child from another village in his house with the intention to sacrifice her. Govardhan, his wife Mato Devi and daughter-in-law Sukhmania Bhagat were killed in the incident.

Police rescued four members of the family, including Govardhans son, Laldeo Bhagat, from the fire. Laldeo suffered 85% burns and is admitted at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi.

It was a rumour; the family did not keep any girl at home for sacrifice. Seventeen of 25 named accused in the case have already been arrested, said Lohardaga superintendent of police, Kartik S, who was one of the first to reach the spot on Sunday night.

Combating superstition has been one of the major hurdles for the tribal state, where practices of witch-hunting, tonsuring and animal sacrifices for better harvest and nude processions for rains are prevalent. Jharkhand, in 2013, witnessed the maximum number of witch-hunting cases in India  of the 160 murders committed with witch-hunting as a motive, 54 were in Jharkhand. From 2008 to 2013, Jharkhand had 220 such murders.
The Kohinoor was neither stolen nor forcibly taken by the British, the government told the Supreme Court on Monday, adding that India should not reclaim the famous diamond that adorns the crown of the British Queen.

The apex court, however, refused to dismiss an NGOs petition seeking return of the treasure, saying it will prevent India from making a legitimate claim over the prized diamond sought by at least four countries.

The 105-carat Kohinoor  the name translates to Mountain of Light  is believed to have been mined in present-day Andhra Pradesh in the 13th century and passed several hands before ending up with the British during their occupation of India.

Solicitor general Ranjit Kumar told a bench headed by chief justice TS Thakur that Sikh king Duleep Singh presented the Kohinoor to Queen Victoria in 1850, a year after the British annexed Punjab.

It has not been categorised as an object stolen but gifted as compensation. If we lay claim to the gem then tomorrow other countries will start demanding the treasure we have, Kumar said.

But the court was not convinced with the argument.

Weve never colonised others, the court said.

If we dismiss this petition it will be read against the government. Tomorrow everybody will say that the Indian Supreme Court has held the gem cannot be brought back, the bench added. The court gave six weeks to the Centre to clear its stand on the issue.

The petitioner, the All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front, is seeking directions to the British Indian high commissioner for returning the diamond among other treasures  belonging to kings such as Tipu Sultan, Bahadur Shah Zafar and Rani of Jhansi.

The chief justice reminded Kumar about Tipu Sultans sword which was brought back to India by liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

The solicitor replied in lighter vein: The man who bought the sword has left the country. This prompted the court to ask whether Mallya left the sword behind or took it with him when he left the country last month.

A similar petition filed at the Lahore high court by a Pakistani lawyer said the British snatched the diamond from Ranjeet Singhs son Duleep Singh.

In 1976, Britain refused a request to cede the diamond, citing the terms of the Anglo-Sikh peace treaty.

Britains Prime Minister David Cameron has also said that he would oppose returning the diamond.

If you say yes to one you suddenly find the British Museum would be empty, he told NDTV television in 2010. It is going to have to stay put.

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The administration on Monday lifted the curfew in Mehsana, which witnessed clashes between Patidars and police personnel the previous day, amid calls for a Gujarat bandh by leaders of the agitating community.

However, transport services across the state were crippled after the government stopped buses from plying on several routes  especially those passing through Patidar-dominated areas. Four buses were damaged by rampaging Patidar mobs since Sunday.

Also, the ban on mobile internet services in five districts  Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Mehsana and Banaskantha  remained in place.

Even as chief minister Anandiben Patel appealed for peace in a tweet, the bandh call sounded by the Sardar Patel Group (SPG) and Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS)  two outfits that are leading the Patidar quota movement  evoked a mixed response on Monday morning.

Live updates

3pm: Lalji Tandon, booked for conspiracy and attempt to murder, is likely to be arrested once he is discharged.

2.45pm: SPG Chief Lalji Patel has been put under police watch at a hospital in Mehsana, where he is undergoing treatment for head injuries.

2.30pm: Mobs are out to forcefully impose bandh in parts of North Gujarat, Ahmedabad and Saurashtra.

1pm: Uncertainty prevails over venue of crucial meeting between Patidar leaders and the government. No final decision taken whether it will be held at the secretariat in Gandhinagar or at the residence of health minister Nitin Patel, who heads special committee to resolve quota issue.

12.30pm: In-charge DGP PP Pandey has made an appeal to the public to send photos and videos of miscreants, so that action can be taken against them. Pandey said that investigation will be done into Sunday incident that led to clash between Patidars and police, leaving 30 injured.

12 noon: Minister of state for home Rajnikant Patel said that atmosphere in the state is peaceful.

11.45am: Teams of State Reserve Police and Rapid Action Force deployed across Gujarat

11.30am: Bhavin Khunt, a young member of SPG in Surat died this morning. The family claimed he consumed poisonous substance on Sunday to protest police lathicharge in which SPG chief lalji Patel was injured.

11am: Amidst heavy police deployment, chief minister Anandiben Patel reached Rajkot district for a government function.

10.45am: Lalji, mentor of jailed OBC quota agitation leader Hardik Patel, was among those injured in the clash at Mehsana. The incident occurred when police tried to prevent around 25,000 agitators from proceeding to the local sub-jail to court arrest in solidarity with Hardik and his colleagues.

10.30am: Public bus service crippled across state with government suspending several routes, especially in the Paridar dominated area. Since Sunday four buses have been damaged by the mob.

10am: Hardik Patel, OBC quota stir leader, will not be brought by the police to Ahmedabad for a court hearing by the in wake of prevailing tension due to Gujarat bandh. He has been lodge in Rajpore central jail in Surat with sedition charge.

Although examinations in some educational institutions  including the Hem Chandra University  were postponed, the bandh largely failed to disrupt the states academic scenario. Most business establishments and commercial ventures continued to function even in Patel-dominated pockets of Gujarat, such as Surat, Mehsana, Ahmedabad and Rajkot.

Ahead of a crucial afternoon meeting between Patidars and a government panel to end the deadlock over the quota row, the authorities also booked several leaders of the agitating groups  including SPG head Lalji Patel  for conspiracy and attempted murder, among other charges.

Read: Patel quota stir: Curfew in Mehsana, protesters call for shutdown

Bhavin Khunt, a young member of the SPG, reportedly died in Surat on Monday morning. Khunts family said he had consumed poison on Sunday to protest the lathi-charge carried out against Lalji and his supporters.

While both PAAS and SPG have decided to boycott the meeting, a group of community elders  including top businessmen and industrialists  are expected to negotiate with the ministerial committee headed by health minister Nitin Patel. Sources said the government is likely to announce several measures to pacify the agitating community at the meeting.

Taking the prevailing commotion into account, police decided against producing Hardik before an Ahmedabad court on Monday. The firebrand Patidar leader is currently confined at the Rajpore Central Jail on sedition charges.

Read: Clashes at Patel protest for Hardiks release, curfew imposed

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A fact-finding committee into the Jat agitation for reservations has revealed that a section of the Haryana police force played truant as the protesters committed arson and wreaked havoc in many parts of the state, a report in The Indian Express has claimed.

The number of such deserters  predictably from the Jat community  ran into hundreds, it quoted sources as saying, adding that most cases of the kind occurred in the worst-affected Jhajjar and Rohtak districts.

A series of violent agitations by the Jat community shook parts of North India in February when protesters, who were seeking inclusion in the Other Backward Caste category, resorted to pillaging, arson and possible gang-rape. The movement, which started in Haryana, soon spread to parts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and the National Capital Region.

The panel, led by retired IPS officer and Padma Shri recipient Prakash Singh, found that as many as 60-70 policemen deserted their posts in each district affected by the Jat agitation. These desertions were one of the primary reasons for the state government seeking the help of paramilitary forces and the Army, the report cited senior officials as saying.

Read: Murthal molestation witness says attacked during Chandigarh-Delhi trip

The Prakash Singh Committee, also comprising additional chief secretary Vijai Vardhan and Haryana DGP KP Singh, has reportedly prepared a list of such deserters  complete with details such as names, ranks, belt numbers and the number of days spent away from their posts.

The panel, which is in the process of concluding its report, is likely to recommend strict action against the offending police personnel. Notably, neither the state government nor the police department has initiated penal action against a majority of them.

The panel, during the course of its investigation, examined more than 3,000 witnesses and included their testimonies in the report  likely to run into 350 to 400 pages.

Read: Jat quota: HC dismisses petition, decks cleared for notifying new law

A number of deputy superintendents of police reportedly told the panel that the constabulary refused to obey their orders and openly showed solidarity with the protesters. A number of victims also attested to the fact that police personnel from the Jat community did little more than stand by and watch as the agitators attacked their cars, homes and commercial establishments.

The panel found that after staying away for six to seven days, the truant policemen simply resumed work at their places of posting after the movement came to an end  pretending as if nothing had happened. The probe panel is likely to recommend action against them, which may result in their dismissal.

The panel also found fault with then deputy general of police YP Singhal, who allegedly refrained from touring any of the affected areas during the agitation. Singhal only accompanied chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar to Rohtak after the Jats called off the movement, the report said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 230-bed Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Superspeciality Hospital on Tuesday. The facility has been set up by the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board at a cost of `300 crore at Kakryal, near Katra.

This was stated at a press conference in Jammu on Monday jointly addressed by Dr SS Bloeria, member of the Shrine Board and chairman of the governing body of the Hospital and Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, chairman of the Narayana Hrudayalaya and Ajeet Kumar Sahu, chief executive officer, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board.

Dr Bloeria said that the shrine board has entered into an agreement with Narayana Hrudayalaya Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, which operates 32 hospitals across the country, for operationalisation of this hospital.

Dr Shetty, founder and chairman, Narayana Hrudayalaya Group of Hospitals, said that the primary objective of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Superspeciality Hospital is to provide superspeciality tertiary medical care in Jammu and Kashmir at an affordable cost.

At present, facilities for treating heart and cancer patients and conducting operations of brain, knee replacement, organ transplant are not available to the people of this region. The entire region is dependent on Delhi for hi-tech healthcare. And Delhi is one of the most expensive destinations for healthcare, said Dr Shetty while talking to medicament here.

He said, Today, healthcare expenses are the main reason of bankruptcy, especially among the rural population. However, we are working towards reducing the cost of healthcare in different parts of the country. India will one day prove to the world that wealth has nothing to do with the quality of healthcare its citizens can enjoy. But, that will happen only if more and more projects like the Vaishno shrine board hospital come up across the country.

Our aim is that one day this hospital attracts patients from Delhi to Jammu for heart operations, knee or organ transplants. The objective of the hospital is to offer an affordable health care to the people of this region and, in the process, build a centre of excellence, which will one day become an academic institution of excellence.

Ajeet Kumar Sahu, said, The 750 families, who have donated land for building this hospital, will be given free healthcare services including free OPD and IPD facilities. Also, we are trying to bring in a mechanism, where cashless health insurance can be provided to the board employees, faculty and students of Mata Vaishno Devi University and residents of surrounding villagers.
Terrorism poses the biggest challenge to international security and nations cannot afford to adopt double standards in the fight against it, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday at the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers meet.

If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism, it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole, she said.

Sushma Swaraj called on the RIC countries to lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN.

Raising the issue of UN Security Council reform, Sushma Swaraj said that the issue demands greater urgency, and sought support of Russia and China for this.

Read: Sushma Swaraj raises Masood Azhar issue with Chinese foreign minister

There has been some positive movement in this connection with a text being put for the first time on the table for inter-governmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue. I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN process forward, she said.

On the slowdown of the global economy, the Indian minister said that as three large, emerging economies, India, Russia and China share similar approaches and could benefit from coordinating our positions.

The minister also sought active participation of all members in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit to be held in Goa in October this year.

We hope to have a very successful BRICS Summit in Goa in October, she said.
The mortal remains of Kirpal Singh, the Indian prisoner who died under mysterious circumstances in Lahores Kot Lakhpat Jail, will be handed over to India on Tuesday, said sources.

Kirpals family members had on Friday met Union home minister Rajnath Singh to express their concerns over the gruesome treatment meted out to the Indians languishing in Pakistan jails.

The home minister assured them that efforts would be made to bring back Kirpals body from Pakistan. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday assured Kirpals kin that India would get his body back home.

Read: Rajnath assured of bringing Kirpal Singhs body back: Dalbir Kaur

Kirpals family had earlier rejected Pakistans claim that he died of a heart attack and demanded a post-mortem to ascertain the reasons behind his death. How can we believe that he died of a heart attack? His body should be handed over to us and post-mortem be done. We want to know the truth, Singhs nephew had told ANI.

Read: Denying Pak claims, Kirpal Singhs family demand for post-mortem

Read: Pak killed another Sarabjit: Kirpal Singhs sister

Kirpal had allegedly crossed the Attari-Wagah border to enter Pakistan in 1992 and was subsequently sentenced to death in a serial bomb blasts case in Pakistans Punjab province.

Read: Indian national languishing in Pakistan jail for 20 years found dead
Sartaj Aziz, the foreign affairs adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, indicated it was possible that a team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) could be allowed to visit Pakistan to probe into the Pathankot attack.

In an interview to CNN-News18, the rebranded version of CNN-IBN that was launched on Monday, Aziz said all options were open when it came to an NIA team visiting Pakistan to carry out investigations.

Earlier in the month Pakistan envoy to India, Abdul Basit, had hinted that Indian investigators might not be allowed to visit Pakistan and gather evidence. The remark had stirred diplomatic tussle between the two countries as India had allowed investigators from the neighbouring country to carry out probe inside the Pathankot airbase.

Aziz said that Basits statement about cooperation not meaning reciprocity was being over-interpreted.

The Pakistani official responded to a question on when Pakistan would reciprocate Indias move by stating In case the evidence leads to some basis and identification of people (who) need to be investigated.

Read | Pakistan says talks with India suspended, hints wont allow NIA visit

Aziz said that Basit did not exclude the option of NIAs visit to Pakistan.

I dont think he used that word. He said that right now cooperation is more important than that of reciprocity and does not exclude option and he said that lets cooperate and then thing will work out. So, I dont think one should over interpret statement, he (Basit) just said that cooperation is more important which is true, Aziz said.

Earlier this month, Basit had indicated that an Indian probe team is unlikely to be allowed to visit Pakistan, which had sent its JIT to probe the terror attack at the air base, saying, ...the whole investigation is not about question of reciprocity in my view. It is more about extending cooperation or our two countries cooperating with each other to get to the bottom of the incident.

The government continued to be hopeful that a team of Indian investigators would soon visit the neighbouring country to gather evidence in connection with the Pathankot terror attack. We are hopeful that a team of NIA will visit Pakistan soon, minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said.

Aziz also downplayed Basits remarks on suspension of Indo-Pak peace process, saying ... suspending doesnt mean cancelled or given up. For the time being you called it suspended as obviously after January, four months have passed, and to that extent dialogue is suspended but I hope it will resume soon, he added.

Read | Now, Pakistan says door open for dialogue with India

During the interview, Aziz also alleged that a network of Indian spies were operating in his country and claimed that the alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav, who was arrested in Pakistan, was part of a larger group.

I dont think there should be any surprise. Last year, my visit to India was cancelled when I had said that while India is blaming us for non-state actors acting on its soil , in case of India it is the state actors that are operating in Balochistan, FATA and Karachi.

(With inputs from PTI)
The house of Gujarats home minister was burnt down on Monday by Patidar protesters as the fresh quota movement by the community turned violent once again in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, a statewide bandh called by the organisation spearheading the movement failed to evoke much response.

Police said the house of the minister Rajnikant Patel was set ablaze. The house, located near a plot where Patidars had gathered on Sunday before marching towards Mehsana sub-jail to court arrest, was burnt by protesters in August too when the state had witnessed riots at a larger scale.

The government, meanwhile, held a meeting with senior Patel community leaders from religious organisations in Gandhinagar to discuss a charter of 27 demands submitted by them and assured of early release of jailed protestors.

As per their demands, we will try to facilitate the release of Patidar agitators. We will also try to resolve the reservation through dialogue, said government spokesperson and health minister Nitin Patel after the meeting.

The assurance assumes significance given Sundays jail bharo programme which was primarily aimed at immediate release of Patidar leader Hardik Patel and others.

Earlier on Monday, the bandh called by Sardar Patel Group (SPG) and PAAS to protest police lathicharge on Patidars in Mehsana on Sunday evoked little response even as the curfew imposed in the town was lifted in the morning.

In the afternoon, Lalji was put under police watch at a Mehsana hospital, where he is being treated for head injury. He and 50 others have been booked for conspiracy and attempt to murder. The police are likely to arrest him once he is discharged from hospital. The case has been registered in connection with an attack on a mamlatdar on Sunday.

Although examinations in some educational institutions  including the Hem Chandra University  were postponed, the bandh largely failed to disrupt the states academic scenario. Most business establishments and commercial ventures continued to function even in Patel-dominated pockets of Gujarat, such as Surat, Mehsana, Ahmedabad and Rajkot.

However, transport services across the state were crippled after the government stopped buses from plying on several routes  especially those passing through Patidar-dominated areas.

Mobile internet services also remained suspended in Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Surat and Rajot. The ban was lifted in Vadodara.

Nitin Patel blamed Congress supporters for instigating Patidar youths for the Sunday violence that left 30 injured, including SPG chief Lalji Patel. The clash occurred between Patidars and police when agitators during jail bharo andoland demanding immediate release of their 22-year-old leader Hardik Patel. He has been lodged in Lajpore Central Jail in Surat under sedition charge since October 2015.

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Slamming the tendency to project B R Ambedkar as merely a Dalit leader, a pro-RSS journal has said he was a nationalist who consciously kept himself away from western thoughts, organisations and influences.

Recalling the works of Ambedkar, an article in pro-RSS publication Panchjanya, said the father of the Constitution challenged American writer Katherine Mayo when she argued that while the Hindu religion was replete with social discriminations, Islam offered space for brotherhood.

When Katherine Mayo wrote in a book that the Hindu religion was ridden with the evils of caste discrimination while Islam allowed brotherhood, B R Ambedkar challenged her saying Islam too was not free from slavery and casteism, the article said.

The article in Hindi, titled Mahaj Dalit neta nahin the Ambedkar (Ambedkar was not merely a Dalit leader), further goes on to quote Ambedkar on the nature and scope of Hindu religion vis-a-vis Islam to argue how Ambedkar thought Hinduism was a more flexible religion than Islam when it came to acceptance of inherent evils and the need to eradicate them.

Quoting Ambedkar, the article said, Ambedkar clearly said, Hindu religion is afflicted with evils but the good part about Hindus is that within this society there are people who acknowledge their weaknesses and proactively work to eradicate their evils. However Muslims dont acknowledge they are afflicted by evils and therefore dont try to eradicate these evils.

The article also refers to the 10th chapter of Ambedkars book titled, Bharat Vibhajan ya Pakistan (1940) to claim that Ambedkar compared the Hindu and Muslim societies at length and used empirical evidence and data to analyse the status of women in Hindu and Muslim societies.

The article adds that Since some time now a clear conspiracy is underway to dilute the legacy of Ambedkar and diminish his personality by ignoring the core of his messages and philosophy.

Dalits across Indis should stay warned of this tendency to diminish the leader and to use his name to spread lies. This serious tendency was best evidenced in the Hyderabad case, the article said, adding while Ambedkar was more seriously concerned about the welfare of Scheduled Castes, he was a national leader who always kept western influences at bay in his pursuit to keep national interest supreme.

Ambedkar along with several of his followers had renounced the Hindu religion and embraced Buddhism on October 14, 1956 in Nagpur.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was behind the NDA governments recent move against US-based seed giant Monsanto over the issue of monopoly and pricing.

A letter from an Andhra Pradesh BJP leader to agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh last year and the latters subsequent discussion with RSS functionaries at Nagpur last December led to the setting up of a committee to regulate the pricing of BT cotton seeds.

Last month, the government accepted the recommendation of the committee and slashed the royalty fee by 74%, ignoring threats from multinational giant Monsanto to re-consider its India operation.

The RSS wanted the government to protect the interest of cotton farmers who are under distress. The government responded quickly, a source privy to the deliberations told HT. The process was set in motion when the minister received a letter on the pricing issue from the office bearer of BJPs farmer cell in Andhra Pradesh. He ordered an immediate review, an official with the agriculture ministry said.

Singh announced last week that the government will continue to regulate prices of seeds and pharmaceuticals. It (Monsanto) is a good company. We respect them, but that does not mean you loot farmers and charge whatever price, because you have knowledge. Be it seed or pharma, we will continue to regulate prices, whenever required, Singh said. The committee that looked into the matter was of the view that BG-I technology for BT Cotton was not patented in India and Monsanto Mahyco Biotech (India) Limited had already recovered the full value of this non-patented technology over the last 14 years.

The ministry accepted the recommendation of not including the trait value (royalty) for BG-1 technology in the price structure and it was made nil from the existing value of about Rs 122. The agriculture ministry is now exploring if at all it was possible to recover from MMBL the extra money that it may have charged as royalty for the non-patented technology.

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A special court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Vijay Mallya on Monday, mounting pressure on the embattled liquor baron who left the country owing more than Rs 9,000 crore in unpaid loans.

The court of justice PR Bhavke, which hears cases of money laundering, also rejected a plea by the defunct Kingfisher Airlines, challenging the Enforcement Directorates charge that he diverted nearly half of a Rs 950-crore bank loan to acquire properties abroad.

The warrant came days after the government suspended 60-year-old Mallyas diplomatic passport on a request by ED which is probing money laundering allegations against the Rajya Sabha MP.

The flamboyant businessman, once known as the king of good times, left the country on March 2 as creditor banks closed in on him to recover dues running up to Rs 9,400 crores.

Mallya, who skipped three ED summons, said in a recent tweet that he is not on the run and will abide by Indian law. He is believed to be in the UK.

Shortly after the arrest warrant was issued, ED officials said they were considering other legal options such as getting a red-corner notice (RCN) or seeking his extradition from UK.

There are options such as RCN, deportation and extradition from the UK, said a source. Mallyas passport has already been suspended and now an NBW has been issued and hence there are grounds for deportation. India and Britain signed an extradition treaty in 1993.

A red-corner notice is an arrest warrant circulated by Interpol on behalf of the government of a particular country. It is a request from one country to another to arrest and deport the wanted individual.

Sources said the quickest option is to apprise authorities in UK about the warrant issued against Mallya to facilitate his deportation. Another option is to push for a letter rogatory, a formal request from an Indian court to a foreign court for judicial assistance.

In its court plea before the warrant was issued, Kingfisher Airlines said it was shocked at the allegation made by the Enforcement Department.

This fact may have a bearing in the mind of the court so we wanted to correct it and place it before the court. EDs charges are false and incorrect, said advocate Pranav Badeka representing Kingfisher Airlines, which ceased operations in 2012.

A group of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) has already rejected his offer to repay part of the dues and told the Supreme Court they wanted him to return to India so they could negotiate with him personally over the total owed.

His massive debt has become a symbol of Indian banks vast volume of bad loans -- those already in default or close to it -- which are seen as a threat to financial stability in Asias third largest economy.

Critics say the government has not done enough to tackle the issue of wealthy individuals such as Mallya, who obtain huge loans which they later fail to repay.

The top court has also asked Mallya to disclose all assets owned by him and his family in India and abroad by April 21.

(With inputs from agencies)
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday strongly raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi the issue of China blocking its bid to have JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the United Nations (UN).

Swaraj took up the issue with Wang at a bilateral meeting in Moscow on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.

Official sources said the issue was raised by Swaraj besides deliberations on a range of issues.

Earlier this month, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case did not meet the requirements of the Security Council.

This is not the first time China has blocked Indias bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

Also Read | China defends move to block UN ban on JeM chief Masood Azhar

The UN had banned the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2001 but Indias efforts for slapping sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

Last July, China had similarly halted Indias move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying its stand was based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.

Foreign secretary S Jaishankar last week had said in New Delhi that India has taken up at a fairly high level with China the issue of Beijing blocking its bid to have Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN but the issue will not overflow into other areas of bilateral ties.

China had defended its decision, saying that it acts on such issues based on facts and rules in an objective and just manner.

Also Read | India slams hidden veto at UN after China blocks bid to ban JeM chief

After the attack on the airbase in Pathankot on January 2, India had in February written to the UN calling for immediate action to list Azhar under the UN Sanctions Committee.

The Indian submission was considered by the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) for technical aspects of the evidence provided.

The technical team then with the support of the US, the UK and France had sent it to all the members. All were told that if there are no objections, the designation will be announced after the expiry of the deadline but just hours before the deadline, China requested the UN committee to keep on hold the designation.

Earlier this week, India had slammed the use of hidden veto and demanded accountability, saying the world bodys general members are never informed of the reason for not acceding to requests for sanctioning terrorists.

The procedures of unanimity and anonymity of the al-Qaeda, Taliban and ISIS Sanctions Committees need to be revisited. The procedures of unanimity and anonymity result in a lack of accountability, Indias Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had told the UN Security Council in an open debate on Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts on Thursday.

Swaraj also discussed a range of issues of mutual interest with Wang.

In her opening remarks, Swaraj said the relations have seen significant improvement in the last one year and favoured frequent meetings between the two sides to step up engagement.

We are meeting after a long gap and I think we should meet quite frequently. Because things are moving very fast in the world and if we meet frequently, we will be able to deliberate on those, she said.

The Chinese foreign minister said both the countries need to stay focused on expanding the ties and should align our strategies so as to contribute significantly to development of Asia and the world.

China and India are two major countries and two big neighbours. It is important for us to maintain very close cooperation. We are two developing countries and emerging markets and we both face the challenging task of promoting economic development and realize national rejuvenation, he said.

He further said, We are strategic partners and as the worlds economic and political centre is shifting towards Asia-Pacific. It is all the more important for both the countries to join hands because our cooperation will have far reaching and positive implications to the region and the world at large.

So we need to stay focus on growing our relationship, align our strategies and step up our partnership so that we can jointly contribute to Asia and worlds development, Wang said.

Swaraj and Wang are in Moscow to attend the Russia, India, China (RIC) foreign ministers meeting.

The external affairs minister arrived in Moscow from Tehran on Sunday night where she paid a two-day visit.
The United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) said that a hunt sought by the SC for treasure missing from a Kali temple is a bid to derail the peace process

Retired army intelligence officer Manoj Kumar Kaushal had said in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that the cash and gold disappeared from the temple hours before the army was to recover it on June 1, 2014.

The outfit also said it never collected so much wealth  Rs 300 crore in cash and 300kg of gold allegedly removed from a secret cellar under the temple  in protection money or revolution tax since its birth in 1979.

The temple is in Rani Tea Estate, about 30km west of Guwahati. The estates owner, Mridul Bhattacharyya who was killed by plantation workers four years ago, was allegedly the Ulfas fund manager.

This could affect peace talks with New Delhi, Ulfa general secretary Anup Chetia said. Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said the state has no information about any hidden treasure.

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Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde, who came under attack for clicking selfies while on a visit to drought-hit Marathwada, has defended herself saying she took pictures out of elation on seeing water in a trench in the dried up river.

Munde, who is the rural development minister, came in the line of fire from across the political spectrum for clicking selfies while she was at a village in drought-hit Latur on Sunday, for reviewing the desilting work in Manjara river, which has nearly dried up.

Read | Heat is on Pankaja Munde after selfies in drought-hit Maharashtra region

While the Shiv Sena took pot-shots at Munde saying that such photo sessions could have been avoided, the Opposition Congress and the NCP said that she has mocked the drought-affected farmers by such a shameful act.

Undeterred by the attack, Munde said it was out of contentment of seeing water in the trench due to the desliting work that she took selfies.

I have taken several review meetings on the drought condition in Latur. Have made efforts to dig trenches at various places so that water could be fetched from them. But met with failure most of the times. Yesterday, while I was in Latur to take stock of the Manjara river, I saw some water which gave me a feeling of contentment, Munde said in a statement issued in Mumbai.

It was like finding an oasis in a desert for me. By levelling false allegations on me, who are these people trying to help, drought hit villagers or farmers? These pictures were clicked in the heat of 45 degrees C to show my appreciation for the work my department has done. There was no excitement in it, only contentment, she added.

It was not excitement but satisfaction to see water in trench in dry plains https://t.co/BcIwVnQvu4 @ndtv @mataonline @IndianExpress  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 18, 2016

Mundes party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also defended her saying she is a hard working leader and is being misinterpreted.

Minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap told ANI that Munde has been making relentless endeavours to pull Maharashtra out of the water crisis and is being misinterpreted.

The selfie, which is doing rounds against her, was taken at a trench. From past many days Pankaja was monitoring many such trenches but no water was found. The place where she took a photo was a trench where water was cited. The photo she took was out of happiness. I think a hard working Minister like Pankaja takes a photo after finding water at a time when major efforts were made to locate water is nothing bad. All of the case is being misconstrued. We should get over all these things and work collectively to help Maharashtra combat such situation, said Rudy.
Embattled businessman Vijay Mallya denied on Monday allegations that he had illegally moved almost half of a Rs 900 crore bank loan to acquire assets abroad.

Speaking on Mallyas behalf, advocate Pranav Badeka told a city court: Kingfisher Airlines made an application after reports suggested that Rs 430 crore was used to acquire assets outside the country. This is incorrect we are filing an application to clarify things, and keep relevant facts so that the court does not get misled.

The special anti-corruption court is hearing the Enforcement Directorates application for a non-bailable warrant against Mallya.

The ED had alleged before the court that the businessman had invested Rs 430 crore of the Rs 950 crore obtained as a loan from IDBI Bank in properties outside the country. The law enforcement agency had claimed that the money was remitted out of the country under various heads -- such as aircraft lease, import of spare parts and carrying out aircraft maintenance.

Read | EDs charges against Vijay Mallya shocking, says UB Group

The ED has approached several countries  including Britain, France and the United States  over Kingfisher Airlines transactions. Some ED officials even suspect that money might have been parked in overseas tax havens.

The 60-year-old businessman  once known as the King of Good Times for his flamboyant lifestyle  owns several properties in the US, South Africa, UK and France. Believed to be in the UK, he ignored three summons by the ED to appear for questioning in the case but claimed that he was not on the run from the law.

ED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar had earlier told a special court that though Mallya offered to answer its questions through video-conferencing and mail, investigations cannot proceed as per the convenience of the accused. He also expressed concern that the former liquor baron may tamper with the evidence or dispose of key evidence.

Earlier, a consortium of banks had rejected Mallyas offer to pay Rs 4,000 crore by September towards settlement of his loan.

The Supreme Court has asked Mallya to disclose all assets owned by him and his family in India and abroad by April 21.

Read | Mallya invested nearly half of Rs 950-crore IDBI loan outside India: ED
The Uttarakhand high court on Monday asked the Centres counsel to explain why Presidents Rule was imposed on the state at a time when the Harish Rawat government was in its fifth year.

It raised this question while hearing a petition filed by the deposed chief minister against the central governments decision, taken barely one day before a scheduled trial of strength in the assembly.

The high court asked the Centre whether it was not totally extraneous for it to be concerned over the disqualification of nine rebel MLAs, and interfere in the affairs of the state  something that should be done only in extraordinary instances.

What is passing through our mind is, is it the lookout of the central government as to what would have happened on March 28 (when the floor test was to be held) in view of the changed composition, and in view of the nine ousted MLAs? a bench of Chief Justice KM Joseph and Justice VK Bist asked attorney general Mukul Rohatgi.

Read: Ignored by BJP, Cong rebels consider floating a new party

Will it not be totally extraneous for the central government, which is ruled by another political party, to be concerned by the changed composition... it added.

Noting that the demand for division of votes in the assembly when the Appropriation Bill was introduced was only a solitary instance, the high court said: This is whats colouring our minds. Can one solitary instance topple a democratically elected government in its fourth-fifth year... the root of the matter is that you are cutting at the root of democracy.

Putting forth the Centres stand, Rohatgi said President Pranab Mukherjee had signed the order only after going through the facts. He said that 35 MLAs (including nine Congress rebels) had sought a division of votes on the appropriation bill on March 18, but it was not accepted by speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal. While BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi was arrested the same day, another member  Bhim Lal Arya  was told to absent himself from the house. BSP MLA Sarwat Kareem Ansari was also not present in the house, he contended.

Rohatgi said 35 of the 68 MLAs in the assembly were against the bill, but the speaker would not allow a division of the votes because he was aware that the government was in a minority.

Full Coverage: Uttarakhand crisis

Contending that the money bill itself was the floor test, the attorney general held that the government had fallen on the evening of March 18. To drive home the Centres point, Rohatgi produced a video recording of that days proceedings before the court.

(With PTI inputs)
The Delhi government, led by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), told the Supreme Court on Monday that it would not support Haryana in its dispute with Punjab over the sharing of Ravi and Beas water.

Senior advocate CU Singh told a constitution bench, headed by Justice AR Dave, that the Delhi Government would withdraw the written submission submitted last week on behalf of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

Advocate Suresh Chandra Tripathi had forwarded the note, supporting Haryana. He had argued against the Punjab governments Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, contending it would lead to water crisis in the capital. Tripathi was removed on the same day as the DJB counsel.

The Delhi governments U-turn is seen as a political move in view of the assembly elections in Punjab due in February 2017.

Singh said a fresh affidavit would be filed, retracting the earlier stand. The bench told him it would consider the plea only after Delhi government filed it.

Arguing for Punjab senior advocate, Harish Salve said the court hearing was not a solution to decide the validity of the 2004 Act.

The Act had nullified Punjabs water sharing agreements with its neighbours as the flow in the Ravi and Beas had decreased and it was not in a position to honour the commitment.
For different reasons, Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad find themselves in the same position. One has been rendered rudderless due to the absence of two key middle-order batsmen, Yuvraj Singh and Kane Williamson, the other hasnt had the middle order firing as expected. The onus therefore is on the teams top order to get them out of trouble.

Hyderabad seem more hamstrung with their injury problems but captain David Warner saw this as an opportunity for their top four to weigh in together.

You are not going to get the depth as you like. You have to use your resources smartly, which is challenging. It is about getting our top four to bat through 10 overs, said Warner ahead of the match. Top four is where the bulk of the runs come and I guarantee that No 5, 6 and 7 will do their job very well. We have to work on how we are going to get our balance right, he said.

Its still early days in the league but both teams need some momentum going their way. They need to identify the four who are most capable of contributing at the top. Mumbai Indians first and third games have showed that if Rohit Sharma doesnt fire, they implode quickly. It also might have to do with the fact that Mumbai look more assured while chasing.

On both occasions, Hardik Pandya came at No 3, which should ideally be occupied by the next-best batsman after Rohit. In those two innings, Pandya scored nine off 11 balls and two off six balls. In the context of setting a target, slow scoring snaps the rhythm of any team. Both Jos Buttler and Ambati Rayudu are more experienced in this format to come in at that position.

Similarly, Eoin Morgan could be given a promotion to No 3 ahead of Moises Henriques, followed by Naman Ojha. The England limited-overs captain has had a good run in this format and Hyderabad could gain from his solidity provided Shikhar Dhawan and Warner give them a good start.

The results have been disappointing but Warner thinks this could be the match they can turn it around. They are going to be hungry as well because they are in a same position as us. We have to be switched on and make sure we keep executing our plans. We cant keep talking about it. We have to do it on the day, he said.

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The Indian Premier League has seen centuries of great impact down the years and Quinton de Kocks brilliant knock on Sunday could well be the spark that could ignite the campaign of Delhi Daredevils this season.

Chris Gayles 175 not out for Royal Challengers Bangalore demolished Pune Warriors in 2013 after Brendon McCullum set the IPL on fire in the inaugural season with an explosive 158 not out for Kolkata Knight Riders against RCB.

De Kocks 51-ball 108 that laid RCB low at the same Chinnaswamy Stadium could inspire the young Daredevils batsmen in a team that finished seventh in the group stage in 2015 after ending up last in the previous two years.

SECOND YOUNGEST CENTURION

The 23-year-old South African became the youngest to score an IPL century, only behind Manish Pandeys 118 not out for RCB against Deccan Chargers in 2009 as a 19-year-old.

Brilliant death overs bowling by pacers Mohammed Shami and Chris Morris had helped Daredevils restrict RCB to 191 after Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers had threatened to put up a far bigger total.

With Rahul Dravid as mentor, Delhi have chosen a young squad, which has pitch-forked de Kock into the role of a senior batsman this season. He seems to be relishing that role. The Daredevils wicketkeeper had hit 59 not out in the eight-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab on Friday.

A CLEAN HITTER

De Kock can punish less than top bowling on good pitches --- he struck three ODI centuries in a row against India in 2013 --- and success in the high-profile IPL will only raise his stature back home as he searches for a regular Test spot.

De Kock has been frustrated by few opportunities to play Tests, with injuries not helping his cause. Since his 2014 Test debut, he has played only eight matches, and only three in the last 12 months.

His perceived weakness against spin and South Africas quota policies in selection havent helped. But choosing Dean Vilas as wicketkeeper ahead of him for last years Test series in India was controversial. Vilas averaged less than 10 with the bat.

He returned for the home Test series against England, scoring his maiden century in the third match.

CHASING AND TESTS

His impressive run chase has instantly drawn comparisons with RCB skipper Virat Kohlis mastery in that department.

I enjoyed the innings thoroughly. I wont say this was my best but it was up there, especially chasing down a total like that, I havent done it often, he told the media after the win.

It was such a great wicket and outfield, all we had to do was hit the gaps. Somehow we batted quicker than we initially wanted to, and we just carried on batting like that, he said, referring to his 134-run stand with Karun Nair.

You just had to stand tall and hit through the line. We were very confident as 190 was a par score on this wicket. We thought we were going to chase 250 at one stage.

But he left no one in doubt in which format mattered most to him. Ive played only two Test matches (three) in about a year. I wish I could play more, he said. In India last year, even two centuries in the ODI series win didnt help change the mind of the South African selectors.

In his third year with Daredevils, he praised skipper Zaheer Khans handling of the pace attack. Zaks fields, I dont know where he gets them from, but it is very interesting and seems to work. Our bowlers love being captained by him.

RCB were racing away until Mohammed Shami, back from injury, and South African pacer Chris Morris together gave away just 27 runs in the last four overs by bowling short of a length and varying the pace. Inputs from Dravid and Karnataka batsman Karun Nair helped assess the pitch precisely.

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The audience ranged in age from 14 to 92, but one thing they all had in common was a love for Western classical music  and Bombay boy Zubin Mehta.

In a performance that marked the start of his multi-nation 80th birthday celebration tour, the renowned music conductor led the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the NCPA on Sunday.

The two-hour programme featured compositions by Dvorak, Beethoven and Ravel.

This evening holds a lot of meaning, for him and for us, said film and ad personality Gerson Da Cunha, 87, who was in the audience. For a man who is 80 to tackle such a challenging programme today, tomorrow and on Wednesday, shows spirit and love for this town. We studied at the same school, you know; me being his senior by eight years.

Feroza Chavda, 64, a fellow music lover from Kemps Corner, was in the audience on Sunday and also has tickets for Mondays performance at the NCPA.

I am already looking forward to tomorrows concert, he said. Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic are like a love affair. Today has almost moved me to tears.

The performance of Beethovens Concerto in D Major op 61 prompted a standing ovation and calls for an encore. Mehta and the violinist, Pinchas Zukerman, embraced too, at the end of the much-loved violin concerto.

Also in the audience were veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal, 14-year-old Behram Hathi, a violin student at the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation, and Sheroo Vakeel, 92, from Colaba.

I wish people would listen to Western classical music more. Im often teased because its not seen as hep by my friends, Hathi said.

After performing at the Brabourne stadium on Wednesday, Zubin will leave for the rest of his tour, which will cover Austria, Israel and Germany.
As the BJP rallies on nationalism, Shiv Sena this time has decided to embarrass its ally in the national partys Goa hotbed.

Accusing the BJP government of allowing the Tricolour in the state to be replaced by Russian and Nigerian flags, the Shiv Sena now announced its intent to contest against the BJP in the 2017 Assembly polls in Goa. The Sena said it intends to contest on at least 22 of the total 40 seats in the Goa Assembly.

While the Sena has started contesting in poll-bound states with more gusto only recently, this is the first time in recent times that the party is contesting in a BJP-ruled state, a move which might see senior Sena leaders campaigning actively against the BJP.

The Sena has chosen to target the BJP on issues, which the latter would call its own issues of nationalism, banning casinos in the state and the issue of giving more prominence to Marathi language.

While the Senas electoral strength in Goa is negligible, the party says it will put in all its might to contest the polls and so it has announced the decision a year ahead of the elections.

In the 2012 polls, it had contested three seats with no success.

We are serious about our efforts this time. Party chief Uddhav Thackeray has given us orders to put up a strong show. We are campaigning against the dismal performance of the BJP government, said party spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut.

He added that the Russian and Nigerian mafias have taken over parts of Goa and their flags fly high in these areas, where even police are scared to venture. The drugs mafia has taken over the state. There is complete failure to maintain law and order by the BJP government, he said.

Raut added that the Sena would raise the issue of shutting down the casinos. The BJP had promised to do so ahead of the 2012 polls and has conveniently forgotten now, said Raut.

Recently, the Sena had backed local Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders, who were locked in a duel with BJP leaders in Goa over issues of favouring regional languages over English as the medium of instruction in schools.

The language has been neglected by the government. We are demanding more respect and better treatment for the language and its speakers, he added.

Raut said the party would work towards strengthening its organisational structure in the next one year. We will recruit more cadres and get more prominent faces to join us, he said.
Six people, including two women and an undertrial, were injured in a blast at Chapra civil court, 80 km north west of Patna on Monday morning. This is the second blast on the court premises in Bihar within two months. Earlier, there was a blast on Rohtas court premises.

The incident occurred in the highly-secured zone around 8.35am when prisoners were brought to the civil court for proceedings. Three suspects, including a woman identified as Khusbu Kumari, a resident of Awtarnagar police station area in Chapra, have been detained for interrogation.

Kumari, one of the injured women, is said to have been carrying the crude bomb on the court premises which accidentally went off in the portico area.

Police sources said criminals used the woman as a carrier to settle a score with someone. The police did not rule out the possibility of the motive to free some of the prisoners brought to the court and targeting an accused.

As soon as news about the blast spread, DM Vikash Anand and SP Pankaj Kumar Raj rushed to the spot and sent all the injured people to the nearest hospital. The police and administration have started a search operation and patrolling in the area. Security near the court premises has been beefed up.

On September 19, 2014, some people had hurled bombs from the first floor of Chapra civil court causing injury to one Shashi Bhusan Singh of Jhauan Basant village and a constable.

Sashi is an eyewitness in a triple murder case in July, 2011 at the Chapra residence of the then Maharajganj MP late Umashankar Singh. Sashis brother Manibhusan Singh, Devendra Kumar Singh, mukhiya of Satjora panchayat and driver Dinesh Rai were shot dead in the incident.

According to SP Pankaj Raj, Khusbu, said to be Shashis cousin, was earlier sent to judicial custody in connection with murderous attack in the 2014 court- related case. At present, she is on bail and has been referred to Patna Medical College Hospital in critical condition. A knife was also recovered from her possession.

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The hardships city residents are facing due to the ongoing development works may end by July this year as the administration plans to wrap up the project by that time.

Due to ongoing work, roads have been dug up at a number of places, leading to traffic snarls, besides pollution. Most of

the projects have already surpassed their deadlines, prolonging the period of hardships of the residents.

Every time of deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal visits Amritsar, he reviews progress and directs the officers to speed-up the pace of work. But, going by the conditions, officials seem in no urgency to complete the work. Currently, work is underway on projects such as Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) that is aimed at changing the face of local transportation, Golden Temple Plaza (basement), War Memorial, sewerage project, beautification of area between Town Hall to Golden Temple, Entrance Gate, Durgiana Mandir beautification, construction of district administrative complex and food-street.

The work is on in full swing as government wants to wrap the projects up at the earliest.

Amritsar deputy commissioner Varun Roojam said, Definitely work is underway on a number of projects. We are reviewing the progress from time to time. We are very positive that most of the projects will be completed by July.

On BRTS project that entails a major part of the city, Roojam said, The construction work of BRTS is going on at a good pace and we are certain to get it completed by August.

Completion of a few projectsincluding, upgradation of Gobindgarh Fort, sprucing up border for tourists, setting up Heritage Villageis lingering for years.

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A local court has acquitted Babbar Khalsa militant Jagtar Singh Hawara in an attempt-to-murder case registered at Chamkaur Sahib police station 25 years back.

The police had registered a case under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the IPC, Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act, Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act and the Explosives Act on September 22, 1991 at Chamkaur Sahib police station regarding firing on the police party in Chamkaur Sahib area.

The police had claimed the recovery of arms, ammunition and explosives from the site of the alleged encounter. Hawara was also made an accused in the case.

After the completion of the hearing which was held through video-conferencing from Tihar Jail, Delhi, the court of additional sessions judge, Rupnagar, Sunita Kumari Sharma, acquitted Hawara.

Earlier on February 24, Hawara was acquitted in a case of murder of a gurdwara granthi at Chamkaur Sahib in 1988.

Hawara, a convict in the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, is still facing trial in three other cases at Rupnagar courts, including a case relating to assassination bid on controversial Piara Singh Bhaniarewala.
It was Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyars chaiwalla barb for Narendra Modi that prompted the Chai Pe Charcha campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Months later during the Bihar elections, Modis remark  something wrong in Nitishs DNA  was used by Nitish Kumar to the hilt to remind all Biharis of the insult to romp home. The man who turned these barbs on their head, Prashant Kishor, seems to be having the last laugh once again as the poll strategist for the Congress.

What Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said during his Punjab visit on Saturday was lost in what he did not say  he did not name Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh as the partys chief ministerial candidate for Punjab polls. And Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was quick to tweet a taunt on Sunday. So, Captain no more Congress CM face in Punjab? he said.

So, Captain no more Congress CM face in Punjab? https://t.co/2WFRcyJAUu  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 16, 2016

Later, he peppered it with a tweet in Hindi: Yeh to Congress ne Captain ko bahut dhokha diya hai. Pehle Congress ka CM chehra ghoshit kar diya aur aab hata diya (Congress has let down Captain. First the party declared him as the CM face and now backed out).

              CM         https://t.co/2WFRcyJAUu  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 16, 2016

Clash of personalities

The strategy, Congress insiders claim, was to draw the AAP into the trap of naming its CM candidate for Punjab. The Punjab election will be a clash of personalities and there is no doubt that Amarinder will be the CM candidate of the Congress as the entire campaign from Coffee with Captain and Punjab da Captain are centred around him. Its the AAP which does not have a CM face. While Amarinder will be named the CM candidate by Rahul sooner than later, Kejriwal will have to answer whether it is him or a son of the soil, as his team is claiming, who will be its face in Punjab, they said.

Read: Coffee with Capt: Seasoned players can bail out Punjab, says Amarinder

Faced with the AAPs aggressive publicity machine, the Congress too is focusing its energies on how to checkmate. Taking a cue from the recent HuffPost-CVoter poll survey which has predicted 94 to 100 seats for the AAP out of 117 and Kejriwal as the most favoured face as the CM candidate for Punjab followed by Amarinder, the Congress counter-strategy is to force the AAP to reveal its Punjab face. Among Kejriwal, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal and Amarinder for the CMs choice, 51% backed Kejriwal, 35% Amarinder and 7% Sukhbir in the poll survey.

Ambitious contenders in AAP

Unlike the Congress, there are many ambitious contenders in the AAP for the top post and knives will be out as soon as Kejriwal names one among the many. And if Kejriwal throws his own hat in the ring, the Congress will ask Punjabis if they would elect a non-turbaned Haryanavi as the Punjab CM. After all, the history of Punjab is that it was divided on the basis of Punjabi and Hindi-speaking subas (areas) into Punjab and Haryana and most of its disputes from capital Chandigarh to river waters are with Haryana, Congress sources added.

Nominee will be declared in due course: Capt

Amarinder himself is not perturbed over the delay in announcement of his name. Have you ever heard the Congress announce the CM candidate 10 months in advance? My name was announced as the CM candidate in 2012 state polls a few weeks before the elections. It will be done in due course at an appropriate time. I have been asking Kejriwal who is your face in Punjab. But he is not even double but triple-faced man. In Punjab, he says Punjab has right to its waters, in Delhi he says Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal should be constructed and in the Supreme Court he says something else, Amarinder told HT.

Party sources say Rahuls Saturday visit was aimed at showing he is investing in Punjab by meeting party rank and file 10 months before elections. In his over three-hour interaction with partymen, Rahul made three major announcements  tickets will be distributed six months in advance, over 40% tickets will go to the youth and tickets will be decided in Punjab and not by the All India Congress Committee in Delhi. It is happening in the Congress for the first time and he wants Congressmen to feel the winds of change, a senior party functionary said.

Main rivals? Both AAP and Cong wont admit

The strategy of both the AAP and Congress is to deny acknowledging each other as their main rival. Kejriwal was Amarinders main target at his rallies at Maghi mela in January and again at the Baisakhi rally at Talwandi Sabo last week. The AAP had lost no time to dish out details on purported foreign bank accounts of Amarinders wife and son. Now the AAPs smear campaign is also targeting Kishor. So far alleging a secret pact between the Badals and Amarinder, it has now found Kishor as the link. Partys national organisational secretary Durgesh Pathak on Sunday tweeted: Is it true that Kishor fixes many appointments for Badals and Majithia? In yet another tweet, Pathak said: Kishor is an active bridge between Captain and Badals. Punjab wants to know the deal between Badals and Captain.

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Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday tasked senior party leader Sunil Jakhar with monitoring developments related to the alleged multi-crore scam involving wheat stocks going missing from godowns in Punjab.

Captain, who is leaving for a three-week tour to the US and Canada, said in a statement here that Jakhar will also be monitoring wheat procurement process in the state.

Given the experience and insight of Mr Jakhar, I am confident that he will ensure that Akalis are completely exposed for the fraud they have committed with the people of Punjab, said the state Congress chief. He said Jakhar, who is a state legislator from Abohar, will also be chalking out the course of action for the agitation to be launched to ensure that the culprits are exposed and brought to book.
The one-stop crisis centre for women affected by sexual violence, or Nirbhaya centre, a project proposed for Patiala, has now been shifted to Bathinda.

The centre is aimed at providing quick and one-stop facility to women affected by sexual violence.

However, the shifting of the centre has left Aam Aadmi Partys (AAPs) Patiala MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi fuming, as all the mandatory formalities for setting up the centre had been completed by the MP and Patiala administration in 2014.

The Patiala MP was the first to respond to the Union governments proposal as it had decided to open 50 such centres across the country in the first phase. The government has set a target of a total of 650 centres all over the country in the future.

Earlier, AIIMS shifted from Jalandhar to Bathinda

Earlier, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which was to be initially set up in Jalandhar, was shifted to Bathinda, the constituency of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is also the Union food processing minister.

Harsimrat laid the foundation stone of the centrally sponsored project on March 27 and the construction of the centre has begun at civil station locality here.

At the beginning of the programme, the Union ministry of women and child development had stated that the project was to be given to MPs who responded first to the ministry. I was the first parliamentarian across the country to respond to the letter of the ministry and even held fruitful meetings with the officials concerned, Dr Gandhi said.

The MP said the shifting of the project was totally unjustifiable and even the ministry had not bothered to inform the MP concerned about the shifting of the Nirbhaya centre.

When I took up the matter with the ministry, it asked me to apply for the centre in the second phase, which is completely unjustified. Harsimrat held several meetings with Maneka Gandhi and the project was shifted to her constituency, Dr Gandhi added.

Patiala scored points

Responding to Dr Gandhis interest in setting up the centre in Patiala, the ministry of women and child development had formally written to the state government and the MP on October 1, 2014, to identify and allocate land to set up the centre in Patiala.

Following this, 300 sq metre of land was allotted at the government Baghi Khana, a property of the public works department located behind the circuit house in Patiala.

Pertinently, besides sending the proposal and all documents pertaining to the land allotment directly to the central authorities, the Patiala administration had sent the same to the state government as well.

The state government deliberately failed to follow up the case with the Centre, Dr Gandhi said.

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With no action being taken against the Punjab schools that charge a hefty annual fee, the parents want know why a committee constituted by the Punjab and Haryana high court has failed to address the issue. It has had 40 meetings.

Read more: School for scandal? Mounting fee brings parents to the road

In April 2013, the high court had held that the committee would look into how much fee increase was valid based on the funds available with schools. It has taken the Punjab committee of justice Amar Dutt (retd) three years to submit data from less than 5% of the schools.

The scope of the committees work was restricted to the academic year 2012-13. For the next year though, the schools had the right to fix any fee structure but required to justify it by producing necessary material before the committee. Chartered accountant Ajay Sharma (nominated by the chairperson) and education expert Pyara Lal Garg (nominated by the Punjab School Education Board director) were also on the committee.

Big ask, says committee

Out of 4,000 private schools in Punjab, the state-level committee has fee details of 3,800 for the years 2010-11 and 2011-12. For the next year, it covered only 152 schools. One of the members said: We submitted a report of 192 schools and another report of 800 schools is ready to be filed. Explaining the delay, committee member Garg said: Its a lot of work. First we call all the fee-chart, salary-chart, and financial-statement data from schools (based on a pro forma) to make an analysis of the fee. We even look at miscellaneous charges for transport, electricity, books, computer education etc.

Asked about the number of complaints received, Garg said the committee didnt have the mandate to look into complaints but it tried, nevertheless, by issuing public notices in September 2013. We issued six notices in newspapers, inviting people to come forward with issues and telling schools to submit their balance sheets for the past three years, said Garg, claiming that 200-odd complaints had reached the committee till March 2016. Asked how many of these had been addressed, he said: We dont keep this data, but in some cases, there was compromise, and in others, either the advocates didnt appear or the party withdrew the complaint.

Asked about action being taken against what are extortionist schools in the eyes of parents, justice Amar Dutt (retd) said: We are only an advisory body. The action is for the education department to take.

Asked if the committee had found a permanent mechanism that the high court had demanded, he said, We aim at removing the distrust among parents. The education department should first bring us a basic mechanism. The committee members hinted at the vagueness of the mandate for that matter.

The panel story

The need for the committee was triggered when Ludhiana non-government organisation (NGO) Anti-Corruption and Crime Investigation Cell filed a writ petition in the high court, station that private schools in Ludhiana and the rest of the state were holding parents to ransom by increasing fee on their whims.

The petition was first heard on December 24, 2009. Disposing of the petition in April 2013, the division bench of then chief justice Arjan Kumar Sikri and justice Rakesh Kumar Jain had formed committees to look into the allegations. After the high court passed a judgment in 2013 in this regard, three committees of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh  were constituted.

A committee for Punjab private unaided schools was constituted under the chairmanship of justice Ranjit Singh (retired), which was overtaken, later, by justice Amar Dutt panel.

Schools a law unto themselves

Raising concern over the lack of cooperation from schools, the committee said private schools considered self above the law. In many cases, the school managements act ignorant. They feel they can get away with anything, said Garg. In the case of Patialas Budha Dal School, which has now courted controversy over illegal detention of students, its principal twice failed to submit the list of the recommended NCERT books. Some schools have not responded to date.

Meetings to no avail

The high court set the committee chairpersons fee at Rs 25,000 for each sitting. Members get Rs 10,000 each. The committee is also paid back the office expenses. The committee meets three-to-four times a month on an average. We had 35 to 40 meetings in a year, said Garg.

Will take 20 years at this rate: NGO

Petitioner NGOs president Rohit Saberwal said the panel could not take forever to decide. It is one thing to say it is a tedious job but if they carry on at this rate, it will take another 20 years to submit data of 4,000 schools, and by then another 4,000 private schools would have opened in the state, he added.

Right to information (RTI) activist Hemant Goswami a mere committee could not solve the problem. It appears as though the committee has not even understood the court mandate, which says if the schools had to revise their fee in the year 2013-14, they were to seek consent from the committee. The panels not finishing its job in time is to blame for the current fee hike, forcing parents to protest, he added.

AAP questions Badals silence on loot by private schools

Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday condemned the state government for its silence on the issue of private schools charging exorbitant fee.

AAP legal wing in-charge Himmat Singh Shergill and Lok Sabha member Prof Sadhu Singh, in a joint statement here, said when parents were protesting against the arbitrary fee hike in almost every district, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had failed to intervene to provide them relief.

In a state, where government schools are already ruined and poor parents are forced to get their wards admitted in private schools, it is the states responsibility to ensure quality education to children at affordable rates, said the AAP leaders.

The two said schools kept citing a Supreme Court judgment that allowed 10% fee hike every year, but the actual fee hike was over 20%, being done under the patronage of Badals.

Tomorrow What the government has done to address fee hike

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A man and his two teenage daughters were killed as the car they were riding collided with a truck near Bhundari village on the Jagraon-Ludhiana road on Monday morning.

The family from Singhpur Bet village of Jalandhar was on its way to Ludhiana.

The deceased have been identified as Gurmeet Singh (45), and daughters Sarpreet Kaur (19) and Jagroop Kaur (17). Gurmeets elder brother Jagdish Singh, who was driving the car, was injured and has been rushed to hospital, where his condition is said to be stable. The car was badly damaged and the truck overturned following the head-on collision.

The overturned truck after the collision. (HT Photo)

The police have booked the truck driver, who fled the spot, for reckless driving and causing death due to negligence.

Sidhwan Bet SHO Avtar Singh said the incident took place around nine. The family was coming towards Haibowal. Sarpreet was a student of Lord Mahavira Homoeopathic College, Hambran Road, and they were on their way to dropping her to the college hostel. As they reached near Bhundari village, the speeding truck collided with the car. The impact was so severe that the three were killed on the spot and the car was mangled. Passersby struggled to pull out the bodies from the car.

The SHO said the police had initiated investigation to identify the truck driver.
Minor girls are vulnerable to sexual offences in the city. Two more cases of sexual assault on minor girls were reported on Saturday and in both cases, the accused were neighbours of the victims.

Both the accused have been arrested.

In first case, Salem Tabri police arrested 26-year-old Dharminder Kumar of Bindra Colony in Salem Tabri for allegedly attempting rape on a three-and-a-half-year-old girl.

A case has been registered under Sections 376/511 (attempt to rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 4 of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences following the statement of victims father, who is a street vendor.

In his complaint, he said his wife worked in a yarn factory. On Saturday, he had gone to the city to sell fruits, and his wife was at factory. Their six-year-old son and three-and-a-half-year-old daughter were at their rented accommodation at Labor Quarters in Bindra Colony, where they had shifted on Friday, he alleged.

He alleged that around 7pm his brother-in-law called him and informed that a man had attempted rape on his daughter on the roof of Labor Quarters. Till the time he reached there, locals had nabbed the accused and informed the police, he said.

Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Didar Singh said, Police arrested the accused after reaching the spot. The accused, a labourer, is married. He was produced before the court that sent him to 14-day judicial custody.

Focal Point police arrested a 52-year-old man for allegedly raping an eight-year-old after luring her with biscuits in Guru Nanak Nagar, Dhandhari Kalan, on Sunday. The accused has been identified as Vijay Singh, a resident of Guru Nanak Nagar. He is a labourer.

In her complaint, mother of the victim stated that the accused was their neighbor. She said on Saturday when her daughter was alone at home, the accused struck there. He took her to his room after luring her with biscuits and forced himself upon her.

When she came home, her daughter narrated the whole incident to her following which she lodged an FIR, she added.

Focal Point SHO Surinder Mohan said, After lodging the FIR, police launched a manhunt for the arrest of accused. On Sunday, he was arrested from Dhandhari Kalan, when was trying to flee from the city to evade arrest.

He has been booked under Sections 376 (rape) of the IPC and Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act against the accused, the SHO said.
Gangs operating in Ludhiana are having a field day with the police unable to arrest the gangsters even after they have executed the most sensational killings in the past two months in the district.

These gangsters with a notorious past had opened fire on cops, killed a sarpanch at a wedding and also shot an autorickshaw driver in three separate incidents and are on the run. The gangsters are also active on social networking sites.

Davinder shooter, the accused in Khwajkes murder, had been active on Facebook showing murder as his achievement. Yet, police, which boasts of a cyber cell, has not been able to track him.

Read more: Accused in Khwajke murder challenges police, politicians on social media

Gangster Goru Bachcha flaunts Akali student wing connection

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Manufacturing of woollens in the industrial city of Ludhiana is witnessing a change in trend as most of the new garment units are producing trousers and shirts.

Many of the old players have also shifted to manufacturing of trousers and shirts. Ludhiana is famous for its hosiery products and also exports these goods to many European countries.

Hosiery industry had suffered losses in 2013. Later in 2014 and following year, the industry received yet another jolt when winters were delayed. In 2011 there were at least 13,000 hosiery units in Ludhiana but 1,000 units have faced a shutdown since then.

There are at least 12,000 small and major industrial units that manufacture hosiery products in Ludhiana. Each unit has different scale of production. While a small unit could manufacture 50-60 sweaters in a day, a major unit could produce 3,000-5,000 pieces a day. However, hosiery business is seasonal and manufacturing takes place from April to November. A small unit expects a profit of Rs 8-10 lakh a season while the profits of major units run in crores of rupees.

Woollen industry of the city exports at least 30% of the manufactured goods while 70% are sent across the country.

Knitwear Club chairman Vinod Thapar said there were times when the Ludhiana industry used to manufacture only hosiery products like sweater, jackets etc. But now time is changing and people want to expand their business by manufacturing other garments as well,said Thapar.

He added many players in Ludhiana have started manufacturing T-shirts, jeans and trousers - garments that were earlier manufactured in Delhi, Bangalore and some other cities of the country.

Thapar said the city hosiery was now producing clothes worth Rs 15,000 crore per season that had come down from Rs 15,600 crore six years ago.

There are new units that have come up only to manufacture jeans and trousers due to the downward trend in the industry.

Jagjot Singh, an owner of JM Exports unit at Salem Tabri, who started manufacturing of trousers and shirts a year ago said, there were much better returns in these garments than sweater, jacket and other hosiery products.

Those people involved in manufacturing of hosiery products have blocked their money in the market. While wholesalers buy garments from manufacturers, the former are not able to pay the money to latter as there is a slump in market and sale of goods is slow,said Singh adding that he has started sending his manufactured goods even to other states.

A trouser is profitable by Rs 30-40 than sweater. Moreover, a manufacturer gets fast payment of trousers from the buyer (wholesaler) than that of a sweater.

The trousers and shirts are being sent not only to cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata but also to other countries, including Dubai and South Africa.

However, there is a hope in industry and some business leaders believe that the profits would return to the hosiery industry.

Sudershan Jain of Knitwear and Apparel Manufacturers Association of Ludhiana (KAMAL) said it takes not only machines and workers to manufacture shirts and trousers, but also an entire thinking.

If one plans to manufacture these garments, he has to change his thinking and marketing strategy as the competition in sweater and jackets will be only from Ludhiana based companies but for manufacturing of shirts, trousers and jeans, the competition will be from different cities of the country,said Jain.

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Parents of the children studying in some of the private schools of the city launched a signature campaign at Ram Bagh on Sunday against the loot by educational institutions.

Extortionist Punjab schools: 120 meetings, 0 result, fee panel fails

Congress leader Dinesh Bassi who led the campaign, said private schools had made the education a business. He said schools were fleecing parents in the name of re-admission fee, annual charges, besides hiking the fee every session.

Managements of most school are violating the ruling of Punjab and Haryana High Court under which no private school is allowed to go for fee hike or enhance any kind of charges without permission of Justice Amar Dutt Committee, he said, announcing that in coming days parents would lodge a complaint with the deputy commissioner against overcharging.

Sukhjinder Singh whose child studies in Guru Harkarishan Public School, said, Most of the private schools were established by the charitable institutions to provide better education to all sections of society but, nowadays, profit appeared to be their only focus.

School authorities direct us to purchase uniform and books from particular shops for which they get commission. Some schools provide books and stationery on the premises at exorbitant rates. We are not allowed to purchase these things from any other shop. This is loot, Gursewak Singh, who said that his kids study in Amritsar Public School.

Another parent, Lakhwinder Singh said, I came from Australia recently and was shocked to see the loot by private schools. These schools impose unreasonable charges on students. For instance, some schools change uniform every six months. Time has come for parents to mobilise and raise a voice against this, he added.

During the campaign, parents were carrying placards and banners as they raised slogans against private schools. They demanded from the state government to come up with a strict law to deal with the issue.

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Two students from Chandigarh  part of a group of six students out on a picnic to bathe in the Bhakra canal were drowned near Doomchheri village in Morinda on Saturday afternoon.

The six students had arrived at the canal bank, around 30km from Chandigarh, on three two-wheelers (Activas) after attending their tuitions, but their families were not aware of their whereabouts, it has emerged.

The bodies of the deceased  Robin Sharma (17), a Class 12 (non-medical) student at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sector 31, Chandigarh, and Gaurav (16), a Class 12 (commerce) in Gyandeep Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 20, Chandigarh, are yet to be recovered.

Sources said Gaurav, a resident of Behlana village, did not know swimming. Robin, a resident of Hallomajra, drowned in an attempt to save his friend with both getting swept away by the strong currents, the police said. The four other students  Chirag, Ashish, Avshish and Tarun  all residents of Chandigarh, informed their parents of the incident. The parents informed the police. Morinda SHO Ravinder Pal Singh said, As soon as we received information, we started a search for the bodies of the students.

Families clueless on why wards went to Bhakra

The families of both the drowned youth came to know about the tragedy  hours after the incident on Saturday evening.

Robin had gone for his tuition in Sector 20, Chandigarh, in the morning. We came to know of the incident on Saturday evening when Chirag, who had accompanied Robin to the canal, rang up my elder son to inform him about the incident, said Robins father Raj Kumar, who is a headconstable with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

Gauravs father Ramesh Chand is a head constable with the ITBP. The families of both the drowned youth rushed to the spot and hired divers to recover the bodies, but to no avail. A DDR has been lodged.
With Panjab University (PU) is all set to implement ban on outsiders vehicles from Monday on the campus, manpower to manage the same has not been arranged.

Earlier, eight nakas were planned on the campus, but the university will only be able to set up four nakas considering shortage of manpower.

Four nakas will be set up at three entrance gates  Gate number 1, 2 and 3 and administrative block. Four security officials will be deployed at each entrance gates, while two officials will be deployed at the administrative block. PU chief security officer Dr Jatinder Grover said, The proposal was to set up eight nakas not only on the gates, but also within the campus, but since the manpower has not been arranged, we will set up four nakas.

An official, on condition of anonymity, said, To implement the system, we need at least 15 more security personnel and it is not a big deal for the varsity . Of Rs 500 crore budget, it is not a big problem to spend some money on security. We will need three persons each to man those nakas, implying that the varsity will require at least 18 security officials in the first shift.

Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) president Professor Akshaya Kumar said, We need to streamline the system.

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The only structure in the world made with concrete space frames (the roof is made of concrete unlike regular structures that have steel frames for support), it will be demolished by ITPO (Indian Trade Promotion Organisation) for a makeover of Pragati Maidan as a world-class convention centre. Other buildings to be razed include the Hall of Industries and the Nehru Pavilion.

These structures occupy less than 2% of Pragati Maidan and can be integrated in any redevelopment effort. The buildings can be refurbished easily and provided with modern services like air conditioning at economical costs to accommodate new functions, architects say.

A vast section of the intelligentsia, including architects BV Doshi, AGK Menon, Gautam Bhatia, KT Ravindran, JR Bhalla, Satish Gujral, Rahul Mehrotra, Divya Kush (president of Indian Institute of Architects) and others, in signed appeals to prime minister Narendra Modi, have said the Hall of Nations should not be destroyed as it is a vital part of Indias contemporary heritage.

Like the Jantar Mantar, Humayuns tomb and Purana Quila, the Hall of Nations and Industries as well as the Nehru Pavilion are all part of the citys memory. For many around the world, Delhi is represented by its buildings, says urban planner Arun Rewal, who started the petitions to save the structures.

The Hall of Nations and Industries constitute the largest span (a huge hall without pillars) in a public building and public structures in Delhi . These buildings are acclaimed as images of progress, modernity in India and Indian architecture.

Hall of Nations

Nehru pavilion

Outside view of Nehru pavilion

Inside view of Hall of Nations

Designed and built between 1969 -1972 by architect Raj Rewal, structural engineer Mahendra Raj and project site engineer Dorai Raj, the Hall of Nations complex has been internationally acclaimed as an important structure of the last century. The Nehru Pavilion museum exhibits events in Indias first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehrus life which are related to the countrys freedom struggle. The exterior is inspired by Buddhist stupas containing relics of the Buddha, and is built under a grassy mound. For Rewal, the mound is symbolic of Nehrus simplicity.

How was the design for the Hall of Nations chosen? Rewal says he had submitted it in an architectural contest. We were part of a competition to celebrate 25 years of Indias independence and won the prize. The idea was to symbolise the last 25 years and yet look forward to change. It was in a different league altogether as the project was labour-intensive, there was use of concrete as against metals.

Interestingly, the architect had to contend with shortage of steel which had been used up for manufacture of weapons after the 1971 Indo-Pak war. A decision was taken to then use concrete and the man who made it possible was Mahendra Raj, the structural engineer.

The Hall of Nations provides an uninterrupted exhibition area of approximately 6,700 sqm in a pyramid supported on eight points.

According to a spokesperson from Mahendra Raj Consultants Pvt Ltd, A special nine-member joint was evolved for precast construction but the builder preferred in-situ construction. The joint was modified to suit the adopted technique. The hall is supported on pile foundations tied together with post tensioned plinth beams stressed in stages. The Hall of Industries rests on spread footings tied together with high tensile steel bars. The entire complex was analysed, designed and built in a period of 15 months.

In many ways these buildings are reminders of the countrys ability to innovate with limited resources and clever use of manpower. The architectural forms have a value beyond their building constructs. Most experts feel that the Hall of Nations, Hall of Industries and the Nehru Pavilion reflect structural ingenuity, layering of space and an architectural character that is derived from the countrys collective traditions and reinterpreted in a modern context. The project is widely published and referred to as textbook material by students of architecture and civil engineering, says Divya Kush, president, Indian Institute of Architects. It may not be a heritage structure in the strictest sense but certainly is a piece of architecture which is heritage in the making, he adds.

A Delhi High Court verdict has not been in favour of preserving these structures. In response to a public interest litigation (PIL) along with a request from Indian National Trust for Art and Heritage (INTACH) to stop the demolitions, the high court ruling was: Mere pendency of representation to declare the buildings as Heritage Buildings cannot be the basis to stall the redevelopment of the Pragati Maidan Complex. The matter is under the purview of the Heritage Conservation Committee under the Ministry of Urban Development to give a final recommendation. And that for many is the last ray of hope.

Technically, says Mahendra Raj, even the Rashtrapati Bhavan is not a 100-year-old building. But we consider it heritage because it has been notified as a heritage building. Surely, the Taj Mahal, the Qutub Minar are not replaceable for their part in history; likewise the structures celebrating contemporary heritage of India are not replaceable too.
England will organise a series of events all throughout the year to mark the 400th death anniversary of one of its most celebrated poet and playwright, William Shakespeare. In case you are planning a trip to or happen to be in the bards homeland sometime soon, we suggest you the things you must see and do to commemorate the English giants life and works:

New Place, Shakespeares family home, Stratford-upon-Avon

Described as the jewel in the crown of Englands literary heritage and the most significant Shakespearean project to commemorate his legacy, New Place is where the playwright spent the last 19 years of his life and wrote 26 plays. When it opens in July following extensive renovations, visitors will be able to soak up the history of the landmark, walk in his footsteps, and learn about the man who was also a husband, father, entrepreneur and prominent citizen in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Read: No fear Shakespeare!

Shakespeares Schoolroom & Guildhall, Stratford-upon-Avon

The school where the boy William would spend his formative years and feed his imagination is also set to open as a heritage site this month, not far from his birthplace. Built between 1418 to 1420, the building has undergone major restoration efforts and will feature interactive displays, filmed performances, Tudor lessons and re-enactments of an 18th century classroom.

Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations, April 23-24, Stratford-upon-Avon

It just so happens that the 400th anniversary of the bards death falls neatly on a Saturday, paving the way for a weekend celebration. On Saturday, a birthday march in the style of a New Orleans procession will parade through the streets of Stratford-upon-Avon. Expect a lot of costumed actors breaking out into soliloquies and speaking in old English.

Read: Swiftkeys Shakespeare keyboard helps you write like him

Discover Shakespeares Way, October 7 - 11, starts in London

Avid Shakespeare fans can take part in a four-night tour guided by a professional Shakespearean actor on a luxury bus journey that traces the 235 km journey that the bard may have taken from the Globe Theater on Londons South Bank to Stratford-upon-Avon. Included on the itinerary are behind-the-scenes tours of theaters, performances of The Merchant of Venice and King Lear.

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The ongoing clash between Binaifer Kohli, the producer of the hit comedy show, Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hai!, and TV actor Shilpa Shinde, who played the lead role, Angoori Bhabhi, in the same show, has been making headlines for over a month now. It all started in mid-March, when Shilpa quit the show and was labelled unprofessional by the makers.

Binaifer also sent her a legal notice, demanding that she resume shooting or compensate the makers for the losses incurred as a result of her abrupt exit. She also approached the Cine and TV Artistes Association (CINTAA), and filed a complaint against Shilpa.

The actor then decided to take legal action, too, and filed a complaint against Benaifer on March 29. Shilpa stated that she is being mentally tortured by the producer. CINTAA, too, ordered Shilpa to report to the sets, but the actor refused, leading to reports that claimed that the federation had imposed a lifetime ban on her. Then, some members of CINTAA recently clarified that they had not banned Shilpa, but had only asked her for an explanation, and had said that disciplinary action will be taken against her.

Read: Shilpa Shinde files police complaint against CINTAAs lifetime ban on her

Shilpa, however, is least concerned about these allegations. They (the makers of the show) are creative people, and have creatively planned things against me. I wont sit quietly. This ban was rubbish. No one can ban me or stop me from acting, says the actor, who seems unfazed by the ongoing developments, and is determined to fight it out. In fact, she claims to have bagged another project on TV. They said that no producer will want to work with me now because I had quit their show. But I will prove them wrong. I will announce my next project soon, she says.

In her defence, Shilpa says that even though an actor can be held accountable for leaving a show mid-way, no one protests when producers replace actors overnight. What is wrong is wrong. I know actors who werent even aware that they were being replaced. So, why is it that the producers can do anything and get away with it, and the actors are held accountable for everything? The makers often stop actors payments too. Everything is in their favour in the contract, says the actor.

Read: Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain maker slams Shilpa Shinde: We have created you

Shilpa is also upset about the fact that everyone is focusing on her exit from the show, but no one seems interested in learning the reasons behind the move. Today, I am facing such allegations, and I will respond to them at the right time. I will soon hold a press conference, and will provide proof to support my claims. I told the producer of the show time and again that I was unwell and unable to shoot. But they claimed that I was lying. I had to explain my medical issues to the world. It isnt easy. No one quits a successful show without a valid reason, she says.

The actor, who has been working on the small screen for the past 15 years, is not worried about her future or career, as she believes that she has proved herself. I am rocking. I will continue to work. I am in talks with some film-makers. I deserve to do quality work, says Shilpa, who holds no grudges against actor Shubhangi Atre, who has replaced her on the show. I wish her all the best. The show must go on, she adds.

Read: Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai: Shubhangi Atre is replacing Shilpa Shinde again

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A young filmmaker from a small town in West Bengals Darjeeling district will be Indias sole representative at the Cannes International Film Festival that begins on May 11 in the French Riviera. Saurav Rais 28-min film Gudh (Nest) is the only official Indian entry to compete in the 69th Cannes film festivals Cinefondation Selection.

It is autobiographical. The film is a recollection of my childhood in a very raw and bold form. It also showcases my relationship with my grandparents and parents. My genre of filmmaking is not pleasing to anyone, said Rai from New Delhi, where he is busy shooting for a travelogue.

Read: If these rumours are true, the 2016 Cannes Film Festival could be great

To mark its 19th year, the Cinefondation Selection has chosen 18 films (14 works of fiction and four animations), from among the 2,300 works submitted this year by film schools from all over the world.

Fifteen countries from three continents are represented. Rai is set to leave for Cannes on May 10.

Born in Mangwa near Kalimpong in Darjeeling, Rais childhood was split between Mangwa and Kathmandu in neighbouring Nepal in the 1980s. A Satyajit Ray Film & TV Institute student, he has also weaved in hints of the Gorkhaland movement for independent statehood in the films background.

Read: Cannes film fest | Where talent is discovered and legends born

Now in Delhi, Rai is aware of the assembly polls underway on Sunday in his Darjeeling district where his grandparents and parents live.

I would have loved to be there during the polls but my priority at the moment involves learning as much as I can while travelling and shooting. My commitments were made before the election announcements. However, I will try to be there with my family next time because after all, I am a local village lad from Mangwa, Rai said.

Pushing 30, Rai doesnt adhere to any particular belief about politics in the north Bengal hills.

I dont believe in anything in particular. I feel everyone has to do their part and for me it is to tell stories about people and their surroundings, he added.

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An explosion tore through a bus in Jerusalem on Monday and set a second bus on fire, wounding 16 people in what an Israeli official said was a bombing.

Israeli media said a man who was seriously injured and not carrying any identification papers was under investigation on suspicion he was responsible.

Suicide bombings on Israeli buses were a hallmark of the Palestinian revolt of 2000-2005 but have been rare since. A bomb left by an Israeli Arab aboard a Tel Aviv bus during the 2012 Gaza war caused injuries but no deaths.

Emergency workers search the scene after a blast on a bus in Jerusalem April 18, 2016. (REUTERS)

Police initially said they were looking at the possibility that a technical malfunction caused the fire in Derech Hebron, an area in southwest Jerusalem close to the boundary with the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

But a spokeswoman for Nir Barkat, the Israeli mayor in Jerusalem, said the explosion was a detonation. It was small, but it was definitely a bomb, the spokeswoman, Brachie Sprung, told Reuters.
A top Bangladeshi investigator said on Monday at least 20 foreigners were involved with the theft of $101 million from the countrys deposit with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Shah Alam, an additional deputy inspector general of the Criminal Investigation Department, said details of the suspects were gathered by two teams that visited the Philippines and Sri Lanka, where the money was transferred after hacking into the Bangladesh Banks system.

He refused to disclose the names and nationalities of the foreign suspects. Investigators may need to visit the countries again for further investigation, Alam said.

Read | $100 million stolen from Bangladesh Bank

Chinese hackers tried to steal $1 billion from Bangladesh Banks deposit with the Federal Reserve Bank in early February. They sent at least 25 instructions for transfer of funds and succeeded in sending $101 million to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

Sri Lanka, which has stricter procedures to monitor money laundering, returned $20 million to Bangladesh. The rest was laundered through casinos in the Philippines.

Bangladesh Banks governor Atiur Rahman resigned because of the scandal and the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina faced bitter criticism.

Alam said authorities were investigating whether Bangladeshi officials were involved in the theft. We are handling the case very carefully to find out the responsible, he said.
Somalias government said on Monday about 200 or more Somalis may have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross illegally to Europe, many of them teenagers, when the boat they were on capsized after leaving the Egyptian shore.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella had said earlier on Monday that several hundred people appeared to have died in a new tragedy in the Mediterranean, after unconfirmed reports spoke of up to 400 victims of capsizing near Egypts coast.

More than 1.2 million African, Arab and Asian migrants have streamed into the European Union since the start of last year, many of them setting off from North Africa in rickety boats that are packed full of people and which struggle in choppy seas.

We have no fixed number but it is between 200 and 300 Somalis, Somali information minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir told Reuters by telephone when asked about possible Somali deaths in the latest incident.

Another Somali government statement, which offered condolences, put the number at nearly 200, saying they were mostly teenagers. It said the boat they were on had capsized after leaving Egypt.

There is no clear number since they are not travelling legally, the minister said, adding that he understood the boat might have been carrying about 500 people, of which 200 to 300 were Somalis and most of them had died.

He did not give a precise timing for the incident.

One year ago, an estimated 800 migrants drowned off the Libyan coast when the fishing boat they were travelling in collided with a mercantile vessel that was attempting to rescue them - the most deadly Mediterranean shipwreck in decades.

Egyptian, Italian and Greek officials had earlier been unable to confirm the report of a new sinking.

A UN refugee agency official told Swiss broadcaster SRF he knew of 40 survivors from what appeared to be the same incident.

We know there are 40 survivors and that as many as 460 people may have been on the boat who sailed from Egypt, the UNHCRs Beat Schuler told the broadcaster in what it said was a report from Malta.

In an article on the Somali National News Agency (SONNA) website, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud on Monday sent his heartfelt condolence on his behalf and on behalf of the citizens of Somalia to the families who lost their loved ones.

The president urged Somalis to stand together in helping stop such hazardous trips to overseas.

Somalia has a large diaspora, with many Somalis in Europe and the United States, after fleeing two decades of conflict. The Western-backed government is seeking to rebuild the Horn of Africa nation but is still battling an Islamist insurgency.

Islamist al Shabaab rebels often carry out gun and bomb attacks, particularly in the capital Mogadishu, where some hardy Somalis business people are returning to from abroad to invest.
British environmental activists put face masks on famous statues across London on Monday, including the one of Horatio Nelson on Trafalgar Square, to draw attention to the problem of air pollution.

Two Greenpeace campaigners scaled the 171-foot Nelsons Column in the early hours of Monday to put a mask on the famous naval commander.

Masks were put on 17 statues, including Queen Victoria near Buckingham Palace, Eros at Piccadilly Circus and Winston Churchill outside parliament.

Londons Metropolitan Police said eight people had been arrested  two on Trafalgar Square, four on Parliament Square and two on Hyde Park Corner.

A parliament spokeswoman confirmed there had been a minor security incident on the parliamentary estate which was being dealt with by the police.

Greenpeace said it aimed to highlight the health risks caused by the citys poor air quality.

Monitoring shows that, if these statues were real people, many of them would often be breathing dangerous, illegal air, campaigner Areeba Hamid said. Thats why weve given them face masks. Of course many millions of Londoners, including kids, are breathing that same air.

London has some of the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide in Europe and Britain has been ordered to reduce pollution by the European Commission.

Nearly 10,000 Londoners die prematurely every year as a result of air pollution, according to calculations by Kings College London.

On May 5, the city goes to the polls to elect a new mayor to replace Boris Johnson and both the main candidates  Labours Sadiq Kahn and Conservative Zac Goldsmith  have promised environmental action.

Kitting everyone out with face masks is not the solution. Instead we need to see real political action from the new mayor, Hamid said.

The current proposal for an ultra low emission zone, which comes into force in 2020, offers protection to residents and commuters only in central London. Greenpeace has asked for the area to be expanded.
A Chinese military aircraft has landed at a new airport on an island China built in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Monday in the first public report on a move that raises the prospect of China basing warplanes there.

The air force plane landed on Fiery Cross reef in the Spratlys archipelago on Sunday to evacuate sick workers, the news report posted online by Chinas defence ministry said.

In a front-page story, the Peoples Liberation Army Daily said a military aircraft on patrol over the South China Sea received an emergency call to land at Fiery Cross Reef to evacuate three seriously ill workers.

The Global Times tabloid cited a military expert as saying the flight showed the airfield was up to military standards and could see fighter jets based there in the event of war.

The artificial island was built on a disputed South China Sea reef. China claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, even waters close to its Southeast Asian neighbours, and has created artificial islands in an effort to assert its claims.

It has significantly expanded Fiery Cross, which is also claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines, drawing international criticism.

In 2014, China began work on a 3,000-metre runway on the reef, which is around 1,000 km from its island province of Hainan. Beijing in January carried out several of what it called civilian flights to Fiery Cross, enraging Hanoi.

On the Chinese territory, this kind of thing is not surprising at all, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular briefing. It is a good tradition of the Peoples Liberation Army to provide a necessary assistance to Chinese people in need.

The runways would be long enough to handle long-range bombers and transport aircraft as well as Chinas best jet fighters, giving it a presence deep in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia that it has lacked until now.

This weekends flight came just days after US defense secretary Ashton Carter visited a warship close to flashpoint waters on Friday, after announcing joint naval patrols with the Philippines.

On the day of Carters trip, Beijing said one of its top military officials had visited a South China Sea island. Fan Changlong, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, observed building work, the defence ministry said without giving a precise date or location for the visit.

Washington regularly accuses Beijing of militarising the South China Sea, saying it has built runways and deployed weapons to the islands. Beijing denies the accusations and says US patrols have ramped up tensions.

As well as China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims to parts of the sea, which are home to some of the worlds most important shipping lanes and believed to sit atop vast oil reserves.

The US has criticised Chinas construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea and worries that it plans to use them for military purposes, even though China says it has no hostile intent.
Ten children have been killed by rebel shelling on Syrias largest city this weekend, as the UN warned of desperate conditions inside a war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.

The violence underscores the fragility of the cease-fire in Syria, which has unraveled in the north despite ongoing peace negotiations.

Rebel shelling killed sixteen people in Aleppo  including six adults, and three young siblings  a monitoring group said on Sunday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that airstrikes killed another six people in the opposition-held parts of the citys old quarters.

Syrias state news agency, SANA, said at least five of the sixteen dead in the government-held areas were killed by rebel snipers and said a further ten were injured.

Syrias warring factions have returned to violence in recent weeks, spoiling a period of relative calm brought about by a partial ceasefire that went into effect in late February.

The UN warned that humanitarian conditions are desperate inside a Palestinian refugee camp home to about 10,000 civilians in the capital, Damascus.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said violent battles between extremists have left residents of the Yarmouk camp without food or water for more than a week.

Civilians in Yarmouk are facing starvation and dehydration alongside the heightened risks of serious injury and death from the armed conflict, said UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness.

The camp, a built-up neighbourhood once home to an estimated 150,000 people, has been ravaged by fighting between the Islamic State group and al Qaedas Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, while government forces regularly shell it from outside.

Air strikes near Jisr al Shughour in opposition-held Idlib province killed three civilians, the Observatory reported. Pro-government forces intensified their shelling and bombing on an opposition-held pocket north of Homs, the countrys third-largest city, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an activist network.

Government and opposition delegations have been engaged in indirect peace talks in Geneva since Wednesday as the UN looks for ways to bring an end to the countrys five-year conflict but the oppositions chief negotiator urged insurgents to strike at pro-government forces. Dont trust the regime and dont wait for their mercy, Mohammad Aloush wrote in a post on Twitter Sunday.

More than 250,000 people have died in the conflict, which began in 2011 as a popular uprising demanding government reforms.
A special commission has been set up to probe an explosion at a gurdwara in Germany as authorities in the western city of Essen assured India that all steps will be taken to ensure security for all minorities, including the Sikhs.

Indian consul general in Frankfurt Raveesh Kumar, who had rushed to the Nanaksar Satsang Darbar Gurdwara following the attack, was apprised of the current level of investigation and the situation during meetings with Essens mayor Thomas Kufen and police commissioner Frank Richter on Sunday.

We (police department) have set up a commission of inquiry and are thoroughly probing. The security for religious institutions will be beefed up, Richter told Kumar, who visited the Sikh community to show solidarity, besides holding talks with authorities.

The explosion had ripped through the entrance hall of the gurdwara on Saturday evening during a wedding ceremony and severely damaged part of the building housing the gurdwara, besides shattering several windowpanes and injuring three persons, including a Sikh priest or granthi.

India had expressed distress at what is being deemed as a deliberate act.

Read: Germany gurdwara blast: Sikh priest among 3 injured, India concerned

Read: SGPC condemns gurdwara blast in Germany, seeks arrest of accused

Police in Essen said in a statement that they are focusing their investigation on the possibility that the explosive device was either planted inside the foyer of the gurdwara or lobbed into it from outside. They are searching for a masked man dressed in black, who was seen by eyewitnesses fleeing the area soon after the detonation.

Police said so far they have no indication whether the attack on the gurdwara was racially motivated or it has any terrorist background.

Three occupants of a car parked near the gurdwara, who were taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the explosion, were set free after questioning on Saturday night.

The mayor assured Kumar that the city administration, the police and the state prosecutors office would take all necessary measures to ensure that the Sikh community can feel secure, the city of Essen and the police commissioners office said in a joint statement.

Religious freedom is guaranteed in the German society and any form of violence against religious minorities will be totally unacceptable, Kufen said.
A judge will hand down a sentence to South African athlete Oscar Pistorius for murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in June.

Pistorius lawyers last month failed in their final legal bid to reverse a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling that upgraded his conviction from culpable homicide -- the equivalent of manslaughter -- to murder.

The double-amputee killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, on Valentines Day three years ago, saying he mistook her for an intruder when he shot four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

Your matter is postponed until June 13, and it will be heard until June 17, do you understand? judge Aubrey Ledwaba told Pistorius, who answered Yes.

Pistorius, wearing a black suit, black tie and white shirt, left the court and walked through a scrum of television camera crews outside to get into a vehicle.

The former paralympic champion, 29, faces a minimum 15-year jail term for murder, which may be reduced due to time he has already spent in prison.

He was released from prison in October to live under house arrest at his uncles property in Pretoria after serving one year of his five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide.

The SCA judges in December described his testimony at his trial in 2014 as untruthful and delivered a damning indictment of the original verdict.

They found him guilty of murder, overruling the culpable homicide conviction.
A top aide to Donald Trump had lobbied for a US-based outfit busted by authorities in 2011 for operating as a front for Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, according to a Yahoo News report.

The aide, Paul Manafort, was part of the lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, which was paid $700,000 by the Kashmiri American Council (KAC) between 1990 and 1995.

The KAC was shut down by the authorities in 2011 and the man who ran it, Ghulam Nabi Fai, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax fraud and was sentenced to two years in jail.

The KAC, which received money from the ISI through contacts in the US, lobbied the administration, lawmakers and opinion-makers for independence for Kashmir.

Manafort was hired recently by Trump specifically to prepare his campaign for a contested party convention that is most likely to settle the Republican presidential race.

Neither Manafort nor Trump has responded to the report.

But when asked about some of his controversial lobbying jobs, Manafort said in a TV interview, Im not working for any client right now other than working for Mr. Trump.

Charlie Black, a partner in the lobbying firm who handled the KAC account, told Yahoo News they were not aware its funding was coming from the ISI.

Nobody was more surprised than me that the guy was taking the money from Pakistan, Black said in a telephone interview, according to Yahoo News. We didnt know anything about it.

A former Pakistani official told Hindustan Times on condition of anonymity that those who dealt with him (Fai) knew he was working with Manafort and his lobbying firm.
As stoney-faced Secret Service men in dark suits quietly took position inside the building, Lorenzo Campos knew Donald Trump was in residence. It was his business to know.

Thats all his curious, awe-struck customers at the Trump Bar, in the atrium where the real estate tycoon announced his candidacy for the White House last June, always asked him.

For some strange reason, they always want to know if he is in the building, Campos said, chuckling. Its not as if there is any chance of them bumping into him. But they still ask.

Trump was indeed home on Sunday night, ahead of the New York primaries he hopes to win by a massive margin to propel his candidacy towards the nomination.

Through he leads the Republican race with 755 delegates to second-placed Ted Cruzs 559 and Kasichs 144, Trump is likely to fall short of the 1,237 needed to win the ticket.

At Trump Tower, the ritzy 68-storey building that is his home and company headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, his fate as a candidate takes backstage to continuing curiosity about the man.

The building  partly accessible to public, the lobby, atrium and parts of the underground  has witnessed a rising tide of visitors since Trump jumped into the race.

They come to see him and find out more about the man who has the world talking about him. The building serves as a useful proxy occasionally, as it did to engage Ian Simpson.

An IT professional from England who is holidaying in New York with his wife, Simpson came to Trump Tower completely out of curiosity  to know the man a little.

And he was impressed by what he saw. He is a definitely a clever man, a very smart man, Simpson said, pointing to a hard-to-miss gently cascading waterfall in the atrium.

Can he now after this visit, as a Brit, see his country dealing with Trump in the White House? Yes, sure, if we can deal with Putin (Russian president Vladimir Putin), why not?

UK politicians nearly banned Trump from visiting their country earlier this year for his remarks about disallowing Muslims from entering the US. But they backed off after calling him names.

Simpsons wife, Sylvia, seemed less impressed. Its the Starbucks, she said that drew her to Trump Tower, referring to the coffee chain that has an outlet in the building.

Thats a cop-out, her husband said teasing her. But the Starbucks outlet was actually cited by a few others who seemed undecided about where they stood on Trump, given his politics.

The Republican frontrunner is a deeply divisive figure who is forcing his party to chose between him and riots on the streets if he was denied the nomination at the end of the primaries.

Critics have attributed his belligerence to an attempt to couch his own failure to understand the rules of the primaries and preparing for them. He is being out-thought by Cruz, by most accounts.

Bharat Gajjar, an Indian-American of Gujarati descent who works at a gift shot in Trump Tower  called Trump Tower Gift Shop  cant wait for Trump to lose, for business reasons.

Till a year ago, before Trump began running for White House, most visitors to Trump Tower never really bought merchandise from the realtors promotional kiosks around the building.

From Trump-stamped diapers to hats to ties, perfumes, cufflinks, the store was never a big draw, Gajjar said, because of the price tags. They were too expensive for common tourists.

Most visitors preferred Gajjars $10 caps that said I Love New York. Now they want Trumps caps (they call them hats here) with the Make America Great Again slogan, at $ 30 a piece.

As this correspondent was interviewing Gajjar, Bob Hickok stormed into the store looking for Trump campaign bumper stickers, mistaking the gift shop for a campaign store.

Sorry sir, Gajjar said. The campaign store closed early today as on Sundays and you can come back tomorrow and buy one from them. We dont sell campaign stuff.

Is Donald home, Hickok said, I want to speak to him  we need these stickers in California  we need some help there. He was grandstanding, and he knew that.

The California primaries are on June 7, the last stop in the nominating season. Trump has said he expects to do well there and he may, according to RealClearPolitics average of polls.

But can he win the nomination? Can he win?

David Skellington, who has served as doorman at Trump Towers for eight years, is constantly fielding these questions, despite the fact he is several floors removed from those who can answer it.

But people just walk up wanting to know more about Trump. How often does he see him? Does he pay well? Does he treat him well? What kind of a man is he? Can he win?

He is voting for him, Skellington tells them.
The combined power of official economists was brought to bear on the referendum campaign on Monday as chancellor George Osborne unveiled a 200-page document that told Britons they would be permanently poor outside the European Union.

In dense economic-speak littered with figures in billions and equations, the document claimed families will be 4,300 poorer per year, taxes and prices would go up, and 44% of British exports to the EU would be adversely affected.

The David Cameron government has taken a pro-EU position on the June 23 referendum, while six ministers and others have been campaigning for leaving the 28-state grouping. The referendum period officially came into force on April 15.

The Brexit camp was quick to pick holes in Osbornes headline figures, including the claim that the British economy outside the EU will be 6% smaller.

The idea you can predict anything in any economy 14 years ahead is quite absurd...It is simply not credible, said Tory MP Liam Fox, while others saw it as part of scaremongering and Project Fear.

The treasury document addresses three scenarios put forth by the Brexit camp, and rejects each of them: membership of the European Economic Area (EEA), like Norway; a negotiated bilateral agreement, such as that between the EU and Switzerland, Turkey or Canada, and World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership without any form of specific agreement with the EU  like Russia or Brazil.

Osborne said: It is a perfectly honest position to say that Britain would be worse off but that is a price worth paying. But dont pretend to the British people that leaving the EU comes at no economic cost.

For me, in the end, its not just about the economics. Its about who we are as a country. The Britain I love is open, confident in its values and ready to shape the future of our world. I dont want Britain to be like Norway or like Canada or anyone else.

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The US has agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq, the first major increase in US forces in nearly a year, US defence officials said on Monday.

The uptick in American fighting forces  and the decision to put them closer to the front lines  is designed to help Iraqi forces retake the key northern city of Mosul, and to help retake Raqqa, the extremists group self-proclaimed capital in Syria.

Last June, the Obama administration announced that hundreds of troops would be deployed to help the Iraqis retake Ramadi  a goal they accomplished at the end of the year.

Of the additional troops, most would be Army special forces, who have been used throughout the anti-Islamic State campaign to advise and assist the Iraqis. The remainder would include some trainers, security forces for the advisers, and maintenance teams for the Apaches.

The decisions reflect weeks of discussions with commanders and Iraqi leaders, and a decision by President Barack Obama to increase the authorised troop level in Iraq by 217 forces  or from 3,870 to 4,087. The advise-and-assist teams  made up of about a dozen troops each accompanied by security forces  would embed with Iraqi brigades and battalion, likely putting them closer to the front lines and at greater risk from mortars and rocket fire.

The proximity to the battlefront will allow the US teams to provide more tactical combat advice as the Iraqi units move toward Mosul, the countrys second-largest city, still under Islamic State control. Until now, US advisers have worked with the Iraqis at the headquarters level, well back from the front lines.

The Apache helicopters are considered a significant aid to any attack on Mosul.

Last December, US officials were trying to carefully negotiate new American assistance with Iraqi leaders who often have a different idea of how to wage war. At that time, the Iraqis refused Apache helicopters for the battle to retake Ramadi.

Speaking to US troops at the airport in Baghdad, defense secretary Ash Carter also said the US will send an additional rocket-assisted artillery system to Iraq.

US officials have also said that the number of special operations forces in Syria would be increased at some point, but Carter did not mention that in his comments. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorised to discuss the matter publicly.

Carters announcement on Monday came after several meetings with his commanders and Iraqi leaders about how the US can best help Iraqi forces retake Mosul.

He met with Lt Gen Sean MacFarland, the top US military commander for the Islamic State fight, as well as a number of Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Iraqs minister of defence Khalid al-Obeidi.

He also spoke by phone with the president of Iraqs autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani

Late last month, US Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters he and Carter believed there would be an increase in US forces in Iraq in the coming weeks.

Later this week, Obama will be in Saudi Arabia to talk with Gulf leaders about the fight against the Islamic State and ask for their help in rebuilding Ramadi, which took heavy damage in the battle.

US military and defence officials have made it clear that winning back Mosul is critical, but will be challenging, because the insurgents are dug in and have likely peppered the landscape with roadside bombs and other traps for any advancing military.

A senior defence official told reporters traveling with Carter that while Iraqi leaders have been reluctant to have a large number of US troops in Iraq, they also need certain capabilities that only more American or coalition forces can provide.

Iraqi leaders back the addition of more US troops if their work is coordinated with Iraqis and directed toward the retaking of Mosul. The official was not authorised to discuss the issue publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Iraq has been struggling with a political crisis, as efforts to oust the speaker of parliament failed. Al-Abadis efforts to get a new cabinet in place met resistance, and influential Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a deadline, giving parliament 72 hours to vote in a new Cabinet.

At the same time, the costs of the war against IS, along with the plunge in the price of oil  which accounts for 95% of Iraqs revenues  have caused an economic crisis, adding fresh urgency to calls for reform. Iraqi officials predict a budget deficit of more than $30 billion this year.
Post-Covid Prospects: Argentina

Argentina, already in a recession when the Covid-19 pandemic first hit in 2020, has been enjoying a remarkable recovery. However, its still facing economic difficulties. This article looks at how the worlds eighth largest country is introducing reforms to rein in its runaway inflation and restore financial credibility, while at the same time looking to diversify trade and investment through its membership of the BRI.
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When Khairuldeen Makhzoomi boarded his Southwest Airlines flight on April 6, he had no idea that he would end up becoming the latest example of Islamophobia in the United States. After speaking to an uncle about his experiences at a dinner with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the 26-year-old senior at the University of California was unceremoniously booted off the flight.

The reason? During his conversation, the political science student spoke a number of Arabic words that alarmed fellow passengers. The words were "inshallah," which literally translates to "God willing," a very common Arabic phrase.

"I just called him and talked to him about it and everything, and he told me (to) call him when I get to Oakland, and I said, 'inshallah, inshallah, I will call you when I arrive.' And during the conversation a lady was staring at me," he said.

Initially, Makhzoomi thought that the reason the lady was staring at him was because he spoke too loudly. Soon, however, she left the plane, coming back with an Arabic-speaking Southwest Airlines employee and two police officers, who promptly escorted him off the plane.

"One guy came with police officers within two minutes, I can't believe how fast they were, and told me to get off the plane," he said.

Once he was out of the aircraft, Makhzoomi stated that he was questioned by the Southwest Airlines employee aggressively. According to the political science student, the employee talked to him "like (he) was an animal."

"I said to him, 'This is what Islamophobia got this country into,' and that made him so angry. That is when he told me I could not go back on the plane," Makhzoomi said.

After retorting, things just got worse for the student. He was soon brought into the terminal, searched in front of a crowd of onlookers and questioned by three FBI agents in a private room. After interrogation, he was eventually released. Southwest Airlines refunded his ticket.

In a statement about the incident, Southwest Airlines outlined how the events transpired.

"Prior to the departure of Flight 4620, our crew made the decision to investigate a report of potentially threatening comments overheard onboard our aircraft. A group of our employees including the flight crew made the decision to review the situation. We understand local law enforcement also spoke with that passenger as the aircraft departed the gate," the company said.

Although he was extremely distressed by the turn of events, Makhzoomi said that he does not seek to pursue any legal action against the popular airline. Rather, he simply said that all he is looking for is a sincere apology.

"All I want is an apology today," Makhzoomi said. "We as a people, Iraqi, American, Iranian, we share one thing in common, and that is our dignity. If someone tries to take that away from us, we should fight but not with aggression, with knowledge and education. One must stand for his principle."

Almost two weeks since the incident, however, the political science student is still yet to receive an apology from the airline.

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The University at Buffalo let in a stampede of prospective students last Wednesday, as the state university accidentally sent out acceptance letters to more than 5,000 prospective students. For a few hours, at least.

Unfortunately for the students, they were not really accepted as of yet. Rather, the email was the result of the school accidentally utilizing an incorrect mailing list. The incident was confirmed by John DellaContrada, a university spokesman.

After a few hours, and after the error became apparent, the university quickly backtracked, sending out letters that explained the situation and apologized for the mistake.

"The University at Buffalo deeply regrets an error that occurred when an email intended to encourage you to fill out your FAFSA form mistakenly stated we had completed the review of your application materials," Lee H. Melvin, vice provost for enrollment management wrote.

Melvin, however, assured the students that the erroneous acceptance letters were in no way a sign that the people who received them did not make it into the school. Rather, the provost emphasized that the university is still in the process of reviewing all the applications.

"In fact, we are still reviewing your application for admission and haven't made a final decision on your acceptance to the university," Melvin said.

The provost further stated that students who applied for the university should expect the official results of the university's review process by April 22. Thus, students would need to wait for a couple of days more for the real results of their applications to be released.

Addressing the incident, the university issued a statement apologizing for the error.

"We know that this can be a stressful time for prospective students and their families. The University at Buffalo deeply regrets this unfortunate error in communication," the statement said.

Though the incident was quite an embarrassing gaffe for the University at Buffalo, such incidents have become increasingly common among the nation's educational institutions. Last year, Carnegie Mellon University committed a similar error, sending out acceptance messages to 800 prospective graduate students by mistake. And in 2014, Johns Hopkins University committed an even bigger error, sending out acceptance letters to 300 students who were actually rejected by the school.

The University at Buffalo's gaffe involves the largest number of students since 2009, when the University of California in San Diego sent out acceptance letters to 46,000 students, including the 28,000 that the school rejected.

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It turns out that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that it doesn't need to regulate a genetically modified mushroom. The agency has said that the mushroom, which was changed with the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9, doesn't qualify as something that the agency should regulate.

The mushroom is just one of 30 genetically modified organisms that have managed to not need the USDA's regulations in the past five years. With that said, once a crop passes the USDA reviews, it may still undergo a voluntary review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In this case, several of the plants that were bypassed by the USDA were created using gene-editing techniques that included zinc-finger nuclease and transcription activator-like effector nuclease systems. Now, it seems that the USDA is also giving a pass to some organisms engineered with CRISPR-Cas9.

The mushroom itself is genetically engineered to resist browning. Researchers effectively targeted the family of genes that encodes polyphenol oxidase (PPO), which is an enzyme that causes browning. The researchers knocked out just one of six PPO genes in order to reduce the enzyme's activity.

"The research community will be very happy with the news," said Caixia Gao, a plant biologist at the Chinese Academy of Science, who was not involved in creating the mushroom. "I am confident we'll see more gene-edited crops falling outside of regulatory authority."

So why wasn't the mushroom regulated? This is largely because the mushroom itself is just missing genes rather than possessing foreign DNA from other organisms, like viruses or bacteria. In fact, many new gene-editing techniques do not involve using DNA from other organisms, which means that fewer genetically modified organisms need to be regulated.

This isn't the only crop that has avoided USDA regulation. The past several years have seen other GMOs that have slipped past the USDA. This includes a potato that has had its genes knocked out that would potentially make French fries healthier. Additionally a new herbicide-resistant canola; a corn that would create less pollution from livestock waste; switch grass tailored for biofuel production; and even an ornamental plant that glows in the dark have slipped past USDA regulations recently.

In fact, these crops outline the fact that the USDA is allowing more and more crops to escape regulation due to new gene-editing techniques. Knocking out a gene, or making a tiny change in an existing gene, are both techniques that are now being used to genetically modify crops.

"Those are basically comparable to what you get from conventional breeding," said Neal Gutterson, vice president for agricultural biotechnology at DuPont Pioneer. "We certainly hope that the regulatory agencies recognize that and treat the products accordingly."

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A Chili's parking lot in Florida marked the beginning of a tragedy Sunday evening when a local man attacked his wife, then picked up his two young children from the babysitter's and shot them before turning the gun on himself, Seminole County deputies reported.

The sequence of events began when the suspect, 30-year-old Henry Brown, hid in his estranged wife's trunk until she left the restaurant. Records indicate that their marriage had been rocky ever since his wife, 31-year-old Chericia Brown, had an injunction issued in January following a domestic battery report from the month before.

Upon leaving the restaurant around 10 p.m., Chericia was rushed by Henry, who had been lying in wait, and stabbed multiple times. The attack prompted a nurse and paramedic, who were dining at the establishment, to come and help, but that's when Henry returned to the scene in a bid to finish the job by running her over - and hitting the two good Samaritans in the process.

Afterward, Henry drove to Alamonte Springs and changed vehicles to a Ford F250. While there, he also picked up his two children - a 1-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son - from the babysitter.

With the two in tow, he headed to Central Florida Regional Hospital in search of his wife, but security and witnesses recognized him, prompting him to pull out his gun and open fire on law enforcement and security personnel in an attempt to flee. Deputies said they returned fire, but were unable to prevent him from fleeing to Interstate 4.

He drove westbound along the interstate, eventually being discovered by police near the Seminole-Volusia county line just minutes later. Deputies successfully used stop sticks to slow Henry's vehicle down, but upon closing in to arrest him, they found him as well as his two children dead inside.

Investigators said they believe Brown killed his children at some point after picking them up, then committed suicide while police prepared to apprehend him.

As if that wasn't bad enough, at some point during the night, Chericia died at the hospital from her injuries.

I-4 near the St. Johns River Bridge was shut down for hours after the incident, but has since reopened.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting at the hospital.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Although scientists have had the luxury of being able to closely examine creatures evolve in the gravitational influence of Earth, little is known about how humans and other living things evolve and adapt in the space environment. In fact, scientists were previously unsure humans could eat and absorb micronutrients in microgravity, a belief that was later revealed to be false.

In an attempt to better understand evolution in microgravity, a Chinese satellite, SJ-10, revealed important data that suggests it is possible for mammals - and possibly humans - to reproduce in space.

"The human race may still have a long way to go before we can colonize the space," said Duan Enkui, the professor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences who led the experiment. "But before that, we have to figure out whether it is possible for us to survive and reproduce in the outer space environment like we do on Earth. Now, we finally proved that the most crucial step in our reproduction - the early embryo development - is possible in the outer space."

SJ-10 didn't house any humans or animals, but it did contain numerous cells. Prior to its journey into space, scientists loaded it up with more than 6,000 mouse embryos. For seven days, a team of scientists watched these embryos remotely through microscopic images that the satellite sent back periodically during this period of time.

Enkui's team conducted this research with the intent on learning if these embryos would proceed through the early stages of maturation while in orbit and found that they did. The cells in the embryos went from the two-cell stage to differentiated blastocysts, which is an evolution that would be expected if the embryos matured on Earth.

When it comes to space exploration, early embryo development is crucial. Scientists hope to eventually be able to create artificial wombs that can house growing embryos, but if microgravity interferes with early developmental stages, this might never be possible. Although it's still unclear how gestation would proceed and the satellite only examined mouse embryos, the results are promising to say the least.

The Chinese satellite SJ-10 launched April 6 and, although it was only a seven-day mission, the capsule was recovered earlier today in China and will be transported to Beijing so that scientists can continue to study the cells.

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Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and CEO of blood testing company Theranos, says she is "devastated" by her company's failures, with its California laboratory in danger of being shut down due to health hazards. To make matters worse, federal regulators are threatening to ban Holmes from the business of blood testing for two years or more.

Although Holmes takes full responsibility for all of the problems at the laboratory, which include inaccurate test results and unqualified workers, she says she was unaware of their existence.

"I'm the founder and CEO of this company," she said. "Anything that happens in this company is my responsibility at the end of the day."

However, when questioned regarding the company's lack of protocols to ensure the laboratory's internal and external quality and proper hiring process, Holmes said that she we unaware of these failures.

"Probably the most devastating part of this is that I thought we did," she said.

Holmes built up Theranos to a $9 million valuation, saying that it would revolutionize diagnostics and patient cure through a new device with the ability to perform numerous medical tests using just a few drops of blood.

Despite these promises, the company has failed to publish or release any sort of data to back up these claims. Furthermore, inspections by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) found problems in the company's labs that posed immediate dangers to patient health.

Holmes and her staff are now hard at work to resolve the reported problems with their company and have hired numerous experts in the medical community to aid them, although the CMS is still threatening action against them for not responding to the dangerous problems quick enough.

Theranos is now awaiting the CMS's decision in regards to sanctions that could lead to the shutdown of its California lab and prevent Holmes and company president Sunny Balwani from working in the blood testing business for two years or more.

"I know what we've built and I know what we've created and I know what it means to people," she said. "And it is a change that needs to happen in the world."

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Walking Holidays In Ireland

Your search returned 488 cottages.

If your idea of the perfect holiday is to don the waterproofs and head into the wild for an afternoon of wandering, book a self-catering holiday cottage with Hogans Irish cottages and prepare to stretch those legs on a walking holiday in Ireland. We've carefully selected over 400 Irish holiday cottages that we think would make the ideal base for an invigorating walking holiday, so choose yours today and look forward to scaling the emerald grasslands and lofty peaks that typify the landscape surrounding each of these Irish walking cottages.

As a walking holiday destination, Ireland is second to none. The country boasts acre after acre of virtually uninhabited wilderness, interrupted only by the scenic trails, wooded paths and public rights of way that criss-cross for miles across the landscape. Whether you're planning a trip to the sunny South East or the haunting North West, you won't have to travel far in Ireland to find a walking trail to suit you. And best of all, our specially-selected walking cottages in Ireland are all located in areas renowned by walkers, so you can be on your merry way from the moment you leave your Irish holiday cottage.

Find walking holidays across Ireland with Hogans!

From Galway to Wexford, Ireland is a utopia for walkers. For inspiring coastal walks, head North to the Slieve League Cliffs in Donegal, or to the Burren in County Clare. Or, take a romantic lakeside stroll beside the Lakes of Killarney in Kerry. And then there are Ireland's cities, towns and villages, which are in themselves a joy to walk around. Pound the pavements of Waterford city or absorb the sights and sounds of Dublin on your two feet on an invigorating walking holiday in Ireland from Hogans.

Please find below self catering holiday cottages in Ireland near scenic walking routes and hiking trails. Take in the Irish countryside and go for long walks in the day and then retire to your homely cottage in the evening.
E rith and Belevedere in the south-east borough of Bexley have been named as the cheapest places to rent in the capital, according to the latest Rightmove Rental Tracker.

Average prices for two-bedroom flats are 1,013 and 1,064 a month respectively, almost half the London average, yet direct train services reach London Bridge station within 40 minutes. Belvedere sits one stop further down the line, which also stops at Woolwich, an area set to gain high-speed Crossrail links from 2018.

With rents rising by up to 21 per cent in some parts of the capital in the past year alone, it is no surprise that the most affordable areas also are becoming the most in-demand among renters.

Hornchurch tops the list as the most popular area searched for by would-be tenants. This quiet commuter town in Essex is 17 miles from central London, with trains to Liverpool Street taking about 40 minutes.

Along with being the cheapest area to rent in the capital, previously little-known Erith, north-east of Bexleyheath and north-west of Dartford, is now the second most popular area for renters in London, too.

Romford in east London is another Crossrail hotspot and is currently the capital's eighth cheapest area for renters. House prices have risen by a staggering 27 per cent over the past year to an average of 267,000 thanks to town-centre regeneration in anticipation of the new rail link, but rental prices are yet to catch up.

In Zone 6, Romford is a major shopping town and trains take half an hour to Liverpool Street. Neighbouring Rush Green, and Rainham further south, are also two of the cheapest areas to rent in London.

Just south of Crystal Palace, South Norwood and Anerley offer average monthly rents of under 1,180. They are very well-connected, with direct links to Victoria and London Bridge, plus they are on the London Overground to Dalston and Highbury and Islington.

Wallington, an up-and-coming tech hub near Croydon, has rents of about 1,120 and a 40-minute commute to London Victoria. It also has a farmers' market on the second Saturday of each month.
Located in the heart of the North Houston business district, Hyatt North Houston is a modern hotel in Houston, Texas, for business and leisure travelers from around the world. A short drive from Houstons most exciting attractions and major business, this Houston hotel features spacious rooms and suites, a full-service service restaurant & lounge, 24-hour business center, state-of-the-art fitness center and complimentary airport shuttle to George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH, just 7 miles away). Enjoy delicious regional cuisine at Sam's Bar and Grill and relax by our tropically landscaped swimming pool and whirlpool. Make your reservation today at the Hyatt North Houston and experience a hotel with big Texas hospitality.

For more information please contact Eliza Selig

+1 512 220 4026
Dublin  Dalata Hotel Group plc ('Dalata' or 'the Company'), Ireland's largest hotel operator, today announces it has signed a development contract with McAleer & Rushe, to deliver a 206 room Maldron Hotel on Brunswick Street in central Belfast.

Planning permission for a new 14 storey hotel, designed by Belfast architect Consarc, was granted in November 2015. The hotel will be built on the site of the former Belfast Metropolitan College and represents a 21m investment, delivering in excess of 100 new employee positions for the local economy when the hotel is operational.

Demolition of the site has already begun and construction is due to commence in June 2016. The hotel is expected to be completed in the first half of 2018.

Dermot Crowley, Deputy CEO Business Development and Finance, commented:

"We are delighted to announce the development of a new Maldron Hotel in central Belfast, providing an extra 206 rooms in the city. RevPAR growth was strong in 2015 in our existing Northern Ireland hotels and we have been keen to expand our portfolio in Belfast. This new hotel continues the rapid expansion of the Maldron brand on the island of Ireland and we look forward to working with McAleer & Rushe on the development."

About Dalata

Dalata Hotel Group plc was founded in August 2007 and listed as a plc in March 2014. Dalata is Ireland's largest hotel operator, with a growing presence in the UK and continental Europe. The Group's portfolio comprises 48 predominately four-star hotels with 10,459 rooms and a pipeline of over 1,770 rooms. The Group currently has 29 owned hotels, 16 leased hotels and three management contracts. Dalata successfully operate Ireland's two largest hotel brands, the Clayton and the Maldron Hotels. For the year ended 31 December 2021, Dalata reported revenue of 192.0 million and a loss after tax of 6.3 million. Dalata is listed on the Main Market of Euronext Dublin (DHG) and the London Stock Exchange (DAL). For further information visit: www.dalatahotelgroup.com
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) announced today that its Parisian-born Le Meridien brand will open in Dania Beach, Fort Lauderdale, in partnership with owner and prominent U.S. real estate developer Charles S. Cohen. Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will debut in 2017, following a comprehensive $30 million renovation and conversion of the hotel. This forthcoming opening follows on the heels of tremendous brand growth in North America over the last 18 months in Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus, New Orleans, Tampa and Indianapolis.

"We are delighted to partner with Starwood to introduce Le Meridien in Fort Lauderdale, following the top-to-bottom transformation and repositioning of this ideally located hotel," stated Charles S. Cohen, President and CEO of New York-based Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation. "Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will help to meet rising demand for high-quality lodging within close proximity of the airport, Broward County Convention Center and the downtown business district and will also serve the growing need for meeting rooms and event facilities for tenants of our corporate center."

Following its meticulous renovation and conversion, the hotel's arrival experience will boast a transformed glass curtain wall facade and upgrades to the porte-cochere as well as large-scale artwork in high impact areas. Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will feature 245 contemporary guestrooms and suites with floor-to-ceiling windows and stunning views, as well as two redesigned restaurants  one with a mid-century modern, open kitchen concept  and the brand's signature Latitude Bar. The hotel will also introduce Le Meridien Hub, which reinterprets the traditional hotel lobby into a social gathering place and builds on the brand's award-winning arrival experience and coffee culture.

"Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will be the brand's second hotel in Florida, joining its growing North America portfolio," said Allison Reid, Senior Vice President of North America Development, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. "Le Meridien is a perfect brand for strategic conversions and adaptive re-use projects, which are driving the brand's growth in the region, allowing us to enter mature metropolitan markets more quickly."

Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will also offer an expanded fitness centre, a renovated outdoor pool and 20,000 square feet of state-of-the-art flexible meeting space in a prime location. The dramatic hotel transformation is being carried out by an outstanding team of design and construction specialists, including Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates and Daniels Brothers Inc., in addition to Dash Design, for interior design; Nievera Williams Design for landscape design; and Tex Lighting for lighting design.

Ideally located just minutes from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Fort Lauderdale Everglades Cruise Port, the hotel also neighbors several beaches, downtown Fort Lauderdale, and the world-famous restaurants, night clubs and boutiques of nearby Miami Beach. Le Meridien Fort Lauderdale Airport will be part of Cohen's distinctive Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA) campus, a 40-acre, three-building Class A design and office center in Dania Beach. Guests will enjoy convenient access to Broward Center for the Performing Arts, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale and BB&T Center.

About Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation

Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation, a multi-faceted real estate development company, owns and manages over twelve million square feet of prime Class A Manhattan office space as well as design centers in New York, Los Angeles and Houston. Among its signature New York properties are 623 Fifth Avenue, 135 East 57th Street, 805 Third Avenue, 750 Lexington Avenue, 622 Third Avenue, 979 Third Avenue, 3 East 54th Street and 475 Park Avenue South.

About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Starwood Hotels &

Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 1,300 properties in some 100 countries and approximately 188,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences under the renowned brands: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W, Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton,Tribute Portfolio, Four Points by Sheraton, Aloft, and Element, along with an expanded partnership withDesign Hotels. The company also boasts one of the industrys leading loyalty programs, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG). Visit www.starwoodhotels.com for more information and stay connected @starwoodbuzz on Twitterand Instagram and facebook.com/Starwood.
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The Riu Tikida Beach Hotel

The All-Inclusive resort located on the shores of Morocco, remains an 'Adults Only' hotel

The 4-star Hotel Riu Tikida Beach, located on the beachfront in Agadir, has reopened its doors after a complete renovation. The resort owned by Tikida Group and managed by RIU Hotels & Resorts, remains all-inclusive and exclusively for guests aged 18 and over. The hotel will welcome the upcoming summer season with a fresh, more modern and elegant look thanks to the revamped design of its facilities.

The Riu Tikida Beach, located in an exceptional location in Agadir and separated from its magnificent 6 mile long beach by only a promenade, has 254 newly designed and more attractive rooms with bathrooms remodeled into walk-in showers and designed with top-quality and modern materials. All rooms have Wifi connection, fire detectors and flat screen television.

Likewise, the hotel's entrance and reception have been completely redone providing extra brightness and freshness to the main lobby. One new addition is the creation of the "Yellow" lobby bar, where guests can enjoy a drink in an exotic and exclusive setting.

After the renovation, both the main buffet "Le Caroubier", as well as the Moroccan restaurant "Le Mogador" open nightly by reservation only, have undergone a makeover and will delight guests with their exquisite decoration and extremely elegant interior design. In addition, the "Casablanca" lounge also has a new look. It has been decorated in typical Moroccan style with a modern and unique touch exclusive to RIU hotels and Tikida.

The outdoor areas, which have been completely redone, include a new second pool, a gym with new equipment and the popular Hamman, a Thalasso area that offers all guests a heated indoor pool in the winter and massage rooms where they can enjoy a range of treatments.

RIU Hotels and Tikida Group currently have five hotels in Morocco, three in the Agadir area and another two in Marrakesh. All of the hotels offer All-Inclusive service, characteristic of RIU Hotels & Resorts.
Using a single connection through DHISCO Switch, Abreu Online is able to provide its partners with access to real-time rates.

DHISCO Inc., the worlds leading hospitality distribution company, today announced that it has been selected by Abreu Online, one of the worlds leading travel wholesalers, to expand its connectivity and offer its partners real-time hotel search and booking options at thousands of properties around the world.

Using a single connection through DHISCO Switch, Abreu Online is able to provide its partners with access to real-time rates.

Based in Lisbon with offices throughout Europe and South America, Abreu Online is part of Grupo Viagens Abreu S.A., one of the worlds oldest travel agencies. Its business-to-business platform is used by more than 5,000 travel agencies and tour operators worldwide.

As one of the most valued online booking systems used by the industry professionals, Abreu Online is constantly looking for the best technology to improve and grow, said Luis Tonicha, Abreu Online managing director. By partnering with DHISCO, we will be able to continue expanding our business by offering our partners access to dynamic content at thousands of properties around the world.

DHISCO CEO Toni Portmann said the company is pleased to welcome such a widely known and respected leader in the travel world.

Abreu Online is part of one of the oldest and most successful travel companies in the world, Portmann said. And as the worlds oldest and leading hospitality distribution system company, DHISCO is the perfect partner to power their growth. Using our unique technology, Abreu Online can be assured their customers will be able to access to the most competitive rates and booking information.

About DHISCO Inc.

DHISCO Inc. is the worlds original and leading hospitality distribution company, providing the most reliable and advanced technology to connect hotels around the world with online travel agencies, global distribution systems, metasearch engines and other travel partners. Since 1989, DHISCO has built its reputation on providing the most efficient and affordable means to market, capture and book hotel reservations. Today, it moves more than 9 billion transactions a month for more than 110,000 hotels.

About Abreu Online

Created in 2003, Abreu Online is one of the first online wholesalers in Europe, offering a valued online booking system used by industry professionals around the globe. Headquartered in Lisbon, Abreu Online is supported by offices in Europe, South America, the United States and Angola. Abreu Online is part of Grupo Viagens Abreu S.A., established in Oporto, Portugal, in 1840, which has grown into one of the most successful travel companies in the travel industry, employing over 1,500 worldwide.

CONTACT

Jeri Clausing

Vice President

RDR PR LLC

Jeri@rdrpr.com

505-221-3108
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I recently traveled to China with a congressional delegation. As I boarded the Air China plane, the flight attendants were welcoming, accommodating and professional. They seemed to take great pride in their work. One stood up before the passengers to give the usual spiel about how to buckle your seatbelt and negotiate other safety measures  a talk few people pay attention to.

What then followed was quite unusual. The security team leader authorized by the Security Administration Act of the Peoples Republic of China made an announcement: There will be penalties and punishments for noncompliance, including for behaviors that would disrupt the normal order of the cabin. I wrote a note to myself: What a different world Im entering.

China is a country fraught with contradictions. China has a capitalist-communistic system; China seeks to overcome past humiliations with increasing aggressiveness; China has rapidly expanded economic freedom while restraining many other freedoms.

A brief review of recent history can perhaps give some insight. In the latter part of the 20th century, Chairman Maos Cultural Revolution starved millions and firmly established communist rule. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Deng Xiopeng delivered another model by ending agricultural collectivization and realizing the potential of the market system.

The current president, Xi Jinping, has moved quietly to consolidate political power and reconcile a market economy with ancient tradition and collectivist control. He is considered the core, a fatherly figure of virtue who will shepherd Chinas new ascendency. China is now repositioned as a rising power.

The underlying driver of it all is Chinas economy. The country has a strong work ethic and dedication to individual advancement. However, a number of industries are state-owned. Until recently, China achieved an astounding 10-percent per year growth rate.

At the same time, Chinas economic development has great costs, contributing to extreme wealth disparity and severe environmental degradation. Beijing is so polluted that living there strikes five and a half years off an average lifetime.

One Chinese person whispered to me, Whats the point of all this economic growth if it kills you? Interestingly, China is emerging as a world leader in advancing the use of renewable resources.

Regarding questions of security, China desires to overcome its past dominance by foreign powers. In relation to America, China claims that plenty of room remains in the Pacific for two superpowers. Yet shared power is a foreign concept to the Chinese. China values stability, yet expanding Chinese ambition in the South China Sea is disturbing the regions normal nautical equilibrium. America pushes China to try and control its neighbor, North Korea, from its destabilizing and nationalistic militarism, but the effectiveness of Chinas efforts has been unclear  and at this point matters may be beyond their control.

Finally, in a very privileged meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, we had a frank and open conversation about our need for friendship, honest discussion about differences, and harmonious relations. The congressional delegation and I talked about a range of issues including North Korea, the South China Sea, the issue of intellectual property rights, and censorship.

I thought it was particularly important to use the Chinese concept of individual economic liberty to press for additional space for religious expression. I quoted Chinas president, who has called for a spiritual and cultural renewal. In return, I received a polite and thorough answer about the Chinese constitutions guarantee of religious freedom and the Confucian religious tradition.

Ironically, as we were meeting, crosses were being removed elsewhere in the country in an ongoing beautification campaign that over two years has eliminated an estimated 2,000 crosses from churches.

As I wandered through Tiananmen Square under the watchful eye of the image of Chairman Mao, I felt safe from crime and any hostility, or even any security scrutiny. The Chinese citizens around me appeared to go about their business with a curious indifference to my presence. In the side streets, beyond the formal government buildings and urban skyscrapers, it was a bit of a different flavor; the people were welcoming and friendly, eager to smile and engage.

From my hotel room window, Beijing showed itself a thriving metropolis of modern offices, hotels, apartments, luxury retail and neon lights. On closer examination, right below me, I saw an old neighborhood of traditional Chinese architecture, preserved from modern development: a maze of narrow alleyways, curving peaked roofs made of clay tile, and a type of functioning poverty.

And next to that was another startling sight, what I believed to be a Patriotic Catholic Church, a 100 year old structure reopened after the Cultural Revolution. China truly is a curious mix of seemingly contradictory forces that marches toward ever increasing power.
Belfast and Dublin will be getting their hankies out in October

Status Quo fans will be able to say their tearful farewells in October when the chaps play the Belfast SSE Arena (28) and Dublin 3Arena (29) as part of their last-ever electric tour. Tickets priced 38 and 59.50 go on sale on Friday April 22.

Needless to say theres a strict denim n white sneakers dress code.

In their 48-year history, Quo have played over 6,000 gigs to a combined audience of 25 million people.

They made history on July 13, 1985 when they kicked Live Aid off at Wembley Stadium with a suitably rambunctious 'Rocking All Over The World'.
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Ever wake up with a crick in your neck? It's tough to focus on anything else when you're tighter than a guitar string.

The good news is stretching will help you loosen up within a couple days. The bad news: It's really hard to get in a good stretch at the office without looking like a total weirdo.

Whether you've got a sore neck from a bad night's sleep, tight legs from a long run, or an aching back from too much time at your computer screen, there are plenty of stretches that can be performed inconspicuously in an open-office environment.

Staying loose at work does not have to involve an embarrassing session of downward facing dog at your desk.

Sitting Back Bend

Sit all the way up at the edge of your chair while tipping your pelvis forward, reaching your ribs up and forward and squeezing your shoulder blades.

"It's similar to what people would do in other heart-openers, like bridge pose, wheel and camel, and it looks pretty normal," says Nick Wolny, an instructor at YogaOne in Houston. To sweeten the stretch, lace your fingers together behind your head.

Good for: Back muscles

Chin Tuck

Sit tall in your chair and pull your face into your neck, as though you're trying to take a picture of yourself with a double chin. Hold it there for a count of 10.

"When we sit in bad posture, our upper back is leaned forward, our neck sticking out, the muscles on the front of the neck get weak, and your pecs get tight, and it makes your shoulder-blade muscles weak," says Justin Howard, a physical therapist with Memorial Hermann Health System. "And it's a perpetuating cycle that's really difficult to get out of."

Good for: Deep neck muscles

Neck release

"This one's a touch crazier, so it's a good one for the bathroom stall," Wolny warns.

Sit up tall with your feet flat on the ground. Take your right arm over your head and put your hand on your left ear with your fingers facing down. Now tip your right ear down to your right shoulder while extending your left arm out straight to your side, like you're reaching for the TV remote. Hold it for about 30 seconds.

A little too likely to get your co-workers' attention? Howard has an alternative.

Grab the side of your chair under your thigh with your right hand and tip your left ear to your left shoulder.

"For some reason, traps are a place where people carry a lot of tension, and when you carry a lot of stress, your neck and shoulders will get tight," says Howard. This will help iron that out.

Good for: Trapezius muscles

Pigeon

Start with both feet flat on the ground. Cross your right ankle loosely over your left thigh so it looks like your legs are making the shape of a "4." Now fold forward.

"With this, you'll feel a deep stretch in your hips and in the back of your glutes, and it's inconspicuous because you look like you're just tying your shoe," says Wolny.

Hold your stretch for about 30 seconds or so before switching to the other side.

Good for: Hips

Long Arc Quad

Begin with both feet flat on the floor. Straighten your right leg at the knee, bringing your lower leg up so it's parallel to the ground, then drop it back to the floor again. Repeat in quick succession about 10 times, then switch legs. Do three sets like this.

"Someone nearby might see a little bit of movement with this, but it's a great move to get your muscles moving," says Howard. "It's great for stretching the back of your thigh."

Good for: Quad muscles
The following are excerpts from reports generated by the Houston Police Department:

Esther M. Kribble, 38, of 13301 Craddock St. in Licking, was arrested April 12 for having an active Pulaski County warrant for passing bad checks.

An officer arrested Kribble at the state probation and parole office after being advised she was there. She was taken to the Texas County Jail where she posted $1,000 bond and was released.

Samantha J. Flieger, 21, of 110 N. Friend St., Apt. 12, in Licking, was cited for stealing under $500 after allegedly shoplifting from Walmart on April 8.

A 38-year-old man came to the HPD station April 7 to report a Husqvarna chainsaw had been stolen from the bed of his pickup truck while it was parked near the Houston library. The man returned to the police station the following day to report he had found the chainsaw in a ditch next to his Bryan Street residence.

An officer investigated a report of a man and woman trespassing at a Grand Avenue location at about 7 p.m. April 10. The officer made contact with the suspects, and determined the man had three active Stoddard County warrants  two for vehicle theft and one for burglary.

Christopher D. James, 32, of Bloomfield, was arrested and taken to the Texas County Jail to await extradition to Stoddard County.

Franklin R.J. Pearson, 25, of 807 Dooley St. in Houston was issued citations for failing to stop at a posted stop sign, driving while suspended and possession of drug paraphernalia following a traffic stop on Lilly Avenue at about 8:30 p.m. March 29.

Joshua A. Laster, 24, of 725 W. Highway 17 in Houston, was cited for resisting arrest by fleeing after an incident at about 10:45 p.m. March 29.

Laster was cited after an officer initiated a traffic stop in on U.S. 63 on a vehicle in which he was a passenger. When the officer asked for his identification, Laster claimed he didnt have it with him and took off running.

Two officers located Laster near the Lazy L Motel, and he was taken to the Texas County Jail, where he was served on a warrant for non-support and cited for resisting.

Charles M. Edwards, 46, of 514 Highway 17 in Houston, was arrested April 3 for having active Texas County warrants for driving while intoxicated and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

An officer made the arrest after investigating a report of a suspicious vehicle parked at Hardees that had reportedly been repeatedly flashing its headlights as it faced the restaurant.

After his arrest, Edwards was taken to jail.
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Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition.

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It has been far too many years since the Woke theology interlaced its canons within the fabric of the Indoctrination Realm, so it is nigh time to ask: Does this Representative Republic continue, as a functioning society of a self-governed people, by contending with the unusual, self absorbed dictates of the Woke, and their vast array of Victimhood scenarios?

Yes, the Religion of Woke must continue; there are so many groups of underprivileged, underserved, a direct result of unrelenting Inequity; they deserve everything.

No; the Woke fools must be toppled from their self-anointed pedestal; a functioning society of a good Constitutional people cannot withstand this level of "existential" favoritism as it exists now.
Dallas Job Fair April 20th with Travel Retailer Hudson Group

Posted by Press Releases on Monday, 04-18-2016 2:10 am

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Leading travel retailer Hudson Group is hosting another free Dallas job fair on April 20th for fifty entry-level positions. It will take place from 9am to 4pm at Embassy Suites Dallas Love Field Airport Hotel, 3880 W Northwest Highway, Dallas, Texas 75220. Dallas, Texas (PRWEB) April 17, 2016Leading travel retailer Hudson Group is hosting another free Dallas job fair on April 20th for fifty entry-level positions. It will take place from 9am to 4pm at Embassy Suites Dallas Love Field Airport Hotel, 3880 W Northwest Highway, Dallas, Texas 75220.The event is for the companys food and beverage outlets at Dallas Love Field Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Hudson Group will also be recruiting for its bakery operation in Irving.The positions available include supervisor, crew members, as well as food prep associates with major brands: Dunkin' Donuts, Jasons Deli, and Baskin-Robbins. Coffee and donuts will be provided.Candidates will have the opportunity to ge...

Close Forgot Your Password? Enter in your email address and we will send it to you. Send Email An HR.com member profile provides you with access to a multitude of information and education along with the opportunity to network with the largest HR community on the web.

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HR Knowledge Named to Boston Business Journals List of Fastest-Growing Massachusetts Companies

Posted by Press Releases on Monday, 04-18-2016 2:15 am

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Mansfield, MA, April 11, 2016  HR Knowledge has been named a 2016 Fast 50 by the Boston Business Journal, designating it one of the regions fastest-growing private companies.The Fast 50, formally known as Pacesetters, is an annual list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in Massachusetts. To be considered, companies were required to have generated a minimum of $1 million in revenue in 2015 and at least $500,000 in revenue for 2012. Companies that saw revenue drop between 2014 and 2015 were excluded. The list includes 76 businesses that have demonstrated strong revenue growth from 2012 to 2015.These companies represent the best examples of the Boston economys strength and vibrancy, said Boston Business Journal Publisher and Market President Carolyn M. Jones. This kind of top-line growth is driving the states economy and generating the kind of excitement that attracts global brands and their talent here.Thi...

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Ongoing Ban-The-Box Changes Will Force Employers to Further Review Pre-Employment Screening Policies, States CriminalBackgroundRecords.com

Posted by Press Releases on Monday, 04-18-2016 7:41 am

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Continued legislative changes regarding the use of Criminal Records as part of a pre-employment screening process will force employers to revisit and review current hiring policies, states CriminalBackgroundRecords. Adam Almeida, President and CEO of CriminalBackgroundRecords.com states: "With the recent Department of Housing and Urban Development guidance regarding the fair and lawful use of criminal records as part of the tenant vetting process, now, more than ever, is the time for employers to review current hiring policies in order to remain in compliance with existing law governing the use of criminal records." WALTHAM, MA (PRWEB) APRIL 18, 2016 In early April 2016 the Department of Housing and Urban Development released a new guidance covering the fair and legal use of criminal background records as part of the tenant vetting process, affecting thousands of landlords and property managers working in a private property setting. Adam Almeida, President and CEO of Crimin...

Close Forgot Your Password? Enter in your email address and we will send it to you. Send Email An HR.com member profile provides you with access to a multitude of information and education along with the opportunity to network with the largest HR community on the web.

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PracticeMatch to Host Physician Career Fair at the Courtyard Boston Cambridge Hotel on April 20, 2016

Posted by Press Releases on Sunday, 04-17-2016 11:13 pm

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The PracticeMatch Career Fair is a free one day event designed for physicians and other medical professionals looking to explore career opportunities with employers. ST. LOUIS, MO (PRWEB) APRIL 17, 2016 The PracticeMatch Career Fair will take place Wednesday, April 20, 2016 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm at the Courtyard Boston Cambridge Hotel, 777 Memorial Drive, Boston, MA 02139. Representatives from up to 50 local and nationwide hospitals, clinics and groups will be exhibiting to showcase their career opportunities. Attendees will enjoy free hors doeuvres and raffle prize drawings. Leslie Thompson, Director of Career Fairs for PracticeMatch says Boston is a great location to hold a career fair event. There are over a thousand medical residents and fellows who are looking for a physician role, as well as many practicing physicians and advanced practitioners who may be interested in taking on new opportunities and challenges, Thompson continues: We know that ...

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Supervisor Promoted Without HR Training Causes Discrimination Lawsuit, by Rita M. Risser Chai of Fair Measures, Inc.

Posted by Jo-Ann Birch on Monday, 04-18-2016 2:09 pm

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Newly promoted supervisors may not know their legal responsibilities, and their new positions may go to their heads, which could have severe legal consequences. Thats what happened in a recent California lawsuit. Mr. Castro-Ramirez had worked as a truck driver in Los Angeles for about four years. He was an excellent employee. He had requested before being hired that he not be given late shifts, as he had to be home by 8:00 PM to put his son on a dialysis machine, something he had done for 15 years. Throughout his employment his supervisors accommodated his request, as they were required to do by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the California law requiring reasonable accommodation for caregivers of people with disabilities. A newly promoted supervisor came in to the department. He was informed of the accommodation but refused to continue it and gave Mr. Castro-Ramirez a later shift than what hed had in the past. One of Mr. Castro-Ramirezs regular customers...

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In the face of an increasingly tighter labor market, staffing companies are being challenged in a way that they have not seen in nearly a decade. We got used to an "employer's market," where we had a huge pool of employees available for clients' needs. Employees were coming to us for jobs. After years of an economy that was sluggish at best, that situation has turned around, at least for reasonably skilled workers. This varies by region and market, of course. In the case of our company, Employee Solutions, which operates in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, some of our clients' markets are less tight due to oilfield layoffs. But other locales  particularly in the larger cities  are sizzling markets, with robust demand for employees. While the staffing industry was able to foresee a lot of this shift, we have still been surprised by how quickly and severely the skilled labor market tightened. Yes, we still are able to attract several hundred job applicants per week, and we have tens of thousands of employees in our candidate pool, but it's always a matter of finding the right match. Economists explain that the market response to a tighter labor environment is to raise wages. However, that is one thing a staffing company can rarely do; the pay rate determined by the client. If we cannot fill the jobs at the existing pay rate, we have to analyze the market and consult with clients to help them understand a higher pay rate will be required...
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-04-18 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] President of Serbia Nikolic visits Corfu [02] About 500 refugees and migrants to be transferred from Piraeus to Skaramangas, Shipping Min Dritsas tells ANA-MPA [01] President of Serbia Nikolic visits Corfu President of Serbia Tomislav Nikolic, accompanied by ministers of the Serbian government and Serbia's ambassador to Greece, is paying an unofficial visit to Corfu. Nikolic is visiting Corfu on the occasion of a series of events for the 100th anniversary since the arrival of Serbian soldiers and citizens on the island during WWI. Upon his arrival, the Serbian president referred to the close friendship relations between his country and Greece and mostly with Corfu and reiterated Serbia's gratitude for the Greek people's support during the period of the Serbs refugeeism. Nikolic and his wife will attend a memorial service at Serbian World War I soldiers' mausoleum on Vido islet. [02] About 500 refugees and migrants to be transferred from Piraeus to Skaramangas, Shipping Min Dritsas tells ANA-MPA Approximately 500 migrants and refugees are expected to be transferred by bus from Piraeus port to Skaramangas hosting facility on Monday. "The accommodation centre at Skaramangas can accommodate approximately 2,500 people," Shipping Minister Thodoris Dritsas said to ANA-MPA adding that more refugees will be transferred in the following days. He added that voluntary organisations will provide assistance in these facilities and stressed that the government's aim is the immediate decongestion of Elliniko hosting center in the following days. Moreover, he said that refugees who cannot be accommodated at Skaramangas will be sent to other facilities that are being prepared. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-04-18 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] EIB can help private companies get financed, EU Commissioner Katainen says [02] President Pavlopoulos receives French parliament MPs [03] Greek gov't will implement July's agreement; nothing more, nothing less, says Gerovassili [01] EIB can help private companies get financed, EU Commissioner Katainen says The European Union and the European Investment Bank can help private companies get financing in Greece, European Commissioner for Employment, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, Jyrki Katainen, who is paying a visit in Athens, said on Monday addressing the Greek parliament. "We are here to help you. It is very important that you, as legislators, carry this message to private investors," Katainen underlined in the Greek parliament. "Our delegation can help financing private sector in Greece. It is not necessary for someone to go to Brussels or Luxembourg. The European Fund for Strategic Investments can help private investors in Greece. It is a risk financing tool and a good vehicle to finance businesses. They need to be informed that they can request funds without the approval of the Greek government," he said. Presenting his plan for growth, the EU vice president emphasized on the creation of new jobs, and spoke of the four basic steps to be taken to promote growth in our country: - Contacts with the Greek banks in order to get to know how they can use the investments strategic fund to strengthen the Greek economy. - Gathering ideas from businesses on investment needs and organizing an investment platform to proceed with the funding from the European Fund. - A campaign on how to "exploit" the European Investment Bank office. - Re-opening of the Greek Investment Fund, which could be a good vehicle to channel investments. The most crucial discussion is the discussion on investments and growth, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Monday while receiving the European Committee Vice President Jyrki Katainen. "After years of discussions on measures and austerity, it is time we spoke for growth, investments and employment," Tsipras said. The Greek prime minister explained that the primary surplus target of 3.5 percent of GDP in 2018 will be reached provided there is growth momentum. Katainen, who is also European Commissioner for Employment, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, said that the European Committee holds discussions with the private sector in order to find the suitable financing tools for its support adding that they also hold discussions with the Greek banks to persuade them to finance businesses and particularly small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). [02] President Pavlopoulos receives French parliament MPs Turkey needs to understand and meet in full its commitments on the refugees issue, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos said on Monday during a meeting with members of the French parliament that visit Greece to evaluate the efficiency of the European mechanisms on managing the refugees crisis. "Greece will rise to the challenge as it has already done despite the huge problems we are facing as a country," he stated. "We behave to the refugees as we should to behave to a human being and always based on the principles of the European culture and the European democracy," said Pavlopoulos. Addressing the French deputies, he urged them to focus on the implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement on the refugees crisis. Referring to Greece's commitments, he stressed the need for the relocation system to work properly, the immediate revision of the Dublin's agreement and the immediate establishment of the European Coastal and Border Guard with respect to each country's sovereignty. [03] Greek gov't will implement July's agreement; nothing more, nothing less, says Gerovassili "The Greek government remains stable on its position. It is ready to implement those provided in July 2015 agreement. Nothing more, nothing less," said government's spokeswoman Olga Gerovassili after the conclusion of a meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday. "All macroeconomic and fiscal figures reflect the progress of the Greek economy since July 2015, much better than all predictions. The economic figures are expected to be confirmed by EUROSTAT in the following days. We expect the conclusion of the agreement at technical level before the Eurogroup based on the Greek side's proposals," she said and announced that "in the following days two very important reforms will be tabled in the Greek parliament's committees that bear the stamp of the government's policy on insurance and taxation." On the disagreement of the institutions on the primary surplus target in 2018 as well as the necessary debt restructuring, Gerovassili said, "we reiterate that July's agreement is clear, first the review and then the discussion and agreement on the debt." Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Southwest Airlines removed a University of California, Berkeley student from a flight after another passenger overheard him speaking Arabic.

Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, a 26-year-old refugee from Iraq, was flying from Los Angeles to Oakland earlier this month when he decided to call his uncle, reported The New York Times. He said he was excited to tell family about an event hed attended where he got to ask the secretary-general of the United Nations a question.

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A Southwest Airlines employee asked Makhzoomi why he was speaking Arabic and took him off of the plane, according to The Times. Then the FBI arrived.

Makhzoomi was searched and questioned by authorities about his family, the phone call, and about martyrdom, he told the Daily Californian.

A Southwest Airlines jet waits on the tarmac at Denver International Airport on Jan. 22, 2014. (Photo: Rick Wilking/The Canadian Press)

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The humiliation made me so afraid, Makhzoomi said.

In a statement to media, Southwest said it regrets any less than positive experience a customer has onboard our aircraft and that the airline neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.

Its not the first time the airline has been accused of racial profiling. Southwest already faced scrutiny this month for a similar incident.

Hakima Abdulle, a Muslim woman, was removed from their flight in Chicago after asking another passenger to switch seats.

The humiliation made me so afraid.

A flight attendant told police that Abdulle was removed because she did not feel comfortable, with her as a passenger, according to Independent. In response, the airline defended its actions and released a statement saying employees followed proper procedures in response to this customer's actions.

Anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States has also recently surged because of the countrys election, one expert told the Daily Californian.

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Since 9/11, weve seen a steady increase in anti-Muslim bias and dissemination of fear about Muslims in the United States, said Berkeley associate professor Charles Hirschkind. That trend has really spiked during this current electoral season.

Anti-Muslim crimes in Canada

In Canada, hate crimes against Muslims have more than doubled in a three-year period.

Politicians' racist rhetoric is likely a contributing factor, the National Council of Canadian Muslims told The Huffington Post Canada. When Donald Trump says something in New York, seventh graders here hear about it, said the councils communications director Amira Elghawaby.

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Conservatives have accused Canada's trade minister of living out a "California dream" and making taxpayers pick up the tab.

But Liberals say International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland was just doing her job.

Three Tory MPs rose in question period Monday to charge that Freeland spent nearly $20,000 on a trip to and from Manila, Philippines to Los Angeles, and then back home to Canada in November, just to appear on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher."

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A Liberal spokesperson says that Freeland was actually in L.A. on a trade mission, meeting with business leaders, and that her TV appearance was just one part of the trip. The total cost, including expenses for a staffer, was about $14,000.

International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, March 22, 2016. (Photo: Sean Kilpatrick/CP)

Tory MP Blaine Calkins kicked things off in the House of Commons by noting that Freeland had a seat reserved on the government plane returning from the APEC Summit in Manila on Nov. 19, but she booked the trip to L.A. instead.

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"And the reason? A vanity interview," he said. "While the interview with Bill Maher was painful to watch, it turns out it was just as painful for Canadian taxpayers."

David Lametti, Freeland's parliamentary secretary, said that the government was proud of her work "advancing Canadian interests around the world." He noted that all of Freeland's expenses are transparent and comply with ethical guidelines.

Lametti gave much the same answer, moments later, when Calkins asked why Canadians footed the bill for Freeland's first-class tickets and two days in California with a staffer, just so she could be on an "American talk show."

"While the interview with Bill Maher was painful to watch, it turns out it was just as painful for Canadian taxpayers.."  Tory MP Blaine Calkins

Tory MP Karen Vecchio accused the minister of double-billing by "scarfing down gourmet food" on the plane and then claiming per diems for those same meals. Tory MP Jacques Gourde called the situation "unacceptable," noting Freeland was not in L.A. to negotiate a free trade deal with "Hollywood stars."

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Again, Lametti said everything was above board. Freeland's expenses are all "published, public, and transparent," he said.

Alex Lawrence, who serves as Freeland's press secretary, later told The Canadian Press that the minister got stuck in an airport for a day and bought food while waiting for a flight home. As chair of the cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations, Freeland has made similar trips to other major U.S. cities, he said.

Hats off to @CGJVilleneuve, Canada's man in #LA, for putting together a great networking evening  Min Freeland pic.twitter.com/eB5D8gn6zW  Canada Trade (@CanadaTrade) November 20, 2015

Freeland, Maher went toe-to-toe

Freeland's appearance on the show aired about a week after the Paris terror attacks. She joined writer Ben Domenech and Maine Senator Angus King on a panel discussing Syrian refugees.

Freeland took on Maher directly for asserting that the values of Muslim refugees, particularly those who hail from nations that practice Sharia law, might be at odds with those in Western society.

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"I think it is incredibly important, particularly now, after the Paris attacks, particularly now with ISIL raging around the world, to stand up for real diversity," Freeland said. "And to say our diversity is our strength."

"So, keeping women as second-class citizens is just diversity?" he asked.

Freeland said Canadians won't "persecute" Muslims as worse than any other group.

"Not as people, the ideas are worse," Maher responded.

Freeland, a former journalist, was a guest on the show several times before becoming an MP.

Global News has an edited clip of a memorable exchange:

In a scrum with reporters after question period, Calkins was repeatedly asked why he found Freeland's performance on the show so "painful."

"The reality is if you watch the interview, the interview did not go well at all," he said. "My recollection of it is she was not agreed with by most of the people that were watching the television show but that's not the point. The point is she had no official business there."

But Calkins was seemingly unable to provide specifics, telling reporters to find a clip on YouTube and watch for themselves.

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"I don't believe the Canadian taxpayers got value for their money watching her do something that appears to be clearly about her own vanity and getting her own image out there," he said.

With files from The Canadian Press, Catherine Levesque

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An Australian actor has paid tribute to his kids in the most beautiful way  by tattooing their artwork all over his chest and arms.

On Reddit, a user shared a photo of actor Eddie Baroo and his impressive ink. The 47-year-old has four kids  Molly, Bailey, Harry and Teishe  and decided to turn their childhood drawings into unique tattoos. A spectacular mural now covers his upper body.





Many Redditors were impressed with the effect. Damn, he still looks like a total badass, one user wrote.

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Another said, If I become a father, I'm gonna have their pictures tattooed on me, too.

But while the photo received praise, it also made some users feel bad for tossing out their kids drawings. I feel like shit now, because I throw my 4 year old's artworks away as soon as he loses interest in keeping them, because the pre-k school he is in sends home more and more every single day, one said. I am not a hoarder so I have to toss 99% of it.

In response, many sympathized with the user and offered solutions that were less extreme than getting them tattooed. I just pick a couple of favorites and frame them, one offered. I used to hold on to everything, but then it got ridiculous.

Another had a genius idea: If you feel bad enough, take a picture of them before you throw them away, then email the pictures to an account you set up for him. He can have it when he's 18, and have fun going through it all.

Baroo isnt the first father to tattoo his kids art all over his body. Last year, Peterborough, Ont., father Keith Anderson made headlines for tattooing his sons drawings on his arms. Anderson has been adding one tattoo each year since his now 11-year-old son was four.

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Manitobans heading to the polls this week will have an option that voters in just three other provinces currently enjoy  the right to pick "none of the above" and make it count.

It's a choice that some believe should be extended to every Canadian.

Just like in Ontario, Manitoba's Elections Act lets voters officially mark their discontent with all parties and candidates by writing "declined" on the front of their ballot. In Alberta and Saskatchewan, an official writes "declined" on behalf of voters.

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Unlike spoiled votes where, for example, someone crosses out names as a form of protest, clearly declined ballots are counted separately and included in the overall voter turnout.

Manitoba NDP Leader Greg Selinger, Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari and Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister, are shown in these recent photos. (Photo: The Canadian Press)

Proponents of such an option argue it allows citizens unhappy with their choices to make more of a statement than just staying at home and not participating in the process at all. Critics of the strategy suggest it's really no different than not voting at all.

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The "decline your ballot" movement sparked plenty of attention during the 2014 provincial election in Ontario. More than 31,000 Ontarians chose that route  the highest number since the option was introduced in the province in 1975. Voter turnout also went up in the province for the first time in two decades.

31,000 Ontarians chose option in 2014

Democracy Watch, an advocacy group committed to democratic reform, threatened a court challenge at the time to try to force Elections Ontario to advertise this option on its website, ads, and voter information cards.

Duff Conacher, co-founder of the group and a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa, says declining ballots is an imperfect but "essential" option for voters to have their voices heard when they don't feel they can support any party or candidate.

If you spoil your ballot, he says, nobody knows if you just couldn't fill it out properly. If you stay at home, you're telling politicians you're not concerned.

"So, they're not concerned about you," he told The Huffington Post Canada on Monday.

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Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne celebrates her election win with with her partner Jane Rounthwaite on June 12, 2014. (Photo: CP)

His group wants the federal government and every provincial and territorial government to provide a clear, "none of the above" option on ballots, with space for voters to provide a reason.

Conacher says that if 100,000 people voted "none of the above" in a federal election and 50,000 wrote, for example, that none of the environmental platforms were strong enough, a clear message would be sent.

"Parties would fall over themselves to get those 50,000 votes next time around," he said.

Ex-MP on board with idea

Former Independent MP Brent Rathgeber told the Edmonton Sun during the last campaign that voters deserve the right to make it known when they can't support any candidate.

"People that are disgusted with the process or don't like any of the options will frequently spoil their ballot but I think that is an inadequate option because they're lumped in with the people who mistakenly fill out their ballot wrong," he said.

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Just 440 ballots were declined in the last Manitoba provincial election in 2011, and 2,000 were declined in Alberta's election last year, according to CBC News.

Manitoba voters head to the polls on Tuesday.

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Some of Canadas largest chain stores have come out on top in a new survey of Canadians most trusted retailers, but the big winner is Walmart.

The Arkansas-based discount retailer took top spot in three of 16 categories in the survey from BrandSpark International: most trusted mass merchant, most trusted department store and most trusted for housewares and kitchenware.

BrandSpark says Canadians tend to favour lower-priced retailers when deciding whom to trust, and that can be seen especially with supermarkets.

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(Click for full size)

While Loblaw Co.s Real Canadian Superstore came out on top nationally, it only ranked first in British Columbia and the Prairies. Its discount brand No Frills was the most-trusted supermarket in Ontario, while IGA won in Quebec and Sobeys tied with the Superstore in the Maritimes.

"Only in Quebec and Atlantic Canada were non-priced focused brands on top, BrandSpark president and CEO Robert Levy said in a statement.

Canadians continue to place value for money at the top of their list of what's most important to them and so it's not a surprise that the supermarket brands offering consistent high value fare so well.

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There were other notable regional differences:

Shoppers Drug Mart topped the pharmacy and beauty/personal care categories in all provinces except Quebec , where Jean Coutu was most trusted on both categories.

topped the pharmacy and beauty/personal care categories in , where was most trusted on both categories. Walmart was the top department store everywhere except B.C. , where The Bay is trusted more.

was the top department store everywhere , where is trusted more. The Brick is the most trusted furniture store west of Ontario, but Leons dominates Ontario and the Maritimes , and Tanguay wins in Quebec .

is the most trusted furniture store west of Ontario, but dominates , and wins in . SportChek is the most trusted footwear retailer everywhere except Quebec, where its Yellow, and B.C., where its a tie between the Nike store, Payless and The Bay. In Ontario, SportChek is tied with Payless.

Check out the complete breakdown of winners at BrandSpark's homepage.

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OTTAWA  Tom Mulcair suggested in a television interview Sunday that he might have held on to his job as NDP leader if the party's convention had not been in held in Alberta.

Speaking to Tout Le Monde En Parle, a popular show on Radio-Canada, Mulcair also hinted things might have gone much smoother for his leadership review in Edmonton  where he received a crushing 48 per cent of support  if all NDP members  not just delegates at the convention  had been able to vote.

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Mulcair appears on Tout Le Monde En Parle on Sunday, April 17, 2016. (Photo: Screengrab)

"I was elected by totality of the members of the party," Mulcair told host Guy Lepage. "And effectively, in Alberta, we were delegates. So, in this particular place there were people from there," he said.

"So, you think if it had happened in Toronto or elsewhere it could have been different," Lepage asked.

"Maybe," Mulcair responded. "Last time in Montreal, it went passably much better."

During the 2012 NDP leadership convention in Toronto, Mulcair was elected on the fourth ballot with 57.2 per cent under a one-member-one-vote system. At the party's delegated convention in Montreal in 2013, Mulcair received 92.3 per cent support from the 2,026 delegates in the room.

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But that was before the NDP ran a terrible election campaign and blew a first-place lead in public opinion polls before losing 59 seats, more than half of the party's caucus. The party now sits in third place.

Federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is applauded at the NDP Federal Convention in Edmonton Alta, on Sunday, April 10, 2016. (Photo: Jason Franson/CP)

During his interview, the first since his leadership review, Mulcair said his position on pipelines might have hurt his chances in Alberta. He called the debate over fossil fuels "divisive" and said, without elaborating, that it was "a place where it was more difficult."

Mulcair, perhaps more strongly than ever before, said his position on pipelines is that he continues "to be against the development of new pipelines until and for as long as we don't take into account the production of greenhouse gases and our international responsibility to work against climate change."

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"It's difficult in a country with so many regional differences to re-unite around one ideal," he said. "For me, sustainable development has always been that ideal."

Behind the scenes, however, people close to Mulcair suggest he was defeated by an organized campaign coming out of Alberta.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley gives a speech during the 2016 NDP Federal Convention in Edmonton. (Photo: The Canadian Press)

Roughly a quarter of the 1,804 delegates at the convention were from that province: 347 were registered Alberta delegates and another 110 delegates were from Alberta but held different credentials, such as labour. A "yes" vote from these delegates could easily have swung Mulcair from 70 per cent to just below 50.

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"There was no whipping of the vote coming out of Rachel Notley's office, or from Mr. [Brian] Topp," Cheryl Oates, the premier's director of communications, wrote in an email to The Huffington Post Canada last week.

Topp is Notley's chief of staff and was Mulcair's 2012 rival for the leadership.

"I believe Brian [Topp] and Rachel Notley when they say they weren't organizing," said one NDP strategist who requested anonymity to speak about internal party matters.

Thomas Mulcair reacts with Brian Topp on stage during the NDP leadership convention in Toronto on Saturday, March 24, 2012. (Photo: Frank Gunn/CP)

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"But he knew clearly that Nathan Rotman [former federal NDP national director and current chief of staff to Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci] and Anne [McGrath, the federal NDP's national campaign director during the last election and current Notley deputy chief of staff] wanted Tom's skin and he didn't stop it."

Rotman told HuffPost he categorically denies any suggestion he organized against Mulcair. "Too busy and focused here in Alberta," he wrote in an email.

McGrath referred comments to Oates who wrote in an email that the former campaign director had played "absolutely no role in any organizing" at the leadership convention.

"I was elected by totality of the members of the party. And effectively, in Alberta, we were delegates."

Mulcair's people, however, aren't buying it.

"It's total bullshit," the strategist said. "It's impossible we got so low, unless there was a clear organization."

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Last week, Quebec MP Pierre-Luc Dusseault told HuffPost he was led to believe the vote was organized out of Alberta but, he said, "that's democracy, too."

Stunned by results

Mulcair told Tout Le Monde En Parle the result caught him completely by surprise.

"We had measured [our support] around 70 per cent," he told Lepage.

Going into the convention, Mulcair had crisscrossed the country and spent countless hours on the phone building and counting his support.

Mulcair said he didn't feel betrayed by delegates but, he agreed with the sentiment that, when the result was announced, he felt the members were ungrateful. "It was raw," he said.

Still he felt the duty to stand, like a statesman, and say that it was important was that everyone leave feeling united and that the next person to lead the party needed 100 per cent of support, the NDP leader said.

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NDP Leader Tom Mulcair speaks to supporters, Monday, Oct. 19, 2015 in Montreal. (Photo: Ryan Remiorz/CP)

"I think you have a sense of duty, and when you have spent 10 years working without stopping for a political party, for an ideology, you don't have the right to think about yourself."

Mulcair also told the TV interviewer his greatest disappointment isn't losing the leadership review but losing the election.

He hoped Quebecers wouldn't see the NDP as a one-time flirtation but would recognize the province's values in the party's and vice versa. More than one million Quebecers voted for the NDP in 2015, and 16 MPs were elected, he noted.

"But you had 55," Lepage interrupted.

"Yes, of course, but that was the effect of a wave," Mulcair said, of the 2011 election campaign under then leader Jack Layton.

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Quebec MPs who survived 'worked their riding'

Mulcair appeared to lay the blame for many Quebec losses at the feet of his incumbent MPs.

"Of course, we lost good people but the MPs who are there now, they worked their riding, they raised money, they have real riding associations," Mulcair said.

The NDP leader told Lepage it is "very unlikely" he will run again in 2019, and he is unsure if he'll serve out his whole term.

"I want to be useful and serve the public but it's a bit early for me to answer that, I'm going to give myself the time to reflect a bit on that," he said.

Unlike former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, who Mulcair said only shows up once a month, "I can guarantee you that the day I leave, I leave."

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Chris Wattie / Reuters Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pauses while paying tribute to the late Conservative MP Jim Hillyer, who was found dead in his office on Wednesday, in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, March 23, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

According to Prime Minister Trudeau, proceeding with the multi-billion dollar arms deal with human rights violator Saudi Arabia is "a matter of principle." When have we heard this before? Ah yes, the previous government.

Global Affairs Canada has released a statement explaining its rationale for authorizing the deal, ostensibly in response to the widespread backlash and barrage of questions in the wake of revelations that export permits for the deal were only authorized in early April. Perhaps not surprisingly, the statement's title, "Honouring the deal with Saudi Arabia: Credibility, Security, Economy" lacks any reference to the protection of human rights.

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There are further concerns:

To claim that the Liberal government's authorization of the deal was "negotiated" by the previous government perverts the process and intent of Canada's export controls regime.

1. According to the statement, the Minister of Foreign Affairs signed the export permits for the Saudi deal "as negotiated by the previous government." But to what extent could the Harper Conservatives have guaranteed the issuance of export permits? (No permits had been issued at the time the contract was announced.) How could a supposedly objective export permit assessment be "negotiated" in advance?

The crucial step for the deal to be fulfilled is not negotiation but authorization. And, thanks to a legal challenge that forced the release of vital information, we now know that it was up to the current government to approve most of the requisite export permits.

To claim that the Liberal government's authorization of the deal was "negotiated" by the previous government perverts the process and intent of Canada's export controls regime.

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2. "If the contract were cancelled, the Canadian taxpayer would likely incur significant financial penalties," says the GAC statement, reiterating a frequent government talking point.

"Likely"? Would there be penalties or not?

If the implementation of the deal was contingent upon satisfying the requirements of the still-pending export permits -- as is to be expected -- on what grounds would penalties be applied?

If Ottawa is going to continue pointing to the possibility of financial penalties to justify its determination to fulfill the deal, it should at least explain why such penalties were a distinct possibility, even when it was known in advance that an export permit assessment was still to be conducted.

3. The document says that "the Minister of Foreign Affairs retains the power to revoke the permit at any time. If the equipment is abused, the permits are pulled. This is what I am committed to doing if these military vehicles are used for the wrong purposes." But this rationale is entirely inconsistent with the human rights safeguards of Canadian export controls.

The threshold that deems a country ineligible to receive Canadian military exports is reasonable risk of misuse before an authorization is granted, not evidence after a human rights violation has occurred.

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4. The statement refers to Ottawa's "expressed intention to sign and implement the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)." But how can Canada accede to a treaty designed to prevent just such deals as the one it authorized with Saudi Arabia?

Canada is expected to adhere to the objectives and specific provisions of the ATT as soon as it becomes a state party -- likely by the end of 2016. However, the implementation of the deal with Saudi Arabia is expected to last until at least 2028, so it is very hard to see how Canada can simultaneously satisfy both.

5. GAC says that "working with the Saudis allows us to hold them to account and creates opportunities to make progress on a range of issues, including human rights." But where are the signs of Saudi progress on human rights? Assessments from authoritative international organizations that monitor human rights consistently point to a worsening situation. Ottawa is aware of this, as its recently-released 2015 human rights assessment reveals.

Two consecutive governments have defended the dodgy Saudi arms deal by applying highly malleable and ambiguous definitions of concepts such as "principle" and "credibility."

Despite significant redactions, this assessment clearly paints a grim, and deteriorating, picture of the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia. It specifically points to "a significant increase in the number of executions, restrictions on universal rights, such as freedom of expression, association and belief, lack of due process and fair trial rights." It defies credibility that anyone could review this information and conclude that there is "no reasonable risk" that Canadian equipment will be used against civilians.

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Remarkably, GAC also says that the export permits for the Saudi arms deal were signed "in the context of" government efforts to increase "the rigour and transparency of Canada's export control regime" and to make it "more open, transparent, and accountable." The irony, of course, is hardly lost.

Two consecutive governments have defended the dodgy Saudi arms deal by applying highly malleable and ambiguous definitions of concepts such as "principle" and "credibility." The Harper Conservatives called their approach one of "principled foreign policy." The Trudeau Liberals now call theirs one of "responsible conviction."

In other words, "You like tomato and I like tomahto," as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers used to sing.

And the name of the song? "Let's call the whole thing off."

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Parliament News: MPs debate the 2013 Queen's SpeechImage: Catherine Bebbington/Parliamentary CopyrightThis image is subject to parliamentary copyright.www.parliament.uk" data-caption="The Queen's Speech sets out the Government's legislative programme for the parliamentary session ahead. The Speech is written by the government and read out by Her Majesty in the House of Lords at the State Opening of Parliament. The contents of the Speech are then debated by MPs in the House of Commons over a period of days. The first day of the Debate on the Address, as it is known, is general in tone, the other days are on specific topics. This is the first debate of the new session ? the motion for the debate is phrased as "an Humble Address" to Her Majesty thanking her for her gracious speech.Parliament News: MPs debate the 2013 Queen's SpeechImage: Catherine Bebbington/Parliamentary CopyrightThis image is subject to parliamentary copyright.www.parliament.uk" data-credit="UK Parliament/Flickr">

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"A better democracy is a democracy where women do not only have the right to vote and to elect, but to be elected."

These are fitting words from Chilean president Michelle Bachelet as we near April 19, 2016, the 100th anniversary of some women getting the vote in Alberta. I say some women, because it wasn't all women in Alberta who did. Indigenous women, for example, wouldn't get the right until 1960.

Reflecting on the past 100 years, it's important to recognize the strides that have been made when it comes to women in politics. But how far have we really come?

In 1933, in Edmonton, city council had one woman representative. More than eight decades later, in 2016, there's still just one.

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That's not to say, however, that it's always been this way. In 1989, six women were on Edmonton's city council, led by a dynamic woman mayor. Similarly, the Calgary City Council elected in 2004 boasted six women city councillors while, in 2016, there are just two.

It's clear that at the municipal level in Canada, there's not been much in the way of sustained progress to reach gender parity in politics.

At the provincial level, three provinces are led by women, including Premier Rachel Notley in Alberta. Women make up 53 per cent of our province's cabinet ministers. In 2006, it was a mere 11 per cent. So, in a decade, that's progress.

Federally, as in Alberta, cabinet is gender-balanced, a move that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau justified with the now oft-quoted "because it's 2015." Yet, in 2016, it must be noted that only 26 per cent of seats in the House of Commons are held by women.

So, why is it that the lack of gender parity remains so pronounced in most levels of government across Canada?

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Unless there are dramatic changes in legislation, or until concrete measures are taken, it's unlikely that Canada will achieve gender parity in politics until 2075.

Much has been written on the barriers that women in politics face. Some of the most frequently cited, as summarized by Equal Voice, include: stereotyping and perceptions of women's roles and abilities, lack of women role models, media imbalances in the treatment of women politicians, family commitments, masculine political environments, failure of political parties to support women candidates, lack of finances and exclusion from informal party networks.

How can we most effectively break these barriers? We do so by confronting the issues directly -- by getting more women to run for office and, in turn, by getting more women elected.

But the fact is that many of these challenges exist for women even before they decide to run for office -- if they run at all, that is. Most women need to be asked multiple times to run.

Former NDP President, Rebecca Blaikie, mentioned that, when recruiting candidates, she ends up approaching at least 30 women for every man. Often, she says, women will think that they're not qualified, while young men will proclaim with certainty that they're ready to run.

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The fact is that the most common reason for which women hesitate or say "no" to running for office isn't because of family obligations, financial issues or any of the other commonly cited reasons, but it's that they don't feel qualified.

Many women will run for party nominations, but most political parties fail to consider gender equity in their nomination processes. Some argue that party recruitment and nominations constitute the biggest barrier to better representation of women in politics. And this matters because, as the research shows, time and time again, that when women run, they win.

And the research also shows that, unless there are dramatic changes in legislation, or until concrete measures are taken, it's unlikely that Canada will achieve gender parity in politics until 2075.

"Gender parity doesn't happen by chance and it doesn't happen automatically," former NDP MP Laurin Liu points out. So, like most things, we need to work for it. Like the second-wave feminists before us, and the suffragettes before them who conspired and organized for change, we need to do the same. And it needs to be purposeful and deliberate.

If we want public policy that represents women's concerns and we want institutions to be responsive to women's needs, a critical mass of at least 30 per cent women needs to be elected.

And in working for gender parity, we must also address issues of intersectionality. Getting women elected is a good step, but we must commit to electing women of colour, gay women, Indigenous women, trans persons and women with disabilities.

Just as the research shows that women in politics often focus on different issues than men do, different women look at issues from different lenses as well. A multitude of diverse women's voices is needed. If we want public policy that represents women's concerns and we want institutions to be responsive to women's needs, a critical mass of at least 30 per cent women needs to be elected.

So, let me get to my point in sharing this. My goal these days is to get women to run for office. This is something that involves persistence, as I've already learned -- a lot of it.

I would like you all to consider doing the same. Reflect on the women -- the female-identified people in your lives -- who you think would make great leaders. Perhaps you might even be one of these women.

Now, what I'd like to ask you to do is to make a commitment to ask at least one woman you know to run for office.

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But I need to warn you. When you ask a woman to run, she might tell you to go fly a kite. Or worse. But then, you know what you do? You ask her again. And again. And probably again. And maybe once more.

We've got a task ahead of us -- and an important one, at that.

As we reflect on a centennial of voting rights for some women, let's envision legislative bodies that reflect all women.

And let's act now. We can't wait another 100 years.

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Chris Wattie / Reuters People take part in a march and candlelight vigil in the Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario, Canada, April 15, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Canadians, as a people, have regularly been hailed for their individual and collective generosity, their giving spirit and quickness to lend a helping hand via either donations or deeds. That's undoubtedly a wonderful thing to be celebrated for. And hopefully, it continues to bear fruit in the form of generous future generations.

We are quick to build schools in Africa and elsewhere, assist in digging holes to establish the infrastructure to allow clean running water to flow freely in impoverished foreign villages, clothe, feed and empower compromised, war-torn and/or devastated communities the world over. These are great, noble pursuits.

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Still, I've always wondered: Why can't we harness that helpfulness, channel that compassion, and steer it towards our own backyard?

How can any of us in Canada continue to live with the living conditions that the majority of the founding fathers of this country continue to endure -- in 2016.

Two federal ministers will visit the reeling First Nations community of Attawapiskat, in a remote portion of Northern Ontario, this week -- reeling because of an unfathomable number of recent suicide attempts, many among their future generation: their youth. The numbers are sobering and should affect us all -- 28 people tried to take their own life in March, 11 so far in April, including five in one evening -- and the month is only at the halfway point.

I can tell you first-hand of the deplorable conditions afflicting many of our aboriginal neighbours -- and the communities I visited were not that remote.

Let us be clear, there is no overnight fix here. I will submit though that many of the debilitating challenges on First Nations reserves come in the form of infrastructure -- access to clean running water, proper and plentiful housing, to name only two.

With all the money that is now earmarked for infrastructure by the Trudeau government, it would seem logical that this issue should be able to be addressed within this James Bay community and other First Nations communities across the country -- provided there is a plan and accountability attached to it.

Having visited a few First Nations reserves during my time as a news reporter at CTV, I can tell you first-hand of the deplorable conditions afflicting many of our aboriginal neighbours -- and the communities I visited were not that remote.

This absolutely should not be tolerated by any of us. If we can be moved to action watching footage of children living in poverty in third-world countries, we should be equally driven to effect change when we see the inhumane conditions that exist for our First Nations communities across the country.

One of the challenges has and will continue to be transparency and accountability of the government money that does make it to these communities. Does it get tangled up in red tape and bureaucracy or does it trickle down?

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One of the solutions, it would seem to me, is to have the media play a role as an objective third party. This would involve regular, consistent reporting from different communities across the country about the progress of infrastructure projects -- part investigative journalism, part big brother reporting -- all of it necessary as the media has the ability to access the key parties, get to the main spokespeople and describe or show progress or lack thereof. That, in my opinion, has been the key missing link to truly addressing this sadly, long-mishandled file.

The pattern so far has been that media will descend on a story (suicide, death by substance abuse or alcohol, some other kind of mass fatality) on a reserve. The story will be part of the headlines for a day or two. Then it vanishes, while the problems for these communities quietly spiral with no spotlight.

Then a few months down the road, another fatality (e.g. La Loche, Saskatchewan). Media glare, prime minister visits, headlines for a day -- then gone, again.

When a young person makes the decision that their life is so meaningless and unimportant that they have no choice but to end it -- one can probably trace the overriding symptom back to one thing: a lack of hope.

When a parent has been the victim of the residential school crisis and is haunted by that experience with their own children, the hopelessness moves from one generation to another.

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The face of hopelessness is one you can never forget -- whether in Africa or in your own backyard. It should paralyze us, then precipitate action, informed by a plan -- and not incessant talk.

If we can ever elevate the strengthening and empowering our First Nations communities to national priority status, we would likely be able to add even more Canadians to the list of people who are lauded for impacting others because of their generosity.

It is possible to write a new, more hopeful story for our founding fathers. We all have a part to play in that chapter.

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Eleanor Roosevelt was fond of saying that documents expressing ideals "carry no weight unless the people know them, unless the people understand them, unless the people demand that they be lived." A tireless fighter, Roosevelt's supreme and lasting achievement was securing the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

The Declaration has withstood the test of time. Yet the work of making its ideals real is far from over. A new report by the Global Citizenship Commission (GCC) aims to address this challenge. Under the leadership of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the GCC both affirms the continuing relevance and inspirational force of the UDHR, and seeks further recognition and respect for human rights for all citizens of the world today. The Commission - whose members also include Mohamed El Baradei, Asma Jahangir, Graca Machel, Robert Rubin, Amartya Sen, and Jeremy Waldron - will present its findings to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, on April 18 in New York.

Endorsed and adopted in 1948 by most member states of the United Nations, the UDHR endures as a beacon and a standard, its influence both wide and deep. The Declaration was then - and remains today - an unprecedented educational and cultural force, making people conversant with the idea of human rights, providing a widely accepted text enumerating those rights and sending out a message that an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Today, the UDHR, translated into 350 languages, is the most-often cited human rights document the world knows. By setting out, for the first time, fundamental rights to be universally protected, it is a milestone in the history of human interactions and the cause of human rights.

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The cornerstone of the Declaration is the concept of human dignity, exhibited in the preamble's pronouncement that "recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world." Sadly, for millions of people, the recognition of their inherent dignity is far from a reality. Hideous and systemic human rights abuses continue to be perpetrated at an alarming rate around the world. Many people, particularly those in power, are hostile to human rights or indifferent to their claims.

The social, political and legal environment has been transformed since 1948, and our global interconnectedness and dependence have diminished our moral distance from each other. Our understanding of human rights has evolved too. The GCC identifies specific rights requiring more emphasis than they received in the Declaration, if they were acknowledged at all. As one might expect, the rights of women, children, the disabled and the LGBT community demand further attention and a deepened global commitment.

The Commission also advances recommendations that highlight the urgent need to strengthen human rights implementation in the twenty-first century. Some of these call for upholding particular rights in new ways. Recognizing that the rights of children are routinely violated across the globe - with 15 million girls married each year before their 18th birthday, and 8.7 million children in modern slavery - the Commission proposes the creation of an International Children's Court, with the power to receive and adjudicate petitions from children and their representatives on violations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to issue legally binding judgments, and to investigate areas of concern such as child labor, child slavery, and child marriage. Moreover, in a world where 60 million individuals are displaced from their homes and 20 million are refugees, the rights of migrants and stateless persons have become - as was true in the upheavals following the Second World War - a matter of vital importance. The GCC accordingly urges the global community to strengthen the international refugee protection system, and consider adopting a new international convention on refugees and migrants.

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Other recommendations call attention to deeper, structural issues impacting the implementation of human rights protections. The most prominent of these is the issue of national sovereignty. One visionary principle the UDHR puts forth is that the human rights struggle is the world's business - that one state's action demands global recognition, and at times a response. To that extent, the rights culture inculcated by the UDHR has transformed the world of sovereign states. The Commission affirms: first, that countries may not misuse their national sovereignty as an excuse for insulating themselves from external pressure on human rights; and second, that it is legitimate for states to raise human rights issues in conducting foreign relations.

Finally, the Commission advocates enhancing the UN's system for upholding human rights. Time and again, vetoes or threats of vetoes by permanent members (the P5) have blocked Security Council action to maintain international peace and security in a range of crises. The Council's inability to act on behalf of civilians in Syria - and elsewhere - has not only had a massive cost in human life, but also dangerously eroded the credibility of the UN system. In turn, this gives the green light to perpetrators seeking to engage in more flagrant abuses. To address this, the Commission endorses a proposal that the P5 voluntarily suspend veto rights in situations involving mass atrocities. In Syria's tragic wake, such a step would enhance the legitimacy of the Security Council, strengthen its integrity and convey the will of the international community to make the protection of human life a true priority.

The Commission's report is a reminder of what is at stake. By insisting that states, international organizations, corporations and individuals each and all have a common responsibility to secure human rights, the Commission hopes that the general principles so eloquently espoused in the UDHR can finally be realized in the twenty-first century. We should come to know and understand these principles better. And we should work to see these visions not just secured, but lived. There would be no greater testament to the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Global Citizenship Commission's report is available at:
The fashion industry sometimes seems like a spoiled child. A child which has been used to having it all its own way for too many years and has been given everything it wants. It has grown up with few rules. Its creativity is celebrated; its misdemeanours brushed aside as part of the growing-up process. When eventually it starts to be disciplined, it gives the appearance of doing the right thing where it can be seen, but out of sight, in its secretive world, little changes. If misbehaviour is discovered, it says 'oops, I didn't mean to do this, sorry...'

Following the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Bangladesh on 24 April 2013, everyone thought that the fashion industry would grow up. It would have to start taking responsibility for the people and communities on which its business depends. 'Business as usual is not an option' was a common refrain following the disaster. But how much has really changed in the past three years? And how many more years will it take until we see a more transparent and more sustainable fashion industry, both in Bangladesh and worldwide?

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The global fashion industry remains opaque, exploitative and environmentally damaging. It desperately needs revolutionary change, but we can't start to address its bad behaviour until we can see it. Indirect sourcing strategies prevail in Bangladesh as almost every stakeholder single-mindedly pursues the lowest possible cost. Most of the factories and workshops where subcontracting takes place are unregulated. All homeworkers carrying out piece work for these factories, working through networks of intermediaries and agents, fall outside the scope of the Accord and the Alliance.

Transparency is not easy. It involves fully understanding how and with whom your overseas supply chain works and making that information publicly available. This will be a challenging journey for the fashion industry, but it is a necessary one. At Fashion Revolution's House of Lords roundtable IOSH Chief Executive Jan Chmiel said that transparency should be seen as 'an investment, not a cost - one that saves lives, supports business and sustains communities. Whereas, a lack of transparency can do the reverse. Crucially, it can mean that firms don't know the factories that are supplying them, so they can't actively manage their risks - potentially leading to tragedy, disaster and business failure'.

To be transparent, brands and retailers need to be accountable. That's why Fashion Revolution Week will see the launch of our Transparency Index, in collaboration with Ethical Consumer. The Index covers 40 major global brands, ranking companies according to the level of transparency in their supply chain. Only 25% of companies responded to our questionnaire; it is impossible for our researchers to know what is going on behind the closed doors of the rest of them. As a result, brands and retailers who did reply have had a better chance to convey this information and may consequently receive a better score in the Index. Transparency is good for business.

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At Fashion Revolution, we want to see a world where clothing brings both physical and emotional well-being to everyone it touches, from the cotton farmer through to the wearer. We are working to bring visibility to all of the hidden faces and voices of the millions of makers of our clothes, highlighting their stories, and showing where change still needs to happen.

And we are starting to see the beginnings of a new dialogue taking place; Fashion Revolution has sparked a global conversation about the social and environmental issues facing the fashion industry. We have been been particularly successful over the past three years in engaging the public in these issues and giving them tangible ways to become part of the solution. Last year we achieved 21.7 billion potential viewership from press features and our hashtag #whomademyclothes had 63 million reach on 24 April, trending gloally on Twitter. Our 2 T-Shirt, a Social Experiment video had over 7 million views, whilst over 2 million people watched the #haulternative. This year, we again have top bloggers, vloggers, celebrities and around 90 countries taking part. The previously impenetrable fashion supply chain is seeing an every brighter light shone upon it.

Fashion Revolution wants to ignite a revolution to radically change the way our clothes are sourced, produced and purchased. We need to throw open those closed doors which may be hiding corporate misdemeanours or, at the very least, corporate indifference. The fashion industry must grow up and start to take responsibility for its actions. We believe transparency is an essential first step in the growth process, and it starts with one simple question: who made my clothes?

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The principle of universal suffrage, the culmination of 100 years of electoral reform legislation, underpins our electoral system. We have a democratic record to be proud of - one we must continuously seek to uphold.

Until last year, our electoral registration system hadn't kept up with the polling day process it supports. We'd been one of the few countries to have clung on to an outmoded household survey system. It could not have been right that a 'head' of a household had the final say on who's registered. The introduction of Individual Electoral Registration (IER) under the Coalition was therefore a major step forward. It has enabled officials to remove redundant or fraudulent entries from the electoral roll by requiring applicants to submit identifying information, such as a National Insurance number. It's been largely successful, but there's no room for complacency.

A key improvement is that since June 2014 it's been possible to register online, making it much easier, quicker and secure than using a paper form. On 12 April alone, for instance, 136,000 people registered digitally. IER also embodies the principle that each of us must be responsible for our own registration - a key part of exercising our right to play an individual role in our democracy.

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There are still obstacles to surmount. On the introduction of IER, some 85% of the eligible population were registered, a figure I described as 'a good record, which must be better'. Major efforts have been made by local authorities, parties and neutral campaigns - such as Bite The Ballot - in the 18 months since IER was phased in to ensure every eligible voter, who may not have been transferred over, was registered. This was in part about making public services work better: more efficiently, cost-effectively and with more choice. But it was also about tackling fraud: something we should never become complacent about.

Nonetheless, there remain significant disparities in registration levels between different demographics, for example, between those in social housing or private rented accommodation and owner-occupiers, or between older voters and 18-24s; up to a third of whom may not be registered. And we must remember that the gap between those who are eligible to vote, and those who have their names on the register, is growing.

It's vitally important that politicians of all parties work together to address this issue. I believe this can be done through dedicated education efforts, and by continuing to prioritise the issue by stressing what needs to be achieved. That's why I am chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democratic Participation, and it's the reason why - as the only all-party group in existence - we've worked with Bite The Ballot and Dr Toby James to draw together solutions for reform in our report, 'Getting the 'Missing Millions' on to the electoral register: A vision for voter registration reform in the UK'.

Our report, launching on 18 April - the final day to register ahead of elections on 5 May - suggests measures that can be introduced to make registering easier, more accessible, and more efficient. Twenty-five solutions that will both drive down cost and engage hard-to-reach groups. Why do we not ensure that younger citizens leave school registered? Why do students not register when they enrol in university? Why can we not check our registration status online? And why can citizens not register when they access other services? Surely it's time to empower local authorities to use data they already hold cleverly, and enable them to devote resources to tracking down those who've changed address?

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For our democracy to be as dynamic as possible, we need every individual of voting age participating in it. And we do need all ages. We have to balance different generations' aspirations and expectations. Having been elected at 27, and been one of the youngest Ministers in British history, I'm a passionate advocate of engaging young people in politics. The argument has to be made to those most disillusioned that voting is the key to bringing about change. And we have to tell them they can hold power in their own hands by taking the crucial first step of getting on the register.

This is why I'm especially hopeful of our recommendations for democracy education in schools, and a re-evaluation of citizenship education. It's vital to look to the future, and we have to get active, skills-based citizenship education right for the long-term. I've argued extensively that we must look ahead, work hard to serve young people and demonstrate to new generations that that we can help them express their values.

For these reasons, I'm proud of the APPG's first report, 'Missing Millions'. As MPs and Peers, we've worked together to present sensible, non-partisan suggestions for improvements. I look forward to the Government and Electoral Commission engaging with our findings.
We have faced news recently about the wealthy, including our political leaders, making use of tax havens, as well as about the private life of a single Cabinet minister - and there has been much discussion of what is in the public interest. I think the harsh reality of trying to sustain a successful media group is not so much about what is in the 'public interest' as what the public is interested in. What attracts readers, gets clicked on and beckons followers? This is the reality of running any business: what do my consumers want? And how do I attract more while sustaining this lot?

It would seem that we like a bit of grime and trivia with our cornflakes in the morning (or, as appears to be the case, fed to us throughout the day via social media and onto smartphones). But is that really the case?

I picked up a book, part one of a fairly hefty trilogy, historical fiction that would span the key events of the 20th century. I'd been looking forward to this but after the first chapter I realised that, somewhat like a soap-opera, infidelity was going to be the main engine of each storyline (a far cry from Leon Trotsky's statement "War is the locomotive of history"). It just feels like there is more to motivate people, even fictional people, than sex.

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It reminded me of the TV series House of Cards: after the first season, I decided I needed to take a rest. I may well watch more at a later date, but not for the moment. I really enjoyed the way Kevin Spacey directly addressed the audience - a kind of Shakespearean element for the modern day - but it was all so dark! Every good thing seemed to be turned to bad. And when you find yourself willing on an anti-hero who is both abusive and a murderer, I think it can be time to put yourself in quarantine. What's more, I've met a good many politicians and none struck me as this evil. Plus they are all very busy, which begs the question: where do these fictional characters find the time?

So what is in the public interest? People are interested in a strange number of things: I have a young teenager, and what is not interesting for him seems to be anything I am interested in, unless I can sneak it up on him without declaring my interest first.

With the EU debate going on around us, there is much talk about our national interest. However, this leads me to a challenge. Aren't we best as a nation when we do things outside of our immediate interest, when we do things just because they are good? When the late Robin Cook as Foreign Secretary led an intervention in Sierra Leone's civil war, it was not to serve Britain's interest. It was the act of a 'good Samaritan'. There is something noble about not being self-seeking as a person or as a nation.
I recently read an article on a new PRP (platelet-rich plasma) vaccination that has been designed to help improve male fertility by enhancing the sperms' health, speed and overall performance. The research, which was conducted in Spain, found that by taking a sample of the male's blood and injecting it into a sample of his seminal fluid, one could improve the sperms' speed of movement.

As someone who has witnessed many changes in the field of fertility over the past 40 years, I was fascinated to see that researchers are increasingly focusing their attention on male fertility factors. For too long we, as a global nation, have concentrated on female factors when treating fertility problems when, importantly, we know that 50% of fertility problems are directly related to male factors.

Male factors are renowned for being a difficult subject for fertility researchers to deal with because, over the past 50 years especially, the majority of patients coming forward to discuss their fertility problems have been women. Therefore, the researchers were able to collect a lot of data into female fertility factors and also had many women who were willing to participate in research to substantiate their findings. This meant that our understanding of the reasons behind female fertility problems and the associated treatments progressed quickly. Whereas, until recently, many men thought that they were untouchable and that there was nothing wrong with them; choosing to remain 'strongly and silently' behind the scenes as their partners were treated. Therefore, the problem wasn't that researchers weren't interested in male fertility factors but rather that they were unable to accumulate a large number of male studies to with whom to conduct research into the causes of male fertility problems and to develop successful treatments.

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Some of the most brilliant research into male fertility factors was developed in Brussels, where researchers developed the wonderful idea of ICSI (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection) in the early 90s. This technique has been widely used ever since. (Note: ICSI is a very successful fertilization technique in which a single sperm is injected into the center of an egg.) That idea prompted more researchers to develop new ways of dealing with specific male problems but, again, this research as been sporadic and deserves more attention.

Having seen that the Spanish are becoming increasingly interested in male-centered research, it makes me wonder whether the time has come for the world to start taking male factors very seriously, and to start improving the quality of semen, improving low sperm count, reducing congenital malformation, increasing the viability of the sperm, the speed, and the capability of the sperm to penetrate the capsules no matter how hard it is within the egg. As someone who has long been studying the field of fertility, this is very exciting to me as, over time, it has the potential to create a major breakthrough in improving male fertility.

The problem is this... There are very few doctors who specialise in male fertility and, although the majority of them are doing their best to progress research, unfortunately no significant results have been found. Therefore, we need to think very seriously about the institution of researchers who are keen to improve the methods of treating male fertility and try to avoid the 'easy way' of drifting the patient into IVF treatment as, even though IVF can be the most appropriate form of treatment for some couples, many couples may benefit more from better research which, over time, would enable greater numbers of people to successfully conceive a natural pregnancy.

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Regarding the Spanish studies and their method of using patients' own blood to improve the quality of the seminal fluid and sperm movement. It's a minor step in the right direction but little more. As fertility specialists, we already have other successful methods of watching the sperms' activity and improving their quality and speed using special lab media. Everybody working in the field of fertility already knows that there are swimming and washing techniques, and methods of removing any unneeded materials, debris and undesired cells within seminal fluid... all of these are known but using one's own blood as a method, this is a minor step. And, until we receive a full data analysis of the number of patients involved in the study and the success rate behind it, we are unable to compare the results with current methods that can successfully improve the sperms without taking blood.

With this in mind, what would have been more interesting to me as a scientist and gynaecologist would have been for this study to show us how many patients they tested; how many patients had experienced fertility problems lasting more than two years; and how many of the men (whose fertility problems has persisted for more than two years) treated by this method successfully achieved pregnancy. Then we could assess the study without bias. However, without this information, the study is purely information, rather than core success of research work.
In their desperation to be heard, Junior Doctors in England started a sit-in outside the Department of Health this week. Visiting the site myself, it was clear that they are taking their protest very seriously and doing everything in their power to persuade the government to turn back the clock. It seems reasonable to accept their views as valid. They want the government to step back and think of a fairer and safer plan to implement their vision for 7 day NHS care, instead of forcing through a contract that remains unmodelled, uncosted and is likely to be understaffed. There remain serious doubts over whether the existing Junior Doctor workforce can suddenly expand their service and training commitments without any increase in their numbers. In fact, a recent example of a current rota for junior doctors shows that even existing rota gaps are considerable even before further stretching elective services over an extra 2 days.

Junior Doctors must feel like the first dominos in a chain reaction of inevitable NHS meltdown and workforce burnout that will soon involve consultants. It will not be long before Allied Health Professionals such as radiographers and physiotherapists may be compelled to follow suit in having their contracts changed to align with doctors. This system change has clearly not been given careful consideration in its piecemeal implementation. In fact, only last year, the Society of Radiographers published a scoping paper that looked at the implications of extending working hours, for consideration only and certainly not headstrong implementation.

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So why has the government not done the same for the Junior Doctor Contract? It's probably because they thought that by wooing doctors by purported pay increased and reducing the maximum number of hours worked per week (both of which are more complex than the government would have us believe), there was then no need to explore different models of service delivery. A risky gambit indeed.

A recent debate hosted by the Nuffield Trust asked the question 'Are NHS services on the brink of fundamental change or collapse?' as part of their Daring to Ask series.

The most compelling speaker in this debate was undoubtedly Professor Keith McNeill, who pulled no punches. In an impassioned retort to this question during a separate interview,he put across his point with aplomb, saying:

"I believe that the NHS, and most health systems really, are always on the brink of some sort of change. Fundamental change? No.

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What have we heard? The latest call is for more 'grip' on providers. More grip is going to do nothing but strangle the system even more than it is now.

There will be no fundamental change. There's still no extant leadership of the NHS. We're still over-burdened with bureaucracy, with regulation, with inspection, with commissioning that doesn't do what it should be doing. So, it depends on where you sit - but I can tell you as a clinician on the front line, that we are well over the brink of collapse".

This scathing attack of bureaucracy over fundamental change was echoed in his description of the NHS during the original debate as having 'more pilots than British Airways', referring to pilot projects that did not lead to meaningful system change.

It's all very well for the coffee house gossipers or Public House patrons to put the world to right about the NHS, but surely there is a Plan B or even a Plan C? Directing resources at preventing hospital admissions and increasing throughput may be a more fruitful approach to an NHS with fundamental change at its heart. Spending 18 years trying to introduce innovation into my own service to improve outcomes for older people with alcohol misuse has gone some way in addressing a sustainable prevention model. At the other end of in-patient pathway, we still have major problems in ensuring timely discharges to free up beds. Referring to his experience as CEO of Addenbrookes NHS Trust CEO, Professor McNeill again:

"When I was there - and just the other week - we had over one hundred delayed transfers of care (DTOCs) in the hospital. So we could be described as either a residential or full nursing home. We were looking after hundreds of people on a month-by-month basis, who could have been looked after more effectively in the community".

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If a system is broken, trying to stretch it further for political gain appears foolhardy, especially if this is done through implementing change for a contract that will push junior doctors to breaking point. In the 1960s, during a similar time of economic austerity and associated dissatisfaction among junior doctors, 30-50% of the annual medical workforce emigrated to Australia and New Zealand. The same is likely to happen again if the Junior Doctor Contract is imposed. History has a way of repeating itself.

On May 3rd, under the auspices of the British Medical Association, there will be a meeting to discuss "the current healthcare crisis, plummeting morale in the medical workforce and the prospect of further risks to patient care in the future".

Jeremy Hunt maintains that "the train has now left the station" in precluding further negotiations over the Junior Doctor contract but its destination remains unknown and is clearly on a different track to one designed to improve patient care through the best use of resources.
The countdown has begun, the battle lines have been drawn, economics and immigration the watchwords of the rival camps. An argument based on estimates and uncertainties and the inevitable back and forth between the in and out campaigns shows no signs of abating. While there are many arguments, statistics and hypothetical scenarios that can be dismissed by Boris and co as quickly as they are raised, there is one point that cannot be disputed. There are projects available right now, funded by the EU that can have a hugely positive impact on young people in the UK from all walks of life.

While the Erasmus program is well known throughout the higher education community, the Erasmus plus program is almost anonymous in comparison. An Erasmus plus project is usually run by a charity or not-for-profit organisation that brings together young people from a variety of countries including the UK. The primary goal of these projects is to build confidence, leadership skills and employability amongst the participants and promote inclusion through various levels of society. Often in the process they can also benefit other charities or environmental causes.

There are organisations that run these projects across the nation, often offering unique experiences abroad for little to no cost to the young participant. But while they are widely available, often the strong point these organisations lack is the ability to effectively advertise them. People and time constraints mean that often the focus remains on excellent delivery and promotion unfortunately gets pushed down the priority list.

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This is where the Europeers UK project, facilitated by NGO Momentum World, is looking to step in. The initiative has been founded by a group of young people who are alumni of EU funded programs, who have seen a hugely positive change in their lives as a result, and who want to highlight the impact that they can have on even more young people in the UK. With the referendum fast approaching, it is more important than ever to show UK 18-25 years old that these projects exist and they can be extremely beneficial to both personal and professional development.

Being an alumnus of several projects has made me a staunch believer in this cause and in the social benefits EU membership brings to our country. My experiences took me from a relatively aimless graduate with little professional experience to leading international projects both at home and abroad.

Having gained pretty much no leadership experience at university, I was now leading teams of special needs and mainstream school children in helping put on a talent show with an audience of over 700 people. I was travelling all round Europe, participating in and coordinating youth projects across the continent whilst making friends in more countries then you could ever hope to visit.

The confidence I gained from my time on EU projects enabled me to go get a job and a career. I've seen this effect first hand in hundreds of other participants and heard similar success stories across many organisations doing mostly unseen work. Charities and NGOs of any size can even benefit from their very own EU funded full time interns and volunteers through the European Voluntary Service program.

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Youth opinion is generally considered to be pro-EU but the remain campaigns are in serious danger of taking this vote for granted by not making them a priority. The youth vote can certainly sway the whole debate and low youth voter turnout equally could hand victory to Vote Leave. The debate will rage on as the big day draws closer with facts and figures being discredited and dismissed in a storm of uncertainty. Until then one thing remains a fact. Young people from any background in the UK can benefit from an EU funded project today.

For more information on EU funded projects for young people visit http://www.europeers.uk/

http://www.mom-international.uk/
Can you imagine a future Head of State or a Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister cheerily admitting that they were illiterate? It would be unthinkable wouldn't it? But when it comes to numeracy, it is almost fashionable to admit you are no good at it. Last week Prince William confessed to an audience of Indian students that he was "terrible at Maths". Perhaps more seriously a few years ago, Gordon Brown, when Prime Minister, admitted to school children in Manchester that he wasn't very good at Maths. This was from the man who had been in charge of the nation's finances for a decade previously!

It is little wonder then with this candour from those at the top of British society that a growing culture of 'innumeracy' has been allowed to foster. And its damaging implications were revealed last week, with a survey suggesting the underlying causes of Britain's obesity epidemic could be connected to poor maths skills. Shockingly three quarters of adults admitted they cannot work out how much sugar they should be eating from reading packets because their maths skills are too poor. A report from Unicef last week gave further credence to this, finding Britain 25th out of 37 wealthy nations for its equality levels in children's maths and science skills, as well as reading.

In the Budget Chancellor George Osborne announced a 520 million levy on sugary soft drinks to reduce childhood obesity. However these studies would indicate that a focus on education could ultimately be the solution. In the same budget George Osborne called for more attention to be focused on boosting the Maths skills of under 18s. This is a welcome recognition of the challenge the nation faces, both in terms of life skills but also jobs. The recent Tough Choices report produced by AT Kearney outlined the growing challenge of children having an alarming lack of knowledge about jobs of the future that depend on Maths. In fact only one in ten students interviewed were able to identify any careers involving Maths. There was also a perception that STEM skills are only for to admit to not doing numbers, even though these skills will be the bedrock of jobs in the the 'ultra-bright', with parents also at fault here for perpetuating a culture when it is acceptable industries of the future.

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Sadly the problem is particularly acute for girls who lack confidence in their own ability, despite evidence of better performance. Across so many sectors jobs of the future will depend on the ability to do numbers with technology, digital skills and data science being critical to the economy's future health and offering students the pathway to fulfilling, exciting careers.

Asian countries recognise this and they would be horrified at the tacit acceptance of innumeracy. These are countries experiencing more rapid economic growth and interestingly far lower levels of obesity. Clearly a dramatic societal shift will be needed in order to be ready for the rapidly changing technological world. The culture of acceptance of innumeracy must be tackled to improve our children's life chances and who knows, maybe even shrink our waist lines.
In the midst of harsh benefit cuts, the rise in families relying on food banks and David Cameron's involvement in suspect off shore bank accounts - the dream of Boaty McBoatface came alive.

On Monday, Tory minister Jo Johnson put a damper on our wonderful British humor - suggesting the winning title of the 200 million vessel would not be "suitable".

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But what the science minister failed to realise is that there is nothing more suitable than a royal ship parading our oceans with a wonderfully silly name.

The Orpington MP appeared to ignore the wishes of the public who overwhelmingly gave their backing to the name in a poll that closed at the weekend.

It received more than 120,000 votes, some 90,000 clear of the second favourite, Poppy-Mai. Other suggested names behind Boaty McBoatface included Henry Worsley, It's Bloody Cold Here and David Attenborough.

The winning name was originally suggested by a former local BBC radio presenter, James Hand, who has since apologised.

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Within days almost 30,000 people had voted for Hand's suggestion.

The sheer number of people behind the grand naming of the research ship proves that Brits couldn't wait to hit back at the establishment.

By taking that humor away from a public that is using a record number using foodbanks, its also taking away the hope that everyone has an equal voice.

Foodbank use in the UK rose 2% last year to a new high, according to the latest figures from The Trussell Trust.

In addition, there has been a series of scathing attacks on David Cameron's government over harsh cuts to benefits.

Iain Duncan Smith was so appalled at cuts to Personal Independence Payments (PIPs), he resigned and scathingly declared that the Tory Party look like they are hitting the poorest "because they don't vote for us".

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The former DWP minister lambasted the treasury's "unfair" cuts for dividing society not uniting it - and that's exactly what is happening with Boaty McBoatface.

Taking the public's wishes seriously - even if they aren't serious - is vital for when more damning matters arise.

When it gets tough Brits are known for having a stiff-upper lip and laughing it off.

But now the public have been stopped from having that little bit of light.

Sure, Boaty McBoatface may not seem like the most pressing matter in the Cabinet Office this year, but the danger in curbing British humor can't be ignored.

If the winning results of the public poll held by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) were never going to be chosen, then what was the point in the first place?

The government's science minister said Britain would become the embarrassment of its naval allies with a ship named Boaty McBoatface.

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The last year has seen such blatant violations of children's rights that instead of being shocked the international community has sadly begun to accept these abuses as normal.

We have seen how thousands of Nepalese girls, forced onto the streets after the Nepal earthquake, have been trafficked into India and even possibly sold into the United Kingdom. Gross abuses, including rape, have been reported in Iraq. We have heard, first hand, how Syrian refugee girls as young as eight and nine have been forced into working for exploitative employers when they should be at school. And the plight of the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from their school two years ago in Nigeria's Borno province continues to haunt us.

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This month the Global Citizenship Commission -- which reports to the U.N. Secretary-General -- will call for a renewed commitment to ending slavery among young children. Modern slavery has permeated every aspect of our lives. Adults and children, many of them young girls, are being trafficked within and across countries to work in farms, factories or workshops. A recent report shows that there is a shocking rise in the number of children being used in suicide bombs.

Instead of being shocked, the international community has sadly begun to accept these abuses as normal.

Modern forms of slavery take hold where there is conflict and corruption, and where there is systematic discrimination and inequality. With 60 million people displaced from their homes, levels of displacement due to conflict are at an all-time high and it means increased competition for low paying jobs, but also more child labour, more children forced begging on the streets and more girls forced into early marriage, with state authorities unable to prevent trafficking.

And while every country in the world except North Korea has laws that criminalise some form of slavery, human trafficking or forced labour, not all have credible and deliverable plans to do something about it.

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While some countries have specialist security services and thousands of police, prosecutors and judges trained to respond to crime, far fewer countries have victim support services to rescue and rehabilitate victims of slavery and abuse. What's more, we have little experience of enforcing laws across borders to prevent the people smugglers and criminal gangs who exploit and destroy young lives for profit.

Children work nearby to their parents at a construction project in front of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, India. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty)

The Global Citizenship Commission has recently demanded an international criminal children's court to deal with cases of child abuse when national governments refuse to act. They have also recommended that the U.N. Security Council meet once every year as a children's council so that violations against children can be monitored, punished and prevented.

Business has a role to play in ending slavery, too. In 2016, President Obama closed loopholes in the U.S. Tariff Act 1930. The result is that no company can import into the United States goods made with forced or slave labour.

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With the U.S. Department of Labor maintaining an annually updated list of products produced by forced labour, already there is evidence of greater social responsibility among the business community. The U.K.'s Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires all companies with a turnover of more than 36 million GBP to report publicly on their efforts to ensure they are not using slave labour in their supply chains.

Slavery cannot be combated with kid gloves.

Slavery cannot be combated with kid gloves. Modern slavery is an organised crime that requires the united might and will of all world leaders, businesses, and civil society to curb and combat it. We need robust policies that are adequately resourced and backed by effective enforcement with strong legal deterrents and economic sanctions where necessary.

What is new is a global civil rights struggle led by young people themselves against these modern forms of slavery. We know the difference that a campaign led by young people can make. The Global March Against Child Labour has highlighted the plight of 168 million children who are in child labour -- and the 10 million school-age girls a year who are married off against their will. We need to give practical support to young people themselves in organizations like Girls Not Brides and the Global March Against Child Labour as they themselves stand up for their own rights. One of the Citizenship Commission's recommendations is long overdue -- that every country has a youth parliament that can meet to debate and campaign for young people and the services they need.

But it is education that makes the greatest difference. Getting children to school -- and registering their attendance -- is the biggest weapon against child labour, child marriage and child trafficking. And giving children an education offers the greatest opportunity for children to learn that slavery is evil. It also gives young people hope -- that they can plan and prepare for their future. It is universal education that will spell the end of child slavery, and from the richest city of the richest country to the poorest slum and hovels of the developing world, we should unite in demanding an end to exploitation and universal education for all.
The referendum on the UK's membership is fast approaching, and arguments in favour of staying in are being made to the public. Many of these are about our place in the world, and the fact that we are "stronger in", and indeed we are stronger in. But that is not the full story.

Those of us who see a bright future for the UK in a more social and more compassionate European Union, are called upon to demonstrate exactly how the EU affects the lives of citizens for the better, and how this makes the UK a more socially just society. In fact, evidence of that is in the work that MEPs do every day.

We must remember that the EU is a political platform just like our national government, or local council: it is shaped by the way citizens vote, engage, and react. If we want to bring about more social justice in Europe, we must take action to bring it about. Being in the EU can not only make us stronger, but also more humane.

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This week the European Parliament adopted a report on the EU's anti-poverty policy, particularly on energy poverty, laying out steps that ought to be taken by the European Commission and national governments in order to foster social inclusion and prosperity for those who have been left out.

The financial crisis and subsequent austerity have negatively affected women more than men, causing what many groups have called a 'feminisation of poverty'. Women and girls face specific circumstance and gender-based obstacles which may make it easier for them to fall into poverty, or more difficult to get out of it, or hard for them to be economically independent. I have had the privilege of being a lead author on a plan to tackle these obstacles.

Back in 2010, the European Union committed to reducing the number of people facing poverty in Europe by 20 million by the year 2020. This is to be done in part by investing EU funds to support programmes that alleviate poverty, to pass legislation on such European issues as the energy single market. However, in most areas, like housing, healthcare, or education, it is up to national governments to take action, and the EU can only provide guidance, or additional funds. It is then up to national governments to take action and to implement or adapt European recommendations, or to share best practice.

It is clear we need fresh political ambition to eradicate poverty across Europe and, as we set out in this report, it is clear there is no way of alleviating poverty without also tackling gender inequality.

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The European Union must work to address the concerns of vulnerable women, especially single-mothers, who are so often left behind by government policy. This is another step in the EU's history of advancing women's rights and gender equality, and is particularly important in the light of austerity.

We need a European definition of energy poverty, and we need it to include a gender perspective, reflective of the fact female-headed households are more likely to be energy poor. There are many concrete targeted policies we propose, like ensuring that renovation policies must be targeted at consumers that are energy poor.

All too often innovative sustainable housing programmes target upmarket consumers, and not those households that cannot afford proper heating, or are suffering from dilapidated infrastructure, and insufficient insulation. Women in particular may face obstacles in access to finance, and may be left out of housing innovation programmes. European funding or coordinated initiatives can target vulnerable consumers, including women, and ensure they benefit from programmes aimed at combatting energy poverty. That is why including a gender-sensitive definition of energy poverty in the European Union's building's performance directive, would have a significant impact on women and men at a grassroots level.

Another point we addressed was the need for greater research into female homelessness, a phenomenon, which is poorly understood at the moment. Women become homeless for a complex variety of reasons, including gender-based violence, over-indebtedness, and relationships with dependents. Once on the streets, women tend to avoid services, and do not show up in statistics. Tackling the plight of homeless women may help us to alleviate female poverty overall.

The Commission and national governments must include a strong gender pillar in all of their social policy, showing that the EU acts for its constituents and for gender equality and social justice. In all of the tumultuous political developments we are seeing now across the EU, it is easy to forget issues of economic and social policy. However, fostering a more inclusive, tolerant and equal society is the key to solving many of the problems we are seeing in the headlines.

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She was holding the phone really close to her face in the way that people do when they are not used to video or FaceTime calls and she looked a little lost, her eyes searching around the screen in the way your parents probably do if you try to Skype them. There was something about her skin too, how close it was, lit only by the translucent glow of her mobile phone; you felt you could almost reach out into the phone and touch her, Iman, although she was far away, locked inside Syria.

It went unreported as it always does, but last week her home in the north-east of the city of Hama was plunged into darkness after a series of barrel bombs cut off the electricity supply. She was trying to talk to us - her brother Abohane, his family and I, from Hama as we sat in the Greek port of Piraeus, which is now a temporary refugee camp for him and around 6000 increasingly desperate people.

I had met Abohane and his family while working in Piraeus as a photographer, looking hopelessly for ways to tell the story with images. Only the day before I had watched mobile phone footage of Abohane, his friends and family sitting nervously in a packed dinghy with the coast of Turkey drifting away behind them. Then more footage, but this time of him and his children dancing on the deck of the Greek 'Blue Star' ferry that was carrying them from Lesvos to the mainland. They had made it to Europe. Here they hoped for shelter and asylum in Germany although they have in fact remained living in a tent at the Greek port, the last refugees be allowed into Europe.

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There was not the money for everyone to make the journey though - it is about US$600 on average for a person to travel in a floating death trap, from Turkey to Europe. Iman's husband was killed fighting Assad's troops long ago, leaving her struggling alone. So they decided together that Abohane would travel on ahead with his wife and children and that together they would find the money to bring Iman to them later, when they were earning a living in Germany. But now she cannot join them. Their plan failed at midnight on March 19th 2016 when the door was closed forever by the EU on those seeking sanctuary in Europe. She and her two young children must stay where they are.

'He is all around now', she said. My Arabic is not up to much but two or three times I heard her say it: 'Bashar, the army, they are all around the city, we are surrounded.' Her fear was palpable and she started to cry. The wetness of her face as she cried, her eyes and how close she was holding the phone containing her brother's pixelated face is a sight I will not forget.

And then she was crying so hard that her whole body creased up and she had to move away from the camera and pass the phone to her two children who sat there confused, waving at us out of the darkness with little half-clenched fists as we tried to smile and wave back.

It was at this moment that I realised that Abohane too had begun, silently, to cry. He started trying to brush the tears from his face with his free hand while his three small children hung off his shoulders trying to see their cousins in the phone, confused and distressed.

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And because I am a photographer and yes, possibly a bit of an emotional vampire, I knew instantly that it was a hell of an image. Without me even realising it my brain had already calculated that it would take me about one second to get up quietly off the wooden pallet that we were using as a seat in the middle of the car park, three seconds to walk around the children's washing which was drying on a piece of rope and across to the spot where I would get the angle I needed on where he was sitting. I knew instinctively where to stand, where best to capture his tears shining in the orange harbour lights because that is what I do. There were coiled springs in my legs saying: 'Get up woman, get up and take the photo. You can be over there in less than five seconds. He will not mind and you want this'. But there was a dead weight in my stomach and somehow my feet were shackled to the floor.

Finally, Iman's battery or the internet connection, which had faltered already three of four times, failed for the last time and we lost her. She probably went and put her children to bed hoping that they would all survive the night and we just sat there while Abohane tried to clear the tears from his face.

So, in one of those awful moments of British ineptitude and deeply uncomfortable determination to totally underestimate the scale of the catastrophe facing us here, I put my hand on his shoulder and said: 'They will be ok, Abohane'. Which I did not believe and which seemed as stupid then as it does now, but there wasn't a thing else in the world I could do or say. Just put my hand on his shoulder and not get up and take that photograph from him.

Legend has it that Crazy Horse, leader of the Native American Oglala Lakota, believed that the camera would steal part of his soul. There are no fully authenticated photographs of him, just oral and written history. I have never believed in this, I think it is the wariness of a man who just did not yet know how extraordinary and precious a photograph can be or how it would today have been used to document his fight for his people and their way of life.

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The camera is my way of communicating with the world. It has been since the day my granddad bought, for a painfully shy 6-year old, an instant camera from Boots that arrived one Christmas in a simply incredible shiny orange box. When the battery compartment broke, I kept it alive for years with duct tape. A photograph I took through it of my mother who was dying, although I did not know it, as she waved to me from far away is the one material thing I would go back into a house to save from fire. It breathes life into her for me to this day.

But in that moment in Piraeus, part of me knew that if I got up and raised my trigger finger to the shutter I would be stealing part of Abohane's soul and chipping away at my own. I haven't seen a man so crippled with grief like that for a while and I just couldn't do it to him. Maybe my hardwired photographer's brain didn't know it but my legs did, the dead weight in my stomach did. And they would not let me get up.

I failed him and myself as a photographer that night but it doesn't really matter, no one is looking or listening anyway. The EU-Turkey deal is done and those of us who care are all just shouting into the wind. I had failed him already because I am a European citizen. Maybe not directly, but indirectly for sure. I have failed him and his sister and her children. We all have. Abohane is a kind and dignified man now living on charity in a tent in a car park and his sister is trapped, terrified, day and night, with no way out. Those searching eyes will keep looking for him out of the darkness and he cannot help her.

We failed right from the start. Just like the people who lived in the farmhouses of Bergen and Belsen did every day for years. We shut the door, turned off the phone and looked away. Our guilt is complicit and total.

Perhaps it is that that I could not photograph, my own guilt that I could not look at and record, reflected back at me in his tear-flooded face. It is the photograph of that, that I could not take and it will haunt me forever.
In the early days of Consensus, one of the people advising us said that it would be a great achievement even just to get representatives from all wings of the Labour Party in a room together, talking to each other.

While Consensus is focused on doing away with Labour's navel-gazing, and on returning its focus to a vision for the country at large, we also recognise that outward unity begins from within. As such, it was brilliant to see people from all wings of the Party join us for last week's launch -- and engage in detail with the notion of small-c consensus.

Our speakers, Jon Cruddas MP, Seema Malhotra MP, Councillor Sam Tarry, and Stephen Kinnock MP, didn't shy away from identifying some of the challenges we will face in trying to develop consensus on key issues.

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As former Labour Party Policy Coordinator, Jon Cruddas drew on his exhaustive knowledge of past Labour policy making to provide a sweeping vision both of where we've come from and why we're currently in crisis. Crucially, he also cautioned that while reaching consensus is essential to finding policy proposals that resonate with the changing needs of society and the changing nature of labour, he also emphasised we can't pretend we all agree with each other. His point addresses one of the challenges Consensus often faces -- that consensus threatens to be a top-down concept. But this is why we talk about 'developing consensus': we recognise it's a pluralistic process, which attempts to reconcile a plethora of different viewpoints into a distilled vision we can all get on board with. And Cruddas's call for open, pluralistic, and courteous debate is surely an uncontroversial starting point.

Seema Malhotra drew on her experience as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury to deliver a scathing indictment of the Tory government's record on the economy, focusing in particular on their ongoing failure to address the steel crisis by designing a coherent industrial strategy for the country. Not content to confine Labour's vision to the UK only, her remarks ranged more widely across global inequalities that urgently require fresh Labour thinking. In this way, Malhotra identified our sense of common purpose as the natural rallying point for the entire Labour movement.

Sam Tarry, Political Officer at TSSA and Director at Momentum, delivered an impassioned and sustained objection to what he considers the 'failed neoliberal consensus' -- the economic settlement so fundamentally shaken by the 2008 financial crisis. His call to reconsider the social democratic consensus may have appeared to some as conflicting with the 'centre-left politics' other speakers were advocating. But it was informed by the energy unleashed by Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign last summer, which did demonstrate beyond doubt a desire for politics to be done differently. Tarry works across a number of campaigns, regularly creating new ways of reaching people through the use of digital -- Corbyn's leadership campaign excelled in the creation of shareable content --, which led him to lament the fundamental inappropriateness of spending millions on direct mail shots in the digital age.

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Stephen Kinnock dwelled on the necessity for a narrative -- apologising for the cliched nature of the term but nonetheless reinforcing that creating an arena and a safe space for debate is just the beginning. Urging Consensus to transition to a 'more ambitious' approach, he used a number of the arguments from his pamphlet 'A New Nation' to posit the need for a simple message, a narrative of purpose, patriotism, and resilience to put to the nation. Kinnock identified the need to boil down what Labour actually stands for -- while acknowledging that small, unambitious concessions to the electorate are not the way forward: the economy is not working for everyone, so what's required is change on a structural level.

Audience questions ranged widely, from understandable irritations with MPs' briefing behaviour to questions about community organising, and how we can best bring relevant Labour thought to people on the doorstep. Community organising, alongside the need for structural changes to the economy, was a key area speakers agreed on, sharing best practice from their respective constituencies and indicating that there's substantial room for collaboration on the subject. On the subject of the PLP, the audience was understandably irritated at recent counterproductive behaviour, reported even more starkly by the press. Jon Cruddas and Stephen Kinnock led the charge against leaking information to media, calling for the PLP meeting to be a 'hermetically sealed' safe space. Speakers shared Consensus's irritation with the media's 'obsessive' focus on the leadership over the past few months, and cautioned against fuelling the fire.

We're delighted at the overwhelming positivity and goodwill speakers and questioners brought to the launch event. The contributions were an indication that much potential remains untapped, and that the energy of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign still offers lessons to learn and hope for the future. While everyone present shared the recognition that the last few months have not projected a strong image of Labour, and that developing consensus entails hard work, we also all agree that not trying is not an option. Our launch has given us the chance to get to grips with the scale and detail of the challenges we will be facing. We'll be ready.

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Nine Network

The hearing into the botched child recovery operation which has left the 60 Minutes crew and Brisbane mum Sally Faulkner detained in Lebanon for almost two weeks has reportedly been adjourned until Wednesday.

The 60 Minutes crew -- including reporter Tara Brown -- and Faulkner fronted a Lebanese Court on Monday night (EAST), after Faulkner's estranged husband said he will not be dropping charges.

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Ali Elamine told reporters outside the Baabda court that 60 Minutes "dropped the ball" and he will continue to "charge everyone involved".

The way they are trying to push for this is that if Sally goes out on bail, they all get out, Elamine said, according to The Herald Sun.

They are pushing for Sals release and everyone else gets a green card. They dropped the ball by getting involved in family matters [and now] everyone is blaming the other for what happened.

Tara Brown and the 60 Minutes crew have been held in Lebanese cells after their involvement in an attempted child recovery operation. They were in Beirut to film the operation involving Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner, whose ex-husband took her two children, Lahala and Noah, to Lebanon on a holiday and never returned them to Australia.

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Lawyers tell us the hearing for 60 Minutes crew and Sally Faulkner in Beirut has been postponed until Wednesday, pending more negotiations  Tom Steinfort (@tomsteinfort) April 18, 2016

Judge confirms the case is now adjourned until Wednesday. All of those charged to remain in custody  Tom Steinfort (@tomsteinfort) April 18, 2016

As the crew and Faulkner face another two nights in Lebanese cells, the debate on home soil during Q&A voiced uncertainties around Nine's involvement in the child snatching operation and empathy for Faulkner.

The Australian's Associate Editor Caroline Overington said the issue of children being taken abroad against one parent's will is a "massive" and growing problem in Australia.

"The Family Court can't help you and the police can't help you and Sally had no money so it seems to me maybe what has happened here as she has, in her desperation, reached for the help of the child retrieval experts and the media has seen this is a good story and jumped on board but before we know the facts it's very difficult to judge," Overington said on the program.

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Former Leader of the Liberal Party John Hewson said on the program he hopes Faulkner will get shared custody at the conclusion of the court case in Lebanon.

"You would have to say the most wicked thing you can do is separate a mother from her children," Hewson said.

Last Wednesday, the crew and Faulkner appeared before a judge for questioning over the charges laid upon each of them which include kidnapping, physical assault and conspiring to commit a crime.

The judge urged Faulkner and Elamine to come to an agreement over access to the children. However the dispute was not resolved and Faulkner has remained behind bars along with the 60 Minutes crew. They are expected to apply for bail at the hearing.

On Monday night, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said a joint commission under a bilateral agreement between Australia and Lebanon can assist the custody dispute if the parents are willing.

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"Lebanese law gives custody to the father, Australian law has given custody to the mother. Under this agreement we can set up a joint commission that would seek to mediate that difference between Lebanese law and Australian law, in the interests of the children. But the parents have to consent to that," Bishop said on The Project.
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A Victorian mother once targeted for a police raid because she treats her chronically ill child with medical cannabis has praised the state's moves towards legalising the drug for medical purposes.

But Cassie Batten says she and parents like her are still left in legal limbo until 2017, when legal treatment is finally set to begin.

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Victoria last week became the first Australian state to legalise medicinal cannabis, with parliament passing the Access to Medicinal Cannabis Bill 2015 to give Victorian patients -- and their families -- legal, safe and secure access to the drug in "exceptional circumstances".

Batten -- whose five year old son Cooper lives with severe brain damage, cerebral abscesses, hydrocephalus, epilepsy and cerebral palsy -- told the Huffington Post Australia the new legislation was great.

"There is a 'but'," she said.

"A lot of people are now just assuming we can use it legally, but the product that they are legalising isn't available yet so we still don't really have an option to use it legally."

Batten and Cooper's dad, Rhett Wallace, have been treating Cooper with cannabis oil since he was two and a half years old.

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Cooper, Cassie and Rhett enjoying time with each other in 2015

He couldn't move, couldn't lift his head, was tube fed -- a two and a half year old boy in a new born's body, his mother said; he weighed just eight kilos.

Medication had stopped working and they had been told it was only a matter of time before Cooper's severe seizures meant he couldn't be resuscitated.

They were given a choice: to stay a hospital, go to a hospice or go home to see out his last days after courses powerful drugs morphine and endone.

"Our intention wasn't to give it to stop seizures, our intention was to keep him comfortable until he died," Batten said.

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Cooper in 2015. His mum says the cannabis oil has relieved his seizures.

That was two and a half years ago.

"I don't know if its the fact that it helps him physically or if it's just the fact it helped with the seizures, but he now -- he doesn't talk, but he babbles. He sits up, he crawls, he eats and drinks. He couldn't do any of that previously."

The decision to use cannabis oil wasn't taken lightly. They'd known about it for about 18 months after Cooper first became ill, but they didn't go there until things got desperate.

In 2014 -- after telling their story on television -- Batten and Wallace's Mernda home, north-east of Melbourne, was raided by police. No charges were laid, and her story gained support from MPs and other public officials.

Cooper is still treated with oil, and his treatment is monitored by doctors.

Once, when their reliable supply stopped, it took just 48 hours before Cooper's brain went into a state of seizure that lasted nine straight days.

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"Then we got more oil and he was home (from hospital) two days later," Batten said.

Batten does not want to be able to grow her own ("I don't make other medications, why should I have to make this") and wants to be able to rely on a standard medical product, where each bottle is the same.

"Our first supplier, we weren't getting that and that's why we stopped using them," she said.

"It needs to be consistent, it needs to be regulated for it to be a safe medication."

Children like Cooper are among the 450 children the Victorian government had in mind when it made Tuesday's announcement, and meeting the then four year old boy last year had a profound impact on Premier Daniel Andrews.

Daniel Andrews met Cooper before becoming Premier in 2014. ""This is the right thing to do because we have to drag this law into the 21st century," he said after becoming Premier in December the same year.

The legislation passed this week allows for the manufacture, supply and access to medicinal cannabis products in the state.

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Cheri O'Connell, from Mia Mia in Victoria, said she believes the legislation won't allow the product she used to treat her children for epilepsy.

"The product's there and ready, you know, as a nation we're still sort of going, well let's wait 'til 2017, let's grow and see what's happening. You know, it just seems to be pushed back and pushed back," she told the ABC on Wednesday.

"You know, if Victorian Government planted today, they certainly don't need to be waiting 'til 2017 to have the first crop up and made and ready for kids."

Victorian state Health Minister Jill Hennessy has acknowledged process stemming from last week's decision will take too long for some.

"I am inundated every day with all sorts of illnesses, kind of beggingly asking me when this product might be available. And I wish we could get it available sooner for them, but we got to do so safely and securely," she said.

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"Because the last thing we need is for these trials and these products to not be fit for purpose. They are a medicine and we've got to regulate them and produce them as such."

Making medical cannabis available has arguabely been on the Australian political landscape since 2014, when stories like Cooper's and NSW man Dan Haslam first came to national attention.

New South Wales Premier Mike Baird earlier this year announced the state's third medical cannabis trial involving 330 chemotherapy patients who suffer from nausea and vomiting.

He recently told HuffPost Australia he would consider compassionate access schemes to medical cannabis for people condemned to a life of pain who have run the gauntlet of other medical treatments.

The Queensland Government 2015 announced a trial to treat children with epilepsy with medicinal cannabis would take place this year.

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In a letter to broadcaster Alan Jones after Dan Haslam's mum, Lucy, appeared on his show in 2014, then Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he had 'no problem' with the drug as long as it was used for 'valid medicinal purpose.'
Francois Mori/AP French actress and singer Vanessa Paradis, left, and fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld pose front of a Parisian department store unveiling its festive decorations in Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

All you have to do it take a look at a few book titles to realise that there's something about French women that intrigues the rest of the world.

With titles such as 'French Women Don't' Get Fat', 'What French Women Know About Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind' and 'Parisian Chic: A Style Guide', it's safe to assume they're onto something when it comes to living life in their own relaxed, confident way.

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This approach extends to skincare, too. While many women the world over are searching for a miracle anti-ageing products, the French are more laid back when it comes to growing older.

"In France, natural beauty and elegance is admired and revered -- the date on your birth certificate bears no relevance," French facialist Christine Clais told The Huffingon Post Australia.

In her new book French Complexion, Clais shares the secrets of her countrywomen in regards to dealing with skin problems and explains how they grasp the importance of skincare rituals and healing skin through a friendly lifestyle.

"What matters most to my compatriots is being well groomed, natural and at ease with yourself. For this reason French women dont like to look artificial and avoid heavy make-up. Rather than hiding or camouflaging their skin, they much prefer to highlight their best features," Clais said.

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"This more natural look is achieved with the help of some staple items -- a tinted moisturiser or lightweight foundation, a touch of blush, mascara, lipstick or lip-gloss and voila! But of course, this can only be successfully executed over well-maintained skin. This is why French women take skincare very seriously and never compromise their daily skincare regime."

Clais believes that the difference is that French women view their skin care routine as an enjoyable ritual, not a task. They also have a different approach to exfoliation than other markets in the world.

"A current popular skincare trend is to over-exfoliate the skin which in my opinion is damaging to our complexion. Overuse of harsh products can lead to a weakening of the barrier function of your skin, which in turn causes dehydration, skin irritation and eventual skin damage and premature ageing. The French approach is a more nurturing one that puts a greater emphasis on hydrating and nourishing the skin," Clais said.

Asked about her skincare essentials, Clais emphasised that it's not about a lot of steps in a routine, but a routine that's realistic.

"Theres a common misconception that to attain glowing skin you must invest a lot of time and follow an endless skincare ritual. Untrue! What matters the most is consistency. This means sticking to a daily routine thats as simple as the following three-step regime,"

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Morning

Step 1: Cleanse face, neck and decolletage (60 seconds max).

Step 2: Apply eye gel/cream to the eye contour area (30 seconds max).

Step 3: Apply face cream/sunscreen to face, neck and decolletage (90 seconds max).

Evening

Step 1: Cleanse face, neck and decolletage (90 seconds max).

Step 2: Apply eye gel/cream to the eye contour area (30 seconds max).

Step 3: Apply face cream to face, neck and decolletage (60 seconds max).

Not only is the French approach the opposite to current trends in both skincare and makeup we're seeing right now (hello, two hour and 20 product makeup application), it's refreshingly good news for our wallets, too. Clais' other skin secret is to practise safe sun.

"I stay out of the sun as much as possible and wear sunscreen to prevent skin damage and ageing caused by exposure to UV radiation. Also, like most French people, I dont like to deprive myself but I make life balance my top priority. Un petit peu de tout as we say in French (which translates to everything in moderation)," Clais said.
Guess what you could be watching on your next long haul flight? You got it, Johnny Depp and Amber Heards doggate apology.

On Monday, a Gold Coast court was played the video apology in which the Hollywood glamour couple apologised over the "doggate" scandal -- when the pair last year brought the dogs into the country without the proper permit, an incident that led to Joyce threatening to have the animals put down last year.

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In the video the couple urge people to respect Australias biosecurity laws, with Depp warning that "when you disrespect Australian laws they will tell you firmly".

Declare everything when you enter Australia, Depp says in the video.

Magistrate Bernadette Callaghan placed Heard on a good behaviour bond and a slap on the wrist with a $1000 fine. The actress won't have a conviction recorded.

After comparing the star's pets Pistol and Boo to the Cane Toad and the Prickly Pear, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce hailed their owners' video apology as worthy of Qantas in-flight entertainment.

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Joyce told media on Monday afternoon he wants the video to be as "widely viewed as we can possibly get it".

"Because as widely viewed it is, the more we have people who might be unaware of our bio-security laws, when they come to this nation they'll say we're red hot by our bio-security."

Its been a big day for Joyce, who is has just returned to Canberra after Turnbulls recall of Parliament, but after Question Time the Deputy Prime Minister still had time for questions about the terriers.

Weve had terrible outcomes with the introduction of certain pests, whether it was prickly pear whether it was rabbits, whether it was cane toads and it might sound humorous to some but for me, for us in this nation, they werent," Joyce said.

"They were disastrous outcomes and what this does amongst a whole range of things is it reinforces a nation which takes its biosecurity incredibly seriously.

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Good to see Amber Heard's IMDB has already been updated with her latest production. pic.twitter.com/mxWTsmfMGA  Will Ockenden (@will_ock) April 18, 2016

Earlier at the much-awaited court case, Heard pleaded guilty to falsifying border protection documents in relation to bringing the couple's dogs into the country.

Two charges of illegal importation have been dropped at the hearing where Heard was set to stand trial this week, News Corp Australia reports.

Johnny Depps wife Amber Heard has pleaded guilty to falsifying document, has charges of illegal importation dropped #deppsdogs ( JohannaMari  Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) April 17, 2016

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Depp and Heard this morning stepped out of a black luxury car at the Southport Magistrates Court just before 9am Monday morning, battling their way through a large media scrum to the entrance of the court complex.

Supporters of the couple shouted "Go Johnny we love you" as the star couple were mobbed by reporters, photographers and TV crews.

Heard, 29, had been expected to fight the two counts of breaching Australia's quarantine laws for allegedly bringing the couple's dogs Pistol and Boo into the country on a private jet in May 2015.

Depp had been slated as one of 12 witness called by Commonwealth prosecutors to give evidence.

The couple reportedly arrived on the Gold Coast on Sunday on a Gulfstream V private jet ahead of the court case, which was set down for this week.

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The large media and police contingent waited outside the court from early Monday for the arrival of the Hollywood pair.

Lots of media outside #Southport Court eagerly awaiting Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's arrival @tennewsqldpic.twitter.com/BP7nNMliah  Matthew Howard (@MatthewamHoward) April 17, 2016

Police presence outside Southport court awaiting the arrival of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard @abcgoldcoast@abcnewspic.twitter.com/YVbs99gynQ  Ashleigh Stevenson (@ash_stevenson10) April 17, 2016
In bird-watching circles, it was the event of the decade: a Queensland bird enthusiast promised to show a photo of the seemingly extinct Night Parrot.

This parrot is so rare, it had never been photographed alive. Ever. What's more, since 1979, it was largely thought to be extinct save for a few roadkill discoveries and presumed sightings.

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But here was birdo John Young in a packed out suburban hall promising to talk about the years he spent painstakingly searching for evidence of these nocturnal ground-dwelling budgie lookalikes.

When he got to the part of the story where he heard them call into the night for the first time, conservationist John Dengate* said the hall was entirely silent.

"It was like someone telling you they'd found a dinosaur," Dengate said.

"Everyone who was there thought they wouldn't see a Night Parrot in all their lifetime and here's someone saying they've got a recording of their call."

But there was a catch: Young refused to say where exactly he found the birds, considering a rare parrot could well become a poacher's prize.

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A Night Parrot in spinifex. Picture: Steve Murphy / Fairfax Media

Now three years later, conservation group Bush Heritage Australia has created a sanctuary for the parrots named Pullen Pullen reserve in the same spot Young originally discovered them.

And no, Bush Heritage won't tell anyone where it is either.

The reserve is a 56,000-hectare property, transferred from a pastoralist to Bush Heritage Australia.

Executive manager north Rob Murphy said the reserve would protect the parrots from feral animals including cats as well as wildfire and grazing pressure from cattle and kangaroos.

"Sanctuary at Pullen Pullen Reserve is critical for this special bird that still could be lost forever if we dont work together for the long term to protect it," Murphy said.

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They'll also be testing a new feral cat measure called a grooming trap designed to catch cats but not other small native mammals.

As for humans, they're installing satellite cameras to catch potential poachers.
CFMEU

We might have seen the first major negative ad of election 2016, with unions launching a campaign comparing proposed workplace law changes to drug dealing criminals.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) unleashed its 'Stand Up Speak Out Come Home' campaign on Sunday night, the evening before the parliament resumed to consider the government's bills to re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission. The CFMEU and its members will be the among those most directly affected by the ABCC bills, and the union claims that the legislation would mean workers have fewer legal rights than drug dealers.

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If Malcolm Turnbull gets his way, working people will have less rights than ice dealershttps://t.co/Sd2TP6GvExhttps://t.co/DMvo8T6DI1  CFMEU (@CFMEU) April 17, 2016

"The ABCC has even more power than the police. It can drag workers before secret tribunals, strip them of their right to silence and deny them the right to choose a lawyer. If you refuse to attend a tribunal, you can be jailed for up to six months," the CFMEU said on its website.

"Under this law, ice dealers will have even more rights than construction workers."

The ad is appearing on TV screens, but a more direct form of protest was seen directly outside Parliament House on Monday morning. As government ministers met with truck drivers on one part of the front lawn, hearing their thoughts on other legislation to abolish the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, a much larger gathering of protesters and signs spruiked the message "questions for Malcolm."

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The hashtag has taken off online, with many asking questions of the Prime Minister.

The proximity of the competing demonstrations -- one which the government was happy to attend, the other not so much -- made for some interesting photos. Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce met with truckies on the lawn, posting a photo on Twitter with #QuestionsForMalcolm signs visible over his shoulder.
Sunday, April 24, is the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, the start of revolutionary activity that finally secured independence for Ireland. New York City commemoration includes a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on April 23 followed by a piped procession to the office of the Irish Consul General on Park Avenue and 52nd Street where the original proclamation of independence will be read. A formal dinner will be held at the American Irish Historical Society on Sunday the 24th. The historical society, located on the New York University campus in Greenwich Village, also opens a four-month long exhibit, Her Exiled Children, based on its 1916 archives, on April 19th.

On Easter Sunday 1916 nationalist leader Padraig Pearse, a local teacher, read a Proclamation, Poblacht na h-Eireann, on the steps of the Dublin General Post Office declaring Irish independence from Great Britain. The declaration opened "In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom." Pearse and the rebels demanded, "the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible" and pledged "our lives and the lives of our comrades in arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations."

After six days of fighting on Dublin streets and hundreds of civilian casualties, the rebellion was crushed by British troops and local police. Sixteen rebel leaders who survived the battle were charged with treason during World War I and summarily executed by the British military. But instead of ending the independence movement, the defeat of the Easter Rising stimulated a much broader campaign. In 1918, the Irish Sinn Fein political party which demanded an independent Ireland, won a majority of the Irish seats in the British Parliament and the next year the Irish Republican Army launched a guerilla war against the British government. A 1921 treaty established the Irish Free State as a self-governing nation within the British Commonwealth and the Free State eventually became the fully independent Republic of Ireland. For some, however, the nationalist struggle never ended because six Northern Irish counties remain part of Great Britain's United Kingdom.

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In Ireland the British Empire experimented with imperialist exploitation. The Irish people suffered through eight hundred years of occupation, oppression, displacement, discrimination, famine, and cultural genocide. The Easter Rising not only led to Irish independence but it helped launch a waive of anti-imperialism that led to movements to end European colonialism around the world and a break-out of Great Britain's global empire.

The British, in their imperialist arrogance, made a serious mistake in responding to the Easter Rising. The Rising had very few participants and only limited popular support. But the way the British quashed the rebellion and executed rebel leaders infuriated the Irish and definitely turned public opinion toward a fight for independence. I compare the Easter Rising to the Boston Massacre in the United States and the murder of Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, an Irish labor leader, Roger Casement, a British diplomat, and other Easter Rising leaders to the rush to judgment and execution of John Brown after Harpers Ferry and the way it led up to the American Civil War.

The British army executed the leaders of the rebellion without a public trial, but their execution would have been unfair even if the trial was held in public. We are looking at state oppression and officially sanctioned murder. Connolly was so badly injured that he had to be tied up to be shot. In Casement's case, the British government threatened to embarrass the Roman Catholic Church if they pressed for saving his life because he was homosexual.

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New York City has always had close ties to the Irish nationalist movement. On August 20, 1916, the New York Times Magazine published an interview with Moira Regan, a young woman who participated in the Easter Rising. She was in New York raising support and funds for the rebel cause.

This is from her account of events. "At 6 o'clock on the evening of Easter Monday I went down O'Connell Street to the Post Office' . . . I belonged to an organization called Cumann na Mban -- the Council of Women. We had been mobilized at noon on Monday . . . being told that we'd be needed for bandaging and other Red Cross work . . . When I got to the Post Office that evening I found that the windows were barricaded with bags of sand, and at each of them were two men with rifles . . . The British soldiers brought with them all their equipment as if they were prepared for a long war . . . The Post Office burned all day Friday, and late in the afternoon it was decided that it must be abandoned . . . The rebels succeeded in reaching a house on Moor Lane in back of the Post Office. There they stayed all night. They had only a little food and the ammunition was almost exhausted. So on Saturday they saw that further resistance was useless, and that they ought to surrender, in order to prevent further slaughter."

"But British officials did not accept the legitimacy of either the rebellion or the surrender. "The prisoners were shot in the yard of Kilmainham Jail. Then the bodies were taken in their clothes, outside Dublin to Arbor Hill Barracks and thrown into quicklime in one large trench. In every case the bodies were refused to the relatives of the dead men."

Regan concluded, "the greatest result of the rising, the thing that will justify it even if it were the only good result, is the complete and amazing revival of Irish nationality. We have been asleep -- we have been ready to acquiesce in things as they were, to take jobs under the Castle Government and to acquiesce in the unnatural state of affairs. But now we have been awakened to the knowledge that there is a great difference between Ireland and England, that we are really a separate nation. Even the people that were not in sympathy with the rebels feel this now . . . This feeling has spread all over Ireland; it has remained and it is growing stronger. We were a province, and now we are a nation; we were British subjects, and now we are Irish. This is what the rising of Easter week has done for Ireland."

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Young man's and woman's clasped hands, close up.

We met on a January night, when I was out with girlfriends visiting from other cities. Twerking and drinking took its toll and led to empty stomachs, so at 3 a.m. we called ourselves an Uber. The driver was kind and the ride over was so pleasant that we asked him to dine with us. We'd picked up a new friend! Epic nights always begin like this.

His name was Drew.

He sat next to me at the restaurant and eventually my friends huddled into their own conversation, leaving him and me to fend for ourselves. Good and easy conversation kept us afloat freely, with stories of passport stamps to philosophies. He dropped us off at our hotel, and smoothly asked for my number.

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The girls giggled. I blushed... and obliged.

The texting... the calls... the crush began. And then, our first date. What started off as brunch, where we both confessed our intentional avoidance of commitment, turned into 10 hours of non-stop fun, intriguing conversation, and the occasional 3rd chakra palpitating gaze. The date ended with an impressive kiss (we made out). I welcomed his tenacity.

Because after leaving a "good" job, moving to a new state and leaving behind people who love me, switching my spacious waterfront apartment for my aunt's back bedroom/office, and getting a part-time holiday job at Nordstrom just to keep gas in my Honda, I'd 'bout maximized my fears and delighted in an opportunity for some revelry.



"My roommates ... were shocked in the morning to learn that my company was White. But they weren't just shocked. They were livid, disgusted even."



February came, as did the yearning. I moved into a beautiful and spacious loft with a couple I'd met some weeks before. Drew was there on moving day, lugging the heaviest furniture as family looked on. He stayed over a few nights later, and at a point late in the evening he confessed that he loved me.

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A record screeched and stopped in my head.

What in the hell?! You don't even know me. You can't love me.

I don't have to know you to feel you.

The morning after, I had an early meeting at work and left him to sleep until I returned. He looked so good, asleep in my bed. The morning was cold and bright; the sun was on his cheek. And I watched him lie there, breathing. I smiled to myself, thinking that life was finally turning around -- back in my own place again, with a new handsome gentleman -- and headed off to what could be a new career. I wrote him a poem to read when he woke up, then left.

By my return two hours later, all hell had broken loose.

My roommates, who knew I'd had company that night, were shocked in the morning to learn that my company was White. But they weren't just shocked. They were livid, disgusted even.

We don't want to share a bathroom with White people.

We don't want to be under the same roof with White people.

And, we're shocked that you would be with someone who's White, because... you're conscious.

Conscious. That bastardized word, often representing spiritual awareness, somehow has become synonymous in a sub-culture of the Black community with natural hair and extended conversations about the pineal gland. And exclusion. It was my fault, I suppose... I did wear a shaved head, and do use an Akan name. And the beads... the beads throw everybody off, right?

Thus, while I was indeed really Black, I still wasn't quite Black enough.

I moved out at month's end.

It's true that I grew up as a black girl child in the American South, and had defining experiences with racism. I've been called nigger, been a petting zoo, and been harassed by the police. In part, I went to an HBCU because many of my early experiences with White peoples wasn't so good.

And it's true that, as a dark-skinned girl in the American South, I was a victim of colorism in my own community because my dark was too dark. I was called many names, including Crunchy Black, and Miss Black-Ass America (after I started winning pageants). There were skin shade comparisons. People often volunteered their confusion with my attractiveness versus my skin tone -- they somehow didn't belong together. In part, I left The South because I felt very ostracized.

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When I moved to Mozambique for the summer in 2008, my life flipped upside down. I returned from Africa a new person, and sampled Black Nationalism and Afrocentricity in an effort to extend the life I'd fallen for. But the ostracization of God's other children to account for centuries of racial injustice still didn't work for me.

Ignorance Everywhere

The rumor stream began that I was dating a White man. Then the questions came. And so did my answers.

Q: Does he try to act Black? Does he wear gold chains?

A: Really??

Q: Oooo! He took you to dinner? I need to get me a White man!

A: Or perhaps just a good man will do. Because good men also like dinner.

Q: So, why are you with a White man? Are you upset with Black men?

A: Because he's good to me? And he has swag for days. Goodness is not binary, and Black men are still beautiful.

Q: Black men ain't shit. I'm done.

A: You's a damn, bitter fool.

Q: Who is this n****, I mean, cracka on FB?! I see you in a picture with The Oppressor, so I'm curious.

A: (Expletives)

Q: You that type of Black that White men like! They don't want 'em yellow... they want 'em DAAAARRRRKKKK!

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A: Oh, really now? Thanks for the expertise.

Q: You see, when White men date Black women, they're feeding an animalistic nature inside of themselves. It's carnal.

A: Pull up, bruh. Pull up. Just, come back.

Q: If you 'gon date a White man, make sure he has a trust fund.

A: Wait, what? You date men in their 40s without checking accounts.

Q: My husband doesn't like seeing White men with Black women, although he dated an Asian woman for a few years. You two should come over!

A: Because we want to self-subject for experimentation?

Cultural and communal pressures guide standards for dating and mating, especially among American Black women. A 2015 report published by Brookings found that while American marriage rates are lower among black women compared to white women, black women are also the group that is least likely to "marry out" across race lines. Thus, an American Black woman who balks this trend and mates outside of her race will likely be subject to ridicule.

I was struggling with opinions, which I now know to be cultural ignorance disguised as truth, bolstered by popularity. Remember when the Earth was flat?

As I detailed this new struggle with my Love, he offered this: "If loving you gives other people the opportunity to grow, then I welcome it. And I'm excited."

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Hot & Bloody Summer

2015 was a violent year in America. My Facebook feed was inundated with daily injustice, and I honestly tried to log off. But then, there was a shooting in a Black church in South Carolina. And my president sang "Amazing Grace." My feed was in a frenzy. One friend posted that she would never again sit with her back to a White man.

"This racial separation is what the enemy wants," I thought to myself. "Why else would the media keep this rolling 24/7?"

That week, Drew and I went to a Braves game, and had to walk through "the hood" at night to get back to my home. I was frightened and my senses were heightened, because I was a woman, who didn't look like the locals, walking through the hood near midnight with my full purse slung across my shoulder. And I was walking with a White man during one of the most racially tense weeks of the year. I felt like a mark.



"He held my hand to secure us, and I let his go to do the same. It broke his heart."



Drew held my hand as we walked through the neighborhood, and he told stories to try and distract me from my panic. He confessed that he was not afraid -- be it his spiritual resolve or because he never had to learn the same fears as me growing up. I took off my precious gold ring and put it in my cheek. Fifty feet from home, we approached a group of locals under a streetlight and my fears got the best of me.

I let go of his hand.

Because what if the sight of us together incited something that we couldn't be saved from? I felt like Mildred Loving. He held my hand to secure us, and I let his go to do the same. It broke his heart.

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Oshe-Meji

This seems to be a central lesson in our relationship -- how to love in hard places and to not let go when a good love is threatened by fear and anger (real or imagined) from the outside. To overcome the threat as one. And how could I not, when he loves me so damn... professionally?

I have been mis-loved and mistreated in expert quantity. The parting gifts that I earned from mastering "Good-Dick-and-Good-Convo-But-Conditional-Commitment 5201" are outgrown, weathered, and trashed.

I have finally fallen in love (or risen) with a good man, because the support I imagined found me without my asking. Because a love like this is unadulterated -- and not subject to the angers and judgments and fears and ignorance of people nor nations. Because, in case you haven't heard, #LoveWins.
During the 1930s renowned photographer Berenice Abbott embarked on a five year documentation of the gritty streets of Depression Era New York City. Inspired by Eugene Atget's photo documentary series of Paris, Abbott sought to document the ever transforming streets of New York to serve as a record of the history of America. In 1935 she received a grant from the Federal Art Project to photograph, print and produce her landmark publication, New York Changing. In collaboration with her life partner, Elizabeth McCausland, who wrote the captions for the book, Abbott focused her lens on urban life, documenting the diverse people of the city, where they lived and their daily activities.



Berenice Abbott, Changing New York, 1939, First Edition

Photography Courtesy of Auctionata, Rare & Exceptional Books Catalogue

Abbott set out on this project just as the skyscrapers of New York began transforming nineteenth century New York into an urban metropolis. Changing New York was intended to empower people; Abbott photographed this "Second Industrial Revolution" to illustrate the consequences of society's behavior.



Berenice Abbott, Changing New York, 1939, First Edition

Photography Courtesy of Auctionata, Rare & Exceptional Books Catalogue

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Along with over 300 iconic photographs, Changing New York, includes line drawings, period maps, and essays documenting the cultural history of the city. This book serves as a time-capsule of not only the architecture of the city but the diversity in culture and how urbanization shaped the daily activities of New Yorkers.



Berenice Abbott, Changing New York, 1939, First Edition

Photography Courtesy of Auctionata, Rare & Exceptional Books Catalogue

Abbott believed she could capture as much about humanity from urban street scenes, as she could by photographing someone's face. Throughout Changing New York, Abbott examines the contrast between the old and new. Offered at Auctionata's Rare & Exceptional Book sale, this copy is inscribed to Eliot Elisofon, who was a staff photographer for Life magazine. Changing New York is an exceptional record of the most iconic images of the city's changing environment.



Berenice Abbott, Changing New York, 1939, First Edition

Photography Courtesy of Auctionata, Rare & Exceptional Books Catalogue
President Barack Obama shakes hands with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef after meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders at Camp David in Maryland, Thursday, May 14, 2015. Obama and the leaders from six Gulf nations are trying to work through tensions sparked by the U.S. bid for a nuclear deal with Iran, a pursuit that has put regional partners on edge. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

President Obama arrives in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday this week and attends a summit of Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) leaders there the following day.

The GCC includes some of Washington's most repressive allies, and Obama should use the visit - his last opportunity as president to meet the monarchs face to face - to raise a series of human rights concerns. Fundamental political reforms are necessary to bring stability to the Gulf countries which are under severe economic pressure for the fall in oil prices. Here are five things President Obama should do during this week's visit to Saudi Arabia:

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1. Meet people from civil society

In September 2014 Obama issued "Presidential Memorandum - Civil Society" directing agencies engaged abroad to "consult with representatives of civil society to explain the views of the United States on particular issues, seek their perspectives, utilize their expertise, and build strong partnerships to address joint challenges."

Obama could explain to civil society representatives why his administration has been so publicly silent on the targeting of human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia, or why his government continues to arm a regime that persecutes them. The memo also says that "When traveling overseas, senior U.S. officials of agencies engaged abroad shall seek opportunities to meet with representatives of civil society, especially those who face restrictions on their work and who may benefit from international support and solidarity." There are few places in the world where civil society faces more restrictions than Saudi Arabia. For Obama to ignore his own advice to his government colleagues and not meet civil society representatives would seriously undermine his administration's credibility with human rights activists all over the world.

2. Publicly call for the release of human rights activists jailed in Saudi Arabia on trumped up charges after unfair trials

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There are many people in prison in Saudi Arabia because they voiced peaceful dissent against the repressive regime. These include leading human rights defender Mohammed Al Qahtani, who has a PhD in economics from Indiana University, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2013 for his human rights activity. Then there's Raif Badawi, jailed in 2012 for hosting a website devoted to open discussion of religious and political issues, sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes, Waleed Abu al-Khair, a prominent human rights lawyer and NGO leader jailed in 2013 and currently serving a 15 year prison sentence for his human rights advocacy, and Ashraf Fayadh a poet imprisoned and sentenced to 800 lashes. Obama should call for the release of these and other prisoners by name.

3. Make clear that Washington doesn't just have a problem with Saudi Arabia



All of the six GCC countries have poor human rights records, and President Obama should mention those too. On May 30 Americans Kamal and Mohamed Eldarat are due a verdict in a United Arab Emirates court after they were tortured and given an unfair trial. Obama should call on his Emirati allies to release them unconditionally and immediately, and tell them to stop disappearing people, American or not. And he should remind the king of Bahrain that imprisoning the country's leading human rights defenders isn't the way out of his political crisis, and that the White House is wondering why leading dissident Zainab Al Khawaja is still in jail two weeks after Bahrain's foreign minister promised - in a joint press conference with Secretary Kerry - her temporary release on humanitarian grounds.

4. Tell the Gulf monarchs how they can help on Syria

Syria will be a major part of the GCC summit discussion, and Obama should urge the GCC leaders to use their power to have the various armed groups they sponsor in Syria to respect the ceasefire, and to stop kidnapping and torturing people. He should press Saudi to use its influence with militia Jaish al Islam, who kidnapped human rights defender Razan Zaitouneh and other activists in 2013, to have them released. He should also press the Gulf countries to stop the sectarian rhetoric coming from media in their countries that incites violence in Syria

5. Don't leave the meeting saying "human rights abuses didn't come up"

That's what happened when Obama spent two hours with the Saudi king in Riyadh in May 2014, "they didn't get to ...human rights," said a White House spokesperson in a damaging response to a question about what human rights issues had been explored during the meeting. An American administration that doesn't find time raise human rights with Saudi Arabian leaders is revealing a moral cowardice, which isn't a great look for Obama or his legacy.
Paul McCartney's almost three-hour, thirty-plus song, sold-out tour opening performance Wednesday night in Fresno for his nine-city "One on One" U.S.-Canadian tour has rightly garnered near ubiquitous praise from critics and fans alike. Rolling Stone's Steve Appleford noted the show "moved gracefully from the intimate to the explosive" as the lights, pyrotechnics, backing band, historical references and imagery framed, but never overpowered the musician or his music. The San Jose Mercury News said; "Paul McCartney Soars in Fresno." One 40-something local fan Bob, exclaimed on our delayed flight to Los Angeles that this was the best concert he ever attended, while a more prolific Bakersfield rock fan, Brad, dissected the performance for its place in rock history in the style of documentarian Ken Burns.

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What makes the concert so special and unique, also defies most description. At a time where many rock legends are at the twilight of their touring careers, these events have significance as personal and chronologic cultural milestones, that will set the legacy memories for multiple generations. Drug abuse denied older, at least by pop music standards, icons like Elvis and Michael Jackson the opportunity to musically frame the bookends of their careers.

Also, unlike bigger, less-friendly cities, Fresno, which proclaimed Wednesday Paul McCartney day, never saw a Paul performance and both were quite appreciative of each other. This was evidenced by the reverence of the fans who noticeably refrained from disturbance, noise or drug use (but not dancing) during the show in the newer and comfortable 16,000-seat Save Mart Center arena. So all there; whether local, or carpetbaggers like me, waited years or traveled miles to see him, making the show, just a bit more special. Perhaps owing to the fact that this is Paul's only Golden State performance, fans flocked not only from Fresno, but from throughout California from San Diego to the Bay Area.

Along with the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen, Paul has done a masterful job of capturing, not only the breadth of music that is both iconic, genre changing and emotive, but also simply fun. His opener, "A Hard Day's Night," allegedly his first live performance of the song in decades presaged both the path and history that would be made that evening as he interspersed hits with lesser known songs. The historic significance was highlighted after he recounted his meeting with Russian leaders who told him they learned English, and music to records like "Love Me Do" and "Hello Goodbye." His vignettes about "Blackbird" and Civil rights, Jimi Hendrix, George on the ukulele, his bonds with John that were never fully conveyed and George Martin's talent gave the show a subtle but real documentary gift wrap.

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His long-time touring band of Paul "Wix" Wickens, Brian Ray, Rusty Anderson and Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums were players that not only made the team's pitcher shine, but themselves as well, as part of a seamless collective effort. Whether a particular song rendition matched its historic studio doppelganger misses the point and is more suited for those who might catch the Beatles-inspired Cirque de Solei Love show in Las Vegas.

Two things made the show special. First, Paul, 73, is at a stage in his life where he is probably the wisest and most comfortable he's ever been both personally and professionally, and this frames his delivery of the music. More than once he mentioned his loves and his daughter and it was clear that he was playing for them too, as his wife and daughter were in the audience. Second, as was highlighted by the background video, his fans recognize the unique place his music has not only in rock history, but more importantly in the soundtrack of their lives. Not only was Paul, authentically himself, but genuinely enjoying the moment. This included non-singing instances of recounting stories of other musicians and fellow Beatles, expressing both his gratitude and inability to multitask playing with reading numerous fan signs at the same time. One fan and her children, including son Jude, even came onstage. She now has the happy dilemma of what to do with the autographed shoulder she now sports.

It is no easy balance to reproduce musical genius without deviating from the original in a way that sours the memories of it or by preforming it by mere rote or with arrogant pretense. None, here, as Paul recreated, to the extent possible, that he was at a special place playing for friends. This bond enabled him to throw in more obscure songs, though their presence never upset the balance. Most artists could have had lengthy careers on the composite of memorable songs that Paul didn't get to play such as "Penny Lane", "My Love and Jet", but I proffer that no one was disappointed in the least. "Live and Let Die", "Yesterday", "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Hey Jude", "Let It Be", "Blackbird" among others kept fans on their feet until "Golden Slumbers" closed the music on what will go down on a historic concert that still leads us back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.



Set List (Rolling Stone)

"A Hard Day's Night"

"Save Us"

"Can't Buy Me Love"

"Letting Go"

"Temporary Secretary"

"Let Me Roll It"

"I've Got a Feeling"

"My Valentine"

"1985"

"Here, There and Everywhere"

"Maybe I'm Amazed"

"We Can Work It Out"

"In Spite of All the Danger"

"You Won't See Me"

"Love Me Do"

"And I Love Her"

"Blackbird"

"Here Today"

"Queenie Eye"

"New"

"Fool on the Hill"

"Lady Madonna"

"FourFiveSeconds"

"Eleanor Rigby"

"Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite!"

"Something"

"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"

"Band on the Run"

"Back in the U.S.S.R."

"Let It Be"

"Live and Let Die"

"Hey Jude"
The Bible sermonizes (Galatians 6:7): "Do not be deceived. God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap."



More than a century ago, European imperialism sowed the violent convulsions and upheavals we are now witnessing in Africa and the Middle East. The torrent of refugees from these regions currently fleeing to Europe was begotten by Europe's own rapacious and unjust colonial schemes. It was altogether predictable that a refugee crisis would ultimately uncork in the aftermath of Europe's unfinished decolonization arrangements which flouted the right to self-determination among indigenous peoples.

European colonization was born in original sin. Hearkening back to the Old Testament, Europeans believed they were "chosen people" entitled to kill, to plunder, and to rule over others who were both different and weak. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Chinua Achebe's blistering retort in "An Image of Africa" prove it all.



Colonial boundaries were drawn to suit the ambitions of the colonizers, not to facilitate nation-building by indigenous peoples. And the colonizers embraced "divide and rule" as their strategy for deterring unified popular rebellions against their racist dispensations. Accordingly, peoples with clashing histories, cultures, religions, ethnicities, languages, or otherwise were herded under single national umbrellas for the convenience of the colonizers.

The British were the acknowledged experts in the field. In Nigeria, for instance, the distinct Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, and Yoruba peoples were compelled to dwell under a single British government roof. In Sudan, a largely Arab-Muslim people in the north were mixed by the British with a largely Christian-animist African population in the south to promote internal disunity.



Matthew 12:25 instructs: "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand." Europe decamped from its racist colonial conquests leaving numerous "houses," i.e., artificial nations, divided against themselves. Colonial boundaries were not adjusted according to self-determination votes of discrete indigenous peoples who had been forced by their colonial overseers into unitary colonial rule.

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The colonial powers acted in accord with the Machiavellian principle that it is better to be feared than to be loved. They employed fear, not the consent of the governed, to rule over heterogeneous populations and to splinter the opposition. As versified by Hilaire Belloc, in the words of "Blood" in his poem "The Modern Traveler":

"Whatever happens, we have got

The Maxim gun, and they have not."

Contrary to international law, European colonizers did not offer self-determination votes to the discrete peoples over whom they ruled prior to transferring power to new governments. If they had, few if any would have voted for a unitary government within artificial colonial boundaries. The exceptions would be the most populous or militarily powerful peoples eager to dominate and to exploit tribal, ethnic, racial, or religious minorities.

That knowledge of human nature informed Article I of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It provides in relevant part: "All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development." Self-determination among peoples is an indispensable international law strategy for preventing majorities from oppressing minorities and precipitating refugee crises.

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But in violation of Article 1, Europe's colonizing nations delivered power into the hands of quislings among the colonized in hopes of maintaining their economic dominance. The result has been constant political instability, conflict, and persecution of minorities within immoral national boundaries established by the bayonet rather than the ballot box.

Two representative examples are Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In the former, three of more than 300 tribes are predominant and constitute approximately 70 percent of the population: the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo. The Hausa dominate the military. Since independence in 1960 accomplished without self-determination referenda, Nigeria's Igbo and other minorities have been constantly persecuted, marginalized, tortured, and killed by a unitary government. The 1967-1970 Biafran War was symptomatic.

The DRC, formerly Belgian Congo, also attained independence in 1960 with no self-determination votes among its many distinct peoples, including four tribes dominant among the Bantu: the Mongo, Luba, Kongo, and Mangbetu-Azande. Soon after independence, the DRC threatened to become unglued. Katanga and South Kasai declared independence. Since then, the DRC with a unitary government has predictably experienced chronic violence, turmoil, strife, and secessionist movements among its vastly different peoples. A staggering 6 million were killed in the First and Second Congo Wars.

The whole world knows of the Rwandan genocide born of France's cynical "arranged marriage" of the Tutsi and Hutu under a single national roof.

At this very moment in Agadez, a northern Niger desert crossroad, refugees from Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Chad, Guinea, Cameroon, Mali, and other towns in Niger are gathering in anticipation of flight to Europe via Libya and the Mediterranean. They have been provoked by national upheavals fueled by irrational national boundaries that mocked the right of peoples to self-determination.

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That failure has clearly created a danger to international peace and security within the jurisdiction of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter. Accordingly, the UNSC should establish Special Committees for each African nation to determine whether the right of people's to self-determination has been honored. If not, the UNSC should mandate, conduct, and monitor self-determination votes under Chapter 7 as it has done previously in the cases of Eritrea and South Sudan.

Redrawing African boundaries in accord with the self-determination of peoples will diminish, not aggravate, threats to international peace and security and the numbers of refugees. Thus, the post-Tito division of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia into eight separate nations featuring self-determination boundaries stopped genocidal killings, ethnic cleansings, and the flow of refugees into Western Europe.

The same phenomenon can be expected in Africa following self-determination referenda.
Suddenly, capitalism American-style looks a little more human and a little more fair, if recent developments on the business front become a trend.

Like the magical number of three, and seemingly magical in being sprung on the public so unexpectedly and in such quick order, three recent business developments should be welcome news on Main Street America, where anger at the inequities and harshness of modern capitalism has ignited and propelled both political parties in an emphatically populist direction in this presidential election.

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In all three instances, it was government action that enabled these hopeful developments, not corporate magnanimity or corporate commitment to social responsibility. Here's what the much-maligned government bureaucrats have done for us lately:

One: Corporations can no longer avoid U.S. taxes via international mergers

Through a financial mechanism called "inversion," a growing number of American corporations have acquired foreign counterparts in low-tax nations for the express purpose of stashing their profits abroad, thereby avoiding U.S. taxes. One example: Burger King's acquisition of the Tim Hortons coffee chain of Canada. Pending: drug giant Pfizer's proposed $152 billion takeover of Allergan, the Dublin-based maker of Botox, in "the biggest tax-avoidance deal in the history of corporate America." Almost always the American corporation keeps its headquarters in the U.S., making the ulterior motivation of inversion crystal-clear: tax evasion.

Upshot: The corporate world is gob-smacked; the Pfizer-Allergan merger is off. Experts predict corporations will file legal challenges, especially to the earnings stripping rule. Republicans still point to inversions as proof that U.S. corporate taxes are too high and must be cut, but as The New York Times editorializes, "broad tax reform is pie-in-the-sky in today's hyper-partisan Congress, and they know it."

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The monetary stakes are enormous. In a "surging market" for mega-mergers, in 2015 alone corporate inversions were valued at $4.7 trillion, "smashing records." If Treasury's action holds and withstands legal challenge, then reversing those inversions, bringing that money home, could pay for desperately-needed infrastructure repair on Main Street---lots and lots and lots of it.

Two: Financial advisers must now serve their client's best interests, not their own

Like the reader no doubt, I assumed financial advisers already served their client's best interests. I assumed, at the least, financial advisers through their professional associations had already established professional standards and that trust---gaining and guaranteeing the client's trust---was professional objective number one.

But that was not the case. Financial advisers were only required to recommend "suitable" investments, meaning they could sell you a more expensive product that paid them a higher commission, say a mutual fund, when an identical and cheaper fund might have been an equal or even better choice for you, the client.

Now, thanks to actions of the U.S. Labor Department earlier this month, financial advisers have a legally-binding "fiduciary" responsibility to put their client's interests first, including the client's interest in saving money. In issuing the rules, the Secretary of Labor declared that putting customers first "is no longer a marketing slogan. It's the law."

For now, these fiduciary rules pertain only to investments in retirement accounts. But potentially they could alter the entire financial industry. As one consumer advocate said of the new rules, "It is a really big deal. Revolutionary, even."

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Three: A corporate executive responsible for employee deaths can go to prison---finally

From Main Street's point of view, not only is American capitalism short on economic justice, but the criminal justice system is perceived as favoring white-collar criminals while meting out tough sentences for middle- and working-class citizens.

That's not necessarily so anymore: On April 6, the chief executive of Massey Energy Company, Donald L. Blankenship, was sentenced to prison for conspiring to violate federal mine safety laws at West Virginia's Upper Big Branch coal mine, creating the conditions that resulted in an explosion in 2010 that killed 29 workers---the worst coal-mining disaster in modern times.

Thanks to a Federal District Court judge, this sentence sets a precedent: It is the first time in U.S. corporate history that a C.E.O. is convicted of conspiring to violate industrial safety standards. That's the good news. The bad news is: This C.E.O. is going to prison for only one year---one year for 29 deaths. Why the leniency? Because the Mine Safety and Health Act, under which Blankenship was convicted, prosecutes the worst criminal violations as mere misdemeanors, not felonies. (Other bad news: Blankenship retires with a $12 million golden parachute.)

The stakes in this instance are less monetary than moral: Corporate recklessness resulting in death is now punishable. And this C.E.O. richly deserves punishment: Blankenship prioritized profit over safety so fanatically that he demanded progress reports every 30 minutes---"This game is about money," he said. Hundreds of safety citations from regulators---and the deep foreboding expressed by his miners and managers alike---were dismissed. His contempt for government and regulators was notorious throughout Coal Country. Will other corporate executives take note and reform?

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Congressional action is needed to make permanent, as law, the advances heralded by these three developments---reforming the corporate tax code; requiring fiduciary responsibility in all investments; upgrading violations of industrial safety standards as felonies, also increasing the sentences available to judges for white-collar crime. The odds of a Republican-controlled Congress taking such "anti-business" steps is almost nil, but if Democrats regain control of either house, the odds improve.

Absent corporate enlightenment---we are waiting, waiting---American capitalism's inequities and harshness can best be ameliorated by strict protective regulation and active government enforcement. These three developments show how. Let's hope they start a trend. Capitalism is not just a money game, it is a human game.

And, finally, Main Street: Say "Thank you" to the dedicated government bureaucrats who render this fine service to you, the public.
Every year, millions of visitors from all over the world travel to Yellowstone National Park to see some of the most famous bears in the world - the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bears. These same tourists pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy. But what would happen if there were no grizzly bears or just a scant few? I suspect that many of these tourists may go elsewhere. Think of the disastrous economic impact this would have on the livelihood of individuals who serve as guides, maintain campsites or operate hotels and restaurants in the three states covered by Yellowstone Park - Idaho, Montana and Wyoming--let alone the ecosystem itself.



This unfathomable scenario might just play out. Yellowstone grizzly bears are in danger. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has proposed to remove them from the list of federally threatened and endangered species. This means management would be handed over to the three states - Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming - which have readily indicated that they would rush to allow the bears to be trophy hunted.

This would be a conservation disaster. Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of Humane Society of the United States, has said: "This same group of states bungled wolf de-listing and they are making all the same noises on grizzlies--threatening to open up trophy hunting season. Other forms of human-caused mortality are up, and bears are facing a range of threats to critical food sources, including white bark pine nuts and lake trout."

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There are so many reasons why the majority of Americans disapprove of killing our vulnerable and native carnivores solely to obtain a "prize" and acquire dominance over vulnerable species by placing heads, hides or pelts, and even to put a whole animal, stuffed, on a wall. The practice is cruel, harmful and unsustainable.

The most well-known trophy hunter right now is Walter Palmer, who killed Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe. He used baiting, putting out food for an animal and then killing them when they find and eat it. This is just one of many despicable practices often used by trophy hunters. They also use packs of dogs in a practice called hounding to corner a poor animal and chase it up a tree and then shoot it. And they kill not to feed for subsistence, but just for bragging rights.

Why would these states support trophy hunting Yellowstone's grizzly bears when a recent national poll found that most Americans oppose this practice (68 percent).

The same poll found that 81 percent of Americans agree that grizzly bears are a valuable part of the Greater Yellowstone area and 67 percent believe that if the management of grizzlies is handed over to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming that there should be a 5-year moratorium on trophy hunting to ensure that the grizzly bear population is fully recovered.



The FWS estimates that around 700 grizzly bears live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem today, while as few as 800 to 1,000 make their home in the entire 48 states. At one time there were 50,000 grizzly bears roaming North America. So now is not the time to make grizzlies a target of state managers so beholden to trophy hunters.

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The public can weigh in on the plan to delist the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear's status as an endangered species by posting a comment at www.regulations.gov before May 10th and oppose the proposal to delist.
Dear undecided voter:

New Yorkers going to the polls tomorrow have spent the last weeks going to rallies, watching ads, and reading up on the candidates vying for our votes. For those who are still on the fence, I wanted to throw in my two cents.

Like you're doing now, Planned Parenthood Action Fund did a lot of soul-searching when we decided to endorse a candidate in the primary.

We brought together our Planned Parenthood Action Fund activists and leaders from across the country, and heard from thousands of supporters on the issues that concern them most in this election.

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The clear choice was Hillary Clinton.

In addition to being the most qualified presidential candidate this country has seen in a generation, she has spent her entire life fighting for women and families.

We knew we couldn't sit on the sidelines. We issued our first-ever primary endorsement because Hillary is a standout leader on reproductive health. And because the challenges facing the people who come to Planned Parenthood health centers were too urgent for us to to "wait and see."

Some of them can't get health insurance because of their immigration status, language and institutional barriers, or because the states where they live refuse to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Some of them live in communities where options for reproductive health care are few and far between -- and getting more so as state legislators and governors slash funding for public health programs. And some who come to Planned Parenthood are young people who didn't know their options because they're not getting comprehensive sex education.

And as the women of color leading the reproductive justice movement have been lifting up for more than two decades, there are multiple barriers to self-autonomy for the people Planned Parenthood serves: discrimination based upon race, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity just to name a few. Let's not also leave out the wage gap, sky-high childcare costs, and the absence of paid family and medical leave and livable wages -- just to name a few others.

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There's a lot at stake in this election -- and even more when you consider who the Democratic nominee will run against. Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz want decisions about pregnancy to be the authority of the state, and they have a Congress that is their eager partner to do it. In state after state, the ability to access safe and legal abortion, birth control, and now even prenatal services (we see you, Governor John Kasich) is being eliminated daily.

She put her name on a universal health care plan -- and fought like hell to get it passed. As she said in last week's debate, decades before there was Obamacare, it was Hillarycare. While senator, she introduced eight pieces of legislation to increase women's access to health care -- eight more than anyone else running for president.

When Hillary Clinton was in the Senate, she led the fight for equal pay, introducing the Paycheck Fairness Act three times and co-sponsoring both the Fair Pay Restoration Act and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

She and Senator Patty Murray blocked confirmation of a Bush administration FDA nominee until they issued a decision on putting emergency contraception over the counter. It was bigger than just a vote. They made a demand and they stuck to it - that's actually leadership. Today, you can get the "morning after" pill right off the shelf in drugstores across America.

On Thursday night, during the Democratic debate in Brooklyn, she proved yet again why we're fighting to send her to the White House.

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In the final minutes of the ninth debate without a question about access to safe and legal abortion, Hillary Clinton saw her opening and called out Republican candidates and governors for restricting women's right to make decisions about their own health.

As she put it, "It goes to the heart of who we are as women, our rights, our autonomy, our ability to make our own decisions, and we need to be talking about that and defending Planned Parenthood from these outrageous attacks."

Three in 10 women have an abortion in their lifetimes. Women we know. Women we love. You're damn right we need to be talking about this.

For me personally, endorsing Hillary Clinton was a moment a lifetime in the making.

I've spent my entire career working for progressive causes -- the first 15 years organizing garment workers on the Rio Grande border, nursing home workers in East Texas, hotel workers in New Orleans, and janitors in Los Angeles. Every day I saw them put everything on the line to improve life for themselves, their families and their coworkers. For them, it wasn't an intellectual exercise. It was doing the work every day to build power and change economic conditions, to earn the dignity and respect they deserved but seldom experienced on the job.

At Planned Parenthood Action Fund, we're proud to be part of a coalition doing that work today.

We're proud to be part of the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina, to stand with our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin to shine a light on the anti-working people agenda of Governor Scott Walker, and to add our pink shirts to the purple wave of SEIU and the green of AFSCME.

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We've spent the last 10 years working with our partners to put reproductive rights on the progressive agenda.

Under President Hillary Clinton, access to reproductive health care won't be a footnote. It will always be front and center.

My mom, the late great Texas Governor Ann Richards, used to tell me, "Don't wait until they ask you. You have one shot, so do it now."

Hillary Clinton has never waited for women to ask her to protect and advance their rights. If I have learned anything throughout my career and at Planned Parenthood, it's that you only get what you fight for.

So, still-undecided voter, I hope you'll consider this and pick the candidate who is a true leader on these issues.

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Hillary Clinton is now and has always been on the front lines -- I'm proud to be there with her.

Cecile Richards, posting as President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund
In New York this Friday, the UN Secretary General will welcome a stream of Heads of State to a signing ceremony for the historic global climate deal agreed in Paris last year. This political orchestration of international leaders is the first big "climate" job for the UN in 2016. The Agreement will only officially enter into force after 55 countries representing 55% of global emissions have signed. Then the attention turns fully to implementation - practical solutions, concrete policies, investments and partnerships to deliver the commitments made. Accountability of, compliance with, and ideally over-performance on the voluntary national contributions that underpin the Agreement will be key.

While the timelines set by the Agreement look pragmatic, the timelines for transition set by the science leave no room for early non-performance on climate action. The deal needs a strong referee - in this case a robust accountability and compliance mechanism. I've touched on the implications of the new climate deal for climate accountability before, but what can wider experience from international law and behaviour science teach us about what good looks like? How could compliance in the world's climate agreement build in more muscle?

Keeping global climate action on track

In 2018 the Paris Agreement requires parties to get together to take stock on progress. Two years later in 2020, countries will be asked to increase their contributions again. It is around this date that global emissions will need to peak in order to meet the Agreement's overarching goal of limiting warming to "well below 2C". By the time the world has its first legally-binding climate health check in 2023 (the global "stock take") we will have a good idea of whether the global climate deal is effective and if countries are indeed on track to tackling climate change.

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Historical experience suggests that an effective international treaty is one that has ambitious yet feasible targets and timetables for achieving these, but also a robust mechanism to ensure accountability and compliance. Strong accountability is vital to instil a sense of confidence in the wider market; in this case to attract the capital needed to fund the world's low carbon transition. Business, investors and consumers need to have confidence that all governments, regardless of political terms, are going to deliver on their pledges and will not compromise low carbon investments made to date.



Under the climate Agreement, the accountability (ie transparency, review and compliance) mechanism is doubly relevant as it is the legally binding part of the Agreement, not, as many might consider, the achievement of the emissions cuts themselves. Getting this system right from the outset therefore is fundamental to the legitimacy, effectiveness and longevity of the regime going forward.

As it stands the Paris Agreement has the skeleton of a compliance framework built in. It is a form of compliance focused on transparency and review, not on enforcement. This negotiation went down to the wire in Paris, with some parties against the word "compliance" appearing at all in the text, while others including the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) pushed for a compliance mechanism that included enforcement. The deal agreed, however, loosely outlines a mechanism of self-monitoring, a periodic expert review (and time for improvement), financial and technical assistance to build country's reporting and compliance capabilities, and a state-nominated committee to address compliance issues in a non-confrontational way. There is enough in the agreed text to give legitimacy to further discussions in 2016 and beyond to flesh out a compliance mechanism fully.



2018 is the official timeline set to finalise the system and procedures for transparency and compliance. For example common international rules and systems need to be agreed, parties need to agree what the flexibility in reporting allowed for developing countries means in practice, and countries need support on data, methods and capacity so that they are ready to report performance accurately and comparably when the deal comes into force. The more contentious issues of triggers for non-compliance, and consequences of non-compliance will also be re-visited, and either dismissed or incorporated.



What does wider experience in international law tell us about what could be built in to this new international system for climate accountability?

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Compliance in international law tends to be treated in one of two ways. Either through international adjudication of disputes brought state-to-state or by non-governmental actors; or through a model of managed compliance where states monitor and report their actions and compliance.

The first, for example, is the model used in many areas of international law including Human Rights law. Adjudication on its own does not enforce compliance, but experience suggests that states often comply with the decisions of international tribunals, and when they don't the outcome provides legitimate grounds for the threat of sanctions. To this end, adjudication is often cited as essential to effective compliance.



When it comes to international agreements that tackle global environmental challenges - like climate change or ozone depletion - compliance tends to handled not by adjudication but by mechanisms that manage, rather than enforce it. The agreement of a global climate deal in Paris was only politically possible as compliance was included as managed and not enforced. As compliance was, as it states in the Paris text, "non-adversarial" and "non-punitive".

The second option, of purely managed compliance uses transparency - reporting, monitoring, review and assessment of parties' performance - to drive results. It is about persuasion rather than enforcement. This model is considered effective when it is believed that parties do wish to comply with treaty obligations. Failure to do so is more to do with limited capacity, ambiguities, or delayed performance. It's the model the new global climate agreement uses: a managed, facilitated and non-confrontational approach. But as currently designed, truly independent third party monitoring and review is lacking, as are the triggers for, and consequences of, non-compliance. As it stands today it is a model with potential when all are committed, but with little muscle when non-compliance is intentional.



So how could compliance in the climate agreement be strengthened?

The "soft" measures of transparency and compliance currently described in the Paris Agreement will undoubtedly be strengthened over the next couple of years. But whether we will see "sticks" for non-compliance built in over time is questionable given the language of the Agreement (i.e. "non-punitive") and the highly political nature of the climate challenge.

The Montreal Protocol, in contrast, whose non-compliance procedure is often held up as an example for other international environmental agreements, has a non-compliance armoury to threaten persistent non-complying parties with. These include issuing formal cautions, suspending specific rights under the Protocol including finance, and trade sanctions. In practice, the trade sanctions have only been threatened under the Protocol in cases of consistent non-compliance, not implemented. But the existence of these "sticks" is viewed as important to encouraging both compliance with, and participation in, the treaty.

For the new global climate regime it will be very difficult to have any sticks for intentional non-compliance built in. At the most, formal cautions might be possible as a lever to apply reputational and political pressure to comply, but we are not likely to see removal of finance or the use of sanctions. The incorporation of compliance at all in the agreement made in Paris was already a big win.



What else could be incorporated to make compliance more persuasive?



Stronger monitoring and review systems, such as those employed in human rights law which give formal roles to private parties and independent experts, could be a good start. In addition to self-reporting by nations, a parallel formalised system of truly independent expert reporting and verification and/or review of state compliance could be set up. The involvement of non-state actors could also extend to transparency of wider business, sub-national and NGO actions, and therefore improve the accuracy and completeness of any national and global performance assessment. A complaint-activated step could also be incorporated to allow both other states and private parties to trigger the review procedure by claiming that states have repeatedly failed to comply with their obligations. A role like this for non-state actors and independent experts could help to build trust in, and ultimately the effectiveness of, the deal.

There are other lessons from behaviour science that could be incorporated to aid compliance at relatively little cost. For example, using the social norms approach, the national reporting and review templates could showcase not just a country's compliance relative to their own national commitments, but also how the average performs relative to their commitments. Given the norm would most likely be to comply (i.e. to meet the commitment made), nations who don't comply would be incentivized to improve performance in order to meet the social norm. Furthermore, to address the flexibility around reporting and independent review given to developing countries in the Agreement, a default "opt-out" rather than "opt-in" of the more comprehensive requirements would reduce the tendency towards minimal transparency. Finally the data emerging should be made easily accessible to all, to enable more uptake and analysis by more parties, thereby enhancing the impact it has.



Post Paris those working on climate change in 2016 are focused on the immediate task at hand - ratification so that the deal enters in legal force ideally this year, and on implementing the first round of national (and wider business, city, NGO) commitments underlying the Paris Agreement. But with this action and further momentum building, the importance and urgency of building a strong global accountability system in parallel should not be understated. For the climate deal to work, it needs a system that supports, reinforces, and accelerates implementation of the Agreement by all, and that won't happen without collaboration both public and private, and international and local.



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If you've yet to tackle your travel planning for 2016, a quick word: anyone with the option to leave the United States this year really ought to do so. No, not to avoid too many more months of nonstop chatter about the election, though that does give us an idea. The real reason: your money's worth more overseas. For a variety of reasons and in a variety of destinations, the greenback is stacking up better than it has in a good while, making domestic travel one of the worst bangs for your buck during the coming months. From the pricey British Isles to beautiful South Africa, the time to go is now.

You can almost do the UK on a budget. Almost.

First, there's cheaper airfare -- from New York, you have options like Norwegian's cheapo nonstop ($500 including taxes in April, that was a good one) or WOW Air's similarly priced fares available in spring and fall via Reykjavik. Once there, you'll find the pound and dollar closer than they've been in years. Sure, London's still off the charts expensive, but the rest of the country is starting to look surprisingly doable. From clean, modern hotels in mid-sized cities near summer playgrounds like the Peak District easily found for less than $95 a night on most dates to decently-priced vacation properties in scenic locales like Devon and Cornwall, this might be the year to stop convincing yourself that the UK is out of your league. That might not be true anymore.

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The Continent is available at the tiniest of markups.

No need to struggle with in-your-head currency conversions on that next trip to the continent -- the Euro and the USD are nearly twinsies at this point. Best of all, with lots of trip staples -- hotel stays, short-haul flights, set menus -- often typically a good bargain in their home currency, those who know where to look and how to book will find that a trip to the continent can not only end up balancing out, it could cost you less than a vacation back home. So maybe you're not in the lap of luxury, but you're in Europe and you're not going broke. That's no good? Best of all, anyone who hates sticker shock has their choice of destinations in which to play it safer than safe -- Berlin, for example, is always a relative bargain. (It's also particularly fun during the summer months.)

Norway's pain is the traveler's gain.

If you own a car, you know -- gas prices haven't been this low since before some of you were born. Oil-rich Norway, accustomed to doing very well most of the time, is currently in a holding pattern of sorts. Even with a weakened krone, travel here can be expensive, but a carefully planned side jaunt to Bergen (OMG fjords!) or Oslo (Culture! Hiking trails accessible via light rail!) from, say, London, can be done for almost pennies, if you plan. Norwegian will whisk you there from Gatwick for as little as $40ish each way, while the simple-chic Citybox hotel chain will sell you a small but comfy room from around $70/night. Flying to one but want to visit the other? Hop a train for what's been called one of Europe's most beautiful rail journeys -- right now, you'll pay about $56 each way.

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The best of Canada is now a bargain.

British Columbia is expensive for everyone, most of all for the people who live there. Equally blessed and cursed to be Canada's most temperate province, the country's gateway to the Pacific Rim and one of the most inspiring spots in North America, you'd expect it to cost just a little. This spring and fall, however, hotel rates in top-end destinations like rugged, beachy Tofino and the sunny Okanagan Valley can be had for a song -- budget travelers especially will be thrilled to find rates below $80 or $90 (USD) pretty much all over, for perfectly decent motels and hotels, as long as its not the peak of summer. The built-in price breaks extend to pretty much everything except fuel -- think Southern California, but slightly worse. Even in BC, however, the usual pain at the pump feels less acute these days. If you go ahead and opt for the Canadian Rockies road trip of a lifetime, you're not going to go bankrupt, put it that way. (Just remember to gas up in Alberta before you head back -- fuel is significantly cheaper there.)

They're not giving Mexico away, but it's getting close.

With the peso flirting with record lows in a country that's often a good deal to begin with, this is the year for the most timid of travelers to give things a go. If you've missed the buzz, Mexico City is easily one of the coolest cities on the continent right now (though, to be fair, it's always been fascinating). Here, you can spend a week in a four-star hotel for as little as $500. While the top beach resorts likely won't cut you a break until the start of hurricane season, there are plenty of decent little properties in desirable destinations like Cozumel for less than $99 a night this spring. Want to really soak up the savings? Head anywhere large groups of foreign package tourists don't -- colorful colonial cities like Queretaro or Oaxaca are a good buy, so are beach resorts popular with domestic travelers, like Acapulco (still as gorgeous as ever, even if it's had a tough few decades) or Puerto Vallarta, once you move beyond the major resorts. Oh, and good news for Southern California bargain hunters -- the private, ticketed passenger-only skybridge from the U.S. side straight into Tijuana's modern, easy-to-use airport is now complete, allowing you to take advantage of those low domestic fares without having to put up with the busy border crossings at Otay Mesa and San Ysidro. Southwest Airlines fans should also be aware of recently-added nonstops from the U.S. -- $99 each way from Houston to Mexico City is not hard to find, so long as you book in advance.

Australia is suddenly somewhat affordable, but never mind, because South Africa's a screaming deal.

Okay, it's one of the longest flights you'll ever take, but it's worth it. Not only are airfares often the better deal, when compared to that other Southern Hemisphere highlight, Australia -- once you get there, nearly everything's a bargain. (Said nobody about Australia, ever.) To really let the savings wash over you, first-timers are urged to jet directly to the Western Cape, one of the most beautiful places on earth, featuring rugged mountains, endless coastline, idyllic wine country and one very charming old city, Cape Town. With temperate, California-like weather, it seems like it's nearly always pool time at a parade of cute little boutique hotels, which can often be found for around $100 or even less. To really live the high life, shoot for an address in the exclusive beach suburbs -- Uber and Lyft make getting around a snap, so don't worry about feeling isolated. With the rand currently on the fritz, daily incidentals can be astonishingly affordable, from that mid-morning cup of rooibos tea (native to the Cape) to your first sip of local Sauv Blanc at sunset. Who's in?

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From a distance, Gov. Nathan Deal and Gov. Pat McCrory appear to be similar.

Both are conservative governors of southern states, where religion plays a strong role in their public and private lives. They both live and govern during times of rapid change, particularly with the way society treats gay and transgender people.

But the two -- with so much in common -- have arrived at very different conclusions to the same basic question. Should people be allowed to discriminate against their neighbors based on their sexual orientation and gender identity?

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In Georgia, Deal decided to veto legislation that targeted gay and transgender people. In North Carolina, McCrory pushed through legislation in a hastily called, one-day special session of the Legislature to overturn a local ordinance in Charlotte that protected people from discrimination.

The North Carolina law not only dehumanizes gay and transgender people, it blocks them from suing to protecting themselves and even goes so far as to stop localities from raising the minimum wage, making it harder for women, African Americans, Hispanic people and other minorities to climb out of poverty.

In both Georgia and North Carolina, the governors faced extreme pressure from the business community, which opposed the anti-LGBT legislation.

Disney and Marvel, for example, told Deal that if he signed the law, they'd take their business elsewhere. In North Carolina, PayPal canceled a planned expansion in Charlotte, costing the state 400 new jobs.

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Beyond the impact of the business community's actions and deeds, Deal and McCrory made their decisions from very different religious perspectives.

As attitudes toward gay and transgender people have improved -- rapidly -- and same-sex marriage has become the law of the land, different faith communities have begun to consider how they should respond.

There are many open and accepting communities of faith, which welcome gay and transgender members with open arms and happily perform same-sex weddings for loving couples.

But in the evangelical communities, home to Deal and McCrory, the conversation has been slower to develop as people of faith sincerely ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?"

Traditional southern church teachings are sometimes difficult to reconcile with our Christian duty to love our neighbors, to respect one another and to support freedom and equality for all.

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Unfortunately, many evangelicals continue to advocate for discriminatory measures, like the ones in Georgia and North Carolina. Instead of targeting gay and transgender people for discrimination, instead of repeating the sins of Rome who attacked and persecuted early Christians as lesser people, we encourage all people of faith to support freedom, justice and equality for all our friends, families and neighbors, regardless of who they are or who they love.

Mainline protestant denominations have begun this conversation, though their progress varies greatly.

The Institute of Welcoming Resources has been working with churches since the 1980s, and other efforts, such as the Reformation Project, Gay Christian Network and Nomad Partners are working particularly with evangelicals.

As McCrory's decision to force through hateful legislation that hurts all of North Carolina shows, we still have a way to go. But Deal, a Southern Baptist in the heart of the Southern Baptist Convention, shows us that progress is possible, and offers an example for how political leaders can approach issues of gay and transgender inclusion.

"As I've said before, I do not think we have to discriminate against anyone to protect the faith-based community in Georgia of which my family and I are a part of for all of our lives," Deal said when he vetoed the anti-LGBT bill in Georgia. "This is about the character of our State and the character of its people. Georgia is a welcoming state filled with warm, friendly and loving people. Our cities and countryside are populated with people who worship God in a myriad of ways and in very diverse settings. Our people work side-by-side without regard to the color of our skin, or the religion we adhere to. We are working to make life better for our families and our communities. That is the character of Georgia. I intend to do my part to keep it that way."

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Later this month, lawmakers in North Carolina will have a chance to undo the damage that was done when they tried to turn back the clock on progress and to dehumanize entire communities within their state.

As they consider their faith and the law, we hope that they will hear Deal's words and remember that the teachings of Christ call upon on us all to love one another, to stand against persecution and as a reminder that we all -- for our flaws and imperfections -- are made in the image of God.
This April marks the one-year anniversary of the 2015 Baltimore rebellion and the 48th anniversary of the Baltimore rebellion of 1968 . The 1968 rebellion started on April 6 and lasted for over a week, resulting in six deaths, 700 injuries, 5,800 arrested and in today's dollars, nearly $80 million in damage. The Baltimore rebellion of 1968 was part of a nationwide phenomenon of the urban black poor taking to the streets in rage over the assassination of Dr. King, a Black Southern man firmly rooted in the Black upper class and not known for success in the urban north or with their youth.

Forty-seven years later, Baltimore is an industrial city in a post-industrial world, continuing to follow national trends. Baltimore was one of many American cities that erupted in protest over the death of young African-Americans in police custody. The arrest and killing of Freddie Gray was the Baltimore example of a national phenomenon. The 2015 insurrection, though, was much smaller-scale than that of 1968, thanks in part to the defensive posture of the police department ordered by the mayor's office. The "riot" only lasted the night, with about 250 people arrested and no deaths.

On April 4, 2016, the anniversary of the murder of Dr. King, I had a series of interviews for my Race and Wealth Podcast, talking with Baltimore residents who were in the middle of the rebellion or had been working with those who most regularly face the never ending violence of living in poverty. From these conversations, it was clear that the death of Freddie Gray and the city's reactions were deeply rooted in the history of Baltimore, stretching back to the time of Dr. King and beyond. Contrary to the popular narrative that the civil rights movement brought racial equity to the United States, those in the movement knew that ending segregationist laws in the South was just one step in a long journey needed to dismantle white supremacy. Dr. King explained the civil rights movement in two phases: "The first phase had been a struggle to treat the Negro with a degree of decency, not of equality... When Negroes looked for the second phase, the realization of equality, they found that many of their white allies had quietly disappeared." In 2016, the United States continues to fail to implement the second phase of the civil rights movement.

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Dr. King noted during the last few years of his life "I have felt my dreams falter as I have traveled through the rat-infested slums of our big city ghettos and watched our jobless and hopeless poor sweltering in an air-tight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society." Dr. King and those in the black freedom struggle of the late 60's came together to support an economic proposal that everyone from Stokely Carmichael, the prince of Black Power, to the NAACP agreed was necessary to bridge racial inequality. It was called the Freedom Budget and was released in 1967. The Freedom Budget called for full employment at a time when African Americans had twice the unemployment rate of whites, a disparity that still persists to this day. The Freedom Budget called for a minimum wage that in today's dollars would be about $14 an hour, affordable medical care, decent housing for all and recognized the negative effects of pollution that was disproportionately effecting African Americans. The economic demands of the civil rights movement would in large part never be implemented. Dr. King would be assassinated and his Poor People's Campaign ending in defeat barely six months after his death.

The murder of Dr. King symbolizes the defeat of the civil rights movement and the failure to attain the socio-economic demands of the second phase of the movement. The death of Freddie Gray and the protests that his plight helped to inspire should serve as a reminder that the nation, even nearing the end of the second term of the nation's first black president, has failed to take the necessary and challenging economic steps to bridge racial inequality. The contemporary 99% and Black Lives Matter protests are contemporary echoes of the long call in the United States to live in a nation that truly provides economic opportunity for all. Dr. King said a few days before his assassination "There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will." Sadly the nation has been devoid of the will for almost 50 years since King's death and a year after the death of Freddie Gray the nation still has a lack of will to comprehensively address racial economic inequality.
Woman at desk, staring at computer screen

It's tough to hold on to good employees, but it shouldn't be. Most of the mistakes that companies make are easily avoided. When you do make mistakes, your best employees are the first to go, because they have the most options.

If you can't keep your best employees engaged, you can't keep your best employees. While this should be common sense, it isn't common enough. A survey by CEB found that one-third of star employees are disengaged from their employer and are already looking for a new job.

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When you lose good employees, they don't disengage all at once. Instead, their interest in their jobs slowly dissipates. Michael Kibler, who has spent much of his career studying this phenomenon, refers to it as brownout. Like dying stars, star employees slowly lose their fire for their jobs.

"Brownout is different from burnout because workers afflicted by it are not in obvious crisis,"Kibler said. "They seem to be performing fine: putting in massive hours, grinding out work while contributing to teams, and saying all the right things in meetings. However, they are operating in a silent state of continual overwhelm, and the predictable consequence is disengagement."

In order to prevent brownout and to retain top talent, companies and managers must understand what they're doing that contributes to this slow fade. The following practices are the worst offenders, and they must be abolished if you're going to hang on to good employees.

They make a lot of stupid rules. Companies need to have rules -- that's a given -- but they don't have to be shortsighted and lazy attempts at creating order. Whether it's an overzealous attendance policy or taking employees' frequent flier miles, even a couple of unnecessary rules can drive people crazy. When good employees feel like big brother is watching, they'll find someplace else to work.

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They treat everyone equally. While this tactic works with school children, the workplace ought to function differently. Treating everyone equally shows your top performers that no matter how high they perform (and, typically, top performers are work horses), they will be treated the same as the bozo who does nothing more than punch the clock.

They tolerate poor performance. It's said that in jazz bands, the band is only as good as the worst player; no matter how great some members may be, everyone hears the worst player. The same goes for a company. When you permit weak links to exist without consequence, they drag everyone else down, especially your top performers. This often happens when managers lack the emotional intelligence to address performance issues head on.

They don't recognize accomplishments. It's easy to underestimate the power of a pat on the back, especially with top performers who are intrinsically motivated. Everyone likes kudos, none more so than those who work hard and give their all. Rewarding individual accomplishments shows that you're paying attention. Managers need to communicate with their people to find out what makes them feel good (for some, it's a raise; for others, it's public recognition) and then to reward them for a job well done. With top performers, this will happen often if you're doing it right.

They don't care about people. More than half the people who leave their jobs do so because of their relationship with their boss. Smart companies make certain that their managers know how to balance being professional with being human (an emotional intelligence test is a good place to start). These are the bosses who celebrate their employees' successes, empathize with those going through hard times, and challenge them, even when it hurts. Bosses who fail to really care will always have high turnover rates. It's impossible to work for someone for eight-plus hours a day when they aren't personally involved and don't care about anything other than your output.

They don't show people the big picture. It may seem efficient to simply send employees assignments and move on, but leaving out the big picture is a deal breaker for star performers. Star performers shoulder heavier loads because they genuinely care about their work, so their work must have a purpose. When they don't know what that is, they feel alienated and aimless. When they aren't given a purpose, they find one elsewhere.

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They don't let people pursue their passions. Google mandates that employees spend at least 20% of their time doing "what they believe will benefit Google most." While these passion projects make major contributions to marquis Google products, such as Gmail and AdSense, their biggest impact is in creating highly engaged Googlers. Talented employees are passionate. Providing opportunities for them to pursue their passions improves their productivity and job satisfaction, but many managers want people to work within a little box. These managers fear that productivity will decline if they let people expand their focus and pursue their passions. This fear is unfounded. Studies have shown that people who are able to pursue their passions at work experience flow, a euphoric state of mind that is five times more productive than the norm.

They don't make things fun. If people aren't having fun at work, then you're doing it wrong. People don't give their all if they aren't having fun, and fun is a major protector against brownout. The best companies to work for know the importance of letting employees loosen up a little. Google, for example, does just about everything it can to make work fun--free meals, bowling allies, and fitness classes, to name a few. The idea is simple: if work is fun, you'll not only perform better, but you'll stick around for longer hours and an even longer career.

Bringing It All Together
Most businesses are run by highly intelligent people, and when businesses fail, it's usually due to these smart leaders' boneheaded mistakes. Even when a product -- or lack of one -- is at the center of the spectacle, flawed thinking by very smart people is often what made things fall apart.

There are far too many examples of this to list them all, but among my favorites is Kodak, a company that invented and then sat on the technology for digital photography because its leadership was afraid it would disrupt their core business (they eventually went bankrupt). And then there's Xerox, a company that not only failed to capitalize on one of the most game-changing products in history -- a desktop computer with a graphical user interface -- but they let Apple employees visit the facility and copy their technology. I don't have to tell you how that one turned out!

It's easy and even comforting to assume these leaders weren't paying attention, because this reinforces the idea that such failures could never happen to us. But the truth of the matter is that these leaders were intelligent people with supremely impressive track records. You can bet they were paying attention. So, what happened?

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Sydney Finkelstein, a professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, spent six years searching for an answer to this question. He and his colleagues studied 51 of the business world's most notorious failures, interviewing CEOs and people from all levels. Finkelstein wanted to understand the inner workings of each business, explore the minds of key executives, and find out what led them to make disastrous decisions.

He and his team found that the poor decisions these smart leaders made were sometimes intentional and sometimes accidental, but they always followed a clear pattern of hubris that ensured even the most successful enterprise could be run into the ground.

Here's what the leaders in Finkelstein's study had in common.



They viewed themselves, and their companies, as untouchable.

There's nothing wrong with having lofty goals or a healthy sense of pride, but these leaders took their success for granted. They became so enamored with their ideas that they believed their competitors would never catch up, their circumstances would never change, and no disruptors would ever surface. These unrealistic expectations made failure inevitable. Leaders must continually question their positions, especially when they're on top.



They couldn't tell where they stopped and the company began.

The leaders in Finkelstein's study had high profiles and were obsessed with company image. As a result, they were too busy being the face of the company to effectively lead it. Not only did this lead to stagnation but it also engendered dishonesty and corruption. A leader who sees a company as his own is more likely to hide anything that could tarnish that image, whether it be low numbers or faulty products.



They thought they were the smartest person in the room.

Many intelligent leaders know quite well how smart they are. Their identities become so wrapped up in their intelligence that they believe input from others is unnecessary. They make decisions quickly and refuse to answer questions when there's a misunderstanding. Although this may fit the TV image of a strong leader, making split-second decisions with imprudence often leads to major mistakes. Your chance of failure is heightened when you don't care to know what other people think.

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They surrounded themselves with yes-men and women.

Some leaders become so obsessed with loyalty that they expect mindless support for every decision they make. This alienates valuable employees and silences voices that could otherwise help the business succeed. When a leader begins to equate disagreement with disloyalty, or worse -- the undermining of their authority -- there's no one left to raise the warning flags.



They drove past red flags and warning signs.

Some leaders are so enamored with their personal visions that they're willing to drive the company off of a cliff in pursuit of them. Many of these leaders solicit input and suggestions, but they just can't take their feet off the gas. Persistence is a great quality in a leader but not if it means ignoring the facts.

They relied too much on what worked before.

Evaluating one's previous successes and failures can help a business thrive, but the past shouldn't be the driving force behind a company's future. Finkelstein's team found that many failed leaders took one pivotal moment in their careers and continually tried to repeat it, even when their previous strategies no longer made sense. Customer needs, technology, and the competitive landscape can change on a dime. For this reason, successful leaders are constantly adapting to their surroundings.



Bringing It All Together
Fairness and what is now called transparency are central to democracy. Any political process that seems unfair, concealed, or manipulated creates distrust in the system. And distrust predictably yields to anger and hostility. Political parties often lose track of this truth in their efforts to perpetuate their own power.

All this comes to mind with the building anger within the Democratic Party's system of so-called super delegates. By and large to be "super" one must be an elected or party official, a Senator, Representative, Governor, or Mayor, or a precinct chair, county chair, or state party official.

In brief, the history is this: following an angry Democratic convention in 1968 in Chicago, a Democratic Party reform commission opened up the nomination process of primaries and caucuses to women, young people, minorities and others historically left out by big city party bosses. This led to many elected and party officials being left out of the 1972 convention. And that led to a counter-reform in which automatic delegate seats were reserved for elected and party officials.

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In 1984, there were some 800 super delegates to the Democratic convention. Even though I was successful in half of the primaries and caucuses, all 800 voted for Vice President Walter Mondale at the convention including those from States that I had won. There was no legal, or apparently moral, obligation on the part of those delegates to acknowledge the results of the primary or caucus in their States. Those super delegates represented the difference in the nomination process that year.

It has only become apparent recently to supporters of Senator Sanders that super delegates have no obligation to acknowledge or respect the outcome of a primary or caucus in their States. But, for better or worse, those are the rules.

Clearly, those rules should be changed.

Following this convention the Democratic Party should change its rules to require the super delegates in every State to reflect the outcome of the contest in their States. But this should be proportional. Just because candidate A wins a primary, that does not mean candidate A should get all the super delegates. If the vote in State X is 60% for candidate A and 40% for candidate B, then the ten super delegates from State X should be apportioned six for candidate A and four for candidate B.

The original concept of the super delegate was to ensure that an elected or party official should be enabled to participate in a national convention out of respect for his or her contribution in serving the nation and the party. It was not meant to give super delegates as a class the right to overrule the party voters in their States and lock-step nominate a candidate that a large minority or even majority of primary voters have opposed.

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There will be serious protests at the Democratic convention over this issue, and super delegates who vote against the clear opinion of the party voters in their States will pay a price. It is too late to change the rules in the middle of the process this year.
Just last month, the George W. Bush Institute released We Are Afghan Women, a book highlighting powerful stories from the lives of extraordinary Afghan women. U.S. interest in the women of Afghanistan was ignited in the early days of the war against terror in Afghanistan. As former First Lady Laura Bush stated in November 2001, "The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women." In part, the poor status of women under the Taliban regime was used to justify the U.S. intervention. However, given that conflict may disproportionately affect women, the U.S.'s policies on achieving gender equality in Afghanistan may not be all that effective.

Have policies improved conditions for Afghan women?

At first glance, yes. Female health and education indicators, such as female school enrollment, have dramatically improved. In 2001, virtually no female was enrolled in school whereas today, it is estimated that 2.9 million girls are enrolled. Progress has certainly been made; but there is still a long way to go. Today, Afghanistan also ranks 171st among 188 countries in the UN's Gender Inequality Index. In addition, the current official female labor force participation rate remains stagnant around 16%- one of the lowest in the world. Even worse, according to several polls, Afghanistan is the most dangerous country in the world for women to live. A lot remains to be done.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been on the forefront of promoting gender equality in Afghanistan. In 2014, USAID launched the largest - $216 million - women's empowerment program in the Agency's history, called Promote. This five-year program aims to advance opportunities for young Afghan women through leadership development and training programs.

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Will policies aimed at equipping women for the workforce actually promote equality in a context like Afghanistan, and will equality reduce conflict?

It's easy to get caught up with anecdotes and assess the situation in Afghanistan with a few success narratives from women - but, we have to be extremely careful not to extrapolate from these. Anecdotal success cases may not be representative of the average Afghan woman - and for that, we have to look at the data.

From the 2015 Survey of Afghan People, I find that the average Afghan woman is married by 18, she has 2.3 years of education, and she will have about 5-6 kids. The average Afghan woman is also not engaged in the workforce, as reflected in the labor force participation rate. Given that many programs aim to empower and equip women for the workforce, it is important to understand the role of insecurity. Data reveals that regions with more violence are subsequently associated with a lower female labor force participation rate. In fact, in districts with a higher share of men being affected by mines and explosive devices, female labor force participation also decreases. Looking beyond Afghanistan, evidence from 161 countries indicates that conflict, measured by the Global Peace Index (GPI) score, affects men and women's labor force participation differently. On average, countries with higher GPI scores, or more insecurity, have more men and less women in the labor force.

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This leads me to believe that insecurity or conflict disproportionately affects women and prevents women from entering the labor force, which directly hinders equality. This suggests that simply providing training and skills to women may not make it easier for women to contribute to the economy if there is severe conflict.

Recent work in political science on the effects of aid programs on violence have shown that this is a complex relationship - some have indicated that internationally induced gender equality programs may increase the risk of violence under conditions of ongoing conflict. While it's unclear what the implications are for USAID, it seems unlikely that gender equality can precede security.

In the case of Afghanistan, the U.S. needs to revisit its approach. If insecurity does in fact exacerbate inequality, along with targeting insecurity and building strong state capabilities, the U.S. needs to shift its thinking around traditional gender policies. Even if it seems like the right thing to do, training women and equipping them for the labor market may not be the answer if an insecure state limits women's mobility. Programs like Promote will not be effective in its mission if violence persists, which means we may be misallocating $216 million.

So what can the U.S. Government do?

This is a difficult question to answer. It seems clear that violence and insecurity need to be addressed first, but how should this be done? Resources must go to stabilizing Afghanistan and reducing violence, but it's unclear if international military operations are actually increasing or decreasing violence.

The U.S. Government should consider a regional approach, moving beyond a bilateral agenda, and deeply engaging with India, Pakistan, and China. The U.S. rhetoric disregards the deep historic linkages in this region and the role of regional stability in aiding Afghan peace. USAID, and development agencies in general, must rethink gender equality programs and not be confined to quick measureable outputs, such as number of women trained and number of girls enrolled in schools. These measurements, for the most part, are quite meaningless, especially in a context of grave violence.

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Once Afghanistan is stabilized, the Afghan government can target gender more effectively. But this will only happen with a wider cultural change that includes both men and women, and encourages their participation in a long-term dialogue. Perhaps this begins with early education with young boys and girls or media interventions, such as radio and television programs. But it will absolutely require a rethinking of national laws and a reshaping of who makes decisions at the national, provincial, district, and shura level. It will require a larger transformation that has to come from within Afghanistan. But this can only happen with stability.
Iraqi soldiers hold a flag that they seized from the Islamic State group (IS) as they hold a position near the frontline on April 9, 2016 in the town of Kharbardan, located 10 kilometres (6 miles) south of Qayyarah, during military operations to recapture the northern Nineveh province from IS jihadists. Iraqi army troops and allied paramilitary fighters on March 24 launched a major offensive aimed at retaking the northern Nineveh province, the capital of which, Mosul, is the main hub of IS in Iraq. Qayyarah is about 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Mosul. / AFP / SAFIN HAMED (Photo credit should read SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images)

Following the recent ISIL attacks, which ripped through Brussels with devastating impact, we are left mourning the loss of innocent lives, a situation growing all too familiar. Within in this process of mourning is the media circus that surrounds such tragic acts of senseless aggression.

In the aftermath of last year's attacks on Paris and San Bernardino, the media heavily focused on ISIL's ability to recruit foreign fighters. Although the media's focus is justifiable, foreign fighters pose the most direct threat to the West; we have largely neglected to understand ISIL's recruitment process in the Middle East. Without a comprehensive understanding of ISIL's ability to recruit the Middle Eastern population to their cause, our attempts to end their operation will remain too narrow and continue to be undermined by the economic factors at play in the Middle East.

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Experts agree foreign recruits are drawn to ISIL's cause because they are searching for a sense of identity. Mehdi Hasan, a British political journalist and Al Jazeera presenter, states expatriate recruits are able to find a sense of purpose and belonging within the ISIL ideology. Hasan claims ISIL "empowers the individual within the collective." This same logic must be applied to Middle Eastern ISIL recruits. Hasan believes too much emphasis has been placed on recruits' internal motivation. ISIL claims to be a group motivated by a blind faith to Islam, and the West has chosen to believe that narrative. In doing so, we fail to interpret the circumstantial evidence present in Middle Eastern society. We overlook the Middle East's youth unemployment crisis as an alternative explanation for ISIL's swelling ranks.

For some time, the Middle East has hosted the world's worst youth unemployment rate. Due to the economic downturn we saw at the end of last decade, youth unemployment rates across the world were abnormally high; however, the Middle East has been unable to recover. In 2012, the United Nations University lists 25% of the Middle East's youth population as unemployed. In recent years, this rate has continued to expand. The British Council listed Middle Eastern youth unemployment at 29.8% for 2015. While these rates alone are worrying, the Brookings Institute reports 30% of the Middle East's population is between 15-29. A large chunk of their population has no source of income. Malak Zaalouk, previously UNICEF's Regional Senior Advisor to the Middle East, states unemployed youth are easily marginalized and radicalized. Unemployment brings a sense of hopelessness and increases the likelihood that individuals will lash out in retaliation against the system that has failed them. The Arab Spring provides a perfect example of this phenomenon.

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A lack of employment opportunities factored into the violence that erupted across the region. The British Council reports that support for the uprising have diminished since 2012. Only 38% of young people feel the Middle East has seen improvements since the uprising; meanwhile, 39% believe that democracy will never become a reality in the region. As young people continue to face heavy unemployment rates, they have grown more desperate to find economic stability.

As discussed, unemployment brings feelings of frustration, anger, and despair; however, these feeling are overcome when working towards a collective objective. While supporting ISIL increases economic participation, rejecting their ideology causes economic ostracism. The Atlantic reports that within ISIL-controlled territories, ISIL traders control the flow and price of goods. Traders set prices so high only militants have to means to purchase. Even if they do not want to reap economic benefit, young people face worsening economic conditions if they do not support ISIL's ideology. From an economic standpoint, they are almost forced to support the organization.

The United States' current foreign policy plan against ISIL does not address the crisis of youth unemployment; instead, we are merely attempting to destroy ISIL through military action. In 2014, President Obama announced plans for The Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. Sixty-six coalition partners came together and vowed to destroy ISIL. The coalition's main focus has been to deploy drone strikes to destroy ISIL's sources of income, such as oil refineries, and training camps.

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Since the coalition's formation, the Council on Foreign Relations reports, as of May 2015, 80% of the drone strikes have been conducted by the US military. While destroying ISIL's sources of income will remove the economic incentive for fighters to join their ranks, it will not remedy the Middle East's youth unemployment crisis, the foundation of the problem. The US needs to zoom its foreign policy out from a purely militaristic endeavor. We must work to invest money into the Middle East's private and public infrastructure and create more jobs. By creating more jobs, we can reduce sense of insecurity in the Middle East, and in doing so diminish likelihood that young people will be swayed by radical ideology.

Anyone with a green thumb knows weeding a flowerbed does nothing unless the undesirable plants are removed by their roots. Simply removing the leaves gives the appearance of serenity, but over time the weeds creep back into existence.
U.S. and South Korean naval ships traverse the ocean in formation as part of Foal Eagle 2016 in the waters surrounding the Korean peninsula, in this U.S. Navy picture taken March 24, 2016. Picture taken March 24, 2016. REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Petty Officer 3rd Class Andre T. Richard/Handout via Reuters THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

Last week, Washington attempted two important policy feats aimed squarely in Beijing's direction.

First, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter scrapped a visit to Beijing and instead visited the South China Sea, where territorial disputes between China and its neighbors have worsened.

And second, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew called on the International Monetary Fund to more aggressively police predatory exchange rate policies and to rebuke members for failing to do their part to boost anemic global demand.

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The two scenes made for a study in contrast. When it comes to military solutions to manage Chinas rise, the Pentagons swift, clear and measured response affirms just how honed the U.S. military reflexes are. No doubt, the Pentagons handling of territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas has had its shortcomings, but U.S. military leaders have in relatively short order managed to settle on, communicate and execute a concrete set of responses to Chinese provocations.

The contest for leadership in Asia is being waged in primarily economic terms.

By contrast, Secretary Lews appeal to the IMF  in effect, a call to revive the 1944 Bretton Woods institutions -- may be legitimate and worthwhile, but as an isolated effort, it will not provide what the U.S. and its Asian allies really need: an economic strategy to deal with Chinas rise. No practicable IMF, World Bank or World Trade Organization reform will enable Washington or its allies in Asia to reduce asymmetrical economic dependence on China or or build adequate defenses against Chinese economic bullying.

The Chinese military buildup in Asia is real. But it must not be allowed to obscure the fact that the contest for leadership in Asia is being waged in primarily economic terms. The contrast so vividly rendered last week in Washington  a sophisticated military alliance system on the one hand and no meaningful economic counterpart  sadly illustrates why Beijing has taken to economic tactics as a first resort.

Carter (L) and Lieutenant General Glorioso Miranda (R) at Camp Aguinaldo in the Philippines on April 15.

Welcome to the era of geoeconomic statecraft; more and more often, states are waging geopolitics and state power struggles through economic means. China allows banana exports from the Philippines to rot on the docks as a means of venting its displeasure with Manila's claims in the South China Sea. It rewards Taiwanese companies that march to Beijing's cadence and penalizes those that do not. It promises trade and business with South Korea in exchange for Seoul rejecting a U.S. bid to deploy a missile defense system. It curtails trade with European governments that host the Dalai Lama.

Nor is China alone. India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is refurbishing its Act East initiative with a decidedly geoeconomic feel, extending new credit lines to Nepal and Mauritius, new high speed data links to Myanmar, new rail links to Sri Lanka -- all in clear response to China's encirclement strategy around India's periphery. Russia threatens Ukraine with sovereign default as a means of keeping Kiev within Moscow's sphere of influence, and Putin resorts to pipeline politics as a way of curtailing Europe and Central Asia.

Washington still reaches too quickly for its gun over its purse to solve its problems abroad.

Not so in the U.S., however, where Washington still reaches too quickly for its gun over its purse to solve its problems abroad. With the notable exception of sanctions, the U.S. still debates its largest geostrategic challenges in overwhelmingly military terms: should Washington send lethal weapons to Ukraine? Should NATO reestablish a permanent presence in Eastern Europe? Should the U.S. directly arm the Iraqi Kurds in the fight against the so-called Islamic State? Should it intervene militarily in the Syrian civil war?

Carter (C) and his Filipino counterpart, Voltair Gazmin (L), in Palawan on April 15.

There is no comparable discussion in Washington of returning Ukraine to economic viability as a way to rein in the Kremlins plans for a Novorossiya, or New Russia, or of steeling U.S. allies in Asia against Chinese economic bullying. The U.S. only recently began truly prioritizing economic and financial strategies in the fight against ISIS. Had the U.S. not allowed ISIS to become the best-funded terrorist group on Earth, starting as far back as June 2014, perhaps the military battle against ISIS, now in its second year, wouldve turned out differently.

What is clear is that the contrast on display this week in Washington and the South China Sea speaks to a broader American discomfort with flexing economic muscle to advance national interests. Unless this hesitation is overcome, the U.S. can expect to pay a high price in influence, blood and treasure.

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Democratic U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton (L) and Senator Bernie Sanders speak simultaneously during a Democratic debate hosted by CNN and New York One at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York April 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Many Democrats likely felt uneasy at times during Thursday's night's presidential debate in New York. Bernie Sanders once again fell back on his flashy slogans without showcasing any ability to deliver specifics. Hillary Clinton, for her part, had trouble distancing herself from her close ties to Wall Street.

But especially for me -- a Clinton supporter and a strong believer that a two-state solution is the only viable path forward for Israel -- it was the exchange over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was the most revealing. Clinton's record as Secretary of State indicates strong support for a two-state solution and a willingness to fight for it, so it was surprising, and troubling, to listen to Clinton's rhetoric perfectly align with three flawed logical frameworks consistently employed by those seeking to squander a peace deal. Here they are:

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1. Painting concerns regarding the general well-being of Palestinians and Israel's use of force as ignorant about the threats posed by Palestinian violence, even though Israel's right to defend itself has not been disputed.

Wolf Blizter, the moderator of Thursday's debate, opened the discussion with a question about Sanders's past comment that Israel's use of force in the summer of 2014 was disproportionate. Sanders defended his past remarks, clearly outlining what he sees as Israel's unquestionable right to defend itself:

"Well, as somebody who spent many months of my life when I was a kid in Israel, who has family in Israel, of course Israel has a right not only to defend themselves, but to live in peace and security without fear of terrorist attack. That is not a debate...But we had in the Gaza area -- not a very large area -- some 10,000 civilians who were wounded and some 1,500 who were killed."

Then came Clinton's response:

"They [Israel] do not invite the rockets raining down on their towns and villages. They do not believe that there should be a constant incitement by Hamas aided and abetted by Iran against Israel...So, I don't know how you run a country when you are under constant threat, terrorist attacks, rockets coming at you. You have a right to defend yourself."

The audience applauded because, of course, no one defends attacking innocent Israelis. But the problem is that it had nothing to do with the question. The question was about the use of "disproportionate force," not no force at all, yet by using that lens, Clinton was able to deflect any reasonable criticism of Israel's actions. This is a very recognizable tactic utilized by those seeking to shield Israeli from any criticism, no matter how slight or qualified.

2. Reducing the infinitely complex history of peace negotiations down to a blame game of yes-or-no.

As public opinion throughout the world has rapidly shifted towards support for a two-state solution, the rhetoric has shifted away from whether or not Palestinians are deserving of a state to whether or not a Palestinian state is viable. That's why so much of the discussion centers around the construction of settlements and the recognition of Israel by Palestinians as a Jewish state -- they are both questions of whether or not the other side is serious and committed to a two-state solution.

Working within this framework, Clinton threw her support on the side of Israel's staunchest defenders, those who say working towards a Palestinian state is futile because the Palestinians don't really want it. She did so just as the right-wing does, by qualifying support for a two-state solution with Palestinian blame:

"It also does not mean that we should not continue to do everything we can to try to reach a two-state solution, which would give the Palestinians the rights and the autonomy that they deserve. And, let me say this, if Yasser Arafat had agreed with my husband at Camp David in the late 1990s to the offer then Prime Minister Barak put on the table, we would have had a Palestinian state for 15 years."

Invoking Camp David is a favorite for those arguing against two states, because public memory indicates that Arafat walked away from the most generous deal ever offered to Palestinians. That record is far more complicated than opponents of a two-state solution are willing to admit, but Camp David is still constantly used as evidence that Palestinians simply hide behind the two-state solution as a method to undermine Israel's legitimacy.

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3. Creating a false-equivalency between the disengagement of Gaza and a hypothetical peace deal.

Another recognizable argument revolves around Israel's disengagement from Gaza and the subsequent take-over by Hamas, the terrorist group that consistently targets Israeli civilians. Gaza is cited as additional evidence that a two-state solution is non-viable: "We tried it in Gaza," the thinking goes, "and look what happened." Indeed, Clinton's arguments lined up perfectly:

"...remember, Israel left Gaza. They took out all the Israelis. They turned the keys over to the Palestinian people. And what happened? Hamas took over Gaza. So instead of having a thriving economy with the kind of opportunities that the children of the Palestinians deserve, we have a terrorist haven that is getting more and more rockets shipped in from Iran and elsewhere."

Yet that analysis is immensely inadequate. A two-state solution is enormously different from a disengagement. One is a mutual recognition of wrong-doing, along with a sustained economic and political effort to bring about prosperity and security for two peoples. The other is a unilateral plan to get out of a bad situation, to wipe the slate clean and move on.

In Gaza, there was no long-term commitment to improve the lives of Gazans. Instead, an enduring blockade and constant war have left the densely-populated land completely decimated. It's hard to see how the disengagement of Gaza could have left behind the Palestinian utopia Clinton envisions, or how the unique situation there can be applied anywhere else.
Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, listens as Hillary Clinton speaks during the CNN Democratic Presidential Primary Debate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Thursday, April 14, 2016, New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

I'll vote for Bernie Sanders in New York's Democratic primary on Tuesday even though I expect Hillary Clinton to win it and to be the Democratic presidential nominee, at which point I'll vote for her against the Republican. Sanders has said that he'll do the same, and when he does, the New York newspaper pundits who dismiss him now as a dreamer, nostalgist, or extremist who doesn't know what he's talking about will applaud his sagacity and good judgment.

Voting for Sanders now is the only way to make sure that Clinton and other establishment Democrats know what they're talking about. Her 2008 campaign insisted that Barack Obama didn't know what he was talking about: An idealistic, one-term U.S. Senator wouldn't know what to do with a national-security phone call at 3 am, they told us. Clinton didn't know what she was talking about when she voted for the Iraq War, but she learned enough as Obama's secretary of state so that, last week in Brooklyn, she praised his sagacity and good judgment.

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It wasn't the first time the supposedly simple have enlightened the supposedly wise. If anything, it's a recurring irony in American politics: From Herbert Hoover to Alan Greenspan, from Woodrow Wilson and his negotiators at Versailles in 1919 to the architects and apologists of our wars in Viet Nam and Iraq, those supposedly most qualified and most "in the know" didn't know what they were talking about.

So pardon me if I vote for Sanders because I'd rather "find the guts to take on the big money" -- as he put it during the Brooklyn debate last week -- via his "small money" campaign, whose 7 million donations have averaged $27 each. Pardon me if I suspect that, after 25 years in Congress, as an Independent who won many of his colleagues' respect without becoming a Washington "insider," Sanders knows what he's talking about more than Obama did in 2008.

And pardon me if, instead of applauding Clinton's emphasis on government's cooperating with big corporations, as of course government must often do, I prefer Sanders' answer to debate moderator Wolf Blitzer's question about the CEO of Verizon's unkind assessment of him: "This gentleman makes $18 million a year in salary," Sanders answered. "[He] is now negotiating to take away health care benefits of Verizon workers, outsource call center jobs to the Philippines, and trying to create a situation where workers will lose their jobs."

Clinton stayed silent, as she has throughout Verizon's union-busting efforts. Verizon has "cooperated" with her campaign and with the Clinton Foundation to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.

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"We're doing something very radical," said Sanders in Brooklyn, with the faintest trace of irony. "We're telling Americans the truth. We're not going to get our country back for working people until we overturn Citizens United, have real campaign finance reform."

New York City's newspapers, capitalist corporations that they are, couldn't endorse him. The Daily News' "editorial board" grilled him with all the sanctimony of the neighborhood bootlegger or bookie who's dressed up to testify piously that Bernie the revolutionary exaggerates the depth of corruption. The city's other dailies haven't been much fairer. When I vote for Bernie on Tuesday, I'll be voting against their stacking of the deck against him in their reporting and assessments of the campaigns.

Do Sanders' proposals make him a socialist? His embrace of the label heralds a second irony in our politics: When the collapse of the Soviet Union expanded capitalist dynamism, it also expanded some not-so-creative capitalist destruction. But, as the historian and Dissent magazine co-editor Michael Kazin noted recently in the magazine, it also revived some distinctively American, democratic (small-"d"!)-socialist responses that came before Soviet Communism, as in the early 20th-century presidential campaigns of Eugene V. Debs, and that opposed Communism openly in the work of veteran socialists such as United Auto Workers president Walter Reuther, black union leader A. Philip Randolph, who inspired the 1963 March on Washington, and Bayard Rustin, its chief organizer.

Such efforts were dogged by Senator Joseph McCarthy, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and other Cold War fantasists of a "red menace" under every bed and in every government agency. (Donald Trump exhumed them recently by calling Sanders "our Communist friend.") But Sanders' campaign is remarkable not because many of his enthusiasts are too young to remember McCarthy's false charges but because older supporters like me, who do remember them and who've been told (and have sometimes even told others ourselves) that government is not the solution but the problem, are re-discovering the ways in which government remains our only hedge against degradation and disempowerment in a web of un-elected, 800-numbered, sticky-fingered pick-pocketing machines run by fiduciaries for swirling whorls of anonymous shareholders as powerful as government itself.

You needn't be a socialist to believe that today's capitalism would have appalled Adam Smith or Alexander Hamilton and that, without a good, swift kick in the primaries, neither political party establishment will reconfigure it enough to sustain a decent society or planet. Sanders is the only candidate reminding us that we do have deep republican (small "r"!) ways of "finding the guts" and grasping the sovereignty to curb casino-like financing, predatory marketing, and the dispossession and degradation of ordinary Americans.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (L) and her Vice President Michel Temer during the presentation ceremony of the new army generals at the Army Club in Brasilia, on December 16, 2015. Rousseff is fighting for her political life as she stands accused of illegal budgeting manoeuvres that she says were long-accepted practices by previous governments. AFP PHOTO/EVARISTO SA / AFP / EVARISTO SA (Photo credit should read EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images)

The list of absurdities that we've seen play out over these last few weeks, leading up to Dilma Rousseff's impeachment, is long. That's why I'll only explore the latest chapter here: The unprecedented insanity and vanity displayed by Vice President Michel Temer.

I know that most of those in favor of the impeachment are no longer -- and perhaps have never been -- sensible. So there's no point in explaining that what's at stake is not merely the Worker's Party or Dilma. They have both made plenty of mistakes and deserve harsh criticism, but they also deserve recognition for the advancements that they have undeniably brought about in Brazil.

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There's no point in saying that it's possible to defend the struggle against corruption without blaming it all on one single party.

There's no point in saying that the PSDB or the PMDB, with whom the defenders of the impeachment are allied, hold office across the country, are being investigated in Operation Car Wash, and are responsible for various grave crimes which resulted in the redirection of billions from the public coffers.

There's no point in arguing that the impeachment is a maneuver by bandits and defeated politicians to overthrow the government.

There's no point in saying that the Bolsa Familia social welfare program, the quotas, the Prouni scholarship program, the investments into technical education, the promotion of rights, the salary policies, the investment -- frankly, far smaller than it should have been -- in infrastructure, the campaign for university inclusion programs, all this and much more, have changed the country. These policies changed Brazil, and these changes will not be reversed now, contrary to what the media and the shallow analysts make you believe.

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It's exactly for this reason, incidentally, that there is a portion of the population that, despite being disappointed with Dilma, does not protest against the government. That portion of the population is keen to maintain the benefits it had gained under Dilma. The so-called new middle class and the youth who have broken with a cycle of secular exclusion and were the first in their families to make it into college will not be deconstructed by any crisis. They are a reality, and signify a definitive transformation. Today, they have power which they had never before possessed. And they will not give up this power.

Not even the most fervent critic of the Worker's Party can deny: The vice president has transformed the impeachment process into an election.

For those who have already made up their minds, none of this will be of interest or even make any sense.

But perhaps there are those who would still listen. So I ask: How is it possible to justify the behavior of Vice President Michel Temer?

How is it possible to accept that the man who may take over the leadership of this country acts not only with dishonesty -- which, you could argue, makes him no different than 90 percent of our other politicians -- but also with such scorn for our institutions?

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How is it possible to distort and lower the impeachment of the president -- which, by any sensible measure, should concern itself only with crimes that may have been committed -- to an electoral dispute?

Let's say Michel Temer might have perceived, inspired by some divine spark, that he had made a mistake in supporting Dilma and the PT and taking money from the PT, wherever it came from, for his campaign.

This realization would drive him to leave the camp and do nothing to help the president. At most, he would have supported the impeachment for what it is: A process of institutional retribution against the executive branch. But Temer chose a different route. He vehemently jumped on the campaign trail. He held meetings with deputies, drained government programs, negotiated with political offices and ministries. Not even the most fervent critic of the Worker's Party can deny: The vice president has transformed the impeachment process into an election.

His behavior suggests that he had finally seen his grand chance to make it to the top and, infatuated, he couldn't let it go to waste. As a result, this Sunday was not merely the day on which to decide whether or not Dilma should remain in office, but to decide if Temer would replace her as President of Brazil.

It's a coup. And don't deceive yourself, impeachment enthusiasts, it will result in brutal battles in Brazilian society.

By acting in such a way, Temer, with his accomplice, Eduardo Cunha, provide all the reasons necessary for history to boldly state that this impeachment is in fact a coup.

It's a coup. And don't deceive yourself, impeachment enthusiasts, it will result in brutal battles in Brazilian society. The Dilma government was democratically elected and, despite the accusations, it has a legitimate right to fight back.

Dilma's regime has a legitimate right to fight for each vote, and to use all of its weapons -- within legal limits -- in order to defeat not the crowds in the street, who should be heard, and who have often been silenced, but the shameful and non-democratic electoral schemes that float around the heads of Michel Temer and Eduardo Cunha.

No government resulting from such a political maneuver could be legitimate.

Any program they spearhead will fail. By jumping on this wave, the PSDB commits a mortal error.

It is essential to put a stop to the plans of the PMDB/PSDB. These parties exploit the voices of the streets but never accurately reflect their sentiments. This will be essential for the future of Brazil.

Above all, it's necessary to protect the opposition parties, so that they may fight for power on a democratic battleground. If they win, they would have the right to lead -- or at least to defend in congress and on the streets, the programs that they find most adequate.

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Because if Temer and Cunha win through injustice, they will not only be putting an end to the Worker's Party, but also to any opposition government that may come to exist in the future.

Do not deceive yourselves, friends. To defeat the coup is the major task. However, the impeachment would not destroy the Worker's Party. On the contrary, it would give the party back to the opposition -- strengthened by a leftist militancy that it had abandoned. It would be ready to speak in the voice of people protesting on the streets: ready and forced to renew itself.

The so called "government of national salvation" that Temer proposes, the one that promises to swiftly stabilize the market and solve all of Brazil's problems, seeks to save only the vice president and dig a deeper hole for Dilma. And it will not succeed.
Medical Marijuana 2

Medical marijuana programs are gaining momentum across the country. Yet, while Pennsylvania just became the twenty-fourth state with a comprehensive medical marijuana program, the District of Columbia is working to roll back patients' rights and criminalize consumption.

This week, the Council of the District of Columbia is scheduled to vote on final passage on a bill that would ban all marijuana consumption (in any form) in all places (public or private) to which the public is invited. Meaning, in practice, marijuana consumption will be banned everywhere other than private residences. Any individual who consumes marijuana beyond a private residence will be guilty of public consumption, a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail. This legislation goes so far as to require the Mayor to revoke the certificate of occupancy of any facility where the public is invited when a single patron is caught consuming marijuana on its premises.

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This legislation will negatively impact all District residents and deals a particularly heavy blow to medical marijuana patients. Currently, the District's medical marijuana laws protect patient consumption "at a medical treatment facility when receiving medical care for a qualifying medical condition, if permitted by the facility". This allows hospitals to treat their patients with compassion. For instance, a patient receiving chemotherapy could be allowed to consume physician-recommended marijuana tincture to alleviate nausea post-treatment. The most vulnerable patients - those critically ill or facing long periods of hospitalization - benefit the most from this protection. Without the ability to return home such patients rely completely on hospital services, including the ability to consume physician-recommended medical marijuana within a medical treatment facility where they are receiving care. The bill the Council will vote on this week overrides those components of the medical marijuana law, eliminating protections for patients and treatment facilities. Under the new proposed law, if a patient were to consume their medication beyond a private residence they will be guilty of a criminal misdemeanor and could face up to 60 days imprisonment. The fact an individual is a registered patient is not a recognized defense.

Though criminalizing innocent medical marijuana patients is reason enough to oppose the bill, the legislation would also strip facilities of their certificate of occupancy or relevant permits if they allow medical marijuana patients under their care to consume during their visit. Under the legislation, hospitals would be prohibited from allowing patients receiving chemotherapy to consume their medication. Enacting the law also means medical marijuana patients travelling to our city will be prohibited from consuming during their visit, as hotels would be prohibited from allowing consumption (in any form) on their premises. Truly, this legislation would prevent all businesses in the District who show compassion to medical marijuana patients from continuing to do so. If businesses allow patients to use their recommended medication, the Mayor is required to revoke the certificate of occupancy or relevant permit.

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It's difficult to believe that a city that was once on the cutting edge, authorizing access to medical marijuana by ballot initiative back in 1998 and now overseeing one of the most progressive medical marijuana programs in the country, is about to betray patients and those who care for them. Equally shocking, it was less than two years ago that District residents overwhelmingly adopted Ballot Initiative 71, which legalized adult use, possession and cultivation of marijuana. The ballot measure placed no restrictions on adult consumption. If the Council moves forward with a ban, they will be stripping not only patients' rights, but the rights all residents gained from Initiative 71's passage. Once the Council passes this ill-advised legislation they will not be able to restore patients' rights down the road, due to a Congressional rider that prohibits enacting legislation that would "reduce penalties" associated with marijuana.

If the Council passes Bill 21-0107 this week the District will be abandoning reform and returning our city to failed prohibition policies, turning innocent patients into criminals and punishing those who show patients compassion. Our elected officials should be working to expand our rights, not take them away. This is a defining moment for the Council; with one vote they can erode medical marijuana patient protection laws that have been in place for two decades - or they can stand up for our rights. Councilmembers should vote to table Bill 21-0107 and work to establish venues for patients and residents alike to consume safely and legally.
Lumbini, Nepal. ( Photo : Nepal Tourism Board's Facebook.)

Nepalese use more than one calendar to celebrate their New Year days. They celebrate 9 different new years including AD. Nepal has dozens of ethnic groups with their own unique calendars.

Nepal has a unique lunar calendar by its own name called Nepal Sambat. And other is Bikram Sambat calendar. Bikram Sambat is the official calendar of Nepal so far. It uses lunar months and solar sidereal year, which is 56.7 years ahead of the solar Gregorian calendar AD.

This year, April 13 was the first day of this calendar. Yes, Baishakh 1st is regarded as national New Year, the country's official calendar year starts this day. It means Nepalese celebrated April 13 (Baisakh 1) as their New Year all around the world.

Around Kapan Gumba in Kathmandu. Kapan Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery near Boudhanath, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal.



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Last year, Nepalese were celebrating New Year with new hope and resolution but after 12 days of New Year Nepalese faced devastating earthquake which killed over 8,000 people and injured more than 21,000. It occurred at 11:56 Nepal Standard Time on 25 April, with a magnitude of 7.8. A major aftershock occurred on 12 May 2015 with a magnitude of 7.3. More than 200 people were killed and more than 2,500 were injured by this aftershock. Thousands of Nepalese are still homeless because of this doomsday.

However, Nepalese people are not losing hope. With New hope and commitment Nepalese are celebrating New Year 2073. Nepalese are making a new resolution this day. And Government of Nepal also made a new resolution for this year. Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) announced Bikram Sambat 2073 as 'Ghumfir Barsha' (Travel Year), in a bid to promote domestic tourism. The initiative is part of the government's preparations to organize International Tourism Year 2017-18. Nepal government has allocated a sum of a budget to carry out promotional activities to make the 'Travel Year' successful. This travel year is to encourage Nepali people to travel various tourism destinations within the country. The government of Nepal has planned to promote the new tourism destinations based on the package proposed by local people and promote various destinations in major cities during major unique festivals.

Heading to Sindhuligadhi with journalist Jitendra GC. Sindhuli Gadhi is a historical fort and tourist attraction in eastern Nepal. Sindhuli Gadhi is famous for the battle between the then Gorkha Army and the British troop head by Captain Kinloch.

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Nepal's tourism industry has been struggling to recover from last year's earthquake. It is the first time Nepal announced Travel Year targeting to provide domestic tourism. This is very good opportunity for all 'NonResidence Nepalese' to be a part of this historical campaign. Nepalese people all around the world should make travel plan to Nepal to help and promote 'Nepal Travel Year' and Nepal's tourism industry. Earlier, Nepal has implemented "Visit Nepal 1998" and "Nepal Tourism Year 2011" targeting international tourists. Nepal has prepared to organize International Tourism Year 2017-18. Nepalese people all around to the world can be envoy to promote 'International Tourism Year.'



Heading to Nepal. At John F. Kennedy International Airport.

New York-based Nepalese organizations have planned to organize 'Nepal Day Parade' to promote tourism in Nepal. This is a very good step to promote Nepal and Nepalese tourism. According to the organizers, the general objective of the parade is to introduce the pride of Nepal and Nepalese Americans amongst the diverse communities of immigrants in The City of New York. The specific objective is to promote Nepal through trade and tourism and help Nepalese Americans to grow up in the melting immigrant cultures in the United States.



The first Nepal Day Parade is announced on May 22, 2016, in The City of New York. The parade this year is the beginning of the never-ending process that will reflect the pride of the Nepalese Americans in this city. Thousands of Nepalese Americans are expected to show up at this parade, which will increase in the year ahead.The Parade formation shall take place at 29th Street Broadway after which the Parade shall head towards downtown until 18th Street-Broadway. The Parade shall end at the 18th Street Broadway that also shall be considered as the dismissal location for the Parade. The Parade formation shall begin at 12:00 noon at 28th Street Broadway on May 22, 2016, i.e. on Sunday. The Parade begins at 1:00 pm and ends at 4:00 pm. Nepal Day Parade is wonderful initiative and all Nepalese in the USA should support this event without any hesitation. All Nepalese around the world should follow this type of initiation to promote Nepalese culture and tourism all over the world.

Sindhuli, Nepal.

No matter wherever you are, let's join hands to promote Nepalese tourism all around the world and to revive Nepal after devastating earthquake. Let's make the new resolution on the occasion of this Nepali New Year 2073. Happy New Year 2073.


A protester in support of Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's president, reacts after watching a televised broadcast of the country's lower house voting on the impeachment process in Brasilia, Brazil, on Sunday, April 17, 2016. Rousseff's presidency is hanging by a thread after Brazil's lower house of Congress voted in favor of her impeachment, a decision that's likely to cheer investors just as it threatens to bring down the curtain on 13 years of leftist rule. Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg via Getty Images

First off, I'd like to lay bare that I voted for Dilma and I've regretted it. I now feel betrayed and misled by a candidate who, once re-elected, did exactly the opposite of what she promised during elections. I would never vote for Aecio Neves, who I consider to be worse in absolutely every aspect when compared with Dilma, but if the elections were today, and knowing now the direction the Dilma government would eventually steer us, I would have annulled my vote in the second round. The option to change my vote, however, just doesn't exist, history doesn't move backward.

I consider the second Dilma government to be awful -- wrong on economic measures, wrong on policy and indefensible in almost all other aspects. However, I am radically against the impeachment of the president for a number of reasons that I will do my best to explain below.

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First, and above all, I'm against the impeachment for legal reasons that have to do with democratic mandate. I'm not a lawyer, but I do know history, politics, and law sufficiently to know that the fundamental principal of a Democratic State is the respect of the law and that everyone should be treated with equality before the law. This present process of impeachment, in the way it's been carried out, is a maneuver that goes strongly against these principles.

This coup attempts to remove a president legitimately elected by an absolute majority of the population, in order to put in her place a person who did not receive any votes and who will act in the name of private interests.

At the present moment there does not exist any proof that President Dilma has committed any crimes of responsibility as defined by the Brazilian constitution. The much talked about "fiscal tricks" or the "emission of decrees of supplementary credit" do not constitute such crimes. These actions are recurring measures that various governments at the municipal, state, and federal levels have taken for decades in this country and are necessary for the daily administration of the public budget. Various lawyers and economists have demonstrated this point with much greater level of expertise than I am able to provide you.

Nor has equality before the law been respected. Deputy Carlos Sampaio, leader of the PSDB and one of the principal spokesmen for the impeachment, has said in a meeting of the commission, which approved the opening of impeachment proceedings, that Lula and Fernando Henrique Cardoso have both carried out similar manipulations "only" four times each, whereas Dilma has been doing so for 14 months.

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Eduardo Cunha, the President of the Chamber of Deputies and a key leader in the impeachment proceedings against President Rousseff, faces his own charges of corruption.

Now, as far as I know, a crime is a crime, and it doesn't matter whether it was committed one or two hundred times. Of course, the principle of proportionality of crime to punishment exists, but in this case, if the law is interpreted in such a way for one person, it should be interpreted in such a way for all people.

The approval of the impeachment process as it has transpired in the last few weeks will produce a huge legal insecurity for all current and future holders of executive office. Mayors who already suffer intense pressure from the judicial powers and from the Public Ministry in the face of a scarcity of resources combined with an increase in their necessary spending will be even more exposed to processes of impediment of policies or removal from office in the face of any discretionary budget measure.

The same goes for governors and future presidents of the republic. This puts at risk not only political stability, but also Brazilian democracy. If the impeachment of Dilma is carried out, anything will be able to be used as a possible future excuse and be motive enough to tumble a legitimately elected government, if that government just so happens to have a low approval rating and be having difficulty in obtaining legislative support.

Some may argue that current Brazilian statues concerning the removal of executive officeholders is poorly drafted, antiquated, even undemocratic, and that the people should be able to decide whether or not a an elected official should stay in office. What must be made clear: in a democracy, if we do not agree with the law, we must fight to change it. Simply disobeying the law is an attempt made in contempt of the principles of the democratic state of law. Further, Brazilian law does not provide for the removal of an elected official on the basis that such an official has lied on the campaign trail, has a low approval rating, or has trouble in forming a parliamentary majority.

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Secondly, I am against the impeachment for economic reasons. As I said above, I believe that the Dilma government has been nothing short of dreadful and that she and her team are responsible for the grave economic crisis in which the country finds itself. But on the other hand, Michel Temer's plan would lead to a deepening of the crisis, implementing an economic adjustment that would further punish workers and those most impoverished in our society.

Dilma's economic decisions have been wrong, but the Temer Plan will only worsen the situation, at least, that is, for those at the bottom.

The economic crisis facing the country is partly a result of errors made during Dilma's first term, particularly with regard to the excessive exemptions that were granted to the business sector, which had no counterparts in terms of private investment.

However, the crisis is caused above all, and daily made worse, by the botched economic adjustment which the economic team decided to put into action and which continues to decelerate the economy and brutally decrease tax revenue.

Everything indicates that Temer's plan and its supporters intend to scale back workers' rights by way of reforms to workplace legislation and further reduce the offer of public services in order to diminish obligatory public spending in the areas of health and education with the aim of guaranteeing more room in the budget to pay interest on the public debt.

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Dilma's economic decisions have been wrong, but the Temer Plan will only worsen the situation, at least, that is, for those at the bottom.

Believing that removing the PT from power will aid in the fight against corruption is believing that corruption in the Brazilian political system is a problem of individual morality. In reality it's a systemic issue.

Finally, I am against the impeachment for political reasons. There is no legitimacy to the movement helmed by Temer, Cunha, the PMDB and their allies, including all of the old political foxes, to undertake the impeachment of the president.

The impeachment process has shown itself to be chock full of vices and of calculated maneuvers undertaken with the sole objective of realizing the desired result. To start with: Is it any coincidence that Eduardo Cunha, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, accepted the request for a vote of impeachment at the same time that Dilma's party (PT) decided to hold a vote over his own removal from the House Committee of Ethics?

There is also the issue of hidden interests, of the fact that many of those involved in impeachment proceedings are in search of impunity from the investigations relating to Operation Car Wash ("Operacao Lava Jato"). Eduardo Cunha has already been accused and Temer faces his own charges of corruption. Believing that removing the PT from power will aid in the fight against corruption is believing that corruption in the Brazilian political system is a problem of individual morality. In reality it's a systemic issue.

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This does not give a free pass to Dilma or PT with regard to their responsibility in their own current level of corruption. Noting specifically their failure to push forward, together with Congress, reforms which would make changes to electoral campaign financing and the conditions of policy implementation. However, whoever thinks that money from contractors that went to the PT is rotten and what went to the coffers of the PSDB, PMDB and the other parties is clean money, donated of pure benevolence and without any hidden interest is either very innocent indeed or, simply put, a hypocrite.

It is for these reasons that the impeachment is a coup. Not a classic coup d'etat with the army marching through the streets removing elected officials by force. But, yes, a coup against the democratic state of law through the arbitrary disobedience of its laws. A coup against political stability by generating insecurity and unpredictability for all elected officials. A coup against the majority of Brazilians who, in the coming years, will have see its rights come under a terrible attack.

In summary, a coup against politics and democracy itself. This coup attempts to remove a president legitimately elected by an absolute majority of the population, in order to put in her place a person who did not receive any votes and who will act in the name of private interests, attempting to maintain old economic privileges and the old and true practice of impunity that has always reigned in Brazilian society.
Legal marijuana in the United States remains a hot-button issue, even as the industry has been quite a success for Washington and Colorado. In 2015 alone, Colorado brought in an astonishing $996,184,778 in revenue from marijuana sales. That's 42% more than 2014, and $135 million in tax revenue. Colorado's marijuana users are doing great things for the economy.

Since Washington and Colorado legalized for recreational use, Oregon and Alaska have joined in. While several states consider medical marijuana legal, many others still have no laws legalizing the use of marijuana for any purpose.

But, because of federal regulations against the recreational sale and use of marijuana, those who are in the dispensary business haven't had it easy. Since you can't route money from the sale of marijuana through traditional banks, the industry is cash-only and represents a huge security risk.

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But, thanks to recent changes - starting and running a dispensary just got a bit easier.

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to take a lawsuit Nebraska and Oklahoma filed to overturn Colorado's legalization law. If they wish to continue the case, the states will need to do so with the federal district court.

On the same day, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Rocky Mountain Organics - a marijuana company which was accused of violating both the U.S. Constitution and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

Because of the risk of RICO lawsuits and their impact on the marijuana market, Colorado governor John Doe signed a bill to remove the surety bond requirement for cannabis businesses. This is a major victory for the industry because a lot of surety bond companies stopped working with marijuana businesses because they were afraid they'd get caught in the RICO crossfire.

What's a Surety Bond?

A surety bond is a way to guarantee you'll follow the rules. Bonding companies take a percentage of the bond amount to guarantee a business will abide by the state's rules. It's essentially insurance for clients, that the business pays for. Marijuana dispensaries are not the only business where they are used. Nearly any professional will have some surety bond requirements - with thousands of requirements across the country. Costs vary based on the size of the bond, the company that bonds the company, and the reason you're required to get the bond.

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How Does this Help Colorado's Marijuana Business?

Removing the surety bond requirement means there is less capital required to start a dispensary. Because of the high risk of the industry, the cost of the bonds was often so high that many who wanted to grow and sell marijuana weren't able to.

Before the change, Colorado required any businesses selling marijuana to post a $5,000 bond for the sale of medical marijuana, and another separate $5,000 bond for retail sale. Plus, retail dispensaries were required to post yet another retail excise tax bond, with additional county and city bonds as required based on dispensary location. Prices also vary based on the underwriting consideration of the bonding company, which involves reviewing the applicant's credit report.
Ask someone "What is one thing I must do in Ireland?", and you're sure to get a range of answers, from the stereotypical (but absolutely worth it) visit to Guinness Storehouse, to kissing the Blarney Stone, or watching a hurling match. As an expat currently living in Dublin, I would unequivocally tell you, however, "Go to a session."

The Irish trad session ("trad" being short for traditional, which took me an embarrassingly long time to realize) is a musical event like no other and one that no visitor to Ireland should miss. They run the gamut from contrived to completely organic, and while organic is always preferable, the quality of music in Ireland is such that even a touristy gimmick in the Temple Bar area has the potential to be a fun, lively evening full of rollicking tunes and showman musicians quipping with the audience in their lilting, Irish brogue.

Pubs in the city center become full to bursting by the time the music starts, so get there early if you want to sit, but seats with a view of the musicians are in high demand. Options in the Temple Bar area abound, including The Oliver St. John Gogarty (the mouthful of a name of which comes from an Irish writer, doctor, and politician who was immortalized as a character in James Joyce's Ulysses), The Auld Dubliner, and of course The Temple Bar itself, a stereotypical classic (although beware the crowds).

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It's hard to predict just what instruments you might hear, as a session can spring out of anything. There's usually at least one fiddle, often accompanied by guitar, banjo, mandolin, and if you're extra lucky, flute, bodhran, uilleann pipes, or concertina (a small accordion-like instrument). Many musicians in Ireland are skilled on more than one instrument (sometimes as many as six or seven), so you'll often see them passing instruments around or choosing a different one for each song.

One of the main differences between planned sessions in tourist areas and organic sessions in local pubs is the attitude of the performers to the listeners. Temple Bar musicians put on a show, and, to be fair, it's usually a good one. They ask the crowd where they're from, joke with the audience, and encourage requests for particular songs. They also generally play the crowd-pleasers that the international audience might know: "Galway Girl", "I'll Tell Me Ma", "Fields of Athenry" and "Dirty Old Town", among others.

This is in contrast to the musicians who pull out their instruments on a whim at a local session; you're less likely to hear familiar songs unless you're an aficionado, there might be more instrumental pieces, and, if you're lucky, an audience member may pull out a guitar and play an original piece or stand up with a mesmerizing sean-nos performance (Ireland's traditional, highly ornamented style of singing).

There is also more focus on the music, and the musicians seem not to care, or often even notice, that anyone is watching them. It's clear from the lack of show that they're doing this for the music, not the performance. They gather in a group around a table covered with half-drunk pints of Guinness and discarded guitar picks, and often many of them have their backs to the listeners.

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An excellent example of this happens weekly at Walsh's, in Stoneybatter. A local duo, Ye Vagabonds, plays every Monday, along with any other musicians who show up and care to join in. Everyone gathers around a table in the corner, paying virtually no attention to the observers, who range from captivated onlookers to casual bystanders more interested in their own conversation (although the latter is not advised: if you're in a pub to hear music, don't try to loudly talk over it).

Of course, as almost anyone in Dublin will tell you, the best place to go for world-class trad music is The Cobblestone, advertised on their website as "A drinking pub with a music problem." In addition to being the quintessential venue for experiencing Irish music and the place where you're most likely to hear uilleann pipes in a session, The Cobblestone is dedicated to promoting Irish culture and the traditions surrounding the music. They host regular sessions in trad music, folk, bluegrass and country, in addition to set dancing, sean nos singing and dancing, and local talks about history and culture.

Regardless of what pub you step into, be prepared to share a table with your neighbors; seating can be so hard to come by that nobody is picky, and the friendly atmosphere encourages sharing and camaraderie. However, you may also have to stand, especially if you want a good view of the musicians.

Order a glass or pint of Guinness. There's often a fine line between stereotypical and cultural, and in this case, Guinness falls on the side of cultural. Embrace it. Ireland has many other quality beers, but in such a traditional setting, you don't want anything else.

But, more than anything, don't order a light beer. I once saw the beleaguered bartender at The Temple Bar rush to the back room just to grab a dusty bottle of an American light beer. You're in a land that prides itself on its beer, and for good reason. Don't be that person. However, if you don't imbibe, it's completely acceptable to order juice, soft drinks, and, surprisingly (or maybe not, this is Ireland), tea. I've seen many an individual enjoying a hot cup of tea during the most boisterous of sessions.

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Lastly, unglue yourself from your phone. We all want to constantly take pictures and videos; it's just a facet of the time we live in. Pics or it didn't happen, right? Take a few pictures or a quick video if you must, but don't try to film every song or sneak around the musicians trying to get the perfect instagram shot. You can't clap along to the music if you're holding your phone.
"The bill then goes on to offer two levels of protection for bigots who want to discriminate, with religious organizations getting broad rights and private persons and business owners getting somewhat less expansive, but still terrifying rights. Religious organizations are allowed to deny employment, housing, and other services. Private businesses are allowed to deny any marriage-related services (including jewelry selling) to anyone who meets the three criteria. State employees can refuse marriage licenses, as well, and they are offered special protections to "express" the above religious beliefs."

"To be clear, being able to discriminate against gay people, transgender people and fornicators is already legal, to one extent or another, in Mississippi. What this law does is deny the state the right to "discriminate" against anyone who would do so. That might seem minor, but in reality, removing any threat of losing government money or contracts for forcing your bigoted religious beliefs on others is actually a pretty strong check on a lot of this behavior."
The Goldman Awards reward those brave Davids that fight corporate Goliaths worldwide, trying to preserve their homes and communities from unjust, destructive development, and important ecosystems that benefit all of us.

This is what binds our heroes this year: recognizing that all the money in the world doesn't amount to a hill of beans compared to the health of their lands and communities.

Each of them worked with community organizations that helped realize their victories.

Each has helped your family and mine, by fighting climate change through prevention of toxic emissions and protection of their carbon-storing homelands.

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Here are their stories, and all could use your help. But even if you can't, hear their stories, and get inspired!

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OO Destiny Watford , student, 20*, USA: Cleaning Up Our Community

"Our system is failing us, and our planet."

* >>> Destiny is the youngest person ever to win this prestigious award. <<<

The Problem: A planned toxic incinerator in her already heavily polluted community. Energy Answers, International marketed it as a clean energy project, turning trash into energy - ignoring the resulting toxic pollution.

What Destiny Did:

At 16, she started mobilizing community opposition, going door to door;

convinced customers who planned to use the incinerator to withdraw their contracts;

4 years later, she helped deprive the company of the financial incentive to build.

Showed that communities can choose not to be dumping grounds.

Moving Forward:

Past, Present... Future? "We can change the fate of our community." Working with United Workers, she led an effort to stop the incinerator... now she envisions a solar farm.

Destiny's Vision: establish the largest solar farm on the east coast at that site, owned by chemical company FMC. How about it, FMC? How about some truly clean renewable energy?

In the meantime, join Destiny and United Workers to demand that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stop subsidizing trash-burning incinerators.

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OO Maxima Acuna, subsistence farmer, 49, Peru, Fighting For Our Land

"Mining must leave our country."

The Problem: Colorado-based Newmont and Peruvian Buenaventura companies own a giant open pit mine in Peru's highlands; it has already destroyed nearby homes and lakes, and now the companies want to expand it - and destroy hers.

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What Maxima Did:

Refused to be bought out;

Mobilized community protection of the surrounding lakes;

Despite being beaten and her home burned, she fought the companies' eviction in the courts;

won her court case after 2 years, effectively stalling the mine.

Fenced But Free and Fighting Maxima and her community continue their struggle.

Moving forward:

Maxima continues to fight harassment by the company, which has surrounded her property;

her community has rallied behind her;

they continue to defend their land, water supplies, and people from large-scale gold mining.

Maxima's Vision: protect her home and community. You can help here.

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OO Leng Ouch, investigator, 39, Cambodia: Defending Our Forests - Our Home

"What is the government thinking when they destroy the livelihoods of millions of people?"

The Problem: most Cambodians rely on the forests as their home. But corrupt government officials have illegally evicted 300,000+ Cambodians, letting companies destroy their homes as they log precious timber to supply Chinese and US furniture demand, and plant cash crops.

The few corrupt rich benefit through the poverty of many thousands.

What Leng did:

at great personal danger*, went undercover to document the corruption;

showed that the country was losing150 million daily to illegal logging;

brought his results to the press, which exposed the corruption;

ultimately shamed by the exposure, the government cancelled 23 logging concessions.

in saving these forests, Leng has also done humanity a service in fighting climate change.

*Environmental activism is enormously dangerous in Cambodia, where activists are murdered and intimidated. Ouch has had to hide at times, and his family has been intimidated by the military police.

From Poor to Empowered Leng rose from foraging paper off the streets to do his schoolwork to a leading crusader for his peoples' forests and communities, by exposing the corrupt system of illegal logging in Cambodia.

Moving forward:

This victory inspired forest communities to take up the fight;

Communities now patrol their forests daily for illegal activities.

Leng continues to work to prevent illegal logging in Cambodia.

Leng's Vision: the government should completely stop logging concessions to private companies, and revoke all land concessions throughout Cambodia. Sign the petition to Save Cambodia's Embattled Forests. You can further help here.

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OO Edward Loure, Public Activist, 44, Tanzania - Defining What Is Ours

The Problem: Lack of legal documentation has let the Tanzanian government sell off 150,000+ acres of land of the Maasai and Hadrabe, traditional protectors of their environment and wildlife, to commercial hunting, tourism and farming interests, destroying sustainable livelihoods, and harming lands.

What Edward did:

Used an innovative approach to legally document land rights:

applying an individual land rights legal rule at the community level;

helped communities map their boundaries and create land use plans;

helped secure 200,000+ acres of tribal lands;

helped the Hadrabe people negotiate payment for sequestering carbon in their forests.

Building Bridges Across Communities Edward spent years building trust in other tribes in his work to help all of them preserve their lands.

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Moving Forward:

inspired other tribes to use his approach;

is helping to secure almost 1,000,000 more acres of tribal lands.

Edward's Vision: that his success will draw more awareness of, and support for indigenous land rights in Tanzania. You can help here.

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OO Luis Jorge Rivera Herrera, Environmental Planner, 43, Puerto Rico - Preserving a Rare Coastal Wonderland

The Problem: Puerto Rico's government's plan to develop one of its last pristine coastlines, a biodiversity hotspot home to nearly 900 types of flora and fauna, many endangered.

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What Luis did:

raised community awareness, by showing how the development would destroy this rare place;

formed a community coalition to fight the development;

initiated a legislative act to protect the area;

Understanding the Big Picture Luis fought beyond defeat to victory in preserving this piece of nature.

Luis then:

turned a legislative defeat into widespread public outcry;

ultimately succeeded in getting permanent government protection;

currently is managing, unpaid, the preserve itself.

Luis' Vision: Raising funds to purchase private parcels remaining within the preserve over the next 8 years, a condition vital to its legal protection. Ultimately, he hopes to develop sustainable tourism there that will help finance its management. You can help here.

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OO Zuzana Caputova, public interest lawyer, 42, Slovakia - Cleaning Our Communities Through Public Awareness

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The Problem: loose government laws have allowed companies to create toxic waste dumps and industrial projects in villages across Slovakia. One woman, an environmental lawyer, is now stopping that.

What Zuzana did:

filed injunctions to close an old toxic landfill in her town;

filed petitions to stop a new toxic landfill;

encouraged the residents to organize;

She also:

showed how the toxicity boosted leukemia rates there;

inspired a 6,000 strong demonstration, convincing officials to stop the project.

Moving Forward:

since 2014 helped 9 village stop a waste gasification plant, and similar projects;

drafted an amendment to Slovakia's Construction Law, the source of harmful waste disposal.

The amendment gives villages a larger voice in waste disposal projects.

Zuzana's Vision: giving all Slovakian village governments and the public a larger voice on allowing toxic waste disposal projects near them. You can help here.

You can find out more about the winners and the causes they spearhead here.

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These profiles in courage illustrate that for every human being who falls in the protection of our lives and lands, others stand to take their place. In this spirit, we honor Berta Cacares, Goldman 2015 Award winner, who was brutally murdered just recently in Honduras. Her daughter continues her work.

You can honor her by signing the petition calling for the pull out of financing for the planned Agua Zarca Dam, which threatens her beloved community and river; you can support her legacy here.

Berta Caceres, 1972- murdered 2016 - mother, protector, crusader
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at the First Corinthians Baptist Church, Sunday, April 17, 2016, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

The invitation (so to speak) the Vatican sent or had someone send to Bernie Sanders for a conference at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences held April 15-16 in honor of the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's encyclical, Centesimus Annus, prompted a series of different reactions. There are those who consider Sanders's decision to take a trip to give a speech that wouldn't last more than 10 minutes, just three days before the New York primaries, an irresponsible choice. (Ironically, the program had Sanders speaking right after Italian politician Rocco Buttiglione, who is -- politically speaking -- the complete opposite of the U.S. senator.) According to other commentators, inviting Sanders to the global headquarters of Catholicism merely makes the election of a woman to the White House that much more unlikely.

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Others have interpreted the invitation as the Pope's blessing for a political agenda marked by progressive Judaism. Last but not least, there are those who believe that Pope Francis intends to get involved in American politics with the goal of imposing his own left-leaning political agenda (as noted by Sandro Magister, a Vatican specialist known for his disapproval of Pope Francis.)

Nevertheless, none of these hypotheses are true. Anyone with even a slight knowledge of the Vatican and the Catholic Church knows that arguing over these accusations is a worthless pastime (with the exception of the hypothesis that the Pope is interested in getting involved in American politics, but we'll talk about that later). Nevertheless, this debate can shed some light on the relationship between the Vatican and the politics of Pope Francis.

By now, it's clear that Sanders was not invited by Pope Francis directly, and not even by some political representative of the Holy See. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, we know that the invitation was sent by the bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo (an expert on Thomas Aquinas, born in Argentina), chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for the Social Sciences, who in extending this invitation bypassed Margaret Archer, the president of the Pontifical Academy. Archer was quick to announce how surprised she was to see an invitation sent to Sanders, adding that the American politician had committed a "monumental discourtesy," by asking for an invitation without going through her office first.

After this statement, Sorondo stated that Archer was entirely aware of the invitation, effectively calling her a liar. Last weekend, someone in the Vatican with close ties to Pope Francis found out that American politician who is currently running for the White House might attend the conference -- a candidate who has declared to TV station MSNBC that the invitation came "from the Vatican," and who on April 8 stated on The View, broadcast on ABC, that the invitation came directly from the Pope, and that the Pope had already organized a meeting between them.

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At this point, it was too late for the Vatican to revoke the invitation: Sanders had already announced it publicly. The announcement wasn't made by the secretary of state or by his press office, but directly by the candidate. It's unlikely that the Vatican wants to overshadow the coverage of Amoris Laetitia by creating a distraction and announcing Bernie Sanders's visit on the same day it was made public. In addition, the Vatican would not want this affair to interfere with the meeting between the refugees and the Patriarch of Constantinople on April 16 in Lesbos, Greece.

Therefore, it is reasonable to think that the strange program sent to Sanders was intended to discourage him from attending. (Remember that the meeting would take place just a few hours after his debate with Hillary Clinton on Friday, April 15 at 4pm in Italy, in other words at 10am Eastern Time in the U.S., and that Sanders would finish the debate at 11pm Eastern Time on Thursday, April 14).

If this was a hidden message, then the message wasn't received, nor was it understood nor accepted by Sanders and his staff. In the wake of this affair, the Vatican completely ignored Sanders and tried to give his "visit" as little room in the media as possible. Father Lombardi has held a number of different press conferences in the Vatican during the week of April 11, but Sanders's name never came up.

No matter what happens next, things will be interesting for a number of different reasons:

1. Pope Francis and politicsWhile it's true that Joe Biden will visit the Vatican on April 29 to take part in a conference on cancer, it's also true that he will be visiting as the U.S. Vice President, and not as a candidate in the middle of the primaries. It's clear that the "invitation" sent to Sanders not only broke with an established, unwritten rule on intelligent diplomatic relations (according to which it is considered good practice to avoid getting mixed up in an election campaign and create ill will or disappointment with anyone who might win the official elections), it also broke with the model for maintaining political relationships that Pope Francis has adopted. Pope Francis is deeply committed from a political and social point of view, but has nevertheless maintained an appropriate and legitimate distance from politics. He interacts in the political sphere when he knows he's facing presidents, chancellors, ministers and so forth.2. Pope Francis's program for social justice and conflict of interestOne of the elements that has been most overlooked in this whole affair is the role of those who probably insisted, along with bishop Sorondo, that the invitation be sent. Rumors in the hallways suggest Jeffrey Sachs is behind this affair. The connection between Sachs and Sanders's campaign can apparently be found in the communications expert Michael Shank, at least according to a piece published by Dana Houle. Jeffrey Sachs is, among many other things, a consultant to Sanders who has in the past worked as a supervisor in the Vatican. Michael Shank worked for Sachs, and has also worked for the Vatican.

One thing worth noting is that Politico referred to Shank as "a media consultant who works with Sachs and said he 'occasionally' handles press relations for Vatican conferences."

Shank tried to pass Sanders's invite off as an official invitation from the Vatican. "The PASS is part of the Vatican. So the senator is right when he says the Vatican invited him," he told Politico.

These elements help shed more light on the conflict of interest that exists between their role within the Pontifical Academy and the political activities in favor of Bernie Sanders at a moment considered particularly crucial for the outcome of the primaries.

3. Sanders and world politicsThe way Sanders has reacted throughout this affair shows that there was a lapse of judgment on everyone's part. That's why Sanders is not entirely blameless here.

A presidential candidate should know what the Vatican is, what role it plays, not only as the fulcrum of the Catholic Church, but also as a state that maintains diplomatic relations on a global scale -- it is relied on by many nations, including the United States, to resolve delicate situations in dangerous zones around the planet. Paradoxically, Sanders, who shares many of Pope Francis's views according to many experts, has been dragged into this affair. It's not hard to see why an expression like "I'd be kicking myself for the rest of my life if I missed this opportunity," is okay when it's said by a scientist, a tourist, a famous person or anybody else...except by a candidate running for president in the United States of America.

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4. The Vatican and the line of communication with the American Catholic ChurchThis affair shows just how complicated it is to maintain clear lines of communication between Pope Francis's Vatican and the Catholic Church in America. All this took place during the same days in which a new apostolic nuncio for the United States, Christophe Pierre was appointed. (Pierre took over for Carlo Maria Vigano, who retired last January at 75.)

On April 7, the day before the news of Sanders's visit to the Vatican hit, Vigano was in Rome attending a fundraising gala organized by the North America College, during which he received the Rector's 2016 award. It's difficult to believe that anyone, whether the United States bishops or the secretary of state or even the apostolic nunciature, was able to shed light on the protagonists of this affair. From this point of view, the "invitation" of Sanders to the Vatican was a left-wing version of the episode involving Kim Davis during Pope Francis's visit to the United States last September.

5. The Vatican, American politics and the American Catholic ChurchThis unfortunate event can be traced back to the failure to interpret Pope Francis's intentions concerning U.S. politics following the interview he gave during his trip back from Mexico, when he was asked about Trump.

Nevertheless, it also represents a sign of the concerns shared by several members of the Vatican when it comes to the outcome of the U.S. elections. The changes introduced by Pope Francis, both in terms of papal style and in the areas of social and economic justice, have given many (including Sanders) the impression that the Vatican is now a terrain in which people can move freely.

This erroneous interpretation of Pope Francis and his role has given others (in the Vatican) the idea that they can impose a program on behalf of the Pope, not only ignoring protocol, but breaking the basic rules of intelligent diplomacy. (Ironically, the Vatican can vaunt the oldest diplomatic system in the Western world.)

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Both sides have not only underestimated the vulnerability of relations between the Holy See and the United States, but have even overlooked the particularly delicate moments these relations are experiencing under Pope Francis's papacy.
Wheat field, mushroom cloud on horizon (digital composite)

President Obama hosted an international conference a couple of weeks ago on measures to tighten controls on the spread of nuclear weapons and possible theft of nuclear materials by terrorist groups. This harks back to an early theme of his Presidency whereby he set the goal of a sharp reduction of the world's inventories of these weapons. Yet, a few months back Obama announced a $1 trillion program to upgrade the American nuclear arsenal. What's going on ?

This vast expenditure for no apparent strategic purpose has generated little debate whether within the Obama administration, political circles or the public. This fits a by now recognizable pattern: critical decisions are taken on matters heavy with consequence without explanation of why that course of action is chosen and it then goes unremarked by the politicos and media. That double failing is making a mockery of our supposedly democratic governance. Furthermore, it allows to slip under the radar costly -- potentially dangerous -- initiatives that cannot hold up under scrutiny.

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We have 70 years of history with nuclear weapons. The accumulated experience includes decades of Cold War dealings with the Soviet Union, nuclear arms spread to nine other countries, the refinement of our thinking about all aspects of their strategic role, and rigorous exercises on the logic of deterrence, of coercion, and compulsion. No subject has been received as concentrated critical examination.

The understanding and wisdom acquired, though, seems to have largely eluded those who have chosen to head down the path of elaborating our nuclear capabilities and doctrines for their use. Why? We haven't been told. However, we have learned from leaks what are the features of this massive new nuclear program. (For details see "As U.S. Modernizes Nuclear Weapons, 'Smaller' Leaves Some Uneasy" WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER The New York Times JAN. 11, 2016)

One, it aims to design and to build a class of small (in size and yield) bombs in the 5-10 kiloton range. Incorporating highly sophisticated engineering, it theoretically would be possible to adjust the "yield' depending on the target and the purpose. Two, these nuclear munitions could be packaged as precision-guided weapons deliverable from either stationery missile platforms or aircraft that would launch them as they currently do warheads with conventional explosives. Three, these refined capabilities would enable them to be used against hardened targets such as underground nuclear facilities, against an enemy's military installations or against other high value targets. Four, by implication these are "first-strike" weapons; that is to say, their value is not to deter another nuclear armed state by threatening devastating retaliation, but rather to accomplish a mission either related to a conventional conflict or to eliminate an objective judged to pose a potential threat. Thus, this "new age" nuclear force represents a radical departure from what has become the 'no first use" principle of nuclear strategy -- in practice if not in treaty.

To place this radical development in perspective, it is essential to remind ourselves of a few basic truths distilled from our collective experience of the nuclear era.

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1.When we speak of an encounter between two nuclear armed states, the weapons' primary utility is to deter the other. The risk and consequences of nuclear war are so great as to outweigh any possible advantage in trying to actually use them as part of a military strategy. This holds for all binary pairs of nuclear states: India-Pakistan, Israel-Iran (conjectured). The resulting condition of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) is stable when the following conditions are met: both sides have the capacity to withstand a first strike while retaining the means to deliver a nuclear riposte; and when there is the will to do so. No one has ever thought of testing the credibility of the latter.

The exact modalities of the countries' nuclear arsenals have no bearing on this fundamental logic. It manifestly has been absorbed by everyone who has been in a position to order a nuclear strike. No civilian leader (or military commanders with a few exceptions) with the authority to launch a nuclear attack ever believed that the result would be other than a massive exchange - mutual suicide for those with large arsenals. This did not encourage risk-taking at lower levels of conflict. Just the opposite - for fear of escalation.

2.That raises the question of whether Washington has an interest in keeping open the option of making first use of nuclear weapons against Iran or North Korea. It is not at all obvious that these doctrinal nuances have any practical meaning other than as post hoc rationales for decisions taken for different reasons. Preemptive nuclear strikes are highly risky since one never knows with certainty that they will disarm an enemy and prevent them from responding in other highly disagreeable ways. Think of 20,000 North Korean artillery pieces trained on Seoul. Think of Iran's several opportunities to wreak havoc in the Gulf.

3.First-use -- even as doctrine -- also sets dangerous precedents. It weakens the nuclear taboo entrenched since 1945, and it thereby heightens anxiety in a manner that increases the risk of accidental or miscalculated use.

4.The smaller the caliber of nuclear arm, the greater the temptation to devise military doctrines for their use -- despite the experience of the past 70 years and the logic outlined here. So-called Tactical Nuclear Weapons (TNWs) are inherently dangerous.

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TNWs have a long history -- both as to their inclusion in arsenals and in strategic thinking. This history, though, is now being ignored, whether neglect is due to

inattention or to intentional dissimulation. The net effect is the same.

There was a military reason why the United States was attracted to TNWs. In the context of Mutual Assured Destruction -- or mutual dissuasion -- wherein the resort to nuclear weapons leads inexorably to massive exchanges amounting to total destruction on both sides, the one with superior conventional forces possesses a theoretical advantage. That is to say, it could overwhelm the weaker party, present it with a fait accompli, and expect that there would be no nuclear riposte since that would mean mutual destruction. In theory.

The seeming answer: TNWs which, it was hoped, could be used to counter a massive conventional attack without triggering an all-out nuclear war. The risk of that happening, in turn, deters the would-be conventionally superior attacker - as does the fear of uncontrolled escalation.

However far-fetched, this was official American/NATO strategy in Europe from 1960 until the Cold War's end. Our strategy, our force configuration, our contingency plans in Europe were all formed by this concept.

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So what is the point of constituting a high-tech nuclear force now to be centered on TNWs, precision-guided munitions and low yield warheads? There is no conventionally superior, or equal, potential adversary out there. The United States enjoys conventional superiority over all conceivable enemies. So, the scenarios are quite different. Pentagon military planners and their obedient White House "overseers" obviously have Iran and other possible "rogue" states in mind - that is to the extent that strategic considerations of any kind lie behind the program's development. For the driving forces are more likely to have been a dedication to technological along with powerful bureaucratic interests. Let us assume, for the purpose of this logical exercise, that whatever strategic thinking has been done was not simply post-hoc justification.

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Can the inferior nuclear state deter the superior nuclear state from launching conventional attacks? We do not have much data on this -- especially since there is no case of the superior state trying to do so. Would an Iran with a rudimentary nuclear arsenal be able to deter an American or Israeli-led assault a la Iraq by threatening troop concentrations and/or fleet elements in the Persian Gulf? We certainly can say is that it would heighten caution. An inferior nuclear state might wish to instill anxiety that its weapons could be activated accidentally at the height of a crisis - thereby deterring a superior (nuclear and/or conventional) antagonist from pressing its advantage. A similar logic points to cultivating an image of being 'irrational.' Would the United States have invaded Iraq if it believed a 'crazy' Saddam had 3 or 4 nuclear weapons? Would it consider aggressive action against Iran if it believed the 'mad Mullahs' in possession of 3 or 4 nuclear weapons? Not sure. But what bearing would upgraded TNWs have on this calculus? None.

If the inferior state (e.g. North Korea) has the ability to deliver a nuclear weapon against the superior's homeland, that cautionary element grows by several factors of magnitude. Again, in theory. Again,TNWs add nothing to deterrence.



A second question: Can the nuclear state provide a credible deterrent umbrella for an ally that is conventionally inferior to a superior armed enemy? (Western Europe facing the Red Army; Saudi Arabia facing Iran circa 2040). The NATO and South Korea experience says 'yes.' That is, if the stakes are highly valued by the state providing the "nuclear umbrella." Again, the risks of escalating to nuclear exchanges have a conservative effect on everyone. Two things deter: certainty; and total uncertainty.

Here is one general thought about extended deterrence as a 'generic' type. Throughout the Cold War years, the United States and its strategically dependent allies wrestled with the question of credibility. Years of mental tergiversations never resolved it. For one intrinsic reason: it is harder to convince an ally than it is to convince a potential enemy of your readiness to use the threat of retaliation to protect them. There are two aspects to this oddity. First, the enemy has to consider the psychology of only one other party; the ally has to consider the psychology of two other parties. Then, the enemy knows the full direct costs of underestimating our credibility and, in a nuclear setting, will always be ultra conservative in its calculations. By contrast, the ally that has not experienced the hard realities of both being a possible target of a nuclear attack and the possible originator of a nuclear attack cannot fully share in this psychology.

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Is this last observation a point in favor of developing a more refined first-strike capability? No. For one thing, given the disproportion of forces, there is no conceivable gain from the conjectured fine-tuning. For another, the risk of nuclear proliferation in the region is very low.

So why are we pushing ahead with a hugely expensive nuclear weapons program that serves no evident strategic purpose? One conceivable answer is that we are just "keeping up with the Joneses." But there are no Joneses anywhere out there. Greater efficiency? Nuclear weapons are unique in that they serve their purpose when they are not used -- just sitting in the garage. Small improvements in potential performance, therefore, offer no benefit to the owner. Another, more realistic explanation is that we want to prove to ourselves that we "can" do it. That is also why we climb mountains. In this case, there is something of a technological imperative involved as well. If advances in science and engineering hold out the prospect of our being able to do something technologically impressive, then we are tempted to demonstrate that we are up to the challenge. Much of innovation in the post-modern era is of this nature, i.e. technological feats of uncertain practical benefit. To nuclear weapons, we should add the macho enhancement effect. That mind-set includes an element of faddism. We cultivate a desire for a product after the fact of its being manufactured. Smart Watches, for an example. Or, self-driving cars.

Post-hoc demand creation likely plays a role in maintaining impetus behind the $1 trillion nuclear arms build-up. Once the military people and defense "strategists" fix their minds on ultra-capable, precision-guided and customized nuclear missiles and bombs, they come up with ends to which they might be put. And let's not forget that for some the idea of being able to launch a smart, nuclear tipped missile down an imagined Iranian tunnel to where critical projects are located is thrilling. Or, just think what might have happened had we such masterful technology when Osama bin-Laden was holed up in a Toro Bora cave in December 2001. I guess that by some abstract thinking it could have compensated for the obtuseness of General Franks in refusing to send up Special Forces (for fear of casualties) or the ineptitude of the CIA/NSA in losing track of him for a decade until a walk-in gave away his location.

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While Mr. Zuckerberg was meeting with officials in Beijing a few weeks ago, in Shanghai there was another, far less public meeting on the population aging challenge facing China. Both were about China's willingness to open its minds and policies, to change that can support economic growth in the context of three 21st century mega-trends of population aging, connectedness and innovative technology recently identified by the McKinsey Think Tank. Nor is it unconnected that also this past week we saw the report that the China-based e-commerce giant, Alibaba, is about to surpass Wal-Mart in global sales. There is no doubt that the demographic over 60 will increasingly benefit from e-commerce as they can purchase and benefit from their homes. Last fall's OECD Workshop at Oxford on "Ageing and The Digital Economy" was not just about health benefits but how the one billion of us over 60 can engage in commerce and contribute to economic growth in a world of aging, innovative technology and connectedness.

Whatever deal Mr. Zuckerberg is making with Chinese officials, they do know that implementing their 13th 5-year-plan will require some very serious social changes that not only treat their aging population differently, but open their economic system to the full measure of trade and investment flows that can drive economic growth. Note the language used by Chinese President Xi Jinping to explain the profound impact of aging on their economic growth prospects: "Over 15 percent of the population is 60 years old or above. The working-age population has started to decrease and the trend is continuing... The new policy [allowing two babies without fines] should reduce the pressure of anaging population, increase the labor supply and promote balanced population development."

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China today has well over a quarter billion people over 60, and that number will grow to about the size of today's entire European population. It's a market if ever there was one. It's also a challenge if the public policy and external conditions are not ripe.

What will also reduce the pressures are several public policy enablers that were the subject of the "Shanghai Roundtable on Active Ageing" held coincidentally when Mr. Zuckerberg was having his meetings in Beijing:

1. Treat the 60+ demographic in China as we are increasingly doing across OECD countries, namely consumers of product from healthcare to financial services, technology to retail. Growing proportions of this commerce are already taking place through the Internet - witness the Alibaba phenomenon -- and this will grow over the next decades as the aging population in China reaches numbers that are equivalent to America today. Moreover, if Mick Jagger in his 70s can keep singing, how is it not obvious that "old" in the 21st century is to be redefined?



2. China, like most other nations, ought to pay very close attention to the new World Health Organization public health strategy based on achieving functional ability for a healthier and more active aging. The strategy is to be adopted in a few weeks at the World Health Assembly in Geneva and will provide the guidance China and all other countries on the planet will need for a set of policies that add a 21st century approach for quality of life to the multiple years our longevity now realizes.

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3. Recognize the special Elder Care Giving needs of the 80+ demographic, also growing in China, as elsewhere and also the most rapidly growing segment of the overall population. Technology will be essential to this elder caregiving, especially if China is to meet its goals of 90 percent of this demographic "aging in place" at home. From telehealth and telemedicine, censors recognizing falls and enablers of better and more effective medicine compliance, China will have to open its borders to the best of what can be produced across the globe. Free trade is sine qua non with China's growth with an aging population.

4. Like everyone else, keep people working longer -- the "ditch retirement movement" is as relevant for China as anywhere.

China, like the rest of us, is experiencing the medical and health benefits of the 20th century that lead to 21st century longevity. Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shenyang and the rest of China's urban centers are joining New York, Tokyo, Berlin and Sydney where the once unimaginable achievement of long lives is becoming the norm. Young girls and boys born in Shanghai in the '90s are likely to see three centuries as are our sons and daughters in the West. We increasingly get this and more and more beginning to plan. What we tend not to fully appreciate is the low birth rates that have now also become a condition of 21st century life across the globe -- developed and developing, rich and poor, everywhere. Of course, the infamous one-baby policy in China has only exacerbated for them the huge challenges of population aging. All the more reason that China will have to change its ways for greater openness -- in trade, the internet, learning from others on productive urban development.

Earlier on Huff/Post50:
Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, and Hillary Clinton speak during the CNN Democratic Presidential Primary Debate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Thursday, April 14, 2016 in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The simplistic way the Sanders campaign views money in politics has been driving me crazy, because it seems so clear, but it is so distorted as to mislead an entire generation of younger voters. The simple tale the Sanders campaign tells is that big money is always evil, small donations are always good, and that accepting campaign contributions from people who work in an industry such as finance or energy is a kind of legal bribery. This sounds absolutely true until you examine it with more care. The Sanders campaign is using this like a cudgel against Hillary Clinton, when I would argue that the big money interests that stand in the way of progressive causes have not bought Hillary Clinton, or the Democratic Party, and the evidence is on my side. Big Business has their champion in the Republican Party, and they are the ones Sanders should be attacking.

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Some history: I spent many years writing about money in politics, going all the way back to the book I co-authored with the late Herbert Alexander, dean of campaign finance analysis, Financing the 1988 Election (Westview Press). I wrote articles on campaign finance and congressional elections, book chapters, and ran for Congress myself as a progressive Democrat endorsed by Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition in my home state of Nebraska in 1984, where I was dutifully and expectedly clobbered by the incumbent Republican. I went to Washington as a Democratic nominee for Congress begging for PAC money from all the progressive PACs, and the only money I could get was from unions, and that was only because my family had a history with the UFCW, because my Dad was a packinghouse worker in Omaha. So I am hardly a corporate tool.

Some evidence: let's look at the simple explanation Sanders is offering his followers. Ask yourself the "if-then" question researchers use. If it were true that our politics was completely decided by legalized bribery, then wouldn't it be the case that both parties would be serving the biggest moneyed interests? Only die-hard socialists believe this, because for them it is a matter of faith that the "millionaire and billionaire classes" always work for their own advantages and against the interests of ordinary workers. The actual evidence is that the Democratic party supports environmentalism, unions, raising the minimum wage for workers, equal pay for women, and on and on. The Democratic party supports progressive taxation and fights like hell against efforts to give more tax breaks to the top one percent of the population. The Democratic party fights like hell against polluters. And yet, most Democratic members of the House and Senate have some portion of their campaign funds coming from "the millionaires and billionaires" that Sanders attacks every day with his broad, broad brush.

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There are millionaires in Silicon Valley, in Hollywood, in the Upper West Side and elsewhere who are environmentalists and champions of the rights of workers. From where did we get the "Buffet rule," the notion that a secretary should never pay at the same tax rate as the boss? From billionaire Warren Buffet, supporter of Democrats. And a mensch from my home town of Omaha.

But is Hillary Clinton some kind of stealth Republican, gaining most of her money from Goldman Sachs? No, in fact, it has been illegal for a long time for companies to donate directly to candidates. They can contribute only through corporate PACs. Hillary Clinton takes zero money from corporate PACs, and donations from an individual who works at Goldman Sachs are hardly the same as a corporate check. But you wouldn't know this from Bernie's hot and angry rhetoric. But why would Hillary get lots of donations from people who work on Wall Street, if not to buy her votes? Could it be possible that it has something to do with the fact that she represented New York in the Senate for eight years, and New York City is the national capital of banking and finance? Could it be likely that wealthy individuals are more able to give large campaign donations to their favorite candidates, and that these wealthy donors are Democrats who want a Democrat to win in November?

If Hillary Clinton had represented Iowa in the Senate for eight years, I'd expect to find checks from a lot of donors who work in Agribusiness. Because Bernie Sanders is a senator from a rural state with a lot of gun owners, I'd expect Bernie Sanders to get a lot of donations from people who own guns and belong to the NRA. But there's no way to know that, because the Federal Election Commission only asks donors what industry they work in, not what other organizations they support.

Back to the "if-then" question. If you think Hillary Clinton has been bought and paid for by "the billionaire class," then where is the proof of this in the actual actions, advocacy and voting record of Hillary Clinton? When asked about this in the Brooklyn debate by Dana Bash, who invited Bernie to point to a single vote that demonstrated this supposed truth, he could not offer an example, not one.

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It would be great if all campaigns could be funded by massive amounts of money from small donors. But political science evidence tells us that most American voters are not ideologically committed enough to either party to send any party or candidate a dime. Only the most ideologically motivated give money, on both sides. If the average American voter would commit to sending $10 per month, month after month, to the party of her or his choice, there might be enough money to allow candidates to skip fundraising altogether and just concentrate on governing. Trust me, politicians would love this. They hate fundraising! Fundraising sucks! I know, I have done it.
A protestor check her phone as she holds a Palestinian flag outside the Israeli embassy in Bangkok, during a demonstration against Israeli air strikes on Gaza, on July 15, 2014. Israel pressed its campaign of punishing raids on Gaza, and the Palestinian death toll rose to 172, with another 1,230 wounded. AFP PHOTO/ Nicolas ASFOURI (Photo credit should read NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

Late last year, Israeli police arrested and detained 15-year-old Tamara Abu Laban after storming her house. Tamara's crime? Updating her Facebook status with the words "forgive me" in Arabic.

In most places in the world, a cryptic, if not slightly dramatic post written by a teenage girl seeking "likes" from her friends would hardly be cause for reaction. But if you are a Palestinian growing up in Occupied East Jerusalem like Tamara, even a vague and "angsty" personal Facebook status may become grounds for arrest.

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Israeli authorities interpreted the post as expressing intent to carry out a violent act of resistance. The teenager was released under the condition that she would post bail of 1,500 Israeli shekels, remain under house arrest for 5 days, and pay another 10,000.

Tamara's story is one of many, and those numbers are rising both for adults and minors. According to a new report, by Hamleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, 2015 saw a surge in the number of Palestinians being arrested on the charge of "incitement through social media." The Hamleh report analyzed Palestinian internet and social media usage in 2015, and found that since last October - the start of the latest Palestinian uprising - the number of arrests Israel has made based on social media activity has more than doubled.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club, a non-governmental organization dealing with prisoners' rights, estimates that more than 150 arrests took place between October and February 2016 based on Facebook posts expressing opinions on the uprising.

Another prominent case is that of the poet Dareen Tatour, who was first arrested on October 10 -- without a search order or arrest warrant -- for posting images of "martyrs" on her Facebook page and videos of protests with her voice in the background reading her poetry. It is important to note that the word "martyr" is used to describe any Palestinian who dies from any cause related to the conflict.

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In November, Tatour was charged with "incitement of violence, and supporting terrorist groups through Facebook," among other allegations. The only evidence was her Facebook posts and lines from her poetry. Tatour, who holds Israeli citizenship, remains under house arrest to this day, forced to wear an electronic handcuff, and has been banned from using the internet. Other Palestinians arrested include administrative detainees who are held for months at a time without trial, evidence, or access to legal counsel.

There is no formal legislation that covers legal action with regard to the accusation of incitement through social media. The lack of a legal framework has led to an arbitrary handling of case-by-case individuals, often depending on the broader political climate as in the October uprising. According to Addameer, a Palestinian human rights NGO that works to support political prisoners, some detainees have even been charged based on the number of shares, likes and the prominence of their Facebook posts, which seems to concern Israeli authorities more than the actual content of the posts.

The very definition of "incitement" is thus being stretched when it comes to evaluating the significance of social media in the everyday lives of Palestinians, especially activist voices, engaging in political conversations or expressing grievances against the Israeli occupation.

Israeli officials have made efforts to tighten security measures surrounding social media activity. The Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister and Member of Knesset Tzipi Hotovely, met with representatives of YouTube and Google in November to discuss methods of censoring videos and shutting down online accounts created by Palestinians, which she described as "inciting violence and terrorism." Google later denied claims that it had reached an agreement to collaborate with Israel on a special monitoring mechanism for online materials published by Palestinians, and instead said that its current Community Guidelines would suffice in protecting against online incitement.

Israel alleges that the sharing of online videos played a critical role in the rise of violence in the final months of 2015. However, journalists and human rights organizations have spoken out against policies of censorship that violate freedom of speech. In fact, all foreign journalists who report in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are already "required to register with the Israeli military, and any footage that they film is required to go through the Israeli Military Censor's office before it can be released."

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On the other hand, Palestinians' digital rights and access to the internet are compromised in very basic ways, because Israel controls the infrastructure and services of Palestinian telecommunication companies in the West Bank. The Israeli government recently announced that it would finally allow Palestinians in the West Bank to access 3G wireless networks, making this area one of the last in the world to have access to 3G technologies after years of restrictions. Though it is unclear what motivated this change in policy, many have assumed it was an appeasement tactic as a response to the popular uprising.

Nevertheless, Palestinian social media use is growing in significance in terms of influencing political events, public perceptions and developments on the ground. Hamleh notes that Palestinian participation on social media is largely characterized by political themes, with the most popular posts being related to political campaigns and issues.

In 2015 online activists saw their hashtags, photos and videos being shared worldwide and often getting picked up by mainstream foreign media. For example, one of the hashtags trending on Palestinian social media in the months before the October uprising was #it_will_not_be_divided, which aimed to bring attention to Israeli policies preventing Palestinian men and women from entering al-Aqsa Mosque during August and September.

In addition, online media is increasingly a central source of information for activists and organizers. For example, the political prisoner Mohammad Alan's hunger strike against detention without charge and his subsequent hospitalization led to a widely followed social media campaign with the hashtag #Mohammed_Alan, mobilizing activists and others to protest outside the hospital.

The most important role of social media seems to be that it is opening new opportunities for Palestinians who are separated by the many physical borders Israel has erected to freedom of movement, including the Separation Wall and checkpoints, to connect and build solidarity movements with one another.

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Social media is giving Palestinian activists new tools to organize nonviolent protests and advocate for their rights. Of course, the effectiveness of their advocacy necessitates clashing with the Israeli occupation forces in order to realize and acquire their right to freedom of expression, privacy, and access to the internet with quality service.
Once again, immigration policy has taken a front seat in our nation's policy debates. The focus of much misleading and even hateful campaign rhetoric, the fight over changes in immigration policy proposed by President Obama has now landed in the US Supreme Court for oral argument April 18. The case United States v. Texas focuses on a challenge by the state of Texas to proposed changes in deportation enforcement.

In November 2014, President Obama issued an executive action that would affect nearly half of the 11 million immigrants now in the country who lack legal status. He expanded the current Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which allows young immigrants brought to the US at an early age by their parents to stay in the country temporarily. And, he created a new deferred action program, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), which also allows the parents of children who are US citizens to stay if they meet certain other criteria. These important actions would prevent close to five million hardworking immigrants -- some of whom have been in this country for decades -- from being needlessly torn from their homes, jobs, communities, and families.

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However, despite evidence that the state of Texas has in fact experienced a net economic benefit from immigration, the state sued the federal government based on alleged harm caused to the state by Obama's new policy. Suspension of Obama's executive action by an appeals court has produced an easily predicted result -- more hardship, more arbitrary and capricious enforcement, and more uncertainty and fear. United States v. Texas calls on the Supreme Court to decide four separate legal issues. At least one -- whether Texas can sue at all -- could have lasting legal significance. But if ever a case can demonstrate the overriding importance of the courts in the lives of millions women and families, United States v. Texas fits that bill.

Stories brought forward in a friend of the court brief filed by several religious organizations illustrate the folly and inhumanity of the state's attempt to overturn DAPA and the DACA expansion.

For example, Iowa City Mennonite Pastor Max Villatoro, married with four children, lived more than 20 years in Iowa. More than 16 years ago, he was convicted of driving under the influence and attempting to obtain a driver's license with a false ID. But since then, Villatoro has become a church pastor and community leader, assisting others in his community who are struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.

Nonetheless he was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported. His wife remains temporarily, allowed to work under the original iteration of DACA. All four of their children, ranging in age from 7 to 15 years old are US citizens. But Villatoro's deportation has shattered his family, and devastated his church and the community where he has been a leader for years.

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In another case, both parents in the Moreno family work every day to support their family and have been in the US for over 12 years. Their 18-year-old son, brought to the US as a 6-year-old, was diagnosed with a severe mental illness when arrested two years ago. His older sister has permission to stay in the US and to work. His parents would qualify for deferred action under the new policy since their youngest son, age 11, is US-born. And the Moreno's eldest son would also have qualified for deferred action while in detention. Instead, he was deported several months ago to Mexico, a country he barely knows, with no support, and where treatment options for mental illness are limited and seen as taboo. The Moreno family has been devastated by the deportation of their mentally unstable son.

These stories bring immigration policy to life, and highlight the importance of US federal courts and of those who fill the federal bench. In United States v. Texas, the fate of an estimated 4.3 million people, plus millions more parents, children, siblings, and loved ones, hang in the balance. We know DACA has already helped more than 700,000 children, and we must commit to achieving a new immigration process that strengthens the opportunity for immigrants to contribute to our society and live out the American dream.

As Jews, we know intimately what it is like to flee religious persecution and be strangers in a strange land as immigrants and refugees. In the spirit of Passover, a time when we are reminded to welcome the stranger, this relief can't come a moment too soon.
Last week in Maryland, I met a man named John who had driven nearly 3,000 miles from California to march 140 miles to protest our broken political system. When he learned online about Democracy Spring -- a march from Philadelphia to Washington DC, culminating with civil disobedience on the steps of the U.S. Capitol -- he knew he had to be there. So he started training, walking three miles a day and working up to 15.

John was just one of the people I met when I joined the march for 20 miles outside of Baltimore. Nancy told me she was marching because government wasn't working for every citizen. Daniel said it was because he hadn't served two decades in the military to protect on oligarchy instead of a democracy. Monica told me it was for the children in her home state of Michigan.

The marchers reached Capitol Hill and hundreds of people have been arrested to send the message that every voice should be heard in our politics and every vote must be counted.

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Or, as one protestor told Mother Jones last week, "I think it's become apparent to a lot of us that the whole political process in our country is really under the control of a handful of people, and by the time we get to make a choice in November, the fix is already in, because all of the candidates, typically, are ones who are going to do what the establishment, the oligarchy, wants from them."

Most Americans agree that the political system is broken and that their voices aren't heard. Three-quarters of Americans think corruption is widespread in our government, according to Gallup. But despite this broad public consensus, Congress has refused to enact reforms that would move us closer to a "one person, one vote" democracy that lives up to our cherished values of fairness and equality.

There is a long-honored and successful tradition in this country of non-violent civil disobedience as a tool to break intransigence on the part of the powers that be. And that's what's happening today. With a Supreme Court that has too often sided with the wealthy against common sense and everyday people, with a Congress that is so gridlocked and captured by big money, it's time for everyday citizens to press forward in a way that our elected officials will find harder to ignore. That's why, after nearly 25 years of working in the democracy reform community -- I'm risking arrest for the cause too -- joining the Johns and Monicas who are leading the way.

I'm doing it as part of the Democracy Awakening, a three-day program of teach-ins, rallies, and civil disobedience that is building on the work of Democracy Spring to harness public support for policies that will to break down the barriers in our political system for everyday people. Whether through voting restrictions or campaign finance laws that benefit the wealthy, these barriers keep everyday people from running for office and being heard in the process.

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And once the excitement in Washington D.C. is over we need to bring the energy back home. That's where winning will happen first. It has already begun.

Last November, voters in Maine and Seattle voted overwhelmingly to change the way their elections are financed. And in states across the country, voters are working to fight restrictive voting laws. Only two weeks ago, voters in Speaker of the House Paul Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wis. joined hundreds of cities, states, and localities in support of a resolution to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.

Across the country -- from Washington to Arkansas, Arizona to Miami -- voters are coming together this year too to bring important money-in-politic reforms directly to the ballot.
Cambodia is fast becoming one of the most popular Southeast Asian travel destinations, with its venerable temples, vast jungles and coastlines, cosmopolitan capital city, and smiling, genuine people. Some travelers come to Cambodia for their entire trip, while others have only a two-day jaunt in the country from neighboring Thailand or Vietnam. No matter if you have 48 hours in country or an entire month to explore, Cambodia won't disappoint.

For the sake of the average tourist, I like to break down Cambodia into four zones: Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville, and Kampot/Kep. If you only have a few days in Cambodia you could probably tackle two of these locales, and cram all of them into a fast-paced week or ten days (though you'll want to stay much longer!)

1. Siem Reap

At a glance:

Siem Reap is a sun-baked and charming small city in northern Cambodia, home to Angkor Wat, epicenter of the Khmer kingdom from the 9th-15th centuries. Angkor Wat remains the largest religious monument on earth, a Wonder of the World and UNESCO World Heritage site. You could explore the breathtaking temple complex around there for days, including outlying temples like Angkor Tom, but Siem Reap isn't just about the temples. The Pub Street area comes alive at night amid colonial architecture, endless restaurants, and bustling night markets. You can rent a bicycle and explore (but wear sunglasses and a scarf or mask for the dust), and even connect with locals by visiting the wonderful CIO orphanage on the outskirts of town.

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Minimum time to stay:

If you had to, you could see Angkor Wat and the highlights of Siem Reap in just two days and one night.

Where to stay:

There's an abundance of nice hostels, guesthouses, family and boutique hotels in Siem Reap. I find a lot of value in the $25-$40 hotel range and I highly recommend getting a place with a pool since it's always hot there. For those who want to live it up or travel often for business, a state-of-the-art luxury Marriott is opening soon.

Getting there and away:

The bus ride from Phnom Penh and further points is not fun, as it can take seven hours or longer. Instead, I recommend taking a flight from Phnom Penh or Sihanoukville. They aren't listed on most airfare sites but local carriers Bassaka Air and Cambodia Angkor Air fly several times a day and usually for $80 or less. Just pack light, because extra luggage will cost you a premium on the small planes that make the hour-long hop.

Siem Reap is also an ideal spot to fly in and out of internationally, often less expensive that flights in the capital city, Phnom Penh.

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My tip:

If you have the time, take a trip to the floating villages on the nearby Tonle Sap Lake. However, the two popular villages where taxi drivers and tour companies always take visitors are way too touristy, staged, and pushy for donations - and sometimes even scams. Instead, visit the less popular floating village of Kompong Khleang. It's a little further out but well worth.

2. Phnom Penh

At a glance:

Before their brutal civil war and Khmer Rouge regime, Phnom Penh was a cosmopolitan and thriving city, often called "The Paris of Southeast Asia." Now, Phnom Penh is once again gaining a reputation as one of the best cities in the region. The majority of tourists visit the Royal Palace, Killing Fields and other cultural attractions, but I also covered what to do and see in Phnom Pen extensively in this article.

Minimum time to stay:

Many tourists just fly in or out of Phnom Penh, but I recommend at least a full day and one night. It's a great place to recover from your jet lag and immerse yourself in Cambodian life before pushing off to explore the rest of the country.

Where to stay:

A lot of the hotels on or near the riverside and bar streets get a little noisy and unsavory at night, so I like the smaller hotels on nearby 184 Street, like the G11 Hotel or Plantation, one of the city's hidden treasures.

Getting there and away:

There are plenty of flights in and out of Phnom Penh's newly expanded airport - just leave extra time to get to the airport during high-traffic hours. Almost every hotel, tourist shop and travel agent can arrange bus tickets around the country or to Ho Chi Minh or Bangkok, but if you have more than one person traveling, I highly recommend taking a private car.

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My tip:

They may tug on your heartstrings, don't give money to the beggars and street kids along the riverside and at tourist sites - it only perpetuates the cycle of their dependence and many of them are actually put out there by victimizing adults or gangs. Instead, visit legit NGO organizations like the Connecting Hands Cafe, Yoda Craft, the Sunflower Orphanage, or one of many others.

There are so many good restaurants, but I wouldn't recommend eating the street food. Despite its poverty, Phnom Penh is a relatively safe city, but purse and camera snatching from passing from passing motos has become more common.

3. Sihanoukville

At a glance:

Sihanoukville (nicknamed "Snooky") is a southwestern province known for its natural beauty. Unfortunately, the town of the same name - particularly Serendipty Beach - has attracted the wrong kind of tourism: partyers and drunk backpackers that attract the wrong element. The town and beach are pretty dirty and the beach is definitely not safe at night.

But don't worry - only 15 minutes outside of town, the laid-back beach communities of Otres I and Otres II are far more enjoyable for a family or couple traveling. And Snooky is the jumping-off point to get to the beautiful islands of Koh Rong and Koh Rong Sanloem, less than 12 miles off the coast.

Minimum time to stay:

If you're going to hit the islands, you'll probably want at least three days for the total trip so you're not rushing.

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Where to stay:

In Sihanoukville, I love The Reef, a resort with a great restaurant, pool, nice rooms and a good vibe.

Make sure to book your accommodations on Koh Rong or Koh Rong Sanloem well ahead of time. Remember that things are a lot simpler on the islands, so you'll probably make due with a beach bungalow with a fan and a mosquito net, sporadic electricity, and limited or no Wi-Fi in places. Bring your own sunscreen, insect repellant, and seasickness meds if you need them.

Getting there and away:

There are plenty of buses and vans to and from every part of Cambodia, and Sihanoukville has its own airport for convenient flights to Siem Reap or Phnom Penh.

My tip:

Koh Rong attracts many of the same partying backpackers as Serendipty Beach, while Koh Rong Sanloem is far more mellow and quiet for nature lovers. If you don't have time for a full island overnight stay, you can rent a boat and explore some great islands with a day trip.

4. Kampot and Kep

At a glance:

Two of my favorite destinations in Cambodia are Kampot and Kep, super chill towns about midway between Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh. Kampot is right on the river, with bohemian expat bars, faded colonial architecture, and night markets in its rustic streets. You can kayak or take a sunset boat tour, visit local pepper farms, or just jump in the river and swim to your heart's content.

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Kep - only a 20 minute ride from Kampot - is a seaside hamlet with its own serviceable slice of beach. But the best part of Kep is the relaxed vibe; the only village I've seen where the center of town has an open-air pavilion with dozens of hammocks for anyone to use. Kep is famous for its crab and there are plenty of vendors grilling local crab, squid, and fish, which they'll serve to you with a fresh coconut and a smile. I also love the butterfly farm outside of town, and you can rent a moto and take a scenic ride up to the top of Bokor Mountain.

Minimum time to stay:

Although a longer stay will be far more relaxing, one night in Kep is sufficient, while you'll love one or two days in Kampot.

Where to stay:

Venture out from the center of Kampot and stay at one of the bungalows, lodges, or nature resorts that line the river. I like staying in the area of Villa Vidici and Les Manguiers.

In Kep, The Beach House is nice and right by the beach, and the Veranda Natural Resort is on a gorgeous hillside property on the outskirts of town.

Getting there and away:

People usually visit Kampot and Kep on their way to Sihanoukville or on their way back to Phnom Penh, breaking up the ride. You can easily take a bus or van either way, and a private car ride back to the capital should only cost you $35 or so.

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My tip:

Turn off your phone, forget about work, jump on a hammock in the breeze, order some fresh Cambodian seafood, crack open a cold Cambodian beer and CHILLLLLL! I promise that you'll remember this moment for a long time!
SINGAPORE -- There's no better way to score points for gravitas in today's media than claiming that the world is falling apart. Just say on air that, "This is the most dangerous time since the peak of the Cold War," and witness your star rise. But such talking heads are responding to yesterday's news and extrapolating the worst scenarios, whereas the underlying trends seem in fact to point in a very different direction.

If you want to understand the world of tomorrow, why not just look at a good map? For my new book, Connectography, I researched every single significant cross-border infrastructure project linking countries together on every continent. I worked with the world's leading cartography labs to literally map out what the future actually -- physically -- will look like. It turns out that what most defines the emerging world is not fragmentation of countries but integration within regions. The same world that appears to be falling apart is actually coming together in much more concrete ways than today's political maps suggest. Major world regions are forging dense infrastructural connectivity and reorienting their relations around supply chains rather than borders. A peaceful world may emerge as a collection of such stable regions and continents.

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Follow the lines of connectivity on these maps to see how the Humpty Dumpty world is putting itself back together again -- much better than before.

#1. PAX EURASIA

China leads the world not just in domestic but also international infrastructure investment. America sells the tanks; China provides the bulldozers. Nowhere is this more visible than on China's periphery (China has more neighbors than any other country in the world). Launched in 2015, the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank is the largest coordinated infrastructure spending program in human history. It is constructing a network of "Iron Silk Roads" stretching from Shanghai to Lisbon.

Despite the territorial tensions between China and Russia, India and other neighbors, all have bought into the AIIB mission (India is the second largest shareholder). World War III is predicted to break out among Asia's rival great powers, but thanks to these new Silk Roads, Asians are focused more on connective pipelines and railways than divisive borders.

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#2. PAX ASEANA

The same process is unfolding to China's south in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region. Post-colonial countries have spent generations since World War II engaged in bitter nationalist struggles and hostilities with their neighbors -- not to mention suffering Cold War-related interventions such as the Vietnam War. But today, Southeast Asia has become the leading example of a new generation of leaders burying the hatchet and evolving towards a European style regional model. Chinese-financed railways are planned linking Kunming via Laos and Thailand through Malaysia to Singapore, while trade corridors will connect Myanmar to Vietnam.

ASEAN's free trade area has been upgraded to an economic community of free labor mobility and open investment, while industrial and agricultural supply chains are increasingly integrated. With just 650 million people, ASEAN has a larger GDP than India and attracts more foreign direct investment than China. Not surprisingly then, despite disputes over South China Sea islands, ASEAN countries prefer to maintain this momentum rather than rock the boat.

#3. PAX AMERICANA

Donald Trump won't like this map, but it is a reminder that North America is in fact evolving into a unified mega-continent of shared resources and prosperity, with Canada a strategic player in the opening Arctic and Mexico one of the world's fastest growing economies. The lines that matter most on the map are certainly not the U.S.-Canada border along the 49th parallel or the U.S.-Mexico border running along the Rio Grande River, but rather the dense network of highways, railways, pipelines and electricity grids tying this North American Union together.

Canadian water may one day solve California's drought, and Mexican factories are keeping American carmakers competitive. The U.S. should be grateful for neighbors like these. Pax Americana hasn't worked out on a global scale, but it can certainly make the North American continent greater than the sum of its parts.

#4. PAX LATINA

South America's dozen or so nations are generally at peace with each other. Recent years have also witnessed clever breakthroughs in thinking beyond political boundaries, like Peru allowing landlocked Bolivia to build a port on its own Pacific coast at Ilo. The next phase of Latin integration involves continent-spanning transportation corridors to give Brazil more efficient access to the Pacific Ocean and integrated power grids to reduce energy costs for the continent's teeming coastal cities. With the Pacific Alliance countries stretching from Mexico to Chile now growing faster than Brazil, the time is ripe for South America to further integrate and become greater than the sum of its parts.

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#5. PAX AFRICANA

No continent suffers more colonial scars than Africa, with more than 50 countries and the most landlocked nations in the world. Though it will be a long time before Africa coheres into more than a collection of subregions, the populous East African Community is earning a reputation as the "Benelux" of Africa (after Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg, the countries consistently pushing European integration since World War II). Multi-modal corridors, gas pipelines, electricity grids and other infrastructures are giving landlocked Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan access to the Indian Ocean.

With Kenya and Ethiopia as the two anchor economies, EAC countries are now coordinating their investment promotion strategies and utilities industries, finding ever more ways to agglomerate and become more attractive as a market of 250 million citizens. Heavy Chinese support for regional infrastructure is gradually unscrambling the European colonial era map and enabling a much more productive African geography in the 21st century.

#6. PAX ARABIA

I've saved the toughest for last. The Arab world is a long way from becoming a Pax Arabia. Things may still get worse before they get better. But as the colonial-era Sykes-Picot map crumbles precisely a century after it was created, this is certainly the map Arabs should aspire to build. Indeed, alongside South America, the Mideast is the most urbanized region of the world. States are not its natural unit; cities are, such as Tunis, Cairo, Alexandria, Beirut, Jerusalem, Damascus, Baghdad and others. Each of these is either water-rich or water-poor, energy-rich or energy-poor.

Wars and terror won't correct these mismatches, but more pipelines, water canals, electricity grids and other infrastructures can. The Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates can finance this productive connectivity, while the down-and-out Arab youth joining the so-called Islamic State should be the ones building it. The Arab state is finished, but this is how Arabs can put their own Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Parag Khanna is a senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore and was previously a fellow at Brookings and New America. This article is adapted from his new book Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (Penguin Random House).

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In 2000, California's two state pension funds -- the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) -- made history by voting to dump their $800 million investment in the tobacco industry. As California State Treasurer and a member of the board of CalSTRS and CalPERS at the time, I proposed the divestment from tobacco and led the hard fought effort to sell the pension funds' stock in companies whose products had poisoned and killed millions of people, whose deceitful practices had resulted in enormous public health costs, and whose corrupt business models had caused hundreds of millions of dollars in stock losses at the pension funds. I am as proud today of the decision of CalSTRS and CalPERS to divest from tobacco, as I was when the funds voted to do so in the summer and fall of 2000.

Now, some sixteen years later, there is a move afoot at CalPERS to revisit its tobacco divestment decision. On Monday, April 18, the CalPERS Investment Committee will discuss if and when to re-consider its tobacco divestment policy. CalPERS should resoundingly reject a recidivist move to once again become a major shareholder in companies that damage the health and economic well being of our society, impose significant budget costs on California and the nation, target our children for addiction, and remain unworthy of public investment.

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A decision by CalPERS to re-invest in tobacco would make a mockery of all that we tell our children about the dangers of tobacco products. As importantly, for CalPERS, it would represent poor investment policy.

There are those who argue that, in making investment decisions, pension funds like CalPERS should make no moral or ethical judgments about the companies in which they invest, no matter how odious their products and practices or how detrimental their impacts on our economy, our environment, or our people may be. Their argument is fundamentally flawed because it ignores the fact that the long-term financial soundness of pension funds such as CalPERS depends on a healthy economy, not one weakened by predatory corporate practices. Their argument is also an intellectually shallow and lazy one because it assumes that, in a vast world of investment choices, there are insufficient opportunities to make investments that provide a positive financial return without creating significant damage to society.

In this vein, a 2015 report by Wilshire Associates, a consulting firm hired by CalPERS, claimed that CalPERS had foregone about $2 to $3 billion in investment earnings as a result of its decision to divest from tobacco. Yet, this analysis was deficient because it failed to examine whether and how CalPERS could have made investments with an acceptable risk return profile to replace its tobacco investments, which represented only about one-third of one percent of its investment portfolio at the time of divestment. Given the universe of investment options, there is no question that suitable investments to replace tobacco were and are available.

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The same arguments raised against tobacco divestment were raised against divestment from companies doing business in South Africa during the brutal apartheid era and from companies aiding the genocide in Darfur. Make no mistake about it: the world of big finance and big business will continue to fight against divestment by institutional investors to close off any consideration of unethical or damaging corporate conduct in the making of investments, lest those considerations begin to curtail loathsome activities that produce big profits and big bonuses at the expense of the larger society.

As the nation's largest public pension fund, CalPERS has a particular responsibility to continually strive to invest in ways that not only unequivocally meet its fiduciary obligations, but also strengthen our economy and society. That notion should hardly be considered novel. After all, as a society, we have an expectation that corporations should not only be profitable, but also should produce products of quality and conduct themselves well. Indeed, the ideal business enterprise is one that excels on both fronts. We value the real estate development firm that builds profitable, quality projects that enrich our communities. We respect the successful technology company that creates value for shareholders and innovations for the future. Why should we hold investors of capital -- including CalPERS, the nation's flagship pension fund -- to a lesser standard?

Felix Rohatyn, the investment banker best known for saving New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970s who also served as the U.S. Ambassador to France under President Clinton, put it best: "There is no contradiction between the fiduciary responsibility of a pension fund manager and the social responsibility of a public official."

CalPERS should remember his words and firmly reject re-opening the debate on tobacco divestment.

Phil Angelides served as California State Treasurer from 1999-2007. From 2009-2011, he was Chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which conducted the nation's official inquiry into the 2008 financial crisis.
It is sometimes said that since the US is a global superpower, all citizens of the world should be allowed to vote in US elections. The global hyperpower does indeed impact the daily lives of many around the globe, be it militarily, economically or culturally, but so far it's never been realistic to expect non US-citizens to vote in a US election. Some US citizens already find it hard to vote for they are excluded by voter ID laws, felony laws, rumors and various tactics developed by the GOP, so an international extension of the franchise will remain a utopia.

Still let us pick up where Ivan Krastev has left off in his New York Times op ed: "America Hasn't Gone Crazy. It's Just More Like Europe". Krastev is right to point to similarities between Trump and Berlusconi, another buffoon, but saying that he finds Sanders "about as exciting as a cucumber sandwich" is just a conservative point of view which many on the right and far right would share.

Democrats abroad gave Sanders a big vote of confidence and there is also a kind of correspondence there. Globalization has not erased all national characteristics but it's fair to say that if Trump appeals to the quasi-fascists, the racists and the loonies on both sides of the Atlantic, Sanders appeals to progressives in both the US and Europe. His references to Denmark could actually encompass most countries in Western Europe.

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There is some doubt about whether Sanders could break the mold of the Deep State, defeat the billionaire class and reorient US foreign policy. Doubt which also comes from the Obama experience, Obamania followed by disappointment. Obama was immensely popular in Europe and his inability to improve the lot of African Americans or significantly change US foreign policy has led to some soul searching. Wouldn't Sanders be caught in an even worse trap than Obama who after all promised a lot less progressive stuff? All the lobbies and special interests that fought Obama, so well described by Jane Mayer in her latest book Dark Money would not disappear if Sanders by a kind of magic were elected. Even FDR who enjoyed support among the wealthy at first could not get anti-lynching laws passed and let Japanese Americans go to interment camps.

Yet in spite of doubt I would vote for the "cucumber sandwich". Why? Well to adapt a phrase one could say: "half a sandwich is better than no bread". The US is in dire need of better schools, better roads, better health insurance, better financing of higher education and a non-militaristic foreign policy. Health indicators in the US are not good, considering how much money is spent on health (mostly for the rich though). Sanders might not be able to achieve great changes; he himself says he needs popular support for what he calls a political revolution. But who will try before it's declared impossible? A utopia or collective passion always precedes significant change.There are only millionaires or billionaires, who are also unreconstructed hawks in foreign policy, in the race besides Sanders and they are not likely to change the system they have thriven under. Warren Buffett said it: "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." There is no reason why the 1% would want to change a winning ticket. It would be like expecting the Koch brothers to work for the common good.

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So Sanders might not succeed, or might not get everything we on the forward looking side around the globe want, but the only way to know is to try a progressive turn. If the US started getting its act together as far as global warming is concerned, if the US reversed its love affair with mass incarceration, if the US veered away from permanent war so beloved by neocons and others cons, it would not only be good for itself it would have a major global impact. Pierre Elliot Trudeau once famously said about the impact of the US on Canada that it was "like sleeping with an elephant". The whole world is sleeping with the elephant and is affected by "every twitch and grunt"; this elephant is not only in the room but in the cellar and the loft as well.

Elections in Sweden and Iceland, in Italy and Poland matter but they cannot have the same global impact as US elections. The first major Jewish candidate for the presidency, Sanders a progressive secular Jew, is also talking about the Palestinians and their rights, this is a powerful message which could mean a reorientation of US foreign policy, though I am quite aware that Sanders's forte is not foreign policy. I also remember the hopes that Obama's Cairo speech in 2009 had kindled before they drowned in the humdrum business as usual of so-called pragmatic policies.After Occupy Wall Street Sanders has taken the torch of the fight against inequality. This is the major fight we all need to fight, in the US, in Europe and around the world. The tax evaders and tax optimizers of the world, those who hide their deeds in Panama or Delaware are our global foe, we have to stop them. Inequality is the fuel of resentment, the resentment that fuels the campaigns of Trump and the European far-right demagogues. Sanders presents a civilized alternative to the quasi-fascism of Trump-Cruz.

If inequality grows worse chaos will ensue and strong men or women will appear legitimate. Sanders, like FDR before him, is actually offering a way out even for the powers that be. The pitchforks are there in the background. As we know, in 2009, Obama had reassured bankers that he would protect them from the pitchforks ("My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks." ) Sanders is offering to defuse the crisis not by reassuring bankers but by fighting for the people at the bottom. Can he deliver? Won't he be stymied by Congress, the lobbies and special interests? If no one tries the US will be closer to the abyss and will drag the rest of the world with it.

One man, or woman, cannot change a country by him or herself. What the US needs involves major changes that can happen only incrementally if social movements push for them. The president is only the captain of a team. There is no Captain America with superpowers. Sanders is only one man in a complex system. But Sanders is also the name of a possible wave, the indicator of the road that should be taken, a motivator and a possible captain who will create his team. Or the current figurehead for a growing civilized revolt before others pick up the torch. Jill Stein whose ideas are sensible, whose proposals, such as a Green New Deal, are quite smart for they deal with the real issues is unfortunately hardly known outside the US and she has not yet managed to create a coalition of the progressives the way Sanders has.

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Take one look at my bookshelf, and you're guaranteed to see floor-to-ceiling titles about North Korea. I've worked with refugees from the DPRK for six years now and lived in South Korea for three. At this point, no longer phased by the Kim regime's dangerous, yet painfully awkward (and even unintentionally funny) antics. After all, this is the same government that uses cartoons to depict Americans as badass, high-tech wolves, and their own people as doe-eyed chipmunks.

Talk about being culturally tone-deaf.

But when North Korea built a museum about Cambodian history in Siem Reap - one that took millions of dollars to build - I knew I had to go. Living in Cambodia myself, I figured the tuk tuk ride was well worth $7.

While I wasn't expecting the museum to provide a an accurate history lesson, it seemed like a valuable insight into the Hermit Kingdom's latest attempt at earning hard currency. Maybe I could even find some North Korean snacks to buy my defector friends, who, despite the troubles they suffered, tend to miss their homeland foods very much.

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When you first enter the palatial museum, it's unclear where to walk first. In front of you is a floor-to-ceiling mural of an ancient Khmer statue. To your left is a visitor's counter, and to your right, a huge room with marble floors and exhibits. Veering on the side of caution, I chose to approach the counter first.

Two Khmer attendants outfitted in pink Tommy Hilfiger shirts explained to me that the first part of the museum was free. Viewing the panorama painting and historical film, however, cost $15. I decided to buy a ticket. (Who is to say if I'll would be able to see the film after this article goes live?)

As you walk in, a sign warns you that smoking, littering, and photography are banned in the exhibit. I did manage to sneak in this photo of the first room:

While it looks huge, the information is minimal and the analysis superficial. You'd be much better off visiting the temples with a local tour guide. The museum contains only images of the most famous Angkor temples, and a plaque listing their names, the king who authorized it, the style, period, and religion that guided its aesthetic. Unfortunately, whoever took these photographs did not wait until the low tide of tourist traffic. Cambodia's immense natural beauty is offset by Western tourists in bikinis and sun hats.

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Silently, I couldn't help but wonder if these people know they're featured half-naked in a Cambodian museum.

Touch-screen computers offer more information about the temples, either in Khmer, English, or "Joseon-eo." (If you speak Korean, you'll notice they use the Northern term rather than the Southern one.) Here, you can find a wealth of information about each of the monuments and their historical significance, although the text is dry and dense.

At the end of the first room, visitors have the option of buying a $15 ticket and being escorted to the Angkor Panorama. It took sixty-three North Korean artists one year and four months to complete the epic painting, which runs 13 meters high and approximately 122 meters long. Outsiders must concede, this artwork is deadly serious in its magnificence.

War horses' muscular bodies are outlined by the noontime sun, dust wreathes around their hooves, and a raging elephant raises its trunk in defiance as its rider hurls a spear at enemies. The painting is so incredibly detailed, it's hard to see where the diorama floor ends and the painted wall begins. Your tour guide will explain that the piece displays Khmer history from the late 12th to early 13th century, and while photos are not allowed, a silent man with a camera will take a touristy photo for about thirty cents. I decided to go for it.

When you've circumnavigated the panorama, your tour guide will discreetly switch off all the lights. (Remember, you're likely to be the only visitor in the dead-silent museum.) The attraction only opened in December of 2015, and it hasn't had enough time to establish itself in the tourism circuit. My guide did inform me, however, that local schools arrange field trips to learn about Cambodian history there. A kindergarten had stopped by a few hours before my visit.

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If you've opted for the movie, you'll then be escorted to a large, modern theater that is similarly empty. As the staff fumbled with the projector, a North Korean male poked his head out from stage right. We made eye contact briefly before he retreated back into the dark curtains.

It was a minute or two of awkward silence before the film began. The first graphic had an oversaturated photo of Angkor Wat and the words: "ANGKOR PANORAMA MUSEUM 2015." Keep in mind, I visited one-third of the way into 2016.

I was starting to read the subtitles about the religious significance of Phnom Kulen's streams when I suddenly heard The Lion King.

Yes. Hans Zimmer's score from The Lion King, specifically, "This Land," which you can hear when Mufasa's ghost appears to Simba in the clouds.

There's that "unintentionally funny" thing again.

In that moment, I was reminded of the strange manner in which North Korea is integrated into the global economy. It's taking small steps to move out into the world, moving into "least developed countries" like Cambodia and attempting to provide some of the high technology that is hard to find domestically.

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Granted, I can't blame North Korea too much for this Disney-themed misstep. They probably helped animate make that blockbuster from 1994. If you ever visit the Joint-Security Area along the DMZ, which separates the two Koreas, the United Nations staff will play a similarly weird movie clip featuring the Pirates of the Caribbean score. I had to suppress a snicker then, too.

The film is approximately 8 minutes long and full of jerky CGI characters building Angkor Wat. In true North Korean fashion, lens flare is abundant, and the script is extremely melodramatic. More than an informational film, it's a celebration of the workers who labored to build one of humanity's greatest architectural achievements. There is perhaps a bit of socialist realism to be gleaned in the approach.

The approach is intriguing, but not really all that effective at engaging people who are actually just a few kilometers from Angkor Wat..

At the end, the lights switch on, and you'll find yourself back in the deserted theater.

You can stroll into a gift shop, which features a modest cafe and saleswomen in more pink polo shirts. As I looked over plaques naming North Korean artists, one shopkeeper let out a quiet "Annyeonghaseyo."

I turned to her, smiled, and used my shoddy Korean language skills to tell her that I lived in Seoul. Surprisingly, she wasn't at all phased to have a Caucasian speaking Korean, unlike the situation in South Korea. She was even kind enough to humor me by answering my questions in my third language, even when I probably spoke like a drunk third-grader.

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Together, we looked over books of postage stamps made in North Korea. If my host knew my colleagues and I routinely work to collapse the regime, I don't think her courtesy still would have wavered. Everyday North Koreans are far more aware of the outside world than most laypeople would anticipate. We had a genuinely pleasant conversation.

"There's the Arirang Games," I said, pointing at one stamp.

The shopkeeper nodded.

"And there's the Chollima," I said, pointing to the legendary Pegasus statue from Pyongyang. That did surprise her. "Oh, you know that?" she said.

I took that as my cue to shut up. I paid $40 for the stamp book and left.

While it is hotly controversial to engage in business with North Korean enterprises, I firmly believe that places like the Angkor Panorama Museum give North Koreans first-hand, friendly experiences of the outside world. These first-hand accounts are likely to permeate the Pyongyang upper and middle classes, and ultimately, lead to real change. If we see how economic sanctions have backfired and note how options have narrowed, one can't help coming to the conclusion of Dr. Andrei Lankov, who writes: "...outside pressure is ineffective, [and] change will have to come from the North Koreans themselves. The United States and its allies can best help them by exposing them to the very attractive alternatives to their current way of life."

$40 stamp books and $15 entrance fees certainly aren't going to keep a nuclear program afloat. Without a doubt, drug trafficking is far more profitable than building museums. But when workers tell their families about a friendly, Korean-speaking American who knows the Chollima mythology, suddenly the foreign media contained on smuggled USBs seems more credible. Perhaps then, the seeds of dissent are planted.

Due to the attraction's small size and lack of substantial information, I doubt it will ever become a hot tourist spot. But these small amounts do create spaces where North Koreans can interact with people from so-called "enemy countries." This is one of the only places in the world where Pyongyang residents can interact with people outside their race and culture, which is especially important after the recent closing of Kaesong Industrial Complex.

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"I don't have the money", "I will travel after my bonus comes in", "I will travel when I am older" -- the plethora of excuses we make to procrastinate or not travel at all. That's sad, because as someone who needs to run off to the mountains or a beach ever so often, you don't know what you're missing out on. You are missing out being closer to yourself, to actually hear yourself speak of what you really want in life and what actually matters. Whilst we are busy with our daily lives, we live in a monotony, go to office, come back, watch TV, sleep, hit repeat. But when we are away, in a new gorgeous place, we can break all the boundaries, discover a new "you", meet new people and immerse in a new culture, or hell, be a beach bum and get tanned. How are you going to do/see the following awesome stuff when you are cramped up in the corner of your cubicle on Facebook? 

Get amazed by the gorgeous color palette formed by the volcanic ruins alongside the blue azure waters.

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Watch the feisty Rhine Falls with fresh water droplets hitting your face!

When your balcony view looks something like this  At Santorini, Greece!

Appreciating the religion and spirituality at St. Peter's Church.

Did these pictures inspire you enough to get off your bum and book some tickets.  I travelled to four countries in Europe starting from Greece, then Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Every country has its own beautiful quirks and while I was received warmly and treated lovingly, I could observe some noticeable differences. Switzerland was very expensive. I was literally out of money on my second day in the country. The reason being the gondola rides up to the snowy mountains and the inter-country railways to nearby scenic towns are much more expensive in Switzerland. Before traveling, you need to adequately research and set your own budget and know when to splurge and when to save. Greece was very wallet-friendly and the best start to my trip. I could see myself going to Greece and just revisiting those places and I am sure they would inspire me all over again. I would again like to visit the Acropolis museum and stare wide-eyed to those intricate sculptures and read the mythological references all over again. The people of Greece were the warmest of all with their cute Greek accent and extremely helpful nature and ever-smiling faces, they stole my heart away. Italy, with it's delicious food palette and notable architecture and history was a treat to my taste buds. Amsterdam was the epitome of freedom in all its glory.

Today I am going to try to solve one important hindrance of travel for you. MONEY.

Flights: If you book them 3-4 months in advance, you usually get a good deal. Skyscanner is a great tool to compare flight prices and other details which leads you to the booking websites.

Hotels/Hostel/Airbnbs: You can get all kinds of accommodations on booking.com whether hotels or hostels. I personally prefer Airbnbs as that gives me a lot of freedom in terms of cooking and privacy. Note : Booking.com prices get steeper once your travel date approaches.

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Phone calling : I travelled across Europe for 2 weeks without spending a cent on phone calls. I didn't even buy a sim card. Why? Because almost all accommodations provide free wifi and many cafes that you dine at provide you with a free wifi too. Exciting times, I know. 

Food: The best way to save money on food is to cook for yourself. Of course, you wanna entertain your taste buds with new dishes and you absolutely must. But, out of three meals, one can be cooked at home, to be easy on your wallet. You can also eat at roadside shops and trucks who sell cheaper but no less tastier delicacies. If you walk in to fancy restaurants and bars, it's going to be expensive.

Domestic Transport: The best part of Europe is its connectivity via trains, buses, TRAMS and metro. You never have to take a cab. Even the airport has a bus/metro platform right there, which is incredibly convenient. Buses, TRAMS, Metros have a multi-day pass which is cheaper if you are going to stay for a longer period.

Pack light: Well, this is weird. How will packing light save money? Packing light has a hidden bonus. If you pack light, you can run faster to catch trains or buses.  Kidding aside, most of the airlines have a one-baggage policy, which means even though your two small suitcases are well below the allowed weight, you will still have to pay for the extra suitcase as the allowed baggage is one only. Paying for extra baggage is an absolute waste of money. Also, while traveling solo, you can carry your backpack into the washrooms without having to ask a stranger to take care of it and end up losing it.

Prefer trains/ferries: Greece is a wonderful country blessed with scenic islands. I could have easily taken a flight to Santorini, but I chose a ferry. I was expecting a very ordinary experience, but I was amazed when I entered the Titanic-like ferry.  It was truly a 5-star experience with an amazing deck view where I could gaze at the picturesque landscapes passing by, each better than the previous. My camera and I could not just stop. Taking a ferry was cheaper than a flight and so enriching with wonderful experiences.

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Lifestyle Goals -- Living up the snowy mountains in a tiny hut! This view, up the gondola ride to Mount Pilatus, Lucerne, Switzerland.

Come to the important question. How much money did I spend on my Europe trip ? $2340 for 2 weeks! This is the detailed expenses (in INR):

Flight trip (to and fro): 40,000

Visa fees: 6000

Internal Flights (Santorini to Athens, Athens to Rome since it was overseas and there were no trains. I took flights only when necessary): 21,000

Ferry in Greece: 4500

Trains (all the major transport was now done through trains in Italy, Switzerland and Amsterdam): 20,000

Local Transport (Buses, TRAMS, metros): 2000-3000

Food (average 20 euros per day, I cooked too): 17,000

Accommodation (about 2500 bucks per day, I stayed in hotels and airbnbs for privacy and new experiences. Hostels can be booked in 1000-1500 bucks): 30,000

Museums/Gondola rides/Entry fees/Misc.: 10,000

This rounds about to 1,50,000 INR. There you go! Not that steep, eh? Why don't you start planning your next Europe trip soon? These travel tips are pretty generic and can be exploited anywhere.

Are you all geared up to travel a new country and live up some exciting stories of your own? 
SANA, YEMEN - FEBRUARY 14: A destroyed building is seen as Saudi-led coalition forces conduct airstrike to a building at Siraton neighborhood in Sana, capital city of Yemen, on February 14, 2016. (Photo by Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

By Kais Aliriani

More than a year ago on March 26, 2015, the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington, D.C. announced an operation to "restore the legitimate government of President Hadi" of Yemen. By April 14, the U.N. Security Council issued a resolution calling the Houthi rebels who took over the Yemeni capital of Sana'a to withdraw. The resolution "commended" the efforts of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in "supporting the transition process" in Yemen.

This same resolution failed to mention that the ongoing war in Yemen is actually led by Saudi Arabia and a coalition of 12 countries, including the GCC countries. The resolution ignored the statement of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights in which he denounced the first mass murder committed by the Saudi-led coalition when an air strike killed 17 civilians and injured 35 at the Al-Mazraq camp for internally displaced people.

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Since the Saudis started this war, they have undermined any efforts to publicize their violations of international humanitarian law in their campaign against Yemen. They have learned to keep the media quiet and diffuse attention on the tragic war in Yemen, and to literally buy the silence of countries known for their strong support for human rights such as France, the U.K., and the U.S. In the U.S., for example, Saudi Arabia has employed a number of public relations companies to help "improve the image of Saudi Arabia."

Saudis have succeeded to a large extent in keeping the war in Yemen out of the media. Ironically it is now called The Forgotten War by most world media. However, Saudi efforts failed to keep many international organizations from reporting the war crimes of their war in Yemen. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, for example, have repeatedly reported the deliberate targeting of civilians, mass killings, and civilian infrastructure by the Saudi-led coalition.

The yearlong continuous ruthless air bombardment of Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition, executing an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 air strikes, has not destroyed the military capabilities of the Houthi militia, which still controls the majority of the inhabited areas in Yemen. It has, however, killed thousands of civilians and left a devastating impact on the country's infrastructure. According to international reports, 3,000 to 7,000 civilians have been killed and around 30,000 have been injured with the majority due to the Saudi-led air strikes.

In the rare moments that Yemen is mentioned in the Western media, it usually references the "civil war." If Saudi Arabia is ever mentioned in that context, it is presented as the hero fighting against the expansion of Iran's influence in the region. There is hardly any mention of how and why one of the richest oil producers in the world is conducting a war against one of the poorest countries in the world accompanied by 12 coalition partners, the U.K. and the U.S. The catastrophic consequences of the Saudi-led coalition bombardment and siege of Yemen and the suffering of more than 25 million Yemeni people is often ignored. According to U.N. reports more than 80 percent of people in Yemen now need humanitarian assistance.

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It has been over a year since Saudi-led coalition started its war on Yemen and the efforts to investigate the breaches to international humanitarian law have failed due to Saudi influence. The underlying economic and political interests in this war are too obvious to be ignored. Over the past year Saudi Arabia has bought $12 billion in arms from France, $8 billion from the UK, $15 billion from Canada, and $20 billion from the U.S. These countries are too deeply involved in the war to take any meaningful action. The issue is not whether Saudi Arabia is launching a just war on Yemen, or whether it is violating the laws of war, Unfortunately the question is: What are the implications of opposing the Saudis? The Netherlands has become the only outlier banning export of arms to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi-led war on Yemen has not only violated the laws of war by deliberate attacks on civilians, but it is endangering the future and the very existence of the Yemeni state by attacking government civil installations, creating chaos and paving the way for fundamentalist groups such as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and ISIS to prosper.
This past week Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and Chair of Catholic Near East Welfare Association, traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan on a pastoral visit to that region's displaced Christian families. This journalist and the Nation Catholic Reporter were invited to be a part of this small delegation.

The first full day on the ground in the northern region of Iraq known as Iraqi Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region recognized by the Iraqi government in Baghdad, is completed. Our small delegation visited a grade school, Al Bishara School -- the Annunciation School -- located in Ankawa, a largely Christian community on the outskirts of Erbil, that is run by the Dominican Sisters. After lunch, we visited a newly-established public university serving some 1,400 students seeking a bachelor's degree, and attended a religious ceremony at a nearby Christian church celebrating the Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis.

The children at Al Bishara School were enjoying recess when we arrived. Like most kids the world over, they loved getting their pictures taken. They horsed around and pushed and shoved to get their picture taken. Pairs of kids would wait patiently for their turn. When they saw themselves on the digital camera screen afterwards, they smiled and laughed and elbowed each other. It could have been recess at any grade school in the U.S.

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One of the highlights of the first day was an exclusive NCR interview with Dominican Sister Maria Hanna, superior general of the Dominican Sisters, who shared the harrowing story of exodus from the City of Mosul, just over 50 miles from Erbil, from the village of Bashiqa, some twenty minutes from Mosul, and from Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city of Iraq. It is a compelling story, which I will file soon.

Erbil is a city of contradictions.

Only a few years ago, Erbil was on track to be the next Dubai, as laborers, cement trucks and engineers raced to build office buildings and condominiums. Then the combination of the Islamic State group threat and the fall of oil prices left dozens of skyscrapers unfinished. Incomplete projects, with open staircases several stories high, are simply abandoned. While investors, general contractors and homeowners were left empty-handed and engaged in litigation, internally displaced people moved in on the first floor. Refugee camps -- really camps for internally displaced people - now dot the landscape.

So far there has not been a heavy military presence either at the airport or seen from the van. In the early evening hours women and children can be seen walking freely on the streets or shopping at curbside fruit and vegetable stands as if no threat of an Islamic State group attack is imminent.

Despite significant uncertainty about what lies ahead, the displaced Dominican Sisters and college students and administrators with whom we spoke shared stories of resiliency and a determination to create a new future for themselves and for Iraq.

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STATEN ISLAND, NY - Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to and meets supporters during a rally at Snug Harbor's Great Hall in Staten Island, New York on Sunday April 17, 2016. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Historical perspective on Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton

Who is the real Democrat -- Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton? Why are fringe candidates getting all of the attention this year? Who are the moderates?

These questions can all be answered by understanding something that has been unfolding for 40 years: The center of American politics has shifted steadily to the right. Today, neither party is even remotely similar to what it was when Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, for example, first entered politics.

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In the late 1970s, as large corporations turned into transnational giants, they pumped huge amounts of cash into the political system. This largesse lured, first, the Republican Party, in the 80s, followed by the Democratic Party in the '90s, and precipitated a rightward political shift as both parties rewrote their policies to compete for the same corporate contributions.

Before this, from 1932-1976, the Democratic Party as a whole was far more progressive. The issues and approaches advocated today by Bernie Sanders were considered mainstream Democratic ideas by Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson, and even many moderate Republicans. It was common to support strict financial regulation, liberal immigration, social services for the poor, and progressive tax policies.



Which one is the Democrat?

Hillary Clinton's stances, while fluid during this election cycle, are historically most in tune with classical Republican ideas, as advocated by Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and others. As a young woman, she volunteered for the conservative Barry Goldwater, and while today she's become liberal on some social issues, she's generally at home with moderate conservative ideas, such as a hawkish military, strict immigration laws, reduced welfare, laissez-faire rules for Wall Street, and international business treaties that favor large corporations. One group started a petition this year asking Clinton to run as a Republican, suggesting that while she is "liberal on some issues, on a wide range of important issues she lands squarely as a moderate conservative."

As for the Republican candidates still running in the primary this year -- Donald Trump, John Kasich, and Ted Cruz -- they are all to the right of Goldwater, and they would have been considered unelectable extremists and distant outliers on the spectrum before 1996.

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The steady rightward shift of American politics, before Bernie Sanders

The Rise of Bernie Sanders

Without Bernie Sanders, we would have the political spectrum above. Hillary Clinton and the conservative wing of the Democratic Party have moved rightward into a corporate centrist (neoliberal) position. This position has a certain amount of flexibility on social issues but adheres strictly to unregulated capitalism and favors international trade deals that benefit large corporations rather than domestic jobs, the environment, or fair wage or labor standards. The Republican Party has shifted to the right too, towards policies that benefit no one but the ultra-wealthy and the largest transnational corporations; they cloak their goals in racist or evangelical language to appeal to voters, but their regressive policies generally aim to restrict or even cancel laws and rights won by the working classes in earlier eras.



A popular meme on twitter, 4/9-4/11

This rightward drift has pushed the "center" to a spot between Hillary Clinton and John Kasich. This "center" is to the right of even Social Security, abortion rights, labor unions, and quality public high schools. With that "center," Republicans who wish to be considered "strong conservatives" compete for ground far out to the right, where little civic sanity is left. With that "center," true progressive issues are never even discussed.

The arrival of Bernie Sanders heralds a potential rebalancing of the spectrum:



The rightward shift of American politics explains the rise of Bernie Sanders

Bernie's policies appear to us to be radical and unusual only because the Democratic Party has moved so far to the right since he entered politics. In 1970, universal healthcare, peace, and a livable minimum wage were bread-and-butter down-the-middle planks of the Democratic Party platform.

What We Are Voting On

Therefore in 2016 we are voting not just for a candidate, but for the very political debate we want to have over the next two decades. I support Bernie Sanders not only because he's right on the issues I care most about -- climate change, campaign finance, income inequality, racial justice, and militarism -- but because electing him will reestablish the left in our political discourse for a generation.

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Resetting the spectrum will restart an American political discourse where the left and right are more balanced representations of classical liberal and conservative thinking, and where racist reactionaries are no longer considered American thought leaders. This will enable action on pressing issues like the environment, campaign finance, and livable wages.

If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, her victory will push our political center further right and normalize a crazy cadre of right-wingers as the holders of modern American conservatism.
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 18: A pro-immigration activist holds a sign in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on April 18, 2016 in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case of United States v. Texas, which is challenging President Obama's 2014 executive actions on immigration - the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) programs. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

America's continuing journey toward a "more perfect union" envisioned by our Constitution continues Monday morning on opposite sides of Washington's 1st Street, the avenue separating the Capitol from the Supreme Court.

To the west, thousands of people from 300 organizations are set to converge on the Capitol grounds to conclude the Democracy Awakening, a three-day demonstration calling on Congress to pass legislation protecting voting rights and attacking big money in politics. The Awakening's call to action also includes demands that the Senate do its job and provide a fair hearing and an up or down vote on Merrick Garland, President Obama's nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

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Across the street, the eight remaining Supreme Court justices will hear oral arguments in Texas v. United States, a case challenging President Obama's exercise of his executive authority on immigration relief. Specifically, the case relates to guidance Obama gave agencies that enforce immigration laws on how to temporarily prioritize deportations on a case-by-case basis, so that undocumented immigrants with strong family ties in the U.S. and no serious criminal history are less likely to be deported than are convicted criminals and recent entrants.

Approximately $18 billion was dedicated to immigration enforcement and border protection in 2013, a budget roughly 24 percent higher than the combined spending of all federal law enforcement agencies, but still only enough to finance a record high of deportations of approximately 3% of the total undocumented population. In a world of substantial but still finite resources, the Obama administration sensibly argues that prosecutorial discretion allows for the allocation of funds based on agency priorities and subject to certain limitations.

Although congressional gridlock and dysfunction have created the current crisis in America's immigration system, Congress's 30-year failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform is not the basis for Obama's authority to act. Rather, Executive authority for the exercise of prosecutorial discretion is steeped in the Constitution, reaffirmed by the Supreme Court, premised in administrative procedure law, and expressly provided for in the immigration statutes. Common Cause filed testimony to the House Committee on the Judiciary, with a full legal analysis which concludes that the President's Executive actions demonstrate a lawful, limited, and restrained step toward fixing an immigration system that is demonstrably broken, unjust, and unenforceable.

This brings us back to the Democracy Awakening and its call for Senate action to fill the high court vacancy. Congress's failure to do its job on another front -- in filling the Supreme Court vacancy -- has created a possibility of a 4-4 split among the remaining justices in Texas v. United States, which may let stand the ruling below by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to block Obama's executive actions while the case proceeds to trial. Millions of families hang in the lurch.

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The intersectionality of Monday morning's events on the National Mall is a reminder of the impact the government's current dysfunction has on a wide range of groups and issues due to its capture by the few, and the distance still to travel toward manifesting a more perfect union. The Democracy Awakening sets out an initial antidote by calling on the Senate to Do Its Job in filling the Supreme Court vacancy, and calling on Congress to pass specific pieces of legislation to remove big money's stranglehold over our political process and to enact critical voting rights and election law reforms.
Yoani Sanchez inaugurates a series of interviews on the channel Deutsche Welle Latin America: The Voice of Your Rights. (Video capture)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, 4 April 2016 -- What to do when you have a loudspeaker in your hand? Since 2007 when I started my blog Generation Y, this question has haunted me. Often the visibility does not benefit those who need it most and the protective umbrellas provided by access to international organizations only reach a few. To occupy the microphone to broadcast only your own speech is a wastefulness that is a monologue more than an informative work. The Voice of Your Rights, the new interview program I will host on the Deutsche Welle Latin American TV program seeks to bring the megaphone to those who need it most.

With 40 episodes filmed in Panama City, the new space hosts a guest list essential for those who want to know our region and learn about the stories of its people. Environmental activists, women who fight against femicide, human rights organizations that denounce prison overcrowding and groups addressing child labor from all viewpoints are some of the themes that will be addressed by the people with whom I will share the studio in the coming weeks.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS India's ruling Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, right, speaks with former chief minister of Punjab state Captain Amarinder Singh during an election rally at in Chabal some 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Amritsar, India, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Did the Aam Aam Party yesterday fall into the trap of giving the Congress what it wants: moving the political discourse from everything else to the persona of Congress leader Amarinder Singh?

Leaders of the AAP, including Arvind Kejriwal himself, had a field day on Twitter; pointing out that Rahul Gandhi had refused to name Amarinder Singh as the partys chief ministerial candidate for the Punjab assembly elections.

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On Saturday, 16 April, the Congress vice president held an interaction with Congress leaders and workers on the outskirts of Chandigarh. Congress workers persuaded him to declare Singh as the CM candidate. When journalists asked him about this, Gandhi replied that while the Captain was the face of the campaign by virtue of being the sate Congress chief, the chief minister would be elected by the MLAs after the election.

In saying so, he seemed to be going back on what he had suggested in his previous visit to Punjab. In his visit in March, Gandhi had said the next Punjab government would be formed under the leadership of Singh.

So when on Saturday, Gandhi appeared to retract the declaration, it seemed like an embarrassment for the Punjab Congress, and for Amarinders campaign strategist Prashant Kishor, who had already begun projecting Amarinder as Punjab da Captain in a presidential-style campaign.

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However, it emerges that this was part of a well-orchestrated move to create a fresh controversy around the CM candidature issue, so that another day passes by with Punjabs political discussion centred on the persona of Singh.

The media was suitably alerted about the event, even given hints that Amarinder Singh might be announced as the CM candidate. Gandhi deliberately gave a vague reply that would create a confusion, and would be picked up by the media and opposition.

Since not having a chief ministerial candidate is the AAPs Achilles heel in Punjab, their asking questions on Singhs candidature for the post makes them fall into the trap of turning this  the CM candidate question  more important than other political questions. The other political questions  such as Punjabs drug menace or corruption or farm distress  are where the AAP as of now is seen as a more credible answer than the Congress.

The Aam Aadmi Party had until recently been focusing on projecting itself as the party that can solve Punjabs problems, but it now seems to have fallen into the trap of shifting the political conversation to who will be the CM?

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Rahul Gandhi makes it clear that there will be no CM face in Punjab. Captain does not even have Rahul's confidence. Captain has no chance.  Durgesh Pathak (@ipathak25) 16 April 2016

The AAP may be jumping to conclusions too early. Within the next few weeks, sources say, the Congress is likely to make a formal announcement in Delhi, declaring Singh as the partys official chief ministerial candidate for the February 2017 polls. The announcement will be made in such a way as befits a chief ministerial candidate. It cant be made in response to a question, said a source familiar with the strategy.

The announcement will be made in such a way as befits a chief ministerial candidate. It cant be made in response to a question.

Until such announcement is made, the Captain is meeting NRI Sikhs in the US. While he does that, the state Congress and Kishors Indian Political Action Committee are likely to intensify the Punjab da Captain campaign.

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Kejriwal recently said in an interview with the Economic Times that his party would not declare any CM candidate for Punjab, and that the issue has not even been discussed in the party.

However, his colleague Sanjay Singh recently told the same newspaper that the party was planning to announce a CM candidate in 3-4 months and it wont be Kejriwal.

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The India Today Group via Getty Images MUMBAI, INDIA APRIL 05 : Arjun Kapoor during the special screening of his upcoming movie Ki and Ka in Mumbai.(Photo by Milind Shelte/India Today Group/Getty Images)

The fact that Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor was overweight and had to go through a meticulous process to shed those extra kilos is well-known. The actor followed a stringent weight-loss regime to match up to the physical conventions required to be a Bollywood star and stunned everyone with his transformed body in Habib Faisal's Ishaqzaade, his launch-pad.

Despite trying his best to maintain that physique, his recent weight-gain hasn't gone unnoticed as the actor has been looking bulkier than during the time of his first few films. Now, in a recent interview with DNA, the actor has said that it's due to his body-type that the weight fluctuates, and he lives in constant fear of going back to his former self.

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He told the newspaper, "I have fluctuated a lot in the last couple of years because of my own health issues. We have our own phases in life. Even actors are human beings so we have issues to deal with  physical, emotional and mental. So yes, though I have that fear of putting on weight, I cant stop living my life because of that fear."

He also added that he's very diligent when it comes to working-out and doesn't cheat on his gym commitment if he he's had a long night. "I work very hard in the gym. Sometimes, I come home very late around 1 am, but still I go and work out at the gym. I dont ever stop. I try and work out at least six times a week with my trainer because thats important for my body type which is so different from a typical Indian boy. I am so broad and big-structured that even two kilos on me can look like gaining 10 kilos and losing two kilos can also look like shedding 10 kilos. So I am in a strange predicament," the 2 States actor said.

Arjun said that having gone through the fat-to-fit process once has made him confident of the fact that he can do it all over again, if the kilos pile up. "I have some faith in the fact that I have lost 50 kgs in four years, so I know my job about going about being healthy and I have done it in a very clean and good way, so I am very clear that I can do this. The body can try and stop you when you are very tired but you keep pushing and the results do come. I have seen that in that four-year phase. If you are patient your body reaps results, if not today then tomorrow or the next day. You just have to keep at it every day without stopping."

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Elaborating on his discipline, Arjun said, "If I have eaten a meal outside and have one bad night, the next day morning I will be on the treadmill to make sure that I burn those calories I had a lot of cervical and neck issues. I used to suffer from vertigo because I had a cervical problem. But Pilates helped me open up and also helped me with my posture."

It seems that Pilates has been quite life-altering for Arjun, who picked the exercise after he injured himself at a film shoot. "I started doing pilates because of injuries I sustained after Tevar and there was no solution unless I stopped physical activity. People would say, You need to rest, but thats not an option for an actor. I found a better solution. Pilates is almost like undergoing rehab because you are improving your core  the smaller. It strengthens you from within, from the deepest layer and that is very difficult. I do it once or twice a week as I cant take out more time unfortunately. Its very difficult, especially for a man. I wish I had gotten into it earlier, when I was 22-23, as my flexibility would have been better today."

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David Lees via Getty Images Man sitting in front of opened laptop

On Friday, the Internet was abuzz with the news of a man deleting his company and clients' websites with a single command. Turns out that it was a hoax and the company did it as a promotional activity.

It was reported that server hosting company Genoa hosting's owner deleted their and 1535 client websites with one simple linux command. The company later told an Italian newspaper Repubblica that it was a joke. And all of this was a part of a guerrilla marketing campaign to promote the start-up.

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Marco Marsala posted on the website 'Server Fault' on Friday for help after the debacle under the username 'bleemboy'. As the Engadget reported, many of the replies were very harsh. Some of the users suggested that this kind of behaviour is unprofessional and the company should go out of the business.

"Normally I use this script to delete the specific files. It is a very famous Linux command 'rm -rf'. Due to the 'f' part, there is no warning while deleting. Something went wrong and all the files were deleted including the offsite backups and the server files", he saidin a forum.

"The command that I mentioned in the article is harmless but it seems that almost no one has noticed. Now we have 140K people monitoring our scripts," Marsala said in Repubblica.

"Backups need to be offsite, offline, and incremental that you could delete them from your main server means they weren't what I would call backups," suggested Tim from the forums.

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Last year an employee was fired from the company after she deleted company's tracking app from the phone.

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Robert Mizerek via Getty Images Identity theft on the web

Have you ever trawled the internet to find out if account names were available for celebrities? Do you own any of them? Congratulations, you are a cybersquatter. A lot of people like to acquire accounts and domain names of celebrities just to get some attention or money. Let's take a look at some cases where Indians squatted shamelessly on the web, rather than by the roadside.

Recently, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg bought the domain maxchanzuckerberg.org for $700 from a boy in Kochi. Amal Augustine, a final year engineering student told TOI that he has been doing domain registrations of such sort for quite a while.

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"I have registered quite a few domain names and I have been doing it for some time. I registered this domain name when their baby was born last December", Augustine, a student of KMEA engineering college, told TOI.

In September 2015, Sanmay Ved owned Google.com for a minute. The former Google employee bought the domain for a mere $12 when he found that 'Google.com' was available for purchase. Later on, Google paid him $6006.13 which he donated to the Art Of Living. Later, on hearing about the cause, the search giants doubled his reward.

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In 2014, Qaiser Ali from Lucknow found out that @PMOIndia handle was up for grabs as officials had changed the handle to @PMOIndiaArchives for a while. So he took a chance and changed his handle to PMO India. He even tweeted out from the account once before alerting officials that the handle was with him.

A few days ago a man created a fake government website and was later arrested. A Delhi-based businessman had filed a complaint against him for posting a fake tender. The man, Tarun Gupta was arrested with  8 lakh cash in his possession. He had made a fake website of a sub-department of the Ministry of Skill Development and had conned many people.

In the past, techies have squatted on domain names like salmankhan.com and amitabhbacchan.com. Foreigners have also capitalized on Indian domain names. A German man called Mathias Stricker sold yoga.in for 1 crore. A company called Axsiom made $10000 for selling www.gurunanak.com.

On the international front, too, there have been a lot of incidents of cybersquatting. The highest deal so far was for vacationrentals.com for $35 million.

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Tim Graham via Getty Images LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - APRIL 08: A Close-up Of The Coffin With The Wreath Of White Flowers And The Queen Mother's Coronation Crown With The Priceless Koh-i-noor Diamond. (Photo by Tim Graham/Getty Images)

The Government on Monday told the Supreme Court that India should not stake a claim to the famed Kohinoor diamond as 'it was neither stolen nor forcibly taken away.'

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the government, said this was the stand of the Ministry of Culture. "Ministry of External Affairs is also a party and their response is yet to come," he informed the court, according to ANI.

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He also told the court that the Kohinoor was handed over by Maharaja Ranjit Singh to the East India Company. Today the diamond is a part of the Crown of Queen Elizabeth II.

Chief Justice TS Thakur asked the Centre if it wants the case to be dismissed as they would face a problem in the future when putting forward any legitimate claim. The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to file a detailed reply within six weeks.

The court had on 9 April asked the Centre to disclose its stand on bringing back the diamond.

SC had made this observation while hearing a petition filed by the All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front. The petition had said that the government was not making efforts to bring the diamond back.

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In 2013, the British Government had rejected demands for the return of the Kohinoor.

One of the worlds largest diamonds, some Indians - including independence leader Mahatma Gandhis grandson - have demanded its return to atone for Britains colonial past.

(With agency inputs)

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Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - JANUARY 16: Senior BJP leader Vijay Goel at Delhi Pradesh BJP Office on January 16, 2015 in New Delhi, India. Former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi Friday joined the BJP today. Ilmi had contested and narrowly lost the December 2013 assembly elections on AAP ticket. AAP also fielded her in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh where she finished a distant fifth. Polling in Delhi will be held on February 7 and the counting of votes will take place on February 10. (Photo by Arvind Yadav/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

NEW DELHI -- BJP MP Vijay Goel today violated the odd-even scheme following which he was fined 2,000 by the traffic police even as Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai visited his residence earlier requesting him to refrain from breaking rules by offering roses.

Goel was challaned near Raisina Road, on his way to Parliament. The BJP leader was also fined an additional 1,500 for driving without licence and vehicle insurance.

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On Friday, Goel had announced that he would violate odd-even rules today in protest against "huge expenditure" incurred by the AAP government on advertisements, regarding the scheme, for its "political posturing."

"I have been imposed the fine of 2,000 for violating odd-even rules. Besides, I have been slapped fine of 1,500 for driving without licence and vehicle insurance," Goel said.

He later clarified that his driving licence and insurance papers were with his drivers.

On my way to Parliament in an odd numbered car to expose #oddevencorruption of AAP  Vijay Goel (@VijayGoelBJP) April 18, 2016

happy 2 receive immense supprt frm d people of Delhi in my symbolic protest agnst d gross misuse of public funds #oddevencorruption  Vijay Goel (@VijayGoelBJP) April 18, 2016

Successful protest against #oddevencorruption, a scheme wid Maximum publicity & minimum effect  Vijay Goel (@VijayGoelBJP) April 18, 2016

The Rajya Sabha MP asked the Delhi government to disclose the amount spent on advertisements.

Goel said his protest was against "political posturing" by AAP which he alleged is using odd-even scheme's advertising budget to "plaster Kejriwal's photo everywhere".

Noting that BJP is "never" against any good scheme, he said, "I am for any endeavour that reduces pollution and congestion or brings relief to the people of Delhi."

Transport Minister Gopal Rai had gone to Goel's residence this morning and offered roses to him urging not to violate the scheme.

Y dnt AAP leaders & Mr.Kejriwal car pool everyday of d yr? #OddEvenCorruption  Vijay Goel (@VijayGoelBJP) April 18, 2016

Y only on few days? Takng credit is easy bt following evrydy will b d real tst #OddEvenCorruption  Vijay Goel (@VijayGoelBJP) April 18, 2016

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For his upcoming venture Shivaay, Ajay Devgn has found himself in the harsh terrains of Bulgaria.

The actor, who has also taken directorial responsibilities for Shivaay, has been holed up in the European country, where the unit is filming action sequences for the movie that's been touted as one of the most-expensive Bollywood films.

In a footage shared by the actor on his Twitter handle, Devgn is seen battling it out in extreme weather as a chopper hovers above him, leading to an explosive snowstorm. The crew is filming at Vihren, which stands at 2914 meters above sea-level, and is the highest peak in Bulgaria.

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The stunning footage also illustrates the amount of logistical co-ordination the film's team is involved with, and shows Devgn standing triumphantly even as gusty winds threaten to overpower him. While Shivaay's team is covered with layers of woollens, the Singham star looks rather comfortable in tee and denims, his character's wardrobe.

The Times of India reported that by the end of the schedule, Devgn suffered from a severe bout of hypothermia (they were shooting in minus 19 degree celsius) and local medics were brought in to look into his health. Despite advising him to rest for two days, the actor sprung up in 30 minutes and continued with the shoot of his directorial venture.

Watch the footage here:

When the going gets tough, tough get going! Heartfelt thanks to fantastic TeamShivaay for an Extreme Bulgaria shoot.https://t.co/8W7D1n7RKo  Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) April 18, 2016

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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.
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Low wage workers and immigrants have seen a large rise in benefits since the introduction of the Affordable Care Act. Analysis by the New York Times found that legal immigrants of all nationalities have seen the sharpest rise in coverage rates. Hispanics were the single ethnic group to see larger numbers with insurance, accounting for nearly a third of the rise in all of those covered while making up 17 per cent of the population.While official figures have looked at the increase of insured people in general terms, the NY Times reviewed 2014 census data for a deeper insight into who those people are.Among the other takeaways from the analysis: part time workers have increased insurance coverage at a higher rate than full-time; and those living in households headed by siblings or cousins saw sharper increases in coverage than traditional households.A judge has lowered the bail for some of the defendants in an alleged $150 million insurance fraud. The LA Times says that the potential bail was as high as $21.5 million but has been dropped to $1.25 million as the judge did not accept aggravated mayhem charges related to the case.The case concerns conspiracy, insurance fraud and the illegal referral of patients and prosecutors say that it is one of the largest insurance scams in California history.Manulifes John Hancock has declared today (April 18) as National Financial Advisor Day to highlight the contributions that they make to the retirement plan market.The insurance and financial services company says that people who work with advisors double their preparedness for retirement and are less stressed by the finances.Today we want to recognize the unique value and expertise that financial advisors deliver to the industry, plan sponsors, and plan participants every day, said Patrick Murphy, president, JHRPS. Because we consider FAs to be our partners in the business, we are dedicating a day to thank them for all they do.
IND vs PAK: 'It Has to be One of India's Best Knocks Not Just His' - Rohit Sharma Hails Virat Kohli

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'It Was Undoubtedly the Best innings of Your Life': Sachin Tendulkar on Virat Kohli's Knock Against Pakistan

Watch: Rohit Sharma Lifts Virat Kohli After India's Nerve-shredding Win Over Pakistan in T20 World Cup
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We work towards an equitable,

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particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

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gender-just, self-reliant and

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artisanal sector
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Scientists Recommend Zika Research Plan

Rochester, Minnesota - An international group of vaccine researchers is proposing a comprehensive research plan to tackle the risks of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, now confirmed to cause birth defects. Dr. Gregory Poland, head of Mayo Clinics Vaccine Research Group and Editor in Chief of the journal Vaccine, has published an editorial with Ricardo Palacios and Jorge Kalil, both of the Butantan Institute, the largest biologics research center in Brazil.

The editorial  Another emerging arbovirus, another emerging vaccine: Targeting Zika virus  comes during the latest level of concern over Zikas growing international risk and attempts to provide some accurate scientific background on the disease and its epidemiological history. Summary: It didnt come out of nowhere  it has a track record.

The authors also outline eight steps they say are essential to corralling Zika and should be part of an urgent research program. They range from discovering clear mechanisms of Zika to finding its relationship to other similar viral infections carried by the same mosquito. They also recommend that the scientific community determine the best animal model on which to study Zika.

They also urge the immediate development of a global research fund that can advance vaccine research in the long term. Dr. Poland emphasizes that a vaccine wont be developed overnight and the work will continue long beyond the current spate of media stories. Nor do they hold out a vaccine as a magic bullet. Continued work on patient care, public health, and mosquito control are all needed.

The researchers do sound an optimistic note: Rubella (German measles) vaccine effectively neutralized that high-risk virus-caused disease also a cause of birth defects, so there is hope on the Zika front. Whats needed they say is time and ample funding.
New Aspirin Guidelines

Rochester, Minnesota - The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) published new aspirin guidelines for prevention of cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer. Those guidelines recommend low-dose aspirin for certain men and women with a high risk of cardiovascular disease.

This is a change from previous guidelines in that the organization is tightening up the use of low-dose aspirin by limiting its use to high-risk individuals between the ages of 50 to 69. The earlier guidelines released in 2009 included a broader population in the recommendations.

Mayo Clinic cardiologist Dr. Stephen Kopecky says daily aspirin therapy may lower your risk of heart attack in men and stroke in women, because it helps prevent blood from clotting. For example, if your arteries are narrowed from atherosclerosis  the buildup of fatty deposits in your arteries  a fatty deposit in your vessel lining can burst. Then, a blood clot can quickly form and block the artery. This prevents blood flow to the heart and causes a heart attack. Aspirin therapy reduces the clotting  possibly preventing a heart attack.

But aspirin therapy is not right for everyone, as is reflected in the new guidelines.

Dr. Kopecky says, "The reason aspirin therapy is not recommended for people younger than 50 or older than 69 is that there is not enough data to prove it helps in those age groups. Plus, for people over age 69, aspirin significantly increases the risk of serious bleeds." But Dr. Kopecky also says, for the right people, aspirin is very important in helping to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events.
Coordinated Response Could Reduce Spread of Emerging Superbug in Health Facilities

Baltimore, Maryland - A simulation of how the so-called superbug carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) might spread among health care facilities found that coordinated efforts prevented more than 75 percent of the often-severe infections that would have otherwise occurred over a five-year period.

The study was led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published last month in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Superbugs such as CRE are antibiotic-resistant bacteria for which there are limited or no treatments. CRE is most commonly found in health care facilities and the CDC says the germ can kill up to half of those it infects. Patients in hospitals and nursing homes are thought to be more susceptible to superbugs in general because of the potentially high rate of exposure among vulnerable patients, many of whom transfer from one facility to another while infected, bringing the bugs with them. Superbugs are considered a serious public health threat and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a tool kit to assist health care facilities to create plans to stem their spread  a blue print that walks management through steps from persuading leadership to measuring outcomes.

For their new analysis, the researchers simulated how CRE would spread across health care facilities in Orange County, California, under three scenarios. The first involved no extra interventions. The second involved interventions at individual facilities, including testing transfer patients for CRE upon admission and, for patients who test positive, using contact precautions such as gloves and gowns. The third scenario used those same two interventions but coordinate efforts among facilities when the number of CRE cases reached a certain threshold. The researchers did not detail how facilities would communicate but assumed that an advance communications plan would be in place.

For their analysis, the researchers used the Regional Healthcare Ecosystem Analyst model, a platform the team developed to run numbers and scenarios on regional health care systems. In this study, the researchers drew from patient data for the 28 acute care hospitals and 74 nursing homes serving adult patients in Orange County and the patients moving among the facilities in 2011 and 2012.

Orange County was selected in part for its sizeits the sixth-largest county in the U.S. and its diversity. The county is also more enclosed than many counties, meaning most residents both live and work there, which means the potential for an infectious disease to spread among facilities is in theory less likely than a more porous region. The researchers note that the numbers might be higher with a less contained population.

The research team found that a coordinated approach prevented 2,789, or 77 percent of total infections, by the fifth year, while moderate control measures averted 408 transmissions, or 21.3 percent, after five years. Adding no new infection-control measures to the mix in the event of a CRE outbreakan unlikely scenario, but a possible outcome the researchers highlightwould result in CRE being present in nearly all Orange County facilities within a decade.

Its like a neighborhood watch program where neighbors work with and watch out for each other, says Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA, associate professor in the Bloomberg Schools Department of International Health. This approach tends to be more effective than a homeowner doing it alone. When it comes to health care facilities and superbugs, the same principles of communication and coordination apply.

While the findings may not be a total surprise, they underscore the importance of advance planning. Lee notes there are three main barriers to health care facilities taking a coordinated approach to superbug infection control: culture, competition and practicality. Culturally, many facilities are stretched thin keeping up with patient demands, so stepping back and focusing on something that may or may not unfold is not a priority.

From a competitive standpoint, a hospital or nursing home with even a single superbug case may not want to advertise it among its rivals, despite the obvious public health benefits of sharing the information. Practically, facilities that may want to work together face structural and legal obstacles.

While there has not yet been a serious outbreak of CRE, within the first six months of 2012, 3.9 percent of acute care hospitals and 17.8 percent of long-term acute care hospitals reported at least one CRE infection. Additionally, as of February 2015, CRE has been confirmed in 48 states.

A looming concern about superbugs like CRE is that they are antibiotic-resistant; superbugs already cause an estimated two million illnesses and approximately 23,000 deaths a year in the U.S., according to the CDC. There is growing concern that without hospital and regional coordination, including establishing protocols that involve sharing patient information, an outbreak could intensify and spread in light of patient transfers and mobility.

The Potential Trajectory of Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae, an Emerging Threat to Health-Care Facilities, and the Impact of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Toolkit was written by Bruce Y. Lee; Sarah M. Bartsch; Kim F. Wong; James A. McKinnell; Rachel B. Slayton; Loren G. Miller; Chenghua Cao; Diane S. Kim; Alexander J. Kallen; John A. Jernigan and Susan S. Huang.

This work was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R01HS023317), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U54HD070725, U01HD086861), the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research of the National Institutes of Health, and the Global Obesity Prevention Center at Johns Hopkins.

Personnel time was supported in part by an intergovernmental personnel act agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The research was also supported in part by the University of Pittsburgh Center for Simulation and Modeling through the supercomputing resources provided.
Stand Up To Cancer Launches Catalyst, a New Research Program Supported by Industry

Los Angeles, California - Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), the charitable initiative aimed at bringing new treatments to cancer patients quickly, today announced Catalyst, a new program that will use funding and materials from the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostic and medical devices industries to accelerate research on cancer prevention, detection and treatment. Founding collaborator Merck; and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, are Charter Supporters.

The Catalyst program is a perfect fit with the SU2C mission of accelerating the pace of groundbreaking translational research that provides new therapies to patients quickly, said Sung Poblete, RN, PhD, president and chief executive officer of SU2C. This will be a nimble program that will help speed up the rate at which we discover what works.

Under the SU2C Catalyst program, companies like Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Genentech will donate funds to support collaborative research studies using products the companies will provide, such as new pharmaceutical compounds that they are developing or approved agents that can be investigated for other uses.

Through its scientific partner, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), SU2C will issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) to the scientific community based on each companys commitment of funding and materials such as drugs and diagnostic tests. The RFP will lay out the compounds that will be available, the research emphasis, the estimated number of projects that will be supported, and funding available. Proposals are expected to follow SU2Cs collaborative research model.

The SU2C Catalyst program will be overseen by an Executive Committee chaired by Nobel Laureate Phillip A. Sharp, PhD, chair of the SU2C Scientific Advisory Committee and institute professor at the Koch Institute for Integrated Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A subcommittee chair from academia -- selected by the Executive Committee -- will work with an industry-specific Steering Subcommittee consisting of an equal number of academic scientists, named by SU2C in consultation with AACR, and pharmaceutical industry members named by the funding companies, to review proposals for grants pursuant to each industry-specific RFP. The program will be administered by the AACR.

Since 2008, SU2C has launched 19 Dream Teams, two Translational Research Teams, and 26 individual Innovative Research Grants, with funds committed by philanthropic, organizational, corporate and individual donors, as well as non-profit collaborators. More than 1,100 researchers at 131 institutions are or have been involved. More than 160 clinical trials have been planned, initiated or completed. Across the SU2C research portfolio, 69 pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biotech companies have engaged in 140 collaborative efforts with SU2C-affiliated scientists and institutions.

We have a deep understanding of both the academic and industry perspectives and the powerful impact that collaboration has on research, Dr. Sharp said. This program will bring those perspectives together in a new way for the benefit of patients.

Just as patients can benefit from a multi-disciplinary team approach to treatment, Merck believes cancer research can benefit from diverse team of experts in industry, advocacy and academia, said Dr. Eric Rubin, vice president and therapeutic area head, oncology early-stage development, Merck Research Laboratories. We are proud to be the first to collaborate with SU2C in the development of the Catalyst initiative. Through our support of this program, along with other collaborators, we hope to more rapidly bring advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment to patients in need.

Bristol-Myers Squibb is proud to support the Stand Up To Cancer Catalyst program, furthering our joint commitment to improving outcomes for all cancer patients, said Awny Farajallah, vice president, head of U.S. Medical, Oncology, Bristol-Myers Squibb. We are dedicated to continued collaboration with the goal of accelerating research and providing new therapies to the patients who need it most.

Collectively, we have made great progress against cancer and must continue to work together to drive new approaches to prevent and treat cancer, said Dr. Edith Perez, vice president and head BioOncology Medical Affairs at Genentech, and director of the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer Translational Genomics Program. Collaborating with SU2C, AACR and the broader cancer community is an important step that can lead to new breakthroughs and possibly even a cure.

The new source of funding is very important, and so is access to drugs and other materials, Dr. Sharp said. Cancer researchers face challenges in obtaining materials needed for clinical trials. This program will ensure the necessary supply of agents and will also make the opportunity to engage in this type of research more widely available to the research community.
Visualizing and predicting evolution by mapping the elusive 'fitness landscape'

Ann Arbor, Michigan - Suppose you were trying to design a vaccine to combat next season's influenza virus. Having a detailed map that tells you exactly how various strains of the flu bug will evolve would be extremely helpful.

Creating just that sort of map is the goal of evolutionary biologists who study a conceptual tool called the fitness landscape, which provides a way to visualize and predict evolution.

The idea of the fitness landscape has been around since the 1930s, when it was proposed by population geneticist Sewall Wright. But mapping a detailed fitness landscape is a daunting challenge, and the landscapes created to date are fairly crude.

Now, a team of University of Michigan researchers is reporting the first comprehensive in vivo fitness landscape of a generoughly 100 times larger than any previous effort. The findings are expected to be of interest to evolutionary biologists, geneticists and molecular biologists, said team leader Jianzhi "George" Zhang, a professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

A paper summarizing the team's findings, which are based on the manipulation of a single gene in baker's yeast, is scheduled for online publication in the journal Science on April 14.

"The concept of the fitness landscape is critically important and underlies many evolutionary theories. But until now, we were simply not able to measure it," Zhang said. "We still have a long way to go, but this is a big step toward measuring fitness landscapes."

Think of a fitness landscape as a 3-D map that allows researchers to visualize the relationship between an organism's genetic makeup and its ability to produce offspring, which biologists call fitness. Reproductive rate is the ultimate measure of evolutionary successreally the only metric that matters.

Darwinian fitness is determined by the interplay between an organism's genes and its environment. In any given environment, an organism's genetic makeup, or genotype, can either help or hurt it in the competition against other individuals of the same species.

The fitness landscape is a way of visualizing the relationship between genotypes and reproductive success. But moving the study of fitness landscapes from a theoretical pursuit to an experimental science has been challenging for several reasons. First off, the genotype space is immense, consisting of vast numbers of genetic possibilities for any single organism.

The human genome, for example, is a sequence of about 3 billion letters built from the four-letter genetic alphabet of A, T, G and C. At each position in the genetic sequence there are four letters to choose from, which means there are billions and billions and billions of possibilities in a complete human genotype.

To make this problem more manageable, Zhang and his colleagues focused on one small gene from baker's yeast, a single-celled organism with about 6,000 genes. Yeast is commonly used by scientists to provide insights about genetics and cell biology.

The researchers selected a gene that holds the genetic instructions for making transfer RNA, or tRNA, which is part of the cellular machinery used to assemble proteins from amino acids. The gene they selected contains just 72 letters known as nucleotide bases.

To map a fitness landscape for this tRNA gene, the researchers needed to assess the reproductive success associated with every possible combination of A, T, C and G at each of the 72 locations in that gene sequence.

So they constructed more than 65,000 yeast strains, each carrying a unique variant of the gene with one or more misspellings of the sequence. Each misspelling is called a point mutation.

The 65,000-plus yeast strains were then placed together in a test tube and allowed to grow for one day through asexual cell division. At the end of the 24-hour competition period, the growth rate of each strainessentially a measure of its Darwinian fitnesswas determined.

The result was a fitness landscape for a tRNA gene, the first relatively comprehensive, in vivo fitness landscape of any gene in any eukaryotic organism, according to Zhang.

The researchers showed that about 1 percent of the point mutations were beneficial to the organism, while 42 percent were harmful. And when two harmful mutations interacted, the outcome was usually more harmful to the organism than if the two mutations had acted independently.

The U-M team also found that fitness is broadly correlated with the predicted fraction of correctly folded tRNA molecules, revealing a biophysical basis for the fitness landscape.

"The experimental method we developed for measuring fitness landscapes can also be applied to other genes, including protein-coding genes," Zhang said. "So we expect that our paper will be of broad and immediate interest."

The other authors of the Science paper, "The fitness landscape of a tRNA gene," are U-M graduate students Chuan Li and Wenfeng Qian (now at the Chinese Academy of Sciences) and postdoctoral fellow Calum Maclean. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
University of Washington study aimed at users of both marijuana and tobacco

Seattle, Washington - If youre looking to give up marijuana and possibly cigarettes as well, a group of researchers at the University of Washington would like to hear from you.

The Innovative Programs Research Group, an organization in the UW School of Social Work, is recruiting people 18 and older for a free marijuana and tobacco treatment trial. The study is aimed at adults who are regularly using both substances, want to quit marijuana and are willing to consider kicking the tobacco habit as well.

This group tends to struggle when it comes to quitting marijuana. Rates of tobacco use are high among regular cannabis users  between 40 and 90 percent, depending on the study and the population  and people who seek treatment for marijuana use who are also smokers tend to have poorer outcomes and higher relapse rates, principal investigator Denise Walker said.

We have some indication that people coming into treatment using both tobacco and pot dont do as well in treatment as folks who only use marijuana, so how do we better help them? said Walker, director of the Innovative Programs Research Group. If we also focus on tobacco smoking while theyre trying to quit using marijuana, will that improve outcomes?

Trial participants will be randomly divided into two groups, one to receive treatment for tobacco concurrently with marijuana treatment for 12 weeks, and the other to be treated for marijuana first for 12 weeks, followed by another 12 weeks of tobacco treatment. Participants must come to an office in the University District twice weekly and have their urine tested for THC and other drugs.

Each marijuana-negative sample is rewarded with a Visa cash card, with the amount increasing for each consecutive marijuana-free sample. Participants who are successfully able to quit marijuana and provide negative samples can earn up to $435.

The trial uses a mix of motivational enhancement therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. After an intake screening assessment with a researcher and a brief counseling session, the treatment is delivered primarily via computer. Participants complete weekly interactive sessions on a computer that are intended to increase motivation and teach skills to help meet their goals. The approach was developed by Alan Budney, a professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth College, who is conducting the trial in partnership with the UW.

Walker worked on a previous trial with Budney that tested the computerized treatment with an in-person version and found there was little difference in outcomes between the two approaches. Web-based treatments are less costly and more convenient, she said, and can provide access in settings where counselors may not be as available.

It opens up a wide array of places where you can try to intervene with people  primary care settings, juvenile justice or other places where you can capture people in waiting rooms, she said. You can have them working on a computer, getting assessed and getting feedback, and if needed, getting referrals for additional treatment.

The Innovative Programs Research Group, which focuses on providing early interventions for youth and adults struggling with behavioral issues, conducted a separate 2010 trial for people who wanted to quit marijuana and recruited more than 70 participants within weeks.

Our phone was ringing off the hook, said Lauren Matthews, project director for the current trial.

But that was before Washington and Colorado in 2012 became the first two states in the nation to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana use. Matthews said participants in the earlier trial seemed primarily motivated by the feeling that their pot use was out of control, rather than the drugs illicit status.

As more states legalize marijuana, Walker said there is concern that cannabis is increasingly perceived as harmless. Some marijuana users are easily able to quit, she said, but others struggle and may experience withdrawal symptoms such as sleeplessness, irritability and loss of appetite. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, almost 4.2 million people in the U.S. abused or were dependent on marijuana in 2014, and studies suggest that 9 percent of users will become dependent at some point.

Theres a segment of the population that has a really tough time quitting or cutting down, and even with treatment, quitting appears just as hard as with other substances including alcohol, Walker said.

People interested in participating in the study, which is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, can contact Matthews at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 206-616-3235.
Compared with other similar Western countries, Irish surgeons operate under fiscal disadvantage, markedly so against other European states such as Germany, France and Switzerland  but somehow retain potential to match outcomes in France and Germany, according to the Journal of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI).

Researchers from the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences in Bournemouth University noted that British and Irish surgeons have operated under relative and comparative fiscal disadvantage over the period 1980 to 2013. Nonetheless recent research found Britain and Ireland had the biggest reductions in adult (55-74 deaths) mortality. However, with such proportionate chronic underfunding can the service continue to achieve such outstanding results? they posed.

The researchers largely rejected the null hypothesis that there would be no significant differences between Britain and Irelands percentage of GDP Expenditure-on-Health (%GDPEH) and the other Western countries.

Over the whole period, Britain had the lowest average and Ireland was fourth lowest. Indeed, while Britain bumped along the bottom of the league table, Irelands relative position to other countries continued to fall over the years, going from fifth highest to fourth lowest, the researchers elaborated.

This indicates that compared with comparable Western countries, Irish surgeons operate under fiscal disadvantage, markedly so against other European states such as Germany, France and Switzerland.

With such a relatively low priority given to health funding in the two countries, they said it might be assumed that their health outcomes would be behind other Western countries. This was not the case, they found.

They cited a 2011 study (Pritchard & Wallace) of the 10 major Western countries, which assessed health outcomes between 1980 and 2006. While in regard to reducing total adult (55-74) deaths, Ireland had the biggest reduction over the period, the UK were third equal, and Ireland and Britain were first and second most cost-effective, respectively.

Soon to be published research shows this success continues to which members of the ASGBI will have undoubtedly contributed, the researchers added.

They said their study showed that Britain and Ireland afforded substantially less than many other countries, yet comparatively achieved more with proportionally less.

However, this data illustrated that, in effect, proportionately there had been hidden cuts for what the UK and Ireland could afford for their health services that would undermine their ability to meet the challenges ahead, but these relative retractions could only be seen when having other comparative countries using a standard mechanism like %GDPEH, they explained.

Consequently, both Britain and Ireland need to at least match Europes proportional health expenditure, which would go a long way to improve [hospital] emergency department waiting times, provide adequate social care and reduce the need to cancel operations, the researchers concluded.

lloyd.mudiwa@imt.ie
'We Got Robbed': Pakistani Twitter Had a Meltdown Over 'Controversial' No Ball to Virat Kohli
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Marvel mastermind Kevin Feige may have already let slip that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 will be part of Phase Four, but lets not get too far ahead of ourselves; the second film hasn't had a trailer yet, let alone reached cinemas.

While little has officially been released about the film, director James Gunn has kindly been updating fans on the film via his Facebook channel.

In his most recent Q&A, he confirmed that John C Reilly will not be back for Vol. 2, nor will Benicio Del Toro who appeared as the Collector in both Guardians and Thor: The Dark World. The door is still open for Del Toro to appear in future Marvel films, yet Gunn said he just didnt fit into Volume 2.

It was previously confirmed that Thanos would also not reappear in the sequel and neither would the Infinity Stones.

33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Show all 34 1 /34 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 1. Captain America: Civil War Release date: 6 May 2016. Iron Man and Captain America are set to face off in this superhero blockbuster that will feature nearly all the Avengers but wont be an Avengers film. It will also mark the first time Spider-Man will feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Sony having made a deal with Marvel Studios. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 2. X-Men: Apocalypse Release date: 27 May 2016. Following the success of Days of Future Past, Apocalypse will follow the young X-Men team as the battle against Oscar Isaacs titular villain as he gathers his four horsemen; Magneto (Fassbender), Angel (Hardy), Storm (Shipp), and Psylocke (Munn). Expect carnage and no Wolverine. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 3. Suicide Squad Release date: 5 August 2016. The first supervillain film, Suicide Squad is also based in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe, where Batman and Superman live) and will introduce the world to Margot Robbies Harley Quinn and Jared Letos Joker. One of the more exciting upcoming DC films thats for sure. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 4. Doctor Strange Release date: 4 November 2016. Benedict Cumberbatch will debut in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Captain America and Iron Man live) as the Sorcerer Supreme. The film already has an incredible cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachael McAdams and Tilda Swinton. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 5. Untitled Lego Batman film Release date: 20 February 2017. Kicking off 2017 is the Lego version of Batman, who will lead his own spin-off, having already featured in the amazing Lego Movie. Will Arnett voices the titular character, while Zach Garfianakis - from the Hangover - will voice The Joker. But will he better than Leto? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 6. Untitled Wolverine film Release date: 3 March 2017. Having not starred in X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine will return to the big screen in a solo film which was recently made R-Rated following the success of Deadpool. It is expected to be Hugh Jackmans last outing as the titular character. Fox 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Release date: 5 May 2017. Chris Pratt and the crew are returning to space in the sequel to the surprisingly successful Guardians of the Galaxy. According to director James Gunn, the film will not feature Thanos, even though he will to play a major role in phase MCU Phase 3. Cast includes newcomers Kurt Russell and Pom Klementieff, as well as, rumour has it, Sylvester Stallone. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 8. Wonder Woman Release date: 23 June 2017. Gal Gadot is returning to the DCEU in her very own film, marking the first female-led superhero film on this list. Chris Pine is on board to play Wonder Womans love interest. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 9. Untitled Spider-Man reboot Release date: 7 July 2017. Yes, it is another Spider-Man reboot, having previously been redone with Andrew Garfield as the lead. However, this time it is part of the MCU, with Tom Holland as the titular character, and a heavily rumoured cameo by Iron Man could be in the pipeline. We can dream. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 10. Untitled Fox film Release date: 6 October 2017. In a strange announcement, Fox decided to withhold the release of Gambit until a future, as-yet unannounced date, which could be here, or this could be a completely separate project. Many suspect Deadpool 2 could nicely fit here, Fox capitalising on the success of the first film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 11. Thor: Ragnarok Release date: 3 November 2017. Chris Hemsworth will be returning as the Norse God in his third solo MCU film. Flight of the Conchords Taika Waititi is on board to direct, and promises a fun adventure that will likely lead into Marvels next project, Infinity War. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 12. Justice League Part One Release date: 17 November 2017. Hot on the heals of Thor comes Justice League Part One, the first DCEU team-up flick which will see Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg work together to fight bad guys. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 13: Untitled Fox film Release date: 12 January 2018. Kicking off 2018 will likely be the second Deadpool film, but then again, this could very well be another X-Men team-up. Theres also talk of an X-Force film, with Deadpool and other mutants teaming up to fight evil. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 14. Black Panther Release date: 16 February 2018. The first non-white male-led superhero film in the MCU comes in the form of Black Panther, with Chadwick Boseman reprising the titular role, having also starred as the Panther in Civil War. Creeds Ryan Coogler is on to direct what could be a very exciting film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 15. The Flash Release date: 16 March 2018. The Flash will be the first DCEU film since Justice League, and sees Ezra Miller take the lead. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were supposed to pen the film before Disney snapped them up for the Han Solo-film, leaving Seth Grahame-Smith to take charge. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 16. Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 Release date: 4 May 2018. And so, we finally get to the point of all these Infinity Stones! Thanos will be the big bad, with the Avengers needing to team up to defeat their biggest foe yet. It has previously been described as the end of the Avengers as we know it. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 17. Ant-Man and The Wasp Release date: 6 July 2018. Peyton Reed will be back to direct this surprise sequel to one of the better received MCU films. While the name is ridiculous, at least Marvel are finally having a leading female superhero. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 18. Untitled Fox film Release date: 13 July 2018. Again, not much word on this one except it is thought to be X-Men spin-off New Mutants, something Josh Boone has been hit up to write. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 19. Animated Spider-Man Film Release date: 20 July 2018. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Amy Pascal - the team behind the live-action Spider-Man films - are producing this unrelated animated adaptation of the hero. Because you can never have too much Spider-Man, right? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 20. Aquaman Release date: 27 July 2018. Another Justice League spin-off, Jason Momoa plays the leading man. Furious 7s James Wan is on to direct, but little else is known about the film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 21. Captain Marvel Release date: 8 March 2019. Weve hit 2019, and the first confirmed superhero film will be the first proper female-led MCU film. No-one is confirmed to be in the titular role of Carol Danvers just yet. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 22. Shazam Release date: 5 April 2019. Dwayne Johnson stars as the villain in this DCEU film which will be somewhat separate to the other DC films. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 23. Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. Release date: 3 May 2019. The conclusion to the long drawn MCU saga. Expect a big finish with at least a few planets being destroyed. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 24. Justice League Part Two Release date: 14 June 2019. Soon after the Infinity War story reaches its conclusion, so will the Justice Leagues. Not much is known, except Darkseid will likely be the villain for at least one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 25. Inhumans Release date: 12 July 2019. The concept of Inhumans (or Marvels mutants) has already been introduced in TV, through Marvels Agents of Shield, yet the film is expected to introduce the Royal Family who have yet to be seen in the show. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 26. Cyborg Release date: 3 April 2020. Having debuted in Justice League Part One three years previously, Cyborg will finally be making his own outing, with Ray Fisher as the titular character. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 27. Untitled MCU film Release date: 1 May 2020. The first of three untitled Marvel films. There are a couple of contenders, the first is a likely sequel to Spider-Man with Sony, or a third Guardians of the Galaxy film, thus finishing the trilogy. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 28. Green Lantern Corps. Release date: 19 June 2020. Before you start to worry, this has nothing to do with the Ryan Reynolds-starring flick that hit cinemas a little while ago. Instead, this will be another DCEU film that will likely spin-off from Justice League after the Green Lantern Corps cameo in one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 29. Untitled MCU film Release date: 10 July 2020. As well as Spider-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy sequels, a Doctor Strange or Black Panther one could fit in nicely here. Or perhaps Black Widow may finally get the solo-film she deserves. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 30. Untitled MCU film Release date: 6 November 2020. Some speculators also think a Blade film could fit in here, marking over 20 years since the first Blade. But many believe the character may be better suited to a Netflix series, as with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Theres also talk of a Runaways film reaching cinemas at some stage. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 31. Untitled Ben Affleck Batman film Release date: TBA. Now were onto the TBA release dates, the first of which is a Batman solo film, written and directed by Ben Affleck. When this is due, no one is quite sure but expect it sooner rather than later if Batman v Superman is a success. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 32. Suicide Squad 2 Release date: TBA (rumoured 2017). A sequel to Suicide Squad is expected to come in 2017 according to recent reports, but nothing has been confirmed. If the first is successful, it should come as no surprise for Warner Bros to rearrange their schedule to fit in this surefire hit. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33. Venom Release date: TBA. This is an odd one, as it has been confirmed Sony are wanting to release a Venom film completely unrelated to the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. Venom, as you may know, is a Spider-Man villain, intrinsically linked to Spider-Man, so it seems odd they would release a film unrelated to the rebooted project and not linked to the MCU. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Anything else? Well, now you mention it, theres also that sequel to Fantastic Four that has seemingly been dropped by Fox. Plus, theres the Gambit film which has been put on hold (but will likely fill an untitled Fox slot so we havent added it extra). Then again, it could be shoehorned in somehow Marvel

Thanos isn't in this movie, Gunn previously said. I think he's gonna have a little bit to do and say when it comes to certain wars and infinity. We've got other fish to fry in Guardians Vol 2.

We're not really so much about the Infinity Stones in Guardians 2. Is that a spoiler? It's not really a thing.

In other Marvel news, Captain America: Civil War is scheduled for release later this month, with the critics praising the film as one of Marvels best.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be released 28 April 2017 in the UK.
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With Michael Keaton apparently in discussions to play a villain in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Marvel and Sony are seemingly pushing forward at an increasingly speedy pace with the film.

Two new cast members have officially been added to the film; Laura Harrier, best known in the US for her role in One Life to Live, and Tony Revolori, who played Young Zero Moustafa in Wes Andersons Grand Budapest Hotel.

Speculators believe Harrier may pay one of Peter Parkers famous love interests, either Gwen Stacy or Mary Jane Watson, while Revolori will play a high-school friend of Parkers.

33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Show all 34 1 /34 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 1. Captain America: Civil War Release date: 6 May 2016. Iron Man and Captain America are set to face off in this superhero blockbuster that will feature nearly all the Avengers but wont be an Avengers film. It will also mark the first time Spider-Man will feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Sony having made a deal with Marvel Studios. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 2. X-Men: Apocalypse Release date: 27 May 2016. Following the success of Days of Future Past, Apocalypse will follow the young X-Men team as the battle against Oscar Isaacs titular villain as he gathers his four horsemen; Magneto (Fassbender), Angel (Hardy), Storm (Shipp), and Psylocke (Munn). Expect carnage and no Wolverine. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 3. Suicide Squad Release date: 5 August 2016. The first supervillain film, Suicide Squad is also based in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe, where Batman and Superman live) and will introduce the world to Margot Robbies Harley Quinn and Jared Letos Joker. One of the more exciting upcoming DC films thats for sure. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 4. Doctor Strange Release date: 4 November 2016. Benedict Cumberbatch will debut in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Captain America and Iron Man live) as the Sorcerer Supreme. The film already has an incredible cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachael McAdams and Tilda Swinton. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 5. Untitled Lego Batman film Release date: 20 February 2017. Kicking off 2017 is the Lego version of Batman, who will lead his own spin-off, having already featured in the amazing Lego Movie. Will Arnett voices the titular character, while Zach Garfianakis - from the Hangover - will voice The Joker. But will he better than Leto? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 6. Untitled Wolverine film Release date: 3 March 2017. Having not starred in X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine will return to the big screen in a solo film which was recently made R-Rated following the success of Deadpool. It is expected to be Hugh Jackmans last outing as the titular character. Fox 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Release date: 5 May 2017. Chris Pratt and the crew are returning to space in the sequel to the surprisingly successful Guardians of the Galaxy. According to director James Gunn, the film will not feature Thanos, even though he will to play a major role in phase MCU Phase 3. Cast includes newcomers Kurt Russell and Pom Klementieff, as well as, rumour has it, Sylvester Stallone. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 8. Wonder Woman Release date: 23 June 2017. Gal Gadot is returning to the DCEU in her very own film, marking the first female-led superhero film on this list. Chris Pine is on board to play Wonder Womans love interest. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 9. Untitled Spider-Man reboot Release date: 7 July 2017. Yes, it is another Spider-Man reboot, having previously been redone with Andrew Garfield as the lead. However, this time it is part of the MCU, with Tom Holland as the titular character, and a heavily rumoured cameo by Iron Man could be in the pipeline. We can dream. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 10. Untitled Fox film Release date: 6 October 2017. In a strange announcement, Fox decided to withhold the release of Gambit until a future, as-yet unannounced date, which could be here, or this could be a completely separate project. Many suspect Deadpool 2 could nicely fit here, Fox capitalising on the success of the first film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 11. Thor: Ragnarok Release date: 3 November 2017. Chris Hemsworth will be returning as the Norse God in his third solo MCU film. Flight of the Conchords Taika Waititi is on board to direct, and promises a fun adventure that will likely lead into Marvels next project, Infinity War. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 12. Justice League Part One Release date: 17 November 2017. Hot on the heals of Thor comes Justice League Part One, the first DCEU team-up flick which will see Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg work together to fight bad guys. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 13: Untitled Fox film Release date: 12 January 2018. Kicking off 2018 will likely be the second Deadpool film, but then again, this could very well be another X-Men team-up. Theres also talk of an X-Force film, with Deadpool and other mutants teaming up to fight evil. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 14. Black Panther Release date: 16 February 2018. The first non-white male-led superhero film in the MCU comes in the form of Black Panther, with Chadwick Boseman reprising the titular role, having also starred as the Panther in Civil War. Creeds Ryan Coogler is on to direct what could be a very exciting film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 15. The Flash Release date: 16 March 2018. The Flash will be the first DCEU film since Justice League, and sees Ezra Miller take the lead. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were supposed to pen the film before Disney snapped them up for the Han Solo-film, leaving Seth Grahame-Smith to take charge. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 16. Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 Release date: 4 May 2018. And so, we finally get to the point of all these Infinity Stones! Thanos will be the big bad, with the Avengers needing to team up to defeat their biggest foe yet. It has previously been described as the end of the Avengers as we know it. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 17. Ant-Man and The Wasp Release date: 6 July 2018. Peyton Reed will be back to direct this surprise sequel to one of the better received MCU films. While the name is ridiculous, at least Marvel are finally having a leading female superhero. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 18. Untitled Fox film Release date: 13 July 2018. Again, not much word on this one except it is thought to be X-Men spin-off New Mutants, something Josh Boone has been hit up to write. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 19. Animated Spider-Man Film Release date: 20 July 2018. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Amy Pascal - the team behind the live-action Spider-Man films - are producing this unrelated animated adaptation of the hero. Because you can never have too much Spider-Man, right? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 20. Aquaman Release date: 27 July 2018. Another Justice League spin-off, Jason Momoa plays the leading man. Furious 7s James Wan is on to direct, but little else is known about the film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 21. Captain Marvel Release date: 8 March 2019. Weve hit 2019, and the first confirmed superhero film will be the first proper female-led MCU film. No-one is confirmed to be in the titular role of Carol Danvers just yet. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 22. Shazam Release date: 5 April 2019. Dwayne Johnson stars as the villain in this DCEU film which will be somewhat separate to the other DC films. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 23. Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. Release date: 3 May 2019. The conclusion to the long drawn MCU saga. Expect a big finish with at least a few planets being destroyed. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 24. Justice League Part Two Release date: 14 June 2019. Soon after the Infinity War story reaches its conclusion, so will the Justice Leagues. Not much is known, except Darkseid will likely be the villain for at least one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 25. Inhumans Release date: 12 July 2019. The concept of Inhumans (or Marvels mutants) has already been introduced in TV, through Marvels Agents of Shield, yet the film is expected to introduce the Royal Family who have yet to be seen in the show. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 26. Cyborg Release date: 3 April 2020. Having debuted in Justice League Part One three years previously, Cyborg will finally be making his own outing, with Ray Fisher as the titular character. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 27. Untitled MCU film Release date: 1 May 2020. The first of three untitled Marvel films. There are a couple of contenders, the first is a likely sequel to Spider-Man with Sony, or a third Guardians of the Galaxy film, thus finishing the trilogy. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 28. Green Lantern Corps. Release date: 19 June 2020. Before you start to worry, this has nothing to do with the Ryan Reynolds-starring flick that hit cinemas a little while ago. Instead, this will be another DCEU film that will likely spin-off from Justice League after the Green Lantern Corps cameo in one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 29. Untitled MCU film Release date: 10 July 2020. As well as Spider-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy sequels, a Doctor Strange or Black Panther one could fit in nicely here. Or perhaps Black Widow may finally get the solo-film she deserves. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 30. Untitled MCU film Release date: 6 November 2020. Some speculators also think a Blade film could fit in here, marking over 20 years since the first Blade. But many believe the character may be better suited to a Netflix series, as with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Theres also talk of a Runaways film reaching cinemas at some stage. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 31. Untitled Ben Affleck Batman film Release date: TBA. Now were onto the TBA release dates, the first of which is a Batman solo film, written and directed by Ben Affleck. When this is due, no one is quite sure but expect it sooner rather than later if Batman v Superman is a success. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 32. Suicide Squad 2 Release date: TBA (rumoured 2017). A sequel to Suicide Squad is expected to come in 2017 according to recent reports, but nothing has been confirmed. If the first is successful, it should come as no surprise for Warner Bros to rearrange their schedule to fit in this surefire hit. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33. Venom Release date: TBA. This is an odd one, as it has been confirmed Sony are wanting to release a Venom film completely unrelated to the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. Venom, as you may know, is a Spider-Man villain, intrinsically linked to Spider-Man, so it seems odd they would release a film unrelated to the rebooted project and not linked to the MCU. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Anything else? Well, now you mention it, theres also that sequel to Fantastic Four that has seemingly been dropped by Fox. Plus, theres the Gambit film which has been put on hold (but will likely fill an untitled Fox slot so we havent added it extra). Then again, it could be shoehorned in somehow Marvel

The film, which will be the second film to feature Tom Hollands Spider-Man following Captain America: Civil War, will be directed by Cop Cars Jon Watts and written by Vacation duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. Marisa Tomei will reprise her role as May Parker.

According to rumours, Homecoming will feature cameos by other Avengers, with Sony and Marvels deal believed to require Marvel Studios characters to appear in the film.

Meanwhile, Deadpool director Tim Millar is hoping to one day see the web-slinger and the Merc with a Mouth team-up on the big screen one day. In a recent interview, he explained how hes hoping Fox and Marvel will one day make a deal.
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Mark Hamill has discovered a new favourite hobby, and it's driving his fans up the wall by deliberately messing with them on social media.

The Star Wars actor has been having what some might call "too much fun" on Twitter as of late, endlessly teasing his 1.7M followers with misleading hints about what's in store for Episode VIII.

Taking a break from the usual trickery of playing around with the current hysteria over whether Rey is (or isn't) Luke Skywalker's daughter, Hamill announced to fans that Episode VIII's director Rian Johnson had given him the go-ahead to reveal a brief glimpse of the film's "trailer".



Of course, by "trailer", he meant a photograph of his actual on-set trailer. Surely you didn't think he meant anything else by that, right?

Foiled again, the internet cried; shaking their collective fists to the skies. Looks as if Hamill's perhaps gotten a little too into character as The Joker for his return to voicing the role in the upcoming The Killing Joke animated film.

Fans did at least get to pour over the recent Rogue One trailer; the first of several spin-offs for the franchise, which follows the Rebel fighters who stole the plans for the Death Star which feature so centrally in the opening of A New Hope.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits UK theatres 16 December.
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Dark Souls 3 has rocketed to the top of the UK games chart, less than a week after its launch.

The latest game from Bandai Namco, available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, sees the player take on the role of an undead warrior fighting a range of enemies with swords, bows and magic, in order to avert an impending apocalypse.

It's the follow-up to 2014's universally-acclaimed Dark Souls 2, and was hotly anticipated for months before its release.

Dark Souls 3 came out on 12 April, and shot straight to the top of the chart, becoming the most successful title in the series so far.

Just below Dark Souls, in second place, is Tom Clancy's The Division, followed cloesly by EA's UFC 2.

Dark Souls took the top spot from Quantum Break, Microsoft's mad time-bending shooter, which hit the No. 1 spot after its 5 April release but slipped away shortly after.

Dark Souls' runaway commercial success shouldn't come as too much of a surprise - it's got a Metacritic score of 90/100, as was described as "endearing," "brilliant" and "torturously hard" by The Independent.
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Chinese robotics researchers have created a humanoid robot named Jia Jia, who can move her arms, make different facial expressions, and respond to human conversation.

Jia Jia, the product of three years' work by a team at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, greeted the assembled audience at her unveiling by saying: "Hello everyone, I'm Jia Jia. Welcome!"

Jia Jia's limited motion and stilted speech shouldn't leave anyone in any doubt she's a robot. However, she looks fairly realistic, with a flexible plastic face, long flowing brown hair, and an eye-catching gold dress.

Jia Jia at her unveiling at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei (VCG/Getty)

According to the team's director, Chen Xiaoping, particular attention was paid to her eye movements and lip synchronisation. He told reporters at the unveiling that the team's next step is to make it possible for her to laugh and cry.

Even without this full spectrum of emotions, she's still much less unsettling than the robotic Scarlett Johansson, created earlier this year by Hong Kong robot builder Ricky Ma.

Recommended Read more Scarlett Johansson lookalike robot created by Hong Kong man

Jia Jia was shown speaking with her creators, but her repertoire of lines might need a little work - after being switched on, she greeted Chen as her "Lord", and told assembled photographers to step back when taking pictures, so her face wouldn't look too fat.

As XinhuaNet reports, the team's eventual aim is to give the robot 'learning' abilities and facial recognition, so its human interactions gradually become more natural.

The team are set to take Jia Jia to Shanghai's International Technology Fair on 21 April, where she will be shown off to investors and tech experts from around the world.

However, they currently have no plans to put what they call their "robot goddess" into mass production, so you may have to wait a while to get one in your own home.
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All babies in Scotland are to be provided with a Nordic-style baby box in a bid to reduce inequality.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon plans to give new mothers a sturdy cardboard box with clothes, toys, nappies and a built-in mattress which will turn it into a cot.

Due to be announced in the party's manifesto ahead of the Holyrood elections in May, the initiative is based on Finlands maternity package, which has been running for 80 years and contains 50 items.

Recommended Read more WHO launches new vaccine swap to eradicate the last strains of polio

The Finnish scheme is praised as being one of the leading preventative measures against cot death, having helped see the number of deaths of infants before their first birthday in the country fall from 10 percent to 0.2 per cent, one of the lowest rates in the world.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: The baby box is such a simple idea but has been proven to have a real impact, reducing child mortality and helping families at the start of a childs life.

By providing every new-born with a baby box we can help child health  and by providing greater support to new family we will also help tackle child poverty and improve the chances of some of our most deprived children.

Finnish babies sleep in boxes for the first three to four months (finnishbabybox.co)

"Alongside the material and financial support we will deliver, it is important that parents get advice when they need it - and we'll recruit 500 new health visitors by 2018 to better-support Scotland's families and further extend the family nurse partnership, which supports some of our youngest and most vulnerable parents."

The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Show all 20 1 /20 The 20 best places to raise children in the UK The 20 best places to raise children in the UK The Orkney Islands The coast of the Orkney Islands near Bisray village Chmee2/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK The Shetland Islands A general view of the Shetland Islands JOHN D MCHUGH/AFP/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK The Western Isles A man rides his bike on Harris, one of the Western Isles, also known as the Outer Hebrides Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Winchester Choristers from Winchester Cathedral enjoy the artificial rink set up beside the cathedral The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Eden The Hartside Summit in the North Pennines in the district of Eden Christopher Furlong/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Craven A sheepdog works in Skipton, in the district of Craven Christopher Furlong/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Ryedale The Folk Museum in Ryedale Creative Commons/Dennis Smith The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Staffordshire Moorlands Three Shire Heads, which crosses over Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire Wikimedia Commons/Brian Jones The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Huntingdonshire St Ives in Cambridgeshire, which lies within the boundaries of Huntingdonshire snowmanradio/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK South Northamptonshire The village of Bradden and St.Michael's church, in south Northamptonshire Greg Fitchett/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Harrogate Spring flowers adorn the front of the Crown Hotel in the Spa town of Harrogate in Yorkshire and The Humber Christopher Furlong/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Rutland Normanton Church in Rutland NotFromUtrecht/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Warwick The West Midlands county town of Warwick David Alonso Perez/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Surrey Heath St Michael's Church, Camberley, which is situated in Surrey Heath Len Willians/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Chichester A view of the Cathedral in Chichester Evgeniy Podkopaev/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK South Lakeland Kendal, which lies in South Lakeland Mark Fosh/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Richmondshire The swing bridge in Reeth in Richmondshire Kreuzschnabel/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Tonbridge and Malling Ightham Mote in Tonbridge and Malling Brian Snelson/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Stratford-on-Avon Straford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare Christopher Furlong/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Aberdeenshire Westhill in Aberdeenshire, Scotland SCOTT CAMPBELL/AFP/Getty Images

Parents will be advised to let babies sleep on their backs in the boxes in the same room as them and will also receive advice and information on their employment and maternity and paternity rights

The SNP has proposed 600 maternity grants to low-income mums, plus more payments when children start nursery and school.

Our manifesto will set out plans to transform Scotland and to ensure all our children have an equal start to life, added Ms Sturgeon.

The SNP said the boxes would cost about 100 each, but have not disclosed how much the policy was expect to cost in total.

South Africa, Zambia and Argentina already provide their own equivalents of the baby boxes.
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This looks stupidly complicated. What does this mean?

These are the equations at the heart of the Treasurys economic model, which is designed to quantify the impact of Britain leaving the European Union. Its this model that has been cited by George Osborne as showing the economy could be 6 per cent smaller in 2030 relative to staying in the EU, meaning each household would be 4,300 worse off.

So what do all those letters mean?

They are inputs to the model, assumptions plugged into the equation. The capital T denotes trade flows. The capital Ys are the two GDPs of two trading countries. POP is population. DIST is distance. COMLANG denotes common language. BORDER means the trading countries share a common border. COLONY signifies when the country is a former colony. NTB means non-tarrif barriers. IFDI means internal foreign direct investment. FTA means free trade agreement. These are the various conditions that the Treasurys team believe have a big impact on a countrys economic performance.

How do they know that?

Its based on an analysis of historic data. For instance, they see that countries with a common border tend to do more trade. Ditto for countries that are closer together. They see that countries that do more trade seem to have higher productivity growth and to adopt new technologies faster. What the model tries to capture is the likely impact of Brexit on various factors that have historically been important for UK GDP growth, all based on historic relationships between variables.

And what are those variables?

First of all trade volumes. Then there is foreign direct investment (FDI) into the UK. Finally there is productivity growth (the amount of output the UK producers per worker).

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

What do other modellers say about the Treasurys assumptions?

In its central scenario, the Treasury assumes the UK would negotiate a Canadian-style bilateral trade agreement with the EU. And this leads to an estimated fall in UK trade volumes of between 14 and 19 per cent as a result of various new tariffs that would follow. But the Oxford Economics model for a roughly similar post-Brexit trade agreement scenario only produced a fall in trade volumes of 7 per cent. Theres twice as much trade destruction [in the Treasurys trade forecast] To us they feel a little strong said Henry Worthington of Oxford Economics.

Is that the only discrepancy?

The other big difference between the Oxford Economics report and the Treasurys lies in the assumptions of the Treasury on the knock-on impact of the fall in trade on the UKs productivity growth. The Treasury has looked at previous studies of how, historically, changes in UK trade volumes impact domestic UK productivity growth. And from these studies it has calculated an elasticity that it has fed into its model equation. Oxford Economics used elasticities that were only half as large as the Treasury's. This means for a given fall in trade, the fall in productivity growth is less than half as large in Oxfords model. But Mr Worthington said the Treasurys assumptions on this were not unreasonable. We wouldnt suggest that theyve been deliberately mis-chosen he said. But he stressed that Oxford had used its own econometric model to produce its trade/productivity growth elasticities, rather than previous academic studies as the Treasury had.

What's the result?

The negative impact on trade of Brexit in the Treasury's model is twice as high as in that of Oxford Economics. The negative impact on productivity growth of that fall in trade is also twice as strong. That difference largely explains why the Treasury sees the ultimate GDP shortfall by 2030 as almost twice as big:
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Queen Elizabeth II will turn 90 on Thursday, becoming the countrys first nonagenarian sovereign.

As Britains longest reigning monarch in history, the Queen has witnessed pivotal moments in history, from the fall of the British Empire and the Berlin Wall to the arrival and departure of 12 British prime ministers.

Since coming to the throne at the tender age of 25, Her Majesty has also come into contact with a number of key political figures of the last century. In turn, the Queen has found herself in close quarters with some of the worlds most feared dictators and leaders with less than perfect human rights records.

Here is a selection of the most contentious figures the Queen has cordially shaken hands with.

President Bashar al-Assad

In her lengthy reign the Queen has witnessed everything from the fall of the British Empire and the Berlin Wall (Getty Images)

The Syrian President called in at Buckingham Palace during an official three-day visit to Britain for talks with Tony Blair. He is the first and only Syrian president to have met the Queen.

Hailing from a family who have been in power for decades, Assad is the leader of an authoritarian regime and Commander-In-Chief of the Syrian Armed forces. The regime has been accused of being responsible for mass civilian casualties  with the Syrian Centre for Policy Research estimating 470,000 civilians have died in the war.

Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Show all 62 1 /62 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II on a walk-about in Portsmouth during her Silver Jubilee tour of Great Britain, 1977 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The future Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (R) pictured with her younger sister Princess Margaret (L) in 1933 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The 9-year-old Elizabeth attends an aristocratic wedding with her mother and younger sister. Later in that year with the death of her Grandfather and the Abdication of her Uncle Edward VIII she became first in line to the throne, 1936 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The coronation of King George VI in 1937, Elizabeth aged 10 became the heir apparent to the throne Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth and her sister arrive at Waterloo station to say goodbye to their parents as they leave to tour Canada. Elizabeth was thought too young to escort her parents on the tour and was described as "tearful" as they departed. She and her parents made the first ever transatlantic telephone call during their time away, 1939 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The 13-year-old Elizabeth and her sister Margret address children who have been evacuated from the cities on BBC's 'The Chilrens Hour' She said "We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well", 1940 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Just before the end of the war Elizabeth took part in training to become an ATS officer. She is pictured learning to change a tire, 1945 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The official announcement of Princess Elizabeth and Phillip Mountbatten's engagement. The pairing was incredibly controversial as Prince Phillip had no financial standing and he was foreign born, the prince of Denmark and Greece (though he served Britain in the war and was given British Citizenship), 1947 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II (in coach) and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh are cheered by the crowd after their wedding ceremony, on 20 November 1947, on their road to Buckingham Palace, London Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth smiles at her first child, a month old Prince Charles. Charles was born on 14 November 1948 Corbis Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The couples second child Princess Anne was born in 1950 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Arriving back in England upon hearing the death of her father King George VI. The Kings health had been in decline for a number of years and Elizabeth had been filling in for him on an official visit to Australia by way of Kenya. As his heir Elizabeth became Queen aged 26 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth's coronation took place on 2 June 1953. It was the first ever coronation to be aired live on television, being one of the most watched events in history with millions gathering around their TV sets to see the new monarch Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II standing next to her daughter Princess Anne, 1960 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II President Eisenhower (centre) with the British Royal family (L-R) Prince Philip, Princess Anne, HM Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Captain John Eisenhower, at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, 1959 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II as she turns to smile and talk to an unidentified officer, during the Trooping of the Colour by the First Battalion of the Jamaica Regiment at Up-Park Camp, Kingston, Jamaica, 1966 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II walking cross country at the North of Scotland Gun Dog Association Open Stake Retreiver Trials in the grounds of Balmoral Castle in 1967 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the Chelsea Flower Show in London, a regular fixture in the royal calendar, 1971 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh during their traditional summer break at Balmoral Castle. The highland retreat is one of the Queen's favourite places, each year, she heads off to Scotland for the summer. "It is rather nice to hibernate for a bit when one leads such a moveable life," she once said, 1976 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II during a walkabout in Muscat while visiting Oman, 1979 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II with some of her corgis walking the Cross Country course during the second day of the Windsor Horse Trials. The monarch is responsible for introducing a new breed of dog known as the "dorgi" when her corgi Tiny was mated with a dachshund "sausage dog" called Pipkin which belonged to Princess Margaret, 1980 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II (L-R) the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William, Prince Harry and the Prince and Princess of Wales after the christening ceremony of Prince Harry, 1984 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II taking the salute of the Household Guards regiments during the Trooping of the Colour ceremony in London, 1985 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Diana, Princess of Wales and Queen Elizabeth II as they smile to well-wishers outside Clarence House in London, 1987 AP Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II, with Chief Instructor, Small Arms Corp LT Col George Harvey, firing the last shot on a standard SA 80 rifle when she attended the centenary of the Army Rifle Association at Bisley, 1993 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II South Africa's President Nelson Mandela greets Queen Elizabeth II as she steps from the royal yacht Britannia in Cape Town at the 1995's official start of the her first visit to the country since 1947 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II smiles as she visits Bowring Park in St. John's, Newfoundland, on the third day of a 10-day official visit to Canada, 1997 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh make their way into St. George's Chapel at Windsor for the annual Garter ceremony, 1999 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II as they meet at the Vatican, 2000 AP Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother leaving church by horse drawn carriage on the Sandringham Estate, Norfolk, 2000 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth rides her horse in the grounds of Windsor Castle, 2002 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth arrives for the world premiere of James Bond movie "Casino Royale" at the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square in London, 2006 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth boards a scheduled train at Kings Cross station in London, 2009 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II planting a tree at Newmarket Animal Health Trust, during a royal visit which marked her 50th year as the charity's patron, 2009 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II talking with Pope Benedict XVI during an audience in the Morning Drawing Room at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh during a four day visit by the Pope to the UK, 2010 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II visiting the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 2010 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II receives flowers from the crowd during her visit to Federation Square in downtown Melbourne, 2011 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth watches a preview of her Christmas message wearing a pair of 3D glasses, studded with Swarovski crystals in the form of a "Q", at Buckingham Palace in central London, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Members of Britain's royal family (front L to R) Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles cheer as competitors participate in a sack race at the Braemar Gathering in Braemar, Scotland, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Prince Charles kisses the hand of his mother Queen Elizabeth at the end of her Diamond Jubilee concert in front of Buckingham Palace in London, 2012 Reuters Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge laughs as Queen Elizabeth gestures during a visit to Vernon Park in Nottingham, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip attend a service for the Order of the British Empire at St Paul's Cathedral in London, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II meets young people during an official visit to The Shard building in central London, 2013 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Actress Angelina Jolie is presented with the Insignia of an Honorary Dame Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1844 Room at Buckingham Palace, London, 2014 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red evolving art installation at the Tower of London, 2014 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the State Opening of Parliament, 2015 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II (L-R) Britain's Princess Anne, Princess Royal, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge holding his son Prince George of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry (back), Prince Andrew, Duke of York (back), James, Viscount Severn (front), Princess Beatrice of York (back), Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Eugenie of York (back) stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace waiting to view the fly-past during the Queen's Birthday Parade, 'Trooping the Colour,' in London, 2015 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Trooping of the Colour is an annual celebration marking the Queen's birthday, 2015 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Queen Elizabeth II stands with Kate the Duchess of Cambridge whilst pushing Princess Charlotte in a pram as they leave after attending the Christening of Britain's Princess Charlotte at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, 2015 AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II arrives at the Broadway Theatre in Barking, 2015 Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II greets wellwishers during a 'walkabout' on her 90th birthday in Windsor in 2016 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Members of the Royal Family during trooping of the colour in 2017 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Queen waves at Prince Harry and Meghan after their wedding in 2018 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex gesture during their visit to the Storyhouse in Chester, Cheshire in 2018 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Prince Charles reacts as he sits with his mother Britain's Queen Elizabeth II during an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, in Portsmouth in 2019 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are joined by her mother, Doria Ragland, as they show their new son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, to the Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle Chris Allerton/Sussex Royal/PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II reacts as she visits the Haig Housing Trust in Morden in 2019 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II takes her seat on the The Sovereign's Throne in the House of Lords next to Prince Charles, before reading the Queen's Speech during the State Opening of Parliament in 2019 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II looks at the coffin of Britain's Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh during his funeral service at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales pose alongside the tree which they planted to mark the start of the official planting season for the Queen's Green Canopy (QGC) at the Balmoral Cricket Pavilion, Balmoral Estate in Scotland POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Queen Elizabeth II cuts a cake to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee during a reception in the Ballroom of Sandringham House, the Queen's Norfolk residence on February 5, 2022. - Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday will became the first British monarch to reign for seven decades, in a bittersweet landmark as she also marked the 70th anniversary of her father's death AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Westminster Abbey accompanied by Prince Andrew, Duke of York for the Service Of Thanksgiving For The Duke Of Edinburgh on March 29, 2022 in London Getty

Mobutu Sese Seko

(Getty (Getty Images)

The Queen was pictured with the military dictator and President of the Democratic Republican of the Congo on route to Buckingham Palace at the start of his State Visit to Britain in the 70s. Known for his trademark leopard print hat, the despot who died in 1997 garnered substantial wealth through corruption and exploitation.

Robert Mugabe

The Zimbabwean dictator was awarded an honorary knighthood in 1994 (Getty Images)

The Queen came into contact with Mugabe when she awarded him with his honorary knighthood in 1994. But three years later the Queen stripped the President of Zimbabwe of his honour. The decision to annul the knighthood was actually made by Gordon Brown in light of the extreme nature of his regime and its treatment of opposition members.

 Queen's Guard loses his temper with tourist

Nursultan Nazarbayev

(Getty Images)

Her Majesty welcomed Nazarbayev into the Palace in November of last year. The President of Kazakhstan lunched with the Queen, Prince Philip and Andrew. Nazarbayev has been president of Kazakhstan for 27 years and was re-elected in April of last year with 97.7 per cent of the vote. The leader has carried out an authoritarian regime, suppressed dissent and been accused of a lengthy catalogue of human rights abuses.

Yoweri Museveni

The Queen meeting Yoweri Museveni in 2015 (Getty Images)

The Queen met with Ugandas president at a meeting of Commonwealth leaders in Malta back in November of 2015. Museveni has been accused of utilising his security forces to curb opposition to his 30-year tenure. He also signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act which originally proposed the death penalty for people in same-sex relationships. It was later ruled unlawful.

Hassanal Bolkiah

(Getty Images)

Her Majesty has met the Sultan of Brunei on more than one occasion. She has knighted both him and his father. Most recently she also met him at the meeting of Commonwealth leaders in Malta. The Sultan is the head of state, head of government and monarch of Brunei. In recent years, he has imposed sharia law and homosexuality is now punished by death by stoning.
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Activists have scaled a number of landmarks across London in a mass protest demanding action over the city's levels of air pollution.

Greenpeace posted images across social media showing dust masks and mock gas masks on statues of Oliver Cromwell, Queen Victoria, Eros, Winston Churchill and Horatio Nelson.

Four protesters were able to get past security at the Houses of Parliament and scaled the statue of Cromwell within the grounds of the Palace of Westminster.

Police were called at 6.25am as a man and a woman, in climbing gear and hard hats bearing the Greenpeace logo, put a face mask over the statue.

Eight people were arrested on the grounds outside the Houses of Parliament in an security breach that will prove embarrassing to authorities.

Greenpeace posted images to social media showing the view from the top of Nelson's Column (Greenpeace)

Greenpeace released images showing more protesters climbing the 52m-tall Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, adding it was "quite a view from the top".

In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard Show all 20 1 /20 In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-trio.jpg Oli Scarff/Getty Images In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-profile.jpg Warrick Page/Getty Images In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-near-top.jpg Sean Dempsey/PA Wire In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-16.jpg AP In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-15.jpg AP In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-14.jpg @GreenpeaceUK In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-13.jpg @GreenpeaceUK In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-10.jpg @GreenpeaceUK In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard Shard-9.jpg @GreenpeaceUK In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard.jpg In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-8.jpg EPA In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-climb-33.jpg Sean Dempsey/PA Wire In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-4-inset.jpg PA In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-5.jpg EPA In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-7.jpg EPA In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-4.jpg EPA In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-6.jpg EPA In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-2.jpg EPA In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-1.jpg EPA In pictures: Greenpeace climbs The Shard shard-3.jpg EPA

The organisation said it had targeted a total of 17 statues across the city, also including those of Thierry Henry outside Arsenal's football stadium and Sherlock Holmes outside Baker Street Tube station.

Campaigner Areeba Hamid said the protest was timed ahead of the upcoming London mayoral elections:

"Monitoring shows that, if these statutes were real people, many of them would often be breathing dangerous, illegal air.

"That's why we've given them face masks. Of course many millions of Londoners, including kids, are breathing that same air. Kitting everyone out with face masks is not the solution; instead we need to see real political action from the new mayor.

"We need a clean air zone covering a large part of the city. Whoever wins the election has to stop the talk and start the action."

The protest is meant to pressure London mayoral candidates to draw attention to air pollution during London's mayoral election.
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Police are becoming increasingly concerned for the welfare of childrens author Helen Bailey who has been missing for more than a week.

Ms Bailey, 51, was last seen on 11 April near her home in Royston, Hertfordshire. She is described as slim, having long black hair and was walking her pet miniature dachshund when she was last seen.

Police have appealed for help in locating the author and have urged anyone with any information on her whereabouts to urgently contact them.

Ms Bailey has written a number of popular books aimed at adolescents starring the character Electra Brown. She also penned the popular blog Planet Grief documenting how she mourned her husband after he drowned while swimming in the sea on holiday in Barbados in 2011.

The blog was published as a book in October under the title When Bad Things Happen In Good Bikinis which took its name from her striking description of her husbands death: On the 27th February 2011, whilst on holiday in Barbados, my husband got off his sun lounger, adjusted his glasses and headed into the sea for a swim. Moments later I heard him call for help, and watched helplessly from the beach as he was pulled out to sea by a rip tide. He drowned.

Bizarrely, after he died, almost the first thing I said was, But Im wearing a bikini! As if bad things cant happen when youre wearing a good bikini. But they can and it did. At the age of 46, I crash-landed on Planet Grief, a place where nothing, not even my own reflection in the mirror felt familiar.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

In a statement, Hachette Childrens Group which is part of the group which publishes Baileys writing, said: Along with Helens friends and family we anxiously await the news of her safe return.

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire Police said: Police are appealing for the publics help to trace a woman who has gone missing from Royston. Helen Bailey, aged 51, was last seen around 2:45pm on Monday, April 11. Concerns are growing for her welfare and police are urging Helen to make contact to let them know she is safe and well.

Anyone with any information relating to Ms Baileys whereabouts is asked to call the police non-emergency number 101.
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The Government has deported three times as many teenagers to countries ravaged by war and poverty than ministers have previously admitted, figures seen by The Independent reveal.

Charities and politicians have warned the life or death decisions of whether to deport young people are being mishandled by a callous Home Office without a grip on the facts.

Despite spending their formative years in Britain, children granted temporary leave to remain in the UK as asylum seekers are often sent back to a country they have not lived in for years when they turn 18.

The Home Office says the young people sent away from the UK no longer need our protection.

Ministers had previously believed that just 151 former child asylum seekers had been removed after coming of age in 2014, but quietly issued a correction buried deep in parliamentary documents issued the day MPs went home for Easter.

The new statistics show that 445 18-year-olds who came to the UK as children were in fact sent back to the countries they flee from as soon as they come of age.

The change, part of a wider and previously reported revision of asylum data stretching back to February, means three times as many of the teenagers are being thrown out as previously thought.

 Protest outside Home Office

Charities have warned the bungle is a reflection of an asylum system letting down young people.

These children grow up here; often achieve well in school and then find themselves confused, frightened and abandoned by the country they thought would protect them, when they turn 18, Anna Musgrave, advocacy manager at the charity told the Independent.

The Government knows all too well that the asylum system is letting young people down and needs urgent reform to make sure that everyone gets a fair hearing.

Research last year by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism identified worrying end destinations for some 18-year-old deportees: the Afghan conflict, the Syrian civil war, the Iraqi insurgency, and the failed state of Libya.

Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Show all 11 1 /11 Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkey's two million Syrian refugees There are already over 2.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, but their current camps can only hold 200,000 people ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkish citizens protest a new deal, also criticised by human rights activists, which will see refugees who arrived in Greece after March 20 be sent back to Turkey AP Photo/Emre Tazegu Turkey's two million Syrian refugees An estimated 80% of Syrian refugee children already in Turkey are unable to attend school BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Refugee children beg for water near the Turkey-Syria border. Turkey has been accused of illegally deporting asylum-seekers back to Syria BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees In Turkey, no-one from outside Europe is legally recognised as a refugee, meaning the 2016 deportations may not meet international legal standards for protecting vulnerable people BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees A refugee child cries as she is searched by police at the Syria-Turkey border, where 16 refugees (including three children) have been shot dead in the last four months BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Many refugees are living rough on the streets of cities such as Istanbul or Ankara (pictured) ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkish soldiers use water cannon on Syrian refugees BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Syrian refugees shelter from rain in the streets of Istanbul BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees A derelict building housing Syrian refugees in Istanbul Carl Court/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkey houses around half of all the refugees who have currently fled Syria Carl Court/Getty Images

The Independent reported that an average of 100 Afghans a year were being sent back to their country, despite the ongoing security situation there and the Foreign Office advising against travel for UK citizens.

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, told The Independent that the approach to the teenagers was callous and that they should be given a chance to continue.

Throwing 18-years-olds out of the country and back to places that they fled in terror exposes an immigration system that is self-defeating and utterly callous, he said.

It is time we put compassion first and give these young people who have been educated here in the UK the chance to stay. We must never forget how desperate you must be to leave everything behind and flee for your life.

Previous reports from February suggest that between 2007 and 2015 a total of 4,000 asylum seekers who came to the UK as orphans have been deported.

Don Flynn, director of the Migrants Rights Network, warned of an administrative culture that has insufficient regard for the well-being of vulnerable young people.

It says something about the way the Home Office approaches these issues when they cannot even give a correct count of the numbers being expelled, he told The Independent.

The failure to get something as basic as the numbers being deported increases the worry that the Home Office is mishandling these procedures.

Meanwhile, the charity Asylum Aid warned the Government needed to regain public trust after the blunder.

It is worrying that the Home Office does not seem to have a handle on its own operations. The decision to remove an asylum seeker can be one of life or death, it is absolutely crucial that the proper care is taken with these matters so that the lives of young people are not put at risk, a spokesperson said.

A Home Office spokesperson defended the Governments record on the deportations. The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who genuinely need it and every case is carefully considered on its individual merits, she said.

We take our international responsibility in cases involving children seriously and their welfare is at the heart of every decision made. Where people establish a genuine need for protection, or a well founded fear of persecution, we will grant refuge.

When someone is found to no longer need our protection, we expect them to leave the country voluntarily.
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Jeremy Hunt is facing new questions over his handling of the junior doctor dispute after the Department of Health (DH) appeared to retreat from its commitment to impose a new contract on the profession.

Lawyers acting for five junior doctors who are seeking to take Mr Hunt to the High Court over the dispute, claim that DH lawyers have said the Health Secretary never intended to impose the contract, and were now saying only that the contract would be introduced from August.

The distinction could be significant. Lawyers acting for the five doctors  known as the Justice for Health group  argue that Mr Hunt had no legal power to impose the contract on the majority of doctors. However, Mr Hunt responded directly to the claims, saying that there had been no change of approach.

Recommended Read more Junior doctors begin permanent protest outside Department of Health

As set out in BMAs own FAQs on legal position. Govt [sic] done what entitled to following disappointing & needless refusal to negotiate by BMA, he posted on Twitter. But Labour claimed DH lawyers were trying to get Mr Hunt out of what could be a very significant legal problem and suggested he may have misled Parliament.

Shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander said: "This revelation is crucial because junior doctors have entered into a period of unprecedented industrial action off the back of the Tories' decision to impose the contract. Rather than trying to clarify the situation, Hunt has stayed quiet and refused to negotiate any further.

His motives, judgement and competence are now being called into question.

 Junior doctors' plea to David Cameron

"If Jeremy Hunt is now claiming he isn't imposing the contract, then this also raises the prospect that he has misled Parliament.

Jeremy Hunt needs to urgently clarify whether or not he has the powers to impose a new contract. And if not, the Tories are going to have to answer to the thousands of patients and staff who have suffered months of distress and uncertainty because of the decisions they have taken.

Dr Marie-Estella McVeigh, a member of the Justice for Health group said: The reaction of the governments legal team in changing their use of language, vindicates our belief that the imposition of this dangerous new contract is fundamentally wrong, and as we suspected  illegal.
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Terrorists will always wish to target civil aviation, says the aviation security expert, Philip Baum. His new book, Violence in the Skies: A History of Aircraft Hijacking and Bombing, presents the horrifying history of attacks on aircraft.

Even a harmless hijacking - such as the Egyptian domestic flight which diverted to Cyprus to meet the demands of a passenger wearing a spoof suicide vest - grabs headlines.

And, as 9/11 shows, a well-planned and executed attack can take a dreadful toll in innocent lives.

The aviation security industry seems cursed constantly to be in catch-up mode, meeting the latest terrorist threat.

So it is understandable that passengers and crew might conclude that a malevolent attack involving a drone could down a plane.

The London area could be chosen for such an attack, because it is the world hub of aviation - with more flights and passengers than any other city on earth. Yet the risk that terrorists would succeed in bringing down an aircraft here or anywhere else, using a currently commercially available drone, is small.

Previous experience together with technological limitations mean terrorists are much more likely to use shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles to try to bring down a jet (they are known as MANPADs in the jargon, short for man-portable air-defence systems). Sadly, there are many such weapons in circulation.

They are designed to carry explosive charges towards a target at high speed, usually homing in automatically.

And, as such, they are potentially far more effective at killing innocent people than a slow-moving drone. Aviation security insiders do indeed fear a drone attack  but one that targets planes or passengers on the ground.

Geo-fencing technology is supposed to keep drones away from active airports, with GPS location-sensing creating an invisible protective perimeter.

But by no means all "unmanned aerial vehicles" have this feature - and it can be hacked in order to break through the fence.

A large drone can carry quite enough explosive or flammable material to cause a major incident at an airport, possibly with many casualties. All the more reason, then, to police drone users more effectively, and to find new technological solutions to limit the possible damage.
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Migrants are to blame for oversubscribed primary schools in the UK, a Conservative minister has claimed, as thousands of children are expected not to receive their first choice of primary school this week.

Employment Minister Priti Patel said it was regrettable that many British children would miss out on spaces at their preferred schools for the next academic year and warned that uncontrolled migration was putting too much pressure on the education system.

Ms Patel, whose parents moved to the UK from Uganda, criticised her own Government for failing to plan for enough school places.

The shortage of primary school places is yet another example of how uncontrolled migration is putting unsustainable pressures on our public services, she said.

Education is one of the most important things the Government delivers, and its deeply regrettable that so many families with young children are set to be disappointed today.

One in four primary schools is now full or oversubscribed, it was reported this week, with a further 295,000 new pupils expected to enroll by 2020. Shadow Education Secretary Lucy Powell said the education system was in crisis, and called on the Government to address the broken school system.

Migrant support charity Migrants' Rights Networks disputed Ms Patel's claims.

Recommended Read more One in four primary schools full or over capacity

Charity Director Don Flynn said: "Ms Patel's comments do not square with what we know of the impact of migration on local schools in areas where new arrivals are present in large numbers.

"In London in particular the presence of children from migrant families in the local school system has played an important part in pushing standards upwards and making the capital one of the most successful parts of the country in terms of the performance of schools.

10 best primaries and secondary schools Show all 20 1 /20 10 best primaries and secondary schools 10 best primaries and secondary schools Bousfield Primary, London SW5 (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Fox Primary, London W8 (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools West London Free School Primary, London W6 (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools William Tyndale Primary School, London (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools St Peters Catholic Primary School, Hampshire (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools St Stephen's Church of England Primary School, Bath (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Trinity Church of England, Gloucestershire (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Meadowside Primary School, North Yorkshire (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Bourne Abbey Church of England Primary School, Lincolnshire (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools South Morningside Primary School, Edinburgh (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools The Grey Coat Hospital, London SW1 (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Highbury Grove, London N5 (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Holland Park School, London (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Dame Alice Owens, Hertfordshire (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Cherwell School, Oxford 10 best primaries and secondary schools Cranbrook School, Kent 10 best primaries and secondary schools Kings School, Hampshire (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Bishop Wordsworth's School, Wiltshire (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Sexeys School, Somerset (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools James Gillespies High School, Edinburgh (Secondary school)

"Whilst there is clearly evidence of problems in terms of finding places for all the children who need them, this seems to be more closely connected with lack of investment in schools and the demands placed on them by constant reorganisation. It is wrong to say that migration itself is the cause of these problems."
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Shadow justice minister Jo Stevens has written to Westminsters human rights committee demanding urgent action to stop Northern Ireland prosecuting women under the abortion ban.

The letter, which urges the committee to address the abortion ban as a priority, is co-signed by a number of Labour MPs. It comes after a 21-year-old woman was convicted of having an abortion earlier this month and a second woman is due to stand trial next week accused of helping her daughter to have an abortion. The 1967 Abortion Act does not apply to Northern Ireland and it is a criminal offence to have an abortion in the region.

Recommended Read more Northern Ireland urged to stop prosecuting women under abortion ban

The letter states: We believe that there are few more egregious breaches of human rights than the denial of vital healthcare, yet this is the situation for hundreds of thousands of women in Northern Ireland. These women have the right to expect their rights to be recognised and protected by the UK parliament and therefore we ask that you make this situation a priority for your committee.

The letter argues that although healthcare and justice matters are devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, human rights issues are not. In November, Northern Irelands abortion legislation was ruled a breach of international human rights law by Belfast High Court. However, in February the devolved parliament voted to keep the laws regardless.

Women on the front line of America's abortion war Show all 3 1 /3 Women on the front line of America's abortion war Women on the front line of America's abortion war IA28-34-Abortion-2.jpg AP Women on the front line of America's abortion war IA34-Janis.jpg Women on the front line of America's abortion war IA28-34-abortion-3.jpg AP

The letter states: These prosecutions are continuing despite a ruling of the high court that Northern Irelands abortion laws are incompatible with the UKs Human Rights Act We appreciate that abortion is a devolved issue. However, human rights are not a devolved issue.

It is believed that around 1,000 Northern Irish women travel to Great Britain for an abortion every year. This summer, a court ruled that they were not entitled to free terminations on NHS England and instead have to pay for private procedures. It is feared that a growing number of women may be ordering pills online and performing abortions on themselves in Northern Ireland.
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Britain would be completely killed in international trade negotiations if it votes to leave the EU, Frances economy minister has claimed.

Emmanuel Macron, who has previously warned that Brexit would see migrant camps move from Calais to Britain, said that the UK was currently a strong and credible trade partner with countries like China because of its EU membership and would risk international obscurity if it left.

You will never be in a situation to negotiate face to face with China because your domestic market is not relevant for the Chinese in comparison with their domestic market, he told the BBCs Andrew Marr Show.

Pro-Brexit Cabinet minister Chris Grayling, who will today become the first Government minister to share a campaign platform with UKIP leader Nigel Farage, hit back at suggestions that Britains trading status would be diminished, claiming that millions of European jobs depended on British consumers.

However Mr Grayling also called for David Cameron to remain as Prime Minister in the event of Brexit  a sentiment that was echoed by fellow Conservative Out campaigners David Davis and Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers.

The endorsements will be seen as an attempt to cool tensions in the Conservative party after Boris Johnson strongly criticised the Prime Minister, describing Mr Camerons claim that UK trade would suffer in the event of Brexit as b******s.

What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Show all 5 1 /5 What's the European Parliament ever done for us? What's the European Parliament ever done for us? A cap on the amount of hours an employer can make you work The Working Time directive provides legal standards to ensure the health and safety of employees in Europe. Among the many rules are a working week of a maximum 48 hours, including overtime, a daily rest period of 11 hours in every 24, a break if a person works for six hours or more, and one day off in every seven. It also includes provisions for paid annual leave of at least four weeks every year Getty Images What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping the people of Britain to avoid smoking In 2014 MEPs passed the Tobacco Products Directive strengthening existing rules on the manufacture, production and presentation of tobacco products. This includes things like reduced branding, restrictions on products containing flavoured tobacco, health warnings on cigarette packets and provisions for e-cigarettes to ensure they are safe What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping you to make the right choices with your food Thanks to the European Parliament, UK consumers have access to more information than ever about their food and drink. This includes amount of fat, and how much of it is saturated, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and so on. It also includes portion sizes and guideline daily amount information so people can make informed choices about their diet. All facts must be clear and easy to understand What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Two year guarantees and 14-day returns policy for all products Consumers across the EU have access to a number of rights, from things which are potentially very useful, to things which used to be annoying. For example, shoppers in the UK receive a two-year guarantee on all products, and a 14-day period to change their minds and return a purchase, these things are useful www.PeopleImages.com-licence restrictions apply What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Keeping your air nice and fresh (and safe) Believe it or not, although the situation is improving, some areas of the UK have appalling air quality. A report by the Royal College of Physicians released on 23 February says 40,000 deaths are caused by outdoor air pollution in the UK every year. Air pollution is linked to a number of illnesses and conditions, from Asthma to diabetes and dementia. The report estimates the costs to British business and the health service add up to 20 billion every year

The London Mayor labelled Mr Camerons EU renegotiation deal perfunctory and criticised the Conservatives three most powerful figures for failing to secure meaningful reform on EU immigration.

We were told repeatedly in the run-up to this re-negotiation that we would be able to decide that only people who had jobs lined up could come here and we were just told to bog off and we got nowhere on that. It was Theresa [May], Dave [Cameron] and George [Osborne], he said.

Divisions could open up again today with the expected publication of an official Treasury report outlining the economic costs and benefits of EU membership, which is expected to warn of a possible recession, rising prices and falling exports that could put many jobs at risk.

Mr Macron, seen as a potential candidate for next years French presidential elections, said that the UK should not isolate itself, suggesting that Brexit could see it reduced to the status of Jersey or Guernsey.

He repeated his assertion that a vote to leave could force France to reconsider its agreement with Britain, whereby UK border checks are carried out in French ports. He said there would be big political pressures from citizens of Northern France to reduce the strain on the region from migrants and refugees seeking to enter the UK.

Its obvious it will be extremely tough vis-a-vis out people especially [in the] north of France, to explain, ok, this guy decided to leave but we will keep everything like it was, he said.

He also warned that Brexit would have consequences for the UKs trade agreements with Europe, dismissing suggestions from some in the Out campaign that the UK could retain access to the single market, while dropping EU rules and regulations such as those guaranteeing freedom of movement.

We have to be very clear that a Brexit will have consequences, Mr Macron said. Otherwise it is the beginning of dismantling. Every [EU state] which is, which disagrees on one or two points will decide to do the same. So you will have consequences.

His comments reflect growing concern among EU leaders that Brexit would set off a chain reaction around the continent, encouraging other countries to seek their own new deal, and emboldening anti-EU movements  not least Frances far-right National Front, which has consistently secured second or first place in recent opinion polls. Whitehall officials are concerned that EU leaders fears of such a contagion will make the task of securing a good post-Brexit deal for the UK even more difficult.

The warning came as two pro-Brexit Cabinet ministers boosted David Cameron by saying that he should stay on as Prime Minister in the event of a vote to leave the EU.

Former Chancellor Ken Clarke had said last week that Mr Cameron wouldnt last 30 seconds if he lost the referendum. But Mr Grayling, the House of Commons leader, told The Andrew Marr Show, that the Prime Minister had the relationships around Europe that would be needed to secure the UK the best post-Brexit deal.

"It would be disastrous, in my view, for the Leave cause if we vote to leave and then we get distracted by a Conservative leadership contest. He must stay, I want him to stay," he said.

Ms Villiers, the Northern Ireland Secretary, meanwhile told Sky Newss Murnaghan programme that it was vitally important Mr Cameron remained in office, calling him a great Prime Minister.
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The Foreign Secretary has arrived in Libya on an unannounced visit to the north African country.

Philip Hammond made the trip in a show of support for the countrys new unity government, which is backed by the United Nations.

The French and German foreign ministers also visited the country in the past week for similar reasons.

Since 2014, the countrys internationally recognised government had been forced out of the capital, Tripoli.

The city has been held by another group of fighters claiming to be the government: the New General National Congress, and its allies.

The official Government has been running its operations from Tobruk in the east of the country.

The centre of the countrys populated coastal area, around the port city of Sirte, is controlled by an affiliate of the so-called Islamic State group.

Some areas are also in practice controlled by other assorted local forces.

Now the new, united, Government of National Accord has emerged after a UN-brokered agreement  which hopes to unite the two main factions.

Though the unity administration is not up and running, some progress has been made in recent weeks and months.

The UN Libya Envoy Martin Kobler said on Sunday the international organisation would start once again to base its operations out of Tripoli.

Most UN staff were evacuated to Tunisia in 2014 amid heavy fighting, and their return is a sign of perceived stability.

Tony Blair tried to improve relations with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2007 (PA)

The progress comes shortly after US president Barack Obama told the Atlantic magazine that David Cameron allowed the country to be a s*** show

Singling out the British Prime Minister, the president suggested that Mr Cameron had taken his eye off events in Libya after being distracted by a range of other things.

David Cameron came under renewed pressure this weekend to publish details of any military action Britain has planned in Libya.

A security document leaked to the Reuters news agency suggested that five separate security operations were being considered. EU ministers are meeting today to discuss the possibility of deployments as part of an international force, which could see British forces return to combat roles.

Conservative Foreign Affairs Committee chair Crispin Blunt accused Mr Hammond of being "less than candid" with regards to future deployments.

A NATO-backed force including France, the US, UK, Italy, and Canada intervened on the side of rebels to help topple dictator Muammar Gaddafi after Arab Spring protests in 2011.
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MPs are to investigate allegations of illegal weapons sales at British weapons fairs after a judge ruled there was credible evidence of wrongdoing at the biggest event in the arms trades calendar.

The House of Commons Committee on Arms Export Control, made up of MPs from all the main parties, will look into the allegations that a judge said had not been appropriately investigated by the authorities.

The probe into the fairs comes after the acquittal of eight anti-arms trade protesters who tried to blockade the 2015 DSEI arms fair in Londons docklands  on the grounds that they were trying to prevent a bigger crime from taking place.

Recommended Read more Protesters who blockaded London DSEI arms trade fair acquitted

Expert witnesses told the court that British arms had been used for brutal internal repression in Bahrain and Turkey, potentially breaching arms control rules, and also by Saudi Arabia in its widely condemned bombing campaign in Yemen.

Separately, lawyers acting on behalf of anti-arms trade campaigners have threatened to take the British government to court for continuing to allow exports to Saudi Arabia.

The House of Commons International Development Committee and the European Parliament have both called for an arms embargo against the autocratic petro-state, a call the Government has so far ignored.

A spokesperson for the Committee on Arms Export Control confirmed to the Independent that alleged illegality at arms fairs would certainly form part of the wider inquiry into arms exports, following last week's ruling.

The committee does not currently have plans to launch a specific inquiry on DSEI. However, we are looking at the impact of the Arms Trade Treaty on the arms market in Britain, and alleged illegality at arms fairs would certainly be a part of this, he said.

Campaigners were angered this weekend after a spokesperson for the business department, which regulates arms export licences, gave no indication that a Government inquiry into DSEI would take place when asked.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said the service was considering the judgment, and will discuss it with the Crown Prosecution Service.

DSEI, the worlds largest arms fair, said on Friday it complied with all relevant arms control regulations in 2015, that it allowed government agencies full access to its premises, and that it was constantly tightening its compliance procedures.

All our exhibitors are contractually bound to ensure that they exhibit at DSEI in a manner which is compliant with all relevant arms control legislation. We are explicitly clear that any exhibitors or individuals found to be in breach of compliance regulations at DSEI will be immediately ejected, a spokesperson said.
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The Government has been barred from deporting six men to Algeria because there is a real risk they could be tortured there, judges have ruled.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports that the Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled against the Home Secretary and in favour of the men, who are accused of having links to Al Qaeda.

The six have been fighting deportation for 10 years.

It is not inconceivable that these Appellants, if returned to Algeria, would be subject to ill-treatment infringing Article 3 [prohibition of torture under the European Convention on Human Rights]. There is a real risk of such a breach, the tribunal ruled today.

Home Office lawyers argued that the men, who are held under strict bail and curfew conditions, are a national security risk and that agreements with Algeria against torture were sufficient.

The judges, however, said potential future political instability in the country could undermine the assurances longevity.

The Government has 10 days to appeal the decision. The men cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Viewing the evidence as a whole we are not convinced that the improvements in conditions in Algeria are so marked or so entrenched as to obviate the need for effective verification that the authorities will adhere to the assurances given, the three judges said.
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The death toll in Ecuador continued to rise on Monday, jumping from 232 to at least 413 fatalities after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck on Saturday evening.

Those injured have amounted to over 2,500, and more people are thought to be trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Emergency services and their search dogs were still working furiously on Monday to find survivors, while thousands of people were sleeping overnight in temporary shelters or outside.

The deadly quake struck at 7pm on Saturday, 27 kilometers (16.8 miles) southeast of the coastal town of Muisne, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) - an area full of fishing ports and popular with tourists.

President Rafael Correa rushed back from Rome and Vice President Jorge Glas was on the scene within hours, urging Ecuadoreans to stay strong.

Authorities deployed 10,000 soldiers and 4,600 police officers to the affected regions, setting up temporary hospitals and shelters.

Wet weather, mountainous terrain and a lack of water and communication were all complicating the rescue operation for workers.

The first hours are crucial, President Rafael Correa said on Sunday night. We're finding signs of life in the rubble. We're giving this priority. After, we'll work to find and recover bodies.

The hardest hit area was the coastal Manabi Province, where about 200 people died, according to Ricardo Penaherrera of Ecuador's national emergency management office.

Fernando, who lives in Quito, told The Independent he was just about to head to a party with his wife when the tremors started, and they stood beneath a doorframe.

It felt pretty strong and lasted longer than usual, like for a minute or more. Then immediately it was impossible to call anyone, all the lines were down, he said. Ive felt several quakes in my life. This time I could only compare it to my time in California, the earthquake in 1989."

In Ecuador, it was the deadliest to hit since March 1987, when a 7.2-magnitude earthquake killed 1,000 people, according to the USGS.

Fernando's friend, Bernarda V., who lives just south of Manta, one of the hardest hit areas, told him she was safe, as were her parents in a nearby town. She had to walk home along the beach as the roads were damaged.

We still have no electricity and the cell phone lines are still congested, she said in an email.

All six coastal provinces - Guayas, Manabi, Santo Domingo, Los Rios, Esmeraldas and Galapagos - have been declared states of emergency.

Pedernales, the location of the quake's epicenter, was mostly destroyed, a fishing town where many people built their own homes out of cement blocks that were vulnerable to shaking.

Neighboring countries including Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and Peru, as well as Spain, sent people to help the rescue and aid, while the US Secretary of State John Kerry said the US will help in any way they can.

David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences at The Open University, said the earthquakes epicenter was onshore, which meant there was little chance that a tsunami would follow.

Japan also suffered two earthquakes on Thursday and Saturday, killing dozens, and 250,000 people have been told to evacuate in case of further shocks. The quakes are apparently not connected to that in Ecuador, according to Mr Rothery.
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The death toll from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck Ecuador has risen to 350, the country's president has said. At least 2,527 people are known to be injured.

The number of fatalities has risen several times, according to president Rafael Correa, and it is still rising.

Emergency services fear more people are trapped under the rubble, while traumatised survivors are sitting amidst their ruined homes, according to Reuters.

Mr Correa first said there had been 233 casualties on Twitter, where he said the town of Pedernales had been "destroyed."

We're trying to do the most we can but there's almost nothing we can do, said the mayor of Pedernales, Gabriel Alcivar. Pedernales is a town of approximately 40,000 that was near the epicentre of the quake, the Associated Press reports. This wasn't just a house that collapsed, it was an entire town.

Mr Alcivar pled for officials to send emergency workers and earth-moving machines to sort through the rubble. Looting had broken out in the chaos that ensued, but he said that local authorities were too pre-occupied with trying to save lives to regain control of the city.

Vice President Jorge Glas was on the scene within hours of the quake. He said in a televised statement that deaths in the South American country stretched as far as the cities of Manta, Portoviejo, and Guayaquil, hundreds of kilometers away from the epicenter. He said that some 10,000 troops were being deployed to assist the regions affected by the earthquake; 4,600 national police were en route to the towns near the centre that were hit hardest.

In the wake of the largest earthquake to hit Ecuador since 1979, more than 588 people were reported injured after the quake flattened buildings and buckled highways.

Ecuador earthquake in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures People stand amongst the rubble of fallen homes in Manta, after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador Ecuador earthquake in pictures A collapsed bridge after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, late 16 April 2016. At least 77 people were killed and hundreds injured in an earthquake affecting the Ecuadoran northern coastal region. EPA/Freddy Constante Ecuador earthquake in pictures Police officers stand next to a collapsed overpass in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Saturday April 16 2016. The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along the country's coast, killing at least 41 people and causing damage hundreds of kilometres away from the epicenter in the capital and other major cities. AP Photo/Jeff Castro Ecuador earthquake in pictures Rescue workers work to pull out survivors trapped in a collapsed building after a huge earthquake struck, in the city of Manta early on April 17 2016. At least 41 people were killed when a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador, destroying buildings and sending terrified residents dashing from their homes, authorities said late on April 16. Ariel Ochoa/AFP/Getty Images Ecuador earthquake in pictures People walk near a damaged house after an earthquake struck off the Pacific coast in Manta, Ecuador, April 16 2016. REUTERS/Paul Ochoa Ecuador earthquake in pictures People stand on the debris of a building after an earthquake struck off the Pacific coast in Manta, Ecuador, April 16 2016. REUTERS/Paul Ochoa Ecuador earthquake in pictures People gather next to a collapsed house in Guayaquil on April 17, 2016. At least 41 people have been killed by the powerful earthquake that struck western Ecuador on Saturday and the toll will likely rise further, the country's Vice President Jorge Glas said. JOSE SANCHEZ L/AFP/Getty Images Ecuador earthquake in pictures People stand amongst the rubble of fallen homes in Manta on April 17, 2016, after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador on April 16. At least 77 people were killed when a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador, destroying buildings and a bridge and sending terrified residents scrambling from their homes, authorities in the Latin American country said on April 17. JUAN CEVALLOS/AFP/Getty Images Ecuador earthquake in pictures View of rubble after a 7.8-magnitude quake in Portoviejo, Ecuador on April 17, 2016. At least 77 people were killed when a powerful earthquake struck Ecuador, destroying buildings and a bridge and sending terrified residents scrambling from their homes, authorities said Sunday. JUAN CEVALLOS/AFP/Getty Images Ecuador earthquake in pictures JUAN CEVALLOS/AFP/Getty Images Ecuador earthquake in pictures People watch a collapsed house in Guayaquil on April 17, 2016. At least 41 people have been killed by the powerful earthquake that struck western Ecuador on Saturday and the toll will likely rise further, the country's Vice President Jorge Glas said. JOSE SANCHEZ L/AFP/Getty Images

Mr Correa declared a national emergency and rushed home from a visit to Rome, urging Ecuadoreans to stay strong while authorities handle the disaster.

"Everything can be rebuilt, but what can't be rebuilt are human lives, and that's the most painful," he said in a telephone call to state TV before departing Rome straight for Manta.

He said in a later interview that the damage will cost billions of dollars.

The US Geological Survey [USGS] said the shallow quake, the strongest to hit Ecuador since 1979, was centred on south-southeast of Muisne, an area of fishing ports popular with tourists.

Recommended Read more Video from inside supermarket shows moment earthquake struck

Kumamoto registered a 6.8 magnitude quake on Thursday, followed by a 7.0 magnitude the next day. Forty-one people were killed and roughly 1,500 people were injured.

The 7.8 measurement of the earthquake in Ecuador matches that of the 1906 earthquake that reduced the city of San Francisco to rubble, according to USGS figures.

David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences at The Open University, said that the 7.8 magnitude of the earthquake meant that "shaking at its underground source was about six times stronger than in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in southern Japan just over a day before. The total energy involved was probably about 20 times greater."

He said it was caused by the floor of the Pacific Ocean (the Nazca plate) being moved below South America. "The greater damage to buildings and the probable greater loss of life in Ecuador may reflect poorer adherence to seismic building codes in the construction of buildings and bridges."

The fact that the epicentre of the earthquake was onshore meant that the damage was greater than if it had been offshore, he added, but that if it had been offshore "there would have been the potential to displace the ocean water strongly enough to cause a tsunami powerful enough to cause damage on both local and more distant coastlines."

There was no causal relationship between the earthquakes in Ecuador and Japan, he said.
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A young nun who died in the Ecuador earthquake while trying to guide others to safety has been described as a superstar by her family.

Sister Clare Crockett died along with five others after a stairwell collapsed in the school where she worked in Playa Prieta in the western province of Manabi.

At least 413 people are believed to have died in the 7.8 magnitude quake which struck 27km (16.8 miles) from the town of Muisne on the southeastern coast.

The 33-year-olds order, the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother, said she was killed along with five Ecuadorian postulants - women who are in the early stages of becoming a nun - when the quake struck.

Four nuns had been in one of the school buildings, where they lived on the third floor, when the quake hit.

Another Irish nun Sr Therese Ryan, 36, was the first pulled free with a fractured ankle and several bruises. Two others were rescued, Sr Estela Morales, 40, the superior from Spain and Sr Merly Alcybar, 34, from Ecuador, who survived a wall falling on her.

The five dead postulants were named by the Order as Jazmina, Mayra, Maria Augusta, Valeria and Catalina.

Sr Clare, from the Brandywell area of Londonderry in Northern Ireland, taught music to 400 children at the Colegio Sagrada Familia school.

 Ecuador: Drone captures collapsed bridge in Guayaquil after 7.8M earthquake

Her cousin, Emmet Doyle, said: "She was a superstar. Everybody loved her.

"She was the last sister found. She was trying to get them down the stairs and the staircase collapsed. We knew she was trapped but information has been slow to come out.

"She died as she lived, helping others."

Speaking to Irish broadcaster, RTE, Fr Roland Colhoun said he had known Sr Clare since her teenage years in Derry and described her as a beautiful person.

He said: "She loved god and she died in the line of duty. It's a very sad end to her fruitful life".

Ecuador earthquake in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures Ecuador earthquake in pictures People stand amongst the rubble of fallen homes in Manta, after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador Ecuador earthquake in pictures A collapsed bridge after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, late 16 April 2016. At least 77 people were killed and hundreds injured in an earthquake affecting the Ecuadoran northern coastal region. EPA/Freddy Constante Ecuador earthquake in pictures Police officers stand next to a collapsed overpass in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Saturday April 16 2016. The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along the country's coast, killing at least 41 people and causing damage hundreds of kilometres away from the epicenter in the capital and other major cities. AP Photo/Jeff Castro Ecuador earthquake in pictures Rescue workers work to pull out survivors trapped in a collapsed building after a huge earthquake struck, in the city of Manta early on April 17 2016. At least 41 people were killed when a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador, destroying buildings and sending terrified residents dashing from their homes, authorities said late on April 16. Ariel Ochoa/AFP/Getty Images Ecuador earthquake in pictures People walk near a damaged house after an earthquake struck off the Pacific coast in Manta, Ecuador, April 16 2016. REUTERS/Paul Ochoa Ecuador earthquake in pictures People stand on the debris of a building after an earthquake struck off the Pacific coast in Manta, Ecuador, April 16 2016. REUTERS/Paul Ochoa Ecuador earthquake in pictures People gather next to a collapsed house in Guayaquil on April 17, 2016. At least 41 people have been killed by the powerful earthquake that struck western Ecuador on Saturday and the toll will likely rise further, the country's Vice President Jorge Glas said. JOSE SANCHEZ L/AFP/Getty Images Ecuador earthquake in pictures People stand amongst the rubble of fallen homes in Manta on April 17, 2016, after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador on April 16. At least 77 people were killed when a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador, destroying buildings and a bridge and sending terrified residents scrambling from their homes, authorities in the Latin American country said on April 17. JUAN CEVALLOS/AFP/Getty Images Ecuador earthquake in pictures View of rubble after a 7.8-magnitude quake in Portoviejo, Ecuador on April 17, 2016. At least 77 people were killed when a powerful earthquake struck Ecuador, destroying buildings and a bridge and sending terrified residents scrambling from their homes, authorities said Sunday. JUAN CEVALLOS/AFP/Getty Images Ecuador earthquake in pictures JUAN CEVALLOS/AFP/Getty Images Ecuador earthquake in pictures People watch a collapsed house in Guayaquil on April 17, 2016. At least 41 people have been killed by the powerful earthquake that struck western Ecuador on Saturday and the toll will likely rise further, the country's Vice President Jorge Glas said. JOSE SANCHEZ L/AFP/Getty Images

Northern Ireland's First and Deputy First Ministers Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness offered sympathies.

Mr McGuiness said: "Sr Clare devoted her life to children and young people and died selflessly helping those in need in Ecuador.

"Her death has shocked and saddened the entire community in Derry and further afield."

A state of emergency has been declared in six of Ecuadors 24 provinces - with 10,000 armed forces and 4,600 national sent to the affected towns near the epicentre.

Additional reporting by AP
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By the time police removed the toddler from the car, she was drenched in sweat in her heavy coat.

Outside the Pontiac PT Cruiser, the temperature was a breezy 70 degrees, police estimated, but inside the vehicle the temperature had soared past 100 degrees.

Thirty minutes had allegedly passed since Kelsey McMurtry had left her 9-month-old daughter in the parking lot of a strip club in downtown Nashville on Thursday, according to ABC-affiliate WSB-TV.

A passerby had spotted the child and alerted police, the station reported.

The doors were locked and the windows rolled up, it is claimed.

McMurtry was at Deja Vu Showgirls for an audition, police told NBC affiliate WSMV.

She had a friend inside the club, 19-year-old Summer Taylor, who was supposed to be keeping an eye on her child. Taylor reportedly told police that she had been checking on the little girl.

McMurtry and Taylor are facing charges of child neglect, the station reported. McMurtry has also been charged with criminal impersonation for lying to police about her identity.

The baby was rushed to a hospital and later placed with the Tennessee Department of Childrens Services, according to WSMV.

Purnima Unni, the pediatric trauma injury prevention manager at the Monroe Carell Jr. Childrens Hospital at Vanderbilt, told WSMV that the consequences of leaving children unattended in hot cars can be severe.

There is no time that is an acceptable time for a child to be left alone in a car, Unni said. Its as simple as that.

The childs body temperature rises three to five times faster and higher than an adult, she added. So 104 degrees, you find the internal organs of the child begin to shut down. And when its 107 degrees, we can see near-death.
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Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has signed a bill to legalize medical marijuana in the state, tweeting to his followers that this is a great day.

All we are asking here is to have the ability to have that doctor make a decision in conjunction with his or her patient that will make that patient's life better, said Mr Wolf.

Now patients with serious medical conditions like autism and chronic pain will be able to take marijuana - in the form of pills, creams and oils - by getting a prescription from their GP and purchase it at an approved dispensary.

Recommended Read more Facebook deletes legal medical marijuana homepages

The program will take between 18 and 24 months to implement and authorize up to 150 dispensaries in the state, according to ABC News.

Until then, people living in Pennsylvania can cross into other states to fulfill their prescription.

The new law differs to that of neighbouring state New Jersey, which also legalized cannabis but only in the form of whole cannabis flowers and buds.

The Democratic governor in Pennsylvania has been calling to decriminalise the drug for months, and spoke at the medical marijuana rally in February.

There are people suffering, Mr Wolf said. We need to get this across the finish line. This is something that has bipartisan support.

The bill passed in the Senate last year but stalled after House Speaker, Republican Mike Turzai, voiced his opposition.

A Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll published in April 2015 found that 88% of Pennsylvanians support legalizing the drug.

Medical marijuana is now legal in 23 states.

The Democratic governor also made headlines this year when he placed a moratorium on the death penalty, allowing the execution of prisoner Terrance Williams to be delayed.

Senator Daylin Lynch followed up by reintroducing a bill to abolish capital punishment in the state.
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The motorcade of Americas UN ambassador was involved in a tragedy when it struck and killed a young child while the envoy was visiting Cameroon.

Reports said that an armoured jeep in Samantha Powers motorcade hit and killed a young boy who had darted into the road.

The incident occurred near the small city of Mokolo, in northern Cameroon, where Ms Power, her aides and accompanying journalists were headed to meet refugees and others displaced by the years of brutal attacks across West Africa, the Associated Press reported.

Reports said the motorcade was travelling at speeds of up to 60mph (AP)

Ms Power said she learned of the death with great sorrow.

She said she met with the boys family to offer our profound condolences and our grief and heartbreak.

Ms Power returned to the scene of the bloody accident several hours later to meet the seven-year-old boys mother and father, while residents of his village stood by.

The incident happened as Ms Power was headed to meet refugees (AP)

The news agency said the motorcade was traveling at speeds of more than 60mph, while villagers lined up along the sides of the road. But when the boy darted on to the two-lane highway, there was no time for the sixth car in Ms Powers convoy to react. The driver was Cameroonian.

At the moment of impact, a man could be seen running up the embankment, with his arms held high, to the street to try to stop the child. A Cameroonian helicopter traveling overhead as part of a large security contingent saw the collision.

The vehicle that hit the boy initially stopped but was ordered by American security forces to continue traveling through the unsecured area. An ambulance in the US caravan immediately attended to him.

The boy was rushed to a local hospital, though his condition was already hopeless, according to people familiar with the incident.

The motorcade moved at a significantly slower pace for the rest of the day.
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The highest Chinese official to comment on the US election has said that Donald Trump in the White House would mean the US wouldnt be entitled to world leadership.

Mr Trump has proposed tariffs of up to 45 per cent to force China to change its trade policies.

Mr Lou responded that such a tariff would violate World Trade Organization rules, and therefore the US would no longer be a major world power.

Mr Trump is an irrational type, added the outspoken official in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

In a statement from his campaign, Mr. Trump responded that China was in total violation of WTO regulations and that the US has incompetently allowed them to get away with this and has failed to impose equal or greater taxes and tariffs on China.

When questioned on Mr Trumps tough talk on China, Mr Lou said the US and China are mutually dependent on each other, with more in common than sets us apart.

China is leading the G20 group of finance ministers this year, who met in Washington DC over the weekend.

Mr Lou said he does not expect trade policies between the two countries to change much.

His comments were the first direct reference to the GOP frontrunners.

In March, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the election race was lively and caught the eyes of many."
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BROOKLYN, New York  Reuniting for their first performance in two years, Grizzly Bear played at a rally supporting Bernie Sanders in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. The band performed crowd favorites While You Wait For the Others, Knife and Two Weeks. During Knife, the band changed the words from cant you feel the knife to cant you feel the Bern.

New York hip-hop duo EPMD and Jamaican reggae artist Tanya Stephens also performed during Sundays rally which attracted more than 28,000 people, according to the Sanders campaign. Danny DeVito, Justin Long and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard provided stump speeches for the event and explained why they are backing Sanders' run to the White House.

Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks" at Bernie Sanders rally A video posted by @matthewstrauss39 on Apr 17, 2016 at 2:13pm PDT



The Democratic socialist received two new endorsements during the event, CNN contributor Sally Kohn and New York City councilman Jumaane Williamswho drew the loudest applause from the crowd besides Sanders himself announced their support on Sunday.

A couple days ago I was reading the New York Daily News, Councilman Williams began, and they endorsed another candidate, and what they said about Bernie was, he was at war with reality, and I thought to myself, Youre Goddamn damn right.

Registered Democrats in New York tomorrow Tuesday the 19th of April you have a chance to elect a candidate who cares about your outcome! THIS is the next POTUS! All that's left is for you to acknowledge it. The world is depending on you! #nyforbernie #feelthebern2016 This picture dedicated to @wildeatsaustin Rachael  A photo posted by Tanya Stephens (@tanyastephensofficial) on Apr 18, 2016 at 4:57pm PDT



Councilman Williams continued: Too many peoples reality in this borough, and in this city, and in this nation, needs to be at war with. Too many peoples realityis struggle, and maybe if youre not at war with reality, youre not focused enough."

The Sanders event and endorsements come two days ahead of New York's primary election on April 19.
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Donald Trump is looking for a landslide victory in his home state of New York as he continues to accuse his nearest Republican rival of selling himself to party bosses to try and block his nomination.

On the day before a vote that is expected to help Mr Trump regain his momentum after several faltering weeks, an average of polls put him as far of 30 points ahead of his rivals. The same polls showed a closer Democratic race, with Senator Bernie Sanders looking to narrow in on Hillary Clintons lead of more than 10 points.

All five remaining presidential candidates continued to push for votes on Monday, with Mr Trump and Mr Sanders organising large, eve-of-vote rallies, the Vermont senator in New York city and the reality television host in the upstate town of Buffalo.

Mr Trump spent much of the weekend denouncing his rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich, and in particular attacking Mr Cruzs securing of Wyomings 14 delegates in a process in which party officials, rather than ordinary voters, chose those representatives for the partys summer convention. Mr Trump said the system - which mirrored that used in both Colorado and North Dakota - was rigged.

Mr Sanders attracted up to 30,000 supporters to a rally in Brooklyn (AP)

On Monday, Mr Trump kept up his attack. On Twitter, he accused Mr Cruz of being used by the Republican partys establishment.

Lyin Ted Cruz cant win with the voters so he has to sell himself to the bosses - I am millions of VOTES ahead! Hillary would destroy him & K, he said.

Mr Cruz is trying to stop Mr Trump securing the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination before the partys convention in Cleveland in July.

Mr Clinton is leading Mr Sanders by more than 10 points (AP)

Many observers believe neither Mr Trump or Mr Cruz will manage to win a clean majority ahead of the event, opening the way for a so-called contested convention.

Mr Cruz on Monday spoke of his belief that he could halt Mr Trumps ambitions if it came to a vote at the convention.

In all likelihood, were going to go to a contested convention, Mr Cruz said on ABC. I believe Donalds highest total will be on that first ballot, and he will go steadily down.

He said that he believed Mr Trump would not be nominated because Republican knew he could not beat Ms Clinton.

Ted Cruz believes he can stop Mr Trump securing the nomination (AP)

The stakes are too high for us to hand the election to Hillary Clinton, which is what nominating Donald Trump would do. I dont believe that Donald is going to be the nominee, he added.

An average of polls collated by Real Clear Politics puts Mr Trump on 53 points, ahead of Ohio Governor John Kasich on 23 and Mr Cruz on 18.

He needs to win 60 per cent of the remaining delegates available to avoid a contested convention. There are 95 Republican delegates available in New York, awarded on a somewhat complicated county-wide basis.

It is possible Mr Trump, who has endured a faltering fortnight and defeats in Colorado, Wyoming and Wisconsin, could scoop all 95 delegates. If that were the case, it would fill the sails of his campaign as he looks ahead to contests in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, where he also hopes to do well.

Its very important for Trump to win, its very important for him to win his home state and to try and get as many delegates as possible,

Robert Shapiro, Professor of Government at Columbia University, told The Independent.

The battle between the Democrats is no less important and there are 247 delegates in New York to be divided between Ms Clinton and Mr Sanders on a proportional basis. Ms Clinton currently leads Mr Sanders in the delegate count 1,289 - 1,045.

Both have close links to the state - Mr Sanders was born in Brooklyn while Ms Clinton served eight years as senator - and the pair have campaigned with vigour and passion.

Mr Sanders on Sunday held a huge rally in Brooklyns Prospect Park, where he attracted up to 30,000 people, the biggest crowd yet during the campaign.

We do not represent the interests of Wall Street or the billionaires class or corporate America. We dont want their money. Were going to do it a different way, he told the crowd
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Police in India have reportedly discovered an alleged "baby farm" where newborns were being sold and swapped.

Staff at the private Palash Hospital in Gwalior district, Madhya Pradesh, delivered babies from rapes or premarital relationships, police claimed.

Following a tip-off, two babies were rescued from the hospital by police - but it is thought others were sold on before authorities became aware of the case, The Times of India reported.

Five people, including hospital manager Arun Bhadoria, have been arrested in connection with the find and charged under slavery and prostitution charges, according to the newspaper.

Investigating officer Prateek Kumar said he believed the 30-bed hospital used "agents" who worked to find young women who had unwanted babies.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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An unnamed police officer told the Times of India: "When a girl or her parents approached them for termination of pregnancies, doctors at this hospital used to convince them assuring a safe and secret delivery.

Once baby is delivered and mother gets discharged, hospital authorities start hunting for gullible couples who could buy them."

The police also said parents could swap their baby with a child of their preferred gender at the hospital.

A Gwalior based couple had two boys. They swapped one of their boys with a girl at this hospital," the officer added.

Police said they were now carrying out further investigations to establish if there were any similar operations in the region.
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EU policymakers are guilty of "killing by neglect" by cutting rescue missions in the Mediterranean - potentially costing the lives of more than 1,500 refugees, according to a report.

The Italy-led search and rescue mission, Mare Nostrum, ended in October 2014 and was replaced by Triton, which deployed fewer ships and prioritised deterring migrants over rescue operations, the report says.

Charities and UN officials warned the move could have a disastrous impact and lead to far more deaths at sea.

Documents unearthed by British universities showed the European border force Frontex pushed ahead with the change despite an internal assessment warning that if it was not properly planned it "would likely result in a higher number of fatalities".

The subsequent scaling back of search and rescue operations during the growing refugee crisis "created the conditions that led to massive loss of life", the damning report states.

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

Over 1,500 refugees died trying to cross the sea in the months after the change was implemented, according to the report, Death By Rescue: The Lethal Effects Of The EU's Policies Of Non-assistance At Sea.

Charles Heller, from Goldsmiths, University of London, co-author of the report, said policymakers were guilty of "institutionalised wilful neglect".

He told the Press Association: "Can we really qualify the ending of Mare Nostrum and its replacement by Triton in all knowledge of the consequences this would have, as a mistake?

"I would rather argue that this was a case of institutionalised wilful neglect, and that European policymakers and Frontex have made themselves guilty of killing by omission.

"Simply arguing that it was a mistake is insufficient. And if, as we show, policymakers and European agencies decided to disregard the risk their policy would entail for migrants, they should be held accountable for that negligence."

 Italian coastguard saves 2,000 refugees in a single day

The report found European policymakers came to regard Mare Nostrum as a "pull factor" which encouraged refugees to make the perilous crossing because they knew they would be rescued if they got into difficulty.

It was scrapped in October 2014 and replaced by Triton, which deployed fewer vessels, patrolled an area further away from the Libyan coast where many refugees got into trouble, and did not have rescue as its operational priority.

But as the conflicts in Syria and Libya deepened, refugees continued to resort to people smugglers who packed them on to dinghies and sent them across the sea.

The number of refugees crossing the Med in the first four months of 2014 and 2015 stayed the same at 26,000, but death rates soared.

Sixty died in the first four months in 2014, but 1,687 died in the same four months the following year, meaning the chances of dying at sea increased 30-fold.

Refugees and migrants arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos (Getty)

Charities warned the change could cost lives while Francois Crepeau, the UN rapporteur on migrant rights, said it amounted to saying "let them die because this is good deterrence".

The report said Frontex's planning of Triton "deliberately disregarded not only the external criticism of human rights advocates, but also its own internal assessment predicting increased deaths at sea".

Frontex prioritised stopping illegal border crossings and "deterrence took precedence over humans lives", it found.

By scaling down its search and rescue efforts, Europe effectively shifted the burden on to large merchant ships that were ill-equipped to cope.

Within a single week in April 2015 two ships capsized, killing around 1,200 migrants on board.

Reconstructing the shipwrecks using advanced spatial techniques, researchers found many died during and partly through the rescue operation itself because the merchant ships were not designed to deal with the disasters.

It stated that "EU policymakers and agencies carry a strong degree of responsibility for these deaths" which were, in effect, "death by privatised rescue".

Mr Heller said: "EU policymakers decided in 2014, in all knowledge of the deadly consequences, to end Mare Nostrum and replace it with the more limited Triton.

"It may not have been so much that Frontex and European policymakers were counting on more deaths as a deterrent.

"What is absolutely sure is that their priority was to make the conditions of crossing more difficult for migrants and for smugglers to act as a deterrent. And this priority was given precedent over migrants' lives."

He said Europe must ask itself if it can accept the deaths of thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean every year as a price worth paying to attempt to deter them, and called for an investigation into why the policy was taken up and not abandoned when the death toll began to rise.

Press Association
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Francois Hollande's popularity rating has descended to a new low in the most recent round of polling, just days after he told the French public things are getting better.

According to one poll the socialist President, who is yet to decide whether he will seek another mandate for a second term, will lose an election in 2017 no matter who his opponents are.

It has led one of his partys chiefs to issue a warning that the French left risks being atomized.

Recommended Read more Hollande slaps down protege over presidential ambitions

Another survey published on Sunday by Ifop pollsters showed that only 14 per cent of voters have a positive opinion of Mr Hollande, by far the worst rating for a French leader 12 months ahead of a presidential election.

The first poll by TNS-Sofres showed the far-right National Front and the centre-right Les Republicains would get the only two spots available in the election's second round, even if Les Republicains put up a little-known candidate.

When tested against Les Republicains's front-runner, former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, or against ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Hollande's predicted score in the first round was five to seven points lower than in a similar poll in December.

Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency Show all 4 1 /4 Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency hollande1-reu.jpg Reuters Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency hollande-3-afp.jpg AFP Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency hollande4-gety.jpg Getty Images Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency hollande2-getty.jpg Getty Images

To make things worse, the poll showed that candidates from smaller parties, further left, would get more votes all together than Mr Hollande.

Many commentators attribute the Presidents plummeting popularity rating to his pledge to reduce the unemployment rate, which has remained above 10 per cent since he started his term in 2012. It is also thought that botched anti-terrorism laws have angered left-wing voters.

"If the Left does not get its act together it will be atomized and marginalised for 20 years," Socialist Party leader Jean-Christophe Cambadelis told LCI television.

It comes after the 61-year-old received a modest boost in his popularity rating following the November terrorist atrocities in Paris when 130 people were killed by Isis jihadists.

On Friday Mr Hollande slapped down Emmanuel Macron, his young protege, over his presidential ambitions. Questioned about speculation that Mr Macron might run for the French presidency next year, Mr Hollande, said: He knows what he owes me. It is a question of personal and political loyalty.

The President was speaking the week after Mr Macron launched his own political movement and on the day that he appeared in presidential mode with his wife and family in the glossy pages of Paris Match magazine.

Around 28 per cent think the young minister should represent the Socialist Party  compared with 11 per cent for Mr Hollande, France 24 reported.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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A notorious Italian mafia chief has been arrested after detectives disguised themselves as pizza boys and pretended to deliver food to his home as he watched a football match.

Roberto Manganiello is the head of Naples' infamous Camorra mafia and had been in hiding from authorities since 2013.

The 35-year-old was listed as "one of Italy's 100 most dangerous criminals" for an alleged double homicide in 2004 igniting a volatile gang war in the southern Italian city.

Recommended Read more Pompeii recruits army of spies to tackle corruption and dodgy builders

Police said Manganiello was arrested on Saturday evening as he watched Napoli play Inter Milan, AFP reports.

The phoney pizza delivery men accosted him at an apartment in Orta di Atella where he allegedly ran a drugs and extortion business.

A 30-year-old woman was also arrested at the scene.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has described the arrest as a "success due to top-level investigative work."

In a further blow for Manganiello, Milan beat his home team 2-0, crushing Naples' hopes of a first Serie A title in 26 years.
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Two Russian servicemen captured in east Ukraine have been sentenced to 14 years in prison, having been convicted of terrorism and other offences

Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev had initially claimed that they were active Russian servicemen and said they were on a reconnaissance mission. Russia's Defence Ministry, however, said they had resigned from active duty and had travelled to Ukraine as volunteers..

A court in Kiev convicted Alexandrov and Yerofeyev of terrorism and waging a war of aggression and sentenced them to 14 years each. The pair denied the charges.

In March, during the run up to the trial, the lawyer for one of the two defendants - a man named Yuriy Grabovsky - was found dead.

Alexandrov and Yerofeyev - reported to be special forces officers - were taken prisoner last May by a volunteer Ukrainian battalion not far from the front line. The Ukrainian government said the two officers were wounded and taken captive in a skirmish in the area.

Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, Moscow has denied sending troops to Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting government troops since April 2014. At least 9,100 people have been killed in the conflict, which has left large swathes of Ukraine's industrial heartland in ruins.

Alexandrov and Yerofeyev appear unlikely to serve their full sentence, having both been named as possible candidates to be exchanged for Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who was captured by separatist rebels last year and sentenced last month to 22 years in prison in Russia over her alleged role in the deaths of two Russian journalists. Savchenko denied any wrongdoing.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said last month that he would be willing to exchange Alexandrov and Yerofeyev for Savchenko. The Kremlin didn't reject the possibility, but said no decision would be made before Savchenko's verdict was to come into effect, which happened earlier this month.

The Interfax news agency quoted Yerofeyev's lawyer Oksana Sokolovska as saying that his client has yet to decide whether to file an appeal, while Alexandrov and his legal team are also thought to be considering an appeal.

Reuters; AP
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Swedens housing minister has stepped down amid mounting controversy over comments that emerged of him likening Israels treatment of Palestinians to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.

Mehmet Kaplan, a 44-year-old Green Party member and former spokesman of Swedens Muslim Council, denied any wrongdoing, adding he was stepping down due to public and media criticism interfering with his ability to perform the job.

He also faced questions over his contacts with Islamists and ultra-nationalists from Turkey.

"Let me be clear: This is not a confirmation of reports about me that I consider wrongful. I know who I am and what I have done," Mr Kaplan told reporters in Stockholm.

The controversial comments were published in the daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, who reported him as saying: Israelis treat Palestinians in a way that is very like that in which Jews were treated during Germany in the 1930s.

Turkish-born Mr Kaplan made the comments seven years ago and before he entered the newly formed centre-left government to represent the minor coalition partner the Green Party in 2014.

He also came under pressure last week after Swedish media published photos showing him dining with Turkish Swedish leaders, including the local leader of the Gray Wolves, an ultra-nationalist group.

Kaplan said he didn't know the person in question and distanced himself from the group, but soon found himself on the defensive again, as media reported that he had met representatives of a Turkish Islamist organization on several occasions.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, who accepted the ministers resignation, called Mr Kaplan "a man with humanist and democratic values" but said his decision to step down was correct after an "overall assessment" of the situation.

Additional reporting by wires
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Isis has seen its revenue drop by about 30 per cent in the last year as the territory it controls continues to shrink, a research group has claimed.

Income is estimated to have fallen from about $80m (56m) to $54m (40m) between March 2015 and March 2016, according to the IHS consultancy group.

Isis is under heavy attack from a number of enemies, including the Syrian and Iraqi armies, the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga and the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG). All of these groups have been backed by air strikes from either the US-led coalition or Russian forces.

One of the main targets for the coalition has been the revenue Isis has gained from the oil production in areas it controls. Air strikes have hit the infrastructure surrounding oil production, with the IHS claiming that the number of barrels being produced is down to 21,000 barrels a day from 33,000 last year.

The UK Government has estimated that 40 per cent of Isis revenue comes from oil exports, although it claims that such income has fallen. These figures tally with the IHS, who claim that 43 per cent of Isis income comes from oil.

The targeting of oil infrastructure, combined with the fall in the price of oil, could lead to Isis increasing the price of the commodity with its revenues being squeezed. However, there appears to be little sign of that as Isis looks for quick sales on the black markets in Syria and Iraq to generate cash.

Beyond oil, Isis is under increasing pressure to ensure it maximises revenue from the areas it controls across Syria and Iraq, particularly as it continues to lose territory and also the populations within those areas from which it could seek to levy money.

In Pictures: Isis loses control of Palmyra Show all 4 1 /4 In Pictures: Isis loses control of Palmyra In Pictures: Isis loses control of Palmyra The iconic Temple of Bel prior to being blown up by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in September 2015 and the remains of the temple after Syrian troops recaptured the ancient site In Pictures: Isis loses control of Palmyra he Arc de Troimphe (Triumph's Arc) prior to being destroyed by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in October 2015 and the remains of the iconic structure after government troops recaptured the ancient city In Pictures: Isis loses control of Palmyra The once vibrant museum is now full of empty displays after the destruction of artefacts In Pictures: Isis loses control of Palmyra Corbis The Monumental Arch is among the many lost structures and treasures Corbis

IHS claims 50 per cent of Isis income is now through taxation and confiscation, with the UK Government believing it is about 40 per cent  including extortion and revenue from the local cash economy.

Its population has declined from around nine million to around six million. There are fewer people and business activities to tax; the same applies to properties and land to confiscate, said Columb Strack, senior analyst at HIS.

The Independent has previously reported how violence by Isis has increased in areas such as Mosul in Iraq as the group looks to crackdown on any possible dissent and extract money from the residents under its control.

Money can now be offered in lieu of such corporal punishments that are proscribed under sharia law, which highlights the financial difficulties Isis appear to be battling.

According to Ludovico Carlino, another senior analyst at IHS, fines are now also being imposed for driving on the wrong side of the road and for not being able to answer questions correctly on the Quran.
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The Golan Heights will remain part of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared during the first ever cabinet meeting held on the Golan issue.

Mr Netanyahu used the meeting to call on the world to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the territory.

I decided to hold this meeting on the Golan Heights to send a clear message. The Golan Heights will always stay in Israeli hands. Israel will never leave the Golan Heights, he said.

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The mountainous plateau was occupied by Syria up until 1967, when it was captured by Israel. Israel effectively annexed the territory in 1981, however the move was unanimously rejected by the UN Security Council that same year and has not been recognised internationally.

The time has come after 40 years for the international community to finally recognise that the Golan Heights will remain forever under Israeli sovereignty, Mr Netanyahu said at the meeting.

He added that whatever the outcome of the peace talks that is currently underway in Geneva over the conflict in Syria, the border will not change. The area is strategically important to Israels border security.

The remarks drew condemnation from Syria, which lays claim to the territory under international law.

Syria's Foreign Ministry lodged complaints with the UN Secretary General and Security Council over the Cabinet meeting, calling it reckless and provocative. It called on the international community to push Israel out of what it called the, occupied Syrian Golan.

Syrias Deputy Foreign Minister, Faisal Mekdad, said Syria would reclaim the Golan Heights, even if force was necessary.

Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Show all 12 1 /12 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict The fire in my heart is beyond my ribs. You left me beloved - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict Let me get enough of you, as Im still hungry for your smile my son - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict They besiege me in my homeland so I flew to heaven - Rodaina Al Agha, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict And I am still facing the pain all by myself - Lama Shakshak, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My brother, I watched you go while my heart was tearing - Helen Mo'amar, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My new doll is lonely in the rubble - Ayah Sha'ath, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict When a soul hugs another soul they never split, even in death - Ismail Matar, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict Everyone is gone and I stayed alone to make the world witness the injustice done to me - Hamza Shaheen, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict The hand that carries the arms carries roses too - Madeeha Al Majayda, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My eyes tell you about a dream that overcame the fence - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict A childhood caught in an unjust siege - Hadeel Quidh, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict All the details are torn after you - Hamza Shaheen, 17

All options are on the table for getting back the occupied territory from Israel, he said, according to The Times of Israel.

We are prepared to do anything in order to return the Golan to the Syrian motherland, including using military force, he added.

On Monday, Germany said that a decision by Israel to keep the Golan Heights would breach international law.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said: It's a basic principle of international law and the UN charter that no state can claim the right to annex another state's territory just like that.

Mr Schaefer said Germany isn't currently demanding the immediate return of the territory due to the security situation in Syria.

Mr Netanyahu met with US Secretary of state, John Kerry, on Saturday and warned him Israel was not opposed to peace in Syria. But said he did not want it to come at the cost of Israeli security.

For the 19 years that the Golan was under Syrian occupation, it served as a place for bunkers, barbed wires, mines and aggression  it was used for war.

In the 49 years that the Golan is under Israeli control, it was used for agriculture, economic initiatives, building  it was used for peace, Mr Netanyahu said.

The region is home to more than 30 Jewish settlements. There are around 20,000 Syrians in the area, which most are members of the Druze sect.
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At least 21 people have been injured after a bomb exploded on a bus in Jerusalem.

"There is no doubt that this was a terror attack," Jerusalem police commissioner Yoram Halevy said.

He added that it was too early to know who was responsible or whether it was a suicide attack.

"We are investigating where the explosive device came from, who planted it, how it got on the bus. All this is in the initial stages of investigation," he said.

Emergency workers search the scene after a blast on a bus in Jerusalem (Reuters)

Local media reported that one man who was injured was under investigation. It is thought he was not carrying any identification papers.

Images on social media showed smoke billowing from the burnt out bus on Hebron Road, in the south-west of the city.

Israeli security officials search the remains of a burnt out bus following an explosion in Jerusalem (AP)

The Magen David Adom rescue service said 21 people had been wounded, including two seriously.

Attacks on Israeli buses by suicide bombers were a hallmark of the Palestinian uprising in 2000-2005 but have been rare since.

Tensions have been brewing over a series of skirmishes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.

Jerusalem explosion in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Jerusalem explosion in pictures Jerusalem explosion in pictures A bus exploded in the heart of Jerusalem wounding at least 15 people who appeared to have been in an adjacent bus that was also damaged. AP Jerusalem explosion in pictures A bus exploded in the heart of Jerusalem wounding at least 15 people. AP Jerusalem explosion in pictures Emergency workers search the scene after a blast on a bus in Jerusalem. Reuters Jerusalem explosion in pictures Israeli security officials search the remains of a burnt out bus following an explosion in Jerusalem, Israel, 18 April 2016. (EPA) EPA Jerusalem explosion in pictures Israeli police officers examine a burnt bus in Jerusalem Jerusalem explosion in pictures Israeli police check a burnt-out bus following an explosion in Jerusalem. (AFP) AFP Jerusalem explosion in pictures Israeli security officials search the remains of a burnt out bus following an explosion in Jerusalem. Jerusalem explosion in pictures An Israeli firefighter is seen inside a burnt bus in Jerusalem. (AP) AP

Around 189 Palestinians, 28 Israelis and two American citizens have been killed since the latest wave of violence broke out in October.

Additional reporting by agencies
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The political maneuverings in Brazil were at a fever pitch as President Dilma Rousseff searched for ways to remain in power after the lower house of Congress backed impeachment proceedings and her Vice President, Michel Temer, began preparing to take her place.

As Brazil entered a new phase of deeply damaging political upheaval, the options for Ms Rousseff appeared to be few. After the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia on Sunday easily surpassed the two thirds mark required to move impeachment forward - voting 367 to 137 in favour - the issue now moves to the Senate, where her support is also dwindling.

There is nothing to indicate that she would go quietly, however. The president will not be disheartened and will not stop fighting, the Attorney General, Eduardo Cardozo, insisted on Monday. "If someone thinks she is going to bow down now, they are fooling themselves.

Speaking in her office almost 24 hours after the vote was taken, Ms Rousseff made clear herself that she intended pushing back against all those who would remove her prematurely from office. "I have the energy, strength and courage to confront this injustice," she declared.

Yet, it would take only a straight majority in the 81-seat Senate to approve trying the president, who is accused of fiddling the nations books to cover up the real extent of its fiscal plight. Her trial, in the Senate chamber, would be expected to last 180 days or less. During that time, she would have to step aside and allow Vice President Temer to take her place.

It could be mid-May before the upper chamber takes that initial decision on whether or not to press forward. Local media outlets reported that as many as 41 senators have already concluded that they will abandon the president and support an impeachment trial, at the conclusion of which it would take a two thirds majority to remove her from office for good.

Speculation was rife that Ms Rousseff, whose second term should run until the end of 2018, might try to avoid the humiliation of impeachment by calling new elections. While such a step might not be unwelcome to many Brazilians there is no provision for it in the current constitution.

Aides to Ms Rousseff meanwhile indicated also that she would turn for help to the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazils highest court, to try to fight the impeachment campaign which she and her supporters have likened to a coup, orchestrated party, they allege, by Mr Temer, once the president's ally.

Just as the six-hour vote in the Chamber of Deputies on Sunday was marked by moments of histrionics and chaos, so Brazil, the largest economy in South America, seems destined for weeks and possibly months of even greater political turmoil, likely to be marked by increasing numbers of street protests and strikes, even as it prepares to host the Olympic Games.

Over recent weeks and months, Brazil has seen a groundswell of popular dissatisfaction with the government, fueled by the countrys rapidly deteriorating economic situation as well as by a daily drumbeat of stories connected to a sweeping bribery and corruption story involving a growing parade of top politicians - though not Ms Rousseff - and the state oil giant, Petrobras.

Yet, just as thousands were celebrating on the streets of Brasilia and elsewhere as news of Sundays impeachment vote filtered out, so many in the country were saddened by the plight of Ms Rousseff, whose Workers Party is still widely credited with lifting millions out of poverty with policies of inclusion and state largesse at the end of the last decade and the start of it this one.

Handpicked by former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to succeed him, Ms Rousseff rode Brazils newfound economic prosperity when first elected in 2010. But by the time she faced re-election four years later, the sheen was off the economy thanks to a combination of falling commodity prices and rampant inefficiencies and corruption that had gone unaddressed.

As head of his own Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, Mr Temer, 75, enjoys broad support in Congress. However, he too is implicated in the fiscal shenanigans case dating back to when he was on Ms Rousseffs re-election ticket and his popularity ratings nationally have recently plunged. But few doubt that he has been preparing for weeks to take the nations reins. Now comes the hardest part, he was quoted telling his aides once the Sunday vote had been taken.
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A group of high school students has been speaking out about its sexual assault experiences amid claims some staff members have not supported victims.

The students from Tualatin High School in Oregon, the US, have been taking to an online blog, Girls With Guts, to anonymously share their experiences and highlight how they are tired of being silenced.

Criticising those who perpetuate the cycle of alleged abuse, the blog says: The school or legal officials whom we go to seeking protection, seeking safety, seeking understanding, yes those; the same officials who say accusations are just accusations, you should stop telling people about this its unfair to him.

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Stop blaming victims. It is NEVER their fault. People are raped regardless of how much clothing they are wearing. And it is not a persons responsibility to dress in attempt to make anyone else less likely to rape.

One student has told the campaign why raising awareness is important to her, and said: Everyone should have the right to feel safe, to be able to sleep at night, to be able to walk down the hall at school or at home or anywhere and not fear their safety.

Another anonymous 17-year-old has told how she feels the school and justice systems have failed her. She said: There are many moments where I still feel ashamed of myself for my assault, and the school/justice system definitely validated this shame and devalued my rape.

I struggle with finding the strength to admit I have been failed by these systems, mainly because I know it is true.

While the school in question has not directly responded to the campaigns specific details, the Tigard-Tualatin School District has said it takes the students reports seriously.

In a statement to Huffpost, a spokesperson said the district immediately passed the campaigners information onto the local police department and that, after no charges were made, a request was made for the police to review their investigation.

The spokesperson told the site: Our counsellors and school administration have been providing ongoing support for students and their families since we were made aware of this situation. The statement also said that the school is doing its best to keep students separated where possible.

Since Girls With Guts surfaced in March, the schools student-run feminist club, Advocates for Gender Equality (AGE), is reportedly hosting a rape culture awareness event in May along with another local high school.

If youve been affected by any of the issues in this article, please visit Victim Support for help and advice
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Finland flights

Finnair has launched flights from Edinburgh to Helsinki, opening up its long-haul route network to Scottish travellers. The new service will operate three times a week, increasing to four over the summer, with onward connections to destinations including Hong Kong, Beijing and Seoul. finnair.com

Accessible travel website

Limitless Travel is a new website with travel information for people with disabilities or mobility issues. Users can search for hotels or attractions based on their needs, for example, if they need wheelchair access or are hearing impaired. A disability advisor can also provide further information. limitlesstravel.org

Dublin attraction

Epic Ireland, a new interactive experience telling the story of Irish migration, opens on 7 May. Located in Dublins historic CHQ building in Custom House Quay, it will feature themed galleries, such as Motivation (why people left Ireland) and Influence (what Irish people did in their adopted homelands). Entry 16. epicirelandchq.com

Nepal challenge

Charity Challenge's new expedition to Nepal gives travellers the chance to help re-build the country after the April 2015 earthquake, after the FCO lifted its warning against all but essential travel to Nepal last month. The 10-day Nepal Community Challenge will visit the rural Gorkha region - the epicentre of the quake - in February 2017, with participants helping to build schools. Volunteers must pay a deposit of 500 and raise 2,975 in sponsorship, which will cover international flights, accommodation, all meals, transfers, a challenge leader, construction supervisor and medical backup. charitychallenge.com

Rebuilding in Nepal (Charity Challenge)

Way to San Jose

Competition to Costa Rica is set to intensify from this winter when Air France starts a twice-weekly service from Paris CDG to San Jose. The non-stop link will have connections from airports across the UK, and will compete with the new British Airways service from Gatwick to the Costa Rican capital. airfrance.co.uk

Great escapes

Bletchley Park, the Second World War codebreaking base, is to host an open-air cinema for Second World War movies on 2 and 3 September - on its croquet lawn. The first screening is The Great Escape, followed by The Imitation Game - which tells the story of the codebreaker and pioneering computer scientist, Alan Turing, and was partly shot at Bletchley Park. bletchleypark.org.uk

Temporary hostels

The Scottish Youth Hostels Association is opening three temporary hostels using student accommodation in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth, from mid-June/early July to the end of August. 199 beds are at Cowgate in the centre of Edinburgh, with 110 in Glasgow and 65 in Perth. syha.org.uk

Overland for less

The Dragoman spring sale begins today, with 20 per cent off almost all land prices (i.e. not air fares or kitty) for departures before the end of June 2017. Excluded from the deal are family trips, Rio Carnival packages and journeys to Bhutan. dragoman.co.uk
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Every year 30-40,000 elephants are killed to supply ivory to illegal markets in Asia. In 2012, the Laikipia-Samburu Ecosystem, located in north central Kenya and considered one of East Africa's most spectacular wildernesses, became one of the worst hit areas in Kenya as the poaching crisis swept across the continent.

Yet four years on poaching levels have decreased in the area by as much as 90%. This is down to the success of the Anti-poaching Rapid Response Team (RRT)  a team of highly trained rangers working under the authority of the Kenya Police and supported by the Kenya Wildlife Service & Criminal Justice System.

The idea came about after an emergency conference in 2011 held by the conservation charity, Space for Giants, in response to the poaching crisis.

Together local community conservancies, the Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Police decided to form a team of rangers that could respond quickly and efficiently to poaching incidents across the landscape. It was this collective response and solid working relationships between stakeholders that has been at the heart of the success of the RRT.

The rapid response unit rangers take part in dog training

The Rapid Response Team is based at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a 90,000-acre wildlife conservancy in Laikipia County, which has one of the highest number of black rhinos in East Africa and is home to the only 3 northern white rhino left in the world.

The team comprises armed Kenyan Police Reservists. In the event of a major armed poaching incident, the team is collected by helicopter and deployed to the site of an incident. All deployments are authorised by the Kenya Police.

What is unique about these teams is their training and the use of a helicopter allowing them to reach the incident sites sometimes within minutes says Daniel Mwaniki, Deputy manager of Security at Ol Pejeta.

In my opinion this success can be emulated in other elephant range states provided they have highly trained, motivated and equipped rangers, says Daniel Mwaniki.

Kenya's rapid response unit (Wildbond)

The Giants Club, founded by the Governments of Kenya, Gabon, Botswana, and Uganda, with Space for Giants to combat the poaching crisis, is aiming to do just that.

Later this month, President Kenyatta will be hosting the Giants Club inaugural Summit and one of the key issues being discussed is scaling up the anti-poaching Rapid Response Teams in Kenya, Gabon, Botswana and Uganda.

Together, these countries contain more than half of Africas savannah elephants and three quarters of the continent's remaining forest elephants. If the success of the Rapid Response Teams in Laikipia can be emulated in these elephants range states then theres a real chance of reaching the goal of the Giants Club - to protect 40,000 elephants by 2020.

On 29-30 of this month African heads of state, business leaders and conservationists will meet in Kenya at the inaugural Giants Club Summit to drive front-line protection measures and work out a co-operative frame-work for saving Africa's elephants. The Kenyan government will follow the summit by burning 105 tonnes of ivory, the largest ever amount to be burned in one go.

To find out more about The Giants Club Summit go to: http://spaceforgiants.org/giantsclub/summit
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Ten years back few people even knew where the Kurdistan region was. Today, few people ask what Peshmerga means. Many more know the Kurds in Iraq and their Peshmerga  those who face death  have been valiant and determined in fighting Daesh and are reliable allies.

The Kurds often bemoan a history of lost opportunities and even betrayal. They know the West needs them, as there is little appetite to use western forces even against Daesh, which represents a threat to us all. They fear that once the danger is over, or seems to be over, western governments may once more leave them marooned at the mercy of their enemies.

As one who has visited the Kurdistan region over 20 times in 10 years, I have seen it change for the better, only to suffer major reverses in the last three years. In the 1990s the Kurds evicted Saddam but were dirt-poor and endured a bloody civil war. The liberation in 2003 of Iraq put them in a prime position to refashion Iraq so they were accepted as equals in a binational, federal and democratic state. They had been free for longer of the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and used their greater experience and expertise  also honed over centuries of being stuck in the middle  to stabilise federal governments for which they provided the president, the foreign minister and other weighty figures.

The 2005 constitution gave them much autonomy which they used to build an energy sector from scratch and effect an historic rapprochement with Turkey. Many now think Turkey would acquiesce to their independence, despite its fears that Turkish Kurds would seek to secede.

Given that the Kurds are landlocked, it would seem better to remain an autonomous part of Iraq with its larger economy and access to the sea. But uncaring and sectarian governments in Baghdad have hollowed out federalism, which was always the condition of the Kurds remaining married to Iraq. Kurds fear that Baghdad is becoming a dictatorship and want no part of it.

Arab Iraq leaders often patronise and lecture the Kurds. The divisions were dramatically exposed when Iraq ceased to exist in all but name as Daesh forces sliced through a third of Iraq like a hot knife through butter. The Kurds overnight acquired 1,000 km of border with Daesh to just a few miles from Baghdad and no safe land route either.

Leaders in Baghdad seem unconcerned about whether Kurdistan stays, at least as equals. That they no longer allow constitutionally mandated fiscal transfers may indicate they hope the Kurds swing in the wind, sue for terms that would subordinate them, or exit. It is not what the Kurds signed up for in 2003 and it seems improbable that the chauvinist mentality in Baghdad that once drove genocide against the Kurds will change.

The US and Britain consistently promote a One Iraq policy. They are understandably wary that changing the status quo would weaken the fight against Daesh. But the One Iraq policy is running out of steam and credibility. Such positions are held in public while debate about their viability proceeds in private, and then an apparently sudden change is enunciated. Political scientist Arezu Yilmaz told the Kurdish Rudaw newspaper, for which I write a weekly column, about "over 100 diplomatic meetings in Erbil last year with [the] international community directly speaking to Kurdish political actors, which is unprecedented".

Iraqi and Kurdistani forces certainly need to work together. When I visited the frontline in Kirkuk, however, I was told there was no co-operation between them although it would help to reach and fight Daesh.

There is much talk now about taking Mosul. Some Kurdistani forces are 17 miles away while most Iraqi forces are over 100 miles away. But the crucial question is what mix of forces can demonstrate to Sunnis trapped in Mosul, some of whom have seen Daesh as less bad than Baghdad, that they will not suffer bloody revenge. Significant Sunni support for Daesh will not be eroded if it means the return of centralised and sectarian rule by Baghdad. This incubated Al Qaeda from which Daesh flowed and from which a son of Daesh could emerge. The One Iraq policy will not work in its own terms.

But precipitate moves to Kurdistani independence wouldn't work either. The nightmare scenario for Kurds is losing passports, imports, exports and airports. They know divorce has to be amicable and co-ordinated. Given that they can no longer stay together, Kurds and Iraqis would be better placed as neighbours to conclude security and economic agreements, which could be extended when Sunni areas overthrow Daesh.

Things are falling apart in Baghdad and that centre cannot hold all power if there is to be a genuine partnership against Daesh. The Kurds have been efficient allies but are warning with increasing urgency they cannot hold together themselves thanks to the huge economic shocks caused by Daesh and Baghdad, as well as their oil-addicted economy. There are no easy answers to the dilemmas facing the Kurds and Iraqis but the old answers are clearly of no great use.

Gary Kent, who writes in a personal capacity, is the director of the all-party parliamentary group on the Kurdistan region which has just issued a report on its recent delegation by British parliamentarians to the Kurdistan region.
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In the week when another boat carrying refugees sinks in the Mediterranean with the loss of as many as 400 lives, we discover that the Government has deported three times as many orphaned refugee children to countries ravaged by war and poverty than ministers have previously admitted. 445 teenagers have been sent back to countries like Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan since 2014.

While it may not be popular it is interesting to reflect that the "bash an immigrant lobby", which includes the Tory Party and Ukip with their casual racism, have helped send many of these kids to their deaths.

Typical Daily Mail headlines such as "send the immigrants back, save our jobs" may seem harmless enough, but the ramifications are utterly monstrous. Right now, as a direct result of such propaganda, hundreds of thousands of refugees are being put in tent camps surrounded with barbed wire and armed guards, which in previous times would have been called concentration camps. Then they are deported to Turkey to live in similar camps for quite possibly years.

In Calais, white fascist gangs attack women and children whose only crime is a desperate attempt to flee wars caused primarily by us and our mates. So what's next? Well, the Royal Navy is being dispatched to the Med - not to rescue these poor people but to turn these unsafe overloaded boats back to wherever they came from.

When we lose our humanity, when we cease to believe in the story of the Good Samaritan, the road only leads to barbarism.

Mark Holt

Liverpool

An overly optimistic referendum

The reiterated objection to Europe is that we Brits are being told what to do by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. We haven't had the opportunity to troop down in our multitudes to our local polling stations to elect a lot of bigwigs with peculiar foreign names. All of a sudden the electoral system is held to be a matter of high principle. What great strides democracy has made since the General Election, when only 66.1 per cent of the population could be bothered to vote.

Peter Forster

London N4

A circular system

The Chancellor has played the mortgage rates card earlier than one might have expected.

We already have a highly precarious housing market, after a crash induced by irresponsible lending and a recovery based upon even more personal and public borrowing. Factor in to this EU free movement of people, and you need more and more housing, financed by yet more borrowing.

So farm so good for existing home-owners, as prices continue to rise. But are we prepared to gamble our entire wealth that never in our lifetime will the EU get it together sufficiently to manage a boom, centred perhaps in Bavaria or Lombardy? This, mercifully, would draw some of the froth off the greatly expanded population of Britain, but the effect would be empty houses and plunging values.

By enshrining free rather than balanced movement of people, the EU lays itself open to the free surface effect, as when water sloshes about wildly if you try to carry it in a frying pan. Surplus labour sloshing about the EU not only brings crisis when it arrives but also a different crisis later when some of it leaves. George Osborne urges that we tie ourselves into a dangerously unstable system.



John Riseley

Harrogate, North Yorkshire
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Foreign investors love Britain, but Brexit would kill the vibe. According to new research colleagues and I have conducted at the Centre for Economic Performance, leaving the European Union could lead to a fall in inward foreign direct investment into the UK of close to a quarter. This would damage productivity and could lower peoples real incomes by more than 3 per cent.

Case studies of cars and financial services  two UK success stories  show that Brexit would also lower EU-related output of goods and services, and erode the UKs ability to negotiate concessions from regulations on EU-related transactions. According to government body UK Trade and Investment, the UK has an estimated stock of over 1tn of foreign direct investment (FDI), about half of which is from the EU. Only the United States and China receive more investment than this.

A number of factors determine where firms choose to locate and invest. Bigger and richer markets tend to attract more firms, which want to be close to their customers. The UK also has a strong rule of law, flexible labour markets and a highly educated workforce, all of which make it an attractive location for foreign direct investment whether or not it is in the EU.

But being fully in the single market makes the UK an attractive export platform for multinationals, as they do not face the potentially large costs from tariff and non-tariff barriers when exporting to the rest of the EU. Multinationals have complex supply chains and many co-ordination costs between their headquarters and local branches.

These would become more difficult to manage if the UK left the EU. For example, component parts would be subject to different regulations and costs; and staff transfers within companies would become more difficult with tougher migration controls. Plus, uncertainty over the shape of the future trade arrangements between the UK and EU also tends to dampen FDI.

Supporters of Brexit claim the UK could attract more foriegn investment outside the EU as it would be able to strike even better deals over trade and investment. But what do the data say?

We looked at investment flows across all 34 OECD countries over the last 30 years and analysed how investment changes when countries join the EU after controlling for a large host of factors such as the size and wealth of the different countries.

The results showed that being in the EU increases investment by around 28 per cent (the exact magnitude ranges from a 14 per cent to 38 percent increase depending on the statistical method used). These figures are similar to previous estimates, which have found an impact of 25 per cent to 30 per cent using an alternative method which compares the evolution of UK FDI with a comparison group of similar countries.

Being a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), like Switzerland, would not restore the FDI benefits of being in the EU. In fact, we find no statistical difference between being in EFTA compared with being completely outside the EU like the US or Japan. So striking a comprehensive free trade deal after Brexit is not a good substitute for full EU membership.

We also found that the impact of lower investment following Brexit would be equivalent to a fall in real UK incomes of about 3.4 per cent. This represents a loss of GDP of around 2,200 per household.

Quantifying the relationship between FDI and growth is notoriously difficult so the exact number is subject to considerable uncertainty. But it suggests falls in FDI following Brexit would matter for living standards in the UK. An income decline of 3.4 per cent is larger than our static estimates of the losses from trade, 2.6 per cent in our pessimistic case, but smaller than the long-run dynamic losses from trade of over 6.3 per cent.

What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence.

The macroeconomic estimates give a birds eye look at the effects but its useful to hone in on particular industries. Two success stories of the UK economy are set to suffer as a result of the decrease: cars and financial services.

Cars are a successful part of UK manufacturing. In 2014, the industry contributed around 5.1 per cent to UK exports, and about 40 per cent of its exports were to the EU. The work of economists Keith Head and Thierry Mayer, based on assembly and sales locations, shows the main disadvantages of Brexit.

First, as trade costs rise, locating production in the UK is less attractive because it becomes more costly to ship to the rest of Europe. Second, there is an increase in the co-ordination costs between headquarters and the local production plants  for example, transfers of key staff within the firm may be harder if migration controls are put in place.

Putting both costs together, total UK car production is predicted to fall by 12%  or 180,000 cars a year. This is mainly because European car manufacturers such as BMW will move some production away from the UK. Prices faced by UK consumers will also rise by 2.5% as the cost of imported cars and their components increase.

Financial services have the largest stock of inward FDI in the UK (45%) and constitute 12% of tax receipts. The single market allows a bank based in one member of the EU to set up a branch in another, while being regulated by authorities in the home country. This single passport to conduct activities in EU member states is important for UK exports of financial services. Passporting means that a UK bank can provide services across the EU from its UK home. It also means that a Swiss or an American bank can do the same from a branch or subsidiary established in the UK.

 Osborne: Britain "poorer outside EU"

The UK might be able to negotiate some of these privileges after Brexit. Members of the European Economic Area outside the EU enjoy them, but they also have to contribute substantially to the EU budget, accept all EU regulations without a vote on the rules and must allow free labour mobility with the EU. And even for these countries, like Norway who must pay and obey with no say, there seem to be greater difficulties in doing business than a full EU member.

Staying in the EU also gives the UK the ability to challenge new regulations in the European Court of Justice, a right that was successfully exercised when the European Central Bank wanted to limit clearing-house activities to the euro area. If the UK leaves the EU, it would lose its leverage in negotiating and challenging future EU regulations.

Of course, these costs may be a price that many people are willing to pay to leave the EU. But they are not trivial costs. The UK received about 44 billion of new FDI inflows in 2014 according to UKTI  losing almost 10 billion of this after Brexit would be no laughing matter.

John Van Reenen is director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics and Political Science

This article was originally published by The Conversation. Read the original article
Luas workers have called off next weekend's strike to give negotiations a chance.

The Siptu trade union said the 48-hour tram stoppage was being cancelled unconditionally despite repeated warnings last week that the service was being threatened by an "all-out indefinite" walkout.

Drivers held a meeting on Monday where they agreed to lift the strike on Saturday and Sunday.

Siptu divisional organiser Owen Reidy said the move was designed to create a window for talks with management aimed at finding a resolution to the dispute.

"As well as this move by the drivers, the three other grades of Luas workers - traffic supervisors, revenue protection officers and revenue protection supervisors - will meet with the company tomorrow in order to clarify some issues surrounding its revised offer," he said.

Siptu has asked to meet caretaker Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe to outline workers' concerns in case a deal cannot be struck.

Since a new pay offer, brokered by industrial relations mediators, was rejected by drivers, operating company Transdev put them on protective notice and warned them they would be removed from the payroll next Monday.

Workers had hit the company with a work-to-rule and a list of strikes - five 24-hour stoppages are still in the diary for April 28 and May 4, 13, 20 and 27.

A separate four-hour stoppage is also planned for May 26.

Siptu said it would hold meetings for all its Luas members on Wednesday and Thursday to update them on talks.
Spare a thought for John McCann, whose tenure at Wireless Group (formerly UTV Media) comes to an end without a bonus payment.

McCann, who first joined in 1983, is leaving the company next month with his pay having decreased by over 250,000 in 2015, the year when his gamble on setting up a new Irish TV station didn't work out.

The station, UTV Ireland, is now in the hands of ITV, after a year in which UTV Media repeatedly had to inform the market that it was going to lose more money than previously thought.

Pat Kenny was brought on board to much fanfare, but his chat show 'In the Round' was not renewed after its first series. Mary Curtis, who was the station's director at its launch on January 1 2015, announced in January 2016 that she would be leaving.

And Newstalk Breakfast's Chris Donoghue left the station's 10 o'clock news bulletin, saying he had been working across 19-hour days for a year and "something had to give".

In typical corporate understatement, chairman Richard Huntingford said in Wireless Group's annual report that it had been "an eventful year". It certainly was.

Huntingford said that at weekends, UTV Ireland's "absence of consistently popular programming undermined overall audience delivery and therefore advertising revenue projections".

It'll be interesting to see how ITV proceeds.

Voters not wanted, thanks

Much hilarity in Italy yesterday with the country's voters being asked to stay away from the polls in a referendum on oil and gas exploration rights.

The question was whether the country should stop renewing offshore drilling licences within 20km of the country's coast.

But in a remarkable turn of events Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi asked voters to stay away from the polls. His party is called the Democratic Party.

"This is not a political referendum, but concerns 11,000 workers, their future and Italy's energy supply chain," Renzi told reporters on Friday.

While the short-term impact of a 'Yes' vote would be minimal, it would have long-term implications, as by 2027 the offshore fields could account for more than 20pc of Italy's oil and gas production, Mediobianca analyst Alessandro Pozzi told Reuters. There has to be a 50pc turnout for the vote to be valid, so perhaps Renzi's really looking to keep the status quo without saying so. Ingenious!

Beers all round at Havas

Marketers Havas Worldwide Dublin picked up a big gong at the Association of Promotional Marketing Consultants (APMC) Star awards in Dublin's Marker Hotel.

The "best creative execution" prize was for the agency's innovative campaign for Heineken Ireland, entitled 'The Tiger Uncaged', which saw a massive moveable tiger sculpture prowl around the streets of Dublin in an effort to promote Heineken's brand Tiger beer.

The sculpture, quite a sight to behold, was created by Irish artists Andrew and Ger Clancy. Havas also picked up prizes for its 'Always Comfortable' campaign for Southern Comfort, and for the Lucozade Sport 'Conversion Challenge'.

Havas Worldwide Dublin boss Bob Coggins said the award "was the icing on the cake at the APMC Awards, as [the company has] invested heavily in creative talent over the last 12 to 18 months."

"We will continue to grow our team this year on the back of acquiring more great clients and will continue to organically grow our current client portfolio," Coggins added.

Other clients of the Leeson Street-based agency include Valeo Foods, Pfizer, Microsoft and the 'Yes Equality' marriage referendum group.
Abdul Salam, CEO and Founder of SLM Connect, Anna Ni Ghallachair, Chair of Udaras na Gaeltachta and James Moran, SLM Connect, announcing the decision by Manchester based company, SLM Connect, to expand its operations to the Gweedore Business Park in Derrybeg, Co. Donegal with the creation of 125 jobs.

A Gaeltacht area ravaged by unemployment and emigration is to get 125 new jobs.

Manchester-based digital marketing company, SLM Connect, has announced it is to expand its operations and establish a new base in the Gaeltacht area of Gaoth Dobhair, Co. Donegal.

The new company, SLM Eire Teo, will offer contact centre and Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) solutions to its clients from the new facility.

The expansion plan is supported by Udaras na Gaeltachta and will lead to the creation of 125 jobs.

The company has 130 employees in England, will recruit 25 new employees in Donegal next month and add another 100 over the following months.

Junior Gaeltacht Minister Joe McHugh flew to England last October as part of the negotiations to secure the jobs.

SLM Connect founder and CEO, Abdul Salam, said :SLM Connect has grown its business substantially in recent times. The increase in the level of new business contracts presented us with a challenge as the business outgrew its current contact centre facility in Manchester.

The company requires extra capacity in order to grow and expand. We looked at a number of possible options and after careful consideration we felt that Gaoth Dobhair would be a great location for the next stage of our development.

SLM Eire will help us to expand our operations further afield, grow our business and provide us with new opportunities. 

Acting Minister of State McHugh said: I am delighted at this announcement by SLM Connect and Udaras na Gaeltachta.

This is most significant in terms of the number of jobs it will create in North West Donegal, its great news for Gaoth Dobhair and the surrounding locality and will give a much needed economic boost to the area.

The Irish operation will be managed by local Donegal man, James Moran, who is moving home from the UK to manage the business.

SLM Eire will provide digital marketing services and create sales and marketing campaigns for our clients., he said.

A significant trend in this industry is the growing number of clients who wish to outsource direct marketing functions instead of developing such infrastructure in-house. This creates an excellent opportunity for SLM Eire to service these needs and provide a plug and play option to its clients.

The facility provided by Udaras na Gaeltachta in Gaoth Dobhair is practically ready to walk into. We can put all our requirements in place and start up operating pretty quickly. Im looking forward to growing our Irish operations., he said.

The Chairperson of Udaras na Gaeltachta, Anna Ni Ghallachair said We are delighted to be a position to support SLM Connect in its expansion plans.

Udaras looks forward to working closely with the company in the coming months to help it accelerate its business plan and establish its operations in Gaoth Dobhair.

Last year, Udaras na Gaeltachta announced that it was to fund a three year enterprise development action plan to support employment creation on the Gaoth Dobhair Business Park.

Anna Ni Ghallachair added: This announcement today illustrates that the provision of an adequately resourced enterprise plan can deliver benefits for all. We have made significant progress in terms of the objectives set out in our enterprise development action plan for the area, we are beginning to see the fruits of our labour, and we look forward to continuing our work and achieving the jobs creation targets we set down.
Google's massive book-scanning project cleared its final legal hurdle today as the US Supreme Court denied an appeal contending it violates copyright law. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge by a group of authors who contend that Google's massive effort to scan millions of books for an online library violates copyright law.

The Authors Guild and several individual writers have argued that the project, known as Google Books, illegally deprives them of revenue. The high court left in place an October 2015 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in favor of Google.

A unanimous three-judge appeals court panel said the case "tests the boundaries of fair use," but found Google's practices were ultimately allowed under the law.

The individual plaintiffs who filed the proposed class action against Google included former New York Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton, who wrote the acclaimed memoir "Ball Four."

Several prominent writers, including novelist and poet Margaret Atwood and lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim, signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief backing the Authors Guild.

The authors sued Google, whose parent company is Alphabet Inc, in 2005, a year after the project was launched. A lower court dismissed the litigation in 2013, prompting the authors' appeal.

Google argued that the effort would actually boost book sales by making it easier for readers to find works, while introducing them to books they might not otherwise have seen.

The company made digital copies of more than 20 million books, according to court papers. Some publishers agreed to allow Google to copy their works.

Google Books allows users to search the content of the books and displays excerpts that show the relevant search results. Google says in court papers the service "gives readers a dramatically new way to find books of interest" and lets people know where they can buy them. Users cannot read "any substantial portion of any book," Google said.

Google had said it could have faced billions of dollars in potential damages if the authors had prevailed.
The UK Treasury has released a 200-page document setting out the potential long-term consequences of Brexit, with George Osborne warning that leaving the EU would cost every household 4,300 (5,400).

How has the Treasury reached the 4,300 figure?

Read More

Civil servants examined three potential futures for the UK outside the European Union after 15 years - a Norway-style deal which would see the UK becoming a member of the European Economic Area (EEA); a Canadian-style bilateral deal with the remaining members of the EU; or no deal with the EU and a relationship carried out under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. Using a complex series of models, the Treasury's central estimate is that, based on 2015 figures, a Norway-style deal would see a 3.8% fall in GDP, or 2,600 per household; the Canadian-style system would see a 6.2% fall in GDP, or 4,300 per household; the WTO approach would see GDP fall by 7.5% and leave households 5,200 worse off.

Read More

What approach did the Treasury use?

Officials insist they took a cautious approach to the figures as part of a "rigorous quantitative analysis". They estimated the impact on trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), then estimated the consequences for productivity. These economic shocks are put into a "general equilibrium macroeconomic model" to determine the impact on UK productivity and GDP. The annex of the document setting out the technical details contains a series of complex algebraic equations used to model the trade and investment flows, and the analysis also drew on research carried out into the impact on world trade of the closure of the Suez Canal to examine the link between trade and productivity.

What does the document say about immigration?

Very little, considering it is one of the main battlegrounds of the Brexit debate. In four paragraphs on the subject, the Treasury explains it used the same figures as the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), assuming that net migration will fall from 329,000 in 2014 towards 185,000 per year from 2021 onwards - a figure still far in excess of the "tens of thousands" goal set by the Government. One of the key arguments of Brexit campaigners is that leaving the EU would give the UK greater control of its borders - but the Treasury analysis did not alter its assumptions of the numbers coming to Britain.

Why did the Treasury analysis not consider whether net migration would be reduced?

The Government points out that "no country has been able to agree significant access to the Single Market without having to accept EU regulations, financial contributions to the EU and the free movement of people". So, in the case of EEA membership, the same rules would apply. The bilateral deal negotiated with the Swiss also involves accepting the free movement of people. The implications of the WTO approach would depend on the future government's policies - but any attempt to tighten the borders could be met by reciprocal action from the EU, making it harder for UK nationals to emigrate to Europe. New free trade deals with non-EU countries could also require more liberal immigration policies, the Treasury argued.

What would Brexit mean for the public finances?

For each percentage point reduction in GDP, the Treasury estimates a 7 billion loss to the Exchequer. The central estimates suggest that an EEA deal would result in public sector receipts being 27 billion lower each year, a bilateral deal would result in 43 billion less going to the Exchequer and for a WTO approach the figure would be 52 billion.

But wouldn't the UK be better off because it would no longer have to pay into the Brussels budget?

The Treasury assumes that no contributions are made to the EU, resulting in 7 billion a year being kept in the UK, but that still leaves a net loss to public sector receipts - and consequently the amount available to be spent on services - of 20 billion under the EEA model, 36 billion under the bilateral model and 45 billion under the WTO approach. The document says: "To put these numbers into context, the impact in the EEA alternative would be greater than what is currently spent on the combined annual budgets of the departments responsible for policing and prisons; while the impact in the WTO alternative would be more than what is currently spent on the entire schools budget for England."
A deal to freeze oil output by OPEC and non-OPEC producers fell apart last night after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in despite calls on Riyadh to save the agreement and help prop up crude prices (AP)

A deal to freeze oil output by OPEC and non-OPEC producers fell apart last night after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in despite calls on Riyadh to save the agreement and help prop up crude prices.

The development will revive oil industry fears that major producers are embarking again on a battle for market share, especially after Riyadh threatened to raise output steeply if no freeze deal were reached.

Some 18 countries, including non-OPEC Russia, gathered in the Qatari capital of Doha for what was expected to be the rubber-stamping of a deal - in the making since February - to stabilise output at January levels until October 2016.

But Saudi Arabia told participants it wanted all OPEC members to take part in the freeze, including Iran, which was absent from talks.

Tehran had refused to stabilise production, seeking to regain market share after the lifting of Western sanctions against it in January.

After five hours of fierce debate about the wording of a communique - including between Saudi Arabia and Russia - delegates and ministers announced no deal had been reached.

"We need more time to reach an agreement among all OPEC members and main producers to freeze production, which can be by June," one OPEC source said.

The failure to reach a global deal could halt a recent recovery in oil prices.

"With no deal today, markets' confidence in OPEC's ability to achieve any sensible supply balancing act is likely to diminish and this is surely bearish for the oil markets where prices had rallied partly on expectations of a deal," said Natixis oil analyst Abhishek Deshpande.
As the days lengthen and the weather improves, the literary festivals dust themselves down and it feels like the literary season has begun again. In Limerick, the final day of the Eigse literary festival takes place today, with an event featuring the multi-award winning author Colum McCann. McCann will be joined by another talented Colm, Colm Mac Con Iomaire. The event takes place in the Limerick City and County Council Offices at 8pm and tickets are 15.

If you're in Dublin today, literary magazine The Stinging Fly is hosting a day-long event in the Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar.

The evening event is called 'Making It Up' and features writers reading from works in progress and as-yet-unpublished novels and poems, which is always fascinating, almost like seeing an artist's sketchbooks for a masterpiece.

Martina Evans, Niall Griffiths, Lisa McInerney and Jon McGregor will read from their works in progress. McGregor is author of Even the Dogs and the prizewinning This Isn't the Sort of Thing that Happens to Someone Like You and his writing is amongst the best in contemporary fiction. His first novel, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, was longlisted for the Booker prize and he won the IMPAC International Dublin Literary award in 2012 for Even the Dogs. He will be reading from Reservoir 13, which will be published in April 2017.

Lisa McInerney's debut novel The Glorious Heresies saw the young Galway writer praised for her vibrant writing and it has just been shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize. She will read from her yet-to-be-published second novel. The poet and writer Martina Evans has run workshops all over the world and is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University, so she knows a thing or two about the creative process. It will be interesting to hear her thoughts at the event.

The Stinging Fly's last issue, 'In The Wake Of The Rising', addressed the commemoration of the Easter Rising and was reviewed in these pages a few weeks ago. It has inspired the afternoon sessions of discussion and debate at this event. The first will start at 2pm and features guest editor Sean O'Reilly in conversation with the aforementioned Martina Evans, novelist Evelyn Conlon and the writer and actor Donal O'Kelly, who will discuss George Orwell's assertion that "The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude."

The second afternoon session takes place from 4pm and looks at the under-representation of working-class life in contemporary writing in Ireland and Britain. O'Reilly will this time be in conversation with English author Niall Griffiths, the aforementioned McGregor and McInerney and poet and novelist Nuala Ni Chonchuir

The writers will discuss the challenges they faced on their own paths to becoming authors, as well as the difficulties they faced in writing about working-class people in a literary culture that is predominantly middle-class. They will examine the question of whether there are in-built prejudices within publishing houses against writing about that covers working-class experiences, as well as exploring if there is an assumption that there is no readership for working-class characters and the problems faced by writers from working-class backgrounds and whether they inherit a belief that they don't have permission to become writers. Tickets for the afternoon and evening events are priced at 10/8.

Go to www.projectartscentre.ie and www.eigsemichaelhartnett.ie for more information
Tributes have poured in from U2 fans in the wake of the death of The Edge's father John Garvin Evans.

Mr Evans passed away on Saturday at the Bon Secours Hospital in Dublin after a "long and courageous battle with illness met with typical joie de vivre".

Originally from Wales, Mr Evans and his wife Gwenda ( who passed away in 2012) moved to Dublin in the 1960s and had three children, The Edge, Richard, and Gillian.

His funeral will take place on Wednesday at 11am at Howth Presbyterian Church.

The Edge previously spoke about his relationship with his father in a book about fathers and sons which sold in aid of the Irish Hospice Foundation.

He recalled a fishing trip with his dad to Wales which inspired him to pursue the hobby with his own son Levi.

Fans have paid tribute to Mr Evans on social media and fan sites across the world.

Italian magazine Inutile re-posted an interview with Garvin from 2012 in which he spoke about his famous son and his support for U2.

"We have always got along very well together  which goes for all my three children  right from the time when they were very young, up to present time," he said.

"We really did not have any so called teenage problems, and I can honestly say we have never had the slightest disagreement that I can remember  ever.

"If that sounds too good to be true  well I guess we are lucky. Although Bono has written some lyrics that were addressed specifically to his occasionally difficult relationship with his Dad, there have been none involving me  as far as I know."
What to watch on Netflix and what podcasts catch up now.

Frank (2014)

Available now

In a fairly scant week for new Netflix releases, it's worth having a look at this quirky tale about the power of artistic expression. It stars Michael Fassbender who wears a large papier mache head to play the title character, who's based on the now-deceased, real-life cult entertainer Frank Sidebottom, the comic persona of musician and comic Chris Sievey. Writer Jon Ronson tapped into his own experiences as a member of Sievey's band to tell the fictional story of a young keyboardist (Domhnall Gleeson, in an excellent performance) who falls in with a group of offbeat alt-rockers led by the artistic genius who refuses to show his face. Gleeson's character builds a strong following for the band on social media, despite the misanthropic streak of one member, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Director Lenny Abrahamson generates plenty of laughs from the set-up, but wisely keeps the comedy muted.

Absolutely Fabulous

6 seasons, available now

The movie is coming later this year, so now is a good time to look back on a show that has endured through the 20 years - bet you feel old - since it first ran. Some aspects of it look incredibly hokey now - the laugh track seems badly outdated and often incongruously frequent, given the rather thin jokes. But there are some incredible scenes - Patsy waking up (in a dumpster, in a smoking kitchen which she burned down with her cigarette) is always good. It has some terrific one-liners (Eddie: "I don't want more choice, I just want nicer things") and incredible performances from Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders. It was also the first English show to harness the power of the big name guest star: Minnie Driver, Lulu and Germaine Greer all appear.

David Bowie: Five Years

Available now

This has been described as "more celebration than investigation", but maybe, such a short period after the great man's death, that might be a good thing. The documentary, which first aired on the BBC last year, focuses on five key years for Bowie - 1971, 1975, 1977, 1980 and 1983 - as well as his comeback efforts for his forthcoming album The Next Day. It features archival footage and interviews with collaborators and fellow musicians. The structure of Five Years makes it a lot more interesting than your usual pop-related documentary. Rather than try to deal with about 50 years of superstardom in two hours, the film gives us five year-long snapshots. Year One: 1971-1972 (Hunky Dory to Ziggy Stardust), Year Two: 1974-1975 (Young Americans to Station to Station), Year Three: 1976-1977 (Low to Heroes), Year Four: 1979-1980 (Scary Monsters) and Year Five: 1982-1983 (Let's Dance). The only thing that could make it more perfect would be a chapter on Labyrinth, but tights and goblins were still a couple of the years in the future.

My Beautiful Broken Brain

Available now

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This is one of those indie jewels that Netflix has promised us they'll have more of. It's the story of stroke patient Lotje Sodderland. The then 34-year-old suffered a devastating brain haemorrhage in 2011; an incredible eight days later she contacted filmmaker Sophie Robinson to ask her to help document the aftermath. The pair initially filmed 150 hours of footage, which was edited to create this documentary piecing together Sodderland's recovery. Through a brilliantly edited combination of iPhone selfie video footage and deeply personal documentary film-making, we see Sodderland discover an entirely new perspective as she learns to appreciate the nuances of an intricately changed brain. Aphasia is the problematic focal point: a book lover, she cannot read; a writer, she cannot write; an artist, her thoughts melt like Dali's clocks. This documentary, which was produced by the incomparable David Lynch, is a moving and artful study of how close we all are to losing our own essential selves and shows how little understanding there is of the workings of the human mind. It is definitely one of the better offerings on Netflix at the moment.

Catch up now

Emily Hourican

Arne Dahl

TG4 Player, until April 20

The second series of the cult Scandi-noir drama is well under way on TG4, so if you haven't succumbed yet, this is the last chance to watch from the start.

Based on the crime novels of Jan Arnald, otherwise known as Arne Dahl, the first series aired in Sweden in 2011, and was then snapped up by much of the rest of the world, thanks to the winning combination of hardboiled detectives, sex and violence - all with the requisite bleached-out Scandi colours. The action picks up two years after the end of the first series, and a fresh spate of murders.

Prison in Peru: Michaella's First Interview

RTE Player, April 25

This, Michaella McCollum's first post-prison interview, was controversial for various reasons - had money exchanged hands? Was Michaella sufficiently repentant and aware of the implications of her crime?

Did RTE ask enough of the hard questions or was this just too soft a soap? Was Michaella simply too blonde and soignee for someone who has spent the last years in a Peruvian prison for drug smuggling?

If you missed it first time round, here's a chance to make up your own mind.

Thicker Than Water

Channel4 On Demand

More Swedish drama here, as part of Channel4's excellent, and growing, repertoire of online programming.

Walter Presents is a new strand for the channel, pulling together the best of international drama. In this case, a family saga in which a mother summons her grown-up children back to the seemingly-idyllic island of their childhood, where they find themselves confronted with more than a few dark secrets.

This is beautifully shot and carefully plotted. For fans of Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, as well as of Scandi thrillers.
Having crashed hen parties, posed with GAA players, supped pints of the black stuff and raced along the Wild Atlantic Way, 'Top Gear' duo Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc have rolled out of town.

The crew of the popular BBC show chose the picturesque setting of the Kingdom of Kerry to pit a modern Rolls Royce Dawn against the classic Rolls Royce Corniche.

When they weren't road-testing the two vehicles, the two gents made sure to swing by some of the local pubs for a pint or two.

Le Blanc, who shot to fame in hit sitcom 'Friends', sampled his first Guinness, which he described as "delicious" - and said it was quickly followed by a second, which "wasn't too bad either".

Co-presenter Evans, who was driving the 1976 Rolls Royce Corniche, was clearly impressed by the landscape.

"We had to come film in Ireland," he said.

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"We had the Rolls Royce Dawn and one of the most beautiful backdrops in the world, so that's why we came."

Asked if he would like to come back, he replied: "You know, we might just stay. It's easier."

Evans described one of the routes he sped along as "the best road" he ever had the pleasure of driving on.

The 'Top Gear' crew visited Ladies View, Killarney town, Kenmare, Gallarus GAA pitch and Dingle town.

The motoring show is considered to be the most widely watched factual television programme in the world, with a global viewership of 350 million.

The last ever 'Top Gear' to feature the controversial Jeremy Clarkson was watched by 5.3 million viewers, while the programme's audience topped seven million for an episode in 2007. The new series will begin next month on BBC Two.

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"As Chris says, we're only babysitting 'Top Gear'," said Le Blanc, adding "You know everyone has their own memories about a car, the first time they got their licence or the first time they took a ride with their girl.

"'Top Gear' is such a monstrous entity in its own right, but I'm enjoying every minute of it so far. How could I not?"

Last month the show's producers were criticised for filming a scene near the Cenotaph war memorial in London's Whitehall.

Co-host Chris Evans apologised for the stunt, and said he and the crew were "mortified".
The brother of the late Veronica Guerin has said he was "very pleased" with a "great result" after the Court of Appeal dismissed as an abuse of process Brian Meehan's bid to have his conviction for murdering the journalist declared a miscarriage of justice.

Ms Guerin was murdered on the Naas Road on June 26, 1996 while stopped at traffic lights. A motorcycle pulled up alongside her and the pillion passenger discharged a number of shots into her car.

Meehan (47), from Crumlin in Dublin, is serving a life sentence in Portlaoise prison for her murder having being convicted by the non-jury Special Criminal Court in July 1999 following a 31-day-trial.

It was the prosecution's case that he drove the motorcycle.

Meehan had applied to quash his 1999 murder conviction on the basis of alleged new or newly discovered facts following an unsuccessful appeal against conviction in 2006.

The alleged new evidence concerned matters which emerged in the course of the 2001 Special Criminal Court trial of John Gilligan at the close of which Mr Gilligan was ultimately acquitted of Ms Guerin's murder.

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Dismissing Meehan's application under Section 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act today, Mr Justice George Birmingham said it was entirely clear that no new fact or newly discovered fact had been established.

Speaking outside the court today, the brother of Veronica Guerin, Jimmy, said: "I think thats the end of it now. We'll have no more cases. Its a great result for the gardai and a great result for us.

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"If anybody is abusing the process it's the vexatious cases that have been taken by Meehan and his likes.

"Justice Birmingham dealt with it excellently and dismissed any case that Meehan tried to make.

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"It's no easier (on the family), things don't get easier but you just get on with it. But results like today are good and make you feel that bit better," he continued.

"I'm very pleased, delighted with the result and it puts an end now to all the cases hopefully, thats the whole judicial aspect disposed of.

"It's not easy (coming into court) but it's important to do it.

"I don't think I'll be laying eyes on him again. He's gone back now to where he's supposed to be and I'm happy with that.

"I think he will serve a life sentence."

It was abundantly clear, Mr Justice Birmingham told the court, that all of the material Meehan was seeking to rely upon now was available, at the latest, from the time of the Gilligan trial in 2001 and that the arguments he now presented had been formulated in detail by 2003.

He chose not to present those arguments before the Court of Criminal Appeal and the choices he made had consequences, the judge said.

To formulate grounds and arguments, not proceed with them and then seek to resurrect the same grounds and arguments years later as new facts is quite unacceptable and indeed in the view of the court amounts to an abuse of process.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the application had morphed from one based on alleged nondisclosure to one that was critical of his previous lawyers.

Where Meehan had to accept there had been disclosure, he retreats to a situation of saying his lawyers at trial did not appreciate the significance of the material that was disclosed. There was no evidence to support that proposition whatsoever.

His position toward his Court of Criminal Appeal legal team was "even more extreme". In effect, Meehan said the decision not to proceed with the motion to admit new evidence from the Gilligan and Ward trial transcripts was "contrary to his instructions".

He said he never wished to drop his motion to adduce additional evidence but his lawyers told him he had to - although no affidavit was provided by the solicitor who acted for him in the appeal.

Having one's instructions terminated in one of the highest profile murder cases in the history of the State is not something that would be forgotten easily, even with the passage of time.

Having criticised both sets of lawyers he then criticised the solicitor who lodged his Section 2 application for not pursuing it with the required vigour.

Meehan's appeal lawyers were experienced and able. The leader of the defence was particularly able, experienced and highly regarded and the court regarded it as inconceivable that such a team, so led, could have fundamentally misunderstood the situation.

Notwithstanding the assertions made in relation to non-disclosure ... it does not seem, at this stage, to be in dispute that there was no non-disclosure, but that full disclosure was made.

The court finds it disturbing that such allegations of non-disclosure could have been made without any factual basis for them, and it would seem without any real inquiry at to whether proper disclosure had in fact been made.

Each and every fact was known at the time of the appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal and in most, if not all, of the cases long before that. There has been no reasonable explanation why arguments should be advanced, abondoned and then revived years later.

There has been and could be no suggestion of any new facts whatever coming to notice since the appeal was finally determined.

Neither, can it be said that the significance of the facts were not appreciated during the trial or appeal proceedings.

The fact a motion was brought to admit additional evidence was the clearest possible, and indeed conclusive, evidence that the significance of the matters now sought to be relied upon were considered before his appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Furthermore, Meehan had operated on the basis that he can trawl through transcripts, make a selection and then deploy the selected material. However, only in exceptional cases could that be permitted and this was certainly not such an exceptional case.

Really this is a case where the appelant (Meehan) is saying that the approach of the Gilligan trial court is to be preferred to the approach of the court that dealt with his case.

I doing so, he ignored the Supreme Court's remarks on corroboration in relation to Gilligan, the judge said.

Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice Alan Mahon and Mr Justice John Edwards, said the court was satisfied not only that all of the material pointed to by Meehan was propertly disclosed to him and his legal team but also that its significance was fully appreciated by them, at the very least by the time of his appeal against conviction in 2003.

Accordingly, the court refused the application.

Meehan was lead away to continue serving the remainder of his life sentence.
Farmers have warned that a court award of 40,000 for a woman who fell in the Wicklow Mountains could result in them preventing hillwalkers from accessing their lands in some of Ireland's most scenic areas.

The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) said farmers' livelihoods could be ruined should a serious judgment be made against them by an injured hillwalker.

Chairman of the IFA hill farming committee, Pat Dunne, runs a farm in the Wicklow Mountains.

He is concerned about people using his land for trails.

"This will cause a lot of problems and a huge amount of anxiety because a lot of good work has been done to defrost the relationships between farmers and hillwalkers.

"We want to keep the countryside open but this has the potential to set all of that back a long time," he warned.

"I'm concerned because a new wooden bridge was put in here. You begin to wonder if somebody fell on that and put in a claim, where do we stand on that?"

Hillwalker Teresa Wall's claim for damages last Friday was against the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), which is responsible for designated walking routes and paths around the country.

Ms Wall fell on a rotten boardwalk and suffered a gash on her right knee that required seven stitches.

However, Mr Dunne is concerned that farmers will now be wary of hillwalkers rambling off routes.

"It is a judgment that has gone against a lot of things. It is a potential game-changer," he said.

"I spoke to landowners and walkers yesterday and they are dismayed with it (the decision)."

He is also concerned that the National Walkway Scheme, which is run by the Department of Environment, could be disbanded in light of the claim.

A total of 1.8m was spent upgrading walkways last year under the scheme.

"What if the National Parks decide they will have to take these boardwalks out? Then you are looking at huge erosion because of the volume of footfall in these areas," said Mr Dunne.

Erosion is a huge issue on many of the country's walking trails and paths that remain without boardwalks.

The annual Reek Sunday pilgrimage at Croagh Patrick, Co Mayo, was cancelled for the first time in living memory last July because torrential rain, aligned with constant erosion, made the reek impassable.

Croagh Patrick's Stakeholder Group was set up last November to manage the mountain and its chairman, Martin Keating, said he was also concerned after last Friday's ruling.

"The liability issue is one of the foremost on our agenda to try and make progress on," he said.

"It is also concerning from the point of view of local groups looking to carry out work on the mountain to redress the erosion issues on it at the moment," he added.

The NPWS is managed by the Department of Arts. A spokesperson there and at the Department of Environment said officials needed to examine last Friday's judgment before making any decisions following the ruling.

Wicklow's Fine Gael TD Andrew Doyle said he was concerned about potential consequences the ruling would have on tourism in the area.

"In this beautiful county our countryside is one of our greatest assets and it's vital for both walkers and locals that the open trails policy continues and everyone is free to enjoy all that Wicklow has to offer."
A man has been jailed for 13 years for the brutal rape of a woman four times having invited her to his home to help him with some painting.

A victim impact statement said in the days after the rape she kept thinking why did I not die that night? He should have killed me that night. She cut herself with a small blade because it was my way of taking some control back.

The best way to describe how I felt about myself at the time was that I was damaged, the woman stated.

The 39-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reason, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury last February of two charges of rape, two charges of anal rape and assaulting the woman causing her harm at his Laois home on July 19, 2012. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy sentenced the man today to 14 years in prison with the final year suspended. She also handed down a three and a half year sentence for assault with the final six months suspended. All sentences are to run concurrently. The judge had previously declared the man a sex offender.

A local garda told Tim O'Leary SC, prosecuting that the woman told the jury during the trial that she had agreed to go to the man's house, whom she knew through his cousin, to help him with a painting job but he said it took a nasty turn.

She was assaulted, threatened, removed to an upstairs bedroom, attacked and brutally raped, said the garda.

He said after the first incident the woman was forced into a shower cubicle and washed down before she was returned to the bedroom again and raped.

She was then made shower again before the man instructed her to get dressed and led her out of the house.

The garda said the man brought the woman to her friend's home. This man was also the accused's man first cousin and it was he who had organised for her to help out with the painting job.

On route to the house the accused made her scrape her knuckles off a wall and told her that if anyone asked where she got her injuries from she was to say that she had been in a fight with another woman.

The man threatened to kill both her and her mother, if she didn't stick to this fictitious story, the garda said.

He said the woman was so frightened on the way to her friend's house, that even though two patrol cars passed her, she made no effort to flag them down.

She told people in her friend's house, under duress from the accused, that she had been in a fight and then asked to be brought home.

The following day her friend noticed very visible injuries to the woman's face despite the fact that she had tried to conceal them with heavy make-up. She reported the attack to the gardai nine days later and the man was arrested on July 31, 2012.

He denied the allegations in a subsequent garda interview. The man was returned to Ireland on an European Arrest Warrant in 2014 from the UK.

A victim impact report said the woman had cuts and bruising to her face from the punches she received and had friction marks on her inner thighs.

She still suffered badly with nightmares, dreaming that the man had kidnapped her and raped her again.

She had panic attacks and outlined one such incident when she thought she saw the man in her local shopping centre. She described feeling as if she was in a strait-jacket, unable to breathe, unable to move and her friend had to bring her outside until she felt safe again.

Blaise O'Carroll SC, defending asked the court to take into account evidence during the trial from his client's mother about his difficult childhood.

He said his background, led him onto many acts of criminal misconduct in the UK; offences which counsel said the man had pleaded guilty to.

The woman said in her victim impact statement that she was stressed and anxious during the trial and she found it difficult to re-live the night and give that evidence with the man sitting very close beside her.

I was being told I was telling lies, when I knew all along it was true. I really blame myself for it all, how stupid could I have been to think all he wanted was help to paint, the woman said.

She said she found it very difficult to trust anyone since. She said a current boyfriend felt responsible and believed she didn't trust him. She described it as a heavy burden.

The woman said her self-esteem and her self-worth had suffered and she described her family and close friends as an amazing support.

I can now start to really live my life again and I feel I can have a future, the woman concluded.
Raymond Dowdall, of Galtymore Road, Drimnagh, Dublin pictured leaving the Bridewell District Court in Dublin after he appeared before the Dublin District Court.Pic: Collins Courts

A DUBLIN man who was jailed for a notorious joyriding crash that killed two gardai has been given a suspended sentence for new motoring offences.

Raymond Dowdall (30), who was given an eight-year sentence and a 30-year road ban in 2003, is now working for a security company, a court heard today.

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Dowdall of Galtymore Road, Drimnagh, was the driver of a stolen Mazda MX5 when it smashed into a patrol car containing Garda Anthony Tighe (53) and Garda Michael Padden (27) on the Stillorgan dual carriageway in the early hours of April 14, 2002. He was aged 16 at the time and already had a litany of prior criminal convictions.

The father-of-one, who now works for a security firm, appeared at Dublin District Court yesterday. He entered guilty pleas via his barrister to two motoring offences: driving without insurance and a licence, on July 13 last year at Galtymore Road.

He turned up late for his hearing and a bench warrant was issued but Judge Hugh O'Donnell cancelled it when Dowdall's barrister explained that he had arrived and that there was a guilty plea.

Garda Marcus Regan, of Sundrive Road station, told Judge O'Donnell that Dowdall has 51 prior criminal convictions. They included two counts of dangerous driving causing death of gardai for which Dowdall received an eight year sentence and a 30-year road ban, said Gda Regan. He also said the man had four previous convictions for driving without insurance.

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Judge O'Donnell noted the accused had been driving while disqualified he committed his latest offence.

Gda Regan agreed with the defence barrister that Dowdall, who did not address the court, had been co-operative and had not been driving dangerously.

In pleas for leniency, Judge O'Donnell was told that Dowdall had gone to his partner's house and took her car after a row.

He has a young child to care for and is apologetic. The court heard that he is now working for a security firm and would do anything to avoid going in to custody. He was willing to do community service, counsel also said.

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Judge O'Donnell noted that he has already served an eight-year sentence but added it does not seem to have worked.

He imposed a five-month jail sentence but suspended it on condition Dowdall does not re-offend for the next two years. Fines totalling 750 were also imposed but Judge O'Donnell said there would be no point imposing another road ban because Dowdall is already suspended from driving.

It was the early hours of Sunday, April 14, 2002 and Garda Michael Padden (27) and Garda Tony Tighe (53) were just 45 minutes into their early morning shift when the previous incident involving Dowdall occurred.

At around 6.45am a stolen Mazda MX-5 shot past the White's Cross junction near Leopardstown in Dublin at maximum speed heading for the city centre. It tore the wing mirror off a car sitting at traffic lights.

Garda Padden and Garda Tighe were trying to clear cars from the path of the stolen car when it hit their stationary squad car at a speed of up to 120mph.

The two gardai died instantly and their efforts and lives were obliterated at a junction of the Stillorgan dual carriageway on Dublin's southside.
Emilia Clarke as Daenerys in a scence from 'Game of Thrones'. Photo: HBO

A new film industry course is going where none in Ireland has gone before.

It will teach students the sort of skills behind the spectacular visual effects in movies as diverse as 'Star Wars', 'Titanic' and 'Forrest Gump', and the fantasy television series, 'Game of Thrones'.

Dublin's Ballyfermot College of Further Education (BCFE), already famous for nurturing talent for a wide range of movie industry roles, will open Ireland's first dedicated VFX and 3D Technology course in September. VFX is the industry shorthand for visual effects, which brings fantastical imaginings to life in the movies.

Course co-ordinator Gareth Lee said VFX involves combining live action and digitally created images to create everything from placing real actors into digital environments through to adding fire into a fireplace scene in a TV commercial.

A number of years ago, BCFE graduate Richie Baneham won both an Oscar and a Bafta for VFX for his work on the film 'Avatar'. In the same year that he won the Oscar, 2010, a raft of other Ballyfermot graduates were nominated for awards in the related field of animation.

Mr Lee said that there was no dedicated course in VFX in the further or higher education sectors and the closest offerings were in animation or 3D graphics, but neither area addressed the specific needs of VFX training.

The course is a two-year programme and 24 places are on offer for September.

According to Mr Lee, it would appeal to people who have an interest in creativity and technology.

The staff at BCFE put together the programme in consultation with employers in Ireland. Mr Lee said the VFX industry was a growing sector in Ireland and graduates could seek employment and a career, either locally or internationally.

Well-known companies in this field in Ireland are Brown Bag Films, Giant Animation, Windmill Lane VFX, Egg Post Production, Screen Scene VFX, Piranha bar VFX and GLUE VFX.

Mr Lee said there was significant evidence that the sector would continue to grow.

The course will use industry-standard software and hardware to take students through everything from learning how to light and shoot the live action elements to creating and combining digital backgrounds and characters into footage to create a final scene.
More than 5,000 members of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) are registered for training programmes related to junior cycle reform - despite a union ban on co-operation with change.

More than 5,000 members of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) are registered for training programmes related to junior cycle reform - despite a union ban on co-operation with change.

The level of sign-up, just under a third of the ASTI's 18,000 members, indicates an appetite within schools to embrace the new approaches to teaching, learning and assessment of students, notwithstanding the union's official stance.

It was up to principals to register the names of teachers for the training being rolled out by the Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT) service. It is not known which schools registered staff, but any principal who is a member of the ASTI would have breached the union directive by doing so.

The training is not due to start until September, so it remains to be seen whether individual teachers will take up invitations that will issue to them from JCT, if the ban is still in force.

The ASTI represents teachers in about two-thirds of second-level schools, which now face being left behind if the union continues its opposition.

The ASTI is the sole union representing teachers in the voluntary secondary sector - about 370 schools, generally under the control of the religious or a religious trust. It also has members in the 96 community and comprehensive schools.

The other union representing teachers at second level, the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI), is co-operating with the changes and the reform programme is well under way in their schools.

Shortly, pupils in the one-third of schools where the TUI represents teachers will do the first of the classroom assessments being introduced as part of the new regime. These involve a three-minute oral presentation by each pupil in second-year English classes on a topic of their choice, such as a local GAA team or their favourite poet.

The idea is to nurture skills such as research, presentation and teamwork, which are not captured in a written exam.

At the heart of the junior cycle reform plan is ending the exclusive reliance on a single set of exams to measure student progress by using in-school assessments.

JCT director Dr Padraig Kirk said it had trained 10,000 teachers in recent months.
My second year of college wasnt supposed to go like this. This was not what I had imagined. This was the year I was supposed to improve on the previous years achievements.

I started this academic year motivated and inspired by unexpected opportunities that my writing was opening up for me.

While I do have a history of depression and self-harm, I thought I had left that behind. Everything was going well for me, the things I had achieved in the year prior to my breakdown was more than I could ever have expected.

September was the peak of my nine months in college and then everything went downhill. I found myself without motivation, unable to leave my bed in the mornings and having breakdowns before it was even midday.

On days where I managed to push myself to go into college, I wasnt able to stay the full day because I was afraid Id burst into tears in classes.

When asked what triggered my breakdown, it was nothing and yet it was so much. I have never been one to shy away from hard work or from stressful tasks that benefited myself and others.

To others, I came across as though I had my life together and had so much going for me. They didnt know that all ended the moment I was alone and confined in the four walls of my bedroom.

At first I thought if I kept myself surrounded and busy with the company of others I wouldnt have to deal with the creeping thoughts that lurked in the back of my mind.

Id think things like, Once you leave college youre never going to find a job or Everyone is going to think youre crazy if they really knew whats going on. At first, I could manage it, I could ignore it, I could pretend my emotions werent real.

I understood what I was feeling was anxiety and depression. I made an attempt to tell a doctor about it, but having never mentioned this to them before, it was brushed off. Chalked down to simply a college student's emotional imbalance.

I felt like nobody could help me nor understand the intensity of what I was going through and how it was eating away at me, taking away from me every aspect of everything I enjoyed. I knew my lack of productivity wasn't due to laziness, I knew I was sick.

I was eating takeaways upon takeaways despite the fact that I enjoyed cooking. I was gaining weight and when people mentioned it to me Id feel like I had tripled in size, despite the fact that I knew deep down I actually loved my body.

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I picked up awful habits as a means of coping, pinching and digging my nails into myself when I felt like I was going to have a panic attack in public.

Every time I tried to write about something, Id read it knowing full well there was nothing wrong with it, yet feeling like it wasnt worth being shared.

The depression I was feeling even affected simple things. Like when my friends would ask me to go somewhere with them, Id feel like there wasnt a point in me being there.

Christmas rolled around, I was doing something almost every day so I didnt have time to think, stop or feel, I was never alone for more than an hour, I thought I was better, I thought I had gotten over it. I was writing again and I was getting paid to do so. I was me again. But I couldnt have been anymore wrong.

Yes, I had hit a low in my first semester, but the New Year brought with it a decline like no other. I wasnt able to even maintain the illusion of happiness anymore. My bad habits worsened, my close friends started to notice and would check up on me very frequently.

I was shocked by how obvious it was to them. They pushed me into availing of counselling services which helped incredibly. I hadnt realised how much I had been holding back from myself and from others. I hadnt realised the power of asking for help, the power of talking.

While by no stretch of the imagination am I fully recovered, I am however almost at the end of a long fight. While Ive lost an entire academic year to my battle with anxiety and depression, I have something I didnt have before - I have clarity.

If I had gone ahead with some of the ideas that crept into my head at my lowest point, I wouldnt have this story to tell.

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Mental health is being talked about, but not enough. While some may be tired of hearing about the woes of others and their battles with their illnesses, it needs to be shared.

We need to realise that addressing these issues, sharing our stories and eliminating the stigma that surround it are the only way we can improve the mental health services in this country.

The only way we can help people like myself from feeling less valued due to their illness is by discussing these issues and not behind closed doors as though theyre a secret. Its hard to see yourself as a victim when youre still struggling to survive.

I could include some fact about the percentage of young people that go through mental health issues in Ireland to highlight how much of an issue it is, but it wouldnt make it any less or more of an issue.

There are students all over Ireland who will be able to identify in some way with my story and to them I say it is okay to ask for help and it is okay to talk.

With thanks to Campus.ie
Fianna Fail will reserve the right to repeatedly table Dail motions on water charges unless a comprehensive deal on the issue is agreed during minority government negotiations with Fine Gael.

Sources in both parties insist that water will not be a "make or break" issue when their negotiating teams sit down to discuss policy today - but Fianna Fail believes it has a strong upper hand.

It will warn Fine Gael that a majority of TDs now oppose the charges, meaning that if Enda Kenny's party does not back away from billing households, the new Dail will be debating the issue every three to four weeks.

"Fine Gael can't have a situation where this is coming up every other week throughout the lifetime of the Dail. Something will have to be done," a source said.

The Irish Independent understands that the Fine Gael team of Frances Fitzgerald, Simon Coveney, Leo Varadkar and Paschal Donohoe are in a position to outline some tweaking to the operation of Irish Water. Their compromise is likely to include new waivers for the elderly and certain other categories of households, a reduced charge for everybody else and a gradual downsizing of Irish Water.

"There's nothing that can't be solved," said a senior Fine Gael strategist when asked about the gulf between the two parties yesterday.

However, the presence of the Labour Party in any minority government could complicate the situation even further as Joan Burton's TDs are strongly in favour of the retention of the utility.

"Irish Water is essential to the future infrastructure of the country and community needs," said a Labour strategist.

"Firstly we believe that Irish Water has a lot of achievements and secondly Fianna Fail's irresponsible posturing has put jobs at risk. We'd like to see the uncertainty around this brought to an end."

Speaking in Dublin yesterday, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said that his party has been "very clear from the beginning, before the election, during the election and after the election that it's a very important issue for us".

"It's a very important issue to a majority of TDs in the House now and obviously that will feature in the talks that have commenced," he said.

Despite being asked three times whether he would compromise on the issue or demand the full abolition of charges, Mr Martin refused to make any commitment.

"I'm not going to pre-empt the talks. I think we need to create a bit of space for those involved, but it is a very, very important issue for us," he said.

The party leader also made reference to Irish Water during his speech at Fianna Fail's annual 1916 commemoration in Arbour Hill yesterday.

"I hope that we will shortly be able to move our politics on to a more inclusive and consensual approach.

"Within this we will continue to work for the priorities we set before the public. No one in Dail Eireann will be able to dominate decisions - and this is a good thing.

"Many mistakes of the past, including the Irish Water fiasco, were firmly founded on the arrogance of a majority government," Mr Martin said.

"The major crises our country faces today in health, housing and many other areas developed because of the policies of the strongest and most stable majority government in recent times," he said, adding that in the new Dail "all TDs have a right and obligation to contribute."
Bertie Ahern attends the Eamon de Valera Mass at the Church of the Sacred Heart before the commemoration. Photos: Damien Eagers. Photo: Damien Eagers

Niall McEneaney and Anthony Greene holding the Tricolour, and Emma Murphy leading Fianna Fails Micheal Martin and party members at the 1916 commemoration at Arbour Hill yesterday. Photo: Damien Eagers

Fine Gael has put a potential minority government deal with Independent TDs in jeopardy by back-channelling with the Labour Party.

And the Independents are furious at claims they have been "holding the nation to ransom" with demands that could cost billions of euro to satisfy.

A number of TDs involved in the government talks have told the Irish Independent they are considering their positions in light of the latest developments.

It comes as Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said he is prepared to put Enda Kenny and Joan Burton back into government - despite campaigning to bring down their Fine Gael-Labour coalition.

Asked repeatedly if he would allow a depleted version of the last government retain power, Mr Martin said: "We are willing to facilitate a Fine Gael-led minority government, which is Fine Gael plus others. It's not for us to dictate the composition of that government in terms of who forms part of the Cabinet."

However, the Labour Party is set to go to war with itself over the possibility of re-entering coalition with Fine Gael.

Under Labour Party rules, if it re-enters government it would remove the requirement for a leadership contest, meaning Joan Burton and deputy leader Alan Kelly could cling to their positions.

A number of senior party figures last night expressed serious doubt about whether they would be able to convince the party's membership to sign up to a fresh Fine Gael deal.

A source close to the Tanaiste said their plan was to allow the talks with Independents play out over the coming days and become active only as an "absolute last resort if a vacuum exists".

"Fine Gael are very anxious to talk to us because we would be much more reliable than Independents," said a senior source.

Former Wicklow TD Anne Ferris said the party shouldn't "countenance" the idea.

"The two things the party should agree on very, very quickly is that we should not go into government with Fine Gael and that the leadership has to be changed. I don't believe that with only seven TDs we will need a deputy leader - but I believe the current leadership, Joan Burton and Alan Kelly, will have to stand down and a new leader be selected," she said on RTE's 'This Week' programme.

Fine Gael's advances towards Labour have sparked fury among the various groups of Independents who believe it is part of a strategy to reduce their influence on the talks.

Privately, a number of TDs told the Irish Independent they see Enda Kenny's manoeuvring as an attempt to squeeze them out altogether.

"It would be difficult enough to support Kenny, never mind the two of them," said one TD, adding: "It would be just extraordinary if they lost more than 50 seats and are returned to government." Another said: "If Labour go in, let them off. This is their [Fine Gael's] exit strategy from us."

The Independents are also furious at leaks to the 'Sunday Independent' which revealed some of the 100 demands for public spending and 50 new tax incentives being sought by them. Fine Gael sources claimed the 'pork barrel' list of motorways, railway lines and other demands could cost 13bn.

The Rural Five TDs - Denis Naughten, Mattie McGrath, Dr Michael Harty, Michael Collins and Noel Grealish - said in a statement that at "no stage" did they seek major capital developments.

"Instead we focused on key strategic national decisions which would have a direct impact on the survival of provincial towns and rural Ireland.

"In many cases the changes which we suggested had little or no financial impact but could, with a determined commitment by Government, make a real difference to the survival of many communities throughout the country," they said.

Michael Fitzmaurice of the Independent Alliance told the Irish Independent he has submitted a document on agriculture which fell within the existing budgets. "There was no 13bn or nothing near it in the discussions," he said.

Meanwhile Mr Martin has also rejected claims by Shane Ross that he "only needed to wait a week" and he would have got the backing of a substantial number of Independents for Taoiseach.

Mr Ross said some Independents wanted to vote for him because he was "urbane, convincing, able and honest" and others "preferred him for Taoiseach just because he was not Enda Kenny".

However, he said that Mr Martin failed to attend key meetings with Independents and didn't appear to have the appetite for power.

In response Mr Martin said: "Shane Ross would be the first to admit that our policy platform was actually the strongest."

He said it was "ridiculous" to suggest he needed to be at every meeting.

"The Independents have to say something to justify their position. We made every effort to put forward an alternative platform to the Independents."
Businesses were banned from using the JobBridge scheme following allegations that interns had been bullied and physically assaulted. File picture

Businesses were banned from using the JobBridge scheme following allegations that interns had been bullied and physically assaulted.

Internal reports from the Department of Social Protection were released to the Irish Examiner, revealing that a total of 86 companies received some form of ban from the taxpayer-funded scheme since it began in 2011.

The documents include allegations that at least two interns suffered bullying, with one reporting that they had been verbally abused by their mentors. In both instances, the companies involved received six-month bans.

Interns claimed that they had been forced to work unfair hours, including one incident where an intern was prohibited from leaving work despite telling their supervisors they were unwell.

Another business allegedly locked at least two interns into the work premises, which an inspector described as raising serious health and safety concerns.

The documents also include a partially-redacted report describing an accusation of physical assault.

A definitive incident occurred and this was admitted by (the company owner), the report reads.

While there is (sic) conflicting accounts of this particular incident we would have grave concerns about the nature of the incident.

Other reports contained claims that employees within certain companies lost their jobs only to be replaced by JobBridge interns, or saw their hours reduced after the hiring of an intern.

Further suspensions were prescribed to companies who did not provide proper mentoring to interns; who did not outline a standard agreement with their intern regarding their duties; and who did not have any PAYE and PRSI-paying employees (one of the schemes eligibility requirements).

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The department refused to disclose the names of businesses involved, saying such a disclosure could reasonably be expected to result in a material financial loss or prejudice the competitive position of the companies.

However, all firms serving bans from the scheme last November had their suspensions lifted after the department decided its own guidelines were not robust enough to necessarily comply with fair procedures.

At the time, 18 businesses had been banned indefinitely; two were suspended for 18 months; six were barred from using the scheme for a year; and two had been disqualified for six months.

The report noted that no businesses have been issued with suspensions from JobBridge since the decision in November to lift existing bans.

A spokesperson for the department told the Examiner that the controversial scheme has cost the taxpayer almost 282m, and 15,211 people who completed a placement with JobBridge had immediately secured employment following their internship.

That number represents approximately 32pc of the 46,537 people who started a JobBridge internship since 2011. There are currently 4,005 interns on the scheme.
Ger Corcoran pictured on her wedding day with new husband John, daughter Halle (13) and son Dylan (16). Dylan has multiple disabilities and Ger is his full-time carer. Photo: Ciara Wilkinson

The mother of a teenager with multiple disabilities has said her carer's allowance has been slashed since she got married.

"I feel like I and my son are being punished because of me finding someone to share my life with. It is a disgrace that Ireland has come to this," said Ger Corcoran.

"This is not about the money, it is about a mother's right to be able to care for her disabled son full-time."

Dylan (16) has multiple disabilities, including an intellectual disability, and Ger is his full-time carer at their council home in Celbridge, Co Kildare.

She was getting 204 a week but, after getting married, it has been cut to just 4 as the income of her husband, John McMahon, is now included in the means test.

Ger said: "My financial independence is gone. I have to be financially reliant on John yet since I was 16 I worked and then Dylan came along."

Ger, who is also mum to Halle (13), sought legal advice and was told the only way the full allowance will be restored is if she divorces.

"We were offended and hurt by that. At this stage I feel like I am being punished for finding someone to spend my life with," she said.

"If we were to hand Dylan over to the care of the government it would cost them a hell of a lot more than 200 a week to care for him."

The Department of Social Protection said it does not comment on individual cases. It said the carer's allowance is means-tested and where the carer is married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting, the means of the carer's partner is also assessed.
Kevin McGeever soon after he was found wandering a road in Leitrim three years

McGeever outside Strokestown District Court, Co Roscommon in 2013 to face charges over his disappearance

A heartbroken son has spoken of how his father, who died by suicide, was conned by disgraced property tycoon Kevin McGeever.

Martin Crosby (62), a father-of-two was hired by McGeever in 2011 to work on his lavish home Nirvana in Ballywinna, Craughwell, Co Galway.

His son Darragh (37) told the Irish Sun that Martin was a respected landscaper from Ballyboughal in north Dublin, and had been faced with mounting debts in the months leading to his death in 2013.

He had been struggling to cope with stress after he began building work for McGeever, for which he said he was never paid.

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After Martin took on a number of subcontractors to do part of the work on the mansion, the 71-year-old former millionaire allegedly refused to pay him.

Darragh said his father had been besieged by calls from builders demanding their money, and made numerous attempts to contact Mr McGeever, who would not answer his phone and was often abroad on holiday.

Martin died by suicide on October 28, 2013. Last week, it emerged that McGeever had been in contact with another businessman in the Midlands and had blamed Mr Crosby for refusing to pay the subcontractors.

The move was apparently an effort by McGeever to revive his ruined image as an esteemed businessman, but the grieving son was so outraged he decided to speak out.

Its a complete disgrace for a convicted criminal like McGeever to try and sully my fathers good name, he told the Sun.

My dad was taken advantage of by nothing more than an insidious creep. Hes a sociopath with no moral compass or conscience.

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Darragh also met with the Gardais Criminal Assets Bureau as part of their probe into McGeever.

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My father was a hard-working man all his life, he was a pioneer and worked on McGeevers property seven days per week, he continued.

He only went down there to make a living to try and get back on his feet. McGeever made a lot of promises over pay but the money never materialised. It was all a complete lie.

McGeever received a two-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to making false reports about being kidnapped at gunpoint in 2013, in a bid to shake off Irish and international creditors.

The former property developer has more recently been living in his luxury Clontarf apartment.

Martins devastated son continued: My father was the middle man and he was getting contacted by sub-contractors all around and was out of the country.

My dad kept this stress from his family because he wanted to protect us but it ended up costing him his life.

Darragh went on to describe the familys torment over their fathers sudden and tragic death.

Over two years on and were still struggling with our loss. he said.

My dad was loved by many people. He never even got to meet his grandchild, who was born after he died.

I dont know how McGeever can sleep at night, he added.

He also thanked the local community and the Gardai for their support over the course of the two-and-a-half years since his father died.
Society must turn its back on the thugs dealing out their own brand of justice on the streets of Northern Ireland, it has been warned.

Justice Minister David Ford was speaking after the brutal murder of a father-of-four in north Belfast.

Michael McGibbon was left bleeding to death after being shot three times in an alleyway.

The 33-year-old taxi driver had turned up for a pre-arranged shooting on Friday night.

His grieving wife told how she arrived to find him lying in a pool of blood, adding: "I tried so hard to save him."

A priest said it was the 100th murder in an area to have experienced some of the worst ravages of the Troubles.

Yesterday detectives arrested a 34-year-old man in connection with Mr McGibbon's murder. He is understood to be dissident activist Dee Fennell.

The brutal killing has turned the spotlight back on the issue of so-called punishment attacks.

Police figures show that almost 100 people were injured last year after being shot or assaulted by paramilitaries.

West and north Belfast were among the worst affected areas.

In the last 10 years, a total of 855 people have been maimed in "punishment" incidents.

Last night Justice Minister Mr Ford said such violence had no role to play in a modern Northern Ireland. He said the community must unite in a show of defiance against paramilitaries.

"There is no place for paramilitary assaults in today's society," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

"The vast majority of our people want to move on and step away from what happened in the past. There must be a clear message sent out about the community uniting in condemnation of those who carry out this kind of crime."

Secretary of State Theresa Villiers said the killing was a dark reminder of the past.

"This callous and shocking murder appears to have the hallmarks of the paramilitary-style assaults which too often ruin lives and scar Northern Ireland," she said.

North Belfast priest Fr Gary Donegan said the murder had "destroyed" the McGibbon family. "From the highest heavens, people cannot condemn it enough," he said. Two men went to Mr McGibbon's home in the Crumlin Road area on Thursday night with the intention of shooting him in the legs.

When he refused to come out they warned him they would be back. It is reported that on Friday afternoon a prominent New IRA member from Ardoyne approached Mr McGibbon as he collected his children from school.

He was told to be at the alley at 10pm to be shot or face exile from Northern Ireland. His wife Joanne has described how her husband put a brave face on the planned attack. "Michael wasn't too worried but when he went I was thinking the worst. I was actually listening out for gunshots, although I didn't hear them," she said.

"I texted my friend to come down and sit with the children so that I could go and see if he was alright.in

"When I got to the alleyway he was just lying there with the blood pouring out of him. I tried so hard to save him."

Joanne described how she fought desperately to save her husband's life. But one of the gunmen's three bullets had struck an artery in his thigh and he bled to death in her arms.

It is understood that detectives are looking at the possibility that he was dealt with more severely because he told police on Thursday that he was under threat.

When two armed New IRA members arrived at his house, he refused to come to the door and phoned the PSNI for help.

"I just knew they wanted to harm him very badly," Joanne said. "It just doesn't feel real. It is horrific. He was such a quiet man who worked hard for his family.

"I don't know what type of people there are in this world."

Detective Superintendent John McVea said the shooting had robbed a family of a treasured husband and father.

"There is nothing that can justify or explain the senselessness of this murder. And let's be clear, that is what we are talking about here, murder," he said.

"Those who carried it out have no legitimacy in this community and today I am asking the community to help us find them. Help us bring justice to the McGibbon family."
A man has been arrested in relation to the murder of Noel 'Kingsize' Duggan last month.

'Kingsize' Duggan (57), a well-known friend of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch, was shot dead in his car outside his house in the Old Mill estate in Ratoath, Co Meath.

The incident took place on March 23.

Today, a man in his mid-forties from Dublin was arrested and is being questioned at Ashbourne Garda station.

It was understood that Mr Duggan's murder was linked to the ongoing feud between the rival Hutch and Kinahan gangs.

The man is currently detained under Section 30 Offences Against The State Act, 1939.
Irish children spend less time outdoors than prison inmates, an education conference has heard.

Early childhood education expert Dr Carmel Brennan said children nowadays were not given the opportunity to play outside as their parents and grandparents once did.

At the same time, prisoners are entitled to at least an hour of fresh air a day under the UN rights for prisoners. The average Irish child today gets less than that, the Early Childhood Ireland conference heard.

"There's no doubt that children are spending far more time indoors on electronic devices," Dr Brennan told The Irish Independent.

This can come at a considerable cost to a child's physical, mental and emotional development, she said.

Dr Brennan blamed the so-called "schoolification" of children's lives, in which they are placed under pressure to obtain high Leaving Cert results.

She said the cost to children's physical and mental health can be catastrophic. "It's horrifying," she said.

Dr Brennan pointed to recent studies of children in China, which show that some children suffer emotional disorders from having been placed under extreme pressure to achieve academic success. "They're paying the price through stress and emotional disorders," she said.

Dr Brennan said it was crucial for a child's happiness and successful development to be allowed to run around outside.

"To be outdoors in the soil and out in the weather is critical to their wellbeing, but many young children don't even get to be outdoors for an hour a day," she said.

Risks

Part of the problem was due to the reluctance of many parents and childminders to expose children to the elements out of fear they'll get sick, she said.

There was also the fear of potential risks such as traffic and strangers approaching them, she said. Yet this constant over-supervision of children was not doing them any favours, she added.

"They're always under the gaze of an adult," she said. "But we are advocating for the freedom of children to be outdoors with their friends. Children need to spend more time outdoors and in nature."

The two-day conference, which finished on Saturday, also heard that preschools may not be able to keep up with demand for a second free preschool year announced in last year's Budget due to lack of spaces.

Teresa Heeney, CEO of Early Childhood Ireland, warned that "too many families will be unable to secure that second free preschool year in their local service, or if they can find a place, it won't be in their service of choice or at the time they prefer".

Ms Heeney also criticised the government for not restoring the cut in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) capitation fee in the last Budget and called for the enhancement of capitation to a "genuinely sustainable level".

"Capitation levels directly impact on the low salary levels in this sector, with the average rate of pay at 10.27 per hour," she said. "So while we are talking about how play is fundamental for a child's development, pay is fundamental for childcare professional. Without decent salaries we will have no sector."
Marina and Alan Killoran at their home in Newbridge Credit: Kyran O'Brien

An Irish mother who was told she would die if she didnt get a life saving operation has raised enough cash to pay for the treatment.

Marina Jordan Killoran (45) suffers with an incurable auto-immune disease called Systemic Scleroderma and was told by medics she needed a stem cell transplant, which is not available in Ireland.

Last week she issued a last-ditch appeal for help on Independent.ie after it emerged that the treatment would cost $125,000 (109,000), not including travel, accommodation or aftercare expenses.

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Now she has revealed that they have raised 130,000 in the seven days since we first ran her appeal. She has booked in her operation at the Chicago clinic in the US for June 20.

Overjoyed Marina said: This is a second chance at life. Its incredible. Its thanks to the Independent.ie.

Ms Killoran told how they reached the target in less than seven days after the first online appeal.

We are euphoric, its just such a turnaround in just one week, she said. The Friday before we made the appeal we held a comedy night and we raised 600.

I came home and we were dejected, I was thinking what am I going to do?

Marina, her husband Alan and their two daughters Shannon (20) and Erin (16) are now making plans for her trip to The Northwest Memorial Hospital in Chicago in June.

The cash they have raised will also be used to pay for their accommodation and living expenses while Marina undergoes the treatment.

She insisted that any extra cash will be put back into supporting others suffering with the disease.

If I can continue and I am in good health I just want to dedicate my life towards helping others with this illness.

Systemic Scleroderma or "thickened skin" essentially creates an overproduction of protein collagen in the body.

Marina has the more severe form of the disease which means her internal organs are also affected. Her lungs, oesophagus and stomach are now damaged - and there is also an anomaly with her heart.

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"I am 45 and I want to live my life. I love life. I love my family and friends - and I just want to be given a chance," she said in a video with Independent.ie last week as she thanked the readers who had donated their money towards her cause.

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"I know this is my only chance - and this my chance to have a much better lease of life. I just exist - I don't live."

Support Marina here. You can also follow on Facebook and Twitter
A mother has been jailed for four years after subjecting her seven of her children to horrific neglect. (Stock picture)

A man who filmed himself snorting cocaine on Snapchat, while wearing a t-shirt from the Dublin restaurant in which he worked, has lost his claim for unfair dismissal.

The Irish Times reports that the Employment Appeals Tribunal found against James Boyle, from Knocklyon Avenue, Dublin, last week.

Mr Boyle lost his job as a waiter at Dublin city centres Wagamama restaurant in 2014 after his employer learned he had shared a Snapchat video, a short clip which is automatically deleted from the recipients app after it is viewed, with friends and co-workers in August of that year.

In the video, Mr Boyle could be seen taking cocaine in a bathroom while wearing a t-shirt bearing the Wagamama logo, the tribunal heard.

Mr Boyle was considered a competent and well-liked employee, the tribunal found.

There appeared to have been a culture of going out and socialising among the workforce and the employer described his staff as close.

The tribunal said the man's admission that he had sent the Snapchat was to be commended, but there was dispute over whether the video had been filmed inside the restaurant.

The employer argued that he had taken the Snapchat during his shift, and proceeded to call Mr Boyle to a meeting where he told him he could resign, with some dignity and some privacy and a reference, or face a series of disciplinary procedures.

Although the tribunal accepted that Mr Boyles employer was anxious about his employee using drugs at all, let alone at work, it said that the meeting had not been conducted in a proper manner with regard to normal practices.

While the tribunal may not approve of the choice of two options the employer offered to Mr Boyle, between resignation and disciplinary process, it accepted that he had been motivated by his concern for the employee.
'My boyfriend and I have been fighting a lot - we've never been away and he wants us to take a holiday together. . . But I won't go. I just can't."

I was listening intently as my client began describing what had brought her to see me. "I can't leave Mam, you see. She's so lonely and she relies on me... Even if I did go, I'd just feel guilty all the time."

''So your mum lives alone, Mary [not her real name]?'' I asked.

"Well, no; but she and my Dad don't get on, they never have. So we've always been really close."

The mother in question, you might be surprised to hear, was 58, in good health, worked part-time, had no money concerns and was still married to her husband. Yet somehow, she had managed to make her daughter so worried about her wellbeing that she couldn't pursue her own life and love or even leave the country for a week.

It's alarming how often I encounter this mother-daughter dynamic; where the daughter has been 'taught' to feel responsible for the mother's happiness. Unfortunately, it's usually just the daughters who show up in my consulting room, often suffering from anxiety, a lack of confidence and a poor sense of self - along with crippling guilt whenever they take any steps to separate from their mother.

London psychologist Oliver James's new book, Not In Your Genes - reported on in the Sunday Independent recently - comes down firmly on the side of nurture in the great nature/nurture debate, attributing mental health problems in young people to bad parenting and not genetic predisposition. James, author of the bestselling They F*** You Up, which described the failings of his own mother and father, has taken flak for 'blaming' parents. However, for James, it's all about gaining more understanding and working towards solutions.

Like James, I don't believe in blame as such. There are very human, often tragic, reasons why the mothers I speak of here have chosen not to fulfil their own lives and instead look to their children to entertain them, comfort them and make them feel worthwhile.

It also goes without saying that parents have the toughest job in the world, that it's impossible to get it all right. And frequently, of course, it is still the woman who does the lion's share of parenting.

Unfortunately, however, it is simply a fact that some mothers don't do such a good job. It might be helpful to detail what 'the job' actually is: in the earliest months of life, it's all about meeting a child's basic needs for sustenance and emotional attunement and regulation. As your child grows and makes their first moves at independence, it's about being a consistent, supportive presence to which he or she can return. It's about encouraging self-expression while providing appropriate discipline and boundaries; and allowing them to learn from trial and error. It's about letting them be different from you. Ultimately, it's about equipping them with the necessary life skills, encouragement and confidence to leave you.

But many mothers just won't allow that separation to take place. The seeds of this squelching of autonomy were probably there from early on. A key time is perhaps when a child starts to walk, at around 10 months - when they can move out of their parent's sphere of control and explore. Imagine if their adventures are encouraged - delighted in, even - versus the child who is all the time restrained, or met with anxiety or punishment. An anxious, overprotective mother will pass on a message of fear; the child will stay close and form an identity around her, rather than one developed out of interacting with his entire social environment. A depressed, unfulfilled mother will produce the same outcome: essentially, the child relies on their mother for survival, so when there's something obviously wrong with mother, the child worries for its very survival and focuses its energies on her.

And if you had to take care of someone who was actually meant to be your caretaker, you'll grow up thinking other people's feelings and problems are your responsibility to fix. There will have been the subtle transmission of messages such as "Take care of others and don't prioritise yourself - that's selfish" or "Don't grow and change or have fun (because then you might leave me)."

And then there's the phenomenon of the daughter who, as a child, was emotionally abused and neglected by her mother but who as an adult will describe their relationship as "close", and be fiercely loyal and protective of her mother. Last week, a 39-year-old mother was convicted in Galway of viciously assaulting, starving and neglecting seven of her children.

Fortunately, I haven't come across such a severe case of child cruelty; but the cases I do deal with are disturbing enough - think Faye Dunaway as the crazy, abusive mother in the drama Mommie Dearest. I wouldn't be surprised if the victims had cut off ties or at least distanced themselves from such mothers. But instead, what you often hear is a deep empathy with the mother's life and feelings, a strong loyalty and defence of why she was the way she was, an ongoing sense of responsibility for her or a need to please her.

What's going on here? Essentially, a child's response to a threatening or neglectful caregiving environment will be fear and rage; but, of course, expressing any such extreme feelings is not an option. In the child's fantasy, doing so could provoke retaliation or risk annihilation of her caretaker, such is the strength of the rage she experiences. So the child blocks out reality and turns the rage against herself. Fast-forward to adulthood, and you'll meet a well-defended individual who - as a way of denying or avoiding her own anger and the pain of the rejection, hatred, sadness, craziness or coldness she experienced in childhood - has built an identity around caring for others.

Or she may still be clinging to the hope of achieving the ideal relationship with the parent that never was by being the perfect, self-sacrificing, dutiful daughter. But it is in giving a voice to the anger that the possibility for redemption lies.

Of course, while I'm focusing here on daughters, it isn't just daughters who get trapped in a symbiotic dynamic with their mother. It's a thing I also see in sons who are only children. One client, Stephen (not his real name) recalled that his mother looked to him to meet all her needs, intimate and practical, when his father died when he was 10. She'd confide in him, share her sadness and regrets, expect him to go places with her and comfort her. "I essentially became her husband," he told me. "You say I have a right now to go and live my own life, but it's not so easy when I know just how lonely she is at home and how much she depends on me."

There is no end to the reasons given as to why mother is the way she is and cannot change, from "But she has no friends, no one to talk to except me" to "She can't drive, so if it wasn't for me and my car she wouldn't be able to go anywhere" or even, ironically, "She had such a difficult childhood, she wasn't looked after." But what is forgotten is that the mothers, like all of us, have choice (and an existential responsibility to themselves): ie, they could choose, for example, to pursue activities where they could make friends; choose to leave an unhappy marriage; or learn how to drive. The mother of a good friend of mine learned to drive only a couple of years ago at the age of 90. As I alluded to earlier, however, usually the mothers themselves are suffering from the very same lack of confidence or anxiety or depression or lack of identity that has brought their daughters to therapy. But then their choice is about whether to seek help or not; to burden their family with their unhappiness or not - and I would suggest that, as parents, they have a responsibility to step up. Show children by example how to look after yourself, manage your emotions and live a fulfilling life. Don't put responsibility for your own happiness, your loveless marriage, your unfulfilled ambitions, your unhappy childhood or your lack of friends on to your child.

And most importantly, set your child free. As Stephen Johnson writes in his fascinating exploration of personality disturbance, Character Styles, if you support your child to gradually separate from you, then you become less vital to her sense of identity. But if you don't allow that, you ensure your now adult child remains stuck at the emotional level of a very young child, not the ideal position from which to broach adult, autonomous life.

If this sounds like you, I appreciate this may have been uncomfortable reading. But we do need to speak about the role of parenting in mental health, instead of, as Oliver James says, passing the buck to the much more comfortable realms of psychiatric diagnoses and genetics - if we don't want to keep raising a nation of adult children who feel unable to leave home.

Client confidentiality has been respected. Gayle Williamson is an IACP-accredited psychotherapist practising in Dublin. Contact her at www. ferneytherapy.ie
April kicked off this year with Organ Donor Awareness Week. The Irish Kidney Association used the opportunity to urge the Health Minister to consider using a second hospital for renal transplants. It's an interesting idea.

Currently, Beaumont is the only hospital in the State that provides this complex service. They also assist some patients to travel to the UK for NHS treatment under the Paired Kidney Exchange programme. But there is another hospital in Ireland that does kidney transplants, and quite a few of them, too. On one single day last September, transplant surgeons at the impressive 900-bed Belfast City Hospital carried out a whopping five kidney transplants all in one day.

Starting at just after midnight on a Sunday morning, a team of 14 doctors and 20 nurses worked almost 23 hours to transplant five kidneys into five Northern Irish patients who had all previously been on dialysis. All the patients were home by the following Monday week. Five kidney transplants in one hospital in one day is not a Guinness world record, but it came close to that feat, which stands at six. I'm not convinced we need a second kidney transplant unit. The unit we have could do with extra resources, but more cross-border cooperation between health ministers of the two jurisdictions on this island might also improve the situation for this country's 2,000 dialysis patients. The key to more transplants is more donations, whether it's the general populace donating organs after death, or living relatives donating a spare kidney to loved ones whose filtering has failed. There is no waiting list for the living donor assessment unit in Beaumont. And they should be receiving a lot more phone calls than they are at (01) 809-2298.

Chemists are falling over each other these days to be nice to customers. They want to collect your prescription from the doctor, organise your tablets in trays, review your medication history, deliver medicines to your house, text you reminders to take them and match competitors' prices. Soon they could be offering to put your suppositories in! It's a competitive market out there. Many smaller outlets have joined chains, which allows them buy cheaper, in bulk, and spend more on marketing. It's no closed shop anymore and Ireland is probably overstocked with pharmacies. We have one community pharmacy for every 2,500 people in Ireland compared to one GP surgery for every 3,000. That makes your prescriptions a valuable commodity.

My antennae also tell me that there is a lot more shopping around going on than there used to be. Social media is helping to make consumers more aware of price comparisons. A medical colleague rose the temperature recently when she tweeted a picture of a bottle of Nurofen syrup on sale in Mayo. The price tag on it was a shocking 13, shocking because the doctor happened to know that the price just over the border was little more than 3. No wonder some over-the-counter medicines are delivered with a smile.

April is a big month of celebration in south Co Dublin as the Blackrock Clinic gears up for its 30th birthday party. I was half way through medical school when the swanky private hospital was born, and remember thinking that American-style treatment had arrived here in Ireland. The Clinic attracted many of the top physicians and surgeons in the city, and, in its 30 years, has amassed an impressive array of achievements, particularly in radiology and cardiology. Blackrock Clinic introduced PET scanning to Ireland in 2001, and five years later began CT scanning of the heart. They replaced an aortic valve using a catheter in 2008 and three years later were using minimally invasive surgery to repair the mitral and tricuspid valves that lie deep in the heart. I have yet to sample the delights of its treatment, but on visiting I am always impressed by its compact design, ease of access and the absence of endless corridors. In my next life I'd quite fancy coming back as a hospital architect to give Ireland a taste of more high-rise medicine.

I'm always interested to hear your accounts of surgical practices and surgeons of yesteryear. One correspondent tells me about two treatments he had many moons ago in Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital. In 1950 his tonsils were taken out by a Mr O'Brien, and in the late 1960s he returned to the operating theatre of the same surgeon to have his sinuses scraped. He recalls his surgeon as being a bit stuffy. Brian O'Brien was a well known ENT man who qualified from UCD in 1935. He passed away in the late 1970s. It was said that he was popular among colleagues as he had a reputation for keeping fees up and always getting paid for his work! His waiting room had reading material about the death of a child during tonsillectomy as he didn't want patients or parents to think that it was always an easy operation. Mr O'Brien once attended a surgical conference in London where he overheard a careless remark about 'the Irish bombers' having arrived. He demanded and received a full apology before the meeting was able to get underway. Anyhow, the day after the sinus job mentioned above, my correspondent woke with a nose stuffed full with cotton wool and quite severe pain. Mr O'Brien came in. He asked the patient if he knew why Dean Martin pitied anyone who didn't drink. He didn't. Surgeon O'Brien explained that when teetotallers wake up in the morning, they know they are not going to feel any better for the rest of the day! His roundabout message was clear. Things can only get better.

Dr Maurice Gueret is editor of the 'Irish Medical Directory'

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Cork's English Market, which has been trading since 1788, has a massive variety of foods - and is also a great place to savour the local banter.

I never thought of Cork as somewhere you'd go to on holiday. (This is something to do with the fact that I am there every other month for work. Sure didn't I nearly get local lad Micheal Martin elected Taoiseach recently.)

Be that as it may, we managed to have three blissful days of holiday in what is occasionally dubbed the real capital of Ireland. (But not by anyone with any cop-on in Cork, RSVP magazine editor Paula Lenihan told me, almost huffily.)

Indeed, I never thought I would have enjoyed spending four hours walking around Cork City Gaol: an austere, cold and slightly haunting place - particularly haunting when you learn of the suicide net "stretched by the iron stairs" in 1922, or get a sense of its general 19th-century spookiness.

But enjoy Cork City Gaol I did.

We had a nose around the freezing cells (you realise how broken and sad the poor souls who languished here among the lice and the rats must have felt). We learned all sorts of facts: in 1828 the first execution took place outside the front gate, in 1825 the hangman was jailed for robbery and in 1919 yer wan Countess Markievicz was in jail here.

Sigmund Freud apparently said that the Irish are the one race for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever. Whatever about the rest of the nation, chin-stroking psychoanalysis would certainly be wasted on the Corkonians.

A people apart, they make insults such as "yer a Dublin langer" sound like the most lyrical of finely structured poetry. Cork people have a confidence that borders on intimidating, before they segue into bubbly babbling.

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One day beneath the vaulted ceilings of the English Market I bumped into Cork's most charismatic and dapper auctioneer (and father-in-law of Ronan O'Gara), Dom Daly. After telling me he was born in Goulding's nursing home ("it no longer exists") on Wellington Road in Cork, he waxed poetic about the aforementioned "effervescence of the Cork people".

Dom added in his ultra-posh Cork accent that the locals speak in a way that can be found nowhere else in Ireland. "I was in a limousine bringing a foreign gentleman down to Kerry to have a look at a house when the limo broke down. The man turned and said to me: 'What actual language do the natives speak in Cork?'"

Whatever language it is, they speak it beautifully. Walking around the English Market - one of the oldest municipal markets of its kind in the world, the locals tell me, and trading since 1788 - you couldn't but hear endless examples of this magnificent wit.

My wife enjoyed this almost as much as she did a foot-long hot-dog from one of the hundreds of stalls. (She said she would divorce me if I put a picture of her stuffing the aforesaid super-sausage in her mouth in the paper.) I had some exquisite spiced beef from another stall while our baby had a bite of a bit of lamb from another vendor.

There is so much variety here - in the food and in the people, many of whom are true characters. You can see why Queen Elizabeth is said to have requested to visit the English Market during her tour of this country in August 2011.

After our lunch, we retired to the utter splendour of our lodgings for the next three days, the five-star Hayfield Manor, where we met another character, the hotel's general manager Ettienne van Vrede. I am not calling him a character to suck up. I am calling him a character because upon our arrival he insisted on taking me for a drive into Cork in his vintage Porsche that he had had delivered, just that minute, all the way from his native South Africa.

It was exhilarating and a bit mad (make that very mad), roaring down the road in what felt like a cramped old two-seater jet with a James-Bond-style leather interior.

The car was so old, in fact, that it had no seat belts. So I held on for dear life as Ettienne turned the corner like 007 with a South African accent. Upon returning to the hotel, the first thing I did was drink a large and becalming brandy at the bar.

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The second thing I did was go to our suite in the hotel. It was possibly the most luxurious and certainly the largest suite I have ever stayed in in my life. I thought they must have accidentally given me, a Dublin langer, the suite of a visiting monarch.

We had His'n'Hers bathrooms. I'm surprised there wasn't a bathroom for the baby. The size and grandeur of our suite soon mattered very little as our little baby quickly trashed the place - crawling along, throwing toys and other baby detritus about like a drugged-up rock star trashing a Los Angeles hotel room in the 1970s.

Emilia had a whole 2,000 sq. feet in which to wreck to her heart's content. My wife and I had some friends from Cork over to the room for afternoon tea and cakes while Emilia did her worst.

That night, to escape the madness of a baby on a toy rampage in a giant suite, we went downstairs for dinner. But not just any dinner. We had our own butler and chef for dinner in a private room in the hotel with its own roaring fire (while the hotel laid on a babysitter).

Champagne and oysters served up to you in the European Capital of Culture 2005. There's luxury for you. And there's this. The following morning we all went for a swim at 7am in the hotel's glorious pool, followed by a dip in the hot tub outside, all before breakfast.

While mummy went for a massage and a beauty treatment in the hotel's Beautique Spa, myself and baba went for a walk into Cork city, with its hilly streets, its lanes and alleys, like a Venice by the Lee.

We made our way eventually (pushing a baby is not a walk in the park) into the Crawford Art Gallery. Emilia seemed as fascinated as I was by this high-ceilinged mini-palace of culture on Emmet Place, which has more than 2,500 works of art. It is not difficult to see why the Crawford, I was told, gets more than 200,000 highbrow visitors each year.

This Dublin langer will definitely be coming back.
The desk belonged to Michael's father, and the painting above it also came from his childhood home. 'It's by WB Kirwan and dates from 1843. It's not valuable, but it has sentimental value for us,' Patricia notes.

The dining room is furnished with antiques from the family home in Louth of Patricia's husband Michael. The painting on the left was bought in Grimaud in the south of France where the family go on holidays every year.

The welcoming hallway in entrepreneur Patricia Molloy's home. The photographs are of her children Patrick and Irene, now both in their 20s. Photo: Tony Gavin

Our vernacular is peppered with cliches - sayings like 'travel broadens the mind' and quotes like Blanche DuBois's final line from A Streetcar Named Desire, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" - which some of us use so often they tend to have little value.

However, the reason they are oft quoted is because so many are so true, as entrepreneur Patricia Molloy could tell you.

The idea for her beauty business germinated when she was travelling, on holiday in the States. It was as a result of a chance meeting with some friendly doctors in Atlanta, a southern city like New Orleans, where Streetcar is set. The South seems to be a place where strangers are kind. "We were visiting my brother-in-law, who lives in Atlanta. I was out walking one day, and I saw this clinic being worked on. They were putting up signs and I went in and I asked them what they were doing. They were really, really nice; it was a medical clinic and they told me they were having training the next day and I'd be very welcome to come down. They were so open and so giving, and I did go down the next day," Patricia recalls.

It was the seed for Patricia's new business, The Derma Clinic in Blackrock, Co Dublin, which she opened in 1999 and which is still going strong - just last month, she won the award for Best Skin Clinic Ireland at the Image Business Of Beauty awards.

Of course, opening a medical-style skin clinic wasn't a totally random decision - Patricia, who hails from Dundalk, where her family are well known for their undertaking business, had, after all, trained as a nurse. "My family own Rogers Undertakers, and I did toy with going into the business, but my dad wasn't ready to retire. My sister Rosemary runs it now," she says. "In those days, girls either did nursing or teaching - I used to work in the old Louth Hospital as a carer during the school holidays, and I got a feel for nursing."

As a result, she opted for nursing and trained in Temple Street, which was a bit of shock at first. "I remember one of my first patients was a baby six months old who had been stabbed by the father. I was 17, 18, green from the country, I'd never seen anything like this. I was stunned. I remember thinking, 'Is this what happens in the real world?'"

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Patricia in her restful sitting room decorated in tones of cream. The mantelpiece and log fire were installed three years ago. Photo: Tony Gavin. The dining room is furnished with antiques from the family home in Louth of Patricia's husband Michael. The painting on the left was bought in Grimaud in the south of France where the family go on holidays every year. The welcoming hallway in entrepreneur Patricia Molloy's home. The photographs are of her children Patrick and Irene, now both in their 20s. Photo: Tony Gavin The desk belonged to Michael's father, and the painting above it also came from his childhood home. 'It's by WB Kirwan and dates from 1843. It's not valuable, but it has sentimental value for us,' Patricia notes. Patricia redecorated the master bedroom three years ago in creams and greys. The wallpaper is from Sanderson. / Facebook

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Nonetheless, Patricia continued her training and grew to love the children's nursing. She then did her general nursing in St Vincent's Hospital, where she got extensive training in all areas and was kept on after qualifying. She became a ward sister and a nurse tutor, and continued working there after her marriage to Michael, who also hails from Dundalk, and the arrival of their two children Patrick, now a commercial pilot, and Irene, who is in sales and marketing.

In 1990, she started to get itchy feet, and, at the time, a GP friend introduced her to friends of his who were opening a nursing home. She joined them in the business and ran the nursing home for them. The first was quickly followed by a second, and she stayed in that business for about ten years. "I enjoyed working with old people; I felt very privileged to be able to do that. I had ten good years. Eventually I sold out to the two guys, and I took six months off to consider my options," Patricia notes.

That was when she came across the Atlanta clinic and the whole area of medical aesthetics. "At the clinic, I met professor Bob Weiss, who was the professor of dermatology in Johns Hopkins at the time. He was giving the training, and I did the training. He was setting up a course in Baltimore, it was a laser course and some dermatology, and I did that with him there and some more training in the UK. Then I came back and opened our first clinic in August 1999," Patricia says.

Some time later, she opened a clinic in Tallaght, but closed that two years ago, as the lease was up. She now concentrates purely on Blackrock; she opened her current premises on Rock Road, Blackrock eight years ago. Ever since she started, Patricia has been developing and expanding the range of treatments on offer. "What we were doing in 1999 and what we're doing now; it's hard to believe the changes that have occurred in this field," she notes.

The range of treatments includes all types of laser - for hair removal, for rosacea, broken veins, leg veins - as well as liposuction, Botox and fillers. "Skin is really our business. I want people to look the best they can for them. Good practice is slowing down the aging process, improving skin function. Sometimes Botox is what a woman needs, but I look at the whole picture. There's no point in Botox if the rest of the skin isn't good," Patricia explains, adding, "it's about improving people's skin, that's my passion."

Many people who undergo the kind of treatments Patricia is offering don't admit they get them done, but not Patricia. She admits to using Botox regularly, she's had fillers, and thread lifts, which she says is like a face lift without having to undergo surgery. "Everything I provide in the clinic, I have had done," she says. "I won't recommend anything to anyone unless I've had it and know it works, because not everything works."

She enthuses about new treatments which apparently are being developed all the time - the latest are small threads you can pop into the skin, "they're like scaffolding for the skin" Patricia enthuses, adding that fillers are her favourite treatment - "it's like sculpting the face".

It's obvious her clients like the treatments, too - when she moved into her current premises on Rock Road eight years ago, she was able to buy it.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Patricia in her restful sitting room decorated in tones of cream. The mantelpiece and log fire were installed three years ago. Photo: Tony Gavin. The welcoming hallway in entrepreneur Patricia Molloy's home. The photographs are of her children Patrick and Irene, now both in their 20s. Photo: Tony Gavin The dining room is furnished with antiques from the family home in Louth of Patricia's husband Michael. The painting on the left was bought in Grimaud in the south of France where the family go on holidays every year. The desk belonged to Michael's father, and the painting above it also came from his childhood home. 'It's by WB Kirwan and dates from 1843. It's not valuable, but it has sentimental value for us,' Patricia notes. Patricia redecorated the master bedroom three years ago in creams and greys. The wallpaper is from Sanderson. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Patricia in her restful sitting room decorated in tones of cream. The mantelpiece and log fire were installed three years ago. Photo: Tony Gavin.

She works full-time, so fortunately her home is nearby in Dalkey. It's the family's third house. They started in Cabinteely, then moved to Killiney, but given that her husband Michael is from the seaside - Blackrock, Co Louth - they were keen to be near the sea and were thrilled when they got the opportunity to buy in Dalkey 15 years ago.

A four-bedroomed detached house dating from the 1960s, it had been used by British Airways for their executives and so was, according to Patricia, very nondescript. It needed work, so they moved in to get a feel for what needed to be done, and then moved out to allow the builders to effect the changes.

Renovations included creating a bigger kitchen and a spacious hall, and installing an en suite in the master bedroom. Most of all, it needed colour and texture and interesting pieces of furniture. "It was a bland house that had never been loved," Patricia notes.

Patricia changed all that and transformed it into a delightful, elegant house with interesting pieces of furniture. More than that, it's the kind that one would be delighted to return to after a hard day's work. The kind of home of which Patricia - if she were given to uttering cliches - might well say, 'there's no place like home'.

See dermaclinic.ie

Edited by Mary O'Sullivan.

Photography by Tony Gavin
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John Downing Opinion Pension reforms are dicey territory  but grand plan by minister Heather Humphreys just might win through

Pension system changes all across the western world have a great propensity to infuriate those most feared by politicians: the grey brigade. And when the oldies take to the streets, they usually play for keeps.
In a few weeks time, when all the bravado is pushed aside, the wounds licked and the numbers rechecked, we could actually end up back where we started.

It seems nobody won the election, but nobody lost the election either.

The majority of those who ran for government don't actually want to govern - and those whom the people voted out are the only ones bold enough or daft enough to actually take up the mantle.

Let's take a quick recap of what has happened over the past seven weeks.

In the initial aftermath of February 26, a variety of newspapers ran headlines proclaiming an "earthquake election".

The Coalition parties, Fine Gael and Labour, got a drubbing. Fianna Fail was back with a vengeance and a whole host of minor parties and Independents got a mandate for mischief.

It took days for all sides to dust themselves down and think about how a government might be formed.

Eventually, after the Dail failed to elect a Taoiseach, Fine Gael woke up from its stress-induced coma and set about courting Independents and smaller parties.

Fianna Fail did likewise, although many of those involved in talks are still sceptical about whether Micheal Martin was really looking for partners or just going through the motions.

Back and forth they went, until finally Mr Martin and Enda Kenny engaged with each other. Who phoned who is irrelevant at this stage.

Mr Kenny called the Fianna Fail leader's bluff by offering him the keys to Government Buildings as part of a timeshare deal.

Mr Martin ran for the hills with his newly elected TDs in tow - and ultimately accepted that Mr Kenny will be re-elected Taoiseach if he is able to cobble together a minority government.

Fine Gael is having more problems doing that than it likes to publicly admit. The Independents have submitted more than 100 spending demands and around 50 tax-cutting initiatives, not to mention the fact that they want five Cabinet positions.

Now it has emerged that acting Tanaiste Joan Burton could ride to Mr Kenny's rescue if a minority government cannot be formed. At least some of the Labour Party's seven TDs believe they have a better chance of remaining relevant if they are in government rather than sitting on the Opposition benches - with Sinn Fein, the Social Democrats, AAA-PBP, et al.

You have to give them some credit for realising the country needs a government sooner rather than later - unlike Sinn Fein, whose 23 TDs say they haven't got the numbers to make a difference.

But surely this isn't how democracy was meant to function? The electorate not only voted out the last government, they scorched the earth on which it walked.

Now after more than 50 days of wrangling, Fianna Fail has decided that it can't change the government - so it will change its attitude to the Fine Gael-Labour coalition, and will facilitate Enda Kenny and Joan Burton, the political corpses of GE16, forming a zombie government.

That earthquake is now being rapidly downgraded to a few claps of thunder.
After 52 days, the political situation is - as former Labour leader Ruairi Quinn said yesterday - "very dangerous". Although he did not want to pre-empt any discussion or decision by his party about entering government, he obviously favours putting the country first. He's right that the party should support the formation of the next administration however it can.

Unfortunately, not all of his colleagues think the same, as many former TDs made clear on RTE Radio's 'This Week' programme yesterday. They would prefer to regroup in opposition and try again next time.

But success in politics is about getting things done in government - and that's where Labour should be if it wants a realistic chance of influencing both the Programme for Government and the content of the next Budget.

Sadly, realism was not a characteristic displayed by many of the contributors to yesterday's discussions, and not just on the Labour side.

Fine Gael Minister Damien English was over-optimistic when he suggested that the issue of Labour's involvement in the next administration could be sorted out in a week. It will take much longer than that.

Such a decision should be accompanied by a change of leadership after Joan Burton's disastrous election performance.

Agreeing a Programme for Government will be difficult and a precursor to the tough budgetary battles ahead, especially if the new administration is reliant on Independents who have long shopping lists of local demands.

Fianna Fail's Sean Fleming talked nonsense about a new style of budgetary committee agreeing 90pc of the Budget in advance, with the Department of Finance doing "tiny bits" at the end. He should be realistic enough to know that there is no chance of getting all-party agreement on the next Budget. We need a stable government and we need it now to start that budgetary process.
Madeline Mulqueen wearing LK Bennett flowered midi dress 395.00.euro pictured at the launch of the third Shop For Good fundraising initiative in aid of Console at Dundrum Town Centre

Madeline Mulqueen wants people to know she and fiance Jack Reynor are still very much together.

The Limerick model (26) appeared at a photocall for Dundrum Town Centre earlier today and has addressed apparent speculation about why she wasn't wearing her engagement ring (her actor beau Jack popped the question in 2014).

Mulqueen, who was happy to pose for photos but opted against giving any interviews today, took to Twitter to clear up any confusion over her relationship status, saying she simply doesn't wear her ring for certain jobs and working out.

"Before any papers start writing crap about my engagement. Yes I'm still engaged, I just don't wear my ring at jobs or the gym," she wrote.

"And to be frank, no one even cares. Please write about important things, like suicide prevention. What I was working for today and regarding not wearing it at the IFTA's [sic], I left it at home! Big frikkin woop, ring or no ring, I'm engaged!

"Y'all need to calm down and stop hounding me and my agency. We got better things to be doing!"

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She and Jack most recently made a loved-up appearance at the IFTAs earlier this month, where the Macbeth star revealed their nuptials will be "really low-key".

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"We will do it when we do it," he said. Reynor, who shot to fame in 2014's Transformers: Age of Extinction, previously said selling their wedding photos would be "going too private."

"That's the way I was raised - that's my personal life and those kinds of things are for me and my family and the people I love," he explained.

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"I think it muddies the water a bit if you start letting your professional life overlap that way into what you do in private. It's a pretty important boundary to make, I think."
A Canadian woman dubbed the Black Widow following a series of violent convictions involving her romantic partners has been charged with breaking the terms of her release.

Melissa Ann Shepard (80) was released from jail in March after serving close to three years for drugging her husband.

After returning from their honeymoon, Fred Weeks (75) became ill, and when a fall left him hospitalised, it was found that Shepard had spiked his coffee with tranquilisers.

Police believed her to be at high risk of re-offending and imposed a set of 20 conditions, including not going online, abiding by a curfew and providing an up-to-date photo of herself to local officers.

She must also inform police before entering a new relationship so they can alert prospective boyfriends of her criminal past.

On her release last month, police issued a public notice, warning elderly men looking for love to beware of Shepard and flagging the internet as a possible risk.

However, last week she was found using the internet on a computer at a public library in Nova Scotia, a violation of her court conditions.

Shepard has a long history with the law, earning her the nickname Black Widow.

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She had a string of convictions in the 1970s and 80s for fraud and impersonation, but her offences grew more serious later in life.

After marrying widower Gordon Stewart in 1991, Shepard dosed him with a near-lethal amount of benzodiazepine and ran him over twice in her car.

She waited several hours before reporting the death, and was eventually convicted of manslaughter in 1992, for which she served two years.

Her third husband, Robert Friedrich, died of cardiac arrest in 2002 shortly after they were married, but no charges were brought in connection with his death.

Mr Friedrichs family noticed he had been having mysterious fainting spells and slurred speech, and filed a criminal complaint against her.

His sons said she had left a threatening voicemail telling them they were being removed from their fathers will.

They also claim she stole money from Mr Friedrich and overdosed his prescription medication. No one was charged.

In 2005, she was sentenced to five years in prison on a slew of charges including stealing $20,000 from a man she met online, Alex Strategos (now 84).

Mr Strategos also believes she had been adding the sedative lorazepam to his ice-cream, after testing positive for the powerful tranquilliser on one of his frequent hospital visits.

Shepard met her fourth husband, Fred Weeks, in a quiet retirement community in Nova Scotia.

The two began a romance after she knocked on his door and told him she was lonely, according to court documents cited by the BBC.

During their honeymoon, he started to feel ill. When he fell out of bed and was hospitalised, doctors discovered a heavy dose of tranquilisers in his blood.

Mr Weeks survived, and Shepard was charged with attempted murder.

A lack of evidence meant the charges were downgraded to administering a noxious substance and failing to provide the necessities of life.

Following the violation of her release terms last week, Shepard has been charged with three breaches of her probation. She will appear in court on May 24 to answer the charges.
A hero dad drowned while saving his young daughter's life - just hours before he was to attend his own father's funeral.

Twenty-eight-year-old William Moritz had flown to Jacksonville, Florida for a beach memorial service to his father when the tragedy occurred.

New York Post reports Mr Moritz jumped into the sea at Jacksonville Beach after his daughter was pulled out by the tide.

It is understood six-year-old Maddy survived the incident.

She was taken to hospital and released later that evening.

Bill was the most kindhearted, selfless person I knew, Mr Moritz's wife Magan said in a statement to WSB-TV Atlanta.

He was the kind of person people were so grateful to have in their life and I was so lucky to have him in mine.

His daughter was his world and he always spoke of her with a sparkle in his eyes.

He took pride in being a father every day. Madelynn was his world. Such an amazing man who I now look to as my hero for courageously saving our beautiful daughters life.
Travellers at Holborn will be asked to stand on both the left and right on escalators

Commuters will be urged to abandon standard Tube etiquette and stand on both sides of escalators to reduce congestion at one of London Underground's (LU) busiest stations.

From Monday, Tube users at Holborn station in central London will be asked to stand on both the right and left sides of two upward-moving escalators nearest the Central Line platforms.

Transport for London (TfL) hopes the new standing formation will make the most of wasted space on longer escalators, where most people choose to wait on the right.

A third "up"' escalator will be available for people who wish to tackle the steps with more vigour, TfL said.

A previous three-week trial at Holborn in November found that standing on both sides reduced congestion by 30%.

Signs and information will be displayed around the station to encourage people to participate and prevent confusion during the six-month experiment.

They will range from the creative - a talking projection of a staff member - to the more traditional - signs on the floors, footprints on the escalator steps, handprints on the handrails and station announcements.

LU operations director Peter McNaught said: "I look forward to this new pilot starting today.

"The etiquette on London Underground is for customers to stand on the right of escalators, allowing others to walk on the left. However, few customers choose to walk on longer escalators such as Holborn, so much of the left-hand-side is unused.

"We hope that this can lead to improving congestion at Holborn, making journeys easier for all of our customers."

Holborn is one of the busiest stations on the Tube network, with more than 56 million customers each year.

The new "standing only" escalators are 23.4 metres, and research suggests few people will wish to climb heights exceeding 18.5 metres, TfL said.
Actor Johnny Depp's wife Amber Heard has avoided jail after pleading guilty to providing a false immigration document amid allegations she smuggled the couple's dogs into Australia.

Prosecutors in Queensland state dropped two more serious charges that Heard illegally imported the Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country last year, when Depp was filming the fifth movie in the Pirates Of The Caribbean series.

A conviction on the illegal importation counts could have sent the actress to prison for up to 10 years.

The false documents charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a fine of more than 10,000 Australian dollars (5,385).

But magistrate Bernadette Callaghan sentenced Heard instead to a one month good behaviour bond. She will have to pay a 1,000 Australian dollars fine (541) if she violates the conditions of the bond over the next month.
North Korea is preparing for a fifth nuclear bomb test, amid reports of increased activity at the country's main nuclear test site, South Korea's president said.

In a regular meeting with her top adviser, president Park Geun-hye said on Monday that North Korea could carry out such a test to try to bolster morale as the country deals with tough international sanctions imposed after it conducted a fourth nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch earlier this year.

Park did not elaborate on what signs pointed to another nuclear test, but ordered the military to be ready to deal with any provocation by Pyongyang, according to media pool reports on the first part of the meeting posted on the website of her office.

Speculation about a fifth nuclear test increased last month when the North's state media cited leader Kim Jong Un as ordering a test of a nuclear warhead and ballistic missiles capable of carrying warheads.

Kim's order came amid rising animosity with South Korea and the United States over their annual military drills that North Korea describes as an invasion rehearsal. The drills are set to run until next week.

Analysts say an atomic test could happen before North Korea holds a landmark ruling Workers' Party congress in early May so that Kim can burnish his image as a powerful leader at home and further cement his grip on power.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Monday that South Korean and US authorities detected two to three times more vehicle and personnel activities than normal this month at the North's north-east Punggye-ri nuclear test site - where all previous four bomb tests took place.

A US website that monitors sensitive sites in North Korea said Friday that it saw further signs from satellite imagery that the North was looking to produce more plutonium for nuclear weapons at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, north of Pyongyang.

Earlier last week, the website 38 North said recent satellite imagery of the Punggye-ri area showed little evidence that Pyongyang was planning a nuclear test, though it added that the country may be able to carry out a test on short notice.
Philippine presidential hopeful Rodrigo Duterte stuck to his guns yesterday amid outrage over a remark he made about a murdered rape victim, saying he regretted his "gutter language" but would not apologise for being misinterpreted. Photo: AP

Philippine presidential hopeful Rodrigo Duterte stuck to his guns yesterday amid outrage over a remark he made about a murdered rape victim, saying he regretted his "gutter language" but would not apologise for being misinterpreted.

A YouTube video appeared over the weekend showing Mr Duterte speaking at a recent rally where he recalled his experience of being a local mayor during a 1989 prison riot in which an Australian missionary visiting the jail was raped and killed.

The video clip showed Mr Duterte (71) telling supporters he was angry that a "beautiful" woman had been murdered. He said inmates had lined up to rape her and it was a "waste" because as mayor, he should have been first.

The clip spread quickly on social media and prompted outrage from women's groups and politicians.

Mr Duterte, who has been mayor of the southern Davao City on and off since 1986, tops the latest opinion polls ahead of the May 9 presidential election, helped largely by his anti-crime platform.

Mr Duterte refused to say sorry yesterday - even if it cost him the presidency. He claimed what he had said back in 1989 to an audience of criminals was just "street language" that they understood.

"I said it in the heat of anger," he said. "I'm sorry in general. I'm sorry to the Filipino people, it's my style, it's my mouth, I said it in anger - listen to the story behind it."

He added: "It was not a joke. I said it in a narrative. I wasn't smiling."
Several hundred people have died in a migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean, Italy's president Sergio Mattarella said.

Unconfirmed media reports earlier today spoke of up to 400 victims from boats which capsized near the Egyptian coast as they attempted to sail to Europe.

Mattarella, speaking at a prize giving ceremony in Rome, said Europe needed to reflect in the face of "yet another tragedy in the Mediterranean in which, it seems, several hundred people have died." He did not give any further details.

However, Egyptian, Italian and Greek officials were unable to confirm the BBC report on Monday that up to 400 people, most of them Somali, had capsized near the Egyptian coast after setting off for Italy in boats.

Officials in Egypt did not immediately respond to inquiries and Italy's coast guard, which coordinates all rescues in the waters between Italy and Libya, said it had no information about a shipwreck. It did, however, say that six bodies had been recovered on Sunday and 108 migrants rescued from a semi-submerged rubber dinghy.

The Greek coast guard also said it had no news of a fresh tragedy, and the Somali ambassador to Egypt, cited by the BBC, could not be immediately reached.

In Geneva, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said: "Our offices in Egypt, Italy and Greece are trying to find out more about this reported incident but, so far, we cannot confirm it."

Exactly one year ago, an estimated 800 migrants drowned off the Libyan coast when the fishing boat they were travelling in collided with a mercantile vessel that was attempting to rescue them - the most deadly Mediterranean shipwreck in decades
The 38-year-old not yet been formally identified

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after another man was stabbed to death at an internet cafe in broad daylight.

West Midlands Police said they had detained a 39-year-old Birmingham man last night in connection with the incident in Cape Hill, Smethwick, on Saturday afternoon.

A post mortem examination on the 38-year-old man over the weekend revealed he died from a single stab wound. He has not yet been formally identified.

Ambulance crews alerted police shortly after they were called to the incident at about 12.50pm.

Anyone with information is urged to call police on 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
An Irish organisation which works to develop Irelands relationship with the EU has launched a campaign urging Irish people in the UK to vote in the upcoming referendum.

European Movement Ireland is urging them to register to vote by a deadline of June 7, ahead of the referendum on June 23.

The awareness raising campaign is aimed at both Irish-born people who live in the UK and British citizens who live in Ireland.

Maurice Pratt, Chairman of European Movement Ireland said: An estimated 500,000 Irish people based in England, Scotland and Wales, are eligible to vote on June 23 and can do so, as part of a much larger Irish diaspora of about 5 million people in the UK. There are also an estimated 280,000 British born people living in Ireland.

The #PhoneAFriend campaign is running to urge people to spread the message to whoever is eligible to vote. Postcards will also be issued which can be sent to relatives reminding them to register.

Irish people in the UK and British people in Ireland simply have to log onto www.gov.uk/register-to-vote - its that easy and as of today, they have just over 7 weeks to do so, said EM Irelands Executive Director, Noelle O Connell .

Everyone will of course accept the final decision of the UK electorate but we hope that all of those who are eligible to vote will do so. Its vital that they have their say on the day, including Irish people who have a unique opportunity to participate in this important vote, concluded Mr Pratt.
Tributes left outside a house in Spalding, Lincolnshire, where a woman and her 13-year-old daughter were found dead on Friday. Photo: PA

Two 14-year-olds have been charged with murder following the deaths of two people in England.

The bodies of a woman and a girl were discovered at a property on Dawson Avenue in Spalding, Lincolnshire, on Friday afternoon.

Police have not formally identified the bodies, but believe the deceased to be 49-year-old school dinner lady Elizabeth Edwards and her 13-year-old daughter Katie.

Relatives of the victims have paid tribute  with a teenage friend of Katie describing her as being like a sister and Ms Edwards as a second mother.

Ms Edwardss partner, Graham Green, wrote on his Facebook page: My babe has gone but you will always be in my heart forever and ever and ever. The lady meant the world to me, she was my rock.

Katie, so young, lots of good times in front of us, has been taken away. RIP.

The teenage suspects, who are believed to be a boy and a girl, have both been remanded to appear before Lincoln Magistrates Court today.

Post-mortem examinations on the victims are due to be carried out soon.

One resident living close to the victims home in Dawson Avenue said she saw Elizabeth Edwards on Tuesday.

She was a lovely lady, very friendly and I knew her quite well, said the neighbour, who did not want to be named.

She was quite well known because she worked at a primary school and what has happened is just unbelievable. Katie was lovely too, but very quiet.

In a statement on Saturday, Superintendent Paul Timmins said the deaths had understandably generated a great deal of local concern.

I would like to make clear that this type of crime is extremely rare. Indeed, we believe this is a completely isolated incident.

He said: This is very much an active investigation that is in its early stages and police would like people not to speculate as to the circumstances surrounding it.

We are looking at a number of lines of inquiry and doing our utmost to get to the bottom of what has happened.

Detective Chief Inspector Martin Holvey, who is leading the investigation, has appealed for anyone with information or who was in the Dawson Avenue area from about mid-day on Wednesday 13 April to mid-day on Friday to come forward.

He added: Our officers will continue to carry out enquiries in the locality and local uniformed officers will also be in the area. If you have any concerns, please dont hesitate to talk to them.
Britain faces a "tidal wave" of new laws from the EU if it remains part of the bloc, a leading Brexit campaigner has warned.

Brussels has a locker full of new plans - but is holding back until after the June 23 referendum, according to Chris Grayling, the Tory minister and Commons leader.

Mr Grayling will make the claims at a Grassroots Out rally in Stoke-on-Trent today as he joins forces for the first time with Ukip leader Nigel Farage.

He is due to say: "Things may seem a bit quiet in Brussels at the moment. There don't seem to be many new laws being brought forward.

"But don't be deceived. It's not a sign that they have suddenly seen the light. They're holding it all back until we've voted, in the hope that we won't realise that there is another tidal wave of More Europe heading our way."
Yevgeny Yerofeyev (L) and Alexander Alexandrov, Russian servicemen arrested last May on terrorism charges related to the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, looks from a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Kiev. Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko

A Ukrainian court has convicted two Russian servicemen captured last year of terrorism and waging a war in eastern Ukraine.

Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev have acknowledged being Russian servicemen and said they were on a reconnaissance mission. Russia's defence ministry, however, said they had resigned from active duty.

Russia has denied sending troops to Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting government troops since April 2014. At least 8,100 people have been killed in the conflict.

The court in Kiev found Alexandrov and Yerofeyev guilty of terrorism and "waging a war of aggression".

Alexandrov and Yerofeyev have been named as possible candidates to be exchanged for Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who was sentenced last month to 22 years in prison in Russia.
An Israeli military court has charged a soldier with manslaughter over the fatal shooting of a wounded Palestinian attacker in the West Bank, an incident caught on tape that has deeply divided the nation.

The soldier, a medic, Sergeant Elor Azaria, has also been charged with inappropriate military conduct.

The shooting took place last month in Hebron, a West Bank city that has been a focal point of a seven-month wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Initially the military had said two Palestinians stabbed and wounded a soldier before troops killed the pair.

A video released later by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem showed one of the attackers, still alive and lying on the ground, before a soldier calmly raised his rifle, cocked his weapon and fired at the assailant's head. A post-mortem examination later determined the bullet to the head was the cause of death.

His lawyer, Ilan Katz, said Azaria acted as expected from a combat soldier and would seek a full acquittal. It was not immediately clear what sentence the soldier faces, if convicted. Such indictments in the military are very rare, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

The shooting has polarised Israeli society. The country's defence minister, its military chief and other top officials called it contrary to the army's values since the Palestinian attacker had been subdued and no longer posed a threat. That outcry in turn kicked up a torrent of support for the soldier, who claims he feared the attacker was carrying an explosive belt.

Right-wing politicians have rushed to the soldier's defence, with many Israelis calling his actions appropriate for a country reeling from months of Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, which have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. At least 188 Palestinians have died by Israeli fire in the same period, including 142 who Israel says were attacking or trying to attack Israelis.

A Tel Aviv rally in solidarity with the soldier is scheduled for Tuesday night, with top Israeli musicians due to perform. However, Eyal Golan, one of Israel's most recognisable artists, later dropped out of the event and said he had intended to "support this soldier and embrace his family" but reconsidered so that he did not appear to be coming out against the military chief.

Yohanan Plesner, head of the Israel Democracy Institute, said such a rally was an affront to the military, Israel's most hallowed institution.

"Our soldiers are faced daily with complex situations and in the majority of cases they succeed in responding in a way that is consistent with proper ethical norms," he said. "Holding a support rally for a soldier that shot a neutralised terrorist harms the strength of the IDF because it erodes the very values on which the army stands."

The indictment against the soldier came just hours after the Israeli military said it had discovered and destroyed a tunnel burrowing from Gaza into Israel - the first tunnel to be discovered since Israel's 2014 war with the militant Islamic Hamas movement that rules the coastal strip.

Israeli troops detected the tunnel's exit, still underground, several days ago, according to military spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner, who added the tunnel is believed to have been built since the war's conclusion. It extended several hundred metre from Gaza into Israel and was lined with cement and fitted out with electricity, ventilation and rail tracks to cart away dirt from digging, Lt Col Lerner said.

In 2014, Israel destroyed more than 30 tunnels Hamas had dug under the border. More than 2,200 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them civilians, were killed in the 50-day summer war. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and seven civilians were killed.

Hamas has vowed to rebuild the tunnel network. This year, 14 people died in Gaza while digging tunnels aimed at attacking Israelis or hiding weapons and rocket launch sites. Israelis living near the Gaza Strip have reported hearing digging sounds under their homes in recent months.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has achieved a "global breakthrough in the ability to locate tunnels" and the government was investing considerable capital in countering the tunnel threat.

"This is an ongoing effort that will not end overnight," he said.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said the newly discovered and destroyed tunnel was "just a drop in the ocean of what the resistance has prepared to defend its people, free its sanctuaries and prisoners".

Spokesman Eyal Brandeis, of Kibbutz Sufa - just across the border from the southern Gaza Strip - told Israel Radio the tunnel's exit would have been near his community. In 2014, Palestinian gunmen attempted to attack Israel through another tunnel near the kibbutz.

"All the worries and fears residents here had ... are coming back," Mr Brandeis said.
The parents of the Irishman arrested in Iraq after fighting Isis in Syria say he travelled to the Middle East to help after seeing news broadcasts.

Joshua Molloy (24) from the village of Ballylinan, Co Laois, travelled to the Middle East region in April 2015 to fight against Isil with forces allied to the Kurds.

He was arrested after allegedly crossing the border from Syria to Iraq illegally.

Speaking from their home in the small village near Athy on the Laois border with Kildare, Declan and Ann Marie Molloy said their son is not a soldier or a freedom fighter, but a man with compassion and an interest in world affairs.

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Anything that he ever suggested he wanted to do was positive, be it as a journalist, or with an NGO, or a charity or humanitarian group, Declan said.

Joshua joined the British Army for four years when he left school because he wanted to see the world and he wanted to be involved in it. His regiment was trained to go to Afghanistan but that didnt happen in the end.

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He joined the British Army and not the Irish Army because he thought he would see more of the world and get more involved.

Declan said they were last in touch with Joshua last Sunday week, and that he was actually on his way home to Ireland when he was arrested.

There was a few of them on the border coming from Syria into Iraq and he had told us to keep in touch with the Irish consulate because there was a risk they would be picked up when they crossed, he explained.

Then last Wednesday he crossed the border and we got word from a guy out there named Mark Campbell who works with one of the charities that Joshua and two others had been arrested by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

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Joshua felt very strongly about what was happening to the minority groups in the Middle East but the conflict had recently become a lot more complex with Turkey and Russia getting involved, and we think Joshua thought he had played his part and was coming home, Declan told Independent.ie.

We feel proud on one hand because he has a drive to help people, but we are scared on the other hand. We hope he is being treated okay, he added.

We are in touch with the British consulate because they seem to be more informed about what is happening and they say they are sending some people to the jail he is in, but he has an Irish passport and we would like to see the Irish consulate push that point because it could help Joshua, Declan explained.

It is of some comfort that he has been arrested by a government rather than being held by a militant group.

Joshua is a thoughtful and sensitive guy with the best of intentions, he said.

Declan and Ann Marie said Joshua was born in the UK and spent the first 13 years of his life there before they moved back to Ireland. Declan is originally from Dublin but the family, including Joshuas younger sister, settled in Laois.

He was always a reader, reading well beyond his years, and liked to know what was going on in the world, and he was into the computers and music, just like any other lad his age, said Declan.

Over the past 18 months, hundreds of Westerners have joined Kurdish, Assyrian and other military units in the fight against Isis.

The KRG had closed the Iraq-Syria border.

According to the 'Sunday Times', the Joshua and his friends had been fighting with a Syriac Christian group, the MFS, which is allied to the Kurdish YPG in the fight against Isil.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is working with British counterparts on the case.

Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan is being kept informed on efforts to secure the release of Joshua.

Irish diplomats are understood to have decided it would be best if the British Foreign Office worked for the release of all three men.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office told Independent.ie they were engaging with officials on the ground in Iraq to secure the release of the men. Mr Flanagan will keep a watching brief on those attempts.

"We are aware of the case and we stand ready to provide consular assistance. Minister Flanagan is being kept fully informed," a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said.
A senior Islamic State member and two of his aides were killed south of the Iraqi city of Mosul on Monday in a helicopter raid by U.S. special forces and Kurdish counter-terrorism forces, the Kurdish regional security council said.

A statement identified the leader as Suleiman Abd Shabib al-Jabouri, also known as Abu Saif, and said he was a member of the militant group's war council.

In a separate operation a day earlier, witnesses and Kurdish security sources said troops from a U.S.-led coalition landed a helicopter north of Mosul and seized at least one Islamic State member from a vehicle.
Many Brazilians hold president president Dilma Rousseff responsible for everything from the devastating recession to chronic high taxes (AP)

Anti-government demonstrators celebrate in Sao Paulo after the lower house of Congress voted to impeach Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff (AP)

Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff suffered a devastating blow when the Chamber of Deputies voted to open impeachment proceedings against her.

The 367-137 vote in favour of impeachment was well over the 342 threshold needed for the proceedings to move to the Senate, where a majority vote will determine whether Ms Rousseff is put on trial and suspended while Vice President Michel Temer temporarily takes over.

The date of the Senate vote is not known, but it is widely expected by the middle of next month.

Ms Rousseff's left-leaning Workers' Party came to power 13 years ago on the promise of improving the lot of the poor.

The vote in the lower house sparked elation among many Brazilians, who hold her responsible for everything from the devastating recession to chronic high taxes and poor public services.

At the same time, large parts of the population were deeply upset by the result, which many decried as anti-democratic.

"I'm happy because I think Dilma had to go, but I'm also both sad that it came to this and also really worried that the next president could be even worse," said Patricia Santos, 52, a small business owner who was among around 60,000 pro- and anti-impeachment demonstrators outside Congress.

"I quiver to think what awaits us next."

Ms Rousseff's party leader in the lower house, Jose Guimaraes, acknowledged the battle had been lost but insisted the war was just beginning.

"The putchists won in the Chamber of Deputies ... We can turn it over in the Senate," he said. "We're going to continue to fight because we don't back down and we aren't going to let ourselves be beat by this momentary loss."

Solicitor General Jose Eduardo Cardozo said after the vote that Ms Rousseff would not resign and that she would address the situation on Monday. He also hinted an appeal could be filed with the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil's highest court.
KATIE MCLEAN/INDEPENDENT MAIL Robert Easterling donated his kidney to Buck Hooper nearly a decade ago. Buck Hooper and fellow choir member, Robert Easterling, have their portrait made on Friday, April 15, 2016 in Anderson.

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By Charmaine Smith-Miles of the Independent Mail

Robert Easterling could not get his church's choir director, Buck Hooper, off of his mind 10 years ago when he first heard that Hooper needed a new kidney or would be forever bound dialysis for the rest of his life.

Hooper was the choir director at Oakwood Baptist Church, where Easterling and his family were members. Easterling, who sang in the choir, learned about Hooper's failing kidneys and that Hooper's wife, Jimmie, could not be a donor.

"I've known Buck since I was 14 years old," Jimmie said, tears welling in her eyes. "He's been my life. I felt like it had all ended when I couldn't give. I thought I could fix everything. But I couldn't fix this. "

So she stood up at church, she said, and she asked for the choir to pray for them.

In all, 22 people came forward to see if they could be a donor. But no one was a match.

A little at a time, Easterling started asking questions about what blood type Hooper was and what it would take to become a donor.

Easterling decided to see if he could be a donor. It was a match between the two men. So, he decided to give one of his two kidneys to Hooper.

Hooper was well-known in the church and the community for his nearly three decades, working as a state trooper, and his business of installing sound and radio equipment in businesses, churches and other places around town. Easterling was, and still is, a pharmaceutical salesman. Like Buck, he had lived in Anderson nearly all of his life. He was a graduate of Oakwood Christian School, and had two young children.

Back when the news about the new kidney surfaced, the Easterlings and the Hoopers only knew each other through church.

Now, they are like family. They share holiday celebrations together. And the Hoopers said they feel as if they gained a daughter, a son and grandchildren in getting to know the Easterlings.

"I don't know if I could love Robert and Terri and their children any more if they were our own," Jimmie said.

And, oh, the life they have gained.

In September, Hooper, who is a retired state highway patrol trooper, will celebrate his 76th birthday. And this week, he and his wife, Jimmie, will celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary. And instead of being forced to stay in town, because of ongoing dialysis treatments, they will head to the mountains of Tennessee, Jimmie said.

Over the last decade, they have been on a cruise to Alaska and a trip to Hawaii.

"And we don't have any trouble going to our condo in Myrtle Beach," Buck said, laughing and then turning serious. "And we will be able to go to Gatlinburg for wedding anniversary this year," Jimmie said.

"It is hard to put into words, the gratitude and appreciation," Buck said. "It is hard to express."

And he is still able to sing in church, Hooper said.

All because Easterling took that chance a decade ago.

Easterling said he still remembers the one fear that he had when he started feeling led to donate his kidney to Hooper, if doctors said he was a good match.

"My wife, Terri, and I wondered about our two children. What if they needed one of my kidneys one day?" Easterling said. "That was the toughest question I had to answer. But we can't live our lives on 'what ifs.' We needed to make a decision. So I just trusted that the Lord would provide for us if we just took this step of faith."

On May 22, the Hoopers and the Easterlings will gather together with their families at Temple Baptist Church in Anderson and celebrate the last 10 years and the love that led the Easterlings to give a gift of life.

"You think you are losing something," Easterling said. "But in truth, we gained so much by taking that step. We did this because it is what God told us to do."

Follow Charmaine Smith-Miles on Twitter @Charmaine_AIM
KATIE MCLEAN/INDEPENDENT MAIL Terri White of Anderson volunteers at the AnMed Health Women's & Children's Hospital gift shop on Thursday, April 14, 2016 in Anderson.

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By Charmaine Smith-Miles of the Independent Mail

Within AnMed Health's team of workers there are 145 people who never receive a paycheck, but are glad to show up at their posts and do whatever task they can to help.

They are the AnMed Health Auxiliary  the hospital's volunteer work force.

Sometimes, you might be able to spot them wearing their pink coats. Rose Russo. A college student who has another job, she works at the AnMed Health Women's and Children's Hospital information desk.

"I really love the work," Russo said. "I love working here more than my actual job."

She said she plans to continue as a volunteer at the hospital as long as she can before classes start back up in the fall. She is studying to become a dental hygienist.

The auxiliary is 58 years old this year and has about the same number of volunteers on its roster as it did in the 1960s, according to a history written about theorganization.

In 1958, when it was founded, there were 102 active members and 40 associate members. The auxiliary's first president was Virginia Gilmer Crist Brownlee, the daughter of the hospital's founder, Jennie Gilmer. Their mission is the same now as it was then: to help the hospital's staff, to promote the hospital and its mission in the community and to raise money for the hospital.

But some things about the auxiliary have changed, its volunteers and leaders said.

The profile of the volunteer that signs up to help as changed. Some of the tasks that the volunteers preform now are different than they were in that first year. And, these days, the money that the auxiliary is able to raise  mostly through two gift shops that they operate  help not only with the hospital's budget but they also pay for scholarships for college students looking to work in the healthcare field.

"We are now supporting 20 students a year in various colleges," said Dave Schonauer, a 14-year volunteer with the auxiliary.

Schonauer said the auxiliary spends about $50,000 a year to fund those scholarships.

In 2015, the auxiliary gave the AnMed Health Foundation about $10,000, spent $30,000 to help with patient financial assistance, and spent $65,500 on new recliners for the patients' rooms. They also allocated $10,000 to the hospital's medical outreach van in 2015.

Through those gift shop sales, the auxiliary also gave the hospital's administration about $100,000 to help pay for a mobile diagnostic unit, which the hospital's staff wants to use to be able to take medical screenings, such as cancer screenings, to the patients.

Schonauer and the auxiliary's director, Jan Verbeck, said many of the auxiliary's volunteers, these days, are also younger than they once were. And volunteers are harder to recruit.

On average, the auxiliary maintains a roster of about 140 to 150 volunteers each year, which is about the same as it had in its first year.

But in 1958, the Anderson hospital had one campus, not two, and thus had a smaller capacity for patients. Now, the hospital on Fant Street  its main campus  has 570 patient beds and the AnMed Health North Campus, on East Greenville Street, has 75 patient beds, Schonauer said.

"People are forced to work longer," Schonauer said. "People can't quit their jobs in retirement like they once could. The economics are not there."

What Verbeck and Schonauer said they have noticed is that the age of the volunteers has shifted.

Now, they have about 26 college-age volunteers in their ranks, and in June, they will welcome about 40 high school students who will serve the auxiliary during their summer break, Verbeck said.

"Having that many college students, that is new," Verbeck said.

Some of the tasks volunteers are assigned have changed too, Verbeck said. She said they no longer deliver flowers to patients' rooms, because people send fewer flowers these days. There also are no longer volunteers helping in the surgery waiting room at the hospital. But there is still a sewing room at the hospital that the auxiliary volunteers use to help sew teddy bears, caps and pillows for patients.

The auxiliary is piloting a new program to help the hospital's cardiac patients, Verbeck said. The volunteers are working with those patients, she said, helping to remind them about how they can stay safe when moving around a hospital room and the hospital, to help reduce their chances for falling.

People like Russo and Schonauer still work at information desks in the different areas of the hospital, talking with patients and their families. Sometimes, they are simply giving directions to one office or another. But sometimes, they are the voice of calm and hospitality for a family that desperately needs it.

"For 14 years, my goal has been to make patients and their families comfortable," Schonauer said. "A lot of people come to us, nervous. They haven't been through something like this before and we try to make them comfortable. This is why I still enjoy it. It is not a job. It is more of a mission."

Follow Charmaine Smith-Miles on Twitter @Charmaine_AIM
James Bagwell of Anderson waits a short time for care at the AnMed Health minor care clinic at Fant and Calhoun streets in Anderson.

SHARE Lesa Neal, left, of Anderson receives a brace for her leg from emergency room technician Dottie Manning, right, at the AnMed Health minor care clinic at Calhoun and Fant streets in Anderson. Vendetta Lee of Anderson waits for her ride home outside an AnMed Health minor care clinic. Lee said she took her 8-month-old daughter, Jalandra Bennett, for an eye checkup at the center at Fant and Calhoun streets in Anderson. The center offers care for minor injuries and illnesses. A sign at AnMed Health explains patients can get care at the emergency room, the minor care clinic on the AnMed Health Medical Campus or the minor care clinic on the AnMed Health North Campus, all in Anderson.

Hospital staffs trying to balance the crowds in the ER and Minor Care

By Charmaine Smith-Miles of the Independent Mail

AnMed Health Emergency Department

Where: 800 N. Fant St.

Hours: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

For: life-threatening conditions such as heart attacks, strokes and major traumatic injuries.

Minor Care on the AnMed Health Medical Campus

Where: 600 N. Fant St., behind the AnMed Health Medical Center

Hours: 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Minor Care on the AnMed Health North Campus

Where: 2000 E. Greenville St. in the Oglesby Center

Hours: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

For: Colds, upper respiratory infections, joint sprains, muscle strains, uncomplicated injuries, superficial wounds and cuts

Alison Trumbull said she did everything right before she made the decision to go to the AnMed Health Medical Center Emergency Room recently.

But the Anderson County resident found a good deal wrong with her experience in the emergency room, she said.

AnMed Health officials said the emergency room in Anderson faces overcrowding just as its counterparts across the nation do, and that is one reason why an effort is being made in Anderson to educate people about when to use the emergency room and when to visit a minor care clinic.

In Trumbull's case, before she went to the emergency room, she called her doctor. In fact, she called two doctors. Both told her to go to the emergency room.

Her back wouldn't bend, and her family eased her into a car and drove to the hospital. When she arrived, she found an emergency room crowded with people. One man was addicted to crack and cocaine, he told doctors. He was on the gurney next to her, without a curtain to divide them at first. So she could see his face as he told hospital workers of his plight.

Then another man took the space on the other side of her, feet away from her as he coughed through his sickness.

"They had all of us in this small room. There was no privacy, not even a curtain at first," Trumbull said. "Why?"

Unlike some, she did not need to wait long to see a doctor. On average, the time it takes for a patient to see a doctor in the AnMed Health Medical Center emergency room is less than an hour, according to the hospital's data. Trumbull was seen by a doctor in 17 minutes, hospital records indicate.

But Trumbull said something was missing that had nothing to do with numbers ? compassion.

She said she does not know the name of the doctor who treated her that day. When she needed a stretcher to make it back to her car, because she couldn't walk without a lot of pain or bend enough to sit in a wheelchair, she said she was told she couldn't use one because she was not going into surgery.

"It was horrible," she said. "When it gets to the point that they are that busy, something needs to be done. I don't know what the answer is, but something needs to be done."

The hospital's staff, through a spokeswoman, said they "regret Ms. Trumbull had an unpleasant experience."

"It's our goal to treat each (patient) with dignity and respect," according to the staff's statement.

And that is a snapshot just of what Trumbull went through.

But there's another side to what she experienced. AnMed Health Medical Center staff members have seen up to a total of 240 patients a day in the emergency room and the adjacent minor care facility on Fant Street ? or more than 80,000 in a year.

"The emergency room just wasn't designed to handle that kind of patient load," said Dr. J. Wallace Davies, the emergency department medical director.

The overcrowding is why hospital staff members decided to name both of their walk-in clinics ? one on the Medical Center Campus and the other on the North Campus ? AnMed Health Minor Care. The name change is part of a campaign to better explain to the public what the emergency room is for and what the minor care clinics do.

The different parts of the AnMed Health system are what their names suggest. One is for emergencies such as major trauma, heart attacks and strokes. The other is for people with colds, joint sprains, upper respiratory infections, wounds and superficial cuts.

The AnMed staff is fighting the same battle with overcrowding as every emergency department in the nation ? a cause that some hospitals have given up on altogether.

"It gets to the point that the hospitals just can't survive with the (financial) loss they see in the emergency room," said Peter Hyman, president of South Carolina Chapter of the College of Emergency Physicians and medical director of emergency services at McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence. "They've had to close the doors of their emergency departments because the hospital couldn't survive the losses in the emergency room."According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the number of emergency room visits in America in 2004 totaled roughly 110 million. Then in the 2006 Institute of Medicine Report on "Hospital-Based Emergency Care," statistics showed that there were 703 fewer hospitals in the nation and 425 fewer emergency departments.

With the U.S. unemployment rate at 7.6 percent, and the number of physicians no longer taking Medicaid patients, the load isn't getting any lighter, Hyman said.

At AnMed Health, the average number of patients per day in the emergency department was 153 in 1998. Ten years later, that number was up to 221. And as of this month, the average was 240, hospital records indicated.

The increasing statistics in these tough economic times prompted the American College of Physicians to urge Congress to pass legislation to help emergency room patients.

"The problems facing emergency patients are accelerated by the financial crisis and a failing health care system," said the college's president, Dr. Nick Jouriles. "At no other time has the role of emergency medicine been more important."

More than 1,200 physicians who responded to a recent poll said they are seeing more patients who have lost their jobs and health insurance and 1,515 reported treating patients who had been turned away elsewhere, according to information from the college.

"Congress must support and preserve everyone's access to emergency care, because emergency departments are the one place you can get the medical care you need and never be turned away," Jouriles said.

Even in Anderson, where there is the Anderson Free Clinic to help carry some of the burden of treating the uninsured and the underinsured, the economic turn has left that clinic strapped for resources. Last year, they needed to stop taking new patients because they were overloaded.

"The statement we hear all the time is, ?We don't have any money to go to the doctor, so we came to the emergency room,' " Hyman said. "The truth is the care you get in the ER is some of the most expensive care you can get."

For example, at the emergency room where he works, just a basic visit where a doctor might decide a patient has cold symptoms and write a prescription, the cost is $350. If tests are run, blood samples taken or other procedures are undertaken, that $350 can turn into several thousand dollars, Hyman said.

By contrast, the average cost of a visit to a physician is $50 to $75.

And a lot of those patients coming in the door are frequent visitors, said Davies at AnMed Health.

"One of the issues we have here is people coming back the ER repeatedly," Davies said. "You have some come for lunch, and you can't turn them away."

In two years, 1 percent of the ER patients made nearly 15 percent of the total visits there. Twenty-two patients came to the emergency room in those two years for more than 50 visits. And two patients visited the emergency room more than 100 times.

What the patient overload also translates into is a financial loss for the hospital. Davies said historically, the hospital collects $4 per visit as a co-pay before the patient leaves the hospital.

Aside from some going to the emergency room because of lack of health insurance and fear of being refused at a doctor's office, another reason people come to the emergency room is convenience.

"A lot of people will call their doctor's office, and they say it will take two weeks to get them in," Hyman said. "So people end up coming to the ER because they can't get into their doctor's office."

All of those factors are pushing the emergency department ? in Anderson and everywhere ? to the brink. Ann Swain, the director of the emergency department at AnMed Health, said something somewhere needs to give.

So that's where education plays a role.

Swain and Davies want patients to use minor care when they can, because the cost of the medical care is less there and minor care is better equipped to handle something minor like a cold, an abrasion or muscle strain.

For some, determining what might be an emergency is not simple, so Davies and Swain recommend that patients call their physician first, like Trumbull did.

And Hyman said it helps to understand that the emergency room is the most stressful environment in which to provide medical care ? no matter how long the wait.

"It is a stressful environment, and there are times when you as a staff member aren't the best in the world," Hyman said. "Once you get that room turned over, you've got a lobby full of people who have been unhappy about sitting there for hours. It's just nonstop. We get involved in trying to get through all these patients, you lose the personalization of the patient."
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.
Operations at two of the worlds largest copper mines have been suspended following a weekend deluge in central Chile. The heavy rain flooded parts of the massive El Teniente mine, leading the state-owned copper company Codelco to halt operations there for at least three days. Closure of El Teniente, is expected to bring down production by 5000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, Copper has fallen after strong Chinese economic data raised fears that government stimulus programs in the top metals consumer are not sustainable, and as the market also looked ahead to a key meeting of oil producers.

China on Friday posted its slowest economic growth since 2009 but a surge of new debt appears to be fuelling a recovery in factory activity, investment and household spending in the worlds second largest economy.

Adding to price support, heavy rains in central Chile have prompted global miner Anglo American Plc and state-owned producer Codelco to temporarily suspend operations at two major copper mines with combined annual capacity of 880,000 tonnes.

Hedge funds and money managers switched to a net short position in copper for the first time since February in the week to April 12, U.S. data showed on Friday.

China posted its slowest economic growth since 2009, but a surge of new debt appears to be fuelling a recovery in factory activity, investment and household spending in the worlds second-largest economy.

Indian Copper prices were down by 0.46% trading at Rs 315.70 per kg. The prices tested a high of Rs 316.95 per kg and a low of Rs 314.1 per kg.

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Give us an idea about mHealth in India? What are some of the significant benefits especially for rural areas?

What are the key growth drivers for mHealth market in India?

Tell us about the key challenges impacting the mHealth services in India.

What do you see as the next big trend in mHealth space? With the CSR rule, are there enough publicprivate partnerships taking place which can help penetrate the remote areas faster?

Given Indias mobile penetration, what impact do you see on the Indian healthcare industry?

You started operations in India in 2006. How has the journey been so far? How different is it from other countries. Explain to us the business model of your company. What is your reach in India and globally?

You have an app called 'UpToDate'? Share with us how can it bring a positive change in the medical sector in India? What are the new apps you are planning? How many downloads, so far?

What are your expansion plans in India?

What is your offering in the tax and accounting sector? How many customers do you have here? Recently, you had launched Chetan Dalals book Novel and Conventional Methods of Audit and Fraud Investigation. Is publishing also part of your growth agenda or is it more for visibility?

It is said that given a chance patients would speak about their problem for 55 seconds, but on an average physicians interrupt 18 seconds into the interview. Will this continue to prevail and how do you think your solutions will overcome this issue?

What is the demand supply gap among doctors, nurses and allied health staff?

In the medical field, making a decision is often more important than making an incision. Give us some anecdotes of how apps are able to calculate the risk involved ahead of a procedure?

Comment on your R&D initiatives. Any innovations from India?

cloud-based solution to simplify and automate the running of accounting practice. We launched this in India last year and we already have over 200 CA firms enjoying increased visibility across workflow, resources and performance - ultimately freeing their practice up to spend more time adding value to their clients. iFirm is also promoted globally in many countries.

What is the vision for your company?

We are a global company that provides information, software, and services. Our customers are legal, business, tax, accounting, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and healthcare professionals. Our brand has a strong purpose to serve customers making critical decisions every day. Wolters Kluwer helps them move forward with confidence.

, brings more than two decades of experience as a global leader  working in India, the U.S., Europe, China, and throughout Asia. Shireesh joined Wolters Kluwer after a career at General Electric Company where he held the position of Director of GEs Healthcare Government business.is a market-leading global information services company. Professionals in the areas of legal, business, tax, accounting, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and healthcare rely on Wolters Kluwers leading information-enabled tools and software solutions to manage their business efficiently, deliver results to their clients, and succeed in an ever more dynamic world. Wolters Kluwer had 2014 annual revenues of  3.7 billion, have over 19,000 employees worldwide, and maintains operations over 40 countries across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Its shares are quoted on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices.Replying toofShireesh Sahai says, With the hassle-free, low-cost and high-quality performance, mHealth could be the next big thing to happen to Indian healthcare industry. Lower expenditure, easy application and immediate response, will help save many lives.mHealth is designed to bridge the information divide, enhancing accessibility to critical expertise with the help of a mobile device. Now if you look at the current scenario, there has been a significant growth in the ownership of smart phones over other devices. The majority of the population is in rural areas, which unfortunately lacks healthcare facilities the most, but the good thing is that, there is high mobile connectivity and ownership. In such a space, facilities like mHealth could help in bridging the gap between patients and medical practitioners by providing them high-quality information via mobile applications. It gives them a more cost-effective access to information than traditional ways. Also, for doctors and nurses practicing in remote areas, there are less number of peers to consult with, in case of doubts. Use of mHealth applications will thus benefit the society in more than one way.The information technology is spreading rapidly. A large number of households are getting acquainted with digital media now. The power of internet on our palms, translates into power of information. With this as base, there is a great scope for growth of mHealth market in India.mHealth facilities are convenient to use, especially when we find it difficult to visit a doctor for treatment. In remote areas, people avoid going for treatment unless there's an emergency, or for follow-ups, which at times lead to acute illness. Using mHealth, people would have access to medical information even from a distance.Mobile health provides low-cost information/prescription. In a country, where people with chronic diseases do not go for treatment to save on readmission costs, mHealth could help in a large way. And also, the players in mHealth strive to provide high quality information.These factors serve as growth drivers for mHealth market in India.Yes, there are factors that serve as a challenge too. For example, a big population is uneducated and found technologically challenged. However, doctors are now getting conditioned to the demands of time. They understand the relevance of mHealth, especially in reaching the lowest rungs of the society, which lacks a healthcare infrastructure. Other challenges include the need for confidentiality of consumer data, the improper performance of poorly-executed application that might become irritating to use etc.India has been ranked second in adopting mobile healthcare, and so there is a wide possibility for this market to boom.It is estimated that mobile phone ownership will break records in the coming years. In such a space, a big growth in mHealth has been spotted to take place. More and more people will turn to services like mHealth to get medical information, the rate of which is already quite high right now.A lot of hospitals in India, irrespective of whether they're government-run or private, are using mobile technology to deliver better health outcomes. More partnerships with local healthcare facilitators and more awareness will help mHealth penetrate even in the remote areas.Whether there is a CSR rule or not, we believe that it is our responsibility to help the society in the time of need. When the earthquake hit Nepal, we rose to the occasion and provided doctors, hospitals, healthcare institutions, and medical relief workers in Nepal, complete free access to our Clinical Decision Support tool, UpToDate anywhere. We received huge response and the entire medical fraternity found it useful in meeting their local needs and delivering evidence based treatment to patients.India has been reported to be the 2largest user of mobile phone technology in the world. People are turning to mobile devices for almost everything. Such a situation serves as the ideal condition for the healthcare industry to venture into. With the hassle-free, low-cost and high-quality performance, mHealth could be the next big thing to happen to Indian healthcare industry. While some might consider mHealth to be a threat to the traditional healthcare industry, the truth is that it will only help treat a larger number of patients and delivering standardized treatment. Lower expenditure, easy application and immediate response, will help save many lives.We were founded in the Netherlands over 175 years ago. Our customers are professionals in the legal, tax, finance, and healthcare markets in over 170 countries. We are a global leader in our industry, usually ranking number 1 or 2 in the markets that we address. These strong market positions allow us to leverage our scale and consistently invest in our products.Wolters Kluwer India is 100% MNC subsidiary and its been 10 years we have direct presence in India and I am glad that we could provide expertise to experts. Most of the healthcare institutions are subscribing to our various resources ranging from reference books to journals to softwares and services. Over 200 accounting firms are subscribing to iFirm, which is a year-old practice management solution. Indian market is still print dominant but we are witnessing rapid double digit growth for our digital solutions.UpToDate is a Clinical Decision Support tool, also available as mobile app which provides evidence based clinical information to doctors which support them in treating patient. It is an evidence-based, physician-authored clinical decision support system to help clinicians make the right point-of-care decisions. This app can help doctors and clinicians find out answers to any question they might have.More than one million clinicians across 174 countries refer to it when it comes to evidence-based medical knowledge. With the increasing digital penetration in India, UpToDate has a credible customer base which includes around 10,000 specialists across India.Apart from UpToDate, we have multiple solutions available in app format like Ovid, Lexicomp, Provation, 5 Minute Consult, Nursing solutions and many more. These apps are being already used globally.Wolters Kluwer has a suite of leading and innovative digital solutions, which are used by healthcare professionals across the globe such as UpToDate, Ovid, Lexicomp, Provation, 5 minute consult, Nursing solutions, Healthcare Communication and many more. We are aggressively penetrating the Indian market with these easy-to-use solutions.Ovid is a research platform which enables healthcare institutions to access world renowned journals, eBooks, databases and many other resources electronically. It provides customized clinical, research, and educational solutions. Lexicomp is a drug information resource which provides clear, concise, point-of-care drug information, including dosing, administration, interactions, warnings and precautions, as well as clinical content, such as clinical practice guidelines. Provation offers documentation software to automate workflow for clinicians and nurses in a hospital setup.5 Minute Consult guides primary care physicians and is based on the best-selling clinical content in the family medicine market for over 20 years. It is the fastest resource to obtain the most likely diagnosis, treatment, and management for thousands of diseases. Our Nursing solutions- Procedures and Nursing Advisor, addresses skill gaps and continued education for nurses practicing in a hospital setup. Healthcare Communication course is designed to develop a culture of smooth and effective communication in the healthcare setup. It is the first of its kind in India and has been developed in collaboration with the Consortia of Accredited Hospitals (CAHO) and Baptist Hospital, Bangalore. The course aims to improve communication in healthcare organizations and thereby directly impact patient safety and the quality of care delivered.These are some tools using which we plan to provide world-class medical solutions to every medical practitioner in the remotest of areas. We are also planning to take the concept of CA 2.0, which is an aspirational position for a CA firm. The CA 2.0 firm will include characteristics like leveraging technology to streamline internal processes, thereby, improving efficiency and productivity.Wolters Kluwer is well known among tax, finance and healthcare professionals around the world for its pioneering software and information service products. We recently launched this book, which not only offers an insightful and descriptive account of the types of frauds and accounting irregularities that prevail in corporate India, but also provides a combination of novel and conventional audit approaches to unearth such instances. The objective is to provide a comprehensive guide to auditors and others entrusted with the task of investigating, uncovering and dealing with the aftermath of white collar crime. Publishing is not in our agenda for growth, nor do we seek visibility out of it. It is merely a part of our job to provide insights into how to use some of the most advanced approaches and techniques in a simple manner.The patient is often not given enough chance to express his problem, which leads to a communication gap between the patient and the doctor. Misjudgment results into treatment full of errors, causing even more damage than cure, sometimes even death.Last year, we had launched a unique course on Healthcare communication called Lippincott Gurukul, an eLearning platform to cater to the educational and training needs of healthcare professionals. This online course is designed to develop a culture of smooth and effective communication in healthcare set-up. It is the first of its kind in India and has been developed in collaboration with the Consortia of Accredited Hospitals (CAHO) and Baptist Hospital, Bangalore. The course aims to improve communication in healthcare organizations and thereby directly impact patient safety and the quality of care delivered.Wolters Kluwer provides doctors, nurses and healthcare practitioners with a platform to interact better. UpToDate gives everyone a chance to get their questions and doubts cleared, with validation from reliable sources.We have a huge demand supply gap of almost all the resources in healthcare, be it hospital beds, doctors or nurses. All this can only be improved by opening up new institutions and expanding current infrastructure and retaining these qualified resources within country. At the same time we need to enhance clinical skill at all levels and continuing education should be a must for all healthcare professionals throughout their practice. This will help in delivering standardized health outcomes.Yes it is true that in medical field, making a right decision is more important than making an incision. There are often cases when an error in judgement leads to wrong treatment. Clinical decision support tools can help clinicians with the right answers when they are needed and in the quickest time. For example, Wolters Kluwer offers innovative mobile solutions like UpToDate and Lexicomp which can immediately impact the quality of care and outcomes with evidence based insights at the point of care. These applications and services can include, among other things, clinical decision support, remote patient monitoring, video conferencing, online consultations, personal healthcare devices, wireless access to patient records, and prescriptions.We have multiple R&D units in India. One of our leading solutions, iFirm is being developed and supported by our Chandigarh centre. iFirm is a
Give us an overview of your financials?

How was the quarter as a whole? How do you see things shaping up in the coming quarters?

What is your revenue and margin guidance for FY17?

Can you throw some light on your deal wins and the deal pipeline?

Tell us about sectors where you experienced headwinds and softness in Q4?

What are your plans going ahead?

Can you take us through your management changes?

What are the business highlights for the quarter?

What are your attrition and utilization rates?

did BS in Computer Science from Syracuse University. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University, US. Prior to joining Infosys, Dr. Sikka was a member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, leading all products and technologies, and driving innovation globally. In his 12 years at SAP, Dr. Sikka was instrumental in defining the companys technology and product strategy and architecture. His experience straddles research in artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, programming languages and models, and information management  at Stanford University, at Xerox Palo Alto Labs, and as founder of two startup companies.is a global leader in consulting, technology, and outsourcing and next-generation services. Infosys Technologies (China) Co., Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys Limited, aiming to provide customers with extensive service encompassing technical consulting, application development, system integration, testing, IT infrastructure service, and business process outsourcing. The company possesses deep expertise in various domains and owns multiple delivery centers with an on-time delivery rate of more than 98%. It also has leading partners in industries such as finance, manufacturing, retail, and energy.andofprovide you the highlights of their media interaction with Vishal Sikka. Vishal Sikka said, The growth is very positive and I am quite happy with the performance.The net profit grew 3.8% to Rs.3,597 crore as against Rs. 3,465 crore qoq. The IT firm registered a net revenue of Rs.16,550 crore in Q4 compared with Rs.15,902 crore in Q3 FY16. The consolidated EBIT Margin stood at 25.5% in Q4 compared with 24.9% in Q3. The company said that its Q4 margins improved on rupee movement and better utilisation.Liquid assets, including cash and cash equivalents, available-for-sale financial assets, and government bonds were $ 5,202 million as of March 31, 2016 compared with $ 4,765 million as of December 31, 2015 and $ 5,214 million as of March 31, 2015.We started the year with a strategy aimed at completely reimagining the notion of services and transform Infosys. Over the course of this year, the strategy of bringing automation and innovation to our clients, on a foundation of learning and education, started yielding results in the form of organic growth of our client relationships and win rates in large deals. The types of projects that we are involved in now (in strategic areas) were the ones we never participated in before. I am proud of what our teams have achieved during this quarter and in the year.The results are heartening but are still based on metrics of the past and thus reflect the way the industry has been. The future in our universe looks entirely different; it is a world that will be fundamentally reshaped by digital technologies. It is our endeavour to create great value for every business through solutions built on our AI technology and open cloud platforms to have Infoscions amplified by intelligent technology and bring purposeful innovation to life. In this context, we are still very much at the beginning of this journey.Revenue guidance for FY17 is 11.5%-13.5% in constant currency terms and at 11.8-13.8% in dollar terms. While we maintain the margin guidance band at 24-26% for FY17, we will revisit the guidance if needed.Infosys won six large deals worth $757 mn; three were in Europe and three in North America across sectors. This count excludes two additional large deal wins we secured during the quarter. The deal pipeline looks healthy and we expect to achieve $1 bn deal win rate in the next two to three quarters. We would focus on securing a large number of smaller deals.Infosys experienced headwinds in verticals such as energy, retail, and telecom, whereas it had softness in the insurance sector.Every industry is going through deep-routed transformation. We are doing projects around IT optimisation and are quite positive. Our endeavour is to create a new kind of IT services company.Our key high-profile appointees include Mr. Mohit Joshi, Ravi Kumar S, and Mr. Sandeep Dadlani.During this quarter, we made significant advances in our strategy to deliver automation and innovation through our traditional and new service offerings, our platforms and tools, and through investments in the broader ecosystem. This enabled us to create more depth in existing client relationships, win more deals, specifically large deals, and open up entirely new types of strategic projects for Infosys.We continue to see new strategic projects coming to Infosys based on our Aikido service offerings as well as our platforms and tools.This quarter, we announced the availability of IIP on Amazon Web Services Marketplace (AWS Marketplace). Businesses will now be able to gain robust data insights quickly, while tapping into the flexibility and the lower cost of a cloud-based platform.Panaya and Skava continued to gain traction both as part of large client engagements where these products were central to the value proposition.Our attrition rate stands at 18.3%. Employee attrition reduced further in Q4, which reflects our increased engagement with our people through the year.Our utilisation rate (including trainees) stood at 74.7% vs 74.2% qoq, whereas the rate excluding trainees was registered at 80.1% vs. 80.6% qoq.
In an effort to reduce the current account and trade deficit, the government of India came up with three relatively new gold schemes. The objective of these schemes is to reduce gold imports by India and bring to the active economy gold that lying idle in Indian households, estimated to be in excess of 20,000 tons. Reducing gold imports has been targeted by the government as an effective tool to control the trade deficit due to the whopping quantities of gold imported by Indians. In the year 2015, the worth of gold imported by Indians amounted to US $ 36 billion.The government previously attempted to control gold imports by increasing import duty. This move had very limited success; the government therefore changed its approach to attempt other plans; The Gold Monetization Scheme and Governments Sovereign Gold Bond Schemes. Heres what everybody ought to know about the government gold schemesencourages gold owners to deposit their gold in the banks and earn interest from it. The bank makes active use of this gold by lending or selling this gold to jewelers or other banks thus the scheme works similar to a fixed deposit with a minimum tenure of 1 year but with a provision for premature withdrawal should the need arise. In this scheme, the government offered exemptions in capital gains tax; taxes on interest earned and have recently tweaked the scheme to allow medium term deposits to be withdrawn after three years and long term deposits after five years. These efforts have seen the government attract approximately 3 tons of gold through the scheme.This schemes intent is to convert the demand for physical gold, as an investment avenue, to paper gold. Rather than buy physical gold, investors would buy paper gold. The bond has tenure of 8 years and a minimum lock-in period of five years. The sovereign gold bond could result in a US$2bn saving on gold imports in the year. The first tranche of this bond was issued in November 2015 and saw 62,169 applications for almost 916 kg of gold valued at Rs 246.20 crore. The second tranche of the scheme, which was opened for subscription on January 2016, attracted 3.16 lakh applications for slightly fewer than 2.8 tons of gold valued at Rs 726 crore.The government has as well made this scheme attractive for investors by offering tax exemption on capital gains tax (for those who will redeem at maturity) and has added an interest component of up to 2.75% per annum to the investors benefit.There are many possible repercussions (both positive and negative) on both the micro and macroeconomic perspectives to these moves by the government. Everybody ought to be aware that these are ventures by the government are geared to accelerate economic growth. Through these gold-linked schemes the government has managed to creatively and significantly reduce the gold imports and translate previously idle gold to the active economy.
Countries in the Asia Pacific region pledged to collaborate to combat the increasing threat of antimicrobial resistance which transcends borders and endangers global health by making life-saving antibiotics ineffective.



Health ministers from 12 countries of the region agreed to improve the way information on antimicrobial resistance is collected and shared to guide effective policies and actions; to strengthen and harmonize how they regulate the production, sale and use of antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines; and to take innovative approaches to stimulate research and development of new antibiotics, diagnostic tests, vaccines and other technologies, a communique issued on the Tokyo Meeting of Health Ministers on Antimicrobial Resistance said.



Antimicrobial resistance is a threat to global security and economic stability. It is a looming health and economic crisis that requires both global and local solutions. Since drug resistant genes can travel, countries with higher levels of economic and social organization have a stake in the success of measures taken by less developed countries. In the fight against antimicrobial resistance, we are only as strong as the weakest link, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, told ministers at the meeting.



The ministerial meeting followed a two-day brainstorming session among experts and organizations representing public health, agriculture and animal health, was organized by the Government of Japan and WHO, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Organisation for Animal Health.



Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to human health today. Having effective antimicrobials is also critical to the social and economic development of nations. We have a limited window of opportunity to take action and avoid a post-antibiotic era. WHO is supporting countries across the Asia Pacific region to take critical steps to preserve the effectiveness of these life-saving medicines. We must strengthen health systems response and cooperation with the agriculture sector to contain this threat, and improve understanding of the problem among the public. The Tokyo meeting has provided a platform to move forward with this important agenda, said Dr Shin Young-soo, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the Western Pacific.



Rapid economic development and socio-demographic and cultural changes, coupled with the health status, puts the population of the Asia Pacific region at higher risk for emerging drug-resistant infections, evident by the spread of multidrug resistant strains of malaria and tuberculosis.



Ministers acknowledged that antimicrobial resistance is a by-product of system failuresfrom regulation of medicines to agricultural and trade controlsand strengthening these systems is a critical component of the Sustainable Development Goals.



They agreed on the need for urgent action to raise awareness across all sectors of the need for responsible use of antibiotics. The regions health ministers pledged to take a multi-sectoral approach, with effective governance mechanisms, to enable all stakeholders to work collectively and effectively.



Accelerating progress towards universal health coverageto ensure people across the region have equitable access to quality health services, including the prevention and control of infections and rational prescribing of antibioticswas another key initiative emphasized and agreed upon by ministers.



WHO has called for urgent collaboration to slow down antimicrobial resistance and avoid a post-antibiotic erain which minor wounds and injuries could be life- threatening, and treatments longer and more costly, causing economic hardships to families, societies and countries.



The World Health Assembly in 2015 endorsed a Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance. In line with this, WHO is supporting countries in the Asia Pacific region to develop national action plans. Priority areas include: improving awareness and understanding of the problem; strengthening surveillance of infections in humans and animals which are resistant to antimicrobials; reducing the incidence of infections; promoting rational use of antibiotics in all sectors; and promoting investments in research.



Ministers or senior officials from Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Thailand and Viet Nam, and representatives of WHO and other partner organizations attended the meeting.
Major global oil producing countries failed to reach an agreement over a proposal to freeze oil production at the end of their ministerial meeting in Doha on Sunday amid differences over the wording of the pact.Qatari Oil Minister Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada said in a press conference that the meeting reached a result but all the producers needed more time for consultations and talks.Brent crude oil futures were last down by 5.1% to US$40.88 per barrel.The much-hyped Doha meeting exposed the political rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran.The deal fell apart after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran should join the joint freeze effort, according to media reports. Riyadh threatened to raise output steeply if no freeze deal was reached.Major oil producing countries, except Iran, gathered in the Qatari capital on Sunday to discuss a possible crude oil production freeze in a bid to boost prices.Altogether 23 countries, both within and outside OPEC had sent their delegates to Doha for the summit.Oil prices fell more than 60 per cent since June 2014 to as low as US$27 per barrel in January this year due to a widening glut in global crude market.
The Union Civil Aviation Ministry has dropped the proposal to auction unused bilateral traffic rights on international routes, as per the draft National Civil Aviation Policy.Domestic carriers as well as the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have strongly opposed plans to auction unused bilateral rights, reports a business daily.The Government has also tried to replace the controversial 5/20 rule for flying overseas, while at the same time giving older carriers the flexibility to withdraw capacity deployed on unviable routes, says the paper.The existing rule of domestic airlines having minimum 5-year operational history and 20 aircraft for being eligible to fly abroad is proposed to be replaced by only 20 aircraft requirement and a minimum deployment of 20 per cent capacity domestically.If approved, the proposed policy will enable new carriers like AirAsia India and Vistara to operate internationally without having the minimum 5-year experience as required in the existing regime.Older carriers such as Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir will not have to seek Government permission for withdrawing capacity deployed on economically unviable routes, as per the draft policy.The Aviation Ministry expects to complete inter-ministerial discussions on the policy in about two weeks, after which it will submit a final draft to the Cabinet for approval, according to the daily.
For long, SEBI has been receiving requests from various entities for tighter control of rating agencies. There have been concerns about conflicts-of-interests, impact of sudden rating downgrades and rating withdrawals. To address these concerns, SEBI is now looking to help rating agencies strengthens their disclosure guidelines for issuance and revision of ratings.In India, agencies are currently allowed to withdraw ratings, when there is lack of information flow from the companys side. Now this might sound good in theory but problem with this approach is that it leaves investors, who may have invested based on earlier ratings, in the lurch. Ideally, withdrawal of ratings should not be allowed without giving adequate reasons. So if a company is withholding information that is required for the rating process, agencies should issue a warning to the general public. Now withdrawal of ratings should only be considered as a second step and not the first one. This will be in the best interest of investors.SEBI now wants to agencies to have a stringent policy for suspension and subsequent withdrawal of ratings. To further enhance transparency, SEBI also wants more detailed public disclosure of procedures and criterias being used for rating. There should also be periodic reviews of the criterias used, to ensure that only relevant information is being used to arrive at ratings.Another radical suggestion by SEBI is that the credit rating agencies should hive off their activities involving rating of instruments other than securities. Most agencies also issue ratings that dont fall under SEBIs jurisdiction like ratings of commercial deposits, real estate projects, etc. Experts feel that even though hiving off such non-securities activities will ensure that there is no conflict between two or more regulators, the fact is that agencies will find it tough to hive off their business completely. Many ratings procedures require data inputs from various products issued by a company. Hence, drawing a clear line between each and every product might not be as simple as it sounds.
Tata Steel Europe announced changes to the leadership of its operations in the UK. Bimlendra Jha, an Executive Committee member of Tata Steel Europe, has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Tata Steel UK. announced changes to the leadership of its operations in the UK. Bimlendra Jha, an Executive Committee member of Tata Steel Europe, has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Tata Steel UK.

Jha is currently Executive Chairman of Tata Steel Europes Long Products Europe business and has successfully led the divestment process that resulted in the signing of a Sale and Purchase Agreement with Greybull Capital on April 11.

Jha, in this new position, will report to Hans Fischer, Chief Executive Officer of Tata Steel Europe. He will be supported by a team of executives drawn across functions including operations, procurement, finance, human resources and commercial.

Koushik Chatterjee, Group Executive Director of Tata Steel Limited, said: Todays announcement by Tata Steel Europe will ensure the full focus on the vital tasks that lie ahead of Tata Steel UK. Bimlendras successful experience of the process of divestment of Long Products Europe will be invaluable as Tata Steel Europe explores strategic alternatives for its operations in the UK. He will be supported by a team with immense operating experience of the UK business. To deliver greater clarity for all key stakeholders such as employees, customers and suppliers, it is important for the new team to seek all credible options in a time bound manner.

In order to provide further support to run and manage a global sale process, Tata Steel Europe has appointed Standard Chartered bank as an additional adviser to the process to ensure the coverage and reach of the universe of potential buyers, especially to Asia and the Far East. They will work alongside KPMG LLP, whose appointment was announced on April 11.

Over the last seven days, the advisers to Tata Steel Europe have begun initial exploration of interest in Tata Steels UK operations reaching out to 190 potential financial and industrial investors worldwide. More detailed information sharing will commence this week as the process moves into the confidential phase.
There are some celebrities who do social work only to make the news. In the era of Facebook and Twitter, every celebrity wants to trend for all the right reasons. However, there are some celebrities who are supporting drought-affected people and not many people are aware of it. A group of Bollywood stars and theatre personalities have joined hands and are doing every possible thing to support drought-affected families.

With the help of the government and organisations, Bollywood actors and Marathi theatre and film personalities are now reaching all of Marathwada and Vidarbha, they are targeting and focusing on water scarcity and farmer suicides in Latur and the drought-hit regions of Maharashtra.

Twitter

To name a few real life heroes: Nana Patekar, Marathi actor Makarand Anasapure, Bollywood megastars Akshay Kumar and Aamir Khan, and Satyajit Bhatkal have been doing every possible thing to help the drought-affected families.

Here's an overview of commendable efforts of these real-life superstars.

India.com

7 months ago, Nana and Makarand with a team of few more people created the NAAM Foundation. In these 7 months, Naam's contribution includes Rs 12,000 and Rs 16,000 to hundreds of families.

Makarand said, "Actress Renuka Shanane, Marathi actor Jitendra Joshi, senior actor Dilip Prabhavalkar, actress Girija Oak, director Purushottame Berde, actor Sayaji Shinde and others helped us. In just seven months, the foundation has received between Rs 30-35 crore."

Twitter

Apart from monetary compensation, NAAM has been actively involved in helping families with sewing machines, flour mills, sheep. They are also helping them develop small-scale industries. They're actively collaborating with people and organizations who are working on the agenda of water conservation initiatives. When asked about their efforts, Makarand said, "It's all due to people's participation. We don't want to take credit for anything."

Twitter

According to sources, Akshay Kumar is planning to collaborate with actor Riteish Deshmukh in Latur for a charity show. A person who works with Akshay closely revealed that "Akshay has taken care to stay away from publicity. We want to appeal others in cities to help farmers." Not many know that Akshay Kumar has already reached out to families of at least 180 farmers who have committed suicide. He also donated Rs 50 lakh to the Jalyukt Shivar scheme. Talk about real life super-heroes!

Thehindu

We told you long back that Aamir Khan's Satyamev Jayate team has formed `Paani Foundation'. After announcing a contest called Water Cup, for water conservation, Aamir is taking care of official meetings and other procedures. Satyajit Bhatkal, convenor of the project told media, "We have trained representatives of these villages with the help of experts. Aamir is holding meetings officials and the winner will receive Rs 50 lakh. In the end, all villages will winners as they will save water."

(With inputs from The Times Of India)
The US has already banned microbeads, Australia and the UK are in the process of doing so, and now India has finally stepped up as well. Microbeads are the tiny pieces of non-biodegradable plastic used in face washes, body scrubs, soaps, toothpastes and other such toiletries.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notices to the ministries of environment, water resources and health, asking for their comments on microbeads found in personal care products.

huffingtonpost.com

The issue came to their notice when Delhi-based lawyer Ashwini Kumar filed a petition seeking a complete ban on the use of microbeads in the manufacture, import and sale of various cosmetics and personal care products.

Alok Dhawan, Director, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR), told TOI "Because these are cosmetics and not drugs, one can surely live without them. Why would anyone want to use something that destroys the environment?"

These tiny particles are doing major harm to marine life.

plasticsnews.com

Billions of these tiny little beads are being washed away into water bodies every day. Anywhere between 1 micron and 1 mm in size, theyre so small that water filtration systems cant trap them.

And since theyre so tiny, fish and other marine animals mistake them for food and eat them. "They get into the digestive tracts of small fish and even large mammals and choke them to death," said Deepak Apte, Director of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).

slashgear.com

In fact, when you eat seafood, its possible that youre eating microbeads as well. Microplastic beads also attract other toxins, making them extremely harmful to the environment. A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that oysters exposed to microbeads produced 41 percent fewer larvae and, even when those larvae matured, they grew at a slower rate and were 18 percent smaller than other larvae.

With inputs from TOI

Cover image via buffalonews.com
Maharashtra Minister Pankaja Munde may be regretting her decision from yesterday when she decided to click some selfies with 'drought'.

This after she came under attack from ally Shiv Sena as well as the opposition over the images she took while she was on a visit to drought-hit Marathwada.

2 selfie with bandhara pic.twitter.com/OKFeyT3OPS  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 16, 2016

Her defence was that she took pictures out of elation on seeing water in a trench in the dried up river.

Munde, who is Rural Development minister, was at a village in drought hit Latur yesterday, for reviewing the desilting work in Manjara river, which has nearly dried up.

While the Shiv Sena took pot-shots at Munde saying that such photo sessions could have been avoided, the Opposition Congress and the NCP said that she has mocked the drought- affected farmers by such a "shameful act."

Undeterred by the attack, Munde said it was out of "contentment" of seeing water in the trench due to the desliting work that she took the pics.

"I have taken several review meetings on the drought condition in Latur. Have made efforts to dig trenches at various plestaces so that water could be fetched from them. But met with failure most of the times. Yesterday, while I was in Latur to take stock of the Manjara river, I saw some water which gave me a feeling of contentment," Munde said in a statement issued here.

Selfie with trench of said barrage Manjara .. one relief to latur .. pic.twitter.com/r49aEVxSSk  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 17, 2016

"It was like finding an oasis in a desert for me. By levelling false allegations on me, who are these people trying to help, drought hit villagers or farmers? These pictures were clicked in the heat of 45 degrees C to show my appreciation for the work my department has done. There was no excitement in it, only contentment," she added.

Munde's 'selfie moments' did not go down well with the Sena, which said on the one hand women are the worst sufferers of the drought and on the other, a woman minister is seen happily clicking selfies in a parched area.

Water conservation is happening massively ...isn't it "sawedana " for "duskhal" pic.twitter.com/HbDMkxtxaA  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 17, 2016

"This was a serious tour. Such selfies could have been avoided or it just dilutes the impact of a drought tour. It is mainly the women who have to walk for miles to fetch drinking water and here a woman minister happily clicks selfies. This is a strange incident," Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande told.

Congress spokesperson Al-Nasser Zakaria the act of clicking selfies was a shameful one and that the present ministers need to become less media savvy and focus on work.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said Munde, instead of being on a drought tour, has made it like she was on a junket and that by clicking pictures, she has mocked the plight of farmers.

"This government is not serious about drought. There was no planning to tackle drought since last September even where there was sufficient data available, he said.
Until April 15, India had never formally defined its stance on e-cigarettes. This changed when a shopkeeper in Mohali was sentenced to 3 years of jail, for selling e-cigarettes, Tribune India reported.

Lindsay Fox at EcigaretteReviewed

Additional Sessions Judge Saru Mehta Kaushik prosecuted 25-year-old Parvesh Kumar under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and also imposed a Rs. 1 lakh fine on him.

According to a 2013 circular by the State Drugs Controller, e-cigarettes are an unapproved drug. E-cigarettes use battery-powered cartridges to produce a vapour which replaces the smoke from cigarettes - there is still unverified research about how safe it is. Nicotine, present in many of the cartridges of e-cigarettes, is one of the most addictive substances known to man.

Maharashtra banned e-cigs, MP doctors demands a ban

Vaping360 flickr

In 2015, electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) containing nicotine were made 'illegal' in Maharashtra in 2015 by the state Food and Drug Administration (FDA). "...import, distribution and sale of e-cigarettes containing nicotine are not approved. Since e-cigarettes are being sold in market without permission, this is contravention of section 18 (b) and 18 (C) of Drugs and Cosmetics Act. Hence, its sale is illegal," state FDA commissioner Harshadeep Kamble told the Times of India.

Nicotine is approved for use in de-addiction based chewing gums and lozenges containing less than 2 milligrams of the ingredient. "Permission to sale lozenges, gums containing nicotine less than 2mg are already given by the DCGI. Nicotine products above 2mg are sold only with prescriptions from registered medical practitioners," Kamble said. In January this year, Madhya Pradesh Medical Officers Association (MPMOA) demanded a state government ban on e-cigarettes.

You can easily get it online though!

The e-cigarettes, as well as accessories are available on major online retailers, including Amazon India, Snapdeal and Flipkart.

However, However, it is not clear whether these contains nicotine, even in trace amounts. It is the delivery of tobacco which is the bone of contention, not the actual devices. According to Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, professor and surgeon at Parel's Tata Memorial Hospital, "E-cigarette is a terrible alternative. Only under strict monitoring, can any nicotine replacement therapy work." Dr. Chaturvedi said that they could provide temporary relief for withdrawal symptoms: But it's like antibiotics; you can't take them for months." Only two per cent of Indians are able to quit smoking.

"When you give an e-cigarette to a smoker, you're not allowing him to quit smoking. You are only making him switch his source of nicotine, which is a highly addictive drug with proven disease-causing properties."

Our lungs are not meant to inhale smoke

This year, a team of US researchers has found that e-cigarettes are toxic and can directly attack lung cells, weakening the immune system and boosting bacterial virulence. The study shows that e-cigarette vapour is not benign -- at high doses it can directly kill lung cells which is frightening," said senior author Laura E. Crotty Alexander, staff physician at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System and assistant clinical professor at University of California's (UC) San Diego School of Medicine.

"We already knew that inhaling heated chemicals, including the e-liquid ingredients nicotine and propylene glycol, could not possibly be good for you. This work confirms that inhalation of e-cigarette vapour daily leads to changes in the inflammatory milieu inside the airways," Alexander added in a paper published in the Journal of Molecular Medicine.
With the All India Muslim Personal Law Board deciding to oppose any move to scrap triple talaq and contest the Shayara Bano case that has called it unconstitutional in the Supreme Court, the stage is set for another Shah Bano-like confrontation that had turned into a hot-button issue in the 1980s.

hindustantimes

In 1985, Shah Bano, a 62-year-old Muslim mother of five from Indore, who was divorced by her husband, had won the right to alimony in the SC. But the then Congress government of Rajiv Gandhi, under pressure of Islamic orthodoxy, passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, which diluted the SC judgement, and denied even destitute Muslim divorcees the right to alimony.

bcci

The AIMPLB on Saturday also decided to thwart any attempt at intervention by the Centre, or "any authority", in the Muslim personal law.

Last month, the SC had admitted the petition of Shayara Bano from Uttarakhand seeking triple talaq to be declared unconstitutional. The apex court had also initiated suo motu proceedings to examine the need for protecting the rights of all Muslim women. AIMPLB is all set to become a party to the case.

bccl

"The SC has accepted the board as a party in the case. Now, the board will seek a similar intervention in the Shayara Bano case," said lawyer Zafaryab Jilani. Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, who was also present, said AIMPLB must hire best lawyers to put up a strong case before the Supreme Court.
The Enforcement Directorate successfully issued a non- bailable warrant against liquor baron Vijay Mallya, today, after moving a special Prevention of Money Laundering court in Mumbai, for money laundering accusations.

FLASH: Special PMLA Court issues non bailable warrant against Vijay Mallya  ANI (@ANI_news) April 18, 2016

Vijay Mallya was accused of diverting Rs 430 crore to buy property abroad from the Rs 950 crore IDBI loan for his Kingfisher Airlines, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had alleged. The UB Group on Sunday "strenuously denied" the allegation.

Kingfisher moves court, terms as false and incorrect ED charge that Vijay Mallya-owned company had siphoned off Rs 430 crore from IDBI loan.  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 18, 2016

The group said he would provide full details of foreign exchange remittances in the next few days in a statement to the media. "In order to explain foreign exchange remittances all of which have been fully accounted for, we will provide full details in the next few days," UB Group said in a statement. They claimed that the money was borrowed for legitimate business purposes.

KFA Lawyer in Spl PMLA Court- We've given details of legitimated expenses that are in excess of Rs430 cr paid in foreign exchange remittance  ANI (@ANI_news) April 18, 2016

ED authorities are likely to reach out to Interpol, and have a Red Corner Notice issued against Mallya. This 'Wanted Notice' are" published in respect of offenders wanted at international level...the subject may be arrested, at least in certain countries, with a view to subsequent extradition to the country where he is wanted. "

In simple words: Mallya might be deported back to India from the UK, where he's currently residing.

Also read:

Vijay Mallya Owns Offshore Company In Virgin Islands Say #PanamaPapers. Why Aren't We Surprised?
Sushma Swaraj's Iranian dress code has been met with a lot of flak on social media.

Indian Express

Dressed in pink from head to toe, the Minister of External Affairs was heavily criticised for her choice of wardrobe, so much so that it literally birthed a Twitter storm.

Images showing Swaraj dressed in a pink sari and shawl were picked up by the people which led to this:

I didn't know Sushma Swaraj went to Iran to fight Ayatollah's dress code and reform the country  Sona (@sona2905) April 17, 2016

This is embarrassing @SushmaSwaraj. You could've worn a Sari and pulled the Pallu over yr head. https://t.co/GmItzaQYRs  Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) April 17, 2016

@TarekFatah @SushmaSwaraj yes. MEA is supposed to represent India and Indian culture. Will HE Iranian President wear Indian dress in India?  Kailash Wagh (@kailashwg) April 17, 2016

There were, however, other people who condemned the sudden surge in criticism against the MEA

People bashing Sushma Swaraj for her Islamic dress during Iran visit. And it is so unfair https://t.co/MLWMwoVwoy  My PM Narendra Modi (@NaMo4PM) April 18, 2016

The Iranian law dictates women to keep themselves covered at all times. It seems that Swaraj was only respecting that law.
A Wisconsin federal jury has slapped a $940 million penalty, including $700 million in punitive damages, on India's largest IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for allegedly stealing healthcare software from an American company, Epic Systems.

Here's a ready reckoner on the case.

timesofindia

What exactly is the jury's verdict

The jury in federal court supported Epic Systems on seven claims including breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition and unfair enrichment. As per documents, the court awarded $240 million in compensatory damages and $700 million in punitive damages.

About Epic Systems

reuters

Epic Systems is a privately held company based in Wisconsin, US. Founded in a basement in 1979, it is one of the leading provider of medical records systems used in hospitals and other healthcare facilities in the US.

What exactly is the case all about

US-based Epic had filed a lawsuit against TCS and its US subsidiary, Tata America International, in US district court in Madison, for allegedly stealing "trade secrets, confidential information, documents and data" from it in 2014. It later filed an amended complaint in 2015.

According to Epic allegations, TCS illicitly downloaded documentation for software it had been hired to help install at Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, accusing the Indian company of "brazenly stealing" confidential information and trade secrets in order to help its competing healthcare software provider, Med Mantra, according to court documents.

It said a TCS employee reviewed Epic's intellectual property under the pretence of doing consulting work for Kaiser Permanente and in doing so downloaded Epic's proprietary software to help build a a competing product called Med Mantra.

What TCS says

reuters

TCS says it had not misused or derived any benefit from documents downloaded from Epic System's user web portal. In a statement, the company said that it did not misuse or benefit from any of the said information for development of "Med Mantra' which it implemented for Apollo Hospitals in India in 2009.

May dent TCS's reputation: Analyst

Analysts feel, the case may hurt TCS's reputation in the healthcare industry. "This judgment will likely be used by competitors to throw suspicion on TCS and potentially other Indian firms, and will make this journey (of winning healthcare clients) more difficult," analyst Bendor-Samuel says.

Selling IT services to hospitals and clinics is a fast-growing market and TCS has been trying to make headway in the space. At the end of the third-quarter, life sciences and healthcare accounted for 7.3% of TCS' revenue and was the fastest-growing sector for the company.

TCS to appeal

The software giant said it would appeal against the verdict, as it can within 30 days of the trial judgement under US law. In a statement, the company said that it would appeal the verdict as there was no IP infringement. The company also said that the Wisconsin judge had indicated that he would reduce the damages amount.

One of the toughest verdicts ever on an Indian company

The verdict is one of the most adverse handed down to an Indian company by a court abroad.

Judgement to affect other IT companies

The verdict against TCS could impact the entire Indian IT industry at a time when growth is slowing, say experts.

"In an environment where growth is increasingly hard to find for TCS and other Indian firms, this will come as a setback to TCS, and is likely to have a knock on effect on other Indian firms wanting to go after this market which could be tarred with the same brush," Peter Bendor-Samuel, chief executive of analyst firm Everest Group, said.
The Presidency has reached out to the leadership of the National Assembly for a preliminary deal on contentious areas in the 2016 budget, Daily Trust is reporting.

The newspaper said the move was confirmed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, yesterday.

The Executive and Legislature, particularly the Senate, recently traded blames over President Muhammadu Buharis alleged refusal to sign the 2016 budget into law.

While the House of Representatives said it would review the fiscal document and resolve any grey areas with the Executive in the national interest, the Senate adopted a no-going-back stance, urging the president to sign the budget as passed by the National Assembly and later send a Supplementary Bill to capture any projects reportedly expunged in the current budget details.

It would be recalled that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) after an emergency meeting on April 8 to scrutinise the budget details, had reportedly discovered that the National Assembly tampered with certain key projects contained in Buharis proposals.

The legislators were alleged to have removed from the budget, the Calabar-Lagos coastal rail line project for which the president had provided N60 billion in the budget estimates, an allegation the National Assembly strongly denied, accusing the Executive of making false allegations to cover up for its blunders.

The FEC was reported to have among others discovered that the amount proposed for the completion of the Idu-Kaduna rail project was also reduced by N8.7bn while some projects were inserted into the budget by the legislators without consulting the Executive.

In spite of the media war sparked by the 2016 budget debacle, Mr. Shehu said that the Executive wanted a common ground that would help resolve all the issues in contention.

We have reached out to the leadership of the National Assembly on how to reach a preliminary agreement with them on the grey areas to see how the issues in contention will be sorted out. It is when we reach a common ground that the next thing will be done, he said.

The presidential aide, however, declined divulging further information on the nature of the agreement being sought with the legislature.
The Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has described the All Progressives Congress, APC, national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun; Deputy National Chairman, Chief Segun Oni and others criticising him over the letter he wrote to the Chinese government asking it to reject the $2 billion loan request purportedly sought by the federal government, as brazenly hypocritical.

Mr. Fayose had in a letter dated April 12 addressed to President Xi Jinping of China through the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Gu Xiaojie, claimed that Nigerians, irrespective of their political and religious affiliations are totally opposed to any foreign loan.

The letter was written at a time President Muhammadu Buhari was on a state visit to China.

The Presidency, however, said while Mr. Buharis visit yielded over $6 billion investments for Nigeria, it did not involve the signing of any loan deal.

The widely-reported letter elicited condemnations for the Ekiti governor with constitutional expert and Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, SAN, saying Mr. Fayose was on a journey to self-destruction.

Reacting to the criticisms that trailed his boss letter, Fayoses Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, described President Buharis non-signing of any direct loan agreement with the Chinese government during his visit as a vindication of the governors position, maintaining that what Nigeria needs is the collaboration of the Government of China in the area of technology transfer, rather than granting loan that will be mismanaged under the guise of building infrastructure.

In a statement issued in Ado Ekiti on Monday, Mr. Olayinka said people like Oyegun, Oni and Prof Itse Sagay lack moral rights to complain even if President Muhammadu Buhari is called whatever names, because they never complained when as a sitting president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan was called unprintable names by APC stalwarts and leaders.

The media aide, who said Governor Fayose only exercised his rights as a Nigerian, asked, Where were the likes of Oyegun, Oni, Prof Itse Sagay and others when APC promoted crude politics and anti-Nigeria posturing to an unprecedented level when Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in power?

He said, It is on record that APC wrote to the United States of America not to sell arms to Nigeria, reported the country to the European Union, United Nations and went to the bizarre extent of reporting the then Chief of Army Staff, Azubuike Ihejirika, to the International Criminal Court (ICC), not for committing the kind of genocide committed against the Shiite Muslims in Zaria and Agatus in Benue, but for killing Boko Haram insurgents.

On one occasion, a certain APC stalwart insinuated that Jonathans visit to Chad was to plan further attacks on the North, tweeting that; Boko Haram: Jonathan visits Chadian President Idris Deby for the second time in two months, to plan further attacks?

It is also on record that instead of lending his voice to the federal government efforts to dislodge Boko Haram insurgents, President Buhari opted to describe the clampdown on Boko Haram as injustice against the North. He went on to accuse the government of killing and destroying houses of Boko Haram insurgents while the Niger Delta militants were given special treatment by the government.

Even when Oni was Ekiti State Governor as a PDP member, Action Congress (AC) as APC was then, wrote against his government move to obtain a N5 billion loan. Isnt it then funny that because he is now in APC, the same Oni is now against Governor Fayose doing the same thing done against him by the APC elements in Ekiti State?

Isnt it also funny that in Oyegun, Oni, Sagay, others, political dictionary of hypocrisy, it was right for APC stalwart to have reported the federal government to ICC but wrong for Fayose to have written to the Chinese government on the federal governments plan to mortgage the future of Nigeria and its people?

Mr. Olayinka further said since the federal government claimed it has recovered and still recovering trillions of Naira allegedly looted from the treasury, there was no need to borrow money from anywhere to finance the 2016 Budget.

With the $200 billion they claimed is coming from Dubai, $700 million raw cash they said was found in Diezani Alison Maduekes house, N3 trillion said to have been saved from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and N4.5 trillion the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it will generate this year, what then is the rationale behind the federal government seeking any loan? he queried.
The Akwa Ibom State Government on Monday said it had uncovered 1,458 cases of Bank Verification Number (BVN) related frauds involving civil servants and pensioners in the public service.

The Commissioner for Finance, Mr Akan Okon, said this while inaugurating an eight-man BVN Verification Committee to address those anomalies in Uyo.

The Akwa Ibom State Government has detected cases where one BVN is tied to more than one person, said Okon.

This is worrisome and it may imply multiple salary and pension collections.

Okon said the present administration had done a lot to reposition public servants payroll system for efficiency and effectiveness.

He added that BVN was one of the mechanisms deployed to checkmate activities of ghost workers and pensioners, particularly in the public service.

He explained that each individual was entitled to one BVN, irrespective of the number of accounts one has.

The commissioner stressed the need for public servants to take ownership of the payroll system to ensure it was not opened to fraud and leakages.

Okon charged the Committee to see the assignment as a clarion call to the service of the state.
The trial of embattled Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Abuja, is to henceforth, be on a day-to-day basis, Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Danladi Umar, ordered on Monday.

Mr. Saraki is standing trial on 13-count criminal charge bordering on alleged corruption and false assets declaration.

Justice Umar, who made the order at the resumption of hearing on the matter, based the decision on provisions of sections 376 and 315 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015.

Let me state it here for both the prosecution and the defence that the trial of the defendant shall proceed on a day-to-day basis till the conclusion of this matter and it will begin from 10am to 6pm, the tribunal chairman held.

He, however, said the tribunal would on each day of the trial, observe recess at 1pm and 4pm.

Meanwhile, the case was stood-down today following the absence of the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, who was said to be handling another matter at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal.

Consequently, a lawyer that held brief for the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Gabriel Esegina, pleaded with the court to stand down for an hour to enable his principal to personally conduct the trial.

Even though Justice Umar initially rejected the application, he eventually succumbed to pleas from both Esegina and Sarakis lawyer, Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN.

My lord I want to beg that you accede to the prosecutions request for a stand-down. I understand their application even though they never understood mine, Agabi, a former Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, jokingly added.
The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), yesterday, cautioned the embattled Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and other senators, who are bent on amending the Code of Conduct Tribunal and Bureau Act as well as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, to desist from the action, describing it as the desecration of the Senate.

The Senate in a very rare move last week, gave accelerated action to these bills such that they scaled second reading within 48 hours after they were first read on the floor of the Upper Legislative Chamber.

The suspicions surrounding the timing for the amendments of these Acts gained traction considering the fact that the amendment Bills were sponsored by two senators sympathetic to the course of Mr. Saraki  Peter Nwaoboshi (PDP-Delta State) and Isah Misau (APC-Bauchi State).

While Nwaoboshi sponsored the Bill to amend the CCB and CCT Act, Misau sponsored the one for the ACJA 2015.

However, TMG, a coalition of over 400 civic organizations working for democracy and good governance, said the amendment is not in the best interest of Nigerians as it is meant to pave way for Saraki to escape trial.

Saraki is standing trial for false and anticipatory declaration of assets, this, a section of Nigerians believed, informed the amendment of the CCB Act.

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, had while justifying the amendments, said it had nothing to do with Sarakis trial as it would only become effective in 2016 while the Senate presidents trial commenced since last year.

Reacting to this, The Chairman of TMG, Com. Ibrahim Zikirullahi, in a statement in Abuja, said the mad rush to amend these two important pieces of legislation to protect the Senate President from the long arm of the law, amounts to a serious case of abuse of legislative powers.

This latest manifestation of legislative rascality goes to show the level of desperation and the despicable extent to which these so called legislators are willing to descend in the discredited venture of helping their tainted leader escape justice.

While it is true that the legislature is empowered by the 1999 Constitution as amended to make laws for the good governance of the nation, it is immoral and unacceptable to deploy legislative powers to further personal ends. As far as we are concerned, Sarakis trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) is his personal business.

It is therefore a vexatious affront on the sensibilities of the Nigerian people that the weight of the entire legislature would be brought to bear in this disturbing attempt at given him political rehabilitation.

TMG frowns at this gangster approach to legislative business. While we commend the symbolic gesture of those legislators who have tried to distance themselves from this show of shame, we call on all members of the National Assembly, who still have any iota of credibility and good conscience to step up the pressure by teaming up with all pro-people forces, to end this charade.

In the face of this desecration of the legislature as an institution by Saraki and his co-travellers, we call on the Nigerian people not to remain ambivalent. This is the time for the long suffering people of Nigeria to raise their voices. They must condemn the continuous criminalisation of key institutions of the State by a set of conspirators.

TMG calls on Nigerian students, market women, artisans, employed and unemployed youth to use this opportunity to send a clear message to Saraki and his minions that corruption and the personalisation of State institutions for the benefit of a morally deficient few, is no longer acceptable. This is a challenge and test case, to prove if the Nigerian people want the plunder of state resources, and the conversion of hallowed institutions for cover ups, to continue or not.

The only way to prove that the people reject corruption, is to use all legal means, including protests, to stop Saraki and his band of legislative rascals. For us, we know that the latest antic of Saraki and his co-travellers is to distract the well-meaning Nigerians from the initial position that he should immediately step down and stop dragging the Senate in the mud.

Despite his attempt to be clever by half, TMG alongside all other pro-democracy and anti-corruption activists hereby restate our position that he must step down or face the wrath of the people. The battle line has been drawn, and the people must brace up for the next phase of this struggle against entrenched forces of corruption in the legislature. Darkness will never triumph over light.
The Convener, Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms, Chief Ayo Opadokun, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to watch their backs as they execute their administrations anti-corruption campaign.

Opadokun, who made the call during an interview at the weekend in Lagos, noted that with the amount of effort currently put being by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission into probing how Nigerias treasury was allegedly looted, corruption, its enterprise and its proprietors will not be watching idly.

The activist and one time General Secretary of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, said he feared that corruption would soon fight back.

That is a major reason for my fears. Certainly, I know that they are not sleeping over what is happening, he said.

According to Opadokun, for the first time, some bigwigs and untouchables are being touched.

He, however, warned that those being prosecuted by the EFCC and other anti-graft agencies would have started plans to frustrate the campaign and the Buhari-led administration itself.

He said, They will not be watching idly. Therefore, my fear is that  I am saying this with all sense of responsibility  President Muhammadu Buhari needs to look over his shoulders. Corruption will not be watching idly.

They will not only try to impure his own integrity and honour as well as that of (the Vice President) Prof. Yemi Osinbajo; I fear that they can do worse things than that.

We should remember that it was a bodyguard of Indira Ghandi that eliminated her. We should also be mindful of the fact that as popular as President Gamal Nasser of Egypt was, it was a bodyguard that eliminated him.

So, for the sake of the general good of our country and for the sake of the anti-corruption crusade that President Buhari and and Vice-President Osinbajo are executing, they need to watch their backs.

Opadokun said although Buhari has experience as a retired major general and former military ruler, he should remember what happened to him in his first stint as Head of State.

He should be on guard and be much more watchful over his shoulders because of those who have stolen, he added.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Abuja Zone, has expressed displeasure over cut in allocation for personnel expenditure to Federal Universities by the Federal Government.

With deeply worrisome concerns, ASUU-Abuja Zone wishes to bring to the notice of the general public the unilateral drastic cut by the Federal Government of Nigeria in the personnel expenditure allocations to Federal Universities across the country, ASUU, Abuja Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Suleiman Muhammed, who briefed newsmen on Sunday in Abuja, said.

This ugly phenomenon began in Dec. 2015; one of the federal universities which received allocation of a little over N336 million in Dec. 2015, has consistently received about N308 million for the months of January through March, 2016, he said.

The coordinator said it was wrong for the FGN to implement unilateral pay-cut in university workers salaries being a signatory to most International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions.

He expressed concern that state governments, the proprietors of state universities, were waiting to copy the FGN, adding that this could lead to breakdown in industrial harmony across all public universities.
A prominent Nigerian Islamic scholar, Sheik Ahmad Gumi, has described the Boko Haram Insurgency as a 100 per cent Muslim problem.

Gumi also accused some people in the North of cooperating with and working to protect them in reference to the insurgents, whose years of bloody campaign to impose Sharia on the country, has led to the killing of over 10,000 people, destruction of property and livelihood worth several billions of dollars and displacement of over two million people in the North-east.

Mr. Gumi said in the current April edition of The Interview, that, Boko Haram as it is now cannot prosper in Ibadan because the locals will expose them. The same in Enugu. The people agitating for Biafra cannot prosper in the North because they will be exposed.

We have to understand that these people are from amongst us and that the society was not doing enough to bring these elements out. I can tell you that Boko Haram is 100 per cent a Muslim problem, he added.

The Islamic scholar, who also described the agitation for Biafra as analogue, challenged Muslim leaders to do more to combat Boko Haram.

Commenting on the controversial religious bill proposed by the Kaduna State Government, Mr. Gumi said the bill had gone too far and was an infringement on the constitution.

If you are trying to fight terrorism and extremism, he said, you dont clamp on the freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of propagation of thoughts. These liberties are enshrined in the constitution.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State had said the bill was an improvement on an existing law required to curtail the propagation of inflammatory sermons by faith leaders.

Sheik Gumi, however, said the bill could drive extremism underground.
A former Minister of Lands, Housing and Rural Development, Chief Nduese Essien, on Monday praised President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the infrastructural partnership with China.

The former minister, who made the commendation in an interview in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, described the presidents recent trip to China as a huge success.

According to Essien, the trip was very timely, considering its significance to Nigeria, especially as regards the proposed Lagos-Calabar Rail Project.

Though the project was initiated by former President (Goodluck) Jonathan, its inclusion in the 2016 appropriation bill is a mark of patriotism and good intentions for the people of the South-South.

It would have been disastrous if the Lagos-Calabar rail project was expunged from the 2016 proposed budget  the President having secured a bilateral economic agreement with China on rail projects in Nigeria, he said.

The former two-term member of the National Assembly, also reserved commendations for the South-South legislators for their positive stance on the rail project, which has been one of the areas of contention between the Executive and Legislature.

Mr. Essien, however, called on members of the National Assembly not to play politics with the vital coastal rail project, saying the overall developmental interest of the country was paramount.

National interest must come first before partisan affiliation. We must endeavour to collectively join hands in moving this country forward, irrespective of our political differences, he said.
The Southsouth zonal chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday said the arbitrary removal of the Lagos-Calabar rail project from the 2016 budget is a disservice to Nigerians, particularly the people of Southsouth.

The party, therefore, threatened to institute a court case against the National Assembly over its role in the budget process of the country.

In a statement signed by the National Vice Chairman of APC (Southsouth), Prince Hilliard Eta, it also accused the legislature of doctoring and removing about N5b from the rehabilitation of the collapsed and terrible CalabarOdukpaniItuIkot Ekpene federal highway and allocating same to a non-existent project.

The statement reads: We are very upset that our representatives at the National Assembly would discard decorum and hinder progressive change by acting at variance with the infrastructure development agenda of the APC led federal government.

The arbitrary removal of the Lagos  Calabar rail track by the National Assembly from the 2016 budget is a display of depraved indifference to the welfare of Nigerians. The deletion is not just arbitrary; it is a big disservice to the people of Nigeria, particularly the South South zone which the proposed railway track would have traversed.

Also, the total rehabilitation of the collapsed and terrible Calabar  Odukpani Itu  Ikot Ekpene federal highway which was allotted six billion naira by the federal government in the budget was doctored and almost five billion naira removed and reallocated to a non-existent project in the constituency of the Chairman of the House of Representatives Appropriation Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, in Kano state.

By these two acts, the Senate and House of Representatives displayed the astonishing contempt in which they hold Nigerians. The National Assembly exists to ensure that Nigerians get the best from their government using the instrument of purposeful legislation but the 8th Assembly by this budget padding debacle has not only brought itself to ridicule, it has also proved itself unworthy of the trust and confidence of Nigerians.

It is pertinent to at this point conduct a re-examination of the powers of the legislature to establish if really it has the power to doctor and alter projects or totally remove them from the budget even after the Minister under whose ministry the said projects fell under had credibly defended them and justified their inclusion.

As a Party in the South South zone, we make public our disenchantment with the National Assembly and we are particularly disappointed by the Chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee, Senator Danjuma Goje and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Honourable Abdulmumin Jibrin who directly supervised and even actively abetted such debauchery.

The South South zone of the All Progressives Congress demands that the budget be reverted to its original form and all the development projects conceived and included in the budget by the federal government be retained without alteration. We also advise the legislature to refrain from giving the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari a bad image by attempting to deprive Nigerians of the dividends of democracy under any guise.

Lastly, we shall approach the courts of the land for a clear interpretation of the role of the National Assembly in the passing of the National Budget as it is evident that it overstepped its bounds by unnecessarily tinkering with the budget when its constitutional duty is mainly supervisory.

It is time we Nigerians begin to show a keen interest in the affairs of the legislature as only that can put a stop to the kind of shady alterations that the budget was subjected to while it was being evaluated by the National Assembly.
The death toll from a raid carried out by attackers from South Sudan in western Ethiopia has risen to 208 people, an Ethiopian official said. she also adds that 108 children were kidnapped.

By Sunday afternoon, the number had risen to 208 dead and 75 people wounded from a figure of 140 a day earlier, government spokesman Getachew Reda told the Reuters news agency.

He further added that women and children were among the dead; and the assailants had also taken 2,000 head of livestock. Ethiopian Defence Forces are taking measures. They are closing in on the attackers, Getachew said.

The attack happened on Friday in the Horn of Africa nations Gambela region which, alongside a neighbouring province, hosts more than 284,000 South Sudanese refugees who have fled a conflict in that country.

Getachew earlier told Al Jazeera that Ethiopian forces had killed 60 of the attackers and would cross the border into South Sudan to pursue the assailants if necessary.

Cross-border cattle raids have happened in the same area in the past, often involving Murle tribesmen from South Sudans Jonglei and Upper Nile regions  areas awash with weapons that share borders with Ethiopia.

Previous attacks, however, were smaller in scale. The attackers are not believed to have links with South Sudanese government troops or rebel forces who fought the government in Juba in a civil war that ended with a peace deal signed last year.
The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has described as laughable, the allegation by the Peoples Democratic Party that he donated N70 million at a recent book launch organised by the wife of the president, Aishat Buhari.

The PDP had in a tweet last Thursday via its official Twitter handle @PdpNigeria, accused Mr. Bello of donating N70 million during the launch of The Essentials of Beauty Therapy a book written by Mrs. Buhari.

Madness: Kogi State governor Bello who has not paid salaries since becoming governor secretly donated N70m at Aisha Buhari's Book Launch.  #VoteAndStay (@voteandstay) April 15, 2016



The wife of the president said proceeds from the book launch would be used to support the families of the missing Chibok girls, whose second anniversary of their abduction by Boko Haram, coincided with the event.

But a statement by the governors media aide Kingsley Fanwo on Sunday, said the alleged N70 million donation smacks of laughable political desperation to brazenly slaughter truth.

The aide, however, was silent how much was donated by the governor at the occasion.

The book launch was organized by the nations First Lady to garner support for the families of the abducted Chibok girls, which was attended by Governor Yahaya Bello to lend support to the traumatized families of the girls.

As a political leader and a parent, Governor Bello is touched by the plight of the girls and their families, hence the will to identify with the project.

The book launch was televised to the whole world and no one announced what anyone donated. Governor Yahaya Bello did not donate 70,000,000 naira as insinuated by the people who are turning opposition politics to a comical adventure, Mr. Fanwo maintained.

He also explained that Mr. Bello did not approach any bank for loan, saying rumors to the effect that the governor applied for a Zenith Bank loan was a distraction created by political detractors.

He said, The spurious allegation that the Governor has applied for loan at Zenith Bank has further exposed our opponents as people who lack the basic knowledge of public accounting. Their macabre dance on the grave of ignorance has justified peoples belief that our opponents are characters are people who lack the rudiments of governance. The governor didnt apply for loans.

We urge our opponents to always dwell on facts when playing their games and stop toying with the intelligence of the Kogi people. Governor Yahaya Bello paid two salaries within his first fifty-seven days in office as against the four months owed by his immediate predecessor.
A Mapo Customary Court sitting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Monday dissolved a 10-year-old marriage between, Rafiu Nurani and his wife Monsurat, over accusations of infidelity and Sango worship.

The President of the court, Mr Ademola Odunade, held that the marriage had suffered irreconcilable differences.

Odunade awarded custody of the first child to the husband and the remaining two to the wife because they were are still small.

He said that Nurani would pay a monthly feeding allowance of N4,000 for the upkeep of each of the two children and be responsible for their education and other welfare.

Nurani, had in his petition, urged the court to dissolve his marriage to his wife because she was adulterous and a worshipper of Sango contrary his Islamic belief.

My lord, since I got married to Monsurat in 2006, she had been disobedient to me in all ways, including moving around in the late hours of the night.

What I found out was that she was involved in extra-marital affairs with her co-Sango worshippers.

I kept thinking that she would change her ways, but I can no longer withstand the embarrassment and shame Monsurat has brought to bear on me.

I am a Muslim by faith and I told her that she must follow my religion, but she strongly resisted my instruction.

In addition to her disobedience, Monsurat kept threatening me with all sorts of fetish means through her concubines to kill me.

I have told her that if she cannot practice my faith, she was free to leave my home.

I want to have my children because if she has custody of them, Monsurat might instill those negative practices into them, Nurani explained.

Monsurat, who did not oppose the divorce claim, denied any act of adultery.

Nurani knew all along that I am a traditional worshipper of Sango before marrying me and he cannot all of a sudden deny me access to my ancestral background.

It is true that I return home in the night and it is due to the night worships that we had to do on most occasions.

You know, I have to do the cooking for my fellow Sango worshippers.

In fact, Nurani had violently attacked an elderly man who supervises our worship, inflicting serious injuries on him in the process.

He cannot take good care of the children, Monsurat said. (NAN)
The co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls movement and former World Bank Vice President, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has declared that justice must be done in the case of the abducted Chibok girls because the abduction reflected the failure of governance.

Last Thursday made it exactly two years since 276 Chibok girls were abducted by Boko Haram from their school in Borno State but 57 of the girls were able to escape, leaving 219 schoolgirls still unaccounted for.

Speaking in Lagos yesterday, Mrs. Ezekwesili stressed that the abduction was treated with levity by government.

Speaking as a guest at the Daystar Christian Centre, the former World Bank top shot said the girls would have been rescued if they were children of the elite.

She said: Absolutely nothing is going to make me stop talking about the Chibok girls until justice is done for them. Why must justice be done for them? Justice must be done for our Chibok girls because they symbolize the failure of governance in a nation that does not understand that God absolutely looks at government as an institution that exists because of the needs of the poor. The rich and mighty can do without government. But government exists that the poor may be cared for.

For us, we stand to declare that our Chibok girls represent a turning point in our nation, and the reason is simple. A nation can afford to ignore its citizens when it sees no value in them. Nations that have made economic progress and achieved development are the ones that dignify the lives of their citizens. Citizens lives mean nothing. The likelihood is because there is something that substitutes for the citizens lives. In our own case, that something is called oil, she said.
Famous superstar blogger, Linda Ikeji took to her site to reveal why she took Wizkids case to the police.

According to her: 

Im sure many of you have read that the police is now involved in my issue with Wizkid. Yes, I reported his public threat to me two Sundays ago to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police and I want to explain why I did it! Please pay attention and keep an open mind.

Ive read a lot online from people saying I dont like Wizkid. Even Wizkid himself thinks I dont like him. Why he or anyone would think so is puzzling to me to be honest. Apart from his achievements after he started insulting me online a few weeks agoeverything else, every success Wizkid has recorded in the last 3/4 years is on LIB. All the awards, all the record breaking feats, his sold out concerts, his foreign magazine features, and collaborations, everything that has built him up to the young man he is today is on LIB. Please verify! Search my blog. Please continue

I was a huge Wizkid fan. The only song I danced harder to than his Dance For Me track was Fuse ODGs Antenna and Kiss Daniel & DJ Shabzys Raba. So, no, I had no dislike for Wizkid. But about a year ago, I noticed his indirect snide remarks at meand when some other music star beefed with me, Wizkid showed his support and made disrespectful comments. That was when I noticed he had issues with me but that didnt stop me from writing about him and celebrating him.

Now to the issue at hand. When I reported that he was served quit notice at his Lekki home, I stated fact and I didnt write it out of malice. Its not everyday you get exclusive storiesand Im sure any other blogger who got the story first would also have published it. So, there was no beef, I was just doing my job. A day or so after I wrote this story, Wizkid went on my instagram page to call me names and lied that I slept with some director of hiswhich I have said before is 1000% lies! But the insult and lies is not why the police is now involved.

Heres the thing; You can insult me, insult my family, call me any names you like, even lie that I slept with your forefathersbut dont threaten me. If you threaten me, I will act!

I read people online saying that I reported to the police because I am scared of Wizkid. No, my darlings, I am not afraid of Wizkid. Though I do not take his threats lightly. I went to the authorities for two reasonsand please young boys of our generation, pay attention to what I am about to write below.

You see, violence against women and threat of violence against women is not okay. Threatening harm to someone in a public space is a criminal act in every country of the world, including Nigeria. I bet some of you didnt know that, yeah? You can not publicly threaten someone with harm. You will only get away with it if your victim doesnt report to the authorities. If they do, you will have a case with the police and I promise you, the police take these things seriously.

I reported this case to the authorities because I want our young men to know this is not okay. You should not raise your hands on a woman. You shouldnt even threaten to raise your hands on a woman. Wizkid wrote that he would send his 16 year old cousin to beat the shit out of me. Letting Wizkid get away with it is basically telling our young men that this is okayand its not!

After Wizkid made the threat to me, I saw a lot of teen boys hailing and applauding him. To them, this was okay. If their idol can threaten a woman with harm, and use derogatory words, they also can do itand thats how the circle of abuse of women continues. Women being called smelly pussy trended online for a day or two! Little boys were happy to use the words. Sad!

It is appalling to me that anyone, especially women, would cheer Wizkid on. When he wrote RIP Linda, I saw a few young girls write same, laughing. This is not a laughing matter. It doesnt matter whether you like me or not! This is not about Linda Ikeji. This is about abuse of women which has eaten deep into our society, so deep that it has now been accepted as normal. Men do it all the time and get away with it. So many women are battered by their husbands and they refuse to speak up because of the stigma. They refuse to seek help because they are afraid of what people will say. I am sorry, I am not one of those women. I refuse to be victimized. And as long as I have my voice and my platform, I will speak up.

We women have to come together to lend a strong voice to the plight of women in our continent. When we see a woman being physically and mentally abused, lets act. Lets speak up. Lets not laugh and say she deserves it. If we continue to keep quiet, the circle of abuse will continue. And one day, You, yes You, will find yourself in the receiving end of a thundering slap, followed by heavy blows. If not you, then maybe your daughter? Lets condemn violence and threat of violence against women! This is not acceptable!

Young men like Wizkid, a father of two young boys himself, should never advocate violence against women. One day, he will have a daughter, how would he feel if another male threatens to put hands on her or even calls her a hoe?

I cant count how many times Wizkid called me a hoe in his rant against me. Thats what boys do. When they get into a fight with a woman, they try to slut-shame her. Smelly pussy, hoe, ashawo etc. You call a woman, who gave another young woman, whose real name she doesnt even know N500,000 just because she said she would rather work by carrying cement than prostitute herself, thats the person you call a hoe? When your mind is so warped you cant differentiate between a woman and a hoe, then this is what happens. Except you drive to Sanusi Fanfuwa at 2am to pick up a prostitute, who proudly describes herself as one, then you shouldnt call any woman a hoe.

Even Tupac who was a well known thug could differentiate between the types of women he dealt with. When asked in an interview why he called women bitches, he said people shouldnt confuse things, that he wouldnt address a mother or a sister the way he would address a bitch, that the bitches were the ones he dealt with in the clubs who behaved like one. He reiterated that he respected women!

In more civilized countries, Wizkid would have lost his endorsements and spent the next year or so apologizing and being in the fore-front of promoting anti-violence crusades against women. It took Chris Brown years to get back on his feet after his assault on a woman. Up till today, he doesnt have any major endorsements and some countries still deny him entrance into their country i.e Australia for something he did 7 years ago. Yes, violence against women is serious!

And theres the case of incitement. When you have power and influence, you have to be careful what you say in public. Because you have such power, something you say can influence your followers. A fan can commit acts that even you may not support or might not even condone. But because it came out of your mouth, they think you mean it. So it is irresponsible to say things that might be inciteful. In Law, you can be held responsible when people act based on what you said in public. Tupac was charged to court and indicted after some thugs killed a police officer. The thugs went to court and mentioned that their idol encouraged violence against LA police officers in a song where he said Drop a cop. So, we folks with some measure of influence should be more careful with our utterances. People are watching and listening!

The second reason I filed a police report is to encourage other women in similar situations to do same. My dear ladies, if a man threatens to puts hands on you, and you feel the threat is real, report to the authorities. Dont wait until he does it. What if you dont survive it? If hes picked up and may be charged to court (yes, you can be charged to court for making threatsits a misdemeanor with a prison sentence), then he will think twice before making threats against you in the future or any other woman for that matter.

I went as far as I did for me and for other women. This is to pass a strong message to our young men that these kinds of behaviour towards women will not be tolerated. Should not be tolerated. If you assault or even threaten to assault a woman, the law will come after you if she chooses not to be silent. Women, dont be silent. Lets break the circle. For your sake, for my sake, for the sake of our daughters, grand daughters, great grand daughters and all other women that will follow them.

And thats really all I have to say in the matter. Thank you guys for reading

And to Wizkid fans, please be rest assured that I wish him all the best in life. He will continue to grow from strength to strength (as long as he doesnt endorse violence against women) and his light will never diminish. God brought him to this level and will continue to keep him. I have nothing but love for his craft and hope that one day, we will put this behind us.

God bless him, me, you and everyone else in the world

Cheers.
Vanguard

Troops of the Nigerian Army have discovered large cache of arms and ammunition hidden by terrorists of Boko Haram sect in Gursum, Borno State.

Punch

The fuel supply situation, which showed slight improvement in recent days, has taken a turn for the worse as queues grew longer on Sunday at the few petrol stations selling the product in Lagos and Ogun states.

Thisday

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Timi Frank, has described the position of the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun, endorsing the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) trial of the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, as a personal opinion and not that of the party.

The Sun

FORMER Minister of Health, Prof.ABC Nwosu is a respected chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He speaks frankly on any issue. In this interview, the erstwhile presidential adviser on political affairs shared his thoughts on happenings in the country.

Guardian

Following recent comments by President Muhammadu Buhari, to deal with oil thieves like the Boko Haram terrorists, concerned leaders of Bayelsa State have warned against such inflammatory statements, saying they could start another crisis in the region.

Daily Trust

Statements made in recent weeks by the Minister of State for Petroleum and Group Managing Director [GMD] of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] Dr Ibe Kachikwu have worsened the fuel crisis currently bedeviling the country, instead of alleviating it.
The Senator representing Bauchi Central District on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, Isa Hamma Misau, has denied social media reports that he was attacked by irate youth in Ningi area of his constituency at the weekend.

The senator, an ardent supporter of embattled Senate President Bukola Saraki, reportedly escaped the attack by a hairs breadth, leaving behind his cap and one leg of his leather slippers as he fled.

The picture of the cap and slippers trended on social media.



But the Chairman, Senate Committee on Navy, in an interview on Monday, confirmed visiting Ningi on Saturday but denied the reported attack.

I was in Ningi and other parts of my constituency on Saturday but I wasnt attacked by anybody, he said.

Senator Misau, who sponsored the Bill seeking to amend the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 last week in the Senate, said the social media was giving the youth negative impression about happenings.

While denying ownership of the shoe and cap that went viral, Misau said no senator worth his onions will wear such items as they were of inferior quality.

No Senator will wear such items because as Senators we go for qualitative items that befit our status. The cap is not a quality one, it is not more than N1,500 and so also the shoe.

Go and check the video clips of our sittings and see whether you will see me wearing such kind of items, he insisted.
As the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the December 12, 2015 clash between soldiers and members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, in Zaria, Kaduna state continues to sit, the Arewa Youth Intellectual Forum, AYIF, has raised an alarm over plots to politicize the investigation ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The group said there are plans by the IMN to pitch the Federal Government against the Kaduna State Government in the investigation.

The National Secretary of AYIF, Peter Bawa, who made the claim during a press conference in Abuja Monday, said it will do all it can to resist the sinister attempt to politicize and rubbish the investigation into the Zaria incident.

The AYIF also urged the Federal Government to do everything possible to stop the radicalisation and militarisation of the IMN or any other group, sect or religion that has the indoctrination of youths as its focus.

It is out of our desire to prevent a repeat of the trauma that Arewa Youths have endured and must never be allowed to experience again.

We are worried that the various probes of the Zaria incident are at risk of being politicised and the narrative hijacked by the IMN.

We have signed up to being part of a secular Nigeria and therefore we are at a loss as to where IMN wants to drag this country to.

These elements are trying to create unnecessary bad blood between the Federal Government, the Nigerian Army and the Kaduna State Government as a last resort to remain relevant in the minds of Nigerians and to impress the foreign powers that are bankrolling them.

We should all be worried that persons who are citizens of this country are the ones undermining not just its sovereignty but are also bent on wiping Nigerian off the map of the world as we currently know it

The attempt to politicize the proceedings was inducing enough without trying to paint the Nigerian Army into the politics of 2019.

It marked a new low for Harun Elbinawi and his cohorts.

We are desirous of unbiased findings that will help in fashioning future responses and initiatives that will free youths from the clutches of extreme doctrines.

We are in an age were youths of other countries are charting the way to conquer space and we have here educated persons debunking the concept of a sovereign state in pursuit of extremism.

While lamenting the stigma that the Northern youths have had to endure as a result of the December 2015 incident, Bawa said, when Boko Haram insurgency became a national, regional and later an international nuisance, it was the youths of northern origin that bore and still bear the brunt of the sins of these extremists.

Whenever we travel to cities outside of our home states we are given that derisive look on public transport, at job interviews, in open spaces, and any other place that we are compelled to be by necessity.

Travel out of the country offered no relief as nations of the world have been sold the bogus myth of Christian-South and Muslim-North that led to the inevitable conclusion.

Since Arewa Youths have been known as Boko Haram sympathizers, we are profiled by the security agents of these countries on the assumption that the search for radicalised youths is more effective when confined to youths of our extractions.

Equally important is that by virtue of geographical proximity, Arewa Youths constitute the larger percentage of persons that have been killed by the insurgency.

Some of those lucky to be alive have likely lost bread winners or other loved ones to the terrorists.

In terms of employment, the years of violence have not only destroyed the economy of the affected places but have also killed off all the possible employment opportunities that would have kept us gainfully engaged.

This is why we are worried that the various probes of the Zaria incident are at risk of being politicized and the narrative hijacked by the IMN, it added.
In a bizarre case of ill fate, two women, 25-year-old Chioma Jonathan, a native of Obiangwu in Ngor Okpala Local Government Area and Chinonye Anyanwu, aged 26, from Ahiazu Mbaise LGA, both in Imo State in Nigeria, died when they were struck by lightning. The unfortunate incident happened when the two women went to participate in the regular Holy Ghost Hour prayer session of Heavenly Sure Charismatic Church, a Pentecostal church, usually held in the premises of Comprehensive Secondary School, Emekuku in Owerri North LGA, Imo State.

Also affected in the lightning strike was the 54-year-old General Overseer of the church, Pastor Luke Nwokocha, who led the short-lived prayer session. He temporarily lost consciousness and was rushed to a hospital by his wife and another member of the church, where he was revived. In addition, he sustained injuries on his leg. At the headquarters of the police command in Imo State, Pastor Nwokocha recounted to Sunday Sun, what happened. We always have fellowship every Tuesday. On the fateful day, we had our Holy Ghost Hour. We were five members in the church. The two deceased sisters, including the sister that swept the church premises; Evangelist Solomon and myself were arranging the benches. Around 4.30pm heavy rain started falling. I started praying for the programme.

Then there was a sudden lightning flash followed by the deafening sound of thunder. The two women, who were in the direct path of the electric field created by the lightning flash died instantly, when they were struck by the streak. Nwokocha, who apparently was off the direct path of the streak received a much lower jolt of electricity, which, however, was strong enough to throw him across the room, cause temporary loss of consciousness and physical injuries on his leg and hands. My wife, Pastor Eucharia Nwokocha and the other church member rushed me to the hospital for medical treatment, he said.

Nwokocha who hails from Umuakuru Emekuku in Owerri North LGA further explained: I have been in this ministry for 26 years. I have never experienced anything like this. I was called into ministry in 1990. Until that time, I was a policeman and served in the Imo State Police Command and retired at Akwa Ibom Police Command in July 2007. Following my retirement, I decided to focus on my ministry fulltime. I do not understand how it happened, its only God who understands and knows all.

AbelAbel.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) Monday called on the federal government to set up a tripartite committee that will look into the national minimum wage and review it.

The National President of the Congress, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, made the call in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital while declaring a two-day annual industrial relations workshop open recently.

We are looking forward for a tripartite committee to be set-up by federal government to review the salary.

We are hoping for a tripartite committee to be set up by federal government comprising of its agencies and representatives of the organised labour (TUC and NLC) to deliberate, prepare a bill and send it to the National Assembly for amendment of the National Minimum Wage, Kaigama said.

Speaking on the passage of the 2016 budget, the TUC president said Nigerians should begin to see some changes in the country once President Muhammadu Buhari signed it into law.

We are waiting for the execution of change mantra budget which has just been passed by the National Assembly. In the coming month, we should begin to see certain achievements that will make Nigerians believe or otherwise the policies of the current administration. We hope that they will not forget and be carried away by the euphoria of victory as four years is just like four days, he said.

Mr. Kaigama expressed optimism that the economy of the country under the current administration will be better.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and civil society groups are currently picketing the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company in Lagos State following the recent sack of 400 staff of the company.

The protesters, who ordered workers of the company to exit their office in order to join the protest by 10am, were led by the General Secretary of Nigeria Union of Railway Workers, Segun Esan.

The protesters also shut the entrance of the power company and the adjoining roads.

The protesters displayed placards with various inscriptions such as Fashola, leave power sector, Sai Baba stop privatization of power, We are tired of darkness, etc.

They also chanted solidarity songs, demanding that the federal government do the needful in the power sector in order to save Nigerians from perennial darkness.

The action, which was the second in the last one month, was necessitated by the failure of the power company to rescind its decision to lay off 400 of its staff amid epileptic power supply, the protesters said.

The Spokesman of the company Felix Ofolue said his company has secured a court injunction to stop the action of the protesters.

In a related development, the company via its Twitter handle @IkejaElectric, described Monday mornings picketing of its corporate headquarters as an act of sabotage.

Ikeja Electric considers it an act of sabotage to shut down power supply at a time when there is abject fuel https://t.co/w4B9sbJZ9Y  Ikeja Electric (@IkejaElectric) April 18, 2016
Im sure many of you have read that the police is now involved in my issue with Wizkid. Yes, I reported his public threat to me two Sundays ago to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police and I want to explain why I did it! Please pay attention and keep an open mind.

Ive read a lot online from people saying I dont like Wizkid. Even Wizkid himself thinks I dont like him. Why he or anyone would think so is puzzling to me to be honest. Apart from his achievements after he started insulting me online a few weeks agoeverything else, every success Wizkid has recorded in the last 3/4 years is on LIB. All the awards, all the record breaking feats, his sold out concerts, his foreign magazine features, and collaborations, everything that has built him up to the young man he is today is on LIB. Please verify! Search my blog. Please continue

I was a huge Wizkid fan. The only song I danced harder to than his Dance For Me track was Fuse ODGs Antenna and Kiss Daniel & DJ Shabzys Raba. So, no, I had no dislike for Wizkid. But about a year ago, I noticed his indirect snide remarks at meand when some other music star beefed with me, Wizkid showed his support and made disrespectful comments. That was when I noticed he had issues with me but that didnt stop me from writing about him and celebrating him.

Now to the issue at hand. When I reported that he was served quit notice at his Lekki home, I stated fact and I didnt write it out of malice. Its not everyday you get exclusive storiesand Im sure any other blogger who got the story first would also have published it. So, there was no beef, I was just doing my job. A day or so after I wrote this story, Wizkid went on my instagram page to call me names and lied that I slept with some director of hiswhich I have said before is 1000% lies! But the insult and lies is not why the police is now involved.

Heres the thing; You can insult me, insult my family, call me any names you like, even lie that I slept with your forefathersbut dont threaten me. If you threaten me, I will act!

I read people online saying that I reported to the police because I am scared of Wizkid. No, my darlings, I am not afraid of Wizkid. Though I do not take his threats lightly. I went to the authorities for two reasonsand please young boys of our generation, pay attention to what I am about to write below.

You see, violence against women and threat of violence against women is not okay. Threatening harm to someone in a public space is a criminal act in every country of the world, including Nigeria. I bet some of you didnt know that, yeah? You can not publicly threaten someone with harm. You will only get away with it if your victim doesnt report to the authorities. If they do, you will have a case with the police and I promise you, the police take these things seriously.

I reported this case to the authorities because I want our young men to know this is not okay. You should not raise your hands on a woman. You shouldnt even threaten to raise your hands on a woman. Wizkid wrote that he would send his 16 year old cousin to beat the shit out of me. Letting Wizkid get away with it is basically telling our young men that this is okayand its not!

After Wizkid made the threat to me, I saw a lot of teen boys hailing and applauding him. To them, this was okay. If their idol can threaten a woman with harm, and use derogatory words, they also can do itand thats how the circle of abuse of women continues. Women being called smelly pussy trended online for a day or two! Little boys were happy to use the words. Sad!

It is appalling to me that anyone, especially women, would cheer Wizkid on. When he wrote RIP Linda, I saw a few young girls write same, laughing. This is not a laughing matter. It doesnt matter whether you like me or not! This is not about Linda Ikeji. This is about abuse of women which has eaten deep into our society, so deep that it has now been accepted as normal. Men do it all the time and get away with it. So many women are battered by their husbands and they refuse to speak up because of the stigma. They refuse to seek help because they are afraid of what people will say. I am sorry, I am not one of those women. I refuse to be victimized. And as long as I have my voice and my platform, I will speak up.

We women have to come together to lend a strong voice to the plight of women in our continent. When we see a woman being physically and mentally abused, lets act. Lets speak up. Lets not laugh and say she deserves it. If we continue to keep quiet, the circle of abuse will continue. And one day, You, yes You, will find yourself in the receiving end of a thundering slap, followed by heavy blows. If not you, then maybe your daughter? Lets condemn violence and threat of violence against women! This is not acceptable!

Young men like Wizkid, a father of two young boys himself, should never advocate violence against women. One day, he will have a daughter, how would he feel if another male threatens to put hands on her or even calls her a hoe?

I cant count how many times Wizkid called me a hoe in his rant against me. Thats what boys do. When they get into a fight with a woman, they try to slut-shame her. Smelly pussy, hoe, ashawo etc. You call a woman, who gave another young woman, whose real name she doesnt even know N500,000 just because she said she would rather work by carrying cement than prostitute herself, thats the person you call a hoe? When your mind is so warped you cant differentiate between a woman and a hoe, then this is what happens. Except you drive to Sanusi Fanfuwa at 2am to pick up a prostitute, who proudly describes herself as one, then you shouldnt call any woman a hoe.

Even Tupac who was a well known thug could differentiate between the types of women he dealt with. When asked in an interview why he called women bitches, he said people shouldnt confuse things, that he wouldnt address a mother or a sister the way he would address a bitch, that the bitches were the ones he dealt with in the clubs who behaved like one. He reiterated that he respected women!

In more civilized countries, Wizkid would have lost his endorsements and spent the next year or so apologizing and being in the fore-front of promoting anti-violence crusades against women. It took Chris Brown years to get back on his feet after his assault on a woman. Up till today, he doesnt have any major endorsements and some countries still deny him entrance into their country i.e Australia for something he did 7 years ago. Yes, violence against women is serious!

And theres the case of incitement. When you have power and influence, you have to be careful what you say in public. Because you have such power, something you say can influence your followers. A fan can commit acts that even you may not support or might not even condone. But because it came out of your mouth, they think you mean it. So it is irresponsible to say things that might be inciteful. In Law, you can be held responsible when people act based on what you said in public. Tupac was charged to court and indicted after some thugs killed a police officer. The thugs went to court and mentioned that their idol encouraged violence against LA police officers in a song where he said Drop a cop. So, we folks with some measure of influence should be more careful with our utterances. People are watching and listening!

The second reason I filed a police report is to encourage other women in similar situations to do same. My dear ladies, if a man threatens to puts hands on you, and you feel the threat is real, report to the authorities. Dont wait until he does it. What if you dont survive it? If hes picked up and may be charged to court (yes, you can be charged to court for making threatsits a misdemeanor with a prison sentence), then he will think twice before making threats against you in the future or any other woman for that matter.

I went as far as I did for me and for other women. This is to pass a strong message to our young men that these kinds of behaviour towards women will not be tolerated. Should not be tolerated. If you assault or even threaten to assault a woman, the law will come after you if she chooses not to be silent. Women, dont be silent. Lets break the circle. For your sake, for my sake, for the sake of our daughters, grand daughters, great grand daughters and all other women that will follow them.

And thats really all I have to say in the matter. Thank you guys for reading

And to Wizkid fans, please be rest assured that I wish him all the best in life. He will continue to grow from strength to strength (as long as he doesnt endorse violence against women) and his light will never diminish. God brought him to this level and will continue to keep him. I have nothing but love for his craft and hope that one day, we will put this behind us.

God bless him, me, you and everyone else in the world

Cheers.

Oh and by the way, Im starting my vlog series soon.

Source: Linda Ikejis blog
Lean Hogs Weekly Forecast Kolhanov.com - Sun Oct 23, 3:11PM CDT The uptrend may be expected to continue, while market is trading above support level 89.150, which will be followed by reaching resistance level 93.025.

Feeder Cattle Weekly Forecast Kolhanov.com - Sun Oct 23, 3:10PM CDT The uptrend may be expected to continue, while market is trading above support level 178.550, which will be followed by reaching resistance level 183.550 and 188.250.

Live Cattle Weekly Forecast Kolhanov.com - Sun Oct 23, 3:09PM CDT The uptrend may be expected to continue, while market is trading above support level 151.775, which will be followed by reaching resistance level 156.475.

Soybean Oil Weekly Forecast Kolhanov.com - Sun Oct 23, 3:08PM CDT The downtrend may be expected to continue, while market is trading below resistance level 73.75, which will be followed by reaching support level 68.16 and if it keeps on moving down below that level,...

Soybean Meal Weekly Forecast Kolhanov.com - Sun Oct 23, 3:07PM CDT The downtrend may be expected to continue, while market is trading below resistance level 419.1, which will be followed by reaching support level 398.8.

Soybean Weekly Forecast Kolhanov.com - Sun Oct 23, 3:06PM CDT An downtrend will start as soon, as the market drops below support level 1356, which will be followed by moving down to support level 1315.6.

Corn Weekly Forecast Kolhanov.com - Sun Oct 23, 3:05PM CDT The uptrend may be expected to continue, while market is trading above support level 680, which will be followed by reaching resistance level 698.6 and if it keeps on moving up above that level, we may...

Wheat Weekly Forecast Kolhanov.com - Sun Oct 23, 3:04PM CDT The downtrend may be expected to continue in case the market drops below support level 832.6, which will be followed by reaching support level 791.2.

Natural gas Weekly Forecast Kolhanov.com - Sun Oct 23, 3:03PM CDT The downtrend may be expected to continue in case the market drops below support level 4.980, which will be followed by reaching support level 4.459 and 3.876
Last spring, Google launched its Global Impact Challenge: Disabilities. The initiative put $20 million in grant money on the table for innovative organizations with big ideas for how technology can help create solutions to the challenges faced by people with disabilities.

The foundation recently released its list of winners and its supporting some really cool stuff. In turn, this is a good moment to take a deeper look at Google's philanthropy, which keeps getting more interesting.

First the disabilities awards. According to the foundation, over 1,000 organizations submitted their projects for challenge grants, but only a lucky 30 projects were selected for funding. You can read all about the winners here, but there were a few that really jumped out:

Ezer Mizion. This outfit is piloting an onscreen keyboard project called Click2Speak to help those with limited mobility and high cognitive function communicate more effectively.

Royal National Institute for Blind People is developing smart glasses to help those that are living with sight loss, yet still have some ability to see, regain their independence.

Leprosy Mission Trust received a grant to establish a centralized facility where it will be 3D scanning and printing custom-made footwear that will allow people with leprosy to maintain their ability to walk.

Besit Issie Shapiro and Sesame was on the receiving end of a $1 million Google.org grant to advance its work in smartphone technology that allows people with limited mobility to operate a smartphone with their heads.

Overall, Google.org awarded grants ranging from $150,000 to $1 million. And no surprise, nearly every winning project had a tech-heavy approach, which is a key way this funder advances its mission of applying innovative approaches to some of the worlds most pressing global health and development challenges. We see this a lot with tech companies, some of which aren't so imaginative in their funding (donating tons of product is one favorite strategy.)

But if you've been watching Google.org over the past few years, you'll know that it is a surprisingly dynamic and responsive funder. That jumped out at us in late 2014, when Google came in big to fight Ebola, with CEO Larry Page putting up personal funds. We were also struck by Google's stepped-up Bay Area giving amid criticism that local tech companies were fueling local inequities.

Related:

In terms of its global priorities, Google.org cites climate change, health and poverty as top concerns. And indeed, it gives heavily in those spaces. But it also jumps in to help with global problems that dont appear on its list of priorities.

Take, for example, the foundations funding to end modern-day slavery. In 2011, Google gave $11.5 to combat slavery, which included an $8 million grant to the International Justice Mission in India. Those funds were directed toward the support of anti-slavery coalitions, direct intervention projects, and government-led rescue operations. It also gave $2 million to the U.S. Anti-Trafficking Resource Center hotline, and is on the list of $500,000-plus donors of thePolaris Project, an outfit dedicated to ending slavery and human trafficking.

Related: Funding the New Abolitionism: Whos Giving to End Modern Day Slavery?

Then theres the foundations surprise jump into the global refugee crisis, in which Google called upon people to open their wallets and donate toward the worst humanitarian crisis in decades. The world responded with $5.5 million in donations, which the foundation matched dollar for dollar, donating a total of $11 million to Doctors Without Borders, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, International Rescue Committee, and Save the Children. That $11 million gift, by the way, was a far cry from Google.orgs initial pledge to help refugees, which came in at just $1 million. More recently, the funder has been helping refugees in Europe meet their connectivity needs.

Related:How Do Chromebooks Help Refugees? Google.org Has an Answer to That

Its been interesting watching Google.org over the last few years. Is this tech giant doing as much as it should or could, given its vast wealth? Probably not. Almost no corporations are. But what we can say is that this funder's grantmaking is surprisingly fluid and encouraging to track.

Related: Google Foundation: Grants for Global Development

See more articles by Sue-Lynn Moses.
Growing up in Schenectady, New York, Lee Wasserman fell in love with the outdoors on Boy Scout camping trips. As a kid from a small city with a lot of concrete, I was just taken aback by the natural beauty of the Adirondacks, says Wasserman, 58. He has since devoted much of his life to fighting for the environment after learning the history of how that mountain range became the first place in the U.S. to be statutorily preserved.

As director of the Rockefeller Family Fund, a New Yorkbased charity started in 1967 by heirs of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, Wasserman has spent much of his time spearheading initiatives to tackle climate change. At the end of March, the $130 million fund turned heads when it announced it was dumping its fossil fuel investments, starting with coal, the Canadian oil sands and Exxon Mobil Corp.  the corporate descendant of Rockefellers Standard Oil Co.

Wasserman knows that shedding the 6 percent of the portfolio that is invested in fossil fuels is unlikely to change corporate behavior. Its not a solution, he says. Its a statement more than anything.

But the symbolic move is music to the ears of Bill McKibben, co-founder of environmental activist group 350.org. In a 2012 op-ed for Rolling Stone, McKibben popularized and galvanized the Divest-Invest movement that has since swept across college campuses. One of the key hopes was to revoke the social license of the big fossil fuel companies, and every time an important institution joins in, thats a big step forward, he says.

Divesting from fossil fuels aligns the Rockefeller funds portfolio with its environmental program, one of the charitys three areas of focus along with womens rights and government accountability. In 2006, given the funds modest endowment, Wasserman chose to dedicate environmental program resources entirely to climate change, or, as he put it, the monster that has to be reckoned with.

Prior to joining the Rockefeller fund in 1999, he worked for the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, where he helped the head of the nonprofits environmental program with special projects. Before that, Wasserman ran Environmental Advocates of New York, an Albany-based nonprofit that makes policy recommendations for the state government on everything from clean-air statutes to closing incinerators.

Last year the Rockefeller fund launched an initiative to help suffering Appalachian communities overcome the recent collapse of the coal industry. The Just Transition Fund, created with a coalition of public and private grant makers known as the Appalachia Funders Network, helped local organizations to secure a cool $2.5 million in federal grants from an economic revitalization scheme dubbed the POWER Initiative.

Looking beyond divestment, environmentally minded investors often take a step further and bankroll green companies. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, an older, larger cousin of the Rockefeller Family Fund, got out of fossil fuels in 2014 after deciding to allocate up to 10 percent of its $860 million in assets to clean-energy technologies and other businesses focused on climate change.

Were watching our colleagues down the hall at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund closely in that regard, Wasserman says. But we want to make sure we get the divestment piece right before we take the next step.
Despite its confidence-inspiring name, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. is in flux. The state legislature is weighing plans to tap the $52.2 billion Alaska Permanent Fund to make up budget shortfalls while the corporation that manages it reels from the departures of three key executives over the past year.

Since Angela Rodell took over as Juneau-based APFCs executive director in October, her top priority has been hiring. Its about creating an organization thats prepared to deliver to the state what the state may ultimately be demanding of us, Rodell, 48, tells Institutional Investor.

Former fund chief Michael Burns passed away unexpectedly last July at age 68. To make matters worse, CIO Jay Willoughby left to join Radnor, Pennsylvaniabased The Investment Fund for Foundations in September, and he poached David Fallace, Alaskas director of special opportunity investments, in January.

Turnover has plagued the sovereign wealth fund for years, thanks to caps on compensation combined with Alaskas remote and rugged location. Youre not going to get paid a million dollars here, Rodell admits. Thats just the reality. She put in a request with the legislature for a modest $216,000 increase in salary and benefits to be spread across the corporations 42 employees, but chances look slim.

The last time the state approved raises for APFC was 2013, and that was before oil prices took a dive, blowing a $3.5 billion hole in Alaskas annual budget. To fill those gaps, lawmakers are debating proposals to use the fund. There is no question in my mind that at some point they are going to be tapping into the Permanent Fund for help in some form or fashion, even if it doesnt happen this year, Rodell says.

Formerly an investment banker for New Yorkbased First Southwest Co., Rodell moved to Juneau in 2011 to become deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Revenue. In 2013 then-governor Sean Parnell promoted her to commissioner, a position she held until Parnell lost his reelection bid the following year. The Eau Claire, Wisconsin, native chose to stay in Alaska as a consultant for the Senates finance committee; she and her yellow Labrador retriever Carter had fallen in love with Juneau on their hikes through the Coast Mountains.

Rodell concedes that Alaska isnt everyones cup of tea. Still, she managed to replace Willoughby with Russell Read, who served as CIO of the now-$291.2 billion California Public Employees Retirement System from 2006 to 2008. Most recently, Read was CIO and deputy CEO of Kuwait-based Gulf Investment Corp., a $2.1 billion development fund established by the Gulf Cooperation Council  which comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates  to invest in private equity and infrastructure and help the region diversify its economy away from a reliance on oil.

Reads background in direct investing should be a good match with Rodells expertise in public finance. At First Southwest she had focused primarily on public housing and infrastructure. The latter is an asset class that she wants to ramp up at APFC. Finding those opportunities can be challenging because a lot of institutional investors are interested in infrastructure, but its definitely an area we want to explore and expand on, Rodell says. The fund has had a rocky start to 2016, down 3 percent for the year as of the end of February.

APFC began investing in infrastructure in 2007; the asset class now accounts for roughly 3 percent of the total portfolio, with a target allocation of 4 percent. Last May the board authorized the fund to branch into related fields like timber and farmland. Lawmakers and board members have long disagreed over whether APFC should invest in Alaskan infrastructure, particularly when it comes to financing the construction of a proposed $50 billion liquefied-natural-gas pipeline. Depending on the size of such an investment, the return potential and projected risk, APFC is open to investing in a gas pipeline or other in-state infrastructure projects if they would enhance its portfolio, Rodell says.

The fund started making direct investments in energy after the descent in crude oil prices made valuations more attractive, Michael Burns told Institutional Investor in a March 2015 interview. Its like they say: A fireman has to run toward the fire, he explained.
The meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Qatar this past meeting to discuss possible caps for oil production was complicated when Iran withdrew at the last minute, preventing a consensus among the 12 member nations. The next regular OPEC meeting will not be until June. With an economy battered by Western sanctions that have just been lifted, Irans government has signaled that it has no intention of freezing production. Despite the assurance of Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak that his nation  the largest non-OPEC producer after the U.S. would be amenable to a deal, Irans absence created a void that could not be overcome. West Texas Intermediate-grade futures contracts for front-month delivery fell by nearly 3 percent in trading early today, pulling the ruble lower with it. Meanwhile meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the Group of 20 both resulted in warnings that risks to global growth and financial stability have increased since last year, casting a shadow over investor sentiment.

Rousseff loses impeachment vote. The lower house of Brazils Congress voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff during a special session yesterday, after her opponents secured the necessary two-thirds majority. The process will now proceed to the Senate, which will require only a simple majority for conviction. A crowd of some 250,000 anti-Rousseff protesters filled the streets of Sao Paulo to cheer the decision.

Morgan Stanley exceeds estimates. Morgan Stanley released first-quarter 2016 financial results today, which included profits that were more than 50 percent lower than the same period in 2015 but still beat consensus analyst estimates. The company reported net earnings of 55 cents per share versus $1.18 during the first quarter of 2015. The firm reported lower costs, including sharply reduced compensation as well as lower returns on fixed income and equity trading. Revenues for wealth management, a larger focus for the reorganized firm, also dipped by 4 percent year-over-year.

Ecuador suffers earthquake. Over the weekend, Ecuador was hit by a 7.8 Richter-scale earthquake centered near Pedernales. The death toll has risen to more than 250 while the number of reported injured is in the thousands. This marks the worst quake in Ecuador since 1979. The South American country has received offers of aid from governments throughout the region as well as the U.S.

Abu Dhabi says Malaysian state fund in default. Abu Dhabis sovereign wealth fund reported today that 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the troubled development fund overseen by the Malaysian government, was in default on more than $1 billion in debt, freeing the Gulf state from obligations to further support the fund. The development comes as more international investigations into possible improprieties at 1MDB have created a political quagmire for Malaysias Finance Ministry and Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Home prices rise in China. National Bureau of Statistics data released today revealed that new home prices rose in China in March with 62 of the 70 cities analyzed gaining for the month. A rapid rise in costs for key cities is expected by many economists to prompt further intervention by the central bank. In Shenzhen, March prices were more than 60 percent higher than the same month last year.
The Underwriting Agencies Council ( UAC ) has announced that they have signed a deal with the London-based Managing General Agents Association (MGAA).The deal will see each organisation become reciprocal members of the other with UAC becoming an honorary member of MGAA and MGAA an affiliate member of UAC.The deal follows earlier negotiations in London by UACs immediate past chairman, Heath Amber, which saw MGAA director, Charles Manchester attend the UAC Expo held in Sydney in March. William Legge , general manager of UAC, said that the deal brings together two organisations with similar goals.UAC and MGAA have likeminded goals of increasing the focus on member education programs and representing our memberships at industry and regulatory levels, Legge said.The move follows a similar deal announced recently with the American Association of Managing General Agents (AAMGA) , which Legge said will help the organisation work throughout major global markets.In conjunction with the AAMGA relationship, it enables UAC to offer discussion capabilities with our industry niche across a major slice of the global insurance market, Legge said.
CRM Brokers have announced that they have appointed Vikram Choudhry to a newly created role in a bid to drive growth for the company.Choudhry will take on the role of broking operations manager  general division having previously held the role of chief underwriter at High Street Underwriting Agency.Damien Coorey, director of CRM Brokers, told Insurance Business that the role will help the business expand its footprint in the Australian market.CRM Brokers was looking to expand their general insurance division and also to have an increased presence Australia-wide, Coorey said.Vikram brings a wealth of knowledge and experience especially in underwriting, new business strategies, general management and client relation management skills.CRM Brokers is delighted to have Vikram as part of our team; he is an asset with enthusiasm, energy and integrity.Coorey continued that Choudhrys role will entail several key areas as the business looks to build on its solid foundations.CRM Brokers is committed to providing Risk Management Solutions to its clients and this will further enhance our presence in the market, Coorey said.Vikrams role is new business strategies, general management, new business focus and also continued expansion of CRM Brokers.The business will look to grow its presence throughout the country, Coorey revealed, and the experience Choudhry brings to the firm on an international scale will only aid the business.CRM Brokers is now in an escalated growth phase; Vikram brings that wealth of knowledge both from broking and underwriting (including London Market placements), corporate culture and that cohesiveness to our organisation with a 'go-getter' attitude which will oversee our growth and our push to the next level.
Rhode Island could become the latest state to set rules for ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft, but first lawmakers must come to agreement on dueling bills  one favored by Uber and the other by traditional taxi operators.

Uber and Lyft have been operating in Rhode Island for years with little oversight. Uber has said it has thousands of drivers in the state, many of whom use the service as a part-time job. But the two lawmakers who led a group last year to study how to regulate the California-based tech companies came up with markedly different approaches.

Sen. Maryellen Goodwin, a Providence Democrat, worked with the office of Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo on crafting an Uber-friendly bill that defines transportation network companies, regulates them and establishes that drivers are independent contractors instead of employees. It resembles legislation adopted in many other states.

Rep. John Edwards, a Tiverton Democrat, introduced a competing House bill he said would do far more to vet the background of drivers and level the playing field between the cabs, liveries and Uber.

They came in here and they did what they wanted to do and ignored our existing regulations, Edwards said. This will bring them back into the fold.

A Senate Commerce Committee listened for hours on April 14 to supporters and critics of Goodwins bill. The Edwards bill was recently introduced and hasnt been heard in the House.

Goodwin testified that her bill is the start of a conversation and is based on what has worked and what hasnt in other states.

Its very necessary that we take some legislative action, she told fellow senators. We dont want our residents and our visitors to the state hopping into cars that are uninsured that have drivers that dont have significant background checks.

But taxi operators said the proposed background checks and other rules she proposed dont go far enough in putting Uber and Lyft through the same requirements that theyve been following for years.

I have no problem with Uber and Lyft operating in Rhode Island, but they need to be doing it the same way everybody else has been doing it, or there needs to be new legislation that affects everyone, said John Olinger, CEO of Warwick-based All Occasion Transportation. Uber and Lyft are transportation companies, not software companies. They arrange transportation for a fee  exactly what taxi and limousine companies do.

Rick Szilagyi, CEO of the New England Livery Association, said taxi operators favor the House bills provisions on vetting drivers, identifying vehicles and insurance. While Goodwins bill requires companies to conduct a background check, the Edwards bill would require drivers to be fingerprinted and appear before a law enforcement officer for a national criminal records check.

Both bills would charge a yearly fee for each companys permit  the Senate bill proposes $10,000 and the House bill proposes $15,000. The House bill would also limit each company to 100 vehicles, with $150 charged for each additional vehicle over that limit.

Cathy Zhou, Ubers Rhode Island general manager, said the House bill creates regulatory challenges and obstacles that could have serious impacts on Ubers riders and drivers.

Supporters of Uber who testified at the April 14 hearing included Nick Zammarelli, a blind Coventry schoolteacher who said he uses Uber to get to work, stores and coffee shops in his sparsely populated part of the state.

Zammarelli told senators: Uber is as close as I will ever come to your kind of independence.

I dont want to be melodramatic, but its changed my life, he said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation
The death toll from earthquakes that struck southern Japan rose to 42 and the economic impact began to reverberate Monday as companies surveyed damage and the potential effects on production from supply-chain disruptions.

The quakes that struck the island of Kyushu since Thursday evening included some of the nations most devastating earthquakes since March 2011. There are 201 people seriously injured, 838 have light injuries, and 110,816 have been evacuated to shelters, according to Kumamoto Prefectures disaster countermeasures office. There has been additional damage in neighboring prefectures including Oita.

The Topix index slumped 3 percent to 1,320.15 at the close in Tokyo, with all but one of its 33 industry groups falling, after rising last week by the most in two months. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 3.4 percent to 16,275.95.

Toyota Motor Corp. fell 4.8 percent, the most in two months. The companys operating profit may be reduced by about 30 billion yen ($277 million) for the quarter ending in June because the earthquakes have disrupted parts supplies, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley estimated in a report.

Halts in production that began late last week at Toyotas Kyushu factories will extend to other assembly lines in stages throughout this week, Toyota said.

The yen strengthened to 108.23 per dollar as of 4:55 p.m. in Tokyo as a plunge in oil spurred a flight to haven assets. Investors also are speculating that Japans government and central bank will need to consider more stimulus for an economy that is already struggling.

25,000 Rescue Workers

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe increased the number of rescue workers to 25,000 in the earthquake-stricken south of the country. An initial earthquake came on Thursday night, followed by more shocks that caused intense shaking. A magnitude-7.3 quake occurred at 1:25 a.m. local time Saturday and was most powerfully felt close to Mount Aso, an active volcano and popular tourist site. Television footage showed houses flattened and landslides that had swallowed up roads and railway lines in the village of Minamiaso.

Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Co. tumbled 5.6 percent, the most since Feb. 12, while Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. lost 5.9 percent. Other stocks fell on earthquake concerns with TDK Corp., which provides battery parts, down 5 percent. Kyushu Electric, which runs Japans only operating nuclear plants, was down 8 percent  the Sendai reactors in neighboring Kagoshima remain in operation, and Environment Minister Tamayo Marukawa said over the weekend that the plant doesnt need to be shut down at this point.

Taiheiyo Cement Corp. finished 2.7 percent higher on expectations that demand will rise with the rebuilding effort.

Other stocks affected included Japanese insurance companies, with MS&AD falling 7.3 percent and the Topix insurance index down 5.8 percent. H.I.S., which operates the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Kyushu, fell 12 percent, and was the fifth biggest decliner on the Topix index.

Nomura said in a report that the focus for automakers is on whether disruption will occur in the supply of chips, saying that even if output is affected for several weeks it will quickly return to normal, minimizing the impact on this fiscal years earnings.

Abe, in parliament Monday, said we will take all necessary measures, in response to a question about the possibility of an extra budget to finance disaster relief measures.

Surveying Damage

Companies in the region halted operations as they looked into the extent of the damage and sought to confirm the safety of their employees. Takeshi Hagiwara, a spokesman for Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing, said Monday that its Kumamoto plant remained idle. He said it has been difficult to check damage to facilities because of the concern about further aftershocks. Sony has four plants in the area that produce image sensors, with the Kumamoto factory the primary facility.

Honda Motor Co. has suspended production at its motorcycle plant in Kumamoto through Monday. Nissan Motor Co. stopped output at its plant in Fukuoka after the latest quake as it assesses the impact on the facility and its supply chain.

Fujifilm Holdings Corp. halted production of electronic-display devices at its Kumamoto plant, according to spokesman Takahiro Taguchi. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. has suspended some of its facilities in nearby Oita prefecture for safety checks.

Tens of thousands of homes in Kumamoto prefecture were still without power, according to the economy ministry.

Transportation to the region continued to be affected, with ANA and Japan Airlines canceling all Kumamoto-related flights Monday, and most local trains not running. ANA and JAL said they would resume flights Tuesday.

JAL made a flight to the closed Kumamoto Airport to deliver 7,000 blankets, according to a spokesman, and will deliver more supplies as requested.

Delivering Food

Relief workers were dispatched to the region from throughout Japan and have been delivering food and supplies at evacuation sites. Teruko Maejima, 80, said she ran out of her apartment and to a parking lot after the earthquake early Saturday, bringing only a blanket with her. She has been moving between shelters since then  she returned once to her sixth-floor apartment to find it was badly damaged.

Ive hardly slept. Today weve got water, rice balls and bananas here, she said at a shelter set up at City Hall. I feel so lucky and thankful that Im here. I could take cover from the rain.

Hiroyuki Umeda, a sushi shop manager, said he has been offering free food to area residents. He said his staff prepared 250 servings of rice balls and miso soup  and they were gone in 15 minutes.

Im hoping to offer help even if its trivial, he said. Its the toughest thing that you cant find food.

Shuji Sakai, 32, returned Monday to the house where he spent his childhood to survey the damage. The two-story house tumbled down after the earthquakes. His parents, who still live there and evacuated after the initial quake, asked him to go back to retrieve family photos and mementos. It was a sad visit.

I was almost crying looking at my old house, he said, wearing black trousers covered with dust. My parents would have died if they had not escaped after the first quake.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Tech Aviation Earthquake
World leaders from the Vatican to Washington offered support to Ecuador as casualties mounted following one of the strongest earthquakes to strike the South American country in decades.

The number of dead has climbed to at least 350 from 272 [reported on Sunday], Security Minister Cesar Navas told local television station Teleamazonas Monday. At least 2,527 were injured, the government said yesterday. President Rafael Correa flew to the epicenter in Manabi province Sunday after cutting short a trip to the Vatican in the aftermath of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

Ecuador has been hit tremendously, Correa said last night in a televised broadcast, calling the quake Ecuadors worst tragedy in almost seven decades. Even though the pain is immense, our peoples spirit is even greater.

The nations geophysical institute said the quake was centered near the coastal town of Pedernales in Manabi province, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) west-northwest of the capital, Quito. The institute reported considerable damage and said more than 230 aftershocks, one measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale, had followed.

Searching the Rubble

During the earthquake, houses shook and power went off briefly around the country. Coastal towns nearer the epicenter were devastated, the government said, with victims still being pulled from collapsed buildings as of Monday. Roads and bridges were also affected, complicating access to the hardest-hit areas.

Vice President Jorge Glas spent Sunday night in Pedernales working with security, health and rescue teams. The government has deployed 10,000 troops to the region and the nations risk management agency said that 10,000 bottles of water would be shipped to some of the affected areas in the Manabi province, along with sleeping kits and food. Thousands are helping to collect donations of clothing, blankets and food for the hardest-hit areas.

We stand by the people of Ecuador in this difficult time and are ready to assist in any way we can, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in an e-mail.

State oil company PetroEcuador said Sunday that it was slowly restarting operations at its refineries and oil pipeline after making initial safety inspections. While the La Libertad and Shushufindi refineries were working normally, installations in the Esmeraldas refinery, located near the disaster zone, were still being evaluated.

Economic Backdrop

Potentially complicating the nations economic recovery, crude prices tumbled by the most in two months after talks in Doha among major global producers to freeze output ended without an agreement.

Ecuador, an OPEC member, produced 547,000 barrels of crude per day in March, according to data from the Vienna-based organization. The International Monetary Fund, which earlier Sunday said it stands ready to help Ecuador as needed, expects the economy to contract 4.5 percent this year.

Reconstruction efforts will probably be hampered by the governments lack of reserves, which could deepen this years economic contraction, said Edward Glossop, an economist at Capital Economics in London. Ecuadors Finance Ministry has $300 million in emergency funds and will also use contingent financing to help pay for reconstruction, Vice President Glas said Sunday.

While its too soon to put a figure on damages, losses may vary between 15 percent and 30 percent of gross domestic product, based on estimates of damages in the 2010 earthquakes in regional neighbors Haiti and Chile, Glossop said. The disaster in Chile cost about $30 billion while Haiti spent $14 billion to rebuild, he said.

The government is basically short of cash, so any fiscal effort to rebuild will be severely hampered, Glossop said by telephone Monday from London. It just means that they need even more funds than they previously did  its relatively bleak.

With assistance from Nour Al Ali, Daniel Cancel, Isabella Cota and Ros Krasny.

****

[Editors note: According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, the epicenter of Saturday nights earthquake in Equador was located on a relatively sparsely populated part of the Ecuadoran coast near the northern town of Muisne, although damage was reported many miles away.

Roads have been made impassible by large cracks, and power and communications are out in the affected area. It will take some time before the extent and degree of damage from the current event are fully known, said a statement issued by Boston-based AIR.

Seismic hazard in Ecuador is driven primarily by the Nazca subduction zone, located just offshore of western South America, said AIR.

Several earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater have affected Ecuador since 1900, including a M7.1 earthquake that caused considerable damage in Manabi province in 1998. That earthquake damaged many engineered mid-rise and high-rise buildings in coastal city Bahia de Caraquez, said AIR.

Fully 71 percent of the citys reinforced concrete buildings suffered some degree of damage, and 17 percent of these buildings collapsed or were damaged beyond repair. In the town of Canoa, 60 percent of structures were damaged, the modeling firm continued.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Saturdays megathrust earthquake was the result of shallow thrust faulting on or near the plate boundary between the Nazca and Pacific plates, AIR confirmed, explaining that the Nazca plate is subducting eastward beneath the South America plate at a velocity of 61 millimeters (2.40 inches) per year.

The subduction off the west coast of South America has led to uplift of the Andes mountain range and has produced some of the largest earthquakes in the world, including the largest earthquake on record, the 1960 M 9.5 earthquake in southern Chile, the company explained.

Building Types

Commercial buildings are primarily of masonry, concrete, or steel construction. Commercial buildings and mid-to-high rise apartment buildings are typically made of reinforced concrete construction with shear walls, or reinforced masonry construction. Industrial buildings in Ecuador are typically of steel or light metal construction.

While commercial and industrial buildings are generally constructed according to stricter standards than residential structures, building code enforcement varies within and across Ecuador, AIR said, noting that the seismic performance of buildings in Ecuador is greatly influenced by local construction practices.

Building damageability is often exacerbated by poor workmanship, inadequate materials, and a lack of building code enforcement, AIR continued.

While confined and reinforced masonry are very common in typical low rise residential properties, reinforced concrete, in particular with shear walls, is the dominant construction type used for mid- and high-rise residential buildings in urban areas.

In rural areas, adobe construction is a common construction type for homes, which are the most vulnerable to collapse, said AIR.

Source: AIR Worldwide

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Construction Earthquake
CGNMB LLP, the London-based Lloyds broker, announced that Gordon Newman will retire from his role as CEO on April 20.

Subject to regulatory approvals, his role and responsibilities will be assumed by Steve Hearn, CEO of Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford Ltd. (CGSC), CGNMBs parent company. Newman will continue to serve CGNMB as chairman of its energy and reinsurance divisions.

Newman started his insurance career with the oil and energy division of Bland Welch in 1967. Subsequently, he was a founding director of Willis Fabers oil and gas division and from 1982 to 1987 was managing director of Seascope Insurance Holdings Ltd., with responsibility for its insurance broking business. Along with a small group of colleagues, he founded Newman Martin and Buchan Limited (NMB) in 1987 and as executive chairman oversaw its successful development as a leading independent Lloyds insurance and reinsurance broker. Following its sale to CGSC in 2013, NMBs business was combined with that of Cooper Gay & Co. Ltd., CGSCs existing Lloyds Broker, to form CGNMB, under Newmans leadership.

With the integration of NMB and Cooper Gay as CGNMB successfully completed, I believe that now is the right time for me to step down from day to day executive responsibility, having enjoyed almost 50 years in the market, Newman said.

I strongly believe that ours is and will continue to be a people business and that, given the caliber of its people and the backing of its investors, CGNMB is well positioned to grow and prosper as an independent broker. As chairman of its energy and reinsurance divisions, I look forward to being a part of that future, Newman continued.

Gordon is a highly respected figure in our industry who has been an integral part of our business. I am grateful that, despite his decision to retire as chief executive, he has agreed to continue to provide his counsel and support as chairman of our energy and reinsurance divisions, Hearn commented.

We now have the resources to embark on the next stage of our strategy, which will become increasingly apparent in the coming months, and I am certain Gordon will continue to play a key role in our groups future, Hearn went on to say.

Source: Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford (CGSC)

Topics Agencies Excess Surplus Reinsurance Lloyd's
The European Commission has agreed to contribute 14 million ($15.8 million) so the governments of Central American countries and the Dominican Republic can access to low cost, high quality catastrophe risk insurance.

The agreement will be executed by the World Banks Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF).

The European Unions contribution will support these countries to become formal members of CCRIF SPC, formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility. (SPC is an abbreviation for segregated portfolio company).

The CCRIF SPC is a multi-country program that allows its current 17 members* to pool risk and access disaster insurance coverage at low cost, and better manage and finance disaster risk, said the European Union and the World Bank in a statement.

The EU agreement was signed in Washington, D.C. on April 15 by Neven Mimica, European Union commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, and Jorge Familiar, World Bank vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Milo Pearson, chairman of CCRIF SPC, Ivan Acosta, minister of Finance and Public Credit of Nicaragua, and Wilfredo Cerrato, Finance Secretary of Honduras, also participated in the signing ceremony.

The European Unions contribution to this Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Central America countries and the Dominican Republic is a reflection of our shared concern for the need to support partner countries towards building resilience to disasters and climate change; a concern that has led to an increase in funding for climate change in the EUs development priorities, said Mimica. The urgency of the situation calls for action now, which is why we are particularly pleased to be able to make this announcement.

For small economies, tackling climate and disaster risks effectively requires efforts at the regional level, since effective solutions call for risk pooling. This is critical for Caribbean and Central American countries that are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, said Familiar.The facility is a good example of a regional public good where member countries will be able to benefit from insurance coverage at a more affordable rate.

This engagement is part of renewed efforts from donors and the international community to address increasing global climate and disaster risks, said the joint statement.

Mitigating Disaster Risk in Developing Nations

As part of this engagement, countries have adopted new agreements during the last few months to pledge priority funds and support efforts to manage and finance disaster risk in developing countries. These agreements include the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Addis Ababa Agenda for Action of the Third International Financing for Development Conference, and Transforming Our World: Agenda 2030 the global goals for sustainable development.

In addition to the EUs contribution, the governments of Canada and the United States also have pledged funds to the MDTF, totaling approximately US$24 million to date in support of COSEFIN countries participation in CCRIF SPC. (COSEFIN is an abbreviation of the Council of Ministers of Finance of Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic.)

Donor contributions play a critical role in enabling countries to benefit from CCRIF insurance coverage at more affordable rates. Membership fees paid by members also contribute to the facilitys financial sustainability.

Since 2007, CCRIF has offered parametric catastrophe insurance at affordable rates to Caribbean governments against tropical cyclones, earthquakes and, since 2013, it has also offered excess rainfall insurance. Currently, 16 Caribbean countries are members of CCRIF, and Nicaragua formally joined the facility in 2015.

CCRIFs parametric insurance mechanism allows it to provide immediate financial resources in the aftermath of disasters, which help governments implement emergency activities, better respond to the initial needs of their populations and continue to provide critical services.

Since 2007, CCRIF has made 13 payouts totaling approximately US$38 million to eight members. All payouts have been made within two weeks after each event.

According to the CCRIF SPC website, the facility was formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan in 2004, which caused billions of dollars of losses across the Caribbean. In Grenada and the Cayman Islands, losses were close to 200 percent of the national annual GDP.

As a result, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) approached the World Bank for assistance to design and implement a risk transfer program for member governments. This marked the beginning of what would become the CCRIF.

* Existing members of the CCRIF SPC are Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos Islands.

Source: European Union, World Bank and CCRIF SPC

Topics Catastrophe USA Europe
A Colorado mining company will pay $10.3 million to the state of South Dakota and the federal government to cover part of environmental cleanup costs at an abandoned gold and silver mine in the northern Black Hills, a federal agency said.

The Environmental Protection Agency said a settlement agreement was filed in U.S. District Court in the case against Coca Mines Inc. and its former chief executive, Thomas E. Congdon. The EPA and the state contend that the Gilt Edge Mine Superfund site is heavily contaminated from mining activities involving hazardous substances including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, manganese, nickel and zinc.

We are pleased with this agreement and the compensation for the damage to the environment that it represents, Shaun McGrath, EPAs regional administrator in Denver, said in a statement.

The amount of the settlement falls far short of the likely total costs of cleaning up the site, which the EPA estimates at more than $200 million, though the area has been disturbed by mining and mineral processing operations since the late 1800s.

The lawsuit said Congdon signed a lease to mine roughly 1,352 acres at the site in 1974, and a partnership he formed eventually became Coca Mines Inc. A telephone message left for Congdon was not immediately returned.

Under the agreement, neither Coca Mines Inc. nor Congdon acknowledge any liability. Of the settlement amount, $9.27 million will go into an EPA account to fund future environmental actions and $1.03 million will go to the state, according to court documents.

The 360-acre Gilt Edge Mine site is located east of Lead, South Dakota, and includes a former open pit and a cyanide heap-leach gold mine. The site had been used for hard rock mining since the late 1800s and has been extensively disturbed by mining and mineral processing operations.

The agency and South Dakota previously entered into settlements with other former mine operators, recovering more than $30 million to fund cleanup efforts.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Pollution Mining
Terry Miller has been appointed executive vice president and chief operating officer at Bloomington, Minn.-based SFM Mutual Insurance Co.

Miller was the companys original controller. He rose through the ranks in his 30-plus years at SFM to become vice president of accounting, vice president of finance, and then senior vice president and CFO.

Miller is a certified public accountant and chartered financial analyst. Hes also a member of the Minnesota State Society of CPAs, the American Institute of CPAs, the CFA Institute and the Insurance Accounting and Systems Association.

He serves on the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies Accounting Issues Committee and the Insurance Federation of Minnesotas Tax Committee as well as the board of directors for Small Sums, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based nonprofit.

SFM provides workers compensation insurance in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota.

Source: SFM Mutual Insurance Co.

Topics Minnesota
The Obama administration last Thursday unveiled new oil well control rules to prevent the kind of blowout that happened six years ago on a BP Plc rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Interior Departments Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement announced the finalized regulations, which include more stringent design requirements and operational procedures for offshore oil and gas operations.

The new standards come nearly six years after a deadly explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the cost of Louisiana, which led to the worst oil spill of all time.

The Macondo well blowout and the fire on April 20,2010 killed 11 workers.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told reporters the rule took six years to complete because the agency wanted to understand the root cause of the disaster.

There are a number of things that went wrong, she said. It was important that we understood those things and the evolution of technology.

The Interior Department said it took into account industry and other stakeholder feedback since it first proposed the rule last April.

To improve the culture of safety on oil rigs and prevent future spills or blowouts, the new rule tightens requirements for blowout preventers, well design, well control casing, cementing and sub-sea containment.

It also calls for real-time monitoring, third party reviews of equipment, regular inspections and safe drilling margin requirements.

The agency estimates the new rule would cost the industry $890 million over a 10-year period, but would yield $1.5 billion in benefits.

Republican Louisiana Senator David Vitter slammed what he called an overarching rule that would kick our oil and gas industry while its down.

Industry lobby group the American Petroleum Institute said it is still reviewing the document, but said technical problems in the initial proposal could cause unintended consequences if they remain.

Offshore drilling has seen at least 1,066 injuries, 496 fires and explosions, 22 losses of well control, 11 big oil spills and 11 fatalities since the Deepwater Horizon accident, according to the Interior Department.

Jacqueline Savitz, vice president of the ocean protection advocacy group Oceana, said the new standards were a significant improvement over the status quo since Congress has not passed legislation to improve offshore drilling safety but are absolutely not sufficient to protect our oceans.

Earlier this month, a federal judge in New Orleans approved BPs $20 billion settlement, paving the way for Gulf restoration to begin.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Alan Crosby)

Topics USA Energy Oil Gas
A slow moving weather system has dumped up to 20 inches of rainfall west and northwest of Houston causing flooding and travel cancellations, the Insurance Council of Texas reports.

Heavy rain primarily east of Austin has sent the Colorado River rising an additional 25 feet causing what the National Weather Service has labeled as moderate flooding.

Numerous flight cancellations and road closings have frustrated travelers in Austin and Houston.

Paul Yura, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in New Braunfels, says there will be a break in the weather today, but that rain chances resume this evening through Thursday.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmet has signed a disaster declaration for the county due to flooding from the storm system, which has been compared to Tropical Storm Alison.

Allison caused $3.5 billion in insured losses, when it dumped more than two feet of rain on the city of Houston on June 8, 2001, the Associated Press reported.

More than 70 subdivisions in the Houston metro area have been flooded, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The Insurance Council of Texas advises both homeowners and vehicle owners to heed weather warnings and watch for rising flood waters to protect their lives and property.

Topics Texas Flood Windstorm
Eight black men won a $5.3 million jury award April 14 in a lawsuit over claims that they endured a hostile work environment at UPS in Lexington, Kentucky, and that an effigy of a black UPS driver was hung from a ceiling.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports a Fayette County Circuit Court jury also found UPS discriminated against one of the eight and that the company retaliated against two men after they complained.

UPS is disappointed with the decision and is considering appeal options, Susan Rosenberg, spokeswoman at corporate headquarters in Atlanta, told The Associated Press by telephone on Thursday.

UPS has strict policies against harassment and discrimination, Rosenberg said. We reinforce that. Theres no retaliation if employees raise concerns.

When the suit was filed in 2014, a UPS spokeswoman said the dummy was part of safety training for drivers and not intended to offend anyone.

The verdict was returned Thursday after about eight hours of deliberations.

The jury awarded $1.5 million for emotional and mental distress to William Barber; $1 million to David Young; $810,000 to Glenn Jackson; $800,000 to John Hughes; $500,000 each to Jeffrey Goree and Donald Ragland; and $100,000 each to Curtis Weathers and Lamont Brown.

There was testimony and evidence that an effigy of a black UPS driver was hung from the ceiling for four days. The lawsuit said a UPS manager made a dummy in a UPS uniform that hung from the ceiling from Aug. 9-13, 2012.

The dummys hands and one foot were tied to a ladder to demonstrate the three points of contact that employees should have when using a ladder. Twine was tied around the dummys neck and to the ceiling. The lawsuit says UPS claimed that was to prevent the dummy from falling forward.

Luke Morgan, one of the plaintiffs lawyers, said there was also testimony about racially hostile words used in the workplace.

Barber, Goree, Hughes, Young and Weathers continue to work for UPS, Morgan said.

Rosenberg said they have continued working while the dispute went through the courts.

We value their experience, their performance, their attention to service, and we expect that from all employees, she said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits
Hawaii lawmakers are considering a bill to close the gap in car insurance coverage for transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft.

Supporters of the bill say that, right now, Uber and Lyft drivers might not be covered by insurance for accidents and injuries depending on whether a passenger is in the car. The Hawaii bill would set rules for insurance requirements for transportation network companies and their drivers.

Nationwide, about 30 states have passed laws to close insurance loopholes for transportation network companies.

The original Hawaii bill would have set regulations for insurance for self-storage facilities. But after another bill to regulate Uber and Lyft died in the House, lawmakers in the Senate gutted the part about self-storage facilities to replace the language with insurance regulations for transportation network companies.

It didnt make it out of the House for some reason, said Sen. Rosalyn Baker, who heads the Senate committee where the bill was changed. It will protect both consumers and the drivers of the transportation network companies, ensuring that they have appropriate coverage.

Supporters of the bill say right now, Uber and Lyft drivers might not be covered by insurance for accidents if the app is on when a passenger isnt in the car. The proposal would also require transportation network companies provide written disclosure of the fact that drivers personal insurance policies may not cover accidents or injuries while theyre working.

A regulatory and statutory framework is needed to protect not only drivers, but their passengers and the public by closing the insurance gaps that left drivers and the public vulnerable in an accident, said Mark Sektnan, vice president of Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

But Uber and Lyft opposed the measure, saying it doesnt set clear and comprehensive rules that protect the publics safety and consumer choice.

The bill contains a number of ambiguities that will result in confusion in the marketplace and likely lead to litigation, said Brian Hughes, the general manager of Uber Hawaii.

The Hawaii bill is very different from those passed in other states, and would have to be substantially changed for Uber to be able to operate under it, Hughes said.

Meanwhile, the Honolulu City Council is also considering a proposal to treat transportation network companies like taxis. Opponents say it could drive companies like Uber and Lyft out of the state.

Related:

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Topics Legislation
Building in flood zones is about to get harder across much of Oregon, due to new federal recommendations.

The government published the recommendations, called a biological opinion, in response to a lawsuit from environmental groups. The Audubon Society of Portland, National Wildlife Federation, Northwest Environmental Defense Center and Association of Northwest Steelheaders had argued that federal flood insurance was encouraging development detrimental to threatened salmon.

Will Stelle, regional administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the agency recommends FEMA make several efforts to change the flood insurance program.

The first effort is a mapping effort, Stelle said. The second effort is development standards to try to steer development out of harms way, in order to protect those most important habitat functions for salmon and steelhead.

The biological opinion does not directly ban development in flood plains along salmon-bearing waterways. But there is a no net loss policy, requiring that developers or property owners mitigate any lost salmon habitat with new habitat.

FEMA said that 251 Oregon communities have flood plain areas along salmon-bearing rivers and streams out of 271 communities with flood plains. Affected areas are up and down the coast, throughout the Willamette Valley, east to the Idaho border and into much of central Oregon.

Some Oregon communities and leaders have expressed concern about the effect rules could have on property owners and potential development near salmon-bearing streams.

FEMAs regional branch chief for Floodplain Management & Insurance, John Graves said that his agency will work with the state of Oregon and local governments on implementation, including new maps and how rules may work on the ground.

Oregon Congressman Peter DiFazio garnered support in the U.S. House for legislation potentially blocking FEMA from following the recommendations.

For over a year and a half, I have worked with local officials and directly engaged with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to stop a bureaucratic overreach . that could supersede Oregons land-use laws and prohibit development on tens of thousands of acres across the state, DiFazio said in a statement supporting the FEMA amendment. We can protect our endangered species without dictating unworkable solutions for communities in flood prone areas.

Environmental groups have signaled their support of the biological opinion, and optimism that the changes to flood insurance could improve recovery efforts for threatened salmon and steelhead.

It has been a long time coming, but we are very pleased that the National Marine Fisheries Service has outlined sensible improvements to FEMAs flood insurance program to help recover listed salmon and steelhead, said Bob Sallinger Conservation Director for the Audubon Society of Portland, one of the environmental groups to file the lawsuit in 2009.

The two agencies at the center of the changes, NOAA and FEMA, do not see eye-to-eye on all aspects of what about the federal flood insurance program should change. As NOAA regional administrator Will Stelle explained on a conference call with reporters, the two agencies differ in at least two areas.

One is where edge areas, what he called erosion zones, are concerned. NOAA believes those areas should be included in FEMAs new mapping efforts. FEMA has said those areas are not within flood zones and should be treated differently. The other difference of opinion relates to map revisions that property owners can request, if, for instance, theyre filling in an area. Stelle and John Graves with FEMA said the two agencies agreed to discuss those situations on a case-by-case basis.

FEMA and NOAA have been down this road before, in response to a similar lawsuit in the Puget Sound area, and implementation ran into some difficulty on the ground. How the recommendations will play out on the ground is on the minds of environmental groups.

Now it is time move forward and ensure that FEMA works with Oregons state and local governments to manage floodplain development in ways that protect salmon and make our communities more resilient in the face of increasing threats from extreme weather events, said Andrew Hawley, staff attorney for the Northwest Environmental Defense Center.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood Pollution Oregon
E arrivata lufficialita, dopo una giornata di voci rincorrenti: per il triennio 2018-2021 sara lemittente Sky a godere dei diritti televisivi per trasmettere, in esclusiva assoluta, le partite non solo delle prossime edizioni dellEuropa League ma anche quelle della massima competizione continentale, la Champions. Un pacchetto da favola per il quale la tv satellitare di Rupert Murdoch avrebbe messo sul piatto unofferta giudicata piu congrua di quella presentata dalla concorrente Mediaset. A dare lannuncio dellaffare concluso e stata la stessa Sky che, in un comunicato, ha spiegato che il nuovo format sviluppato dalla UEFA ci consentira di portare ai nostri abbonati un prodotto rivoluzionario per il calcio europeo in Italia. Per la prima volta la UEFA Champions League e la UEFA Europa League saranno insieme in unesclusiva offerta integrata, che permettera agli appassionati di seguire fino a 7 squadre italiane, mai cosi tante prima dora, impegnate nelle sfide con i migliori club europei.

Sky: Rafforzata leadership

Anche il livello tecnico dellofferta sara altissimo ed e ancora lemittente a rivelare i dettagli: Continueremo a fare innovazione, trasmettendo le partite piu importanti anche in 4K HDR. Questofferta senza precedenti rafforza la posizione di Sky come leader della programmazione sportiva in Italia ed e anche un altro passo importante di sostegno al calcio italiano. Insomma, per i prossimi tre anni, sara unegemonia totale quella della satellitare sul calcio europeo, avendo mantenuto il pacchetto Europa League (gia sua esclusiva) e affiancandola a quello ancor piu appetibile della Champions League ad appannaggio Mediaset dal 2015 al 2018.

Sfida Serie A

Ora la sfida fra i due colossi delle trasmissioni sportive si spostera sui diritti televisivi della prossima Serie A, per la quale si e ancora in attesa di un nuovo bando che, come annunciato dal commissario della Lega, Carlo Tavecchio, avra le stesse caratteristiche del precedente, andato pero a vuoto: solo una delle offerte presentate per i cinque pacchetti, infatti, superava la soglia minima richiesta dalla base dasta. Niente di fatto, quindi, anche in virtu della stessa Mediaset che, in sostanza, ha disertato il bando (giudicato inaccettabile) non presentando alcuna offerta. La battaglia, anche in questo caso, sara sulle esclusive: del resto, dopo essersi vista scivolare via una componente importante come la Champions, sulla Serie A Mediaset dara sicuramente battaglia.
Quorum non raggiunto, come da previsioni. Laffluenza al referendum sulle trivelle si e fermata al 32% con conseguente invalidazione della consultazione che, pure, ha visto un trionfo dei si, i quali hanno sfiorato l80%. Esulta Matteo Renzi che giudica il risultato una vittoria contro quei pochissimi consiglieri regionali e qualche presidente di Regione che volevano farne solo una conta politica Ma, in parte, si dicono soddisfatti anche i sostenitori del comitato per il si per aver acceso un riflettore sulle lobby del petrolio in Italia e sulle scelte energetiche del Paese.

Ma anche le opposizioni che mettono in cassa 15 milioni di votanti che potrebbero fare la differenza al prossimo referendum sulle riforme in autunno. Ed e proprio sullinterpretazione del voto che si riaccende la polemica politica (da un lato Minoranza Dem, Sinistra, FI e M5s; dallaltra il Pd dei renziani). Per il premier i numeri rappresentano un risultato netto, chiaro, superiore alle aspettative: LItalia ha parlato  spiega  Questo referendum e stato respinto. Il presidente del Consiglio prova ad anticipare gli avversari: Ora ci sara la solita triste esibizione dei politici vecchio stile che dichiarano di aver vinto anche quando hanno perso. In politica bisogna saper perdere.

Il riferimento, neanche troppo velato, e al presidente della Regione Puglia Michele Emiliano che ha guidato la pattuglia degli amministratori ribelli nel Pd e si e schierato in prima linea contro le indicazioni dellesecutivo e del partito. Emiliano non intende deporre le armi: Abbiamo superato la soglia di 10 milioni di voti che consideravamo necessaria per poter parlare di un successo: il governo dovra tenerne conto. E da presidente del Consiglio  dice tra laltro  ce stata mancanza di rispetto.

Probabilmente la battaglia si accendera nuovamente quando si tornera a discutere di royalties per le Regioni e delle politiche energetiche del Paese. Allopposizione il M5S, in prima linea nella campagna referendaria, ringrazia i 15 milioni di votanti con un post sul blog di Beppe Grillo e rilancia liniziativa di referendum senza lobbligo del quorum. Forza Italia si affida alle parole di Renato Brunetta: il capogruppo azzurro alla Camera mette il voto sulle trivelle in relazione con il prossimo referendum di ottobre sulle riforme istituzionali affermando che per battere il governo basteranno 13 milioni di voti. Il tema dellastensione ha fatto dibattere piu dellargomento dello stesso referendum, ovvero la possibilita di limitare le concessioni per le trivelle allinterno delle 12 miglia dalla costa.

Renzi si dice dispiaciuto di aver dovuto non votare, spiegando di averlo fatto per tutelare 11mila posti di lavoro di operai e ingegneri del settore petrolifero. Saremo il Paese piu verde dEuropa, aggiunge spiegando che pero le politiche per le rinnovabili non possono essere fatte sprecando lenergia che gia abbiamo ma con il tempo. Alle urne non si e recato neanche il leader di Fi Silvio Berlusconi, mentre le massime cariche dello Stato si sono presentate in giornata. Gli animi sono tesi tra e allinterno dei partiti. A sottolinearlo un tweet del deputato renziano del Pd Ernesto Carbone che, a urne aperte, salutava ironicamente con un ciaone tutti coloro che avevano confidato nel raggiungimento del quorum. Unespressione che e valsa una serie di risposte piccate da parte di esponenti di maggioranza e opposizione.
What Is the Kyoto Protocol?

The Kyoto Protocol was an international agreement that aimed to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the presence of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. The essential tenet of the Kyoto Protocol was that industrialized nations needed to lessen the amount of their CO2 emissions.

The protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, when greenhouse gases were rapidly threatening our climate, life on the earth, and the planet. Today, the Kyoto Protocol lives on in other forms, and its issues are still being discussed.

Key Takeaways The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that called for industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions significantly.

Other accords, like the Doha Amendment and the Paris Climate Agreement, have also tried to curb the global-warming crisis.

Talks begun by the Kyoto Protocol continue in 2021 and are extremely complicated, involving politics, money, and lack of consensus.

The U.S. withdrew from the agreement on the grounds that the mandate was unfair and would hurt the U.S. economy.

The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, which replaced the Kyoto Protocol, includes commitments from all major GHG-emitting countries to reduce their climate-altering pollution.

Understanding the Kyoto Protocol

Background

The Kyoto Protocol mandated that industrialized nations cut their greenhouse gas emissions at a time when the threat of global warming was growing rapidly. The Protocol was linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was adopted in Kyoto, Japan on Dec. 11, 1997, and became international law on Feb. 16, 2005.

Countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol were assigned maximum carbon emission levels for specific periods and participated in carbon credit trading. If a country emitted more than its assigned limit, then it would be penalized by receiving a lower emissions limit in the following period.

Major Tenets

Developed, industrialized countries made a promise under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce their annual hydrocarbon emissions by an average of 5.2% by the year 2012. This number would represent about 29% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions.

Targets depended on the individual country. As a result, each nation had a different target to meet by that year.

Members of the European Union (EU) pledged to cut emissions by 8%, while the U.S. and Canada promised to reduce their emissions by 7% and 6%, respectively, by 2012.

$100 billion The amount of the Kyoto Protocol fund that was meant to aid developing countries in selecting non-greenhouse-emitting industrialized processes and technologies.

Responsibilities of Developed vs. Developing Nations

The Kyoto Protocol recognized that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity. As such, the protocol placed a heavier burden on developed nations than less-developed nations.

The Kyoto Protocol mandated that 37 industrialized nations plus the EU cut their GHG emissions. Developing nations were asked to comply voluntarily, and more than 100 developing countries, including China and India, were exempted from the Kyoto agreement altogether.

A Particular Function for Developing Countries

The protocol separated countries into two groups: Annex I contained developed nations, and Non-Annex I referred to developing countries. The protocol placed emission limitations on Annex I countries only. Non-Annex I nations participated by investing in projects designed to lower emissions in their countries.

For these projects, developing countries earned carbon credits, which they could trade or sell to developed countries, allowing the developed nations a higher level of maximum carbon emissions for that period. In effect, this function helped the developed countries to continue emitting GHG vigorously.

The United States' Involvement

The United States, which had ratified the original Kyoto agreement, dropped out of the protocol in 2001. The U.S. believed that the agreement was unfair because it called only for industrialized nations to limit emissions reductions, and it felt that doing so would hurt the U.S. economy.

Kyoto Mechanisms

The Kyoto Protocol established three different mechanisms to enable countries additional ways to meet their emission-limitation target. The three mechanisms are:

The International Emissions Trading mechanism : Countries that have excess emission units permitted to them but not used can engage in carbon trading and sell these units to countries over their target.

: Countries that have excess emission units permitted to them but not used can engage in carbon trading and sell these units to countries over their target. The Clean Development mechanism: Countries with emission reducing or limiting commitments may implement emission-reducing projects in developing countries to earn certified emission reduction credits.

Countries with emission reducing or limiting commitments may implement emission-reducing projects in developing countries to earn certified emission reduction credits. The Joint Implementation mechanism: Countries with emission reducing or limiting commitments to earn emission reducing units from a project in another party.

Additional Kyoto Protocol Changes

Global emissions were still on the rise by 2005, the year the Kyoto Protocol became international laweven though it was adopted in 1997. Things seemed to go well for many countries, including those in the EU. They planned to meet or exceed their targets under the agreement by 2011. But others continued to fall short.

The United States and Chinatwo of the world's biggest emittersproduced enough greenhouse gases to mitigate any of the progress made by nations who met their targets. In fact, there was an increase of about 40% in emissions globally between 1990 and 2009.

The Doha Amendment Extended Kyoto Protocol to 2020

In December 2012, after the first commitment period of the Protocol ended, parties to the Kyoto Protocol met in Doha, Qatar, to adopt an amendment to the original Kyoto agreement. This so-called Doha Amendment added new emission-reduction targets for the second commitment period, 20122020, for participating countries.

The Doha Amendment had a short life. In 2015, at the sustainable development summit held in Paris, all UNFCCC participants signed yet another pact, the Paris Climate Agreement, which effectively replaced the Kyoto Protocol.

The Paris Climate Agreement

The Paris Climate Agreement is a landmark environmental pact that was adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 to address climate change and its negative effects. The agreement includes commitments from all major GHG-emitting countries to cut their climate-altering pollution and to strengthen those commitments over time.

Every five years, countries engage in the Global Stocktake, which is an assessment of their progress under the Paris Climate Agreement.

A major directive of the deal calls for reducing global GHG emissions to limit the earth's temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees (preferring a 1.5-degree increase) Celsius above preindustrial levels. The Paris Agreement also provides a way for developed nations to assist developing nations in their efforts to adapt climate control, and it creates a framework for monitoring and reporting countries climate goals transparently.

The Kyoto Protocol Today

In 2016, when the Paris Climate Agreement went into force, the United States was one of the principal drivers of the agreement, and President Obama hailed it as a tribute to American leadership.

As a candidate for president at that time, Donald Trump criticized the agreement as a bad deal for the American people and pledged to withdraw the United States if elected. In 2017, then-President Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, saying that it would undermine the U.S. economy.

The former president did not begin the formal withdrawal process until Nov. 4, 2019. The U.S. formally withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement on Nov. 4, 2020, the day after the 2020 presidential election, in which Donald Trump lost his reelection bid to Joseph Biden.

On January 20, 2021, his first day in office, President Biden began the process of rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, which officially took effect on Feb. 19, 2021.

Biden Presidency

Although the Kyoto Protocol no longer exists, many steps are currently being taken in the long-term preservation. Recent legislative action in support of climate change initiatives put forth under both the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement include:

A $2.3 billion fund for its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program to support communities increase resilience to extreme weather.

Proposals to expand offshore wind energy opportunities with the potential of 700,000 acres of alternative energy to power over three million homes.

Reinvigorated reforestation efforts that will address a backlog of four million acres and plan more than one billion trees over the next decade.

Kyoto Protocol Timeline

Below are some relevant dates relating to the development, implementation, and revisions to the Kyoto Protocol:

Dec. 11, 1997: The Kyoto Protocol is adopted at the Conference of the Parties (COP 3) in Kyoto, Japan.

Nov. 14, 1998: As a result of a two week meeting that concluded on the 14th, 170 governments adopt a two-year plan titled the Buenos Aires Plan of Action to reduce the risk of global climate change.

March 16, 1998: The Kyoto Protocol becomes open for signatures.

March 15, 1999: One year after being open for signatures, the Kyoto Protocol had received 84 signatures.

Feb. 16, 2005: The Kyoto Protocol is entered into force.

Dec. 8, 2012: The Doha Amendment is adopted for a second commitment period.

March 25, 2013: Afghanistan becomes the 192nd signatory of the Kyoto Protocol. As of August 2022, there remains 192 signatories.

Dec. 12, 2015: The Paris Agreement is adopted by 196 parties at COP21 in Paris, largely superseding the Kyoto Protocol.

Nov. 4, 2016: The Paris Agreement is entered into force.

Dec. 31, 2020: After obtaining acceptance by 147 parties and meeting the minimum threshold of acceptance requirement, the Doha Amendment is entered into force.

What Is the Primary Purpose of the Kyoto Protocol? The Kyoto Protocol was an agreement among developed nations to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and greenhouse gases (GHG) in an effort to minimize the impacts of climate change.

Why Didnt the U.S. Sign the Kyoto Protocol? The United States backed out of the Kyoto Protocol agreement in 2001 on the basis that it unfairly burdened developed nations. The treaty called only for developed nations to reduce emissions, which the U.S. believed would unfairly stifle its economy.

How Many Countries Signed the Kyoto Protocol? After becoming a signatory in 2013, Afghanistan became the 192nd and last signatory of the Kyoto Protocol.

Why Was the Kyoto Protocol Created? The Kyoto Protocol was created in response to concerns surrounding climate change. The treat was an agreement between developed nations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gases. The framework implemented the United Nation's target of reducing global warming consequences including a general rise in seal levels, disappearance of some island states, melting of glaciers, and increase in extreme climate-related events.

The Bottom Line

The Kyoto Protocol is largely considered a landmark legislative achievement as one of the more prominent international treaties in regards to climate change. Though the treaty has been superseded by the Paris Agreement, the Kyoto Protocol remains an important part of environmental and conservation history.
On December 24, 2020, the U.K. and the EU struck a provisional free-trade agreement that ensures the two sides can trade goods without tariffs or quotas. However, key details of the future relationship remain uncertain, such as trade in services. The deal was approved by the U.K. parliament, but still needs to be approved by the EU Parliament. However, the EU currently put the deal into place provisionally on January 1, 2021 for two months while the EU parliament scrutinizes and takes time to ratify it.

Since Brexit, the U.K.'s departure from the European Union (EU), on Jan. 31, 2020, the U.K. and EU have been trying to negotiate a new trade deal to govern the economic relationship between them. They have until midnight on Dec. 31, 2020. Then, the transition period during which the U.K. has stayed in the EU single market will end and U.K.-EU trade will be governed only by World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

Since British voters passed the 2016 referendum to leave the EU, the terms of the parties post-Brexit relationship have been unresolved. For a long time, the options were characterized as a hard Brexit, a complete split with few or none of the prior trade arrangements continuing, or a soft Brexit, with their new relationship carrying forward many of the close, favorable conditions of the former arrangements.

However, as the deadline for reaching a trade agreement nears, the question has stopped being whether Brexit will be hard or soft, but whether or not there will be any trade deal post-Brexit, or no deal at all.

Current State of Negotiations

Currently, the main issues holding up a deal are EU fishing rights in U.K. waters and maintaining a level playing field in terms of economic competition. A level playing field basically means that in order to have access to the EU single market, the U.K. will need to abide by the same rules and regulations to ensure that it doesn't have an unfair advantage over EU businesses.

Fishing rights seem to be the principal obstacle to a deal. Even though fishing amounts to less than 1% of EU trade, it is important to several European countries, particularly France, because of domestic politics. Already the U.K. has announced that Royal Navy patrol ships are ready to protect U.K. fishing grounds in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

An agreement on the terms for a level playing field appears likely. The EU and U.K. already had been prepared to maintain their current environmental, labor, and social standards as a baseline. The U.K., which had been reluctant to agree to comply with any higher standards that the EU might adopt in the future, has indicated it can agree to a mechanism to preserve fair competition with respect to regulatory standards in the future.

Repercussions of a Deal or No-Deal Brexit

Although failure to reach a trade agreement would be detrimental to both the U.K. and EU, the U.K. would be more adversely affected because the EU market accounts for approximately half of British export trade. Some British politicians would accept a no-deal Brexit in order to have the freedom to set up the U.K.s own trade deals and rules. Other British officials view this approach as economically perilous and burdensome, requiring significant time for the U.K. to draw up its own independent trade agreements with the EU and other countries that have treaties with the EU. The leader of the opposition Labor Party, Keir Starmer, who was against leaving the EU, has criticized the Tory governments failure to make a deal. With only a limited time left to strike a deal, it is likely that even if one is achieved, it will be a thin deal. That means one that leaves many issues unresolved to be dealt with in later negotiations, likely creating problems.

A no-deal Brexit will result in tariffs on EU-U.K. trade and extensive new regulations affecting the cost and availability of good and services. In addition, companies and individuals engaged in cross-border business will relocate personnel and operations, obtain new licenses and registrations, and make other operational adjustments. This will result in imported goods becoming much more expensive, squeezing consumer spending across the U.K. and weighing on the many firms that depend on European materials and do business with European partners. Even if a deal is reached, the U.K.s departure from the single market is expected to have a negative, albeit less severe, impact on the British economy.

Economists across the world have repeatedly warned that Brexit would entail increased costs and regulatory challenges, particularly for the British. When economists discuss a no-deal scenario, their predictions have been even more dire. Over the next 10 years, a no-deal outcome has been projected to result in the U.K.'s gross domestic product (GDP) being 8% lower than it would be otherwise. The immediate impact on equity markets and currencies may not be as large as you'd expect. This is because markets have likely already priced in a no-deal Brexit to a significant degree, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may have a larger short-term impact.

The chair of Tesco PLC., the enormous groceries and merchandise retailer, recently predicted that a no-deal outcome could result in a 5% increase in British food bills. In addition to tariffs affecting a vast array of products from vegetables to automobiles, the logistics of border checks and new paperwork requirements will increase costs and potentially compromise the availability of goods. Many fear chaos at the ports. Adding the disruption of a no-deal Brexit to the pandemics economic impact poses issues throughout the British economy and beyond.
Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) goes against the grain. In todays world of shopping via smartphone and next-day delivery, Costco remains the largest warehouse retailer in the United States. Its secret is simple: Instead of trying to compete on margins alone, the company sells membership cards. And it sells a lot of them.

Costco counted roughly 111.6 million membership households in eight countries in 2021. That brought in roughly $3.8 billion a year in membership fees alone. The company boasts a membership renewal rate of over 89%, so even when sales are depressed it has a decent and predictable cushion of revenue.

That's good for investors who have already bought in, but it means that Costco's shares are never really priced low.

Key Takeaways Costco is a popular alternative to traditional retailers because it offers consumer goods at wholesale prices.

Membership sales are key to Costco's business model. In 2021, the company made $3.8 billion in membership fees alone.

Costco has a unique and highly profitable business model but it was late to adapt to the e-commerce world.

The company is now seeking to develop its online presence through e-commerce, same-day or two-day deliveries.

28% of Costco's U.S. net sales are in California, exposing the company to any potential economic downturns in that state.



Getting in at the Right Price

Investors are willing to pay more per share relative to the company's earnings because they believe the company will be able to continue to grow going forward. As of Oct. 29, 2021, Costco's shares were trading at $491.54, a growth of over 20% from the previous year.

A Premium Price

Costco had a trailing twelve months price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 40.02, and that is fairly high for its industry. In comparison, the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has a P/E ratio of 11.7.

Costco has a dividend yield of 0.71%, which could help make up for the high prices, but some other companies are priced lower and pay a higher dividend. For instance, Wal-Mart is priced at $139 and has a dividend yield of 1.58%.

Costco is expanding its in-store pickup option, an advantage over pure online retail competitors.

Those high share prices are good news for current investors, but prospective buyers might be cautious about investing in a stock that has already reached consistently high prices. Future gains will depend on the company's ability to continue growing its offerings and customer base.



The E-Commerce Issue

While getting in at the right price is good advice for any investment, the risk is particularly pronounced in Costco stock. There's still a question of whether the company will be able to keep up with its customers' changing habits. Online shopping and e-commerce represent potential threats to Costco's business model, allowing customers to find the lowest prices from their own homes.

Although Costco still commands significant customer loyalty, many shoppers are steadily shifting to online shopping via smartphones or laptops.

That Was Then

Back in late 2014, Costco, in a 10-K filing, acknowledged that a multichannel experience is critical to remaining competitive in the modern economy. The company identified the need to keep pace with its members' expectations as well as new developments in the retail space.

Costco said that it was making technology investments in its website and mobile apps, but it cautioned, "If we are unable to make, improve or develop relevant member-facing technology in a timely manner, our ability to compete and our results of operations could be adversely affected."

Initially, it didn't look like Costco's business model adapted well to that hyper-connected reality. "We're not going to be the company that delivers two different kinds of cereal to your doorstep at 7 a.m. as long as you order by 10 p.m. the night before," said chief financial officer (CFO) Richard Galanti in a conference call back in 2015.

111 million The number of households with Costco memberships in FY 2021.

A Strategic Recalculation

Galanti may have revised his thoughts since then, as the e-commerce juggernaut rolls on.

By 2021, Costco had launched e-commerce websites in eight countries, with same-day grocery delivery at most of its locations in the mainland U.S. E-commerce comparable sales were up 44% over the prior year, driven largely by an 80% increase in the first half of the year.

The company also expanded its in-store pickup option, one of the rare instances for which brick-and-mortar retail has an edge on Amazon (for now).

When Galanti made that comment about delivering groceries overnight, e-commerce accounted for just 3% of Costco's net sales. By 2021, the figure had reached 7%. That's good growth, though perhaps not enough to keep Amazon's Jeff Bezos awake at night.

The Business Model

Costco's brick-and-mortar business model is still the heart of the operation. Everything is in a warehouse setting, and the selection is limited. Pricing is unique to each store or area, and it is based as much on local' shopping habits as it is on whatever deals Costco can negotiate.

The value of being a member comes from customers purchasing staples and other necessities in bulk, and perhaps filling up their tanks on pantry-stocking trips. The margins on those items are low, but Costco makes it work through high-volume selling and the membership system.

Supply Chain Fragility

As a global retailer with operations in many countries, Costco is particularly vulnerable to supply-chain disruptions, particularly of perishable goods. This fragility became evident at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the company had to limit purchases of basic goods like toilet paper and bottled water.

Although supplies later returned to pre-pandemic levels, the company still considers it a potential threat to Costco's business operations. Although the company does not rely on any one supplier or product, any major disruption to the global supply chains could affect the company as well.

As the company explained in their latest SEC filing, the pandemic "is continuing to impact the global supply chain, with restrictions and limitations on business activities causing disruption and delay, which have strained certain domestic and international supply chains, and could continue to negatively affect the flow or availability of certain products."



Customer Loyalty Is Key

Investors should understand Costco's business model before investing in the company's stock because it is a very real risk given current trends.

If Costco's members end up deciding that membership is not worth itfor example, if they find that they can find similar deals at Amazon or Walmart without ever having to leave the house, or if they decide they can buy better-quality goods for a similar pricethe company loses out.

There is the issue of membership fees, which are essential to the company's business model. Another factor to watch is Kirkland Signature, Costco's private label. Because Costco owns the brand, it earns a higher margin on its products. If there is a quality issue, and the company is no longer able to command loyalty to the Kirkland Signature brand, Costco's profits will suffer.

All Roads Lead to California

Then there is the issue of geography. While Costco had roughly 815 warehouses around the world in mid-2021, the bulk of its income still comes from the U.S. As such, its sales are vulnerable to the domestic economy, which is not an unusual risk.

However, 28% of Costco's domestic sales come from a single state, California. The state's economy is strong right now, but if that changes, Costco's sales could take a hit. The company is also a defendant in several California lawsuits, many of them class actions by former employees. Unfavorable judgments in these litigations could damage Costco's profitability and business operations.


Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) is a holding company legally domiciled in the Cayman Islands but which conducts its e-commerce businesses through its Chinese subsidiaries and variable interest entities (VIEs). Its primary business is to offer a digital marketplace where consumers and merchants can connect and buy and sell from each other. But the company has expanded its operations to include cloud computing, digital media and entertainment, and other business offerings. Alibaba operates its business through seven primary segments, led by its giant e-commerce operations.

Chief among its competitors are other established Chinese e-commerce and Internet companies, such as Tencent Holdings Ltd. (0700), as well as global and regional e-commerce companies, such as Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN). Since Alibaba also operates in the cloud-computing business and digital-media and digital-entertainment businesses, it competes with companies specializing in those markets as well.

Key Takeaways Alibaba provides digital marketplaces for merchants and consumers.

Alibaba's largest business is its core e-commerce operations.

Alibaba aims to be a leader in the development of the infrastructure of commerce.

Alibaba announced in early December that deputy CFO Toby Xu would succeed Maggie Wu as the company's new CFO, effective April 1, 2022.

Alibaba's Financials

Alibaba files financial statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and does so in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The company follows a reporting schedule where the end of its fiscal year (FY) occurs at the end of March.

The company also reports certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, amortization, and depreciation (EBITDA), and adjusted EBITA, which refers to earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization. Although Alibaba's reporting currency is the Renminbi, the company provides conversions into U.S. dollars, which are used in this story.

Alibaba reported financial results in late February for Q3 of its 2022 fiscal year (FY), the three-month period ended Dec. 31, 2021. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders fell 74.3% year over year (YOY) to $3.2 billion. Revenue, however, rose 9.7% YOY to $38.1 billion. The company's total costs and expenses rose 36.9% YOY, much faster than revenue grew, thus weighing on net income. Adjusted EBITA, the profit metric Alibaba uses for its individual business segments, was down 26.8% YOY to $7.0 billion.



In its quarterly earnings report the company highlighted the growth in its global annual active consumers, which increased to approximately 1.3 billion. Alibaba also noted that its earnings results were adversely impacted by a goodwill impairment of $3.9 billion related to its digital media and entertainment segment as well as decreases in net gains arising from changes in the fair value of its equity investments.



Alibabas Business Segments

Beginning in Q3 FY 2022, Alibaba reorganized its reporting structure. The company increased the number of reportable operating segments from four to seven. Those seven segments are as follows:

China Commerce

International Commerce

Local Consumer Services

Cainiao

Cloud

Digital Media and Entertainment

Innovation Initiatives and Others

The company provides segment breakdowns of revenue and adjusted EBITA. The company also reports certain unallocated items, which primarily relate to corporate administrative costs and other miscellaneous items not allocated to its individual segments. These unallocated items were excluded from the percentages in the pie charts above and in the individual business segment sections below.

China Commerce

Alibaba's China commerce segment primarily includes retail businesses, such as Taobao, Tmall, Taobao Deals, Taocaicai, Tmall Supermarket, Tmall Global, Freshippo, Alibaba Health, and Sun Art. The segment also includes its wholesale business 1688.com.

The China commerce segment reported revenue of $27.0 billion in Q3 FY 2022, up 6.8% compared to the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITA fell 19.7% YOY to $9.1 billion. The segment accounts for nearly 71% of the company's total revenue and nearly all of its adjusted EBITA.



International Commerce

Alibaba's international commerce segment primarily includes the company's international retail and wholesale businesses, such as Lazada, AliExpress, Trendyol, Daraz, and Alibaba.com.

Revenue for the international commerce segment grew 18.2% YOY to $2.6 billion in Q3 FY 2022. The segment's adjusted EBITA was -$458 million, an adjusted EBITA loss that more than doubled from the adjusted loss in the year-ago quarter. The segment comprises about 7% of companywide revenue.



Local Consumer Services

Alibaba's local consumer services primarily includes location-based services, such as: Ele.me, a local services and on-demand delivery platform; Amap, a provider of digital map, navigation, and real-time traffic information; Fliggy, an online travel platform; and Taoxianda, a service for helping retailers open online stores.

The local consumer services segment posted revenue of $1.9 billion in Q3 FY 2022, up 27.3% YOY. Adjusted EBITA was -$783 million, an adjusted EBITA loss that widened by 15.3% compared to the year-ago quarter's adjusted loss. The segment accounts for about 5% of Alibaba's total revenue.

Cainiao

Alibaba's Cainiao segment primarily includes the company's domestic and international one-stop-shop logistics services and supply chain management solutions. It works to address the varying logistic needs of merchants and consumers at scale.

Revenue for the Cainiao segment increased 15.1% YOY to $2.1 billion in Q3 FY 2022. The segment reported adjusted EBITA of -$14 million, more than two and a half times narrower than the adjusted EBITA loss in the year-ago quarter. The segment comprises more than 5% of companywide revenue.

Cloud

Alibaba's cloud segment is comprised of: Alibaba Cloud, which offers a complete suite of cloud services globally, including database, storage, network virtualization, security, management and application, big data analytics, and other services; and DingTalk, a mobile workspace platform for enterprises.

The cloud segment reported revenue of $3.1 billion in Q3 FY 2022, up 20.4% YOY. It posted $21 million in adjusted EBITA, a turnaround from the adjusted EBITA loss reported in the year-ago quarter. The segment accounts for about 8% of total revenue and a small fraction of total adjusted EBITA.

Digital Media and Entertainment

Alibaba's digital media and entertainment segment includes: Youku, an online long-form video platform that allows users to search, view, and share video content across multiple devices; Alibaba Pictures, an Internet-driven platform covering content production, promotion and distribution, intellectual property, licensing and integrated management, cinema ticketing management and data services for the entertainment industry; and the company's other content platforms and online game business.

Revenue for the digital media and entertainment segment grew 0.4% YOY to $1.3 billion in Q3 FY 2022. It posted adjusted EBITA of -$216 million, a slightly narrower adjusted EBITA loss than in the year-ago quarter. The segment comprises more than 3% of Alibaba's total revenue.

Innovation Initiatives and Others

Alibaba's innovation initiatives and others segment includes: Tmall Genie, which offers a range of IoT-enabled smart home appliances, such as smart speakers, lights, and remote controls; and DAMO Academy, a global research program that seeks to integrate scientific innovations with industrial applications.

The innovation initiatives and others segment reported revenue of $163 million in Q3 FY 2022, up 63.1% YOY. The segment posted adjusted EBITA of -$252 million, an adjusted EBITA loss that widened 54.6% compared to the year-ago quarter. The segment comprises a small fraction of companywide revenue.



Alibaba's Recent Developments

On Dec. 6, 2021, Alibaba announced that Toby Xu, the company's deputy chief financial officer (CFO), will succeed Maggie Wu as the new CFO, effective April 1, 2022. The company said that Wu would continue as a partner in the Alibaba Partnership and also serve as an executive director on the Alibaba board.



How Alibaba Reports Diversity and Inclusiveness

As part of our effort to improve the awareness of the importance of diversity in companies, we offer investors a glimpse into the transparency of Alibaba and its commitment to diversity, inclusiveness, and social responsibility. We examined the data Alibaba releases to show you how it reports the diversity of its board and workforce to help readers make educated purchasing and investing decisions.

Below is a table of potential diversity measurements. It shows whether Alibaba discloses its data about the diversity of its board of directors, C-Suite, general management, and employees overall, as is marked with a . It also shows whether Alibaba breaks down those reports to reveal the diversity of itself by race, gender, ability, veteran status, and LGBTQ+ identity.
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BREA, Calif. - October 19, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle ("EV") manufacturer, announces the US Bankruptcy Court approval on Oct. 13th, 2022 of its acquisition of electric vehicle company ELMS's (Electric Last Mile Solutions) assets in an all cash purchase.

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Breaking EV Stock News: Mullen Automotive (NASDAQ: $MULN) Taps Former GM Executive John Schwegman as Chief Commercial Officer for Next Phase of EV Growth

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Vancouver, Delta, BC - October 20, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Investorideas.com, a leading investor news resource covering EV and automotive stocks releases a special report featuring Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), covering the continued growth of the EV market as government policy and infrastructure plans sync up with consumer and investor interest in the EV space.

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NEW YORK, NY - October 19, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow, has acquired the confidential computing and privacy intellectual property (IP) plus software assets of Zero2A PTE LTD ("ZeroTrust Platform"), a software company based in Singapore.

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Apple takes security and privacy seriously, which gives us peace of mind when we buy a device like the iPhone. But theyre not immune to hacking and snooping. To prove this, German hacker Karsten Nohl demonstrated his ability to snoop on phone calls and text messages during an episode of the CBS show 60 Minutes.

According to Nohl, the iPhone is no more secure than an Android device. All phones are the same, he told 60 Minutes Sharyn Alfonsi, and with the right technology, you can track a persons whereabouts, listen to their calls, read their text messages, and more.

All Nohl needs to do this is the targets phone number. To put his claims to the test, CBS took a standard, off-the-shelf iPhone and gave it to Representative Ted Lieu, a congressman from California. They then gave the phone number to Nohl.

As soon as I called Congressman Lieu on his phone, Nohl and his team were listening and recording both ends of our conversation, Alfonsi reports. They were able to do it by exploiting a security flaw they discovered in Signaling System Seven or SS7.

SS7 is said to be a little-known but vital global network that connects phone carriers. Every single person with a cellphone uses SS7 to call or text each other, and billions of calls and texts travel through it every day. It is also the network that allows phones to roam abroad.

Nohl didnt just use SS7 to intercept phone calls and text messages; he also used it to track Congressman Lieus trip to Washington and back home. Whats more, Nohl can even use this method when location services are disabled on the target device.

The good news is, Nohl isnt a bad hacker. He works for a security research firm that advises Fortune 500 companies on security during the day, and looks for vulnerabilities in the devices we use everyday  smartphones, SIM cards, USB sticks, and more  during the night.

Nohl and his firm were legally granted access to SS7 by international carriers. In exchange, the carriers wanted Nohl to test the networks vulnerability to attack, explains 60 Minutes. The reason for this is bad hackers have proven they can gain access to SS7 illegally.

Due to the size of SS7 and the number of carriers that use it, securing it has become incredibly difficult, and some carriers are easier to access than others. The cellular phone trade association claims that although there have been breaches abroad, U.S. cellphone networks are secure.

However, the iPhone used by Congressman Lieu was connected to a U.S. carrier.

Karsten Nohls team automatically logged the number of every phone that called Congressman Lieu, reports Alfonsi, which means theres a lot more damage that could be done than just intercepting that one phone call.

Once Nohl has the cellphone numbers of Lieus associates, he can hack them, too. Nohl says that political leaders and business executives are targeted most by SS7 hacks, obviously because their communications could be of high value.

But anyone who uses a cellphone is at risk here, and no matter how good the software on your smartphone might be, it cant make SS7 any more secure. The good news is, SS7 isnt the most common method a hacker will use to access your phone.

John Hering, founder of Lookout, shows CBS another more common method that steals data from devices connected to a malicious Wi-Fi network.

This is called spoofing; users believe they are connecting to a safe network  perhaps in a hotel or coffee shop  but all the data that passes through it is intercepted, including the apps being used, account IDs, and even credit card information.

We live in a world where we cannot trust the technology that we use, Hering said. Fortunately, we can protect ourselves from attacks like this one by connecting only to trusted networks, and being careful about what we do while using public networks.
Joshua Molloy (24), from Ballylinan, County Laois was arrested along with two Britons having entered Iraq from Syria. The men were attempting to return home having been fighting alongside the Kurds in Syrian against the Islamic State group.

The three men were detained in the Iraqi city of Erbil, on Friday, the Sunday Times (subscription needed) reports. The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs has said it stands ready to provide consular assistance to Molloy. The British Foreign Office is also working on the two British citizens cases (Joe Akerman and Jac Holmes).

Molloy travelled to the Middle East in April 2015 to fight against the Islamic State terrorists, alongside the Kurds. They had been fighting with a Syriac Christian group, the MFS, which is allied to the Kurdish YPG in the fight against ISIS.

In the past 18 months hundreds of Westerners have joined Kurdish, Assyrian and other military units in the fight against ISIS.

The 24-year-old went to school at Ardscoil na Trionoide, in Athy, County Kildare. He joined the British Army after school and served for four years. He left due to a lack of military action, the Irish Independent reports.

Before leaving for the Middle East Molloy told his family he was traveling to Turkey to with the humanitarian aid services.

Molloy had been interviewed a year ago, when he arrived in Syria for the first time. He said he was motivated to fight due to the his disgust at the Islamic State and their attempts to establish a global theocracy.

The Laois man and the two Britons were arrested on Friday by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) as they were trying to return home. They were entering Iraq illegally from Syria. The KRG has closed the Iraq-Syria border.

The Sunday Times reports that they group had been promised help from the KFG but when this did not materialize they had made their own way across the border.

A spokesman for the British Foreign Office said they are working on the ground in Iraq to secure the release of the men.

A spokesman for Irelands Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, and the Department said We are aware of the case and we stand ready to provide consular assistance. Minister Flanagan is being kept fully informed.

Mark Campbell, a British-based activist for Kurdish rights, said Molloy parents are very worried.

He said "Joshua's parents would like to appeal to the KRG to release him and his friends."

Campbell last spoke to the men last Wednesday when they arrived in Sinjar, on the Syrian border.

Hannah Lucinda-Smith is a Turkish correspondent with The Times in Britain who interviewed Molloy when he arrived in Syria in 2015. Speaking to Newstalk she outlined how Molloy came to be arrested.

"The northern Iraqi has been tightening up its policy on those foreigners going to join the Kurds in Syria.

She continued "They were unable to cross the border legally into northern Iraq - they were waiting for some weeks at the border trying to cross it illegally".

"When they finally did they were arrested by Iraqi security services; so they're now in a prison in Erbil, which is the capital of northern Iraq.
Ireland has been ranked as the most expensive country in the EU for ex-pats in a comprehensive global survey of over 14,000 ex-pats.

Of the 64 countries analyzed in the poll, Ireland was named as the sixth dearest for foreign nationals, one place behind non-EU nation Switzerland.

Soaring rental and healthcare costs were pinpointed as the two main bugbears for struggling ex-pats based in Ireland.

Ecuador, Poland and the Czech Republic were ranked as the cheapest destinations for ex-pats, while the three destinations with the highest costs of living were -- perhaps surprisingly -- found to be Mozambique, Nigeria and Brazil.

The study was carried out by Munich-based InterNations, a vast global network and information site, representing more than two million people who work and live abroad.

Commenting on the findings, spokeswoman Vera Grossman said, "It's important to note that our cost of living index is based on respondents' subjective rating of the cost of living in their host countries, rather than on an actual comparison of local costs for a selection of certain goods.

"As such, the results do not necessarily reflect the average costs across the country, but are instead heavily influenced by the

respondents' perceptions, as well as their lifestyle.

"Keeping all of this in mind, we can take a closer look at participants' answers. In Mozambique, 23 percent of respondents went so far as to rate the local cost of living as very bad, while in Ireland only six percent said the same. Altogether, close to three-quarters of ex-pats in Mozambique rated this factor negatively, while 63 percent did so in Ireland.

"So while neither Ireland nor Mozambique are doing particularly well in this regard, expenses in the latter are subjectively worse. This is also the case when looking at rankings for affordable housing [Ireland 54th vs. Mozambique 63rd] and healthcare [Ireland 62nd vs. Mozambique 64th]."

Another recent survey by InterNations ranked Ireland as the fourth friendliest country in the world behind Myanmar, Mexico and Portugal.

The company's CEO, Mark Zeeck, said, "Ex-pats perceive the Irish as being one of the most welcoming people in the world, always happy to show you around and share their stories.

"For all the Irish beauty, rich history and culture, it is the friendly and engaging locals who make life in Ireland such a memorable experience."
An eve of polling party wishing Hillary Clinton the Luck of the Irish will be attended by hundreds of Clinton fans Monday night at the Wheeltapper Pub in the FitzPatrick Grand Central hotel at 44th between Lexington and 3rd Ave starting at 6-30pm. All Hillary backers are invited to come and celebrate a great New York campaign.

The party to wish the luck of the Irish on Hillary has been organized by Irish Americans for Hillary.

Host John FitzPatrick said the idea came as Bill Clinton attended two Irish events in the last few weeks and got an incredible reception.

We know it will be a close race against Sanders, no matter what the polls say, and we just wanted to get our crowd out one more time and make sure they were ready to vote

There is a lot at stake for Ireland in this election. Clinton is the only candidate who has reached out, we have not heard from Bernie Sanders who appears not to care.

The issues of our undocumented, of future visas for Irish coming to America, support for Irelands position on Britain staying in the European Union, making sure the work of the peace process is continued from America, among other things are all vital.

The Irish in New York State represent 16 percent of the population, according to the US census, but it does not break down the numbers into Republican and Democrats.

The NY Times revealed last week that many conservative Irish are voting for Trump and are among his biggest backers.

We have to make clear there is huge Irish constituency for Hillary, said FitzPatrick. We are asking everyone to show and hoping for some great VIPS and a great night.
Five sketches, which were left unpublished for a century, show Irish nationalist hero Roger Casement in the Tower of London just days before his execution in 1916.

Casement was captured after landing in Ireland from a German submarine and indicted for high treason. Caesment was convicted following a three day trial at the Old Bailey in London and sentenced to execution by hanging in Pentonville Prison on August 2, 1916.

The images were drawn in 1916 on May 9 and 11 by Major John Bernard Jack Arbuthnot, an officer in the Scots Guards and also an amateur artist, cartoonist, and part-time journalist, reports the Independent.

One of the drawings shows him reclining on a bench with one leg crossed under him as the other hangs down, revealing a ragged trouser and a battered boot without shoelaces. The sketch reveals how Casement had not been allowed to change his clothes after he was arrested in an effort to demoralize him. His laces, necktie and braces were taken from him to prevent a suicide attempt.

The images are so important because they are the only ones of Casement in the Tower and the first of him in captivity, says Angus Mitchell, a lecturer at Limerick University and the author of "16 Lives: Roger Casement," the recently published biography of Casement.

Writing for the Independent, Patrick Cockburn, Arbuthnots grandson, says that Major Arbuthnot was stationed in Whitehall in London in 1916 when he was put in charge of supervising Casements meetings with his lawyer, George Gavan Duffy, in the Tower.

Read more: What to make of a gay 1916 icon? Roger Casements heroic status was denied

Major Arbuthnot evidently had sympathy for Casement because he expanded his authority by telling the prisoners cousins, Gertrude and Elizabeth Bannister, who had been desperately searching for him, where he was imprisoned.

Gertrude later recorded that we saw a certain Major Arbuthnot who showed courtesy and sympathy, writes Cockburn.

He contacted the Governor of the Tower for them so they could visit Casement and told them to send in clothes for him. During their visit, the Major brought Casement to see them and ordered the two soldiers guarding him out of the room while the Bannister sisters spoke to him.

Their meeting must have been just after Major Arbuthnot sketched Casement on May 9 and 11, when he met George Gavan Duffy and was still wearing the same clothes, described as being by now filthy and verminous, which he was wearing when arrested at Banna Strand in Kerry on April 21. Four of the drawings are in pencil and one is in pen and ink and all are signed and dated by Major Arbuthnot with brief captions about where and with whom Casement is pictured.

Soon after the sisters saw Casement, he was moved to Brixton prison and then to Pentonville, where he was executed.

In the so-called Black Diaries, which may or may not have been forged, Casement describes his life as a homosexual.

The diaries were used by the British government to damage his reputation and undermine the efforts to prevent his execution.

Cockburn says he remembers seeing one of the Casement drawings when he was a child, but did not understand their significance. He explains why the sketches remained unknown for 100 years.

The reason the sketches remained unknown is that Major Arbuthnot himself did not care about their historic significance and kept them in Myrtle Grove, his Tudor house in the town of Youghal in Ireland, where he died in 1950. He was well-off and never sold any of his numerous drawings, paintings and cartoons, though they are of high quality. He was a High Tory who lived by his own rules and considered his kindness to Casement in the Tower as very much his own business.

Read more: Roger Casement was mad claimed British before Irish hero was executed in 1916
Brian Meehan has failed in his attempt to have his conviction for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin declared a miscarriage of justice.

The 47-year-old, from Crumlin in Dublin, was jailed for life in 1999 for his part in her assassination.

He tried to argue that new or newly discovered facts emerged during the 2001 trial of John Gilligan  who was subsequently acquitted of her murder.

However, the three-judge panel described his attempt as an abuse of process and dismissed his application.

Russell Warren, a self-confessed accomplice, gave evidence against Brian Meehan in 1999 and John Gilligan two years later. He was the States key witness and is now in the Witness Protection Programme.

A woman told both their trials that she saw a man fitting Warrens description in the vicinity of Naas courthouse on June 26, 1996, the day Veronica Guerin was murdered.

It emerged during Gilligans trial that she failed to pick him out of an ID parade a few months later and Meehans defence tried to argue this was a new or newly discovered fact that wasnt available during his trial and should result in his conviction being declared a miscarriage of justice.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the application, describing their claim of non-disclosure as disturbing.
Irish Rail has threatened the NBRU and SIPTU with legal action, after DART drivers with the unions refused to train in new staff.

The company has written to the unions accusing the workers engaging in co-ordinated unofficial industrial action.
Appeal Court judges in Britain, say a gagging order, banning newspapers from naming a celebrity accused of extramarital activities, should be lifted.

The man now has until Wednesday to take his case to the the UK's Supreme Court.
Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff suffered a devastating blow when the Chamber of Deputies voted to open impeachment proceedings against her.

The 367-137 vote in favour of impeachment was well over the 342 threshold needed for the proceedings to move to the Senate, where a majority vote will determine whether Ms Rousseff is put on trial and suspended while Vice President Michel Temer temporarily takes over.

The date of the Senate vote is not known, but it is widely expected by the middle of next month.

Ms Rousseff's left-leaning Workers' Party came to power 13 years ago on the promise of improving the lot of the poor.

The vote in the lower house sparked elation among many Brazilians, who hold her responsible for everything from the devastating recession to chronic high taxes and poor public services.

At the same time, large parts of the population were deeply upset by the result, which many decried as anti-democratic.

"I'm happy because I think Dilma had to go, but I'm also both sad that it came to this and also really worried that the next president could be even worse," said Patricia Santos, 52, a small business owner who was among around 60,000 pro- and anti-impeachment demonstrators outside Congress.

"I quiver to think what awaits us next."

Ms Rousseff's party leader in the lower house, Jose Guimaraes, acknowledged the battle had been lost but insisted the war was just beginning.

"The putchists won in the Chamber of Deputies ... We can turn it over in the Senate," he said. "We're going to continue to fight because we don't back down and we aren't going to let ourselves be beat by this momentary loss."

Solicitor General Jose Eduardo Cardozo said after the vote that Ms Rousseff would not resign and that she would address the situation on Monday. He also hinted an appeal could be filed with the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil's highest court.
The summit in the Qatari capital, which dragged on for more than 10 hours beyond its initially scheduled conclusion, finished with no final accord, Nigerias petroleum minister Emmanuel Kachikwu told reporters.

Discussions stumbled over whether the agreement should extend to other producers such as Iran, which wasnt present, according to a person familiar with the matter. The inability to reach consensus will lead to a severe drop in prices, Citigroup had predicted before the meeting.

Brent crude, which sank to a 12-year low in January, has climbed almost 30% in the past two months as Saudi Arabia and Russia worked on the plan to cap crude production.

While analysts doubted that any accord would have a significant impact on the global oil surplus, the inability to agree on a limit undermines any prospect of co-ordinated action to solve the oil crisis.

The Doha meeting was an opportunity for Opec to polish its tarnished image, Miswin Mahesh, an analyst at Barclays in London, said on Friday.

After the failure of Opecs December meeting, the market was uneasy about its cohesion and Doha was a chance for the group to reassert its relevance and build a circle of trust.

Iran is restoring exports after sanctions over its nuclear programme were lifted in January. It plans to boost output to 4m barrels a day in the Iranian year through March 2017, oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on April 6.

That would be an increase of about 800,000 barrels a day from March production. The nations crude shipments have risen by more than 600,000 barrels a day this month, according to shipping data compiled by Bloomberg.

While analysts agreed any accord to emerge from Doha would have little impact on actual crude supplies because most attendees were already pumping at capacity, an oil workers strike in Kuwait was already having an effect.

The nations crude production tumbled 60% to 1.1m barrels a day and refineries scaled back operations because of the open-ended action over pay, said Saad Al-Azmi, deputy chief executive for finance and spokesman at Kuwait Oil Co. The disruption is equal in size to the global surplus and could boost prices today, Dubai-based bank Emirates NBD PJSC predicted.

If all major producers dont freeze production, we will not freeze production, Saudi Arabias Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had said in an interview April 14.

If we dont freeze, then we will sell at any opportunity we get.

Bloomberg
Identifying a niche market for health and safety training manuals has opened up a world of opportunity for Mallow-based entrepreneur, Marek Szepietowski.

Supplying manuals to health and safety training companies and large organisations in both Ireland and the UK, his company, Health & Safety Publications, is now dealing with a request from one of the worlds largest material handling equipment companies to provide training manuals in nine languages.

Named as winner of the North Cork Local Enterprise Board annual company award, and as a finalist in this years National Enterprise Awards, H&S Publications employs a staff of seven and is aiming to double turnover to close to 1m this year.

The company came into being during the recession after Mr Szepietowski lost his job as a health and safety trainer.

While working for a consultancy company during the boom years he had often lamented the lack of training manuals: I always said that if I had materials to hand out to trainees it would make my life much easier, said Mr Szepietowski.

Making use of previous publishing experience in Poland and a non-trading translation company hed set up a few years earlier, he decided to set up a business to fill the gap in 2009.

Selling two apartments in Poland to raise funding, he bought equipment, renamed the company and from his home in Millstreet began work on a manual-handling manual.

The first year we sold just 500 copies but the next year we sold 30 times more  it snowballed and, by year three, we had sold 50,000 books.

Joined by his wife Rose, also a health and safety professional, he produced a manual on forklifts and another on first aid.

Finding a ready market for its publications, the company began making plans for expansion in 2014.

Using industry experts to produce new manuals, the business moved to a 370 sq m premises at Newberry Cross Industrial Park in Mallow.

To raise the necessary funding, Mr Szepietowski braved the Dragons Den and secured 60,000 for a 10% share from technology company CEO Barry OSullivan.

With this funding, and an employment grant from North Cork Local Enterprise Office, the company took on one full-time employee in 2015 as well as four part-time ones.

The company now has around 600 customers in Ireland including FAS, ESB, the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, and Toyota Material Handling Ireland.

H&S Publications now has 80 customers in the UK where it first started trading at the start of this year.

It is aiming to grow sales in the UK to 50% by the end of the year.

Following the request from one of the worlds leading material handling equipment manufacturers, H&S has already translated two books into Russian and has started work on Danish and Swedish versions.

Translation into Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Romanian, French and Polish and Ukrainian is also planned.

H&S is currently working on an electronic version of its forklift manual for another customer.

It is also responding to requests from police forces and the aviation industry for health and safety manuals.

This year, the focus is on a strong sales push in the UK, but in the long term the companys aim is to become a leading player in the European market.

Mr Szepietowski said the market is being driven by the EU and the introduction of mandatory training courses across the member countries.

Company: Health & Safety Publications

Location: Mallow, Co Cork

Set up: 2005

Managing Director: Marek Szepietowski

Business: Produces health & safety manuals

Staff: Seven

Website: www.hspublications.ie
The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) is calling for policy objectives to be prioritised including an overhaul of the self-employed taxation system, improved access to credit and greater investment in infrastructure.

In total, 13 areas of priority are highlighted by Isme, many of which rear their heads annually as budget day approaches but which have yet to be addressed to the satisfaction of many.

Ireland will not secure a sustainable recovery without an economic recovery of SMEs, the backbone of our economy and our society. SMEs represent two thirds of employment and around 60% of turnover. Furthermore, SMEs have created nine out of every 10 new jobs during the last five years and are the main drivers of innovation.

We need more entrepreneurs and more entrepreneurial spirit in our society at large. The new government must ensure a cultural change towards entrepreneurship, as the current culture often fails to recognise and reward entrepreneurial endeavours.

SMEs must be at the centre of the Governments decision-making process leading to a stronger indigenous sector and an economy that is not over-reliant on foreign direct investment, said Isme chief executive, Mark Fielding.

Bringing to an end the disparate tax rates paid by self-employed workers in comparison to their PAYE counterparts is one of the areas outlined in Ismes new policy document.

The group is also seeking a reduction in the rate of capital gains tax to 10% for entrepreneurs to bring the Irish system in line with that of the UK.

The latest budget introduced by British chancellor George Osborne raised the stakes on this side of the Irish Sea and across the border by making our nearest neighbours an even more attractive location for small and new businesses.

Mr Osborne introduced pro-business measures including an increase in the threshold for small business rate relief from 6,000 to 15,000 (18,880) which will see 600,000 firms pay no business rates from next April.

Its capital gains tax regime continued to be considerably more attractive than that in operation here while access to funding is also a major feather in the cap of the UK with its Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme.

Part of Ismes proposition in improving access to credit is a broadening of the types of finance available to SMEs and increased monitoring of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland.

The small business lobby group is also advocating a reduction in the cost of doing business in Ireland and improved national broadband infrastructure to enable rural business.
On Valentines Day, Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia conditionally pledged to cap output at the record January level.

Iraq lent its support but Iran emerging from sanctions seeks exceptional treatment.

Such pledges to rein in output cost the producers little since all these countries are already producing flat-out.

It will also take years of investment for Iran to boost its exports of oil.

The oil price has already risen by a third from its January trough but it remains sharply lower, by 62%, from 22 months ago.

What is behind all this chaos?

Commodity markets have become increasingly dysfunctional since 2004.

So far this year 31 barrels of oil have been traded for each oil barrel burnt in the world, which means that the market is being driven by speculators including hedge funds, rather than consumers.

High energy prices since 2004 have facilitated costly new suppliers coming on stream.

Global demand for oil continues to grow at an annual rate of 2% even though most of the growth is being driven by developing countries where consumption data is rather suspect.

There was also the disastrous assumption that Chinas hyper economic growth would continue. And big consumers of oil such as airlines have done little better  Ryanair appears to have got its fuel hedging price particularly wrong.

Then there is the dodgy data.

Markets believe there are two million barrels a day more being supplied onto world markets but this belief is based on statistical errors: Many speculators are unaware that the forecasts of the International Energy Agency and the US Department of Energy rely mainly on econometric models rather than real audits.

By contrast, the industry has learned the hard way to count physical barrels. Over time, discrepancies grow which call into question estimates of surplus capacity.

The oil price is inherently unstable anyway. Output from low-cost American producers fell slower than expected because the frackers postponed shutting fields.

And the Opec nations found it an impossible task to lead a part-monopoly. The Saudis have exacerbated the problems.

Conspiracy theorists would have it that Saudi Arabia deliberately wreaked havoc with oil prices but this conflicts with the nations long-standing record of seeking to smoothe cycles by cutting its own output.

It was only when other producers declined to announce cuts, in November 2014, that the oil price collapse accelerated. And for Saudi Arabia what began as a limited disciplinary exercise has escalated into unsustainable deficits. Either Saudi Arabia soon slashes its military and social budgets, or its wealth will be squandered by 2020.

Other players such as Angola and Venezuela were hit even harder hit, but the stability of Saudi Arabia itself is now threatened.

Normally, high-cost oil firms exit first and this is belatedly happening now, as producers scramble to maximise their cash at hand.

The firms froze new investments but keep producing as long as they generate a marginal rate of cash, despite their accounting losses. Once a North Sea field is decommissioned it wont return, but a bankrupt onshore American field may continue under new ownership.

The shock waves hit stock markets and wreaked havoc on Irish oil explorers. There are effectively no equity funds available.

The collapse has crucified indebted companies and hurt even those businesses with good assets.

Raising debt helps develop oil fields. However, crashing prices and slow payments lead to breaches in loan covenants.

Lenders can, therefore, swoop to acquire companies such as Petroceltic by buying their discounted debt. Even solid management with valuable assets is vulnerable.

Now is the time to buy assets, but the difficulty lies in raising finance. Oil companies dont want to dilute existing shareholders and wont raise money just to keep the lights on.

One strategy is to seek low-cost-and-hold projects such as licence options in the Irish Atlantic.

The big oil companies may be conservative but are not cash constrained. A good novel project will always excite expert interest.

David Horgan is director of Irish oil company Petrel Resources plc
So Conor, where does the story of Hyde begin?

Well, we have a long tradition in the drinks industry within my family here in West Cork.

Myself and brother Alan are actually the last in a long line of vintners in West Cork.

Were 10th generation of vintners based in Bandon, going back to the 1600s.

So we got together, weve had separate careers up until now, about three years ago and decided wed like to do something together in the food industry.

We decided then to look at our heritage within the drinks industry and move into that area.

History and tradition is one thing, but actually making a business that works is quite different?

Well it wasnt easy thats for sure. If it was easy then everyone would be doing it. It was a long process, it took two years of planning before we finally launched in 2015. So were one year on the market at this stage.

We spent two hard years developing a business plan and researching the market. We looked into the positioning of the brand, price point, packaging and distribution.

So there was a lot of research, a lot of careful understanding of the market and how our brand would fit into it.

So we launched in March with our first product which was a 10-year-old single malt aged in Oloroso sherry casks. Since then weve launched two more lines to our range and are now in 18 countries around the world within the past 12 months.

So this is a limited, premium product?

Were not going for high volume low margin.

We are going for a very premium, very top-end whiskey. Weve spent a lot of time developing this in limited edition small batches, with very special wood.

So were trying to command a higher price point in the marketplace given the amount of tender loving care that goes into developing the whiskey before we sell it on the market place.

You just won the Best Irish Whiskey in The World award in San Francisco too?

I have to say that we are absolutely delighted to have won the award. Its a very prestigious award.

The San Francisco Spirit Awards are the Oscars of world spirits. You have over 1,800 entrants from around the world and everybody strives to win an award at this competition.

You have some of the most respected judges from around the world too. These people are aficionados of whiskey, they know what theyre tasting. There were over 200 Irish whiskeys entered into the competition, so we were over the moon when we won.

Youve had rapid growth, how do you keep a handle on the business through that?

I suppose like any business thats growing rapidly we have to keep a close eye on finance and cash flow.

The revenue we get from sales goes back immediately into the product, packaging and marketing.

Like all businesses at startup stage its been a struggle to keep hold of those finances in black, but were handling it and were growing at a pace that were comfortable with. Were not overstretching ourselves.

How do you break through into a crowded Irish whiskey market globally?

Well, weve positioned the brand as Hydes Presidents Cask, so we are positioning it as a presidential quality whiskey.

Its one of the best whiskeys to come out of Ireland as far as we are concerned.

We take so much time choosing wooden casks from all over the world to justify that positioning. We bring in empty Oloroso sherry casks from southern Spain, which are handpicked and very carefully graded.

So then we take our whiskey, which has been maturing in bourbon casks for 10 years, and put them into the sherry casks for a further six to eight months.

Thats what makes it so special and thats what makes it such a premium product and so presidential.

So what makes Irish whiskey so different to any other?

People generally describe Irish whiskey as smoother whiskey. When you drink Irish whiskey you get a lovely warm glow inside your tummy.

With something like a scotch whiskey its a peated whiskey, which is made using a different technique.

They actually smoke the whiskey and you get that warm or hot sensation in your throat or your mouth just before it goes down.

It has a bit more fire in the mouth kind of feel to it. Whereas Irish whiskey is actually growing really rapidly around the world because its so smooth.

It goes down so easily and has a lovely mellow gentle finish to it as opposed to a more fiery finish that you might get with a scotch.

How important is it to find the right casks?

Very important. The majority of whiskey in the world is actually aged in bourbon casks.

Those casks are made from American oak and usually come from Kentucky, which would be the bourbon-making area of the United States.

The law in the States is that you can only use a bourbon cask once, so a cask to make bourbon has a limited shelf life.

So those casks are then exported around the world for other whiskey makers.

We would then take a whiskey from those bourbon casks and put it into a secondary cask. The industry calls that double ageing.

Its that second cask that gives it that very unique flavour.

So for us that secondary cask would be a sherry cask or a rum cask.

So all whiskey is aged in bourbon casks, but what makes our whiskey special is that we put it into a second cask for a period of time to make it extra special.

So the casks are very important to giving the whiskey its unique flavour.

So whats next for Hyde Whiskey?

We have three products right now.

We have two 10-year-old single malts, one in a sherry cask and one in a rum cask.

We have a newly-launched single grain, bourbon-matured whiskey.

That is a limited edition run for the 1916 celebrations and were working on two other cask finishes at the moment.

That may have a port finish on it with casks from the Oporto region in Portugal.

So lots of new product development, lots of innovation still come from us.

That being said, were still very much focussed on giving the consumer what theyre looking for from us.

People expect a different taste twist when they drink Hyde. People are looking for limited editions.

Theyre looking for small batches and more craft to their whiskeys, that is what we are focussed on.
Over the weekend, Joe Collins shared the incredible journey of his cat, Georgie, who went missing four years ago.

"Georgie our one eyed cat went missing over four years ago having climbed under a neighbours car bonnet to avoid a heavy rain shower," Joe told Broadsheet.ie

Photo: Joe Collins

"The neighbour got into the car and travelled from East Wall to a garage in Sallynoggin. A car mechanic got a shock when he opened the bonnet and the cat fled.

"We drove out to the area to search for him and put up posters. We gave him little chance as only having one eye was such a disadvantage."

Photo: Joe Collins

Joe and his family had given up hope of finding Georgie a long time ago, until they received a surprising phonecall last week.

"We received a call from the DSPCA Rathfarnham to say he was handed in. Shook, starving and quite unwell but still with the same old attitude," Joe says.

"Whats the lesson? Always chip your pets."

Photo: Joe Collins

Georgie had been living near a woman as a stray for a year. She had been looking after Georgie until last Thursday, when she brought him into the shelter.

Georgie was scanned for a microchip, and his families details popped up, allowing a reunion after four long years.

"It was an emotional day for both the lady who had cared for Georgie and for Georgies family who had desperately searched for their missing kitty," Dublin SPCA say. "We can not stress how important it is to have your pet microchipped."

HT: Broadsheet.ie
Ireland is among the 10 leading economies in the world that have managed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while growing GDP.

Between 2000 and 2014, while Irelands real GDP grew by 47%, our carbon emissions declined by 16%.

Of the 10 leading countries, only Bulgaria had a greater increase in GDP and only four countries reduced their CO2 emissions by a greater percentage than Ireland; all of these countries had significantly lower growth in GDP during the period.

National legislation will continue to drive Irelands decoupled recovery over the next number of years.

The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act introduced last year requires sectoral mitigation plans for the agriculture, transport, built environment, and electricity generation sectors.

These plans will be supported by climate adaptation plans to prepare Ireland for future climate challenges.

Farmers are committed to improving environment

lrish agriculture will continue its leadership position in sustainable food production. Ireland is the only country in the world that monitors, measures and manages carbon from farm to fork.

Initiatives like the IFA-led Smart Farming programme address the dual challenges of improving farm incomes while reducing environmental impacts.

In addition more than 70,000 farmers are now measuring carbon in programmes like Bord Bias Quality Beef Assurance programme.

Farmer actions are supported by a clear commitment from Government, with over 2bn of the rural development programme budget dedicated to climate and agri-environment programmes such as GLAS and TAMS.

This commitment to environmental improvement by so many farmers is unique and cannot be seen anywhere else in the world.

It is delivering results; Irelands agri-food sector is growing carbon efficiently, with overall emissions declining by 9% since 1990, even as the sector recorded its sixth consecutive year of growth in 2015.

Renewables and bioenergy

More can be done. The Department of Energy must develop a clear national bioenergy and renewables plan, which supports farm scale and community based renewables.

Increasing forestry plantation is important where it makes economic, environmental and social sense. Full recognition of the carbon sinks in forestry and grasslands is also necessary.

Caution is also required, however, as this environmentally sustainable growth must start delivering an economic return for the thousands of hard-pressed farmers enduring low margins and challenging farming conditions.

In addition, sustainable development has the potential to be undermined by a negative outcome to either the EU ammonia or greenhouse gas emissions discussions currently taking place.

These could result in a major setback to the sustainable intensification of our emission efficient agri-food sector and stifle its future growth.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogans urgent intervention is required in Europe, along with a drive towards environmental and economically sustainable growth for the agri-food sector from a strong and stable government.
Teagasc has just published a report on Brexit, authored by Dr Kevin Hanrahan.

In brief, while Ireland is less dependent on the UK than it was when entering the EEC in the 1970s, Britain still takes 40% of Irish agri-food exports.

And Brexit implications go far beyond the damage to the existing trade.

Between now and 2025, the UK population is to grow by around seven or eight million people; that represents a big trading opportunity for Ireland, said Dr Hanrahan.

Back in the 1970s, we were so dependent on the UK we wouldnt have been allowed into Europe without them.

They are still our nearest neighbour, and theyre the closest to us culturally.

We currently processes a billion litres of Northern Irish milk annually, going into Irish butter and cheese. Irish cheese now going into global markets is stamped country of origin  EU.

With Brexit, that labelling would be very problematic. How will we process milk?

Some co-ops own plants on both sides of the border. Unwinding those arrangements will be very challenging.

UK exiting the EU would set a clock ticking from June 23, with two years of talks about future trade relations.

What form would future relations take? Nobody really knows, said Dr Hanrahan.

A future UK-EU trade deal could most see the UK exit the EU but stay within the European Economic Area.

The EU has free trade with Norway and Switzerland; but, while both participate in EU research projects, these deals exclude food trade.

Post-Brexit, Britain would probably import vast quantities of cheap South American beef.

Would current Irish, UK and EU quality and traceability systems survive this cost competition? How heavily would Irish meat processors be impacted?

Dr Hanrahan spoke at the Teagasc and Agricultural Economics Society of Ireland seminar in Backweston, Co Kildare.

Hovering over the seminar was a 42%-43% split of UK citizens for and against Brexit, with a handful of undecideds.

Irish hopes will look back to the UKs referendum on Scottish independence, in which a late swing in voter opinion saw the status quo win the day.

The UK business community favours staying in the EU, but they are in a secondary position, said Dr Hanrahan.

This public referendum has been on the horizon ever since David Cameron made a pre-election promise to hold it. People have been debating it for two years, and UK public opinion is split.

While Dr Hanrahans report has a strong agri-food focus, it also analyses Brexit from a broader economic viewpoint.

Irish agri-food exports to the UK make up 4.5bn of the sectors total 11bn exports.

While a huge employer, agri-food represents a relatively small share of Irelands total 92bn merchandise exports.

In any case, any societal concerns for Irish agri-food workers are a mere blip on the UKs macro-economic radar.

The UK had a 24bn trade deficit in agri-food products in 2014. While the UK imports a lot of food, it exports far more merchandise.

The UKs total exports exceed 450bn annually.

Irish business is heavily dependent on UK imports. Total Irish merchandise imports came to 61bn in 2014, of which 20.6bn from UK.

While deeply dependent on the UK, Ireland will be a mere spectator in any future post-Brexit UK-EU negotiations on future relations.

Would Ireland be allowed to have a special relationship with the UK after Brexit? In a word, no, Dr Hanrahan said.

As an EU member, we will have to play by the same rules as the rest of the club.
Intended to deceive those unaware of the intended rebellion to back the idea, it has come to be known as the Castle Document. But historians differ  and the full truth may never be known  as to how the content was decided or where it originated.

Sean MacDiarmada  Plunketts co-conspirator on the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) military council  had sources in the intelligence world, certainly.

But it is more likely that the content of theCastle Document was a composite of material secreted out from inside the British administration, and of the creative writing, probably, of James Plunkett.

The document suggested military raids were planned, at an imminent unknown date, in which arrests would be made of the officers of the Irish Volunteers, National Volunteers, and Gaelic League.

From a military perspective, the naming of certain addresses to be taken over meant the Volunteers and James Connollys Irish Citizen Army were effectively being suppressed after months of police surveillance of their leaders every move. Those premises included Citizen Army and ITGWU headquarters at Liberty Hall, Irish Volunteers HQ at Dawson St, and other premises regularly named in daily movement of extremists reports from Dublin police detectives.

Furthermore, communication was to be restricted in and out of the homes of Plunkett, Irish Volunteers chief of staff Eoin MacNeill, Constance Markievicz, and Padraig Pearses St Endas College, among other locations.

The document was distributed to newspapers over the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, 15 and 16, Palm Sunday, 1916  but there was little take-up by editors, probably under fear of wartime censorship.

A copy of the Castle Document circulated in the week before the Rising

It was not until a copy found its way into the hands of Dublin Corporation member Tom Kelly, and he read it to the council on Wednesday, April 19, that it eventually became public.

The reaction was mixed: Many people, on reading reports of the document, believed Dublin Castles claims that it was bogus (a focus on Dublin City only instead of the whole country, and highlighting printing anomalies helped bolster the argument).

But the senior IRB men managed to convince MacNeill of the need to place regional and local commanders around the country on notice to defend their arms with force if necessary.

He had been unaware of the secret plans to launch a rebellion on Easter Sunday. But it was his willingness to back the Rising in light of this information  and on finally learning of the planned Rising on Good Friday, April 21, 1916  that led to the confused orders emanating from Irish Volunteers headquarters in the lead up to Easter weekend.

In Cork, for example, Brigade commandant Tomas MacCurtain received no fewer than nine messages from Dublin  some from Sean MacDiarmada and Padraig Pearse of the IRB military council  up to Easter Monday.

The news that reached Dublin on Saturday  of the Aud and its cargo of guns from Germany being arrested and sunk off the south-west coast  had eventually convinced him to issue the infamous countermanding orders. By despatches around the country and a notice placed in the Easter Sunday edition of the Sunday Independent, he effectively ensured a far lower turnout than might otherwise have been expected of Irish Volunteers for the rebellion that was to have kicked off that evening.

Subtle differences between two known versions of the document include the use of three dots, or five dots (as seen here) in an ellipsis at the end of the paragraph above

The Rising did, however, eventually begin almost 24 hours later than planned  on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916.

Bill McCormacks forensic analysis of whether  or to what extent  the Castle Document was a forgery is in Making 1916  Material and Visual Culture of the Easter Rising, edited by Lisa Godson & Joanna Bruck (Liverpool University Press, 2015).
To the country house community, the 1916 Rising was an act of treason and the response was one of revulsion towards the conspirators.

It was also condemnatory of the incompetence of the British administration in Ireland. Harriot, the marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, for example, had harsh things to say of chief secretary Augustine Birrell: I trust Mr Birrell will be got rid of after this. A good man, and not an old joker, is wanted here.

In the main, Irish country house families were unionists and loyalists. Up to 1914, they had been prepared to fight the implementation of home rule in Ulster, by force if necessary. At the outbreak of war, they showed their loyalty to king and empire when they signed up to fight in their thousands and enthusiastically contributed to the war efforts at home.

For many of these families, the rebellion brought a sense of genuine fear and panic. At the root of this were thoughts of the 1798 rebellion when Irish country houses were attacked and looted. Letitia Overend of Airfield House, near Dundrum, Co Dublin, was particularly conscious of such memories, writing to her aunt Minnie in April 1916: It all seems like a nightmare, or as if things had wound back to 98 again.

There was revulsion at the outbreak of rebellion in Dublin in April. Charles Hamilton of Hamwood, Dunboyne, Co Meath, was at Fairyhouse races on Easter Monday when rumours of a rebellion began to circulate. When he returned home, he was surprised to find relatives there who had fled from Dublin.

In the panic-filled days that followed, rumours abounded.

The Hamiltons were told that 3,000 Germans were in Cork and 10,000 rebels were on the route to Dublin from Athlone.

On Friday night, April 28, they were awoken by an explosion in Dublin that shook the house and brought the soot out of the chimney. With news of fighting at Ashbourne, Co Meath, and members of the Louth Volunteers reaching Dunshaughlin and Dunboyne, there were growing apprehensions that Hamwood would be attacked.

Charles Hamilton recalled all listening half the night to hear if people were creeping up to the house. Throughout the week, the Hamiltons could see the fires blazing in Dublin and the servants were all out listening to the boom of guns.

More closely connected to the Rising were the Prestons of Gormonston, Co Meath. Hubert Preston, a brother of Jenico, 15th Viscount Gormonston, was a serving officer in the 3rd Royal Irish Regiment. He was at Fairyhouse races on Easter Monday and was called back to Dublin, where he ended up in the thick of the fray and was lucky to have escaped the worst fighting in the city. On hearing news of his brothers exploits, Jenico wrote to their sister, Ismay Crichton-Stuart, to informer that Hubert and his men were hard at work plugging the rebels.

Jenico had little sympathy for the rebel leaders and, in particular, Countess Markievicz. He wrote that she deserves shooting; she fired the shot that killed the policeman near Shelbourne. When she was taken near the castle and disarmed I am told she kissed her revolver before handing it over. A dangerous and clever woman. If only her energies had been directed in a good cause.

However, Viscount Gormanston had some compassion for the rank and file rebels, noting that they were merely dupes of the old men and leaderswhat mad fools they were. It was a sentiment shared by most of nationalist Ireland at the time.

On Easter Monday, the Tyrrell children of Ballindoolin House, Carbury, Co Kildare, walked to Edenderry to post shoes to their older brother, William Upton, who had been serving on the Western Front since March 1916.

In the same town, on the following Saturday, their father, also William, a local justice of the peace, broke up a gathering of rebels who, he claimed, simply went home quietly.

In France, young William Upton reacted angrily to the news of the rebellion. He wrote to his mother: If I could only get at those fellows now if only I had been another month at home.

All the Irishmen here are frightfully mad with the scoundrels and want to get back to get a shot at them.

Writing to family members, William Upton also made reference to the murder of the pacifist Francis Sheehy Skeffington, and two others, on April 27, at Portobello Barracks in Dublin. For the crime, Captain JC Bowen-Colthurst of Dripsey, Co Cork, who had been invalided home from the front, was court-martialled and found guilty but insane.

Tyrrell remarked: I hope the officer who ordered the execution of Skeffington will get off alright. I know him intimately.

With

5,500 Irish casualties on the first day alone of the Battle of the Somme, the First World War transformed country house society and the Easter Rising gave rise to a dramatic shift in Irish politics.

Frederick Beaumont-Nesbitt of Tubberdaly House in Kings County, wrote in his memoirs some years later: I do not recall a single incident during my boyhood when hostility was shown either to myself or a member of my family, at least not until the outbreak of Easter week 1916.

Ciaran Reilly is a research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses & Estates at Maynooth University, and curator of the 1916 and the Irish Country House: Rebellion and War exhibition which opens on May 9 at Maynooth University.

See www.historicirishhouses.ie
The renowned West Cork sense of humour has already come into play  organisers have received several applications for the post of coffin occupant, according to artistic director Joseph OLeary.

During what will be a traditional-style New Orleans funeral parade, the brightly painted coffin, heaped with flowers, will be shouldered through Ballydehob main street by several burly pall-bearers, followed in turn by the deceaseds 10ft widow, a large funeral band playing a mix of upbeat tunes and funereal dirges and a crowd of parasol-twirling children with their faces painted.

It will be quite a sight, observed Mr OLeary, who said the funeral parade would take place, weather permitting, on Saturday, April 30 / Sunday, May 1.

The colourful four-day May Bank Holiday Weekend event, which usually attracts about 3,000 visitors to the peninsula village with fewer than 300 inhabitants, has earned an international reputation since it commenced. It has attracted some of the worlds top jazz names from New Orleans, New York, Boston, Portland Oregon, Guatemala, and Berlin.

This years festival will be no exception. It features a list of internationally renowned bands including pop-soul juggernaut, Lake Street Dive and traditional jazz artistes Meschiya Lake & The Lil Big Horns as well as a a free jazz trail with more than 40 performances throughout the village, an artisan food and craft market, and a full weekend of jazz dance workshops, all leading up to a swinging Moonshine Party on the final night.

This festival is run by volunteers, described by Mr OLeary as a mad bunch of music lovers and festival buffs who share a vision to promote the arts and bring people to the remarkable and unique corner of the world that is Ballydehob, West Cork. It is an amazing feat that such a small village can host and run an event of this stature, he said.

Since the festivals inception in 2007 it has hosted a string of extraordinary musicians and performers including award-winners, child prodigies, Irish legends, and pop stars such as The Neil Cowley Trio, Liane Carroll, Andreas Varady, Paddy Cole, and Camille OSullivan.

Each May Bank Holiday weekend sees over 40 performances that range from big name concerts to small workshops; from lively pub gigs to intimate sideshows and a healthy dose of fringe attractions to compliment. Its no wonder that such an amazing event emerged out of this improbable corner of the world, said Mr OLeary.

For more information visit www.ballydehobjazzfestival.org or email ballydehobjazz@gmail/com
Now in its 37th year, a record-breaking 510 entries were submitted to festival organisers for 2016.

The event, from this Wednesday until Friday, embraces the languages and cultures of the Celtic countries, through both screen and broadcast productions by companies in Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Isle of Man, Cornwall, Brittany, and Galicia.

Nominees from more than 90 production companies and broadcasters will compete across 23 award categories.

A 5% increase in Irish entries sees the host nation lead the way with 42 nominations for the prestigious Torc awards.

They include TG4 drama An Klondike, which swept the board at the Irish Television and Film Awards, and the RTE/Motive Television series The Notorious, starring UFC fighter Conor McGregor.

Glasgow-based festival director Catriona Logan, a native of Dublin, said they were taken aback by the high quality of programming entered into the festival.

Its hugely important to acknowledge the stellar work that these people do, and all the entries this year are testament to the talent and skill that these programme makers have.

Were extremely proud to be able to bring some of the leading names in the media and broadcast industry to Dungarvan and to offer a genre and platform-spreading programme to our festival delegates.

According to Ms Logan, this years festival will see new opportunities for independent production companies. A shortlist of 12 submissions has been invited to formally pitch to some of the most important commissioners and decision makers in the broadcasting world.

Celtic Media Festival 2016 full programme is now online! Don't forget to register!

https://t.co/qd60X9vbAR pic.twitter.com/H5zdavJX1a  Celtic Media Festival (@CelticMediaFest) March 31, 2016

Despite being held in Ireland nine times previously, it is the first time the festival will take up residence in Dungarvan, with hundreds of delegates expected to descend on the town for the three-day event.

Irial Mac Murchu, chief executive of studio satellite services and production company Nemeton TV, who was involved locally behind the selection of Dungarvan, said the town was an ideal venue for the festival.

celticmediafestival.co.uk.
The low-fares giant Norwegian said it remains committed to launching its proposed Cork to Boston service this year following the breakthrough in its stalled foreign carrier permit application process.

The airline is also planning a Cork-Barcelona route around the same time, and a Cork to New York route next year.

However, following Fridays breakthrough, when the US Department of Transportation (DoT) issued an order proposing to grant the permit to Norwegians Irish subsidiary, Norwegian Air International (NAI), the airlines spokesman said that. pending formal approval, it remains our hope to start the Boston service this year.

The DoTs decision to tentatively grant the permit has triggered a 21-day consultation process, with a final decision expected before the end of May.

Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) CEO Kevin Toland said they are already looking forward to working with the airline to progress its flight operations from Cork and to get flight tickets on sale as quickly as possible.

Fridays ruling brought an end to NAIs stalled two-year application process  the longest pending application of its kind ever lodged with the DoT.

It also marked the end of an intensive lobbying campaign mounted by Cork business and Irish aviation and political leaders, backed by pressure from the European Commission. Irish interests had also engaged top lobbyists in Washington to press the case politically.

Their efforts culminated with a diplomatic offensive on Washington, involving Cork Chamber and senior DAA executives, timed to coincide with the St Patricks Day celebrations.

Acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny also raised the issue directly with US president Barack Obama during his visit to the White House on March 15.

A DoT spokesperson said Norwegians application raised complex and novel issues, particularly around labour-law, which required careful consideration.

The DoT said it took the unprecedented step of formally consulting the US Departments of Justice and State, two agencies with special expertise on international law, before arriving at its tentative decision, published on Friday.

European Affairs Minister Dara Murphy described NAIs application as a landmark test case and said now that the DoT has made its historic ruling, it could help trigger major growth in transatlantic flights from Cork Airport.

Cork Airport managing director Niall MacCarthy praised all involved in the lobbying, and singled out Cork Chamber for its solid support.

Chamber chief executive Conor Healy said the Taoiseachs intervention with Mr Obama, combined with the collective efforts of Cork ministers and other political representatives, was a key element in achieving the progress.

The mayor of Cork County, John Paul OShea, who pressed the case while leading a business and tourism delegation to Boston last December, said the transatlantic flights will help boost tourism in the region.

For and against

DoT documents show that Norwegians permit application was opposed by several US and foreign air carriers, including Delta, American, US Airways, Lufthansa, SAS, Air France, KLM, and Austrian Airlines, and several US labour groups, including the Air Line Pilots Association, the Allied Pilots Association, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, the Transportation Trades Department, the Association of Flight Attendants, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the Transport Workers Union of America, as well as Captain Stephen Colman, of the European Cockpit Association, the European Transport Workers Federation, and the Norwegian trade union, Parat.

The documents also show NAIs application was supported by FedEx, Atlas Air, the Travel Technology Association, the European Low Fares Airlines Association, the Washington Airports Task Force, the American Society of Travel Agents, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority.
The opposition partys public expenditure spokesman, Sean Fleming, made the claim as both parties negotiating teams return today to discuss the issue and the equally divisive future of Irish Water.

Both Fine Gael and Independent TDs who will potentially be in the next government have made it clear there is no point in agreeing a minority arrangement unless its longevity is secured.

The issue has led to calls from both groups for Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to agree a written deal confirming the minimum length of the next coalition, giving assurances on not blocking financial bills, and guaranteeing that no-confidence motions will not be placed on a regular basis to disrupt the new governments work.

The desire for a written deal is also because Fine Gael wants to be certain Fianna Fail will not bring down the government at a time that suits the opposition party, and because Independents want assurances the coalition will last long enough to ensure their policies are implemented.

However, despite some Fianna Fail TDs supporting a watered-down written deal, the party is against the idea  a position backed by Mr Fleming, who yesterday told RTE Radio any deal could involve as little as a Dail statement from Mr Martin.

The last time there was such an agreement was the Tallaght Strategy and there was no written agreement; there was a Dail statement, so it could be a statement read into the Dail record, said Mr Fleming.

Mr Martin did not rule out the prospect yesterday, saying the issue was part of negotiations.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail negotiators will begin discussing key policy issues for the first time in their historic talks this evening, with Irish Water among the matters raised.

Despite sources claiming a deal can be done to reduce fees, both sides have refused to budge on the unpopular utility, the first post-election payment cancellation figures for which are due out later this week.

At its parliamentary party meeting last Wednesday, Fine Gael passed a motion saying it will not scrap its Irish Water policy. However, Mr Martin said yesterday that the issue remains very important for us and refused to say if his party will back down on plans to scrap the utility and defer charges, in order to allow a government to be formed.
Indaver Ireland managing director John Ahern told the Irish Examiner that when they were looking for a location and the advisers recommended a site in Ringaskiddy he said: Oh Jesus. Can it not just even be on the other side of Ringaskiddy so that we dont have to go through their village?

I think they havent had a fair deal from the State in all of the years, he said.

However, his conscience was eased with the advent of the N28, the national primary route connecting the port and village of Ringaskiddy to Cork City.

The N28 comes, solves the problem, now it doesnt matter which side of the village we are on. It was a good site without the N28, its the perfect site with it, he said.

Mr Ahern said Indaver intended to plough 300,000 a year into the local community for the next 25 years if An Bord Pleanala gives the go-ahead for a 240,000 tonne waste-to-energy plant, which would process 100,000 tonnes of hazardous waste and 140,000 tonnes of municipal waste per annum.

Theyll tell us to stuff it now but we can make a difference in Ringaskiddy, Mr Ahern said. In fact, he hoped An Bord Pleanala would make a community fund a condition of planning.

We dont bribe our way in, he said. But if there is a planning condition imposed on us were going to say to the board, remember the thing you did up in Meath [a community fund was a condition of planning for an incinerator in Duleek], wed like you to do it here.

If 300,000 is being spent in the village and with Shamrocks [local GAA club] and all of the rest of them around, for the next 25 years, they can build level crossings or road crossings or bigger playgrounds or anything else that will make it easier.

An oral hearing into the project gets under way in Carrigaline Court Hotel at 10am tomorrow.

Environmental group Chase (Cork Harbour Area for a Safe Environment) is planning a protest outside the venue from 9.40am. Una Chambers, spokeswoman for Chase, said it was the third time in 15 years that the people of Cork Harbour have had to engage in this expensive exercise which, to date, has cost them 280,000.

READ MORE: Local opposition to Ringaskiddy incinerator still burns strong.

READ MORE: Indavers third attempt to build in Ringaskiddy.
The Aid Transparency Index places Ireland 38th out of 46 major donors. The index takes in individual countries and agencies and collectives, such as the World Bank, United Nations agencies, and the European Commission.

Irish Aid has had a budget of 600m a year since 2010, yet this is the fourth time since then that its performance has been rated poor on a scale that includes very good, good, moderate, poor, and very poor.

Only those who are ranked very good are considered to have met the requirements of an international pledge to make all aid transparent by the end of 2015.

Twice, in 2010, when the index was first published, and in 2014, Irelands rating improved to moderate. In 2015, a limited assessment did not include Ireland.

Irish Aid supports the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and submits reports to it, but it has repeatedly been found to fall short on detail, regularity of data-provision, availability of information to the public, and details of its plans.

At all times, the programmes commitment to transparency is recognised, but, in 2010, the comment was made: Its practice has yet to catch up with its intentions.

In 2011, it was remarked: Disappointingly, some donors, often perceived as leading on issues of aid effectiveness or transparency, score particularly poorly.

That remark referred to countries including Ireland, Australia, Canada, Finland, and Norway, who all scored poorly. All but Ireland and Finland improved their ranking in the current index.

In response, the Department of Foreign Affairs said: Ireland places a strong emphasis on aid transparency in its development programme. We prepare a comprehensive annual report, which is available to the public, and we publish expenditure and budget data, related to our programme activities, on our website. These financial files were first published in June, 2014, and updated fully in December, in 2015.

Our low score in the Aid Transparency Index, despite this progress, is due to the relatively lower frequency of update and the narrower range of data published.

Quarterly publication of a broader range of data is required to score higher in this particular survey, and its the aim of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to improve the frequency of our reporting and range of data we publish.

Just 10 donors received a very good rating in the current index, published in recent days, but eight of those are international agencies, while Britain and Sweden are the only countries. Together, they account for 25% of all donor aid in 2015.

The Index authors said it recommends that all publishers [of data] should recognise the right to information enshrined in the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals]. Publishers should improve the quality and comprehensiveness of their data to provide a full picture of all development flows.

Foreign Affairs said that, in addition to the IATI, it also provided detailed statistical reports on its aid programme to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which, in its last report, had praised Irish efforts towards transparency.
Ms Zappones denial comes as a weekend report claimed it would cost 13bn to put in place the demands of 15 Independents in negotiations with Fine Gael if they were to enter power.

During last weeks third taoiseach nomination vote, the newly elected TD for Dublin South West chose to vote for Fine Gael leader Mr Kenny, effectively forcing Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin to admit defeat.

Senior Fine Gael figures confirmed that, due to concerns that Fianna Fail was winning the battle for Independents support, they phoned unaligned TDs until 2am and contacted Ms Zappone directly that morning.

The timeline dovetails with Ms Zappones decision to publish a message on social media on Thursday morning saying she was going to abstain, before choosing to back Mr Kenny hours later.

However, despite ongoing speculation over whether Ms Zappone is in line for a cabinet or junior minister position, Ms Zappone told RTE radio she has not been formally offered anything.

I have not asked for anything for my personal gain, or anything for my constituency, Mr Kennys one-time Seanad nominee said.

Asked why she had chosen to switch her vote at the 11th hour, Ms Zappone  who stressed her interest in equality and education  said she simply reflected on what faces the country.

Meanwhile, a Sunday newspaper claimed it would cost 13bn to implement all demands by Independents in government.

Fine Gael is continuing talks with Labour on the formation of a government.
Newly elected West Cork Independent TD Michael Collins made the call following the collapse of the dispersal sale of about half of the Kingston familys prize-winning pedigree herd.

Once crowned Irelands fittest family on an RTE television show, the Kingstons watched in agony last Tuesday as their 1,000-strong herd was auctioned off amid tight security on their farm in Nohoval, Kinsale, Co Cork.

The sale was triggered after ACC Loan Management, formerly ACCBank, moved to recover 2.4m in loans from the Kingstons.

It has emerged that Peter Kingstons father George was one of two bidders who attempted to buy back about half the herd.

George Kingston cashed in his pension to fund the purchase but the money failed to transfer by Fridays deadline. It is understood the funds could be available by Wednesday.

However, auctioneer Denis Barrett, who is handling the sale for the sheriff, has said the animals will be resold by an online tender process. Mr Kingston was not available for comment yesterday.

Mr Collins said: The tradition of farming on this farm goes back generations.

Here we have a man who has cashed in his lifes saving to try and save decades of that tradition.

I think if a father is making a gallant effort to save the farm, he should be given some respect and time to do that. I would call on everyone overseeing the process to take a step back, and to give them a chance.

The New Land League also criticised the process.

The sheriffs actions are clearly designed to frustrate these genuine efforts to save the Kingstons family livelihood and thereby inflict maximum retribution, spokesman Jerry Beades said.

He said several haulage contractors have agreed not to transport farm animals acquired through forced sales, and they plan to contact shipping unions this week to encourage them to withdraw support for the live export of animals acquired through such sales.
Speaking at a Fianna Fail 1916 commemoration at Dublins Arbour Hill cemetery amid speculation that Enda Kennys party is to attempt to convince Labour to re-enter power, Mr Martin said he cannot decide the composition of any Fine Gael-led minority government.

The potential plan to return the outgoing coalition despite it losing 56 seats is deeply divisive among Labours wider membership, with former TD Michael McNamara saying yesterday that such a move would see the public given one of the greatest snubs in Irish history.

However, despite the fact that Mr Martin vigorously campaigned to remove the previous coalition, he told reporters that if this happens, Fianna Fails refusal to cut a deal with Fine Gael should not be blamed.

We made every effort to provide an alternative, but its not possible, he said.

In that context we are able to facilitate a Fine Gael-led minority, and its not for us to dictate the composition of that government. Were not making that call.

The potential return of a weakened Fine Gael-Labour coalition could see Fianna Fail benefit in the next election, with an opinion poll yesterday showing that Mr Martins party is the most popular party in Ireland for the first time in seven years.

According to a Behaviour and Attitudes survey published yesterday and taken in the 10 days before Mr Martins failed now or never order to Independents, Fianna Fail is now on 26% (up four percentage points), Fine Gael 23% (down 7pp), Sinn Fein 17% (up 2pp) and Labour 4% (no change).

Unaligned Independents are on 10% (no change), Independent Alliance 8% (up 3pp), AAA-PBP 4% (down 1pp), Greens 3% (no change), Workers Party 3% (up 2pp), Social Democrats 2% (down 1pp), and Renua 1% (down 2pp).

Mr Martin insisted yesterday that he wants to facilitate the next government.

Meanwhile, in a speech at Arbour Hill he repeatedly hit out at Sinn Fein, who, Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy said earlier, arent afraid of another election.

Accusing Sinn Fein of twisting history, Mr Martin said those who took part in the Rising would reject Sinn Fein today.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said last night that Mr Martins obsession with his party is bizarre.
That is according to new figures provided by the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, and the Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney, who confirmed that the spend on the Army and Gardai in providing security to the US military at Shannon last year topped 1.4m.

Between 2003 and 2009, the Garda and army bill to the State for protecting the US military at Shannon stood at almost 18m. Since 2000, more than 2.25m US troops have passed through Shannon.

In a written Dail reply to Independent TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, Ms Fitzgerald confirmed that the State last year spent 1.2m relating to the gardai providing protection at Shannon, while the army bill came to 180,000.

Asked to provide the costs of protecting the US military by both TDs, Ms Fitzgerald replied: The deployment of Gardai at Shannon Airport is aimed primarily at protecting the safety of passengers and other people working at and using the airport.

I am informed by the Garda Authorities that the cost to An Garda Siochana of deployment at Shannon airport was 1.23m in 2015 comprising salaries and other pay and non-pay related expenditure. In his reply to the two deputies, Minister Coveney confirmed the Army spend at 180,814 for the year.

Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald

Mr Coveney said the army costs incurred comprise payment of Security Duty Allowance, provision of rations, and fuel.

The army costs work out at, on average, 3,461 per week, while the average weekly Garda costs work out at 23,673.

According to figures provided by Ms Fitzgerald, the highest monthly spend last year was in October, when 123,837 was spent on Garda security at Shannon.

Ms Daly and Mr Wallace appeared in court on Friday as witnesses for 70-year-old peace activist Ed Horgan,where a judge dismissed a charge that Dr Horgan illegally entered a restricted area at Shannon Airport when trying to inspect four military US Hercules C-130 aircraft last year.

In the witness box, Ms Daly presented to Judge Aeneas McCarthy more than 100 Dail questions on the military use of Shannon while Mr Wallace told the court it was very difficult to get our Dail questions answered.

In the case, Dr Horgan was at Shannon Airport to board a London bound flight where he was due to attend a peace conference on April 18, 2015. Dr Horgan told the court that, as he was waiting to board the aircraft, he saw four US military Hercules aircraft on the airfield being guarded by an Irish army jeep. Dr Horgan said he had a boarding pass to be airside and walked for a couple of minutes on the airport apron towards the military aircraft before he was intercepted.

In evidence of what Dr Horgan said under caution, Sgt Denis Lavin said that Dr Horgan told him: I went to search the four military aircraft because I have no doubt that they are carrying weapons and explosives in a breach of Irish neutrality and for those reasons I was fully justified to be at that location in the airport.

Dr Horgan said that he has made more than 100 complaints to Shannon gardai asking them to search US military planes at Shannon.
ROD Nordlands book The Lovers is a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, the true story of an Afghan couple and how they defied death threats to be together.

For Norland, a Pulitzer Prize winner and Kabul bureau chief for the New York Times, it all began with one email in his spam folder; little did he know then how it would lead him to the story of a lifetime, one in which he would became a key protagonist.

It was a very long, rambling email from a local activist but Im glad I read on because she buried the lede in her letter, saying there was a girl in the shelter in Bamiyan [where the Taliban destroyed two sandstone Buddhas in 2001] who was being kept there to protect her because her family wanted to kill her for trying to marry a man she had chosen.

She said she could get me to her and felt if we covered the story it would prevent her being killed. It was a terrific opportunity for a journalist because its very seldom you can talk to someone involved in an honour killing, its done in secrecy, among the family and theres usually a conspiracy of silence in the community about it.

The couple, Zakia and Ali, were from rival sects, Sunni and Shia, and opposing ethnicities, Tajik and Hazara. Zakias family was against their marriage on cultural, ethnic, and religious grounds.

Ali was then 21, three years older than Zakia. Once Nordland had spoken to Zakia and filed the story, he says he became disenchanted as he believed it would have little impact. But he hadnt reckoned on Zakias determination.

I didnt think it was going to change anything  that eventually this girl would be handed back to her family. I never thought shed have the gumption and courage to escape and run. She was the instigator  Ali went along with it.

They eloped and got married, and ran deeper into the mountains. At that point I realised they wouldnt last very long  they had very few resources, no money, it was cold. Her parents had pressed charges of kidnapping, as well as bigamy  in Afghanistan you can be married without being present at the ceremony if youre a girl.

The Lovers Quotes. Zakia: "You can't change what's in my heart so stop trying to do it."... https://t.co/8IRne6qxMN pic.twitter.com/M6GTe1It7Y  Rod Nordland (@rodnordland) February 19, 2016

Nordland eventually tracked down the couple with the help of Alis family. Initially they were against it but they came around to his side. They took us up into the mountains, we werent sure where they were, they were on foot, slept often in caves, and they had cellphones but they often didnt work in the mountains. The father wasnt sure where they were but we got lucky and found them pretty quickly.

GETTING INVOLVED

Nordlands journalistic instincts duelled with his wish to help Zakia and Ali as he became more deeply involved in their story.

We realised when we left theyd probably be caught within hours, because the police were rumoured to be just three hours behind  they had no car, and the mountains were too rugged for them to travel far. I hid them in my car, brought them to another part of the country and gave them $1,000, which would go a long way in Afghanistan.

I did very much cross the line but I didnt feel I had much of a choice. I thought Id be in trouble with my paper, because I wrote about this very forthrightly [in the book]. I hadnt told them at the time because I thought theyd pull me off the story, which I was very invested in, but they accepted that there wasnt another choice and it was the decent and humane thing to do.

While The Lovers is a love story in the most traditional sense, Nordlands aim in writing it was to raise awareness of life in Afghanistan and how hard it has been for women.

It not only touches on the horrible aspects of honour killings, but all the ways women are denied their rights in Afghanistan. Id been there for more than five years and wanted to write a book about that issue, how this general assumption in the West was that we had won there, and we had encouraged decent treatment of women in Afghanistan. But most of that is a sham and basic attitudes havent changed a lot.

I had shied away from writing a foreign policy book because I didnt want to spend a year writing something read by 300 people. The New York Times has an audience of millions and I realised writing this book was a great way to get people to read the story and would also educate them on the issue of womens rights.

The Lovers Quotes. Zakia: "Whatever happens to us, we had this time together." USA... https://t.co/LLe2Rmju5b pic.twitter.com/ceKbsnhHpQ  Rod Nordland (@rodnordland) February 15, 2016

While Nordlands book has attracted ire from political officials in Afghanistan, it has resonated with younger people in the country.

There were a lot of officials who were very angry, denouncing me and barring me from meetings of the womens council there. But there has also been a wonderful reaction from Afghan young people on social media. A lot of them are of the same generation as Zakia and Ali, and they look on them as heroes. I hear from womens groups that young couples are coming to them and asking about their legal rights when it comes to marrying who they want, and thats a wonderful reaction.

The couple are now living in the village where Ali is from, but their situation is still a precarious one. They almost never go out, if they do they take very elaborate precautions  its self-imposed house arrest. In the village theyre safe because the other family wouldnt dare come there, all the people there are relatives of Ali. But you cant live like that for a long period of time. Ultimately their own real solution is asylum in another country but no-one so far has been willing to grant that.

BABY MAKES THREE

The couple, now 19 and 22, had a baby in December 2014, which has meant they are more reluctant to take risks.

I think they should make more of an effort to flee the country but theyve tried that and failed, and they dont want to try to cross the Aegean  they saw the photograph of Aylan Kurdi, the toddler who was washed up on the beach, and they thought that that could be them. In that regard, theyve been very sensible.

Nordland is still in regular contact with Zakia and Ali. I spoke to them today and my translator was meeting them today, exploring whether they could get some reconciliation with her family. A neutral go-between was arranged, to contact the family, they cursed her on the phone and threatened to kill her  they were that angry at an impartial go- between so you can imagine what theyd want to do to her [Zakia].

That was sobering for her  some time has gone by and they hoped itd be put behind them, but thats typical of honour killing cases, people will spend years trying to exact vengeance.

#TheLovers quotes. Ali: "You buy danger for yourself by the things you decide to do." US... https://t.co/leZRiGiWFe pic.twitter.com/w5Qb9L6mz4  Rod Nordland (@rodnordland) February 8, 2016

Nordland still feels a sense of responsibility towards the couple. I have a watchful role but I cant dictate how they live their lives. Theres a saying that when you save somebodys life you end up in their service. And its true in a way. Having done what I did I cant just turn my back on them.

Rod Nordland and Syrian poet Maram al-Masri, with Theo Dorgan, will discuss Women in the Muslim World at Triskel Christchurch as part of the Cork World Book Fest on Thursday, April 21, at 8.30pm.

www.triskelartscentre.ie
Willie Pearse, brother of Padraig Pearse, was a sculptor, actor, and schoolteacher.

He was born in November 1881 to an English father, James, a monumental church sculptor who was sympathetic to Irish nationalism, and a Dublin-born mother, Margaret Brady, who had family connections to radical republicanism. Willie was executed along with three other rebels on May 4, 1916, on the second day of the Kilmainham executions.

In an account entitled Two Brothers, published in the Irish Press in May 1940, Mary Brigid Pearse contrasted the motivations of her two brothers for participating in the Rising:

All Pats life had been a preparation for that fateful Easter week but for Willie it meant a rude awakening from his long dreams, the consummation of all his cherished hopes. His sacrifice was therefore more complete and more bitter than that of his brother, his abnegation more entire, his courage even more fine... Pat wished to die for Ireland and in a sense was impatient at the tardy coming of death But Willie wanted to live for Ireland, to give her through his creative works the best that he had to give.

Mary Brigid believed that the dreams harboured by the younger, less famous Pearse brother were more matter of fact, more definite, and dealt with the realities of life and of the rich fulfilment of a noble ambition... His dream was to give to the world beautiful works of art through which he expressed his soul.

Willie was a sculptor and he moved in Dublins creative and artistic circles: He had a 15-year period of association with the Metropolitan School of Art from 1897 to 1912. During some of this period he also worked for the family business in monumental stone carving.

Willie was known for his long hair and cravats: He looked the part of an artist. In a brief but strangely haunting description Geraldine Plunkett, sister of Joseph, wrote how she used to see Willie in the National Library and loved to watch his quiet face and beautiful hands.

Universally liked, Willie was known for his gentleness and modesty, and many of those who knew him were shocked when they heard of his participation in the Rising.

While researching my book on Willie, I was introduced to a woman working in the National Library whose grandad, Larry Fleming, delivered milk to the Pearses. Larry spent his whole life imitating Willie Pearses mannerly voice and could not fathom how a mammys boy with the hair in his eyes was mixed up in the rebellion.

TK Moylan, who knew Willie through the School of Art, believed that Willie was such a quiet, plodding, inoffensive, unaggressive individual, one could not associate him with bloodshed.

Willies early politicisation is evident from a series of documents from 1903 preserved in the Pearse Museum collection. These show how the young artist took a stand for language rights by insisting on his right to sign his name on the School of Art register in Irish. Willie was an active member of the Gaelic League and a leading figure in the School of Arts Gaelic Society and in its Students Union, in whose plays he acted.

He also exhibited at the Oireachtas Art Exhibitions and the annual Sinn Fein Aonach, while the family firm took part in the annual Irish Language processions organised by the Gaelic League. He sold at least some work through the Irish Art Companions, who had ongoing links to nationalism and the Gaelic League.

Willies modesty does not seem to have stopped him becoming a very successful organiser of social and cultural events associated with his language activism and his theatre work. The networking skills honed in the pre-Rising years undoubtedly equipped him for his later role of aide de camp to his brother.

While the School of Art and the Dublin art scene had close connections with Dublin Castle, Willie also knew radical artists like Jack Morrow. His sculpture teacher, Oliver Sheppard, was a friend of the old Fenian, John OLeary. His work with the family firm also brought him into contact with some radical clerics.

It seems Willie found his own path to revolutionary politics: By 1912, both he and Jack Morrow were both members of the Wolfe Tone and United Irishmen Memorial Association Committee  a radical organisation which was a front for the underground republican organisation the IRB.

While Willies teaching work at his brothers school, Scoil Eanna, eventually diverted his energies from his sculpture, e still found time for theatre, acting in both English and Irish language plays. He was also closely involved in the preparation of Scoil Eanna plays and pageants.

He was Padraigs trusted confidante and apparently was the only person whose advice Patrick always ceded to.

Willie helped with the preparation of munitions in the months prior to the Rising. Although not a signatory to the Proclamation, as his brothers right-hand man, Willie was privy to the secret plans for the Rising, even issuing orders as acting chief-of-staff in Padraigs absence.

The courage shown by Willie in the hours and days after the Rising is particularly striking; he was prominent in organising the dignified surrender and, alone among the rebels, he pleaded guilty at his court martial.

As his sister attested, Willies life is striking for his adherence to an artistic calling. His overlapping interests and social circles remind us also of strong links which existed between the art world of the early twentieth century and the Gaelic Revival.

Meanwhile, Willies involvement in various cultural and language movements and organisations remind us how an alternative space for culture and identity was mapped out by cultural nationalists long before the Tricolour was raised on Easter Monday.

Roisin Ni Ghairbhi is a lecturer in Roinn na Gaeilge, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, and author of Willie Pearse in the 16 Lives series from OBrien Press
What are the things that you do now without thinking but that people younger than you find strange? They look at you and shake their heads as if theyd seen you trying to start the fire with some flint and two rocks.

When Im making the hey, give me a phonecall when you get a chance gesture, I still know why we need to use the baby finger because I remember receivers. But, because of technology, who knows what future generations will do when they want to silently indicate to someone to phone them? They might point at their nose or their cat or something.

(Actually for years, I held my hand the wrong way around with the thumb as the receiver. No wonder nobody rang.)

What generation are you? Theres a big publicity campaign at the moment to launch a survey across Europe of attitudes. Its open to anyone over 18 but its primarily interested in Generation Y. Generation Y appears to be from age 18 to 34.

So that probably makes me Generation X although some sources define me as a very early millennial.

I think that means that, while I know in theory that everyone has the ability to be Gods special snowflake, to realise their potential, in likelihood, most of us are kidding ourselves.

When I went to college in 1996, I was probably among the first generation to have a very reasonable expectation of getting a job in this country.

The crowd that came after me had even higher expectations. I remember hearing in one company of a mother ringing up her childs boss to complain about his wage increase, as if the boss was an incompetent teacher and life could be fixed just like school did.

But that generation got a very sore landing when the economy went belly up. The flip side is that behind that group is another cohort of very sanguine 20-somethings who have very low expectations so hopefully theyll enjoy the next boom even more.

But coming after them will be yet another group of feckless spendthrifts who dont know theyre born, theyre so lucky.

Of course you will always assume the generation after you have it easier, are a shower of slack-jawed ingrates who have no idea of the hardships you endure. All of us at some stage will hold forth to a younger group telling them about the primitive past. I remember a time before remote controls.

Previous generations tend to be respected for their toughness. In America, they talk misty-eyed, about the Greatest Generation born before 1924 and who fought in World War 2. You wouldnt have heard them giving out that their local Mace had a poor selection of craft beers.

They were too busy saving Europe. These were men who all looked like Kirk Douglas and women who looked like Mrs Sullivan from the Sullivans (an Australian soap opera that used to be on RTE on Fridays.)

Who would be Irelands Greatest Generation? Some would say it should be those who fought in the War of Independence but things  um  got a little complicated after 1922 and it  is that the time?

But we have plenty of generations who came after them. If were surveying the 18-34s, we should do a survey of the 70+ to find out what they think. Although what they probably think is that I remember a time when there were no surveys. Opinions?! You were lucky if you got black tea, dry bread and a clatter in the ear.
YOURE lousy at it. Im lousy at it. And the media are worst of all at it. We have no clue about risk, so we get our knickers knotted about phenomenally safe things while happily engaging in high risk behaviour.

Thats why one airline in the United States has its pilots telling passengers, after theyve landed at their destination airport, that the dangerous part of your journey starts now.

Meaning that although many of the passengers have sat, toes clenched, in abject terror during takeoff and landing and in only marginally less terror during the main flight, the fact is that air travel is one of the safest forms of transport that exists.

Only the elevator competes with it  but of course we have people who wont go in lifts, either, because they are convinced the cable will snap plunging them 20 floors down.

We lack the capacity to properly assess risk, but were still getting better at reducing some risks.

Despite the agitation of a rural TD whose name mercifully evades me, we no longer accept that its only grand to get into a car in an ossified condition and as a result of that and other RSA/Garda actions, our roads are now among the safest in Europe.

We also know that leaving ball bearings on the floor of the warehouse tends to produce the odd shattered pelvis, and  courtesy of detergent manufacturers  we know we can reduce risk to children if we keep detergent pellets in sealed containers out of reach.

Accordingly, we may not be good at assessing risk, but generally speaking we agree that reducing it is a good move in keeping alive and intact.

Or we did until along came the new head of Tusla, a man named Fred McBride who has an assertive Scottish accent, a forceful way with him, and a talent for throwing cats among pigeons.

Tusla, you will know, is (in its own words) the dedicated State agency responsible for improving wellbeing and outcomes for children.

It represents the most comprehensive reform of child protection, early intervention and family support services ever undertaken in Ireland. Great stuff.

Just a couple of months ago, in this paper, Fergus Finlay wrote a piece which was moving and enraging. It created a national stir.

Mr Finlay wrote about Grace who had been left in a foster home long after it had emerged that somebody within that home was abusing her.

As the resultant scandal wound down, we were told no similar examples existed anywhere in the country.

Now information emerges, courtesy of RTE, about a girl who says she was abused by an 18-year-old member of the foster family with which she was placed in another part of the country.

They were credible accusations according to HSE investigators so the girl was taken out of the home. However, two other children were left there on condition the 18-year-old have no unsupervised contact with them.

The rationale for what, on the face of it, looks like pure craziness, was elaborated on by Fred McBride on radio. Wait for it. He says taking a child out of a foster home due to a risk of abuse could cause additional trauma.

What you should do, he says, is remove or minimise the risk, not take the child out.

Which reminded me of the old question asked at job interviews to identify the capacity for analytical thinking under pressure. The question: Your house is on fire and you can take one thing out. What will it be?

Most responders start with the children, maybe extending their human concern to the granny. Many concentrate on getting out the springer spaniel or the budgie. After that it gets into precious books, the dead mothers photograph, and other sentimentally significant minutiae.

Only a tiny minority go straight to the point and say that what theyd take out of the house is the fire. Boom boom, right? Reason being that if you take out the fire, the children, granny, spaniel, budgie, and sentimental minutiae are totally safe. Wont even get mildly scorched.

The purpose of the question was to identify the bright sparks who had the judgement to take out the fire, on the basis that theyre the ones who can be trusted to think strategically.

Now, if you were one of those bright sparks, and if you were presented with this situation where credible accusations have been made against a teenage family member, what would you take out of the house? Right. The metaphorical fire.

In the foster home, if you want to leave the other two kids in situ to prevent them getting further traumatised, you get the 18-year-old out of there, right fast. If you cant, the kids come out of there, right fast.

The notion of a compromise where the fire and the scorchable kids are left in the same premises, separated by strictures, is just daft.

It doesnt require a creative genius to work out that already troubled children are going to be rendered confused and fearful in a situation where the teenager they know and perhaps like is not allowed to be on his own with them when thats not been the situation up to that point.

Its also difficult to figure how youd maintain comfy security in a house where one part of the family is policing the other part to prevent them getting near the foster kids.

But then Im a media person, and  again according to the forthright Mr McBride  media expectations of what child protection workers could or should achieve are utterly absurd. This may be an accurate assessment.

If it is, and if it matters, then Mr McBride can invite us thick media folk to a risk understanding seminar. He skipped that and went straight to contempt, which is easier, although Im here to tell him, as a PR expert, that contempt is a boomerang-shaped double-edged sword.

Im also here to tell him that attacking the messenger does tend to reduce the time available for informing the messenger. And I would try to pull him back from suggesting that risk has dignity. Which he did.

Having rubbished media, he then moved on to mothers. Promulgating the notion that responsibility should be knocked into parents, rather than taking their kids into care, heres the scenario he presented.

In his words.

So the 16-year-old is doing the sex and drugs and rocknroll thing. It gets a bit risky. Mum cant cope, says, This is way too risky, and social worker says, Yeah, youre right, it is too risky, lets get him out.

MUM cant cope. We have a century-long history, in mental illness particularly, of blaming mothers. God love us, we thought that the retrospective proof that mothers were never guilty of creating schizophrenia and a rake of other problems would make highly placed professionals lay off attacking them.

Wrong. Fred McBride is fearlessly going right back to the past. Wasnt Tusla set up to make sure we never went there?
David Davis said the brutal leader was polite and courteous but sidestepped the barrel bomb issue when he met a delegation of MPs.

Russia last month announced it would pull its troops out of Syria in a move that surprised Western leaders.

Mr Davis told BBC Ones The Andrew Marr Show: He said Putin said we will not let you lose, which for me was the most important phrase of the entire visit because it actually defines what the outcomes will be.

If the Russians will not let them lose, then there are two possible outcomes, the jihadist victory, which would be a disaster in my view by the way, the jihadist victory is not on the cards. Either a negotiated outcome or a Syrian victory is on the cards.

Protests against the Assad regime flared up during the Arab Spring and escalated into a full-blown civil war that has left hundreds of thousands of Syrians dead.

The Syrian president has previously denied using chemical weapons and explosive barrel bombs on civilian neighbourhoods who oppose his rule.

Mr Davis said he would not make removing Assad a red line at the moment.

The Tory MP said that one charity had told him there is nobody that the West would recognise as a moderate on the ground in Syria.

One of the most important moves the West could make would be to draw up a plan to rebuild the war-torn nation, he said.

Mr Davis said that the charity had told him that if Assad stood for election tomorrow he would win because people are terrified of the alternative.
New Zealand hosted the worlds first Pastafarian wedding, conducted by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The group, which began in the US as a protest against religion encroaching into public schools, has gained legitimacy in New Zealand, where authorities recently decided it can officiate weddings.

The ceremony was all about having fun.

The guests came dressed as pirates and shouted plenty of hearty Aaarrrhs.

The groom, Toby Ricketts, vowed to always add salt before boiling his pasta, while bride Marianna Fenn donned a colander on her head.

The church claims that global warming is caused by pirates vanishing from the high seas, and that there is a beer volcano in heaven.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world. We know that, said marriage celebrant Karen Martyn, aka the Ministeroni.

We werent around then and we didnt see it, but no other religion was around to see it either, and our deity is as plausible as any other.

The church has been battling to gain legal recognition around the world, with mixed success.

It was formed in 2005 as a way to poke fun at efforts in Kansas public schools to teach not only evolution, but also intelligent design  the idea that the universe must have had a creator.

Church founder Bobby Henderson said in an email that he thought it was odd that most weddings still have such an entanglement between religion and government.

Its sad that so many people feel pressured to do the traditional Christian wedding even when they dont relate to much of the religion, he said.

If people can find some happiness in having Pastafarian weddings, thats great, and I hope no one gives them any flack about it.

Ricketts, 35, a voiceover artist, and Fenn, 33, a lawyer and photographer, said theyve been a couple for four years but decided just three weeks ago to get married, after another Pastafarian couples plans to be first to wed fell through.

Ricketts said he found out about the church because hes been making a documentary about why religions dont pay taxes.

Fenn said she grew up on a small New Zealand island where people had alternative ideas about how to lead their lives.

I would never have agreed to a conventional marriage, but the idea of this was too good to pass up, Fenn said.

And its a wonderful opportunity to celebrate my relationship with Toby, but in a way that I felt comfortable with.

The wedding feast was an all-pasta affair, while the wedding cake was topped with an image of his noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Martyn said she hoped people could find happiness in eating, drinking, being with friends, and being kindhearted.

That be what were all about, she said.
But one year after Europes deadliest migrant disaster, humanitarian and security efforts off the lawless coast of Libya face a growing challenge to catch smugglers and bring asylum-seekers to safety.

Experts say crackdowns on migration at other EU borders mean that the southern Mediterranean crossing plied daily by smugglers operating out of Libya already is busier now than it was 12 months ago.

So far this year, 24,000 migrants have arrived in Italy via this route and tens of thousands more are waiting in the pipeline, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Rescue officials seek to ensure no repeat of the night of April 18, 2015, when a boat packed with an estimated 850 mostly African passengers capsized as a civilian freighter approached.

Most were locked below decks; only 28 survived. Several other smuggling vessels sank in the first months of 2015, some without trace at a cost of untold lives, before EU naval reinforcements arrived that June to cast a safety net. Experts say that net is fragile.

There could be a shipwreck tomorrow. Two boats could collide on the high seas. Even a strong multinational presence cant provide a 100% safety net, said Federico Soda, director of the IOMs office in Rome, which oversees the central Mediterranean and North Africa.

Soda said about 350 people have died so far this year trying to cross the southern Mediterranean route, nearly as many deaths over the same period as the far busier smuggling routes between Turkey and the eastern islands of Greece.

Now, as EU authorities work to halt that eastern Mediterranean flow of migrants and deport them from Greece back to Turkey, analysts anticipate that asylum-seekers from the Mideast and Asia may see Libya once again as the most temptingly open gateway to Europe.

They note that Libyas paramilitary chaos may make the North African nation a particularly attractive launching point for Europe-bound migrants because EU authorities wont deport migrants back to such a danger zone.
President Rafael Correa said at least 238 people had died and rescuers were struggling to reach survivors trapped in the rubble.

The magnitude-7.8 quake, the strongest to hit Ecuador since 1979, was centred on the countrys sparsely- populated fishing ports and tourist beaches, 170km northwest of the capital Quito.

Correa reported the death toll on his official Twitter account while flying back from Rome to deal with the crisis. Officials had earlier reported more than 580 people injured.

Vice-president Jorge Glas said there were deaths in the cities of Manta, Portoviejo and Guayaquil  all several hundred kilometres from the centre of the quake, which struck shortly after nightfall on Saturday.

In Pedernales, a town of 40,000 near the quakes epicentre, dozens of scared residents slept in the streets while men equipped with little more than car headlights tried to rescue survivors who could be heard trapped under rubble.

Were trying to do the most we can, but theres almost nothing we can do, said Gabriel Alcivar, mayor of Pedernales.

Alcivar pleaded for authorities to send earth-moving machines and emergency rescue workers to help find people amid the rubble. He said looting had broken out amid the chaos but authorities were too busy trying to save lives to re-establish order.

This wasnt just a house that collapsed, it was an entire town, he said.

Correa declared a national emergency and urged Ecuadoreans to stay strong while authorities handle the disaster. Everything can be rebuilt, but what cant be rebuilt are human lives, and thats the most painful, he said in a telephone call to state TV before departing Rome straight for Manta.

Glas said 10,000 armed forces had been deployed to help. In addition, 4,600 national police were sent to the towns near the epicenter.

Officials said shelters had been set up and field hospitals were being deployed in Pedernales and Portoviejo. More than 3,000 packages of food and nearly 8,000 sleeping kits were being delivered. Electricity in Manabi province, the hardest-hit, remained mostly down as authorities focused on finding survivors.

Compatriots: Unity, strength and prayer, Glas told a throng of residents gathered in the streets of Manta as he instructed them on how to look for survivors.

We need to be quiet so we can hear. We cant use heavy machinery because it can be very tragic for those who are injured.

In Guayaquil a shopping centres roof fell down and a collapsed highway overpass crushed a car. In Manta, the airport closed after the control tower collapsed.
Under President Vladimir Putin, Russias military has been beefed up by increased spending and ambitious rearmament, while Moscow, which accuses Nato of expanding toward Russias borders, tries to pursue a more assertive foreign policy.

The latest incident occurred on Thursday as a Russian Su-27 fighter performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers, flying within 50 feet of a US RC-135 aircraft, US European Command spokesman Danny Hernandez said, replying to a question from CNN.
The result leaves Donald Trump facing yet another loss in a Western state.

The sweep for Cruz follows his victory, last month, in the state, when he scored nine of 12 available delegates.

Trump and Marco Rubio each won one delegate in Wyoming, while one remained undecided.

Trump still leads the delegate race, with 744; Cruz, 559; and Kasich, 144. The tally needed to win is 1,237.

Cruz was the only candidate to address the convention in Casper, promising to end what he called President Barack Obamas war on coal, if elected. Wyoming is the nations leading coal-producing state.

Trump largely bypassed the state.

He said: I dont want to waste millions of dollars going out to Wyoming, many months before, to wine and dine, and to essentially pay off these people, because a lot of its a pay-off, you understand that?

Trumps defeat in Wyoming follows his shut-out, earlier this month, in Colorado, where he failed to pick up a single delegate of the 34 in play. He has urged his supporters to protest the results to state officials.

Trump said: I guess Im complaining, cause its not fair to the people. In Wyoming and Colorado, he said, The people never got a chance to vote.

Cruz said Trumps decision not to campaign in Wyoming was telling.

The reason he decided not to show up is he recognised he couldnt win. He couldnt earn the support of conservatives in Wyoming, Cruz said.

Cruz has benefited from a grassroots campaign in Wyoming, where the Republican machine has detailed rules for delegate selection.

Ed Buchanan, a former Wyoming House speaker, has served as chairman of the Cruz campaign.

Its just great to have the support of the Wyoming voters, Buchanan said. They share Ted Cruzs conservation principles, and thats why were successful today.

Clara Powers, of Wheatland, spoke for Trump on Saturday. She told the crowd she has three grandchildren.

I do not want any of them working with next-generation science, Powers said.

I do not want my grandchildren to believe in evolution. I do not want my grandchildren thinking that global warming is more important than our national security.

Calling America, the Saudi Arabia of coal, Cruz promised to roll back federal regulations he says hamper coal production. The Obama administration has imposed a moratorium on new coal leases.

Wyoming, and other states, have mounted legal challenges, in recent years, to US Environmental Protection Agency regulations that tighten emission limits on coal-fired power plants.
The two companies have announced a definitive agreement in which Mitel will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Polycom common stock in a cash and stock transaction.



Under the terms of the agreement, Polycom stockholders will be entitled to US$3.12 in cash and 1.31 Mitel common shares for each share of Polycom common stock, or US$13.68 based on the closing price of a Mitel common share on 13 April 13 - representing a 22% premium to Polycom shareholders.



The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.





Mitel CEO Rich McBee, said the combined company will be headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, and will operate under the Mitel name while maintaining Polycoms strong global brand. The merged company will have a global workforce of approximately 7,700 employees.McBee, who will head up the combined organisations, said Mitel has a simple vision - to provide seamless communications and collaboration to customers.To bring that vision to life we are methodically putting the puzzle pieces in place to provide a seamless customer experience across any device and any environment. Polycom is one of the most respected brands in the world and is synonymous with the high quality and innovative conference and video capabilities that are now the norm of everyday collaboration.Together with industry-leading voice communications from Mitel, the combined company will have the talent and technology needed to truly deliver integrated solutions to businesses and service providers across enterprise, mobile and cloud environments.Peter Leav, President and CEO of Polycom said that together, Polycom and Mitel expect to drive meaningful value for our shareholders, customers, partners and employees around the world.We look forward to working closely with the Mitel team to ensure a smooth transition and continued innovation to bring the workplace of the future to our customers.Steve Spooner, Mitels Chief Financial Officer, will also continue in his role.On the close of the transaction, it is expected that Polycom will assume two seats on the Mitel board.
According to Accenture, during the first quarter of 2016 investments in Asia-Pacific fintech companies totalled $2.7 billion, representing 51% of the $5.3 billion invested into fintech companies globally.



And, Accentures FinTech and the Evolving Landscape report issued early this month, reveals that the value of fintech investments globally rose to more than $22 billion in 2015, with Asia increasingly capturing a larger share of the market.



"With more than $5 billion in investments in Q1 were on track to see a similar level of fintech investments as last year, notes Beat Monnerat, senior managing director and head of Accentures financial services business in Asia-Pacific.





Applications for the 12-week Asia Pacific program close on 31 May, 2016, with Accentures Fintech Innovation Lab in its third year of operation.Jon Allaway, senior managing director at Accenture and the executive sponsor of the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific. says the management firm is having fintech discussions at financial institutions across Asia, as executives want to know about the latest cutting edge fintech solutions to invest in, develop or buy that can streamline services for customers.That is why in our third year of the lab we have increased the number of financial institutions in the lab to 20 from 12, increased the number of participants well accept in the program to 12 from seven and expanded to include insurance.Allaway said the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is a program for entrepreneurs that are developing cutting-edge and disruptive technologies for the financial services sector  particularly in the areas of big data, analytics and cognitive computing, security and identity management; risk management and compliance, digital marketing and social media, cloud, payments, blockchain technology, talent management and, Internet of Things applications.Chief technology officers and senior technology executives from financial institutions will select 12 of the applying fintech companies to participate in the Lab through a competitive process and will then provide them with intensive in-person mentoring in Hong Kong.The twelve principle financial institutions are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Credit Suisse, Generali, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Maybank, Morgan Stanley, Sun Life Financial and UBS.In addition, supporting banks include China CITIC Bank International, China Construction Bank (Asia), Macquarie, Nomura, Standard Chartered, Siam Commercial Bank, Societe Generale, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG).Applicants for the Accenture program must have a working beta version of their technology.The Lab, which begins in August this year, will partner the chosen fintech entrepreneurs with senior-level bank and insurance company executives and leading technology entrepreneurs, to help them fine-tune and develop their technologies and business strategies through a series of workshops, panel discussions, user-group sessions, networking opportunities, one-on-one meetings and presentations.Allaway said Cyberport will provide work space to participating entrepreneurs, and J Plus Hotel by YOO will assist with accommodations.The Lab culminates in November with a demo day presentation by selected participants in front of an audience of venture capitalists and financial industry executives.

Applications can be made at www.fintechinnovationlab.com.
The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to make machines smarter, industrial processes more efficient and consumer devices more responsive to our needs. According to research firm Gartner, there will be more than 20 billion connected things in use worldwide by 2020.

But these constrained devices often run on woefully out-of-date software that must be manually patched and upgraded; the market potential is enormous, but so are the risks.

[ Click here to download a PDF bundle of five essential articles about IoT in the enterprise. ]

Figuring out successful IoT business models is still a work in progress, and many are trying. Weve looked at a large sampling of companies that have formed to work on these problems and pared the list down to 10 that warrant special attention. (See how we did it.)

Collectively, the startups featured in this roundup have raised nearly $150 million in venture funding to chase IoT opportunities and tackle the risks. FogHorn Systems ($47.5 million), Armis ($47 million), and AlertMedia ($17 million) have the deepest pockets. At the other end of the spectrum, the rest of the startups have locked down funding in the $3million to $11 million range, enough to provide plenty of runway to get a product to market.

These hot startups offer everything from enterprise emergency notification systems to smart manufacturing platforms to virtual chips that add security to any connected device.

What they do: Mass-notification platform for the enterprise

Year founded: 2013

Funding: $17 million

Headquarters: Austin, Texas

CEO: Brian Cruver previously co-founded and CEO of Xenex, a company that develops germ-fighting robots that help hospitals prevent infections. Cruver also authored Anatomy of Greed, his firsthand account of Enrons collapse.

Problem they solve: Large organizations face numerous threats to their people, assets and operations. When an incident occurs, the faster you can react, the more likely it is that you can minimize losses. Delayed awareness and slow response time can be costly in terms of production, profitability, reputation and the health and safety of employees.

Despite waves of automation elsewhere in the enterprise, emergency response is still a manual, reactive and often much-delayed process.

How they solve it: The AlertMedia platform connects enterprise sensor data, system data, location data and employee smart devices together to create a single multi-channel critical communication platform.

The AlertMedia platform collects signals from gauges, vehicles, GPS locators, etc., and converts those signals into meaningful 24/7 communications. AlertMedia minimizes disruption to the business while keeping employees safe and informed.

AlertMedia helps its customers contend with a variety of emergency situations, such as severe weather, security threats, fires and power outages. But it also helps with more mundane emergencies too. For example, AlertMedia says that it is currently being used by a large restaurant chain to monitor temperatures in their refrigeration systems. When temperatures are outside a specified range, the system triggers notifications to the restaurants response team, preventing significant inventory losses.

Competitors include: Everbridge and OnSolve

Customers include: AT&T, Volkswagen, DHL, Greyhound, Kawasaki, The Salvation Army, British Petroleum (BP), H-E-B Grocery Company, State of Texas and New York City

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: Unless youre a global-warming denier, its clear that the market for emergency services will only rise in coming years. AltertMedias system, however, doesnt just help during natural disasters. To return to the restaurant example, a power outage or a compressor failure that ruins enough inventory can be an equally crushing blow to a business bottom line.

AlertMedia says that it has 500+ enterprise customers located in 90+ countries around the world, including multinationals AT&T, BP and Volkswagen. With $17M in funding and a leadership team that features serial entrepreneurs who have founded other successful startups (Xenex), achieved successful IPOs (Demand Media), and guided a startup to a successful acquisition (Adometry, acquired by Google), AlertMedia is well-positioned to take advantage of this land-grab opportunity.

What they do: IoT platform for smart manufacturing

Year founded: 2013

Funding: $5 million

Headquarters: Scotts Valley, Calif., and Pune, India

CEO: Vinay Nathan. Prior to founding Altizon, Nathan was Head of Sales, North America and APAC, for Persistent Systems.

Problem they solve: Manufacturing CIOs are looking for ways to implement Industry 4.0 technologies, hoping to leverage things like deep learning and Big Data to improve operating efficiencies and to enable new business models.

In many factories, machines are already technically capable of communicating with one another, but the data they generate still requires plenty of human intervention before anything can be done with it. A lack of real-time visibility into machines, assets, and factory operations limits manufacturers ability to make informed, data-driven decisions and move beyond reactive fixes to predictive planning based on real-time machine performance trends.

How they solve it: Altizons goal is to help manufacturers revolutionize their shop floors using edge computing, sensors, Big Data, machine learning, and enterprise-ready integrations. Altizons IoT platform, called Datonis, consists of three main components: Edge connectors, the core Datonis IIoT backend platform, and a Manufacturing Intelligence component.

Datonis Edge provides connectors to common connectivity protocols, such as OPC-UA, Modbus, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, so devices can quickly connect to a manufacturers network. The Edge is built as a store-and-forward system and has a built-in cache for storing messages when offline. The Edge also uses data batching, compression, and various other techniques to ensure that it can deal with limited network data bandwidth. The Datonis Edge can also process and analyze sensor data on the edge, ensuring that only relevant data is transmitted back to the main platform.

Altizons Datonis IIoT software platform integrates connected devices within enterprise IT, connecting industrial assets and IoT software applications over a hybrid infrastructure. It uses Big Data and machine learning to help manufacturers get the real-time visibility they need to determine the effectiveness of their production system environments, predict their throughput, optimize their energy use, and make quality improvements. Features include device management capabilities, stream analytics, and customizable alerts and notifications.

The Datonis Manufacturing Intelligence (MI) component provides connectors to integrate plant data from a factorys disparate plant-floor systems. Businesses are able to compile data from machines, existing SCADA and DCS systems, Enterprise Data Historians, and Manufacturing Execution Systems into a single repository that provides a unified view into all manufacturing operations data.

Datonis MI helps manufacturers define and track KPIs that are relevant to plant operations, while integrating those insights into business systems like ERP, CRM and Enterprise Planning and Scheduling systems.

Taken together, these tools help manufacturers build an intelligent connected ecosystem that spurs the flow of machine and enterprise-systems data for measurable business improvement in manufacturing.

Competitors include: C3IoT, Cisco Jasper, GE Digital Predix, PTC ThingWorx, Siemens Mindsphere, Xively, and Cumulocity.

Customers include: Varroc, CPG Company, and Prayas.

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: With $5M in VC funding, several named customers, and more than 150 implementations worldwide, Altizon has the resources to give the Datonis suite a fighting chance when going up against incumbents and major multinationals, such as PTC, Cisco, and GE. Moreover, the startups senior team has the right mix of backgrounds to bridge the IT-industrial divide, having gained relevant leadership experience at Persistent Systems, BMC, Storability, Sun Microsystems, Bladelogic, Rockwell, Siemens, and others.

What they do: IoT security

Year founded: 2015

Funding: $47 million

Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

CEO: Yevgeny Dibrov. Prior to co-founding Armis, Dibrov was the first hire at Adallom, a cloud-security company. He began as a product manager and finished as the head of global business development when the company was acquired by Microsoft for $320M.

Problem they solve: Gartner estimates that there will be more than 20 billion connected things in circulation by 2020. With this many connected devices in circulation, any notion of a network/security perimeter becomes obsolete.

According to Armis, the new wave of connected devices comes with three distinct security challenges. First, many devices are now designed to automatically connect to the internet or other devices, meaning theyll often bypass security by default.

Second, most of these devices are not designed to allow upgrades to their limited operating system or firmware, making vulnerabilities a major issue. Finally, most of these devices have no inherent security, nor, due to memory and processing constraints, can you put any anti-malware or security agents on them.

Beyond device insecurity, IT teams often cant see devices coming in and out of their networks. Traditional security approaches such as firewalls, network access control and security agents will not protect these unmanaged devices.

How they solve it: Armis IoT security platform is designed to eliminate the IoT security blind spot for businesses. Armis is designed to secure unmanaged devices in three ways.

First, Armis provides visibility of all devices in an organizations environment. Using an agentless approach, Armis identifies all devices and can see how they connect to the network, including over wired and wireless connections.

Second, Armis analyzes a devices behavior to identify risks and attacks, gaining insights into device reputation, status, connection, version, activity history and more. Third, Armis protects businesses by letting them manually or automatically disconnect devices from networks when they are behaving suspiciously or maliciously.

Competitors include: Cisco, Aruba, ForeScout and ZingBox.

Customers include: Samsung Research America, IDT and Gett.

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: The addressable market for IoT security is massive, and Armis already has a decent foothold with such customers as Samsung Research America and IDT.

Armis also just locked down a $30M Series B in April 2018, bringing their total funding to date to $47M, which leapfrogs them to the third-highest funding total of the 20 finalists in this competition. Finally, Armis did well in the online voting round, finishing in the top 5.

What they do: Operating stack for industrial applications

Year founded: 2013

Funding: $6 million

Headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif.

CEO: Jane Ren, who previously served as chief business architect for GE Software

Problem they solve: Many industrial processes are reactive, manual and ad hoc in nature, making them extremely inefficient. For example, the lack of coordination when ships and trucks line up at terminals results in hours of wasted time.

Another example Atomiton provides is with oil refineries, where operators heat terminal oil tanks and pipes without insights on the peak energy impact. The inability to analyze real-time data to anticipate and respond to future scenarios leads to waste.

How they solve it: Atomiton provides an industrial IoT software stack, which helps industrial companies anticipate future scenarios and optimize operations based on predictive intelligence. Atomiton is able to run predictive optimization based on real-time data gathered directly from industrial systems (PLCs, SCADA, instruments, sensors, etc.).

The Atomiton Stack encapsulates attributes and behaviors of things into models. These thing models provide the interfaces for things to interact with each other, as well as for people to access things in order to, for instance, query or control them. The Atomiton Stack also enables things using different protocols to directly interact with any applications. Things can operate on IP or industrial-based protocols.

Applications can direct things to work with one another to achieve aggregated goals. The things talk and respond to one another using subscription-, notification- and query-based communications. They can create schedules to perform coordinated actions or they can adjust to another things demands. For example, in smart cites the streets lights can dim after 10 p.m. based on the activities captured by nearby parking meters. If the meters report that no one is out and about, the lights can dim in response.

Competitors include: ABB, Siemens, Emerson Electric, GE, and Yokogawa

Customers include: Cisco and Vopak

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: Atomitons leadership team is exceptionally strong. Besides founder and CEO Jane Rens experience launching industrial internet programs across GE businesses, there is also CTO Alok Batras experience leading an operational intelligence startup to an acquisition by Cisco, where Batra then served as CTO for Cisco Emerging Solutions.

The startup hasnt raised an enormous amount of VC funding, but it does have a high-profile on-the-record customer in Cisco. (And Cisco often reacquires the startups its alums go on to found, so theres that to consider.) Atomitons industrial operating stack concept has the potential to automate processes that arent even being executed at present. The potential market for this type of predictive intelligence is enormous.

What they do: IoT industrial apps

Year founded: 2012

Funding: $8.5 million

Headquarters: Houston, Texas

CEO: Krishnan Raman, who previously served as the Head of the Global BI/DW Business for MindTree

Problem they solve: Energy and engineering industries are turning to IoT solutions to try to overcome three big problems. They seek to reduce asset downtime, enhance processes to deliver better quality products and create new business models that take advantage of newly available data.

How they solve it: Flutura industrial IoT apps use data analytics and AI to improve industrial processes. Many industries lack specific IoT apps for their verticals. To address this, Flutura has developed what they call Nano Apps, which are specifically meant to solve point problems for specific verticals such as the oil-and-gas industry.

For oil-and gas businesses, Flutura apps monitor frack-pump performance. For manufacturing, they have developed discrete apps that feed IoT sensor data into AI models to improve efficiency and quality. Flutura delivers these apps as a service, priced on a per asset/per app/per month basis.

Competitors include: GE Predix, PTC Thingworks, Siemens Mindsphere, Hitachi Ventara, Tachyus and Spark Cognition.

Customers include: Henkel and Stewart and Stevenson.

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: The first thing you notice about Flutura is that its going after a market space dominated by major multinationals, such as GE and Siemens. Yet, legacy incumbents tend to be slow to adopt new technologies.

Flutura is scaling up by targeting industrial niches  oil-and-gas, utilities, manufacturing  where small improvements can deliver enormous ROI. As such, shifting this IoT solution to an opex rather than capex expense is a smart move since operations is where the savings will be realized.

With $8.5M in funding and a couple of named customers, Flutura has a fighting chance to gain a purchase in this market before incumbents can block them. Flurtura also did well in the online voting round of this competition.

What they do: Edge-intelligence software for IoT applications

Year founded: 2014

Funding: $47.5 million

Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.

CEO: David C. King. Prior to joining FogHorn, King co-founded and served as chairman and CEO of AirTight Networks.

Problem they solve: Most industrial edge solutions ingest sensor data into a local storage repository and then publish the unprocessed data out to a cloud environment for offline analysis. However, many industrial environments and devices lack cost-effective and consistent internet connectivity, making this approach unfeasible.

On offshore oil rigs, for instance, less than one percent of the data generated by 30,000+ sensors is currently being used to make decisions, according to McKinsey & Company.

In addition, this store-batch-and-publish approach is anything but real-time. By the time the data is uploaded to the cloud, processed in the data center, and the results are transferred back to the edge, it may be too late to take any meaningful action.

How they solve it: FogHorn develops edge-intelligence software for industrial and commercial IoT application solutions. FogHorn addresses the challenges of gathering data in remote areas with poor or no connectivity with a miniaturized, scalable complex-event-processing (CEP) software engine that can run advanced operational and predictive analytics locally and in real time.

FogHorn enables high-performance edge processing, optimized analytics and heterogeneous applications to be hosted as close as possible to the control systems and physical sensor infrastructure that pervade the industrial world. This creates intelligence at the edge, resulting in closed-loop device optimization.

FogHorns small footprint delivers real-time, industrial-grade analytics to resource-constrained edge devices such as programmable logic controllers, gateways and industrial PCs. FogHorns solution helps manufacturers transform real-time machine data into actionable insights to reduce costs, thereby improving production efficiency and reducing unplanned downtime. With actionable real-time data, manufacturers can quickly push beyond simple cost savings to intelligent management and forecasting.

Competitors include: Amazon Greengrass and Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics.

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: With close to $47.5M in VC funding, FogHorn is one of the best-funded startups on this list. FogHorns senior leadership team is also exceptionally strong. CEO King led AirTight Networks through four successful up rounds of venture capital funding. Prior to AirTight, he served as Chairman, President and CEO of Proxim, which he led to a successful IPO.

CTO Sastry Malladi, previously served as the Chief Architect of StubHub, and Yuta Endo, VP/GM of APAC Operation and Business Development, previously led product management and strategic industrial partner relationships for Ciscos IoT division. FogHorn almost missed the cut in the online voting round, but a strong push on the last day got them into round 3, where their funding, market positioning and strength of their leadership put them over the top.

What they do: IoT security

Year founded: 2014

Funding: $10.7 million

Headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.

CEO: Sam Shawki, who previously served as Global Head of Remote Payments for Visa

Problem they solve: Unlike mobile phones, most IoT devices do not have chip- or SIM-based security to manage their identity, remotely or otherwise. Additionally, consumer IoT devices cannot be managed using traditional platforms that are designed to work within the fixed perimeter of the enterprise.

According to Shawki, A wide range of applications, including driverless cars, medical devices, fintech and government all have one thing in common: Theyre all IoT devices that can't be secured using legacy solutions.

Two of the most common ways to secure mobile transactions are Secure Elements (SE) and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE). An SE, such as a programmable SIM card or an EMV chip on a payment card, offers a high degree of security, but with the added cost and complexity of an additional chip.

A TEE removes the expense of a separate chip by creating a secure area on the main processor itself. The TEE protects the integrity of applications that execute within it, while also maintaining the confidentiality of their assets. However, the implementation of TEEs is complex. Execution of applications within the TEE can be slow, and TEEs can be resource hogs overall, which limits this approach only to critical applications, such as mobile payments.

Both SEs and TEEs add cost and complexity to the end device. Inserting a hardware security chip into many consumer IoT devices is cost- and support-prohibitive, and for many devices that could support the cost, they dont have the backend in place to do anything with the connected device. This leaves these devices unsecured, unmanaged and unsupported.

How they solve it: MagicCube eliminates the need for a special chip and/or chip partition, moving the secure execution area into a software-only container. MagicCube replaces the on-chip TEE with a software Trusted Execution Environment (sTEE), or what the startup refers to as the Cube.

Conceptually, it helps to think of the Cube as a virtual chip, CEO Sam Shawki explained. Our virtual chip is a secure software container that is isolated from the underlying environment, so it can safely execute sensitive operations and store secrets. By removing the need for a physical chip or on-chip partition, security can be added at will to pretty much any Linux- or Unix-based connected device.

All an engineer has to do is compile the next release of an app or an IoT device with MagicCubes SDK. There is no separate app to download, and no alteration is made to the device or OS. The cube has only one API to call (MagicCubes), which creates a secure virtual container in memory. The cube has its own OS. It utilizes only memory and CPU cycles from the host device but none of the host OS APIs.

The Cube functions as independent device with its own defenses, even on jailbroken devices. It provides a secure in-app container that protects sensitive data, logic and cryptographic operations on the device.

The Cube is also ephemeral, behaviorally, Shawki added. It wakes up, does its job, delivers the results to the app and then it disappears (or shuts back down), all in less than 350 milliseconds. Because of this and other protective measures, in-lab testing accredited by Visa, MasterCard, Rambus and others, our Cube has successfully protected secret data even on compromised operating systems. We have even resisted side-channel attacks, which can compromise physical chips.

On the backend, devices are monitored and managed via an on-premises appliance, or through the cloud as a service. MagicCube currently offers pre-packaged security profiles for mobile payments, connected cars, and PIN on glass protection at POS terminals.

Competitors include: Qualcomm-NXP, Arxan and Zingbox.

Customers include: Sequent, Yellow Pepper, ID Tech and NTT Data.

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: MagicCube is targeting a market that already consists of more than 20 billion connected devices, according to Gartner. The number of connected devices will spike in coming years and securing those devices will be a paramount challenge. With named customers and more than $10M in funding, MagicCube has the resources to charge in and stake a claim in this land-grab market.

MagicCubes team has experience with successful exits, such as Shawskis role in leading Orascom Telecom to an acquisition by VimpleCom for 26 Billion Euros. CTO and co-founder Nancy Zayed helped win Apple an Emmy Award for technological achievement for her work on Final Cut Pro. She also headed the teams that designed and built the consumer telepresence for Cisco.

MagicCube also finished in the top five in the online voting round of this competition.

What they do: Sensor platform for real-time supply chain visibility

Year founded: 2015

Funding: $3.6 million

Headquarters: Cambridge, Mass.

CEO: Krenar Komoni, who was the first employee at Eta Devices, where he developed low-power devices

Problem they solve: Manufacturers lose track of their goods as soon as they load a plane, ship or truck. As a result, in-transit damages and delayed shipments cost these companies billions of dollars every year. Worse, without visibility into those in-transit goods, manufacturers have no hope of avoiding damages and delays, let alone eliminating the root causes of these issues.

At the same time, customer expectations are higher than ever before, as companies like Amazon and Uber set new standards for on-demand transportation and delivery services. To remain competitive, manufacturers can no longer afford to lose sight of their goods as soon as they leave the building.

How they solve it: Tive provides visibility into the supply chain, gathering real-time information about in-transit goods, such as the location and condition of shipments. Tives combination of cellular-connected trackers and cloud-based software enable reporting, analysis and customized alerts on shipments across all modes of transport.

Conditions that may damage goods vary from industry to industry. For instance, with pharmaceuticals, maintaining a specific temperature range is critical, while with electronics, tilt and humidity are the key conditions that must be monitored. Thus, Tive relies on a variety of sensors to detect a broad range of conditions that can damage a shipment.

Trackers monitors temperature, shock, orientation, humidity, motion, and light. When damaging conditions occur, Tive sends out an alert via email or text message. In addition to seeing the damage when it happens, Tive also helps its customers track down the root cause of the problem, so they can resolve it for future shipments.

For example, if pharmaceuticals are consistently left sitting in the sun on a specific loading dock, Tive will zero in on the problem. As a result, companies immediately know about any damage or delays, as well as root causes, which helps them improve customer service while also reducing disruptions and logistical costs.

Tive also notes that its cellular-connected trackers last up to six months on a single charge, which makes them suitable for items in long, slow supply chains.

Competitors include: UTC Sensitech, Sendum, OnAsset, Roambee and ZillionSource

Customers include: Nokia

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: Tive is targeting a big market with no clear incumbents. Research firm MarketandMarkets predicts that the connected logistics market will expand from $10B in 2016 to $41B by 2021. As a young startup, Tive already has a top-tier-named customer in Nokia, and the startups senior leadership team has been involved in several successful exits, including the GrabCAD sale to Stratasys and Kiva Systems sale to Amazon Robotics.

What they do: Blockchain-based IoT security platform

Year founded: 2016

Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

Funding: $4 million

CEO: Duncan Greatwood. Previously, Greatwood was CEO of Topsy Labs, a social media search and analytics company that was acquired by Apple, where Greatwood then served as an executive in charge of a number of Apple's search-technology projects and products.

Problem they solve: Companies are transforming their operations with IoT, AI, automated management and machine-to-machine cooperation at the edge. The result is a highly interconnected, yet disparate and siloed cyber-physical operational system. This creates a number of security holes that can be difficult to find, let alone defend.

As the internet of things grows, attackers will turn their attention to unsecured edge devices.

This is already a major problem. The recent ransomware attack on Atlantas city computer systems knocked traffic and other smart-city systems offline for five days. The Mirai and Reaper botnets took control of millions of connected devices around the world. And IoT vulnerabilities provide a big attack surface in cyberwarfare.

How they solve it: Xage argues that to realize the promise of the industrial IoT revolution, security needs to be woven into IoTs autonomous, any-to-any, edge-heavy architecture. Security must to be as distributed, redundant, flexible and adaptive as the systems it is tasked to defend.

Xages blockchain-based security software distributes authentication and private data across a network of devices, creating an any-to-any fabric for communication and authentication. Xage facilitates autonomous operation, credential rotation, access control and zero-touch deployment to deliver the protection required for Industry 4.0.

Xage software is deployed in nodes, which are a combination of industrial endpoints (such as robots or electrical smart meters) and gateway computers located at industrial sites. The nodes communicate amongst themselves to create the blockchain. Collectively, the nodes form a self-healing fabric that is protected against the compromise of individual components. The gateways also proxy-in legacy unmodified industrial endpoints, enabling them to participate in the system without being upgraded with Xage software.

The fabric acts as a tamper-proof and confidential store of security information  including user credentials, device passwords, enrollment keys and security policies  with the information held at the industrial site. The fabric also serves as the distributed edge identity and authentication manager, enforcing security policy in real time across the industrial edge and protecting against single-point-of-failure security vulnerabilities

Since the system relies on blockchain, the security of a network protected by the Xage security fabric increases with additional nodes. By enforcing immutable records and distributing and sharing identical security data across the nodes in its network, Xage argues that its blockchain-based fabric is tamper-proof, redundant and self-healing.

Tamper-proofing is achieved using consensus mechanisms, including the consensus system at the heart of blockchain. If attackers were to compromise a subset of blockchain nodes, the attackers would not be able to change the security information (for instance, by changing a policy to grant themselves access to robots), nor would they be able to read back confidential information, such as a device password.

When attackers attempt to compromise a node, the healthy nodes detect the attack and the consensus mechanism blocks the attempt. The system then self-heals by rejecting unauthorized changes and then locking out compromised nodes.

This consensus mechanism is the same one that lies at the heart of digital currencies, where the tamper-proofing is used to stop attackers issuing themselves fake money. Xages blockchain-based software also integrates well with redundant, threshold- based technologies like Shamirs Secret Sharing to secure operational data.

Competitors include: Cisco, Microsoft, and Claroty

Customers include: ABB Wireless, IBM, Itron, Dell and NTT

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: For a young startup, $4M in funding provides plenty of runway to get airborne in this wide-open market niche. Cybersecurity companies are losing the arms race against bad actors, especially as hostile foreign nations launch many of the attacks, so a new approach merits a closer look.

The senior leadership team has several successful exits under their belts, including Apple, Cisco and TA Associates. And for a two-year-old startup, having big names like IBM, Dell and NTT as customers helps them punch above their weight.

What they do: Edge-computing platform for real-time IoT apps

Year founded: 2016

Funding: $3.06 million

Headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.

CEO: Said Ouissal, who formerly served as SVP, Worldwide Sales and Field Operations at Violin Memory

Problem they solve: Despite the availability of cloud technology and agile process advancements, many enterprises remain deeply invested in legacy embedded technology. They continue to deploy monolithic software built on custom silos of supporting hardware and infrastructure.

When changes to software become necessary, numerous manual steps by different functional teams are required. At the edge, this can also involve truck rolls or other costly remote experts. In the past, these processes were fine because embedded computing was assumed as a multi-year, set-it-and-forget-it technology.

IoT has changed all that. Now, everything is generating data. Applications from self-driving cars to industrial robots are using IoT data in real time to make decisions and improve productivity. The long, manual process of dealing with silos of custom embedded computing solutions leads to errors, high costs, operational inefficiencies and security vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, a dearth of software developers who have experience and expertise with embedded systems adds to the problem.

How they solve it: ZEDEDAs IoT platform manages edge services from the cloud, enabling software developers to use a web interface to virtualize and orchestrate compute, network, storage and other edge services across various edge hardware platforms.

According to ZEDEDA, Edge software is dominated by traditional embedded-computing software development, where the app is tightly integrated with hardware. This approach creates a very efficient use of resources, but it lacks the agility of the cloud and does not facilitate operational repeatability or automated lifecycle management.

As a result, the edge is particularly susceptible to hacking and edge devices and services are difficult to scale.

A cloud-native edge, in contrast, leverages open-source embedded virtualization techniques on edge hardware to create an abstraction layer between the hardware and the apps running on it. This architecture allows edge hardware managed by ZEDEDAs cloud platform to deploy and run VMs, containers and micro-services in much the same way they would run in a public or private cloud datacenter.

With ZEDEDA, developers deploy hardware loaded with open-source embedded virtualization software. Then, ZEDEDA orchestrates the edge resources with a combination of agentless, standards-based and crypto-routing infrastructure to enable a multi-tenant, cloud-native environment for IoT applications.

ZEDEDA is designed to secure the edge environment and allow cloud-native apps built for containers, VMs, unikernels, etc., to operate at peak efficiency without requiring any additional embedded development work.

The ZEDEDA platform gives software development and operations technology teams the ability to deploy and update real-time edge applications exactly as they would in the cloud. No remote expertise or truck rolls are required. The end result is that embedded computing can leverage agile development practices, while also delivering security to the edge.

According to a ZEDEDA representative, the platform is currently running a private beta with top-tier industrial equipment manufacturers, clean energy companies and automotive system developers.

Competitors include: Amazon Greengrass, Microsoft Azure IoT Edge, Cisco, VMWare Pulse IoT, IOTium, ResinIO and Sierra Wireless

Why theyre a hot startup to watch: ZEDEDA has a strong leadership team with deep knowledge of and plenty of experience in embedded systems and IoT. The startup has raised enough VC funding to push its platform into beta, and the concept of bringing automation, agile processes and security to the edge is a winner. ZEDEDA also finished in the top 10 in the online voting round, beating out more than 55 other IoT startups.

(Jeff Vance is the founder of Startup50.com, a site that discovers, analyzes and ranks tech startups. Follow him on Twitter, @JWVance, or connect with him on LinkedIn.)

This story, "10 Hot IoT startups to watch " was originally published by Network World .
A British Airways aircraft was possibly hit by a drone Sunday near Heathrow airport as it was coming to land, which is likely to increase demands for greater checks on the flights of the devices.

The Airbus A320 flight from Geneva, carrying 132 passengers and five crew members, appears to have not been significantly impacted and was cleared for its next flight, according to news reports.

The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority said it was aware of a possible incident with a drone at Heathrow on Sunday, which is subject to investigation by the Metropolitan Police. It reminded drone users of the countrys "dronecode," which prohibits drones from flying above 400 feet (about 122 meters) and requires them to stay away from aircraft, helicopters, airports and airfields.

"It is totally unacceptable to fly drones close to airports and anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including imprisonment," the CAA said in a statement Sunday.

British Airways could not be immediately reached for comment. The British Airline Pilots Association said in a tweet that "the risk and consequences of drone collision urgently need to be properly understood."

In the U.S., there have been demands for greater regulation of consumer drones, including through technologies such as geofencing that use GPS and other techniques to impose geographical limits on their movement.

After a near-miss last month between a drone and a Lufthansa aircraft landing at Los Angeles International Airport, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, said the Senate must pass legislation she introduced last year, called the Consumer Drone Safety Act, which would direct the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to require safety features for newly manufactured consumer drones, such as geofencing and collision-avoidance software. The provisions in the legislation are incorporated into the FAA reauthorization bill, she added. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2016 is being considered by the Senate.

Pilot reports of drones, also referred to as Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), picked up from 238 sightings throughout 2014 to over 650 in a little over seven months of last year, the FAA said in August last year. The FAA reported last month that there were over 580 reports of drone sightings by pilots, air traffic controllers and citizens in the national airspace between Aug. 22, 2015 and Jan. 31, 2016.

The FAA has as yet to finalize rules for the commercial use of drones but it already has regulations in place that require people using drones for recreational purposes to fly their unmanned aircraft, which cannot weigh more than 55 pounds (25 kilograms), at below 400 feet, within visual sight of the operator and 5 miles (8 kilometers) away from airports. But monitoring adherence to the rules may be getting more difficult as the number of consumer drones has gone up, and includes over 406,000 people that have registered since a FAA drone registry went live in late December.
Kirill Tatarinov took over as CEO of Citrix in January, a key piece of a company reorganization demanded by activist investor Elliott Management, which had acquired a 7.5% stake in Citrix. Tatarinov, a 13 year veteran of Microsoft, where he was most recently Executive Vice President of the Microsoft Business Solutions Division, is putting the finishing touches on the companys new plan, which will be introduced at the companys large user conference in May, but he shared a preliminary glimpse with Network World Editor in Chief John Dix.

Citrix CEO Kirill Tatarinov

Where do you stand with the company reorg?

Were pretty clear about the worldview and how we sit in it. The details, as you may imagine, are still forming. Im not done with my discovery and formulation process just yet. I would say Im probably two-thirds into it. But most of what Im hearing has started to be reoccurring, which means it is a good time to start formulating whats next and I think its not long from now when we are going to be able to articulate it crisply, and we have a perfect opportunity for that, our annual Synergy user conference at the end of May. I would say that will be the coming out of the new Citrix. Thats how we consider it.

Youve announced you are spinning out of the GoTo stuff, but that hasnt happened yet, right?

Its on the path. We came out mid-November articulating the plan, but spinoffs of that magnitude take time. Its about a $700 million business and it is a couple thousand people scattered around the world, and while it has been run as a stand-alone organization for a long time, there are still common processes that have to be addressed. Things like setting up separate instances of ERP, the HR processes, all of that. Its not as easy as people think. But the plan is to have a separate public company that will have its own board of directors. The ownership will be shared, at least for a period of time. But they will be run as an independent company.

You folks sold off the cloud platform business as well.

We sold several elements of cloud portal management in an effort to focus the company. That was a very consultative type business, very services heavy, and were not exactly a professional services type company. We have a small professional services organization, but the fact that it sold to a professional services company tells you where the focus needs to be.

Speaking of focus, outline for us Citrixs new position.

Citrix is focusing on the secure delivery of apps and data. With that we have four core areas:

* Virtualization. A foundational element, which is essentially how Citrix got started many years ago, is the access point that people use to get virtualized apps and desktops. This business has more than 400,000 customers. It is an amalgamation of core elements: applications, virtualization, desktop virtualization and delivery. And now, as we plan for the future, we are embracing new ways people can access their virtualized apps and desktops through the cloud.

Theres a clear and continuous shift and demand for complete end-to-end delivery from the cloud and were watching that closely. For example, we give customers a choice of keeping the virtualized desktops on premise or hosting them with a partner or putting them in Amazons or Azures cloud, and were still analyzing how this can be best optimized for future customers.

* Mobility. Another core pillar for us is mobility, which is tightly aligned with app and desktop virtualization. All of our products enable customers to be mobile and secure, plus we have specific products in the market. We have an enterprise mobility management suite called XenMobile. The most critical part of enterprise mobility management is mobile application management, which essentially allows people to bring their own devices and access corporate applications and data, which can all be supported by IT. This enables IT to help secure the business and users by controlling what users can store, how they can store it, how they can wrap it, how they can access it, and what they can access. Thats very important and an interesting area of focus for us. Plus, we also support the full IT-controlled mode of MDM as part of our mobility management solutions.

* Networking. The third area of focus is our networking business, which includes our NetScaler platform. The solution we have spans several key network elements: its an ADC, a gateway and it is a software-defined WAN. Its software so it can be deployed in different ways. It can also tie together with our Xen family, both in XenApp and XenDesktop, optimizing access, and it integrates with XenMobile. As an example, together XenMobile with NetScaler let us provide something called a MicroVPN that enables you to create VPNs on a per app basis. Going back to the mobile application management scenario, if for example, a device is not enrolled, is not managed, and there is no VPN available, we can support a microservice that manages and secures access for individual apps. This is enabled by NetScaler and is something only Citrix can do.

The networking business is also a category were excited about because of independent go-to-market initiatives. Weve been very successful enabling at-scale cloud operators. And we have a similar phenomenon in large enterprises driven by e-commerce. Five years ago you could say e-commerce was the domain of people who were selling consumer goods. Now its the domain of every large company that needs to serve the online engagement needs of their customers, whether its selling or just customer engagement. All of these scenarios need secure and reliable network connections.

* File Sharing. The fourth area of focus for Citrix is secure file sharing. What it unique is that it is file sharing for professionals at small and large businesses, contrasting with other solutions. This is not a consumer oriented business trying to serve enterprise requirements, and were not trying to serve the needs of both consumers and businesses. Its exclusively focused on business. And even though businesses share files with consumers, it is the business owner who essentially controls the access, and were providing a secure solution that was developed for business.

We also have some unique differentiators, with features that are important for file sharing. For example, we have support for signature technology. Not only can you share a file, you can share a file with an associated action, like a signature. It also has built-in workflow, which is not common for other data sharing competitors

We are very focused on these four pillars, but most importantly, the pillars work together which is important for our customers. This is clearly the case where the whole is bigger and better than the sum of the parts and the four units work in conjunction with each other for the secure delivery of apps and data.

You mentioned cloud, do you see that as the future?

Everything we do has both on-prem and cloud options. While we absolutely see rapid adoption of the cloud, about half of our customers continue to maintain, and will for many years to come, their on-prem deployments, and we want to give them that option. We will lead with the cloud. We will encourage them to go to the cloud, but on-premise is certainly something we will continue to offer.

Do you have a sense about the timing, when cloud will really take over?

The previous business I ran included ERP and CRM software and there were very clear renewal cycles. For ERP its 15-year renewal cycles. The previous renewal was in 2000 and the next renewal is happening right now. Thats ERP. What were analyzing here is, what is the renewal cycle for application and desktop virtualization infrastructure? Is it three-years, five-years, ten-years? Organizations going through that renewal cycle now want to go to the cloud, or at least want to experiment with the cloud to see how it works. But its absolutely real. People have seen benefits and real cost-savings.

Going back to your product mix, I presume Workspace still accounts for the bulk of sales?

Workspace is still the core of Citrix. Its the largest segment. This is where we have the most customers. Its back to growth and we want to continue to accelerate that growth. NetScaler is the second largest and ShareFile and Enterprise Mobility, theyre emerging but they are high growth.

If someone wants to buy some components but use their existing network kit instead of brigning in NetScaler, is that possible?

Well, we dont require it, but if you want certain capabilities you can only get them through NetScaler. If youre buying XenMobile and you want MicroVPN for applications management, you need NetScaler. Most people would have a variety of ADC vendors with a range of applications. When you go into a large company youll find F5, A10, NetScaler, and they would be all playing their own game.

In NetScaler we are a relative newcomer. We want to make it better known and we want to make sure people understand that we are a networking business, and that networking helps us drive the rest of our business. In many cases, NetScaler is an enabler for XenApp and Desktop or for XenMobile. It allows us to get our foot in the door and then expand, a land-and-expand strategy. You come in with a suite, you demonstrate success and then you go beyond that. Im starting to see that as a trend.

As described by you, the pieces you are focused on fit together neatly, while it wasnt always possible to say that about Citrix.

Citrix has been a product company and very good at pitching individual products to IT implementers. Thats been the target audience for many, many years. I think weve outgrown that mode of operation and must now articulate our end-to-end vision and strategy and engage more with IT decision-makers and business professionals to articulate how Citrix actually enables digital transformation.

What work still needs to be done? Is it product development? Getting the team to work better?

Its a combination of factors. Its establishing one Citrix where everything works to the same blueprint. This has been an ongoing discussion with the team and our ecosystem and is absolutely part of what we need to work on. We need to set up common operating principles. We need to establish a common framework for mission strategy and lay the groundwork for teamwork.

The analogy I use with my team is, we have a great structure that needs maintenance and a bit of renovation, but its a great foundational structure and we absolutely want to move it forward. We have an amazing culture and a tremendous amount of support from customers. People genuinely want to see Citrix succeed.

Do you think most people still associate the bulk of the company with virtual desktops?

Absolutely. Weve done a number of surveys and thats what every external survey reinforced. Citrix is an incredibly trusted brand. People really like working with Citrix. People know Citrix for one or a couple of things and they dont understand the longterm vision and strategy and thats what we need to explain.

You read about CEOs coming in with 100-day plans or something similar. Do you have a calendar like that?

There are logical milestones which drive a number of things were working on, like our user conference at the end of May. But whats driving the urgency in my actions is getting us on a different growth trajectory for 2017. To make that happen, the groundwork needs to be happening right now so we can complete the planning through the end of the year.

In terms of competition, youre in some distinctive markets but who do you view as your top competitor?

If think its pretty hard to find somebody who provides this complete end-to-end value. I would never say Citrix is unique in what we do, but this amalgamation of four elements does give us an ability to offer a unique value proposition. But there are competitors in every category.

How about VMware?

Well, they square up directly in the virtualization area, and I think over the years they have made a lot of claims, some true, some not, and to a degree Citrix has been soft in our approach to competition, but we are seeing some good wins. We are seeing good momentum. We see some very interesting takebacks and we are going to be more vocal about those.

Microsoft is a Citrix partner, but as they push their tools into the cloud and make it possible for me to access those resources from anywhere, why do I need Citrix?

First of all, you need to bring your past into the future, and thats one aspect of what we do. Networking plays an important role. Microsoft is a big customer of NetScaler because it enables some key scenarios that, frankly, Microsoft doesnt have.

And even for applications considered to be modern, many customers want to run them in virtualized mode. Take Skype for Business. Microsoft aspires to have Skype for Business as a native experience on any device, but many large enterprises have significant control requirements. They want Skype for Business wrapped, run centrally and delivered to devices through a Citrix receiver, and thats a very strong partnership we announced with Microsoft in January.

Does the adoption of other SaaS applications reduce or increase the need Citrix?
Twitter is to invest in China despite the rising scrutiny and possible business hurdles. Even though Twitter was banned many years ago since 2009, Twitter still aimed on expanding their horizons in the region.

A former post from USA Today revealed, "Twitter isn't the only major Silicon Valley tech company pressing for greater opportunity in China despite being banned there. Facebook is courting Chinese advertisers and Google is pursuing developers.

To prove the move initiated by Twitter, it has made changes in its management system. Twitter has hired a new help that will soon transform the business dealings and presence of Twitter in China. The newly recruited business chief in China is Kathy Chen, who has joined Twitter as its new managing director.

Meanwhile, even though Mainland Chinese users would not be given the freedom to access Twitter's services, the China-based companies with global ambitions use Facebook and Twitter ads to reach customers outside China, which is one of the major routes for Twitter.

Also, "As a global platform, we are already engaged with advertisers, content providers and influencers across Greater China to help them reach audiences around the world. Chen should help the company create more value for these parties in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Mainland China," Twitter said in a statement.

Also, this is not the only business strategy and innovations that Twitter has in stored for the company. It has even improved its emojis to further support the business sectors, as noted in a separate post from Jobs & Hire.

At the same time, Twitter's vice-president for Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Emerging Markets Shailesh Rao added on to state, "Because of the success we've seen, we want to expand the investment we're making in (the region), Kathy Chen will be responsible for developing the strategy and running the business."
US Election 2016 is not boding well for presidential hopeful Donald Trump as he faces scrutiny on both sides. It appears that for Donald Trump, the support is being threatened by the brawls with the GOP.

A former post from the Washington Post revealed, "Tensions between the Republican Party and its own front-runner erupted into a full-blown public battle as top party officials rebuked Donald Trump on Friday for alleging that the GOP primary system was rigged against him."

The same post added on to note that the tension was due to the way Trump has implemented his strategies as well as his failure to win any delegates in Colorado. It has been noted that Trump's chief rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, gained the votes during the weekend event.

Also, owing to the rising tensions between the GOP and Trump, the mere possibility of losing the race is heightened and escalating. Even RNC communications director Sean Spicer said, "It ultimately falls on the campaigns to be up to speed on these delegate rules. Campaigns have to know when absentee ballots are due, how long early voting lasts in certain states, or the deadlines for voter registration; the delegate rules are no different."

On a different aspect, besides warring with the GOP, Trump has faced scrutiny and tensions by his blunt statements especially towards Ford reported by Jobs & Hire. Moreover, if the issues continue to rise for Trump, he will likely fall or lag behind presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton.

One of the experts in campaigning strategies, Michael Steel, who was an aide for Jeb Bush's campaign and previously worked on the Mitt Romney campaign in 2012 and as spokesman for John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) when he was House speaker said, "Traditionally, this is the time that the party and front-runner come together and make the plans necessary to defeat the Democratic candidate in the fall. That's clearly not happening, and it's going to make it tougher to beat Secretary Clinton."
Los Angeles, California housed the apparel industry in the United States. It attracted everyone to its clothing and designs. All that has been left unchanged until recent years when a much more enticing offer has been put on the table. Cheaper overseas labor costs have been an attractive interest to many apparel manufacturing companies and slowly, according to LA Times, they have been outsourcing to countries like China and Vietnam.

Recently, American Apparel has laid off 500 jobs. American Apparel is the biggest clothing company in the Los Angeles area and its recent decision to cut 500 jobs was because the clothing maker was allegedly planning to move to another area in the United States for its manufacturing segment. While that employment downturn happened, California is now looking at a potential exodus of its clothing manufacturers when the state's minimum wage of $15 per hour will become effective in 2022.

The minimum wage increase has been suggested over the years and it will definitely put a big dent on the Los Angeles apparel industry if it stands at $15. California already lost Guess Jeans in favor of cheaper labor costs in Mexico and South America, and Hudson Jeans, as well.

The outsourcing was necessary to keep up with low-cost competitors, according to Jeff Mirvis who is the owner of MGT Industries in L.A. Although the designs are made in L.A., MGT made that same transition in the 1990s when it moved its production line to Mexico, China and Southeast Asia.

"Manufacturers really have no choice," said Mirvis, whose father started the company in 1988. "With the rise of Forever 21 and stores like that, price points have gone down and down and down." This slow and painful process will affect thousands of jobs in the state which is why Labor Union organizers express that it's greed, and not survival, that's forcing clothing companies out of California.
Jobseekers matchmaking website Aasaanjobs has been challenged to reach out to potential employees with no Internet access. The startup company has had tremendous success since it was founded on Nov. 2014.

Business Standard reported that Aasaanjobs is an online marketplace platform for recruiters and jobseekers. The website appears to be focused on entry-level jobs.

The company uses an advanced, two-way matchmaking algorithm. This results to connecting only qualified candidates that have profiles and job expectations which meet the clients' requirements.

Aasaanjobs is founded by IIT Bombay alumnus Dinesh Goel along with colleagues Gaurav Toshniwal and Kunal Jadhav. Apparently, an unorganized hiring process and restricted access to an accurate database of candidates in the entry-level and blue-collar job segments prompted the founders to create the website.

The company has since received financial support from IDG Ventures and Inventus Capital Partners. It's database now has 180,000 candidates, with about 3,000 companies.

Aasaanjobs' business model requires employers to buy credits. These credits are used for shortlisting and interviewing candidates.

Employers pay per valid interview only, which minimizes spending on recruitment. The platform's data plan also provides unlimited job postings with a contact unlock feature.

Aspada Advisors co- founder and managing partner Kartik Srivatsa had admitted that he is excited to see how the company would be able to mold the workplace in the future. "The unstructured nature of recruitment as a space means there is an opportunity for disruption," he said.

Meanwhile, experts have said that the company's future would see a challenge in reaching out to the unorganized workforce. These blue-collar employees usually do not have access to the Internet.

"For a company like theirs, which is online, attracting offline customers is necessary," a Mumbai-based angel investor told the publication. "While building physical offices in smaller towns is not feasible, they need to figure out a way to reach out to this population."

According to I Am Wire, Dinesh Goel has admitted that Aasaanjobs wants to develop an ecosystem where jobseekers, employers and even manpower agencies can "build trust and get benefitted in a way that suits them." The company is also said to be working on making the website in the local language.
YapJobs was able to raise 1 million, about $1.4 million, in funding. The app aims to connect jobseekers and employers in the hospitality sector in real-time.

Tech City News reported that YapJobs was launched in November last year. Apparently, in the last six months, it has already processed more than 50,000 applications. The employers using the platform are The Ivy and Costa Coffee.

Ziad Tassabehji invested in an angel capacity. Several other private investors also helped fund the startup.

YapJobs was founded by Shahzad Ali, who serves as the company's CEO, CTO Xen Lategan and chairman Ziad Tassabehji. Ali shared his thoughts about the raise.

"I grew up in the heat of a restaurant and know that the people employed are the lifeblood of the service industry, but I also know how the wrong environment can make it a very difficult place to work which has an impact on staff retention," the YapJobs CEO said. Ali is in-charge of the overall strategic direction and growth of the business.

"That's why I launched YapJobs, to help the best people find work quickly in the places that they really want to work. We want to use technology to help drive a real change in the industry, ensuring that people are also matched to company culture which will help promote a better working environment across the board."

Jobseekers will need to download the YapJobs app which allows them to create a profile in 2 minutes. It also gives them instant job notifications as well as an easier job application process.

"YapJobs is the better, faster & simpler way to find work in London's premium restaurants, bars, hotels, cafes etc," the company wrote on its blog. "Download our free app to find your next job today!"

Users can turn on push notifications to receive real-time updates on job postings. A search radar feature is also available and can be set to the jobseeker's desired maximum distance.
There are speculations that Google may be participating in the Yahoo sale. Is the search engine conglomerate doing this to remove competition?

According to Inc., Yahoo is gearing up for its sale. The company's revenue has dropped by 15 percent and its earnings went down by 20 percent.

It was also noted that the company's three flagship properties, mail search and Yahoo.com, have been losing audience. Preliminary bids for the Yahoo sale are only accepted until Apr. 18.

"[Yahoo] is just not worth a candle unless, essentially, you got it at such a discounted price," Diller told "Bloomberg Go" in an interview. "All of us are serfs on the land of Google. I told Google, it's sensible to treat your serfs well. If you don't, they rise up, get on horses and kill you."

Kpopstarz reported that the Daily Mail is the latest company to be interested with the Yahoo sale. Apparently, the British website has already done discussions with other investors.

"Given the success of DailyMail.com and Elite Daily, we have been in discussions with a number of parties who are potential bidders," a spokesperson for the website said to WSJ. "Further updates will be provided as appropriate."

Meanwhile, Verizon and Alphabet Inc.'s main division, Google, is believed to be considering a bid for Yahoo's core business. AT&T Inc. and Comcast are said to have decided against bidding as well as Microsoft Corp., which lost a bid for the company in 2008.

Time Inc. is still in the evaluation stage. Private equity funds companies such as Bain and TPG are believed to have plans to make a run at the business.

The Washington Post speculated that Google may be planning to apply its "substantial ad prowess" to Yahoo's content and audience. At the same time, the search engine giant could be "eliminating a lesser rival in the process."

However, due to those reasons, Google may be monitored even closely by antitrust regulators. The company has not addressed the concerns.
In an effort to formalize regulations in San Francisco, both city and county officials are now requiring the drivers of ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft to apply for business permits.

Uber Technologies Inc. is U.S online transportation network company located in San Francisco, California. It has been considered as a reliable low-cost means of transportation. It's only competitor, Lyft, which is a privately held American transportation company, is based in San Francisco as well, has been slowly penetrating the ride-sharing industry. Quora describes Lyft's brand to be more about community and friendliness so drivers interact with passengers more, compared to Uber's brand being more about a professional service so drivers interact less.

The app-driven services have been making their initial rounds this past year across the United States which also means that there are external and internal company issues that are still being ironed out. Currently, both companies are receiving lawsuits from their own drivers. And one such issue is being discussed in San Francisco.

The reports explain that the two ride-sharing giants, Uber and Lyft do not recognize their drivers as employees. Currently, these drivers are considered as independent contractors and are not eligible to avail of any company benefits.

Meanwhile, to streamline regulations, the city's treasurer, Jose Cisneros, is requiring Lyft and Uber drivers who operate in San Francisco to get these business permits for them to continue driving for the ridesharing industry, as told by SF Gate. These drivers are now being required to pay $91 in order to be certified as a company driver. According to PC World, San Francisco has been planning on sending out letters to about 37,000 Uber and Lyft drivers to inform them regarding the new city business permit requirement. Another thing to note, is that this permit needs to be renewed every year.
Last week's jobless claims, or he number filing first-time applications for unemployment benefits, have fallen by 13,000. It now scratches 253,000 for the week of April 9. The number of applications came in lower than the estimate for 270,000, while the prior week was revised lower by 1,000 to 266,000. According to People's Pundit Daily, a Labor Department Analyst has cited that there were no outstanding factors that impacted that week's claims. The report marks the 58th consecutive week for first-time unemployment claims to be below 300,000.

The United States Labor Department has noted that this has been the longest streak since 1973. The number of U.S. workers who applied for new unemployment benefits fell for the second straight week to match its lowest level since 1973, which is a sign of a robust labor market.

The week before, it was highlighted that first-time unemployment insurance benefits rose. The Labor Department also noted that there were no special factors that triggered that week's claims and no state was triggered "on" the Extended Benefits program. The Wall Street Journal also noted that the jobless claims have declined as the American Labor Market remains hearty.

Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities, explained that "Not every element of the economy is performing as well as the labor market, but that piece of the puzzle remains rock solid."

However, the future is still uncertain. As Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR, Inc., puts its, "We continue to believe that weakening corporate profit margins will take their toll on hiring later this year and then more dramatically in 2017."

While the jobless claims still holds its historic low, the Labor Department still continues to monitor the weekly progress.
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WASHINGTON  When President Obama departs for Saudi Arabia this week, an incubator of the 9/11 attacks, he will leave behind a dispute about government secrecy. The suppression of 28 pages, first from a public congressional inquiry and then from the 2004 report by the national 9/11 Commission, has spared the Saudis embarrassment, which would be mild punishment for complicity in 2,977 murders. When Obama returns, he should keep his promise to release the pages. Then he should further curtail senseless secrecy by countermanding the CIAs refusal to release its official history of the 1961 Bay of Pigs debacle.

The nature of the 28 pages pertaining to 9/11 can be inferred from this carefully worded sentence in the commissions report: We have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded [al-Qaida] (emphases added). Together, those five italicized words constitute a loophole large enough to fly a hijacked airliner through.

CBS 60 Minutes recently reported that former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, a Democrat who chaired the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and co-chaired the bipartisan joint congressional inquiry into 9/11 intelligence failures, says the pages suggest the existence of a network that supported the hijackers when they were in America. Former Democratic Rep. Tim Roemer, who was a member of the joint inquiry and then of the commission, and who has studied the 28 pages, says they contain (as 60 Minutes expressed his judgment) provocative evidence  some verified, and some not of possible official Saudi assistance for two of the hijackers who settled in Southern California. 60 Minutes said the two Saudi nationals had extremely limited language skills and no experience with Western culture. Yet they managed to get everything they needed, from housing to flight lessons, after being seen in the company of a diplomat from Saudi Arabias Los Angeles consulate.

Before John Lehman was a member of the 9/11 Commission  which unanimously supported release of its report uncensored  he was a member of Henry Kissingers National Security Council staff during the Nixon administration and was secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration. Lehman understands the serious and the spurious arguments connecting secrecy to security. He says the 28 pages contain no smoking gun, but he believes that senior Saudi officials knew that Saudis were assisting al-Qaeda. And he believes that because Saudi Arabia spends enormous sums worldwide financing schools that teach the virulent variant of Islam called Wahhabism, it is unsurprising that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.

Now, about the Bay of Pigs invasion of April 17, 1961, a feckless use of American power that radiated disasters: President Kennedy promptly deepened U.S. involvement in Vietnam; Nikita Khrushchev, unimpressed, built the Berlin Wall and installed missiles in Cuba. Why should the CIA history remain secret 55 years after the invasion?

A federal appeals court has ruled, 2-1, against a Freedom of Information Act request for the release of the history. Citing a FOIA exemption that protects secrecy deemed essential to preserving government agencies deliberative processes, the court held that even after more than half a century the history is still a draft  never mind that its author retired in 1984 and died in 1997  and hence is still predecisional and deliberative. So, documents can be kept forever secret by government agencies declaring them drafts or otherwise deliberative.

Nations need secrecy to protect deliberative processes and to conceal from adversaries the sources, methods and fruits of intelligence gathering. However, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan argued in his book on the subject, secrecy is government regulation, but unlike most regulations, which restrict what people can do, secrecy restricts what they can know. Secrets are property, and covetous, acquisitive government bureaucracies hoard them from rival bureaucracies, thereby making government even more foolish than it naturally tends to be because it has no competitors. For example, the U.S. military kept from President Harry Truman its proof, derived from what are known as the Venona intercepts of Soviet communications, that Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs were spies.

On Fox News Sunday on April 10, Obama was asked if he could say that Hillary Clintons handling of classified information on her private email server did not jeopardize Americas secrets. After waffling  saying Clinton would never intentionally jeopardize America  he intimated that many documents that are classified are not all that important to national security. He should apply this insight to documents pertaining to the disaster a decade and a half ago and to the debacle 40 years before it.
Juli Kaufmann and Jeremy Davis see potential in the former Wally Schmidt Tavern on W. Fond du Lac Ave. in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood. The pair plan to open a restaurant and offices there this summer. Credit: Rick Wood

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A sign above the dilapidated Milwaukee building at 1848 W. Fond du Lac Ave. reads: "M&M Lounge, Open 7 days a week." But even a brief glance at the rusty iron gate on the front door informs passers-by that the business likely has not operated on regular business hours for some time.

In an earlier, more profitable life, the building was the Wally Schmidt Tavern, a neighborhood haunt that attracted high-profile patrons ranging from politicians to Milwaukee Braves pitcher Warren Spahn.

When the building closed in 2010, it fell into disrepair, suffering vandalism and fire damage. But bit by bit and brick by brick, Juli Kaufmann, founder of Fix Development, and Jeremy Davis, environmental specialist at Walnut Way Conservation Corp., are trying to restore the turn-of-the-century tavern to its former glory.

"It's amazing, and it's trash," Kaufmann said of the former tavern site on a recent afternoon visit. "But we're very excited about its potential. The restoration has been a labor of love for the both of us."

On this particular afternoon, the source of excitement was a small square of freshly laid concrete  the first of several that will eventually make up an outdoor patio.

"Renovating historical buildings presents a number of challenges. It's always a bag of worms," Kaufmann said as she watched Davis inspect the tavern's latest installment.

Davis paused to pull his phone from his pocket and snap a photo. Both beamed at a small sheet of brown concrete. Behind them stood a collapsed wall, and beyond that several broken mirrors, a cracked tile floor and a dusty bar.

Built in 1893, the Wally Schmidt Tavern was run by Wally and his wife, Belle, until 1968. It was then leased to the McCarthy family, who renamed the venue Max & Mildred's and later the M&M Lounge. The M&M Lounge closed six years ago, and the building has sat vacant since.

The building caught the attention of Kaufmann and Davis while they were working on the Innovation and Wellness Commons in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood last year.

Davis, a Lindsay Heights resident, lives just three blocks from the tavern and said he has passed by it nearly every day since moving to the area in 2010.

"I knew it could be something," he said. "But this isn't always an area people invest in."

The 53206 ZIP code is historically one of Milwaukee's poorest. The neighborhood has a 22% unemployment rate, and high rates of poverty and infant mortality. More than 50% of the area's commercial properties are vacant or underused.

"If you only see (Lindsay Heights) on TV, it might not be an area you'd think of visiting. But the reality when you set foot on the ground is totally different," Davis said.

While not a Lindsay Heights resident, Kaufmann is a seasoned veteran of challenging projects in unpopular neighborhoods. Fix's previous projects include several buildings in Walker's Point, including the Clock Shadow Building and Freshwater Fix (previously home to Purple Door Ice Cream). Clock Shadow, Fix's first commercial development, has received several awards recognizing its environmental impact.

Kaufmann said she recognizes more differences than similarities between her work in Walker's Point and her projects in Lindsay Heights.

"It was inevitable that a lot of pieces would come together to make Walker's Point possible," Kaufmann said. "But the problem with Lindsay Heights is that it lacks diversity. It's somewhere traditional capital doesn't flow, and disinvestment here has been long term."

The Lindsay Heights project's original estimated cost was $500,000. That included all necessary rehab, renovation and restoration costs.

Ken Little, commercial corridor manager for the Milwaukee Department of City Development, worked with Kaufmann and Davis to obtain a grant that would cover up to 33% of the costs to rehab the property.

In January, Kaufmann and Davis launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Indiegogo platform. Their original goal of $31,000 was surpassed in January. They continue to collect donations.

Kaufmann previously used a crowdfunding model to launch Purple Door Ice Cream in Walker's Point and said she was not surprised by the success of a crowdfunding campaign in a low-income neighborhood.

"Residents are incredibly passionate about the neighborhood," she said. "They invest because they want to see change."

"The neighborhood is full of great, hardworking people," Davis added. "It's why I came here, and it's why I stuck around."

The eventual goal for the Wally Schmidt Tavern is for it to be owned by a small group of Milwaukeeans. According to Kaufmann, support for the idea has been strong. The pair are asking for a minimum investment of $1,000. Currently, 15 neighborhood residents have committed.

"And we haven't even made our formal pitch," Kaufmann said.

In phase two of the funding, Kaufmann and Davis will pitch to Fund Milwaukee, a group of small Milwaukee investors who lend support to a variety of Milwaukee projects.

When the tavern is completed, it will have a restaurant on the ground floor, two office spaces on the second floor and one office on the third. The downstairs business continues to seek a restaurateur. Two of the office spaces have been claimed, one by Fix Development.

Kaufmann and Davis said the project is on track for a summer opening, but there's still work to be done before the tavern is once again open for business. Both said they would consider taking on more projects in the neighborhood and have their eyes set on a handful of potential new projects.

"I hope we eventually have the same problem as other neighborhoods," Kaufmann said. "That people see the benefits of doing business here and outside demand gets almost too high. That may not happen as fast as Walker's Point, but it has the potential to."
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Eric Isbister learned, in an unusual way, that his company's website was vulnerable to an attack when it was hijacked by someone selling leather jackets.

Isbister is president of GenMet, a Mequon metal fabrication company that's not in the leather apparel business, yet someone was using the GenMet site for that purpose.

"I don't know exactly how he did that, but he can't do it anymore," Isbister said about putting a stop to the shenanigans.

Increasingly, manufacturers face cyber security risks, including the loss of confidential data and trade secrets worth millions of dollars. The attacks sometimes come from overseas competitors trying to steal proprietary designs and manufacturing processes, according to a new report from Sikich LLP, a professional services firm based in Naperville, Ill., with an office in Milwaukee.

How much attention do manufacturers pay to cyber security?

"The short answer is 'not nearly enough,'" said Austin Ramirez, president and chief executive officer of HUSCO International Inc., a Waukesha manufacturer of automotive components.

"For the first time, one of our major automotive customers is forcing us to do a much more rigorous audit of our electronic security protocols," Ramirez said.

"This is something we are really starting to focus on," he added.

Only 33% of the manufacturers surveyed by Sikich did annual computer network penetration tests, which many in the cyber security field consider essential.

Manufacturing has tended to fall behind the curve when it comes to security, probably because many companies aren't held to the standards applied to financial and health care institutions, said Brad Lutgen, a Sikich partner involved in its security and compliance division.

A thumb-drive test

Simple human curiosity, and not being able to resist temptation, also could be a cyber threat, according to a recent study by the University of Illinois.

The study's researchers purposely dropped 297 USB thumb drives around the Urbana-Champaign campus to see what would happen. Tracking files indicated when someone found one of the devices and accessed the files.

Nearly half of the finders plugged the device into their computer and opened one or more files. Many said they took no precautions, which could have left them wide open to computer viruses and other malware had the devices been dropped by someone with malicious intentions.

Some people opened intriguing files, including photos, before they attempted to locate the thumb drive's owner.

Experts say thumb drives and other portable data devices, including photo-memory cards, should be treated like hypodermic needles. If you don't know where it's come from, don't touch it.

Some of the worst cyber security breaches have come from thumb drives. Even IBM was caught in a thumb-drive scandal when, at a trade show, the company gave out free drives unknowingly infected with a virus.

Emails another threat

Likewise, many cyber attacks against companies stem from an employee opening an email or a website link they believe is safe, when it's not.

"Even if only one person out of a thousand clicks on one of those, the damage is done," said Despoina Perquil, an assistant professor in computer science at Marquette University.

Another threat is ransom ware, a malicious software that encrypts files on your computer until you pay a ransom to have them unlocked.

Businesses, hospitals, and even law enforcement agencies have paid thousands of dollars to get their data back. Often the payments are made through digital currencies such as Bitcoin, which are difficult to trace.

Backing up data to an offline computer or separate drive that hackers can't access is probably the best way to avoid the scam.

"Otherwise your only choice is to pay the money. They will actually give you back your data because that's how they work," Perquil said.

Often the attacks are from outside the United States, leaving law enforcement agencies with few means to pursue the offenders.

Some of the most common methods used to break into a computer system include a malicious email or phishing, the latter an attempt to obtain a password or username by pretending to be a trustworthy entity.

"Attackers are becoming less extravagant and complex, but instead are relying on easily exploitable, well-known vulnerabilities," the Sikich report said.

GenMet does work for the U.S. defense industry, and Isbister takes cyber security very seriously. After the website incident, about five years ago, the company hired Superior Support Resources Inc. of Brookfield to manage its computer systems.

GenMet has about 60 computers on its shop floor.

"My job routings are there, my drawings are there. If I have a computer problem, it quickly brings me to my knees," Isbister said.

"I have a firewall and security system that prevents some devious person from getting at my customers' intellectual property," he added.

Many businesses, including professional services firms, are vulnerable to attacks, said Sarit Singhal, president and CEO of Superior Support Resources.

One example: Visitors to a law firm's website were redirected by hackers to a pornography site. In another example, a real estate firm wired $23,000 to a scam operator who pretended to be a vendor on a large construction project.

"This kind of stuff happens all day long," Singhal said, adding that attackers use social media, email and websites to gather information about businesses and use it against them.

The need to keep testing

Businesses should have penetration tests done on their network to reveal the weaknesses, according to experts, although it can cost thousands of dollars.

With the tests, a security firm will simulate an attack and attempt to take control of a computer system, sometimes over a period of days, but often access is gained within an hour.

"If we have done our homework, it's pretty typical for us to gain access quickly, especially if a company hasn't had this type of testing before," said Lutgen with Sikich.

Some business owners believe their company is too small to be the target of a cyber attack, but the offenders don't necessarily see it that way.

Likewise, some companies tell new hires about their computer system policies, but then the information gets lost in the day-to-day business activities.

Often, Singhal said, people are the weak link in the cyber chain.
Patrick Gaskin, general manager of the Kimpton Journeyman Hotel, says the guest rooms in the 158-room hotel will include crafts made by local artisans to help create a fresh, fun atmosphere. Credit: Rick Wood

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When it opens in late June, the Kimpton Journeyman Hotel will be more than just the latest in a series of new hotels in Milwaukee's downtown area.

The 158-room hotel, 310 E. Chicago St., will be the first in the Historic Third Ward, which has seen an ongoing transformation since the late 1980s from industrial buildings to housing, offices, restaurants, stores and other new uses.

"We've wanted a hotel in the Third Ward for a long time," said Greg Uhen, chief executive officer at Eppstein Uhen Architects, which is among the neighborhood's larger employers. "Given all the visitors that come to the neighborhood, I would imagine it would do quite well."

The strength of the Kimpton brand also helps raise the national profile of downtown Milwaukee's hotel market, according to industry consultant Greg Hanis.

"It puts the downtown Milwaukee market into a major new level," said Hanis, who operates Hospitality Marketers International Inc.

San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants is known for operating luxurious boutique hotels in just 33 cities. The group's only other Midwest locations are Chicago, Minneapolis and Cleveland.

The nine-story Milwaukee hotel will showcase a rooftop terrace lounge area, featuring heaters and retractable glass walls so it can be used during colder weather. Known as The Outsider, it will serve craft cocktails and have live music.

The street-level Tre Rivali restaurant will feature Mediterranean-style contemporary American cuisine, with former "Top Chef" contestant Heather Terhune as its executive chef. There also will be a separate lounge in the hotel lobby, which will include a fireplace and a pool table.

And the guest rooms will have fixtures and decor, such as large windows and crafts made by local artisans, that create a fresh, fun atmosphere, said Patrick Gaskin, Kimpton Journeyman general manager. The average daily rate will be just under $200 during the hotel's first year, he said.

The hotel will have other extras that are Kimpton trademarks, such as yoga mats in all rooms and bikes available for guests, Gaskin said. He said the hotel will create suggested running and biking trails for people staying there.

"We have to take advantage of the lake," Gaskin said.

Other Milwaukee touches include partnering with local craft brewers for the hotel's restaurants and lounges, he said. Tre Rivali and The Outsider hope to draw a significant amount of business from Milwaukee-area residents.

"It's not just for people from out of town," Gaskin said.

Some of that local trade will be generated by businesses using the hotel's meeting rooms and by other events. The hotel will have 29 underground parking spaces, and 125 to 175 spaces within a few blocks.

"We've had a lot of inquiries for weddings," Gaskin said.

The summer months will see a surge of guests attending Summerfest and other festivals, he said. But throughout the year, Gaskin expects about 65% of the Kimpton Journeyman's revenue to be generated by business travelers.

The Kimpton Journeyman will compete with several nearby hotels for that trade, much of it generated by large employers operating in the central downtown area north of the Third Ward.

"There's a lot of great hotels that are much closer" to such major businesses as Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., BMO Harris Bank and Baird & Co., Gaskin said.

But downtown is very walkable, he said, and the Kimpton Journeyman will offer business travelers "a different experience."

That will help raise Milwaukee's hotel profile when the Kimpton Journeyman opens, Hanis said.

"It further supports the first-class status of the Milwaukee hotel market," he said.

The Kimpton Journeyman has undergone a prolonged gestation.

Kimpton announced plans for the hotel in February 2013. It had a preliminary opening date of summer 2015.

However, the hotel's design was refined as the developer, HKS Holdings LLC, secured the project's financing, including capital provided through Indian investors. The groundbreaking occurred in December 2014.

Gaskin declined to comment on the project's costs. The main city building permit lists it as a $24 million project, but additional permits could account for other costs. The project site was sold to the developers for $2 million.

It is opening amid a period of heavy activity within the downtown hotel market in recent years.

That includes the 205-room Marriott, 323 E. Wisconsin Ave., which opened in 2013; the 150-room SpringHill Suites, 744 N. 4th St., which is targeting a June 1 opening; and the 220-room Westin, 550 N. Van Buren St., to open in June 2017.

Demand for downtown hotel rooms has remained strong even as new properties have been developed, said Hanis and Ron San Felippo, chair of the Historic Third Ward Business Improvement District and a former downtown hotel manager.

The Kimpton Journeyman will draw some travelers through businesses based in the Third Ward, San Felippo said.

That could include life sciences consulting firm Dohmen Co. The firm moved its headquarters from Menomonee Falls to the Third Ward in 2015 and is now expanding at another building.

Dohmen uses a number of area hotels for its clients and employees who travel to Milwaukee "and will consider the new hotel when it opens," said Sarah Zwicky, public relations director.

Also, neighborhood business operators are looking forward to the rooftop terrace and its attached indoor meeting room to host events, San Felippo said.

The hotel's guests will provide more customers for nearby restaurants and shops, and the Kimpton Journeyman will be a convenient place to stay for people visiting family and friends who live in the Third Ward, said Andrew Wadsworth, a neighborhood resident.

"I think it's a great addition to the Third Ward," he said.

The hotel represents another big step in the Third Ward's transformation.

The neighborhood, rebuilt after a devastating 1892 fire, for several decades housed dozens of manufacturers and wholesalers. But it began declining in the 1960s, with businesses moving to newer buildings in the suburbs.

The National Register of Historic Places in 1984 recognized the Third Ward as a historic district, with the first redevelopment projects starting around that time. The redevelopment pace began accelerating during the '90s, as more businesses and residents moved there.

The neighborhood's current projects include the proposed One Catalano Square office building, 100 N. Young St.; the Domus apartments, under development at 441 E. Erie St.; the planned office addition at the Mercantile Building, 318-324 N. Water St.; the conversion of the former Mitchell Leather building into apartments and commercial space, 226 N. Water St.; and a former warehouse conversion into apartments and commercial space, at 211-213 N. Broadway.

The Kimpton Journeyman will be within a few blocks of those projects.

"Everybody's looking at it as a major plus," San Felippo said.

"It adds another element of a full-service neighborhood where people live, work and play."

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Potawatomi Business Development Corp. and Stack41 said Monday they plan to provide free business technology services to area startups.

Their initiative, called N.E. Startup, will provide application and web hosting, file storage and data backup for free up to a certain usage level, said Michael Hostad, co-founder of The Commons and executive director of Innovation in Milwaukee (MiKE), a project of the Greater Milwaukee Committee.

There will be a vetting process for start-ups that want to participate in the program, Hostad said. The services will be free to a point, but organizers believe that at that point the startups should be successful enough to pay for the services, he said.

"What the tribe is doing should set an example for other organizations here to support the start up community," Hostad said.

The Potawatomi are offering the program through their Data Holdings LLC, which runs a data center in Milwaukee's Concordia neighborhood.

Start-ups that want more information about the initiative are invited to a lunch on April 21 at Data Holdings, 3135 W. Highland Blvd. To RSVP for the lunch, contact Hostad at mhostad@gmconline.org.
Packers on life support after another poor offensive performance

Green Bay's inability to convert on third and fourth downs all day lead to questions about the direction of a stalling offense.
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A turkey hunter was shot and killed Sunday morning by another hunter in Rock County.

A 37-year-old Janesville man, whose name was not released, left his blind to retrieve a wounded turkey around 7:30 a.m. and accidentally ran into the field of fire of another member of his hunting party who was attempting to put a kill shot on the bird, according to the Rock County Sheriff's Department.

The victim was shot in the back and pronounced dead at the scene in a field near N. Lima Center Road and county Highway A in the town of Johnstown. The victim was hunting with two family members.

An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.

The incident appears to be an accident, the Sheriff's Department reported.
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The dean of a Milwaukee choice school was charged Monday with sexually assaulting a girl over the past several years, the fifth area educator to face sexual assault charges since December.

Jermaine A. Evans, 32, dean of students and coach of the girls basketball team at HOPE Christian High, was being held in the Milwaukee County Jail. The victim is a student, but the criminal complaint suggests the administrator-student dynamic was not a factor in the case, since Evans knew the girl in a different context.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police became aware of the incidents this year through a series of text messages Evans sent to the girl. She then told investigators she first had sexual contact with Evans with she was 11 or 12, and that the incidents occurred more frequently as she got older, and continued this year.

Evans told investigators the girl, who is now 16, said she would "do anything" for him if he got her a cellphone, and admitted that sexual contact became sexual intercourse after she turned 14. The incidents occurred at Evans' home in the 1300 block of N. 42nd St., he told police.

Evans told police he knew what he was doing was wrong, and there was a lot of pressure and risk in having a sexual relationship with the girl. He said he wanted it to stop but said his victim wanted to continue.

The complaint charges two counts of sexual assault of a child, once in 2013 and once in 2014. Each offense is punishable by up to 25 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision.

HOPE Christian Schools is a network of six schools that participate in the Milwaukee and Racine voucher programs. Its high school, where Evans has been girls basketball coach the past four years, is at 3215 N. King Drive.

In recent weeks, two female teachers in New Berlin and Milwaukee were charged with having sex with a male student or former student. Over the weekend, a male teacher's aide at Holy Redeemer Christian Academy was charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in a locker room.

In December, a former Menomonee Falls School District teacher was charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student.

Mark Stewart of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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Milwaukee and Marquette University police are investigating an armed robbery Monday morning of a bank inside the Alumni Memorial Union and have a suspect in custody, according to a campus alert sent to students.

The man entered the U.S. Bank branch about 9:30 a.m., stated he was armed and demanded cash, according to the alert. He then fled on foot.

The suspect was apprehended by the Marquette University Police Department a short time later at a Walgreens store at 1600 W. Wisconsin Ave.

No students or staff were injured.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Marquette University Police Department immediately at (414) 288-1911.
Ald. Michael Murphy (right) faces a challenge from Ald. Ashanti Hamilton (left) in the Common Council's election Tuesday of a president. Credit: Journal Sentinel files

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In a highly unusual move, Ald. Ashanti Hamilton appeared Monday to have the votes to unseat Ald. Michael Murphy as Milwaukee Common Council president.

"Tomorrow, my colleagues will vote to elect the next City Council President. It's a big job, but I believe I have the vision and courage to help build a better Milwaukee," Hamilton wrote on Facebook Monday. "It's time to unite this city. I'm the leader to do it."

Rumors had been circulating for weeks that both Hamilton and Ald. Tony Zielinski were exploring runs to oust Murphy, who was first elected in 1989 and is the council's longest serving member.

Hamilton publicly confirmed those rumors over the weekend with a series of Facebook posts announcing his bid.

"At times like this, it's important that we have a leader who understands the complexities of Milwaukee's diverse communities," Hamilton wrote on Facebook Saturday morning. "That's why I am happy to be throwing in my hat for the President of Milwaukee's Common Council. This city needs a person who has the visionary leadership and demonstrated the courage to unite and transform our beautiful city."

Late last week, Murphy said he was confident he had the votes to keep the president's job. He was elected to the post in 2014.

But on Monday afternoon, a group of eight council members released a statement backing Hamilton. That would be enough for Hamilton to win the election at a meeting Tuesday morning.

That group includes Aldermen Milele Coggs, Zielinski, Russell Stamper, Bob Donovan and Mark Borkowski, as well as Chantia Lewis, Cavalier Johnson and Khalif Rainey, who joined the council Monday.

In Monday's statement, Zielinski praised Hamilton as someone who could bring "diverse groups together."

"I am looking forward to helping Alderman Hamilton build bridges, and to getting the north and south sides working more closely," Zielinski said.

Coggs said Hamilton "has a collaborative and results-oriented approach to getting things done that is sorely needed at this time in our city's history."

Murphy, who represents District 10, has served as president for two years. He could not be reached for comment Monday.

The coalition backing Hamilton includes an unusual mix  the council's African-American members as well as some of its most outspoken conservatives, including south side aldermen Borkowski and Donovan.

Borkowski said he thought Hamilton would "provide a refreshing change in direction and vision" for Milwaukee.

Mayor Tom Barrett, who was elected to his fourth term earlier this month, does not make endorsements for Common Council president.

"Mayor Barrett and his administration worked well with Common Council Presidents Hines and Murphy," said Patrick Curley, the mayor's chief of staff. "Over the years we've had a solid working relationship with Alderman Hamilton. He sponsored the council files for the Mayor's Strong Neighborhoods and COMPETE Milwaukee programs, and we expect to work well with Council President Hamilton."

"I can't in my political lifetime remember a time where you would have had the south siders and the north siders come together and bridge the divide between Milwaukee," veteran GOP political operative Craig Peterson said. "It's healthy, it's unifying, it's bridge building, and it really portrays great things to come. And it also demonstrates that the south side delegation understands the tremendous needs of the urban community."

Hamilton, who represents the north side District 1, was first elected to the Common Council in 2004. He grew up on E. Auer Ave. on the city's north side. He attended Riverside High School and then Marquette University before getting a law degree at Thurgood Marshall Law School at Texas Southern University.

The council president's salary is $82,749.
County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb Sr., shown during county budget talks last year, was re-elected Monday as chairman. Credit: Mike De Sisti

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The Milwaukee County Board on Monday unanimously re-elected Supervisor Theodore Lipscomb Sr. of Glendale as its chairman for a two-year term.

Lipscomb was unopposed in his bid to lead the 18-member board.

Supervisor Peggy West of Milwaukee won re-election as the board's first vice-chair for a two-year term. She defeated Supervisor Willie Johnson Jr. of Milwaukee on a 13-5 vote.

Supervisor Steve F. Taylor of Franklin easily won re-election as the board's second vice-chair for a two-year term. He received 16 votes. No other candidate was nominated for the post.

The role of vice-chairs is to fill the duties of the chair if that person is absent or intends to engage in debate on the board floor.

Five new supervisors took their oath of office Monday. They are: Sequanna Taylor of Milwaukee, Sheldon Wasserman of Milwaukee, Marcelia Nicholson of Milwaukee, David Sartori of Cudahy and Dan Sebring of Milwaukee.

Beginning this month, supervisors will be paid an annual salary of $24,295, less than half the current base pay of $50,679.

The board chair's salary will drop from $71,412 to $36,442.

Supervisors' terms in office will be reduced from four years to two beginning this month, under a 2013 state law known as Act 14 that targeted the Milwaukee County Board.

Prior to adjournment of Monday's organizational meeting, Taylor acknowledged the attendance of County Executive Chris Abele in the board chambers.

After several years of friction between the executive and the board, Taylor asked Abele to begin working with supervisors on county policies and budgets. Taylor and Lipscomb are among the most vocal critics of Abele on the board.

Abele won re-election in April to a four-year term, defeating state Sen. Chris Larson.

In a statement released before Monday's board meeting, Abele said he believed the new two-year term for supervisors provided an opportunity "to leave past disagreements and misunderstandings where they belong  in the past."

At least two issues in dispute from the last year, however, will not go away.

On April 15, Lipscomb and the board refiled a lawsuit against Abele over pay raises he gave last year to department heads and other appointees without the approval of the board.

The board's lawsuit asks a county circuit judge to rule whether the county executive has unilateral authority under state law to set pay for department heads and other employees not covered by civil service rules.

The lawsuit also asks the court to declare whether the board has authority under state law to compel the county executive to attend a board or committee meeting.

That portion of the lawsuit was included in response to Abele's failure to attend finance committee meetings last October to discuss the 2016 county budget.

On Feb. 29, county Circuit Judge William Sosnay dismissed the previous lawsuit because it was filed by Lipscomb. The board chairman does not have authority to file a lawsuit on behalf of the board unless a majority of supervisors permit the chairman to act for the board, Sosnay said.

The board approved the lawsuit last month.
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A 65-year-old Milwaukee man was killed and a Greenfield man was injured Sunday evening in a crash in the 4900 block of S. 76 St., Greenfield police said.

The victim had pulled out of the parking lot of Barnes & Noble around 6:30 p.m. when his vehicle was struck by a vehicle traveling south on S. 76th St. The driver of that vehicle, age 21, had minor injuries, police said.

The older man was trapped in his vehicle and was extricated by the Greenfield Fire Department and taken to Froedtert Hospital, where he later died, police said.

Speed is being investigated as a possible factor in the crash, police said. The Wisconsin State Patrol is helping with the investigation.
Gov. Scott Walker (left, center) signed right to work legislation in March that drew heavy protest from labor unions (right). Credit: Journal Sentinel files

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Madison  Attorney General Brad Schimel sought Monday to restore the state's right-to-work law on two fronts, asking to put on hold a ruling that found the measure unconstitutional while he appeals the ruling.

Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature last year passed the law, which bars businesses and unions from signing labor deals that require workers to pay union fees.

Unions sued over the law and Dane County Circuit Judge C. William Foust this month ruled it violates the state constitution's ban on taking property without compensation.

The Republican attorney general on Monday asked Foust to stay his decision so it could remain in place for now. He also asked the Wausau-based District 3 Court of Appeals to overturn Foust's decision.

Supporters of the law say people shouldn't have to pay fees if they choose not to join a union. Unions are required to represent all employees in a work unit, and they say they should be able to collect fees from everyone who benefits from the higher wages and job protections they provide.

The case is ultimately expected to be decided by the state Supreme Court, which is controlled 5-2 by conservatives.
Supreme Court justices make the sign of the cross Feb. 19 during prayers at a private ceremony in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court in Washington where late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia lies in repose. Credit: Associated Press

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Madison  Having the U.S. Supreme Court short one justice for the foreseeable future could affect Wisconsin cases dealing with voter ID, abortion, an investigation of Gov. Scott Walker's campaign and how legislative districts are drawn.

The high-stakes case that could see the most immediate effect is the one dealing with how Republican lawmakers drew district maps to favor their party in 2011.

A panel of three federal judges will hold a trial in May, and any appeals will go directly to the Supreme Court instead of an appeals court. If the high court splits 4-4  as could happen after the death in February of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia  the ruling of the panel would hold.

That puts more power than usual in the hands of the three-judge panel, which consists of two Republican appointees and one Democratic appointee. This month it handed a victory to those challenging the maps, agreeing to hold a trial and expressing an openness to the plaintiffs' claims that the maps were drawn so favorably for the GOP as to be unconstitutional.

Other cases could also be affected by the death of Scalia and the refusal of Republicans who control the U.S. Senate to hold a vote on President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, until after the Nov. 8 presidential election.

Among them is one over the challenge to the investigation  now shut down by the Wisconsin Supreme Court  into whether Walker's campaign illegally worked with political groups.

Other legal challenges on voter ID and abortion are pending and could eventually wend their way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Similar laws in other states are also being challenged, and those cases may have a better chance at making it to the high court than the cases from Wisconsin.

Here's a look at where the Wisconsin cases stand.

Redistricting. A group of 12 Democrats last year sued over the way Republican lawmakers drew legislative maps, arguing they violated the voting rights of Democrats because they so heavily favored Republicans.

Lawmakers have to draw new maps every 10 years to account for changes in population. Republicans controlled all of state government in 2011 and were able to put in place legislative and congressional maps that greatly helped them.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said maps can be so partisan that they violate voters' rights, but the justices have not been able to agree on a standard for measuring when maps amount to improper political gerrymandering. The Democrats who brought the suit have proposed a way to make such calculations so courts can rule when politicians go too far in drawing district lines to favor them.

The lawsuit was designed to try to win the vote of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has disagreed with conservatives who contend there is no way courts can determine how much is too much when it comes to partisan gerrymandering.

"He essentially issued an invitation. Our case, the Whitford case, responds to that invitation," said Sachin Chheda, director of the Fair Elections Project, which is assisting with the litigation.

Lester Pines, a Madison attorney not involved in the litigation, said early rulings in the case have shown those bringing the lawsuit have a shot at winning. A Democrat, Pines has been active in challenging limits on collective bargaining and other laws approved by Republicans.

"While they didn't give the plaintiffs a road map, there's a lot of hints there," Pines said of the judges hearing the redistricting case.

But Rick Esenberg, president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, said he doesn't see how the criteria proposed by the challengers in this case differ significantly from ones the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected in others.

"It looks to me like it isn't that much different than other methodologies that have been tried and defeated," he said.

Handing a victory to those challenging the law, the panel agreed to hold a four-day trial starting May 24.

Once the panel issues its decision, attention will shift to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the justices split 4-4, the panel's ruling will be upheld.

Voter ID. State and federal courts have upheld Wisconsin's 2011 voter ID law, but litigation continues.

Last week, a panel of appeals judges raised the possibility of finding a way to vote for those who have severe challenges in getting photo IDs.

The unanimous panel of 7th Circuit Court of Appeals judges sent the case to U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee for further proceedings. The case could move quickly because primaries are slated for Aug. 9.

In another case, U.S. District Judge James Peterson in Madison threw out in December a challenge to the voter ID law itself, but determined the liberal group One Wisconsin Now and others who brought the lawsuit could keep alive their arguments that voters should be able to use a broader range of IDs for voting. A trial is set to begin May 16.

Under Wisconsin's voter ID law, only certain types of photo IDs can be used at the polls, such as driver's licenses and state-issued ID cards.

The lawsuit also challenges limits on early voting approved by Republicans in recent years.

Challenges are also pending against voter ID laws in other states, such as Texas and North Carolina. The issue from one of the states could eventually get to the U.S. Supreme Court so it can revisit a 2008 ruling that upheld Indiana's voter ID law.

If the Supreme Court were to take one of those cases and split 4-4, the ruling of the lower court would remain in place. That would mean different parts of the country could have different rules on what types of voter ID laws are allowed.

Abortion. Wisconsin Republicans approved a law in 2013 requiring doctors who provide abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where they perform the procedure.

U.S. District Judge William Conley in Madison ruled the law violated the right to abortion. In a 2-1 ruling, a 7th Circuit Court of Appeals panel agreed with that finding.

Attorney General Brad Schimel last month asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.

The nation's high court showed divisions in March when it heard arguments over a Texas law that requires admitting privileges and places other restrictions on abortion that critics say would force the closure of three-quarters of Texas' abortion clinics.

If the court split 4-4 on the Texas case, it would leave in place a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision largely upholding those abortion restrictions. But a similar split in the Wisconsin case would cause the opposite result because of the 7th Circuit's ruling.

It is also possible the U.S. Supreme Court would send the Texas case back to lower courts for further proceedings.

John Doe. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision by two Wisconsin Supreme Court justices to stay on a case over a John Doe investigation into whether the Republican governor's campaign illegally worked with political groups.

The state court shut down the investigation last year, finding nothing illegal occurred. The Democratic district attorney maintains Justices David Prosser and Michael Gableman shouldn't have participated in the decision because their campaigns benefited from heavy spending by groups that were under investigation.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2009 found in a 5-4 decision that political spending could force judges off cases, but it emphasized the circumstances in the case it was considering  in which a coal executive spent about $3 million to help elect a West Virginia judge  were rare.

If the U.S. Supreme Court took the Wisconsin case and ruled Prosser and Gableman shouldn't have participated in it, it would reopen the underlying questions over when candidates and political groups can coordinate their activities.

A 4-4 split would leave in place Prosser and Gableman's decision to stay on the case, as well as the ruling ending the investigation.
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At 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, an explosion destroyed reactor No. 4 at Chernobyl's Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Nuclear Power Station in the former Soviet Union. Thirty years later, 5 million people still live on heavily contaminated lands in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, and hundreds of thousands of people are sick or suffering in different ways.

The true effect from Chernobyl may not be known for decades.

The blast immediately killed one person. A second died in the hospital after succumbing to injuries. While the reactor burned for two weeks, discharging the largest-ever uncontrolled amount of radioactive material into the environment, the radiation that spewed from the plant reached 42% of Europe's territory and prompted the deployment of an army of 800,000 emergency workers.

Chernobyl, an area the size of Rhode Island, will not be radiation-free, if ever, for at least 24,000 years.

It took then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev 18 days to appear on television to admit the scale of the disaster and another three years to lift a ban on releasing public health data. To this day, cancer and death toll estimates are in a shockingly wide range: from 4,000 to as high as 1 million.

Meanwhile, the two countries affected the most  Belarus and Ukraine  are preoccupied with fighting other battles: sanctions, separatists, corruption, poverty, indifference.

USA TODAY traveled to this still-scarred area to share stories of those living in the shadow of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
Loren Johnson stands Sunday next to the wind turbine he built from two-by-fours he cut with a chain saw and planes in Elkhorn. Credit: Meg Jones

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Elkhorn - Like most churches, the back rows filled up first, and then the chairs closer to the altar were taken as late arrivals walked in.

Loren Johnson had moved his farm machinery and equipment, plus pallets of 50-pound bags of seed, to make room for the congregation inside one of the barns on his fifth-generation farm.

The 40 or so parishioners and pastor were there for him. They also came Sunday morning for his new wind turbine, to bless the blades he made from two-by-fours. And they came for a blessing of seeds, soil and wind in honor of Earth Day later this week.

The altar in front of the group  a table covered with an emerald green cloth and needlework that said "Good Earth"  was filled with bouquets of golden wheat and pussy willows in vases, as well as bowls and baskets for seeds. As folks came in they brought packages of seeds to the altar  alfalfa, beans, corn, spinach. Seeds that will become green onions, soybeans, collard greens, parsnips and Queen Anne sweet peas.

"Welcome to Seed Sunday," said Simone Nathan, pastor of Good Earth Church of the Divine. "Welcome to this gorgeous spring morning in the church of Loren."

Johnson, 67, wanted to build a wind turbine, so he found a book that told him how and spent three years constructing it, using a chain saw to cut two-by-fours of southern yellow pine. (Though he said if he were to do it over, he'd used cedar.) He laminated the wood and slowly planed the rough edges into the three-bladed turbine.

"I made this thing from scratch. I'm kind of a gear head," Johnson said Sunday morning, squinting in the bright sunshine as he looked up at his creation. "I could have gone solar (power), but I like the idea of something moving. I got interested in wind power in the '70s."

The 300-acre operation was a dairy farm until he sold his herd of around 50 cows four years ago to ease into retirement and lighten his workload to only the cash grain portion of the business  alfalfa for the farmer who bought his herd, winter wheat, soybeans and corn.

He finished his wind turbine last fall and nervously watched it withstand a storm of 50 mph winds. He's waiting for We Energies to hook it up, which he expects will be done in May. Johnson isn't sure how much power will be generated, but if his guidebook is correct, a 14-foot turbine powered by 11 mph winds, the average speed in his locale, would create 272 kilowatts a month.

Normally a wind turbine would be at the top of a tall pole in the middle of a field, but Johnson decided to use an existing structure on his farm, an old corn crib. He fabricated all of the parts except for a winch recycled from a silo unloader and pulleys that came from an old barn cleaner.

"It's a real simple, elegant design. It's just gravity and wind," said Johnson.

Johnson has occasionally attended the Good Earth Church of the Divine, which opened three years ago in a research barn in East Troy, and he told Nathan about the wind turbine he was building. The church schedules an annual seed blessing in the spring, usually around Earth Day on April 22. Nathan decided to bring the seed blessing to Johnson's farm in honor of his new turbine.

The congregation sang three verses of "In the Bulb There Is a Flower," listened to environmental readings written by noted poet and farmer Wendell Berry and blessed the seeds on the altar with water from an ice bucket. They walked outside and stood underneath the wind turbine, as children blew bubbles, and recited a prayer.

May this wind turbine become a good worker in the fields of the Holy One, and inspire others to take earth-saving actions. May its energy remind us that we live in a divine field of energy, empowering us every day.

Parishioners came from Good Earth Church of the Divine and Immanuel Lutheran Church in Lake Geneva as well as others who drove over from Milwaukee to attend Sunday's service, bringing cookies, salads and other dishes to pass for the potluck that followed the service.

Nathan gave a short sermon about the secret life of seeds and the discovery of date palm seeds thousands of years old during the excavation in Israel of the ancient fortress of Masada that later were planted and grew into a sapling. She pointed out the Bible verse on the front of the Seed Sunday program: Psalm 24, which says "the earth belong to God and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for the Holy One founded it on the seas and established it on the waters."

At the end of the service, Johnson thanked everyone for coming and talked briefly about his love of the land.

"Friday is Earth Day, when we think of our connection to Earth," said Johnson, who remembers when Earth Day started in 1970 as a way to support environmental protection and has now grown worldwide. "At the time we thought of Earth Day as a conservation crisis, but now we think of it as a civilization crisis."
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We don't want you to get ahead of yourself, Wisconsin, but consider this: A new swimming pool is scheduled to open by this summer that is billing itself as one of the largest in the state.

Could you guess it's in Wisconsin Dells?

Mt. Olympus Theme Park and Water Park has dubbed its $4 million project The Great Pool of Delphi, and at 27,000 square feet it will be big enough to accommodate 2,000 swimmers.

Guests at Mt. Olympus already have had access to another massive pool, the wave pool Posiedon's Rage, which contains a Dells-worthy 1.5 million gallons of water.

The Great Pool of Delphi, on the other hand, is described as a lounge pool containing a half million gallons of water. The resort says it will feature four islands, two beach-style entrances, a 100-foot geyser, a 50-foot waterfall, cabanas and a kids splash pad.

It will be located along Wisconsin Dells Parkway between Posiedon's Rage and the resort's Trojan Horse, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.

@mtolympuspark in Wis Dells building $4 million swimming pool that can hold 2,000 swimmers. https://t.co/hdzY0ollw0 pic.twitter.com/WkAyi1HmiY  Barry Adams (@madnewsboy) April 18, 2016

Construction started a few weeks ago, and the resort is confident that the new pool will be ready for action sometime in June, general manager Adam Makowski said Monday. When counting the pool and deck area, it will take up 60,000 square feet and accommodate 4,000 people.

The pools of Delphi, new for 2016. Construction ongoing. A photo posted by Mt. Olympus Resort & Parks (@mtolympuspark) on Apr 16, 2016 at 4:55am PDT

The outdoor water park's official summer opening typically is Memorial Day weekend, though it sometimes opens earlier depending on the weather.
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Oil producing countries meeting in Doha failed to reach an agreement to freeze output. They may meet again in June.

OPEC and non-OPEC producers on Sunday failed to reach a deal to freeze oil output, three oil industry sources told Reuters.

Sources said OPEC producers had told non-OPEC members they needed first to reach a deal within OPEC, possibly at a June meeting. After that, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will be able to invite other producers to join.

Earlier in the day, Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join a global deal on freezing oil output, blocking an agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC producers that was supposed to help ease a glut and prop up the price of crude.

Some 18 OPEC and non-OPEC countries, including Russia, had been meant to meet on Sunday morning in the Qatari capital of Doha and rubber-stamp a deal in the making since February  to freeze output at January levels until October 2016.

But the meeting was postponed after OPECs de facto leader Saudi Arabia told participants it wanted all OPEC members to take part in the freeze, according to OPEC sources.

Riyadh had earlier insisted on excluding Iran from the talks because Tehran had refused to stabilize production, seeking to regain market share after the lifting of Western sanctions against it in January.

With the deal running into trouble, oil ministers in Doha met with the Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani  who was instrumental in promoting output stability in recent months.

It said producers in and outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries should agree to freeze oil production at an agreeable level as long as all OPEC countries and major exporting nations participated.

If there is no deal today, it will be more than just Iran that Saudi Arabia will be targeting. If there is no freeze, that would directly affect North American production going forward, perhaps something Saudis might like to see, said Natixis oil analyst Abhishek Deshpande.

Via TeleSur



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Arirang News: OPEC meeting in Qatar ends without oil-production freeze
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By Saed Bannoura | (IMEMC) |  

The Palestinian Detainees Committee and the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) have reported that Israeli soldiers have kidnapped around 1.000.000 Palestinians, including tens of thousands of women and children, since occupying the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in 1967. Two detainees died in 2015 due to being denied access to specialized medical treatment.

In their joint report marking April 17, the Palestinian Prisoners Day, the Detainees Committee and the PPS said the Israeli army has kidnapped, since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada, in late September 2000, until this day, more than 90.000 Palestinians, including 11.000 children, 1.300 women and girls, and 65 elected legislators and government ministers.

The report also revealed that Israel issued nearly 15.000 Administrative Detention orders, holding detainees for months, and in many cases for years, without charges.

It added that the current number of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, is at least 7.000 persons, including 70 women and girls, held in 22 prisons, detention and interrogation centers.

Since October 1st 2015, the Israeli army has kidnapped at least 4.800 Palestinians, including 1.400 children, mainly from Hebron and Jerusalem, the report said, These abductions targeted children, elderly, youngsters, men, women and mothers, teachers, journalists, writers, artists and workers

The youngest Palestinian child currently imprisoned by Israel is Deema al-Wawi, 12, from Halhoul, north of Hebron. She was taken prisoner on February 9, 2016, after the soldiers claimed they searched her school bag and located a knife.

The Ofer Israeli military court later sentenced al-Wawi to four and a half months, and ordered her family to pay a fine of 8000 Israeli Shekels. She was frequently interrogated under harsh conditions without any legal representation or the present of an adult family member.

Eyewitnesses denied the Israeli claims and said that the soldiers assaulted the child and abducted her, because she was walking close to an illegal colony (built on Palestinian lands) on her way to school. Al-Wawi is scheduled to be released by the end of this coming April.

Among those kidnapped in the same period are 43 Palestinian journalists, who were kidnapped in different parts of the occupied West Bank.

The report also said that the abductions and imprisonment violate the basic principles of International Humanitarian Law, and all related human rights agreements, especially considering that Israel tortures most of the detainees, in addition to carrying out terrifying dawn and late night invasions into Palestinian homes.

The conditions those detainees face are extremely difficult; they are subjected to different sorts of torture, including psychological, the report said, They are held without legal representation, and face constant violations.

Testimonies and documented cases show that in virtually 100% of the cases studied, the detainees have been subjected to a form of torture or abuse; this includes physical violence, psychological abuse, and public humiliation, the statement added, They are even humiliated and assaulted in front of their families after the soldiers invade their homes to kidnap them.

In addition, the report added that Israel is currently holding 750 Palestinians under Administrative Detention, under alleged secret files, which are not allowed to be seen by the detainees, or their lawyers.

As for ailing detainees, there are currently more than 1700, including 23 in the Ramla prison clinic. Many prisoners with illnesses and injuries remain in their cells, and are given only painkillers. 25 of these prisoners suffer from different types of cancer, and are deprived of the right to specialized medical treatment.

The report also revealed that two Palestinian detainees died in Israeli prison in 2015, after being denied the right to specialized medical treatment, and that the number of detainees who died in Israeli prisons since 1967 is 207.

The first detainee who died in 2015, is Jafar Awad, 22, from the southern West Bank city of Hebron; he died on April 10, 2015, of various diseases he suffered after he was kidnapped and imprisoned by the army. He suffered from diabetes and pneumonia, as well as various gland issues and numerous complications.

The second detainees is Fadi Ali Darbi, 30, from the northern West Bank city of Jenin; he died in October 2015, after suffering from various health complications, then suffered a stroke that put him in a coma for many days. This led to brain death, then death.

Israel also rearrested more than 70 Palestinians who were released under the Shalit Prisoner Swap agreement in 2014, including detainee Nael al-Barghouthi, who had previously been imprisoned for 34 years.

47 of them had their previous sentences re-imposed on them  in direct violation of the terms of the release agreement negotiated with the Palestinian Authority. These include, in several cases, multiple life-terms, after Israel formed a special committee to look in their cases. One of them is Samer al-Eesawy, who held an extended hunger strike until Israel approved his release, and the army kidnapped him again later.

Via IMEMC

-

Related video added by Juan Cole:

RT:  Israeli forces abuse detained Palestinian minors  HRW
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

The far right wing regime of Binyamin Netanyahu pulled the stunt of holding its first cabinet meeting in the Occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, and Netanyahu engaged in some grandstanding, declaring that Israel will never relinquish this patch of Syria.

Israeli propaganda maintains that Israel is vulnerable to shelling from the Golan Heights. But Moshe Dayan admitted that

he regretted not having stuck to his initial opposition to storming the Golan Heights. There really was no pressing reason to do so, he said, because many of the firefights with the Syrians were deliberately provoked by Israel, and the kibbutz residents who pressed the Government to take the Golan Heights did so less for security than for the farmland.

Although the New York Times reported this story about Israeli provocations and the actual reasons for the occupation in the late 1990s, it today goes on repeating the old propaganda myths.

1. It is not illegal for Israel temporarily to occupy Syrian territory as a result of a war, as it did in Golan in 1967. But it is illegal for it permanently to annex the territory of a neighbor, according to the United Nations charter (Article 2, paragraph 4: All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.> Permanent annexation is an injury to the territorial integrity of another United Nations member, which is not allowed as of 1945.

2. The UN Charter was trying to ensure that the bad behavior of the Axis powers was not repeated. Mussolini occupied part of France in WW II and tried to annex it to Italy and settle it. We want the world to grow up and stop behaving the way Mussolini did. Israel as a country established by people who suffered from Axis war crimes has a special duty to uphold the UN Charter in ending aggressive warfare and annexation of neighbors territory.

3. Israel is setting a bad example through this aggressive expansionism. There isnt any difference between what Moshe Dayan described as having happened in the Golan Heights in 1967 and Saddam Husseins invasions and attempted annexations of Iranian Khuzistan and then of Kuwait. In fact, powerful Bush administration officials such as Paul Wolfowitz worried that most of the case against the Saddam Hussein regime put forward as the basis for an American attack on it could also have been made against Israel.

4. Israels annexation detracts from the rule of law in a region that desperately needs a rule of law. The international community, especially the European Union, wont put up with this sort of thing forever, either. There are already European government advisories to European companies not to do business with the Israeli squatter firms in the Palestinian West Bank, since it could open them to being sued in European courts. The same will be true of Golan.

5. The Israeli occupation of the Golan involves outright theft of Druze-owned land by the Israeli government and the squatters it backs. This illegality on the level of how families property is usurped mirrors the international illegality of the annexation of the whole territory.

6. Further, the international community has a vested interest in restoring Syrian territorial integrity once the civil war is ended. While Syria may move to a federal system, it is likely to be reconstituted as a united state, and the legitimacy of that new government will depend on it pressing its claim for all Syrian territory. Indeed, the al-Assad regime was weakened in the first place in the eyes of Syrian by its weakness in the face of Israeli aggression.

7. Israels belligerent declarations that it will never return its ill-gotten gains set the grounds for some future war. Syria wont be a basket case forever, and Syrians are never going to accept the loss of the Golan. There has been enough war in the Levant; we should see to it that unnecessary casi belli or grounds for future wars are set aside and resolved.

It would be legitimate for Israel to negotiate the return of the Golan Heights to Syria as part of a peace process (which Prime Minister Ehud Barak seemed willing to do only 15 years ago). But it is immoral, illegal, and destructive for Tel Aviv to seek permanent annexation of territory won in war. As I have pointed out, Iran really was brutally attacked by Iraq in 1980, and was subjected to an 8-year war, and yet Tehran did not seek to retain or annex Iraqi territory once the fighting ended in 1988. In this regard, the Islamic Republic is more exemplary than the State of Israel.



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1. New China TV: Netanyahu: Golan Heights will remain Israels forever'

2. Press TV: Syria vows to use any means necessary to take back Golan Heights
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / April 18, 2016 / MGX Minerals Inc. (MGX or the Company) (CSE: XMG / FKT: 1MG) ) is pleased to announce that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement (the Private Placement) for up to 5,000,000 Units (Units) at a price of CAD$0.10 per Unit for gross proceeds of CAD$500,000. Each Unit will be comprised of one common share and one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant is exercisable into one common share at a price of CAD$0.15 for a period of two years from the closing date of the Private Placement.

Proceeds from the Private Placement will be used for lithium exploration and development, Private Placement expenses, maintenance of MGXs assets, payment of liabilities, and general working capital requirements.

Closing of the Private Placement is conditional upon satisfactory due diligence of MGX by the investors and compliance with all regulatory requirements. The principle investors are Dr. K. Sethu Raman, Robert Hirschberg and Sam Sahota.

The securities issued in connection with the Private Placement will be subject to a four-month hold period, in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Contact Information

Jared Lazerson

Chief Executive Officer

MGX Minerals Inc.

Telephone: 604.681.7735

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "postulate" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com
VANCOUVER, April 18, 2016 /CNW/ - NexGen Energy Ltd. ("NexGen" or the "Company") (TSXV:NXE, OTCQX:NXGEF) is pleased to announce further results from our recently expanded winter-spring drilling program on our 100% owned Rook I Property, Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan.

Drill hole AR-16-78c4 has intersected dense accumulations of massive pitchblende, which has expanded the higher grade A2 sub-zone (the "Sub-Zone") which makes up part of the A2 High Grade Domain (Figure 1, 3 to 6). The mineralization was intersected 59 m down-dip and northeast of AR-15-44b and features 37.4 m of off-scale radioactivity (>10,000 to >61,000 cps). This included 5.5 m at a minimum-of-greater-than 61,000 cps, of which 4.5 m was continuous. On a radioactivity basis, AR-16-78c4 ranks as one of the best holes ever drilled at Arrow. Importantly, the high grade mineralization encountered in hole -78c4 was predominately intersected outside of the current boundary of A2 High Grade Domain (Figure 3).

The A2 High Grade Domain hosts a National Instrument 43-101 compliant Inferred Mineral Resource estimate of 120.5 M lbs of U3O8 contained in 0.41 M tonnes grading 13.26% U3O8, which is within the total Arrow Deposit Inferred Mineral Resource estimate of 201.9 M lbs U3O8 contained in 3.48 M tonnes grading 2.63% (see news release dated March 3, 2016). The maiden resource estimate on Arrow includes drill holes to October 2015, and does not include the 40 drill holes completed so far in 2016.

In addition, anomalous radioactivity sourced from uranium (confirmed with RS-125 spectrometer scintillometer) has been drilled approximately 1.3 km northeast of the Arrow deposit (Figure 2). This new area, named Cannon, is coincident with a gravity low and weakened VTEM conductor. The area has very similar geophysical, lithological and alteration features to the Arrow deposit. To date, 11 holes have been drilled at Cannon, all of which intersected strong-to-intense hydrothermal alteration. Furthermore, 4 holes have intersected anomalous radioactivity of up to 1,300 cps (measured by RS-120 hand-held scintillometer). At least two highly prospective graphitic mylonite shear zones with large envelopes of strong-to-intense clay alteration have been identified. Cannon is open in all directions and is largely untested at the unconformity up-dip from basement structures that host anomalous radioactivity.

Highlights:

A2 Shear:

AR-16-78c4 (59 m down-dip and northeast from AR-15-44b) intersected 120.5 m of total composite mineralization including 37.4 m of total composite off-scale radioactivity (>10,000  >61,000 cps) within a 203.5m section (441.5 to 645.0 m), featuring 4.5 m of continuous mineralization at a minimum of greater than 61,000 cps in the Sub-Zone.

Table 1: Higher Grade A2 Sub-Zone Drill Hole Comparison

2015 AR-15-

59c22 AR-15-

54c12 AR-15-

58c12 AR-15-

622 AR-15-

44b2 AR-15-

49c22 AR-15-

57c32 Total composite mineralization = 75.50 m 42.00 m 86.00 m 143.00 m 135.60 m 73.50 m 62.50 m Total Off-scale (>10,000 to 29,999 cps)3 = 11.40 m 5.90 m 14.30 m 17.75 m 30.25 m 15.70 m 4.40 m Total Off-scale (>30,000 to 60,999 cps)3 = 4.50 m 3.00 m 3.85 m 10.60 m 7.75 m 5.20 m 2.50 m Total Off-scale (>61,000 cps)3 = 1.00 m 0.50 m 2.00 m 2.00 m 1.50 m 2.15 m 1.80 m Continuous GT (Grade x Thickness) = 371 277 200 and

345 787 655 605 319

2016 AR-16-

76c41 AR-16-

76c11 AR-16-

76c31 AR-16-

63c12 AR-16-

63c31 AR-16-

74c11 AR-16-

63c22 AR-16-

64c31 AR-16-

64c22 AR-16-

64c12 AR-16-

78c11 AR-16-

78c4 Total composite mineralization = 105.7 m 73.50 m 67.5 m 55.50 m 147.00 m 88.00 m 138.00 m 102.00 m 76.00 m 74.0 m 64.00 m 120.5 m Total Off-scale (>10,000 to 29,999 cps)3 = 19.85 m 14.75 m 14.85 m 6.85 m 22.10 m 21.2 m 17.10 m 18.75 m 15.95 m 10.30 m 11.60 m 25.75 m Total Off-scale (>30,000 to 60,999 cps)3 = 1.00 m 2.75 m 5.00 m 0.50 m 3.00 m 1.15 m 9.90 m 2.50 m 4.70 m 3.70 m 3.00 m 6.15 m Total Off-scale (>61,000 cps)3 = 0.00 m 5.25 m 4.50 m 0.00 m 0.50 m 0.00 m 13.85 m 0.00 m 5.50 m 0.00 m 2.50 m 5.50 m Continuous GT (Grade x Thickness) = Assays

Pending Assays

Pending Assays

Pending 203 Assays

Pending Assays

Pending 638 and

604 Assays

Pending 541 338 Assays

Pending Assays

Pending

1 radioactivity results previously released 2 radioactivity and assays results previously released 3 minimum radioactivity using RS-120 scintillometer

Arrow, Activities & Financial

The land-based and basement hosted Arrow zone currently covers an area of 865 m by 280 m with a vertical extent of mineralization commencing from 100 m to 920 m , and remains open in all directions and at depth .

with a vertical extent of mineralization commencing from , and remains . The winter 2016 six drill rig program comprising 30,000 m of drilling is currently transitioning to our spring 2016, 7,500 m of drilling program.

The Company has cash on hand of $33M to fund its 2016 programs.

Drill hole location maps, a cross section of drill hole AR-16-78c4, and A2 and A3 long sections are shown in Figures 1 to 6. Table 2 has a summary of the mineralized intervals.

Garrett Ainsworth, Vice-President, Exploration and Development, commented: "Drilling in the A2 High Grade Domain continues to return exceptional results as shown by the abundant dense accumulations of massive to semi-massive pitchblende in drill hole AR-16-78c4, which has materially expanded this domain. In addition, our regional drilling 1.3 km northeast of the Arrow deposit has discovered anomalous radioactivity at Cannon. This new area confirms the large and robust nature of the uranium mineralizing system responsible for the Arrow deposit and Bow zone which hosts potential for additional discoveries along the Patterson Conductor Corridor."

Leigh Curyer, Chief Executive Officer commented: "The objectives for the winter 2016 drilling program have been met on all fronts. Arrow infill drilling continues to confirm the robustness of mineralization with AR-16-78c4 ranking as one of the best radioactive results to date at Arrow. The early signs at Cannon are very encouraging and will be a focus of summer 2016 drill program balanced with continual Arrow infill, zone expansion, and testing to the southwest along the conductor corridor. These results place multiple demands on the available drill rigs and management will continue to systematically allocate meters in an optimal manner within the program objectives.

Table 2: Arrow Deposit Drill Hole Data

Drill Hole Athabasca

Group -

Basement

Unconformity

Depth (m) Handheld Scintillometer Results (RS-120) Hole ID Azimuth Dip Total

Depth

(m) From (m) To (m) Width (m) CPS Range AR-16-78c4 138 -68 705.00 110.95 369.50 372.00 2.50 <500 - 1300 390.50 391.00 0.50 <500 - 800 393.50 396.00 2.50 <500 - 1500 400.50 404.00 3.50 <500 - 2100 441.50 450.50 9.00 <500 - 850 469.00 477.00 8.00 <500 - 3400 481.00 517.50 36.50 <500 - >61000 523.00 555.00 32.00 <500 - >61000 557.50 560.50 3.00 <500 - 9000 563.50 564.50 1.00 <500 - 900 575.50 579.50 4.00 <500 - 12000 583.50 584.00 0.50 <500 - 1200 586.50 598.00 11.50 <500 - >61000 604.50 605.50 1.00 <500 - 1100 613.50 622.50 9.00 <500 - 50000 633.50 637.50 4.00 <500 - 820 640.00 640.50 0.50 <500 - 1200 644.50 645.00 0.50 <500 - 520 653.50 654.00 0.50 <500 - 2100 658.50 660.00 1.50 <500 - 2900 663.50 678.50 15.00 <500 - 2900 682.50 683.00 0.50 <500 - 1100 AR-16-79 140 -70 954.00 85.00 No Anomalous Radioactivity AR-16-80c1 147 -70 796.00 120.20 433.50 435.00 1.50 <500 - 17500 440.50 441.50 1.00 <500 - 2800 446.50 456.00 9.50 <500 - 6900 461.00 467.00 6.00 <500 - 4300 486.00 490.00 4.00 <500 - 1000 504.00 505.50 1.50 <500 - 550 520.00 520.50 0.50 <500 - 520 526.00 526.50 0.50 <500 - 1700 542.50 543.00 0.50 <500 - 590 545.50 550.00 4.50 <500 - 950 561.50 563.50 2.00 <500 - 32000 575.50 579.00 3.50 <500 - 1700 581.50 582.00 0.50 <500 - 530 598.00 600.00 2.00 <500 - 1000 606.50 607.50 1.00 <500 - 780 614.00 615.00 1.00 <500 - 3300 617.50 618.00 0.50 <500 - 1250 620.50 632.00 11.50 <500 - 3300 665.00 665.50 0.50 <500 - 5000 671.00 672.50 1.50 <500 - 3440 677.00 678.00 1.00 <500 - 3150 690.00 690.50 0.50 <500 - 3100 721.00 723.50 2.50 <500 - 1700 731.00 731.50 0.50 <500 - 510 739.00 742.00 3.00 <500 - 9000 AR-16-80c2 147 -70 561.00 120.20 456 457.5 1.5 <500 - 1200 463.5 468.5 5 <500 - >61000 475 476 1 <500 - 2500 478.5 479 0.5 <500 - 520 495.5 501 5.5 <500 - >61000 517 517.5 0.5 <500 - 570 527.5 528 0.5 <500 - 1450 AR-16-80c3 147 -70 585.00 120.20 450.5 451.5 1 <500 - 2300 469 470.5 1.5 <500 - 24000 474.5 481 6.5 <500 - 3400 485 485.5 0.5 <500 - 650 488.5 509 20.5 <500 - 45000 516 516.5 0.5 <500 - 600 519 520 1 <500 - 1400 537.5 544.5 7 <500 - 2100 AR-16-81c1 145 -69 846.00 111.00 474.5 475 0.5 500 - 2900 479.5 480 0.5 <500 - 1100 488 507 19 <500 - 56000 517.5 518.5 1 <500 - 3000 522.5 523 0.5 <500 - 750 534 534.5 0.5 <500 - 540 555.5 556 0.5 <500 - 800 586 586.5 0.5 520 - 12000 600 602 2 520 - 2600 613.5 615.5 2 <500 - 1200 621.5 622 0.5 <500 - 700 634 634.5 0.5 <500 - 700 640 640.5 0.5 <500 - 2700 643 644 1 <500 - 600 654 656 2 <500 - 2300 669.5 670 0.5 500 - 4700 691.5 692 0.5 <500 - 520 696.5 714.5 18 <500 - 6000 720 732 12 <500 - 17500 734.5 742.5 8 <500 - 38000 752.5 753.5 1 <500 - 1300 759.5 764.5 5 <500 - 4400 768.5 769 0.5 <500 - 1600 772 775 3 <500 - 34000 778.5 779.5 1 <500 - 850 798 798.5 0.5 <500 - 4700 AR-16-82c1 140 -75 834.00 N/A 604.5 605 0.5 <500 - 1500 656 656.5 0.5 <500 - 660 790 790.5 0.5 <500 - 540 795 795.5 0.5 <500 - 1400 798 799.5 1.5 <500 - 14000 AR-16-83 140 -75 792.00 N/A No Anomalous Radioactivity

Parameters:

Maximum internal dilution 2.00 m downhole

All depths and intervals are meters downhole

"Anomalous" means >500 cps (counts per second) total count gamma readings by gamma scintillometer type RS-120

"Off-scale" means >10,000 cps (counts per second) total count gamma readings by gamma scintillometer type RS-120

Where "Min cps" is <500 cps, this refers to local low radiometric zones within the overall radioactive interval

Natural gamma radiation in drill core reported in this news release was measured in counts per second (cps) using a Radiation Solutions Inc. RS-120 gamma scintillometer. The reader is cautioned that total count gamma readings may not be directly or uniformly related to uranium grades of the rock sample measured; they should be used only as a preliminary indication of the presence of radioactive minerals. All intersections are downhole. True thicknesses are yet to be determined.

Split core samples will be taken systematically, and intervals will be submitted to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories (an SCC ISO/IEC 17025: 2005 Accredited Facility) of Saskatoon for analysis. All samples sent to SRC will be analyzed using ICP-MS for trace elements on partial and total digestions, ICP-OES for major and minor elements on a total digestion, and fusion solution of boron by ICP-OES. Mineralized samples are analyzed for U 3 O 8 by ICP-OES and select samples for gold by fire assay. Assay results will be released when received and after stringent internal QA/QC protocols are passed.

The technical information in this news release has been approved by Garrett Ainsworth, P.Geo., Vice President  Exploration & Development, a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43- 101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Ainsworth reviewed the data disclosed in this news release, including the sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information contained in this news release.

The mineral resource at the Arrow Deposit was completed by RPA Inc. and has an effective date of January 14, 2016. The mineral resource is reported at a cut-off grade of 0.25% U3O8. The cut-off is based on a long-term uranium price of USD$65/lb U3O8. The mineral resource is classified into the inferred category based on the CIM Definition Standards. For details regarding the geology and mineralization of the Arrow Deposit, the drilling, sampling and analytical procedures followed and the estimation methodology used in the preparation of the mineral resources, please refer to the Company's Amended and Restated News Release dated March 3, 2016, which is available under the Company's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

ARROW DEPOSIT DRILLING

AR-16-78c4

Hole AR-16-78c4 was a directional hole that departed pilot hole AR-16-78c3 at a depth of 265 m. It tested the A2 shear 28 m down-dip and northeast of AR-15-34b (2.20% U3O8 over 70.0 m in the A2 shear). Directional drilling was initiated at 279 m and the A2 shear was intersected at an inclination of -74.

Since the hole departed the pilot hole below the unconformity, no Athabasca Group sandstones were intersected. Basement lithologies consisted largely of semipelitic gneiss to granofel, and relatively narrow intervals of pelitic gneiss and mylonite (the A2 shear). The hole successfully intersected weakly to strongly anomalous radioactivity in the higher grade sub-zone of the A2 shear that was associated with dense accumulations of massive pitchblende. Stringers, worm-rock style, chemical solution fronts, blebs and flecks of pitchblende were also intersected. A total composite mineralization of 147.0 m including 37.4 m of off-scale radioactivity (>10,000 ->61,000 cps) was intersected within a 313.5m section (369.5 to 683.0 m). The hole was terminated at 705 m.

AR-16-79

Hole AR-16-79 was a collared from surface at an angled orientation (-70 dip) to the southeast (140 azimuth). It was designed to test for the presence of mineralization 630 m southwest of the Arrow deposit in an area of no previous drilling.

The hole intersected 1 m of bleached Athabasca Group sandstones above the unconformity at 85 m. Basement lithologies consisted of largely of semipelitic gneiss to granofel, and relatively narrow intervals of pelitic gneiss, orthogneiss, garnetite and mylonite. Highly prospective graphitic shear zones were intersected over several intervals in the hole which are interpreted to correspond to those that host the Arrow deposit. No anomalous radioactivity was encountered in the hole before it was terminated at 954 m. More drilling is required to fully assess this highly prospective area.

AR-16-80c1

Hole AR-16-80c1 was a directional hole collared from surface at an angled orientation (-70 dip) to the southeast (147 azimuth). It tested the A2 shear 23 m up-dip and southwest of AR-15-54c1 (7.03% U3O8 over 39.5 m in the A2 shear) and the A3 shear 28 m down-dip and southwest of AR-15-58c2 (0.61% U3O8 over 9.5 m in the A3 shear). Directional drilling was initiated at 228 m. The A2 and A3 shears were both intersected at an inclination of -63.

The hole intersected pervasively bleached and desilicified Athabasca Group sandstones between 90.0 m and the unconformity at 112.2 m. Basement lithologies consisted largely of semipelitic gneiss to granofel, and relatively narrow intervals of pelitic gneiss and mylonite (the A2 through A4 shears). The hole successfully intersected widespread anomalous radioactivity in the A2 through A4 shears that was associated with semi-massive veins, blebs and flecks of pitchblende. A total composite mineralization of 61.0 m including 0.45 m of off-scale radioactivity (>10,000  32,000 cps) was intersected within a 308.5 m section (433.5 to 742.0 m). In the A2 shear, 24.5 m of composite mineralization was intersected including 0.25 m of off-scale radioactivity. In the A3 shear, 27.0 m of composite mineralization was intersected including 0.2 m of off-scale radioactivity. In the A4 shear, 9.5 m of composite mineralization was intersected. The hole was terminated at 792 m.

AR-16-80c2

Hole AR-16-80c2 was a directional hole that departed pilot hole AR-16-80c1 at a depth of 231 m. It tested the A2 shear 20 m up-dip and northeast of AR-15-59c2 (5.42% U3O8 over 68.5 m in the A2 shear). Directional drilling was initiated at 243 m and the A2 shear was intersected an inclination of -64.

Since the hole departed the pilot hole below the unconformity, no Athabasca Group sandstones were intersected. Basement lithologies consisted largely of semipelitic gneiss to granofel, and relatively narrow intervals of pelitic gneiss and mylonite (the A2 shear). The hole successfully intersected widespread anomalous radioactivity in the A2 shear that was associated with semi-massive to massive veins, stringers, chemical solution fronts, blebs and flecks of pitchblende. A total composite mineralization of 14.5 m including 3.0 m of off-scale radioactivity (>10,000 - >61,000 cps) was intersected within a 72.0 m section (456.0 to 528.0 m) before the hole was terminated at 561 m.

AR-16-80c3

Hole AR-16-80c3 was a directional hole that departed pilot hole AR-16-80c2 at 246 m. It tested the A2 shear 26 m up-dip and northeast of AR-15-59c2 (5.42% U3O8 over 68.5 m in the A2 shear). Directional drilling was initiated at 276 m and the A2 shear was intersected at an inclination of -65.

Since the hole departed the pilot hole below the unconformity, no Athabasca Group sandstones were intersected. Basement lithologies consisted largely of semipelitic gneiss to granofel, and relatively narrow intervals of pelitic gneiss and mylonite (the A2 shear). The hole successfully intersected widespread anomalous radioactivity in the A2 shear that was associated with stringers, chemical solution fronts, blebs and flecks of pitchblende. A total composite mineralization of 38.5 m including 2.4 m of off-scale radioactivity (>10,000 -45,000 cps) was intersected within a 94.0 m section (450.5 to 544.5 m) before the hole was terminated at 585 m.

AR-16-81c1

Hole AR-16-81c1 was a directional hole collared from surface at an angled orientation (-69 dip) to the southeast (145 azimuth). It tested the A2 shear 21 m up-dip and southwest of AR-15-59c2 (5.42% U3O8 over 68.5 m in the A2 shear) and the A3 shear 21 m up-dip and southwest of AR-15-59c1 (0.46% U3O8 over 6.5 m in the A3 shear). Directional drilling was intersected at 249 m. The A2 and A3 shears were both intersected at an inclination of -64.

The hole intersected strongly to intensely bleached and desilicified Athabasca Group sandstones between 90.5 and the unconformity at 111.0 m. Basement lithologies consisted largely of semipelitic gneiss to granofel, and relatively narrow intervals of pelitic gneiss and mylonite (the A2 through A4 shears). The hole successfully intersected widespread anomalous radioactivity in the A2 through A4 shears that was associated with stringers, chemical solution fronts, blebs and flecks of pitchblende. A total composite mineralization of 81.5 m including 2.3 m of off-scale radioactivity (>10,000 -56,000 cps) was intersected within a 324.0 m section (474.5 to 798.5 m). In the A2 shear, 22.0 m of composite mineralization was intersected including 1.65 m of off-scale radioactivity. In the A3 shear, 10.0 m of composite mineralization was intersected including 0.15 m of off-scale radioactivity. In the A4 shear, 49.5 m of composite mineralization including 0.5 m of off-scale radioactivity was intersected. The hole was terminated at 850 m.

AR-16-82c1

Hole AR-16-82c1 was a directional hole collared from surface at an angled orientation (-75 dip) to the southeast (140 azimuth). It tested the A4 shear as a 120 m up-dip and northeast step-out from AR-16-77c2 (2.3 m of off-scale radioactivity in the A4 shear; assays pending). Directional drilling was initiated at 159.0 m and the A4 shear was intersected at an inclination of -70.

Basement lithologies were intersected beginning at 93.0 m which consisted largely of semipelitic gneiss to granofel, and relatively narrow intervals of pelitic gneiss and mylonite (the A2 through A4 shears). No Athabasca Group sandstones were intersected. The hole successfully intersected anomalous radioactivity to southeast of the A4 shear that was associated with stringers of, and fracture-controlled pitchblende mineralization. A total composite mineralization of 3.5 m including 0.25 m of off-scale radioactivity (>10,000 - 14,000 cps) was intersected within a 195.0 m section (604.5 to 799.5 m) before the hole was terminated at 834 m.

AR-16-83

Hole AR-16-83 was collared from surface at an angled orientation (-70 dip) to the southeast (140 azimuth). It was collared 125 m southeast of AR-16-79 and designed to test for the presence of mineralization 600 m southwest of the Arrow deposit in an area of no previous drilling.

Basement lithologies were intersected beginning at 87.0 m which consisted largely of semipelitic gneiss to granofel, and relatively narrow intervals of pelitic gneiss and mylonite. No Athabasca Group sandstones were intersected. Highly prospective graphitic shear zones were intersected over several intervals in the hole which are interpreted to correspond to those that host the Arrow deposit. No anomalous radioactivity was encountered in the hole before it was terminated at 792 m. More drilling is required to fully assess this highly prospective area.

CANNON AREA DRILLING

Holes CN-16-01 through CN-16-11 were collared at angled orientations to the northwest, mostly at azimuths of 335 with dips of -70. Athabasca Group sandstones of various thickness were intersected in every hole. Basement lithologies consisted largely of semipelitic gneiss, pelitic gneiss, quartzite and orthogneiss, with relatively narrow intervals of chloritic and graphitic mylonite. All 11 holes intersected strong to intense hydrothermal alteration envelopes typically marked by illite-sudoite-hemaite- mineral assemblages. Holes CN-16-01, -02, -06 and -10 intersected narrow zones of anomalous radioactivity from greater than 300 to 1,300 cps over intervals from 0.5 to 1.5 m of core length, which were in close association with mylonitic shear zones. Note that for regional holes, the Company defines anomalous radioactivity as greater than 300 cps as measured on the drill core by handheld scintillometer (RS-120). The alteration zones remain open in all directions, and at the unconformity, and further drilling is planned for the summer 2016 program.

About NexGen

NexGen is a British Columbia corporation with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of Canadian uranium projects. NexGen has a highly experienced team of uranium industry professionals with a successful track record in the discovery of uranium deposits and in developing projects through discovery to production.

NexGen owns a portfolio of highly prospective uranium exploration assets in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada, including a 100% interest in Rook I, location of the Arrow Discovery in February 2014. The Arrow Deposit's maiden Inferred mineral resource estimate is 201.9 M lbs U 3 O 8 contained in 3.48 M tonnes grading 2.63% U 3 O 8 . Rook I also hosts the Bow Discovery which is 3.7 km along trend and northeast of Arrow and was made in March 2015.

The TSXV has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. "Forward-looking information" includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including, without limitation, the proposed use of proceeds and planned exploration activities. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information and statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connation thereof.

Such forward-looking information and statements are based on numerous assumptions, including among others, that the results of planned exploration activities are as anticipated, the price of uranium, the anticipated cost of planned exploration activities, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms, and that third party contractors, equipment and supplies and governmental and other approvals required to conduct the Company's planned exploration activities will be available on reasonable terms and in a timely manner. Although the assumptions made by the Company in providing forward-looking information or making forward-looking statements are considered reasonable by management at the time, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be accurate.

Forward-looking information and statements also involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual events or results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future events or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking information or statements, including, among others: negative operating cash flow and dependence on third party financing, uncertainty of additional financing, no known mineral reserves or resources, pending assay results may not be consistent with preliminary results, discretion in the use of proceeds, alternative sources of energy, aboriginal title and consultation issues, reliance on key management and other personnel, potential downturns in economic conditions, actual results of exploration activities being different than anticipated, changes in exploration programs based upon results, availability of third party contractors, availability of equipment and supplies, failure of equipment to operate as anticipated; accidents, effects of weather and other natural phenomena and other risks associated with the mineral exploration industry, environmental risks, changes in laws and regulations, community relations and delays in obtaining governmental or other approvals.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information or implied by forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or reissue forward-looking information as a result of new information or events except as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE NexGen Energy Ltd.

Figure 1: Arrow Drill Hole Locations



Figure 2: Cannon Drill Hole Locations



Figure 3: AR-16-78c4 Cross Section



Figure 4: A2 Mineralized Shear Long Section (Close-Up of Sub-Zone)



Figure 5: A2 Mineralized Shear Long Section



Figure 6: A3 Mineralized Long Section


Toronto, Canada / TheNewswire / April 18, 2016 - Savary Gold Corp. (TSX-V: SCA) ("Savary" or the "Company") announces that drilling commenced on the Karangosso Project on April 16, 2016 as scheduled. The Karankasso JV Project located in south western Burkina Faso is currently 65% owned by Savary and 35% owned by Sarama Resources Limited ("Sarama").

The recommended and approved drill program totalling 6,500 metres in 45 to 55 holes is currently designed to follow-up on four of the six zones that contain resources, and to test new targets with an ongoing overall goal to increase the overall resources and to discover new zones. Zone drilling comprises approximately 53% of the currently planned drill metres. Follow-up holes will further target extensions to the known zones and any new discoveries that demonstrate superior potential to lower the discovery cost/ounce of resource.

"Our first six to eight core holes will test both existing and new gold-mineralized systems that, in the field, display, what management believes, demonstrates the best potential that we have developed to date, for both size and grade" stated Don Dudek, President and CEO of Savary. "Once these holes are completed, follow-up RC holes are designed to test: for extensions to known zones; for new gold occurrences; new conceptual targets. As always, we eagerly anticipate the assay results."

A total of 30 holes comprising 4,235 metres have been planned to date representing 65% of the budgeted metres. Approximately 25% of the program's drill meters will be core holes with the remainder, reverse circulation ("RC") holes. Additional holes will be planned once these initial holes are drilled and supporting assay or visual results are received. It is expected that the drill program will take approximately six weeks to complete.

Marketing

Savary recently participated in a C-Suite TMX-sponsored, video interview presentation that can be viewed through the following link - https://youtu.be/RT9gxYWuuXw. During the interview, Don Dudek, President and CEO of Savary, summarizes the Company's flagship Karankasso Project, recent milestones, catalysts, including the recently initiated drill program, working in Burkina Faso and its positive relationship with the TSX-V.

Don Dudek, President and CEO of Savary, was also interviewed by Dr. Allen Alper of MetalNews.com. The interview is titled "Dr Alper Interviews Don Dudek, President and CEO of Savary Gold: Karankasso Gold Project in the Prolific Hounde Gold Belt in Burkina Faso, West Africa". This written interview can be accessed through the following link - http://www.metalsnews.com/t1090048i.

Both of these interviews were designed to further highlight Savary's exceptional Karankasso Project and to broaden Savary's market exposure. Links to both the video and written interview are posted on Savary's web site.

About Savary Gold

Savary Gold is a Canadian exploration company which, along with partner Sarama Resources Limited, is focused on exploring and developing the Karankasso Gold Project in Burkina Faso. The Project properties lie within the Birimian age, Hounde Greenstone Belt, which hosts Semafo's Mana mine and additional gold deposits that are presently subject to production decisions and extensive exploration efforts (including Endeavour Mining's Hounde Project, Roxgold's Yaramoko Project, Orezone's Bondi Project and Sarama's/Acacia's South Hounde Project, which is adjacent to Savary Gold's property). The Project contains an Inferred open pit constrained mineral resource of 9.16 million tonnes grading 2.28 g/t gold (Savary news release November 24, 2015). For additional information please visit our website at www.savarygold.com.

Don Dudek, P.Geo., President and CEO of the Company and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.

SAVARY GOLD CORP.

On behalf of the Board

"Don Dudek"

President & Chief Executive Officer

For more information, please contact:

Don Dudek, President and CEO

T: 647-259-2097

E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; www.savarygold.com

Cautionary Notes

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.



Click Image To View Full Size

* Red dots and diamonds - grab samples gold occurrences containing >1 g/t gold

* Yellow dots and diamonds - grab sample gold occurrences containing from 0.5 g/t to 1.0 g/t gold

* Purple Stars represent mineralized zones with drill results

* Black stars represent new zones referred to on this release

Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
JURIST Guest Columnist Cristian Correa of the International Center for Transitional Justice discusses how waterboarding, if not torturous treatment, is at the very least illegal

In a recent academic commentary, Professor Jeffrey F. Addicott claims that the use of waterboarding by the US has not involved torture in violation of the 1984 United Nations Convention against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. His commentary offers an opportunity to discuss this important issue, particularly given the perception of threat and the voices raised in the country about the need to use waterboarding and other methods of interrogation against suspected terrorists.

Professor Addicott affirms that waterboarding, subjecting a detainee to a suffocation experience, was not severe enough to rise to the level of torture. He bases his claim on the Ireland vs. UK ECtHR decision, as well as on the 2012 Office of the Legal Counsel memos. However, this, by any means, can lead to the conclusion that waterboarding is a legal practice under such Convention, since the UK in the case was condemned for violations of article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

In Ireland vs. UK ECtHR, the European Court of Human Rights examined, among other issues, whether five interrogation techniques used by the UK against detainees were contrary to the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment established by article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The five techniques were the following: wall-standing; hooding; subjection to noise; deprivation of sleep; and deprivation of food and drink. Examining each technique, the court concluded that they constituted a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment, which practice was in breach of Article 3.

Subjecting a detainee under interrogation to a near-death experience of suffocation through drowning is clearly a more severe treatment than the five techniques Ireland vs. UK ECtHR examined. Thus, even if waterboarding could be considered not to be torture, it is clear that it violates the 1984 UN Convention against Torture, because the Convention also prohibits other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Moreover, subsequent decisions by the ECtHR, particularly ISelmouni vs. France where the Court considered that,

certain acts which were classified in the past as inhuman and degrading treatment as opposed to torture could be classified differently in future. It takes the view that the increasingly high standard being required in the area of the protection of human rights and fundamental liberties correspondingly and inevitably requires greater firmness in assessing breaches of the fundamental values of democratic societies (101).

It is not clear that waterboarding does not reach the severity threshold to be considered torture. The severity threshold that is determinant to distinguish between torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is a matter of gradation that relies on several components, but that cannot be limited to the existence of physical injuries. One relevant factor is the existence of long-lasting effects. The question that follows then is whether or not the experience of being submitted to a near-death experience by suffocation while in custody has long lasting effects. This is consistent with the notion of prolonged mental harm, used by the March 14, 2003 OLC memo[PDF], understood as capable of causing some lasting, though not necessarily permanent damage. The memo even includes the development of post-traumatic stress disorder, which can last for a considerable period of time if untreated, as a condition that might satisfy the prolonged harm requirement.

Testimonies of survivors of torture through the application of suffocation techniques affirm the long term effect of that experience. The report of the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, a commission appointed by the President of Chile to examine allegations of torture during the Pinochet dictatorship, reported long lasting consequences on victims of suffocation techniques. Thirty years after being tortured by such method a victim said, Even today I wake up because of nightmares of dying from drowning.

Waterboarding also complies with two conditions under 18 U.S.C.  2340(2) for the definition of torture: (a) the intentional infliction of severe physical pain or suffering; and (c) the threat of imminent death. The near-death experience by intentional suffocation under captivity is clearly an act of intentionally causing such pain or suffering. It is even more than a mere threat of imminent death, it is the actual experience of almost drowning.

Furthermore, according to international law, the distinction between torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, even if relevant, does not make the latter legal. The UN Committee against Torture had observed in regards to the US that,

The State party should ensure that acts of psychological torture, prohibited by the Convention, are not limited to prolonged mental harm as set out in the State partys understandings lodged at the time of ratification of the Convention, but constitute a wider category of acts, which cause severe mental suffering, irrespective of their prolongation or its duration.

This decision was reiterated in 2014.

In conclusion, if despite its long lasting effects, waterboarding is considered a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and could be narrowly qualified as not being torture, the practice of waterboarding still constitutes a violation of Article 1 of the 1984 UN Convention against Torture. As such, it constitutes an illegal practice that can lead to the international condemnation of the US as a state engaged in violations of one of the core provisions of international human rights. However, the narrow definition to which Professor Addicott adheres should be brought into question, considering the long term effects that a near-death experience, like waterboarding, has been proven to cause.

Cristian Correa is a Senior Associate at the International Center for Transitional Justice. He is the former legal secretary of the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture of Chile (2003-2005), and human rights advisor to President Bachelet (2006-2007). Correa is also a Lawyer form the Pontificate Catholic University of Santiago (1993) and holds a M.A. in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame (1992)..

Suggested citation: Cristian Correa, The Illegality go Waterboarding, JURIST  Professional Commentary, April 18, 2016, http://jurist.org/hotline/2016/04/cristian-correa-waterboarding-illegal.php.
[JURIST] A Gambian activist on Saturday died while in detention after being detained on Thursday following protesting. Many rights groups are now calling for an inquiry [BBC report] into how Solo Sandeng, the National Organizing Secretary of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), died after sustaining injuries during the protest. Amnesty International (AI) [official website] stated [AI report] that the organization has received information that he died in detention shortly after his arrest for participating in a peaceful protest and that the circumstances surrounding his death are still unknown. People present at the protest, which was in regards to electoral reforms, stated that it was peaceful and was eventually broken up by police who arrested several people, including Sandeng. On Sunday, after learning of the deaths of Sandeng and two others, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] called on [UN news report] authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those arrested during Thursdays protest.

The treatment of activists has been a constant human rights issue throughout the world. Last month Azeri human rights lawyer and advocate Intigam Aliyev was freed from jail [JURIST report]. Aliyev had been charged with tax evasion, abuse of office and illegal entrepreneurship. Also in March Kuwaits Supreme Court upheld [JURIST report] the four-year jail sentence against an activist found guilty of insulting judges on Twitter. In February Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized [JURIST report] Omani courts for jailing two online activists over posts they wrote on social media websites. Also in February UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein expressed concern [JURIST report] over Chinas recent crackdown on lawyers and activists. The commissioner stated that civil society workers should be protected by the state, not harassed.
[JURIST] Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf [official profile] signed a bill [materials] on Sunday legalizing medical marijuana. The bill establishes [press release] a statewide program, which will take 18 to 24 months to implement and will allow patients with serious medical problems to receive medical marijuana from state dispensaries after receiving physician certification. Though implementation will take up to two years, parents will be able to administer [AP report] medical marijuana to children in need immediately. The Pennsylvania Department of Health [official website] has begun conducting population studies, collaborating with medical professionals, and working on temporary regulations and the application process to meet the statutes 6 month publishing requirement and ready dispensaries. This bill makes Pennsylvania the twenty-fourth state to legalize and establish a medical marijuana program.

In February the Utah Senate voted to advance a bill [JURIST report] that would legalize the use of medical marijuana in various forms such as vapor or edible form. In December Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a decree [JURIST report] fully legalizing medical marijuana in the country. Last November New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed two bills [JURIST report] in order to expedite the distribution of medical marijuana to citizens with critical health conditions. Earlier that month New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed [JURIST report] a bill into law that would allow for the administering of edible medical marijuana to sick and disabled children on school grounds without triggering the arrests of parents or educators. In June of last year the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a law restricting the use of medical marijuana was unconstitutional [JURIST report].
Renault says it is looking to increase its local supplier content in Morocco from its current 40% to 65% by 2023 as well as add up to a further 30 new component manufacturers to its partners in the kingdom.

The French manufacturer is declining to confirm a statement issued by the Moroccan industry ministry, claiming Renault and domestic suppliers will inject US$1.03bn into increasing local content, but the automaker does note it is looking for more component providers in the country.

"It [US$1.04bn] is a figure given by the Moroccan authorities and it concerns suppliers," a Renault spokeswoman told just-auto from Paris. "It is a global figure of suppliers in Morocco.

"It is not a figure given by Renault and Renault will not respond to this figure. It [current Moroccan domestic content] is an integration [rate] of 40% today and we would like to arrive at 65% by 2023.

"We envisage 20-30 more suppliers  doubling the number. We have no details, but for example it could be electric vehicles [based]."

The Moroccan Industry Ministry insists the agreement  inked in the presence of King Mohammed VI  will create 50,000 new jobs as a ramped up supply chain provides Renault's Tangiers and Casablanca factories with domestic automotive parts.

"The new Renault project, which will total MAD10bn committed by Renault and its suppliers, will create 50,000 permanent, qualified jobs, tripling the number currently employed by the group, confirming the kingdom in its choice of developing human capital," said a Moroccan industry ministry statement.

The ministry also points to what it says are the "numerous attractions" of Morocco in persuading Renault to increase its domestic footprint, such as its stable political, social and economic environment.

"We don't have the names, but we have today 30 suppliers in place and [in] 2023, we envisage 20-30 more," added the Renault spokeswoman. "The goal is to have more local suppliers. The industry strategy of Renault is to really produce vehicles in markets where they are sold and at best competivity and at best integration with the most local suppliers possible."

The automaker added suppliers were clustered near to its Casablanca and Tangiers factories, with the latter a EUR600m project in tandem with the Moroccan government.

"The new Renault project in Morocco is a success, adding to numerous others in national industry," noted the industry ministry.

"It attests to the deepening of a strategic partnership of the quality woven in with Renault, which underlines its choice of Morocco today."
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LINCOLN -- Stories of young, promising immigrants who are reaching for a better life may be compelling, but opponents of Legislative Bill 947 say theres more to the issue.

The debate over LB 947 was very emotional, but as a state senator responsible for passing sound legislation, I cannot support bills based solely on emotion, said State Sen. Nicole Fox of Omaha, one of 11 senators who voted against it. It is my responsibility to consider if the bills I am being asked to support might carry with them unintended consequences.

Fox and others said they worry that the proposed law to let immigrants obtain professional and commercial licenses might cover too many people or too many licensing fields.

While current federal policy, for example, protects certain young immigrants like Brenda Esqueda from deportation if they came to the U.S. illegally as children, Ricketts says thats only a temporary policy.

Since the Obama administrations immigration policy faces legal challenges, he says, it could be rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. Or it could be changed by a new president. Thus, he says, its premature  and fundamentally unfair and unjust  for Nebraska to grant professional and commercial licenses to people who entered the country illegally.

Nebraska has always been a welcoming state, he says. We are also a state that respects the rule of law.

State Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha, the bills sponsor, looks at the issue differently. He says the new law doesnt change the existing immigration process, which is established at the federal level.

This new law applies to persons who are following the federal law and have been granted lawful presence by the federal government, he says.

Such people already are allowed to work and live in the state, he notes, and the proposed law would simply let them fully contribute in their Nebraska communities.

Thats why the bill received strong support from the states business community and leaders such as Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, Mello says.

It is imperative that we move past the political rhetoric and focus on keeping skilled and talented people in Nebraska, he says.
Donald Trump thundered on Fox News, Thats not the way democracy is supposed to work. The system is rigged. I see it now, 100 percent.

Trump was complaining about a series of states  Colorado, Louisiana, South Carolina  where Ted Cruzs well-organized campaign elected delegates at state conventions and sliced into Trumps national lead.

Supporters of Bernie Sanders are making similar protests about a rigged system on the Democratic side, where hundreds of superdelegates  mainly party officials and office holders  get seats at the convention and can support anybody, no matter how the folks back home voted.

Hillary Clinton holds a large lead among these party regulars, and Sanders supporters are aggressively lobbying  even harassing  them to change sides in states that Bernie won. Its time we take our democracy back, proclaims one website devoted to pressuring Clinton backers.

The Trump and Sanders people are both wrong. The contests are not rigged or unfair. These whiners misunderstand the basic nature of American democracy.

Our system was never supposed to subject every question to a direct vote of the people. The founders built in a series of checks and balances specifically designed to contain and counteract the gusts of emotions that can blow forcefully through the electorate and cause long-term damage to the national interest.

In his famous Federalist 10 essay, aimed at explaining and defending the Constitution, James Madison presciently warned against the threat of factions, which he defined as citizens actuated by an impulse of passion that is contrary to the common interests of the community.

Thats why the founders created rules and institutions that would dilute pure democracy and defend larger interests of the nation. One example: the ability of the president to veto bills passed by a majority and to sustain his action with the support of only one-third of the legislature. Or a nine-member court with lifetime tenure that can declare laws unconstitutional.

The threat of factions is directly relevant to the current debate in both parties about convention rules. Trump and his followers are a classic example of how fears and phobias threaten to damage precious traditions and values.

The anti-Trump forces are probably fighting a losing battle, especially if he wins big in New York this week. But they are using the rules in a very American way  to impede a faction, to force a rethinking, to make sure that the power of passion is balanced out by other interests, especially those of the Republican Party.

Exit polls make it clear that many voters who are backing Trump are not even Republicans, and care very little about his electability. The Democrats are in a different situation, since their insurgent, Sanders, is not the frontrunner. Nor does he mirror Trumps cynical appeals to racist and nativist prejudices. But his supporters are echoing Trumps complaints about a rigged system.

The superdelegates to the Democratic convention were created after 1972, when a passionate faction of antiwar activists nominated George McGovern, an honorable man but a terrible candidate who led the party to a disastrous defeat.

Democrats, like Republicans, have legitimate party interests that dont necessarily coincide with primary results. Sanders, like Trump, is backed more by independents than party regulars, and Democrats have voted 2 to 1 in favor of Clinton. The truth is, many Republicans sure wish their party had superdelegates, too. It would make stopping Trump a lot easier.

As Lee Kinch, the Democratic state chairman in Kansas, told the Kansas City Star: The argument for superdelegates is Donald Trump.
The ENSURE project will focus on efficient and viable grids for centralized and decentralized energy supply. (Photo: Gabi Zachmann, KIT)

Today in Berlin, Federal Minister of Education and Research, Johanna Wanka, presented the consortia that will be funded by the Federal Government as Kopernikus projects for the energy turnaround. Among them is ENSURE  new power grid structures for the energy turnaround. The consortium is led by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), core partners are RWTH Aachen, the utility company E.ON, network operator TENNET TSO, and the technology corporations of Siemens and ABB. Another 15 partners have joined the consortium. Work is aimed at developing and testing efficient and viable grid structures combining centralized and decentralized energy supply.

For the German energy system, the energy turnaround is a change of paradigms that is not only associated with challenges, but also with economic opportunities, Professor Holger Hanselka, President of KIT and spokesperson of ENSURE (German acronym of New Power Grid Structures for the Energy Turnaround), says. Our research activities in this area will contribute to the economic success of the energy turnaround and to technology suppliers, infrastructure operators, and electricity consumers being able to profit from it. Holger Hanselka also is research field coordinator Energy of the Helmholtz Association. We want to demonstrate how we in Germany can integrate decentralized fluctuating renewable sources of energy, such as the sun and wind, into the grid and, at the same time, ensure environmentally compatible, reliable, and affordable energy supply.

Structures for a Viable Power Grid

In concrete terms, the ENSURE consortium wants to answer the following question: What is a technically, economically, and socially reasonable power grid structure and which fractions of centralized and decentralized supply does it comprise? For this purpose, efficient new system structures, stable system control mechanisms, and the integration of new technologies will be studied comprehensively under the project. Particular attention will be paid to the technical and societal transformation process to be managed. Technologies for power transmission will be in the focus as will information and communication technologies to ensure accounting and stability in the interlinked supply structures.

The ENSURE Kopernikus project will cover three phases. After the first phase for studying fundamentals (2016 to 2019) and the following second phase for implementation on the pilot scale (2019 to 2022), the final third phase (2022  2025) will be dedicated to designing a multi-modal grid demonstrator. This large-scale demonstrator is to illustrate, by way of example, future supply of an urban system and its surroundings with power. In addition, methods to enhance flexibility and efficiency, e.g. by the integration of power, gas, heat, and storage systems or by power connections to the medium- or high-voltage level are studied.

Board of Directors and Partners of ENSURE

The ENSURE consortium consists of the six core partners represented in the Board of Directors and another 15 project partners. The core partners are KIT and RWTH Aachen as representatives of research and higher education, the companies of E.ON (utility company and distribution grid operator) and TenneT TSO GmbH (transmission grid operator) as well as the corporate groups of Siemens AG (integrated technology company) and ABB (power and automation technologies). The other project partners are: (a) the technical universities of Dortmund and Darmstadt, the universities of Cologne, Wuppertal, Hanover, Kiel, and Erlangen-Nuremberg, (b) the non-university research institutions of Forschungsgemeinschaft fur Elektrische Anlagen und Stromwirtschaft e.V. (Research Association of Electricity Supply Industry and Electrical Industry), Mannheim, Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy Systems Technology, and OFFIS  Institute for Information Technology Oldenburg as well as (c) the Institute for Applied Ecology, Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V., DVGW e.V., and (d) the companies of Nexans GmbH and Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen GmbH. Of the planned budget of more than EUR 43 million for the first three years, the Federation will finance about EUR 30 million.

KIT Involved in Another Two Kopernikus Projects

Within the framework of the Kopernikus project System Integration and Networking of Energy Supply (ENavi), KIT is represented in the proposing Board of Directors. The project will extend the focus of the energy turnaround to cover the transformation process of the whole society, as the transformation of the energy system will result in challenges that will only be managed by a holistic approach on the system level. This project is aimed at obtaining an improved and in-depth understanding of the complex system of systems in the energy sector and associated areas, such as industry and consumption, and at generating options for collectively effective measures.

Under the Kopernikus project P2X: Investigation, Validation, and Implementation of Power-to-X Processes, KIT will coordinate a research cluster focusing on modular and autonomous technologies for the conversion of synthesis gas based on carbon dioxide in hydrocarbons and long-chained alcohols. Research will concentrate on new process technologies for the production of fuels, synthetic natural gas (SNG), and chemicals from alternative energy sources, which are suited for decentralized use. In addition, KIT participates in the clusters of Decentralized H2 Logistics: Storage and Distribution via Liquid Hydrogen Carriers and Oxomethylene Ether: Fuels and Plastics Based on Carbon Hydroxide and Hydrogen.

About the Funding Initiative Kopernikus Projects for the Energy Turnaround

The 2050 Energy Concept of the Federal Government envisages environmentally compatible, reliable, and affordable energy supply. The funding initiative Kopernikus Projects for the Energy Turnaround is aimed at making significant steps towards new ways of cooperation of industry, science, and society and at ensuring future efficiency and viability of energy research as part of the high-tech strategy. The underlying idea is that the transformation of the energy system will only succeed, if needs and expectations of the population will be reflected adequately and environmental compatibility and economic requirements will be considered.

The initiative Kopernikus Projects for the Energy Turnaround is intended to fund technology-oriented research projects based on a systemic and transdisciplinary approach. The projects are to identify technologies relevant to the implementation of the energiewende and to develop them for application on a large scale, i.e. the initiation of innovations for the energiewende. It is planned to study research areas of high complexity, high research risk, and high potential for the transformation of the energy system in an economically profitable manner. Research and development of the Kopernikus projects are to contribute to making use of the opportunities resulting from technical progress on the world market.

Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,800 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.
Economic Costs 1900-2015: Flood, Earthquake and Storm have caused the highest losses (Figure: James Daniell, KIT)

More than seven trillion US dollars economic damage and eight million deaths via natural disasters since the start of the 20th century: These figures have been calculated and collected by the risk engineer Dr. James Daniell from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). His database CATDAT looks at examining socioeconomic indicators as well as collecting and evaluating socioeconomic loss data through time, and has built a massive base for his post-disaster risk model which helps governments and aid organisations with catastrophe management and assessing rapidly the scale of a disaster. James will present his results today at the 2016 European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna.

As part of CATDAT, James Daniell has collected and evaluated over 35,000 natural disaster events since 1900 globally. Around a third of economic losses between 1900 and 2015 have been caused via floods. Earthquakes have caused around 26 percent of losses, Storms around 19 percent, Volcanic eruptions around 1 percent. Over the last 100+ years the economic losses via natural disasters, in absolute terms, have increased, said Dr. Daniell, who conducts research at KIT as a John Monash Scholar is at the Geophysical Institute as well as the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology CEDIM. Over the whole time period, floods have caused the highest amount of economic losses, however, in recent times, since 1960, the highest percentage has switched to storm (and storm surge) with around 30% of losses.

In relation to the current capital value of infrastructure and buildings in each country, the damage is reducing from natural catastrophes. Less developed nations are often more vulnerable towards catastrophes  that means relative to population and capital  more deaths and higher economic losses are expected post-event, says the Civil/Structural engineer and Geophysicist. One common reason is the building quality itself in that building regulations and disaster codes even if present, are often not adhered to. In addition, the locations where people work (like in Bangladesh on the coasts), are economic centers and highly populated due to this, and the financial gains or livelihoods, often outweigh the potential disaster risks.

For his analyses, he has created and collected many socioeconomic indices for the world, countries and often even provinces like human development, GDP, capital stock, exchange rates, price indices and data on security, building inventory and vulnerability in all countries exposed to disasters. In order to examine the trend of vulnerability over time, he normalised the losses to the year 2015 by examining the effect of historic events for todays conditions. Here there is a clear trend, that many (but not all) countries are protecting themselves better against disasters by building better, and therefore and are reducing their risk of high losses, says Dr. Daniell. The improvements in flood protection are the most prominent when looking at the trends, as through the 1900-1960 time period, many huge events occurred, but from 1960 onwards, the normalised losses steadily reduce. The most visible reduction is seen in China and Japan.

Depending on the metric used to convert event-year dollars to current 2015 dollars (i.e. consumer price index, building cost index or otherwise), the natural disaster damage bill is between 6.5 and 14 trillion USD. The 7 trillion USD bill from Dr. Daniell is based on a country-by-country GDP-deflator based price index, however the components of loss from natural disasters often differ significantly in addition to the loss estimate itself. It is often impossible to get one exact value for a disaster event, as economic losses are often difficult to quantify, and death tolls are often overestimated (for example, the Haiti earthquake in 2010), or underestimated (like Uzbekistan in 1966), he says, and therefore provides a lower and upper bound to his estimates of each past events from literature.

Looking at the largest economic losses, the year 2011 with major earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand is the highest loss to date: with around 335 billion USD direct damage, the Tohoku earthquake-tsunami-nuclear sequence on 11 March 2011 is the highest single-event natural catastrophe loss, says James Daniell. From the earthquake and following tsunami, around 18500 people died and around 450000 became homeless.

Deaths by natural disasters

Over 8 million deaths are shown in the CATDAT database since 1900 for earthquake, flood, storm, volcano and bushfires (withough counting deaths due to long term effects or drought/famine).

Deaths due to natural disasters since 1900 (Figure: James Daniell, KIT)



The amount of deaths due to earthquake between 1900 and 2015 from the database at around 2.32 million (with a range of 2.18-2.63 million). Around 59 percent of them died as a result of the collapse of masonry buildings, and 28% of them due to secondary effects such as tsunami or landslides. Volcanic eruptions in the same time period have killed only 98,000 people (range: 83,000-107,000). However, volcanic eruptions before 1900, like the Tambora 1815 event, have the possibility to cause massive death tolls and also cause lower temperatures around the world leading to food security issues. The absolute total of deaths through natural catastrophes has remained reasonably constant with a slight decrease. Around 50,000 people on average die each year. However, relative to population, death tolls have decreased significantly from 1900-2015, explains Dr. Daniell. Over the entire time period, half of people died due to flood. However, with better planning, warnings and preventive measures, the death rate due to floods is signifcantly decreasing. Since 1960, earthquakes have caused the highest death percentage with around 40% of disaster deaths. Compared to the global death rate due to all causes, the rate of deaths due to natural disasters has remained quite constant.

With each event over 100000 deaths, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (around 230,000) and 2008 Cyclone Nargis (around 140000) in Myanmar are the largest disasters since 2000 in terms of deaths. The event with the highest death toll to date is the Great Floods of 1931 in China with a mean estimate around 2.5 million deaths.

The CATDAT Database

Since 2003, James Daniell has built the CATDAT Database from information out of Online Archives, books, reports from institutions, publications and other databases around the world, with original sources in over 90 languages. In his PhD dissertation, he developed a global rapid loss estimation model for earthquake, using empirical data from over 8000 earthquakes since 1900 and the associated socioeconomic climate over time. Using this basis, he has calculated a death toll estimate and economic loss estimate for each event since late 2009. At the start of 2016, Dr.-Ing. Daniell received one of three KIT Doctoral Awards from KIT awarded to dissertations finished in 2014. The model works very well for other disaster types, and he has continually updated his model with other natural catastrophes with over 35000 events collected since 1900, and many additional events pre-1900.



Video of the Doctoral Award: https://www.kit.edu/kit/19416.php

James Daniell is a John Monash Scholar. This title is given to outstanding young Australian researchers. James was among eight Australians in 2009 to win Australia's most prestigious postgraduate scholarship and continues his research and work in conjunction with the Foundation. More information: www.johnmonash.com

European Geosciences Union  2016 General Assembly in Vienna

James Daniell will present the results of his research today at the annual European Geosciences Union in Vienna. At the assembly he is also the co-convener of 2 sessions on the theme of Natural Hazards in conjunction with CEDIM. More information: http://www.egu2016.eu/

More about the KIT Climate and Environment Center: http://www.klima-umwelt.kit.edu/english.

Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,800 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.
(Kitco News) - Gold prices are moderately higher in early U.S. trading Monday, on some safe-haven demand and on a corrective bounce after recent selling pressure. A weaker U.S. dollar index Monday is also working in favor of the precious metals bulls. June Comex gold was last up $4.70 at $1,239.30 an ounce. May Comex silver was last down $0.083 at $16.23 an ounce.

The highly anticipated oil producers meeting in Doha, Qatar took place during the weekend and ended Sunday without agreement on any production limitations. The apparent sticking point was that Iran would not bow to Saudi Arabias demand that it, too, lower its oil production. The crude oil markets are lower Monday, with Nymex crude oil down around $1.00 a barrel and trading around $39.00.

World stock markets were mostly weaker following the Doha oil meeting, amid a mild risk-off trading day that is benefiting safe-haven gold. The crude oil market continues to be the tail that wags the dog, regarding world stock market price action recently. Japans stock market was sharply lower Monday in the wake of a series of earthquakes that have hit that nation. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward slightly lower openings when the U.S. day session begins in New York.

The other key outside market sees the U.S. dollar index slightly lower in early U.S. trading. The index remains in a near-term price downtrend, and thats a positive element for the raw commodity sector.

U.S. economic data due for release Monday is light and includes the NAHB housing market index.

(Note: Follow me on Twitter--@jimwyckoff--for breaking market news.)

Wyckoffs Daily Risk Rating: 2.5 (Trader and investor market risk aversion is not elevated today.)

(Wyckoffs Daily Risk Rating is your way to quickly gauge investor risk appetite in the world market place each day. Each day I assess the risk-on or risk-off trader mentality in the market place with a numerical reading of 1 to 5, with 1 being least risk-averse (most risk-on) and 5 being the most risk-averse (risk-off).

Technically, June gold futures bulls still have the overall near-term technical advantage, but trading has been choppy recently. Bulls next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at the April high of $1,264.70. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is closing prices below solid technical support at the March low of $1,207.70. First resistance is seen at $1,245.90 and then at $1,250.00. First support is seen at the overnight low of $1,231.70 and then at last weeks low of $1,225.40. Wyckoffs Market Rating: 6.0

May silver bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage. Prices last Friday hit a 10-month high. Silver bulls next upside price breakout objective is closing futures prices above solid technical resistance at $17.00 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $15.50. First resistance is at Fridays high of $16.395 and then at $16.50. Next support is seen at $16.00 and then at $15.80. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.0.

By Jim Wyckoff, contributing to Kitco News; jwyckoff@kitco.com

Follow @KitcoNewsNOW
(Kitco News) -The worker missing after a rock fall at Goldcorp Inc.s (TSX: G, NYSE: GG) Marlin mine in Guatemala late last week has been found dead, and mining operations at the mine remain suspended while the investigation is under way, the company said Sunday.

Late last week, the company had said rescue efforts were under way after a worker was trapped underground by a rock fall. A search-and-rescue operation was launched, before the body was recovered early Sunday, the company said.

No other employees were injured in the accident.

"All of us at Goldcorp are deeply saddened by this tragic news," said David Garofalo, president and chief executive officer. "Our highest priority is the health and safety of our employees. On behalf of all of us at Goldcorp, I wish to extend my prayers and condolences to the worker's family, friends and to his co-workers at Marlin."



Officials said the company is fully cooperating with authorities in an investigation. Officials also said the company is also reviewing safety procedures, commenting that safety remains the highest priority at all operations.

The Marlin mine has been in production since 2005, according to Goldcorps website. Open-pit operations ceased in 2012, and the mine is now an underground operation only.

Goldcorp reported that the mine produced 168,600 ounces of gold during 2015. Company-wide output last year was a record 3.46 million ounces.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Follow @KitcoNewsNOW
A trustee's sale in July will include the Chase Bank building in downtown Bremerton.

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By Tad Sooter of the Kitsap Sun

BREMERTON  A trustee's sale has been scheduled for Bremerton's landmark Chase Bank building, but a representative of the property's ownership group said it expects to stave off foreclosure.

Notice of the July 29 trustee's sale was issued this month. The sale would include the seven-story Chase building at 500 Pacific Ave., two downtown parking lots and a parking garage at the Norm Dicks Government Center, all owned by Bremerton Capital Group LLC., a Los Angeles-based investment corporation.

According to the notice, Bremerton Capital Group was behind more than $453,000 in payments on a loan issued in 2006. The group owes $4.734 million on the loan, currently held by U.S. Bank National Association.

The property owners plan to pay off the loan or refinance, said Peter Cohen with Cardinal Equities LLC., which represents the Bremerton Capital Group properties.

"We're in discussions with the lender and expect to reach a resolution with them," Cohen said.

The 77,000-square-foot Chase Bank building was built in 1964 and is instantly recognizable by its unusual rock facade.

Bremerton Capital Group paid about $4 million for the corner property in 2005, when it was home to now-defunct Washington Mutual Bank. The building was about half-occupied at the time of the sale, according to Kitsap Sun archives. A walk-through last week revealed two vacant floors and a number of other empty offices. Cohen declined to discuss the vacancy rate at the building.

Other properties listed in the trustee's sale include two parking lots between Pleasant Avenue and Highland Avenue, north of Sixth Street, and a parking garage level in the Norm Dicks Government Center on Sixth Street, owned as a condominium unit.
The Washington Post reports:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has cleared the way for the prosecution of German comedian Jan Bohmermann, whose poem mocking Turkeys president has become the centerpiece of a clash between Germanys free-speech traditions and the governments efforts to safeguard its important relations with Turkey.

In a news conference Friday, Merkel emphasized that it will now be up to German courts to decide whether Bohmermann is guilty of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But critics  including members of her own government  have described it as a betrayal of values protecting open expression.

In a country under the rule of law, it is not up to the government to decide, Merkel said. Prosecutors and courts should weight personal rights against the freedom of press and art. 

In her statement Friday, Merkel tried to appease critics by announcing that she would seek to repeal the controversial German law against insulting heads of state.
The Herald reports:

Foreign Minister Murray McCully says any suggestion a donation to National was a factor in the decision to grant a hotel chain a contract in Nuie is utterly baseless. Labour has called for the Auditor General to look into Scenic Hotels Group contract to manage the Matavai resort on Niue after it was discovered the groups founder, Earl Hagaman, gave a $101,000 donation to National the month before the contract was announced in 2014. Mr McCully said he had no involvement in the tender process or the decision, which was run by Auckland-based consultancy company Horwath HTL in 2014. There were two proposals and Scenic Hotels was the preferred one.I have the total confidence in the way this process was run and had no involvement in the awarding of the contract. Any suggestion that this contract was awarded on anything other than the basis of a rigorous commercial process is utterly baseless. Since 2011, the Government has put $18 million into the Matavai as part of its efforts to boost tourism to the small Pacific Island country. That included $7.5 million after Scenic Hotels took over the management to build a conference centre. Labour leader Andrew Little asked the Auditor General to investigate whether Mr Hagamans donation to National at the same time his company was tendering for the Niue contract was above board.

I think it is appropriate for the Auditor-General to investigate, but that doesnt mean I think there is any link.

This is why it is good to have transparency of major donations  so people can apply scrutiny such as this.

It also means that anyone donating a significant amount knows their donation is public.

Brendan Taylor, the managing director of Scenic Hotel Group, said linking the donation to the tender was a lot of misinformation. Mr Hagaman had donated to National and Act in the past. What he does from a personal perspective is totally up to him. What we do at the Scenic Hotel Group, in a lot of cases, weve got nothing to do with each other. I was involved in the whole [process] and I can put my hand on my heart and say I know it was a squeaky clean transaction. There was no favouritism in any way towards it.

And who are the trustees?

The Matavai is owned by the Niue Tourism Property Trust on behalf of the Government of Niue, which owned the resort before then. That arrangement was put in place in 2011 to ensure oversight of the aid investment New Zealand was putting in. Mr McCully appoints the trustees who are Ross Ardern (NZs High Commissioner to Niue and father of Labour MP Jacinda Ardern), Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy secretary Jonathan Kings and former High Commissioner Mark Blumsky, who was formerly a National MP and now lives in Niue.

I really dont think the father of a Labour MP is going to be awarding tenders to a company because they donated to National.

In another story, the Herald reports:

The managing director of Scenic Hotel Group says he doubted the companys founder knew the company was negotiating a management contract in Niue, which it won, at the time he made a $101,000 donation to the National Party. Labour wants the Auditor-General to look into Scenic Hotels Groups contract to manage the Matavai resort on Niue after it was discovered the groups founder, Earl Hagaman, gave the $101,000 to National during the election campaign before the contract was awarded in 2014. Foreign Minister Murray McCully said any suggestion the donation was a factor in granting Scenic Hotels the contract was utterly baseless. Mr McCully said he had no involvement in the tender process or decision, which was run by Auckland-based consultancy company Horwath HTL in 2014. Scenic Hotels was one of two proposals and was the preferred one. Scenic Hotel Group managing director Brendan Taylor said Mr Hagaman knew the company was looking into Niue but that had been a six-year process and Mr Hagaman had not even known where Niue was. Any mention the company was tendering for it would have been a cursory conversation.

As I said, I dont think it would be a bad thing if the Auditor-General investigates, just to remove any suspicion. But I dont see anything beyond coincidence at this stage.

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Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Windy. Mostly clear skies early followed by a few showers overnight. Low 58F. Winds S at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 30%. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph..

Tonight

Windy. Mostly clear skies early followed by a few showers overnight. Low 58F. Winds S at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 30%. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph.
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By Chambers Williams of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Del Conca USA said Monday that it would spend $30 million to expand its porcelian-tile manufacturing operation in Loudon, adding 40 jobs.

The Italian manufacturer built a new facility in the Sugarlimb Industrial Park that opened in 2014, with employment of about 175 workers planned. The expansion will add two production lines to make larger tiles for the U.S. market, according to an announcement.

The current Del Conca plant encompasses 320,000 square feet, and is designed to produce up to 30 million square feet of porcelain ceramic tile.

With the original construction, Del Conca installed $30 million worth of state-of-the-art Italian tile production equipment.

"Del Conca USA is one of the most modern production plants of porcelain stoneware in the world and produces 'designed in Italy, made in USA' tiles," the company says on its website. "The American production site will also be used to store products manufactured in Italy, so that we can offer the same level of service for Made in Italy tiles as for those Made in the USA."

"Approximately 1,300 Tennesseans are employed in the ceramic-tile manufacturing sector, and this number is growing thanks to companies like Del Conca," state Economic and Community Development Director Randy Boyd said. "I want to thank Del Conca for choosing to expand in Loudon and for strengthening the Team Tennessee workforce by creating these valuable jobs for our state."

To apply for jobs at the plant, visit Delconcausa.com.
SHARE George Dibrell Young, III, fourth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee, will retire at the end of 2017, he announced.

George Dibrell Young, III, fourth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee, has announced that he plans to retire at the end of 2017 and has called for the election of his successor.

Young expects to retire as a new bishop is ordained. Young's successor will be elected in August 2017 and the anticipated ordination date will be in December 2017 or January 2018.

Young has served the East Tennessee diocese since 2011.

In a letter to the diocese, Young said, "God has blessed us in many, many marvelous ways. I am more grateful to God and to you than I could ever express." In retirement he looks forward to spending more time with his family. Young maintains offices in Chattanooga and Knoxville, traveling from the home he shares at Sewanee with his wife, the Rev. Kammy Young, Director of Contextual Education and Lecturer in Contextual Theology at the School of Theology.

Bishop Young has recently initiated diocesan participation in the Missional Network, networked communities of leaders that "partner and learn together how we might join with God in our local contexts." This "Going Local Initiative" will be his primary focus during the next 18 months.

A Bishop Search Committee will be formed soon; information on the search process will be posted at http://dioet.org.
By News Sentinel Staff

A Farragut High School senior was killed in a head-on crash in South Knox County over the weekend, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

Taylor Marie Corum, 18, was headed west on W. Governor John Sevier Highway near Circle Oak Drive shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday when her 2016 Honda Accord veered into oncoming traffic, a THP incident report states.

Corum's vehicle struck a commercial truck driven by 53-year-old Luther Manns, of Maryville, running both vehicles off the roadway, according to the report.

Corum was killed. Manns was uninjured. Both drivers were wearing seat belts, the report reads. No other occupants were in either vehicle.

Blood tests for drug and alcohol use have been requested on both drivers, as required by state law in fatal crashes.

According to her obituary, Corum volunteered at East Tennessee Children's Hospital, tutored special needs students at Farragut and was vice president of the Spanish Club.

On Sunday, the Farragut High School men's' soccer team tweeted that they will dedicate their home game at 7:30 p.m. on Friday against Cookeville High School to Corum.

The team's tweet said she was a "wonderful girl and loved by many."

On Monday, a statement from Farragut High School Principal Stephanie Thompson echoed the soccer team's tweet.

"Taylor was an exceptional student at Farragut High School, deeply loved by her teachers and fellow students. She was very excited about graduation, talking about it often. Taylor had been accepted to the University of Tennessee; however, she was still exploring opportunities at Wake Forest and Belmont (universities)," Thompson said in an email.

"Her sudden passing has been a shock to us all, and we are coming together to provide students and families the needed resources to cope and heal from this devastating news."

A celebration of Corum's life is planned for 5 -8 p.m. Wednesday at Click Funeral Home Farragut Chapel.
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By News Sentinel Staff

COALFIELD, Tenn.  The apparent murder of a Morgan County man is under investigation by the county sheriff's department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The man's body was found Monday morning between Oliver Springs and Coalfield, authorities said. Ninth Judicial District Attorney General Russell Johnson said an investigator from his office and the medical examiner for Morgan County, Dr. William Bennett, went to the scene.

Johnson said the TBI will be the lead investigative agency in the probe, and the name of the victim, said to be 71 years old, is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Authorities aren't saying how the man died.

An autopsy will be conducted at the University of Tennessee Regional Forensic Center in Knoxville, the prosecutor said.
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By News Sentinel Staff

CLINTON  Preliminary results of an autopsy of an Anderson County woman who died while in the Anderson County Jail revealed no sign of foul play, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesman Josh DeVine said.

Princess Wyomina Shifflett, 58, "had some sort of medical emergency" on April 14, and was transported by ambulance to a medical center, where she died, DeVine said in an email.

The TBI was asked by Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark to look into the circumstances surrounding her death.

The cause of death is expected to be determined with full autopsy results, DeVine said.

Shifflett, who had lived in Rocky Top before moving to Clinton, had been booked into the jail on April 13 on a probation violation charge and died the next day. She had a lengthy arrest record.
SHARE Timing chain covers are shown at Aisin, a Clinton auto parts maker that in 2015 made about $1.2 million in in-lieu-of-tax payments to Anderson County. Aisin, built in stages, has a series of 25 percent tax abatements spanning 10-year intervals. Even with the tax breaks, the automotive firm still provides more revenue to the county than any other entity. (NEWS SENTINEL FILE PHOTO/Saul Young)

By Bob Fowler of the Knoxville News Sentinel

CLINTON  Auto parts makers in the Clinton area are having an increasing impact on Anderson County's property tax stream, according to a list of the county's top 10 taxpayers released Monday by Mayor Terry Frank.

Two companies that make auto parts  Samlip Tennessee, which is part of SL America, and Magna, owner of Eagle Bend Manufacturing, were second and third, respectively, in 2015 property tax payments.

Samlip Tennessee's Clinton presence has an assessed value of $27.5 million and paid about $760,000 in county property taxes, while Magna, a Canadian firm, paid $359,000 on its Eagle Bend Manufacturing complex, which has an assessed value of $13 million.

Even with a 25 percent property tax break through a 10-year, payment-in-lieu-of tax program, another auto parts maker, Aisin Automotive, is the county's single biggest source of revenue that's the equivalent of property tax.

Aisin Automotive, which has expanded in phases over a decade in the Clinton/Interstate 75 Industrial Park, now makes about $1.2 million a year in payments in lieu of property taxes to the county.

The U.S. Department of Energy's nuclear weapons plant -the Y-12 National Security Complex  is located in Anderson County, and DOE pays the county about $630,000 a year in lieu of property taxes.

Lawler-Wood LLC, a privately-owned firm, built and owns structures in the Y-12 complex, including the New Hope Center outside the Y-12 security area, and paid some $934,000 on its properties, which have an assessed value of $36 million.

Other top property taxpayers include:

The 301-bed Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge, with a tax bill of $294,000 on property assessed at $11.3 million;

Summit Properties, which includes assets owned by The Hollingsworth Companies, ranging from apartments and industrial properties to convenience stores, $278,000 tax bill on assessed values totaling $10 million;

BellSouth, $269,000 in property tax on assets valued at $10 million;

Walmart, which has two stores in Anderson County, $250,000 in property taxes on $9.3 million assessed value;

Norfolk Southern, $241,000 tax bill on assets assessed at $8.7 million;

Carlisle Transportation Products, formerly Carlisle Tire and Rubber Company, assessed value of $8.7 million and approximate property tax bill of $240,000;

General Motors LLC, which provides automotive equipment for local auto parts makers, personal property tax bill of about $197,000 on assets valued at $7.2 million.

The 2015 Anderson County property tax rate is $2.7903 per $100 assessed value. Industrial properties are assessed at 40 percent of their appraised, market value, while personal property is assessed at 30 percent of appraised value.
SHARE University of Tennessee Vice President Edward J. Boling and his wife, Carolyn, with children Steve, 4, Brian, 5, and Mark, 6, on Sept. 9, 1961.(News Sentinel Archive)

By News Sentinel Staff

Carolyn Boling, wife of the late University of Tennessee President Emeritus Edward Boling, died Sunday. She was 86.

Mrs. Boling's death comes less than a year after her husband's, who died June 18, 2015 at 93. He was president of UT from 1970 to 1988, the longest serving president of the university under its current name.

In a Monday memorial on the UT website, UT President Emeritus Joe Johnson and current President Joe DiPietro as well as Charlie Brakebill, a former UT administrator and longtime friend of the Bolings, remembered Carolyn Boling as an artistic person who was kind and devoted to UT.

"Whether it was the Alumni Council, Development Council, the Orange and White game, meetings, dinners, parties or commencements; whether celebrating a milestone or raising money  she was always there, greeting and welcoming and making people feel important to UT," Johnson said in the web post.

Mrs. Boling was a Knoxville native and earned a bachelor's degree in child development and family relationships from UT in 1952, according to the university.

She and Edward Boling were married on Aug. 8, 1950. They are survived by their three sons, Mark, Brian and Stephen, and six grandchildren.

Brakebill and Edward Boling were friends for more than 70 years and the pair worked together in the UT administration to advance fundraising for the university.

Brakebill said Carolyn Boling "genuinely enjoyed the frequent entertaining expected of a university president and his wife."

"Sometimes, after two full days of meetings or nonstop events, Carolyn still would invite us out to dessert at their house at 11 o'clock at night, and we'd go. She was always gracious, and her hospitality was genuine and endless," Brakebill said in the memorial.

He added that she was also artistic and creative.

In 1993, Mrs. Boling wrote a book about a UT alumna and sculptor, titled "Julie Warren Martin, Sculptor of Stone." According to a News Sentinel article from 1993, Mrs. Boling found a love of sculpture during travels to Paris with her husband.

DiPietro said in the web post that Mrs. Boling's death is a reminder of the gratitude the UT community owes to her family. DiPietro called her an "exceptional person."

"She used her talents with the written word; with understanding, appreciating and relating to people; and in putting service above self to further enable the university to be all that it is today," he said.
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By Bob Fowler of the Knoxville News Sentinel

HARRIMAN  The fire that killed one woman, destroyed an older plaza of connected businesses and left the residents of 10 Oasis Apartments homeless likely started in the rear of a service station at the front of the complex, Harriman Fire Chief David Bailey said.

While confirmation of the victim's identity from an autopsy was unavailable late Monday, "all of the evidence and statements collected from people at the scene lead us to conclude the victim was Ms. Sandra Mills," Harriman City Manager Kevin Helms said.

Mills' body was found in the remnants of one of six apartments over a laundromat in the complex, located at the intersection of Old Roane and Hickory streets.

"There was no indication of anything suspicious," Bailey said of the blaze. It apparently originated in an area of the Kay Mart No. 2 service station and convenience store where "there was some mechanical equipment," including compressors.

Bailey said firefighters arrived within six minutes of the first report and the gas station was already fully engulfed. Helms said two apartment dwellers were on the roof then, preparing to jump off the two-story structure, when firefighters hurriedly put up ladders to rescue them.

The complex, which had been repeatedly expanded over the years, included a hardware store, barber shop, and another six apartments.

All but one of the 12 apartments was occupied, and members of nearby Walnut Hills Baptist Church "did a tremendous job working with the occupants," Bailey said. "They essentially canceled church services and opened the doors to the community," Helms said. "They performed a baptism in the midst of all this."

Helms said the buildings are owned by Allen Williams, chairman of the Harriman Regional Planning Commission.

Joining the Harriman Fire Department in combating the blaze were members of the Kingston and Rockwood fire departments, while the Roane County Rescue Squad and Harriman Police Department also assisted.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is joining state fire officials and the Harriman Fire Department in pinpointing the fire's origin.
SHARE Bob Coker, executive director of Knox Country Emergency Communications, during a recent E-911 Board of Directors meeting Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL) E-911 Executive Director Bob Coker leaves the meeting room after attending the E-911 Center's personnel committee meeting on Monday, April 18, 2016. The committee recommends to offer Coker a three-month severance package and appoint Alan Bull, technical services manager at the center, to serve as interim director pending a search for a replacement director. (SAUL YOUNG/NEWS SENTINEL) The E-911 Center's personnel committee members, Commissioner Brand Anders and Mayor Madeline Rogero agreed to recommend to the full board of directors to offer E-911 Executive Director Bob Coker a three-month severance package and appoint Alan Bull, technical services manager at the center, to serve as interim director pending a search for a replacement director. (SAUL YOUNG/NEWS SENTINEL)

By Don Jacobs of the Knoxville News Sentinel

If the Knox County E-911 Center board of directors agrees at its Wednesday meeting, Executive Director Bob Coker's 11-years of service will end with a three-month severance package valued at nearly $36,000.

The board's personnel committee met Monday to discuss the results of a March meeting with Coker about the poor marks he received from employees in a November 2015 anonymous survey. Knoxville Fire Chief Stan Sharp, chairman of the personnel committee, and E-911 board attorney Don Howell met privately with Coker about the survey.

"It wasn't a really long meeting," said Sharp, estimating the trio met about 30 minutes.

Howell told the personnel committee that Coker's contract calls for a six-month severance package if terminated without cause. Howell said the contract also allows for "an agreement mutually agreeable to everyone."

Howell said Coker and Sharp agreed upon a separation with three months of pay, tallied at $34,696.22, and another $1,225.37 for about 18 hours of unused leave.

"That is definitely what I would recommend to the board," Sharp said.

Personnel committee members Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, Knox County Sheriff's Office Capt. Robert Hubbs and Knoxville Police Department Lt. Brad Anders, who also is a member of Knox County Commission, agreed. They voted 4-0 to recommend the severance agreement to the board of directors.

Rogero said the three-months of pay was "the middle ground" in terminating Coker that provided some acknowledgment of Coker's "accomplishments over the years."

Hubbs attended the meeting as a proxy for Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones. Dr. Russell Frazier serves on the personnel committee but did not attend the meeting.

Howell noted Coker remains under workers' compensation because of a 2010 vehicle crash that left him seriously injured. Any medical bills in the future due to the crash will be paid under workers' compensation.

Sharp told committee members the center should have an interim director and he recommended Alan Bull.

Bull attended the meeting and accepted the recommendation. He did not address the committee during the meeting, but agreed to send the board of director his resume. Rogero suggested that would help the board in its decision of accepting the recommendation that Bull serve as interim director.

Bull is technical services manager of the E-911 center. He has worked at the center since 1986.

Before joining the center, Bull served 13 years with the Knoxville Police Department. He sustained a shotgun blast to the face in the 1970s that forced doctors to remove his right eye.

Sharp also suggested Bull's compensation increase because of the new duties he'll assume. Rogero concurred.

"I think we should talk to the finance committee, but I think it should start the day he starts," Rogero said.

The severance package and the recommendation of Bull as interim director will be reviewed Wednesday by the full board of directors at an 8:30 a.m. meeting at the center on Bernard Avenue. The board must ratify the recommendations.

Coker sat in the back of the room during the committee meeting. He was not asked if he wanted to address the committee and he did not ask if he could. When the 15-minute personnel committee concluded, Coker left the meeting. He declined to comment to the media.

Coker is a former deputy chief at the Knoxville Police Department. He retired in March 2003 after serving 33 years. He was asked in July 2005 to serve as interim director of the E-911 Center. Although he didn't hold a college degree required of the new director, the board of directors in March 2006 voted him the fourth executive director of the center that was created in 1985.

Coker pulled the financially troubled E-911 Center out of the red and into financial health. He also was instrumental in forcing the state board that oversees 911 systems to impose 911 fees on cellular telephones and to provide more of those fees to the local 911 centers.

Recently, however, employees complained about Coker's lack of engagement at the center. Board members last year gave Coker an average evaluation, sending a message his job performance had faltered.
Gov. Bill Haslam

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safety center

The general mood in the room fell flat when Randy Nichols said the state wouldn't contribute money to the Knox County safety center on Monday.

Nichols, a former county attorney general, is the special counsel for the sheriff's office. He has been the point person for a lot of the discussion between the county and state-level officials to secure money for the facility.

Outgoing Knox County Commissioner Jeff Ownby, who has taken on mental health as one of his primary charges, said it's the second time the state has fallen through on public funding for the facility.

"Fool me once, shame on you," he said. "Fool me twice, shame on me."

constituent work

Commissioner John Schoonmaker is no stranger to land use issues  he served on the Metropolitan Planning Commission for years before his appointment to Knox County Commission.

He has often said that public interaction drives him. And comments on a proposed rezoning for a medical clinic on Choto Road loaded his email inbox recently. He's taken time with each, he said.

"Email after email," Schoonmaker said. "And, of course, I'm trying to sit down and compose a five or seven-paragraph response to every one that comes in. You could imagine the volume of time."

driver awards

A group of bus drivers will be recognized as good drivers during a ceremony on this week, according to Knox County Commissioner Bob Thomas.

The safety awards will be announced 11 a.m. Wednesday at Ted Russell Ford, 8551 Kingston Pike. Thomas has been working with local businesses to create rewards and incentives for good driving.

The awards come after a Knox County Schools-requested study found that the rate of school bus crashes in the county are twice the industry guideline.

Five drivers being recognized for good driving every month each will get a check for $100, said Thomas.

teen art

Congressman Chuck Fleischmann is asking for high school students from Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District to participate in the 2016 Congressional Art Competition.

The Art Competition is held annually to recognize the artwork of U.S. high school students. The winner will have his or her artwork displayed in the U.S. Capitol for one year and receive a trip to Washington, D.C., for a reception and to see their artwork hanging in the Capitol.

All high school students who live in the 3rd District are eligible to win. Artwork must be submitted to one of congressman Fleischmann's three District offices by Wednesday.

For more about artwork qualifications, framing guidelines, rules, and submission details visit http://fleischmann.house.gov/artcompetition or contact Michelle Harstine in Fleischmann's Chattanooga Office at (423) 756-2342.
Governor Bill Haslam talks with Bill Johnson, second from right, President of TVA, and Bob Kesling, right, announcer for Vols Network, before the start of the 2016 East Tennessee Lifesaver Breakfast Monday, April 18, 2016. Haslam was presented with "A Hero Among Us" award at the ceremony in the Lauricella Center inside Neyland Stadium. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

SHARE Governor Bill Haslam was presented with "A Hero Among Us" award at the Lifesaver Breakfast in the Lauricella Center, Letterman's Winner Room, inside Neyland Stadium Monday, April 18, 2016. Haslam told a story about greeting Katrina refugees from New Orleans as their plane arrived in Knoxville. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL) Governor Bill Haslam poses with members of the American Red Cross team following the 2016 East Tennessee Lifesaver Breakfast Monday, April 18, 2016. Haslam was presented with "A Hero Among Us" award at the Lifesaver Breakfast in the Lauricella Center inside Neyland Stadium. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

By News Sentinel Staff

The Monday morning breakfast buffet under Neyland Stadium was a far cry from how many of the American Red Cross volunteers being honored had spent their Saturday there.

A number of them had staffed the Orange and White Game, offering first aid at four booths at an event with 67,000 attendees.

But the 2016 East Tennessee Lifesaver Breakfast, in the Letterman's Winner Room in the Lauricella Center, was less chaotic.

"We truly are a volunteer-driven organization," said Melissa Sykes, ARC of East Tennessee board member and chair of the annual breakfast, who asked volunteers and board members to stand before recognizing corporate donors and the Tennessee Valley Authority's status as a "State Ready 365 Partner."

But the Red Cross's big award, its "A Hero Among Us" Award, was presented to Gov. Bill Haslam, for support Sykes said far preceded his current office.

Haslam was honored in part for the city's role in taking in refugees from Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, when he was mayor of Knoxville.

Once alerted by FEMA that up to 20,000 people might be sent to Knoxville, he said, the Red Cross and the community worked together to set up shelters in the Civic Coliseum and as well as in churches across town.

"The Red Cross was ready" for the refugees, Haslam said. "The Red Cross had a plan."

During the first part of his gubernatorial term, Haslam added, there were six tornadoes  including a Dec. 23 tornado in Perry County in Middle Tennessee. Haslam said he visited the site, taking in the devastation.

"Then I looked down at the bottom of the hill, and there was the Red Cross," he said.

Nonprofits are necessary in times of crisis, Haslam said: "Everybody expects the government to be able to fix everybody's problems. We're just not built that way  We're better at fixing potholes than hearts."

But the Red Cross, he said, responds to crises with "compassion and care."

2017 will be the nonprofit's 100th anniversary, Sykes said, and it's in the process of planning a celebration. But that won't stop it from doing its day-to-day activities, such as training volunteers to respond to disaster, going door-to-door in "fire-prone neighborhoods" to hand out information and smoke alarms, or offering emergency shelter.

"Our work is broad, and our work is deep," Sykes said, but "preparedness is at the core of what we do."
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By Kristi L. Nelson of the Knoxville News Sentinel

The state is investigating a lottery scam that has made losers out of some Tennessee senior citizens.

A warning issued by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance outlines the scam, which promises cash prizes if winners send "small payments."

The incident now being investigated occurred in the Clarksville area of Middle Tennessee, said Julie Mix McPeak, TDCI commissioner, but she said it's likely in other parts of the state as well.

"The information that we have uncovered thus far reveals a potential web of scoundrels, preying on unsuspecting and innocent people," McPeak said.

The Clarksville man, a resident of an assisted-living facility, received a call from a person impersonating a lottery official, who congratulated him on his lottery winnings.

"After establishing a relationship with the senior citizen, this person(s) allegedly sought to help him liquidate certain financial holdings to help him pay for 'identity bonds,' taxes, and/or processing fees on his winnings," the state's warning said.

TCDI Assistant Commissioner Michael Humphreys said scammers often try to establish a relationship, especially if they sense the person they're calling might be lonely. And falling prey to one scam can make people even more vulnerable to others.

"Once a person is pegged as a target, his/her information may be shared with other criminals seeking to take advantage," Humphreys said. "The fraud may morph into related or entirely new frauds designed to continue to steal money away from the target. That appears to be the case in our investigation," as the same perpetrators of the lottery scam appear also to have impersonated federal government employees and bank representatives.The scam being investigated now isn't a new one; the Better Business Bureau issued a warning about a similar lottery cheat last year near Cleveland. And a woman in Lavergne, Tenn., reported receiving the same type of call two years ago.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said some Tennesseans have lost hundred of thousands of dollars, or more, to lottery phone scams  some seniors, their life's savings.

If you have information about a potential fraud, call TDCI at 615-741-4737 or 800-342-8385.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker

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By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON  The reports delivered to U.S. Sen. Bob Corker and other lawmakers last week were blunt in their assessment of the fight against the Islamic state extremists and terrorism.

The ideology of IS echoes Nazism in its genocidal ambitions and tone, one counterterrorism expert warned. Last month's bombings in Brussels leave no doubt that the threat IS poses to the West is far greater than anticipated, concluded another.

The potential for an IS-directed attack in the U.S. is real and could be similar to the massacres that killed dozens in Brussels and Paris, predicted yet another.

Corker, the Chattanooga Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the warnings underscore what U.S. officials have long known would be a prolonged battle against IS and terrorism.

"This is not something that's going to be short term," he said. "The root cause of what is happening in the Middle East is going to take decades to overcome."

Corker called the experts before his committee last week to get an update on how the U.S. and its international partners can best confront IS and the threat of transnational terrorism.

Afterward, he said their testimony made clear that a lot of challenges lie ahead  on various fronts.

On one front, IS has developed an unprecedented ability to communicate with its followers across the world. New technology allows IS to use encrypted platforms for communications, making it more difficult for intelligence agencies to monitor those activities on the same level as before.

Intelligence gathering and sharing are crucial to stopping IS, Corker said. But that has proven problematic, particularly in Europe, where many countries are reluctant to share secrets with their neighbors and where privacy concerns often trump security matters, he said.

"For a period of time, in our own country, the pendulum was swinging in the wrong direction relative to this issue," Corker said. "Hopefully, with what we've seen happening in other places and what has happened in our own country, our own citizenry understands the importance of us interdicting and doing the things that are necessary on the intelligence front."

In the U.S., the principal threat continues to be from home-grown, IS-inspired actors like Mohammad Abdulazeez, who opened fire last summer on a military recruiting station and a Navy and Marine Corps operational support center in Chattanooga, said Matthew Olsen, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Va., just outside Washington.

Five servicemen were killed in the attacks.

The FBI reported last year that homegrown, violent extremist cases totaled almost 900, had been reported in every state, and that most of them were connected to IS.

On another front, more than 250 Americans have traveled to Syria and Iraq  or have at least tried  to join IS fighters, Olsen told the committee.

"The fact that so many Americans have traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight, along with thousands more from visa waiver countries in Europe, raises the real concern that these individuals could be deployed here to conduct attacks similar to the attacks in Paris and Brussels," he said.

While intelligence gathering remains the best way to fight terrorism, Corker said, Americans in Chattanooga or New York or Washington or other U.S. cities also can play a role, just like the Brussels taxi driver hailed as a hero for leading police to the apartment of the three airport bombers.

The driver told police he had grown suspicious of the three men because they were overly protective of their bags when he took them to the airport.

Americans, too, should be on the lookout for unusual behavior or anything suspicious, Corker said.

"We've all got to be aware of our surroundings, aware of the people we come into contact with, and know that the threat is real," he said. "We've got to continue living life as we know it. We've just got to do so with greater awareness of our surroundings."
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By Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News Sentinel

NASHVILLE  Legislation raising fees that counties pay for audits by the comptroller's office and diverting new revenue from the state's real estate transfer tax to historic preservation funds has won almost unanimous approval by the Legislature.

State law requires annual audits of county governments and In 89 of the state's 95 counties, the comptroller does the auditing. Under current law, those counties pay a fee based on population  30 cents per resident.

Under SB2654, the fee will be increase to 36 cents per resident starting next year with the comptroller granted authority to raise the cost another 3 cents per resident in each of the following years. The Republican sponsors, Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris of Collierville and House Finance Committee Chairman Charles Sargent of Franklin, said the extra money is needed to cover increased costs  and if the future increases are not necessary, they won't be implemented.

The Fiscal Review Committee estimated the cost to the counties would be about $230,000 next year. Six of the state's most populous counties, including Knox, hired their own auditors and do not rely on the comptroller.

Another provision of the bill creates two new uses for money collected from the state's real estate transfer tax  purchase of Civil War sites and purchase of historic properties. The Fiscal Review staff estimates that the two funds will split about $1 million next year as a result of the bill's enactment.

Currently, funds from the tax are earmarked for four other funds  one for wetlands acquisition, one for state park land acquisition, one for local park acquisition and the Agricultural Resources Conservation Fund. Under the bill, those accounts will be frozen at their current levels of annual funding and all growth money will go to the new funds.

The bill passed the Senate 31-1 and was approved 92-1 in the House. The no votes came from Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris, D-Memphis, and Rep. John Mark Windle, D-Livingston.
Enoch Lankford, pastor of the nondenominational Restoration Church in Dickson, Tenn., leads a group of ministers from the Tennessee Pastors Network in prayer against the transgender restroom bill Monday, April 18, 2016, at Legislative Plaza. (RICHARD LOCKER/NEWS SENTINEL)

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By Richard Locker of the Knoxville News Sentinel

NASHVILLE  The House sponsor of a controversial bill that would require students in public K-12 and higher education institutions to use the restroom that corresponds with their sex at birth is delaying action on the bill until next year.

Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mount Juliet, told reporters Monday she plans on effectively killing her own bill with the purpose of studying the issue further.

"I have learned that our school districts are largely following what the bill says," she said. "I am still absolutely 100 percent in support of maintaining the privacy of all students. But I'm going to roll the bill over until next year so we can work on those issues."

Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, said after Lynn's action that her organization is "gratified that Representative Susan Lynn heeded the extensive opposition to this bill from all corners of the state and decided to take this discriminatory and harmful legislation off notice. This measure would have had a devastating financial impact on the state, let alone the damage that it would have caused vulnerable students in Tennessee. Today's move helps ensure that every child in Tennessee will be treated with respect and dignity. We will remain vigilant to ensure that all Tennessee children are treated equally under the law."

Family Action Council of Tennessee President David Fowler, the bill's leading proponent outside the Legislature, issued a statement thanking Lynn and Sen. Mike Bell, the two legislative sponsors, for "efforts in past weeks in the face of consistent opposition from the governor's office and others, but we join the thousands of parents across the state who are profoundly disappointed that we are at this point in the process.

"Rep. Lynn has decided not to proceed with a bill that would have simply protected the privacy of the children they have entrusted to our public schools. We are grateful for the legislators who said they would take the bill from Rep. Lynn this year and continue to push it forward; however, it was not to be. We trust that one of them will do so next year. If so, we stand ready to assist, even as we have tried to do on the legislation this year.

"In the meantime, we would encourage citizens to monitor the policies of their local school systems and demand that their schools defend the privacy of students if threatened with lawsuits, as has already happened with one local school system."

Gov. Bill Haslam had expressed concerns about the bill, particularly the potential loss of federal education funding. He also said he had heard from no local school system about problems with current law.

The announcement comes as competing groups descended on Capitol Hill on Monday to continue the battle over the bill, while a panel of senators delayed taking action on the controversial legislation.

About 30 pastors from the conservative Tennessee Pastors Network joined the head of the Family Action Council of Tennessee at the State Capitol to show their support for the bill.

The pastors stood behind Fowler, a Republican state senator, at a Legislative Plaza news conference in which he downplayed the potential loss of convention business and federal education funding and corporate opposition to the bill. Afterward, the pastors prayed and walked upstairs to sing the children's Sunday school song "The B-I-B-L-E."

House Bill 2414/Senate Bill 2387 requires students in public elementary and secondary schools and colleges and universities to use the schools' restrooms, locker and dressing rooms of their birth gender and not their current gender identity.

Fowler said he was delivering to the governor's office letters in support of the bill from about a dozen ministers who he said represent about 22,000 church members.

Moments later, transgender students and their families delivered petitions they said had more than 67,000 signatures on them urging lawmakers not to pass HB 2414.

Students Henry Seaton and Jennifer Guenst delivered the petitions to the governor's office, along with a series of postcards that included personal messages from Tennesseans across the state opposing the legislation. They said nearly 6,000 of the signers identified themselves as clergy or people of faith when signing.

Fowler said, "We come together today not to criticize those people and business leaders who oppose House Bill 2414. Though we disagree with their views, we cannot help but admire the few who appear to be willing to put their principles and their conscience above matters of mere economics. In fact, today we call upon our legislators and governor to make that same kind of principled stand relative to the protection of the young people who attend our public schools and colleges when it comes to intimate settings like bathrooms, locker rooms and showers."

Fowler also pointed out differences between the Tennessee bill and a broader North Carolina law that has attracted national attention and which applies to restrooms at public facilities. It also goes further and prohibits North Carolina towns and cities from enacting their own anti-discrimination ordinances to protect the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

"Ours only applies to the bathrooms and locker rooms in our public schools and colleges that may be used by young people," Fowler said.

The transgender students were joined by representatives from the ACLU of Tennessee, the Tennessee Equality Project, the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, and Human Rights Campaign.

"I'm a boy  I live my life as a boy, my friends know me as a boy, my parents accept me as a boy. I shouldn't have to use the teacher's bathroom because some politicians feel uncomfortable with who I am," said Seaton, a senior at Beech High School in Sumner County. "This drastic bill would legalize bullying and stigmatize and humiliate transgender students like me. That's not what laws should do."

The Senate sponsor of the bill, Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, earlier had deferred action on the bill in the Senate Finance Committee until at least today, the day it was scheduled for House Finance Committee review.

The news conference by the pastors opened the final three or four days of the General Assembly's 2016 session, which has been dominated by similar "culture war" issues. Monday evening on the House floor, the East Tennessee sponsor of a bill designating the Bible as the "official state book" of Tennessee was expected to serve formal notice of his attempt to override Gov. Haslam's veto of the bill. The actual override attempt probably won't occur on the House floor until Wednesday.

Also, the governor is still trying to decide whether to approve or veto a third controversial bill, giving counselors authority to deny their mental health services to people if serving them would violate their "sincerely held principles."

Tennessean Staff Writer Joel Ebert contributed to this story.
By Choi Sung-jin



China has taken aim at the memory chip industry in which Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix lead the global market.



Two Chinese state-run companies have begun to make huge investments into this sector with the support of the Beijing government, industry sources said Monday.



The sources said memory chip manufacturing had high entry barriers because of a complicated, state-of-the-art process and technological difficulties. But now that China appears set to chase Korea in this sector, Korean makers would have to brace to lose part of the Chinese market.



China's "semiconductor rise" is being led by National IC Industry Investment Fund, nicknamed the Big Fund, which is making what global analysts call an "uncomfortably huge" investment.



XMC, China's state-operated semiconductor maker, broke ground in Wuhan, Hubei Province, on March 28 to build a memory chip plant at a cost of about 28 trillion won ($24 billion). Tsinghua Unigroup, a Tsinghua University affiliate, also announced it would invest 35 trillion won ($30 billion) into building a memory chip manufacturing plant.



Together the two companies are making investment 4.3 times larger than Samsung Electronics' 14.7 trillion won investment last year.



XMC and Tsinghua Unigroup plan to focus on DRAM and NAND flash memory chips, which are used for smartphones and personal computers. XMC plans to produce more than 200,000 pieces of 3D NAND chips from 2018.



There is pessimism within the Chinese industry that China will hardly be able to catch up with Korea, which has a technological advantage in manufacturing DRAMs and 3D NAND flash memories that require an up-to-the-second micro process.



In the case of DRAMs, Samsung recently began mass producing 10 nano (one nano is one-billionth of a meter) chips, widening the technological gap with its competitors. Samsung is also ahead in NAND flash memory -- an electronic (solid state) non-volatile computer storage medium that does not require power to retain data -- producing 48-layer 3D NAND flash memories, which stack cells vertically. Samsung is by far the leader with 40.8 percent of these markets.



"Samsung had made an enormous investment in 3D NAND flash memories but needed considerable time before entering mass production, and Toshiba is still struggling," said HIS chief analyst Akira Minamikawa. "XMC will not be an exception, needing three to four years at least for mass production."



However, local industry officials are not quite sure how fast China will chase, given its "uncomfortably huge" investment. The Chinese makers might not be able to catch their Korean rivals for a few years but the latter should be prepared to lose part of the Chinese market sooner or later, the industry experts said.



According to IC Insights, China's semiconductor market reached $103.5 billion, 36 percent of the global market and is approaching the $113.7-billion combined total of North America, Europe and Japan.



"Because of the increasingly sophisticated and high-capacity smartphones, the shipments of solid state drives (SSD) -- storage devices for smartphones loaded with 3D NAND flash memories -- are increasing," an industry executive said. "Domestic makers should solidify their technological superiority in this area and widen the gap with latecomers."



Other experts agree.



"China is making up for its lagging technology by buying out foreign companies while aggressively recruiting research manpower from Korea, Taiwan and the United States," said Professor Park Jae-keun of Hanyang University. "For Korea to beat China's challenge and maintain market-leading status, the domestic businesses ought to cultivate expert manpower more actively, and develop new markets in the Internet of Things and autonomous automobiles, shifting away from the saturated market for mobile equipment."








Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp. (aT) CEO Kim Jae-soo, left, poses with Ryouhei Ukai, president of the Japan Food Hygiene Association, in Tokyo after signing an agreement on March 8 to boost cooperation on food hygiene and quarantining. / Courtesy of aT



By Lee Hyo-sik

Korea should focus more on exporting value-added, processed food products to Japan, China and elsewhere to nurture its agriculture and fisheries industries as a new growth engine, according to the head of the state-run food export promotion agency.

Kim Jae-soo, CEO of Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp. (aT), said that in order to increase agricultural and food product shipments to China, Korea should offer larger incentives to Chinese trading firms and retailers to motivate them to deal in Korean products.

"It is difficult to export fresh agricultural and fisheries products to China and other countries in a sustainable manner due to frequent output changes based on weather and other conditions," Kim said in an interview with The Korea Times on April 15. "So Korea should make more effort to process fresh items and produce value-added food products. This is the how we can bolster outbound shipments and earn more hard currency."

To boost food exports to China, Kim said the country should create a market structure under which Chinese traders and retailers can generate profits from Korean agricultural and food items.

"In addition to launching aggressive promotional campaigns and offering subsidies to food exporters, the government also needs to provide financial incentives to Chinese merchants handling local food products," the CEO said. "If they can make money from Korean products, they will become more eager to buy from Korea and market them to Chinese consumers, which will increase Korea's shipments to the world's second-largest economy."

Kim said aT will do its part to increase Korea's food exports to $8.1 billion this year, up from $6.11 billion in 2015, stressing that it has become crucial for the country to sell more fresh goods and processed food items in foreign markets, given the forecast decline of industrial exports in 2016.

"This ambitious goal of raising food exports to $8.1 billion reflects the government's strong will, despite the continued global economic slump and other unfavorable market conditions," he said. "We will continue to focus more on helping to increase shipments to China, while maintaining a strong presence in Japan, Korea's single largest food export market."

Kim said Korea should eye the growing number of increasingly wealthy Chinese consumers, many of whom regard Korean products as safer and more sanitary. The country aims to bolster its agricultural and food exports to China by 32 percent this year to $1.4 billion.

"To improve overseas logistics infrastructure, we have opened warehouses in Qingdao and other Chinese cities. We will build more in China and Southeast Asia, making it more convenient and cheaper for domestic firms to sell their food items there," the CEO said.

He then stressed the importance of increasing food shipments to Japan, saying Korea should market ginseng and other premium agricultural and food items that have health benefits.

"Our food exports to Japan have declined over the past few years. But we cannot give up the Japanese market. Korea has to do whatever it takes to reclaim its lost market share," Kim said. "We should target the growing number of senior citizens in Japan who are conscious about their health. We should develop and sell value-added, functional health foods to Japanese consumers."

In March, the CEO went to Japan to attend Foodex Japan 2016, the country's largest food fair. Among others, Kim signed an agreement with Ryouhei Ukai, president of the Japan Food Hygiene Association, to boost cooperation on food hygiene and quarantine.

aT has also reached an agreement with Japanese retailers and food industry associations to have them buy more Korean food items and hire Korean university students as interns.
A pedestrian looks at a Mitsubishi Motors dealership damaged by earthquake in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, Monday. The recent quakes have reportedly forced Japanese carmakers, electronics companies and refineries  including Toyota Motor Corp. and electronics heavyweight Sony Corp.  to suspend production at some plants due to disrupted supply chains. / AFP-Yonhap



By Jhoo Dong-chan

The magnitude-7.3 quake that hit the southern Japanese island of Kyushu may affect the supply of parts to domestic auto production after the quake halted parts supplier Aisin's manufacturing line.

According to industry officials, Monday, Aisin Seiki, one of Japanese conglomerate Toyota Group's affiliates that provide Aisin transmissions, halted its transmission production line in Kumamoto, a city on the island hit hard by the quake.

Aisin Seiki supplies transmissions not only for Toyota but also for Korean automakers.

Ssangyong Motor's most popular SUV Tivoli and its long-body version Tivoli Air are outfitted with Aisin Seiki's six-speed transmission.

The SUV's production may reportedly be influenced by the supply shortage. Ssangyong Motor's SUV model Korando C also uses Aisin Seiki's transmission.

However, Ssangyong officials shrugged off the rumors, though they said they are closely monitoring the situation in the neighboring country.

"The Tivoli and Tivoli Air as well as Korando C's transmissions are all supplied by the company's Nagoya production line, not Kumamoto line," said the official.

"Ssangyong's production lines for the three SUVs won't be affected by the quake but we will monitor the situation there closely."

Likewise, General Motors (GM)'s newly launched Captiva SUV reportedly uses Aisin Seiki's transmission in its Korean production line, but a GM Korea official said that production of the SUV will not be affected by the quake.

"The company still has enough transmission parts in its inventory," the official said. "I don't think our production lines will be affected anytime soon."

Separate from Ssangyong Motor and GM, German premium compact-size brand Mini Cooper reportedly uses Aisin Seiki's transmission.

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors use their own transmission parts so they won't be influenced by delays of Aisin Seiki's supply.

The world's largest-selling automaker Toyota said on Sunday it would suspend most of its production across Japan after a second powerful earthquake struck.

Tokyo-based Asia-focused business insights publication Nikkei Asian Review said Sunday that Toyota will halt production at all of its major assembly lines in its four directly run car plants, and will suspend production in stages at other group companies.

The company announced that five assembly lines will halt production at its directly owned factories in Takaoka, Tsutsumi and Tahara from April 19 to 23, followed by two production lines at Tahara and Motomachi from April 20 to 23.
By Nam Hyun-woo



The government is seeking to extend the deadline for the foreign exchange market by 30 minutes, in a bid to join Morgan Stanley Capital International's (MSCI) index for developed markets.



At a press conference on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers' meeting in Washington, Friday (local time), Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said, "the government is seeking to extend the deadline for the local stock market by 30 minutes, and will also expand the foreign exchange market deadline."



The statement came after the government made joining the MSCI World Index one of its key policy targets.



MSCI's All Country World Index (ACWI) is a key barometer for investors around the world. It is comprised of World and Emerging Markets Indices. Currently, Korea is on the Emerging Markets Index and is seeking to join the 23 countries on the World Index. Since China's domestic-only "A shares" is likely to join the Emerging Markets Index, the government believes joining the World Index will avoid competition with China in the same group.



Currently, Korea's bourse operator, Korea Exchange (KRX), operates stock markets from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Financial Services Commission and the KRX want to extend the operation time until 3:30 p.m., as they see the country's trading as weak compared to other countries, such as Singapore or the United States, who keep their markets open longer.



If this is done, the foreign exchange market should also be extended, because foreign investors have to exchange their currency into won. Currently, internal spot market operates from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., after being reduced from 4 p.m. in 2005. The offshore non-deliverable forwards market is operational for 24 hours.



Reportedly, one of the preconditions for Korea's joining of the MSCI World Index is increasing the trading volume of the won. Opening an offshore market for exchange was deemed one of the solutions because foreign investors can change the won into their currencies more easily. The government feels that while extending operations will not fully satisfy conditions, but will likely give a positive sign to the MSCI.



However, dealers here are tepid over the move, saying "a 30 minute extension will not have a huge impact, while the workload for dealers will increase."




By Kim Jae-won



Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities plans to downsize its equity-linked securities (ELS) business and cut jobs in that department. This move is drawing protests from the labor union at an early stage of the merger process with the group's other brokerage arm, sources familiar with the matter said Monday.



They said that the brokerage house's new chief Park Hyeon-joo wanted to trim the ELS operation without explaining reasons for it. The firm's human resources staff told the employees on the team that they need to start looking for other jobs, meaning they will be fired soon.



"People in the ELS business department are worried about their future," said a source familiar with the matter, asking not to be named.



Mirae Asset Daewoo said that it plans to diversify its business portfolio by adding pension services and other funds, not to close the ELS business.



"We just want to change our business model by selling new services," said a spokesman for the firm.



About 1,200 union workers at Mirae Asset Daewoo held a rally Sunday at the Center One building in downtown Seoul, where Park's office is located, asking him to guarantee their employment. The building is owned by Mirae Asset Global Investments, the flagship asset manager affiliate of Mirae Asset Financial Group.



Sources said that executives in the firm are changing venues for their seminars to the Four Seasons Hotel to show their loyalty to Park. Mirae Asset Global Investments is the largest shareholder of the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul.



Market watchers also criticized Park for giving Mirae Asset's badge to the brokerage affiliate's executives earlier this month even before it had not yet completely taken over Daewoo Securities from Korea Development Bank, former major shareholder of the securities firm. They said it is like a would-be home owner changing the name plate on the house before he pays full payment for the house.



Mirae Asset consortium, consisting of Mirae Asset Securities and Mirae Asset Global Investments, completed the deal on April 7, by acquiring a controlling 43 percent stake in Daewoo Securities at 2.4 trillion won. Mirae Asset changed its name to Mirae Asset Daewoo after the acquisition.



Mirae Asset plans to complete the merger in October. Analysts said that the new entity will become Asia's top player by capital, creating synergy effects in the business as Daewoo is strong in investment banking and research while Mirae Asset specializes in asset management.




A scene from Kneehigh's "Dead Dog in a Suitcase," which will be staged at LG Arts Center in southern Seoul from Thursday to Sunday / Courtesy of LG Arts Center



By Kwon Mee-yoo

British theater company Kneehigh will stage its hit "Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs)" at LG Arts Center in southern Seoul April 21-24.

The revolutionary musical is an adaptation of John Gay's 18th century ballad opera "The Beggar's Opera," which also inspired Bertolt Brecht's 1928 musical "The Threepenny Opera," now considered the beginning of modern musical comedy.

In 2014, some 286 years after the premiere of "The Beggar's Opera," Kneehigh reinvented the show in a contemporary setting, while sticking to the timeless innovative spirit pursued by both Gay and Brecht.

The 21th century adaptation revolves around contract killer Macheath, who is hired by entrepreneur Les Peachum to assassinate Mayor Goodman. The story takes a twist when Peachum's daughter Polly falls in love with Macheath and elopes with him.

The show offers an interesting combination of poverty, politics, injustice and corruption which were prevalent in 1728, just as they are in 2016.

Director Mike Shepherd said the piece is relevant to the modern day in a 2014 interview with British theater website WhatsOnStage.

"We have a dreadful government, who are asking us to buy into austerity and recession, who are telling terrible lies to keep in power," Shepherd was quoted as saying. "The NHS (National Health Service) is up for sale, bankers bonuses are skyrocketing. In relatively recent times the company had travelled in Syria and Libya, it's shocking what's happening there. Now is the time to rant, to have a revolution."

Charles Hazelwood's music combines a variety of different genres ranging from polyphony, Henry Percell's Baroque music, hip hop and folk to psychedelia, ska, grime and dubstep.

Kneehigh was founded in 1980 as a schoolteacher's theater workshop in Cornwall, southwestern England and is now celebrated as one of Britain's most exciting theater companies.

Tickets cost from 40,000 to 80,000 won. The musical is performed in English with Korean subtitles. For more information, visit www.lgart.com or call 02-2005-0114.
A couple consults with a fortune teller in a saju cafe near Ewha Womens University.

/Korea Times



By Lee Jin-a



The number of foreign tourists is increasing due to the popularity of Korean fortune-telling, figures show. The number arriving to see fortune tellers increased by 2.5 times from January to March compared to the same period last year, according to Yonhap news agency, citing foreign tourism company Cosmojin.



Foreign visitors requesting fortune-telling services at business conferences also doubled. Many tourists head to Myeong-dong where many fortune tellers offer foreign language services including English, Chinese, Japanese, and French.



Korean companies also arrange fortune-telling tourism courses for their foreign guests or set up "fortune booths" inside main event facilities at international business conferences.



A Chinese man recently bought an expensive red necklace after a fortune teller told him his lucky color for this year was red.



"As more foreign tourists visit Korea to experience Korean culture, fortune-telling has become the new tourist attraction," Cosmojin CEO Jung Myeong-jin was quoted as saying.




Park Hae-jin / Yonhap



Actor Park Hae-jin will become the first Korean star to feature on a Chinese postage stamp next month, Yonhap News Agency reported Monday.

The stamp is part of a Dream China project jointly organized by China's Ministry of Communications and China Post to recognize the 100 most influential figures in Chinese culture.

The stamp with the star of popular tvN drama "Cheese in the Trap" will be issued in May, with the first 100 copies to be sold as limited editions.

Each set of the limited editions will cost 698 yuan ($107), with the price of the regular edition set at 0.80 yuan. Prepaid phone cards featuring the Korean will also be available for 120 yuan.

Although Park is not the first Korean to grace a Chinese stamp, he is the first Korean subject on a regular Chinese stamp.

Park gained prominence in China after starring in "Duo Duo's Marriage" on Hunan TV in 2011. He also played a supporting role in the mega-hit drama "My Love from the Star." His most recent work, "Cheese in the Trap," generated much hype on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, before its release in China.

His meet-and-greet at Olympic Park in Seoul on Saturday will be broadcast live on Chinese video website Youku.
By Choi Sung-jin



China, which has a mutual defense treaty with North Korea, will not defend the North if a conflict or war occurs in relation to the North's nuclear problems, Chinese specialists said Sunday.



Pang Zhongying, an international relations expert at Renmin University of China, said North Korea's development of nuclear weapons, which Beijing regards as a threat to China's security, had damaged their bilateral relationship so irreparably that it had rendered their mutual assistance pact null and void, the South China Morning Post reported.



In 1961, North Korea and China signed a mutual aid treaty, which calls for one side to provide military assistance immediately if the other was invaded.



"This is the only security pact between the two countries with legal force," Pang said. "It exists, however, in only a legal sense, and there is almost no possibility that China will provide military aid if war occurs on the Korean Peninsula."



It (the treaty's future) depends largely on whether North Korea will accept international demands to discontinue its nuclear development programs, the researcher argued, saying that the growing tension on the peninsula showed there was little sign of the North easing its stance.



Other Chinese specialists expressed similar views.



"There is no doubt that China will not support North Korea if war breaks out as the result of the North's nuclear development," said Shen Jiru, a fellow at the Institute for World Economy and Politics, a think tank at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.



Stressing that China should not bind itself by the treaty if North Korea continued to seek nuclear development programs, Shen said, "The treaty is a remnant of the Cold War, which did not specify conditions for China's provision of military assistance."



The researcher also pointed out that the pact did not fit with China's more recent principle of national security, which opposed military alliances with other countries. "Now that China has drawn a red line (on nuclear provocations), it does not even need to cancel the treaty officially," Shen said.



But a British expert of China differed somewhat.



Professor Kerry Brown of King's College London said the treaty had thrown China into a permanent difficult spot. "The treaty worked as China's means of controlling North Korea in competition with the old Soviet Union's influence on it in 1961, but the situations have changed now and Pyongyang is controlling Beijing with the treaty," he said.



A Korean scholar expressed similar views. "As long as the treaty remains effective, China will be bound to intervene if tension keeps escalating or goes beyond control," said Professor Lee Jeong-nam of Korea University. "If war breaks out, China will try to discuss solutions first instead of providing full support for North Korea."



Although the treaty had no stipulations to renew its efficacy, most experts believed it had been renewed twice and would remain effective until 2021, the Hong Kong-based English daily said.




By Lee Kyung-min



A district court ordered a local fried chicken restaurant owner to pay 14.5 million won ($12,500) for failing to follow an earlier court ruling that banned him from operating his business under a name that parodied luxury brand "Louis Vuitton," Monday.



The owner, surnamed Kim, named his restaurant "LOUISVUI TON DAK," adapting the idea from the luxury brand. "Tongdak" means whole chicken in Korean. He created a logo similar to Louis Vuitton's, and had it printed on the napkins and wrappers.



In September last year, Louis Vuitton asked the district court to ban the restaurant from using the name. The company claimed Kim damaged the originality and value of the French brand by using it for his chicken restaurant.



The Seoul Central District Court accepted this in October, banned Kim from using the name and logo, adding that he should pay 500,000 won per day to Louis Vuitton if he did not follow the terms of this order.



However, Kim came up with the second parodied name, "chaLOUISVUI TONDAK," and the luxury brand company requested that the court order Kim to pay 14.5 million won for using the name for 29 days.



Kim claimed the second name was different from the first one banned by the court, but the court ruled against Kim. "Although he changed the name with different spacing, the two names sound almost the same. So he violated the court order and should pay the money," the court said.




By Kim Hyo-jin



The ruling Saenuri Party is descending into chaos due to an internal blame game being played out over its embarrassing results in the April 13 general election.



The party won only 122 seats in the 300-seat National Assembly, while the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) won 123 seats. Before the national ballot, the Saenuri Party had 157 seats in the parliament.



Rival factions clashed over whether the Saenuri Party's floor leader Won Yoo-chul, who is partly responsible for the election debacle, should assume the position of interim leader. This emerged as a hot button issue between loyalists to President Park Geun-hye and those who do not support her.



"People say our party is hopeless; they see it as wrong that Won leads the party at this critical stage," Rep. Chung Doo-un, who is not a supporter of Park and failed to win a seat in the election, said in a radio interview that Won is a "harmful aide" to the President who only pursues personal interests.



"We need to win back the people's support by apologizing, taking responsibility, and laying out a plan to reform ourselves. But nothing's working at the moment."



Chung criticized Park for falling short of making a proper apology for the election results as a party member. "Our leader is only passing the buck to others. The situation will be sorted only when she acts as a responsibility-taker, not just a power-wielding boss," he said.



Rep. Ha Tae-keung, another party member not aligned with Park, echoed a similar view while insisting the pro-Park faction should accept more of the blame.



"Park loyalists are deemed 70 percent responsible while those who don't support her are the remaining 30 percent," Ha said.



"Lee Hahn-koo, Choi Kyung-hwan, and Kim Moo-sung, who are on the position to be held accountable, should keep their hands off party affairs. Won needs to recruit an interim leader from outside the party."



Some lawmaker-elects including Reps. Lee Hag Jae and Oh Shin-hwan officially refused to accept the Won-led interim leadership, Sunday, saying the former leadership has no right to continue its role.



"We should elect a new floor leader as soon as possible," they said in a press conference, calling on the party to advance the convention slated in early May.



Amid mounting criticism on Won and Park loyalists, Lee Hahn-koo, the head of the nominations committee and a Park aide, instead pointed the finger at those who don't support Park, especially Kim Moo-sung, the ex-Chairman who stepped down to take responsibility for the election result.



"Who would vote for Saenuri Party candidates when the party leader said the nominations were unfair?" he said. "We wasted time with infighting while no proper election strategy was set by the party leadership."



Won stood up to the criticism, saying there is no alternative other than his staying power.



"The party's paralyzed and the leadership is in a vacuum. I took the job out of responsibility," he said, adding that his role is inevitable to facilitate launching the emergency planning committee.



"I understand their discontent. But it's not the time to do the lame game as overcoming the crisis is the priority for us."






By Kang Seung-woo

President Park Geun-hye's job approval rating is at its lowest point since she took office in February 2013, according to the latest opinion poll.

The survey, conducted by local pollster Realmeter, Monday, found that only 31.5 percent of Koreans have a favorable opinion of the way the President handles state affairs  a sharp decline from the previous week's 39.6 percent.

The previous low for Park was 31.8 percent tallied during the first week of February in 2015, amid allegations that Park's former confidant, Jeong Yun-hoe, was involved in influencing state affairs and high-ranking government appointments.

In addition, Park's disapproval rating also jumped to 62.3 percent from 54.5 percent.

"President Park lost the backing of her traditional conservative supporters who are in their 60s and above, and from Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province," Realmeter said in a statement. "In addition, she also lost support from most areas of the country."

Taking a close look at the poll, the support from Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province  Park's political strongholds  decreased from 56.3 percent to 48.8 percent.

Even, in Busan and South Gyeongsang Province, which were traditionally strong backers for the ruling party, Park's job approval plummeted from 47.1 percent to 31 percent.

The departure of Park's supporters from her home turf seems to be due to the presidential office's alleged involvement in the Saenuri Party's candidate nominations for the general election, in which the party won 122 parliamentary posts, behind the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea's (MPK) 123 seats.

In order to continue holding a grip on power in her remaining term in office, Park had urged the party to field candidates that were loyal to her, but voters were disappointed at such an "undemocratic act" and cast their ballots against the President and her party, political analysts say.

In the wake of the lowest approval rating and the Saenuri Party's unexpectedly heavy defeat, President Park said she humbly accepts the results of the elections as representative of the minds of the people and will prioritize improving people's living standards on her legislative agenda.

"The government will closely cooperate with the new National Assembly," Park said during a meeting with her senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae.

Saenuri also suffers slide

The poll also showed that the MPK received the highest approval rating among political parties  the first time since its foundation in December last year.

The party, which has become the largest presence in the National Assembly with 123 lawmakers, earned an approval rating of 30.4 percent  a gain of 2.8 percentage points from a week earlier.

Even in Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang Province, the Saenuri Party's political stronghold, the MPK had a higher approval  34.1 percent to 31.9 percent.

The ruling party, which failed to win a parliamentary majority for the first time in 16 years, had 27.5 percent support overall, sliding below 30 percent for the first time during the current 19th-term National Assembly.

The minor opposition People's Party, which established itself as a solid third party after capturing 38 parliamentary posts in the election, saw its rating stand at 23.9 percent  a 5.4 percentage point increase from the previous week.

Regarding presidential candidates, former MPK Rep. Moon Jae-in would beat any other candidate in next year's election, the poll said.

According to the poll, Moon garnered support of 24.7 percent to enjoy leading status for the 14th straight week, while Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, the co-chairman of the People's Party, ranked second with 18.9 percent.

Former Seoul Mayor Oh Sei-hoon was third with 10.1 percent as former Saenuri Chairman Kim Moo-sung saw his rating fall into single digits from 13.9 percent to 8.7 percent.

However, the weekly poll did not include United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is often regarded as a prospective candidate for the next presidency.
By Kang Seung-woo

President Park Geun-hye will visit Iran next month, Cheong Wa Dae announced Monday.

This will make her the first South Korean president to visit the Middle Eastern country.

"President Park will make a state visit to Iran from May 1 to 3 at the invitation of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani," the presidential office said in a statement.

"During this visit, President Park will hold a summit with President Rouhani and discuss ways to improve bilateral relations."

Park's trip will mark the first visit to Iran by the nation's head of state in 54 years of bilateral diplomatic relations. The visit follows the Jan. 16 lifting of international sanctions on the country.

According to the government, Korea has sought a state visit to Iran since last year.

In June, Cho Tae-yong, then first vice foreign minister, flew to Iran, and in November Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se also visited  the first such visit in 14 years for the nation's top diplomat  to meet with the Iranian president.

Park's state visit comes while Asian countries are scrambling for closer ties with Iran as it emerges as a land of opportunity.

Iran holds the world's fourth-largest oil reserves and second-largest natural gas reserves.

"The two nations plan to hold discussions on energy, mineral resources and construction plants as well as healthcare and the environment," Park's office said.

In January, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Iran  the first international leader to visit the country after the trade restrictions were lifted  and China and Iran reached 17 agreements for cooperation in areas including energy, trade and industry.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also plans to travel to Iran in August, according to Japanese media.

The government also plans to take advantage of Park's visit as leverage in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.

North Korea and Iran have maintained close relations, especially in the development of nuclear materials.
South Korea's unification ministry on Monday rejected North Korea's claim that Seoul has enticed and abducted North Koreans who worked at a restaurant in China.

North Korea's committee on inter-Korean affairs urged South Korea Sunday to repatriate the North Koreans, arguing that Seoul had carried out a plot to kidnap them to rally conservative voters for its general elections last week.

A group of 13 North Koreans who used to work at a North Korea-run restaurant in the Chinese eastern port city of Ningbo defected to South Korea en masse earlier this month amid toughened international sanctions.

The Ministry of Unification dismissed the North's claim as groundless, urging Pyongyang to immediately stop its insistence.

"We strongly warn that North Korea (should stop) its absurd claim and threat of retaliation," Jeong Joon-hee, a ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing. "North Korea should take care of the livelihood of its own people and protect their human rights."

North Korea-run restaurants in foreign nations serve as one of the main sources of hard currency for North Korea as dollar earnings are suspected of bankrolling the North's nuke and missile programs.

South Korea estimates that North Korea is running approximately 130 restaurants in some 12 countries including China, Vietnam and Cambodia, earning US$10 million annually. (Yonhap)
/Courtesy of Twitter



By Lee Han-soo

Three Nobel Prize winners will hold lectures in North Korea, according to U.S. media outlet, Voice of America on Monday.

The lecturers for "Bridges: Dialogues Towards a Culture of Peace," are Richard Roberts, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine; Finn Kydland, winner of 2004 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences; and Aaron Ciechanover, winner of 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

They will visit Pyongyang via Beijing on Apr 29 and stay until May 1.

During their four-day visit they are expected to lecture about economic policies and development and the revolution of medical science.

The lectures will be at Kim Il-sung University, Kim Chaek University of Technology and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

On May 6, they will hold a press conference in Beijing to talk about their visit to North Korea.

However, with North Korea under tough international sanctions after its nuclear and long-range missile tests, the Nobel Prize winners' visit is drawing global attention.

But Uwe Morawetz, chairman of the International Peace Foundation board that is overseeing the visit, said, "The visit of the three Nobel Prize winners has nothing to do with political or diplomatic issues.

"The lecture is based on policies and development and the revolution of medical science. It is in no way related to making a political statement of any kind."
/Courtesy of Twitter



By Lee Han-soo

A high-ranking North Korean official has slammed U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump for suggesting nuclear armament for South Korea and Japan after the U.S. military withdraws.

In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Ri Jong-ryul, deputy-director general of the Institute of International Studies in Pyongyang, called Trump's remarks "totally absurd and illogical."

He pointed out the hostility and double standards of American policies toward North Korea.

"The U.S. tells us to give up our nuclear program, is preparing a nuclear attack against us, and on the other hand would tell its allies to have nuclear weapons. Isn't this a double standard?" Ri said.

Trump has been under fire since making his nuclear armament remarks in an interview with the New York Times last month.

U.S. President Barack Obama has criticized Trump's remarks on nuclear armament of its allies.

"The person who made the statements doesn't know much about foreign policy or nuclear policy or the Korean Peninsula or the world generally," Obama said.
China and other communist nations have not yet been invited to North Korea's rare party congress in early May, a diplomatic source with knowledge of the matter said Monday, amid signs that Pyongyang may conduct its fifth nuclear test ahead of the May congress.

North Korea is set to hold the Workers' Party Congress early next month during which the North's leader Kim Jong-un is expected to trumpet his policy of simultaneously pursuing economic development and nuclear weapons.

China, North Korea's diplomatic and economic lifeline, sent a vice premier to North Korea's party congress in 1980.

"As far as I understand, North Korea has not sent invitations to China, Cuba, Laos or Russia for the May congress," the source said on the condition of anonymity.

"Given the current circumstances, I believe that the possibility is low for North Korea to invite China to the May congress," the source said, citing soured relations between Pyongyang and Beijing since North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January.

North Korea has been slapped with tougher international sanctions since early last month over the January nuclear test and launch of a long-range rocket in February.

On Monday, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said signs of North Korea preparing for a fifth nuclear test have been detected.

Many analysts suggest that North Korea could conduct another nuclear test to bolster domestic solidarity in time for the May party congress. (Yonhap)
By Yi Whan-woo



North Korea is accusing South Korea of "abducting" 13 North Koreans who worked at a restaurant in China, in an apparent bid to prevent more defections to the South, analysts said Monday.



They said the unprecedented mass defection of the North Korean workers poses a grave challenge to the secretive state, as the 13 defectors were the children of senior officials of the Workers' Party and government-affiliated agencies.



"The North Korean regime must have no other option but to lie to its people that the elites' children forcibly, not voluntarily, went to the South," said Park Young-ho, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, "because failing to convince its people would mean more North Koreans  including those working abroad  would be agitated and escape from their country."



He said that a series of Pyongyang's government organizations and state-controlled media outlets have criticized Seoul since April 7 for "luring and kidnapping" the restaurant staff.



In a statement carried by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Sunday, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) denounced the Park Geun-hye government for "orchestrating the kidnapping" to help it win in the April 13 general election.



Uriminzokkiri, a propaganda website, on Friday asked Seoul to return their "kidnapped citizens" immediately, claiming South Korean intelligence officers lured them to escape from their workplace.



In particular, the website accused the male manager, one of the 13 defectors, of allegedly helping the Seoul intelligence officials abduct 12 waitresses who are mainly believed to be in their 20s.



"It would be embarrassing for the Kim Jong-un regime to brand mass defectors from upper-class families as traitors because it was the regime that sent them abroad after assessing their loyalty," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.



North Korea usually has denounced defectors, many of whom are lower class and political prisoners, as "betrayers and scumbags."



Pak Sang-hak, a defector-turned-activist in Seoul, said "the mass defection of workers abroad may put North Korea at risk of collapse if people learn about it."



"In North Korea, it would be unthinkable for the children of upper-class families to collectively work against the Kim Jong-un regime," he said.



It is speculated that the mass defection will continue to shock the North Korean leadership for the time being, according to Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korean studies professor at Dongguk University.



"It will be desperate to come up with a better way to test the loyalty of its people, especially the children of the elite class," he said.



The 13 defectors reportedly worked at a North Korean restaurant in China before coming to Seoul via Southeast Asia.



Pyongyang owns an estimated 130 restaurants in 12 countries. They include former communist nations such as Russia, Cambodia and Vietnam but also the Netherlands.



The restaurants have been a source of hard currency for the Kim Jong-un regime to pursue its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.




By Casey Lartigue

"What should be done about North Korea?" "How can we help North Koreans?" Those questions are often asked, but rarely answered to the satisfaction of questioners. In the last five years of speaking at and attending North Korea focused events, I have yet to see audience members, reporters or experts respond, "At last! This is the answer about what to do about North Korea!"Why can't anyone give a satisfactory answer? One, the answers are based on the biases and skills of the speakers and aren't addressed to the particular biases and skills of listeners. It would be like asking someone what you should buy when you go shopping, without the person answering knowing what you already have in your refrigerator or living room. You can get a generic answer, but not specific and customized. If you ask researchers what should be done, most will probably ask for more research. An activist wants to stop the talk, get to the action, to hell with more data.Two, it is easier to agree in theory rather than in practice. Activists may agree on the need for action, but one may want to send air balloons or do radio broadcasts into North Korea, another may want to rescue runaways, another may focus on resettlement. And then there are different approaches within those approaches, setting up backstabbing turf wars.A third reason listeners are rarely satisfied with the answers: There is often a mismatch between what is suggested and what can be done. Even if you believe that the USA should sign a peace treaty with North Korea or that six-party talks should be restarted, you are part of the 99.9% who lack the power to get it done.There are many suggestions about what to do about North Korea. There are calls for the United Nations, China, Laos, Russia, South Korea, and the United States to do more, such as sanctions (heavy or targeted), bombing or invading North Korea or suing/arresting/assassinating Kim Jong-Un.There are others advocating for engaging North Korea, investing in the country, educating North Koreans, giving targeted humanitarian aid, expanding trade, and increasing academic and cultural exchanges.Most of what is recommended can't be done by advocates, no matter how much people debate at conferences and on social media. While those with power are cautious, others with strong opinions but no power can comfortably assert what should be done--and still have their jobs as commentators or professors the next day.I'm sure some readers are thinking, "Okay, Mr. Lartigue, if you are so smart, what is your answer?" I am now leading up a project asking North Korean refugees to develop plans about what to do about North Korea.Unlike cases of having a refugee answer questions emailed by a reporter or asked at the end of a speech, the "How to help North Koreans" project, organized by the Teach North Korean Refugees Education Center at AOU, will follow through by helping refugees implement their proposals. It started with our speech contest in February, in which refugees explained what they would do to address North Korea. We left the question broad, so they could address any aspect of North Korea (the country, leadership, North Koreans who are escaping or resettling).Refugees were tasked with developing original and authentic ideas. Next, they will be selecting from a pool of eager volunteer "helpers" who will add various skills and expertise (website design, social media, editing, writing, etc.). They will be given two months to develop their projects. After that, they will go live with their projects.That is, if we can get them to slow down. Some of the refugees who presented their ideas at the third speech contest don't want to wait for our timeline. We did notice that the expectation that they would implement their projects limited pie-in-the-sky proposals. Of course, that approach will disappoint experts and reporters looking to be dazzled (by impressive plans that never get implemented). As I have noted in other contexts, reporters, experts and researchers are often like children at a birthday party waiting for a rabbit to be pulled out of a hat, they need something surprising or shocking to excite them.The refugees in TNKR's project will be able to talk about their plans to audiences around the world, rather than just giving impromptu responses during Q&A. There may be mismatches with some audiences, sure, but instead of, "What should be done," the focus will be, "Here's what I'm doing. Please join me to add your skills." Researchers can join by adding their research expertise and activists can add opportunities for action. Asking "what are you doing about North Korea" is an uncomfortable question, so speakers may long for the day they were asked, "What should be done about North Korea?"The writer is director of the Teach North Korean Refugees Education Center at American Orientalism University. He can be reached at CJL@post.harvard.edu
US lawyer provides tips for doing business in Iran







Lawyer Andrew White

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Punctuality is a virtue among many Western businesspeople, but hurrying someone up is not necessarily culturally acceptable in Iran. To be successful in the emerging market, lawyer Andrew White says Korean businesspeople must be patient and spend a great deal of time and effort to share who they are with their potential Iranian partners in order to build trust.

According to him, many Western businesspeople are direct and focused, whereas their Iranian counterparts prefer having informal discussions before going into business discussions because they want to learn more about the people they are dealing with.

"In Iran as well as in the rest of the Middle East, relationships are incredibly important," White, a senior foreign counsel at Seoul-based law firm Yulchon, said during an April 8 interview with The Korea Times at his office. "And you work through those relationships .... Do not try to contact the person (you'd like to talk to) directly. You'll fail."

In case you don't know how to contact the person you'd like to talk to, White says find the people who know him or her. "You talk to somebody who knows somebody else who again knows somebody else who can put you in touch with the person you want to talk to," he said.

In addition, according to him, nepotism is a part of the trust-based business practices in Iran and other parts of the Middle East.

White has been handling business matters in the Middle East since the mid-1980s when he was practicing with a Washington D.C.-based law firm, then called Patton Boggs. The firm was the first American law firm to open an office in Abu Dhabi in the late 1980s. White's clients included the royal families of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, for whom he and his colleagues handled sovereign wealth funds, asset management and investments in the United States. His work included buying properties for his clients, such as office buildings in New York, ski resorts in Colorado and a shopping center in North Carolina.





In the 1980s, many American lawyers were working mainly with European clients, and few had clients from the Middle East. White said working with his Middle Eastern clients was a learning experience because it showed him the Middle Eastern way of doing business, which is quite different from that in the West.

Before joining Yulchon, he was a law professor in Singapore and the founding director of the International Islamic Law & Finance Center at Singapore Management University, specializing in Islamic law and financial structures and cross-border investment in Asia and the Middle East.

White said the Middle Eastern way of doing business is, to some extent, similar to the Korean way in that informal meetings play an important part in closing deals.

"Middle Easterners want to do business with people they feel comfortable with," he said. "In order to be comfortable with someone, you have to spend some time with them. You have to spend time knowing a little bit about them, their families and their interests. Casual discussion is important before doing business in Iran as well as in (the rest of) the Middle East."

His advice came amid the increase in interest among many Korean companies in doing business in the post-sanction Iran.

Korean companies first entered the Iranian market in the 1970s at the start of the construction boom, when the region was awash with liquidity from petro dollars. Following the Iran-Iraq War, Korean firms joined the post-war reconstruction in Iran, building roads, dams and other infrastructure in the 1980s.

The Korea-Iran trade had been decreasing since 2010 when Korea joined the United States-led sanctions against the Middle Eastern country because of its nuclear program.

But hope for a second construction boom in Iran is growing, following the lifting of the nuclear-related sanctions in January in return for the Middle Eastern country's agreement last year to restrict its nuclear activities.

But even before the sanctions were actually lifted, Iran had already become a land of opportunity, drawing a flurry of economic delegations from Europe and Asia. Germany, for example, had been sending several delegations, including automakers, to discuss post-sanction cooperation with Iran since July last year, immediately after the nuclear deal was signed between Iran and the six world powers involved. The German automakers reportedly discussed with their Iranian counterparts ways to build local factories.

The rising Iranian market has also thrilled Korean companies, both those with prior experience in Iran and those without, especially amid the tough economy at home.

According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency in 2015, 68 Korean companies have inquired with the government's trade arm about doing business in the Iranian market. Nearly 70 percent of them have no prior business experience in Iran.

Some experts say Korean companies' relatively short history of doing business in Iran is a hurdle to expansion in or entry to the market because of their limited knowledge of and experience in the country, compared to European companies.

However, White is optimistic about the future of Korean companies in Iran, saying Iranians think highly of Korean companies owing to their past successful projects there and their similarly trust-based way of doing business, which White believes would make it easier for Korean businesses to expand or start in Iran.

"(To be successful in the Iranian market) you have to convince them to trust you and convince them that you are somebody they want to do business with," he said. "If they like you, trust you and want to do business with you, the next thing that you have to do is (to make sure) that your product is the product that they want. Usually, if you convince them to trust you, they'll like you and it will be much easier to sell your product. They are less worried about the product and more worried about the person."

He said Korean businesspeople need to bear in mind that some elements that are culturally acceptable in the West are not considered so in the Persian state.

"For Middle Eastern businesspeople, family is number one. The most important thing in their life is family," he said. "However, you don't ask questions about their wives and daughters because they usually don't discuss women. In the Middle Eastern culture, women are to be protected, and they are protected even from discussions. The concept is that their privacy is protected and safeguarded."

In addition, ranks and titles are widely used when referring to people, he said. "In public, one uses rank and title and family name. Most Middle Easterners don't use first names. Iran is more formal," he said.
The ruling and opposition parties agreed to begin a month-long parliamentary session this week to deal with pending bills, an opposition lawmaker said Monday.

Joo Seung-yong, floor leader of the minor opposition People's Party, said the three parties plan to hold plenary parliamentary sessions twice during the extraordinary session of the National Assembly that is set to run from Thursday through May 20.

He said the agreement was reached during his talks with his counterparts from the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Minjoo Party

Joo said the three parties also agreed to hold working-level talks on a number of bills that they want to pass through the National Assembly.

The move came days after the ruling Saenuri Party suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections in an apparent public backlash against the party's factional infighting.

The ruling party won 122 out of 300 seats while the Minjoo Party and the People's Party secured 123 and 38 seats, respectively. Seventeen other seats are held by another minor party members and independents.

The People's Party emerged as a clear winner in the elections as its seats in the new parliament jumped nearly twice from 20 seats in the outgoing legislature.

The elections results gave a boost to former and current leaders of the opposition parties. The Minjoo Party's former leader Moon Jae-in received 24.7 percent, up 4.6 percentage points from a week earlier, according to a new poll.

The poll released by local pollster Realmeter showed 18.9 percent of people supported Ahn Cheol-soo, a co-leader of the opposition People's Party, up 4.7 percentage points from a week earlier.

Former Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon and Kim Moo-sung, former head of the ruling Saenuri Party, received 10.1 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, President Park Geun-hye's job approval rating plunged to 31.5 percent -- the lowest tallied by the pollster since she took office three years ago -- down 8.1 percentage points from a week earlier, according to the latest findings.

Those who disapproved of Park's job performance came to 62.3 percent, up 7.8 percentage points from a week earlier. (Yonhap)
By Michael Breen

In a job interview with a due diligence firm some years ago, one of its vice presidents told me she had investigated the owner of a firm in New York who her client suspected of having mafia ties.

A former journalist, she conned a meeting with the businessman by pretending to be working on a book about small companies like his. Just as she sat down, he was called away to take care of something. Alone in his office for five minutes, she took the opportunity to rummage through his desk.

"Could you do that?" she asked me.

"No," I said. "I could pretend to be writing a book if I half-believed it. Like, if I could convince myself there was a book there that I might or might not end up doing. But I couldn't lie outright and certainly couldn't lift stuff from his desk. My whole journalism training is against that. It's unethical." (Also, although I didn't say it, it struck me as unwise to risk getting caught by the mafia).

I've been reminded of this old story  I didn't get the job, by the way  with all this news about the Panama Papers. As you know, these are the leaked documents that show how the rich and powerful hide their money in offshore tax havens.

The largest such data leak in history, several hundred journalists have been combing through the millions of files. As a result, global media has been full of front page revelations. The prime minister of Iceland has resigned, the prime minister of Britain is embarrassed, Putin has called it a plot, and there's more to come.

What amazes me, though, is the absence of a debate over journalistic ethics.

Society can accept that while it might not be legal, it is ethically acceptable for media to receive stolen material and base newspaper stories on its contents provided that the public interest is being served.

And in this case the public interest would appear to be the exposure of the bad things that some bad people, or people in positions of public trust, are doing with their wealth. To be clear, the public interest is served if illegality is exposed.

This picture, however, is complicated by two things. One is that tax havens are quite legal. The Panama Papers are not the private documents of a ruthless dictator or a drug cartel. We may assume the vast majority of contracts and emails which have been stolen are both legal and legitimately private. Their exposure, therefore, is legally and morally questionable. It certainly does not serve the public interest.

This leads to the second complication, which is that the people charged with assessing criminality are not qualified to do so.

Most journalists are clueless about money. There's a good explanation for this. They don't have much of it. Few have ever even established a company and paid corporate tax. If they were well paid, they would know from experience that avoiding unnecessary tax, as all businesses do, is a moral and fiduciary good, and they would naturally know how offshore tax havens function in the international business world.

They would also appreciate that, until the world falls under a global tax regime, which will probably happen one day, countries are entirely within their rights to set their tax levels as high or low as they see fit.

But the interviews with Panama Papers journalists I have read or heard on the radio give me the impression that this is a minor detail.

The other problem with journalists is that while the idea of public interest serves as a broad justification, it is not the yardstick by which they really assess their work. In journalism, the professional measure is newsworthiness. Media are profit-driven enterprises which require their employees to produce newsworthy stories.

This means that the factor determining which Panama documents get exposed is not justice but whether they make for a good story. If, for example, the documents include information about a company owned by a celebrity with large breasts, we will soon be seeing it, along with photos of her on a beach somewhere. Then there will be follow-up stories of her denials, along with more bikini pictures. And so on, until newsworthiness is served.

Don't get me wrong. I am all in favor of investigative journalism and in transparency. But I am also sensitive to power abuse and authoritarian attitudes to justice.

Given this, if I had been approached by the Panama Papers whistleblower, I would have hesitated.

My inclination would have been to pass them on, either to the appropriate authorities or to the appropriate NGO, with a promise from them to leak me the first good story.

I like to think this would have been the more ethical course of action, but it might just explain why I would not make a very good journalist.

Michael Breen is the CEO of Insight Communications Consultants, a public relations company, and author of "The Koreans and Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader.'' Contact him at mike.breen@insightcomms.com.
Strategy and Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho has said that the government will speed up its push for corporate restructuring. Meeting the press after a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers in Washington, D.C., Friday, Yoo said that Korea can't defer the restructuring of oversupplied and vulnerable industries any longer. The top economic policymaker's renewed commitment to corporate retooling is welcome.



Given that the Korean economy has been losing its luster in this era of low growth, it's long overdue for restructuring across the board. Failing to swiftly address chronic industrial problems such as oversupply might result in denting the financial sector, which would in turn bring the overall economy into crisis.



It's no secret that there are a number of so-called zombie companies which are unable to even meet their interest obligations with operating profits. Hyundai Merchant Marine, for example, could fall under court receivership if the flagship unit of Hyundai Group fails to find a breakthrough in its talks over lowering rental fees for ships. Each of the nation's Big Three shipbuilders suffered record losses last year. As a result of the sharp rise in the number of nonviable firms, the banking sector is also grappling with swelling nonperforming loans.



It's true that the environment for corporate restructuring has improved as political uncertainties eased after last week's general election that ended up with heavy losses for the ruling Saenuri Party.



Calls for restructuring have been dormant under pressure from the political community thus far. Political parties, in particular, have lured voters with sugarcoated promises even not to restructure the ailing shipbuilding industry.



So no one should raise an objection to the desperate need to speed up the pace of restructuring. Nevertheless, it's almost certain that in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for late next year, both ruling and opposition parties will hamper the retooling drive, which would certainly trigger mass layoffs.



After all, this means that the most opportune time for restructuring will be the next eight months until the end of this year, before the presidential race gets into full swing.



Given that the governing party no longer holds a majority in the 20th National Assembly, the ruling camp should solicit cooperation from the opposition parties through more active persuasion and compromise.



Restructuring our industrial sector is essential to lifting inefficient elements that have piled up because of excessive competition and looking for new growth engines. The government should carry out corporate restructuring swiftly and boldly.




Pyongyang risks crossing red line of no return



North Korea appears to be preparing for its fifth nuclear test ahead of its seventh Workers' Party Congress scheduled for early next month.



Satellite photos show brisk activities around the North's main nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, which experts believe could presage an imminent underground explosion.



It would be no surprise that the North's young dictator Kim Jong-un would try to go ahead with the test for many reasons. But it would be like him signing his nation's death warrant.



To the outside world, Kim wants to show that he is still in charge, holding together his destitute nation, despite the toughest-ever sanctions by the United Nations after NK's fourth nuclear test and long-range missile firing early this year.



Internally, Kim wants to keep NK's population and the leading elites on their toes by raising tension with the outside, which is the greater priority for him, having yet to strengthen his domestic power base as more cracks in the nation indicate the North's systematic failure is in the offing.



For instance, the recent defection by a group of North Korean workers at one of its state-run restaurants abroad, preceded by the defection of a senior political officer, is seen to be more than anecdotal episodes.



The young dictator may believe that staging another nuclear test ahead of the first party convention in 35 years would be a trump card to dispel doubts about him once and for all and allow him to tighten his hold on power.



But there couldn't be a greater mistake by Kim because it would be like jumping into the grave he has dug for himself and taking with him his pariah nation.



Above all, the international community can now afford to bring a final resolution to the North's nuclear brinkmanship, having dealt with other similar priorities such as Iran. Its level of unity is shown in the strength of the March 2 U.N. Resolution that has virtually cut the North off from international trade.



No doubt, the next provocation will definitely tighten the screws further, likely including the "private" sector left spared in the current sanctions in a total blockade of the communist country.



Pyongyang also can't expect China, its only benefactor that the North relies on for 90 percent of its trade, to offer much help. Already, China is so integrated into the global system that it can't rescue its old ally without running the risk of being alienated from the rest of the world. Current leader Xi Jinping, who wants to modernize China, is not Mao Zedong, the partisan leader.



Beijing increasingly regards Pyongyang as a liability rather than an asset, with some scholars openly arguing that the North's nuclear weapons are a threat to China's security and that China should not abide by the two nations' mutual defense treaty warranting its automatic intervention in the event of an invasion into the North. In other words, the North doesn't have the same luxury of playing the chicken game with the world it used to have in hopes of gaining concessions. The world knows its cards too well to be had this time.



Neither can the North expect South Korea to be as spineless as before to the North's blackmail, as President Park Geun-hye has played a key role in making the world tougher on Pyongyang's provocations and is showing no signs of letting up.



The North should understand this changing dynamic in the international balance of power that is forcing it to make a choice  give up its nuclear weapons program or face the consequences.



Renouncing the nukes is the only choice the North can make in order to avoid its systematic collapse. It should follow it up by taking on the proposal for dialogue for its transitioning and subsequent soft landing into the modern world. The young dictator should bear in mind that another nuclear test would blow everything up and put him and his nation on the sure path to destruction.




By Lee Min-hyung





With the government accepting applications for the upcoming bandwidth auction starting next Monday, the nation's major mobile carriers have entered a new war to grab more market share as a steppingstone for their next-generation networks.

The auction is expected to be the largest ever, worth up to some 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning allocating a total of 140-megahertz (MHz) bandwidth in four spectrums. The carriers, including SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus, will vie to win more in the 700 MHz, 1.8-gigahertz (GHz), 2.1 GHz and 2.6 GHz spectrums.

The ministry plans to hold the auction for a week starting April 25.

But given that the ministry previously set the reserve price for all bandwidths at around 2.5 trillion won, expectations are running high that the final bidding price will far exceed that figure.

The bandwidth auction is a hot potato for carriers, as winning a broader spectrum does not guarantee short-term revenue. But the spectrum is necessary for long-term infrastructure expansion, as data traffic is surging each year.

Carriers have expressed frustration over the government's auction plan, as various factors  including the minimum bidding price  comes as a huge burden for them.

"The government needs to identify the bandwidth as public property to be used for long-term development of the nation's telecom infrastructure, rather than a means of securing more taxes," said a telecom industry official, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

"The bidding is nothing more than a measure to spark a fight between mobile carriers, has nothing to do with developing the nation's telecom industry," he said. "In other developed countries, things are significantly different."

He cited Japan, the U.S. and the U.K. as examples.

"The Japanese government does not identify the bandwidths as something to be auctioned, so it distributes them to local carriers for free. The U.S. government is auctioning spectrums with more than 10-year licenses. This is in contrast to the Korean government which decided to grant a five-year license for the 20 MHz bandwidth in the 2.1 GHz frequency range, often dubbed the golden spectrum."

After the government announced last month its plan to auction the range under a five-year license, the carriers voiced their consensus that the government is seeking to maximize its tax revenue without considering the needs of the nation's network infrastructure. They claimed five years was too short for them to see any profit, only entailing massive investments.

Mobile carriers are in an all-out war to grab the range at the upcoming auction, as it allows the winner access to the long-term-evolution (LTE) network with doubled speeds compared to existing ones.

"The government needs to set a longer-term plan in a way to help carriers build the next-generation network systems  such as natural disaster prevention systems, 5G and UHD territorial broadcasting," he said.
A Samsung Electronics Galaxy S5 device remained intact after being left outdoors for nearly seven months, the South Korean tech giant said Monday, proving the smartphone's water and dust resistance.

According to the company, Bae Gyu-ryong, a 70-year-old user of the Galaxy S5 who works at a medical center in Chungju, about 150 km southeast of Seoul, lost his smartphone while working in a persimmon orchard near his rural farmhouse in September last year. As the device was in silent mode, Bae was not able to locate it despite days of searching, and had to get a new handset.

Seven months later, Bae happened to find his lost Galaxy S5 while plowing the soil at the orchard. Although the device was wet on discovery after being exposed to rain and snow for seven months, Bae said the device was fully functional after he dried it out and charged it.

Since the smartphone still worked, Bae was able to recover his contacts and photos saved in the Galaxy S5.

"I was surprised to see the smartphone, which went through rain and snow, being fully functional," Bae said. "The Galaxy S5 boasts excellent waterproof features."

The Galaxy S5, released in 2014, boasted of strong durability with its IP67 dust and water resistance. Its younger sister, the Galaxy S6, did not have the capability, although Samsung included IP68-level water and dust resistance on the Galaxy S7 just released earlier this year.(Yonhap)
/Courtesy of Yonhap



By Lee Han-soo



The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Ecuador's central coast on Saturday (local time) has soared to 246, according to news reports. More than 2,500 people have been injured, the reports said.

With the west coast city of Manta so far suffering 135 aftershocks, casualties are expected to rise as searches and rescue missions continue.

"Although there have been many aftershocks we have no imminent danger of a tsunami," CNN quoted vice president Jorge Glas as saying.

"Police and the military are all focused on the rescue mission, and the governments of Colombia, Chile, Spain and Mexico are sending help."












Kim Yong(right) and Ban Ki-moon at the opening plenary meeting of global infrastructure forum in Washington D.C., Friday / Yonhap



By Ko Dong-hwan

Two Korean world leaders have talked of their "bromance" at an international conference in Washington D.C.

At the opening plenary meeting of global infrastructure forum on Friday that included representatives from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and financial ministers from 20 countries, Kim Yong, the 12th President of the World Bank, told of his friendship with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Calling Ban his "senior," Korean-American Kim thanked the U.N. leader, who will finish his term late this year, for having cooperated with the World Bank throughout his tenure since 2007.

Praising Ban's diligence, humor and leadership, Kim said that without Ban, the U.N. Climate Change Conference held in Paris late last year would not have been possible, according to the Chosun Ilbo.

Ban said he and Kim were good friends whose history went deeper and broader than "bromance."

Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the former and current American presidents, had referred to the pair as the "Koreans who lead the world," the report said.

According to a Washington insider, Kim expects Ban, with his rich global experience, to be a strong candidate for next Korean presidency.

In 2013, Kim was named the world's 50th most powerful person by Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People.
Philippine Air Force 220th AW flies with the 36th AS

A U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules aircrew from the 36th Airlift Squadron look out the window during a flight over a small island in the Philippines as a part of Exercise Balikatan, April 14, 2016. Balikatan provides opportunities for U.S. and Philippine forces to learn from each other and train for potential real world crises, better preparing them to support the local population throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Michael Smith/ Released)
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

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Operations at the Aliso Canyon Gas Storage facility in file photo.

State authorities reported there was a new, but small leak of natural gas and oil on Saturday from another well in the Aliso Canyon Gas Storage facility on the ridges above Porter Ranch in the north San Fernando Valley. The leak was detected at a well known as Standard Sesnon 1-21 about 8:25 a.m. and was stopped two hours later. The Governors Office of Emergency Services said about 30 gallons of oil spray and an unknown amount of natural gas escaped into the environment.

SoCalGas said the well was not theirs but was operated by an outside firm the gas comoany did not name. SoCalGas did operate the notorious well that began leaking in October and continued to send odorized natural gas billowing into the sky for months. Hundreds of Porter Ranch residents are still waiting for the OK to return to their homes.

From the Daily News:
Mayor Eric Garcetti and several city council members have decided that the issue of a high-rise Los Angeles is too hot to handle and want to throw it into the bottomless pit that is the city hall bureaucracy, which is much akin to the Department of Circumlocution in Charles Dickens Little Dorrit. Thats why they favor delaying until 2026 new city plans regulating the big buildings.

Risk adverse is a kindly way of describing these officials. Gutless is more appropriate.



Development in Los Angeles is supposedly regulated by 35 neighborhood plans developed over many years by the city planning department and approved by mayors and the city council.

Heres what it means: Whether those shops on your nearby shopping street are replaced by a 10-story apartment building is regulated by your neighborhood plan. Most of these plans are more than 15 years old.

But as someone who spent years hanging around city hall as a reporter and an ethics commissioner, I saw that these plans are worthless. Development in Los Angeles is actually controlled by a web of incomprehensible zoning laws that are regularly avoided by campaign-contributing real estate magnates and their city hall supporters. If developers want to put up a tall building, they go to the council member representing the area. Council members control zoning laws and developments in their districts. Their colleagues, no matter what a neighborhood plan says, routinely grant approval. Residents are left in the dark unless they happen to follow their neighborhood association website.

Market forces, not city laws and regulations, shape this process. Completion of the Metro subway through Hollywood into the San Fernando Valley helped sparked construction of high rises for apartments, condos, offices and retail in Hollywood. The backlash was an anti-development-limiting measure that is scheduled to be on the March, 2017 ballot. The Hollywood-inspired measure is likely to stir up enthusiasm in other parts of the city worried about gentrification, high rise construction and other changes that could come with new transit lines.

After the limit proposal surfaced, Mayor Garcetti and council members rushed into action with an odd plan that would delay a decision on regulating development, requiring the city planning to update the 35 existing plans by, believe it or not, 2026. It would require 28 more city planners to do the work at a cost of $4.2 million a year, which seems like a lot of money for a decade-long approach to rewriting existing plans.

Garcetti told David Zahniser of the Los Angeles Times that he wasnt reacting to the limitation ballot measure. All he wanted to do, he said, is update. Actually, what he and the council members really want to do is delay action for a decade, hoping that protesters have short attention spans.

But we should have this debate next year, when the initiative is on the ballot, rather than letting the issue disappear in the city hall bureaucracy. Personally, I like the idea of residences, offices and retail around train and subway stops. But a lot of people worry about their neighborhoods being wrecked. And most everybody wants planning regulations with teeth, not the present laws that are easily avoided by developers and their city hall allies.
PRESS RELEASE

Chinas Win-Win Economic Outlook Presented to French Elite

April 17, 2016 (EIRNS)An interesting presentation on Chinas New Silk Road policy of international economic development was made to the French Institute of International Relations by Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi on April 14.

Speaking on "Chinas Development and China-Europe Relations," Yang noted the obvious great interest in Europe in the Chinese economy now. "What is the real picture then?" he said.

"Let me share with you one latest figure released by Chinas National Bureau of Statistics early this month. Chinas PMI in the month of March rose above 50%, the departure point between expansion and contraction. And in recent months, investment in fixed assets has rebounded, the housing market has picked up, and the economy as a whole has regained its momentum of growth. The Chinese economy, however, still faces a downward [global] pressure. People with an objective and comprehensive perspective will see that as an anchor and a source of growth for the world economy, the Chinese economy will continue to inject positive energy to the global economic growth."

Yang presented important prospective figures.

"In the next five years, China will import goods worth over $10 trillion U.S. and make outbound investment of over $600 billion U.S. ... Inspired by the governments call of mass entrepreneurship and innovation, 12,000 new businesses get registered every day.... Fifty million new jobs will be added, ensuring adequate employment despite a moderated growth rate. This illustrates the immense room for growth in Chinas infrastructure and services sectors."

While repeatedly citing joint nuclear power development with Europe, and stressing Chinas newly developed third-generation reactor, Yang returned to the broader basis of Chinas policy. "China advocates a new type of international relationship centered on win-win cooperation," he said,
PRESS RELEASE

Saudis Are Threatening, But Its Obama Covering for British/Saudi Use of Terrorism

April 17, 2016 (EIRNS)The years-long campaign to expose the Saudi monarchys and Prince Bandars direct involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which EIR News Service and LaRouche PAC have collaborated with the 9/11 victims families and with members of the House and Senate, has reached a new turning point. The international political heat is now directly on Barack Obama, who travels to Saudi Arabia on April 20.

The national exposure of the Saudi Kingdoms now-presumptive role in the 9/11 "al-Qaeda" attacks on the United States, has fully broken out of containment and was debated on all the Sunday morning TV network talk shows today, as well as making the front-page news for Britains Sunday Mail, Sunday Mirror, and Independent. Given especially the wild threat by Saudi Foreign Minister Jubeir to sell off all their U.S. Treasury holdings if the monarchy is opened up to exposure in U.S. courts, President Obamas visits this week to the royal families in Riyadh and London are going to be extremely tense. The Saudi monarchy denounced with similar anger the April 10 CBS News "60 Minutes" broadcast on the secret "28 pages" of the Congressional investigations report on 9/11, which essentially settled the issue: Those pages will reveal Saudi involvement in the attacks, if they are declassified.

But as furious as the Saudi monarchy is, the newly aroused mobilization for justice and truth in these 3,000 terrorist murders, is focussing on Obama. Former Sen. Bob Graham who chaired the Joint Congressional Inquiry, was interviewed in todays New York Daily News, and called Obamas coverup more reprehensible than the Saudi threats (see separate report). Todays Sunday Mail, typical of London coverage, is headlined: "Victims of 9/11 Families Accuse Obama of Siding with Saudi Arabia over Its Own Citizens." The Daily News front-page combined the interesting headline "Saudi Scum" with a picture of Obama being draped with a gold medallion award by the late Saudi King Abdullah.

Most notable is the article in the Sunday New York Post, based on intelligence sources, which states: "The kingdoms involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the U.S. Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook."

The article, by Paul Sperry of the Hoover Institution, continues,

"Case agents Ive interviewed at the Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Washington and San Diego ... as well as detectives at the Fairfax County (Va.) Police Department who also investigated several 9/11 leads, say virtually every road led back to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, as well as the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles."

But the FBI headquarters continually called them off. Former FBI agent John Guandolo, who worked 9/11 and al-Qaeda cases out of the FBIs Washington field office, is quoted: "The Saudi ambassador [Prince Bandar] funded two of the 9/11 hijackers through a third party. He should be treated as a terrorist suspect, as should other members of the Saudi elite class who the U.S. government knows are currently funding the global jihad. But Bandar held sway over the FBI."

There is more in Sperrys article, "How U.S. Covered Up Saudi Role in 9/11"

But it should not be forgotten that Lyndon LaRouche, the only leading political figure being interviewed live on radio when the 9/11 attacks hit, immediately warned against the "bin Laden did it" line, and said that governments were involved including operations penetrating the U.S. government of George W. Bush. LaRouche had forecast eight months earlier, a "Reichstag Fire" type of attack shortly after Bush and Cheney took office.
Viet Thanh Nguyen took the Pulitzer Prize in fiction Monday for his debut novel, The Sympathizer, published by Grove Press. Nguyen, a professor at the USC, is one of the L.A. Times 10 critics at large.

Thanks for all your good wishes, Nguyen wrote on Facebook. I double checked with real people in my publishers office...and they say that The Sympathizer really did win the Pulitzer Prize. Unless this is some cosmic virtual reality trick. Im stunned.

Reached by phone in Boston, where he would be giving a reading later Monday night, Nguyen expressed surprise and delight. He had no plans to break out the champagne until after his reading was concluded.

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The Pulitzer committee lauded The Sympathizer as a layered immigrant tale told in the wry, confessional voice of a man of two minds -- and two countries, Vietnam and the United States.

Nguyen, who lives in Los Angeles, was born in Vietnam; his family came to the U.S. as refugees in 1975. The Sympathizer, which follows a wickedly smart double-agent for South Vietnam, begins at the end of the Vietnam War, moves to Southern California and eventually winds up on a film set not unlike Apocalypse Now. Part thriller, part political satire, The Sympathizer is sharp-edged fiction.

Nguyen cited prior Pulitzer wins by Jhumpa Lahiri and Toni Morrison as being significant to him. Certainly when Jhumpa Lahiri won for Interpreter of Maladies it was huge for any of us working in Asian American literature, he said, admitting thats one of many ways to classify her short story collection. When that happened, it was such a landmark for those of us who are writers of color and Asian American writers.

He says he admired the choice to give it to Toni Morrison [for Beloved] who is not just a writer but a thinker. Shes absolutely uncompromising in her aesthetic, and so articulate about why she makes certain kinds of decisions in her writing... her claim that she writes literature for black people first and foremost. That was always my aspiration too  to write for an audience of people who are intimate to me, and not to think that I was writing for a white audience first.

Nguyen explained, The book is confession from one Vietnamese person to another  it was always designed to be addressed to Vietnamese people  anyone else whos reading they are not the intended audience, at least not in the novel. I thought I was writing the book for myself, but to reach a larger audience it would have to speak to multiple audiences  from the feedback Ive received, theyve responded very positively to the book too.

Talking to the Times in 2015, Nguyen explained his perspective in creating the character. You have a much happier life if you just see things from one point of view. You have no ambiguity, he says. The protagonist of The Sympathizer -- who goes unnamed throughout the book -- has to see two sides, constantly judging others and himself in a moral morass.

Its important that the Pulitzer committee recognized a work of fiction from Los Angeles, set in locations on the Pacific Rim. We are a Pacific-facing country as much as an Atlantic-facing one, Nguyen told The Times. Literary culture needs to recognize that diversity.

Nguyens latest book is the nonfiction study Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, published earlier this month by Harvard University Press. He is at work on a sequel to The Sympathizer.

Book news and more; Im @paperhaus on Twitter

MORE IN BOOKS:

Author John Green is in training to drive a pace car on Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Ken Ilgunas Trespassing across America on the 1,700-mile route of the Keystone XL pipeline

The Killing of Osama Bin Laden by Seymour Hersh details a grave threat to our democracy
Although Cuba still prohibits Cuban-born travelers from visiting the island by sea, Carnival Corp. has reversed its own stance, deciding to accept bookings from Cuba natives on its first cruise to the Communist nation in more than 50 years.

In a letter to Carnival employees, Chief Executive Arnold Donald said the company is negotiating with the Cuban government to change its policy. If Carnival cannot get Cuba to remove the ban by May 1, the scheduled date of the first trip, the sailing will be delayed, he said.

This issue has been a top priority for us, and our team has been working hard and continues to work hard to reach a positive outcome, Donald said.

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NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>

Carnival was slammed by protesters and named in a discrimination lawsuit after it announced plans to accept no Cuban-born travelers on its first sailing of the Adonia, a vessel of Carnivals Fathom brand. Carnival said it was abiding by Cubas restrictions.

Cuban officials have not explained why the country allows Cuban-born travelers to visit by plane but not by ship. Experts in the U.S. have offered various theories, including the idea that Cuba doesnt have the personnel to screen passengers in cruise ship ports.

The luxury ship Adonia, which can carry 704 passengers, is currently scheduled to leave Miami on May 1 for a weeklong cruise to Cuba. During the trip, the ship is to visit Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba. For the maiden voyage, much of the ship has been booked, but some suites and balcony cabins are still available at rates starting at $6,000 per person.

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The U.S. still requires that Cuba-bound travelers motivations fall under at least one of 12 categories, such as journalistic activities, professional research, public performances and family visits. Fathom officials say they will ensure that passengers meet the U.S. conditions.

Carnival is the first commercial cruise ship company to sail from the U.S. under the Obama administrations efforts to normalize relations with Cuba.

Nearly every major U.S.-based airline has filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin regular service to Havana and other Cuban airports.

To read more about travel, tourism and the airline industry, follow me on Twitter at @hugomartin

ALSO

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Frontier admits California outages are worse than previously thought
Southern California home prices jumped 5.6% in March, as buyers fought over a meager supply of homes for sale and bid up values.

The six-county regions median price hit $449,000 last month, up from $425,000 a year earlier, real estate data firm CoreLogic said Monday. Sales, meanwhile, rose only 1.9% from March 2015 -- reflecting a tough market defined by high prices and low inventory.

Indeed, the regions hot housing market has made it increasingly tough for young families who want to purchase a home, even as its largely wiped out the foreclosure crisis and helped existing homeowners build equity.

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In Los Angeles County, for example, only 27% of households could reasonably afford to purchase the median-priced home toward the end of last year, according to the California Assn. of Realtors.

Given that dynamic, economists generally expect prices to rise less in 2016 than in recent years, as buyers increasing struggle to raise their bids.

Many would-be buyers continue to face hurdles such as waning affordability, moderately tight credit and a relatively tight inventory of homes for sale,, CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage said.

At the moment, price growth is still strong. In March, the regions median price jumped $19,000 from just February.

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Much of the frenzy is due to a shortage of homes for sale, economists and agents say -- a problem that has emerged across the nation. Many older Americans are staying in their homes, rather than downsizing, and home builders have yet to ramp up construction to historically normal levels -- two factors that have held back new listings.

California has long under-built relative to job and population growth, contributing to far higher prices than elsewhere in the nation, economists say. According to the states independent Legislative Analysts Office, developers would have needed to build millions more homes over the last 30 years to keep housing prices in line with the rest of the country.

There are some signs the high prices are changing consumer behavior.

In March, sales in the relatively affordable Inland Empire accounted for 30% of all sales in the region, compared with 28.8% a year earlier. In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, sales respectively rose 4.8% and 7.7% from a year earlier.

In pricier Los Angeles County, sales dipped 1.4%, while in Orange County they rose 0.8%. If would-be buyers increasingly balk at paying high prices in the coastal counties, it could take some steam out of those markets.

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But for the moment, theres simply more demand than there are homes for sale.

L.A. Countys median price rose 5.9% in March, to $506,000, while in Orange County the median climbed 6.8% to $625,000.

Reach me by email at andrew.khouri@latimes.com or on Twitter @khouriandrew

ALSO

UC Berkeley student says he was taken off a Southwest flight at LAX for speaking Arabic

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Frontier admits California outages are worse than previously thought
Welcome to California Inc., the weekly newsletter of the L.A. Times Business Section.

Im Business columnist David Lazarus, and heres a rundown of upcoming stories this week and the highlights of last week.

Expect financial markets to face headwinds today after the Federal Reserve reported Friday that U.S. industrial production fell more than expected in March. This is the latest sign that economic growth slowed significantly in the first quarter. On the plus side, though, many economists still forecast a rebound in growth as the year plods ahead.

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LOOKING AHEAD

Tax deadline: Monday is the deadline for most Americans to submit their tax returns. Dont complain  you got three extra days this year. The normal deadline, April 15, was a holiday  Emancipation Day  in the District of Columbia (Emancipation Day is actually April 16, but because that fell on a Saturday, the holiday was observed Friday). That bumped the tax deadline to Monday. And, if you live in Maine or Massachusetts, you get even one more day, since Monday is Patriots Day, a legal holiday in those states that has nothing to do with Tom Brady.

Immigrants: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments over President Obamas controversial plan to offer temporary relief and work permits to as many as 5 million immigrants who have been living in the U.S. illegally. California business leaders told the court in a brief that those illegally in the country, many of them farm and manufacturing workers, are key components of the states economy. Texas officials, however, have complained of the burden imposed by immigrants on that state.

One to watch: Netflix, the popular movie-streaming and DVD-by-mail service, releases its first-quarter earnings Monday. Wall Street will be watching closely to see whether the Los Gatos company can continue growing its subscriber base in the face of intensifying competition from the likes of Hulu and Amazon Prime. Netflix currently boasts 75 million customers worldwide.

Emissions scandal: Volkswagen and environmental regulators face a Thursday deadline to present a plan for fixing nearly 600,000 diesel cars in the United States involved in the carmakers emissions-cheating scandal. The parties must present the plan to U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco. Breyer is presiding over hundreds of class-action lawsuits filed against Volkswagen, which also faces fines and penalties from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board and other agencies.

Climate change: Representatives of about 130 countries, including the United States and China, will gather at U.N. headquarters in New York on Friday to sign the so-called Paris Agreement, which contains pledges to reduce environment-damaging emissions. The participation of the U.S. and China is considered critical as they are the worlds biggest carbon emitters. The long-term goal of the accord is to limit the average global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius.

THE AGENDA

Mondays Business section looks at how theres no whoopee for Yahoo. After a rough decade that saw the Sunnyvale company lose the battle for search to Google, churn through half a dozen CEOs and largely miss out on techs move to mobile, the company finally sought strategic alternatives earlier this year  corporate-speak that meant it was looking for a buyer. Bids are due today.

STORY LINES

Here are some of the other stories that ran in the Times Business section in recent days that were continuing to follow:

Shell game: Central Valley nut growers are being hit by thieves disguised as legitimate truckers. Thirty-one heists were reported last year, a $9-million rural crime wave that has caught Californias lucrative nut industry and its cargo shippers off guard. We basically handed the load over to the driver, one grower said. It wasnt a robbery. It was a legitimate pickup by a fictitious trucking company. Its fraud. There was no violence; there was nothing. Farmers, processors and shippers are now holding emergency meetings to address the problem.

Aiming to organize: As fast-food and other low-wage workers continue pushing for a $15 minimum wage, the Fight for $15 campaign in California will be shifting its focus to another goal: unionizing. I have three children, and I want them to do better than me, said Albina Ardon, 28, a Los Angeles resident who has worked as a cashier at a McDonalds in Jefferson Park for 10 years. In a statement, the National Restaurant Assn. said unions are unnecessary because the jobs typically are just a starting point in the industry.

Sew sad: American Apparel is laying off hundreds of workers and retooling its production process  and it may start making some of its clothing outside Los Angeles. So far, about 500 local employees have lost their jobs, said Nativo Lopez, a senior advisor with Hermandad Mexicana, which is helping workers in unionizing efforts. The company has about 4,600 employees in Southern California. American Apparel emerged from bankruptcy in February and has been trying to move past a tumultuous two years that saw the ouster of founder Dov Charney, store closures and massive fire sales to clear unsold merchandise.

Cable merger: Charter Communications blockbuster deal to acquire Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks cleared a major hurdle when a California administrative judge recommended approval of the deal. The proposed $67-billion plan would make Charter the dominant pay-TV and Internet service provider in Southern California, with more than 2 million customer homes. The Public Utilities Commission is tentatively scheduled to vote on the matter May 12. Federal approval also is needed.

Hoop dreams: In the hours before Kobe Bryants last game, they dined with Rick Fox, shot jumpers with DAngelo Russell and posed for photos with Bryant himself. For the Chinese tourists who paid as much as $10,000 for the privilege, the vacation package provided exclusive access to current and former Lakers theyve come to idolize. For the talent agents who put together the junket and the athletes who offered their time, it was a chance to develop relationships  and build a brand  with some of Chinas biggest spenders.

WHAT WERE READING

And some recent stories from other publications that caught our eye:

Falling apart: The New Yorker examines the nations crumbling infrastructure. Today, we spend significantly less, as a share of G.D.P., on infrastructure than we did 50 years ago  less, even, than 15 years ago, it points out.

Same old song: Just as Napster once devastated the record industry, Bloomberg says, Many asset managers are now facing a similar situation as more investors make the switch from high-priced, actively managed mutual funds to passive, low-cost, exchange-traded funds and index funds.

Urban inequality: Quartz runs down a ranking of the U.S. cities that offer the best opportunities for women, based on factors such as the number of women in managerial positions and technical jobs. L.A., sadly, isnt anywhere near the top of the list, which is led by Sacramento.

Raw deal: The Tampa Bay Times hits one out of the park as the papers food critic exposes the deceit behind the farm-to-table movement. More often than not, the paper said of restaurants claiming local suppliers, those things are fairy tales.

Dont go changing: Do opposites truly attract? Not so much, says Priceonomics. People generally date and marry partners who are like them in terms of social class, educational background, race, personality and, of course, attractiveness, it says. Online dating just reinforces this.

SPARE CHANGE

At this point, I could serve up Paula Abduls Opposites Attract and be done with it. But as a public service, here instead is that 1950 instructional classic, What To Do On A Date. Join Nick as he learns how to show Kay a good time.

For the latest money news, go to www.latimes.com/business. Until next time, Ill see you in the Business section.
The victory lap for Hamilton received an awards boost on Monday when the hit Broadway show won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, making it one of a handful musicals to have nabbed the honor.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the musical and stars in the title role, will receive the prize at a ceremony in New York later this year. In its citation, the Pulitzer organizers called the show a landmark American musical.

Finalists in the drama category were Stephen Karams critically acclaimed play The Humans, which is also on Broadway, and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Gloria, seen last year at the Vineyard Theatre in New York.

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The win for Hamilton comes after a rocky few weeks for the musical, in which producers have dealt with a series of publicity crises. The show recently reached a deal that would allow original cast members to share in profits, after they claimed that they were being unfairly excluded from the shows box-office windfall.

The musical has also received criticism for historical inaccuracies as well as a recent casting notice that requested only ethnic minority actors. Producers later modified the casting call to welcome actors of all colors to audition for Broadway and future touring productions.

Hamilton uses a multiethnic cast and an anachronistic hip-hop score to tell the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton.

Other musicals that have won the drama prize include Next to Normal, Rent, Sunday in the Park With George and A Chorus Line.

Last years prize went to the play Between Riverside and Crazy, by Stephen Adly Guirgis.

Hamilton, which is running at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York, opened last year at the Public Theater. The national tour is scheduled to come to the Pantages in Hollywood in 2017.

The musical has been a critical and popular success, even drawing a wide spectrum of prominent political figures, including President Barack Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both attended performances.

Among the other prizes, jazz composer Henry Threadgill won the Pulitzer for music for his composition In for a Penny, In for a Pound.

david.ng@latimes.com
After dipping its toe in Hollywood waters by putting money into Mission: Impossible  Rogue Nation last year, Chinas Alibaba Pictures said Monday it is investing in two more Paramount Pictures films: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and Star Trek Beyond.

The companies did not reveal how much Alibaba would invest in the productions.

Ninja Turtles is set for a June 3 release stateside, while the new Star Trek will arrive on U.S. screens in July. Alibaba indicated both films have received government approval to be imported into China under the countrys quota system and would be released on the mainland in the second half of the year.

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Star Trek Into Darkness grossed $57 million in China in 2013, about 12% of its worldwide haul of $467 million. The Ninja Turtles cartoons have long been popular in China, and Paramounts 2014 Ninja Turtle film grossed $63 million in China, also about 12% of its $493-million worldwide earnings.

Alibaba said the new Star Trek and Ninja Turtles films would receive distribution support from its Taobao Movie online platform.

Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore said in a statement: We are very glad to be working with Alibaba Pictures again. We look forward to even more successful launches of these films in the global movie market.

Zhang Wei, president of Alibaba Pictures, said: We had a great experience working with Paramount on Mission: Impossible and are very excited to join forces again for these two pictures, both of which have terrific fan bases in China that we hope to cooperate with Paramount to grow even larger.

In addition to the Paramount films, Alibaba Pictures has invested in a Korean film called REAL starring Kim Soo Hyun, which is expected to be released next year.

The company is also bankrolling its own productions, several of which are expected to be released in 2016, including Ferryman, which counts Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai as a producer and is directed by Zhang Jiajia, author of the short story on which its based.

Follow @JulieMakLAT for news from China
Welcome back, Good Wife-ers! Its been three weeks since the previous episode, and with only two more before the series finale, things are ramping up. Yet this episode doesnt end with a cliffhanger so much as a duh.

Alicia has to leave Jason, again comfortable in his underwear at her apartment (he clearly has a key), while she and Lucca fly to Toronto to help Jeff Dellinger (Zach Woods). You may recall, Jeff is the C-list Edward Snowden, a National Security Agency agent who got in trouble for whistle-blowing. After traveling abroad (hiding from the NSA), hes now at the Toronto airport, headed to Arizona for his mothers funeral (as if things arent difficult enough for the poor guy). He gets caught in a human tug of war between U.S. and Canadian officials as they argue over whether his feet were over the border. He calls Alicia to help him out.

This episode plays fast and loose with time as Alicia hops easily back and forth to Toronto, because Peter also needs her in Chicago. Connor Fox, whos been hounding Peter for weeks, finally makes his move, publicly arresting Peter for arranging a mistrial in trade for campaign donations. Its about time the writers tell us what Fox is up to, though Eli and Mike Tascioni still dont know what he has on Peter. Eli tells Mike to hire an investigator, one who has absolutely nothing to do with the family, to help them. So naturally, Mike hires Jason. Oops.

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Jason talks to Cary, in his one brief appearance since hes now free of Lockhart & Lee, about a murder trial in which, Fox claims, Peter put pressure on the crime lab to lose evidence. That eventually led to the case ending in a mistrial that set the murderer free. We all doubt Peter actually did this, which again raises the question: Why is Fox out to get Peter? At least Alicia, who agreed to hide her intended divorce until after the trial, refuses to let Fox humiliate Peter, by putting a tie around his neck and a jacket over his cuffed wrists. I wonder how much difference that really makes to the public.

So Alicia is back where they started seven years ago, standing dutifully beside her scandalized husband. It doesnt look good for Peter though, because Mike feels that Fox does have a case against him. Fox offers a plea bargain, allowing Peter to serve three years in jail.

In Toronto, Alicia and Lucca deal with a cartoonish, haughty Canadian judge who insists they call her your worship instead of your honor, and disparages Americas over-hyped security and lack of courtesy while praising her countrys superior policies. As what is now an espionage trial progresses, occasionally interrupted (though less than in a real airport, I think) by the PA system, Alicia discovers that the NSA has used a hot mike on her in the past, which means that its agents have probably been following her for months and that Jeff was the whistle-blower in the case tried by a confidential military panel on which Alicia served a while back. That case resulted in the firing of a dedicated civil servant accused of the leak. But introducing that confidential information in this case could result in an espionage charge against Alicia too.

The judge finds for the NSA and allows the agency to extradite Jeff to the United States, but Alicia responds by requesting asylum for Jeff in Canada. With a little trickery -- intentionally staging a phone call between Alicia and Lucca so that the NSA and its Canadian counterpart (the Communications Security Establishment) overhear -- they obtain asylum for Jeff because the CSE wants him to work for that agency. So all is resolved there. Phew.

Back at Lockhart ... Central (Who knows what its called now?), Diane talks to David about her husband, Kurt McVeigh (remember him?). Fortunately, Diane and Kurt are just fine -- always a concern because we only see him when theres a problem. In fact, he wants to sell his business so that he and Diane can spend more time together. He found a buyer, PGT Ballistics, and asks Diane to look over the contract. She and David agree that Kurts business is worth a lot more than the deal offers, but Diane decides that rather than insult Kurts pride by having his wife tell him hes undervaluing himself, shell just go over his head and meet with the buyer for him. Yeah, that makes sense.

She meets with PGT and finds that the company is just one young, gorgeous blond, Holly Westfall (Megan Hilty, where have you been since Smash?), a former student of Kurts. Despite the handshake agreement Holly had with Kurt, Diane refuses it, demanding more money, which she tells Kurt shell put into an account for him to hire Republican strippers, because pretty blond Republicans are apparently his weakness. Despite the slut shaming, accusatory tone and high demands, Diane later reneges and says Kurt can sell to whomever he wishes, especially because they dont need the money, but Kurt agrees with Diane because he loves her. Aw.

The episodes final moments show Jason, always quietly intense, asking Alicia what she wants, why she decided to divorce Peter now. Like Peter last week, Jason doesnt seem to believe that he has nothing to do with Alicias decision, and I guess he wants to know how it will affect him. He just wants things to be simple, but life is often messy -- especially Alicias life. Alicia reveals (big shocker) that she wants him. Doi. Not much of a nail-biter there.

What do you think, Good Wife-ers? Could Alicia possibly want to get married again so quickly? I doubt it, but then what is Jason worried about? Will Peter be set free, or could he end up serving jail time again? Could Alicia be brought up on espionage charges too? What do you foresee for the series end?
The Los Angeles Times won a Pulitzer Prize, American journalism's top honor, for its coverage of last years mass shooting in San Bernardino, Columbia University announced Monday.

The staff won the 2016 breaking news prize for its work chronicling the chaotic, fast-breaking events of Dec. 2, when Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married Redlands couple, opened fire at a holiday potluck at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.

Timeline of coverage

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Live coverage:

From shortly after the mass shooting took place until more than a week later, The Times live blog ran a steady stream of updates for readers.

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On the first day, officials in San Bernardino even pointed people to The Times for the latest information. Read more >>

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Shooters in San Bernardino massacre seemed to be living the 'American Dream'

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Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, opened the doors at a holiday party and started shooting. Read more >>

San Bernardino shooting victims: Who they were

A father of six. A free-spirit who befriended strangers in the grocery store checkout line. A mother of three who fled religious persecution in Iran. A woman who was 8 when she and her mother left Vietnam for a better life. The youngest was 26. The oldest was 60.

These are the names and stories of the 14 people killed in the San Bernardino shooting on Dec. 2, 2015. They lived across Southern California, from Los Angeles and Orange counties, in the Inland Empire and the San Bernardino Mountains that tower over the valley where the shooting occurred. Read more >>

Rampage killers led secret life, hiding plans and weapons

Early Wednesday morning, Syed Rizwan Farook asked his mother for the sort of favor grandmothers love to grant: A few hours of baby-sitting. Farook told her that he and his wife, Tashfeen, had a doctors appointment and didnt want to take their 6-month-old daughter.

In an account of the conversation provided by a relative through a local Islamic leader, the grandmother agreed. She was caring for the child at the couples Redlands home when news of a mass shooting in nearby San Bernardino broke.

Fearing her son and daughter-in-law were victims, she started calling. No answer, said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles office. It was only after reporters started phoning her that she realized the couple were the assailants. Read more >>

A Christmas party with a trivia game  and then the shooting started

Chris Nwadike of Rialto was sitting at the same table with Syed Rizwad Farook during the Christmas party at the Inland Regional Center. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Away from their downtown cubicles for the day, they gathered in a conference room on the south end of town for their annual training and Christmas potluck party. Chris Nwadike brought doughnuts. His colleagues sat around him at a folding table with a festive tablecloth and a decorative fir branch.

Ever the diligent worker, Syed Rizwan Farook had arrived first and took the seat at the head of the table. The tech-savvy restaurant inspector, 28, had taught his co-workers how to use some new computer programs and had won TGI Friday gift cards for his good performance. Read more >>

In five seconds, you look at their skin color, their breathing and you feel their pulse. By all those things, you are determining if they are critical or deceased.  Ryan Starling, a paramedic with the San Bernardino Fire Department and the city's SWAT team

San Bernardino medic had 5 seconds to check if each massacre victim was alive or dead

Read more >>

'All hell broke loose' as police chased the San Bernardino shooters

SWAT officers crouch on Richardson Street as they search for the San Bernardino shooters. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

It was six minutes after 3 on Wednesday afternoon. Hours earlier, a masked man and woman, clad in black and armed with military-style rifles, had stormed into a holiday party a few miles away in neighboring San Bernardino. Fourteen people were dead. Others were fighting for their lives.

A black SUV had been seen fleeing the scene. Capps had told his officers to stay alert, but privately he wasn't worried. Never in a million years will we encounter these people, he thought.

Now he thought otherwise. Read more >>

San Bernardino shooter was a Pakistani who became known as a 'Saudi girl'

Tashfeen Malik spent many of her formative years living in Saudi Arabia. She went to high school at the Pakistan International School in Riyadh, where she took premedical classes. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

As a college student in Pakistan, she was known as a "Saudi girl," her face shrouded in a black veil in the conservative style typical of women in the Persian Gulf kingdom where she spent most of her childhood.

But growing up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's oil-rich and sometimes turbulent capital,Tashfeen Malik lived the life of a Pakistani girl, part of a large but often isolated guest worker community acutely aware of its outsider and second-class status. Read more >>

Dispatch calls from the San Bernardino shooting

(Test)

At 10:59 a.m., San Bernardino police dispatchers receive their first report of a possible active shooter" at the Inland Regional Center.

"Hes still firing rounds," the dispatcher tells police. Read more >>

Additional coverage material:

The maps and numbers to help you understand what happened in San Bernardino

Video timeline: What happened in San Bernardino

Readers share memories of the San Bernardino shooting victims
Good morning. It is Monday, April 18. Heres what is happening in the Golden State:

TOP STORIES

The Big One

As San Francisco marks the 110th anniversary of the great 1906 earthquake, new studies suggest the citys bustling Embarcadero area faces a different kind of seismic threat. It involves a sea wall that experts say could give way in another huge quake. Los Angeles Times

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Party affiliation

Did you register as an independent voter? Are you sure? A Los Angeles Times investigation found lots of people inadvertently registered for the ultraconservative American Independent Party instead of registering as an independent. And that means they wont be able to vote on a Democratic ballot on June 7. (The states Republican Party has a closed primary). Los Angeles Times

LAPD setback

Mayor Eric Garcetti pledged to equip nearly every LAPD officer with a body camera by the end of the year, but it looks as though that goal has been derailed by concerns over money. Officials with the Police Department dont expect to get cameras on the 7,000 officers until the fall of 2017 -- or later. This is an unequivocal disaster for public safety in Los Angeles, said Steve Soboroff of the Police Commission. Los Angeles Times

DROUGHT AND CLIMATE

Dry conditions: El Nino turned out to be a dud in Southern California when it came to rain. Now its fading, and its drier flip side, La Nina, could replace it by the end of the year. Los Angeles Times

L.A. AT LARGE

Streets of L.A.: Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown likens Los Angeles homeless problem to the slums of Kolkata. Blocks and blocks of shanty shacks, tents and shopping carts. And on the skyline, 15 construction cranes  high-rise condos and office buildings going up right in the middle of it all, he writes. San Francisco Chronicle

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Public access: The Coastal Commission has lost the trust and respect of many who protect the California coastline, writes Steve Lopez. Some of these people shouldnt be put in charge of the bumper car concession at the Santa Monica Pier, let alone 1,100 miles of the greatest beaches in the world, he writes. Los Angeles Times

Going blue: Conservatives in Northern California are so turned off by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that some are considering voting for a Democrat. They use such words as miserable, sickened, ashamed. And most alarming for Republican candidates everywhere, theyre not opening their checkbooks. San Francisco Chronicle

Driver licensing: The city of San Francisco wants Uber and Lyfts 37,000 drivers to get business licenses. Both companies have maintained that their drivers are independent contractors, and in San Francisco, contractors have to register for a license. People in San Francisco, who are choosing to drive with Lyft to help make ends meet, shouldnt have to compromise their privacy in order to share a ride, said a spokesman for Lyft. SFist

Animal shelters: Volunteers with the San Diego County Department of Animal Services feel unwelcome and disconnected from the employees, according to a new report. In general, those that attended the engagement forums  both volunteer and staff  expressed that the quality of animal care could be improved and that the communication between DAS staff and volunteers was poor, per the consultants. San Diego Union-Tribune

Into the wild: Is the Fish and Game Commission too cozy with animal rights groups? Thats the concern of hunters. The commission has shifted from a philosophy of conservation to one of preservation, meaning its direction has gone to where fishing and hunting are more and more limited and very difficult, said Marko Mlikotin, executive director of the California Sportfishing League. Los Angeles Times

EDUCATION

Educational standards: K12 Inc. is supported by thousands of California families and millions of state education dollars. But its students are not prepared for state universities, and an investigation by the San Jose Mercury-News found teachers were routinely asked to inflate attendance and enrollment figures. Sometimes I feel like a terrible parent for enrolling them, said one mother from Santa Clara. San Jose Mercury-News

CRIME AND COURTS

Too little, too late: Joseph Neale Jr. says hes sorry. Eighteen years ago he walked into Riverside City Hall and shot several officials and two police officers. It really doesnt alleviate all the pain and suffering that all of us have had over those years since Oct. 6 of 1998, said former Councilman Chuck Beaty, who was shot in the face, shoulder and back. Riverside Press-Enterprise

Policing skills: More and more, police departments are looking for candidates who have cultural awareness. While old-school, control-oriented skills remain important parts of being a cop, intelligence and sensitivity are starting to eclipse toughness. Orange County Register

Officers hurt: Two Los Angeles police officers were injured in a crash early Sunday morning when a driver apparently hit their SUV and crashed into four parked cars before his own car flipped over, authorities said. Police believe the driver may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Inaccessible instrument: At the top of the 236-foot-tall Crean Tower on the campus of Christ Cathedral is a carillon. Its probably the most exciting thing I do in my life. Its worth it. It speaks to me, said musician Melissa Weidner. Los Angeles Times

To the extremes: Irvine resident Cindy Abbotts intense pursuit to become the first woman to both climb Mt. Everest and complete the Alaskan Iditarod sled dog race is the subject of a new documentary. Everything we did was together, but these last two [adventures] were just her. Its a drain financially and emotionally and its a drain on any relationship, her husband, a retired Orange County sheriffs lieutenant, says in the film. Orange County Register

Go for a hike: Barney and Sandy Mann are among the trail angels welcoming hikers from the Pacific Crest Trail into their home. If you had the chance to be around and help a group of people who are on the cusp of a life-changing experience  and theyre frightened, theyre excited, theyre exhilarated  why wouldnt you want to do that? says Barney Mann. San Diego Union-Tribune

Home of the cougars: Heres what you need to know about the mountain lion that showed up at a Granada Hills high school Friday. Curbed LA

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles will be sunny and 85. San Francisco will be mostly sunny with a high of 75. It will be mostly sunny and 88 degrees in Sacramento. There will be plenty of sun and a high of 90 degrees in Riverside. San Diego will be mostly sunny with highs reaching 83 degrees.

AND FINALLY

This weeks birthdays for notable Californians:

Former Dodgers manager Don Mattingly (April 20, 1961) and Rep. Norma Torres (April 23, 1965).

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Alice Walton or Shelby Grad.
The family of the woman shot dead by police at an Inglewood street corner milled around in grief as TV cameras set up near a memorial of teddy bears and candles.

Then Najee Ali walked up to them, ready to perform an urban ritual he has presided over for about 20 years.

He greeted reporters by name and then huddled together the womans relatives like a quarterback about to call a play.

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Mother and sister would address reporters, he said. Dont yell for donations during the news conference. Punt any questions they didnt feel comfortable answering to him.

Trust me, if you listen to me everything will be fine, he said before leading the group to a throng of television cameras.

Over two decades of activism, Ali, 53, has been a familiar face not only in Los Angeles black community, but on TV after events such as a controversial police shooting and gang violence. His outspokenness over the years toward police, politicians and others  including calling the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and other groups outdated  have amassed him a collection of friends and foes.

During an appearance on CNN, former L.A. Police Chief William J. Bratton called Ali one of the biggest nitwits in Los Angeles. Bratton, now New Yorks police commissioner, later apologized. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) took out a restraining order against Ali, after he sought one on her. They eventually made peace.

Alis personal history always made him vulnerable to criticism. He was a former gang member who used to be a crack addict on skid row. He served several stints in prison, including two years beginning in 2008 for bribing a witness in a criminal case involving his daughter.

People who speak for the community should be held to a high standard of principle and integrity, Lisa Collins, publisher of the monthly religious magazine L.A. Focus, said in a statement. In the case of Mr. Ali, the record is clear and it includes convictions for bribery, perjury, felony hit and run, charges of intimidation and numerous run-ins with high-profile community representatives.

To some people, Najee Ali was best at promoting Najee Ali. But to supporters, Ali was effective at keeping the spotlight on certain issues even after media interest began to fade.

Hes an old-school, in-your-face activist, said Kerman Maddox, a longtime friend and a political affairs consultant. Hes not intimidated by politicians. In that regard, you have to respect the guy.

Community activist Najee Ali, in the purple shirt, prays during a vigil in memory of Latasha Harlins, a teen who was fatally shot by South L.A. shop owner Soon Ja Du in 1991. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

What Ali is almost incontrovertibly is a throwback to another era of activism in L.A., and arguably around the country. The rise of groups such as Black Lives Matters has removed the focus from individual, ordained leaders of the black community. In the second-largest city in the U.S., this has also coincided with the ascendance of women leading protest movements.

In this landscape, Ali is about to take a most unusual, but necessary, step: shrink from the limelight.

Two years ago doctors diagnosed him with Stage 3 lymphoma. Cancer. They told him he had to slow down. Soon, his own body was telling Ali the same.

The wear and tear with chemotherapy is taking its toll, he said while sipping a marsh green cold-pressed juice  part of his effort to live healthier.

A protest or march has never solved a problem in the black community, Ali said. But it puts the issue out there and it keeps the conversation going on the issue until we can figure out how we can solve the problem.

But activism takes physical exertion, and bouts of chemotherapy left him ragged. As he tried to recover from the treatments designed to keep him alive, he realized he didnt always have to be on the ground to fight for social justice. He increasingly relied on his social media accounts, including Twitter and Facebook, to reach people with a click of a button. He also writes a weekly column in a local newspaper.

My whole life has been one of evolving, Ali said. So it dawned on me, let this be an opportunity to rest and heal, but evolve and do something different.

On an unseasonably warm day in February, his phone rang. The man on the other end told Ali that his mother was missing. She has Alzheimers disease, he said.

I was going to ask if you could use your social media ... to get some extra eyes out there to locate her, the man said.

Text me a picture and her name along with other information and I will post it, Ali replied.

This is the day in the life of Najee Ali, he said. I get these phone calls all the time. I need help. Can you do this and do that?

Alis travails, his trouble with the law, might have given his critics ammunition. But what has made him the target of criticism has bolstered his street cred.

Before he became Najee Ali, he was Ronald Todd Eskew. He was born to a mother who worked as a prostitute and an abusive father.

His mother died when he was age 12. Ali bounced from one relative to another until he went to live with his grandmother. Like many youngsters in his neighborhood, he joined a gang and dropped out of high school at 17. He was in and out of jail.

In 1990, while in jail for robbery, he read The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The story of a former drug addict, ex-con who converted to Islam and fought for black peoples rights resonated with Ali.

He converted to Islam, changed his name and founded Project Islamic Hope, short for Helping Oppressed People Everywhere. He began his advocacy work by feeding the homeless on the same skid row sidewalk where he once used drugs.

Najee Ali gives food to a homeless man on skid row in 1997. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

In 1997, a little girl from his neighborhood, 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson, was kidnapped, raped and murdered in a Nevada casino bathroom. He went to the house of the girls mother and offered to help get media attention for the tragedy.

Ali accompanied Sherrices mother to TV talk shows. But what really thrust him into the spotlight was when he held a news conference at the girls grave and accused the family of trying to profit from her death.

He went on to push for Sherrices Good Samaritan Law, which makes failing to act when witnessing a sexual attack or physical assault a misdemeanor. The bill, which was signed into law in 2000, was the first crime bill named after a black child.

I learned at an early age that the best way to make change is through public policy, he said.

He went on to protest television shows and movies that cast black people in a negative light. He organized marches after police shootings. He held news conferences when he felt elected officials were not responsive to the community and candlelight vigils to remember those slain by gang violence.

Over the years, Ali became less of an outsider and more of a mainstream presence, prompting some backlash.

Hes been branded a sellout for his cozy relationship with LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, and called a mouthpiece for Mayor Eric Garcetti, whom Ali regularly praises in his column.

I realized sometimes it is better to be inside City Hall, advocating for South L.A. as opposed to protesting outside the mayors house, he said, a dig at Black Lives Matters protesters, who camped out at Garcettis Windsor Square home last summer.

Fighting cancer has taken a lot of out him, though his hair has grown back and hes regained some weight. Some days, he said, hes too tired to get out of bed.

But on the day of the Academy Awards, he made it out to Hollywood to protest the lack of diversity in the acting nominations. Only a few of the people at the demonstration in the parking lot of a shopping center knew that it would be his last protest  at least for a while.

With the microphone in his hand, he led the protesters in a chant.

What do we want? he screamed.

Diversity! the crowd answered back.

When do we want it?

Now! they shouted back.

Ali grew winded. A flurry of coughs conquered his voice. He pounded his chest to try to get it back. Before taking a sip of water, he passed the mic to a young pastor  his heir apparent.

angel.jennings@latimes.com

Twitter: @AngelJennings
The Los Angeles Times has won a Pulitzer Prize, American journalisms top honor, for its coverage of last years mass shooting in San Bernardino.

The staff won the 2016 breaking news prize  The Times 44th Pulitzer  for its work chronicling the chaotic, fast-breaking events of Dec. 2 and their aftermath.

In announcing the award Monday, the Pulitzer board cited The Times for exceptional reporting, including both local and global perspectives, on the shooting in San Bernardino and the terror investigation that followed.

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The board also named Times columnist Steve Lopez as a finalist in the commentary category, while Times critic-at-large Viet Thanh Nguyen won the fiction prize.

The Associated Press won the prestigious public service award for its Seafood from Slaves series, an investigation that exposed how some of the seafood on American tables was tied to slave labor. The coverage led to arrests, reforms and the freeing of 2,000 slaves.

The attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, which left 14 people dead and 24 injured, was the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, and the deadliest mass shooting since the massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in 2012.

 The Los Angeles Times won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the San Bernardino shootings.

Minutes after the massacre, carried out by a married Redlands couple, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, The Times had posted its first story, and more than a dozen reporters and photographers were hurrying to the scene, 60 miles east of the downtown L.A. newsroom.

The result, that first day, was a string of detailed stories, including dramatic accounts of the shooting scene and the revelation that Farook had traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned with a wife he had met online  an early indication of their radicalization.

The Times coverage included a database of the victims and a multimedia reconstruction of the police pursuit that culminated in the shooting death of the killers.

The Times produced three days of special front pages for the coverage, and in the days that followed, reporters continued chasing the story from San Bernardino, Washington, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, producing detailed accounts of the shooters backgrounds.

The story broke just weeks after The Times had lost several dozen staff members  including veteran reporters and editors  to voluntary buyouts.

This prize belongs to the entire newsroom, Times editor and publisher Davan Maharaj said. This is a newsroom that rises to the occasion to serve readers when everything is on the line  and delivers every time.

Speaking to a gathering of the staff, he added that it was important to remember the victims of the tragedy and their families.

One of the editors coordinating the coverage was California editor Shelby Grad, who said the story represented a marriage of different newsroom disciplines, from gumshoe reporting to Web-video production to social-media expertise.

We had people who could really put it together in all these different platforms. We were also lucky to have people around the globe, he said. Many people spent weekend after weekend without a break, knocking on doors.

In the breaking news category, the Pulitzer board named as finalists the staff of the Baltimore Sun, for coverage of riots that followed the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, and the staff of the Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., for its coverage of the videotaped shooting of Walter Scott by police.

Lopez was a finalist in the commentary category for a series of columns grappling with wealth inequality in Southern California, which Lopez described as the stratified kingdom of hillside castles and cardboard cities.

Lopezs work explored the lives of a 71-year-old South Los Angeles woman who survived without running water, a laid-off aerospace worker, an Air Force veteran seeking work, casualties of forced gentrification in Echo Park, and the work of a real estate agent in Beverly Hills.

Nguyen won the fiction prize for his novel The Sympathizer, which the Pulitzer board described as a layered immigrant tale told in the wry, confessional voice of a man of two minds  and two countries, Vietnam and the United States. Nguyen is an associate professor of English and American studies and ethnicity at USC.

The prize for international reporting went to former L.A. Times foreign correspondent Alissa J. Rubin for her work in the New York Times documenting the plight of women in Afghanistan.

Another former L.A. Times writer, T. Christian Miller, now of ProPublica, along with Ken Armstrong of the Marshall Project, won the prize in explanatory reporting for a series of stories detailing how police and prosecutors in Washington state labeled a rape victim a liar  and two Colorado detectives eventually connected a suspect to the crime. ProPublica and the Marshall Project are nonprofit news organizations.

ALSO

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Its National Park Week. How many have you visited?
The nonprofit that spearheaded providing public restrooms and storage units for the homeless in downtown San Diego has launched a portable shower program targeted at people living in their cars and on the street.

Anne Rios, executive director of Think Dignity, said about 20 people used the showers Thursday night at Turning the Hearts Center in Chula Vista.

We had a wonderful turnout, she said. There were no glitches in the system.

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Think Dignity has been working for the last few months to create a portable shower inspired by Lava Mae, a similar program in San Francisco. The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego also has a mobile shower that it takes to its churches that host winter shelters.

Rios said she hopes to expand the program to a weekly schedule at different locations throughout the county. For now, it is at Turning the Hearts Center on the second Thursday of each month between 6 and 9 p.m.

Marc Lovato, executive director of the nonprofit center, said he approached Rios after learning that she was looking for a site to launch the shower program.

It was a natural collaboration  because of what we were already doing at the center with Dreams for Change, he said.

Dreams for Change provides secure sites for people who live in their cars. Every night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., portable toilets and security are available for up to 40 cars in the centers parking lot.

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Lovato said he had been trying to raise money to provide outdoor showers when he learned about Think Dignitys program.

With Think Dignity coming on board and offering this service, it would be just another opportunity to bring some sort of normalcy to these families, he said about the homeless people who sleep in cars at the parking lot.

The centers thrift store will be open on the nights the shower is in the parking lot so people can have access to clothes, Rios said. Three stylists and a barber also were at the center Thursday night to work on peoples hair.

Rios said the shower program provides three main benefits. First, it restores a sense of dignity to the individuals, she said. The showers also have a health benefit in providing better hygiene.

Finally, a fresh shower is necessary for anyone who wants to find or keep a job.

Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter >>

Its difficult to get off the street and get a job when they havent bathed in a week, Rios said.

gary.warth@sduntiontribune.com

Warth writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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Trial program takes new approach to teaching English learners

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Though cancer may slow Najee Ali down, the L.A. activist keeps up the fight for justice through social media
Jose Perez never really worried about why his children had to repeat English-language classes year after year. After all, they were born in California.

Perez assumed the reason for the added instruction was that he and his wife have a rule that everyone speak Spanish at home.

Then, as his son Jesus prepared to enter Mountain View Middle School in Moreno Valley, Perez attended a meeting.

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An administrator explained that his son, like about 1 in 5 students at the school, was designated an English-language learner. And, like more than 8 out of 10 of those students, he had been in the program since he started school and was at risk of failing to become proficient  which often leads to dropping out.

But there was also good news. Jesus was among a group of higher-achieving students selected for a trial program to see if a new approach can help students break through the all-too-common impasse.

If you sat down and had a conversation with them youd say they are totally fluent in English.  Patricia Gandara, UCLA education professor

Their teachers would receive extra training and the students would be paired with high school students to help ease the big step from middle school. Parents would need to sign a contract agreeing that they would attend workshops and that they and their children would take part in a research study.

About half of California students are children of immigrants. In contrast with past generations, nearly all of them are born in the U.S., and yet the vast majority end up in English-learner programs for at least part of their education.

In Moreno Valley, the federal government has invested nearly $2 million to find answers to one of the most confounding problems facing educators: How to teach English to students who are born in the United States but fail to fully master some of the languages complexities.

Jesus Perez, 13, center, an 8th grader from Mountain View Middle School in Moreno Valley, tosses a coin in a fountain for good luck as he and his classmates visit UCLA. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Proficiency can be a tricky label when applied to long-term English learners, says Patricia Gandara, a professor of education at UCLA.

If you sat down and had a conversation with them youd say they are totally fluent in English, she says.

Yet hundreds of thousands of these students in California cant fully understand Edgar Allan Poe or identify correct verb tenses.

In 2011, the California League of Middle Schools selected Moreno Valley, which had at the time the lowest graduation rates in Riverside County, for a five-year test of its English Learner Families for College proposal. It used 300 students and their parents in 10 local schools.

The three-year goal in the grant proposal was to move about a third of the students out of English-language learner status. This month an external evaluator found that more than two-thirds of the students had reached that goal.

One likely reason Jesus fell behind, his teachers say, is the same reason many students fall behind: He can be shy. Most quiet students who fall behind can compensate in other ways. But stalling in English can prevent a student from doing well in reading, science and other subjects.

When Jesus Perez learned that he would be part of the new program he felt both happy and kind of bummed.

He was excited that it might help him, but doubted hed ever find English instruction captivating.

As the teacher lectured the class, he said, he would often passively take notes and just kind of stare out into space.

Right away he learned that was no longer an option. His teacher had received training in something called English 3D. Part of this approach uses almost formulaic classroom routines in which two students grapple with grammar or vocabulary as partners and then in front of the class.

For a lot of teachers its a really big shift, said Theresa Hancock, who trained the teachers. There is constantly student interaction.

Jesus found that he was paying more attention as he read about issues  such as whether children should be allowed to vote  and then shared his ideas for responses within a designated sentence structure with other students.

His teacher, Sherri Blue, also noticed a shift. The quiet student was constantly raising his hand, eager to contribute.

Jesus Perez, 13, center in blue shorts, an 8th grader from Mountain View Middle School in Moreno Valley, joins his classmates visiting UCLA. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

After the students visited a college, the first time for almost all of them including Jesus, he decided he wanted to go to UC Riverside or UC Irvine and considered what he needed to do to reach that goal.

In class one morning, elevating his voice over a cacophony of eighth-grade students shouting out their career dreams  anesthesiologist, firefighter, Marine  Jesus explained in flawless English why he wanted to be an architect.

I love math, he said, sitting rigidly at his desk, and being an architect involves a lot of degrees and angles.

Jesus is not the only one in his family motivated by the new teaching approach.

On a March evening after a long day stocking inventory at Target, his father kissed his wife hello and goodbye as she prepared for her night shift at Del Taco.

Then Jose Perez drove Jesus and his older sister to their middle school, where he joined a handful of men and twice as many women, among them a homemaker, a medical assistant and cook.

Perez immigrated to the United States in 1989 from Morelos, Mexico. He had ended his own schooling when he was about his sons age. His parents were illiterate and didnt touch school.

He and his wife did their best to support their children, but they figured that once they get to school, its up to the teacher and God bless.

The trial program, however, hinges on the view that students will succeed only if their parents not only support them but learn to advocate for their education. The Los Angeles-based organization Families in Schools trained the teachers to lead a series of bilingual workshops on how parents  even if they do not speak English, or know how to read  can do that.

Angelena Tavares, who instructed that nights class, has been teaching in Moreno Valley for 18 years. She bubbled with enthusiasm as she led the parents through exercises. But she said she has noticed a discouraging shift in students attitudes.

Most of her English-learner students are now born in the United States, and they do not seem as motivated as in the past.

The ones who were immigrants would push themselves, she said.

Children of immigrants project a sense of entitlement, she said. They are Americanized.

With both parents working, she says, they are also sometimes lost.

Research supports Tavares observations.

There are a number of studies that show that the immigrant kids are often more ambitious academically than children born in the U.S. of immigrant parents, UCLAs Gandara says.

But when the parents are involved in the classes, Tavares says, the students often change their attitudes. Those kids are like, My parents are into it, and Im into it.

Those kids are like, My parents are into it, and Im into it.  Angelena Tavares, Mountain View Middle School English-learner teacher, on parental involvement in learning

The Los Angeles-based organization Families in Schools trained Moreno Valley teachers to lead a series of bilingual workshops on how parents  even if they do not speak English, or know how to read  can help their students learn English. Jose Perez attends a workshop at Mountain View Middle School. (Daniela Gerson / Los Angeles Times)

At the middle school that evening, Jose Perez played college prep bingo with the other parents as Jesus chatted in the cafeteria with classmates.

Over a dinner of 3-foot burritos, the eighth-graders held up their cellphones to display texts they had exchanged with student mentors at the high school  a third element of the program.

Jesus has fired off many questions to the student whos helping him:

What do you regret most doing in high school?

What classes should I take over the summer?

His most pressing question, however, was whether he would finally pass the English-learner test this summer. His mentor couldnt answer that one.

But he thinks he is ready, and so do his teachers.

daniela.gerson@latimes.com
A UC Berkeley student who fled Iraq as a teenager said he was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight at LAX two weeks ago and questioned about why he was speaking in Arabic on his phone.

Before the plane took off, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi made a quick call to his uncle in Baghdad and told him about his experience at an event he had just attended in Los Angeles where United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was speaking.

As Makhzoomi spoke to his uncle, a woman seated in the row ahead of him turned around to stare, he told The Times in an interview.

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This is weird, he recalled thinking to himself.

A moment later, he told his uncle hed call him when he landed in Oakland and hung up, using the phrase inshallah, which means if God is willing.

The woman stood up and walked toward the front of the plane, Makhzoomi said. A couple of minutes later, Makhzoomi said, a Southwest employee walked over to him and told him he had to get off the plane. He was escorted to the gate, where police officers stood waiting.

An airline supervisor who Makhzoomi said spoke quick Arabic then asked the college student why hed spoken in Arabic on a plane.

I felt oppressed, Makhzoomi said. And I said, You know, this is what Islamophobia looks like.

Before long, more police showed up with a dog and searched him. Then FBI agents arrived.

Be honest with us, you said something about martyrs, he recalled one agent saying to him. I said, What are you talking about? I didnt.

An FBI spokeswoman confirmed that agents responded to the airport April 6 but declined to detail what happened, saying no further action was taken by the agents.

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Makhzoomi, who said his family fled Iraq in 2002 for Jordan after his father, a diplomat, was killed by members of Saddam Husseins regime, said hes still processing what happened to him. The main thing he wants, he said, is an apology from Southwest.

In a statement Sunday, the airline said its employees had acted within protocol in response to a passengers report of potentially threatening comments, adding that the company neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.

Brandy King, a spokeswoman for Southwest, said the airline has made several attempts to reach Makhzoomi since learning of his account in the Daily Californian, his schools newspaper.

Makhzoomi, however, says hes tried to contact the airline and spoke to one employee who said, Your name is clear, you can travel with us.

No apology, said Makhzoomi, who plans to graduate this year with a dual degree in political science and Near Eastern languages and literature.

Zahra Billoo of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned what happened to Makhzoomi and characterized it as every Muslims nightmare when getting on a plane.

What happened to Makhzoomi, she said, is especially concerning within its broader context.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations held a news conference Friday to call for an investigation after a Muslim woman from Maryland said she was removed from her flight  also on Southwest  without adequate explanation. But the problem, Billoo said, is widespread.

Its not just Southwest. Its a problem with airlines and a problem with how law enforcement deals with allegedly suspicious Muslims, she said. Were worried that its not being taken seriously.

For more Los Angeles County news, follow @marisagerber

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A 20-year-old motorist was booked on suspicion of murder Monday, following a North Hills collision that killed a man and injured at least eight other people this weekend, authorities said.

Saidy Samayoa was allegedly fleeing a felony hit and run accident in a white 2000 Toyota 4Runner on Sunday about 11:30 a.m. at Sepulveda Boulevard and Parthenia Street, the Los Angeles Police Departments Valley Traffic Division said in a statement.

The 4Runner sped westbound on Parthenia, ran a red light and slammed into a white Toyota Sienna van driving northbound on Haskell Avenue, according to police. The collision caused the van to roll over, ejecting several occupants, police said.

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More than 60 firefighters responded to the scene.

There were two adults in the front seats of the Sienna and four children in the back seats. All four of the children were hospitalized with severe injuries, according to the LAPD.

The adult male riding in the Sienna, a 37-year-old resident of North Hills, later died at a hospital. His identity was not released. The other adult in the vehicle also was hospitalized.

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Samayoa on Monday was hospitalized with severe injuries and was subsequently arrested, according to the LAPD. She had two male passengers in her vehicle who were also severely injured; they remained hospitalized on Monday, police said.

The collision was still under investigation by the LAPDs Valley Traffic Division. The Los Angeles Fire Department has asked the mayors Crisis Response Team to provide assistance to a family affected by the traumatic incident, said Erik Scott, a fire department spokesman.

hailey.branson@latimes.com

matt.hamilton@latimes.com

Follow @haileybranson / @matthjourno

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A review of sexual harassment policies involving faculty at the University of California has failed to make sure that investigations are effective, cases are consistently handled and sanctions are strong enough to fit the offense, according to UC President Janet Napolitano.

In a letter released Monday, Napolitano directed the 10-member review committee to find a way to speed up investigations and establish a broader group of campus members to propose sanctions, which are currently decided by top administrators.

But she praised the committees work in other areas and ordered immediate steps to implement some of its recommendations. They included requiring that all sexual misconduct investigations be reported to the campus chancellor and indefinitely retaining records on faculty sanctions in order to identify repeat offenders.

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To better protect victims, Napolitano directed that each campus designate someone to work confidentially with faculty, graduate students and academic employees such as librarians and postdoctoral scholars who believe they have been sexually harassed but are reluctant to make a formal claim with campus officials. Such confidential advocates have already been assigned for undergraduate students.

While UC has made progress over the past year and a half on faculty sexual harassment cases, several cases that have recently come to light make clear that we have much more work to do, she wrote in her letter.

In recent months, administrators at UC Berkeley and UCLA have been widely criticized for failing to adequately discipline high-profile faculty members accused of violating the universitys sexual harassment policies.

At Berkeley, law school Dean Sujit Choudhry, astronomer Geoff Marcy and Vice Chancellor of Research Graham Fleming were allowed to retain campus positions after receiving sanctions that critics found unacceptably weak, such as pay cuts, fines, mandatory counseling and orders to issue apologies.

In a 2014 settlement at UCLA, administrators agreed to drop a Title IX sexual harassment investigation of history professor Gabriel Piterberg in exchange for a $3,000 fine, an 11-week suspension and other discipline measures. Piterberg did not admit to allegations that he repeatedly harassed two female graduate students over many years by making sexual comments, pressing himself against their bodies and forcing his tongue into their mouths.

Critics of the current system include UAW Local 5810, which represents 6,000 postdoctoral scholars, and Local 2865, which represents graduate students throughout the UC system. Union officials have said that they were not given adequate chances for input into the sexual harassment review process and that the Academic Senate had disproportionate influence in how cases were handled.

Among other things, the union opposed plans to require their members to report sexual harassment violations, saying it would create additional work and violate the privacy of victims.

The UC review of faculty guidelines was launched in October as part of a comprehensive look at sexual harassment policies throughout the 10-campus system. The committee was made up of administrators, faculty and two students.

In the report, which Napolitano released Monday along with her letter, the review committee said that the campuses could not provide detailed data on faculty cases and that record-keeping needed to be drastically improved. Eight campuses provided partial data showing that 76% of 141 allegations made against faculty members from 2012 through 2015 were unsubstantiated or settled without a formal investigation. Among 34 cases investigated, allegations in 11 of them were substantiated.

The committee also found widespread confusion and misunderstanding about the policies on campuses and no consensus on what should be done to improve the situation.

One of the biggest problems involved the secrecy surrounding faculty cases. The committee recommended that those bringing a complaint should be informed of the outcome; Napolitano already has said that substantiated cases of sexual misconduct are public.

To address concerns about the lengthy process, Napolitano ordered new rules to require that cases be completed within five months  three for the investigation and two for adjudication  unless there are exceptional circumstances. She also directed the committee to get rid of a 10-day deadline for filing charges after placing an accused faculty member on involuntary leave.

Another major complaint involved a rule that requires investigations to be launched within three years after administrators learn of allegations. Napolitano asked the review committee to reconsider the time limit in cases where an official failed to inform the Title IX office of potential cases of sexual misconduct.

Given the seriousness of these cases and the shortcomings that have been identified with existing processes ... this work is crucial, Napolitano wrote. We must develop and implement policies and procedures that enable the university to respond effectively to reports of faculty sexual harassment and sexual violence and to deal with substantiated cases firmly, fairly [and] promptly.

For more education news, follow me @TeresaWatanabe
For the last five Fridays, Andrea Delgadillo has staged a sometimes lonely vigil on the steps of the Supreme Court in favor of President Obamas immigration actions.

The 19-year-old California Lutheran University student lined up shoes and small American flags to demonstrate to the justices  really, to Americans -- how much families like hers have benefited from easing the threat of deportation.

On Monday, she had a little backup.

Thousands of immigrants and their allies rallied in front of the court, many camping overnight, as the justices heard arguments in a landmark case challenging the legality of the executive actions.

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Many of those gathered were from California, home to sizable numbers of the more than 4 million immigrants who could benefit if Obamas deportation relief is allowed to stand.

1 / 4 Mario Gochez of New Jersey joins supporters of immigration reform in front of the Supreme Court in Washington. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) 2 / 4 Supporters of immigration reform outside the Supreme Court. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) 3 / 4 A rally outside the Supreme Court. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) 4 / 4 A rally outside the court building. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press)

Among them were Olivia Medina, a 79-year-old former farmworker in strawberry-rich Oxnard, whose son could gain legal status under the action; and Sophie Cruz, the 6-year-old American citizen who captured hearts last year when she broke through Pope Francis parade barricade in Washington, D.C., to hand him a letter describing the fear of losing her parents to deportation.

We need them to treat us with justice and dignity, because we are not criminals, because of our contributions, said Sophies father, Raul Cruz of South Gate, who attended college in Mexico and has worked in L.A. flipping hamburgers, in a bakery and now at a factory that galvanizes metal.

This is a country of immigrants, he said through an interpreter. This is America. We are America.

Even though many, like Medina, who traveled from Oxnards La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Family Center, have legal status or citizenship, they have extended families and friends who face the threat of deportation, a reminder of the mixed-status complications of so many immigrant families.

My compadres son, said one man from the group, whose members took turns waiting since Sunday so that a few of them could be admitted inside the court for the proceedings.

My sister, said another.

Obama in 2012 granted deportation relief to young people who were brought here illegally as children, the so-called Dreamers, enabling them to apply for work permits and drivers licenses as long as they are in school or the military and have no criminal records.

In 2014, as immigration reforms languished in Congress, the president expanded the program and added a component that would benefit parents, like 19-year-old Omar Urquietas mother -- she works two jobs, at McDonalds and cleaning houses -- who have been in the U.S. illegally for years but have children who are American citizens.

Im here to tell her story, so other kids dont have to go through what I did, said Urquieta, a Marine stationed in Virginia, who grew up in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys. He was outside the court Monday with his wife, Alondra Slack, 19, whom he met in high school, and their dog, Pachuco, named for the zoot suit Latino culture of an earlier L.A. era.

Delgadillo, a sophomore business major, who is on a spring internship in Washington, started showing up Friday mornings with other activists, lining up the shoes with American flags as a symbol of the immigrant journeys.

Her parents brought her to the U.S. as a 4-year-old, and they worked in restaurants in San Francisco, starting as dishwashers, then moving up. Her mom became a hostess and cashier; her dad a cook. They launched their own catering company a few years ago, serving a shrimp ceviche in particular that has become a party circuit favorite.

My parents, they pay taxes, they worked two jobs, they put their kids through private education, said Delgadillo, who has been able to secure temporary legal status under Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

DACA has made my dreams so far come true, she said, even though her parents would not qualify under Obamas programs because their children were not born in the U.S. They need to see how much people have benefited.

It breaks her heart, she said, to see families deported, and she cant imagine being sent back if Obamas actions are overturned.

I cannot tell you anything about Mexico; my home has been California.

For the latest from Congress and the 2016 campaign, follow @LisaMascaro.

For more, go to www.latimes.com/politics.

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President Obamas far-reaching plan to ease life for millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally ran into solid conservative opposition at the Supreme Court on Monday, putting its fate in doubt.

The administrations supporters were left to hope that justices  evenly divided between Republican and Democratic appointees since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia  might dismiss the Texas case on a legal technicality by finding the state of Texas cannot show it would be sufficiently harmed by the presidents program.

But the comments and questions during Mondays argument suggested the courts four conservatives probably would side with Texas and 25 other Republican-led states, while the four liberals would vote to uphold Obamas plan.

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If so, the 4-4 split would be a defeat for the administration, keeping in place a federal judges order that has blocked the plan from taking effect.

At issue is whether the president has the authority to temporarily remove the threat of deportation and offer a work permit to more than 4 million immigrant parents of children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.

Obamas lawyers argued that U.S. immigration laws give the chief executive broad leeway in deciding whom to deport, including the authority to take no action against millions of working immigrants who have families here and no serious criminal records.

1 / 4 Mario Gochez of New Jersey joins supporters of immigration reform in front of the Supreme Court in Washington. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) 2 / 4 Supporters of immigration reform outside the Supreme Court. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) 3 / 4 A rally outside the Supreme Court. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) 4 / 4 A rally outside the court building. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press)

But in the opening minutes of arguments Monday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said Obamas order appeared to go further by in effect changing the law and reclassifying millions of immigrants so that they may stay and work legally in the U.S.

Roberts asked the presidents attorney whether there were any limits to executive authority when it comes to deportation. Could the president grant deferred removal to every unlawfully present alien in the United States? Roberts asked.

No, replied U.S. Solicitor Gen. Donald Verrilli Jr., noting that the law still calls for arresting criminals.

OK. So not criminals. Who else? Roberts continued.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. interjected to say that, under the administrations legal theory, a future president might decide unilaterally on an open borders policy, regardless of what Congress decided.

Verrilli disagreed. Thats a million miles from where we are now, he said.

Kennedy, whose vote is seen as crucial for the administration, leaned forward. Well, its 4 million people from where we are now, he said. What were doing is defining the limits of discretion. And it seems to me that is a legislative, not executive, act.

Allowing the president to take the lead in defining which immigrants can stay is backward, Kennedy said. The president is setting the policy and Congress is executing it. Thats just upside down.

The sharp exchange served notice that the courts conservatives are unlikely to uphold Obamas order as being within his executive authority.

The administrations fallback argument is that the case should be dismissed because Texas suffered no injury and therefore has no standing to sue. The state has complained it must shoulder the cost of issuing drivers licenses to the immigrants.

Roberts, who has been skeptical of granting standing to states to challenge federal policies, said Texas looked to have a real complaint. Texas says: Our injury is we have to give drivers license here, and that costs us money, the chief justice told Verrilli.

Standing is sometimes a wild card in cases over which the justices are deeply divided.

In 2004, eight justices were split over whether public schools could have students recite the phrase one nation under God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Scalia had recused himself, and a tie vote would have affirmed the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the practice was unconstitutional. Instead, the justices defused the controversy by deciding that Michael Newdow, the father who sued on his daughters behalf, did not have standing.

The most important recent test of a states standing came in 2007 when Massachusetts, California and a coalition of blue states sued the George W. Bush administration for failing to take action on climate change under the Clean Air Act. By a 5-4 vote, the courts liberals, joined by Kennedy, upheld the states claim on the theory that rising seas could damage their coastlines.

Roberts dissented in that case, but he mentioned the ruling twice Monday. We said in Massachusetts vs. EPA that we have a special solicitude for claims of the states, he said, a comment that suggested he was not ready to throw out the Texas case on standing.

Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, joined Verrilli in support of Obamas order, known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA. He said he was there on behalf of three Texas mothers who seek relief from the daily fear they will be separated from their families and detained or removed from their homes.

Arguing on the other side, Texas Solicitor Gen. Scott Keller called Obamas order an unprecedented unlawful assertion of executive power and potentially one of the largest changes in immigration policy in our nations history.

He ran into sharp questions from the courts liberal justices. They steadily defended the presidents executive action and said it was consistent with past presidents who extended relief to large groups of immigrants.

We still go back to the basic problem: 11.3 million people, said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Congress has not appropriated the money to arrest and deport millions of otherwise law-abiding immigrants, she said, so it makes sense to allow some of them to work legally and raise families.

The justices will meet this week to discuss the case and vote on whether to affirm or reverse the lower court. A decision is likely to be announced in June.

On Twitter: @DavidGSavage

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The Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday for documenting the use of slave labor in Southeast Asia to supply seafood to American tables  an investigation that spurred the release of more than 2,000 captive workers.

The Tampa Bay Times and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune received the investigative reporting prize for a project on mental hospitals, and the Tampa Bay Times also won in local reporting for studying the harmful effects of ending school integration in Pinellas County, Fla.

The Los Angeles Times won the breaking news prize for its coverage of the deadly shooting rampage by husband-and-wife extremists at a government building in San Bernardino, and The Washington Post received the national reporting award for an examination of killings by police in the U.S.

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The New York Times won the international reporting award for detailing the plight of Afghan women, and the breaking news photography prize for images of refugees.

The Boston Globe was honored in the feature photography category for pictures of a boy who had suffered abuse, and the newspapers Farah Stockman took the commentary prize for her work on the legacy of school busing in the city.

ProPublica and the Marshall Project received the award for explanatory reporting for exploring a rape case in which authorities initially didnt believe the victim, prosecuted her for lying, and years later came to realize she was telling the truth.

The New Yorker was awarded the feature reporting prize for a story on the enormous Cascadia fault line under the Pacific Ocean, while the magazines Emily Nussbaum won in the criticism category for her TV reviews.

In editorial writing, John Hackworth of Sun Newspapers of Charlotte Harbor, Fla., was honored for his pieces about a deadly assault on an inmate by guards. Jack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee took the editorial cartooning prize for what judges called work that conveys wry, rueful perspectives through sophisticated style.

The awards marked the centennial of the Pulitzers, American journalisms highest honors.

AP journalists Margie Mason, Robin McDowell, Martha Mendoza and Esther Htusan chronicled how men from Myanmar and other countries were being imprisoned, sometimes in cages, in an island village in Indonesia and forced to work on fishing vessels. Numerous men reported maimings and deaths on their boats.

The 18-month project involved tracking slave-caught seafood to processing plants that supply supermarkets, restaurants and pet stores in the U.S. Subsequent AP reports detailed the use of slave labor in processing shrimp.

If Americans and Europeans are eating this fish, they should remember us, Hlaing Min, 30, a runaway slave from the Indonesian island, told the AP. There must be a mountain of bones under the sea.

The stories, photos and videos led to freedom for thousands of fishermen and other laborers, numerous arrests, seizures of millions of dollars in goods and crackdowns on Thai shrimp peeling plants.

AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll commended all of APs journalists, saying they stand up for people who dont have a voice and use the tools of our craft to inform the world and, occasionally, right wrongs that need to be righted.

The Post, meanwhile, explored an issue that has prompted protests and debate around the U.S. in recent years. The newspaper found that in 2015, on-duty police officers shot and killed 990 people nationwide  and that unarmed black men were seven times more likely to die at the hands of police officers than unarmed whites. More than 50 of the officers had killed someone before.

Established by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, the prizes were first given out in 1917. Public service award winners receive a gold medal; the other awards carry a prize of $10,000 each.

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More than a foot of rain fell Monday in parts of Houston, submerging scores of subdivisions and several major interstate highways, forcing the closure of schools and knocking out power to thousands of residents who were urged to shelter in place.

Sylvester Turner, mayor of the nations fourth-largest city, told residents to stay home to fend off a weather system he called stubborn. More rain was projected over the next two to three days.

Rain gauges in parts of Harris County, which includes most of Houston, showed water levels approaching 20 inches since late Sunday night.

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The Harris County Flood Control District reported 13 bayous and creeks out of their banks. Turner said seven bayous within Houston were topped.

No deaths or injuries were immediately reported.

A resident looks out from the second floor as floodwaters surround his apartment complex in Houston on Monday. (David J. Phillip / Associated Press)

Several shelters were established for people forced from their homes. At least 100 people taken from apartment complexes in the north part of the city were being sheltered at a shopping mall.

There are areas of the city that have not flooded for a long period of time that have flooded, Turner said.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the countys chief administrator, said more than 1,000 homes were flooded.

This is a rain event thats very significant, no question about it, he said. Many of those homes havent flooded before.

Classes were canceled for the Houston Independent School Districts 215,000 students, Texas largest public school district, and most other schools throughout the metropolitan area.

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National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Bradshaw said about 70 Houston subdivisions flooded. At least two interstates  I-10, the main east-west freeway, and I-45, the major north-south freeway  were underwater near downtown.

Weve seen those go under water before and theyre under water again, Emmett said.

Other major freeways, plus some feeder roads leading to the highways, were shut off by high water.

Emmett warned drivers that even if they were able to get through on the highways, when its time to get off, you may not be able to.

The storms were part of a wide weather system in Texas that left warnings and watches through Tuesday morning for Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Tyler-Longview and as far east as Texarkana.

One TV reporter in Houston helped to rescue a man who drove his car into a flooded underpass.

In the incident captured on video Monday, KTRK reporter Steve Campion yells, Dude, youve got to get out of the car!

The man opens the passenger door and crawls out into the water as the reporter yells: Leave the car! Swim!

The driver swims toward Campion, who wades out into the waist-deep water and extends his hand.

As the car slowly sinks under water, the driver tells Campion that hes OK and that he didnt think the water was so deep.

Houston, at near sea level and known for its gumbo soft soil, is no stranger to flooding from torrential rains, tropical storms and hurricanes. Last Memorial Day, heavy rains caused severe flooding in the southwest parts of the city. Bayous there were quickly rising and the mayor urged residents to prepare for another round of floods.

We have had a lot of rain to fall in a short period of time and it is taxing our system, he said. If youre not presently flooded along one of these bayous, I can tell you things remaining as they are, if conditions do not change, that those areas more than likely will be flooded.

The city reported more than 115 emergency water rescues by mid-morning Monday and evacuation of at least 30 apartment complexes.

CenterPoint Energy said nearly 110,000 of its customers were without power.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston reported more than 410 flights canceled. William P. Hobby Airport, the citys other major airport, canceled more than 135 flights.

This situation will remain around for much of the day, the mayor said. Were asking people to exercise caution and common sense.

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The 12th Congressional District of New York, centered on Manhattans Upper East Side, is home to many symbols of the citys gilded glory: Park Avenue, the Guggenheim and Metropolitan museums, the penthouse abode of one Donald J. Trump.

It is also home to roughly 48,000 registered Republicans, a population dwarfed by more than 210,000 Democrats who twice delivered the district to President Obama with a vote surpassing 75%.

Still, that relatively meager mass of GOP faithful  more moderate, affluent and educated than the national norm  explains why presidential hopeful John Kasich plopped this weekend onto a counter seat at PJ Bernsteins delicatessen, where a swarm of reporters documented his intake of kreplach, sour pickles and strudel.

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He was cherry-picking.

New York, where Trump was born and bred in the borough of Queens, is expected to deliver its native son a handsome victory Tuesday, maintaining his narrow path toward the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the party nomination before its summer convention.

But the size of Trumps win will matter greatly.

New York awards 95 delegates, the fourth most of any state, under a system that gives Ohio Gov. Kasich and Trumps other opponent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a chance to walk away with a small share, provided they arent beaten too badly.

A candidate topping 50% of the statewide vote will get all of New Yorks 14 at-large delegates. If no one gets a majority, the sum will be divvied up. Three delegates will also be awarded in each of New Yorks 27 congressional districts, following the same formula.

It is a system akin to Californias June 7 primary, thus offering a sort of dry run for the contest that will either settle the GOP nominating fight or provoke hand-to-hand warfare all the way to the July convention.

In primaries on the scale of New York and California, no one has the kind of campaign budget that people who are running for governor would have, John Weaver, Kasichs chief strategist, said Saturday as his candidates black SUV pulled away from the deli. So what do you do? You have to look where you can pick up delegates.

Polls show Trump flirting with the 50% benchmark statewide and neither of his two opponents offers any pretense of beating him Tuesday. Thats a tall order, Kasich told reporters after picking at his apple strudel.

Trump, though, has taken nothing for granted. He even canceled a California visit to spend more time in New York, which, after a crushing April 5 loss in Wisconsin, has grown vital to his hopes of clinching the nomination without a convention fight.

Its great to be home, Trump said upon arriving at a boisterous Long Island rally, his first appearance after the Wisconsin debacle. It was a sentiment so heartfelt, he repeated himself. This is home, he said. Its great to be home.

Cruz, who won Wisconsin and has been steadily piling up delegates at party conventions around the country, has fared worse in New York.

The state, with its heavy concentration of urban, secular voters, always figured to be a tough sell for his brand of assertively religious conservatism. Cruz was heckled at an early stop at a Chinese-Dominican restaurant in the Bronx  You should not be here!  and in screaming type on the front page of the New York Daily News: Take the FU Train, Ted!

Ideology aside, Cruz assured himself a pungent welcome by disparaging New York values back in the Iowa caucus days, an attack on Trump he has since tried to explain away as referring to New Yorks liberal political establishment and not its people. The best and brightest, Cruz called them Wednesday night on CNN.

His wife, Heidi, offered her own unique tribute. I love the smell of New York, the former Goldman Sachs investment manager told a Republican audience in Queens. Such words are rarely heard, especially in the summertime. I love the hustle and bustle, she added.

Trump, though, has had none of it, drawing himself up in full umbrage and repeatedly reminding audiences of Cruzs disdain.

What are New York values? Number one, honesty and straight-talking, Trump told Republicans at a fundraising gala at Manhattans Grand Hyatt Hotel, which he restored in the late 1970s in one of his first major development projects.

Trump turned Cruzs remark, as he has repeatedly, into an attack on the victims of Sept. 11. In our darkest moment as a city, we showed the world the very, very best in terms of braveness and heart and soul, he said.

New York is the rare state where Kasich, a distant third in the delegate count, offers Trump his stiffest competition.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

He has sloughed off the saintly, above-the-fray demeanor shown in other states  perhaps its New York Citys vibe  barking at reporters and issuing some of his harshest rhetoric of the campaign.

Speaking to a womens group in Manhattan, he mentioned neither Trump nor Cruz by name, but his targets were unmistakable as he described two paths facing the GOP.

One choice is the path that exploits anger, encourages resentment, turns fear into hatred and divides people, he said. Another path is the one America has been down before. Its well-trod  but its also solid.

Apart from a few pockets on Long Island, in suburban Westchester County and some upstate college towns, New York City offers Kasich his best hope of picking off delegates Tuesday, on both sides of Central Park.

The Upper East Side is the original habitat of the Rockefeller Republican, the centrist, establishment-minded breed driven to near extinction as the national party grew more conservative and Southern in its orientation.

To this day, Manhattan Republicans tend to be fiscally conservative but socially liberal, said Jerry Skurnik, who runs the political data firm Prime New York, and many view Trump  who occupies three marble and gold-encrusted floors of his eponymous high-rise  as not an affable neighbor but an embarrassment.

Bad-mannered and too brash, Skurnik said.

One who shares that view is Nicholas Rostow, who detoured from a bike ride through Central Park when he heard Kasich would be stopping by PJ Bernsteins.

The governor is a grown-up, said Rostow, who worked in the Reagan and both Bush administrations and now teaches international law at Colgate University. Trump reminds me, unfortunately, of Mussolini, and Cruz is a wrecker.

He owes me a couple of weeks pay since he shut down the government for no reason, Rostow added, referring to the Cruz-led fight against Obamas healthcare law that led to a partial shuttering of the federal government in 2013.

Kasich cannot possibly win the nomination before July and the math makes it almost impossible for Cruz as well, so both their hopes rest on stopping Trump short of 1,237 delegates and forcing a fight on the convention floor. The difference may come down to a few scattered places, like New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, where Republicans are normally an afterthought.

Thats what were on, Kasich said as he sat before an array of kosher pickles. A delegate hunt.

mark.barabak@latimes.com

Twitter: @markzbarabak

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The Supreme Court on Monday heard oral arguments in United States vs. Texas, a case that will determine whether 4 million people living in the country illegally will get a reprieve from the threat of deportation, as President Obama sought to provide. Its a contentious case framed as much by politics as law, and one that has gained even more urgency with the rise of Donald Throw Them All Out and Build a Wall Trump as the face of a troubling anti-immigrant populist fervor. But the president was right in November 2014 when he issued an executive order expanding the pool of people eligible for deferrals because they were brought to the United States as children, and offering deferrals to the parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

There are at least 11 million people living in the U.S. without permission, nearly two-thirds of whom have been here for more than a decade. To track them all down and throw them out would be cruel, inordinately expensive, damaging to communities and disastrous for such businesses as construction, landscaping and food production. Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) may not be able to stomach the notion, but those illegals have become part of our society.

After the Dream Act died in the Senate in 2010, Obama crafted the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy to offer a reprieve to more than 1 million people living here illegally since childhood. In the wake of House Republicans refusal to consider the bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill in 2013, Obama broadened the definition of those eligible for reprieves under his previous order, while also granting similar treatment to those in the country illegally who are the parents of citizens or green-card holders.

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But Texas led a challenge by 26 Republican-dominated state governments that accused the president of failing to follow the required procedures in adopting new regulations and of violating the Constitutions requirement that the president take care to faithfully execute the laws Congress enacts. Despite their weak legal arguments, a Texas federal judge issued an injunction against Obamas new deferrals, leading to Mondays arguments before the high court, which were dominated by questions about whether the president overstepped his authority, and whether the states have legal standing to challenge the deferrals.

To bring a legal challenge, a petitioner must show that it has or will suffer concrete and particularized injury. The lower courts accepted Texas claim that the deferrals would harm the state by increasing its costs under a state policy that allows drivers licenses for noncitizens lawfully living in the state. Thats rather attenuated. The federal government doesnt order states to issue the drivers licenses, and Texas could avoid the damage by changing its policy or setting the fee high enough to recover its costs.

We believe the courts should be as open as possible to those seeking redress from wrongs, and should not deny standing lightly. But we also think it is wrong for elected officials to use the courts to settle political disputes rather than legal issues as Texas and the other states are doing here. If the Supreme Court tells Texas et al that theyre fighting a political battle in the wrong arena, that would send a welcome signal.

Conversely, a 4-4 split would in effect end the deferrals, which would be bad for the country and for millions of people carving out lives for themselves. We would prefer the court to affirm that the president acted within his powers in deciding whom to target for removal and whom to give permission to work in the country  powers established in immigration law. And in the process, the justices can grant some relief to immigrant families who have become integral to the fabric of the nation.

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UPDATE

3:28 p.m.: The article was updated to include information from Mondays oral arguments.

The article was originally published at 5:00 a.m.
Almost as soon as North Carolina passed House Bill 2, which preempted locally enacted civil rights protections for gay and transgender people, the states attorney general, Roy Cooper, announced that his office would not defend it against the inevitable constitutional lawsuits. Cooper, who is running for governor in North Carolina, called HB2 a national embarrassment and insisted it was unconstitutional.

The attorney generals decision represents a trend. More and more state attorneys general are refusing to defend divisive laws, especially those championed by opposition party governors and legislatures. Many seem to have concluded that nondefense of state laws is an option to be exercised in the service of politics.

Until 2008, nondefense was almost unheard of. That year then-California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown refused to defend Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. Since then, 16 other attorneys general have refused to defend state laws. Democrats refuse to defend gun rights legislation and anti-same-sex-marriage laws. Republicans refuse to defend campaign finance restrictions, gun control laws and protections for gays and lesbians.

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In large part, refusing to defend is a byproduct of the sharp Republican-Democrat divide that pervades todays politics. Before the divide, state legislation often garnered support from both Republican and Democratic voters and politicians; in that context, attorneys general couldnt count on scoring political points by refusing to defend laws. But now refusals to defend can be a surefire means of currying favor with interest groups and voters who fiercely oppose some state laws, and attorneys general wield their control of litigation for political reasons.

Consider the 2014 race for Wisconsin attorney general. Democratic candidates pledged not to defend voter identification laws or the states ban on same-sex marriage; the Republican candidate pledged not to defend a domestic partnership law.

States ... need to reconsider the function of attorneys general and how best to defend the constitutionality of state laws.

In 2015, Illinois Democratic Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan announced that she was defending a state labor statute by seeking to block Republican Gov. Bruce Rauners lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of fair share union dues. On Friday, California antiabortion groups gathered outside Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris office demanding she resign for opening an investigation into the local activist who secretly taped meetings with Planned Parenthood.

The absence of clear state laws regarding the powers and responsibilities of attorneys general is partly to blame for these partisan squabbles. A few states require that the attorney general defend all laws; a few make clear that the decision to defend is up to the attorney general; most say nothing at all about the question.

Even when state law defines the attorney generals job, politics can intrude. North Carolina mandates that its attorney general defend all actions in which the state may be a party and represent all state departments. Cooper has justified his refusal by saying his first obligation is to defend state agencies that do not want to abandon their antidiscrimination policies. Gov. Pat McCrory, against whom Cooper is running for the governorship, castigates the attorney generals decision as politically expedient.

This is not the first time McCrory and Cooper have locked horns over the refusal issue. Cooper and his office defended North Carolinas voter identification law in federal court  even though Cooper had publicly opposed the measure and created an online petition urging the governor to veto it. McCrory didnt pat him on the back for doing his job in that case. Instead, the governor spent state money to add other lawyers to the effort to uphold the statute. The governors chief legal counsel claimed that Cooper could not be trusted to offer a vigorous defense of the measure.

Attorneys general have always been political creatures and so, in one sense, nothing is new here. And yet states ought not ignore the uptick in nondefenses and charges of lawlessness and bad faith that result from it. They need to reconsider the function of attorneys general and how best to defend the constitutionality of state laws. Indifference to such questions should come to an end.

Neal Devins is a professor of law at William & Mary. Saikrishna Prakash is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. They are the authors of a study of attorney general refusal published in the Yale Law Journal in 2015.

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The Spanish-language channel Univision hopes to register 3 million new Latino voters before the November election. The organization Voto Latino is sending volunteers to Mana and Los Tigres del Norte concerts with an app that scans drivers licenses and quickly registers new voters. The National Council of La Raza and the League of United Latin American Citizens are once again staffing their long-running registration campaigns.

Its no secret why: The rule is no one can make it to the White House without the Hispanic vote, said Univision anchor Jorge Ramos.

In the 1992 presidential election, Latinos cast 4.2 million votes. By 2012, that number had nearly tripled, to 11.2 million. Now the Pew Research Center estimates that between 2012 and November 2016, 3.2 million U.S.-born Latino citizens will turn 18 and be eligible to vote; another 1.2 million Latino immigrants will become naturalized citizens.

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One of the most successful voter registration drives among Latinos occurred in East Los Angeles nearly 70 years ago.

These numbers, however, obscure another trend: Since 1992, voter registration rates among Latinos have remained stuck at around 58%. By comparison, about three-quarters of whites and blacks are registered voters. This is crucial, because once Latinos register, they vote. About 82% of registered Latino voters went to the polls in 2012, just five points below the turnout of white registered voters.

The principal problem is not voter turnout, concluded a January report published by CNN en Espanol and the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies at City University of New York. The reports author, Laird Bergad, didnt see signs the registration rate would improve: There is no reason to believe that this will change substantially by 2016, despite many announced voter registration drives.

Of course, that was before Donald Trump emerged as the Republican front-runner. His candidacy alone may increase Latino voter registration this year. But to seal Trumps fate, and to change the trajectory Bergad documented, Univision, Voto Latino and the other groups should look closely at history. One of the most successful voter registration drives among Latinos occurred in East Los Angeles nearly 70 years ago.

In 1947, a Mexican American social worker named Edward Roybal ran for Los Angeles City Council seeking to represent the 9th District, which included Boyle Heights and downtown. About a third of the districts residents were Latino, Roybals natural base. They were eligible to vote, but few were registered. Roybal finished third in a field of five, winning less than half the votes of incumbent Parley Christensen.

After the election, Roybal crossed paths with a community organizer, Fred Ross, who worked for Saul Alinksy. Roybal and Ross formed the Community Service Organization in Boyle Heights, tackling neighborhood issues such as police brutality and evictions. Voter registration was at the center of their work.

By the time Roybal ran for City Council again in 1949, the CSO had turned Latinos into a powerful political force. Roybal trounced Christensen in the 9th District, winning more votes in Boyle Heights alone (12,684) than his opponent did in the entire district (11,948). Roybals final tally  20,562 votes  was a sixfold increase from two years earlier. He became the first Spanish speaker on the City Council since 1881.

The key to the CSOs success was a bottom up, face to face, community-based campaign. Ross recruited volunteers who spent night after night knocking on doors. They hosted organizing meetings in their living rooms, where newcomers were signed up to host the next meeting, inviting more friends and family members. We can ... we will ... we must vote! read one CSO flyer.

Ross kept a 3x5 index card for each registered voter with a Spanish surname. The collection grew to more than 10,000. He tallied who was bringing in the most voters, male or female volunteers. The local newspaper, El Pueblo, reported the results: Three women registered more than 500 voters apiece, but no one could touch Matt Cyclone Arguijos: 2,286 registered voters.

The success in 1949 proved to be repeatable. In 1968, Ross worked with volunteers from the United Farm Workers on another East L.A. registration drive. They signed up 11,000 voters in 20 days in support of Robert F. Kennedys presidential campaign. One of those UFW volunteers was Marshall Ganz, who would later help develop Barack Obamas 2008 field campaign.

That was my school, Ganz says of Ross East L.A. efforts. That has always been my basic point of reference for how you do grass-roots political work. Its not the number of paid canvassers that matters most, Ganz adds, but recruiting people from the community to do the work.

Canvassing Mana fans at the Forum, and recruiting celebrities for PSAs, cant hurt in 2016. But Roybal and Ross success in Boyle Heights lends credence to common sense: To empower Latinos, the community is key. Its great to be able to tap a screen to register to vote. Its even better to mobilize a neighborhood to knock on doors, app in hand, until someone answers.

Gabriel Thompson is the author of the just-published Americas Social Arsonist: Fred Ross and Grassroots Organizing in the 20th Century.

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Ted Cruz scoops up delegates from Donald Trump in weekend contests

Republican Ted Cruz continued his romp through the delegate selection races, sweeping Wyoming and bolstering his showing elsewhere as rival Donald Trump struggles to catch up.

Trumps team was expecting a rough weekend heading into Saturdays wonky contests in several states, including those where Trump, the GOP front-runner, had already won the popular primary vote.

But maneuvering by the Cruz crew shows just how hard it will be for Trumps retooled delegate-hunt operation to clinch the 1,237 needed for nomination this summer in Cleveland.

Trump got shut out, said Scott Johnson, a Cruz organizer in Georgia who won a delegate spot from a district that the Texas senator lost back in March.

In Wyoming, Cruz picked up 14 delegates after he dashed West for an appearance, much the way he he peeled off the campaign trail earlier this month to lock up votes in North Dakota.

On Saturday, South Carolinas first congressional district awarded its three delegates, and put Cruz backers in each spot -- even though Trump swept that states primary.

And in Georgia, Trump started the day entitled to 26 congressional district delegates, but finished finished with supporters in about half those spots, GOP operatives in the state said.

Cruz, meanwhile, stacked his supporters in about 20 spots in Georgia, essentially doubling his haul.

It makes no sense, said Trump backer Lori Pesta, a longtime GOP activist in Georgia, who was voted off a spot in favor of Cruz ally Bob Barr, the areas former congressman and 2008 libertarian candidate for president.

Scenes from #GOP #delegate selection at one district this weekend in Georgia. pic.twitter.com/LQqoKIRkzi  Lisa Mascaro (@LisaMascaro) April 17, 2016

Under the rules, most delegates will be bound in Cleveland to vote on a first ballot for their states presidential preference -- which for many will be Trump.

But with Trumps ability to reach 1,237 on the first vote in question, Cruz has methodically been stacking his supporters in the delegate spots for the subsequent ballots.

Trump has called the whole process rigged.

This is a very insider-driven process, which empowers well-connected elites at the expense of people who cast their votes during the primary, said Brian Jack, Trumps national delegate director.

The campaign was investigating concerns of voter suppression in some districts in Georgia, he said. We want to be sure everyone was treated fairly.

Here in Marietta, at a district convention that consumed most of Saturday, party officials emphasized a call for unity.

Even though we dont agree on everything, we agree we need to elect Republicans, said Brad Carver, the district chairman who is uncommitted and won a delegate spot.

This is not about Cruz versus Trump. This is about electing our delegates to the national convention.

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Im Christina Bellantoni, kicking off your Monday with Essential Politics.

Weve been working for months on the front-page investigation published Sunday detailing how a majority of American Independent Party members in California might be registered with the party by mistake.

When Colleen Shalby, a community engagement editor at The Times, realized she was one of them, she nearly had a panic attack.

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She distinctly remembered wanting to proclaim her independence from her parents political leanings (one is Republican, the other a Democrat) as she filled out her first-ever voter registration form in college. But years later, here Shalby was, learning in a meeting with Times colleagues she was among the many thousands of people who mistakenly became AIP members.

When she found another member of the editorial staff who had similarly erred, she felt some comfort that she wasnt alone. And the moral of her story is that it can happen to anyone.

HOW WE DID IT

How did the idea for the project come together? It had been bubbling for years.

The American Independent Party numbers had always bugged Paul Mitchell, who runs a political data firm in California and closely studies voter trends and boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts. He suspected the growth in the party was not due to voters attraction to the groups ultraconservative, anti-abortion platform. Instead, it seemed, they were confused by the name.

Mitchell made it a bit of his own personal quest, and even teamed with a member of the Coastal Commission two years ago for an AIPril Fooled campaign to educate people.

Mitchell talked it over last year with veteran political journalist John Myers, who in October became Sacramento bureau chief at The Times. They realized the theory could actually be tested. Mitchell connected The Times with a bipartisan polling team who conducted the survey pro-bono, and provided those firms with the voter data.

The pollsters each have been involved in Californias primary  Ben Tulchin does polling for Democratic contender Bernie Sanders and Val Smiths firm has polled California Republicans about their presidential preference. Neither of them shared the poll results with other clients, and it was not made public until our story went live Sunday morning.

The Times independently worked with the pollsters to craft the questions for the survey, which was conducted in February. We werent sure what wed come up with, or if wed even have a story.

The numbers made clear that Mitchell was on to something.

Our subsequent investigation and the voter database we obtained through a public records request revealed residents of rural and urban communities, students and business owners and top Hollywood celebrities with known Democratic leanings  including Sugar Ray Leonard, Demi Moore and Emma Stone  were among those who believed they were declaring that they preferred no party affiliation when they checked the box for the American Independent Party.

Check for yourself, and if you are mistakenly registered, please share your story.

For more on the California primary and whats happening in Sacramento, keep an eye on our Essential Politics news feed.

CLINTON POPS BY LOS ANGELES TO RAISE BIG BUCKS

Over the weekend Hillary Clinton detoured from the intense campaign ahead of New Yorks Tuesday primary, raising well into the millions with George Clooney and other Hollywood glitterati.

As we reported in this space, she added a rally to her day in California.

I love coming to California. ... We need to get to work for a big victory in California, she said at Los Angeles Southwest College.

A pair of seats at her table with Clooney cost donors more than $353,000 Friday night in San Francisco, the most expensive tickets at an event attended by 70 people and hosted by venture capitalist and early Uber investor Shervin Pishevar. Another event was to be held at Clooneys home in Los Angeles, where the priciest tickets cost $100,000 per couple. The events underscore the states outsize role as a money tree for Democratic candidates.

Sanders responded with a television ad highlighting the difference between her high-dollar events and the average contributions his donors are giving.

Clooney himself said Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press that he doesnt enjoy doing the kind of fundraisers he did for Clinton in San Francisco and Los Angeles this weekend but called them necessary for Democrats to compete in Novembers elections. He said agrees with Sanders there is an obscene amount of money in politics.

The fundraisers benefited the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee between her presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state Democratic parties.

Sanders supporters are getting a lot of attention lately  and not the good kind. Since Clinton still leads in the delegate race, some feeling the Bern have been mounting public pressure on the party officials and local activists known as superdelegates. From calls in the middle of the night to threatening emails, the supporters may not be doing Sanders any favors.

OBAMA SITTING OUT PRIMARY

As Democratic fault lines deepen, Christi Parsons and Michael Memoli report that President Obama is likely to sit out the entire presidential primary season amid concerns about the damage he could do by stepping too soon into a contentious contest running far longer than he expected.

ANOTHER TRUMP PROTEST

Bay Area liberals are organizing to protest Donald Trumps upcoming speech at the state Republican convention at the Hyatt in Burlingame.

GEARING UP FOR A GUBERNATORIAL BID

Hes a numbers geek who once tried to cut off lawmakers paychecks. And the odds are over 90%" that hell run for governor.

George Skelton talks to California Treasurer John Chiang to try to understand why he wants the job.

QUESTIONS AT FISH AND WILDLIFE

Just 1% of Californians hunt. But some of those who do spend weekends and vacations outdoors with their hunting rifles say they dont feel supported by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission, which they say is dominated by animal rights activists and other pro-environment voices.

Patrick McGreevy reports that now advocacy groups are speaking out on behalf of hunters and anglers in hopes that Gov. Jerry Browns next appointment to the panel will better represent their views.

CHARGES OF VIOLENCE HIT CAMPAIGN

Assemblyman Roger Hernandez, who is seeking a congressional seat, has been ordered to stay away from his estranged wife, a Baldwin Park City Council member, after she said he violently abused her during their marriage.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court granted a temporary restraining order Wednesday that requires Hernandez (D-West Covina) to have no contact with Councilwoman Susan Rubio, whom he is divorcing. Hernandez, who has served in the California Assembly since 2010, is challenging Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk).

WOOING MILLENNIALS

House Democrats have found a way to connect with millennials: talking about student loan debt.

They have tasked 35-year-old California Rep. Eric Swalwell to lead the way with his group of young, and youngish, House members, who are traveling the country talking about their own debt and brainstorming legislation with people in their 20s and early 30s.

A BOOST FROM BUSINESS

Chevron Corp. and other business groups have poured nearly $2 million into an independent expenditure committee that has spent at least some of it so far to support Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown (D-San Bernardino). Brown, who is facing a serious intraparty challenge from Eloise Reyes, has been criticized in recent months for her votes on labor issues, and in particular, her role in helping block a key oil reduction provision in last years climate change bill.

In a statement, Brown said she was as surprised as everyone else at the contributions to the committee, which by law cannot coordinate with her campaign.

PODCAST: BROWNS PROGRESSIVE PIVOT

The governors back-to-back signing of laws long sought by progressive Democrats has some wondering: Is Brown about to make a pivot towards the partys liberal base?

Thats the top talker in this weeks California Politics Podcast. John Myers also leads a discussion on the first California moves by Donald Trump and the early collection of personal income taxes that play such a big part in the state budget debate.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

-- Sen. Ted Cruz nabbed even more delegates over the weekend. Track the delegate race in real time.

-- Spotted in the Central Valley: a pro-Cruz campaign billboard featuring the Texas senators photo and and his slogan, TrusTed.

-- Newsweek came to California to write a lengthy cover story on Brown. The title tells you the angle the magazine took: How Jerry Brown Quietly Saved California.

-- Dont eat pizza with a fork, and other food-based observations from Cathleen Decker on the campaign trail.

-- What do you think of Trump? Readers can weigh in with our quick survey.

LOGISTICS

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Were there: Lt. Gov. Newsom says he has enough signatures for gun control initiative

Citing the failure of the state Legislature to act, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he has collected 600,000 signatures of California voters to qualify a gun control initiative for the November ballot.

Were there. This is going to be on the November ballot, Newsom said Thursday. Over 600,000 registered voters want to take some bold action on gun safety.

Newsoms campaign plans to begin delivering signatures tomorrow to county clerks for verification. If at least 365,880 signatures are found to be valid, the measure will qualify for the ballot.

Newsom said most of the proposals in the initiative have one thing in common, that over the past number of years they have suffered the fate of either being watered down or rejected by the Legislature. Were hopeful and confident that the voters of California will overwhelmingly support the initiative.

The broad measure would require background checks for purchasers of ammunition; ban possession of ammunition magazine clips holding more than 10 rounds; provide a process for felons and other disqualified persons to relinquish firearms and require owners to report when their guns are lost or stolen.

The initiative would also address an issue caused by the previous adoption of Proposition 47, which made thefts of guns worth less than $1,000 a misdemeanor. The ballot measure would make all gun thefts a felony.

Last week, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) said key provisions of the initiative, including the ban on large-capacity magazines, are addressed by legislation this year, but that bills could be harmed by the initiative going forward.

A campaign committee including gun groups and law enforcement is being formed to defeat the initiative, according to one member, Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California. He noted that the measure has already been opposed by the California State Sheriffs Assn., which said it would put restrictions on law-abiding people without taking guns from criminals.

its an initiative that carries multiple proposals that were either killed by the Legislature as not workable or vetoed by the governor, Paredes said. Newsom has collected failed policy issues from the Legislature and put them up as an initiative. Its going to be a massive effort to defeat him.

Paredes said the initiative is a cynical attempt by Newsom to gain higher office.

We know hes doing this to pump himself up for his gubernatorial run, Paredes said.

Newsom said his campaign for governor is secondary to his effort to enact gun safety laws.

He said he has been active in the gun safety movement going back 15 years when he was mayor of San Francisco and a founding member of the group Mayors Against Guns. The National Rifle Assn. was so upset, they protested at his wedding in Montana, he said.

I expect a good challenge from them, Newsom said of the NRA. They have been very aggressive to date. But we are very enthusiastic to be getting to this next phase.

He cited internal polls indicating more than 70% of California voters support the initiative, and a Field poll that found greater support for provisions of the measure, including the ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines.
State Treasurer John Chiang is soft-spoken, reflective, substantive and a numbers geek. So why in this political era of shouting and showboating is he even thinking about running for California governor?

He doesnt pander, preen or pounce.

Well, once he did pounce on the Legislature by trying to cut off lawmakers paychecks after they passed a sham state budget. That move didnt win him friends among fellow Capitol Democrats.

Since last summer, Chiang, 53, has been talking about perhaps running for governor in 2018 when Gov. Jerry Brown is termed-out. He has been inching closer and now is almost there, he told me.

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Truthfully, it looks like he is there. He just isnt publicly saying so.

Im heavily leaning toward running, he said. What are the odds? Over 90%.

Hell make it official, he added, in the next month or two.

Why so early? The primary election is more than two years away. Were in the thick of a presidential bloodbath.

Answer: A candidate who isnt rich enough to finance his own campaign needs a long time to raise the money  tens of millions  to compete in a top-of-the-ticket California primary. Thats particularly true of a relative unknown like Chiang.

He has $3.3 million socked away from his easy 2014 jog for treasurer.

Hell face tough competition for governor.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the former San Francisco mayor who captured national attention by being ahead of the curve on same-sex marriage  ordering city officials to issue licenses to gay couples in 2004  announced his gubernatorial candidacy more than a year ago.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is considered likely to run.

Environmental activist Tom Steyer, a Bay Area billionaire and former hedge fund manager, has been mulling a gubernatorial bid.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti would be a logical candidate except for the timing: Hell be up for reelection in 2017.

Former state controller and EBay exec Steve Westly spent $35 million of his own money running for governor in 2006 and failed. Hed like to try again.

In this deep-blue state, unfortunately, Republicans need not apply.

But you also have to wonder about Chiangs prospects.

This is a political era when ranters triumph over the rational, when extremism is favored over pragmatism.

Moreover, Californians like to elect celebrities. If not, at least attorneys general.

But, yes, a treasurer did once get elected California governor. It was nearly a century ago: Republican Friend Richardson in 1922.

The winning scenario for Chiang is that hell appeal to moderates  Republicans as well as Democrats, and nonpartisans. Thats now possible in Californias new open primary system. The top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

Chiang also can expect strong support from voters of Asian ancestry. Hed be the first to be elected California governor. Their numbers are increasing, and they currently account for roughly 10% of the electorate.

Chiang is the son of Taiwanese immigrants and grew up in Chicago.

The family suffered tragedy in 1999 when Chiangs 28-year-old sister Joyce, a government immigration attorney, was kidnapped, robbed and murdered in Washington, D.C., by drug addicts. Her body was found three months later in the Potomac River.

It makes you understand how precious life is, he said.

Chiang majored in finance, moved to Los Angeles and worked for several elected officials. He was chief deputy to state Board of Equalization member Brad Sherman when Sherman was elected to Congress. That automatically elevated Chiang to the board. He later ran for and won two terms.

Then he was elected twice as state controller. He held that job in 2011 when the Legislature passed a gimmicky budget just before its deadline. Brown declared the plan unbalanced and vetoed it. Acting under a new law, Chiang docked the lawmakers pay. But a judge overruled him.

We made a point, Chiang told me. He wanted the lawmakers to understand that enough is enough. They have to get the budget correct.

Chiang will talk nonstop about fiscal efficiencies and smart bond financing, about paying as you go rather than borrowing.

But hes also a liberal on some things. He favors extending Browns soak-the-rich income tax rates, supports the recently signed $15-per-hour minimum wage and wants to spend more on education and affordable housing.

Hes not a fan of Browns $64-billion bullet train project, however.

In concept, I support it, he said. But we need to get private funding. You cant have a project that cant sustain itself.

Theres no private financing in sight.

Chiang is also skeptical about the governors $15.5-billion proposal to dig two 35-mile, 40-foot-wide water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

You cant start building tunnels and further devastate the ecosystem of the delta, he said. My first priority is to preserve the delta.

But he advocates more water storage  both above and below ground, preferably the latter.

Chiang hasnt read the marijuana legalization initiative being promoted by Newsom, but hes leery.

Im more of a decriminalization [guy] than legalization, he said. If adults want to use it, they can use it. But I dont want to encourage it.  I want to make sure its heavily regulated.

Chiang may be a nerd. But hes knowledgeable, thoughtful and seems ethically clean.

Who knows? After this year, we may demand earmuffs and by 2018 want to listen to someone calm like Chiang.

george.skelton@latimes.com

Follow @LATimesSkelton on Twitter

ALSO

Updates from Sacramento

Californias next governor: Whos running, whos on the fence?

How Asian Americans climbed the ranks and changed the political landscape

State treasurer pondering campaign for California governor
An endangered butterfly could get a new lease on life thanks to a breeding program at the San Diego Zoo.

The population of the Quino checkerspot butterfly, known for its distinctive checkerboard-patterned orange, black and white wings, has drastically declined because of urban development that has diminished its habitat, experts said. Its on the brink of extinction.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, one biologist described the situation as akin to having four engines out and about 10 seconds to impact.

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Once one of the most common butterflies in Southern California  its range was from the Santa Monica Mountains to Baja  the tiny Quino is hardly ever seen. Experts blame drought and development for the species decline.

Urban and agricultural development, invasion of nonnative species, habitat fragmentation and degradation, increased fire frequency and other human-caused disturbances have resulted in substantial losses of habitat throughout the species historic range, said experts with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Paige Howorth, associate curator of entomology at the San Diego Zoo, said that some years only one or two of the insects with the 2-inch wingspan are spotted.

Last year, there were not enough found in the wild to start a recovery population in the zoos butterfly conservation lab. This year, five males and seven females  as well as some eggs  were found.

Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter >>

They are being hand-fed nectar fortified with vitamins and minerals, and tiny larvae are provided with fresh dwarf plantains, which are also being grown in the lab.

Howorth said staff members are doing everything they can to ensure the butterflies can successfully reproduce.

My hope for this project is a successful breeding program for the Quino checkerspot butterfly, and that they will be reintroduced into restored habitat and become as common as they once were, she said.

debbi.baker@sduniontribune.com

Baker writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune

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Sixty-five million years ago, a massive asteroid slammed into Earth, causing tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, a global winter, and the end of the age of the dinosaurs.

But what if the asteroid had glided safely past our planet? Would dinosaurs still be here today?

New research suggests the answer is probably not. Instead, scientists have found evidence that dinosaurs were in the midst of a long, slow decline that began millions of years before the asteroid struck.

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In a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report that at least 40 million years before the Chicxulub asteroid landed in Mexico, dinosaur species were going extinct at a higher rate than new ones were coming into existence. With fewer species -- and less variation in habitat requirements and ecological niches -- dinosaurs would be more susceptible to environmental changes, the authors write.

There is no doubt that the Chicxulub impact was the final nail in the dinosaurs coffin -- with the exception of birds, authors Manabu Sakamoto, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Reading in England, and Chris Venditti, professor of evolutionary biology at the university, said in an email. However, we can speculate that if the trajectory of dinosaurs continued as it was at that time, dinosaurs would eventually have become impoverished in terms of species numbers -- and may have gone extinct all together.

The question of whether dinosaurs were already in decline before the asteroid put an abrupt end to their reign has been debated among paleontologists for decades. Recent attempts to address this question relied mostly on counting the number of fossils in the different geological time bins, Sakamoto said.

The dispute has continued unresolved because of a lack of statistical rigor, and appropriate evolutionary framework, the authors write.

In this paper, the authors turned to phylogenic trees, which show how species are related to each other, as the basis of their statistical analysis. This allowed them to study extinction and speciation rates in the three clades of dinosaurs through time.

The researchers found that speciation was in a long-term decline across all dinosaurs, and was exceeded by extinction rates between 48 million and 53 million years before the Chicxulub event.

The authors are not sure what caused the speciation rate to slow down, but they have a few ideas. They explain that the Cretaceous period (145.5 million to 65.5 million years ago) was a time of drastic geological changes. The global climate was cooling down, there was prolonged volcanic activity and the continents were breaking apart.

Any combination of these processes could have affected dinosaur speciation, Sakamoto and Venditti said.

Alternatively, it is possible that competition from mammals -- which were just small, rodent-like creatures at the time -- had something to do with it.

Recent studies show evidence that mammals were on the rise prior to the [asteroid event], so this scenario would be consistent with our findings, they said.

Do you love science? I do! Follow me @DeborahNetburn and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

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Songbird, the 3-year-old filly some considered even better than the boys, will be skipping the Kentucky Oaks because of a low grade fever the horse has contracted.

The stunning news was announced by owner Rick Porter on Facebook on Sunday.

Unfortunately we have to report that Songbird will miss the Kentucky Oaks, Porter said on the site. She developed a low grade fever after the SA Oaks and has not been able to go out to the track. With the fever not resolved, she was started on a course of antibiotics today, and as a result itll be another 7-10 days before shes able to return to the track. We are sorry to have to miss the Oaks but whats most important is to get Songbird well.

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Porter went on to say that two veterinarians have been assigned to the filly.

The outlook is excellent, but weve got to give her some time, Porter told Jeremy Balan of Bloodhorse. Certainly it was a little deflating, but the more I talked about it, I got over it, because weve got to do whats right.

While the news about her future is good it is disappointing to the legion of fans whom have made her a track favorite at Santa Anita and nationwide.

At least shes going to be OK, her jockey Mike Smith told The Times. Her health is the most important thing.

Songbird has not only won all of her seven races but done those in dominating style. Smith has no idea how much the horse has in reserve.

The filly last ran in the Santa Anita Oaks a week ago Saturday winning easily by 3  lengths on a rainy day at the Arcadia track.

That rainy day may have gotten her sick, said Smith, who had just learned of the horses fever. I know I got sick with a real bad cold or flu. As long as shes OK, thats all that matters. She was running so good.

john.cherwa@latimes.com

@jcherwa
Like your presidential politics spicy, but need a break from the Trump-Cruz-Kasich-Sanders-Clinton circus?

Then cast your gaze to the Philippines, where the 2016 campaign has become a nail-biter between a tough-on-crime, foul-mouthed, motorcycle-riding mayor accused of links to death squads, and a U.S.-educated senator and adopted daughter of movie stars whose candidacy was nearly derailed by questions over whether shes a bonafide Philippine citizen.

Voters in the Southeast Asian nation of 100 million, a longtime U.S. ally, will go to the polls in three weeks to choose a replacement for President Benigno Aquino III, who was elected in 2010 and is limited to one six-year term.

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Aquino has proved a relatively popular president, and under his leadership the Philippines has had one of the best-performing economies in Asia, with GDP growing 5.8% in 2015  behind only China and Vietnam.

But during his tenure, tensions have been rising between Manila and Beijing over Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea, and Aquino has steered the Philippines toward even warmer relations with the United States. In the early 1990s, Philippine leaders ousted U.S. troops from the country, but in 2014 the two countries signed a pact that lets the Pentagon rotate troops into the Philippines for prolonged stays and allows Washington to build and operate facilities on Philippine bases.

Aquinos designated Liberal Party successor, Manuel Mar Roxas II, has vowed a seamless continuation of Aquinos policies. (His campaign slogan? Continue the Straight Path.) But Roxas  who has a degree from the University of Pennsylvania and is the son of a senator and grandson of a president  has struggled to gain traction with voters in the five-way race. A survey conducted last week by the public opinion firm Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed him in third place with just 17% support.

In a statistical tie for the lead were Sen. Grace Poe, a former teacher who lived in Virginia for years, and Rodrigo Duterte, the 71-year-old mayor of Davao City whose say-anything style and anti-establishment rhetoric has drawn comparisons to Donald Trump.

Its the two outsider candidates who are doing well, said Mark Thompson, director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre at the City University of Hong Kong.

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Poe had 34%, while Duterte had 33%. Another survey conducted from March 30-April 2 by the firm Pulse Asia showed Duterte in the lead with 30% and Poe pulling 25% support. Candidates do not have to secure an absolute majority of votes; whoever garners the most ballots wins.

Having served seven terms as mayor, Duterte is campaigning on his record of crime fighting in Davao City, a metropolis of about 1.5 million on the southern island of Mindanao. Once known as the nations murder capital, Davao is now touted by tourism groups as one of Asias safest cities.

But critics say Duterte, who is known as The Punisher, has accomplished this by ordering police to shoot to kill and sanctioning shadowy so-called death squads who target petty criminals, drug dealers and even street children. Human Rights Watch says more than 1,000 people have apparently been killed by organized vigilantes in Davao since the late 1990s.

Duterte has challenged rights groups to file a case against him in court, vowing to prove his innocence. But at the same time, hes seemingly embraced their allegations and doubled down on them. Campaigning under the slogan Fearlessness and Compassion, hes boldly pledged to solve drugs, criminality and corruption in three to six months.

If I become president, hide. That number [of killed] 1,000 will reach 50,000, he boasted before declaring his candidacy. I would kill all of you who make the lives of Filipinos miserable. He added that he would throw victims bodies in Manila Bay and make the fish there fat.

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Phelim Kline, deputy director of Human Rights Watchs Asia Division, lamented what he called the shameful history of political tolerance for Dutertes tactics at the highest levels of government.

Dutertes boastful brand of violent impunity should be a path to prosecution, not a platform for political office, he said in a commentary.

On Monday, a video of Duterte joking about raping an Australian missionary who was slain in a Davao prison riot in 1989 sparked a fresh round of controversy over the candidate.

I saw her face and I thought, Son of a bitch. What a pity ... they raped her. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first, Duterte told a crowd of laughing supporters at a campaign rally. The comments have been denounced by womens groups and others.

Hes very polarizing, said Thompson. While the posting of the video, he believes, was an effort by someone powerful to discredit Duterte, the problem is that this outrageous statement jibes with other statements hes made that have won him only more support.

Dutertes call for adopting a federalist system and give more power and money to regional governments has also proved popular in regions where voters believe too much control is concentrated in the capital, Manila.

Poe, for her part, has pledged to improve education, infrastructure and government transparency, help the poor, and crack down on corruption. Shes vowed to steer the country into the U.S.-led trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

But Poe, 47, almost didnt make it to the starting line. Though she won election as a senator in 2013 with 20 million votes  the most of any candidate in Philippine history  her eligibility for the presidency was challenged in a case that was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court.

Opponents questioned whether Poe met the citizenship and minimum 10-year residency requirements for the nations highest office. Poe was abandoned as an infant on the doorstep of a church and raised by movie star Fernando Poe Jr. and his actress wife, Susan Roces, but her birth parents remain unknown.

She graduated from Boston College with a degree in political science, married a Filipino American and later became a U.S. citizen. Her fathers (ultimately unsuccessful) bid for the presidency in 2004 sparked her interest in politics and prompted her to move home and renounce her American passport.

While Aquinos tenure has been one of the most stable and prosperous in years, Thompson said many Filipinos are cynical about his legacy. The poor feel theyre not benefiting and unemployment remains high, so theres some appetite for change, he said.

How big a change, though, and how disruptive, remains to be seen.

This election could create a new round of instability, said Thompson. If theres a battle over the winner, if someone wins by 1 or 2 percentage points, there could be a long slow count or a court challenge.

It could be messy, he said.

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There are more refugees and displaced people today, driven from their home by war, persecution, poverty, and climate change, than at any time since World War II. In America, perhaps, it is the Syrian refugee crisis that earns the most attention. But there is another crisis which also speaks deeply to the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, and to the Muslim world: the plight of the Rohingya.

The Rohingya are the indigenous people of southwestern Myanmar, or so-called Rakhine State. For years now, they have taken to overcrowded and leaky boats on the open sea, submitted to dangerous human trafficking networks, and seen their families split apart in a desperate bid to find safety somewhere, anywhere. Like many of the worlds refugees, they are Muslim.

But Myanmar is not Syria, torn apart by civil war. Last year, Myanmars economy was the fastest-growing in the world. Myanmar is entering a widely heralded new era of democracy, under the direction of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Some of the praise she and her country receive is deserved. But much of it overlooks the unacceptable treatment of her Muslim citizens, who have suffered an ongoing and accelerating process of otherization and dehumanization that is deeply frightening to watch.

Boats of Acehnese fishermen (in front) tow a boat of Rohingya migrants in their boat off the coast near the city of Geulumpang in Indonesias East Aceh district of Aceh province before being rescued on May 20, 2015. Hundreds of starving boatpeople were rescued off Indonesia on May 20 as Myanmar for the first time offered to help ease a regional migrant crisis blamed in part on its treatment of the ethnic Rohingya minority. (JANUAR / AFP/Getty Images)

For decades, the Rohingya have been subject to strict restrictions. Since 1982, they were summarily rendered stateless. Today they have been herded into detention and internment camps, stripped of their valuables, denied freedom of movement, and left impoverished and lacking in even basic healthcare. It is no wonder that so many thousands make such risky journeys across treacherous waters. The plight of the Rohingya may not be well known in the West, but it is well known in the ASEAN and Muslim world.

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In fact, it is one of our highest priorities.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC, the worlds second largest intergovernmental organization after the U.N., has appointed me as special envoy to Myanmar. It is a sign of how seriously we take the systemic Islamophobia of Myanmars government, and the inexplicable silence of Aung San Suu Kyi--otherwise a champion of the dispossessed and distressed--over this treatment.

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Last week in fact, heads of state from more than 30 Muslim countries, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Pakistan, among others, and delegations from the remaining OIC member states, gathered in Istanbul for the 13th Islamic Summit. They reiterated their support for the Rohingya and called on the new government of Myanmar, under Aung San Suu Kyi, to begin a national reconciliation process, to restore to the Rohingya the rights they deserve, to honor the potential and promise of this new era in their history.

Indeed, national reconciliation and reintegration of the Rohingya is the only feasible, practicable way of addressing the humanitarian crisis created by years of discriminatory policy and exclusion. Should Myanmar truly wish to re-enter the international community, and realize the full potential long denied it by years of isolation and exclusion, then the question of the Rohingya must be addressed. The country has much to lose, and much to gain.

We hope the lessons of the past years, and the potential of years ahead, encourages the government of Myanmar to move in the right direction. For our part, the OIC is committed to leveraging the full diplomatic, economic and political resources of the Muslim world to that end - a commitment that was also made at last weeks Islamic Summit in Istanbul.

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We remind the government of Myanmar, too, of all the ways in which they have worked with, benefited from, and built ties to our member states.

National reconciliation and reintegration of the Rohingya is the only feasible, practicable way of addressing the humanitarian crisis created by years of discriminatory policy

Myanmar is already a member of ASEAN, which groups 10 Southeast Asian countries together, forming what would be the worlds seventh-largest economy, and third-largest country. Three of ASEANs members are OIC member states--Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Of these, Indonesia is the worlds largest Muslim country and largest economy. Sixty percent of the worlds Muslims live in the Asia Pacific area, meaning that Myanmar is at the heart of a growing region, and a fast-growing Muslim market, which is developing strong links between the Gulf region and Southeast Asia, for which Myanmar could be a potential hub.

We hope, too, that the government of Myanmar can see the undeniable benefits of a long-term partnership with the Muslim world. A resolution of the status of the Rohingya would open the door to deeper ties with the Muslim world, which bring political, economic and national security benefits to Myanmar. A close relationship between Myanmar and the Muslim world is common sense. As Myanmar opens to the world, it welcomes investment, trade and tourism. The Muslim market would look to Myanmar, given its location between South Asia, Southeast Asia and China. These are not abstract aspirations.

In 2015, during catastrophic floods, the Royal Brunei Armed Forces provided emergency humanitarian assistance to the people of Myanmar. On the election of Myanmars first civilian president, Indonesias (also elected) president, Joko Jokowi Widodo, called for increased cooperation between these two Southeast Asian democracies, especially in the fields of economy, trade and democratization. Bilateral trade was $500 million in 2014, and businessmen from both countries have met to discuss doubling that amount in this very year.

Rohingya children play during rain at an Internally Displaced Persons camp near Sittwe of Rakhine State, western Myanmar, 22 March 2016. (NYUNT WIN / EPA)

Malaysia, in turn, imports $303 billion worth of goods from Myanmar, while trade between these two countries is also accelerating. Malaysia is the seventh-largest investor in Myanmar; for example, OCK Group, a Malaysian telecom provider, is planning to build 900 cellphone towers in the country.

These relationships are natural, beneficial and critical. But should the Rohingya crisis continue, Myanmar may find that many of its neighbors--including Bangladesh, one of the worlds largest Muslim countries--will be closed for business, for assistance, and for political engagement and long-term relationships.

No country should be so isolated. The choice to gain new partnerships, new relationships, and to benefit from the region in which it lies, or to descend into ever more discriminatory and violent policies, belongs to Myanmar. We hope Myanmar will make the right decision, and we stand ready to work with Myanmar to finally bring the Rohingya peace and provide them the citizenship, prosperity and security they have so long been denied. It is the better thing to do. It is also the right thing to do. Let us work together to make it happen.

Syed Hamid Albar is the OIC special envoy to Myanmar. He is former foreign minister and minister for defense for the government of Malaysia.

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It was supposed to be a family reunion to celebrate a young relatives start of college. But the gathering ended in tragedy when a collapsing building crushed 17-year-old Sayira Quinde, her mother, father and toddler brother in their rusting Chevy Blazer.

A grief-stricken aunt, Johana Estupinan, now is making the longest journey of her life in a funeral hearse to the town of Esmeraldas, where she will bury her loved ones and break the news of the loss to her sisters three now-orphaned children.

As Ecuador digs out from its strongest earthquake in decades, tales of devastating loss are everywhere amid the rubble.

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The 7.8-magnitude earthquake left a trail of ruin along Ecuadors normally placid Pacific Ocean coast, buckling highways, knocking down an air traffic control tower and flattening homes and buildings. At least 350 people died, including at least one American and two Canadians, and thousands are homeless.

State Department spokesman John Kirby hasnt identified the dead American, but says U.S. officials have been in touch with the victims family.

President Rafael Correa said early Monday that the death toll would surely rise, and in a considerable way.

1 / 28 Firemen carry a body from a collapsed building in Pedernales, Ecuador. Rescuers pulled survivors from rubble Sunday after the strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast. (Dolores Ochoa / Associated Press) 2 / 28 A man evacuates his belongings in Manta, Ecuador, after a powerful 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country. (Luis Acosta / AFP/Getty Images) 3 / 28 General scene of the destruction in Manta, Ecuador, after a powerful 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country. (Luis Acosta / AFP/Getty Images) 4 / 28 A vehicle rolls on a cracked route after a 7.8-magnitude quake in Chone, Ecuador. (Juan Cevallos / AFP/Getty Images) 5 / 28 Residents sleep under a makeshift tent outside the emergency center in the town of Portoviejo, Ecuador. Parts of Ecuador have been devastated by the countrys strongest earthquake in decades. (Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press) 6 / 28 Ecuadors President Rafael Correa kisses a group of children after meeting with local authorities in the emergency center in Portoviejo, Ecuador. (Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press) 7 / 28 Veronica Paladines removes rubble in search for her husband in the Tarqui neighborhood in Manta, Ecuador, after a powerful quake hit the country. (Luis Acosta / AFP/Getty Images) 8 / 28 Heavy damage in the Ecuadorian town of Pedernales, after a 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country. (Rodrigo Buendia / AFP/Getty Images) 9 / 28 People carry an empty coffin on a pickup truck as they drive to collect the body of an earthquake victim in Pedernales, Ecuador. (Dolores Ochoa / Associated Press) 10 / 28 Lighted candles burn in front of a collapsed building as a tribute to victims of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in La Chorrera, Ecuador. (Dolores Ochoa / Associated Press) 11 / 28 Rescue workers search the rubble after a 7.8-magnitude quake in Guayaquil, Ecuador. (Luis Acosta / AFP/Getty Images) 12 / 28 Scene from Manta, Ecuador, after a powerful quake hit the country. (Luis Acosta / AFP/Getty Images) 13 / 28 A man searches a collapsed building on Sunday in the Pedernales, Ecuador, the day after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit. (Jose Jacome / EPA) 14 / 28 A woman cries in the quake-ravaged town of Pedernales, Ecuador. (Dolores Ochoa / AP) 15 / 28 Residents react as they gather in the street in the Pacific coastal town of Pedernales after the Ecuador earthquake. (Dolores Ochoa / Associated Press) 16 / 28 Collapsed buildings in the town of Pedernales, Ecuador, after the earthquake. (Jose Jacome / EPA) 17 / 28 Residents sleep in the street in the coastal town of Pedernales, Ecuador, after the earthquake. (Dolores Ochoa / Associated Press) 18 / 28 Residents wary of returning to their homes prepare food in a street in Pedernales, Ecuador. (Jose Jacome / EPA) 19 / 28 A man checks out a fallen building in Guayaquil after the Ecuador earthquake. (Marcos Pin Mendez / AFP/Getty Images) 20 / 28 Rescuers work to pull survivors from a collapsed building in the city of Manta, Ecuador. (Ariel Ochoa / AFP/Getty Images) 21 / 28 Rescue crews check a car after a bridge collapsed in Guayaquil, Ecuador, when a 7.8 earthquake hit. (Freddy Constante / EPA) 22 / 28 People rest in a Guayaquil park after the Ecuador earthquake. (Marcos Pin Mendez / AFP/Getty Images) 23 / 28 People take pictures of a collapsed bridge in Guayaquil, Ecuador, after the earthquake hit. (Jose Sanchez Lindao / AFP/Getty Images) 24 / 28 Rescue workers stand before a destroyed car after the collapse of a bridge in an earthquake in Guayaquil, Ecuador. (MARCOS PIN MENDEZ / AFP/Getty Images) 25 / 28 Residents walk on a street amid destroyed buildings following an earthquake in Guayaquil, Ecuador. (ARIEL OCHOA / AFP/Getty Images) 26 / 28 Patients and relatives wait outside the Colombia Clinic in Cali, Colombia, after being preventively evacuated following a powerful earthquake that hit Ecuador. (LUIS ROBAYO / AFP/Getty Images) 27 / 28 An image taken from Venezuelan channel Telesur shows Ecuadors Vice President Jorge Glas updating quake information at a news conference in Quito. (AFP/Getty Images) 28 / 28 Patients and relatives wait outside the Colombia Clinic in Cali, Colombia, after being preventively evacuated following a powerful earthquake that hit Ecuador. (LUIS ROBAYO / AFP/Getty Images)

The Ecuadorean spirit knows how to move forward, and will know how to overcome these very difficult moments, Correa said.

Portoviejo, a provincial capital of nearly 300,000, was among the hardest hit, with the towns mayor reporting at least 100 deaths. The Quinde family drove there from their home hours north up the coast to drop off Sayira at Estupinans house a week before she was to start classes at a public university on a scholarship to study medicine.

She was my favorite niece, Estupinan said, emotionally torn apart after waiting at the citys morgue for hours. I thought I was getting a daughter for the six years it was going to take her to earn a degree.

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I never thought my life would be destroyed in a minute, she added.

Estupinan watched as her loved ones remains were loaded onto a truck-sized hearse for the nighttime drive, the three older ones in dark mahogany coffins and 8-month-old Matias in a casket painted white. It was supposed to be a short moment of family happiness but it converted into a tragedy, she said.

She hoped to bury her relatives in Esmeraldas on Monday, but devastation there is also severe and she worried about whether the hearse could make it along roads ripped apart by the quake.

The Saturday night quake knocked out power in many parts along the coast and some who fled to higher ground fearing a tsunami had no home to return to, or feared structures still standing might collapse. The countrys Geophysics Institute said it recorded 230 aftershocks, some strong, as of Sunday night. In the hardest hit towns and fishing villages, nearly all buildings were flattened.

With makeshift shelters in short supply, and some afraid to return indoors, many passed a second straight night outdoors huddled among neighbors.

Security Minister Cesar Navas said Monday the death toll had risen to 350 and said rescuers are still seeking victims and survivors among collapsed buildings.

Correa cut short a trip to the Vatican and flew directly to the city of Manta to oversee relief efforts. Even before touching Ecuadorean soil he signed a decree declaring a national emergency. Speaking from Portoviejo late Sunday he said the earthquake was the worst natural disaster to hit Ecuador since a 1949 earthquake in the Andean city of Ambato, which took more than 5,000 lives.

Our grief is very large, the tragedy is very large, but well find the way to move forward, Correa said. If our pain is immense, still larger is the spirit of our people.

As rescuers scrambled through the ruins near the epicenter, in some cases digging with their hands to look for survivors, humanitarian aid began trickling in. More than 3,000 packages of food and nearly 8,000 sleeping kits were being delivered Sunday. Correas ally, Venezuela, and neighboring Colombia, where the quake was also felt, organized airlifts. Mexico and Chile sent teams of rescuers.

Spains Red Cross said as many as 5,000 people may need temporary housing after the quake destroyed homes, and 100,000 may need some sort of aid.

For Gods sake help me find my family, pleaded Manuel Quijije, 27, standing next to a wrecked building in Portoviejo. He said his older brother, Junior, was trapped under a pile of twisted steel and concrete with two relatives.

We managed to see his arms and legs. Theyre his, theyre buried, but the police kicked us out because they say theres a risk the rest of the building will collapse, Quijije said angrily as he looked on the ruins cordoned off by police. Were not afraid. Were desperate. We want to pull out our family.

Local media reported a second night of looting Sunday in Manta after 180 prisoners from a jail near Portoviejo escaped amid the tumult. Authorities said some 20 inmates were recaptured and some others returned voluntarily.

Seeking security from any unrest, about 400 residents of Portoviejo gathered Sunday night on the tarmac of the citys former airport, where authorities handed out water, mattresses and food. The airport was closed in 2011 and flights diverted to a larger facility in nearby Manta after Correa kicked out a U.S. drug interdiction operation stationed there.

Shantytowns and cheaply constructed brick and concrete homes were reduced to rubble along the quakes path. In the coastal town of Chamanga, authorities estimated than 90% of homes had damage, while in Guayaquil a shopping centers roof fell in and a collapsed highway overpass crushed a car, killing the driver.

The government said it would draw on $600 million in emergency funding from banks to rebuild.

But in the meantime, the digging and hoping against the odds continued.

In downtown Portoviejo, a few blocks from where a four-story hotel fell onto the Quinde familys car, the six-story social security building was a pile of debris. Downed power cables were strewn across the street.

The situation is heart-rending, said Jaime Ugalde, editor of El Diario, the citys most-important newspaper, as he surveyed the damage. Im going to return home and hug my wife and two kids. Were the lucky ones. Were alive.

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A bus exploded in Jerusalem on Monday, wounding at least 21 people in what police said was a terror attack and raising fears of a return to the Palestinian suicide attacks that ravaged Israeli cities a decade ago.

There is no doubt that this was a terror attack, Jerusalem Police Commissioner Yoram Halevy said. He said it was too early to know the identity of the attacker or if it was a suicide bombing.

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We are investigating where the explosive device came from, who planted it, how it got on the bus. All this is in the initial stages of investigation, he said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 21 people were wounded in the attack, two seriously, seven moderately and the rest lightly. Another bus and a car nearby were also damaged by the explosion.

A bus has exploded in the heart of Jerusalem, wounding at least 21 people.

It was not clear how many people were on the bus at the time it exploded. Police said the blast was caused by an explosive device detonated at the back of the vehicle.

Bus driver Moshe Levy told reporters he checked his bus for bombs twice before he started his journey. He said he was in a traffic jam when suddenly there was an explosion in the back, I immediately understood it was a terror attack, I opened the doors of the bus so people could escape and told them to get out.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation. We will locate those who prepared this explosive device. We will reach the dispatchers. We will also reach those behind them. We will settle the score with these terrorists.

The blast came as jittery Israelis prepared for the Passover holiday amid a seven-month wave of Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, shootings and attacks in which cars were used as weapons against civilians and security forces.

In that time, Palestinian attackers killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. At least 189 Palestinians have been killed. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were attackers, with the rest killed in clashes with security forces.

For some, the bombing was reminiscent of attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad a decade ago, when the Palestinian groups sent suicide bombers to detonate their explosives in buses and cafes.

Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, issued a statement praising the bus bombing but did not take responsibility for it. Some mosques in Gaza also welcomed the attack with messages of praise broadcast from loudspeakers.

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A spokesman for Hamas in Qatar, Husam Badran, said: This attack affirms to everyone that our people will not abandon the resistance path.

The current round of bloodshed was triggered in September by unrest at a major Jerusalem shrine revered by Muslims and Jews, and quickly spread to Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza border.

Israel says the violence is fueled by a campaign of Palestinian incitement compounded on social media sites that glorify and encourage attacks. Palestinians say the violence is due to a lack of hope for gaining independence after years of failed peace efforts.

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When the dope thugs beat him with a pistol, Rodrigo Sonck decided enough was enough.

He cleaned the gashes on his face and went to his father to plead for help: The cocaine life was killing him.

A month and a half later, Sonck was cloistered in a treatment clinic in the central state of Hidalgo, relating a tale of addiction that is increasingly familiar as growing numbers of Mexicans sample the drugs that once flowed through their country untouched.

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For Sonck, a 28-year-old father of two, cocaine turned from an occasional party complement into an all-consuming, $700-a-week obsession. He sold his taxicab abruptly one night to get high. He had a chicken stand that met the same fate. The pistol-whipping came in August, after he raced off with his dealers merchandise.

Sonck had veered over the edge.

It started as a game, and ended as a terrible disease, he said.

The rest of Mexico is starting to feel much the same way. Once mainly a smuggling corridor for drugs heading to the United States, Mexico is grappling with the effects of a fast-rising addiction rate as relatively cheap versions of cocaine and methamphetamine find a market south of the border. Experts say the supply has increased as U.S. enforcement on the border has made it more difficult to move illegal drugs north.

A recent government survey of drug use shows Mexicans are trying drugs, and getting hooked, earlier in life and more frequently. The number of people who said they had tried drugs rose by more than a fourth, to 4.5 million, since the last survey in 2002. More than 460,000 Mexicans are addicted to drugs, a 51% jump from six years ago, according to preliminary results of the survey released last month.

Those tallies are undoubtedly too low. Officials said safety considerations prevented them from querying residents in two key drug-trafficking states, Sinaloa and Baja California, and hindered data collection in three others.

Growing consumption here presents a difficult new front in President Felipe Calderons war on drug traffickers, declared in December 2006. There are signs that the street trade, known as narcomenudeo, is adding to overall drug violence that has killed more than 3,000 people nationwide this year. Analysts say the well-armed gangs that have fought each other for control of key international drug-smuggling routes are battling over the market in Mexico as well.

The slaying of the mayor of a resort town outside Mexico City this month was in part linked to his resistance to local drug sales, authorities said. Media reports said 12 men whose headless bodies turned up in the Yucatan peninsula in August may have been killed as part of a narcomenudeo turf war.

Mexican leaders, who for many years have pointed an accusing finger toward the United States when talking about drug use, now acknowledge their nations own problem.

It is clear to everyone that our nation has stopped being a transit country for drugs going to the United States and become an important market as well, Atty. Gen. Eduardo Medina Mora said recently. We are experiencing a phenomenon of greater drug supplies in the streets, at relatively accessible prices.

Addiction is reaching all corners of a nation that is poorly equipped to cope. Some rural Mexican communities have watched drug use rise after migrant workers returned from the United States with a new appetite for cocaine and other addictive substances.

Experts say potent drugs, such as cocaine, have become affordable for Mexicans of modest means. Prices have fallen as domestic supplies have risen, in part because of U.S. efforts to tighten border security since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Theyve gotten cheaper, basically, because there is more availability, said Carmen Fernandez, who runs a nationwide network of 110 drug clinics, known as Juvenile Integration Centers, that are largely supported by government funds. A lot of these drugs stayed in Mexico.

Methamphetamine, a synthetic drug, is manufactured in Mexico and widely available. Officials in the northern border state of Sonora say consumption of crystal methamphetamine has quadrupled since 2002. They label drug use their biggest public-health threat.

In interviews, addicts confirm that illegal drugs are readily available and often less expensive than a six-pack of beer. Crack cocaine, known in Spanish as piedra, or rock, sells for as little as $3 a hit. Powder cocaine, folded into a stamp-sized paper bundle known as a grapa, is diluted with aspirin or other chemicals and sold for $5 or less.

In Mexico Citys poorest neighborhoods, such as the Iztapalapa and Tepito sections, dealers work from mom-and-pop stores, grimy housing projects and street corners.

Its like a plague that is invading us, complained Ulises Ocampo, a neighborhood activist in the Tlalpan section of southern Mexico City.

Sonck said he had 25 spots to buy cocaine near his home in northern Mexico City. It used to be something that was not very common, he said. Now everybody is involved.

Calderon has proposed giving arrestees who are addicts or those caught with small amounts of drugs a choice of treatment rather than prison. The measure would also give local police a bigger role in trying to erase small-time drug dealing, at a time when federal forces are strained.

Administration officials insist the proposal wont mean decriminalizing small amounts of cocaine and other drugs. The proposal wins qualified praise from critics who say the government has given short shrift to prevention and treatment in favor of a U.S.-style approach heavy on enforcement.

There are not enough good treatment centers. There is not enough good prevention of relapses, said Haydee Rosovsky, a drug scholar who formerly headed the governments commission on addiction. All the money is put in helicopters and soldiers and firearms.

The Calderon administration has begun building 310 centers to improve outpatient treatment by helping specialists spot addictions sooner.

Janai Ramos needed help long before she got it.

Ramos, a 22-year-old addict in Mexico City, smoked crack through a glass pipe for the first time four years ago. This is for me, she recalled thinking.

The drugs were within easy reach: Ramos could buy from any of four nearby houses, side by side. She sank into long benders, emerging filthy and dehydrated after consuming nothing but crack smoke for four days at a time.

Ramos was soon smoking 15 hits a day, at $5 each. She made money selling fake-gold bracelets, but started stealing cellphones, hubcaps and truck mirrors to pay for more piedra.

Eventually she traded her body, selling sex up to five times a day to men she didnt know.

The truth is very ugly and degrading and humiliating as a woman, Ramos said. Her round eyes were bright, but her voice seemed to come from a thousand miles away.

Ramos sought help several times, but relapsed. In late August, she checked into a clinic in Iztapalapa. She and three other women share a dorm-style room, spare but with a few paper flowers.

The mens section has 24 people. All but two are coke addicts. They are up at 7 a.m. and fill the day with workshops, therapy sessions and household chores before lights go out at 10 p.m.

On the tough streets outside, an easy supply of drugs beckons, a fact of life in this new Mexico.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

Cecilia Sanchez of The Times Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.
Israels military prosecutor on Monday formally charged a young combat medic with manslaughter in the shooting of a Palestinian knife attacker in the West Bank last month, saying that the soldier violated open-fire rules and acted without justification.

The prosecutor accused Sgt. Elor Azariya, whose identity was revealed Monday for the first time, of firing from close range at the head of Abdel Fattah Sharif, who had been lying prone on the ground with multiple bullet wounds for several minutes after the knife attack on an Israeli soldier in Hebron.

The terrorist had not carried out another attack and did not constitute an immediate or substantial threat to the defendant or the other civilians and soldiers, according to the one-page indictment submitted to a military court in Jaffa. In his actions, the defendant illegally caused the death of the terrorist al Sharif.

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The shooting, which was caught on Palestinian video publicized by the Israeli human rights group BTselem, is a rare instance in which the army accused one of its own in the death of a Palestinian. It has kicked up a politically polarizing solidarity campaign on Azariyas behalf that has aimed unusually harsh criticism at the army top brass and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who have been accused of hastily judging the medic rather than backing him up.

Palestinian officials allege that the shooting of Sharif is part of a policy by Israeli security agencies to respond to assailants with deadly force even after there is no immediate threat. The United Nations Middle East coordinator for the peace process, Nikolay Mladenov, condemned the shooting as an apparent extra judicial execution.

The defense team for Azariya, who is also accused of behavior not fitting a soldier, says that he opened fire fearing that Sharif was wearing an explosives belt.

There wont be a conviction.... We will seek a complete exoneration, defense attorney Ilan Katz told Israeli reporters outside the courthouse on Monday. The evidence is weak.

The soldiers father, Charlie Azariya, encouraged supporters to attend a rally on Tuesday in Tel Avivs Rabin Square. The event had been planned to include two Israeli pop stars, but they pulled out on Monday.

Solidarity protests have hailed the soldier as a hero. Many Israelis sympathize with a conscript perceived to have acted impulsively in the throes of a dangerous situation.

At a demonstration outside the military court, supporters held signs reading, We are all with the combat soldier.

The incendiary atmosphere prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to weigh in on Monday, saying that although he understood the concern of the soldiers family, open-fire regulations were necessary to protect soldiers safety as well.

I want to tell the public: Lower the flames. The Israel Defense Forces backs up its soldiers, he said.

The incident occurred the morning of March 24, when Sharif and another knife assailant attacked an Israeli soldier who was lightly wounded. Sharifs partner was killed, but he was left alive with multiple bullet wounds, according to an autopsy.

Supporters of Azariya say that he acted in the heat of the moment and cant be judged by those who were not on the scene. According to Israeli news media reports, Azariya said at the time of the shooting that Sharif deserved to die. Yoram Yair, a former major general on the armys general staff, said that Azariya told Israel Radio that he acted unprofessionally.

Data from the Israeli human rights watchdog Yesh Din indicate that the military prosecutor has investigated 262 cases of deaths of Palestinians and foreign nationals by soldiers since 2000. Those investigations led to 22 indictments, but just one manslaughter charge and conviction, for the killing of a British national.

Mitnick is a special correspondent.

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Israel will never relinquish control over the Golan Heights, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday during the first Cabinet meeting to be held in the contested territory. He said that the chaos from the civil war in neighboring Syria made returning the strategic plateau to Damascus too risky for Israel.

Its time that the international community recognize two fundamental facts,' Netanyahu declared after posing with Cabinet members at a spot overlooking the Sea of Galilee -- Israels largest water reservoir. First, no matter what happens on the other side of the border, the line itself isnt going to change. Second, its time that the international community finally recognize that the Golan will remain forever under Israels sovereignty.

Fourteen years after conquering the Golan in 1967, Israels government essentially annexed the territory by extending Israeli law to the territory and giving the Syrian Druze villagers who lived there the status of permanent residents of the Jewish state.

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Most of the international community rejected the move and considers the Golan occupied territory.

The Golan is a largely rural region, and attracts more tourists than newcomers, despite Netanyahus pledge to boost development there. About 20,000 Syrian Druze live in a handful of villages near the eastern cease-fire lines that are patrolled by United Nations peacekeepers, and about 25,000 Israelis live on settlements there. By contrast, hundreds of thousands of Israelis live on settlements in the West Bank.

But the Golan also holds the promise of having oil, a theory that has pushed Afek Oil and Gas, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Genie Energy, to begin exploring in the area. The company has drilled for oil at four sites in the Golan since Feb. 2015, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Syrian state media aired a statement from the sons of the invaded Arabic Syrian Golan, rebuffing Netanyahus declaration and saying that the disputed territory would always truly be part of Syria, calling the Israelis invaders and the opposition fighters terrorists.

Damascus would use all means to take back the Golan Heights, including military ones, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said in an interview with Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese broadcaster with close ties to the Syrian government.

We have never given up on the choice of resistance and Israel wants to provoke us and we will not submit.

Since the 1990s, a succession of Israeli prime ministers had discussed returning nearly all of the Golan Heights to Syria in return for a full normalization of ties.

Netanyahus remarks seemed to close the door to that possibility. With fighting raging in Syria, politicians in Netanyahus coalition have frequently argued that such a peace deal would have brought chaos to Israels doorstep.

On Sunday, Netanyahu predicted that Syrias warring religious groups would remain at odds for the foreseeable future and argued that Israels continued control over the Golan Heights would be a stabilizing factor in the region. While Israel has built a new fence in the Golan to prevent the conflict from spilling over its borders, it has also been providing humanitarian aid to antigovernment villages and fighters in the border region as a way of trying to bolster stability amid the power vacuum in Syria.

I doubt it if Syria will ever return to what it once was, Netanyahu said, echoing what he said over the weekend to U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry. We wont oppose a political settlement in Syria on condition it doesnt come at the expense of Israel. In other words, at the end of the day, the forces of Iran, Hezbollah, and ISIS must be expelled from Syrian territory.

A militia in a village by the Israeli-Syrian border declared its allegiance to Islamic State this year, alarming Israeli intelligence officials. That militias offensive now threatens to destroy the Southern Front, a loose coalition of Syrian rebel factions that have received backing from the West.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war five years ago, Israel has avoided taking sides in the conflict, and has refrained from commenting on the potential outcome. When Israel has intervened, its been to strike weapons shipments to Hezbollah in Iran and to keep pro-Iranian militias away from the Golan Heights line between the two countries.

The Syrian government, however, insists that Israel is offering support to the rebels, even tolerating the presence of the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front as one of the dominant forces in the Golan and the southwestern province of Qunaiterah.

A cache of leaked files that emerged last year also cast doubt on the idea that Israel is only providing humanitarian assistance to Syrian rebels. The personal files of Mendi Safadi, an Israeli Druze politician from the north of the country, were leaked to the Lebanese newspaper Al-Safeer by a group of Hezbollah-affiliated hackers.

The files included long-running correspondence with Syrian rebels about weapons deals and intelligence sharing, and also suggested that Safadi had tried to influence the selection of rebel political leaders based in Turkeys southern city of Gaziantep.

Safadi insisted all evidence of giving military support to the rebels was fabricated.

Netanyahus declaration risks embroiling Israel in the Syrian conflict, Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli peace negotiator with Syria and former ambassador to the U.S. told Israels public radio on Sunday. We are putting ourselves in the center of the debate, he said.

Others also questioned the timing of the speech, which comes as the Syrian peace talks in Geneva sputtered on with no solution to the conflict in sight.

Geneva presents another opportunity for Netanyahu to lay down a marker and get the world accustomed to the idea that the Golan is Israeli and that it is futile for people to think of it in any other context, said Dr. Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and a Syria expert. I am sure it is good for local politics too.

While Netanyahus comments on the Golan cater to Israeli public opinion, they also signal to the international community that it must take Israels position into account in negotiating a solution to the Syrian civil war, said Eyal Zisser, a political science professor at Tel Aviv University who focuses on Syria.

Half a year ago we were sure the war is going to continue for a long time, and theres no solution, he said. Now theres a sense that there might be a settlement imposed by Russia and the Americans, and its important for Netanyahu to remind everyone that we are there, and they should be taking our interests into consideration.

Mitnick is a special correspondent. Special correspondent Nabih Bulos contributed from Beirut.

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Islamic State extremists in Syria dislodged other militant groups from a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus on Monday, even as the United Nations warned that weeks-long clashes have spurred horrendous conditions for thousands of civilians.

Activists in the Yarmouk camp, southeast of the center of Damascus, the capital, reported that Islamic State had overrun parts of the camp after the withdrawal and surrender of fighters with the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front. Islamic State confirmed the attacks in a statement.

The move by Islamic State in Yarmouk came as Syrian opposition fighters attacked government forces in a new offensive in the countrys northwest and opposition leaders said they would postpone participation in peace talks in Geneva.

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The oppositions High Negotiations Committee reportedly said its decision stemmed from the ongoing fighting in Syria. U.N. special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said the opposition delegation was expected to stay in Geneva for discussions.

Also Monday, officials in Turkey said several rockets fired from Syria struck the Turkish border town of Kilis, killing three Syrian children and a Syrian man.

The latest advance in Yarmouk means Islamic State controls more than 70% of the camp, a shambolic sprawl that was once considered the capital of the Palestinian diaspora, with more than 110,000 registered refugees in 2002.

The area is a densely populated urban landscape with shops, schools and stadiums whose control was divided among the 14 Palestinian factions found in the camp, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (known as the PFLP-GC) and Hamas.

Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the U.N Relief and Works Agency, said in a statement Sunday that fighting that began April 6 had affected the most densely populated areas of Yarmouk and has used heavy weapons, explosive devices and weapons of indiscriminate effect.

The impact on civilian life has been devastating, said the statement, adding that the estimated 10,000 civilians still trapped in Yarmouk faced the specter of starvation and dehydration.

The size and the caliber of weaponry used its extraordinarily disproportionate, and people are hunkering down in their homes to avoid being hit by bullets and shrapnel, Gunness in a phone interview Saturday.

Those people are stuck between two fires, and they wake up and find decapitated heads on the sidewalk, said Abdullah Jumaah, a member of the PFLP-GC contacted by phone from Damascus.

The U.N. has been unable to deliver supplies to Yarmouk because of the fighting, but Gunness said that the U.N. stands ready to resume its humanitarian missions in the area. Other groups, such as the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, continue to deliver food and water to the camp, Jumaah said.

Local media outlets, however, reported that the only accessible passage between the government-controlled areas and Yarmouk had been closed by the government.

With this, the residents of Yarmouk Camp [and adjacent neighborhoods] are totally besieged, for all foodstuffs and goods come through this passage, said Al-Modon news website.

Last April, Islamic State fighters infiltrated the camp from the adjacent Hajar Al-Aswad district. It has since made steady progress inside the camp, even though it has not yet reached northwestern areas of Yarmouk controlled by factions allied to the Syrian government.

But Islamic States renewed assault is an indication that the group is seeking to secure its grip on the dagger-shaped neighborhood, a strategic passageway that leads to the administrative heart of Damascus and the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Yarmouks importance has made it the scene of violent clashes throughout the Syrian civil war, now in its sixth year, dividing the Palestinian factions between those who fight on the side of the government and those who have joined the opposition factions seeking to end Assads rule.

The fighting pushed out the majority of the camps residents, but left thousands to face a punishing siege by Syrian army units that was subsequently relaxed after a U.N.-brokered aid deal.

Bulos is a special correspondent.
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The U.S. Supreme Court has been hearing arguments about President Barack Obama's immigration executive actions on Monday, April 18, a development that could have major consequences on the 2016 presidential race for the White House.

Before the court is the burning question of if the president was within his legal authority in 2014 when he moved to unilaterally act to protect approximately 4.9 million undocumented immigrants from the further threat of deportation.

Legal Ruling one of Biggest of Obama Administration

The high court's decision stands to easily rank as one of the most consequential legal rulings of Obama's two-terms in office and shapes up to carry plenty of weight in the minds of voters set to decide the critical issue of who should reign as his successor over the next several months.

Republican front-runners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have openly taken on hard-line stances against immigration reform, with both pledging to mass deport up to 11 million immigrants should either of them be elected. In addition, Trump has vowed to build a massive wall along the Mexican border to further keep out immigrants.

In contrast, Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both pledged allegiance to a plan of immigration reform.

Support on Issue Breaks Down Along Partisan Lines

Supporters on both sides of the issue are expected to line the streets of Washington on Monday, making certain that their voices are heard on an issue that has largely splintered along partisan lines.

The president was moved to action after House Republicans repeatedly resisted his calls for bipartisan legislation and shot down a Senate proposal that would have provided immigrants with a path toward citizenship. Soon after the president enacted his own legislation, the state of Texas and 25 other GOP led states moved to file suit.

Known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), Obama's plan stood to allow the estimated four million people that have lived in the U.S. without authorization since 2010 the chance to enter a program that shielded them from deportation and supplied them with work permits.

To qualify for the program, one would have to have no criminal history and record children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.

The plan never saw the light of day after it was blocked by a federal judge in Texas. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision in November and the Supreme Court is expected to formally render its decision by the end of June.

With the high court now evenly divided with four liberal justices and four conservatives following the February death of conservative Antonin Scalia, no one knows how the proceedings might turn out.

What's clear is that Republicans are doing all they can to stop all proposed legislation in its track. The GOP led House formally petitioned the court to be heard on the issue and has been granted time during the oral arguments phase of the proceedings to argue against the President's actions.

"The best way" to solve this problem is with "a common-sense" immigration reform bill like the one passed by the Senate," the president previously argued in a speech he delivered before the nation. "But until that happens, there are actions I have the legal authority to take as president."
On Monday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments from supporters and opponents of President Barack Obama's 2014 immigration executive actions, all while Latino and immigrant rights groups rallied outside in support of the deferred action programs.

In Defense of DAPA and DACA's Expansion

Outside the Supreme Court, Latinos and immigrants, both documented and undocumented, some traveling as far as Texas and New York, gathered in support of Obama's two deferred action programs: the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) and the expanded guidelines of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Although Obama announced DAPA and DACA's expansion in November 2014, the state of Texas, followed by support from 25 other states, have sued the Obama administration to block the programs. Lower courts have ruled in favor of Texas and temporarily blocked the federal government from enacting DAPA and DACA's expansion. If DAPA and DACA were to be implemented, an estimated 4.9 million eligible undocumented immigrants would receive three-year renewable stays pending background checks and an application process through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency.

"Today's arguments show that it is time to allow swift implementation of the President's common-sense administrative actions that would allow millions of individuals to come out of the shadows, apply for work authorization, pay taxes, and -- most importantly -- remain united with their families," said Labor Council for Latin American Advancement Executive Director Hector Sanchez, who also serves as chair for the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), a coalition comprising of 40 countrywide Latino organizations.

In a statement, Sanchez acknowledged that Obama acted with DAPA and DACA's expansion as a result of congressional inaction and the refusal by the Republican-led Congress to even consider a vote on immigration reform.

Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), one of the 40 groups within NHLA, presented the oral argument in support of Obama's executive actions. According to a statement released by MALDEF, Saenz said the Supreme Court justices "seemed closely engaged throughout the entire argument."

"As expected, the issue of Texas' standing to be in court and challenge the President's time-honored and constitutional exercise of discretion in immigration enforcement received particular attention. We look forward to a decision that will enable the Administration to provide relief to the Jane Does and so many others building families and contributing to our nation's prosperity," continued Saenz, who was representing three mothers from Texas who would be eligible to apply for DAPA.

Latinos Lawmakers Take A Stand for Immigrant Families

Latino lawmakers were also standing by in support of DAPA and DACA's expansion. On Monday morning, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., speaking outside the Supreme Court, said DACA and DAPA are legitimate executive orders especially as previous presidents have set the precedence in also issuing immigration executive action.

"We believe that today is a day where we will achieve justice, it will be the beginning of that process because we believe we have the law on our side, we have the moral authority on our side and we believe that in end of the day that even though there are only eight justices, there will be enough justices to uphold DACA and DAPA and keep families together and be able to end the nightmare that the knock on the door is nothing more but a neighbor who wants to come in," said Menendez.

Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Chairwoman Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., in a statement, recognized the two deferred action programs as a "game changer" for the Latino community.

"DACA and DAPA are two simple but important actions that would allow young people and parents of U.S. citizens the ability to stay in this country, work, and pay taxes. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus remains optimistic that the Supreme Court will rule on the right side of history," said Sanchez.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., the highest-ranking Latino in the House of Representatives, commented about his family's immigration history and the importance of Monday's hearings.

"My father was a construction worker most of his life. My mother, who came from Guadalajara Jalisco, Mexico to the United States, never had a chance to go to college either and became a clerical worker. But my parents did nothing but build this country," said Becerra. "They worked very hard to make this a better land for so many people, and certainly for their four kids, who had a chance to go on to get a college degree. Does the Supreme Court want to be behind those who build this country and build dreams? Or do they want to support those who build walls?"

"It is time for us to stand up," the House Democratic Caucus chairman added. "We are ready to work with the Supreme Court and make sure that we will continue to let Americans, including immigrants who have become Americans, build this country and build America."

Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), made it known that more than 1.5 million eligible voters have a family member impacted by DAPA and DACA and many Latino and immigrant families are closely monitoring the Supreme Court case.

"DACA and DAPA are smart and moral immigration policies that keep hardworking families together, while allowing them to continue contributing to our country, but House Republicans have done everything in their power, including an unprecedented and cruel floor vote, to undo them. While I am confident that DACA and DAPA will withstand the test of this hearing, voters will remember these Donald Trump-like attacks against their communities this November," said Lujan.

How the Lawsuit Started

In late 2014, then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who now serves as the Lone Star State's governor, initiated the lawsuit against Obama's executive actions. Abbott claimed Obama breached his executive authority and didn't consider financial impacts affecting U.S. states.

After appeals, the Obama administration encountered setbacks in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which provided the temporary injunction preventing the federal government from implementing DACA's expanded guidelines and DAPA. The U.S. Department of Justice requested the Supreme Court review the case, and the court agreed.

Abbott's lawsuit has the support from other Republican governors and attorneys general from Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The Supreme Court, currently comprising of eight justices, is expected to deliver a decision in June. In the case of a 4-4 tie, the ruling by the lower courts will stand.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.
7,000 people marched in Brussels on Sunday in a silent protest against last month's attacks on Brussel's airport and metro station that led to the death of 32 people.

According to BBC, the demonstration was "calm and silent," and was joined by relatives of victims, paramedics and airport staff present during the March attacks, and members of religious groups. The group carried a banner that read "Together in peace". A Muslim also held up a placard that said, "Love is my religion and faith."

The demonstrators also brought flowers to honor those who lost their lives in the incident.

The procession started from the Molenbeek area and moved towards the makeshift memorial outside Brussel's stock exchange.

Straits Times reported that a group of children who joined the demonstrators in Molenbeek chanted "Daesh, off you go, Brussels isn't for you!" The group was referring to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the terrorist group reportedly responsible for the attacks in Brussels.

"When our fellow citizens, defenceless civilians, are cut down in a cowardly attack, all citizens should stand up to express their disgust and solidarity," said Liege councilor Hassan Bousetta, one of the organizers of the rally. "It is a moment of reflection, a message of compassion for the victims and a moment when citizens come together."

Local police in Brussels have arrested six suspects since the attack, Voice of America reported. Authorities said that extremist group that responsible for the attacks in Brussels is linked to the perpetrators behind the night of terror that engulfed Paris in November that killed 130 people.

Authorities in Brussels and security forces throughout Europe are under pressure to put an end to the successive streak of terrorism attacks in the region. There is criticism on the authorities' failure to stop the extremist groups from executing the bombings. They were also called out for their weak security procedures and emergency response time.
During Myanmar's traditional New Year Sunday celebration on April 17, newly-elected President Htin Kyaw pardoned 83 political prisoners, advancing the new civil administration's efforts to rid the country of remnants of over fifty years of military rule. The release of the political prisoners marks the democratic change being established in Myanmar.

Among the political prisoners released were four journalists. A Unity Journal newspaper executive was also pardoned after being sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in 2014 for running a story on an alleged military chemical weapons factory in the country, a senior prison department official told Reuters.

Since taking power on April 1, the National League for Democracy (NLD), fostered by renowned democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, has dropped charges against 282 people accused of political crimes under the former military government.

Business Standard reported that the presidential pardon was granted "to make people happy" and at the same time promote reconciliation and peace within the once-chaotic nation.

The release of political prisoners who still stand to face trial was a promise stressed out by President Htin Kyaw in his New Year speech on Sunday, Rappler reported.

Cabinet member and state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, although barred from presidency by a charter implement during the junta period, is guiding the NLD towards establishing a democratic government.

Local media covered the reunion scenes that took place outside jails across the country. The pardoned detainees left prison carrying small bags and were joined by their loved ones.

The NLD seized power after winning the historic November 1 elections that displaced the quasi-civilian government led by military generals. The quasi-civilian government replaced the long-running junta in 2011, during which hundreds of political detainees were also released. However, the military still controlled key government offices that oversaw local governance, defense and internal security.
United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron is pressing down on launching new measures to crack down on tax evasion by hosting an anti-corruption summit next month. The financial transparency move comes after he faced scrutiny for his late father's inclusion in the leaked Panama Papers.

Over the past week, Cameron faced the parliament for the first time over questions pertaining to his father, Ian Cameron's Blairmore Investment Trust, reported by iNews Today. Cameron was forced to tell about his financial matters that include the cash gift he received from his mother and a summary of his tax returns. Following a complicated week, U.K. prime minister is now focusing on the anti-corruption summit that will be happening in London in May to limit the damage of his involvement in Panama Paper leak.

During Cameron's appearance in the Parliament, he expressed his emotions on the alleged "deeply hurtful and profoundly untrue allegations" against his late father's involvement in the leaked Panama Papers. According to Time, the PM plans to restore credibility by bringing tighter rules that will be discussed in the summit.

Cameron was under fire in facing the allegations of his late father's offshore funds. Some have called him to resign. The Wallstreet Journal reports that over the weekend, the opposition and some British media urged him to disclose his tax affairs, most particularly the offshore fund that reportedly avoid paying taxes. Questions arose whether the money that Cameron's mother gave him was a part of his father's estate. The PM received 200,000 from his mother in 2011, and inherited 300,000 from his father. Cameron initially refuted to give details of his father's funds, but later confessed that he mishandled the allegations.

On Tuesday, Cameron said that he, his wife and children don't receive benefits from his father's offshore funds. Two days later, he claimed that he was part of the funds earlier until 2010 when he sold his stakes of the trust fund before becoming UK's PM.

Spokesman for Cameron revealed that the PM will be publishing his tax returns every year as well as his income tax for the last six years. He also promised to set up a task force headed by the U.K.'s tax authority and National Crime Agency to focus on the leaked Panama Papers once they will get a full report of the documents.
U.S. energy giant Peabody filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday, April 13. A sharp plunge of coal price made the company had to declare that it was unable to pay its $10.1 billion debt.

On Wednesday, Peabody Energy filed a regulatory filing seeking for bankruptcy protection. A sharp plunge of coal price and declining purchase from countries which were once a fast-growing markets, such as Brazil and China, had driven the filing. Reuters reported the Peabody's bankruptcy filing ranked among the largest in the commodities sector since the energy and metal prices started to drop in mid-2014.

Peabody Energy is the largest private-sector coal company in the world with more than 100-years of experience in mining industry. Since 1962, the company expanded its operation to Australia and its Australian coal mine had been one of its major operation worldwide. In 2011, Peabody acquired Australian mining company the Macarthur Coal Ltd. for $5.1 billion to widen its reach in the continent.

Wall Street Journal reported that Peabody filed its bankruptcy for most of its U.S. entities in the bankruptcy court for the Eastern District of Missouri. However, none of its Australian mining operations is included in the bankruptcy.

In the filings, Peabody stated its estimated assets at $11.0 billion with $10.1 billion liabilities as of the end of 2015. The company expected the bankruptcy protection will strengthen its financial structure, as CEO Glenn Kellow said in a statement.

"This was a difficult decision, but it is the right path forward for Peabody. We begin today to build a highly successful global leader for tomorrow," he said. "Through today's action, we will seek an in-court solution to Peabody's substantial debt burden amid a historically challenged industry backdrop. This process enables us to strengthen liquidity and reduce debt, build upon the significant operational achievements we've made in recent years and lay the foundation for long-term stability and success in the future."

The St. Louis-based company will continue to operate its mines and offices and those premises are expected to keep operating during the process. The company filed the bankruptcy declaring unable to pay its $10.1 billion debt which was acquired to finance its expansion in Australia.

According to PR Newswire, Peabody has also obtained $800 million in debtor-in-possession financing from secured and unsecured creditors. That includes $500 million term loan, a $200 million bonding accommodation facility for cleanup costs and a $100 million letter of credit. The financing are subjects to court approval and limitations.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Central Bank of the Philippines has revealed on Saturday penalizing any financial institution involved in laundering $81 million stolen. The fund has been stolen from Bangladesh Bank reserve kept with Federal Reserve Bank of New York in May.

Meanwhile, the Philippine central bank has also decided strengthening its regulatory oversight for non-banking financial institutions. Such institutions have allegedly been contributing to the growth of shadow banking in the Philippines.

BSP's decisions in regulating transactions of banks and non-banking financial institutions have been narrated by Nestor Espenilla Jr., its Deputy Governor, according to a report published in The Manilla Times. He has been addressing at the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines-San Miguel Corp. Business Journalism Seminar.
Libertry High evac.jpeg

Students are in Bethlehem Area School District Stadium the morning of April 18, 2016, after Liberty High School was cleared by a bomb threat. (Sarah Cassi | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Liberty High School was evacuated Monday morning after a bomb threat was found scrawled on a lavatory wall, the Bethlehem Area School District reports.

The Bethlehem fire and police departments responded, the district said at 9:40 a.m.

Students were taken to the stadium after the first responders arrived.

They will "coordinate with school administrators to assess the threat and to make sure the school building is safe and secure," the district said.

Bethlehem police and fire personnel respond April 18, 2016, to Liberty High School for a reported bomb threat. (Sarah Cassi | lehighvalleylive.com)

Updates will be posted by the district as more information is available.

Students began to return to the building just after 10:30 a.m.

The investigation, including looking at video footage, is continuing, the district said.

Sarah Cassi contributed to this report.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Lehigh County judge has tossed a lawsuit challenging Bethlehem's rezoning of Martin Tower.

A group of city business owners and residents sued city council over its December vote to rezone the 53-acre site. The city responded that the group had no standing to appeal the decision.

Judge Douglas Reichley agreed with the city in his opinion filed Friday.

The lawsuit was filed by the Hotel Bethlehem; Donegal Square; the Taylor Family Partnership; Rocco and Electra D'Amato; Steven and Barbara Diamond; Deni Thurman-Eyer; Robert Romeril; and Clint and Sonia Walker.

All the business and property owners live more than a half-mile outside the rezoned property's boundaries. With the exception of the Taylor Family Partnership, which owns and operates the Shell gas station on Schoenersville Road, the others are located more than a mile away from the iconic tower, and are not legally considered aggrieved parties, Reichley said.

The group argued at a hearing earlier this month that their geographical proximity alone should not determine their right to appeal the rezoning. Reichley said that would base their legal standing on the perceived "detrimental" economic impact of the rezoning, and that is expressly prohibited by state case law.

The suit claimed that the city did not follow protocols for planning commission review, specifically the Municipal Planning Code's 30-day review window for the planning commission. The group argued that would void the rezoning.

Reichley countered that state law does not does not require the planning commission members to consider amendments for a specific length of time, and that legal requirements were met by the city.

The group can request city council to reconsider the zoning amendment, Reichley noted.

The rezoning allows developers to tear down the tower and paves the way for a mixed-use development of the site including homes, retail and offices. The property was also rezoned in 2006 to allow a mixed-use redevelopment, provided the tower would be reused.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Top Cut, an upscale traditional steakhouse planned by the owner of Melt, Blue and Torre, will be coming to the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley this summer.

George Paxos' Top Cut will be located above Melt in the space previously occupied by Level 3 nightclub. The club closed in January to allow for the Top Cut renovations.

On Monday, Paxos Restaurants released new details about the restaurant. No firm opening date is set.

Diners will enjoy upscale steakhouse fare in a third-floor restaurant space consisting of floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the Upper Saucon Township shopping center.

"Top Cut is going to be a classic, traditional steakhouse in every way," said Paxos. "The name and logo we chose communicate that message simply and effectively."

Paxos Restaurants is hoping to fill the region's void left by the closure of Shula's Steak House in January. Shula's had relocated from its successful location in the Promenade in June to join the resurgence of the downtown Allentown dining scene in the Neighborhood Improvement Zone.

Paxos said he has wanted to open a high-end steakhouse at that end of the Lehigh Valley for years. But an exclusivity clause at the Promenade prevented him from opening one until Shula's moved.

"There's a demand for the Saucon Valley marketplace to have a very high-end steakhouse," Paxos said.

The menu will feature premium steak options and a sophisticated ambience, he said. All of the steaks will be USDA prime cuts and feature both dry and wet-aged steaks, Paxosa said. Other menu choices include king salmon, Colorado lamb chops and veal chops.

"Dry-aged steaks have an earthy, nutty flavor," Paxos said. "The whole experience will be up a notch from (Shula's)."

Top Cut will feature a mix of table cloth dining around the perimeter of the restaurant and more casual eating around a central bar. The restaurant design includes an exhibition kitchen and a communal dining table.

"Guests can actually watch chefs prepare their dinner," Paxos said.

And oenophiles will be able to find just what they want. Top Cut is building a new wine room that holds 4,000 bottles and can be expanded to store 6,000.

Paxos already operates the successful restaurants Melt and Torre at the Promenade Shops and Blue in Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania.

Melt, which bills itself as serving upscale fare inspired by Italian cuisine, was the first Paxos restaurant to open at the Promenade in 2006.

Paxos opened Torre, a Mexican restaurant featuring a three-story tequila tower, in November 2014. Blue, a grill house, opened in 2002.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A pair of New Jersey men face drug-related charges after a traffic stop allegedly yielded several different controlled substances.

Pennsylvania State Police say a traffic stop on Interstate 78 yielded narcotics. (Lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

A Pennsylvania State Police trooper says that shortly after 1:30 a.m. Saturday, he was on patrol when he spotted a BMW SUV traveling across lines on Route 33 near the William Penn Highway exit in Bethlehem Township.

The trooper says he clocked the vehicle traveling 50 mph in a 65-mph zone. Police stopped the vehicle as it traveled off Route 33 onto the exit for Interstate 78 East in Lower Saucon Township.

The driver, Jose Mota Jr., 31, of Jersey City, denied consent for the trooper to search his vehicle, police said. Police then called for a K-9 unit to respond.

The K-9 sniffed the exterior of the vehicle and had alert behavior to one or more odors in the back seat on the driver's side, according to police.

With probable cause to search the vehicle, police said they found and seized the following drugs in the trunk: two bags of cocaine; two bags of crack cocaine; 60 glassine packets of heroin; four unknown pink pills; and other unknown powdery substances.

Both Mota and passenger Luis Alberto Lourido, 48, of the 1500 block of Bergenline Avenue in Union City, denied the drugs belonged to them and told troopers they didn't know there were drugs inside the vehicle, according to police.

Lourido and Mota each are charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia. Lourido also was cited for traffic violations.

Both were arraigned before District Judge Roy Manwaring, who set bail at $25,000 each. In lieu of bail, both were taken to Northampton County Prison.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A convicted felon whom Bethlehem police considered armed and dangerous was found, arrested and nabbed with two firearms possession charges.

Pharaoh Wilfredo Castro (Courtesy photo)

City police have been searching for Pharaoh Wilfredo Castro, 29, whose last known address was in the 2200 block of Covington Avenue, after finding a gun allegedly belonging to Castro.

Castro is prohibited from having a gun following parole. He was paroled in January after being jailed on charges of possession with intent to distribute heroin, receiving stolen property and other offenses, court records state.

Police seized the Remington 870 Express shotgun with an obliterated serial number in the Covington Avenue home's spare bedroom, which was being used as a closet, records indicate.

A resident of the home, Felix Luis Melendez, 44, also was arrested by police during last week's raid because as a convicted felon, he also is prohibited from possessing firearms, police said. Police seized four firearms, ammunition, marijuana and various forms of drug paraphernalia.

Melendez told police Castro had asked him a few days earlier if he could store the shotgun in the home with several other guns, court records say.

The circumstances surrounding Castro's arrest are unclear and Bethlehem Police Chief Mark DiLuzio could not immediately be reached for information.

Castro faces felony charges of persons not to possess firearms and possession of a firearm with an altered manufacturer's number.

Police Chief Mark DiLuzio had said the charges are related to an "ongoing investigation into firearms and violent crime in the city."

Castro was arraigned before District Judge Roy Manwaring, who set bail at $50,000. In lieu of bail, Castro was taken to Northampton County Prison.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
UPDATE: Easton man convicted of human trafficking

Trial began Monday for an Easton man accused of trafficking women in the Lehigh Valley.

Cedric Boswell, 43, was initially arrested for allegedly prostituting a 17-year-old girl at The Scottish Inn off Airport Road in 2014. Those charges were later dropped.

Boswell's trial on human trafficking and related charges that began Monday stems from a June 2015 arrest outside the Staybridge Suites on Airport Road in Hanover Township.

Pennsylvania State Police set up a prostitution sting with a woman advertised on backage.com. When the woman was arrested, said she worked for a man later identified as Boswell, Deputy District Attorney Robert Schopf said in his opening statement.

"That's the tip of the iceberg," Schopf said.

Boswell was found in a car outside the hotel with another woman, but it was the phone he was using that will have key evidence in the human trafficking trial.

"It's an amazing trove of evidence," Schopf said, including photos, videos, text messages and internet search history. "In a pimp's world, that phone is everything."

Prosecutors say Boswell pimped women at other motels and hotels along Airport Road, the "hub" of prostitution in the Lehigh Valley, according to Schopf.

Defense attorney Kate Smith said there is a lot of evidence in the case, but prosecutors need to show the evidence proves Boswell trafficked the girl.

"The facts do not support these crimes," she said.

Boswell forced four women into prostitution at the Super 8 motel and the Staybridge Suites, and either took all or half of the money they made, troopers said.

One of the women reported Boswell slapped her for "disrespecting him" and another woman. A witness told troopers Boswell slapped the woman as she was retrieving a phone number from his cellphone.

Then in September, one of the victims reported Boswell threatened her at Lehigh County Jail, troopers said.

The woman, who was also incarcerated, saw Boswell in the infirmary and he told her, "If you keep your mouth shut, you'll live," troopers said.

Prosecutors plan to call one of Boswell's accusers to the witness stand, as well as recorded phone calls Boswell made in jail.

In the beginning, Boswell kept asking if any of his "girls" would be in the trial, Schopf said. When he was assured that none of them will appear in court, Schopf said Boswell got cocky in the calls.

"I'm gonna beat this," Boswell reportedly says in one call.

"They can never beat me. I got away," he allegedly says in another.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.

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Ballybrittas' Post Office has been given a reprieve from closure, but its long term future is far from certain.

An Post confirmed that it will offer a year-long period to assess the viability of the office, which also includes the local shop.

Management for the company met local people and politicians in Dublin last week, after it emerged last month that the postmistress was retiring at the end of April.

An Post told the Leinster Express that it had decided ahead of the meeting to invite tenders for the operation of the Post Office for 12 months from April to assess its long term viability.

A spokersperson told the Leinster Express that this option was not often extended where there was a retirement.

Traditionally, contracts were awarded permanently, but in recent years An Post has opted for five year contracts to postmasters or postmistresses.

The spokesperson said people interested would have to include business plans with their tenders.

The meeting was attended by TDs Charlie Flanagan and Brian Stanley, as well as four local representatives in the Ballybrittas area.

Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley welcomed the commitment from An Post management but said it was a case of use it or lose it.

I would encourage interested parties to apply for the contract. I pressed the case for no closure to be considered until the outcome of the current Review of post office services across the State has concluded, and the recommendations start being implemented.

It is my belief that with the provision of extra services, the substantial growth in local population and the community using and supporting Ballybrittas Post Office that its future can be secured. Clearly its a case of use it or lose it, he said.

Speaking after the meeting, Minister Charlie Flanagan said post offices provide an invaluable and essential service.

I trust the people of Ballybrittas, and the surrounding areas, will continue to use the services provided by Ballybrittas Post Office. It is important that the Post Office remains a viable entity, said the Fine Gael Minister.

Cllr Tom Mulhall said after over 930 submissions were made to An Post within two weeks of the news of possible closure.

He attended the meeting in Dublin.

It is a step in the right direction. It's 11 months of a reprieve. In the meantime I would say to people to use the post office and the shop as much as possible.

The owners of the premises have indicated they will lease it out for the year, but eventually we could be looking at relocation, said the Fine Gael councillor.

Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming TD was unable to attend the meeting but said the outcome was good news and congratulated that all who got involved in the campaign which started in the middle of March after An Post warned that it could close.

This led to an immediate public campaign to halt the ensure the post office is not shut
Hopes are high of a surge of business to Laois tourism, following the lodgement of planning applications by Coillte for a mountain bike trail on the Slieve Blooms.

The project, in the pipeline since 2010, would offer mountain bike cyclists a total of 73 km of off-road mountain bike trails in varying grades of challenge.

Most of the trail including a cafe would be based on the Laois side, with 40km starting from a trailhead in Baunreagh, going through Monicknew and Bockagh.

The rest would start out from Kinnitty in Offaly, with a link between the two trails along the R440 road.

The plans include facilities to hire bikes, parking, toilets, and a wastewater treatment plant at Baunreagh, with similar facilities at Castletown in Kinnitty.

A cafe is planned at Baunreagh in the second phase of the project.

Coillte say the facilities would also be available to walkers and hikers.

The applications have been lodged with both Laois and Offaly county councils by Daithi De Forge from Coillte Recreation, who expects that the first stage of the trail will be ready for use by Summer 2017.

The proposal is still at an early stage in the development process, but the planning application, as well as an accompanying Natura Impact Statement, is now available for public inspection at the offices of Laois and Offaly County Council, Coillte say.

Public reaction to the development has been positive according to The Slieve Bloom Co-Operative Society, which aims to develop and promote the Slieve Bloom region.

The development of these trails will have a major impact on tourism numbers in the Slieve Blooms and surrounding area. We are very excited about this major tourism project for the economic and recreational benefit it will bring not just to the midland region but the wider Irish community.

We are amazed at the huge response the announcement has generated, the society said recently.

It is unconfirmed how much the trail will cost to build, with government funding to be sought after planning permission is granted.

The trail is the second of four national bike trails planned by Coillte.

A similar trail in the Ballyhoura Mountains in Limerick brings in about 40,000 visitors a year.

The bike trail itself would be two foot in width, within a corridor of 100 metres across the mountain.

A Natura Impact Statement was submitted with the application.

A decision is due on the Laois application by May 25, and by May 23 in Offaly.

To make a submission or view the application, see the planning section on www.laois.ie, ref. 16125. See www.coillteoutdoors.ie for details of other trails.
I have become increasingly frustrated that so many people, including journalists and UK politicians, do not seem to know how the EU actually works and who is responsible for making the decisions on legislation. Over and over again I hear that unelected bureaucrats are in charge and people endlessly talk about the democratic deficit. The reason they do that is that they have been fed this misinformation by the majority of the press and media for years.

I thought it was about time to try and put the record straight. Having been both an MP and then an MEP I can genuinely say that I had more power to shape legislation as an MEP than I did as an MP even though I was a front bench spokesperson.

Most legislation in the EU has to be passed by both the MEPs and the Council which are made up of Ministers from each Member State that is why I get so frustrated when people say that unelected bureaucrats make the decisions. They are usually under the misapprehension that the Commission are the ones who actually legislate.

The Commission will draw up legislation either on their own initiative or because enough Member States want it or their has been a citizens petition. It will then go to the Committee responsible in the European Parliament, The Council and Member States. The European Parliament can actually reject it right away, accept it as it is or amend it.

When I was on the Employment and Social Affairs Committee of the European Parliament we generally would amend it. That would be done by all parties on the committee and would be voted on first by the committee and then by the full Parliament. The amended legislation would then go to the Ministers from all Member States for their approval or not. If they approved it, it would then become law and would have to be enacted by a certain date.

If they didnt agree with our proposal it would come back to our committee for us to look at possible further amendments which would then go back to the Council once the committee and full Parliament had voted on it. If they again disagreed with our proposal we would then go into what was called conciliation and a committee would be set up of equal members of the Council and the European Parliament and it could take anything up to six weeks to get agreement. If the Council and Parliament could not agree after this time the legislation would fall. If we reached agreement it would then go back to the Parliament for a final vote and would be formally signed by representatives from both the Parliament and the Council.

At no time during this process did the unelected Commission have any decision making powers, they would act as civil servants helping us to redraft the legislation in line with what the Parliament and Council had agreed.

The Commission then had the task to make sure that the Member States enacted the legislation in the time frame that had been agreed by the Parliament and the Council.

I hope this explains in some way why I get so frustrated when I hear people say that unelected bureaucrats are making the decisions!

* Liz Lynne is former MEP for the West Midlands and is a board member of EEF - the Manufacturers Organisation.
AN ASTRONAUT who is one of only 24 people to have flown to the moon is making a return visit to Limerick in July.

This year, some 45 years after his historic flight to the moon, Al Worden astronaut and patron to Lough Gur, returns to close this circle of history, with a lecture on his historic mission to the moon in 1971.

He will be at the Strand Hotel Sky Room, Limerick on July 16 from 6.30pm to 9.30pm.

At this exclusive event, which is limited to 100 tickets, people will have an opportunity to meet with Mr Worden. A professional photographer will be there on the evening to allow individuals to take a memento of the night autographed by the astronaut. Tickets and photo vouchers are available to purchase now.

Additional speakers on the evening include Dr Frank Prendergast, who recently completed an archaeoastronomical report on the Great Grange Stone Circle, Paul Ryan, project manager of the Lough Gur Science Group and director of Share Learn Inspire along with Dr Niall Smith from Blackrock College Observatory. All are assisting Lough Gur Development in their efforts to gain Dark Sky Park status.

Mr Worden was the command module pilot for the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971.

Mr Worden visited Limerick in both 2014 and 2015. On his tour of Lough Gur in 2014 Mr Worden was so visibly moved by the beauty and tranquility of the sacred site that he agreed to become a patron of the organisation.

Mr Worden received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1971. He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame and US Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1983 and 1997, respectively.

For additional information on the event in Limerick contact Kate Harrold on 061 385186 or 0864021993. Entrance fee is 25, while an autographed photo is 20. For online bookings go to http://loughgur.com/astronaut-al-worden-visit-2016/. Website: www.loughgur.com
CLOUDS made of plaster bandages and polyester fibre, sunken treasure from Limerick Port, video installations and a semi-naked Korean-Danish video artist whipping talc around an abandoned industrial factory space  this is contemporary art, drawing an international audience to the city.

Limerick is again playing host to Irelands national biennial of visual art  Eva International, as it is styled  the 37th such iteration to take place in the city. Fifty-seven artists from a 2,000 strong pool of entries have been placed at six city venues, the centrepiece of which is the reinvigorated Cleeves Factory and the City Gallery, with works also featuring in the Hunt Museum, Sailors Home, King Johns Castle and Mother Macs.

What a great day to visit #EVA16 opening times for venues can be found here https://t.co/JjEISUlfac pic.twitter.com/pCsQ3SOjDF  EVA International (@eva_Limerick) April 17, 2016

An audience of 75,000 art lovers visited the 2014 edition, but Eva chairman, Hugh Murray, told the Limerick Leader that he believes the exhibition  curated by Cameroon artist Koyo Kouoh and called Still (the) Barbarians  is better than the last one, as always happens with Eva.

He explained: That is no exaggeration. It is a combination of a really top-class curator who knows what she is at, the very strong theme relating to colonisalism, coinciding very nicely with the 1916 commemorations, and a vast array of artists that are from all over the world, as far away as you can go, with really interesting perspectives on colonialism and the diversity of cultures that they express.

And then the venues that we have continue that tradition of making a big impact in the city itself, as distinct from being just in a gallery, he added.

Ms Kouoh said her impression of Limerick was always very good  because maybe I was not prejudiced about it and I enjoy my time here. Each visit has always been extremely rich and interesting.

She noted that, as the host city of the national biennial, it would benefit from an influx of art professionals from abroad, and I think, I hope that, it will feed into the imagination of urban development and planning and creative industries.

People do come  you have a great international crowd in the city right now, people who would never come to Limerick on another occasion. Contemporary art brings them to Limerick. I think Limerick has a great potential to it, and it is still logistically very accessible, she added.

Eva runs until July 17. See www.eva.ie for more details.

A dhaoine uaisle Uachtair Reoite (Better World in Mind) from Mikael Fernstrom on Vimeo.
A FIRE at a walk-in medical centre in Dooradoyle is being treated as suspicious by gardai.

The alarm was raised at around 4.45am and three units of the Limerick Fire and Rescue Service attended the blaze for over an hour.

While the scene has been preserved pending a technical examination, one line of enquiry is that a petrol bomb was thrown into a downstairs room, which was extensively damaged.

The fire did not spread to the rest of the building and a separate medical centre, which is located in the adjoining building also escaped damage.

There was nobody in either premises at the time.

Gardai at Roxboro Road are investigating and can be contacted at (061) 21430.

For updates, stay with limerickleader.ie or follow the Limerick Leader on Twitter or like us on

Facebook.
TWO Limerick brothers who are charged in connection with a significant drugs seizure last year will be sentenced next month after they affirmed their guilty pleas.

Earlier this month, Kieran Collopy, aged 40, of St Itas Street, St Marys Park and Brian Collopy, aged 43, of Kilonan, Ballysimon admitted possession of heroin, worth around 50,000 for the purpose of sale or supply.

Both men were arrested on December 15, last after gardai  led by members of the divisional drugs unit  searched a house at St Itas Street, St Marys Park following a lengthy covert operation.

Unusually, the case was sent forward for hearing at Limerick Circuit Court without a book of evidence being prepared after each of the defendants signed guilty pleas in the district court.

Appearing before the Circuit Court for the first time on Friday, the brothers, who both have criminal convictions, affirmed their guilty pleas.

Brian Collopy replied guilty when each of the three charges were put to him by the court registrar while Kieran Collopy replied yeah when he was asked if was affirming his guilty plea.

The brothers have been in custody since they were arrested, as gardai objected to bail  saying they feared they would not stand trial as they have access to property outside the jurisdiction and have travelled abroad regularly over the past two years.

After the guilty pleas were affirmed, Michael Collins BL, representing Brian Collopy and Pat Barriscale BL, representing Kieran Collopy asked that a sentencing hearing take place as soon as possible.

Having consulted with John OSullivan BL, prosecuting, Judge Tom ODonnell agreed and he indicated he will deal with the matter on May 13, next.

Given the value of the drugs seized, each of the defendants face the prospect of a minimum mandatory sentence of ten years imprisonment unless Judge ODonnell is satisfied it would be unjust to impose such a sentence given the circumstances of the case.

There was high security around Limerick Courthouse during the brief court hearing as the brothers were flanked by four prison officers and gardai as they stood in the dock.

While, members of the armed Regional Support Unit (RSU) were also deployed outside the courthouse there were no incidents.
THE SUM of 117,317 from a Lotto win in Limerick is set to remain in Dublin.

The National Lottery has confirmed that the owner of winning match 5 plus bonus ball ticket did not make contact before last Friday's 5.30pm deadline.

The 5 quick pick was sold on Saturday, January 16, in Elm Court Service Station, Ballyneety.

Newsflashes were displayed on all digital signage in National Lottery agents in the Limerick area last week to remind players to check their tickets.

Aideen Fitzpatrick, proprietor of Elm Court, also encouraged locals to start rummaging down the back of the couch, in their handbags and cars.

A spokesperson for the National Lottery told the Leader this Monday: "Unfortunately it wan't claimed".

The 117,317 will now go into the National Lotterys unclaimed prizes fund, used to promote the National Lottery and increase funds raised for good causes.

The money not being collected has rubbed salt into the wounds of one Limerick man who thinks he could be the owner.

Months ago he came forward to Ms Fitzpatrick saying he had lost his ticket.

"Then as time passed and it still wasnt collected he said, God, maybe it could have been me.

We were looking to see if he was here at a certain time and if the ticket was sold at that time we could prove it with our cameras but our cameras only hold footage for six weeks, said Ms Fitzpatrick.

But despite her best efforts it would have been to no avail as the National Lottery rules state: Your ticket is a bearer instrument, so treat it as if it were cash. It is the only valid proof of a game played and must be presented to claim a prize."
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Fish have fins and gills, but they don't have necks. That's partly because it would be difficult to swim quickly with a neck that wagged back and forth in the water.

What's more, anything called a fish, by definition, can't have a neck. The moment a fish-like creature developed a neck, it became classified as another type of animal, experts told Live Science.

The oldest neck on record belongs to Tiktaalik roseae, a creature that lived about 375 million years ago, during the Devonian period. Scientists describe T. roseae as part fish, part tetrapod (a four-limbed animal), said Ted Daeschler, the curator of paleontology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia. [See Images of the Weird Ancient Fish-Like Fossil, Titktaalik]

Instead of necks, fish have a series of bones that connect the skull to the shoulder girdle, which attaches to the fins, Daeschler said.

"The shoulder girdles are those bony elements, like the clavicle and the scapula, that support the front appendage, whether it's a fin or a limb," Daeschler told Live Science. "[In fish] they're connected not always terribly tightly, but it's one solid surface of bone."

Over time, some fish began to change shape. Take, for instance, the lobe-finned fish, which includes the coelacanth  an ancient group thought to be extinct until fishermen rediscovered them off the South African coast in 1938. According to the fossil record, the lobe-finned fishes, over time, lost some of the bones that connected the shoulders to the skull.

Researchers consider the 9-foot-long (2.7 meters) T. roseae a lobe-finned fish, Daeschler said. But it completely lost the bones that connected the skull to the shoulder girdles, and instead developed a neck. This neck likely helped it hunt in shallow, freshwater environments, he said. [Photos: The Freakiest-Looking Fish]

The earliest known neck belongs to Tiktaalik roseae, a transitional animal that's part fish, part four-limbed animal. T. roseae was discovered in 2004 in northern Canada's Ellesmere Island. (Image credit: Flick Ford Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University)

"[Its neck] allowed the head to move independently from the body," Daeschler said. "That's great if you live in in shallow, swampy areas, where you might need to turn your head quickly to grab prey or to reach up to breathe."

In contrast, without a neck, fish have to move their entire bodies to aim their head in a certain direction.

One fish, two fish

Was Tiktaalik strictly a fish or a tetrapod? "It's in the gray area, which is what's so cool about evolution," Daeschler said.

This gray area lasted about 20 million years as that lineage evolved from lobe-finned fishes to four-limbed amphibians, he said. Scientists call this gray area  when some parts of an animal evolve, but other parts remain in their primitive forms  "mosaic evolution."

Animals with necks had a unique advantage; they could quickly steer their mouth without having to move their entire bodies. In fact, "all of these early tetrapods were predators, no doubt about it," Daeschler said.

But many fish are predators, too, and they have been very successful without necks, he said. Moreover, whales and dolphins are thought to have once lived on land before they moved back into the water. Once they became marine animals again, whales and dolphins greatly shortened their neck vertebrae, so that the entire neck is short and rigid instead of being long and flexible.

"The idea there was that long and flexible necks are not great if you're jetting though the water," Daeschler said. "Your head gets thrown to the side by the pressure. It's better not to have a neck and just be a torpedo and swim forward."

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
Three archaeological sites that may have been used by Vikings around 1,000 years ago were excavated recently in Canada.

If confirmed, the discoveries would add to the single known Viking settlement in the New World, located at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland. Excavated in the 1960s, that Viking outpost was used for a short period of time around 1,000 years agoas well.

Sagas from the time of the Vikings tell tales of their journeys into the New World, mentioning places named "Helluland" (widely believed to be modern-day Baffin Island), "Markland" (widely believed to be Labrador) and "Vinland," which is a more mysterious location that some archaeologists have argued could be Newfoundland. [See Photos of the Newfound Viking Sites]

Even so, pinpointing actual Viking remains or other clues of Viking settlements has been difficult, making the three sites  two in Newfoundland and the other in the Arctic  intriguing to archaeologists.

Point Rosee

Sarah Parcak, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and her colleagues spotted the so-called Point Rosee site in southern Newfoundland while scanning satellite imagery, and announced their discovery a few weeks ago.

The team found what may be a hearth used to roast bog iron, as well as a structure, of some type, made with turf. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the site was used sometime between the ninth and 13th centuries.

These finds, the researchers say, suggest that Vikings may have used the site, though more dating information and excavation are needed to confirm that idea, they said. Additionally, even if it is a Viking site, it's uncertain how long the Vikings lived there.

"I think that all of us would be in agreement in urging you to relay the preliminary nature of the findings  the unconfirmed cultural and period affiliations," said team co-director Gregory Mumford, who is also a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Sop's Arm

Another possible Viking site turned up after archaeologists investigated a series of peculiar holes in a small town called Sop's Arm near White Bay, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) south of L'Anse aux Meadows. Archaeologists say that these "pitfalls," which have been known to exist near the town, would have been used to trap large animals, such as caribou. [Fierce Fighters: 7 Secrets of Viking Seamen]

The possible bog iron roasting hearth can be seen beside the structure made of turf at Point Rosee. (Image credit: 1- Photo courtesy Gregory Mumford)

In 1961, Helge Ingstad, the archaeologist who would excavate L'Anse aux Meadows, was guided to the pitfalls by a local man named Watson Budden. Ingstad thought it was likely that the Vikings had constructed the holes, but he didn't excavate them.

In 2010, archaeologists surveyed and excavated the pitfalls. They found that the pitfalls form a 269-foot-long (82 meters) system that lies in an almost straight line, the team wrote in an article published in the journal Acta Archaeologica in 2012. Each of the pits is about 23 to 33 feet (7 to 10 m) long and about 5 to 7.5 feet (1.5 to 2.3 m) deep.

Perhaps the Vikings drove animals toward the pits, where they would have fallen in and been killed, said Kevin Mcaleese, a curator of archaeology and ethnology at the Provincial Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador. The team did find stones inside the pitfalls that could have injured animals that had fallen inside. However, the archaeologists didn't find any artifacts and were unable to obtain clear radiocarbon dates for the pits.

"No Newfoundland and Labrador aboriginal group or archaeological culture is known in historic times or in ancient times to have regularly trapped animals with pitfalls," Mcaleese said. "I am developing a research plan for the site and area, but have not yet secured funds."

Kent Budden, nephew of Watson Budden, collected a number of what he suspects are Norse artifacts from the Sop's Arm area, including an iron ax and other iron artifacts, as well as a stone that has what could be a serpent carved into it.

Kent Budden died in 2008, and his brother Owen Budden showed photographs of the artifacts to Live Science. (Before he died, Kent Budden also gave a presentation of the collection, which can now be seen on YouTube.)

Mcaleese said he is not very familiar with the collection. "What I have seen does not appear to be Norse, and my colleagues think similarly," he said.

Nanook

The Vikings also may have settled, at least for a bit, in Nanook on Baffin Island. Researchers recently discovered the remains of a building that may have been constructed by the Vikings and artifacts that may have been used in metalworking. Among the artifacts was a stone crucible that may "represent the earliest evidence of high-temperature nonferrous metalworking in the New World north of Mesoamerica," wrote a team of archaeologists in a paper published in 2014 in the journal Geoarchaeology.

A structure that may have been used by the Vikings (opens in new tab) was in the process of being excavated in 2012, when lead archaeologist Patricia Sutherland was abruptly fired from the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now called the Canadian Museum of History) and the excavations were terminated.

Many Canadian archaeologists condemned Sutherland's abrupt termination and the decision to end the project. They noted that the Canadian government, which owned the museum and funded her project, proceeded to pour millions of dollars into locating and excavating a ship destroyed in 1847 during the ill-fated Franklin expedition. This expedition, led by Sir John Franklin, aimed to find a sea route through the Canadian Arctic between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The expedition ended with the death of Franklin and his crew.

This funding decision led to accusations that the federal government favored research into British remains over those of the Vikings. In 2015, a new federal government was elected, but it remains unknown whether it will fund new research at the Nanook site.

Where is Vinland?

One of the mysteries that researchers have been trying to solve is the location of a place that the Viking sagas call "Vinland" (wine land). Historical texts describe a place where grapes and timber could be found. [In Photos: Viking Voyage Discovered]

Famed Viking explorer Leif Ericson is said to have led an expedition to Vinland. The sagas say that Ericson was so impressed by what he found that he told his crew that, "from now on, we have two jobs on our hands: On one day, we shall gather grapes, and on the next, we shall cut grapevines and chop down the trees to make a cargo for my ship." The stories, as translated by Einar Haugen in the 1942 book "Voyages to Vinland: The First American Saga," go on to say that "Leif gave this country a name to suit its resources: He called it Vinland."

Grapes don't grow as far north as Newfoundland, leaving some researchers to speculate that Vinland is located farther south, possibly around New Brunswick, Nova Scotia or Maine. Others think that Newfoundland is Vinland and that the "grapes" could refer to wild berries, which are found in abundance in Newfoundland.

So far, no potential Viking sites have been discovered south of Newfoundland, although a coin, minted in Norway between A.D. 1065 and 1080, was discovered in Maine in 1957 by an amateur archaeologist at a Native American site. How the coin arrived at that site is a mystery.

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Your smartphone could one day be replaced by an electronic display laminated to the back of your hand, if the inventors of a new ultrathin "e-skin" have their way.

For the first time, Japanese scientists have demonstrated a superflexible electronic skin (or e-skin) display, made from organic electronics, that doesn't degrade when exposed to air. And crucially, the researchers used processes similar to the way organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays are manufactured for conventional smartphones and TVs.

Organic electronics, made from carbon-based polymers, hold huge promise for wearable devices because they are far lighter and more flexible than traditional electronics made from inorganic materials, such as silicon and gold. But OLEDs and organic light detectors normally degrade in air, so they typically need bulky protective coatings that decrease their flexibility. [Body Bioelectronics: 5 Technologies that Could Flex with You]

Now, a team from the University of Tokyo has developed a unique method to create a protective coating that can shield the electronic components from the air while remaining thin enough to stay flexible.

"Our e-skin can be directly laminated on the surface of the skin, allowing us to electronically functionalize human skin," said Takao Someya, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Tokyo, and author of a paper on the new device published April 15 in the journal Science Advances.

"We think that functionalizing the skin may replace the smartphone in the future," Someya told Live Science. "When you carry an iPhone, it is a bulky device. But if you functionalize your own skin, you dont need to carry anything, and it's easy to receive information anywhere, anytime."

Previous organic electronic displays have been built using glass or plastic base materials, or substrates, but their flexibility was limited by their thickness. Other, thinner versions have been manufactured, however, these materials have not been stable enough to endure in air for more than a few hours.

Someya's group was able to extend the device lifetime to several days by creating a protective film, called a passivation layer, which consists of alternating layers of inorganic silicon oxynitride and organic parylene. The film shields the device from damaging oxygen and water vapor but is so thin that the entire device is just 3 micrometers (millionths of a meter) thick and highly flexible, the researchers said. For comparison, a strand of hair is about 40 micrometers thick.

Substrates this thin can be easily deformed by the high-energy processes needed to produce the ultrathin, transparent electrodes that connect the components, Someya said. So, the group's second innovation was to optimize these processes to reduce the required energy to a level that did not damage the ultrathin materials.

In the near future, this technology could be used to monitor people's health, Someya said. To demonstrate its potential, his team created a device consisting of red and green OLEDs and a light detector that could monitor the concentration of oxygen in a human subject's blood when the e-skin is laminated to the person's finger using highly flexible adhesive tape. [Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies]

The scientists also created both digital and analog displays that could be laminated to the skin, and all of the devices were flexible enough to distort and crumple in response to body movement, without losing their functionality.

"The potential uses range from information display to optical characterization of the skin," said John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois, who also works on developing e-skin but was not involved with the new study. "Opportunities for future research in this context include the development of power supply systems and of wireless schemes for data communication and control."

By employing materials and processes that are already used in the industrial production of OLED displays, Someya said the group's work should be able to transition smoothly to large-scale production.

Hyunhyub Ko, an associate professor of chemical engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea who also researches e-skin, agrees that this method could eventually be applied to the manufacturing of commercial products.

"The formation of [an] ultrathin and flexible passivation layer is a challenging task," Ko told Live Science. "Their fabrication process includes the solution coating and chemical vapor deposition methods, and thus can be scaled up for commercial products."

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Adolf Hitler was the unremarkable artist who rose to become the dictator of Germany and the instigator of the Holocaust. Given the devastation left in Hitler's wake, a major question for historians of the 20th century has been how Hitler captured the German imagination and came to power.

He was not, as a person, a charismatic character; biographer Ian Kershaw described him as an "empty vessel outside his political life." He had few genuine friends, an overinflated view of his own intellect and no inborn connections to propel him to the top.

Nor did Hitler have especially original ideas; the German Workers' Party he joined in 1919, which would become the Nazi Party under his leadership, was just one of approximately 70 right-wing groups in Germany after World War I, Kershaw wrote in the biography "Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris (opens in new tab)" (W.W. Norton & Company, 1998).

But in the chaos of post-World War I Germany, it was Hitler's group that would gain dominance  and that was not a matter of luck, said Karl Schleunes, author of "The Twisted Road to Auschwitz: Nazi Policy Toward German Jews, 1933-39 (opens in new tab)" (University of Illinois Press, 1970).

"What makes the German Workers' Party different from the other 69 groups is that they don't have a Hitler, whose speaker talent and tactics are really quite effective," Schleunes said.

And once he achieved fame, Hitler was able to cover up his rather off-putting personality with media images of a cultured gentleman beloved by children and animals.

The early years

Adolf Hitler pictured in the early 1920s. (Image credit: Public Domain)

Hitler's early life does not hint at his future. The son of a low-level civil servant in Austria, Hitler was groomed by his harsh, authoritarian father to become a bureaucrat as well. Other than the beatings from his father, the future dictator's early childhood was relatively normal, but he became sullen and friendless in adolescence, according to Kershaw's biography. He never finished high school and, from 1905 to 1907, sponged off of his mother.

In 1907, Hitler famously failed to win admission to art school, kicking off a period in which he lived in Vienna, making grand pronouncements about art, architecture and culture, but rarely making any serious effort to secure a future in art himself. In 1909, he ended up living for a time in a flophouse for the homeless. He soon turned to supporting himself by selling cheap paintings of city scenes.

In 1913, Hitler went to Munich, fleeing Austrian authorities who'd noticed that he'd dodged mandatory military service there. It was in the German military, however, that Hitler would find direction  and a springboard into politics.

Service in World War I gave Hitler a place in the world for the first time, Kershaw wrote, even as many of his fellow soldiers viewed him as a bit of a socially awkward oddball and prude. Germany admitted defeat in the war as Hitler rested in a hospital, recovering from a mustard gas attack. He returned to his regiment in Munich, Schleunes said, where he ultimately got a job with the information unit, working in military intelligence.

It was this job that put him on a collision course with the German Workers' Party. Hitler had long held right-wing nationalist views, but in a "critical development," Schleunes said, the army sent him to attend university lectures on German history, socialism and bolshevism  from a right-wing perspective.

In particular, Hitler ate up the words of a right-wing economist, Gottfried Feder, and a right-wing historian, Karl Alexander von Muller. It was Muller who noticed that Hitler had a talent for rhetoric, and his recommendations helped Hitler land a job in the intelligence unit as a spy keeping tabs on the German Workers' Party, Schleunes said.

Gaining power

It was Hitler's power as a speaker that turned him from informer to party member, Schleunes said. During a German Workers' Party lecture, someone suggested that it might be best for Bavaria to break from the rest of Germany, splintering the country. Hitler, a German nationalist, was appalled and argued against the idea. The leader of the party, impressed with his speaking style, asked him to join the party. A few days later, on Sept. 12, 1919, Hitler became the 55th member of the party, with the full permission of the army.

Hitler became a fiery speaker on the beer-hall circuit and was willing to risk the humiliation of low turnout by organizing rallies in large spaces, Kershaw wrote. His organizing talents propelled him to the top of the party's leadership.

In 1920, Hitler and the other leaders of the party changed its name from the German Workers' Party to the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or "Nazi" for short). In 1921, Hitler was voted chairman of the party and took total control. The once-tiny group began to draw new members, absorbing other right-wing groups, Schleunes said.

Hitler remained a cold presence in person. "He's not an interesting conversationalist," Schleunes said. "He's really sort of a dull person, except when he appears before an audience, when somehow, a switch is turned on. He could milk an audience and shape it and get it to feel."

If Hitler's speaking abilities gave him the roots to flourish in the early Nazi Party, the chaos and resentment of Germany at the time were the soil that made his growth possible.The German people were in shock after losing World War I, Schleunes said. They'd been told throughout the war that they were winning. They faced food and coal shortages, and ended the war with millions killed and wounded. But these sacrifices were necessary, according to the army, because victory was close.

"They're told that for four years, and suddenly, they're told that 'We lost the war,'" Schleunes said. To understand how such a thing could happen, many turned to conspiracy theories  particularly, the theory that Jewish people on the home front had stabbed Germany in the back. "The situation, for someone like Hitler, is ripe," Schleunes said.

A wider popularity

Here, an image (from April 1924) during the trial for the so-called Beer Hall Putsch in which Hitler tried to overthrow the government of Bavaria. (Image credit: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany)

Violence marked Hitler's early rise. By 1923, he was emboldened enough to attempt to overthrow the government of Bavaria by force, which he hoped would eventually lead to the overthrow of the national government in Berlin.

This "Beer Hall Putsch" failed, but there was widespread sympathy for Hitler's aims, Schleunes said. His trial became a megaphone broadcasting his ideas, and his light 9-month stint in prison gave him the opportunity to dictate the "almost unreadable" but wildly popular biography "Mein Kampf," Schleunes said.

"Hitler was smart enough to realize after the failure of his Beer Hall Putsch that he and his party could not come to power with violence against the institutions of the state, especially the army and the police," said Dr Benjamin Hett, author of "The Death of Democracy: Hitlers Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic (opens in new tab)" (Henry Holt and Co, 2018). "They could only come to power by getting inside the system, and the path to that was through winning elections".

There were many factors that led to Hitler's more widespread acceptance in Germany, from economic depression to the country's hatred of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. But Hitler managed to expand his appeal from the beer-soaked halls of Munich to the rest of the country, in part via the mass media.

In 1932, he ran for president and struggled to reach middle-class voters, said Despina Stratigakos, a historian of architecture and the author of "Hitler at Home (opens in new tab)" (Yale University Press, 2015). To rehabilitate his personal image, he focused on his domestic portrayal. Instead of downplaying his transient, rather lonely personal history, Hitler and his propaganda team started to foreground his personal life.

Hitler was portrayed as being good with children. (Image credit: Getty Images)

"He's being presented as a good man, a moral man, and the evidence for that comes from his private life," Stratigakos told Live Science. "It's fabricated, but it's very effective."

Hitler lost the 1932 election, but gained the support of many influential industrial interests. When the parliamentary elections failed to establish a majority government, Germany's president Paul von Hindenburg caved to outside pressure and named Hitler chancellor (the role of chancellor in Germany is similar to that of Prime Minister in other parliamentary systems, and Germany had both a president elected by the people and a chancellor representing the majority party in the government).

In 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire, which Hitler used as a pretext to seize emergency powers and detain his political enemies. With communists and other leftists under arrest, he was able to push a law called the Enabling Act through parliament. The Enabling Act allowed Hitler's cabinet to institute legislation without parliamentary consent.

With the backing of the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP) and with the left-leaning Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) barred from attending the vote on 24 March 1933, Hitlers proposal was passed by 444 votes to 94, a key step in usurping the democratic institutions of the state.

In the wake of this law came what the Nazis called Gleichschaltung, or coordination, a process in which any organization at all that could possibly form the basis of opposition was abolished or taken over by the Nazis, said Hett. This process was largely completed by July of 1933, when all political parties except the Nazis were formally outlawed.

As Hitler strong-armed his way to dictatorship, profiles of him rusticating in his residence in Obersalzberg, Bavaria, portrayed him as a cultured gentleman, beloved by dogs and children. Working with the architect Gerdy Troost, Hitler created a space with an expansive Great Hall that seemed inspired by the artist salons of pre-World War I Munich, Stratigakos said. German and English language magazines printed fluffy pieces on the Fuhrer at home.

"Even the American Dog Kennel Gazette had this feature on Hitler as a dog lover," Stratigakos said. These cozy, domestic scenes helped soften the image of the Hitler. The strategy was so successful that the most-sold images of 1934 were pictures of Hitler at home playing with his dogs or with children.

Through his organization, oratory and public relations, Hitler "the nonentity, the mediocrity, the failure," as Kershaw called him, had become not only the chancellor of Germany, but a beloved celebrity. The transformation was complete.

Additional resources

To read more about the life and rise of Hitler, you can visit The National WWII Museum website (opens in new tab). Additionally, you can watch this TED Talk video (opens in new tab) by Alex Gendler and Anthony Hazard.
At nighttime, ominous lightning flashes above erupting volcanoes light up the sky like a living nightmare. Now, scientists are closer to understanding volcanic lightning, which stems from both ash and ice, two new studies reveal.

Unraveling the origin of volcanic lightning has been difficult. In thunderstorms, the culprits are colliding ice crystals, which generate enough of an electric charge to trigger lightning. But ash clouds are less predictable and harder to study than supercells (thunderstorms), so scientists are still trying to figure out what sets off volcanic lightning. For instance, it seems absurd to blame ice for lightning in a volcanic inferno.

Two new studies reveal different reasons for lightning above erupting volcanoes. One cause is static electricity, from particles rubbing together in dense ash clouds near the ground. The other source of lightning happens near the stratosphere, high above the Earth's surface, where jockeying ice crystals unleash powerful jolts. [Images: Grimsvotn Volcano Puts on Lightning Show]

At Sakurajima volcano in Japan, ash particles are responsible for lightning that strikes near the ground, researchers led by Corrado Cimarelli, a volcanologist at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, reported Feb. 23 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. For that study, the scientists recorded video of volcanic lightning at Sakurajima, one of the world's most active volcanoes. By comparing the video to infrasound and electromagnetic data, the researchers discovered thick clouds of ash give rise to static electricity. The particles rub together and the resulting charge buildup generates lightning strikes. (This is called triboelectricity.)

Ice also plays a role in volcanic lightning, a separate study found. Researchers tracked the location of lightning strikes during an April 2015 eruption of Calbuco volcano in Chile. In this case, the bolts were breaking some 60 miles (about 100 kilometers) from the eruption, and at near-stratospheric heights of about 12 miles (20 km) above Earth's surface. The scientists think ice formed in the top of the thinning ash cloud  which was also carrying water vapor  producing lightning like a thundercloud does. The study was published April 12 in Geophysical Research Letters.

A look at the April 2015 eruption of Calbuco volcano in Chile, which produced volcanic lightning. (Image credit: Carolina Barria Kemp -- https://www.flickr. com/photos/25890105@N02/17250346125/)

These discoveries could have important implications for volcano monitoring. Because larger eruptions trigger more lightning, "simply seeing that lightning is associated with an eruption tells you that there are potential aviation issues," said Alexa Van Eaton, lead author of the Calbuco study and a volcanologist at the U.S. Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington.

During the March eruption of Alaska's Pavlof volcano, Van Eaton and her colleagues used the World Wide Lightning Location network to monitor the volcano's ash cloud, she said. The ash from Pavlof and other southwest Alaska volcanoes can drift into international and local flight paths.

Van Eaton ultimately hopes to use lightning flashes to gauge the power of volcanic eruptions remotely. "Lightning is telling us things that other geophysical monitoring techniques can't see," van Eaton told Live Science. Bigger eruptions trigger more lightning, van Eaton said. "Simply seeing that lightning is associated with an eruption tells you that there are potential aviation issues, and it informs the way you respond to a volcano," she said.

Both studies also bring scientists closer solving the mystery of volcanic lighting. "It's surprising that there are really different processes inside a volcanic eruption plume system that generate electrification," van Eaton said. "It opens a world of questions that we didn't even know existed."

Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
Genetics may have a say in when people lose their virginity. A new study of more than 125,000 people in the United Kingdom has identified gene differences that influence the age of puberty, as well as the age at which people first have sexual intercourse and have their first child.

The age at which people have their first sexual intercourse is largely influenced by social factors, for example, peer pressure and family culture, the researchers noted. But the new findings also suggest that genetics also play a role.

"Clearly some of the things that impact the age of first sex are social," study co-author Felix Day, a genetics researcher at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., told Live Science. "By using genetics, we hope to uncover additional biological factors that contribute." [10 Surprising Sex Statistics]

The researchers identified 38 genes, which can be broadly separated into two groups. Some of the genes influence a person's physical maturity, whereas others appear to contribute to personality type, the team reported (opens in new tab) today (April 18) in the journal Nature.

"The first group includes genes that act on known reproductive pathways and are involved in the timing of puberty," Day said. These genes influence when people's bodies are biologically ready for sex, which in turn affects the age of first sexual intercourse.

The second group of genes, which are linked to people's personality traits, appear to influence people's tendency to take risks, which is linked to having sex earlier, or their level of irritability, which in the study appeared to be linked with having sex later.

The reason the age of first sexual intercourse is of interest to scientists is that it is linked with negative outcomes in educational achievements and mental health later in life. Similarly, puberty at an earlier age is linked to increased risk for diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, the researchers said.

By exploring the genetic influences underlying these traits the researchers hope to better understand the relationship between these health outcomes, Day said.

"Like with many other situations, it's nature and nurture. There's likely to be some influence of both, and also some interplay between the two of them," Day said. [10 Facts Every Parent Should Know About Their Teen's Brain]

One interesting finding of the study was that over recent generations, the average age at which people first have sex has decreased, Day said. "That's not going to be due to genetics, so societal factors are clearly playing an important role," he said.

The analysis was done using genetic data from 125,000 men and women between ages 40 and 69, who participated in UK Biobank, a national study for health research. The researchers also looked at two other independent datasets, including about 240,000 people in Iceland and 20,000 participants in the United States. While information about the age of first intercourse wasn't available in these two datasets, the researchers observed the same relationships between the identified genes and the age at which people first had a child.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.
They may have happened within days of one another, but the devastating earthquakes in Japan had nothing to do with the strong temblor that struck Ecuador over the weekend, experts say.

Both Japan and Ecuador are located along the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, which spans the coasts lining the Pacific Ocean. The regions along the Ring of Fire are prone to earthquakes, but it's extremely rare for an earthquake on one side of the world to trigger earthquakes on the other, said Ross Stein, CEO and co-founder of Temblor.net, a free website and smartphone application that helps people understand locations' seismic risk.

For one thing, the earthquakes that hit Japan are a completely different type of quake than the one that struck Ecuador, Stein said. On April 14, a magnitude-6.2 earthquake hit southern Japan, and a day later, on April 15, a magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck the same region, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). [The 10 Biggest Earthquakes in History]

Both of these earthquakes were strike-slip earthquakes, Stein said, which occur when two parts of the Earth's crust slide against each other. The best way to imagine this is to place your hands together, with your fingers pointing away from your body, and slide your left hand forward and your right hand backward.

The two earthquakes in Japan were strike-slip earthquakes, whereas the earthquake in Ecuador was a thrust earthquake. (Image credit: USGS)

Both of these strike-slip earthquakes were shallow  about 6 to 8 miles (10 to 12 kilometers) deep  and both were destructive, killing more than 40 people in total, according to news sources. But the second quake was about 20 times stronger than the first, and released about 400,000 times more energy than the amount unleashed by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945, Stein and Volkan Sevilgen, the other Temblor.net co-founder, wrote in a blog post.

These two earthquakes in Japan were likely related, Stein said. However, it's unclear whether the magnitude-6.2 earthquake was a foreshock of the magnitude-7.0 earthquake or the magnitude-7.0 earthquake was an aftershock of the magnitude-6.2 earthquake, Stein said.

"So far, the evidence suggests that both are true," the experts wrote in the blog post. Though it's rare for an aftershock to be larger than the main shock, it does happen, Stein told Live Science.

Regardless, the first earthquake made the faults near it more likely to rupture, which likely helped to trigger the second, larger earthquake, Stein said.

Ecuador earthquake

On Saturday (April 16), merely a day after the second Japanese earthquake, a massive magnitude-7.8 earthquake rocked Muisne, Ecuador, the USGS reported. [Image Gallery: This Millennium's Destructive Earthquakes]

Unlike the strike-slip earthquakes in Japan, this one was a so-called megathrust quake, which occurs when one tectonic plate jams under another. In this case, the Nazca Plate is moving under the South American continent at a rate of about 2.2 to 2.4 inches (55 to 61 millimeters) a year, Stein and Sevilgen wrote in another blog post.

Almost 350 deaths have been reported from the Ecuador quake so far, CNN reported.

This isn't Muisne's first large earthquake. Another magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit almost the exact location in 1942, Stein said. In fact, given that the subduction rate is about 2.3 inches (60 mm) a year, and nearly 75 years have elapsed since the last large earthquake, it makes sense that this is a "repeat earthquake," Stein said.

But there's more to the story, he said. In 1906, Muisne experienced a magnitude-8.3 earthquake, so there may be other forces at work beyond a simple "repeat" event, he said.

"Considering that this site was part of the 10-times-larger event in 1906, it is particularly baffling," the experts wrote in the blog.

Even though the earthquake in Ecuador is unrelated to the two earthquakes in Japan, there is evidence that a gigantic earthquake can trigger others around the world. For instance, the magnitude-8.6 earthquake that struck the east Indian Ocean in 2012 is the largest strike-slip event on record, according to a 2012 study in the journal Nature, written by Stein and his colleagues.

After that massive earthquake, there was a nearly fivefold increase in earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.5 or greater for six days after the event, the researchers found.

"Those aftershocks tended to be strike-slip as well," Stein said. "It was mama calling to her kids."

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
The moon looms large in folklore, urban legends and myths from around the world. And on Monday Nov. 14, it will loom larger in the sky than it has in decades.

Every full moon is a spectacular sight, if skies are clear. But November's full moon is far from ordinary. It will be the closest full moon since 1948, and we won't see another full moon this close again until 2034, according to NASA.

Because the moon follows an elliptical path around Earth, sometimes it is closer to us  at its closest, a position called "perigee," it is 14 percent closer to Earth than when it is at its farthest position, known as "apogee." When that proximity coincides with the full moon phase, making the moon 30 percent brighter in the night sky, the event is referred to as a "supermoon."

The moon holds a mystical place in the history of human culture, so it's no wonder that many myths  from werewolves to induced lunacy to epileptic seizures  have built up regarding its supposed effects on us.

"It must be a full moon," is a phrase heard whenever crazy things happen and is said by researchers to be muttered commonly by late-night cops, psychiatry staff and emergency room personnel.

In fact a host of studies over the years have aimed at teasing out any statistical connection between the moon  particularly the full moon  and human biology or behavior. The majority of sound studies find no connection, while some have proved inconclusive, and many that purported to reveal connections turned out to involve flawed methods or have never been reproduced.

Reliable studies comparing the lunar phases to births, heart attacks, deaths, suicides, violence, psychiatric hospital admissions and epileptic seizures, among other things, have over and over again found little or no connection.

One possible indirect link: Before modern lighting, the light of a full moon have kept people up at night, leading to sleep deprivation that could have caused other psychological issues, according to one hypothesis that awaits data support.

Below, I'll review several studies  the good, the bad and the in between  but first some basic physics:

The moon, tides and you

The human body is about 75 percent water, and so people often ask whether tides are at work inside us.

The moon and the sun combine to create tides in Earth's oceans (in fact the gravitational effect is so strong that our planet's crust is stretched daily by these same tidal effects).

But tides are large-scale events. They occur because of the difference in gravitational effect on one side of an object (like Earth) compared to the other. Here's how tides work:

The ocean on the side of Earth facing the moon gets pulled toward the moon more than does the center of the planet. This creates a high tide. On the other side of the Earth, another high tide occurs, because the center of Earth is being pulled toward the moon more than is the ocean on the far side. The result essentially pulls the planet away from the ocean (a negative force that effectively lifts the ocean away from the planet).

However, there's no measurable difference in the moon's gravitational effect to one side of your body vs. the other. Even in a large lake, tides are extremely minor. On the Great Lakes, for example, tides never exceed 2 inches, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which adds, "These minor variations are masked by the greater fluctuations in lake levels produced by wind and barometric pressure changes. Consequently, the Great Lakes are considered to be essentially non-tidal."

That's not to say tides don't exist at smaller scales.

The effect of gravity diminishes with distance, but never goes away. So in theory everything in the universe is tugging on everything else. But: "Researchers have calculated that a mother holding her baby exerts 12 million times the tide-raising force on the child than the moon does, simply by virtue of being closer," according to Straightdope.com, a Web site that applies logic and reason to myths and urban legends.

Consider also that tides in Earth's oceans happen twice every day as Earth spins on its axis every 24 hours, bringing the moon constantly up and down in the sky. If the moon's tugging affected the human body, one might presume we'd be off balance at least twice a day (and maybe we are).

Studies of full moon effects

Here are some of the reputable studies in peer-reviewed journals that have failed to find connections:

Epilepsy:

A study in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior in 2004 found no connection between epileptic seizures and the full moon, even though some patients believe their seizures to be trigged by the full moon. The researchers noted that epileptic seizures were once blamed on witchcraft and possession by demons, contributing to a longstanding human propensity to find mythical rather than medical explanations.

Psychiatric visits:

"The belief that the lunar cycle is associated with the onset and severity of psychiatric symptoms has persisted since the middle ages," researchers write in 2014 in the journal ISRN Emergency Medicine. Has this belief been proved out by science?

A 2005 study by Mayo Clinic researchers, reported in the journal Psychiatric Services, looked at how many patients checked into a psychiatric emergency department between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. over several years. They found no statistical difference in the number of visits on the three nights surrounding full moons vs. other nights.

For the 2014 study, researchers led by Varinder Parmar of Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, looked at psychiatric emergency-department visits around the night of the full moon: six hours, 12 hours and 24 hours before and after a full moon. During the 12 hours before and after a full moon, EDs saw significantly more patients with personality disorders as well as with more urgent triage scores (those who needed more urgent care). However, fewer patients with anxiety disorders showed up during the 12 hours and 24 hours prior to and following the full moon.

Lunacy:

People don't seem to be "howling at the full moon," at least according to the research out there.

A review, called a meta-analysis, of 37 published and unpublished studies regarding a link between the full moon and "lunacy" as well as other behaviors found that just 1 percent of the change in activities considered "lunacy"  mental hospital admissions, psychiatric disturbances, crisis calls, homicides, and other criminal offenses, according to the researchers  could be attributed to the full moon, the scientists wrote in their study published in 1985 in the journal Psychological Bulletin.

Emergency Room Visits:

Researchers examined 150,999 records of emergency room visits to a suburban hospital. Their study, reported in American Journal of Emergency Medicine in 1996, found no difference at full moon vs. other nights.

Surgery Outcomes:

Do doctors and nurses mess up more during the full moon? Not according to a study in the October 2009 issue of the journal Anesthesiology. In fact, researchers found the risks are the same no matter what day of the week or time of the month you schedule your coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Not all studies dismiss lunar influence.

Pet Injuries:

In studying 11,940 cases at the Colorado State University Veterinary Medical Center, researchers found the risk of emergency room visits for pets to be 23 percent higher for cats and 28 percent higher for dogs on days surrounding full moons. It could be people tend to take pets out more during the full moon, raising the odds of an injury, or perhaps something else is at work  the study did not determine a cause.

Menstruation:

This is one of those topics on which you will find much speculation (some of it firm and convincing-sounding) and little evidence. The idea is that the moon is full every month and women menstruate monthly. Here's the thing: Women's menstrual cycles actually vary in length and timing  in some cases greatly  with the average being about every 28 days, while the lunar cycle is quite set at 29.5 days. Still, there is one study (of just 312 women), by Winnifred B. Cutler in 1980, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, that claims a connection. Cutler found 40 percent of participants had the onset of menstruation within two weeks of the full moon (which means 60 percent didn't). If anyone can tell me how this oft-cited study proves anything, I'm all ears. Also, one should be skeptical that in the intervening three-plus decades, nobody seems to have produced a study supporting Cutler's claim.

Animals Gone Wild:

A pair of conflicting studies in the British Medical Journal in 2001 leaves room for further research. In one of the studies, animal bites were found to have sent twice as many British people to the emergency room during full moons compared with other days. But in the other study, in Australia, dogs were found to bite people with similar frequency on any night. Some wild animals do behave differently during a full moon: For example, lions usually hunt at night, but after a full moon, they're more likely to hunt during the day  likely to make up for the tough going on a moonlit night.

Sleep Deprivation:

There's been a lot of research into this topic. In the Journal of Affective Disorders in 1999, researchers suggested that before modern lighting, "the moon was a significant source of nocturnal illumination that affected [the] sleepwake cycle, tending to cause sleep deprivation around the time of full moon." They speculated that "this partial sleep deprivation would have been sufficient to induce mania/hypomania in susceptible bipolar patients and seizures in patients with seizure disorders." When I first wrote this story in 2009, I looked over these oft-cited suggestions, scoured the scientific literature, and could not find where any of them had been tested or verified with any numbers or rigorous study of any kind. Since then, there have been a few more studies on the topic.

A small study in 2013, of just 33 volunteer adults, found they slept less during the full moon even when they could not see the moon and were not aware of the current lunar phase. The researchers say the findings would need to be replicated before they could be considered reliable, however. Then in 2014, a broad review of sleep-moon research, done by scientists at Max-Plank Institute of Psychiatry, found no statistically significant correlation between the lunar cycle and sleep.

More recently, research published in March of 2016, of 5,800 children age 9 to 11 in 12 different countries, found they slept about 5 minutes less on nights with a full moon. That's "unlikely to be important" from a health perspective, the researchers said, but it is interesting. They speculate that the brightness of the full moon may be the reason, but with all the artificial light around these days, they doubt that suggestion.

Expect more small studies in the future to suggest a link, and don't be surprised if further broad scientific reviews find the possible connections to be shaky.

Myths persist

If one presumes that modern lighting and mini-blinds have pretty much eliminated the one plausible source of human-related moon madness, why do so many myths persist?

Several researchers point out one likely answer: When strange things happen at full moon, people notice the "coincidental" big bright orb in the sky and wonder. When strange things happen during the rest of the month, well, they're just considered strange, and people don't tie them to celestial events. "If police and doctors are expecting that full moon nights will be more hectic, they may interpret an ordinary night's traumas and crises as more extreme than usual," explains our Bad Science Columnist Benjamin Radford. "Our expectations influence our perceptions, and we look for evidence that confirms our beliefs."

And that leads to this final note, which is perhaps the biggest logical nail in the coffin of the moon madness myths:

The highest tides occur not just at full moon but also at new moon, when the moon is between Earth and the sun (and we cannot see the moon) and our planet feels the combined gravitational effect of these two objects. Yet nobody ever claims any funny stuff related to the new moon (except for the fact that there is more beach pollution at full and new moon ...).

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in 2009. It was updated in April 2016 to include new information and the mention of the latest studies.
The outgoing government has been accused of letting the Longford voting public down after an appeal to have the county included for State backed regeneration funding was rejected.

In a letter sent by former Housing Minister Paudie Coffey, Longford County Council was informed it would not be receiving monies under the Designated Urban Centres Grant Scheme.

This, councillors were told at a meeting last Wednesday, was because Longford was not a designated gateway or hub under the now defunct National Spatial Strategy and as such did not meet the terms of the scheme.

Among those to hit out at the apparent rebuffal was Independent Cllr Gerry Warnock.

The County Council Cathaoirleach had previously called for a letter to be sent to the Department of Environment after it emerged neighbouring towns Mullingar and Athlone were to receive 1.5m each under the plan.

Addressing fellow elected members last week, Cllr Warnock said both the logic and rationale behind the Governments decision was flawed.

This (decision) is from a National Spatial Strategy that was rendered obsolete two years ago, he stormed.

It was an election stunt to maximise vote potential in the larger urban areas and its not good enough for the people of Longford town.

Cllr Warnock, who also led calls for the establishment of an equalisation fund for counties like Longford, was supported in his protestations by Cllr Peggy Nolan.

She said it was imperative the Council sought a meeting with the new minister as soon as the next government is formed.

This (regeneration model) is like a ripple effect because if it comes to fruition it will have a huge ripple effect for the whole county, she insisted.

Her remarks and those of Cllr Warnocks follow last weeks confirmation that Longford County Council has enlisted the services of consultancy firm Colliers in a bid to entice investors for the towns so-called Northern Quarter.

Director of Services Barbara Heslin accepted the county had undergone significant economic hardship as a result of its exclusion under the NSS.

This goes back to the loss that Longford suffered a number of years ago in that it wasnt selected and that loss has left us in a situation of trying to get out of recessionary mode, she conceded.

Much of those efforts, she revealed, were very much ongoing with talks with officials from the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Gasworks Ireland having already taken place.

Ms Heslin said of more immediate concern was the need for all stakeholders to adopt a can-do approach to the project.

But she warned the days of local authorities like Longford waiting for goodies to be brought to the table were long gone.

What the (Councils) Executive are trying to do is to drive and generate a level of energy and positivity to move us out of the situation we are in at the moment.

Its important people engage with what we are doing to try and move this forward.

But if we dont start that ripple effect we wont go anywhere and if we dont create that (positive) atmosphere we wont go anywhere, she maintained.

Its expected the Council will return to the topic after the deadline for expressions of interest for the towns Northern Quarter next Monday (April 18) has lapsed.
Released on Thursday, March 24, Sisters and Lies, the debut novel by Aughnacliffe native Bernice Barrington (nee Mulligan), was officially launched on Tuesday, April 5.

A large group of family, friends and supporters gathered in Easons, St Stephens Green, Dublin, where Sisters and Lies was placed prominently, as one of the Eason Book Club of the Month choices, in association with Pat Kenny/Newstalk.

The launch was brilliant. All my family travelled up and there was a good crowd there, Bernice smiled, admitting that the past week has been amazing, though overwhelming. There were lots of Longford representatives there, there was a good buzz - apparently I was trending on Twitter!

To see her book launched, and also included in the Book Club was surreal, according to the former Longford Leader journalist.

I find it difficult to quantify the emotion Its a dream come true, its all those cliches. Its something Ive wanted for so long, Bernice added, pointing out that, if and when its possible, she would love to come home to Longford for a launch or reading.

The Media Project Manager said she was utterly thrilled with the reaction that the book has received so far, but also relieved.

Im so close to it that I cant be outside it, I cant be objective, but its brilliant, Bernice said, adding that she never set out to write a thriller.

The novel tells the story of Rachel and Evie, the latter of whom is in a coma following a car crash. Everyone, including the police, thinks the crash was either an accident or a suicide attempt, but Rachel isnt convinced and makes it her business to find out the truth.

Amongst the other selling points of the book, many are lauding the well-rounded and relatable characters that Bernice has created, and the author voiced her delight at this, saying; To have people say that is so lovely and kind of affirming of what Ive been doing. I definitely wrote this book from the heart so these people are real to me.

Revealing that she and her husband Brian are expecting a child in July, Bernice, daughter of Brian and Mary, is hoping to make some headway on the second novel before then.

Im absolutely chomping at the bit to get started, she confirmed, before going on to add; Im hoping to get a good run at something before maternity leave. Theres a lot of ideas floating in my head!

Thanking everyone, particularly her Longford family and friends, for their continuous support, Bernice concluded by inviting readers to get in touch via Twitter (@beebarrington), Facebook (facebook.com/bernicebarringtonauthor) or her website (www.bernicebarrington.com).

Id love to hear from anybody at home, she smiled.
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At a ribbon cutting ceremony, Nowakowski said: We want to thank Sen. Martins, Assemblyman Montesano, County Executive Mangano, Legislator Schaefer, Mayor Cavallaro and the residents of this community for their cooperation as we planned and executed this project and their patience during this year-long process. The MTA and Long Island Rail Road are proud to deliver a new bridge, one that you can be confident will provide safe and convenient passage for pedestrians and motor vehicles for many decades to come.

State Senator Jack M. Martins said: "Today the community says goodbye and good riddance to the old Ellison Avenue Bridge, rated the worst bridge on Long Island, and cuts the ribbon on a new, state of the art bridge that will service the area for generations. Congratulations to the MTA LIRR for completing this project on time and on budget, the Village of Westbury for their tireless advocacy, and most importantly the community for their patience and persistence. The light at the end of the tunnel is finally here.

Assemblyman Michael Montesano said: "The new and improved Ellison Avenue Bridge was long awaited by residents of the Westbury community. As a central route in Nassau County, it was critical to tackle this undertaking, and I am extremely appreciative of the hard work and commitment that has gone into this project.

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said: Replacement of the Ellison Avenue Bridge has helped improve our local quality of life for Westbury residents while increasing public safety for pedestrians and drivers alike. Nassau County is pleased to have assisted in this project and I thank Senator Martins and the LIRR for ensuring its completion.

Nassau County Legislator Laura Schaefer said: I am extremely pleased to see that the Ellison Avenue bridge is reopening. I want to thank Mayor Cavallaro and the Village of Westbury for seeing this project through with the LIRR as the bridge has needed this reconstruction for some time now and is a very important thoroughfare for so many residents of the Village of Westbury and beyond. 

Village of Westbury Mayor Peter Cavallaro said: The condition of the Ellison Avenue Bridge has been a major concern for the greater Westbury community for several decades, and the replacement of the bridge was long overdue. The residents of the Village and surrounding communities are happy, relieved and grateful that this project has finally been completed, on time and on budget I am deeply appreciative to Senator Jack Martins for working hard to make sure that the LIRR finally undertook this important infrastructure improvement. I want to thank LIRR President Nowakowski and his staff for the open, transparent and efficient manner in which they conducted the project.

The LIRRs Ellison Ave. Bridge Replacement Project got underway in March 2015 when the Railroad closed and later demolished the old bridge. It promised a new span over the LIRRs busy Main Line would be open to the public by April 2016 and that the work would proceed with as little impact on train service and the community as possible.

The weekend demolition last May and installation of a major portion of the new bridge in October by the contractor Posillico Civil Inc. of Farmingdale L.I., still makes for good viewing on You Tube and illustrates the advantages of the design-build process championed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

With the bridge back in service, Posillico still has two months of remaining work, including fencing, anti-graffiti proofing, grading & landscaping and utility connections. The road will remain open during the performance of this work, but will require occasional sidewalk or shoulder closures and lane shifts.

The original Ellison Ave. Bridge was a pedestrian overpass built by the Long Island Rail Road in 1896, then rebuilt as a two-lane roadway with sidewalks in 1941. In recent years, the structure and roadway had deteriorated significantly and the steel plates that covered the holes made for a bumpy ride.

The project, funded by the MTA Capital Program, is also important because 40 percent of the Railroads daily ridership passes along the Main Line Corridor.

Another innovative aspect of the project was that it was carried out under a unique Project-Labor Agreement negotiated by the LIRR and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk designed to reduce labor costs while ensuring that jobs go to local construction workers.
Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com

Columnists Press Releases
The Department of Defense (DOD) announced on Apr. 16 that nine Guantanamo detainees, all from Yemen, have been transferred to Saudi Arabia. The transferred detainees include a man who was allegedly one of Osama bin Ladens bodyguards, the brother of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsulas (AQAP) current emir, and a jihadist the Obama administration determined was too dangerous to transfer but not feasible for prosecution. Intelligence included in declassified and leaked files links all nine of them to al Qaedas network in 2001 or beforehand.

The DOD says that eight of the nine detainees were unanimously approved for transfer by the six departments and agencies comprising President Obamas Guantanamo Review Task Force, which concluded its work in January 2010. But the reality is more complicated. The task force placed six of the now former detainees in conditional detention at Guantanamo. The six Yemenis could be transferred, Obamas interagency body found, but only under certain conditions.

Just two of the men  Mohammed Abdullah al Hamiri and Mansoor Muhammed Ali Qattaa  were approved for outright transfer to a country that will implement appropriate security measures.

Prior to the task force being established in Jan. 2009, Joint Task Force  Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), which oversees the detention facility, assessed both Hamiri and Qattaa to be medium risks who may pose a threat to the US, its interests, and allies. JTF-GTMO also recommended that both of them be transferred out of the DODs custody.

Hamiri reportedly received training at al Qaedas Al Farouq camp and participated in hostilities against US and Coalition forces in late 2001. JTF-GTMO concluded that Qattaa was an Islamic extremist and probable member of al Qaeda who traveled to Afghanistan for jihad shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. Qattaa was captured on Feb. 7, 2002 in a Karachi, Pakistan safe house operated by a senior al Qaeda facilitator known as Riyadh the Facilitator (a.k.a. Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj).

Six recommended for conditional detention by Obamas task force

The task force explained in its January 2010 report that 30 Yemenis, including six of the men transferred to Saudi Arabia on Apr. 16, were placed in conditional detention. These men could be transferred if the security situation improves in Yemen, an appropriate rehabilitation program becomes available, or an appropriate third-country resettlement option becomes available.

The task force considered the Yemenis placed in conditional detention to be a lower risk than the detainees slated for indefinite detention, but they were also thought to be more of a threat than the Yemenis approved for outright transfer. Even if one of these three security conditions was satisfied, the task force said, the Yemenis approved for transfer would receive priority for any transfer options over the 30 Yemeni detainees approved for conditional detention.

In the years since the task force completed its work, most of the Yemenis who were approved for transfer have been resettled in other countries. However, the security conditions in Yemen have hardly improved. In fact, AQAP has taken advantage of a multi-sided war to seize a large amount of territory along Yemens southern coast. This is one reason why Saudi Arabia was chosen as a destination for the men.

3 deemed High risk detainees by JTF-GTMO

JTF-GTMO evaluated all six conditional detainees prior to President Obamas task force being established in Jan. 2009. JTF-GTMO found that three of them  Ahmed Umar Abdullah al Hikimi, Tariq Ali Abdullah Ba Odah (who became well-known for his prolonged hunger strike) and Ahmed Yaslam Said Kuman  were high risks who are likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests, and allies. All three of them allegedly served in Osama bin Ladens 55th Arab Brigade, which fought alongside the Taliban in pre-9/11 Afghanistan, and also participated in the Battle of Tora Bora in late 2001.

A leaked JTF-GTMO threat assessment for al Hikimi, dated June 2, 2008, notes that he was captured in mid-2001 as part of a group the US intelligence community has dubbed the Dirty 30. American intelligence analysts found that most members of the Dirty 30, who were fleeing the Tora Bora Mountains in Afghanistan when they were captured along the border with Pakistan, were either bin Ladens bodyguards or part of the al Qaeda masters security detail. One member of the Dirty 30 was Mohammed al Qahtani, who was recruited to take part in the 9/11 hijackings before being denied entry into the US in the summer of 2001.

JTF-GTMO found that al Hikimi himself was a bodyguard for bin Laden. The threat assessment for al Hikimi includes this warning: Detainee continues to demonstrate extremist behavior at JTF-GTMO and is likely to reestablish his membership [in] al Qaeda if released.

3 deemed Medium risk detainees by JTF-GTMO

Three others placed in conditional detention by the task force prior to being transferred to Saudi Arabia were deemed medium risks by JTF-GTMO, which concluded that they may pose a threat to the US, its interests, and allies.

One of them is Ali Yahya Mahdi al Raymi, the brother of AQAPs current emir, Qasim al Raymi. [See LWJ report, Guantanamo detainee is brother of AQAPs new top leader.]

The second is Abdul Rahman Mohamed Saleh Naser, who was allegedly recruited by Sheikh Abdul Majid al Zindani and belonged to bin Ladens 55th Arab Brigade. Zindani was long allied with bin Laden and remains an influential jihadist in Yemen. As of late 2013, according to the US Treasury Department, Zindani continued to provide guidance to AQAP. JTF-GTMOs leaked threat assessment for Naser notes that he has been a high risk from a health perspective, as he has participated in hunger strikes and had other health problems.

JTF-GTMO recommended years ago that both Naser and al Raymi be transferred. The same is true for Abdul Rahman Umir al Qyati, who was recommended for transfer in September 2004. JTF-GTMOs analysts found that Qyati was likely trained at al Qaedas Al Farouq camp, where he purportedly received some basic weapons training.

Recommended for continued detention under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)

President Obamas task force recommended that Mashur Abdallah Muqbil Ahmed al Sabri be held in continued detention under the 2001 AUMF because he was too dangerous to release. JTF-GTMO previously determined that he was a high risk detainee and recommended that he remain in DOD custody.

Sabri also had his petition for a writ of habeas corpus denied by a DC district court in February 2011. [See LWJ report, Judge finds Gitmo detainee was no Gucci jihadist.]

The court found that Sabri traveled from Yemen to Afghanistan in 2000 to fight alongside the Taliban and al Qaeda, stayed in Taliban and al Qaeda guesthouses, sought out and received military-style training from the Taliban or al Qaeda, and traveled to the battle lines in Afghanistan as part of the Taliban or al Qaeda and remained part of those forces at the time of his capture in early 2002.

The US government presented overwhelming evidence against Sabri, including documents recovered in Afghanistan. One such document was Sabris application for an al Qaeda training camp. After completing his training, the application notes, Sabri planned on waging jihad.

The government also introduced into evidence a 92-page collection of documents recovered from the Director of Al Qaeda Security Training Office. Those documents contain the names of the students admitted to various training programs. Sabri is mentioned more than once in the documents, which list him as a graduate of an anti-aircraft missiles class.

In April 2012, an appellate court upheld the district courts rejection of Sabris habeas petition. Sabris counsel challenged the governments evidence showing he had received anti-aircraft training. But the appellate court ruled that the district court did not clearly err in finding that the documents refer to Sabri. The appellate court also cited much other evidence demonstrating Sabris ties to al Qaedas network inside Afghanistan.

Three years after the appellate courts decision, in April 2015, a Periodic Review Board (PRB) approved Sabris transfer, finding that continued law of war detention of the detainee is no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.

The PRB considered Sabris low level of training, renunciation of extremist ideology, and lack of a leadership position in al Qaeda or the Taliban. It is not clear why there is a discrepancy in how Sabris training was described by the PRB as compared to the earlier court rulings. Anti-aircraft training is not low level.

Sabri knew at least one of the suicide bombers responsible for the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. JTF-GTMOs leaked threat assessment ties Sabri to the al Qaeda operatives who carried out the bombing. But the US government argued during his PRB hearing that there is no indication he had foreknowledge of the attack.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

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Creative GENIUS

The Publisher World of Art in London, UK will this Autumn launch the Art Book Creative GENIUS.

100 artists from all over the world have been chosen.

One af the 100 artists is the Dane Asbjorn Lonvig. You can order the book in your bookstore or via the internet at www.amazon.com

A limited edition of Creative GENIUS will be signed by Asbjorn Lonvig.

A signed print of an art work from the book is put in.

Asbjorn Lonvig


Exhibition of huge

metallic sculptures in spectacular places.







This exhibition is draft samples made to encourage cities etc. to erect huge

metallic sculptures in spectacular places.





What you buy from me is the idea, the drafts and all my experiences


Microsoft is the latest multi-billion-dollar global corporation to weigh in on behalf of its users with a new lawsuit that wants to force the U.S. government to allow it and other companies that store data on behalf of customers to disclose to those customers when warrants have been issued that require disclosure of that information. Not in every case, mind you, but in vastly fewer than the government has gotten court approval to keep gagged, and typically for set, short periods of time instead of indefinitely.

Microsoft hasnt always been known as a bastion of customer-oriented privacy concerns, nor until relatively recently has it been praised for how it handles security. In contrast, Apple emerged several years ago as the flag bearer for privacy, revising software and hardware to bolster their words, and other companies have fallen either into line to support Apple or fought separate battles. Facebookin particular its WhatsApp divisionhas pursued a direction that bore fruit just last week with WhatsApps end-to-end encryption update.

When I started this column over a year and a half ago, I asked for my mandate to be security, encryption, and privacy. Those related elements obviously arent directly comparable, but the mix of how companies offer eachand how one plays into the otheraffects how much about us they know, and to how much unrelated parties, including attackers, can gain access.

Teasing three terms apart

In my definition, security comprises both philosophy and implementation: How should systems be designed to limit access only to the parties in an organization who need it (such as administrators), if any, as well as to those outside, such as subscribers, members, or users. And, with that design in mind, how well its implemented.

The implementation involves a number of parameters, such as two-factor authentication for logins and physical access controls to servers and the like, as well as encryption. Encryption often gets the lions share of attention, because flaws in algorithms have widespread consequences. But its often a security flawa way through access controlsthat lets attackers gain access to data, often in a state thats not encrypted at rest or that passes back and forth to users in an unencrypted state, and can be captured.

Privacy is effectively the control we can exercise over data we provide to or store with other parties. It can be an outgrown of well-implemented security with proper use of encryption. But privacy is not an integral part of security. When theyre lumped together, it provokes misunderstandings. Some companies are great about privacy, and terrible in using encryption to provide strong security. Others are fabulous about encryption, creating nearly impregnable walls against outsiders, but make seemingly free use of our private data for their own marketing and advertising ends.

If we look at Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, we can see how these aspects get exposed.

Apple decided several years ago to distinguish itself from Google, as Google swallowed up ever more information about users to target advertising, among other purposes. We can set strategy aside from the debate about Googles tactics, business model, and its response to criticism.

To further its strategy, Apple moved to restrict its access to many parts of its users information. It cant decrypt a phone (without developing a custom OS). It encrypts iCloud Keychain items in such a way that it cant decrypt them, even when theyre synced across its system. While it does offer iAds, you can opt out of the information gathering that tailors those to you. (And, frankly, iAds is small potatoes in the ad business, and not long for this world.) When it launched Newsstand and later Apple News, it made it clear that publishers wouldnt, by default, get almost any information about subscribers.

But Apple has blind spots when it comes to encryption. It encrypts the synchronization of contacts, calendar entries, and other information across its iCloud service, but with the exception of Keychain entries, that information is stored in a way that Apple can access, and provide access to law enforcement. Apple could shift to a method used by other companies, including AgileBits with the cloud side of its 1Password ecosystem, where data is always encrypted, and client software (including Web apps) handles the decryption locally. They could built this into iOS and OS X so that third-party apps would be able to handle data seamlessly for sync.

Apple is also behind in the methods it uses with some products to ensure total privacy. As recent research has uncovered, iMessage had a variety of vulnerabilities (now patched), but it also suffers from outdated design. Apple hasnt kept up with the best practices now understood to achieve the goal of preventing outside parties from gaining access to messages and audio/video sessions.

Google has arguably superior security in some of its products and systems. For instance, it built forward secrecy into Google Talk years agoa technique that destroys encryption keys after messages are sent, making it much more difficult to impossible to unscramble old messages. It added two-factor authentication broadly and extensively a few years ago in a way that Apple is still catching up with.

Given Googles designs, its less likely that outside parties could gain access to its message system, messaging history, data centers, or encrypted connections of any kind. In many ways, large and small, Google has improved the overall security of Web communications and the integrity of the certificate authority system used to ensure that encrypted sessions cant be subverted through man-in-the-middle attacks.

But Googles obsession with examining user data for ads and other targeting means that it stores a lot of information in the cloud in a form to which it has direct access. With Apple, you can avoid using the cloud for sync, for instance, while Googles cloud focus prevents that.

A great example? Google has offered encryption Web connections to Gmail and Google Search for years, and improved how it handles security over time, so you can spot if someone is trying to or has hijacked your email account. However, Google analyzes every single thing you do on its sites and every character you type into it.

Theres a conflict here. The battle over governments access to decrypt communications will probably resolve in Google shifting to a stance thats more like Apple, and improving privacy and security at the same time.

Microsoft and Facebook stepping forward

Its not that Microsoft was a privacy invader; that kind of opprobrium is usually limited to a critique of Facebook. Rather, even this new post-Gates and post-Ballmer form of Microsoft hadnt revealed itself as a particular advocate. The lawsuit its filed effectively on behalf of its customers is a strong step forward, especially given how many governments are customers of Microsoft for its operating system, applications, enterprise offerings, and cloud apps and services.

Microsofts suit is a combination of marketing and good intent, just as with Apple.

Microsofts reputation for security improved enormously following the disastrous years in which Windows XP let hackers run wild. But this privacy stance could change the way people regard the company. I saw a number of tweets after its lawsuit was announced with people joking about how they have a hard time praising Microsoft because of its past security inadequacies. The companys suit is a combination of marketing and good intent, just as with Apple.

Facebook remains in a trickier position. The updates to WhatsApp have a positive impact worldwide for the protection of private thoughts, and Facebook is general has kept ratcheting up security options along with good reminders to its visitors to review settings. But the company remains problematic on privacy, trying to improve user numbers and revenues by making more and more of what we post less protectedincluding using photos of you in ads shown to your friends. A 2015 examination shows a steady and significant decline over Facebooks history in how it defines whats private in its user policies

Even more so than Google, Facebook wants to keep everyone in the world out of your private affairsexcept Facebook.

These companies and many others have to wrestle with balancing core businesses against how they protect our data, identity, software, and devices. Apple may have it easiest as a company that makes most of its revenue from high-margin hardware, because it needs the least amount of information about us to make that business thrive.

But the flourishing debate about how governments can or should force companies to release our private information is already shifting stances. The trend is for more protection, especially as companies educate people in whats risk, letting all of us articulate more precisely what we want.
People do not give up their rights when they move their private information from physical storage to the cloud," the lawsuit said, adding that the government "has exploited the transition to cloud computing as a means of expanding its power to conduct secret investigations."

According to the lawsuit, the government "seeks and executes warrants for electronic communications far more frequently than it sought and executed warrants for physical documents and communications apparently because it believes it can search and seize those documents and communications under a veil of secrecy."

More companies seem to be joying the battle over privacy. So, it has been revealed that Microsoft has decided to make quite an interesting move and the tech company has taken the US Justice Department to court over secret customer data searches.The lawsuit was filed this week and it seems that what Microsoft is arguing is that the Justice Department should not have the authority to secretly access customer information.What Microsoft seems to want is to be able to inform its customers when US authorities are looking at their personal data.Furthermore, the lawsuit filed in federal court indicates that the US government is actually violating the constitution by preventing the tech company from sending some notifications to customers, whose data is being accessed by the government.Microsoft says in its lawsuits that this is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which precisely says that people have the right to know if the government is making searches on their property.Furthermore, the legal proceedings said that the actions were also violating Microsoft's right to free speech, established in the First Amendment as presented by USNEWS:In its lawsuit, Microsoft revealed that it actually receivedfor customer information only in the lastThe company also said that about half of these demands, 2,576, came with gag orders, which means that Microsoft was unable to notify its customers that authorities were checking their data.Microsoft also explained that many of the orders had no time limit, which means that it might never be able to tell customers that their data has been checked by the government.The Department of Justice has not responded on the filing and was reportedly reviewing the lawsuit. Of course, Microsoft is not the only tech company which has decided to fight against authorities and their request for access to data. The new lawsuit comes after a very high profile case involving famous company Apple. Apple opposed a request from the FBI to unlock an encrypted iPhone that belonged to one of the attackers at San Bernardino , California.Despite the pressure, Apple fought authorities, which finally found a third party to ensure their access to data. Google, Facebook and Yahoo have also claimed that authorities have often demanded access to customer information.On the other hand, authorities have claimed that if targets are notified that their data is investigated, they might change their communications which could turn out to affect investigations. So, this is the latest battle between tech companies and authorities over access to data. How the suit will end, it is yet to see.
Do judges at the CJEU have any prior experience of copyright law? Why do some member states file far more submissions to the Court than others, and does this kind of strategic litigation help parties win? Who sues in the small claims track in Londons IPEC and what is their chance of winning?

These were some of the questions raised at aCREATe litigation workshop organised in London last week, as academics from across the UK outlined their latest research on copyright law.

Marcella Favale and Martin Kretschmer introduced their work on copyright jurisprudence at the Court of Justice of the EU, recently published in theModern Law Review. They, along with Paul Torremans, have studied data on copyright and database cases brought before the CJEU, including analysing the allocation of cases to chambers within the courts, the composition of those chambers, and the judgments themselves.

One judge, Jiri Malenovsky, has served as rapporteur on 24 out of the 40 copyright cases the researchers studied.

They concluded that no judge had any specialism in copyright law before joining the Court, instead learning on the job. To compensate for a lack of prior expertise, the Court appears to allocate copyright cases to particular chambers and judges. One judge, Jiri Malenovsky, has served as rapporteur on 24 out of the 40 copyright cases the researchers studied. Malenovsky is less likely than other judges at the Court to broaden the rights of copyright owners because he is more likely to interpret copyright narrowly and copyright law exceptions broadly.

Steering judicial policy

Now the researchers have turned their attention to the way in which member states try to reverse or shape copyright law by filing written submissions in cases referred to the CJEU by the national courts. By looking at documents in more than 70 copyright and database law cases, the academics have established that some countries, including Italy, France, the UK, Spain, Poland and Germany, file far more written observations than others.

Some countries, including Italy, France, the UK, Spain, Poland and Germany, file far more written observations than others.

This is not a simple case of governments supporting litigants from their own countries. Many of their submissions relate to disputes originating in other member states, involving parties from other countries. In contrast, Scandinavian countries are far less likely to intervene: they submit fewer written observations to the CJEU than their national courts make preliminary references to it.

Some member states use strategic litigation such as preliminary references to steer judicial policy, said Favale. They also use good written observations to try to reverse legislation that they unsuccessfully opposed in the European Council.

Now the researchers are trying to assess the importance of submissions made by member states and by the European Commission. So far, they have found the greatest correlation between the arguments submitted by the European Commission and the decision issued by the Court.

IPEC small claims track

In a session focused on the UK, Sheona Burrow outlined her research on cases brought before the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court using its small claims track. The procedure is supposed to be relatively quick and informal. Claims are limited to 10,000 and the costs the successful party can claim are limited.

Photographers are heavy users of the small claims track, representing almost half of claimants and nearly three-quarters of repeat claimants.

Burrow  like many of the researchers at the workshop  recounted the difficulties of accessing court data, explaining that files are stored in different parts of buildings without a cohesive electronic filing system.

Claimants, many of whom are unrepresented, are often uncertain about the detail of the law applicable to their case, requiring researchers who want to classify them to digest the details of the dispute rather than relying on the claim forms submitted in the case. Nearly 80% of claims specify copyright law, although the small claims track can also be used for trade mark, passing off and unregistered design cases.

Burrows data suggests that photographers are heavy users of the small claims track, representing almost half of claimants and nearly three-quarters of repeat claimants. Although photographers whose copyright is infringed often face a more straightforward evidentiary hurdle than other IP owners, there is still scope for those in other parts of the creative industries to make better use of the small claims track to enforce their rights, she said.

Most disputes are resolved in favour of the claimant, but their chances of prevailing are not significantly affected by having legal representation. There is better news for lawyers looking for work when it comes to defendants, however. Burrows data shows that a defendant with legal representation is more likely to win his or her case than one without.

Scotland

In a session on IP litigation in Scotland, Jane Cornwell explained that a relatively large number of copyright cases heard in the Scottish courts are brought by parties outside the creative industries, reminding policymakers that businesses in the oil and gas and the professional services sectors are just as likely to have rights in copyright material as textile producers in the Highlands or musicians in Edinburgh.

Research projects in CREATes litigation streams have been designed to offer an empirical picture of copyright litigation at all levels in the UK. The findings will be presented at theCREATe Festival in June.

Emma Barraclough is an Industry Fellow with CREATe
In their Best route market study for containerised imports to South Germany, published at the beginning of March, the Drewry Groups supply-chain consultants investigated via which ports containers imported from Shanghai can be transported fastest and cheapest to southern Germany, i.e. Munich, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Ulm and Nuremberg. In almost all markets under consideration, Hamburg comes out better than Rotterdam, Antwerp and the southern ports in the Mediterranean. Contributing to this are numerous direct services, a high departure frequency for container block trains and the fast transit times to/from the Hamburg quay wall.



Across the North Range a total of 16 Far East liner services are currently on offer from the major container shipping lines. The two leading ports in these statistics are Rotterdam and Hamburg, being called at by 15 and 13 of these 16 liner services respectively. Antwerp, however, with a total of six is served by less than half of all possible liner services.



Calculating the speed of the route for the transit time at sea is an important factor in this study. Hamburg and Rotterdam achieve an average of 33 days with a best time of 29 days. The Port of Antwerp that is able to include the calculation for its extremely fast MSC 25-day liner service, on average achieves 36 days for its six services together. Since the study compares fastest times, Antwerp is repeatedly shown to be the fastest option in the port comparison. However, this is only true at certain times. In the overall comparison, i.e. when considering the average transit times, Antwerp falls behind Hamburg and Rotterdam.



Among the southern ports, Koper equally has a very positive 25-day liner service. Because of their geographical location, throughout the southern ports, the average transit time at sea is logically lower than for the North Range. However, the number of liner services calling at these ports lies between three and five with all ports, except Trieste, having a size restriction for containerships with a capacity of over 13,000 TEU.



In almost all target regions under consideration, the Port of Hamburg is best positioned: For transport with Freiburg, Nuremberg and Stuttgart, the southern ports have so far played no role. The three North Range ports, i.e. Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg are the only options with competitive conditions. In Freiburg, the Port of Hamburg can show its full colours, with regional shippers profiting from cheaper rates and faster, or same, transit times in comparison with Rotterdam and Antwerp on the trade route to and from Shanghai. For the Stuttgart and Nuremberg regions, the study determines that faster transit times are coupled with higher transport costs, with Antwerp offering the faster, but equally more expensive service. This, however, only applies to the ultra-fast MSC service, with its 25-day sea transit. When using any other liner service, this time-saving is non-existent in comparison to Hamburg and Rotterdam.



In the largest of the regions considered, Greater Munich, the Port of Koper can indeed be the fastest option for the shipper, but this is not without preconditions: It is only the Alliance 2M liner service, calling once a week, that creates the time advantage when twinned with the appropriate rail connection, but weighing in with extra costs of 100 USD in comparison to the routing via the Port of Hamburg for urgent goods. For non-urgent cargo, Hamburg is best positioned. Only Hamburg has numerous daily rail services, arriving directly overnight, providing the shippers with additional flexibility.



In all of the examples quoted, one of the Port of Hamburgs great strengths comes into play: The high concentration of container train departures with the Hamburg Terminals increase flexibility, buffering the transport chain. Ulm is a good example for this: This market is only served by Hamburg and the southern Port of Trieste that only has one weekly container train service to Ulm. If this train to/from Trieste is missed, then it is either trucking or a weeks wait, cancelling out the time-saving from the shorter sea transit. Compare this to the daily scheduled train service to/from Hamburg, offering a reliable, more cost effective service to Shanghai.



Many other terminals in southern Germany, not considered in the study, demonstrate Hamburgs overall strength across the board: Augsburg, Regensburg, Wiesau, Hof, Schweinfurt, Ingolstadt and Mannheim are just some examples for cities and towns that are just as quickly and flexibly linked to the Port of Hamburg. These target regions, partly, still have no connections to other North Range or southern ports.



According to Drewrys experts, Hamburg is traditionally the strongest port for the southern German hinterland and will not lose this position in the foreseeable future. In 2015, more than one million TEU were handled in container transport via the Port of Hamburg for Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg, even going against the general trend with a light plus in comparison with the previous year. The significant transport volume and competition between the many private and public rail operators is reflected in better prices for the operators when booking track space on DB Netz - German rails north-south axis. Because of its excellent network of hinterland connections by rail, the Port of Hamburg is Europes Number One rail port. Even under increasing competitive pressure, the Port of Hamburg will continue successfully as a pioneer for environmentally-friendly, reliable transport into the hinterland.
When cruise liner Crystal Serenity sets off on its 32-day expedition voyage through the Northwest Passage from Anchorage to New York August 16, she will be escorted by the RRS Ernest Shackleton.

Crystal Cruises recently secured RRS Ernest Shackleton for the voyage via a charter party agreement with Tactical Marine Solutions of Victoria, Canada and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) headquartered in Cambridge, U.K.

Under the contract, RRS Ernest Shackleton, an ICE 05 classed icebreaker (exceeding the more common 1A Super class), will provide operational support to Crystal Serenity, including icebreaking assistance should the need arise and carry additional safety and adventure equipment.

RRS Ernest Shackleton will carry two helicopters for real-time ice reconnaissance, emergency support and flightseeing activities. In addition to its robust ice navigation and communications equipment, the RRS Ernest Shackleton will have on board supplemental damage control equipment, oil pollution containment equipment, and survival rations for emergency use. The expedition crew comprises of expert guides with many years experience transiting the Northwest Passage and also a diver and support team trained in the use of the emergency equipment carried on board. The RRS Ernest Shackleton will support Crystals adventures ashore, carrying newly acquired zodiacs for wet landings, while the vessels crew will provide expert assistance during flightseeing adventures and the lines recently unveiled Unexpected Adventures, which offer more spontaneous ways of exploring the region.

Prior to making the voyage Crystal Serenity will be outfitted with state of the art forward looking sonar, ice detection radar, ice searchlights and thermal imaging, as well as an ice navigation system that will display near real time satellite ice imagery and ice forecasts. In addition, the Master and bridge team will attend ice navigation training at a simulator in St Johns, Newfoundland, and two veteran Canadian ice pilots will be on board to assist the bridge team in managing the information provided by additional equipment which is not typically found on cruise ships. The RRS Ernest Shackleton will also carry her own very experienced ice pilot.

We have been planning this historic sailing for more than two years, working closely with expedition experts from EYOS-Expeditions, as well as Transport Canada, the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards and local agencies along the route to ensure the ultimate safety and a most memorable experience for our guests, says Crystal president and CEO, Edie Rodriguez. The RRS Ernest Shackletons assistance in navigating this region will only enhance the safety of our voyage.



The U.K.-flagged RRS Ernest Shackleton, launched in 1995, is primarily a logistics vessel used to transport cargo, fuel and passengers, but also possesses basic scientific capability and undertakes some research work. During the northern summer, the vessel is commercially chartered (usually in the North Sea). Built by Kverner Klevin Leirvik A/S, Norway as the MV Polar Queen for the Rieber Shipping of Bergen she was deployed in the Antarctic by other national programs before being acquired by The British Antarctic Survey in August 1999, and subsequently renamed after the famed polar explorer.
Navios Maritime Acquisition Corporation has agreed to sell two chemical tankers to an unaffiliated third party for a sale price of $74.6 million, resulting in an expected book gain of approximately $11.7 million, the company announced today.



The two 2013-built Marshall Islands-flagged vessels, the 45,281 dwt Nave Constellation and the 45,513 dwt Nave Universe, were acquired in 2013 for a total purchase price of $67.2 million. While owned by NNA, the two 183-meter-long vessels are expected to have generated a total EBITDA of $22.3 million.



Closing of the transaction is expected in the third quarter of 2016, following the completion of vessels chartering commitments.



Navios Acquisition said it intends to use the proceeds from the sale of these vessels for repayment of indebtedness and general working capital purposes.
European Marine Engineering Award 2016 for Azipod D recognizes innovation and originality in auxiliary machinery



Power and automation technology group ABB has won a European Marine Engineering Award, acknowledging the innovation behind the new Azipod D electric propulsion solution, launched in 2015.



The 2016 Award for Auxiliary Machinery category honors auxiliary systems that demonstrate innovative and original development that improves a ships operational efficiency or reduces risk to personnel.



Introduced in 2015, Azipod D propulsion was brought to market to allow a wider range of vessel types to benefit from the proven reliability and flexibility that have made Azipod the leading propulsion system across numerous ship types.



This award follows on from the remarkable uptake by the market of Azipod D propulsion since its launch in the first quarter of 2015, said Juha Koskela, Managing Director of ABBs Marine and Ports business.The Azipod D requires up to 25 percent less installed power than comparable units, partly due its completely new hybrid cooling which increases the performance of the electric motor by up to 45 percent.



Available in power ranges from 1.6 megawatts to 7 megawatts (MW) per unit, ABBs Azipod D propulsion units give designers and ship builders greater flexibility to accommodate a wide variety of hull forms and propeller sizes, as well as simplicity of installation. ABB said the market has already responded to the benefits of the new Azipod D, orders for various ship types have gone into the order books since it was launched.



ABB has so far received orders for 12 Azipod D units for five vessels.



ABBs gearless Azipod propulsion system is already the preferred choice of cruise vessels, icebreakers, ice-going cargo vessels and offshore accommodation ships, the manufacturer said. With the Azipod D, shipping segments such as offshore drilling, construction and support vessels and ferries have even more choices to benefit from the higher flexibility, reliability and energy efficiency provided by Azipod propulsion technology.


Australia based shipbuilder Austal Limited has been awarded preferred tenderer status by the Commonwealth of Australia for the Pacific Patrol Boats Replacement (PPBR) Project involving the construction of up to 21 steel-hulled patrol vessels and through life sustainment over 30 years in a total Government expenditure of up to $900 million. Austals share of the PPBR program will include the construction of the vessels and short to medium term maintenance components of the project.

The shipbuilder said it will now work with the Commonwealth of Australia to complete documentation and finalize the contract over the coming weeks. Full details will be provided to the market when the contract is finalized.

Austal plans to construct the Pacific Patrol Boats in its shipyard in Henderson, Wash., with through-life support to be performed at Austals existing facility in Cairns, Queensland. The vessels will replace the existing Pacific Patrol Boat fleet, which is approaching the end of its service life, and will assist Pacific Island countries to continue to take an active part in securing their own extensive Exclusive Economic Zones.

Austal Chief Executive Officer David Singleton cited a long history of constructing patrol boats at our shipyard in Henderson, Western Australia.

Austal has delivered Australias entire border patrol capability  comprising 30 vessels delivered over the past 17 years  and we look forward to extending this by constructing and servicing vessels that will be used by many of our neighbors in the South Pacific, Singleton said.

Construction of the Pacific Patrol Boats also extends Austals shipbuilding capability into steel-hulled vessels, which will be important for the future construction of Offshore Patrol Vessels, he added.

This project will add to our existing work at our Henderson shipyard, where two High Speed Support Vessels are being constructed for the Royal Navy of Oman this year as well as two additional Cape Class Patrol Boats.
U.S. Marine Corps KC-130J Hercules with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response- Africa flew straight and level as the F/A-18 approached from behind to receive fuel. This F/A-18 however belonged to the Spanish Air Force, conducting an air-to-air refueling mission from a U.S. Marine KC-130J for the first time during a training exercise in Gran Canaria, Spain, Mar. 29, 2016.



The purpose of the trip was to do bilateral training with the Spanish 462 Squadron, said Capt. Kyle Bookhout, a pilot with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 252. We provided them with aerial refueling and played along in some of their training scenarios so that they can keep improving their qualifications and maintain their readiness.



During the training scenario, the C-130 acted as the slow mover among the group of fighter jets. The Marines simulated dropping paratroopers at a designated landing zone while the Spanish F-18s provided security above the route. Following the scenario, the Marines refueled the jets to give the Spanish pilots additional training in aerial refueling.



I think its a great opportunity anytime that you can get two nations together and do this type of bilateral training, said Bookhout. They have limited assets for air refueling so we help them out and keep their qualifications current. Just seeing how other people operate and getting past the communication barriers and seeing that were all pretty similar... Its just a great experience and I think everyone receives a lot of training value out of it.



While this was the first time U.S. Marine aircraft had refueled the 462nd, the C-130 crews make an effort to do refueling missions with the Spanish at least twice a month to remain proficient in their assigned mission essential tasks throughout the deployment. Bilateral exercises such as this one help reinforce the strong relationships between the U.S., Spanish and other NATO allies.



Just working with the Spanish or other foreign militaries helps in case we do, in a real-world mission, have to deal with other nations, said Bookhout. Were already familiar with how they operate and theyre familiar with how we operate.
MV-22B Ospreys with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 (Reinforced), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, arrived at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, April 17, 2016.



VMM-265 arrived to provide operational airlift support for the Government of Japans relief efforts following the earthquakes in and near Kumamoto.



An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 struck the island of Kyushu April 14, resulting in nine deaths and widespread damage. A second earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.3, struck April 16, causing at least an additional 40 deaths and more damage.



We express our deepest condolences to all those affected by the recent earthquakes in Kyushu, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. John Dolan, commander of U.S. Forces Japan. We are working closely with the government of Japan to provide assistance and support. To the people of Japan and the region affected by this tragedy, we send our heartfelt sympathies. The men and women of the U.S. Forces Japan stand with you during this difficult time.



The long-standing alliance between Japan and the U.S. played an integral role in U.S. Forces Japans rapid, integrated support to the Japan Self-Defense Forces and civilian relief efforts.



The U.S. stands with Japan during this difficult time, and were here to work with whomever were called upon to work with, said Capt. Tessa Snow, an MV-22 pilot with VMM-265.



The MV-22B Osprey is designed as the medium-lift replacement for the Navy CH-46E Sea Knight assault support helicopter. The Osprey can operate as a helicopter or a turboprop aircraft and offers twice the speed, six times the range, and three times the payload of the CH-46E, making it an ideal aircraft for providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations such as this one.















More Media
Trump Is No Peace Candidate

Throughout its sordid history, all US presidents supported war, not peace - including Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and both Roosevelts.



Traditional US policy from inception refutes the notion of a peace candidate becoming president - Jack Kennedy the one exception.



He entered office a warrior, transformed himself into a peacemaker, was killed for wanting all US forces out of Vietnam by end of 1963, normalized ties with Soviet Russia, nuclear disarmament, and the CIA disbanded, among other anti-establishment views.

Most of all, his opposition to Americas military-industrial complex meant he had to go. CIA hired guns eliminated him.



A Trump presidency wont mean an end to US imperial wars, perhaps just slowing things a little and saving humanity from the scourge of WW III.



He supports militarism like all presidential aspirants, saying Im gonna build a military thats gonna be much stronger than it is right now. Its gonna be so strong, nobodys gonna mess with us.



On the one hand, he says (w)e can do it for a lot less. Hes a businessman, wanting bang for bucks spent, no pun intended.



Longstanding Pentagon waste, fraud and abuse is notorious - trillions of dollars poured down a black hole, solely benefitting war-profiteers, unrelated to national defense and security.



On the other, he ignores whats most important. No nations threaten America, none since Japan surrendered in August 1945. Its only enemies are ones it invents to continue waging war on humanity.



Dont expect Trump as president to change longstanding policy, at most maybe decelerate a little. Challenging Americas military industrial complex responsibly would assure him the same fate as JFK. Hes smart enough to know it.



Supporters dont seem savvy enough to realize hes an establishment figure. He didnt get super-rich by believing in peace, equity and justice for all.



Hes driven by wanting money used to make more of it, a zero-sum game benefitting the few at the expense of most others.



All US administrations continue dirty business as usual - no exceptions other than JFKs brief failed attempt to change things.



Its foolhardy to accept political promises at face value. All politicians lie. None can be trusted. Promises are made to be broken.



The notion of Trump the peacemaker flies in the face of longstanding US tradition.



Hes essentially like all the rest. He just sounds different, at times over-the-top, some of his ideas enough to make some neocons blush - like building Americas great wall along the Mexican border and having its government pay for it.



No matter who succeeds Obama, the same dirty system will persist. Waging war on humanity at home and abroad wont end.



Enriching the privileged few at the expense of most others remains hard-wired US policy. Believing any new administration will change things responsibly is self-delusion.

By Stephen Lendman

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com

His new book as editor and contributor is titled Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

He lives in Chicago and can be reached in Chicago at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.



Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday through Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national topics. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 2016 Copyright Stephen Lendman - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




The Oppressed U.S. Taxpayer, A Morally Sound Tax Reform Proposal

This year, Americans day of tribute to their federal overlords falls on April 18. As calculated by the Tax Foundation, the average American will work from January 1 to April 24 (Tax Freedom Day) to pay his share of taxes to all levels of government with some $3.3 trillion to be forked over to the federal government and $1.6 trillion to state and local jurisdictions.*

While any talk of tax cuts are verboten on the Democratic side of the presidential campaign, the remaining Republican contenders have offered their views on the matter suggesting a flat tax, reduction in corporate tax rates, and a call for the consolidation of the current tax bracket from seven to four.* Most of these and their variations have been trumpeted before and even if enacted would not permanently undo the crushing tax burden or prevent rates from escalating to even more confiscatory heights.

If real and lasting tax relief is ever going to come, a more fundamental alteration of tax policy needs to be taken, which has not been suggested by any of the presidential contenders, but had once been an integral part of the nations political thought.

One of Americas most neglected political theorists of the 19th century was South Carolina statesman John C. Calhoun, who wrote the important treatise, A Disquisition on Government. Calhoun perceptively saw that politically, society is divided between two distinct groups: taxpayers and taxconsumers. Obviously, taxpayers are the ones who pay taxes while taxconsumers, such as government employees, welfare recipients, state contractors, and all others that receive income from the public trough, consume or live off taxation.

Naturally, when it comes to the issue of taxation, taxconsumers will be in favor, or, at least, want to maintain the status quo and, more than likely, would support notions of tax increases. Taxpayers, on the other hand, would oppose increases or enlargement of the tax base, since they are the ones footing the bill.

Of course, politicians of all stripes and colors try to blur this distinction that Calhoun so brilliantly made, especially on tax day by declaring how they paid their taxes. This, however, is sophistry.

In reality, politicians are just returning some of the loot that they coercively took from their fellow citizens. Federal government employees in essence do not pay federal taxes! Nor do individual state employees pay state taxes. This is merely an accounting gimmick to bamboozle the public. And, this is one of the reasons that, for the longest time (and wisely so), citizens of the District of Columbia could not vote in federal elections since most of them were government employees and would, in their self interest, oppose tax cuts or public spending reductions.

When government was limited and the welfare state effected only a small group, voting and levels of taxation did not have a significant correlation. However, with the number of people working for the government in the millions and those dependent on state largesse in the tens of millions, who votes, and in what numbers is extremely important.

It has been recently estimated that of the total U.S. adult population of some 260 million, only one third (some 79 million) can be said not to be dependent on state support for their existence while 70% of the adult population or 57% of the total population is dependent on some form of state aid. And, unfortunately, all indicators point to more and more headed for the dependency category, primarily due to the destructive economic policies of the Obama Administration.

All of those who seek to lower the oppressive levels of taxation not only in America but throughout the Western world are foolish if they allow those who parasitically live off others to have a voice in choosing candidates or initiatives in regard to taxation. Democracy does not trump human nature. State dependents will vote for those they perceive will continue their subsidies.

Instead of lobbying for the redress of phony grievances against Politically Correct victims and groups, social justice warriors should direct their energies to the long suffering U.S. taxpayers and demand that those who live off them should have no say in either how much taxpayers are to pay or how their confiscated wealth is to be dispersed.

*No Emancipation This Year. The Washington Times. Friday, April 15, 2016, B2.

**Ibid.

By Antonius Aquinas

http://antoniusaquinas.com

 2016 Copyright Antonius Aquinas - 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.




Rousseff Impeachment Neoliberal Coup Attempt in Brazil

Washington still thinks of Latin and Central America as its backyard. Colonial thinking never fades.



Make no mistake. Its dirty hands are behind the attempt to oust democratically elected Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.



Shes not neoliberal enough to suit US policymakers. Her social justice programs have to go.

The scheme to oust her has nothing to do with corruption or other alleged wrongdoing - everything to do with manipulated power-grabbing.



On Sunday, Brazils lower house voted 342 - 127 to impeach Rousseff, a bloodless attempt to oust her, requiring a simple Senate majority on whether to approve or reject impeachment proceedings within two days or no longer than 10 sessions.



If approved, shell have to temporarily step aside for 180 days until a Senate trial convicts or exonerates her - Vice President Michel Temer serving in her absence.



If two-thirds of senators approve impeachment, hell serve out the remainder of her term through yearend 2018.



Rousseffs chief of staff Jaques Wagner believes the Senate will reject impeachment, calling the House vote orchestrated by her opponents.



Rousseff insists she committed no irregularity (and) will never resign, calling impeachment proceedings a coup attempt, accusing Temer and House Speaker Eduardo Cunha of treachery, promising to fight until the last minute.



Hard economic times divide Brazilian public opinion more than any time since years of military dictatorship.



Shes untouched by scandal involving massive corruption related to state-owned oil giant Petrobras, affecting other elected officials and political parties.



Charges against her allege budget manipulations to continue funding social programs ahead of the 2014 general elections - a practice many governments employ, notably America to fund militarism, war-making, corporate handouts, and support for foreign regimes serving US interests.



In 2013, when congressional Republicans threatened to shut down government over raising the debt ceiling, Obama used accounting gimmickry to extend the deadline with no calls for impeachment.



Washington wants right-wing regimes replacing all left of center ones - in Latin America and elsewhere.



During his late March Argentina visit, Obama welcomed a new US partnership with President Macri promot(ing) the universal (sic) values and interests that we share - serving monied interests exclusively at the expense of most others.



Brazil is Latin Americas largest economy, a BRICS nation allied with China, India, Russia and South Africa.



Replacing Rousseff with hard-right leadership would advance neoliberal harshness in one of the worlds most important countries - at the expense of democratic values, rule of law principles and social justice.

By Stephen Lendman

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com

His new book as editor and contributor is titled Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

He lives in Chicago and can be reached in Chicago at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.



Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday through Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national topics. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 2016 Copyright Stephen Lendman - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




RICHMOND  Virginia lawmakers return to Richmond on Wednesday to consider Gov. Terry McAuliffes amendments and vetoes of legislation passed during the General Assembly session that concluded in March.

Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled legislature will consider McAuliffes vetoes of 32 bills, the most by a governor since Republican Gov. Jim Gilmore rejected 37 bills advanced by a Democrat-controlled General Assembly in 1998.

Most, if not all, of McAuliffes vetoes are expected to be sustained. Republicans alone  despite their majorities in the House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate  do not have enough votes to override the governor.

It takes two-thirds of the votes in both chambers to override a veto. Republicans hold two-thirds of the votes in the House, but just a 21-18 edge in the Senate.

A number of the bills McAuliffe vetoed  including Republican-backed legislation Democrats say would allow for discrimination against gay couples, restrict abortion funding and expand gun rights  were passed along partisan lines and were as welcomed by Republicans as they were derided by Democrats.

While the veto votes on Wednesday might spur partisan speeches from both sides of the aisle, the greater debate will be over how the legislature resolves bills that the governor did not reject, but sought to amend.

These include bills on issues ranging from the secret purchase of lethal execution drugs to carry out death penalty sentences, to GO Virginia  the economic development initiative, endorsed by the legislature, that McAuliffe has modified to concentrate more authority in the executive branch.

McAuliffe also has made 30 amendments to the state budget that passed in March on votes of 38-1 in the Senate and 91-8 in the House.

Ten of the amendments change spending and total $12.6 million, including additional investments in clean energy, cybersecurity education, minority scholarships and maintenance for juvenile justice facilities. McAuliffe said the additional spending is supported by additional balances in state coffers that were not previously identified but will be available at the beginning of the fiscal biennium, which starts July 1.

The governors amendments must be approved by majorities in both the House and Senate in order to be adopted.

The governor already has signed into law roughly 700 pieces of legislation, the overwhelming majority of which will go into effect July 1. The date also is the beginning of the new fiscal year in the commonwealth, when the two-year state spending plan goes into effect.

Veto sessions typically last only one day, and this year should be no exception. After spending 59 days in Richmond from January to mid-March, citizen lawmakers are eager to return to their day jobs  and to fundraising for the next election and campaigning for congressional and presidential candidates.

Virginia Republicans will hold their statewide convention in Harrisonburg April 29-30, where the party will elect delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 18. Virginia Democrats hold their statewide convention on June 18 and will convene in Philadelphia July 25 to nominate a presidential candidate.

While the House of Delegates will not come up for election until 2017 and the Virginia Senate is not up for election until 2019, a number of state lawmakers are seeking higher office in 2016, with runs for Congress.

Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Richmond, is running in a June 14 primary, competing with Chesapeake City Council member Ella Ward for the Democratic nomination in a redrawn 4th House District that now favors Democrats. The political shift in the district persuaded Rep. Randy Forbes, R-4th, to run for the 2nd House District seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Scott Rigell, R-2nd.

Del. Scott Taylor, R-Virginia Beach, is facing off against Forbes for the GOP nomination in the reliably Republican 2nd District.

Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Garrett, R-Buckingham, is running in a crowded Republican field seeking the nomination in the GOP-leaning 5th House District, where Republican Rep. Robert Hurt is retiring.

Sen. Kenny Alexander, D-Norfolk, is running for mayor of Norfolk.

At least one Senate seat will be vacant Wednesday, following the sudden death of 68-year-old Sen. John Miller, D-Newport News, on April 5. McAuliffe has called a special election for that seat for Nov. 8, the day Virginians go to the polls to elect a president and members of Congress.
RICHMOND  A young father of three was beaten in his bed with a crowbar, his wife thrown to the bedroom floor and sexually assaulted as her dying husband took his final, labored breaths.

The horrific events of Sept. 14, 1982, led to another tragedy: As many as six dentists believed bite marks made by the killer on the womans legs were caused by Keith Allen Harward, an innocent man who would spend the next 33 years in prison.

In light of this case, I imagine that dentists who are still engaged in this grossly unreliable practice have to take a long hard look in the mirror, said Chris Fabricant, with the Innocence Project. Its unconscionable that they continue to do this, he said.

Fabricant helped represent Harward, now 60, who was freed this month after DNA testing cleared him of the Newport News crimes and implicated a former Navy shipmate. Harwards case is the most recent of more than two dozen wrongful convictions resulting, at least in part, from bite-mark testimony.

A record number of dentists, some with vaunted reputations in the field, got it wrong in a case where the stakes could not have been higher  Harward could have been sentenced to death. Their failure proves the problem isnt with occasional errant experts, but rather with an entire forensic technique that is not based on science and that does not belong in a courtroom, his lawyers say.

The Innocence Project hopes Harwards exoneration leads to a national review of old bite-mark cases comparable to one underway by the FBI, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and others of old microscopic hair analysis, another forensic technique that has contributed to wrongful convictions.

A similar bite-mark effort, however, would require support of forensic dentists, also known as forensic odontologists. So far, that support has been missing.

No lights were on in the house during the early-morning, 1982 attack, and the rape victim could not identify Harward as the assailant. Police believed the killer, who wore an enlisted mans Navy uniform, was on the crew of the USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier docked in the shipyard just a few blocks from the victims home and where a tracking dog led them soon after the attack.

The Innocence Project assembled a report on the involvement of dentists in the case using police and court records.

A Dr. Lutkus  no first name available  was a Navy dentist on the ship where Harward and shipmate Jerry L. Crotty were stationed. Lutkus coordinated a dental screening of the ships crew who fit the general height and weight of the assailant as described by the rape victim.

Naval dentists looked at dental records and X-rays, and individuals with certain dental traits were visually examined by Lutkus and his team. To further winnow the potential suspect list, the Navy sought dental impressions from a handful of sailors with which a Tidewater-area dentist, Dr. Robert Banes, performed bite-mark comparisons.

Harward was selected for additional screening, says the Innocence Project. But in late 1982 Banes excluded him as the source of the bite marks based on his dental impressions.

Harward came to the attention of police after he bit his girlfriend during an altercation. On April 20, 1983, he agreed to have a second mold made of his teeth.

Dr. Lowell Levine of New York, a charter member of the American Board of Forensic Odontology with an international reputation in the field, and Dr. Alvin Kagey, a forensic odontologist from Virginia, independently decided that Harwards dental molds matched photographs of the bite marks and testified that Harwards teeth matched the bites to within reasonable scientific certainty and reasonable medical certainty, respectively.

They said that, as a practical matter, no one else could have left the bite marks.

Harward, arrested on May 16, 1983, was tried twice  once for capital murder in 1983 and sentenced to life instead of death. That conviction was tossed out on technical grounds and he was retried for first-degree murder, convicted and again sentenced to life in 1986. He also was convicted of rape, robbery and forcible sodomy.

In recent interviews, Kagey, who lives in the Roanoke area, told The Times-Dispatch he was stunned to learn that DNA had proven Harward innocent and described the match between the bite marks and Harwards teeth as textbook.

Fabricant said, This was the only case were aware of where the defense was unable to get an expert to testify on his behalf, which is really, really unusual, particularly how subjective the technique is. Many of them are cowed by Lowell Levines international reputation.

This was considered really, very high-quality, textbook bite-mark evidence and unlike many of the other cases there was no question in this case that they were actually bite marks because the victim lived and testified that shed been bitten by the perpetrator, Fabricant said.

David LaBahn, president of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, recognizes there have been wrongful convictions involving bite marks and that prosecutors must learn from exonerations. But he says bite-mark evidence has its place in criminal prosecutions so long as its limits are recognized.

To say that any piece of forensic evidence should be inadmissible on behalf of prosecutors  thats an extreme measure, he said.

Reached by telephone last week, the current president of the ABFO, Dr. Adam Freeman of Westport, Connecticut, said he is familiar with Harwards case.

We are terribly concerned about cases like this  a man losing 33 years of his life due to faulty forensic evidence is concerning. I can think of nothing, personally, more terrifying than being in jail, being innocent and not being able to find some post-conviction relief, he said.

A 2009 study by a committee of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that there was not enough research available yet on the accuracy of bite-mark comparisons and that, while bite-mark comparison might be useful in excluding suspects, there was no evidence of an existing scientific basis for identifying an individual to the exclusion of all others.

And, earlier this year, the Texas Forensic Science Commission recommend a statewide moratorium on the use of bite-mark analysis in prosecutions.

Freeman said the ABFO has changed its standards and guidelines and the group no longer sanctions specific biter identifications in cases like Harwards. Instead, forensic odontologists decide if comparisons either exclude or cannot exclude someone as the biter, or that there was insufficient information to decide one way or the other.

The Innocence Project would essentially like us to say, Well, thats a bite mark so lets not do anything. And that, to me, is not acceptable. What we need to do is put that evidence in the proper context, Freeman said.

He said odontologists can attempt to recover DNA from a bite mark, determine if the bite mark was human or from an animal and can help police screen suspects. For example, if the biter had six upper teeth, a suspect with two upper teeth can be excluded.

Freeman said a forensic odontologist can conclude that a suspect is not excluded as a biter.

By saying that, youre not saying this is the only person in the whole world that made this bite, he said.

He said bite-mark evidence should not be used as sole, absolute evidence, but rather as supportive evidence along with other factors that may implicate someone in a crime.

Bite marks are taking a big hit, and to some extent rightfully so because there are cases like this, he said.

He said that because the ABFO no longer sanctions specific biter identities, it should give someone convicted in large part on such testimony the potential for a new trial or a hearing for some post-conviction help.

Freeman said dentists who have done forensic bite-mark comparisons should look at their old cases, see if their conclusions still are supported by the current ABFO guidelines and, if not, come forward and change their earlier opinions.

A problem, Fabricant said, is that as far as he knows no one with the ABFO has ever contacted him or anyone else at the Innocence Project with concerns about their prior cases.

As the director of strategic litigation for the Innocence Project, Fabricant looks for cases such as Harwards across the country.

According to a Feb. 26 letter from FBI Director James Comey to state governors seeking old trial transcripts, the aim of the bureaus review of microscopic hair comparison analyses is to ensure that the FBI laboratory examiners testimony met accepted scientific standards. In cases in which those standards were not met, remedial action may be taken if appropriate.

The Innocence Project argues that many forensic techniques such as hair microscopy, bite-mark comparisons, tool-mark analysis and shoeprint comparisons have not been given sufficient scientific evaluation.

Other techniques that have been properly validated, such as blood typing, sometimes are improperly conducted or inaccurately conveyed in trial testimony.

Of the 337 DNA exonerations in the country, unvalidated or improper forensic science was the second most frequent contributor to wrongful convictions, says the Innocence Project.

Fabricant said that, in the FBI hair review, the bureau knows in which cases its hair analysts made comparisons. There is no such central registry for bite-mark comparisons  only the dentists know all the cases.

The difference between the FBI [examiners] and these dentists is that the dentists are all worried about being sued, Fabricant said. Their fear of litigation is driving them underground and they have an ethical, moral and legal obligation to turn over the list of cases and allow organizations like the Innocence Project to examine these cases and to find the rest of these Keith Harwards.

He said bite-mark evidence played a role in the convictions of at least 15 people on death rows across the U.S., and the Innocence Project knows of at least four capital cases where the prosecution is seeking to introduce bite-mark analysis.

At least one person has been executed in Virginia  Lem Tuggle Jr.  who was convicted in part with bite-mark evidence.

The Innocence Project said the ABFOs new standards are a step in the right direction but not enough. They point out that Harward was initially excluded as the biter and then included.

There is no more evidence experts can reliably exclude anyone than there is for inclusion, Fabricant said.

He said real progress would be a moratorium on bite-mark comparison evidence and audits of prior cases where it was used.

Harwards parents did not live to see their son walk out of prison an exonerated man on April 8. Fabricant said that at Harwards first trial, his mother had to beg for his life from the witness stand.

Dana Delger, a staff lawyer with the Innocence Project, said, Hopefully Mr. Harwards case will once and for all persuade judges and law enforcement that this unreliable evidence has no use in criminal prosecutions.
NORTHAMPTON -- Haymarket Cafe has eliminated table service in its downstairs restaurant, management announced Sunday.

The change, effective Monday, comes six months after Haymarket owner Peter Simpson eliminated tipping at the 185 Main St. establishment and began paying all of his employees $14 an hour. That rate will jump to $15 in November, $16 in 2017 and $17 in 2018.

Simpson made the shift in an effort to address inequities between waitstaff and back-of-the-house workers, He said that overall, the cafe is doing well but the novel system has put pressure on labor costs.

"With the new wage structure we are finding that while our lunch business is solid enough to accommodate table service, the mornings and evenings are not," Haymarket wrote on its Facebook page Sunday. "In the best interests of the cafe, our employees, and our commitment to higher wages and great service, we have decided to switch to counter service."

No one will be laid off due to the change in service, Simpson said. On average, waitstaff employees will see two hours cut from their schedules.

"When someone leaves, we'll adjust the schedule again and people will get those hours back," he said.

Haymarket customers can now place food orders at the counter, upstairs or downstairs, and a server will deliver the meals and drinks to the tables. The menu will not change, Simpson said.

"I love table service," said Simpson, who opened Haymarket in 1991. "For me, this has become a very difficult decision, because I'm attached to it. I like the feeling of it. We will duplicate it as best as we can by running food out and watering the tables."

Simpson said the cafe switched from counter service to all-day table service about six years ago.

In November, Haymarket prices went up 10 percent at the upstairs coffee counter and 20 percent in the downstairs restaurant to compensate for the jump in labor costs.

Simpson said he is the only restaurant to have eliminated tipping in Northampton, and possibly all of Massachusetts. But the concept has grown more popular since New York restaurateur Danny Meyer -- most well-known for his burger chain, Shake Shack, and his role as head of the Union Square Hospitality Group -- ended tipping at the group's 13 high-end restaurants in November.

California and New York recently announced plans to phase in a minimum hourly wage of $15 in the coming years. Massachusetts' minimum wage is $10, and will increase to $11 in 2017. Bills that have pushed for greater increases have been met with opposition within the state legislature.

Simpson said he wants to convey to other restaurants that, yes -- it is possible to pay employees fair pay and still make a profit. And the most tangible way to do that is to stay open, he explained. But doing so means making adjustments, such as saying goodbye to table service.

The owner said that Haymarket's staff dynamic has become much more positive now that baristas, kitchen staff and servers all make the same wage. Waiters help wash the dishes, and the baker will sometimes man the front counter.

"It's been so remarkable for someone like myself who's been working in the restaurant industry for 35 years," he said, "to see something change so positively in that way."
boaty mcboatface.jpg

Rendering of the UK's new polar research vessel.

(Cammell Laird / BAS)

The internet has spoken: voters in an online poll have overwhelmingly supported "Boaty McBoatface" as the name for the United Kingdom's new $290 million polar research ship.

But the decision has not been made yet, and there are no guarantees the UK's Natural Environment Research Council will share the public's sense of whimsy.

"NERC will now review all of the suggested names and the final decision for the name will be announced in due course," the council said in a statement.

The research council, in an effort to spark public interest in Arctic and Antarctic research, opened the name of the ship to a public internet vote on March 17. The British public's sense of humor has propelled Boaty McBoatface to a massive win; when the poll closed, Boaty McBoatface had 124,109 votes -- more than four times its nearest competition.

While the leading name is absurd, the ship's mission is serious, according to the NERC. In addition to creating hundreds of jobs and boosting the country's ship-building trade, the research vessel will conduct climate and ocean research using state-of-the-art scientific tools while accommodating up to 60 scientists and support staff.

The man who suggested "Boaty McBoatface," a former BBC radio host, has said on Twitter that he is overwhelmed by the response to the joke, which crashed the name competition's website during the weekend it was launched.

According to an NERC communications staffer, the agency was thrilled with the response -- joke names, broken website and all.

@JamesHand @NERCscience We wanted people to talk about our ship and get involved. We are delighted!  Julia Maddock (@JuliaRMaddock) March 20, 2016

Newsweek reported that UK Science Minister Jo Johnson appeared to cast doubt on the appropriateness of the name in an interview with the BBC, though he did not discuss "Boaty McBoatface" directly.

"You want a name that fits the gravity and the importance of the subjects that this boat is going to be doing science into," Johnson said.
MILFORD A Connecticut Catholic brother, who until last year worked at parochial high schools in southern Connecticut, was arraigned in Milford Superior Court Thursday on charges he had over 400 images and videos depicting what authorities said was child pornography.



Br. Thomas Sawyer, 73, a member of the Brothers of the Holy Cross, is now living in a church-run medical facility in Valatie, New York after his bail was reduced from $100,000 to $25,000 Thursday. He was arraigned on a charge of first-degree possession of child pornography, a class B felony that carries a mandatory five-year sentence, the New Haven Register reported.

West Haven Police said Sawyer was the information technology director for Holy Cross High School in West Haven. Police began their investigation nearly a year ago, after a fellow brother in Sawyer's order told police he observed Sawyer looking at pictures on a laptop computer he kept in the residence hall at St. Vianney Church in West Haven where he was then living. The brother said he saw an image of a naked boy he estimated to be eight or nine years old.

According to court records, police confiscated two computers from Sawyer's residence. They said they found a total of 426 still images and at least 12 videos depicting child pornography.

Sawyer resigned his position with the school when the investigation started in July of 2015.

Church officials emphasized that the charges against Sawyer refer to only looking at images and that there was no inappropriate contact between Sawyer and any children.

Sawyer is due back in court April 25.
SPRINGFIELD -- A Hampden Superior Court judge has denied a motion for separate trials for two defendants who may implicate one another in a heroin trafficking case.

Defense lawyer Anthony C. Bonavita argued Friday that his client Orlando Genao and co-defendant Wilkins Rivera should be tried separately.

"I believe they are going to be pointing the finger at each other," Bonavita told Judge John S. Ferrara.

Ferrara denied the "motion to sever" by Bonavita and Timothy M. Farris, lawyer for Rivera. That means the men will be tried together.

Genao, 52, of 78 Oak Grove Ave., and Rivera, 39, of Philadelphia, are charged with heroin trafficking in the amount of more than 200 grams.

A total of 900 grams of heroin was found in the 78 Oak Grove Ave. apartment, where Genao and Rivera were arrested on Oct. 14, 2014, according to police.

Assistant District Attorney Amy D. Wilson said the two should be tried together in the interest of judicial economy. She said neither one made statements against the other, so there is no prejudice to either by being tried together.

Wilson said when police arrived at the Oak Grove Avenue apartment, Genao was actively packaging heroin and there was more heroin on an ottoman. She said Rivera was on the couch and was not physically handing heroin.

The case had been the subject of a motion to suppress evidence, with lawyers arguing unsuccessfully the police entry into the apartment was illegal.

Bonavita said the cases should be severed because there will be "hostile and antagonistic defenses" between the two men.

Farris said there is nothing that connects Rivera to the Oak Grove Avenue apartment. He said Rivera was "just sitting on the couch when police came in."

He said Rivera had just come into town from Philadelphia. Police had not been given any information about Rivera until they found him in the apartment, Farris said.

Farris said the package on the ottoman was sealed, and the ottoman was in front of Genao.

Another co-defendant, 49-year-old Eric Barbot, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge Friday and was sentenced to 31/2 years in state prison.

Barbot pleaded guilty to trafficking heroin in the amount of 18 to 36 grams and possession of heroin with intent to distribute.

A two-year probationary period will follow the prison sentence.

Barbot was originally charged with trafficking heroin in the amount of more than 200 grams. Wilson said when the amount was weighed at the drug laboratory, the weight was slightly under 200 grams.

As part of the plea agreement, Barbot was allowed to plead to trafficking in the amount of 18 to 36 grams.

Ferrara said he would make a recommendation to the state Department of Corrections that Barbot be allowed to serve his sentence in the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow.

Barbot was arrested on Oct. 14, 2014, after police had another man set up a buy of 200 grams of heroin. When Barbot arrived at the Salvation Army parking lot on Liberty Street with the heroin, police were there to meet him.

After Barbot's arrest police learned of the Oak Grove Avenue apartment and Genao's alleged role in the heroin trafficking operation. They then went to that apartment.

The case of another co-defendant, Richard Almonte, 30, of 16 Webster St., is also pending. He is charged with trafficking heroin in the amount of more than 200 grams and distribution of heroin.

The operation resulting in the arrests was part of a joint investigation by Springfield narcotics officers and members of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI.
car mirror warning .jpg

A Connecticut woman learning to drive accidentally ran over her husband as he was showing her how to a back into a parking space. He suffered a broken leg and other injuries.

(Photo by Daniele Dalledone /Flickr )

Reports out of Manchester, Connecticut are that a woman learning to drive accidentally backed over her husband, breaking one of his legs.

The Hartford Courant cites police sources saying the accident occurred Sunday on Tudor Lane at The Oaks Apartments.

The woman, who had an adult learner's permit, was being instructed by her husband on how to properly back up in to a parking space.

He was behind the car and giving her direction when she hit him and pinned him against a building.

Police told the Courant the woman had hit the brakes but not hard enough to avoid hitting him.

The husband was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries. According to police, he suffered at least a broken leg.

Police did not release the names of the woman or her husband.

No charges are likely to be filed against her.
WARE - Several people were injured after an electrical explosion Sunday afternoon.

Ware Fire officials confirmed there was a transformer fire at about 1:30 p.m. on East Main Street. They refused to release details about the fire.

The explosion happened at Pioneer Hydropower Inc.

According to Western Mass News, media partners for The Republican and Masslive, at least three people were injured and taken to Baystate Mary Lane Hospital.

The most seriously injured was reportedly flown to another hospital for treatment.

Ware Fire Department and Police Department officials remain on the scene. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has also arrived.

Some employees of the plant, which is located on the banks of the Ware River were also at the scene. One had a bandage on his hand.

An investigator for the state Fire Marshal's office and the state Electrical Inspector's office is also on scene investigating the accident, Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for the State Fire Marshal's office said.

Investigators could be seen examining electrical equipment outside the plant. Another photographed connectors on electrical poles nearby.

She said she had no information about what exactly happened except to say there was an "electrical event."

Officials for National Grid also responded to the incident but said the transformer was not one owned by the electric company.



Ben Orzech, who lives on a nearby street overlooking the plant said he saw a number of emergency vehicles arrive at the plant shortly after the accident.

"I heard sirens. It was a hectic scene and then I heard a helicopter," he said.

This is a breaking story. Masslive will update as soon as more information is available.
418 brush fire.jpg

Springfield firefighters on the scene of a brush fire between Oakland and Malden streets in Forest Park. Two homes and a business sustained exterior heat damage.

(Springfield Fire Department photo / Dennis Leger)

SPRINGFIELD - A brush fire is being blamed for damaging the exteriors of two residences and one business in the same area of Malden and Oakland streets in the city's Forest Park neighborhood, according to a fire department spokesman

Dennis Leger, aide to Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant, said the fire was reported shortly after 2 p.m. Firefighters managed to extinguish it before it could spread into any of the buildings.

There were no injuries and no one was displaced.

The fire was in the rear of properties at 130-132 and 134-136 Malden St., Leger said.

A shed in the rear of 134-136 Malden was consumed by flames and destroyed before it could be extinguished. The fire also damaged a stockade fence, he said.

Heat from the flames caused exterior damage to the siding at 130-132 and 134-136 Malden, and to a nearby business at 291 Oakland Street.

The estimated amount of damage was between $5,000 and $10,000 to each property. The shed was also estimated at $5,000.

The cause of the brush fire is under investigation.
The Billings Chamber of Commerce is stepping up its game to recruit new businesses to our area and one of the ways the chamber wants to give business the edge is by keeping our college graduates in the state.

By Mary Beth Dickson, Reporter, Weekend Anchor

Full Story: http://www.kulr8.com/story/31748001/billings-chamber-traveling-to-oklahoma-city
The State of Montana seeks an experienced GIS Professional and leader to serve as the State GIS Coordinator. Identify Montanas geographic information needs and priorities, and provide leadership and coordination amongst the geospatial community to meet those needs.

http://about.msl.mt.gov/jobs
Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank.
by Nina Lentini @Nina_Lentini, April 18, 2016

As full legalization of marijuana sales ramps up over the next two years in California, there is growing concern that corporate interests will hold sway over the states cannabis farmers.

To address that concern and in advance of April 20, considered by those in the weed culture to be a national holiday, Flow Kana, a marijuana wholesaler founded in 2015, is launching an advertising blitz with omnichannel marketing.

The new ad campaign, titled "The California Way," uses images and quotes from actual California cannabis farmers to personify the tens of thousands of individuals, families and collectives who together comprise Californias most lucrative agricultural industry. Medical marijuana sales in California hit $2.7 billion last year, accounting for nearly half of all legal marijuana sales in the country, The New York Times said, citing cannabis research companies.

advertisement advertisement

"The California Way" campaign launches April 18, and runs through May 16. In the first of four videos being released weekly, northern Californians describe what "The California Way" means to them, including spirit of adventure, growing your own cannabis, and embrace of the land and the embrace of the community.

Emphasizing the need to honor Californias farmers and their unique challenges, The California Way advertising blitz is supplemented by digital ad placements on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Outdoor and out-of-home ads will also be included.

We are focused right now on wholesale, Michael Steinmetz, a founder and CEO of Flow Kana, tells Marketing Daily, which means getting our brand all over California dispensaries. At the same time, we offer on-demand delivery in less than 20 minutes throughout San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. Our goal is to continue to expand this service, with exclusive partners, all over the state, and specifically, the larger Los Angeles area by Q3 2016.

Flow Kana expects its ads to generate 15 million impressions across online and offline channels during the campaign period.

In addition to its omnichannel marketing campaign, Flow Kana is also launching a cultural alliance: The California Way Consortium. This collaboration unites like-minded organizations who believe that the California cannabis industry must come together to plant the seeds for a future of sustainable, small-batch cannabis grown by generations of independent farmers. The consortium is set to commence on April 22 at the Earth Day Film Festival in San Francisco.
Fortune, Monday, April 18, 2016 11:08 AM

An American company, whose identity has not been disclosed, lost almost $100 million last year after being scammed via email. Hackers posed as one of the company's legitimate vendors with a fraudulent email address and demanded payments. The U.S. government has filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan seeking to recover about $25 million derived from the fraud.

Read the whole story at Fortune 
The money is to be used to continue to develop its product and expand its operations.

The platform helps brands and companies develop their mobile Web presence through the use of swipe-able cards it calls wraps. The idea behind wraps is to solve the mobile interface problem that bars conversions for many companies.

The cards take very little design and no programming experience, can be delivered on top of any mobile Web platform, app, or device, and serve as an alternative to building out an app that in all likelihood wont get much traffic, or sinking a huge chunk of money into a mobile Web site.

The cards are shareable and can serve many functions, like storytelling or embedding coupons.

Wraps operate similarly to Facebooks Canvas ads, but they work in places other than the social media platform.

The company also named Kristine Shine as chief growth officer. Shine is the former president of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Other new hires include Anne Driscoll, a former Dwolla executive, and James Donelan, a former engineering VP at Microsoft. Driscoll will serve as chief marketing officer, and Donelan as senior vice president of engineering and operations.

Wrap Media was founded in 2014, had its Series A round in early 2015, and then went public later that year.
by Larissa Faw , April 18, 2016

Mindshare is promoting Joe Maceda to head of the agencys Invention Studio for North America. He remains based in New York.

The Invention Studio is a unit within Mindshare dedicated to "driving innovation in media by merging data, science, and creative." Today, the NA Invention Studio works with clients including American Express, Kimberly-Clark, TGI Fridays, and Unilever.

Maceda was a cofounder of the Studio in late 2013, working under Cindy Gustafson, who was recently promoted to chief strategy officer for the U.S. Maceda continues reporting to her in his new role.

Following the U.S. launch, the Studio opened up similar offices in six other countries, including Dubai, Australia and London.

Now, in his new role, Maceda will be in charge of the NA unit and collaborate with his counterparts in other markets. He will oversee the six NA employees that are wholly dedicated to the Studio, as well as manage staffers across different client teams that have been trained in the groups methods and techniques.

According to the agency, the Invention Studio units are important because they aren't just think tanks; rather, they guide Mindshare teams through specially designed workshops to teach them tools and techniques employees use to infuse their media plans with creativity and risk-taking.

"My number one priority is to continue generating new ideas that use media to inject our clients' brands into culture and to be adaptive as it changes," says Maceda (a MediaPost Media Rising Star in 2006). "A big part of that is facilitating a spirit of imagination across the agency, by providing the tools and resources to get at great media ideas very quickly and at scale.

Maceda added that he also wants to increase the role that data plays in ideas: If an idea isn't grounded firmly in data, it isn't a good idea. We want [to ensure] that all media ideas begin with data-driven insight and deliver data-proven results.
More women than ever are waiting longer to have children, and according to a new study, doing so could have financial benefits. Researchers found that working women who have their first child over the age of 30 experience a lower loss of income from their employment than those who have their first child earlier or who never have children.

Share on Pinterest Researchers suggest women may want to think about delaying motherhood if they want to lower their career income losses.

Study coauthor Man Yee (Mallory) Leung, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate at Washington University School of Medicine, and colleagues publish their findings in the journal PLOS One.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the proportion of women in the US who have their first child after the age of 30 has increased significantly, rising from 5% in 1975 to 25% in 2010.

Previous studies have suggested that mothers in full-time, paid employment earn less than women who never have children  a finding that Leung and colleagues say is widely referred to as the motherhood gap.

However, Leung notes that their study is the first to assess how the age at which a woman has a first child impacts total lifetime career earnings.

To reach their findings, the team analyzed 1996-2009 data of almost 1.6 million Danish women aged 25-60. The researchers hail Denmark as a gold mine for researchers, because the country collects socioeconomic and health data for the entire population.

The researchers assessed the womens birth information  including the age at which they had their first child  employment status, income and other household information.

They used the data to calculate the average annual salaries for each woman, using this average to estimate the short- and long-term lifetime career income losses for women who had their first child before the age of 25 and for each 3-year age range thereafter, up to the ages of 40 and older.
Women with epilepsy are just as likely to achieve a successful pregnancy as women without the neurological disorder, according to a new study led by research teams at multiple centers, including NYU Langone Medical Center.

In a prospective study, women with epilepsy had a comparable likelihood of achieving pregnancy, time taken to get pregnant, and pregnancy outcomes such as miscarriage, compared to a group of healthy peers. These findings, presented April 17 at the American Academy of Neurology's 68th Annual Meeting in Vancouver, contradict previously held beliefs in the medical community regarding the fertility of women with epilepsy.

More than 1.1 million U.S. women with epilepsy are of childbearing age and approximately 24,000 babies are born to women with epilepsy each year, according to figures from The Epilepsy Foundation, which funded the new research.

Previous studies have found infertility rates up to two to three times higher for women with epilepsy, or that as many as one-third of women with epilepsy may experience difficulty with pregnancy. But, a comprehensive study has not been done to date to confirm this until now, according to the researchers.

"We hope our findings reassure women with epilepsy and clinicians who are counseling these women on family planning," says Jacqueline French, MD, professor of Neurology and Director of Translational Research and Clinical Trials at NYU Langone's Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, and the study's first author and co-principal investigator.

The researchers led a multicenter observational study called The Women with Epilepsy: Pregnancy Outcomes and Deliveries (WEPOD) from 2010 to 2015. Women with epilepsy and healthy control participants who were between the ages of 18 and 41 seeking pregnancy and less than six months removed from contraception were followed throughout the duration of their pregnancy. Electronic diaries captured use of anti-epileptic medications, seizures and facts about participants' sexual activity and menstruation cycles.

In total, 89 women with epilepsy and 109 healthy controls with similar demographics were compared for the study. The proportion of women who achieved pregnancy was 70 percent for women with epilepsy and 67.1 percent for healthy controls.

Average time to pregnancy in women with epilepsy was 6.03 months, compared with 9.05 months for healthy controls, and after controlling for age, body mass index, parity and race, there was no difference across groups for time to pregnancy.

Of the pregnancies that occurred, a similar proportion resulted in live birth (81.8 percent women with epilepsy and 80 percent controls), miscarriage (12.7 percent women with epilepsy and 20 percent controls), or other outcomes (5.4 percent women with epilepsy compared to 0 percent healthy controls).
A team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has found no evidence of infections related to administration of allergy immunotherapy, the common practice of injecting minimal quantities of allergens beneath the skin to reduce the allergic response. Although there has never been a concern about the sterility of the preparations used in these "allergy shots," the organization that sets standards for the quality and safety of medications and other products has proposed revised guidelines that place allergen immunotherapy (AIT) in the same category as more risky preparations intended for intravenous or spinal administration.

"Our analysis of 10 years of data from large allergy practices at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital - covering approximately 135,000 individual injections administered to about 3,250 patients -- finds no incidence of infection related to those injections," says Aidan Long, MD, clinical director of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Unit in the MGH Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology and senior author of the report published online in the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology. "This confirms that the sterile practices used in the preparation of allergy shots at our hospitals and at most clinical allergy practices do not pose an infectious risk for patients."

The report notes that the safety record of AIT goes back more than 100 years and that the practices used are different from those of pharmacy compounding, which has recently come under scrutiny because of a meningitis outbreak tied to contaminated spinal injections prepared by a particular compounding center. That and other incidents may be behind the guideline changes proposed by the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), which would place allergen extracts in the same category as compounds prepared for injection into the circulatory system or the cerebrospinal fluid. The current study was prepared to provide data supporting the response to the proposed changes from several allergy and immunology specialty organizations.

In on-site pharmacies at MGH, Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and other major hospitals, the allergen extracts used in AIT are individually prepared for each patient. Independent allergy practices may prepare them in their offices using the same sterile techniques used in hospitals, and existing USP standards placed allergen extracts in a separate category because their infectious risk was perceived to be extremely low.

"AIT is truly a disease-modifying treatment that diminishes the intensity, frequency and severity of symptoms, as well as reducing the need for medications. There are no equivalent therapies for allergic diseases -- including seasonal allergies, asthma, and potentially life-threatening hypersensitivity to insect stings," says Long, who is an associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "While there was no evidence in the literature to suggest that a problem existed, but we wanted to look at a larger data set to confirm the widely held belief in the lack of infectious problems related to AIT,"

The MGH-led study analyzed data from the Research Patient Data Registry of Partners Healthcare -- a Boston-based system that includes MGH, BWH, several community hospitals and a network of more than 6,000 physicians -- covering all AIT injections administered at two major allergy practices at the hospitals from 2005 through 2015. Using the electronic medical record, they were able to identify any patients receiving AIT during those years who also were treated for an infection at any Partners-affiliated practice during the week after their injection. While there were 86 episodes of patients being treated for infection during that time -- out of 3,242 patients - no soft-tissue infections were at the site of the injection, and no systemic infections could be attributed to AIT.

Long explains, "While it would be technically possible for hospital pharmacies to meet the proposed USP guidelines, doing so would require significantly more manpower, space and work. It is unlikely that any individual allergy practice not allied to a pharmacy would ever be able to meet the specifications, and given the current reimbursement rates, the additional costs would not be feasible for any active allergist inside or outside a hospital. The net effect would be the disappearance of subcutaneous allergen immuotherapy."

While the official commentary period for the proposed changes to USP guidelines -- which are typically adopted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration -- have ended, Long has been informed that the agency is still holding discussions with the allergy community and accepting additional information. He and his colleagues plan to continue those discussions, including presentation of the data in this report.
Using a computational model, UC Riverside study explains how the hippocampus influences synaptic connections in the cortex.

Research strongly suggests that sleep, which constitutes about a third of our lives, is crucial for learning and forming long-term memories. But exactly how such memory is formed is not well understood and remains, despite considerable research, a central question of inquiry in neuroscience.

Neuroscientists at the University of California, Riverside report in The Journal of Neuroscience that they now may have an answer to this question. Their study provides for the first time a mechanistic explanation for how deep sleep (also called slow-wave sleep) may be promoting the consolidation of recent memories.

During sleep, human and animal brains are primarily decoupled from sensory input. Nevertheless, the brain remains highly active, showing electrical activity in the form of sharp-wave ripples in the hippocampus (a small region of the brain that forms part of the limbic system) and large-amplitude slow oscillations in the cortex (the outer layer of the cerebrum), reflecting alternating periods of active and silent states of cortical neurons during deep sleep. Traces of episodic memory acquired during wakefulness and initially stored in the hippocampus are progressively transferred to the cortex as long-term memory during sleep.

Using a computational model, the UC Riverside researchers provide a link between electrical activity in the brain during deep sleep and synaptic connections between neurons. They show that patterns of slow oscillations in the cortex, which their model spontaneously generates, are influenced by the hippocampal sharp-wave ripples and that these patterns of slow oscillations determine synaptic changes in the cortex. (Change in synaptic strength is widely believed to underlie learning and memory storage in the brain.) The model shows that the synaptic changes, in turn, affect the patterns of slow oscillations, promoting a kind of reinforcement and replay of specific firing sequences of the cortical neurons - representing a replay of specific memory.

"These patterns of slow oscillations remain even without further input from the hippocampus," said Yina Wei, a postdoctoral researcher and the first author of the research paper. "We interpret these results as a mechanistic explanation for the consolidation of specific memories during deep sleep, whereby the memory traces are formed in the cortex and become independent of the hippocampus."

Study results appear in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Wei explained that according to the biologically realistic network model the researchers used, input from the hippocampus reaches the cortex during deep sleep and influences how the slow oscillations are initiated and propagated in the cortical network.

"Input from the hippocampus - the sharp-wave ripples - determines the spatial and temporal pattern of these slow oscillations," she said. "By influencing the nature of these oscillations, this hippocampal input activates selective memories during deep sleep and causes a replay of specific memories. During such memory replay, the corresponding synapses are strengthened for long-term storage in the cortex. These results suggest the importance of the hippocampal sharp-wave ripple events in transferring memory information to the cortex."

Normal sleep, during which brain activity remains high, is made up of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. NREM and REM sleep alternate in each of the 4-5 cycles during an eight-hour sleep period. Each cycle consists of NREM sleep followed by REM sleep, and roughly lasts 90-110 minutes. NREM sleep has three stages, Stage 3 being deep sleep. Deep sleep, which makes up at least 20 percent of a person's total sleep time, occurs mostly in the first third of the night.

"In our model, even weak and spatially localized input from the hippocampus influenced the spatiotemporal pattern of slow oscillations and led to a persistent change of synaptic efficacy between neurons," Wei said. "Further, our model makes predictions that can be tested experimentally, including specific interventions to suppress or augment memory consolidation processes."
A roundtable convened by the Turning the Tide Against Cancer initiative, composed of a multidisciplinary group of stakeholders, put forth five policy considerations that are critical to ensuring the delivery of high-quality oncology care while supporting innovation. The report was published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

The Turning the Tide Against Cancer initiative is a collaboration between the AACR, the Personalized Medicine Coalition, and Feinstein Kean Healthcare to work with members of the cancer community to identify policies that sustain medical innovation while addressing the issue of rising health care costs.

The report is being published in conjunction with a science policy session titled, "The Impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on Cancer Research, Care, and Prevention," held Sunday, April 17, at the AACR Annual Meeting 2016, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

"Cancer care has featured prominently in the national conversation about value-based health care, which is not surprising given the health and economic burdens of cancer in the United States, as well as the unique needs of cancer patients," the authors wrote in the study, titled "The impact of alternative payment models on oncology innovation and patient care."

Alternative payment models (APMs) have become more common amid pressures to curb health care costs, the study authors wrote. APMs exist in several forms, including accountable care organizations, episode-based payment models, and oncology patient-centered medical homes.

"Stimulated by the Affordable Care Act, Medicare has called for rapid implementation of APMs, encouraging value-based care and cost containment in oncology practices," said Gilbert Omenn, MD, PhD, director, Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, chair of the AACR Health Policy Committee, and co-author of the study. "If structured appropriately and updated with new knowledge, these APMs can incorporate validated new therapies, encourage shared decision-making between health care providers and patients, and improve the outcomes of oncology care. Value-based strategies need to capture the advances from scientific innovation and clinical trials, and support evidence-based, personalized, patient-centered approaches."

The other co-authors of the study are: Amy Miller, PhD, executive vice president, Personalized Medicine Coalition, and Marcia Kean, MBA, chairman, Feinstein Kean Healthcare.

In July 2015, the Turning the Tide Against Cancer initiative convened a roundtable to discuss the effects of APMs on oncology innovation and patient care. The participants included physicians, researchers, advocates, representatives of insurers and pharmaceutical companies, and policymakers. The group identified five issues for the future design and implementation of APMs:

APMs should keep pace with rapidly emerging science by incentivizing the adoption of innovative medicines and technologies that have the potential to improve patient outcomes and make health care more efficient.

APMs should include mechanisms to encourage patient participation as appropriate in clinical trials as well as ongoing post-market clinical research.

Clinical pathways should be transparent and evidence-based, and updated regularly to reflect current scientific evidence and clinical advances within the overall continuum of care.

When providers and patients are making treatment decisions, patients should be given a clear, comprehensive picture of their treatment options, including cost information that is tailored to the specific patient's insurance coverage and treatment plan.

APMs should require that clinical data be aggregated and integrated into providers' workflows via electronic health records in order to support learning health care systems. Providers should have access to data that will support their shared decision-making with patients. Similarly, patients should have access to research results collected through a learning health care system.

These recommendations will be discussed in greater detail at the Annual Meeting 2016 session.

In the future, the authors wrote, APMs should continue delivering value-based care to patients, making health care more accessible and affordable while continuing to use emerging research to provide the most innovative care.

"Ultimately, APMs can be a powerful means of driving innovation in treatment and care delivery, facilitating research and promoting access for patients with cancer to proven, individualized life-changing treatments," the authors wrote. "APMs may generate larger numbers of patients with multidimensional data leading to better-informed assessments of the real-world effectiveness of candidate therapies and modes of care delivery."


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On March 30, 2016, the Russian foreign affairs journal Russia in Global Affairs published an article by Ruslan Pukhov, Director of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) and a member of the Public Council of the Russian Defense Ministry, titled "A Proving Ground of the Future."[1] In the article, Pukhov explains that the brief conflict with Georgia in 2008 resulted in a radical reform of Russia's Air Force, and that the procurement of new aircraft was among the main priorities of the State Armaments Program for 2011-2020 (SAP-2020), endorsed on December 31, 2010. In 2012, when defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov (2007-2012) was replaced by Sergei Shoigu, the Air Force reform entered a new phase. In 2014, during the Ukrainian crisis, Russia began to build up the strength of its Air Force units by forming new combat regiments. With the participation of Russian military aviation in the Syrian war, the Air Force has begun to acquire significant combat experience.

Russia's air operation in Syria is actually the largest engagement of the Russian Air Force since the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1989), and is unparalleled in the history of Russian and Soviet aviation in terms of intensity of warfare. Pukhov writes that in the operation in Syria Russia suffered no combat or non-combat losses, with the sole exception being the Su-24M2 tactical bomber that was shot down by a Turkish F-16 fighter on November 24, 2015. This is considered a great achievement, especially when compared to the five-day conflict with Georgia in August 2008, when the Russian Air Force lost seven combat aircraft in four days and another four aircraft were seriously damaged. In general, Pukohov writes that the Russian Aerospace Forces (the Russian Air Force was renamed the Aerospace Forces on August 1, 2015) demonstrated an unprecedentedly high level of combat and operational readiness, despite the fact that their combat actions had only a moderate impact. Indeed, Russia's air support for Syrian ground troops was not particularly effective, although this was also due to the fact that the Syrian government army had been slow to take advantage of the air strikes.

However, Pukhov notes that Syria is an excellent proving ground for Russia's Aerospace Forces, where it can try out new tactics and weapons on a large scale. The Syrian campaign provided Russia's Aerospace Forces with operational experience, which will result in further intensive reforms and increased development over the coming years. A further advantage for Russia is that so far the price has been relatively low. On March 17, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the official cost of Russia's Syria campaign to be 33 billion rubles ($484 million).[2] Pukhov also states that the attacks by sea- and air-launched cruise missiles against targets in Syria were not a military necessity, but rather a purely military-political demonstration of the Russian Armed Forces' capabilities.

The following are excerpts from Pukhov's article:[3]

The Syrian Campaign Is The Largest Engagement Of The Russian Air Force Since The War In Afghanistan



Ruslan Pukhov (Source: Valdaiclub.com, May 30, 2011)

"Russia's air operation in Syria is the most spectacular military-political event of our time. In its post-Soviet history, it is the first time that Russia's Armed Forces have been deployed and extensively used in real combat conditions beyond the boundaries of the former Soviet Union. Period. The Syrian campaign is the largest engagement of the Russian Air Force since the war in Afghanistan, and is unparalleled in the history of Russian and Soviet aviation in terms of complexity and intensity of warfare and the remoteness of the area of operations.

"Russia's capability to maintain a very high sortie rate for a long period of time, and the absence of combat and operational losses (except for the Su-24M frontline bomber shot down by the Turkish Air Force) came as, perhaps, the biggest surprise to observers, especially abroad. This indicates that the Russian air group's combat activities in Syria have been excellently organized at all levels and that the Russian Aerospace Forces meet modern requirements.

"The situation is in stark contrast to Russia's actions in the five-day conflict with Georgia in August 2008. Although confronted by a weak enemy, Russian aviation lost seven combat aircraft in four days (including a Tu-22M3 long-range bomber) and another four aircraft were seriously damaged. Most of these losses were caused not by the Georgian military but by 'friendly fire.' For example, the 368th Assault Aviation Regiment, stationed at Budyonnovsk [a town in the North Caucasian Federal District], had three Su-25s shot down and another two damaged, and later written off, in only 86 sorties. The loss rate was one aircraft per 17 sorties, which corresponds to the worst periods of the Soviet air campaign against Nazi Germany in 1941. On the whole, Russian Air Force operations in August 2008 were poorly coordinated and lacked effective interaction with ground forces..."

One Of The Main Problems Faced By The Air Force Before 2008 Was Its Technological Backwardness

"The Russian Air Force became the centerpiece of military reform starting in 2008, and has changed profoundly since then. The reform was necessitated by a large number of long-standing problems in this branch of the Armed Forces. Organizationally, the pre-reform structure of the Air Force was formed in 1997-2000, during the previous large-scale consolidation and disbandment of regiments in the Air Force and the Air Defense Forces, which themselves were merged into one branch. The transfer of army aviation to the Air Force in 2003 had no major impact on the overall situation in the branch. By the beginning of the reform in the fall of 2008, the Air Force and the Air Defense Forces were a formidable power - but only on paper. The two branches had some 2,800 aircraft and helicopters and about 100 air defense battalions. In reality, however, the Air Force, like the whole of the Russian Armed Forces, was plagued with problems, and its actual combat potential was very low.

"One of the main problems faced by the Air Force before 2008 was its great technological backwardness caused by a 15-year-long hiatus in purchasing new hardware. Supplies of new aircraft and helicopters dropped sharply in the first few years after the Soviet Union's breakup and decreased to zero in 1994-1995, so that even the youngest aircraft were at least 15 to 20 years old by 2008. The bulk of aircraft and air defense systems were even older. Over the years, when there was no replacement of materiel, aircraft and weapon systems became physically and morally obsolete and exceeded their life spans. The serviceability rate by 2007 did not exceed 40 percent. Without new aircraft and modern airborne weapons, the Russian Air Force was stuck in the mid-1980s."

Structural Reforms Of Russia's Air Force

"The main points of the reforms in Russia's Air Force and Air Defense Forces in 2008-2012 were as follows:

 "Changing the air army-air corps (division)-air regiment structure established in 1938 to an air base-air group structure, and gradually reducing the number of air bases. By 2012, following a series of reorganizations, a system had been created in which the few remaining air bases (eight in the Air Force, not counting army aviation) had an umbrella structure comprising several air groups, each based at its own airfield;

 "Reducing the strength of the Air Force by getting rid of obsolete equipment. Simultaneously, the number of home bases was also reduced;

 "Some tactical air defense units and naval aircraft were assigned to the Air Force and the Air Defense Forces;

 "As part of broader military education reform efforts, the military education system was centralized and downsized;

 "Four Air and Air Defense Forces commands were established for the four new military districts set up in 2010 [Western, Southern, Central, and Eastern Military Districts]. Tactical Air Force units were assigned to the new military districts (strategic commands), and the role of the Air Force Major Command was reduced;

 "Reorganizing and reducing the Air Defense Forces; establishing Aerospace Defense brigades as the main formations of the Air Defense Forces;

 "Creating a new branch of the Armed Forces-the Aerospace Defense Forces.

"By the end of 2012, the Air Force and the Air Defense Forces looked different: they were much more compact and matched available resources. The reduction of Air Force personnel and a steep increase in defense spending helped to intensify combat and flight training, improve logistic support, and raise pay for the personnel. Finally, in 2009, after a 15-year hiatus, the Air Force began to be supplied, in increasing volume, with new aircraft and armaments. However, not all decisions made during the creation of a 'new look' for the Armed Forces were deemed optimal. In November 2012, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was replaced by Sergei Shoigu, and the Air Force reform entered a new stage."



Russia's Military Districts (Source: Mil.ru)

"In 2013-2015, the main purposes of the reorganization of Russia's Air Force and Air Defense Forces were as follows:

 "Restoring, as of December 1, 2013, the air division-air regiment structure. It should be noted, however, that in fact this was done by renaming the existing air bases and air groups, respectively;

 "Restoring army aviation regiments and forming army aviation brigades;

 "Restoring armies within the Air Force and the Air Defense Forces in 2014-2015 instead of commands (while preserving their structure);

 "Partially changing the deployment of Air Force units and expanding the airfield network;

 "Returning part of naval aviation to the Navy;

 "Decentralizing the military education system and restoring the system of independent flying schools;

 "Reorganizing brigades of the Aerospace Defense (Air Defense) Forces into air defense divisions;

 "Reorganizing, as of August 1, 2015, the Air Force into the Aerospace Forces.

"In addition, in 2014, for the first time since the late 1980s, Russia began to build up the strength of its Air Force units by forming new combat regiments. This process was started in Crimea, where the new 27th Mixed Air Division was formed from several new regiments.[4] Subsequently, several new air regiments were formed in other Russian regions. For the first time in almost thirty years, the Russian Air Force began to increase its strength."

Procurement Of New Equipment

"The procurement of new aircraft was among the main priorities of the State Armaments Program for 2011-2020 (SAP-2020), endorsed on December 31, 2010. Total spending for the program equals approximately 20.7 trillion rubles, of which 19.4 trillion rubles are to be allocated to the Ministry of Defense. Of this sum, 4.7 trillion rubles will be spent on the purchase of new aircraft. The program provides for the acquisition of more than 600 planes and 1,100 helicopters for all branches of the Armed Forces. So far, the program has been consistently implemented as regards the Air Force.

"The result was a rapid increase in aircraft deliveries to the Armed Forces. For example, in 2000-2008 the Ministry of Defense received only four (!) combat aircraft, but in 2009 alone the Air Force purchased 33 combat and combat-capable trainer aircraft. It must be noted, though, that 31 of them were MiG-29 SMT/UB fighters returned by Algeria. In 2010, manufacturers began to deliver series-produced combat and combat-capable trainer aircraft ordered by the Ministry of Defense. The Armed Forces received 19 aircraft in 2010, 24 in 2011, 35 in 2012, 51 in 2013, 102 in 2014, and 91 in 2015. In 2016, about 100 aircraft are expected to be supplied.

"The Ministry of Defense has signed contracts for the construction of 387 combat aircraft for tactical and naval aviation (12 Su-27M3s, 20 Su-30M2s, 80 Su-30Sms, 129 Su-34s, 98 Su-35ss, 20 MiG-29SMT/UBs, and 24 MiG-29KR/Kubrs) and 101 Yak-130 trainer/combat aircraft. Of these, it has already received 234 aircraft (12 Su-27M3s, 24 Su-30M2s, 56 Su-30Sms, 74 Su-34s, 48 Su-35Ss, six MiG-29SMT/UBs, and 24 MiG-29KR/Kubrs) and 79 Yak-130s.

"In addition, the Russian Air Force has received one new strategic bomber, Tu-160, and four long-range surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft (two Tu-214ONs and two Tu-214Rs).The most important priority for Russia's combat aviation is the creation of a Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation (PAK FA)-the T-50 fifth-generation fighter. Since 2010, five prototypes of the T-50 have been built and are now undergoing testing, and another four prototypes are to be tested during 2016. In all, there are plans to build 14 experimental and pre-production T-50 prototypes and 12 series-produced T-50s before 2020. Their mass production will begin in the next decade.

"After 2020, Russia expects to see the first results from two other programs to build completely new aircraft-a Prospective Airborne Complex of Long-Range Aviation (PAK DA, a new strategic bomber) and a Prospective Airborne Complex of Transport Aviation (PAK TA, a heavy transport aircraft). Until then, Russia intends to resume production of the Tu-160m2 modernized strategic bomber, and to transfer the production of the Il-76MD-90A modernized military transport aircraft from Tashkent [the capital of Uzbekistan] to Ulyanovsk [a city in the Volga Federal District]. Thirty-nine Il-76MD-90As have been ordered for the Defense Ministry, and there are plans to procure Il-78M-90A aerial refueling tankers for them.

"Another key purpose of the reform was the modernization of the fleet of combat aircraft. By 2020, the upgrade program is to cover up to 100 Su-27 fighters, 150 MiG-31 fighters, 200 Su-24M tactical bombers and their reconnaissance versions Su-24MR, 180 Su-25 assault aircraft, 30 Tu-22M3 long-range bombers, and 60 Tu-95MS and Tu-160 strategic bombers. The Air Force has also begun to modernize the A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft. Simultaneously, work is underway to develop a new generation of this type of aircraft, the A-100.

"The modernization has been proceeding particularly rapidly in army aviation units. Over the past few years, the Defense Ministry has received more than 100 new helicopters per year. Contracts have been signed for the delivery of over 450 new Mi-28N, Mi-35M and Ka-52 combat helicopters, of which more than 250 have already been supplied. New transport helicopters of the Mi-17 series are purchased on a constant basis. The Defense Ministry has also procured 18 new Mi-26 heavy transport helicopters and more than 70 Ka-226 and Ansat light helicopters. Starting in 2012, a wide range of new guided air weapons has been purchased for the Air Force, including RVV-SD and RVV-MD air-to-air missiles.

"Much attention is given to the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). At first, the Ministry of Defense purchased a large number of Russian-made, light short-range UAVs and some Israeli-made tactical UAVs, and licensed production of the latter was begun. Simultaneously, Russia launched extensive programs to develop various types of long-range UAVs with a takeoff weight of one to five tons, although practical results will apparently only be available by the end of the decade, atwhich timeit will be decided whether they can be made operational. Also, Russia has begun to develop jet-powered attack drones.

"In all, given the current procurement plans, Russia's Air Force and naval aviation may have up to 1,500 combat aircraft by 2020. In the best-case scenario:

 "up to 130 bombers (16 Tu-160s, 50 Tu-96MSs, and 70 Tu-22M3s);

 "up to 820 fighters (12 T-50s, 100 Su-35s, 200 Su-30SMs, 20 Su-30M2s, 100 modernized and new Su-27SM/SM3s, 120 non-upgraded Su-27s and Su-33s, 150 upgraded MiG-31s, 36 MiG-35s, 50 MiG-29SMTs, and 24 MiG-29KR/Kubrs);

 "up to 350 strike and reconnaissance aircraft (150 Su-34s, and 200 upgraded Su-24Ms and Su-24MRs);

 "up to 180 ground attack aircraft (modernized Su-25SMs/Su-25UBs).

"This will mean that the Russian Air Force will continue to rank second in the world after the United States Air Force in terms of combat capabilities."

Problems Complicating The Reform Of The Air Force

"However, there are serious problems complicating the reform and functioning of the Air Force, such as:

 "Instability of the organizational structure in recent years, caused by ceaseless reforms since 2008;

 "Unconfirmed effectiveness of the existing structure, where the larger part of the Air Force is subordinated to operational-strategic commands (military districts). In particular, it remains unclear whether this may lead to regionalization of air power, instead of its concentration;

 "Unclear status and development prospects of the newly formed Aerospace Defense Forces;

 "Largely outdated methods of utilizing the Air Force at operational and tactical levels; lack of experience in conducting major modern air operations while meeting aggressive enemy counteraction;

 "Shortage of modern airborne weapons, which is likely to continue for a long time;

 "Weakness of modern surveillance and target acquisition assets-in particular, the absence of targeting pods in the Air Force;

 "Insufficient maturity of many new types of modern aircraft coming into service is likely to remain an issue for a long time;

 "A large number of outdated aircraft in the Air Force, which causes maintenance, service life, flight safety, and other problems;

 "Weak long-range UAV and attack drone capabilities are unlikely to be improved in the near future."

Russia's Air Operation In Syria

"With all its strengths and weaknesses, Russia's Aerospace Forces surprised many by intervening in the war in Syria. The operation was the first major practical test for Russia's overhauled and reborn military aviation. It would be safe to say that it has successfully passed this test.

"I will not focus on political problems raised by Russia's military intervention in the Syrian war, as they have been widely discussed in recent months. I will only note that in military-political terms the main problem concerning the Russian operation in Syria is its ambiguity. On the one hand, the official goal of the campaign is to fight the Islamic State (ISIS), which has emerged from the civil wars in Syria and Iraq, which threatens to reshape the map of the Middle East, and which has become an overt terrorist state entity. On the other hand, it is obvious that one of the main goals of the Russian intervention in Syria is to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russia seeks if not to drastically improve the military status of [Assad's] regime (which is hardly possible), then at least to consolidate [Syria's] military and territorial positions, which will create prerequisites for achieving a peaceful settlement in Syria and dropping the issue of al-Assad's exit as a precondition for settlement.

"Although the presence of the Russian air group in Syria will obviously continue for months, it is highly important for Russia not to get involved in a protracted war, to minimize its own losses by all means, to choose 'political' targets for air strikes carefully, in response to changing realities, to avoid a military confrontation with Western military powers in the region, and finally, to make a timely exit.

"The operation in Syria is of paramount importance for Russia's Aerospace Forces, which have for the first time gained the experience of a broad offensive campaign involving different types of aircraft in coordination with ground forces and foreign partners (Syria, Iran, and Iraq). Equally valuable and unique for the Russian Armed Forces is the experience of deploying and supporting an expeditionary air group at a considerable distance from national territory.

"Russia's air group in Syria was deployed at the Hmeymim airbase (which had earlier been used by Syria's sea-based helicopters) near Latakia in September 2015. Initially, the group included 12 Su-24M tactical bombers (M2 and Gefest-T upgrades), 12 modernized Su-25SM and Su-25UB attack aircraft, four new Su-34 tactical bombers, four new Su-30SM multirole fighters, one IL-20M1 reconnaissance aircraft, 12 Mi-24P combat helicopters, and five Mi-8AMTSh military transport helicopters. All the planes and helicopters arrived with their crews from various combat units of the Aerospace Forces, that is, the air group was manned by ordinary pilots, flying in-service aircraft.

"Later, the group was enhanced. On December 6, 2015, four more Su-34 tactical bombers were sent over to Syria from Russia, and on January 30, 2016, the group received four Su-35S multirole fighters, which had just entered into service in Russia. The Su-24M bomber, shot down by a Turkish fighter on November 24, was replaced by a bomber of the same type which arrived at the Hmeymim airbase in January 2016. By February 2016, the total number of Russian combat aircraft in Syria had reached 40. The helicopter group had been increased as well: four new Mi-35M combat helicopters and several Mi-8 transport helicopters were delivered to the base in late 2015.



Russian warplanes in Syria (Source: Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/ TASS, February 2, 2016)



Su-24M at Hmeymim airbase in Syria. (Source: TASS, February 2, 2016)



Russian Su-35S (Source: Yuri Smityuk/TASS, February 1, 2016)



Su-34 lands at Latakia airport, Syria. (Source: Sputniknews.com, March 15, 2016)

"On November 17, 2015, Russia's Aerospace Forces group at Hmeymim airbase was renamed a special-purpose air brigade, with its headquarters also controlling aircraft operating against targets in Syria from the territory of Russia. The Russian air group in Syria is commanded by Major-General Alexander Maximtsev.

"Russia has deployed a large ground force to defend the Hmeymim airbase-initially 1,500 and now possibly 3,000 troops, including units of Special Forces, the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade of the Black Sea, the 7th Air Assault Division from Novorossiysk [a city located in the Southern Federal District], and several units of the ground forces. The group has T-90A main battle tanks, various types of armored vehicles, and 152-mm Msta-B towed howitzers. To defend the airfield from air attacks, modern air defense weapons have been deployed, including Buk-M2 surface-to-air missile systems, and Pantsir-S gun/SAM systems. In late November, this group was reinforced with an S-400 air defense battalion.



S-400 air defense systems (Source: Russian Defense Ministry/TASS, February 2, 2016)

"The Russian military group is supplied by air - via Iran and Iraq - by IL-76 and An-124 military transport aircraft, and by sea - by the Navy's large landing ships and auxiliary and transport vessels which constantly shuttle between Novorossiysk or Sevastopol [in Crimea]and the Syrian port of Tartus. Because of intensive traffic, this sea route has been called 'The Syrian Express.' Military transport aircraft are also widely used. Between September and December 2015, An-124 aircraft of the Aerospace Forces made 113 flights to Hmeymim and delivered 10,200 tons of cargo.

"One of the special features of the Russian air operation in Syria is large-scale use of precision-guided air-to-surface weapons. In particular, for the first time Russia used KAB-500S precision-guided bombs with a satellite-aided guidance system. Yet unguided air munitions continue to play the main role in destroying terrorist targets. and because Mi-24P and Mi-35M combat helicopters and Su-25SM attack aircraft use unguided missiles, they inevitably come under fire from low-altitude air defense systems used by rebels and Islamists.

"By the beginning of February 2016, the total number of sorties made by Russian aircraft in Syria had reached an estimated 6,600. The limited air group conducted intensive operations with up to 100 sorties a day, and increased their number to 150 by the end of November (including those made by aircraft from Russian territory). On October 7, 2015, Russia's operation in Syria for the first time involved Navy ships. The missile ships Dagestan, Grad Sviyazhsk, VelikiyUstyug, and Uglich fired Kalibr precision cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea to hit targets some 1,500 kilometers away. In all, they launched 26 missiles against 11 targets in Syria. Later, Kalibr missiles were fired from the same ships on November 20 (18 missiles) and from the Rostov-on-Don diesel-electric submarine (December 8, four missiles). During the three attacks, 48 Kalibr missiles were launched. This was the first time ever that the Russian Navy used this weapon.

"On November 17, 2015, Russia for the first time since the beginning of the operation in Syria used its Tu-160, Tu-95MS, and Tu-22M3 long-range aircraft. Tu-95MS and Tu-160 aircraft took off from the Engels airfield in the Saratov Region, and Tu-22M3 aircraft flew out of the Mozdok base in North Ossetia. This was a truly historic day for the Russian Armed Forces: Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers, which had never participated in combat operations before, received their baptism of fire.

"During their combat missions in Syria, Tu-160 aircraft use modern Kh-101 cruise missiles; Tu-95MS aircraft use X-555 cruise missiles (a conventionally armed version of the Kh-55 missile); and Tu-22M3 bombers use free-fall bombs. In all, Russian long-range aircraft have made 187 sorties to Syria from Russian territory. Tu-95MS and Tu-160 aircraft have launched 97 cruise missiles. Undoubtedly, the attacks by sea- and air-launched cruise missiles against targets in Syria were not a military necessity but a purely military-political demonstration of the Russian Armed Forces' capabilities.

"To support long-range bombers, Su-27SM and Su-30SM fighters were used with in-flight refueling. Since December 2015, the A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft has been operating in Syrian skies to control the airspace. It may also serve as a flying command post. The aircraft makes flights from the Mozdok airfield.



Russian Su-30SM aircraft in the sky above Latakia in Syria. (Source: Vadim Savitsky/TASS, February 2, 2016)

Results And Assessment Of Russia's Air Operation in Syria

"The Russian air group's activities have not yet led to a defeat of ISIS or the Syrian opposition. However, it is obvious that Russian air attacks do have a slow but real effect and are gradually tipping the balance in favor of the Syrian government forces, which have moved from strategic defense to offensive operations, largely tactical so far. Despite the unprecedentedly intensive combat actions, so far Russia's air group has not suffered combat or non-combat losses. The only exception was the Su-24M2 tactical bomber shot down by a Turkish F-16 fighter in an incident near the Syrian-Turkish border on November 24, 2015. Russia's Mi-8AMTSh helicopter, sent to find and rescue the pilots from the crash site, was attacked by pro-Turkish rebels and destroyed following an emergency landing. Those were the Russian aviation's only losses during the Syrian campaign.

"For the first time in their history Russia's Aerospace Forces have used precision-guided weapons in relatively large quantities, including new KAB-500S precision-guided bombs with a satellite-aided guidance system. For the first time, conventional cruise missiles are being used in military operations, including new Kh-101 air-launched missiles, modified Kh-555 missiles, and sea-launched Kalibr missiles. In addition, Russia actively uses UAVs, both domestic and Iranian-made, for reconnaissance, fire adjustment, target designation, and evaluation of strike effectiveness during the air campaign in Syria.

"In general, the Aerospace Forces have demonstrated an unprecedentedly high level of combat and operational readiness and their capability to conduct highly intensive combat operations far away from Russian territory. The absence of combat and operational losses during the air campaign is impressive. On the other hand, the effectiveness of combat actions is rather moderate. Apparently, the attacks have inflicted less damage on the rebels than was expected, and the Syrian government army has been slow in exploiting the effects of the air strikes. The interaction between the Russian Aerospace Forces and Syrian government forces on the ground leaves much to be desired. Russia's air support for ground troops does not appear to be particularly effective. On the whole, the Aerospace Forces' operation has demonstrated the limits of air power-something Western powers encountered earlier as well.

"Despite the obvious progress, the technological level of Russia's Aerospace Forces in the Syrian campaign only matches that of the U.S. Air Force during Operation Desert Storm of 1991. In other words, they are far behind U.S. and, generally, Western military aviation. Speaking of precision-guided weapons, in Syria, Russia uses mainly munitions with satellite-aided guidance. This type of guidance has certain limitations, including in terms of accuracy. KAB-500S bombs, which weigh 500 kg, and cruise missiles are often too powerful to be used against typical targets in this war. Russian aviation has few (if any) high-precision weapons for use against moving, small-sized, and well-fortified targets.

"Russian aviation is experiencing an acute shortage of target designation assets for precision-guided weapons. The only exception is the Platan electro-optical targeting system used by new Su-34 tactical bombers. Russian UAVs do not have target designation capability either. Russia's Aerospace Forces still do not have targeting pods, which have been used by Western military aviation for the past 25 to 30 years.

"Apparently, the effectiveness of Russia's combat actions in Syria is limited mainly by deficient reconnaissance capabilities, rather than by a lack of aircraft or weapons. Russian aviation urgently needs specialized reconnaissance aircraft, UAVs with a wide range of equipment and long-range capability, and efficient space-based reconnaissance systems. There is also a complete lack of drones with strike capabilities. Also, Russia has not yet sent its new Mi-28N and Ka-52 combat helicopters to Syria due to their insufficient maturity.

"Despite these inadequacies, Syria has become a perfect proving ground for testing new tactics and new weapons of Russia's Aerospace Forces on a large scale. Russia has for the first time used its most advanced aircraft Su-30SM and Su-34 (and now also Su-35S), cruise missiles, precision-guided weapons, and UAVs, and practiced intricate forms of interaction between various forces. Russia's Aerospace Forces are gaining rich combat and operational experience and the operation in Syria seems to have cost Russia relatively little so far.

"Whereas the short conflict with Georgia in 2008 resulted in a radical reform of Russia's Air Force, the participation of Russian military aviation in the Syrian campaign will have even more far-reaching effects since the experience it provided is immeasurably greater. This will result, among other things, in more intensive development of the Aerospace Forces in the next few years."

Endnotes:
A simmering political crisis in Baghdad escalated this week when parliament failed to approve a new Cabinet lineup presented by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The shakeup was just the most recent effort by al-Abadi to salvage promises of reform first made last August in the form of austerity measures that he claimed would also help combat corruption.

Following the Cabinet vote delay, parliamentarians staged a sit-in Wednesday demanding the country's top political leadership step down, including the speaker and prime minister. The protest quickly descended into a brawl with the country's elected leadership throwing punches and water bottles. Eventually the scuffles subsided and no one was seriously hurt.

Hours after the failed vote in parliament Saturday, Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a handwritten statement giving parliament 72 hours to vote in a new Cabinet.

"If these conditions are not met then let it be known that the people will decide," al-Sadr wrote. Al-Sadr credits his ability to mobilize thousands across Baghdad and the country's Shiite south to stage protests and a sit-in in Baghdad with pressuring al-Abadi to move forward with the initial Cabinet reshuffle earlier this month.

However, many Iraqis blame the lawmakers themselves for squandering billions in oil money, leaving the country with crumbling infrastructure and abysmal services more than 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion and the lifting of international sanctions.

Sunni lawmaker Mishan al-Jabouri, who has assumed a lead role in the anti-corruption protest within parliament, was himself convicted of embezzling millions of dollars in 2007. Al-Jabouri evaded his prison sentence of 15 years by fleeing to Syria and was only allowed to return to Iraq in 2012 after being issued an amnesty decree under then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

This year Iraq was ranked one of the 10 most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International, an international monitoring group.

"The word reform has just become a sort of instrument for each side of the political class to blame the government and the prime minister," said Maria Fantappie, the International Crisis Group's senior Iraq analyst, explaining that Iraqi leaders are standing under the banner of reform merely as an attempt to hold on to personal and party power.

Al-Abadi was only forced to submit a new Cabinet lineup after his initial nominees were met with instant opposition from Iraq's political blocs, which rely on patronage systems to remain in power. Several of the Cabinet nominees subsequently withdrew from the list claiming they didn't desire the posts.

"Everyone is appealing to reform, but not in a legitimate way," Frantappie said.

The United Nations on Friday called on Iraqi leaders to resolve the political crisis, warning that instability could jeopardize the fight against the Islamic State group, which still controls much of northern and western Iraq.

"The only party that benefits from the political divisions and chaos .... is Daesh," said the UN's acting head of mission to Iraq, Gyorgy Busztin, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

The costs of the war against IS, along with the plunge in the price of oil  which accounts for 95 percent of Iraq's revenues  have caused an economic crisis, adding fresh urgency to calls for reform. Iraqi officials predict a budget deficit of more than $30 billion this year.
An Associated Press-GfK poll finds that most Americans are happy with their friends and family, feel good about their finances and are more or less content at work. It's government, particularly the federal government, that's making them see red.

Almost 8 in 10 Americans say they're dissatisfied or angry with the way the federal government is working, while about the same proportion say they're satisfied or enthusiastic about their personal lives. Republicans are far more likely to be angry  half of GOP voters, compared with about one-quarter of Democrats or independents  and those Republicans are much more supportive of Donald Trump, the front-runner for the party's presidential nomination.

Still, anger isn't so much driven by political ideology as it is by an overall disdain for a political system that doesn't seem to be working, voters said in follow-up interviews. They're upset with both parties, as well as career politicians and Washington insiders who, those surveyed said, don't put their constituents' interests first.

"There are too many lobbyists and people who are not really working for the people anymore. They're working to line their own pockets," said 37-year-old Greg Boire of Belding, Michigan, who works as a bank customer service representative and voted for Trump in that state's Republican primary. "It happens on both sides. ... It's just the whole government in general."

John Santoro of San Jose, California, a 58-year-old market development manager for a company that makes semiconductor-related products, said he's doing well financially but is angry about a lack of progress to lower the country's debt.

He mostly blames President Barack Obama, but "politicians on both sides of the aisle are to blame because they just can't get anything done. They just fundraise and get contributions from special interests."

The AP-GfK poll showed that angry Republicans such as Boire and Santoro were much more likely than those who are just dissatisfied to have a favorable view of Trump, by 62 percent to 42 percent. Fifty-eight percent of dissatisfied Republicans, but just 36 percent of angry ones, have an unfavorable opinion of Trump.

Both men say they do support Trump  to a point. They believe he could shake up Washington, but worry about his rhetoric and lack of campaign organization.

Boire said he's impressed that Trump is spending his own money and that what he says "is his opinion and not that of the lobbyists." But Boire would be satisfied if the more politically experienced Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won the nomination because Trump "does not have the filter to shut off" negative comments.

Santoro said he might vote for Cruz in the California primary if Trump doesn't "cinch things up" and run a more professional campaign.

Even so, Trump has harnessed anger toward the federal government to win many die-hard supporters, like 58-year-old Debra Waterson of Petoskey, Michigan. She supported Obama in 2008 and former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., four years ago.

She's upset that the gun lobby has a strong influence in Washington and that the Senate won't vote on Obama's nominee for Supreme Court. But she's even angrier about the economy and foreign trade deals, so she voted for Trump in the Republican primary.

"Up here in northern Michigan, there is so much unemployment and so many can't afford to eat or buy medicine," said Waterson, who said her family is getting by.

In the Democratic race against Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also has drawn support of voters who say they're fed up with the federal government.

Retired Miami postal worker Kenneth Olinsky, a Sanders supporter, said he's angry at Republicans in Congress for being "obstructionist" on legislation that could help working-class or low-income families.

"They haven't done anything for the people as much as they've done for the wealthy and for businesses," said Olinsky, 61. "There is a definite class system in this country; it's the haves against the have nots."

In the poll, people were slightly more likely to describe the economy as good than they were in February, 45 percent to 41 percent. Despite the current uptick, 54 percent describe the economy as poor.

Still, two-thirds or more of Democrats and Republicans say they're at least satisfied with their personal and family relationships, financial situations, careers, and work-life balance. Independents lag behind on each of those measures, but are still more likely than not to be satisfied with each.

But the vast majority of Americans  71 percent  still think the country is headed in the wrong direction. Nearly half of Democrats, but less than 1 in 10 Republicans, think the country is headed in the right direction.

Christopher Ashby, 32, a stay-at-home dad in Albemarle, North Carolina, who describes himself as a very conservative Republican and firm Trump supporter, said he is angry about government handouts for people and corporations and the influence of lobbyists and special-interest groups.

"For everyone in politics at this moment, it's a career, and nobody is in this career to help the little person," said Ashby. "We need a complete whitewash of the system (because) politics should ... be something you do because you love helping the people."

__

The AP-GfK Poll of 1,076 adults was conducted online March 31-April 4, using a sample drawn from GfK's probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Respondents were first selected randomly using telephone or mail survey methods and later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn't have access to the Internet were provided access for free.
Retired Military Officials Are Finding High-Paying Jobs With the Saudi Government and Can Make up up to 7-Figure Salaries Working for Other Foreign Governments

Retired U.S. military personnel cannot receive consulting fees or jobs from foreign governments without expressed approval...
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A new Freshii location will open in mid-September at Knapp's Crossing.

The location, 3251 Knapp St. SE, will be the second for Grand Rapids, and also owned by Nathan Ashcraft. He opened his first Freshii in December 2013 at the McKay Tower, at 146 Monroe Center St. NW.

"We received an overwhelmingly positive response when we opened our first Freshii in downtown Grand Rapids, so we thought it was time to expand with a second location that would reach more customers," said Ashcraft in a statement.

The personal trainer said he became a franchise owner because the healthy "fast food" chain aligns with his goal of promoting health and wellness.

The eatery's menu also offers healthy meal options such as custom-made green wraps, salads, quinoa bowls and fresh-pressed juices that incorporate fiber-rich, slow-burning carbs, essential fats and lean proteins.

"Knapp's Crossing and the surrounding area are growing quickly, and the new Freshii will be able to tap into that growth," said Chris Prins, a Colliers International | West Michigan associate, who signed the lease with Ashcraft for the 1,800 square-foot property on April 7.

The newest Freshii will be the fifth in Michigan. There are also two Freshii locations in Detroit and one in Ann Arbor.

Shandra Martinez covers business and other topics for MLive. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Stephen Carver has been named executive director for Kalamazoo Civic Theatre, effective May 2. He replaces Kristen Chesak, who is the new executive director of the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.

An actor, director and theater manager with business experience, Carver will lead the 40-person Civic staff and the hundreds of volunteers who make the Civic one of the largest community theaters in the country.

"Every part of Steve's resume spoke to the complex and unique demands of producing quality community theater," Rob Kerschbaum, Civic Theatre board president, said in a news release. "What made the decision so easy was his passion for the true spirit of community theater."

For the past 12 years, Carver has led the Longmont Theatre Company in Colorado. He has directed 30 plays and worked in radio and television production.

A graduate of Denison University with a degree in fine arts and theater, Carver has deep ties to the Civic. "Obviously, I feel at home here," said Carver, who grew up observing Civic rehearsals when his father, James C. Carver, was managing director. Carver's grandparents, Norman Carver Sr. and Louise Carver, were among the founders of the Civic Players in 1929.

"I respect the important traditions and the people who helped build our national reputation. Those traditions extend far beyond my own family," Carver said.

"Having said that," he added, "our focus is on the future. Nothing is more important than working with this team to help make our productions great. Anyone in theater knows the adage that you're only as good as your next play."
1080px_Dioxane_plume_2015.jpg

The dioxane plume that originated years ago from the Gelman Sciences property on Wagner Road on the border between Ann Arbor and Scio Township continues to spread.

(MLive)

ANN ARBOR, MI -- Public officials and citizens are planning to gather tonight in Ann Arbor to discuss the continuing spread of the Gelman dioxane plume and what's going to be done about it now and into the future.

State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, has organized a town hall meeting taking place from 6-8 p.m. Monday, April 18, inside the auditorium at Eberwhite Elementary School, 800 Soule Blvd.

Keith Creagh, acting director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and Bob Wagner, the DEQ's Remediation and Redevelopment Division chief, are expected to be on hand to answer questions and provide an update on proposed revisions to the state's exposure standards for 1,4-dioxane.

The DEQ is proposing lowering the state's allowable exposure level for dioxane in groundwater and drinking water from 85 parts per billion to 7.2 ppb, which is still higher than the 3 ppb standard the state used to have prior to 1995.

In addition to Irwin, other local and state lawmakers from Washtenaw County are expected to attend Monday night's meeting.

The local Coalition for Action on Remediation of Dioxane will present information about the dioxane plume and strategies to address it.

There will be a public question and answer period.

Irwin said he suspects a main focus of the discussion will be what the changing standard might mean for the cleanup. He said he knows people also have questions about remediation techniques and whether aquifer protection could be a goal, and what can be done to prevent the spread of the plume.

Irwin said he's hoping for a large turnout to show the DEQ how important this issue is to citizens in the Ann Arbor area.

The DEQ acknowledges setting a stricter exposure standard under the current legal framework won't necessarily result in a better cleanup of the toxic plume of pollution moving through the area's groundwater

The DEQ plans to take the polluter to court again, but the department still is operating within the limits of state environmental laws that call for managing the risk of human exposure, not doing full-scale cleanup of pollution sites.

There have been talks among local officials and citizens lately of petitioning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to designate the Gelman plume as a Superfund site and get the EPA involved in overseeing a cleanup.

Dioxane is classified by the EPA as likely to be carcinogenic to humans by all routes of exposure, posing a 1 in 100,000 cancer risk in drinking water at 3.5 ppb with long-term exposure.

Gelman Sciences dumped large amounts of dioxane into the environment along Wagner Road -- on Ann Arbor's western border with Scio Township -- from 1966 to 1986, causing the plume of pollution that still exists.

Pall Corp., which acquired Gelman in 1997, is doing some pump-and-treat remediation, but many believe it's not enough, as the plume continues to spread, contaminating drinking water supplies ranging from private wells in Scio Township to a municipal supply well in Ann Arbor that the city has since shut down. The biggest fear is that the plume might eventually reach Barton Pond on the Huron River, where the city gets most of its drinking water.

DEQ and local officials are in agreement that the plume is many years away from reaching Barton Pond, if it ever does reach it.

Wagner said at a recent meeting the plume is spreading at a very slow rate, and the expanding northern edge is about 11,000 feet from Barton Pond. He said a typical rate of groundwater movement might be a foot per day, which in theory might put the plume about 30 years away from reaching Barton Pond.

Beyond revising the state's exposure criteria for dioxane, Irwin said the state still needs stronger environmental cleanup laws that hold polluters accountable and make them pay to clean up their messes.

Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com.
Tema based rapper; Yaa Pono never graces an event without leaving audience asking for more. His energy, stage craft, free style prowess and ability to engage the crowd can be compared to none.

Whiles others attributes this to the fact that he smokes or takes in a substance before mounting a stage, for him whatever he displays on stage is madness that Glorifies God.

During his performance at the just ended Campus Dey Pap which came off at University Of Education, Winneba, on saturday, the Zongo Girl, rapper said yes he is mad but for God.

As for us , we are mad for God, I am mad for God.

Yaa Pono, quickly rose to become not just Ghanas but one of Africas premier and best loved freestyle hip hop artists.

After appearing on several local radio shows and competitions, Yaa Pono entered the studio in 1995. He can count artists such as Sarkodie, Stay Jay, Guru, D Cryme and Chris Waddle among his contemporaries as they often appeared together at gigs.

Joining Ghanas esteemed Pidgin Music record label in 2009, offered Pono more opportunities to develop and broaden his creative repertoire whilst working with the finest producers in the country. He is currently a Bavaria Big in Ghana Talent Hunt & Tour brand ambassador of two years standing.
Countries that are facing the shock of drop in commodity prices on the world market would have to use flexible exchange rate regime in order to operate as a shock absorber.

Thats the advice of the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, who says the Fund is alert but not alarmed at the slump in the global economy.

The Development Committee of the IMF and the World Bank Group (WBG) at its meeting in Washington, D.C, acknowledged that global growth continues to disappoint in 2016.

Substantial downside risks to growth remain, including weak demand, tighter financial markets, softening trade, persistently low oil and commodity prices, and volatile capital flows, it said in a communique.

The Committee therefore expects the IMF and the WBG to closely monitor the risks and vulnerabilities in the global economy with a view to updating the Debt Sustainability Framework for Low-Income Countries.

The institutions are to provide policy advice and financial support for sustained, inclusive and diversified growth and resilience.

We agree that emerging markets and developing countries are generally very prepared than in the past for a possibly less-favourable environment but many of them are exposed to tighter financial conditions, slowing capital inflows and currency pressures, observed Agustin Carstens, Chairman of the Committee.

He says whilst the Fund is ready to support member countries to address the complex and interconnected challenges, clear and effective communication of policy stances would be key to limit excessive market volatility and negative spillovers.

Export dependent economies like Ghana have in recent years been challenged by the drop in crude oil prices and other commodities like cocoa and gold.

Madam Lagarde says countries that rely on commodity exports would have to be prudent in thinking through diversification models that identify and develop other sources of growth within the country.

We urge the international community to take action in supporting these vulnerable populations who largely live below the poverty line said the Committee, which believes IDA remains the most important source of concessional financing for the poorest countries.

The International Development Association (IDA) is a financial institution offering concessional loans and grants to the worlds poorest developing countries.

The IMF boss noted that international taxation  the implementation of a safe network of taxation systems  and the economic framework of the fight against corruption are two new areas the Fund will also need to turn attention.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh/Washington DC
The Managing Director of IMF, Christine Lagarde, has asked Ghana to commit to passing all the reviews by the Fund in order to help the country restore market confidence.

When Ghana singed up to the three-year program with the IMF in April last year, it was the expectation of government that the program will help fast-track economic stability, promote growth, reduce budget deficit and address the lack of confidence in the economy.

However a year down the line, the country is still struggling to strike confidence in investors.

The situation has been compounded by the upcoming elections in November, which has heightened economic uncertainty.

Answering a question posed by Joy Business at the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC, IMF Managing Director, Christian Lagarde, says if Ghana will be able to implement the conditions under the program it will shore up market confidence.

For any country under a current program, to actually deliver under the program, go through the review one after the other. Its probably the best response to market concerns about the stability and macroeconomic policies decided by the country, the IMF Managing Director said.

On the current slump in commodity crises, Madam Lagarde was of the view that it might be prudent for Ghana to look at diversifying its Economy.

Click audio link for more.


18.04.2016 LISTEN

Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has launched a new Africa Food Price in Accra, Ghana, to award individuals, organizations who have contributed immensely to the growth of Agriculture on the continent.

The US $ 100,000 prize package is aimed at ending hunger, poverty and also empowers individuals making a difference in the agriculture sector.

The price, which is funded by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and Yara International ASA (Yara), a global manufacturer of fertilizer delivering crop nutrition programmes and sustainable solutions for agriculture also aims at putting a spotlight on achievements and innovations that can be replicated across Africa to eliminate hunger and poverty and provide a vital new source of employment and income.

Launching the price at the12th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program Partnership Platform which is seeking new sources of investment and financing for African farmers and agriculture businesses, obasanjo said the price seeks to recognize all the chains in the agriculture sector.

According to him, the Africa food price will celebrate individuals and institutions that are changing the face of agriculture, from a grudging struggle to survive to a profitable family that thrive.

The winners of the award will be selected by a panel of independent and distinguished leaders in African agriculture and it will be chaired by president obasanjo who is a farmer himself.

The winners will be announced annually during a prize ceremony at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), starting with the 2016 AGRF slated for 5  9 September in Nairobi, Kenya.

Nominations can be made through the Africa Food Prize website at www.africafoodprize.org

Present at the launch were Former President Kufour of Ghana, President of AGRA, Dr Agnes Kalibata, government officials and other stakeholders.
Okyenhene

18.04.2016 LISTEN

The widely reported clashing of some members of the Okyenhenes entourage with the delegation of the Asantehene at the Akyem-Tafo funeral of Mr. Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, the slain New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Akyem-Abuakwa North, ought not be allowed to pass without comment (See Okyenhene, Otumfuo Clash at JBs Funeral Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 4/17/16).

At best, it is inexcusable; and at the worst, simply pathetic. What clearly appears to have occurred at Akyem-Tafo, Old-Tafo, to be precise, was an abject breakdown in protocol.

The delegation of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu, II, led by the Asamponhene, Oheneba Kwadwo Afuduor, is reported to have already arrived and been seated at the funeral grounds when the entourage of the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori-Panyin, II, arrived.

Contrary to protocol, some of the members of the Okyenhenes entourage had expected the Asantehenes representative to have risen upon the arrival of the Okyenhene at the funeral grounds, in show of courtesy. We are further told that the refusal of Oheneba Kwadwo Afuduor and the members of his delegation to rise up nearly resulted in a catastrophe of some sort.

I am especially pained by this episode because as a grandson of the Asiakwahene, I am also the kinsman of both the Asantehene and the Okyenhene. Of course, my late father, Prof. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Sr., (1929-2001), was also a member of the Gyaase Division of Ofori-Panyinfie, from what I understand. In short, I have been caught in a crossfire, which makes matters even more excruciating for me. At any rate, a few issues need prompt ironing out.

For instance, would it have been appropriate if Otumfuo Osei-Tutu had decided not to put in his majestic presence even by proxy at Mr. Danquah-Adus funeral, knowing full well that as the paternal grandson of the immortalized Doyen of Gold Coast and Modern Ghanaian Politics, Dr. Joseph (Kwame Kyeretwie) Boakye-Danquah, the slain politicians paternal lineage could be directly traced to the Palace of the Asante-Mamponghene, or the Krontihene, the arch-lieutenant of the Asantehene?

This is not a simple question to answer, because it is ineluctably rhetorical. And if the dear reader is of Akan descent, or happens to have been tutored in the ethos and mores of the Akan people, the thrust of my question would readily resonate with all the grievous implications that it evokes.

At any rate, traditionally, in order to forestall the sort of patently undignified to-do that is alleged to have occurred at the Akyem-Tafo funeral of Mr. Danquah-Adu, the Tafohene ought to have ensured that both the Okyenhenes entourage and the Asantehenes delegation would be seated at the funeral grounds at the same time.

This way, the sticky question of historical and political primacy and/or preeminence would not have arisen. After all, the event was the funeral of a tragically slain man, not a contest of personalities or kingdoms. There is therefore absolutely no need, whatsoever, to further complicate matters by unnecessarily delving into some of the reasons why the Okyenhenes entourage had expected the Asantehenes delegation to have risen up, in show of deference, at the arrival of the traditional overlord of Okyeman.

Anyway, shortly upon reading this tooth-edge-setting news report, I phoned my cousin, Barima Okore-Gyansi, the Chief of Akyem-Ahwenease, to compare notes. Nana Okore-Gyansi is, naturally, better tutored in palatial/royal protocol than I am; and so his prompt and ready concurrence inspired me to briefly offer my take with readers who may understandably be perplexed by this entire episode.

Needless to say, this is the worst time to provoke any gratuitous hostilities between two of the greatest rival Akan states. And on the latter note ought to be emphasized the fact that Asantes and Akyems are rival kinsmen and siblings, not inveterate enemies. In short, Mr. Danquah-Adus death ought to bring both relatives together, not throw a monkey wrench amidst us for the sinister pleasure of those who would have us live on the socioeconomic and political margins of Ghanaian society like recent immigrants on our own land.

Besides, the real killers of Mr. Danquah-Adu are still out there; and it would be far more constructive to put our heads together, in order to prevent the cheap liquidation of one of our most valuable statesmen and kinsfolk by those who would ill-advisedly take our otherwise salutary rivalry for rabid enmity, and would seize upon the least opportunity to open up a season of terror against us.

In view of the stark reality of the preceding observations, some apologies are in order here. I would be the first to put in my proverbial ten pesewas, as it were. And I think the Tafohene ought to take the lead on the other side of the Atlantic. It would also not be totally out of place for Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori-Panyin and Otumfuo Osei-Tutu to share a hearty joke over a sumptuous meal; and perhaps even a dance over this light ripple across the land.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
Hundreds of aspiring Egyptian entrepreneurs participated in a competition this weekend designed to educate and motivate new entrants to the business sector. The StartUp Weekend event, co-sponsored by the U.S. government and the British University of Egypt (BUE), enables Egypt's tremendous cadre of innovative, educated, business-minded young adults seeking to strengthen Egypt's economy.

The American people know first-hand that encouraging innovative entrepreneurs is one of the most effective ways to create jobs and increase incomes, said Dr. William Patterson from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID is proud to support Egypt's entrepreneurs and believes these innovators have the talent and ingenuity to help build the foundation of a thriving, stable economy in Egypt.

During the weekend, aspiring entrepreneurs formed teams to develop and pitch ideas to start new businesses. Teams worked together to refine their business models, develop working prototypes, and present their final ideas to potential investors. Some of these teams will go on to create new business ventures that will create new jobs and contribute to the growth of the Egyptian economy.

The first prize winner, Es3fme, successfully pitched an emergency health service app that notifies relatives, locates the nearest hospital, and provides first aid instructions. This team was awarded five seats to the Oasis 500 acceleration program. Other teams, focusing on education, reading, and medical help apps, received awards such as joining the TIEC acceleration program or receiving in-kind vouchers by Aramex worth up to 35,000 LE that will help them build their start-up companies.

The event is part of USAID's project to strengthen entrepreneurship and enterprise development in Egypt through supporting micro, small, and medium enterprises. Through developing the ability of new firms to innovate and grow, this project will enable hundreds of MSMEs and entrepreneurs to grow sales as a result of streamlined business procedures, improved business processes, and linkages with firms in fast-growing value chains.

Since 1978, USAID has invested nearly $30 billion in the people of Egyptfor projects that reflectour shared goals and values. Working together, our impact include reducing infant mortality and eliminating polio, modernizing the power grid and expanding telecommunications networks, supporting entrepreneurs, and preparing students with marketable skills for the 21st century economy.
Mr.Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane, Chairman of the African Caucus, and Ms.Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), co-chaired the African Consultative Group meeting today at the IMF Headquarters. They issued the following statement after the conclusion of the Group's meeting in Washington.[1]

We had very productive discussions on Africa's economic prospects, highlighting the near-term policy challenges as well as the continued opportunities. Reflecting the more difficult external economic environment and, in particular, the sharp drop in commodity prices, and tighter financial conditions, growth in Africa is projected to decline to about 3percent in2016, the lowest level in a long while. However, there is significant variation in growth performance across countries, with low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa continuing to grow by over 5 percent.

We concurred that the decline in commodity prices is likely to be long lasting, as the causes seem structural rather than temporaryincluding the ongoing rebalancing of demand in China and, in the case of oil, technological innovation that has enhanced supply. We also recognized that non-economic shocks such as weather- and security-related challenges, are posing downside risks to Africa's economic prospects.

Against this backdrop, we agreed that prompt fiscal adjustment is needed to safeguard macroeconomic stability and rebuild policy buffers across the region, especially in oil-exporting countries. We also concurred that, in pursuing these consolidation efforts, country authorities should aim at protecting priority expenditures, such as social expenditures and well-prioritized and efficient infrastructure spending, with a view to ensuring that longer term development goals remain achievable. Furthermore, we agreed that, where feasible, the exchange rate should be allowed to adjust as needed to absorb shocks and improve competitiveness, with central banks' interventions limited to mitigating disorderly market movements.

Beyond immediate policy reactions, we agreed on the need to reinvigorate the economic diversification agenda. Stepped-up structural reforms to improve the business environment as well as labor and financial markets and opening to trade are critical for boosting economic prospects, creating jobs, and improving living standards.

Mr.Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane noted that it is indispensable for African countries to adapt policies to the new environment and use all tools at their disposalfiscal, monetary, exchange rate and structural policies to preserve hard-won macroeconomic stability, contain social impact, further strengthen our economies' resilience to shocks, and support growth. As public investments have helped greatly in preserving positive growth in a very challenging period, it is particularly essential to not slow abruptly the economic dynamism impulse by public and private investment. In this context, African countries look to the Fund not only to continue its effective engagement with Africa, but also to adapt its instruments and financial support to the magnitude of the shocks experienced by African countries. One avenue would be to increase access to the general resources of the Fund for low-income countries. Going forward, as countries seek to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we agreed that it will be important for governments to maintain macroeconomic stability, strengthen institutions and the business environment, address critical infrastructure gaps, expand access to financial services in our economies, and seek to ensure that growth is both broad-based and inclusive.

Ms.Lagarde stated that as in the past, the IMF will remain closely engaged with its African members. Appropriate policies will be key to weathering this difficult time and to maintaining a strong foundation for sustainable growth and poverty reduction. The Fund's support can take several forms, depending on countries' needs: policy advice, technical assistance and capacity development, andwhere appropriate and neededfinancial assistance. The IMF will continue to strengthen the analytical underpinnings of its policy advice and instruments and seek to adapt to meet the evolving needs of the membership.

[1]The African Consultative Group comprises the Fund Governors of a subset of 15 African countries belonging to the African Caucus (African finance ministers and central bank governors) and Fund management. It was formed in 2007 to enhance the IMF's policy dialogue with the African Caucus. The Group meets at the time of the Spring Meetings, while Fund Management meets with the full membership of the African Caucus at the time of the Annual Meetings.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Mr. Bert Koenders, visited Ghana from 15 to16 April 2016 on behalf of the High Representative of the European Union for ForeignAffairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, FedericaMogherini. Mr. Koenders led a team to discuss with Ghanaian counterparts issues in theframework of the Ghana-EU High Level Dialogue on Migration.

As part of his visit, Mr. Koenders met with Ghana's Minister of the Interior, Mr. Prosper Baniand Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Hanna Tetteh.

He thanked the Government of Ghana for her hospitality and highlighted the good partnershipbetween the EU and Ghana.

Mr. Koenders welcome the recent adoption of the National Migration Policy for Ghana,providing the framework for addressing migration in line with Ghana's sustainabledevelopment objectives.

Herecalled the Valletta Summit of November 2015 as a fair andbalanced approach to migration agreed upon by African and European Union leaders andhighlighted the convergence of the Valletta Action Plan and the National Migration Policy asa good basis to build concrete cooperation measures.

The Minister underlined the necessity of a swift implementation of the Valletta Action Planinitiatives aimed inter alia at enhancing mobility for students, skilled workers andentrepreneurs stressing that "irregular migration costs many lives and puts young people atthe mercy of unscrupulous traffickers. This is why curbing irregular migration is a priorityfor both the European Union and Ghana aswell as for the wider region".

"Migration should be based on mobility mechanisms which take into account respect forhuman rights. At the same time reinforced efforts on border management and increased speed and efficiency of procedures for return and readmission are needed", he stated. Mr. Koenders recalled the current financial support provided by the EU in terms ofprogrammes for addressing the root causes of irregular migration, providing assistance to theGhanaian authorities in developing and implementing migration policies for migrationmanagement, and fostering regional cooperation on this crucial matter.

He stressed that the high level mission on Migration confirms the common effort to tacklemigration challenges.
18.04.2016 LISTEN

Tell the truth

If you feel you cannot complete a visa form or submit a document without hiding some piece of information, or you really do not know how to answer or explain a key question on the form, you may speak to a lawyer. The lawyer may be able to show you how to be truthful in a way that doesnt risk having your application refused.

Even if the lawyer tells you that your application will be refused because of your previous violation, would you not be better off with this enlightening information before perhaps wasting your time and money on an application that may lead nowhere? Whiles others may be fortunate to hide information, you may not be so lucky. If the concealed fact or information is discovered by the consular officer you may be ineligible to enter the country (either permanently or for a number of years).

You must therefore be forthright with all details in your application notwithstanding your fear that your application to be refused. To be sure that you are providing true and accurate information or document, always review all information or document supplied in your application. For documents received from third parties like bank statements, business and invitation documents, etc. especially from agents, you must always insist on knowing the origins of the document. You may not be allowed to put up the defence that you did not know the document was false because it was only given to you by another person.

The information submitted must be consistent with the documents supplied

Ensure that your evidence is consistent with the statements you have made in your application. Consular officers generally decide applications in the light of information and or documents submitted by you. Consistency breeds trust, and your application is more likely to be believed if the information in your application is in harmony with your supporting documents. For example, if your invitation letter says that you will be staying for 14 days, this must be consistent with information on the number of days stated on your visa application form, the number of days shown on your hotel and or flight booking (if any), and in supporting documents or letters which make references to the days you will be staying.

If the information is inconsistent with the supporting documents this may lead the officer to raise doubts on your claimed intention. For example, the applicant says that he has not previously been married but his marriage certificate shows his status as divorced; the applicant says that he is visiting his uncle, but the so-called uncle refers to him in the invitation letter as a friend; the applicant says he is visiting the UK with his family and will be staying with a relative, but the document covering the accommodation facility from the UK relative shows it's only a one-bedroom apartment; the applicant says he is visiting for tourism purposes, but he is unable to name any known tourist destination in the country; the applicant says he is a businessman but his bank statement shows little or no movement of funds consistent with a functional business.

The list is endless. Any inconsistency, no matter how seemingly insignificant may cause the consular officer to doubt your intentions, and may ultimately lead them to refuse your application. Interestingly, many errors are clearly avoidable and could have been rectified had the applicant utilised little effort in reviewing their application.

To be continued

Emmanuel Opoku Acheampong

Disclaimer: This article only provides general information and guidance on general immigration law. The specific facts that apply to your matter may make the outcome different than would be anticipated by you. The writer will not accept any liability for any claims or inconvenience as a result of the use of this information. The writer is an immigration law advisor and a practicing law attorney in Ghana. He advises on U.S., UK, and Schengen immigration law. He works part-time for Acheampong & Associates Ltd, an immigration law firm in Accra. He may be contacted on [email protected]
The national chairman of the People's National Convention party (PNC), Bernard Mornah has labeled the acting chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Freddie Blay as someone not competent enough to criticize government on corruption.

According to Bernard Mornah, Freddie Blay and his team in the NPP have made it impossible for anyone in the party to demand internal accountability, and made sure any executive who insisted on probing matters has had to be removed from office.

Mornah who was contributing to discussions on Alhaji and Alhaji, a current affairs programme on Radio Gold on Saturday, said he found it rather strange that it was no other than Freddie Blay who was hurling stones from a glasshouse.

Mr Blay at the launch last week of the NPP's Election 2016 fundraising campaign , had accused the government of corruption and handing over the management of Ghana's economy to the IMF, demanding also that President Mahama's 'Accounting to the people' tour of the regions should account to the people on GYEEDA, SADA and the rebranding of buses so as not to insult the intelligence of Ghanaians.

But Mornah said this couldn't have been Freddie Blay speaking.

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'It appears to me that if you escape the word corruption you would see Freddie Blay', said the PNC chairman, adding that 'it is because of this that Freddie Blay and his team orchestrated the removal of Kwabena Agyepong, Paul Afoko, Sammy Crabbe and anybody in the NPP who wants to say that let's be accountable; that as a party we can't be unaccountable and want to go into government and so let's be accountable to our people; let's explain how things are done, how come we are able to open an account at Prudential Bank, we have gone to take a loan in the name of the party, party executives are not signatories to the bank account, and that it is some individuals who are signatories and they are committing the party to come and repay that particular loan, and the bank would write to the party and the party says no, we are unaware of such an account, no official of the party is signatory to it so those responsible, and because of that Paul and his team must go.'

He maintained that the man demanding accountability has himself refused to be accountable to the people in his own party and asked that Freddie Blay focuses his energies there to strengthen the party.

'We are aware of ECOBANK accounts where monies are put and monies that are withdrawn without the approval of official or elected executives, supervised by Freddie Blay and it is not a case where Freddie Blay wants to be accountable. When a committee was set up, and the committee  is about giving out its report and the report would go to the national chairman, Freddie Blay and co. removes the existing national chairman so that he would be the one to receive the report. That is not accounting to the people in the NPP, so really it's a bit difficult because I would end up saying certain things that may injure certain relationships, but I think that before you say or throw something at somebody, watch yourself and Freddie Blay is not competent to come and ask the kind of questions that he is asking. Freddie Blay cannot say the many things that he is saying and I'm just a bit disappointed that rather than look at how the NPP is going to straighten the many crooked corners within their party so that they will have a formidable front in going into #Election 2016, they want to be throwing unnecessary mud.

'We can do better as opposition when we take genuine criticisms to the government and I think that even as we criticize the government let's s also offer the alternative that the people of Ghana would be looking at. So I want to see, what is it that Nana Addo would do so that we would not question the judgement that leads to the appointment of his ministers and people around him. What is it that Nana Addo will do so that people would not say that they used two voters' registers at a particular constituency so that at the end of the day those things would inform that this is a person that deserves the mandate of the people of Ghana.'
18.04.2016 LISTEN

The US Government is providing $4.5 million to support Ghana's electoral process.

One-third of the amount would be channeled to the Electoral Commission (EC) to strengthen its strategic communication and also educate the public on the practicality of voting.

Another one-third of the amount which would be channeled through the UNDP, would also be used to support the activities of the National Peace Commission both at the national and regional levels.

Media interaction

The US Ambassador to Ghana, Ambassador Robert P. Jackson, who announced this in an interaction with the media in Accra to mark his 90th day in office as ambassador in Ghana, outlined other areas the US would support to ensure peaceful elections.

The Ambassador spent almost an hour answering questions ranging from security, terrorism, democratic development and his vision in Ghana as an ambassador.

Potential conflict areas

Ambassador Jackson said other areas earmarked to benefit from the US support included training programmes for journalists on election reporting and also working together with the National Peace Commission to identify potential conflict areas.

He said even though the National Peace Commission and the UNDP had already mapped out such potential areas, the US would be bringing in leading experts on elections and security from the UNDP to validate that work and to talk with the EC and civil societies organisations on their perception of such potential areas and what could be done about it.

Peaceful elections

Ambassador Jackson said for Ghana to have a peaceful election would depend on the commitment of Ghanaians and urged the political parties in the country to make a pledge to hold peaceful elections.

He said rather than wanting to find out what happened after the elections, 'Why don't we focus on getting people to vote and make their choice? I think that should rather be our focus.'

Ambassador Jackson urged politicians to focus on what they could do when given the mandate and that would give the electorate the opportunity to select their preferred candidate.

Mother tongue

On the use of mother tongue in the pre-school and lower primary, he said there were lots of academic evidence to suggest that people needed to have a command of their own languages before they could really learn effectively in another language.

'So, I'm very excited about what they are doing in the primary school to make sure that the children have strong foundation in their own languages,' he said, adding that he was very pleased with the educational sector in the country.

Priority to unlock Ghana's potential

On his priority to unlock Ghana's potential for sustained inclusive broad-based economy, the ambassador said though it was still too early to assess him, he said he had had fruitful discussions with President John Mahama and the Ministry of Trade and other relevant government agencies.

'I have also had several meetings with American businesses in the country, where they have seen opportunities and challenges and I think that we are on the path to unlocking some of the potentials, but I think 90 days are too short to accomplish that,' he said.

He said his target was to double bilateral trade between the two countries within three years, which would trigger the creation of jobs to realise that potential.

US, Ghana trade relations

On trade relations between US and Ghana, he said there were a lot of opportunities between the two countries, adding that last year, bilateral trade between the two countries was $1.2 billion and his target is to see that double this year.

He urged Ghanaian companies to focus more on the export sector to the US market, saying there were a number of US companies interested in dealing with some Ghanaian companies in the textile area.

Ambassador Jackson said Ghana is moving in a positive direction and identified the urgent needs for job creation and said that was an area he was prepared to work with the current government and any government that might emerge in the November general elections.

'Broadly, when I look at how Ghana has developed over the last 17 years since I was first here, it is clear that the country is much, much prosperous, it is moving in a positive direction, it is creating more opportunities,' he said.

Prioritising the areas of assistance by the US government to Ghana, Ambassador Jackson mentioned health, agriculture, education and democratic governance.

Development gap

On the development gap between northern and southern Ghana, Ambassador Jackson revealed that the bulk of American support was channeled to the northern sector, 'because we agree that is where the needs are.'

He said he had wide ranging discussions with stakeholders during his familiarisation tour of the country on how to attract more investors to the north, which would lead to creating jobs and not just giving assistance.

'That was the thrust of my conversation with the leadership of SADA, that we need to be looking at how to attract more investments to the north. I am very interested in seeing more jobs created,' he said.

He said there were a number of US companies with good records in the north for providing knowledge transfer and quality jobs.

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In an effort to ensure safety standards and awareness to minimise risks and hazards associated with daily work, management of B5 Plus Ltd, a leading steel producing company in the country has organised a training clinic for its technicians at the factory in Kpone.

One of the series of planned interventions, this activity responded to the increasing dangers faced by the workers and provided knowledge about advanced machines used in the factory, with a view to enable them cope more effectively with the daily risks they encounter in the course of their work and to acquire knowledge in the new technology.

About 45 employees from various departments of the company which manufactures nails, iron bars, metal plates, wires among other metal products were trained on the usage of Bosch Power Tools and accessories such as drills and demolition tools, woodworking tools, metalworking tools, cordless technology etc.

The clinic was facilitated by Woermann Ghana Limited, authorised agent for Bosch Power Tools in Ghana.

Mr. Peter Walid Khalil, instructor of the training programme from Woermann Ghana Ltd, explained that the participants will be able to take precautions for their personal safety with the tools and personal protective equipment.

He stated that as a result of the complexity of new machines designed for various activities, there is the need to bring to the fore how the machines are used to ensure the workers personal safety and minimize cost in terms of operations and maintenance.

According to him, the training will also help to improve efficiency and reduce cost for the company since the workers are equipped to use them competently.

On his part, Horsu Clemency, Safety Officer of B5 Plus Ltd highlighted on how significant the training clinics are to management and staff of the company with the view that it will help develop the health and safety skills and competence of the workforce.

Mr. Mukesh V. Thakwani, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of B5 Plus Ltd explained that the purpose of the training programme was to ensure that his workers get themselves familiarised with the new technology in the world and ensure their safety as well.

We are in advanced world now and daily, new machines or tools are produced. B5 Plus Ltd as a serious company, we aimed at conforming to the world by purchasing such tools hence our decision to train the workers to become familiar with the new technology, he noted.

He assured his customers that his outfit will continue to invest in his workers to ensure quality in their products.

B5 Plus is a leading manufacturer of steel products and received the prestigious TNG Steel Fabrication Company Award organised by the New Ghanaian (TNG) Pillars of Modern Ghana last year.

The company has also received other international awards including the International Europe Award for Quality and Excellent Service by Globe Trade Leaders' Club, and Best Enterprise Award in the field of Steel Industry by the Socrates Committee, Oxford UK.
18.04.2016 LISTEN

The Akyem Oda Police Command has arrested a Turkish expatriate for allegedly assaulting a Ghanaian worker.

The Turkish is a management member of the ARDA group company undertaking the Oda-Akwati-Winneba and Cape Coast water project.

The suspect is alleged to have assaulted the worker who sustained life-threatening injuries and was rushed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for treatment.

The victim was accused of negligence by the Turkish expatriate after an excavator he was operating on got stuck in a wetland.

The Oda District Police Commander, DSP Ebenezer Ntoso, confirmed to Starr News that, two separate cases of assault have been reported to the Police by the Ghanaian workers; however, one of the suspects has been arrested and granted bail while efforts are being made to arrest the other.

Scores of workers with the Turkish company last week demonstrated over alleged abuses meted out to them by their employers.

Starr News investigations revealed that there has been another allegation of attempted rape on a female worker by one of the expatriates.

The case was allegedly reported to the then Divisional Police Commander, Ebenezer Ampofo, however, nothing was done about it.
Juba (AFP) - Rebel leader Riek Machar's long-awaited return to the capital of South Sudan was delayed on Monday, his spokesman said, citing "logistical reasons".

"We are committed to the peace agreement, but there have been logistical issues and the first vice president, Riek Machar, will come tomorrow," spokesman William Ezekiel, said Monday.

Machar's return and swearing-in as vice president will mark an important step in a floundering August 2015 peace deal.

The agreement is seen as the best hope yet for ending more than two years of civil war that has left the world's youngest nation in chaos and pushed it to the brink of famine.

Machar previously served as President Salva Kiir's deputy until he was fired just months before the start of war in December 2013.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a war marked by numerous atrocities, with more than two million forced from their homes and nearly six million in need of emergency food aid.

The conflict broke out in December 2013 when Kiir accused Machar of planning a coup, claims he denied, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that divided the desperately poor country along ethnic lines.

The rebel leader is in his tribal stronghold of Pagak in the east of the country and was expected to arrive in Juba on Monday, but despite the latest hitch spokesman Ezekiel said the rebels remain committed to peace.

"We are here to implement all the peace agreement. We have been missing deadlines but we will fulfil in the end," he said.
The recent acknowledgement of Ogilvy & Mather Namibia's concept Brandulance (www.Ogilvy.com.na) by the African Excellence Awards has projected the capabilities of the Namibian advertising industry to a global audience.

A distinguished jury of international communication experts recognised the initiative for its concept strategy, the chairman of the Jury for the 2015 African Excellence Awards Rudolf Hetzel described Ogilvy & Mather Namibia's method as the most outstanding PR and communications case in your region over the last year.

The awards, which have been operating in Europe for the past 9 years, branched out to following regions last year, including Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and North America.

The decision to include a wider scope was to promote the industry of PR and Communications with a more globally recognised platform; the mission of the African Excellence Awards as it mentions on the organisations website, Honouring outstanding achievements in the field of PR and Communications which is adding to the creation of a global network of industry leaders.

The African Excellence Awards received over 2,600 applications and recognised Ogilvy & Mather Namibia's Brandulance in the Corporate Advertising Category.

Ogilvy & Mather Namibia will receive the award during the African Excellence Awards, Winners Dinner on the 21st of April 2016 in Cape Town, South Africa.

Arten Marias, Ogilvy & Mather Namibia's Creative Director who will be collecting the award on behalf of his team in Cape Town explained,  The concept originated from the need of addressing a more direct approach to providing a complete advertising structure and service for our clients

Ogilvy & Mather Namibia narrowly missed out on the chance of another award; the concept Brandulance was again a finalist in the Brand Relationship category, which was won by Axe Polaris - Evolution of Hooking Up, which saw its new digital campaign after seven years hit record of 3.5 million views.

With a mass of applications originating from all corners of the Globe, the competition amongst entries was tough and Managing Director of Ogilvy & Mather Namibia, Anny Mouton described the accomplishment,  The team has truly shown our companies core strength, the idea of selecting alternative channels to create a new sense of brand awareness.

Advertising on the African continent cant be implemented on a continental scale no longer, the connectivity had effected this previously known method and adverts are being adapted for more local audiences, creating an individual local feel.

With Ogilvy & Mather Namibia being the only Namibian agency to be selected as a finalist in two categories and winning in one, it showed the potential Namibian advertising has to offer the global PR and Communication stage, 2016 will bring more agencies together to compete for this years African Excellence Awards and proudly present Namibian PR and Communication methods to the world.

Aaron Hamilton (Copywriter)

MEDIA LIAISON LucyMay Lubrani Strategy & Business Development Manager Ogilvy & Mather Namibia www.ogilvy.com.na T +264 61 247 371/2/3 [email protected]
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of 1 million from the Government of Italy to provide much-needed food assistance for vulnerable people affected by the ongoing conflict in Libya.

This timely contribution will allow WFP to provide family food rations for more than 80,000 people in Libya for one month. Each ration is large enough to feed a family of five people for one month and contains basic food items such as rice, pasta, chickpeas, wheat flour, vegetable oil, tomato paste and sugar.

WFP is very grateful to the Government of Italy for its commitment to support affected households and communities across Libya, said Carlo Scaramella WFP Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

In 2016, WFP plans to assist up to 210,000 of the most vulnerable people in Libya with life-saving food assistance, including displaced Libyans, host communities, and registered refugees and asylum seekers.

The conflict in Libya continues to cause large population displacements in the country and is consequently increasing humanitarian needs, said Wagdi Othman, WFP Country Director for Libya.

Alongside Italy's support, WFP is grateful to other donors including the UN CERF, Canada and all those who contribute flexible funds. However, to continue its life-saving food assistance to tens of thousands of Libyans in desperate need until the end of the year, WFP immediately requires US$15.4 million.
18.04.2016 LISTEN

The right to privacy, or the right to respect for private life, as the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees it, has been affected by the IT growth era. Privacy has long been protected, but will face a new dimension of protection for the generations to come. The right to respect for private life is not an absolute one, and may have a different feature in different context.

By Niemitz v. Germany judgment (1992) the European Court on Human Rights ('the ECtHR') included the right to connect with other individuals into the notion of private life, saying that it would be too restrictive to limit the notion of an 'inner circle' to personal life and exclude therefrom entirely the outside world not encompassed within that circle. The right to communicate was thus inscerted into the the privacy context.

But the extent of communication and technologies which enable it signifficantly changed since.

Few decades ago, it mainly consisted of personal communication, communication by conventional letters and phone communication. At the time the Convention was adopted in the mid last century, there was no internet, not even mobile/cell phones, nor personal computers. The feature of privacy protection was much more simple then today.

Now, when we approach the rule of IoT (internet of things) communication, not only do people communicate, but 'things' as well. The subject of that 'non-human' communication may also be private data of individuals. At the same time, the individual, human communication became more simple, available at any time, and versatile by its means.

New society digital evolution becomes a special challenge when speaking of the protection of privacy. Availability of every person not only in physical life but in cyber life as well, upgrades the privacy to a new sphere. If we do ourselves chose to use social networking, Skype, Instagram, Twitter, Yahoo Messenger, Linkedin, Facebook, the later being the most powerful database of persons ever on internet as rightfully noted by prof. Bajrektarevic, in his book Is there life after Facebook? as well as other internet features, we must be aware that our privacy may come into the open. If we add to that e-context a physical surrounding of a working place, under certain conditions, the feature of privacy changes, i.e. it becomes less protected then in the context of an earthbound private circle, the surrounding which was in mind of lawmakers when adopting for instance the European Convention on Human Rights in 1950.

Recently, at the table of the ECtHR was the case of Barbulescu v. Romania (judgment enacted in January 2016), where the question arose of whether an employer is entitled to look into his employers private messages at Yahoo Messenger. The messages were written by the employee during the working time, at the computer owned by the employer. The employer monitored and made transcript of messages made at the Yahoo Messenger account that was created at the employers request for the purposes of contacts with clients, but the transcript also contained five short messages that Mr. Barbulescu exchanged with his fiancee using a personal Yahoo Messenger account.

The ECtHR found no violation of the right to respect the private life by such actions of the employer.

The ECtHR noted that the employer did not warn the employee of the possibility of checks of the Yahoo Messenger. However, the company where Mr. Barbulescu worked did adopt internal rules according to which it was strictly forbidden to use computers, photocopiers, telephones, telex and fax machines for personal purposes. Can that be seen as a warning? Does it give an employer a right to monitor personal messages of an employee?

We may wonder if the ECtHR gave the advantage to a market economy and profit growth, versus privacy? Did it give to employer the right to control the employee even if that would mean invading his privacy? This, under certain conditions, like internal policy rules or warning, gives the employers the right to rule the employees space, of course, during work hours, and their right to monitor the job done by his employees may be stronger then their right to privacy.

However one should be careful in concluding that all employers may now freely snoop into their employees e-mails, tweets, messages etc.

The ECtHR took into consideration the expectation of privacy, which Mr. Barbulescu, the employee, had regarding his communications. The internal rules of the employer which strictly prohibited the use of computers for private purposes, made the decisive shift towards ruling in favor of non violation. He probably should not have expected to have his privacy respected in such circumstances. But in the absence of such rules and in the absence of warning, any such intruding into employees private communication would rise an issue of privacy protection.

With the fast development of society and technology, the privacy is much more vulnerable, and it apparently affects its legal protection.

Almost two decades ago in the case of Halford v. UK the same ECtHR decided that tapping of Ms. Halfords phone at the office did constitute a violation of her right to respect of her private life. Without being warned that one's calls would be liable to monitoring the person would have reasonable expectation that his privacy is protected (Halford v. UK 1997). In Amann v. Switzerland ECtHR judgment (2000) telephone calls from business premises pursue to be clearly covered by 'private life' notion.

The ECtHR further spread the privacy protection to e-mails sent from work in the Copland v. United Kingdom judgment (2007). In this case it also decided that monitoring of telephone usage in the way of analysis of business telephone bills, telephone numbers called, the dates and times of the calls, duration and cost, constituted integral element of the communications made by telephone, and made an interference into the privacy. Moreover, the ECtHR was of the view that the storing of personal data relating to the private life of an individual also fell under the protection of the Article 8, being irrelevant whether it was or was not disclosed or used against the person. It further held that that 'e-mails sent from work should be similarly protected under Article 8, as should information derived from the monitoring of personal Internet usage' like analysing the websites visited.

In Halford and Copland case the personal use of an office telephone or e-mail or was either expressly or tacitly allowed by the employer. Accordingly the ECtHR found a violation of privacy when the employer intruded therein. In Barbulescu, on the other hand, due to the internal regulations that forbid the private use of computers, the ECtHR did not consider a monitoring by employer to be a violation of his privacy, although the intrudment happened in the form of making the transcript of employee's messages and keeping that transcript. The ECtHR considered that broad reading of Article 8 does not mean, however, that it protects every activity a person might seek to engage in with other human beings in order to establish and develop such relationships' (Barbulescu para 35)

We can see that the position of employer towards allowing or non allowing phone, e-mail, or internet usage, made a difference as to the employees expectation of privacy. But can we add to that the more open communication, as a reason of lowering the level of the expectation of privacy?

It still remains up to the individual how he/she shall expose his/her privacy. The means of multiple communication, are now in everyones pocket, and a person does not have to use a land phone line, in order to call home. By simple touching the screen he/she may communicate, share, like, tweet, comment. If it is done during working hours, it gives, under certain conditions, a possibility to employers to look into that share, like, tweet, comment and still not to invade anyones privacy.

The more open the conversation is, its protection gets more demanding and complicated. So the protection of privacy remains a big test for the future.

The European Commission has launched an EU Data Protection Reform in 2012, in order to 'make the Europe fit for the digital age.' Strenghtening citizens' fundamental rights, Digital Single Market, are the areas that need special attention. Currently in force Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of the EU of 1995, provides that personal data is 'any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person'.

Article 29 Data Protection Working Party ('DPWP'), in 2002 adopted a Working Document on the Surveillance and the Monitoring of Electronic Communications in the workplace. According to that Document the mere fact that monitoring serves an employer's interest could not justify an intrusion into workers' privacy. Monitoring, according to the DPWP, must pass four tests: transparency, necessity, fairness and proportionality.

'Workers do not abandon their right to privacy and data protection every morning at the doors of the workplace' provides the Document, however, 'this right must be balanced with other legitimate rights and interests of the employer, in particular the employer's right to run his business efficiently to a certain extent'.

Under Directive 2002/58/EC concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications) of 2002 'Member States shall ensure the confidentiality of communications and the related traffic data by means of a public communications network and publicly available electronic communications services, through national legislation.' It provides for the prohibition of 'listening, tapping, storage or other kinds of interception or surveillance of communications and the related traffic data by persons other then users without the consent of the users concerned'. Exceptions may be made, inter alia, for the interests of national security, prevention of criminal offences or of unauthorized use of the electronic communication system etc.

Data protection of citizens will be a big challenge in future. The judge Pinto de Albuquerque in his partly dissenting opinion in Barbulescu case has criticized the ECtHR's majority in missing the chance to develop its case-law in the field of protection of privacy with regard to Internet communications and for overlooking, inter alia, some important features like sensitivity of the employee's communication and non-existence of Internet surveillance policy duly followed by the employer (apart from the above mentioned internal regulations forbidding the use of computeres).

On one hand there is a request for privacy protection, while on the other hand, there is a request from the market economy/employers that the job be done. The interests of the two must always be fairly balanced, but with the speedy development of technology and the internet interaction, the danger of exposing private data rises. That is why the legal creators have a big responsibility to act ahead of time, which, in the IT context, is running at the light speed.

doc. dr Jasna Cosabic

professor of IT law and EU law at Banja Luka College,

Bosnia and Herzegovina

[email protected]
I pray that the Good Lord forgives those who put my brother in that state. But for me, I say that may they go mad and walk the streets of wherever they are and make them naked and helpless.

These were the words of the family of the slain Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North, Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, as conveyed by his brother, Frank Adu Jnr when they bid him farewell over the weekend.

Pained by the callous murder of the MP who has been described by many as a philanthropist par excellence, the family could not come to terms with the gruesome murder of the hardworking young man by unknown persons.

The late MP, whose mortal remains were interred at Old Tafo in the Eastern Region on Saturday, was allegedly stabbed to death by Daniel Asiedu, 19, who told police investigators in his initial statement that he was contracted to kill JB for a fee of GH2,000 and that he used part of the money to buy shoes after leaving his slippers at the residence of the deceased at Shiashie, East Legon, after the act.

Daniel Asiedu, alias Sexy Don Don, claimed that two other people called Junior Agogo and Avenger, all living at Pig Farm, were involved in the murder but after the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) took over the case, the storyline changed.

The suspect is being kept in solitary confinement at the BNI cells.

This is not the first time family members of the late MP have called for the worst for the killers of their brother.

During the one-week funeral celebration, the family called for justice, stating that No justice, no peace. If the truth does not come out, there will be no peace. He was the husband of widows and the father of orphans. He was everything to us in Abuakwa North, Okyeman and the country.

Evil people conspired to kill him. We summon anyone involved and anyone who bears false witness in the death of JB before all the water bodies in Okyeman. We summon you before all the water bodies in Ghana, the aggrieved family members said at the event during the pouring of libation.

The same happened last Saturday when the family, friends, political associates and other sympathisers gathered for the funeral rites.

The family suspects foul play in the murder of JB and has therefore called on the gods to deal with those behind his death.

The aggrieved family and constituents of Abuakwa North cannot fathom why God did not shield the late MP from his assailant(s) despite his dedicated service to Him and philanthropic activities in churches in the Abuakwa North area.

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Interestingly, widow of the slain MP, Ivy Boakye Danquah-Adu, and her two daughters were conspicuously missing at the final funeral rites at Tafo.

They were all at the State Burial service organised for him at the Forecourt of the State House on Friday where they wept uncontrollably and defied any consolation from family, friends, legislators and all mourners gathered at the venue to bid him farewell.

Thousands of mourners including the flagbearer of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Alan Kyerematen, acting NPP Chairman Freddie Blay and Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Minority Leader, among other bigwigs of the NPP, stormed Akyem Old Tafo for the funeral over the weekend.

The Okyenhene, MPs, government officials and a section of the public also joined the family to bid the late MP farewell.

Nana Addo Commends Mahama

The 2016 flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo, commended President John Mahama for honouring the late JB Danquah-Adu, 50, with a state burial.

The NPP leadership praying over JB's casket at Tafo on Saturday

Addressing the mourners on Saturday, Nana Addo said, I would like to use this medium to thank President John Dramani Mahama for honouring our brother this way. We thank him so much because JB deserved it.

Nana Addo, who described the slain MP as very hardworking, kind-hearted and friendly, added that he had personally lost a treasure.

He expressed his condolences to the wife, children, siblings and other family members of the late legislator.

The MP's final burial service also attracted politicians, businessmen, clergy, Muslim and traditional rulers, among others, who paid their last respects to the politician before he was buried at a private cemetery.

FROM Daniel Bampoe, Akyem  Old Tafo


The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is set to embark on a massive campaign in the Ashanti region ahead of the November elections.

In line with this, about 50 Mahindra vehicles, which have been transported to Kumasi, would be used by the ruling political party for the unprecedented campaign this year.

Pick-ups are also expected to be delivered to the party in the coming days.

The NDC has vowed to secure about one million votes in the Ashanti region, which is the stronghold of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The NDC obtained about 600,000 votes in the Ashanti region during the 2012 elections which helped it to win the presidential polls.

Several NDC bigwigs in the region have stated that the attainment of one million votes in the region would ensure victory for the NDC in the general elections.

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The ruling political party has therefore decided to provide all logistics, including vehicles to help its members to campaign effectively.

Political pundits are therefore not surprised to see the NDC branded vehicles in Kumasi.

Information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that pictures of the NDC parliamentary candidates and the President would be embossed on the vehicles.

The vehicles would soon be distributed to the NDC campaign teams in all the 47 constituencies in the region to begin the vigorous campaign.

According to reports, the NDC wants to win the elections in the first round with a wide margin so that the opposition parties would not have any reason to complain.

The NPP challenged the results of the 2012 elections at the Supreme Court, which ruled that President Mahama was legitimately elected.

From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi


A group calling itself Okwahuman Development Youth Association in the Eastern Region has called on the Acting President of the Okwahuman Traditional Council, Nana Aseidu Agyemang III to immediately retract his endorsement of President John Mahama's second term bid.

Members of the group also appealed to the chief to withdraw curses he invoked on detractors of the president ahead of the November polls.

The group, in a press release issued and signed by Frank Obibini Takyi, the spokesman, which was copied to DAILY GUIDE, said the endorsement of President and invocation of curses were unconstitutional.

It added that the constitution bars chiefs from engaging in active politics and therefore he must apologize and retract his comments with immediate effect.

Nana Asiedu Agyemang III last Thursday declared his unflinching support for President John Mahama when he stormed the area to inspect and commission some projects in the area as part of his 'Accounting to the people' tour.

The chief also asked the 77 powerful gods of the area to protect the President on the tour and also deal ruthlessly with all those who would oppose him.

His statement did not come as a surprise to many political watchers, since chiefs usually heap praises on sitting Presidents in order to get into their good books to ensure development in their areas.

According to Nana Asiedu Agyemang III, given the good works of the President in Kwahuman and the entire country, he deserves another four-year term.

It is our prayers that because of your love for the country and love for the people of Okwahuman you should get another four years, he said.

He also admonished other presidential aspirants to conduct peaceful campaigns ahead of the November 2016 polls, adding that the aspirants must desist from speaking ill about their opponents in the course of their campaign.

However, the angry Kwahu youth, who are unhappy with the comments of acting President said, For nearly eight years we have had a government which has imposed hardship on the people.

According to the Okwahu Development Youth Association, The NDC government has a record of high cost of living, unprecedented increases in utility tariffs, depreciation of the cedi, increasing rate of unemployment and many taxes to constrict the already suffering Ghanaians''

The statement added that the youth of Kwahu dream of developmental projects but see none, and we expect any leader from Kwahu who gets the opportunity to speak on issues, to call for development in Kwahu and also the ailing economy that has made many youth jobless and futureless.

On the contrary, our well respected acting chief of Kwahu Traditional Area who's also the chief of Abetifi, Nana Asiedu Agyeman lll had the opportunity to talk on issues and could have even requested for more projects.

In his remarks, instead of him to appeal for more developmental projects in Kwahu, he rather endorsed the incompetence of the NDC government led by President Mahama and assured him of a second hardship term, the statement underscored.

The angry members of the group therefore called on Nana Aseidu Agyemang III to retract his comments in the media or else they will demonstrate against him.

FROM Daniel Bampoe, Abetifi


Reverend Father Friar Yvess Evaga Njana, the Cameroonian Catholic priest who has been dragged to the Family and Juvenile Court in Accra for allegedly having a child with a 24-year-old Ghanaian lady and failing to live up to his responsibilities, has denied paternity of the child.

The priest, who is also the Country's Director of the Ghana branch of the Biblical Centre for Africa and Madagascar (BICAM), said the lady in question, Josephine Ganyoame, was just maligning and blackmailing him.

He said Josephine and a man she claimed was her uncle had already collected an amount of GH20,000 from him as a result of the supposed pregnancy.

Josephine Ganyoame claimed she had sexual affairs with the Cameroonian Catholic priest at his residence on three occasions.

After the sexual encounters resulted in a pregnancy, she said the priest told her to flush it out.

I said what? I am not ready to kill, she told Joy Fm.

She claimed that Father Yves-Lucien took her to the Obaatampa Women Hospital at East Legon for an abortion but she refused to terminate the pregnancy.

According to her, Father Yves-Lucien thereafter gave her an amount of GH20,000 for her upkeep, disclosing that she used GH9,600 to rent a single room self-contained apartment at East Legon at GH200 per a month for three years, with the rest of the money going into her upkeep and an amount of GH6,000 going into the acquisition of a plot of land at Afienya.

Vindication

However, counsel for the embattled Catholic priest, Akenyah of A&A Chambers, told DAILY GUIDE that his client would only be vindicated if the paternity of the child was established.

The last time this paper contacted her, she claimed the baby was with a relative in Togo.

Narrating how his client, Father Friar Yvess met the lady, Mr Akenyah said in 2014 Friar Yvess visited a friend at East Legon and while negotiating a curve, his vehicle knocked down the lady (Josephine).

Initially, Fr Yvess thought the lady was injured and so he went to her rescue and even requested that he takes her to the nearest clinic for medical attention but the lady said she was okay.

My client then gave the lady his card to contact him in case she discovered any injury and needed medical care.

Job Hunt

Three days later, the lady called Fr Yvess on phone and during their conversation she told him that she was looking for a job, he stated.

Fr Yvess then asked Josephine what her qualification was and she told him that she was a Senior High School leaver.

The priest then decided to help her continue her education, after the lady claimed her dad was a retired teacher and did not have the money for her to further her education.

According to the counsel, Josephine was asked to apply for further studies, which she did by enrolling at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) with the fees fully paid by Fr Yvess.

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The lawyer said Josephine started making more demands for school fees, which made Fr Yvess to regret his decision to assist the lady.

Mr Akenyah said when the priest decided not to give in to her unnecessary financial demands, the lady decided to blackmail him by claiming she was pregnant.

Blackmail

Josephine, accompanied by a man she claimed was an uncle, reportedly visited Fr Yvess' residence to claim that the priest had impregnated her. They subsequently demanded that an amount of GH30,000 be given to them or they would go to the press.

They followed up with numerous calls and text messages and finally got the priest to negotiate with them and finally collected an amount of GH20,000 from him.

When the baby was born, Fr Yvess was not in the country then but when he returned, he visited the lady and the baby and even bought some clothing for the child, the lawyer indicated, adding, The clothing, we later heard, was not given to the baby but was sent to a pastor of the lady who claimed Fr Yvess was into occultism and wanted to kill the baby.

The lawyer further stated that Fr Yvess then visited the child four conservative times and often gave them money anytime he visited and when he demanded that a DNA test be conducted to ascertain the paternity of the child, the lady declined.

After waiting for six months, Fr Yvess reportedly decided not to part with any money until the paternity of the baby was established and that was when the lady started running to media houses to claim Fr Yvess had failed to take care of the child.

The priest's counsel claimed that initially some media houses contacted Fr Yvess and when they heard his side of the story, they went away and never published the story.

As a lawyer, I called Josephine to my office and advised that since she also had a lawyer, the two of us could meet and arrange for the test but she told me the child was not with her. Later, I was told Josephine, in the company of three other men, went to the office of the priest for money and when the priest declined, she created a scene and left, Lawyer Akenyah said.

He said, Fr Yvess wants to clear his name since he has not had sex with the said lady and is innocent. The matter is even being investigated by his superiors and the issue of paternity will again come up in due time.

The lawyer expressed delight that the matter is now in court and when the paternity is established, my client will have his respite and the peace of mind to continue with his work.

Josephine Ganyoame is praying the court for an order for the priest to subject himself to a paternity test to determine the father of the child.

She has also requested that the court should declare that the irresponsibility of the priest breaches the child's right to a name, basic necessities of life, welfare, social protection and care guaranteed under the Children's Act.

Ms Ganyoame is also praying the court for custody of the child with reasonable access to the priest.

In addition, she is also asking for a monthly maintenance fee of GH600 and GH50,000 as compensation for the emotional stress she has been put through by the priest.

The court will hear the case on April 20, 2016.

By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey

( [email protected] )
Ex-Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Ashaiman, Numo Adinortey Addison has denied reports of his arrest by the police for alleged fraud.

He was said to have defrauded a certain Michael Tetteh, a bigwig of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ningo-Prampram Constituency under the pretext of selling technological cooking utensils from NWS Global to him.

The former MCE admitted the said transaction between Tetteh and the American company, NWS Global Limited that deals in special utensils designed with customers' health in mind but denied reports of his arrest by the police.

Reacting to a publication in the Saturday, 16th April 2016 edition of DAILY GUIDE, Mr Addison pointed out that police detectives indeed invited him for interrogation, which he honoured without hesitation a few days ago.

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According to him, Mr Tetteh expressed interest in one of the cooking wares valued at GH17,000 and issued a cheque of GH5,000 as part-payment.

He said later he (Tetteh) came back after three weeks saying he was no longer interested in the items knowing very well that goods sold are not returnable. It was stated clearly on the items.

I decided to take the items back and told him to exercise patience and that I will refund the GH5,000 because he is a friend, we don't do that but I decided to do that for him.

The police, after listening to my side of the story, concluded that it was not a criminal but civil case. I was surprised when friends and family members called to tell me that they have heard the story being reviewed on air.

Anybody who has dealt with me will realize it was a calculated attempt to discredit me. There was no single allegation during my four-year term as an MCE.

I am no longer interested in the matter, I won't refund as promised because of what he has done. I think he should deal directly with the company now, I thought I was helping, he fumed.
The Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper, says the government is 're-calibrating the economy' to safeguard it from borrowing costs.

'We will not borrow at any cost or access funding that does not satisfy Ghana's overall strategic economic objectives," he said.

He explained that the decision was informed by the government's focus on re-positioning the economy for sustainable growth and implementing a comprehensive debt management strategy in line with the fiscal consolidation objective.

Mr Terkper disclosed this to the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of the ongoing World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings in Washington, DC, United States of America (USA).

This month, Ghana successfully concluded a four-day non-deal roadshow (NDR) to London, Boston and New York, meeting over 70 international accounts who have invested in the country's dollar and cedi denominated bonds.

Roadshow

The April Roadshow, which has been part of Ghana's regular investor outreach efforts for the last three years, was led by Mr Terpker.

Other members of the delegation were a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Cassiel Ato Forson, and senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and the central bank.

It is a regular feature for countries to meet their major investors and woo possible new ones with an update on recent developments in the country and the prospects ahead. It is not a roadshow for investors to buy sovereign debts, which is a deal roadshow.

The NDR seeks to build confidence in the investor community and provides a unique opportunity for investors to get first-hand information on what may be of issue to them.

Update

The minister said the delegation gave investors an update on progress made with re-setting the economy on a stronger trajectory for better performance, effectively addressed perceived risks in the economy and provided insights into the government's efforts to boost inclusive and diversified growth

"Investors appreciated Ghana for the consistency of its investor outreach efforts, transparency and availability of data, progress made, as well as sound and detailed plans for the economy which put to rest worries over Ghana and encourage further investments," Mr Terkper said.

Eurobond

Ghana issued the first Eurobond in September 2007 to raise $750 million for a 10-year tenor at a coupon rate of 8.5 per cent. It was oversubscribed with a book value of almost US$3 billion.

The Second Eurobond was issued in 2013 for $1 billion, of which the proceeds were used mainly to re-finance the 2007 Eurobond. It was a 10-year bond with coupon rate of eight per cent. It was oversubscribed to the tune of US$2.2 billion.

Another was issued in 2014, during which $1 billion was raised with a payment period of 12 years and a coupon rate of 8.125 per cent. The proceeds were used for capital expenditure and also as seed capital for the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund.

The last issue was last year when the government raised $1 billion for a 15-year tenor, at a coupon rate of 10.75 per cent.

Ghana is the second country in sub-Saharan Africa to have issued a bond of that long tenor. It was oversubscribed to the tune of US$2 billion. The proceeds of that issue were used solely to re-finance existing domestic debts.

Oil price

On the issue of dealing with the fiscal impact of declining world crude oil prices, using the methodology prescribed in the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011 (Act 815), Mr Terkper said the Benchmark Revenue Price for the 2016 fiscal year was estimated at $86.02 per barrel.

However, with the passage of the Petroleum Revenue Management (Amendment) Act, 2015 (Act 893), the revised Benchmark Price based on prevailing market conditions at the time was $53.05 per barrel, consistent with the 2016 average crude oil price projected at the time by the traditional sources of Brent crude pricing data.

"With the continuous decline in crude oil prices, it is estimated that prices are likely to average between US$35 and US$50 per barrel in 2016, lower than the average of US$53.05 used for the 2016 Budget. This was expected to have negative implications for budget execution.

"However, the current developments are pointing to a gradual recovery of crude oil prices. Despite this development, the required adjustments have already commenced, with monthly and quarterly budget allotments to ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) reflecting the receipts from current liftings.

"Based on a similar process undertaken last year, the delegation was confident that this will not derail our fiscal consolidation objectives," Mr Terkper said.
Nigerian Carrier, Dana Air, has introduced more point of sales and contact centres for customers in Accra. This is aimed at ensuring accessibility and seamless process of ticket booking and payment. The airline is also in talks with four more banks for its Book on Hold payment option.

Speaking on the development, Dana Airs Accountable Manager, Mr Obi Mbanuzuo, said the airline strategically opened the offices at Liberty Avenue Adabraka and Cornestone Arcarde, Mensah Woos Street, East Legon, based on the demands of its passengers and the need for the airline to have multiple payment options and outlets for guests.

Commenting further, Obi said apart from Guarantee Trust Bank, Zenith Bank and United Bank for Africa; we are also in talks with Access Bank, Fidelity Bank, UMB and Barclays Bank for book on hold payments. All our guests need to do is just to book their tickets on our website - www.flydanaair.com and then make payments at any of the listed banks within 12 hours

He urged frequent flyers to register for the airlines frequent flyer program  Dana Miles and take advantage of the multiple benefits that will follow and also expect more amazing packages in the months to come.

Only recently, Dana Air launched a promo tagged, Show your loyalty which entails guests to fly 5 times and get a free ticket on any of its route- Accra, Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Uyo. The airline is reputed for its world-class in-flight service, superior on-time performance and innovative online products.
Accra is to host the first Food for All Ghana conference from the 26th-27th May, 2016 at the Ghana International Press Centre. The two days conference on the theme: SDG 2 and 12! Creating sustainable means of nutrition is a shared responsibility would focus on issues of food availability, losses, wastage, accessibility, stability, food supply chain and utilization with much emphasis on food recovery along our food supply chain and community farming.

This would highlight the need for integrated approaches from public-private partnerships with the goal of launching cross-sectoral alliance and establishing concrete commitments to reduce food loss and waste throughout our food supply chain.

The first day of the conference will see the Vice President of Ghana, Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur launching my right to food campaign, a program which will educate Ghanaians on the universal rights and responsibility on caring for the vulnerable in society. The campaign is also aimed at raising funds along the supply chain to create sustainable means of nutrition for the vulnerable in Ghana and encourage efficiency within our food supply chain to reduce food wastage and hunger in Ghana.

There will be a public and private stakeholders dialogues aimed at finding lasting solutions to inefficiencies within our food supply chain and also create a network for stakeholders. New opportunities within the food supply chain will be explored.

The second day of the conference will have the Chief Executive Officer of Food and Drugs Authority delivering a presentation on the economic and social benefits of food recovery in Ghana and a presentation by UNICEF Ghana on attaining the United Nations Sustainable Goals 2 and 12.

The conference which is been organized by the Food for All Africa program with participation from both public and private organizations such as the FDA,Standards Authority, SAVE FOOD,UNICEF Ghana,FAO,Food and Beverage Association of Ghana, Ghana Hotels Association, Ministry of Food and Agriculture,CHRAJ,Dept. of social welfare and other stakeholders is strictly by invitation and is giving stakeholders and startups the opportunity to exhibit their products and innovative services centered on the Ghanaian food supply chain.

For invitation, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1st-food-for-all-ghana-conference-launch-of-myright2food-campaign-tickets-23712695310
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18.04.2016 LISTEN

Our frontiers are just too porous. This fact, against the backdrop of the call to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), especially their border patrol personnel to be more vigilant than they have ever been, makes the subject worthy of dissection.

Until recently, some Ghanaians saw the GIS as a state department responsible for only stamping passports of both Ghanaians and foreigners entering and exiting the country, suggesting a limited knowledge about the role of immigration officers.

In a complex world, the roles of a modern immigration system worth its salt go beyond this limited terms of reference. They encompass a host of complex duties such as data management of the movement of persons and collaboration with sister counterparts across the globe.

The need for immigration officers to be on top of their job, abreast with migration issues across the world and above all geo-politics cannot therefore be marginalised. Their work makes for easy tracking of trans-border criminals and terrorists.

The terror alert, the caution from evangelists and the general paranoia that has gripped Ghanaians have all redefined the roles of the GIS even clearer, given the reality that the bad guys, if they are intent on coming here, would definitely use our frontiers: the border patrol unit of the security agency plays a critical role in stemming the migration of unwanted foreigners.

Last week especially saw the department on the front burner when an internal memo leaked to the media raised the alert to another bar. Although the integrity of the memo from the National Security Council was questioned for lacking the prominent features, Restricted and date variation, the alert status is now blinking with the frequency of a neon light.

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We appreciate how much those in charge of national security management would not like to be seen as sleeping on their jobs but ask that they turn their attention to the border patrol unit of the GIS.

Some of us had the opportunity of watching a documentary about the nature of their work and the challenges against the near open frontiers. Our expectations regarding frontier management in the hands of these men and women are too high.

It is not too late to start appreciating these challenges and putting some temporary measures at their disposal as the authorities look at a bigger picture for future consideration.

The world has changed with terrorists straddling it at will. No part of the world is too concealed from their sights and the status quo is not about changing now.

With Libya's failed status almost a permanent feature for now and therefore offering a safe haven for ISIS elements, West Africa is not out of their reach. The Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast attacks are ample evidence for the consideration of our security managers.

After a long foot-dragging over whether to arm the GIS or not, Parliament eventually gave the nod for a new armed status for immigration officers. Now the border patrol guys can call the bluff of intruders, some of whom in an ISIS-threatened world can be parlous.

So even as we demand more from the GIS, let the authorities consider equipping them even better.
After high tensions ran through the nation of Ghana in light of T.B. Joshuas chilling prophecy regarding a foreign terrorist attack, the prophet took to the pulpit again on Sunday 17thApril 2016 to calm Ghanaians fears.

The nation Ghana took the bull by the horns. The evildoers put together are no match for the nation Ghana. The cleric stated at his service, which was broadcast live on his station, Emmanuel TV from The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations in Nigeria.

A week earlier, T.B. Joshua had called on the nation to watch and pray, stating that he saw an attack that would come in a foreign way. He gave a call to pray every Thursday, Friday and Saturday for protection.

The prophecy had immediately sparked nation-wide uproar. The authorities called for increased security and safety measures while the infamous prophecy featured on numerous front page headlines on Monday morning and throughout the week.

Commenting on the reaction of Ghanaians to the warning, T.B. Joshua said: I have never experienced that before; that kind of awareness. In the spirit we call it heart to heart, awareness. Awareness is the best weapon you can use. I think the world needs to learn from the nation Ghanas strategies and tactics. God will never allow evil doers to prevail because it has been a safe nation and the safest nation in West Africa and the world at large.

Stating that he travels to Ghana all the time and referring to it as his second home, Joshua continued: Every nation has their strength. For Ghana, their strength is that they dont want anything to happen to their people - they have that security. Not the weapons that they use, but heart to heart awareness. If a person is missing in Ghana it is like the whole nation is missing. When it comes to communication and news, they are the best people to carry it. Just go to Ghana and say hey and that hey will go all over the world.

Joshua declared that he had been tentative in the delivery of the prophecy, knowing the nature of Ghanaians: For the past two weeks, I have been wrestling on how to present this because of the type of people they are as a nation. They dont joke with news, most especially if the news concerns security of their lives.

Such assurance may likely cause Ghanaians to heave a huge sigh of relief as events that followed the previous weeks prophecy confirmed the planned terrorist attack on Ghana.

A Malian terrorist who was interrogated in Cote DIvoire had confessed that Ghana was their next port of call.

The prophetic declaration has continued to cause heated reactions and nationwide debate. It is perhaps ironic that while authorities such as the Security Council, the National Police Service and President Mahama urged vigilance in wake of the prophecy, some religious leaders, pastors and prophets vehemently condemned the cleric.

Concluding his statements on Sunday, Joshua reiterated: The evildoers put together are no match for Ghana, so I will leave the issue like that, but I saw the vision. It is not imagination. It is not that I just want to talk and I talk. You know my consistency; my track record.

Watch VIDEO:


Accra: April 18th, 2016: The Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) Project has assured members of aggregator groups in the country that no group would lose its business in the commodity value chain when the Exchange fully becomes operational.

In separate sensitisation sessions with members of women aggregators group association, Women Can, in Tema and Kumasi, Membership Manager of the GCX Project, Mr. Richard Ankrah explained that the existence of a national commodity exchange (GCX) will not in any way take their sources of livelihood away from them but rather provide a ready, orderly, transparent trading platform that would facilitate trade by easily connecting buyers and sellers.

Mr. Ankrah noted the GCX operational model would present numerous opportunities to aggregators to continue to execute their role in the value chain business .

GCX would initially commence trading in maize, soya and paddy rice in its first year of operations and bring on board other commodities as options for the Exchange expands , Mr. Ankrah told the aggregators.

President of the Association, Madam Kate Dugan reiterated their commitment to maintain the relationship with GCX and ensure they are updated regularly to preserve their active involvement in the pursuit to transform Ghanas economy while creating prosperity for all in the commodity value chain and make Ghana a regional and global commodity trading hub.

Madam Dugan urged the GCX to consider the possibility of adding peanut and cashew to the commodities to be traded when operational, a concern Mr. Ankrah noted will be considered in the next phase during the contract design for new commodities for the GCX.

The sensitization programme was part of the awareness creation outreach campaign by the GCX Project to share information with prospective members on available opportunities when the Exchange is established.

Women Can, is an association of female aggregators who engage in spot buy trade in cashew, peanuts, maize, rice and soya bean.
By Justina Paaga/ Afedzi Abdullah, GNA

Cape Coast, April 18, GNA - Mr Christian Owusu-Parry, Director of Administration at the Electoral Commission (EC), has said the voter register could only be made accurate if more people patronized the exhibition of the register.

He said the exhibition of the voter's register was very important in the electoral process because it offers all registered voters the opportunity to check their names and particulars and also ensure that names of the dead, minors and double registrations were removed and corrected respectively.

Mr Owusu-Parry said this during a day's Capacity Building workshop for Media Practitioners on 'Election Reportage and Highlights of the Constitutional Instrument 91 (C.I. 91)' in Cape Coast.

The workshop which was under the theme, 'Enhancing Inclusiveness in Ghana's Electoral Process' was supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The training was to equip media practitioners with the needed knowledge to have a better understanding of the electoral system of Ghana and also to remind them of their roles and responsibilities towards a successful election.

Mr Owusu-Parry said cleaning the voters' register was a collective responsibility and every registered voter must be interested in checking their names in the register during the exhibition.

He urged all political parties and other stakeholders to help clean the register by encouraging their members and the general public to patronize the exercise.

He explained that the laws guiding the conduct of registration was explicitly spelt out in the C.I. 91 Public Election Regulation 2016 and urged the media as stakeholders to educate the public accordingly.

Mr Owusu-Parry said registration centres and polling stations remained restricted and are security areas and that media houses are expected to have accreditation to access such areas and urged them to apply for accreditation ahead of time to avoid any embarrassment during the exercise.

He said the Commission was mandated to embark on a continuous voter registration modalities with stakeholders and added that the exercise would not replace the periodic registration process.

Mr Anthony Nyame, Deputy Central Regional Director of the EC, who took the participants through election reporting, cautioned media practitioners against forecasting the winners during the general election.

He urged journalists to acquaint themselves with the election language and terminologies and use them appropriately to avoid misinformation and misrepresentations.

He said journalist who cover elections were observers and not monitors and that they did not have the power to instruct electoral officials but could only draw their attention to any abnormalities.

He urged all journalists to exhibit high level of professionalism, be accurate, fair and balanced, in covering the elections, bearing in mind that their actions could spark conflicts and misunderstanding.

GNA
By Dorothy Frances Ward, GNA

Ejisu (Ash), April 18, GNA - Politicians have been asked to be truthful to voters and avoid making election promises, they know they would never be able to fulfil.

The Right Reverend Robert O. Eshun, Methodist Bishop of the Effiduasi, said telling voters' things they themselves did not believe in, just to woo voters to give them political power, was awful and undignified.

He was speaking at the 19th annual diocesan synod held at the Ebenezer Methodist Church in Ejisu.

'Witnessing to Christ, the Methodist identity and social impact: Effiduasi Diocese in perspective', was the theme chosen for the event.

The Rt. Rev Eshun said there should be no reason for anybody or group to become desperate for power if not for selfish and parochial interest.

He called for them to be civil, do away with intolerance and inflammatory rhetoric.

He reminded the Electoral Commission (EC) to make sure that things were done transparently to build public confidence and make the outcome of the polls acceptable to all.

'The Commission's actions and inactions are key to the peace and stability of this nation. It owes it a responsibility to be neutral and fair to all the political parties.'

The Rt. Rev Eshun also urged journalists to be circumspect in their reports on the election, saying their reportage should be based on facts but not gossip and rumor.

He used the occasion to counsel his colleague pastors against engaging in partisan politics, telling them that it was unfair to use the pulpit to campaign for any particular party.

'Our prophetic voice as a church will be respected only when our neutrality and objectivity becomes obvious in all political matters.'

He spoke of the determination of the church to continue to collaborate with the state to bring development to the people.

Mr. John Alexander Ackon, the Ashanti Regional Minister, in an address read for him applauded the church for its contribution towards education development and health promotion among other things.

GNA
Alhaji Saeed Sinare, Ghanas Ambassador to Saudi Arabia

18.04.2016 LISTEN

Ghanas Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Alhaji Saeed Sinare, says Ghanaian girls who travel to Kuwait to serve as maidservants will no longer be issued with visas.

Speaking on Atinka FM AM Drive with Kwame Adinkra Monday, Alhaji Sinare revealed that the Ghanaian government is in talks with the Kuwaiti Government to halt the issuance of visa 20 to Ghanaian girls who want to travel to the Gulf State to do menial jobs .

The move will help stop the abuse and maltreatment of innocent young girls who go to Kuwait and other gulf states to serve as house helps.

62 Ghanaian girls between the ages of 17 and 22, who had been subjected to several forms of abuse by their hosts, were rescued last week in Kuwait by Alhaji Sinare. 10 of the 62 have been repatriated to Ghana and the remaining 52 will be back in the country before the end of the month.

Alhaji Sinare further said that it's a shame to see people contacting illegal agencies for jobs and ending up being abused. He said government only recognizes 22 legal recruiting agencies in the country and therefore warned young girls to be cautious when choosing these agencies.

He said there will be no more visas to Kuwait for menial jobs until things are properly regularized.
The African Union Commission (AUC) held its 2016 Procurement Review Meeting, 14-15 April 2016, in Mekelle. The meeting was held under the auspices of Procurement, Travel and Stores Division (PTSD) to review the 2016 Annual Procurement Plan (APP). Focal Persons and representatives of AUC Departments were present at the retreat to contribute to the review of the 2016 APP .

The objective of the review meeting was to assess progress made to date with regards to implementation of the plan and adding new activities that were not part of the initial Plan. Speaking during the opening session, the Chief of Protocol, Mrs. Simone Abala, Chief of Protocol, who was the guest of honor highlighted the importance of procurement planning. Mrs. Abala said that Procurement Planning is an important tool for accountability and transparency, as a tool for measuring performance of the procurement function and for achieving economies of scale. Additionally she said procurement planning is one of the international best practices and has become a requirement by our funding partners.

The African Union has adopted International Pu blic Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) in line with theInternational Accounting and Reporting standards in Public sector and also administrative and procurement reforms which calls for proper planning, conducting procurement in good time so that goods and services are delivered in good time before the 31st December deadlines in each Financial Year.. In view of that, Ms. Carine Toure Yemitia, Head of PTSD, highlighted that PTSD is determined to be IPSAS compliant and will meet this deadline in the 2016 financial year. Going forward, PTSD plans to have periodic reviews of the APP so that remedial actions can be taken in good time.

In November 2015 the PTSD prepared the 2016 Annual Procurement Plan for the AUC and has been executing the Plan in the first quarter of 2016. The procurement plan includes AUC departments need for procurement of goods and services in the year 2016 that will enable them to execute their activities to attain their departmental goals.
There was an idiom; The safety of your home to suggest that the home was meant to be safe. Not anymore. Build beside an expressway and a fuel truck might skid off nearby; build in the middle of nowhere and stray bullets might rain in through your roof. And there are several of these incidences. So, whos shooting these bullets? Whats going on and how do we secure ourselves?

The first I heard of stray bullet in a home was in 2014, listening to my friend Amaka Dehnieces testimony. On an evening, shed felt a sudden inward nudge to take her from one room to her bedroom. Shortly after moving the kid, there was a loud bang. A bullet had penetrated their roof and smashed into the very spot the boy laid in few moments earlier.

I became more concerned when recently a distant friend Abas Brave posted his own experience on my Facebook timeline. A bullet had dropped into his family home. It landed on a busy part of the house, luckily, when nobody happened to pass that way.

People Got Killed

Fortunately, I havent had any casualties nearby. But there are countless accounts of people who either were injured or who got killed by a stray bullet in the safety of their homes.

In Ghana, a nine year old boy, Kwasi Opare Kwakye narrowly missed being hit by a stray bullet which came into his parents living room through the roof narrowly missed him, according to his mother. He was sitting on the exact spot where the bullet hit and created a small hole only moments before the incident. She instructed the boy to get up from the floor and no sooner had he done that than the mysterious bullet came through the roof, the ceiling and hit at the spot where he was sitting, the perplexed mother of two told Luv FMs Erastus Asare Donkor.

Darryl McNair wasnt as fortunate. On his 58thbirthday, a stray bullet struck him while he sat at his PC playing Solitaire in his home in New Haven, Connecticut.

In January 2010, Four-year-old Marquel Peters was hit while in a church service, by a falling bullet fired two miles away during New Year celebrations. Sitting next to his parents attending a New Year church service, in Atlanta, US, the toddler suddenly collapsed at the feet of his parents bleeding from the head. It was only as doctors tried to save his life that they realized what had happened

He died just 20 minutes into the New Year.

Wikipedia documents a long list of tragedies from falling stray bullets fired in celebration.

These tragic stories have raised questions that drove me to make deeper quests. Firstly, I contacted an old colleague of mine, who today is a senior police officer and a weapons authority. Hes based in Port Harcourt; hes an Assistant Superintendent of Police, and he agreed to contribute to this quest, but asked not to be named as he isnt authorized to speak publicly on the subject.

I asked: where do these bullets originate from, and why do they breach the safety of our homes?

He answered; Firstly, a bullet cant be aimed at a person or a house through the roof. It doesnt make sense. A bullet can come in through the roof if it is fired into the air and, at the point of return; it lands with its tip pointing down. It can then pass through the roof if the roof is weak or if it does not encounter any wood, steel or some other truss in the roof carcass.

Now, I make out that we may need to start building bullet proof roofs and building exteriors. I called a practicing architect, also Port Harcourt based, to ask his opinion on the issue. Due to professional restrictions on advertisement, he also asked not to be named.

Other Missiles To Worry About

Bullets are not the only harmful objects that can penetrate a home through the roof. Stones, wood pieces and other small missiles flying at high velocity, and even hail stones must be taken into consideration, he says. We dont have snow in Nigeria, which poses a risk in some other parts of the world; and incidences of hail are extremely rare. And then he walks me through architectural solutions that home builders can take advantage of:

You can choose to insulate your ceiling. The insulation serves two purposes. Primarily, it helps maintain moderate temperature within the home; but the material can help slow down the velocity of any intruder object. Styrofoam is a common insulator that can be used.

Styrofoam is a trade name for a hydrocarbon material known as Polysterene Foam. It contains 98% air and is made by Dow Chemical Company. Its uses range from making disposable coffee cups, coolers and flasks, to packaging fragile appliances for shipment.

He also believes that Iron Trusses, rather than wood, are a good idea too. But, according to him, they are usually 1.2 meters apart up there in the roof carcass, significantly reducing the chances of stopping such marauding objects.

Perhaps the most cheering recommendation of his is the possibility of coating roofing sheets. Most houses in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa are roofed with corrugated zinc/steel materials. While this is cheap, it is also thin enough for a missile to perforate without losing much of its momentum.

You can coat your zinc roofing sheets with concrete. It is relatively expensive, but for its advantages, it is highly recommended. The advantage of this coating is that the concrete will increase the resistance of the roof sheets, while not taking away established benefits of the material including reflecting heat and thunder.

What Can Individuals Do?

Gun possession in Nigeria is theoretically more restricted than in most countries of the World. But practically speaking, one can safely speculate that thousands of above-the-law individuals possess assault weapons; mostly for self-security, but also for criminal reasons. Howbeit, Nigerian law enforcement is always on alert following unidentified gunshots. What is left to worry mostly is Celebratory gunfire  the practice of celebrating by firing shots into the air. Especially in the US, there is considerable number of casualties from falling bullets shot along with fireworks at Christmas and in New Year celebrations.

In many countries it is allowed, but in Nigeria it is in between illegal and permissible. If the gun owner owns a license, he may be excused by the police officer, but cautioned. Otherwise, hes in trouble. The police themselves do shoot into the air to disperse hostile crowds, scare away robbers, or maybe just celebrate.

Every bullet shot into the air must return to the ground. It is suggested that if it is shot vertically into the air, it may be less dangerous than at a gradient. Forensicoutreach.com quote a California sheriff of asserting that; A bullet fired into the air can return to earth at speeds between 300 and 700 feet per second, fast enough to pierce a persons skull. So, shooting in excitement, or for whatever other reason, may end up taking another persons life.

What Can Government Do?

Shooting in the air for celebration is irresponsible in a truly civil society. Consider that even when a falling bullet has lost most of its momentum, if it penetrates soft parts of the body, it can penetrate and damage sensitive internal organs.

It is worth noting that these bullets do not only break in through the roof, but also can go through the windows and other openings in the walls.

The government should therefore ban the shooting of live ammunition into the air for whatever reason. Police, who need to do so, may be provided with rubber bullets. Regulations on the use of fireworks during festivities should also be enforced with more stringency.

The police officer friend did advise however that the best reaction to finding a bullet in your home is to leave it where you found it and report to the nearest police station. Investigations will commence and the source will be identified. If someone is hit, of course, quick first aid must be administered depending on the severity of the injury.

For the elderly and retirees, there is Homecare service provided by networks of doctors, a popular one being that by Nova Africa doctors on Call (Novadoc), for Nigeria residents. Subscribing for such services may come in handy on days of such emergencies as the stray bullet in a home situation.

Uduak Umo is a PR Consultant and Independent Public Interest Researcher, Writes in from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State
18.04.2016 LISTEN

No administration in the history of Liberia has received so much support from the international community and goodwill from its citizens than President Ellen Johnson-Sirleafs Unity Party-led government. Equally, no administration in the history of Liberia has caused so much short and long term damage to the future of Liberia and the mindset of the Liberian people than the Sirleaf-Unity Party-led government.

The damage in the short term is that our nation has become a dishonest, greedy, unpatriotic and distrustful society where lies, crime and deceit are its visible characteristics. In the long term, Liberians will end up being slaves, paupers and strangers in their own country, and the time is fast coming. More than that, our neighbors would have been far developed while we would still look like a dark nation.

From North America to Europe and some parts of Asia, Liberias image as an ungovernable, messy and useless nation has never being higher. Apart from rogue foreign investors and money launderers, no serious investor and credible investment institution take Liberia seriously. In diplomatic circles, our country is considered a parasitic state, which is another form of being a nation of beggars, con-artists and hopelessness. This is so serious that no low level analyst at the United States State Department and no Congressional support staffer on Capitol Hill remembers Liberia except when they are reminded about matters of misery and humanitarian assistance for poor, struggling and mismanaged nations. In view of this pathetic state of affairs, our president and corp knowingly pretend as if something normal is unfolding inside Liberia.

Five years are basically enough to turn around a broken nation if a leadership establishes itself as one with a moral authority. Since 2006, President Sirleaf and the Unity Party-led government have had more than a decade in power, and yet, the stats are more dire and worrisome then they have ever been under past Liberian administrations, including even warlord Charles Taylors.

Despite over $16 billion dollars in direct foreign investments in addition numerous international aid and a debt relief package, Liberia is ranked 126 amongst nations with dismal unemployment, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agencys (CIA) World Fact-book. Total population dependency ratio in Liberia is 82.9%, among youth it is 77.4% high. 83.1% of the total Liberian population has unimproved access to sanitation; among rural inhabitants it is 94.1% and 72% among urban residents. In 2006, an estimated 63.8% of Liberians were living below the poverty line. This was a period when Liberian refugees were returning home from neighboring countries to begin rebuilding their lives. Today, after almost 12 years under the Sirleaf-Unity Party-led administration, an estimated 96.2% of Liberians live below the poverty line, and several hundreds are running away from the country to seek asylum and residency abroad due to hardship and poor healthcare conditions.

Even an internationally isolated Liberian regime once headed by jailed warlord Charles Taylor had a better fiscal policy than the Sirleaf-Unity Party-led administration. According to the scoreboard of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. government agency that has given over half a billion dollars to Liberia since 2006, Liberia ranks terribly when it comes to economic freedom. From fiscal policy (48%) to regulatory quality (44%), and land rights and access (22%), Liberia is in the red. When its comes to the agencys ruling justly indicators, Liberia is also in the red. Liberia also does poorly in terms of government efficiency (23%) and the rule of law (48%). When it comes to the agencys investing in peoples indicators, the Sirleaf-Unity Party-led government is also pathetic. Immunization rate is 12%, primary education expenditure rate is 15%, natural resource protection rate is 19%, child health rate is 47%, and girls primary education completion rate is 18%. Important to note that our president is a woman, and she was once a beautiful girl who became president as a result of education, an opportunity denied most beautiful Liberian girls today under her administration.

Countries like Lesotho and Cambodia surpassed Liberia when it comes to better fiscal policys indicators, at 92% and 66%, respectively. Compared to our neighbor, the Ivory Coast, which experienced brutal civil wars too around similar times, our nation is a joke. Ivory Coast has a 62% rating on the MCCs fiscal policy indicator, 56% in government efficiency, and 88% in controlling corruption. The Ivory Coast also does well in other areas, such as 71% in rule of law, 65% in primary education expenditures, 92% in business start-ups, and 100% in natural resource protection. For Liberia, our resources are mortgaged and the proceeds are choked by widespread systemic corruption and insatiable greed by a few inter-connected bedfellows. Our so-called National Oil Company of Liberias (NOCAL) funeral service and wake keeping were held before its death announcement, with millions flown out to individuals personal accounts. Now our government is broke and the super stars, who came from poverty to overnight wealth, are heading for the doors. Others parade our wealth in our faces with glamour and pageantry as would-be 2017 political saviors while persistently abusing the power we gave them.

Consistent U.S.State Departments reports since 2006 paint Liberia as bleak, to say the least. From corruption to callous governance practices and abuse, our country is polling undesirably. Recent 2015 State Departments report illustrates a realistic picture of what Liberia has turned out to be under the Sirleaf-Unity Party-led government. A month prior to the release of this latest report, I was at the State Department and on Capitol Hill pitching about the poor situation and outlining these concerns about Liberia, thinking that these realities were perhaps unknown to the Americans. My sense was that they already knew and, luckily too, no public relations firm in Washington, D.C. or New York City could have overturn or polish these realities no matter how much money is paid to them from our government as part of its routine and needless image building tendency.

The most alarming irony is that the Sirleaf-Unity Party-led administration has managed to game and outsmart the Liberian progressive old-timers with perks, comfort and affluence. Every one benefits, even though some people chop more, and no one says anything.

As one common-sense African leader once put it: Leadership is a privilege to better the lives of others. It is not an opportunity to satisfy personal greed. Apparently, the Sirleaf-Unity Party-led administration does not share this view this is why our leaders in the Liberian government see their role as an opportunity to satisfy their personal greed and establish their fortunes.

There is no doubt that our president is an educated and intelligent woman, a Harvard graduate, internationally and politically seasoned. Testament to her smartness is the fact that she has used and continues to cajole all the old fashioned PhDs and progressives old-timers in her orbit. It is therefore impossible not to believe that she does not grasp the dire situation that millions of ordinary Liberians faced daily, from physical insecurity to food insecurity. Combined, Liberia has a national security time-bomb, especially as Burkinabe and others are encroaching on our territory in the southeast. The real factor here is that the president and the entire Unity Party-led government are out of step with the real and serious needs of the vast majority of the Liberian people this is why in a time of great need and excruciating deprivation among 97% of our population, they continue to offer business as usual.

The president and I have a love-hate relationship, and it is hard to criticize the person you cherish. I love and respect our president, perhaps more than many of the white-collar criminals in her administration, but I also vehemently despise her administrations policy and vices they endanger our nation and people. I despise the administrations vices and corruption enabled policies because at any time in history, but especially in this time, it is awfully immoral for a president and the folks in his or her government to offer themselves as a leaders of the nation while blatantly disregarding the survival needs of the nation. This is acting immorally. Here is the most appalling aspect about everything that is wrong with our government and our leaders: The refused to change knowing that only two people cannot changeGod and a fool, and they are not God. The good news is we will not only continue to pray for them, we will also speak out against their political and economic immorality while still remembering that God is still in control.

Williams is a Catholic educated philosopher and a U.S. trained public policy professional. He can be reached at [email protected]
The Western Regional Office of the National Disaster Management Committee is to organise a simulation exercise along communities where industrial chemicals from the Takoradi port are transported to their destination.

These chemicals, often toxic and meant for oil, mining and other industries are transported during the day along the major Takoradi-Abidjan road without proper protection, which may cause human defects and deaths in the event of spillage.

Mr Kofi Koranteng Abrokwa, Director of Training at the Headquarters of National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), told the Ghana News Agency at a Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction meeting, that chemical spillage is a challenge to the Region in particular, which calls for preparation to mitigate its effects.

He said the Regional Platform members chaired by Professor Frank Eshun, Rector of the Takoradi Polytechnic, have visited communities and interacted with some opinion leaders to integrate their concerns in the process.

Mr Abrokwa said the Platform would help in testing the preparedness, response and coordination among agencies in response to disaster management.
18.04.2016 LISTEN

From Ernest Best Anane, Kumasi

Apostle Amoani CAC

OTUMFUO OSEI Tutu II, the Asantehene, has expressed worry that in spite of the high level of intellectuals, academia, engineers, professionals and traditional rulers, Ghana, as a country, is still struggling to develop. He noted that growth in the economy and educational sectors were nothing to write home about, and wondered why universities are still without laboratories, and potholes are on our roads.

The Asantehene made the observation as the Special Guest of Honour at the First congregation and Inaugural ceremony of the Christ Apostolic University College during which about 260 students graduated in various programmes of academic excellence. Otumfuo stated that, Education is critical in the development of every countrys socio-economy in the provision of needs of the people.

According to him, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Polytechnics are to produce graduates with entrepreneurial skills to enable them become self-reliance in gainful employment and urged the institutions and graduands to always focus on their core mandate. He appealed to proprietors of private schools to make their schools affordable and entreated government to expand the infrastructural facilities to absorb more students.

Professor Stephen Addae, former Rector at GIMPA, as guest speaker, challenged the graduands to be versatile, morally good who can be trusted and relied on for the right standard if they want to gain employment. He also indicated that, the universities must do more by instilling in them how to create businesses by having venture capital, urging the graduands to be more focused to ensure self-employment.

He also entreated universities to motivate and encourage students to be self-employed, as Quality University requires investing in quality education. Prof. Addae, reminded graduands of the importance of character, integrity and credibility as qualities around which every successful man pivoted saying competence would take them to places. He recommended that universities train the mind to be thinking outside the box while the Polytechnics train technical minds to help address unemployment in the country .

Apostle Dr. S. K. N. Amoani, Chancellor of the College, explained that, the University College which started with a student population of 82 in 2011 -currently has a total of 989 students comprising degree, diploma and certificate.

He revealed that, the College exists to provide excellent student-centered undergraduate and graduate education that seeks to integrate the intellectual, spiritual, moral, ethical and social development of students, adding that, through university extension, the CAUC will provide continuing education for students to improve their job skills, marketability and enhance the quality of their lives.

He entreated politicians to desist from politics of insults and name calling of religious leaders tagging them as partisan because the Apostolic church would continue to collaborate with other churches especially charismatic and Pentecostal churches to help maintain a peaceful atmosphere for every citizen of the country to peacefully co-exist .
18.04.2016 LISTEN

A state funeral and memorial service for the late Joseph Boakye Kyeretwei Danquah Adu, former Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North, was on Friday held at the forecourt of the State House in Accra.

The MP's funeral attracted a large crowd of mourners, including President John Dramani Mahama and his wife, Lordina, and Vice President Kwesi Amissah Atta, who were there to pay their last respects to the politician who was stabbed to death by a suspected assailant, Daniel Asiedu, on February 9, at his Shiashie residence in Accra.

The Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho, former President Jerry Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu, former President John Kufuor and Chief Justice Georgina Wood were all present to grieve with the august House, the family, and Ghanaians on the loss of the legislator, who colleagues and others testified to his affability, generosity, sharp mindedness, and high sense of duty.

Other high profile personalities present were Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, presidential candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic party (NPP) in election 2016, his vice presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the acting Chairman of the NPP, Mr. Freddy Blay, as well as the embattled suspended Chairman, Mr. Paul Afoko, Mr. Kwabena Agyepong, suspended General Secretary of the NPP, and Mr. Alan Kyerematen, a leading member of the party.

There were mourners from the leadership and membership of Parliament, from across the political divide, including government functionaries and past government officials, as well as the clergy and traditional rulers, and people from all walks of life, who paid their last respects to the 51-year-old politician, who left behind a wife and two girls.

The sense of loss was expressed in the wearing of deep black cloths, with red and white overlays by mourners who filed past the body of the murdered MP, which lay in a casket bedecked in garlands of flowers and wreaths, mostly in white, with green colours below.

The ceremony was solemn, as mourners observed the proceedings in silence, with tearful tributes by the wife, and the leader of his political party, the NPP, his elder brother, Frank Adu, the state which was read by Mr Mahama Ayariga, on behalf of President Mahama, and that of Parliament, read by Mr. Joe Ghartey, Second Deputy Speaker.

As the tributes poured in, the atmosphere became emotional, with wails, tears and dirges recounting the loss of the gentleman who served in the Kufuor administration in 2005 as the Deputy Minister of Women and Children Affairs, and known to have impacted many lives with his generosity and care for the under-privileged, especially, in his constituency.

In an emotional tribute, the wife of the late MP, Mrs. Ivy Boakye Danquah Adu, said that barely 20 months into their marriage, her husband decided to enter politics.

I prayed, fasted, wept and pleaded with him not to. I employed all my wisdom and naughty tricks to stop him, but to no avail. I had to live with the reality of sharing him, and I learned to value the little time I spent with him, as he has ceased to be ours alone. He lived for his people. His country was his raison d'etre. JB believed in Ghana just as his grandfather, Dr J.B. Danquah, the doyen of Ghanaian politics.

JB believed he had a divine calling to serve his motherland, and he was happy to go any distance in that quest. His greater good of his constituents was momentous, and his services to Ghana were paramount, she said. Kofi, as we lay you to rest, we bury only your body. Your spirit, your soul and your amazing ability to give selflessly will continue to live with us, she added.

Mr. Ayariga, on behalf of President Mahama, said the late MP represented the promise of the youth, combining active politics with entrepreneurship. According to the Minister, the late MP was a decent and reconciliatory character, who was admired by all, adding that the nation appreciated his contribution to nation building, and wished that the good Lord gives him good rest.

Nana Akufo-Addo, in his tribute, said the late J.B. Danquah was a firm believer in the Busia/Danquah tradition, and committed himself to every cause of the NPP.

The party has lost a positive party spirit, he said, pointing out that his sudden demise is a big blow to the party. J.B. was not only intelligent, but was a strong advocate for private sector development, he noted. He, however, said there is a bright future for the party, despite such a big loss.

Mr. Ghartey, flanked by the Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin, and Minority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, said the late MP, who was a distinguished statesman, would always be remembered by Parliament as somebody who was primarily concerned about nation building.

J.B. was a strong advocate for a transformational change, and saw this as a condition precedent to sustainable growth and development, and, therefore, called for consistent and sustained effort in this regard, he said

Reverend Dr. Jonathan Ayitey Mensah of the Ridge Church in Accra, who officiated the memorial service, was at a loss as to why the late politician's life would be nipped in the bud in a gruesome way, and asked the government to ensure that justice would be done to the perpetrators of the heinous crime.

I know God is in control, and He will strengthen the widower, his children, family members, and also beloved ones who have converged on the State House to pay their last respect.

The cleric called on politicians to emulate the selfless and honest life of the late J.B. Danquah, saying, I want our politicians to always identify themselves with [the] suffering masses, as J.B Danquah did. Wreaths were laid on behalf of the government and people of Ghana, the party, the family and well-wishers.

After the burial service, the body was put in a hearse and sent to his factory premises in Tema for his workers to also pay their last respects. He was buried at Akyem Tafo, after which traditional funeral rites were held for him.

Source: GNA
18.04.2016 LISTEN

By Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh

It is amazing that seven EC citizens of this motherland would sit in a room to agree to abandon mother Ghana's meticulously designed Coat of Arms for some huhudious symbol as a logo.

I clearly see thieving by rebranding. No wonder the woman did nothing to civically educate our people from where she came.

It tells so much about someone who, by many actions, shows she has no pride in the motherland. In every motherland, decisions are taken at certain moments in history to establish lasting symbols.

These are then taught to generations to internalise as pride of their motherland.

We who were born and were primary school children a few years before independence were taught flag and coat of arms. We started school in the transition period from Gold Coast colonialism to Ghana's independence. We are Kwame Nkrumah's accelerated education plan beneficiaries. It was the period when Empire Day was waning, and everyone was gearing up for independence celebration.

Midnight March 5 1957, the Union Jack (British national flag) was lowered and the new tricolour band (blood red, gold not yellow with the black star of Africa and leaf green) was hoisted. Along came the coat of arms as the national seal. These are symbols of pride all motherlands cherish. They are revered and often there are laws to protect them from abuse of use.

I never suspected anyone would tamper with a symbol like that. I never thought anyone would dare embark on that kind of desecration mission. But these are strange times; times when what would put money in people's pocket is what matters most. No one, I thought, would dare touch that sacred symbol.

The pain of watching a renovated Peduase Lodge gradually fade in colour triggered my writing this column. And I have often asked who stands for this motherland in this era of desecration for enrichment of self. It is beyond my understanding to see anyone decide to change a national symbol depicting a national institution as if it was a privately owned entity.

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I have watched our flag flown and hung in all kinds of ways. Today, I am asking whether there is any state institution responsible for protecting national symbols. I want to know so that I can direct my strong dissatisfaction towards that point for rectification and redress. I would have thought this would be a remit of State Protocol, to protect and preserve state symbols. If it is, they should not sit by for an election body, born by and for the motherland state, to divorce itself of same.

For those thinking, the independence of the Commission ends at being neutral in all political party matters and unbiased in the conduct of elections. It DOES NOT MEAN it is owned by commissioners who can then do whatever they like with it as if it is a company registered in their personal names..

If the commission is looking for a new image following their Supreme Court tattering, they should stay far away from the congress procured rebranding which, as far as I can say for performance so far, has become a thieving mechanism.

I have heard many say since January 7, 2009 that nkurasefoo aba krom. I concur the civically uneducated aba krom (are all over town). Love your country never sunk into their marrow unlike some of us. The civic education outfit is a complete waste pipe draining state salary resources for no work done. If a whole set of Electoral Commission is able to abandon the coat of arms under the nose of former civic education boss, NCCE has no business existing.

The organisation has done nothing about educating people about the rot of election 2012 exposed in the Supreme Court proceedings.

They did nothing before and there isn't an iota of indication that they would do anything about that. The civically uneducated educating about civility is the quixotic situation handed the motherland.

The civically educated will know that state symbols are touch not areas.

When Kwame Nkrumah thought he should align the national flag and the CPP flag, CPP is Ghana and Ghana is CPP, he was probably trying to distance himself from Haile Selassie whose flag colours we had copied. Little wonder the NLC restored the gold from the white. He, as the one who promulgated it in 1957 and was a president, eventually had his decision reversed.

I am patiently watching how people who separate themselves as Ghana born from those of us Gold Coast born are going to sit by in the name of rebrand so you can thief Coat of Arms to be changed into someone's money making design as the official logo.

The less the commitment to the national ideal, the less the capacity and ability to undermine a united nation by rigging elections.


Despite all efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 set up by the United Nations for countries to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health by the end of 2015, Ghana still failed to meet the target though there was significant improvement in that direction within the period, according to the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

The target which was to reduce under-5 mortalities to 40 per 1,000 live births and reduce maternal mortality to 185 per 100,000 live births did not materialise before the close of 2015, but has to embrace the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This was revealed by the Director in-charge of Family Health Division of GHS, Dr Partrick Kuma Aboagye, at Sunyani Thursday during a review of the 2015 annual performance.

He said since 1993 when the MDGs were set up, the country's neonatal mortality rate has reduced from 46 to 32 per 1,000 live births by the end of 2011 and further decreased from 32 to 29 per 1,000 live births by the end of 2014.

At under-5 mortality, the country also saw reduction from 80 per 1,000 live births to 60 per 1,000 by the end of 2014. On maternal mortality rate, he said though the reduction has been sluggish, it stands at 316 per 100,000 live births, making a modest decline from 760 per 100,000 live births since inception of the targets.

Dr Aboagye bemoaned poor quality of maternal death audit at health institutions.

He said, for instance, the year 2015 saw reduction in maternal death audit which stood at 3.1% compared to 80.7% death audit in 2014.

Due to that, he said maternal and perinatal death audit trainings were currently ongoing in some regions to help revamp death audit to improve upon the quality of maternal and perinatal health and death audits for service providers to use as guidance to improve upon the quality of maternal and newborn care so as to prevent avoidable maternal and newborn deaths.

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In a related development, he said the Volta and Brong Ahafo regions have topped in adolescent pregnancies, with the former scoring 22.1%, followed by B/A with 21.3%.

He asked health personnel to canvass for support from the general public, especially parents and traditional leaders to help reverse the tide of teenage pregnancies in the regions.

Director General of Ghana Health Service, Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, also bemoaned skewed distribution of doctors in the country where Accra and Kumasi only have about 50% of the country's doctors to the detriment of the three regions in the north.

He asked newly-trained doctors to accept posting to the northern regions to balance the equation to health delivery to all corners of the country.

Dr Appiah-Denkyira said the GHS was facing a lot of challenges, including the non-replacement of pensioned staff or what he termed as staff attrition. In addition to that, there is also lack of high level administrative staff at the rural areas to man rural health facilities, he added.

The GHS director general said there was also a skewed distribution of specialised personnel at teaching hospitals and erratic flow of funds for running medical facilities.

That, he mentioned, was putting a lot of pressure on limited internally generated fund. He charged the NHIA to reimburse hospitals on time to help cope with the challenge of inadequate funds to run the hospitals.

From Daniel Yao Dayee, Sunyani

[email protected]


18.04.2016 LISTEN

Last Saturday, my family had to pay a visit to Robert and Sons at Adabakra. My niece had just returned from Tamale and was preparing to go to school on Monday.

We didn't have much time left for her to prepare for school and she was in need of an optician. We were on our way to another programme and decided to take her there for a refraction test.

We called Roberts and Sons before we left our house which is outside the city center. They informed us they close at 1pm.

We got there just after 12pm whereupon the customer care attendant quickly alerted us that they close at 1pm. We informed them that since it was just after midday and there were only three people waiting to see the optician we expected them to attend to us, and she said nothing more.

Anybody who came in to join the queue was reminded that the optician closes at 1pm. Some left, one elderly woman who came around 12:40pm still waited because she had come all the way from Kasoa and she couldn't go back without seeing the optician. As I sat there, armed with a book, I lifted my head intermittently to check the flow of traffic to the opticians.

My husband did not want to be late for his meeting so he left us in the queue. Just a few minutes after 1pm, upon realizing that the last person had already gotten out of the optician's office, I quickly alerted my niece to go in. To our utter dismay, the optician had locked the door. We also realized that because he/she was not prepared to see other patients he allowed the last patient to exit through another door. We were surprised because we did not see anybody leave the doctor's office, all we saw was that they were out in the main room talking to the attendants. So we asked if they had exited through another door and they responded in the affirmative.

I just didn't believe what had happened. I have been a patient there for several years  more than 15 years  if I am not exaggerating and I knew the optician there and I believe he knows me too. I was very optimistic that he was somewhere inside the building so I approached the attendants and asked them to alert the doctor that there were two people in the queue who had been waiting and had to be attended to.

The attendants appeared unruffled. They just responded, the optician closes at 1pm and regardless of what time you came in he will leave when it's 1pm.

One of the ladies told us and just turned to attend to other people who were buying frames.

I still pushed further and asked, So was he not told that there were people waiting before 1pm. The lady just turned and looked at me and responded. Well, I thought I told you when you came in that he closes at 1pm so I thought you understood it.

But how could we have known how long he was going to spend with the patients we came to meet. Couldn't you have come in when it was almost 1pm to come and apologize and ask if we could come in on Monday? Couldn't you have told the optician that there were customers waiting who said they had travelled from long distances and needed your attention?

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The lady appeared to be surprised that we were asking her all these questions.

The doctor closes at 1pm and at 1pm he locked his door and refused to attend to anybody period, this my interpretation of the entire issue.

I could not believe this. In my view since we had come in to wait for close to an hour, we expected them to attend to us.

I was so upset and so was the older woman from Kasoa who was experiencing some irritation from a previous visit and wanted advice on what she had to do.

Whoever set the time at Roberts and Sons only did that because every company has a time for opening and closing. That is not to say literally that work must stop as soon as it is time for closing. We all know that when you go to a bank, once you enter before the closing time you are served so long as you got in before the closing time. When you are in a restaurant, they wait for you to finish your meal before they close the shop. The waiters do not stop serving just because their time is up. The same applies to all customer service centers of most telecoms companies, shopping malls, dentists and other service providers.

If the optician had a strict 1pm policy what I expected Roberts and Sons to do is to ensure that the place is locked at a specific time so they don't allow people to enter. I also expect them to alert the optician when they have an overflow so that if there are patients who have to be attended to they can find a way of managing them. If the optician had a strict 1pm policy I expect his attendants to talk to the remaining customers who could not be attended to and ask what their condition was, apologize and book appointments for the next working day. We definitely needed to see both the optician and the attendants go the extra mile to delight the customers.

Good customer care is about going the extra mile to attend to the customer, it is not just about reading out rules to customers. Good customer care involves taking steps to serve the customer and to delight them. An employee who is customer-centered will make time to engage customers who are upset and apologize where necessary. Employees must always go the extra mile to attend to customers and ensure they give them repeat business. When customers are inconvenienced, a kind word from the staff will sometimes help in gaining their understanding.

Ironically, the mission statement of the company is to provide great customer care. I did not see that being exhibited when the optician locked the door as soon as his time was up without even making any attempt to check if there were patients with urgent needs. This sort of treatment from customer care units of service providers must stop. They treat you as if they are doing you a favor and that is exactly what I saw from the attitude of the attendants. In other jurisdictions, customers are treated like queens and kings. Some companies take customer care very seriously, others do not. We must all improve our services.

As I stepped out of the place with my kids and the other patient, I thought about all the time we had wasted driving all the way to the place from Nsawam, waiting for our turn, only to drive back without being served. As I said, I have been a customer of Roberts and Sons for more than a decade and half; my husband and son had also joined a few years ago and we were just bringing them a new customer. Well, they just lost that new customer and perhaps many more potential ones from our circle of influence.

I was so upset I had to order some ice cream to cool down. That didn't work though. I bought cold water, gulped it quickly and heaved a sign but it still didn't calm me down. I just didn't understand what had just happened. Perhaps they didn't care losing any customer, it was very obvious from the attendants' behavior so I had no option than to look for some good alternatives. I just took my phone and googled optical services in Accra. Thank God for telecoms companies like MTN, we have information at the tap of a phone. Were there that many optical services in this region? I never knew about most of them but I saw 50 listed alternatives. I just noted a few names and numbers on my phone. Maybe it was time I tried something different. If Roberts and Sons could not delight me, it was time to try 'Roberts and Daughters.' Perhaps they will do a better job.
18.04.2016 LISTEN

The greatest man on earth is not the one that never fails, but the one that is correcting himself all the time. (Quotation: Prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi, Glorious Wave Church Int., Sakumono, Ghana).

Adam was a very stupid man not realizing the system and order he was living in. Life is by rules and regulations giving us guidance in life. Jellousy is the result of not accepting the world order and its imbedded concept.

The result of Adams failure was the death of his son Abel by the hand of his Brother Cain. Most death on this earth is caused by jellousy especially among closely related people.

Racism has been common in history till today in all cultures as a result of jellousy among humans based on the obvious, the outside of a human, his appearance. This is very prominent in the most extreme, in Blacks and Whites.

This Racism manifest itself in many down to earth ways each and every single day of life.

A born African establishing in Germany a company (GmbH) pays Euros 4000 for legal fees and registration costs besides having to show Euros 25.000 in assets like any German or other foreigner alike. Bribes are not allowed nor taken.

A Foreigner in Ghana pays for a company GHC 12.500 with USD 200.000 for Manufacturing to show in assets, while a Ghanaian citizen needs only to pay GHC 800 with bribe and no assets to show. Registry General Department of Ghana is saying this is because the White Man takes his profit back home and this is the best moment to contribute something to the Nation of Ghana. Which African in Germany is not sending his profit back to Ghana to support his family, build a house and start a business having in mind to return 10 or 20 years later to enjoy good life in his Motherland? The Tax in Ghana or a locally owned company is 34%, or a foreign owned company 37%, while in Germany and rest of Europe any company regardless of ownership pays the same tax on its profit made.

Taking a Taxi in Europe means going by the Meter. Regardless of the colour, the intellect, the country of origin, the financial status, everyone has to pay the same fare.

In Ghana (like in all of Africa) a German is always asked by his wife to hide behind the bush to be unseen and allow his Ghanaian wife to handle the Taxi driver. Sometimes the driver gets angry and uses insults when seeing a White Man with the Black Lady entering his car feeling cheated on.

A White Man in Ghana has to hide in the bed-room of his house when the Plumber, the Painter, the Electrician and Gas-Repairer is coming as when seen by the Black Man, the couple will be charged double. Going to make a Dress, trousers and so many more, a White Man in Africa feels to be a person of second class in daily life of practical things.

In Germany regardless of colour everyone has to pay the same costs for a Plumber, an Electrician, Painter or Dressmaker.

Why a White Man in Africa hide himself only to avoid being cheated on, is this fair and right? A White Man in Africa knows he is not loved because of his Personality and for what he is, only because of his money. Where there is no money, Africans have no respect for Whites or anybody else. Africans have only respect for money, sad to see.

Whites in their country treat Blacks as people of second class as well, offering them low paid jobs knowing their families back home depend on the small money given as salary each months, besides many more problems like housing, treatment before Government Offices etc.. In USA Whites have no shame to shoot Blacks just like that with widespread visible racism in many areas of USA society. In East-Germany in rural areas it is best for Blacks not to walk at nights alone or in small groups to avoid any problems, while in big cities like Hamburg, Berlin and Dusseldorf, nobody cares about colours.

Adolf Hitler commissioned Dr. Mengele for scientific research with humans from various countries and cultures to establish, in his view, that the Northern Race (tall, blond, blue eyes), - Germanen  is the world superior race over all others. After intensively comparing body after body he had to hide his conclusion that there is no evidence in body-structures of Humans that can support any idea that one race is above the other.

It is all in the mind, spirit and heart of an individual what he can achieve at the end of his life-time under the circumstances he was born into how his life will look like and be judged by the Almighty. A bill is never presented to a guest while enjoying his meal, only after having finished all courses and when he feels a full stomach before him.

This world belongs to the one that made it, GOD alone. It was his decision to place Whites in the Northern Hemisphere and Blacks into Africa. It was and is his order that everyone has a birthright of his country and with this carries responsibility to protect the country entrusted with and bring it to the glory of GODs creation to make the best out of it. Germans are only the Managers of Germany, Ghanaians Managers of Ghana and Kenyans Managers of Kenya, that is it.

Will racism ever stop in this, our world? Most likely not! In the light of Global Village, growing poverty in Africa with the effect of economic migrants in their numbers to come in foreseeable time to force themselves into Europe, it is now more than ever important that everyone has to observe his own little life wherever he finds himself of thoughts and actions directed against a fellow human simply because of the difference in race instead of the beauty in diversity of all of us.

To succeed as Human Race on this earth we need to accept us all as part of the bigger picture, the Human Race as such, the only race we have, and not the small black, white, yellow and red sub-races. Let us erase the problems we have created for ourselves. We need to embrace the spirit, mind and heart that makes a Human a Human, as that is simply all what we are...lets live it and lets live all together to the best we can and are made of!

Author: Dipl.-Pol. Karl-Heinz Heerde, Sakumono Estate, Block D10, Aprt. 9, Tema West, Ghana, phone +233(0)265078287, [email protected] , 19.04.2016
The Secretary-General condemns the killing of a peacekeeper from the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) on 17 April in the town of Rafai in Mbomou prefecture. The incident occurred when a MINUSCA patrol was dispatched to Rafai in response to an attack on the nearby village, Agoumar, by alleged elements of the Lord's Resistance Army. A Moroccan peacekeeper was shot by unknown assailants and succumbed to his wounds later in the afternoon.

The Secretary-General reiterates that attacks against those who are working towards peace and security in the Central African Republic are unacceptable. He calls on the newly-elected Government to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice. The Secretary-General offers his sincere condolences to the family of the victim and to the Kingdom of Morocco. New York, 18 April 2016
Former first lady and founder of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings had to wait for hours to deliver a speech to a handful of University of Ghana students, Friday.

The program, which was scheduled to start at 5pm in the conference room of Commonwealth Hall, was pushed into the night due to a disagreement between organisers and student leadership.

Organizers told Joy News they had secured permission to stage the program in the conference room while student leadership held that organisers failed to inform the appropriate authority.

Organisers were left with no option, but to move the lecture to the Amphitheatre of the Hall.

The delay meant the punctual guests; Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and Amandzeba Nat Brew were left isolated and frustrated as they took their seats in the dark on the concrete slabs at the Amphitheatre.

After hours of what one of the organisers, Richard Asante Yeboah, described as sabotage with a political undertone, the program finally took off with internationally celebrated musician, Amandzeba putting up one of his performances.

In his opening remarks, Amandzeba charged the students present to challenge the status quo by taking their destiny into their own hands.

He advised them to be innovative even before they step out of the four walls of the university. That according to him is the surest way they can cut themselves out of the ever increasing numbers of graduate unemployment.

Addressing the student, Nana Konadu in her speech, described as sad, the frustration that characterized the delay of the lecture, which she alleges has a political undertone.

According to her, the decentralization system of governance is not been implemented properly; a situation she says has resulted in the underdeveloped state of the nation.

The outspoken former first lady also charged the youth, particularly graduates, to hold leadership to account for their stewardship to the people.

Failure to do so according to her will lead to despondency, which in the long run will not be in the interest of the country.

She added that the country must come up with a legally binding long-term plan to help direct and drive the developmental agenda of the country.

"Change will come because of what is happening in the country today. When leaders stay in office for too long they lose touch with the people," Nana Konadu said.

The founder of NDP said electorates must always look out for competence in whoever they pick to lead the country in the upcoming elections.

Mrs. Rawlings believes that security agencies shouldn't be part of the machinery of the ruling party adding that there is the need to have credible security institutions and equally strong Electoral Commission (EC) that will ensure that rules that are set, are applied fairly to all political parties.

Also, she described as erroneous president Obama's assertion that Ghana needs strong institutions to develop, arguing that there is the need to have even stronger leaders to drive the agenda of every developing nation.
By George Ramsey Benamba

Accra, April 18, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama on Monday denounced some security agencies for procuring security boots from other countries, while abandoning those produced by the Kumasi Shoe Factory.

"Although the Kumasi Shoe Factory is producing high quality boots for the security services, most of them are still importing from other countries, thereby disobeying my instructions," he said.

President Mahama, who was addressing a meeting of the Council of State in Accra, said as a result he had directed the Chief of Staff to meet the security commanders to reinforce the directive.

The Members of the Council of State were in a meeting to discuss issues of national concern and to strategise for the Government in the coming days.

President Mahama said the Kumasi Shoe Factory and the Komenda Sugar Factory were projects he was reviving to reduce the importation of their products and it was, therefore, discouraging for people to continue to import similar goods that were produced cheaply domestically.

On the 2016 general election, President Mahama gave the assurance that government would continue to play its role responsibly to ensure that the polls were conducted in a peaceful environment.

He said government would adequately resource the security agencies with equipment and logistics to ensure that the election was peacefully and effectively conducted.

He appealed to the Electoral Commission and leaders of various political parties to educate their followers against any act of violence that could undermine peace and unity before, during and after the general election.

"I will do my best as the President of Ghana to calm the political temperature and hope the Council of State, National Peace Council and various religious groups will help in reducing the political temperature."

President Mahama gave the assurance that his administration would maintain financial discipline even though there was general election this year.

He said the Government deliberately went in for the International Monetary Fund programme to stabilise the economy and that a review conducted by the close of the year indicated that the economy was on track.

Madam Cecilia Johnson, the Chairperson of the Council of State, called on the security agencies to be extra vigilant, especially along the borders, to report suspicious characters to the authorities for action.

She commended President Mahama for the numerous infrastructural development projects dotted round the country and encouraged him to ensure that every Ghanaian enjoyed his or her share of the national cake.

Madam Johnson said their readiness to engage stakeholders where necessary to promote a congenial atmosphere for decent political activities and a positive outcome of the elections acceptable to all Ghanaians.

GNA
Washington (AFP) - A diplomatic convoy in Cameroon carrying the visiting US ambassador to the United Nations accidentally struck and killed a young boy on Monday, the State Department said.

Samantha Power is in Cameroon with officials from USAID and the US Department of Defense as part of Washington's effort to support local authorities in their fight against the extremist group Boko Haram.

According to reports, one of the vehicles in her convoy struck and killed the Cameroonian child. Details of the accident were not immediately available.

"Obviously, we are all grieving with the family of that young boy who was killed by the vehicle in the convoy," State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

"And, as I think you saw reported, Ambassador Power -- who certainly is feeling this very deeply -- visited with the family today and expressed her deep regrets over what happened.

"I don't have any update in terms of next steps here but we all share in the grief and sorrow that resulted from this tragic, just a terrible, terrible accident."

It was not clear whether the US government will pay compensation to the boy's family.

Boko Haram is a dangerous guerrilla movement that emerged out of previous Islamist insurgencies in northeast Nigeria in 2009 and won global notoriety in April 2014 when it kidnapped 276 schoolgirls.

Nigeria and its neighbors Cameroon, Chad and Niger began a concerted fight against Boko Haram in January last year with support from several foreign powers, including the United States.

The insurgency has killed an estimated 20,000 people and forced some 2.6 million to flee their homes.
19.04.2016 LISTEN

NANA OBIRI BOAHEN

Let me be very honest. Should I see Dr. Afari Gyan suffering to the point of death on my way, I will never convey him in my car to the nearest hospital. I am being honest. I worship with the Catholic Church but I never help Dr. Afari Gyan. I will watch him die

THE COMPLEX PROBLEM OUR POLITICAL THEOLOGIANS POSE TO SOCIAL-POLITICAL SOLIDARITY

And that shameful and regrettable attribution supposedly originated with a self-styled Christian, a Catholic to be precise. Significantly, Nana Obiri insidiously refers and then takes to the moral import of the so-called Good Samaritan story as it were, but quickly disposes of it by replacing it with the more convenient concept of the bystander effect (apathy).

All because of his uncontrollable, murderous hatred for Mr. Afari Gyan, Madam Charlotte Oseis workaholic predecessor, a professional political scientist respected around the world for his immense and near-impeccable contributions to electoral politics.

Of course, the bystander effect is not quintessentially African, arguably an idea that makes arrant nonsense of Nelson Mandelas and Desmond Tutus ubuntu and of utilitarianism (normative ethics). Yet the concept of humanitarian intervention, as in a non-military sense, is a normative or core feature of Catholic social encyclicals (Catholic Social Teaching) passed down the years.

Ideally, if not technically, the picture would have been entirely different if Nana Obiri were referring to or invoking St. Thomas Aquinas double effect. Equally ironically, if not worst of all, Mr. Afari Gyan is not known to have physically threatened Nana Obiri in any way. Not even

Not even Nana Obiri opts for this convenient and self-serving option of Mr. Gyan ever physically threatening him, his person and that of his family.

It is all political opportunism, hot air, exhibitionism, and attack, adversarial politics as usual.

In that case recourse to a competent jurisdiction for redress would have been a better choice or option for Nana Obiri.

Still we wish Nana Obiri had not made those sad states of apocalyptic remarks.

Or better still, that those apocalyptic remarks were mischievous journalistic twisting of the facts or, simply, fraudulent attribution. We dare not put this suspicious theory past Ghanaian attack and adversarial (gotcha) journalists. We would have hoped then, thus that those unfortunate statements attributed to Nana Obiri would amount to a social stigma and verbal irony at best. Eventually.

WHAT NANA OBIRI BOAHEN SHOULD HAVE KNOWN AS A CHRISTIAN

Leviticus 19: 18 (King James Version): Thou shall not avengebut thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Romans 12: 19-21 (King James Version): Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselffor it is written; Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the LordThere for if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: or so doing thou shall heap coals of fire on his headBe not be overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

A GREATER DILEMMA: THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION AND ELECTORAL POLITICS

Moreover, the idea that the Electoral Commission (EC) and whoever chairs it should not and cannot be criticized for, say, breaching constitutional requirements, is not beyond question. Constructive criticism enriches the democratic process while self-serving partisan nagging does not.

Thus, the EC and its Chairperson are not beyond or above reproachif this is actually done with a modicum of respect and intellectual rigor, as well as within the perimeters of the Constitution. In such delicate matters, legal recourse is often the best approach or method. We should take note.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) particularly, and all persons and organizations with a stake in the political process should understand this basic fact of political realism. Alas, the NPPs pleonasm politics of hypocritical irony is proverbially sweeping in its ideological-gene expression. Not too long ago for instance, Nana Obiri, the NPPs Deputy General Secretary, reportedly made the following shocking remarks about his perceived, if not real, political nemesis, Mr. Afari Gyan (with our emphasis):

As for the present EC boss [Madam Charlotte Osei], she is a pale shadow of Dr. Afari Gyan; comparatively, Dr. Afari Gyan was betterAs the Electoral Commission of Ghana, if you consider the utterances and comments of some of the members, you will know that they have outlived their usefulness

This constitutes a perfect instance of selective amnesia. More so, how better Mr. Gyan was than Madam Osei is a serious political and moral question Nana Obiri is yet to categorically and sufficiently expatiate upon. Until then, the word better remains as emotionally vague as it is intellectually and psychologically meaningless and useless, perhaps just like the gingivitis-prone vocal cavity of its opportunistic enunciator.

Certainly, Nana Obiri, a chameleonic character with a Joe Viterelli-like puffy and chubby face (see the movie Analyze That featuring Robert De Niro, Lisa Kudrow, Bill Crystal, etc) marked out by an ever-present bulbous nose (rhinophyma), and the ethnocentric NPP will not even be happy if ex-President Kufuor mounts or assumes the chairmanship of the EC. This is a fact.

This is partly on account of the ongoing ethnocentric factional warfare between the Asantes and Akyems, with political spectators of mostly northern extraction within the party looking on and playing second fiddle to this polarizing duopoly of political ethnocentrism, a situation partly if not totally assuming the titular contents of Arthur Kennedys book Chasing the Elephant into the Bush: The Politics of Complacency. Indeed, the complacency of political ethnocentrism defines the ideological contours of the NPP and its core leadership, and even its membership.

Neither will making Akufo-Addo the chairperson of the EC render political opportunists, such as Nana Obiri, happy. Why the Nana Obiris will not petition the Supreme Court to replace Madam Osei with Akufo-Addo or John Kufuor as the new EC Chair beats our imagination. As for ex-President Kufuor the earlier we let go of him, the better, for he is likely to rig the 2016 elections for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and President Mahama, his knowing fully well that Akufo-Addo is not fit for the job. If he in fact did, he would not have left Akufo-Addo to endorse Alan Kyerematen.

Then again, Kufuor, a colorful symbol and embodiment of political ethnocentrism, did not see fit to endorse Aliu Mahama, one of our own able politicians of northern extraction. Even more ironically, there were neither no problems with Mr. Gyan and the EC nor did the NPP find fault with or call Mr. Gyan names when Kufuor and the NPP won national elections twice.

Thus, Madam Osei, leaders of civil society, and the leadership of the NPP should allow the EC to do its job without any partisan nagging interference in its affairs, a set of sacrosanct affairs ordained and shepherded by the Constitution. Nana Obiri, an anti-constitutional moral and political Luddite, behaves and fits the lyrical profile of Bob Marleys Mr. Brown. Here it goes:

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Its Mr. Brown, Mr. Brown is a clown who rides to town in a coffin

Well, here he comes in the top is, three rows on top and two inside there

Oh what a confusion

What a botheration! Oh not now!...

Who is Mr. Brown? I wanna know now!...

He is nowhere to be found

From Mandeville to Slide-a-ville, coffin running around

Upsetting, upsetting the town, asking for Mr. Brown

I wanna who is Mr. Brown?...

Is Mr. Brown controlled by remote?...

Yes, unlike Mr. Gyan who is enjoying his retirement after many years of outstanding public service to the nation, Nana Obiri goes about in a coffin, a coffin Akufo-Addo remote-controls, disturbing public peace with his screwed-up sense of emotional primitivism and senseless drive for a semblance of political agitation. The idea of Mr. Gyan coming out of his secluded retirement, even if momentarily, to rubbish partisan rumors that he was dead when he was actually not is deeply nauseating, to say the least.

How low can we sink as a people of a once-proud nation, a leader of Africa? Every day the bucket a-go a well, sang Bob Marley on I Shot the Sherriff, surely one day the bottom a-go drop out! Society and peace-loving people can only take so far.

Thus, Nana Obiri should not forget these apocalyptic words of Bob Marley.

OTHER QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

Peradventure, Akufo-Addo, it also turns out, has been spending all his quality time remote-controlling political misologists and village idiots such as Nana Obiri, without so much as offering any strategic and effective electioneering alternative to the political and moral rot that has become and is the NDC.

And since Akufo-Addo and the NPP cannot bribe the electorate en masse, will they resign to the 2012 crushing electoral defeat and strategize for a second act? This is exactly what President Obama meant when he wrote in his best-selling book The Audacity of Hope (p. 108-109):

In politics, there may be second acts, but there is no second place. Most of the other sins of politics are derivative of this sinthe need to win, but also the need not to lose.

Elsewhere he also wrote (p. 16): With the rest of the public, I had watched campaign culture metastasize throughout the body politic, as an entire industry of insultsboth perpetual and somehow profitableemerged to dominate cable television, talk show, and the New York Times bestseller list.

These crisp observations, at least the second one, perfectly fit Ghanas schadenfruede politics of perpetual duopolistic insults, hatred, acrimony. Those shameless partisan village idiots! Those shameless partisan useful idiots! Those shameless partisan serial callers! Those foolish politiciansThose uncaring politiciansThose unpatriotic politicians and their stupid, blind supportersHere we come!:

If Nana Obiri and his friends somehow think they are the big fish, then they better hear Bob Marley sing again:

These are the big fish, who try to eat down the small fish

I tell you what: They would do anything to materialize their every wish

Say: Woe to the downpressors; theyll eat the bread of sorrow!...

Woe to the downpressors: Theyll eat the bread of sorrow

Guiltiness; pressed on their conscience

Woe to the downpressors: Theyll eat the bread of sad tomorrow

Bob Marley: Guiltiness.

On the other hand if Nana Obiri thinks he is the big tree, then he better hear what Bob Marleys Small Axe has for him:

Oh, evil men

Playing smart and not being clever

I said, youre working iniquity to achieve vanity

So if you are the big tree, we are the small axe

Ready to cut you down

And whoever digeth a pit, shall fall in it

If you are the big tree, let me tell what: We are the small axe, sharp and ready, ready to cut you down

MR. ERIC OPOKU: ANOTHER DANGEROUS AND SUBVERSIVE POLITICAL JOKER

All Muslims who align themselves with the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP are fake because the Quran advises Muslims to stay away from elephants (sic) which is the emblem of the NPP.

The member of Parliament for Asunafo South supported his claims with a chapter in the Holy Quaran, Surah verse 105, which he said stipulates that Muslims stay away from elephants and that any Muslims who has something to do with an elephant is not a real Muslim.

Sorry readers! We had expected this to have come from Nana Obiri. But unfortunately not!

Besides, what about politics and pigs and pork? Should Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia and NPP Muslims resign en masse from the NPP because some of the partys leadership eat pork and like pigs?

OUR FINAL THOUGHTS

Dont you know when open door is closed, sang Bob Marley on the track Coming in From the Cold, when one door is closed, many more is opened.

Since that door of bribing and intimidating the EC and its Chair finally is closed to all political opportunistsof course, we have Nana Obiri and the NPP in mindwhat are Nana Obiri, Akufo-Addo and the entire leadership of the NPP doing in terms of taking full advantage of the many doors is opened to win the hearts and minds of the masses by speaking truth to power and by selling effective electioneering strategies and tactics to the electorate?

It appears the NPP and the members of its calculating leadership are not interested in this question.

Rather, like our ever-sleeping political theologians, but unlike, Pastor Kwadwo Safo, the celebrated owner of the Kantanka Group of Companies, the conniving Machiavellian brothers of these political theologians, the likes of Bishop Obinim and Okomfo Yaw Appiah, do not seem to take to serious questions of technocracy, science and technology, or industrialization as a focal point of strategic and tactical prioritization in matters of political economy and development economics.

No doubt this corps of political theologians comes to politics mostly accompanied by Mr. Browns clownish coffin of electioneering promises that, eventually, turn out to be vacuous if not rather agitprop politics.

And, like Bishop Obinim and Okomfo Yaw Appiah, this corps of political theologians capitalizes or uses the emotional allegory and strategic gimmicks of Mr. Browns coffin to fool the masses. Hear the great Bob Marley again:

Stiff-necked fools, you think you are cool

To deny me of simplicity

Yes, you have gone for so long

Yes, you have got the wrong interpretation

Mixed up with vain imagination

And forever, yes, erase your fantasy

The lips of the righteous teach many

But fools die for want of wisdom

Yes, you have gonegone for so long, with your love for vanity

But I dont wanna rule ya

I dont wanna fool ya

I dont wanna school ya

Things youyou might never know about

CONCLUSION

There is no doubt in our minds that the NDC and the NPP are the same except, perhaps, in name only.

The nature of duopolistic politics is such that, incumbency advantage confers on it sweeping constitutive powers which it does not fail to deploy to sustain its comparative advantage, to, as a matter of fact, the detriment or disadvantage of the opposition. A known fact of political realism.

For now that is how far we can go, as we have variously belabored this very political concept in many of our articles published on Ghanaweb and elsewhere. Readers should see those essays!

REFERENCES

Ghanaweb. IM Not DeadAfari Gyan Hits Back. April 18, 2016.

Ghanaweb. Ill Watch Dr. Afari Gyan Die IfObiri Boahen. April 9, 2016.

Barack Obama. The Audacity of Hope.

Ghanaweb. NPP Muslims Are Not Real MuslimsMinister. April 13, 2016.
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Here is a list of the cost common advantages of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA):



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Here is a list of the cost common disadvantages of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA):

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There is no office guidelines to who qualifies for an IVA. It is a legally binding, Government legislation designed to help all people. Generally speaking, insolvency practitioners (IP) will look at your situation if they think the IVA proposal they submit is beneficial to both yourself (the debtor) and your creditors. This often restricts people to a certain criteria which you will have to meet:

Over 5000 worth of unsecured debt You must have 2 or more creditors of 2 or more lines of credit Must live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland Must be insolvent Must be willing to pay at least 70 per month into their IVA Must have some type or types of regular income

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You can include a wide range of unsecured debts within your IVA. These include:

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Note: If you are a resident of Scotland, you will need to apply for a Scottish Trust Deed (legally binding). Speak to our advisors for Scottish Debt Advice.

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Can I apply for an IVA online?

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What proof will I need to apply for an IVA?

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The advice cost for individual voluntary arrangements is free of charge. Your I.V.A company will tell you if you qualify for an IVA. They will talk to you about your different debts, provide you with free debt advice and check if your creditors are likely to approve your proposal for your IVA for debt.

How does an IVA affect your life?

By taking out an IVA you may affect your overall financial position. You will not be allowed to take out credit for 6 years. You will struggle to get a mortgage or remortgage your existing property. It also may affect any future increase in earnings or windfalls you may receive, as these will need to be paid to your insolvency practitioner. Your insolvency practitioner will take control of your debts for this period, they will deal with all of your creditors and this is legally binding. That means you will not be allowed to take out any more debts whilst in the IVA.

Once the plan is completed, any debts which you accrue will be managed by yourself. Your ability to take out further debts in the future will not be impacted once the IVA has completed.

What is the IVA protocol?

The I.V.A protocol is a voluntary set of guidelines which your Insolvency Practitioner (IP) can sign up for which improves the efficiency of Individual Voluntary Arrangements. When you apply for debt advice, it is important that you understand the steps of the debt solution, so you can decide whether or not the solution is the best one for your circumstances.

How do I know if creditors will accept my IVA?

Generally speaking, most creditors will approve voluntary arrangements for unsecured debt. But some debts can not be included within one formal debt solution. Your Insolvency Practitioner will tell you how likely it is that your creditors will be willing to accept your proposal, based on the voting creditors.

Can I pay in one lump sum?

There are occasions when you may be eligible for a debt solution which is payable in a one off lump sum as a final settlement to your creditors. This is usually when the money is being gifted from some one else, or you have received inheritance or a windfall for example. With a one-off lump sum payment, the advice is usually the same as when you normally apply for an IVA. You wouldnt have to make regular payments into the solution, your IP can provide you with more advice on one off lump sum solutions for your debts. Your IP will provide you with more advice on the debt IVA and explain what is IVA to you.

Who regulates the debt industry?

At present the debt industry is not regulated. Some Insolvency Practitioners offices choose to sign up to the Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA) or register with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). You can contact the IPA using the contact details or email address on their website. Your creditors do not regulate the debt industry and your creditors will not be able to impact any decisions which the IPA or FCA make. In our experience, the regulators will take assertive action on any advisers or businesses which do not comply with their strict codes of practice. To check if a person is regulated by the FCA, enter their name into the search box in the FCA website.

Should I use a debt charity?

There are thousands of companies which provide debt help in the UK. You may be looking for an alternative to a private company. You should know that charities usually pass their fee charging products to sister companies which charge fees and disbursements, just like private companies. So what you initially thought was a good option, on further analysis could be different to what you originally thought. Charities do have their part to play though. They can help you if you have a problem with your bank accounts, maintenance arrears, living costs, credit reference agencies, child support arrears, bankruptcy, assets, accountancy issues, mortgages, creditor issues, insurance providers, mobiles, your bank account, rates arrears, PAYE contributions or if you want to work out your expenditure. They can make sure that you speak to an adviser or supervisor and look at proposals to offer your lender. A petition has started with the possibility of a debate in parliament about how charities represent themselves and their services.

Which charities help with debt?

You can contact Money Advice Service, National Debtline, Step Change, Shelter or a combination of the three. Charities are particular useful for a low debt level under 1,000. If the debt is high (such as a debt value of 10,000 or more) you would usually seek an assessment from a professional adviser. If you do decide to use a charity to guide you, make sure you check their charity number and the registration number on their website to make sure you are content that their team can answer your questions in the right ways. A lot of clients of charities have a minimum debt level which does not meet the basis for an IVA, so you could always chat to a charity that is happy to act on your behalf for low debt levels.

Although an I.V.A could be the answer to your debt problem, its important to understand the monthly payment so call us on our free phone number. Anyone customers can receive expert feedback on their rights from debt charities, if they cant help they will usually point you in the director of firms which help with IVAs.

We are homeowners, will lenders see my proposal differently?

In some cases yes. In the majority of cases, if you are a homeowner you will not need to remortgage or take out any additional finances that will effect your property. You will need to sign a additional restrictions which remove your ability to take out additional credit tied to your property, which is something that is restricted once you are in an i.v.a. There are exceptions to this, such as when you have a lot of equity in your property/properties. If you own half of a property and another party owns the other half, only your equity will be affected.

If you are landlord and you are in a position of equity, your IP may review your trading position or business to make sure the figures in question are in order. This is usually the case if you have two or more properties, as sometimes the equity can be used to form a repayment to your creditors. But this usually depends on the amount of value built up in your properties.

Banks and building societies will not change the terms of your mortgage as long as a contribution is still being made for the duration of your arrangement. Your mortgage payments will be added to your expenses and accounted for within your budget, as long as you can provide evidence that you can afford to continue to make payments into your mortgage for duration of the plan.

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business Alkem's brush with Germany may not hit profit, revenue:Prabhudas There is growing harmonisation between leading regulators across the world and WHO is taking note of the observations made by US FDA on pharma companies everywhere, says Surajit Pal, pharma analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher.
business Cavendish a strategic fit for co; no debt taken on books:JK Tyre There will be no change in the debt-to-equity ratio of JK Tyre post the acquisition and it stands at 1:1.8, says Raghupati Singhania, Chairman, JK Tyre and Industries.
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business Radio biz capital reduction to allow dividend payment:Next Media The Bombay High Court has approved Next Mediaworks' scheme of capital reduction for its subsidiary Next Radio, the company informed the exchanges recently.
business Alkem Labs falls 7% as German regulator accuses of data fudge Alkem informed exchanges that the company will be submitting a suitable clarifications to the European Medicines Agency within the stipulated timelines to enable the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) take a balanced risk-benefit view with respect to these two products.
business See loan book doubling in next 3-4 years: DCB Bank The growth momentum of the bank will continue to be supported by stable asset quality and branch expansions, said Murali M Natrajan, MD & CEO, DCB Bank, in an interview to CNBC-TV18.
The chronicle of a life split between urban Manhattan and rural Montana.
April 18, 2016

Syria - "Rebel" Sponsors Order A New Round Of Defeat

The Obama administration has obviously decided to restart the war in Syria. Thousands of tons of new weapons have been purchased and delivered to the Jihadists including anti-air MANPADs of U.S. (full text) and Chinese origin. Half of the weapons the "rebel" mercenaries are given by their sponsors regularly end up in the hands of Al-Qaeda in Syria. We will not be surprised when a few weeks from now a civilian passenger plane will be hit and come down in Turkey or elsewhere.

Two week ago the foreign supported "rebels" already broke the ceasefire when they took part in a large al-Qaeda attack south of Aleppo city. Several "rebel" attacks took place against the Kurdish quarter in Aleppo city with over a hundred civilian death. Other attacks took place in north Latakia.

Today the "rebels" announced a full return to open war and more fronts were reopened including in north Hama where Uighur "Turkmen" Jihadis used two suicide bombers against the Syrian government positions.

The UN sponsored talks in Geneva went nowhere and the "rebel" side now suspended them to renew the fighting. Only three men of the Saudi controlled "rebel" negotiating team attended today. They still insist on the unconstitutional removal of the Syrian president before agreeing to any further talks about a unity government.

The Syrian army has suspended its ongoing offensive against the Islamic State. The plan was to march from the recently freed Palmyra to the Islamic State held Deir Ezzor in the east. The troops have now been recalled to protect the Syrian people from the renewed "rebel" attacks in west Syria. This may well fit the U.S. intentions in its phony war on ISIS.

There will soon be reports about local retreats of the Syrian army from this or that town or hill. Do not give them too much weight. Since the Russian intervention last year the Syrian troops have orders to retreat when under hard pressure. This to preserve manpower. As soon has the enemy occupies a position the artillery and air force will take care of them. Then, when the enemy attack has been blunted, the Syrian army and their allies on the ground will reoccupy the position and if possible launch counterattacks.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Suleiman visited Moscow last week. After his first visit last summer the Russian intervention was planned and executed. It brought the "rebels" to the border of total defeat. Their sponsors then agreed to a ceasefire and to hold talks in Geneva. Since the ceasefire announcement on February 27 the time was used by the U.S. to rearm and reposition the "rebel" force.

It seems that another round of the cycle is now necessary. Iran has deployed regular ground troops in Syria and these, even while not yet battle-tested, will have some effect. The Syrian air force has been reequipped and its older planes have been updated. Russian helicopters are active on the Syrian front and new short range (200 km) "Iskander" ballistic missiles were recently seen. The Russian air force can additionally engage with long range flights from Russia against fixed targets in Syria within hours. Russia cruise missile carrying ships are near the Syrian coast.

It is foolish to believe that MANPADs and TOW anti tank systems can decisively change the situation on the ground. I expect that a few week of heavy fighting will now follow after which the "rebels" will again be exhausted and again on the border of defeat.

Posted by b on April 18, 2016 at 18:32 UTC | Permalink

Comments
I miss River View Cafe but other good places, such as The Grind Cafe, serve lattes in Morganton, all with lovely coffee aromas, great service and friendly staff. I confess Im hooked on Starbucks.

Here in western North Carolina, Starbucks has struck a deal with Ingles and set up shop inside their supermarkets. Its a sweet marriage, convenient for customers who can grab coffee before shopping.

On two occasions last fall, I stopped by for my grande latte, and couldnt get it. The ever-cheerful manager, Mary West, told me with sincere apologies, The machine is down. No hot drinks could be served. This meant I had to drive a quarter mile down the road to McDonalds for my latte. In my opinion, their cheaper hot beverage is not quite as tasty as Starbucks lattes.

Once, McDonalds even mistakenly pumped in vanilla flavoring. I didnt realize this until almost home, so had to drive back for a re-do. Sheesh, the hassle of #firstworldproblems.

A month or so later, I walked into Ingles for my coffee fix, and was told, We dont have lids for grande or venti sized drinks today. After some back and forth on why it would not work to pour a 16 oz. size drink (grande) into a 20 oz. (venti) cup with no lid, I wound up settling for a tall which is the smaller 12 oz. size. As a former Girl Scout, Ive started carrying around in my purse a clean grande lid tucked inside a baggie.

A good environmentalist might bring her own cup, but in the past when Ive tried this, the baristas used a second disposable cup for part of the process. So its the use of one disposable cup either way.

A few weeks later, the computerized cash register was down and Starbucks could accept cash only. I hadnt brought any cash in because I have a keychain card I load with money to use. The Ingles cash register theyd corralled for their use a few steps away at the self-checkout section wouldnt work for accepting my Starbucks card. I wound up running back out to my car in the cold rain for my $3.90, even though the outstandingly nice baristas offered to give me the drink for free. Taylor Sain even said, Really, its not a problem! Ill pay for it if necessary!

I couldnt bear the idea of a young employee on her minimal salary paying for my drink or otherwise getting in trouble with the corporate overlords. Those young women and men stand on their feet all day and make dozens of different coffee drinks while remembering regular customers names, and have enough to put up with. One day I even saw a latex-gloved barista lifting slimy trash out of their garbage can and rebagging it. He was going through each item for a customer who was afraid shed accidentally dropped a twenty dollar bill in the trash.

For a while there, some might have thought of Morgantons franchise as our Third World Starbucks. (By the way, my progressive daughter says its more respectful to refer to poorer, post-colonial countries as the global South instead of Third World.)

That was months ago and Starbucks hasnt had issues recently. It should be pointed out that they are open every single day: Monday thru Saturday from 6:00 am to 9:00 pm and Sundays 7:00 to 9:00 with no holiday except Christmas Day. That can be hard on equipment and supplies.

Past experiences make me appreciate more fully the luxury of a nice hot coffee drink, and also make me skeptical of huge corporate endeavors.

Wait just a minute. In my email, I see a notice from Starbucks about a forgotten and lost two-year-old gift card which had $14.34 left on it. I was able to go online to the companys website and within a moment or two transfer that amount to the card I use all the time.

Lets hear it for the corporate overlords. Yay for #firstworldperks! Or should I make that #globalnorthperks?

Gwen Veazey is a member of the Morganton Writers Group which celebrates its tenth anniversary writing for Burke County Notebook this month.
Income investors have benefitted from a 14.2 billion windfall year to date  but the latest Dividend Monitor from Capita suggests shareholder should enjoy their pay-out while they can as its downhill from here.

Dividends were up 6.4% in the three months to the end of March, but this figure was boosted significantly by special dividends, while underlying growth amounted to just 1.3%  and even this was only due to a weakened pound, which added 350 million to the total of 13.2 billion. Currency fluctuations are important driver of UK dividends as so many companies pay out in US dollars; 6.1 billion this quarter.

UK equities are expected to yield on average 3.6% over the next 12 months. Capita has forecast the weakest year since 2010 for UK dividend growth, expecting total a pay-out for 2016 of 78 billion, this is a fall of 1.5% on the 2015 total, which in turn was a fall of 10% on 2014. Dividend pay-outs peaked at 88 billion in 2014, boosted by a special payment from Vodafone (VOD).

Reasons to Be Cheerful Thirty five stock sectors saw dividends rise in the first quarter of 2016, compared to four  mining, industrial metals, tobacco and food retail  which cut pay-outs. Shell (RDSB) was a particular success and has announced a 1.4 billion total pay-out for the year thanks to its acquisition of BG Group. Shell will be responsible for every 1 in 7.50 paid out in dividends in 2016. Imperial Brands (IMB) will also issuing higher dividends due to an acquisition, in this case of a portfolio of tobacco brands in the US. The biggest payers of 2016 are expected to be Vodafone, BP (BP.), Shell, AstraZeneca (AZN) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The top five account for 53% of pay-outs in the first quarter, a total of 7.5 billion. Prepare for Cuts Hitting Later this Year Since our January report, BHP, Rio Tinto, Barclays, Rolls Royce and Morrison have joined Glencore, Standard Chartered and Anglo American in cutting their dividends in 2016, said Justin Cooper of Capita. Together they will knock some hefty bricks out the of dividend wall this year. The cuts are expected to amount to a loss of 2.7 billion in pay-outs, and will filter through to shareholders later this year. The basic materials sector has seen the deepest cuts to dividends as companies take the hit of underlying commodity price falls. The sector has seen a 43% fall in dividends year on year. Consumer goods companies have also cut dividends, down 20% year on year. Its obviously disappointing to see UK dividends in decline this year, but investors should not to be too gloomy, cheers Cooper. The cuts are focused in a handful of large sectors, and so are relatively easy to avoid. If anything the risks are now finally on the upside. We are unlikely to see much more in the way of big cuts.
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To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.
One big bank denied a broker clients deal only to approve the same client when he walked into a bank branch.We sent a deal to [one of the major banks], waited for a couple of days, the bank came back and [said] they would decline this deal, Joseph Park, principal broker of JP Mortgage Services, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca.Park then lined up a mortgage with another lender. However, the client decided to visit a branch to inquire about a mortgage and was then approved for a loan at a better rate than Park had arranged, according to the broker.Park has asked that the name of the bank be withheld.When asked about the unfairness of the process, Park was told by the BDM that life has never been fair.I was told Joseph, it is much cheaper for our branch to do a mortgage because then we dont have to pay you [a commission], Park said.This isnt the first time a broker has complained about an uneven playing field when it comes to dealing with big bank lending partners.Last year, broker Walid Hammami criticized a lending partner for offering certain products in-house only.Lender banks are our partners and they compete against us and its just not fair, Walid Hammami, a Montreal-based broker with Dominion Lending Centres , told MortgageBrokerNews.ca last August. They offer certain products in-house that they dont offer us.One bank denied him the ability to offer a home equity line of credit that the bank limited to its branches and road reps.And there is no reason for that; the only reason they do this is to give themselves an advantage, he said.
February 2016 saw the prices of new homes in Canada grow by 0.2 per cent on a month-by-month basis, according to the latest report by Statistics Canada.



In an April 14 statement, the agency announced that much of the growth could be attributed to sustained activity and demand in the leading real estate markets of Vancouver and Toronto.



Builders agreed with the assessment, adding that current market conditions and new listing prices are helping with this development.



As reported by Reuters Canada, the Oshawa and Toronto regionswhich together comprise 27.9 per cent of the Canadian marketshowed an increase of 0.4 per cent. Meanwhile, Vancouver (13 per cent of the market) saw 0.8 per cent growth, breaking the previous record level established back in September 2009.



On the other hand, Calgary suffered a 0.5 per cent decline, its most significant since July 2011. Calgarys energy segment has long suffered the worst effects of the global oil shock.



The Statistics Canada analysis does not take into account apartments and condominiums, which encompass fully a third of new housing development.
DOHA, Qatar  Oil-rich nations at a Qatar summit failed to reach an agreement Sunday on a production freeze, saying officials needed more time to make the decision as Iran stayed home and vowed to keep pumping.

The hourslong meeting in Doha, the Qatari capital, resembled a failed OPEC meeting in December that saw crude oil prices tumble on the cartels indecision. The fact that producers couldnt agree to even freezing production at near-record January figures likely means oil prices will drop again as markets open Monday.

Speaking to journalists after the summit, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, Qatars energy and industry minister, said the 18 countries gathered for the meeting believed the fundamentals of the market are generally improving.

However, he largely dodged the questions about whether another special summit will be called before OPECs next meeting in June and whether Iran had anything to do with the breakdown of the talks.

We of course respect their position and ... we still dont know how the future will unroll but it was a sovereign decision by Iran, said al-Sada, who is serving as OPECs president. The freeze could be more effective definitely if major producers, be it from OPEC members like Iran and others, as well as non-OPEC members, are included in the freeze.

Sundays gathering follows a surprise Doha meeting in February between Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, in which they pledged to cap their crude output at January levels if other producers do the same.

They had hoped the cap would help global oil prices rebound from their dramatic fall since the summer of 2014, when prices were above $100 a barrel.

Prices dropped briefly to under $30 a barrel, a 12-year low, in January, but have climbed to the mid-$40s this week, boosted in part by market speculation about the Qatar meeting.

Western markets were closed Sunday and not immediately affected by the discussions, though the failure to reach a freeze likely will come into play Monday. Stock exchanges in Saudi Arabia and Dubai closed in negative territory Sunday, with the Saudi Tadawul down 1.48 percent.

Iran decided to stay home late Saturday after saying the day before it would send an emissary to the meeting. Speaking to Iranian state television, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said it didnt make sense to send any representative from the Islamic Republic as we are not part of the decision to freeze output.

We cant cooperate with them to freeze our own output, and in other words impose sanctions on ourselves, Zangeneh said.

With many international sanctions lifted under its nuclear deal with world powers, Iran began exporting oil into the European market again and is eager to claw back market share. It produces 3.2 million barrels of oil a day now, with hopes of increasing to 4 million by April 2017.

Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia had said it wouldnt back any freeze if Iran, its Shiite rival, doesnt agree to it, throwing the deal into question before the meeting. The kingdom seems determined to ride out the low prices that could squeeze Tehran. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi declined to speak to journalists during the meeting.

That dispute underscores the level of discord inside OPEC as it faces arguably its biggest challenge since the oil glut of the 1980s. Even had officials reached a deal, Irans production and oil from other sources, like the U.S., could keep prices down.



Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellap. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jon-gambrell.
By Lyden Odukwu, M. D.

More than 6 million Americans have been diagnosed with a type of heart rate problem known as atrial fibrillationin which the electrical signals that tell the hearts upper chambers to beat become rapid and disorganized. This can cause blood to pool in the hearts upper chambers.

Patients may not always know when an a-fib happens but when one does occur the patients stroke risk increases five-fold.

That means a-fib patients should be careful to take stroke-preventing medications such as anticoagulants. However, a recent study found that less than half of such patients were prescribed blood thinners by their cardiologist.

The studys lead author was Dr. Jonathan Hsu, a cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego. He and his team of researchers followed 400,000-plus a-fib patients in the U. S. for four years.

They found that prescribing of blood thinners increased in proportion to the risk of strokeup to a point. Among the most at-risk patients, more than half were not receiving this medication. Dr. Hsu noted there could be at least a couple of reasons for this.

Blood thinners do indeed increase the risk of bleeding, which could deter some cardiologists from prescribing them, but Dr. Hsu feels that risk is less than the risk of stroke. He also believes patient preference may be an issue.

If you are an a-fib patient, or are responsible for the health care of a family member who is, be sure to ask your doctor about a blood thinner in order to reduce the risk of stroke.

Midland Family Care, with Dr. Lyden Odukwu, is located at 3305 Andrews Highway. The phone number is 620-0525. They accept most insurance.
The educating of students should be our first and only duty.

When it stops being about the students first, we have lost focus on what really matters.

Let me be clear, as a father of five who has children currently at three different MISD campuses, when it comes to the Educate Midland movement, I am a supporter. I am a supporter of the superintendent and MISD administration, the school board and all teachers and staff that work with our children day in and day out. I also am an advocate for anything that encourages learning and gives students every opportunity to grow in their fundamental knowledge to be the best people and most productive citizens. Anytime you can engage the community, whatever the project, the results will be positive.

If we as a community get behind the teachers and are active and engaged in the education process for the students in Midland, will that success not translate into successful students, higher ratings, better employee recruitment to the area and so on?

GreatSchool.orgs rankings of 18 of 33 campuses as below average has been cited repeatedly during this current conversation on public education. The Texas Education Agency, the state organization charged to oversee primary and secondary public education, lists 11 of 33 Midland ISD campuses as Improvement required, so we see there is room to grow. Still, there are so many performance factors in determining such rankings that it can be difficult to decipher what are the key components of success.

There are some statistics that are undeniable.

According to a study by the Childrens Literacy Initiative, nearly seven out of 10 U.S. fourth-graders are not reading at grade level. The fourth grade is a watershed year. We can predict that if a child is not reading proficiently in the fourth grade, he or she will have approximately a 78 percent chance of not catching up.

A well-rounded education is the key to upward mobility. A study by the Pew Charitable Trusts show that for people starting at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, a college degree can quadruple their chances of making it to the top. There is a correlation between illiteracy and income -- at least in individual economic terms -- in that literacy and education have payoffs and is a worthwhile investment. As the literacy and education rate doubles, so doubles the per-capita income.

All of these factors do not even to begin to scratch the surface of the social and cultural dynamics that have an impact on a childs education. Many of the students under-performing in school have outside factors at work that can make the learning experience all the more difficult. A one-parent household, little to no parental involvement, basic food and nutrition, inadequate books in the home and lack of access to the Internet to do school work are only a fraction of the influences that can negatively impact the learning of a child. Many children in our community are more concerned where their next meal is coming from or for their safety and stability at home and less concerned as to what their next assignment is.

As someone whose childhood background included coming from a broken home environment with an absentee father, a working mother that did the best she could but was not around and being a latch-key kid that was on government assistance for most of my childhood, I am an example of how education can break the cycle of poverty and change socio-economic living conditions. For us to assume that every student comes to the school equally prepared to learn, is a grim miscalculation.

In recent years the Midland County Public Libraries and MISD have made a conscientious choice to work together to enhance communication and collaboration to better serve the community. Project Literacy is an annual county-wide event each September that provides a free book to every first-grader in Midland County, including Greenwood ISD and our communitys private schools. Since 2013, in partnership with the Midland Reporter-Telegram and Wells Fargo, MCPL, MISD and Midland County Public Library Foundation, Project Literacy has expanded to include visits by famous authors from around the country and enhance the education and literacy initiatives MCPL and MISD partner on. These efforts wouldnt be possible without the support of Ryder Warren, Rick Davis and the school board, the tireless work teachers, principals and the leadership of Sylvia Bernal, director of Reading.

Every year the librarys summer reading program touches more than 2,200 local students. This summer were working with the district to integrate our learning platforms to support the district in three important ways: student advancement, student assessment and parent engagement. In addition to MCPL, there are many other community organizations committed to reaching students and proving opportunities through summer reading and education programs including Greater Ideal, Opportunity Camp, Greater Ideal, Boys and Girls Club, Casa de Amigos and Community in Schools 1 one on 1 Tutoring, among others.

The Midland community has in place successful educational initiatives and reading programs that are impacting the lives of students. The continued support of these established programs -- with the addition of the Educate Midland movement, continued recruitment of parental involvement and continued support of the work our teachers do on a daily basis -- can only serve to improve the education of the students, and in turn, have a positive impact on our community.

---

John Trischitti III is the director of the Midland County Public Libraries and the 2014 Texas Librarian of the Year. He is a frequent speaker and program presenter on the topic of Childrens Literacy and the correlation between income inequality and education.
WASHINGTON (AP)  In Judge Merrick Garland's courthouse office in Washington, there's a framed photo of Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building after the 1995 bombing that ripped away most of its front. There's also a courtroom artist's sketch from the prosecution of bomber Timothy McVeigh and a medal honoring Garland for his work on the case.

The bombing, 21 years ago Tuesday, was a defining moment in the Supreme Court nominee's career. Garland has called it "the most important thing I have ever done in my life," President Barack Obama said in announcing his nomination, now stalled by congressional politics.

At the time of the bombing, Garland was 42 and principal associate deputy attorney general, a top lieutenant to Attorney General Janet Reno. He was chosen to go to Oklahoma City, the highest-ranking Justice Department official there, and led the prosecution for a month until a permanent lead prosecutor was named.

For two years after, through the preparation for McVeigh's trial, he was the team's man at the Department of Justice, the person who set the tone and was available for advice, said prosecutors involved in the case.

Once it was decided he would go to Oklahoma, Garland had one evening to pack and say goodbye to his daughters, then ages 3 and 5. When the FBI plane taking him to Oklahoma City stopped to refuel, he learned that McVeigh was in custody, recalled J. Gilmore Childers, a former federal prosecutor who accompanied Garland. And when they got to Oklahoma they went directly to McVeigh's arraignment and then to the site of the still-smoldering Murrah building.

Garland has said he remembers passing through a ring of Humvees securing the scene and seeing broken glass and crumbled bricks even far from the site. It "really looked like a war zone," he said in a 2013 interview for the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. By the time Garland arrived, 65 bodies had been recovered, a death total that would ultimately grow to 168, including 19 children.

"The worst part was being told where the kids had been," Garland said.

A command center for the response was set up in a nearby telephone company building. There, Garland ran morning, afternoon and end-of-day briefings with up to two dozen people from various agencies involved in the case. He was involved in major investigative decisions, including whether and when to put McVeigh in lineups and who to have work with a sketch artist. At the time, officials were also pursuing a second suspect, "John Doe No. 2," who they worried might bomb again, a fear that was ultimately unfounded.

Garland was "the face of the department out there at the time where people needed to believe that their government was capable of responding to this," said Aitan Goelman, a prosecutor on the case.

Garland also spoke for the prosecution in court. At a hearing for McVeigh a week after the bombing, he walked an FBI agent through four hours of testimony, and a judge ordered McVeigh held in jail. Outside of the hearing, Garland asked reporters and the public for patience.

"I know that there's a lot more that you all want to know, and a lot of things other people want to know. But I think most people also want to be sure this investigation goes forward effectively and efficiently, and the only way we're going to be able to do that is to not talk about the different leads that we're pursuing," he said.

Garland wanted to lead the trial team prosecuting McVeigh, but he was needed back in Washington. Instead, he helped pick the team and set the tone for the prosecution, said Scott Mendeloff, another prosecutor on the case. It was critical to Garland that the case "be handled in such a way to reflect well on our justice system," Mendeloff said. He wanted prosecutors to be zealous but was also concerned about McVeigh's rights.

Stephen Jones, McVeigh's lead lawyer, said Garland was always professional and cordial. And though McVeigh was convicted and executed in 2001, Jones has supported Garland's nomination, urging President Barack Obama to nominate Garland in a letter just days after Justice Antonin Scalia's death.

In announcing Garland's nomination, Obama cited Oklahoma City and in particular Garland's concern for the bombing's victims. Everywhere he went, he carried a program from a memorial service with each of their names, Obama said.

Patrick Ryan, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, said the case had a lasting impact on those who worked on it.

"I know that I could name every single person on every single floor that died, and I bet Merrick could too," he said, adding: "I suspect that the emotions of Oklahoma City are still in his heart."

___
CINCINNATI (AP)  A suburban Cincinnati man, the beard and long hair he had when arrested gone, has been calling himself again by his birth name and appears competent to stand trial on charges that he plotted to attack the U.S. Capitol in support of the Islamic State group, according to testimony Monday.

U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith scheduled trial for Nov. 1 after a hearing on Christopher Lee Cornells ability to participate in his defense. Defense psychologist Scot Bresler, of the University of Cincinnati, strongly advised that Cornell, 22, be re-evaluated because his competency is marginal and could change before trial.

Cornell had used the name Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah and followed some Islamic religious practices while, the FBI said, expressing support for violent jihadists. Bresler said he thought Cornell self-radicalized and adopted the identity to make him feel he was somebody.

Cornell has been held without bond since his January 2015 arrest near Cincinnati by the FBI. He has pleaded not guilty to four charges, including attempted murder of U.S. officials and employees. His father has said he was misled and coerced by a snitch.

Bresler, who has repeatedly examined Cornell since his arrest, said Sunday was the first time he asked him to call him Chris, instead of Raheel when he met with him at Boone County Jail in northern Kentucky where he was brought recently from a federal facility. Cornell, sitting at the defense table in jail clothes with wrists and ankles shackled, appeared less gaunt than in earlier appearances and nodded and smiled at times, such as when he spotted his family.

His attorneys could still pursue a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity, although Bresler said Cornell has said he would oppose that defense. Bresler said Cornell suffers from schizotypal disorder, which can cause marked social anxiety and odd thinking, and has long had problems with depression.

He said Cornell at times has been overwhelmed by depressed, dark feelings, and has repeatedly expressed suicidal thoughts including just days ago. He said he has found him crying incessantly and unable to process information well.

He said the youth, living a lower-middle-class existence in his parents apartment, was socially withdrawn and spent hours alone on his computer.

He created this identity to make him feel as if his life made a difference ... to make him feel he was somebody, Bresler said.

Timothy Mangan, a federal prosecutor, didnt call any witnesses after questioning Bresler. Mental evaluations done for both sides remained sealed. Mangan also filed exhibits including letters written by Cornell while incarcerated, some to a woman he had met at a jail. Mangan said Cornell has said he thinks he has identified the governments confidential source and has been following other cases involving terrorism charges, signs he can participate in his own defense.

The acting U.S. attorney for southern Ohio, Benjamin C. Glassman, said afterward in a statement that hes pleased to see the case moving forward and that the government will be ready for trial.

Beckwith last year appointed Martin Pinales and Candace Crouse to represent Cornell after a federal public defender asked to withdraw from the case. The same lawyers represented Michael Hoyt, a former Cincinnati area country club bartender who was ruled not guilty by reason of insanity on a charge he threatened to kill then-Speaker of the House John Boehner.

They subsequently filed a motion last November saying there was reasonable cause to believe that Mr. Cornell may presently be suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent.

The FBI said agents arrested Cornell in a gun shop parking lot near his home west of Cincinnati. They said he had just bought two M-15 assault weapons and ammunition and planned to attack the Capitol with pipe bombs and guns.

Cornells arrest came amid increased concern over Islamic State militant efforts to recruit homegrown lone wolf terrorists. The FBI has said Cornell, of suburban Green Township, wanted to wage jihad and sent messages on social media and posted video in support of Islamic State militants and violent attacks by others.

Cornell told WXIX-TV of Cincinnati after his arrest that he wanted to shoot President Barack Obama in the head.



Follow the reporter at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell

For some of his other recent stories: http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-sewell
Morehead State senior track athletehas been trying his hardest establish a school record, and this weekend he accomplished his goal. Bell broke the school record in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:49.57 at the Beach Invitational in California. In addition, juniorset the school record in the 1,500-meter run.The Eagles also has six other men and two women compete at the Bryan Clay Invitational (BCI) at Azusa Pacific, Beach Invitational, and the prestigious Mt. Sac Relays in California.Bell eclipsed a 39-year old mark in the 800, set by Kelvin Kelley (1:50.30) in 1977. He also ran the 800 at the BCI and finished at 1:51.02. Rich ran the 1,500-meter race at BCI in 3:48.40 to break's mark of 3:49.67 in 2014.The men's team had three athletes win their sections of their respective races at Beach. Rich ran the 800 in 1:52.21 and won section nine, while freshmancrossed the line in the 800 in 1:53.27 to win section seven. In the 1,500-meter run, seniorwon section eight with a time of 4:01.99. Senior(3:57.50) and freshman(4:08.51) also competed in the 1,500-meter races at the Beach Invitational.Childers ran the 3,000-meter steeplechase at BCI, finishing in 9:37.52, while Gil-Juarez (14:51.50) and freshman(15:38.69) ran in the 5,000-meter runs.The women's team was represented by seniorand junior Hannah Bailey. Bailey ran the 3,000-meter steeplechase at BCI with a time of 11:17.80 and ran the 1,500-meter event at Beach with a time of 5:00.81.Andrews took part in the 5K at BCI with a time of 18:17.98 and ran the 1,500-meter event at Beach with a time of 4:58.33.Both teams will be back in action at the Bellarmine Classic in Louisville this weekend.
Someone should sue the President for ...
President Obama was Mondays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words:

Hello, everybody. One of Americas greatest strengths is our free market. A thriving private sector is the lifeblood of our economy  its how we create jobs, expand opportunities, and give everybody a shot at success. Its what has made America the strongest country on Earth.

The most essential ingredient in a healthy free market is competition. But right now, too many companies are engaging in behaviors that stifle competition  like blocking new competitors from entering the market or limiting the information and options that give consumers real choice. As a consequence, the rest of us pay higher prices for lower quality products and services. Workers receive lower wages than they otherwise would. Small businesses and entrepreneurs can get squeezed out of the market. And none of that is fair  or good for our economy.

The deck should not be stacked in favor of the wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations, against working Americans. Thats why my administration is doing everything we can to reverse this trend and promote more competition in the marketplace. In addition to enforcing the rules on the books, Ive directed federal agencies to identify anti-competitive behavior in different industries, and find new and specific ways to promote competition.

One industry thats ripe for change is cable TV. Right now, 99 percent of cable and satellite TV customers rent set-top boxes from their providers. According to one survey, this costs households an average of more than $230 per year. We spend some $20 billion to rent these devices. While we have almost unlimited choice in what we watch on television, from traditional programming to online content, theres next to no competition to build a better, user-friendly product that allows you to easily access all this content in one place. So most consumers just rent whatever the cable company offers. Because we have to. That means companies have little incentive to innovate. As a consequence, we need multiple devices and controllers to access content from different sources. That makes no sense.

So my administration has encouraged the FCC to remove the barriers to competition that prevent new players from offering innovative cable box options to consumers.

We know this works. For years, Americans had to rent our telephones from the phone company. This was a while ago, but when the FCC finally unlocked competition for home phones, the marketplace was flooded with all kinds of phone options with new features, and at different price points. Consumers suddenly had many options. And the whole industry moved forward as a result. The same can happen with cable boxes, and in dozens of areas of our economy  all of which can make a difference in your everyday life.

The bottom line is, competition is good for consumers, workers, businesses, and our economy. So Im going to keep doing everything I can to make sure that our free market works for everyone. Thanks.
Angels Camp, CA  Already leaning towards prohibiting medical marijuana cultivation within city limits, the Angels Camp City Council will hold a second reading of its draft ordinance Tuesday.

As previously reported here, at its March 15 meeting, following a public hearing on the topic, the council reintroduced a previously drafted ordinance that would prohibit medical pot grows as well as keep the city out of the business of approving or granting any localized permits, licenses or other entitlements for growing. Vice Mayor Amanda Folendorf was the only councilmember who voted in opposition. If passed at the second reading, the ordinance or a summary of it, and the final vote, will be locally published within 15 days and the law would go into effect in 30 days.

Tuesdays meeting will again be held at the Bret Harte High School Theater, in anticipation of a large turnout. Following closed session negotiations over the US Postal Service lease of the downtown Angels Camp post office facility, the meeting will open to the public at 6. However, as the public hearing over the draft ordinance is listed as the final item on the regular agenda, audience members should anticipate a wait.

In other business, city staff will be recommending that the council award a contract for planned upgrades at Utica and Tryon parks to John Allen Construction. The lowest bidder and its base bid of $98,697 will cover bathroom repairs; improvements, including ADA access plus pedestrian walkways at Utica Park; as well as demolition of the old Tryon Park pool and a re-grade of the location. The work scope excludes originally proposed irrigation and landscaping at Tryon Park as well as planned improvements to the firehouse meeting space. Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) monies have already been earmarked for the project.

Also on the agenda, Angels Camp Commemorative Committee (ACCC) and Business Association (ACBA) are requesting approval to celebrate the citys establishment and incorporation in 1848 and 1912 with an annual Mark Twain Festival on the third Saturday in October. The event will replace what was formerly known as Gold Rush Day. The groups are also asking the councils approval to close Highway 49 on Saturday, Oct. 15 between Vallecito Road and Bret Harte Drive for the festival from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Additionally, ACCC is requesting a supplemental appropriation of $6,458 from the city to hold its 2016 Fourth of July Picnic in the Park. According to the meeting documents, Anne Forrest, the event chair, explains the committee decided to hold the picnic Friday, July 1 since the Fourth falls on a Monday  and to avoid conflicts with the annual fireworks event on Saturday at Ironstone Vineyards. She notes that for the past two years, the Picnic in the Park has been held in conjunction with the Farmers Market, which not only adds to both events, it also reduces the cost of hosting the picnic. Plans this year include adding two shuttle buses with wheelchair capacities at the cost of $400 that will run between St. Patricks Church parking lot and Utica Park.
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Daughters of the American Revolution

The Mary McCoy Baines Chapter of the DAR met April 13, 2016, at the West Texas Woodfire Grill with Ramona Roberts and Sarah Westmoreland as hostesses. After the opening prayer by Linda Reed, a seated luncheon was served.

Kim Horne presented the program on her uncle, Buel Lee Melton, who served in the World War II Black Devils Brigade, a Special Forces group, made up equally of Americans and Canadians. Their work was concentrated in Italy during the Naples-Foggia and Rome-Arno Campaigns during 1943-44. Lauded for their bravery, the unit was labeled a bunch of misfits who happened to fit together. Melton received the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously for his service.

Regent Pam Green led the opening ritual. Linda Reed presented the National Defense Report on the World War I memorial located in Pershing Park in Washington D.C. It was built under the auspices of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 after being authorized by the Centennial Commission. The Design Commission selected Weight of Sacrifice proposed by Joseph Weishaar and rendered by the sculptor Salin Howard.

In report of officers, Vice President Kim Horne asked for any yearbook corrections. Members were asked to sign up for hostess duties. Librarian Carolyn Courtney was authorized to buy a book for the Genealogy Department at Unger Memorial Library.

In committee reports Ramona Roberts, Indian chairman, reported that progress was being made on the Quanah Parker Trail which runs through Plainview. Future donations are needed for the project. Carolyn Courtney, chairman, reported on the Genealogical Workshop on May 21 for prospective members. Linda Reed was appointed to order a DAR medal and certificate for the outstanding female ROTC member at PHS. Pam Green will present the award.

Regent Pam Green announced that the chapter had received certificates of appreciation from the state for Constitution Week, Recitation of the Preamble, American Indians Committee, Commemorative events, Exceptional support of Americanism Committee objectives, Promotion of Conservation, and distribution of an electronic newsletter. - Carolyn Courtney
Is religious faith playing a major role in this years election process? Some observers have suggested that it isnt, that the influence of religion has waned so much across America that its impact today is negligible.



Two of my principal interests since childhood have been religion and politics. I was raised in a family that never missed church, was deeply involved in various church-related activities, and where alcohol, tobacco, and attending movies on Sunday were all strictly forbidden.



As for politics, we were avidly Republican. Moms Dad, Grandpa Corliss, was quoted as saying that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for treason. The Corliss family had been deeply impacted by the Civil War. Those were the days of the solid South - solidly Democratic - and a teenager from Mississippi I dated during college once remarked that a Republican in her hometown was abhorred as much as a Communist. In contrast, our home state of Vermont voted for every GOP presidential candidate from 1856 to 1964, the only state to do so. When I served as a page boy in the Vermont Senate in 1943, of the thirty senators twenty-nine were Republicans.



In 1948, 1952, and 1956 I attended the GOP national convention and voted twice for Dwight Eisenhower. Once a pastor, I would preach on such touchy issues as peace and civil rights, but registered Independent (which I am today) and carefully refrained from discussing political candidates with any parishioners. This would be divisive within a congregation, and was widely regarded as a violation of the separation of church and state.



The election of 1960 posed a problem. I strongly objected to Richard Nixon, but was no fan of the Kennedys. It was not any Catholic issue that troubled me. It was Joseph the father, a major supporter of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, whose reckless charges I detested. McCarthy dated two Kennedy daughters, was Godfather of Roberts oldest child, and JFK had stormed out of a Democratic dinner when a speaker criticized McCarthy, My wife, Margaret, and I solved the problem. She voted for Nixon; I voted for Kennedy. Had it been revealed, as alleged, that JFK was a habitual philanderer, I may have voted differently. Still, there was much about him and his administration that I admired, and deeply grieved his assassination.



Most Americans had different views on moral conduct then.. I recall how, in 1952, my Uncle Ephraim argued passionately against the candidacy of Adlai Stevenson, citing his divorce among other reasons. Jump ahead 60 years to 2012 when Newt Gingrich was challenging Mitt Romney in the South Carolina primary, where evangelicals are a major segment of the population. Despite Gingrichs two divorces and three marriages, he soundly defeated Romney there. Perhaps Romneys Mormonism alienated some evangelicals.



Today, after two divorces, Donald Trump parades his third wife at his rallies, a former model from Slovenia, 46 years old on April 26. Despite this and Trumps foul language, gambling casinos, incessant boasting and wild accusations, numerous evangelicals continue to support him. Jerry Falwell, Jr., calls him one of the greatest visionaries of our time. Pat Robertson gushed when he interviewed Trump on his daily 700 Club television show. Sarah Palin, popular among many evangelicals, endorsed Trump as offering bold new leadership that puts your interests before party politics.



Trump identifies himself as a Presbyterian. He grew up attending Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, a parish of the Reformed tradition founded by the Dutch when they settled in New Amsterdam. Norman Vincent Peale was pastor there for 52 years, during Trumps childhood and youth. His sermons were short on theology, while his positive thinking inspired millions. Peale, by the way, was ordained a Methodist minister, as was his successor, the late Arthur Caliandro, a friend of mine in seminary. This highlights the ease with which mainline Protestants, both pastors and laity, move from one denomination to another without any concept of conversion



Three of the remaining candidates have religious ties much stronger than those of Trump. Ted Cruz, son of a minister, is a born-again Southern Baptist. His wife, Heidi, was raised in a family that included devout Adventist missionaries. John Kasich abandoned religion for awhile, lost his parents when they were killed by a drunken driver, now is an Anglican (not Episcopalian) with a keen spiritual sense and familiarity with scripture. Hillary Clinton, a Methodist, has attended church regularly over the years and often will quote the Bible.



Bernie Sanders is a secular Jew who had steered clear of religion. He had, however, expressed his esteem for Pope Francis whom he describes as an inspirational figure raising public consciousness of income and wealth inequality.As a fascinating footnote to this years bizarre political campaign, Sanders made a quick trip to the Vatican to participate in a conference hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. While there, he managed to spend five minutes with the Pope!



Its possible that religion today has less influence at election time than years ago. Yet, a recent study found that two-thirds of Americans still find faith important in their lives and most politicians continue to indicate some acknowledgment of this. How often their speeches end with God bless America.



Ralph Lord Roy of Southington is a retired United Methodist minister. Email: ralphlroy@aol.com






WALLINGFORD  Stay-at-home mom Phyllis Murray took a part-time job as an administrative assistant at the Ulbrich Boys & Girls Club in 1989 and never left.



Murray was on the job in 1990 when plans for a new club were dashed after a fundraiser hired by the club ran off with all the money, leaving the club with a mortgage it couldnt afford.



State Rep. Mary Mushinsky stepped in to secure $500,000 in state funding. The late Fred Ulbrich, chief executive officer of Ulbrich Stainless Steels & Special Metals Inc., and the United Way of Meriden and Wallingford were also instrumental in helping the club emerge from the financial crisis.



Fred and Chris (Ulbrich) decided to fund it and we got it going again, said Jay Cei, who was also part of the group that helped the club. Now we had a great new job for Phyllis.



As the new executive director, Murray found herself cleaning the club, driving its van, and working on new programs. Eventually, she learned to keep the books.



Murray retired recently after 25 years on the job. On Friday, the United Way, Ulbrich Steel, town officials, family members, employees, board members and past and present club members honored Murray at a banquet at Zandris Stillwood Inn.



If the Ulbrich Boys & Girls Club could speak, Cei told the crowd, It would say something along the lines of weve come a long way baby. Talk about a role model for lifelong learning, its Phyllis.



Without a staff, Murray wanted to find a way to get children to the club after school. She convinced the Wallingford Rotary Club to donate a van in 1997.



Murray drove the van to the schools to pick up children and membership increased.



Homework had to be done before the children could do other activities. She helped get computers and the Big Brothers Big Sisters program back to the community.



All these activities we got going through Phyllis that are still there today, Cei said. She is such a part of the fabric of the Wallingford community.



The clubs interim director, Megan Lenzzo, became a member with her two sisters while in elementary school.



Without her guidance, I couldnt be where I am today, Lenzzo said. The Boys & Girls Club was a lifesaver.



Lenzzo recalls Murrays charging only $100 for the three girls to go to camp and credited Murray for her encouraging her to attend college.



I was going to write a speech, but I knew by just looking at you I would know what to say, Tinay Singh, 18, a club member, told Murray. I got accepted to UConn. She bossed me around but taught me how to be a good man.



Mushinsky said Murray helped her with her own sons after school.



I want to thank you as a mom, Mushinsky said. You helped me raise my boys to be young professionals. She pretty much was the other mom that raised them.



Mushinsky also gave Murray a plaque signed by legislators.



Murray thanked everyone for their support.



The last 25 years hasnt been work, its been a pleasure, she said. All the kids whove grown up are my kids. They know you dont cuss, you dont fight, you dont steal.



Murray addressed the leaders of the civic organizations and said that while shes looking forward to retirement, she doesnt intend to sit still.



I love you guys, she said. If you need a hand, give me a call.



mgodin@record-journal.com (203) 317-2255 Twitter: @Cconnbiz






Anna Stothart is stepping down from her job as contemporary art curator at the San Antonio Museum of Art to take a newly created position as a director at Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York City.

Previously assistant curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Stothart joined the museum staff in February 2015. She was hired to replace David Rubin.

During her tenure, Stothart installed the traveling exhibitions 28 Chinese and Corita Kent and the Language of Pop and oversaw the reinstallation of the contemporary galleries.

My commitment to contemporary art in San Antonio is unwavering, said director Katie Luber. Im so happy that we had Anna here for the year we did. Were going to try and find someone who will bring the same level of enthusiasm, knowledge, skill and experience to the job.

Currently the museum does not have a time line for replacing Stothart, who is leaving at the end of April.

The good thing is that our galleries look really beautiful now. Weve done some fantastic shows, Luber said. (That) makes it more appealing for someone new to come.

It has been a tough month for the museum. It had to close Corita Kent and the Language of Pop after the roof of the Cowden Gallery, where the blockbuster exhibit was on display, was damaged by hail.

Until the exhibit is reopened, the museum is waiving the surcharge on Rodin: The Human Experience, an exhibit of 32 bronzes by the French sculptor.

San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave., 210-978-8100, www.samuseum.org

lsilva@express-news.net
A North Texas police officer jumped into a pool of murky water to pull out a missing 5-year-old. When efforts to save the boy were unsuccessful, the same man showed up to his funeral dressed as the childs favorite superhero  Spider-Man.

Fort Worth Police Officer Damon Cole used social media to chronicle the details surrounding Joshua Robert Garcias death on April 2.

RELATED: Police officer who broke the news to a Texas teen of his parents' death shows up to his graduation

I had the most heart breaking calls of my 16 year career as a police officer, he shared on the Heroes & Cops Against Childhood Cancer Facebook page he runs. It hurts me too much to sit here and type it all out about what happened. The page in his correspondence with an organization he works with, in which he travels the country dressed as various superheroes to visit ill children.

According to a Facebook post on the page, Cole reported to a missing child call at Garcias residence. Upon arrival, the boys mother was crying frantically and told the officer she had looked in the pool herself, but was unable to find her son.

Officer Cole, without hesitation, removed his body armor and duty belt and entered the pool, a photo of an email sent by Coles sergeant and then posted to Facebook said. Officer Cole put himself at great risk as there were sharp objects and multiple obstacles in the pool not to mention the murky stale un-kept pool water itself.

RELATED: Texas police officer humors kids by dancing the 'Nae Nae' with them while on duty

The email continued, adding that EMS personnel were unable to revive the young boy, but Cole stayed by his side while he was transported to Cooks Childrens Hospital.

According to Buzzfeed, Garcia was dressed in a Spider-Man shirt and shoes when his body was found. The family told Cole that the little boy really did believe he was the comic book character and had spider powers.

In his post, Cole said Garcias brothers asked to meet with him in the days following his death and asked him to show up in a Spider-Man costume to his funeral. He granted their wishes and bought a Spider-man costume for him to be buried in.

You touched my life the day I found you. I think of you every second of the day and how I wish so badly I could have saved you, the officer said on Facebook. You will always be with me in my heart until the day I am taken from this earth. Then I will meet you in Heaven and I will get to see your beautiful smile in person.

RELATED: San Antonio girl shook off cancer with Taylor Swift and met the Spurs

At the ceremony, the family gifted Cole with a plaque, calling him a police hero.

This honestly had to be the biggest honor I have ever had in my 16 years as a police officer, Cole shared in a Facebook post. I was so touched that the family did this for me. I had the family sign the plaque for me and I will cherish it for the rest of my life.

Buzzfeed reported the officer has been nominated for the departments medal of honor.

mmendoza@mysa.com

Twitter: @MaddySkye
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton believes Dallas has the right to ban a controversial porn convention from setting up in a city-owned convention center, according to a legal brief filed last week.

Dallas City Council members voted in February to ban the Exxxotica porn expo from the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, deeming the event unfit to occupy a publicly owned facility.

Three Expo Events, which operates Exxxotica, then sued the city in federal court, claiming that officials violated the convention's First Amendment rights.

RELATED: Police: Central Texas high school teacher's aide performed oral sex on female student at playground

In a brief with several authors filed in federal court Thursday, Paxton argues the convention center is a "commercial enterprise" and "nonpublic forum" intended to stoke economic activity and generate revenue for the city.

The city council resolution is "both viewpoint neutral and 'reasonable in light of the purpose served by the forum,'" Paxton asserts in the filing, citing prior cases.

"Attorney General Ken Paxton, on behalf of the state of Texas, is committed to promoting economic development throughout the state," Paxton said in the filing. "Essential to that goal is ensuring that governmental entities can manage their commercial enterprises without onerous and unnecessary restrictions."

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Paxton on Monday for allegedly violating federal securities law by raising almost $1 million in investor funds for a North Texas technology startup without telling investors he was being paid to solicit monies for the company.

RELATED: Oklahoma teacher of the year slapped with indecent exposure charge over nude video sent to student

Lawyers for Dallas city officials defended the vote in a sexually explicit court filing submitted to the court on March 25.

Attorneys allege that Exxxotica didn't follow through on promises made to city officials by Exxxotica representative Jeffrey Handy that patrons and convention personnel would follow state law and city ordinances governing lewd acts.

"Although Mr. Handy had represented that sexual activities, including 'the fondling or other erotic touching of genitals, pubic region, buttocks, anus or female breasts,' were prohibited at Exxxotica Dallas ... in fact, such sexual activities took place at Exxxotica Dallas, and were observed and recorded," the filing reads.

Video footage shows convention goers and employees alike "engaging in specified sexual activities," according to the city's filing. The city does not detail how it obtained the footage.

"Both the attire of the entertainers and the conduct in which they engaged is indiscernible from the typical conduct at adult cabarets and nude model studios," the response reads.

The city also said in their response that the convention in August saw criminal activity, including an attendee punching a protester and a sting targeting men seeking young or underage women who mentioned the convention in ads on Backpage.com.

The response does not detail whether the ads were actually tied to the convention itself.

RELATED: Police: Iowa man masturbated on Megabus for 3 hours because he thought 'terrified' victim enjoyed it

Lawyers for the convention and city are scheduled to appear in federal court on Monday, according to court records.

jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports
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Round Rock police arrested one of their own over the weekend for allegedly choking his wife until she passed out after the couple argued about her contacting her ex-husband on Facebook, court documents show.

Shane Alan Myers, 37, was booked into Williamson County Jail on Saturday and charged with assault by strangulation - family violence, according to online jail records.

Myers has been placed on administrative leave, The Austin American-Statesman reported Monday.

RELATED: Video of San Antonio middle school officer slamming female student on concrete sparks investigation

The officer's wife told police that she and Myers had been in a "disturbance" about her contact with her former husband on Saturday, according to an arrest affidavit.

After she told Myers that the contact was "such a minor thing to be so upset about," Myers broke her work-issued iPad and keyboard over his knee.

Myers' wife then began screaming  asking what would happen if she "were to break your work computer"  and began walking toward the bedroom where the computer was laying on a desk, the affidavit said.

Myers told her to "calm down because she was acting crazy" before he grabbed by her arm, police said in the affidavit.

RELATED: North Texas school police officer arrested on charges of sexual assault of child

The officer's wife turned toward Myers and pushed him back, she told police.

Myers then wrapped his arm around his wife's neck and pushed her down on the bed, according to the affidavit.

The wife bit her bottom lip as her face was pushed into the bed, she told police.

She lost consciousness and awoke on the floor next to her bed, according to the affidavit. She told police she did not know how long she was unconscious.

Evidence of makeup and blood could be seen on the comforter where her face had been, police said in the affidavit.

RELATED: Affidavit: Former South Texas police officer put gun to man's head, asked 'You know who I am?'

Myers was released from jail Saturday on a $5,000 bond.

If convicted, Myers could serve up to 10 years in prison for the third degree felony charge.

jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports
SAN ANTONIO -- An argument between family members led to the fatal shooting of a 44-year-old man Sunday evening, police said.

San Antonio police received a call around 6:30 p.m. for a shooting in the 2500 block of Saunders Street on the near West Side. When first responders arrived, they found a man shot in the stomach. He died at the scene.
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A North Texas man will serve 45 days in jail after he tied an extension cord around his puppys neck, which ultimately caused an infection that led to the dogs euthanasia.

Daniel Loredo, a 30-year-old Ennis resident, was convicted of animal cruelty on April 7 and Loredo agreed the next day to a sentence of two years in prison.

That sentence was ultimately changed to a 45-day jail sentence followed by a five-year term of community supervision and a $2,000 fine, according to a news release from the Ellis County District Attorney's Office.

RELATED: 3 Texas A&M Corps of Cadets members charged in ritualistic dumping of dead dog on campus

Loredo is also not allowed to own or possess any animals.

Animal control officers responded to a call in the 700 block of S. McKinney on July 21, 2013, the release said. Three juveniles found the injured pit bull puppy, who was less than a year old. The dog had an extension cord tied around its neck that caused a severe laceration, according to the release.

Reports and testimony linked Loredo and his wife to the dog, officials said.

RELATED: Dallas man charged with cruelty in beating death of his dog

The cord was wrapped around the dogs neck for so long that it became embedded in its skin. This caused an infection and the dog was ultimately put down by the Ellis County SPCA, the release said.

Animal cruelty is a serious matter, said Ellis County District Attorney spokeswoman Ann Montgomery-Moran. With summer on the horizon, the Ellis County DAs Office would like to remind people that, while the facts in this case justified the felony conviction of cruelty to non-livestock animal, criminal charges can still apply in less severe circumstances.

RELATED: Cesar Millan Wont Face Charges in Cesar 911 Animal Cruelty Case

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
Recently, a group of citizens led by firefighters union members filed a petition challenging San Antonio Water Systems rate increases.

This petition marks the intersection of city politics and water policy. The police and fire unions have been locked in an intense battle with San Antonio City Hall over public safety health benefits. Public safety unions have never been particularly attuned to water policy, but the 142-mile Vista Ridge pipeline is controversial, making it potential fodder for the union fight over health care.

As Greg Brockhouse, a consultant for the public safety unions, put it to Express-News reporter Brendan Gibbons, SAWS customers are angry about rate increases, especially for such a big project. He has characterized the petition as not an official union function

But Its worth remembering that the Vista Ridge pipeline is only a small part of SAWS rate increases.

For 2016, the pipeline represents 12 cents of an average monthly residential bill, SAWS figures show. In 2017, the Vista Ridge pipeline represents 21 cents of an average monthly residential bill. By 2019, Vista Ridge jumps to $3.44 of an average monthly residential bill of $72.23.

Its not until 2020 that Vista Ridge really kicks in for your bill, accounting for $10.29 of an average monthly residential bill. By then, the typical monthly SAWS bill will be $81.73. Vista Ridge will account for 14.4 percent of that. So, whats really driving your SAWS bill rate increases?

Fixing years worth of sewage leaks as mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Thats mandated  as in not optional. Repairing and replacing these pipes will cost hundreds of millions of dollars  the result of years of negligence. When firefighters protest rate increases, they are mostly protesting fixing sewage leaks and improving infrastructure.

Were pretty sure nobody wants to return to the good old days when SAWS had multiple sewage spills every day.

Other factors in your monthly bill include paying debt, routine infrastructure repairs and SAWS desalination plant, which Vista Ridge foes support.

Putting off needed maintenance, like sewage infrastructure, might have saved some money back in the day, but now we are all paying big for it.

Theres a parallel argument there about the price of water, and the requisite planning needed for a fast-growing region like San Antonio. Thats a valuable civic lesson.

So, too, is this one: Water rates and public safety health care negotiations dont mix.
Toolkit helps NACS members file appeals to complaints from the Center for Tobacco Products, and fully safeguard their rights to sell tobacco.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.  Earlier this year an administrative law judge ruled that the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) was violating retailers rights and illegally charging them with two violations for a single inspection, along with denying them the right to a hearing to challenge warning letters. These improper violations can result in higher fines and an accelerated no-sale order status for convenience store(s).

NACS and retail member Orton Motor Co. launched a legal challenge in December 2015 to some of the practices CTP had engaged in to enforce its tobacco regulations, and in February, Administrative Law Judge Lewis T. Booker Jr. ruled in favor of Orton and NACS: Retailers cannot be charged with two violations for a single inspection and retailers are entitled to a hearing to challenge warning letters (or other penalties).

Although the CTP is appealing that case, NACS has prepared a toolkit that allows NACS members to make similar arguments in response to complaints and warning letters from CTP and fully protect their rights.

If you have been the victim of either of these violations, below is a fillable appeal letter, accessible only to NACS members. Please note that you have 30 days from receipt of a complaint for CTP to provide an answer or to request an extension.

Click below to access a fillable appeal letter:

Questions may be directed to Lyle Beckwith, NACS senior vice president of government relations, at lbeckwith@nacsonline.com.
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. Jointly posted with New Economic Perspectives

Andrew Ross Sorkin has written a column lamenting that For a Generalist, Too Big to Fail May Be Too Tricky to Judge about the district court opinion finding in favor of MetLife on the question of whether it would pose a system risk were it to fail. Sorkin runs the NYTs Deal Book, which is supposed to represent the papers specialized expertise with regard to Wall Street. His column demonstrates that one of the areas of expertise required to understand Wall Street is legal, and that it is beyond his understanding despite having read hundreds of pages of legal briefs from both sides, and talked to company and government officials and outside experts.

I will start with his description of the judge, Rosemary M. Collyer, which ignores vital information and misinterprets other information.

Shes also a member of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and once worked as the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. In other words, shes a legal rock star.

Well, no. It does mean her specialty is employment law. Her appointment to the FISC by Chief Justice Roberts means (1) she was appointed to the federal judiciary by a Republican president (Roberts appointed only Republicans to the FISC, which is outrageous) and (2) Roberts thinks she is disposed to vote to allow the mass surveillance of Americans by the NSA. Republican appointees to the judiciary are materially more hostile to government actions  except in the case of supposed national security.

Similarly, Sorkin gives a naive description of a scholar who claims that specialized economic courts are desirable.

Joshua D. Wright, a former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, co-wrote a 2011 study that determined in antitrust cases, a judges expertise had a significant impact on the validity of the ruling. Decisions of judges trained in basic economics are significantly less likely to be appealed than are decisions by their untrained counterparts, the study says. Our analysis supports the hypothesis that some antitrust cases are too complicated for generalist judges.

Perhaps, but a reader should be informed that Wright is a professor at the ultra-right wing George Mason University School of Law. More importantly, a judge who has been trained in basic economics is likely to have been trained that market power is of trivial importance. This point should be particularly clear to Wright because George Mason University (GMU) ran the leading propaganda program for the federal judiciary in economics, which focused on hostility to government regulation and antitrust enforcement by purporting to teach basic economics. Wright and his co-author not only admit this point  they cite the hostility of the modern judiciary to antitrust actions as evidence of the wondrous role that economics has played in changing the law and allowing the modern economy in which market power is celebrated.

The domination of the judiciary, particularly in the appellate courts, means that the district courts who rule against antitrust cases are more likely to be upheld on appeal. Appeals are expensive, so plaintiffs and the government are less likely to appeal such cases, which makes Wrights empirical study circular (and demonstrates how poor empirical work is passed off as science).. Even Wright admits that GMUs programs are controvers[ial].

Judges also perceive economic training to be beneficial; as discussed below, hundreds of judges have already sought out basic economic training. One reason judges might take time away from heavy dockets to receive such training is because doing so improves their decisions, thereby reducing appeals, reversals, or other potentially deleterious effects of economic complexity that could damage their reputations. Training judges in antitrust economics is not without controversy, however. Some have even criticized educational programs designed to teach judges basic economics. The George Mason University Law and Economics Center (LEC) has been the focus of much of the criticism, at least in some part because it is the largest of the judicial training organizations. The LEC began training judges in 1976 and has trained hundreds of federal judges currently on the bench. Teles (2008) notes that, by its height in 1990, the LEC Economic Institute for federal judges had trained 40 percent of the federal judiciary, including two Supreme Court Justices and 67 members of the federal courts of appeals.4 Critics claim that the programs amount to junkets designed to influence judicial decision-making, and are a thinly disguised attempt at indoctrinating judges with a particularly conservative, free-market oriented style of economics. Opposition to these programs recently led to proposed legislation that would effectively prohibit privately funded training programs for federal judges (Teles 2008). 4 The George Mason Law and Economics Center claims that more than 50 percent of the current federal Article III bench has attended LEC programs.

The largest financial sponsor of judicial propaganda programs is the Koch brothers, and the other major sponsors are also ultra-right wing entities dedicated to their hostility to government regulation and effective antitrust law. Note that in the quoted passage Wright and his co-author inadvertently admit the key problem with their empirical study.

One reason judges might take time away from heavy dockets to receive such training is because doing so improves their decisions, thereby reducing appeals, reversals, or other potentially deleterious effects of economic complexity that could damage their reputations.

Another reason for a district court to both take the GMU propaganda course and rule in accordance with its ideology is not to improve their decisions, but to conform their decisions to the dominant beliefs of the appellate judges  thereby reducing appeals, reversals, or other [results] that could damage their reputations. That is outrageous  and specialized economic courts would make it even worse, but Sorkin spots none of empirical errors, biases, or dangers with Wrights proposals.

The greatest problem with the GMU propaganda, however, is that it has long been falsified by reality. That, however, never penetrates the ideological barriers. Naturally, the firms with massive market power love the results of the ideology.

Sorkin does not understand the legal system and its treatment of large firms.

About two years ago, I was speaking with an executive at MetLife who floated the idea that the company should sue the government to overturn its designation as a firm that was too big to fail. The company believed that it was being unfairly labeled, and that the regulations that came with the designation were hindering its business. My initial reaction, I distinctly remember, was to say: Thats a terribly risky idea. The government always wins. Boy was I wrong.

The government always wins? What world does Sorkin inhabit? In the real world, we went through an enormous legislative battle precisely because that is not true. Any federal rule can be challenged in the District of Columbia, so virtually any federal rule can be blocked by the D.C. Circuit. A majority of the Court had been appointed by Republican presidents and many of them were exceptionally hostile to government programs and frequently declared new rules invalid.

Republicans viewed this judicial hostility in the D.C. Circuit to be of such extraordinary value to their Party and its corporate donors that Republican Senators refused to allow President Obama to fill vacancies in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. This was outrageous, and the Democrats (to their shame) put up with it for years before adopting a version of the so-called nuclear option to allow a Senate majority to approve the appointment of members of the judiciary.

Why the District Courts MetLife Decision is in Error and Dangerous

Sorkin shows that he does not understand the statute or the concept of what the statute provides as to when the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) designates an institution as systemically dangerous. (In a telling euphemism, they are actually designated systemically important.)

I have no idea if MetLife is too big to fail. Ive read hundreds of pages of legal briefs from both sides, and talked to company and government officials and outside experts, and Im still not sure. Ive tried to make sense of it, but it is a highly complicated puzzle and to make such a determination with any degree of certainty requires mathematically projecting how money will flow between hundreds of institutions around the globe.

Well, no. The first and last sentence quoted above make no sense. Let us begin with reality. MetLife reported that at yearend 2015 it had total assets of $878 billion. That means that it poses a massive risk to the global system should it fail. Maybe, if it had $500 billion less in reported assets it might be worthy of debate. It has over $200 billion more in reported assets that Lehman claimed when it failed  and Lehman triggered a global crisis.

The last sentence demonstrates Sorkins failure to understand the legal test and the concept of posing a systemic risk. Sorkin thinks the regulators must make such a determination with certainty through mathematically projecting how much money will flow between hundreds of institutions around the globe. The statute does not require any of that. No one can predict, perhaps a decade in advance, any of these elements. Indeed, the impossibility of knowing any of these things is one of the reasons why it is essential to get rid of the systemically dangerous financial institutions. What one can determine is that the financial institution is so massive and so interconnected with the global financial system that its failure would create a substantial risk of causing substantial disruption. The regulators amply demonstrated that point.

The judges opinion is premised on a very different statute, the one MetLifes lobbyists wished Congress had enacted.

Judge Collyers decision may well be entirely valid, but at least in certain places she appears off base. For example, she said the government never projected what the losses would be, which financial institutions would have to actively manage their balance sheets or how the market would destabilize as a result. Well, the government appears to have done much of that in its report, but youd need a pretty sophisticated understanding of finance to understand exactly how their numbers were calculated. Judge Collyer either decided to ignore those numbers or decided they were chosen arbitrarily. The conundrum in the case of the oversight council is that determining which companies pose a systemic risk cant be done with a straight formula. The nature of financial crises means that, as a regulator, youre playing against a 100-year storm that you cant fully foresee.

Sorkins discussion of Judge Colyers decision shows that she and he do not understand the statute or the concept of systemic risk. It is, of course, impossible for FSOC to project (a) the losses that MetLife will sustain over the next decade or (b) the losses that MetLifes failure would impose on other entities during some year over say the next decade. How can the FSOC know the counterparties that MetLife will have three weeks from now, much less a decade from now? Only a fool would believe that they could predict the mechanism three or ten years from now by which MetLifes failure would destabilize a particular market, particularly because MetLife may be a critical counterparty to an entity three years from now that does not even now. I am a strong critic of Dodd-Frank, but that does not mean that every (or even most) provisions of the Act were drafted by fools to be absurd. The Act does not require the impossibility that Judge Colyer demanded  that FSOC quantify the actual loss that would result from MetLifes failure.

But Sorkin and the judge are also wrong (as are the FSOC officials who make the systemic risk determinations) in their reliance on statistics and probabilities  and in the absurd belief that we ran, randomly into the equivalent of a 100-year storm. The probability of a global crisis is increased enormously if (a) we continue to create and make worse the criminogenic environments that produce the increasingly severe fraud epidemics that drive our financial crises and (b) if we continue to allow systemically dangerous institutions to exist rather than shrinking them. The econometric techniques being relied on by FSOC (and demanded by judges) are based on statistically invalid assumptions of a fixed distribution of risk. When we create perverse financial incentives to engage in widespread fraud we create a vastly increased risk of systemic failure.

Sorkin and other readers should read Better Markets analysis of the district court opinion. It would have allowed him to understand the issues and the district courts two other major errors in addition to its inventing a requirement that FSOC divine the future and quantify the actual loss.

First, the court erroneously held that FSOC had to prove that MetLife was vulnerable to failure. The statute has no such requirement for a logical reason. If you could not designate a financial entity as systemically dangerous until it had a demonstrated, major problem that could lead to its failure it would be far too late to do the things that the statute is designed to do to reduce the risk of failure and the severity of the failure. The statute asks: if the entity fails could that failure pose a material risk of disrupting the economy?

Second, the court invented a requirement for a cost-benefit study. The statute has no such requirement, because doing so would require a farcical exercise.

The three central errors that the court made have nothing to do with her lacking specialized finance training. They are all easily understood errors of law and they all arise from extreme ideological hostility on the part of the judge against government regulation of the systemically dangerous financial institutions that will again blow up the global economy unless we shrink them to the point that they no longer create that danger. The issue is when the next systemically dangerous entity will fail  not if.

One of the reasons we, the Bank Whistleblowers United, proposed getting rid of the systemically dangerous institutions through the use of banking regulators powers to set individual minimum capital requirements is that it allows vastly quicker remedial action than the cumbersome FSOC procedure that took over two years to designate MetLife as posing a systemic risk.
Lambert here: Nice to have some detail on this murky incident.

By John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia, and the only western journalist to direct his own bureau independent of single national or commercial ties. Helmer has also been a professor of political science, and an advisor to government heads in Greece, the United States, and Asia. He is the first and only member of a US presidential administration (Jimmy Carter) to establish himself in Russia. Originally published at Dances with Bears

The confrontation last week between Russian aircraft and a US-Polish naval operation in the Baltic Sea, within shooting distance of Kaliningrad, was a long anticipated and professionally executed exercise by the military commanders of all three countries. Unprofessional, as Admiral Mark Ferguson commanding US Naval Forces in Europe called it, was the very least thing it was. But who provoked, who feinted, who attacked first, and who defended are questions the publicity that has followed is meant to obscure.

One outcome that was not anticipated by either the attackers or defenders has begun to materialize in Warsaw. There, the rhetoric of military buildup along Polands eastern frontier has run into the cold calculation that Polands survival chances arent likely to be much better than those of the USS Donald Cook, if there had been a real firefight, Turkish style.



The US destroyer Donald Cook is armed with the Aegis combat system, a combination of missiles intended to attack Russian nuclear, as well as non-nuclear missile batteries on land, sea, and in the air. The ship is normally docked at the NATO base at Rota, Spain. Between April 8 and 11, it was at the Polish port of Gdynia. The US Navy press reported the port call as part of the vessels fourth forward-deployed patrol in support of ballistic missile defense of EuropeSuch port visits serve to enhance U.S.-Polish relations as the two nations work together for a stable, secure and prosperous region.

The Donald Cook departed from Gdynia on April 11 and sailed northeast to Klaipeda, Lithuania, where it made port on the morning of April 14. There isnt a ferry between the two ports. Driving on land the long way around the Russian territory of Kaliningrad takes 8 hours. If there were a direct ferry, it would take no more than 6 hours. The US Navy destroyer took more than three days.

In the interval, steaming very slowly, the Donald Cook conducted exercises with SH-2G Super Seasprite helicopter units of the Polish Navy. At a distance of about 70 kilometres offshore from Kaliningrad and the Russian missile, naval and air base complex around Baltysk, the US-Polish operations were shadowed by units of the Russian Navy and Air Force. According to the US Navy version, in the mid-afternoon of April 11 the Donald Cook was conducting deck landing drills with an Allied military helicopter when two Russian SU-24 jets made numerous, close-range and low altitude passes.

After suspending the Polish helicopter landings for a time, the operation reportedly resumed. The next day, April 12, the US Navy says a Russian KA-27 Helix helicopter conducted circles at low altitude around the ship, seven in total, at approximately 5 p.m. local. The helicopter passes were also deemed unsafe and unprofessional by the ships commanding officer. About 40 minutes following the interaction with the Russian helicopter, two Russian SU-24 jets made numerous close-range and low altitude passes, 11 in total. The Russian aircraft flew in a simulated attack profile and failed to respond to repeated safety advisories in both English and Russian.

The last pass was videotaped on board, and the images published to the world by the Pentagon (lead image). By ignoring two days of more than 20 Russian aircraft sorties around the Donald Cook, it has been made to appear the two Su-24s were simulating a strafing attack. Subsequently, Secretary of State John Kerry announced: Its unprofessional and under the rules of engagement that could have been a shot down, so people need to understand that this is serious business and the United States is not going to be intimidated in high seas. We respect our freedom of navigation  and we are communicating to the Russians how dangerous this is.

What actually had happened has been more precisely reported in the Polish press. There it has been revealed that the Russian aircraft were not armed with ordnance, but with electronic countermeasures pods designed for jamming hostile gunnery and missile targeting systems. If the commanders and their signals staff on board the Donald Cook were not themselves confused or jammed, they knew that the final two passes, after the nine earlier ones that afternoon, was anything but an attack simulation.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36050689

The Polish state radio also reported the Ministry of Defence in Warsaw as claiming the joint US-Polish operation will be practising take-offs and landings from the deck of the ship. This, Polish defence reports say, was false. According to the Polish sources, the 20-year old helicopters have performed several thousand landings and takeoffs on Polish vessels at sea. The Polish state media have also reported that after the suspension of the April 11 operation, the buzzing the next day put a stop to the operation altogether. If true, the Su-24 attack achieved its purpose.

But what was the US and Polish purpose, and why were so many warnings issued by the Russian side, and ignored by the US and Polish commanders?

It was almost exactly two years ago that the USS Donald Cook was buzzed by a pair of Su-24s in the Black Sea. On that occasion the Russian aircraft made their passes at a slightly higher altitude. They too were equipped with electronic signal jammers. The operations were reported by the Russian side at the time as defensive of shore installations on Crimea and the mainland. In the Russian interpretation, each of the Donald Cooks forward deployed patrols is an operation aimed at Russian naval and shore defences, and at Russias long-range nuclear missile deployments which are targeted at western Europe and the US. These include the mobile S-400s, nuclear armed, which have been reported to be moving in and out of Kaliningrad. As analysed here, nothing an Aegis-armed missile battery does within range of Russia can be routine at any time.

As a forward deployment of an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system, the Donald Cooks port-call in Poland, and its subsequent cruise across the Baltic to Lithuania, make, for the Russian side, a US violation of Article XIV of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 2010. For the treaty wording, click to open. For an early assessment by the US Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists of how the two sides regard the US Navys Aegis deployments in the Black and Baltic Seas, read this. For a summary of Russian military interpretations of the Aegis deployments, before the start of the US campaigns on the Ukraine and Syrian fronts, read this.

The first three of the Donald Cooks patrols were in the Black Sea. Last week, the Donald Cook was making its first foray against Russian targets under the Baltic Sea and onshore.
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The Mafia, in its heyday, ran lucrative protection rackets. Pay them and your business would be kept safe from "unforeseen" threats. Don't pay them and your business might go up in smoke with you inside.

Today, things are more sophisticated.

The New York Times reports that Saudi Arabia, playing the role of Mafia extortionist, has threatened to "sell off hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks."

The Saudis are estimated to hold about $750 billion in Treasury securities and other assets in the U.S. and the concern is they might sell them before American courts could impose a freeze. The Obama administration opposes the bill, saying it could potentially open the kingdom to lawsuits from relatives of the dead and injured. So?

Why do the Saudis oppose this bill, which enjoys bipartisan support? Could it be because, as many believe, they helped facilitate the greatest mass murder in American history? Fifteen of the 19 men involved in the terrorist plot were Saudi citizens and that country promotes the most extreme form of Islam known as Wahhabism.

Adding to the suspicion that there is more to be learned about Saudi Arabia's role are 28 pages contained in the 9/11 Commission's report censored by the Bush administration for "national security reasons." Need more? According to government documents obtained by Judicial Watch, "160 subjects of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including but not limited to members of the House of Saud and/or members of the bin Laden family, fled the U.S. (on chartered planes when all other aircraft were grounded) between Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept. 15, 2001."

In an April 10 appearance on the CBS program "60 Minutes," former Florida Democratic Sen. Bob Graham, who chaired the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at the time the report was being written, said: "I think it is implausible to believe that 19 people, most of whom didn't speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, many of whom didn't have a high school education, could've carried out such a complicated task without some support from within the United States."

Graham thinks the hijackers received active support and guidance from rich Saudis, Saudi charities and top members of the Saudi government.

This is a matter that is easily resolved by releasing the 28 pages. The relatives of the dead have a right to know who funded the terrorist attack that killed their loved ones. Justice demands it and if compensation is awarded, the Saudis, who have made billions from oil sales to the West, can afford it.

The intent of the Senate bill is to clarify the immunity normally given to foreign governments. It says such immunity should not apply when nations are found culpable of committing terrorist attacks that kill Americans on U.S. soil.

The Obama administration claims that weakening the immunity law could put U.S. corporations, the American government and its citizens at legal risk because other nations might retaliate with similar legislation. The difference is that U.S. citizens are not hijacking planes and committing mass murder in other countries. The bill's sponsors, notes The New York Times, "have said that the legislation is purposely drawn very narrowly  involving only attacks on American soil  to reduce the prospect that other nations might try to fight back."

For too long Republican and Democratic administrations have ignored the actions and teachings of Saudi Arabia, including textbooks used in Islamic schools that denigrate Jews and other "infidels" and the building of mosques that some imams are using to spread hate and recruit suicide bombers.

This bipartisan bill should pass, and if the president vetoes it, he should explain his reason to the families of the dead.
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WASHINGTON  Here's a note of caution that has nothing to do with the chaos of the current campaigns for the president in both parties, largely because the participants fortunately are flying in privately chartered airplanes.

The rest of us aren't so lucky, and even in business we must rely on commercial airlines with the best prices we can find. This makes us more than a little vulnerable to those who promote not only lower fares, but the rest of the needs of the average traveler  mainly hotel space and rental cars. These are generally "middle men" who operate online and continue to bombard you with daily emails touting the latest exotic trips and deals to Bora Bora or Armpit, Missouri, or wherever for just a pittance. You probably shouldn't open these unless absolutely necessary or have a tendency toward masochism.

I'm reminded of the pilgrim who answered one that provided an opportunity for a $100 trip to a Caribbean island and when he showed up, found himself slammed into an inner tube and shoved out into the ocean. An hour later his conveyance bumped into a similar one carrying another man.

"I hope they fly us back," said the pilgrim.

"Yeah," said his new acquaintance. "But they didn't the last time."

That's probably an extreme case for most of the companies that profess great savings. They are backed by the airlines, who encourage them as a way to cut their own costs through fewer employees they must hire and train as reservationists. Not a bad idea at all, except when it is.

I must confess that I have used one of these ticket promoters, Travelocity, frequently and found everything satisfactory ... well, most of the time. On several occasions I realized the flight I had chosen suddenly went up in price as I waited for the final confirmation. The latest of these glitches got me thinking that perhaps I wasn't getting the best fare after all. Duh!

I went online the other day to book a business trip to Indianapolis, chose a morning nonstop flight at a reasonable rate, and filled in all the necessary blanks to purchase a round-trip ticket. Then I waited for confirmation and waited, and waited with a notice on my screen that I shouldn't turn off my computer or otherwise disturb the process. Finally, I gave up without knowing whether I had successfully completed the transaction.

I called the selling agency directly to check if I had. After the usual disembodied interrogation about what I wanted, I talked to a young woman with a heavy accent listened to my complaint, breaking in irritatingly every now and then to thank me for my patience, which was wearing pretty thin. Forty-five minutes later I was still on the line, having gone over the flight I wanted at least five times.

In the midst of this I was told that my flight would not cost $192 round-trip as I had selected from the menu, but $300, and I could reduce that slightly if I took a hotel room in the deal. Explaining to her that I did not need a hotel room, did not want a hotel room and wasn't going to pay for a hotel room, she finally put the finishing touches on the transaction ... I thought. I complained bitterly that I resented the fare increase but really had no choice. Then I remembered a near doubling of the cost had occurred twice before in dealing with this agency and I had let it go, believing it was the airline's decision.

After providing all the credit card information and listening to her go over the itinerary for the umpteenth time and thanking me for my patience, she said she would now confirm everything, which I thought already had been done. Suddenly I hear music and since I don't suffer from the problem of extraneous noise, I deduced she had gone away somewhere. Like an idiot, I waited another 10 minutes before realizing she probably wasn't coming back. I hung up on Travelocity forever.

I called American Airlines directly to ask if the flight had been booked. It had not. But a pleasant reservationist took only moments to book my flight.

The cost  $192. A cautionary tale? You bet!
Opening day ceremonies for the Tamiami Trail at Everglades City (then known as Everglade) on April 27, 1928. Courtesy of Collier County Museum

SHARE Naples Daily News File Photo A small group of Bottlenose Dolphins jump in the wake produced by the Manatee II on Chokoloskee Bay during an ecologial boat tour in Everglades National Park in 2011. Wildlife tourism, is a $19 billion-a-year business along the Gulf of Mexico and settlement money from the 2010 BP oil spill should focus on restoring ecologically sensitive areas to keep the industry thriving.

1. Thursday: Bottlenose dolphin lecture

Rookery Bay Reserve will host a guest lecturer Kim Bassos-Hull, senior biologist at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota. She will highlight the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program's long-term study of the bottlenose dolphin in Southwest Florida, including their biology and behavior as well as conservation issues they face. Additionally, Bassos-Hull will present recent research findings on the biology and behavior of the ray species in our coastal waters.

The talk is at 2:30 p.m., Thursday, April 21, at the Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center, 300 Tower Road, Naples. Lecture is free. Registration is recommended and is available by calling 239-530-5972.

2. Alzheimer's educational series

Marco Island Civitan Club will sponsor an Alzheimer's educational program from 10 a.m. until noon, Wednesday, April 20 entitled "Caring For Yourself So That You Can Be A Better Caregiver."

Knowing your emotional limits and physical limits; understand why caregiver reactions can affect outcomes in an unsafe way; Learn how to prioritize your "to do" list, and reduce your stress; When to get more help in the home Or consider placement.

It is recommended that participants register in advance by calling Jan at 317-345-8832 or send an email to jstuglik8587@hotmail.com.

3. 88th Anniversary of Tamiami Trail

Saturday, April 23, the Museum of the Everglades is excited to announce the celebration of the 88th anniversary of the opening of the Tamiami Trail in addition to the 18th birthday celebration of the opening of the Museum of the Everglades. Friends of the Museum of the Everglades invite guests to attend the full day of festivities including lectures, antique cars and live music in and on the museum grounds.

The day's schedule of events includes:

11 a.m., historic walking tour of Everglades City led by the Friends of the Museum of the Everglades.

Noon, lunch completed with birthday cake and live music sponsored by the Friends of the Museum of the Everglades.

1 p.m., "Everglades Area Memories" panel discussion in the Carol Mossman Lecture Hall featuring residents of the Everglades Area telling personal accounts of living in Everglades City during its heyday.

This event is free and open to the public. Event parking is free of charge and the museum, located on 105 W. Broadway, Everglades City.

Information: colliermuseums.com or call 239-695-0008.
Mark Sievers appears in court for a DCF arraignment on Monday at the Lee County Justice Center. (Jack Hardman/The News-Press)

By Jacob Carpenter of the Naples Daily News

Murder defendant Mark Sievers denied the allegations against him raised by the Florida Department of Children and Families at a hearing Monday, signaling his intention to fight the agency's efforts to remove his two daughters from his care.

Sievers' action sets the stage for the juvenile dependency court's version of a trial in early June. DCF officials took aim at Sievers after he was accused of orchestrating the June killing of his wife, Bonita Springs Dr. Teresa Sievers. The children now reside with Teresa Sievers' mother as their father remains in jail on murder and conspiracy charges.

Both sides are expected to enter into mediation before a June 1 adjudicatory hearing, when a judge will determine whether DCF officials have proved the allegations against Sievers. If they do, a judge would then order instructions for the care of Sievers' children, ages 9 and 11.

"I don't know that there's anything but I'm certainly willing to go and participate," said Kristin Allain, a lawyer representing DCF.

The allegations levied by DCF against Sievers aren't public record. Sievers' lawyer, Michael Mummert, said one of the most challenging allegations against Sievers is his inability to care for his children given his incarceration. Sievers is asking for a reduction of his $4.43 million bond, with a hearing set for Thursday.

"If he is in custody, he's simply not in a role to fulfill his position as a parent," Mummert said.

In a separate domestic relations court proceeding, the mother of Teresa Sievers, Mary Ann Groves, and Mark Sievers' mother are each seeking temporary custody of the two children for the duration of Mark Sievers' incarceration. The children now reside with Groves.

A hearing to determine temporary custody is set for May 11, but any decisions made at that time likely wouldn't go into full effect until the juvenile dependency trial and disposition is resolved.

Also on Monday, Lee Circuit Judge Robert Branning appointed a guardian ad litem for the Sievers children to act as an independent advocate for them.

"They do have a lot of questions," Allain said. "There are a lot of issues. The case is very high-profile and significant."

Lee County sheriff's investigators believe Sievers coordinated with his lifelong friend, Curtis "Wayne" Wright Jr., to have his wife killed. Investigators said Wright and another man, Jimmy Rodgers, traveled from their home state of Missouri and bludgeoned Teresa Sievers to death while her husband was in Connecticut with the couple's children.

Wright has pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge and agreed to provide substantial cooperation with prosecutors in exchange for a 25-year prison sentence. The case against Rodgers, who's charged with second-degree murder, is still pending.

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By Melhor Leonor of the Naples Daily News

Michael Barry talks about indoor temperature control  our ability to control moisture and sensible heat  as one of the greatest successes of mankind.

"We would not be the world we are today if we didn't have it," he explains, inside a room full unplugged air-conditioning units and training models used to teach about heating, ventilation and air-conditioning at Lorenzo Walker Technical College.

"Let me ask you: How would you like to live in Southwest Florida without AC?"

It's a question, he says, most people in the 21st century seldom think about. Most homes come equipped with their own units, installed and serviced by HVAC technicians.

Like many careers impacted by the near-halt in new constructions here, during the recession, jobs for HVAC technicians quickly dwindled. And with them went the HVAC program at Lorenzo Walker.

That started to change in recent months, when the technical college was tapped by local firms looking for technicians to satisfy a demand ushered in by a rise in new constructions.

"Our own school district came to us and said, 'We cannot find HVAC technicians,'" said Denise Duzick, an administrator at the technical college.

Duzick said companies like Conditioned Air donated equipment to help kick-start a program that could produce certified HVAC technicians, and on Tuesday, the school board approved an appropriation of close to $1 million that will create a space where the program can be taught.

"Because of the demand of the local industry, we felt this was a program that needed to come back," Duzick said.

To test the waters, the school launched a low-key version of the program in January with five students, under the helm of Michael Barry. They gather in a bare-bone room piled with equipment waiting to be assembled.

"You can't think of what you see, but what you will see in August," Duzick said.

By the start of the fall semester, the school hopes to have assembled a state-of-the-art HVAC training facility that will include a classroom for lectures and a large space with multiple stations equipped with HVAC systems students can tinker with.

A large part of the cost includes upgrades to the facility's electrical infrastructure, which needs to be able to handle the returns of multiple HVAC units.

Before all of that happens, Barry will spend the next couple of months working with the five men who are getting first shot at the up-and-coming program.

For five and half hours, five days a week, students learn about the history of air-conditioning  "It all started with ice," Barry says  and dive into equipment full of worked-in complications they need to learn to fix.

They also learn soft skills, like how to work with irate customers and fill out invoices that explain in detail the repair that was done.

"When students leave these programs, hopefully their knowledge will allow them to install a unit in a new facility or a new home," Barry said.

Barry is a native of Lee County who has been working in the industry for decades. He studied business in college, but after graduation decided to join the HVAC company that had employed him part-time during college. He was drawn by the machines, he said.

"If you like to tinker, this is a good trade to be in."

As for his students, there are different draws.

"You want the real answer? The money, of course," said Andy Chery, 22, laughing. He is enticed by the prospects of an industry eager for more trained employees.

"It's needed everywhere," Chery said. "It's also about helping people. Getting it done right the first time."
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By Laura Layden of the Naples Daily News

John Cox has landed a job as an executive pastor in North Carolina.

The former president and CEO of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce posted the news on Facebook, saying he started his new job at Connect Christian Church in Concord on Sunday.

"This is a major step for Connect, one that our leaders have discussed and prayed over for more than two years," the church announced.

Cox could not be reached for comment.

After calling Naples home for about 2-1/2 years, Cox returned to North Carolina. He was fired from the local chamber, leaving his post in September. The chamber has since hired his replacement.

On Facebook, Cox described his new job as a "wonderful opportunity," adding that the church "welcomes nearly 1,200 people each week to its worship services, has a dynamic outreach of service to the community and has a preschool which my granddaughters attend."

According to the church's announcement Cox and his family have attended Connect since 2001 and he "served on the eldership for a number of years."

"John has completed the course work for his Doctor of Ministry from Lincoln Christian University with a specialization in leadership. John has served churches in Illinois and as the leader of the state evangelizing association in Georgia. He effectively led chambers of commerce and economic development organizations in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida for 25 years," the note from the church states.

In his new job, Cox will work with the lead pastor to "guide, facilitate and coordinate the development and implementation of the strategic plan of Connect," according to the announcement. He will also oversee the church's financial administration and lead and manage staff.

In 2013, Cox relocated to Naples from Kannapolis, North Carolina, where he headed up the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce for more than a decade. He served as that chamber's president and CEO for 12 years, leading economic development efforts there that brought in a half a billion dollars in new capital investment, on top of thousands of jobs.

The three-year contract he signed with the Naples chamber wouldn't have ended until August 2016.

Some criticized Cox's management style, with such a high employee turnover rate at his offices, but a few weeks before his departure he told a Daily News reporter he thought he was checking off all the boxes when it came to doing his job right at the chamber.

Supporters here rallied around Cox, hoping to keep him in Naples, while family, friends and colleagues up north encouraged him to return to North Carolina. Some of those pleas came via Facebook.

Vicki Tracy, a Greater Naples Chamber board member, said while she was sad to see Cox go, she was glad to see him find a job elsewhere.

"I'm so happy that John accepted that new position. What an asset to that community and the church he will be," she said.

She said he has the right skills for the job. She was in the 2014 Leadership Collier class with Cox. The class is designed to develop a network of future leaders.

"Many in his Leadership Collier class saw the caring and compassionate leadership style he had," Tracy said. "That is why we remain friends with him."
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Allen Hergenhahn, Bonita Springs

Changed plans

I was glad to read about Grand Resorts-Fort Myers Beach's change in its proposal.

CEO Tom Torgerson made it public saying they are scrapping part of their ambitious development plans.

Maybe the general public will be allowed to still enjoy Crescent Beach Park after all.

I understand, too, Weeks Fish Camp property owners in south Lee County are going to withdraw their second proposal consisting of high-rise towers. Could this mean the proposed building of four high-rise towers has hit a backlash? It certainly would have prohibited most boaters access to Estero Bay estuary.

How about the developers' first plan that Bonita's city leaders supported? A new marina with an Old Florida-style upscale restaurant  a project to mimic the 1940s old-Florida-style to honor the old fishing camp. Returning to the original plan would certainly again garner support from many if not most of the people of Bonita Springs and Estero.

Why you ask? Former Bonita Springs Mayor Ben Nelson once noted that the first plan provided the public a way to use the waterfront and have a direct route to the Gulf.

Case in point  Remember how people still today go to the field of dreams in Iowa? Build it and they will come.
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Kristen Sonneborn, Naples

Up to the test

We all face challenges and tests in life. We can't "opt out" of, or shrink in fear from, those things that are stressful or daunting.

As FDR said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself  nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

In the case of the Florida Standards Assessment, I have observed that our son and his classmates don't seem very fearful or stressed. In talking with other parents from various schools, they say the same thing. I think that's a sign of how well-prepared the public school students in Collier County are.

It is simply not true that teachers spend 50 percent of their time teaching to the test. One can volunteer in any classroom around town, as I do, and see the high quality of teaching on a daily basis.

Their excellent instruction combined with the rigors of the curriculum prepare our students for many things  testing included. You can argue until you're blue in the face about the merits of testing, the type of test, the test scoring, etc., but we can all agree that Collier County Public Schools students and teachers are amazing. We are so lucky to live in Collier County. Be proud of our children. They will face the challenges of tomorrow with poise and confidence.
Wine Spectator has released its top 10 Charity Wine Auctions of 2015 and Scott Robertson Auctioneers conducted two of the top 10. The Sonoma Harvest Wine Auction in Kenwood, California and The Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest were named 3rd and 4th highest grossing in the nation. The ranking is based on total live auction-bid earnings excluding paddle-raise or fund-a-need lots. The Sonoma Harvest Wine Auction raised $ 2,441,500 and The Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest raised $2,200,000 in the live auctions. With the paddle raise special appeals factored into the totals these fundraising auctions generated an amazing $4.5 million and $3.3 million dollars respectfully.



The incredible leadership, the sponsors, the vintners and the guests stepped up to take both of these events over the top, said Robertson, a full time professional Benefit Auctioneer. I am amazed by the generosity of the wonderful people attending the Sonoma Harvest Wine Auction and The Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest.



Scott Robertson did an amazing job getting the crowd to give more deeply, said Dorothy Fitzgerald, vice president of Southwest Florida Childrens Charities, organizers of The Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest. Scott's charismatic charm set the stage and transformed the crowd, amazing even some of the most veteran and generous auction attendees. While it takes the generosity of the donors to make this happen, it is no coincidence that these successful charity auctions highlight Scott's ability to make a huge difference in the outcome of an event.



Scott Robertson has taken our Sonoma Wine Country Weekend auction from raising a few dollars for local charities to making it the third highest fundraising charitable auction in the United States, said Squire Fridell, President Emeritus of the Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers Alliance. I have had the opportunity to work with a number of auctioneers and I consider Scott to be the very best.



A full time professional Benefit Auctioneer, Robertson annually conducts 70-80 fundraising auctions, raising more than $29 million dollars this past year. He is one of an estimated 50 auctioneers in the country that make fundraising auctions their full time profession. Scott has earned the Benefit Auctioneer Specialist (BAS) designation from the National Auctioneers Association. Less than 1% of the auctioneers in the country have earned the BAS professional designation. To learn more about Scott Robertson Auctioneers visit thevoe.com or call 239-246-2139.
Dr. Aysegul Timur, dean of the Johnson School of Business (JSOB) at Hodges University, was presented with the Frank V. Mastrianna Education Leader of the Year Award at the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE) 2016 Annual Conference and Assembly Meeting held April 5-8 in Memphis, Tennessee.

I am so honored to receive the Frank V. Mastrianna Education Leader of the Year Award by the IACBE. My entire team works so hard and this recognition is for all of our hard work, said Timur.

The Frank V. Mastrianna Education Leader of the Year Award is presented to individuals who are leaders in higher education and are making valuable and significant contributions to a higher education institution or organization. According to IACBE, the recipient must be part of the IACBE community and is chosen based on his/her contributions to education, the community and to IACBE and/or members of IACBE.

Dr. Timur met all of our criteria and what set her apart were her contributions to Hodges University, as well as her active involvement within the Naples community and to the IACBE, said Dennis Gash, president of the IACBE. I understand she played a significant role in the self-study for accreditation, which was extremely well done.

In 2015, Hodges Johnson School of Business received reaffirmation of accreditation of its business, accounting and management programs by IACBE. The school was publicly recognized for its achievement during the annual conferences accreditation banquet.
Dress for Success SW Florida is pleased to announce that Jessica Wajoli has been chosen as the organizations 2016 Success Story and will be honored at its annual signature event, A Fashion Night in Black & White on Wednesday, April 27 at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Naples.



Hear Jessicas inspiring story and enjoy an evening of fashion, hors doeuvres, champagne, dinner and a silent auction to support Dress for Success SW Florida in its life-changing work of promoting the professional development and transformation of women in Collier and Lee counties.



A native of the farmlands of Ghana, Jessica arrived in Fort Myers with her American husband in 2010 seeking a better life, but instead faced many serious struggles. The mentorship she received from Dress for Success SW Florida while living in an ACT shelter helped her turn her life around.



While working as a home health assistant, and with the help of many compassionate women along the way, she was able to gain the education and confidence needed to fulfill her dream of honoring the entrepreneurial spirit of her mother, who made soaps for her daughters to sell when Jessica was growing up. Many Southwest Floridians have already delighted in Jessicas exquisite handcrafted WAW (Wajoli African Wear) jewelry using locally sourced materials and the colorful clothing, sandals and baskets she sells from women in Ghana.



100% of the proceeds from A Fashion Night in Black & White support the continued advancement of Dress for Success SW Floridas programs for women in Collier and Lee counties.



Attendees are invited to dress to impress, symbolizing the confidence, hope and style of the women Dress for Success SW Florida serves. Everyone will enjoy star treatment and walk the red carpet, illuminated by the flashes of paparazzi. Guests will be the first to preview White House Black Markets Summer 2016 collection.



The Title Sponsor for this years event is the Elizabeth K. Galena Foundation Inc. Other sponsors include: Arthrex; Bank United; Card Systems; Catalyst; CONRIC PR & Marketing; eBella Magazine; eGuarded; Entech; First Florida Integrity Bank; Hodges University; Markham, Norton, Mosteller, Wright and Company, P.A.; Norman Love Confections, Paul Mitchell The School; Stevens Construction; Walmart; and White House Black Market.



Individual tickets are $125. Tables are available for $1,200 and seat 10. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. For more information or to purchase tickets, please call (239) 689-4992 or email swflorida@dressforsuccess.org. Your co-hosts for this evening of fashion will be Board Members Shiree Woody and Barbara Melvin.



Dress for Success SW Florida services include: one-on-one job interview suiting with a Personal Shopper; Dress for Success boutiques in Naples and Fort Myers; and encouragement, advice and mentorship of women who are unemployed, underemployed and entrepreneurs starting their own business. Dress for Success SW Florida is located in both Naples and Fort Myers.



Dress for Success SW Florida is part of a global movement for change, empowering women to obtain safer and better futures. Since starting operations in 1997, Dress for Success has expanded to more than 141 cities in 19 countries and has helped more than 850,000 women work towards self-sufficiency, while providing career wardrobes, employment counseling and mentoring. The Fort Myers location of Dress for Success SW Florida is 12995 S. Cleveland Ave. Suite 153, Fort Myers in the Pinebrook Plaza. The Naples location is Hodges University, 2655 Northbrooke Dr., Naples. For information on Dress for Success SW Florida, email swflorida@dressforsuccess.org, call 239- 689-4992 or visit dfsswflorida.org.
Lawyers for investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac asked a federal appeals court to at least revive their claims that the U.S. stripped the companies of billions of dollars of profits, depriving shareholders of dividends, if not to go further and rule the transfer of profits to the government was unlawful.

Government attorneys countered that the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which has effectively controlled the mortgage giants since their 2008 bailout, was acting within the authority it was granted by Congress when it implemented the so-called net worth sweep in 2013 that sent the companies' profits to the U.S. Treasury Department. They also argued that without the government's infusion of almost $190 billion, the companies, which back residential mortgages, would have collapsed.

On April 15, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington heard almost three hours of argument over the sweep and whether to reverse a 2014 trial court decision to reject individual and institutional investors' claims the government had breached contracts and violated the Constitution by taking property without compensation. The packed courtroom was standing room only.

"The net worth sweep was a massive, and we submit lawless, expropriation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," which rendered them insolvent "zombies," said former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, arguing on behalf of hedge fund manager Perry Capital LLC of New York and Miami-based Fairholme Funds.

The appellate argument capped a tumultuous week for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Shares of the government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs, climbed more than 40% at one point last week after the judge in a related case decided to unseal evidence the investors' lawyers sought to cite before the panel.

U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett, a 2013 appointee of President Barack Obama, sharply questioned lawyers for both sides about the scope of FHFA's conservatorship over Freddie and Fannie and whether it had strayed into the role of a receiver undertaking a de facto liquidation. Joining her on the bench were circuit judges Janice Rogers Brown, a 2005 nominee of President George W. Bush, and Douglas H. Ginsburg, a 1986 selection of President Ronald Reagan.

They offered no clear indication of when or how they would rule.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back about two-thirds of the $6.46 trillion U.S. residential mortgage market, providing liquidity to the housing market by packaging mortgages into securities on which they guarantee payments of principal and interest. Outside of that core business, they each also have investment portfolios and finance commercial real estate.

Profitable for the past four years, with the sweep in place for three of them, the government had received more than $230 billion by early last year.

Their outlook was vastly different in 2008, when taxpayers propped up the companies, which were then on the brink of insolvency amid the global financial crisis, FHFA lawyer Howard Cayne told the court. Had the mortgage market failed, "that would have made a horrible situation just so much worse," he told the court.

The government's defense rests largely upon HERA, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which created the FHFA, empowered it to act as a conservator  or as receiver  for the mortgage companies and provided only limited avenues for legal challenges. At that time, the Federal National Mortgage Association, also known as Fannie Mae, and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., or Freddie Mac, owned or guaranteed more than $5 trillion in residential mortgages, about half the U.S. market, according to a government court filing.

In exchange for that capital commitment, the U.S. took a controlling interest in each business and assured itself a senior position in the event one or both were liquidated. It also allocated to itself, at least initially, quarterly dividends equal to 10% of its liquidation stake value.

For a time, that commitment was open-ended, enabling Fannie and Freddie to ultimately draw $187 billion to prevent their insolvency while paying the government its guaranteed dividend.

That situation changed with the amendment announced in August of 2012, which replaced the fixed dividend obligation "with a requirement that the enterprises pay, as a dividend, the amount, if any, by which their net worth exceeds a capital buffer," lawyers for the U.S. said in court papers. That buffer is slated for elimination in 2018.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who threw out the investor suits in 2014, found most of their claims barred by HERA. The shareholders' right to dividends, he added, were "wholly dependent" on the discretion of the government sponsored enterprises' directors and their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

"The plaintiffs' grievance is really with Congress," the judge said then.

Arguing for reversal of the Lamberth ruling, investors' lawyer Hamish Hume asked the appellate court to look at the "economic substance" of the government's action, not merely its form. "The companies did become profitable," while those who held stock at the sweep's inception were "materially harmed." He is a partner in the Washington office of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.

While Hume sought the opportunity to prove investors' case at the trial court, Olson told the judges the sweep needed to be set aside.

Justice Department lawyer Mark Stern rejected the proposition that the FHFA's conservation of Freddie and Fannie had veered into a receivership, telling the court the Treasury Department's financial commitment to the companies is ongoing.

"When the third amendment was announced," Ginsburg said, referring to that portion of the bailout plan that authorized the profits sweep, "Treasury said we're going to wind this thing down, we going to kill it, we're going to drive a stake through its heart, we're going to salt the earth so it can never grow back."

"I don't remember that language," Stern deadpanned.

The case is Perry Capital LLC v. Lew, 14-5243, 14-5254, 14.5260 and 14-5262, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit (Washington).
Ocwen Financial and Assurant have reached an agreement to settle charges that the embattled mortgage servicer profited from kickbacks on force-placed insurance policies with struggling homeowners.

The settlement, filed in federal court earlier this week, would provide $140 million in monetary relief to nearly 400,000 borrowers. It would also provide an additional $10 million for legal fees and expenses.

At issue in the class-action suit are insurance policies placed on foreclosed properties, to cover hazard, flood, flood-gap and wind insurance. Plaintiffs in the case accused Ocwen of inflating premiums and profiting from kickbacks through an arrangement with Assurant, the New York-based insurance provider that administered the policies.

"Ocwen decided to settle this matter to avoid prolonged and distracting litigation. The company does not admit any liability or wrongdoing with respect to this matter," the company said in an emailed statement.

The settlement covers homeowners who were charged for policies between Jan. 1, 2008 and Jan. 23, 2015.

Under terms of the agreement, Ocwen would be prohibited from accepting commission for force-placed policies, or entering into "quota-share" arrangements with insurers. The settlement would also prohibit Assurant from accepting payments from Ocwen for below-cost or free outsourced services.

"We do not acknowledge any wrongdoing in this case, but feel it's in the best interest of our company to attempt to resolve the matter," Assurant said in an emailed statement.

The settlement is pending final approval in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The class-action settlement is the latest in a string of legal and financial woes for the Atlanta-based Ocwen.

The company in December agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations by New York regulators that it fudged foreclosure documents. As part of that agreement, the company's founder and executive chairman, William Erbey, said he would step down after 30 years with the company.

Ocwen posted a $546 loss for the 2014 fiscal year, mainly because of increased legal charges.
The NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg will attend the Foreign Affairs Council, on Tuesday 19 April 2016 in Luxembourg.

During his visit the NATO Secretary General will also meet with the European Union Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Mrs. Elzbieta Bienkowska and with the Spanish Minister of Defence, Mr. Pedro Morenes Eulate.

Media Advisory

10:00 - Doorstep statement by the Secretary General upon arrival at Kirchberg Conference Centre.

The doorstep statement will be streamed live on the NATO website.

Audio and video recordings as well as still images will be available on the NATO website after the event.

Follow us on Twitter (@NATOPress and @jensstoltenberg)
Experts presented their final results and analyses of an academic Science for Peace and Security research project aimed at tracing NATO external images among the Alliances Global Partners in the Asia-Pacific. The event took place on 8 March 2016 at the Canberra-based Australian National University. Participants at the conference came up with a number of proposals and recommended that, in order to be highly effective, NATOs strategy in communication with its Global Partners in Asia-Pacific should feature a distinct degree of differentiation.

The event was attended by 40 participants, including NATO officials, representatives of Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Department of Defence, members of diplomatic community, think tanks, and academia. The Conference, held under the Chatham House Rule, was moderated by the high-profile foreign affairs specialist and journalist Mr. Nik Gowing.

Project Partner Country Director, Professor Natalia Chaban, underlined the analytical complexity behind the Projects findings and stressed the importance of research to enhance NATOs public diplomacy efforts in the region. According to her, systematic account of images and perceptions serves as a useful instrument to fine-tune cooperation and collaboration in international relations, while ensuring mutual respect and impact.

The Alliances images in NATOs five Global Partners in Asia-Pacific (Australia, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand and Republic of Korea) were analysed for their visibility, local resonance, perceived capability and legitimacy as well as emotional charge. The Projects rich empirical findings demonstrated that perceptions of NATO in the region are country-, issue- and elite cohort-specific. The highest visibility was observed in the Japanese media of all types, the lowest - in the Korean media. Analysis also indicated the highest visibility in military media. What is more, it assessed media framings of NATO in terms of perceived capability, with the highest one observed in Mongolia.

The results reported at the conference generated a discussion that highlighted how the findings of the study are of direct relevance to NATO and its global strategy. Furthermore, the findings indicated that, in order to be highly effective, NATOs strategy in communication with its Global Partners in Asia-Pacific should feature a distinct degree of differentiation.

The SPS project has been implemented in cooperation with NATOs Public Diplomacy Division and Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia). It has been led by a team of co-directors from Estonia, New Zealand and the United States and includes researchers from Australia, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea.

Support for NATO led operations

Australia, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea have all made important contributions in support of NATOs operations and missions over the past decades, in particular in Afghanistan.
Specially designed cones ensure proper planting

Deforestation is ruining the planet

(NaturalNews) Reforestation efforts around the world could get a massive boost thanks to an innovative idea that repurposes old planes. A billion trees could be planted every year thanks to aerial reforestation initiatives. The practice of dropping seeds from planes is not new, but it has been growing in popularity and has earned the nickname "seed bombing."Seed bombing is extremely efficient because there is no need for people to be on the ground carrying out the process of seeding manually with a shovel. Conventional reforestation methods are very labor-intensive and slow. Only a few hundred saplings can be planted per day by the most experienced laborers.One proposal that is being considered entails retrofitting unused C-130 cargo planes to drop the seeds as they fly over land. According to estimates by Lockheed Martin and Aerial Reforestation Inc., as many as 1 billion trees could be planted every year.Lockheed's Peter Simmons told: "The possibilities are amazing. We can fly at 1,000ft at 130 knots planting more than 3,000 cones a minute in a pattern across the landscape - just as we did with landmines, but in this case each cone contains a sapling. That's 125,000 trees for each sortie and 900,000 trees in a day."The seeds being dropped are contained within pointed cones that can bury themselves into the soil at a depth that is akin to that used for manual planting. The casing of the cone then dissolves over time, releasing the seeds into the soil. The cones also contain fertilizer and a substance that can soak up surrounding moisture to help ensure that the tree will take root.It can be used in places that used to contain trees as well as deserts under certain circumstances. The process could make great inroads in balancing out the effects of forestation, quite possibly replacing the trees that are cut down each year hundreds of times over.Some trees can grow by as much as three feet each year after hitting their standing height of five feet, and many of them reach maturity in less than a decade. This could help restore forest ecosystems that have been damaged by deforestation.According to a Discovery Project Earth video posted on Minds.com , 20,000 square miles of forest are lost every year. It would be necessary to replant an area that is twice the size of Manhattan every day to replace the world's disappearing forests.There are many reasons that deforestation is a big concern for every human being on Earth. Besides its effects on biodiversity and climate change, there is the fact that rainforests harbor an amazing variety of plants that contain healing properties, many of which have yet to be explored.Deforestation can also contribute to the spread of diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and Lyme disease. The destruction of the Brazilian rainforest by deforestation has been blamed for the spread of diseases such as the Zika virus reports: "There is a well-documented, positive association between the increased deforestation of an area and the emergence of zoonotic, vector-borne diseases."While there are still some logistical hurdles to overcome, seed bombing appears to be a good option for slowing and possibly even reversing the effects of deforestation.
Grassley vs. grass

Feinstein: "The worst senator on marijuana reform"

As California's senior U.S. senator, Feinstein has for more than 20 years reliably voted for tougher controls on drugs and against any end to cannabis prohibition. When the state had the opportunity to be the first in the country to re-legalize cannabis for adults in 2010, Feinstein served as the prohibitionist campaign's chairwoman.



This hard-line stance puts Feinstein at odds not only with her constituents but also her colleagues, many of whom represent more conservative places. When a U.S. Senate committee in mid-June considered a spending amendment to de-funded federal Justice Department efforts to interfere in state-legal cannabis, Feinstein was the sole Democrat to vote against it.


Everyone suffers legal repercussions but the EPA

The lawsuit accuses Snyder and others of hatching a "wrongful scheme" to reduce Flint's indebtedness by stopping the impoverished city from buying treated Lake Huron water from Detroit, instead of "invoking time tested, well-honed federal bankruptcy protections for restructuring the debts of municipalities."



Remember the Gold King Mine spill?

An EPA water expert, Miguel Del Toral, identified potential problems with Flint's drinking water in February, confirmed the suspicions in April and summarized the looming problem in a June internal memo. ... Critics have charged [EPA Region 5 Administrator Susan] Hedman with attempting to keep the memo's information in-house and downplaying its significance.



(NaturalNews) The federal government's failure to protect residents of Flint, Mich., from drinking tainted water is actually a familiar tail, for it involves a bureaucracy  the Environmental Protection Agency  that has a history of malfeasance and incompetence What is also common is the federal government's inclination to punish other people as a means of covering up its failure, while holding the real guilty parties  federal government officials  blameless.As reported by, a group of 15 citizens are charging in a federal racketeering lawsuit that the Flint water crisis was part of an "international scheme" created by(most of whom are Democrats, by the way) to save money. The suit specifically names Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, and other high-profile state officials.Meanwhile,reported that the civil suit seeks "financial compensation for property damage, loss of business and financial losses attributed to the city's water crisis; as well as compensatory damages for future medical care and punitive damages."named in the civil suit are any of the EPA officials whothat Flint city officials were putting citizens at risk by switching to a contaminated water supply butHow this is Snyder's fault is anyone's guess, but the suit names him, along with his former chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and multiple staff members, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and some of its staffers and the City of Flint and many of its public works employees. Also included are a number of engineering companies hired to evaluate the city's water system, former Mayor Dayne Walling (a Democrat) and three of the city's former emergency managers.Again,Attorney Marc J. Bern, referring to Snyder's alleged governing style, told MLive: "He wants to run the state like a business. Well. The citizens of Flint, as shareholders in the corporation of the state of Michigan, I don't think they were treated in an appropriate way."Theadded:"Governor Snyder was an integral actor in the scheme that intentionally defrauded, misrepresented and falsified information and warning signs relating to the property and financial affairs of Flint as it affected its citizenry," the lawsuit reads, "by planning, directing, coordinating and facilitating the State's insufficient response to the free but toxic Flint River water and failing to warn and protect the residents of the City of Flint of the consequences of the toxic water as effects their health and property values, despite having knowledge and evidence to the contrary at all times."In fact, all of these charges can more accurately be laid at the doorstep of the EPA. Asreported in January, the agency knew Flint had a tainted water problem but didn't do anything Hedman was allowed to resign Feb. 1, but she's not going to be held legally liable and she's not been named in any suit.Again, this is typical EPA behavior. Asreported, the agency forced the contractor responsible for the Gold King Mine contaminant spill to sign a non-disclosure form so that neither the contractor nor the EPA would have to discuss the disaster in public.For that, also, no one was held legally responsible.
Cases severely underreported

Data released to The Saturday Age by the Coroner's Prevention Unit reveals 119 of the 502 coronial inquests held in Victoria between 2008 and 2010 involved people with diagnosed mental illnesses.



Of those 119 mental health coronial cases, almost a third related to the deaths of patients while they were being treated at state-run and private mental health facilities.



Big Pharma playing a role as well

Researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Centre, an independent drug safety analysis group based out of Denmark, looked at the data on antidepressant and dementia drugs and found that, in most cases, they could cease to be administered across the board without inflicting any harm on patients. The demonstrated benefits of these widely administered drugs are lacking, researchers found, and many patients are taking them needlessly.



(NaturalNews) For years there has been a rash of unexplained and sometimes violent deaths of patients at mental health facilities in Britain and Australia, but their deaths often go unreported, though no one seems to know why.Earlier this month, the BBC reported that a charity for bereaved families in Britain are demanding that the government look into the way that deaths of younger patients in mental health facilities are recorded. Research by the charity organization Inquest suggests that at least nine young people have died while patients of such units since 2010.The British Department of Health has said there have been at least four deaths, and the country's health minister, Alistair Burt, said that while he wasn't aware of the figure, he nonetheless backs further investigation into the matter."[BBC] Panorama's investigation has unearthed questions about record-keeping and I'm seeking assurances from NHS England that they have the right processes in place for recording any such death and that lessons are learned," Burt, the minister for community and social care for England, said in a statement.In addition, the department has stated it would meet with the charity and review its research, possibly in an attempt to rectify the discrepancy in figures. But Inquest staff are leery."My fear is there could be more deaths. Neither we nor the Department of Health knows," Inquest director Deborah Coles said.Last year, the BBC reported, Burt said that there had only been a single death of a mental health patient that had been recorded by the Care Quality Commission, while his predecessor, Norman Lamb, had declared no such deaths had taken place."Through their own casework and Freedom of Information requests, Inquest discovered at least nine young people have died in mental health units and the true number could be higher," the BBC reported.In Australia, meanwhile,reported in September 2011 that 36 people had died unexpected, unnatural or even violent deaths in mental health facilities in Victoria between 2008 and 2010, according to government records.reported further:Other figures from the Department of Health show that 975 people under care of a mental health system died unnatural, unexpected or violent deaths between 2006 and 2010. That figure includes mental health patients who were under the state's care who committed suicide outside of the facilities where they were being treated, as well as others who died in car accidents, house fires or who drowned.However, that figure also includes scores of suicides within the walls of a mental health facility as well,reported. Big Pharma is also to blame for some of these deaths as well, no doubt. In May 2015, we reported on research that found psych drugs had killed some 5 million people over the course of a decade  a half-million each year  in the West alone.The research, which was published in, also found that psych drugs had "minimal" benefit for the health risks they create.We noted further:
FDA failing to protect consumers?

The EU has already responded  but not the U.S.

(NaturalNews) Fast-food franchise Burger King has introduced a massive sandwich it is calling "The Angriest Whopper."The sandwich features all the normal burger fixings  lettuce, cheese, sauces, pickles, onions, etc.  but its marketing focuses on its, which, according to published sources, is infused with hot sauce. According to marketing news site"The new Angriest Whopper has a red bun with hot sauce baked into it and is topped with 'flaming onion petals, spicy angry sauce and jalapenos,' as well as bacon, American cheese, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise."The Angriest Whopper follows two other theme-centric burgers: the Angry Whopper, which derived its "heat" not from a dyed, hot sauced bun, but from ingredients including "angry" onions and sauce, jalapenos, and pepper jack cheese; and last fall's A.1. Halloween Whopper, which featured a black-dyed bun.Many consumers likely believe that these dyed-bun burgers are all fun and games, but they would be singing a different tune if they understood the health risks associated with them. As reported by, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) recently published an extensive report titled, "Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks" [ here ], which provides comprehensive details regarding the risks of nine dyes that are widely used in some of the most common foods. Researchers also noted that common food dyes are known to increase risks of cancer , hyperactivity in children and allergies.reported further:"The food industry dumps over 15 million pounds of the dyes studied into the food supply each year. Three of the dyes carry known carcinogens, and 4 can cause serious allergic reactions in some consumers. New studies show that seven of them contributed to cancer in lab animals, including brain and testicular tumors, colon cancer, and mutations.""These synthetic chemicals do absolutely nothing to improve the nutritional quality or safety of foods, but trigger behavior problems in children and, possibly, cancer in anybody," said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson, as quoted by the site.James Huff, an associate at the National Toxicology Program added, "Some dyes have caused cancers in animals, contain cancer-causing contaminants, or have been inadequately tested for cancer or other problems. Their continued use presents unnecessary risks to humans, especially young children. It's disappointing that the [ U.S. Food and Drug Administration ] has not addressed the toxic threat posed by food dyes ."CSPI said that it mailed a letter to the Food and Drug Administration upon releasing its report, outlining a request to ban all food dyes in the United States, in an effort to protect Americans from health problems.Also, the group said that the FDA was failing to protect the public in the following ways:And, the group accused the FDA of being aware of the health risks created by the presence of the dyes, but failing to protect consumers.CSPI said that British lawmakers have responded to the health data regarding food dyes , and required food companies to start phasing them out from January of this year. In addition, officials with the European Union are requiring companies to place warning labels on all dyed foods, effective July 20.
Journals are sources of continuing education for many doctors

Do 40,000 more people have to die?

(NaturalNews) If you've ever wondered why seemingly intelligent doctors prescribe so many harmful medications to their patients, the answer is simple: money. We've all heard about the conferences and exotic vacations for doctors funded by pharmaceutical companies , but it turns out that the medical journals that doctors rely on for their information are also compromised.Many people believe that medical journals are indisputable sources of solid, well-researched information, but it turns out that a lot of money changes hands behind the scenes to determine what gets published and what does not German researchers found that free medical journals that are financed by ads from pharmaceutical companies are much more likely to recommend new medications than journals that are paid for via subscriptions. Their findings were published in theThe researchers looked at 11 German journals for articles on some of the newer drugs that had been heavily promoted at the time, such as the cholesterol drug Zetia from Merck. They chose journals that were frequently read by general practitioners.In total, they found more than 250 articles promoting the use of these new drugs in five free journals. In two of them, the chances of a positive recommendation for a particular drug appearing on its pages actually more than doubled when the same issue had an ad for the drug in question. Meanwhile, journals that are supported by subscription fees only had three positive recommendations for the new drugs and 28 negative ones.One of the researchers, Dr. Norbert Donner-Banzhoff of the University of Marburg, said: "In the journals you get for free, there were almost only positive recommendations. But in the journals you have to pay for, in most instances the articles were critical."He points out that busy physicians who can't stay on top of technical peer-reviewed journals often turn to free journals for quick information for their continuing medical education as required to keep their medical licenses. These free journals tend to print a lot of research summaries and even opinion pieces, and their misleading recommendations could actually result in poor treatment decisions.Many doctors actually consider drug ads to be a source of information, and there is evidence that such ads influence physicians' prescription behaviors. The researchers also pointed out that in free journals, the authors and editors do not declare conflicts of interest. Although the study took place in Germany, the researchers felt that the results could be generalized to journals in other countries, and the United States in particular.The problem is so prevalent that estimates show drug-makers make between $2 and $5 on each dollar they spend on medical journal advertising. The problem is that these newer drugs have unknown long-term effects , and doctors do not have much experience with how people will react to them.What exactly can happen when this irresponsibility takes place on a wide scale? Take the example of the medication Vioxx , which Merck has since withdrawn. It is believed to have caused as many as 40,000 deaths before being taken off the market. Direct-to-physician pharmaceutical promotion is being blamed for the drug's widespread use. Merck spent $500 million marketing the drug directly to clinics and doctors.One journal that decided to take a stand and stop publishing ads for drug-makers is. While this caused a price increase, it is believed that subscriber numbers will eventually rise simply because of this strong stance.Journals should be devoted to providing accurate information to doctors and the patients who rely on them to keep them healthy and alive, and money from Big Pharma absolutely compromises their objectivity. Doctors are being urged to be aware of this problem, and make a concerted effort to avoid succumbing to this commercial bias.
GMA could face tens of millions of dollars in damages

Under the law, sanctions for campaign finance disclosure violations can include a penalty equal to the amount not reported as required. If the court finds that the violation was intentional, that penalty amount can be tripled.



Latest development looks bad for the GMA

After previously resisting disclosure of the records at issue, GMA sought to introduce them on the eve of trial. The Attorney General's Office argued that it would be unfair to now allow the records  which concern GMA's conversations with its lawyers about the legality of its scheme to "provide anonymity and eliminate state filing requirements" for its members  for a different purpose.



In 2015 alone, food and agricultural companies spent $101 million lobbying against labeling, according to Environmental Working Group. Roughly 10 percent of that reportedly came from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which continues to put up a fight in federal court to stop the Vermont measure from becoming law.



A shift in public opinion  and judicial policy?
Snow storm hits Denver beginning Saturday, making 11.8 inches of snow by Sunday morning. This strong slow-moving moving storm marking Denver's second largest snow fall this season is expected to slowly leave Colorado on Tuesday.

A storm warning was raised to over 3 million people in the city. The condition continues to affect the whole of Denver, Texas, Oklahoma and Wyoming as it is slowly moves towards the Colorado-Wyoming border. Denver International Airport already canceled 800 flights to ensure the safety of travelers.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center also advised residents to be alert on the possibility of avalanche as there is a continuous piling up of snow, according to Newsoxy.

Motorists are advised to bring their winter survival kit as this snow storm may cause longer travel hours and even being stranded. Power outages have been reported and are expected to increase as the big amount of snow can be heavy enough to knock down trees and cut power lines.

"Snow will be heavy and wet due to temperatures around the freezing mark," said Ryan Adamson, AccuWeather Meteorologist, AccuWeather reported.

CNN meteorologist Sean Morris stated that this snow storm makes up 133 percent of Denver's 8.9 inches average April snow.

CNN affiliate KDVR, on the other hand, reported that the amount of snow may not be equal on every part of Colorado. Three inches of snow has been reported on Morrison, 17 miles southwest of Denver while 35 inches of snow was reported in Golden located 15 miles west, as per WDSU News.

Regions in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska have received twice the amount of their expected April rainfall in just two days. This led to a flash flood warning raised among 12 million people in the plains.

"It is crucial that Texans stay clear of rising waters and heed warnings from state and local officials, who stand ready to assist and support communities impacted as this weather system passes through Texas," said Greg ABott, Texas Governor.

Here is a short video on how to be prepared for a snow storm.
A fire broke out at a chemical plant in Eastern Saudi Arabia on Saturday at 11:40 am. Jubail United Petrochemical Co., a chemical plant in Al-Jubail KSA, was struck by a fire that claimed 12 lives and left 11 others injured.

In a statement released by the Saudi Press Agency, the fire started during a maintenance operation at the plant where a total of 23 people were present. The maintenance contractors and technicians were replacing catalysts when the incident began.

A thick black smoke began to spread quickly around the place, making it hard for the employees to escape. Chemicals from inside the plant burned and produced gas that suffocated and trapped employees, according to ABC News.

Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Abdulqader, spokesman for the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, assured that five out of the 11 injured are now stable while the six others remain at critical condition.

Some of those who died were Benny and Daniel of Thodupuzha, Vincent from Adyarpadavu, Konchar Bhasakar from Bajpe, Daniel and two others from the Philippines. Other names have yet to be released.

The firefighters and Saudi Civil Defence personnel managed to extinguish the fire and cleared the place after 10 minutes, as per Bilbaoya.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), a chemical union in KSA holding 75 percent venture in Jubail United Petrochemical Co., has immediately sent an email seeking comment regarding the incident.

The conglomerate later responded with a promise of maximum assistance to the injured after conducting an inspection on the site on Sunday.

Jubail United Petrochemical Co. is one of the petrochemical companies in KSA producing Ethylene, Polyethylene, Ethylene Glycol (EG), Linear Alpha Olefins (LAO), as reported by The Latin American Herald Tribune.
In a new pilot study presented at The International Liver CongressTM in Barcelona, Spain, researchers reported a 90 percent cure rate of HCV using a new experimental antiviral treatment for six weeks.

Researchers from German HepNet Study-House gave a combination of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir to 20 HCV-positive patients once a day for 6 weeks. The risk factors of HCV infection among the 20 participants included sexual transmission, medical procedures/needle stick injury, drug use, and nail treatment complications.

"Given the high cost of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir, and the associated side effects that occur during treatment, we set out to assess whether shortened treatment duration could be an effective option for acute Hepatitis C patients," said Katja Deterding from Hannover Medical School, Germany and study author in a statement in EurekAlert.

In a follow-up 12 weeks later, there is no detectable HCV in all of the patients. This proves that the combination of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir is safe, tolerated and effective in acute HCV genotype 1 patients, who have severe liver disease with very high liver enzymes. Researchers also mentioned that shorter treatment duration does not hinder in the efficacy of the treatment.

"These exciting findings open up short and cost-effective treatment options that could prevent the spread of HCV in high risk populations," said Professor Frank Tacke, EASL Governing Board member, in a statement in Science Daily.

"We look forward to seeing this pilot study extended so the findings can be validated and then hopefully used as a tool to change clinical practice for the better," Prof. Tacke added.

In a previous report, researchers from University of Oxford also made progress in developing a vaccine for HIV co-infected hepatitis C.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are about 3.5 million people in the United States that are infected with HCV in 2015. In 2007, 15,106 deaths in the United Sates are associated or caused by HCV.


North Korea's sacred Mount Paektu might just blow off anytime soon, said the latest study published the journal Science Advances.

An active volcano on the border between North Korea and China, Mount Paektu or Changbai as its called in Chinese, caused one of the largest eruptions on earth in 946 C.E., blasting 96 cubic kilometers of debris.

The volcano, located kilometers away from the world's most violent volcanoes remained inactive for the past years until it had occurrences of earthquakes between 2002 and 2005. This has made the scientists wonder whether it is preparing to unleash another massive eruption anytime soon.

Together with the team in North Korea, lead by Ri Kyong-Song of the governments Earthquake Administration in Pyongyang, the Western researchers and UK scientists attempted to unlock the mystery of the volcano by installing broadband seismometers in the area and collecting data for two years to examine the seismic waves undulating all the way through the crust underneath the volcano.

Upon examination, they found out the existence of blobs of melted crust at its heart, indicating that the volcano is actually active rather than opposite, as per HNGN.

The RF results suggest that significant amounts of melt are present in the crust beneath the volcano with a lateral extent of at least 20 km, the study said.

Commenting on the recent discovery, seismologist George Zandt of the University of Arizona told National Geographic that the results are useful and valuable.

Although it has not been known whether when exactly will it erupt, James Hammond, one of the scientists involved in the study said that the impact of the eruption would be way beyond Korea and China which is why keeping a close eye on the volcano is needed.

The study remains one of the greatest discoveries in the field of science. It also marks the first time Western geophysical equipment was deployed on North Korean territory.
Actor Johnny Depp's wife Amber Heard pleaded guilty Monday to providing a false immigration document when the couple brought their two dogs into Australia last year, but she managed to avoid jail time over what was dubbed the "war on terrier" debacle.

Prosecutors dropped more serious charges that Heard illegally imported the Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country while Depp was filming the fifth movie in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. A conviction on the two illegal importation counts could have sent the actress to prison for up to 10 years.

Depp and Heard said little to the waiting throng of reporters and fans outside the Southport Magistrates Court on Queensland state's Gold Coast, but they did submit a videotaped apology to the court that was played during Monday's hearing.

It drew gibes online for the couple's grim, wooden appearance as Heard apologized and they both expressed support for protecting Australia's biodiversity, the aim of the strict quarantine regulations that were violated.

"When you disrespect Australian law," Depp says in the video, "they will tell you firmly."

The drama over the dogs began last May, when Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce accused Depp of smuggling the tiny terriers aboard his private jet when he returned to Australia to resume filming the "Pirates" movie.

Bringing pets into Australia involves applying for a permit and quarantine on arrival of at least 10 days to prevent the spread of diseases such as rabies.

"If we start letting movie stars  even though they've been the sexiest man alive twice  to come into our nation (with pets), then why don't we just break the laws for everybody?" Joyce said at the time. "It's time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States."

Depp and Heard were given 72 hours to send Pistol and Boo back to the U.S., with officials warning that the dogs would otherwise be euthanized. The pooches boarded a flight home just hours before the deadline expired.

The comments by Joyce, who is now the deputy prime minister of Australia, elevated what might otherwise have been a local spat into a global delight for comedians and broadcasters. One newspaper website ran a doggie death countdown ticker, and comedian John Oliver dedicated a more than 6-minute segment to lampooning the ordeal.

Depp himself poked fun at the drama during a press conference in Venice, Italy, last year where he was asked if he planned to take the dogs for a gondola ride. "No," he replied. "I killed my dogs and ate them, under direct orders from some kind of, I don't know, sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia."

Joyce posted a link to the couple's apology video on his Facebook page, and later told reporters he doubted it was something the pair would have "willingly wanted to do." Still, he gave them credit for acknowledging they had made a mistake.

"I am happy that Ms. Heard has admitted that she was wrong and as such, that clearly shows that our position in pursuit of this was correct," Joyce told journalists. "Every nation has something that they're red hot about, and we're red hot about our biosecurity requirements in this nation."

When asked why Depp wasn't charged as well, the prosecutor's office said that there had been a "lack of admissible evidence" against anyone except Heard.

The false documents charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a fine of more than 10,000 Australian dollars ($7,650), but Magistrate Bernadette Callaghan sentenced Heard instead to a one-month good behavior bond. The condition means she will have to pay a AU$1,000 fine if she commits any offenses in Australia over the next month.

Heard's lawyer, Jeremy Kirk, told the court that his client never meant to lie on her incoming passenger card by failing to declare she had animals with her. In truth, Kirk said, she was simply jetlagged and assumed her assistants had sorted out the paperwork.

"She has made a tired, terrible mistake," Kirk said.

Prosecutor Peter Callaghan said ignorance and fatigue were no excuse. "The laws apply to everyone," he said.
The longest-reigning monarch in British history turns 90 on Thursday, but Queen Elizabeth II is not planning a major, fireworks-filled celebration to mark the happy occasion.

Just a gentle stroll outside the grounds of Windsor Castle, the lighting of a beacon, and a night at home with family are all that are on the royal plate.

No, she'll save the pomp and ceremony for her next birthday. The monarch is such an eminent figure in British life that she gets two birthdays each year, one on the actual date of her birth, April 21, and one official birthday in June, when there is at least a reasonable hope of dry, sunny parade weather.

Her customary reticence hasn't kept the nation's media from going slightly bonkers at the approaching milestone. ITV has already aired a celebratory "Our Queen at 90" documentary to pump up its Easter ratings, and Tatler magazine not only put the queen on its cover, foregoing the youthful socialites that are its typical cover fare, but published a special supplement in her honor.

The birthday events Thursday can be considered a dress rehearsal for the official celebrations planned in early June. It also opens the door to a rolling birthday season that will last a full six weeks, climaxing with hundreds of celebrations large and small.

"June is when everything is happening. That's the great big extravaganza, the street parties and everything," said Sophia Money-Coutts, Tatler's features director. "From now on, the coverage will be relentless. The republicans will be screaming."

Indeed, it's not a good time for those who oppose the monarchy to peek above the parapet. The British public's considerable affection for the queen surfaces at times of national celebration  witness the million-plus crowd that cheered her outside the Buckingham Palace gates at her Golden Jubilee in 2002.

The queen and the royals have endured some low points in the last two decades, particularly around the time of the death of Princess Diana in 1997, but their popularity has rebounded with the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton and the arrival of their two children, Prince George  now third in line to the throne  and Princess Charlotte.

"It's just a golden moment for the whole family after a tricky few years," Money-Coutts said. "And the queen is the figurehead of all that, with the line of succession pretty assured. They are going through a glorious period."

Elizabeth  with her familiar smile, colorful outfits and eccentric if expensive hats  seems oddly impervious to time. If she is tired, it doesn't show. She has softened her schedule, as a concession to 89 and counting, and she has cut back on grueling plane journeys, but she shows no sign of physical or mental frailty.

Neither does her 94-year-old husband Prince Philip, despite several serious health scares that included a medical intervention to open clogged heart arteries. His face is craggy, but he still carries himself with the upright bearing of the former naval officer that he is.

Both still seem to be going strong, although their children and grandchildren are increasingly stepping in to handle royal duties ranging from the routine, like opening a hospital ward, to the more substantial such as attending a meeting of Commonwealth heads of state.

Elizabeth and Philip say little in public, but the ITV documentary was revealing about the family dynamics because William, Kate and Prince Harry all spoke about the queen, breaking the normal code of silence that governs their relations with an often intrusive news media held responsible by some for cruelly hounding Diana in the final months of her life.

William, who lost his mother Diana when he was just 15, said the queen had helped him in subtle ways by providing stability and encouraging him to find his own footing.

"Growing up, having this figurehead, having this stability above me has been incredible," he said. "I have been able to explore, understand, slightly carve my own path. I greatly appreciate and value that protection."

Kate, a likely future queen who stepped into the limelight when she and William fell in love in their university days in Scotland, praised Elizabeth for making it easier for her to cope with the constant attention her position brings.

"I feel she's been there, a gentle guidance really for me," she said.

The milestone 90th birthday is a happy occasion, one the queen is willing to acknowledge and share with the nation. It was different in September when  by virtue of her father's early death and her own longevity  she surpassed Queen Victoria to earn distinction as the British ruler with the most time on the throne.

While the British press went gaga over her accomplishment, it seemed that for Elizabeth it was a somewhat painful reminder that her father, King George VI, had died suddenly at age 56, making her queen far earlier than had been expected or desired. She was on vacation in Kenya at the time, having left Britain as a princess and returning as a queen in mourning, greeted at the airport by Winston Churchill, the first of many prime ministers.

The queen may be reluctant to make a great fuss over her 90th birthday, but there is little doubt her favorite time of year is approaching. For June means not only her official birthday, and the gala Trooping The Color parade that accompanies it, it also brings the Royal Ascot races that are a highlight of the queen's year, and other races and racing-related events dear to her heart.

Viewers of the ITV documentary couldn't help but notice that the normally reserved queen seemed most animated at the races, even showing surprising foot speed for a woman in her 80s as she tried to get a better view of the home stretch.

"She'll be at Ascot every morning in her pastel-colored suits, studying the Racing Post, talking with her racing manager," Money-Coutts said. "She absolutely loves it."
Any company that wants to buy Yahoo, or at least parts of it, should have its bids in Monday.

Dozens of, maybe even as many as 40, companies are said to be interested in the troubled internet company based in Sunnyvale, California, including Verizon Communications, USA Today reported. The telecommunications giant expressed interest in Yahoo's internet business two months before CEO Marissa Mayer and Chairman Maynard Webb made it official that the company would entertain offers for its core businesses including Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance and Tumblr, the Wall Street Journals reported.

Yahoo's business has declined under Mayer even as advertisers pour more money into digital marketing, with most of it flowing to rivals Google and Facebook.

Shares of Yahoo have fallen about 30 percent since the end of 2014, increasing pressure on Mayer to take more drastic measures.

Most recently, the parent of British national newspaper the Daily Mail, Daily Mail and General Trust, said it had joined the bidding process.

Other companies reportedly interested include AT&T, Alibaba, Google, Softbank and Time Inc., according news outlets including the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.

The potential sale comes after Yahoo abandoned plans for a tax-free spinoff of its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Yahoo is under intense pressure to revive its revenue growth and activist investor Starboard Value, a big stakeholder, is pushing for a change in leadership.
An East Bay man traveling in Ecuador at the time of Saturdays destructive magnitude-7.8 earthquake said it began with a "boom."

Bill Freedman and his wife, Alice Gandelman, were relaxing and enjoying dinner in a restaurant in San Clemente, which is south of the epicenter, when the temblor hit. Immediately, people panicked, he said, recalling the look of terror on the faces of other diners.

"It started and there was a big boom and everyone ran out of the restaurant and then it went completely dark," Freedman said.

At last count, 246 had been killed by the earthquake and more than 2,500 peope were injured, officials said.

The Vallejo couple said he went back to his hotel and found that the windows of his room were shattered and pipes had burst. They were forced to stay at a condo nearby.

Freedman said he was most concerned about a tsunami warning in the aftermath of the quake because gridlock in San Clemente prevented him and Gandelman from getting out town.

It wasnt until Sunday, though, that Freedman realized how much damage the quake had caused. Walking around San Clemente, he saw entire buildings had caved in and crumbed cement littered the town, he said.

Grateful that they were not hurt, Freedman and Gandelman are now trying to figure out a way to get back home. The control tower at the airport they planned to fly out of, which is near Manta, fell down and the airport is closed, Freedman said.

Twenty-two students and two teachers from Redwood High School were in Ecuador during the earthquake. They are all safe and heading back to the Bay Area, according to Principal David Sondheim.

The Bay Area is no stranger to earthquakes.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, measurements of an earthquake that struck in the early morning hours of April 18, 1906 quake have ranged from magnitude 7.7 to 8.3. More than 1,000 people died due to the damage and fires caused by the tremors.

In San Francisco, officials had  rather fortuitously  planned an earthquake drill on Sunday.

Some of the training, intended to mark the anniversary of the Great Earthquake, occurred in the Marina, which suffered significant damage in the magnitude-6.9 Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1969.

Firefighters went through several disaster response drills with about 200 volunteers with the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team. Members go through about 20 hours of training and lessons to get certified about what to do and the best ways to help  starting with taking care of themselves and their families.

"We also give practical response skills, such as providing basic medical care for people who are having critical injuries  search and rescue in lightly damaged buildings so that fire resources can do heavily damaged buildings," said Lt. Erica Arteseros with the San Francisco Fire Department.

Mayor Ed Lee issued a statement on the recent quakes, extending thoughts prayers to the people of Japan and Ecuador.

"I would like to express our citys condolences to the families and friends of those injured or killed in the aftermath of these devastating earthquakes," he wrote.

Lee also promised to support any international assistance efforts.

"These stark reminders remind us that we must always be prepared. Its not if, but when, the next disaster will strike," his statement said in part.

NBC Bay Area's sister station KCRA contributed to this report.
It would be understandable if Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, a senior at the University of California, Berkeley were angry or even sued Southwest after being kicked off a flight to Oakland because a passenger heard him speaking Arabic.

But the researcher at Cals Department of Near Eastern Studies doesnt seem bitter at all.

In fact, hes been thanking those who have been covering his story, including his Facebook post over the NBC Bay Area story that ran Friday, saying: Islam is about forgiveness as well.

Makhzoomi was set to fly from Los Angeles to Oakland, return to campus and attend classes on April 6, as first reported by the campus newspaper, the Daily Californian. However, he was booted from Southwest Airlines Flight 4260, after a passenger heard him speaking in Arabic and thought he was saying the word for "martyr," he said.

He was speaking to his uncle, telling him about his experience as a guest in Los Angeles at the World Affairs Council with Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon. Makhzoomi told The Associated Press he made a passing reference to Islamic State recounting the event.

"At the end of my call I said, 'Inshallah, I will call you,' and he was like, 'Call me when you get home.' I was like 'Inshallah, Inshallah,' which means God willing," Makhzoomi said.

Moments later, he was removed from the plane, detained and searched by security officers, and questioned by the FBI. He was also denied service by Southwest Airlines.

"I was like, at least inside my brain, I was reciting, 'Innocent until proven guilty,' because I was overwhelmed at what happened," Makhzoomi told NBC Bay Area last week.

Southwest Airlines said another Arabic-speaking passenger heard Makhzoomi mention a terrorist organization during his conversation and became alarmed.

Southwest's statement about the incident was not quite what Makzzoomi was hoping for, he said. The statement said in part: "We wouldn't remove passengers from flights without a collaborative decision rooted in established procedures. Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind."

FBI agents let him go after determining he did not pose a risk, but Makhzoomi ended up getting home eight hours later on Delta, and pretty shaken up.

A spokesman for Los Angeles International Airport police says officers have concluded Makhzoomi broke no laws by speaking in Arabic on his cellphone on the plane, and consider the case closed.

Officer Rob Pedregon of the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department said Monday that officers from his department and agents from the FBI interviewed Makhzoomi after he was taken off the April 6 flight.

"The statement he made was not illegal, there was nothing that involved threats or anything like that so he was released," Pedregon said.

The 26-year-old fled Iraq in 2002 after his father, an Iraqi diplomat, was killed under Saddam Hussein's regime. Makhzoomi's family lived in Jordan until the United States granted them asylum.

He underscored that his experience on the flight is a symptom of a larger problem.

"This is what Islamophobia has gotten this country into," Makhzoomi said. "Anyone can report anyone."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
In the 1960s, kids flicked on the TV to watch astronauts walk on the moon.

Fifty years later, kids click on YouTube to be whisked away on a virtual field trip to Mars.

On Friday, Lockheed Martin launched "Generation Beyond," a first-of-its-kind, free national educational program to bring space exploration into homes and classrooms.

The highlights? Easy-to-access online curriculum for elementary and middle school teachers to simply download and use for free, and the "Lockheed Martin Mars Experience Bus," a short video that shows students starting off their field trip in a yellow school bus on earth and being transported by "magic" to the red, sweeping rocks of Mars.

There's also a cool Mars app that shows users where Mars is in the sky based on the GPS technology and the current weather on the red planet.

"We have 60,000 scientists that are part of our employee base," Lockheed spokesman Bill Phelps told NBC Bay Area on Monday. "The whole point is to get kids interested in science, math and technology, and lead them on a career path to Mars. Traveling to Mars is a lot closer than they think."

It was unclear Monday just how many teachers signed on to the free curriculum. The Generation Beyond program was announced Friday in Washington, D.C, at the opening ceremony of the Lockheed Martin-sponsored USA Science & Engineering Festival, the largestand onlynational STEM event.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 126,000 people worldwide. Lockheed Martin has thousands of employees in Sunnyvale and Palo Alto. The Sunnyvale facility is part of the company's Space Systems division, which makes solar panels, including those that power the International Space Station.
Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of blood-testing company Theranos, said she was "devastated" after an inspection found "critical violations" at her California lab, raising questions about an accuracy of the tests.

The Silicon Valley company, valued at $9 billion, partners with Walgreens to provide quick, in-store blood tests at a fraction of regular prices. In November, a federal inspection by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) found the company failed to hire and train qualified staff to work the testing machines, and let unlicensed workers review test results.

"I feel devastated that we did not catch and fix these issues faster," Holmes said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show Monday.

Holmes said the lab stopped testing and that she is rebuilding the "entire laboratory from scratch," but a letter from regulators in March called her fixes insufficient and threatened to shut down the lab and ban Holmes from the business of blood testing for at least two years.

Holmes said she has hired a new lab director and an expert medical board to prevent any future violations. She is awaiting response from CMS.
It wasn't a giant rally with screaming supporters, celebrity friends and a feisty candidate. But the small gathering on behalf of Hillary Clinton in a Brooklyn church still reverberated with emotion.

Sitting in the airy chapel at Mount Ararat Church in Brooklyn, the crowd heard from five women who had lost their children to gun violence or after contact with the police, including the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner. One by one, they shared stories of loss and grief and argued Clinton was the candidate best prepared to take on gun violence and reshape the criminal justice system.

"She was the only candidate that reached out to us," said Sybrina Fulton, whose 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012. "That showed us that our tragedies were important." She said: "It's important that we let our voices be heard and you absolutely can do that at the polls."

More than a dozen of these women have dubbed themselves the "Mothers of the Movement." They met privately with Clinton and each other last year at a Chicago restaurant, pouring out their stories while the Democratic presidential contender took notes. Though Clinton didn't directly ask for endorsements at the time, the women decided to get involved and have campaigned for her in South Carolina, Wisconsin and Ohio. Clinton's campaign pays their travel expenses.

They spent the weekend before Tuesday's New York primary at churches and block parties around New York City, pushing for strong turnout from black voters, who heavily support Clinton and could give her an edge.

"Fill your car up with people," Fulton said. "Just make sure you're taking someone with you...It is so important. It means everything to us. It means everything to our community."

On Sunday morning at a church in Mount Vernon, Clinton introduced three of the mothers, describing their stories in detail and pledging to fight for tougher gun laws  an area where she has repeatedly questioned the record of her primary rival, Bernie Sanders.

"Nobody else running on either side is willing to take the stands that I think must be taken," Clinton said.

Sanders has struggled to win over black voters. He's won the endorsement of Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, a black Staten Island man who died in an apparent police chokehold in 2014. But Eric's mother, Gwen Carr, is backing Clinton, and others in the group are not sold on Sanders, either.

"He's not connected," said Pamela Bosley, whose teenage son Terrell Bosley was shot and killed in Chicago in 2007. "Hillary took the time and came out to Roseland. She came out and walked the neighborhoods."

Still, Clinton has come under criticism from some activists over the 1994 crime bill. It was a signature achievement of her husband, but critics say it contributed to high levels of incarceration for non-violent crimes, like drug offenses. Clinton has said the bill included some good provisions, like money for police officers, an assault weapons ban and an effort to prevent violence against women, but has also said she is sorry for unintended consequences.

The mothers said they did not hold the bill against Clinton. "You're going to tell me that's all you've got?" asked Geneva Reed-Veal. Her daughter Sandra Bland was jailed after a white state trooper pulled her over in July for a minor traffic violation and their exchange turned combative. She was found hanging from a cell partition three days later, her death provoking national outrage.

Many of the women in New York over the weekend say their ties to Clinton go back before the Chicago meeting. Nicole Paultre Bell's fiance, Sean Bell, was fatally shot by New York City detectives on what was supposed to have been his wedding day nearly 10 years ago. She remembers the phone call from then-Sen. Clinton, asking how she and the children were doing.

Some had met before but they credit Clinton with bringing the larger group together.

"Being together helps us because it's such a difficult thing to deal with," said Annette Holt, whose teenage son Blair Holt was shot and killed on a Chicago bus in 2007 as he tried to protect a friend. "I think that by us being involved, we will always be connected."
In less than a month Chicago Public Schools teachers could strike for the third time in four years.



"Our membership has already voted to authorize a strike," CTU President Karen Lewis said at a Monday morning press conference. "We now have 28 more days to cool off as required by state law, which at any time thereafter we can file a 10-day notice to go on strike."



Lewis said if the teachers strike, it's unclear how long they will be out.



"No teacher ever wants to go on strike," Lewis said. "This is not a joyous occasion. We prefer to be inside with our students, doing what we love. But this board leaves us no choice."

On Saturday, the CTU rejected an independent fact-finders report that recommended teachers accept the school district's latest offer. In the rejection, Lewis said a countdown clock is ticking and they could walk off the job as early as May 16, which would disrupt the final weeks of the school year.

CPS CEO Forrest Claypool has urged the teachers to reconsider and says he plans for the bargaining efforts to continue.



"CTU is a union that likes to loudly proclaim that they're the most democratic union in the country and yet their elected representatives have never had a chance to vote on an agreement that their own leaders agreed to," Claypool said over the weekend.

The CTU said it will agree to a contact that meets a specific set of criteria, including creating enforceable class size limits, being "economically reasonable" in terms of teacher pay and benefits, a charter school moratorium, an end to school closings and consolidations and a pension levy.

"CTU has bargained in good faith, CPS has not," Lewis said Monday. "The board ... continues to threaten our pension and enforce the 7 percent pay cut, and just recently failed to pay contractual benefits to our paraprofessionals which saves them $850,000. CPS is searching for cash under rocks, in seat cushions and in their uncle's pants pockets."

The contract proposal gives teachers a roughly three percent salary increase over four years, but requires them to kick in more for their pensions and health insurance.



"We dedicate our lives to this incredible profession," Lewis said. "We cannot accept a situation when our standard of living is lower by the end of multi-year contract than at the beginning."
Rep. Ken Dunkins campaign still has over $1.2 million in the bank after losing the March 15 Democratic primary for his 5th District House seat to Juliana Stratton.

Dunkins campaign received donations from Rauners political allies after breaking ranks with his party.

Dunkin began 2015s first quarter with $221,143 in the bank and raised $1,309,500 more, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

The Illinois Opportunity Project, which is run by Rauner ally Dan Proft, kicked in $1,300,000 to Dunkins campaign. Proft is a Chicago radio host who ran on the Republican Gubernatorial Ticket in 2010.

The Illinois Opportunity Project is considered a dark money group, meaning it does not have to disclose donors.

Dunkins campaign ultimately spent $294,462, leaving $1,236,180 in the ousted representatives coiffeurs.

Dunkin came under fire from fellow Democrats after he broke up the Democratic super-majority in the Illinois House of Representatives last year, siding with Gov. Bruce Rauner on certain budget issues.

More than $6.1 million was spent over the course of the race, the most money spent on a race for the Illinois legislature in the state's history.

Stratton rode a wave of substantial donations and high-profile endorsements, including President Barack Obama, to defeat Dunkin, who has served in the Illinois House since 2002.
Rep. Lou Lang, a top ally of Speaker of the House Mike Madigan, is sponsoring a bill that looks to make those who earn more money pay higher tax rates.

The move would replace the states current flat income tax, shifting to a graduated system.

We dont have to stay stuck in the past- there is another path forward that puts tax dollars back in the hands of hardworking families and eases the pain caused by recent budget cuts, Lang said in a statement. When my bill passes and the governor signs it, ninety-nine percent of taxpayers will get a tax cut, and we can start to restore funds to vital services.

Lang estimates the measure could result in $1.9 billion annually.

Democrats have previously pushed the idea, arguing that it would shift the tax burden from the middle class to high-income taxpayers.

In order to pass the measure into law, Illinois voters would first have to remove the flat tax by approving an amendment to the Illinois Constitution.

Langs bill is coupled with Rep. Christian Mitchells Constitutional Amendment resolution that would allow Illinoisans to vote on state tax code reform.

The Fair Tax, where lower rates would apply to lower incomes and higher rates would apply to higher incomes, is long over due in our state. It is fundamentally unfair that our tax rate is the same no matter if you are a minimum wage worker or a millionaire,  Mitchell said in a statement. With a Fair Tax, we can provide tax relief for ninety-nine perfect of taxpayers, and reform our outdated tax code.

Under the current plan, Illinoisans pay a state income tax rate of 3.75. This number dropped from 5 percent in January of last year when a temporary increase, pushed by the Democrats in 2011, was rolled back.

Lang is now pushing a plan that would see taxpayers paying a variety of rates.

Under his plan, married taxpayers who file joint returns or heads of households would pay 3.5 percent for incomes of $200,000 or lower; 3.75 percent for incomes between $200,000 and $750,000; 8.75 percent for incomes between $750,000 and $1.5 million; and 9.75 percent for incomes over $1.5 million.

Otherwise, all other taxpayers would pay a rate of 3.5 percent for incomes of $100,000 and up; 3.75 percent for incomes between $100,000 and $500,000; 8.75 percent for incomes between $500,000 and $1 million; and 9.75 percent on income above $1 million.

Nevertheless, Rauners office rebuffed the plan.

The majority partys desire to skyrocket taxes is breathtaking, Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in a statement. A progressive income tax would be the straw that breaks the Illinois economys back- sending our state even further into the economic doldrums.

Its beyond time for Democrats to come to the table and work with the governor to find common ground on real structural reforms that will get our economy moving in the right direction, Kelly added.

Illinois has been without an official budget since July of last year. As a result, the states public colleges and universities and social services have suffered. In addition to this, the state could be on the hook for up to $10 billion in unpaid bills by July.

Democrats last pushed for a graduated income tax in 2014. The measure was halted after Madigan said it did not have the 71 votes needed to pass.
Illinois ranked second-to-last in a survey of the countrys best and worst run states, according to a report by 24/7 Wall St.

A host of variables went into states rankings: debt per capita, median household income, unemployment rate, poverty rate and credit rating.

According to the report, Illinois has the 11th highest debt per capita at $4,942 per capita and a median household income of $57,444. The state also has the 16th highest unemployment rate at 5.4 percent and the 25th lowest poverty rate at 14.4 percent. In addition to this, S&P has given the state a credit rating of A-, while Moodys has rated the states credit a Baa1.

The report also notes that Illinois has rainy day funds that only account for 1 percent of the states general annual budget. This indicates that the state may be unable to satisfy short-term obligations.

In addition to this, the report points to the states pensions. Illinois currently has assets on hand to meet only 39 percent of the states pension obligations. This is the lowest ratio of any state.

The states housing market is also struggling, as one in every 73 housing units is in some state of foreclosure. As a result, home prices in the state have dropped by 10 percent since 2010.

Illinois has been operating without an official budget since July of last year. The impasse has been typified by a battle between Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic legislature over Rauners pro-business, union-weakening Turnaround Agenda.

New Mexico ranked last on the list, while North Dakota ranked first.
The nicest weather weekend of the year thus far brought violence into focus once again in Chicago, leaving 3 dead and 32 injured in shootings across the city by Sunday evening. The victims included a 1-year-old girl wounded while riding in a car, a father of two killed outside his childhood home, and a police officer injured by a pellet gun.

The first shooting of the weekend happened at 4:45 p.m. Friday, when a 1-year-old girl was shot in the neck while riding in the backseat of a car with her family. Her aunt and cousin were in the car in the 5400 block of W. Le Moyne in the West Side Austin neighborhood when someone fired shots at the car from a silver vehicle, police said. A bullet went through the trunk and back seat, striking the baby in the neck, though authorities originally said she was hit in the head. Later identified by family members as Khloe, she was taken to West Suburban Medical Center, then transferred to Stroger Hospital in stable condition. She had just been picked up from day care when the shots were fired, according to her family.

Later Friday night, the first fatal shooting of the weekend occurred. Police say a man was turned away from a party at a residential garage in the 7400 block of S. Eggleston in the city's Englewood neighborhood. He returned with a gun at 11:20 p.m. and opened fire onto the crowd, killing two men and injuring another. Pierre Payne, 32, was shot in the chest and pronounced dead on the scene. Andrew Haynes, 34, was shot in the torso and taken to Stroger Hospital where he died. A 45-year-old man was shot in the left hip and taken to Stroger in stable condition.

The second fatal incident occurred early Sunday morning in the citys Lawndale neighborhood. Officers were called to the 1300 block of S Central Park Ave around 1:25 a.m., finding an unresponsive man on the ground. He was later identified by family members as 33-year-old Fredrick Lee Blount, a father of two. He had a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The rest of the weekends shootings include:

Friday

At around 5:20 p.m., 14-year-old boy was standing on the sidewalk in the 2300 block of W 66th St in the West Englewood neighborhood when someone in a passing vehicle fired shots, according to Chicago Police. He sustained a gunshot wound to the foot and was taken to Holy Cross Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

A police officer was working a vice operation at about 10:30 p.m. in the 1st block of N Cicero Ave when he sustained a non-life threatening injury from a pellet gun Chicago Police confirmed. He was taken to an area hospital and a 16-year-old boy was charged in the shooting Saturday morning, police said.

Saturday

A 21-year-old woman was shot early Saturday in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side. She was standing on the street in 5500 block of W Congress Parkway at 2:24 a.m. when she heard shots and felt pain, according to police. She self-transported to Loretto Hospital with a gunshot wound to the abdomen and was transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.

At about 8:15 a.m., a 28-year-old woman got into a fight with another woman in the 6400 block of S Langley in the citys West Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side. The woman pulled out a gun and fired shots, striking the victim in the right knee before fleeing. The victim was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center where her condition was stabilized.

Less than 15 minutes later at 8:28 a.m., two men were in the 6100 block of S Bishop in West Englewood when a white SUV pulled up and a person inside the car fired shots before fleeing. A 23-year-old man was shot in the right ankle and a 27-year-old man was shot in the left thigh, according to police. Both were taken to Stroger Hospital where they were in stable condition.

A 30-year-old man was in the 2000 block of E 71st St in the South Shore neighborhood at 11:20 a.m. when someone fired shots from inside a passing white SUV, police said. He sustained a gunshot wound to the ankle and was taken to Christ Medical Center, according to police.

In the 6700 block of S. Normal Blvd, two men were hanging out on the street in the Englewood neighborhood at 3:10 when a black car drove past and an unknown offender fired shots. A 22-year-old man was shot in the leg and taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, while a 20-year-old man was shot in the back and sustained a graze wound to the arm, police said. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in serious condition.

At 6:05 p.m. in the 4100 block of W Grenshaw St in Lawndale, a 22-year-old man was standing on the sidewalk when two men approached on foot and fired shots. He was shot in the chest and taken in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.

A 13-year-old boy was shot while walking across the street in the 7300 block of S University Ave in the Grand Crossing neighborhood, police said. The shooting occurred at 8 p.m., when a white sedan pulled up to the boy, three people got out of the car and opened fire. The boy was shot in both legs and taken to Comer Children's Hospital where his condition stabilized, according to police.

An 18-year-old man walked into Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park at 8:10 p.m. with a gunshot wound to the left shoulder. Police say he was uncooperative, and told them he had been walking in the 1500 block of W 89th St in the Gresham neighborhood when he heard shots and felt pain. He was listed in stable condition.

In the West Englewood neighborhood at 10:15 p.m., a 38-year-old man was standing on the front porch of a home in the 6900 block of S Damen Ave when someone fired shots from a dark-colored sedan, according to police. The victim was hit in the right leg and left arm, but refused medical treatment, police said.

Sunday

At 12:35 a.m., a 26-year-old man was in the backseat of a car in the 5000 block of W Monroe St in the South Austin neighborhood when he heard shots and felt pain. He was driven to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was listed in stable condition with a gunshot wound to the right wrist, police said.

A 24-year-old man was in a car in the 200 block of W Marquette Rd in the Englewood neighborhood at around 4:15 a.m., according to police. A male occupant in a gray sedan fired shots, striking the victim in the right shoulder. He then drove to St Bernard Hospital, police said, where his condition was stable.

At approximately the same time, two men were walking on the sidewalk in the 600 block of N Ashland Ave in West Town when they heard numerous gunshots and felt pain. Both men, ages 22 and 23, were shot in the leg, and taken to Stroger Hospital by a concerned passing motorist, police said. They were listed in stable condition and according to police, the incident may be gang-related.

A 26-year-old man was also wounded in a shooting at approximately 4:20 a.m. in the Englewood neighborhood. He was standing on the sidewalk in the 7200 block of S Aberdeen St when someone fired shots from a passing black vehicle. He was hit in the back and foot, and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in stable condition. Police also believe this incident may have been gang-related.

A 30-year-old man was shot during a robbery at 4:50 a.m. in the Parkway Gardens neighborhood. Police said three men entered a restaurant in the 6300 block of S King Drive and announced a robbery. The suspects stole the mans jewelry and one offender fired shots before fleeing. The victim was hit in the left arm, hand, and left ankle, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in stable condition.

A woman shot at around 6:30 a.m. in the 2800 block of N Broadway St in the North Side Lake View neighborhood walked into Little Company of Mary Hospital in south suburban Evergreen Park with a graze wound to the toe, according to police. The victim is 36 years old, and police said she was not cooperative and had been drinking.

At 11 a.m., an 18-year-old man was shot in the 5600 block of S Michigan Ave in the Washington Park neighborhood, police said. He was shot in the hand and shoulder and taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, though authorities added that he was uncooperative with investigators.

A 27-year-old man sustained a graze wound to the leg in the 8300 block of S Stewart Ave in the citys Chatham neighborhood, police said. The incident occurred around 1:50 p.m. and the victim denied medical attention at the scene.

At 2:30 p.m. in the 6400 block of S Eberhart in the Woodlawn neighborhood, a 19-year-old man was standing outside when a gunman dressed in black approached and fired shots. The victim was shot in the left foot and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition, police said.

Just before 3 p.m., a 20-year-old man walked into a Northwest Side police station with a lower back gunshot wound, according to police. He told authorities he had been inside a car in the 4600 block of N Central Park Ave when he heard shots and realized he had been hit. He was taken by ambulance to Illinois Masonic Medical Center and listed in good condition. Police said he was uncooperative, and the shooting was likely gang-related.

In the 100 block of E 120th Pl in the West Pullman neighborhood on the citys South Side, a 25-year-old woman was shot shortly before 4 p.m., according to police. She sustained a gunshot wound to the leg and refused medical attention at the scene, but later self-transported to Roseland Hospital.

At 7:07 p.m., two men were sitting on a porch in the 1900 block of S Troy Ave in the Lawndale neighborhood when an unknown offender approached on foot and fired shots, police said. A 36-year-old man sustained a gunshot wound to the right leg, and a 31-year-old man was shot in the left thigh. Both were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious-to-critical condition.

Around 8 p.m. in the Chatham neighborhood, a 23-year-old man was walking on the sidewalk in the 800 block of E 82nd St when an unknown offender in a light-colored SUV opened fire. The victim was shot in the left leg and taken to Stroger Hospital in fair condition, according to police.

In each of these incidents aside from the officer shot with a pellet gun, no one is in custody and police continue to investigate the shootings.
A new optical illusion has set social media ablaze and it has nothing to do with the color of a dress.

A photo posted to Facebook last week has puzzled thousands after a Missouri woman asked her followers if they could see what was in the image.

I stared at this picture for an hour trying to figure out what it was, Savannah Root wrote. Once you figure it out comment below, please dont ruin it for anyone.

The post has since garnered more than 11,000 comments and more than 5,100 shares as confused users post their guesses and others claim victory.

One user wrote she could only see a penguin fishing, while some said they saw what was in the image right away.

Others offered advice like look at it..turn away.. then look back and its [sic] there.

Its not the first time social media has debated an optical illusion.

Many might remember the dress controversy last year that sent the Internet into a raging debate. A photo had thousands questioning the color of a dress after some thought it was black and blue while others saw white and gold.

Late last year, a comic artist also had thousands furiously searching through a Wheres Waldo?-style photo trying to find a panda in a sea of snowmen.

What do you see in the latest viral image?

Share your guesses in the comment section and scroll down to find out the answer.

Answer: A cowboy.
Many families in Connecticut are still trying to reach loved ones in Ecuador after an earthquake devastated areas along the central coast.

Its been difficult if not impossible to find out how theyre doing because of the damage done by the earthquake.

ABC Pizza in the Collinsville section of Canton always displays a few tributes to the owners home country. But on Sunday it was the images broadcast on an Ecuadorian TV channel that made it hard for the staff here to work.

Oh yeah, because our mind is always there, says Wagner Hurtado, owner of ABC Pizza.

Wagner Hurtado runs the shop with his wife and brother-in-law. They left Ecuador more than twenty years ago. It remains close to their hearts, especially following the devastating earthquake.

Everybody was scared because we have whole family over there, friends. We dont know really what happened, says Hurtado.

Hundreds of people are dead, thousands hurt, and then there is significant damage to homes, businesses, and infrastructure.

Paul Martel, president and founder of a non-profit called FIBUSPAM, is already looking for ways his organization can assist.

We can help and wed like to do that, says Paul Martel.

FIBUSPAM already had up to 50 medical professionals in Ecuador as part of its regular humanitarian mission. Now theyre ready to help quake victims.

Down there in this situation, you dont have anything  nothing; literally nothing, says Martel.

Back at ABC Pizza, Hurtado planned to close the restaurant early on Sunday. His hope was then to connect with his loved ones in Ecuador.

Its hard when you are far away and you can do nothing, says Hurtado.

Several groups in the state are looking to fundraise to help quake victims.

People can click here to donate to FIBUSPAM.

The Ecuadorian Civic Center of Greater Danbury met on Sunday to also look at ways to help victims.

Also the Ecuadorian Consulate in Connecticut has planned a meeting for Monday at 6 p.m. to talk about the emergency situation and figure out ways to help.
A horrible stench in one Hartford neighborhood has neighbors fed up.

Neighbors say foul smelling water is leaking out from a home on Brookfield Street. Its near their backyards and they want it stopped.

On Sunday, a crew from NBC Connecticut witnessed what neighbors say is part of the problem: water spurting out of a hose which snakes out of a basement window in a townhome on Brookfield Street.

The water smells and neighbors say its been a constant problem for the past couple months.

I was really smelling it and it was like bad. Says Scott Hart of Hartford.

The foul smelling water is collecting outside one home and further down the group of townhomes. Neighbors are concerned sewage might be in the water and its effect on their health and quality of life.

You cant open up your windows or, and when youre walking in and out of your home you smell it, says one neighbor who did not want her name used.

Neighbors say no one lives in the townhome with the hose right now.

They say theyve contacted the City of Hartford and MDC to look into what might be the source of the problem. But so far they havent had any luck stopping the water from pumping out.

There is an issue somewhere and we just want to know where the issue is and how to fix it, says Hart.

NBC Connecticut spoke briefly to Michelle Simon who is listed in city records as the owner of the unit where the water originates.

Simon blames the problem on a sewer line issue that the City of Hartford and MDC need to address.

However MDC spokeswoman Kerry Martin confirms a crew was there on Wednesday for reports of a possible sewage issue, and found no problem with the main sewer line.

Martin says it may be an issue with the lateral line, which attaches individual systems to the main line. Any problems with lateral lines is the responsibility of the propertys owner or owners. Martin says MDC crews did leave paperwork for the propertys owner, as is standard procedure.

NBC Connecticut reached out to the City of Hartford but the city has yet to comment.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will be making a campaign stop in Connecticut on Thursday, ahead of the April 26 primary, according to her campaign.

It will be a public visit, but it's not clear where it will be.

Her campaign said she will discuss her plans to deal with gun violence in communities, as well as plans to break down the barriers that hold too many families back.

Clinton's daughter, Chelsea Clinton, will be in the state on Wednesday for a campaign event in Hartford.

Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ohio governor John Kasich have both visited Connecticut. Trump was in Hartford on Friday.

Kasich visited Sacred Heart University in Fairfield earlier this month and is coming back on Friday, where he will be at Glastonbury High School.

The candidates have also been spending money on advertising here.

Democratic candidate Senator Bernie Sanders has not visited Connecticut during the campaign cycle, but he has spent $765,000 on ads for Connecticut TV stations, according to FCC filings.
If you plan to hit the beaches of West Haven, make sure to bring more money with you.

The price to park for non-residents is expected to go up this summer from $5 to $10. It's one of many solutions the mayor will bring to the city council after residents complained about the parking situation.

I was getting a lot of complaints about non-residents coming in and parking so there was no room for the residents," West Haven Mayor Edward O'Brien said.

Off-street parking will be eliminated on some side streets close to the beach as well.

We have a lot of out-of-town visitors, we want them to keep coming, but theres a cost to maintain this, parking is problem for our residents," O'Brien added.

He said West Haven beaches have huge crowds in the summer and he doesnt think that will change. The reaction of people walking along the beachs boardwalk Monday was mixed.

I think thats probably going to be a deterrent for a lot of people including myself," said Robert Laccone of Derby.

It is nice they let us use it and if we have to pay we have to pay," said Sue Curran of Naugatuck.

Its quite expensive sometimes to just come out and enjoy the day," said Marissa Simon of Ansonia.

The mayor said the extra revenue will help pay for city sponsored events like the Fourth of July celebration as well as beach up-keep.

They need to make more lots available because most people would like to come down to the beach during the nice weather," said West Haven resident Susan Potter.

The city also plans to expand its patrol of resident parking lots to keep non-residents out. Those without stickers will be ticketed and towed. That means residents will no longer be able to use their license as proof if they dont have a sticker.

Its kind of upsetting. So, Im not going to come down as much unless I just walk," said Maureen Carofano, of West Haven.

Parking stickers will go out to residents with their tax bills in June. Theyll be valid for two years.
Three dogs in a single neighborhood died after eating cut-up hot dogs laced with pesticides, according to their owners in the Southern California city of Chula Vista.

Residents of the Otay Ranch neighborhood believe their dogs were poisoned intentionally. The owners say someone cut up tainted hot dogs and threw the pieces into families' backyards for their animals to find.

The Frank family  whose dog, Stella, died April 13  is offering a $500 reward to anyone with information leading to an arrest.

"She started to get violently ill," Kayre Frank said of Stella. "She was kind of shaking and it was weird that she would lay down like that she wasn't responding to me and so I got down and looked at her. She didn't look good, she was foaming and she was shaking."

Frank took Stella to the vet to undergo testing. At that point, Stella was unable to breathe on her own.

"He said it looked like sausage," Frank told NBC 7. "I don't have anything like that in the house so I knew that something was up Someone had clearly put poison in a hot dog."

Eventually, the family decided to put her down. Stella would have been 5 years old next month.

"Somebody took the time to obtain this chemical, to put it in a hot dog, to throw it over the fence  obviously knowing we had a dog. Two dogs," Frank said. "You're sad, you're devastated and then you're angry because you know that somebody did this on purpose."

Neighbor Adrianna Martinez lost both her dogs April 8.

"He ran up into my bed and was crying, crying and I never heard him cry that way," Martinez said of her golden retriever, Nala, who then collapsed. "He didn't have control of his body anymore He threw up a wiener with black inside of it."

She said her mothers dog, Henny, began having seizures and could barely breathe. Both were rushed to the vet, where Nala died in Martinez's arms "like it was too late."

"Within an hour... they were gone," she said.

Nala was turning 3 and Henny was not yet 1.

"It's like I lost my little brother and sister," Martinez told NBC 7.

Once again, the vet said pesticide was to blame.

"Whoever did this has a personal problem with dogs... Its evil. You know, you just don't do that to an animal," Martinez added.

Chula Vista police are investigating, and fliers are now posted throughout the neighborhood warning other dog owners of the danger to their pets.
Rescuers and aid from all over the world are flooding into Ecuador as survivors start a second day in towns flattened by a devastating magnitude-7.8 earthquake.

The search for people trapped beneath the rubble continues. At least 350 people were killed, including two Canadians, and thousands are homeless.

Ecuador's Foreign Affairs Minister Guillaume Long says hundreds of international aid workers are in place. Mexico has sent 120 helpers, Spain sent 80 rescue experts and Chile sent 49 firefighters. Missions have also arrived from Peru, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Switzerland.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. will help in any way possible.

International aid groups have dispatched doctors and psychologists, and dogs trained to search for survivors. Workers are also setting up plants to clean drinking water.

Here's how to help:
In the heat of the presidential race, climate change has mostly received a cold shoulder from candidates.

While as much as 70 percent of Americans believe climate change is real and that humans are contributing to it, according to a Monmouth University poll from January, the issue of global warming has rarely come up in stump speeches or during debates, especially on the Republican side.

NBC has reached out to all the campaigns for information on their positions but has not heard back. The candidates, however, have outlined their positions in interviews and town hall events. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have listed their plans for tackling the crisis on campaign websites.

Clinton and Sanders have pledged to continue President Obamas climate agenda if elected to office, but the Republican candidates are far from on board.

Heres a rundown of what each presidential candidate thinks of climate change:

Bernie Sanders

Sanders is one of the most vocal of all presidential candidates on climate change. On his campaign site, the senior Vermont senator outlines a complete policy platform on reducing carbon emissions, decreasing fossil fuel subsidies and revamping environmental policies regarding public health.

He frequently discusses big oil companies on the campaign trail and argues their profits are costing the public.

During a February rally in Minnesota, Sanders discussed how, unlike his Republican counterparts, he will not reject science.

Climate change is real, climate change is caused by human activity, and climate change is already doing devastating harm in our country and all over the world, Sanders said.

In an interview with the LA Times' editorial board, Sanders reiterated his comprehensive policy on global warming.

"It is absolutely an international crisis, and the United States cant do it alone," he said. "But we can lead the world by example and by influence. I happen to believe, I was asked in one debate, whats the major foreign policy crisis that we face  is it North Korea? And I said, climate change... We have got to be extremely aggressive in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel. I have comprehensive legislation that does that. It is the most comprehensive anti-climate change legislation in the history of the United States Senate. It calls for, among other things, a tax on carbon."

Hillary Clinton

Clinton also uses her campaign website to outline her environmental policy. Her goals include increasing the use of solar panels in the United States and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

At the Univision Democratic Presidential Debate, Clinton emphasized the importance of action and preventive measures on global warming.

We do have to invest in resilience and mitigation while we are trying to make up for the fact that this is clearly man-made and man-aggregated, she said.

At a rally in Iowa, Clinton responded to the views of her Republican counterparts  who are skeptical of the science behind climate change  urging them to "go talk to a scientist." She also noted her view that implementing environmental plans for renewable energy would benefit the economy.

"There are millions of new jobs and businesses in moving from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy," she said.

Clinton supports Obamas efforts to strengthen environmental regulation and sees it essential for Americans to recognize the severity of climate change, according to MSNBC.

We have to actually convince more Americans that this is in their interest, she said to Annie Karni of Politico. You know, whatever it takes. I happen to think its a real threat. I think the science is pretty clear.

Donald Trump

The GOP front-runner has been asked questions on global warming in various interviews, but does not include climate change on his campaign's list of positions.

In tweets between 2012 and early 2015, he called climate change a con job, a canard, a hoax, bulls---, and a concept created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive," according to MSNBC.

Once he announced his candidacy, Trump somewhat softened his language. In September, he told MSNBCs Morning Joe in a phone interview that global warming may exist, but is not the biggest issue the U.S. faces.

I consider climate change to be not one of our big problems, Trump said at the time.

In another Morning Joe appearance in November 2015, Trump reiterated his view, but also noted the importance of protecting the environment.

I want to make sure we have clean air and we have clean water, he said. Thats what my thing on climate change is. We want to have clean air to breathe and we want to have beautiful clean water. Thats very important to me.

Most recently, however, in an interview with the Washington Post editorial board, Trump was asked point-blank whether he believed climate change existed.

"I think theres a change in weather. I am not a great believer in man-made climate change," he answered in March. "Im not a great believer. There is certainly a change in weather that goes  if you look, they had global cooling in the 1920s and now they have global warming, although now they dont know if they have global warming. They call it all sorts of different things; now theyre using 'extreme weather' I guess more than any other phrase. I am not  I know it hurts me with this room, and I know its probably a killer with this room  but I am not a believer. Perhaps theres a minor effect, but Im not a big believer in man-made climate change."

Ted Cruz

Texas Sen. Cruz has been consistently at odds with widely accepted beliefs that global warming is real. A committee member of the Senate Science Subcommittee, the GOP candidate held a climate science hearing in December to discuss global warming with experts. In his opening statement, the senator said there is strong data and evidence that indicates global warming is not as bad as what global alarmists say it is.

Facts matter, science matters, data matters, Cruz said. According to the satellite data, there has been no significant global warming for the past 18 years. The global warming alarmists dont like these data.

At a New Hampshire speech in January, Cruz expressed his skepticism again, saying, Climate change is the perfect pseudo-scientific theory, because it can never ever be disproven.

Cruz is the only candidate who considers himself a full-fledged skeptic, believing that data showing proof of climate change and global warming is in fact false. Cruz recognizes its good to be environmentally friendly but believes change should come from the private sector, not the government.

John Kasich

Kasich: I do believe we contribute to climate change. Watch live: https://t.co/jVsgxIyV1B #GOPDebate https://t.co/vErfkjzDw4  CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) March 11, 2016

According to public statements he's made, Ohio Gov. John Kasich believes humans do play a role in the changing climate. But he is against certain environmental policy changes, like alternative energy sources that may cost more or replace coal-based jobs.

At the CNN GOP debate in March, Kasich was asked about his views on environmental policy and climate change. He said it is important to use and develop efficient forms of energy, like wind and solar, but at the same time maintain jobs.

We want all the sources of energy, he said. We want to dig coal but we want to clean it when we burn it.

At an Iowa town hall in October, Kasich affirmed his view that climate change does exist. But, like Trump, Kasich said he does not see global warming as priority.

I just dont know enough about it, Kasich said. I dont know whats scientifically proven. I think there are things we can do to protect the environment. We should. But we shouldnt worship the environment.
"Hamilton," the hip-hop stage biography of Alexander Hamilton, has won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama, honoring creator Lin-Manuel Miranda for a dazzling musical that has captured popular consciousness like few Broadway shows.

The Columbia University's prize board on Monday cited "Hamilton" as "a landmark American musical about the gifted and self-destructive founding father whose story becomes both contemporary and irresistible." Other finalists were "Gloria," by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and "The Humans," by Stephen Karam.

"I feel really humbled and really overwhelmed," Miranda told The Associated Press. "Columbia is Hamilton's alma mater so I think that gave me a home-court advantage. But it's extraordinary to be recognized in this way."

Viet Thanh Nguyen's "The Sympathizer," a debut novel set in the final days of the Vietnam War and narrated in flashback by a former Communist agent who infiltrated the South Vietnamese Army, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

The 45-year-old author, currently in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to promote the paperback edition of his novel, told The Associated Press that he wrote "The Sympathizer" for himself but feels many can relate to it.

"I think most people in their inner selves are conscious of being an impostor, being an observer, not being the person everyone thinks they are," he said. "For the novel I took that to the extreme in using a spy and adding the dimensions of the thriller and historical fiction."

"Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS" by Joby Warrick won for general nonfiction. Warrick also won the Pulitzer in 1996, as part of a team reporting on the environmental and health risks of waste disposal systems used in North Carolina's growing hog industry.

"There's nothing like getting hit by lightning twice," Warrick said in a telephone interview.

Warrick said that if there was a chief lesson he sought to impart in his new book, which traces the origins and growth of ISIS, it was that "decisions have consequences" and the West, in many ways, helped propel the group. "We are not innocent in the rise of this organization," he said.

The history prize was won by "Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America," by T.J. Stiles, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and two children.

He told The Associated Press that he had long been interested in the story of George Armstrong Custer, the butt of jokes for the disastrous Battle of the Little Big Horn.

"Custer is a difficult subject, because he's very familiar and someone who has been reduced to caricature, if not an effigy in American memory," he said. "Writing about him in an honest way, without apologizing for him, is an incredibly difficult thing to do."

The book "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life," by William Finnegan won in the biography or autobiography category, cited as a "memoir of a youthful obsession"

Finnegan, 63, is a longtime staff reporter for The New Yorker and his book tells of his childhood in California and Hawaii and his lifelong passion for surfing. He told The Associated Press that he was used to writing about other people, but eventually enjoyed taking on his own life.

"It's a strange genre for a reporter, reporting out your own past, when everything was your private life and not on the record," said Finnegan, whose previous books include "Dateline Soweto: Travels with Black South African Reporters" and "Crossing the Line."

"But in some ways it's a genre that suits me, too. I enjoyed it, almost guiltily."

"In for a Penny, In for a Pound," by Henry Threadgill was named the winner in the music category. The 72-year-old Chicago-born jazz artist said he wrote the composition for members of his band, Zooid.

"It was something to showcase each musician in the ensemble, that was the big thing," Threadgill said. "It was like a series of small concertos in a way, small solo pieces."

But it was the drama award that generated the most buzz. "Hamilton," about the first U.S. Treasury Secretary, becomes the ninth musical to win the drama award, joining such shows as "South Pacific," ''Sunday in the Park with George" and "Rent." The last musical to nab the award was "Next to Normal" in 2010.

It tells the story of how an orphan immigrant from the Caribbean rose to the highest ranks of American society, as told by a young African-American and Latino cast. Miranda leaned on Ron Chernow's biography of the Founding Father, but told the tale in common language and verse, transforming Hamilton into "the $10 Founding Father without a father."

Miranda, 36, who wrote the music and story, already has a Tony for creating the Broadway musical "In the Heights," a show which was nominated for a Pulitzer in 2009 and this month won three Olivier Awards in London. He also has an Emmy for writing the opening number for the 2013 Tony Awards.

In the past year, Miranda, whose family came from Puerto Rico to New York, has won a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation, as well as the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, which came with $100,000.

The drama award was widely expected to go to Miranda this year. The album for "Hamilton" won a Grammy Award and became the highest-debuting cast recording on the Billboard Top 200 in over 50 years. The show is a leading favorite in this summer's Tony Awards. The libretto, published last week, immediately became a top seller on Amazon.com

"I'm just trying to stay as present and in the moment as possible because I'm fully aware that this speeds by in the highlight reel. I'm living in the highlight reel section of my life," Miranda said. "I want to slow the montage down."

"Hamilton" was a sold-out sensation this year when it debuted off-Broadway at New York's Public Theater and amassed a $60 million advance on Broadway. It has been cheered by politicians as diverse as Dick Cheney and President Barack Obama, and celebrities like British actress Helen Mirren, musician Questlove and many others.

The music is a mix of breezy pop, rap battles and slinky R&B. Lyrics are smart and playful, including Hamilton declaring: "In the face of ignorance and resistance/I wrote a financial system into existence."

The Pulitzer drama award, which includes a $10,000 prize, is "for a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life," according to the guidelines.

Previous playwrights honored include August Wilson, Edward Albee, Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Recent winners include Annie Baker's "The Flick," Ayad Akhtar's "Disgraced" and Stephen Adly Guirgis's "Between Riverside and Crazy."
A fitness instructor was found slain inside a North Texas church Monday morning, and Midlothian police are looking for a person seen on video wearing tactical clothing with police markings in connection with her death.

Midlothian Assistant Police Chief Kevin Johnson said Tuesday that contrary to initial reports, the detectives can no longer say they are looking for a man.

"We are backing off our statement that the suspect on video was a man. I know we said 'he' over and over again yesterday, and that was a mistake. There's a lot of speculation based on the gait and appearance that this person may be a woman. It's a legitimate question right now. We no longer will say the suspect is a man," Johnson said. "That does not mean I'm saying this suspect is a woman. It's just that at this point we cant rule it out. We don't know yet."

Fitness instructor Missy Bevers, a 45-year-old mother of three, arrived at the Creekside Church of Christ shortly after 4 a.m. to prepare for a Camp Gladiator class, police said Monday afternoon.

When her students arrived at 5 a.m., they found her unresponsive and called 911. EMS workers arrived minutes later and noticed broken glass and other indications of a struggle around the woman's body.

Police arrived soon after, searched the building and determined there were visible signs of forced entry. No one else was found in the building but a review of surveillance video recorded inside the building indicated a person entered the building shortly before Bevers and was using a tool to pry open doors.

Midlothian police said the person was dressed in tactical gear with police markings, including a heavy helmet, gloves and military-style battle-dress pants.

In a news conference Monday afternoon, Midlothian Chief of Police Carl Smith said the person was "designed to look like a police officer."

NBC 5 News

Police said the motion-activated surveillance cameras did not record any interaction between Bevers and the person, and while a motive has not been determined, police said it's possible Bevers interrupted a burglary.

"It's just an odd, random situation that they would they would actually happen to come into a building that was being burglarized on a Monday morning," Smith said. "But all scenarios are on the table right now."

Investigators said the first time the person appeared on camera was about 3:50 a.m., shortly before Bevers arrived. Since there are no working cameras outside the church, it is not clear when the person arrived.

The death of a woman whose body was found inside a Midlothian church Monday is being investigated as a homicide, police say.

It was not immediately known if anything was taken from the church and police were not sure if the person was carrying a weapon.

The woman was declared dead at the scene by Ellis County Justice of the Peace Bill Woody. Due to Bevers' injuries, police are investigating her death as a homicide.

"She was a loving mother of three. She loved her husband very much," said Chad Tucker, Bevers' brother in-law. "She was dedicated to taking care of herself, taking care of other people and being a good mother."

Several people gathered Monday evening at the Midlothian Conference Center for a private candlelight vigil in Bevers' memory.

Oak Farms Dairy is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case of Missy Bevers, who was found dead in a Midlothian church.

Oak Farms Dairy announced it was offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and successful grand jury indictment in this case.

Bevers' body was transported to the Dallas County medical examiner who will determine her cause of death.

A fitness instructor was found slain inside a North Texas church Monday morning, and Midlothian police are looking for a man seen on video wearing tactical clothing with police markings in connection with her death.

Anyone with information on the person's identity is asked to call the Midlothian Police Department at 972-775-3333.

NBC 5's Chris Jose and Kevin Cokely contributed to this report.
With just one more day before New Yorkers head to the polls Tuesday for the Empire State's primary election, Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will be in the city urging residents to vote, while Republican candidates Donald Trump and John Kasich will try to woo voters upstate.

Democrats:

Hillary Clinton joined Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards to discuss her policies on women and incomes, among other issues, at the Hilton midtown.

Bernie Sanders took a walk through midtown Manhattan on Monday morning. He began a short stroll in Bryant Park and was making his way downtown toward the Macy's in Herald Square. Along the way he met with several New Yorkers, posing for photos and talking politics.

Monday night he's scheduled to attend a "get out the vote" rally at Point South Park in Long Island City, Queens. Sanders will welcome actor Danny Glover, Fisher Stevens and the band TV on the Radio.

Republicans:

Donald Trump will campaign upstate Monday night, holding a rally at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo.

John Kasich attends two separate campaign events in upstate New York. Monday morning he held a town hall at the Solvay Youth Center in Syracuse. Monday afternoon he in Schenectady where he'll take questions from the media and then hold another town hall at the armory.

Ted Cruz is looking past New York where he trails Kasich, he spent part of the day in Maryland.
To all the political junkies yearning for a contested Republican convention this summer: not so fast.

It's still possible for Donald Trump to clinch the nomination by the end of the primaries on June 7. His path is narrow and perilous. But it's plausible and starts with a big victory Tuesday in his home state New York primary.

Trump is the only candidate with a realistic chance of reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the July convention in Cleveland. His rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, can only hope to stop him.

If Cruz and Kasich are successful, politicos across the country will have the summer of their dreams  a convention with an uncertain outcome. But Trump can put an end to those dreams, and he can do it without any of the 150 or so delegates who will go to the convention free to support the candidate of their choice.

What comes next isn't a prediction, but rather, a way in which Trump could win the nomination outright on June 7.

To be sure, Trump will have to start doing a lot better than he has so far. He gets that chance starting Tuesday, beginning the day with 744 delegates.

___

NEW YORK

There are 95 delegates at stake in the Empire State, and it's important for Trump to win a big majority of them. It won't be easy.

There are 14 statewide delegates and three delegates in each congressional district.

If a candidate gets more than 50 percent of the statewide vote, he gets all 14 delegates. Otherwise, he has to share them with other candidates.

If a candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in a congressional district, he gets all three delegates. Otherwise, again, he has to share.

Trump leads statewide in the most recent preference polls, with right around 50 percent. New York is a large and diverse state, so he probably won't win all the congressional districts.

Let's say Trump does make it to 50 percent, but Kasich or Cruz wins five congressional districts; Trump will take 77 delegates on the night.

Trump's running total: 821 delegates.

___

APRIL 26

Five states have primaries on April 26, with 172 delegates at stake: Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Rhode Island.

Pennsylvania could be trouble for Trump. The state has a unique system in which 54 delegates  three from each congressional district  are listed by name on the ballot, with no information for voters to know which candidate they support.

That means even if Trump wins Pennsylvania, he's only guaranteed to claim 17 of the state's 71 delegates.

Connecticut awards 13 delegates to the statewide winner and three to the winner of each congressional district, for a total of 28. The New York real estate mogul needs to win his neighboring state. If he does well, he could get 22 delegates.

Delaware's 16 delegates are winner-take-all, increasing the importance of this small state. If Trump loses Delaware, he has to make it up elsewhere.

Maryland awards 14 delegates to the statewide winner and three to the winner of each congressional district, for a total of 38. Recent polls show Trump with a significant lead. If he does well, he could get 32 delegates.

Trump can afford to lose Rhode Island, which awards its 19 delegates proportionally.

In all, it's a day on which we'll say Trump claims 93 delegates.

Trump's running total: 914.

___

MAY

Five states hold contests in May, with a total of 199 delegates at stake: Indiana, Nebraska, West Virginia, Oregon and Washington State.

Indiana's May 3 primary is important for Trump. The state awards 30 delegates to the statewide winner and three delegates to the winner of each congressional district, for a total of 57. If Trump can win the state and a majority of the congressional districts, he could collect 45 delegates.

West Virginia is another unique state in which voters elect 31 delegates in the May 10 primary. In West Virginia, however, the delegates will be listed on the ballot along with the presidential candidate they support. If Trump does well here, he could pick up 20 or more delegates.

Nebraska's 36 delegates are winner-take-all. But if Nebraska is like its neighbors Kansas and Iowa, two states Cruz won earlier in the race, Trump can't count on these delegates.

Oregon and Washington state award delegates proportionally, so even the losers get some.

We'll give Trump 70 delegates for the month.

Trump's running total: 984.

___

JUNE 7

This could be Trump's D-Day. Or his Waterloo.

Five states vote on June 7, with 303 delegates up for grabs. The biggest prize is California, along with New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana and New Mexico.

The only state Trump can afford to lose is New Mexico, which awards 24 delegates proportionally.

New Jersey, South Dakota and Montana are winner-take-all, with a total of 107 delegates.

California is more complicated, with 172 delegates at stake. The statewide winner gets only 13. The other 159 are awarded according to the results in individual congressional districts.

Each of the state's 53 congressional districts has three delegates. You win the district, you get all three.

For Trump to clinch the nomination on June 7  the last day of the primary season  he has to win a big majority of California's congressional districts. If he wins 39 districts, he gets 130 delegates.

On the last voting day of the primary campaign, we'll say Trump wins 242 delegates.

Trump's running total: 1,226  or 11 delegates short of the magic number.

___

OH, WAIT!

Missouri has certified the results of its March 15 primary, with Trump beating Cruz by 1,965 votes. If the results survive a potential recount, Trump wins Missouri and another 12 delegates.

Trump's total: 1,238.

Cue the balloons.
Three people were hospitalized and a suspect was in custody after a stabbing in Hialeah Sunday night, authorities said.

Yamil Santiago, 32, was arrested on charges including attempted murder, aggravated battery and burglary, Hialeah Police said.

Santiago remained behind bars without bond Monday, jail records showed. It's unknown if he's hired an attorney.

Police said Santiago went to a home in the 6900 block of W. 29th Avenue Sunday. Inside was his ex-girlfriend, who he shares a 1-year-old child with, police said.

According to an arrest report, Santiago started banging on the front door then kicked it in while armed with a small knife. Once inside, he punched his ex-girlfriend in the face, knocking her to the ground, the report said.

Two men who were in the home got into an altercation with Santiago, who cut one in the arm and the other in the abdomen, the report said. When a woman tried to stop him, she was also cut in the hand, the report said.

All three were taken to local hospitals. Santiago was arrested at the scene.
Rescuers and aid from all over the world are flooding into Ecuador as survivors start a second day in towns flattened by the quake, and the search for people trapped beneath the rubble continues.

Ecuador's Foreign Affairs Minister Guillaume Long says hundreds of international aid workers are already in place. Mexico has sent 120 helpers, Spain sent 80 rescue experts and Chile sent 49 firefighters. Missions have also arrived from Peru, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Switzerland.

Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. will help in any way possible.

International aid groups have dispatched doctors and psychologists, and dogs trained to search for survivors. Workers are also setting up plants to clean drinking water.

In South Florida, people were working to collect badly needed items to send to Ecuador. Provex Inc., an Ecuadoran shipping company in northwest Miami-Dade, is working with the consulate to ship donations to Ecuador.

"Very awful, this is the first time we go through this," said Francisco Plaza, operations manager for Provex. "We had a donation today, it was a guy from Cuba but he came and 'here, here my donations.'"

Consul General Eduardo Rivadeneira Baquerizo said the consulate will be staffed around the clock in part to work with South Floridians who are trying to connect with loved ones in Ecuador.

"We feel very sad, it's very terrible," Baquerizo said. "A lot of people can't find all the families."

According to the consul general, there are about 90,000 Ecuadorian nationals living in South Florida. Many worked Monday to collect donations.

"My dad is over there in the place where that happened and he says it's bad, very bad," said Shamira Solis.

So far, clothes, water, food, mattresses and other items have been collected and were being shipped, but more is needed. If you'd like to donate you can visit the Ecuadorian Consulate at 117 Northwest 42nd Avenue, or drop by 7061 Northwest 87th Avenue in Miami where there will be a large container for donations.
Opening statements began Monday in a high-profile case that reads like a movie script. A Broward man is on trial for trying to murder his ex-girlfriend's lover.

The suspect is also caught up in an alleged sexual affair with his lawyer. Despite the accusations, the man's attorney is still defending him in court.

"He's 100 percent innocent of every count that he's charged with," said Attorney Jessica Mishali David. She's standing by her client, and standing by her story.

While Ysreal Granda faces the possibility of life in prison for attempted murder, Mishali David is accused of performing sex acts on him during a private meeting at the jail.

"The person who made that allegation was making it up," Mishali David said.

She's now banned from meeting with Granda in the same room. Something she claims is damaging his right to a fair trail.

"It's been very difficult to prepare. There's a glass that's between us, that's not normal visitation. There's also a video camera in the room, so it's very hard to trust that it is, in fact, confidential," Mishali David said.

Granda is accused of trying to murder his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend in Pembroke Pines back in 2012. Prosecutors said Granda fired a gun into the windshield of their car, in a fit of anger.

"Fired not once, not twice, but six times into the windshield," the prosecutor explained.

Granda is facing very serious allegations, both inside and outside of the courtroom.

While a jury will decide Granda's fate this week, the Florida Bar Association is investigating whether Mishali David can continue to practice law.

"He will have the most fair trial with the attorney he wants representing him, the attorney that he trusts who he has a strong relationship with. For a long time, he has asked me repeatedly to remain on his case and that is what I've done, and that is what I'll continue to do," Mishali David said.

The trial is expected to last at least a few days.
A Miami doctor has been sentenced to nine years in prison for a Medicare fraud scheme that caused more than $30 million in losses, authorities said Monday.

Henry Lora, 51, was ordered to pay $30,278,542 in restitution as part of a plea agreement, officials with the Department of Justice said.

Lora had pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and making false statements related to health care matters.

Lora was the medical director of Merfi Corporation, a Miami-area clinic. Authorities say in exchange for kickbacks and bribes, Lora and others wrote prescriptions for home health care and other services for Medicare beneficiaries that weren't medically necessary or were never provided.

Lora and his co-conspirators also falsified patient records to make it appear as if people qualified for the services, authorities said.

The owner of Merfi, Isabel Medina, was sentenced to nine years in prison in March 2014.
A South Florida man who is behind bars accused of shooting and killing his neighbor during a dog poop dispute is facing more charges after an alleged attack on another inmate.

Omar G. Rodriguez, 67, is now facing an aggravated battery charge in the incident at the West Dade Detention Center. He was already facing a first-degree murder charge in the June 2015 shooting of neighbor Jose Rey.

According to an arrest report, video inside the jail in a bathroom showed Rodriguez walk past the victim, 44-year-old Roberto Reye, and push and punch him.

Reye was treated at the jail then taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital to receive stitches for a cut on his ear. Reye is behind bars on aggravated battery and assault charges, records showed.

Rodriguez remains behind bars without bond in the shooting of Rey, who was taking his dog for a walk on Father's Day weekend when he got into an argument with Rodriguez about where Rey's dog was pooping, police said.

Rey was shot by Rodriguez and spent nearly a week in the hospital before succumbing to his injuries, police said.

Rodriguez told police he got his gun after he spotted what appeared to be a shiny object in Rey's hand, authorities said.
A Hialeah landlord accused of killing a tenant during an argument over rent made his first court appearance Monday where he was ordered held without bond.

Reineiro Espino Caballero, 76, is charged with first-degree murder and armed burglary in the Sunday shooting of 46-year-old Ramon Emilio Gutierrez Castillo.

Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer ordered him held without bond Monday. He was appointed a public defender.

Authorities say Gutierrez lost his life over $550 he owed Caballero. Hialeah Police arrested Caballero for killing his neighbor because of the late rent payment. Gutierrez rented an efficiency apartment from Caballero on West 12th Avenue. Several neighbors heard the shots Saturday afternoon.

The arrest report says Caballero came to collect the late rent payment and argued with the victim. He then went to his home next door and got a gun, came back to the rental trying to go inside, the report said. The victim wouldn't let Caballero in.

Detectives say that's when Caballero got violent, firing his gun, shattering a glass door before going inside and fighting with the victim. After a brief struggle, Caballero shot Gutierrez in the face, killing him, the report said.

Caballeros later confessed to the crimes, police said.
A member of a Brooklyn Shomrim was charged Monday with bribery and conspiracy after federal officials said he was caught on wiretap bragging that he used his connections in the NYPD to obtain more than 150 gun licenses for people who wouldn't otherwise qualify for them.

Alex Lichtenstein was charged in federal court in Manhattan. His lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The NYPD transferred the head of the license division and a sergeant and officer, who were also stripped of their guns and badges and put on desk duty pending a review.

Lichtenstein, also known as Shaya, was a member of the Shomrim patrol based in Borough Park. Patrol members cooperate with the police and wear jackets or vests issued by the department. Their shield looks very similar to the NYPD's.

According to court papers, Lichtenstein conspired with at least three members of the NYPD's license division and others from 2013 through February to pay bribes to obtain gun permits. He said his customers needed his services "because the License Division would otherwise reject applications 'for the biggest stupidity,' such as a history of moving violations," the court papers said.

He bragged about connections with an unnamed officer and sergeant, but when he tried to bribe a sergeant there, the sergeant informed internal affairs and caught Lichtenstein on a wire, officials said. On the wiretap, Lichtenstein said he paid about $6,000 for the licenses. At least two officers said they received "lunch money" in exchange for helping him, according to the complaint.

The mission of the Shomrin includes stopping criminal activity and locating missing people. In many neighborhoods, its members are the first call - not law enforcement. The group has about 150 members who are all required to volunteer at least one night a month. Dispatchers take hotline calls and send out patrols. Volunteers pay for their own gas. Expenses like office rent and two-way radios are funded by donations with some support from local elected officials.

The arrest came as federal investigators continue to probe whether police officials accepted gifts in exchange for favors. Federal agents interviewed at least 20 officers on whether they accepted gifts in exchange for favors from two businessmen who gave money to Mayor Bill de Blasio's 2008 mayoral campaign and others.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Monday the probe would "continue to go where the leads take us."

Five other senior officials were also reassigned and a community affairs detective was suspended after he refused to testify before a grand jury.

No other criminal charges have been filed.
From a car wash in Queens to a hockey arena in Buffalo, both parties' presidential candidates spread out across New York Monday in a final quest for votes, a surreal scene for a state that hasn't experienced contested White House primaries in decades.

For Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, victories in New York Tuesday could help quiet critics who have questioned their strength as front-runners. Each has suffered losses in recent contests that emboldened their rivals, though they still lead in delegate counts and are favored in New York.

Clinton, who represented the state as a senator for eight years, spent the final hours of campaigning trying to drive up turnout among women and minorities, her most ardent supporters. Since Sunday, she's danced to Latin music at a Brooklyn block party, vowed to defend abortion rights to female supporters in Manhattan, prayed at black church in Westchester, drunk a bubble tea at a dumpling shop in Flushing and cheered newly unionized workers in Queens.

"We're not taking anything for granted," she said Monday after greeting workers at the Hi-Tek Car Wash & Lube in Queens. "Tell your friends and your family, everyone, to please vote tomorrow."

Clinton's campaign was blunter in outlining the state of the Democratic race. Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook declared the primary effectively over, saying Sanders faced a "close to impossible path to the nomination." With the contest between Sanders and Clinton becoming increasingly tense, Mook said the Vermont senator had to choose whether he wanted to stay on a "destructive path" that could hurt the party's eventual nominee.

Sanders has rattled off a string of wins in recent primaries and caucuses. But unless he can topple Clinton in a delegate-rich state like New York, he faces increasingly limited opportunities to change the trajectory of the race.

While polling shows Clinton with a comfortable lead in New York, Sanders held out hope for a closer race.

"This is a campaign on the move," Sanders shouted to a crowd of thousands gathered along the waterfront in Long Island City, Queens Monday night, with the Manhattan skyline serving as a dramatic backdrop. "This is a movement getting the establishment very, very nervous."

For Trump, New York is an opportunity to rebound from a trying stretch for his campaign  and with an exclamation point. The biggest question for him heading into Tuesday is whether he captures more than 50 percent of the vote statewide, which would put him in strong position to win all of the state's 95 GOP delegates.

Trump was closing his New York campaigning with an evening rally in Buffalo, where thousands packed the city's hockey arena to catch a glimpse of the billionaire businessman. He's spent the past week emphasizing his ties to New York, particularly New York City, where he was born and where buildings bear his name.

"We love this city," he said Monday in brief remarks to reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower. "You look at the other folks that are running, they couldn't care less about New York."

A big win for Trump is crucial if he hopes to clinch the nomination before the party's convention in July. If the race isn't settled by then, he faces the very real prospect of losing to Ted Cruz, whose campaign is mastering the complicated process of lining up individual delegates who could shift their support to the Texas senator after the first round of convention balloting.

In New Mexico Monday, the state Republican Party announced a two-week extension for delegate applicants who missed an April 15 deadline. Cruz allies in the state criticized the move as a ploy by the Trump campaign as it tries to catch up with his rival's operation.

"This is truly Trump," said state lawmaker Rod Montoya, who has applied to be a delegate to the national convention. "Rather than learning how the process works, he cries and complains to get the process changed because he doesn't like it."

Cruz, who infamously panned Trump's "New York values" earlier in the primary, was bracing for a tough showing in Tuesday's contest. He was already looking ahead on the primary calendar, spending Monday campaigning in Maryland, where voters head to the polls next week.

Trump leads the GOP race with 744 delegates, ahead of Cruz with 545 and Kasich with 144. It takes 1,237 to win the GOP nomination.

Among Democrats, Clinton has accumulated 1,758 delegates to Sanders' 1,076. Those totals include both pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates, the party insiders who can back the candidate of their choice regardless of how their state votes.

Heading into Tuesday's primary, Sanders needs to win 68 percent of the remaining delegates if he hopes to clinch the Democratic nomination. It takes 2,383 to win.

___

AP writers Hope Yen, Lisa Lerer, Steve Peoples, Julie Bykowicz and Morgan Lee contributed to this report.
The suspect wanted for questioning in connection with a fatal slashing of a homeless man at a Manhattan shelter and the non-fatal slashing of a cab driver in Queens Saturday morning was taken into custody Monday, law enforcement sources said.

William Smith, 53, was taken into custody near 31st Street and Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria Monday morning in connection with the two slashings, sources said.

The latest slashing happened as a 43-year-old cabbie dropped off a man identified as Smith at a Holiday Inn on Van Cleef Street in Corona.

When the cabbie asked for his fare, police said, Smith allegedly pulled a knife and demanded money.

The driver refused to hand over his cash and thats when he was slashed across his neck and back.

"In that moment, I just felt a pinch, nothing else," the cabbie, Manuel Vera, told Telemundo-47. "I didn't felt as I was getting stabbed, I am not sure if it was because I was desperate at the moment. But after I reacted, and I saw the injury."

Vera was taken to Elmhurst Hospital for treatment.

Smith fled empty-handed, but officers found his wallet and cell phone near the scene of the attack, investigators said.

He got off the train in Astoria, and as he walked down from the elevated subway platform, more than a dozen police officers and U.S. Marshals were waiting for him, officials said.

Police said Saturday that Smith was wanted for questioning in connection with a deadly slashing at a homeless shelter in midtown Manhattan on Friday morning.

A 56-year-old man was found dead at the Bellevue Mens Shelter on East 30th Street around 8:30 a.m.

The victim had been slashed across the neck, and the room he was in was in disarray, as though a struggle had taken place, investigators said.

The Department of Homeless Services said its continuing to upgrade security at shelters across the city following a number of headline-grabbing crimes.

Meanwhile, in Elmhurst, residents are worried after Saturdays violent attack.

"Its very scary," Carlos Polanco said. "We have to be really careful."

In a statement released Saturday, the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers expressed concern over the growing use of cutters and knives in attacks on cabbies.

NYSFTD Spokesman Fernando Mateo said attackers who use knives instead of guns are getting away with little or no jail time.

"A box cutter or knife will KILL the same as a GUN," Mateo said in the statement.

Charges against Smith are pending, authorities said.

Attorney information for the man wasn't available.
The U.S. has agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year, U.S. defense officials said Monday.

The uptick in American fighting forces  and the decision to put them closer to the front lines  is designed to help Iraqi forces as they move to retake the key northern city of Mosul.

Speaking to reporters Monday in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the decision to move U.S. advisers to the Iraqi brigade and battalion level will put them "closer to the action," but he said they will have security forces with them and the U.S. will try to reduce the risks.

A senior U.S. official said that eight Apache helicopters will be authorized to help the Iraqi forces when Iraq leaders determine they need them. The official was not authorized to discuss the numbers publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Last June the Obama administration announced that hundreds of troops would be deployed to help the Iraqis retake Ramadi  a goal they accomplished at the end of the year.

Of the additional troops announced Monday, most would be Army special forces, who have been used throughout the anti-Islamic State campaign to advise and assist the Iraqis. The remainder would include some trainers, security forces for the advisers, and maintenance teams for the Apaches.

The decisions reflect weeks of discussions with commanders and Iraqi leaders, and a decision by President Barack Obama to increase the authorized troop level in Iraq by 217 forces  or from 3,870 to 4,087. The advise-and-assist teams  made up of about a dozen troops each accompanied by security forces  would embed with Iraqi brigades and battalion, likely putting them closer to the front lines and at greater risk from mortars and rocket fire.

The U.S., said Carter, is "on the same page with the Iraqi government" in how to intensify the fight against the Islamic State.

The proximity to the battlefront will allow the U.S. teams to provide more tactical combat advice as the Iraqi units move toward Mosul, the country's second-largest city, still under Islamic State control. Until now, U.S. advisers have worked with the Iraqis at the headquarters level, well back from the front lines.

The Apache helicopters are considered a significant aid to any attack on Mosul. Americans will fly the helicopters  which provide air support to ground troops and carry precision weapons  another new vulnerability for U.S. forces.

Last December, Iraqis refused Apache helicopters for the battle to retake Ramadi, but this time officials said they believe the fast attack helicopters will add an important edge.

Speaking to U.S. troops at the airport in Baghdad, Carter also said that the U.S. will send an additional rocket-assisted artillery system to Iraq.

U.S. officials have also said that the number of special operations forces in Syria would be increased at some point, but Carter did not mention that in his comments. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Carter's announcement Monday came after he met with Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the top U.S. military commander for the Islamic State fight, as well as a number of Iraqi leaders including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Iraq's minister of defense Khalid al-Obeidi.

He also spoke by phone with the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani. Later, Carter announced to the troops that the U.S. aid will extend to the Kurdish Peshmerga forces fighting in northern Iraq. Carter said the U.S. has authorized sending up to $415 million to the Kurds over time.

MacFarland told reporters that the money will be used in part to help feed the Peshmerga troops.

U.S. military and defense officials also have made it clear that winning back Mosul is critical, but will be challenging, because the insurgents are dug in and have likely peppered the landscape with roadside bombs and other traps for any advancing military.

A senior defense official told reporters traveling with Carter that while Iraqi leaders have been reluctant to have a large number of U.S. troops in Iraq, they also need certain capabilities that only more American or coalition forces can provide.

Iraqi leaders back the addition of more U.S. troops if their work is coordinated with Iraqis and directed toward the retaking of Mosul. The official was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Iraq has been struggling with a political crisis, as efforts to oust the speaker of parliament failed. Al-Abadi's efforts to get a new cabinet in place met resistance, and influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a deadline, giving parliament 72 hours to vote in a new Cabinet.

At the same time, the costs of the war against IS, along with the plunge in the price of oil  which accounts for 95 percent of Iraq's revenues  have caused an economic crisis, adding fresh urgency to calls for reform. Iraqi officials predict a budget deficit of more than $30 billion this year.
A Philadelphia man has confessed to shooting his 4-year-old daughter in the face before punching another sibling and fleeing his home, homicide detectives said.

Maurice Phillips was denied bail at a Monday arraignment as he faces third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and related charges, according to court documents.

Phillips confessed early Sunday morning to shooting Tahirah Phillips in the face inside the front bedroom of the family's home along Mayfield Street near B Street just before 2:30 p.m. Saturday, police said.

The girl's six siblings, ranging in age from 7 months to 13 years old, were also in the room watching TV and playing when their sister was shot. After the shooting, police said Phillips got off the bed and punched his 5-year-old daughter and wiped blood from his hand onto the girl's shirt.

Philadelphia Police

Phillips moved the 4-year-old's body to a back bedroom and called his fiance and told her to come home, police said. When she got there, Phillips got changed and left.

Phillips allegedly told police he was handling his semi-automatic handgun and accidentally shot his daughter. Police had initially believed that the little girls 5-year-old sibling had found Phillips gun and accidentally shot her.

Police worked to sort out if Phillips' claim that the shooting was an accident held up.

Investigators said Phillips fled the scene after the shooting. He later surrendered to police and remained in custody Sunday morning. Police also recovered the weapon, a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, at the scene, officials said.

News of the little girl's tragic death left neighbors in the community plagued by gun violence reeling.

"She was full of life," said Crystal Dougherty, a family friend, as she wept near the scene of the shooting. "She was always willing to help. She was a great big sister to her little brother."

A man is in custody after he allegedly shot and killed his 4-year-old daughter inside a Philadelphia home. The man told police the shooting was accidental, according to investigators.

During a vigil for Tahirah Monday on East Mayfield Street, friends, neighbors and strangers embraced each other and showed their support for her family. They released balloons into the sky while shouting, "We love you Tahirah."

Tahirah's grandfather Donald Myers was in tears while he addressed the crowd.

"It really hurts," he said. "For real. I mean this is crazy."

Myers condemned Phillips and called for an end to violence in his community.

"He shouldn't have did that," he said. "That was a 4-year-old girl who never went to school! This should stop for real! It has to be stopped! We're getting too old for this! We've got to stop killing each other!"
A young Delaware County girl battling cancer received a heros welcome when she returned home Monday after several months of chemotherapy.

Last May the parents of 7-year-old Cameron McCarthy, of Aston, Pennsylvania, noticed there was something wrong with her eye. After going to the doctor she was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

After her diagnosis, Cameron was taken out of school and spent months in the hospital for treatment. Late Monday morning, after undergoing her 17th and final round of chemotherapy, Cameron finally left AI DuPont Hospital in Delaware.

Shes been through 17 rounds of chemo, said Camerons father Mike McCarthy. She had proton therapy done also, 31 times. Shes tough.

A stretch limo with a police and fire escort took her home to Aston where she was greeted by the entire community.

Camerons first stop during her homecoming was the Pennell Elementary School where classmates dressed in blue -- her favorite color -- held up signs showing their support. She then finally returned to her home on Morgan Road where she was greeted by her family, friends and more supporters, including Philadelphia Union goalie John McCarthy (no relation). John was asked to send her a signed ball a few months ago. He decided to do more than that.

I said no Id like to go visit her because you never know when a tough time like that happens you dont know what can happen, he said. So I thought Id give it a whirl and give it all I could.

While Cameron was too tired to talk to NBC10 Monday, her parents told us her prognosis looks good.

In the beginning you feel like youre never going to get there so for her to have her last chemotherapy today, is amazing, Camerons mom Laurie McCarthy said. She was up for the challenge I guess.




An old penitentiary-turned-historic-site that becomes a haunted house attraction each Halloween and provides a look back on a bygone era of corrections is taking a new direction with a hard look at today's prisons and America's high rate of incarceration.

Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829 with the belief that criminals could redeem themselves, and it was cruel to crowd or mistreat them. The only light came from the skylight in the vaulted ceiling, sending the message that only the light of God and hard work could lead to reform.

By the 1930s, space meant to house 300 inmates instead held 2,000. By 1970, the year Eastern State closed, punishment was its primary mission.

Now, in a transformation that began modestly a few years ago, the penitentiary that housed such notorious criminals as gangster Al Capone and bank robber "Slick Willie" Sutton is completing a retooling of its programming to place a major focus on growing questions about the effectiveness of America's prison system.

"Prisons Today: Questions in the Age of Mass Incarceration," an exhibit opening next month in workshops alongside one of the cellblocks, lets visitors know that the U.S. has the world's highest known percentage of incarcerated citizens. It also highlights large racial disparities in prison populations and the toll mass incarceration has taken on minority communities.

"Five years ago, I would have told you visitors didn't want to hear about this, that it would make them uncomfortable. They'd take this as being political, they'd be offended or they'd think we were trying to drive a political agenda," said Sean Kelley, exhibit curator for the nonprofit that has run the museum since 2001. "At every turn, we've been proven wrong."

He said visitors to the penitentiary have shown interest in these issues and wanted to talk about them.

"The growth of the U.S. prison population is so jaw-dropping that it's of deep interest to many people," Kelley said.

The prison population has grown by nearly 600 percent since 1970, with an estimated 2.2 million citizens in prison or jail.

The exhibit includes a criminal justice policy video wall, featuring clips of presidents from Lyndon B. Johnson to Bill Clinton; videotaped interviews of people discussing the effects of incarceration, from the state corrections chief to a girl who has lived in five foster homes since her father was imprisoned; and a display examining the phenomenon described as the "million-dollar block," referring to the amount spent on imprisoning residents of some blocks in America. Interactive displays engage visitors on questions of criminal justice policy.



Eastern State plans to continue its annual Halloween attraction, "Terror Behind the Walls," a major moneymaker and way to attract a younger, more racially diverse audience. It will also keep holding its Bastille Day celebration, when the pen stands in for the famous fortress prison in Paris and an actress playing Queen Marie Antoinette tosses thousands of Philadelphia-made Tastykakes to the crowds below in a nod to the remark attributed to the monarch, "Let them eat cake."



"If we ask hard questions, it's important that people know we have some sense of humor as well," Kelley said.



Eastern State has hosted exhibits with political themes in the past but in conjunction with outside artists. "Our own voices, the organization itself, was pretty much silent," Kelley said.



The new exhibit  which will be up for three years and then most likely updated to reflect the times  is the biggest step yet toward fulfilling a fresh vision for the prison established when a consultant hired in 2009 helped create a new interpretive plan. The final directive? Talk to visitors about incarceration in modern times.



The first changes were modifying the audio tour and adding more signage on the American prison system today. Then, in 2014, the museum installed a 3,500-pound steel bar graph on the grounds to show how the prison population has exploded since 1970 while the violent crime rate stands about the same today.



Morgan Williams, 18, of Maywood, New Jersey, on a penitentiary visit Tuesday, said she knows that some people attribute the decline in crime around the country to mass incarceration. At the same time, she found the bar graph "not a good kind of impressive for me."



Kelley said the new programming has "completely changed what this organization is and what it wants to be. It got us thinking about who gives tours and who designs programs."



A former inmate who works to help people leaving prison now serves on Eastern State's board. Four newly hired tour guides have served prison time and sometimes share their experiences with visitors.



Ann Schwarzman, executive director of the nonprofit Pennsylvania Prison Society, which advocates for a humane corrections system, said the new exhibit reflects a growing consensus there are inequities in the system.



"It's unusual to have both political parties agree that we can't sustain this system and it's not working," she said.
A Philadelphia Police officer who was shot while thwarting a robbery Sunday night was released from the hospital Monday. SkyForce10 was over the scene as Officer James McCullough, 24, of the 18th District, left Presbyterian Hospital shortly before 7 p.m.

A day after he was shot while thwarting a robbery in West Philadelphia, Officer James McCullough, 24, was released from the hospital. SkyForce10 was over the scene as he was released.

The two-year veteran was released the same day a suspect with a lengthy rap sheet was arrested in connection to his shooting.

NBC10 Security Analysis Expert Bob Brzenchek has the latest on police safety after a Philadelphia police officer was shot while responding to an attempted carjacking Sunday night. Officer James McCullough is the second officer from the 18th district to be shot on duty this year. Officer Jesse Hartnett was shot in an ambush back in January.

Scott Griffin, 23, was taken into custody just before 1 p.m. Monday by undercover narcotics officers on North Alden Street, off Girard Avenue between 57th and 58th streets, police said. NBC10 learned Griffin was released from jail on another gun charge just last week.

A Philadelphia police officer was shot Sunday night in the left thigh after responding to an attempted carjacking. NBC10s Deanna Durante is at Police Headquarters and reveals what led to the officers shooting.

Griffin is accused of shooting Officer McCullough just before 9 p.m. Sunday, police said.

Officers recovered a gun when Griffin was arrested and they plan to run ballistic testing to find out whether it was the weapon used in the officer shooting, officials said.

Griffin has 14 prior arrests, according to police and court records. Two are active drug cases and a gun charge.

We are learning new information about Officer Jimmy McCullough  a two year veteran of the force who was shot in the left thigh while responding to an attempted carjacking Sunday night. NBC10s Cydney Long has more from his friends and family.

The gun charge was dismissed last week when two witnesses failed to appear for a preliminary hearing and Griffin was released from custody, said Josh Scarpello, his defense attorney in that case.

An 18th district police officer was shot in the leg Sunday night after responding to an attempted carjacking with the suspects already inside the vehicle. NBC10s Monique Braxton is at the scene of the crime in West Philadelphia.

The case originated from a March 17 arrest, according to the court records.

It was dismissed last Wednesday and Griffin was released, Scarpello said. Griffin was arrested while allegedly possessing a gun inside a stolen vehicle, he said.

Philadelphia Police

Four days later, Griffin, along with an accomplice, allegedly went on a crime spree in West Philadelphia  robbing one man at gunpoint and carjacking a woman.

The carjacking victim flagged down Officer McCullough along Market Street near Salford, police said.

NBC10s Jacqueline London breaks down the latest details in the search for a second suspect in Sunday nights shooting of a Philadelphia police officer.

McCullough went over to the woman's car and got into a physical confrontation with Griffin, Capt. James Clark said. Griffin broke free ran northbound on Salford Street as McCullough gave chase. During that pursuit, Clark said Griffin turned and opened fire. McCullough was hit once in the left thigh. The officer then pulled out his own weapon and fired three shots, Clark said.

As McCullough chased Griffin, the second suspect, 20-year-old Samir Coyett, ran onto SEPTA's Market-Frankford El platform and tried to catch a train but was apprehended after running back down to street level, according to police.

The bullet wound left McCullough bleeding profusely causing the officer to apply a tourniquet to his own thigh, said investigators. His partner rushed him to Penn Presbyterian Hospital where he was treated and then released Monday.

NBC10s Katy Zachry reports that Officer James McCulloughs training helped him stop the bleeding after he was shot in the leg.

"He looked good," said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. "He's very strong, had a strong handshake and a strong conversation."

McCullough is engaged to be married and is also the father of a 2-year-old daughter. He also plays rugby, according to the Northeast Philadelphia Rugby Club, which wished McCullough a speedy recovery. [[376054041, C]]

Police found a knife and hat belonging to the suspect, police said.

Before the carjacking, Griffin and Coyett robbed a man at gunpoint in the same area, Clark said. Coyett actually ran past the robbery victim while fleeing the scene, according to Clark.

Coyett has been arrested three times, Clark said. Police are working with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office on charges.

NBC10s Matt DeLucia is in West Philadelphia after a car robbery suspect opened fire on Officer James McCullough Sunday night. Mayor Jim Kenney met with the officer and said he appeared strong.

The shooting occurred about three blocks away from where fellow 18th District Philadelphia Police Officer Jesse Hartnett was shot during an ambush attack back on Jan. 7. Ross didn't draw comparisons between the shootings, however.

"I don't feel like police officers in this city are being targeted," said Ross. "This is a case clearly where this does not start with the police officers, this starts with two guys trying to commit a crime, that was unrelated with police. So this is not about an officer being targeted."
San Diego police announced the arrest of a man in the slaying of his stepson, Jahi Turner, a toddler whose disappearance "rocked the community to its core" almost 14 years ago.

Tieray Jones has been charged with killing 2-year-old Jahi, according to San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman. His mother was deployed aboard a Navy ship at the time.

Hundreds of volunteers and police officers spent weeks searching for traces of the 30-pound toddler when he was reported missing in 2002. Law enforcement officers raked through 5,000 tons of garbage at the Miramar Landfill but came up with nothing.

"Jahi's disappearance rocked the community to its core 14 years ago," DA Bonnie Dumanis said. "It's without a doubt one of the highest profile unsolved cases here in San Diego County."

Dumanis and Zimmerman explained that U.S. Marshals arrested the boy's stepfather on a fugitive complaint Monday in North Carolina without incident and took him into custody.

"I have no doubt that the announcement of today's arrest and subsequent charges will jolt the community again and may reopen emotional wounds, but it will finally start the process of bringing some closure to those who were so deeply affected by Jahi's disappearance, especially his mother and family," Dumanis said.

Though new evidence has been uncovered in the case, authorities have not found Jahi's body or remains, police said.

Jones is charged with one count of murder and one count of felony child abuse causing death, authorities said. Both carry a 25-years-to-life sentence. It wasn't immediately clear if Jones has an attorney. Prosecutors will work on his extradition at a hearing Tuesday.

The arrest comes one week before the 14th anniversary of Jahi's disappearance. On April 25, 2002, he allegedly disappeared from a playground at 28th Street and Cedar Street in San Diego's South Park neighborhood.

According to police, Jones told officers he was with the toddler at the park when he left to get a drink. Jones said he returned 15 minutes later and Jahi was gone.

However, officials were unable to locate Jahi's fingerprints on playground equipment, prompting speculation the child never visited the area, authorities announced Monday.

Officials say the last reported sighting of Jahi was April 22.

SDPD Asst. Chief of Police Terry Mcmanus said he still remembers taking the call that Jahi was reported missing.

"I personally remember the day of Jahi's disappearance vividly, as I was then assigned as the watch commander receiving the initial information from our field units that Jahi was missing from the small playground in the South Park area of our city," McManus said.

At the time of the childs disappearance, Jahis mother, Tameka Jones, was deployed aboard USS Rushmore.

A huge search for Jahi ensued, including a week-long police search of the Miramar Landfill, where authorities took the extreme measure of systematically raking through 5,000 tons of garbage.

Dumanis said officials could not file charges earlier because they didn't have enough proof, though they began uncovering new evidence in the case two years ago.

"We never gave up on finding justice for Jahi. In 2003, we assigned a prosecutor and full-time investigator to the case," Dumanis said. "Unfortunately at the time, we didnt have the evidence required: proof beyond a reasonable doubt, to proceed with criminal charges."

Jahis family eventually moved to Frederick, Maryland.

Residents from across San Diego reacted to news of the arrest on NBC 7 San Diego's Facebook page on Monday.

"This hit so close to home for me back then and now. Little Jahi shares a birthday with my son and they would both be 16 today if he wasn't so tragically taken from his family," San Diegan Michelle Keperling posted to NBC 7's Facebook page. "I can't imagine what his family has been going through the last 14 years."

RK Hunt posted that he was happy to learn of an arrest.

"I remember when that happened because my kids were young and we visited that park often," Hunt said on NBC 7's Facebook page.

Officials said because this is a criminal case, they are not able to discuss any of the facts or the criminal evidence, including any new evidence they uncovered since the case went cold.
Rescuers in Ecuador pulled three people out alive after being trapped for more than 32 hours in the rubble of a shopping center that was flattened by this weekend's powerful earthquake.

Televised images of the dramatic pre-dawn rescue Monday in this port city gave Ecuadoreans hope that scores of people still unaccounted for may yet be found even as the death toll from Saturday's 7.8-magnitude quake climbed to 413.

Ecuadorian officials gave the latest update on the number killed Monday evening.

At least one American was among those killed. State Department spokesman John Kirby hasn't identified the dead American, but says U.S. officials have been in touch with the victim's family.

To reach the survivors amid the debris in Manta, firefighters cut a nearly 2 -foot (70-centimeter) hole in the concrete, through which they pulled a woman. A group of firefighters applauded as she emerged head first from the debris, disoriented, caked in dust and complaining of pain but otherwise in good health.

Later, at the same site, they managed to rescue another woman and a young man. All three were rushed in ambulances to a nearby hospital. Authorities said another woman remained trapped and was being given water and other supplies while rescuers attempt to remove a heavy concrete slab pinning down her legs.

Christian Rivera, the head of emergency services for the capital, Quito, said that depending on the circumstances a person without serious injuries can survive up to a week under the rubble.

"After that, there's a quick decline ... and the rescuers' work becomes very difficult," he said in an interview.

Still, there are good reasons to believe more people will be found alive in the coming hours as some 450 rescue workers from Spain, Chile, Mexico and elsewhere reached the most-affected areas along the Pacific coast.

President Rafael Correa, upon arriving in Manta late Sunday, said the priority remains finding survivors.

"Our grief is very large, the tragedy is very large, but we'll find the way to move forward," Correa said, adding that the quake was the worst to hit Ecuador since one in 1949 that took over 5,000 lives. "If our pain is immense, still larger is the spirt of our people."

Manta, a thriving port city, was among the hardest-hit areas. Among the many building that were flattened was a control tower at the airport that was home to U.S. anti-narcotics missions in South America until Correa, a critic of the U.S.-led war on drugs in Latin America, kicked the Americans out.

As rescuers scrambled through the ruins near the epicenter, in some cases digging with their hands to look for survivors, humanitarian aid began trickling in. More than 3,000 packages of food and nearly 8,000 sleeping kits were delivered Sunday.

The Saturday night quake knocked out power in many areas along the coast and some who fled to higher ground fearing a tsunami had no home to return to or feared structures still standing might collapse. The country's Geophysics Institute said it recorded 230 aftershocks as of Sunday night.

Spain's Red Cross said as many as 5,000 people may need temporary housing after the quake destroyed homes, and 100,000 may need some sort of aid.

Aggravating matters were reports of looting, including in Manta, where 180 prisoners from a nearby prison escaped amid the tumult. Authorities said some 20 inmates were recaptured and others returned voluntarily.
Attorneys for a former Maryland school aide charged with sexually exploiting children are asking a federal judge to suppress some evidence in the case, saying the man suffers "cognitive defects" and has an IQ of 63.

Deonte Carraway, 22, is facing 13 counts of sexually exploiting children. Carraway had served as an aide at Judge Sylvania Woods Elementary School in Prince George's County, and the alleged victims included children between the ages of 9 and 12, according to court documents.

Carraway made videos of children having sex with him and each other at the school, at a church and at other locations in Maryland, according to the criminal indictment. Among the videos allegedly produced are videos of Carraway having having sex with a 9-year-old boy and an 11-year-old boy.

Carraway has pleaded not guilty. In March, a judge ordered Carraway to remain in jail as the case proceeds.

In a filing Friday with a federal judge in Maryland, Carraway's public defenders said the court should suppress some of Carraway's statements, arguing some of those statements might have been "involuntary." The attorneys are also seeking to suppress evidence taken from Carraway's cellphones.

His defense attorneys also detailed the findings of a psychological evaluation on Carraway. Their filing said Carraway "exhibited significant cognitive deficits, with a full scale IQ of 63, which placed his overall intellectual functioning in the deficient range."

Defense attorneys said mental limitations "weigh heavily" against a finding that statements to law enforcement were voluntary.

Carraway's attorneys also questioned any evidence seized from Carraway's cell phones. In their filing, the attorneys said an FBI search warrant for Carraway's phones was "tainted." They said the agency didn't provide enough supporting information to defend the search warrant when the FBI asked a magistrate judge to approve it.

Carraway was arrested Feb. 5 after the uncle of a 9-year-old boy saw a nude image on the child's phone, according to police. Police also said Carraway waived his rights and admitted his role in producing child pornography.

Carraway's defense attorneys did not immediately return messages left by News4.

Court records show prosecutors are expected to formally respond to the defense challenges by May 2.
The two firefighters who were shot as they tried to help a homeowner Friday night "did everything right" as they entered the home, the Prince George's County fire chief said.

The firefighters forced their way into a home in Temple Hills, Maryland, at the request of the homeowner's brother, who feared the man was having a medical emergency.

But when the firefighters got inside, the man opened fire with a handgun, police said.

"This past Friday evening about 7:30, we lived our worst nightmare," Prince George's County Fire Chief Marc Bashoor said.

Firefighter paramedic John Ulmschneider, a 13-year veteran of the department, was the first person inside the home. The 37-year-old was fatally shot.

Volunteer Kevin Swain, 19, survived being shot four times.

"They acted in a crisis situation, and I believe they did everything right that night with the information that they had," Bashoor told News4's Darcy Spencer in his first interview since the deadly shooting.

No charges were filed against the homeowner who police said opened fire. Police said the man believed his house was being broken into and fired in self defense. He was questioned and released.

"It's not that we have facts that didn't lead us to it. It's an absence of facts that would get us to where we're confident in placing that charge," Prince George's County Police Chief Hank Stawinski said Monday.

Angela Alsobrooks, State's Attorney for Prince George's County, said police are still analyzing evidence, and will conduct ballistics tests and interview witnesses.

Police still have to interview Swain and the homeowner's brother, Stawinski said.

"We can tell you that there are any number of pieces of evidence that still need to be analyzed," Alsobrooks said.

Alsobrooks said it's "always possible" that charges could be filed in what she said is an active investigation.

"This community knows that we take very seriously all of these cases," she said.

Alsobrooks said prosecutors will have to assess whether the homeowner believed he was in danger, and whether his belief and actions were reasonable in the mind of an ordinary person.

Stawinski said the homeowner was interviewed by police.

He said when police want to conduct an interview, if there's a question regarding the subject's lucidity or ability to be interviewed, that person is sent for a medical hep.

"Based on how he presented himself to us subsequent to the incident, that wasn't necessary and he submitted himself for the interview," Stawinski said.

He said no single piece of information will determine whether charges will be placed.

Bashoor said the fire department will make changes to try to prevent similar tragedies from happening again. Officials will review response protocol, but Bashoor said it will be an ongoing process and won't be quick.

According to current protocol for welfare checks, firefighters typically will wait for police if there is no indication of an emergency, Bashoor said.

However, in this case, the homeowner's brother had indicated a possible diabetic crisis, Bashoor said.

"From the preliminary information I've looked at, our folks did everything they were trained to do," Bashoor said Monday. "...They did all of the right things, based on the information they had in front of them. We charge those people with the responsibility to make decisions in a crisis, on the fly."

He called the first-responders "valiant."

"The Fire & EMS Department, this isn't what we experience every day," he said, praising two other crew members, a man and a woman, who were injured as they tried to rescue one of their colleagues after the shooting.

"They were in the process of dragging one of our folks back, and in that process, they were injured," he said.

Those two crew members were treated and released Friday night. The fire chief said the female crew member suffered a dislocated jaw.

Swain remained hospitalized as of Monday afternoon. He was continuing to improve and had been moved out of intensive care. He still has a long road ahead, Bashoor said.

Funeral plans for Ulmschneider are underway, Bashoor said.

The firefighters union established an online donation page to help the Ulmschneider family. Ulmschneider was survived by a wife and a 2-year-old daughter.

"He was just always a class act. A tough firefighter that always wanted to get the job done and always cared about other people," said Andrew Pantelis, the president of the Prince George's County Professional Fire Fighters and Paramedics Association.

"It's not often that you hear of firefighters getting shot and killed and it's stunning," Pantelis said.
A North Carolina woman allegedly traveled to northern Virginia to have sex with a 13-year-old boy, according to the Fairfax County Police Department and FBI.

Kathleen Antonina Capitano, 24, of Shallotte, North Carolina was arrested as she arrived at a hotel in Herndon, Virginia, on Saturday afternoon. Investigators said she thought she was meeting a 13-year-old boy she originially met while she was a student teacher at Coates Elementary School in 2015.

Detectives said Capitano and the boy had been communicating online and were told about the scheduled meeting. Police were waiting for her when she arrived at the hotel and took her into custody.

Capitano was charged with four felony counts of use of communications systems to facilitate certain offenses involving children under 15 years of age. The case is still under investigations, and authorities said additional charges are possible.

According to a report by the StarNews Online in Wilmington, North Carolina, Capitano is a sixth-grade math teacher at Shallotte Middle School in Shallotte, North Carolina. She has been placed on administrative leave with pay, pending the outcome of the investigation.
The person found dead this weekend in a hotel room in Rockville, Maryland was a transgender woman who may have been working as a prostitute, police said.

Keyonna Blakeney, 22, was found dead, with trauma to the upper body, in a room of the Red Roof Inn on Shady Grove Road, Montgomery County police said.

Blakeney's body was found about 11:50 a.m. Saturday. Police said they believe she was killed early that morning and ruled her death a homicide.

Facebook/keyonna.monroe.7

Court records show Blakeney was arrested at a hotel in Capitol Heights, Maryland, on April 3 and charged with committing a third-degree sex offense against a 14-year-old boy. Additional information on that alleged crime was not available immediately.

Blakeney's Facebook page says she was from Upper Marlboro, attended Bowie State University and celebrated her birthday just days before she was killed. She worked as a makeup artist, the profile says.

Another transgender woman, Zella Ziona, 21, was shot and killed in Montgomery County in Oct. 2015. A man police said had been her friend, Rico Hector Leblond, was charged with first-degree murder.

At the time, prosecutors said they could not recall another deadly attack on a transgender person in the county.

Transgender people face an increased rate of violence, and more transgender people were killed in 2015 -- 21 people -- than in any other year on record, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy organization.

Anyone with information on Blakeney's murder is asked to call police at 240-773-5070 or, to remain anonymous, 1-866-411-TIPS. A reward of as much as $10,000 is offered.
A Woodbridge, Virginia, man has been arrested in connection with the shooting death of a man inside a James City County grocery store.

Brian Alexander Hicks, 55, of Woodbridge was arrested Sunday and charged with second-degree murder in the death of 34-year-old Gabriel Ryan Maness.

James City County Police Deputy Chief Steve Rubino says Maness died inside the Farm Fresh on Sunday morning after being shot multiple times.

Police say the suspect remained in the store after the shooting and was taken into custody.

Authorities are investigating a motive for the shooting. No other injuries were reported.

Hicks is also charged with use of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

He's being held without bond. It's unclear if he has an attorney.
A collection of ISIS personnel records obtained by NBC News and analyzed by experts at West Point provides new insight into the group's ambition and the people who make up the group.

The files reveal that the jihadists who joined the Islamic State in 2013 and 2014 were largely uninterested in suicide missions, better educated than expected and, to the alarm of those trying to stop the export of terror, very well-traveled.

NBC News received the dossiers from a Syrian man who said he stole the information, stored on a flash drive, from a senior ISIS commander. Over the last month, NBC News has worked with the Combating Terrorism Center at the elite military academy to transform them into a database of more than 4,000 foreign fighters from 71 countries.

"The largest takeaway from these documents is the massive diversity of the population," Brian Dodwell, deputy director of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, told NBC News.
Three people were injured when an electrical transformer exploded in Ware, Massachusetts, on Sunday afternoon.

According to the Ware Fire Department, the call came in around 1:15 p.m. for the incident at 16 E. Main Street.

One person was life-flighted to the Boston Burn Center, according to the Ware Fire Chief. Two others were taken by ambulance to Mary Lane Hospital with less serious injuries.

Ware Fire and Police Departments investigated the incident alongside State Police assigned to the Office of the State Fire Marshal. The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration will conduct a separate investigation.
Two Black Lives Matter signs were stolen from a church in Concord, Massachusetts, and police are asking for the public's help identifying potential suspects.

On Sunday, April 17, at approximately 4 p.m., an officer responded to the First Parish Church located at 20 Lexington Road, with a report that the two signs were taken from the front entrance of the church.

They were described as being two feet by six feet, vinyl with a black background and "BLACK LIVES MATTER" written in white. The signs were hung with grommets and bungee cords on both sides of the front entrance, and each sign is estimated to be worth $50.

Chief O'Connor of the Concord Police Department said that it's "disturbing that anyone would steal a sign from a place of worship" He also stated that they are actively investigating the incident.

Police are asking that if anyone saw anything suspicious between April 16 at 5 p.m. through 9 a.m. on April 17, to call them at Concord at 978-318-3400.
Fred Seixas is speaking out after a burglar was caught on his own home surveillance camera inside his Mitchell Street home in Derry, New Hampshire, Monday.

His wife and kids returned to find the intruder prowling through their upstairs.

"The guy popped out his head from the top of the stairs, and he basically saw her and yelled and ran straight past her went straight for the back door to get out," said Seixas.

It happened Monday afternoon just before 2 p.m.

He says his wife was returning home with their kids from McDonalds.

The suspect broke in with force through the back door.

"As she was running out the front door, the stranger was running out the back door," said Lt. Robert Smith of the Derry Police Dept.

The home surveillance documented the man in the house for 10-15 minutes.

He got away with a computer, watches and other things.

"He actually had the TV all ready to go, took out the game systems, media and had them sitting nearly on the side as if he was packing them up," Seixas said.

Police credit the mom with running away immediately and calling 911. No one was hurt, and now the police are hoping the clear images will lead them to the suspect.

Police say if you know who this man is, to call them 603-432-6111.
A Norton, Massachusetts, man has been sentenced to five years in prison for driving drunk and causing a crash that took the life of a man driving to work.

The Sun Chronicle reports that Nicholas Salvo was also sentenced last week to five years' probation and ordered to perform 250 hours of community service after pleading guilty in the April 2014 crash on Route 140 in Mansfield. David Munise, of Bridgewater, was killed in the crash, which occurred about 600 yards from the Shaw's supermarket where he worked the night shift. The 63-year-old Munise was a father of three and grandfather of one.

Police say the now 25-year-old Salvo was driving 111 miles per hour and had a blood alcohol content of more than twice the legal limit to drive.
Maine State Police are searching for a 16-year-old Dennysville boy who went missing on Monday, April 11.



Officials say that Dallas Preston was last seen in the area of Kennebec Road in Machias. He's described as approximately 5'6", with blue eyes, brown hair and wears eyeglasses. Preston's family say that he was last seen wearing a gray or dark colored hoodie with jeans and work boots.

They believe he's still in the Machias area, but also has ties to Bangor and Ellsworth.

Police ask anyone with information about Preston's location to call Maine State Police at (207) 973-3700 or the Washington County Sheriff's Department at (207) 255-8308.
Republican John Kasich is planning an event in Rhode Island ahead of the state's presidential primary and other candidates are considering doing the same.

The Ohio governor is the first presidential candidate this primary season to plan a Rhode Island event. Kasich is scheduled to speak at Bryant University in Smithfield on Saturday.

Donald Trump's honorary state campaign chairman says the Trump campaign has asked him about venues that could accommodate a large crowd. Republican state Rep. Joseph Trillo says he thinks Trump will come to Rhode Island this week.

The campaigns for Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders say it's a possibility the Democrats will visit too.

Republican Ted Cruz's campaign says there's no indication the Texas senator will visit Rhode Island, but that could change.
Police in Rhode Island are searching for a missing South Kingstown woman.

Alicia Storti, 21, was last seen in her home in the Wakefield section of town, just after midnight on Thursday.

She's described as approximately 5 feet 2 inches with shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes. Storti weighs about 105 pounds.

Storti's mother, rescuers and about 50 volunteers are now searching for her around the Arcadia Beach Pond Recreation Area on Route 165 based on a family friend's premonition.

During the search, Storti's mother got lost in the woods and was rescued by Exeter emergency personnel, who spoke with her by cellphone. She walked to an ambulance and received treatment from EMTs.

South Kingstown police ask that anyone with information regarding Storti's whereabouts call 401-783-3321.
A while ago in another post I asked Is it time to give up on WordPress sites? and I got some interesting comments; heres two that nail the issue and the growing sentiment:

Marco Naseef: extremely modular = extremely vulnerable David Franks:  I run a hundred or so Wordpress sites and I'm on the verge of throwing in the towel. / All the big hosts like Bluehost and Hostgator have their shared host platforms controlled by hackers and riddled with malware like dark leach. It's very dispiriting. / I think the days of Wordpress are numbered

Whats happening is that the WordPress universe has become a huge target for hackers and the enormous range of plugins include too many with poorly engineered code. Moreover, even well-engineered plugins can have security flaws exposed when they interact with other plugins.

In reality, the problem is actually much bigger because its not just WordPress thats a concern; the same criticisms can be applied to Drupal, Joomla, and many other systems that have evolved into general purpose publishing platforms for blogging, marketing, and sales and have acquired ad hoc functionality.

Heres a great and current example: By now I suspect the entire planet knows of the massive Panama Papers data breach totaling 2.6 terabytes and including 11.5 million documents but few people know how the breach happened. So, what was the cause? Its thought the breach was due to a WordPress plugin.

The source of the Panama Papers was the website of the Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, that was using an old version of a Wordpress plugin called Slider Revolution (also known as Revolution Slider). The vulnerabilities of the version MF was using, version 2.1.7 (the current version is 5.2!), was well-known to have serious vulnerabilities but MF for whatever reason (probably complacency) had never updated it.

These vulnerabilities allowed hackers (identity, so far, unknown) to access the WordPress installation at an administrative level and from there get enough information to access MFs mail server and Drupal-based client portal. Voila! Hilarity ensued.

Wired reports:

The law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers hack has shown an "astonishing" disregard for security, according to one expert. Amongst other lapses, Mossack Fonseca has failed to update its Outlook Web Access login since 2009 and not updated its client login portal since 2013. Mossack Fonseca's client portal is also vulnerable to the DROWN attack, a security exploit that targets servers supporting the obsolete and insecure SSL v2 protocol. The portal, which runs on the Drupal open source CMS, was last updated in August 2013, according to the site's changelog. On its main website Mossack Fonseca claims its Client Information Portal provides a "secure online account" allowing customers to access "corporate information anywhere and everywhere". The version of Drupal used by the portal has at least 25 vulnerabilities, including a high-risk SQL injection vulnerability that allows anyone to remotely execute arbitrary commands. Areas of the portal's backend can also be accessed by guessing the URL structure, a security researcher noted.

More commentary on MFs staggering lack of security awareness has been covered by Wordfence, creators of the eponymous (and excellent) plugin that monitors other WordPress plugins for vulnerabilities and blocks hacking attempts.

What all of this goes to show is that as good as WordPress et al have been, and in many ways still are, they've become architecturally a little long in the tooth and maybe it's time to look seriously at alternatives.

Comments? Thoughts? Suggestions? Lay some feedback on me via email or comment below then follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
Random checks to be stepped up across the Thames Valley this week

Thames Valley Police is partnering with police forces across Europe to launch a crackdown on speeding motorists.

From today (Monday) until Sunday TVP will be taking part in the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL) campaign to tackle drivers committing speeding offences.

Across the Thames Valley area random checks will be carried out at all times of the day and night with drivers who are caught being issued anything from a fixed penalty notice to a court summons.

Sgt Chris Appleby from the Joint Roads Policing Unit said: Excessive or inappropriate speed has a devastating impact on the safety of road users, increasing both the risk of a crash and the severity of the consequences.

Across Europe it is estimated that speeding contributes to as many as one third of all crashes resulting in death, and is the most important contributory factor to road deaths and serious injuries.

According to police in 2013, 3,064 people were killed or seriously injured in crashes in the UK where speed was a factor.

Sgt Appleby added: The risk of death is approximately four times higher when a pedestrian is hit at 40mph compared to at 30mph, and every day on our roads an average of five people will die and 65 will be seriously injured in collisions where speed may be a factor.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Partly cloudy and windy this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 61F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Partly cloudy and windy this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 61F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
The odds of children having a genetic condition which causes learning difficulties and tumours have been dramatically cut, thanks to genetic analysis led by The University of Manchester and Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Writing in the journal EBioMedicine, the researchers have identified the underlying genetic mutation which causes neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). By RNA testing 361 patients, the researchers were able show that the probability of a child having the severest 'constitutional' form of the condition after negative genetic testing is not 6 in 9, but 1 in 9.

Professor of Medical Genetics and Cancer Epidemiology at The University of Manchester and Saint Mary's Hospital, Gareth Evans, led the study. He said: "The severe form of NF1 can be a terrible illness and to be able to reassure parents that it is less likely that their children will be diagnosed with it will take a significant weight off their shoulders."

NF1 is currently diagnosed by the identification of six or more birthmarks, known as cafe au lait spots, on the body. In severe cases there is a ten percent chance that people with NF1 develop brain, eye and, extremely seriously, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumours over their lifetime. Around 60 percent of patients have learning difficulties. MF1 can also cause problems with vision, growth, blood pressure and epilepsy.

Many of these problems only manifest in later life, so parents of children with the cafe au lait spots are left with a worry that their child has a 66 percent chance of having a potentially severe form.

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The new 11 percent figure has been arrived at through the use of RNA testing which is more sensitive than even DNA testing. The University researchers, who are based at the specialist Centre for Genomic Medicine at St Mary's Hospital, Manchester investigated patients with the six spots which the US National Institutes of Health guidelines recommend as a good indicator of NF1.

The RNA tests were able to identify varying degrees of severity which most often resulted in less serious forms, or to show that patients didn't after all have NF1.

Professor Evans said: "Before we developed this technique we would have had to follow a large group of children over their whole lives to come up with accurate probabilities - something that is just not possible with the resources we have at our disposal.

"We still need to study children to see if they are at risk of other health complications, but it is reassuring to be able to clear the vast majority of severe NF1 using RNA tests."

Dr Tim Corn, Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Neuro Foundation, the UK charity for people with Neurofibromatosis said: "We welcome this advance in genetic research that goes some way to address the anxieties felt by many parents with NF1 in their family. As NF1 is both unpredictable and variable, parents describe it as like sitting on the edge of a volcano waiting for it to erupt. Clearly there is still some way to go but this new test will bring clarification and some peace of mind for many worried parents. This is very timely news ahead of World NF Awareness Day on May 17."
In a recent paper published in the Journal of Development Economics, researchers Professor Marco Manacorda (Queen Mary University of London) and Dr Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner (University of Leicester) focused on evidence from the exposure of day-to-day violence in Brazil by analysing the birth outcomes of children whose mothers were exposed to local violence, as measured by homicide rates in small Brazilian municipalities and the neighbourhoods of the city of Fortaleza.

The team estimated the effect of violence on birth outcomes by comparing mothers who were exposed to a homicide during pregnancy to otherwise similar mothers residing in the same area, who happened not to be exposed to homicides.

The study found that birthweight falls significantly among newborns exposed to a homicide during pregnancy and the number of children classified as being low birthweight increases - and that the effects are concentrated on the first trimester of pregnancy, which is consistent with claims that stress-induced events matter most when occurring early in pregnancy.

The study found:

One additional homicide in small municipalities during the first trimester leads to a reduction in birthweight of around 17g

Considering the birth weight classification, one extra homicide leads to an increase in the probability of low birthweight by 0.6 percentage points, an 8% increase compared to baseline

Results for the neighbourhoods of Fortaleza, where homicides are much more frequent, are considerably smaller (around 15% of the effects for small municipalities), which is consistent with the interpretation that violence is more stress inducing when they are rare

Because of the endemic levels of violence in Fortaleza, the team's calculations show that homicides can account for 1% of the incidence of low birthweight and 3.5% of the incidence of very low birthweight.

Dr Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner from the University of Leicester's Department of Economics explained: "We provide evidence that these effects on birthweight are driven by prematurity rather than growth retardation of full lengths pregnancies, in line with evidence from the medical literature.

"As the mothers examined in the study are likely to live in very similar environments, by exploiting the precise timing of the occurrence of homicides we are able to disentangle the causal effect of homicides from other correlated effects that may otherwise bias these estimates.

"This study used modelled data, which is one of the ways that we can predict causal relationships.

"We also find that socio-economic factors, such as the mothers' low level of education appear to amplify the adverse consequences of violence on birth outcomes, implying that violence compounds the disadvantage that newborns from low socio-economic status already suffer."

Professor Marco Manacorda added: "Our results have the potential to generalize to other settings where violence is endemic, as is true for many middle and low-income countries in Latin America and Africa. The results presented shed light on the additional cost of violence, largely ignored previously, in these countries."
One in 5,000 babies is born missing a small amount of genetic material from the tip of chromosome 1, a region called 1p36. Missing genes in the 1p36 region is a relatively common cause of intellectual disability. These children may also have delayed development, seizures, heart and kidney defects, and problems with vision and hearing. The number and severity of these medical conditions varies greatly among children with 1p36 deletions. Scientists think that one reason for this variability is that the genes that are missing from the 1p36 region are not the same in each individual. Knowing which genes are actually involved in the development of this syndrome would help physicians predict the type of medical conditions a child with a 1p36 deletion might encounter and would make it easier to create individualized care plans for these patients. In a paper published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics, a multidisciplinary team including Baylor College of Medicine researchers has determined that mutations in one gene, RERE, can cause many of the features associated with 1p36 deletions.

"This discovery is important for the parents of the children with this syndrome because it answers one of their most pressing questions, what are the problems that my child is likely to have?" said Dr. Daryl A. Scott, associate professor of molecular and human genetics and molecular physiology and biophysics at Baylor and one of the two senior authors of this report.

Scott worked closely with Dr. Elliot H. Sherr, the other senior author of the paper, Sherr's team from the department of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, and other physicians and scientists from around the world to identify 10 patients with mutations in RERE, which is located in the 1p36 region. These patients had medical problems that were very similar to those of patients in which dozens of 1p36 genes are deleted.

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"We are the first to provide evidence that RERE mutations alone can cause developmental problems typical of 1p36 deletions. RERE is important in early development," said Scott.

This discovery is the culmination of 10 years of research in mice and other animal models. Scott and colleagues demonstrated that, in mice, Rere mutations alone result in the animals having many of the characteristics observed in patients with 1p36 deletion syndrome. However, it was impossible to prove that RERE could play the same role in humans. "One of the big surprises of our paper is that just one gene can cause many of the problems observed when the tip of chromosome 1 is deleted," said Scott. "We anticipate that this finding will be of particular interest to the parents in the 1p36 Deletion Support & Awareness group."

In addition, the research is a boon to families of children with RERE mutations, who know for the first time the reason their children share this group of developmental disabilities.

"Just having an answer can be hugely beneficial for families," said Sherr, a practicing neurologist who works closely with these patients and their families. "Of course, getting a genetic answer is just the first step, but for the longest time we didn't even have that much. It gives these families hope that we can move forward."
iMDsoft announced that St. Franziskus Stiftung in Germany will be implementing MetaVision in the ICUs, IMCs and ORs of four hospitals, in an additional 132 beds. The foundation, located in Munster, is responsible for eleven acute medicine and three specialist hospitals, as well as five institutions for the handicapped and the elderly.

After an extensive selection process, St. Franziskus Stiftung decided that iMDsoft was the best fit with their needs. The foundation was impressed with MetaVision's high level of flexibility, which enables them to adjust the system to support their workflow. St. Franziskus Stiftung already had a positive experience working with MetaVision, having successfully installed the system in two of their hospitals in 2005 and 2008.

St. Franziskus Stiftung will use one database for all four sites: St. Barbara-Klinik Hamm-Heessen, St. Franziskus-Hospital Munster, Krankenhaus St. Joseph-Stift Bremen and St. Bernhard-Hospital Kamp- Lintfort. The database can be localised for each hospital but will be managed centrally from one location, lowering total cost of ownership.

MetaVision is designed to meet the unique challenges of critical care and anaesthesia environments, and provides specialised functionality for these specialised units. The system generates complete and accurate electronic medical records and includes advanced tools for clinical assessment, treatment and care planning. Advanced decision support options promote the delivery of best practices, protocols, and regulatory requirements. MetaVision offers workflow coverage across the entire continuum of care, maintaining a single patient record throughout ICUs, pre-op units, ORs and recovery units.

We look forward to continuing our productive collaboration with St. Franziskus Stiftung, said Lars-Oluf Nielsen, CEO of iMDsoft. "With our unique distributed database architecture, St. Franziskus Stiftung will be able to effectively deploy and maintain MetaVision throughout multiple hospitals. iMDsoft has extensive experience automating critical care settings across health networks, resulting in improved and standardised care."
The Medical Genomics Laboratory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham is expanding its technological array with a new panel of diagnostic tests for genetic diseases known as neurofibromatoses and rasopathies. Beginning April 18, the UAB lab will offer new tests using the technique called customized deep-coverage, next-generation sequencing or NGS.

This replaces a technique that has been state-of-the-art for more than 15 years. That technique was first developed and published in 2000 by Ludwine Messiaen, Ph.D., laboratory director and professor in the UAB Department of Genetics. Since her time at UAB from 2003, the Medical Genomics Laboratory has done more than 16,000 comprehensive neurofibromatosis type 1 tests, and it has built the world's largest dataset for the mutations that cause this disease. The laboratory promoted its upcoming tests at the annual meeting of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics last month.

"Those clients who attended were very happy to hear the news," Messiaen said. "The NGS approach retains the accuracy and sensitivity of the previous tests, and it includes genome sequencing of all areas of the gene involved in neurofibromatosis type 1, where mutations have been found in more than 8,100 unrelated neurofibromatosis type 1 individuals."

The new tests also look at other genes that can cause symptoms similar to the symptoms seen in neurofibromatosis type 1, to help accurately show the causes of those symptoms. Messiaen calls this broadened testing strategy "changing a winning horse."

The UAB Medical Genomics Laboratory serves doctors whose patients may have malformation syndromes caused by a genetic mutation in genes that form what is called the Ras-MAPK pathway. Those physicians include dermatologists, pediatricians, neurologists, oncologists and geneticists. The diseases caused by these mutations include neurofibromatosis type 1, Legius syndrome, NF-Noonan syndrome, Noonan syndrome, Noonan syndrome with multiple lentigines (aka LEOPARD), cardio-facio-cutaneous syndrome and Costello syndrome.

Neurofibromatosis type 1 is a genetic disorder that usually starts with cafe-au-lait skin markings, so named because of their distinctive coloring, in an infant. At puberty  already a challenging time in a person's life  many patients develop benign skin tumors called neurofibromas that erupt as bumps across the body. Patients vary widely in their symptoms as well as age when symptoms develop. These symptoms can include freckles near skin folds of the body, nodules in the eyes, tumors along the optic nerve, developmental delay, and learning problems. NF1 can also overlap in symptoms with other conditions, broadly named rasopathies, caused by mutations in genes within the same cellular pathway.

Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

Knowledge of the specific mutation in a patient can help doctors, patients and families better understand how to care for the patient and what to prepare for as he or she grows older. This is because different mutations are associated with milder or more severe courses of disease. The UAB Medical Genomics Laboratory is constantly doing basic research as it finds novel mutations not seen before, and it works to link specific genetic changes to the symptoms a patient is likely to show.

One benefit of the new tests for patients and referring physicians is the ability to eliminate the need to get blood samples delivered to the laboratory within 72 hours after the blood draw. This will simplify submission of samples, including the 15 percent that come from foreign countries. Also, testing can now start from a saliva sample, avoiding the need to take blood from small children.

The new NGS tests underwent rigorous validation, first using positive controls and then doing duplicate, double-blind analyses of 118 consecutive samples received for diagnostic testing of suspected neurofibromatosis type 1 or Legius syndrome. The new NGS tests all agreed with the existing state-of-the-art tests that the lab has used for 15 years, and the NGS testing exhibited greater power to detect a 4 percent mutant allele mosaicism in one patient's blood. The greater sensitivity and the inclusion of more genes means increased ability to diagnose the cause of a malformation syndrome.

Overall, the technological advances with the NGS approach will allow the UAB Medical Genomics Laboratory to examine more genes with the same sensitivity and at a lower price. The nonprofit laboratory is certified by the College of American Pathologists.

"We strive to offer the most sensitive, comprehensive and accurate genetic testing options for patients with a suspected diagnosis of any of the neurofibromatoses/rasopathies," Messiaen said.
Country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India tightened its grip in terms of best selling cars with six of its models featuring in the the top-10 list for the just concluded fiscal.Besides, volume share of the company in top-10 models has shot up to 73 per cent with six of its models accounting for 10,29,639 units out of a total of 14,19,768 units sold in the fiscal. The company's volume share in top 10 stood at 68 per cent in 2014-15 with sales of 9,12,415 units.As per the data, the company's Alto, Dzire, Swift and WagonR were the first, second, third and fourth biggest selling models during the fiscal.Here's a list of top 10 best-selling cars:The company sold 2,63,422 units of Alto during 2015-16 compared with 2,64,492 units in 2014-15.Maruti Suzuki sold 2,34,242 units of compact sedan Dzire. It had sold 2,10,649 units of the sedan in 2014-15.Compact hatchback Swift continued to hold on to the third position during the fiscal with 1,95,043 units. Swift sales stood at 2,01,338 units in the previous fiscal.Wagon R with 1,69,555 units sold during the last fiscal, retains the fourth position in passenger car segment. MSI had sold 1,61,250 units of the hatchback in 2014-15.Rival Hyundai's two models -- Grand i10 and Elite i20 also made it to the top ten list. Grand i10 sold 1,26,181 units during the fiscal.i20 stood at sixth position with 1,04,841 unit sales during the 2015-16 fiscal.Maruti Suzuki, which had five models in top-10 selling cars in 2014-15, saw compact model Celerio enter the list at the seventh position in 2015-16. The compact model Celerio also made it to the top 10 for the first time. It stood at 7th position with sales of 87,428 units during the fiscal. It dislodged Hyundai's compact car Eon from the seventh position.Mahindra's SUV Bolero stood at 8th position with 81,559 units.MSI's van Omni retained its ninth position with sale of 79,949 units in 2015-16. It had sold 74,686 units in 2014-15.Honda Cars mid-sized sedan City stood at 10th slot during the fiscal with 77,548 units.
New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Monday indicated that his country may consider a request by India for a visit by its NIA team to further probe the Pathankot terror strike, days after top Pakistani envoy ruled out the same.



Aziz said Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit's comments that the bilateral peace process was "suspended" did not mean "cancelled or given up" and hoped that the Indo-Pak dialogue will resume soon.



On whether India's National National Investigation Agency (NIA) team will be allowed to visit Pakistan in connection with Pathankot attack probe, Aziz told CNN-NEWS18 in an interview that "once the stage is reached...India makes a request and then we will see".



Claiming that Basit's comments that cooperation not meaning reciprocity were "over-interpreted", he said he did not exclude option of NIA's visit to Pakistan.



"I don't think he used that word. He said that right now cooperation is more important than that of reciprocity and does not exclude option and he said that let's cooperate and then thing will work out. So, I don't think one should over interpret statement, he (Basit) just said that cooperation is more important which is true," Aziz said.



Earlier this month, Basit had indicated that an Indian probe team is unlikely to be allowed to visit Pakistan, which had sent its JIT to probe the terror attack at the IAF base, saying, "...the whole investigation is not about question of reciprocity in my view. It is more about extending cooperation or our two countries cooperating with each other to get to the bottom of the incident".



Transcript follows:



CNN-NEWS18: Now the JIT has come here and got access to NIA, its records and it has also got access to the Pathankot airbase. Will the NIA here in India also get reciprocal access to potential suspects in Pakistan?



Sartaj Aziz: It depends again what it shows and how the linkage is established and who is the suspect, so I think it's again hypothetical. Once the stage is reached and India makes a request, then we will see.



CNN-NEWS18: So if India were to make a formal request, you would not be closed against the option of allowing access to the NIA team?



Sartaj Aziz: Again you see that one should not answer question hypothetically. I think once the investigation is complete, on the basis of what what additional information is required, a decision is made. So I don't want to give one way or the other.



CNN-NEWS18: The reason it's not hypothetical is because it's only a few days ago that Pakistan High Commission to India, Abdul Basit, seemed to suggest the opposite. He seemed to suggest that there is no question of reciprocity here and that NIA will not get access ?



Sartaj Aziz: I don't think he used that word, he said that right now cooperation is more important than that of reciprocity and doesn't exclude the option. And he said that let's cooperate and then things will work out. So I don't think one should over interpret the statement, he just says cooperation is more important. Which is true.



CNN-NEWS18: So I am paraphrasing you, you said you are not exclude any option including the option of reciprocity?



Sartaj Aziz: In case the evidence leads to some basis, and people identified need to be investigated.
Bengaluru: Will they be third time lucky? Neither the 1.5 lakh students, nor the Karnataka government knows for sure. After the question paper leaks twice in less than a month, over 1.5 lakh students will once again be taking the jinxed Chemistry exam on Tuesday.



The Class 12 Chemistry paper has been leaked twice, first on March 21, and next on March 31. As per the earlier norm, question paper would be supplied two days prior to the exam as there are as many as 175 places in the state where there are exam centres. However, it has been changed this time.



The Revenue Commissioner and the IGP will be in charge of sending the paper to the district headquarters. From district headquarters, the Deputy Commissioner and the SP will be in charge of transporting it to the centres.



A large contingent of police force will be deployed when papers are being transported to ensure that there is no leak.







Even after the exams are over, the evaluation of 12th standard papers will not take place as the government is still in talks with the striking teachers. Four rounds of talks have failed so far and the final solution is expected by April 14.



The government needs around Rs 250 crore annually if the demands of the teachers are met.


Even as authorities are trying to find out the reasons behind the massive fire tragedy at Puttingal temple in Kollam, the District Collector has claimed that several politicians asked her to allow the fireworks but she denied the permission. "Lot of politicians called me and requested me to allow the fireworks to go on but I stood my ground and said no," said Kollam Collector Shainamol.Five organisers are being questioned in connection with the incident. One contractor has died in explosion while the another suffered injuries and is undergoing treatment in a hospital. At least 109 people have been killed and over 380 others injured during the firework display at Paravur's Puttingal temple on Sunday.The investigation is also underway to fix accountability for the Puttingal temple tragedy. The houses of contractors and committee members were raided. Explosives were seized during raids from godowns and intensity of explosives is yet to be ascertained.Locals had informed police that there were excessive explosives this time.The mishap due to the display of fireworks occurred on the last day of the seven-day 'Meena Bharani' festivities. Thousands of people had gathered at the temple precincts to witness the fireworks display 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.Sources had said that the fireworks competition at Puttingal Devi temple was held without permission from district authorities.The Centre has stepped in and probe is on to find out what kind of explosives were used in the firework. A team of Kerala Police-led by ADGP is likely to visit tragedy site on Monday.Control Room Numbers: 0474-2512344, 0949760778, 0949730869Trivandrum Central Control Room No: 0471 2528300Kollam Control Room No: 0474 2794002Toll Free No: 1077
Panaji: With its crowded beaches crunching under pressure of growing footfalls, Goa now wants to tap its rivers for their ability to attract tourists as well as share and shoulder the burden of transportation and commuting within the state.



With the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government looking to start water parks tourism and river-based transport systems, the onus, according to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, is not to bank too much on funding from the state or central governments, but instead scout for the right investors who can bring in the money and the technical knowhow to execute such projects.



"Government will give priority to waterways and we have scope to develop waterfronts like the Chapora river. From Chapora to Colvale (villages located along the course of the river), we could develop some points (of tourist interest)," Parsekar told IANS.



Known for its beaches, the tiny state of Goa is also rich as far as flowing water-bodies are concerned. Apart from the main rivers, the Mandovi, Zuari, Chapora, Sal and the Kushwati, several smaller rivers criss-cross the state, especially in the hinterland areas, which do not possess a healthy tourism profile.



Currently, government records suggest that the state has waterways which are around 650 km in length. According to Parsekar, an additional 250 km can be also utilised, through adequate dredging and deepening of the navigation channels of the rivers.



"The rest can be extended by dredging. Waterways and tourist attractions are two important points to remember. A tourist who lands at Dabolim (international airport) should be able to head for Panaji or Calangute by a boat instead of by road alone. This will be an added attraction for a tourist coming to Goa," Parsekar said.



Parsekar returned earlier this week from the three-day Maritime Summit organized by the union shipping ministry in Mumbai that was aimed at increasing the connect between shipping industry stakeholders in the private sector and government representatives.



Goa, with its unique advantage of being already a popular beach tourism destination, without fully tapping its rivers and backwaters, appears to be in a good position to encash on this opportunity.



"We should use our rivers as waterways and further reduce the pressure on our roads. And Goa being a touristic destination it could be a major attraction. We could also build river jetties in coastal villages and the hinterland so that the pressure created by tourism can be spread across Goa and not just along the beaches," Parsekar said.



The chief minister also said that instead of moaning about whether the state or the central government would be footing the bill for development of water fronts and waterways, efforts should be taken to find the right investors for the project.



We want investors to invest and once we have investment, we could have job creation and diversify tourism in the hinterland from the coast," Parsekar said.



Goa attracts nearly four million tourists every year, about half a million of whom are foreigners.
Kolkata: In a heavy turnout amid reports of sporadic violence, close to 80 per cent of the electorate cast their votes till 5 PM in the election to 56 West Bengal Assembly constituencies in the second phase.



Overall, 79.70 per cent voters exercised their franchise in six districts of north Bengal and Birbhum of south Bengal till 5 PM.



In Alipurduar, 82.07 per cent voting were recorded, in Jalpaiguri 77.69 per cent, Darjeeling 74, North Dinajpur 78.90, South Dinajpur 82.72, Malda 79.60 per cent and Birbhum 82.89.



In seven constituencies of Birbhum, affected by left-wing extremism, polling concluded early at 4 PM as a precautionary measure. Voting went on till 6 PM in the remaining seats.



After compilation and scrutiny, final voting percentage figures will be available tomorrow, sources said.



Controversial Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mandal, who has been put under round-the-clock surveillance by the Election Commission, faced the ire of the poll panel for not following their instructions.



Two FIRs- one for going out of his constituency despite warning and another one for going to cast vote sporting party symbol on his kurta - are being lodged against him.



Besides sporadic cases of violence, poll boycott call over local developmental issues was also given at a handful of booths in Malda and Birbhum.



"But they were persuaded to vote after which normal polling proceeded," West Bengal's chief electoral officer Sunil Gupta said.



In the second phase, over 1.2 crore electorate will decide the fate of 383 candidates, including 33 women.
Hyderabad: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday visited University of Hyderabad students, who have been protesting over the suicide of Dalit PhD student Rohith Vemula.



Dismissing criticism of politicising the incident, the Congress leader said, "There is no question of politicising student's death," adding that "there should not be no discrimination in an institution on the basis of caste, creed and religion."



Blaming the university vice chancellor and Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya for the happening, the Gandhi scion alleged that the condition of Vemula's death was set by them.







"I have come here for Rohith, but he is not alone. Every student, every university has this problem," said Rahul Gandhi.



He added, "I have not come here as a politician, I have come as a young person who understands your concern."



In addition to the demand for compensation for Vemula's family, the Congress leader said that the vice chancellor had no right to continue in his post.



Rahul Gandhi paid his condolences to Vemula's family and interacted with students, including the four Dalit students who were suspended along with him.



This comes even as students have stepped up protests against Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and the Vice-Chancellor over the suicide of Dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula in Central University at Hyderabad.



In order to build up pressure over the government to sack the Union Minister, the Telangana Jagruti Yuva Morcha held protest outside Dattatreya's residence in Hyderabad.



Section 144 has been imposed on the campus barring large congregations to avoid any untoward incident.



Meanwhile, Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani has sent a team to the campus to probe the incident. Official sources said that the team led by Shakila T Shamsu, OSD in the HRD ministry, will be accompanied by a Deputy Secretary level officer Surat Singh to look into the entire matter and submit the report to the ministry.



In an attempt to shield the government, Social Welfare Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot has sought a report from the Telangana government in the suicide case. This comes after ICSSR chairman Sukhdeo Thorat met Gehlot on Monday and also submitted a memorandum to Irani on the suicide case. The five expelled student including Rohith had met Thorat on December 28, 2015 in Hyderabad and gave him a memo seeking help. Thorat had asked ministers to intervene in the matter.
Selfie with trench of said barrage Manjara .. one relief to latur .. pic.twitter.com/r49aEVxSSk  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 17, 2016

Reviewed the pipeline work at Latur to take water from Rail wagons for distribution ahead to Latur citizens pic.twitter.com/hlLKTNluwQ  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 17, 2016

#JalyuktShivar work at Sai Bandhara, Latur in full swing. All water consvn efforts will yield good results for sure pic.twitter.com/78nYBF7cmK  PankajaGopinathMunde (@Pankajamunde) April 17, 2016

Maharashtra Minister Pankaja Munde is under fire after she clicked a selfie in the drought-hit Latur district. She clicked the picture when she was touring Latur to review the dried up Manjara river.Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally Shiv Sena did not miss a chance to attack Munde over her selfie. "It is unfortunate that a minister went and clicked selfies in drought-hit Latur," Shiv Sena leader Manisha Kayande said.Earlier, Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse was also in the firing line after reports claimed that 10 thousand litres of water was wasted in creating a helipad for him in Latur. However, he dismissed the reports and asserted that "very little" water was used for making the helipad in Belkund. He added that the issue was being blown out of proportion.Latur, severely hit by drought in Marathwada, now depends on water trains with 15 lakh litres till now transported from the Krishna River.
Free document-shredding event scheduled

AARP Virginia is sponsoring Shred Fest 2016, an event to provide free shredding of personal financial documents and other sensitive records.

The Shred Fest will be held Tuesday, April 26, at Timberlake United Methodist Church at 21649 Timberlake Road in Lynchburg. Shredding service begins at 9 a.m. and will continue until noon.

The event is in conjunction with the 8th annual Senior Awareness Day hosted by the Departments of Social Services in Amherst, Appomattox, Lynchburg and Campbell counties and The Office of Youth, Adult & Community Services of Campbell County. The Senior Awareness Day event is from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.

The Lynchburg event is one of dozens of Shred Fest 2016 events nationwide, during Money Smart Week April 23 to 30, with support from the AARP Fraud Watch Network and the AARP Foundation.

Security experts recommend shredding old documents that have your Social Security number, birth date, signature, account numbers, passwords or PINs; canceled or unused checks; deposit slips; ATM and credit card receipts; credit cards; credit card offers; unneeded medical bills; investment account statements; and obsolete ID cards.

Staff reports

State revenues rise 7.5% in March

State revenues surged by 7.5 percent in March, compared with March 2015, raising the hopes of state officials for meeting the annual budget forecast. But payroll income taxes continue to lag behind projections.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe said the revenue performance puts the state government in good position for the final quarter of the fiscal year, which will determine whether it has the revenue it expected to support budgeted spending.

The final quarter will depend heavily on estimated payments of non-withholding income taxes, generally paid by professionals and stock investors who dont deduct taxes from payroll income.

Year to date, total revenues increased by 2.7 percent, lagging the annual forecast of 3.2 percent, but the performance improves to 3.1 percent after adjusting for sales tax revenues collected last June, the final month of the previous fiscal year, instead of July, the first month of the current year.

The collection of income taxes withheld from payroll rose 10.4 percent in March compared with a year ago, but that reflected one additional deposit day in this fiscal year. Collections were offset somewhat by a 23 percent increase in income tax refunds in March compared with a year ago.

Almost two-thirds of state revenues come from withholding income taxes, which grew 3.3 percent for the year through the end of March. The budget is based on a forecast of 4.1 percent growth, so budget officials are watching those collections closely. Payroll withholding taxes also reflect the strength of the economy, as measured in jobs and wages.

Sales tax collections, accounting for 18 percent of state general fund revenues, increased 8.5 percent in March and 1.6 percent year to date, but still trail the annual forecast of 4.1 percent growth.

Richmond Times-Dispatch
ROANOKE  Norfolk Southern Corp. expects to receive nearly $2 million from the state to help defray the cost of moving jobs from Roanoke to Norfolk, government records show.

Virginia law restricts grants that relocate rather than create jobs. But the railroad is counting the jobs pulled from Roanoke as new jobs that allow it to collect state taxpayer money.

Whats missing from the economic maneuvering  which spanned at least the past 14 months  is notification of the General Assembly leaders who have oversight of economic deals that run counter to the goal of job creation.

State law generally bars grants intended solely to defray corporate expenses related to moving jobs from one Virginia community to another. However, if the state secretary of commerce and trade promptly provides a written explanation to the heads of the two General Assembly money committees, its allowed.

As of Friday, neither the Senate Finance nor the House Appropriations committees had received notice of the Norfolk Southern grant, which is payable next month, officials said.

I need an explanation of what went on, since I dont have clarity, state Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr., R-Augusta, co-chairman of the Finance Committee, said Friday.

Roanoke City Councilman Ray Ferris said that, while he regrets the loss of corporate jobs from the city, the shift of some positions to Norfolk beats the jobs leaving the state. A Norfolk official said Atlanta was considered for all of the Roanoke jobs.

Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones, who brokered the deal, did not respond to messages left late last week.

The story dates to Jan. 27, 2015, when Norfolk Southern said it would close its Roanoke regional headquarters and move the jobs either to Norfolk or Atlanta. Less than a month later, on Feb. 19, Jones initially approved the state grant, Virginia Economic Development Partnership records show.

During the summer, the railroad withdrew 426 corporate office jobs from Roanoke to consolidate headquarters operations. Roanoke workers who wished to stay with the company would receive new assignments in Norfolk or Atlanta, the company said. Moving vans came and the companys downtown office tower went dark.

In a statement Friday, Norfolk Southern spokeswoman Susan Terpay opened a window into the behind-the-scenes discussions. The railroad told Virginia that a number of locations were under consideration for the Roanoke office functions and the jobs they represented. In its request for grant money, the railroad said it had narrowed the location list to Atlanta and Norfolk.

The state and city offered incentives to choose Norfolk over Atlanta for those headquarters functions, she said.

Employees were gone from Roanoke by Septembers end.

A law passed in 2006 specifies that an opportunity fund, a pool of state taxpayer money used by governors to help secure business projects for Virginia, is to fund new jobs rather than those relocated within Virginia. But the notice provision allows for exceptions.

It shall be the policy of the commonwealth that moneys in the Commonwealths Opportunity Fund shall not be used for any economic development project in which a business relocates or expands its operations in one or more Virginia localities and simultaneously closes its operations or substantially reduces the number of its employees in another Virginia locality, the law reads.

The secretary of commerce and trade shall enforce this policy and for any exception thereto shall promptly provide written notice to the chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees, which notice shall include a justification for any exception to such policy.

The railroad pledged to spend $8.2 million to renovate its Norfolk headquarters and create at least 165 new jobs there, according to an economic development performance contract being circulated for signatures Friday. The project includes offices and conference rooms on three floors of the companys 22-story Norfolk skyscraper.

Positions previously located in the companys offices and facilities in Roanoke, Virginia, shall qualify as new jobs, the contract said.

The governors news release last month announcing the $1.93 million state grant noted that the railroads corporate headquarters will accommodate 165 new employees after renovation. The news release came almost six months after Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued final approval of the grant.

The Norfolk City Council pledged reductions in city parking fees worth $2.2 million over 10 years, for a total package representing half of the project price tag for a company that recorded $10.5 billion in revenues and $1.6 billion in profits last year. Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim praised the railroad for choosing to relocate 165 new jobs to our city.

The railroad also sent jobs from Roanoke to Atlanta. Terpay said she did not know how many.

Hanger said the 2006 law was meant to limit economic development deals that subsidize job relocation and create no jobs, and it forces the commerce secretary to spell out any exceptions that he approves.

The intent of the law is, of course, you shouldnt do that except in rare circumstances, Hanger said. Then, in that rare circumstance, you need to justify it through appropriate channels to let people know what you did. It does seem like, on the surface there, that they havent complied with that in a timely manner and it may not be appropriate.

Retired state Sen. Walter Stosch, R-Henrico, who authored the 2006 bill, said a grant made to keep jobs from leaving the state is a valid exception, even if they move from one locality to another. If Jones, who lives in Norfolk, approved the railroad grant, Stosch said he trusts the secretary made a good decision for the state.

Norfolk Southern has donated to Virginias officials. The railroad gave $25,000 to Common Good VA, the political action committee established by McAuliffe. The donation was more than twice the amount the railroad gave any other candidate or PAC last year.

A couple of months after launching Common Good in 2014, McAuliffe vetoed a bipartisan ethics bill that would have prohibited the governor, his campaign committee or his PAC from soliciting or accepting donations or gifts worth $50 or more from anyone seeking money from the Commonwealths Opportunity Fund.

That legislation, passed unanimously by the General Assembly, would have barred the governors PAC from accepting Norfolk Southerns March 2015 donation and another four months later for $6,000.
Red Hulk, Ronin, and more: 10 Heroes and Villains whose secret identities were hidden from readers

There's a longstanding superhero tradition of hiding the identity of certain characters even from readers
Practical guidelines to unlock your potential

As modern technology and materialism continue to make deep inroads into the cultural and spiritual traditions of mankind, this material seeks to help us return to the source, our source, the ultimate solution, the soul.

Anam Cara literally means Soul Friend. The soul, he describes simply as our nature, our essence. With persuasive language and imagery he invites us, as he puts it to travel back to the source and experience its magic in order to live authentically.

With your Anam Cara, he explains, you share your innermost self, revealing the hidden intimacies of your life, your mind and your heart. This friendship cuts across all convention to create an act of recognition and belonging that joins souls in an ancient and eternal way. In reading this book, I appreciated how Ashby willingly identifies with his readers when he states Like so many people of every conceivable stratum, be it intellectual, social or economic, I have experienced emotional and psychological pain. There is indeed a universal appeal in this message. The author, himself a spiritual seeker and teacher, noted academic and journalist, speaks with authenticity from his own realisations while drawing on the wisdom of a variety of authoritative historical figures ranging from Carl Jung to Albert Einstein and Helen Keller. Finding your Anam Cara is not without its challenges, the author points out in these sobering words: The Anam Cara must be distinguished from any individual who uses therapy in a business sense. Money in exchange for service erases the spiritual component of the interaction. The priest, minister or any other religious leader must set certain boundaries in his relationship with his flock. This eliminates the two building blocks of the Anam Cara spirit  intimacy and candour.

These elements make the Anam Cara a unique individual. You and your Anam Cara are glued in psycho- spiritual terms. You enjoy a level of intimacy  not in a carnal sense but in a spiritual sense. The elements that inhibit growth are removed. The closets are opened and sanitised without fear, distrust, shame, guilt or doubt. With those subtle warnings he invites the reader to seek and find the keys to enlightenment and creativity. Directional signposts and guidelines are provided to assist us in our search.

Interestingly, other ancient spiritual traditions like Buddhism and Hinduism extol the practice of the seeker finding a teacher or guru to guide the disciple on his journey, forming what is called the guru-disciple relationship. In its healthiest expression however, the guru invariably directs the disciple to find the guru within  the Sat guru. This is the same principle that this book presents.

Without prejudice, Ashby acknowledges the presence of many other popular self-help therapies.

He explains, The purpose of this handbook is not to malign or trump other therapies. That is a counter-productive approach.

What is important to know is that caustic remarks and criticism engender seeds of separation and distrust and even disdain. These elements are antithetical to your well-being. This work encourages you to concentrate on your own development. In this inspirational book Ashby undertakes the challenging task of reminding us of our true nature and our inner power and wisdom. It invites self-empowerment, self-discovery and self-actualisation. It provides not just a theoretical framework but also practical guidance in strengthening our relationship with our Anam Cara. He presents minor keys, such as self-imaging, contemplative journeying, and service; and major keys, such as gratitude, atonement, and forgiveness for us to unlock our creative potential and experience the abundance of nature. He also leads us through 42 confessions to the soul, a profound and transformative exercise.

Wisdom, contentment, and good health are our birthright. In reading this text I found myself pulled to deeper self-reflection and internal realignment.

This book in my opinion is not for the faint-hearted, the self-assured or the nonchalant. Anyone interested in spiritual growth can benefit from it. But read it with the understanding that you run the risk of making a quantum leap in your quest to knowing your true self. Thank you Dr Ashby for the guiding light this book offers.

Dr TONY Vendryes is a medical doctor who strongly promotes prevention and healthy lifestyles through his popular weekly radio programme and newspaper column and through various health and wellness lectures, seminars and workshops.

Anam Cara: Your Soul Friend and Bridge to Enlightenment by Dr Glenville Ashby Available at Amazon and iTunes as an Audiobook Rating: Essential
Movie books inspire teens to read

These days, I can happily combine both requests because John Greens first book, Looking for Alaska, is being turned into a movie. This is no big surprise.

Two of his other popular books, The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns (my favourite John Green book) made great movies.

In some ways, all of John Greens books are a takeoff for Looking for Alaska. This novel, set in a boarding school features the same nerdy, quiet, unpopular guy falling for the cool, edgy girl who lives on the edge.

Now, Im happy to announce another popular book with the most reluctant secondary school students you can imagine is going to be a movie: The Gunslinger, which happens to be the first book in Stephen Kings Dark Tower series.

Teenage boys who never pick up a book read the whole Dark Tower series and they are not slim books. Teenagers are attracted to this mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy that is loosely based on the Song of Roland a French epic poem based on the Battle of Roncevaux in 778 that took place during Charlemagnes reign. The Song of Roland was written sometime between 1040 and 1115. It was quite popular from the 12th - 14th centuries.

The Gunslinger is the story of a classic battle between good and evil as Roland of Gilead, a loner described by critics as a haunting, spellbinding figure, moves through a desolate world trying to track down the Man in Black.

There is adventure, tension, compelling characters and much to consider about the battle of good and evil that appeals to teenagers in this book. Many critics consider The Gunslinger to be Stephen Kings best work.

For those who dont know Kings work outside of the genre of horror, The Gunslinger is a good introduction to Kings other writing. Even better news is that Matthew McConnaughey and Idris Elba are supposed to star in the The Gunslinger series.

Another teen favourite about to become a movie is World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks  This chilling, post apocalyptic, epidemiological tale of disease and distruction feels so real you will swear it is true. Zombies are always popular with teens.

This year teenagers can discover a very strange book turned into a movie by the king of weird movies, Tim Burton. Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is a strange book based on weird photographs.

Teens are attracted to unusual books and they are particularly attracted to visual imagery.

Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children is the story of a boy who tries to trace the strange stories his grandfather told him.

The theme of individuality resonates loud and clear with teens.

There are many lessons to take away from this book, the most important being were all weird in one way or another. Teens will find their own sense of purpose in this book.

So, if you want to get a teenager to read, find a book that is being turned into a movie. You cant go wrong. You can bet on it.
Doctor under investigation for abortion

As police investigations continue, the teenage girl herself is also facing criminal prosecution, for what might be deemed in law as acting in a manner to procure her own miscarriage. Police investigations into abortion have been done in the past, but no one has ever been charged under the Section 56 Offences Against the Persons Act. According to a police report, the teenager was arrested last Wednesday after a report was made to the Chaguanas Police Station, that she had gone to a doctors office the day before to have the abortion done. According to the report, the girl who is from Caroni Savannah Road, was three months pregnant. After arrest, she was taken to the Chaguanas Police Station where, according to a police report, she told investigators about the circumstances of how she became pregnant .

Police told Newsday the matter of how she became pregnant, is being investigated as a separate case with a view to laying a charge against the man who had intercourse with her, as she is a minor in the eyes of the law and cannot give lawful consent to engage in sexual intercourse. District Medical Officer for Chaguanas, Dr Vikash Ramlogan, was notified and the girl was medically examined .

Police officers obtained a statement from the girl at the police station. Officers then notified attorneys of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority and a duty counsel was assigned to the case .

The attorney arrived at the Chaguanas Station minutes before midnight on Friday and advised the girl of her rights and as well, the duties of the police in the pursuit of their investigations .

Another statement was recorded from the girl .

Police detectives subsequently visited the medical doctors office and interviewed him. Newsday learned that medical notes regarding the surgical procedure performed on the girl, were also examined. A procedure would have to be followed in order for the police to obtain the girls medical notes and that is to be done this week, sources said .

Newsday was told the baby that was aborted by the doctor, was four-months-old. The teenage girl has since been released from police custody, into the care of her parents. Newsday was told that investigations are being conducted further, in which the doctor is to be interviewed today and who, would be asked to give a statement .

A senior police source said that three charges are expected to be laid, firstly, against the girl for procuring her own abortion; secondly, against the doctor for facilitating the abortion; and thirdly, a charge against the person who had sexual intercourse with the girl, is to be laid as well .

The abortion charges are to be laid under Section 56, of the Offences Against the Persons Act, which states that every woman, being with a child, who, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, unlawfully administers to herself any poison, or, other noxious thing, or unlawfully uses any instrument or other means whatsoever with the like intent, or any person who, with intent to procure a miscarriage of any woman, whether she is or is not with child, unlawfully administers to her or causes to be taken by her any poison or other noxious thing, or unlawfully uses any instrument or other means with like intent, is liable to imprisonment for four years. Woman Police Constable Mohan is investigating .
EWMSC patients clog up SFGH

At the EW MSC, patients can wait for weeks, months and in some cases years, before being attended to by specialists and this is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue, Dr Chatoorgoon said.

Patients with referral letters to attend EW MSC are knocking on the doors of doctors at the SFGH as they have grown weary of waiting for attention at the North facility.

The SFGH medical director told the Minister, in a terse letter, that delays at EW MSC must be stopped because the already cashstrapped SFGH - where millions of dollars are owed to contractors and where reagents to do blood tests are in short supply - is bursting at its proverbial seams. Chatoorgoon complained to Minister Deyalsingh that he discovered the reason why patients who should be attending other Regional Health Authority (RHAs) institutions, flock to SFGH instead.

When in north-east Trinidad a patient goes to the EW MSC armed with a doctors referral letter, seeking further diagnosis for an ailment, he or she sees a clerk, not a medical doctor.

Whether it is for severe headache, abdominal pain, pain in the leg etc, Chatoorgoon told Newsday yesterday, the clerk at EW MSC gives the patient a computer generated piece of paper which contains a standard instruction to all such out-patients, that there are required to wait a minimum of six weeks, before receiving a call with your appointment date.

So the patient goes home, holds on to the pain and wait for a telephone call from Mt Hope, Chatoorgoon said. He added that at the SFGH it is quite the opposite as he instructed heads of surgical departments - obstetrics and gynaecology and orthopaedics - to assign a doctor from their respective departments, to all out-patient clinics.

Chatoorgoon stated in his letter to surgical heads Dr Vinoo Bheem, Dr Krishna Rampersadsingh and Dr Neil Persad, that referral letters by themselves do not frequently indicate the severity of a patients ailment or symptoms.

The unacceptable practice of giving patients dates for appointment based only on information contained in referral letters and without a doctor seeing the patient at all, has led to great suffering and discomfort, Chatoorgoon stated.

As a result of what obtains in SFGH, as against EW MSC, Chatoorgoon told Deyalsingh in his letter that patients who attend the latter, leave without seeing a doctor, and, if they are called via telephone, they have to wait a long time before they receive the surgery they need. Chatoorgoon stated in his letter to Deyalsingh, The result of this is a horrible state of affairs Honourable minister. You see Sir, by becoming more and more competent in our modus operandi, by being more customer- obsessed than we ever were in the past, the SWRHA/SFGH is now being forced to take up the slack of other RHAs. Chatoorgoon called on Deyalsingh to look into the matter, because SFGH cannot continue to accommodate patients from the catchment area of the EW MSC.
Trini safe after Japan earthquake

At least 41 persons died and tens of thousands of people have been left without vital supplies after two earthquakes struck - first on Thursday night and then again early Saturday, close to the city of Kumamoto.

Each quake measured 6.4 and 7.3 in magnitude.

With devastating landslides and persons still trapped in buildings Japans prime minister Shinzo Abe announced the number of troops assisting rescue efforts would be bolstered to 25,000 and the US military would assist by providing air transport. He said agencies faced a race against the clock and that bad weather was hampering efforts.

Trinidadian Brandon Mc Ivor yesterday told Newsday he was not in the Kyushu region where the quakes struck.

However, though thousands of miles away, the impact of the tremors was still felt. Kumamoto is far enough away that we were comfortably safe in Ehime, but we could still feel it, Mc Ivor said from Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku. It was still registered here as a magnitude 3 where I live. He said the Japanese have a system in place to deal with quakes.

Our phones have an emergency warning system so we received an alert as the earthquake happened and we were able to take cover under the table in the kitchen, he said.

It was a comfort to know that the system works in the case of any future quake. The English teacher said recent efforts at bolstering buildings have been undertaken.

We devote a decent amount of time at school to earthquake preparedness and in fact my main school just upgraded its premises to be more earthquake resistant, Mc Ivor said.

There is always the feeling that a big one can happen any time. Japan is located on several fault lines which make it susceptible to earthquakes, including one that caused 15,000 deaths in 2011.
No Sunday calls on TSTT

In some cases, calls via landlines were also down for several hours yesterday .

The nationwide service disruption also prevented customers from sending text messages or connecting to the internet via their mobile phones .

Other TSTT customers reported issues when trying to make calls to and from their landline phones. The system went down at midday and up to 3 pm, the cellular phone service was not at full optimum .

Speaking with Newsday around 3.30 pm yesterday, a woman said, I used a landline in Port-of-Spain to try calling someone elses cell phone, but no luck .

When I tried calling my sister in San Fernando on her landline, I could hear her saying, Hello?, but she wasnt hearing me at all. Thinking the landline connection problem might be isolated, the woman tried calling a private health facility in Vistabella but experienced the same problem .

The one successful phone call the woman was able to make yesterday afternoon was to TSTTs help line; 824- TSTT (824-8788) .

I got through to them about 12.45 pm. The person at the call centre said, Its a nationwide problem. Our engineers are currently out in the field right now. Three oclock rolled around and I still had no service on my cell phone, so I called back and was informed that some people have gotten back service but others are still experiencing the disruption. The woman I spoke with was unable to say when the rest of us would get back service, the woman said .

Newsday also contacted Digicel, asking if its customers were experiencing similar problems .

There was no interruption to Digicels service today (Sunday), a senior official replied .

Responding to Newsdays emailed queries shortly after 4 pm, TSTTs Ag Head (Public Relations and External Affairs) Graeme Suite said, there was damage sustained by a kep communications cable on the network which is causing a deterioration in the quality of service for mobile, internet and landline customers .

Repairs are underway. Suite added that the State utility would inform the media as to when the problem is fully resolved .
NACTA: Fear on crime, economy

There is widespread disenchantment with the PNM Governments handling of the economy and crime, but strong support for local government reform.

NACTA said most respondents believe crime is the leading problem facing TT followed by the economy.

There is an almost total lack of confidence in consumer spending and new investment by businesses. Almost every businessperson is displeased with the state of the economy , NACTA said in a press release.

Even PNM supporters are disenchanted with Govts seeming inability to control runaway crime and/or reverse the countrys economic fortunes. However, NACTA added, Many laud the effort of Finance Minister Colm Imbert to address declining revenues due to low energy prices to balance the Budget. The poll found people disappointed in Minister of National Security Edmund Dillons inability to reduce crime despite enormous resources at his disposal.

Only six percent of respondents approved Govts handling of crime while 24 percent approved the handling of the economy.

The poll finds rising crime, escalating prices and policy errors are taking a toll on the approval rating of Government and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
Carmona: Stop economic panic

At present, the national dialogue is now steeped in panic and given our resources, diminishing as they are, there is no need to engage that language of panic because solutions expressed and unexpressed are available and implementable. Carmona said while the country has done well in creating the oil and gas industries, extraction has always been associated with production which he described as a tired philosophy. This tired philosophy of extraction has not included a philosophy of conservation.

Indeed, it remains one of the failures of our oil industry.

Run the well dry even when the market forces and prices dictate otherwise. The United States discovered vast reserves of oil and gas and even with high oil prices, they did not extract but sat on it and they are now better and wiser, he said.

The President told his audience that he has lived in the oil all his life and I am not without firsthand experience, a genuine concern when after all these prosperous years of oil, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has yet to engage itself in renewable and sustainable energy policies. Carmona called on citizens to nurture and inculcate in our mindset, a culture of urgency, not panic in addressing our economics woes. Saying there is an obsession with talk and not an obsession with action, the President went on to call on the credit union movement to take an enlightened lead in giving a sense of calm in the current recessionary environment. And in praising their resilience, he added: As a financial institution you have been a good and faithful servant of economic leadership. I am here today to join you in your commitment to the philosophy that as a country we can help each other, we can be our brothers keeper and we do not need to give more lie to this concept of handouts and government dependency.
Classes to resume at Moruga RC

A parent yesterday confirmed the resumption and expressed gratitude to MP for Moruga/Tableland, Dr Lovell Francis, for affording the students an opportunity to his office at Bois Jean Jean, Moruga, as a temporary school for the students. Francis is also the Minister in the Education Ministry.

 We are happy to return to the school. We are also grateful for his (Francis) kind gesture, said the parent. In August, the childrens derelict school located at Gran Chemin Village, Moruga, was demolished after the entire structure was deemed unsafe for human occupancy. The following month, a decision was made to use the constituency as the Education Facilities Company Limited (EFCL) constructed a prefab structure on the schools original compound.

On January 15, Roman Catholic Archbishop Fr Joseph Harris, met with staff members as well as parents of pupils attending the school at the St Vincent Ferrer RC Church. The church is located next to the school. Archbishop Harris had told Newsday that the purpose of his visit was to have a firsthand view of the school which was still under construction. He had commended the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) and staff adding that they were doing the best they can to keep our children occupied.
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(Newser)  Ten thousand human bones excavated from Germany's Tollense Valley over the last six years tell the story of a Bronze Age battle that's surprising archaeologists. The bones of more than 100 men, along with remains of five horses and various weapons, comprise the first evidence of trained warriors in large-scale warfare in Northern Europe more than 3,000 years ago, Science magazine reports. "For a long time we didnt really believe in war in [Bronze Age European] prehistory," says archaeologist Svend Hansen. Northern Europeans back then were farmers and traders living on farmsteads without many neighbors, much like parts of agrarian Europe today, experts sayso any fight was likely a local skirmish. But these bones, preserved by bogs in northern Germany, show that thousands of men fought in a battle about 3,200 years ago and many came from hundreds of miles away.

"This is not a bunch of local idiots," said geneticist Joachim Burger after DNA analysis revealed the warriors' far-flung origins. "It's a highly diverse population." Some speculate that bands of warriors assembled to fight for a common cause, reports PRI. So what were they fighting about? Maybe one group pushed another back along a bridge or causeway thought to cross the valley at the time. It was also a tumultuous era, with the Mycenaean civilization collapsing in Greece, Egypt battling "Sea People" from distant lands, and northern Europe soon becoming home to fortified settlements. "Tollense fits into a period when we have increased warfare everywhere," says an archaeologist in Denmark. "It could be the first evidence of a turning point in social organization and warfare in Europe." (Meanwhile, a huge discovery about Vikings just came from space.)
(Newser)  An LA-based artist is facing a possible lawsuit and alleged death threats over her painting of Donald Trump in the buff. Illma Gore's piece, "Making America Great Again," is hanging at the Maddox Gallery in London after US galleries refused to show it over security concerns, the Guardian reports. Why the big stir? In part because the Republican presidential candidate's penis appears a little smallespecially when compared to the painting's $1.4 million price tag. "Who knew it would be such a big deal?" says Gore. "I think an artists job is to take the times were living in and then set the scene. It is a representation of where we are." She says she went to Britain after receiving the anonymous death threats.

The painting first went viral on Gore's Facebook page in February, and she has since been tangled up in a confusing back-and-forth with the site over the image, Motherboard reports. First it was banned, but it's now back. It also was delisted from eBay after an anonymous third party filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice threatening to sue Gore if she sells the work, reports CBS News. Amid all this, Gore is offering free downloads on her website. Cordelia de Freitas, director of the Maddox gallery, says interest rose in the 11"-by-14" painting after Trump referenced the size of his genitals in a debate. Hundreds of people have gone to see the painting in London, where Gore says reaction "has been incredibly supportive. Everywhere apart from America has been great." (This is not Gore's first headline-generating art project.)
(Newser)  The Maryland man who opened fire on firefighters Friday night, killing one and seriously injuring another, is a "gentle person" who thought criminals were breaking into his home, his sister says. In what the sister calls a "tragic horror story," her 61-year-old brother shot at Prince George's County firefighters who were trying to gain entry for a welfare check after receiving a call from the man's brother, who said he was diabetic and had blacked out recently. "We are so sorry about the firefighter and for the family," the sister tells the Washington Post. "We were praying so hard." The fire department says the firefighters began breaking into the home after announcing themselves and pounding on the door, receiving no answer, reports Reuters.

"The way we're looking at it now is it's a terrible, terrible tragedy for everybody involved," Prince George's County Fire Department chief spokesman Mark Brady says. The man was released without charge Saturday night after being questioned, ABC News reports. A spokesman for the state's attorney's office says an investigation will "determine what, if any, charges are appropriate." The fallen firefighter, 37-year-old John Ulmschneider, was married and had a 2-year-old daughter, for whom a YouCaring fund has been set up, reports NBC Washington. Brady describes the firefighter and paramedic as a "good old hard working country boy who loved his job." The wounded firefighter, 19-year-old Kevin Swain, was shot four times but is expected to survive. (Read more Maryland stories.)
(Newser)  A survey has found that tens of thousands of voters, including Demi Moore and other celebrities, have mistakenly registered as members of a conservative minor political party in California in a mix-up over its name, a newspaper reported Sunday, the AP reports. The Los Angeles Times says that a telephone survey of 500 members of the American Independent Party found nearly 3 of 4 people did not realize they had enrolled in an "ultraconservative" political party that opposes abortion rights and same sex marriage and calls for building a fence along the US border. The newspaper says voters were confused by the use of the word "independent" in the party's name. In California, voters who do not want to register with any party must check a box on a registration form for "no party preference."

"I just blew it," says Deborah Silva, 64, of Point Arena in Mendocino County. "There were a number of choices. I just checked the box that said 'independent.'" Of people surveyed in the Times poll, fewer than 4% could correctly identify their own registration as a member of the American Independent Party. Moore was among Hollywood celebrities with known Democratic leanings listed as members; her registration as an AIP member is wrong, a representative says. Other celebs who say they joined by mistake are Sugar Ray Leonard and Emma Stone. According to the Secretary of State's Office, the party has about 472,000 members, or 2.7% of the statewide total. The mistaken registration could prevent people from casting votes in the June 7 presidential primary, which is considered California's most competitive in recent years. (Read more independent voters stories.)
(Newser)  A Michigan husband and wife are beside themselves after having been warned they could face up to 93 days in jail and a $500 fine over two unreturned library books. It all started in the summer of 2014, when their son checked out a Dr. Seuss book for the couple's granddaughter at the Tecumseh District Library. It was somehow misplaced and the son, then a minor, didn't tell his parents about the notices the library was emailing to his account, reports ABC News. Catherine Duren, 44, says she first found out about the ordeal in October 2014, when the library told her the late charges would hit her credit report. Still, "we had no intent of not paying the fees," she says of herself and her husband Melvin, 63. With Catherine battling stage three kidney disease and Melvin being tested for cancer, the couple faces hefty monthly medical bills and by May 2015 had not paid the late fees.

The library sent a notice asking to replace the book, and around this time the couple checked out The Rome Prophecy, and soon couldn't find it, either. Though they found and returned that book in January, they were soon being investigated by Lenawee County's Economic Crimes Unit, which is helping the library deal with an annual $10,000 worth of unreturned books, reports the Daily Telegram. When the couple finally tried to pay what Catherine says was $55 in fees in February 2016, the library refused because a $105 "diversion fee" for each book had not yet been paid to the ECU. All of this resulted in the couple appearing in court last week to plead not guilty to larceny of rental equipment. Catherine says she was treated "like a criminal"; she and her husband are due back in court May 3. (This high school library book was returned 65 years late.)
(Newser)  The University of New Mexico's official seal depicting a Spanish conquistador and a frontiersman is drawing accusations of racism from Native American students, the AP reports. Native American students in the Kiva Club, as well as members of advocacy group Red Nation, call the seal offensive, the Albuquerque Journal reports. The seal is stamped on all diplomas and is present at most school events. Oceti Sakowin tribe member and UNM doctoral student Nick Estes designed his own version of the seal in protest, with the conquistador and frontiersman standing atop a pile of bones. He spoke at an organizing meeting for students against the current seal, saying it represents racism at the school.

"To have this on my diploma is an insult of the highest order," Estes said. University President Bob Frank says he'd be open to discussing the students' ideas. He earned degrees from the institution in the 1970s. "It's a seal I have always known," Frank says. "I certainly understand that people may have different points of view. If they want to talk about it, I am open to the conversation." Students have started a petition opposing the seal, but no official complaint has been filed with the university. (A small New York town has decided to get rid of a seal that supposedly depicted the town's founder having a "friendly wresting match" with a Native American.)
(Newser)  Police in Washington state say the public "should absolutely be worried" about two armed and dangerous brothers who are on the run after the suspected murders of Patrick Shunn and Monique Patenaude. John Reed, 53, and Tony Reed, 49, have been named as suspects in the disappearance of the Arlington couple, who haven't been seen since last Monday, the Seattle Times reports. No bodies have been found, but police say that evidence in their vehicles, which were found abandoned in the woods, and in John Reed's former home has led them to believe foul play was involved. KOMO reports that Shunn and Patenaude were supposed to go to an Iron Maiden concert in Tacoma with neighbors on Monday night but never showed up.

Shunn, 45, and Patenaude, 46, were reported missing after their livestock went untended. "The recovery of Patrick and Monique is our agency's number one priority right now, for the sake of their families," says Sheriff Ty Trenary, per KING5. "Our second priority is getting the Reed brothers into custody and off the streets." Trenary says there appears to have been a property dispute between John Reed and the couple, who live nearby. The sheriff says both brothers are convicted felons. The public has been asked to look out for a red 2007 Volkswagen Eos coupe with Washington license plates AXH5106, which the brothers may be driving. (Read more Washington state stories.)
(Newser)  Prosecutors in Luzerne County, Pa., dropped a slew of charges against Richard Pieri, including DUI and reckless endangerment, in March. But that's not good news for the former VA Medical Center nurse accused of downing four or five beers at a local casino and then assisting in an emergency appendectomy. On Friday, federal prosecutors took up the case and charged Pieri, 59, with reckless endangerment, as the alleged incident took place in a federal facility, the Times Leader reports. Pieri claims he forgot he was on call Feb. 4 as he swilled beer and played slots, the Washington Post reports. An affidavit has him admitting that he knew he shouldn't have been involved with the surgery, but didn't want someone else to get called in to cover for him.

So he allegedly drove drunk to the hospital and staggered inside. "Rick, are you drunk or something?" a co-worker asked as Pieri grew frustrated while trying to use the computer. A physician's assistant says he smelled alcohol on someone in the operating room. Now Pieri faces up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine for putting a patient "in danger of death or serious bodily harm," the Times-Tribune reports. Pieri's estranged wife alleged in a restraining-order application last year that he abuses alcohol and that he has been abusive while drinking. In 1985, according to the Times Leader, Pieri was charged with killing a man in a hit-and-run accident. More on the alleged incident here. (Read more Pennsylvania stories.)
(Newser)  The saga that began with Australia's agriculture minister threatening to kill Johnny Depp's dogs has endedand nobody was euthanized or sent to prison for 10 years. Instead, Depp's wife, Amber Heard, pleaded guilty to falsifying her immigration card when Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo were illegally brought into the country on their private jet last year, reports the Brisbane Times. Heard was punished with a one-month "good behavior bond" of $1,000she'll have to pay a $1,000 fine if she misbehaves over the next monthand the more serious charge of illegally importing animals into the country was dropped, the Guardian reports. Depp and Heard hugged each other in the Queensland courtroom after the ruling.

The courtroom was shown what the Sydney Morning Herald describes as an "awkward and stilted" apology video from the couple, in which they stress the importance of Australia's biosecurity laws and urge other travelers not to repeat their mistake. "Australians are just as unique, both warm and direct. If you disrespect Australian law, they will tell you firmly," Depp says in the video, which Mashable writes "looks like the couple have been held hostage in North Korea." Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce shared the video to his Facebook page and said he plans to use it to highlight the issue. We "have had terrible outcomes with the introduction with certain pests, whether it be prickly pear, rabbits, cane toads," he told reporters. "They might sound humorous to some but for us in this nation they weren't; they were disastrous outcomes." (Depp recently starred in a fake Donald Trump biopic.)
(Newser)  Emily Stutz is begging to get into collegeas in really begging. On Saturday, the high school senior from Lowell, Mass., was at a shopping center holding a sign that read: "H.S. Senior. No $ for College. Anything helps," reports CBS Boston. "My first day outside Target was extremely successful," Stutz writes on her GoFundMe page, which has raised over $14,000 toward the 18-year-old's $30,000 goal. Stutz, who aspires to become a doctor, says she's held a GPA of between 4.0 and 4.5 throughout high school and has worked multiple jobs. She's been offered $11,000 to $18,000 in financial aid from prospective schools, but the price is still steep and her parents don't have the means to help, she writes. "I see my dream of becoming a doctor slip further and further away," she says.

Stutz says she was inspired by seeing others panhandle: "Countless times when they are told to get a job, they respond they make more standing there so why should they? So I'm going to try it." Stutz isn't the first to rely on the kindness of strangers to fund a college education. Back in 1987, Mike Hayes, an 18-year-old University of Illinois freshman, devised a plan to solicit 2.8 million one-cent donations to raise $28,000 for tuition for four years, reports NPR, which revisited the story in 2014. Hayes teamed up with popular Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene, who wrote about Hayes' plan. The publicity apparently did the trick. In a 1991 follow-up, Hayes told Greene he received 2.9 million pennies, adding: "This whole thing has been very goofy." (Here are the top cities for college grads.)
(Newser)  A sweeping plan by President Obama to protect immigrants from deportation might be in trouble. Arguments in the Supreme Court on Monday suggested justices were headed for a 4-4 split, reports the Los Angeles Times. If that proves true when the decision is announced in June, it's bad news for the administration because it means a lower-court ruling blocking the plan would remain in place, reports the Hill. Justice Anthony Kennedy sounded as if he thought that Obama overstepped his authority when he granted protection to about 4 million immigrants, mostly the parents of young US citizens. "That's a legislative, not an executive act," said Kennedy of the move. "It's as if the president is setting the policy and the Congress is executing it. That seems upside down."

Some coverage:



The AP isn't so sure about Chief Justice John Roberts' position. He "asked questions suggesting he could side with the administration if there were a small change in the proposed programs."

And in a preview before the arguments, the New York Times said conservatives were worried Roberts would avoid a big-picture decision and "disappoint them again in a challenge to another major Obama initiative."

The Washington Post looks at the part of the nation that will be affected perhaps more than any other: Los Angeles County.

The Huffington Post talks with "Jane Doe #2," a mother who is part of the case.

Read an explainer of the case, and Obama's initiative, at Vox.

(Read more US Supreme Court stories.)
(Newser)  Police are sorting through what they're calling conflicting stories regarding an incident at a family gathering in a Houston suburb Saturday, but a 40-something man appears to have accidentally shot a 15-year-old girl during a water gun fightexcept with an actual 9mm handgun, KTRK reports. Deputy constables say the man IDed as Jason Speights shot the teen in her shoulder, just an inch or so from her neck, and that she's in stable condition and expected to recover, per KPRC 2.

A neighbor says Speights apparently went back to his car to get some dry clothes after being sprinkled during the water gun free-for-all, retrieved the 9mm, and mistakenly fired it. "When he went to holster it he was spinning it on his finger, he pulled the trigger and accidentally shot her near the collarbone," a teen witness tells KTRK. A bullet also hit a car five houses down. "It was crazy, like you would never expect somebody to bring a gun to a barbecue, or a family gathering at all," another neighbor tells KPRC. Speights has been charged with deadly conduct. (Six people were killed at a family cookout in March.)
(Newser)  You're ready to turn over a new leaf and leave a life of crime behind, but there's one giant obstacle. Or, one pinkie-sized one: You're missing part of a finger. The Guardian spotlights a most unusual prosthetics market that's seemingly been supplied by one woman for two decades: Japanese gangsters looking to leave the yakuza, but marked by self-amputation. A Vice News article on the topic explains that yubitsume, or finger-shortening, is a centuries-old practice the yakuza adopted as a way for members to atone for breaching the honor code. Those who do will slice off the portion of their left pinkie above the top joint, and it's apparently common practice: A 1993 governmental survey found 45% of modern-day yakuza members have a severed finger joint. Enter Yukako Fukushima.

As an employee of prosthetics company Kawamura Gishi, Fukushima makes the digits, complete with fingerprints, from silicone and a blend of red, blue, yellow, and brown paint. Kyodo reports the 44-year-old can spin some 1,800 skin colors out of the hues, and that when worn, "it is hard to see where the artificial pinkie begins." And its presence helps the former yakuza members achieve things that otherwise might be out of reach, like a job or wife. But in order to produce one, Fukushima first needs proof said member is out, which Kyodo reports she gains in part by having an Osaka Prefectural Police officer interview the would-be buyer. The tips last up to a decade, reports the Guardian, which talks to Fukushima about why she's been at the job even longer. "I was about to look for another job when someone told me that I was the only person in Japan doing this kind of work." (Read more Yakuza stories.)
(Newser)  Police have uncovered one big clue but no answers in the search for a 31-year-old Virginia woman who was last heard from on Wednesday. Nicole Mittendorff's 2009 Mini Cooper was found Saturday night in what the Washington Post describes as a "remote area" of the Shenandoah National Park; it was left near the Whiteoak Canyon Trail, which is close to Old Rag, described by the National Park Service as Shenandoah's "most popular and most dangerous hike." Some of Mittendorff's family suggested it's possible she was headed to the area to do a trail run, something she reportedly regularly did. Fox 5 DC reports authorities have said that nothing yet indicates something "suspicious in nature" occurred.

WUSA9 describes Mittendorff as "extremely dedicated" to her job as a firefighter; her father says she didn't show up for a changeover on Friday morning, and she was reported missing that day. A "Find Nicole" website and Facebook page have been set up. The latter features a Saturday night post from Mittendorff's husband, Steven, who "continues to ask for your prayers for both our family and the many who continue to investigate." As for the search, another post on the page notes the Virginia State Police "do not need volunteers and they've asked to keep away anyone outside the official effort. That will keep any changes, traces or other items undisturbed and prevent distractions." (Read more missing woman stories.)
(Newser)  Stuart Taylor of the Brookings Institution covered the Clarence Thomas hearings as a reporter 25 years ago, and he makes the case in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the new HBO movie on the topic is a "Hollywood hit-job" on the Supreme Court justice, as the headline puts it. Confirmation makes a show of being evenhanded, but its presentation, particularly in what it leaves out, is telling, writes Taylor. Those behind the movie clearly want viewers to think Anita Hill "told the whole truth" in her allegations of sexual harassment, and that Thomas "was thus a desperate, if compelling, liar." Among Taylor's complaints: The movie doesn't mention that some of Hill's "most shocking charges" emerged only in her public testimony, not in an earlier written statement or in an FBI interview.

It also fails to mention that Hill denied five times under oath being told by a Democratic staffer "that she might be able to force Mr. Thomas to withdraw without being publicly identified." Later, after talking with her lawyers, she admitted being told this. There's more, including the dozen or so women who testified on Thomas' behalf and the seemingly friendly phone calls Hill placed to Thomas in the years after leaving her post. Taylor's take: "While it is hard to believe Anita Hill simply made the whole thing up, she was far from credibleand the behavior that she alleged was inconsistent with everything else we know about Clarence Thomas." Click for the full column. (Read more Clarence Thomas stories.)
(Newser)  The US will deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraqupping the number from 3,870 to 4,087and send Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against ISIS in Iraq, the first major increase in US forces in nearly a year. The uptick in US forcesand the decision to put them closer to the front linesis designed to help Iraqi forces retake the key northern city of Mosul, and help retake Raqqa, the extremist's group self-proclaimed capital in Syria, the AP reports. Last June the Obama administration announced hundreds of troops would be deployed to help the Iraqis retake Ramadia goal accomplished at the end of the year. Of the extra troops, most will be Army special forces, who've been used throughout the anti-ISIS campaign to advise and assist the Iraqis. The remainder will include some trainers, security forces for advisers, and maintenance teams for the Apaches.

The advise-and-assist teamsmade up of some dozen troops, each accompanied by security forceswill embed with Iraqi brigades and battalion, likely putting them closer to the front lines. The proximity to the battlefront will allow the US teams to provide more tactical combat advice as Iraqis move toward Mosul, still under ISIS control. Until now, US advisers have worked with the Iraqis at the headquarters level, well back from the front lines. A senior defense official told reporters that while Iraqi leaders have been reluctant to have a large number of US troops in Iraq, they also need certain capabilities that only more American or coalition forces can provide. Iraqi leaders back the addition of more US troops if their work is coordinated with Iraqis and directed toward retaking Mosul. Anonymous US officials have said that the number of special operations forces in Syria would be increased at some point, but Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaking to US troops in Baghdad, didn't mention that. (Read more Iraq stories.)
Yahoo announced updates to their Messenger application for Android and iOS platforms. The Android update intends on reaching more users in India with support for Hindi language. The iOS update however comes out with support for third-party keyboards.

Yahoo Messenger with the new update v1.1.0 for iOS and v2.1.0 for Android now supports non-English languages such as Hindi for android only in a first of a time along with support Chinese, French, German, Indonesian and Spanish languages also. The app also synchronizes along with matching users mobile contacts to easily search for their friends facilitating in accessing chats more easily. "Users just need to enable access to contacts in the Messenger app for the best experience," Yahoo said.

For Apple's iOs however, the Yahoo Messenger application now also supports third party keyboard applications starting on iOS 8 up to iOS 9.2 and later versions. Android users in latest update now can now can type "/gif" along with any search term to get a random gif images to send. The app had already permitted users to search for and send gif images. Gif image search in the app is actually now powered by Tumblr which Yahoo acquired in 2013. There is also an "un-send" feature which also works for all kinds of messages along text and media included. The updated app can be downloaded from Google Play and App Store.

Yahoo's last updates for iOs and Android platforms were seen in 2015 December along web platform letting users share any number photos within the app. Users apparently can also like images within the app itself. However the main feature primary were the ability to unsend a message. The company said it redesigned the app from the ground up across platforms, which introduces a cleaner, less cluttered look to the service.
New Delhi:

After violence erupted in parts of Gujarat following the massive rally by Patidar community in Mehsana, Patel protesters has called for a bandh all over Gujarat today. Considering the severity, the state government has deployed Rapid Action Force (RAF) in Ahmedabad, Mehsana and Surat and stepped up security in others places.

Both the Sardar Patel Group (SPG) as well as Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) have given a call for 'Gujarat Bandh' on Monday.

On Sunday also, a massive rally of the Patel community had turned violent in Mehsana, as the angry mob resorted to arson and stone pelting. Curfew was imposed and internet mobile services were also suspended. In the clashes, two buildings and some police vehicles were also set ablaze.

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Ahmedabad:

Patel quota agitation: The state-wide bandh call given by the Patel community in Gujarat over the quota issue had little impact today except in for some pockets dominated by the community members in different cities of the state. The curfew imposed yesterday in Mehasana town was lifted this morning, where as the bandh call given by Sardar Patel Group after yesterdays violence in Mehasana town largely remained incident free today, police said.

Police has made elaborate security arrangements in view of the bandh call but schools and colleges, public transport and trains have remained unaffected. Also, mobile and Internet services have been banned in top towns of the state like Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Mehasana. The restriction will continue till midnight today. (Also read. Patidars call for Gujarat bandh today after quota stir turns violent)

The bandh call given by the Patel agitators had little impact in major cities like Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot. Even in Mehsana, where community members had yesterday clashed with police by giving a call of Jail Bharo stir, the bandh call evoked partial response as only areas dominated by Patel population remained closed.

We lifted the curfew at 6 AM as the situation was under control. No reports of untoward incident have come so far during the bandh call. Mobile Internet services will remain closed in the city till midnight today, Mehsana District Collector Lochan Sehra told PTI. After violence at Modhera cross roads yesterday, Mehsana police lodged an FIR against Sardar Patel Group (SPG) President Lalji Patel and 36 others under various sections of IPC, including loot and rioting. (Also read. As Patidars, police clash in Gujarat, curfew, arrests, Internet services curbed)

We have lodged an FIR against Patel and 36 other agitators for rioting, loot, arson, damaging public property and defying orders of police. No arrests are made yet, said Police Sub Inspector of Mehsana B division police S B Jadeja. In Ahmedabad, life remained normal expect of some Patel dominated localities of eastern side of the city where shops have not opened till afternoon. School, colleges, public transport, shops and establishment remained open in the city.

In Surat also bandh had no impact as almost all the areas remained open, while in Rajkot, some Patel dominated areas remained closed but other parts of the city were unaffected by the bandh call. Curfew was yesterday clamped in Mehsana and mobile Internet services were banned as a massive rally of the Patel community demanding reservation and immediate release of their jailed leaders turned violent with two buildings being set ablaze and some police vehicles damaged. (Also read. Mehsana clashes: Internet services banned; Rajnath Singh speaks with Gujarat CM)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Mumbai:

A special court today issued a non-bailable warrant against liquor baron Vijay Mallya who was alleged of money-laundering in a 900-crore loan from IDBI to his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines. Kingfisher Airlines has allegedly defaulted on loans of over Rs 9,400 crore obtained from various banks and Mallya has left India for Britain where he is staying with his family.

The Union Government had suspended Vijay Mallyas diplomatic passport and even threatened to revoke it if he does not come to India and cooperate with the investigations. ED counsel Venegaonkar said three summons had been issued by the PMLA court against Mallya this year on March 10, March 18 and April 2 asking him to appear in the case. However, Vijay Mallya replied in e-mails to ED that he cannot appear because of his commitments in Europe and also because he was busy trying to arrange money to pay off his debts by a one-time arrangement.

In all these e-mails, Vijay Mallya sought time to appear and he was delaying the progress of investigations by not coming before ED, the agencys lawyer told the court while justifying issuance of a Non Bailable Warrant against him.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Mumbai:

Former Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, presently under judicial custody in an alleged money laundering case, was today admitted to ICU in South Mumbai after he complained of severe chest pain and high blood pressure.

He was brought in today with severe chest pain and a very high blood pressure of 180/120. Thus, we immediately shifted him to ICU. He is conscious but unstable. He will be shifted to JJ Hospital once his condition stabilises, Rohan Sequeira, Associate Professor and Head of Medicine at multi-speciality Saint George Hospital, told PTI.

Bhujbal was shifted to the government-run hospital reportedly from Arthur Road jail here where he has been lodged after his arrest last month under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The former PWD minister and his nephew and former MP Samir Bhujbal are in judicial custody till April 27.

The ED had filed two FIRs against Bhujbal, his son and nephew among others under the provisions of PMLA, based on Mumbai Police FIRs, to probe the Delhi-based Maharashtra Sadan construction scam and the Kalina land grabbing case.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi :

Pakistan Prime Ministers Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz today indicated that his country may consider a request by India for a visit by its NIA team to further probe the Pathankot terror strike, days after top Pakistani envoy ruled out the same.

Aziz said Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basits comments that the bilateral peace process was suspended did not mean cancelled or given up and hoped that the Indo-Pak dialogue will resume soon.

On whether Indias National National Investigation Agency (NIA) team will be allowed to visit Pakistan in connection with Pathankot attack probe, Aziz told CNN-NEWS18 in an interview that once the stage is reached...India makes a request and then we will see.

Claiming that Basits comments that cooperation not meaning reciprocity were over-interpreted, he said he did not exclude option of NIAs visit to Pakistan.

I dont think he used that word. He said that right now cooperation is more important than that of reciprocity and does not exclude option and he said that lets cooperate and then thing will work out. So, I dont think one should over interpret statement, he (Basit) just said that cooperation is more important which is true, Aziz said.

Earlier this month, Basit had indicated that an Indian probe team is unlikely to be allowed to visit Pakistan, which had sent its JIT to probe the terror attack at the air base, saying, ...the whole investigation is not about question of reciprocity in my view. It is more about extending cooperation or our two countries cooperating with each other to get to the bottom of the incident.

Aziz also downplayed Basits remarks on suspension of Indo-Pak peace process, saying ... suspending doesnt mean cancelled or given up. For the time being you called it suspended as obviously after January, four months have passed, and to that extent dialogue is suspended but I hope it will resume soon, he added.

He also alleged that the recent arrest of the former Indian naval officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, was not the case of one individual. It is network which is operating in Baloachistan. We have arrested some more people... We dont want consular access to affect our investigating in to this entire episode.

Jadhav was arrested last month by Pakistan authorities, who alleged that he was an Indian spy, an allegation rejected by India that has sought consular access to him.

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STAMFORD  Surrounded by fellow clergy and city officials at the kickoff of a year-long celebration of Stamfords 375th anniversary on Sunday, Rabbi Daniel Cohen said he regularly sees how religious faith is woven into the citys social fabric.

We affirm by coming together today, confident in our faith, that we are not threatened, but enlarged by the different faiths of others, said Cohen, rabbi at Congregation Agudath Shalom.

Across faiths, those who believe in the common good and serve on city boards, act charitably  and perhaps most importantly, speak out against injustice or intolerance  contribute to a cohesive community, Cohen said.

In the city of Stamford and beyond, we must continue to work together with all faith communities to harness our united voices against all forms of racism and stand resolute in the face of evil that threatens our world, Cohen said.

More than 200 city residents joined Mayor David Martin, clergy, and committee members on the steps of Old Town Hall on Atlantic Street for an interfaith ceremony to officially start off the anniversary celebrations and honor the role of religion and faith in Stamfords history.

Speeches were punctuated by the Union Baptist Church choir, which sang The Star Spangled Banner and (America) My Country Tis of Thee.

The kickoff is the first of many planned events this year including exhibits, reenactments and educational programs delving into the citys past.

During his remarks, the mayor retold the story of Capt. Nathaniel Turners purchase of Stamford from the Rippowam Indians  in exchange for coats, hatchets, hoes, knives, kettles and wampum  before contrasting the religious domination of Puritans with the pluralism and diversity of todays faith.

It is a bit of a paradox that the Puritans who came here to find religious freedom were really insistent on the need to adhere to their version of the faith, Martin said. In the years since, Stamford has evolved to embrace people of all faith backgrounds.

At the event, Ron Marcus, a librarian for the Stamford Historical Society, gave an account of how gradual social change and a population surge between 1860 and 1920 transformed Stamford as well as its religious customs.

The original settlement held sway for nearly two centuries because the city remained isolated until railroads arrived, he said.

This was a Puritan community; a theocracy really, Marcus said.

With the passage of a second constitution in 1818, Connecticut reaffirmed the separation of church and state, though it was the role of Irish immigrants fighting in the Civil War  most of whom were Roman Catholics  that spurred an openness to a different faith, Marcus said.

Acceptance was slow and not without its problems, but the situation changed dramatically with the Civil War, Marcus said. Catastrophic events have a unifying effect on communities which might not otherwise occur so quickly.

Massive population growth helped drive diversity and the founding of Union Baptist Church in 1888 and Congregation Agudath Shalom in 1889.

Our population has evolved over the centuries into one that is accepting of different faiths and beliefs, Marcus said.

The ceremony ended with a procession to Veterans Park, where the Rev. Todd Grant Yonkman, of First Congregational Church, placed a commemorative wreath on the site where the congregations earliest church was built.

We are made in the image and likeness of God and made up as people professing various religious faiths and traditions yet living together in one city, he said. Our faith march is in a real way a pilgrimage, just across the street but nonetheless a pilgrimage.

For more information on the anniversary celebration events. visit stamford375.org.

martin.cassidy@scni.com
OTTAWA, April 18, 2016 /CNW/ - The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, today announced a new partnership with stakeholders through the Social Partnership Initiative in Official Language Minority Communities (OLMC). As part of the Roadmap for Canada's Official Languages 20132018: Education, Immigration, Communities, and funded through the Social Development Partnerships Program (SDPP), the Federation des ainees et aines francophones du Canada (FAAFC) will receive $3.4 million to pool expertise and resources to fund innovative projects in OLMCs that address community priorities.

This initiative will create stronger partnerships at the national, regional and local level to help both French- and English-speaking minority communities create opportunities to keep youth in their communities, help meet the needs of seniors, and assist our most vulnerable populations.

The Government of Canada is committed to working collaboratively with partners and stakeholders to promote the well-being of people in communities across the country, particularly through economic and social security. Budget 2016 delivers on the Government's agenda to empower all Canadians to build better lives for themselves and to enable them to contribute to, and share in, the prosperity of the country.

Budget 2016 also makes the goal of a comfortable and dignified retirement more attainable for seniors and working Canadians, through measures such as restoring the age of eligibility for Old Age Security benefits from 67 to 65. This change will put up to $17,000 into the pockets of the lowest income Canadians each year, as they become seniors. In addition, Budget 2016 proposes to increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement top-up by $947 annually for the most vulnerable single seniors.

Quotes

"Our Government is working hard to ensure the economic and social security of our families and seniors. Through innovative new partnerships such as our work with the Federation des ainees et aines francophones du Canada, and key measures announced in Budget 2016, we will continue to focus our efforts on fostering a prosperous future for our country."

 The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

"This is a big day for francophone organizations working in social development. This funding from the federal government will allow francophone communities to undertake new initiatives that focus on innovation and community leadershipinitiatives that will allow francophones to enjoy new services and programs aimed at helping them reach their full social potential."

 Roland Gallant, President of La Federation des ainees et aines francophones du Canada

Associated Links

Budget 2016

Social Development Partnerships Program

Federation des ainees et aines francophones

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Backgrounder

Partnering with stakeholders in Official Language Minority Communities

The Government of Canada has launched an innovative new partnership with stakeholders through the Social Partnership Initiative (SPI) in Official Language Minority Communities (OLMC). As part of the Roadmap for Canada's Official Languages 20132018: Education, Immigration, Communities, and funded through the Social Development Partnerships Program (SDPP), $4 million will be delivered through intermediary organizations that have strong and broad engagement with OLMCs.

Through extensive partnerships, these organizations will pool expertise, government and other funding for redistribution to innovative projects in OLMCs that address community priorities for youth in transition (creating opportunities to retain youth in their communities), changing demographics (seniors' needs), and vulnerable populations.

These organizations will further assist in partnership development at the local level to help sustain project activities and share learnings in both French- and English-speaking minority communities across Canada.

Social Development Partnerships Program

The Social Development Partnerships Program (SDPP) is a grant and contribution program that supports the social infrastructure of Canadian society through investment in not-for-profit organizations to help improve life outcomes for people with disabilities, children and families, and other vulnerable populations.

The SDPP has two core components: the children and families component and the disabilities component. The program also provides the funding authority to support the Prime Minister's Volunteer Awards, which recognizes the enormous contribution volunteers make to Canada.

SDPP objectives are to:

support the development and use of effective approaches to address social issues and challenges;

develop, exchange and apply knowledge, tools and resources that address social needs of individuals, families and communities;

foster partnerships and networks to address existing and emerging social issues;

recognize and support the ability of not-for-profit organizations to identify and address social development priorities; and

recognize and promote community engagement initiatives (e.g. volunteerism, corporate social responsibility, innovation by not-for-profit organizations, partnerships and coalitions) that mobilize community assets and develop capacities and resources for action.

Economic and social security for seniors

Budget 2016 makes the goal of a comfortable and dignified retirement more attainable for seniors and working Canadians through various measures, such as restoring the age of eligibility for the Old Age Security (OAS) pension and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) from 67 to 65. This change will put up to $17,000 into the pockets of the lowest income Canadians each year, as they become seniors.

Restoring the age of eligibility for the OAS pension and the GIS from 67 to 65 is only one of the many enhancements announced that will help improve the quality of life for seniors.

Additional measures include:

increasing the GIS top-up by $947 annually for the most vulnerable single seniors;

annually for the most vulnerable single seniors; providing higher benefits to senior couples receiving GIS and Allowance benefits and who are living apart for reasons beyond their control;

enhancing the Canada Pension Plan based on consultations with provinces, territories and Canadians, with the goal of being able to make a collective decision before the end of 2016;

looking at how a new Seniors Price Index that reflects the cost of living faced by seniors could be developed; and,

providing for the construction, repair, and adaption of affordable housing to help the many seniors who face challenges in accessing affordable housing.

New Horizons for Seniors Program

The New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP) is a federal grants and contributions program that supports projects led or inspired by seniors who make a difference in the lives of others and their communities. Through the NHSP, the Government of Canada encourages seniors to share their knowledge, skills and experiences to the benefit of others.

The objectives of the NHSP are:

promoting volunteerism among seniors;

engaging seniors in the community through mentoring of others;

expanding awareness of elder abuse, including financial abuse;

supporting social participation and inclusion of seniors; and

providing capital assistance for new and existing community projects and/or programs for seniors.



NHSP funding supports community-based projects and pan-Canadian projects.

Community-based projects

Community-based project funding supports activities that engage seniors and address one or more of the program's five objectives: volunteering, mentoring, expanding awareness of elder abuse, social participation and capital assistance. These projects are eligible to receive up to $25,000 per year per organization in grant funding.

Close to 1,850 projects across Canada were approved through the NHSP 20152016 Call for Proposals for Community-Based Projects and are now in progress.

The NHSP 20152016 Call for Proposals for Community-Based Projects closed on July 10, 2015. It invited organizations to apply for funding of up to $25,000 for projects that help empower seniors to share their knowledge, skills and experiences with others and support communities by increasing their capacity to address local issues.

It is anticipated that the NHSP 20162017 Call for Proposals for Community-Based Projects will be launched in spring 2016. For more information on the NHSP, visit Canada.ca/Seniors.

Pan-Canadian projects

Pan-Canadian projects test and share best practices across the country and replicate interventions that have worked well in addressing seniors' issues.

Projects that have received funding through the NHSP 20152016 Call for Proposals for Pan-Canadian Projects submitted an impact plan describing the roles they and their project partners would play in addressing the important issue of social isolation among seniors by using collaborative approaches that place an emphasis on measurable results.

Successful projects are up to three years in duration and are receiving funding between $150,000 and $750,000.

More than $24.3 million (more than $8.1 million per year over the next three years) will be made available for pan-Canadian projects funded through the 20152016 NHSP Call for Proposals.

For more information on the NHSP, visit Canada.ca/Seniors.

SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

For further information: Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559, [email protected]
NEW ORLEANS, April 17, 2016 /CNW/ - The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) today announced plans to launch the International Cancer Genome Consortium for Medicine (ICGCmed), a new phase in the Consortium's evolution that will link genomics to clinical information and health.

The collaborative project will build upon the vast database of genomic discoveries of the ICGC, which, since its launch in 2007, has been mapping 25,000 different cancer genomes in 50 different tumour types and making this data freely available to qualified researchers around the world.

By linking the ICGC data with clinical information, ICGCmed aims to accelerate the movement of this information into the clinic to guide prevention, early detection, diagnosis and prognosis, and provide the information needed to match patients' disease to the most effective combinations of therapy. ICGCmed research will apply to a broad spectrum of cancers, from early cancers through to metastases.

"ICGC was a major advance in cataloging a large number of gene alterations from different types of cancers," said Dr. Fabien Calvo, Chief Scientific Officer, Cancer Core Europe and the lead author of the ICGCmed white paper. "By collecting clinical information from large cohorts of patients that were classified as having the same types of cancer coupled with extensive genomic information, ICGCmed will allow us to determine genetic elements of the efficacy of treatment, and root out the causes of resistance to therapy. Ultimately, this will allow patients to receive the right treatment and for their treatment to be adapted effectively."

"Collaboration between institutions across the world and open sharing of data with qualified researchers have been two pillars of ICGC's success to date," said Dr. Tom Hudson, President and Scientific Director of The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and one of the founders of the ICGC. "I am proud to say that ICGCmed will continue the ICGC's legacy, tapping into the ICGC's vast catalogue of cancer data and applying it to the clinical setting where it can impact patients."

"Precision oncology has opened a new avenue for treating cancer patients based on DNA sequence data of the respective cancer genome," said Dr. Peter Lichter, Head of the Division of Molecular Genetics at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). "Alterations of the genomic information in tumour cells offer novel treatment options. However, in the day-to-day clinical situation, it would be highly beneficial to know which alterations have already been successfully attacked by which drug and in which tissue context. ICGCmed will align this information worldwide and thereby greatly contribute to a fast translation of genomic information into clinical treatment options."

"During the past decade we have witnessed how the genomic information could shift the cancer treatment paradigm and improve the outcomes with changes of the natural history of many cancer types," said Dr. Keunchil Park, Director of the Innovative Cancer Medicine Institute, Samsung Medical Center. "Korean oncologic society is very excited to be joining ICGCmed. We are very proud to be part of ICGCmed, which will make an even greater impact on the clinical application of genomic information and bring precision oncology closer to the bedside to match the right patient with the right drug at the right time."

"I look forward to the bold and ambitious aims of ICGCmed building on the achievements of ICGC and delivering knowledge over the next decade that will be ever more relevant to the clinical management and outlook of individual patients," said Sir Michael Stratton, Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Chief Executive Officer of the Wellcome Genome Campus.

"The Ontario government has been proud to support the ICGC in its goal to better understand the genetic origins of cancer," said Reza Moridi, Ontario's Minister of Research and Innovation. "Our government recognizes the importance of supporting world-class studies and research talent at Ontario's leading-edge institutions, and we are extremely excited about this next major step forward with the launch of ICGCmed and its potential impact on lives of Ontarians."

Researchers working with ICGCmed must also agree to share data while also protecting the privacy of study participants.

The original ICGC is slated for completion in 2018.

For more information and updates about ICGCmed activities, please visit the website at: www.icgcmed.org.

SOURCE Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

For further information: ICGCmed, Christopher Needles, Manager, Strategic Communications, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Tel: 416-319-5252, Email: [email protected]
[April 17, 2016] TreeBox Solutions Announces the Creation of a Corporate Advisory Board

SINGAPORE, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- TreeBox Solutions, a leading secure mobile communications solution provider in Asia Pacific, is honoured to welcome four distinguished business visionaries to join the TreeBox's Corporate Advisory Board. The advisors are Sachio Semmoto, Koh Boon Hwee, Inderjit Singh and Pierre Noel. The advisors will provide their insights and recommendations on realising opportunities and navigating complexities and challenges in global business. They will also be a sounding board for the Management Team. With their expertise and extensive experience, they will guide TreeBox to grow into a global leading secure mobile communications solution provider. "As a leading player in the secure mobile communications space, expanding rapidly in Asia and Rest of the World, we face new challenges and increasing complex business environments," said Chong Chee Wah, founder and Chief Executive Officer of TreeBox Solutions. "The formation of the TreeBox Corporate Advisory Board alows us to tap on very experienced advisors who can guide us, mentor us in different aspects of a global business. I am proud and deeply honoured at the same time, to have such a distinguished panel of Corporate Advisors who are willing to guide us in this exciting phase of our company's growth. I look forward to in-depth engagements with the Corporate Advisory Board."



The Corporate Advisory Board members are: Sachio Semmoto, Ph.D. , Chairman of Renova, Inc., Professor of Entrepreneurial Management at BBT University and former founder of DDI Corp. (now KDDI Corporation) .

, Chairman of Renova, Inc., Professor of Entrepreneurial Management at BBT University and former founder of DDI Koh Boon Hwee , Managing Partner of Credence Partners, Chairman of AAC Technologies and former Chairman of Singapore Telecom Group (SingTel).

, Managing Partner of Credence Partners, Chairman of AAC Technologies and former Chairman of Singapore Telecom Group (SingTel). Inderjit Singh , CEO of Solstar International, Co-President of the World Entrepreneurship Forum and former Member of Parliament in Singapore .

, CEO of Solstar International, Co-President of the World Entrepreneurship Forum and former Member of Parliament in . Pierre Noel , Chief Security Officer and Advisor for Microsoft in Asia , Board Advisor to Airbus Group and former Worldwide Executive of IBM. About TreeBox Solutions:

TreeBox Solutions (http://treeboxsolutions.com/), named one of APAC CIO Outlook's 25 Most Promising Cloud Solution Providers in 2016 and Red Herring Top 100 Global Companies in 2015, is a leading secure mobile communications solution provider dedicated to helping our customers secure sensitive communications on mobile devices. Founded by a team of experienced Information Security specialists, our unique user-centric security design principles deliver the right balance between security and usability. Media Enquires: Kristen Lim

Tel: +65-6570-3725

Email: [email protected]

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[April 18, 2016] Messe Frankfurt and NurnbergMesse Join Forces With Leading Indian Organisations

MUMBAI, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- 'ISH India Powered by IPA' to be Launched in India by 2017 Two of the world's most renowned exhibition organisers, Messe Frankfurt and NurnbergMesse have joined forces with leading Indian organisations such as Indian Plumbing Association (IPA), Indian Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers (ISHRAE) and Fire & Security Association of India (FSAI). From 2017 onwards 'ISH India powered by IPA' will be a part of the new established 'Build Fair Alliance' in India, alongside with existing leading fairs, organized by NurnbergMesse India, targeting building technologies such as ACREX India (23 to 25 February 2017), FENSTERBAU FRONTALE INDIA (FFI) and - 2017 for the first time - FIRE & SECURITY INDIA EXPO (FSIE). "ISH India powered by IPA is another important step in our internationalization strategy and will strengthen our presence in one of the world's most important growth regions. With our ISH brand, we have been active in Asia for many years now. This proves for example, the 20 years consist of ISH China & CIHE or even the somewhat younger success story of ISH Shanghai & CIHE. The biennial ISH event in Frankfurt, Germany, will be held from 14 till 18 March 2017, with around 2.400 exhibitors and almost 200.000 visitors it is the world's leading trade fair in its sector", says Wolfgang Marzin, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Messe Frankfurt. Messe Frankfurt's portfolio in India already includes leading brands in the lighting, energy conservation and automation sectors such as Light India, LED Expo, Watertech India, Wastetech India, Cleantech India, SPS Automation India, Control India & Motek India. Early this year, the company announced its plans of launching the Electrical Building Technology India targeting the home automation and building technology sector as well as the acquisition of the International Elevator and Escalator Expo, thus expanding the presence of its technology platforms within pivotal segments of city planning. NurnbergMesse stands among one of the largest trade fair companies in the world covering around 120 national and international trade fairs and congresses at the Nuremberg location and worldwide. Its portfolio of fairs in India includes leading and very niche show with leading Indian Industry Associations. ACREX India, FFI and FSIE in the sector of construction and allied industries. BIOFACH INDIA covering organic food, textiles and wellness, ALUCAST covering the sector of aluminium pressure die casting. PAINTINDIA and HPCI/CCC India in sectors like coatings and speciality care chemicals, Powder & Bulk Solids India covering bulk material handling, powder process and automation. Dr. Roland Fleck and Peter Ottmann, CEOs of NurnbergMesse Group, are convinced: "This 'Build Fair Alliance' is a unique and future-oriented model for specialists by specialists." While the strategic partnership with IPA, ISHRAEand FSAI will attract their members to showcase expertise in their respective fields, the organisers Messe Frankfurt and NurnbergMesse will combine their strengthens, expertise and global network to create an international standard business platform.



Underlining the benefits that the partnership would bring to their respective sectors, Sachin Maheshwari, President, ISHRAE said, "ISHRAE is happy to announce the 'Build Fair Alliance' initiative of NurnbergMesse India and work with global exhibition leaders, NurnbergMesse and Messe Frankfurt, and believe that the jointly collocated exhibitions will play a decisive role in the implementation of intelligent building technologies, which is the need of the hour for designing India's smart cities" and Mr Sudhakaran Nair, President, Indian Plumbing Association explained, "ACREX India and FFI are well-established industry events in their respective industries and FSIE adds further value. With this strategic alliance we hope to bring attention to the significant role of water management and sanitation technologies in city planning, which are directly related to the health and safety of citizens." Ashish Rakheja, Chairman, ACREX India 2017 comments, "Build Fair Alliance will merge the strengths and networks of experts and provide integrated building solutions under one roof. ISHRAE celebrating the 27th year of ACREX India in 2017, always envisioned this alliance to give one stop solutions for the architects, specifiers and consultants". Pankaj Dharkar, President FSAI quotes, "FSAI aims to work closely with the government and all other stakeholders to enable the Indian fire and security industry to reach global pre-eminence with better regulatory framework. This 'Build Fair Alliance' will only strengthen our aims and have positive impact on development of the construction industry."

India's smart cities project, proposed to be equipped with infrastructure that offer a good quality of life through smart solutions, have attracted funding of INR 480 billion (US$7.1 billion) while the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), has acquired a total funding of INR 500 billion (US$7.4 billion) by the cabinet. Given the huge costs and challenges involved in developing 100 smart cities, it is essential that architects and urban planners work closely together with the building technology sector. The partners believe 'ISH India powered by IPA' targeting architects, interior designers, urban development planners, decision makers from real estate, housing and construction industries, government and local authority officials, investors and local authorities, plumbing consultants & contractors will create a technology roadmap suited for urban renewal and town planning. Making its debut in 2017, 'ISH India powered by IPA' will place strong emphasis on integrated room automation, advanced kitchen and bathroom solutions, water metering and plumbing installation technologies. While ACREX India will return with its focus on HVAC&R and building engineering services, FENSTERBAU FRONTALE INDIA will showcase the latest developments from the world of doors, windows and facades and FIRE & SECURITY INDIA EXPO, on the other hand, will cover solutions in building fire protection and safety technologies. Together with NurnbergMesse India 'Build Fair Alliance' envisions to meet the Indian government's development vision for smart cities by enabling collaborations and knowledge sharing with building technology players. For more details about the 'Build Fair Alliance', please visit: http://www.nuernbergmesse-india.in For more details about the global ISH brand, please visit: http://www.ish.messefrankfurt.com About Messe Frankfurt Messe Frankfurt is one of the world's leading trade fair organisers, generating around 645* million in sales and employing 2,297* people. The Messe Frankfurt Group has a global network of 29 subsidiaries and 57 international sales partners, allowing it to serve its customers on location in more than 160 countries. Messe Frankfurt events take place at more than 40 locations around the globe. In 2015, Messe Frankfurt organised 132* trade fairs, of which more than half took place outside Germany. Comprising an area of 592,127 square metres, Messe Frankfurt's exhibition grounds are home to ten exhibition halls. The company also operates two congress centres. The historic Festhalle, one of the most popular venues in Germany, plays host to events of all kinds. Messe Frankfurt is publicly owned, with the City of Frankfurt holding 60 percent and the State of Hesse 40 percent. For more information, please visit our website at: http://www.messefrankfurt.com *Preliminary figures for 2015 About the NurnbergMesse Group NurnbergMesse is one of the 15 largest exhibition companies in the world. The portfolio covers some 120 national and international exhibitions and congresses and approx. 40 sponsored pavilions at the Nuremberg location and worldwide. Every year, around 30,000 exhibitors (international share: 41%) and up to 1.4 million visitors (international share of trade visitors: 24%) participate in the own, partner and guest events of the NurnbergMesse Group, which is present with subsidiaries in China, North America, Brazil, Italy and India. The group also has a network of about 50 representatives operating in over 100 countries. Media Contact:

Ruhi Shaikh

[email protected]

+91 88283 96822

PR Manager

Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt.Ltd.



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[April 18, 2016] America's Banks Made Over $11 Billion from Overdraft and NSF fees in 2015, Notes Blog on Banks.org

SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Banks.org, a website that helps consumers to compare savings and money market accounts that are offered by other banks, has just posted a new blog to the site that discusses how America's largest banks made over $11 billion from overdraft and NSF fees in 2015. As the new blog on Banks.org noted, these bankswhich include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroupare required to file quarterly financial statements with government regulators. The reports are then made available to the public through the Federal Financial Institution's Examination Council. "For the first time, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau has made it easy to understand by providing a detailed analysis of 2015 data," the blog said. Prior to 2015, banks could hide the information about their overdraft and NSF fees in a broader statement of fees called "service charges on depoit account" revenue. Since this figure combined monies that were both consumer and commercial, what was happening to individual consumers was hidden within the larger commercial figures.



In 2013, the FFIEC required banks to provide more detailed information regarding consumer deposits, the blog noted, and by 2015, fees could no longer be totaled together, and the overdraft and NSF fees had to be separated out from other fees or charges. "Six hundred and twenty-eight reporting banks reported $11.16 billion of these fees last year," the blog said.

"Half of the banks received 5.3 percent or more of their net income from consumer overdraft and NSF fees. Ten percent of the banks received almost 20 percent of their income from overdraft and NSF fees." Until the CPFB decides what to do about this situation, the blog noted that a consumer's best protection is being educated and knowing how to work within a bank's rules, regulations, and fees. About Banks.org: Banks.org provides consumers with tools to better navigate the maze of modern-day personal finance. Consumers unhappy with their current bank's fees can visit Banks.org to compare savings and money market accounts offered by other banks. For more information, please visit http://www.banks.org/ Banks.org

1388 Haight St. #84

San Francisco, CA 94117 Contact: Paul Satchell

[email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/americas-banks-made-over-11-billion-from-overdraft-and-nsf-fees-in-2015-notes-blog-on-banksorg-300252563.html SOURCE Banks.org

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[April 18, 2016] Yingli Awarded "TUV Rheinland Star for 2015 PV Module Energy Yield"

BAODING, China, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE:YGE) ("Yingli Solar" or "Yingli"), one of the world's leading solar panel manufacturers, today announced that it was awarded "TUV Rheinland Star for 2015 PV Module Energy Yield" and its PV module was entitled "Five-star PV Module" at the TUV Rheinland Solar Congress 2016. TUV Rheinland conducted a one-year outside energy yield test for module samples from 15 leading PV module manufacturers around the world by simulating the operation of PV modules in solar power plants. The test showed that Yingli's PV modules scored high in accumulated energy yield per watt peak during the testing period. Therefore, Yingli was awarded "TUV Rheinland Star for 2015 PV Module Energy Yield" and its PV module was entitled "Five-star PV Module" by TUV Rheinland, which independently demonstrates the outstanding performance of Yingli PV modules in terms of energy yield. Noted for rigorous and reliable testing certification, TUV Rheinland, a leading provider of technical services worldwide with a history of over 140 years, was the first to start laboratory-scale technical testing of solar components decades ago and houses the largest worldwide PV testing network. "These honors awarded by TUV Rheinland highlight the outstanding energy yield performance of our PV modules under real outside operating conditions and our test result provides a benchmark for PV module energy yield in the industry. Meanwhile, our high, independently proven, PV odule energy yield also delivers higher yield forecast confidence for larger solar power plants, increasing investment returns and supporting Yingli to achieve our mission 'to provide affordable green energy for all'," said Dr. Dengyuan Song, CTO of Yingli, "Yingli will continue to dedicate itself to developing high performance differentiated products, strengthening innovation and product quality, and making leading contributions to the PV industry."



About Yingli Solar Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE: YGE), known as "Yingli Solar" or "Yingli", is one of the world's leading solar panel manufacturers. Yingli's manufacturing covers the photovoltaic value chain from ingot casting and wafering through solar cell production and solar panel assembly. Headquartered in Baoding, China, Yingli has more than 30 regional subsidiaries and branch offices and has distributed more than 14 GW solar panels to customers worldwide. For more information, please visit www.yinglisolar.com and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Weibo.

Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "target" and similar statements. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond Yingli's control. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any such statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in Yingli's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Yingli does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. For further information, please contact: Jean Tian

Investor Relations Director

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited

Tel: +86 312 8929787

Email: [email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yingli-awarded-tuv-rheinland-star-for-2015-pv-module-energy-yield-300252777.html SOURCE Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited

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[April 18, 2016] HomeLight Raises $11M in Series A Funding to Expand Marketplace for Finding Real Estate Professionals

SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- HomeLight (http://www.homelight.com), the world's premier marketplace for finding real estate professionals, today announced it has raised $11MM in Series A funding. The new capital, led by Zeev Ventures, and joined by Dovi Frances of SGVC, will give HomeLight the ability to enhance its data-driven product offering as the smartest new way to find a real estate agent. It brings the company's total funding since inception to $15 million. The Series A financing builds on an exceptional year for HomeLight, which has seen a rapid shift in how consumers think about real estate. The company has grown over 400% year over year* while appointing key executives, including Chief Analytics Officer Tom Tang (former VP of Analytics at TrueCar) and COO Sumant Sridharan (former President of CafePress). "This past year served as further validation of our core thesis -- that we have developed a smarter way to find a real estate agent," said Drew Uher CEO and Founder of HomeLight. "Home transactions are the biggest financial decisions of most people's lives, and our mission is to help those individuals find a trusted strategic advisor who can help guide them through the process. Our data-driven approach has already helped hundreds of individuals sell their home faster and for more money." Americans transact $1 trillion of residential real estate each year, yet only 10% of buyers find an agent online. HomeLight helps consumers find the agent best suited to their needs, by analyzing millions of residential home transactions across over two million agents and 200,000 brokerages natinally. Utilizing advanced data algorithms and machine learning techniques, the company evaluates dozens of variables to match home seller and buyers with the agent that best suits their needs. These variables include local neighborhood home sales, expertise in price range, time to sell, likelihood to close, and responsiveness.



"Consumers are already using data to make decisions about their health and many other daily activities, yet when it comes to buying or selling a home, one of the largest transactions of their lives, they are completely blind. They use antiquated methods of finding an agent like referrals from unqualified individuals," said Oren Zeev of Zeev Ventures, who also was appointed to HomeLight's board of directors. "HomeLight has created a new way for consumers to put the home transaction into the hands of the person that is most certified to support their needs, and this is an incredible innovation. I anticipate that within two to three years, people will use data to buy or sell their home - turning one of the most stressful times of their lives into one of the easiest, with new layers of trust and transparency." "The addition of Sumant and Tom will provide HomeLight the strategic guidance it needs to broaden and accelerate product development, while expanding efforts to reach homebuyers and sellers in markets across the country," said Uher. "We're also thrilled that Oren Zeev has joined our board of directors. He has made great contributions to previous early investments such as Houzz, and we believe he will be incredibly valuable to HomeLight as we scale into the future."



In addition to Zeev Ventures and SGVC, other participants in the round include Bullpen Capital, Montage Ventures, Krillion Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Oren Dobronsky, and Yariv Davidovich. * HomeLight end Q1 About HomeLight HomeLight is the new, smarter way to find a real estate agent online. Its proprietary algorithm analyzes millions of transactions and reviews to determine which agents are best for you based on their actual past performance. These unbiased agent recommendations have helped thousands of buyers and sellers achieve quantifiably better outcomes from their home transactions. HomeLight was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco. It currently operates in 38 major U.S. markets and is a privately held company, financially backed by Google Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Bullpen Capital, Montage Ventures, Krillion Ventures, 500 Startups, and others. To learn more visit http://www.homelight.com. About Zeev Ventures Zeev Ventures is the investment arm of Oren Zeev, who has been the main early backer of market leaders such as Audible, Houzz, Chegg, Tipalti and Younow. Media contact:

Danielle Simmons

415-812-5128 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/homelight-raises-11m-in-series-a-funding-to-expand-marketplace-for-finding-real-estate-professionals-300252836.html SOURCE HomeLight

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[April 18, 2016] Mahindra Launches the all new e2o ElectriCity Car in the UK

LONDON, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- - Two Versions of the e2o Available: e2o City and e2o TechX - Features Include Rapid Charging, Telematics, Smartphone app, Touchscreen Infotainment Centre and Revive Remote Emergency Recharging - Car now Available for Purchase at http://www.mahindrauk.com for Deliveries Starting May 2016 Mahindra, a global automotive and technology company headquartered in India, made its eagerly-anticipated entry into the UK automotive market with the launch of the innovative e2o electric city car. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/799562-a )

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/799562-b )

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130118/588985 )

Designed specifically for easy urban commuting, and featuring a host of connected technologies, the Mahindra e2o will be available in two trim levels. The entry-level e2o City is priced competitively. The higher-spec TechX version includes a touchscreen infotainment centre with reversing camera, telematics, revive remote emergency recharging, leather seats, alloy wheels and a rapid charging port. In addition to its competitive purchase price, e2o owners that drive the UK average of 7,900 miles per year, and who charge at home at night on an Economy 7 tariff, will pay under 10 per month1 on fuel, while also eliminating the release of airborne pollutants within their city environment. Speaking about the e2o's arrival on British roads, Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group said, "I am very proud to announce that the e2o is now available in the UK and this marks a true milestone for the Mahindra Group. Sustainability is at the heart of Mahindra's business practices and with the introduction of the e2o to the UK market, we are offering a product that perfectly encapsulates our corporate philosophy." Pravin Shah, President & Chief Executive of Mahindra'sAutomotive operations believes that the e2o is the right car at the right time for the UK market and according to him, "There has never been a better time for people to make the change to electric, and with the e2o there has never been an easier or more affordable way to make this transition. The e2o is an innovative combination of advancements in automotive, electronics and information technology paired with minimal running costs and zero tailpipe emissions. This makes it the ideal urban runabout or second car for the two-and-a-half-million UK households that can charge the car at home in a driveway or garage."



At the launch of the e2o, Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP said, "I want to congratulate Mahindra on the launch of their new electric car today. Supporting ultra-low emission vehicles has been a priority at City Hall as they can boost air quality, help tackle climate change and reduce fuel costs and I look forward to seeing e2os on London's streets." At the core of the e2o is a collection of connected features that were developed to make the car both easier and more enjoyable to drive and maintain:

e2o Remote smartphone app - allows users to remotely control key functions of their e2o, including the ability to pre-heat/cool the car, start and stop charging, route plan and search for nearby charging stations. Remote Charging Scheduler - a clever app that allows users to schedule charging of their e2o at a time when electricity costs are at their cheapest rate. Revive - remote emergency charging feature to grant the driver up to 8 miles worth of range if the battery is depleted. Telematics - on-board sensors send a data 'heartbeat' to Mahindra enabling remote health monitoring and customer alerts. Blaupunkt touchscreen infotainment centre (TechX model only) - Satellite navigation with 'range remaining' maps featuring charge point locations. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi hotspot connection, USB, SD card, DAB radio and a built-in reversing camera. The e2o's tall-boy design offers superior visibility for a compact city car and comfortably seats four adults. It is equipped with dual SRS airbags, Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and a Regenerative Braking System (RBS) that harnesses energy during braking to extend the car's range while travelling. The Mahindra UK website http://www.mahindrauk.com is now live and ready to take orders, with first deliveries to UK owners commencing in May this year. 1] For owners that drive the UK average of 7,900 miles per year (Source RAC Mobility Study 2014) and who charge at home at night on an Economy 7 tariff. About Mahindra: The Mahindra Group focuses on enabling people to rise through solutions that power mobility, drive rural prosperity, enhance urban lifestyles and increase business efficiency. A USD 16.9 billion multinational group based in Mumbai, India, Mahindra provides employment opportunities to over 200,000 people in over 100 countries. Mahindra operates in the key industries that drive economic growth, enjoying a leadership position in tractors, utility vehicles, information technology , financial services and vacation ownership. In addition, Mahindra enjoys a strong presence in the agribusiness, aerospace, components, consulting services, defence, energy, industrial equipment, logistics, real estate, retail, steel, commercial vehicles and two wheeler industries. Visit us at http://www.mahindra.com For further enquiries please contact: Mohan Nair

[email protected]

SOURCE Mahindra Group

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[April 18, 2016] Moet Hennessy and Solar Impulse Continue to Celebrate Sustainability in 2016

PARIS, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Moet Hennessy, Official Partner, reaffirms its support for Solar Impulse and its pursuit of the first round-the-world flight powered only by solar energy. "Celebrating Sustainability" Its support of Solar Impulse as an Official Partner shows Moet Hennessy's taste for pushing the envelope and the role of excellence and innovation as two key drivers of progress worldwide. To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7813551-moet-hennessy-solar-impulse/ Growth in the Moet Hennessy group and its 22 prestigious brands has been powered by their pioneering spirit and the conquest of new territories. Today, Moet Hennessy exports 95% of its production and is the world's leading producer and exporter of luxury wines and spirits. Supporting Solar Impulse also means celebrating a leap towards a better world. Moet Hennessy wants to raise awareness of the vast potential of clean technologies. Moet Hennessy, which derives all its products from the earth, has proactive environmental policy.



Moet Hennessy Chairman and CEO Christophe Navarre explains: "We immediately felt a very strong connection with Solar Impulse. We love challenges, we have a spirit of conquest, and the success of our brands has always been inspired by noble human adventures. We know how to take risks, to make the impossible possible. We are proud to share this message and to raise awareness of the promises of renewable energy throughout the aircraft's voyage." Host Partner of the Mission Control Center

As well as being Solar Impulse's Official Partner, Moet Hennessy is also the Host Partner of the Mission Control Center in Monaco from which engineers, scientists and meteorologists oversee the project. This crucial center was inaugurated by Sovereign Prince Albert II of Monaco, whose Foundation is also a partner. Giving the challenge an emotional flavor Moet Hennessy will be with the Solar Impulse team every step of the way to celebrate every challenge and every success. We greet the commanding pilot, Andre Borschberg or Bertrand Piccard, with a golden jeroboam of Moet & Chandon at each touch down. We toast their incredible courage and achievements. The Moet Hennessy Lounges will be lively spaces for friends and supporters of Solar Impulse who come to follow the project up close. Inspired by the excellence of Moet Hennessy brands' products, these spaces will be ambassadors for our art de vivre. http://solarimpulse.moethennessy.com Twitter: @MoetHennessy https://twitter.com/MoetHennessy Instagram: @moethennessy https://www.instagram.com/moethennessy/ (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160415/355917 ) Video:

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7813551-moet-hennessy-solar-impulse/

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[April 18, 2016] Moet Hennessy and Solar Impulse Continue to Celebrate Sustainability in 2016

PARIS, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Moet Hennessy, Official Partner, reaffirms its support for Solar Impulse and its pursuit of the first round-the-world flight powered only by solar energy. "Celebrating Sustainability" Its support of Solar Impulse as an Official Partner shows Moet Hennessy's taste for pushing the envelope and the role of excellence and innovation as two key drivers of progress worldwide. To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7813551-moet-hennessy-solar-impulse/ Growth in the Moet Hennessy group and its 22 prestigious brands has been powered by their pioneering spirit and the conquest of new territories. Today, Moet Hennessy exports 95% of its production and is the world's leading producer and exporter of luxury wines and spirits. Supporting Solar Impulse also means celebrating a leap towards a better world. Moet Hennessy wants to raise awareness of the vast potential of clean technologies. Moet Hennessy, which derives all its products from the earth, has a proacive environmental policy.



Moet Hennessy Chairman and CEO Christophe Navarre explains: "We immediately felt a very strong connection with Solar Impulse. We love challenges, we have a spirit of conquest, and the success of our brands has always been inspired by noble human adventures. We know how to take risks, to make the impossible possible. We are proud to share this message and to raise awareness of the promises of renewable energy throughout the aircraft's voyage." Host Partner of the Mission Control Center

As well as being Solar Impulse's Official Partner, Moet Hennessy is also the Host Partner of the Mission Control Center in Monaco from which engineers, scientists and meteorologists oversee the project. This crucial center was inaugurated by Sovereign Prince Albert II of Monaco, whose Foundation is also a partner. Giving the challenge an emotional flavor Moet Hennessy will be with the Solar Impulse team every step of the way to celebrate every challenge and every success. We greet the commanding pilot, Andre Borschberg or Bertrand Piccard, with a golden jeroboam of Moet & Chandon at each touch down. We toast their incredible courage and achievements. The Moet Hennessy Lounges will be lively spaces for friends and supporters of Solar Impulse who come to follow the project up close. Inspired by the excellence of Moet Hennessy brands' products, these spaces will be ambassadors for our art de vivre. http://solarimpulse.moethennessy.com Twitter: @MoetHennessy https://twitter.com/MoetHennessy Instagram: @moethennessy https://www.instagram.com/moethennessy/ (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160415/355917 ) Video:

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7813551-moet-hennessy-solar-impulse/ SOURCE Moet Hennessy

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[April 18, 2016] 2016 Mexico B2B Email Database of 223,996 Emails -- Research and Markets

DUBLIN, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "2016 Mexico Email Database " directory to their offering. 2016 Mexico B2B Email Database has the largest privately held B2B database (over 1.5 Million records) on Mexico and every record in their business database has the following fields of information: Industry Sector, Major Sic (2 Digit) Category, Sub Sic (4 Digit) Category, Product or Service Description, Company Name, Address, Colonia, City, State, Zip/Postal Code and Telephone. Also included when available are: Fax, Web, Email, Contact Person, Title, Annual Sales Volume, Number Of Employees and Years In Business. There are more companies in Mexico than there is in this database, however, only those companies that meet stringent listing criteria are listed. This means only companies that hav a physical address and a registered telephone line get listed. This ensures you receive only the best and most up-to-date data. We strive to supply you with the highest quality data, but keep in mind that no list is 100% accurate.



2016 Latest Mexico Database Statistics 1st January Previous Month Number of Records 1,579,838

Number of New Records Added 20,857

Number Of Deleted Records 350

Number Of Changed Records (Typos, Address, Name, SIC Category, Web, Email, etc.) 125,623

Total Number of Records 1,600,345

Total Company Colonia/Neighborhood 1,519,291

Total Company City 1,600,345

Total Company State 1,600,345

Total Company Zip 1,582,217

Total Company Phone 1,600,345

Total Company Fax (in Mexico many main phones are also fax line) 189,530

many main phones are also fax line) 189,530 Total Company Web 194,726

Total Company Email 243,308

Total Company Contacts 109,719

Total Company Contact Titles 107,539

Total Company Annual Sales 580,265

Total Company Employees 590,151

Total Company Years In Business 392,253

Total Geo Coded Data 553,584 For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/4nt6p7/2016_mexico_email

Media Contact: Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

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Nigerian security operatives have arrested a former Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Domestic Matters, Waripamowei Dud...

Nigerian security operatives have arrested a former Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Domestic Matters, Waripamowei Dudafa, while attempting to travel out of the country through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.A source at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission revealed that Mr. Dudafa was on the anti-graft agencys wanted list for his alleged involvement in the sharing of N10billion to delegates during the December 2014 presidential primaries of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party.Mr. Dudafa allegedly converted the money into US dollars, amounting to $47million, and distributed to delegates from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.Investigators say they believe the fund was part of the alleged $2.1billion meant for the purchase of arms but which authorities said was shared as slush funds to politicians through the office of a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.Sources at the EFCC revealed that Mr. Dudafa was arrested and quizzed by the operatives of the State Security Service, SSS, before he was handed over to the EFCC on Monday.He has been on our wanted list for a long time and he evaded arrest on several occasions, a top EFCC official, who asked not to be named, said.Contacted, the spokesperson of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, declined comment on the matter.The anti-graft agency had recently arrested Mr. Jonathans Aide de Camp, Ojogbane Adegbe, allegedly on the directive of the Nigerian Army and later his ally, Jide Omokore, over a series of multi-billion dollar petrol import and crude export deals.Nigerias secret police, the SSS, also arrested and later dismissed the ex-presidents Chief Security Officer, Gordon Obua, alongside the spokesperson of the agency, Marilyn Ogar and several others.
National Chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, weekend, defended President Muhammadu Buharis foreign trip...

National Chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, weekend, defended President Muhammadu Buharis foreign trips, saying that people like Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State and other critics of the president over his foreign trips need their heads examined.Saying that Fayose was ignorant of the problems confronting the nation and the solutions to them, he insisted that President Buhari was on the verge of restoring the nations lost glory outside the country, noting that the Presidents foreign trips had gone a long way in helping to save the nation after what he described as Peoples Democratic Party, PDPs most disastrous outing in 16 years.Speaking to journalists in Benin City, Edo State, Oyegun noted that the forces of darkness and economic saboteurs opposed to the nations growth and development were bent on frustrating the efforts of the APC-led administration under Buhari in his efforts at rescuing the nation from the ongoing fuel crisis and revitalizing the ailing economy.Governor Fayose had last week allegedly written a letter to the Chinese government asking it to shun President Buharis proposal to secure a $6 billion loan for Nigeria.But Oyegun, who reacted to the criticisms, said: Most people do not recognise the very sorry state of the nations economy and the fact that the countrys economy was run aground and crashed, which contributed in no small measure to the crash of crude oil from N120 per barrel to a miserable N30 to N40 per barrel at the international market.
Tragedy struck on the Lekki-Epe Expressway after the driver of a truck belonging to the Dangote Cement, identified as Ajani Yekini, crushe...

Tragedy struck on the Lekki-Epe Expressway after the driver of a truck belonging to the Dangote Cement, identified as Ajani Yekini, crushed his own conductor, Mojeed Jubril, to death.It was learnt that Jubril had slept under the truck before Yekini mounted the steering and drove off.He was said to have climbed on his head, killing Jubril on the spot.Policemen from the Elemoro division were said to have arrived to remove the corpse at the Frajend Coy end of the Lekki-Epe Expressway, where the incident happened.A senior official of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Azubuike Onyemeh, said the conductor was killed around 10.30am.He said, The truck was left overnight at the spot by the driver. The conductor decided to sleep under it. By Wednesday morning, the driver, who was not aware that the man was sleeping there, just drove off. It was the cry of the man that caught his attention, but by then, it was too late, as the vehicle had run over him.The police spokesperson, SP Dolapo Badmos, said policemen from the Elemoro division deposited the corpse in a morgue for autopsy, adding that the driver had been arrested.She said, At about 10.30am, a truck, driven by Yekini of Dangote Cement, Ibeshe, ran over his conductor, Jubril, aged 24. The victim died on the spot. The corpse has been deposited at the Mainland General Hospital morgue, Yaba, for autopsy.In a related development, a yet-to-be identified woman has been killed by a driver at the Afari Ogun end of the International Airport Road, Oshodi.It was gathered that the victim was walking beside the road when the driver, identified as Oluwole Ogunbona, hit her.She was reportedly rushed to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi Araba, where she was confirmed dead.The police spokesperson, Badmos, confirmed the incident, adding that investigations were ongoing.She said, The incident happened around 7.30pm on Wednesday. The driver knocked down the female pedestrian, and she was rushed to LUTH where she later died. We are investigating the case.
There is ill-feelings and tensions between members of the upper chamber over the secret distribution of the first batch of brand new 108 S...





There is ill-feelings and tensions between members of the upper chamber over the secret distribution of the first batch of brand new 108 Sport Utility Vehicles.A senator said only identified members of the pro-Sarakis Like Minds Senators were favoured in the distribution of the vehicles.Those who collected their keys to the vehicles were identified Saraki supporters who had been following him to the courts since his corruption case started. So, they were being rewarded for their loyalty.I know they would push some of us to the last batch but we are not bothered. They met with us seeking our cooperation to move the Senate forward being members of the same party but see the type of injustice they are perpetrating now? he complained.The senator denied the campaign by the Saraki loyalists that members of the SUF wanted to sell their own jeeps to create an impression before their constituents that they rejected them.The Senate spokesperson, Sabi Abdullahi, refused to comment on the issue.I dont want to make any comment on the issue either relating to the distribution or the process of procurement," he said.
The former Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, Dr. Tope Aluko, has described the governorship election victo...

The former Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, Dr. Tope Aluko, has described the governorship election victory secured by Governor Ayo Fayose as a coup against the people.He revealed that 11 PDP chieftains were caught with sensitive electoral materials by Department of State Services (DSS) operatives in a hotel owned by Fayoses Chief of Staff, Dipo Anisulowo, but were released three hours later.Speaking on a special interview programme on ADABA 88.9 FM, which was monitored byin Ado-Ekiti on Saturday, Aluko said that was what made Fayose boast that he would defeat former Governor Kayode Fayemi in the 16 local governments.In the interview his second on the radio station in three days, the PDP chieftain alleged that Fayose told former President Goodluck Jonathan at a PDP strategy meeting at the Aso Rock Villa that the only way Fayemi, who was believed to have performed well in office, could be removed was to use force.The erstwhile Ekiti PDP scribe said that was why the might of the Commander-in-Chief was deployed to intimidate the opposition on election day and give Fayose victory by all means.Aluko said: The election that brought the governor to power was like a coup. It was a coup against the people and that is why he is behaving the way he is doing now.At the strategy meeting held with former President Jonathan, we admitted that it will be difficult to remove Fayemi from power because of his performance.Fayose told Jonathan that unless we use force and other foul means, there wouldnt be a change of government in Ekiti and that was why Jonathan granted him the request.That was why he allowed the then Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, former Minister of Police Affairs Jelili Adesiyan to be with Fayose and ensure that victory was made possible at all cost.Our game plan was to harass, arrest and detain principal opposition figures, including aggrieved PDP members, who participated in the governorship primary with Fayose. I am talking of people like (Caleb) Olubolade and others.Our game plan was to move against them and take them out by arresting and detaining them.Eleven of us were arrested in the hotel where we perfected the rigging.The PDP chief accused the Fayose administration of sustaining propaganda against him.Aluko added that the governor and his lackeys have failed to controvert all his evidence-oral, documentary and electronic.He said: I was invited by the EFCC, DSS and the police and my statements are with them,I authenticated the documents and any attempt on my life cannot remove my message which is with all these agencies.That is why they are attacking the messenger but they cannot attack the message.My evidence with the security agencies are too weighty to be overlooked.The former don claimed to have sworn an oath with Fayose on what he called a pact for Ekiti development, which he alleged the governor did not honour.
An EFCC witness, Michael Wetkas, on Monday, told the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) that Senate President Bukola Saraki used different b...

An EFCC witness, Michael Wetkas, on Monday, told the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) that Senate President Bukola Saraki used different bank drafts to buy properties in Ikoyi, Lagos.Saraki is facing a 13-count charge bordering on allegations of false asset declaration and money laundering.He had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charges. At the resumed hearing of the case, the EFCC witness, who was led in evidence by prosecution counsel Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) said Saraki bought the properties through his companies. He said investigation revealed that House No. 15, Macdonald Street, Ikoyi, Lagos and Block 15, Flat 1 to 4 of the same street belonged to Saraki. According to him, the senate president bought the properties from the Presidential Committee on Sale of Federal Government Landed Properties in Lagos through his companies.He added the defendant made a bank draft in the name of TYNITY Company limited, which he declared in the Asset declaration form.He noted that when the EFCC investigation team wrote to the presidential committee seeking clarification, the committee said that from their records, the only property sold to the company was No. 15, Macdonald Street, Ikoyi.Wetkas said 75 per cent, which amounted to N123.7million was paid for House No. 15, Macdonald Street, Ikoyi, through a bank draft from the account of one of Sarakis company called Skyview properties limited in Access Bank. He also said that investigation revealed that the defendant made a bank draft through his company TYNITY and paid for House No. 17, Macdonald Street in Ikoyi, Lagos in the sum of N256.3million. My lord, there was a draft of N12.8 million and another draft of N20 million from Zenith Bank, as well as a draft of N4 million from GTBank as part of payment for the purchase of House No. 17, Macdonald Street.The N20 million draft came from Carlys properties and Investment Limited and a draft of 136.1 million was made on Jan. 13, 2007 for the purchase of same property. Another draft of N180.6 million was made through Saraki`s personal bank account in GTB. The prosecution tendered a total of 43 exhibits, which were admitted in evidence.The Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Umar Danladi, then turned down a request by Sarakis lawyer, Kanu Agabi (SAN), asking for daily records of proceedings of the court. In his argument, Danladi said the request would not be possible because it would over burden the registry of the court and that the law required defence to apply within a specific time and not daily.However, a mild drama ensued when Agabi urged the tribunal not to further fix trial dates at a time when Senate was having plenary. The tribunal, however, overruled his submission, saying it was the defendant that was facing trial and not the Senate.
The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has described as laughable, the allegation by the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Par...

The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has described as laughable, the allegation by the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party that he donated N70 million at a recent book launch organised by the First Lady, Aishat Buhari.He also described as unfortunate the vote of no confidence passed on him by his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.The PDP had in a statement accused Mr. Bello of donating N70 million when Mrs. Buhari launched a book to garner support for the families of the abducted Chibok girls.Also, the state chapter of the APC at its meeting on April 11 passed a vote of no confidence on Mr. Bello, accusing him of sidelining members of the state executive council and other organs of the party in the affairs of the state.In an April 12 letter signed by 34 of the state executive council members of the APC to the National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun, the party listed the sins of the governor, including the allegation that he gave 45 political appointments to members of the PDP.But a statement by Kingsley Fanwo, media aide to Mr. Bello, on Sunday said the allegation that the governor donated N70 million at the book launch organized by the first lady, smacks of laughable political desperation to brazenly slaughter truth.He did not however say how much was donated by the governor at the occasion.He said, The book launch was organized by the nations First Lady to garner support for the families of the abducted Chibok girls, which was attended by Governor Yahaya Bello to lend support to the traumatized families of the girls.As a political leader and a parent, Governor Bello is touched by the plight of the girls and their families, hence the will to identify with the project.The book launch was televised to the whole world and no one announced what anyone donated. Governor Yahaya Bello did not donate 70,000,000 naira as insinuated by the people who are turning opposition politics to a comical adventure.He explained that Mr. Bello did not approached any bank for loan, saying the Zenith Bank loan story was aimed at distracting the governor from his laudable programs in the state.He said, The spurious allegation that the Governor has applied for loan at Zenith Bank has further exposed our opponents as people who lack the basic knowledge of public accounting. Their macabre dance on the grave of ignorance has justified peoples belief that our opponents are characters are people who lack the rudiments of governance. The governor didnt apply for loans.We urge our opponents to always dwell on facts when playing their games and stop toying with the intelligence of the Kogi people. Governor Yahaya Bello paid two salaries within his first fifty-seven days in office as against the four months owed by his immediate predecessor.On the appointments allegedly given to PDP members, Mr. Fanwo said the governor had been fair in this regard, insisting that he (governor) would continue to work with the APC leadership to actualize the change agenda of the party.He said, It is not true that the governor made 45 political appointments. Some appointments are purely professional and only people who are competent in those fields are capable of discharging such roles effectively.Majority of those appointed are APC while many others are not politicians but technocrats who can drive the New Direction agenda of the present administration. The Governor deserves commendation for assembling a team that is already delivering great services to the people of the state.The Yahaya Bello administration has relegated mediocrity to the back seat. We need to drive Kogi to work and for her to work, round pegs must be in round holes without prejudice to fairness and equity.Mr. Fanwo urged the APC to continue to appreciate the good image the governor is giving the party in the state.He said no living politician has contributed to the success of the party in the state as Mr. Bello even before he became governor.The Kogi Youths Arise Group was one of the vehicles used by the All Progressives Congress to root out the PDP from the state in 2015. The Group was formed and solely funded by the Governor. The Governor sponsored many APC candidates in the election with his resources despite not having occupied any political position before that time.By the time the staff verification exercise is over, Governor Yahaya Bello would have recorded another landslide achievement in saving the resources of Kogi State for the benefit of the Kogi people. He wont be distracted. Opponents should give up their antics and join the train of change.The spokesperson who said his principal had no association with the PDP since his belief in the ideology of the APC is unwaveringly unimpeachable, urged the people of the state to discountenance the allegations as baseless, untrue and unfortunate.He said the governor was prepared to keep working with the structures of the party to properly structure the policies of government with party manifesto.According to him, the policies of the governor so far were in tandem with the manifesto of the party to enthrone development and defeat corruption in all sectors of the economy.The Governor is a party man. That accounted for why he refused to defect to another party when came second in the governorship primaries, Mr. Fanwo said.He has continued to reiterate his determination to integrate his New Direction agenda with the manifesto of the APC. In doing this, the Governor has been working with party leaders to actualize his dreams of a better and more prosperous Kogi State.He said as a party, the APC should play its part and ostracize the ghosts of division, adding We expect the party to have highlighted the Governors strides since assuming office such as industrial harmony, efforts at restoring integrity to the civil service and the massive construction work going on across the state.With the new administrations efforts in the education sector, Kogi State students are excelling and making waves in national and international competitions.Also, a number of high profile foreign investments are expected to kick off in the state soon such as the $363m for the establishment of a comprehensive farm and downstream industrial park in the state. This is the story of the new Kogi State under the leadership of Alhaji Yahaya Bello.Mr. Fanwo said it was shocking to blame the governor for the failure of the APC in the Senatorial and House of Representatives re-run elections in the state, when party candidates were barred by competent courts of jurisdiction from participating in the re-run owing to the mismanagement of primaries leading to the 2015 general election.
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola on Monday disclosed his thought on how the series of foreign trips made by...

Make the Nigerian national interest the overriding factor in its foreign policy and international relations.

Work to reform global governance in multilateral institutions and agencies.

Work to strengthen the African Union to become a more effective organization on global affairs.

Engage the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) on the basis of equality. Play a leadership role to develop a MINT (Mexico, India, Nigeria, and Turkey) as a counterforce to BRICS.

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola on Monday disclosed his thought on how the series of foreign trips made by President Muhammadu Buhari will benefit Nigeria as a country.Fashola who made the disclosure in his report titled, PMBs Foreign Trips,My Take which he made available to the media said, I hope every Nigerian who cares about our country will have some information about what their President is doing about the things that concern themRead the statement in fullPMBs Foreign Trips  My TakeIn making this public intervention, I seek to highlight the benefit of global relationships and cooperation in a world that is changing daily as a result of globalization and transborder economics, social and even criminal activities where no one is safe, except all are safe, and to leave the dispassionate observer his opinion after deep reflection on the value, or lack of it, of the Presidents foreign trips.This way I hope every Nigerian who cares about our country will have some information about what their President is doing about the things that concern them.First I will start with context.Barely 2 decades ago (between 1994 and 1998) we would not have quarreled with the description that we were a pariah nation.We were ostracized from global events because of bad governance. We had lost the respect accorded Nations like ours were they well-led and well-run.I recall that not a few Nigerians complained that the green passport was becoming, if it had not already become, a burden.That was at the height of the dictatorial government that broke the rules of international relations.It was from there that we started to heal. Investors entered our country. Many brands that we sought after abroad started coming to set up shop in our country.The tourist footfalls in our country increased slowly but surely, but again we began to slide.That was when Buhari declared at a meeting in Lagos during his campaign in 2015, that if elected, he would make us proud about our country again. Proud to be Nigerian again. That is the context in which I view his foreign trips and the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Foreign Relations which promised to:I will limit my takeaways to 4 (Four) trips that I attended with the President namely: the G7 Summit in Germany, the Oil and Gas Summit in Iran, the Renewable Energy Conference in Abu Dhabi and the State visit and Business Forum in China; and 2 (Two) trips that I did not attend, but whose deliberations I followed, namely: Paris for the COP 21 and USA for the Nuclear Energy Summit. G7 in Germany This is a club of eight of the most industrialized, economic and technologically advanced nations. For the benefit of those who do not follow international politics it was originally the G8 comprising the USA, Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Japan, Italy, and Russia, who were later suspended and had sanctions imposed on them to make it G7 as a result.It was formed in 1975 as a club of 6 (Six) before Canada and Russia were admitted. They look after each other, and the rest of the world to put it simply.They have gone to war together if you remember Iraq and Libya in recent memory and they are all largely collaborating to fight terror. (Most recently the FBI was rendering assistance to Belgium in the aftermath of the terror attacks in that Country). Why G7 one might then ask? Answer: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as host, invited PMB on his inauguration to be their guest along with some three or four other African countries. Their agenda was global security, global economy and global health in the aftermath of Ebola, which was still raging in some African countries. Apart from the personal aides of the President, Governor Shettima of Borno, General Dambazau and myself were the only ones who accompanied PMB. I recall that upon our arrival in Germany they expressed surprise that our delegation was small and asked if others were still coming.In the pre-departure briefing, in addition to highlighting how the security and economic agenda of the G7 coincided with 2 (Two) of his campaign promises, security, (corruption) economy, PMB stated the reasons 3 of us were invited. Governor Shettima was in the front line of terrorists and criminal activities in the north east; General Abdulrahman Dambazau, was a former Chief of Army Staff, and also a faculty associate of Harvard University Weatherhead Center for International Affairs; I had run the single biggest economy of a state within Nigeria for eight years and was in the frontline of Ebola. Without ministers, one week after taking office, he felt we were the ones best suited to assist, if he needed it, on the issues of security, economy and health on the G7 agenda.In the event, he did not need us. He held his ground admirably. He was the first person called upon to speak at a Summit in which Nigeria was not a member. I was proud to be a Nigerian. At global summits we usually got to speak when others had spoken and the hall has emptied. President Obama was the first G7 member to speak after PMB and he said that Nigeria has elected a President that brings a reputation of scrupulous integrity to the table.I was proud to be a Nigerian. The opening session was robust and welcoming, we saw some of the worlds most powerful men and women take off their jackets, call each other by their first names in a club-like setting while addressing the worlds most serious problems. Problems that affect you and I daily. I was proud that my President was in a room where decisions concerning my planet were being deliberated upon.Prime Minister Cameron, Chancellor Merkel and others also spoke in similar vein about our Presidents reputation and our nations strategic position in Africa and the world. They pledged support for Nigeria on Terror and the Economy.Importantly, I learned that their scientists were worried about increasing resistance of strains of infections to antibiotics; and that they were committing enormous resources into finding out why and what to do. They highlighted the difficulty of time and resources that it will take to develop new antibiotics and the risk to global health. If we all appreciate how vulnerable we can be without effective antibiotics, especially our children, and if we remember how low life expectancy was and how poor global health was before the discovery of Penicillin after the World War, we will appreciate the seriousness of the platform to which Nigeria was invited.I was proud that our President was there. If the seven most powerful nations stand with you, who can stand against you? I need not say more except that I can attest that PMB has been following up on these matters, and the progress on security is visible, while results on the economic front will manifest soon enough.Iran Oil and Gas Summit For those who are not aware, one of the reasons why oil prices went up, and from which we benefited in the past, was that Iran, the worlds 7th largest producer of oil, was facing global sanctions from which she was due to emerge in 2016. Because Iran was soon to be selling oil, the likelihood of a further crash of oil prices that had drastically fallen was a threat to Nigerias economy if oil prices crashed further.(Our 2016 budget proposals had just been formulated on a $38 per barrel assumption) I was witness to PMBs persuasion to Iran to come to the market slowly instead of pushing out large volumes which will raise supply and crash prices, even though Iran also needed the cash.You cant do that type of diplomacy by letter or by phone, in my view, not when the major players were all there in person. I witnessed the meeting with the Venezuelan prime minister, who was leading the South American producers to sell more and get cash even if the prices were lower. PMBs logic was different. Hold your volumes, steady the price, and dont let us hurt one another. Recorders of history will recall that the Venezuelan government suffered a major political defeat in Parliament, while PMBs logic has at least steadied oil prices.It might interest you to know that all European nations sent their oil ministers, except Russia, where Vladimir Putin came in person, because having been suspended from the G8 and facing sanctions, this was the meeting where his countrys interests were best served. For the record, Russia pledged a $5 Billion state support to Iran, and if the purpose of this is lost on anyone, I interpret it to mean, Take cash, dont pump out your oil. It will hurt me. This is the reality of international politics. Finally on Iran, PMB told us, how when he flew to Iran in his days as Petroleum Minister, he noticed how much gas they were flaring and now he returned as President, all the flares were gone. We found out that all the gas had been harvested and piped to every home for heating, cooking etc. His mandate: If they can do it, we must do it. I am proud to be led by a President who sees good things outside and seeks to bring them to his people. Abu Dhabi Renewable Energy This is reputed to be the richest of the Emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).Apart from seeking cooperation to recover Nigerias stolen wealth stored in the UAE [His anti-corruption commitment pursued in person], PMB addressed a renewable energy summit where we learned about initiatives to bring solar power price down to 5 (Five) US cents per kilowatt hour, (approximately N10) as against the price of 17 (seventeen) US cents (N34) per KW/h tariff in Nigeria fixed at privatization by the last Government. PMBs mandate was for us to explore collaboration for the manufacture of solar panels in Nigeria to bring down the price and deploy it to the sunlit areas of Nigeria, especially the North that is most prolific for irradiation. We are currently working on the Energy Mix for Nigeria which is the implementation process of the energy policy that will take us there. Hopefully we will soon be signing the first set of solar deployment agreements for Nigeria.In this way, more solar and hydro will be used in the North, more coal and hydro in the Middle Belt, and more gas in the South; so that we take power generation closest to the most prolific source of fuel to bring down the cost and make it more affordable. On the trip to China (which I will comment on) we met a few Chinese solar manufacturers (who recognized us from Abu Dhabi) who want to set up business of manufacturing solar panels in Nigeria.China Investment Forum and State Visit This is the visit that provoked this write up, because I had bottled what I knew. But it was time, I believe, to share some of it. China is the second largest economy in the world with a per capita income of $8,000 which they are planning to raise to $12,000 by 2020. By her own assessment, according to President Xi Jinping, they are still a developing nation seeking to achieve what he described as initial prosperity by 2020. If you look at the back of your phone, your TV, your watch, your I-Pad, your Mobile Charger, many other accessories that you use, you are likely to find these three words Made in China printed somewhere.For such a nation, (with trillions of dollars in reserves, that plans to spend $2 trillion on imports in the next five years and earn $100 billion annually) who still sees itself as a developing nation, such modesty in the face of success, assiduous hard work and productivity is a destination to seek cooperation in the pursuit of economic development.This is where PMB led an array of Nigerian investors including Erisco Foods, (who now makes our tomato paste at home and employs people locally including farmers who supply the tomatoes), Power operators (DisCos and GenCos), and the Dangote Group, to meet with and address their Chinese partners. During the meeting with the Chinese President, 6 (Six) collaboration agreements were signed including for agriculture and food production improvement techniques, rail and power infrastructure development, for funding the Dangote group to continue to expand and create jobs at home and keeping some of our reserves in the currency of the richest nation in the world.This last mentioned agreement was a legitimate coup by PMB because the intelligence was that some West African countries were going to sign before us. PMB seized the moment. Of course he had to apologize for our previous failures on our agreement made to part-fund 4 airport projects in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt and Abuja-Kaduna rail project. The Chinese had provided their agreed part of 85% but the remaining 15% Nigeria did not honour during the last administration.Some of the recent revelations about financial scandals estimated at $2.1 billion in the office of the National Security Adviser alone during the last administration suggest how impactful such funds would have been in delivering these critical infrastructure ; but we all know what happened. This is why PMB is traveling.To repair our reputation severely damaged by the last government, and to assure our partners that Nigeria has CHANGED. And from there to re-negotiate an existing funding agreement to complete critical Transport infrastructure. Because of his reputation, President Xi Jinping believed him, and to quote him, he said: It is better late than never.  Through him China literally opened the door to Nigeria in areas of infrastructure (power, railways and roads), agriculture, education and manufacturing especially in our Free Trade Zones. To paraphrase the Chinese President, ask us for whatever support or partnership and we will be happy to respond.We wish to see you take your rightful place and we are happy that you are the first African president visiting China, after my visit to Africa last year to pledge a $60 billion support for the Development of the continent. If this was not initiative I doubt what is? As for the trips to Paris, COP 21 and the USA, Nuclear Security Summit, I will only say this: a) The threat of climate change, global warming, desertification in the north of Nigeria and coastal erosion in the Atlantic (Bar beach in Lagos) and in the south, affecting Rivers, Bayelsa and other coastal states, the clear scientific evidence lays the blame at the door of the worlds most industrialized nation for their pollution.b) Since the Kyoto protocol they have paid lip service to remedying the situation, which unfortunately affects developing nations more adversely.c) COP 21 was the first serious commitment that these leaders made to ensure that global temperatures do not rise above 2C and indeed are reduced to 1.5C. I am proud that Nigeria was not missing at this historic moment. When the planet is saved, the next and future generations of Nigerians will recall that PMB was present, when all of the world leaders were present to save the planet.d) In the aftermath of COP 21, the commitment of these nations is to increase production and technology for renewable energy and to reduce the use of carbon fuels. One way they plan to achieve this is increased deployment of nuclear energy.e) These nations are at the cusp of sharing safe nuclear technology for peaceful uses with developing nations for power generation. This for me was reason enough and a good one at that for PMB to be in the USA because Nigeria has been pursuing a nuclear power program for about 17 years, not as an alternative to gas or Hydro, but as additions to them.The world leaders must trust you for you to partake. At that summit, in the group photograph, PMB stood on the second row along side Britain and Turkey. In the past, we used to be on the last row. This is CHANGE.As he meets with world leaders outside Africa, he has not forgotten the home front. He is regularly visiting and receiving his sister and brother presidents on the African continent. PMB has earned their trust for all of us and I am proud to carry my green passport.Yes, some results are not yet manifest, and may take a little while to do so, but a solid foundation for a sustainable, respectable and prosperous future is being laid, block by block. This is how to build a solid home from whence we can project respect abroad with confidence. How many of us will do business with total strangers without a reference or a good reputation in this age of due diligence?PMB is building affiliations everywhere that if well-managed in future, will develop into a global network of friendships, trust and respect for Nigeria and Nigerians.I once heard that the role of a leader, like that of the head of a family, is that of an aggregator, opening doors and opportunities, breaking down barriers and forging alliances. I agree. This is my Takeaway on these trips.Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
The Senate has started taking delivery of 108 Toyota Land Cruiser Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) it ordered for members at the cost of N3.8 ...

The Senate has started taking delivery of 108 Toyota Land Cruiser Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) it ordered for members at the cost of N3.8 billion, Daily Trust gathered.It was learnt that the first set of the cars, numbering 36, was delivered last Tuesday and distributed to senators.DailyTrust uncovered that the Senate purchased the vehicles at double the price of each in the showroom in Nigeria. The lawmakers purchased each for N35.1 million, but checks by source indicated that a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV V6 2016 model is sold at N17 million.Since only 36 were delivered at a meeting on Tuesday, it was agreed that one senator should be given from each of the 36 states of the federation. They were given the cars on Wednesday, the source said.Barrister Audu Bulama Bukarti of the Bayero University Kano (BUK) while commenting on the car purchase said the senators were unaware of the public perception about them.One cannot help but wonder where the Senate got the money from, since the budget is yet to be passed. Do they have the powers to spend such a huge sum without appropriation and authorization? Or are they just daring Nigerians he asked.It would be recalled that senators, during their sitting on Wednesday, told Senate President Bukola Saraki that paucity of funds was hindering the discharge of their legislative duties.(Daily Trust)
A staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), identified as Yusuf Abdulkadir has been reportedly abducted by unknown gun...

A staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), identified as Yusuf Abdulkadir has been reportedly abducted by unknown gunmen in Kaduna.Abdulkadir, who is a staff in the NNPC Abuja office was said to have been abducted on Saturday at his residence in Rigachiku, Igabi local government area of Kaduna State.It was gathered that the incident occurred at about 10pm on Saturday when he was whisked away to an unknown destination.According to a family source, the gunmen trailed him while he was returning to his house and picked him up.They trailed him to the house yesterday dragged him out of his car at gun point and whisked him away.He works at NNPC Towers, Abuja, but on weekends, drives to Kaduna, where his family members reside, the source added.The matter has been reported to police but efforts to reach the Kaduna Police Public Relations Officer, Zubairu Abubakar on the development proved abortive as his phone was switched off as at the time of filing this report.Three clergymen, Dr Emmanuel Dziggau, Yakubu Talba Dzarma and Iliya Anto who eventually died in his abductors custody, were kidnapped on March 21 while another Colonel Samaila Inusa was abducted and killed on 26th of March, 2016, in the state.
Negotiations in Doha between OPEC members and other oil producers ended without any agreement on limiting supplies, a diplomatic failure...

Nigerias Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, told reporters after the meeting that there was no agreement, while he added that the possible freezing of oil output would next be discussed during the meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries members states in June in Vienna. The summit in the Qatari capital, which dragged on for more than ten hours beyond its initially scheduled conclusion, finished with no final accord. Discussions stumbled after Saudi Arabia wouldnt agree to any accord unless it included Iran, which wasnt present at the meeting, according to a person familiar with knowledge of the matter.Given the expectations ahead of Doha, the failure to reach a freeze agreement is likely to cause an oil market selloff, said Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and a former White House official.The fact that Saudi Arabia seems to have blocked the deal is an indicator of how much its oil policy is being driven by the ongoing geopolitical conflict with Iran.Sixteen nations representing about half the worlds oil output gathered in the Qatari capital in a bid to stabilize the global market, the first significant attempt at coordinating oil output between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and nations outside the group in 15 years.There were significant hurdles to any deal after Saudi Arabias Deputy Crown Prince said the kingdom wouldnt agree to restrain its production without commitments from other major producers including Iran  which has ruled out freezing for now.Brent crude, which sank to a 12-year low in January, climbed almost 30 percent in the past two months as Saudi Arabia and Russia worked on the plan to cap crude production.With tensions visible throughout the negotiations, forty traders and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg last week were evenly split on whether a consensus would be reached.While analysts doubted that any accord would have a significant impact on the global oil surplus, the groups inability to agree undermines any prospect of coordinated action to solve the market slump. OPEC members will consult among themselves and with other oil producers until June, Qatars Energy Minister Mohammed Al Sada said at news conference after the meeting.The next scheduled bi-annual OPEC meeting is on June 2. If all major producers dont freeze production, we will not freeze production, Saudi Arabias Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an interview April 14. If we dont freeze, then we will sell at any opportunity we get. The worlds largest oil exporter could increase output to 11.5 million barrels a day immediately and go to 12.5 million in six to nine months if we wanted to, the prince said.The kingdom pumped 10.2 million barrels a day last month. Iran, which is reviving oil exports after international sanctions were lifted in January, ruled out any limits on its output before reaching pre-sanctions levels, dismissing the notion of joining the freeze as ridiculous. The nations Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Saturday he wouldnt attend the Doha talks and wont be a signatory to any deal as it would amount to self-imposed sanctions.It seems that, after all, the Saudis held their ground, said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity markets strategy at BNP Paribas SA in London. Iran made it clear from the onset that it would reclaim market share first, and Saudi made it clear through the deputy crown price that their participation was conditional on Irans. The meeting was a non-starter to begin with.Brent crude settled at $43.10 a barrel Friday in London, having risen by more than 50 percent from a 12-year low in January. The failure could drag prices back down to $30 a barrel, Saxo Bank A/S estimated in a report on April 11. They are going to get a fairly big sell-off tomorrow, said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd., a London-based consultant. Production losses in Kuwait due to an oil strike could limit drop, she said.
The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ipokia local government area of Ogun state, Alhaji Saruku Suraju popularly known a...

(PM News)

He died at the De Lover Hotel, located at Aseko area, Ibatefin in Ipokia on Friday night.It was gathered that the deceased and his mistress, who has since fled, were together at the hotel.The 68-year old man until is death was the PDP Chairman in Ipokia local government area.It was also gathered that Aro Meta was among those to be conferred with Islamic chieftaincy titles today at Ibatefin Central Mosque.He was to be turbaned as Giwa Adinni of Ibatefin Central Mosque, but the ceremony has now been postponed indefinitely.A family source, confirmed that the man died in a hotel while his mistress, who no one knows fled without any trace.The incident happened around 9:00pm on Friday and we have buried him yesterday according to Islamic rite.Confirming the report, the source said: Yes, he died at De Lover hotel. What I know was that, his party, PDP is to have the final meeting of those to be elected as officers of the party in their forthcoming Congress.He was on his way to the meeting when they said, a lady called him on his phone and asked him to join her at the hotel. It was his dead body that was later taken out from the hotel with series of information flying around.According to the family source, Some said he might have contracted thunderbolt, Magun, a charm laid for partners who are adulterous.Some people said he was strangled to death by unknown people while some said he was killed by a chemical substance sniffed into his nose with an handkerchief. What all these means is that, it has a political undertone.We were told that he had a misunderstanding with someone in the party over the chairmanship seat as he wanted to return to the office while other candidates are interested.I was not there, all these are what people are saying. I dont want to speak ill about the dead, he was there all alone now. This is a big lesson for everybody, please, spare me to stop here, I dont want to say more than this, the source revealed.It was further gathered that the deceased has three wives but two have left him while the third wife, an Ajase from Benin Republic was attacked by partial stroke and has since been taken back to her relatives in Ajase town.Prior his death, he was living alone with no wife.A source from Ibatefin Central Mosque also confirmed that all arrangements for the turbaning ceremony, earlier fixed for today have been put on hold due to the sudden death of one of the chiefs to be turbaned.The source informed newsmen that his death still remains a shock to everybody, saying that, a lot of information is going round surrounding his death.The deceased, according to a close relative, was the only child of his parent.The relative pointed out that his mother is still alive.He was buried yesterday, according to Islamic rites at his residence, Oja ale area, beside Apostolic Church, Ibatefin, near Agosasa, Ogun state.
The lingering epileptic power supply in the country may continue as major repairs on the vandalised Forcados terminal will not be comple...

The lingering epileptic power supply in the country may continue as major repairs on the vandalised Forcados terminal will not be completed until May.This emerged during the visit of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to the terminal in Delta State.Osinbajo also said Federal Government would establish a permanent pipeline security force to curtail the vandalism of oil and gas pipelines in parts of the country.The Vice-President said the government would equip the force with sophisticated weapons after inauguration.According to a statement on Sunday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, the Vice-President spoke when he visited the Forcados Terminal in Delta State.It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had, on Wednesday, in Beijing, China, hinted that his administration would descend heavily on oil and gas pipelines vandals as well as other saboteurs the same way the nations Armed Forces were dealing with Boko Haram terrorists.Osinbajo said the establishment of a permanent security force for pipelines was the way to go.He added, One of the future steps the Buharis administration can take to forestall the perpetration of vandalism is to establish a permanent pipeline security force.Such a force, if formed, will be armed with sophisticated weapons to ensure we contain vandalism and overhaul security.A permanent pipeline security force is an option to look at.The Vice-President said irked by the damage done to the Forcados Terminal in Delta State in February, Buhari asked him to visit and assess the situation which had been responsible for the recent drop in electricity supply in the country.He added that the President was also concerned that the gas projects, under the operation of Shell, meant to beef up domestic supply of gas in the country needed to be speedily completed.What is going on here affects the Nigerian people and the economy. The damage done to Forcados affects our oil earnings but also as important is the power aspect.It (Forcados) is a major source of gas, about 40 per cent of our gas supply is affected leading to the problem of power supply in the country, the Vice-President.He bemoaned the current situation of power supply in the country, describing it as a real problem.He noted that at a point a few months ago, power supply in the country rose to 5,000 megawatts but had now dropped significantly including instances of system collapse, suggesting a real problem.Osinbajo added, I came here to see for myself and underscore the great implication for the nations economy. Many people dont even know that power supply is hampered by what is going on here.The Vice-President asked all those concerned to do all within their power to repair the damaged terminal as soon as possible.According to the statement, a repair plan presented to the Vice-President during the visit by Shell indicated that the repair work, which would be in three phases, might be concluded in May.The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was also said to have presented an interim alternative plan to supply gas to the plants including trucking condensate.Osinbajo expressed the concern of the Federal Government that IOCs that sit on 80 per cent of gas deposits in the country had not been as forthcoming regarding gas supply to the domestic market.He urged them to do much more to boost domestic gas supply considering the gas supply problems in the country.For instance, he cited the need for Shell to speedily complete the Bonga and Forcados/Yokri gas projects in order to assuage the plight of Nigerians.He said the President was particularly concerned about these outstanding gas projects.According to the statement, Bonga Gas Diversion project would provide 120mmscf/d when completed by the second quarter of this year, while the Forcados/Yokri gas project would provide 80mm standard cubic feet per day at completion expected at the same timeline.There is also the Assa North/Ohaji South project, which can also provide 500mmscf/d.Experts say currently, gas production into domestic network in the country has fallen to 601mmscf/d from the usual 1.1bcf/d.The implication is that the country is now losing about half a billion cf/d, which roughly accounts for about 2,000MW of electricity.The Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, who accompanied the Vice-President all through the visit, said, The Forcados terminal is important to Delta State and the nation. That is where SPDC evacuates its products and other land operations, including Seplat evacuating products from there for sale. Now, all the production on land by SPDC is shortened.
The Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, representing Enugu West Constituency, on Sunday accused the President Muhammadu Buhari ...

The Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, representing Enugu West Constituency, on Sunday accused the President Muhammadu Buhari led government of provoking Ndigbo.Ekweremadu said: we are being provoked everyday by the government of this country, while addressing people of Eziagu council area of Enugu State during a solidarity visit.He said: let me remind you that we are going through the difficult period in Igbo land. As Ndigbo, we are going through trying period, we are being provoked everyday by the government of this country in the way they treat our people, especially the marginalization going on at the federal level by the federal government.We are also aware of the contributions of our people towards the development of this country. The Nigeria Movie Industry, which one of the major exports we have, Igbos pioneered that industry; in sports, Igbos are all over the world doing the country proud. When you see Nigeria national team playing, 80 percent most times are Igbos and we are happy to do that.He said Ndigbo had done so much to the country and deserved some respect, stressing that until we get our respect, Nigeria will never be the same.
Emotion ran high on Friday as Lance Corporal Adegboyega Adebayo, one of the two soldiers killed by hoodlums two days before the Rivers Sta...

Emotion ran high on Friday as Lance Corporal Adegboyega Adebayo, one of the two soldiers killed by hoodlums two days before the Rivers State rerun election, was buried in the Iyesi area of Ogun State.During the burial, tearful parents, brothers and friends of the 34-year-old soldier, who was shot dead on the sea in the Abonema, Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State on March 17, decried lack of concern from both the Rivers State and the federal governments.They said apart from the military, no government official had sent a condolence message or visited the family even though he died in the line of duty.Succeeded by parents, a wife, and two children  Marvelous, 6, and two-month-old Mercy  Adegboyega was described as the breadwinner of his extended family.It was learnt that he was on an assignment when his wife put to bed and had yet to see the baby before his death.His 66-year-old mother, Clara Adebayo, called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding her sons death, saying that the family had been dealt a big blow.She said, He is the breadwinner of the family. His siblings are well educated, but without jobs; he was the one assisting them. The killers have ruined my family. The Rivers State Government should do whatever it can to help the family. He did not know his baby.The deceaseds father, Victor, a retired civil servant, said, He died serving the country. I learnt he was shot dead at close range.So far, no government official, either from the Rivers State Government or the Federal Government, has visited us. I appeal to the state governor (Nyesom) Wike, to fulfil the pledge of compensation he made. He should not forget the family, he said.The deceaseds wife, Tawakalitu, 32, told our correspondent that she spoke with her husband two hours before his death, adding that the incident was still a mystery to her.She said, He was a loving and caring man. It was on March 17 that he called me that he was going for election duty and I told him to inform me when he got to where they posted him. About two hours later, I called his line, but it was no longer going through. I did not get any information until on Monday when my dad told me he was late.The death was unusual. They were many on patrol. I dont know where to start from. I gave birth to a child a few days before he died and he did not set his eyes on the baby. How will I cope?What kind of life is this? The Rivers State Government should come to our aid.Charles Adebayo, the immediate younger brother of the late soldier, blamed the crisis between the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party in the state for the death of his brother.He said, There are two masters holders in the family, but we are jobless. He was the breadwinner of the entire family.His death has dealt an irreparable blow to the family. It is something that could have been avoided. More pathetic is his new-born baby he was unable to see. He was supposed to attend the naming, but he could not because of the nature of his job.We learnt that he was heading for where he was posted for the election and there was a distress call from somewhere. God knows who made the call, but they made a U-turn.On the way, an ambush was laid for them. People said Wike promised to do something reasonable to help the family, but as of now, we have not heard anything from him. In my opinion, it was the political crisis in that state that caused his death.A soldier, Hamisu, one of Gboyegas colleagues from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, described him as a good soldier, very diligent and obedient. He joked with everybody; may his soul rest in perfect peace.The deceaseds friend, Taiwo Adegoke, said, He is the only friend I have. We have known each other for 20 years. I have yet to get over the trauma. He was like a brother to me. He was a soldier from the beginning to the end.Based on the information I gathered, they were on patrol without using a gunboat, which is not acceptable. South-South is a volatile area, where gunboats are expected to be used at all times. Maybe it was sabotage, I cant say. But his death could have probably been avoided if a gunboat was provided.
United States has agreed to repatriate to Nigeria about $480million believed to have been stolen by the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Ab...

United States has agreed to repatriate to Nigeria about $480million believed to have been stolen by the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha and his family, The Nation newspaper reports.But the conditions for the repatriation of the cash and other details are being worked out.Also, it was learnt that the Department of Justice in the United States now has a Kleptocracy Unit, which will assist to track looted funds and money laundered by public officials from Nigeria and other nations.The planned repatriation is the outcome of the recent meeting between the Department of Justice and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) and the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission( EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu.A source, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent, said: This is the largest loot ever traced to a former Nigerian public officer in the U.S.The DOJ, the AGF and the EFCC have concluded all the talks; we are in the process of repatriation of the $480million.Although there are interventions from private lawyers, the DOJ prefers a government-to-government deal. I can tell you that the funds will soon be repatriated. If there is anything left, it has to do with the conditions which the US will attach to the utilisation of the funds.The US is likely to advise on specific areas to spend the funds on and the project monitoring mechanisms. It does not want the cash re-looted.In the sources view, there is no hiding place for Nigerian treasury looters in the United States anymore.The Federal Government and the U.S. on January 14, 2003 signed the Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters between the two nations. So, no corrupt public officers from Nigeria can hide in the US.At the session with AGF and the EFCC boss, they told the Nigerian team that the DOJ now has Kleptocracy Unit which is closing tabs on Political Office Holders and other public officers in this country and many other nations.The Department of Justice of the United States had in the last few years initiated forfeiture proceedings against the Abachas.The proceedings made it possible for the Abacha family and its associates to forfeit over $550million and 95,910 in 10 accounts and six investment portfolios linked to them in France, Britain, British Virgin Islands and the United States.The Criminal Division of the Office of International Affairs of the US Department of Justice, in a letter to the Federal Government, identified the accounts where Abacha loot was hidden.The highlights are as follows: Doraville Properties Corporation  $287 million in Account Number 80020796 located at Deutsche Bank International Limited in the Bailiwick of Jersey; HSBC Fund Administration (Jersey)  $12 million in account number S-104460 in the Bailiwick of Jersey; and Rayville International, S. A  $1 million in account number 223405880IUSD at Banque SBA in Paris, France.Others are Standard Alliance Financial Services Limited  $144 million in account 223406510PUSD at Banque SBA in Paris; Mecosta Securities  $21.7 million in accounts 10030688 and 100138409 at Standard Bank in the United Kingdom; and HSBC Bank Plc  $1.6 million in account number 38175076.Also listed are Blue Holding (1) Pte Ltd/ Ridley Group Limited  6,806,900; Blue Holding (2) Pte. Ltd/ Ridley Group Limited  21,846,983; Blue Holding (1) Pte. Ltd/ Ridley Group Limited  10,293,343.58; Blue Holding (2) Pte. Ltd/Ridley Group Limited  56,962,996.26It was learnt that the Abacha family had pledged to cooperate with the Federal Government.But the EFCC is still probing the whereabouts of 22.5m (N6.18billion) loot which the late Gen. Abacha allegedly stashed away on the Island of Jersey.No fewer than three prominent Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) have been quizzed by the EFCC on the whereabouts of the records of the recovered 22.5m (N6.18billion).According to records, the late Head of State allegedly stashed the funds through a Lebanese called Bhojwani.But when the Office of the AGF was alerted by a whistle-blower, the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan opened discussions with the Attorney-General of the Island of Jersey.The AG of the Island of Jersey cooperated fully with the government, leading to the repatriation of the 22.5m. EFCC is still searching for the records from those involved.A top EFCC source said last night: We have not closed investigation into the whereabouts of this money.
Rivers State students, who were on scholarships abroad, but returned home on the order of the government to continue their studies in the...

Rivers State students, who were on scholarships abroad, but returned home on the order of the government to continue their studies in the country have decried the development.They wondered why it was during their time the government discontinued foreign sponsorships when their mates concluded their studies abroad.Former Governor Rotimi Amaechis administration began programmes encouraging Rivers youths to study outside abroad.Some of them have completed their studies and returned home; others stayed abroad for their Masters and Doctorate or work.But those offered admission to study abroad a year or two before Amaechi left office have been enmeshed in the states boiling politics.Governor Nyesom Wike said his administration had no money to pay for students on scholarships abroad.Instead, the governor said the students should return to Nigeria to continue their studies in local universities.Although investigation showed that many students have returned, following the governments directive.In an interview in Port Harcourt, the state capital, Governor Wike said despite his decision to discontinue the fees of students abroad, his government cleared fees of those in final year.The governor said his government could not allow the students to suffer but would offer them opportunity to study in Nigeria.Speaking with some returnee students, they said the governments discontinued payment of their fees forced them to abandon their studies and return home.According to them, they returned because their visas would not be renewed without payment of their school fees.The distraught students noted that the governments failure to settle their allowances caused them hardship.One of the students, Fortune Anokuru, of Computer System Engineering at Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom, said he was preparing for second year when news came that Rivers students on scholarships abroad should return home.He said students, who have not returned home, were doing menial jobs to survive.Fortune said: We came back because we were unable to pay our fees, and the country made it compulsory that it would not renew students visa unless we paid our fees. The government has decided to discontinue paying our fees abroad.
FORT LEE - An Edgewater man embezzled more than $1.6 million from a clothing company where he worked as an assistant managing accountant for five years, according to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.

Pyong Hyun "Brandon" Yoon, 40, was arrested on computer-related theft and theft-by-deception charges after an investigation by the county's white-collar crimes unit and Fort Lee Police, Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal said in a statement over the weekend.

Authorities began investigating Yoon on April 13 when representatives of Southpole/Wicked Fashions Inc. filed a complaint with the Fort Lee Police Department.

Yoon, who oversaw cash transactions through an expense account, is accused of diverting funds from business bank accounts to pay his personal expenses.

Investigators said Yoon paid his mortgage, car lease, rent, and credit card bills.

"To conceal his illicit activities, Mr. Yoon falsified his account journal entries," Grewal said in a statement on Saturday.

"Mr. Yoon continued to access the account and make his illicit payments even after he left the company," the prosecutor alleged.

Yoon worked at the company from 2011 until Dec. 2015, authorities said.

Police arrested Yoon at his Edgewater home on Friday, the prosecutor said.

Yoon was charged with computer related theft in excess of $250,000 and theft by deception in excess of $75,000. He was taken to the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail with no 10 percent option.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
EVESHAM TWP. -- Authorities are reporting that a man is impersonating a police officer in South Jersey.

Evesham Police are seeking information on a man who pulled over another vehicle using emergency lights and a siren on North Maple Avenue, falsely identifying himself as a police officer.

The incident occurred at 12:10 p.m. Wednesday.

The man was described by police as having dark brown hair, a goatee, and wearing a navy blue hoody. He was driving a gold-colored Ford Crown Victoria.

Authorities report that the man pulled up next to the other vehicle and verbally stated he was a police officer, claiming that the driver had cut him off. He then drove away.

The vehicle with a license plate of S80AUX did not match any vehicle in the New Jersey state database, police said.

If anyone is approached by this man, or stopped by his vehicle, police urge you to contact the Evesham Police Department at 856-983-1116 or use the tip line at 856-983-4699.

Tips can also be texted to 847411, keyword ETPDTIP.

Brittany Wehner may be reached at bwehner@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @brittanymwehner. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.
VINELAND -- As family of the man fatally shot by a city officer were assembling outside police headquarters looking for answers Monday, a store owner across town accused the man of shooting at her husband after robbing someone.

The investigation into the police-involved shooting of Richard Bard Jr., 31, of Bridgeton continued after he was shot early Sunday.

The Vineland Police Department has been "walled off" from the investigation and the officer involved in the shooting is on administrative leave.

The Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office is investigating the case, but had no new details to release Monday, including corroborating claims that Bard had shot at others before taking aim at police.

On Monday afternoon, it was the second day that Wanda German spent time in front of Vineland Police Department, hoping to get the attention of the officers.

She and her family are trying to get answers that led to her brother getting shot by police.

"I'm going to be out here today, tomorrow, the next day, take me a year until I get to know what I want to know," German said Monday in front of the department. "I need answers."

Bard, 31, of Bridgeton, was shot and fatally wounded after exchanging gunfire with Vineland Police Department officers early-Sunday morning, according to the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office. Bard and another man were suspects in a nearby robbery.

Authorities are still searching for the other robbery suspect. The unidentified suspect is to be considered armed and dangerous.

Police were originally dispatched to the area of 7th and Cherry streets Sunday around 1 a.m. for reports of a robbery.

The man who was robbed Sunday morning was helping Tony Marty, storeowner of El Coqui on Cherry Street.

According to Juanita Marty, Tony Marty's wife, they were fixing the fryer at the restaurant and the man was leaving by bicycle. Her husband asked if the man wanted a ride home, but the man said he would be fine riding his bike because he lived nearby.

As Tony Marty and his dishwasher were leaving, they heard a scream. The scream belonged to the man who was leaving after he was attacked by two armed robbers by the nearby Mex-Express Restaurant, Juanita Marty said.

According to Juanita Marty, the two robbers pistol-whipped the man. Tony Marty was in his pickup truck calling 911 as it happened. When the two robbers saw this, according to Juanita Marty, they shot at him in his vehicle.

The dishwasher used a T-shirt to stop the man's head from bleeding and he was taken to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, where he has since been released.

"He has stiches all over and on his head," Juanita Marty said. "His eyes are swollen. He's hurt."

The Marty family has owned their restaurant on the corner of 7th and Cherry streets for more than 20 years and haven't run into too many problems -- except for six months ago when Tony Marty was robbed as he was closing the store.

The storeowners have no plans on leaving.

"I ain't going nowhere," she said. "I ain't scared of these people."

According to the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office, the two suspected assailants fled the scene but were found by police in the area of East Avenue and Almond Street. After a foot pursuit, there was an exchange of gunfire and one of the suspected robbers was fatally wounded. He was later pronounced dead at Inspira Medical Center Vineland.

Authorities identified the man as Bard. An autopsy is pending.

Bard allegedly fired at police officers before being shot, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. A firearm was found in the immediate vicinity as well.

The second suspect fled and has not been identified by authorities as of Monday afternoon.

The officer involved in the incident has not been identified by authorities and has been placed on administrative leave -- which is standard for such incidents. According to the Vineland Police Department, it is not involved in the investigation.

According to Bard's family, there has not been any notice from authorities about the incident and their family has not been allowed to see Bard's body.

"They didn't even call us and tell us my brother died," German said. "We found out from Facebook."

German and the rest of Bard's family were also at the police department Sunday morning looking for answers. A group of them also went to Cherry Street to see the scene, German said, but an incident occurred at the location between them and nearby residents.

Until they get a chance to ask police questions about the circumstances of Bard's death, she said, they are having trouble believing what authorizes have reported so far.

"Everybody loved my brother," she said. "My brother loved everybody. My brother loved kids and everybody. My brother was somebody that you have to love and they just took my brother away like that."

The New Jersey State Police Crime Scene Investigation Unit is assisting the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office. The second robbery suspect remains at large and should be considered armed and dangerous, authorities say.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact SAC E. Ronald Cuff by calling 609-381-4890 or the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office by calling 856-453-0486. Information can also be submitted anonymously to authorities through the CCPOTIP app, using the prosecutor's office anonymous tipline or submitting a through the office's official Facebook page.

Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
NEWARK -- Three men pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of killing another man during a dispute outside a Belleville strip club last year.

Yanafi Mojica, 32, Armand Padron, 28, and Nathaniel Garcia, 22, all of Elizabeth, entered the pleas through their attorneys when they were arraigned before Superior Court Judge Ronald Wigler in connection with the Oct. 8 shooting death of Michael Williams II, 28, of Newark.

The three men were indicted on March 18 on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

Mojica, Padron and Garcia remain in custody at the Essex County Correctional Facility in lieu of $1 million, $550,000 and $400,000 bail amounts, respectively.

The incident occurred in the early morning hours of Oct. 8 outside Wet, a gentlemen's club on Belleville Avenue.

An argument involving the three men and Williams started inside the club and spilled out into the street, according to Katherine Carter, spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.

Prosecutors are alleging Mojica shot Williams during the incident, Carter said.

In 2014, Wet made headlines after a 39-year-old Hackensack livery cab driver was fatally shot on Route 80 shortly after leaving the strip club. A Newark couple was later arrested in connection with the killing.

Bill Wichert may be reached at bwichert@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillWichertNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
ORANGE -- In what represents the second homicide in Orange in three days, a 23-year-old man has been identified as the victim of a fatal shooting on Sunday night, authorities announced on Monday.

Township resident Jordan Bryan was gunned down in the 400 block of Cary Street, according to a news release issued by Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray and Orange Police Director John Wade.

Bryan was pronounced dead at the scene at 8:05 p.m., the release states.

Authorities said no arrests have been made in the killing. The investigation remains active and ongoing, authorities said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Essex County Prosecutor's Office Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force tips line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC OR 1-877-847-7432.

Bryan's killing occurred three days after another shooting in Orange that left a 17-year-old boy dead.

In that incident, Davon Jones and three other male victims were struck during a shooting in the 100 block of Taylor Street on Thursday night, authorities said.

Police arrived at the scene at 9:30 p.m. and found Jones suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, authorities said. Jones was transported to University Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, authorities said.

The three other victims were taken to area hospitals to be treated for non-life threatening gunshot wounds, authorities said.

Bill Wichert may be reached at bwichert@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillWichertNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
BAYONNE -- Nine people were forced out of their home and three firefighters were taken to a local hospital after an early morning blaze on West 26th Street, the city's fire chief said.

Firefighters were called to 124 West 26th St. just before 6 a.m. for heavy smoke coming from the attic of the 2.5-story building, Bayonne Fire Chief Keith Weaver said.

The fire reached three alarms before officials had the blaze under control at 8:07 a.m. Three firefighters were being treated at Bayonne Medical Center, though the extent of their injuries was not immediately known, Weaver said.

Firefighters encountered "some difficulties" after a gas leak was reported, but they isolated the leak until the line was shut off, he said.

Argentina and Humberto Valdez told The Jersey Journal's photographer, Reena Rose Sibayan, they have owned the now-destroyed home for 15 years. They said they were sleeping when the blaze broke out and two men banged on their front door when they saw fire coming from the roof.

While Weaver said a total of nine people were displaced -- including two that live in the attic -- Humberto Valdez said only seven live in the home and one person resides on the upper level.

Five of the residents were seeking assistance from the American Red Cross for temporary shelters, Weaver said.

Jersey City assisted Bayonne with the blaze and North Hudson covered the city's firehouses. About 50 firefighters responded this morning and officials will remain on the scene throughout the day, Weaver said.

Weaver credited the "great efforts of (the) fire department's personnel" for containing the blaze to one building, noting that 122 West 26th St. was only separated by an 18-inch alleyway.
Man shot in the leg on Sunday has died, coroner says
Drilling is safer since Deepwater Horizon disaster, but we must stay vigilant
The federal government plans to pour $125 million into the fight against a mysterious disease that has ravaged corals in Florida and much of the Caribbean, and now poses a dire threat to the treasured reefs off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
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.
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Thunder Bays marine terminal for general cargo is being upgraded. The Thunder Bay Port Authority is receiving $1 million from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund toward the construction of a new $7-million warehouse.

Thunder Bays marine terminal for general cargo is being upgraded.

The Thunder Bay Port Authority is receiving $1 million from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund toward the construction of a new $7-million warehouse.

The announcement was made in Thunder Bay on April 15.

We are in the design phase with construction planned to begin this fall (with) completion by 2018, said authority CEO Tim Heney. The building will be approximately 40,000 square feet, clear span, (with) no provision for cranes at this point, but it will be a consideration.

The construction project will involve removing an older storage facility to create more dockside space for ships to unload general and project cargo.

The structures at Keefer are now over 50 years old and were built for seasonal use without heat, Heney added. We are now operating year-round and the (new) building will be insulated and heated.

During the 2015 shipping season, the western Lake Superior port handled 8.9 million tonnes of mostly grain cargoes. It ranked as the ports third-strongest year since 2000.

Thunder Bay has historically been an export port for grain headed overseas.

But in recent years, the port authority has been successfully in generating more two-way freight traffic with inbound project cargoes to service the Western Canada oil patch and the wind energy companies.

After handling 15 project cargoes last year, the authority has 25 on the schedule this year.

Most of the cargoes are large modules and pressure vessels heading to the Alberta oil patch, along with wind turbine components.

With shipments of these big, heavy cargoes on the horizon, plus imports of European steel destined for Western Canada, more lay-down space in the Keefer yard is required.

The first of four shipments of structural steel from Luxembourg was scheduled to arrive in April, destined for the Alberta oilsands projects.

The new warehouse will be built further away from dock to serve as storage for local manufacturers and the forest products industry.

These upgrades are part of the authoritys five-year capital budget, which calls for a further $17 million as part of a plan to configure the Keefer site.
CROWN POINT  Two months before Damarius McGriggs helped his then girlfriend kill her mother, the two met at a McDonald's drive-thru.

Defense attorney Scott King told Lake County Criminal Judge Salvador Vasquez on Monday that the relationship escalated within weeks after Alyssa Barrett told his client she was pregnant with his child.

Soon, Barrett was telling McGriggs that her mother wanted her to have an abortion. King said the pregnancy became a tool for Barrett to manipulate his client into killing DeCarol Deloney-Cain.

"He was a perfect piece of clay for her manipulative hands," King said.

McGriggs, 20, was sentenced Monday to 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit the murder of Deloney-Cain. He will have to serve at least 75 percent of the sentence.

King, who along with Lakeisha Murdaugh represented McGriggs, explained that his client didn't have any previous criminal history. He alleged Barrett had written a script for her mother's homicide long before McGriggs even entered the picture.

Barrett and McGriggs lured Deloney-Cain, 54, on July 3, 2014, to the basement of her Crown Point home by turning off the electricity. McGriggs hit Deloney-Cain, placed a pillow over her head and stabbed her multiple times.

The pair then enlisted the help of two friends to put Deloney-Cain's body in the trunk of her car and drove it to 21st Avenue and Mississippi Street in Gary, according to court records. On July 7, 2014, her body was found in the trunk of her car wrapped in black plastic bags and bound with tape by her hands and feet.

The group in a second vehicle drove to an ATM and took out money from Deloney-Cain's bank account, according to the plea agreement. McGriggs and Barrett later purchased an engagement ring at Kay Jewelers.

King said Barrett's manipulation continued after prosecutors filed charges. A letter at some point emerged where McGriggs allegedly confessed to the crime and exonerated Barrett of any wrongdoing.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Jatkiewicz said handwriting analysis was done on the letter and compared with samples from McGriggs and Barrett. She said it was determined that it couldn't have been written by McGriggs, but the analysis could also not determine if Barrett wrote it.

While the defense spent much of its time focusing on Barrett, Todd Deloney raised his voice as he told the court he was there to look McGriggs in the eyes.

"You see what I'm saying, you didn't have to kill my sister," Deloney said. "You know it."

He told McGriggs to remember his eyes while he is in prison. An emotional Deloney slowly walked out of the courtroom before returning for the rest of the hearing.

Jatkiewicz said Barrett was the one who put everything into motion that led to Deloney-Cain's slaying. She said McGriggs was the one who inflicted the injuries.

She said McGriggs was willing to testify if Barrett's case would have gone to trial. Barrett was sentenced earlier this year to 50 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to murder.

Seated between his attorneys, McGriggs turned slightly toward the gallery as he apologized to Deloney-Cain's family and his own.

"I know this is not who I am," McGriggs said.

He told the court he was willing to accept the consequences of his actions.

A woman seated with McGriggs' family began crying as the hearing ended. McGriggs covered his eyes with his hand before he was escorted to the holding cell.
SPRINGFIELD  Democrats in the General Assembly have begun their election-year push for a plan they say would lower income taxes for more than 99 percent of Illinoisans while generating $1.9 billion in new revenue by raising rates on the wealthy.

Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, is sponsoring legislation in the House that would lower the state income tax rate from 3.75 percent to 3.5 percent for individuals earning less than $100,000 a year and families earning less than $200,000. The proposal would create a new top tax bracket of 9.75 percent on individuals income above $1 million and families income above $1.5 million.

Langs fair tax proposal is tied to a proposed amendment that would do away with the Illinois Constitutions requirement that all taxpayers be charged the same rate. That proposal, sponsored by Rep. Christian Mitchell, D-Chicago, would require the support of three-fifths majorities in the House and Senate to be put to voters for approval on the November ballot.

At a time where Illinois citizens are still hurting due to an economy that had faltered over the years, 99 percent of them will receive a tax cut under this legislation, Lang said Monday in a conference call with reporters.

But the proposal is already facing strong headwinds from conservative-leaning groups like the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Policy Institute.

The plan would punish small business owners and would accelerate the documented flight of high net worth individuals out of our state, Todd Maisch, the chambers president, said Friday in a written statement.

However, Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, the Senate sponsor of the proposed constitutional amendment, said the vast majority of businesses would also see a tax cut under the proposal because they are taxed at the personal rate, not the corporate rate.

The fact is this is a tax cut for small and middle-size businesses and for those job creators, Harmon said. This will enable them to put more money into their businesses to expand and to grow.

Emily Miller, policy director at the advocacy group Voices for Illinois Children, said that while the proposal isnt an immediate solution to the current budget impasse, it would help social service providers and others that have been hurt by the states inability to enact a budget.

Its time for us to start being a little bit more forward-thinking in the way that we plan our budgeting process, Miller said, and this is going to allow us to have the tools we need to not rely on low- and middle-income families when we need to be able to respond to the needs of our service providers.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has been locked in a budget standoff with legislative Democrats for nearly 10 months, has repeatedly said he would support plans to generate new revenue. But his office issued a statement Friday to the Capitol Fax blog saying this proposal would be the straw that breaks the Illinois economys back.

With social services providers, state universities and community colleges struggling without state funding due to the impasse, the Democrats tax proposal could shape up to be a key issue heading into the November election.

Kristen Crowell, campaign manager for the Fair Tax Campaign, said the proposal is perfectly politically viable.

A poll done for the group by Tulchin Research earlier this year showed 71 percent support statewide, including majorities in the Chicago area and downstate and, to widely varying degrees, across the political spectrum.

This is a safe vote for legislators to take, Crowell said.

While there are, in theory, enough Democrats in the House to pass the proposed amendment on a party-line vote, the supermajority has failed to hold together on several key issues in the past year.

Mitchell said they hope to earn support from across the aisle, especially given the exigent threats for a lot of (Republican) members in their districts due to the ongoing impasse.
DYER  A new brochure to market the town to prospective developers and businesses has won the approval of the three-member Economic Development Commission.

Produced by the Lake County IN Economic Alliance led by Karen Lauerman, the brochure will be available in an electronic version and possibly printed copies in time for retail conferences later this month in Chicago said Steve Kramer, EDC president.

Commissioners asked Cathy Lareau, town council liaison to the EDC, to attend the conferences if possible.

The EDC also unanimously approved a resolution creating a targeted economic development area for retail in accordance with state statute.

State law requires less than 15 percent of the towns total geographic area be designated as an economic development area, said Bill Enslen, commission attorney.

This only deals with retail development, Enslen said, adding that tax abatement would be allowed for retail development in the area. However that development has to be new.

This economic development area excludes the Calumet Avenue corridor because that is zoned for various uses, not exclusively retail, the attorney said.

The last time Dyer created a similar targeted economic development or impact area was to bring in Walts Foods along Sheffield Avenue, Enslen said.

This is a starting point, Kramer said. We can do it again and change it (in the future).

In other business, the EDC voted to invite Tim Brown, director of Lake County Economic Development Department, to attend a future meeting.

We could fill him in on what were doing and have a foot in the door with the county, Kramer said.
DYER  The Lake County SWAT team was called to an apartment Monday afternoon on a report that a man had barricaded himself in and was threatening to shoot himself.

According to a police source, the man first called the Lynwood police, who forwarded the call to Lake County. The man reportedly said he had already shot himself in the head and intended to "finish the job" because he was depressed. Then the phone went dead.

The incident happened in the 1000 block of Harrison, near Protsman Elementary School. Dyer Police Chief David Hein said police "took every precaution for the rest of the residents of the apartment."

"We secured the scene and attempted to make contact," Hein said.

When they were unable to make contact, police entered the building and found the person dead, he added.

The manner of death will be investigated by the Lake County coroner's office.

Dyer police were assisted by the Dyer Fire Department, Prompt Ambulance, St. John Police and Northwest Regional SWAT.
LAKE STATION  Some city leaders are frustrated with activities they said are occurring at some auto repair businesses in Lake Station.

During Thursday's City Council meeting, officials said some mechanical shops are also serving as used car lots.

Councilman Rick Long said some of those businesses also are allowing long-term storage of vehicles on their properties, which creates an aesthetic issue.

Long said business licenses granted for auto repair facilities in the city only allow repairs and service of vehicles at those locations. Vehicle sales and storage aren't permitted, he said.

Long asked Mayor Christopher Anderson to have personnel visit all the mechanical shops in the city to enforce any violations that exist.

Anderson said an issue with tackling that problem is the city's zoning enforcement officer position is currently vacant after the person who held that job recently resigned. The zoning enforcement officer handles violations involving businesses in the community.

The city has a code enforcement officer who is responsible for enforcing residential code issues in Lake Station. Until a new zoning officer is hired, the code enforcement employee could be asked to also investigate business-related issues, Anderson said.

He said the city is seeking candidates for the vacant zoning position, and he hopes to schedule interviews as soon as possible.

City Attorney Michael Deppe said there is a another method Lake Station could pursue to address the sale of vehicles at auto repair businesses.

He said the city and residents could file complaints about those issues through the Indiana Attorney General's office.

Deppe said dealer licenses are required to operate used car lots, and those license include a very strict code that must be followed.

He said the Attorney General's office would examine complaints filed and could help in addressing the alleged activities.
MERRILLVILLE  Police are asking for help in locating a 23-year-old woman and her 2-month-old daughter, police said.

Diamond Lewis, of Merrillville, last spoke to her father on the phone April 11, Detective Cpl. Nate Dillahunty said.

The father reported Lewis and her daughter, Morgan Williams, missing Sunday, he said.

Lewis talks to her father regularly and it's unusual for her to be out of contact with him for more than a day or two, he said.

The circumstances surrounding Lewis' disappearance remain under investigation, but her vehicle is missing, he said.

Lewis was described as black, about 5 foot 3, and 165 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

Lewis' vehicle is a tan 1999 four-door Buick Century with Indiana license plate WTK341, Dillahunty said.

Anyone with information about Lewis' whereabouts is asked to call police at (219) 769-3531.
With Bernie Sanders showing no signs of backing down, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is hoping a big win in her home state Tuesday will move her that much closer to wrapping up the nomination. Josh Robin filed the following report.

From a Yonkers hospital to a car wash in Queens to a Manhattan restaurant run by survivors of the September 11th attacks, Hillary Clinton offers the same message.

"I'm hoping to wrap up the Democratic nomination," Clinton said. "But I'm not going to take anything for granted."



So committed is Clinton, she violated her rule about eating in front of the press by tucking in to a victory sundae named after her at Mikey Likes It in the East Village.



"I know, but I couldnt stop," she said. "I was going to change it to to go, but it was front of me and I couldnt stop eating it."

Polls in New York have the states former senator holding a double-digit lead. Her multi-stop stumping on Monday is an attempt to fight any voter complacency and to hit a cross-section of the city.



Latinos and union organizers. Asian-Americans. The LGBT community. And especially women.



A midday rally didn't draw the tens of thousands of supporters who have flocked to Bernie Sanders' events. But her history-making potential is luring reliable voters.



Clinton clicked through issues like paid family leave, guns and abortion, hitting her Democratic rival and Donald Trump, who, before backpedaling, said women undergoing the procedure should be punished.



"When Trump said what he said about punishing women, I was appalled. That is a core issue. And when my opponent in this primary said it was a distraction, that he wanted to talk about the real issues, I was appalled again," Clinton said.



Clinton, meanwhile, is dismissing as frivolous a Sanders lawsuit alleging illegal cooperation between her campaign and the Democratic National Committee.



Flanking Clinton on her last day of campaigning was a who's who of famous politicians.



Clinton on Tuesday will vote near her home in Westchester County and then speak to a union group in Washington, D.C. She returns for a rally Tuesday evening that she hopes is a victory party.


While Bernie Sanders has drawn huge crowds to rallies around the city, including one tonight along the Queens waterfront, he spent most of the day doing the kind of person-to-person politicking he's not typically known for. Our Bobby Cuza spent the day trailing Sanders and filed this report.

As the candidates kept up a frantic pace of campaigning Monday, Bernie sanders did much of it on foot. Whether it was walking down 6th Avenue and along 34th Street in Manhattan, strolling along a retail corridor on Fordham Road, or working his way through Jackson Heights and later Astoria, Sanders pounded the pavement shaking hands and posing for selfies with often-surprised New Yorkers.

Along the way he also made a surprise appearance at a rally for striking Verizon workers.

"You're standing up for justice," Sanders said. "We're gonna win this thing."

In the Bronx, he met with Latino leaders for a roundtable on issues ranging from housing to immigration to the status of Puerto Rico.

And for the second day in a row he visited public housing, railing against disinvestment.

"We have got to change deteriorating housing," Sanders said.

Of course the headlining event of the day was another big outdoor rally, where Sanders delivered his campaign message to a huge crowd of supporters, this time on the Long Island City waterfront.

Before a crowd the campaign said numbered 8,500 people, Sanders talked about changing the country's priorities and investing in cities.

It was his last pitch to New Yorkers before they head to the polls Tuesday, lofty rhetoric from "a man of the people" after a long day of getting up close and personal with them.
There's just one more day to go before New York voters choose a presidential candidate in the state primaries.

And even though most polls show her leading Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton is not taking anything for granted.

Clinton is set to take part in a Get Out the Vote event in Manhattan today with New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

It comes after a Clinton spent a busy Sunday attending rallies in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island.

Clinton hammered Sanders on a number of issues including gun control.

She also said that she would do more than Sanders to address health care reform

"Before there was something called Obamacare, there was something called Hillarycare. And I really tried hard, and I got my head handed to me by the drug companies and the insurance companies. You know, I love it when all these other folks, including my opponent in the primary, talk about taking on the interests, where were you?" Clinton said.

Bernie Sanders plans to rally supporters at a Get Out the Vote concert at "Hunters Point South" Park in Queens tonight.

The Vermont Senator and Brooklyn native was back in his home borough yesterday for a rally in Prospect Park.

Sanders reminded the crowd that his campaign is being financed by individual donations and criticized Hillary Clinton for accepting corporate money.

He also attacked the former Secretary of State's for voting for the Iraq War in 2003.

"Senator Clinton heard the same evidence I did, she voted for that disastrous war, the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of America," Sanders said.

Clinton currently leads Sanders by nearly 250 delegates.

Two-hundred and forty seven delegates are up for grabs in New York tomorrow - 2,382 are needed to win the Democratic nomination.
The Republican candidates for president are doing some last-minute campaigning before Tuesday's primary in New York. Donald Trump appeared at Trump Tower today for a brief meeting with his campaign's diversity coalition. And Ted Cruz campaigned in Maryland, but he is back in the city tonight for a private fundraiser in Midtown. Our Grace Rauh is outside that fundraiser and joins us now with more.

This was not a traditional campaign stop for Donald Trump. He made a brief appearance at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue to address a diverse group of supporters calling themselves "The National Diversity Coalition for Trump."

"Our country is divided," Trump said. "We are totally divided. we are going to come together and be successful. We are going to make great trade deals. People are going to come together to be successful and make great trade deals. People can come into our country but come in legally. We are going create jobs."

A top aide to Trump says there are about 500 members of this group, representing everyone from Native Americans to Hispanics to Muslims to women to Sikhs and others. It does not appear that much was accomplished at the meeting. It appeared more like an opportunity for Trump to appear in front a group of diverse supporters.

"Trump's no racist," Pastor Darrell Scott of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump. "He's not a racist, he's not a xenophobe, he's not a misogynist. He's not any of the above. I've known him for a long time. We've been working closely together. He's our candidate for choice.

Trump is held a rally in Buffalo Monday night. He has a significant lead in the polls in his home state. But John Kasich and Ted Cruz are still trying to pick up delegates here and prevent Trump from winning the nomination outright.

Kasich held town hall meetings upstate in Syracuse and Schenectady.

Ted Cruz participated in a town hall meeting on Good Morning America. He was asked about Trump's declaration that the Republican nominating process is rigged, crooked and corrupt.

Donald is not a complicated man to understand. He doesn't handle losing very well. There have been a total of five states that have voted in the last three weeks. And he lost all five. We have won five in a row.

Cruz also held a rally today in Maryland but he's back in New York tonight for this fundraiser. As for tomorrow, Trump is the only Republican who plans to be in New York on Primary Night. He's hosting an event at Trump Tower. Kasich is holding a town hall meeting in Annapolis, Maryland.
Island lawmakers honored Vietnam Veterans across the borough Sunday.

Senator Andrew Lanza and Assemblyman Matthew Titone hosted a Vietnam Veterans Day celebration.

Community Leaders said they're honoring local heroes for their service during a time when they say many criticized the war.

Veterans said they appreciate the support.

"It's always welcome when we get it even though we didn't get it when we came back and I get it all over the place now everybody says 'thank you for your service. Thank you for Vietnam - it's very nice," said Veteran James Wright.

"It's good to carry on the tradition that we honor our service people," said Veteran Michael Brennan.

Vietnam Veterans Day became a state holiday eight years ago.
A Staten Island hospital is doing its part to increase awareness of organ donation.

Staten Island University Hospital raised a flag Monday in honor of National Organ Donation Month. Health officials say New York State has one of the lowest rates of organ donation and that one donor can save the lives of up to eight people.

"It's the most selfless gifts anybody could give back to, really to their community, to their society," said Christopher Sorrentino of SIUH.

"If you're going to give your heart to somebody, that heart is saving a life. That is such a wonderful thing to do," said organ recipient Joann Berardi.

For more information on how to sign up, visit organdonor.gov.
Craig Rucker, a co-founder of the organization, said the committee got about a third of its money from other foundations. But Mr. Rucker would not identify them or say how much his foundation would pay Mr. Morano. (Mr. Morano says it will be more than the $134,000 he earned annually in the Senate.)

Public tax filings for 2003-7  the last five years for which documents are available  show that the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the ExxonMobil Foundation and from foundations associated with the billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, a longtime financer of conservative causes best known for its efforts to have President Bill Clinton impeached. Mr. Rucker said Exxon had not contributed anything last year.

Mr. Morano grew up in a conservative household in Northern Virginia with an affinity for nature and animals  his basement was home to a menagerie of reptiles, including a boa constrictor.

I used to tell people I was Republican except on the environment, he said.

After college, Mr. Morano worked as a reporter for Rush Limbaugh, where he said he had learned the satisfactions of poking at the liberal establishment. He made a documentary on the Amazon rain forest, he said, because it annoyed him that celebrities like Sting could dictate what people think about the issue. They vastly exaggerated the problem of deforestation, he concluded.

He then jumped to Cybercast News Service, where he was the first to publish accusations from Vietnam Swift-boat veterans that Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, then the Democratic presidential nominee, had glorified his war record. Many of the accusations later proved unfounded.

Mr. Morano is proud of his work, which he says is not advocacy but truth seeking.

Even in the Senate, Id put up any of the stories we did against any pablum Time or Newsweek has put out on global warming, he said. Wed link to the other side; wed present their arguments. They do one-sided screeds.

In 2007, he points out, the Republican Web site of Mr. Inhofes committee won an award from the independent Congressional Management Foundation.
Jumping a deteriorating airport fence, running across the airport unobserved in the darkness and climbing into the wheel well of a parked Boeing 767, as a California teenager did on Sunday, is not all that difficult, according to experts, but surviving the trip  in this case, a five-and-a-half-hour flight from San Jose, Calif., to Maui, Hawaii  is extraordinary.

I just assumed that everybody who did this died, said Richard Marchi, an airport consultant.

Most do, but the 15-year-old boy who hid in one of the wheel wells for the main landing gear on the plane, woke up after it landed and walked out onto the landing field, where he was noticed by the Hawaiian Airlines ground crew and eventually turned over to state child welfare authorities. He had apparently spent most of the flight unconscious in the freezing, low-oxygen, wheel storage compartment.

Officials in Hawaii would not describe the condition of the stowaway on Monday, but did say he was from Santa Clara, Calif.; had been traveling with no identification; and had run away from home after a dispute with his family.

Officials have notified the boys family that he is safe, the Office of Child Welfare Services said in a statement. It added that the office would enlist the help of all necessary agencies to ensure the boys safe return to his home in California.
Chris Matthews: We have 11 million people living illegally in this country. Diane Sawyer: 11 million undocumented immigrants living and working in America. Obama at Bill OReilley: we dont have the capacity to deport 11 million people TITLE PAGE: AMERICAS 11 MILLION VO: 11 MILLION ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CURRENTLY LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES. HERES A LOOK AT WHO THEY ARE. MUSICAL LIFT PAIRED WITH PORTRAITS VO: ACCORDING THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, A MAJORITY HAVE BEEN HERE FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS - 54 PERCENT - 6.1 MILLION ARRIVED BETWEEN 1999 AND 2004. 61 PERCENT ARE BETWEEN THE AGES OF 25 AND 44, AND OVERALL ITS ABOUT 50-50 MEN AND WOMEN. THE PEW RESEARCH CENTER ESTIMATES 4 MILLION HAVE CHILDREN BORN HERE IN THE UNITED STATES. THESE PEOPLE ARE AMONG THOSE EXPECTED TO RECEIVE PROTECTION FROM DEPORTATION, BUT FULL CITIZENSHIP, UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMAS EXECUTIVE ACTION. SOT: 11-19-14 OBAMA BITE 0.25: Everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken MOST STATES WITH THE LARGEST POPULATIONS ARE ALSO HOME TO THE MOST UNDOCUMENTED PEOPLE. CALIFORNIA HAS 2.45 MILLION, FOLLOWED BY TEXAS (1.65), FLORIDA (925 THOUSAND), NEW YORK (750 THOUSAND), NEW JERSEY (525 THOUSAND), AND ILLINOIS (475 THOUSAND). BUT NEVADA HAS THE LARGEST PERCENTAGE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. MEANWHILE, IMMIGRANTS ARE SETTLING ACROSS THE COUNTRY NOW, WITH POPULATION S RISING IN MARYLAND WHERE THERE IS NEAR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE IN D.C. TO PENNSYLVANIA, VIRGINIA AND NEBRASKA WHICH EACH OFFER GROWING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES. NATPOP - TRAIN with Building America slogan SOTS (((OPTIONAL: Obama on July 4, 2012 Immigration makes us stronger, immigration makes us prosperous. [tc 8.34])))) NAT: VIDEO OF WORKERS - I CUT IT ( - the natpop comes above - train) VO: NEARLY ALL MEN HERE WITHOUT PAPERS  87%  ARE WORKING. MOST WOMEN  82 %  ARE ALSO EMPLOYED OR HOME CARING FOR CHILDREN. SOT: UNDOCUMENTED WORKER THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY HAS LONG BEEN A SOURCE OF JOBS FOR THE UNDOCUMENTED. NOW SOUTH EASTERN STATES WITH EXPANDING METROPOLITAN AREAS LIKE NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE AND CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, ARE NEWLY ATTRACTING IMMIGRANTS. AND A FEW INTERESTING THIRDS TO NOTE: A THIRD OF THESE ADULTS LIVE BELOW THE FEDERAL POVERTY LEVEL. BUT NEARLY A THIRD OF UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANTS OWN HOMES, AND A THIRD CARRY HEALTH INSURANCE. OVERALL, THE VAST MAJORITY  5.8 MILLION - ARE MEXICAN BORN. WHILE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE COMING FROM MEXICO IS DECLINING, THE NUMBERS SEEKING REFUGE FROM GANG VIOLENCE AND POVERTY IN GUATEMALA, EL SALVADOR AND OTHER CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRIES IS RISING. BUT UNLESS THESE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN HERE FOR MORE THAN 5 YEARS AND HAVE U-S BORN CHILDREN, THEYRE UNLIKELY TO BE PROTECTED BY PRESIDENT OBAMAS EXECUTIVE ACTION.
Season 2, Episode 2: We All Fall Down

Some people, after seeing Jaws, never swam in the ocean again. Some, after seeing enough depictions of the zombie apocalypse, got serious about their What If? plan. Emergency kits with water rations went into both cars and under beds. Families were emailed about disaster plans.

Or maybe thats just the more impressionable among us. (Who knows what my local hardware store thinks Im up to. All I know is that bolt cutters, some rope and a knife seem like really sensible things to have on hand.) Its not too late to make nice with your aunt with the unused Y2K panic room.

This week, the group attempts to throw off their pursuers by taking shelter in a cove of a small island and Maddie, Travis and their children go to investigate a flickering light. Daniel and Ofelia meanwhile remain on the Abigail; they still dont trust Strand, who hasnt slept in days, not to leave everyone behind. Daniel takes extra precaution by sniffing out an automatic rifle hidden with some annotated maps. After all, do we even know for sure the Abigail belongs to Strand?

The island is home to George, a park ranger, his wife Melissa, teenage son Seth and two young children, Harry and Willa. George is a sort of survivalist who believes its his familys destiny to die on this island, sooner rather than later. If our groups burden is the innocence of hope, Georges family is weighed down by a weary inevitability; a tourist village on the other side of the island has walkers. Sure, theyll pick off the ones that occasionally work their way down the beach, and patch holes in their wire fence, but George announces theyre merely biding time, and we the audience know that hes right.
In dance, as in life, youth has its privileges: There are things you can get away with for only a limited time. An older group of dancers, for instance, probably couldnt have pulled off Ethan Stiefels Knightlife, the comic ballet that opened a three-day run of American Ballet Theaters Studio Company at the Joyce Theater on Friday.

The Studio Company serves as a kind of steppingstone from ballet training to professional life; many of its members, ages 16 to 20, wind up in the main company or other leading troupes around the country. Alumni include the superstars Misty Copeland and David Hallberg.

At the Joyce, the group was joined by advanced students from Ballet Theaters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. These younger affiliates, who performed Knightlife and Raymond Lukenss effervescent Danse Baroque, seemed on par with their older peers; they were just as lucid and expansive. If Ballet Theater faces any challenge in hiring new dancers, it may be a surplus of talent within its own ranks.

The company is fostering choreographic talent, too. Mr. Stiefel is a former principal with the company, and Gemma Bond, who contributed Third Wheels, a new trio, is a corps member steadily finding her voice as a dance maker.
One such sale, for $25,500, was for a house in Elyria, Ohio.

In April 2011, Harbour sold a contract for deed on the house for $36,300, according to public filings. Under the terms of that deal, the 24-year-old woman who now lives in the house is required to pay 10 percent interest or a monthly base payment of $314  a sum that does not include property taxes, insurance or any outlays for repairs or renovations.

Under a contract for deed, a buyer gets the legal title to the home either at the end of the contract, which can run anywhere from 20 to 40 years, or if the buyer is able to pay off the balance owed all in one go.

After the financial crisis, Harbour emerged as one of the larger national players in the contract for deed market. The firm bought more than 6,700 single-family homes, most of them from Fannie Mae.

But in recent months, Harbour has sold more than 600 homes to investment firms like Shelter Growth and individual investors, according to public filings.

A review of some of the homes sold to SG Capital found that the contracts used by Harbour have drawn criticism from some housing lawyers because the documents do not provide buyers with a specified time period to remedy a default, give Harbour the right to immediately convert the agreement to a month-to-month tenancy upon a default, and include an arbitration clause for settling some disputes.

Through his lawyer, Jacqueline Mallett, the founder of Harbour, Charles A. Vose III, declined to comment for this article.

It is unclear whether Mr. Sparkss firm plans to change the contracts or abide by the terms. Mr. Sparks declined to comment.
Mr. Zuckerberg also spoke about his companys ambitions to host TV-style live video, an initiative that some media companies, including The New York Times, are investing in seriously, despite uncertainty about the rates at which videos will be monetized.

Facebook also announced that it would open up Instant Articles  which encourage publishers to post their content directly to Facebook  to any publisher. The company demonstrated chat bots, through which users can interact directly with media companies, including publishers, through Facebooks Messenger app.

Messenger is going to be the next big platform for sharing privately, and for helping you connect with services in all kinds of new ways, Mr. Zuckerberg said, after demonstrating a CNN chat bot on stage.

At the same time, publishers pored over a report from the analytics firm Parse.ly, detailing how important Facebook had become to their business: Among sites tracked by the firm, more than 40 percent of web traffic came from the social network.

Facebooks users seem to be following Mr. Zuckerbergs lead. NewsWhip, which tracks how publishers are performing across major Internet platforms, says the rate at which links to outside websites are shared on Facebook, compared with videos and Instant Articles, has declined.

Liam Corcoran, NewsWhips communications director, says that in recent months a wide range of publishers have called him to ask whether sudden drops in Facebook reach are widespread, and asking how they might be remedied  as if they were asking how to cure a disease.

Its a doctors office, he said.

So far, publishers are responding in a variety of ways. With the help of venture capital funding, companies like BuzzFeed and Vox are investing heavily in video production with a focus on TV and film. Others, like Mashable, are diverting resources to increasing their audience on Facebook, hoping that enough money  through revenue-sharing arrangements with the company  will follow.
The laws passage, without a single Republican vote, capped decades of efforts to enact a broader health insurance system. Medicaid and Medicare passed in the 1960s, but did little to help workers who did not receive insurance through their jobs. Presidents Nixon, Carter and Clinton all tried and failed to win approval for expanded coverage, and the number of uninsured Americans grew to nearly a fifth of adults under the age of 65 by 2010, the year the Affordable Care Act passed.

The findings from the census data could inform the national dialogue, especially in this election year. Hispanics are a powerful voting force and the law is viewed favorably in Hispanic neighborhoods. But whether the sharp increase in coverage rates for Hispanics will translate into votes for Democrats who supported the law, or whether some Republicans might temper their vows to repeal it, is not clear. And the fact that so many who benefited under the law were not citizens (or voters)  1.2 million out of the total 8.7 million who got health insurance in 2014  could set off a new round of debate in a year when immigration has become a deeply polarizing issue.

About 60 percent of those noncitizens were Hispanic, mostly natives of Mexico and Central America who had been living in the United States for decades. Another third were Asian, mostly newer arrivals living in states like California, New York and Texas. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for insurance under the law, but legal immigrants can qualify for subsidies in the insurance exchanges and those who have been in the country for more than five years can qualify for Medicaid.
But this case does reflect deep and understandable anxieties about our constitutional system in an age of political polarization. Republicans have woken up to the alarming powers of the president to make policy by choosing which laws to enforce, and how much. The founders did not anticipate the growth of the federal bureaucracy, which enables the president to make policy by emphasizing some programs and neglecting others. Republicans are right that the question of who gets to stay in the country is traditionally a policy matter for Congress  and when millions of people are affected by a unilateral decision by the president, we might be troubled about the magnitude of the presidents power. The administrations response  that Congress has authorized DAPA and DACA by giving the president so much discretion in the first place  is a legalistic argument that avoids rather than addresses the problem.

The Democrats, by contrast, have woken up to the weakness of Congress. The rules and traditions of that august body give small groups of representatives, acting on behalf of a tiny segment of the population, the power to block reform that nearly everyone agrees is needed. Here, too, we detect the fingerprints of the founders, who feared tyranny by legislative majorities. But the founders expected state governments to do most of the governing; in the modern era, vast swaths of policy have been given over to the feds.

For most of our history, majorities in Congress bought off the minority with logrolling, pork and the like. But in recent decades, complex demographic and institutional changes have yielded a polarized Congress in which payoffs are hard to arrange. In the face of congressional paralysis, the public  most of it  looks to the president to solve its problems, enabling the president to call upon his latent legal powers with full force. This naturally enhances support for the president among his constituency and magnifies the distrust of his opponents, causing further polarization.

Can the Supreme Court clean up this mess? Definitely not. The judges on the lower courts  a Republican-appointed Dstrict-Court judge, and two Republican-appointed Circuit Court judges who outvoted a Democratic-appointed colleague  held that the president should have gone through the administrative procedure called notice-and-comment rule-making. If the Supreme Court upholds this ruling, it wont shift the balance of the power back to Congress; it will simply make it somewhat more time-consuming for the president to exert his or her will.

Only if the Supreme Court announces broad and unprecedented restrictions on the presidents discretion to enforce the law could the ruling impose a meaningful constraint on future presidents  and the court wont do that. The liberal justices can block a ruling with precedential effect by ensuring a 4-4 tie that would uphold the lower courts decision but not create new constitutional restrictions on the president. We could even see a 5-3 vote in favor of the president, with Chief Justice Roberts joining the liberals in an opinion that reverses the lower court and leaves our creaky system of governance intact. He may think that a powerful president  even a powerful liberal president  is not as big of a problem as a government that doesnt work.

Eric

Hi, Eric,

I suspect the courts four liberal-moderates (Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan) will reject Texass challenge, as you predict. They were a remarkably disciplined voting bloc last term, and they must be emboldened by the courts new composition, which evens the ideological sides.

I wouldnt count Robertss vote yet, though. Youre right that he cares about the courts institutional reputation, and he has become a whipping boy of the right for his two votes to uphold Obamacare. But the idea that Roberts is a traitor to the conservative movement is hugely unfair to him. His votes for Obamacare served the interests of the Republican Party, even if many of its leaders cant admit it, by preventing another hugely divisive fight over how to replace Obamacare. The G.O.P. is much better at calling for its demise than at explaining what would come next.
Like some other states, Connecticut is facing a budget shortfall. And in part because of its shrinking finance sector and dependence on personal income taxes for revenue, state lawmakers, a majority of whom are Democrats, are finding themselves in a fiscal pickle.

Forced to rely heavily on its highest earners to fill the states coffers, and fearful of alienating more of the highest-earning residents after a tax increase last year, legislators are not entertaining additional taxes on the rich.

Wed price ourselves out of the market, said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, if the state tried to make up for its $922 million shortfall with a millionaires tax. The revised budget Mr. Malloy proposed on Tuesday covers the shortfall, incorporating cuts to expenses and jobs  as many as 2,500 state positions could be eliminated  but no tax increases.

Connecticut faces a new economic reality, Mr. Malloy said in an interview on Saturday. High-paying finance jobs, which helped the states budget, are not expected to return to pre-recession levels.
Still, Ms. Barnhart added, People will come in and ask, Do you have merlot?

We say, No, we cant grow those grapes here because theyre wimps when it comes to winter, Mr. Barnhart said. But we do have this, this and this.

Tim E. Martinson is a senior extension associate at Cornell and the director of the Northern Grapes Project, which helps producers grow cold-hardy grapes and then teaches them how to make and market wines. Some of the new plants created through the project can withstand temperatures as low as minus 30 Fahrenheit.

Will they ever become a new merlot? Thats beyond the point, Mr. Martinson said. The point is that people have created a viable business, making new wines and selling them out of their own tasting rooms.

Connoisseurs might not be ready to rank these cold-weather wines among European classics, but cold-hardy varieties are quickly gaining recognition. At a recent international wine competition in Rochester that included 3,824 wines from 913 producers, one of Mr. Barnharts wines earned a double-gold medal and about a half-dozen more northern New York wineries earned gold medals.

Image A wine-tasting room at Amorici Vineyard. Credit... Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

If youre winning medals against the best vineyards in the world from 26 countries, youre making some pretty good wine, Peter Parts, the founder of the competition, said. The key now is for producers to educate consumers about these wines and pairings.

Ms. Barnhart said consumers in their 20s to early 30s were providing most of the support for their wines. Baby boomers and older people stick with wines they know, she said. The younger generation is more global in their desires. Theyre more adventurous. They actually like to try something new.
There is the South Shore election to replace Dean G. Skelos, the former State Senate majority leader, in which Mr. Kaminsky, a freshman Democratic state assemblyman and former federal prosecutor, faces Christopher McGrath, a Republican personal-injury lawyer who polls show holds an edge in the contest. Mr. Kaminsky has staked his campaign on cleaning up the Albany muck that he says Mr. Skelos, a Republican, has come to represent; Mr. McGrath has profitably made the election about everything but Mr. Skelos.

There is the Lower Manhattan race to replace Sheldon Silver, the former Assembly speaker, in which the Democrat, Alice Cancel, would be a lock for the solid-blue district were it not for an unexpectedly well-organized challenge from a third-party candidate, Yuh-Line Niou, who has accused Ms. Cancel of owing the Democratic nomination to Mr. Silvers hidden hand.

A win for Mr. Kaminsky on Long Island could help flip control of the State Senate, which Republicans currently dominate only by dint of caucusing with one Democrat, who is not on friendly terms with his own party, and informally aligning with five more. But its real significance may be for the fall elections, in which all seats will be in play.

Both Ms. Niou and Mr. Kaminsky are road-testing the urgent need to reform Albany  the message Democrats are counting on to propel them to Senate control in the fall  as a central electoral concern. Their opponents, they say, are too close to the men who brought a new level of shame to Albany and too uncommitted to ethics reform.

Mr. Kaminsky  who is Mel Brookss great-nephew  may be finding that a relentless focus on corruption, despite its consistent ranking in the polls as a top voter concern, can go only so far.
To the Editor:

Drought Cuts Short an African Success Story (front page, April 13), about Zambias big Kariba Dam, describes the predicament facing those countries in Africa that are reliant on hydroelectricity in a time of climate destabilization.

Turning to essentially waterless technologies like rooftop solar and wind can provide electricity to thousands of rural communities that have not been served and are unlikely to be by expensive transmission lines from big dams.

The World Bank could have funded decentralized renewable energy that would truly advance its primary mission of reducing poverty, but instead is doggedly pushing more methane-emitting big dam projects for Africa despite the evidence of a severely changing climate for this continent.

BRENT BLACKWELDER

Washington

The writer is president emeritus of Friends of the Earth and a board member of International Rivers.
To the Editor:

Re Study Abroads Seven Deadly Sins (Education Life, April 10):

As a Middlebury student studying abroad in Kathmandu, Nepal, I found this article to be incredibly frustrating.

While I agree that study abroad has many shortcomings, the article paints American college students as privileged, uncaring youths gallivanting around the world in search of sex and stimulants. This characterization is a grave exaggeration and fails to contextualize the academic and social pressures that inform the study abroad experience.

The article fails to make any reference to study abroad as a trying experience emotionally for many students. Maintaining mental wellness in a foreign context is a more pressing priority for most of us than achieving a perfect selfie.

To suggest otherwise is an example of the way in which the media paints millennials as shallow and emotionally unaware young people rather than as individuals navigating the tumultuous transition to adulthood.
Bernie Sanders had an odd, and for me, unsettling comment at the Democratic debate in Brooklyn on Thursday night.

When CNNs Dana Bash asked if he planned to take his nomination fight to the Democratic convention if Hillary Clinton does not clinch the nomination with pledged delegates alone, Sanders responded:

Secretary Clinton cleaned our clock in the Deep South. No question about it. We got murdered there. That is the most conservative part of this great country. Thats the fact. But you know what? Were out of the Deep South now. And were moving up.

He went on to tout having won seven of the last eight caucuses and primaries. (In fact, of those seven, all except Wisconsin were caucuses, which are undemocratic in their own right.)

This wasnt the first time in recent days that Sanders said something about voters in the Deep South that landed on my ear as belittling and dismissive.
After the withering backlash against North Carolina for passing a discriminatory law against gay and transgender people last month, it would stand to reason that lawmakers and governors in other states would think twice before peddling bills that dictate which restrooms transgender people can use.

And yet, state legislators in Tennessee, Kansas, South Carolina and Minnesota are pushing similar absurd measures. The lunacy at the heart of this demand to police every public bathroom was captured by Leon Lott, the sheriff of Richland County in South Carolina, who told state lawmakers last week that the law would be unenforceable because his officers could not be in the business of inspecting peoples genitals.

In the 41 years I have been in law enforcement in South Carolina, I have never heard of a transgender person attacking or otherwise bothering someone in a restroom, Sheriff Lott wrote in a letter to the committee studying the states bathroom bill. This is a non-issue.

Laws to address non-issues can have serious repercussions. The hastily passed bill in North Carolina, which said people must use public restrooms based on the gender on their birth certificate and prohibited local governments from passing nondiscrimination ordinances, has been roundly condemned by corporate leaders, civil rights groups and religious leaders.
Amidst the overwhelming sea of design installations at Salone del Mobile, how do you get people to pause long enough to appreciate anything during this extravaganza? Invite them to eat.

Design week in Milan has become all about the quick fix, said the designer Tom Dixon at his latest installation, but Italy for me is all about slowing down. Dixons exhibit for Milans furniture fair, in collaboration with the luxury countertop maker Caesarstone, took over the Rotonda della Besana  a cross-shaped hospital from the medieval era  and transformed each of the four wings into its own cozy and welcoming dining hall. Based on the four elements, each quarter is distinct in its design and menu.

Inspired by fire, one wing was filled with soot-colored tables and copper-treated, flamelike glass orb lights; diners munched on black coal flatbreads. Silver globules hung above the water-inspired wing, where hot soup with blast-chilled spring vegetables combined water in all three states of matter  ice, liquid and steam  for guests to contemplate while sitting at a cafeteria-style Tom Dixon table, his interpretations of the elements all around. Dixon, who operates a restaurant in London where he puts in a monthly shift as chef, was enamored with the idea of creating a place to entertain amidst his designs. Reclining in a furry armchair, fresh bread coming out of the oven just behind him, Dixon said, I always wanted to tell everyone, Come over to my house.
On the Democratic side, where the primary is expected to be closer, Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders spent the day trying to drum up support.

Polls have shown Mrs. Clinton with an edge over Mr. Sanders, but Mr. Sanders is hoping for an unexpectedly strong performance that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton on her adopted turf.

Both candidates were knocked off balance this weekend when questioned about an issue with particular relevance in New York: a bill that would allow foreign governments to be held responsible in American courts for having a role in terrorist attacks, such as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Saudi Arabia had told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it would sell off hundreds of billions of dollars worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passed the bill. The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bills passage, The Times reported.

How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Learn more about our process.

In television interviews broadcast on Sunday, Mr. Sanders and Mrs. Clinton said they needed more information to say where they stood on the bill.

But after Mrs. Clintons interview aired, her campaign released a statement breaking with the Obama administration. The statement said Mrs. Clinton supported efforts to secure the ability of 9/11 families and other victims of terrorist acts to hold accountable those responsible.

Later in the day, Mr. Sanderss campaign also issued a statement in support of the legislation.

Mrs. Clinton made several stops in New York on Sunday. In Mount Vernon, she spoke at a Baptist church, saying she was the candidate most willing to take stands in favor of gun control, while in Upper Manhattan she danced at a block party in Washington Heights. She also held a rally on Staten Island.
WASHINGTON  Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. twice voted to save President Obamas health care law, infuriating his usual allies on the right. Now, conservatives are nervous that the chief justice will disappoint them again in a challenge to another major Obama initiative, this one on immigration.

The case, to be argued on Monday at the Supreme Court, presents fundamental questions about executive power against the backdrop of a wrenching national debate over Mr. Obamas plan to spare millions of immigrants from deportation. But Chief Justice Robertss record suggests that he may avoid taking a position on such a divisive and partisan issue, focusing instead on the more technical question of whether the states challenging the Obama administrations immigration plan have suffered the sort of direct and concrete injury that gives them standing to sue.

That jurisprudential off-ramp would avoid a deadlock or a grand pronouncement from a short-handed court on a politically charged issue in a presidential election year. And that may prove attractive to a chief justice who has said he does not want the Supreme Court to be viewed as a forum where partisan matters would be worked out.

A narrow ruling would in some ways echo Chief Justice Robertss 2012 opinion sustaining the central feature of the health care law on grounds so carefully calibrated that no other justice joined all of his opinion. And it would be consistent with his stated preference for achieving consensus by defining the legal question at issue in a case as narrowly as possible.
Young and energized African-Americans this election cycle are aggressively challenging longstanding ideas and policies, especially those carried out during the Clinton administration in areas like crime and welfare. But the activism is also laying bare a striking generation gap between younger and older African-Americans, whose experience, views of the former president and notions of how they should push for change diverge dramatically.

The parents and grandparents of todays young black protesters largely waged the battle for civil rights in courtrooms and churches. They carefully chose people who were viewed as upstanding citizens, like Rosa Parks, to be the face of their movement, and dressed in their Sunday best as they sought to gain broader acceptance. Mr. Clinton endeared himself to these generations by campaigning in black churches and appointing more blacks to the cabinet than any previous president had.

But many of todays activists  whose political consciousness has been shaped by the high-profile killings of black people by the police  do not believe that acting respectfully will protect them from being harassed or shot. They aspire not to become a part of the political system, but to upend it.

You do have older generations of church folk who believe that marching and singing is the best way to bring about change, Mr. Farmer said. Well march, too, but well do what we need to do to communicate our message, if it happens to be yelling, or blocking an intersection. And we dont care if people  particularly white people  believe it is respectable.

The gulf between young black people and their elders surfaced repeatedly in more than two dozen interviews conducted in the days after Mr. Clintons clash with the protesters.
GAMBELA, Ethiopia  In a bright green hospital room buzzing with flies, an older mans eyes glazed over with pain. His hand was pressed to his collarbone, where blood seeped through a white bandage.

He needs treatment now, pleaded a young man at his bedside. The bullet is still inside.

After cattle raiders from South Sudan unleashed a spate of grisly attacks on Friday in western Gambela, a region in western Ethiopia, the main hospital is filled beyond capacity. Othow Okoth, a security affairs officer with the regional government, estimates that 182 Ethiopians were killed in the attacks, and that 104 children were kidnapped.

In this part of Africa, hundreds of people have been killed in large-scale ethnic and tribal fighting in recent years.

Dr. Changkuoth Thuok, Gambela Hospitals medical director, worries that there is not enough time in the day for him and his staff to tend to all of the wounded.
KABUL, Afghanistan  With nearly 2,000 civilians killed or wounded and more than 80,000 people displaced this year already, the Afghan conflict continues to affect lives in record numbers, the United Nations said on Sunday.

The report came as fighting raged across several provinces. For a third day, government forces repelled Taliban attacks across several districts of Kunduz and were trying to prevent the insurgents from taking the provincial capital, as they did in the fall.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan documented 600 civilian deaths and 1,343 wounded in the first three months of 2016, which by most accounts is expected to be a bloody year as the Taliban rejected the latest efforts to bring them to peace talks. While the death toll fell 13 percent from the same period last year, the number of wounded increased 11 percent, the report said, with a high rise among children.

In the first quarter of 2016, almost one-third of civilian casualties were children, said Danielle Bell, the United Nations human rights director in Afghanistan. If the fighting persists near schools, playgrounds, homes and clinics, and parties continue to use explosive weapons in those areas  particularly mortars and I.E.D. tactics  these appalling numbers of children killed and maimed will continue.
Hystopia, David Meanss dark acid trip of a novel, reads like a phantasmagorical  and sometimes pretentious  mash-up of David Foster Wallaces Infinite Jest, Charlie Kaufmans screenplay Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Michael Herrs Vietnam classic, Dispatches.

Its a meditation on war (not just Vietnam, Mr. Means suggests, but the continuum of combat that links veterans throughout history) and the toll it takes on soldiers and families and loved ones. Its also a portrait of a troubled America in the late 1960s and early 70s  an America reeling from unemployment and lost dreams, and seething with anger, and uncannily familiar, in many ways, to America today. Perhaps most insistently, its an exploration of how storytelling  the causal narratives we manufacture in our heads  shapes our identities and provides a hedge against the chaos of real life.

These more cerebral aspects of Hystopia  the much anticipated first novel by a veteran short-story writer  can weigh the book down, like too-heavy ornaments and garlands on a spindly Christmas tree. At the same time, the reader cannot help but admire its ambitions, and Mr. Meanss potent language helps power the story over its more lugubrious sections.

The books Nabokovian premise is this: We are reading a novel by a young Vietnam War veteran named Eugene Allen, who committed suicide; his novel, also titled Hystopia, is placed in context by a series of editors notes and comments from relatives, friends and acquaintances, who recount his tortured efforts to come to terms with his war experiences and the struggles of his mentally unstable sister, whose boyfriend died in Vietnam.
As flying goes, the only thing more uncomfortable than sitting next to a couple having a spat on an airplane, Maury Rogoff learned, is sitting between that couple  especially when one partner prefers bare feet.

Ms. Rogoff, who owns a public relations firm with offices in New York and Florida and travels frequently, discovered what a growing number of travelers now know: The middle seat has become the third rail of flying  and it is getting harder to avoid.

As planes fly at record capacity and new cabin configurations squeeze in ever more passengers, airlines are, intentionally or not, nudging fliers into paying extra to avoid drawing the proverbial short straw.

I was literally in the middle of their argument, Ms. Rogoff said. It was just that awful. Her discomfort was magnified when the husband kicked off his shoes and crossed his legs, thrusting a bare foot into Ms. Rogoffs space.
He was convicted of five counts of wire fraud at trial and sentenced to 18 months in prison. But the appeals court concluded there was not enough evidence to show any fraud despite his not telling the truth to either side, taking the rare step of ordering that Mr. Weimert be acquitted of the charges.

The appeals court focused on the fact that there were ongoing negotiations between the bank and the buyers, so that it is not unusual for parties to conceal from others their true goals, values, priorities, or reserve prices in a proposed transaction. In other words, no one tells the truth when they are negotiating a deal.

Indeed, the opinion went even further in analyzing what can amount to a fraud during negotiations.

To state the obvious, they will often try to mislead the other party about the prices and terms they are willing to accept. Such deceptions are not criminal, the court found.

To violate the wire fraud statute, any deception must be material, which means a reasonable person would consider it important in the transaction. Statements like this is my final offer or I cant go any lower than this are not something on which the other side is likely to rely. The appeals court asserted that negotiating parties, and certainly the sophisticated businessmen in this case, do not expect complete candor about negotiating positions.

Can it really be that lies are acceptable in a negotiation? No less than Professor James J. White, a renowned commercial law scholar, once wrote that to conceal ones true position, to mislead an opponent about ones true settling point, is the essence of negotiation. You cannot lie about whether you will pay the amount promised, or mislead about the condition of property, but telling the truth about what it will take to get the deal done appears to be acceptable.
HONG KONG  An American labor union is pushing the United States to impose broad, steep tariffs on aluminum imports using a little-used but wide-ranging trade law that has riled the countrys trading partners in the past.

The effort by the United Steelworkers union comes with trade increasingly an election-year issue in the United States and elsewhere. More than three-quarters of the United States aluminum smelting industry that existed five years ago will have been idled or shut down by this summer as imports have surged, according to the unions legal petition.

The union blames Chinas rising exports, though if successful its effort would also affect American imports from Canada and many other countries.

The unions law firm on Monday filed a petition covering raw aluminum imports with an American trade panel. The petition invokes Section 201 of the 1974 Trade Act. The section was last invoked by President George W. Bush in 2001 to start a legal process that led to American tariffs on steel imports the following year.
The Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for public service on Monday for a series that exposed slavery and vicious abuse in the Southeast Asia fishing trade, leading to the release of 2,000 captives and broad reforms in the United States and overseas.

The series, Seafood From Slaves, involved a sprawling reportorial effort across several countries that discovered scores of fishermen in captivity  and sometimes locked in cages  in an industry that supplies seafood to American restaurants, pet-food brands and big retailers like Walmart. The A.P.s reporting prompted arrests, ship seizures and action by the federal government.

One year after magazines became eligible in some Pulitzer categories, The New Yorker received two prizes: for Emily Nussbaums television criticism, and for The Really Big One, Kathryn Schulzs ominous article about the potential for a major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, which won for feature writing. William Finnegan, a New Yorker staff writer, won the biography award for his memoir, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life.

In an honor that was widely predicted, the musical Hamilton, a hip-hop retelling of the founding fathers story, received the prize for drama. The musicals creator and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, reacted joyfully on Twitter, writing: PULITZER?!
The seven-day British royal tour of India and Bhutan, which ended on Saturday, was an opportunity for many things, including benign national outreach and a show of good will between countries with a complicated history, as well as multiple photos featuring Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (the former Kate Middleton) on safari and at the Taj Mahal.

But it also raised the bar when it came to the modern art known as diplomatic fashion tradecraft, a.k.a. the use of a ceremonial political event to promote a specific national industry.

Michelle Obama may have elevated the role of clothes in political life to strategic tool, consciously choosing to wear pieces from emerging American designers, the better to use her position to raise their global profiles and businesses. Samantha Cameron, the wife of Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, may likewise have chosen to support her countrys fashion talent, even going so far as to become an ambassador for the British Fashion Council. And Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, wife of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, may have given Canadian designers a push during her recent state visit to Washington. But in India, the duchess took the approach to a whole new level.

An observer could have been forgiven for thinking practically all of Sloane Street had migrated to her suitcase.
Every research program is fearful of throwing away a healthy embryo, but on the other hand, mosaicism is not always a benign thing, said Richard Scott, founder and laboratory director at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey. Now we are paying attention to these mosaics, but we dont know exactly what to do with them.

As an embryo rapidly divides after fertilization, mistakes in cell division sometimes produce abnormal cell lines. If those cells die off and the embryo manages to self-correct, or if the abnormal cells wind up segregated in the placenta, the embryo may develop into a normal baby.

But if abnormal cells proliferate in the embryo, it will probably fail to implant, result in a miscarriage or, more rarely, the birth of a child with serious defects.

Dr. Norbert Gleicher, the director of the Center for Human Reproduction in New York, decided to transfer seemingly abnormal embryos in an experiment after growing doubtful about P.G.S. He questioned whether a biopsy that examines five to 10 random cells from the outer shell of a 200-cell embryo can reliably represent the inner cell mass, the crucial core from which the fetus develops.

I think the biological hypothesis that you can, from a single biopsy, determine whether an embryo is normal or chromosomally abnormal  that is flawed, he said.

During last falls annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Dr. Gleicher reported three normal births after the transfer of embryos with both normal and abnormal cells. He has since reported one more normal birth and a normal current pregnancy.
For us, the terminal is a default shelter, said Phil Mellor, 55, who said he had largely relied on Grand Central for shelter since he lost his job as a security guard several years ago and his life began spiraling downward. Now, he said, he survives on what the tourists throw out and spends nights sleeping on the No. 6 train when the terminal is closed. The stations dining concourse, on the lower level, with its popular food kiosks and ample seating, attracts diners as well as several dozen homeless people.

At Penn Station, the busiest public transportation center in North America, serving more than 600,000 passengers a day, some homeless people panhandle from Amtrak customers waiting for high-speed trains to Washington and Boston. Others sell loosies, individual cigarettes, to one another outside an entrance on Seventh Avenue. And others try to nap on benches alongside waiting passengers. At the Port Authority Bus Terminal, homeless people fan out, seeking corners and little-used corridors to sleep without being rousted by police officers.

This ad hoc shelter system has endured for decades with homeless people staying months or even years. Against the waves of purposeful travelers and suburban commuters, they sprawl on floors of cold tile, lit by the glare of fluorescent lights, with a constant soundtrack of final-call departures. They tote all they own in inelegant bags and pass the hours in cavernous passages between track gates or bus bays. Many seem to be grappling with mental health issues.

Their presence in some of the countrys busiest transit hubs recalls a far grittier time in the city when violent crime was rampant and transportation stations were crowded with many more homeless people.

Like many who live on the streets, the people in these hubs are what advocates describe as chronically resistant to offers of services, especially beds in shelters, which many homeless people say have too many rules and are rife with danger. Indeed, the citys shelter system has been rocked by several episodes of violence recently, including the murders of six residents this year.
To the Editor:

I have made several contributions to Bernie Sanders in the hope that he would pull the campaign conversation to the left, and he has. But I will not vote for him in the New York primary on Tuesday.

Despite my many misgivings about Hillary Clinton  her ties to Wall Street, her hawkishness, her propensity for making blunders  I want her to be the Democratic candidate for president for a simple reason: I am afraid that Donald Trump or Ted Cruz or any conservative candidate will run ads saying: Would you even consider voting for a socialist? A self-avowed socialist? And that is bound to sway many unthinking voters.

Whatever Mrs. Clintons shortcomings may be, the future of the country  a Supreme Court justice, health care, the economy, our standing with countries around the world  would be in much better shape with her in the White House than any of the Republican possibilities. A bit of realpolitik is very necessary now.

MICHAEL SPIELMAN

Bronx

To the Editor:

Re What Needs to Come After New York (editorial, April 16):

Bernie Sanders may not always have feasible solutions to the issues he addresses, but at least he has shown the capacity to think independently, defying the conventional wisdom of Washington.
In New York, no less, days before a primary, a candidate for the Democratic Party presidential nomination declares that Israel used disproportionate force in Gaza in 2014, that we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity, that the United States has to play an evenhanded role and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is not right all the time.

Wow! Sensation! Hold the presses!

That candidate, of course, is Bernie Sanders, a Jew in the party that is the political home of a majority of American Jews, and the fact that his words are deemed shocking or even newsworthy reflects the degree to which, over many years, major American Jewish organizations have been able to dictate the line that says there is only one way to support Israel and win elections  and that is uncritically.

In most of the rest of the world, Sanderss position would be uncontroversial, reflecting a consensus. In fact, his statement in the debate with Hillary Clinton that he is 100 percent pro-Israel in the long run would almost certainly have caused more of a ruckus in Europe.

Many people in Brooklyn cheered Sanders. He has overwhelming support with young Democratic voters, and it is among those ages 18 to 29 that a sense of alienation from Netanyahus right-wing government and the Israel it reflects has been growing most rapidly. The continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahus heavy-handed interventions in American electoral politics and his relentless attempt (even in extremis) to stop the Iran nuclear deal have all been factors in undergirding the view that it is no betrayal of Israel to be critical of some of its policies.
To the Editor:

Re Cruzs Policies Would Herald Shift to Right (front page, April 18):

You say Ted Cruz has called for a federal amendment that would allow states to avoid performing or recognizing same-sex marriages. True, but even more radical is his belief that since he considers the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage nationally to be unconstitutional, elected officials may lawfully refuse, right now, to permit same-sex marriages.

This legal idea, historically known as nullification, was invoked by Southern states before the Civil War to defend slavery against unwelcome Supreme Court decisions, and again by Southern states in the 1950s and 1960s to defend racial segregation.

That this idea often leads to violence should hardly surprise us, since its essence is that individual political leaders may lawfully decide, on their own, which Supreme Court decisions to accept and which to reject.

That Mr. Cruz has resurrected this old, dangerous idea in 2016 speaks volumes about what he means when he describes himself as a constitutionalist.
There couldnt have been a lot of nature in your childhood.

Actually, there was a lot of nature, urban nature. Central Park isnt natural, but to a child, it appeared to be. It has man-made ponds full of wildlife  sunfish, largemouth bass, frogs. There must have been five different turtle species in there.

Across the park was the American Museum of Natural History. I spent many hours there entranced by the dioramas of Akeley Hall. I was taken with how at the beginning of the last century, theyd used painting, lighting and taxidermy to create an immersive theatrical experience set in nature. Afterward, Id go home and paint backgrounds on the tropical fish tanks my mother let me keep.

Did you always want to be a painter?

I wanted to be some kind of artist. As a kid, I was interested in science and science fiction, history, drawing, sketching. None of this came together in a defined way.

In the early 1980s, I enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design, thinking I might study film. After a year and a half, I took a break to figure out another path. Eventually, I enrolled at the School of Visual Arts here in Manhattan, with vague ambitions to learn scientific illustration. There I encountered a very kind teacher who suggested I consider fine art. For her class, she had me copy an 1853 painting by Gustav Courbet. That was so much fun! I was 22, and I had never made an oil painting before. I immediately switched majors and never looked back.
Bees find nectar and tell their hive-mates; flies evade the swatter; and cockroaches seem to do whatever they like wherever they like. But who would believe that insects are conscious, that they are aware of whats going on, not just little biobots?

Neuroscientists and philosophers apparently. As scientists lean increasingly toward recognizing that nonhuman animals are conscious in one way or another, the question becomes: Where does consciousness end?

Andrew B. Barron, a cognitive scientist, and Colin Klein, a philosopher, at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, propose in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that insects have the capacity for consciousness.

This does not mean that a honeybee thinks, Why am I not the queen? or even, Oh, I like that nectar. But, Dr. Barron and Dr. Klein wrote in a scientific essay, the honeybee has the capacity to feel something.
Q. How many eggs does a chicken lay in its lifetime?

A. A laying hens lifetime productivity depends on many factors, including breed, feed, environment and life span, but rough estimates for the first two or three years of laying, when a hen is most highly productive, suggest figures in the high hundreds.

One authoritative survey, issued regularly by the Department of Agriculture based on commercial operations, puts the most recent United States figure at 276 eggs a year.

Poultry hens on small farms in Australia can be expected to yield four to five eggs a week, or 200 a year, by one estimate, while Canadian battery hens are estimated by the Canadian branch of the Humane Society International to lay eggs on seven out of eight days, for a total of about 320 a year.

Commercial flocks are often culled when hens stop laying or taper off sharply. This may be as soon as the end of the first year.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court on Monday refused to revive a challenge to Googles digital library of millions of books, turning down an appeal from authors who said the project amounted to copyright infringement on a mass scale.

The Supreme Courts brief order left in place an appeals court decision that the project was a fair use of the authors work, ending a legal saga that had lasted more than a decade.

In 2004, Google started building a vast digital library, scanning and digitizing more than 20 million books from the collections of major research libraries. Readers can search the resulting database, Google Books, for keywords or phrases and read some snippets of text.

The Authors Guild and several writers sued Google in 2005, saying the digital library was a commercial venture that drove down sales of their work. In their petition seeking Supreme Court review, they said this case represents an unprecedented judicial expansion of the fair-use doctrine that threatens copyright protection in the digital age.
Less than 1 percent of Googles decisions are appealed to Europes privacy authorities, according to the regulators statistics, and those authorities said they generally ruled in the companys favor.

But several individuals who sent requests to Google told The New York Times that the lack of detail over how these decisions were made left them frustrated and, in some cases, angry that a company adjudicated on such delicate matters. These people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to publicize their own privacy cases.

What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? Whats their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source. Learn more about our process.

If governments were handling right to be forgotten, they would have to publish data, said Martin Husovec, a professor at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society in the Netherlands, and a signatory of the open letter to Google. But with Google, we cant see whats happening behind the companys closed doors.

After Europes highest court ruled in May 2014 that people with connections to the Continent could ask search engines like Google and Microsofts Bing to remove links about themselves from online search results, the companies were handed the power to decide which of these requests were legitimate. Citing European privacy rules, the European Court of Justice mandated that search engines, and not a public body, should be the first port of call for the decisions. Europes top court did not require that companies make their decision-making process open to public scrutiny.

Peoples privacy requests must relate to online information, like personal circumstances or a past criminal conviction, that is no longer relevant or not in the public interest, definitions that privacy lawyers say are inherently fuzzy.

Thus far, that has mostly involved people demanding mundane information like phone numbers or addresses be removed from links to online directories (the largest collective group of sites affected). Individuals have also requested that links to references about themselves on social media, including Facebook, be taken down.
Michael Friedman, the composer and lyricist behind Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, will be the next artistic director of Encores! Off Center, a City Center program that every summer presents concert performances of musicals previously staged Off Broadway and beyond.

Mr. Friedman will succeed Jeanine Tesori, the founding director of the program, who announced this year that she would step down after this summers productions of Runaways and Kurt Vonneguts God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Ms. Tesori, who won a Tony Award as the composer of Fun Home, will remain affiliated with City Center as an artistic adviser.



Mr. Friedman, a 40-year-old native of Philadelphia, said in a telephone interview that he would seek to continue programming work by the fullest spectrum of all the different people who have made musicals in America.

It is very important to me that we look at people who have been overlooked, or forgotten, or whose place in the canon could be stronger, he said. And Im going to be excited by work that has something to say to todays audience.
The election of a president of the United States isnt just democracy in circuslike action. It also may be, at its core, the most elaborate and expensive recruitment and hiring process that mankind has ever created.

You can think of a presidential election as being like a particularly large companys search for a chief executive. In this case, the search costs a couple of billion dollars (the amount that will be expended on campaigns), has a hiring committee of 127 million people (the number of voters last cycle), and is covered at every turn by virtually every media organization on earth.

What, then, can the latest evidence about best hiring practices tell us about the election, in which hiring the best employee has particularly high stakes? Good news: The answers might just make you feel a little better about American democracy.

In the last several years, there has been a lot of evidence, both from academic work and from companies that approach recruitment analytically, that traditional job interviews arent particularly good tools for identifying the best employees.
Things sometimes go wrong with airbags, food and drugs, prompting recalls. It can also happen with medical devices, though youd think lifesaving devices like heart defibrillators or artificial hips would be closely monitored.

But the data needed to systematically and rapidly identify dangerous medical devices are not routinely collected in the United States.

It wouldnt be that hard to do.

Problems with medical devices are not infrequent. Defibrillators implanted in nearly 200,000 patients were recalled in 2011 because of a faulty part. More recently, the Essure birth control device implanted in womens fallopian tubes has been associated with pain and deaths. Improper handling of duodenoscopes  used by doctors to examine the small intestine  was linked to hundreds of cases of antibiotic-resistant infections in 2013 and 2014.

According to a report from the Brookings Institution, medical device problems that we know about contribute to about 3,000 deaths per year in the United States. There may be many more we do not know about because we do not track medical device use the way we track prescription drugs for quality and safety. Codes that uniquely identify prescribed drugs are routinely included in medical claims data  such as those made public by the Medicare program. These can be mined for signals of problems.
John F. Hoadley, a research professor at Georgetown University and a commission member, said this change would be a huge benefit for people with very high drug costs.

The recommendations will be included in a June report to Congress, which often heeds the panels advice.

More than 40 million of the 56 million Medicare beneficiaries have drug coverage through Part D, and national surveys indicate that most are satisfied with the coverage. But out-of-pocket costs for some beneficiaries have increased in recent years as insurers require them to pay 25 percent or more of the cost for expensive specialty drugs to treat chronic or complex illnesses, including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and hepatitis C.

Out-of-pocket costs can exceed thousands of dollars for beneficiaries who take just one specialty drug or a large number of less costly brands and generics, the Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks the health insurance market, said in a recent report.

Dr. Rita F. Redberg, a commission member and cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, noted that many of the medicines approved recently by the Food and Drug Administration were costly specialty drugs.

Pharmaceutical companies and advocates for beneficiaries said some of the panels recommendations could harm patients access to certain medicines and raise costs for some low-income people.

From the inception of the drug benefit in 2006 to 2014, the basic premium for Medicare drug coverage rose by less than a dollar. But in their annual report last July, Medicare trustees, including top administration officials, predicted the monthly premium would double from 2014 to 2024, reaching $64.
What he got instead was a New York brawl with a group of tenants fighting to save their homes and clinging with white knuckles to some of the citys legendary rent deals. The battle played out for years in courtrooms and the New York news media, becoming a kind of parable of the limits of 1980s capitalist ambition in the social democratic city.

Looking back on the fight, on the eve of Tuesdays New York Republican primary, one can see Mr. Trump waging a much different sort of campaign, but with many of the same tactics  the threats, the theatrics, the penchant for hyperbole  that he has deployed in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination.

As far as the tenants are concerned, Mr. Trump lost that contest.

Oh, absolutely, we won, said Ms. Rubinstein, sitting in the one-bedroom apartment where she still lives. He wanted this whole corner to be one big Trump building.

But Mr. Trump refuses to admit defeat.

A great deal, he said, without hesitation, when describing 100 Central Park South  now known as Trump Parc East  during a phone interview last week. It was a long battle, but it was a successful battle. As usual, I came out on top.

Mr. Trump paid just $13 million for 100 Central Park South and the building adjoining it, the Barbizon Plaza Hotel, in 1981. At the time, he was 35 and making bold strides to emerge from his fathers shadow. In recent years, he had built the 68-story Trump Tower and overhauled the building near Grand Central Terminal that became the Grand Hyatt New York.
Physician, heal thyself, Mr. Grassley told the chief justice.

Mr. Grassley did not list the decisions that troubled him. But he did say that only two members of the court, presumably Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., stick to the constitutional text and vote in a consistently conservative way.

Mr. Grassleys logic, if that is the right word, was that conservative decisions are apolitical but that liberal ones are partisan.

As for Chief Justice Roberts, Mr. Grassley said, a number of his votes have reflected political considerations, not legal ones. Again, the senator did not say which votes he was talking about, but they probably included ones rejecting challenges to the Affordable Care Act.

Chief Justice Roberts has said that the presidents two previous nominees, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, were extremely well qualified for the court. Yet they were confirmed almost strictly along party lines, he said in remarks in Boston 10 days before Justice Antonin Scalia died on Feb. 13.

That doesnt make any sense, Chief Justice Roberts said. That suggests to me that the process is being used for something other than ensuring the qualifications of the nominees.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court on Monday seemed sharply divided during an extended argument over a challenge to President Obamas plan that would shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation and allow them to work in the country legally.

A 4-4 deadlock seemed a real possibility, one that would leave in place an appeals court ruling that blocks the plan and deny Mr. Obama the chance to revive it while he remains in office. A tie vote would set no Supreme Court precedent and therefore would allow a renewed challenge to the plan once the court is back at full strength.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.s questions were deeply skeptical of the administrations position. They appeared to signal that he would not join the courts four more liberal members in dismissing the case on the ground that the challengers had not suffered injuries giving them standing to sue. A ruling based on standing would be a victory for the administration.

The case, brought by Texas and 25 other states, could still produce a significant ruling on presidential power and immigration policy in the midst of an election campaign in which both issues have been prominent.
GENEVA  Burundis security services are torturing and illegally detaining increasing numbers of people, the United Nations said on Monday, reinforcing international alarm over the governments ferocious crackdown on political opponents.

United Nations investigators had documented at least 345 cases of torture and ill treatment since the start of the year and met detainees with fresh wounds, including some who had been beaten or burned so severely they could not walk unaided, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the agencys high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement.

These shocking figures are a clear indicator of the widespread and growing use of torture and ill treatment by government security forces, Mr. al-Hussein said.

He added that he was also deeply concerned over reports emerging of the existence of secret detention facilities across the country.
BEIJING  Chinese families were in an uproar on Monday after a report in the state news media revealed that nearly 500 students at a school in eastern China had developed illnesses, a few as severe as leukemia, possibly because of pollution at a nearby field.

Students and parents at the Changzhou Foreign Languages School had complained since December about pollution in the area, after dozens of children came down with rashes and nosebleeds, and a foul stench surrounded the school. But local officials dismissed their concerns, saying that the air, soil and groundwater met national standards.

On Sunday, the governments powerful national broadcaster, China Central Television, aired a scathing report documenting the illnesses and finding that toxins in the soil and water far exceeded national limits. The broadcast of the report suggested that Chinas leaders were taking a more aggressive stance toward chemical companies at a time when public anger over environmental pollution is mounting, especially in the aftermath of a chemical disaster last year that killed 165 people in the port city of Tianjin.

But the episode also underscored the large gaps that exist in Chinas oversight of hazardous materials. While China has made strides in publicizing air and groundwater pollution data in recent years, it still does not provide data on local soil pollution or require companies to publicly list which substances they discharge as waste, a departure from international standards.
Like many foreign-owned Internet services, Twitter has long been blocked in China. But Ms. Chens appointment  and the stir it has caused  shows the complicated relationship between Twitter, the technology industry and China. The country has some of the worlds strictest limits on online expression, and it requires Internet companies to place servers in the mainland. It has shown little compunction about blocking or banning companies that will not play along.

Even with those limits, China offers a vast and potentially lucrative market. Many companies that are blocked in China, such as Facebook and Google, still do business there, catering to Chinese companies looking to find an audience abroad or to the growing numbers of affluent Chinese travelers.

A Defiant Tone: At the opening of Chinas Communist Party congress, President Xi Jinping At the opening of Chinas Communist Party congress, President Xi Jinping defended his hard-line reign , presenting himself as a leader focused on securing the countrys rise amid global threats.

Moving Backward: A decade ago, many of Chinas political, business and intellectual elites hoped that Mr. Xi would usher in openness and reform. Today, some of them believe A decade ago, many of Chinas political, business and intellectual elites hoped that Mr. Xi would usher in openness and reform. Today, some of them believe he has created a totalitarian state

Lonely at the Top: As Chinas most powerful female politician prepares for retirement, few other women can hope to As Chinas most powerful female politician prepares for retirement, few other women can hope to make it to the upper echelons of Chinese politics

The contradictions are especially acute for Twitter. While the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has made a public effort of courting the Chinese leadership, Twitter has shown few indications that it was willing to submit to the restrictions that coming to China would require. Emphasizing that stance, Jim Prosser, a Twitter spokesman, said on Monday that the service was not trying to become unblocked in China.

Twitter has become an online home to a number of Chinese political activists abroad, who use it to communicate with one another and to share their views of current events in China with the world. Some of them reacted with condemnation over the weekend to Ms. Chens appointment.
JAKARTA, Indonesia  Indonesias security minister said on Monday at a symposium devoted to the mass atrocities committed half a century ago during anti-Communist purges in the country that the government had ruled out a criminal investigation of the period but would consider an unprecedented expression of regret to victims and their families.

Luhut B. Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, who delivered the opening remarks at the symposium, said the government would, over time, try to answer definitively how hundreds of thousands were killed in state-sponsored violence from 1965 to 1966.

Well see what happens after this, Mr. Luhut said after the two-day symposium began in Jakarta, the capital. Well study further on what we should do.

But the spirit of the government of Indonesia  were basically going to solve the whole thing, he said.
SYDNEY, Australia  The actress Amber Heard avoided jail time after a court appearance on Monday over allegations that she had illegally brought two dogs into Australia last year, violating the countrys quarantine laws, while visiting her husband, the actor Johnny Depp.

Ms. Heard pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court in Queensland to providing false information on her incoming passenger card after she and the dogs had landed on the Gold Coast on April 21, 2015, to visit Mr. Depp. He was there filming the fifth movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

Prosecutors dropped more serious charges against Ms. Heard that claimed that she had illegally imported the dogs, Yorkshire terriers named Pistol and Boo, which could have resulted in a two-year jail term and a fine of 20,000 Australian dollars, or about $15,350. The couple also produced a video acknowledging their transgression and urging others to obey the law, which is intended to prevent the spread of rabies and other diseases.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia  Malaysias billion-dollar political scandal claimed another casualty on Monday when the prominent banker Nazir Razak announced that he would temporarily step aside while his bank examined his handling of nearly $7 million he received from his brother, Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Mr. Nazir said he would take a leave of absence from his positions as chairman and director of CIMB Group Holdings after acknowledging that he took the money from his brother and distributed it, as he was instructed, to governing party figures before national elections in 2013.

These events took place three years ago, Mr. Nazir said at a news conference. My brother asked for some help, and I agreed.

I acted based on what I knew at that time, he said.

Mr. Nazirs decision to step aside voluntarily while the bank conducted an internal review is likely to focus attention on the refusal of Mr. Najib to step down over more serious allegations, including that he deposited more than $1 billion in questionable funds into his personal bank accounts.
SEOUL, South Korea  President Park Geun-hye of South Korea reported unspecified signs on Monday that North Korea may be preparing for another underground nuclear test in defiance of United Nations sanctions.

Although Ms. Park did not say what those signs were, the South Korean news media, citing anonymous government sources, reported over the weekend that increased activity had been detected at the Norths main underground nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, in the northeast of the country. Four such tests have been conducted at the site since 2006, the latest on Jan. 6.

Ms. Park warned that North Korea may try provocations, like a nuclear test, to help consolidate internal unity in the face of international sanctions. In early March, the United Nations Security Council imposed a new round of harsher sanctions on the country as punishment for its latest nuclear test as well as its launching of a long-range rocket on Feb. 7.
JERUSALEM  The Israeli military said on Monday that it had discovered and neutralized a tunnel running from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory for the first time since a cease-fire ended 50 days of fighting in the Palestinian coastal territory in the summer of 2014.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the discovery, saying, the state of Israel has achieved a global breakthrough in the ability to locate tunnels.

Describing the breakthrough as unique, but without providing any details of the technology involved, Mr. Netanyahu added, The government is investing considerable capital in countering the tunnel threat. This is an ongoing effort that will not end overnight.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, refused to elaborate on the technological means but said that the incomplete tunnel that was recently discovered did not have an exit coming up to the surface, suggesting that it was detected deep underground.
The bombing came as many Israelis were already on edge after a six-month wave of stabbings, shootings and vehicle attacks by Palestinians that have killed about 30 people. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during that period, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israeli officials say that most of the Palestinians were killed while carrying out, or attempting, attacks, and that others were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.

Unlike the major assaults of the second uprising, which were engineered by the main Palestinian groups, most of the recent attacks appear to be the almost spontaneous work of by individuals.

We are in an ongoing battle against terrorism, Mr. Netanyahu said, terrorism of knives, terrorism of shootings, of bombs, of rockets and even of tunnels.

He was referring to a tunnel that the Israeli military said on Monday it had discovered and neutralized. Running from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, it was the first such tunnel found since a cease-fire ended 50 days of fighting in the Palestinian coastal territory in summer 2014.

Mr. Netanyahu hailed the discovery, saying, the State of Israel has achieved a global breakthrough in the ability to locate tunnels. He described the breakthrough as unique, but did not provide any details about the technology involved. The military said the tunnel had been built 100 to 130 feet underground by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza; that it could have been used for terrorist attacks against Israeli border communities; and that it was equipped with electricity and communications lines.
Mr. Carter did not say why Mr. Abadi was now in favor of the measures, but said that he had discussed the use of the helicopters with him on Monday.

He understands this capability perfectly well, and he understood it would be necessary for just these cases and agreed with me that we would provide it, Mr. Carter said, referring to how the helicopters would be used when forces on the ground needed quick air support.

The package of military aid will involve dispatching more Army Special Forces, or Green Berets, who specialize in advising and training foreign military forces. Mr. Obama will increase the number of American forces that commanders can use in Iraq by 217, to 4,087. That number, however, is largely symbolic because the Pentagon uses a system that has exceptions for soldiers who are supposed to be in the country less than four months, and commandos. Defense Department officials have said that there are more than 5,000 service members in Iraq.

Mr. Carter said that sending more American forces into Iraq would also enable the Pentagon to increase its logistical support of the Iraqi military, which he said would become even more important as the Iraqis move toward Mosul.

Its particularly important now as Iraqi forces relocate from where we have trained and equipped them, northward importantly to Mosul, and their moving around, Mr. Carter said.

The provision has to be made for them to be supplied and for their equipment to be repaired as they go into action, he said. So, we want more action by Iraqi forces towards victory here and more action will require more logistics, and that will be an important part of this gathering momentum and gathering effort to strengthen our enablers.

The Kurds are an important part of the anti-Islamic State campaign in the north, and Mr. Carter said the United States would give the Kurdish regional government more than $415 million. A significant portion of that money is expected to be used to pay and feed Kurdish soldiers.
WASHINGTON  President Obama had an intense conversation with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Monday in which he expressed concern on the eve of his visit to the Middle East and Europe about the fragile Syrian peace talks and increased violence in Ukraine, White House officials said.

In a strongly worded statement, the White House said that Mr. Obama had urged Mr. Putin to use his influence with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to press him to stop attacks against opposition forces and abide by his commitment to a partial cease-fire.

The so-called cessation of hostilities, brokered by Russia and the United States in February, has shown signs of crumbling in recent days, with increasing ground clashes and airstrikes. Syrian government forces have been mounting an offensive near the northern city of Aleppo, while rebel groups have reportedly made advances against government positions in the areas of Latakia in the north and Hama in the center of the country.

A statement released by the office of Mr. Putin said he had stressed the need for moderate opposition leaders in Syria to distance themselves from the Islamic State and other extremist groups.
Image Here, duck and foie gras served over a bed of slightly fermented daikon radish. Credit... Christopher Gregory for The New York Times

But most of his work this day was radically simple. He poached a chicken. He watched as sea bream was sauteed in a pan. He breathed in the scent of oysters.

Mr. Rose is particularly serious about chicken. He had at least a dozen varieties to test over the course of a few days. Most disappointed him.

He sliced off a knob of meat and nibbled on it. His eyes revealed a man lost in thought. Same problem, he said. Bitter. Is that just my tongue or is that for real? I got that funky bitterness again!

Tim Lu, Le Coucous executive sous-chef, tried it, too. Oh, yeah, he said.

An almost hidden wave of disgust and frustration passed over Mr. Roses face. Now Im getting kind of grumpy, he said. It doesnt taste very good at all. You know where the best chicken weve had was from? Chinatown.

Mr. Roses cooking depends on the delicious integrity of these core ingredients; he is averse to frills and adornments that may interfere with ones communion with the essence of hen or oyster.

He needed his kitchen team to understand what he wants. But there was another part of that, too. Theyre already learning to anticipate what it is that I dont want, he said.

And what did he not want? He didnt need to think about that answer. More than it needs, he said.
In 2011, she made her first trip to Georgia, where traces of wine residue have been found dating back to 6000 B.C. She was struck by the number of vintners who, despite decades of Soviet industrialization, still make wine in buried qvevri, giant earthen vessels sealed with beeswax.

They shun sulfites, which are often added to wine, in part because of sulfurs tinge of the devil. Its religious for them, she said. Are you saying that God hasnt given the grape everything it needs, to make wine naturally?

Her khantsi was a gift from John Wurdeman, an American who, alongside an eighth-generation Georgian winemaker, runs the vineyard Pheasants Tears in Sighnaghi, in Georgias east. He made no concessions to her drinking habits, which are slightly less lusty than demanded at Georgian feasts: The horn is deep and daunting to drain. Couldnt you have got me a smaller one? she asked him.

She keeps it on her kitchen wall until guests arrive. You dont drink from it on your own, she said. Its only for company.
I have to love a cookbook that starts with recipes for mayonnaise. And Alexandra Raij and her husband, Eder Montero, go well beyond mayonnaise to explain Basque cuisine. (He is the Basque side of the equation.) Txangurro, the deviled crab meat gratin that is served everywhere in the region but is often disappointing, was a winner here, despite the demanding preparation of a couple of ingredients. (You can work around them.) There was nothing demanding, though, about the excellent rice studded with cockles, the butterflied trout slipcovered in ham and given a splash of garlic and parsley oil, and the springtime lamb meatballs tucked among peas. For dessert, the notion of marinating fresh pineapple in sherry is a keeper: The Basque Book Alexandra Raij with Eder Montero and Rebecca Flint Marx (Ten Speed Press, $29.99).
The split between Mr. Cruz and Mr. Kasich is always tough to predict. But in general, the Cruz/Kasich vote breaks along the lines of cultural liberalism and conservatism. Mr. Cruz does better (and Mr. Kasich does worse) in areas with more evangelical Christians, more white Republicans and fewer people with postgraduate educations. Mr. Cruz also does better in areas that look more like the traditional Republican Party  conservative areas with more families and married couples and people whose heritage is Protestant northwest Europe.

Many of these factors have hurt Mr. Cruz in the blue states of the Midwest. He has often finished third in more liberal places like the Detroit or Chicago metropolitan areas. Its also why hes poised to fare poorly in the Northeast.

But Mr. Cruz has not had this problem in less liberal metropolitan areas in the Midwest, like Milwaukee; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Kansas City, Mo.; and St. Louis, or in medium-sized cities in central Illinois like Springfield, Peoria, Bloomington or Champaign-Urbana. Mr. Kasich was no threat to Mr. Cruz in these areas, and indeed Mr. Cruz wound up beating Mr. Trump in most.

The Indianapolis area is somewhat more like Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City and Grand Rapids than Detroit or Chicago. Most obviously, the Indianapolis area  and the state of Indiana  is conservative and tends to vote Republican. Thats underpinned by the demographic characteristics of the state: Its more evangelical, less educated and, in particular, has fewer people with postgraduate degrees.

The tilt toward evangelicals and conservatism should allow Mr. Cruz to do better in Indiana than he did in Illinois or Michigan. It could be more like Missouri, which was almost a tie, or North Carolina, where Mr. Trump won by a slight margin. Mr. Trump also won by a slight margin in Illinois outside of the core of the Chicago metropolitan area.

That might still seem like a bleak precedent for Mr. Cruz. But the upside for him is that all of those contests occurred before Marco Rubio left the race. The results in Utah and Wisconsin suggest that many of Mr. Rubios remaining voters broke to Mr. Cruz. In Wisconsin, it was probably most of them.
Students from J. F. Drake Middle School in Auburn qualified to compete in the 2016 International Thespian Festival at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln June 20-25.

The students competed in the 2016 Alabama Thespian Festival in January and received a superior rating in three categories  Group Musical Theater, Musical Duet and Theatre Marketing  as well as the highest honor in another category, Improv King of the Festival. The results qualified them to compete in the upcoming international festival.

Organized by the Educational Theatre Association and hosted by the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, the festival is a weeklong immersion experience in singing, dancing, acting, designing, directing, creating, writing and memory-making. The festival features workshops presented by theatre professionals, individual and group performances, programs for technical theatre students and opportunities to audition for college admission and scholarship.

To learn more about, visit the Facebook page. There is also a gofundme campaign to cover the costs of competitions, workshops, room, board and transportation. To contribute, go here.
BOZEMAN  A Bozeman man who is charged with breaking into his former girlfriend's house and shooting her to death is scheduled to change his plea.

District Judge Holly Brown has scheduled an April 26 change-of-plea hearing for 35-year-old Anthony Tobias Fagiano.

Fagiano has pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide, aggravated burglary, theft and violating an order or protection in the March 9 death of 37-year-old Darcy Buhmann.

Charging documents say Fagiano texted Buhmann's estranged husband and members of his family and told them about the shooting. His sister urged him to surrender to law enforcement and he did.

Deputy Gallatin County Attorney Eric Kitzmiller says prosecutors offered Fagiano a plea agreement, but he declined to comment on its terms.
CHEYENNE, Wyo.  A second Colorado man has pleaded guilty to a federal charge stemming from the police seizure of an unregistered Cessna airplane and over $250,000 cash two years ago in Cody.

Gilbert Wayne Wiles Jr. of Denver pleaded guilty Friday to aiding and abetting the operation of an unregistered aircraft. He faces a sentence of between one and two years of probation at his June sentencing.

Before the plea, Wiles had been set to stand trial in federal court in Cheyenne starting Monday.

Pilot Scott Michael Lewis of Englewood, Colo., pleaded guilty last week to a federal charge of operating an unregistered airplane.

Authorities in Cody seized the Cessna airplane and the cash from Lewis and Wiles in early 2014 after a local airport worker reported they were acting suspiciously.
Extreme discounter Aldi quietly opened the doors Monday on its Orange County supermarkets to the delight of shoppers looking to avoid big crowds later this week when the chain officially debuts here.

Outside the store in Anaheim, shopper Cheryl Greenamyre couldnt stop talking about the deals she encountered.

Tortellini for $1.29; at Ralphs, its $6, she said as she loaded several bags of groceries into her truck.

She and many other shoppers throughout Orange and Los Angeles counties discovered most Aldi stores were soft opening Monday after sneak peeks on Sunday. The stores officially open Thursday.

Greenamyre was among two dozen shoppers browsing the aisles Monday morning in Anaheim.

I wanted to see what this was all out, said shopper Roberta Biringer of Anaheim, who bought eggs, flour and salad dressing.

Even though she bought a few items, she said shed be back. The prices are really reasonable.

Biringer said she would add Aldi to her list of favorite grocery stops, which also includes Ralphs and Stater Bros.

However, after closely observing all the store offerings, Greenamyre said shes ready to eliminate one brand from her list.

I think were going to stop going to Ralphs, she said.

Her boyfriend Larry Frazier said he liked some of the USDA choice meat offerings at Aldi. But that wont stop him from buying from Stater Bros.  where he likes the full service butcher department and chicken options.

Shoppers arent just buying food.

Cecilia Estrada of Anaheim happened to be driving on Euclid and noticed the Aldi store was open. She stopped to check it out and instead of leaving with food, she loaded her car trunk with eight green and white patio cushions and two outdoor end tables.

I thought it was just groceries but when I saw these, I took advantage, she said. Estrada also bought some strawberries.

Across town in Buena Park, an employee was greeting potential shoppers as they walked by. Hi, were open; come on in.

Inside the store, curious first-timers slowly walked each aisle, touching items and looking at price tags on everything from cereal to produce. Some were even helping out strangers.

You like lettuce? Its only 55 cents, one man told another in the produce aisle.

Marilyn Havey of Buena Park shopped at an Aldi in Florida while visiting her daughter recently. She was impressed by the prices, especially on the local produce. She said she is excited to see Aldi open close to home.

While checking out bread prices with her neighbor, Havey opted not to buy anything Monday. Shes waiting for the grand opening later this week, when a $5 off coupon is valid. The discount was sent to locals. Im making my shopping list for later this week, she said.

Havey typically shops at Walmart, Smart & Final and Stater Bros. After leisurely cruising the store in Buena Park, she knew Aldi would save her not only money but driving trips.

Walmart and Smart & Final are off my list, she said. Shell stick with Stater Bros. because she likes the meats there.

The California store openings mark the beginning of Aldis march West. To date, Aldi has revealed 27 of its 45 California locations planned for this year.

Aldi executive Gordon Nesbit said the chain has not revealed where it is scouting other locations, but during a recent phone interview, he confirmed Orange County will have more than three stores.

Theres at least another dozen stores were pursuing, said Nesbit.

Also opening April 21 are stores in Arcadia, Cerritos, Covina, Inglewood, La Verne, Palmdale and San Bernardino.

Aldi said it expects more stores to open in the Los Angeles area and the Inland Empire.

German-born Aldi, which has family ties to Trader Joes, operates 1,500 stores in 32 U.S. states. The chain, with its U.S. headquarters in Batavia, Ill., sells private-label copycats of the 1,500 most popular groceries. In California, stores will be larger and have a wider assortment of items, including wine and produce.

When the first eight stores opened last month, thousands of curious bargain hunters made a grab for everything from raw chicken drumsticks to frozen pizzas to dog kennels. Stores from Palm Springs to Lake Elsinore stocked knockoffs of top-selling labels such as Heineken beer, General Mills cereals and Pop-Tarts.

Contact the writer: nluna@ocregister.com and follow the Fast Food Maven on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
If it wasnt for double standards, some liberals would have none. That seems to be the lesson from the past few weeks, where liberals have displayed outrageous forms of hypocrisy.

Liberal governors and mayors signed travel bans to North Carolina and Mississippi, CEOs of major corporations pledged boycotts and relocations and Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams have cancelled scheduled concerts in those states.

Many of us think that what these corporate giants are doing is bad for representative democracy and self-government. But they have a right to do it. And yet they want to deny the rights of bakers, florists, photographers, adoption agencies and marriage counselors who only want the same liberty to follow their conscience.

Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams get to follow their conscience, but the Christian baker and the florist dont? Springsteen is applauded, but the bakers are sued and prosecuted?

Furthermore, if these boycotts are really a matter of principle  and not just grandstanding  then why do so many of these same companies do business in foreign countries with terrible records on human rights in general, and for LGBT people in particular?

The hypocrisy is astounding.

Roger Hawkes

Irvine

  

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has banned city employees (does the mayor know they are free U.S. citizens?) from travelling to North Carolina because he doesnt like their new law regarding transgenders and their use of public bathrooms. Yet, has no problem harboring known criminals wanted by the federal government in his sanctuary city. Unglued over bathroom privileges 3,000 miles away, but fine with felons roaming his streets? This is pure politically correct pandering at its worse. Yet another example of why Donald Trump is so popular.

Bud Carbonaro

Lake Forest

  

Re: Hateful legislation should be struck down [Opinion, April 14]: Incessant lecturing from the Left (including Erwin Chemerinsky) about the LBGTQ fighting for equality is set aside in this case where the law actually provides a rule by which all must comply equally. Apparently, self-declared and self-monitored transgender persons must be able to select the bathroom/locker room of their choice, while everyone else has no choice regarding admission to those facilities.

The argument that police will not monitor anyone prior to bathroom entrance under this new law is a snare and delusion. What basic protections have the Left proposed to monitor a persons transgenderism so that that individual, and only that individual, qualifies for unequal access to the bathroom/locker room of choice? Or would that intrude upon that persons privacy?

Society should err, if in fact it is perceived as such by some, on the side of the 13-year-old girl not having to encounter an exposed male in what should be a safe setting protecting her privacy.

PayPal et al. should be ashamed of the animus they represent by endorsing a policy contradicting what should be a basic right  that of a young nontransgender girls privacy in the bathroom.

Mark Harding

Fountain Valley

  

So, because Mr. Chemerinsky disagrees with legislation in North Carolina, its hateful? How dare he assume he knows whats in the hearts of other citizens and lawmakers. By labeling them haters, he shows his own lack of understanding, intolerance and bias, not to mention an agenda of first branding the opposition as hateful, then silencing them through intimidation, political correctness and legislation with which he agrees.

Whether you agree or disagree with the North Carolina policy, its offensive to make such a snap judgment of the motives behind it. How do you feel when someone judges you before they even understand you? Maybe its you, Mr. Chermerinsky, who needs to first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brothers eye.

Daniel Pelletier

Tustin
When the 2016 presidential race began, the conventional wisdom was that  except for serving as a political ATM for contributions  California would play a minimal role in picking the countrys next commander in chief. The thinking was that, because the Golden State primary isnt until June, each party will have likely selected a nominee before Californians go to the polls, and, since the state is so deeply blue, whoever becomes the Democratic nominee will easily collect all 55 electoral votes this November.

Then everything went haywire, and that theory got turned on its head.

Now it looks like California could play a pivotal role in the primary, at least on the GOP side.

According to a Field Poll this month of likely California voters, billionaire businessman Donald Trump leads, with 39 percent, followed by Ted Cruz, at 32 percent and John Kasich, with 18 percent. Eleven percent were undecided.

None of these results should be surprising. California Republicans have a long history of selecting outsider business people in contested GOP primaries.

The four most-recent GOP nominees for California governor have come from the business world and lacked elective-office experience. This list includes Neel Kashkari, Meg Whitman, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Simon.

The last time the state Republican Party nominated a candidate for governor who had won public office was in 1998, when former state Attorney General Dan Lungren was swamped by Lt. Gov. Gray Davis in the general election.

Additionally, the last Republican to be elected mayor of Los Angeles was businessman Richard Riordan  who made his hard-charging, private-sector reputation a central part of his campaign. In his 1993 race against then-L.A. Councilman Michael Woo, Riordans campaign theme was, Richard Riordan: Tough enough to turn L.A. around.

Part of the reason California voters have turned to outsider candidates so frequently is that the state is so big and expensive that it almost requires the resources of a billionaire to break through the noise and demonstrate viability. Its also true that the thin bench of GOP elected officials has created openings for nontraditional candidates to fill the void.

But theres more to it than that. California voters have a natural affinity for candidates who come from the private sector.

In this presidential election its not like Trump is running against underfunded nobodies; all of his opponents have ample resources and high name identification, yet voters still prefer Trump.

One of the Field Polls more interesting findings was that many of the California voters who have supported outsider candidates in the past plan on casting their ballots for Donald Trump this June.

Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo told the Los Angeles Times, Voters who say they voted for Schwarzenegger in 2003 prefer Trump over Cruz nearly three to one.

The irony is that when this campaign started, Trumps outsider status was supposed to be his biggest vulnerability.

While campaigning in Tampa, Fla., in November, Jeb Bush made it a point to highlight Trumps lack of elective experience. You cant just tell Congress  Youre Fired  and go to a commercial break, Bush said.

In a twist of fate, dismissive attacks like this have done nothing but reinforce Trumps biggest selling point: He comes from outside the system and refuses to play by the insiders rules.

At this point, nobody knows if this narrative will propel him all the way to the White House, but we do know one thing for sure: He will find a receptive audience among California Republicans.

Staff opinion columnist John Phillips can be heard weekdays at 3 p.m. on The Drive Home with Jillian Barberie and John Phillips on KABC/AM 790.
WASHINGTON  Actor George Clooney would like to get big money out of politics  so he doesnt have to raise it.

Clooney hosted two weekend fundraisers in California on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Donations for attendees at an event in San Francisco topped out at $353,000 per couple, which Clooney acknowledges is an obscene amount of money.

The event even drew pro-Bernie Sanders demonstrators, Clooney recounted in an interview airing Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press. When he went to talk with them, he said, they called him a corporate shill.

Thats one of the funnier things you could say about me, the Oscar-winner said, though he conceded that some of the protesters had a valid point regarding a different matter.

Their T-shirts said, you know, You sucked as Batman, said Clooney, the star of 1997s Batman & Robin, one of the least memorable films in the superhero franchise. And I was like, Well, you kind of got me on that one.

Asked on CNN Sunday whether Clooney was siding with the wrong candidate, Sanders replied, I think he is.  But he praised Clooney with being honest enough to name the problem.

Clooney said he likes many of Sanders ideas and would gladly raise money for him if he became the Democratic nominee. But the actor said he is supporting Clinton because of his admiration of her work as secretary of state, and he praised her for her efforts to avert a humanitarian crisis ahead of South Sudans independence.

Clooney faulted Clinton for not better explaining where the money she is raising goes. Most of it, he said, would end up being spent on down-ballot races including those for the Senate, which will confirm the next presidents picks for the Supreme Court.

If the right justice is confirmed for the spot now open on the court, Clooney said, political campaigns could get this obscene, ridiculous amount of money out so I never have to do a fundraiser again.
Orange Countys spring homebuying season rocketed into high gear last month, with prices and sales already outdistancing last years buying frenzy, figures released Monday show.

The median price of an Orange County home  or the sale price at the midpoint of all transactions  was $625,000 in the year ending in March, up 6.8 percent and coming within $20,000 of the all-time high reached at the peak of the housing bubble in June 2007, Irvine-based data firm CoreLogic reported.

If prices continue going up at 4 percent or more, the median will top that record by June.

Sales, meanwhile, ticked up to the highest level in a decade for the month of March.

CoreLogic reported 3,181 transactions closed last month. While thats up just a 0.8 percent from a year ago, its still the highest March tally since 2006.

The market is definitely continuing to improve, said Huntington Beach Re/Max agent Brian Kamenca. Its not cooling off.

In Southern California as a whole, the median home price rose 5.6 percent to $449,000, the regions highest median in 8  years, CoreLogic figures show. Home prices in the six-county area are $56,000 below the all-time high of $505,000.

CoreLogic reported 20,370 homes sold in the region, up 1.9 percent from 2015 and the most for a March since 2013.

Prices were up in all six counties, with Riverside posting the regions biggest price surge: Up 8.2 percent to $330,000.

Sales rose everywhere but Los Angeles County, which had a 1.4 percent drop from 2015 levels. The biggest sales gain occurred in San Bernardino County, where transactions jumped 7.7 percent to 2,528 deals.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7734 or jcollins@ocregister.com
California children in low-performing schools will continue to suffer as a result of an appellate court decision. The state 2nd District Court of Appeal, based in Los Angeles, ruled Thursday against nine students in Vergara v. State of California.

In the courts summary, the plaintiffs contended rules on how teachers are dismissed, and how they are laid off on the basis of seniority, violate the California Constitutions guarantee that all citizens enjoy the equal protection of the laws. The students and their lawyers said the tenure rules guaranteed that less-qualified teachers ended up teaching in low-income areas, in particular, those with predominantly minority students.

The appellate court rejected that argument because the plaintiffs did not show that the statutes inevitably cause a certain group of students to recieve an education inferior to the education received by other students.

The ruling overturned a Los Angeles Superior Court judges decision in 2014 that backed the students.

This case will be decided by the Supreme Court, Gloria Romero told us; the staff opinion columnist and education reformer is a former Democratic state senator. Ironically, the lower courts decision makes clear there is a problem in the system. This new finger-pointing stage of origin of blame does nothing to close the achievement gap for poor and minority children, nor fix the problem.

In addition to the students continued appeal, she said, The lackadaisical state Legislature needs to act now, without turning a blind eye to the injustices revealed in the testimony from student witnesses during the trial.

The decision comes a month after another legal blow against students. The U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, preserving a lower court ruling that public-employee unions can continue to force nonmembers to pay agency fees for collective bargaining. The decision removed a threat to teachers unions political clout.

We hope, in the future, both issues will be resolved in favor of children. Meanwhile, parents still employ such reforms as charter schools and Ms. Romeros parent trigger law, which lets a majority of parents replace their schools administration.
BAGHDAD  The U.S. has agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send eight Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year, U.S. defense officials said Monday.

The uptick in American fighting forces  and the decision to put them closer to the front lines  is designed to help Iraqi forces as they move to retake the key northern city of Mosul.

Speaking to reporters Monday in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the decision to move U.S. advisers to the Iraqi brigade and battalion level will put them closer to the action, but he said they will have security forces with them and the U.S. will do whats needed to reduce the risks.

A senior U.S. official said that there will be eight Apache helicopters authorized to help the Iraqi forces when Iraq leaders determine they need them. The official was not authorized to discuss the numbers publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Last June the Obama administration announced that hundreds of troops would be deployed to help the Iraqis retake Ramadi  a goal they accomplished at the end of the year.

Of the additional troops announced Monday, most would be Army special forces, who have been used throughout the anti-Islamic State campaign to advise and assist the Iraqis. The remainder would include some trainers, security forces for the advisers, and maintenance teams for the Apaches.

The decisions reflect weeks of discussions with commanders and Iraqi leaders, and a decision by President Barack Obama to increase the authorized troop level in Iraq by 217 forces  or from 3,870 to 4,087. The advise-and-assist teams  made up of about a dozen troops each  would embed with Iraqi brigades and battalions, likely putting them closer to the front lines and at greater risk from mortars and rocket fire.

The U.S., said Carter, is on the same page with the Iraqi government in how to intensify the fight against the Islamic State.

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the deployment of troops was welcome but called it yet another example of the kind of grudging incrementalism that rarely wins wars, but could certainly lose one.

The proximity to the battlefront will allow the U.S. teams to provide more tactical combat advice as the Iraqi units move toward Mosul, the countrys second-largest city, still under Islamic State control. Until now, U.S. advisers have worked with the Iraqis at the headquarters level, well back from the front lines.

Carter called the addition of the Apache helicopters significant, because they can respond so quickly and so dynamically to an evolving tactical situation.

He said he discussed the Apaches with Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday and, he understood that it would be necessary for just these cases and agreed with me that we would provide it.

Last December, U.S. officials were trying to carefully negotiate new American assistance with Iraqi leaders who often have a different idea of how to wage war. At that time, the Iraqis refused Apache helicopters for the battle to retake Ramadi, saying they didnt think they were needed.

Speaking to U.S. troops at the airport in Baghdad, Carter also said that the U.S. will send an additional long-range, rocket-assisted artillery system to Iraq.

U.S. officials have also said that the number of special operations forces in Syria would be increased at some point, but Carter did not mention that in his comments. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Carters announcement Monday came after several meetings with his commanders and Iraqi leaders about how the U.S. can best prepare Iraqi forces to retake Mosul.

In addition to his session with al-Abadi, Carter also met with Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the top U.S. military commander for the Islamic State fight, and minister of defense Khalid al-Obeidi.

He also spoke by phone with the president of Iraqs autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani. Later, Carter announced to the troops that the U.S. aid will extend to the Kurdish Peshmerga forces fighting in northern Iraq. Carter said the U.S. has authorized sending up to $415 million to the Kurds over time.

MacFarland told reporters that the money will be used in part to help feed the Peshmerga troops, who have been dealing with food shortages.

Carter on Tuesday will travel to Saudit Arabia to meet with defense ministers from Gulf nationsl. And Obama will also be in Riyadh to talk with Gulf leaders about the fight against the Islamic State and ask for their help in rebuilding Ramadi, which took heavy damage in the battle.

U.S. military and defense officials have made it clear that winning back Mosul is critical, but will be challenging, because the insurgents are dug in and have likely peppered the landscape with roadside bombs and other traps for any advancing military.

A senior defense official told reporters traveling with Carter that while Iraqi leaders have been reluctant to have a large number of U.S. troops in Iraq, they also need certain capabilities that only more American or coalition forces can provide. The official was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.
HELENA  What Montana officials call evidence of corruption that justifies the state's low campaign contribution limits is really just democracy in action, an attorney for individuals, groups and political organizations trying to strike down the limits said Monday.

Montana is defending its contribution caps, which are among the lowest in the nation, in a federal lawsuit that claims they unconstitutionally restrict freedom of speech, association and candidates' ability to raise enough money to effectively campaign.

State officials have focused on how Montana is threatened by public officials making promises in exchange for money, after a federal appeals court ruled last year that such quid pro quo corruption, or its appearance, is the only legitimate justification for the caps.

Attorneys for both sides made their arguments Monday before U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell in one of a handful of cases across the nation challenging state contribution limits after the 2010 U.S. Citizens United ruling that allowed unlimited corporate spending in elections. The Citizens United decision raised the standard for states to justify their contribution limits by saying it's not enough to show they are preventing the influence of big donors over politicians, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

Under the new standard, states must prove their caps prevent quid pro quo corruption, or its appearance. As evidence, Montana Department of Justice attorneys pointed to an offer by the National Right to Work Committee to donate $100,000 to support Republican legislative campaigns if the lawmakers introduced anti-union legislation. That offer was not accepted.

More recent examples are the state's cases against nine GOP candidates accused of taking illegal campaign contributions from the National Right to Work Committee in 2010. Earlier this month, a jury found that one of the nine, Rep. Art Wittich, R-Bozeman, took $19,599 in illegal corporate contributions from Right to Work affiliates.

Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl has said Wittich's case and the eight others are evidence of corruption, because the candidates pledged fealty to Right to Work's anti-union cause in exchange for the campaign aid. The jury in Wittich's trial did not rule on whether Wittich's acts were corrupt.

James Bopp, the Indiana attorney who has challenged campaign finance laws across the nation, told Lovell on Monday that those examples don't amount to corruption, but democracy. There is nothing wrong with a candidate telling donors that he or she will support a bill that they favor, Bopp said.

In the case of the nine Republican candidates accused by Montana, their "pledge" to Right to Work amounted to filling out a candidate survey that showed they agreed with the anti-union group's beliefs, he said.

That is not evidence of corruption, Bopp said.

"If that is criminal ... then we have made common, ordinary representative government criminal," he said.

Wittich and the other cases are examples of serious threats of abuse under the existing campaign laws, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Cochenour said in reply. That proves there is the appearance of corruption, he said.

"Nobody's saying if you support a candidate, that's corrupt," he said.

Lovell said he would consider the arguments, but did not make an immediate ruling. A decision could come before the June 7 primary elections.
IRVINE  In 2001, Jeremy Wifler was a sick 4-year-old whose constant seizures routinely caused him to stop breathing.

The 911 calls were so regular that emergency dispatchers would alert the crews with simply: Its Jeremy.

Firefighters began to stop by the home to see what else they could do to help. Some evenings, they stopped by just to drop off dinner.

These guys became a part of our family, said the boys mother, Rechelle Wifler.

Firefighters werent the only ones to embrace the Wiflers.

Led by Irvine resident Julie Hudash, some 600 children at Vista Verde Elementary School in Irvine set out in 2001 to raise money to send the little boy with the big glasses and the ailing heart to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

They hosted pancake breakfasts. They sold frozen pops. They washed cars.

I was thinking, Theyll collect pennies and dimes.  But they were phenomenal. They were so motivated. After that, we just kept going with the program, said Stephen McHale, retired Orange County Fire Department captain.

Those drives became the pilot program for what today is known as Team Kids, a nonprofit that engages youths to work with police, firefighters and other mentors to complete a five-week service challenge by addressing issues such as homelessness and hunger.

On Sunday, some 200 supporters, including firefighters, police and children from Irvine and other cities, were on hand to celebrate with Hudash the nonprofit she created 15 years ago. So were many of the founding members, then-children who went on to stay with the program through high school.

I remember standing outside my classroom with a clipboard telling friends about the situation and asking them to sign up and come to our meeting to figure out how were going to save Jeremy, said Jenna Walmsley, now 25.

More than 100,000 children in 13 cities have gone through the challenge program and raised over $600,000 in cash and resources, Hudash said. One of the goals is to empower youngsters to change the world, she said.

Its a unique program, Irvine police Chief Mike Hamel said. We get to serve as role models for the kids.

Team Kids plans to expand its program with a kickoff tour this summer of Team Kids youth leaders, alums and donors, including stops in Washington, D.C., and New York, Hudash announced Sunday.

Jeremy, now 19, wasnt well enough to attend Sundays event. He has survived heart surgeries and is developmentally delayed. He still lives with heart and oxygen monitors and has nursing care at home. Earlier this year, he attended life skills classes through Irvine Valley College.

His illness, circumflex aorta with double aortic arch, is so rare that he is only one of four individuals in the world diagnosed with it, said Christy Draeger, a nurse who has been with him since he was little.

Respiratory issues make it difficult for him to speak, Draeger said. But Orange Countys firefighters taught him one way to communicate, she said. If hes feeling all right, he gives a fist bump.

Paramedics and firefighters have had a key role in Jeremys life. Orange County Fire Department Capt. Jim Cass flew with the family to the Mayo clinic when Jeremy was younger and has stayed in touch through the years.

You cant help everybody, but sometimes, it just feels right to step out and do a little bit more, Cass said.

Jeremys mother became teary Sunday when asked how Jeremy is doing.

Its still a struggle, she said. It takes a village.

Just then, Cass was talking with others when he noticed she was upset. He instantly pivoted, walked over and put his arm around her shoulder.

The village is still with the Wifler family.
LOS ANGELES  A UC Berkeley student who came to the U.S. as an Iraqi refugee says he was unfairly removed from a flight at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this month because a fellow passenger was alarmed by an innocent conversation he was having in Arabic.

Southwest Airlines said in a statement Sunday that the passenger, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, was taken off the April 9 flight from Los Angeles to Oakland, California, for questioning and the plane took off while that was happening. But the airline said it has not received a direct complaint from Makhzoomi, and he has not responded to several attempts to reach him.

Makhzoomi, a 26-year-old senior at UC Berkeley, said that he was calling his uncle before the flight to tell him about a speech he had attended by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

I was very excited about the event, so I called my uncle to tell him about it, Makhzoomi told the New York Times.

Makhzoomi told his uncle about asking a question on the Islamic State group at the event. He said he used the phrase inshallah, meaning god willing, at the end of the conversation, and those things might have led to suspicion.

He said the woman sitting in front of him on the plane began staring at him. That is when I thought, Oh, I hope she is not reporting me,  Makhzoomi said.

Makhzoomi said an Arabic-speaking Southwest employee came and escorted him off the plane and asked him why he had been speaking Arabic.

Makhzoomi said he told the employee This is what Islamophobia got this country into. Makhzoomi said that made the man angry and that was when he was told he could not get back on the plane.

The FBI in Los Angeles said in a statement that it investigated the situation by request and found no further action was necessary.

Southwest said it could not offer specific comments before talking to Makhzoomi. The airlines statement said it regrets any less-than-positive experience by a customer, but its primary focus is on safety and its crew members followed protocol. It added that the company neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.

Makhzoomi said he was able to get book a flight on another airline and got home eight hours later than planned.

My family and I have been through a lot, and this is just another one of the experiences I have had, he told the Times. Human dignity is the most valuable thing in the world, not money. If they apologized, maybe it would teach them to treat people equally.
Gustavo Martin will be among millions watching today as the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in a historic immigration case. Hes already talked with his 9-year-old son about the potential consequences of the high court decision  and the presidential campaign.

As he sits outside the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana, Martin recounts conversations with his son, Erik. There is always the risk that their lives could take a sudden, unexpected and sad turn, hes explained.

Maybe, Martin says in Spanish, we will have to leave.

Erik, absorbed in a video game, stops playing and looks up. I dont want to leave for Mexico, the third-grader says in English.

While the Martin family tunes in to the hearing, about two dozen protesters from Orange County and the Inland Empire plan to rally in opposition to federal immigration policies at the heart of the case, what they deride as President Barack Obamas amnesty plan for those who have entered the country illegally.

The two perspectives reflect passionate, opposing forces focused on a pivotal moment in the nations wrenching conflict over an estimated 11 million foreign-born residents living in the country without legal documentation.



On Nov. 20, 2014, Obama announced a plan that would pave the way for people like Martin and his wife, Ilda, to live without fear of deportation, at least temporarily. The Martins seized onto that hope.

Martin has been in the country more than 30 years. He crossed the border illegally with friends when he was 17. He made a life for himself in Orange County, got married, had two kids and works two jobs as a cook to make ends meet.

He remains optimistic the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the presidents immigration plan, making it possible for the couple and millions like them who have U.S.-born children, or children with legal residency, to get work permits and other benefits, along with the peace of mind that has eluded them.

Martin said he doesnt worry for himself, but for the future of his two American children, Erik and Ximena, 2. Should he be forced to leave, he said, theyll come with me.

Martin said hes watching the case before the Supreme Court but is paying closer attention to the presidential race and the heated arguments revolving around immigration.

More than a third of Orange Countys 3.17 million residents are Latinos and nearly 20 percent are Asians, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Greg Walgenbach, who is Life, Justice and Peace director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, said the sort of palpable anxiety Martin feels is widespread in immigrant communities, where many who are not directly affected worry for relatives, friends and co-workers.

Martin said he is the only member of his extended family without legal residency.

Across the United States, it is estimated that more than 6 million citizens live in a household where at least one family member is residing in the country illegally and is subject to deportation, according to a November 2015 report from the Center for American Progress.

Orange County has about 274,000 unauthorized residents; 80 percent were born in Mexico and Central America, and 16 percent were born in Asia, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit think tank.

The high court case, Walgenbach said, isnt just about public policy; its about families lives, their hopes and dreams.

In recent years, plans for immigration reform have stalled in Congress. Obamas push to create a bridge plan to begin the process of helping people living here illegally move toward legitimate residency has been blocked in a court battle led by Texas and supported by 25 states.

Its been such a roller coaster on these decisions, said Walgenbach, referring to the legal and political conflicts of the federal case and the presidential race.

Martins young son seems attuned to what may be at stake for the family, particularly in the election. We have to get ready if Donald Trump is president, he said. Therell be a lot of changes.

His mother, Ilda, prays about it all the time: Please God, let the one who can help us win.



Robin Hvidston organizes against illegal immigration and policies she says encourage more people to cross illegally to live and work in the United States.

As executive director of the Claremont-based We the People Rising, Hvidston and about 25 other opponents will march today from the San Bernardino City Hall to the Mexican Consulate in San Bernardino against what they see as the Obama executive amnesty.

Were the voice of the common people, she said.

Illegal immigration, her group argues, degrades everyones quality of life.

Overcrowding in neighborhoods has put excess pressure on schools, health systems, the states environment and its water supply, Hvidston and other critics argue. They say funds going to the undocumented population should be redirected to veterans, the homeless and American citizens in need. And they insist the rule of law must be followed.

Were not against legal immigration, Hvidston said. Were a network of activists with similar goals wanting to see the border secured.

Orange County was once at the forefront of the nations anti-illegal immigration movement. In 1994, California voters approved Proposition 187, the so-called Save Our State measure born here. The proposition sought to deny public services, such as education, to people living here illegally. Most of the initiatives provisions were struck down in court.

And the measure energized a growing Latino voter population, which helped elect more Latino legislators.

Today, the state is a national leader in lawmaking that is friendly to immigrants who are in the country illegally.

That fuels the anger and frustration of Hvidston and her allies.

The case being heard by the Supreme Court is significant, Hvidston said, and she doesnt know what to expect from the justices.

Shes hopeful a new, Republican president will be elected and will enforce immigration restrictions diligently. She says she favors Trump, the businessman and former reality TV star who is pledging to build a wall on the Mexican border.

In the meantime, she and her group will continue to advocate, she said. The picket signs are ready.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or rkopetman@ocregister.com
Irvine-based textile maker Momentum Group has been acquired by Cleveland-based Riverside Co.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Momentum sells textiles, primarily to furniture makers, architecture and design firms.

Riverside Co. already has history with the company. The group invested in Momentum in 2006 before selling the company to Norwest Equity Partners in 2011. The group is now divesting the company back to Riverside Co.

Norwest Equity Partners doubled Momentums earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, according to a press release.

Momentum was a great fit for our firms distribution investment strategy, said Timothy Kuehl, NEP Partner and Momentum board member, in a statement.

Momentum has a highly-successful organic growth-oriented business model that stems from providing innovative sustainable products from a global supply base to a diverse set of customers in a variety of end markets, he added. The companys solid track record of outperforming the market year after year positions them well to continue on the same growth trajectory for the future.

Contact the writer: hmadans@ocregister.com or Twitter: @HannahMadans
NEW YORK  As one of the largest rallies of his presidential campaign drew to a close, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont, offered his voters some unusual and unwanted advice.

They might lose.

This is a tough race for us, Sanders told thousands of supporters in Manhattan last week. We have a system here in New York where independents cant get involved in the Democratic primary, where young people who have not previously registered and want to register just cant do it.

Boos echoed through Washington Square Park, where plenty of voters had learned this the hard way. They had missed New Yorks stringent deadline  in October  to switch party registration in order to cast a ballot in Tuesdays Democratic primary. Now, the Sanders campaign is pre-spinning a possible loss here by criticizing that rule.

The challenge of competing in a closed primary such as New Yorks, where polls show Sanders trailing front-runner Hillary Clinton by double digits, could serve as a final blow to his campaign. The democratic socialists success has been bolstered by independent voters in states where they were permitted to vote. But the improbable odds of winning the nomination in a party Sanders doesnt even belong to may finally be catching up to him.

Beyond the trove of delegates at stake Tuesday in New York, the issue has sparked an existential question about what the primary should be  a lowercase-d democratic festival for all voters, or a chance for loyal activists to pick a nominee.

To some, including Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, independent voters distort the process when theyre allowed to barrel into the primaries.

Im speaking for myself  this is not something that the national partys had a discussion on but in my opinion the Democratic primary should be determined by Democratic voters, Wasserman Schultz, a congresswoman from Florida, said after Clinton and Sanders debated in New York on Thursday.

But to Sanders and his supporters, New York has become a study in shame, a reason why the primaries should be opened.

Probably a lot of those people out there in the crowd, hopefully a small number comparatively, are not even able to vote in this election because they didnt change their registration to Democrat last October, when they havent even heard of Bernie Sanders, the candidates wife, Jane, said on MSNBC this week. Those kind of things seem silly. Were bringing a lot more people into the party, and the party is shutting the door on them.

Said Ben Jealous, a former president of the NAACP: The test of who can most unify and strengthen the party is informed by who can attract independent voters in the primaries. There are a lot of people who left the party looking for an authentic progressive, and in Bernie Sanders they have found an authentic progressive.

Sanders himself has strongly suggested that the candidate who can pull independents into the primary  in this case, himself  is de facto the better candidate for a general election.

This may be a shock to the secretary, but there are a whole lot of independents in this country, he said on the debate stage Thursday. We are not going to win the White House just with Democratic votes.

One thing is clear: Without independents in those other states, Sanders probably wouldve been sunk long ago.

In Michigan, where Sanders won his greatest upset, Clinton beat him by 18 points among self-identified Democrats, according to exit polls. In Oklahoma, one of the few states that Clinton won in 2008s primary but lost this year, she beat Sanders by nine points with Democrats. In Wisconsin, Sanders won overall by 13 points; he split the Democratic vote with Clinton 50-50.

In each case, independents who felt like pulling a Democratic ballot were able to vote for Sanders. In New York, many of the people who crowded Sanderss rallies  some lining up for hours, Bernie buttons on their winter coats  admitted that they had not understood that New Yorks rules were different.

Nobody told us that we had to re-register, said Toni Lantz, 24, who waited three hours to see Sanders speak in Rochester. Ive been an independent since I was 18. I didnt like the choices until now; I consider myself to be more in the middle.

Some did check the rules but couldnt bring themselves to become Democrats.

The minute that he declared he was running, I was supporting him, Isabel Madden, 68, said at the Washington Square Park rally. But it was important for me to remain independent, so Ive been going around, trying to convince people to vote for him.

Madden pointed to a friend shed brought to the park. Theres my proxy, she said.

Its been a problem for Republican front-runner Donald Trump, too. Like Sanders, Trump has benefitted enormously from crossover votes. But his attorney and oldest children admitted that they missed the registration deadline in New York.

As Sanders attempts to surge from behind in the overall delegate race, he has to contend with half a dozen more closed primaries. Delaware, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Pennsylvania all limit their contests to registered Democrats.

New Yorks closed primary elicited a special effort from the Sanders campaign. While voters registered as independents, Greens, Republicans or members of the Working Families Party had to switch in October, voters who had never registered before could become Democrats by March 25.

The campaign made a push for those potential new voters, especially on college campus. In just the 10 days between March 10 and 20, close to 41,000 new voters joined the rolls.

Still, the push came before some voters had tuned in, and before Sanders himself really campaigned in the state. Its hard to know exactly what it yielded, said Robert Becker, the campaigns deputy national field director.

This month, as more Sanders fans learned of the rules, some grew desperate. Fred Thiele, an independent member of the state legislature who caucuses with Democrats, started getting more and more calls about his legislation to open up the primary.

This is YUUUUGGGGEEE!!! Sanders supporter Teresa Ash Willis wrote on a pro-Sanders Facebook page, sharing a link to Thieles bill. If someone can find out when they are voting on this legislation, we should set up an event to have the public go to the hearing in massive numbers!

Again and again, Thiele had to share the sad news: The bill couldnt be acted on by April 19.

I feel disenfranchised, too, he said. Its ironic that I can vote on a $155 billion state budget, but next Tuesday I cant vote in the primary. Maybe by 2020 we can change the law. In the meantime, what I tell people is that my heart and my $27 are going to Bernie Sanders.

And in the meantime, Sanders will keep holding rallies where some of the faithful will be unable to vote for him.

In Washington Square Park, at least one of those voters had good news. Nika Lomazzo, 21, had never registered to vote in New York. She planned to travel home to Rhode Island, where she belonged to no party, and take advantage of that states open primary on April 26.

Ive never wanted to get registered with a party, Lomazzo said. I always want to remain independent. Im glad I can keep loyal to that and still vote for Bernie.
WASHINGTON  Chief Justice John Roberts twice voted to save President Barack Obamas health care law, infuriating his usual allies on the right. Now, conservatives are nervous that the chief justice will disappoint them again in a challenge to another major Obama initiative, this one on immigration.

The case, to be argued Monday at the Supreme Court, presents fundamental questions about executive power against the backdrop of a wrenching national debate over Obamas plan to spare millions of immigrants from deportation. But Roberts record suggests that he may avoid taking a position on such a divisive and partisan issue, focusing instead on the more technical question of whether the states challenging the Obama administrations immigration plan have suffered the sort of direct and concrete injury that gives them standing to sue.

That jurisprudential off-ramp would avoid a deadlock or a grand pronouncement from a short-handed court on a politically charged issue in a presidential election year. And that may prove attractive to a chief justice who has said he does not want the Supreme Court to be viewed as a forum where partisan matters would be worked out.

A narrow ruling would in some ways echo Roberts 2012 opinion sustaining the central feature of the health care law on grounds so carefully calibrated that no other justice joined all of his opinion. And it would be consistent with his stated preference for achieving consensus by defining the legal question at issue in a case as narrowly as possible.

Roberts, 61, is a patient man and a canny strategist, sometimes to the frustration of his conservative colleagues. In 2007, three years before the Citizens United decision, Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February, urged him to move faster in deregulating campaign finance law.

In 2009, Roberts persuaded seven of his colleagues to duck a challenge to the Voting Rights Act on technical grounds and then used language from that opinion in 2013 to justify striking down the heart of the law in Shelby County v. Holder.

David A. Strauss, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said an incremental step will appeal to Roberts all the more in the current political climate.

The chief justice, who has spoken recently about how the confirmation process might affect the courts stature, may be especially troubled by a 4-4 split in this case, Strauss said. A ruling based on standing, he said, would wipe the slate clean, so the program could be considered in the future by a full Supreme Court.

Obamas plan would allow more than 4 million unauthorized immigrants who are parents of citizens or lawful permanent residents to apply for a program shielding them from deportation and allowing them to work legally. In the short term, a ruling to dismiss the case on standing grounds would at least temporarily save the plan.

A tie vote, on the other hand, would leave in place an injunction blocking the plan and probably deny Obama any chance of resurrecting it.

The case, United States v. Texas, No. 15-674, was brought by Texas and 25 other states, which say the plan went beyond what Congress had authorized. Lower courts have sided with Texas.

The trial judge ruled that the Obama administration should have given notice of the plan and sought public comments on its new program. The appeals court affirmed that ruling and added a broader one: The program, it said, also exceeded Obamas statutory authority.

The Supreme Court asked the parties to address the even broader question of whether Obama had violated his constitutional obligations to enforce the nations laws. But the court must first address whether Texas has suffered the sort of direct and concrete injury that gave it standing to sue in the first place.

Chief Justice Roberts will be very skeptical of Texas standing claims, said Tara Leigh Grove, a professor of law at William & Mary and the author of an article on lawsuits by states against the federal government to be published next month in The Cornell Law Review.

Ken Paxton, attorney general of Texas, said his state had brought the case to settle fundamental questions about presidential power.

Our goal really was pretty basic: defend the Constitution and stop President Obamas lawlessness, he said.

A White House spokeswoman declined to comment. In court papers, the administration has defended its plan as lawful, humane and valuable.

Texas says it has standing to sue based on the budget shortfalls it would sustain if many unauthorized immigrants applied for drivers licenses. The state sets fees for drivers licenses below what they cost and ties eligibility for them to federal determinations about who is lawfully present in the country.

Our standing argument is based on the cost of drivers licenses, which is obviously not part of our budget at this point, said Paxton. The Legislature meets only every other year, and they put together a budget and all of the drivers licenses come out of the budget, and theres no money for it. So our standing is based on that cost.

Experts on standing law have sharply differing views about whether the cost of drivers licenses, a consequence of the states own choices about fees and eligibility, can confer standing. Such self-imposed injury has never provided a ticket to federal court, Walter Dellinger, a former acting U.S. solicitor general in the Clinton administration, wrote in a supporting brief. Roberts cited Dellingers views on standing in an opinion in an earlier case.

Ernest A. Young, a law professor at Duke who filed a supporting brief for Texas, said the state has plainly been injured. All one has to accept for Texas to have standing, he said, is that governments have interests in administering their own legal regimes, and that because these legal regimes are intertwined with federal law in various ways, federal actions often do affect state public administration in a cognizable way.
WPP-owned financial PR heavyweights Finsbury and Hering Schuppener have forged an partnership and dropped out of previous alliances as they unite under a common brand.

Finsbury, with its London and New York prowess, and Herin Schuppener, strong in Frankfurt and Brussels, will offer their combined 14 offices and 350 staffers under the alliance. The firms said the alliance will give clients greater cross-market access, along with an integrated digital offering.

Hering Schuppener is severing ties with the AMO Network, while Finsbury drops out of the Europe-focused Fibra alliance.

The firms said they've adopted a common brand identity while retaining their names and ownership. Finsbury chairman Roland Rudd said the firms have worked side-by-side over the years and share a common philosophy as advisers.

WPP said the firms advised nearly 1,500 deals worth more than $2 trillion over the past 10 years.

Ralf Hering helms Hering Schuppener.
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Michael Bryant Jr. choked, bit, beat, kicked, pulled hair, threw women to the floor and hit them over the head with a bottle.

Despite admitting to multiple assaults during misdemeanor prosecutions in Northern Cheyenne Tribal Court, Bryants 2011 federal habitual offender conviction was reversed in a 9th Circuit decision that will be argued before the Supreme Court of the United States on Tuesday. The case could have significant implications for prosecuting domestic violence in Indian Country, the rights of American Indian defendants in U.S. courts and whether tribal convictions can later be used in federal prosecutions.

It will have a lasting impact on Indian communities, on women and children and families and on public safety, U.S. Attorney for Montana Mike Cotter said. Its important because Congress enacted Section 117 to fill a void.

Section 117 refers to a segment of the Violence Against Women Act that allows tribal convictions to count toward the number of domestic assault offenses required to be charged as a felony habitual offender.

Along with other provisions, the law is widely regarded as an important tool to fight domestic violence on American Indian reservations, where cracks had long existed in the criminal jurisdiction shared between tribal, federal and sometimes state authorities.

Federal prosecutors have a mixed record of taking up cases from Indian Country. Until 2010, tribal courts could only impose sentences up to one year regardless of the crimes severity and were limited to handling misdemeanor offenses. Today some tribes can issue sentences of up to three years, or nine years under limited circumstances. Since 1978, tribes also have not had jurisdiction to prosecute non-Indians for on-reservation crimes.

That meant many domestic abusers quickly returned to the community and reoffended again and again, like Bryant, with little legal recourse available to victims. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that 46 percent of American Indian women have experienced violence, been raped or stalked by an intimate partner, more than double the rate of all other races.

Updates to the Violence Against Women Act also allowed tribes to prosecute non-Indians for a narrow list of crimes against some women, so long as the courts met rules outlined in the legislation designed to guarantee Constitution-style protections, such as paying for the legal counsel of non-Indian defendants who cannot afford their own attorney.

The requirement for U.S. courts to provide legal counsel to poor adult defendants facing felonies in state court was recognized as an extension of the Constitutional right to due process by the Supreme Court in the unanimous 1963 opinion, Gideon v. Wainwright. In several more rulings over the next decade, that right was expanded to additional types of crime, to children and to other stages of the judicial process.

Tribal governments pre-date the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Unless specified by Congress, the principles of the foundational American documents do not apply to tribes. Federal leaders approved the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 to outline protections for defendants in tribal courts. The accused have a right to counsel under the legislation, but only at their own expense. Although some tribes do pay for indigent defense, others do not.

There, at the intersection of American and Indian law, lies the core question of the Bryant case: Can a federal court recognize tribal convictions from cases where defendants did not have legal counsel? Congress says yes. So did the judges of the 8th and 10th Circuit Courts. The 9th Circuit, however, disagreed in a 2014 opinion on the Bryant case.

Tribal court convictions may be used in subsequent prosecutions only if the tribal court guarantees a right to counsel that is, at minimum, coextensive with the Sixth Amendment right, wrote the justices. Because the defendants tribal court domestic abuse convictions would have violated the Sixth Amendment had they been obtained in federal or state court, the panel concluded that it was constitutionally impermissible to use them.

Steven Babcock, the federal defender representing Bryant, echoed the circuit justices.

We are not challenging the Constitutionality of the tribal court convictions, he said. Were dealing with the usage of them in a subsequent federal proceeding where the Sixth Amendment clearly applies.

John Robinson, who served as a justice on the Northern Cheyenne Court for 15 years, disagreed.

The issue appears to challenge the criminal justice system in Indian Country, he said. It seems they are saying individuals are not competent to plead to certain issues unless they have a legal interpreter whose job is to accept the admission then attempt to plead it out to a lower offense.

Justice Paul Watford, who wrote that he felt pushed to the majority opinion by existing case law, agreed the ruling might be interpreted more broadly.

The implication is that, if the defendant lacks counsel, tribal courts are inherently suspect and unworthy of the federal courts respect, he wrote.

Some legal scholars wonder if the justices will leverage the case to opine on tangential topics such as tribal court sovereignty or the power of Congress in the trust relationship. Some wonder if the opinion will kickstart a new arc of rulings on the interplay of federal and tribal courts first created under the Violence Against Women Act, or perhaps on the judicial rights of American Indians. At minimum, some legal scholars said the tone of the majority opinion in the Bryant case is likely to influence future Congressional legislation on criminal justice in Indian Country.

The importance of the courts decision will be what the court actually says in its opinion on the viability of tribal court convictions, Michigan State Professor of Indigenous Law Matthew Fletcher said. This case is going to serve as a footstool to future cases.

Barbara Creel, Southwest Indian Law Clinic director and professor of law at the University of New Mexico, agreed with Babcock that the case was not about tribal sovereignty.

Yet, she said the case reveals inequities in the criminal justice system of tribes created when Congress told them how to structure their governments under the Indian Reorganization Act, but did not provide sufficient funding or additional legal protections to make those systems function as intended.

Additionally, in a brief she and colleagues filed to the court, Creel argues that the Violence Against Women Act creates a discriminatory double standard.

When you drill down, you really do have a race problem saying its OK for Indians to have uncounseled convictions and for non-Indians that would be a scourge. Thats inherently unfair, she said.

Cotter said he had no issue using Bryants tribal convictions to charge him as a habitual offender.

He is what the statute targeted, he said. He had admitted to domestic violence on numerous separate occasions in tribal court. He subjected his victims to violent and brutal attacks. This is admitted conduct.

Bryant did not return a request for comment made through his attorney.

Cotter said the 2014 Bryant opinion had a chilling effect in the 9th Circuit, where records show federal prosecutors had filed dozens of habitual offender charges leading before the ruling. Stretching from Arizona to Alaska, the nine-state region includes more tribal nations than any other.

The U.S. Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court of the United States to reconcile the conflicting decisions so that that habitual domestic violence offenders with tribal court convictions are treated the same way  no matter where they reside.
CHEYENNE, Wyo.  The mother of a man who died on a 2011 backpacking trip to India has dropped her appeal of a judge's decision dismissing her lawsuit against a Wyoming training academy.

Elizabeth Brenner of Minnetonka, Minn., had sued the National Outdoor Leadership School based in Lander, Wyo.

Brenner had claimed NOLS was negligent in the death of her 20-year-old son, Thomas Plotkin. He slipped into a ravine while on a NOLS expedition and his body was never found.

U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne dismissed Brenner's lawsuit last year. Johnson noted Plotkin had signed agreements acknowledging the program involved risks.

Brenner had appealed Johnson's dismissal to a federal appeals court in Denver.

Brenner and NOLS filed a stipulation in the federal appeals court this month ending the appeal.
Nebraska had a sparkling spring game weekend for recruiting, but it does appear one of its top tight end targets liked another school a bit more.

Littleton (Colorado) Chatfield tight end Dalton Keene, who visited for the spring game, picked Virginia Tech after making the trip. One of the Hokies' assistants is a college roommate of Dalton Keene's dad, Wes, who is also the football coach at Chatfield.

Virginia Tech has a new head coach in Justin Fuente.
HOOPER, Neb.  Anti-chicken signs have lined Highway 275 north of Fremont for a few weeks now, with messages like Chickens stink and Big $ talks, Chickens squawk.

Backers of a proposed chicken processing plant on Sunday rolled out their own campaign, passing out We  Costco yard signs at an afternoon event.

Supporters gathered at Scott Wagners farm, about 7 miles down a gravel road off Highway 275 near the town of Hooper, to stage an event with representatives of the mega-warehouse retailer.

Costco is working with Georgia company Lincoln Premium Poultry to develop a plant and grower network around Fremont that would supply a third of its fresh chicken, including raw and rotisserie chickens.

Attendees included employees of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska.

They set up a podium on the bed of a trailer, where Fremont Mayor Scott Getzschman said, Costco has an impeccable reputation. We couldnt ask for a better corporate citizen to join our town.

Costco is looking to control more of its supply chain as it grows; in the case of chicken, it can ensure it has the size and cut of poultry its customers want, company officials said. Working in rural Nebraska, it can also get closer to the raw materials  grain  that go into chicken farming, Costco Senior Vice President Jeff Lyons said.

Standing in front of Wagners grain bins, he said, addressing Nebraska farmers, With our volume and your volume, we should be successful together.

Fremont resident Matt Rasmussen, owner of a soil analytics business, told The World-Herald that members of his extended family are interested in growing chickens for Costco. No farmers have signed contracts yet, though, officials said, because Costco hasnt made a final decision about locating the plant here. But officials said they have interest from about 250 farmers, more than Costco needs.

Rasmussen said the plant would boost the area economy. For corn growers, Rasmussen said, Lets have another buyer, so it improves our local (price) basis.

Supporters snacked on Costco cookies and Costco roll-up sandwiches as they looked at an architects drawing of the plant, which would slaughter 1.6 million chickens a week.

Walt Shafer, a longtime chicken industry executive now working with Lincoln Premium Poultry, said the plant would use the latest technology to automate the slaughter process. Chickens would be delivered in enclosed trucks, and the meat would be ready to ship just hours later.

Project backers declined to say whether they would continue to try to locate the plant on a parcel of land near Nickerson; the village board this month turned down a request for a needed zoning change there amid fierce opposition to the plant.

We want to hear what the community is telling us, and respond, said Bill Crider, Lincoln Premium Poultry executive, whose family has long been in the chicken business in Georgia.

Lincoln Premium Poultry proposes building a $300 million plant that would employ 1,100. Officials say it would pump $1.2 billion annually into the areas economy.

Officials had refused to name Lincoln Premium Poultry or Costco for weeks; the companies disclosed their names Thursday after The World-Herald connected the project to another Crider poultry business.

Whatever parcel they choose, backers seem intent on continuing to try to place the plant in eastern Nebraska. Backers are considering ways to answer concerns from the plants would-be neighbors without hosting a public forum that could turn unruly.

We really hope it works in Nebraska, said Jonathan Luz, director of strategic planning and development for Costco.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1336, barbara.soderlin@owh.com

******

More coverage
JACKSON, Wyo.  A Wyoming school has canceled a planned appearance by a Christian abstinence advocate after an outcry from parents.

Teton County School District canceled Shelly Donahue's speech after a number of parents complained that her message is unscientific, ineffective and likely to give students a bad impression of themselves and each other.

Donahue may be best known for a demonstration in which she sticks a piece of tape to a boy's arm. She compares the tape to that of a promiscuous girl, whose tape becomes less transparent as it's shared with other peoples' arms.

Superintendent Gillian Chapman said she was surprised by the response from parents and noted that some told her they would have been glad to have their children participate in the program.

"When you're talking about sex, it's a sensitive subject," Chapman said. "Some parents don't want to talk about sex with their kids, they want someone else to talk to them."

For those who are still interested in attending, Donahue will give her presentation in the Jackson Hole High School library after class hours on Wednesday.

The program wouldn't have used tax dollars. It was offered by Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center, an organization that offers pregnancy support with an anti-abortion message.

Parents were given the choice to opt their kids out, but several argued that Donahue's appearance in public schools seemed like an endorsement of her views.

"She has zero sex education credentials," said parent Renee Glick on Sunday. She called Donahue's lessons "fear-based and guilt-based, which is really wrong, and which is damaging."

Donahue doesn't talk about contraception, instead focusing on telling teenagers that premarital sex leads to bad physical and emotional results. She backs her claims up with Scripture but says she presents a no-religion version of the speech when necessary.

Chapman called the disagreement "healthy," but she also defended Donahue, saying that she saw one of Donahue's presentations and thought it was a worthwhile message.

"She doesn't just say 'Don't have sex'; she gives kids the language and tools they need to say it's OK not to have sex," said Chapman. "She's an excellent presenter, and what was impressive to me was how the kids responded to her and the value they took away from her presentation."
Karnataka question paper scam: Don't study, you will still pass, students were told

Bengaluru

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, April 18: The Criminal Investigation Department probing the question paper leak in Karnataka has unearthed some shocking details of how the scam has been in operation.

It may be recalled that the Chemistry question paper of the II PU exam had leaked twice forcing the examinations to be postponed.Before the CID is the deposition of 300 students who have narrated how the system had worked.

In the other part of the probe it has been found that Shivkumar, the main accused in the scam had sold question papers to 20 different private colleges for Rs 20 lakh each. This is just a tip of the iceberg and we are aware that he has been coordinating with more colleges across the state.

The capitation mafia:

Several private colleges and tutorials were raided following this scam. Some of these institutions have charged a capitation fee between Rs 5 and Rs 15 lakh. The assurance given to the parents is that the students need not worry about the PU exam and can focus only on the Common Entrance Test. The PU paper would be made available to the students a day in advance.

A day before the PU examination, the students would be told to stay back at the college and by-heart all the answers. The deposition by the 300 students suggests that they were given the question paper a day in advance and asked to by-heart all the answers. Further they also told the CID that they were assured of a 100 per cent result.

Investigators tell OneIndia such assurances can be given only when the question paper is available well in advance. Going by the results that these institutions have produced, the number of admissions went up and so did the demand for the capitation fee.

The CID has been corroborating the statements of the 300 students and found that each one had a similar version to the story. This had led to several raids being conducted on colleges and the authorities too had been questioned.

The Kingpin:

The investigators say that the probe led them up to Shivakumar who is now considered as the alleged kingpin in this scam. His last available location was Kerala. However, at the moment he has discarded his phone and it has become extremely difficult to track him.

Shivakumar has been in the business since 2008 according to the police. He did not deal with just PU question papers. Trails of him supplying question papers of MBBS, engineering, the KPSC and even Sub Inspector examinations have come to light.

Shivakumar according to the police was a teacher in a college. He took voluntary retirement and has been in the business of allegedly supplying question papers since 2008. He has come face to face with the law several times and all the police could do was book a case of theft against him. This because of the lack of stringent laws to prevent such crimes. A theft is an easily bailable offence.

Shivkumar's arrest is of extreme importance. While the police are aware that he is the one who allegedly supplied the papers, it is yet to be known who he purchased them from. He will have to reveal the names of the officials from whom he purchased the paper, the CID officer informed.

The ones who have been arrested so far are second rung operatives. The top rung is the one we need to get hold off the officer also said. We are aware that he would sell each question paper for Rs 20 lakh per college. There are 20 colleges which are under the scanner for having purchased question papers.

The names of more colleges across the state will come up during the probe as we believe that his area of operation could not have been limited to Bengaluru city alone.

OneIndia News
Mercury rises: Huge exodus of people from North Karnataka has begun

Bengaluru

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, April 18: Everyday one witnesses a batch of people getting off a train at the Bengaluru railway station. With their faces fallen and thoughts parched, these people from North Karnataka have come to the city in search of jobs and more importantly water.

The mercury in North Karnataka is rising and the highest recorded temperature in recent days has been 44 degree Celsius. Some will stay on in Bengaluru until the mercury cools down back home while others will proceed to Mysore in search of jobs.

[Bengaluru sizzles at 39.2 degrees Celsius, breaks 85-yr-old record]

TN farmers prepare for a long summer as KRS water level dips further

The situation is not getting any better and there seems to be no respite from the heat. Water at Rs 10 per pot is out of the question for these people who barely earn Rs 50 or Rs 100 per day.

Migration hits North Karnataka

We waited enough they say. We have sold our cattle as it is impossible to manage over there says Sanappa who landed in the city on Sunday along with his wife and four daughters.

"If we continued to stay there we would have died and there is no respite from the heat. I would not blame anyone for this but fate. We have faced this year after year, but this time around it is bad," he also said.

While one batch of people have come to Bengaluru, there is another set of people who are on their way to Mysore. Some have even gone to Mumbai in search of jobs.

The highest number of migration is from Aland in North Karnataka which has faced the worst possible situation. Forget shortage, there is no drinking water over there.

Expect warmer than normal nights over the next one week: IMD

The districts in Kalaburgi have also witnessed a high exodus of people. The only source of water here is the one that is provided through tankers. While the government tankers are able to provide waters only to 180 villages, the rest are dependant on private operators who charge exhorbitantly for water.

Money matters now

Cultivating the fields is out of the question. The people are not even sure of how strong the monsoon would be. If the monsoon fails then none of them propose on returning.

In the cities, these people can earn anything between Rs 300 and Rs 400 per day. Most of them have landed up at construction sites. However construction companies too are finding it hard to accommodate so many people. The sites are clearly overstaffed now due to this exodus.

These unfortunate people however are not interested in staying away from their homes for too long. We have our own fields back home and were self sufficient. We just hope to save enough money so that we can go back home and begin cultivating our fields they say.

However all that would depend on the monsoon. If the monsoon fails, then there is no question of getting back for them. Let us pray that the rain gods are merciful on these people.

OneIndia News
As Kolkata approaches polls, Mamata gets desperate to get away from tainted TMC leaders

Feature

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said in an election rally in Kolkata that had she known about the Narada sting operation before, she would have given a second thought to fielding the accused leaders in the ongoing election. But once the candidates' list was declared, she couldn't do anything else.

List of 62 seats going to polls on April 21" title="Assembly Polls 2016 Full Coverage; List of 62 seats going to polls on April 21" />Assembly Polls 2016 Full Coverage; List of 62 seats going to polls on April 21

Banerjee released the list of 294 candidates on March 4, hours after the Election Commission announced the schedule for this year's Assembly elections in four states and one Union Territory.

Banerjee's stand on Narada has only got softer with time

The TMC chief's latest words show that she has come far away from the strong stand she had taken after learning about the sting operation for the first time. She counter-attacked the sting operation showing her leaders 'accepting' bribes but soon, she could realise that her party was getting more and more buried in the issue.

The ghosts of the Saradha chit fund scam became alive again and the collapse of an under-construction flyover in North Kolkata exposed more allegations of syndicate and corruption against the ruling party.

Narada, Saradha, flyover collapse, syndicate---Mamata suddenly saw herself under immense pressure

The pressure became so vigorous that Banerjee started softening her stand and was even seen virtually pleaded the voters for support. She was heard saying "he is not a thief" about a party candidate or "please do not desert us" to the audience while addressing rallies in different parts of the state.

The frustration was also visible in her unsparing attacks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and even the Election Commission which has taken all possible steps this time to ensure that the polls are held fairly and peacefully. The TMC also gave up under the pressure and called for an internal probe into the issue though that did not buy much conviction among the chief minister's critics.

Mamata magic may still work in rural parts but in Kolkata and suburbs, it may not be an easywalk this time

Mamata Banerjee's magic might still work in the rural parts of the state but with in Kolkata and its suburbs, it might become a different ball-game this time even though the TMC has a brute majority in these parts. Election will take place in Kolkata on April 21 and 30 and although the TMC had won 96 out of 109 seats in Kolkata and the four adjoining districts of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly, the urban and semi-urban voters of these areas may feel otherwise while casting their ballots this time, thanks to issues like Saradha, Narada and Singur.

And a nervous Mamata Banerjee said the ultimate remark she can make under these circumstances: "Would have given a second thought".

Mamata has much to lose this time, unlike in 2011

Unlike the situation in 2011 when she had everything to win, the TMC supremo has everything to lose this time and this has made her more nervous. She is also worried for not just losing power but even her own image of honesty, something she had worked hard over the years to grow in the public domain. But Banerjee's indirect acknowledgement at the rally on Sunday has come far too late now.

Moreover, this could also see a serious crack developing in the party in the near future for any form of adversity on May 19 (even if a sharp fall in TMC's seats if not a defeat) can derail the party which has little ideological grounding to keep itself together.

Banerjee's opportunist lieutenants will not spare an opportunity to demean her if the result of this election doesn't favour the TMC. The supremo of the party in a shambles now has nobody else but the electorate to look forward to to find an exit route.

In the middle of a high-stake election, Mamata Banerjee looks a leader who has been let down by her own party.
Modiplomacy helps balance ties with Saudi Arabia and Iran

Feature

oi-Lisa

By Lisa

Both Saudi Arabia and Iran are rich in energy resources and so very important for India to meet its ever increasing demand of energy. It has been a real trick for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that both the rival Islamic nations are engaged with India in positive way.

Prime Minister Modi's diplomacy has been tested amply by these two countries. It was with the help of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj that PM's diplomacy has won over both the rival nations.

Chabahar Port:

Susha Swaraj who was in Iran held bilateral talks with her counter part Javad Zarif in Tehran and also an expert group in New Delhi and thus finlaised the agreement relating to transport and transit corridors to link Port Chabahar in Iran with Afghanistan.

External Affairs Ministry statement after the second meeting of experts from India, Afghanistan and Iran mentioned that, "When the Agreement comes into force it will significantly enhance utilization of Chabahar Port, contribute to economic growth of Afghanistan, and facilitate better regional connectivity, including between India and connections to Afghanistan and Central Asia".

It is said that China and Pakistan's Economic Corridor thanks to Gwadar Port in Pakistan has got a reply in Chabahar Port Agreement. This strategic move of India will ensure greater flow of people and goods among the three countries.

Mrs. Swaraj also talked with her Iranian counterpart about constructing a railway line between the port and Iranian city of Zahidan which borders Pakistan. Irani President Hassan Rouhani described Chabahar Port as a defining partnership with a potential of connecting the entire region. President also stated that Iran can be India's reliable energy partner.

Iran is considered as one of the world's hottest investment destinations after opening up various critical sectors including oil and gas for joint ventures and foreign capital. India also expressed its keenness to increase oil imports from Iran from current 350,000 barrels a day.

Ties with Saudi Arabia:

Saudi Arabia is the largest oil supplier for India. The country supplied supplied 34.49 million tons of crude oil last year. On the other hand Iran also holds the fourth largest proven reserves of crude oil after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada. Iran too has huge deposits of natural gas.

India and Saudi Arabia have enjoyed warm and friendly ties since centuries. Relations between the two nations has grown the stronger during the recent times. Economic and trade relations, investment and joint ventures, educational ties and all other fields have received an increased impetus.

PM Modi's recent visit to Saudi Arabia came at a time when there is high level of disturbances in the Middle East. India boosted its robust bilateral trade with Saudi Arabia during Mr. Modi's visit.

Both the nations also agreed to focus on the security and be strict about the terror financing and radicalisation activities. There is a growing concern regarding Islamic State using troubled area on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan to make its base for attacking Indian territories. For this reason it is important for India to have great ties with Saudi Arabia with regards to intelligence and security cooperation specially cybersecurity.

Ties crucial but focus Swaraj's head scarf:

As it is a norm in India while Sushma Swaraj was in Iran cementing ties with Iran, back in India the focus was on the head scarf that Mrs. Swaraj used to cover her head as she met President of Iran Hassan Rouhani. The importance of the ties being forged was completely missed and the attire took centre stage.

However, some on Twitter responded to the trolls and came out strongly in defence of the External Affairs Minister.

Tamasha over @SushmaSwaraj dress in Iran shows how juvenile our discourse has become. Perfectly fine respecting local culture, sensitivities  Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) April 18, 2016

I don't see there is any problem with Sushma Swaraj covering her head - by choice - in sync with local culture. It is HER choice.  Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) April 18, 2016

Well this is the tweeet that had many comment for and against Mrs. Swaraj's head scarf.

With HE President Hassan Rouhani. pic.twitter.com/Rhbk0iqLgK  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 17, 2016

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Story first published: Monday, April 18, 2016, 15:14 [IST]
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Regional Conference of North-East states on Child Adoption

Feature

oi-Lisa

By Lisa

The Minister of Women & Child Development, Mrs. Maneka Gandhi inaugurated a One Day Regional Conference with North Eastern States in Shillong on the issues relating to Child Adoption. The conference is being held at State Convention Centre, Shillong.

The Ministers In-charge of Social Welfare and Women & Child Development in the North Eastern States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura participated in the conference.

Such a conference is important as the number of children being adopted is coming down in India year after year. In 2010 5693 children were adopted in India and 628 children were adopted inter country. The figures for adoption from April 2015 to December 2015 are: 2210 and 455 respectively.

These poor figures of adoption are worrisome as there are millions of orphan children and there is no dearth of prospective adoptive parents too. Such conferences will sure help more children find happy homes and more homes find children to make them lively places.

The conference:

About 400 delegates attended the Conference, including the stakeholders from the State Adoption Resource Agencies (SARAs), District Child Protection Units (DCPUs), Child Welfare Committees (CWCs), Specialised Adoption Agencies (SAAs) and Child Care Institutions (CCIs) in the North Eastern States, besides the senior officers from the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) and the concerned Department of the State Governments in the region.

The conference has been organised with an aim to:

Familiarise the stakeholders with the adoption programme in North Eastern States about the provisions relating to adoption under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015; and

Orient them about the provisions of Adoption Guidelines - 2015 as well as the online adoption process through Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS).

New guidelines:

The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development issued revised Guidelines Governing Adoption of Children 2015 which became effective from August last year. The 2015 Guidelines issued by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) replaced the 2011 Adoption Guidelines.

These Guidelines are intended to provide for more effective regulation for adoption of orphan, abandoned and surrendered children and would bring more transparency and efficiency in the adoption system.

Simultaneously, Central Adoption Resource Information Guidance System (CARINGS), as an e-governance measure created for the purpose of facilitating adoption of children, has also been revamped.

For hassle-free adoption, CARINGS will contain a centralised data bank of adoptable children and Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs). Clear cut timelines for domestic and inter-country adoption have been laid down.

The revised guidelines coupled with the new IT enabled adoption system - CARINGS, provide a transparent process of adoption under which all the child care institutions of the country have been brought into an integrated system.

Act amended for streamlining adoption:

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 came into force from 15th January, 2016 and repeals the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.

The Act contains a separate new chapter on Adoption to streamline adoption of orphan, abandoned and surrendered children.

It gives the existing Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) the status of a statutory body to enable it to perform its function more effectively. Separate chapter (VIII) on Adoption provides for detailed provisions relating to adoption and punishments for not complying with the laid down procedure.

Processes have been streamlined with timelines for both in-country and inter-country adoption including declaring a child legally free for adoption.

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Story first published: Monday, April 18, 2016, 11:26 [IST]
In the murder of NIA officer, there is more than what meets the eye

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, April 18: The probe into the murder of NIA officer, Tenzil Ahmed is far from over. The police are on the look out for Muneer who has criminal antecedents and the slain officer had tipped off the police about his whereabouts which led to the murder.

While the UP police probing the case say that there are multiple angles being explored into this case, they are trying to find out if Muneer wanted in a murder and robbery case had any links with terror groups.

It is for the first time that an officer with the NIA has been murdered and the police would have to do a thorough job before closing the case.

However, there are several angles that need to be explored which range from a personal dispute to professional reasons.

Several questions:

The UP police picked up several persons in connection with this case including a relative of the officer. At first it was said that the relative had a grudge against the officer over a property deal and this led to the murder.

However, the investigations threw up the name of Muneer who was a murder accused. The officer who was aware of this is said to have tipped off the local police about his whereabouts as a result of which Muneer was forced to abscond.

This points to the fact that Muneer did nurture a grudge against the officer. It was said that the relative of the officer was aware of this grudge and hence had roped him in to commit the murder. This is one part of the investigation.

Although part one of the probe suggests that the relatives had roped Muneer in, there is also a doubt about the sequence of events. Part two of the probe suggests that it was Muneer who planned the murder.

Would the relative and three others not associated with the officer get involved in a plot to kill such an important officer? The consequences of killing a police officer is never light.

The UP police had first stated that this looks like a case of property dispute. However with new facts coming to light, the police had to put on hold their first theory.

The persons who have been arrested and questioned stick to the point that the murder was a result of a property dispute.

For the UP police apprehending Muneer is very important as he appears to be the key man in this entire incident and only he can spill the beans on whether he plotted the killing or was hired as a hit man by the relative to murder the NIA officer.

OneIndia News
Man barred from last rites of kin by caste panchayat

India

oi-PTI

Pune, April 18: A 55-year-old man was barred from attending last rites of his kin allegedly by a caste panchayat on the ground that his son had married out of the community, police said on Monday, April 18.

Shankar Dangi, who belongs to Goud-Brahmin community, yesterday registered a case against six members of the community, for not allowing him to take part in the last rites of his uncle on April 8, saying that his son had married a girl from a different community, an official attached to the Sahakar Nagar police station said.

Dangi claimed he also came to know that he was allegedly ostracised from the community by the caste panchayat members. The Maharashtra Assembly on April 13 had unanimously approved the Prohibition of Social Boycott Bill, which seeks to crackdown on extra-judicial bodies like caste and community panchayats.

Members of the panchayat also allegedly demanded Rs 1 lakh to take him and his family back in the community, the officer said. The complainant, a businessman told PTI, "For entire life, I and my family took care of my ailing uncle and bore all the medical expenses and after his death made all the arrangements for his last rites on April 8."

However, Dangi claimed that during the last rites, some of the members from the community told him to go away from the cremation site. "When I questioned them, they told me that since my son has married to a girl from different community, we have been boycotted by the community and (the members) also demanded Rs one lakh to regain the position in society," he claimed.

"Since, it was all of a sudden, I tried to oppose the decision, but looking at the situation, I and my family left the crematorium and later decided to lodge complaint against the regressive tradition," Dangi said. He claimed that his son had married a girl from other Brahmin community five years ago.

Two years ago, when another relative had passed away, the community members did not had raised on objections, he said. "We are educated people and can not tolerate such evil and repressive practises," he added.

A case under sections 120(B)(criminal conspiracy), 384 (extortion), 341 (wrongful restraint), 506 ( criminal intimidation) and other relevant sections of IPC was registered against six persons of the community, Shashikant Shinde, in-charge of Sahakar Nagar police station said. No arrests have been made so far, Shinde said.

PTI
Mumbai 26/11: India sends fresh extradition request for Tawwahur Rana

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Apr 18: India has sent an extradition request to the United States of America to have Dr Tawwahur Rana, an accomplice of David Headley extradited.

Rana who is an accused in the case filed by the National Investigation Agency in connection with the Mumbai 26/11 attacks is currently serving a 14 year jail term in the US.

Rana was convicted by a US court a few years back after being accused of providing support to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT).

The NIA has so far not managed to question Rana in connection with the 26/11 case. India is hopeful that the US would consider this request and extradite him to India.

Unlike Headley, Rana can be extradited:

With Headley, the man who conducted the reconnaissance of targets in Mumbai attacked by the Lashkar an extradition was not possible.

After his arrest, he entered into a plea bargain deal with the US which stated that he shall not be awarded a death penalty or be extradited to India, Pakistan or Denmark. However there is no such plea bargain deal where Rana is concerned and hence India is confident that he can be extradited.

Why is India not keen on questioning Headley's friend Dr Tawwahur Rana?

India has produced fresh evidence against Rana. In the extradition request India says that while he is wanted for providing support to the Lashkar, he is also part of a conspiracy that sought to attack the National Defence College in Delhi and Jewish centres in various cities in India.

NIA officials say it would depend on the authorities in the US whether Rana would be extradited or not. We at least hope that as a first step we are permitted to question him. Rana has to be questioned before we can proceed with the case here, the NIA officer informed OneIndia.

Rana is said to be an accomplice of Headley. It is alleged that he had helped Headley with the travel documents when he came to India. Headley in his deposition sought to protect Rana stating that he was never in favour of the attack.

However Headley says that when in Mumbai, he had used an office that belonged to Rana. He further states that Rana never knew about his plan. However when he informed him, he was extremely upset.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, April 18, 2016, 9:31 [IST]
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News flash: Cylinder blast in a building in Gandhinagar area of Delhi, 3 dead

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Bengaluru, Apr 18: EAM Sushma Swaraj to meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the RIC(Russia,India,China) Foreign ministers meet in Moscow.

Get all the latest news updates of the day:

10.45 pm: Three dead, 11 injured after a cylinder blast in a building in Gandhinagar area of Delhi.

Fire broke out after a cylinder blast in Sunlight Colony in Delhi, fire under control now pic.twitter.com/R8yjjMn4tr  ANI (@ANI_news) April 18, 2016

9.55 pm: Two dead, six injured in a cylinder blast in a building in Gandhinagar area of Delhi.

9.00 pm: Situation is now under control, 3-4 people sustained minor injuries: Mohd Asgar, Dean of Students, BGSBU on clashes between 2 student groups.

VC has given the direction to constitute an inquiry committee which will give its report within 3 days: Mohd Asgar pic.twitter.com/wHc0GA189k  ANI (@ANI_news) April 18, 2016

8.45 pm: Israeli rescue service says explosion on Jerusalem bus wounds 10: AP

8.30 pm: EAM Sushma Swaraj meets family of Darya Prokina, who was injured in acid attack in Varanasi last year, in Moscow.

8.20 pm: Ecuador raises earthquake death toll to about 350: AFP

8.05 pm: US to deploy additional forces in Iraq: Ash Carter, US Defence Secretary: AFP

7.50 pm: Pakistani doctors to perform post-mortem of Kirpal Singh at Jinnah Hosp in Lahore on Tuesday morning, body to be brought back to India by noon.

7.40 pm: Decision of signing Amitabh Bachchan as Brand Ambassador of 'Atulya Bharat' delayed due to his name appearing in Panama Papers: Govt Sources.

Decision was supposed to be taken this month, decision will only be taken after clean chit is given to Amitabh Bachchan: Govt Sources  ANI (@ANI_news) April 18, 2016

7.35 pm: Dehradun: Congress holds 'mashal julus' protesting against President's rule in Uttarakhand.

7.30 pm: Jayant Sinha (MoS, Finance) rang the closing bell at Bombay Stock Exchange, earlier today.

7.15 pm: ITBP recovered two live IEDs this morning from Chhattisgarh's Kondagaon area, which were later defused.

7.00 pm: ITBP recovered two live IEDs this morning from Chhattisgarh's Kondagaon area, which were later defused.

6.52 pm: Body of Kirpal Singh (who died in Pakistani jail) will be brought back to India on Tuesday, April 19.

6.25 pm: 3 killed, 8 injured after an explosion at an illegal firecracker unit in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh

6.10 pm: Postal vehicle catches fire near Akashwani Bhawan in Delhi, fire engines trying to douse flames.

6.00 pm: One of the vacant properties of Rajni Patel (Gujarat HM) set on fire by Patidar agitators.

5.45 pm: I said to Chinese Foreign Ministers that if we want to fight terrorism together,then they must rethink their position in UNSC 1267 committee, says Swaraj.

5.30 pm: Juvenile Justice Board reserves its order against minor accused in the case, for tomorrow on Mercedes hit and run case.

5.20 pm: Hope to work with Delhi Govt to provide a reliable mobility option in the city, esp. at time when citizens need us most, says Uber Delhi on Odd-Even.

5.10 pm: Given threat to livelihood of our partners, at expense of reliability, we're temporarily suspending surge with immediate effect: Uber Delhi

5.07 pm: I will be happy to host both my colleagues next year for the RIC Meeting: EAM Sushma Swaraj in Moscow(Russia).

4.14 pm: Special PMLA Court rejects application moved by KFA. Application termed ED's claim that company had shiphoned off Rs 430cr of IDBI loan as false.

4.13 pm: State releases Rs 1806 crore under crop insurance scheme fr farmers who have suffered crop damage. Out of which 200 cr were given as premium.

4.12 pm: National Herald case: Delhi HC reserves its order over pleas of Congress leaders challenging summoning of documents from different Ministries.

3.56 pm: Maharashtra state cabinet approves Rs 2000 crore funds for the first instalment of crop insurance.

3.55 pm: EAM raised cases of Indians Yasir Jawed(killed in Kazan),Puja Kallur &Karishma Bhosle(who died in a fire at Smolensk State Medical Academy).

3.52 pm: EAM Sushma Swaraj holds bilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, Russia.

3.09 pm: Bengaluru: Traffic jam after garment factory workers protest against Govt's decision on withdrawal of provident fund

Bengaluru: Traffic jam after garment factory workers protest against Govt's decision on withdrawal of provident fund pic.twitter.com/7S9gGNJQrz  ANI (@ANI_news) April 18, 2016

2.38 pm: Rahul Raj Singh's father writes to Maharashtra CM alleging that some people are trying to sabotage probe in Pratyusha Banerjee's death case.

1.58 pm: Pratyusha Banerjee death case: Friend Rahul Raj Singh will have to appear before Bangur Nagar Police Station (Mumbai) on April 23.

1.57 pm: Pratyusha Banerjee death case: Bombay HC adjourns friend Rahul Raj Singh's anticipatory bail plea till April 25.

1.51 pm: AG to Uttarakhand HC:'Speaker did not allow people to vote,putting democracy in peril. President prevented murder of democracy'.

1.36 pm: Uttarakhand HC to Govt: 'Its the Governor who must call the shots,he is not an agent of centre.He has taken a call to ask for floor test'.

1.35 pm: 34 year old Mir Baqar Rizvi from Hyderabad found dead under mysterious circumstances in London.

34 year old Mir Baqar Rizvi from Hyderabad found dead under mysterious circumstances in London pic.twitter.com/MXQum7JPP9  ANI (@ANI_news) April 18, 2016

1.29 pm: Indian Govt takes view on pre independence matters,not the culture ministry, says Mahesh Sharma on Kohinoor diamond.

1.19 pm: Farmers in the country are in grief. Tell me one thing done by Mamata ji or Modi ji for farmers of Bengal?I can't see anything, says Rahul Gandhi.

1.18 pm: HM Rajnath Singh speaks to CM Raman Singh, discusses details of Sukma blast.

1.17 pm: West Bengal: Rahul Gandhi addressing a rally in Murshidabad.

1.10 pm: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in Beijing with Gen Chang Wanquan,Min of National Defence.

1.08 pm: This is my opinion,nothing else.Its my political view: CM Nitish Kumar on his 'Sangh mukt Bharat' statement.

12.05 pm: Kingfisher moves court, terms ED charge as false and incorrect that Vijay Mallya-owned company siphoned off Rs 430 crore from IDBI loan: PTI

11.45 am: Maharashtra Minister Pankaja Munde lands in trouble after taking selfies in drought hit Latur.

10.50 am: BJP MP Vijay Goel fined by Police for violating Odd Even scheme.

10.25 am: Normalcy returns after mobile internet services restored and curfew lifted from parts of Srinagar

Normalcy returns after mobile internet services restored&curfew lifted from parts of Srinagar #Handwara pic.twitter.com/htdvP5tMV5  ANI (@ANI_news) April 18, 2016

9.57 am: Blast at Bihar's Chapra court has injured three persons.

Bihar UPDATE: Crude bomb blast in Chhapra civil court premises, 6 injured pic.twitter.com/3ekD4MqWCv  ANI (@ANI_news) April 18, 2016

9.50 am: Ecuador earthquake death toll reaches 272.

9.05 am: Oil prices plunge in Asia trade after the world's top producers fail to reach agreement on capping output.

8.43 am: Mobile internet services restored in Kashmir, were blocked last week after protests following Handwara incident.

8.30 am: UB group denies ED's charges that Mallya siphoned off 430 crore from the loan extended to Kingfisher Airlines by IDBI bank.

8.05 am: Bombay HC to hear Rahul Raj Singh's anticipatory bail plea,interim relief given to him ends today.

8.00 am: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in China, will meet civilian leadership and top military officials.

OneIndia News
With AQI of 259, Delhi's air on day before Diwali least polluted in 7 years

Non-bailable warrant issued against Vijay Mallya in money laundering case

India

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, April 18: The Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court has issued a non-bailable warrant against former UB group chairman, Vijay Mallya.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate seeking a non-bailable warrant to be issued against Mallya in a Rs 900 crore money laundering case.

Earlier an application moved by Kingfisher Airlines terming the Enforcement Directorate's claim that charges of money laundering against Vijay Mallya were false has been rejected by the court.

The case on hand deals with a loan taken by Mallya from the IDBI bank. It was alleged by the Enforcement Directorate that Mallya had siphoned off Rs 430 crore abroad and hence a case of money laundering has been made out.

During the course of the hearing the counsel appearing for the ED said that the CFO of the Kingfisher airlines was not cooperating with the probe.

He told the probe agency that he is unable to recollect the details of the offshore transactions. While handing over an envelope, the counsel said that it contained details of the money lying in Mallya's account abroad.

Kingfisher Airlines on the other hand said that they were cooperating with the probe. They also stated that the charges of misusing the loan amount is false. No funds were used by Mallya from IDBI for his personal use, it was further contended.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, April 18, 2016, 16:53 [IST]
UP: Kanpur airport to get World-Class facilities by year end

PM Modi thanked 10-year-old girl from Kanpur: Here is why

India

oi-Jagriti

Kanpur, Apr 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his gratitude towards a 10-year-old girl from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh who lauded PM for initiatives taken by him.

The 10-year-old girl Aditi who wrote to PM Modi praising him for good work, received Thank You note in response.

"I had written to PM Modi praising his campaigns & had full belief that he would reply me. I'm happy," Aditi was quoted as saying.

"I was surprised at my daughter's writing skills and was not aware that she was so well versed with the works being done by the government," her mother was quoted as saying by Zee News.

"I want him to continue working for the nation and keep giving us positive lessons," she added.

I had written to PM Modi praising his campaigns & had full belief that he would reply me.I'm happy:Kanpur girl Aditi pic.twitter.com/Vlz9eKhKc4  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 17, 2016

Class 6 student Aditi from Kanpur who wrote to PM Modi praising him fr good work,receives Thank You note in response pic.twitter.com/jJVQ7ymHE0  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 17, 2016

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, April 18, 2016, 11:38 [IST]
Irom Sharmila to end her fast: What it means to Manipur and struggle against AFSPA

Post-election, Assam Agitation and RSS dominate debates in Assam

India

oi-Oneindia

By Maitreyee Boruah

Guwahati, April 18: There is a general tendency among the politicians that once the elections get over they stop making any kind of controversial statement.

However, the voltage election drama in Assam is yet to be over. Although the second and the final phase of Assam Assembly Elections 2016 ended on April 11, leaders of prominence continue to make controversial remarks raising several eyebrows.

Take for instance the remark made by the chief minister Tarun Gogoi recently.

He alleged that the Assam Agitation was completely sponsored by the RSS. Experts say the comment was to exploit the sentiments of the Assamese people as he is fighting a tough election battle with the BJP.

Thus Gogoi, who is eyeing to become the chief minister of the northeastern state for the fourth time in a row, dragged RSS' name into the volatile issue of Assam Agitation.

The Assam Movement (or Assam Agitation) (1979-1985) was the longest people-led movement that post-independent India witnessed. The movement was targeted against the large-scale illegal immigrants from Bangladesh into Assam.

The movement was led by youngsters as it was started under the guidance of All Assam Students' Union (AASU), the powerful students' body in the state.

The agitation ended in August 1985 following the Assam Accord, which was signed by the leaders of AASU and the Government of India.

"The RSS entirely funded the movement which was initially an anti-outsider movement. It later turned from an anti-foreigner to an anti-Bangladeshi infiltrator movement. During the movement, the RSS here was headed by one Rajendra Prasad. The RSS backed protesters, particularly the AASU leadership and provided all kinds of logistical help even when they were in jail, to carry out the movement," he said.

Gogoi is not alone in the act of making provocative remarks. Once his blue-eyed boy and now rival, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has joined the BJP from the Congress, said that there was a need to relook at the Assam Accord - signed by the AASU with the then Rajiv Gandhi government in 1985.

Sarma wants the cut-off date (March 25, 1971) as mentioned in the Assam Accord for detection of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to be changed to 1951. Sarma said, "It would go a long way in providing constitutional safeguards to the political, economic and cultural rights of the indigenous people of Assam, which is one of the prime objectives of the Accord."

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Story first published: Monday, April 18, 2016, 11:00 [IST]
Pratyusha Banerjee suicide: Should case be handed over to CBI?Sign online petition if you support

Pratyusha Banerjee suicide: Rahul Raj Singh's bail plea to be heard today

India

oi-Pallavi

Mumbai, April 18: The Bombay High Court will hear the anticipatory bail plea of Rahul Raj Singh, who is the boyfriend of Pratyusha Banerjee. His bail plea was earlier rejected observing that his girlfriend was abused several times and it was uncertain whether he was behind the suicide or not.

The sessions court had earlier stated that in the light of accusations levied against Singh, the matter had to be thoroughly investigated, which was not possible in his absence.

The police will find it difficult to collect the best possible evidence. On April 7, the Mumbai sessions court had rejected Rahul's anticipatory bail application, following which a producer filed a plea in the High Court.

Rahul was granted an interim relief from the arrest for a week by the Bombay High Court on April 12. However, an FIR was lodged against him by her mother Soma who alleged that he had abetted the suicide.

On April 1, the 24-year old 'Balika Vadu' superstar was found hanging from th eceiling fan of her flat in suberban Goregaon. Her parents lodged a complaint against Rahul, under IPC sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 504, 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of IPC.

OneIndia News
Not just future of Sena but democracy at stake, says Uddhav

Diwali 2022: Major sites to be illuminated in Mumbai between Oct 22-29

Mumbai: Gathering of 5 or more, loud speakers, illegal processions banned for a fortnight from Nov 1

Amitabh Bachchan reveals he had to get stitches after he cut a vein on his leg

Providing drinking water, first priority of govt: Fadnavis

India

oi-PTI

Jalna, Apr 18: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday justified the move to impose a 20 per cent cut in water supply for breweries and distilleries in Aurangabad area, saying his government's "first priority" is to provide water for drinking.

"The government's first priority is to give water for drinking purpose not to wine factories. I have directed the divisional commissioner and collector to cut water to breweries and distilleries," Fadnavis said.

He was speaking at a multi-religious mass marriage ceremony organised by the BJP and Shivaji Maharaj Smarak Samiti at New Monda here.

Faced with acute water shortage, Aurangabad authorities in parched Marathwada region yesterday announced 10 per cent cut in water supply for the industrial units and 20 per cent for breweries and distilleries in the industrial area.

The CM conceded that the situation in Marathwada region is grim. Appealing to opposition parties to help government tackle drought, the CM said, "though State has debt of Rs 3.5 lakh crore, the government would not hesitate to take loan to help farmers.

The government has already released a package of Rs 10,000 crore for farmers this year".

On the move to supplying water through trains to parched Latur in Marathwada region, Fadnavis said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed Railway Minister to provide water through train to Latur".

He said under Food Security Scheme, 68 lakh families have benefited. On the occasion, he announced a scheme under which Rs 25,000 will be given to a newly-wed couple belonging to SC and ST communities towards financial assistance and Rs 15,000 to those couples from Economically Backward Class (EBC) from general category.

Fadnavis was accompanied by Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse, Education Minister Vinod Tawde, Co-operatives Minister Chandrakant Patil, Minister of State for Home Ram Shinde, MoS (Social Justice) Dilip Kamble and party MLAs.

In his speech, Khadse, who came under flak recently after authorities in Latur district reportedly wasted 10,000 litre water for preparing a makeshift helipad for his tour, blamed media for raising "hue and cry" over a "non-issue".

"The collector there used polluted water for building the helipad but the media blew the issue out of proportion and published news," he said.

Today's mass wedding included couples of different religions, with maximum being Hindu (406). There were 94 Buddhist couples, followed by Muslim and Christian, 14 each. They hailed from Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Aurangabad and Jalna districts in Marathwada.

PTI
Viral Video: Indian Army truck attacked with stones and sticks by Kashmiris

India

oi-Shalini

Srinagar, April 18: After massive clashes between the security personnels and the Kashmiri locals over the alleged molestation of girl in Handwara town, now on Monday, April 18, the video that is surfaced and going viral on social media allegedly shows an Indian Army truck being attacked by locals.

In that video, it is clearly seen that the agitated mob are throwing stones and hitting sticks (Lathies) on the magnetic Army truck which forced the Army personnel to take back the truck.

However, the shocking video also shows that after throwing stones on truck, the protesters started banging the door of a shut police station. Earlier it was reported that two people were killed and two injured in clash between the locals and security personnel over the alleged molestation case.

The viral video was shared on social networking site by one of the Twitter user, Gabbar with sarcastic statements. The statement said, "Giant Magnetic Army truck has such magnetic power that stones come flying frm the hands of poor, peaceful Kashmiris."

The situation in Kashmir is becoming grim day-by-day and today the state Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti also requested the locals to maintain peace and harmony in the area.

OneIndia News
After two year of COVID-19 delay, China plans to issue visas for stranded Indian students

India attaches highest priority to ties with China: Manohar Parrikar

International

oi-PTI

Beijing, Apr 18: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday kicked off his first visit here by holding talks with Chinese counterpart Gen Chang Wanquan stating that India attaches highest priority to its relationship with China and is committed to further develop the ties.

"India attaches highest priority to relations with China and committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China," Parrikar told Chang in his opening remarks before the two delegations started the talks.

Beijing backs Delhi's odd-even scheme

Parrikar was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the headquarters of the Chinese military here by a contingent of PLA soldiers. Welcoming Parrikar, Wang said, "Hope your visit improve strategic mutual trust between the two armed forces".

After his meeting with Wang, Parrikar will hold talks with Gen Fan Changlong, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, (CMC).

In Chinese military hierarchy Gen Fan is ranked higher, as CMC is overall head of the 2.3-million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA). He is also due to call on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visit China's recently integrated western command military headquarters in Chengdu which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.

During Parrikar's talks today with top Chinese military officials, recurring incidents of incursions, implementation of an agreement to reduce tensions between border patrols and Sino-India strategic concerns are expected to figure.

While Indian officials said the talks were expected to review the whole gamut of bilateral ties, India's concerns over aggressive patrolling by Chinese troops especially in the Ladakh sector remains high.

China denies any incursions, asserting its troops patrol areas within its territory along the 3,488-km disputed border. The two militaries also have strategic concerns over each other's military tie-ups with other countries.

Ahead of Parrikar's visit, China hinted that it may take up the recent decision by India to open up military bases to the US for logistics and efforts to conclude a pact to share aircraft sharing technologies.

PTI
Ready to forget everything if PM KP Sharma Oli accepts mistakes: Madhav Kumar Nepal at protest rally

Nepal's main Opposition leader Deuba visiting India

International

oi-PTI

Kathmandu, Apr 18: Sher Bahadur Deuba is paying a week-long "personal" visit to India, his first after being elected the head of the main Opposition Nepali Congress amid a political crisis in the country over a six-month-long Madhesi agitation.

Deuba, 69, was elected president of the largest democratic party in Nepal in March during the party's 13th National General Convention, succeeding late premier Sushil Koirala.

Although a Deuba aide said the India visit beginning today was for medical check up of his wife and NC lawmaker Arzoo Deuba, it is widely speculated here that he may have some high-level meetings with Indian leaders during the visit.

There is no pre-scheduled meeting with any Indian leaders however, a senior Nepali Congress leader said.

This will be the three-time former prime minister's first visit to New Delhi after the promulgation of the Constitution last year.

Following the promulgation, Nepal has been gripped by a severe political crisis as disgruntled Madhesi parties, who have a stronghold in the southern plains, began an agitation alleging that their interests have been overlooked in the new charter.

Though the six-month agitation abruptly ended in February ahead of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's official visit to India, some Madhesi leaders appeared unsatisfied with the compromise offered by the government.

United Democratic Madhesh Front (UDMF), spearheading the campaign over more rights for Madhesis, has earlier announced a nationwide protest programme from tomorrow.

Previously, Madhesis, who are largely of Indian-origin, had staged violent protest campaigns and also imposed a trade blockade through the open border with India. Deuba has been calling for a peaceful resolution to the Madhesi problem through dialogue.

Ahead of the visit, Deuba met senior Madhesi leaders at his residence on Friday and discussed their demands.

Earlier, speaking at a public function in the capital Kathmandu, Deuba said the main Opposition Nepali Congress will take a leading role in resolving the Madhesi issue.

Deuba is the 8th president of the NC. He served as prime minister of Nepal from 1995 to 1997, from 2001 to 2002, and from 2004 to 2005.

PTI
Rescuers dig for victims after Ecuador quake kills 235

International

oi-PTI

Portoviejo, Apr 17: Rescuers in Ecuador raced to dig out people trapped under the rubble of homes and hotels today, after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed at least 235.

The quake reduced buildings to rubble, toppled power lines and sent terrified residents running from their homes when it struck the Pacific coast Saturday in a zone popular with tourists. Vice President Jorge Glas called it the "worst seismic movement we have faced in decades."

In a news conference on Sunday he raised the toll to 235 killed and 1,557 injured. The quake, felt across Ecuador, northern Peru and southern Colombia, struck at 6:58 local time Saturday evening (2358 GMT) and lasted about a minute. It was centered around 170 kilometers northwest of the capital Quito, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

Among the worst-hit towns was the Pedernales, whose mayor Gabriel Alcivar estimated there were up to 400 more dead yet to be confirmed, many under the rubble of some 40 hotels that collapsed. "Pedernales is devastated. Buildings have fallen down, especially hotels where there are lots of tourists staying. There are lots of dead bodies," he told local media.

"We need help. We need medicine, water and food to help people." Two Canadians were among those killed by the quake, their country's government told AFP by email. Around the town of Portoviejo, the quake reduced houses to rubble, brought down a market and left streetlights and debris scattered.

"It was horrible, it is the first time I have felt an earthquake like this," resident Macontos Bibi, 57, told AFP. "I thought my house was going to collapse." Glas said 14,000 security forces, 241 medical staff and two mobile hospitals were being rushed to the most devastated areas, with reinforcements arriving from Colombia and Mexico.

In the town of Abdon Calderon near Portoviejo, 73-year-old resident Nelly, who would not give her last name, told AFP in tears that she rushed into the street after the quake and saw that the covered market had collapsed. "There was a person trapped who screamed for help, but then the screaming stopped.

Oh, it was terrible," she said. Ecuador's Geophysical Office reported "considerable" structural damage as far away as Guayaquil, Ecuador's biggest city with more than two million people.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the 7.8-magnitude quake struck near the northwest shore of Ecuador. Ecuador lies near a shifting boundary between plates of the earth's crust. It has suffered seven earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher in the region of Saturday's quake since 1900, the USGS said. One in March 1987 killed about 1,000 people, it said.

AFP
Maharashtra Minister Pankaja Munde is facing criticism for taking a drought selfie. She clicked the picture when she was touring drought hit Latur to review the dried up Manjara river. She was trolled on the social media with people accusing her of finding a photo opportunity in the middle of a massive disaster. The congress party has accused her of gross insensitivity. But the BJP's Maharashtra Minister has explained that she posted selfies on her tour of parched Latur on the weekend in appreciation of the work done there by the local administration for drought relief.
The first exported Bakken crude was on a ship bound for the Netherlands Hess Corp. confirmed to Reuters Monday.

The 175,000 barrels of Bakken crude was co-loaded on a ship carrying offshore 18,000 barrels of oil from Exxon Mobil's Julia field in the Gulf of Mexico.

The shipment marks the first foreign export of North Dakota oil since Congress lifted the decades-long ban on crude oil exports in December.

According to Reuters, all other shipments of U.S. crude had comprised of light onshore oil until now. If the shipment is successful it could pave the way for future exports.
by  Graham Pierrepoint



Dyson Airblade handdryers spread 1,300 times more germs than paper towels, research claims --

Dyson are widely known the world over for being innovators in a number of products that have made our lives easier  the UK company has made bagless and efficient vacuum cleaners available to the public, and they have also arguably revolutionized the way in which we dry our hands after washing them  thanks to their vertical Airblade creation. While many have praised the contraption for speeding up the process of drying hands after a toilet break, the concept of automated hand dryers has faced controversy over hygiene concerns for some time  and, recently, it appears that the Dyson Airblade has been hit by accusations relating directly to its unique product.

According to The Independent, a study was published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology in January stating that the Dyson Airblade hand dryer was likely to spread up to 1,300 more germs than a paper towel  the research, carried out via the University of Westminster in London, observed the use of warm air drying, jet air drying and paper towel drying when it came to drying up from washing ones hands. The study took place in order to see which method was more likely to encourage the spread of germs, with participants washing themselves in suspended viruses before drying themselves off. The results, as stated, found that the Dyson Airblade was far more likely to encourage the spread of bacteria than a standard paper towel.

However, representation for Dyson has challenged the study, making clear assertion that the research does not take into account that members of the public will not be washing their hands in pure germs before using the Airblade  and that the whole purpose of washing and drying is to avoid contamination in the first place. The study, which took place with participants using gloved hands, was described as misleading by Dysons representation, and that the research was undertaken in an artificial setting  further advising that the Airblade had been identified as being just as hygienic as paper towels in alternate studies and journals.

Despite Dysons retort, study co-author Dr Patrick Kimmitt asserted that the study had been peer reviewed thoroughly before publication, and that it could not be relied upon that people will necessarily wash thoroughly on each and every occasion. He further noted that relatively few virus particles could cause infection, and that millions could be transferred from a toilet  indicating that non-thorough washing could likely still give rise to illness.

In any case  while the Dyson Airblade will likely continue to remain a part of public restrooms the world over, it is interesting to see just what our most treasured technologies will do when placed under specific studies and analysis.
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FARGO  It was billed as a debate about genetically modified organisms, but a North Dakota State University Ag Coalition event was more of a discussion among some of the technologys intelligentsia.

The student organization for the second year has staged an Ag Week project, a collection of ag-related events, which are scheduled a month later than the National Ag Day and Ag Week observances. The events will coincide with university spring break schedules.

Weve used this week as a kind of springboard for other organizations to have conversations about agriculture, said Jodi Boe of Golden Valley, president of the NDSU Agriculture Coalition. The NDSU Agribusiness Club sponsored the event within the larger Ag Week structure.

Megan Klosterman, a junior in agricultural economics from Mooreton, and a social media coordinator for the agribusiness club, said its easy for people to believe that GMO crops are bad for them if they dont have a connection with agriculture. Many of the attendees in the Ag Country Auditorium of NDSUs Barry Hall in downtown Fargo were students, going out into industry, Boe said, and they could use the talking points from the discussion to be able to use effectively with the public.

Topics, debate

Kirk Howatt, an NDSU associate professor who teaches crop and weed sciences and conducts research on weed control techniques, said for some, the GMO issue is a moral issue, where God didnt put it in there. Ironically, conventional plant breeding has the goal of changing plant genetics for human benefits, although molecular techniques now allow inserting genes in ways and at rates that would not happen otherwise.

He said most of the benefits of GMOs so far have been to farmers to make it easier and less expensive to control pests, although there are possibilities for GMOs that offer consumer benefits and traits.

2,000 studies

Carl Peterson, president and owner of Peterson Farms Seed, of Prosper, and a former producer of food-grade, non GMO soybeans, said some people are convinced GMOs are bad, despite 2,000 studies that have indicated they are safe. He said perception is treated as reality, even when it is not reality.

When we talk about 7 billion-plus (world population) and going into excess of 9 billion  some people say as high as 11 billion people  were going to need all of the technology we can possibly come up with to feed those people, Peterson said. That includes GM and things we have not imagined yet. Some say we need to double food production by 2050 to meet the demand.

American agriculture has a great story of accomplishment, Peterson said. Back in the 1970s, they talked about 1 billion people who would starve to death, but that hasnt happened because of the amazing productivity of agriculture, and more specifically, American agriculture.

Bob Sinner, president of SB&B Foods of Casselton, has capitalized on delivering identity-preserved, non GMO food-grade soybeans for premium markets, especially in Japan and Asian countries. Sinner said he thinks the value in traceability provided by the IP market will expand, regardless of when or whether GMO crops become more accepted in the world.

Sinner said it is vital to listen to consumers and provide them with what they want regardless of whether the science indicates the products are safe. He points to the gluten-free craze in the food market, despite the small number of people who are gluten-intolerant. Its a trend, its a choice, Sinner said. He said his customers often ask whether there is a link between GM crops and the rise of autism and allergies, and it isnt his job to evaluate that.

Theres a lot of perception out there, a lot of claims, he said.

Feeding ideas

Peterson, however, said the food industry is wrong to feed the perceptions that GMO crops are not safe, even if they make money at it. He understands how some products legally can be promoted as non GMO verified, even if the products come from crops that dont have genetically modified forms. He held up non GMO sugar that cant be chemically distinguished from GMO sugar, because the sucrose molecules cant be distinguished.

Chris Berg, a Fargo television host who moderated the event, asked why the agriculture industry doesnt boast about GMOs  if in fact GMO products are good for the environment and necessary to feed the world. Peterson speculated thats a tough job, because there already is so much negativity involved with it.

Laura Rutherford, a Grafton, farm wife who speaks on behalf of GMO sugar beets, said the bottom line is American food  organic, conventional or GMO  is all safe, and Americans should have confidence in it.

She said farmers dont want the products they work so hard to produce to be unfairly vilified. She noted the GMO issue sometimes is used as a nontariff trade barrier by the European Union, as it strives to keep its farmers competitive. Its billed as a food safety issue, but A lot of times, its a fight for market share and a marketing tactic, she said. She declined to speculate whether U.S. confection companies are using the GMO beet issue to source more of their sugar from imported sugar cane, for which there is no GMO type, and which the sugar users say can be obtained more cheaply than American sugar.
ODN 10 Oct 2022

The chair of the Treasury Select Committee says the chancellor bringing forward the publication of his plan for balancing the..
The Super Falcons can be ruthless against their opponents when they want to be. Theyre currently dominating the West African Football Union (WAFU) Womens Cup in Abidjan, but the dominance reached new heights on Saturday when they thrashed Niger 15-0.

The win is now the biggest ever recorded by the team, surpassing their 9-0 win over Sierra Leone 25 years ago.

You might ask if the Niger players were asleep on the pitch, but they surprisingly werent. In fact, like other teams, they did their best to secure a spot in the semi-finals of the tournament, but theres really nothing you can do when youre nine goals down in just the first half.

After the Woman of the Match winner, Cynthia Aku scored the first goal nine minutes into the game, the floodgates were opened. While we feel a little bad that the Nigeriens had to go down like that, were excited that Nigeria made it into the semi-finals in such grand style.
Photos from the scene of operation

Troops of 22 Brigade, Operation LAFIYA DOLE have rescued 29 women and 25 children from Boko Haram terrorists in Borno state.

A statement from the Nigerian Army says the troops in collaboration with local vigilantes on the 11th of May 2019, effectively cleared Maallasuwa and Yaga  Munye villages in Borno State.

No encounter with Boko Haram terrorists was made as they ran away before troops arrival leaving behind 54 suspected kidnapped victims. Out of the number, 29 are grown up women and 25 are children of various ages and sex. They have all been rescued.

Similarly, at Zari  Kasake and Jumachere villages in Damasak general area of Mobbar Local Government Area of Borno State, troops of 145 Battalion Operation LAFIYA DOLE on clearance operation discovered and destroyed two Boko Haram terrorists logistics vehicles. Deserted BHTs make-up shift accommodation was also destroyed.

Additionally, Mopol Sergeant Markus John  Personal Number  PNo 383106 was arrested at Njimtilo checkpoint along Maiduguri  Damaturu road in possession of 2 magazines, 146 rounds of 7.62 mm Special ammunition and one round of Anti Aircraft Gun concealed in his bag while on transit to Lagos State.

The statement adds that on the 10th of May, troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE in conjunction with the Nigerian Police, arrested 14NA7113208 Private Paul Ojochegbe and 12NA672586 Lance Corporal Oko Eke in possession of one disassembled AK 47 Rifle at the same Njimtilo checkpoint.

Nigerian Army will remain resolute in ending terrorism and other forms of insecurities across the country, and reiterate its appeal to the public to continue to provide useful information about suspicious movement of terrorists/criminals wherever they are seen hibernating in Nigeria.
Lifestyle

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Who thinks that the music in the 80s was better than todays?

Webby - July 6, 2016

Of course "better" is subjective, but I will say this. There was more freedom, and risk involved in music making from around 1978 up to at least
As Leah Sharibu, the only Dapchi Christian girl still in Boko Haram captivity from the 110 teenage girls abducted by the Boko Haram terrorists group from Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe state clocks 16, the Palace of Priests Assembly (PPA) joins other churches across the federation to celebrate her birthday.

The terrorist groups had threatened last year to kill the teenager, who was held back for refusing to renounce her Christian beliefs. The other hostages, 104 of her schoolmates, were released following negotiations with the Nigerian government in March.

Recall that In February 2018, the terrorist group abducted 112 female students preparing for final exams at the school. Six of the girls from the all-female boarding school died during captivity while one escaped, leaving Sharibu the only Dapchi student still with her abductors.

According to a statement signed by the Programme Manager of Priests Peace and Justice Initiative, Tive Denedo, tomorrow also marks her 449 days in captivity following her abduction in February, 19, 2018.

Part of the celebration programme, according to the statement will be a peaceful march from the National Christian Centre, Abuja to the Unity Fountain Park where activities to mark the birthday would unfold.

Leahs ordeal is a testimony of faith, resilience and courage in the face of rabid intolerance by forces opposed to peace and religious tolerance in Nigeria. PPA recalls that the other girls were released long ago because they were not Christians, or they agreed to renounce Christianity.

PPA is calling on the federal government to immediately resume the negotiation for her unconditional release and we call on all men and women of goodwill in Nigeria and across the world to also put pressure on the government to work on her speedy release today to mark her birthday.

PPA is also calling on all Nigerians to call, send messages, emails to law makers in the National Assembly to join forces with the federal government to ensure that Leah is released without delay, the statement said.

The PPA also urged the federal government to expedite actions that can lead to the release of Leah.

Advocates for Sharibus release are spurred by similar efforts for 276 girls abducted by Boko Haram from Government Secondary School Chibok in the northeastern state of Borno in April 2014, publicized worldwide through the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

In both cases, Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of girls. Following negotiations, 26 of the Chibok students were freed in October 2016 and another 82 in May 2017, in the wake of leading international figures, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, calling for their release.

But church leaders and Christian activists have been most vociferous in the campaigns for Sharibus rescue, inspired by the story of a teenager refusing to renounce her faith even when threatened with death.
Across the globe, extreme poverty has been reduced by the advent and ubiquity of a simple tool: cell phones. As USAID says, mobile phones fundamentally transform the way people in the developing world interact with one another and their governments, and access basic health, education, business and financial services.

Could the same technology that is alleviating extreme poverty around the world also be used to help solve Americas homeless problem?

In an intriguing paper by the America Enterprise Institute, Kevin C. Corinth proposes giving the homeless smartphones as part of a tech revolution for the homeless. I propose equipping homeless individuals with free smartphones and service plans in exchange for providing daily information on themselves through a specialized appincluding their sleeping locations, use of services, and personal outcomes, says Corinth. The possibilities could transform how we understand and confront homelessness.

The idea may seem unusual, but its not as bizarre as you might imagine. For instance, a significant number of the homeless already have access to cell phones. However, few have reliable internet access and as Corinth notes, service disruptions due to an inability to pay are common.

Providing smartphones with reliable connectivity would allow researchers to better understand the problem at an individual level and track where the homeless sleep and what health problems they may have. The phones could even be used to experiment with providing benefits and services. For example, when the weather turns dangerously cold, the phones could be used to send Uber drivers to pick up the homeless and take them to a shelter.

Smartphones alone wont solve the homeless problem, of course. But collecting better data on the problem can help us to discover and implement practical solutions to help alleviate the suffering of these vulnerable members of our community. If quality data collection really is possible, says Corinth, a revolution in homeless services could very well follow.
LWV-Mobile, engaged in a study about Alabama's prisons and sentencing alternatives, welcomes the Southern Poverty Law Center's Monique Gillum as the keynote speaker at its annual dinner on Wednesday, April 27, at the Mobile Country Club.

For more than 40 years, the SPLC has fought for prison reform, advocating for fair and equitable juvenile and criminal justice systems, protecting the dignity and humane treatment of those within these systems and working toward a reduction in the number of those incarcerated. Gillum serves as a senior advocate at the SPLC, whose 2014 lawsuit helped spark concern statewide in the conditions of Alabama's overcrowded prisons.

LWV-Mobile has been studying issues relating to incarceration this year and hopes to continue the study into the fall of 2016.

"We know the state prisons hold twice the number of inmates they were designed to hold, costs are skyrocketing, horrid conditions have been reported and prison sentences exact a tremendous burden on the convicted and their families," said LWV-Mobile President Betsey Wooten. "We'd like to learn more about effective alternatives to incarceration, particularly for those individuals with mental health needs and addictions who are charged with nonviolent crimes."

Decriminalizing mental health is among the issues Gillum will discuss. She also will present an overview of mass incarceration in the U.S. and in Alabama and proposals in Montgomery to resolve the state's prison woes. Gillum will discuss the SPLC's investigation of mental and physical healthcare in the Alabama prison system, which it labelled abusive, discriminatory and deadly.

According to the 2014 lawsuit the SPLC filed in response to its investigation, "Alabama illegally operates a corrections system that is little more than a network of human warehouses, a place where individuals caught in the criminal justice system are banished and forgotten. A conviction does not open the door for the state to engage in cruelty."

This event is open to the public, but reservations are required. Cost of the dinner is $45 or $48 through Paypal. Please see www.lwvmobile.org for more information. Deadline to make a paid reservation, which is Wednesday, April 20

.

For reservations, please contact Jane Gordon at 402-3321 or lovjan42@comcast.net. The event starts at 6 p.m.

The League of Women Voters, a national, nonpartisan, political organization, encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
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February 07, 2014

Oxfam on the Israel-Palestinian Conflict

Actress Scarlett Johansson's decision to end her relationship with Oxfam, the British charity, generated a lot of publicity. Most people, however, have little awareness of Oxfam's distorted portrayal of Israel.

Oxfam currently (Feb. 7, 2014) has on its web site a report by the Association of International Development Agencies, Dream On. It opens with the following statement:

Everyone in the world wishes they had done more with their lives over the years, but not everyone has a blockade standing in their way.

It continues:

Gazas blockade is also about wasted time, loss and longing, and aspirations unfulfilled, which are universal themes that speak to the human emotions in us all. In order for people in Gaza to live with dignity and self sufficiency, the blockade must end.

The four page report recites story after story with the same theme:

All I need is a dignified life for me and my family, but the blockade has destroyed my hope.

Gazans are held blameless for their predicament. Gazans elected a terrorist organization that diverts desperately needed international aid to build mile long tunnels into Israel laden with explosives; that launches thousands of rockets into Israel while ignoring the critical needs of its own population; that alienates its powerful Arab neighbor, Egypt, by supporting terrorism there. None of that matters to the Oxfam moralizers, who can't be bothered to provide a substantive explanation of why the blockade was put into place.

Nor do they mention that the West Bank and Gaza rank above average for all Arab states in the United Nations Human Development Index, higher than neighbor Egypt.

But so what when you can blame Israel's blockade for shortcomings in Gaza's pediatric care. The report quotes a Gazan mother who "has found that the kind of care her daughter needs is just not available in Gaza."

There is no mention of the traffic of thousands of Gazans, including infants, treated in Israeli hospitals for serious conditions, despite the fact that Israel and the Hamas government running Gaza are in a state of war. Even an incident where Wafa al Bis, a Gazan woman treated by Israel for serious burns in a domestic accident, tried to murder her Israeli caregivers with a concealed bomb, did not stop the flow of patients from Gaza.

As far as offering an explanation as to why Israel has imposed the blockade, a footnote at the bottom of page one states, "Citing security concerns, the government of Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza, which officially started on 14 June 2007." That's it. Nothing about suicide bombers, nothing about incessant rockets targeting Jewish communities, nothing about Hamas tunnelers kidnapping an Israeli soldier and killing several others. The key to ending the blockade is for the Hamas government to end its terrorism and threats against Israelis. But Oxfam can't admit that self-evident truth.

While Oxfam moralists wax poetic with moral indignation from their London offices, Israeli doctors and nurses actually provide crucial life-saving services to Gazans.

Here is an another example, an information brochure linked to on the Oxfam site for Gaza. It is completely one-sided.

Posted by SS at February 7, 2014 02:04 PM

Looking on that Oxfam site, they even promote the Al Dura Hoax which we know now was instigated by Arafat and Fatah.

They wrote nothing about the massacred Jews by Palestinian terrorists. The Palestinians are the ones who have have deliberately targeted Israeli civilians time and time again out of nothing but pure hatred.

They have blown up icecream and pizza parlors full of children. Deliberately blown up Israeli people going to work and school on buses, Fired rockets at residential neighborhoods,kidnapped and murdered children, stabbed elderly Holocaust survivors, slit the throats of infants and the list of horrors go on and on. But people like Oxfam could care less to promote Palestinian fascism. I'm always reminded of one thing to describe Palestinian racism. In 2003 Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction shot and killed a Palestinian named George Khoury as he was jogging in Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood. Arafat, in a clear racist gesture, stated that this was a case of mistaken identity - because their victim turned out to be an Arab instead of a Jew.

Posted by: Barry Meridian at February 12, 2014 10:11 AM

If Oxfam was concerned about Palestinian children, they would condemn Palestinians using Pal children as human fodder. Does Oxfam remember this story.

Fatah promised the boy $22 and 72 virgins if he blew himself up.

Google the name Hussam Abdu 72 virgins.

Sent To Die (March, 2004) If you needed more evidence of Islam's vile and heinous nature, the cover story from the March 25, 2004 edition NY Daily News certainly obliged. For $22.00 and the promise of 72 virgins in Allah's paradise, a mildly retarded Palestinian boy was coerced into becoming a human bomb by Islamic clerics. Compelling young children to do their dying for them seems to have become a favorite tactic of the Islamic fundamentalists in control of Yasser Arafat's political party called Fatah. Islamic Imams and warlords are cowards, hiding behind little boys. They corrupt, coerce, and recruit children with promises of perverted rewards, while they themselves remain in the comfort and safety of their mosques and madrasas. No doubt they know Muhammad's dogma is fraudulent and morally bankrupt and that Islam is simply a means to wealth and power. http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/promised-boy-22-72-virgins-die-article-1.649703

SENT TO DIE

They promised the boy $22 and 72 virgins

By DEBORAH BLACHOR in Jerusalem and CORKY SIEMASZKO in New York

DAILY NEWS WRITERS Another article thats a must read.

If people think Golda Meir wasn't right, read this.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/666699/posts

JIHAD FOR KIDS

wtvt

Glen Selig

2-4-02

Posted by: Barry Rosen at February 12, 2014 10:16 AM

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The police in Lagos say they have arrested eight more suspects allegedly involved in the recent killing of a police sergeant and two Bureau de Change operators in Ikorodu area of the state.

A police source told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday that the suspects were arrested at an abandoned construction company in Odogunyan area of Ikorodu, where they allegedly used as their base.

They were arrested at about 10am on Tuesday at AKS construction company abandoned building. One of the suspects escaped, while his locally made pistol was recovered, the source told NAN.

Spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, DSP Bala Elkana, had on May 9 said three suspects were arrested in connection with the killing of three persons in Ikorodu. Two bodies of the victims were dumped inside a septic tank.

According to Elkana, the Command on March 14 received a complaint from Ikorodu area that some unidentified persons approached one Alhaji Yakubu Musa and Alhaji Hassan Umaru, both operators of Bureau de Change at Benson area, Ikorodu.

He said the suspects informed them that they have a relation who returned from overseas and needed to sell $10,000 (about N3.5 million), stressing that they initially requested that the payment will be made in a bank at Ikorodu.

Elkana said on getting to the bank, the suspects moved the operators to an unknown destination and started demanding for ransom from their friends and relatives.

He said despite paying the sum of N1.6 million as ransom, the abductors refused to release the victims and nothing more was heard from them.

The victims phones remained switched off. The Commissioner of police, CP Zubairu Muazu detailed the Commander, Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) to carryout an investigation into the matter with a view of rescuing the victims and apprehending the suspects.

Operatives from SARS Ipakodo base led by SP Godfrey Soriwei arrested three suspects. The suspects confessed to the commission of the crime and led operatives to their den at Ikorodu where they dumped the corpses in a septic tank, he said.

The police spokesman in Lagos, DSP Bala Elkana, did not respond to calls from NAN and text messages seeking confirmation of the arrests.
Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

Swiss alternative investment firm ALTIN AG outperformed its benchmarks in 2015 with the firm delivering positive performance in terms of share price increase (+11.42%) and investment portfolio returns (+2.06%) of its multi-strategy fund of hedge funds last year.

Comparatively, the HFRX and HFRI FoF indices were down -3.64% and -0.21% respectively in 2015. The discount to NAV ended the year at 14.64%, compared with 21.81% at the end of 2014 and continues to narrow to this day.

At the same time, ALTIN AG has announced that Peter Altorfer will retire from his role as director and chairman following his decision not to stand for re-election as a member of the Board at the companys annual general meeting to be held on 9 May 2016.

ALTIN stated, "Generally speaking, 2015 was a mixed year for the hedge fund industry, with the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index posting its first negative year since 2011. In contrast to the average hedge fund, ALTINs portfolio performed positively. ALTINs Net Asset Value (NAV) finished the year up +2.06% in 2015, compared to the HFRX index and the HFRI FoF index, which recorded -3.64% and -0.21% respectively. Similarly to 2014, ALTINs portfolio turnover was relatively limited in 2015 as most of the sub-strategy allocation remained steady. The only tactical switch made was to rotate some of the equity long bias risk allocation in favor of equity market neu......................

To view our full article Click here
Bribe money

The one and only time the country was revolutionary was on July 4, 1776 with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Today there is no less a need.

There have been radical "movements" throughout our history, women's suffrage, civil rights to name two that rightly changed elements of the society. But they weren't exactly revolutionary, in the sense they fundamentally changed the government which people lived under. Think about it, women then people of color got the vote but that didn't really change the legislative power structure that has always favored the moneyed interests.

Even the huge protests against the Viet Nam war in the late 1960's and early 70's when thousands on campuses all over the country were a focused on one issue, ending the war. It may have gotten a sitting president Lyndon Johnson not to run again in 1968. Although it was certainly radical, it wasn't revolutionary, changing the essential way our government was run.

Today we have many varied movements, environmental, the $15 dollar minimum wage, "Black lives Matter", VFP-Veterans for Peace- numerous groups supporting a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and many others too numerous to mention in this short piece.

But there is one a priori issue that needs to be embraced by ALL the varied movements thereby making that one issue truly revolutionary.

And that's getting big money out of politics. It's a priori because unless we demand money out of politics there is no chance all the problems and issues the varied movements support and protest against can ever have a chance to be rectified.

Every problem, every issue this country faces is directly impacted by the money that corrupts the entire political process with those elected beholden to the big, powerful interests that underwrite their campaigns.

Everybody knows it. Polls taken reveal an overwhelming majority of Republicans as well as Democrats in the US believe big money is corrupting the political process.

Take any issue, the environment say. What is really being done to correct global warming and climate change?

Sure there's protests against fracking and the Keystone XL pipeline has been shelved for the moment. But are the mammoth oil, gas, coal behemoths-that deny climate change and underwrite the campaigns of many legislators-being challenged, their leases suspended, their profits in jeopardy or any of them seriously considering abandoning their current pursuit of extracting fossil fuels beneath the earth and pursuing efforts to expand green energy, solar, wind, geo-thermal as the only alternatives necessary to save the planet? Of course not.

But if there were legislators not beholden to these interests, their campaigns underwritten by small donors and public financing, real environmental change could happen.

The same for Wall Street and the big financial interests. At present there is no real oversight and regulation to curtail and end the financial skullduggery they engaged in that brought the 2008 financial meltdown and subsequent great recession. They even write the rules and regulations their toadies in Congress enact and the president signs into law.

Name it, from health care reform to endless war are all tied to a political process that ensures nothing really changes.

But if there were legislators at every level, federal, state and local not beholden to big moneyed interests- that keeps health care in the grip of the private health care industry or endless war funded by Congress that goes to the sole benefit of the military/industrial complex- there could be a universal, single payer Medicare type system for everyone and an end all to all the unnecessary wars.

That would be revolutionary.

Thus the one overriding necessity is for all these separate movement groups to coalesce around the demand to get money out of politics.
Reprinted from Truthdig

An amazing thing happened at the prime-time Democratic debate in Brooklyn on Thursday. A few days ahead of Tuesday's delegate-rich New York primary, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders dared to criticize Israel. Rival Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, stood firm as an uncritical apologist for Israel.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Sanders to explain his assertion that Israel's actions during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, after Hamas launched rocket attacks on Israel, was "disproportionate and led to the unnecessary loss of life." Sanders stated that Israel has the right to defend itself and "to live in peace and security without fear of terrorist attack," adding, "That is not a debate."

But Sanders went on to say that 10,000 Palestinian civilians had been wounded and 1,500 were killed. Sanders actually understated the fatalities. According to an independent international commission of inquiry convened by the United Nations Human Rights Council, more than 2,100 Palestinians lost their lives in that conflict.

Seventy-one Israelis were killed.

Sanders added, "Now, if you're asking not just me, but countries all over the world was that a disproportionate attack? The answer is that I believe it was."

The U.N. commission documented 2,251 Palestinian deaths, including 1,462 civilians (299 women and 551 children), and the wounding of 11,231 Palestinians, including 3,540 women and 3,436 children. By contrast, six Israeli civilians and 67 Israeli soldiers were killed, and up to 1,600 were injured.

Quoting "official Israeli sources," the commission reported that Israeli "rockets and mortars hit civilian buildings and infrastructure, including schools and houses, causing direct damage to civilian property amounting to almost $25 million." The commission found that 18,000 Palestinian housing units were totally or partially destroyed; much of the electrical, water and sanitation infrastructure was incapacitated; and 73 medical facilities and several ambulances were damaged. Moreover, 28 percent of the Palestinian population was displaced.

In international law, the principle of proportionality requires an attack be proportionate to the military advantage sought. Israel did not provide information to the commission to support the conclusion that "the civilian casualties and damage to the targeted and surrounding buildings were not excessive." The commission therefore found that the Israeli attacks could be disproportionate, and may amount to war crimes.

When Blitzer asked Clinton whether she agreed with Sanders that Israel "overreacts to Palestinians attacks" and that in order to achieve peace, Israel must end its "disproportionate" responses, she demurred, citing the requirement that Israel take "precautions."

The principle of precautions in international law means Israel had a legal duty to take precautions to avoid or limit civilian casualties. The commission concluded, "In many incidents, however, the weapons used, the timing of the attacks, and the fact that the targets were located in densely populated areas indicate that the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] may not have done everything feasible to avoid or limit civilian casualties." The commission said that the IDF's use of "roof-knock" warnings before the strikes did not constitute effective warning. The commission found that either the people affected didn't understand that their homes were being subjected to "roof-knocking" or the IDF gave insufficient time for them to evacuate after the warnings.

The commission also criticized Israel for "inferring that anyone remaining in an area that has been the object of a warning is an enemy or a person engaging in 'terrorist activity.' Those civilians choosing not to heed a warning do not lose the protection granted by their status. The only way in which civilians lose their protection from attack is by directly participating in the hostilities."

As the commission pointed out, the targeting of civilians may amount to a war crime as well as a violation of the right to life enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Sanders made another declaration one would not expect from an American politician on national television. He said, "If we are ever going to bring peace to that region which has seen so much hatred and so much war, we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity."

But Clinton could not bring herself to agree with Sanders. In fact, Sanders pointed out that during Clinton's speech to AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) in March, "I heard virtually no discussion at all about the needs of the Palestinian people. Almost none in that speech."

Clinton did tell AIPAC that "Palestinians should be able to govern themselves in their own state, in peace and dignity," and she made a veiled reference to "avoiding damaging action, including with respect to settlements." Israel continues to build illegal settlements on Palestinian land.


Puerto Rico needs help

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Puerto Rico is in trouble. Their public debt is coming due and they just don't have the money to pay it off. They have petitioned Congress for a little help, and some on the hill are sympathetic. But there's resistance, and it comes from the usual suspects.

You may have seen recent TV and cable ads claiming that bankruptcy by Puerto Rico would crush your retirement fund. It's a preposterous claim, of course, but in the event of a bankruptcy or even a reorganization of debt, there would be winners and losers.

"Center For Individual Freedom" sounds like a pretty noble cause, doesn't it? They're the ones trying to get you to call your congressman and tell him to block the "bailout." They warn that if Puerto Rico is allowed protection, high-spending states like Illinois will be next. This organization is a 501(c)(4) "dark money" coalition supported by Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS, hedge fund managers, and Tea Party activists. It's safe to say that these interests would benefit in some way from Puerto Rico's collapse.

How did this US possession get into the current mess? We could go all the way back to the second voyage of Columbus - "bloody Chris" - but that's a rant for another day. Let's start with 1898 when Spain ceded the island to the US following their defeat in the Spanish-American War. From the beginning the nation was treated as a colony, accorded a modicum of self-rule - while the US Congress maintained the power of veto. In 1917, Congress passed the Jones-Shafroth Act granting US citizenship to residents of the island. Interestingly, the Puerto Rican House of Delegates voted unanimously against it.

Poverty dogged the colony from the beginning. Between natural disasters and the Great Depression, times were usually tough. Perhaps the event that wreaked the greatest long-term damage was Congress's passage of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act. Still in effect today, it requires that all shipping to and from Puerto Rico (among other possessions) be via US-built, US-flagged, and US-crewed vessels. This generally means that goods from anywhere in the world must stop at a mainland US port where they are unloaded, reloaded, and re-shipped on American vessels. The economic impact for Puerto Rico is negative - costing $1.4 billion in good years and perhaps $600 million in lean years. It raises the price of both imports and exports without providing any tangible advantages - except to the American Maritime Partnership, which speaks for its industry. You can buy goods in the US Virgin Islands - where the Jones Act doesn't apply - for a little more than half what they cost in Puerto Rico.

The oil shocks to the global economy of the 1970s hit the island hard. In 1978 I found myself in San Juan. Clearly, things had been booming just a few years before - the urban landscape was punctuated with half-finished high rise buildings that stood abandoned and neglected. I suspect that certain savvy investors later waltzed in and bought those properties for a song and developed them profitably.

Recovery ensued, and by 2006 a $100 billion economy had developed - the most vigorous in Latin America. It was built on agriculture, of course, but was supplemented by the manufacture of textiles, pharmaceuticals, and electronics. Then came US tax law changes, NAFTA, and the financial crisis - and the economy has been in decline for a decade. Meantime, Congress demanded greater "fiscal responsibility" and in response the sales tax rate was raised from 5.5% to 11.5%. Just this month, the sales tax was replaced with a VAT expected to generate similar revenues.

And of course there's the debt - $67 billion worth. Yeah, that's just a fraction of the US national debt, and relative to GDP, it's about 2/3 the level of debt issued by the US Treasury. Interestingly, the annual budget deficit of $1.1 billion is roughly equal to the economic damage done by the Jones Act alone.




So, why do so few people ever hear about these polls? Well, the Clinton people debunk them at every turn, for obvious reasons. The mainstream media tend to share that campaign's view of what is real and what is not, so these results tend to confound them and they prefer to quickly move on to the next subject -- I see that Bill O'Reilly was recently expressing his disbelief in the results of his own network's poll showing Sanders beating all Republican comers. And I think that for some time even we Sanders backers couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the numbers because we accepted the conventional wisdom that independent voters would prefer the more centrist Democrat, when the reality is that many of them view Sanders as a honest man and Clinton as a hack.

JB: Despite Bernie's impressive string of wins, eight of the last nine contests and the fact that he is Brooklyn-born and bred, the Clinton campaign claims that New York is Hillary turf and that it will be challenging to upset her there. No matter how you slice it , a lot is riding on the NY primary on Tuesday. Your thoughts?

TG: I agree. I think that the race is moving inexorably toward Sanders, as people have had the time to realize what he's saying and compare it to Clinton. But we are racing the clock.

JB: You were in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for a time and you've since relocated to California. What's the race look like out there on the coast?

TG: Well, the latest Field Poll showed Clinton's lead down to six points, so I'm more optimistic that we can catch up here than I am for my original home state -- New York. But the more interesting aspect of that poll was how unpopular it showed Clinton to be. This is the other facet of the secret hiding in full sight -- not only does Clinton not poll as well as Sanders against the Republicans, but people flat out don't like her. According to this poll, 49% viewed her unfavorably, compared to 48% favorable. And we see this nationwide. So we kind of have to congratulate the Clinton people for maintaining the widely-held perception that this unloved candidate is the best option the Democrats have.

The interesting thing about California is that we vote last, so we work on all the other states first. I've made Sanders calls to Iowa, Illinois, Hawaii, Alaska, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and maybe a couple of others I don't remember, and I've yet to call a Californian (at least intentionally -- today I called a New York voter and he told me he'd moved to California). But that is about to change. Usually Californians vote after the nomination has pretty much been settled. But this year, we might have a chance to have an impact.

And the really interesting thing is that we may be looking at the first contested convention in awhile.



Bernie Sanders/Hilary Clinton

(Image by AP/Jacquelyn Martin/Reuters/Carlo Allegri/Photo montage by Salo, Author: United States Department of State) Details Source DMCA





JB: Maybe. Anything you'd like to add before we wrap this up?

TG: I think when this all started all of us who supported the Sanders effort -- candidate included -- would have been very happy to be able to take this thing to all fifty states and that's what we're going to do, as far as I can see. I don't know that anyone could have imagined that this campaign would, in the process, revolutionize campaign fund raising, allowing a candidate who explicitly ran against the influence of big money in politics to actually raise more a candidate who said that she had no choice but to take their money, by getting people to contribute an average of $27. A year ago a scenario like what has played out would have been dismissed as lunacy. In principle, we all believed that if you talked sense to the American people, they would respond. But would they really? We have our answer -- they have.

It's hard to imagine Clinton not going to the convention with a lead -- although you never know. But an unintended consequence of the superdelegates is that she's unlikely to have enough committed (elected) delegates to clinch. So it ain't over until it's over, which probably gives Sanders delegates great opportunities for raising issues at the platform convention and will likely add an overall element of frisson to the proceedings. Are the superdelegates likely to wake up to Clinton's weakness as a candidate and turn their votes around? Probably not, but it's worth the try.

And there's something else -- is there anyone confident that, all the discussion about how thoroughly Clinton has been vetted over the years notwithstanding, there isn't another shoe that may drop regarding her past? Should something happen between now and the convention, it's important that we maintain a living, breathing alternative, in the form of the Sanders candidacy.

JB: I just interviewed Seth Abramson, The Audacity of Nope: Clinton's Nix on Transparency. We discuss the Goldman-Sachs speeches and why Hillary is adamantly refusing to release the transcripts. He says that this is just one more example of poor judgment on her part and something voters should be very aware of. He surmises that if the transcripts were to emerge, the contents would reflect even more poorly on her than her refusal to release them. Comments?

TG: I've read his assessment and it seems about right. When you think about it, if a company drops $225,000 on you to come to talk to them, well it might seem a bit ungrateful of you to say anything but that they're a bunch of nice fellows doing great things for humanity -- a sentiment that would not play nearly so well among the great foreclosed-upon masses.

JB: I never asked: When and why did you become a Bernie supporter, Tom?

TG: I've known about Bernie Sanders for a very long time. Some time in the late '80s, after my stint in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, I spent a Fourth of July with him, going to picnics while conducting an interview for "Socialist Review." I've always believed in socialists engaging in electoral politics and he was one of a handful of others doing it. I've been the chair of the San Francisco chapter of Progressive Democrats of America for a few years and the organization ran a "Run Bernie, Run -- as a Democrat" campaign for a year before he declared. I also wrote a book, The Primary Route: How the 99% Takes on the Military Industrial Rout e, which argues that there will never be an American electoral left until we start running candidates in the Democratic presidential primaries, along with several articles urging Bernie to carry the banner. (Hey, I might have looked like a prophet if anyone had bought the book!)

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 Over Jerusalem, The Pot Calling the Kettle Black | Main | Twitter Tries to Mute Hamas 

April 18, 2016

Haaretz Validates Bernie with Bad Information

Bernie Sanderss anti-Israel comments at April 15s presidential debate -- he insisted that Israels military action in Gaza in 2014 was a disproportionate attack? -- were met with a media storm of praise. From Vox to The New Yorker, Sanders was praised for breaking the taboo? on the approach of the United States to Israel. Perhaps most egregious in its coverage was Haaretz, stating flat-out and erroneously in the headline, Bernie Sanders Got It Right. Israel Did Use Disproportionate Force in Gaza.? The article was riddled with factual misrepresentations and inaccuracies that seek to validate Sanders comments.

Proposing to detail "What really happened in Gaza,? Haaretz leans on sources that are less than credible:

According to the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), a coordination body of over 80 international NGOs, Protective Edge "caused the most acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza in at least the past 50 years.? In 2015, the Associated Press looked into 247 Israeli airstrikes that hit residential compounds during the war, and found that over 60 percent of those killed during the attacks were children, women and older men, all of them most likely civilians. The airstrikes devastated Gaza to such a degree that in September a UN report warned that by 2020 Gaza could become uninhabitable.? A number of hospitals were indeed bombed during the war, as Sanders points out. Israel claims they served as Hamas strongholds, and were used as launch sites for rocket attacks. Schools were also hit, as were refugee camps. (Gaza itself, crumbling under the weight of a suffocating eight-year blockade and three devastating wars and 50 years of occupation, is arguably the worlds largest refugee camp.)

AIDA states its mission is to better address the rights of the Palestinian people,? but harbors the broader goal of demonizing and delegitimizing Israel in the international arena, as the NGO Monitor reveals. Many of the organizations on AIDAs member list are active BDS supporters and known for having a distorted perspective on Israel. One member, Islamic Relief Worldwide, was declared to be illegal by Israels Defense Minister due to its financial support of the terrorist organization Hamas. Other well-known anti-Israel organizations that are part of AIDA include CARE International, Oxfam, and the Carter Center. As CAMERA has reported, here, here, and here, these NGOs and their leadership do not take a balanced, truthful approach when it comes to Israel. Yet, Haaretz cites as evidence the statement made by AIDA.

As for the 2015 AP report quoted, The Observer revealed that the AP relied on Hamas officials for information on figures and details of circumstances, arguing points that keep entirely to the Hamas script. The Observers headline and subhead say it all:

How the AP Botched Its Investigation of Civilian Deaths in the Israel-Hamas War Posed photographs. Intentional miscategorizations. Buried corrections. One-sided sourcing. Cherry-picked quotes. And a just-plain-wrong conclusion about "most" Gaza casualties being civilians.

Haaretz refers to the Hamas-admitted facts that the terrorist group launches attacks from hospitals and schools as mere Israeli claims,? before stating that Gaza has been suffering under "50 years of occupation,? even though Israel withdrew entirely from Gaza in 2005.

Haaretz professes to be making statements of fact, but the newspaper's description of Israel's military action in 2014 fails to hold up to journalistic guidelines of doing due diligence in checking sources. Relying on shoddy information, Haaretz comes to the mistaken conclusion that while Israel has a right to defend itself, "Bernie Sanders Got It Right? that Israel had a policy" of disproportionate response in 2014.

Why is the political rhetoric of Bernie Sanders, and Haaretzs endorsement of it important? Because use of disproportionate force? is a war crime. And in the case of Operation Protective Edge, it clearly does not apply.

As laid out in a comprehensive Tablet article Everything You Need to Know about International Law and the Gaza War" (well worth reading in its entirety):

When a country goes to war, it is allowed to use as much force as is necessary to stop the threat that caused it to go to war to begin with, and does not have to limit itself to the same means or level of intensity used by the enemy. While necessity determines the situations allowing a state to use some form of armed force, proportionality determines the breadth of that permissible force. The intensity of a states response is governed by the magnitude of the threat posed to it by the enemy that attacked it, and not of the individual attacks it suffered. So, the measuring stick of proportionality cant be the tit-for-tat analysis of death tolls popularly presented in the media. Israel is not obligated to employ only the lightest means at its disposal against Hamas, whose military might pales in comparison. Israel is also not obligated to ensure that the death count on both sides is close to equal. That would be absurd.

--Rachel Frommer, CAMERA Intern

Posted by SC at April 18, 2016 10:56 AM

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On Saturday, Mark Mazzetti wrote an article that appears on the front page of the New York Timescalled, "Saudis Tell U.S. To Back Off Bill On 9/11 Lawsuits."



The shocking title alone should make American citizens sit up and take notice. When did the U.S. government start taking orders from foreign nations? Did I miss something? Have we become a foreign territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? Did Saudi Arabia somehow become a branch of the U.S. government with sway over the President, Congress, and the Judiciary?





Mazzetti documents disturbing details that reveal a U.S. government not just taking and carrying out Saudi orders, but a U.S. President being brought to his knees by Saudi extortion.Mazzetti also summarizes the Obama Administration's decision to support the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the 9/11 families' right for justice and accountability for the 9/11 attacks.The Saudis get such royal, preferential treatment because they've stomped their feet, threatened to pull all their money out of the U.S. economy and bankrupt the world if not given their way. As ridiculous as that threat sounds, the Obama administration is apparently very scared by it.Currently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been dismissed from the 9/11 families' lawsuit via their Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) protections. As a result, the court has yet to have the opportunity to see the evidence against the Kingdom with regard to their alleged role of financing the 9/11 attacks. This sets a dangerous precedent since it means that as long as a foreign nation is not listed as a "known state sponsor of terrorism," they are completely immune from being held accountable for any bad behavior or illegal acts they perpetrate inside the U.S. -- yes, even the mass murder of 3,000 people on 9/11. Suffice it to say, this isn't your typical young Saudi prince getting a parking ticket for his gold Lamborghini. This is the Saudi's getting a pass for funding mass murder--with the blessings of the U.S Government.At a time when most can't get Washington to agree on much of anything, the 9/11 families have been able to gather Members of Congress -- both Democrats and Republicans, and as polar opposite as Al Franken and Ted Cruz -- to work together on a vital piece of legislation called Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism (JASTA) . Quite a feat. But then again, 9/11 has the unique ability to unite almost everyone together under that one broad undeniable theme: being a true American.JASTA removes the protection of the FSIA from any nation (regardless of their status as an ally or named state sponsor of terrorism) that participates in a terrorist attack when the terrorist attack is perpetrated on U.S. soil. JASTA makes clear that U.S. citizens remain the priority not foreign nations that fund terror.Specifically, JASTA removes the Saudi's use of the FSIA as a shield of immunity -- allowing them to be brought to court to finally answer charges for their alleged role in the 9/11 attacks.
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This Article Is Not About Donald Trump

(And If You Believe That, You'll Believe Anything)

By Tom Engelhardt

Think of the 2016 presidential campaign as the political equivalent of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. It's loud; there are plenty of abusive special effects; the critics hate it, but the crowds turn out; a media company or three rake in the dough; and foreigners can't get enough of this new vision of the American way of life -- or is it of a Bizarro world?

If you prefer, you could think of Campaign 2016, the never-ending blockbuster, as an affirmation that, whatever the hell this country is, it's still, like Hollywood, at the top of the heap. When it comes to gluing eyeballs, it remains the "sole superpower" on Planet Earth. Think of it, in fact, any way you like, but just notice that the only thing you can't do is not think about it.

This came to my mind recently on my daily trip to the gym. A TV is always on in the anteroom you pass through to reach the men's locker room. A couple of weeks ago, I started to jot down what was onscreen. So let me give you a rundown of one week's worth of my comings and goings.

Monday: This proved the oddball news day of my exercise week. As I arrived, CNN was reporting from a "locked down" Capitol -- shots of people running hither and yon -- and it was still doing so with remarkably similar shots an hour and 40 minutes later when I left. It turned out that some madman -- and I mean that quite literally since, on an earlier occasion, the same fellow was arrested for shouting that he was "a prophet of God" from the gallery of the House of Representatives -- had pulled out a pellet gun in the Capitol's visiting area and been shot by the police. In the new American media world in which 24/7 obsession is the definition of news, that minor story played nonstop for the rest of the day and I caught it again leading NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt ("Gunman at U.S. Capitol Shot by Police").

Tuesday, as I walked in, CNN was focused on the arrest of Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, for an "assault" on Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields in Jupiter, Florida (the American version of outer space). As I left, Governor John Kasich on MSNBC was just "weighing in" on -- you guessed it -- Lewandowski's "alleged battery," with a Washington Post reporter on deck, ready to offer crucial analysis on the same subject, while a Donald Trump tweet was also under discussion.

Wednesday as I arrived, MSNBC was reporting that a new Hillary Clinton ad had just blasted -- you guessed it again -- Donald Trump for "xenophobia" and that she was four percentage points behind Bernie Sanders in the latest Wisconsin poll. On the crawler at the bottom of the screen, Trump's campaign manager was said to have declared himself "absolutely innocent" of the battery charge. On my way out, I found correspondent Katy Tur "awaiting" Trump's arrival at a stop in Wisconsin. And oh yes, women, I learned, disliked Trump for his "some form of punishment" abortion comment.

Thursday as I came in, MSNBC was showing a Jimmy Kimmel Live! clip in which Ted Cruz half-jokingly told the nighttime host that, were he to see -- yes, you guessed it yet again! -- The Donald through his rearview mirror in a parking lot as he was backing up, he wasn't quite sure which pedal he'd hit, the gas or the brake. On leaving, I wandered past a crew of Washington Post writers discussing -- yep! -- Donald Trump's first meeting with his foreign policy advisers in Washington. He was, I was fascinated to learn, "huddling" with them.

Friday, I arrived just as the CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin was revving up under the logo "America's Choice 2016." "Wisconsin," Baldwin was saying, "is the next big primary for both Democrats and Republicans, but on the GOP side frontrunner Donald Trump is also focusing his attention on the party's convention in July and how the delegate process will play out." As I left, she was still yakking away, this time over a caption that read: "Backing off pledge could cost Trump delegates." On a split screen with her was a Republican National Committee member -- "an expert on GOP nominating processing," she told us -- discussing the significance of Trump's recent meeting with Republican Party head Reince Priebus. (Not much, it turned out.)

And that was one week's exercising news for me. I can't for a second claim it didn't keep me in decent shape, but the rest of America?

Now, let me try to sum up that week in American "news" glimpsed in passing at the gym and then watched as it repeated itself at dinner time and other moments. Here goes: Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Ted Cruz. Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Donald Trump. (Bernie Sanders.) The previous week, it would, of course, have been Brussels, Brussels, Brussels, Donald Trump, Brussels, Brussels, Brussels, Donald Trump, etc., etc.

There. Satisfied? Now, turn off that TV, put down that screen in your hand, I've got something to tell you about the news.

The News Zone

It goes without saying that I'm not talking about the news as it once was. Think of it now as a kind of obsessive onscreen activity, sometimes humdrum, remarkably repetitive, yet often riveting. Think of it mainly as something most of us live with but have yet to come to grips with or really define. With the ever-present screens in all our lives, no one can help but tune in these days in one way or another to various versions of what we still call "the news." In doing so, we largely leave the real world and any sense of balance or perspective behind. Otherwise a startling percentage of Americans wouldn't be convinced that terrorism of the Islamic variety -- yes, terrorism! -- is America's number one problem; this in a country in which you're more likely to be killed or wounded by a toddler with a gun than an Islamic terrorist with the same.

In other words, from Brussels, Brussels, Brussels to Trump, Trump, Trump, this is not in any previously understood sense news at all. It may actually be the opposite of news. Believe it or not, there is still a world out there filled with problems that we know so much less about than we should because we're all immersed in the same Trump soup.

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Global Hysteresis Clutch Industry 2015 Market Growth, Size, Trends, and Forecast by 2019

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9Dimen Group presents Global Hysteresis Clutch Industry 2015 Market Research Report contains an in-depth analysis, industry segmentation, development, target markets, statistics and figures.The report titled Hysteresis Clutch is an in-depth and a professional document that provides a comprehensive overview of the global Hysteresis Clutch market.Browse Complete Report with TOC @:The report provides an executive-level blueprint of the Hysteresis Clutch market beginning with the definition of the market dynamics. The analysis classifies the Hysteresis Clutch market in terms of products, application, and key geographic regions. With focus on presenting a detailed value chain analysis, the study evaluates the set of region-specific approaches forged by the industry. To determine the market potential for Hysteresis Clutch in the international scenario, the study delves into the competitive landscape and development landscape exhibited by the key geographic regions.Development plans and policies significantly impact the market dynamic. The report therefore studies in detail the impact of the strategies, plans, and policies adopted by leading vendors of the Hysteresis Clutch market. Manufacturing cost of products and the pricing structure adopted by the market is also evaluated in the report. Other parameters crucial in determining trends in the market such as consumption demand and supply figures, cost of production, gross profit margins, and selling price of product and services is also included within the ambit of the report.Request for Sample Report @:To provide a detailed analysis on the competitive landscape, the report profiles the key players in the Hysteresis Clutch industry. Information present in these chapters includes details of products manufactured by the leading companies, product specification and price, and production capacity. Using reliable analytical tools, the report evaluates the information sourced from both primary and secondary research. Results obtained through the detailed analysis helps in presenting refined forecasts regarding growth prospects of the Hysteresis Clutch market. Apart from this, the analysts have also conducted upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis to compile and present an exhaustive study on the Hysteresis Clutch market.A detailed segmentation evaluation of the Hysteresis Clutch market has been provided in the report. Detailed information about the key segments of the market and their growth prospects are available in the report. The detailed analysis of their sub-segments is also available in the report. The revenue forecasts and volume shares along with market estimates are available in the report.9Dimen Group is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact UsJoel JohnTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651Email: sales@9dimengroup.comWeb:
Global Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health Industry Report 2016

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The recently published report titled Global Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health Industry 2016 Market Research Report is an in depth study providing complete analysis of the industry for the period 2016  2021. It provides complete overview of Global Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health market considering all the major industry trends, market dynamics and competitive scenario.The Global Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health Industry Report 2016 is an in depth study analyzing the current state of the Global Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health market. It provides brief overview of the market focusing on definitions, market segmentation, end-use applications and industry chain analysis. The study on Global Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health market provides analysis of market covering the industry trends, recent developments in the market and competitive landscape. Competitive analysis includes competitive information of leading players in market, their company profiles, product portfolio, capacity, production, and company financials. In addition, report also provides upstream raw material analysis and downstream demand analysis along with the key development trends and sales channel analysis. Research study on Global Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health market also discusses the opportunity areas for investors.View Full Report atWith 153 tables and figures, the report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health1.1 Definition and Specifications of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health1.1.1 Definition of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health1.1.2 Specifications of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health1.2 Classification of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health1.3 Applications of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health1.4 Industry Chain Structure of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health1.5 Industry Overview and Major Regions Status of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health1.5.1 Industry Overview of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health1.5.2 Global Major Regions Status of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health1.6 Industry Policy Analysis of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health1.7 Industry News Analysis of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health2.1 Raw Material Suppliers and Price Analysis of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health2.2 Equipment Suppliers and Price Analysis of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health2.3 Labor Cost Analysis of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health2.4 Other Costs Analysis of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health2.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health2.6 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health Major Manufacturers in 20153.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health Major Manufacturers in 20153.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health Major Manufacturers in 20153.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Telecommunications for Tele-Medicine (PTT) and M-Health Major Manufacturers in 2015Download Sample Copy of this Report atGlobal QY Research is the one spot destination for all your research needs. Global QY Research holds the repository of quality research reports from numerous publishers across the globe. Our inventory of research reports caters to various industry verticals including Healthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc. With the complete information about the publishers and the industries they cater to for developing market research reports, we help our clients in making purchase decision by understanding their requirements and suggesting best possible collection matching their needs.Unit1, 26 Cleveland Road, South Woodford, London, E182AN, United KingdomEmail: sales@globalqyresearch.com
Diamond Mining Industry to grow at a CAGR of around 5% during the forecast period 2015-2019

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=502422

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The diamond mining industry to grow at a CAGR of around 5% during the forecast period. The increased demand from emerging markets such as China and India for diamond jewelry is driving the growth of this industry. The average amount spent on diamond jewelry by married women is around USD 1500 followed by single women who spent an average of USD 1100 during 2013.The environmental issues arising due to diamond mining is expected to pose challenges for the growth of the market during the forecast period. Diamond mining uses a variety of mining methods, some of which include the evacuation of large amounts of soil from the earth, causing land unsettlement. The mining activities also lead to the removal of other minerals and huge carbon footprints. As a result, new regulations are being set up to ensure evacuation, stockpiling and return of other minerals to allow the region to come back to its natural state.Browse Market info, get a Sample PDF with TOC:Industrial applications dominated the market during 2014 with a market share of 70%. This research report predicts this segment to reach a market volume of 105 karats by the end of 2019. Small pieces of diamonds are fixed in a saw blade or a grinding wheel for cutting, drilling, or grinding. Powdered diamond is made into a paste and used for polishing.The report offers an analysis of each of the following segments and discusses its impact on the overall market growth -- Industry applications- Jewelry makingGeographical segmentation and analysis of the diamond mining market- Africa- Australia- Europe- North America- ROWAfrica accounted for 53% of the market share during 2014 and is predicted to retain its leadership until the end of 2019 with a growth rate of 6%. The growth of the diamond industry in this region is due to a large number of mines present in this region. South Africa is the market leader in this region contributing nearly 53% of the revenue.Competitive landscape and key vendors - ALROSA, De Beers, Rio Tinto, Stornoway, DominionThe diamond mining market is highly competitive due to the presence of numerous players. The industry has been witnessing consolidation with the smaller entities being acquired by major vendors. Most of the vendors invest heavily in R&D to succeed in this intensely competitive market.Enquiry at:Key questions answered in the report include- What will the market size and the growth rate be in 2019- What are the key factors driving the diamond mining industry- What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the diamond mining industry- What are the challenges to market growth- Who are the key vendors in the diamond mining market- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the diamond mining industry- Trending factors influencing the market shares of the Africa, Australia, Europe, North America, and ROW- What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the diamond mining industryResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free : 866-997-4948 (US-Canada Toll Free)Tel : +1-518-621-2074
New 1000 Program Polyamide housing for EMKA quarter-turn locks

1000 program polyamide housing for EMKA quarter-turn locks

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EMKAs market leading quarter-turn locks in their 1000 program have recently been given an alternative 30mm housing in polyamide which offers lower cost and better outdoor longevity for these popular locks.1000 program locks offer sealing to IP65 and above dependant on specification. Now it is possible to select this polyamide housing combined with stainless steel lock cylinder or other insert for exceptional corrosion resistance at significantly lower cost than an all stainless assembly.The well proven EMKA modular system and EMKAs commitment to stock and service enable supply of complete assemblies of mixed material locks to optimise requirements against specific installations. Thus for example using the polyamide housing and cam with a stainless steel lock cylinder for the ultimate blend of longevity, sealing, performance and cost saving.Further information on the EMKA 30mm housing in polyamide can be found at:. Readers can find the latest information and news on the EMKA blog or follow them on twitter -EMKA UK Ltd is the UK subsidiary of EMKA Beschlagteile GmbH, a privately owned company specialising in the design, manufacture and distribution of innovative Electronic Locking Modules, Biometric Locking Systems, Locks and Latches, Compression Locks, Keylocks, Toggle latches, Hinges, Handles, Rod Controls, Air Conditioning products, Stainless Steel products, Sealing profiles, Window/Door units and Accessories to the Electrical and Electronic, HVAC and Industrial Enclosure Industries, plus Commercial Vehicle Accessories.Our focus is to provide our customers with the best, cost effective, reliable solution within our ability, backed by a comprehensive support service.We believe the EMKA product line to be the most innovative and comprehensive in the industry today. Our advanced and creative design team is constantly working to improve and extend our very large product range. In addition, competitive pricing and short lead times for most items, provide us with distinct advantages.EMKA (UK) LtdPatricia HouseBodmin RoadCoventryCV2 5DGTel: 024 7661 6505email: emka@emka.co.ukblog:Press contact: Andrew Billingham
Quake Kare Survival Kits at California School Business Expo Impress School Safety Officials

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April 15, 2016, Pasadena California Educators in California looking for the best ways to prepare students for emergency lockdowns during disasters involving armed intruders, earthquakes or tornados are impressed with survival kit products from Quake Kare, a company that is the nations leading provider of emergency survival kits.We are receiving many requests from California school officials for our Safety Lockdown Container Survival Kit, said John Caine of Quake Kare, a not-for-profit company headquartered in St. Louis. Missouri.Caine is among thousands of people attending the California School Business Expo at the CASBO Annual Conference at Pasadena Convention Center this weekend. With more than 250 vendors, CASBO is the biggest trade show of its kind in California and the states largest annual gathering of school business and safety officials.Quake Kares Safety Lockdown Container Survival Kit is designed for classrooms with necessary emergency supplies for up to 72 hours. This portable kit contains emergency food, water, lighting, first-aid, portable toilet, and shelter supplies, as well as a solar / hand-crank powered flashlight; weather band radio; and a USB device charger that never needs batteries to charge smartphones and other USB devices.CASBO is an acronym for The California Association of School Business Officials, the premier resource for professional development and business best practices for California's school business leaders.This expo is especially timely because authorities and educators are preparing for a potential surge of school shooting incidents this spring because records show that such disasters often begin to erupt in April, Caine said.Experts tracking school shooting incidents theorize that many such disasters occur in April because some armed intruders want to copy or venerate what other shooters have previously done, or memorialize a date in history.Many schools and law enforcement officials are conducting preparedness drills for students and faculty, and communicating with parents about disaster plans in the event of emergency, Caine said.All school shootings are tragic, and evidence shows that April is a particularly bad month for disasters in the United States, said Caine. He noted that the Parker Middle School shootings, the Columbine shootings and the Virginia Tech shooting -- among others -- all occurred in April.Quake Kare is owned by the nonprofit Lighthouse for the Blind-Saint Louis. School districts, businesses, law enforcement agencies and families rely on Quake Kare disaster preparedness kits to help survive floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other threatening episodes. ().All Quake Kare sales revenue directly supports Lighthouse service programs for people who are blind or visually impaired in Missouri and Southwestern Illinois. The Lighthouse currently employs 47 people who are legally blind in two manufacturing plants in St. Louis County to assemble, pack and ship Quake Kare survival kits and other products.We are excited to participate in CASBO and we are making many new business friends here, Caine said.For Quake Kare product information, contact John Caine or Brittney Bettonville at 800.542.3697 or 314.423.4333, or see the website. For details about Lighthouse for the Blind-Saint Louis services and programs, call 800.542.3697 or 314.423.4333 or visit the website orQuake Kare is owned by the nonprofit Lighthouse for the Blind-Saint Louis. School districts, businesses, law enforcement agencies and families rely on Quake Kare disaster preparedness kits to help survive floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other threatening episodes.Lighthouse for the Blind-Saint Louis10440 Trenton AvenueSaint Louis, Missouri 63132
ImaBiotech signs license agreement with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Lille, France and Berkeley, California, USA  15th April, 2016  ImaBiotech, a CRO company developing and offering mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) services, applications, and software, announces today a license agreement with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to OpenMSI intellectual property to support ImaBiotech Multimaging technology.ImaBiotechs Multimaging technology accelerates drug pharmacokinetic, pharmacology, toxicology, and formulation evaluation. Multimaging allows for the combination and overlay of different image files acquired from different imaging techniques (quantitative MALDI imaging, staining, and immune-staining) to provide confidence in the data sets. This platform has the advantage to quantitatively study the distribution of analytes at a cellular level. It can be used from drug discovery through clinical development, resulting in a better and faster drug selection.Berkeley Labs OpenMSI software leverages Big Data resources to provide the most advanced web-based tool for analyzing, visualizing, managing and sharing MSI data in real time to enable advanced biotechnology solutions such as improved disease diagnostics or more effective therapeutics. This innovative approach provides a global structure for all types of MSI images and data files to be instantaneously and securely shared over a cloud-based system, with access anywhere around the world.Our license agreement with Berkeley Lab strengthens ImaBiotechs leadership in quantitative MSI analysis, said Jonathan Stauber, Chief Executive Officer of ImaBiotech. Thanks to this license agreement, ImaBiotech will continue to improve and develop new services to support our customers needs. We are very proud to sign a license agreement with one of the most prestigious research laboratories in the world. Lab-industry partnerships, such as ImaBiotechs licensing of Berkeley Labs OpenMSI software, are vital to transitioning new innovations into the marketplace, said Elsie Quaite-Randall, Berkeley Labs Chief Technology Transfer Officer. ImaBiotech's foundation in MSI research and its multi-million dollar investment in bioanalysis equipment indicate that OpenMSI intellectual property can be quickly and naturally integrated into the company's evaluation services and platform.ImaBiotech is a contract research organization (CRO) that offers services in mass spectrometry imaging (MSI); along with developing and implementing new imaging technologies, such as Quantinetix and Multimaging. The main facility is located in Europe (Lille, France), with an office in North America (Cambridge, MA) and a distributor in Asia (Tokyo, Japan). In order to accelerate drug development, ImaBiotech offers Mass Spectrometry Services, such as MALDI high resolution mass spectrometry imaging to provide a cost effective solution to preclinical and clinical studies. This molecular technique is used both qualitatively and quantitatively for understanding the efficacy and toxicity of drug candidates.ImaBiotech885 avenue eugene Avinee, 59120 LoosCommunication ManagerE: contact@imabiotech.comT: +33 (0) 320 164 091
Specialty Elastomers from ZEON for Printing and Paper Industries

ZEON is a recognized development partner of specialty elastomers and chemicals

www.zeon.eu

drupa 2016: ZEON's Elastomers for Optimization of Material PropertiesZEON  a leading and global-operating producer of specialty polymers - presents the novel portfolio of specialty elastomers for the printing and paper industries at drupa 2016, the number one international exhibition for printing and cross-media solutions. Worldwide, the printing and paper industries have been utilizing ZEONs high temperature and chemicals resistant elastomers. Printing rollers, roller coverings, printing blankets, conveyer belts, machinery belts and gaskets are the typical final products. Starting from May 31st until June 10th, 2016, ZEON will show the latest elastomer developments at booth C92 in exhibition hall 3. Two examples to be named: Hydrin T3108XL is an epichlorohydrin polymer that contributes to the improvement of the compound processability. Zeoforte ZSC (ZEON Super Composite) is a material applicable for roller coverings with high hardness, high tensile strength, best abrasion resistance as well as superior dynamic properties. "The printing and paper industries acknowledge ZEON as an experienced and reputable elastomer development partner," explained Hubert Thimm, Commercial Director at ZEON Europe GmbH.Development PartnershipAs a partner in the field of elastomer materials for the printing and paper industries worldwide, ZEON supports all aspects of the product development, starting from polymer screening, compound development, tests and analysis, up to the optimization of the final products. Based on the long term experiences and the comprehensive expertise in the field of high performance elastomers, ZEON is continuously open for new partnerships and cooperation in the area of elastomer compound development in order to meet the most recent and challenging requirements of the paper and printing industries.About ZEON Europe GmbHZEON Europe GmbH is the European subsidiary of ZEON Corporation, located in Duesseldorf, Germany. The leading and global-operating specialty polymer company has currently more than 3,100 employees at 44 locations worldwide.From elastomers for tire applications up to heat and oil resistant specialty elastomers for technical rubber articles cover the broad range of the elastomer product portfolio of ZEON.ZEON is focusing on the research and development of sustainable polymer products for the future. As a recognized material development partner, ZEON is constantly working on specific solutions for the customers. The typical applications of ZEONs elastomer materials can be found in versatile industry branches such as automotive/mobility, aerospace, building and construction, machinery, printing and paper as well as oil and gas. More information is available on the website atMedia ContactMandy Ahlendorfahlendorf communicationE-Mail: ma@ahlendorf-communication.comPhone: +49 8151 9739098Svea MeuserZeon Europe GmbHE-Mail: svea.meuser@zeon.euPhone: +49 211 5267 123Hansaallee 249DE-40549 Dusseldorf
The playgrounds demolition has prompted outrage from the Belgian government.

The Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders condemned the destruction of the children's playground. They have asked for an explanation from the Israeli government through the Ambassador in Brussels and via the Belgian Embassy in Tel Aviv.

The article, which is based on a report from Ma'an New Agency, a Palestinian outlet that has published antisemitic diatribes in the past, states Israeli authorities gave no prior notice before demolishing the park.?

CAMERA contacted COGAT, the Israeli agency responsible for administrating the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and received the following response:

Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories: On April 12th, enforcement measures were taken against an illegal structure in Za'atra, after handing all the relevant orders and giving opportunity to prove ownership on the lands.

COGATs response reveals couple of problems with the story as it appeared in the Independent Catholic News.

First, the article failed to mention that the Palestinians who used the Belgian money to build the playground did not have title to the land on which it was built. In other words, it was built illegally.

Secondly, the article states that Israeli authorities gave no prior notice before demolishing the park but in reality, Israeli officials gave the Palestinians who built the park a chance to prove that they in fact had title to the land in question. For Palestinians to complain that they were not given prior notice to the impending action is simply propagandistic.

This brings us to another problem with the story. It omits the fact that a number of European institutions have been funding the construction of illegal structures in the West Bank in an effort to generate spectacles that can be used to demonize Israel. The so-called humanitarian structures are built not for humanitarian purposes, but propaganda purposes.

In February 2015, The Daily Mail (London) reported the following:

The EU is acting illegally by funding unauthorised Palestinian building in areas placed under Israeli control by international law, say an NGO, international lawyers and MEPs. More than 400 EU-funded Palestinian homes have been erected in Area C of the West Bank, which was placed under Israeli jurisdiction during the Oslo Accords  a part of international law to which the EU is a signatory.

The Palestinian buildings, which have no permits, come at a cost of tens of millions of Euros in public money, a proportion of which comes from the British taxpayer. This has raised concerns that the EU is using valuable resources to take sides in a foreign territorial dispute.

An article published the following month by the same publication reveals that the European Union has claimed diplomatic immunity to protect itself from lawsuits in Israel arising from its illegal actions.

This isnt the first time that foreign funds have been used to incite hostility toward Israel. In May 2014, the Tent of Nations, a farm owned by Palestinian Christians located in the West Bank announced that the Israeli soldiers had demolished 1,500 trees from an area that had been planted using donated funds.

Aerial photographs indicated that the number was closer to 300 and that the land upon which they had been planted had not been cultivated for years prior to the planting of the trees in 2007. This indicated that the Tent of Nations was encroaching on the land in question in an effort to generate a spectacle when Israel demolished the trees.

As stated in a previous CAMERA report, this sounds terribly cynical, but there is warrant for such cynicism. Journalist Edwin black alleges that Palestinians have been paid by outside activists to plant trees near a nature preserve in the West Bank with the goal of generating bad publicity for Israel when soldiers removed the trees.

Black makes the allegations in chapter eight of his 2013 book, Financing the Flames: How Tax Exempt and Public Money Fuel a Culture of Confrontation in Israel. He writes:

Israeli attempts to protect the nature reserve by removing unauthorized, newly planted trees made for plenty of bad optics and dramatic condemnation on the blogosphere. Ultimately, the conflict resulted in a series of legal actions in the Israeli court with a decision to remove the some 1,400 trees from Wadi Kana. Such a removal would be a well-photographed and highly publicized spectacle of the mighty Israeli state versus the humble Arab-planted trees.

Hopefully, the folks at Independent Catholic News will do some digging before broadcasting such obvious propaganda from Ma'an News Agency.






ITL World Enters into Strategic Travel Management Alliance with CTM

Senior executives of ITL World and CTM after signing the partnership

Dubai, UAE  April 15, 2016  ITL World, a leading travel management company in the Middle East, today announced that it has signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Corporate Travel Management (CTM), the award-winning global provider of innovative and cost-effective travel management solutions, for the GCC region. This partnership will help both companies expand their network and allow them to share global best practices and local expertise to their clients, offering only the best travel management solutions and services.Speaking on the partnership, Dr. Siddeek Ahmed, Chairman & Managing Director of ITL World (part of the Eram Group), Over the last few years, ITL World has established itself as a leader in travel management in the GCC region and a trusted travel advisor to our corporate clients. We wanted to take our services to the next level, where we could cater to our clients global travel management requirements seamlessly as a single fulfillment partner. Hence, we decided to partner with CTM, one of the best and most reputed global travel management companies with a strong network in over 53 countries. This partnership will enable us to offer our local expertise in the GCC region to CTMs global clients.This partnership will enable ITL World and CTM to expand their global reach and leverage each others network and technology solutions to create a single fulfillment platform for their clients global travel requirements. ITL World will benefit from CTMs proven business strategy, which combines personalized service-excellence with world-class client-facing technology solutions to deliver a return-on-investment to clients, while CTM will benefit from ITL Worlds regional knowledge, relationships and expertise.Speaking on the new partnership, CTMs CEO EMEA Chris Thelen said, CTM has a strong customer focused philosophy. In recognising the growing global reach of our clients, we have identified an opportunity to expand our partner network in the Middle East. The CTM Global Partner network is made up of a bespoke group of well established, in-country travel management partners which provide our clients with consistent, reliable and service-driven solutions for their multi-regional travel management needs. We are excited to have found a partner like ITL World with their local expertise in the Middle Eastern and Asian markets and very much look forward to working together going forward.According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) the travel and tourism industry contributed more than $7.2 trillion to the worlds gross domestic product and added 7.2 million jobs last year. The travel and tourism industry in the Middle East region saw 5.9 per cent growth in contribution to GDP during the year which was driven by a worldwide increase in middle-class income households and an ageing population, which tends to travel more. The growing connectivity between destinations, which makes travel more accessible and affordable, has also pushed the sector.ITL World has been a preferred partner of several global travel brands and tourism boards in the region. Rated consecutively as the 5thmost powerful travel management company in the Middle East by Arabian Travel News, the company has been catering to a wide portfolio of clientele across Asia and the Middle East since the company was founded over three decades ago. ITL World provides highly personalized service and developing innovative and flexible client solutions with a commitment to demonstrating a positive return on investment on their services.Deploying cutting-edge, in-house developed travel technologies, as well as the industrys leading Global Distribution Systems, ITL World facilitates an enhanced 360 degree client experience. With well-known travel brands such as Miceminds, Arabian Experience and EduVoyage under its portfolio, ITL World offers travel solutions to verticals such as government, Oil & Gas, Education to name a few.ITL World is one of the few travel management companies in the Middle East to have its own fully operating offices in the GCC region. The company currently has 37 offices across Asia, Middle East and Europe and intends to expand to 200 offices by 2020.CTM is an award-winning provider of innovative and cost-effective travel management solutions to the corporate market. Its proven business strategy combines personalised service-excellence with client-facing technology solutions to deliver a return-on-investment to clients. Founded in 1994, the company is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, employs more than2,000 FTE staff globally and services clients in 82 cities across 53 countries. The company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: CTD).About ITL World Established in the 1980s ITL World is the parent brand of Arabian Experience, Miceminds & EduVoyage 36 fully owned & operating offices Presence across markets of KSA, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, India, Thailand & Malaysia Listed consecutively as the 5th Most Powerful Travel Company in the GCC (by Arabian Travel News)About ERAM Group - ITL Worlds parent company Founded in the 1980s Today spans across 4 continents and 15 countries Comprises of 40+ business divisions Employs approx. 12,000 (various nationalities) Business streams encompass Oil & Gas Industry, Travel, Tourism and Hospitality, Medicare, Information Technology, R&D, Media, Human Resources, Consultancy Services, Construction & Maintenance, Trading and many moreITL Tourism & Travel LLC.P.O Box 126642, R 04, Ground Floor,Empire Heights, Al Asayel Street,Business Bay, Dubai, UAET  +971 4 429 8333Toll Free UAE 800-ITL(800-485)uae.dxb@ITLtravel.com
Credit card payments to be accepted in over 150 EPPCO, ENOC and ZOOM outlets

http://newperspectivemedia.com/

Credit card payments to be accepted in over 150 EPPCO, ENOC and ZOOM outletsWall Street Exchange to implement new service in partnership with ENOCPayments for over 50 bank cards can be made in ENOC, EPPCO and ZOOM outletsDubai, UAE, April 16, 2016:Credit card holders in Dubai and Northern Emirates will soon be able to settle their card payments in over 150 petrol and Zoom outlets, making it easier to pay their bills at any time of the day.The new service is initiated by Wall Street Exchange and the retail divison of Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC). Representing Wall Street Exchange, Sultan AlMahmoud, Chief Marketing and Support Services Officer, signed the agreement with ENOCs Managing Director for Retail, Burhan Al Hashemi, recently at ENOC Complex in Oud Metha, Dubai.During the first phase, any credit card holder who is registered with Wall Street Exchange will be able to make the payment at any ENOC or EPPCO petrol station as well as in Zoom outlets. Soon after, any card holder with a valid Emirates ID will be able to avail of the same service.This facility will be useful for thousands of customers, who could pay their card bills more conveniently.Customer convenience is the primary reason this service has been pioneered by us, said Sultan AlMahmoud. The service launch is a part of the companys strategy to be a total financial solution provider. We have been functioning in the comprehensive money exchange service industry for over 30 years now, and we understand that bill payment compliance goes up significantly when there is greater ease of payment, he added.There are 5.9 million bank cards in circulation in the UAE and over a million of these are credit cards. The UAE is considered to be amongst the fastest growing markets in the Gulf for cashless payments. In 2014, credit card purchases grew by 50 per cent accounting to AED 109.6 billion.The UAE is a major market for credit card users in the Gulf. Various means are in place in order for the residents to meet their payment obligations, giving them peace of mind and the right tools to avoid penalties for missed payment due dates.Our fuel stations are located across various areas in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, and we are always at the forefront to introduce new services that enhance customer satisfaction, said Burhan Al Hashemi. Value-added services such as this credit card payment facility are a part of that strategy in empowering customers to make best use of their time. Speed and convenience have always been our hallmarks, he added.About Wall Street ExchangeWall Street Exchange, established in Dubai in 1982, is one of the first companies to provide comprehensive money exchange services in the UAE. The company has been providing a wide range of foreign exchange, money transfer and related services in the region for over 30 years.Wall Street's continued growth has allowed it to set up a worldwide network that includes offices in the UAE, UK and Hong Kong. With its global reach, local expertise and dedicated staff, Wall Street is the preferred choice for currency exchange and remittances. In addition, Wall Street provides other services such as credit card bill payments and cash advances, National Bonds, Air Arabia, Etisalat, Du, Ding, SEWA and much more.New Perspective MediaOffice No. 108, Al Owais BuildingAirport Road,Port Saeed, Dubai, U.A.E.Tel: (+971) 4 294 0755Mob: (+971) 56 7634292
Unleash your creativity with the addictive Gravitarium app

https://QApps.co

https://facebook.com/qapps

http://qapps.co

https://QApps.co

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEUnleash your creativity with the addictive Gravitarium appMarch 2016 - Have you ever wondered how your favorite pieces of music would look if they were translated into visual forms? Innovative developers atQAppsare offering a brilliant app which gives you the opportunity to find out.Gravitarium Plus is the ultimate Music Visualizer, giving users the divine experience of watching their iTunes music transformed into captivating abstract visuals using state of the art multitouch particle technology. As one fan put it, this app will allow you to create a mature masterpiece of living art!By detecting beats and rhythms, Gravitarium+ presents users with smooth, colorful abstract visuals that hypnotically flow in perfect harmony with the music, however slow or upbeat it may be. You can select from a variety of different settings, controlling the speed, colors and flow of the visuals to create your own customized piece of moving art, all synchronized to the sounds of your personal iTunes playlist.Players can even use the mic to manipulate the particles using their voice or any background sounds and music. To top it all, if you ever want to create your very own artistic masterpiece, the line-art drawing mode allows you to shape some stunning abstract visuals as millions of colorful pixels slowly take their form.For the debut Apple TV app release in late March, players can enjoy a complete interactive playground which they can control using the touchpad on their remote. This also includes the user favorite Pause/Play feature which allows for instant freeze of the particle animation by just lifting the finger from the touchpad.You can simply sit back and immerse yourself in the kinetic visuals on your tablet, smartphone and TV, or use the resulting art as a wallpaper so you can enjoy it every time you use your device. The app provides users with a meditative audiovisual experience that many people find to be amazingly calming and relaxing.Plenty of users saythat they enjoy Gravitarium last thing at night, using it as a tool to help them wind down and clear their minds ready for a good nights sleep. There are also reports that children with autism can benefit from the app, with the combination of calming music and soothing colors promoting emotional wellbeing and alleviating stress.Gravitarium has already been downloaded thousands of times and received huge numbers of positive reviews worldwide, and it continues to gain new fans with every download. If you want to experience this magical multitouch particle playground for yourself, try the free version available for download right now on the App Store(compatible with devices running iOS 8.0 or later).Notes to EditorsGravitarium apps are owned and maintained by QApps LLC. For more information, visitor email media@qapps.com. Follow on Twitter @qappsllc or connect atQApps is registered trademark of QApps LLC.qapps.coJiri Hanak"382 NE 191st St Ste 97264Miami, FL 33179"1-305-424-8908media@qapps.com
National Cowboy Artist Unvieils new solo art exhibition first in 20 years

Jay Hester painting in the Gallery

www.jrmooneygalleries.com

Join the J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art - Boerne on Friday October 7th and Saturday Oct 8th, 2016 for an exciting evening of Western Fine Art honoring our great state of Texas in Jay Hester: TEXAS - Stories of the Land, a blockbuster exhibition by the legendary Western and Native American artist, as he visually explores turning events, ballads, and serenades of the old west, drawing on historical happenings in the Texas Hill Country and giving artistic voices to stories long forgotten.This exhibition celebrates the career and new artwork by nationally renowned and award-winning Texas artist, Jay Hester.In the exhibition, TEXAS - Stories of the Land, Hester unveils a dozen new dramatic masterpieces in his first solo exhibition in almost 20 years that tells the story of his beloved Texas. Special to TEXAS - Stories of the Land is Hesters showstopper of a painting, a larger than life portrayal of an artistic rendition and homage to Boernes own Dr. Herff, performing his innovative cataract surgery on a Comanche Chief. As the legend goes, this surgery saved the Comanche Chiefs eyesight and laid the groundwork for a mutual understanding between the Native Americans and the early settlers.Other painterly renditions range from historical encounters between the Texas Rangers and the Comanche and Apache, the depot at Camp Verde, raids in Linnville and Plum Creek, Native American ambushes on early Texas/German settlers to treaty signings in Fredericksburg.TEXAS - Stories of the Land is a dynamic Western and Native American art exhibition focusing on tales from the formative years of the Texas Hill Country and surrounding regions, hosted by the oldest gallery in Texas, J.R. Mooney Galleries.Come experience Texas history as these wonderful western legends come to life, an artistic journey that only Jay Hester can tell! Friday Oct. 7, 2016 - Private VIP Preview of the exhibition, INVIATION ONLY, 4 pm  8 pm Saturday Oct. 8, 2016 - Free Public Opening of exhibition, 4 pm  8 pmJay's passion for Western culture is evident in his work as a Native American and Western artist. His ability to capture the rustic beauty and the depth of the people and places that define the American West has gained him many honors and awards at national juried exhibitions. After college graduation in Alabama, Jay was accepted to the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, which further refined his painting skills. He then worked as an illustrator for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Georgia.He followed his passion along the east coast art show circuit, and taught art to college students in Georgia and Tennessee before heading west. It was Santa Fe, with its rich environment that sparked his interest in the Native Americans and other western subjects. While residing there he studied the character of the west, its culture and traditions, enabling him to capture on canvas and in clay the Native Americans, mountain men, and cowboys he so often depicts. In addition to private collections across America, Jay has produced commissioned paintings for Texas Tech University and Methodist Hospital in Lubbock, the Zaragosa Theater at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, USAA in San Antonio, as well as many other public collections. His monumental bronze sculptures grace The Woodlands, near Houston, Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi, and Boerne's Veteran's Park."Lasting Friendship," in Fredericksburg's Markt Platz, is represented by three heroic size figures depicting the treaty signing between the Comanche Indians and the German settlers, and was unveiled on the 150th anniversary of the city. He recently installed a larger than life bronze sculpture of Cadet George P. Mitchell at the Texas A&M Galveston campus.Hesters selected gallery roster includes: Sage Creek Gallery in New Mexico, South West Gallery in Texas, Altermann Galleries & Auctioneers in New Mexico, Charles M. Russell Benefit Auction in Montana, Highland House Gallery in Texas, Phippen Western Art Show & Sale in Arizona, Kiwanis Art Show & Sale in Texas, RS Hanna Gallery in Texas, Paulson Gallery in Texas, Museum of Western Art in Texas, The Pearce Western Art Museum in Texas, Worrell Gallery in New Mexico, Mountain Trails in Wyoming, The Gallery at Brookwood in Texas, J.R. Mooney Galleries in Texas, and Mountain Trails in New Mexico.Who:J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art, BoerneWhat:Jay Hester: TEXAS - Stories of the LandWhen:Oct. 7 - 8, 2016Where:JR Mooney Galleries, Boerne305 S. Main St., Boerne, TX 78006, ph. 830-816-5106ABOUT J.R. MOONEY GALLERIES OF FINE ARTJ.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art is a full service Fine Art Retail Gallery, specializing in Texas Vintage, Local & Regional, and Contemporary Art; coupled with a world renowned custom frame shop.J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art was founded in San Antonio, Texas in 1947 by Joe and Adelle Mooney. Emerging as Modern Paint Company in 1947, with the largest selection of professional artist grade art supplies in San Antonio, the Mooney family eventually expanded their business. Modern Paint Company became J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art to showcase local, regional and international artists while diving into custom framing, artist representation and other unique attributes. J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art has an identity reflective of over a half-century existence, becoming custom framing experts and specializing in an array of museum quality art services. J.R. Mooney Galleries is currently providing fine art services at their signature Broadway address in San Antonio and at their Boerne location.J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art has provided framing services for every American President since John Kennedy and every Texas Governor since John Connally. The galleries have also supplied the Vatican, the Royal Palace in Madrid, Queen Beatrix of Holland, as well as major collections and collectors in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia.8302 Broadway St. 305 S. Main StSan Antonio, TX 78209 Boerne, TX 78006(210) 828-8214 (830) 816-5106Gallery Hours: San Antonio  Mon.  Sat. 10 am  6 pm / Boerne  Tues.  Sat. 10 am  5 pmAdmission is open to the public and FREE###J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art is a full service Fine Art Retail Gallery, specializing in Texas Vintage, Local & Regional, and Contemporary Art; coupled with a world renowned custom frame shop.J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art was founded in San Antonio, Texas in 1947 by Joe and Adelle Mooney. Emerging as Modern Paint Company in 1947, with the largest selection of professional artist grade art supplies in San Antonio, the Mooney family eventually expanded their business. Modern Paint Company became J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art to showcase local, regional and international artists while diving into custom framing, artist representation and other unique attributes. J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art has an identity reflective of over a half-century existence, becoming custom framing experts and specializing in an array of museum quality art services. J.R. Mooney Galleries is currently providing fine art services at their signature Broadway address in San Antonio and at their Boerne location. J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art has provided framing services for every American President since John Kennedy and every Texas Governor since John Connally. The galleries have also supplied the Vatican, the Royal Palace in Madrid, Queen Beatrix of Holland, as well as major collections and collectors in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia.JR Mooney Galleries of Fine Art305 S. Main StBoerne, Texas78006Contact:Gabriel Diego Delgadogabrield@jrmooneygalleries.com
The Skinny Years - A new coming-of-age novel by award-winner Raul Ramos y Sanchez

The Skinny Years by Raul Ramos y Sanchez

http://raulramos.com

Beck & Branch Publishers will release The Skinny Years, the fourth novel by award-winning author Raul Ramos y Sanchez in June 2016. The coming-of-age period piece is intended for adult readers. Set in Miami during the turbulent 1960s, The Skinny Years follows the travails of Victor Skinny Delgado.A pudgy eight-year-old in 1959 when the Delgados arrive in the U.S. fleeing the Castro regime in Cuba, Skinnys once-wealthy family moves from a mansion in Havana to a roach-infested bungalow in Miamis low-rent Wynwood district. Over the next ten years the Delgados struggle to survive in this strange new land. Theres only one constant in Skinny's world as he grows from 8 to 18. He longs in vain for the girl of his dreams: his neighbor Janice Bockman who seems everything Americanand everything hes not.Laced with humor, the novels colorful characters provide fresh insights into the cold war, race relations, American traditions, and the youth counter culture of the sixties through the quirky perspective of a Cuban exile family.The Cuban-born Ramos is the author of the acclaimed Class H Trilogy: America Libre, House Divided and Pancho Land from Grand Central Publishing and Beck & Branch Publishers. The author has received multiple awards and recognition including Best Novel  International Latino Book Awards, Violet Crown Fiction Finalist  Writers League of Texas, Books-Into-Movies Award Winner  Latino Literacy Now, USA Today Summer Reads Author, and Book Festival Featured Author - Ohioana Library Association.Some readers will think The Skinny Years is quite a departure from my previous novels, said Ramos. The scope of the story is smaller, to be sure. But I believe the essence of my work remains the same. Id like provide readers with an engaging experience and finish the book feeling that beneath our disparities of culture, color and creed, were alike in many more ways than were different.The Skinny Years will be available in three editions:Hardbound: ISBN 978-0-9854034-9-2Paperback: ISBN 978-0-9972644-1-8eBook: ISBN 978-0-9972644-0-1High resolution images for book cover and author available at:Launched in 2012, the Beck & Branch list of authors and titles is purposefully short, for the firm operates as a collective. Beck & Branch does not accept submissions, and membership in the collective is limited to authors previously printed by a traditional publisher.Margaret LawlerBeck & Branch PublishersPO Box 445  Putney, VT 05346beckandbranch@gmail.com(858) 529-5371
gen2 rfid clear tag for asset tracking systems(gyrfidstore)

RFID Disc Tags are widely used for inventory tracking system or Automatic production systems. The RFID Disc Tag can also work on metal surface with anti-metal layer on it, also can be attached to goods surface by adhesive layer. There are abundant size options from 12mm to 50mm. GYRFID presents several types with different material and size to suitable customers application.DIP Series- PVC Disc Tag, PVC Laminated, thickness of 1.0-1.2mmDIT Series- Clear PVC Disc Tag, clear PVC Laminated, thickness of 1.0-1.2mmFOT Series- Foil Tag, Clear PVC Sealed, Thickness of 0.45-0.7mm.STE series  Epoxy PVC Sticker, the surface covered by epoxy, thickness 2.0mmTKA series- ABS Token, ultrasonic welding ABS type, various size options.TKPPS series  PPS Token, ultrasonic welding, mini size 12mm.Features:Model number: DIP-FMaterial: PVC lamination + Anti-metal layer+ 3M adhesiveDimension: 13/ 14/ 15/ 17/ 18/ 20/ 22 / 25/ 30/ 35/ 40/ 50mm; thickness 1.0-1.2mmColor options: WhiteWater Proof: YesNotes: can be with anti-metal layer and 3M layerPersonalization Support: Silk-screen printing logo Thermal transfer printing Serial Number or UID Barcode printing and QR code printing, Photo printing Laser UID or Number Chip encodingApplication: NFC payments Patrol Guard Systems Logistic management Parcel tracking Inventory Control Automatic production management Asset tracking Device embeddedIC options:125KHz RFID: EM4200, EM4102, EM4100, GK4001; T5577; EM4305; Hitag1, Hitag2, Hitag S256  13.56Mhz ISO14443A: NXP MIFARE Classic 1K, MIFARE Classic 4K, MIFARE Ultralight, MIFARE Ultralight EV1, MIFARE Desfire 2K, MIFARE Desfire 4K, MIFARE Desfire 8K, MIFARE Plus, Fudan FM11RF08; NTAG203, NTAG213, NTAG215, NTAG216; LEGIC MIM256, LEGIC ATC1024, LEGIC ATC2048 13.56Mhz ISO15693: ICODE SLI; ICODE SLI-X; Tag-it 256, Tag-it 2048 840-960Mhz UHF: Alien Higgs, Monza 3, Monza 4D, Monza 4QT; NXP UCODE G2iLGYRFID STORE offers a wide range of products embedded with contact chip and contact-less chip (LF, HF, UHF), and there are some competitive products like ISO CARD, KEYFOB, WRISTBAND, DISC TAG, LAUNDRY TAG. The products are widely applied in access control, payment system, inventory control, asset tracking, and industrial managements.Should any of these items be of interest to you, please let us know. We will be happy to give you a quotation upon receipt of your detailed requirements.ADDRm1516, Qiangjin Building, QiXin Rd No.1318 ,Shanghai, 201100, China
Acrylic Acid Industry Outlook in the UK 2016 Market Share, Research, Review, Demand & Forecast 2022

http://goo.gl/KLELWs

http://goo.gl/arxfws

Acrylic Acid Industry Outlook in the UK to 2019 - Market Size, Company Share, Price Trends, Capacity Forecasts of All Active and Planned PlantsSummary"Acrylic Acid Industry Outlook in the UK to 2019 - Market Size, Price Trends and Trade Balance", provides in-depth coverage of the UKs Acrylic Acid industry and presents major market trends. The report covers historical and forecast market size, demand and production forecasts, end-use demand details, price trends and trade balance data.Get Sample Copy of Report Here :Scope- Acrylic Acid industry market dynamics in the UK from 2005 to 2019, consisting of market size, demand and production outlook, demand by end-use sector, and average prices- Trade balance data from 2005 to 2019, including import and export data and net exports and imports as a percentage of demandDo Enquiry Before Purchasing Here :Reasons to buy- Obtain up-to-date information on the UKs Acrylic Acid industry- Benefit from advanced insights and analysis- Identify the macro and microeconomic trends affecting the industryAbout Us:Energy Market Study is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact Us:Joel JohnDeerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Web: Energy Market StudyEmail: sales@energymarketstudy.com
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry Outlook in Russia 2016 Research Company Share, Market Size, Trends, Demand & Forecast 2022

http://goo.gl/tZHIC9

http://goo.gl/nbhCpp

Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry Outlook in Russia to 2019 - Market Size, Company Share, Price Trends, Capacity Forecasts of All Active and Planned PlantsSummary"Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry Outlook in Russia to 2019 - Market Size, Company Share, Price Trends, Capacity Forecasts of All Active and Planned Plants", provides in-depth coverage of Russia PVC industry and presents major market trends. The report covers Russias PVC plants and presents installed capacity by production process and technology. It also gives historical and forecast market size, demand and production forecasts, end-use demand details, price trends, trade balance data, and company shares of the countrys leading PVC producers to provide comprehensive coverage of all parameters of the PVC industry.Get Sample Copy of Report Here :Scope- PVC industry supply scenario in Russia from 2005 to 2019, comprising plant capacity growth and installed plant capacity by production process and technology- Detailed information of all active plants and planned PVC projects in Russia with capacity forecasts to 2019 and additional details such as production process, technology, operator and equity- PVC industry market dynamics in Russia from 2005 to 2019, consisting of market size, demand and production outlook, demand by end-use sector, and average prices- Trade balance data from 2005 to 2019, including import and export data and net exports and imports as a percentage of demand- Company snapshots, including company overview, business description and information on current and upcoming PVC plants- Company capacity shares for key PVC producersDo Enquiry Before Purchasing Here :Reasons to buy- Obtain up-to-date information on Russias PVC industry- Benefit from advanced insights and analysis- Identify the macro and microeconomic trends affecting the industry- Understand the market positioning of the countrys PVC producers- Learn about opportunities in the PVC industry- Develop market-entry and market-expansion strategies- Benchmark your operations and strategies against those of major companiesAbout Us:Energy Market Study is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact Us:Joel JohnDeerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Web: Energy Market StudyEmail: sales@energymarketstudy.com
Global Transmission and Distribution Report 2016 Market Size, Investments, Trends, Infrastructure, Upcoming Project & Analysis 2022

http://goo.gl/Y2IGw0

http://goo.gl/UCdbR7

Global Transmission and Distribution Report - Infrastructure, Upcoming Projects, Investments, Key Operators and Analysis to 2020SummaryGlobal Transmission and Distribution Report - Infrastructure, Upcoming Projects, Investments, Key Operators and Analysis to 2020 is the latest report from the industry analysis specialists that offers information and a comprehensive understanding of the power industry.The report analyses global transmission and distribution (T&D) market with focus on eight major countries across different regions. Major countries include China, India, Germany, UK, US, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. The report provides insights on power market indicators such as installed capacity, generation, electricity exports and imports, consumption and T&D losses. The study provides key T&D statistics such as line capacity, line length, number of substations and investments. The report provides information on key upcoming transmission projects, interconnection projects, key stakeholders and major government initiatives Key developments, improvement areas, and observations on the market are highlighted in the report.Get Sample Copy of Report Here :Scope- Provides detailed analysis of global transmission and distribution market with a focus on countries from different regions.- Countries covered in the study are China, India, Germany, UK, US, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.- Information on power capacity, generation, electricity exports and imports, losses and consumption are provided for the period 2006 to 2020- Analysis on T&D market with focus on line length, line capacity and number of substations- Highlights key upcoming transmission projects and interconnection projects.- Investment analysis from 2009 to 2020 for transmission lines.- Analytical insights on T&D industry and major government initiativesDo Enquiry Before Purchasing Here :Reasons to buy- Facilitate decision-making based on historical and forecast data for the T&D market- Position you to gain the maximum advantage of the T&D industrys growth potential- Identify key growth and investment opportunities in the global T&D markets- Respond to the business structure, strategy and prospects in the industryAbout Us:Global Market News is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact Us:Joel JohnDeerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Web: Global Market NewsEmail: sales@globalmarketnews.com
Global High-Voltage Direct Current Converter Stations Industry 2016 Share, Market Size, Trends, Price, Demand & Analysis 2022

http://goo.gl/wQuT38

http://goo.gl/wXRGF3

High-Voltage Direct Current Converter Stations, Update 2016 - Global Market Size, Average Pricing and Equipment Market Share to 2020Summary"High-Voltage Direct Current Converter Stations, Update 2016 - Global Market Size, Average Pricing and Equipment Market Share to 2020" is the latest report from the industry analysis specialists.The report analyzes the global High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) converter station market, with a focus on 10 major countries across different regions: China, India, Germany, the UK, Sweden, Norway, the US, Canada, Brazil and South Africa.The report provides an overview of the HVDC transmission market for each of the countries analyzed, and presents insights on key indicators such as transmission length (2009-2020) and capacity (2009-2020). The study also provides key statistics such as annual capacity additions (2009-2020), average price (2009-2020) and market size (2009-2020). Additionally, information is provided on share of major market players (2009-2014) and key upcoming HVDC converter station projects, in the countries covered in the report.Get Sample Copy of Report Here :Scope- Provides detailed analysis of the global HVDC converter station market, with a focus on countries from different regions; countries included in the study are China, India, Germany, the UK, Norway, Sweden, the US, Canada, Brazil and South Africa- Analysis of the HVDC converter station market at a global level and for the key countries covered- Historical and forecast data for the global solar PV market from 2009 to 2020- Transmission line length and capacity for the countries covered- Analysis of annual capacity additions, price, and market size for HVDC converter stations- Share of major companies for HVDC converter stations and key upcoming HVDC projectsDo Enquiry Before Purchasing Here :Reasons to buy- Facilitate decision-making based on strong historical and forecast data for the HVDC converter station market- Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage from the HVDC converter station markets growth potential- Identify key growth and investment opportunities in the global HVDC market- Identify key partners and business development avenues based on an understanding of key market issues- Respond to competitors business structure, strategy, and prospectsAbout Us:Global Market News is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact Us:Joel JohnDeerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Web: Global Market NewsEmail: sales@globalmarketnews.com
Worldwide Prevalence of Cancer to Fuel Global Companion Diagnostics Market

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=387

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/companion-diagnostics-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

A new Transparency Market Research report states that the global companion diagnostics market stood at US$1.8 bn in 2013 and is predicted to reach US$5.6 bn by 2019. It is predicted to expand at a whopping CAGR of 18.0% between 2013 and 2019. The title of the report is Companion Diagnostics Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 - 2019.As per the report, the increasing demand for personalized medicines is the key factor fuelling the growth of the market for companion diagnostics. In addition, the rising occurrence of cancer globally and the reducing costs of drug development are also augmenting the growth of the market.Download Research Brochure:Factors such as the rising focus on targeted therapies and the focus of pharmaceutical companies on the in-house advancement of companion diagnostics are also augmenting the growth of the market. Furthermore, the increasing new indication areas have emerged as a key opportunity in the market.On the other hand, the increasing duration of the approval process and the prolonged development time of companion diagnostics may impede the growth of the market in forthcoming years. The unfavorable reimbursement scenario globally may also have a negative impact on the growth of the market in the coming years, as stated in this report.Companion diagnostics are various procedures or tests utilized by healthcare professionals in making enhanced treatment decisions for patients as per the patients response to particular ongoing treatments. Companion diagnostics aid a health care professional to determine the effects of a specific therapeutic product on patients and any potential risks or side effects associated with its usage. The healthcare professional then adjusts his treatment to achieve enhanced effectiveness and safety.On the basis of indication, the report segments the companion diagnostics market into lung cancer, breast cancer, gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, melanoma, and others including HIV and thalassemia. Amongst these, in 2012, the segment of breast cancer led the market on the basis of revenue. However, in forthcoming years, the segment of lung cancer will dominate the market, expanding at a CAGR of more than 20% between 2013 and 2019. This is owing to the discovery of myriad relevant companion diagnostics as well as the discovery of lung-cancer-specific biomarkers.Get a Research Paper:In terms of geography, the report segments the market into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). Amongst these, in 2012, the market for companion diagnostics was dominated by the region of North America and this region held a share of over 35% in the market on the basis of revenue. This is because of the increasing consumer base due to the increasing count of cancer patients, rising affordability, increasing awareness about personalized healthcare, and the presence of sophisticated medical equipment in this region. On the other hand, the increased adoption of innovative medical procedures, the rising disposable incomes of consumers, and the rising healthcare infrastructure will also fuel the Latin America and Asia Pacific companion diagnostics markets.According to the study, the chief players operating in the market are Roche Holdings AG, Qiagen N.V., Agilent Technologies, Inc., Agendia N.V., Abbott Laboratories, Genomic Health, Inc., GE Healthcare Ltd., and Life Technologies Corporation, among others.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Simply Great: The Straightforward ES05 Valve Series Sets New Standards in Pneumatics

A modular principle: Components of ES05 Essential Valve System

www.aventics.com

World premiere of the new product from Aventics at the Hannover Fair 2016With the launch of the new ES05 Essential Valve System series, Aventics now offers a clever, economic and user-friendly solution for applications with standard requirements in industrial automation. Designed specifically to reduce the number of components, assembly is completed with one single tool, making life easier for distributors, machine manufacturers and system integrators with the added benefit of reducing the risk of faults.Laatzen (Germany), April 18, 2016  Providing tailored, cost-effective solutions for customers standard requirements is the approach pursued by Aventics with the newly developed Essential Valve System series. Paul Cleaver, chief executive officer at Aventics, explains what led to this development: Our customers asked for a simple, components reduced, flexible, and efficient standard valve  tailored to their application. The new series therefore focuses on ease of handling for distributors, machine manufacturers and system integrators. They configure their customized solution online from a set number of readily available components. Assembling a valve system has never been faster or easier, explains Paul Cleaver.Aventics opted for a modular system for the ES05. Orders are supplied as complete assembly kits. All components are unique which makes incorrect installation virtually impossible and only one tool is required for the job. All fittings are of the same type and tightened with the same torque, which further simplifies assembly and prevents errors. The portfolio also includes the Essential Test Box. With this test box the correct function and leak-tightness of the valves can be tested, before installing the valve systems. This is particularly useful for volume users and Aventics distributors.The valves come in a robust housing made of high-performance polymers and are especially stable and compact. Users connect the end and base plates and can extend the system in pairs up to twelve single or double solenoid valves. The valves are controlled via single wiring with a type CI plug according to ISO 15217, a D-Sub connection with 25 pins, with AES valve electronics from Aventics, or an integrated IO-Link interface. AES supports all common fieldbus and Ethernet protocols. If necessary, the pilot coils can also be turned at a later stage to realize mixed connection configurations. With a switching time of under 35 milliseconds for all valve functions, highly dynamic action is guaranteed for short cycles. With single wiring, the ES05 complies with protection class IP65, so the valve system can also be installed in decentral locations, even in environments exposed to splash water. All other connection types comply with protection class IP50.ENDAventics is one of the worlds leading manufacturers of pneumatic components, systems, and special applications. The company provides tailored solutions and services for the sectors of industrial automation, commercial vehicles, food and beverage, railway technology, life sciences, energy, and marine technology. By integrating electronics, the use of innovative materials and prioritizing machine safety, the pneumatic engineering company is a pioneer in intelligent and easy-to-use technology.With over 150 years of expertise in pneumatics, Aventics employs around 2,100 associates worldwide. In addition to production sites in Germany (Laatzen), France (Bonneville), Hungary (Eger), USA (Lexington), and China (Changzhou), Aventics is represented in 50 countries. The Aventics Group has received multiple certifications, including ISO 9001 and ISO/TS 16949 for quality, ISO 50001 for energy management, and ISO 14001 for environmental management. Further information is available atAVENTICS GmbHUlmer Str. 430880 LaatzenGermanyMeike Muller-Wiegand+49 511 2136-862press@aventics.com
Wave and Tidal Energy Market: Growing Market Shares, Strategies, And Forecasts, Worldwide

http://www.mrrse.com/wave-tidal-energy-market

http://www.mrrse.com/wave-tidal-energy-market/toc

http://www.mrrse.com/sample/540

Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has added a new report to its repository. The report, titled Wave and Tidal Energy Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020, offers an in-depth study of the global wave and tidal energy market and forecasts the growth of the market during the period between 2014 and 2020. The report analyzes the entire value chain of the market and studies the upstream and downstream components. It further studies the market on the basis of types and regions. Profiles of some of the key players in the global wave and tidal energy market have been included in the report.Browse the full Global Wave and Tidal Energy Market ReportAbundance of ocean surface and significant potential of generating power through wave and tidal energy have propelled the growth of the global wave and tidal energy market. Venture capital funding and government grant schemes have further boosted the markets growth. However, the technology in the wave and tidal energy market is still developing and will take time to develop in the coming years. Higher costs of installation will also restrain the overall market.Read Full Table of Content @Wave and tidal power plant technologies are likely to witness significant changes during the period between 2013 and 2020. The technology is still at the nascent stage for both wave and tidal energy. This leaves a huge scope for the new entrants in the market to introduce new and advanced technologies. Detailed analysis of cost breakdown of both wave and tidal energy plants has been provided in the report. Cost projections of individual cost components have been included, supported by qualitative analysis.The report studies the global wave and tidal energy market across three key regions: Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific. In North America, the U.S. and Canada are the major markets for wave and tidal energy. Australia, South Korea, and China are the key economies contributing towards the growth of the wave and tidal energy market in Asia Pacific. The report projects the installed capacity and investments in the wave and tidal energy sector across each of the regions. Country-wise information about wave and tidal energy projects has been also included in the report.To Get Free Sample Copy Of Global Wave and Tidal Energy MarketDescribing the competitive landscape, the report profiles some of the key players in the global wave and tidal energy market such as Carnegie Wave Energy, Aquamarine Power Ltd., Marine Current Turbines Ltd., Ocean Renewable Power Company LLC, Ocean Power Technologies Inc., Tenax Energy, Aquagen Technologies, Pelamis Wave Power, S.D.E. Energy Ltd., and Atlantis Resources Ltd. The report provides insightful information about the players including their product portfolio, financial overview, and business strategy. Through SWOT analysis, the report points out the key growth opportunities for the market players.MRRSE stands for Market Research Reports Search Engine, the largest online catalog of latest market research reports based on industries, companies, and countries. MRRSE sources thousands of industry reports, market statistics, and company profiles from trusted entities and makes them available at a click. Besides well-known private publishers, the reports featured on MRRSE typically come from national statistics agencies, investment agencies, leading media houses, trade unions, governments, and embassies.Mr.Nachiket GhumareCorporate OfficeState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@mrrse.com
The Military and Civil Aviation Passive Radar Market 2016 Industry Analysis, Growth, Size, Shares And Forecasts to 2023

http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/the-military-and-civil-aviation-passive-radar-market-778

http://goo.gl/8BO1Ky

http://www.marketresearchstore.com/

Passive radar is different from traditional forms of radar in that it does not emit any electromagnetic radiation. Instead, it relies on reflections from other electromagnetic signals in the atmosphere in order to provide a radar picture. Passive radar provides a number of distinct advantages that will allow it to corner a significant portion of defense, homeland security, and civilian radar markets. In addition to cost-efficiency, passive radar is also covert, an effective counter to stealth technologies, and environmentally friendly.Visit Complete Report @The market for passive radar is still in its infancy, and few companies have developed effective, marketable systems. However, as the technology becomes more sophisticated and affordable, more and more competitors can be expected to enter the market, particularly in defense and homeland security.By the end of 2023, we expect passive radar technology investments to account of more than $10 billion in revenue, following a CAGR of nearly 36% between 2013 and 2023. This report focuses on the two markets where passive radar technology has the greatest potential: civilian aviation and military radar applications.Do Inquiry For Report Sample @The report presents vendor strategies, overall depictions of potential growth in both sectors, as well as detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of global and regional drivers and limitations on market potential from 2013 till 2023.About Market Research StoreMarket Research Store is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact UsJoel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United StatesTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651Email: sales@marketresearchstore.comWeb:
Neem Extract Market : Global Industry Size, Growth, Share, Analysis and Forecast 2022  Brisk Insights

http://www.briskinsights.com/report/global-neem-extract-market-forecast-2015-2022

http://www.briskinsights.com/category/consumer-trends-industry

http://www.briskinsights.com/

According to a recently published report, the Global Neem Extract Market is expected to grow at the CAGR of 16.1% during 2015-2022 and it estimated to be $1.37 billion by 2022. The global Neem extract market is segmented on the basis of segment, applications and geography. The report on global Neem extract market forecast 2015-2022 provides detailed overview and predictive analysis of the market.Global Neem extracts market is expected to reach a good high by 2020. Rising significance of bio fertilizers in developed regions including North America and Europe because of stringent government rules on the usage of chemical fertilizers is more likely to raise Neem extracts market over the forecast period. Moreover, Neem extracts are extensively used within the manufacture of excessive high quality natural cosmetics and beauty merchandise. Demand for these products is growing globally as a result of their efficiency and less harmful effects which are expected to influence demand of Neem extracts products.Browse Full Report with Toc :Growing demand for bio pesticides and bio pesticides is more likely to pressure Neem extracts market over the future. High response from buyers on the use of chemical fertilizers owing to environmental and health considerations is anticipated to drive the Neem extracts market specifically in Europe and North the United States. Furthermore, bio fertilizer market in rising developing economies including India, China and Brazil is expected to enhance Neem extracts market over the forecast period. However, changing climatic conditions and high prices are predicted to restrain Neem extracts market development.The major players profiled in the report include E.I.D-Parry (India) Limited, Neeming Australia Pty Ltd, Agro Extracts Limited ,Ozone Biotech, PJ MARGO PVT. LTD, FORTUNE BIOTECH LTD., GRAMIN INDIA AGRI BUSINEST, GREENEEM AGRI (P) LTD, PARKER BIOTECH PRIVATE LIMITED, the Indian Neem Tree Company. Innovation and R&D are the key winning strategy of the market.Browse here for all category Reports :SCOPE OF THE REPORT1. Global Neem Extracts Market by application 2012-20221.1. Global Neem extract for Pharmaceuticals market 2012-2022 ($ billion)1.2. Global Neem extract for personal care market 2012-2022 ($ billion)1.3. Global Neem extract for chemicals and fertilizers market 2012-2022 ($ billion)1.4. Global Neem extract for animal feed market 2012-2022 ($ billion)1.5. Global Neem extract for others market 2012-2022 ($ billion)2. Global Neem Extracts market by segment 2012 & 20222.1. Global Neem extract for seed extract market by type 2012-2022 ($ billion)2.2. Global Neem extract for leaf extract market 2012-2022 ($ billion)2.3. Global Neem extract for bark extract market 2012-2022 ($ billion)3. Global Neem Extracts market regional outlook 2012-2022 ($ billion)3.1. North America3.2. Europe3.3. Asia Pacific3.4. Middle East & Africa3.5. Central & South America4. Competitive Landscape4.1. E.I.D-Parry (India) Ltd4.2. Neeming Australia Pty Ltd.4.3. Agro Extracts Limited4.4. Ozone Biotech4.5. Pj Margo Pvt. Ltd4.6. Fortune Biotech Ltd.4.7. Gramin India Agri Businest4.8. Greeneem Agri (P) Ltd.4.9. Parker Biotech Private Ltd.4.10. The Indian Neem Tree Company4.11. Bros India Group4.12. Prithvi Exports4.13. Kancor Flavors and Extracts4.14. Neem Indeneed Corporation4.15. Mother Herbs Pvt LTD.4.16. Neem Aura Naturals4.17. Organic Neem4.18. Neemco LTD.4.19. Neem Genie4.20. Vanashree AgrotechContact Us :Jennifer SmithOffice 1094109 Vernon HouseFriar LaneNottinghamNG1 6DQPhone : +448081890034 (UK)Website :About Us :Brisk Insights is a global market research firm. Our insightful analysis is focused on developed and emerging markets. We identify trends and forecast markets with a view to aid businesses identify market opportunities optimize strategies.Working in a highly dynamic and multi-dimensional business makes decision making complex. Effective business decisions are a result of the synthesis of market information. Our Research and data analysis is an efficient and cost-effective way of providing robust market analysis and can yield highly valuable intelligence relating to consumers, competitors and markets.Office 1094109 Vernon HouseFriar LaneNottingham
Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market : Global Industry Analysis, Industry Outlook and Market Forecast 2016-2022

http://www.acutemarketreports.com/report/adhesives-&-sealants-joining-and-fastening-market

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This new market research report forecasts on Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market providing complete market figures, consisting market size and estimation by Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market application and products depending upon geographical location for the forecasting period 2012 to 2022. Further, the Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market research report study also encompasses complete industry background, with Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market drivers, competitive market dynamics, market restraints, market growth opportunities, industry challenges and critical success factors (CSFs). The Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market research report examines top industry competitors, offering organization market share analysis and detailed outlines of these firms, with product benchmarking.Browse Here For Full Report with ToC:Reasons to Buy This Report :Explore global Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market growth rate, market size and projection to 2022Key market constraints and drivers of global Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening MarketChallenges to market growth of global Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market industryMajor prospects in the Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening MarketIn-Depth regional evaluations by application ( Europe, North America APAC and Rest of the World) of global Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market businessCompetitive background, with Adhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market firm market share and detailed overviews/ summaries of major industry/business competitorsClick Here For Same Category Reports :Executive OutlineGlobal Market Estimate and Forecast, 2012 - 2022 (USD Million)Research Methodology, Importance and SourcesAdhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market Industry PositionMarket Size and Growth ProjectionsAdhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market DynamicsMarket Growth DriversMarket InhibitorsAdhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market Key ProspectsAdhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market Porter's Five Forces AnalysisAdhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market Scenario Analysis/ Environmental ScanningAdhesives & Sealants/Joining and Fastening Market Share AnalysisContact Us :Chris PaulOffice No 01, 1st Floor,Aditi Mall, Baner,Pune, MH, 411045 IndiaUS/CANADA Toll Free: +1-855-455-8662India: +91 7755981103sales@acutemarketreports.comWebsite :About Us :Acute Market Reports is the most sufficient collection of market intelligence services online. It is your only source that can fulfill all your market research requirements. We provide online reports from over 100 best publishers and upgrade our collection regularly to offer you direct online access to the worlds most comprehensive and recent database with expert perceptions on worldwide industries, products, establishments and trends. Our database consists of 200,000+ market research reports with detailed & minute market research.Office No 01, 1st Floor,Aditi Mall, Baner, Pune,
Global Head and Neck Cancer Market is expected to grow high during the forecast period 2015-2020

www.marketintelreports.com

This report provides comprehensive information on the therapeutic development for Head And Neck Cancer Market, complete with comparative analysis at various stages, therapeutics assessment by drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type, along with latest updates, and featured news and press releases. It also reviews key players involved in the therapeutic development for Head And Neck Cancer and special features on late-stage and discontinued projects.Report features investigational drugs from across globe covering over 20 therapy areas and nearly 3,000 indications. The report is built using data and information sourced from MarketIntelReports proprietary databases, Company/University websites, SEC filings, investor presentations and featured press releases from company/university sites and industry-specific third party sources, put together by MarketIntelReports team. Drug profiles/records featured in the report undergoes periodic updation following a stringent set of processes that ensures that all the profiles are updated with the latest set of information. Additionally, processes including live news & deals tracking, browser based alert-box and clinical trials registries tracking ensure that the most recent developments are captured on a real time basis.The report enhances decision making capabilities and help to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage. It strengthens R&D pipelines by identifying new targets and MOAs to produce first-in-class and best-in-class products.Note*: Certain sections in the report may be removed or altered based on the availability and relevance of data for the indicated disease.ScopeThe report provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Head And Neck Cancer MarketThe report reviews key pipeline products under drug profile section which includes, product description, MoA and R&D brief, licensing and collaboration details & other developmental activitiesThe report reviews key players involved in the therapeutics development for Head And Neck Cancer and enlists all their major and minor projectsThe report summarizes all the dormant and discontinued pipeline projectsA review of the Head And Neck Cancer products under development by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sourcesPipeline products coverage based on various stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stagesA detailed assessment of monotherapy and combination therapy pipeline projectsCoverage of the Head And Neck Cancer pipeline on the basis of target, MoA, route of administration and molecule typeLatest news and deals relating related to pipeline productsReasons to buyProvides strategically significant competitor information, analysis, and insights to formulate effective R&D development strategiesIdentify emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantageDevelop strategic initiatives by understanding the focus areas of leading companiesIdentify and understand important and diverse types of therapeutics under development for Head And Neck Cancer MarketPlan mergers and acquisitions effectively by identifying key players of the most promising pipelineDevise corrective measures for pipeline projects by understanding Head And Neck Cancer pipeline depth and focus of Indication therapeuticsDevelop and design in-licensing and out-licensing strategies by identifying prospective partners with the most attractive projects to enhance and expand business potential and scopeModify the therapeutic portfolio by identifying discontinued projects and understanding the factors that drove them from pipelineContact us:Mayur SSales Manager2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400,Wilmington,Delaware,19808United StatesTelephone: 1-302-684-6088About us:MarketIntelReports (MIR) aim to empower our clients to successfully manage and outperform in their business decisions, we do this by providing Premium Market Intelligence, Strategic Insights and Databases from a range of Global Publishers.A group of industry veterans who are well experienced in reputed international consulting firms after identifying the sourcing needs of MNCs for market intelligence, have together started this business savior MarketIntelReports.MIR intends to be a one-stop shop with an intuitive design, exhaustive database, expert assistance, secure cart checkout and data privacy integrated. It curates the list of reports, publishers and studies to ensure that the database is constantly updated to dynamically meet the targeted, specific needs of our clients.MarketIntelReports currently has more than 10,000 plus titles and 35+ publishers on our platform and growing consistently to fill the Global Intelligence Demand  Supply Gap. We cover more than 15 industry verticals being: Automotive, Electronics, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Chemicals, Building & Construction, Agriculture, Food & Beverages, Banking & Finance, Media and Government, Public Sector Studies.2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400
Grant Handzlik, official announcement as candidate for Governor of California 2018

Official Grant Handzlik Promotional Material

www.granthandzlik.com

Addressing Californias Critical Issues from a different angle, with plans to take political control and give it back to the people. From Long Beach California, April 18th, 2016.Grant Handzlik is not a politician, he is a normal person that is running because he feels he needs to.My first order of business is to take a pay cut, $174,000 a year is a bit much for an elected official. If elected I will be taking $50,000 out of the allotted salary each year and donating $10,000 to each (5) of my favorite legitimate charities here in California. List available at granthandzlik.comBorn and raised native to California, Handzlik grew up surfing and diving off the coast of Southern California. As a juvenile and young adult, making the long hard climb out of a difficult life changing experience, enlightened him to a greater purpose, and the challenges that affect us all as a community.Handzlik has a Bachelor of Science in International Affairs at Florida State University, an Advanced Technical Degree from Santa Barbara City College, and has worked as a Union Journeyman. Handzlik speaks, reads, and writes Spanish with native proficiency and a first hand understanding of Latino culture and values. In addition, Handzlik worked and lived in Panama City, Panama as an executive at senior management level, for international corporations.Its time for a big change in our government; how popular opinion is reflected in decision making, transparency on all fronts, and responsible / accountable legislature to benefit the majority not a small part.Real experience and education have offered a unique and intimate understanding of the problems of our Society and State. I understand the issues that affect all classes of people, and have a special understanding of the important Latino, and Immigrant population of our State.Through life's trials, international experience, and human interaction, Grant has attained the experience and knowledge needed to carry the State of California in a new, transparent, and positive direction.Join us in the battle to unlock government and take it back for the people.Go toto read more about Handzlik, his plans for office, and his understanding of the states critical issues.Handzlik for Governor 2018515 S Flower Street Floor 36 Los Angeles, CA 90071Campaign ManagerCraig Barkovsky310 978 7195craig@granthandzlik.com
Nicotine and Alcohol Addiction Treatments Comprise Over 50% of the Substance Abuse Treatment Pipeline Worldwide: The substance abuse treatment pipeline is dominated by therapies for nicotine and alcohol addiction, with the 34 and 32 products in respective active development combining to produce over 50% of the total pipeline. Despite this, there are several promising candidates in development targeting a range of other indications including opioid and cocaine addiction, according to business intelligence provider GBI Research.



The companys latest Pharma report states that various new approaches currently under investigation will see novel and first-in-class treatments, including vaccines, redefine the current arena.



Request sample: https://marketreportscenter.com/reports/159174/substance-abuse-deterrents-and-treatments



A growing treatment pipeline and continued research and investment in this field reflects the fact that current therapies for those suffering from various drug addictions remain insufficient. More than 27 million people worldwide are currently classified as problem drug users under the Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes guidelines. Of these, only one in six has access to therapy while many countries still have no adequate services for treating substance abuse.



Rodrigo Gutierrez Gamboa, Managing Analyst for GBI Research, explains: One of the main reasons why substance abuse remains high and is so difficult to treat is that there is not yet a complete understanding of the various aspects encompassing this global issue.



Several molecular targets have been identified and have furthered drug development, but there are various other targets that are not clearly understood. The poor understanding of the brain mechanisms of addiction represents a significant challenge in terms of developing a highly effective drug, or combination drugs, for treating addiction.



Currently, there are 242 companies marketing therapies for substance abuse, and more of these are involved in marketing treatments for alcohol addiction than any other kind. One in every 12 adults suffers from alcohol abuse or dependence in the US, which illustrates the level of demand for these therapies.



Gutierrez Gamboa continues: The competitive landscape is comprised of both large pharmaceutical companies and specialized companies focusing solely on developing substance abuse treatments, with the top eight companies comprising Teva, Allergan, Mylan, Sun Pharma, Sanofi, Psyco Remedies, Rusan Pharma, and Aspen Pharmacare.



Despite the current market focused so heavily on alcohol abuse, there are significant numbers of products in development for the treatment of other addictions and associated withdrawal syndromes. Emerging product segments include cocaine and opioid addictions, with 26 and 21 pipeline drugs, respectively, while the cannabinoids and methamphetamine treatment segments also have several promising drugs in active development.



Substance Abuse Deterrents and Treatments - An Assessment of the Technological, Competitive and R&D Landscape



This report provides analysis of the substance abuse treatment pipeline, stratified by stage of development and molecule type. It includes information on the current clinical and commercial landscape, and the composition of the substance abuse therapeutics market in terms of dominant molecule types and targets, as well as highlighting current unmet needs.



This report was built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, primary and secondary research, and in-house analysis conducted by GBI Researchs team of industry experts.



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The next generation of Aggregators

https://www.awksolutions.com

In recent years, e-commerce merchants have experienced a considerable increase in traffic and flourishing sales as a result of listing their products on comparison shopping engines.Comparison shopping engines (CSEs) allow online retailers to directly compete with similar merchants on a single results pages.These engines do this by amassing high quality product information from vendors, usually through a merchant uploaded data feed, in order to produce comparison listings of the most relevant and competitive products for potential customers searching on their websites. According to Consumer Futures, there is tremendous potential for rapid growth in traffic and sales when merchants list their products on CSEs.Clients who advertised on some of these other CSEs this year (Q1-Q3) saw, on average, an additional 37% increase in conversions and 46% increase in revenue from what could have been achieved by Google Shopping earnings alone. These numbers are only expected to rise in Q4 begins.The additional growth in traffic and revenue experienced by merchants on CSEs has also continued to grow year over year. A major reason for this is because a lot of savvy CSEs have integrated their service with some of the most powerful e-commerce venues.When it comes to promotion on price comparison websites, a.k.a. price comparison script, theres a strong shift to be confined on Google and Amazon based Ads. Those are the 2 undisputed leaders that get the most attention and they are really good at it. But theres huge potential, still untapped with what other online comparison portals can do for your business.In order to tap into the maximum potential of CSEs, AWK Solutions () is in the process of releasing a new dimensional online comparison script, where the website, hybrid & intelligent comparison algorithm will provide the best suggestion to the user, based on the inputs that the user provides to the website. It is not just about price or features, but also the present and probable futurist factors (both external & internal), that will have an impact on the user's buying and requirement behavior. Based on quite a few complicated factors, users will be provided, with the best available options, against the requirement, for which the user wants a comparison, or advice, to be precise.AWK Solutions is an India-based development and consulting company that primarily focus on new dimensional enhancements in the field of deal aggregator, cashback industry and online comparison algorithm development. Currently serving around 30+ global clients, exclusively in the field of cashback and online comparison based developments. Be it deals, coupons, cashback related solutions or online comparison of price, features, reviews or any other niche product or service related comparison, their solutions and development are perhaps the best in the segment. Headquartered in Durgapur, West Bengal, AWK Solutions had delivered some of the best solutions in this new dimensional segment and have gained good popularity. Some popular vendors, who provides exclusive integration to all the solutions, developed by AWK Solutions, include Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong, Payoom, and Commission Junction8/24 J.N Das Path, Kabiguru, Durgapur, West Bengal 713216
Energy crisis is an emerging issue and the world is struggling to find a suitable environment-friendly energy option for its denizens. The global energy market is expanding rapidly. The soaring demand for energy is presently greeted with the help of fossil fuel. Industry experts believe that the demand in the energy market will grow manifold in the forthcoming years. There is an urgent need of an alternate source of environment-friendly 
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Im excited to launch a national discussion with the American public about the work of The HSUS to address the real costs of cruelty and the great benefits of kindness, with the official launch tonight of The Humane Economy: How Innovators and Enlightened Consumers Are Transforming the Lives of Animals (the on-sale date for bookstores is tomorrow). Tonight, at 7 p.m, we will live-stream my book event at Politics & Prose with U.S. Senator Cory Booker and Washington Post award-winning columnist Kathleen Parker. Tomorrow, Ill head to Philadelphia and to Clinton, N.J., and then on to an event with New York Times columnist Mark Bittman on Wednesday evening at the Barnes & Noble in New York City. After that, I will travel to Connecticut and Boston, where, a week from today, Ill be doing an event with Michael Pollan, a remarkable writer and one of the leaders of the food movement. From there I head west for a series of other events across the country.

Already, Kathleen Parker wrote about The Humane Economy, as did the Washington Examiners first-rate columnist Paul Bedard. Ive also done a number of interviews, including with Kathy Blackwell of Niche Media (Philadelphia Style, Ocean Drive, and 10 other publications) that features a discussion between me and Whole Foods Market co-founder and co-CEO John Mackey. As youll see from these pieces, I argue that we are at a turning point in our relationship with animals, and when we look at animal issues through an economic lens, theres a more compelling argument than ever to do right by animals. Businesses with animal cruelty baked into the business model face enormous risks, and those that embrace animal protection sensibilities position themselves for success and for the future.

Well be announcing a national town hall meeting soon with Martha Stewart, and Im speaking to staff members at so many of Americas major companies. I recently spoke to the staff at PetSmart in Arizona, and Ill be paying visits to some of the biggest food companies in America and also talking to banks and other businesses within the financial services sector, because they, too, are increasingly playing a big part in the emerging humane economy. Ive got so many exciting media appearances, and you can check my Facebook page for upcoming media appearances, so you can tune in. Ill be tweeting from the road too. You can also join our HeadTalker campaign if youd like to help spread the word on social media.

Embracing animal protection is no longer a burden or a sacrifice. Its an opportunity for us as individuals to grow and to be empowered, and for businesses to grow and to connect with consumers.

As I say in the book, for those companies not embracing the humane economy, get a new business plan or get out of the way.

The humane economy is turning out to be an unstoppable force. But to make it hum, well need your engagement and commitment. Yes, there are still so many problems in our treatment of other creatures, and they face so many threats, but we are winning the battle of ideas and convincing the overwhelming mass of consumers that animal protection is a core value in our society. But change this big is not self-executing  it requires our full attention and focus.

The Humane Economy recounts so much progress weve made in so many different sectors of the economy, and forecasts where we go from here. We are taking measurable steps forward, and far from resting on our laurels, its time for us to pick up the pace. Hope to see you tonight and at other stops on the Humane Economy national tour.

Watch a live-stream of tonights event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhneA1BwwJQ

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In the Midland community, as well as around the world, an army of faceless voices helps connect the pieces and share information behind the scenes of disasters. These same voices make friends all over the planet, and share their knowledge and love of their craft with the next generation.

Who are they? Amateur radio operators, known in many circles as hams.

We supply back-up services for most of the community service providers, said Lee Hodges, Midland resident and long-time amateur radio operator.

Known for years as ham radio, some sources say the term was created as a pejorative, attempting to separate amateur radio people from what was considered a professional trade. These days, most people know the term to mean someone who likes to work with amateur radio and the world that surrounds it. Midland County is home to about 230 amateur radio stations, with more than 22,000 in the state of Michigan.

Hodges said amateur radio has become so much more than the image of people hiding in basements and using large, old school radio equipment.

Weve kept up with technologies, Hodges said. These days, operators can get into the hobby relatively inexpensively with solid state (non-vacuum tube radios) that allow more reliability and often transportability. Gone are the days of super expensive, often hand-built equipment that would take over a workbench.

These days, amateur radio operators, or hams, can communicate the old-fashioned way by broadcast, but also use more advanced methods such as satellites to carry their messages around the world. If a person has the right equipment, he or she can send voice messages, or texts or even images.

After a person receives his or her license, a call sign will be issued.

Once you get that call sign, that will be the only one of its kind in the world, Hodges said. His call sign is KC8ITI.

One of the many positives of using amateur radio is the closer controls on language and broadcasting rules, Hodges said.

We are self-policing, he said. We have no qualms about e-mailing or picking up the phone to the FCC. We realize it is a privilege. Because of this, Hodges said amateur radio is extremely family friendly, and people of all ages can get their licenses and enjoy their time with little trouble from other operators.

With that in mind, Hodges said even young people can participate in the hobby.

My granddaughter Tiffany lives in Cadillac and she has her license, the proud grandpa said. She was licensed before 10 years old. He said they schedule times to talk over the radio together.

When asked what his wife thinks of his hobby, Hodges had the perfect response.

Shes licensed, too, he said, laughing.

He explained that by using hand-held amateur radios, he and his wife can stay in contact while they travel separately.

We dont really rely on cell phones, he said.

Hodges said the testing is not difficult. The test consists of 35 multiple choice questions. If a person can complete two more rounds of testing, they will gain access to more VHF/UHF amateur bands and some access to shortwave bands.

As of 2007, amateur radio operators are no longer required to learn Morse code, although Hodges thinks it is still a viable means of communication among operators. He said that with some exceptions, it can serve as a universal language among amateur radio operators around the globe.

Some of the words are different, but you can figure out what people are saying, he said.

Hodges explained that aside from talking to people all over the world, amateur radio operators are almost always on the forefront of communication during local and national disasters, and can circumvent problems that can cripple other modes of instant communication.

Right now if you have an emergency, everyone grabs a cell phone, and that jams the system, he said. He described one exercise he participated in that took place in the Saginaw area. He said the scenario entailed a terrorist bomb detonating, and first responders hit the site to render aid. As the scenario unfolded, a second bomb detonated, planted to take out the emergency crews. It was revealed that cell phone signals detonated the second fictional bomb, causing all in attendance to abandon their phones in case of other traps. As a result, the amateur radio operators in attendance used their portable radios to continue safe communications with hospitals and other services.

Hodges also is part of a local, high school ham group in Midland designed for high school aged hobbyists. Sponsored by the Midland Amateur Radio Club, the Electronics and Wireless Communications Club is open to all high school students in Midland County. The club meets on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. during the school year at Midland High School. Kids in the club have launched weather balloons with amateur radio equipment and miniaturized cameras aboard, and have learned more about the field through other experiments and hands-on radio work.

With amateur radio, as with many hobbies, there are many sub-interests in the field to satisfy most users. Aside from using the radios to communicate either with friends or back up local emergency services, some people like to run the latest gear, while others like to work on older technologies.

This hobby is so diverse, he said. He explained that for some users, they like to tinker with the older style of radios, while others like to run the latest gear. Hodges said a big part of the hobby for him is building and maintaining radios from different eras, but unlike other broadcast hobbies, amateur radio has another benefit.

Amateur radio is one of the few radio hobbies where we are allowed to fix and build our own equipment, he said.

Hodges has been licensed for almost 20 years, but he said his love of radios, and many things electronic, began at an early age.

I was the family TV repairman when I was a teenager, he said.

Unlike a lot of curious young people who take things apart to see how they work, Hodges was able to actually reassemble the items back in to working order. These days, he said he still likes to tinker with electronics. As for his time spent on the airwaves, Hodges said he isnt on as much as he used to be.

I spend more time on the bench building and experimenting with things than I do on the air, he said, laughing.

But when he wants to talk with friends, he can set up a schedule or just turn his system on to see who is listening.

Its a lot like fishing, he said. You never know who is out there.

Hodges said there is usually one interesting group of hams in an interesting place.

There are actually amateur radio operators on the International Space Station, Hodges said. Astronauts use amateur radio equipment aboard the space station to talk with people all over the world, many of them students.

Aside from the tech side of the multi-faceted interest, Hodges has made friends both home and abroad, one of the best reasons to become a ham.

We are keeping a lot of the amateur radio spirit alive, he said. I have friends that I have never seen.

For more information about the class (information on page F1) reach out to Hodges at kc8iti@arrl.net.

Midland Amateur Radio Club is offering an Amateur Radio Technician License class that begins April 25. The class will meet for seven weeks on Mondays and Thursdays in Room 321 at Midland High School. The classes start at 7 p.m., and will run for about two hours. There is no cost for the class, but participants must purchase The ARPL Ham Radio License Manual Third Edition, which costs $25 when bought through the class.
Paul A. Hebert

NEW YORK (AP)  Along with prepping a reunion tour with Guns N' Roses, Axl Rose is joining AC/DC on the road.

AC/DC announced Saturday that Rose will replace Brian Johnson on its Rock or Bust World Tour beginning May 7 in Lisbon. Rose will remain with the band through its European dates and 10 rescheduled U.S. shows.
SPRINGFIELD  Democrats in the General Assembly have begun their election-year push for a plan they say would lower income taxes for more than 99 percent of Illinoisans  and generate $1.9 billion in new revenue by raising rates on the wealthy.

Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, is sponsoring legislation in the House that would lower the state income tax rate from 3.75 percent to 3.5 percent for individuals earning less than $100,000 a year and families earning less than $200,000. The proposal would create a new top tax bracket of 9.75 percent on individuals income above $1 million and families income above $1.5 million.

Langs fair tax proposal is tied to a proposed amendment that would do away with the Illinois Constitutions requirement that all taxpayers be charged the same rate. That proposal, sponsored by Rep. Christian Mitchell, D-Chicago, would require the support of three-fifths majorities in the House and Senate to put it on the November ballot.

At a time where Illinois citizens are still hurting due to an economy that had faltered over the years, 99 percent of them will receive a tax cut under this legislation, Lang said Monday.

But the proposal already is facing strong headwinds from conservative-leaning groups like the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Policy Institute.

The plan would punish small business owners and would accelerate the documented flight of high net worth individuals out of our state, said chamber president Todd Maisch in a statement on Friday.

However, Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, the Senate sponsor of the proposed constitutional amendment, said the vast majority of businesses also would see a tax cut under the proposal because they are taxed at the personal rate, not the corporate rate.

The fact is this is a tax cut for small and middle-size businesses and for those job creators, Harmon said. This will enable them to put more money into their businesses to expand and to grow.

Emily Miller, policy director at the advocacy group Voices for Illinois Children, said while the proposal isnt an immediate solution to the current budget impasse, it would help social service providers and others that have been hurt by the states inability to enact a budget.

Its time for us to start being a little bit more forward-thinking in the way that we plan our budgeting process, Miller said, and this is going to allow us to have the tools we need to not rely on low- and middle-income families when we need to be able to respond to the needs of our service providers.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has been locked in a budget standoff with legislative Democrats for nearly 10 months, has repeatedly said he would support plans to generate new revenue. But his office has issued a statement to the Capitol Fax blog saying the tax proposal would be the straw that breaks the Illinois economys back.

With social services providers, state universities and community colleges struggling without state funding, the Democrats tax proposal could shape up to be a key issue heading into the November election.

Kristen Crowell, campaign manager for the Fair Tax Campaign, said the proposal is perfectly politically viable.

A poll done for the group by Tulchin Research earlier this year showed 71 percent support statewide, including majorities in the Chicago area and downstate and, to widely varying degrees, across the political spectrum.

This is a safe vote for legislators to take, Crowell said.
NORMAL  Members of Illinois State University's Collegiate Farm Bureau reached out to fellow students Monday with information about agriculture in general and genetically modified organisms in particular.

A lot of people just aren't informed, said senior Hailey Hoegger, an agricultural business and landscape management major from Odell who was handing out information and talking to fellow students. This is the future.

It was hard to miss the group. A large green-and-yellow John Deere tractor from the ISU Farm was parked next to their information table.

And senior Ben Ficek of LaSalle, an agricultural business and agronomy management major, attracted a lot of attention posing for selfie pictures while dressed as a mascot-style smiling ear of corn known as Captain Cornelius.

But while there were fun and games  free can coozies decorated with corn and a guess-the-number-of-kernels contest  there was a serious side, too.

Ben Marks , a junior in agricultural business from Orland Park, said the goal of the day and of the Collegiate Farm Bureau is to educate and advocate for agriculture.

Next to a display of two containers  one filled with non-GMO corn, the other with GMO corn  Marks said there is no difference in physical appearance, but the GMO corn has many differences in practice.

When farmers plant GMO corn, he said, they use less pesticides, use less water, use less fuel and produce more crop per acre.

The Collegiate Farm Bureau, affiliated with the Illinois Farm Bureau, has been around for three years, said Marks, the ISU group's agricultural education coordinator.

There are about 100 members at ISU. Most are majoring in the agriculture field and many come from families that are members of the Illinois Farm Bureau, according to Marks.

They try to do at least one educational event every semester, he said.

The theme of the day, printed on signs that lined the area, was Where's the food without the farmer?

Each sign had a different statement on it, such as, Biotechnology saves the equivalent of 521,00 pounds of pesticides a year. Another sign noted that Energy used to grow 1 bushel of corn has dropped 37 percent over the past 30 years.
A growing number of Americans are diagnosed with autism, thus Sonoma County facilitated a specific training for emergency responders in dealing with those who were diagnosed with autism. More than 40 local public safety personnel joined the autism training on March 31, 2016.

According to The Press Democrat, the training was focused on responding to emergency cases which involved autistic individuals. The autism emergency response training was started by a Sanoma County Regional Parks Ranger, Beth Wyatt. It was mentioned that Wyatt was faced with several emergency situations, which involve children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

Sonoma County emergency responders undergo training on dealing with autism: Emergency vehicles, screaming sirens or https://t.co/hgrOgFPmGu  Sonoma County News (@sonoma_news) April 10, 2016

One major case cited by the news website was when a 10 year old girl with autism spectrum needed assistance while swimming. The girl is not incapable of telling the responders her name, nor was she able to narrate the experience.

The girl was also unable to inform the lifeguard as to whether she was able to ingest any water. Another case involves a boy who was having a kayaking adventure with his mother.

As their boat flipped, the firefighters that rescued the boy had a hard time in conversing with him. The responders had a hard time in getting information from the boy, which prohibits them from learning about his health status and condition.

Austin Autism Advocates Produce Training Video For Emergency First Responders https://t.co/8DELA42VCX pic.twitter.com/QvoT27ZWLC  Round Rock Patch (@RoundRockPatch) April 4, 2016

Most incidents involve water, and life threatening situations. The lack of appropriate knowledge when it comes to dealing with people diagnosed with autism urged Wyatt to head start the training.

"Just as a parent, I wanted to do this training so my kids are safer in the community," Wyatt told the Press Democrat. Autism emergency responders are essential in giving appropriate response to individuals that are caught up in emergency situations.

Aside from the ones in Sonoma County, Autism Speaks also introduced the "First Responders." The responders were not only trained to respond to emergency situations, but they are also well equipped in dealing with individuals with autism spectrum disorders.
Eddie Murphy's girlfriend was recently seen walking with the actor and showcasing her big baby bump. Sightings of the couple showed Paige Butcher proudly showing her pregnant body in a fitted dress.

Daily Mail said Murphy and Butcher were spotted going inside a Coffee Bean store in Studio City, California. It added that Murphy's partner seems to be doing well with her pregnancy and also excited to welcome their baby next month.

"She was positively glowing with her hair long and glossy and a pair of Aviator shades tipped on the end of her nose for a stylish, summer-ready image," observed the same report. It claimed that the actor is sharing the same excitement though he is already a father of nine kids to five different mothers.

It was added in the Daily Mail report that the "Daddy Day Care" actor showed great support for Butler while she walked carrying drinks from the coffee shop towards their car. He also personally drove her to get the chilled refreshments for both of them.

According to Yahoo News, Murphy earlier announced that they are expecting a baby girl. "It's a little girl," Murphy said. He noted that he and his model girlfriend are ecstatic about welcoming a baby girl a few weeks from now. The actor appeared gleeful with his announcement of again expanding his family.

The expected baby girl will be the actor's sixth daughter as he is the father to 25-year-old Bria, 21-year-old Shane, Zola, who is now 15 and 13-year-old Bella from his ex-wife Nicole Murphy. Murphy also has a daughter, Angel, with Spice Girls member Melanie B. He also has three sons from his earlier relationships.

Daily Mail said that Murphy and Butcher began dating four years ago. They, however, knew each other since 2006 when their paths crossed at the set of "Big Momma's House."
Almost 88,000 students who are in their third grade in Long Island, New York, boycotted their math exams on April 13. About 80 schools in this city out of 124 refused to follow the State's standardized Common Core math test.

Newsday reported 53 percent of third graders who are eligible for the said test decided not to take it even when these tests were mandated by the state. The statistics of students in Long Island alone who refused to take these standardized exams have increased compared to last year's 1.4 percent.

A photo posted by Xian Barrett (@xianb8) on Apr 16, 2016 at 7:41pm PDT

The Today Show's website also reported it, saying that parents had something to do with their kids' refusal to the tests. Apparently, they doubt the use of these Common Core exams so they decided to keep their kids from taking them.

A mom from Long Island explained in her interview with the show that the Common Core tests are harming their kids. Their refusal to take the said exams is their way of showing they are in protest against the Department of Education's current system. Even some teachers are agreeing with these parents saying that these Common Core tests are for a corporate agenda.

Long Island is not the only city in New York who is against these Common Core tests. In fact, an "opt out" movement was even made to call out the attention of the Department of Education. This movement is growing in numbers since 200,000 students were recorded to have not taken the test in York last year. This has also reached Chicago that has 20,000 students declining the tests.

The rules on Common Core tests differ from state to state, as well as the consequences that await the students for not taking them. California is among the states that allow parents to exempt their kids from standardized exams. Meanwhile, Louisiana is stricter that students could go back another grade if they refused to take the Common Core exams.

Do you think your children are not safe from the state's Common Core tests? Would you be one of those parents who would join the "opt out" movement? Tell us what you think about it in the comments section below.
Special education fund cuts has parents worried in Boston and the state's school districts have started adopting new measures. Boston schools have expanded special education classes to add one more student and parents say this might affect the quality of education and support the special needs kids receive.

What Are The Expanded Special Education Classes Like?

Special education classes for children with autism or emotional impairments in Boston schools have a maximum size of nine students per class, where there is one teacher and one or two teacher aides. In the new expanded program, classes will now have ten students maximum, but the size of the staff remains the same due to budget constraints.

The addition of one student might not be a big deal in a regular class, but this is not the case for children with special needs. Parents believe that the dynamics could affect the children's learning experience and gains, when the current system has been working so far.

"I can't even fathom what that must be like," said one mom of a child with autism, Sonia Garufi, per Boston Globe. "Because the kids that are in substantially separate really need intense help."

Boston School Heads Defends Special Education Class Expansion

The state defends the new measure by emphasizing that the changes for special education classes were carefully deliberated. Special education funds for the next school year is actually a quarter of the overall budget and it is an increase from last year. What changed is the formula to which these funds have to be applied.

Check out Budget Basics - an explainer of the proposed FY '17 @BostonSchools budget. Vote scheduled tonight. https://t.co/4uFWxq9sqm  BostonPublicSchools (@BostonSchools) March 23, 2016

Boston cannot maintain the same amount of staff in special classes because of rising costs. However, the state is still below the maximum limit of students per class for kids with special needs compared to other states which have 12 students.

Special education classes in Boston schools will also adopt a new data system, which cost about $1 million, to let parents evaluate their children's "individualized education program," per Boston. This will enable kids to be more prepared for their transition, when they finally move on to college or work their first job.
It is important to teach children the financial education, so they will grow up making better financial choices. According to one report, early financial education can help promote economic stability. Do you agree?

Financial Education At Early Age And Economic Stability

According to May Suiter, of St. Louis Post-Dispatch, it is essential that adults teach children the facts about economics and personal finance. It is important to inculcate this knowledge to them as early as possible because teaching them when they are in high school may be too late. According to a study led by David Whitebread and Sue Bingham of the University of Cambridge in England, children usually develop financial habits when they are 7.

Per the report, children's financial knowledge depends on their observations. In today's era where most are purchased online and children see their parents pay through credit cards and smartphones, children might develop a faulty impression and draw wrong conclusions about money.

Everyone should be knowledgeable about financial and economic education because these are essentials in the development of the society as a whole. When consumers are properly informed they will make better financial decisions that may promote economic stability.

Another study suggested that financially educated consumers make a better decision for their families and increase their economic security and well-being. Secure families are better able in contributing to the communities, improving the community development in the process. The study learned that there's a potential relationship between financial education and community involvement. In addition, financial education programs are making a difference in communities.

What To Do To Teach Children Financial Education

According to Courier-Journal, parents should read financial and economic books to their children. There are books that are appropriate to their ages, for example, "Little Critter: Just Saving My Money" and "Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday." The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis recently created Q&As for parents, so they can discuss the topic with their children more efficiently. You can check the resources here.

How do you teach your children financial education? Share your tips with other parents in the comment section below.
By the time a child is three, he begins to develop self-control. He learns to grasp the concept of following what he's told not to do and a new study on child development highlights how parenting style influences your child's behavior.

Parenting Style Affects Children's Behavior

Researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington affirm that parenting style is a huge factor in helping a toddler learn self-control, which could then trigger other behavioral outcomes. Thus, it's important for parents to make use of the right parenting style.

"Individuals with low levels of inhibitory control develop more cognitive and socio-emotional development issues, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD," said study author Jeffrey Gagne in a press release, via the University of Texas Arlington. Gagne also said that in most cases, child development problems are determined when the child is already in school.

"If we could identify and intervene with problems earlier, we could improve their responses before they reach school," he added. Doing so could impact the child well into his adolescent years.

Child Development Self-Control Study On Twins

The study -- published in the journal Developmental Psychology -- enlisted 300 pairs of twins and then charted their development through inhibitory control tests, assessments and videos. Their parents were also asked to take part via interviews. The researchers followed through with the twins at age two and three, and found out that more than genetics, environmental factors - such as parenting, whether positive or negative - begin to bear more influences in a child's third year.

Assistant Professor Jeffrey R. Gagne's latest paper in Developmental Psychology suggests that environmental... https://t.co/CMbSbGtOX0  UTAPsych (@UTAPsych) April 1, 2016

In this case, the twins' behaviors and traits start becoming more distinct. The researchers conclude that parenting style, as an environmental factor, is important to "their capacity for self-regulation," per Science Daily.

Child Development, Parenting Style And Mapping Out Character Traits

The researchers' study is not yet done and they will attempt to map out the traits of the twins in the hopes of measuring how it can predict behavioral disorders. The point is to help the parents find a better way to mitigate any problems before their twins reach school age, where they will have to contend with more environmental factors.

What's your take on this study? Sound off in the comments!
Do you know why water quality education is important? Today, fresh and clean water is a limited source and occurrences like drought further limit the access. In some parts of the world, access to water is limited due to contamination.

Most of the planet is covered in water. But since it is salt water, it can only be consumed by humans and other species after undergoing an expensive process called desalination, The Water Page reveals.

Water Quality Education

One reason why people have limited access to clean water is contamination. That's why a groundwater education specialist is advocating the importance of water quality education to have a clean water future, WBAY notes.

According to groundwater education specialist Kevin Masarik, people who get their water from wells need to know about possible contaminants such as nitrates. He also adds that 9 percent of the 1 million private wells in Wisconsin have unacceptable nitrate levels, which can pose a risk to health of babies and pregnant women.

Water Quality Education and the Government

Masarik also highlighted the role of the government in keeping an eye on municipal water sources. However, he admitted that it's quite challenging for the authorities to deal with the private wells in the rural areas.

"The role of government for private wells is a little bit harder to see because we're dealing with rural areas, they're much more diffuse, and creating regulations are much more difficult," Masarik said.

Midwest Environmental Advocates executive director Kimberlee Wright, however, said that the government needs to boost its efforts to ensure the water is protected. She also added that water quality education is critically significant to have a clean water future.

"I think we all see a shift just in consumer attitude, but we have such serious water problems that we have to see a change," Wright said. "Educating voters is really critically important for our clean water future. It really is up to all of us to protect our clean water future... having that information so we can hold elected officials accountable, so that we can make choices in our own lives, I just think it's critically important."

Addressing Water Quality Concerns

Meanwhile, Paris Junior College-Sulphur Springs Center Department of Continuing Education in Texas is reportedly offering a new course to its area residents. The new course aims to address water quality issues by providing opportunities to help protect water quality in the state, KSST Radio learns.

Iowa state lawmakers, on the other hand, decided not to use state education funding to address water quality concerns. Instead, they're planning to look for other funding resources to help pay some of the costly and long-term water quality programs needed, WNAX reports.
In celebration of Autism Awareness Month this April, Infiniteach is helping the community in addressing the increasing concerns over suitable employment among autistic youngsters. The West Loop education technology company is reportedly offering jobs for young adults with autism.

An estimated one out of 42 boys and one in 189 girls are diagnosed with autism in the United States. Today, autism affects more than three million individual in the U.S. and tens of millions worldwide, Autism Speaks reveals.

Due to the increase in autism prevalence rates in recent years, a pressing need for securing suitable employment among autistic youngsters also becomes an issue of concern in communities. Fortunately, Infiniteach is willing to help.

What is Infiniteach?

Infiniteach is a 3-year-old education technology company located in the West Loop. It develops and designs products and services such as apps to assist educating autistic individuals.

Cofounders Christopher Flint and Katie Hench dedicated their lives to help the autism community. Crain's Chicago Business notes Hench has a brother who's diagnosed with autism at the age of six.

"This is personal for us," Hench said. "Everyone on the team is very dedicated not only to the work but to the broader autistic community. We are always thinking of ways we can make the community more accessible to those with autism."

Infiniteach and Employment

Infiniteach cofounder and notable autism advocate Christopher Flint is promoting employment for autistic young adults. According to ABC 7, Flint spotted a potential in a young autistic man named Ned Williams to be part of the company.

Williams was diagnosed with autism as a young child. However, he is now one of those autistic youngsters who have secured suitable job in Infiniteach as its lead photo editor.

"I started out not being able to really manage my emotions," Williams said. "I had a hard time sticking with things and since then, I've come a long way."

Williams also added that he's now able to manage his emotions well and has become more independent. Williams also revealed that he loves his job at Infiniteach, which made him realized he wanted to do something with creative technology.

"I just love that sort of photo editing, graphic design stuff," Williams added. "I've gotten pretty good at it and I just love doing it. It's one of the reasons I enjoy this job because it's sort of doing exactly the stuff I like to do."

Flint, on the other hand, said that hiring an adult with autism comes with several benefits. Flint also noted that they're learning from Williams, whose super focused on his job at Infiniteach.

How Infiniteach Teach Autistic Students

Meanwhile, Infiniteach used tablets and technology to reach every child with autism to supplement their individualized therapy in a more cost-effective and scalable way. The company designed an app that allows parents and teachers to customize each learning instruction based on a child's interest, Chicago Tribune reports.

So, what do you thinks of Infiniteach's efforts to help the autism community? Sound off below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
"GTA 6" of the Rockstar Games franchise may see the success of "Grand Theft Auto V" - "GTA Online" microtransactions and the departure of former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies play the determining factor in the new game. Reports indicate that "GTA 6" may be vastly different from previous releases of "Grand Theft Auto" affecting even plans for its new map, which reportedly leans toward either Las Vegas or Bogota.

The well-publicized lawsuit of former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies against the "GTA" developer may indicate the future for the series. News of the "GTA" lawsuit broke in January by Kotaku.

Rockstar Games, in turn, made a statement that Leslie Benzies had been on sabbatical and decided not to return to the company. Benzies' position, however, was that he was owed up to the value of $150 million of royalties for "GTA."

'GTA' Brings Home The Bacon

The vast amount of money the "GTA" brand traditionally generates is only part of the story. Gamers have been showing the most interest, not in the usual story component, but in the online feature of the latest iteration of "Grand Theft Auto V" - "GTA" Online.

New Sabre Turbo coming to #GTAOnline 4/19

20% off properties, 2X RP Playlists & more nowhttps://t.co/WxpQqQd0yG pic.twitter.com/oj5xrTBw6g  Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) 15 April 2016



The latest documents on the "GTA" lawsuit, as reported by Gamespot, indicate that microtransactions from "GTA" Online have generated in the region of $500 million for Rockstar Games. "Halo 5" by comparison, brought in $1.5 million in microtransactions.

The Future of 'GTA' At Stake?

Forbes points out that such an easy earner for Rockstar Games, as well as Benzies' departure may significantly alter the trajectory for "GTA 6" and "Grand Theft Auto" as a whole. Some are already suggesting that these numbers are what are causing Rockstar Games from releasing the story driven "GTA" DLC, as they did with "Grand Theft Auto" IV and "Liberty City Stories."

Eva Mendes Signing On For 'GTA 6'?

To this point news on the "GTA 6" map point to London, Bogota and the US - specifically Las Vegas as contenders. A female lead, pointing to Eva Mendes, is purported to be a welcome change among fans, but is believed to lack marketing strength on its own. Hence a male counterpart, in the person of "Drive" star Ryan Gosling, is believed to be a candidate alongside Eva Mendes.

The "GTA 6" release date is being tagged to coincide with the release of PS5 and Xbox 2. However, other reports claim that "GTA 6" may see a release that will coincide with PS4.5. Stay tuned to Parent Herald for more updates on the "GTA 6" release date.
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The European Union is considering making Canadians and Americans apply for visas, even if they want to visit for a short time. The EU is insisting that the United States add more

European countries to the list of those whose citizens can travel without a visa, and if the United States doesnt comply, American travelers may need a visa to visit Europe.

While Canadians and Americans only need a passport when visiting the EU, visitors to the U.S. from Croatia, Poland, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania need a visa. Bulgarians and Romanians also need a visa to visit Canada.

The objective here is to achieve full visa waiver reciprocity for citizens of all member states, and this is a priority for the European Union, said Mina Andreeva, a spokesperson for the European Commission.

The countries in questions have not met the requirements for its Visa Waiver Program just yet, according to the U.S. government.

A State Department official said, We maintain an open dialogue with each of these countries about the programs requirements and how each of the five countries is progressing.

Canadas visa policy is not established on reciprocity either. The European Commons must introduce reciprocal visa requirements for countries that do not allow visa-free travel for EU citizens two years after being advised of the situation, under EU rules.

Only two member states have opted out of the EUs common visa policy, the U.K. and Ireland. Americans will still be able to travel to these two States visa-free. Citizens from 38 countries can travel to the U.S. visa-free. The countries include Andorra, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, San Marino, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and 23 European Union countries.

The European Union authorities discussed the proposal Tuesday and decided to delay the matter until the summer. The European Commission and the European Unions executive have set the deadline for July 12 for the blocs 28 member government and the European Parliament to offer advice on what should be done next in reference to the gentle nature of the topic for transatlantic relations.

After the deadline, the commission could start the process of enforcing visa requirements for

Canadians and Americans, but the change would not be effective immediately because the

European Parliament, and the majorly of governments, would have six months to stop the move.

Lauren Spiler is a freelance journalist based in Athens, Georgia, but most call her Spiler.
One of the underrated downsides of the rise of Donald Trump is that weve been so busy hating Trump that we havent been able to properly devote enough time and attention to hating Ted Cruz. Because in any normal election year that wasnt dominated by a talking orange bag of air, Ted Cruz would be the epicenter of a horrified shockwave of nationwide fascination, mockery and disgust.

Sure, Donald Trump suckshes a hilariously vain, thin-skinned, self-victimizing whiny race-baiting blowhard whose supporters are the saddest dregs of declining white society. Its easy to see why Donald Trump sucks and make fun of him for it.

But Ted Cruz is a new category of suck altogether. Ted Cruz sucks in ways that weve never seen American politicians suck before. Ted Cruz he combines the suckiest attributes of the suckiest liberals and the suckiest conservatives into one massive, off-putting, smarmy suckhole.

Every arrogant classmate or obnoxiously ambitious co-worker youve ever had, every creepy dude on your dorm floor, every mansplaining blowhard youve ever run into on Facebook, every overaggressive pretentious twit who wants to turn the simplest everyday interactions into Socratic debates, every creepy College Republican or evangelical Christian doorknocker who made you feel a cold shiver down your spineTed Cruz embodies them all.

Ted Cruz has the smug, sanctimonious superiority of the worst liberals combined with the horrible, retrograde ideas of the worst conservatives: hes wrong about everything, and hes sickeningly pleased with himself about it.

Ted Cruz was born in Canada and is the son of an immigrant, but he wants to deport 12 million undocumented immigrants.

Ted Cruz has the same bloodthirsty foreign policy goals and right-wing Christian domestic agenda of George W. Bush, but without the social skills. George W. Bush was an incompetent, beady-eyed warmonger who deserves to be in prison for crimes against humanity, but at least he had a certain dim-witted Texas frat bro dry-drunk charm! George W. Bush was the guy you wanted to have a beer with  but Cruz is just a huge weirdo.

How can we begin to enumerate the ways that Ted Cruz sucks? Its like trying to count the stars. Writing this article about why Ted Cruz sucks was like trying to write a 1,000-word article that explains all about the ocean. The research for this article took me a lot longer than I expected (unfortunately, Im not getting paid by the hour), because theres too much amazing source material  the Internet is bursting with jaw-droppingly hilarious evidence of why and how Ted Cruz sucks.

Here is a small sampling:

Ted Cruz isnt just a horrible person today; hes been a horrible person for his entire adult life, even as a 17-year-old college freshman, when he was apparently the worst college roommate of all time. Cruzs college roommate at Princeton in 1988, Craig Mazin, has gone on to be a successful Hollywood screenwriter and director, but the experience of living with Ted Cruz was so emotionally damaging that Mazin has gone out of his way to excruciatingly burn Ted Cruz on Twitter, again and again and again.

In a Daily Beast article in 2013, Mazin was quoted as saying that We should be afraid that someone like that has power and I would rather have anybody else be the president of the United States. Anyone. I would rather pick somebody from the phone book. Another excerpt from the Daily Beast:

several fellow classmates who asked that their names not be used described the young Cruz with words like abrasive, intense, strident, crank, and arrogant. Four independently offered the word creepy, with some pointing to Cruzs habit of donning a paisley bathrobe and walking to the opposite end of their dorms hallway where the female students lived.

Mazin has also said that Cruz had SERIOUS body odor issues, and that Cruz would leave a greasy film on everything, and I have plenty of problems with his politics, but truthfully, his personality is so awful that 99 percent of why I hate him is just his personality. If he agreed with me on every issue, I would hate him only 1 percent less, and that with Cruz, What you see before you now is EXACTLY who he was back then. He does not change. The way zombies and mold dont change.

Of course, it might seem kind of unfair to blame Ted Cruz for being an insufferable, arrogant prig as a college freshman; lots of college freshmen are insufferable prigs. The difference is that most people grow out of it. Whereas Ted Cruz seems to have arrived at adulthood in a fully formed bubble of self-serving, mean-spirited ideology, and with absolutely no empathy or emotional intelligence or willingness to listen to other people or learn from life experience. And hes stayed that way ever since.

The Republican Party in 2016, at this point, is basically a hate group  the Ku Klux Klan with better spelling. But even for this party of gun fetishists, misogynists, race-baiters, gay-bashers, immigrant-haters, torture-lovers, paranoid conspiracy theorists, and right-wing Christians actively praying for the apocalypse to smite our sinful fornicating souls with a world-destroying inundation of righteous hellfire, Ted Cruz is too much of a jerk.

Republicans hate Ted Cruz. They think hes rude, self-serving, ineffectual, and self-aggrandizing  even by the standards of Senators (he once read Green Eggs and Ham from the Senate floor during a pointless all-night filibuster about God knows what). He damages the interests of his own party and disregards the rules of decorum in the Senate to pander to his Tea Party base. He makes dinosaurs like Orrin Hatch and Lindsay Graham, and half-human/half-turtles like Mitch McConnell, look like models of restraint, enlightenment and visionary leadership for the 21st Century.

Even George W. Bush doesnt like Ted Cruz. And if youre a Republican, it takes a lot to get George W. Bush to dislike youthis man was possibly the most disastrously incompetent president in American history, the guy who never met an incompetent, toadying employee he didnt like! The man who stuck with Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, long after he had lost all credibility! The man who thought disgraced FEMA Director Michael Brown was doing a heck of a job in the criminally incompetent federal response to Hurricane Katrina! The man who declared Mission Accomplished in Iraq when the quagmire was just barely getting started!

Ted Cruz was also too big of a jerk to get a job in the George W. Bush White Houseand remember: this was a White House so full of jerks that their Vice President once shot a man in the face.

Ted Cruz met his wife Heidi in 2000 while they were both working on George W. Bushs presidential campaign, which sounds like the worlds least romantic place to try to meet someone to date, other than a Turkish prison, a 19th Century syphilis ward, or a Carnival poop cruise ship full of backed-up toilets.

(Side note: Who in their right mind would go on a cruise? It seems like every single cruise ship nowadays inevitably ends up capsizing, suffering outbreaks of norovirus, or drifting helplessly out to sea with no plumbing while the passengers get slathered in each others urine and excrement. No thanks! Ill stay here on dry land, where the only risk of norovirus is at Chipotle)

And right after their honeymoon, Ted Cruz went out and immediately bought 100 cans of soup. Because thats totally a normal thing that normal human beings who are not aliens do.

And Ted Cruz sings, very badly, to his wife. (I would usually feel bad about making fun of his singing voice, but hes a horrible person who is grasping after the highest office in America where he would have the power to ruin millions of lives  NO MERCY.)

None of Ted Cruzs clothes fit him right. He dresses like his body has no shape. He dresses like his clothes are trying to shrug their way off of him and escape from his body and run away squealing with disgust. He looks like hes wearing suits that were pilfered from corpses in funeral home caskets. When hes wearing a trench coat, he looks like hes actually three ten-year-old-kids hiding under the coat to try to sneak into an R-rated movie.

Now for the science! Ted Cruzs face is scientifically proven to be creepy and wrong-looking. As Dr. Richard E. Cytowic, a neurologist, writes in Psychology Today:

Its hard to look at Ted Cruzs face. Hes said to be a brilliant orator with a sharp legal mind. But his expression unsettles me. I understand that my reaction is visceral and automatic, but as a neurologist it is my business to notice things out of the ordinary and probe them. The Senators atypical expressions leave me uneasy.

Ted Cruzs face doesnt move in the usual ways of human social behavior, and as a result, it leaves many people feeling unsettled, or as the scientific term says: skeeved out. Humans tend to learn how to read other peoples faces and expressions as part of our basic socialization and as part of our process of learning how to trust. But Ted Cruzs face seems untrustworthy and unlikable because he doesnt smile righthis mouth moves in odd directions and conveys a different message than his rhetoric. With Cruz, we dont know whats real and whats an act. How can we trust him as president if he cant smile with his eyes Is he a real human being, or a robot with hyper-realistic skin? Is he wearing someone elses face as a mask? Who knows??

Ted Cruz could make history as Americas first Cyborg Humanoid Uncanny Valley-Looking President. Science!

Sigh. Just Google it.

Lots of people on the Internet think that Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who terrorized Northern California in the 1960s and 1970s, and who was never identified or captured.

A Public Policy Polling Florida poll in February 2016 found that 38% of Florida voters think its possible that Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer. 10% say he for sure is, and another 28% say that they are just not sure.

However, Ted Cruz is definitely not the Zodiac Killerhe was not yet born when the first Zodiac crimes were committed. But doesnt it speak poorly of Cruzs character that so many people believe that he COULD be the Zodiac Killer??? Do we really want our next president to be so plausible as a serial killer that lots of people think he committed multiple murders as a toddler?

Lets give the last word to Ted Cruzs old roommate, Craig Mazin, who tweeted:

Ted Cruz is not the Zodiac Killer. The Zodiac Killer actually got things done.

I spent way too much time researching this article. But thats OK, because it was a labor of lovemy love of hating Ted Cruz. Dont you see, America??? Weve all been distracted by Trumps racist clown show, while the real threat was lurking in the sloppily dressed, uncanny-faced, serial killer-looking form of Ted Cruz!

In conclusion: Dont vote for Ted Cruz, and Craig Mazin is a national hero.
Business is business; politics is politics - hardly mix them up. You can't run politics with business tricks: Hes making his scheme more obvious  when all else fails, bribe and threaten your to way victory. That's not democracy!

~~

Monday, Apr 18, 2016 11:14 AM PDT

Topics: brokered convention , contested convention , Donald Trump , Elections 2016 , Republican National Convention , Republican Primary , Ted Cruz , trump nomination , Elections News , News , Politics News

Things should be going well for Donald Trump in the race for the Republican nomination. Despite a handful of losses to Ted Cruz in states like Utah and Colorado, Trump is expected to win big states like New York and Pennsylvania , giving him a boost that, in any normal race, would be big enough to force the other candidates out of the race.

Instead, there seems to be a surge of confidence that Republican party leaders will find some way to shut Trump out , even if doing so means holding their nose and accepting Cruz as the nominee . The conversation has conclusively shifted away from whether the Republicans will have a contested convention to a debate over what that will look like and whether or not the party needs to rethink rules that havent been invoked for decades. If it comes to that, the only purpose would be to keep Trump from winning the nomination.

Its tempting to believe that all this conspiring will work and, despite the burp that was the Trump campaign, in the end, the party will still find a way to nominate someone who doesnt have a habit of retweeting people obsessed with white genocide. But, as I argued last week , Trump isnt going to go easily into the good night.

On the contrary, I argued, the likeliest possibility was that Trump takes a three-pronged approach to winning the nomination in a contested convention: Bribing delegates to vote for him, threatening those who wont take bribes, and hitting the media hard to argue that he is allowed to play dirty because the other guys started it.

While I generally enjoy being right, this is one case where Im truly sorry to say its playing out just as I predicted. Trump has started to flirt more openly with the idea of using a bribes-and-threats strategy to win the nomination, even though he continues to pretend that hes not doing what hes clearly doing.

Sunday, Trump started to fantasize out loud about what bribing delegates would look like and using this to remind party leaders that he is better able to afford those bribes than his competitors.

Look, nobody has better toys than I do, Trump said to reporters at a Staten Island hotel . I can put them in the best planes and bring them to the best resorts anywhere in the world.

He seemingly disavowed such behavior, saying, Youre basically buying these people and that its a corrupt system.

It would be foolish to take such statements as a promise not to bribe people, however. On the contrary, the constant railing about corrupt systems is likely Trump laying the groundwork to argue that he is justified if he starts bribing delegates. After convincing his supporters that everyone else is dirty, the next step is clearly to argue that he has to play dirty, too, because otherwise he has an unfair disadvantage.
THR reports that none other than Kevin Bacon, actor extraordinaire, is in final negotiations to star in Jill Soloways new comedy pilot I Love Dick. Soloway, of course, is the creative brain behind Amazons wonderful Transparent (read our essay here), and she will direct ILD off a script written by playwright Sarah Gubbins, which is in turn based on the 1997 novel of the same name by Chris Kraus.

Bacon would join Kathryn Hahn in the show about a married couple living in an academic community in Texas who are both obsessed with the titular Dick, a bad-boy professor. Bacon would play Dick, the cowboy intellectual, and the show would switch points-of-view between him, Chris (the wife), and Sylvere (the husband). In other words, this show is going to rule.

Soloway will produce along with Gubbins and Andrea Sperling under the Topple Productions umbrella. The show is part of Soloways deal with Amazon Studios.
Naomi Watts is making a return to the psychological thriller genre.

Fifteen years after her breakout role in David Lynchs phenomenal Mulholland Drive, Watts has been tapped to star in the Netflix series Gypsy, set to premiere with a 10-episode first season in 2017. Sam Taylor-Johnson, director of Fifty Shades of Grey, is going to direct the first two episodes of the show, so you can probably expect that some messed-up things will happen.

Watts will play the role of Jean Holloway, a therapist who gets way too involved in the lives of her patients (always a recipe for disaster, in both television and the real world). The Australian actress, who recently starred in Jean-Marc Vallees Demolition opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, will also serve as an executive producer for the series.
Sierra Nevada is bringing back Beer Camp Across America, a roving celebration of craft beer that brings together hundreds of brewers for six separate festivals in June. We went to one of the festival stops in 2014 and had a little bit too much fun (you know its a good time when grown men do cartwheels). We want to give you the chance to do cartwheels too, so Paste Drink is partnering with Sierra Nevada to give away a pair of tickets to the Beer Camp Festival of your choice.

Heres the list of cities:

Tampa, FloridaJune 4, 2016

Seattle, WashingtonJune 11, 2016

Milwaukee, WisconsinJune 11, 2016

San Francisco, CaliforniaJune 18, 2016

Boston, MassachusettsJune 18, 2016

Los Angeles, CaliforniaJune 25, 2016

See a festival you want to attend? Follow the contest directions below and you could win a pair of early access tickets that includes entry to the festival an hour in advance (no lines!), and custom tasting glasses for the thousands of craft beer samples on hand during the festival. Our advice: dont try to drink them all.

In order to participate in the giveaway, just follow these two simple rules:

1. Follow PasteDrink on Twitter.

2. Tweet at @pastedrink using the #BeerCamp hashtag and let us know which Beer Camp youd like to attend.

One person will be chosen at random and will be contacted to have their Beer Camp Across America tickets sent out to them. A winner will be chosen in the next few days, so dont wait!
Look Ive enjoyed NSA frat boys and their obsession with goat videos more than the average viewer. Theyve kind of consistently amused me. However, with only four precious episodes left, did we need to revisit them AGAIN? I dont think so.

But here we were with Jeff Delinger trying to get back into the United States for his mothers funeral and being detained by Homeland Security. Alicia and Lucca fly to Toronto to represent him and we get some classic Good Wife shenanigans, like the judge who has to be referred to as Your Worship, and the airport intercom constantly interrupting her. Through the proceedings Alicia learns that she is responsible for the leak from the top secret committee she was on a few months ago. But she only seems mildly concerned that the NSA has been listening to her phone calls. The show also gets a dig in at Canada by implying that Canadas Communications Security Establishment (CSE) similarly eavesdrops on phone conversations and has equally juvenile agents listening to the calls. The whole storyline, while mildly amusing (I particularly liked Tyler asking Alicia if Grace had chosen a college yet), was really a distraction from the meat of the episode. I can only hope that this episode truly marks the end of the shows love affair with this story line.

The big news, of course, is that Peter is arrested for arranging a mistrial in exchange for campaign donations. As angry as Alicia is at him, she still, at the most basic level, cares deeply for him. She frantically finds him a tie to put on and a coat to cover his handcuffs. Cary seems to know more about the trial than hes willing to tell Jason. Does he think the crime lab lost the bullets (as he tells Jason), or does he think Peter has something to do with it? Alicia goes into autopilot modestanding loyally by her husband and declaring his innocence to the press. Is she doing this because she made a pact with Peter that she would, if he didnt contest the divorce? Because she truly cares for him? Or is it because this is her default position and she doesnt know what else to do in the situation?

We also get a peek into Dianes private life, and she and Kurt seem very happy. Kurt wants to sell his business so he can spend more time with his wife. The only problem is he wants to sell it to a ballistics specialist who looks like Megan Hilty. The idea that Kurt wants to sell his business for 30% less than its worth to a pretty blond Republican doesnt sit well with Diane, who completely loses her composure. The episode ends with Diane and Kurt content (he tells her he will look for another buyer) and I would have thought thats where the show would have left Kurtas the happy devoted husband. But both Gary Cole and Hilty will be back in two weeks.

Alicia tells Jason shes getting a divorce, but that its not because of him. These two are so reluctant to admit they have any true feelings for each other. The episode ends with Jason asking Alicia what she wants and Alicia responding, You. But Jason wants things simpleand simple is not a word in Alicias lexicon.

Will the show end with Alicia finally breaking free from Peter, or will she end up right where she startedthe good wife standing by her husband?

Stray observations:

Last week CBS released the finale story lines for all their shows. This is the official description of The Good Wife series finale, entitled End and airing on May 7: The series reaches its dramatic conclusion. Thanks CBS, thats super helpful. Also the press release lists no guest stars for the episode, which leads me to my next point.

Did you all see the news that Josh Charles is rumored to be returning for the series finale My theory? He returns in a dream sequence to give Alicia his blessing. But I dont care what story line the show comes up with to explain the return of Ghost Will. Ill just be happy to see him again.

So Peter needs an investigator who is not Jason. Could this be what brings Robyn back to the show?

I still come back to my theory that maybe Eli is the one who leaked this whole thing to the AUSAs office. Was he trying to get revenge for the whole Ruth situation?

Very nice touch having the opening sequence photo change to Peters current arrest. I think this is the first time the show has ever done that, correct?



Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal , is a Boston-based freelance writer, a member of the Television Critics Association and a regular contributor to Paste. She wasnt allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter or her blog.
Gallons of ink have been spilled to describe the impact of Hamilton on the state of the Broadway musical, and most of those gallons have been well spent, for Lin-Manuel Mirandas examination of Americas Founding Fathers through the lens of Alexander Hamilton has used hip-hop music and dance to waken musical theater from its long, Andrew Lloyd Webber-induced coma. Not only is the show an artistic triumph, its also a commercial blockbuster: seats are sold out months into the future, and scalpers are getting as much as a thousand dollars a ticket.

Precious little ink has been spilled, however, to recognize the impact of Hamilton on popular music. And yet the show may end up changing hip hop as much as it will change Broadway. Hamiltons songs mark a decisive break in the linkage between hip hop and its range of subject matter in the minds of Broadway crowds. If hip hop can tell the story of the American Revolution, it can tell any story in the world.

To be fair, there has been plenty of hip hop prior to Hamilton that has strayed from the formula, but never before has such a high-profile, large collection of narratively linked songs reached such mainstream audiences. And its also true that not every track in the Hamilton score is a purebred hip-hop number. Ballads, rock and old-school show tunes are mixed in, but even those are given a hip-hop makeover. And those hybrid concoctions lend further proof that hip hop is far more flexible than most people would have you believe.

Alexander Hamilton was an illegitimate orphan from the British West Indies who, upon arriving in America, used his brains and mouth to become George Washingtons chief staff aide during the American Revolution, principal author of The Federalist Papers, Americas first Secretary of the Treasury and dueling victim of Aaron Burr. Miranda, himself of Puerto Rican descent, was fascinated that one of the nations principal architects was a Caribbean immigrant.

I know this guy, Miranda told the New York Times; just the hustle and ambition it took to get him off the islandthis is a guy who wrote his way out of circumstances from the get-go. That is part and parcel of the hip-hop narrative: writing your way out of your circumstances, writing the future you want to see for yourself. This is a guy who wrote at 14, I wish there was a war. It doesnt get more hip-hop than that.

In a different New York Times story, Miranda admits that he turned to hip hop to solve a technical problem: How could he fit all the words he wanted to use in a stage musical that had to run under three hours? Hamilton produced over 27 volumes of written work, Miranda said. I think its appropriate that we would need a musical style that transmits more words per minute than any other genre.

In other words, Miranda is arguing that hip hop has an untapped potential for narrative because it can pack more information into a pop-song timeframe. By demonstrating how motor-mouth rapping can make the complicated story of Hamilton, Washington, Burr and Thomas Jefferson more understandable, the author of Hamilton has seized on Prince Pauls neglected example to reveal new possibilities for the genre.

Mirandas most important breakthrough, however, is proving to audiences who may be unfamiliar with the genre how hip hop can convey adult realism as effectively as adolescent fantasy. In this light, the most surprising aspect of Hamilton is not its ability to convey the title characters debates with Thomas Jefferson over the role of a central governmentwhich are not all that different from two MCs dissing each other. Far more surprising is the shows ability to convey Hamiltons debates with himself about whether or not he should sleep with the married woman who throws herself at him.

Adults wrestle with such temptations all the time, and Mirandas song, Say No to This, captures that internal debate as effectively as any pop song I know. In the show Hamilton has been working long hours to establish a national bank when Maria Reynolds comes to him with a tale about her abusive, miserly husband. He offers advice and a loan, and she invites him up to her bedroom. Thats when I began to pray, raps Miranda in the title role. Lord, show me how to say no to this. I dont know how to say no to this. But, my God, she looks so helpless, and her bodys saying, Hell, yes.

Its a terrific theatrical moment, but its also a musical milestone. Here we hear all the strengths of hip hopits compelling rhythms, its dexterous rhymes, its verbal densityapplied from a new sensibility. In another song, Satisfied, Angelica Schuyler introduces Hamilton to her sister Eliza, only to realize too late that she should have kept him for herself. On the night of the wedding, she wrestles her regrets and temptations with a rap-speed vocal over an R&B melody. Such moments of psychological complexity surface again and again in the play, making it much deeper than the hip-hop take on Americas Founding Fathers gimmick its usually summarized as.

When I saw the show last December, I arrived expecting an interesting mashup of Broadway and hip hop. I didnt expect to be as genuinely moved as I was by the characters and their predicaments. I got over the incongruity of Anglo-American aristocrats such as Hamilton, Washington and Jefferson being played by an under-40, multi-cultural cast surprisingly easily, and just as quickly began to care about both the political issues and personal relationships. I soon realized this was very smart writingand it was a treat to see the author himself on stage in the lead role.

The plays Original Broadway Cast Recording on Atlantic Records is quite atypical. Most cast albums try to replicate the belt-it-out-for-the-balcony approach of the stage show. This one, executive-produced by The Roots Ahmir Questlove Thompson and Tariq Black Thought Trotter, is produced like a contemporary hip-hop album, so both the vocals and backing tracks have an in-studio precision and clarity. Some will complain that this isnt genuine hip-hop music, but thats like complaining that Bob Dylan wasnt a real rock n roller or that Nirvana wasnt a genuine punk band. Every leap forward is bound to leave some people behind.

Are there other artists similarly throwing off the constraints of hip hop? Of course. Hamilton first opened off-Broadway at the Public Theater on Feb. 17, 2015. Kendrick Lamars To Pimp a Butterfly was released on March 15, 2015. Spike Lees movie Chi-raq was released on Nov. 3, 2015. In other words, all three projects were written in 2014 when the three authors, unaware of each others work-in-progress, were thinking along similar lines.

Lamars album deals with the urban youth culture that has always been hip-hops primary focus, but he does so not with the usual teenage swagger but with an adult self-doubt. That shift in perspective changes everything. Every time the rapper says something glib about that culture, he immediately questions the cliche, challenging himself to measure assumptions against reality.

Such collisions between wishes and facts are the mark of mature songwriting, and Lamar joins such predecessors as Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye and Anthony Hamilton in making the resulting sparks light up the music. That Lamar does this with strong hip-hop beats complicated by jazz and funk licks only reinforces the dramatic tension in the songs.

Lees film, perhaps the most underrated release of last year, deals with gang violence in Chicago. But Lee takes a radically different approach than any such picture before. He doesnt merely use hip-hop tracks to spice up the soundtrack; he actually wrote the dialogue and narration in the rhyming couplets of hip hop. And just as the very best hip-hop sounds conversational, so does Lees script.

And Lee doesnt glamorize such violence the way some hip-hop tracks do. In fact, hes ferociously critical of the mythology surrounding such gun fights. There was no more heartbreaking image on movie screens last year than that of Jennifer Hudson as a working-class mother down on her knees, scrubbing her dead daughters blood off the asphalt of a Chicago street.

The plot is loosely based on the classic Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes. As in that story, the girlfriends of all the gang members on Chicagos South Side get together and decide to withhold all sex till the men stop fighting. No peace, no pussy, they chant in a wonderfully over-the-top dance sequence. If numbers like that dont clue you that we are now in the territory of fable, the rhyming couplets delivered by the characters and by the narrator, a spiffily dressed older street-corner philosopher played by Samuel L. Jackson, should.

Lee had the crucial insight that hip hops rhetorical flamboyance is best suited to fable. But he also knows that fables are enduring only if they tell us things we dont like to talk about. Some rappers depict street violence as heroic. A lot of politicians throw up their hands as if nothing can be done about it. Lee angrily rebuts both reactions, and his sobering fable wouldnt have had as much force as it does if he hadnt used hip hop in a brand new way.
It's being reported today that the European competition commission is gearing up to charge Google with giving unfair prominence to its own apps like search and maps in supplementary software licensing deals it strikes with mobile phone makers running its Android operating system, four sources familiar with the process said on Monday.

Reuters is reporting that "Google generated an estimated $11 billion (9.73 billion euros) last year from sales of ads running on Android phones featuring Google apps. Android has become the dominant software in recent years, running most of the world's smartphones.

If the EU were to find Google guilty of market abuse it could lead to a fine of up to $7.4 billion or 10 percent of 2015 revenue, while forcing it to change its business practices.

EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said on Monday her agency's probe centers on the use of exclusive contracts which enable phone firms to run Google's own apps and not necessarily on demands they bundle in a complete set of Google apps such as Search, Maps and Gmail and its Google Play app store on phones.

For while Android is open source software that gives device makers the freedom to build and run their own software, the vast majority of European phones run a standard package of software and Google apps that must be licensed from Google, according to data from Strategy Analytics, a technology market research firm."

EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of completion policy, has been ramping up the EU's cases against U.S. Companies such as Apple, Google and many others. The U.S. Treasury called on the EU Commission to reconsider their tax probes or face possible retaliation. That threat led to Vestager flying to Washington last week to discuss matters face to face.

After the meeting took place, Vestager stated that having face-to-face meetings with her US counterparts was preferable to what the two sides had been doing: exchanging letters and waging war in the media. "One of the things that I would like to do is engage even more in order not to leave questions unanswered. We may disagree, but that shouldn't be on the basis of things not being clear," she said.

And they certainly disagree. The Financial Times reported the repeated position of the EU Commission which is that "its probe into Apple's tax deals with Ireland would continue even if the company moved some of its $200bn overseas cash pile back to the US."

The tenacity and determination of the EU Commission to take on U.S. Companies that are successful in Europe is likely to lead to retaliation by the U.S. once the extent of the damage to U.S. companies is assessed by the Treasury later this year. Stay tuned because once the U.S Treasury decide to act, it's going to get nasty very quickly.





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Other Reports on the EU Commission

Europe's Antitrust Chief Determined to Pursue Apple in Tax Case

Europe's Antitrust Chief Says that Apple moving its Offshore Cash around won't stop their Tax Probe

U.S. Treasury Investigates Retaliatory Measures against the EU's Aggressive Investigation of Apple & Others
By coincidence, just after I wrote about independent contractors, Slate had an article about Comcasts use of individuals paid as contractors for cable installation  or, rather its use of contractors who hire individuals on a subcontractor basis, but who are (mis)treated as employees. According to the article, contractors, supposedly used only for particularly busy periods, now make up half the installer workforce, and the practices of those contractors are not just somewhat shady but deeply disturbing.

The practices include

requiring the prospective contractor to start with two weeks of training and two weeks of shadowing;

requiring contractors to punch in in the morning, and work all jobs assigned to them until the system allows them to finish, which could be 12 hours later, and allocating a lunch period at the companys discretion;

requiring a noncompete agreement that prevents them from working for other cable installation contractors 

all of which violate basic components of the employee vs. independent contractor test, as described on the IRS website, and in this Wall Street Journal article (google-based link here), as well as the Slate article itself. A true independent contractor already has the skills for the job, rather than needing training in the employers system; has discretion in hours worked, and in break periods; and is able to work for multiple job sites.

Whats more, because of the contractor system, it is the individual, and not the company, that loses out when a customer cancels, or when the job takes longer, sometimes even far longer (an installer tells tales of customers making him wait while they run out to buy a TV), than it should. And these workers are given visions of large paychecks that never materialize, especially after the need to rent and purchase equipment, pay gas bills, and, come tax time, manage self-employment taxes, and, come tax-time, discover that none of their taxes have been withheld. And because of these expenses, theyre not able to successfully determine a true take-home pay.

All of which is bad, and the Department of Labor has been engaged in efforts to go after employers who intentionally misclassify employees as independent contractors. And this isnt a Red or Blue, Republican or Democrat, issue, to the extent that its about companies violating the law.

And now I try to untangle this a bit more in the form of a Q&A:

Whats the benefit to employers of using independent contractors rather than employees?

In theory, the wages ought to be the same, if the workers in either scenario have the same degree of leverage. In a weak labor market, employers will offer lower pay rates either way; in a tight labor market, theyll offer higher wages and/or job rates. But why, then, do companies choose the independent contractor route? I would imagine there are four issues at play:

first, that they anticipate that they can get people to accept contractor rates that are lower than the equivalent hourly rate, due to limitations in workers ability to assess how a set of job rates translates into an equivalent wages;

second, they want, in this as in every other aspect of their business, to eliminate risk as much as possible;

third, they want to design the work as piecework, rather than having to worry about managing employees to ensure they work productively, especially when the day-to-day tasks are done independently; and,

fourth, in extreme cases, some employers can manage to turn what would otherwise be a minimum wage job into one that ultimately pays less than minimum wage, and, in any case, employers can ignore laws around overtime requirements.

So imagine that were in a situation where employees have enough negotiating power (due to a tight labor market) to demand high job rates. Whats the harm in this employee-to-contractor change then?

There are several further disadvantages to being a contractor. No, its not a matter of lacking employee benefits; at least for the time being, until the Obamacare mandate kicks in, employers are not required to offer benefits to their employees, and contractors can, in theory, purchase insurance coverage (health insurance, disability benefits, etc.) for themselves. Its not really even a matter of the worker having to pay the self-employment tax, since, again, in theory, the job rates ought to be high enough to make up for that. The bigger issue is that individual workers bear this administrative burden, that is, for tax withholding, in a way thats inefficient, if you consider the relative ease with which an employer can process withholding for everyone vs. each contractor being required to do this for themselves, and especially the relative difficulty for low-pay, low-skill workers. And there are some employer obligations which a contractor cannot deal with by purchasing insurance: workers compensation is designed to make the worker whole in a way that no disability benefit would, and unemployment cant be insured for except in the trivial sense that, eventually, one can build up a savings cushion  but one cant predict when in ones career the dry spell will hit.

What do I think of the contractor vs. employee test?

If I think about when we had a contractor coming to our house to build an addition, the contractor was clearly not an employee: he told us when he (or the work crew) would be coming and what was on the schedule for any given day, and we didnt particularly interfere unless there was a clear conflict (which I think pretty much meant not at all  I was worried that the construction would be a problem for my son, who was two at the time, and his naps, but he loved watching them, and happily fell asleep listening to them hammering), knowing that any request from us would result in delays.

Which means that, based on my reading, Id differentiate between:

Situations in which the worker has control over work hours, whether by determining when the job is done or by selecting which jobs to take or reject, without facing penalties from the work provider, vs. situations in which the worker is prescribed a fixed schedule by the employer, as well as

Situations in which the worker brings his own skills to the job, and works on tasks which are generally applicable across a variety of jobs, vs. situations in which the worker is trained by the employer to do its specific tasks, and

Situations in which a worker works for multiple work-providers, depending on who has jobs available at a given time, vs. situations in which a worker works for a sole employer.

How often does this happen?

There are a wide range of industries in which the Labor Department is pursuing employers. This article lists a number of recent actions:

a $1.075 million consent judgment against a cable company for allegedly misclassifying its cable installers

a $277,000 assessment against a janitorial service subcontractor and its payroll services company found to be joint employers of low-wage custodians misclassified as independent contractors

a $1.3 million consent judgment against a text message and Internet information provider for misclassifying its special agents who answered text messages from website users, and

a $395,000 consent judgment against a construction contractor for misclassifying carpenters, electricians, masons, laborers, painters and drywall hangers.

Another article here describes some of these cases.

Under the Bus, which I read a while back, describes abuses in janitorial work, so I pulled up some details here: Jani-King, and other such businesses, offer what they claim to be a franchising opportunity, but the reality behind the offer is that hopeful entrepreneurs purchase the franchise, and are supposedly in business for themselves but then are given a book of business by the company, which they fulfill on their own, and are hence de facto employees, according to an article (from 2014  theres not much more recent) at the ABA Journal.

Am I claiming that in each instance in which the Labor Department goes after a company, theyre right and the company is wrong?

No, Im not an expert on the law or on these situations. And from what I understand, theyve lost some cases, too, because its not clear-cut.

What about Uber and TaskRabbit?

Strikes me as a totally different situation. In the case of Uber, the drivers can accept or decline jobs/rides as they choose, there is no company training per se, and its the drivers own car. In the case of TaskRabbit, similarly, the worker is not required to accept a task or work a given number of hours, they set their own rates, and they bring their own skills to the job rather than being trained by the company. On the other hand, the greater the extent to which TaskRabbit punishes workers who arent always available (besides just the loss of any given opportunity), the more they would seem to move into being an employer, especially since the workers are paid on an hourly basis.

Is there a fair way to have employees work on a piecework basis, especially for jobs where they work independently and the employer cant directly see what theyre up to or force them to be faster?

Dunno. Not an expert. What do you think?

Whats my point, then?

No, I dont have a larger agenda. I said last week that the claims of certain activists that all employers would ultimately fire their employees and hire contractors instead were over-the-top and failed to understand the reality of employment. But at the same time, it is certainly true that, where abuses occur, the federal government should go after the abusers to ensure that everyone plays by the rules. So when I read about this and dug into it, it fell into the something worth sharing category.

Image: from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AElectrician_installing_outdoor_connections_on_multifamily_house.JPG, By Tomwsulcer (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
Several weeks ago the Indiana legislature passed HB 1337, a law requiring abortion clinics to ensure that miscarried or aborted fetuses be cremated or buried. Heres a summary from Vox:

1) It makes an unprecedented requirement to bury or cremate all fetal remains, even from an early miscarriage Its hard to predict the precise effect this provision will have, but it could be really bad for abortion providers and women who have abortions or miscarriages. The law says that a miscarried or aborted fetus must be interred or cremated by a facility having possession of the remains, and requires a person or facility having possession of a miscarried or aborted fetus to ensure that the miscarried fetus or aborted fetus is preserved until final disposition occurs. It doesnt matter how far along the pregnancy is. Normally when a pregnancy ends earlier than 20 weeks, the products of conception (fetal tissue and the placenta) are treated like any other medical waste. After 20 weeks, the fetus is considered a stillbirth and the parents typically have the option to cremate or bury it if they choose. So even if a woman has a miscarriage at eight weeks of pregnancy at home, under this law she could be required to keep the blood and tissue, take it to a hospital, and have it buried or cremated by a funeral home.

Sometimes news reports get bills specific content incorrect, and I actually assumed this was happening here when I first read about this Vox article. Surely, I thought, surely it just applies to medical facilities in possession of a fetus, and not miscarriages or medical abortions that occur at homeand that appears to be what most other news outlets are assuming too. Dont get me wrong, this more limited application wouldnt make the bill suddenly make sense, but I seriously didnt thinkoh wait, look here, it looks like I was wrong and Vox was right.

Let me pause to note that Indiana already had a law requiring women to be given the option of burying or cremating a miscarried or aborted fetus if they so chose, and a law requiring health care facilities to bury or cremate miscarried or aborted fetuses of at least 20 weeks gestation. Whats different about this law is that it extends it before 20 weeks and applies to individuals as well as health care facilities.

Heres whats completely new:

SECTION 26. IC 16-41-16-7.6 IS ADDED TO THE INDIANA CODE AS A NEW SECTION TO READ AS FOLLOWS [EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2016]: Sec. 7.6. (a) This section applies to a person or facility possessing either an aborted fetus or a miscarried fetus. (b) Within ten (10) business days after a miscarriage occurs or an abortion is performed, a person or facility described in subsection (a) shall: (1) conduct the final disposition of a miscarried fetus or an aborted fetus in the manner required by IC 16-21-11-6 or IC 16-34-3-4; or (2) ensure that the miscarried fetus or aborted fetus is preserved until final disposition under IC 16-21-11-6 or IC 16-34-3-4 occurs.

At this point you may be wondering what the two referenced sections say. Here they are, below. Both are existing statutes that regulated only what was to be done with fetuses of at least 20 weeks gestational age, and both were significant amended by HB 1337 to apply to every gestational age.

Heres the first referenced statute:

SECTION 11. IC 16-21-11-6, AS ADDED BY P.L.127-2014, SECTION 4, IS AMENDED TO READ AS FOLLOWS [EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2016]: Sec. 6. (a) If the parent or parents choose a location of final disposition other than the location of final disposition that is usual and customary for the health care facility, the parent or parents are responsible for the costs related to the final disposition of the fetus at the chosen location. (b) A health care facility having possession of a miscarried fetus shall provide for the final disposition of the miscarried fetus. The burial transit permit requirements under IC 16-37-3 apply to the final disposition of the miscarried fetus, which must be cremated or interred. However: (1) a person is not required to designate a name for the miscarried fetus on the burial transit permit and the space for a name may remain blank; and (2) any information submitted under this section that may be used to identify the parent or parents is confidential and must be redacted from any public records maintained under IC 16-37-3. Miscarried fetuses may be cremated by simultaneous cremation. (c) The local health officer shall provide the person in charge of interment with a permit for the disposition of the body. A certificate of stillbirth is not required to be issued for a final disposition of a miscarried fetus having a gestational age of less than twenty (20) weeks.

And heres the second referenced statute:

SECTION 21. IC 16-34-3-4, AS ADDED BY P.L.113-2015, SECTION 6, IS AMENDED TO READ AS FOLLOWS [EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2016]: Sec. 4. (a) An abortion clinic or health care facility having possession of an aborted fetus shall provide for the final disposition of the aborted fetus. The burial transit permit requirements of IC 16-37-3 apply to the final disposition of an aborted fetus, which must be interred or cremated. However: (1) a person is not required to designate a name for the aborted fetus on the burial transit permit and the space for a name may remain blank; and (2) any information submitted under this section that may be used to identify the pregnant woman is confidential and must be redacted from any public records maintained under IC 16-37-3. Aborted fetuses may be cremated by simultaneous cremation. (b) The local health officer shall issue a permit for the disposition of the aborted fetus to the person in charge of interment for the interment of the aborted fetus. A certificate of stillbirth is not required to be issued for an aborted fetus with a gestational age of less than twenty (20) weeks of age.

Clearly, theres a lot here to make things more difficult for abortion clinics to operate, and both sections appear to be geared at regulating how health care clinics dispose of miscarried or aborted fetuses. This bit appears to be most relevant to an at-home miscarriage or a medical abortion (though it still seems to assume that there is a health care facility automatically involved):

If the parent or parents choose a location of final disposition other than the location of final disposition that is usual and customary for the health care facility, the parent or parents are responsible for the costs related to the final disposition of the fetus at the chosen location.

A lot rides on how final disposition is defined in Indiana law. I did find a legal site stating that: By law, a licensed funeral director must oversee the final disposition of a body in Indiana. If this is correct, under HB 1337 a woman in Indiana must either contract with a funeral home for fetal remains after a miscarriage or medical abortion, or surrender the remains to a health care facility, but would not legally be able to dispose of them herself. However, I am not a lawyer, and would be interested in hearing if anyone else is able to determine more specifically how Indiana law defines and regulates final disposition.

You may be wondering if the term fetus gives an out to those who miscarry before the term applies. After all, the term fetus is not used until two months after conception, or roughly the 10th week of pregnancy as it is generally counted. This would suggest that miscarriages or medical abortions before this point would be exempt from this lawoh wait, they though of that.

SECTION 4. IC 16-18-2-128.7, AS ADDED BY P.L.113-2015, SECTION 2, IS AMENDED TO READ AS FOLLOWS [EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2016]: Sec. 128.7. Fetus, for purposes of IC 16-34 and IC 16-41-16, means an unborn child, irrespective of gestational age or the duration of the pregnancy.

Yes, really. I have about had it up to here with the legislature arbitrarily changing the meaning of a medical term, and this isnt the first time by a long shotthe Florida legislature recently changed the medical definition of the first trimester.

This bill does indeed apply to every miscarriage and medical abortion, and not just those that involve a medically defined fetus. This does lead to a questionhow is one to identify the fetus in an early first trimester miscarriage? Thats asking the impossible. Is the woman to preserve all of her lost blood (which presumably means miscarrying over a bucket rather than the toilet) and then take that to a funeral home or health care facility? In fact, many women miscarry so early that theyre not aware that theyre miscarrying. Should we start collecting and preserving each period to ensure that we arent accidentally breaking the law?

I would really like to see an actual legal scholar tackle the implications of this. So far almost everything Ive seen written on HB 1337 focuses on its ban on abortions for fetal abnormality and its requirement that abortion clinics must cremate or bury fetal remains. It is possible that legal scholars will find a way to argue that the law applies only to health care clinics, and not to miscarriages or medical abortions that take place in the home. Im not a legal scholar myself; all I have is the bill text and the ability to use google. Ive looked and have not found any legal analysis of this specific aspect of the provision. At the very least, the implications seem to be ambiguous.

The group Periods for Pence appears to be aware of the bills potential implications:

Fertilized eggs can be expelled during a womans period without a woman even knowing that she might have had the potential blastocyst in her. Therefore, any period could potentially be a miscarriage without knowledge. I would certainly hate for any of my fellow Hoosier women to be at risk of penalty if they do not properly dispose of this or report it. Just to cover our bases, perhaps we should make sure to contact Governor Pences office to report our periods. We wouldnt want him thinking that THOUSANDS OF HOOSIER WOMEN A DAY are trying to hide anything, would we?

Unfortunately, much news coverage of Periods for Pence is missing the seriousness of what is at stake here, or why what these women are doing is so apropos.

Women who cant even with Indianas new anti-abortion law are protesting it in a hilarious way  by calling Gov. Mike Pencess office to tell him about their periods. Pence and other anti-abortion lawmakers seem to be so concerned about womens reproductive health and whats going on with a womans body that theyd love to hear more stories about menstruation, right?

No, thats not it, its that periods can very easily be late miscarriages, and women who miscarry are about to be required by law to ensure that their miscarriage is disposed of properlyi.e., by contracting with a funeral home or turning it over to a hospital.

This is not hilarious; it is deadly serious.

I want to finish by noting that this law has literally nothing to do with either protecting womens health or furthering womens rights through the abortion process, the two justifications most recent TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws have leaned on for their restrictions and requirements. I understand why the existing law allows women the option of cremating or burying a fetus of at least 20 weeks gestational age, because in most cases these are wanted fetuses, and being able to bury or cremate them could bring wanted closer (though it does not always).

But that is not what this is.

Even the requirement that abortion clinics bury or cremate the results of each abortion clearly has nothing to do with protecting womens health. Its a baldfaced and obvious attempt to make it harder for clinics to operate, in an attempt to cut the number of abortions performed. I very much hope that it is overturned in court.

Say what you want about the side of this bill that makes it harder for abortion clinics to operate, requiring women who miscarry at home to collect their miscarriage and either contract with a funeral home or take it to a health care facility, on pain of penalty, is one of the most inhumane things I have read in a very long time, and has nothing whatsoever to do with abortion.
Patna: The unofficial 'Prohibition Justification Yatra' of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar continued on Sunday when the newly-elected President of the Janata Dal  U took a new approach to rationalize his decision to impose total prohibition in Bihar saying it would in fact improve Bihar's economy in the long run.

Speaking at the Platinum Jubilee celebration of the Bengali Association of Bihar at the A. N. Sinha Institute, the Chief Minister said that since the people of Bihar would not be spending their hard-earned money on liquor and booze, they would now use that money to buy consumer goods for their family members.

"On an average, people would be spending anywhere between Rs. 15,000 crore to Rs. 20,000 crore each year in consumer market. This would prove to be very good for Bihar's economy," he said.

Confident that the estimated loss of roughly Rs. 5,000 crore annually directly due to prohibition would be made up easily by a surge in the sale of consumer goods, Kumar said that unlike previous administrations, he decided to implement full ban on sale and consumption of alcohol beverages after conducting a thorough study of the subject and its implications in the long run.

"People from all walks of life were telling me to impose prohibition in Bihar. I did that after we carried out a full study on the topic and only then decided that despite initial financial loss, it would be made up by a spike in the sale of consumer items in the state," the Chief Minister said.

Kumar said that he would encourage other states to impose ban on alcohol as well in the coming days.

"Bihar will be a shining example for others states that may also be considering imposing prohibition," he said.
Patna: A day after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called for a 'Sangh-free' India, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Bihar and at the Center fired back at the Janata Dal  U leader saying Kumar needed to stay within his limit and stop believing that somehow he controlled entire India or all Indians.

"Nitish Kumar used the BJP and the Sangh Parivar to enhance his political career for 17 long years. Today, in his ambition to rule India, he wants to eliminate all opposition so he could rule the country unfettered without any possibility of any criticism. However, only in his dream he can think of eliminating BJP and become the Prime Minister of India because neither is going to happen," senior BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said.

Reminding Kumar that he was only a regional leader, former Union Minister further said that the JD-U could not even contest on all seats in Bihar but was fantasizing about contesting in all states because of his bloated ego.

"This is the sign of a desperate leader whose credibility outside Bihar is almost none," he said.

BJP national spokesperson Shrikant Sharma also did not mince any words saying after bringing back 'Jungle Raj' in Bihar, Nitish Kumar now wanted the same anarchy in other states.

"Nitish Kumar cannot even control his own state but now he wants to rule India in an opposition-free environment. He needs to explain why he stayed with the Sangh Parivar for 17 years. He had been participating in BJP and Sangh-sponsored programs for years and now that he is a partner with Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), he has learnt to speak their language," Sharma said.

"From Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi to Rajiv Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi  all had opposed the RSS but it has only grown with the passage of each year," he said.

Senior party leader and Union Minister Prakash Javedkar also slammed the Chief Minister for his comment saying those who were partners in the 'unholy' alliance did not have the power to destroy 'holy' BJP.

"Nitish Kumar has conceded that not one single party in India had the capability to defeat the BJP so now they were conspiring to form an unholy alliance in their desperate bid to take on the party that is in power at the Center," Javedkar said.

Another senior party leader and Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that Nitish Kumar did not shy away from criticizing Congress in the past but now has become a huge fan of the failed party.

"The fact that the BJP is working for the weaker section of the society is becoming tough for Nitish Kumar to swallow and that is why he is making all these nonsensical statements," Naqvi said.
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First Air France jet lands in Iran after eight years

04/18/16

Report by Press TV; photos by Islamic Republic News Agency

Iran's media said on Sunday that the first Air France plane had landed in capital Tehran after a hiatus of eight years. The plane - an A330 - has reportedly landed in Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA). It is carrying the French Transport Minister Alain Vidal as well as the CEOs of Air France and Boeing among others, reported iribnews.ir, the news agency of Iran's state broadcasting IRIB.

This is the first Air France jet to land in Iran in eight years following a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 that went into effect in January.

Air France will fly to Iran three times a week. German carrier Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines also run several flights a week connecting Iran and Europe. British Airways will start offering six flights a week to Tehran on July 14.

Speculations are already rising that Vidal's trip to Tehran could lead to the finalization of a major deal between Iran and Airbus to purchase scores of new planes.

The $27-billion deal - that was signed during the visit to Paris by Iran's President Hassan Rouhani - envisages the delivery of 118 planes as early as July.

Also, the reported trip to Tehran by Boeing chief could mean that a deal - possibly for 100 new planes - with the American aviation giant is around the corner.

Ali Abedzadeh, the president of Iran Civil Aviation Organization (CAO), said in March that talks with Boeing over the purchase of new planes are in advanced stages, stressing that a deal with the American aviation giant is "very likely" to be sealed.

This could make the plane-maker the first major American enterprise to seal a deal with Iran.

Iranian officials have already emphasized that the country will need to buy 500 commercial jets of various models for various short-, medium- and long-distance routes.

According to Minister Akhoundi, Iran's current civil aviation fleet consists of 248 aircraft with an average age of 20 years, of which 100 are in storage.
Business Leaders around the World Call for an End to Iran's Closure of Baha'i Businesses

04/18/16

Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

Letter to Khamenei Urges Respect for Economic Rights of Bahais



file photo: Tehran Bazar



In a signed statement addressed to Irans supreme leader, 54 leading business people and economists from countries around the world asked Ayatollah Khamenei to stop the harassment and discrimination against Bahai business owners in Iran.

We view the recent spate of business closures by Iranian authorities not only as a violation of religious freedom and human rights, but also as an affront to the freedom to do business, the letter, which was signed by prominent figures from Brazil, India, Australia, Germany, the US, and the UK, stated.

Read full statement here

The letter noted that since October 2014, Iranian authorities had closed at least eighty Bahai-owned businesses in the cities of Kerman, Rafsanjan and Sari because their owners had temporarily closed their doors to observe Bahai holy days, and had pressured Bahai business owners to sign pledges that they would no longer close their shops on Bahai holy days.

The closing of Bahai businesses and the constant harassment of Bahais are against Irans international commitments guaranteeing freedom of religion, said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

The business community worldwide should let Iran know that if Iran wishes to be open for business it must respect the law and the rights of Bahais, he added.

The Bahais are one of Irans most persecuted religious minorities. The UN Secretary General and the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Iran have expressed serious concern over the systematic discrimination Bahais face in the Islamic Republic.

The letter noted that Bahais are barred from government positions and private employers are pressured not to hire them, so small businesses are their primary means of livelihood. Shutting down these shops and businesses will only tighten the economic stranglehold on the small and peaceful Bahai community, the letter said.

We urge the Iranian government to stop closing Bahai-owned businesses and to allow Bahai citizens full participation in Irans economic and social life, the letter added.

Ghaemi noted that Irans President Rouhani, who received a copy of the letter, should speak out in defense of the Bahais. Rouhani should guarantee that no Iranian citizen is denied their economic rights because of their faith, including Bahais, said Ghaemi.

For the full text of the statement click here
India Between Iran and Saudi Arabia

04/18/16

By Fatemeh Aman (source: LobeLog)

During Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Saudi Arabia that began on April 3, India and Saudi Arabia signed agreements on financial intelligence-sharing, terrorism financing, and trade and investment. According to the joint statement, the two countries call on all states to reject the use of terrorism against other countries; dismantle terrorism infrastructures where they happen to exist and to cut off any kind of support and financing to the terrorists operating and perpetrating terrorism from their territories against other states; and bring perpetrators of acts of terrorism to justice.

A similar agreement on economic and security cooperation was signed in the United Arab Emirates in August last year. In regards to terrorism, the agreement condemned efforts, including by states, to use religion to justify, support and sponsor terrorism against other countries.

Each side interpreted the statement in Riyadh differently. India likely understood the agreements language about sponsoring terrorism to refer to Pakistan, while a Saudi official expressedsatisfaction that India understood the Kingdoms position on terrorism emanating out of Iran.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting separatists and violence in the Himalayan region. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, considers Iran to be behind the sectarian tension and violence in the Kingdom.

Indias Balancing Act

But India has also been careful to hedge its bets. A trip by Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj to Iran on April 16 could be interpreted as an effort to both strengthen ties with Iran and balance Modis trip to Riyadh.

So far India has successfully maintained an active Middle East presence. Indias foreign minister has traveled to the Persian Gulf states, Israel, and the Palestinian territories, and Modi met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on July 8, 2015 on the sidelines of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summits. India has also hosted high-ranking officials from countries such as Iran, Syria, Qatar, and Israel.

There are 7.3 million non-resident Indians in the Middle East, 2.8 million of them working in Saudi Arabia and remitting over $36 billion to India in 2015. Saudi Arabia is Indias principal oil supplier.

Sectarian strife is one of Indias major concerns requiring engagement with the Saudis. With a large Muslim population-nearly 140 million-India is taking measures to monitor and control the increase of Wahhabism in the country and possible Saudi funding of Wahhabi sects.

Iran and India Expand Cooperation

In March of this year, the cabinet of Prime Minister Modi gave its approval for India to accept to the Ashgabat Agreement, which facilitates the transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. India is working to participate in the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) which is the route for moving freight between India, Russia, Iran, Europe, and Central Asia. Indias investment at the Chabahar port in Iran-potentially amounting to $20 billion-is another expanding arena for cooperation. In May 2014, with the economic sanctions eased, Iran signed a memorandum of understanding with India on developing the long-delayed Chabahar port project. Later, India decided to increase the original investment from $85 million to $150 million. A new deal, which includes a liquefied natural gas plant and a gas cracker, along with the construction of a direct 1400-kilometer undersea gas pipeline from Chabahar to the Gujarat coast, will increase Indias investment to $20 billion.

Both countries also need each other to ensure a stabilizing impact in Afghanistan through investment and other means.

Continuing tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the subsequent deteriorating security situation challenge Indias interests. Saudi-Iran tension and its impact in Yemen have forced India to evacuate thousands of its citizens from Yemen. Therefore, it is in Indias interest to maintain an effective balance between the two countries, and both countries seem to understand that.

Both India and Pakistan have worked hard to keep a balanced relationship with the Saudis and other Arab states on one side, and Iran on the other side. Dissatisfaction with Pakistan for declining to join the coalition to intervene in Yemen has led to some harsh exchanges between Pakistani and Arab officials including a warning to Pakistan that it will pay a heavy price. This type of expectation game is a major impediment for improvement of relationships between the regional nations. If improved cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia can be achieved without undermining Saudi-Pakistani relations, it should equally not come for India at the expense of its relationship with Iran. India needs more friends than foes, and that includes Iran.




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Ever since its stock crashed, it's been popular to hate on LinkedIn. The company's stock price plunged(Opens in a new window) more than 50 percent since the beginning of the year. The bulk of the drop came in February after the company's warned growth would be weaker than expected in coming months.

There's a lot that's frustrating about LinkedIn. The desktop user interface (UI) is a mess, and the company routinely changes or removes features that users like. It's the slightly stodgy older brother to the cool kids of Instragram, Snapchat, and Tumblr.

But LinkedIn gets a lot of things right, too, especially for companies that use it to promote their employer brand, list job openings, or troll for new employees or customers.

It's popular to think of LinkedIn as a social network, but it's really a human resources (HR) technology platform. The service's social media-like exterior hides a job board, recruiting tool, and applicant tracking (AT) system. All of those components generate many millions of dollars in revenue. As more companies use analytics to make decisions about hiring and labor management, the people data on which LinkedIn is built could be a key to its long-term success.

LinkedIn declined my requests for comment about its stock price or financial performance, citing the expected release of its Q1 2016 financials on April 28.

The Business Social Network

As a social network, LinkedIn is so-so. On the plus side, it's the only U.S. social network devoted to business. Remember BranchOut(Opens in a new window) and Monster's BeKnown(Opens in a new window), short-lived services that tried building business networks on top of Facebook? Yeah, nobody else does, either. If you're graduating, job hunting, or exploring switching jobs, what's the first thing everyone tells you: log onto LinkedIn to update your profile and see who's hiring.

LinkedIn continues to grow, hitting 414 million users in 200 countries in 2015, an annual increase of 19 percent. However, only a quarter of those log in at least once a month, according to the company's Q4 earnings report. By comparison, Facebook has an estimated 1.5 billion active user accounts, Instagram has 400 million, and Twitter 320 million.

As more people use their phones to job hunt, LinkedIn has upgraded and streamlined its main mobile app. The app is simpler to navigate and more elegant than the website. The company also spun off several standalone apps, including a LinkedIn Job Search(Opens in a new window) app. The company also rolled out redesigned job postings for the desktop version of its service last December.

On the minus side, LinkedIn's desktop UI is a Franken-jumble of elements that feel stitched together to mimic the strengths of other networks. It lacks the well-organized richness of FB, minimalism of Twitter, and visual appeal of Instagram or Pinterest.

In recent times, the company also made changes to Groups, and took away some ability to save information for contacts that aren't first-degree connections. Other helpful functions are buried deep inside drop-down menus and advanced search features.

LinkedIn skews older than other social networks. It's the only U.S. social media platform more popular with 30- to 49-year-olds than 18- to 29-year-olds, according to Pew Research(Opens in a new window). That makes sense if you consider the people who using it are old enough to have jobs. The jury's still out on whether today's chat and video-obsessed tweens and teens will graduate to it once they start job hunting.

The Job Board

As a job board, LinkedIn is one of the biggies, with a reported 6 million job listings worldwide. That puts it in league with competitors such as Indeed, which claims more than 16 million listings; Glassdoor, with 10 million jobs and an equal number of company reviews; SimplyHired, a jobs search engine with about 6 million listings; and CareerBuilder, which powers career sites for 1,000 partners.

Job listings and other online advertising make up only 19 percent of LinkedIn's revenue, according to the company's fiscal 2015 report. In that sense, it's been better than competitors like Facebook and Twitter at diversifying revenue streams so it's not as dependent on ad revenue.

The bulk of LinkedIn's revenue comes from its Talent Solutions(Opens in a new window) division, which sells software tools such as LinkedIn Recruiter. Recruiters use the software to mine the company's member database for active job hunters as well as passive candidates (who aren't looking for a job but might be open to switching if the right opportunity came along).

The Recruiter's Friend

According to long-time recruiter and sourcing trainer Irina Shamaeva, LinkedIn and LinkedIn Recruiter(Opens in a new window) are so popular recruiters open them up in the morning and keep it open all day. Even so, they have a love-hate relationship with the service, said Shamaeva, Partner and Chief Sourcer for Brain Gain Recruiting(Opens in a new window) in Palo Alto, Calif. It's the only global network with huge amounts of professional data searchable multiple ways plus content and networking features, "with nothing comparable in sight," she said. But LinkedIn keeps dropping and adding features, with a long-term trend of making more of the features that recruiters and sourcers use paid, she said.

LinkedIn Recruiter typically costs $8,000 per seat (user), with exact costs based on a company's size, needs, number of seats, and other factors according to the company. Sales of Recruiter and other Talent Solutions products and services accounted for 59 percent of LinkedIn's total 2015 revenue, or about $1.8 billion. Growth of recruiting software is slowing down, something Job Board Doctor blogger Jeff Dickey-Chasins blames on saturation of its North American market(Opens in a new window) and a slight downturn overseas. The slowdown was at the heart of the February stock selloff. LinkedIn sells similar software called LinkedIn Sales Navigator for corporate sales departments.

LinkedIn previewed a new version of Recruiter at a recent customer conference and expects to release it to its entire customer base in a few weeks, one indicator the company is working on improvements that could boost sales. The company is also ramping up LinkedIn Referrals(Opens in a new window), a separate Talent Solutions service introduced in late 2015 that lets employees make referrals for job openings at their companies.

Playing the Big Data Card

LinkedIn is expanding beyond recruiting tools to attract more job hunters and corporate users. That expansion was behind its $1.5 billion purchase of online learning website Lynda.com (30-Day Free Trial at LinkedIn Learning)(Opens in a new window) in 2014, and before that, SlideShare(Opens in a new window), the web-based presentation site. It also explains why after launching a blogging platform for VIPs(Opens in a new window) in 2014, LinkedIn opened up the long-form blogging feature to all of its users in June 2015.

More companies are using HR analytics to manage the people side of their business, including uncovering the most qualified prospects to hire and most cost-effective ways to staff a shift. In that regard, the data LinkedIn's services are based on give the company a head start on other HR tech vendors adding analytics to what they offer.

LinkedIn is solidifying its big-data base. In early February, the company paid $100 million for Connectifier(Opens in a new window), a start-up with machine learning-based searching and matching technology LinkedIn said it will incorporate into its recruiting tool. LinkedIn has been vague about how it might use Connectifier's technology. A company spokesperson would only say: "By combining our network and products with Connectifier's machine learning-based search and matching technology, we're better positioned to accelerate our Talent Solutions product roadmap."

HR software isn't as glamorous as social media. But, as hiring and people management become as much science as art because of Big Data and predictive analytics, LinkedIn is in a better position than many HR tech vendors to capitalize on the trend. Whether or not Wall Street catches on is a different story.
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a copyright infringement case against Google for its now 12-year-old effort to scan books and allow people to search them online.

The Supreme Court, without comment, rejected an appeal by the Authors Guild to overturn an October 2015 appeals court ruling finding that the massive Google books program falls under so-called fair use exemptions to copyright protections.

Fair use allows limited reuse of copyright-protected works for criticism, parodies, education, and other purposes. Fair use also allows for people to transform the original content into a new type of work, and that transformation of the printed books was part of Googles argument in this case.

The Authors Guild had argued that Googles wholesale copying of copyright-protected books would generate profits for the company at the expense of authors. The group wanted the Supreme Court to recognize Googles seizure of property as a serious threat to writers and their livelihoods, one which will affect the depth, resilience, and vitality of our intellectual culture, the Authors Guild said on a webpage detailing the case.

The Supreme Court decision gave authors a colossal loss, Authors Guild President Roxana Robinson said in a statement. The guild still believes Googles effort was a plain and brazen violation of copyright law.

Google Books project may lead to a short-term public benefit, but it will come at the expense of the future vitality of U.S. culture, Robinson added. The denial of review is further proof that were witnessing a vast redistribution of wealth from the creative sector to the tech sector, not only with books, but across the spectrum of the arts, she said.

Google wasnt immediately available for comment.

The Copyright Alliance, a trade group representing copyright holders, said it was disappointed with the Supreme Courts decision. The high court has allowed an appeals court decision that dramatically expands the boundaries of fair use to stand, Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid wrote in a blog post.

The appeals court held that Google did not need the consent of the copyright holders of 20 million books to digitize those books in order to create a publicly searchable database containing those and other books, Kupferschmid added. The courts holding was based on a dubious finding that Googles mass digitizing effort was a fair use because the Google Books project conveys information about the works to users and therefore transforms the books.

The Google Books case wound through the courts since 2005, when the Authors Guild first sued Google. The two sides reached a proposed US $125 million settlement in 2008, but a judge later rejected the deal over concerns that it would give Google a monopoly over scanned books.
Cloud computing is changing the game for one of the hardest problems in IT: running a network.

Users are counting on fast, secure access more than ever, even as networks get more complex and threats more dangerous. Often, theres a lot of data available about the state of a network and its performance, but more data by itself cant solve a problem. So startups are turning to the growing power of the cloud for answers.

Nyansa, based in Silicon Valley, emerged from stealth mode on Monday with Voyance, a cloud-based SaaS (software-as-a-service) offering that analyzes inputs from wired and wireless LANs to gauge users actual experiences on a network.

The companys launch follows one earlier this month by Veriflow, a cloud-based startup that analyzes all possible data flows to determine whether security policies are working. Its a broader trend, too, with companies like Dell taking their systems management software into the cloud.

Voyance uses software to analyze traffic on a companys network and generate metadata, which it analyzes in Amazons VPC (Virtual Private Cloud). It correlates data from all networks using Voyance to provide benchmarks and insights, which appear on a dashboard for IT administrators. The feedback includes reports about problems, recommendations for how to resolve them, and insights into the potential effects of events like adding new applications.

For example, if a new driver on a certain device OS has disrupted the networks of other companies, Voyance can put out a global alert and also warn you if its detected that issue with devices on your network, said Anupam Singh, director of IT network, telecommunications and security services at Suffolk University in Boston.

Using Voyance is much better than looking at inputs from multiple monitoring applications for different vendors and parts of the network, as Suffolk used to do, Singh said. In the past, engineers might have spent hours scratching their heads over a problem caused by one bad driver.

It gives you more intelligence, Singh said. It gives you more value from the data that was in silos.

By using the cloud, Nyansa can do a lot more with network data than Suffolk could by relying on its own engineers or computing power, Singh said. The view it provides goes all the way from the physical network layer to how applications are running.

Suffolk has been a beta user of Voyance for approximately a year, and there are about 30 other beta customers. Thats an indication of how much work goes into building a service that takes on this kind of complexity. In that time, the university has worked with Nyansa and suggested additions, such as a priority matrix to determine which problems go to the top of the list, Singh said. It flags the most critical issues on a users network and can use more than one factor, like urgency and number of systems affected, to prioritize them. For example, a problem that affected few systems could be more urgent because those systems belonged to top management, he said.

Network management has long been fragmented among vendor-specific applications, which cant give a complete picture of what the network is like for users, IDC analyst Robert Young said. You have to understand the whole stack to understand the experience, he said.

For enterprises that want more analysis of their systems, the cloud may be the only practical way to go. Otherwise, you have to build out infrastructure to support that, and that can be a deal-breaker for a lot of organizations. (Nyansa will actually let its users host all the infrastructure in house, but it doesnt expect many to do that.)

A company like Nyansa faces at least two challenges, Young said. First, some companies worry about the privacy of their internal data when it goes to the cloud. Nyansa says only metadata leaves the customers premises.

Second, the companies that supplied the management software already in use at many enterprises, like IBM and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, are also boosting their cloud-based analytics capabilities. Its hard to get companies to eliminate those kinds of tools, so startups like Nyansa should make sure they have ways to work with them, Young said.

Voyance is available now. Subscription rates are based on term length and size of deployment, starting at US$8,100 per year.
News Corp. is fighting Google at the European Commission over what it calls improper scraping of content for use in search results, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The owner of the Times of London, the New York Post, the Journal and many other media properties around the world has filed a formal complaint with the Commission, the European Unions executive body, the report said. The story cited an unnamed source familiar with the allegations.

News Corp. charged that Google takes news from its sites and makes it available within Google search results. If a company wants to keep that scraped content out of Googles results, it has to give up on having even links to its stories show up in Google searches, News Corp. alleges, according to the report. The complaint said thats an abuse of Googles dominance in search.

When the content of articles shows up in search results, readers can consume it there without visiting the creators website, sometimes hurting those companies businesses, critics say. Web companies such as TripAdvisor and Yelp have attacked the practice.

Content scraping by Google has been the subject of complaints in the past. It was part of a European Commission antitrust investigation begun in 2010 over allegations that Google gave its own search business unfair advantages. The company pledged to stop that practice.

Also on Monday, European Competition Commissioner Margarethe Vestager said the Commission is still investigating antitrust allegations concerning Googles Android mobile OS and Amazons contracts with e-book publishers.

News Corp. and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A Temecula-area man who had been accused of sexually abusing a girl when she was between ages 5 and 9 has pleaded guilty and is expected to face 50 years in prison.

Sean Fitzpatrick Damewood, 54, accepted a plea deal Thursday, April 14, Riverside County District Attorneys Office spokesman John Hall confirmed Monday.

Damewood pleaded guilty to five counts of forcible lewd acts on a child under the age of 14, Hall said in an email. Damewood is scheduled to be sentenced Monday, May 2.

He was charged in January with 99 counts of child molestation after a girl told authorities that Damewood, who was a family friend, had abused her between 2008 and 2011, according to a Riverside County sheriffs news release.

After the girl spoke with authorities on Jan. 4, they launched a search for Damewood, but he appeared to have fled the area, sheriffs officials said. San Diego police helped find and arrest him the followng day in the community of Ocean Beach.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9693, agroves@pressenterprise.com or @AlexDGroves on Twitter.
Five hikers were rescued and at least one hospitalized with minor injuries Monday afternoon, April 18 according to a Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department news release.

The one hiker requiring medical attention was brought by a Riverside County Sheriffs Department helicopter to a waiting ambulance for the drive to an area hospital, the news release said.

The condition of the other four hikers was not available.

The Sheriffs Department reported earlier it had received a call at about 3 p.m. about two hikers in distress on the Chiquito Falls Trail, said Deputy Michael Vasquez.

Additional details about the hikers and the rescue were not available.

Chiquito Falls Trail is located west of Lake Elsinore off Highway 74, commonly known as the Ortega Highway.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.
General Mills, Ross Stores, Lowes and The Home Deport will have representatives at the City of Perris Job Fair.

It takes place 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday, April 21 in Harrison Hall at the Lake Perris fairgrounds.

The event will include more than 10 major employers, according to a news release from the Perris Community Economic Development Corporation.

Local companies will include Alabbasi Construction and Engineering of Riverside.

The fairgrounds are at 18700 Lake Perris Drive, Perris.

Information: 951-943-6100, cityofperris.org/CEDC
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report included an incorrect total for the number of Orange County residents eligible for the presidents deportation-relief programs.

Although Blanca Olivares isnt afraid of admitting shes living in this country illegally, she couldnt help but cry when she spoke of how her family would be affected if she were ever deported.

I dont want to be separated from my kids. They would suffer so much, said Olivares, 39, of San Bernardino.

Olivares  originally from Mexico  was one of the more than 20 pro-immigrant activists who gathered in downtown Riverside on Monday morning to rally in support of the presidents deportation relief programs, one of which would offer a form of legal residency and work permits to parents of citizens or legal residents.

At stake is the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, or DAPA.

In 2014, Obama used executive action to allow people who have been in the United States more than five years and who have children who are legal residents to come out of the shadows and get right with the law.

The other initiative is an expansion of the existing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program for people who arrived before the age of 16 and met certain criteria. Under the expansion, the former age cap of 31 was eliminated.

The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice organized the rally where activists chanted, Undocumented, Unafraid! and Si se puede!, (Yes we can!) and held signs reading, No Human Being is Illegal.

In downtown San Bernardino, two dozen anti-illegal immigration activists had a different message for the Supreme Court: No amnesty.

Its not that theyre not compassionate, several of them said  in fact, its the opposite.

Im an immigrant myself, but I did it the right way, said Sabine Durden, of Moreno Valley, who came from Germany.

Both sides passions were stoked by a Supreme Court session Monday in which justices heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by 26 states that challenges Obamas immigration actions.

The Obama administration is asking the justices to allow it to put in place two programs that could shield roughly 4 million people from deportation and make them eligible to work in the United States.

Justices appeared to be evenly divided between liberal and conservative members.

If the court is split ideologically, the case could end in a 4-4 tie, because Justice Antonin Scalias death in February left the panel one member short. That would leave the programs in limbo, almost certainly through the end of Obamas presidency.

A ruling could be made in June.

Obamas initiatives, local proponents say, could open up better jobs for thousands of undocumented people in the Inland area.

We waited for this for a long time. This should have been implemented since last year, said Lyzzeth Mendoza with the Inland Congregations United for Change. Our families have waited way too long for this relief.

For Olivares, a mother of two children who are U.S. citizens, the presidents initiatives could mean better paying jobs for her and her husband. Olivares, who works in fast-food, envisions buying a home and opening a party-supply business. Her husband works construction without health benefits.

She said shes applied for other jobs but its been tough without a Social Security number.

Were hardworking people and we need this to better our families, she said.

Officials including Rep. Norma Torres, D-Chino, and Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino, met Monday with immigration activists and California residents who would be eligible under the programs.

I urge the Supreme Court to do the right thing and keep Latino and other immigrant families together instead of tearing them apart, Aguilar said in a statement. Were talking about mothers, fathers, sons and daughters  this is about shielding families from the devastating possibility of being ripped from their homes and families.

Not all are in favor of these initiatives.

The anti-illegal immigration protesters, organized by Claremont-based We The People Rising, held signs and chanted in front of San Bernardino City Hall for about two hours. They then delivered a letter to the Mexican Consulate across the street.

Durden wore a shirt declaring her son was hit and killed by an unlicensed illegal alien on 7-12-2012.

My son was a 911 dispatcher who helped everyone, and after he was killed I couldnt get anything  because the person who killed him was gone, she said.

Juan Zacarias Tzun pleaded guilty in 2013 to vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence, a misdemeanor. He served a short jail term and was deported to his native Guatemala in 2014.

Some at the San Bernardino rally said they were unable to get jobs because people illegally in the country had them instead. Others opposing illegal immigration see Obamas initiatives as amnesty and believe the president overstepped his authority.

One of our major stances is that immigration law needs to be done with our Congress, Robin Hvidston, with We the People Rising, has said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: amolina@pressenterprise.com or 951 368-9462
This year, California could join a parade of states marching toward legalization of adult recreational marijuana use. But here, as in Colorado, Washington and other states that already have taken the leap, many anti-pot cops and pro-pot advocates agree: No one yet has devised a practical and reliable field test to determine when a driver is under the influence of marijuana.

State Sen. Bob Huff, who represents parts of Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, is proposing legislation that would authorize the use of saliva swab tests, which, combined with portable instruments, can detect the presence of pot and other drugs.

Backers of the swab test  now widely used by law enforcement in the United Kingdom and by companies stateside to screen potential employees for drug use  say it offers a quick and cheap way to help establish probable cause to further test for drugs that can impair drivers.

But critics say the roadside device still is too experimental and unreliable to be put into wide use. Also, authorities say early tests show its least effective on the two types of drugs they most frequently encounter: marijuana and prescription medicine.

Fullerton police tested the technology in recent years but never used the results in a DUI prosecution. At this point, it doesnt appear any local public safety agency is using the oral swabs in the field.

But with drugged-driving crashes up and Californians weighing legalization of recreational pot, Huff and others say a new tool is needed to keep roads safe.

In 2013, in 32 percent of all auto fatalities in California, people tested positive for driving under the influence of either legal or illegal drugs, Huff said. It seemed like the right time to do this.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Huffs legislation, Senate Bill 1492, wouldnt mandate the use of oral swab tests. But it would set standards for law enforcement agencies interested in using the devices, the senator said, and free up federal funding to help buy the equipment.

As with all DUI cases, the law states officers would first need reasonable cause to believe someone is driving under the influence.

If the driver fails a field sobriety test, the officer would give the driver the option of taking a saliva test  akin to the breath tests offered to drivers suspected of being under the influence of alcohol.

If the driver passes the test, Huff said he or she would be free to go. If the driver fails the test or refuses to take it, he or she would be taken to the station for a blood test to measure the level and type of substances in the drivers system.

TESTING THE TECHNOLOGY

The Orange County District Attorneys Office partnered with Fullerton police and the county crime lab to test saliva swab tests from November 2013 to April 2014. Similar pilot projects took place through a federal grant in Los Angeles, Bakersfield and Sacramento.

For suspects who volunteered to take the test, authorities pledged only to use the samples to further scientific research and not for evidence, said Susan Price, the Orange County district attorneys assistant head of courts.

Tests found that the device is most effective in testing for drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines, Price said. When it came to marijuana and prescription drugs, she said, there were several false positives and false negatives.

The accuracy of swab kits tested in Bakersfield and Los Angeles was 98.9 percent, said Brian Shaffer, a spokesman for Drager, the German company that manufactures the tests.

One challenge with drug testing is theres no clear scientific standard to determine when a driver is illegally impaired. Price said thats because so many factors affect how the body metabolizes drugs, including the persons tolerance, the potency and the method of ingestion.

Shaffer insisted Dragers kits detect the mind-altering chemicals in drugs, which he said would be present only in people whod recently ingested them.

Research to establish a state standard for marijuana impairment is just gearing up. Under the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, California will partner with UC San Diegos Center for Medical Cannabis Research Center to study how pot impacts motor skills.

Researchers hope to correlate performance on a driving simulator with the ingestion of marijuana, according to Dr. Igor Grant, who is chairman of the universitys Department of Psychiatry.

The study will assess how lab measurements might be adapted for use in the field and how different types of field tests, including swab kits, compare.

The center hopes to have state approval and begin its research in the fall.

Another Assembly bill introduced in February would establish a legal driving limit for marijuana users at 5 nanograms per milliliter of blood  the same as limits imposed in Colorado and Washington. To get a conviction, though, AB2740, introduced by Assemblymen Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, and Evan Low, D-Silicon Valley, also would require corroborating evidence of impairment, such as failing a field sobriety test or unsafe driving.

LAW ENFORCEMENT remains HESITANT

Officials at several local police departments said they hadnt heard of the saliva swab tests. Others said theyre waiting to see what the researchers find and courts allow.

If the technology changes and the law changes with it to allow for another method of testing, we will look at the new technology to see if it is reliable and cost-effective for us to implement, said Sgt. Daron Wyatt of the Anaheim Police Department. However, for now, we will be staying with blood and breath.

The Huntington Beach Police Departments traffic division reviewed the tests about a year ago, according to Officer Jennifer Marlatt. The agency opted not to move forward after questions were raised about the cost-effectiveness of adding another investigative tool.

Huffs bill has sparked concern from groups like NORML, who think its too early to implement the roadside kits statewide.

We do not feel there is enough scientific evidence proving the tests validity, Hawes said.

Shaffer points out his companys Drager DrugTest 5000 has been used for eight years, with roughly 1 million tests performed in Europe, Australia and the United States.

If it was 100 years old, it would be too new for the marijuana community, Huff said.

Despite the limitations of swab testing, Price said shes encouraged by the attention thats being paid to reducing drugged driving.

The technology of the oral device thats being tested is very promising, Price said, and its something we look forward to having as an additional tool in the field.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7963 or bstaggs@ocregister.com
Supporters of businessman Donald Trumps presidential campaign will be staging another rally at Temeculas Duck Pond Park, site of a Mar. 26 event that attracted hundreds of Trump supporters and counter-protesters.

Some of the counter-protesters waved Mexican flags, a response to Trumps call for a border wall, and others showed up to stump for rival candidates, such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The upcoming rally, which will feature a trio of guest speakers, is scheduled for 11 a.m., May 7, at the parks gazebo. A street rally near the corner of Ynez and Rancho California roads is scheduled for noon.

There were no violent incidents at the previous rally but a woman was hospitalized for what appeared to be a heat-related ailment.

Temecula police officers helped keep the peace when the men carrying Mexican flags confronted the Trump supporters at the southeastern corner of the intersection.

The scheduled speakers are Tim Brown, mayor of Canyon Lake; Gregory Brittain, Redlands Tea Party Patriots official and Orly Taitz, a constitutional attorney who has been called one of the leaders of the birther movement.

Prospective attendees have been asked not to engage with protesters.

From the flier for the event, which is being staged by Californians For Trump, Remember, you are responsible for your actions and we dont want bad publicity for Mr. Trump.

Trump is not expected to attend the event.

Temecula Police Chief Jeff Kubel said Monday he had around a dozen officers working at the previous rally.

Our initial plan is to have similar staffing for this, but we will continue to monitor social media and work with the event organizer to make sure we have what we need to keep things safe, he said in an email. If it becomes necessary to adjust (decrease/increase) staffing to match the size of this event we will certainly do so.
Both Tara Brown and Sally Faulkner, currently awaiting a hearing in Beirut over their role in the disastrous 60 Minutes story, faced judge Rami Abdullah in a brief meeting where they were told the decision on their fate would be postponed til Wednesday.

Brown appeared outside the court escorted by police who prevented her from looking at the gathered media scrum, though photographs were taken representing some of the first visual since the arrest.

The judge reminded the defendants, who were handcuffed, that the case was not a custody case but rather that they are charged with kidnapping two kids.

It doesnt look good for either Sally Faulkner or the 60 Minutes team. The childs father Ali Elamine rebuked his earlier promise that he would drop charges, after he realised that extending that mercy to his wife would also mean 60 Minutes would get off too  and he clearly wants to see them punished for their role. He told Fairfax:

The way they are trying to push for this is that if Sally goes out on bail, they all get out. That is how I am seeing it as an outsider.  They are pushing for Sals release and everyone else gets a green card. [Nine] dropped the ball by getting involved in family matters [and now] everyone is blaming the other for what happened.

Source: News.com.au.

Photo: Getty Images / Marwan Tahtah.
Democratic Reps. Joaquin Castro of Texas, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Republican Reps. Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Richard Hanna of New York hosted an event Thursday launching what they called the first Congressional Pre-K Caucus.

But the real stars of the show were Cookie Monster and Elmo, who made a trip from Sesame Street to Capitol Hill.

An honor to join Cookie Monster & many others at Capitol for launch of Congressional Pre-K Caucus. @NSBAComm pic.twitter.com/zlS8sqbg4C  Tom Gentzel (@Tom_NSBA) April 15, 2016

Joined Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Reps. Hanna, Castro, Clark, and Cole to help launch the Congressional #PreKCaucus. High-quality early education sets our children up for long-term success. Proud to be a founding member of this important bipartisan caucus! A photo posted by Rep. Bobby Scott (@repbobbyscott) on Apr 14, 2016 at 3:37pm PDT

Conferring with Congressman Monster and Congressman Elmo on the new #PreKCaucus in Congress. pic.twitter.com/cXeZtV8cAx  Rep Peter DeFazio (@RepPeterDeFazio) April 15, 2016

The four members of Congress are joint co-chairs of the caucus, which plans to bring members of congress together to gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of early childhood education and promote policy recommendations to expand pre-K access for children throughout the country, said an invitation to the kick-off.

The Dallas Morning News, which attended the event, reported Hanna as stating : ""Theres nothing about this issue that should be anyway partisan, and I dont think that there is. The reality is once you know more about pre-K its impossible not to support it for every child in America. We need universal pre-K.
After the convoluted and bizarre roll out that was Kanye Wests The Life of Pablo, most fans were relieved to finally have the album.

However, there are millions of very gullible people out there who believed Kanyes truly insane tweet-rants, which stated that TLOP would never be available anywhere but Tidal. So, now that its available everywhere, theyre pretty mega-pissed.

Look, most of us just paid the $9.99 and got on with our lives. But one man one man says no.

Justin Baker-Rhett from San Francisco has decided that he cannot let this go, and is suing Kanye West for lying to him about the accessibility of TLOP.

According to Vulture, the class-action lawsuit states that if Baker-Rhett had known that the album would be available elsewhere at some point, he never would have signed up to Tidal.

In making these little teeny-weeny lies of omission, the company earned about $84 million US, and has collected millions of peoples credit card information and personal data. So, as well as suing Kanye, Baker-Rhett is also asking a judge to order Tidal to delete the info of any person who signed up to Tidal purely to hear Pablo.

#BRUTAL

Source: Vulture.

Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty.
The

will return for the

Aug. 6 at the

, according to the event's website. They're the only band that's been announced for the festival so far.

The Boston-based pop group announced that they will not tour this year, according to their website. However, they said that the Mixtape Festival is a way to "make (their) break from the road just a bit more fun for all of us."

"Mixtape has always been near and dear to our hearts," a statement on the group's website reads. "...We've gotten a glimpse of this year's lineup of superstar artists and trust us you will want to be there to see some very special moments."

We are playing @MixtapeFestival in Hershey, PA on August 6th!!! All info at https://t.co/PAC7uFZYlj! pic.twitter.com/DvJv6KwemO  New Kids on the Block (@NKOTB) April 18, 2016

The statement added that Block Nation members with tickets can attend a free party before the festival Aug. 5; and those with VIP passes can also attend a separate party after the event Aug. 6.

Block Nation is an online community that's dedicated to the New Kids on the Block.

Members can get their tickets ahead of anyone else at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 23. There's no information yet about when the general public can get their tickets.

The New Kids on the Block performed at last year's Mixtape Festival as well, joining musical acts such as TLC, Nelly, Sugar Ray, Salt-n-Pepa and Vanilla Ice.

For more information about the New Kids on the Block's performance at the Mixtape Festival, visit their website. The event's Facebook and Twitter pages said that there will be more information soon.
If you're Bruce Springsteen fan, then chances are you've already got tickets to April 18's show at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center. You've probably binged listened to his records all weekend and speculated what he and the E Street Band will play tonight.

No one has a crystal ball, but you can make smart guesses as to what The Boss will play from looking at the set lists for his last five performances. Springsteen's website lists the songs he performed April 3 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; April 5 in Dallas, Texas; April 7 in Kansas City, Missouri; April 12 in Columbus, Ohio; and April 14 in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It doesn't show what he will perform tonight.

Springsteen and the E Street Band has performed all 20 songs off his 1980 album "The River" during his last five shows. They then performed other hits, including "Because the Night," "Thunder Road," "Born to Run," "Dancing in the Dark," "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)," "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and "Shout."

The Boss has played "The Rising" during four of his last five shows, so there's a chance attendees might hear that song. He's performed "The Promised Land," "Backstreets" and Bobby Jean" at three of his last five performances. There's a small chance attendees might hear "Born in the U.S.A." and "She's the One," which Springsteen only performed at two of his last five shows.

This is not a definitive list by any means, but it's the best idea we have on what tonight will sound like:

"The Ties That Bind"

"Sherry Darling"

"Jackson Cage"

"Two Hearts"

"Independence Day"

"Hungry Heart"

"Out in the Street"

"Crush On You"

"You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)"

"I Wanna Marry You"

"The River"

"Point Black"

"Cadillac Ranch"

"I'm a Rocker"

"Fade Away"

"Stolen Car"

"Ramrod"

"The Price You Pay"

"Drive All Night"

"Wreck on the Highway"

"Badlands"

"Because the Night"

"Thunder Road"

"Born to Run"

"Dancing in the Dark"

"Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"

"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"

"Shout"
Union leaders are rejoicing that a California appellate court struck down a trial court ruling that would have voided some tenure and seniority practices. The media are calling it a major victory for unions, but I chalk it up in the loss column.

How can that be? California Teachers Association president Eric Heins said, Todays ruling reversing [Superior Court Rolf M.] Treus decision overwhelmingly underscores that the laws under attack have been good for public education and good for kids and that the plaintiffs failed to establish any violation of a students constitutional rights. (Other reactions, all predictable .)

The court did say that, at least the last part. But the court didnt endorse the existing statutes either. The courts job is merely to determine whether the statutes are constitutional, not if they are a good idea, Appellate Division Two Presiding Justice Roger W. Boren wrote.

Im Delighted With The Decision

Im delighted with the decision. Vergara would have been a terrible constitutional principle, and much of the 36-page appellate court decision refutes the claim that the tenure and due process statutes violate the constitution or create a civil rights issue.

But the CTA and California Federation of Teachers still lose. They lose because Students Matter , the organization that brought the suit, is organized as a movement. The lawsuit is only a means to the larger end of reshaping teaching as an occupation. The movement goes on. [L.A. Times , EdWeek ]

By Friday morning, the Students Matter web site had announced that they would appeal the ruling to the California Supreme Court, and similar efforts continue in other states. A look-alike lawsuit in Minnesota had been announced Thursday.

In California, Students Matter is suing Antioch Unified and 12 other school districts over those districts collectively bargained ban on using standardized test scores as part of teacher evaluation. The 1999 amendments to the 45-year-old teacher evaluation law, the Stull Act, included standardized test scores among other multiple measures.

Built Like A Campaign Organization

Its long been recognized that Students Matter looks like a campaign organization . Its web site is glossy, its media talking points are well crafted, and the student plaintiffs are sincere and often tearful. Students Matter is looking for, and successfully reaching, a larger audience. And they can point to public opinion, such as the USC/Dornsife poll that shows only about 8 percent of respondents favoring using seniority for the purposes of layoff and equally low support for achieving tenure after two years.

In its Teacher Employment Policy Pillars , Students Matter agrees with virtually all educators and researchers on the centrality of an effective teacher in the classroom. They want laws that insure that all students have access to effective teaching. But theyve chosen to attack employment statutes that have a modest influence, at best, on the quality of the teaching work force. (See, Five Reasons that Vergara Is Still Unwinnable. )

The line of evidence and testimony in the trial court provides some clues about the employment world that Students Matter founder David Welch and his organization want.

Its About THE TEST

They want a system in which teachers are judged on the quality of their teaching as measured by standardized tests and on which their employment security also rests. Everything in this worldview is tied back to THE TEST: teacher rankings, value added assessments, revocable tenure.

Welch and company wave a hand at broader teacher training and induction issues : the States efforts should extend beyond the policies challenged by Vergara to strengthen the entire teacher preparation, assignment and retention pipeline. But their litigation would create a work place that is less secure and in which occupants are judged by exams that they didnt create, which measures things that they didnt and werent supposed to teach, and which are designed to exaggerate variations in results so that student results can be spread out over a normally distributed bell curve.

The defendants in the original trial put on a set of witnesses that had a different worldview: that there needs to be a systemic approach to the problem that creates incentives for accomplished college students to become accomplished teachers, good support for new teachers, continuous improvement in schools, substantive and tough minded evaluation programs (such as the peer review programs described here recently .)

No Action from the Unions

Unions say they want all of these things. But theyve not done much to counter Students Matters with view of teaching that goes beyond the status quo. Its not that they cant; they just havent. Any day they wanted to, the CTA and the CFT could put all their lobbying, electoral, and organizing skill behind building teacher quality , including getting rid of those who cant perform well. That union-led evaluation and teacher development programs remain rare, suggests that the internal revolution that needs to happen within teacher unionism hasnt. Thus far, the unions have squandered a rare political opportunity in California that would allow them to deal with current dangers and those that lurk over the horizon.

Policy fixes are at hand. Academics and policy scholars have described new assessment systems in detail. Four years ago a task force created by State Superintendent Tom Torlakson produced Greatness By Design that included many of the necessary elements.

But Ive yet to see a bill package introduced in the legislature that would overhaul teaching in the ways that these advocates recommend.

Unions cant build the future by defending the past. By failing to advance their own agenda, theyve left the field open for Students Matter and its supporters.
United States Iraq

Defense Secretary Ash Carter arrives Monday, April 18, 2016, in Baghdad and is greeted by Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, top U.S. Commander for the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

(AP Photo/Lolita C. Baldor)

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The U.S. has agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year, U.S. defense officials said Monday.

The uptick in American fighting forces -- and the decision to put them closer to the front lines -- is designed to help Iraqi forces as they move to retake the key northern city of Mosul.

Speaking to reporters Monday in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the decision to move U.S. advisers to the Iraqi brigade and battalion level will put them "closer to the action," but he said they will have security forces with them and the U.S. will try to reduce the risks.

A senior U.S. official said that eight Apache helicopters will be authorized to help the Iraqi forces when Iraq leaders determine they need them. The official was not authorized to discuss the numbers publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Last June the Obama administration announced that hundreds of troops would be deployed to help the Iraqis retake Ramadi -- a goal they accomplished at the end of the year.

Of the additional troops announced Monday, most would be Army special forces, who have been used throughout the anti-Islamic State campaign to advise and assist the Iraqis. The remainder would include some trainers, security forces for the advisers, and maintenance teams for the Apaches.

The decisions reflect weeks of discussions with commanders and Iraqi leaders, and a decision by President Barack Obama to increase the authorized troop level in Iraq by 217 forces -- or from 3,870 to 4,087. The advise-and-assist teams -- made up of about a dozen troops each accompanied by security forces -- would embed with Iraqi brigades and battalion, likely putting them closer to the front lines and at greater risk from mortars and rocket fire.

The U.S., said Carter, is "on the same page with the Iraqi government" in how to intensify the fight against the Islamic State.

The proximity to the battlefront will allow the U.S. teams to provide more tactical combat advice as the Iraqi units move toward Mosul, the country's second-largest city, still under Islamic State control. Until now, U.S. advisers have worked with the Iraqis at the headquarters level, well back from the front lines.

The Apache helicopters are considered a significant aid to any attack on Mosul. Americans will fly the helicopters -- which provide air support to ground troops and carry precision weapons -- another new vulnerability for U.S. forces.

Last December, Iraqis refused Apache helicopters for the battle to retake Ramadi, but this time officials said they believe the fast attack helicopters will add an important edge.

Speaking to U.S. troops at the airport in Baghdad, Carter also said that the U.S. will send an additional rocket-assisted artillery system to Iraq.

U.S. military and defense officials also have made it clear that winning back Mosul is critical, but will be challenging, because the insurgents are dug in and have likely peppered the landscape with roadside bombs and other traps for any advancing military.
87th candidates.jpg

State Rep. Greg Rothman (left) and Hampden Township attorney Michael Travis (right) are facing off in the Republican primary for the 87th District of the state House of Representatives.

(Provided photos. )

This is an election in which voters are frustrated.

Maybe that's nothing new, and maybe the days of straw hats and eager slogans like "A chicken in every pot" and "I like Ike" are long gone, but when it comes to races in the state, it seems like voter frustration is looming larger than ever.

Much of it has to do with the recent budget stalemate.

And now, as the primary approaches, the question is, will Republican voters take out that frustration on the incumbent?

A challenger in one Cumberland County district says they will, but the incumbent - who has actually only been in office for about six months - says the frustration GOP voters may feel can be placed directly at the feet of the Democratic governor.

What issues separate these candidates? What is on the minds of Republican voters, both local and at the state level?

"I think the voters of the 87th District are looking for someone with high integrity who has moderate to conservative views on the issues facing state government and who will work especially hard," said Charlie Gerow, CEO of Quantum Communications and Republican strategist. "Outsiders have an advantage today that they didn't have a decade ago."

But this may be a primary where both candidates are kind of outsiders - even the incumbent.

State Rep. Greg Rothman, who represents the 87th District -- composed of all or part of Silver Spring, Hampden and East Pennsboro townships as well as Camp Hill -- is running for re-election.

He was just voted in during a special election over the summer following the departure of former state Rep. Glen Grell.

And challenging Rothman in the April 26 Republican primary is political newcomer Michael Travis, who is a Hampden Township attorney.

Hampden Township Commissioner Al Bienstock said Republican voters in his township are looking for a candidate who will represent them in a financially responsible manner at the state level.

"I think they want individuals who will stand up for keeping the spending levels low by keeping taxes not only at the level that they are, but even reducing them," Bienstock said.

Whoever is elected will be a new - or relatively new - member of the House, and that's going to take a little extra gumption to get things done.

"We need people who will stand up to the leadership when they think that the increases the leadership is asking for are unwarranted," Bienstock said.

In Hampden Township, the commissioners have not increased taxes in 40 years, he said, and the state government should follow suit and make do with what's available.

Just how to do that was a factor in the latest budget battle, which undoubtedly will be on the minds of voters on both sides of the aisle.

"There isn't any doubt right now the issues a lot of voters are concerned with have to do with the gridlock and the inability of the legislature and the governor to have any kind of functional relationship," said Terry Madonna, a political scientist from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. "The bottom line here is that voters are angry."

Despite voter anger, Madonna said it's unlikely a Republican incumbent would be in any real danger.

Here's what the candidates had to say about the issues facing the 87th District and Pennsylvania in general.

Rep. Greg Rothman

Rothman, 49, of Silver Spring Township, worked for years in real estate as president and CEO of RSR Realtors and has been a fixture in local and state Republican politics for years.

He has three children, Nicholas, Eleanor and Mia.

It was his background in real estate that led to his shock over the budget stalemate, which was already heated up by the time he was sworn into office in August.

"When you make an offer on a house and it's accepted, you have a settlement date, and you're supposed to settle on that day," Rothman said. There may be disagreements, but that's the firm settlement date and you work it out by then, he said.

Like most in his party, Rothman said he is adamantly against a tax increase and was pleased to see a budget passed without one.

"I believe there are ways to do things more efficiently and economically with a finite amount of money for important and critical services, including education," Rothman said. "You have to be protective of the taxpayers' money and be careful of how you spend it."

Rothman pointed out that he is a co-sponsor on bills that would lower the corporate net income tax from 9.99 percent to 4.99 percent as a way to attract new businesses to the state.

As a new representative, he said, one of his goals is to work with others to overcome some of the gridlock that has frustrated Pennsylvanians in recent months. People advised him as a freshman representative that he should go to Harrisburg and keep his ears open and his mouth shut, but he said with a laugh, "That's hard for me to do."

When there are major financial troubles, like any business or family, the state needs to stop digging a hole, he said, adding increases to the sales tax and income tax are not the answer.

"Over and over again, I said a 3 percent or 3 1/2 percent increase in spending is more than any businesses have," he said. "I try to remind members of both sides of the aisle that when you raise taxes, it has to come from somewhere - out of someone's pocket or out of the economy."

He said he's made relationships over the past few months in Harrisburg and is excited about the opportunities in the future. And most of the job, he found, is not political - "It's making the trains run on time," he said: Meeting with township and school district officials. Meeting with constituents. Working to help bring a community pool to one township while helping work out the details of a bridge project in another.

But for those political issues, he has strong feelings:

Pension reform:

Rothman said the state should not touch the pensions of existing retirees and current employees, but he is in favor of new employees going under a more defined contribution system - like a 401(k) - when they're hired.

A bill came over from the Senate that he opposed because it would not kick in for new employees until June 2017. He also opposed "collars," which would have allowed the state to delay or skip contributions into the system, only exacerbating the problem.

It's a critical issue and a complicated issue that he has been studying, trying to come up with the right solution, he said, adding when he was elected, he opted out of receiving a pension.

Liquor reform:

"Of course the government shouldn't be in the liquor business and consumers should have a choice," Rothman said.

The state should get out of the liquor business and let the free market take over or allow distributors to sell directly to convenience stores.

And as far as the budget battle goes, he said if there is voter frustration, it shouldn't be with the GOP.

"We won," he said, pointing out there is a budget with no tax increase. "I'm not sure what the alternative would be."

He said he's the right person for the job because he comes in with a unique perspective. He lived in the area his entire life, spent 26 years working in real estate and 10 years in the Marine Corps Reserves.

As he goes around, knocking on doors, he said the response he's been getting is, "Thank you for holding the line."

He said he's proven that he's not your typical freshman representative, and he's able to make a difference by working hard and voting for issues those in the district support.

Michael Travis

He was a political science major and a student of politics, but he never thought he'd run.

That is, until the state government did not respond to a problem in his neighborhood. And that, Travis said, is a sign of bigger problems in Harrisburg.

"Six months ago, I had no intention whatsoever of running for the House of Representatives," he said. "I feel the government has become completely unresponsive to the citizens. I pay taxes, I vote and I feel like I no longer have a voice."

He turned to the government for answers, and he got none.

So Travis has thrown his hat in the ring to run for state representative.

Travis, 47, has been a lawyer for more than 20 years and is a sole practitioner working out of Hampden Township, where he has lived for most of his life.

He has been married for more than 20 years to his wife, Denise. They have one son, Ethan, who is 9.

Travis said he was disappointed there was no Republican primary last year to choose a party nominee for Rothman's position, but he said his beef is not so much with his opponent. It's with the way government is going.

"It's gotten to be too big, too intrusive, and it needs to be reined in," he said.

Travis watched the budget situation unfold and, on top of the issues he already had with the state government, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. And neither can the voters of the district, he said.

"I think it's a mess, and I wouldn't want to be the incumbent," he said. "I talked to a lot of voters and they're quite upset. They think it's very childish. I would not want to be the incumbent."

Everyone played a role in that mess, he said, adding the two chambers did not do enough to come to a resolution.

As a business owner, he said, every business and every household must come up with a budget and stick to it to be successful, and it's no different for the state.

"I think the government has to live within its means like everyone else," Travis said. "Don't come back to the private sector and ask for more taxes - particularly income taxes."

Instead, the state needs to make cuts and work with what it has, he said.

If he were in office, he said, he would have done everything possible to come to a resolution, and if elected, he said, he will not vote for tax increases.

"I would never, ever vote for an increase to income taxes. It stifles everything," Travis said. "I would always be opposed to raising revenue, period. It should always come off of the expenses side."

As far as some of those perennial issues that seem to stick around, Travis has some thoughts:

Liquor reform:

Travis said this falls under the category of "blue laws" because, at some point in history, the people of Pennsylvania decided to regulate the distribution of alcohol.

And now, the decision on whether or not to privatize should not be made in Harrisburg.

It should go to a referendum to let the people decide for themselves, he said.

Pension reform:

Travis said that unlike many in his party, he is not as enthusiastic about going to a system like a 401(k). As an attorney, he sees the dark side of these and their impact on household budgets.

"I have concerns about 401(k)s," he said. "They are not as secure for retirees."

But he feels pensioners should have a choice between a 401(k) and a defined benefits plan.

And, unlike his opponent, he is not in favor of giving new employees something different than the current employees receive.

"I don't like trying to create a two-tier system with people who are coming in and getting paid benefits that are less than those already working," he said.

And he feels the state must honor its commitment to existing retirees. Promises were made to those already in the pension system, he said, and the lawmakers must find a way to honor those commitments.

Travis said he is the best candidate for the job for a number of reasons.

"I've been a lawyer for almost 20 years, and you have to listen very carefully to what people tell you," he said.

You're given choices. You weigh the options. You make your decisions.

"I don't see being in legislature as being all that different than my day job now," he said. "I think I am a good listener."
Vote

Democrats and Republicans will head to the polls April 26 to decide their parties' nominees for president, Pennsylvania row offices, Congressional districts and state House and Senate seats.

(Christine Baker | PennLive.com)

Welcome to your Voters Guide to Pennsylvania's 2016 primary election.

Republicans and Democrats across the state will head to the polls April 26 to select their parties' nominees, not only for president but for Congressional and state legislative offices.

The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania teamed with PennLive to gather information from candidates for office across the state. Whether you live in Harrisburg, Lancaster, Scranton or Pittsburgh, our Voters Guide will tell you who is running for office from your area, what their background is, and what they have to say about some of the issues in their race.

Not sure what state legislative or Congressional district you live in, or where you should go to vote? We can help you with that too at Voters Guide: 2016 primary election.

Click here to browse the tool.
For almost half a century, Charlie Wentz has been the caretaker for thousands of men and women buried in Newport Cemetery. He has buried hundreds of people, men and women from all walks of life who share in one common thread -- their final resting places on this quiet hillside that overlooks the Perry County town.

Each time Charlie buries someone, his wife Fran writes their name and location -- section and plot number -- on a 3-by-5 index card, which is then filed in a cabinet located in their home next to the grounds. Charlie and Fran know where most of the recent burials are -- he can still find their first -- but the cemetery here stretches back to the late 1800s.

To find those graves, Charlie (or Fran) looks up the name in their index card catalog, then cross references that location with maps of the cemetery that often were hand-drawn on the backs of window blinds. As sections were added, new maps were drawn. Some were proper surveyor maps, others were of the hand-drawn window-blind variety.

"It's what they had," John Amsler, president of the Newport Cemetery Association, said last week. For years the maps were stored in the Wentz's attic. When Fran needed to locate a grave -- maybe a curious genealogist trying to trace family records -- she would go upstairs and find the right section, then unroll it to find the plot.

It was, to say the least, an imperfect system. Caretakers essentially acted as the cemetery's librarians, but without a Dewey Decimal system to guide them. Numbers were not necessarily sequential, or the system shifted over the years, making the maps essential to finding the older graves. And as time rolled on, the maps began to deteriorate, fraying at the edges or cracking apart.

"You have to be very careful, as they would just fall to ashes [when handled]," Fran said.

In time, many of the maps became almost illegible. Amsler knew that when they were gone they could not be replaced. Indeed, the records of a second and even older cemetery in Newport already have been lost. Located at the edge of town, the community's first cemetery sits at the end of Fifth Street, overlooking Little Buffalo Creek.

The graves here date to the early 1800s -- some of the people were born in the late 1700s. The only record of the cemetery are notes taken by a historian and kept by the Perry County Historical Society. The cemetery association is unaware of any other documentation, a fate similar to the one they fear for their deteriorating maps. (As an aside, the cemetery association itself has a fairly fascinating history, having started as a for-profit operation in 1863. It became a non-profit after the Panic of 1907, a recession that forced many banks and businesses into bankruptcy).

"We were going to lose the records," Amsler said. And those records represented not just the final resting places of the dead but in many ways the history of the town itself.

"We did have the card file, but we need to preserve these records, and if we didn't do it quickly, we could have a real problem," he said.

The Newport Cemetery recently digitized their grave records, which had previously been recorded on window blinds. Caretaker Charlie Wentz looks for a name on one of the old window blinds. Sean Simmers, PennLive.com April 13, 2016

The weft and warp of history

Practically every town in Pennsylvania boasts an historical building or two, artifacts preserved because of their connection to an event, person, or time. But rarely do those physical places embody the full history of a community. The stories they tell can be fascinating and thought-provoking -- yet they are but markers or sign posts along a longer road.

Like an iceberg, they represent a small piece of a larger story.

That larger story is literally buried -- usually on the outskirts of town. It is here, amid the marble stones, that the weft of history can be found -- the threads that weave between the warp of our historic buildings. Tug on a thread -- pull it gently enough, and you might find a story.

In the summer of 1862, Josephus W. Smith, the son of hotelier Jacob Smith, left Newport with a number of young men from the surrounding countryside. They traveled to Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, where they were formed into Company I of the 133rd infantry regiment, Union Army, commanded by Col. Franklin Speakman, of New Bloomfield.

Smith and his fellow volunteers were too late for the Union victory at Antietam, but were sent to Maryland and Virginia, where they spent the fall marching and drilling. In December they marched south through Virginia to the town of Fredericksburg under the command of Gen. Andrew Humphrey where, along with thousands of other young men, they engaged the Confederate army in battle. They were marched through the town and launched into a frontal assault of Confederate troops occupying higher ground above Fredericksburg.

After the fighting, Speakman wrote a brief account:

"Between two and three o'clock P.M., on Saturday, the 13th of December, the regiment, in common with the other regiments of the brigade, was ordered to cross the river. This was successfully done, although the shells from the enemy's batteries were falling thick and fast, and exploding over us. I advanced my regiment as directed, through Fredericksburg, crossed the canal, or race, just outside of the city, and filing to the left, formed line of battle under cover of a small hill ... Knapsacks were unslung, bayonets fixed, and orders received to charge the works on Marye's Heights.

"We charged up and over the hill, about two hundred and fifty yards, when we came upon a line of troops, lying down. My men, not knowing that they were to pass over this line, covered themselves as well as they could in the rear of this line. The troops in front, neither advancing nor retreating, and a second charge being ordered, I passed over the prostrate troops, charged to the right of, and past the Brick House, and to within about fifty yards of the stone-wall, and to the left of the house, to the crest of the hill. These positions were held for an hour, under a most terrific fire from the enemy's infantry and artillery, and until dusk, when I was ordered by General Humphreys to withdraw, which I did."

Fredericksburg was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War and a loss for the Union Army. It was also the end of Josephus Smith, who was wounded during the action and died of his wounds. Today he -- and a number of his fellow soldiers -- rest in the old cemetery in Newport.

There are other stories here as well. Brutal stories of the challenge of surviving life in the early 1800s. Stories like the Etter family, Henry and Mary, who together had eight children in the mid-1800s-- Addie, Kate, J.P., A.E., Marion, Oliver, Rudolphus, and Amanda -- none of whom lived past the age of four.

Then there are the mysteries such as Abraham and Rebecca Howe, both born in the 1790s -- the dawn of the United States. In 1846 one of the first schools in Howe Township -- just outside of Newport -- was constructed on land owned by an Abraham Howe. It was built after an election three years earlier in which locals voted to restore a free school system that had been abolished by the local school board. Two years later, in the fall of 1848, Abraham and Rebecca died five days apart. A historian who later inspected the cemetery's records wrote in the margin: Accident? Fire?

These are the fabric of a town's true history -- the people who lived their lives in and around Newport. The only record of their lives are the markers in the cemetery yard, the records of their passing, records that are -- all across the state -- slowly being worn away by the passage of time.

The Newport Cemetery recently digitized their grave records, which had previously been recorded on window blinds Sean Simmers, PennLive.com April 13, 2016

Preserving the records

To salvage the association's old maps, Amsler turned to the SEDA Council of Governments, a group that operates out of a building south of Lewisburg. Amsler, a former Perry County Commissioner, had worked with the group before, during the modernization and computerization of the county's government.

To digitize the maps, the group first scanned them, said Scott Kramer, an IT specialist with SEDA COG. That worked for some of the maps, but some of those drawn on window blinds were too deteriorated to be scanned completely.

"I felt like I was unrolling a Dead Sea scroll," he laughed. The damaged maps were scanned in sections, which then had to be re-assembled on a computer.

None of the sections overlapped, so the team took all of the scans and began piecing them together, not unlike a jigsaw puzzle. Because the maps were so faded, it was difficult to tell which aligned together. To locate the plots, the team traveled to the cemetery and took GPS measurements for well-defined graves, markers that would later become "keystones" for their digital maps.

With that information, the team was able to overlay their scanned master map over aerial photography to identify each plot, or familial groups of graves. Each plot was then geolocated and assigned a proper set of GPS coordinates. It was - according to Kramer and Jim Baker, the chief of the IT group - a bit of a challenge.

Each map was drawn to a different scale, which had to be reconciled to form a cohesive picture of the cemetery. Then there were the graves that didn't appear on any map that also had to be accounted for. There were discrepancies between the note cards and the old maps, changes in the name and numbers of sections, and the fact that over time the edges of the cemetery and the surrounding woods have blended and shifted as well.

There were a few breaks for the team. Years ago the index cards had been computerized, so that information was able to be brought in and connected to the new map.

The finished product is now online -- a searchable database of cemetery records, each geocoded on a Google map. Family members and genealogists can search for a name and quickly find out where the grave is located in the cemetery.

"Now you can get on the system, type the name in and it'll tell you what section it's in," said Amsler. "Think what this will do for the genealogists. It'll really be nice for the area ... and it will preserve our records."

The cemetery association was able to pay for SEDA-COG's services through a state grant, and Amsler says he thinks other groups could benefit from the work.

"There probably are some cemeteries in the same situation we were in," he said, racing against time to preserve their records.

On Wednesday a man visited the Wentzs at their home and office adjacent the grounds. He was looking for a relative -- had made several trips -- but was unable to find her. As Charlie flicked through the old card catalogue to no avail, Fran hopped on her computer. A couple of minutes later, she yelled into the room: "Found her!"
scales of justice art.jpg

(shutterstock.com)

By John M. Morganelli

As we face another election for Attorney General, Pennsylvania is in desperate need of an experienced, tested prosecutor. I am currently Pennsylvania's longest serving district attorney and the most experienced Democratic candidate.

Democratic Attorney General candidate John Morganelli meets with the PennLive editorial board, March 31, 2016. Dan Gleiter, PennLive.com

I am a 24-year career prosecutor. I am the only candidate who has actually prosecuted criminal cases in the courtroom and who has personally conducted grand jury investigation.

In fact , I have personally prosecuted 25 consecutive murder cases, without a loss, putting some of Pennsylvania's most dangerous criminals in jail for life. Neither of my opponents have ever prosecuted a single criminal case t or personally conducted a grand jury investigation.

I am also the only candidate who has actually served as a Special Deputy Attorney General having served northeastern Pennsylvania in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties in special investigations.

And I am the only candidate who has served all of Pennsylvania as President of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association and as 6 year member of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. At a time when the Office of Attorney General is in need of a makeover, my record is unmatched.

But while experience does matter, resumes are about the past. Elections are about the future.

My experience has allowed me to learn firsthand both the possibilities and limitations of our justice system. Here is what I will do as AG:

Fight to enact former Gov. Ed Rendell's plan to end parole for repeat violent criminals so we keep violent criminals and sexual predators off our streets. Fight to keep guns out of the hands of children, criminals and the mentally ill by advocating the passage of the "Parents Responsible Gun Ownership Act." And I will require that lost or stolen guns be reported to law enforcement by attorney general regulation. Fix the broken parts of our justice system to make the system fairer for the poor, the mentally ill and the drug dependent by fighting for more resources. Support new legislation to give non violent offenders a "second chance" by expanding the ability to erase old criminal records. We have lost two generations of people who cannot get a job solely because they have an old, non violent criminal record. That has to change.

At this critical time, we cannot afford on the job training in the office of attorney general.

John M. Morganelli, the elected District Attorney of Northampton County, is a Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania Attorney General.
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By Joe Peters

If you were building an attorney general from scratch wouldn't you want to start with someone who's actually been on the ground as a police officer in uniform and undercover roles?

Republican Attorney General candidate Joe Peters. Joe Hermitt, PennLive

Further, wouldn't you want a chief of police plus someone who has been a federal mafia prosecutor?

Finally, wouldn't it be beneficial to have someone who served two presidents in the White House Drug Czar's office on the poisons of the day - drugs and terrorism?

That's my law enforcement career in a nutshell. I was a cop on the street in Scranton; I served more than 17 years in the AG's office and was the first head of the Drug and Organized Crime Division.

As such I was the state's top drug prosecutor and Chief of the Bureau of Narcotics Investigation.

I served as one of five federal mafia prosecutors in the 3-month trial - before an anonymous and sequestered jury -- that convicted Philadelphia Mob Boss Little Nicky Scarfo on all counts, including nine murders (one a judge) and giving a million dollar bribe to a city councilman.

After the trial the AP called me and my fellow prosecutors "modern day untouchables."

Later I served two presidents in top roles at the White House Drug Czar's Office.

I am not a career politician - I have been elected to nothing. I've spent a life from local, state, national and international experience in the very areas that haunt us today.

There is no on-the-job training needed. I am ready on Day 1 to restore honor and integrity to the Office of Attorney General.

Many candidates can only ask voters to examine what they want to do but today I ask voters rather to look at what I have already done.

It's a simple equation this year in the Republican primary for Attorney General: a cop and career prosecutor like me or a career politician like my opponent, Sen. John Rafferty.

I am going to use all the tools of the office to protect the most helpless among us. I am proud to be supported by law enforcement across the state. I am pro-life and the only AG candidate with an 'A' rating from the NRA; unlike my opponent I support Paycheck Protection.

In my career I have been fearless, independent and untouchable - and that's what I will bring to the Attorney General's office.

Joe Peters, of Scranton, is a Republican candidate for Pennsylvania Attorney General.
Southern governors are busy signing laws that allow people to express their bigotry and hate on "religious grounds". I wonder what religion these bigots practice? It cannot be Christianity; Jesus accepted everyone. Maybe it is some ancient devil worship or, which I think is most likely, these bigots are still in the closet. Say tuned.

GEIR MAGNUSSON, LOWER ALLEN TWP.
Alexa Brill

Alexa Brill and Maureen Cronin celebrate enactment of Pennsylvania's Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, which will advocates believe will help adults with intellectual disabilities reach new highs in quality of life and workforce potential.

This post was updated at 9:09 p.m. Monday to make some clarifications about those served by the ABLE Act.

Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law Monday a bill that many advocates believe will reset the ceiling on the long-term, quality-of-life potential for adults with with autism, Down Syndrome and other disabilities.

The ABLE Act - for Achieving a Better Life Experience - breathes life in Pennsylvania to a 2014 federal law that lets families establish tax-free savings accounts for the care of their children, similar to longstanding college tuition accounts.

Implementing legislation - which sailed to easy passage in both chambers of the General Assembly last week - was needed here since the new accounts will be administered by the states.

For those with disabilities, meanwhile, the act also erases a longstanding barrier that has kept many from participating in the American workforce as fully as they would have liked.

It ends a $2,000 cap on cash assets for medical assistance for those with certain intellectual and developmental disabilities.

That cap, many say, has caused many adults with conditions like autism, Down Syndrome and other conditions to live with an artificial ceiling on exactly how productive a member of society they can be.

Executive Director of The ARC of Pennsylvania Maureen Cronin said that taken together, this may be the most significant advancement for persons with disabilities since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990.

"I can't tell you how many people I know who can only work a few hours a week, who have the ability to work more hours, but can't earn more money and keep their health insurance," Cronin said.

"This is a huge game-changer for folks, because you always had to keep watching that you didn't have more than $2,000 in the bank, and $2,000 is not a lot of money in the bank," Cronin said.

At the same time, for many with disabilities, it is hard to find the kind of work that comes with full fringe benefits, Cronin added.

This gets them out of that Catch 22.

Those on hand were exultant.

"it will be extremely helpful because it means I will be able to save money without losing my benefits, and I will be able to acquire a full-time job," said Alexa Brill, a 26-year-old Camp Hill woman who runs social media accounts for the ARC.

The new pre-tax savings accounts, meanwhile, are designed to help families provide housing, transportation, life skills and other supports for their children after they age out of school settings at 21.

That's when these issues are most critical, because the young adults have by then literally aged out of the state's legal commitment to provide special education services.

Parents can build the new accounts - which can be started here in October - up to $100,000, again with no impact on eligibility for medical assistance. Cash can also be withdrawn at any time for qualifying expenditures without tax penalties.

Jamie and Kylie Stauffer of Hampden Twp., parents of a 7-year-old autistic son, Tye, said the creation of the new savings accounts will be a big help for families like theirs that until now have had to costly and more complicated steps like creating special-needs trusts for their kids.

"Part of our fear is when we're no longer here to be able to look after Tye," Jamie Stauffer said. "This not only helps us plan for the future, but it also allows us to take a lot of anxiety and stress away and enjoy him more while we are here."

Wolf signed the state law, Senate Bill 879, in the presence of U.S. Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa. and one of the lead sponsors of the initial enabling legislation in Washington.

The governor and others speaking Monday said they hoped the net effect of the ABLE Acts will be to create a new wave of employment for those with disabilities.

"There are a lot of really good reasons to want to hire folks with intellectual disabilities," Wolf said, from their ability to find comfort and happiness in repetitive routines that other workers reject, to historically lower turnover rates.

The bill was signed at The Vista School in Derry Twp., home to a state-of-the-art campus serving children with autism, where preparing children for fulfilling lives in the community has been the goal since 2002.

Andrew Ward, chairman of the Vista Adult Services board, noted that at present, 60 percent of all Vista School graduates are currently "competitively employed" in Central Pennsylvania.
Julia Dela-Cruz, 5, is shown in this undated handout photo. Police have issued an Amber Alert for a five-year-old girl they allege was abducted this morning by her father in Aurora, Ont. York Regional police allege the girl's father, Mario Rodrigues, forced his way into his ex-wife's home in around 4:20 a.m. and abducted the child. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Ontario Provincial Police
Even as a new lawsuit seeks to hold the New York City school district liable for failing to reduce violence and bullying in schools, recent court decisions show how difficult it is for plaintiffs to win on claims related to bullying.

A group of parents and other guardians of students backed by an organization called Families for Excellent Schools is seeking class action status for their suit against the New York City system. The suit in Doe v. New York City Department of Education , filed April 6 in U.S. district court in Manhattan, alleges that the school system is not adequately responding to in-school violence, harassment, and bullying.

The suit says the alleged pattern of acts and omissions by the New York City system reveal a custom and practice of deliberate indifference to in-school violence, creating a culture of indifference to continued, violent assaults against named class plaintiffs and others similarly situated.

The suits claims are based on the 14th Amendments due process and equal-protection clauses, as well as New York state constitutional and statutory claims.

The New York City district has not yet responded to the suit.

Meanwhile, two federal appeals court decisions in recent weeks rejected efforts by students and families to hold school systems legally responsible for bullying by students.

On April 8, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Va., ruled unanimously that a Maryland school district could not be held liable for the alleged bullying of a student with disabilities by other students.

A student at Aberdeen (Md.) High School identified as S.B. had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities, and he was often bullied, sometimes severely, the appeals court said.

But school administrators and officials of the Harford County district investigated complaints made by S.B.'s parents and disciplined the offenders, court papers say.

The parents sued under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, alleging that the district failed to prevent the bullying.

Both a federal district court and the 4th Circuit court agreed that the Harford County district did not respond to the bullying with deliberate indifference, the standard required under U.S. Supreme Court precedents to hold it responsible.

While we sympathize with students and parents who face school bullying issues, we agree that S.B. has provided no evidence that the [school district] acted with the deliberate indifference necessary to hold it liable for student-on-student harassment, the 4th Circuit court said in its decision in S.B. v. Board of Education of Harford County .

On March 25, another federal appeals court reached a similar conclusion that school officials did not respond with deliberate indifference to an alleged pattern of repeated bullying and sexual harassment of a Tennessee student.

A physically slight boy identified in court papers as DS was a student in Rutledge Middle School in the Grainger County, Tenn., district from 2010 to 2012 when he faced a string of altercations with other students. The bullying included being shoved and punched and being called anti-gay slurs.

DSs parents sued the Grainger County district and various school officials under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, alleging that the boys bullying was essentially sexual harassment by his peers that the school system failed to respond to adequately. The family also filed a claim under the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Both a federal district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati, held that the familys suit fell short on both claims.

In its March 25 decision in Stiles v. Grainger County , a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit court unanimously ruled that the bullying and sexual harassment pattern, which it outlined in detail, was not met by deliberate indifference by school officials.

As the district court observed, each time DS or his mother communicated a specific complaint of harassment, the school investigated promptly and thoroughly by interviewing DS, interviewing other students and teachers, taking detailed notes, and viewing video recording when available, the appeals court said. At the conclusion of each investigation, the administrators disciplined students found guilty of wrongdoing either with a verbal warning or a suspension.

Courts should not second-guess school officials disciplinary judgments, the appeals court continued. We acknowledge that the schools remedial measures did not eliminate DSs problems with other students. ... But the schools efforts here went beyond merely talking to the offenders. They consisted of multiple investigations, several in-school suspensions, and class scheduling that separated DS from his harassers.
FILE - In this March 10, 2016 file photo, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte talks to the media prior to addressing seafarers organization in Manila, Philippines. The Australian ambassador and Philippine presidential candidates condemned Duterte's, the leading contender, remark made Tuesday, April 12, 2016, at a campaign rally that he "should have been the first" to rape an Australian missionary who was assaulted and killed by prisoners in 1989. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)
Petoskey soccer pulls in third straight D2 district championship

PETOSKEY  The current group of Petoskey boys soccer players have been no strangers to winning at Northmen Stadium.
Boehringer Ingelheim has exercised an option that gives it exclusive rights to an undisclosed oncology target from its discovery collaboration with Oxford BioTherapeutics.

The target was discovered using the private UK biotechs proprietary OGAP system, which incorporates one of the worlds largest proprietary proteomic databases, integrating clinical, experimental and expression data.

Under the terms of the deal, Boehringer will now take on responsibility for the future development and commercialisation of antibody products to the target.

While financial specifics remain under wraps, it was noted that Oxford BioTherapeutics stands to receive development and regulatory milestone payments, and royalties on any future product sales in return.
Real Handgun 'Nintendo Duck Hunt Zapper' Is a Safety Threat

Adults know a gun is not a toy but when a Texas custom gun maker modified a Glock to look like a classic video game weapon this month, many critics worried kids would not. The "Nintendo Glock" caused such an uproar that Precision Syndicate was forced to clarify that it was not going to mass produce the firearm made to look like Nintendo's Duck Hunt Zapper.

Most of the negative comments about the gun came from people concerned about children being confused by the guns and police safety and responses as the line between toys and deadly weapons grows finer. But there will be only one such gun made by Precision Syndicate, says the company.

Overwhelming Response

The Nintendo Duck Hunt Zapper was released in 1984 and allowed users to pretend to shoot lasers at a screen. Now the kids of the eighties are all grown up and some gamers seem to think it would make a hell of a gun.

Reportedly others have already modified real weapons to look like this famous gray plastic fantasy weapon of the not-too-distant past. But the Texas gun maker who came under fire for the custom weapon it made explained how its Duck Hunt Zapper Glock came into existence in a statement on its Facebook page, unable to respond to thousands of messages and comments.

"In light of the 'Nintendo Glock' drama, we feel that the media and our fans need to know that this firearm will not be mass produced nor will it ever be," Precision Syndicate wrote. "This is a one off custom build for a friend of ours ... Oh, and please... keep your guns locked up and away from children, it's common sense."

Not a Toy

Of course guns are not toys. Although the laws vary from state to state, you do need to be licensed to have a weapon, and failure to register could lead to lots of legal problems. Wherever you live, if you have a gun, make sure you are properly licensed and that your weapon is registered.

Gun Trouble?

If you have been charged with a crime, with a firearm or otherwise, speak to a lawyer. Many criminal defense attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to talk to you.

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Can New Laws Block Biz Expansion Plans?

You do a great business in your home state and are considering expanding to neighboring locations. But beware. Your business expansion plans can be thwarted with new legislation and prospective competitors might work very hard to guard their territory, lobbying lawmakers to keep your business out.

That is what happened to Chicago's Binny Beverage Depot. The Illinois liquor chain planned to expand to Indiana, where its competitors were "fat, happy and lazy," according to company CEO Michael Binstein. But it won't be moving as soon as expected, reports The Chicago Tribune, because a new Indiana law just passed requiring more of local liquor store owners.

The Indiana Law

The law passed in Indiana has made the residency requirements for liquor store sales more onerous. This extended residency requirement -- to sell liquor in the state, a corporation must have an actual presence there for five years -- put a wrench in Binny's expansion plans, and that was what Indiana liquor distributors reportedly wanted.

According to The Chicago Tribune, Indiana lawmakers were influenced by liquor lobbyists who wanted to block Binny from coming in. Maybe the competitors were not as lazy as Binstein thought after all. Regardless, they have now succeeded in halting outside competition. "The retailers and their lobbyists amassed at the border to keep us out," Binstein said. "Indiana's is a free lunch system, not a free enterprise system."

Some local lawmakers disagree of course, saying they supported the measure because people who live in the community know how to serve it. State Representative Tom Dermody explained, ""I don't think it's protecting [Indiana liquor store owners] as much as it is, hey, these guys live in our communities and they do it well."

Planning an Expansion?

If you are considering an expansion of your business, speak to a lawyer. State and local laws vary and you may find you save a lot of time and money by doing a little research in advance. Get guidance. Consult with an attorney.

Follow FindLaw for Consumers on Google+.

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3 shot in N. Phila

in stable condition

A triple shooting in North Philadelphia overnight left three men in the hospital, police said Sunday.

The three men were shot around 3:40 a.m. in the 3300 block of North Ninth Street.

The victims, age 24, 27 and 28, were taken to Temple University Hospital and were in stable condition. One was shot in the right knee.

There had been no arrest in the case by midday Sunday, police said.

- Jill Castellano

Trenton: Driver almost hits pedestrian, then shoots him

Authorities say a driver who nearly hit a pedestrian in New Jersey's capital city shot the man in the knee after they started arguing.

Trenton police say a 20-year-old city resident was walking in the area of Dayton Street and South Clinton Avenue when a vehicle turning onto South Clinton nearly struck him early Sunday.

The two men started arguing and the driver exited his vehicle. He then fired one shot at the victim and drove away.

The wounded pedestrian was treated at a hospital. His name has not been disclosed.

- Associated Press


Derryl Murphy writes, "Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra (I know) a new contract a month before the election when he still had time on his contract, and Chopra's working hard to pillage the postal system in Canada. So I did this up for a little fun, but the word needs to get out there."



It's a petition to let Chopra keep his $500,000/year job, but for his duties be redefined as delivering postal mail in Ottawa.

*

Deepak Chopra be reassigned to an Ottawa depot as a letter carrier. With Canada Post's new contract demands insisting that employees can be transferred pretty much anywhere, this should be easy.

*

Deepak Chopra can continue to draw his $500,000/yr salary as a letter carrier, and his fellow posties will promise that they won't harbour any animosity to him for this wage gap.

*

However, Deepak Chopra will have to start unassigned until a position opens that he can successfully bid on. Based on slightly over 5 years' seniority, it is probable that at best he will get on as sick relief.

*

As a relief carrier, it's unlikely he will be able to finish many routes within the designated 8 hours. Any overtime accrued will only entitle Deepak Chopra to actual letter carrier pay (at time and a half), commensurate with his seniority.

*

If Deepak Chopra is injured on the job by, for instance, slipping on ice while trying to handle the two bundle system, he will be entitled to WCB at actual letter carrier rates. Like every other Canada Post employee, however, he will have to wait for possibly as long as two months for his claim to kick in. To tide him over he will be able to use all 7 of his annual personal days (which will be returned to him unless his claim is denied) and then his short term disability at 70% of normal letter carrier salary. He can top that up to 100% if he has leftover sick time, but considering his seniority date that is unlikely.

*

However, if Deepak Chopra just gets too sore and tired from carrying mail, packets, and admail in an overloaded satchel for up to 200 houses at a time, up to a distance of, say, 15-20 kilometers every day, then he only has whatever is left of those 7 personal days to use, after which he moves to short term disability.

*

If Canada Post locks out its employees, Deepak Chopra will be entitled to strike pay provided he puts in 20 hours per week on the picket line.
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Pigmeat will be one of the key products on the agenda during this weeks visit to China and Japan by EU farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, accompanied by more than 60 agri-food executives from 15 member states, including representatives from AHDB and pig sector organisations from Denmark, Spain and France.

The week-long visit, which began on Saturday will include meetings today with Chinas agriculture minister, Han Changfu, trade & industry minister, Zhang Mao, and the launch in China of European Restaurant Week. Tuesdays programme will include discussions on food safety issues

The EU party will then move on to Tokyo for another round of meetings, including a session between Mr Hogan (pictured above) and Japans farm minister, Moriyama. The programme will conclude with a field trip to look at wagyu beef and pork production.

China and Japan are particularly important markets for the EU agri-food sector which have shown considerable growth in recent years, said Mr Hogan. I hope that these promotion events will highlight the quality, traditions and added value of our products, as well as our food safety and traceability guarantees, and stimulate further interest from Chinese and Japanese consumers in European food and drink.

He said that he wanted to build on existing trade flows and show that Europe is open to business, in particular for agri-food products.

My hope is that I can also make some progress on a number of hindrances to current trade, he said.

In addition to AHDBs involvement on behalf of the UK industry, pigmeat sector specialists from Interporc (Spain), Inaporc (France) and Danish Crown (Demark) are also travelling with the business delegation.

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A friend, who purports to be a famous chef in the Seattle area, introduced me to Chicken Salt. After discussing his great love of transglutaminase, and MSG, he told me about Chicken Salt. This Australian seasoned salt was, in his opinion, where I had to adventure next.

He sent me this recipe on Lucky Peach. It involves the roasting and toasting of chicken breast skin in a manner to maintain chicken-y flavor and not create carbon dust. You then grind that chicken skin into dust, in a mortar and pestle, and mix it with seasoned salt. Adding baked down chicken fat as if it were nitrous to the muscle car of flavor, salt.

This seemed like a lot of work for me, at the time, so I thought I'd just buy some online. When it arrived at home, I tried it on some homemade potato chips, fried in rendered duck fat. I suggest lightly salting the chips on their way in and out. It totally added a delicious chicken-y, and salty flavor!

Then I looked at the can, and there was no chicken in there. It says VEGAN right on the label. I was confused. So, I asked a friend, who claims to have been born and raised in Australia, if Chicken Salt needed chicken to be authentic. She laughed and laughed. Evidently the Lucky Peach recipe is a bit more lower eastside than down under. She assures me the OTC stuff is authentic, and suggests the next time I want an Australian seasoning, I not ask a Seattle Chef for a recipe from New York. Evidently this is a seasoning for Chicken, and the chicken-y flavor is due to the blend of spices? Witchcraft.

I'm enjoying Chicken Salt. Know what makes it even better? Adding some MSG, thats science.

Chicken Salt  Vegan, Kosher, NO MSG, Gluten Free, Australia's #1 All-Purpose Seasoning,4.5 oz via Amazon
A common site in Farmer Jack's field throughout the day. It wasn't long before the Land Rover was deployed to tow vehicles about... Until that got stuck! In came the tractor. White van + muddy field

Early morning sign on for riders started the day off.

The team behind the race arrived on site long before any riders to prepare the course. Thankfully only a light dusting of snow fell overnight and clearing it didn't take long.

Grenoside was looking particularly picturesque with a dusting of snow

Peaty started preparations at the crack of dawn with his crack team of race organisers.

A welcoming cup of coffee from Bean Rover to help wake up - and warm up.

Race-day snowy bike Instagram posts were obligatory.

Chicken wire preventing face plants on the icy wooden start ramp.

Only the elite know about the aerodynamic number board placement technique... Craig Evans gaining every possible advantage.

Practice session is a go!

Ice hanging from the tape had just about thawed by around lunch time.

Jake Peat riding a rather swanky Santa Cruz. He did a practice run but decided not to race.

Kade Edwards may only be in the 15-16 age category - and only completed one race run - but would have placed 5th in Elite men. This kid is fast.

Peaty leading Tracy Moseley down a practice run. These two went on to win their respective categories.

While most people walked, Tracy preferred the pedal to the top of the course.

Steve and Tracy always have time to indulge their fans. It's a rare opportunity to have two legends of the sport at such a humble mountain race.

Blue skies, bikes, and bells.

2nd place elite Craig Evans showing some style as the sun decided to come out to play.

James Swinden and Chay Granby race for Cotic bikes and have played characters in promo videos for the company. Meet Rocketman (Left - Swinden) and Straightline (Right - Granby).

Peaty

Monk twin 1 - Jake missed out on the race entries and settled for marshalling instead. Monk twin 2 - Oscar got his place and took second place in the age 17-18 male category.

Matthew Atkinson keeping it low and fast.

Age 13-14 category winner Thomas Dodd. His times are only two second off being competitive in the Elite field.

After winning the PMBA Enduro just a month ago, Dan Hole achieved an impressive second place here in Grenoside. Second only to Kade Edwards.

Luke Wall during his first race run, which was his fastest and enough to claim the win in age category 17-18.

Skinsuit for the crowd!

Bradfield Brewery were on site as usual to provide beverages to spectators, as well as prizes to those on the podium. Better than champagne?

With all the spectators in the bomb hole trampling the wet ground into mud, queuing for a beer became a slippery affair.

Evidence of mountain bike spectators: Helmet, coffee, beer.

Crowd pleasers. Crowd pleasers. Crowd pleasers. Crowd pleasers. Crowd pleasers. Bombhole no-hander

SPS rider Becci Skelton brought home 8th but was full of smiles all day.

A big crowd had gathered around the Jolley Gap Jump by finals time. All eyes on T-Mo.

Periods of rain didn't dampen the spirits of the crowd!

Craig Evans laying down a belter of a finals run. His second race run was faster by just 0.12 seconds. 2nd place.

Joey Gough navigating the tight twisty corners to take second place in Elite Women

SPS rider Tom Grice crossing the line as 5th place Senior.

The diversity of entrants was astounding. 10-12 boys - 2nd place rider Kenzie Nevard.

Riders spanning at least three generations came to compete at all levels in Grenoside.

Jim Buchanan, the UK editor of Enduro Mag, came to race at the Steel City DH again. He couldn't quite match his 4th place of last year and settled for 9th instead.

This was a noisy crowd, that's for sure! Noise makers of all shapes and sizes came out to deafen the oncoming riders.

Carl Newbigging laying a table into the bomb hole.

Steel City DH t-shirts were available to buy (in blue, blue or blue!) from the Ride Sheffield stall in the finish area. The awesome design is by Sheffield based company TADO. Last years design proved so appealing, one racer had it tattooed on his leg! 50/01 and ClaySpades joined forces to provide some quality merchandise for purchase. James Pettitt is to thank for the centre t-shirt design.

The hashtag #lastorders appeared in a number of places, signifying Peaty's last year of World Cup racing.

Lee Hawden powering for the line to take 4th place in the Senior Men category.

Josh "Loosedog" Lewis living up to his name in finals.

Peaty dropping into the infamous bomb hole to claim victory at the 2016 Steel City Downhill race.

Nick Hamilton saying a few words to the gathered crowd during podiums and prize giving.

Elite Women's podium. 1st Tracy Moseley, 2nd Joey Gough, 3rd Rebecca Baraona.

Elite Men's podium - 1st Steve Peat, 2nd Craig Evans, 3rd James Swinden.

Swinny, Peaty, Craig. Elite men's podium.

The parking field. Before... ...And after. We're sorry Farmer Jack! Please let us come back next year!

RESULTS

Leighton Vans Elite Men

1 - Steve Peat

2 - Craig Evans

3 - James Swinden



Joystick 17-18 Boys

1 - Luke Wall

2 - Oscar Monk

3 - Jamie Stewart



Polaris 19-29 Men

1 - Jonathan Walker

2 - Sam Hockenhull

3 - Joe Tindale



The Cycle Barn 10-12 Boys

1 - Jordan Williams

2 - Kenzie Nevard

3 - Finn Gorman



Expert Bike Repair 13-14 Boys

1 - Thomas Dodd

2 - Moacyr Atkinson

3 - Charlie Mosley



Bike Garage 15-16 Boys

1 - Kade Edwards

2 - Dan Hole

3 - Kieran Kenney

Hope 30-39 Men

1 - Jordan Gould

2 - James Risker

3 - Neil Farmery



Hop Hideout 40+ Men

1 - Scott Turtle

2 - Jason Dickinson

3 - Chris Whitfield



60Sticks Elite Women

1 - Tracy Moseley

2 - Joey Gough

3 - Rebecca Baraona



Polaris 18-29 Women

1 - Abigale Lawton

2 - Hannah Saville

3 - Ellen Flewitt



THE Industries 30-39 Women

1 - Katy Sunter

2 - Caroline Heathcote

3 - Cath Tilford



Bike Rehab 40+ Women

1 - Beverley Adipura

2 - Lindsay Hanley

3 - Nicole Doughty



For the sixth year running, the Steel City Downhill returned to Grenoside Woods to fund ever-important trail building and maintenance in the local area. It has grown the reputation for being the 'biggest little race on the calendar' by attracting folk from all across the country of all ages and abilities to race in a fun and friendly environment. It's also a rare chance to compete against some of the biggest names in British mountain biking. As Peaty said, "It's getting better every year!" The race also appeals greatly to spectators, who can heckle from the side of the track, enjoy food from one of the stalls around the finish area, or browse and buy products brought in by exhibitors. As ever, Bradfield Brewery were on site to provide their fantastic event beer 'Peaty's Trail Ale'.Steve's ACL surgery early last year prevented him from competing in the last race, but he was back with a score to settle and fresh energy to deliver the goods. Josh Bryceland, who took the win last year, was not present, and so it was up to the remaining Elite men to challenge Peat for victory. A heroic first run from Craig Evans put him in the lead, and bettered by his own second run, but a scorcher of a second race run laid down by Peaty brought home the win.Also, present on the day was decorated British rider Tracy Moseley, who most recently became the Enduro World Champion for three consecutive years (2013, 2014, 2015). She claimed victory by over six seconds, showing her prowess once more.I am sure everyone present at the race would like to give thanks to everyone who helped organise the race and make it a success: Steve Peat, Nick Hamilton, Steve Hardcastle, Henry Norman, all the marshals, medics, exhibitors and the sponsors.Full results are available on Roots & Rain, HERE
Most of those tests were relatively straightforward: Does the momentum wheel spin at the commanded rate? Do the gyroscopes record the correct orientation of the spacecraft? Are the sun sensors able to track a light source?

But now, an even bigger challenge awaits. In order for LightSail to raise its orbit by a kilometer each day, the spacecraft must "tack" its solar sails broadside against the sun's rays for half of each orbit. During the other half, LightSail must be rotated 90 degrees to face the solar photons edge-on. LightSail does this using an attitude control system, which consists of magnetometers, torque rods and a momentum wheel.

The magnetometers read the direction and strength of Earth's natural magnetic field as the spacecraft zips around the planet. The torque rods are three, golden cylinders (one each for the X, Y and Z axes) that electrically charge to generate a magnetic field, torquing against Earth's field to rotate the spacecraft. And the momentum wheel turns the spacecraft on a single axis (many spacecraft have three of theseone per axis).

So, in order to solar sail, we first stabilize the spacecraft using the torque rods. Then, the momentum wheel, which has more muscle, gives us the 90-degree swings into and out of the sun's rays each orbit.
Fabian Buhl makes winter Wetterbock ascent

18.04.2016 by by Planetmountain

From 17 - 19 March 2016 German climber Fabian Buhl made a solo ascent of Wetterbock, a 10-pitch 8c freed in 2014 by Alexander Huber up the Wetterbockwand, Goll East Face, Berchtesgaden Alps, Austria.

Just before the end of the calendar winter Germany's Fabian Buhl pushed himself into uncharted waters by making the first winter ascent, solo, of Wetterbockwand, a 10-pitch climb established alone by Alexander Huber in 2013 and then freed by the German alpinist in autumn 2014 with difficulties up to 8c.

Buhl is best known for his hard bouldering up to FB8C, but after breaking both his ankles when bouldering he has evolved into a highly talented all-rounder, with repeats of the trad climb Prinzip Hoffnung and the multi-pitches Silbergeier 8b+, Nirwana 8c+ and Feuertaufe 8b+ to his name. This is the first time though he has ventured up into the mountains in winter. "Id never done any alpine, mixed and generally snowy routes before" the 25-year-old told planetmountain.com "but I prepared carefully for this climb. I was interested in finding out how a route like this feels in winter, on my own."

Huber and Lukas Binder helped with the logistical support of transporting gear up the initial part of the approach, and Buhl then continued up the final, avalanche-prone slope alone to repeat the route from 17 - 19 March. He fixed ropes and returned to bivy at the base of the face at the end of each day. Although he didnt climb the route free in a single push, he climbed all sections free individually. "Alexander was skeptical that it could be climbed in winter, since the protection is fairly runout even in summer and many of the cracks that accept pro are iced up, and this motivated me, too. I have to admit the only reason I kept going sometimes was because I knew that, somehow, Alex had already climbed it."



WINTERBOCK WINTER ASCENT by Fabian Buhl

On the 21st of March winter is traditionally over, from the 17 -19 March I got lucky and the long-awaited weather window appeared. I dedicated a lot of time and sacrificed bouldering strength to prepare for my winter project, something I have never done before. It was a new challenge, which felt pretty impossible in the beginning.

When Alexander Huber told me about his new line at the Wetterbockwand I was blown away, as it offers steep, bullet limestone, is very runout and in a pretty remote area. Months later, I started thinking about a possible solo winter ascent. I knew it was going to be very tough. Alex was skeptical about my idea, but offered his support right from the beginning. Along with him and Lukas I explored the approach and stashed some gear close to the wall. Not only is the climbing difficult, but the steep, snowy approach is at risk of avalanches and takes about 4 hours. Most of this is possible on skis, but the last 350 vertical meters up through the couloir are way to steep; it's an interesting mix of climbing and hip-deep digging through the snow. But a full-on winter experience was exactly what I wanted. I was willing to go all in to realise my dream.

On this kind of limestone, placements for skyhooks or other pro in order to rest or aid past a difficult section are rare. The only option remaining therefore is free climbing. As usual Alex's bolts were far apart, but after the first bigger falls I started to trust my self-belay system again and did not care anymore. The only thing I worried about was the next belay, while my air mile collection grew steadily. Sometimes I spent 40 minutes on a particular runout section, climbing back and forth, not knowing the way and searching for the path of least resistance, removing the ice from the holds or cleaning snow off the ledges. In the end, luck was definitely on my side and I managed to pull off the first repeat of the Wetterbockwand route on the North Face of Hoher Goll.

Waking up in the cold each day at 4:30 am and climbing until dark was a new experience and it felt good to see how my body works in such a situation. I was 100% focused at all times and felt confident, I did not question any decision I made and never felt tired. Only after reaching the safe trail to the car did my adrenaline run out and I was overcome by a crazy fatigue.

Never would I have thought that Id need to dig so deep, to reach the top of this incredible route in winter! Now I am unbelievably happy its over and I made it back safely!"



Fabian Buhl wishes to thank his sponsors adidas, Petzl, La Sportiva, Climb on and Totem Cams
Hugh writes, "In a post-Tay world, where we've proved the Internet can train a bot to be a plausible shitposter, what's the future of politics, hate, and mob rule?

1: Everyone Can Have Their Own Twitter Mob

Right now, if you want to have someone attacked by a horde of angry strangers, you need to be a celebrity. That's a real problem on Twitter and Facebook both, with a few users in particular becoming well-known for abusing their power to send their fans after people with whom they disagree.

But remember, the Internet's about democratising power, and this is the latest frontier. With a trollbot and some planning, this power will soon be accessible to anyone.

There's a further twist, too: the bots will get better. Attacking someone on the Internet is a task eminently suited to deep learning. Give the bots a large corpus of starter insults and a win condition, and let them do what trolls do  find the most effective, most unpleasant ways to attack someone online.

No matter how impervious you think you are to abuse, a swarm of learning robots can probably find your weak spot.

On a milder but no less effective note, even a single bot can have a devastating effect if handled carefully.

The rule of Internet debate is that, all else being equal, the poster with the most available time wins.

On its own, a bot probably can't argue convincingly enough to replace a human in, say, a Reddit thread on gender politics. But can it be used to produce some posts, bulk out rough comments, make short comments requiring longer answers, or otherwise increase the perceived available time of a poster tenfold?

Fear the automated sealion.
A $58-million plan to equip nearly every Los Angeles police officer with a body camera by the end of 2016 is being postponed due to cost.

The department doesn't expect to receive the remaining 7,000 body cameras until fall 2017, if not later, KABC TV reports.

However, Mayor Eric Garcetti says that's unacceptable and wants to outfit LAPD officers with cameras as soon as possible. City Councilman Mitch Englander says he plans to submit a formal proposal to the city council this week encouraging the LAPD to start the bidding process over.

Steve Soboroff, the Board of Police commissioner and a longtime advocate of the cameras, said city lawmakers are horribly underestimating the ramifications of delaying the program for what could be years.

"This is an unequivocal disaster for public safety in Los Angeles," Soboroff told the Associated Press.

City Hall has been scrutinizing the camera plan over the costs, with one council member saying he was experiencing "sticker shock" over the price tag of $57.6 million over five years.
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Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has unveiled his plan to deal with one of the great problems facing working class Americans, access to affordable housing.

After a walking tour of Brooklyns Brownsville neighborhood, Sen. Sanders said, This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. People should not be forced to live in dilapidated housing.

The affordable housing crisis is a nationwide problem that is rarely discussed by policymakers. Sanders was touring an urban area, but the crisis impacts both urban and rural communities.

To combat the problem, Sen. Sanders has announced his detailed plan to expand affordable housing, which includes:

Expand the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Sen. Sanders is proud to have authored the original National Affordable Housing Trust Fund bill in the House of Representatives in 2001 that became law in 2008. This is the first new federal housing production program in almost three decades, and the first ever designed to build rental housing for extremely low-income households. As president, Sen. Sanders will fight to increase funding for the housing trust fund to at least $5 billion a year in order to construct, preserve, and rehabilitate at least 3.5 million affordable housing rental units over the next decade. Not only will this help address the affordable housing crisis, it will also create millions of good paying jobs in the process. Raise the minimum wage. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), a renter would need to earn a wage of $19.35 per hour in order to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment in the U.S. One way to start closing the wage/rent gap is to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.



Reinvigorate federal housing production programs. Over the past decade, the federal programs that build affordable housing for families, for the elderly and for the disabled have been decimated. Nobody disagrees that we need to address the deficit, but it is absurd to balance the budget on the backs of working families, the elderly, the disabled and the poor. We must return to pre-2010 funding levels by ending sequestration and invest more, not less, in affordable housing.



Defend Fair Housing. The sordid history of housing discrimination is a stain on our collective conscious, and for fifty years the Fair Housing Act has provided critically important legal protection from discrimination because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex or disability. And yet, Republicans have tried over and over again to defund efforts to affirmatively promote fair housing. We must push back, defend and strengthen the law, and make sure we never again tacitly condone housing discrimination.



Demand more from Affordable Housing Developers. Housing that is built with government subsidies should remain affordable much longer than the 10, 15 or 20 years typically required by federal housing programs. In my state of Vermont, we require affordable housing to remain affordable permanently. In my view, once we subsidize rental housing, we shouldnt have to pay again and again simply to preserve it.

Sanders is not new to the topic of affordable housing.

Here is video of Sanders discussing affordable housing on the House floor in 2000:

Bernie Sanders deserves credit for not only speaking out about the problem but also delivering a detailed solution. Affordable and safe housing shouldnt be a luxury for the people of the United States of America. The next president needs to take action on affordable housing, and Bernie Sanders is promising to make the issue a priority if he wins the White House.
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Bernie Sanders drew a record crowd of 28,300 to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY, who heard the Democratic presidential candidate pull no punches in a massive effort to get his supporters ready to vote in Tuesdays New York Democratic primary.

Video:

https://youtu.be/CKRlYRMCcSU?t=14m9s

Sanders called his campaign a movement of people who are prepared to think big, not small, and continued, People who not just want to elect a new president, but to transform America. The Democratic candidate described his campaign as being fueled by those who are rejecting establishment politics, This is a campaign that is bringing millions of people into the political process. Working people and young people who are sick and tired of establishment politics and establishment economics. We want a government which represents all of us, not just the 1 percent.

Sen. Sanders criticized Hillary Clinton for her speeches to Wall Street, Now, if you give a speech for $225,000, it must be a pretty damn good speech; must be a brilliant and insightful speech analyzing all of the worlds problems; must be a speech written in Shakespearean prose. And that is why I believe Secretary Clinton should share that speech with all of us.

He also criticized Clinton on fracking, the minimum wage, trade agreements, and Social Security.

Sanders also had some words for Donald Trump, Donald Trump will not be elected president of the United States because the American people will not support a candidate who insults Mexicans and Latinos, who insults Muslims, who insults women, who insults veterans who insults the African-American community.

The speech in Prospect Park was Bernie Sanders version of a get out the vote rally. Sen. Sanders is trailing former Sec. of State Clinton by double-digits according to every poll, but if Sanders is going to lose, he is going to down with swinging.

The speech in Brooklyn was amazing because it may be remembered as a true turning point. If Sen. Sanders were to pull an upset in New York and go on to win the nomination, historians would look at the speech as the first visible spark of an upset. If Sanders loses New York and does poorly in Pennsylvania, the Brooklyn speech may go down in history as the last roar of a dying campaign.

What the voters decide on Tuesday will go a long way in determining the course of 2016 presidential campaign history. Bernie Sanders is still kicking, and the Senator from Vermont is going to keep fighting until the last Democratic delegate has been allocated.
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Hillary Clinton isnt just trying to win the White House. Clinton wants to break the Republican South, and her plan starts with a serious push to win Georgia in 2016.

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Transcript via ABCs This Week:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, President Clinton called that a smearing reference to your wins in the south. And your supporter, Congressman Gregory Meeks, said it was demeaning to black voters. Is that how you took it? CLINTON: I dont know what he was talking about, because last time I looked at a map of the United States, the South was a part of our country, like every other region. And Im thrilled to have support  you know, when you win Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, those are all states that we can put into play in the general election. When you win Massachusetts and Ohio and Illinois and Missouri and Texas and Arizona and Nevada and a lot of other places from the north to the south from the east to the west, that illustrates how far ahead of him and why, because I value every voter. Im not writing any individual, and Im certainly not writing off any state or region of our country. Thats why I have two to 3.4 million votes more than he does; and, by the way, 1.4 million more than Donald Trump, because I want to be the president for all of America. And I particularly want to support Democrats in states that have been voting against Democratic candidates for awhile now to rebuild the Democratic Party. Were going to try to make Georgia competitive, and were going to fight hard in North Carolina and Virginia and Florida.

Hillary Clinton has a goal in mind that should keep Republicans up awake at night. Clinton wants to break one of the last geographic Republican strongholds in the United States. If Clinton could win North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and Georgia, she would cut into the heart of the GOPs base of support.

Could Clinton make Georgia competitive in 2016? The states minority population is growing rapidly. In the last decade, Georgias minority population has gone from 37%-44%. Eighty-one percent of the states population growth has come from minorities. Blacks and Hispanics account for Georgias population growth, and those two groups of voters are why the Clinton campaign seems to be gearing up to make a serious push to win Georgia.

Southern Democratic voters have been looked down upon especially by Northern and Western progressives as the country has become more partisan, but these Democrats are laying the groundwork for a titanic political shift that may as soon as November see a formerly solidly red state like Georgia turn blue.
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Despite what Republicans claim, or cannot believe because they arent scientists, climate change is real and a clear and present danger to all Americans. Whether it is the threat to national security, economic stability, agricultures demise or vanishing water supplies, every American either will, or already has, felt the adverse effects of burning fossil fuels. While most people consider the damage of rising seas, wildfires, droughts, flooding, nasty air or food shortages the most serious threats of climate change, there is another immediate threat they likely never consider; the threat to their health.

Whether every American knows or believes it or not, they are at great risk of severe illnesses and death due to the effects of what is synonymous with Republicans; climate change. Of course Republicans are not climate change, but they have worked diligently over the past decade to either deny it exists, deny it has adverse consequences or wage major battles to increase its effects; including blocking every attempt by President Obama to reduce it. In fact, if not for Barack Obama, America would not have made any attempts whatsoever to combat climate change which is why he has to resort to Executive orders to circumvent climate change denying Republicans.

Since it has been left to him to fight a one-man battle that greatly restricts how much he can do, President Obamas Administration spent the past three years to research and report on exactly how Americans are going to get sick, suffer and die due to climate change-borne illnesses; especially the poor, children, and the elderly. The people the GOP typically considers expendable like so much rubbish.

The report released Thursday is titled The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States and it details exactly how anthropogenic climate change is making Americans sick, and explains how it is only going to make more Americans much, much sicker. The monumental undertaking was three years in the making and involved over 100 climate and public health experts and is based on over 1,800 published scientific studies and federal research. To guarantee that everything in the report was immune from Republicans and fossil fuel industry nay-sayers and conspiracy-mongers, it was reviewed in depth by the National Academies of Sciences.

A fact sheet for the report provided by the White House said;

The report significantly advances what we know about the impacts of climate change on public health, and the confidence with which we know it. As the climate continues to change, the risks to human health will grow, exacerbating existing health threats and creating new public health challenges, and impacting more people in more places. From children to the elderly, every American is vulnerable to the health impacts associated with climate change, now and well into the future.

Besides the 100 climate and health experts and 1,800 separate published scientific studies, the White House effort also included the participation of representatives from a number of federal departments and agencies doing what they were created to do; protect the health and welfare of the American people. Involved in the massive study was the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. It is noteworthy that except for the Defense Department, the other agencies and departments are frequent and regular targets of climate denying Republicans and their fossil fuel funding machine, the Koch brothers.

The administrator of the EPA, a favorite target of Republicans and the oil industry, Gina McCarthy, was at the White House event to unveil the report and said regarding climate change, Its not just about polar bears and melting ice caps. Its about our families. Its about our future.

The Surgeon General that Republicans despise like plague, Dr. Vivek Murthy, said the report will help doctors to quantify the sheer number of pathways through which climate affects health. Dr. Murthy said the information in the report is crucial to aid the nations physicians because climate change affects more people in more ways than doctors are accustomed to seeing; he cited increased pollen, wildfires and air pollution exacerbated by emissions from power plants as emergent climate change-related threats to public health.

Just a few of the ways climate change has already increased health risks to Americans, especially the poor, children, and the elderly are; Increased asthma, respiratory illnesses and diseases, worsening and increased incidents of allergies, extreme heat-related premature deaths, explosion in cases of Lyme disease, an increase in water-borne and related illnesses, and increased exposure to contaminated food. Worst of all, and of no consequence to Republicans, is that all of these life and health risks will have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable Americans.

Climate change will have the largest health impact on vulnerable populations, including those with low incomes, some communities of color, limited English proficiency and immigrant groups, Indigenous peoples, children, pregnant women, older adults, vulnerable occupational groups, persons with disabilities, and persons with preexisting or chronic medical conditions.

It is noteworthy that the groups in the above list will suffer the largest health impact from climate change; they are by no means the only groups to be affected. Every American is subjected to the same dirty air, polluted water, and contaminated food sources, and as climate change increases so will the incidences of health impacts on even healthy, non-vulnerable people. Still, Republicans claim climate change is a big liberal hoax and continue obstructing any and every attempt by President Obama to address the issue and do something no Republican will even consider; work for and protect the American people.
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According to reports, the Supreme Court appeared divided while hearing a case of President Obamas executive orders that deferred deportation for 5 million immigrants. If the Court splits 4-4, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells obstruction of Obamas Supreme Court nominee will harm millions.

Here is how The Hill described the arguments in the case over Obamas immigration executive orders:

A 4-4 split by justices would leave in place a lower courts decision blocking Obamas action in a severe blow to the president. The justices spent the majority of the 90-minute arguments grappling with whether Texas has a legal basis to challenge the creation of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans initiative and the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programs that have been on hold since February 2015. The court has shown signs that its struggling with only eight justices since the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February. If the court deadlocks in its decision, the immigration programs would be as good as dead.

If President Obamas immigration executive actions die, because Mitch McConnell turned the Supreme Court into a deadlocked bench, Republicans will hand Democratic candidates across the country a powerful issue for November. Republicans who want to win in November do not want to touch the immigration issue.

Immigration has divided the Republican Party while the GOP position has alienated millions of voters across the country that Republicans would need to have any hope of winning back the White House. The only thing worse than having Donald Trump as the Republican nominee would be for the immigration case to make the issue front and center of the presidential campaign.

McConnell has argued that obstructing President Obamas Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, is a victimless crime. However, 5 million immigrants could be deported because Sen. McConnell decided to throw out the Constitution and play by his own rules.

Real people are being hurt by McConnells political games, and Republicans will feel the wrath of the voters if they insist on breaking the Supreme Court by refusing to do their jobs.
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There is a move underway in Congress led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and John Cornyn (R-TX) in the form of S. 2040, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, to allow Americans to sue foreign governments for terrorism: in particular, Saudi Arabia for its role in the 9/11 attacks:

The purpose of this Act is to provide civil litigants with the broadest possible basis, consistent with the Constitution of the United States, to seek relief against persons, entities, and foreign countries, wherever acting and wherever they may be found, that have provided material support, directly or indirectly, to foreign organizations or persons that engage in terrorist activities against the United States.

Saudi Arabia says if it is passed, economic reprisals will follow. President Obama doesnt want to see the bill pass. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have announced their support for the bill.

As reported by The New York Times, which broke the story,

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdoms message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.

Dire economic consequences are not, of course, something easily ignored, particularly by a president who faced an almost unparalleled economic crisis on the day he took office. A president who is still trusted by half of the American people with the economy he so carefully restored.

Hillary Clinton, so often linked Obamas foreign policy as his former Secretary of State, has come out in support of Schumers 9/11 legislation. Press Secretary Nick Merrill tweeted Sunday,



She said on ABCs This Week that,

Obviously, weve got to make anyone who participates in or supports terrorism pay a price, and we also have to be aware of any consequences that might affect Americans, either military or civilian or our nation.

Sanders released the following statement supporting legislation that would let families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks sue Saudi Arabia if the government is linked to the attacks:

I support legislation by Sen. Chuck Schumer that would allow Americans, including the families of victims of the 9/11 attacks, to use U.S. courts to determine if foreign entities are culpable for terrorist attacks in the United States and seek restitution for the damages and lives lost.

I also believe it is time to declassify the 28-page section of the 9/11 Commission Report on the potential sources of foreign support received by the hijackers. The families of those lost on that terrible day have the right to review any evidence that connects the hijackers to foreign supporters, including potentially those in Saudi Arabia as former Chairman Bob Graham of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has suggested may be the case. If no such connection exists, then our country deserves the information necessary to put that speculation behind us.

I understand that the Obama administration is conducting a review to declassify that section of the commission report, and I would urge them to declassify this information as soon as possible.

Saudi Arabias role in the 9/11 attacks which killed nearly 3,000 Americans is well documented and controversial. There were 19 attackers that day in 2001, and 15 of them were from Saudi Arabia. Adding to suspicions are 28-page section of the 838-page 9/11 Commission Report (2004) referenced by Sanders, that we have not been allowed to read. Both the Bush and Obama administrations cite reasons of national security. They also fuel suspicions that Americas ally, Saudi Arabia, is being protected by our government.

Now retired Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has charged that there has been an organized effort to suppress information about Saudi Arabian support for terrorism at the executive level. Sen. Schumer tried as far back as 2003 to get President Bush to declassify the missing pages, leading 46 senators in the effort, saying,

The bottom line is that keeping this material classified only strengthens the theory that some in the US government are hellbent on covering up for the Saudis.

One of the highjackers, Zacarias Moussaoui, now serving a life sentence in a U.S. Supermax prison, pleaded guilty in February and has alleged Saudi royal family involvement in the plot, despite the 9/11 Commissions findings of no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization [Al-Qaeda].

Moussaoui was arrested before the attacks and so did not participate. A lawsuit brought against Saudi Arabia was dismissed by a judge last September who cited insufficient evidence to trump Saudi immunity, and Saudi Arabia calls Moussaoui a deranged criminal without credibility.

Schumer and Cronyn, if their bill becomes law, would remove that immunity.

The Saudis might be making an empty threat, given the dependence of their currency on the American dollar, and by hurting the United States they would be hurting themselves, it is alleged. A choice between doing what is right and doing what is practical has members of both parties supporting the legislation, including Al Franken (D-MN), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and the much-hated Chuck Grassley (R-IA). As noted by the Times, It passed through the Judiciary Committee in January without dissent.

It is certainly ironic that on almost the only issue upon which Democrats and Republicans in Congress agree, President Obama stands opposed to them.

Amid arguments the U.S. still needs Saudi Arabia (and presumably that Saudi Arabia still needs the U.S.) President Obama departs for Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, and while the 28 pages stay in a secure basement of the White House, they will remain over his head like a perhaps more-than-metaphorical Sword of Damocles. Obama will reportedly decide within the next two months whether to declassify the controversial pages.
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. While our brains may be at capacity in terms of storage, our noggin space looks void compared to the digital organization throughout the electronics we work on. Finding a safe home for all those files is challenging READ THE REST
A 2-year-old was "severely, severely injured" Sunday after a dog attack, authorities said today.

Rochester police were called about 8 p.m. to the area of Elton Hills School playground for a report of a child who'd been bit by a pit bull, the report says.

Witnesses told officers the dog, which the owners described as a 7- to 8-year-old male pit bull, clamped down on the boy's face and neck, and "had hold of him for at least five minutes," said Capt. John Sherwin.

They were "beating on the dog, but it wouldn't let go," he said, but the report didn't say if the dog shook the child.

The little boy, his mother and the dog's owners were outside when the boy began to toss rocks into the air, Sherwin said; that's when the dog attacked.

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"I looked at the photos (of the victim), and I wish I hadn't," Sherwin said. "He was severely, severely injured. He had significant injuries to his face and neck."

The child was taken by ambulance to Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys Campus, then immediately to surgery, the report says. No information on his condition was available this morning.

The dog, which Sherwin estimated weighed about 65 pounds, was taken to Rochester Animal Control Shelter.

No one there was available for comment this morning on what steps will be taken with the animal.

The owners reportedly told police the pit bull doesn't like other dogs, so they carry a muzzle with them when walking him, but it had never been violent toward a human.
TaxProf Paul Caron excerpts the Wall Street Journal Law Blogs post on Professor Richard Sanders attempts to get the California state bar to cough up bar passage data by race. For some reason the powers that be have escaped scrutiny over the racial disparities that dog bar passage rates. Professor Sanders long legal fight for the data is headed for trial. The authorities guard the relevant data more carefully than we protect the gold at Fort Knox. I want to retell the story I have explored previously here from a local Minnesota angle.

In Minnesota we caught the wave of the assault on law enforcement in the name of racial disparities courtesy of the Minnesota Supreme Court. The Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations have since piled on, but the Minnesota Supreme Court was on the case early and its imprimatur has given the local movement destructive legitimacy.

In the early 1990s the Court appointed a 40-member committee of attorneys and judges to put their names on a report finding racial bias permeating the criminal justice system. The committee devoted two years of research and study to the issues. With the help of the Courts staff, the committee performed as expected and released the Courts Task Force Report on Racial Bias In the Judicial System in 1993. The report was a joke, but it produced page-one stories based on handy summaries that saved reporters from the trouble of having to read the damn thing.

In connection with the release of the Task Force Report in 1993, the Minnesota Supreme Court established an Implementation Committee on Multicultural Diversity and Racial Fairness in the Courts, also known as the Racial Fairness Committee. The committee issued numerous progress reports before its Final Progress Report in December 2010, after which it emerged as the Committee For Equality and Justice.

The search for statistical racial disparities abides. The demand for equal results continues.

Who is biased? In the more than twenty years it has devoted to the problem and what must by now be millions of dollars it has spent on analysis, the Court and its task forces have yet to id. a judge or prosecutor guilty of biased treatment of parties. This is a serious offense that lacks a perpetrator in the traditional sense.

It is a bizarre enterprise. The April 2002 progress report noted that the implementation committee has worked with the Board of Law Examiners to identify the causes of racially disproportionate bar passage rates and to promote solutions. With the requirement of bar passage for licensure, we have a requirement under the direct control of the Court. We can infer from the report that Minnesota bar passage rates reflect statistical racial disparities. By the Courts methodology, the Court itself must be guilty of racial bias. At last we can id. a perpetrator.

According to the 2002 report, we also have a remedy. The Board of Law Examiners works to ensure that at least 25% of the graders are people of color. Putting the 25 percent number to one side, think about that. Are minority graders required to understand the answers of minority test takers? Do test takers identify their race so that they can be matched up with the right grader? (I was told they do not.) Should they be? On an exam testing professional competence?

Suggesting that the Court is guilty of racial bias, of course, Im being facetious. I want to make a serious point.

Inspired by Professor Saner, I looked into these issues in the fall of 2013. I was unable to get data on the racial disparities in Minnesotas bar passage rate from the Board of Law Examiners  I was told they dont keep the data. But racial disparities in bar passage rates are ubiquitous. Professor Sander tells the story in chapters 4 and 5 of Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students Its Intended to Help, and Why Universities Wont Admit It, the brilliant book he co-wrote with Stuart Taylor, Jr.

Sander does id. a perpetrator in the book. According to Sander, the perpetrator is affirmative action in law school admissions  a thesis you are guaranteed never to see floated under official auspices in Minnesota or elsewhere.
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.
Im old enough to remember when surplus government cheese was given away to poor people. But now the geniuses of greenery over in the UK have come up with a new use:

Gas made from cheese to heat hundreds of homes Hundreds of homes in Cumbria will be heated using cheese from next month, as a new government-backed green energy plant starts producing gas from cheddar manufacturing waste. The anaerobic digestion plant at the Lake District Creamery in Aspatria will receive millions of pounds in subsidies for turning whey and other residues from the cheese production process into biogas. Some of the gas will be used to generate electricity on-site, while the remainder will be processed and fed into the local gas grid where it will be used by homes and business for their heating and cooking. Clearfleau, the company that built the new plant, said the total amount of gas being fed into the gas grid each year would be equivalent to the annual gas needs of 4,000 homes. About 60 per cent of that gas is expected to be taken back out of the grid for the creamerys own use in steam-making, leaving the equivalent of 1,600 homes annual gas usage circulating to homes and businesses in rural Cumbria.

So essentially this is a fancy co-generation plant, though note the telltale will receive millions of pounds in subsidies for an energy source that will supply, net, natural gas for just 1,600 homes. No wonder the article commits the usual journalistic malpractice of not saying how much this genius scheme costs, how large the subsidy is, how the per-unit cost compares with other sources of energy, and whether theres enough cheese residues around to scale it up beyond this engineers plaything. In other words, this story is even cheesier than the usual energy flim-flam.

It could be worse. The great Vaclav Smil relates in his terrific book Energy Myths and Realities about the preposterous proposal to link a biodiesel plant with cosmetic surgeons. Yesyou understand that correctly: make fuel out of liposuction residues330 lbs of human fat a week would produce 40 gallons of fuel. I know what youre thinking: Finallya productive use for the Khardashians! But no.

Meanwhile, you may have heard that Peabody Coal is filing for bankruptcy, ahead of Hillarys schedule to put coal companies out of business. (Were going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, Hillary said last month.) Much less attention, meanwhile, is being paid to the latest bankruptcies of solar power firms:

Anatomy of a Solar Meltdown Less than a year ago, SunEdison was a solar industry titan, billing itself as the worlds largest renewable development company. Today, it has lost $9.2 billion in equity and seen its stock price plummet from $33.40 last July to 39 cents a share Monday. Two weeks ago, SunEdison revealed it is facing scrutiny from the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission on questions surrounding its financing practices and how much cash it had on hand when its stock meltdown occurred. A public filing on March 29 reported SunEdison is facing substantial risk of bankruptcy, prompting Greg Jones of the financial research firm CreditSights to tell the Economist magazine, Its like a giant layer cake of debt.

Or this, from The Guardian:

Funny how a source of something everyone needs to consume in large, predictable quantities cant compete in the marketplace without heavy government subsidies. Makes you think it might be a lousy source of the product.
Are you a boy or are you a girl? Can you be whatever you say you are?

We obviously need a Kantian Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Identity to address the issues roiling the left today. And if the issues are roiling the left, they are also roiling the rest of the country. The left will see to that.

The Family Policy Institute of Washington visited the campus of the University of Washington to see if students would affirm or reject Joseph Backholms new chosen identity: a 65 Chinese woman (video below). The institute has titled the video College kids say the darnedest things.

The video raises the question of age. Can you be any age you want to be? Not according to the Social Security Administration. They have fairly rigid rules about this kind of thing. And the title of the video will ring a bell only with those in the Social Security demographic. It harks back, if I remember correctly, to Art Linkletters House Party television show a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Kids say the darnedest things must have been the most popular segment of the show.

Rod Dreher has another name for the video. He calls it Dictatorship of the dimwits. That properly generalizes the phenomenon and draws attention to the political implications with which we are contending.

Via Ed Driscoll/InstaPundit.
These herdsmen must be called to order, these wanton destructions, audacious incursions in other peoples territory cannot continue for too long.

 Olusegun Mimiko, the governor of Ondo State, violent attacks by suspected Fulani herdsmen in the state (Source: Premium Times)



I didnt think this day would come. I was beginning to believe I couldnt get justice in Illinois.

 An American man, Jack McCullough, 76, freed by the court after spending 59 years in Illinois jail for murder. The court said the trial that led to McCulloughs conviction was flawed (Source: CNN)

What is important to us is how to get the money. Sending people to jail will not translate to money.

 Yusuf Ali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, advising the federal government to grant amnesty to public officials who return looted funds (Source: Punch newspaper)

Nigerian politicians believe that if you show 120 ambulances then you are delivering on health or if you show 120 patrol vehicles, it means you are delivering on security. The pictures shown by our politicians sometimes do not match the realities.

 Mathew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, commenting on politics and development in Nigeria (Source: Leadership newspaper)

We really want to avoid blaming the past because people no longer want that; they just want these conditions to change.

 John Odigie-Oyegun, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, on the bad state of the Nigeria economy (Source: Premium Times)

It is quite embarrassing that in the fourth month of the year, we are still battling with putting a budget together.

 Renowned Nigerian lawyer, Femi Falana, on the delay in passing into law, the 2016 Appropriation Bill (Source: Channels Television)

We have a broken criminal justice system. We have more people in jail than any other country on Earth.

 U.S Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders (Source: Ebony.com)

You must do nothing to pervert the course of justice by enacting hurriedly-packaged laws ostensibly meant to block your trial. It will further diminish you and make your sympathisers recoil in shame.

 Politician and Ovation publisher, Dele Momodu, in an open letter to the President of Nigerias Senate, Bukola Saraki, on the senate presidents trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (Source: Signalng.com)



We will always fight to the death, and thats what we did.

 Danny Simpson who plays right-back for English club, Leicester City, on the club dramatic weekend English Premier League encounter with West Ham. The visitors, West Ham scored two stunning late goals, before Leicester equalised in 94th minute through a penalty (Source: CNN)

It is appalling to me that anyone, especially women, would cheer Wizkid on when he wrote RIP Linda.

 Nigerian blogger, Linda Ikeji, said she filed a report with the police against the Nigerian musician, Wizkid, so as to discourage violence against women (Source: Linda Ikejis blog)
There are growing concerns by residents of Calabar, the Cross River State capital, over the upsurge of miracle herbal medicine dealers, who have taken over major streets of the metropolis.

The traditional drugs dealers might have fled neighbouring Akwa Ibom State into Cross River following that states ban on the sale of unregistered drugs and other related food products.

Last year, the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Health placed a ban on the sale, hawking, and advertisement of unregulated food and drugs preparations throughout the state.

The ministry directed that sales, hawking, advertisement and distribution of such products, either in buses, vans, streets or whatever means, be stopped forthwith.

The directive was contained in a press statement issued in Uyo, the state capital and signed by the Director of Pharmaceutical Services in the ministry, Mary Ukponguso, on behalf of the Commissioner of Health, Dominic Ukpong.

The drugs, which the sellers claim provide solutions or instant cure for different types of diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, malaria, typhoid fever, infertility, cancer, fibroid and pile, are sold mostly on busy streets.

The health ministry had hinged its ban on the argument that the traditional medicines were not scientifically tested and approved by relevant regulatory authorities.

But after their disappearance from the streets of Akwa Ibom, the miracle medicine dealers resurfaced in Calabar.

Currently, they have taken up spaces in the Watt Market, Calabar Road, Goldie, Bedwell, and Ekpo Abasi streets.

In Calabar, the medicine men have devised various tricks including hiring crowd as soon as they display their products on the ground.

With people milling around the displayed products, passersby are attracted to go have a look and possibly buy the miracle drugs.

As more people gather, the herbalists begin to reel out the various diseases their concoctions can cure including some of the hard-to-cure diseases like cancer, fibroid and ulcer.

PREMIUM TIMES witnessed how one of the herbalists experimented with a miracle eye formula.

The herbalists randomly selected an individual who claimed to have an eye problem and offered to treat the patient free of charge.

After causing the patient to step out of the crowd, the herbalist squeezed some leaves and dropped the liquid into the mans eyes.

Not long after, a worm-like object was removed from the patients eyes and the crowd burst into wild jubilation.

With the seemingly successful demonstration, many of the onlookers surged forward and paid for the concoction.

But a Calabar resident, Favour Okon, said she is worried about the development and called on the government to sensitize the public on the consumption of unregistered drugs.

How can one medicine cure all the sicknesses in the world? The government should urgently check the activities of these traditional medicine dealers before they cause a major problem, Mrs. Okon said.

Another resident, Jeniffer Akpana, who patronized the miracle drugs, said with the economic downturn in the country, traditional medicine had become an alternative to pharmaceutical products.

She, however, explained that traditional medicine had existed for ages and should not be abandoned for pharmaceutical products saying herbs cure some ailments orthodox medicines do not.

I bought these drugs because I grew up in the village, (Akpabuyo) and there, it is herbal medicine we know and it is effective. I tried taking the English drugs when I was sick with malaria, but it didnt work and so I resorted to herbs and there was instant cure, she said.

During the days of our forefathers, this herb is what they took anytime they were sick and that is why we shouldnt condemn it.

Besides, the present economic situation in the country has affected low income earners like me. I work as a cleaner for a private firm and I earn 8,000 naira in a month. That is why I do not patronise the pharmacy or patent medicine stores, she said

However, the Cross River State Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Ekpenyong Effiong, said the increase in the number of herbal medicine hawkers in Calabar is a cause of concern.

Mr. Effiong said his organisation is putting some measures in place to end the indiscriminate sale of unregistered products in the state.

Although the Nigerian laws have made provisions for the use of various kinds of medicines including herbal products, he nevertheless stated that the laws specify that such medicines must be registered by relevant regularity bodies.

Mr. Effiong noted that most of the herbal products sold by the hawkers were not standardized and should not be administered on people.

Whenever I pass through Watt Market, I see people selling magic medicines that claim to cure every sickness in the world. I wonder how they (herbalists) discovered those medicines, he said.

Some of these herbal medicines are not standardized and are not well processed. They do not go through quality assurance control during production.

Every drug must have dosage and if a particular dose is not properly stated on the container for the patient to read and follow the guidelines, it becomes poisonous or harmful to the body.

The regulatory bodies are working hard to address this issue of hawking of herbal medicine in the state, he said.

Responding to the development, the state Commissioner for Health, Inyang Asikong, explained that the government was aware of the increasing number of herbalists in the state

Mrs. Asikong said the government was taking steps to push the herbalist and their miracle drugs off the streets.

We are taking steps to ensure that only duly registered products by the National Agency for Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, are allowed for sale to the public, she said.
At least 30 people were killed after Congolese troops fighting in an armed gang dropped bombs on residential areas, rights group, Amnesty International (AI), has said.

Other properties, including a church and a school, were also destroyed by the bombs.

Troops in helicopter had dropped over 30 bombs on residential areas including schools on April 5, 2016, witnesses told AI.

The bombs were targeted at a house used by the leader of the Ninjas armed group, Frederic Ntumi.

Following the 20 March general election in the country, which the opposition accused the government of rigging, violence had broken out in Brazzaville, the countrys capital and surrounding neighbourhoods.

More than 17 people were said to have been killed after a gunfire broke out on 4 April, following calls by youth for the President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who won a third term in office, to step down.

They alleged that the election was marred by fraud and irregularities.

Mr. Nguesso, 72, has been president for 32 years, making him one of the longest serving African leaders. This recent mandate will take the time he will spend as President to 35 years.

Last October, government said 92 per cent voted to remove the term limit in the constitution. The result of the referendum was contested by the opposition.

The government accused the Ninjas for leading the attacks on the office of a local mayor, two police stations and an army barracks.

AI in a statement on Monday said the attack on residential areas by Congolese troops was a clear violation of the countrys international human rights obligations including the right to life. The group said the attack should be thoroughly, independently, and impartially investigated.

Government forces have deliberately and unlawfully attacked people. It is shocking that they bombed residential areas in response to the violence that occurred in Brazzaville on April 4. Instead they should have taken lawful steps to ensure that criminal suspects are brought to justice, said Ilaria Allegrozzi, AIs Central Africa researcher.

According to witnesses AI claimed it spoke with, the areas affected by the air strikes are now deserted. The population in villages near Soumouna have either fled to the bush or to other towns including the capital Brazzaville.

A woman who fled the village of Ngula to Brazzaville with her family told AI: Many people have been killed following the bombing. I saw at least 30 dead bodies between Soumouna and Ngula. The air strikes also led to lot of material damage.
Maltas parliament on Monday debated a motion of no-confidence in the government over Prime Minister Joseph Muscats failure to sack a minister and his chief of staff, who were implicated in the #PanamaPapers leak.

Opposition deputy leader, Beppe Adami, told parliament in the opening speech in Valletta that the governments reputation and credibility have been dented by the corruption allegation.

Today we have a government trapped in the vice of corruption; a government that is impotent in the face of corruption and a prime minister who is doing nothing about it, Mr. Adami said.

However, the government is expected to survive the vote on the back of a nine-seat majority, with many parliamentarians already saying they would back Muscats Labour government.

Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and the PMs chief of staff, Keith Schembri, were named among those who set up two offshore trusts in New Zealand in 2015.

Mr. Adami said they were allegedly linked to a secret Dubai bank account and to two Panama companies the pair set up through the legal firm Mossack Fonseca.

Report says having an offshore account is not illegal as long as it is declared to tax authorities.

The EUs smallest state has witnessed street protests, with Mr. Muscat saying he would only take a decision once an internal investigation is concluded.

Mr. Mizzi, the only sitting member of an EU government named in the Panama Papers, has admitted that the choice of Panama was an error of judgement and has offered to close his Panama company in the interest of transparency.

(dpa/NAN)
Last October, Nigerias biggest indigenous oil and gas company, Oando Plc, made history for the wrong reason when it announced a loss of N184 billion in the 2014 financial year. The loss was the biggest ever recorded by any Nigerian company.

While its shareholders bore the brunt of the bleak financial year, the companys group chief executive, Wale Tinubu and his deputy, Omamofe Boyo, might be doing just fine as they had for years incorporated and operated a cluster of shell companies in notorious offshore jurisdictions.

Mr. Tinubu seems to be making so good a return from his shell companies that in 2008 he agreed to pay a front as much as $20,000 monthly to manage all of his offshore transactions.

Details of the offshore assets of the two top bosses at Oando Plc were among the revelations contained in the leaked massive internal data belonging to Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca.

The revelations are products of an investigation, spanning over a year by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other global news organizations across the world.

PREMIUM TIMES is the only Nigerian media organisation involved in the investigation.

Documents obtained by PREMIUM TIMES from the huge database linked Mr. Tinubu to at least 12 shell companies.

Mr. Tinubu, documents show, secured the services of Mossack Fonseca to help him incorporate the companies in Seychelles, one of the fastest growing offshore jurisdictions in the world and notorious tax haven, the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

The documents also reveal that Mossack Fonseca coordinated the operation through its offices in Geneva, the British Virgin Islands and Panama.

The documents show that Mr. Tinubu is director in the following companies incorporated in Seychelles and the BVI.

Sigma Technology Inc.

Techventure Inc.

Anglesey Management SA

Caine Trading Corp

Keligh Engineering Corp

Hud Trading Corps

Meridian Procurement International Services Ltd

Lynx Shipping Ltd

Equinox Shipping Ltd

Everglade Oil Inc.

Framlingham Ltd

Triton Trading Ltd

Investigation reveal that Mr. Tinubu is either sole director of most of the companies or has unlimited powers to make decisions.

For Instance, files from the data revealed that on November 26, 2009, after a meeting of the board of directors of one of his shell companies, Keligh Engineering Corp, Mr. Tinubu was granted a general power of attorney as the sole signatory of the company.

The board meeting where this decision was made was attended by three nominee directors,  Yvette Rogers (Chairman), Jaqueline Alexander(secretary), Verna de Nelson, who are actually employees of Mossack Fonseca.

Nominee directors are appointees used in offshore tax havens to hide true owners of shell companies.

Mrs. Rogers had also served as nominee director in Stanhope Investment Ltd, Seychelles, one of the shell companies used by the imprisoned former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, to steal the resources of his oil-rich state.

As part of its #PanamaPapers series, PREMIUM TIMES had revealed how Mossack Fonseca helped Mr Ibori, who is serving a 13-year jail term in the United Kingdom for money laundering, hide funds stolen from Delta State treasury through a web of offshore companies.

In May 2007, Just like Mr. Ibori, the Oando boss also secured the services of Swiss asset management firm, Clamorgan SA, to help him incorporate Techventure Inc., Anglesey Management SA, Caine Trading Corp and Keligh Engineering in Seychelles while appointing Mossack Fonseca Geneva as registered agent and administrator for the shell companies.

On May 2, 2007, Sebastien Thierry of Clamorgan S.A, who had acted as signatory for one of Mr. Iboris shell companies, wrote a letter to Sonia Scampa of Mossack Fonseca, thanking her for verifying and assisting in registering the companies, as well as granting Mr. Tinubu the power of attorney.

Following my mail yesterday and our conversation today, I reiterated the confirmation sent yesterday morning taken the following companies  Anglesey Management SA, Caine Trading Corp., KLeigh Engineering Corp. Thank you for making a power of attorney for Mr. Wale Tinubu for three companies, he wrote in French.

It remains unclear why Mr. Tinubu hired the same offshore consultants used by Mr. Ibori to run his offshore companies. But in September 2013, British prosecutors told a court that Mr. Ibori confessed to owning significant shares in Oando Plc.

According to crown prosecutor, Sasha Wass, a Queens Counsel, while opening an account at Swiss bank, PKB, through a shell company called Stanhope Investment, Mr. Ibori told the bank he owned 30 per cent of Oando.

Oando had denied that Mr. Iboris wealth was hidden in the company. The company at the time circulated a statement claiming that Mr. Ibori only had 443 shares of the companys 6.8 billion ordinary shares.

The Paid Front

The documents also revealed that apart from relying on nominee directors appointed by Mossack Fonseca to hide his ownership of shell companies in tax havens, Mr. Tinubu also hired a paid front who acted on his behalf in some of the offshore companies.

In a December 10, 2008 email to Marie-Ange (an employee of Mossack Fonseca in Geneva) Sebastien Clamorgan of Clamorgan SA revealed that Mr. Tinubu hired a front, Patrick Bastin, to act on his behalf in his offshore companies.

According to the email, Mr. Bastin was handsomely rewarded for this role. He was paid a salary of $10,000 monthly and given a corporate visa card which allowed him to spend up to $10,000 monthly.

Mr. Bastin was paid from Everglade Oil Incs account with a private bank in Beirut, Lebanon.

It is agreed that M. Patrick Bastin will be acting as director for certain of Mr J.A. Tinubu companies and in this capacity will be managing all upcoming administrative commercial and nancial tasks, inclusive the relationship with the several banks the companies may have bank accounts with, the email reads.

For this task M. Patrick Bastin will be compensated by a monthly payment of US $10 000,00 (ten thousand US $) to be paid to the bank account he will indicate.

The account of EVERGLADE OIL INC No 239783 with Audi Saradar Private Bank seal in Beirut Lebanon will be responsible to set up a standing instruction for those payments to start on November 1 -2008.

In addition, M. Patrick Bastin will be entitled to a Corporate Visa card from EVERGLADE OIL INC for expenses up to SS 10,000 per month to be justified after to M. J A Tinubu.

This agreement can be terminated at any moment by M. JA. Tinubu with one month notice.

The documents also showed that some staffers of Oando Plc were in on some of Mr. Tinubus incorporation of shell companies.

After the resignation of one Kirk Thompson, who is believed to be the original nominee director for Mr. Tinubu in Everglade Oil Inc., on December 14, 2007, Daniel Boyo (it is not clear whether he is a relative of Omamofe Boyo), a London-based business development consultant with Oando Trading Limited, a subsidiary of Oando Plc, sent an email on January 11, 2008 to Mr Thierry instructing him to contact Everglade Oil agents in Seychelles to draft a new certificate of incumbency for the company, mentioning Terry Cunningham as its new single director.

Nigerian businessmen and the love of Seychelles

Documents show that Seychelles is particularly an attractive offshore destination for several top Nigerian businessmen.

Several shell companies owned by Nigerians in tax havens were incorporated in the small Indian Ocean country, with a population of just under 90,000 people. They were registered as International Business Companies (IBC).

Seychelles IBCs are among the most popular IBCs in the secretive world of offshore jurisdictions. IBCs incorporated in the Seychelles are prohibited from doing businesses within the country or owning real estate. They are not required to pay taxes, submit financial details or carry out audits on their finances.

An email sent from Mossack Fonsecas office in Seychelles to Saria Rahme Kali of Afrex and Mr Clamorgan requesting details of the bearers of the shares of a cluster of IBCs domiciled in Seychelles revealed the extensive involvement of Nigerians in offshore tax havens.

The document revealed that Sayyu Dantata, the half-brother of Africas wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote, is linked to seven IBC  Appelby Holding Ltd, Juno Equities Incorporated, MRS Holding Ltd, MRS Oil and Gas, Nisco Holding Ltd (60 per cent), and Oval Refining S.A, Ovlas S.A (50 per cent).

Similarly, Adetokunbo Sijuwade, the son of the late Ooni of Ife, Okunade Sijuwade, is the director of Mandhari Water Investment Inc. and Izwelethu Aluminium and Steel Inc.

Mr Tinubus deputy, Boyo, was listed as director in three IBCs- Everglade Oil Inc, Meridian Procurement International Services, and QVS Ltd.

Nigerians Abiose Eldred Ogan-Cole and Mojisole Adeniran both own 50 per cent share each in Qaisar.

Messrs. Wale and Boyo are yet to respond to an email sent by PREMIUM TIMES through the corporate communication manager of Oando, Alero Balogun, seeking comments for this story.

Ms. Balogun and the companys head of corporate communications, Ainojie Irune, had promised that responses would be provided to our questions. But several days later, no response has come from the officials.
The Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Umar, on Monday explained why Nigerias embattled President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, must abandon Senate sittings and attend his trial everyday.

Overruling Mr. Sarakis lead counsels application for the trial not to hold when the Senate is having plenary, Mr. Umar said the president of the Senate was the one facing trial not the Senate.

He then ruled that the trial would hold from 10am till noon on daily basis.

The tribunal chairman also turned down Mr. Agabis request for the daily proceedings of the court, saying such request would overburden the tribunals registry.

The trial continued Monday with the examination of the first prosecution witness, Michael Wetkas, after which the cross examination began.

Earlier, Mr. Wetkas told the tribunal that Mr. Sarakis wife, Toyin, and her parents Mr. and Mrs. Ojora, were the major promoters of a company, Tiny T Limited, involved in the alleged false asset declaration by Mr. Saraki.

Chief Mrs. Ojualape Ojora, Toyins mother, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, Chief Ojora, Toyins father and Bukola Saraki, were the chief promoters of Tiny T, Mr. Wetkas said.

Mr. Wetkas had earlier told the tribunal that Tiny T Limited, was the company, whose name was used by Mr. Saraki to purchase an undeclared property.

The witness also told the tribunal that Mr. Saraki had bought three houses from the Presidential Implementation Committee on Sale of Government Properties.

He added that it was a matter of policy for the committee to only sell one property in a given state to one buyer.

Mr. Wetkas further said Mr. Saraki made anticipatory declaration of assets, adding that the property bought from the committee was declared as No. 15 A and B on McDonald Street, Ikoyi on his Assets Declaration Form.

However, Mr. Wetkas said, when his investigative team wrote the committee for verification, it discovered that the property belonging to Mr. Saraki was only identified as only No. 15  not No. 15 A and B as claimed.

The witness explained further that the building was having four flats inside it, and that 75 per cent of the payment for the said building, amounting to about N123million was made from an account belonging to a certain company, identified as SkyView Properties, which was declared by Mr. Saraki as his company.

He added that the property was bought in the name of another company, Tiny T Limited.

Mr. Wetkas also said Mr. Saraki did not declare another property, located on No. 17 MacDonald Street, Lagos which he purchased at the cost of over N500 million, but paid separately from his companies, Carlisle and Skyview Properties.

Also according to Mr. Wetkas, Mr. Saraki failed to declare in his Assets Declaration Forms of 2003, 2007 and 2011 respectively, two assets located on No. 2481 and 2482 Cadastral Zone A06, which he purchased in 1993.

Mr. Wetkas further stated that his investigation team conducted an investigation into a company owned by Mr. Saraki and found a list of properties that yielded over N145 million annually for Mr. Saraki.

Shortly after the documents containing the various evidences were admitted as exhibits, Mr. Wetkas was cross-examined by the lead defence counsel, Kanu Agabi.

During the cross examination, Mr. Wetkas told the tribunal that there was no mention of Kwara Freedom Networks petition, which had earlier been portrayed as the origin of Mr. Sarakis investigation, nor was there a mention of any petition whatsoever in his statement.

He however stated that he had mentioned an intelligence report during his examination at the tribunal.

Mr. Wetkas told the tribunal that his team did not conduct a forensic investigation into a report by the Kwara Freedom Network, stressing that the said investigation was conducted by another team.

He also stated that he personally did not conduct a forensic investigation into the accounts of Kwara State related to the loss of funds by government, nor did he conduct any investigation into the pensions scheme of Kwara State.

Mr. Wetkas also told to the tribunal that his statement came on October 30, 2015  more than a month after the charge was filed on September 14 last year.

Subsequently, the defence counsel said the statement of Mr. Wetkas could not have formed part of the proof of evidence and requested time to study the document before the cross-examination.

After a heated debate on the supposed date for the next sitting, the case was adjourned to April 19 for continuation of cross examination.
Nigerian security operatives have arrested a former Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Domestic Matters, Waripamowei Dudafa, while attempting to travel out of the country through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.

A source at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr. Dudafa was on the anti-graft agencys wanted list for his alleged involvement in the sharing of N10billion to delegates during the December 2014 presidential primaries of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

Mr. Dudafa allegedly converted the money into US dollars, amounting to $47million, and distributed to delegates from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Investigators say they believe the fund was part of the alleged $2.1billion meant for the purchase of arms but which authorities said was shared as slush funds to politicians through the office of a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

Sources at the EFCC told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr. Dudafa was arrested and quizzed by the operatives of the State Security Service, SSS, before he was handed over to the EFCC on Monday.

He has been on our wanted list for a long time and he evaded arrest on several occasions, a top EFCC official, who asked not to be named, said.

Contacted, the spokesperson of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, declined comment on the matter.

The anti-graft agency had recently arrested Mr. Jonathans Aide de Camp, Ojogbane Adegbe, allegedly on the directive of the Nigerian Army and later his ally, Jide Omokore, over a series of multi-billion dollar petrol import and crude export deals.

Nigerias secret police, the SSS, also arrested and later dismissed the ex-presidents Chief Security Officer, Gordon Obua, alongside the spokesperson of the agency, Marilyn Ogar and several others.
The Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC) has urged the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, to immediately investigate and prosecute counsel to the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic (PDP), Olisa Metuh, who is currently being tried over alleged involvement in the Dasukigate fund.

In a statement signed by its chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, the group noted that Emeka Etiaba should be tried for false information and obstruction of justice.

The group noted that in a bid to forestall Mr. Metuhs trial, Mr. Etiaba had petitioned the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Ibrahim Auta, seeking a transfer of his clients trial away from Justice Okon Abang.

Mr. Etiaba had claimed that his client and Judge Abang were classmates at the Law School in 1988, and that the two also met at Le Meridien Hotel, Akwa Ibom, late last year.

Metuh, who said he was worried he could not get justice before the judge, accused him (Justice Abang) of bias and of deliberately refusing to release records of proceedings to enable him appeal the judges earlier decisions, Mr. Suraju said.

Mr. Metuh and his company Destra Investment Limited were arraigned before Justice Abang in January on a seven-count charge, in which they were accused of retaining proceeds of unlawful act and engaging in money laundering.

The prosecution closed in February after calling eight witnesses. But, rather than open their defence, Metuh and his firm made a no-case submission.

In a ruling on March 9, Mr. Abang rejected the no-case submission, on the ground that the prosecution has established a case against Mr. Metuh and his company, requiring them being called upon to enter defence.

Rather than open his defence, Metuh, on March 11 petitioned the courts Chief Judge, raising sundry accusations against Justice Abang and requested the transfer of the case against him to another judge, CSNAC stated.

However, in response to the said petition, Justice Abang stated that although he neither knew nor had any relationship with Metuh, it was impossible for the relationship Metuh claimed existed between them to affect the facts and laws in relation to his (Metuhs) trial.

He stated further, With respect to the first issue that the petitioner Emeka Etiaba (SAN) stated that the 1st defendant in Charge FHC/ABJ/CR/05/2016 was my classmate in the Nigerian Law School, my Lord, for the records, I was at the Law School in 1987/88 Academic Session.

I am not aware that Olisa Metuh was my classmate in the Nigerian Law School. I cannot recall seeing him in the time session in my time. In the law school, we were over 1,000 students and we had then two sessions, morning that I attended.

He is not from my place, Oron, in Akwa Ibom State. I did not see him as a student in University of Calabar that I attended between September 1983 and June 1987. I have never met him in practice anywhere in the country before I was elevated to the bench in June 2009.

Again, he claimed he met me in Le Mariden Uyo late last year. I was not in Le Meriden Uyo late last year. I had no function that I attended in Le Meriden Uyo late last year. I did not meet him in Le Meriden Uyo late last year.

The Judge also, while responding to Mr. Metuhs allegation that majority of the judges rulings was in favour of the prosecution, stated that he was entitled to give decisions in matters placed before him for adjudication having heard parties, and Mr. Etiaba was aware that the appropriate procedure when a party was dissatisfied with the decision of a court is to go to the appellate court, instead of raising spurious allegations.

Also, on the allegation of non-release of Certified True Copies of court proceedings, Justice Abang stated that Mr. Etiaba obviously has an improper motive in that regard, said Mr. Suraju.

He said that as soon as the application was made, he directed his secretary to type the proceedings. As soon as the typing was completed, he proof read the documents and released the proceedings to them on March, 15, 2016.

Justice Abang also noted that in addition to his petition, Metuh has applied to the judge to disqualify himself from further trying the case, raising similar issues as contained in the petition. The PDP spokesman has also applied to the court for an indefinite stay of proceedings pending the determination of his appeal.

From the foregoing, it is obvious that the spurious allegations and lies fabricated against the Honourable Justice by Mr. Etiaba (SAN) on behalf of his client Mr. Metuh is a calculated attempt to obstruct the course of justice and cause unnecessary delay in the proceedings involving his client.

As a senior member of the bar, who is aware of processes involved in criminal procedure, he ought to know the appropriate authorities to make his grievances known if any, instead of churning out false information to tarnish the image of a judicial officer.

CSNAC called for the investigation and possible arrest and prosecution of Mr. Etiaba for false information and obstruction of justice.

This will go a long away in serving as a deterrent to other senior lawyers who might want to arm twist the judicial process in favour of their clients at all, the group added.
The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has denied recent reports that a federal high court voided its power to impose fines, issue tickets and impound vehicles in the country.

The road safety agency said mischief makers only circulated an old judgement that has long been vacated by an appellate court.

A few days ago, there were reports in some newspapers that a federal judge had voided FRSCs power to punish offenders and impound vehicles.

But in an audio statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, Bisi Kazeem, the Commissions head of media relations and strategy said appellate courts had since affirmed FRSCs authority to impose fines, issue tickets and impound vehicles in the country.

Mr. Kazeem admitted that a federal high court judge in Lagos, John Tsoho, once ruled that FRSC had no power to impose levies on Nigerians, but added that the judgement was in 2014 and was currently on appeal.

The truth is that there is no recent judgment of the FHC Lagos on the Tope Alabi case as being circulated, Mr. Kazeem said. What happened was that one Barrister Tope Alabi challenged the powers of the FRSC to arrest him and impound his vehicle and make him pay fines for offences alleged. The FHC presided over by Justice Tsoho held that FRSC had no such powers. This was in September 2014.

Mr. Kazeem further stated that there had been other cases in which the courts upheld his Commissions power to impose fines.

However, in four different cases filed by Mr. Alabi in 2014, same Justice Tsoho, in the case of Bren Williams & Anor v FRSC, held that FRSC had statutory powers to issue notice of offence, arrest, and detain vehicles suspected to have been used to commit traffic offences.

Mr. Kazeem said on the same day, Justice Tsoho delivered another judgment similar to Mr. Alabis case in Emmanuel Ofoegbu v FRSC.

Mr. Kazeem said Justice Tsoho held that it was beyond FRSCs power to set deadlines for motorists to change over to new number plates.

Mr. Kazeem said that judgment merely nullified the commissions power to arrest motorists for not using the new number plates under the National Road Traffic Regulations, 2012, a subsidiary legislation to the FRSC Act, 2007.

Mr. Kazeem said the FRSC successfully challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal in Lagos in October 2014.

Mr. Kazeem said the appellate court, in its June 2015, judgement held, inter alia:

That FRSC had statutory powers conferred by its enabling laws made pursuant to the Nigerian Constitution to regulate the use of number plates, design and set deadlines for change over to new ones.

Mr. Kazeem said the September 2014 judgment of Justice Tsoho which is also being challenged on appeal is the one currently being circulated on social media by those he called mischief makers.

For the avoidance of doubt, there are reported Court of Appeal decisions to the effect that FRSC has powers to arrest, issue notice of offence to suspected violators and impound vehicles used to commit traffic offences and electing to pay the prescribed fines instead of challenging the notice of offence in court does not amount to usurpation of court powers, Mr. Kazeem said.

It is the voluntary decision of whoever decides to pay fines instead of challenging the notice of offence in court.

Mr. Kazeem said the Court of Appeals decisions had overtaken whatever was decided in the Tope Alabis case, which is also being challenged at the Court of Appeal.
The new Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Sule Kazaure, on Monday formally assumed duty as the 17th head of the corps, promising to prioritize welfare of corps members and staff.

Speaking at the hand-over ceremony in Abuja, Mr. Kazaure, a brigadier-general, said he would ensure that the welfare of corps members and staff of the corps is improved upon for better service delivery.

He however acknowledged that the NYSC was facing a number of challenges, which could only be overcome through unity of purpose.

I know that the tasks ahead are enormous and the road is rough, but with unity of purpose we will make progress, he said.

Earlier, the immediate-past DG of NYSC, Johnson Olawumi, said the agitation for the upward review of the monthly allowance of corps members would soon be fruitful.

He explained that the leadership of the scheme had written a series of letters to the federal government on the matter, saying there seems to be a ray of light at the end of tunnel.

Mr. Olawumi urged staff to extend the cooperation he enjoyed during his stay to his successor in order to achieve desired result.

Mr. Olawumi, also a brigadier-general, took charge of the NYSC on January 6, 2014.

President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Mr. Kazaure as the new corps helmsman on April 11.
The National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Wale Oladipo, has denied participating in the alleged looting of the $2.1 billion security vote allegedly diverted by a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

He made the denial in a statement in Abuja on Monday in reaction to a publication (not by PREMIUM TIMES) alleging that he received N75 million from Mr. Dasuki, a retired colonel, who was security adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The publication also said the PDP scribe pleaded with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to be allowed to refund the money.

Mr. Oladipos colleague in the national working committee of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, is currently undergoing trial in a federal high court, Abuja, for allegedly receiving N400 million from the former NSA, who is also being prosecuted for his involvement in the arms deal.

Before and after the elections, I had no financial dealings with the Office of the National Security Adviser or any other government official, he said.

The report is clearly politically motivated. I affirm that all my actions and communications are motivated by highest ideals of patriotism, transparency and commitment to national reformation.

Mr. Oladipo explained that the monetary transactions he handled were merely in relation to his official duties as the national secretary of the party, insisting that at no point did he collect money from either Mr. Dasuki or any other government official.
By Georgina Bako and Ikechukwu Ilomuanya

The American University of Nigeria (AUN) Yola, Adamawa State, on Thursday organized a walk to mark the second anniversary of the abduction of the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls and others, who escaped the captivity of Boko Haram insurgents.

Top officials of the university, including the President, Margee Ensign, faculty and students participated in the procession, which commenced from one of the female dormitories.

It was an intense moment for everyone as the university came together to demonstrate support for the over 200 girls still in captivity, and the 27 others who escaped after the insurgents captured and took them away alongside their classmates.

Participants wept and sobbed as students and faculty lamented the abduction of the girls and the inability of the Nigerian government to rescue them two years after.

Members of the extremist Boko Haram sect abducted the girls from their dormitory Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, as their prepared for their WAEC examination.

AUN later offered scholarships to 27 of those who escaped to study in the American-style University.

The kidnapping of the girls triggered a global social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls, and attracted world leaders and celebrities including the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

In spite of the sustained campaign, the girls are yet to be found and reunited with their families.

Addressing the procession, AUN President, Margee Ensign, described the event as symbolic, saying the 27 girls who escaped from the insurgents are the some of the most inspiring young women she has met.

This is to show them that this community is behind them in their plight, Mrs. Ensign said before going in to fetch the girls from their dormitory.

Tonight is just a night to look forward. Tonight, we gather to encourage and celebrate them for their courage, their strength, their faith, and to show them how much we love them.

Speaking shortly after the walk, Vice President and Dean of Students Affairs, Byron Bullock, showered praises on the 27 escapees, saying they are young, beautiful and brave women.

It is a very emotional time for them as their colleagues are still captives, said Mr. Bullock.

As a campus community, our efforts are to rally around these students and make certain the kind of supports they need, emotionally or otherwise, so they can in fact continue to make progress and succeed with their own individual lives as well.

Asked if he had any message for the Nigerian government, Mr. Bullock replied, I think the government still has a lot of work to do and I want to believe they are looking at the best way possible to obtain these girls, who I believe according to recent news reports, are still alive.

We need to find a way to get those girls back to their families and begin to deal with the trauma they have suffered over the two year period.

Eugene Uwiringiyimana, a 400-level Petroleum Chemistry major from Rwanda, urged the Nigerian government and the international community not to give up on the effort to rescue the girls.

I came here to join with others to keep pressing to bring back our girls alive so they can join us in learning; so their future may be as bright as ours, Mr. Uwiringiyimana said.

But it was Siddiki Hamadou, a female student of the university that moved the crowd to tears.

The rest of the world may have forgotten but here at AUN, we still remember our girls, she had said in a somber tone that cut through the night.

During the walk, participants kept shouting, We need our girls, bring back our girls, and educate our girls.

Dina Lawal, one of the girls who escaped, said, Its been two years now since my four sisters and many of my friends were gone, I feel sad and heart broken anytime I think about it.

I will continue to pray and trust in God to bring them back, I will never loose hope she also urges us to pray and never loose hope on them too.

Mary Yaga, another of the escaped girls, said, I cant even explain how I feel, this incidence has led to the death of many parents, leaving their children homeless and helpless.

When I go back home, I dont have peace of mind, I always think and imagine the incidence that has happened. I miss my sisters and my friends.

I miss all the memories we shared. I just hope they come back someday.

I also thank AUN for the scholarship, love and endless support to me, even when it seemed like all hope was lost AUN gave us hope.

This is an opportunity of me to begin a new life, and I will use this opportunity to its fullest.

I will make sure I study hard, my dream is to one day become somebody big in the future so I will help my people.
Troops of the Nigerian Army and Boko Haram fighters are currently engaged in a fierce gun battle in Borno state, North East, Nigeria.

The spokesperson for the Army, Sani Usman, made the announcement Monday morning in a post on his Facebook page.

Please be informed that our troops are currently engaged in fierce battle with Boko Haram terrorists at Kareto, Northern Borno State, Mr. Usman, a colonel, said.

The Army spokesperson also promised to provide details later.

Nigerian troops have in recent months succeeded in pushing out the terror group from most of its bases across the restive north-east.

On Sunday, the Army announced the seizure of a large cache of arms and ammunitions after taking over Boko Harams underground armoury.

The Nigerian Army chief, Tukur Buratai, had on Sunday, alongside prominent politicians from Borno supervised the reopening of a major highway linking Borno and neighbouring Yobe State which was blocked by Boko Haram for over three years.

Residents of Buni Yadi, a town held captive by Boko Haram also returned to their town enmasse on Sunday following its liberation by Nigerian troops.

Boko Haram had raided a government-owned secondary school in the town early in 2014 and reportedly killed a number of students while they slept in their dormitories.
The Lagos State Government has vowed to enforce the existing restriction order on commercial motorcycle operation in certain routes as well as street trading within the state.

This was disclosed after the monthly Security Council Meeting involving heads of all security agencies in the state.

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode called on residents to comply with the extant laws.

These extant laws especially those bordering on environmental offences such as street trading is not peculiar to Lagos alone and other major parts of the country, officials said. It is a huge challenge in many developing countries.

The street trading and illegal market prohibition law (2003), which gives jurisdiction and power to special courts to order the seizure and public auction of items impounded for street trading, has been in existence but not being strictly enforced.

Section 10 of the law prescribes the sum of N5000 as fine or three months imprisonment upon conviction.

The State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, admonished Lagosians not to patronize traders who sell in unapproved areas. He also urged residents to shun okada operators who ply routes which the law restricts them from.

Mr. Owoseni said Lagos State remained relatively peaceful for now.

We have looked at those areas we need to improve upon and basically those were the issues the Council considered he said.

On Mr. Ambodes directive last week at a Town Hall Meeting in Ikorodu that Okada riders should not ply Mile 12-Ikorodu route, Mr. Owoseni said it was product of a thorough deliberation.

Specifically, Im talking about the street trading, the restriction of commercial motorcyclists to certain areas. You see, there is need to have the buy-in of members of the public in all these and the Council considered the need for us to still tell the citizens that in as much as we want to enforce, there is also need for members of the public to willfully comply with extant laws of the State.

When they comply and conform to the laws, it will be easier for security agencies to enforce. Where the law says there should not be street trading, people should not patronize street traders; where the law says Okada should not ply certain routes, people should not patronize commercial motorcyclists in those areas.

But most importantly, as the Security Council has always emphasized, there is need for everyone to be security conscious and raise awareness about security in their surroundings, Mr. Owoseni said.
A High Court, sitting in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Monday sentenced a man to 15 years imprisonment for impersonating the Awujale of Ijebuland, Sikiru Adetona and defrauding people on the Internet.

The convict, Bidemi Thompson, was found guilty of opening a Facebook account with the name of the first class traditional ruler, which he used to defraud a Nigerian woman resident in Republic of Ireland, Olufunmilola Popoola.

The court heard that Mr. Thompson, 23, posed as the Awujale of Ijebuland on Facebook and proposed marriage to Ms. Popoola in 2014.

Ms. Popoola consented to Mr. Thompsons proposal and agreed to send money for the traditional marriage rituals into an account he opened.

The court also heard that Mr. Thompson invited Mr. Popoola to Nigeria for the monarchs 80th birthday anniversary, but failed to meet him throughout the event.

After committing about N20million to the scam marriage, she suspected foul play and petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Mr. Thompson was later arrested in Ibadan by the anti-graft agency and arraigned on a nine-count charge of Internet fraud, impersonation, conspiracy, obtaining money under false pretence, forgery, among others.

Delivering judgment, Justice A.A. Akinyemi found him guilty of eight out of the nine charges.

Describing the convict as a serial and pathological liar who was not remorseful throughout the trial, the judge said Mr. Thompson would serve the term concurrently.
( Read 6066 Times)

New Delhi, 16 April 2016: Founder of Ahimsa Vishwa Bhartia and eminent Jainacharya Acharya Dr. Lokesh Muni announcement to donate his body for scientific research created history in Jain community at a program organised in Vigyan Bhawan. It is for the first time that any Jain Acharya has made such announcement. The coordination between science and religion was an example for the religious people and also for the educated class.Bhagwan Mahavir 2615th Jayanti, Acharya Dr. Lokesh Munis 56th Birthday and 11th Foundation day of Ahimsa Vishwa Bharti was celebrated as World Peace Harmony Day at Vigyan Bhawan in which External Affairs Minister of India Mrs. Sushma Swaraj was the chief guest. Minority Affairs Minister Dr. Najma Heptulla presided over the program, Communication & IT Minister of India Sri Ravi Shankar Prasad and Eminent Bollywood actor Mr. Vivek Oberoi graced the event as Guest of Honour.In the prestigious program the announcement to donate his body surprised everyone. Moving ahead from traditional believes he said that after he leaves this world his body should be handed over to the youth to be used for scientific and medical research. Jain followers from India and abroad, Ambassadors of more than one dozen countries and prestigious people present in the program welcomed the announcement with applause.People present in the program said that blood donation is supposed to be the biggest donation but donating body is the biggest example of humanity. Acharya shri has give the message that life is immortal by this announcement. The coming generations are sure to benefit with this announcement, this is an example of positive thinking.
VINELAND  Authorities continue to search for the second robbery suspect involved in a Sunday morning shootout in with police that left one person dead.

Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae also wouldnt identify the local police officer who returned fire during the incident and fatally shot 31-year-old Bridgeton resident Richard Bard.

McRae said she couldnt comment on the officers identity because the investigation into the shooting remains underway. She said the officer was placed on administrative leave.

The officers placement on administrative leave is routine. It precedes an investigation into the use of deadly force by a police office as required by the state Attorney Generals Office.

The citys Police Department is walled off from the investigation into the fatal shooting, Web-McRae said.

Lisa Suda was sitting in her living room at her house on East Avenue. Her husband had gone to bed and she was watching TV when she heard a loud noise.

Pop  pop, pop, Suda said. I knew it was bullet shots.

Suda ran upstairs to wake her husband and came back down to look out her window to find police cars up and down her street.

Vineland residents are uneasy after a night that ended in one death and one man still at large.

One robbery suspect was fatally wounded and another remained at large in an officer-involved shooting Sunday morning, the Cumberland County Prosecutors Office said in a news release.

Cumberland authorities explain deadly-force protocols to residents VINELAND  One of the key decisions in determining a police officers use of deadly force is

Vineland Police received multiple calls of shots fired at about 1 a.m., and officers arrived at 7th and Cherry Streets to find a victim of a robbery involving two men, the Prosecutors Office said.

Orlando Quiles, 37, of Vineland, lives in an apartment complex right around the corner of the intersection, and said his son heard a noise in his bedroom and came to tell Quiles.

He came out to the living room and said, I heard a gunshot, you didnt hear that, Quiles said.

Two suspects had fled the scene, and a foot pursuit ensued, authorities said. Officers encountered the two men near East Avenue and Almond Street, and Bard fired upon one officer, who returned fire, authorities said.

Bard was fatally shot, and was pronounced dead at Inspira Medical Center soon afterward, authorities said. An autopsy is pending, authorities said.

The other suspect is still at large and has not been identified, authorities said.

Vineland carjackers stab man, 67, police say Vineland Police are searching for two men who carjacked and stabbed a 67-year-old man Wednes

That suspect is armed and dangerous, the Prosecutors Office said. A firearm was found in his path of flight, authorities said. He was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, authorities said.

Madaline Reynolds, 86, of Vineland, came out of her house on East Avenue and saw detectives and police cars. She told one detective that she had video cameras set up around her house.

I asked a detective if they wanted to see the camera, and the detective was shocked and said yes. But he couldnt see anything on the footage, Reynolds said.

Lisa Sudas daughter, Erica, said she had just been discussing with a neighbor Friday about how Vineland had been improving and that she was seeing less crime.

And then something like this happens, Suda, 24, of Vineland, said.

The crime rate in Vineland per 1,000 residents dropped from 45 percent in 2012 to 42 percent in 2013, the last year for which full statistics were available, according to New Jersey State Police.

Ericas mother said she hasnt seen something like this happen, but said the incident left her scared.

Its the first time anything happened like that around here, but yeah, last night I was frightened, Suda said.

The robbery victim was flown to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, City Campus, and is reported to be in stable condition, authorities said. That victim was not identified.

The matter is being investigated by the Cumberland County Prosecutors Office. The State Police Crime Scene Investigation Unit is assisting.

Sundays shooting follows high-profile incidents in recent years involving violence between law enforcement and suspects in Cumberland County.

Vineland Police Department records showed that none of the 137 internal investigations into reports filed by city police officers from 2011 to 2014 found excessive force was used, a report by the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey said in 2015.

Use-of-force reports must be made when compliance holds and higher levels of force are used, according to the state Attorney Generals Office. These can include use of hands or fists, kicks, strikes, use of chemical sprays and deadly force.

Contact: 609-272-7258
Just a month ago - ancient history for Atlantic City, whose crisis shifts hourly - the Legislature voted to let the public decide whether to allow two new casinos to open in North Jersey.

By leaving until later such pertinent details as where those casinos would be located and what tax rate they'd pay, supporters of gambling expansion probably made passage of the referendum more difficult.

The fight since then over legislation to save Atlantic City has at times seemed as likely to doom the city to bankruptcy, but at least the dispute has also threatened to explode the bipartisan support for casino expansion.

Gov. Chris Christie first declared his refusal to sign anything but the bipartisan Atlantic City takeover bill and its companion rescue package, already passed by the Senate. When that didn't get the bills moving, he declared that if the takeover bill didn't reach his desk, he would ensure the defeat of the casino expansion referendum in the fall.

As if to show that both sides can play the anti-casino-expansion card, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop came to Atlantic City this week and was surprised to find that some casino hotels had closed and were empty. (We leave it to readers to speculate whether this means Fulop is isolated in the North Jersey bubble or is practicing his say-anything skills for his eventual run for governor.)

Fulop said that after talking with Atlantic City officials, his yearlong support for North Jersey casinos might be undone by expectations of the crime and broken development promises they could bring.

He said he'll announce before November where he ends up on casino expansion, which gives him plenty of time to make the complex calculation of which will get him more votes.

All this must give casino-expansion foes more hope that they'll prevail in the fall vote. But a lot can happen by then, and some already has.

A statewide construction union, for example, immediately said it was "extremely disturbed" that Fulop would abandon lots of construction and casino jobs for the north.

And the New York Gaming Association announced that if North Jersey casinos open, the Empire State could expect to get $200 million a year less in payments from its gaming industry. To N.J. politicians, that's money on the table.

Once the rescue and takeover of Atlantic City get done, or the city settles into municipal bankruptcy, the bipartisan coalition for North Jersey casinos might return in force.

When the coalitions for and against upstate casinos are clearer around midsummer, so will be the odds on the November referendum passing.

Our view
R Sridharan, president of AIPIMA and Vimal Mehra, past-president of AIPIMA, in this interaction, say, the association is doing all it can to...
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.




DUBLIN, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "2016 Mexico Email Database " directory to their offering.

2016 Mexico B2B Email Database has the largest privately held B2B database (over 1.5 Million records) on Mexico and every record in their business database has the following fields of information: Industry Sector, Major Sic (2 Digit) Category, Sub Sic (4 Digit) Category, Product or Service Description, Company Name, Address, Colonia, City, State, Zip/Postal Code and Telephone. Also included when available are: Fax, Web, Email, Contact Person, Title, Annual Sales Volume, Number Of Employees and Years In Business.

There are more companies in Mexico than there is in this database, however, only those companies that meet stringent listing criteria are listed. This means only companies that have a physical address and a registered telephone line get listed. This ensures you receive only the best and most up-to-date data. We strive to supply you with the highest quality data, but keep in mind that no list is 100% accurate.

2016 Latest Mexico Database Statistics 1st January

Previous Month Number of Records 1,579,838

Number of New Records Added 20,857

Number Of Deleted Records 350

Number Of Changed Records (Typos, Address, Name, SIC Category, Web, Email, etc.) 125,623

Total Number of Records 1,600,345

Total Company Colonia/Neighborhood 1,519,291

Total Company City 1,600,345

Total Company State 1,600,345

Total Company Zip 1,582,217

Total Company Phone 1,600,345

Total Company Fax (in Mexico many main phones are also fax line) 189,530

many main phones are also fax line) 189,530 Total Company Web 194,726

Total Company Email 243,308

Total Company Contacts 109,719

Total Company Contact Titles 107,539

Total Company Annual Sales 580,265

Total Company Employees 590,151

Total Company Years In Business 392,253

Total Geo Coded Data 553,584

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/4nt6p7/2016_mexico_email

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Related Links

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SOURCE Research and Markets
MANAMA, Bahrain, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Arcapita, the global investment management firm, announced today that it has acquired a logistics park in Dubai, UAE, for a total transaction value of approximately $100 million.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/799576 )



The investment comprises nine freehold plots of land in the Al Quoz Industrial Area covering an area of approximately 630,000 square feet. The logistics park is strategically located next to Al Khail Road, one of Dubai's main transport arteries.

By the third quarter of 2016, the site will consist of ten completed warehousing facilities that will be under a long term master lease with a reputable UAE conglomerate. The investment will capitalize on Dubai's growing logistics market and will offer premium warehousing facilities to tenants in one of Dubai's most established and sought after industrial areas.

Atif A. Abdulmalik, Arcapita's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We continue to pursue investments in sectors where Arcapita's management team has built significant expertise. We have managed over $8.1 billion in transactions across the global logistics market, including in the United States, Europe, Asia and the GCC. In particular, we recently successfully exited a $360 million fund, ARC Real Estate Income Fund I, which was focused on investing in the UAE and KSA's logistics and warehousing market. We are excited about this investment which will provide Arcapita and its investors with stable, recurring income as well as potential capital appreciation."

Martin Tan, Arcapita's Chief Investment Officer, said, "Dubai's logistics market is poised to experience significant growth, driven in large part by its attractive geographical location, well-developed supply chain network, and supportive legislation, which collectively make it an ideal supply and redistribution gateway. In addition to strengthening domestic spending, Dubai's growing retail sector is expected to generate significant demand for warehousing and logistics facilities as nine million square feet of gross leasing space enters the retail market over the next three years. Reflecting the demand for quality logistics facilities, average rental rates across industrial locations in Dubai have increased by approximately 20% over the past 20 months. We expect this trend to continue, and look forward to delivering attractive returns to our investors through this transaction."

About Arcapita

Arcapita is a global Shari'ah compliant alternative investment manager, with offices in Bahrain, Atlanta, London and Singapore. Arcapita's principal lines of business are private equity and real estate, and its management has a 19-year track record of over 70 investments with total transaction value in excess of $30 billion.



Further details on Arcapita can be found at http://www.arcapita.com

For further information, please contact:



Mohammed Chowdhury - Arcapita

Tel: +973 17 218 333

Mob: +973 39 680922





Jon Earl - FTI Consulting

Tel: +971 (0)4 437 2104

Mob: +971 (0)50 494 1178



SOURCE Arcapita
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, California and ARNHEM, Netherlands, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Fluidmaster, Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of toilet tank components and trim, announced today it has acquired WISA BV, a leading sanitary equipment business based in the Netherlands. With a company history spanning more than 150 years, WISA is an innovative manufacturer and marketer of a wide range of concealed and exposed cisterns, controls, and other sanitaryware products such as toilet seats, flush pipes and couplings across Europe, as well as wellness products including spa baths in the company's home market.

"The WISA operations, people and products are a great addition to our company as we continue to grow globally," said Robert Anderson Schoepe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fluidmaster. "This acquisition also builds upon our expanding Fluidmaster global family of brands which includes Schwab, LIV, Torbeck, the Fluidmaster PRO Series line and Fluidmaster itself."

"It is a privilege to welcome WISA's Mark Grosfeld and his experienced management team into the Fluidmaster organization," stated Todd Talbot, Fluidmaster President. "Through this acquisition, we anticipate significant synergies with our other European businesses, with even greater service and value delivered to our customers in Europe and around the world."

"WISA shares the core Fluidmaster values centered on customer satisfaction and delivering innovative, value-rich products to our partners," said Grosfeld. "We believe the depth and breadth of the Fluidmaster brands will be of significant interest to our current and prospective customers."

About Fluidmaster

Established in 1957 and reaching across the world, Fluidmaster remains a family owned and operated company known for its superior engineering of efficient and reliable toilet components. The company has become an icon in the plumbing industry, with operations in North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, China and Turkey as well as a worldwide distribution network across more than 80 countries selling more toilet tank replacement valves than any other manufacturer in the world. In addition to the original fill valve developed by founder Adolf Schoepe and enhanced through the years, Fluidmaster's complete line of toilet care parts include exposed and in-wall cisterns, standard and dual flush valves, flappers, activation systems, bowl wax and wax-free products, toilet repair kits, and supply line connectors.

The company's global headquarters is located in San Juan Capistrano, California. For more information, visit www.fluidmaster.com.

Related Links

http://www.fluidmaster.com



SOURCE Fluidmaster, Inc.
WASHINGTON, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Leaders of the United Nations, the World Bank Group and the insurance industry today announced the formation of the Insurance Development Forum (IDF) which occurred at a high level meeting in Washington, DC, last week. The IDF aims to: 1) incorporate insurance industry risk measurement know-how into existing governmental disaster risk reduction and resilience frameworks; and 2) to build out a more sustainable and resilient global insurance market in a world facing growing natural disaster and climate risk. This announcement followed a keynote address by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at a planning conference last week with many CEOs of the industry which emphasized the critical role that the insurance industry can play in building natural disaster resilience and helping meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Today in the developing world, more than 90% of economic costs of natural disasters are uninsured; this is known as the Protection Gap. The IDF Mission is to better understand and utilize risk measurement tools that will help governments apply that knowledge at multiple levels in order to better deploy governmental resources targeting resilience to protect people and their property.

During its inaugural meeting, the IDF established four priority work streams:

Understanding Risk: the IDF will support a better understanding of hazards and the exposure and vulnerability of people and assets to those hazards. By quantifying the risks and anticipating the potential impacts of hazards, governments, communities and individuals can make informed decisions on resilience, insurance, investment and wider policies and interventions. Risk and Insurance Regulation, Legislation and Policy : the IDF will promote (i) supportive and inclusive insurance regulation to increase access to insurance by the most vulnerable and (ii) integration of quantitative and standardized climate and natural hazard risk disclosure into mainstream financial and accounting systems and the appropriate adoption of resilience policies to protect lives, livelihoods and assets. Risk Sharing, Transfer and Response : the IDF will fully support the delivery of the G7 InsuResilience Climate Risk Insurance Target and facilitate availability of climate and natural hazard risk sharing facilities in most regions. The IDF will identify and address challenges to wider insurance coverage (including sovereign, micro-insurance and conventional insurance facilities) and encourage insurance development metrics within updated official statistics and post 2015 indicators. Risk and Resilience: the IDF will help build the capacity of developing and emerging countries to manage and implement sustainable financing and resilient investment from insurance and related sectors. It will support the creation of a Global Adaptation and Resilience Fund to invest in resilience related technologies, innovation and facilities.

The IDF acts as a Forum to enable the optimal coordination of insurance related activities; the development of shared priorities; the mobilization of collective resources; the development of strategic and operational relationships within and between governments, industry and international institutions; and, the avoidance of unhelpful and unnecessary fragmentation of efforts and resources. These collective actions can help close the Protection Gap. It will be led by a High Level Steering Group of senior leaders from the insurance industry and governmental institutions supported by an Executive Secretariat, housed at the International Insurance Society (IIS).

The IDF is chaired by:

Stephen Catlin, Executive Deputy Chairman, XL Catlin; Deputy Chair International Insurance Society and Chair of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers.

With co-chairs:

Joaquim Levy, Managing Director and World Bank Group Chief Financial Officer, and former Minister of Finance of Brazil.

Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and former Prime Minister of New Zealand.

With regard to the launch the Chair and Co-Chairs provided these comments:

Insurance Industry Chair Catlin: "My grandchildren expect me to make responsible decisions that affect their future. Insurers' risk management skills help us assess natural disaster risk and can be exported to allow governments at all levels to reduce future losses by designing in resilience into infrastructure projects; and in increasing the use of insurance as a pre-disaster economic resource to allow people to protect their families, property and assets. Risk identification, measurement, pooling and diversification are essential features of any successful insurance program and regulation must recognize their value and purpose. These skills can increase the utilization of insurance which will reduce the reliance on post-disaster aid and better target resources to the most important and needed humanitarian crises. Research has shown that a 1% increase in insurance penetration can reduce the disaster recovery burden on taxpayers by 22%. The IDF brings together the resources of the broader insurance industry reflected in the membership of the International Insurance Society, The Geneva Association, the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation and the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers."

World Bank Group MD and CFO Levy noted in oral remarks: "We have seen growing demand from our client countries for solutions to manage the costs from disasters effectively, and this is best done by specifically addressing the different layers of risk. However, the insurance market is close to non-existent in many countries. Consequently, the formation of the IDF is a pivotal moment, with all the actors in the insurance industry coming together and strengthening partnerships. It can play an important role in people's lives, whether it is with micro insurance for natural disaster risk, protection against pandemics or protection of assets. We, at the World Bank Group, are focused on eradicating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. With only about 17% of people in low and middle income countries with financial savings and insurance, compared to 45% in high income countries, it is the most vulnerable in our society who will benefit most from being insured."

UNDP Assistant Administrator Michael O'Neill (on behalf of Co-Chair Helen Clark, Administrator UNDP), highlighted the importance of public and private partners coming together, saying that "It [had] been a long time coming and that the insurance industry and the international community need each other. For the good of our planet, and especially for those countries and communities vulnerable to disasters. We at UNDP [Michael O'Neill continued] believe that the IDF has the potential to put vulnerable economies and societies on a path to green, risk-informed, and sustainable future. And in the process, to change the way we, in development agencies, and our partners in the private sector do business together."

During the meeting the leadership announced the formation of seven working groups targeted to specific project goals. The working groups will report to the High Level Steering Group in September in the margins of the UN General Assembly.

For more information, contact:

Michael Morrissey, IIS: MMorrissey@internationalinsurance.org

SOURCE Insurance Development Forum
New GSR GO Global Fund Will Focus on Building a World-Class Lighting Industry

BEIJING, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- GSR Capital announced today the formation of a one billion USD cornerstone fund, "GSR Go Global Fund", with Limited Partners from Chinese leading high-tech companies, Taiwan industrial group, and world renowned entrepreneurs. The aim is to invest and build a world-class lighting industry through global acquisitions of leading LED lighting assets. The fund has already been oversubscribed and agreements have been signed by anchor Limited Partners. Industry experts Dr. Frank Fan and Mr. Jianghua Su will join the core general partner team.

GSR Capital has extensive experience in investments within the entire value chain of LED lighting. As the industry is shifting from conventional lighting to LED technology, and the global manufacturing value chain has consolidated, several world leading lighting businesses, including Philips Lighting and Osram Lighting, have recently been put on the market for sale. "These types of buyout deal are a rare opportunity for China's solid state lighting industry, to not only accelerate its globalization process, but also to improve its R&D and manufacturing capabilities," said Ms. Baiyu GUAN, General Secretary of China LED Industry and Application Association.

"M&A creates a synergistic effect by combining global distribution channels, consolidating supply chain, increasing capacity utilization, and achieving economies of scale. These impacts eventually all lead to a much-improved competitive position in the global LED lighting industry," added Ms. Ling WU, Chairwoman of International Solid State Lighting Alliance, General Secretary of China Solid State Lighting Alliance.

GSR Capital is a leading participant in these buyout deals. GSR Capital's team has deep domain knowledge of the LED lighting industry in China and around the world. With the formation of the new cornerstone fund and through the acquisition of LED lighting assets, GSR Capital is confident that it will build world-class LED enterprises with its partners capable of transforming and reshaping the lighting industry.

"To align with the supply-side reform strategy in China, it is important for China enterprises to invest in R&D, improve IP positions, build reputable brands, and set up stable global channels," remarked Mr. Sonny Wu, Founder and Managing Director of GSR Capital. "China offers not only a large and growing market, but also a great pool of R&D talent and a strong manufacturing base. We firmly believe there is a great opportunity to build the next leading LED lighting enterprise in China that will dramatically improve products and services, increase operational efficiency and significantly reduce overall cost. By doing so, we will accelerate the world's conversion to more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable lighting."

About GSR Capital

GSR Capital believes in "Building World-Class Technology Industries in China" and focuses on industrialization of mature technology investment and high-growth emerging industry sectors. Combining highly advanced technology and powerful market force of China, GSR Capital is gaining cross-border capital arbitrage and technical achievement arbitrage while successfully achieving large-scale development of the some of the world's leading industries. GSR Capital has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and Silicon Valley.

SOURCE GSR Capital
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Preschool Curriculum (IPC) and AIM Middle East, the exclusive licensee for IPC in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, are pleased to welcome Little Smarties Preschool, Jeddah to the IPC family of preschools.

Maliha Ahad (Director, AIM Middle East) said, "As our first IPC preschool in Saudi Arabia, we are pleased to be working with the team at Little Smarties, Jeddah to ensure that they are providing the best global standards in early childhood education."

Little Smarties Preschool, Jeddah started in 2010 and has a special child-centred approach which will feed children's developing skills and interests at the right times and help them to become confident, capable and in control of their world.

The owners of Little Smarties, Noha Badkook and Aisha Banaja, are a dynamic female duo committed to providing the best in preschool education to their community. This is what they had to say, "We are very excited about Little Smarties being the first IPC preschool in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Parents will realize significant benefits as their young children excel in language and cognitive learning, curiosity, decision-making, cooperation and problem solving. Our aim is to provide all what they need to build fundamental skills that help to determine success in adult life. This will surely be achieved with IPC programs."

We would like to welcome the students, parents and staff of Little Smarties to the fast-growing IPC family in the Middle East.

For more information about IPC Middle East, please visit: www.ipcmiddleeast.com.

About the IPC

The International Preschool Curriculum (IPC) was founded to strengthen and harmonize early childhood education standards. As a professional association that directly serves schools, learners, parents and governments, the IPC offers a unique set of products and services that promote active learning and effective practices in teaching.

Headquartered in the United States, the IPC's objective and research based curriculum meets the standards set by state departments and accreditation organizations. The IPC is internationally recognized and works closely with governments to amend curricula materials if required to ensure local compliance.

With the assistance of an advisory committee, which consists of peers, consultants and academics, the IPC ensures that its curriculum maintains its rigor and quality. The IPC also offers an extensive teacher training program; the 6-month certificate course reinforces essential teaching skills and establishes a minimum standard for teaching practices in IPC schools.

The IPC also offers practical guides, consultancy guidance, marketing assistance and PR services for all authorized schools. In order to become an IPC authorized school, your school must be willing to adhere to the IPC's Code of Ethical Conduct, Marketing Code and be in compliance with all local requirements.

To learn more about International Preschool Curriculum, please visit www.ipc.education or follow the IPC at www.facebook.com/internationalpreschoolcurriculum

Contact:

Moya Bailey

Marketing and PR Director

1-888-844-3911 (United States of America)

moya@internationalpreschoolcurriculum.com

www.ipc.education

Related Links

http://www.ipcmiddleeast.com



SOURCE International Preschool Curriculum
DUBLIN, April 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

CaixaBank SA, Spain's third-largest lender, has made an offer to purchase the remaining part of Banco BPI SA it currently doesn't own for a price of USD 1 billion. The offer comes after both sides failed to reach an agreement regarding Banco's assets in Angola, and is the second takeover bid CaixaBank has made for BPI since 2015. Last year's EUR 1.1 billion bid was recalled after shareholders rejected a proposal to cease voting-rights limits. Industry performance for European banking is expected to remain muted in 2016, according to a report available from Research and Markets, suggesting that BPI may reject this offer too.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160330/349511LOGO )



CaixaBank owns 44% of BPI, and the proposed deal would result in annual cost savings of around EUR 83 million. Shareholders representing at least 50% of BPI's stock must approve the deal for it to go through. CaixaBank offered EUR 1.11 in cash per share for the remaining 66% of BPI, whose shares have stood at EUR 1.19 since April 8.

A recent report found that the top three banking providers in Spain account for 51% of main current accounts, and the personal loans market is dominated by CaixaBank. The potential acquisition of BPI will result in an even greater market dominance for CaixaBank, should the deal be approved.

The deal could have an affect on related markets, such as IT spending. The global retail banking IT spending market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.66% during the 2014-2019 period, but CaixaBank's acquisition of BPI could result in a higher percentage, as it is likely that CaixaBank will want to invest in IT to save further costs.

For further information on this topic, and a full list of all related documentation, please visit the Retail Banking section at http://www.researchandmarkets.com/rm/NPJL.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-18/caixabank-launches-new-takeover-bid-for-bpi-for-eu1-6-billion

About Research and Markets

Research and Markets is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.





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Research and Markets

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SOURCE Research and Markets
ZUG, Switzerland and STOCKHOLM, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The who's who in the life science industry turned out for BIO-Europe Spring 2016 in Stockholm last week. Over 2,300 executives from 1,377 companies and 49 countries engaged in 12,452 one-to-one meetings to discuss licensing opportunities, deal potential and strategic collaborations.

In addition to the one-to-one partnering, the plenary "Environment in 2016: Reverse engineering the ecosystem" was a main feature and was moderated by Denise Scots-Knight of Mereo BioPharma Group Ltd. who was joined by Shaun Grady of AstraZeneca; Jan M. Lundberg of Eli Lilly and Company; Richard Mason of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, London; Bernd R. Seizinger of Aprea AB; and Christian Zahnd of Molecular Partners AG. Discussion focused on industry insights and what to expect from 2016 amidst less than ideal market conditions.

A highlight of the Stockholm event was the Start-up Slam: Sweden co-sponsored by Karolinska Institutet Innovations and Johnson & Johnson Innovation, which featured 17 Swedish start-up companies who engaged in a competitive session for valuable funding partners. The winner was QureTech Bio AB, a startup developing first line drugs to combat antibiotic resistance and infectious diseases.

"This was BIO-Europe Spring's first time in Scandinavia, and we were extremely pleased with every aspect of the event and our collaboration with Stockholm Business Region and Stockholm Science City Foundation," said Anna Chrisman, Group Managing Director, EBD Group. "We saw high levels of engagement in partnering activity and networking, indicative of a strong market and high interest in partnering and M&A."

The next edition of BIO-Europe Spring will be held in Barcelona, Spain, March 2022, 2017.

Videos and news coverage for BIO-Europe Spring is available on partnering360:Insight and ongoing life science industry news can be found on partnering360:Blog.

Additional links and information:

Follow BIO-Europe Spring 2016 on Twitter: @EBDGroup (hashtag: #BES16).

Online Press Kit service for BIO-Europe Spring 2016 is available from Virtual Press Office/PR Newswire to enhance your public relations efforts.

About EBD Group

EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global life science industry. Since 1993, biotech, pharma and medical device companies have leveraged EBD Group's partnering conferences, technology and services to identify business opportunities and develop strategic relationships essential to their success.

EBD Group's conferences are run with the support of leading corporations and international trade associations and include:

BIO-Europe and BIO-Europe Spring, Europe's largest life science partnering conferences, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)

largest life science partnering conferences, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) BioPharm America, the fastest growing partnering event in North America

Biotech Showcase, a unique forum in San Francisco for presenting to investors and business development executives, co-produced with Demy-Colton Life Science Advisors

for presenting to investors and business development executives, co-produced with Demy-Colton Life Science Advisors BioEquity Europe, the investor conference co-organized with BioCentury Publications and BIO

ChinaBio Partnering Forum, the first dedicated biotech/pharma partnering conference in China , co-produced with ChinaBio Group

, co-produced with ChinaBio Group Biolatam, facilitating partnering among global life sciences executives in Latin America's vibrant life science hubs

EBD Group's sophisticated web-based partnering service, partneringONE , is used as the partnering engine at numerous third-party events around the world, and partnering360 is the open online community of life science dealmakers that enhances partnering experiences throughout the year.

EBD Group is an Informa company. Informa is the largest publicly-owned organizer of exhibitions, conferences and training in the world.

EBD Group has offices in the USA and Europe.

For more information please visit www.ebdgroup.com.

SOURCE EBD Group

Related Links

http://www.ebdgroup.com


SAN ANTONIO, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomas J. Henry's national injury law firm has seen a flood of 18-wheeler accident victims seeking legal representation in the past six months. The firm, which was founded in 1993, is the go-to trucking accident injury firm in the state of Texas.

Attorney Thomas J. Henry (PRNewsFoto/Thomas J. Henry Injury Attorneys)

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA, 3,964 people were killed and 95,000 people were injured in accidents with large trucks in 2013 (from the latest federal data available). Although the number of accidents involving large trucks has stayed steady over the last several years, the firm has seen more and more cases pour in.

That's due in part to a string of multi-million dollar verdicts obtained by the firm over the last four years and in large to Thomas J. Henry's long and consistent history of success in handling these complex casessuccess that Henry attributes to two critical elements- money and experience.

"I have the money to go up against these companies," Thomas J. Henry stated. "Developing an 18-wheeler accident case means going up against big money trucking companies and insurance carriers. These companies have teams of lawyers and unlimited money and resources to fight long and hard. If you hope to win, you need an attorney who has the same. A firm with 10-12 attorneys just won't cut it. I have nearly 100 attorneys ready to fight."

Some would say there's even an inherent benefit to just having the name Thomas J. Henry behind you when coming to the negotiating table. "The name Thomas J. Henry means something to these insurance companies. They know who we are and how we operate. Clients who come from other firms will tell you- insurance companies treat you differently when you are represented by me."

And if you need proof, just look at the firm's recent history of wins.

$67.4 Million - Company Vehicle Accident  Neck, Back, and Spinal Cord Injuries

$28.4 Million  Company Vehicle Accident- Neck and Back Injuries

$21.5 Million - Company Vehicle Accident- Neck and Back Injuries

When your attorney is known for jury verdicts that break national records- it can deter the insurance company from going to trial at all. "Many times we don't even have to go all the way to trial. The defense attorneys don't want to risk it and choose to avoid the courtroom altogether. This means they are forced to make a reasonable offer earlier, saving my clients time and the emotional energy of a drawn-out trial."

Thomas J. Henry continues to represent 18-wheeler accident victims throughout Texas and the United States. The firm was recently recognized by Newsweek.com as a Premiere Law Firm of 2016 and was named among Texas' Top Rated Law Firms of 2016 by Legal Leaders Magazine.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140507/85180

SOURCE Thomas J. Henry Injury Attorneys

Related Links

http://www.thomasjhenrylaw.com


OTHELLO, Wash., April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As of January 1, 2016, BatonUSA has begun working exclusively with qualified, honorably discharged US military personnel to help them become business owners. The unique business ownership apprentice program matches candidates with a business in the field of his or her choice, then provides ongoing mentoring, monitoring, mediation and management. When it comes time to purchase the business and take the reins, BatonUSA works to make the SBA Loan process as seamless as possible. Qualified veterans pay nothing to participate in BatonUSA's program.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160415/356143

"If you've ever dreamed of owning your own business, we can make that possible," explains John Loewen, founder, owner, and business analyst at BatonUSA. "The advantages of business ownership are tremendous. There's a great feeling in working for yourself rather than someone else. Owners make all of the important decisions like hiring and firing, and are tasked with the responsibility of leading a team and setting a strong example. For many veterans, business ownership offers an appealing way to transition back to civilian life."

Millions of business-owning Baby Boomers will be looking for an exit strategy in the coming years, so the supply of small businesses participating in this program is forecasted to be strong and steady.

BatonUSA's mission is to fulfill four key objectives. First, the company wants to help business owners "pass the baton" to the next generation while receiving Fair Market Value for their tremendous investment of time, money and sweat equity. The second goal is met through the first goal, which is to protect the business's employees from losing their jobs. The third goal is to help America's veterans build a solid foundation for their, and their family's, future. Finally, BatonUSA's fourth goal is to help strengthen our economy by preserving successful small businesses and as the business grows to employ more people.

"If you believe that owning a business is what you really want, I encourage you to apply today," concludes Loewen. "When you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life."

To get started as an apprentice/buyer, honorably discharged military personal  or those within a 3-month window of discharge  should complete and mail the BatonUSA Apprentice Application & Agreement.

About BatonUSA

BatonUSA, Inc. was founded in late 2010, with their website established early 2011. The company was converted to a DBA, BatonUSA in January 2014, under PurrPetual Developments, Inc. (PDi). BatonUSA's Business Ownership Apprentice Program originally worked with both civilians and military personnel, but has worked solely with honorably discharged vets beginning January 1, 2016.

The home office of BatonUSA is located in the small main street town of Othello, Washington. The company maintains an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. More information on the history and operations of BatonUSA is available at http://www.batonusa.com.

Contact:

John Loewen

208-577-8069

Email

SOURCE BatonUSA

Related Links

http://www.batonusa.com


On Tuesday, April 26, Orange Leaf fans are invited into participating locations across the country to create their perfect (beginner cup) froyo snack, choosing from millions of possible ways to mix and match light and fruity or rich and decadent froyo flavors and mouthwatering toppings. Once customers have swirled and topped their original creations, they simply need to head to the register to proudly tell or show an Orange Leaf store employee what makes them different and unique, and their froyo is free.

"At Orange Leaf we have always loved how creative our loyal fans and employees are, but until now, we haven't celebrated how being unique, different or unusual mirrors what we stand for as a brand," said Geoff Goodman, president of Orange Leaf. "You Be You Day on April 26 is the launch pad for an entirely new way to experience Orange Leaf. Whether we're introducing totally unexpected flavors and snacks or simply creating new ways for our loyal fans to be themselves, we're extremely excited and proud to 'Be Orange.'"

In a sea of sameness, Orange Leaf is anything but, and the Be Orange campaign aims to differentiate the brand through creativity, originality and inventiveness by introducing consumers to an Orange Unicorn who, with a witty, quirky style, will help consumers discover a new Orange Leaf. New treats and snacks such as Swizzles, Froyo Cakes and exciting new flavors later this spring and summer will give customers lots of reasons to visit Orange Leaf even more often.

Orange Leaf's Orange Unicorn was announced as a new hire recently and will focus on encouraging surprise celebrations of individuality, like You Be You Day, through a wide variety of unique events and special promotions as well as drive inspiration behind totally unexpected flavors and snacks.

Orange Leaf's You Be You Day Offer cannot be combined with any other offer. One beginner cup of froyo per person at participating locations (beginner cup filled and topped to customers' delight). Good for in-store sales only. No cash value. Toppings may vary by store and may be limited.

About Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt

Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt is a self-serve snack franchise with more than 300 locations in the U.S. and Australia. Orange Leaf offers a multitude of delicious traditional and original flavors, including no-sugar-added, gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan alternatives. Customized with a generous selection of do-it-yourself toppings, Orange Leaf provides an innocent indulgence, "self served" in a stimulating atmosphere. In 2014, Orange Leaf was recognized for its growth by top media and institutions including Entrepreneur (ranked Orange Leaf as one of the top three new franchises), Inc. (listed the company on its annual Inc. 5000, which ranks the nation's fastest-growing private companies), Nation's Restaurant News (ranked Orange Leaf 8th on its "Next 20" list of top 20 chains in America that are on the rise) and Technomic (ranked the company as one of the top five fastest-growing chains). Orange Leaf's pro-franchisee culture offers some of the lowest fees in the industry and encourages owners to become a part of their communities. For more information, visit the company's website, "like" Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt on Facebook, or follow on Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Tricia Bennett

GroundFloor Media

Phone: 303.931.0013

[email protected]

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sd8ZYbuV5g&feature=youtu.be

SOURCE Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt

Related Links

http://www.orangeleafyogurt.com


SAN DIEGO, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Biocept, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIOC) continues to expand internationally by announcing that its Target Selector industry-leading blood-based test to detect EGFR mutations associated with lung cancer will now be accessible to patients in Mexico through a reference agreement with Quest Diagnostics Mexico. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Biocept is a leading molecular diagnostics company that commercializes and develops liquid biopsy tests for cancer profiling and monitoring.

"Our high sensitivity test uses a simple blood sample to provide a cost-effective, viable option for patients with lung cancer who are often too sick for invasive tissue sampling," said Raaj Trivedi, Vice President of Commercial Operations at Biocept. "Detecting the EGFR mutation can qualify patients for targeted therapy treatments that could lead to better outcomes."

"We are pleased to collaborate with Quest Diagnostics Mexico to make our test more accessible to the many patients in Mexico with lung cancer," added Mr. Trivedi. "This collaboration also furthers our objective of actively expanding into geographies outside the U.S. and follows our recently announced distribution agreement for Israel."

"As an industry leader in the liquid biopsy space, we are providing comprehensive biomarker analysis in a rapid and cost-effective manner," said Michael Nall, President and CEO of Biocept. "Our ability to expand internationally is a testament to the scalability of our platform as we deliver liquid biopsy testing to the medical community worldwide."

About Biocept

Biocept, Inc. is a molecular diagnostics company with commercial tests targeting lung, breast, gastric, colorectal and prostate cancers and melanoma. The company uses its proprietary liquid biopsy technology to provide physicians with more precise information for treating and monitoring patients with cancer. The company's patented Target Selector liquid biopsy technology platform captures and analyzes circulating tumor DNA in both circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and in plasma (ctDNA). After thousands of tests, the platform has proven to be effective in identifying cancer mutations. Biocept plans to introduce additional CLIA-validated tests in the near term. For additional information, please visit www.biocept.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of words like "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "intend," or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. To the extent that statements in this release are not strictly historical, including without limitation statements as to our ability to improve outcomes for cancer patients and enhance individual treatments of cancer, our ability to expand into geographies outside the U.S., our ability to scale our platform and our plans to introduce CLIA-validated tests in the near term , such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous risk factors as set forth in our Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. The effects of such risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this release. We do not plan to update any such forward-looking statements and expressly disclaim any duty to update the information contained in this press release except as required by law. Readers are advised to review our filings with the SEC, which can be accessed over the Internet at the SEC's website located at www.sec.gov.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151013/276540LOGO

SOURCE Biocept, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.biocept.com


MIAMI, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- Register for free at http://ismaelcala.com/meditacion

Beginning May 16, the Chopra Center 21-Day Meditation Challenge in Spanish with Deepak Chopra and Ismael Cala makes learning to meditate easy, fun, and inspiring for people with busy schedules, and busy minds. Created to help hundreds of thousands of people enjoy the life-changing benefits of meditation for mind, body, and spirit, "Destino Extraordinario" is a free online, interactive experience that offers participants:

Daily audio meditations guided by Deepak Chopra and Ismael Cala

and Practical tips and wisdom for finding your purpose in life through meditation

A worldwide community of like-minded individuals exploring the gifts of meditation

Since the inception of the Chopra Center's English-language 21-Day Meditation Experience four years ago, over five million people from around the globe have experienced lifestyle transformation!

Inspired to bring this life-changing program to his Spanish-speaking audience, Chopra came together in 2014 with Cala to launch the first Spanish-language 21-Day Meditation Challenge, "Creating Abundance". Released in Latin America in November 2014, over 350,000 people participated in "Creando Abundancia", and this success inspired the continuation of the series with the release of 'Salud Perfecta' in May 2015 and "Relaciones Extraordinarias" in November 2015. Participants are now eagerly awaiting the launch of "Destino Extraodinario" on May 16, in which over half a million people are expected to participate.

Registration is currently open for the free, three-week course at http://ismaelcala.com/meditacion

Here are Deepak's top five reasons to meditate:

Meditation is the most effective way to manage stress, which is the number one epidemic of modern life.

Meditation improves your brain, including your focus, memory, and ability to learn.

Meditation increases creativity and problem solving skills.

Meditation helps you create more harmonious, loving relationships.

Meditation decreases depression, anxiety, and insomnia while producing a deep state of peace and wellbeing.

"I'm very excited about partnering with Cala for our new 21-Day Meditation Challenge in Spanish, which is a free online experience that makes it easy for anyone to learn how to meditate and enjoy its many benefits. The theme is 'Destino Extraordinario' and each day, participants will be guided in practices to turn their lifelong dreams into a reality, discover their true purpose, and create a life filled with passion, joy, and lasting fulfillment. Meditation is a foundational tool for mind-body wellbeing, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to share it with everyone who wants to learn", said Deepak.

"I am grateful to Deepak for his continued work with our Hispanic audiences. After wonderful experiences with 'Creando Abundancia,' 'Salud Perfecta,' and 'Relaciones Extraordinarias,' it is my pleasure to share with you our newest Meditation Challenge, 'Destino Extraordinario.' I recommend you participate to benefit from all the teachings Deepak has to offer. I'm excited to see how we can increase purpose and passion in all areas of our lives and achieve a state of true connection between mind, body, and spirit," Cala said.

About Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Deepak Chopra, M.D., F.A.C.P., Founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing and the Chopra Foundation, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and global and personal transformation, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. Chopra is the author of more than eighty books published in over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers in both the fiction and nonfiction categories. His ground breaking bestseller, 'Super Genes,' co-authored with Dr. Rudolph Tanzi (Harmony, November 2015) focuses on the new genetics and is revolutionizing how we understand ourselves and the health of those around us. For the last three years, Greatist.com recognizes Dr. Chopra as one of "The 100 Most Influential People in Health and Fitness." The World Post and The Huffington Post global Internet survey ranked Chopra #17 influential thinker in the world and #1 in Medicine.

About Ismael Cala

Ismael Cala is a journalist, motivational author, and speaker. He hosts the show 'Cala' on CNN en Espanol, a prime-time intimate conversation with the world's most powerful and relevant personalities. Cala is a regular contributor on Univision's 'Despierta America,' writes a syndicated column for more than 50 publications in Latin America and the U.S and is one of the most sought-after motivational speakers throughout the continent.

Related Links

http://ismaelcala.com/meditacion



SOURCE Cala Enterprises; The Chopra Center
CARROLLTON, Texas, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FASTSIGNS International, Inc., the leader in signs, graphics and visual communications, has been honored with the Pro Patria Award, which is presented annually by each Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) State Committee. The Texas Committee bestowed the organization's highest honor on FASTSIGNS International at its annual Employer Awards Dinner on April 15 in Austin, Texas.

FASTSIGNS(R) RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS PRO PATRIA AWARD

FASTSIGNS International CEO and President Catherine Monson and Mark Jameson, EVP of Franchise Support and Development, accepted the award at the dinner. Also in attendance were Stephen and Cynthia MacKenzie. FASTSIGNS International was nominated for the award by Stephen, a Business Consultant and Air Force Reservist from Indianapolis, Indiana after his recent deployment overseas. As recipient of the Pro Patria Award, FASTSIGNS International demonstrated support to MacKenzie and his family through leadership and by adopting policies that support Guard and Reserve employees.

"It was a tremendous honor to be recognized for the support we provide National Guardsmen and Reservists. We believe it's a part of our corporate responsibility to provide assistance to our active duty and veteran employees," said Monson. "We are so appreciative of Stephen MacKenzie for nominating us and will continue to be committed to providing the same level of support and deep incentives we offer those in the FASTSIGNS family who currently serve or have served in the U.S. military."

In addition to receiving the Pro Patria Award, FASTSIGNS International is a finalist for the 2016 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award (commonly referred to as the "Freedom Award"). The Freedom Award is the highest recognition presented by the Department of Defense to employers for their exemplary support of National Guard and Reserve members. FASTSIGNS International was named a finalist out of more than 2,420 nominations that were received nationally. Recipients of this award will be announced in late May and a formal ceremony at the Pentagon will follow. FASTSIGNS International is the only finalist located in the state of Texas who is in the running to receive this acknowledgement.

Leaders in the veteran community, FASTSIGNS is proud to report that more than 10 percent of its franchisees are current and former military veterans. "We actively seek veterans as franchisees of FASTSIGNS, because they typically have leadership experience, possess a number of valued skills and management experience essential to successful franchise business ownership," added Jameson. "Veterans are disciplined, driven, self-motivated and natural leaders, making them perfectly suited for franchising."

As part of the commitment to veterans, FASTSIGNS International is a proud participant of the International Franchise Association's VetFran program (Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative), which assists military veterans by helping them access franchise opportunities through training, financial assistance and industry support. Veterans that join the FASTSIGNS U.S. network can take advantage of specific incentives including a reduced franchise fee of $22,250, a savings of 50 percent, in addition to reduced royalties and advertising fees for the first year. FASTSIGNS International has also been recognized as a top franchise for military veterans by leading publications, including USA Today, G.I. Jobs magazine and Military Times magazine, due to the recognition for the company's financial discounts for military veterans, corporate support and outstanding growth.

For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity and specific veterans incentives for veterans, contact Mark Jameson at [email protected] or 214-346-5679, or download an eBook that explores the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity at http://amzn.to/1FrnDJu.

About FASTSIGNS

FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is the worldwide franchisor for the more than 600 FASTSIGNS sign, graphic and visual communications centers in nine countries including the US (and Puerto Rico), Canada, England, Mexico, the Caribbean, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Australia (where centers operate as SIGNWAVE). The largest sign franchise in North America, the independently owned and operated FASTSIGNS centers provide comprehensive visual communications solutions to help customers of all sizes  across all industries  meet their business objectives and increase their business visibility through the use of signs, graphics, printing, promotional products and related marketing services. The Franchise Research Institute has named FASTSIGNS a top sign and graphics franchise and has awarded the company certification as a 2015 World-Class Franchise for four consecutive years. FASTSIGNS was also recognized by USA Today, Military Times magazine, G.I. Jobs magazine and Franchise Business Review as one of the top franchises for military veterans. For more information about FASTSIGNS franchise programs, contact Mark Jameson ([email protected] or 214-346-5679) or visit http://www.fastsigns.com/.

CONTACT:

Rachel Tabacnic

Fish Consulting

561-441-9692

[email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/356740

Logo - https://photos.prnewswire.com/prnvar/20160216/333668LOGO

SOURCE FASTSIGNS

Related Links

http://www.fastsigns.com


WASHINGTON, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Americans believe early childhood programs  child care and pre-school  should be free, according to a new national survey conducted by Finn FuturesTM, the research arm of Finn Partners.

#FinnFutures Education Survey

Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed say early childhood programs should be free and accessible to all, a 24 percent jump compared to responses from a similar survey conducted last year by the Progressive Change Institute and GBA Strategies. In the new poll, the greatest support for universal free early education programs came from Hispanics (87 percent); African-Americans (79 percent); and millennials (83 percent).

Other survey results reveal support for greater educational equity in our nation's communities. Nearly three in four respondents (73 percent) believe public schools should not be financed by local property taxes; instead, all schools should get equitable levels of funding regardless of home values. However, the more money respondents earn, the less likely they are to hold this belief: although 78 percent of respondents with a household annual income of less than $40,000 believe schools should be funded differently, only 60 percent with an annual household income of $150,000 or more hold the same opinion.

More than half of those surveyed (54 percent) also believe teachers in the U.S. are not getting the appropriate level of training needed to be effective in today's classrooms. Just 12 percent believe that teachers are receiving the right amount of training.

"Americans want us to fundamentally rethink how we structure our education system," said Jason Smith, Managing Partner, Widmeyer Communications, A Finn Partners Company. "They're paying attention. They've become aware that early education is just as important as what's being taught in the K-12 system. They know how important a strong teacher is in the classroom, and they recognize the inherent inequity in funding schools by zip code."

The latest findings are part of an ongoing initiative by Finn Partners to assess attitudes, beliefs and behaviors in education and other issues of critical importance to consumers. The survey was conducted online, among a sample of 1,000 American adults nationwide. The data was weighted slightly to ensure it was representative of the population.

About Finn Partners, Inc.

Finn Partners was launched in late 2011 to realize Peter Finn's vision to create a leading communications agency dedicated to shaping a bold new future in which innovation and partnership are strong brand drivers. Finn Partners specializes in the full spectrum of public and corporate affairs services, including digital and social media. Practice areas include arts, consumer, CSR, education, health, technology and travel & lifestyle. Widmeyer Communications, a Finn Partners company, is the PreK-12 education arm of Finn and represents a diverse education client roster.

Since inception four years ago, Finn Partners has received six agency awards that are indicators of client and cultural leadership: "Best Midsize Agency" in 2015, "Best Agency to Work For" in 2013 and "Best New Agency" in 2012 from the Holmes Report and Midsize PR Firm of the Year in 2015 and Top Places to Work in PR in 2013 from PR News. Headquartered in New York City, the company has approximately 500 employees, with offices in Chicago, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Jerusalem, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Nashville, Paris, San Francisco and Washington D.C., and offers international capabilities through its own global network and PROI Worldwide. Find us at www.finnpartners.com and follow us on Twitter @finnpartners.

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SOURCE Finn Partners, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.finnpartners.com


BOCA RATON, Fla., April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- While Florida and Alaska are on the opposite ends of the spectrum, they share mutual concerns of the imminent challenges presented by environmental changes. The rapid melting of the Arctic ice is threatening coastal locations globally, and impacts include increased flooding from sea-level rise in Florida to infrastructure instability from permafrost melting in Alaska.

Sustainability professionals from the private sector - including insurance companies, realtors, architects and developers - will join leading scientists, decision-makers and members of the public sector for the third Sea-level Rise Summit from Tuesday, May 3 through Thursday, May 5 at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66, 2301 SE 17th St., in Fort Lauderdale.

Hosted by Florida Atlantic University's Florida Center for Environmental Studies, the aim of the summit is to compare and contrast the unfolding impacts and response in these different regions to identify and highlight opportunities for building coastal resilience both locally and globally. The sub-tropics and the Arctic are rarely discussed together, and comparing shared experiences is expected to unlock new insights. Stakeholders in both regions will identify globally relevant public policy and private adaptation strategies to lessen the impacts everywhere.

Like the Arctic, South Florida is one of the world's most vulnerable areas to climate change, especially sea-level rise. In Florida, potential adaptation to sea-level rise is complicated by the porous limestone geology of the region, permitting salt water intrusion into important aquifers. The low level terrain in many areas makes even a relatively small sea-level rise problematic.

"Coastal cities are critically important for our economy and society, and are facing unprecedented environmental challenges," said Colin Polsky, Ph.D., director of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies at FAU. "This summit will break new ground by pairing two coastal regions that are both experiencing environmental challenges, but are already working to adapt to these changes. By tapping into the collective wisdom of the participants, the summit will result in a living document titled 'Adaptation Pathways 1.0.' that will serve as a blueprint for other coastal communities throughout the world."

Since the United States assumed chairmanship of the eight-nation Arctic Council for the period 2015-17, the U.S. State Department has highlighted how ice melting in the Arctic affects people, infrastructure and ecosystems worldwide, multiplying risks around the world.

FAU's Sea-Level Rise Summit will open with a pre-summit examination of the science, commencing with a presentation by NASA Jet Propulsion Lab. The following two days will include facilitated panel sessions and interactive visioning activities covering topics such as the economic implications of sea-level rise, impacts on infrastructure, health and livelihoods, and response success stories.

FAU's summit is supported in part by the Canadian, British and Dutch Consulates in Miami; the Chambers of Commerce of Greater Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach; the U.S. Geological Survey; World Resources Institute; Union of Concerned Scientists; Florida Climate Institute; and FAU. The summit is open to the general public, agencies, decision makers, businesses, planners, researchers, risk management offices, and other interested parties.

Registration costs $300 and includes materials, conference app, all sessions and panels, the evening opening reception in the Pier Top Ballroom on Tuesday, May 3, as well as the main reception, two breakfasts, two lunches and all breaks.

For more information or to register, visit http://www.ces.fau.edu/arctic-florida or contact Mary Beth Hartman at 954-236-1203 or [email protected].

About Florida Atlantic University:

Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU's world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU's existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit http://www.fau.edu.

Contact: Gisele Galoustian, 561-297-2676, [email protected]

This news release was issued on behalf of Newswise(TM). For more information, visit http://www.newswise.com.

SOURCE Florida Atlantic University

Related Links

http://www.fau.edu


PUNE, India, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The Global Coronary Stent Market Report: 2016 Edition research is of 52 pages offering 37 Charts, 4 Tables and is now available in the medical devices industry segment of MarketReportsOnline.com data and intelligence library.

The stent market is an important segment of the coronary heart diseases. The stent is a small, elastic, mesh like tube made of a metal stainless steel or cobalt alloy that acts as support. Stents are attached onto small balloons and opened inside the artery to reinstate blood flow and support the vessel wall. Stenting does not involve any major incision and is performed with the help of local anesthesia and low sedation. Stenting is relatively more comfortable for patients in comparison to coronary artery bypass heart surgery. Complete report is available at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/464581.html.

Stents help in avoiding the heart attacks which is caused by narrowing of the coronary arteries. Drug eluting stents which are coated with medication are the most commonly used stents. Many new stents like bio resorbabale stents are in the market and next generation stents like drug filled stent are under research and development. Stents become very necessary in the severe instances of atherosclerosis which is a state where medium and large arteries harden and start narrowing because their insides get filled with plaque. The most common method employed for the treatment of coronary heart disease includes pharmaceuticals, balloon angioplasty, stenting and coronary artery bypass grafting.

The stent market was affected by thrombosis scare in the year 2010. Later the market was also affected due to stent deformity issues and pricing pressures which led the stent market down. The key factors which are anticipated to drive stent market include aging population, improving utilization of hospital, enhancement in the volume of drug eluting stent, improvement in the global health care expenditure, accelerated economic growth, diabetic population, increased consumption of alcohol, rising obese population, increase in hypertension. Some of the significant developments of this industry include introduction of new products from competing companies, Next generation stents and testing of drug filled stent. However, the challenge to be faced ahead is pricing pressure, regulatory issues and complications associated with implantation of stents.

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of the stent market. Furthermore, market dynamics such as key trends and development; and challenges are analyzed in depth. On the contention front, the global stent market is reined by few major players namely Boston Scientific, Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic. The competitive landscape of the respective market, along with the company profiles of the leading players are also discussed in detail. Purchase a copy of this Coronary Stent Market research report at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=464581.

Table of Contents from Coronary Stent Market 2016 Edition Report:

1. Cardiology Market - An Introduction

2. Coronary Stent Market Analysis

2.1 Global Coronary Stent Market by Value

2.1.1 Global Drug Eluting Stent Market by Value

2.1.2 Global Bare Metal Stent Market by Value

2.1.3 Global Drug Eluting Stent Market by Volume

2.1.4 Global Drug Eluting Stent Market by Device

3. The US DES Market

4. Rest of World DES Market

5. Indian Stent Market

6. Market Dynamics

7. Competitive Landscape

7.1 Global Market

7.1.1 Global Cardiovascular Market by Company

7.1.2 Global Drug Eluting Stent Market by Company

7.1.3 Global Balloon Angioplasty Market by Company

7.1.4 Global Peripheral Stent Market by Company

7.2 The US DES Market

7.2.1 The US DES Market Share by Company

7.3 Rest of World DES Market

7.3.1 Rest of Word DES Market Share by Company

7.4 Indian Coronary Stent Market

7.4.1 Coronary Stent Market by Share in India

8. Company Profiles

Explore more medical devices market research as well as other newly published reports by Koncept Analytics at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/publisher/koncept-analytics-market-research.html.

About Us:

MarketReportsOnline.com is your one stop market research and industry analysis reports' library providing business data and intelligence information on thousands of micro markets with global as well as regional coverage. Category focused research, country reports, company profiles, regional and global industry profiles and guides to premium reports offering extensive coverage of other 20+ industries are all available in our library of syndicated market research reports.

Contact Us:

Ritesh Tiwari

UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ

Magarpatta city, Hadapsar

Pune, Maharashtra 411013, India

Tel: +1 888 391 5441

E-mail: [email protected]



SOURCE Market Reports Online
"The Hazelton Hotel is a unique property located in the heart of Yorkville. I am thrilled to join the team and to work with Canadian culinary icon, chef Mark McEwan in creating memorable experiences for our guests and elevating what our world class city has to offer " said Roustom.

Roustom comes from the Shangri-La Hotel Toronto, where he joined in 2013 as part of the executive team in his capacity of Executive Assistant Manager Food and Beverage. Prior to that, Roustom worked with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, joining in 2006 at the Washington DC property as Director of Restaurants and Bars. In 2008 he transferred to their property in Toronto until the launch of the flagship Four Seasons Hotel on Yorkville Avenue in 2012, where he led the opening of the award-winning Cafe Boulud by Michelin starred chef Daniel Boulud.

Roustom's international and culinary exposure, experience launching and managing quality operations, and knowledge of cultures and five languages, makes him an asset to the Hazelton Hotel. Regarding hospitality and his passion for service, Roustom refers to a quote by E.M. Statler engraved in the lobby of his hotel school at Cornell: "Life is service  the one who progresses is the one who gives his fellow men a little more  a little better service." Roustom graduated with a Masters degree from the Hotel School of Cornell University in 2006, where he was awarded the Rama Scholarship for the American Dream. Roustom's love for hospitality started in his early years in Lebanon, visiting the mountain summer resorts with his family. He went on to study Hotel and Restaurant Management in Cyprus and England. In 1997 he was presented with the Student of the Year award from the Cyprus Hotel Association and graduated first in his class with Honors Cum Laude and with a B.A. in Hospitality Management from Bournemouth University the year after.

About The Hazelton Hotel and One Restaurant

The Hazelton Hotel, Toronto's boutique luxury hotel in fashionable Yorkville, remains the city's iconic landmark for all that is chic and glamorous. The Hazelton Hotel offers 77 sumptuous hotel rooms and suites designed by internationally renowned design firm Yabu Pushelberg. The Hotel's ONE Restaurant is celebrity Chef Mark McEwan's signature dining experience delivered from a contemporary Yorkville hotspot that boasts one of Toronto's finest patio.

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CONTACT: Hani Roustom, [email protected]

SOURCE The Hazelton Hotel
COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hondros College of Business will offer a series of Open House Events for students to learn more about preparing for a new and rewarding career. The earnings potential of these careers is high. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average Real Estate professional in Ohio earned $58,410 in 2015,1 while the average Insurance professional earned $64,790.2

The Open House Events feature industry professionals who will share information about the following careers:

Real Estate

Insurance

Appraisal

Home Inspection

Mortgage

Personal Fitness

Learn about the Associate Degree program

For the first time ever, Hondros College of Business is also offering an insurance-focused Open House Event at its Westerville location. This Open House Event will take place on April 26 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

The Open House Events give individuals the chance to learn about all the career paths that Hondros College of Business can prepare them for and the educational opportunities available. The Events are a great opportunity for students to ask questions one-on-one with industry leaders, and by attending Open House Events students can receive exclusive discounts.

These courses are scheduled monthly, May through August, at six Hondros College of Business locations from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Following are the dates for each location:

Akron/Canton Cleveland/Independence Dayton/Fairborn May 24 May 25 May 25 June 30 June 29 June 29 July 26 July 28 July 27 August 31 August 30 August 30

Cincinnati/West Chester Columbus/Westerville Toledo/Maumee May 23 May 25 May 26 June 28 June 29 June 29 August 2 July 26 August 2 August 30 August 30 August 30

These events are free and attendees are asked to register online or by calling 1-888-HONDROS.

Hondros College of Business also launched their May  August Course Guide in a print version and a digital version. The new course guide includes all new schedules and other various resources for current and potential Hondros students.

"We're especially excited about our new Open House offer that is insurance-focused," said Hondros College of Business President Tina Lapp. "We saw a demand for this within the College and within Ohio, and are pleased to be able to provide a specialized event for those pursuing a career in this particular industry."

1 Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Employment Statistics, Real Estate Sales Agents, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes419022.htm (visited April 11, 2016).

2 Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Employment Statistic, Insurance Sales Agents, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes413021.htm (visited April 11, 2016).

About Hondros College of Business

Hondros College of Business, based in Columbus, Ohio, educates individuals who want to improve their lives by entering new careers that offer stability, flexibility, independence and financial rewards. Hondros College of Business, with six Ohio campuses and with course offerings in many states nationwide, offers a variety of professional certificates and continuing education programs, as well as an Associate Degree in Business Management. Professional programs include real estate, appraisal, home inspection, mortgage, insurance, securities, personal training, online marketing and oil and gas safety. For more information, visit www.hondros.com.

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SOURCE Hondros College of Business

Related Links

http://www.hondros.com


TORONTO, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ImmunoBiochem Corporation, a Canadian biopharmaceutical company developing novel Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs), and the Centre for the Commercialization of Antibodies and Biologics (CCAB) have partnered to develop new therapeutics for the treatment of breast cancer and other solid tumors. Under the collaboration agreement, which also grants ImmunoBiochem an option for the exclusive licensing of new intellectual property, CCAB is supporting the development of fully-human therapeutic antibodies against ImmunoBiochem's lead cancer target. ImmunoBiochem will then engineer the new antibodies into ADCs and intends to complete their preclinical development and take the new molecules into the clinic. The highest priority is to make new treatment options available for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)  a significant unmet medical need. TNBC, testing negative for hormone receptors and HER2, represents 15-20% of invasive breast cancers, is an aggressive disease with poor survival, and does not respond to major therapies.

"We are pleased to support ImmunoBiochem with our extensive antibody engineering expertise and pave the way for ADC therapeutics powered by our synthetic antibodies," said Dr. Sachdev Sidhu, CEO of CCAB and a Professor at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research at the University of Toronto. "Unlike natural antibodies produced in animals, synthetic antibodies are rapidly made in the lab using phage display and advanced antibody engineering technologies to yield optimized therapeutic-grade candidates".

ImmunoBiochem's R&D is focused on the cancer cell secretome  the totality of proteins secreted by cancer cells. Select cancer targets are only secreted by cancer cells and accumulate in tumors, and can be exploited for targeted and selective delivery of cytotoxic payloads with ImmunoBiochem's engineered ADC therapeutics.

"ImmunoBiochem's lead target is a valuable cancer biomarker that is validated by a wealth of clinical data. The investment from CCAB helps us rapidly move from proof-of-concept to development-ready therapeutic candidates by tapping into state-of-the-art synthetic antibody technologies," said Dr. Anton Neschadim, President and CEO of ImmunoBiochem. "We are looking to disrupt the world of ADC therapeutics with our secretome-targeted candidates, and this new partnership will be a major catalyst in advancing our ADC technology platform."

Just last month, ImmunoBiochem has announced a new target discovery partnership, supported with funding from Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). ImmunoBiochem builds on the capabilities of the Centre for Research in Mass Spectrometry at York University and the expertise of Dr. Derek Wilson and his research group.

"Ontario Centres of Excellence is pleased to support this industry-academia partnership," said Dr. Tom Corr, President and CEO of OCE. "By promoting collaborations between academics and industry like this one, Ontario is supporting ground-breaking work that helps people and the economy, and creates jobs."

ImmunoBiochem is headquartered in Toronto, at the heart of Canada's largest biomedical hub, and is supported by MaRS Health located at the MaRS Discovery District. MaRS Health provides ventures and entrepreneurs with access to counsel, resources and capital, and serves as a bridge between innovators and institutions, operating core programs to help grow global companies and bring about change in the healthcare system.

"Partnerships like this help promising ventures leverage Ontario's vast biomedical research capabilities and infrastructure to commercialize Canadian intellectual property and bring breakthrough products and solutions to national and international markets," said Dianne Carmichael, Managing Director of Health Innovation and Ventures, in a statement.

ImmunoBiochem will be at the 2016 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in New Orleans this month and CCAB will be at the RESI meeting in Toronto in June to discuss recent scientific advances and explore additional partnerships and investments.

About ImmunoBiochem Corporation

ImmunoBiochem is a privately held biopharmaceutical company that has developed a disruptive approach to targeting unique proteins in the secretomes of cancer cells with Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) - an emerging class of anticancer therapeutics that combine the selectivity of targeted biologics with the potency of highly cytotoxic small-molecule drugs. ImmunoBiochem has identified a class of molecular targets that are secreted by cancer cells, but not healthy cells. These cancer targets possess unique properties enabling the highly-selective delivery of toxic payloads to cancer cells with engineered ADC therapeutics, while leaving normal cells unharmed. ImmunoBiochem's next-generation ADCs for oncology aim to offer a superior safety profile and broad therapeutic window, preventing on-target toxicities against normal, healthy cells that are common with many ADCs. Its lead candidates, IMB-101 and IMB-102, are being developed for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC)  an aggressive disease for which no targeted biological therapeutic treatment options are currently available.

For further inquiries, please contact:

ImmunoBiochem Corporation

Anton Neschadim

President & CEO

+1 (416) 897-2789

[email protected]

About the CCAB

The CCAB is a not-for-profit organization focused on translating research discoveries into products and capturing the tremendous commercial potential arising from the University of Toronto's antibody research and discovery engine: Toronto Recombinant Antibody Centre (TRAC). CCAB's mission is to create an internationally recognized and world-class centre for biologics development and commercialization within Canada. CCAB achieves this by reducing the development time of preclinical candidates and increasing the number of licensed therapeutic products originating from Canada. CCAB provides R&D and manufacturing know-how needed to develop antibodies into commercial products for a number of applications including: therapeutics, diagnostics, immunosensors, imaging, and research reagents.

For further inquiries, please contact:

The Centre for the Commercialization of Antibodies and Biologics (CCAB)

Ian Stewart

Vice President, Business Development

+1 (647) 715-2303

[email protected]

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE ImmunoBiochem Corporation

Related Links

http://www.immunobiochem.com


ROCKVILLE, Md., April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. ("ITI"), a privately-held biotechnology company developing next-generation immunotherapy platforms will be participating at the Maryland Regional Biotech Forum taking place today and tomorrow in Gaithersburg, MD.

ITI Chief Executive Officer Bill Hearl, PhD will be participating in a panel at 10:30 am ET tomorrow focused on the promises and challenges of personalized cancer medicine. Expect to hear about precision diagnosis and treatment of cancer at the molecular level. Dr. Hearl's participation follows an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement concerning LAMP-based immunotherapy for the treatment or prevention of any and all allergic diseases for people. His company is now actively examining applications of the LAMP technology platform in cancer. LAMP technology uniquely re-educates the immune system, making any vaccine more effective and early results are promising.

"We are pleased to join CytImmune, INOVA, MedImmune and Precision for Medicine, in this important discussion on transformative oncology research advancements," said ITI Chief Executive Officer Bill Hearl, PhD. "As we move forward in clinical studies for LAMP-based nucleic acid immunotherapy, we are also excited for the future and for the potential to dramatically advance cancer vaccine efficacy."

About LAMP-based Nucleic Acid Immunotherapy and Immunomic Therapeutics

LAMP encodes the Lysosomal Associated Membrane Protein. This allows nucleic acid immunotherapy (DNA or RNA) to utilize the body's natural biochemistry, with the aim of developing a complete immune response including antibody production, cytokine release and critical immunological memory. The ability to activate a complete immune response could give LAMP technology potential across a number of diseases, including cancer immunotherapy, allergy and infectious diseases.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI) is a privately-held clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the study of the LAMP-based nucleic acid immunotherapy platforms. These disruptive technologies have the potential to fundamentally improve how we use immunotherapy for cancer, allergies and animal health. Headquartered in Hershey, PA with lab facilities in Rockville, MD, ITI has entered into a significant licensing agreement with Astellas Pharma Inc., to explore the use of LAMP-vax, a next-generation immunotherapy platform, for use to prevent and treat allergic diseases. ITI believes that LAMP-based nucleic acid immunotherapy may have the potential to broaden the current use of cancer immunotherapy. Preclinical data is currently being developed to explore how LAMP nucleic acid constructs could both amplify and activate the immune response in highly immunogenic tumor types and also be used to create robust immune responses to tumor types that otherwise do not provoke an immune response. For information about ITI and LAMP Technology, visit www.immunomix.com.

SOURCE Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.immunomix.com


LONDON and PHILADELPHIA, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- AMO Pharma Limited ("AMO Pharma"), a privately held biopharmaceutical company focusing on debilitating diseases with limited or no treatment options, announced today the appointment of Joseph Horrigan as chief medical officer.

Dr. Horrigan comes to AMO Pharma with more than two decades of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and as a pediatric neuropsychiatrist. Prior to joining AMO Pharma, Dr. Horrigan held multiple leadership positions in pharmaceuticals and medical research. Most recently he led clinical development programs in neurodevelopmental disorders at Neuren Pharmaceuticals Limited. He also co-founded and led the company-wide Medicines for Children Advisory Network at GlaxoSmithKline and served as assistant vice president and head of medical research at Autism Speaks. He holds a medical degree from University of Rochester and is a clinical associate professor at the University of North Carolina.

In addition to Dr. Horrigan, AMO Pharma announced two additional appointments to the senior leadership team. The company has named Alison McMorn as vice president of clinical operations and Bernard Kiernan as head of pharmaceutical sciences and manufacturing. Dr. McMorn has an extensive background in managing global clinical development programs and most recently was director of clinical programs at Shire Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Kiernan has more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceuticals and joins the team from Shire Pharmaceuticals where he was director for product development in global pharmaceutical sciences.

"We are delighted to announce these additions to the AMO Pharma leadership team as the company continues to build momentum and advance our clinical stage development programs targeting new therapies for debilitating diseases including fragile X syndrome and myotonic dystrophy," said Mike Snape, chief executive officer and a founding director of AMO Pharma. "Dr. Horrigan, along with Dr. McMorn and Mr. Kiernan, bring a wealth of expertise in all phases of drug development and clinical research that will be an important asset for us as we continue to advance our current development programs and as we work to identify and acquire new assets for development in the years ahead."

To accommodate plans for continued expansion of U.S. operations, AMO Pharma also today announce plans to relocate its U.S. offices to 100 Berwyn Park, 850 Cassat Road in Berwyn, Pennsylvania in April.

About AMO Pharma

AMO Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company incorporated in February of 2015. The co-founder, Dr. Michael Snape, has extensive experience in senior scientific and operational roles in both large pharma and biotech companies spanning more than twenty five years, and has brought together a targeted and experienced senior management team with a proven track record of success in all phases of product development and acquisition. The company is working to identify and advance promising therapies for the treatment of serious and debilitating diseases in patient populations with significant areas of unmet need, including rare genetic diseases. AMO Pharma is currently advancing two investigational therapies for treatment of fragile X syndrome and myotonic dystrophy, and is in the process of licensing additional development-stage products in diverse areas including autism and other CNS disorders. For more information, please visit the AMO Pharma website at http://www.amo-pharma.com/.

Contacts

Corporate:

Lisa Wittmer, PhD

Chief Operating Officer

Head, Portfolio Development

AMO Pharma Ltd.

484.431.7991

[email protected]

Media:

Sara Zelkovic

Berry & Company Public Relations

212 253 8881

[email protected]

SOURCE AMO Pharma Limited

Related Links

http://www.amo-pharma.com


CROCKETT, Texas, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Little River Healthcare has reached an agreement to provide administrative and management services for the Houston County Medical Center (HCMC) beginning Monday, April 18.

"We could not be more thrilled to extend our family tree into the Crockett community," said Jeff Madison, Chief Executive Officer of Little River Healthcare (LRH). "We hope to continue HCMC's record as a quality local medical care facility. The people of Crockett and Houston County deserve it."

The HCMC Board of Directors sought an "umbrella" group to oversee the hospital's administrative duties, such as general management, physician relations, human resources, billing and marketing. The Board selected Little River because of its commitment to patient satisfaction and professional, quality care. Little River Healthcare also has a proven record of reversing financial instability in Texas rural hospitals.

"At all Little River locations, we focus on individualized care for each patient, providing quality healthcare from our family to the patients," Madison said. "We are very impressed with the community involvement surrounding the hospital's future in Crockett. We share the public's passion and envision a bright future ahead at HCMC."

The first step in building success at HCMC, according to Madison, is to establish a permanent administrator. LRH has called upon one of its most veteran leaders, Robert Torres, to serve as interim Administrator of HCMC, temporarily removing him from his role as Administrator of King's Daughters Clinic in Temple, Texas. Prior to joining Little River in 2013, Torres was a senior hospital administrator for a competing system.

"Our mission is to build the same success at HCMC that we've built with other rural Texas hospitals. But it will take time," Madison said. "We are excited to be working with such a knowledgeable, experienced Board of Directors in Crockett as we move HCMC into the future."

Little River Healthcare is planning a "welcoming" event open to the public in the coming months.

About Houston County Medical Center

HCMC is a 49-bed hospital located in Crockett, Texas, serving Houston County and surrounding communities. The hospital provides a number of inpatient and outpatient services ranging from surgery to diagnostics, outpatient therapies and imaging services to a 24-hour emergency department. The campus-based Health Clinic at Houston County Medical Center offers primary care services, including preventative care, non-emergency medical care, chronic disease management, women's health services and pre- and post-operative care.

About Little River Healthcare

Headquartered in rural Rockdale, Texas, Little River Healthcare specializes in bringing "big-city medicine" to small towns and "small-town care" to big cities. Little River has grown from its rural roots in Milam County to employ 1,000+ healthcare professionals among 35 locations. For more information and a list of nearby high quality medical providers, hospitals and clinics, visit www.LRhealthcare.com.

SOURCE Little River Healthcare

Related Links

http://lrhealthcare.com


Mogo achieves major milestone, sh*t gets real

VANCOUVER, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - More than 200,000 Canadians have signed up to become members of Mogo (TSX: GO), the country's leading digital financial platform.

"This clearly highlights that banking is no different than any other industry being disrupted by technology," said Dave Feller, CEO of Mogo. "As consumers increasingly looking for Uber like convenience in everything they do, it's clearer than ever that the traditional way of banking has being left far behind. Passing 200,000 members is a significant milestone for not only Mogo, but also FinTech in Canada. Similar to what we've seen with other disruptors, adoption is being driven by millennials which make up more than half of our members."

As FinTech is becoming more mainstream among consumers, the company attributes the strong rise in members to the growing awareness of the Mogo brand as Canadians continue to gravitate towards more convenient options than the big banks provide. In fact the recent Ernst & Young FinTech Adoption Index expects that adoption rates in Canada could double over the next year.

In Canada, banking is dominated by the Big 6 banks, as highlighted by their $35 billion in collective profits in 2015. Last year, McKinsey released a report stating that banks could lose up to 60% of their retail profits to tech startups over the next nine years. "The reality is, there hasn't been a real challenger to the Big 6 since ING Direct, which was acquired by one of the big banks" said Feller. ING Direct was an online bank that grew to over 1.8 million customers and eventually sold to Scotiabank in 2012 for $3.1 billion.

Mogo continues to focus on building a platform and challenger brand designed to offer Canadians a digital alternative to the banks. "As we continue to expand our platform and improve our digital experience, along with the launch of new products including our upcoming MogoMortgage, Mogo Platinum Prepaid Visa Card, and our new mobile app, we believe we'll accelerate our member growth and put us on track to reaching our goal of 1 million members within three years," added Feller.

About Mogo

Mogo (TSX: GO) is not a bankby design. It's a financial technology company focused on offering Canadians a more convenient and engaging digital alternative to the banks. With over 200K members and growing, we are using technology and design to offer consumers online and mobile access to solutions that are designed to help recover and improve their financial health. Whether looking to borrow money, refinance credit card debt, or getting tips on managing their money, Mogo is making it easier for our members to get in and stay in financial control. To learn more about Mogorecently referred to as the potential "Uber of finance" by CNBC, Toronto Star, and othersvisit mogo.ca.

SOURCE Mogo Finance Technology Inc

Related Links

www.mogo.ca


AMSTERDAM, April 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Altyn Bank's digital offering was built by Backbase, the omni-channel banking leader

Altyn-i, a new digital bank in Kazakhstan, announces its launch today. A subsidiary of the Halyk Bank, one of Kazakhstan's largest financial organizations, Altyn Bank's digital platform Altyn-i goes live with its online and mobile banking offering, powered by Backbase.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121002/567102 )

Altyn-i, like the traditional bank, aims to offer a full range of financial services, including account opening, debit cards, deposits and payment services - and at a later stage - consumer loans, mortgages, credit cards. The digital-only model sits on top of new, customer-centric business processes in order to appeal to younger audiences as well. The main advantages are the 24/7 availability, the flexible management of funds and the innovative digital features.

To offer a seamless customer experience via all digital touchpoints, Altyn Bank has decided to partner with Backbase, the omni-channel digital banking leader, according to Forrester. Backbase has supported more than 60 financial institutions across the world and has helped to successfully launch new digital-only banks such as CheBanca! and Touch Bank.

Askar Smagulov, CEO of Altyn Bank, said: "We are truly committed to offering our customers the flexibility, convenience and fast service, so we created a digital banking model to enable just that. Thanks to our new technology and structure, we now have the ability to react quickly to customer demand, so we're excited to launch Altyn-i today to allow our clients to progress with online banking, and keep on top of their finances wherever they are, and at all times."

Jouk Pleiter, CEO of Backbase, added: "Altyn Bank is taking full advantage of the potential of online and mobile channels, and working with a bank that shares our vision for digital transformation is incredibly exciting. Altyn-i is a solution to increasing demand for customer-centric, omni-channel experiences, and we're delighted that the visionary Altyn team partnered with Backbase to build a solid digital banking platform to win the battle for the millennial market."

About Altyn Bank

Altyn Bank JSC is the largest subsidiary of Halyk Bank, Kazakhstan's #1 financial services group. Altyn Bank JSC, previously known as HSBC Bank Kazakhstan, was established in 1998, and has since been acquired by and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Halyk Bank in November 2014. For more information see: http://www.altyn-i.kz

About Backbase

Backbase empowers financial institutions around the world to become digital leaders, enabling them to place digital channels at the core of their business model. The Backbase Omni-Channel Banking Platform is created around customer-centric design principles and delivers seamless digital experiences across multiple devices and customer touchpoints.

Backbase, a privately funded company, was founded in 2003 and has operations in New York, Atlanta, Amsterdam and London. For more information see: http://www.backbase.com

SOURCE Backbase
GREENVILLE, Texas, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- VEX Worlds 2016 kicks off this week! Presented by the Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation and the Northrop Grumman Foundation, this culminating event brings together the top 1,000 teams from around the world in one city and under one roof for one incredible celebration of robotics engineering, featuring the world's largest and fastest growing international robotics programs  the VEX IQ Challenge, the VEX Robotics Competition and VEX U. On April 20-23, at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky., over 16,000 participants from 37 nations will come together to put their engineering expertise to the test as they seek to be crowned the Champions of VEX Worlds.

Annually, the REC Foundation presents a series of robotics engineering programs that engage students from elementary school through college in classrooms and at after-school competitions around the world in hands-on technology challenges that build their interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Students around the globe have spent countless hours designing, building, programming and competing at more than 1,350 local, state, and regional competition events. Of the 16,000 VEX teams, the best 1,000 teams qualified to advance to Louisville, Kentucky to strategize and challenge each other playing the current 2015-2016 season games: VEX IQ Challenge Bank Shot and VEX Robotics Competition Nothing But Net.

"It's thrilling to see students from around the world ranging from elementary school through college gathered in one city and at one venue to celebrate their accomplishments and compete with their student-engineered robots," said Jason Morrella, president of the REC Foundation. "These VEX programs continue to grow at an amazing rate, demonstrating our ability to provide students with a hands-on robotics engineering experience that is both challenging and sustainable to foster their interest in STEM and set them on a course to become our future problem-solvers and visionaries."

At the close of VEX Worlds 2016 on Saturday, April 23, teams will be invited to Kentucky Kingdom, a stunning amusement park just steps from the venue, for a private party featuring new rides, themed attractions, and plenty of dining options!

VEX Worlds is FREE and open to the public with fun activities for the whole family! Spectators are welcome and encouraged to watch matches, attend ceremonies, and visit with teams in the pit area as they strategize and prepare their robots for competition.

Sponsors of VEX Worlds 2016 include the Northrop Grumman Foundation, Autodesk, Chevron, EMC Corporation, Harris Corporation, NASA, Texas Instruments, HEXBUG, Rack Solutions and Innovation First International.

Fans can follow the competition and sign up for real-time competition news and results via live webcasts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube updates. Real time tournament results are also available through "VEX via" - an iPhone and Android compatible app, which provides match schedules, rankings and scores. For more information visit RoboticsEducation.org/VEXworlds.

About the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation

The REC Foundation seeks to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on, sustainable and affordable curriculum-based robotics engineering programs across the U.S. and internationally. The REC Foundation develops partnerships with K-12 education, higher education, government, industry, and the non-profit community to achieve this work. For more information, please visit www.RoboticsEducation.org or for details on upcoming events, please visit www.RobotEvents.com.

Contact: Vicki Grisanti, Senior Director of Communications, REC Foundation

Phone: (508) 736-1993

Email: [email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160415/355922LOGO

SOURCE VEX Robotics
LONDON, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The scope of the study is confined to photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), and others (PIN photodiodes and avalanche photodiodes); hence, the market size is estimated only for the abovementioned product segments.



The radiation monitoring and safety market is projected to reach USD 652.8 million by 2020 from USD 512.1 million in 2015, at a CAGR of 5.0% in the next five years (2015 to 2020).



The radiation monitoring and safety market is undergoing a significant transformation, with the changing landscapes of healthcare, nuclear power plants, homeland security and defense, and manufacturing industries. The growth of this market is majorly influenced by the dynamics of these industries.



Growing safety concerns post the Fukushima disaster, technological advancements, growing security threats, growing security budgets of global sporting events, increasing incidence of cancer, growth in the number of PET/CT scans, and growing threat of nuclear terrorism are some factors expected to drive the growth of the global radiation monitoring and safety market in the coming years.

On the other hand, factors such as shortage of a nuclear power workforce worldwide and nuclear power phase-out in some European countries are expected to restrain the growth of the market. However, the increase in the number of nuclear power plants in India and Pacific countries, growing focus on clean and reliable electricity generation in China, and the decision of the Japanese government to reverse its nuclear power phase-out are posing lucrative opportunities for the radiation monitoring and safety market.



In 2015, the photomultiplier tubes segment is expected to account for the largest share of the radiation monitoring and safety market, by product, while the healthcare segment is expected to account for the largest share of radiation monitoring and safety market, by application.



In 2015, North America is expected to account for the largest share of the global radiation monitoring and safety market, followed by Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World (RoW). North America's large share is attributed to the increasing prevalence of cancer, rising adoption of nuclear imaging systems, government initiatives, the increase in the number of nuclear power plants in the U.S., growing security concerns, and the rising number of conferences. In the coming years, the radiation monitoring and safety market is expected to witness the highest growth in the Asia-Pacific region, with emphasis on India, China, and Japan. This can be attributed to factors such as high spending on homeland security in Asia, Japan's decision to continue with the use of nuclear power, high growth expected in China's nuclear power industry, presence of global and local players in the Chinese market, increasing number of nuclear power plants in India, and increasing installations of nuclear imaging systems in India.



The market witnesses high competitive intensity, as there are several big and many small firms with similar product offerings. These companies adopt various strategies (agreements, partnerships, collaboration, expansion, new product launches, and acquisition) to increase their market shares and establish a strong foothold in the global market.



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The report will enrich both established firms as well as new entrants/smaller firms to gauge the pulse of the market, which in turn helps firms to garner a greater market share. Firms purchasing the report could use any one or a combination of the below-mentioned five strategies (market penetration, product development/innovation, market development, market diversification, and competitive assessment) for strengthening their market shares.



The report provides insights on the following pointers:



- Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on the products and services offered by top players in the radiation monitoring and safety market. The report analyzes the radiation monitoring and safety market by product and application.

- Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on upcoming technologies, research and development activities, and new product launches in the radiation monitoring and safety market

- Market Development: Comprehensive information about lucrative emerging markets. The report analyzes the markets for radiation monitoring and safety across regions

- Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped regions, recent developments, and investments in the radiation monitoring and safety market

- Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and distribution networks of the leading players in the radiation monitoring and safety market



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3748534/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

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For more information:

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Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE ReportBuyer

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PALO ALTO, Calif., April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Since its April 2015 opening in Palo Alto, California, Magical Bridge Playground is heralded as the nation's most innovative and inclusive playground. The first of its kind, Magical Bridge Playground illustrates how today's typical park designs overlook and exclude so many: the growing autistic population, visually and hearing impaired, physically limited, medically fragile, and even the aging community. Working with inclusion experts from all over the world, Magical Bridge Playground far surpasses the minimum ADA requirements, and benefits everyone in the community, regardless of ability or disability.

Palo Alto's Magical Bridge Playground What makes a playground a Magical Bridge Playground?

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/356788

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/356789

The MAGIC of Magical Bridge Playground: Designed by inclusive play experts, educators, therapists, families living with various disabilities, and leading landscape architects, Magical Bridge Playground at Palo Alto's Mitchell Park includes:

Distinct play zones designed to accommodate everyone.

designed to accommodate everyone. Fully accessible equipment including bucket swings, joyful spinning features, wide slides, a sway boat, and merry-go-round.

including bucket swings, joyful spinning features, wide slides, a sway boat, and merry-go-round. Wheelchair access to a two-story playhouse, tree house, and top of a slide mound.

to a two-story playhouse, tree house, and top of a slide mound. Surprising and innovative features , such as a 24-string laser harp, whimsical artwork, seamless turf, and custom wooden structures for tactile and visual impact.

, such as a 24-string laser harp, whimsical artwork, seamless turf, and custom wooden structures for tactile and visual impact. Retreat cocoons for those needing a break from play.

for those needing a break from play. Play zone descriptions , featuring braille, outlining the physical and cognitive benefits of the carefully selected equipment.

, featuring braille, outlining the physical and cognitive benefits of the carefully selected equipment. A Kindness Corner acting as a visual reminder to be kind, and compassionate.

This year, Magical Bridge Foundation is focused on bringing a Magical Bridge Playground to three (3) Bay Area locations. The team will leverage their expertise and relationships gained from the Palo Alto location to reduce costs and expedite the building process, while continuing research and advocacy for inclusive play spaces.

"The ongoing enthusiasm for the Palo Alto playground underscores the global need for play spaces to be designed for everyone," shared Olenka Villarreal, founder of Magical Bridge Foundation. "While valiant in its efforts, ADA has not done enough to reflect the many physical and cognitive dimensions of today's families, or how they actually use playgrounds. Join us as we create a new kind of playground  a community playground, which reflects the needs of every community member. It is time to revolutionize today's playground designs, and Magical Bridge Foundation is ready to bring the magic of inclusive play everywhere."

With each new Magical Bridge Playground project, the Foundation will capture the unique spirit of the area and ignite the support of local government and community groups around designing public places for everyone.

Additional information:

Criteria for building a Magical Bridge Playground: http://magicalbridge.org/build-a-playground/

Fund a Magical Bridge Playground: http://magicalbridge.org/fund-a-playground/

Magical Bridge Foundation FAQ: http://magicalbridge.org/foundation-faq/

Palo Alto's Magical Bridge Playground: http://magicalbridge.org/interactive-map/

About Magical Bridge Foundation

Magical Bridge Foundation furthers the promise of Palo Alto's Magical Bridge Playground by advocating for and creating inclusive and innovative playgrounds in other communities. Led by Magical Bridge Playground founder and visionary, Olenka Villarreal, and co-founders Jill Asher and Kris Loew, the formation of Magical Bridge Foundation is responding to the global need for innovative and inclusive parks. We are ready to pour our seven years of research, fundraising, development, design, and construction strategies into building Magical Bridge Playgrounds across the nation.

Media Assets: Fact sheet, Logo and Playground Photographs: http://magicalbridge.org/media-kit/

Press inquiries: Kindly contact Jill Asher through Email or 650-520-8512

SOURCE Magical Bridge Foundation

Related Links

http://www.magicalbridge.org


SAN DIEGO, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- RuckPack Nutritional Supplements were conceived by Marine Special Operations Forces leader Major Rob Dyer on the battlefields of Afghanistan, and developed by a hand-picked team of active duty marines. The company has a powerful mission: deliver performance fuels bent on the importance of fit bodies and strong minds alike.

To deliver on this promise, "RuckPack will always be sure to use the safest and most well studied and proven ingredients available." That's why the team at RuckPack counts on The GHT Companies as the only source they trust to manufacture the RuckPack nutritional supplements.

RuckPacks' products and philosophy resonated with Shark Tank investors Kevin O'Leary and Robert Herjevic, who offered Major Dyer double the amount he was requesting. Since the company's appearance on the show in 2012, the enthusiasm for RuckPack's healthy nutritional supplements has been building.

During business planning meetings following the Sharks' investments, it was suggested that RuckPack consider using an alternate manufacturer, to save a few cents. Special Ops expert Major Dyer famously replied, "If I am in a dark alley, I want [The GHT Companies] with me. We are not changing manufacturers."

That attitude has not wavered. "Without Gut's unrelenting commitment to our small company, we wouldn't be in business today. They are true partners in our business, and the value they provide us is immeasurable," asserts RuckPack CEO Jimmy Patrick O'Brien, Jr.

Fast-forward four years to April 2016, when RuckPack is featured on "Beyond the Tank," the show that follows Shark Tank supported entrepreneurs as they navigate the waters of the marketplace. For the episode, ABC crews spent three days onsite filming The GHT Companies' facility and production/operations in San Diego, California.

The show airs on Tuesday, April 19, at 10:00 p.m. PST.

About The GHT Companies

The GHT Companies has been one of the most trusted names in the nutritional supplement industry since 1996. The group is structured to collaborate with global Founding Scientists to develop their unique ingredient/product discoveries for introduction into the worldwide commercial markets. Its unique business structure drives results in all channels of the nutritional markets: Branded Product Lines, Private Label Product Lines and promotion/sale of select Raw Ingredients. GHT's core purpose is: "Translating Scientific Discovery into Business Enterprise." The GHT Companies includes four brands: Vibrant Nutraceuticals, Global Health Trax, Green Life Sciences, and Health Specialties Manufacturing.

Media Contact

Shanna Denfeld, Vice President

(760) 542-3000, ext. 1425

Email

For more information

http://www.TheGHTCompanies.com

http://www.VibrantNutra.com

http://www.RuckPack.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqrluKbE6ac

SOURCE The GHT Companies

Related Links

http://www.TheGHTCompanies.com


WASHINGTON, April 17, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Save the Children staff will be working in the days and weeks ahead to give support where we can to those most affected by this earthquake, particularly children.

The rising number of dead and injured and the widespread destruction will require the full resources of the government and emergency services.

Save the Children will use our existing networks across the country to assess the needs of those most affected and help where we can. Our teams on the ground have emergency supplies ready to distribute.

"Our thoughts are with the families of those killed and injured," said Maria Villalobos, Country Director for Save the Children Ecuador and Peru.

"Children are among the worst affected by this disaster, with many being injured and left without homes. We already have teams on the ground who are working with the Ecuadorian Humanitarian Network to assess the needs of children and respond accordingly. The safety and protection of children and their families is our main priority and we will focus our efforts on the worst affected areas."

For more information on how to help children and families affected by the earthquake, visit savethechildren.org.

Spokesperson in Ecuador is available for interviews- Maria Villalobos; [email protected], +51 99840 4127

Media Contacts: Claire Garmirian; [email protected], 203.981.8137

Wendy Christian; [email protected], 203.465.8010

SOURCE Save the Children

Related Links

http://www.savethechildren.org


5% Design Action, a Taiwan-based think tank composed of hundreds of design professionals that use 5% of their time to tackle social issues, was also named winner of Special Award for Social Design of the Golden Pin Design Award 2015. Founded by Dreamvok, the initiative has drawn participation from leading global companies like HTC, ASUS, and BENQ.

An initiative of the International Council of Societies for Industrial Design (Icsid), the WDIP (http://worlddesignimpact.org/) recognizes and encourages industrial design-driven projects that benefit society and reflect the expanded field of industrial design. The Special Award for Social Design of the Golden Pin Design Award 2015 was born from a collaboration between Taiwan's premier design award, the Golden Pin Design Award (http://www.goldenpin.org.tw/en/), and World Design Capital Taipei 2016, and promotes the use of design to solve social problems or challenges and create a more liveable city.

At the WDC Taipei 2016 Gala, representatives from Warka Water and 5% Design Action were presented with a trophy exclusively designed by celebrated Taiwanese designer Kevin Yu-Jui Chou (KEV Design). At a press conference following the ceremony, Esosa Precious Desperts, Textile Designer, and Arturo Vittori, Co-Founder and Director, both from Warka Water, said they will be reaching out to new parts of the world and despite encountering new problems, the philosophy behind their project will allow them to adapt. Kevin Yang and Mia Chen of 5% Design Action said that the driving idea behind their project is to get around problems, such as how busy people are or how limited resources are, and find ways to work together on solutions. For more information on each project, visit: http://photos.prnasia.com/prnk/20160321/8521601834

Other finalists in the running for the two awards included HappyTap by WaterSHED in Southeast Asia and RE:BUILD by Pilosio Building Peace Foundation, both selected for WDIP 2015-2016. Jing Si Multi-purpose Foldable Bed by Jing Si Publications, MOXOR by CHIC DESIGN, and Polar Animals Blanket Set by DA.AI Technology, all projects from Taiwan, were among the Golden Pin Design Award social design prize finalists.

The WDC Taipei 2016 International Design Gala, held in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel's stunning Grand Ballroom, was attended by more than 500 design and business luminaries from around the globe, including Dr. Pei-ni Beatrice Hsieh, Commissioner, Department of Cultural Affairs of the Taipei City Government; Dr. Mugendi K. M'Rithaa, President of International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID); Shikuan Chen, Board Member of ICSID and Vice president of Compal IDD; Cristiano Ceccato, Associate Director of Zaha Hadid Architects; and numerous representatives from Foreign Trade Offices in Taiwan.

"I hope that World Design Capital can assist with the development of design and innovation in Taipei and make Taipei a better city. This is the first WDC in the Chinese-speaking world. In order to change Taipei, we must change the culture first. Last but not least, design makes Taipei a better city," said Ko Wen-Je, Mayor of Taipei.

"Through the two themes of Adaptive City and Design in Motion, Taipei City is looking to build a more livable city, and Icsid are excited to be on this journey with you. Your efforts throughout this year will leave a design legacy that will last in Taipei long after 2016," said Prof. Mugendi M'Rithaa, President of Icsid's Board of Directors.

The event is the second in a series of International Signature Events that are set to define the WDC Taipei 2016 year. An extensive series of public Local and Supporting Events run alongside these Signature offerings. For more information, visit the 2016 WDC Events Calendar: http://wdc2016.taipei/en/2016-wdc-events-calendar/.

About WDC Taipei 2016

"Adaptive City  Design in Motion" was Taipei City's core concept in its 2015 application to host World Design Capital 2016. How can we apply innovative "design thinking" practices to overcome the constraints that limited resources place on our city's development, pursue continual change in our urban governance, create happiness in the lives of our citizensproviding them with a better quality of life in a more livable, forward-looking city? These are the goals for Taipei City. 2016 marks the beginning of an evolution for Taipei, where we will take advantage of the potential in change by "Engaging Communities," "Connecting Information," and "Revitalizing the City." For more information on WDC Taipei 2016, visit the official website (http://wdc2016.taipei/) or follow on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/taipeidesign/).

About World Design Capital

World Design Capital (WDC) is designated by Icsid every two years to recognize a city's innovative use of design for economic, social and cultural development and to showcase effective design-led urban revitalization strategies that other cities can benefit from. Past cities to hold the WDC title include Torino (Italy) in 2008, Seoul (South Korea) in 2010, Helsinki (Finland) in 2012, and Cape Town (South Africa) 2014. Taipei (Taiwan) is this year's WDC, and Mexico City has just been named WDC 2018. For more information, please visit http://www.worlddesigncapital.com.

Images

More images of the award winning projects, Warka Water and 5% Design Action, available on request.

All images courtesy World Design Capital Taipei 2016.

Download high and low resolution images and caption detail from the below link:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bz9o_vxqYG27ejlZcS1SMW0wTzg&usp=sharing

Media Contact: Taipei Office Contact: Kate Nicholson International Media Liaison +886 2 2772 5850 *180 [email protected] Stephanie Lin World Design Capital Taipei 2016 Office +886 2 2745 8199 ext. *467 [email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160321/346095

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160321/346096

SOURCE World Design Capital

Related Links

http://www.worlddesigncapital.com


It is increasingly difficult to detect malicious activity making it extremely important to monitor and collect log data from as many useful sources as possible. Windows includes monitoring and logging capabilities and log data for many activities occurring within the operating system. However, the vast number of events which can be logged does not make it easy for an administrator to identify specific important events despite Microsoft's detailed documentation. Furthermore, no software can guarantee an attacker could never modify event logs or prevent the recording of event data.

Recent hacking tools from Russia and China remove or compromise logs in a few micro seconds before they are even transferred to logging servers. Thus, many organizations in the US are oblivious to the fact of even being attacked.

Our recent advancement in hardware-assisted solutions now guarantee anti-tamper log management. The Server BlackBoxTM is a leading hardware-assisted solution that collects log data into a dedicated hardware so that the data cannot be tampered under any circumstances. It also provides a central log management GUI, malware detection, data loss detection, and incident replay, based on analysis of the collected log data.

With these new features Server BlackboxTM is taking server monitoring and data protection to the next level. The company will be announcing a big contest for hackers to attempt to remove forensic data from its system later in June.

About Soteria Systems, LLC

Soteria Systems LLC is a technology and innovation firm based in Atlanta, Georgia dedicated to providing new and advanced products to meet the world's increasing data security demands. The company provides a ground-breaking suite of comprehensive hardware-assisted cyber security solutions and services that protect processed data and computer systems using pioneering technologies that include a hybrid use of hardware and software.

Media Contact: Edmund Lee

(630) 448-0098

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160415/356102

SOURCE Soteria Systems

Related Links

http://www.soteriasystemsllc.com


NEWARK, Del., March 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- St. George's University and the University of Delaware announced a new partnership which will enable qualified University of Delaware undergraduates to pursue advanced medical and veterinary degrees at St. George's University in Grenada.

"We are thrilled to welcome the University of Delaware into our growing University community," said Dr. G. Richard Olds, President and CEO of St. George's University. "By further expanding our network of partners, we are continuing to provide a pathway for students from around the world to pursue medical and veterinary education."

Upon receiving their bachelor's degree, qualified students from the University of Delaware will have the option to pursue a degree in medicine or veterinary medicine at St. George's University in Grenada. Students in St. George's School of Medicine will complete their first two years of medical study in Grenada and their final two years in U.S. or U.K. clerkship programs. Those in the veterinary school will spend three years in Grenada before completing their final clinical year elsewhere.

The University of Delaware joins a diverse group of over 15 colleges and universities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada that have partnered with St. George's University. The University also has similar partnerships with Mahidol University International College in Thailand and schools in Bermuda, Grenada, Hong Kong, Guyana, and Uganda.

"This agreement further enhances our relationship with St. George's University and will provide our students with the opportunity to continue their journey to becoming professionals in the fields of medicine and veterinary medicine," said Lynn Okagaki, UD deputy provost for academic affairs.

"We are pleased today to announce that the University of Delaware has entered into an agreement with St. George's University in the West Indies that will expand opportunities for qualified UD students to pursue a career in medicine or veterinary medicine," said David Barlow, director of the Center Premedical/Health Profession Studies. "It is designed for students who are certain that they want to become physicians or veterinarians and who desire a program of study that blends the scientific aspect of these professions in a highly diverse international setting."

About St. George's University:

St. George's University is a center of international education, drawing students and faculty from 140 countries to the island of Grenada, in the West Indies, to its programs in medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, science, and business. St. George's is affiliated with educational institutions worldwide, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Ireland. The University's over 15,000 graduates include physicians, veterinarians, scientists, and public health and business professionals across the world. The University programs are accredited and approved by many governing authorities and repeatedly recognized as the best in the region. For more information, visit www.sgu.edu.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Spencer Caton

(202) 471-4228 ext. 112

Email

SOURCE St. George's University

Related Links

http://www.sgu.edu


MONTREAL, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Telesta Therapeutics Inc. (Telesta) today announced the outcome of its Type A meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which was held via teleconference on Friday, April 15th. Telesta's questions for this meeting were centered on whether the FDA would permit Telesta to resubmit their BLA for MCNA1 under Accelerated Approval, with a more restricted label. Based on their review of Telesta's regulatory filing and the additional information provided by Telesta in the briefing package prepared for the Type A meeting, the FDA has ruled that any potential commercial approval of MCNA would require an additional Phase 3 clinical trial to be completed prior to resubmission of the MCNA BLA.

Telesta currently estimates that U.S. Regulatory approval for MCNA could not be obtained for a period of at least 5 years and possibly longer depending on the exact clinical trial design and required patient follow-up period. As a result, and in the interest of building earlier value for our shareholders, Telesta has determined that it will not pursue another Phase 3 clinical trial on its own. Rather, the Company will seek a partner for the future development of MCNA in the U.S. and accelerate its review of other strategic options in order to best preserve and utilize its strong cash position. As part of this succession plan for MCNA, Telesta will continue to work with the FDA in the months to come to precisely define the exact parameters of the clinical trial that will be acceptable to the U.S. FDA so that the exact costs and timeline of the trial can be quantified for the eventual partner or third party.

Commenting on this strategic option process, Dr. Michael Berendt, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientist noted:

"Since we received our Complete Response Letter with the U.S. FDA in February, we have been working closely with our board of directors, to identify strategic options that will deliver value for our shareholders in the event that commercial approval for MCNA in the United States would require another long term clinical study. This strategic option review includes the sale and/or merger of the company, the sale and/or licensing of our assets and the acquisition of commercial and/or pre-commercial healthcare assets that could be developed leveraging our current cash and human resources. This process is ongoing and will accelerate now that we have a definitive ruling from the FDA and may involve the engagement of an investment bank to assist and facilitate this review process.

My management team and our board of directors are acutely aware that one of our key assets is our current cash position of approximately C$44 million. As such, we continue to review and will implement additional cost reduction strategies in the near term and in the future as they are identified. A further report on these efforts will be made in conjunction with the release of our third quarter results expected the week of May 9th."

About MCNA

MCNA is a biologic therapy developed to provide high-risk, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer patients who are refractory to or relapsing from first-line therapy with bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), with a therapeutic alternative to surgery. MCNA is derived from the cell wall fractionation of a non-pathogenic bacteria. Its activity is believed to be through a dual mechanism of immune stimulation and direct anti-cancer effects. MCNA was developed to be delivered as a sterile suspension for intravesical administration by urologists and urology nurses, following the same dosing paradigm as first-line BCG therapy, with the advantage that it can be prepared, handled and disposed of easily and safely. As demonstrated in the Phase 3 Study submitted to the FDA to support approval of MCNA, 1 in 4 patients (25%) who had failed first-line therapy with BCG were disease-free at 1 year. Furthermore, these patients experienced a long lasting response, preserving the bladder for approximately 3 years.

About non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC)

Treatment options for high-risk NMIBC patients who fail first-line BCG treatment are extremely limited and treatment guidelines in most countries around the world call for radical cystectomy, which entails a surgical removal of the bladder and adjacent organs and glands. Bladder removal is a complex surgery associated with at least 28% to 45% surgical complications and up to 8% mortality, in addition to negatively impacting multiple aspects of quality of life. Patients who refuse or are not medically fit to undergo bladder removal face an increased risk of progression to muscle-invasive disease, likely leading to metastases and death. MCNA offers a new treatment option for these patients.

About Telesta Therapeutics Inc.

Telesta Therapeutics Inc. is a well-capitalized public company focused on developing and commercializing human therapeutics for the U.S. market that advance human health and increase shareholder value. For more information, please visit www.telestatherapeutics.com.

Except for historical information, this news release may contain "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws that reflect the Company's current expectation regarding future events. Forward-looking statements and information are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while, considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees and there can be no assurance that such statements and information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements and information. These forward-looking statements and information involve risk and uncertainties, which may cause, but are not limited to, changing market conditions, the successful and timely completion of clinical studies, the establishment of corporate alliances, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development, uncertainties related to the regulatory approval process, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's ongoing quarterly and annual reporting. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements and information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. All written and oral forward-looking statements and information attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements.

__________________________

1 Mycobacterium phlei cell wall-nucleic acid complex

SOURCE Telesta Therapeutics Inc.

Related Links

http://www.telestatherapeutics.com/


SURRY, Maine, March 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Published this month, The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries (Lantern Books) by Zoe Weil, president of the Institute for Humane Education, offers a new approach to education reform that promises a better education for children and a more sustainable path for the future. Calling for a shift in the purpose of schooling, curricula, and pedagogy, the book presents a vision and practical ideas to prepare children for their critical roles in systemic problem-solving for a more just, healthy, and humane world for all.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160325/348090

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160325/348091

"If we are putting hope for the future of our planet in our young people, then they must have the tools and feel empowered to take on the world's greatest challenges. The World Becomes What We Teach offers such direction for the very educators who are working with these young people today," states Dr. Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, and UN Messenger of Peace.

Operationalizing the ideas she presented in her acclaimed TEDx talk, "The World Becomes What You Teach," the book describes how to prepare a generation of solutionariesyoung people with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to create a better future that is more sustainable, equitable, and peaceful. Focusing on the importance of critical, creative and systems thinking as well as collaboration, the book outlines specific ideas for transforming schooling so that it is real-world and solutionary-focused.

"Because the world inevitably becomes what we teach, it's up to each of uswhether we are teachers, school administrators, parents, grandparents, concerned citizens, legislators, or any number of other professionalsto commit to transforming schooling so it is truly worthy of children, and genuinely worthwhile for the world they will both inherit and shape," writes Weil.

Both digital and hard copy book versions can be purchased on Amazon.

About Zoe Weil

Zoe Weil is co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education (IHE). She is the author of Nautilus Silver Medal winner, Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life (2009), The Power and Promise of Humane Education (2004), and Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times (2003).

About the Institute for Humane Education (IHE)

The Institute for Humane Education (IHE) (www.humaneeducation.org) is a nonprofit educational organization that prepares people to be humane educators who provide citizens with the relevant knowledge, inspiration, and tools for examining and solving the critical and interconnected challenges affecting people, animals, and the earth.

IHE offers master's degree and certificate programs, through an affiliation with Valparaiso University, and a concentration in humane education leadership through Saybrook University's Organizational Systems Ph.D. program. IHE also offers, online courses, workshops, summer institutes, and a free award-winning online resource center.

Contact:

Alison Foster

Email

917.331.1715

SOURCE Institute for Humane Education

Related Links

http://www.humaneeducation.org


NEW YORK, April 17, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --UNICEF delivered 20,000 water purification tablets to Pedernales today, the area worst affected by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Ecuador last night. A UNICEF team is on the ground assessing the impact of the earthquake on children.

At least 246 people have died so far and more than 2,500 people have been injured. The Government has declared a state of emergency, with the heaviest damage in Pedernales, Chone, Muisne, Bahia de Caraquez, Manta, Portoviejo, Esmeraldas and Guayaquil.

UNICEF and partners' first priorities are focused on life-saving interventions, including protecting children and providing them with critically-needed water and sanitation supplies along with tents and school kits. Urgent priorities include preventing the spread of diseases, protecting children who may get separated from their families, providing children with psychosocial support and offering them temporary learning opportunities so they can continue their education.

UNICEF has appealed for $1 million to meet the immediate needs of children and families affected by the earthquake. Since 1973, UNICEF has been working in Ecuador to provide children with a quality education, healthcare, nutrition and protection.

How to help: For more information or to make a tax-deductible contribution to UNICEF's relief efforts, please contact the U.S. Fund for UNICEF:

Website: https://www.unicefusa.org/donate/support-unicefs-earthquake-relief-efforts-ecuador/30257

Toll free: 1-800-FOR-KIDS

Text: Text "Relief" to 864233 (UNICEF) to make a $10 donation

Mail: 125 Maiden Lane, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10038

As with any emergency, in the event that donations exceed anticipated needs, the U.S. Fund will redirect any excess funds to children in greatest need.

Find us on Twitter: @unicefusa; join us on Facebook: UNICEF-USA

About UNICEF

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) works in more than 190 countries and territories to put children first. UNICEF has helped save more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization, by providing health care and immunizations, clean water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF supports UNICEF's work through fundraising, advocacy and education in the United States. Together, we are working toward the day when no children die from preventable causes and every child has a safe and healthy childhood. For more information, visit www.unicefusa.org.

SOURCE U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Related Links

http://www.unicefusa.org


DETROIT, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by Michigan AFSCME Council 25, AFL-CIO:

Today, Veteran Anthony Spallone heads back to court on behalf of the veterans at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans (GRHV), to block the repeated harm and neglect they are facing at the hands of J2S Corporation caregivers. In 2011, Plaintiff Spallone filed a lawsuit, and the court temporarily blocked Governor Snyder from removing the state-employed caregivers at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans, and replacing them with J2S contract caregivers. The court expressed that it was "very concerned" about the many instances of veterans being harmed and neglected. The J2S contract ultimately proceeded in 2013. Yet, the February 2016 Auditor General report on the GRHV confirmed Plaintiff Spallone's warnings about the woefully inadequate care being offered by J2S.

Spallone now makes the following statement:

"Through a series of destructive decisions, Governor Rick Snyder exemplifies a callous bean-counter when running government, prioritizing anticipated (yet not realized) financial savings over life. The residents of Flint Michigan consuming poisonous water, the students and employees of Detroit Public Schools forced to learn/work in the dangerous and dilapidated school buildings, the state prisoners who consumed maggot-infested food served by Aramark, and others have assumed the risk of these decisions. And for the last several years, our nation's veterans who live at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans have suffered while our Governor (mis)counted beans."

The Spallone complaint points out examples of harm still being suffered:

A J2S caregiver was untrained in using a "hoyer lift" to move an invalid veteran from the wheelchair to the bed. The veteran fell, gashing his head and causing blood to flow. He was taken to the hospital.

One J2S caregiver intimidated a wheelchair-bound veteran, barking at him "go sit your ass down over there" when he merely asked for supplies for his room.

J2S caregivers failed to clean the wound dressing of a veteran who had surgery. Maggots were seen on the veteran's skin in the wound.

Invalid veterans sit in their stool and urine for hours, as understaffed J2S caregivers scramble.

Plaintiff Spallone adds the following:

"We as veterans had the right caregivers before J2S came in. Now, we are suffering again with J2S. We need dedicated people and we deserve the best care. We should have our home adequately staffed. After serving our country, we came here as our last resting place before we die. Give us some dignity in our final years!"

Spallone brings this claim against J2S, seeking that the Court block the harm being suffered and asking for $5 million.

SOURCE Michigan AFSCME Council 25, AFL-CIO
NEW YORK, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Wally Findlay Galleries has acquired the David Findlay Jr Gallery (DFJG). The galleries will operate together at 724 5th Avenue as Findlay Galleries, a return to the original name used by the Findlay family from 1870  1965. The transaction closed on April 1, 2016; terms were not immediately disclosed.

HERMAN MARIL (1908-1986), Form and Flow, 1958, Oil on canvas, 39 3/4 x 29 1/2 inches JOHN OPPER (1908-1994), Untitled (88E), 1968, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 44 inches

This acquisition gives Wally Findlay Galleries expanded exposure in the market for American art, particularly the post-war period, by bringing the rich experience, collection, and stable of artists of David Findlay Jr Gallery into its operations. Artists and estates represented include: Gaston Lachaise, Steve Wheeler, Herman Maril, John Opper, John Grillo, and Chuang Che. The acquisition also reunites two branches of the same historic Findlay Galleries, divided in the 1960s.

Beginning in 1870, Findlay Galleries made a name for itself bringing to market American artists including Frederic Remington, George Caleb Bingham and Charles Russell. Since the turn of the 20th Century, under the stewardship of Wally Findlay, the focus has been on Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, School of Rouen painters, School of Paris painters including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Gustave Loiseau, Jean Dufy, Marc Chagall, and the Findlay School of painters including Le Pho, Andre Hambourg, Vu Cao Dam, Nicola Simbari, Constantin Kluge, and Gaston Sebire.

In the 1930s, David Findlay (Wally's younger brother) opened a related gallery in New York focusing on American painters while his older brother Wally retained the original family business in Chicago. The two galleries operated under the same name, Findlay Galleries. In 1965, the galleries changed names, reflecting their respective individual owners, to Wally F Galleries and David Findlay Gallery. The representation of American Art would continue with David Findlay Jr Gallery in 1982.

James R. Borynack, Chairman and CEO of Wally Findlay Galleries International commented, "Increasingly, collectors are acquiring across genres. To address this, galleries often expand by adding artists to their collection and the word 'Modern' to their name. This acquisition allows us to grow in a smarter way, adding not just American artistic talent and an existing collection, but also the scholarship, experience, and reputation of David Findlay Jr Gallery."

Lee Findlay Potter, daughter of David B. Findlay, Jr. and descendent of family patriarch William Wadsworth Findlay, added, "This acquisition consolidates and renews the legacy of the Findlay family and our dedication to connoisseurship and sterling customer service. I look forward to expanding our programming with a deeper and broader exploration of the important American artists of the 20th and 21st Centuries."

About Wally Findlay Galleries

Wally Findlay Galleries is one of the foremost authorities on the French School of Rouen, French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Modern Masters. The gallery also represents a stable of global contemporary artists in locations in New York City, Palm Beach, Florida, and affiliates worldwide.

Over the years, Wally Findlay Galleries has showcased many different genres, from French Impressionism, to Fauvism, to Post-impressionism and the School of Paris. During the 1960s and 1970s, Wally Findlay Galleries expanded across the U.S. and internationally, representing European masters while it developed a deep roster of contemporary artists with international recognition.

In 1998 Wally Findlay Galleries International, Inc, was acquired by James R. Borynack, a longtime Findlay executive, whose commitment to the Findlay artists as well as his relentless pursuit of veritable European contemporary artists, has expanded the galleries' prestige and following.

Today, in addition to offering a strong collection of period works, the gallery represents a group of distinguished contemporary artists, both European and American.

About David Findlay Jr Gallery

David B. Findlay, Jr. established his eponymous gallery in 1982 after working with his father, David Findlay, for ten years. Distinguished by its prescient eye for quality, consistent aesthetic and exploratory spirit, the gallery specializes in premier American paintings and sculpture from the American 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries.

In 1988, Lee Findlay Potter joined her father in operating the gallery and together they produced critically-acclaimed exhibits. In the following decades, Potter Findlay has identified profound mid-century trends, forged relationships with the artists who embodied them, and curated forward-looking exhibits that would receive critical acclaim.

Following David B. Findlay Jr's passing in 2015, Findlay Potter continued the respected work of her father, and will continue it under the new combined brand.

http://www.findlaygalleries.com

Contact:

Frederick S. Clark, VP/Director

Wally Findlay Galleries

Phone: (212) 421-5390

[email protected]

www.findlaygalleries.com

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/356526

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/356527

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SOURCE Wally Findlay Galleries

Related Links

http://www.findlaygalleries.com


BAODING, China, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE:YGE) ("Yingli Solar" or "Yingli"), one of the world's leading solar panel manufacturers, today announced that it was awarded "TUV Rheinland Star for 2015 PV Module Energy Yield" and its PV module was entitled "Five-star PV Module" at the TUV Rheinland Solar Congress 2016.

TUV Rheinland conducted a one-year outside energy yield test for module samples from 15 leading PV module manufacturers around the world by simulating the operation of PV modules in solar power plants. The test showed that Yingli's PV modules scored high in accumulated energy yield per watt peak during the testing period. Therefore, Yingli was awarded "TUV Rheinland Star for 2015 PV Module Energy Yield" and its PV module was entitled "Five-star PV Module" by TUV Rheinland, which independently demonstrates the outstanding performance of Yingli PV modules in terms of energy yield. Noted for rigorous and reliable testing certification, TUV Rheinland, a leading provider of technical services worldwide with a history of over 140 years, was the first to start laboratory-scale technical testing of solar components decades ago and houses the largest worldwide PV testing network.

"These honors awarded by TUV Rheinland highlight the outstanding energy yield performance of our PV modules under real outside operating conditions and our test result provides a benchmark for PV module energy yield in the industry. Meanwhile, our high, independently proven, PV module energy yield also delivers higher yield forecast confidence for larger solar power plants, increasing investment returns and supporting Yingli to achieve our mission 'to provide affordable green energy for all'," said Dr. Dengyuan Song, CTO of Yingli, "Yingli will continue to dedicate itself to developing high performance differentiated products, strengthening innovation and product quality, and making leading contributions to the PV industry."

About Yingli Solar

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE: YGE), known as "Yingli Solar" or "Yingli", is one of the world's leading solar panel manufacturers. Yingli's manufacturing covers the photovoltaic value chain from ingot casting and wafering through solar cell production and solar panel assembly. Headquartered in Baoding, China, Yingli has more than 30 regional subsidiaries and branch offices and has distributed more than 14 GW solar panels to customers worldwide. For more information, please visit www.yinglisolar.com and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Weibo.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "target" and similar statements. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond Yingli's control. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any such statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in Yingli's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Yingli does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.

For further information, please contact:

Jean Tian

Investor Relations Director

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited

Tel: +86 312 8929787

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited

Related Links

http://www.yinglisolar.com


NEW ORLEANS, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Zymo Research Corporation will introduce the newest in its line of FFPE kits, Quick-DNA FFPE Kit and Quick-RNA FFPE Kit, for DNA and RNA purification during the AACR 2016 Annual Meeting. These kits provide a simple and reliable method for isolating total nucleic acids (DNA, RNA, including small DNA and RNA species) from Formalin-fixed Paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples.

A Zymo Research scientist conducting a test using the new FFPE RNA Kit.

Historically, purification from FFPE samples has been a challenging endeavor due to inefficient reversal of the fixation process, which often contributes to DNA and RNA degradation affecting downstream applications. The severity of wasting these samples due to poor yield is even greater, considering many samples are from archived sources which are often irreplaceable. The FFPE RNA kit from Zymo Research yields high-quality RNA that performs significantly better in comparative RT-PCR when tested against available FFPE kits. In the same test, RNA isolated from Zymo Research's kit not only amplified three cycles earlier but also provided a greater total yield. The FFPE kits utilize non-organic (non-toxic) deparafinization and include DNase I in every FFPE RNA Kit. DNA and RNA can also be co-purified, if desired.

"FFPE samples hold the key to unlocking many secrets that would advance our knowledge in oncology and personalized medicine," said Dr. Larry Jia, CEO and founder of Zymo Research Corporation. "We are excited to release a product that has made such strides in improving the quality and recovery of nucleic acids from FFPE samples."

The FFPE kits feature optimized deparafinization/decrosslinking steps for maximum recovery of nucleic acids. Zymo Research's unique spin-column technology is utilized in these kits, enabling recovery of high-quality DNA and RNA in only 6l of elution buffer- including small RNAs (17-200 nt)  ready for any downstream application.

About Zymo Research Corporation

Zymo Research Corporation is a privately held company based in Irvine, California, USA. Since its inception in 1994 it has been serving the academic and biopharmaceutical scientific communities by providing DNA and RNA purification products. In addition to the nucleic acid purification products, Zymo Research also offers genetic, epigenetic and transcriptome analysis services. Zymo Research provides high quality products that are simple to use yet robust in their performance.

For more information, please visit: www.zymoresearch.com. Or follow the company on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/356701

SOURCE Zymo Research Corp.

Related Links

http://www.zymoresearch.com


If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
Seoul, April 15 : South Korea maintained a trade surplus in March due to a faster fall in imports against exports, data showed on Friday.

Revised figures for the trade surplus reached $9.86 billion in March, up from $7.07 billion in February, according to the Korea Customs Service.

For the first three months of this year, the surplus amounted to $22.1 billion, higher than $21.6 billion during the same period of last year.

The March surplus came as imports declined at a faster pace than exports, boosting worry about the so-called "recession-type" surplus.

Exports, which account for about half of the economy, dropped 8.1 percent from a year earlier to $43.01 billion in March. Imports tumbled 13.9 percent to $33.15 billion.

Overseas shipments of telecommunication devices surged 43.4 percent in March from a year ago due to strong demand for Samsung's new Galaxy smartphones that rolled out last month.

Steel products export increased 4.7 percent, but those for semiconductors and automobiles declined 1.5 percent and 5.2 percent respectively.

Exports to the European Union (EU) posted the third consecutive monthly increase, but those to China and the US, South Korea's top two trading partners, declined 12.3 percent and 3.7 percent each.

Chip imports expanded 7.9 percent last month on demand for cheaper Chinese products, but imports of crude oil tumbled 43 percent on lower oil prices. Car imports dipped 24.1 percent amid the sluggish domestic demand.
Ranchi, April 16 : Curfew was imposed in four police station areas of Bokaro district in Jharkhand on Friday night following communal violence sparked by pelting of stones at a Ram Navami procession, police said on Saturday.

Violence also took place on Friday in Hazaribagh district where too the trigger was pelting of stones at a Ram Navami procession.

"Curfew has been imposed in Bokaro. The situation is under control both in Hazaribagh and and Bokaro district," Jharkhand Police spokesman S.N. Pradhan told IANS on Saturday.

There were violent clashes between members of two communities in Siwandih suburb of Bokaro steel city when a Ram Navami procession was stopped and pelted with stones.

Several people were injured in the violence, including some journalists and government officials. A mob also burnt three vehicles.

In Hazaribagh, the trouble spot was Keredari where violence erupted after a Ram Navami procession was stopped. Several people were injured and some houses were set on fire.

One person also reportedly died in the violence, but the police said the death was unrealted to the communal clashes.

"An elderly person in the troubled area died after slipping from stairs," Pradhan said.
New Delhi, April 16 : The death of two Indian girl students in a Russian medical college hostel fire and that of a medical student from Srinagar in a Russian city will figure External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's trip to Moscow on April 18.

"I am going to Moscow. The final investigation report into fire tragedy in which we lost Pooja Kallur and Krishna Bhonsle is on my agenda," Sushma Swaraj tweeted on Saturday ahead of departing for Tehran, Iran, on a two-legged foreign tour that would also take her to Moscow for the Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers' meeting.

Kallur, 22, from Navi Mumbai and her room-mate Bhonsle, 21, from Pune, perished in the fire which broke out in their hostel on February 14 in the Smolensk State Medical Academy, Smolensk, around 380 km southwest of Moscow.

In a separate tweet, Sushma Swaraj said that she would also take up the Yasir Javed, an Indian national from Srinagar who was killed after being attacked in the Russian city of Kazan by unknown people.

A medical student, Yasir had reached Russia on February 26 on a business trip and was attacked in Kazan city in the Tatarstan republic that left him in a coma.

He died on March 8.
New Delhi, April 16 : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday embarked on a four-day visit to Iran and Russia that will see her attend a bilateral joint commission meeting in Tehran and a trilateral meeting later in Moscow with her counterparts from Russia and China.

In Tehran, Sushma will hold meetings with her Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, and also co-chair a meeting of the India-Iran Joint Commission that will review the entire gamut of bilateral relations.

Her visit follows that of Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was in Iran last week.

The Iran visit also comes two weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Saudi Arabia, during which both sides discussed ways to scale up their strategic ties.

Besides oil, India has vital stakes in connectivity projects in Iran, like the Chabahar port, that will open up physical connectivity with Central Asia and Afghanistan.

In Moscow, during the Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers' meeting, on April 18, Sushma would meet her counterparts Sergei Lavrov of Russia and Wang Yi from China. She is expected to raise with Wang the issue of China blocking India's bid to ban Jaish-e-Mohamed chief Masood Azhar in the UN.

Russia is likely to voice its concerns over India mulling signing a military logistics agreement with the US. India counts Russia among its trusted friends and during Modi's visit to Moscow last December for the annual summit meeting with President Vladimir Putin, both sides inked major deals in defence cooperation as well as in other spheres.

Sushma, announcing her visit, tweeted that she will raise the issue of the death of two Indian girl students in a Russian medical college hostel fire and of a medical student from Srinagar in a Russian city during her Moscow trip.

"I am going to Moscow. The final investigation report into fire tragedy in which we lost Pooja Kallur and Krishna Bhonsle is on my agenda," Sushma posted.

Kallur, 22, from Navi Mumbai and her room-mate Bhonsle, 21, from Pune, perished in the fire which broke out in their hostel on February 14 in the Smolensk State Medical Academy, Smolensk, around 380 km southwest of Moscow.

In a separate tweet, Sushma said she would also take up the issue of Yasir Javed, an Indian national from Srinagar who was killed after being attacked in the Russian city of Kazan by unknown people.

A medical student, Yasir had reached Russia on February 26 on a business trip and was attacked in Kazan city in the Tatarstan republic that left him in a coma.

He died on March 8.
Brasilia, April 17 : Five opposition parties have accused Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff of vote-buying ahead of Sunday's impeachment ballot in the lower house of Congress.

The Brazilian Social Democracy Party, the Democrats, the Socialist People's Party, the Brazilian Labour Party and the Social Christian Party filed the complaint with the federal police on Saturday, EFE news reported.

In the complaint, the opposition parties question the legality of a decree signed on Friday that makes the northern state of Amapa the title-holder of most of the land in that Amazonian region.

The decree is aimed at convincing lower house lawmakers from that state to vote against impeaching Rousseff, the opposition parties said.

Rousseff is accused of using loans from state-owned banks and other fiscal maneuvers in 2014 and 2015 to disguise the size of the budget deficit.

A two-thirds majority is required in the lower house to send the impeachment matter to the Senate, where a simple majority will be enough to compel Rousseff to step down for 180 days pending completion of a trial.

Vice President Michel Temer, whose PMDB party -- the largest in Brazil's ruling coalition -- announced last month that it was formally breaking off with Rousseff's centre-left Workers Party administration, would then become acting president.

Temer himself is under investigation for alleged involvement in an illegal ethanol-purchasing scheme.
New Delhi, April 17 : Coming down heavily on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's call for a "BJP/RSS-mukt Bharat", the BJP on Sunday said the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader was "daydreaming".

"What is Nitish Kumar's credibility to call for a BJP-mukt Bharat when he himself had been 'BJP-yukt' (associated with BJP) for 17 long years?" BJP spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told IANS.

Hussain said such statements were a "desperate bid on the part of a regional party leader" to hog the limelight.

"Nitish Kumar's JD-U is a regional party that has never contested on all the seats even in Bihar," he said.

Hussain said the Bihar chief minister was dreaming of playing a crucial role in national politics.

"These are his dreams but these dreams will not be realised. The Janata Dal is not united even in Bihar. So Nitish Kumar first needs to build his party at a national level before giving such statements," Hussain added.

Nitish Kumar had on Saturday appealed to the opposition to unite against the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"All the organisations which do not identify with BJP/RSS communal politics will have to come under one banner to save our democracy," Nitish Kumar said.

He predicted that the country was heading towards a bipolar political divide with BJP-RSS on one side and the rest on the other.

Nitish Kumar's comments did not go down well with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as well.

"RSS is the soul of India. How can they free India of its soul?" RSS leader Rakesh Sinha said on Sunday.
Kolkata, April 17 : The National Institute of Technology (NIT) Sikkim has recently established a supercomputer 'Param Kanchenjunga', which is said to be fastest among all 31 NITs, an official said.

"It is aimed to help in research and academics. Since NIT Sikkim has research areas like climate modelling etc., the supercomputer would aid in these fields as well. It is the fastest and most powerful among the NITs," Sanjay Wandhekar, associate director and head, High Performance Computing, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) - Pune, told IANS.

The supercomputer was established jointly with C-DAC - Pune last week at a cost of Rs.3 crore, said Wandhekar.
New York, April 18 : Democrat candidate and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders drew a record-breaking crowd to a park in Brooklyn as he looks to build momentum ahead of the New York primaries on Tuesday.

Sanders attracted over 28,300 people on Sunday afternoon, according to the campaign and a production company helping to plan the event.

This total was higher than the campaign's previous record of 28,000 in Portland, Oregon, in August 2015, NBC News reported.

"In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of people here this afternoon!" Sanders bellowed to cheers as he took the stage after veteran actor Danny DeVito glowingly introduced him.

Mega-rallies have been a staple of Sanders campaign since last summer, but only in the past few weeks has he brought show-of-strength events to New York City.

By March end, Sanders drew about 18,000 people to the South Bronx, according to the campaign.

Last week, more than 27,000 people showed up to hear him at Washington Square Park.

On Monday - the night before the all-important New York primary - another large crowd is expected in Long Island city.
Brasilia, April 18 : The lower house of Brazil's parliament have voted in favour of impeaching President Dilma Rousseff, a move that could see the country's first female leader removed from power.

After over five hours of voting late Sunday night, more than 342 lawmakers, the two-thirds majority required by law, have voted in favour of impeachment, CNN reported.

More than 130 lawmakers have voted against it.

The 513 legislators voted one by one, all of them given 30 seconds to speak before casting their ballots.

The impeachment motion will now go to the Senate which will vote whether to open a trial against the president.

If a majority approves it, Rousseff will have to step down for 180 days to defend herself in the trial. She would be replaced by Vice President Michel Temer, leader of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) who broke away from the government two weeks ago and decided to support the process leading to Rousseff's dismissal.

If the Senate approves the impeachment motion, Rousseff could be suspended as early as May which would be about three months before the Summer Olympics start in Rio de Janeiro, an event that was supposed to showcase Brazil as a rising power on the global stage.

Thousands of pro- and anti-impeachment protesters gathered in the capital Brasilia and other cities to watch the dramatic vote, broadcast live on national television.

Advocates for impeachment dressed in yellow and green at protests across the country.

Pro-government supporters wore red, the colours of Rousseff's Workers' Party.

Lawmakers have accused Rousseff of hiding a budgetary deficit to win re-election in 2014.

Opponents blamed Rousseff for the worst recession since the 1930s, now in its second year.

She is also held accountable for a massive bribery and corruption scandal that has engulfed dozens of politicians in the Workers' Party and coalition government.

Rousseff's exit would mark the end of an era for the Workers' Party, which assumed the presidential office in 2004 with the election of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who remained in office for two terms.
New Delhi : Title: Getting Things Done - the Art of Stress-Free Productivity; Author: David Allen; Publisher: Hachette India; Pages: 353; Price: Rs.399 In our fast-paced and complex chaotic world of work and life, a coveted term of praise for anyone is that they know how to "get things done". Do they possess some special skills others are bereft of, or do they do the same things others do but with a different method? And can this be taught?

All those who find themselves swamped with too much to do but finding the time available insufficient, while queasy at perhaps having overlooked something significant, will be glad to know that there is no insurmountable barrier keeping them apart from those who can easily strike a viable balance between their work and time.

And more welcome will be the fact that one can quite easily train themselves to acquire this vital skill offering an easier approach to life, as well as work, and no magic is required - as per this book.

For "magic" in this context implies fully obedient and precise repetition of spells and methods, but what David Allen, acknowledged as an expert on personal and organisational productivity with top clients from some of the most prestigious US corporations, offers here is a simpler, practical and flexible way. His method is not an "all-or-nothing" approach, warning of adverse consequences, or at least less-than-optimal results, if not done precisely as set out, but promising to be equally effective whether followed in full or in part.

And it is not only forgiving of human weaknesses, but makes due allowance for it.

Allen's method only calls for focus accompanied with clarity and decisiveness in planning and executing, which largely needs common sense and simple logic - but in most situations of pressure and tension, people to even forget these basic human attributes.

The basic message is that every task or activity has its place and time and proper marrying of these - which is not so difficult as it may seem - ensures the required work can be done effectively without any unwanted tension. As such, his way assures "how to have more energy, be more relaxed, and get a lot more accomplished with much less effort".

The crux is breaking down the task into a number of small steps setting out what exactly has to be done, in which order, and when and Allen does his best to provide guidance and examples of how this should and can be done.

Or if you prefer a buzzword approach, then he puts it as "Capture", "Clarify", "Organise", "Reflect" and "Engage", or collecting, processing, organising, deciding and acting. Some of these may just appear to be plain common sense - and they are, but in a disciplined and focussed way. As one example goes, if there is task before you, that can be done within two minutes, then do it right away, instead of delegating or delaying it.

There is much more in this vein in this book - a revised and updated version of the one first published in 2001 especially to incorporate digital technology, the more interconnected world and other advances, and of its three sections, the first two are the ones which will be most profitable to read, while the final may seem a little repetitive.

As normally happens with various techniques, you will find some of the things you read in this book are those you might already be doing, some you may have done but perhaps not right and now learn, some you might never have thought about but now seem useful and end up working for you (and some that don't), and some that you might think won't work for you or you can't bring yourself to do.

But it seems likely that you will at least find a few helpful pointers here - and they won't require any radical change or special equipment.

(18.04.2016 - Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in )
New Delhi, April 18 : The authentic and uber- sophisticated En - The Japanese Restaurant, brings to the capital the Japanese traditional cherry-blossom flower festival, Hanami, with a special menu in celebration of the ancient custom.

Hanami starts by the end of March to early May, when sakura - cherry blossom - bloom all over Japan.

The tradition is believed to have started around the Nara period (710-794). Inititially people admired the ume - plum - blossoms but by the Heian period (794-1185), sakura grabbed more attention and hanami was synonymous with sakura.

For the occasion, En has introduced a special menu which will be available until April 21.

The interiors of the restaurant which is located in an over 100-year-old heritage building opposite the majestic Qutab Minar, has been redecorated using cherry blossom flowers, sakura coloured round lanterns and the Japanese Ikebana flower arrangements.

The special menu is available both in the non-vegetarian and vegetarian variants priced at Rs. 1,600 and Rs. 1,400 plus taxes respectively.

To start off, we were served the sakura blossom mocktail, an aperitif. The fizzy drink that came in a shot glass sitting on a square-shaped wooden holder tasted very similar to the 7Up cold drink.

This was quickly followed by the temari (round) sushi with cherry blossom served with pickled vegetables. The pink-coloured sushi was a sight for sore eyes. It consisted only of the sticky sushi rice which was soaked in vinegar and sakura essence for 24 hours. Shaped into a ball, the taste was very bland, even the pickled vegetables or the tasty soy sauce couldn't do much.

After this, we were served the yakitori (skewers) in both non-vegetarian - chicken, and vegetarian - okra and mushroom. The chicken yakitori were to die for, juicy, melt-in-the-mouth soft, full of flavour. The mushroom was also flavourful but the okra was again really bland.

The next was the miso (fermented soy-bean paste) soup which actually acts as a palate cleanser and also helps in quick digestion. It came with pieces of fried tofu. It was full of flavour although a little on the acquired side, not recommended for all.

The next dishes that came in were definitely the stars of the whole evening. First up was the aburi (baked) salmon special roll and the California sushi roll, and the second was baked mackerel marinated in sweet miso sauce served with bok choy, steamed rice and pickled vegetables.

The baked salmon sushi roll was fresh giving out the very distinct flavour of the salmon without overpowering it. Japanese mayonnaise and soy sauce was drizzled on top. The California rolls -- filled with cucumber, crab meat and avocado -- felt it was served straight out of the sea. The outer layer of sticky rice was covered in tiny tobiko - flying fish row - pearls, which popped in the mouth.

The rolls were accompanied by wasabi, pickled ginger and soy sauce.

The second dish was again on the acquired side. The rice mixed with the bok choy along with a piece of the miso mackerel was very tasty, with the sweet sauce enhancing the flavour of all the ingredients.

This dish was very nice; it made you feel very royal.

We concluded the meal with sakura chiffon cake and green tea. The consistency of the cake was fluffy, light as a feather and although the sweetness was very less, it managed to hit the right notes.

The meal was definitely a taste trip and En claiming to serve authentic Japanese stood true to its claim.

FAQs:

Where: H-5/1, Ambawatta One, Kalkadas Marg, Mehrauli, New Delhi

Timings: For lunch: 12 noon-2.45 p.m.; For dinner: 6.30-10.45 p.m (The writer's visit was at the invitation of En. Karishma Saurabh Kalita can be contacted at karishma.k@ians.in)
Islamabad, April 18 : The US embassy has issued a warning to American citizens against visiting Marriott Hotel Islamabad for the next several days, in wake of a general threat.

An advisory issued by the embassy said it was aware of a general but uncorroborated threat against the hotel, Dawn online reported.

US citizens were advised to avoid the area for the next several days to allow time to assess the situation.

Security of the hotel has been further tightened with police and troopers from Pakitsan Rangers patrolling around the building.

"US citizens are urged to defer all non-essential travel to Pakistan. The mission reminds those citizens considering travel to or remaining in Pakistan despite this warning to enroll in the Smart Traveller Enrollment Programme (STEP)," the embassy said in a statement.

It also stated that citizens "maintain vigilant situational awareness, avoid large crowds, keep a low profile and avoid visiting locations frequented by westerners. The citizens are strongly urged to avoid hotels that do not apply stringent security measures".

Marriott Hotel, however, said foolproof security was in place. Assistant chief security officer of Marriott, Colonel (retd) Mohammad Zubair, said the US embassy had contacted the hotel administration and discussed the security arrangements.

"The government has also taken the matter seriously and enhanced the security. Currently, both the police and Rangers are patrolling around the hotel," he said.

Though Marriott is considered one of the safest hotels in Islamabad, it faced a suicide attack in September 2008 which left over 50 people killed and 250 injured.
Mumbai, April 18 : Celebrating its continuous philanthropic efforts to make healthcare accessible to people from all sections of the society, the Wadia Hospitals chain has celebrated 90 years of excellence in paediatric and neo-natal care here.

"In the last 90 years though a lot has changed, one thing that has not and will never change is the philanthropy and the philosophy," said Nusli Wadia, chairman at Mumbai's Wadia Group, at a ceremony held in the city.

Wadia Group presented "My Stamp" to Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao as an imprint of its entire team on the millions of hearts who have been cared and nurtured by them.

Speaking at the event, state Education Minister Vinod Tawde said: "Wadia Hospital, for years, has been synonymous with excellent paediatric and neo-natal care, making healthcare accessible to people from every section of the society."

Wadia Group entered healthcare with Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital in 1926 and later, in 1928, opened Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children.

Today, both hospitals provide more than 50 specialties and provide excellent services to women and children all under one roof.

"Our hospitals which are well equipped with state-of-the-art facilities have managed to assist millions of patients in the last nine decades. It's the trust that the hospitals have built over the years which brings in patients from almost every corner of the country," noted Dr Minnie Bodhanwala, CEO of Wadia Hospitals.

"This is a major milestone in the history of Wadia Hospitals and a testimony of the fact that no contribution is big or small; it's the effort and the intention that matters," Ness Wadia, managind director, Wadia Group, pointed out.
Moscow, April 18 : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during her meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi here on Monday raised the issue of China vetoing India's bid at the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar.

"The external affairs minister raised the issue of listing of Masood Azhar in the UN 1267 Committee and emphasised that as common victims of terrorism, China and India should cooperate in combating this challenge," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said after the meeting between two leaders on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers' meeting.

"It was agreed that the two sides would remain in touch on this matter," he said.

India approached the UN in February to include Azhar in the UN Security Council's 1267 sanctions list, in the aftermath of the Pathankot airbase terror attack. IN the strike in early January by JeM terrorists, seven Indian security persons were killed.

However, China asked the UN sanctions committee to keep on hold the Indian move, saying that Azhar did not meet the UN criteria to be banned as a terrorist.

India has voiced disappointment at the "technical hold" put on its application to include Azhar in the UN sanctions list.

During Monday's meeting, Sushma Swaraj and Wang also reviewed the state of bilateral relations.

They assessed the implementation of decisions taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in May last year.

Swarup said the two ministers noted the significance of high-level exchanges contemplated this year, including the ongoing visit of Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar to China.

China will be hosting the G20 Summit, and India the BRICS Summit in 2016.

"The ministers appreciated the expanding trade and investment ties between India and China," the spokesman said.

"They underscored the importance of strengthening people-to-people ties. In this context, Foreign Minister Wang Yi apprised the external affairs minister of China's decision to increase the number of Indian pilgrims for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via Nathu La," he added.

Sushma Swaraj reached Moscow on Sunday on the second and final leg of her two-nation tour that earlier took her to Iran.

She is also scheduled to meet Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on trade and economic cooperation, to take stock of the developments in strengthening this important aspect of the bilateral relationship.

She will also meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to take stock of the overall bilateral relationship.
Kabul, April 18 : The Iranian authorities have promised to take immediate action to try a teenager who raped and murdered a little Afghan girl in Iran.

Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan Mohammad Reza Bahrami said the country's vice president met the victim's family, Khaama press reported.

Bahrami has also promised quick action by the authorities for the trial of the rapist.

A six-year-old Afghan girl was abducted, raped and then murdered by an Iranian teenager. The girl, according to the media, was also burnt with acid to hide the incident.

Iranian police said the authorities have released special orders to follow the case.

The murder of the girl in Veramin city of Iran sparked anger in Afghanistan and elsewhere after reports about the horrific incident emerged.
Los Angeles, April 18 : Actress Amber Heard appeared in an Australian court after being accused of smuggling her two Yorkshire dogs, Piston and Boo, when she and her husband Johnny Depp entered the country last year.

Accompanied by the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star, she pleaded guilty to falsifying border protection documents on Monday, reports aceshowbiz.com.

Jeremy Kirk, lawyer for Heard, told the Southport Magistrate's Court on Queensland state's Gold Coast that his client never meant to lie on her incoming passenger card by failing to declare she had animals with her. He blamed jet lag for it and claimed that Heard assumed her assistants had sorted out the paperwork.

Prosecutor Peter Callaghan said ignorance and fatigue were no excuse, stressing "the laws apply to everyone."

Heard was also charged with two counts of illegally importing her two pet dogs into Australia on a private jet. However, prosecutors have dropped those two charges.

The 29-year-old actress faces up to one year in jail and a fine of more than 10,000 Australian dollars ($7,650) if found guilty for falsifying the documents.
New Delhi, April 18 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday threatened strict action against taxi drivers after complaints they were over-charging taking advantage of the odd-even traffic scheme.

"Strict action, including permit cancellation and impounding (of) vehicle, to be taken against taxis which charge more than government prescribed rates," Kejriwal tweeted.

Many commuters on Monday posted on social media about the hiked taxi charges on the first full working day of the second phase of the odd-even scheme aimed at battling pollution.

Under the scheme, private petrol and diesel driven vehicles with odd registration numbers can ply on odd dates and those with even registration numbers on even dates.

The first phase of the scheme ran from January 1 to 15. The second phase will run from April 15 to 30.
Patna, April 18 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said the RSS ideology was not good for the country and again urged all non-BJP parties to unite against the BJP.

"The RSS ideology is not good. It is not in the interest of the country and its people," he told the media here after his weekly Janata Durbar.

"I am not against any individual," he added. "My opposition to the RSS is ideological."

The Janata Dal-United leader reiterated that the need of the hour was a "Sangh-mukt" (Sangh-free) India.

He urged all like-minded parties to unite against the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"It is high time all non-BJP parties and all others opposed to the RSS should unite across the country. Our main aim is to stop the BJP," he said.

Nitish Kumar on Saturday blamed the BJP for sowing the seeds of social discord in the society.

He said he had never compromised with his ideology despite being part of the BJP-led coalition earlier.
Moscow, April 18 : Terrorism poses the biggest challenge to international security and nations cannot afford to adopt double standards in the fight against it, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday at the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers meet here.

"If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism, it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," she said.

Sushma Swaraj called on the RIC countries to lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN.

Raising the issue of UN Security Council reform, Sushma Swaraj said that the issue demands greater urgency, and sought support of Russia and China for this.

"There has been some positive movement in this connection with a text being put for the first time on the table for inter-governmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue. I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN process forward," she said.

On the slowdown of the global economy, the Indian minister said that as three large, emerging economies, India, Russia and China share similar approaches and could benefit "from coordinating our positions".

The minister also sought active participation of all members in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit to be held in Goa in October this year.

"We hope to have a very successful BRICS Summit in Goa in October," she said.
Kabul, April 18 : At least 96 militants were killed and 93 others injured in clashes and airstrikes across Afghanistan within a day, the defence ministry said on Monday.

"The Afghan national security and defence forces launched several operations in Nangarhar, Ghazni, Khost, Kandahar, Zabul, Badghis, Nimroz, Jawzjan, Balkh, Faryab, Baghlan, Kunduz, and Helmand provinces within the last 24 hours, killing 96 militants," Xinhua cited the ministry as saying.

The statement also confirmed that five army soldiers were killed during the operations.
Mumbai, April 18 : A special court here on Monday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against liquor baron Vijay Mallya, official sources said.

On April 15, the Enforcement Directorate had moved the special court handling cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, seeking the warrant against Mallya who is currently outside India.

On at least three occasions, Mallya failed to honour ED summons for questioning in various cases pertaining to his loans of over Rs.9,000 crore and allegations of money laundering.

After he failed to appear in person on March 18, April 2 and April 9, he sought time till May to come to the ED, as he is abroad since March 2.

The ED move came soon after the central government suspended Mallya's diplomatic passport on April 15.
London, April 18 : In a bid to revive its online presence on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, supporters of the Islamic State (IS) terror group have created a new channel on the messaging app Telegram.

According to Vocativ website, "Online Dawah Operation" channel has gained popularity among the IS supporters via trolling since its launch some weeks ago.

This is how the brand new IS channel works.

The channel urges supporters of the Islamic State to post propaganda, and like and comment on posts, when they're instructed to do so.

"I will share a Facebook post here at 5PM Mosul time today," said Telegram channel in one of the posts.

"On this post that I'll share here, we need everyone to go on and comment supporting the Islamic State. Also, whatever comments you see supporting the Islamic state, like them," the report added, quoting the channel post.

The channel also advertises another Telegram group called "content for attacks" where supporters can find propaganda videos and other materials to post across social platforms.

It gives a weekly "schedule" showing what platforms should be targeted every day of the week.

"This week, two out of five days are dedicated to operations on Twitter while the other five are focused on Facebook," the report added.

According to a recent report from George Washington University in the US, the reach of the IS on micro blogging site Twitter has stopped growing and is slowly rolling back.

J.M. Berger, a fellow with George Washington University's Programme on Extremism, and Heather Perez, a law enforcement analyst, tracked a curated list of pro-IS twitter accounts between August and October 2015.

"We found that Twitter's increased willingness to suspend users and make other changes to its terms of service have measurably reduced the size and activity of ISIS (alternatively used for IS) support networks on the platform, including steady reductions in follower counts and tweets per day," lawfareblog.com quoted Berger as saying.

Although the terrorist group still maintains a significant online presence, there is at least a glimmer of hope that efforts to curtail them were bearing fruit, said the report released last week.

"Individual IS supporters who created multiple accounts and saw them repeatedly suspended suffered a disastrous loss of followers," Berger said.

In its bid to curb the spread of terrorism-related tweets on its platform, the micro-blogging site has suspended over 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to the IS.

"Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups. We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service," Twitter had said in a blog post recently.

According to a latest study by the US-based Brookings Institution, IS supporters may be operating over 46,000 active Twitter accounts.

"As the nature of the terrorist threat has changed, so has our ongoing work in this area. Since the middle of 2015 alone, we've suspended over 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to IS," the post added.
London, April 18 : A 33-year-old Indian-origin student was found dead after he was struck by a Tube train at an underground station in Britain, media reported on Monday.

Mir Baquer Ali Rizvi, who was pursuing Master's in business administration (MBA) here, was pronounced dead at Osterley Tube station last Tuesday.

British Transport Police (BTP), who led the investigation, ruled out murder as the cause of the death at this stage though the official reason will only be confirmed by a coroner at a future date.

"We were called to Osterley London Underground station at 7.45 pm on Tuesday, 12th April, following reports of a person being struck by a train," a BTP spokesperson was quoted as saying.

"The man's death is not being treated as suspicious and his family has been made aware. A file will be prepared for the coroner," he added.

Rizvi, who hailed from Hyderabad's Miralam Mandi area, had arrived in London in 2009 to pursue higher education.

Earlier, another Indian-origin MBA student died after his throat was slashed on the street near his home in west London on April 10.

According to eyewitnesses, Sahil Roy, 28, was stabbed as a result of a "petty row over a few pounds", the Evening Standard reported.

"A murder investigation has been launched following the death of a man in Isleworth. Police were called at 4.05 pm (UK time) on Sunday to Summerwood Road in Isleworth following reports of man suffering from a stab injury," read a Metropolitan Police statement.

A 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder and was being held at a south London police station for Roy's stabbing.

Witnesses and friends told the Evening Standard how the victim's mother sobbed by his side as she cradled him while he lay in the road.
Beijing, April 18 : A military plane belonging to the Chinese Air Force landed for the first time on Yongshu Jiao, or Fiery Cross Reef on the Spratly Islands, for which Beijing has disputes with Manila, Hanoi and other neighbours.

The aircraft landed on a yet unknown date on the airstrip built by China on the reef, where the first civil flights began in January, Efe news reported on Monday.

China's foreign ministry on Monday confirmed the plane's landing but tried to downplay the incident defending it as part of a rescue mission.

The construction of the runway on the Fiery Cross Reef had led to an artificial extension of the reef and triggered protests from neighbouring countries, including Vietnam, whose government claimed that the runway had been illegally built on its territory.

The US and Japan also expressed concern that the construction of infrastructure for possible military use in the disputed waters of South China Sea could elevate tensions in the region.

Other countries, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim total or partial sovereignty over the Spratly Islands.

China is also locked in similar territorial disputes over the control of the Paracel archipelago.
New Delhi, April 18 : The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) will be considering as many as 14 FDI proposals, including that of Axis Bank and Wockhardt, in its next meeting to be held on April 29, a statement said on Monday.

The meeting to be chaired by FIPB chairman and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, will also consider proposals of Aurobindo Pharma, One97 Communications, Macmillan Publishers International and Advanced Enzyme Technologies, amongst others.

The inter-ministerial panel will also take up proposals from Fans Asia, DCNS, Rafique Dawood, Janalakshmi Financial Services, etc, a FIPB notice said.

The FDI proposals, which do not fall under the automatic route, need to take approval from the board.

During April-December 2015, FDI increased by 40 percent to $29.44 billion as compared to $21.04 billion during the same period in 2014.
Beijing, April 18 : The ongoing meetings between Chinese and Indian officials demonstrate the good momentum of relations between New Delhi and Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesperson said here on Monday.

Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi and Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will hold a 19th round of talks between special representatives on boundary issues on Wednesday and Thursday, Xinhua quoted spokesman Lu Kang as saying.

Earlier on Monday, Chinese State Councillor and Defence Minister Chang Wanquan held talks with visiting Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in Beijing.

The foreign ministers of the two countries will meet each other during the 14th meeting of the foreign ministers of China, Russia and India on Monday in Moscow.

The meetings show that mutual political trust between China and India have increased, and bilateral exchanges and cooperation are advancing, Lu said.

The two sides also maintain good coordination and collaboration in global and regional affairs, he said.

Although China and India have some differences, both sides are willing to effectively control and solve the issues through friendly negotiations and consultations, according to Lu.

In fact, China and India have always maintained close high-level contacts, he said.

The development of China-India relations is not only in line with their interests but also conducive to regional and global peace and stability, Lu stressed, noting both the countries are the two biggest developing countries, important emerging economies and major powers in a multi-polar world.

"We are ready to work with India to constantly make new progress on building the China-India strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity," said the spokesman.
Moscow, April 18 : Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday briefed External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj about progress in the investigations into the deaths of three Indian nationals in Russia earlier this year.

"The external affairs minister raised the cases of Indian nationals Yasir Jawed, who was killed in Kazan, and Puja Kallur and Karishma Udai Bhosle, who died in a fire at the Smolensk State Medical Academy," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said following a bilateral meeting between Sushma Swaraj and Lavrov on the sidelines of the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting here.

"Foreign Minister Lavrov briefed on the progress of the investigations," Swarup stated.

Kallur, 22, from Navi Mumbai, and her room-mate Bhosle, 21, from Pune, perished in the fire which broke out in their hostel on February 14 in the Smolensk State Medical Academy, Smolensk, around 380 km southwest of Moscow.

Yasir, a medical student from Srinagar, had reached Russia on February 26 on a business trip. He was attacked in Kazan city in the Tatarstan republic and left in a coma.

He died on March 8.

Swarup said that Sushma Swaraj and Lavrov also had an extensive exchange of views on the situation in Syria.

"The two ministers reviewed bilateral ties, with particular reference to trade and economic links," he said.

"They also discussed the annual bilateral summit between India and Russia, in advance of which India will host the next meeting of the Inter Governmental Commission (IRIGC) later this year."

With India having assumed the chairmanship of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), the issue also came up for discussion, including the schedule of meetings leading up to the summit in Goa in October.

"Russia promised full support to India's chairmanship," the spokesman said.

Earlier on Monday, Sushma Swaraj met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and raised the issue of China vetoing India's bid in the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar.

She is also scheduled to meet Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on trade and economic cooperation, to take stock of the developments in strengthening this important aspect of the bilateral relationship.
New Delhi, April 18 : Online cab service providers Uber and Ola on Monday suspended their surge pricing after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal threatened "strict action" against over-charging cabs.

"Given the threat to the livelihood of our partners, at the expense of reliability, we are temporarily suspending surge with immediate effect," Uber tweeted.

Uber did not specify if the surge pricing would resume after the second phase of the odd-even traffic scheme ends on April 30.

It also pledged to work with the Delhi government to provide reliable mobility solutions to people in the city, "especially at a time when the citizens need us the most".

Ola cab services also announced rollback of "peak pricing" in Delhi NCR.

"To make the govenment's odd-even initiative a success, Ola has temporarily pulled out Peak Pricing in Delhi NCR," its business head (north) Deep Singh said in a statement.

Kejriwal warned of strict action against online cab aggregators, specially Ola and Uber, over arbitrary surge pricing, a technique used by the cab aggregators to hike the fares owing to higher demand.

The Delhi government on Monday directed the impounding of taxis charging exorbitant fare from the public.

Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai had said that apart from impounding taxis, they would also seize the licences of the taxi drivers and cancel their permit.

He said the order was applicable to all kinds of cab services including online aggregators as well as private taxis, radio taxis and black-and-yellow taxis.

The demand for taxis has shot up on account of the odd-even traffic scheme that started on April 15 and will run till April 30.

Under the scheme, aimed at battling pollution, diesel and petrol driven private vehicles with odd registration numbers can ply only on odd dates and those with even registration numbers on even dates.

Passengers complained that taxis were over-charging taking advantage of the scheme.
Mumbai, April 18 : Adding to the woes of liquor baron Vijay Mallya, a special court here on Monday issued an undated non-bailable arrest warrant against the beleaguered businessman, official sources said here.

The non-bailable warrant (NBW) was issued by Special Judge P.R. Bhavake in response to a plea by the Enforcement Directorate on April 15 before the special court hearing cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Following the warrant, the decks have been cleared for a red corner notice to be issued by Interpol against Mallya and he can also be arrested anytime and anywhere in the country.

The special court also rejected the submissions made by Mallya's counsel Amit Desai and Pranav Badhekar that officials of the grounded Kingfisher Airlines were fully cooperating with the ED and they should not be accused of being evasive or un-cooperative.

Denying the ED's contention that Mallya had diverted monies to make property investments abroad, counsel urged the special court not to pass any "coercive orders" sought by the ED against Mallya in the matter.

The ED's lawyer Hiten Venegaonkar had filed the plea for an NBW and also put forth his arguments for issuing the NBW against Mallya.

On Monday, Venegaonkar reiterated that Mallya must present himself before the ED, which has summoned him thrice earlier in connection with the money-laundering cases filed against him.

The ED has also raised apprehensions about the possibility of the evidence being tampered with.

After he failed to appear in person on March 18, April 2 and April 9, Mallya sought time extension till May from the ED, as he is abroad since March 2 and reported to be in Britain.

The ED's April 15 plea before the special court came soon after the central government suspended Mallya's diplomatic passport on that day.
Moscow, April 18 : India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said that she looked forward to working with her counterparts from Russia and China in the fight against terrorism after she took up with the Chinese foreign minister the issue of Beijing vetoing New Delhi's move in the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar.

Sushma Swaraj said in a media statement following the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting that international terrorism remained the foremost threat to international peace and security.

"I stressed the need to craft an effective global strategy to counter terrorism, including at the UN. I look forward to working with both my colleagues, in this regard," she said.

Answering a question in press conference after the RIC meeting, she said that all three countries -- India, Russia and China -- have been victims of terrorism.

"It is natural for us that we unite to lead the world in our fight against terrorism," Sushma Swaraj said.

"To do this, it is important that we give up the distiction between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists. We will also need to give up the tendency to differentiate between 'my terrorists' and 'your terrorists'," she said.

The external affairs minister stated that a terrorist was a terrorist, one who committed crimes against humanity and not against any nation.

"We must adopt this principle. And today at the RIC meeting, I put forward these views quite frankly before my two counterparts from Russia and China," she said.

Sushma Swaraj also referred to her bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier in the day, during which she raised the issue of China vetoing India's bid at the UN to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar.

India approached the UN in February to include Azhar in the UN Security Council's 1267 sanctions list, in the aftermath of the Pathankot airbase terror attack. In the strike in early January by JeM terrorists, seven Indian security personnel were killed.

However, China asked the UN sanctions committee to keep on hold the Indian move, saying that Azhar did not meet the UN criteria to be banned as a terrorist.

India has voiced disappointment at the "technical hold" put on its application to include Azhar in the UN sanctions list.

"I would also like to tell you that in the morning today, I met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and in that meeting also I said to him that if we want to fulfill our commitment to fight terrorism together, then we must rethink the position they have taken on UNSC 1267 Committee," Sushma Swaraj said.

In her media statement, she also said that she and the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers had a productive exchange of views on the situation in the Middle East.

"We all stressed our commitment to support democratic, pluralistic and peaceful forces in order to restore stability in the region," she stated.

"We also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and agreed that it was important for the international community to remain engaged and support the Afghanistan Government in its development and reconciliation efforts and in defeating terrorist forces."

On the issue of UN Security Council reforms, the external affairs minister said she once again urged both Russia and China to take the lead in ensuring that the inter-governmental negotiations (IGN) process in the UN advanced swiftly.

"India's permanent membership of the Security Council is long overdue and this anomaly needs urgent rectification," Sushma Swaraj said.

She said that she, along with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Wang, had an exchange of views on various groupings, including BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).

India assumed the chairmanship of BRICS this year.

"We look forward to active participation of both Russia and China in various activities that we have planned throughout the year and throughout India," Sushma Swaraj said, adding that India looked forward to welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Goa in October for the BRICS summit.
Shillong, April 18 : Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, who is also a wildlife activist, on Monday asked China to stop poaching of wild animals in India's northeastern states.

"Wildlife is dwindling in the northeastern states. (Poachers in) the northeastern states are under severe pressure from China to kill wild animals be it rhinos, turtles, tigers in the region," Gandhi told journalists on the sidelines of a regional conference on child adoption.

"We have found illegal factories in Karnataka where insects have been put into plastic keychains to be exported to China. Every day, our ports are used to smuggle out lakhs of seahorses, aquarium fish, birds, skins, shark fins and big cat bones. Tiger killing in India is at an all-time high sponsored by China," said the minister for women and child development.

On China's new draft Wildlife Protection Law, Gandhi said: "The draft law continues to allow the existence of captive breeding programmes of wild animals for commercial purposes, as well as the capture of wild animals for these programmes.

"The language legitimises the use of wildlife for commercial purposes and encourages more consumption of wildlife products."

"China's new draft wildlife conservation law will continue to allow the extraction of bile from captive bears for traditional Chinese medicine and supplements, legitimising the consumption of wildlife and opening the market further to supplements, something never before made legal in Chinese law -- which means thousands of Indian animals ranging from rhino to scorpions will continue to be smuggled into China," she said.

Gandhi, however, said India can counter China's attempt by further training forest department officials and wildlife activists in the region, by giving more money to the forest departments to build rescue centres, getting lawyers to fight cases and start arresting suspects, and winding up their markets.
New Delhi, April 18 : A Delhi-based central government employee's 20-year-long search for his younger sibling finally ended on a happy note last week with help from social networking site Facebook.

The story, akin to a Bollywood drama, had its twists and turns before Vijay Nitnaware finally met his brother Hansraj.

Vijay Nitnaware, 48, who works in the library of Press Information Bureau here, last saw his younger brother Hansraj Nitnaware in May 1996, when he left the family without informing anyone as he was under stress after failing his matriculation examination.

"Hansraj was a good student in his childhood, but he felt disturbed after death of my mother in 1995. He left the house at the age of 15, days after he failed in the matric exam," Vijay Nitnaware told IANS.

Vijay Nitnaware said his father died when Hansraj, the youngest among the three brothers and a sister, was only nine months old.

The family, with Vijay as the eldest among siblings, hails from Wardha district of Maharashtra and was staying there when Hansraj left them.

Vijay said he registered a complaint with the police about Hansraj having gone missing. To his surprise, Vijay got a letter from his missing brother after 15 days. "Please don't search for me. I am fine and will return only after doing something big," the letter said.

Vijay said he was happy to know that his brother was alive but his hope to trace him dimmed a bit as the last two digits of the pin code of the place of origin of letter were not clearly visible.

"Through the first four digits, I got confirmation that the letter was sent from Gujarat. I then went to Gujarat, contacted some of my local friends and gave advertisements about his having gone missing in the local newspapers and some television channels. But all my efforts went in vain," Vijay said.

Though saddened, Vijay did not lose his patience and went on searching for his brother. The family's search for Hansraj continued even after Vijay and his other siblings got married.

Vijay also took to the internet and the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter to search for his brother. In 2016, he contacted Facebook to seek its help in locating his brother.

Vijay said Facebook found one Hansraj in Pune, Maharashtra, and contacted him with his messages but the person refused to recognize him (Vijay) as his brother.

Despite the refusal to identify him as his elder brother, Vijay persisted with his search and requested Facebook to provide him details of some of Hansraj's Facbook friends.

Vijay said the social networking site provided him details of six of Hansraj's friends. While looking at the details, Vijay found three of them working with Toyota company at Bhosari in Pune.

Vijay contacted one of them through e-mail. The person contacted Hansraj and shared Vijay's feelings but he again refused to acknowledge Vijay as his brother.

Vijay said he was confident that the Pune man was his brother.

"It was the evening of April 5. I was writing a mail to the manager of the Toyota company requesting him for details about Hansraj. I was just about to send the mail when my phone rang," Vijay said.

"When I picked up the phone, it was Hansraj on the other end. There were not many words we exchanged... mostly we cried," he added.

Vijay reached Pune on April 12 and returned to Delhi happily with Hansraj's family.

Hansraj told Vijay that he went to Gujarat after leaving home. He said one day he jumped into a well to kill himself but was saved by a passerby who also helped in bringing him up over the next five years.

Hansraj later moved to Mumbai in search of a job and worked there at a Mahindra company showroom. At the work place, he fell in love with a colleague and married her despite her family's objections to Hansraj's background.

Hansraj told Vijay he had once worked as a driver of a Mumbai Police Commissioner and an Assistant Commissioner of Police.
Beijing, April 18 : The chamber of deputies of Brazil, the lower house, on Sunday gave the green light to impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff.

Following are frequently asked questions about Rousseff's impeachment.

Q: What is next after the chamber's Sunday decision?

A: The impeachment motion will go to the country's senate which will decide with a simple majority vote whether to put Rousseff on trial.

Q: In what scenarios will Rousseff be removed from office?

A: If a simple majority approves the motion in the senate, Rousseff will be suspended for 180 days to defend herself in an impeachment trial.

After the trial, the senate will vote for the second time where Rousseff will be permanently removed from office. She will lose her job if two-thirds of the senate vote yes; otherwise she will be reinstated.

Q: Who will take Rousseff's position?

A: Vice President Michel Temer would take over as head of state in the 180 days of Rousseff's suspension.

If Rousseff is permanently removed from office, Temer will serve out the remainder of the her term, which runs through the end of 2018.

Q: Why is Rousseff being impeached?

A: Rousseff is charged with tampering the state budget, which many legal analysts view as "insubstantial".

Some of the lawmakers claim Rousseff was involved in a corruption scheme at state oil company Petrobras. But these accusations are not part of the impeachment charges.

Rousseff has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
File photo of Ishrat Jahan who was named as a suicide bomber for the terror outfit Laskhar-e-Taiba by David Coleman Headley during his video-link deposition at TADA court in Mumbai on Feb. ... Image Source: Amlan Paliwal/IANS

Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge) Nirmala Sitharaman interacts with media, in New Delhi on April 6, 2016. Image Source: Amlan Paliwal/IANS

New Delhi, April 18 : Levelling serious allegations against the Congress over the Ishrat Jahan shootout case, the BJP on Monday said the Congress almost connived to get a political rival eliminated in Gujarat.

"Here is a political rival, the then chief minister of Gujarat, whom the Congress could not face politically. So they quietly saw a terror plot bloom," union minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was the then Gujarat chief minister.

"The then union home minister gave two affidavits in court. They tried to show as if there was no terror plot, as if there was no threat to Modi's life."

She said that since both of the affidavits on a single matter can't be true, the then home minister P. Chidambaram was either trying to "hide some facts or add something not germane to the case" in the submission before the court.

The BJP's outburst came after a TV channel revealed that the first affidavit, which decribed Ishrat Jahan as a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, was indeed signed by Chidambaram, who has been denying signing it.

However, the second affidavit said there was no conclusive evidence to suggest that Ishrat was linked to LeT.

"By politicising the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, the Congress has undermined the national security. They have weakened the entire security network," Sitharaman said, adding whether the shootout was real or fake was a secondary matter.

Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan and her three alleged associates Pranesh Gopinath Pilai, Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar were killed by Gujarat Police in an allegedly staged shootout on June 15, 2004.

Gujarat Police had described the four as Pakistani-controlled terrorists who came from Jammu and Kashmir to assassinate then chief minister Modi.

In Feruary, LeT operative David Headley told a Mumbai court that Ishrat Jahan was a member of the Pakistan-based terror group.
Moscow, April 18 : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said that nations cannot afford to adopt double standards in the fight against terrorism even as she took up with the Chinese foreign minister the issue of Beijing vetoing New Delhi's move in the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar.

"If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism, it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," Sushma Swaraj said while addressing the 14th Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting here.

Sushma Swaraj called on the RIC countries to lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN.

Raising the issue of UN Security Council reform, Sushma Swaraj said it demanded greater urgency and sought support of Russia and China for this.

"There has been some positive movement in this connection with a text being put for the first time on the table for inter-governmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue. I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN (inter-governmental negotiations) process forward," she said.

On the slowdown of the global economy, the Indian minister said that as three large, emerging economies, India, Russia and China shared similar approaches and could benefit "from coordinating our positions".

The minister also sought active participation of all members in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit to be held in Goa in October this year.

India assumed the BRICS chairmanship this year.

"We hope to have a very successful BRICS Summit in Goa in October," Sushma Swaraj said.

In a media statement following the RIC meeting, she said that terrorism remained the foremost threat to international peace and security.

"I stressed the need to craft an effective global strategy to counter terrorism, including at the UN. I look forward to working with both my colleagues, in this regard," she said.

Answering a question in press conference after the RIC meeting, she said that all three countries -- India, Russia and China -- have been victims of terrorism.

"It is natural for us that we unite to lead the world in our fight against terrorism," Sushma Swaraj said.

In her media statement, she also said that she and the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers had a productive exchange of views on the situation in the Middle East.

"We also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and agreed that it was important for the international community to remain engaged and support the Afghanistan government in its development and reconciliation efforts and in defeating terrorist forces," she said.

Sushma Swaraj started her day with a bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during which she raised the issue of China vetoing India's bid at the UN to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar.

India approached the UN in February to include Azhar in the UN Security Council's 1267 sanctions list, in the aftermath of the Pathankot airbase terror attack. In the strike in early January by JeM terrorists, seven Indian security personnel were killed.

However, China asked the UN sanctions committee to keep on hold the Indian move, saying that Azhar did not meet the UN criteria to be banned as a terrorist.

"I would also like to tell you that in the morning today, I met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and in that meeting also I said to him that if we want to fulfill our commitment to fight terrorism together, then we must rethink the position they have taken on UNSC 1267 Committee," Sushma Swaraj said in the press conference.

The external affairs minister also held a bilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the RIC meeting during which the latter briefed her on the progress in the investigations into the deaths of three Indian nationals in Russia earlier this year.

While Puja Kallur, 22, from Navi Mumbai, and her room-mate Karishma Udai Bhosle, 21, from Pune, perished in the fire which broke out in their hostel on February 14 in the Smolensk State Medical Academy, Yasir Jawed, a medical student from Srinagar died on March 8 after being attacked by unknown people at Kazan city in the Tatarstan republic.

Besides this, Sushma Swaraj and Lavrov reviewed bilateral relations and preparations for the annual bilateral summit.

The external affairs later also called on Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rozogin at the White House in Moscow.

Rogozin is the co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on trade and economic cooperation.
New Delhi, April 18 : The government is seeking to revise the foreign tax credit (FTC) rules with the finance ministry on Monday seeking public opinion on its proposed draft.

"The draft rules for grant of foreign tax credit are uploaded on the website of the Income Tax Department at www.incometaxindia.gov.in for comments from stakeholders and general public," said a finance ministry statement.

A non-refundable tax credit for income taxes paid to a foreign government, the FTC is applicable to anyone who has either worked abroad or has investment income from a foreign source.

According to the proposed draft, the credit for foreign tax shall be available against the amount of tax, surcharge and cess payable under the Income Tax Act but not in respect of any sum payable by way of interest, fee or penalty, while no credit shall be available in respect of any amount of foreign tax which is disputed in any manner by the assessee.

A committee was set up by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to suggest the methodology for grant of foreign tax credit after examining the various issues related to it. The draft rules take into account its report and provisions of the Income Tax Act.
New Delhi, April 18 : India's telecom watchdog, TRAI has maintained its recommendations on 700 MHz spectrum pricing for the upcoming auction as well as on the quantum that will be put on sale, an official statement said on Monday.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's response came following the Telecom Commission's query on the pricing and quantum of 700 MHz airwaves to be put for auction in July this year. It had recommended a reserve price of Rs.1,595 crore for 700 MHz in Delhi circle.

The department of telecom had raised doubts over the computation of the reserve price for 700 Mhz band, noting that in a few circles, it is priced lower than 900 MHz.

The regulator however noted that "the 'bottom-up' approach was used in 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz in view of availability of historical information or data and other spectrum bands (700/2300/2500 MHz) where historical information or data are not available, valuation and reserve price has been worked out on the basis of other spectrum bands' reserve prices and outcome of the auctions held in the past".

"However, in the case of 700 MHz band which is being auctioned for the first time, the authority did not have any historical data - financial as well as non-financial relating to this band. There is no denying the fact that technical propagation characteristic-wise 700 MHz is nearer to 800 and 900 MHz band than 1800 MHz band," it added.

"Moreover, it is also a fact that as per international trends 700 MHz band will be primarily used for LTE technology and presently 1800 MHz is the most deployed band for LTE technology. Therefore, the authority has decided to benchmark the reserve price of 700 MHz with reference to 1800 MHz band and not 800 or 900 MHz band."

"The authority (TRAI) therefore reiterates its recommendation on reserve price for 700 MHz band."

It noted that even if it is assumed that greater revenue can be generated by auctioning a part of spectrum in 700 MHz band in future, "deferring the revenue receipts now may not be of economic prudence keeping in view the impact of telecom services on the other sectors and overall GDP growth".

Spectrum being a scarce resource, auction of spectrum is primarily to solve the allocative problem in an open, transparent manner and "revenue maximization cannot be (and should not be) the only objective of auction where the government is an auctioneer", it said, adding that the government has to a strike a balance between its fiscal targets and its responsibility to promote and encourage growth of the telecom sector.
Kolkata, April 18 : The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Monday seized a Bangladesh-bound consignment of 65,000 bottles of Phensedyl cough syrup worth Rs.4 crore from the city, said an official.

"The bottles were recovered from an abandoned house in a railway colony in the city's Chitpur area. They were brought from Delhi and were stored here for dispatching them to Bangladesh through the Bangaon border (in North 24 Parganas district)," said the officer.

"The value of the consignment in the international market is Rs.4 crore," he added.

Containing codeine-phosphate, the cough syrup is in huge demand in Bangladesh for its sedative properties.
New Delhi, April 18 : The Congress on Monday made it clear that its alliance with Janata Dal-United (JD-U) of Nitish Kumar is just limited to Bihar.

The statement held significance as it came two days after Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief's clarion call for unity among all like-minded parties against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"I don't think that he (Nitish) has said that since we are together in Bihar, we are coming to an alliance for the entire country. We hold alliance with them specifically for Bihar," Congress General Secretary Shaqeel Ahmad told reporters here.

"We are in alliance with Nitish Kumr and Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar. We are in alliance in Kerala with other Kerala-based parties. So, the alliances are happening everywhere but alliances happen according to the circumstances of a particular State,aA he added.

Though Ahmad advocated for the unity among all non-BJP parties, he insisted the clearer picture for the Centre in the wake of 2019 general elections was yet to emerge.

"We are 100 percent for the unity. Some parties have very strong presence in one particular state and they hardly have any presence in the neighbouring states," he said, insisting pan India tie up with such parties is not so easy.

Nitish Kumar on Saturday urged all the like-minded parties to unite against the BJP for 2019 general elections, saying the need of the hour was a "Sangh-mukt" (Rashtriya Syamsewak Sangh-free) India.

"It is high time. All non-BJP parties and all others opposed to the RSS should unite across the country. Our main aim is to stop the BJP," he said.
New Delhi, April 18 : Amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran has told the Supreme Court that women cannot be barred from entering the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala in Pathanamthitta district in Kerala, terming as disgraceful the practice of barring women of menstrual age from a public place like Sabarimala temple.

The senior lawyer cited Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution to buttress his contention that women are just as entitled as men to offer worship at a public temple like Sabarimala.

Justice Dipak Misra, who heads the three-judge bench hearing the issue, observed that gender equality is a constitutional message and that the temple management could not claim that the ban on women came under their right to manage religious affairs.

The bench also said that it would examine the customary practices, upon which the temple management had fallen back on to justify the ban imposed on women, vis-a-vis the Constitution.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Young India Lawyers Association seeking a directive to lift the ban on womens entry into the historic hill shrine.

The apex court had appointed senior counsels Raju Ramachandran and K Ramamurthy as amici curiae to look into the legal, constitutional and spiritual issues related to the case.

The Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the affairs of the Sabarimala temple, bars women of menstrual age from entering the Sabarimala temple citing age old traditions which prohibit women from offering worship at the temple since the presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is a perpetual bachelor (naishtika brahmachari).

The amicus curiaes opinion and the apex courts observations are significant coming as it does close on the heels of the Shani temple in Maharashtra lifting the 400-year-old ban on womens entry to the temple, and the growing popularity of movements spearheaded by womens groups against similar bans.
Patna, April 18 : Hundreds of Bihar's toddy tappers on Monday protested against the ban on sale of the drink, the main source of their livelihood.

As mark of their angst, they drank toddy in public place.

"We have begun our protest and it would intensify in coming days as ban on sale of toddy hit thousands of toddy tappers, mostly belonging to Mahadalit caste-Pasi in the state," said Ajit Kumar Choudhary, president of Pasi Ashmita Bachai Sangarsh Samiti.

Police detained dozens of protestors for violating the state government's ban on consuming of toddy in public place.

"We have detained them when several toddy tappers including women not only brought toddy, they drank in public," a police official said.

After thousands of 'desi' liquor shops were closed in rural Bihar and Indian made foreign liquor shops in urban areas following a total liquor ban effective from April 1, the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government has banned sale of 'toddy' also.

Since then it has evoked protest with Pasi community up in arms against it.

Nitish Kumar on Sunday refuted the opposition charges that with toddy-ban, the state government had deprived the Pasi community of their livelihood.

"I want to know how long would the Pasis climb up the palm trees to tap toddy. The Mahadalits are largely turning towards education and other professions. Their outlook have changed and want to develop. In fact they want to climb up much higher in the field of education," the chief minister said.

For millions of people in rural Bihar -- where toddy, locally called 'tadi', is considered the poor man's beer -- the government prohibition on its sale came as a bad news.

For ages, toddy has been a favourite of villagers as a natural drink from the palm tree.

According to the Nitish Kumar government's decision, anyone found selling toddy would be arrested. But the government has no objection if anyone is skilled enough to tap toddy on his own for self-consumption.

The former chief minister and president of Hindustani Awam Morcha Jitan Ram Manjhi has opposed the toddy ban, saying it was wrong to ban sale of toddy in Bihar.
New Delhi, April 18 : The Supreme Court in Monday said that gender equality is a constitutional message and Sabarimala temple management cannot say that banning entry of women of a particular age group comes under their right to manage religious affairs.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice Kurian Joseph said that the customary practice of banning entry of women between the age group of 10 to 50 years in the Sabarimala temple in Kerala would be examined under the provisions of constitution only.

"The gender equality is a constitutional message and they (temple management) cannot say that this (banning women) comes under their right to manage religious affairs," the bench said.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for NGO 'Happy to Bleed' which favours women's entry inside the historic shrine, said that the law is meant for removal of social ills and "constitutional principles would prevail over discriminatory customs and beliefs."

"The ban on entry of women cannot be said to b e the part of the right to manage a public religious places like a temple," she added.

The court was hearing a plea by Indian Young Lawyers Association and others questioning the ban on the entry of women in the age group of 10 to 50 years in the Sabarimala temple.
Ahmedabad, April 18 : A Gujarat bandh called by the Patel community on Monday received lukewarm response with life remaining normal across the State, including in Mehsana town, which saw clashes between the Patidars and police on Sunday.

Barring an incident in which an unoccupied house of Minister of State for Home Rajnikant Patel in Mehsana was set on fire in the afternoon by unidentified miscreants and burning of vehicle tyres in the town, there were no reports of trouble from anywhere in the State.

Patel's house in Radhe Exotica colony which was under repair, was also attacked last August during the Patel agitation as well as during another stir in November.

The agitating leaders had then said the minister's house was targeted for "setting the police free on the Patel youths for repression".

Authorities lifted curfew and prohibitory orders in the town in the morning while police, State Reserve Police and Rapid Action Force remained deployed in the town and other north Gujarat towns.

Mehsana Superintendent of Police Chaitanya Mandlik said the shutdown call received no response in the district.

Police lodged complaints against 25 people for the violence on Sunday.

"You can look around and see that traffic is normal, the shops are open," Mandlik told journalists.

Agitating Patel groups, who had rushed to the district jails in Mehsana and Surat to court arrest on Sunday, had clashed with police who tried to stop them.

Mobs later burnt camp offices of two state ministers, Nitin Patel and Rajnikant Patel, besides parliamentarian Jaishree Patel as well as state transport buses in Mehsana and Ahmedabad.

They also burnt a couple of government offices and blocked a state highway in Saurashtra.

The authorities had suspended mobile internet services in north Gujarat and Ahmedabad to prevent the spread of rumours and incendiary information. The ban will continue till Tuesday morning.

Mandlik said Sardar Patel Group (SPG) leader Laljibhai Patel, who was detained on Sunday, had sustained a head injury during stone-pelting by agitators and was not caned by police as claimed by him and his supporters.

He cited medical reports to say that Laljibhai Patel was hit by a stone.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat government on Monday called a meeting between a ministerial committee set up by Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and leaders of Patidar groups to chalk out a possible solution to the nine-month agitation demanding reservation for the community in government jobs and educational institutions under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category.

After the meeting that lasted for over three hours, minister Nitin Patel who heads the committee told reporters that the meeting "covered a lot of ground" and a settlement was "on the cards".

Pointing out that measures like facilities to the farming community, expansion of educational facilities in the rural areas and many others raised by the Sardar Patel Group and Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) had already been initiated in the current budget, Patel said other issues would be discussed with Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and "if necessary with the central government leaders" before taking a final decision on the reservation demand.

When contacted, PAAS and SPG spokespersons Varun Patel and Purvin Patel, respectively, said those who attended the meeting had nothing to with the Patel agitation and were the "hand-maidens of the government who are not interesting in a solution".

"The government has done nothing but holding irrelevant meetings through the last nine months," Purvin Patel said.

Varun Patel asserted that these so-called leaders who attended the meeting were with the government and not with the community.
Mosul, April 18 : Members of the Islamic State group executed a reporter and his policeman brother in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul for 'spying', a Syrian news website said on Monday.

TV reporter Ayham Khazaal and his brother Nashwan Khazaal were put to death at the weekend, the Aranews website said, citing local human rights activist Khalid Musill.

"After being held for several months, IS militants executed Ayam and Nashwan on Saturday," Musill was quoted as saying.

Ayham Khazaal, who worked for the 'Sama al-Mosul' local TV channel, and his brother were accused of spying for the international coalition against IS and for the Iraqi security forces, Musill said.

The Khazaal brothers were executed in front a large crowd after an IS militant read out their death sentence.

All coalition 'spies' including journalists and aid workers would meet the same fate, witnesses cited the militant as warning.

Dozens of journalists accused of spying have been executed by IS in Iraq including at least 25 in July last year in Nineveh province surrounding Mosul.

Mosul is the largest Iraqi city still under IS control. US-trained Iraqi forces last week retook the Hit region backed by war planes from a US-led coalition.

Iraqi forces retook the western city of Ramadi in December.
Kathmandu, April 18 : The political parties representing the Madhesis in Nepal on Monday announced an alliance with certain organisations of the Janajatis for a combined Kathmandu-focused agitation over their demands.

The new alliance -- Sanghiya Samabeshi Gathabandan (SSG) -- has prepared a fresh list of 26 demands and will announce the details of its agitation on Tuesday.

Since numerous rounds of talks with the government had produced no results, the alliance said, they were compelled to take to the streets.

Both the Madhesis and the Janajatis are unhappy over certain provisions of the new constitution of Nepal, which was enforced in September last year.

Dozens of intellectual, academics and writers extended support to the proposed Kathmandu-centric stir on Monday.

"This alliance is sure to take the identity movement to new heights. Our fight will not stop until the Nepal government agrees to rewrite the constitution in accordance with the agreements signed with the Madhesis, Janajatis, Dalits, Khas, Muslims and other communities in the past," Sanghiya Samajwadi Forum Nepal chairman Upendra Yadav said here.

Various leaders said the collaboration between the groups claiming to represent the Madhesis and Janajatis would prove effective in mounting more pressure on the Nepalese government regarding their demands.

These groups have been demanding carving of provinces based on ethnic identity and greater autonomy for excluded communities.

However, some demands of the Madhes-based parties, especially regarding two provinces in the Terai plains, are in contrast to the demand for Limbuwan, Tharuhat and Magarat provinces in the region.

But with three largest parties in parliament -- the Nepal Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) --enjoying considerable influence over the Janajati constituencies, doubts remain whether the new alliance would be able to garner enough public support for its cause.

Yadav accused these major parties of "curtailing" the rights ensured by the interim constitution.

He claimed the new constitution, on the other hand, was aimed at disenfranchising the marginalised and excluded communities.

Mahanta Thakur, a leader of the Madhes movement, also said that their agitation represented the struggle of all the marginalised and excluded communities in Nepal.

He said the protesters were committed to preserve the communal harmony in the country.

"Our struggle is not against any community. Our struggle is against the government. We are fighting for equality and justice," Thakur said.

(Anil Giri can be contacted at girianil@gmail.com)
Kolkata, April 18 : Three people, including two CRPF troopers, died and four others sustained injuries in a road accident in West Bengal's Darjeeling district while they were returning after Sunday's assembly polls, officials said on Monday.

Polling official Vishnu Rawat, an employee of the Central Bank of India (Mirik branch), was killed in the accident in Relling Pulbazar area on Sunday night, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dibyendu Sarkar said.

CRPF trooper Narayan Chandra Pradhan, who hailed from Odisha's Jajpur, was also killed. Details about the other deceased trooper was not immediately available, the official said.

One of the injured, the driver of the vehicle, was hospitalised in a critical condition.

Election Commission officials on Monday held a video conference with all observers and senior police officers to review the poll preparedness for the third phase on April 21.
New Delhi, April 18 : Criticising Nitish Kumar for his opposition to the RSS, central ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said the Bihar chief minister would never speak against organisations like SIMI, IS and LeT "who spread terror and want to break India".

"Nitish ji, RSS is a great organisation committed to India, why you never speak against SIMI, ISIS and LeT who spread terror and want to break India," Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad posted on Twitter.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Naidu also expressed similarr sentiments and ridiculed Nitish Kumar's call to form a front against the BJP.

"Beware countrymen, the castiest, communal, corrupt are coming together. They want to stop growth of the country by forming an anti-BJP front," Naidu posted.

He said they (Janata Dal-United) have no qualms in joining the party that ruled and ruined the country -- in a veiled reference to the Congress.

"They formed a united front and became a divided front," Naidu said, adding that the country has seen many such fronts.

"... they formed fronts, erected tents and left from the back," he said.

Earlier on Monday in Patna, Nitish Kumar told the media after his weekly Janata Durbar that the RSS ideology was not good for the country and all non-BJP parties must unite against it.

"The RSS ideology is not good. It is not in the interest of the country and its people," he said.
Jammu/Srinagar, April 18 : Life was normally in Srinagar and most other parts of the Kashmir Valley on Monday but curfew continued in Handwara town where it was reimposed after a short relaxation saw violence while tension was reported in Rajouri University where sporadic clashes were reported.

A senior police officer told IANS in Srinagar that authorities decided against any further relaxation in curfew that was re-imposed in Handwara town after clashes erupted again during the short relaxation period in the morning.

"The situation was reviewed in the afternoon and it was decided that no further relaxation would be given in curfew imposed in Handwara town on Monday," the officer said.

He said the situation would be reviewed on Tuesday morning and a decision taken on any relaxation in the trouble-torn town.

Curfew was imposed in Handwara town on Wednesday after three people were killed in firing by security forces after violent clashes with unruly mobs. Trouble had erupted following reports about the molestation of school girl by a soldier.

The girl was Sunday produced by the police before the chief judicial magistrate, Handwara along with her father, and in her statement before the CJM, denied that any molestation attempt had been made on her on last Tuesday.

During Monday's clashes in Handwara town, two protesters were injured and have been admitted to a local hospital in the town for treatment.

Meanwhile life returned to normal in Srinagar as shops, public and private transport, other business establishments, educational institutions, gove rnment offices and banks functioned normally.

In the Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah (BGSB) University in Rajouri districts of Jammu region, sporadic clashes continued between security forces and the agitating non-local students belonging to the Kashmir Valley.

Authorities closed the university after a scuffle between a student belonging to Rajouri district and a student from Kashmir.

Police said there were no communal overtones to the scuffle, but policemen were deployed in the campus on Monday to instill confidence among the students and assist the varsity administration to start normal functioning.

Students belonging to the Valley have alleged that some local students assisted by anti-social elements from outside the campus damaged several vehicles belonging to them.

Police have registered an FIR into the incident and investigations have started.
New Delhi, April 18 : The Art of Living (AoL) on Monday completed the clean-up of the Yamuna flood plains where the World Culture Festival was held and officially handed it over to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

The World Culture Festival, held here from March 11 to 13, was embroiled in a controversy that it harmed the local ecology as well as disturbed the farmers and their crops. A green court had imposed a fine on Aol for organising the event in the flood plains.

"The grounds have been returned by AoL in a better condition than they received it -- greener, cleaner and with no damage to the soil. There was no water, air or soil pollution from AoL's side. That should put to rest all apprehensions about the possible pollution due to the mega event," Aol said in a statement.

The World Culture Festival attracted 172 leaders from across globe, and over 3.7 million people from 155 countries.

The seven-acre stage on which the event was hosted was build in 50 days and dismantled in 28.

Aol said the stage was set up without a foundation to prevent damage to the soil.

"The area under the stage, as well as the rest of the grounds, now sport a carpet of green grass, and show no signs of any damage. In fact, the place is frequented by cattle for grazing," Aol said.
Istanbul, April 19 : Turkish police on Monday detained 100 members of a movement led by US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen in an operation launched in nine provinces, the Istanbul prosecutor office said.

The detainees will be charged of "being a member and financing Fethullah Gulen terror organisation/parallel state structure", read a statement posted on the website of the Istanbul Anadolu chief public prosecutor office, according to Xinhua.

Of those detained, 41 were employees of Bank Asia which was run by Gulen but closed by police last year, the statement said.

It added that the prosecutors have issued arrest warrants against a total of 140 people including prominent businessmen.

Relations between Gulen and Tayyip Erdogan soured after Turkey's judiciary and police, allegedly under the former's control, launched a corruption probe into government officials in December 2013 including Erdogan and his family members.

Since then Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party have been conducting a broad crackdown on Gulen and his supporters, accusing them of establishing a parallel state and a terrorist organisation.
Mexico City, April 19 : Three members of Mexico's Federal Police have been suspended in connection with last week's appearance of a video showing the torture of a woman in custody, the force's director said on Monday.

While only one Federal Police officer is seen in the video, two others who took part in the brutal interrogation were also suspended and placed under investigation, Enrique Galindo said.

"We have this exalted commitment to the citizens to serve and protect, and committing irregularities is not how you serve and protect the community," the Federal Police commander said in remarks to open the National Programme on Police Human Rights Training.

The defence secretariat said last Thursday that the two military personnel who appear in the video - a captain and a female MP - were already in custody awaiting trial.

The actions seen in the video "will not go unpunished," National Security Commissioner Renato Sales said Monday. "I offer a public apology for the acts."

The incident occurred on February 4, 2015, in Ajuchitlan del Progreso, a town in the southern state of Guerrero. In the footage, the three security force members are seen restraining a woman on the floor.

Initially, they put a plastic bag over her head so she is unable to see and pull her hair. Then the MP presses the barrel of her gun against the victim's head.

Later, they place a larger bag over her head and choke her for 20 seconds as she cries and thrashes about on the ground.

According to Amnesty International, complaints of torture in Mexico more than doubled between 2013 and 2014, climbing from 1,165 to 2,403.
If you were a war correspondent covering the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944, you had a dirty, exhausting, and dangerous jobunless you worked out of the Hotel Scribe in Paris. The Scribe, in this instance aptly named, was Allied press headquarters after the liberation of Paris. Author Ronald Weber recounts how the hotel became a clearinghouse for all the war news that flowed from Europe as the Allied armies drove into Germany. In its comfortable rooms with some of Pariss only hot baths, its restaurants serving coveted black-market food, and its mahogany-paneled basement bar, newsmen could be found at work and play.

Someday someone will write the proper history of the Scribe Hotel as the working and social center of war correspondents. Harry C. Butcher, My Three Years with Eisenhower

As Weber describes its charming chaos, the Scribe could accommodate as many as five hundred correspondents. Its denizens covered Allied action on the broad Western front. And it remained rooted in Paris through the end of war. Immediately after the liberation of Paris and its occupation, the Hotel Scribe took on an aura of journalistic legend.

Now and Then Reader, a publisher of long articles for e-readers, will release exclusively 'A Grand Way to Chronicle' the War on April 13th.

Ronald Weber is professor emeritus of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His most recent books are 'The Lisbon Route: Entry and Escape in Nazi Europe', a History Book Club selection, and 'Riverwatcher', a mystery novel. He lives in Valparaiso, Indiana.

This new digital title headlines a growing list of short nonfiction books published by Now and Then Reader, a publishing house co-founded by industry veteran Ivan R. Dee. Now and Then titles typically range from 5,000 to 25,000 words and focus on historical writings, including original works, excerpts, and reprints. Now and Then offers free and paid content on its website http://www.nowandthenreader.com.

For a review copy of 'A Grand Way to Chronicle the War', or to schedule an interview with Ronald Weber, please contact Lindsay Bekken at Lindsay.Bekken(at)nowandthenreader(dot)com or 801-618-2010.
Bluepoint Solutions announced today that Rogue Credit Union (Medford, OR-based,100,000 members, $1B in assets) has given its members new interactive teller machines (ITMs) right where they are most wantedin the drive-through lanes. The video tellers, which work with Bluepoint ImagePoint ITM capture technology, are proving popular because they preserve the personal touch credit union members value.

ITMs combine the convenience of longer ATM hours with the enhanced service of live tellers when needed, matching the credit unions existing drive-ups. At Rogue, the new ITMs are part of an integrated capture solution from Bluepoint, so tellers at a central location are able to provide the same excellent service levels, to more members, across the entire branch network. Meanwhile, members dont face frustratingly long lines as tellers split their time between the in-branch and drive-through traffic. In a recent survey of the credit unions membership, 61% preferred the drive-up ITMs to a traditional drive-up staffed by in-person tellers. Additionally, ITM users gave the credit union a net promoter score of 82.14.

At Rogue, our highest priority is our member loyalty, said Aimee Elko, Vice President of Remote Delivery for Rogue. Our membership is growing fast and in order to meet their needs, we are investing in technologies that make our members lives easier and make us more effective. Adding ITMs keeps the self-service experience intact, and allows us to continue offering personal interaction when our members want it.

ImagePoint ITM capture and all Rogues in-house and remote capture modules from Bluepoint are driven by the powerful aggregator, ImagePoint Hub, which automates the entire workflow while providing cross-channel counterfeit and fraud protection. Since going live with these services, the credit union has reaped increased teller efficiency and member response times while addressing the difficult problem of fraud losses.

So far, Elko says, weve reduced teller balancing time from 30-45 minutes to roughly 5-15 minutes at close of business, allowing our tellers to return to their families faster and speeding up funds availability for our members.

We are proud that Rogue has used our integrated solutions to round out their mix of available channels and give their members a range of customized, more convenient experiencesall while boosting operating productivity, said Alissa Fry-Harris, Director of Marketing for Bluepoint Solutions.

About Rogue Credit Union

Rogue Credit Union is a member-owned, not-for-profit financial cooperative, with an asset base of over $1 billion and a loan portfolio of over $850 million. At Rogue, its about more than an auto loan or a checking account; its about offering a higher level of service to over 100,000 members across the state of Oregon. Under the direction of the volunteer board of directors, Rogue is dedicated to giving back to the communities it serves. A membership with Rogue is open to anyone who lives, works or owns a business in select Oregon counties. Stop by any branch or visit http://www.roguecu.org and learn more.

About Bluepoint Solutions

Bluepoint Solutions provides end-to-end payment processing and content management solutions to financial institutions nationwide. Over 1,400 credit unions and banks that have deployed its enterprise technology are successfully achieving their strategic goals of increasing employee productivity, reducing operating costs, enhancing performance levels, and meeting relentless technology and industry changes with resilience and excellence. Learn more at http://www.bluepointsolutions.com.
CT Applicators successfully apply a diversity of products quickly, easily and accurately. We are pleased to work with Monsanto to ensure the best use of their product for producers,

Tom Johnson, President of Changing Times, LLC, has released their dry applicator calibration numbers for ACCELERON E-007 SAT from Monsanto.

The patented CT Dry Applicator is allowed for the application of ACCELERON E-007 SAT to Seed.

The CT Dry Applicator allows precision application of low volume seed treatment products in order to achieve the highest yield response.

"We are pleased to work with Monsanto to ensure the best use of their product for producers, Johnson said.

Producers are being encouraged to see their Monsanto representative about the CT Applicator program.

Calibration for other products can be found at http://www.ctapplicators.com.

For more information or to order, please visit http://www.ctapplicators.com or call (605)878-3611.

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ACCELERON E-007 SAT is a registered trademark of Monsanto.
Our Mobile Printing solution empowers employees and guests to easily print from their mobile device

PrinterLogic, the leading Enterprise Print Management solution provider that enables businesses of all sizes to eliminate print servers, announced today that it has been selected as a finalist for Interop Las Vegas 2016 Best of Interop Awards in the Mobility/Wireless category. The Best of Interop Awards recognize exhibitors for innovation and technological advancements within 10 core areas of IT. Award winners will be announced from Interop Las Vegas 2016, which takes place May 2 - May 6 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

We are honored to be recognized as a finalist for the 2016 Best of Interop Award, said Andrew Miller, Vice President of Marketing at PrinterLogic. As the number of mobile and BYOD users in the enterprise has seen exponential growth, traditional print management products have struggled to meet the trend. Our Mobile Printing solution empowers employees and guests to easily print from their mobile device without the need for additional software to install.

PrinterLogic will showcase its Enterprise Print Management solution that includes its recently announced Mobile Printing solution at Interop Las Vegas, the industrys most respected independent technology event for modern IT and networking professionals. Mobile Printing from PrinterLogic gives organizations of any size the ability to enable their mobile employees, BYOD users and guests to easily and securely print to the closest network printer. All without the need for print servers, complicated printer installs, or proprietary technologies like Google Cloud Print or AirPrint.

Congratulations to PrinterLogic and all Best of Interop finalists on the success of their new products and positive impact on the IT community, said Interop General Manager Jennifer Jessup. These are the types of visionary solutions that define the future of networking. Were excited for Interop attendees to be able to interact with these products first-hand in the Expo.

After a thorough review of all finalists, an expert judging panel will announce the winners on May 4, 12:00-12:45 pm on the Expo floor.

For more information on the 2016 Best of Interop Awards, please visit: interop.com/lasvegas/special-events/best-of-interop-awards.php

About PrinterLogic

PrinterLogic is the world's leading Enterprise Print Management solution for server-less remote site printer deployments. With more than 1,500 customers in over 120 countries, PrinterLogic enables organizations of all sizes to eliminate print servers. PrinterLogic's single integrated printer management platform is an on-premises web application that simplifies the management, migration, and deployment of printers while drastically reducing cost. For more information, or for a free trial, please visit http://www.printerlogic.com. Questions? Watch our video or connect with us on Twitter at @PrinterLogic or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Google+.

About Interop

Interop is the leading global IT infrastructure event series, offering in-depth education alongside a showcase of emerging technologies in an independent, vendor-neutral environment. For 30 years, Interop has brought the IT community together to explore the latest in network infrastructure, encouraging collaboration, and interoperability. Through dynamic conference programs, Interop helps professionals at all career levels leverage the network, systems and applications that enable business innovation. The Interop Expo and InteropNet Demo Lab provide immersive, hands-on experiences, while connecting enterprise IT buyers with leading suppliers. Interop Las Vegas is the flagship event held each spring, with an annual event in Tokyo and Cloud Connect China in Shanghai. For more information, visit interop.com. Interop is organized by UBM Americas, a part of UBM plc (UBM.L), an Events First marketing and communications services business. For more information, visit ubmamericas.com.
We're delighted to welcome Learnosity to the Summit and to learn more about the value and innovation they bring to their customers through their suite of assessment APIs.

Learnosity, a leading provider of B2B assessment technology, today announced its participation at the ASU GSV Summit, the must-attend conference for educational technologists worldwide. Learnosity is one of the key sponsoring companies this year, with Learnosity CEO and Co-Founder, Gavin Cooney, scheduled to present and participate in several sessions over the course of the event.

The ASU + GSV Summit brings together the most impactful people and companies within the edtech industry. The summits main aim is to shape the future of learning, through the creation of powerful partnerships and clever solutions.

Learnosity will contribute to the summit by presenting at several events over the course of the summit.

Learnosity Company Presentation, by CEO Gavin Cooney

Monday, 16:00 - 17:00

Americas Cup A/B

Learnosity Roundtable: The API-ification of Education. What do Uber, Spotify and Airbnb have in Common?

Tuesday, 14:00 - 14:30

Solana Beach A

Were excited to participate so actively in this years ASU GSV Summit," said Gavin Cooney, CEO and Co-Founder of Learnosity. With so many leaders of the education industry coming together to share their visions and passions, ASU GSV is one of the premier events of the year. Im looking forward to taking to the stage to share the Learnosity success story.

Deborah Quazzo, Managing Partner of GSV Advisors, LLC said "The Summit aims to bring together the most influential leaders in education technology to explore solutions and shape the future of learning. We're delighted to welcome Learnosity to the Summit and to learn more about the value and innovation they bring to their customers through their suite of assessment APIs. We are truly fortunate to have such inspirational companies at this years event.

Visit http://go.learnosity.com/meet_learnosity_at_asu_gsv to register your interest in meeting with the Learnosity team.

About Learnosity

Learnosity is an award-winning educational technology company that offers a suite of assessment technologies (APIs) which enables organizations from a wide range of sectors, to easily incorporate powerful, interactive assessment capabilities into any digital product.

With intuitive authoring, powerful analytics and over 55 Technology Enhanced Items (TEIs), Learnosity shortens development cycles, effort and time to market without sacrificing quality or value. Learnosity works with many of the top names from K-12 and higher education as well as test preparation and corporate training and learning institutions. The company has expanded significantly in the last year, with 60 dedicated staff spread over 4 cities  New York, Los Angeles, Dublin and Sydney.

For further information on Learnosity, visit: http://www.learnosity.com or contact media(at)learnosity(dot)com.
As long as there is a demand for dedicated service tailored to individual business needs, we will continue to expand.

KME Systems, an all-inclusive managed service provider that serves Southern California has moved their headquarters to accommodate the growth of their team. KME Systems has moved from their previous location to a more spacious office in Lake Forest.

Their headquarters will now be located at:

21064 Bake Parkway, Second Floor

Lake Forest, CA 92630

Californias economy is expected to grow faster than any other U.S. city through 2020. As more mid-sized businesses expand in the Southern California economy, KME Systems will grow to meet the needs of a consistently expanding market with tailor-made business IT services.

A steady stream of new and existing customers are turning to our Great Outcomes to keep their businesses efficient, supported, and protected, said Mark Essayian, President of KME Systems. As long as there is a demand for dedicated service tailored to individual business needs, we will continue to expand.

KME Systems will be holding an open house to introduce their new space in the upcoming weeks. For more information on KME Systems, please visit our website.

About KME Systems

KME Systems is an all-inclusive solutions provider for business IT services. We've been around for over 22 years and have lived the ups and downs of IT. We are a trusted IT partner, providing actionable intelligence to improve your processes and get more out of your IT investment. We analyze your business and its processes to develop IT solutions to make your organization more efficient, effective and HIPAA compliant. We design and configure, or manage existing technology systems. We are the premier Orange County IT Support partner and we understand that IT should be built around your unique business proposition.
In keeping with the tradition of people helping people, TruWest Credit Union is offering down payment assistance for low-to-middle income first-time homebuyers. TruWest received an additional $500,000 to support the Workforce Initiative Subsidy for Homeownership (WISH) grant program, through the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. The funds will assist TruWest members in Arizona and Texas who qualify for the program, and open escrow on a home purchase between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017.

Through the WISH program, TruWest will contribute $3 for every $1 the eligible homebuyer allocates toward his or her down payment, up to $15,000. Funds are available on a first-come, first-serve basis through March 31, 2017, or until the funds have been distributed.

With the WISH Program, we will help make home ownership a reality for at least 33 families this year alone, says Lance Levin, Vice President of Mortgages. This really highlights the TruWest Credit Union mission of providing solutions to help people achieve their financial goals.

Since 2013, TruWest has contributed $716,604 in down payment assistance, helping 48 families dreams of home ownership come true. TruWest Credit Union is one of only a handful of financial institutions in Arizona and the only financial institution in Texas to participate in the WISH program.

To be eligible for the WISH program, some restrictions apply for buyers, such as individuals must be first-time homebuyers and meet certain income qualifications. Click here to learn more about the WISH Program.

About TruWest Credit Union

TruWest Credit Union is headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., and operates as a cooperative to provide its membership with a lifetime of quality financial services and a culture of caring for its members, employees and communities. TruWest is a strong and sound financial institution with more than 75,000 members and assets totaling more than $912 million. TruWest Credit Union has 12 brancheseight in the metro Phoenix area and four in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit truwest.org.

About Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco

The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco delivers low-cost funding and other services that help member financial institutions make home mortgage loans to people of all income levels and provide credit that supports neighborhoods and communities. The bank also funds community programs that help members create affordable housing and promote community economic development. The banks members are headquartered in Arizona, California and Nevada, and include commercial banks, credit unions, industrial loan companies, savings institutions, insurance companies and community development financial institutions.

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Sheraton Woodies, a devoted writer and author, has completed his new book A Potpourri of Poems: a beautiful bundle of poems that will leave the reader feeling inspired.

Sheraton Woodies explains, I am not the author of this book of poems, A Potpourri of Poems. This is part of an inheritance I received from Stephen Morton. Everything inside the house was willed to me. Ive had these poems in a notebook in one of my closets for years. Ive looked at them from time to time over the years thinking these poems are nice, pretty interesting, and a great read for anyone. These poems speak of nature, sports, love, etc., thus the title A Potpourri of Poems. The thought of publishing these poems did not come to me for years. The thought came to me one morning as I was finishing up on my Bible reading, prayer and worshiping Jesus. God can drop thoughts into our hearts even when we are about to do something else (in my case, getting ready to get more sleep). John 10:4 says, And when he put forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and they know his voice. The voice of the Lord is upon many waters. Gods word is his voice speaking to us. Proverbs 30:79 says, Two things have I required of thee deny me not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me. Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain..

Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Sheraton Woodiess moving work is a treasure to all who read it.

Stephen Morton was a friend of Sheraton Woodies, who also attended the Word of Life Christian Center Church. When Stephen passed away, Sheraton was included in his will. Part of what Sheraton received was everything inside Stephens house. Among the things in the house were these poems he had written years ago. Sheraton felt a leading of God that these poems should be published.

Readers who wish to experience this inspiring work can purchase A Potpourri of Poems at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional New York based full-service publishing house that handles all of the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not bogged down with complicated business issues like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes and the like. Its roster of authors can leave behind these tedious, complex and time consuming issues, and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
Dr. Linda Ross has joined Buckeye OB/GYN in Grove City, OH and is accepting new patients. I try to approach each patient individually and provide a caring approach to their personal health care.

Womens health specialist, Linda Ross, DO has joined Buckeye OB/GYN to provide a full range of care through all ages and stages of a womans life. She is accepting new patients in their Grove City office.

Dr. Linda Ross graduated from The Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine. She taught embryology at Ohio University for 15 years prior to returning to medical school and completing her residency at OhioHealth O'Bleness Hospital in Athens, Ohio. With her research background, she is able to use evidence based medicine to guide her patients treatments.

I try to approach each patient individually and provide a caring approach to their personal health care said Dr. Ross. I also am committed to conservative approaches to health care, resorting to minimally invasive surgery only after other medical approaches have been exhausted.

Dr. Linda Ross is a compassionate and caring physician, who places an emphasis on getting to know her patients so as to decide the best treatment options. While Dr. Ross practices and enjoys all areas of obstetrics and gynecology, she has a special interest in reproductive endocrinology with an emphasis on polycystic ovarian syndrome, menstrual irregularities, and infertility.

I enjoy the continuity of care associated with obstetrics and gynecology said Dr. Ross. There is nothing more rewarding than helping a woman deliver her infant after watching her progress through her pregnancy.

Buckeye OB/Gyn offers a wide range of services from annual examinations to robotic surgeries and artificial insemination. They strive to provide services that are personalized, upholding the highest integrity, and meeting all patient's expectations. They also offer an on-line patient portal for lab and ultrasound results, extended hours and same day appointments once a patient has become established.

For more information on Buckeye OB/GYN and Dr. Linda Ross, visit: http://buckeyeobgynandwomenshealth.com/home/2300805

About OhioHealth

OhioHealth is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, charitable, healthcare organization with Methodist roots. Based in Columbus, Ohio, OhioHealth is currently recognized as one of the top five large health systems in America by Truven Health Analytics, an honor it has received six times. It is also recognized by FORTUNE Magazine as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For and has been for nine years in a row, 2007-2015.

Serving its communities since 1891, it is a family of 28,000 associates, physicians and volunteers, and a network of 11 member hospitals, 50+ ambulatory sites, hospice, home-health, medical equipment and other health services spanning a 40-county area.

OhioHealth hospitals include OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, OhioHealth Doctors Hospital, OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital, OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital, OhioHealth Hardin Memorial Hospital, OhioHealth Marion General Hospital, OhioHealth OBleness Hospital, OhioHealth Mansfield, OhioHealth Shelby and OhioHealth Rehabilitation Hospital. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.ohiohealth.com.
The Marvel Focus Desk, a new movement-friendly student desk, enables K-8 students to sit or stand at will and incorporates unique design features that promote organization and concentration. "It's easy to use so students can manipulate it themselves. When they need to stand, they stand; when they need to sit, they sit." -- Mark Frenzel, Principal, Creekside School

In schools around the country, standing desks are proliferating in classrooms as a means to boost test scores, battle obesity, and improve student engagement. A recent pilot study found students who used desks that accommodated standing experienced significant neurocognitive improvement in executive function and working memory. These exciting discoveries are drawing attention from school administrators and educators searching for ways to maximize student performance and wellness.

One manufacturer, The Marvel Group, went directly to real-world classrooms for guidance in creating its new movement-friendly product, The Focus Desk. Designed in cooperation with teachers and students at the Hyde Park Day Schools in Chicago and Northfield, Illinois, The Focus Desk enables K-8 students to sit or stand at will. In addition, the Focus Desk incorporates a host of unique design features that promote organization, concentration, and workspace flexibility.

Marvel Group designers asked the Hyde Park teachers and students for a wish list of features they would like to see in a next-generation desk. In their feedback, a top priority was to have a desk that allowed children to be in control of their movement without asking for teacher assistance or disrupting the class. To meet that need, The Focus Desk can be easily and silently raised or lowered by students, no tools required, with the touch of a patent-pending FeatherTouch lift mechanism. In addition, The Focus Desk includes teacher-recommended design features for organization, such as integrated hanging folders, separate interior shelves for books and electronic devices, backpack hooks, and drop-leaf worktop extensions that can be raised or lowered as necessary. To allow teachers to easily rearrange seating groups, the entire desk rolls on smooth, durable casters. The Focus Desk even has customized privacy panels that can set up in moments for test-taking or quiet study and then folded into the built-in holder for storage.

Since its introduction in early 2015, The Focus Desk has been chosen by schools all around the country. Students and teachers are discovering the benefits of increased engagement, focus, and productivity that its innovative design provides. According to Mark Frenzel, Principal of the Creekside School in Fairport, New York, The Focus Desk has enhanced student independence and self-regulation.

Using the desk, the students are able to meet all their sensory needs to remain focused. It creates independence as they remain engaged in instructional tasks, notes Frenzel. Its easy to use so students can manipulate it themselves. When they need to stand, they stand; when they need to sit, they sit.

To view The Marvel Focus Desk in action, visit http://www.marvelfocusdesk.com/video.html.

About The Marvel Group

The Marvel Group is a 70 year-old Chicago-based manufacturer of a wide range of high-quality furnishings to large, small, and home office markets as well as the education market. Product lines range from office chairs and file cabinets to executive office furniture and open office work-stations. Marvel products are manufactured to ISO 9001 certified guidelines and backed by a lifetime warranty. The Marvel Group offers superior customer service to assure a problem-free and timely project completion. For more information, visit http://www.marvelgroup.com.
Palisades Hospitality CEO Tim Harmon Palisades is applying the same theory to our hotels that has made our restaurants so successful  deliver consistent superior quality and service in authentically distinctive settings. -- Tim Harmon, CEO of Palisades Hospitality Group

Palisades Hospitality Group (PHG), a leading hotel and restaurant management, development and consulting firm, today announced the addition of Mosaic Hotel Group (MHG) to its other businesses. PHG manages and operates more than 35 hotels & restaurants throughout the Western United States and Mexico. With more than $120 million in annual revenues and 1,900+ employees, PHG is rapidly growing both domestically and abroad.

We couldnt be more thrilled with the launch of the Mosaic Hotel Group and the superior talent weve brought on board to bring the needs of todays traveler to life through our hotel and restaurant offerings, said Tim Harmon, Chief Executive Officer of Palisades Hospitality Group. Palisades is applying the same theory to our hotels that has made our restaurants so successful  deliver consistent superior quality and service in authentically distinctive settings.

The Mosaic Hotel Group is a collection of award-winning, small, curated hotels in key leisure and urban destinations, that bring rich, unique architecture and local culture to life through beautiful, crafted design, approachable luxury, genuine guest care and destination-worthy restaurants. From a desert retreat to a wine country home base, Mosaic Hotels evoke a sense of place and are as unique as the guests who visit them. Mosaic hotels provide an immersive experience for the modern traveler, allowing guests to be a part of local culture and the community. From the attention to design detail to attentive guest care to the locally-adored on-site restaurantsMosaic Hotels are not merely influenced by their environments, but are a piece of them. With a portfolio of small properties featuring fewer than 80 rooms each, Mosaic Hotels are able to deliver truly personal service to each guest in a way that sets them apart. Whether guests are looking for a place to play, dine, work or relax, Mosaic offers a travel experience that allows them to savor the best of what life has to offer.

The Mosaic portfolio includes the charming El Dorado Hotel & Kitchen in the heart of Sonoma wine country; the oasis-like Colony Palms Hotel in Palm Springs, California; and the luxurious North Block Hotel in the epicurean enclave of Napa Valleys Yountville.

MHG will join PHGs other innovative businesses including the Moana Restaurant Group, which operates a unique collection of restaurants renowned for innovative cuisine in engaging environments; Palisades Hotel Partners, which acquires and develops hotel properties across all regions of the United States, designs them for the modern traveler; Forward Hospitality, which is focused on the acquisition and development of authentic, truly one-of-kind destination properties throughout Mexico; and Logis Hospitality Solutions, which provides financial services, accounting expertise, back office administration and reporting systems for all types of hotels and restaurants.

MHG hotels are renowned for setting the bar for authenticity, quality, style, approachable luxury and incredible customer service among travelers. For example, North Block Hotel is a radiantly inviting mix of luxury, old world charm and modernity, and received a 2014 and 2015 Readers Choice Award by Conde Nast Traveler. El Dorado Hotel, located in a two-story building overlooking the bustling Sonoma plaza, is a wine country destination. At the heart of the hotel, travelers enjoy world class dining in its award-winning restaurant El Dorado Kitchen, which serves farm-to-table fare, craft cocktails and a Sonoma-focused wine list.

Mosaic is planning four new hotels in 2016 with more on the way in 2017. To support and fuel the growth of MHG and its other business divisions, PHG has recruited top hospitality talent, including:

Melony Williams, Chief Operating Officer, Mosaic Hotel Group

Melony Williams joins PHG as the Chief Operating Officer of the Mosaic Hotel Group where she will oversee and direct hotel operations of its growing portfolio of hotel properties. Melony brings over 28 years of experience in the hotel business, 19 of which were at Luxury Hotels. Prior to PHG, she was with Commune Hotels and Resorts, Joie de Vivre Hospitality where she served as General Manager of the companys flagship Hotel Vitale in San Francisco. In this role, she oversaw all aspects of the propertys 200 rooms, including Spa Vitale and the vibrant Americano restaurant and bar. Additionally, she has successfully reinvigorated multiple distressed hotels throughout her career as well as directed Joie de Vivres expansion in both California and nationally as Director of Openings and Transitions, during which time she was involved in over 30 projects.

Skylar Skikos, President, Palisades Hotel Partners

Skylar Skikos joins PHG as President of Palisades Hotel Partners where he will lead the acquisition and development of hotel properties across the U.S. and design them for the modern traveler. He brings a diverse background and skillset that encompasses acquisitions, asset management, capital markets, design development and operations. Previously, Skylar served as Vice President at Fillmore Capital Partners, a real estate private equity investment firm focused on hospitality and healthcare, where he played a key role in the formation of its hotel management company and was involved in more than $1.3 billion of hospitality investments. Skylar started his career at Keystone Realty Capital, a real estate capital markets advisory firm where he assisted in the execution of over $1 billion of debt and equity transactions.

Waldemar Franco, President, Forward Hospitality

As President of Forward Hospitality, Waldemar Franco is responsible for development and acquisition of new projects. Waldemar can be best described as an architect, entrepreneur and outdoors sportsman. He has an architecture degree from Universidad Iberoamericana and has designed projects in Mexico City, Acapulco and Valle de Bravo, but his main achievements have been designing his own projects including lodges in Veracruz and in Valle de Bravo.

Michael Wisner, President, Logis Hospitality Solutions

Mike Wisner joins PHG as Co-founder and President of Logis Hospitality Solutions (LHS), the unit within PGH that provides financial and accounting services designed specifically for hotels and restaurants. Mike has been in the hospitality industry for more than 33 years. Prior to founding LHS, he was CFO of Commune Hotels and Resorts for seven years which included Joie de Vivre Hotels, Thompson Hotels, Tommie Hotels and provided oversight of a portfolio of 37 boutique/lifestyle hotels in the US, UK and Canada. Before Commune, Mike was CFO of Harbor View Holdings/Stanford Hotels Corporation, which included 17 full-services hotels and five global brands  Marriott, Hilton, Starwood, Radisson and Holiday Inn, for seven years. He is also a CPA.

Colleen Gray, Vice President of Finance, Moana Restaurant Group

Colleen Gray is a senior finance executive with over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry. She is a hands-on leader, having learned the hotel and restaurant industries from the ground up. She attained her certification in Public Accounting following her time with Ernst and Young, and has over 25 years experience in financial services. Her leadership strength, exceptional technical expertise, and attention to detail will help position PHG for successful growth in the coming years.

ABOUT PALISADES HOSPITALITY GROUP

Based in San Rafael, California, Palisades Hospitality Group was formed in 2012 by CEO Tim Harmon. The umbrella company for more than 35 award-winning hotels and restaurants in the U.S. and Mexico, Palisades is renowned for delivering superior quality, service, and offering authentically distinctive surroundings designed for todays traveler. Within PHG are six business divisions specializing in hotel and restaurant management, development, finance and accounting, including the Moana Restaurant Group, Mosaic Hotel Group, Palisades Hotel Partners, Forward Hospitality, Logis Hospitality Solutions and PHG Consulting. For more information, visit http://www.palisadeshospitality.com.
Great honor is due to these trailblazers who have been outstanding in their fields, said AAAED President Marshall Rose.

The American Association for Access, Equity and Diversity (AAAED), an organization of equal opportunity, diversity and affirmative action professionals, announced the 2016 honorees of its annual awards program. The awards will be conferred during the Associations 42nd National Conference and Annual Meeting themed "Bridging the Opportunity Gap: Business, Education and Government."

The annual meeting will be held at the Sheraton Tysons Hotel, 8661 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, Virginia. The awards reception will take place on Capitol Hill, Thursday, June 9th in Room B-338 of the Rayburn House Office Building, from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. "We are pleased to recognize these distinguished individuals and organizations for their contributions to the cause of access, equity and diversity, said Dr. Richard A. Baker, Awards Committee Chair. "Great honor is due to these trailblazers who have been outstanding in their fields, added AAAED President Rose. The awards reception is open to the press.

The list of AAAED Awards Honorees Follows:

Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairman G.K. Butterfield will receive the AAAED Drum Major for Justice Award. As a member of the CBC, Congressman Butterfield has focused on promoting anti-poverty programs, expanding economic development and job creation, protecting voting rights, advocating for the appointment of African Americans to judgeships and senior Administration positions, and increasing diversity in leadership positions in corporate America and in the IT industry in particular. Under his leadership the CBC has launched CBC TECH 2020 to bring together the best minds in the tech, non-profit, education and public sectors to chart a path forward to increase African American inclusion at all levels of the technology industry. The Drum Major for Justice Award is a special acknowledgement of the extraordinary contributions that an organization or individual, including a public servant or one who has held an elective office or appointment to public service, has made to the cause of equity, access and diversity.

AAAED will honor Rep. James E. Clyburn with the Arthur A. Fletcher Lifetime Achievement Award. Before joining the House of Representatives, Mr. Clyburn was appointed by South Carolina Governor John C. West as the State's human affairs commissioner. It was during this service that Rep. Clyburn promoted affirmative action programs comparable to the ones required under Executive Order 11246. He served in this position until 1992, when he stepped down to run for Congress. Rep. Clyburn is currently Assistant Democratic Leader in the 114th Congress. He also served as Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1999. He has supported higher education by leading the charge for increased Pell grants; investing millions in science and math programs and historic preservation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Rep. Clyburn was also instrumental in advancing into law measures to resolve historic discrimination issues, significantly reducing the statutory disparity in cocaine sentencing and compensating African and Native American farmers who suffered racial discrimination under the USDA loan program. The Arthur A. Fletcher Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a lifetime of achievement promoting and advocating for affirmative action, EEO and diversity.

AAAED will honor Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee with the Rosa Parks Award. Congresswoman Jackson Lee is currently a senior Member of the House Judiciary Committee and is the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations - the first woman to ever hold that position on the Committee. She led the fight for passage of the Fair Sentencing Act and has authored several immigration bills to set forth a comprehensive and humane solution to the immigration problem. She also introduced legislation to enhance federal enforcement of hate crimes, played a significant role in the renewal and reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, and contributed an amendment to the NASA reauthorization bill that will ensure equal access for minority and economically disadvantaged students to NASA's education programs. The Rosa Parks Award recognizes an individual who serves as a role model and leader for others through their personal achievements, excellence in a chosen field, a commitment to human, civil rights and social issues and contributions to the betterment of society.

Dr. Walter J. Leonard will receive an honorary Arthur A. Fletcher Lifetime Achievement Award, posthumously. Dr. Leonard, who passed away on December 8, 2015, is credited for being the architect of the Harvard affirmative action plan that was noted in the landmark Regents of the University of California v. Bakke decision. According to the New York Times: Even before he designed the admissions policy, Dr. Leonard was aggressively recruiting more diverse applicants to Harvard Law School. Last week, the schools bulletin, Harvard Law Today, credited him with building the foundation for the education of more minority and women lawyers than almost any other administrator in the United States. Dr. Leonard subsequently went on to serve as president of Fisk University. Dr. Leonards family will accept the award on his behalf.

Dr. Havidan Rodriguez, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, will be the recipient of the Cesar Estrada Chavez Award. Dr. Rodriguez has had an impressive academic career, including being recognized by the State of Delaware with the Professional Achievement Award (2007). He also received the Alfredo G. de los Santos, Jr. Distinguished Leadership Award by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (2015); was the featured cover story of the national publication, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine (July, 2015); and was highlighted in the Bright Spots in Hispanic Education by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics (September 2015). Currently, he serves as the principal investigator for an NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant aimed at increasing the representation, participation, and leadership of women faculty in STEM fields. He is the co-editor (with Saenz and Menjivar) of Latinas/os in the United States: Changing the Face of America (2008). The Cesar Estrada Chavez Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated leadership in support of workers' rights and humanitarian issues.

Northrup Grumman will receive the Roosevelt Thomas Champion of Diversity Award. Northrup Grumman is listed as one of the DiversityInc Top 50. Led by Chairman, CEO and President Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman has strong diversity-and-inclusion practices and effective employee resource groups. According to DiversityInc: The defense contractor has been actively working on talent-development initiatives for women, Blacks, Latinos and Asians, as well as LGBT people and people with disabilities. The company also hires a significant number of veterans and has a program called Operation IMPACT to help them transition to civilian life. The Champion of Diversity Award is given to an organization or corporation for outstanding achievements in promoting diversity in the workplace.

Wright State University will receive the Edward M. Kennedy Community Service Award. Wright State is a national leader of services for students with disabilities and is noted as one of the top five disability-friendly universities in America. Wright State provides an accessible pedestrian tunnel system that connects nearly every building in the academic sector of campus. The university converts textbooks into alternate formats for students with disabilities, helps coordinate in-house personal assistance services and has a robust Ohio STEM Ability Alliance program, a one-of-a-kind service dog park and a popular service dog training program. The Edward M. Kennedy Community Service Award is presented to an individual or organization demonstrating outstanding community service.

AAAED President Marshall Rose will confer the Presidents Award on members of the Association who have made outstanding contributions to the Association.

Founded in 1974 as the American Association for Affirmative Action (AAAA), AAAED is a national not-for-profit association of professionals working in the areas of equal opportunity, compliance and diversity. AAAED has more than 40 years of leadership in providing professional training to members, enabling them to be more successful and productive in their careers. It also promotes understanding and advocacy of affirmative action and other equal opportunity laws to enhance the tenets of access, inclusion and equality in employment, economic and educational opportunities.
Paycor Web Summit: HR & Compliance Participation in our most recent Web Summit shows the appetite for information on the changing dynamics of HR practice,

Paycor held a free Web Summit in March that educated thousands of HR practitioners on timely topics of interest in HR and compliance, revealing the most pressing issues for employers.

Participation in our most recent Web Summit shows the appetite for information on the changing dynamics of HR practice, said Jennifer Bellin, Paycors vice president of marketing. Through our frequent Web Summits and webinars, Paycor continually prepares employers through education and insights on the challenges they face.

Web Summit registrants came from 46 U.S. states, and just under 50 percent were current Paycor clients. The most popular webinars in terms of registrants and active discussion from the Summit reflect the current hot topics in HR and compliance:

DOL Overtime Changes: Changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)s overtime exemption thresholds for white collar and highly compensated employees are looming, with the latest estimates calling for new regulations as early as July. Employers should be tracking their employees hours now to know exactly how many hours their employees are working.

Criminal Checks: Ban the Box laws are now effective in 18 states, and other states and local municipalities (such as the city of Austin, TX) continue to ban the criminal record question on job applications. Companies should eliminate this question from their job applications to ensure ongoing compliance.

Mobile Recruiting: Converting todays candidates to hires necessitates a pivot to mobile recruiting for employers big and small. A recent survey by Kelton revealed that 70% of active applicants would prefer to apply for jobs via mobile, but the majority of employers are not equipped to handle mobile applicants.

ACA Compliance: Employers will report on their compliance to the Internal Revenue Service by May 31 or June 30. The work continues to ensure compliance for 2016, and to keep track of the ongoing changes ahead through the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act.

To view past webinar content, visit paycor.com/summit.

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About Paycor

People are at the core of Paycor. Serving more than 30,000 small and medium-sized organizations, Paycor is known for delivering amazing client experiences combined with modern and intuitive HR and payroll solutions. Paycors personalized support and intelligent technology ensure that key business processes, including timekeeping, reporting, onboarding, and recruiting, run smoothly across your business. Paycor is the trusted partner for brokers, bankers and CPAs. Learn how Paycor can advance your business by connecting with us at http://www.paycor.com.
President of Grifco Strategy "Our leadership is committed to excellence and ensures all projects remain on time, within budget, with exceptional outcomes."

Grifco Strategy, a woman-owned management and marketing consulting firm, has been named by Broward College as the Supplier of the Month.

The intent of the Supplier of the Month profiles is to highlight Broward College champions of diversity and small businesses located in South Florida.

For over 10 years, Grifco Strategy has delivered world class marketing, training and consulting services to a broad range of industries including Education, Healthcare, Construction, Manufacturing, Financial, Defense and more.

What sets Grifco Strategy apart from other professional services companies is our proprietary process applied to each project. Our leadership is committed to excellence and ensures all projects remain on time, within budget, with exceptional outcomes.

Grifco Strategy's clientele include private and public sector clients including, but not limited to, Miami Dade College, Fort Lauderdale Airport, Goldman Sachs, the Department of Defense and many other organizations.

Grifco is South Florida's leading partner to drive opportunity and economic development through strategic partnerships. Allow us to strategize your growth.
Zaina Sahady, CEO: "We are proud to be the awardee and to continue our partnership with DOL OCFO."

Chevo Consulting, LLC (Chevo), a provider of Strategic, Portfolio, Project, and Financial Management consulting services, has been awarded the Department of Labor (DOL), Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), Financial Systems Support Services contract. This 5-year contract, valued at over $38M, provides DOL Acquisition, Project, Financial, and Strategic Management consulting services in support of DOLs New Core Financial Management System (NCFMS) and other DOL OCFO programs. This award validates Chevos leadership for todays Shared Services-based Financial Management environment.

During the execution of this contract Chevo will deliver consulting services, including Requirements Management, Program Management, A-123 and Internal Controls, Security, Capital Planning, Scheduling, Management Reporting, Quality Assurance, and Acquisition services. Chevo delivers our clients practical experience and quality resources with the hands-on knowledge required to support our clients through their most important financial management challenges.

Of this recent win, Zaina Sahady, CEO, states, This was a very competitive solicitation open to all small businesses; we are proud to be the awardee and to continue our partnership working with the DOL OCFO on their important initiatives.

About Chevo Consulting, LLC

Chevo Consulting, LLC (Chevo) is a woman-owned small business (WOSB) focused on providing management consulting services to the Federal Government. Chevo serves as a Trusted Advisor, supporting our clients long-term visions, from conception to implementation, by applying effective strategy, management, and communication. Chevo helps organizations change and evolve their business by providing a highly specialized range of services centered on Strategic Analysis and Planning, Portfolio Management, Project Management, and Financial Management. Chevo is headquartered in Rockville, MD. Chevo is a 2014 awardee of the GSA OASIS contract vehicle, signifying that we are one of the top 40 federal contractors of our size for delivering complex professional services. For more information, visit http://www.ChevoConsulting.com.
The greater convenience, speed, accessibility, and affordability of urgent care centers like MD Now have resulted in the rapid growth and popularity that is expected to continue in the future.

When faced with minor medical emergencies, patients traditionally only had the choice between heading to a hospital emergency room or a primary care physicians office. But ERs involved very long waits in overburdened facilities and huge bills for treatment. Yet a primary care physicians limited office hours meant waiting weeks for an appointment, along with higher prices for care, little urgent care experience, and few on-site emergency services.

But now when minor injuries and illnesses strike, a growing number of patients choose the more affordable, fast, and convenient care of urgent care centers. MD Now has become the leading urgent care center for non-life-threatening health emergencies in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties. Recent research outlining the many financial and personal advantages of urgent care centers has been featured in MD Nows new infographic, 4 Reasons Why Urgent Care Centers are Perfect for Little Health Emergencies. It clearly shows why urgent care centers like MD Now are a healthier choice for less-serious medical emergencies.

Urgent care centers have provided high-quality medical care in the US for more than 30 years. Their appeal lies in the convenience of their extended hours, walk-in availability, more affordable costs, fast treatment times, and full range of on-site advanced medical services. All of these have contributed to their popularity, which has led to extraordinary growth, with new locations rapidly opening on a regular basis.

ERs Dont Treat Patients as Well as Urgent Care Centers

MD Nows infographic reveals some startling statistics about ERs compared with urgent care centers, including:



A trip to the ER can cost six times more than an urgent care center visit for exactly the same service due to much higher staffing costs, overhead expenses, and risks associated with treatment.

On average, an ER visit costs $1,354, while an urgent care center self-pay visit only averages $150 to $200.

Four hours is the average ER waiting room time, compared to less than one hour at an urgent care center.

71% of ER visits are unneeded, causing patients to waste a great deal of time and money.

Primary Care Physicians Dont Put the Patients Needs First

According to research in the infographic, primary care physicians deprive patients of convenient extended hours, urgent care experience, and on-site emergency services. This leaves patients with high bills and weeks of waiting for appointments.

In a comparison of trips to primary care physicians and urgent care centers, research revealed:



19.5 days is the average wait time for an appointment with a primary care physician; urgent care centers see patients in under an hour with no appointment necessary.

Only 29% of primary care physicians have support staff to see patients beyond regular office hours, while urgent care centers are open 12 hours a day, including evenings, weekends, and holidays.

Primary care physicians rarely have urgent care experience or advanced on-site services.

Urgent care clinics with a Category 1 certification from the Urgent Care Association of America have a licensed doctor on site at all times, in addition to many of the same on-site capabilities as the ER, such as digital x-rays, ultrasound, lab testing, and EKG.

Urgent care has gone beyond a mere alternative to hospital ERs and primary care physicians to become the first choice for many patients seeking high-quality medical care for non-life-threatening medical issues, said Peter Lamelas, M.D., CEO of MD Now Urgent Care Centers. The greater convenience, speed, accessibility, and affordability of urgent care centers like MD Now have resulted in the rapid growth and popularity that is expected to continue in the future.

For a closer examination of why urgent care centers are a medical marvel, take a moment to review MD Nows informative infographic, 4 Reasons Why Urgent Care Centers are Perfect for Little Health Emergencies. 

About MD Now Urgent Care Centers

MD Now Urgent Care Walk-In Medical Centers is the leading provider of fast and affordable urgent care to adults and children in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties. Our state-of-the-art, walk-in medical centers are open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to deliver an affordable and convenient alternative to long emergency room wait times and the limited hours of family physicians. No appointment is necessary and major insurance plans are accepted. In addition to providing a comprehensive range of urgent care services to treat a variety of illnesses and injuries, our multiple locations offer digital x-rays, EKG, ultrasounds, lab testing, physicals, immunizations, vaccines, physical therapy, occupational medicine, travel medicine, and selected primary care services. Discover medical care that treats you to the care you need now at MD Now. Call: 888-MDNow-911, online: MDNow.com.
ObituaryData vs SSDI Record Collection You really cant say It wasnt priced into the policies, with a straight face.

George A. David, Chairman / CEO of ObituaryData.com issued the following statement for Life Insurance Companies doing business in FL.

Florida's new law, SB 966, says insurers now have to attempt to find deceased policy holders and their beneficiaries."

"Social Security is not the answer. The Social Security Death Index will give only about a 60% chance to find out who is deceased and will be absolutely no help in determining their locations or finding beneficiaries."

"ObituaryData.com offers the whole solution to complying with both the spirit and the letter of the new law. We have the most current and complete database of U.S. Deaths since 2003 and it includes complete Obituaries. The records include Ages, Dates of Birth, City and State of Residence, Survivors and a basic history of a life. All are linked to available Social Security data."

We already supply our Data to Insurance Companies and Insurance Service Providers but the full range of Services is only available directly from ObituaryData.com.

The best examples are our List Match and List Monitor services, which are designed to identify likely matches in any list that is formatted in Excel. The customers list can be submitted by email or SFTP and run against the Social Security Database and/or the Obituary Database. The Search/Match Criteria on the submitted file can include First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, City of Residence, State of Residence, and Social Security Number (if available).

The results include the full Obituary for each match and will allow the user to identify and track down survivors.

These reports are reasonable. A one-time Match of a 5,000 name list costs $287.50 if it is run against both the SSDI and the Obituary Databases. That same list can be Monitored and reported monthly for $230.00 per month. Larger and smaller lists can be accommodated. The system has been tested and widely accepted in the insurance industry. It is simple, efficient and accurate.

We invite you to visit our website to learn more and click on "Try It For Free" to get started.

Mr. David concluded You really cant say It wasnt priced into the policies, with a straight face.

Check us out at http://www.obituarydata.com
I am thrilled about this partnership, but my excitement pales in comparison to my daughter Julia's face when we walk into sweetFrog!

BK Racing recently announced that sweetFrog premium frozen yogurt will be sponsoring David Ragan and the No. 23 sweetFrog Toyota Camry for the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

The race scheduled for April 24th represents sweetFrogs NASCAR debut. sweetFrog is a Richmond, VA based, national frozen yogurt franchise that was recently named the #1 Frozen Yogurt Shop in the US by the Daily Meal. Since their 2009 inception, sweetFrog has grown to more than 350 locations in the US and abroad  serving customers in 25 states, the United Kingdom and the Dominican Republic.

I am excited to have sweetFrog on our Toyota for Richmond, said Ragan. Richmond is one of my favorite races of the year, and the Sunday afternoon event will be a new challenge for our team. sweetFrog is my family's go to spot for frozen yogurt. Let me put it this way  I am thrilled about this partnership, but my excitement pales in comparison to my daughter Julias face when we walk into sweetFrog!

As a team with such strong Richmond ties, we are proud to have sweetFrog join BK Racing for the upcoming Toyota Owners 400, said Doug Fritz, CMO of BK Racing. 

"We are thrilled to partner with David Ragan and BK Racing for the spring race in sweetFrogs hometown, said Patrick Galleher, CEO of sweetFrog. Our shared commitment to family and community make the partnership a perfect fit.

David Ragan will make a personal appearance at the Atlee-based sweetFrog location (10040 Sliding Hill Rd, Ashland, VA) on Friday, April 22 to commemorate the partnership and raise funds for the local Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club. Richmond residents and all race fans are encouraged to visit sweetFrog from 7-9PM this Friday (April 22) to meet Ragan, enjoy their favorite sweetFrog creation and take home a limited edition sweetFrog racing T-shirt and signed limited edition David Ragan hero card. sweetFrog will donate 25% of all sales from 7PM to close to the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club located in Richmonds East End.

Were grateful to David Ragan and our friends at sweetFrog for their support of the empowering youth programming at our Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club, said Major Timothy Carter of The Salvation Army. We wish David and his team a safe and well-run race and are bless by sweetFrogs partnership and support of the Salvation Army.

For more information on sweetFrogs products and franchise opportunities, please visit http://www.sweetfrog.com.

For more information on BK Racing and David Ragan, please visit http://www.bkracingteam.com.

For more information on the Richmond-based Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club, please visit http://virginiasalvationarmy.org/richmondva/programs/boys-girls-club/.

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About sweetFrog Frozen Yogurt:

sweetFrog (http://sweetfrog.com) is the fastest growing premium, all natural, self-serve frozen yogurt restaurant company in the country. With a wide selection of premium frozen yogurt flavors and fresh topping choices, sweetFrog was named Best Frozen Yogurt in the USA by The Daily Meal in 2014 and 2016. sweetFrog has 340 stores including both company-owned, franchise and independently licensed locations either open or under contract in twenty-four states in the U.S, Dominican Republic, United Kingdom and Egypt. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Richmond, Virginia. Sweet Frog prides itself on providing a family-friendly environment where customers can enjoy soft-serve frozen yogurt, gelato and sorbets with the toppings of their choice. The company was founded on Christian principles and seeks to bring happiness and a positive attitude into the lives of the communities it calls home.

About BK Racing, LLC

BK Racing is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota Racing team headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in 2012 after acquiring the assets of Red Bull Racing, BK Racing's staff of 60+ employees work to field the No. 23 Toyota Camry driven by David Ragan and the No. 83 Toyota Camry driven by Matt DiBenedetto. 2016 marks BK Racing's 5th consecutive full-time season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Contact: Amanda Ebersole

amandaebersole(at)140buzz(dot)com

8712 Lindholm Drive, Suite 300

Huntersville, NC 28078

704.816.0707

sweetFrog contact: Graham Chapman

graham(dot)chapman(at)sweetfrog(dot)net

919.291.4984
Mike Bare, President of BARE International, joins a multidisciplinary group of leaders from across the country in the first ever SOAR Community Summit in Alexandria, Virginia. The Summit aims to be a proven tool that produces compelling outcomes for leaders, presenting them with multiple opportunities to sharpen their skills and become more legacy-driven in their leadership approach.

Bare, a pioneer and leader of the mystery customer research and audit industry, will be an expert panelist discussing What Customers and Clients Want Most. As a co-founder of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA), Bare knows first-hand that a caring commitment to what a customer means to a business ensures long term success.

The Summit is a perfect fit for Bare who believes that, Legacy-driven leadership means sharing the knowledge and experience I have with those who wish to learn, evolve and enhance what has been created, which in turn allows them to become legacy leaders themselves.

About SOAR Community Summit

The SOAR Community Summit is a strategy sharing and thought leadership event taking place in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, connecting leaders and addressing the priorities in their organizations and communities. The event is hosted by the SOAR Community Network and brings together a multidisciplinary group of executives, business leaders and experts from around the country. http://www.SOARCommunityNetwork.com/Summit.

About BARE International

BARE International sets the industry standard as the largest independent provider of customer experience research, data, and analytics for companies worldwide. Founded in 1987, BARE International is a local, family-owned business with global capabilities. BARE is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Fairfax, Virginia with ten offices around the world. On any given day, BARE International is doing business for clients in more than 150 countries, completing more than 50,000 evaluations/audits each month. http://www.bareinternational.com

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The 89 seniors registered to participate reside in 30 states, the U.S. territory of Guam, and four countries, including The Bahamas, Canada, Nigeria, and The Philippines.

As the end of the school year approaches, Alpha Omega Academy seniors from across the globe are preparing to participate in the online schools regional and virtual graduation ceremonies.

The 89 seniors registered to participate reside in 30 states, the U.S. territory of Guam, and four countries, including The Bahamas, Canada, Nigeria, and The Philippines.

Graduation is always an exciting time of year for our seniors, AOA Principal Joseph Bakker said. For many students, the regional ceremonies are the first opportunity they have to meet their classmates in person. Its fun to watch them get acquainted and celebrate their years of hard work together.

Each regional ceremony is a traditional cap and gown event that includes a special welcome, a challenging address to the graduates, the presentation of diplomas, and a reception for the class of 2016 and their guests following the ceremony. This spring, the regional ceremonies are scheduled to take place in the Dallas and Orlando areas on May 13 and June 3 respectively.

To accommodate students who are unable to travel to the regional sites, AOA also hosts a virtual graduation ceremony that is broadcast live online from the campus of Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. The 2016 virtual graduation ceremony is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. (CT) on Friday, May 27.

About Alpha Omega Academy

Accredited by NCA CASI, Alpha Omega Academy is the K-12 online school of Alpha Omega Publications. Founded in 1977, Alpha Omega Publications is the leading provider of award-winning PreK-12 Christian curriculum, educational resources, and services to Christian schools and homeschool families worldwide. To learn more, call 800-682-7396 or visit http://www.aoacademy.com/?utm_source=PRWeb&utm_medium=PressRelease&utm_campaign=Graduation2016.
The Sentient team shares the CASA Go Blue spirit! Its exciting to see how sympathetic and generous the Sentient team has been in supporting CASA. - Sentient Partner Walter Stevenson

Sentient Interactive, LLC, (besentient.com) proudly announces its partnership with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children of Morris and Sussex Counties, Inc.

In addition to sponsoring the annual CASA Give a Child a Voice Gala at the Park Savoy in Florham Park, New Jersey, on May 12, 2016, Sentient staff members each donated $5 or more and wore their favorite blue apparel for the Go Blue for CASA event on April 8, 2016. Go Blue for CASA recognizes CASA Child Advocate Day with donations to support advocacy of abused and neglected children.

Sentient President and Partner Adam Cossman says, As a dedicated member of the Morristown community, Sentient is excited to partner with CASA of Morris and Sussex Counties. We believe helping abused and neglected children is one of the most significant ways Sentient can give something back to this wonderful community. Were honored to contribute our financial, marketing, and outreach support to help further CASAs mission.

ABOUT CASA

Started as a national organization in 1977, CASA programs soon arose in communities to address the needs of local children who have been removed from their homes or are under court supervision as a result of abuse, neglect, or abandonment. CASA trains community volunteers to advocate, mentor, and champion each child on her or his journey to a safe, permanent, and nurturing home. CASA volunteers also help ensure that each child has access to all of the services, including resources and programs to which she or he is entitled.

Its exciting to see how sympathetic and generous the Sentient team has been in supporting CASA, says Sentient Partner Walter Stevenson. He adds, We are continually on the lookout for opportunities that allow our staff to engage in charitable, feel-good initiatives. When the team gets together on work projects, they're a force. When they unite to contribute to something meaningful to the community, and ultimately the world, they are inspiring.

With approximately 950 US programs, CASA has helped more than 2 million children find safe, permanent homes in which they can thrive. Click here for more information about CASA.

For more information on Sentient, please visit besentient.com.
Purple Heart Wines and the Purple Heart Foundation to host reception for members of the press and wine trade, as well as Purple Heart recipients and military veterans.

What: Purple Heart Wines launched its proprietary label, Purple Heart, in 2016  created to honor the determination, bravery and commitment of Americas military heroes. Moved by its namesake, it is this noble medal that lead to the creation of the Purple Heart wine  a worthy tribute to the nations servicemen and -women. Created using fruit grown in the Napa Valley, Purple Heart is a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. It is an uncompromising wine crafted by Vietnam veteran winemaker Ray Coursen under the close stewardship of the Peter Mondavi Sr. Family, whose patriarch is a proud veteran of World War II. Coursen has been working in the Napa Valley since 1983, and has crafted more than 50 wines with scores over 90 points.

Purple Heart serves as a testament to the integrity and virtue of the Purple Heart Foundation, and aims to help further the organizations cause through both awareness and fundraising. To support these efforts, an annual donation will be given to the Purple Heart Foundation. Causes supported by the Purple Heart Foundation include the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury and Military Sexual Trauma, as well as job training, education assistance, service dogs and burial assistance. Learn more about Purple Heart Wines at purpleheartwines.com.

When: Tuesday, April 19, 2016 (2  5 pm)

Where: The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

Pier 86, W 46th St & 12th Ave

New York, NY 10036

Contact: Juliana Colangelo, Colangelo & Partners, 973-951-6145, jcolangelo(at)colangelopr(dot)com

About Purple Heart Wines

Purple Heart is a Napa Valley red wine created to honor the bravery and commitment of Americas military heroes. It is an uncompromising wine crafted by highly accomplished military veteran winemakers under the stewardship of the Peter Mondavi Sr. Family, whose patriarch is a proud veteran of World War II. The Purple Heart is a congressional military decoration, awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S. who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy. No military award better symbolizes the bravery, determination and selflessness of the military men and women serving our country. It is this noble medal that inspired the creation of Purple Heart Wines. In partnership with the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the winery makes an annual financial contribution to the Purple Heart Foundation to help them achieve their mission.
We believe the Customize It will ease the process of ordering custom-made furniture and eliminate hesitancy since customers can actually see what the piece will look like in real life

Jeromes Furniture launched its Customize It 3D furniture viewer to help customers visualize custom-order furniture both in-store and online. The feature will provide customers with the ultimate online ordering experience, allowing shoppers to custom order furniture and see how it will look with different colors and fabrics. With zoom capabilities up to 4,000 megapixels of resolution, the feature allows the customer to select the body fabric and pillow fabric with such detail that the user can even see the weave of the fabric.

"We believe the Customize It will ease the process of ordering custom-made furniture and eliminate hesitancy since customers can actually see what the piece will look like in real life," says Scott Perry, Vice President of Digital at Jeromes Furniture.

The Customize It feature will be available for all custom order sofas including loveseats, sleeper sofas, chairs and sectionals. Jeromes sales staff is equipped with iPads to utilize the feature when working with customers on special orders in-store.

Online, the Customize It is a resource for users to build a custom sofa with a specific body fabric and pillows, print it out to share with family and friends or bring into a store.

Jeromes Furniture is a Southern California-based, family-owned furniture store that is looking forward to the grand opening of its 12th location in Fountain Valley coming in May 2016. Headquartered in San Diego, Jeromes has locations spanning from San Diego to Los Angeles.

About Jeromes Furniture

Jeromes Furniture was founded in 1954 by Jim & Esther Navarra and is still owned and operated by the Navarra family. In 2005, the company streamlined its operations, opening a 450,000 square foot distribution center, and in the last few years has expanded its store locations outside of its San Diego headquarter area. Jeromes has grown to a more than 750-employee company with 12 locations across Southern California in San Diego, San Marcos, Chula Vista, El Cajon, Scripps Ranch, Murrieta, Corona, Rancho Cucamonga, South Bay/Torrance, Anaheim, Laguna Hills and coming soon to Fountain Valley. Jeromes sets the standard for exemplary service, offering same-day delivery, free in-home design service and everyday low prices (Jerrys Price). Jeromes was also honored at the 2015 Furniture/Todays Annual Leadership Conference amongst the top five Family Dynasties in the furniture industry. For more information, please visit Jeromes.com or visit their Twitter and Facebook pages.
The Global Education Conference Network is honored to present Global Leadership Week (GLW), a weeklong celebration of leadership through global action in K-12 education. This online series of education events will take place April 25-29, 2016. GLW is an opportunity for global education leaders to learn from one another and share effective principles in leadership, particularly within the context of an interconnected, global age.

Global Leadership Week is brought to you by innovative educators and organizations who believe in the power of globally connected learning. Leading global education organizations organizing Global Leadership Week include the Global Education Conference Network, Flat Connections, GlobalEdLeader, Global Oneness Project, iEARN-USA, the Learning Revolution Project, World Savvy and VIF International Education. Global education industry leaders VIF International Education, Edmodo, Google, TES, the Wonderment, iEARN-USA, the Global Campaign for Education - US Chapter, and Otus make Global Leadership accessible to all through their generous sponsorship.

During Global Leadership Week, innovators in schools, universities, non-profit organizations, and corporations will host virtual events to showcase thought leadership. The global education community at large can elect to participate in these online activities by browsing event listings on the GLW website. A variety of events are available including webinars, book discussions, Twitter chats and other informational sessions. Participating organizations include CUE Inc., European Schoolnet, Glenbrook North High School (IL), Arlington Collegiate High School (TX), the Longview Foundation, GeoGebra Institute of eSchool Keral, Radford University, the Global Oneness Project, IREX, AFS-USA, CoSN, the Wonderment, Loudoun County Public Schools (VA), the Asia Society, and the Global Education Innovation Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

During GLW, the Global Education Conference (GEC) Network itself will host two major events, the Global Leadership Summit and Global Leadership Day. The Global Leadership Summit is s face-to-face convening at Edmodos headquarters in San Mateo, California on April 25th. This event will be streamed online for the public.

Confirmed Summit panelists for the Global Leadership Summit include:

Jaime Casap, Chief Education Evangelist, Google

Betsy Corcoran, CEO, EdSurge

Maggie Front, Teacher, Mill Valley Middle School

Tony Jackson, Vice President for Education, The Asia Society

Paul Johnson, Superintendent, Mill Valley School District

Anna Lazzarini, Administrator, Mill Valley Middle School

Amy Lin, Co-Founder, Blendspace

Jennifer Russell, Director of Education, iEARN-USA

Vibhu Mittal, CEO, Edmodo

Nance Miller, Teacher, Mill Valley Middle School

Dana Mortenson, Executive Director, World Savvy

Rod Septka, Teacher, Mill Valley Middle School

Cleary Vaughan-Lee, Education Director, Global Oneness Project

Brandon Wiley, President, GlobalEdLeader

Esther Wojcicki, Educator, Palo Alto High School

David Young, CEO, VIF International Education

Additionally, the GEC is producing the Global Leadership Day virtual conference on April 26th featuring thought leaders at all levels. These events will take place online; subsequent recordings will be used as living artifacts to continually inspire leaders. Keynote speakers for this online conference are Dr. Fernando Reimers of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Gavin Dykes of Education Fast Forward. Invited presenters include students, teachers, school administrators, non-profit and higher education leaders from around the globe.

To find out more about Global Leadership Week and to access online activities, please visit the Global Leadership Week website at http://www.globaledleadership.com. Follow conversations on Twitter via hashtag #globaled16 the Global Education Conference Network (@globaledcon).
Winning teams at the 2015 Youth Hackathon at Hacker Lab powered by Sierra College. Hackathons are game changers, and often inspire students to explore technology with such a passion that it helps them discover their future education and career path.

Sierra College is hosting Operation Innovates weekend-long youth Hackathon in partnership with the City of Rocklin. The event will be held at the Sierra College Rocklin campus, 5000 Rocklin Rd, Rocklin CA from April 29 to May 1. The fee to attend is $50 and includes supplies and meals. Participants are encouraged to bring their own lap top computers. Sign up for Operation Innovate Hackathon early as space is limited.

According to Gina Lujan, Operation Innovate Co-Founder and CEO and Founder of Sacramentos Hacker Lab, the objective of the hands-on program is to educate students in the areas of science, technology, engineering, art, math, entrepreneurship and design (STEAMED). Kids who get access to technology as well as the design and startup process immediately apply their creativity, said Lujan. They quickly discover that they can work together, solve problems and build projects that make a difference. The intensive experience transforms them and inspires the participants to continue innovating and creating after the event. These are our future entrepreneurs.

From design thinking to startup exercises, students can select a project to work on for the weekend. Through creativity exercises, participants can develop and present ideas for a weekend project. Others can join their team for the duration of the event. They receive training in 3D design and printing, app development, electronics, programming and other areas from industry experts who volunteer their time. On the final afternoon, they present what theyve developed.

According to Carol Pepper-Kittredge, Director, [CACT, Sierra College, hackathons have proven to be an excellent way to introduce young people to maker and entrepreneurial skills as well as Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) careers. Working on teams, they get a taste of the real world design process, said Pepper-Kittredge. Hackathons are game changers, and often inspire students to explore technology with such a passion that it helps them discover their future education and career path. Most importantly, everyone has fun learning and doing.

Sign up now for the Operation Innovate Hackathon.

About Sierra College CACT

Sierra College Center for Applied Competitive Technologies (CACT) is focused on Advanced Manufacturing training and development, and is funded through the Workforce and Economic Development program of the California Community College Chancellors Office. Since 1992, the Sierra College CACT has provided customized training for organizations, manufacturers and technology companies throughout Northern California. Through the Sierra STEM Collaborative, Sierra College works with college faculty as well as middle and high schools to promote STEM Education and careers. Additional information is available by contacting Carol Pepper-Kittredge at 916-660-7801 or cpepper-kittredge (at)sierracollege(dot)edu.

About Operation Innovate

Operation Innovate, established in 2015, is a Sacramento-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to educate and enrich the lives of youth in the areas of science, technology, engineering, art, math, entrepreneurship and design (STEAMED). Operation Innovate partners with government organizations, schools and other nonprofit organizations to help foster skills and career pathways for youth by bringing training directly to the students in their own neighborhoods using immersive project-based learning, innovative curriculum and hands-on activities. Their programs include hackathons, workshops, classes and boot camps.
Now financial institutions can easily and effectively automate originator risk management with an innovative new product line introduced by Argos Risk. The new line features two subscription services, AR SCAN and AR SURVEILLANCE, that work in tandem or independently, depending on the level of originator risk management required by the subscriber.

AR SCAN examines an FIs entire ACH portfolio, ranking the initial risk for originators. The initial scan takes several data elements into consideration including prohibited lists, known bad actors (identified via FinCEN/OFAC), Better Business Bureau ratings, website analysis, and a number of other factors that impact overall business health. The data is evaluated to quickly determine originator risk, and then ranked from low to high risk. AR SCAN is customized to the needs of financial institutions, allowing them the flexibility to choose the frequency of scans on an annual, quarterly or monthly basis. AR SCAN is designed to work as a stand-alone product and it can also work in tandem with AR SURVEILLANCE.

For high risk originators and companies that require closer tracking, AR SURVEILLANCE is an advanced service that delivers daily monitoring and alerts to proactively gauge the overall health of a business. Hundreds of data sources are analyzed, as well as a number of KPIs, synthesizing results into an easy to understand Argos Risk Score. The score enables subscribers to instantly gauge the overall business health of originators, as well as view upward and downward credit quality trends. In addition, daily alerts provide actionable insight and reports, allowing subscribers the ability to evaluate the information and take appropriate steps to protect their interests. Alerts cover a vast range of important business health barometers, such as analysis of company reputation, full address analysis, liens, litigation, lawsuits, judgments, mergers/acquisitions, CFPB updates, earnings updates, changes in control, staffing changes, changes in ownership, Board of Director changes, issue/redemption/repurchase, website content, and changes in overall business health and credit risk.

The new products, AR SCAN and AR SURVEILLANCE, work independently or in tandem, and are customized to the needs of the subscriber. The services work together to ensure financial institutions are able to effectively automate the identification and management of risk to meet regulatory and compliance needs.

About Argos Risk

Argos Risk, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, specializes in web-based technology solutions for B2B risk management for financial institutions and other industries, enabling companies of all sizes to proactively manage and monitor risk. The Companys new product line, AR SCAN and AR SURVEILLANCE, assess risk scores of clients, vendors, partners, and competitors. The companys powerful algorithm, Argonomics, delivers data via real-time dashboards and daily alerts. Argos Risk monitors thousands of companies for clients that represent a broad array of industries including financial institutions, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and businesses of all types. For more information, visit http://www.argosrisk.com.

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The Ultimate Shooting Experience We are excited to expand our community to include even more women and families than ever before. - Ron Kennedy, General Manager

Scottsdale Gun Club, one of the countrys largest, open to the public, indoor shooting range, gun store, and club is launching a new website and taking aim at expanding its offerings to draw a larger community of enthusiasts, novices, women, families and couples.

We are thrilled that we are the go-to club for firearm enthusiasts, and are excited to expand our community to include even more women and families than ever before. Through Date Night events and Ladies of Liberty course, we are providing women a fun, safe, and friendly means for them to learn about and use firearms, said Ron Kennedy, SGC General Manager.

Known to law enforcement, military personnel, firearm aficionados and enthusiasts for its world-class amenities, state-of-the-art facility with 32 air-conditioned lanes, expert instruction, competitive retail outlet and members-only VIP Titanium Lounge, the Scottsdale Gun Club has expanded their offerings to serve the growing market of women and families.

Scottsdale Gun Club member, Christie Liew began as a novice, and is now an enthusiast, owner and advocate. Liews daughters have all attended basic and advanced training courses, and now they visit the club on a regular basis to practice, and enjoy the recreational activity as a family. Christie says, Scottsdale Gun Club has become a second home to me. My family, friends, and I practice and take classes together. Its fun and Ive never felt so empowered.

ScottsdaleGunClub.com provides visitors a new way to engage, interact, get involved with the club and community. The newly updated site is loaded with fresh content outlining courses, providing an inside view to The Ultimate Shooting Experience featuring activities like, Ladies Night, Date Night and Machine Gun Adventures, expanded retail offerings, exciting community events, training, firearms rental & membership packages.

"Scottsdale Gun Club was founded with the intention of creating a fun, welcoming, clean, and responsible environment for people to learn about and use firearms safely. It is called the Ultimate Shooting Experience because it has become a community that welcomes anyone interested in firearms ownership, safety, and usage for recreation or personal protection. We hope our new website will make it even easier for people to experience the feeling that they are welcome and Home on Our Range. It really is a place to train or practice while having a good time with great people. I could not be more proud of our team and what they have created. It is our wonderful staff and clients that have made Scottsdale Gun Club the premier shooting range, training center, and gun store in Arizona, said Terry Schmidt, Owner and CEO of SGC.

Information on competitively priced memberships, rentals, firearms purchases, and training can be found at http://www.scottsdalegunclub.com.

The Scottsdale Gun Club, a prestigious indoor shooting range and firearms store is located in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA and recognized by the National Association of Shooting Ranges as a Five Star Facility. Scottsdale Gun Club owns and operates SGC|USA and SGC|Tactical. Like us on Facebook, . Follow us on Twitter and Instagram For more information, visit Scottsdale Gun Club or call 480.222.4341.
AGR Group, LLC, a leading provider of sales and support services to the retail energy industry, proudly announces the Grand Opening of its new East Coast Operations center, bringing over 600 jobs to St. Petersburg.

Elected officials, area business leaders and AGR Group clients gathered April 6 to officially launch the 50,000 square-foot facility. The event was hosted by the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce and its President, Chris Steinocher. Guest speakers included U.S. Congressman David Jolly, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, and Chief Executive Officer of the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, Brad Miller.

We are thrilled by the warm reception and enthusiastic support of our public officials and business community, AGR Group Co-Founder Matt Judkin said. Its an exciting day in the growth of our company, and a great example of public and private sectors working together to create opportunity for all.

A recurring theme during ceremonial remarks was job creation and the reduction of bureaucratic barriers. Congressman Jolly paid tribute to industry leaders such as AGR Group who support economic development and quality of life initiatives at all levels of employment. In recognition of the day, the Congressman presented Judkin with a United States flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol.

Mayor Kriseman spoke about St. Petersburg as the city of opportunity and noted that everyone should have an opportunity to have a life, to have a good life, to have a family, a career and noted that AGR Group was helping to provide that foundation for those seeking new opportunities.

Judkin closed the event by recognizing the efforts of local officials who helped facilitate the opening of the call center, including the placement of a new bus stop within easy walking distance.

Many of our employees are seeking a second chance, Judkin said. We are proud to offer them a place to start fresh and succeed on their own merits. Its very gratifying to have the support of our officials and business leaders in that effort, and we look forward to continuing as one of the biggest job creators in St. Petersburg.

About AGR Group: AGR Group, LLC, is a privately held sales and service organization founded in California. It operates call centers in St. Petersburg, FL., and Las Vegas. In addition to telecom services, AGR Group and its partner affiliates provide door-to-door energy sales, commercial energy brokerage and consultation, and lead generation and data services.
Device manufacturers are still working on UDI implementation, but the process brings up questions about compliance, the Global UDI Database and labeling and other device specific challenges.

USDM Life Sciences, the leading global professional services firm for Life Science and Healthcare organizations, is pleased to announce Jay Crowley will answer questions from medical device manufacturers about UDI compliance at this years UDI Conference.

Device manufacturers are still working on UDI implementation, but the process brings up questions about compliance, the Global UDI Database and labeling and other device specific challenges, said Crowley. Im looking forward to discussing the challenges and concerns of the medical device manufacturing community at the conference.

As Vice President of UDI Services and Solutions at USDM Life Sciences, Crowley and the team of USDM Life Sciences Professionals, help medical device manufacturers achieve regulatory compliance as well as internal benefits and competitive advantage with UDI implementation.

Crowley held various positions over nearly 27 years at the FDA. Most recently, he was Senior Advisor for Patient Safety, in the FDAs Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Crowley had primary responsibility for the development and implementation of the FDAs UDI system.

Meet with Jay Crowley and the USDM Life Sciences UDI Team



When: April 18-19, 2016

Where: Hilton Baltimore in Baltimore, MD

Booth: #8

About USDM Life Sciences:

USDM Life Sciences has more than 16 years of experience supplying clients in the life science and healthcare industries with compliance services while partnering with best of breed organizations to help companies simplify, unify and optimize their business and compliance objectives. USDM Life Sciences is a leading global regulatory consulting firm providing compliance, validation, qualification, quality, auditing and information technology services via project teams and staff augmentation to our clients in the medical device, biotechnology, biologics, diagnostics and pharmaceutical industries. For more information, please visit http://www.usdm.com.
Sagitec Solutions LLC (Sagitec), a leader in DB/DC pension administration software, will make its Neospin platform available for cross-border (Pan-European) pension administration. To launch their European strategy, Sagitec is pleased to announce its relationship with Global Pension Services BV. Global Pension Services (GPS) has been active in the pension market since 2014.

The two companies share a common goal: to provide a single solution for cross-border pension administration by leveraging Sagitecs proven technology. Although the legal vehicles for cross-border pensions have existed in the EU for many years, very few software solutions have emerged to address the Pan-European market. Sagitec and GPS believe the core problem has been the lack of a scalable platform, adaptable enough to serve the unique needs of cross-border pension administration.

The Neospin platform is extremely suitable for administering pension schemes, including DB, DC, and other hybrid forms. Moreover, the platform can easily be extended for pillar 3 and pillar 4 solutions and is offered as a SaaS solution. In addition, Neospin incorporates multi-lingual and multi-currency features.

With the introduction of Neospin, GPS will begin engaging pension administrators, insurers, asset management firms and multinationals with cross-border pension ambitions. The Neospin platform is also suitable for pension administrators with a purely national scope, due its customer-centric approach. With Neospin it is possible for pension administrators to communicate more effectively and with more flexibility to employers, employees, and other third party administrators. The platform also supports paperless communication and implements self-service through web portals and mobile apps.

We are delighted to enter the European market and collaborate with the GPSs team of knowledgeable experts. This step fits in our ambition to become the preferred global player in the field of pension administration software.  Piyush Jain, Senior Partner, Sagitec Solutions.

About Sagitec

Sagitec is a leading pension administration software provider with customers in the U.S., Canada, and Southeast Asia. Sagitecs software currently supports pension funds representing 3.5 million participants, 17,000 employers, and $USD 518 billion in assets.

Founded in 2004, Sagitec designs and delivers tailor-made pension, provident fund, and unemployment insurance software solutions to clients of all sizes. With broad industry experience, Sagitec helps customers achieve strategic business objectives, enhance service offerings, and lower operating costs.

About Global Pension Services

Global Pension Services is an innovative start-up organization established in 2014. It is led by a highly experienced team of professionals from the pension and life industry.

From the conviction that new technologies will enable a good and adequate pension administration, Global Pension Services strives to be the first and largest enabler of cross-border pension administration in Europe. Achieving this goal begins with the establishment of the right partnerships.

Find more information about Global Pension Services at http://www.globalpensionservices.eu, or contact:

Ger de Boer

ger(dot)de(dot)boer(at)globalpensionservices(dot)eu

Hubert Jan Lambooy

hubertjan(dot)lambooy(at)globalpensionservices(dot)eu

+31-631681078
ThreatMetrix, The Digital Identity Company, announced today that it is sponsoring the Digital Identity and Commerce Tour, a free, full-day summit on Tuesday, April 19 from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at Chicagos Hotel Palomar. Individuals of the payments and financial services community are invited to attend.

At the Digital Identity and Commerce Tour event, attendees will engage in a wide-range of sessions around the key trends and issues affecting payments and online fraud prevention. Industry professionals will gain insights on the issues impacting customer experience, including payments, fraud and security issues for digital commerce companies.

In todays increasingly digital environment, businesses must be able to identify and prevent fraud without creating added friction points to the customer experience, said Armen Najarian, CMO, ThreatMetrix. Were proud to be a sponsor of the Digital Identity and Commerce Tour and provide attendees with critical insights into how they can more intelligently curb fraud through real-time, behavior-based data.

Shannon Scott, Senior Manager of Risk & Payments at Austin-based uShip, an online marketplace for shipping services and ThreatMetrix customer, will be presenting at the Chicago event. Scott will discuss how, by leveraging global shared intelligence from the ThreatMetrix Digital Identity Network, uShip has better detected fraudulent transactions and malicious attacks, reduced fraud losses and maintained the uShip brand and reputation. Scotts presentation will take place from 1:30-2 p.m.

Additional sessions at the Chicago event include a keynote on FBI cybercrime enforcement, presentations on identity verification for digital commerce and a merchant panel discussion on fraud prevention.

Three additional tour stops have also been announced: New York City, May 19; Seattle, Sept. 13; and San Francisco, Sept. 15. Other sponsors of the tour include Whitepages Pro, Avalara, Vantiv and Episerver.

To learn more and register for the Digital Identity and Commerce Tour, click here.

About ThreatMetrix

ThreatMetrix, The Digital Identity Company, is the market-leading cloud solution for authenticating digital personas and transactions on the Internet. Verifying more than 20 billion annual transactions supporting 30,000 websites and 4,000 customers globally through the ThreatMetrix Digital Identity Network, ThreatMetrix secures businesses and end users against account takeover, payment fraud and fraudulent account registrations resulting from malware and data breaches. Key benefits include an improved customer experience, reduced friction, revenue gain, and lower fraud and operational costs. The ThreatMetrix solution is deployed across a variety of industries, including financial services, e-commerce, payments and lending, media, government, and insurance.

For more information, visit http://www.threatmetrix.com or call 1-408-200-5755. Join the cybersecurity conversation by visiting the ThreatMetrix blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages.

 2016 ThreatMetrix. All rights reserved. ThreatMetrix and the ThreatMetrix logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of ThreatMetrix in the United States and other countries. All other brand, service or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or owners.
Espiritus LLC announces that it has purchased a majority interest in Corner Creek Distillery Co., owner of the fast-growing Corner Creek Reserve Bourbon Whiskey, an 88-proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, distilled, aged, and bottled in Kentucky.

Corner Creek, aged in new American oak a minimum of four years is a blend of whiskeys up to eight years old. Smoothed to perfection with pure Kentucky limestone water, Corner Creek is produced in limited quantities only, due to the considerable amount of aged whiskey in the blend.

Espiritus CEO, spirits industry veteran Jay Maltby, co-founder and former Chairman of Angels Envy Bourbon, which was acquired by Bacardi last year, said, Corner Creek has many of the same qualities of Angel's Envy  great taste, distinctive package, and loyal customers. Most importantly, in a growing Bourbon market, it has a stock of mature Bourbon."

Corner Creek, founded in 1998, was a partnership of two long-time industry veterans, Ted Kraut, a successful brand-builder and holder of a number of industry executive sales positions, and Eliot Levin, former owner and publisher of Southern Beverage Journal. Ted, although no longer a shareholder, will consult to the company; Eliot will remain a significant shareholder and work closely with the Espiritus team.

Chuck Chand, Espiritus co-founder and COO, brings brand development experience from Brown-Forman and Group Danone. Corner Creek has the building blocks in place for breakout growth. Espiritus has a knowledgeable and experienced sales force which will build upon Corner Creeks strong foundation," Chand said.

As the Corner Creek brand grew, Eliot and Ted had the foresight to secure stocks of aged whiskey and began distilling and aging their own supply. Now, with Espiritus' resources, more whiskey can be laid away for even greater sales as well as special releases. Though Corner Creek has been in limited distribution, the aged whiskey along with maturing stock will enable the 15-strong sales force of Espiritus to complete Ted and Eliots vision for the brand, said Maltby.

Chand added, that the sales force was immediately struck by Corner Creeks Burgundy-style bottle, and noted the brand's philosophy is clearly stated on the back label: In the tradition of the great wine importers, we at Corner Creek search for the elusive few great barrels of prime American grain, and offer it to you in this limited bottling of Corner Creek Reserve Bourbon Whiskey.

The front label is an original drawing by noted artist William Nagle, one that brings back the good, relaxed feeling of sitting by the creek, listening to the rushing water while sipping a fine bourbon whiskey.

Espiritus is a sales and marketing platform for premium spirit brands with additional expertise in production, sourcing, logistics, packaging, and finance. The Espiritus portfolio includes the following brands: Corner Creek Reserve Bourbon Whiskey (http://www.cornercreekbourbon.com/), Blue Nectar Tequila (http://www.bluenectartequila.com/), The Lost Distillery Scottish Whisky Company (http://www.lost-distillery.com/), Purus Organic Wheat Italian Vodka (http://www.purusvodka.com/) and Virginia Distillery Company Highland Malt Whisky (http://vadistillery.com/).

For more information about this announcement, Espiritus LLC or Corner Creek Reserve Bourbon Whiskey, contact Sara Gorelick at sgorelick@colangelopr.com or 646-561-2241.
Momentum Solar Momentum Solar has so much to offer its customers and will go above and beyond to make solar a feasible option for New Jersey homeowners.

Momentum Solar (http://momentumsolar.com) finds it is beneficial to hold seminars for local communities to inform homeowners about solar programs they offer and educate them on renewable energy options. The home solar panel systems are advantageous for homeowners as they will provide monetary relief to them as well as tremendously reduce carbon emissions for our environment. Momentum will present topics such as discovering the benefits of solar power, find out if solar power is right for you, learn how to go solar with no out-of-pocket expenses and explain various at cost roofing repair options that the company offers.

The seminar also includes a Questions and Answers segment in a group setting. This allows attendees to learn more by listening to questions from other homeowners. In the end, the goal of the company is to spread their positive attitude and ability to move forward in the renewable energy market place. Momentum Solar will work with the local community in an effort to have them join on this endeavor.

We are looking forward to hosting this event and sharing the benefits of solar with local communities. Momentum Solar has so much to offer its customers and will go above and beyond to make solar a feasible option for New Jersey homeowners. Between our roofing repair options, tree removal assistance and the highest-quality solar systems it is our main priority to help homeowners generate energy at significantly lower rates than utility companies, said Andrew Bowen, Senior Solar Consultant.



About Momentum Solar

Momentum Solar is a privately held NJ solar energy company located in Edison. The company is committed to making solar panels affordable while providing immediate savings for their clients. Their team of in-house professionals has an extensive wealth of knowledge in custom designing solar systems for both residential and commercial properties. Momentum Solar takes care of the entire process including the design, permitting, and installation of the system to make the process simple and easy for homeowners.
"Callums deep expertise, long career in Asia and talent for innovation will enable us to improve our products and service for global markets clients and position us for growth." Robert Johnston, Eurasia Group CEO

We are pleased to announce that Callum Henderson, former Head of Foreign Exchange Research at Standard Chartered Bank, has joined Eurasia Group as Head of Global Markets Research, effective 18 April.

Initially based in London and thereafter in Washington, DC, Henderson will manage the Global Markets Research product for investor clients, ensuring client/market relevance for all Global Markets Research output, driving investor client research strategy and liaising between Business Development and Research on client outreach and marketing.

Callums deep expertise, long career in Asia and talent for innovation will enable us to improve our products and service for global markets clients and position us for growth, building on all of our collective success to date, said Eurasia Group CEO Robert Johnston. I am delighted to welcome him to the firm.

As Head of FX Research at Standard Chartered, Henderson was responsible for pioneering differentiated, client-type FX Research for hedge funds, real-money funds, central banks and corporates. Henderson's FX Research team received #1 rankings in subsequent Euromoney and Greenwich polls, including #1 globally for leveraged funds in the EMFX Research category in the 2014 Euromoney FX Poll, #2 globally for real-money funds in the same poll and #1 in North America for G10 FX Research, EMFX Research, Technical Analysis and Quantitative FX Research in the 2015 Euromoney FX Poll.

Prior to Standard Chartered, Henderson was Head of Emerging Market Research at Bank of America and an Emerging Market FX Strategist at Citigroup. He is the author of four books: Asia Falling, China on the Brink, Asian Dawn and Currency Strategy: The Practitioners Guide to Currency Investing, Hedging and Forecasting.

Henderson received an MA in Middle East Politics and Economics from the University of Exeter, a BA (Hons.) in French, Politics and Economics from the University of Sunderland and a DEF III in French Studies and Journalism from Tours University in France. (Full bio)

***

Eurasia Group is the worlds leading global political risk research and consulting firm. By providing information and insight on how political developments move markets, we help clients anticipate and respond to instability and opportunities everywhere they invest or do business. Founded in 1998, the firms name reveals its early focus on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, but today our research platform is global. Our analysts monitor political, economic, social, and security developments in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America. Headquartered in New York, we have offices in Washington, DC, and London, as well as on-the-ground experts and resources in more than a hundred countries. Our analysts are highly trained political scientists with extensive experience in the public and private sectors.

http://www.eurasiagroup.net

http://www.facebook.com/eurasiagroup

Twitter: @eurasiagroup
Merchants Choice Payment Solutions (MCPS), a top U.S. Merchant Acquirer and the leading platform provider for Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), announces the opening of their new 30,000 square foot operations center. The new facility, located in Shenandoah, Texas, will provide increased capacity for customer support and operating efficiencies. The new center boasts state of the art workstation design and operating technology.

Our new operations center underscores our commitment to our employees, sales partners and their merchants; it clearly sets us apart, said Todd Linden, President and Chief Executive Officer of MCPS . This facility will enable us to continue our objective of providing industry leading service quality, process automation, and leading edge products, says Linden.

About MCPS

Based in Shenandoah, Texas, Merchants Choice Payment Solutions (MCPS) is a full-service provider of debit and credit card processing. It is one of the top merchant acquirers in the U.S., delivering card processing services to more than 60,000 merchants and 1,000 bank locations in 17 states, processing over $14 billion in sales volume annually.

Contact

Merchants Choice Payment Solutions

Larry Jones, 281-895-5924

Senior Vice President, Sales
Tennessee-based BLR (Business & Legal Resources) has partnered with leading online training provider American Safety Council and the University of South Florida to offer trusted OSHA safety training to their compliance clients.

In partnership with the University of South Floridas OSHA Training Institute Education Center, American Safety Council provides OSHA-Authorized online training courses, including the 10-Hour and 30-Hour courses for both Construction and General Industry. These courses result in the issuance of an official U.S. Department of Labor OSHA 10-hour or 30-hour Outreach training card, which can only be issued by OSHA-Authorized online Outreach training providers. Outreach training is recommended by OSHA and is sometimes required by employers or local governments before starting work at jobsites where hazard training is vital.

The University of South Florida and American Safety Council have partnered to create 100% online, OSHA-Authorized Outreach training that is of the highest quality and effectiveness. Offering their proven training within the BLR services portfolio supports our mission of helping businesses attain OSHA standard compliance, said Rafael Cardoso, BLR Executive Vice President.

Online training is a great way to ensure consistent training for all employees, and the cost savings over other methods can be significant, while still delivering high-quality, highly effective training, said American Safety Council Vice President Andrew Reeve. We are proud that our courses were developed in partnership with the University of South Florida, and that our expertise in course development and delivery has resulted in training that is interactive, engaging, and broadly available to such a large audience of workers. Our partnership with BLR will enable more workers to access critical safety training that can save lives and reduce injuries in the workplace.

This new partnership allows BLRs expert compliance staff to offer a trusted, convenient and cost-effective workplace safety training to companies that have incorporated OSHA-Authorized Outreach training as part of their safety training curriculum. These companies will have access to employee training reporting systems and industry leading workplace safety training courses developed in partnership with a leading educational institution.

About BLR

Business & Legal Resources helps U.S. businesses simplify compliance with state and federal legal requirements. Expert in-house editors and an exclusive attorney network provide comprehensive, reliable state-specific information for businesses in all 50 states. Award-winning informational products  including training programs, events, web portals, reports and subscription services  give businesses of all sizes and industries the best tools available at affordable prices. For more information on their offerings, visit BLR.com.

About American Safety Council

American Safety Council, Inc. is a market leader in the engineering, authoring and delivery of e-Learning training solutions, including 10-hour and 30-hour OSHA-Authorized Outreach training, OSHA compliance certificate courses, HAZWOPER training, EM-385 training, fleet driver training, and state-approved driver improvement, defensive driving and driver education programs. For additional information about business partnerships, e-mail sales(at)amersc.com

About University of South Florida OTIEC

The University of South Florida OSHA Training Institute Education Center serves the Southeast and beyond, supporting the overall OSHA mission to reduce workplace accidents and injuries by training workers, employers and safety professionals on hazard recognition and avoidance. Currently, the USF OTIEC is the only institution of higher learning authorized by OSHA to deliver online occupational safety and health Outreach training to public and private sector workers, supervisors and employers.
Study.com's College Accelerator Dramatically Reduces Tuition Costs College is too expensive, and it doesnt have to be, says Adrian Ridner Co-founder and CEO of Study.com.

Frustrated by the skyrocketing costs of college tuition, innovative companies like JetBlue want more affordable options for helping employees earn a college degree. Alternative credit programs like Study.com are a fraction of the cost of a traditional college degreemaking it possible for companies to stretch their dollars further and cover more tuition costs for employees.

Our college assistance program, JetBlue Scholars, is opening new doors for crewmembers who want to earn a degree but face barriers like cost and family obligations while working full-time. Without partners like Study.com, our flexible, low-cost model simply couldnt work. Their coursework is great for self-directed learning. The bite-sized and engaging videos are ideal for our crewmembers who are always on the move, said Bonny Simi, founder of JetBlue Scholars.

The JetBlue Scholars program, which recently launched, currently has 400 crewmembers advancing towards their bachelors degrees. Coursework is completed online through Study.com or another partner and transferred to Thomas Edison State University. The first class is scheduled to complete curriculum requirements in May.

Alternative credit programs like Study.coms College Accelerator allow students to fulfill most of their degree requirements at an accelerated pace and at a lower cost than traditional degree programs. Students watch self-paced video lessons, earning credit on their own schedules. After students complete a course, Study.com helps them transfer credits to a specific partner school like Thomas Edison State University or one of 2,000 other schools. Students complete their final courses with the university that grants their degree.

College is too expensive, and it doesnt have to be, says Adrian Ridner Co-founder and CEO of Study.com. Since Study.coms College Accelerator is so affordable, employees can use the same employer-provided assistance to take more courses than they could at a traditional school. They can be on an accelerated college path while enjoying the flexibility of self-paced online courses.

Study.com is one of the largest providers of alternative college credit offering more than 50 college courses including: psychology, business, algebra, calculus, biology, US history, sociology and more. The self-paced, online courses consist of short, 5- to 10-minute, video lessons that can be watched on any mobile device for learning on the go. Credit from Study.com college courses is accepted by 2,000 colleges and universities.

About Study.com

Study.com is the simplest, most efficient way to earn college credit online. Over 25 million students a month use our online courses and study tools to master any subject. The website helps students in kindergarten through college excel academically and professionals gain the skills they need in the workplace. Study.coms animated videos bring concepts to life and provide an easy, low-cost way to improve grades, earn college credit and close skill gaps. Study.com was founded in 2002 and is a privately-held company located in Mountain View, California.

About JetBlue

JetBlue is New York's Hometown Airline and a leading carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, Los Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando and San Juan. JetBlue carries more than 32 million customers a year to 96 cities in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average of 900 daily flights. For more information, please visit JetBlue.com.

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Umbrella Project

Hillside Sedona, located at 671 State Route 179, Sedona, AZ is once again the site to display this years Umbrella Project Charity Event taking place from April 29th, 30th and May 1st.

Started in 1990 by Hilda Brown, the Umbrella Project is a 501c (3) nonprofit raising funds for various causes. In years past, proceeds from the sales of the umbrellas have been donated to victim charities such as the 2006 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2010 Haitian earthquake and the 2011 Eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami. Funds have also been donated to assist schools in need, nonprofit groups and organizations serving children around the world.

On April 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th students and chaperones from Verrado High School are traveling to the Havasupai trailhead and are hiking nine miles into the Havasupai Village. Once there the students will mentor students from Havasupai Elementary School. The students from Verrado High School will work with the elementary students to create thumbnail sketches that will eventually transferred and painted on to the umbrellas. Once completed, those umbrellas will be brought back to Sedona and placed on display during the event.

Basic umbrellas were also sent to schools all across Arizona and New York prior to this event and students there decorated them and returned them here to Arizona. Those umbrellas will also be on display starting April 29th. The general public can donate money for an umbrella and the money raised will go directly to this years beneficiary of Havasupai Elementary School. The school will use the donations to obtain classroom supplies and technology.

For more information on events, visit http://www.hillsidesedona.net/.

Hillside Sedona:

In 1986, Shirley Caris developed Hillside Sedona, bringing to it the spirit of nature, artistic qualities and the essence of the town she now called home. An upscale retail shopping center, Hillside Sedona is home to fine art galleries, unique boutiques, a variety of restaurants, locally owned shops and the event venue, The Bridge at Hillside. The popular Northern Arizona destination is filled with sites and attractions that are sources of inspiration to many. In a setting with a view of the Red Rocks that surround the property, Hillside Sedona also is a perfect destination location for photography. http://www.HillsideSedona.net

Media contact:

Christine Holtz

Phoenix Marketing Associates

602-282-0202

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Vertafore, the leader in modern insurance technology, will announce new integrated insurance and securities credentialing and compliance management technology from Sircon at two upcoming events. The new technology solutions will be unveiled in April and May at two major industry conferences  the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) Operations and Technology Conference and the FINRA Annual Conference.

Sircon has helped improve regulatory compliance and drive distribution efficiency for insurance and securities firms for over 20 years. With this expansion, Sircon solutions will deliver a more connected approach to compliance management.

These new innovations are the natural progression of our vision to help create a faster, more compliant financial services industry, said Tim Owen, vice president of product management at Vertafore.

Specific details on this new technology will be presented during two major financial services events in the second quarter of 2016:

IRI Operations & Technology Conference 2016

This is the premiere forum for operations and technology within the annuity industry, being held April 25 - 27 at the Westin Riverwalk in San Antonio, TX.

2016 FINRA Annual Conference

This conference is held May 23 - 25 at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC. This event aims to get the latest regulatory updates from FINRA and other regulators, gain new perspectives from leading industry practitioners, and network with regulators and peers.

The IRI Ops & Tech and FINRA Annual Conference events are the perfect venues for debuting our new technology solutions, said Doug Vincens, senior product manager at Vertafore. We are very excited to discuss how these new capabilities can help securities firms and insurance companies improve their business.

At each conference, attendees will get a chance to preview the new technology, provide feedback, and talk directly with Vertafore product, marketing, and executive staff. Vertafore invites all conference attendees to visit its exhibit booth to find out more about these breakthrough technology solutions.

About Vertafore

Vertafore offers the broadest and most adaptable technology solutions to better prepare the insurance industry for digital disruption. The Vertafore product line is built on a platform, empowering customers and other solution providers to adapt and thrive as the market changes. Vertafores platform features fast innovation, partnerships with the best technology companies, and customizable solutions to help companies remain independent during a time of industry disruption. As the leader in modern insurance technology with the largest customer base in the industry, Vertafore connects every point of the distribution channel, from agencies and carriers to MGAs, MGUs, and state governments. For more information about Vertafore, visit http://www.vertafore.com, read the companys blog, and follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

 2016 Vertafore Inc., Vertafore, Sircon, and the Vertafore logo are trademarks of Vertafore and its subsidiaries. All other marks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
Mark A. Trewitts new book, Integrated Generosity For Faith Based Families, ($31.99, paperback, 9781498445603) is directed at maximizing the immediate and long-term benefit of government tax incentives available through strategic charitable giving, and outlines a highly effective process that begins with optimizing tax reduction strategies. Readers will learn about opportunities to redirect income and estate taxes, referred to in the book as Involuntary Philanthropy, toward the more impactful endpoints of Intentional Stewardship toward family and Directed Generosity toward the causes important to them.

Insight provided into prudent methods of unleashing Kingdom giving and generosity are the result of the authors heart for Christian ministry, as well as a career of over thirty years of experience in financial services. The concepts described can advance a familys transition from worldly measures of success and wealth to greater significance in making an eternal difference  and so much more! If you are concerned whether what you are doing today will maximize your impact for the Kingdom  while leaving a lasting impact for family and charity when you are gone  this book is a must-read guide for you!

The author states, By applying the Planning Precepts found in Integrated Generosity, readers will be able to LIVE more, LOVE more, GIVE more, and LEAVE more!

As a first time author, Trewitt was blessed with contributed manuscript content from a number of significant Christian leaders in the arena of Kingdom Generosity, and humbled by the volume and quality of endorsements received from early reviews, including the following:

"Integrated Generosity joins the power of biblical truth and stewardship with the practicalities of modern wealth management and Kingdom-oriented impact giving and philanthropy. In this book  and, its suggestions  you will certainly be challenged with fresh thinking and workable strategies that are both innovative and tested. - Bob Shank, Founder/CEO of The Master's Program.

In addition to Bob Shanks powerful Foreword and a closing chapter titled, The Gospel of the Kingdom, the manuscript also includes contributed chapters from David Wills, President of the National Christian Foundation, Todd Harper, President of Generous Giving, Steve Kaloper, Founder/CEO of Development Services Group and Aimee Minnich, Co-Founder/General Counsel of the Impact Investing Foundation.

Mark A. Trewitt holds professional designations of: CHARTERED ADVISOR IN PHILANTHROPY, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER, CHARTERED LIFE UNDERWRITER, CHARTERED FINANCIAL CONSULTANT, and ACCREDITED ESTATE PLANNER. He is a member of the North Texas Chapter of the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning, and has served on the Generosity Council for the National Christian Foundation of North Texas. Mark presently serves as the Managing Director and Co-Chairman of the DFW chapter of The Barnabas Group, which was launched under his leadership in 2014.

Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 15,000 titles published to date. Retailers may order Integrated Generosity For Faith Based Families through Ingram Book Company and/or Spring Arbor Book Distributors. The book is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

Media Contact: Mark A. Trewitt, CFP, CLU, ChFC, AEP

Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy

Email: mark@integratedgnerosity.com

Website: http://www.integratedgenerosity.com
Chris Vernald Chris has an incredible gift for making even the most challenged financial deals come together, helping countless clients in all walks of life.

Chicago, Illinois -- Urban Real Estate (Urban) has named real estate broker Chris Vernald partner to the Chicago-based brokerage.

Mr. Vernald joined Urban in January 2012, and has made the most positive impression on his colleagues and clients since the moment he came into the industry. Consistently ranked a top producer, Chris has made it his business to learn the intricacies of the transaction, helping to better anticipate his clients needs and foresee the pitfalls before they arise.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduate earned his B.S. in Finance. Prior to entering real estate, Chris was an executive selling financing to high-level managers at car dealerships across the country. His expertise in creatively structuring a deal tailored to a clients situation is at the core of what makes Chris unique, ensuring clients get the very best terms they can see to fruition long-term.

Matt Farrell, managing partner at Urban Real Estate, welcomes the firms new partner and says, Chris Vernald brings passion and compassion to the forefront of all he does. He has an incredible gift for making even the most challenged financial deals come together, and has helped countless clients in all walks of life. It is really a privilege to bring his experience to our management team.

I couldnt ask for a better group to work with and I am pleased to be joining the phenomenal leadership at Urban, Chris Vernald says. We have a tremendous group of agents with the most diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and talents. Developing new ways to support their growth and seeing them better serve their clients is what makes Chicagos Urban a sensational brokerage to be at.

Senior partner Michael Emery adds, Chris has an infectious energy that will make our group even better. He is a people person who is process-oriented, but still stops to ask the questions that others in the room might miss. It is our honor to bring this stellar professional onboard as partner.

About Urban Real Estate:

Urban Real Estate is a full-service brokerage focused on integrating the most cutting-edge technology with the best of real estate to better serve its clients and agents. Broker areas of expertise include serving the downtown Chicago, north shore and western suburbs in residential sales and leasing. Urban brokers also focus on investment sales and portfolio management, luxury sales, distressed/short sales and working with international clients. For more visit us at http://www.urbanrealestate.com
TexTrace AG, a pioneer in advanced technology for the apparel industry, has partnered with RFID system integrator Eximia Srl to develop a revolutionary mobile brand protection solution powered by radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

The complete eBrand business solution for brand protection allows fashion brands to securely verify the authenticity of their products throughout the worldwide supply chain, protecting their customers and their reputation from counterfeits and grey markets. This end-to-end product authentication solution blends TexTraces expertise in the design and manufacture of woven RFID brand labels, with sophisticated algorithms and mobile system integration know-how from Eximia.

TexTrace discreetly incorporates RFID technology into woven brand labels with a genuine look and feel, which are shipped directly to fashion brand manufacturers for source tagging. Each label is encoded with a proprietary algorithm including a unique identification code, which can be easily checked and verified with the eBrand mobile app via the secure Eximia authentication server.

The unique, end-to-end eBrand business solution is made possible by the collaboration of two RFID pioneers in the fashion industry, TexTrace and Eximia, said Sybille Korrodi, Head of Marketing, TexTrace. With the TexTrace woven RFID brand label fully integrated into apparel and accessory items, brands and their retail clients can rest assured that they are protected from unauthorized resellers and return fraud.

eBrand is the most advanced brand protection solution available combining RFID technology and mobile applications to address the global fashion industrys very real concerns over product authentication, said Mario di Floriano, CEO, Eximia. Quick and simple product authentication enables distributors and brand owners to verify without a doubt that branded products are authentic, distributed through authorized channels and sold in the right stores.

To learn more about the leading-edge eBrand protection solution, visit TexTrace and Eximia at Booth #B3 at the IT4Fashion conference and exhibition in Florence, Italy, April 20-22, 2016.

About Eximia

Eximias RFID solutions are the result of the integration of complex components aimed at delivering the best possible result, related to the sector and to the type of application. Eximia provides products, applications and solutions with an end-to-end approach, partnering with leading companies in the RFID and ICT industry. Visit http://www.eximia.it to learn more.

About TexTrace

TexTrace designs and manufactures reliable, high-quality woven RFID brand labels to match the look and feel of our customers brands. Consulting and services complete our offering, and high-end brands rely on full support from TexTrace to realize their RFID vision. Our know-how in integrating electronics into textile is unique, with our leading proprietary technology protected by more than ten patents and trademarks. Brand labels with built-in RFID are an all-in-one solution for product branding, brand and theft protection, customer experience and omni-channel retailing. For more information, visit: http://www.textrace.com.
These events highlight the tremendous oral health need in California and its an incredible feeling to know that we are able to help nearly 1,900 people in just two days.

The California Dental Association Foundations volunteer dental clinic, CDA Cares, provided $1.5 million in charitable dental services to 1,884 people during the April 16-17 event at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

In addition to providing dental services at no charge to Californians who experience barriers to care, CDA Cares educates the public and policymakers about the importance of good oral health and the need for an adequately funded dental safety net, which includes a well-functioning Denti-Cal program.

These events highlight the tremendous oral health need in California and its an incredible feeling to know that we are able to help nearly 1,900 people in just two days, said CDA President Ken Wallis, DDS. CDA is always looking for ways to improve access to care, and one of the things were doing this year is sponsoring a ballot measure to raise the states tobacco tax, which will support health care programs, save Californians billions of dollars and save thousands of lives.

While final numbers are still being tallied, preliminary estimates indicate more than 1,600 tooth extractions were necessary at CDA Cares in Ventura  a sad statistic, since dental disease is preventable.

During the two-day event, dentists and dental professionals provided 11,583 dental procedures, including fillings, extractions, cleanings and oral health education. Volunteer technicians in the clinics dental lab area worked to provide 188 complete and partial dentures and repairs.

Its a great feeling to know youve helped someone by relieving their pain or infection. Patients hug us and leave smiling because they were able to get the help they needed, said Jean Creasey, DDS, chair of the CDA Foundation. This event was a huge success and we wouldnt be able to host these events without the support of local volunteers and sponsors. We appreciate all the help we received from the Ventura community.

More than 1,400 volunteers donated their time and services at the event, including 750 health professionals  dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, nurses and lab technicians  as well as hundreds of community volunteers who assisted with registration, translation, data entry and escorting patients.

The California Dental Association Foundation is planning another CDA Cares event this year in Stockton Oct. 15-16.

For information about CDA Cares or to register to volunteer, visit cdafoundation.org.

About the California Dental Association Foundation

The CDA Foundation was formed as the philanthropic arm of the California Dental Association in 2001 with the mission to improve the oral health of all Californians by supporting the dental health profession in its efforts to meet community needs. The CDA Foundation provides grants and scholarships to dental students and professionals, promotes oral health prevention and education, and holds dental clinics around the state that provide dental care at no charge to Californians in need.
Dr. Nakul Karkare, New York Orthopaedic Surgeon

Dr. Nakul Karkare, a leading orthopaedic surgeon just performed minimally invasive hip replacement surgery on a Canadian citizen who was placed on at least a twelve month waiting list for his surgery back home. Manny, a retired engineer in his sixties has suffered with the pain of osteoarthritis for more than a year, says Dr. Karkare, who is a joint replacement specialist. Mannys doctors treated him with cortisone injections and physical therapy, with no improvement. His condition deteriorated and he finally decided to travel to New York City to undergo hip replacement rather than waiting any longer for his surgery to be done.

My quality of life was reduced to almost nothing, says Manny. I couldn't perform any of the daily functions that a normal person could possibly do, and everything was very restrictive. The reason I came to the United States to get the surgery done in the first place was because of the wait time in Canada it would be a year and a half. Where here in the U.S.,within a month my surgery was completed.

Dr. Karkare performed minimally invasive hip replacement surgery on Mannys left hip, and Manny was be able to stand up and walk with a walker the same day of his surgery. He was walking pain free with no limp a week after the surgery, says Dr. Karkare. Most patients recover rapidly with todays advanced techniques, and Manny will be able to return to Canada after a few days. He can return to normal activities much sooner than if he had waited for the surgery scheduling process to run its course back home.

The day after y surgery, I was walking with a little bit of assistance from a cane, says Manny. One week after surgery, I'm walking pain free. I no longer have the limp, and the pain is completely gone.

Although traumatic injury can cause some types of hip pain, most hip replacements are necessitated by normal wear-and-tear that then led to osteoarthritis in the joint, says Dr. Karkare.

For more information on the latest advances in hip replacement and knee replacement surgery including anterior approach hip replacement, robot-assisted surgery and custom knee replacement visit http://www.newyorkhipknee.com and call 212.951-0182.

Dr Nakul V. Karkare is a board certified orthopaedic surgeon highly specialized in limb reconstruction and joint replacement surgery. He has operating privileges at Lenox Hill Hospital, Winthrop Hospital, St Charles Hospital, St. Catherine Hospital, Mather Hospital, Syosett Hospital, and Peconic Bay Medical Center. Dr. Karkare also serves on an FDA advisory board, under the Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Device Panel and operates seven clinics throughout Long Island and New York City.
Joan Chen is "Sky"

In the lead up to Earth Day, Conservation International (CI) debuts a new short film Sky, voiced by Joan Chen, the newest addition to its award-winning short film series Nature Is Speaking. Sky debuts as country leaders from around the world come together to sign the Paris climate agreement negotiated this past December.

We are pushing the Earths climate to its limits, Chen said. Climate change is drastically altering our planet, threatening not only the nature people rely on, but also people themselves.

Climate projections predict an increase in extreme events, changes in precipitation and seasons, more frequent and intense heat waves and droughts, melting glaciers, sea-level rise and ocean acidification. These changes threaten economies, global security, livelihoods and lives.

Consider:



2016 is projected to the be the warmest year on record  in 2015 the average global temperature was 0.9C above pre-industrial levels;

If emissions continue unabated, Antarctic ice melt could raise sea levels more than three feet by the end of the century;

Extreme storms, like the cyclone that recently hit Fiji, have become more frequent.

As nations meet to sign the U.N. Paris agreement this week, its clearer than ever that the time to take action on climate change is now  for the sake of the sky and for the sake of humankind, said Shyla Raghav, director of climate policy at CI.

Sky expresses the sentiments of our atmosphere as it takes in more and more carbon emissions. Pulling this planet-warming carbon out of the atmosphere and reducing emissions can help mitigate climate change. Recent data indicate that protecting forests can provide up to 30% of the carbon emissions reductions and storage to avert the worst effects of climate change. Furthermore, the largely unheralded potential of blue carbon  the carbon that is sequestered in coastal ecosystems such as mangroves  could provide even more. These solutions also provide many benefits to communities including protecting coastlines as well as food and freshwater supplies.

CI launched the Nature Is Speaking campaign in September 2014. The series includes films narrated by nature in the voices of the biggest names in Hollywood including Penelope Cruz, Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Lupita Nyong'o, Edward Norton, Lee Pace, Robert Redford, Julia Roberts, Ian Somerhalder, Kevin Spacey and Reese Witherspoon. The films have been viewed more than 49 million times across 40 countries in 10 languages, garnering more than 2.3 billion total impressions.

"Sky" is available to view and embed at natureisspeaking.org.

The "Nature Is Speaking" newsroom contains additional content and contacts for media at http://www.natureisspeaking.org/newsroom.

Images for media use*: https://ci.tandemvault.com/lightboxes/DB3jvwLAz?t=4lWdcM2hZ

More information on CIs climate resilience work is available here.

About the Nature Is Speaking campaign

Conservation International developed the Nature Is Speaking video series with MAL\FOR GOOD under the creative direction of Lee Clow. The videos have garnered more than 2.2 billion impressions and more than 48 million video views from exposure in more than 33 countries and have raised millions of dollars for conservation. "The Ocean," voiced by Harrison Ford, earned a coveted Cannes Gold Lion award in 2014.

About Conservation International

Conservation International (CI) uses an innovative blend of science, policy and partnerships to protect the nature people rely on for food, fresh water, and livelihoods. Founded in 1987, CI works in more than 30 countries on six continents to ensure a healthy, prosperous planet that supports us all. Learn more about CI and follow our work on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

*By downloading these images you agree to the following licensing terms and conditions: CI grants to you, and your employer if you are acting on behalf of your employer, a royalty-free license to download images for one-time editorial use in coverage of CI. The downloaded assets may not be used for commercial, advertising or other revenue generating purposes without express written permission of CI. Credit information is provided in asset metadata under copyright line.
The American Association for Physician Leadership announces two new leaders of its board of directors have been elected by the board and three accomplished physician leaders have been elected by the membership to join its board of directors. The announcements came April 15, 2016, during the associations annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

2016-17 officers:



Napoleon Knight, MD, MBA, CPE, FAAPL, was confirmed by the board of directors as chair. Knight is medical director of the Rural Alliance for Healthcare Excellence at Carle Health System, Urbana, Illinois. He also serves as the department head of emergency medicine at Crawford Memorial Hospital in Robinson, Illinois, provides administrative oversight for the emergency physicians and hospitalist physicians at Kirby Medical Center in Monticello, Illinois, and works with the Carle Strategic Business Development Division and the organizations strategic regional partners. He earned his MD from the University of Minnesota Medical School and MBA from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

William Casperson, MD, FACS, CPE, FAAPL, was confirmed by the board of directors as vice chair. Casperson is vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at the Memorial Hospital Network in Belleville, Illinois. He previously served as chief medical officer at St. Elizabeth Hospital, Belleville, and as a general surgeon with Belleville-based Lincoln Surgical Group, of which he was founding partner. He earned his MD from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield and did his residency at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.

The new board members:

Mark C. Lester, MD, MBA, CPE, FAANS, FACS, FACPE, is executive vice president and southeast zone clinical leader for Texas Health Resources based in Arlington, Texas. He previously served as interim chief quality officer at Texas Health Resources and vice president and chief quality officer at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas. He was also chief medical officer at Ascension Healths St. Marys of Michigan in Saginaw, Michigan, and was chief of neurological surgery and vice chair of surgery at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He earned his MD from the University of Pittsburgh and completed his residency in neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania. He earned his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Howard A. Shaw, MD, MBA, CPE, FACOG, FACHE, FAAPL, is chief medical officer at Great Plains Health in North Platte, Nebraska. He previously was medical director of womens and childrens services at Yale-New Haven Hospital, St. Raphael campus, in New Haven, Connecticut. He also served as chairman of womens and childrens services at the Hospital of Saint Raphael, New Haven, and as chairman and director of obstetrics and gynecology at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. He earned his MD from the University of Kansas and his MBA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Albert Tzeel, MD, MHSA, CPE, FAAPL, is regional medical director for senior products in north Florida for Louisville, Kentucky-based insurer Humana. He previously served as national medical director for HumanaOne in Wisconsin and as Humanas market medical officer for Wisconsin and Michigan. He earned his MD from the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and masters in health services administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor. He also earned a certificate in health care informatics from Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

We are pleased to have this talented group of physicians add to the strength of our board, said Peter Angood, MD, FRCS(C), FACS, MCCM, president and CEO of the association. This election continues to reinforce our goal of having the many skills represented within health care reflected in our board.

The board of directors is made up of fellows or distinguished fellows of the association or members attaining a masters degree with an association partner university. Candidates are nominated by their peers. A slate of candidates is brought before the membership in an online election in the first quarter of the year. Board members serve four-year terms.

###

About the American Association for Physician Leadership

The American Association for Physician Leadership is the preeminent U.S.-based organization for physician leaders worldwide. The association, formerly known as the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE), serves physicians at all stages of their careers through leadership education, career support and policy advocacy. Since its founding in 1975, it has grown to more than 11,000 members, including CEOs, chief medical officers and other top leaders. They hail from 47 nations worldwide. The association is known for its award-winning bi-monthly magazine, PLJ, and its other publications as well as for world-class leadership education, available to member and nonmember physicians. Its continuing medical education (CME) courses, offered online and at live conferences, can be applied to advanced degrees and certifications and are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). Learn more online at physicianleaders.org, by email at info(at)physicianleaders(dot)org, on Twitter at @physicianslead or call 800-562-8088.

Contact:

Simone Rose Leite

Executive Assistant to the CEO

sleite(at)physicianleaders(dot)org

American Association for Physician Leadership

400 North Ashley Drive

Tampa, Florida, 33602

800-562-8088

info(at)physicianleaders(dot)org
With nearly 100 colleges nationwide offering guaranteed credit transfer pathways from StraighterLine, our affordable courses are tested and trusted.

StraighterLine, the fastest-growing provider of alternative academic credit, is pleased to announce its 60 courses will be made available to participating JetBlue Scholars. These courses are guaranteed to transfer to StraighterLine partner college, Thomas Edison State University, the launch college partner in the JetBlue Scholars program.

JetBlue Scholars is an innovative new program that offers JetBlue crewmembers an opportunity to earn a fully accredited college degree, with JetBlue covering most of the cost.

JetBlue Scholars is opening new doors for crewmembers who want to earn a degree but face barriers like cost and family obligations while working full-time. The JetBlue Scholars model allows crewmembers to focus on just learning by removing the complexity and cost. With the help of partners like StraighterLine, crewmembers are able to finish their coursework while also working full-time. StraighterLines courses are ideal because they come all inclusive, complete with e-books and self-contained learning modules and exams, said Bonny Simi, head of JetBlue Scholars.

With nearly 100 colleges nationwide offering guaranteed credit transfer pathways from StraighterLine, our affordable courses are tested and trusted, said Burck Smith, StraighterLine CEO and founder. Whats more, research shows that students who start with StraighterLine and then enroll at a college are more likely to complete their degree than students who didnt start with StraighterLine.

Benefits of StraighterLine include:

Best-in-Class Courseware

 StraighterLine uses best-in-class courseware from a mix of providers, including: McGraw-Hill, Rosetta Stone and Acrobatiq  formerly part of Carnegie Mellon University -- and others

 Live online tutoring services from SMARTHINKING

 Anti-plagiarism software from TurnitIn

 Online proctoring from ProctorU

 Psychometrically valid and reliable exams built by Council for Aid to Education (CAE)

Low-Risk Pricing Model

 StraighterLine offers students the freedom to move at their own pace when learning online

 Each course is available for purchase with a $99 StraighterLine monthly membership and can be started the same day a student enrolls

 Subscription can be cancelled or paused at any time

 Students can start with a free trial

About JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU)

JetBlue is New York's Hometown Airline and a leading carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, Los Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando and San Juan. JetBlue carries more than 32 million customers a year to 96 cities in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average of 900 daily flights. For more information, please visit JetBlue.com.

About StraighterLine

StraighterLine combines a $99 a month course subscription with guaranteed credit pathways to accredited degree programs to save students up to 60% on the total cost of their degree.

StraighterLine takes the worry out of credit transfer with a College Savings Network of nearly 100 accredited colleges that guarantee acceptance of StraighterLine courses.

Having also been evaluated and recommended by the American Council on Educations College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE CREDIT), StraighterLine courses will also be considered by more than 2,000 other colleges and universities for transfer to their degree programs upon request.

Media Contact

Beth Dumbauld

bdumbauld(at)straighterline(dot)com

443.712.7132
One More Generation Anybody can make a difference . . . if we can, you can too.

"Anybody can make a difference . . . if we can, you can too." That was the message that Carter and Olivia Ries conveyed at each of the six talks they gave to students and adults alike during their visit to Fredericksburg, Virginia, as part of Marstel-Day's #StandwithWildlife campaign.

Carter and Olivia started One More Generation (OMG) in 2009, when they were eight- and seven-years-old, respectively, to "ensure the wellbeing of our planet for at least One More Generation . . . and beyond." At the various schools, they discussed the devastating impact of plastic pollution on the environment and how students can help preserve habitat and wildlife for at least one more generation.

Marstel-Day CEO Rebecca Rubin wanted to ensure that the OMG message reached a broad audience and that local students would get an opportunity to learn about the work that OMG was doing. As a result, Marstel-Day coordinated visits to two Courtland High School, Riverbend High School), Hugh Mercer Elementary School, and the Stafford Junction Brain Builders program at Ferry Farm Elementary School.

By the end of their three-day visit, Olivia and Carter had spoken to over 1,200 students ranging from kindergartners to seniors in high school, as well as professionals and community members. They shared how their concern over the plight of endangered species inspired them to start OMG, and how they did not let age stop them from pursuing this goal. Olivia and Carter highlighted issues such as plastics pollution, specifically straws and plastic bags, and other threats facing endangered species.

Marstel-Day's #StandwithWildlife speaker series spotlights issues facing wildlife today and what individuals can do to help and when possible, partners with local schools.

Visit Marstel-Day.com to watch videos of past #StandWithWildlife campaign presentations on conservation topics that include the illegal wildlife trade, plastics polluting the oceans, and reconnecting children with nature.

About Marstel-Day

Marstel-Day, LLC, is an environmental and conservation consulting firm that provides climate and water risk analysis and mitigation, land-use and encroachment management, sustainability management, renewable energy planning, and natural resource services. Follow #StandwithWildlife on Twitter @marstelday, and watch previous events on video at http://www.marstel-day.com/media/stand-with-wildlife/.
Adam McMullin (left), Chairman & CEO, and Trey Lauderdale, Founder & President of Voalte Im thrilled to be joining a company that delivers life-changing communication, safety and productivity solutions for the healthcare enterprise, at such a pivotal moment in Voaltes growth, said McMullin.

Voalte, the leader in healthcare communication technology, today announced the company has appointed Adam McMullin as chairman and chief executive officer. McMullin will work closely with Founder and President Trey Lauderdale to continue his vision and enable the company to continue its momentum and growth. The company recently announced the addition of 125 hospitals to its customer base, an 83 percent increase in FY2016.

Adam McMullin brings a wealth of healthcare IT experience, as well as a background in building high performance teams, improving customer satisfaction, and enhancing organizational culture to Voalte. He has had repeated success with growing organizations and launching innovative solutions, while implementing operating rigor.

Adam is a phenomenal choice to lead Voalte as we embark on the next phase of growth for the company, said Trey Lauderdale, president, Voalte. He and I are aligned in our vision for the future and share a deep passion for the healthcare field that will propel the company as we continue to create life-changing healthcare communication tools. Adam will fit in well with our passionate and talented team as we work together to reimagine healthcare communication to bridge the gap between technology and care.

Prior to joining Voalte, McMullin led Hill-Roms Clinical Workflow Solutions business where he defined and initiated a new growth strategy, built a new leadership team, acquired and integrated a complementary business, and dramatically increased revenue, earnings and customer satisfaction over a five year period. He also transformed the sales and services organizations and implemented an improved new product development process. Prior to serving as the general manager, McMullin held various vice president positions for Hill-Rom including vice president marketing for IT solutions and vice president consulting and business development.

Im thrilled to be joining a company that delivers life-changing communication, safety and productivity solutions for the healthcare enterprise, at such a pivotal moment in Voaltes growth, said McMullin. Im inspired by the companys vision to be the market leading clinical communication solutions business that meaningfully improves patient outcomes, operational performance and the human experience. The recent significant increase in customer wins demonstrates the markets need for this important technology. I look forward to working closely with the team to create new opportunities for business success as we take the business to the next level.

Previously, McMullin spent more than 10 years in various management roles at IBM, having last served as principal consumer electronics and digital media. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Georgia.

About Voalte

Voalte develops smartphone solutions that simplify caregiver communication. As the only company to offer a comprehensive Mobile Communication Strategy, Voalte enables care teams inside and outside the hospital to access and exchange information securely. Voalte customers benefit from a solid smartphone infrastructure that supports their existing systems and expands to accommodate future technologies.

Founded in 2008, Voalte is a privately held company based in Sarasota, Florida. Voalte solutions are now available to more than 132,000 caregivers throughout the United States. For more information, visit voalte.com or follow @Voalte on Twitter.
Joseph (Joe) Richardson, President and CEO, The Auto Club Group We are a people-oriented business, and I am committed to investing in our employees, products, service delivery and communications in a way that meets the changing needs of our members, who are the lifeblood of our organization.

The revolving door of corporate leadership that is often the norm in todays business world is not the case at AAA  The Auto Club Group (ACG), the second largest AAA Club in North America, serving over 9 million members across its total territory. Joseph (Joe) J. Richardson Jr. was elected by ACGs board of directors and has stepped into the drivers seat as President and Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Charles (Chuck) H. Podowski who recently retired after a successful 17-year career.

The leadership change comes as the super-regional auto club and insurance enterprise celebrates one of its most successful years and its upcoming 100th anniversary of AAA in Michigan and Tennessee.

I am honored to have been given this opportunity to build on a solid foundation of success, said Richardson. We are a people-oriented business, and I am committed to investing in our employees, products, service delivery and communications in a way that meets the changing needs of our members, who are the lifeblood of our organization.

In a strategic effort to ensure a smooth leadership change, a seamless transition was planned and executed over the past nine months during which Richardson worked side-by-side with Podowski and other senior officers to understand the companys values, priorities and business practices. Town hall meetings were held across the companys 11-state territory as a way to help him get acquainted with ACGs more than 8,000 employees. Richardson gradually assumed responsibilities for all business lines and departments within the organization.

Richardson is a third generation insurance executive who brings more than 30 years of experience in the property and casualty insurance, life insurance, financial services and roadside assistance industries. He has worked in multiple senior executive positions with Allstate Insurance Company and Farmers Insurance Group. Richardson most recently served as President and Head of Distribution for Farmers where he led countrywide strategy and field operations and expanded the Farmers brand into new markets. Prior to his position at Farmers, he held the position of Executive Vice President at Allstate. He earned a B.A. at Temple University and he is a graduate fellow of the advanced executive program at Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management.

Richardson serves on the boards of directors of Business Leaders for Michigan, Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) Presidents Council and the Henry Ford Health System. He is married and has four children.

About The Auto Club Group

The Auto Club Group (ACG) is the second largest AAA club in North America. ACG and its affiliates provide membership, travel, insurance and financial services offerings to over 9 million members across eleven states and two U.S. territories including Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; most of Illinois and Minnesota; and a portion of Indiana. ACG belongs to the national AAA federation with more than 56 million members in the United States and Canada and whose mission includes protecting and advancing freedom of mobility and improving traffic safety.
Bad Rhino Inc As our client base grows and our team expands we needed to bring more in house experts and our office needs changed. We look forward to expanding and hiring in 2016 President/CoFounder Rich DeMatteo

Social media marketing agency, Bad Rhino, has announced the official move of the company into a new office in West Chester, PA in October 2015. The company needed the move to expand its capabilities in providing exceptional service to clients.

Bad Rhino is a Marketing Agency, focused on Social Media Marketing. Bad Rhino starts with analyzing clients current needs and reviews the performance of their current marketing and competitors. From there, Bad Rhino develops the most most effective strategy to engage customers.

It was the right time to move to a larger office as we look to expand, West Chester offered the right location and the perfect office space, said CEO/CoFounder Marty McDonald

As our client base grows and our team expands we needed to bring more in house experts and our office needs changed. We look forward to expanding and hiring in 2016, said President/CoFounder Rich DeMatteo

Along with Social Media, Bad Rhino is all well-versed in SEO and other Internet Marketing strategies. The company demonstrates its expertise through its own content-packed blog (http://www.badrhinoinc.com/blog). Bad Rhino employs its own team of blogging experts to keep the information flowing. Visitors can browse the archives or contact the company if interested in contributing.

Bad Rhino continues to offer these services while making efforts to grow its team and broaden its influence. Operating out of a new office in West Chester, PA, the company can be found online at http://www.badrhinoinc.com.

About Bad Rhino

Bad Rhino is a service-based social media marketing firm that helps clients succeed in social media channels by focusing on engagement, innovation, and creative content. The company helps clients identify the most useful social channels for their business and build an online presence by engaging the right audience at the right time. Numerous other marketing services such as SEO, blog management, promotions, and training are provided.
Dr. Randolph C. Robinson Helping patients lead normal lives who have suffered severe facial deformities is an opportunity to show Gods love.

Dr. Robinson, a top Denver cosmetic, oral and maxillofacial surgeon, was interviewed for TLC's Two in a Million regarding his patient Austin. The series introduces two people with the same rare medical condition and documents their individual journeys, including their meeting, visits with doctors, and their unique life questions. Austin's episode, "A Face Like Mine," airs this Wednesday, April 20, 2016, at 10pm EST on TLC.

Austin has faced the challenges of Goldenhar syndrome. He has undergone multiple surgeries including a bone graft, distraction osteogenesis (bone lengthening), and other reconstructive surgeries such as hearing aids (bone-anchored hearing aid or BAHA) and ear prosthesis. Dr. Robinson has the opportunity of treating patients with Goldenhar syndrome, like Austin. He was asked for his expertise regarding the condition, its complexities, and various treatments and techniques used to correct severe craniofacial deformities.

Goldenhar syndrome is a congenital defect that causes incomplete development of facial features such as the ear, nose, lips, and other soft tissue and bone structures. Maurice Goldenhar described the syndrome in the mid-1900s. The syndrome is a form of hemifacial microsomia, which is a brachial arch developmental deformity, that occurs in 1 out of 25,000 persons and in most cases affects only one side of the face. In ten percent of cases, 1 out of 250,000, both sides of the face are affected. Persons with Goldenhar syndrome usually have trouble breathing, develop cysts around their eyes, and may have cervical vertebrae problems.

According to Dr. Robinson, The techniques to improve the outcome have advanced significantly over the last fifteen years, and it is a pleasure for me to have been a part of that progression. In addition to performing various oral, maxillofacial, craniofacial, and cosmetic surgeries, Dr. Robinson has spent 25 years researching and developing patented bone lengthening products, including internal devices for long bones of the legs and arms. He has similarly developed and patented dental implant distraction devices and jaw lengthening devices. The craniofacial distractor is distributed by Tridens Medical in the United States. Dr. Robinson has performed multiple reconstructive facial surgeries over the years that utilize distraction osteogenesis devices which he invented. Dr. Robinson states: Helping patients lead normal lives who have suffered severe facial deformities is an opportunity to show Gods love.

Dr. Randolph "Randy" C. Robinson is a Cosmetic Surgeon and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon who has been practicing for almost 25 years in Denver, Colorado and all over the world. Dr. Robinson has received numerous awards, co-founded and is actively involved in Face the Challenge, a non-profit organization, and holds appointments in various medical programs and societies. For more information on Dr. Robinson and Robinson Cosmetic Surgery, please visit [http://www.RobinsonCosmeticSurgery.com or contact us at 303-792-2828.
Erin's Campaign for Kids is named in honor of Erin Kay Flatley, an aspiring teacher, who died at the age of 23 of sepsis that developed following a routine surgery. Erin always wanted to inspire young people, and thanks to this special campaign, she will be changing lives, teaching kids about the dangers of sepsis.

Sepsis Alliance announced the launch of Erins Campaign for Kids, an initiative to combat the high incidence and mortality rates of sepsis among children. The campaign is named in honor of Erin Kay Flatley, an aspiring teacher, who died at the age of 23 of sepsis that developed following a routine surgery. Erins spirit lives on in the creation of Sepsis Alliance, the nations leading organization dedicated to saving lives by increasing awareness of sepsis as a medical emergency.

Erins Campaign for Kids is a first-of-its-kind initiative created to address an unmet need: the devastating impact of sepsis on children. According to Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, sepsis kills 12 kids every day, resulting in 4400 pediatric deaths annually. Many of these deaths are completely preventable with early recognition and development of sepsis treatment protocols. The new programs will recognize excellence in pediatric nursing, and also designate an Erin Kay Flatley Spirit Award at the Sepsis Alliance annual Sepsis Heroes gala. Details on awards, training programs, and partnerships will be announced later this year.

Sepsis Alliance is proud to launch this new campaign to provide solutions to an enduring problem, Sepsis Alliance Executive Director Thomas Heymann, said. Considering the dramatic impact that sepsis has on thousands of young Americans every year, it is alarming that fewer than half of American adults have ever heard of it. This initiative is part of a national effort by Sepsis Alliance to promote improvements in awareness, prevention, care and outcomes.

As a father who has been devastated by sepsis, I am excited to be working together with Sepsis Alliance to launch Erins Campaign for Kids, Carl Flatley said. Sepsis is a terrible problem across all ages, but we felt it necessary to shine a light on its impact on the vulnerable youth population. Erin always wanted to inspire young people, and thanks to this special campaign, she will be changing lives, teaching kids about the dangers of sepsis.

Campaign funding will begin with a multi-year $100,000 grant from the Erin Kay Flatley Foundation. Using this seed grant, Sepsis Alliance and the Erin Kay Flatley Foundation will work to generate additional funds from other sources in order to expand its impact. To learn more about this special initiative please visit sepsis.org/erin.

About Sepsis Alliance

Sepsis Alliance is the leading nonprofit patient advocacy organization in the United States and Canada. Sepsis Alliance's mission is to save lives by raising awareness of sepsis as a medical emergency. The organization hosts national and community events, distributes educational information, and promotes training and education on sepsis prevention and early recognition and treatment. Sepsis Alliance also support sepsis survivors and family members with information about sepsis and Post Sepsis Syndrome, as well as a Faces of Sepsis community forum. The sepsis.org website receive one million visits each year. Sepsis Alliance, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, is a GuideStar Gold Rated Charity. For more information, please visit http://www.sepsis.org.
Mitigating FDA, Customs Enforcement Actions for Imported Goods:

Best Practices for Importing Medical Products, Foods & Cosmetics

May 10, 2016  1:30 p.m.  3:00 p.m. ET

http://www.fdanews.com/importedgoods

Record levels of warning letters are being issued for imported medical devices, pharmaceuticals, foods and cosmetics.

Compliance and an understanding of what to do if the FDA initiates an enforcement proceeding are essential.

How can manufacturers avoid having their products on the Import Alert List?

Join Jennifer Diaz  Founder, Diaz Trade Law  on May 10 as she covers the following issues affecting imports:



Changes to the Cuban embargo

Best practices for responding to liquidated damages claims from CBP

Resolving CBP issues by submitting the appropriate response when CBP says goods are under "detention," will be "seized," and "forfeited

Best practices for responding to placement on the Import Alert List

Effective tactics for getting off of the Import Alert List

Register today and gain a comprehensive understanding of both FDA and CBP enforcement actions.

Meet the Presenter:

Jennifer Diaz

Founder, Diaz Trade Law

Jennifer Diaz is a Board Certified International Attorney, professor and professional speaker, who is considered an expert in international law by the Florida Bar. She is part of an elite group of Board Certified International attorneys in Florida that specializes in Customs and International trade law. She regularly assists clients with issues relating to the import and export of merchandise, to and from the United States, and expediting supply chains with robust pre-compliance programs.

Who Will Benefit:



Import Manager

Regulatory compliance officers

Supply chain managers

Manufacturing directors and supervisors

Executive Management

Webinar Details:

Mitigating FDA, Customs Enforcement Actions for Imported Goods:

Best Practices for Importing Medical Products, Foods & Cosmetics

May 10, 2016  1:30 p.m.  3:00 p.m. ET

http://www.fdanews.com/importedgoods

Tuition:

$287 per site

Easy Ways to Register:

Online: http://www.fdanews.com/importedgoods

By phone: 888-838-5578 or 703-538-7600

About FDAnews:

FDAnews is the premier provider of domestic and international regulatory, legislative, and business news and information for executives in industries regulated by the US FDA and the European Medicines Agency. Pharmaceutical and medical device professionals rely on FDAnews' print and electronic newsletters, books and conferences to stay in compliance with international standards and the FDA's complex and ever-changing regulations.
When it comes to savings, how much is enough? That depends, in part, on individual goals and the returns gained on savings. Many investors who thought they were well situated for retirement were devastated by the 2008 meltdown. Many others in recent years have lost their entire nest egg to fraudulent schemes. This Financial Poise webinar series will give you a solid introduction to the fundamentals of investing.

As with all Financial Poise webinars, each episode in the series is designed to be viewed independently of the other episodes, and listeners will enhance their knowledge of this area whether they attend one, some, or all of the programs.

Episode #4 of the Investing Basics 2016 series is "Advanced Investing Topics."(Register Here) Moderator Jonathan Friedland of Sugar Felsenthal Grais & Hammer will be joined by Jim Jones of IRAeXchange and IRA Services, Jordan Fishfeld of Peer Realty, and Curtis Anderson of Alpha Fiduciary.

Commodities. Crowdfunded securities. Derivatives. Options. These are just some examples of alternative assets that you can invest in besides stocks, bonds, or cash. Should you consider them? This webinar explains the basics of some asset types and investment strategies that are more complicated than buying stocks, bonds, and mutual funds and explains how they may- or may not be- appropriate as part of a broader portfolio.

ABOUT FINANCIAL POISE:

Financial Poise provides unbiased news, continuing education, and intelligence to private business owners, executives, investors, and their trusted advisors. For more information contact Emily Goldin at egoldin(at)financialpoise(dot)com or 312-469-0135.
Robert Davis, founder and president of SmarterSelect, will lead a workshop session at the conference. Im honored to be included in such an impressive roster of speakers, all aiming to provide support, training and resources to K-12 education foundations and their leaders, Davis said.

Monday, April 18, marks the beginning of the 11th annual National School Foundation Association (NSFA) conference, where representatives from over 30 states will gather in St. Louis for three days of building relationships, sharing ideas and attending speaker sessions. Adding to a rank of thought leaders, Robert Davis, founder and president of SmarterSelect, will be speaking on best practices for online scholarship and grant applications.

Davis joins other influential speakers such as education commissioners and representatives from public advocacy firms. Speaker sessions vary in education-related topics, ranging from fundraising and engaging parents, to online scholarship and grant applications.

Im honored to be included in such an impressive roster of speakers, all aiming to provide support, training and resources to K-12 education foundations and their leaders, said Davis. Online applications for scholarships, grants and awards can greatly improve the process and experience for both administrators and applicants alike, and it is our goal at SmarterSelect to make that process as simple as possible.

Davis has over 25 years of technology experience with application form design, cloud-based technology services and operations process improvement.

A Dallas-based SaaS company, SmarterSelect was founded when Daviss daughter was applying for scholarships. He noticed that most organizations were using either mountains of paper, or relying on homegrown, minimal web forms that were expensive to create and maintain. With the introduction of cloud computing, the idea of a cost-effective, feature-rich, hosted application management solution was born.

Davis workshop session, Best Practices for Online Scholarships and Grant Applications, takes place on Tuesday, April 19, at 3:45 p.m.

To learn more about the National School Foundation Association conference, visit http://www.schoolfoundations.org/2016-national-conference.

About SmarterSelect

Since 2006, over 600,000 people across the world have used SmarterSelect to create, manage, analyze, apply for, and evaluate over 1,000,000 online applications. Each year, SmarterSelect handles over 5,000 programs for private foundations, community foundations, associations, educational institutions, and corporations with a 97% customer satisfaction rate. Learn more at http://www.smarterselect.com.
Task Force Dagger Foundation

Geoff Dardia, Director of Task Force Dagger Foundation's SOF Health Initiatives Program spoke at the international/interagency invitation-only Subject Matter Expert workshop, the 8th annual Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO) Ammunition Initiatives Meeting (AIM VIII) in McLean VA on March 16, 2016. Over 100 interagency government personnel attended the event including SOF representatives from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. A full session was dedicated the issue of toxic metal poisoning of our warfighters.

Geoff Dardia spoke about the impact of toxins in environment for SOF warriors during service and afterwards, how high levels of exposures to heavy metals affect health and combat readiness, and the necessary treatment modalities that are not currently covered by Tricare or the Veterans Administration. "We are providing a solution to a major problem at no cost to the DOD or VA that will not only save billions of dollars, it will more importantly save thousands of lives and help curb the suicide epidemic in the military," said Dardia. He also introduced the Functional Medicine Initiative (FM-I) and explained how the program works for veterans and active duty service members. The program was well received and Geoff was invited back in June to brief Senator John McCain's staff and a panel from the Defense Senate Arms Committee.

Leadership from the Range 37 Miller Training Complex in Fort Bragg, NC presented as well. Range 37 is a high-risk live-fire training complex where special operations Soldiers are taught the Special Forces Advanced Reconnaissance Target Analysis and Exploitation Course (SFARTAETC) and the Special Forces Sniper Course (SFSC). Dardia has been assisting Range 37 with their lead screening program and has arranged for its cadre to enroll in the SOF Health Initiatives Program and work alongside Public Health Command and the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) to assist with KXRF X Rays and potentially chelation therapy for chronic heavy metal exposure for SFARTAETC instructors.

Task Force Dagger Foundation's three core programs: (1) Immediate Needs, (2) SOF Health Initiatives, and (3) Recreational Therapy Events provide resources and healing for Special Operations Forces (SOF) members and families. SOF Health Initiatives provides program recipients care and treatment that is designed to treat the problem and not the symptom through functional medicine and other treatment modalities that are holistic in nature. Since 2009 Task Force Dagger Foundation has supported USSOCOM with over $2,243,800 million of support to 1,120 SOF service members and their families. The organization's overhead rate is 5.79%.
The TRACE program has already helped a large number of Texas families regain their footing after losing everything to tornado damage, but there are still many families that need our help

The Tedesco Agency, a Texas-based insurance provider with offices serving Collin County and the greater Dallas/Fort Worth region, is teaming up with the TRACE North Texas Organization in a charity event to provide assistance to families in the area struggling to recover from tornado damage.

TRACE North Texas, short for Transitional Resource Accessibility & Community Engagement, is a non-profit organization committed to providing Texas families affected by tornadoes with the support and resources they need to recover and rebuild. TRACE matches a case volunteer with each family, ensuring that Texans affected by tornados have food, shelter, and a dedicated advocate to help them through a difficult time.

The TRACE program has already helped a large number of Texas families regain their footing after losing everything to tornado damage, but there are still many families that need our help, says Jake Tedesco, founder and manager of the Tedesco Agency.

Utilizing a community update bulletin and a dedicated social media presence, Tedesco and his team are gathering support for the charity event from families and businesses throughout the Dallas area. As well, the Tedesco Agency will feature the TRACE North Texas charity event in the next issue of the firms monthly online magazine Our Hometown: http://www.thetedescoagency.com/Our-Hometown-Magazine_39.

The Tedesco Agency has worked with over half a dozen Texas charities and non-profits over the last year as part of an ongoing community involvement program. In the months to come, Tedesco and his team plan to continue selecting and supporting even more local charities at the rate of one every 60 days.

For those interested in joining the TRACE North Texas charity event to support families affected by tornado damage, the Tedesco Agency offers an invitation to make a personal contribution from this page: http://www.thetedescoagency.com/-Helping-Families-Get-Back-On-Their-Feet_24_community_cause. For those interested in learning more about Texas charities supported by the Tedesco Agency in the past, refer to the firms Community Causes list here: http://www.thetedescoagency.com/community-cause.

About The Tedesco Agency

As a Personal Finance Representative in Texas, agency owner, Jake Tedesco knows many local families. His knowledge and understanding of the people in his community helps provide customers with an outstanding level of service. Jake and his team look forward to helping families protect the things that are important - family, home, car and more. They can also help clients prepare a strategy to achieve their financial goals. To contact an expert at The Tedesco Agency, call (972) 985-5515.
Ambassador Dell L. Dailey, Desert Storm Hero, Joins World Patent Marketing Ambassador Dailey is a true hero, said Scott Cooper, CEO and Creative Director of World Patent Marketing. He has taken a leadership role in almost every major military action of the United States in the past 36 years. Past News Releases RSS World Patent Marketing Invention...

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World Patent Marketing, a vertically integrated manufacturer and engineer of patented products, announced that Ambassador-at-Large for the United States Counter-Terrorism effort, Dell Dailey, has joined the World Patent Marketing Advisory Board.

Dailey is internationally famous for his actions and bravery during the Gulf wars. During his 36 years with the United States Army Special Ops, he became known for taking actions that were unheard of and went above and beyond the call of duty.

I want to thank CEO Scott Cooper for giving me this opportunity to join the World Patent Marketing Advisory Board, said Ambassador Dailey. Since leaving public life, I focus on working with organizations that use their culture of innovation to help protect our planet and improve peoples lives. The work that World Patent Marketing and The Cooper Idea Foundation does in developing countries is inspiring and is a true model of corporate social responsibility.

Ambassador Dailey is a true hero, said Scott Cooper, CEO and Creative Director of World Patent Marketing. He has taken a leadership role in almost every major military action of the United States in the past 36 years. Ambassador Dailey will be an invaluable asset to us as we continue our warlike expansion around the globe.

Dailey is known for his assertive no-nonsense personality. He was a member of Night Stalkers, a special ops unit in Operation Desert Storm, in which he personally led troops beyond enemy lines. His heroism earned him both applause from patriots and criticism from bureaucrats. Yet, his personal participation was vital to the missions success.

He has served as advisory to Secretary of the State and is well-connected with world leaders.

I am proud that Ambassador Dailey has joined our team, said Israeli Defense Forces General Nitzan Nuriel, who joined the World Patent Marketing Advisory Board in 2015. Safety and security are the most challenging issues of our day. Winning the war against terror requires integrity and advanced technology. At World Patent Marketing we are committed to making the world safer, more secure and more prosperous.

Ambassador Dailey joins the distinguished World Patent Marketing Advisory Board, where his expertise in counter-terrorism is be invaluable both to the company and the nation.

ABOUT WORLD PATENT MARKETING

World Patent Marketing is an innovation incubator and manufacturer of patented products for inventors and entrepreneurs. The company is broken into eight operating divisions: Research, Patents, Prototyping, Manufacturing, Retail, Web & Apps, Social Media and Capital Ventures.

As a leader in patent invention services, World Patent Marketing is by your side every step of the way, utilizing our capital and experience to protect, prepare, and manufacture your new product idea and get it out to the market. Get a patent with World Patent Marketing and the company will send representatives to trade shows every month in order to further advocate for its clients. It is just part of the world patent marketing cost of doing business.

World Patent Marketing Reviews enjoy an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and five star ratings from consumer review sites including: Consumer Affairs, Google, Trustpilot, Customer Lobby, Reseller Ratings, Yelp and My3Cents.

World Patent Marketing is also a proud member of the National Association of Manufacturers, Duns and Bradstreet, the US Chamber of Commerce, the South Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, Association for Manufacturing Excellence, and the New York Inventor Exchange.

Visit the worldpatentmarketing.com website and find out how to patent an invention. Contact us at (888) 926-8174.
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In an order filed last week, Judge Orinda Evans clarified her recent written opinion in the Georgia State University e-reserves case, holding that the publisher plaintiffs in fact prevailed on just four counts of alleged infringement, rather than the seven originally reported.

In her March 31 remand decision in Cambridge University Press v. Patton (known as the GSU e-reserves case) Evans for a second time declared GSU the prevailing party, writing in her conclusion that 41 of 48 alleged infringements considered at trial (and reconsidered on remand) were protected by fair use. But shortly after the decision, GSU attorneys filed a motion for a clarification, noting that in the body of her decision Evans appeared to have found 44 of 48 uses were fair, rather than 41.

Indeed, a number of observers had wondered about the discrepancy: was there a mistake in Evans's conclusion? Or, a mistake in the body of the opinion?

In her brief, two-page order, issued April 14, Evans acknowledged that she had miscounted in her conclusion. In fact, there were just three infringements from The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (rather than the five she had originally tallied); one infringement stemming from the use of Sages Utilization-Focused Evaluation; And one excerpt listed as an infringement in the conclusion of the March 31 decision, from Oxford University Presss edition of C. Wright Mills' 1956 classic The Power Elite, was in fact a fair use.

Notably, Evans did not explain the error in her order last week.

First filed in April, 2008, by three academic publishers (Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Sage Publications, with support from the Copyright Clearance Center and the AAP) the suit alleges that GSU administrators systematically encourage faculty to offer unlicensed digitized copies of course readings to students as a no-cost alternative to traditionally licensed course-packs.

In 2012, Evans first ruled against the publishers. But in October, 2014, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed and sent the case back to Evans with instructions for her to re-balance her four-factor fair use analysis.

Now, in yet another twist, despite winning a reversal on appeal, the publishers appear to have actually come out worse. The four infringements Evans found on remand are actually less than the five infringements Evans found in the original decision, in 2012.

In a statement, the Association of American Publishers said they are once again considering their appeal options.
At its conference on Friday, April 15, the Supreme Court declined to take up Authors Guild v. Google, effectively ending the case after more than a decade of litigation. As is customary, the high court did not comment (beyond noting that justice Kagan did not participate in the decision) and merely listed the case as denied for Certiorari.

The decision was not unexpected. Legal observers had given the Authors Guild slim odds at winning a review, given that two separate appeals panels have unanimously affirmed that Googles scanning and indexing of out-of-print books from library shelves was a fair use under U.S. copyright law.

In its final 13-page brief filed with the Supreme Court on March 15, attorneys for the Authors Guild claimed that the balance of copyright was at stake in their appeal.

At the heart of this conflict is a fundamental disagreement about how to apply the Copyright Act in the digital age, guild attorneys argued, an issue this Court must resolve, as more and more content is digitized and becomes susceptible to mass infringement.

Google attorneys, meanwhile, countered that the lower courts had correctly decided the case, pointing out that the scanned copies do not compete with the original works, and that Google's corpus offers significant public benefit, enabling users to find and search works that would in many cases be lost to history.

A Long, and Winding Road

The Supreme Courts denial caps what has been a defining legal drama for publishing in the digital age.

The Authors Guild vs. Google was first filed in September of 2005 (followed by a second, similar suit from publishers in October, 2005). In 2008, the litigation was shelved while all three parties (Google, the publishers, and the Authors Guild) stumped for a controversial settlement. In 2011, however, Judge Denny Chin rejected the settlement, amid strong opposition, which included Amazon, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Following the settlements rejection, the Authors Guild doubled down on its infringement claims by filing a parallel suit against Googles library scanning partners, Authors Guild vs. HathiTrust. But in October 2012, Judge Harold Baer delivered an emphatic summary judgment ruling in favor of the HathiTrust. In his ruling, Baer concluded that he could not imagine a definition of fair use that would compel him to shut down what he called an invaluable contribution to the progress of science and cultivation of the arts.

Shortly after Baers ruling, in October, 2012, the publishers dropped their suit against Google. Basically when the case was filed seven years ago, that was a long time ago, AAP president Tom Allen told PW at the time, explaining the decision not to carry on with the litigation. The world has changed a lot.

In November, 2013, Judge Denny Chin echoed Baer's findings in his summary judgment ruling for Google.

[Google Books] has given scholars the ability, for the first time, to conduct full-text searches of tens of millions of books. It preserves books, in particular out-of-print and old books that have been forgotten in the bowels of libraries, and it gives them new life. It facilitates access to books for print-disabled and remote or underserved populations. It generates new audiences and creates new sources of income for authors and publishers, Chin wrote in his opinion. Indeed, all society benefits."

In June, 2014, the Second Circuit unanimously affirmed Baers HathiTrust verdict. Notably, rather than appeal that case to the Supreme Court, the guild dropped it, in January, 2015.

And in October, 2015, another Second Circuit panel (led by prominent fair use jurist Pierre Leval) unanimously upheld Chins decision, holding that Googles scanning as well as its display of short "snippets" of text were fair uses, and that "Google's commercial nature and profit motivation" did not justify denial of fair use.

Reactions

The Authors Guild expressed its disappointment in a blistering, two-page statement, in which Authors Guild president Roxana Robinson called the decision a colossal loss for authors. "We believed then and we believe now that authors should be compensated when their work is copied for commercial purposes.

Mary Rasenberger, executive director of the Authors Guild asserted that the courts were blinded by the public benefit arguments, made by Google. The price of this short-term public benefit may well be the future vitality of American culture,

The denial of review is further proof that were witnessing a vast redistribution of wealth from the creative sector to the tech sector," Robinson added, "not only with books, but across the spectrum of the arts.

A Google spokesperson told PW that the company was grateful that the Supreme Court stuck by the Second Circuit's conclusion that Google Books is consistent with copyright law. "The product acts like a card catalog for the digital age," the spokesperson stressed, "giving people a new way to find and buy books while at the same time advancing the interests of authors."

We will update this story with reactions, as they come in.
Last month's announcement that Partners Book Distribution would begin closing down its business starting April 1 has resulted in confusion for some publishers about what is to come next.

Some of the uncertainty stems from the fact that Partners served as both a wholesaler for publishers (through Partners West and Partners East) but also a distributor for independent presses, a unit it operated under the Partners Publishing Group name. PPG offered small presses, sometimes with only a single title, a way to get their books into national accounts.

In order to accommodate its distribution clients, PPG is offering clients the option of going with Midpoint Trade Sales. In early April, PPG sent out a letter to its publishers detailing this option. According to Eric Kampmann, president and CEO of Midpoint, only those publishers who reach an agreement with Midpoint will be transitioning to them.

In a statement, Midpoint senior v-p Chris Bell said his company is in the process of working with publishers on new agreements and the transfer of inventory and data. "Our goal is to achieve a seamless and timely transition for PPG publishers," Bell said, although no timetable for the completion of the transition has been set.

Meanwhile, the IBPA has received questions from some of its members asking when they can expect inventory to be returned from the wholesaler side of the business. Partners' Sara Speigel said that they are in the process of reconciling accounts and returning books and that individual arrangements will be made with each publisher.
Illinois and Rock Island County authorities are investigating the circumstances that led to decomposed human remains being found on Big Island, Milan, last Thursday afternoon.

An individual walking along the shoreline Thursday observed what were believed to be human remains, and since then, law enforcement and Rock Island County Coroner Brian Gustafson have worked over the weekend on the case, the coroner said Sunday.

"We're aggressively trying to identify the remains," Mr. Gustafson said, noting that the Rock Island County Sheriff's Department is leading the investigation, which involves the Illinois State Police and a state anthropologist and odontologist (expert in teeth and dental records).

"We're quite happy with what we have so far," he said, confident a positive identification will be made of the victim. Mr. Gustafson would not provide any details on the victim -- including gender, approximate age, date of death or location of where the remains were found. He said it "was such a desolate area," on an end of the island relatively close to Interstate 280.

"It's an open and ongoing investigation," Mr. Gustafson said. An investigator with the sheriff's department was not available Sunday for comment.
A grief-stricken aunt, Johana Estupinan, now is making the longest journey of her life in a funeral hearse to the town of Esmeraldas, where she will bury her loved ones and break the news of the loss to her sister's three now-orphaned children.

As Ecuador digs out from its strongest earthquake in decades, tales of devastating loss are everywhere amid the rubble. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake left a trail of ruin along Ecuador's normally placid Pacific Ocean coast, buckling highways, knocking down an air traffic control tower and flattening homes and buildings. At least 272 people died, including two Canadians, and thousands are homeless.

President Rafael Correa said early Monday that the death toll would "surely rise, and in a considerable way."

"The Ecuadorean spirit knows how to move forward, and will know how to overcome these very difficult moments," Correa said.

Portoviejo, a provincial capital of nearly 300,000, was among the hardest hit, with the town's mayor reporting at least 100 deaths. The Quinde family drove there from their home hours north up the coast to drop off Sayira at Estupinan's house a week before she was to start classes at a public university on a scholarship to study medicine.

"She was my favorite niece," Estupinan said, emotionally torn apart after waiting at the city's morgue for hours. "I thought I was getting a daughter for the six years it was going to take her to earn a degree."

"I never thought my life would be destroyed in a minute," she added.

Estupinan watched as her loved ones were loaded onto a truck-sized hearse for the nighttime drive, the three older ones in dark mahogany coffins and 8-month-old Matias in a casket painted white. "It was supposed to be a short moment of family happiness but it converted into a tragedy," she said.

She hoped to bury her relatives in Esmeraldas on Monday, but devastation there is also severe and she worried about whether the hearse could make it along roads ripped apart by the quake.

The Saturday night quake knocked out power in many parts along the coast and some who fled to higher ground fearing a tsunami had no home to return to, or feared structures still standing might collapse. The country's Geophysics Institute said it recorded 230 aftershocks, some strong, as of Sunday night.

With makeshift shelters in short supply, many hunkered down to spend a second straight night outdoors huddled among neighbors.

Correa cut short a trip to the Vatican and flew directly to the city of Manta to oversee relief efforts. Even before touching Ecuadorean soil he signed a decree declaring a national emergency. Speaking from Portoviejo late Sunday he said the earthquake was the worst natural disaster to hit Ecuador since a 1949 earthquake in the Andean city of Ambato, which took over 5,000 lives.

"Our grief is very large, the tragedy is very large, but we'll find the way to move forward," Correa said. "If our pain is immense, still larger is the spirt of our people."

As rescuers scrambled through the ruins near the epicenter, in some cases digging with their hands to look for survivors, humanitarian aid began trickling in. More than 3,000 packages of food and nearly 8,000 sleeping kits were being delivered Sunday. Correa's ally, Venezuela, and neighboring Colombia, where the quake was also felt, organized airlifts. Mexico and Chile sent teams of rescuers.

Spain's Red Cross said as many as 5,000 people may need temporary housing after the quake flattened homes, and 100,000 may need some sort of aid.

"For God's sake help me find my family," pleaded Manuel Quijije, 27, standing next to a wrecked building in Portoviejo. He said his older brother, Junior, was trapped under a pile of twisted steel and concrete with two relatives.

"We managed to see his arms and legs. They're his, they're buried, but the police kicked us out because they say there's a risk the rest of the building will collapse," Quijije said angrily as he looked on the ruins cordoned off by police. "We're not afraid. We're desperate. We want to pull out our family."

On social media, Ecuadoreans celebrated a video of a baby girl being pulled from beneath a collapsed home in Manta.

But fear was also spreading of another night of looting after 180 prisoners from a jail near Portoviejo escaped amid the tumult. Authorities said some 20 inmates were recaptured and some others returned voluntarily.

Seeking security from any unrest, about 400 residents of Portoviejo gathered Sunday night on the tarmac of the city's former airport, where authorities handed out water, mattresses and food. The airport was closed in 2011 and flights diverted to a larger facility in nearby Manta after Correa kicked out a U.S. drug interdiction operation stationed there.

Shantytowns and cheaply constructed brick and concrete homes were reduced to rubble along the quake's path. In the coastal town of Chamanga, authorities estimated than 90 percent of homes had damage, while in Guayaquil a shopping center's roof fell in and a collapsed highway overpass crushed a car, killing the driver.

The government said it would draw on $600 million in emergency funding from multilateral banks to rebuild.

But in the meantime, the digging and hoping against the odds continued.

In downtown Portoviejo, a few blocks from where a four-story hotel fell onto the Quinde family's car, the six-story social security building was a pile of debris. Downed power cables were strewn across the street.

"The situation is heart-rending," Jaime Ugalde, editor of El Diario, the city's most-important newspaper, said as he surveyed the damage. "I'm going to return home and hug my wife and two kids. We're the lucky ones. We're alive."
The message, via Facebook, came as a question.

"How was Donnie? It was my last booking.''

It was, in the two-plus decades I had come to know Claudia Robinson, the only time she ever boasted. She loved that Donnie Wahlberg, her hand-picked selection to represent Gilda's Club in the Quad-Cities, was a hit.

"Hit'' might be understating it a bit.

Ms. Robinson retired as executive director of Gilda's Club Quad-Cities in December of 2015. She did with no fanfare, no outside-her-staff announcement, just a ride into the sunset. She went out like she guided Gilda's Club since the red door opened at 1234 East River Drive, Davenport -- quietly and with the spotlight nowhere near her. She deserved a parade.

Gilda's Club is named in honor of Saturday Night Live's Gilda Radner, who passed at age 42 of ovarian cancer. Its goal and its message are simple: "Serve individuals and families affected by cancer.''

From humble beginnings, Gilda's Club Quad-Cities, has grown into a recognized entity with financial stability. It has, however, never lost the focus of its purpose.

Times, though, were far from easy. But those times never stopped Ms. Robinson from pushing forward, making a community understand what Gilda's Club provides. In real life, she fought her way through struggles to become a pillar, bettering the lives of many, even after experiencing the loss of her son. Her strength and fortitude were above and beyond, serving as a beacon for countless in Illinois and Iowa.

As I pen today's sermonette, I see her -- 20 years ago -- in the midst of a driving rainstorm -- selling slices of pizza on behalf of Gilda's. She purchased pizza from a local maker, then sold the pieces individually at the Rock Island Grand Prix. It was not a Gilda's Club staffer selling the pizza, but the executive director standing in the rain trying to keep the lights on at a place she knew was vital to our community.

"Just trying to bring Noogieland to life,'' she said that day. Noogieland is a place just for kids at Gilda's, an off-the-charts play area, where youngster can hang out while other members of the family draw support. The day Noogieland opened on East River Drive might have been one of Ms. Robinson's proudest Gilda's moments.

With a trait few share, Ms. Robinson has a way of making you feel special. If you worked, volunteered, raised $5 or $5,000 on behalf of Gilda's Club, it was the same. You received an appreciative hug, a handwritten note or phone call from Ms. Robinson. She was forever extending an invitation for you to see where your dollars went and the impact you had on so many lives locally.

Ms. Robinson is proud of the work Gilda's Club does, where it stands and where it will be in five, 10 or 15 years. She will not take any of the credit, deferring to staff and to a loving and giving community making it happen.

She will tell you her life is better for the experience. I can say we are a better community thanks to her.
QPR ladies returned from Wales empty-handed after a disappointing defeat to Cardiff City on Sunday in their penultimate FA Womens Premier League fixture.

Rangers fell behind early on in the Welsh capital when Cori Williams finished past full debutant Ronja Andersson from close range on five minutes.

The hosts continued to dominate and soon made it two when Kerry Bartlett found the net in a carbon copy of the first goal with 11 minutes on the clock.

QPR were handed a lifeline in the 24th minute when Mariko Engels netted from long range after direct play from Carrie-Anne Layton and Dominika Netschova.

Cardiff soon regained their two-goal cushion when a corner was bundled in after a goalmouth scramble four minutes later, while only a succession of brave saves from Andersson and help from the woodwork prevented any further damage before the break.

A strong Cardiff side, who still have the chance of finishing as runners-up, returned for the second half the liveliest of the teams and were celebrating again two minutes after the re-start. A headed effort from Abbie Britton evaded the Rangers defence to find the back of the net.

The Bluebirds continued the sustained pressure and found another way through the R's rearguard when Bartlett headed home an in-swinging cross with 49 minutes on the clock.

Cardiff extended the lead to five with Kelly Aldridge adding her name to the scoresheet with 27 minutes remaining, before the hosts completed the scoring 11 minutes from time when a counter-attacking move was calmly finished off by Bartlett.

The Rs remain in ninth position with one game to go against already relegated Plymouth next weekend, while Cardiff City leapfrog Coventry United into third.

QPR: Andersson, Denny, Lopes, Harte, Hayes, Layton (Sseninde 75), Maggs, Rackham (Skiverton 61), Albert, Engels, Netschova.

Goal: Engels 24
The Brisbane Indigenous Media Association has sadly lost their CEO Tiga Bayles after a long battle with Cancer. 98.9FM released a media statement Sunday honouring Tigas work for the community.

MEDIA STATEMENT FROM BRISBANE INDIGENOUS MEDIA ASSOCIATION REGARDING THE PASSING OF TIGA BAYLES

April 17, 2016

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tiga Bayles, a Birri Gubba Gungalu man and a Dawson River Murri, who died early this morning after a long battle with cancer.

Tiga Bayles  the Chief Executive Officer of the Brisbane Indigenous Media Associations 98.9FM radio station  was aged 62.

Tiga was born Harold James Phillip Bayles on 6 th October 1953. He was raised in Theodore in Central Queensland, and lived in Redfern, Dubbo, Coonamble and later Brisbane.

He was a leading figure in the Aboriginal rights movement, and played a key role in the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games protests, and protests at the Bicentennial celebrations in Sydney in 1988.

Tiga was an early chairman of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, and named Queensland Father of the Year in 2005. He raised nine girls, and was Australias most prominent  and awarded  First Nations broadcaster.

Among his many honors, Tiga was the inaugural winner of the national Deadly Award for Indigenous Broadcaster of the Year, and his work around decolonisation and invasion was recognised by Amnesty Internationals inaugural media awards in 2014.

Tiga served on numerous boards, including the National Indigenous Radio Service, a community-controlled organisation he helped found. He was also the Asia Pacific representative of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasting, a role that saw him travel the world advocating for First Nations media.

Tiga was deeply involved in the renowned Murri School in Brisbanes Acacia Ridge, and served as its Chairman for many years, a role he held until his passing.

He got his start in the music industry touring the country as a band manager with Murri Jama. Shortly after, Tiga helped to establish Radio Redfern in Sydney with his mother, Maureen Watson. Tiga eventually moved back to Brisbane, and helped establish the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association, and the National Indigenous Radio Service. BIMA  the home of 98.9FM  is one of the nations most popular and successful community radio stations. Tigas morning program, Lets Talk, was broadcast five days a week around the nation via the National Indigenous Radio Service network.

Tigas family, under the guidance of his uncle Ross Watson, created BIMA. Tiga took the reigns when Ross retired, and oversaw its expansion to become a nationally recognised training organisation for First Nations people working in the media. More than a thousand First Nations people have been trained in broadcasting through BIMA, via an innovative school-based traineeship program. Tiga led the move of 98.9FM to a state of the art multi-media centre in West End in 2011, securing the future of First Nations media for generations to come.

Tiga passed away peacefully at his Brisbane home early this morning, surrounded by family and friends.

Details for the funeral of Tiga Bayles, which will be held in Brisbane, will be announced soon.
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Dubbed "Unbundling Wylerfeld," the project will improve connections and punctuality for regional and long-distance services travelling in and out of Bern, and is due for completion in 2022.

The project calls for the construction of a 300m tunnel for trains to Thun under the existing three tracks, which will allow for far greater flexibility in route planning. Two road bridges over the lines will be demolished and rebuilt to provide a wider span, and the station at Berne Wankdorf will be expanded.

Preparation work for the project began in January. It is part of a Swiss programme for the future development of railway infrastructure (ZEB), and is being financed through the ZEB programme, the infrastructure fund, the canton of Berne and the service agreement between the Swiss government and SBB.
BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) recently recognized a special group of employees for their outstanding achievements in 2015 at an awards ceremony in Fort Worth, Tex. The annual Employees of the Year program is designed to recognize employees who demonstrate BNSFs vision and values through their commitment, leadership and focus on working safely and efficiently to meet customer expectations. Their achievements positively impact BNSF customers, fellow employees, owners and the communities served by BNSF.

Of the more than 40,000 team members across the company, 52 employees were recognized during the ceremony for their individual and team achievements in 2015. An additional 40 BNSF employees were acknowledged for their safety leadership last year  all of which led teams that worked throughout 2015 without a reportable injury.

Our Employees of the Year program is a way to recognize our people for outstanding efforts and results. Im grateful for their hard work and dedication, said Car Ice, BNSF President and CEO. These employees are a reflection of our entire teams commitment to always remaining focused on safety, serving our customers, and delivering on the integral role we play in moving our global economy forward.

This years award recipients actions span a range of achievements and reflect valuable contributions to some of BNSFs most important initiatives. Examples of their efforts include the successful completion of numerous key rail projects to improve BNSFs velocity and expand capacity, the completion of critical bridge reconstruction projects and the opening of the Sweetwater Logistics Center.

Also honored were the Safety Employees of the Year. The Mechanical, Engineering, Telecommunications and Intermodal Business Unit Operations teams each recognized an individual Safety Employee of the Year, while Transportation acknowledged the 34-member safety coordinator team. Three safety coordinator representatives attended the ceremony on behalf of the larger team. All of these honorees were recognized for their efforts to improve safety within the industry and their communities.

For a complete list of honorees and a video of the Safety Employees of the Year, please visit www.bnsfmedia.com.
The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) on April 6, 2016 awarded Reading and Northern Railroad the industrys highest award for marketing achievement. This is the third time Reading & Northern has won this prestigious award in the last six years. Dennis Shaffer, Vice President Business Development, accepted the award at the annual ASLRRA ceremony held in Washington D.C.

ASLRRA recognized Reading & Northern for its rapid response and development of a railroad-operated warehouse in Old Forge, Pa. The need for this new warehouse facility came suddenly in April 2015 when a valued customer notified Reading & Northern that it needed a new warehouse to handle and store its wood pulp. The critical part of the request is that this new warehouse needed to be available within a month. In a little over a month Reading & Northern was able to find a long unused building along its railroad in Old Forge, negotiate a lease, modify and rehabilitate the building, acquire the necessary handling equipment, train its employees, and rehabilitate a long unused rail siding that was buried under several feet of dirt. Simultaneously, Reading & Northern moved to acquire and rehabilitate, in its Port Clinton car shop, additional boxcars to handle this wood pulp from Old Forge to final destination. This new facility was up and running by May 2015 and has seen continual business growth ever since.

In addition to the ASLRRA Marketing Award, Reading and Northern was also recognized in 2015 when Railway Age Magazine named it Regional Railroad of the Year. This was the third time the railroad won the prestigious award and is the only railroad ever to have achieved this recognition three times.

Reading and Northerns superior marketing and business development efforts have paid dividends in business growth. 2015 was a record-breaking year for the railroad with freight carloads up 19% and revenue up 30% compared to 2014.

Reading Northerns passenger operation, the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, also broke all previous ridership record in 2015 as over 100,000 visitors rode its trains, a 38% increase in ridership over the previous record year.

Reading & Northern Railroad, with its corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, is a privately held railroad company serving over 60 customers in nine eastern Pennsylvania counties (Berks, Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill and Wyoming). It has expanded its operations over the last 20-plus years and has grown into one of the premier railroads in Pennsylvania. Reading and Northern operates both freight services and steam and diesel powered excursion passenger services through its Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, owns over 1,000 freight cars, and employs over 200 dedicated employees.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, North Americas single-largest public transportation agency, has pulled the plug on Transit Member status in APTA, the American Public Transportation Association.

MTAs decision, according to a blistering seven-page April 8, 2016 letter to APTA President and CEO Michael P. Melaniphy, is based on numerous reasons, not the least of which is what the MTA is calling a basic lack of stakeholder representation that has been unaddressed for at least five years.

MTA Chairman Thomas F. Prendergast is the letters principal signatory. He was joined by the heads of all the MTAs affiliate and subsidiary agencies: New York City Transit President Veronique Hakim; Long Island Rail Road President Patrick Nowakowski; Metro-North Railroad President Joseph Giulietti; and MTA Bus President Darryl Irick.

Prendergast told Melaniphy the decision to leave APTA was a difficult decision carefully made after many conversations among the MTAs agency heads and with APTA leadership and represents the unanimous opinions of the entire MTA Executive Leadership Team. MTAs prime considerations were the value to our agencies of our Transit Member status, which costs the MTA some $400,000 in annual dues, and the impact [MTAs] departure from APTA might have on the public transit industry as a whole. The letter goes on to outline how no Legacy Systems (NYMTA, NJ Transit, SEPTA, CTA, MBTA, PATH, BART, MUNI, PATCO, etc.) have voting representation on the APTA Executive Committee. To have no voting Executive Committee member from either a legacy property or from a commuter rail carrier is unconscionable, Prendergast said.

A public transit industry professional with no ties to the MTA and who communicated with Railway Age with the stipulation of remaining anonymous offers the following observations, most of which are based on conversations with colleagues, and are fully in line with MTAs reasons for pulling the plug:

APTA has generally failed to address legacy system/commuter rail issues. The challenges of updating legacy systems to comply with such things as fire codes, FRA regulatory requirements and crumbling infrastructure have simply not been properly addressed. Technical assistance and knowledge transfer has been poor, prompting MTA and other legacy systems to turn to other organizations such as the AAR, AREMA, TRB, UITP, ENO Foundation and Network Rail Consulting for this support. This work is not particularly coordinated, and APTA plays no role in it. There are many common problem areas that should be jointly addressed by the commuter rail operators. There appears to be a need for some kind of robust commuter conference to work together, to identify emerging issues early and to plan and execute solutions. It should also categorize best practices, isolate synergies and create a master plan for working together.

APTAs governance structure is way out of whack with legacy systems and commuter rail operations, which represent 60% of public transportation ridership. There is no voice on the Executive Committee, and the legacy systems have become largely irrelevant in key APTA policy circles. Newer western properties dominate the Executive Committee and policy-making. There is a strong view that APTA is primarily a bus and trolley group.

Form is more important than substance. APTA has properly paid attention to diversity and ADA issues, but there are way too many conferences (13 per year), and they are not particularly coordinated for maximum effect. Further, APTA does not provide substantive solutions to the problems that become particularly costly and complicated on the older and more complicated systems.

Challenges facing commuter rail systems generally have been ignored by APTA. Over the past five to eight years, commuter rail agencies have been under near-constant assault by onerous and costly legislative directives. They can detract from the mission, drain resources, harm their served communities, and be demoralizing to the rider, the workforce and contractors. Two recent examples of costly federal mandates include the 2008 unfunded Positive Train Control requirement and the 2015 increase in the liability cap. Only at the very end of the legislative process did APTA get on top of these issues (and staff did a good job in the final analysis). However, APTA should have reached a firm position and strategy at a far earlier time. The expenditures required by these mandates alone cost billions. They divert critical resources such as core capacity upgrades, procurement of new equipment, and refurbishment or replacement of aging rolling stock as well as other critical safety and risk reduction and mitigation strategies.

A third issue that would have irrevocably damaged passenger rail growth was the 2012 Senate-passed rail title to the MAP-21 bill that required every entity providing passenger rail service except Amtrak to submit to a draconian licensing and comprehensive regulatory regime at the Surface Transportation Board. The title authorized the USDOT Secretary to extract repayment from non-Amtrak passenger rail operators for any federal grants that improved rights-of-way on lines over which they operate. APTA took no position when the rail title was before the Senate, but ultimately did oppose the rail title in House/Senate Conference when many other industry groups opposed it. The Senate-passed rail title was ultimately rejected in its entirety in the MAP-21 Conference. So, the concern is that APTA often chimes in on new initiatives reluctantly and at the 11th hour. It simply doesnt identify and engage in a timely manner. When it does finally engage, it can be quite effective, however, it is often too little, too late.

APTA was largely asleep at the switch when formulas increasing costs of East Coast commuter rail systems passed Congress in 2008. The East Coast commuter authorities that operate over the mostly Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor line (MBTA, ConnDOT, Metro-North, LIRR, NJT, SEPTA, MARC and Virginia Railway Express) are clearly not satisfied with APTA. These agencies face a particularly tough operating and political environment and very tight budgets. They have an enormous stake in the formulas for cost sharing on the considerable Amtrak-owned shared track. In recent years, Amtrak has been less enthusiastic about the commercial process of entering agreement through contractual obligation when it is possible to press Congress to prescribe formulas that will increase funding to Amtrak at the expense of others. This has been true on both the state-supported corridors and the commuter agencies operating on the NEC.

The 2008 PRIIA Act mandated what the MTA called somewhat onerous formulas. The PRIIA Commission tasked with creating the new cost sharing formulas missed its deadlines and only recently completed its work. The result is substantially higher costs on many NEC commuter users now being billed by Amtrak. Apparently, APTA played no role in representing commuter interests in the development of that legislation, and the chickens are coming home to roost. Amtrak has been sending invoices, and in at least one caseMBTA unilaterally cancelled a bilateral agreement. In that case, Amtrak demanded an additional $30 million-plus per year for service Amtrak had agreed to provide for free in a complex reciprocity agreement outlining the obligations of each party for the use of the track and facilities. MBTA filed a court complaint stating this is a violation of the Constitutions Appointments and Due Process Clause. The NEC commuter agencies are watching the court action. To my knowledge, APTA has not addressed this significant issue in any fashion.

Similarly, the rail title of the FAST Act signed by President Obama on Dec. 4, 2015, also prescribes new formulas for assessing commuter agencies for the capital improvements that will be required to bring the NEC to a state of good repair. It is not clear how Amtrak will assess what could be substantial additional costs to the commuter agencies. Again, APTA apparently played no role in the development of the legislation or seems to have any plans for the implementation.

Buried in the thousand-plus-page FAST Act bill that passed the Senate was a strange provision that extended the NEC a short distance south of Washington D.C. Union Station to a CSX interlocking. VRE operates over that small piece of railroad to reach Union Station. As the bill passed the Senate, an investigative piece by [Railway Age Contributing Editor] Frank Wilner stated, As for this instant provision redefining the NECa so-called legislative orphanno Senator is claiming parenthood. Currently, VRE has access to the STB if there is a dispute with Amtrak. Wilner noted that if the segment in question were added to the NEC in the House/Senate Conference, the track likely would become exempt from STB oversight, as is all other track comprising the NEC. VRE contacted the Northern Virginia Congressional Delegation, which was instrumental in seeing that the provision was rejected in the House/Senate Conference. Again, APTA was not involved. Some believe this is an example of the kind of defensive issues where APTA should be alert in flagging the matters in the first instance and then proactive in protecting the interests of its commuter rail members in the Northeast.

Then there is the issue of Michael Melaniphys qualifications, leadership capabilities and level of compensation. Based on APTAs lack of responsiveness [during] the past five years in addressing [these] serious issues . . . we have grave concerns that you will address any of them in a meaningful way if your contract is renewed for another five years, Prendergast told Melaniphy in the letter. I would also note our continuing concerns about the basic elements of the employment agreement for the APTA President. These include total compensation, benefits, and other elements of the agreement as they relate to what is accepted and practiced at the current time in the public-sector arena.

Some of Melaniphys critics complain about what they call his over-the-top showboating at conferences as well as excessive compensation, given APTA is a public sector organization. Per FY2014 IRS Form 990, Melaniphy received total compensation of just under $900,000 from APTA, an organization with about $21 million in gross revenues.

By comparison, Tom Prendergast, who has direct day-to-day responsibility for a public agency that moves roughly 11 million passengers per day, has a $13 billion annual operating budget and recently introduced a $32 billion five-year capital plan, earns less than half that of Melaniphy.

Looking at compensation as a percentage of gross revenues, Union Pacific Chairman, President and CEO Lance Fritz receives a base salary of roughly $4.9 million. UPs annual gross revenues, according to its 2014 Securities and Exchange Commission Proxy statement, were $24 billion. On this basis of comparison, Melaniphys compensation is 21 times greater than that of the chief executive of the largest Class I railroad in North America.

There has been speculation that, now that the New York MTA has pulled the plug on APTA, other legacy systems will follow MTAs lead. What this means for APTA and its future remains to be seen.

Railway Age asked APTA to respond to the MTAs actions. APTA Vice President, Communications and Marketing Rosemary Sheridan provided the following statement:

We are obviously disappointed as NewYork MTAs membership is important to us. We are continuing the conversation with MTA and we are working hard to show the value of APTA membership to them and all of our members. We believe that continued partnership and collaboration among MTA, APTA, and the overall public transportation industry is important as APTA serves the public interest and represents all modes of public transportation.

The complete letter can be downloaded at the link below.
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Ever since Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine, NATO has focused on bolstering its defense and deterrence capabilities in central Europe. These efforts look set to pay off; at the alliance's July summit in Warsaw, NATO is expected to adopt significant new initiatives to protect its eastern flank.

But the alliance risks coming up dangerously short on the threats that matter most to most of Europe and thus to NATO: terrorism and the ongoing influx of migrants. Especially in the wake of the Brussels and Paris attacks, if NATO fails to define a strategy for its southern challenges, it could slip into strategic irrelevance. There is precious time left before the Warsaw Summit to outline such a strategy.

NATO's record in the Middle East and North Africa is mixed. Its approach has focused on building partnerships with regional powers. Its Mediterranean Dialoguea forum that brings together Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisiahas existed since 1994. Its Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, which includes four of the six Gulf Cooperation Council members, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, was created in 2004. Yet with the important exception of Arab participation in the 2011 air campaign against Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, both forums have lacked practical substance.

Part of the problem with NATO's efforts to strengthen its relationships in the region is that many of its potential partners are authoritarian states that are disinclined toward the political reform mandates that normally come with NATO partnerships. Moreover, some, such as Egypt, actively seek closer cooperation with Russia. And others are at least wary of drawing too close to NATO lest it exacerbate strains with a Kremlin now willing to intervene militarily in the region.

NATO's efforts to support intraregional defense cooperation have meanwhile run into the hard realities of geopoliticsfor example, the Algerian-Moroccan feud over the Western Sahara and the rifts within the Gulf Cooperation Council over policy toward Libya. Finally, Saudi Arabia, an essential partner for cooperation in the Middle East, has opted out of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative altogether.

It would be a mistake to relegate the world's most capable alliance to the sidelines when it comes to such crucial threats.

To complicate matters further, NATO is itself conflicted when it comes to bolstering its southern defenses. Central European allies worry that doing so would sap attention and resources from the eastern flank. And the very allies that are most threatened from the southFrance, Italy, and Spainseem even more allergic to the idea, largely because they fear that NATO will push the European Union or other forms of productive cooperation out of the region.

But their concerns are misplaced. It is hard to take seriously the argument that NATO will end up doing too much in the Middle East and will crowd out others. The threat is the oppositeNATO is doing far too little, and in an area where there is far more left to do and where NATO is primed to do it. All of NATO's major post-Cold War operations, whether in the Balkans or Afghanistan, were geared toward the state-building and counterterrorism challenges now facing the Mediterranean and the Levant. Politics in the Balkans may be messy today, but the region is far better off after the violence of the 1990s thanks to NATO's efforts. NATO's experience in Afghanistan should, at a minimum, serve as a reminder of the risks of waiting too long after a conflict to begin stabilization and reconstruction efforts.

To begin with, NATO could redouble its work to enhance the effectiveness of regional states against terrorist groups. Earlier this month, NATO announced that it had restarted its training program for Iraqi military officers. Jordan and Tunisia are also recipients of NATO defense institution support, and other countries, such as Morocco, could benefit from such support as well. The alliance should also prepare to support the nascent Libyan government, which faces a difficult road ahead and is unlikely to escape the need for foreign military assistance of some kind. As it begins working with the regional powers, NATO should intensify its efforts to counter extremist narratives, especially those that misrepresent NATO's basic purposes and mission, by investing more heavily in public information efforts in these countries, for example by opening small public affairs offices, holding more conferences there, and sending NATO officials on visits more often.

Institutionally, NATO could begin to build closer and more formal relationships with the two key security institutions in the region, the African Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council. The Gulf Cooperation Council aspires to a more robust regional roleto succeed, it will need well-developed concepts of operation, command and control arrangements, and other structures that NATO has decades of experience with. The African Union could similarly benefit from deeper and more frequent engagement to expose it to NATO's operating procedures. Stronger institutional relationships between these organizations would set the stage for closer cooperation on counterterrorism and state-building, both inside and outside of the NATO framework.

In the Mediterranean, NATO could bolster its existing naval operations, specifically in terms of intelligence collection, which will help member countries identify criminal and terrorist-linked vessels. NATO might even establish a counterterrorism intelligence-sharing center for the Mediterranean, with links to European law-enforcement agencies such as EUROPOL and FRONTEX on the shore. In general, NATO will need to continue to seek to strengthen its working relationship with the EU, which remains politically blocked by the Turkey-Cyprus dispute, in order to be fully effective in the south.

NATO's role in the south will remain controversial. But if the alliance cannot define a meaningful southern strategy, it risks falling short of its potential to help Europe protect itself from the immense southern challenge it faces. NATO alone is not the solution to the region's problemsnot by a long shot. But it would be a mistake to relegate the world's most capable alliance to the sidelines when it comes to such crucial threats.

Christopher S. Chivvis is associate director of the RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation and author of Toppling Qaddafi and The French War on Al Qa'ida in Africa.

This commentary originally appeared on Foreign Affairs on April 17, 2016. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
Over-the-top (OTT) video platforms and pay-TV services have been in a balanced relationship in LATAM so far, but a new Nielsen report shows 23% subscribers might cut the cord in the near future.





Nearly seven in ten Latin Americans are already using some kind of video-on-demand (VOD) service, although only 21% said to be paying for one. Still, subscription VOD (SVOD) is more common in Mexico (28% Mexicans pay for it), Colombia (25%) and Brazil (23%).According to the report, 76% of VOD consumers are also paying for a traditional cable or satellite platform, indicating cord-cutting is not threatening pay-TV industry yet.But, as highlighted by Nielsen, 23% Latin Americans are using VOD services more than once a day, reducing pay-TV watching time, thus thinking of cutting the cord as VOD subscriptions are also a more affordable video option. Indeed, 37% VOD subscribers think quality-price ratio is better than for pay-TV.In addition to price, convenience is another factor making Latin American habit s to change. Over half of VOD users like this kind of service because they can watch their favourite programmes anywhere at any time, just when they like to. Besides, 35% think VOD is convenient for families, so everybody can watch different contents at the same time.Latin American viewers habits are changing, they are now on control of what they watch, and how and when they watch it, stated Nielsen in the report. And advertisers are also using the different platforms and technologies to reach potential customers in newer and more creative ways.
PACE President urges to release Ukrainian ex-military navigator Savchenko

MOSCOW, April 18 (RAPSI) - President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Pedro Agramunt has pushed for release of Ukrainian retired officer Nadezhda Savchenko sentenced to 22 years in prison for involvement in the murder of Russian journalists and illegal border crossing, RIA Novosti reported on Monday.

Agramunt during the spring session of PACE also called for release of all people held as hostages in Russia and Ukraine.

Savchenko was convicted by a court in Donetsk, a town in southern Russia, on March 22.

As the court has established, she was responsible for conducting concealed observation and directing mortar fire in an attack against a roadblock held by militias of the self-proclaimed Lugansk Peoples Republic and a group of civilians there, including three Russian journalists, near the village of Metallist, the Lugansk Region, on June 17, 2014. The attack killed two Russian television journalists, Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin. Savchenko, who at that time was on active duty in the Ukrainian Armed Forces as a navigator and systems operator of a Mi-24 attack helicopter, enlisted and served on the ground with a volunteer paramilitary unit, the Aidar Battalion, while being on leave. On the same day, she was captured by members of the Donbass Peoples Militia; however, she managed to escape.

Charges of firing at civilians in the city of Lugansk have been dropped against Savchenko because this issue is out of a Russian courts jurisdiction.

Savchenko has been elected to the Ukrainian parliament's permanent delegation to the PACE in 2014.

During the trial she argued again that she is a PACE delegate and, therefore, has absolute immunity. However, the Investigative Committee and Russian courts considered that Savchenko doesnt hold PACE immunity because she was elected as a delegate after being charged with a crime.
As we see a surge in inflation globally, it is now critical that everyone is aware of the implications this will have along every step of the insurance and reinsurance value chain.
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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/18/2016



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

Joe Giudice has opened up about the possibility he may be deported once he finishes his time behind bars.Joe surrendered to New Jersey's Federal Correction Institute, Fort Dix, on March 23 to begin serving his 41-month sentence for numerous counts of financial fraud. Joe, who was born in Italy and is not a citizen of the United States, may face deportation once he's released from prison."I'm not even worried about that as far as that goes," Joe, the husband of of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice told People. "That, we'll worry about when I get out."Joe has reportedly been living in the United States with his family since age 1, however, he never officially acquired his citizenship.On an episode of of New Jersey: Teresa Checks In, the family's attorney James J. Leonard Jr. asked Joe about the situation."If, God forbid, you had to go, do you see Teresa and the girls moving to Italy with you?" Leonard Jr. asked, according to People.Joe, 43, insisted he previously discussed the potential circumstance with Teresa, also 43, before noting, "Of course she would."But at the end of the day, Joe said, "I consider myself an American."The couple was sentenced to jail time in October 2014 after pleading guilty to three counts of bankruptcy fraud as well as and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud as part of a plea deal to resolve their 41-count federal fraud indictment.Teresa and Joe's prison arrangements were made so that one parent could always be with their four daughters -- Gia, 15, Gabriella, 11, Milania, 10, and Audriana, 6.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/18/2016



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.
HOME > The Amazing Race > The Amazing Race 28 'The Amazing Race's Sheri LaBrant and Cole LaBrant survive another non-elimination leg

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/18/2016



's "Mother and Son" team Sheri LaBrant and Cole LaBrant survived a non-elimination leg during Friday night's broadcast of the CBS reality competition's 28th season.



ADVERTISEMENT Sheri and Cole were declared safe even though they arrived at the Race's eighth Pit Stop at the Old Souq Station in Dubai in last place. During the next leg, the pair must complete an additional Speed Bump task as a consequence. This marked the second time the pair has been saved this season.



"Newlyweds" Zach King and Rachel King were the first to depart for this leg at 10:39PM. They were then followed by "Dating Couple" Burnie Burns and Ashley Jenkins at 10:42PM, "Best Friends" Kurt Gibson and Brodie Smith at 10:45PM, "Dating Couple" Dana Borriello and Matt Steffanina at 10:52PM, Sheri and Cole 11:21PM, and finally "Best Friends" Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl at 1:17AM.



The teams' first set of clues instructed them to fly to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates and then find a remote camp outside the city. All six teams hopped on the same flight together.



Sheri and Cole missed the first exit off the highway and Cole asked her not to be such a negative person.



Tyler and Korey found the camp in first place and picked up their companion for the leg, a Travelocity gnome. They were soon followed by Zach and Rachel, Burnie and Ashley, Brodie and Kurt, Dana and Matt and finally Sheri and Cole.



It then became time for the teams to complete one of two possible Detour tasks: "Races" or "Oasis."



"Races" required the teams to go head to head on a bicycle against a racing camel, which could reach speeds of 40mph. Pedaling in the extreme heat, both team members had to cross the finish line before the camels to win their next clue. If not, they'd get a head start on their second try.



"Oasis" required the teams to walk across the open desert as they led four camels about one mile to a nearby camp for their daily exercise and next clue.



Brodie and Kurt's vehicle got stuck in the sand, so they had to dig it and push it out. Meanwhile, Zach and Rachel drove past the location of the "Races" Detour task.



The teams who opted to try "Races" were Brodie and Kurt, Tyler and Korey, Burnie and Ashley, Zach and Rachel and Sheri and Cole.



Dana and Matt attempted "Oasis." Dana grew overheated, tired and dehydrated, however, when they finished the task, they got to drink some camels' milk.



None of the teams beat the camels on their first try in "Races," except for Brodie and Kurt. Tyler and Korey defeated the camels on their second try. Burnie and Ashley thought it was so tough that they decided to switch tasks. Zach and Rachel switched as well because Rachel has a fear of traveling fast on a bike.

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Brodie and Kurt finished the Detour in first place. They were then followed by Tyler and Korey, Dana and Matt, Burnie and Ashley, Zach and Rachel, and finally Sheri and Cole.



The teams then learned they must make their way to Aquaventure, a large waterpark. Sheri and Cole got lost driving again.



Brodie and Kurt got to the waterpark in first place. All the teams in the middle were right on each other's heels, but Sheri and Cole arrived in dead last.



It then became time for one member from each team to complete a Roadblock task.



For the Roadblock, the participating Racers had to enter a 750,000-gallon tank full of sharks, pick up a puzzle underwater, and then return to the surface to solve it.



Brodie attempted the Roadblock as well as Dana, Korey, Burnie, Zach and Cole.



Brodie really struggled with the puzzle, so he asked Kurt if they could use their Express Pass to skip over it. Kurt agreed and so the guys left in first place. Behind them were Burnie and Ashley, Tyler and Korey, Zach and Rachel, Dana and Rachel, and Sheri and Cole.



The teams then proceeded to Poseidon's Revenge, a new scary waterslide they had to go down.



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Dana and Matt got lost on their way to the Pit Stop and bickered like crazy. Dana called Matt "psychotic" and yelled that she'd never want to do something like this with him again. Matt wasn't really phased by his girlfriend's lashing out because it was due to the stress of the Race.



Brodie and Kurt finished the leg in first place. For arriving at the Pit Stop before any of the other teams, the two guys won a trip to Finland.



Burnie and Ashley claimed second place by a matter of seconds. Tyler and Korey finished in third place, followed by Zach and Rachel in fourth, Dana and Matt in fifth, and then Sheri and Cole in sixth -- and last -- place.



About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS 's "Mother and Son" team Sheri LaBrant and Cole LaBrant survived a non-elimination leg during Friday night's broadcast of the CBS reality competition's 28th season.Sheri and Cole were declared safe even though they arrived at the Race's eighth Pit Stop at the Old Souq Station in Dubai in last place. During the next leg, the pair must complete an additional Speed Bump task as a consequence. This marked the second time the pair has been saved this season."Newlyweds" Zach King and Rachel King were the first to depart for this leg at 10:39PM. They were then followed by "Dating Couple" Burnie Burns and Ashley Jenkins at 10:42PM, "Best Friends" Kurt Gibson and Brodie Smith at 10:45PM, "Dating Couple" Dana Borriello and Matt Steffanina at 10:52PM, Sheri and Cole 11:21PM, and finally "Best Friends" Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl at 1:17AM.The teams' first set of clues instructed them to fly to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates and then find a remote camp outside the city. All six teams hopped on the same flight together.Sheri and Cole missed the first exit off the highway and Cole asked her not to be such a negative person.Tyler and Korey found the camp in first place and picked up their companion for the leg, a Travelocity gnome. They were soon followed by Zach and Rachel, Burnie and Ashley, Brodie and Kurt, Dana and Matt and finally Sheri and Cole.It then became time for the teams to complete one of two possible Detour tasks: "Races" or "Oasis.""Races" required the teams to go head to head on a bicycle against a racing camel, which could reach speeds of 40mph. Pedaling in the extreme heat, both team members had to cross the finish line before the camels to win their next clue. If not, they'd get a head start on their second try."Oasis" required the teams to walk across the open desert as they led four camels about one mile to a nearby camp for their daily exercise and next clue.Brodie and Kurt's vehicle got stuck in the sand, so they had to dig it and push it out. Meanwhile, Zach and Rachel drove past the location of the "Races" Detour task.The teams who opted to try "Races" were Brodie and Kurt, Tyler and Korey, Burnie and Ashley, Zach and Rachel and Sheri and Cole.Dana and Matt attempted "Oasis." Dana grew overheated, tired and dehydrated, however, when they finished the task, they got to drink some camels' milk.None of the teams beat the camels on their first try in "Races," except for Brodie and Kurt. Tyler and Korey defeated the camels on their second try. Burnie and Ashley thought it was so tough that they decided to switch tasks. Zach and Rachel switched as well because Rachel has a fear of traveling fast on a bike.Brodie and Kurt finished the Detour in first place. They were then followed by Tyler and Korey, Dana and Matt, Burnie and Ashley, Zach and Rachel, and finally Sheri and Cole.The teams then learned they must make their way to Aquaventure, a large waterpark. Sheri and Cole got lost driving again.Brodie and Kurt got to the waterpark in first place. All the teams in the middle were right on each other's heels, but Sheri and Cole arrived in dead last.It then became time for one member from each team to complete a Roadblock task.For the Roadblock, the participating Racers had to enter a 750,000-gallon tank full of sharks, pick up a puzzle underwater, and then return to the surface to solve it.Brodie attempted the Roadblock as well as Dana, Korey, Burnie, Zach and Cole.Brodie really struggled with the puzzle, so he asked Kurt if they could use their Express Pass to skip over it. Kurt agreed and so the guys left in first place. Behind them were Burnie and Ashley, Tyler and Korey, Zach and Rachel, Dana and Rachel, and Sheri and Cole.The teams then proceeded to Poseidon's Revenge, a new scary waterslide they had to go down.After Brodie and Kurt courageously went down the slide, they headed across the creek in a water taxi to Old Souq Station, the leg's Pit Stop where host Phil Keoghan was waiting. Brodie and Kurt got a little lost trying to find the water taxi, so it was a footrace to the finish.Dana and Matt got lost on their way to the Pit Stop and bickered like crazy. Dana called Matt "psychotic" and yelled that she'd never want to do something like this with him again. Matt wasn't really phased by his girlfriend's lashing out because it was due to the stress of the Race.Brodie and Kurt finished the leg in first place. For arriving at the Pit Stop before any of the other teams, the two guys won a trip to Finland.Burnie and Ashley claimed second place by a matter of seconds. Tyler and Korey finished in third place, followed by Zach and Rachel in fourth, Dana and Matt in fifth, and then Sheri and Cole in sixth -- and last -- place. THE AMAZING RACE 28 MORE THE AMAZING RACE 28 NEWS << PRIOR STORY

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The world's first solar-powered resort has just been launched. According to Elle Decor, Maldives is now home to a breathtaking resort that shouldn't worry guests when it comes to electricity and power.

Club Med recently launched its solar-powered venue that spans 13 acres of island which includes Finolhu Villas. The megawatt of power at the resort can accommodate 100 guests and 100 staff members combined.

To ensure that the resort will look as breathtaking as people have imagined it to be, the solar panels were designed to look as if they are part of the resort's layout.

Meanwhile, the solar panels are not the only ones that contribute to the beauty of Club Med. Each of the rooms has also been carefully designed to use as little electrical supply as possible.

For instance, the windows found in each of the bedrooms are directly situated where more wind and air could pass through it compared to the warm rays of the sun. This means that guests can enjoy the coolness and breeze of the nearby ocean without having to worry about turning the air-con on.

While speaking with the publication, architect Yuji Yamazaki said, "It is impossible to recreate nature, but was tried our best. When you have a beautiful and unique site like this, you want to just preserve it. Hopefully our new landscape will seamlessly blend with what was there before."

Now that you know of a breathtaking resort in Maldives and know too that is solar-powered and safe for the environment, what are you waiting for? Make sure to consider staying at this resort for more than a day or two. The prices at Club Med are pretty reasonable as well which means you can get first-class amenities and services without breaking the bank.

So wait no longer and book that flight to Maldives now!
Real estate sector is one of the key drivers in China's economic growth and its recent gains contributed to an increase in the country's economy in the first quarter of 2016.

According to a Bloomberg report, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China's real estate industry output saw a 9.1 percent increase in the first three months of the year, while the construction sector rose 7.8 percent compared to last year's figures. The surge is largely attributed to surging home prices and property investment.

While the increase in the property sector helped drive the country's economy, experts are still keeping an eye on the debt-driven expansion on whether it can prove to be sustainable for the government's growth target of 7 percent.

Bloomberg quoted Zhou Hao, an economist at Commerzbank AG in Singapore, saying that, "Growth is still under pressure and the economy remains fundamentally weak."

Home prices in the country jumped to record highs, with Shenzhen seeing 62 percent climb in new homes prices and Shanghai recording a 25 percent increase, Bloomberg noted.

To help cool down the red-hot market, which is driven by investors seeking safe haven for their money due to China's economic turmoil, Chinese cities have been introducing housing measures. Following the latest increase in new house prices, Shanghai has limited the eligibility of buyers to acquire properties. Shenzhen and Nanjing last month introduced property curbs by increasing the required down payment and the number of years being employed in the country, as previously covered here on Realty Today.

Shenzhen raised the deposit requirements for first-time homebuyers who secured mortgages in the past two years and for some second-home buyers from 30 percent to 40 percent down payment. Nanjing increased the minimum down payment required from 20-25 percent to 30 percent for second-time buyers who apply for mortgages twice.
Twenty-six fraternities are a part of the Interfraternity Council at the University of Georgia. Several of the chapters, both locally and nationally, are devoted to awarding various scholarships to incoming freshmen students, current fraternity members or UGA students.
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By Nathan Solis of the Redding Record Searchlight

Shasta County's Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will hear a presentation on a proposed law to create a state conservancy in the North State.

Senate Bill 1396, the Inner Coast Range Conservancy Act, introduced in February, would establish a state conservancy that would cover an area from Siskiyou County south to Napa County and would include portions of Solano, Tehama and Shasta County.

California currently has 10 conservancies, including the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, which includes portions of eastern Shasta County.

SB1396 proposes creating a conservancy to help the tourism and agriculture industries, while also protecting and improving water supply and air quality. The conservancy would cooperate with local agencies seeking grant funding or provide loans to public agencies, nonprofit or tribal organizations.

An 11 member board would oversee the conservancy, including the Secretary of Natural Resources, three public members appointed by the Governor, one public member appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly and one public member appointed by the Senate Rules Committee. One member for each of the four subregions would also be part of the board, and that could include the Shasta County supervisor whose district includes the western region.

Currently that supervisor is Leonard Moty who requested the presentation be made to the board on Tuesday. Moty understands the non-regulatory body would allow the region to access funds that may otherwise not be available.

"It's going to give the region access to fund their projects that the stakeholders want to do, and not what the government wants to do," said Moty.

Other areas mentioned in the senate bill include projects to reduce wildfire risk and conserving the region's resources, but the specifics of those goals is not included in the documents.

The conservancy would not regulate land use issues, but could act as a mediator on behalf of a land owner, and that interest could extend to land conservation easements.

Much of the proposed conservancy is modeled after the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and would share similar geographical locations, like the Cascades and other rural mountain areas.

Brittany Covich, communications manager with the conservancy, said the Sierra Nevada agency has awarded over $51 million for projects to improve watershed health in the region, which includes a regional strategy. Other projects include the Great Sierra River Cleanup and forest management.

The conservancy proposal will be presented to the board on Tuesday, where they can ask about what shape the conservancy would take in the area. Already the Lake County Board of Supervisors has show support for the proposed conservancy.

Three additional presentations to the board will be on the agenda, including recognition of volunteers with the Shasta County Sheriff's Office and an update on the Riverland Signature Park and Farm project in Redding.

The last presentation will come from Children's Services Branch Director Dianna Wagner, who will discuss the process of reporting child abuse or neglect in Shasta County. The presentation will describe steps an investigator could take and how many referrals were received earlier this year that resulted in law enforcement or county intervention.

If You Go

What: Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting.

When: 9 a.m., Tuesday.

Where: Board of Supervisors Chambers, 1450 Court St. in Redding.
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Water wars in the West have existed since gold rush days. Mark Twain said it best: "Water is for fighting. Whiskey is for drinking."

Storage dams, reservoirs, canals, ditches and tunnels have been built all over the West to serve agriculture, mining and domestic water supplies for nearly 175 years. The massive water systems in California were planned in the 1930s (6 million population ), built in the decades between 1940 (7 million ) and 1965 (population 18 million ). Most of the major projects were completed more than 50 years ago to serve a fraction of the 40 million population that exists today.

Consider the relationship of highway infrastructure improvements built within the past 50 years relative to water storage and distribution systems not built. Think about all north-south traffic confined to Highway 99 through downtown Redding in 1960 relative to Interstate 5 built in 1965.

Water shortages, conservation measures, fish release demands, reduced hydro power production, fallowed agriculture lands, over-pumping of ground water, land subsidence and many acre feet of water preserved for environmental purposes, fish and endangered species have been unrealistically accepted as a way of life to accept in the future. California's population projections are 60 million in 2050.

Tree rings in Oregon and California documented from 1560 show evidence of 10- 20-year periods of drought and wet cycles. The 1976 -77, 1987 -92, 2007-09 dry years resulted in draw down to less than 3 million acre feet from the total capacity of 11.5 million acre feet capacity in the four large reservoirs in our area. These dry cycles are substantially shorter than those recorded in the past.

We have had a more "normal" winter this year. Three reservoirs in our area, Shasta, Oroville and Folsom, are once again full. Trinity is still 85 feet below the crest, but with the above-normal snow pack still in the mountains, it should continue to rise.

The consequence of full reservoirs is that no storage remains to capture extra water in the reservoirs. Estimates of the water "lost" this year down the Sacramento River is 500,000 to 700,000 acre feet. If these current excess flows could have been diverted and stored, it is conceivable future irrigation seasons could be extended several months and water rationing demands reduced.

Relief is in sight if construction of the long delayed Sites Reservoir west of Maxwell occurs. Northern California Congressmen Doug LaMalfa and John Garamendi introduced HR 1060 to help fund an 1.8 million acre feet off-stream reservoir in a dry valley to store flood flows from the Sacramento River. Downstream diversions from the river near Red Bluff would use some of the existing canals to the Sites Reservoir. The cost of this reservoir is estimated at $3 billion to $4 billion.

Raising the water level of Shasta 18.5 feet to provide an additional 634,000 acre feet has been considered for years. Costs in excess of $1 billion, relocation of existing infrastructure, residences, businesses, high costs and environmental issues have been noted as serious problems to overcome. Consequently, the costs per acre foot of additional water to be made available with construction of Sites Reservoir site is a fraction of the cost of raising Shasta Dam and preserves homes, businesses and infrastructure around Shasta Lake.

It is obvious the population of California will increase. It is also obvious the demand for water will increase. Current conservation measures will help but can't close the rapidly growing gap between demand and supply.

Mark Twain's foresight of the future problems in the West are even more critical to reconsider today. Do we have the ability to sensibly address our water problems today ?

Alan Hill lives in Redding.
More than Indian exporters, it is Indian business families based in Sri Lanka and Hong Kong which have exploited the Bangladesh advantage

It has been 12 years since Gurgaon-based and BSE-listed Pearl Global Industries set up a garment manufacturing unit in Bangladesh. The company, which has 4,000 machines across four factories in the neighbouring country, is planning to double its capacity in the next three years.

Chennai-based Ambattur Clothing Co has two units in Bangladesh which employ 8,000 people. It supplies clothes to brands such as Zara, Gap and Taylor. While the units in Bangladesh account for 60 per cent of the companys business, Chennai accounts for only 15 per cent.

Orient Craft, a Delhi-based garment exporter which employs 32,000 people, has so far stayed away from Bangladesh. Now, even Orient Craft is thinking of setting up a unit in Bangladesh.

As Indias garment exports stagnate at $17 billion a year, Bangladeshs apparel exports are growing at double digits and are likely to touch $27 billion this year, say Indian exporters. Indias garment exports were $15.49 billion between April and February 2015-16, up only 1.5 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

Between July 2015 and February 2016, Bangladesh clocked $18.12 billion in apparel exports, growing by 9.52 per cent over the corresponding period last year. For the past four months, its exports have been between $2.2 billion and $2.6 billion per month.

Bangladesh overtook India in 2008 and its share of world trade began to climb from 2010 (4.19 per cent vs Indias 3.16 per cent). Interestingly, Indias share of the world trade in garments increased from 3 per cent in 2000 to 3.78 per cent in 2010.

In 2014, Indias share was 3.67 per cent while Bangladeshs share was 5.09 per cent, according to WTO data on clothing exports as of October 2015.

We were among cheapest source of manufacturing. For about eight years, we were sitting pretty, thinking who will dislodge us, says a senior executive with a large Indian garments exporter.

The government is not willing to do much (like bilateral trade deals with EU and others to drive competitiveness). If we cant beat them, join them, says Sudhir Dhingra, founder & chairman, Orient Craft.

Isnt Orient Craft already late for Bangladesh? In India, we can grow from Rs 1,800 crore to Rs 2,000 crore. But if my aspirations are to grow faster, I have to look at low-cost production bases, which enjoy duty advantage, he says. The search for cheaper production bases is driven by retailers who are constantly looking for ways to cut costs.

Exporters are shifting to Bangladesh as buyers want it. Bangladesh offers ease of doing business, importing-exporting is faster. R&D on new styles is faster as you can import fabrics in three days. In India, it would take 10 days. The more samples and styles you produce, the better the chances you stand to get an order, says Vijay Mathur, additional secretary general, Apparel Export Promotion Council.

Ambattur has units in countries like Bahrain and Jordan, apart from Bangladesh. Pearl Global has units in Indonesia, Bangladesh and one coming up in Myanmar.

Every country offers a unique advantage. Indonesia is good at garments made with silk and fine fabrics while Taiwan, being closer to China, takes lesser time to execute orders, says Deepak Seth, group chairman, Pearl Global.

But not many Indian exporters have been able to set up bases in Bangladesh or elsewhere because a majority of them are small-time players. Only three-four Indian garment exporters do business in excess of $150 million.

Indian exporters have been losing their competitive edge; they no longer cater to the mass-market, and have capacity which is utilised for only four-five months in a year. Net margins of four-five per cent leave them with very little to invest in fresh capacity abroad.

No wonder, more than Indian exporters, it is Indian business families based in Sri Lanka and Hong Kong which have exploited the Bangladesh advantage. These include Hong Kong-based groups like Must Garments, Epic Garments and Sri Lanka-based groups like Brandix, MAS Holdings and Hydramani Groups.

Why Bangladesh exports do well

Of course, its biggest advantage is duty-free exports to markets like the European Union, Japan, Australia and Canada under a preferential tariff system called Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), which provides an exemption from the more general rules of the WTO. Garment exports from India to Europe attract an import duty of 11-12 per cent.

Apparel-manufacturing is a labour intensive industry. And labour cost in Bangladesh is 25 per cent lower than India. A skilled worker in India, with two-hours of overtime, costs $200-$225 a month, while a similar worker in Bangladesh is available for $140-150 a month.

Labour is not just cheap, but also highly skilled - garment exports account for 82 per cent of Bangladeshs total exports. Its single-largest industry in Bangladesh, and enjoys high priority. If there are any issues like strikes, they are quickly resolved, says Deepak Seth, chairman, Pearl Global.

The fact that many of Bangladeshs top politicians and bureaucrats own these businesses has also helped the industry immensely.

Earlier, power cost was 50 per cent lower than India due to abundance of gas, but that difference has come down. Theres still some difference as boilers, generators and vehicles run on gas. Oil has come down to $40/barrel, but in India government is still increasing fuel prices, says an Indian exporter.

Its all about focus. In India, when you have consecutive holidays, like this week, the Customs is closed. In Bangladesh, it is open 24x7 throughout the year. Even if you have strikes, vehicles ferrying garments enjoy exemptions, says Dhingra.

Also, provident fund or medical cover for workers is not statutory in Bangladesh. Working conditions are also poorer than India. A recent study by US brands found that only 24 of the 700 factories inspected met international safety standards.

Indias loss of opportunity is huge

Thanks to the duty disadvantage and higher costs, India became uncompetitive. It has vacated the mass-market for garments (shirts, trousers) and now largely plays in the fashion segment for value-added garments, like embroidery or in garments which need a lot of handwork, or premium garments that cost upwards of $15.

Growth in garment industry can add a lot of jobs but exporters feel the government is oblivious to the opportunity.

One way to drive competitiveness is to go for bilateral agreements with key countries, seeking duty-free exports. Trade agreements are very important. One has been hearing about a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU for ten years, but some industries want protection, says Seth of Pearl Global.

The Indo-EU FTA got side-tracked, thanks to lobbying by the automobile and wine industry, who forced the government to not sign the agreement, rues another exporter.

A bilateral agreement with European Union, which links foreign investment from EU to duty-free exports of garments from India, can grow exports to Europe 3-4 times to $24 billion-$26 billion in three years, from $9 billion today, says Dhingra.

Consider the potential: Maruti Udyog, with sales of Rs 48,605 crore, employs only 12,900 people while Orient Craft with Rs 1,800 crore sales employs 32,000 people. With exports of $16 billion, the garment industry employs about 37 million people. A majority of these are uneducated people, mostly women, who are trained for 90-days and can earn Rs 12,000-Rs 15,000 a month.



The Chinese saw it 60 years back: Either you create jobs or give them doles. They chose to subsidise labour-intensive jobs, says Dhingra. At $117 billion, Chinese garment exports are nearly seven times that of India.
'Genuine secularism cannot be built on the backs of Hindus alone.'

'In a pluralistic society every religion is duty bound to respect the rights and sentiments of the others.'

'Vande Mataram was a casualty of minorityism. Bharat Mata Ki Jai cannot be allowed to go the same way,' argues Vivek Gumaste.

At the outset the vociferous and self-righteous indignation expressed by the left liberal lobby vis-a-vis the ostensibly jingoistic Bharat Mata Ki Jai controversy (kept simmering by recent happenings like Baba Ramdev's emotional outburst and anti-India slogans at NIT, Srinagar) seems to contain an element of truth and rationality; a much needed restraint to a rabid nationalism gone amok.

But pause for a moment, rewind the tape and re-run it in slow motion to comprehend the full details of the imbroglio and another perspective emerges: A picture that conclusively demolishes the unsavory image of an ugly aggressive and near fascist nationalism in ascendancy that is being projected to malign the current government.

First, let us analyse the genesis of this cantankerous debate. As a patriotic (not jingoistic) Indian, how do you respond when some fellow citizens threaten the destruction of your country with vituperative slogans like this:

Bharat Tere Tukde Honge.

Bharat ki barbadi tak Kashmir ki azadi tak jung karenge jung karenge.

Do you maintain a studied silence, tuck your tail under your rump and slink away like a coward? Or do you condone this vitriol under the pretence of freedom of speech?

The answer is neither. Nationalists have responded in the best possible way: by countering these noxious calls with a cry that celebrates Indian nationhood: Bharat Mata Ki Jai.

So let us be clear: The current controversy did not erupt in a vacuum; it is not a de novo phenomenon or a manufactured brouhaha engineered by nationalists to demean a community. It is and was a controversy deliberately thrust upon the government and nationalists.

And the controversy is being perpetuated by continued provocation: Inflammatory statements by Muslim leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi, fatwas by fanatic religious clerics and the happenings at NIT Srinagar where India's defeat in the T20 semi-final was allegedly celebrated with incendiary anti-India slogans.

Unprovoked, raucous rants of triumphalism can be dubbed as jingoism not courageous rebuttals to florid in your face treason. This qualifies as acceptable nationalism.

Next, we need to parse the phrase Bharat Mata Ki Jai objectively for any pejorative content. 'Bharat' is the traditional name of India, 'Mata' means mother and 'Jai' stands for victory.

There is nothing remotely religious about this invocation. Note there is no specific reference to any Hindu deity. Hindu scriptures do not allude to Bharat Mata and she is not worshipped in Hindu temples.

Strictly and accurately speaking, Bharat Mata is not a Hindu God, but an exalted personification of the motherland.

And unlike the controversy surrounding Vande Matram (which I feel is also unjustified) wherein the word 'Vande' may be open to misinterpretation as a godly pean, there is not even a sliver of ambiguity in this phrase. It does not contain any word akin to 'worship.'

Moreover, the word 'Jai' is acceptable to Muslims as they have indicated that they have no qualms about saying Jai Hind.

Collectively the phrase stands for 'Victory to Mother India' and as the above analysis indicates there is nothing religiously objectionable about it.

What appears to be the sticking point is the pictorial depiction of Bharat Mata as the Goddess Durga draped in a saffron sari astride a lion and carrying the Indian Tricolour. This, however, must be seen as a Hindu interpretation; an inherent Hindu attribute that confers godliness in every universal element: The sun, the moon, the air and the earth.

But Muslims need not subscribe to the Hindu interpretation of Bharat Mata as a goddess. They can bypass the Hindu interpretation and focus strictly on the textual denotation that simply means 'Victory to Mother India,' a secular phrase not in conflict with any religion.

To charge that nationalistic assertions represent 'the substitution of a new politics of intimidation in place of India's more organic politics of persuasion' (The Hindu, Editorial, March 19) is to miss the forest for the trees.

In fact, it is the other way around. By repeated refusal to chant the harmless slogan Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Muslims are not asserting their religious rights, but indulging in minorityism: A phenomenon unique to India wherein the minority holds the numerical majority hostage to get its way. This is precisely why the concept of majoritarianism is not applicable to India.

How Jana Gana Mana became our national anthem over Vande Mataram is a classic example of notorious minorityism. Both Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, indisputable secular icons, preferred Vande Matram.

In an article (Harijan, July 1, 1939) Gandhi wrote: 'No matter what its source was and how and when it was composed, it had become a most powerful battle cry among Hindus and Musalmans of Bengal during the partition days. As a lad, when I knew nothing of Ananda Math or even Bankim, its immortal author, Vande Mataram had gripped me, and when I first heard it sung it had enthralled me. I associated the purest national spirit with it. It never occurred to me that it was a Hindu song or meant only for Hindus.'

Nehru concurred with Gandhi. In a statement to the legislative committee of the Constituent Assembly (August 25, 1948) he said: 'It is unfortunate that some kind of argument has arisen as between Vande Mataram and Jana Gana Mana. Vande Mataram is obviously and indisputably the premier national song of India and intimately connected with our struggle for freedom. That position it is bound to retain and no other song can displace it.'

Yet they chose to negate their own convictions and thrust aside the majority opinion to anoint Jana Gana Mana as the national anthem in deference to Muslim sentiments.

Genuine secularism cannot be built on the backs of Hindus alone. In a pluralistic society every religion, big or small is duty bound to respect the rights and sentiments of the others. Vande Mataram was a casualty of minorityism. Bharat Mata ki Jai cannot be allowed to go the same way.
'Everything was sacrosanct when the BJP was led by Vajpayee and Advani.'

'That was a different culture. But with Modi and Amit Shah nothing is sacrosanct.'

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with BJP candidates at an election rally at Barpeta Road, Assam. Photograph: PTI

"Remember that picture of Narendra Modi taking stock of the flood situation in Chennai or the one which was in circulation where Modi was sweeping the floor that surfaced just before the May 2014 Lok Sabha election?"

"Any other self respecting politician would have fired his media head responsible for such photoshopped pictures, but this man (Narendra Modi) didn't utter a word, which means that the act had this man's sanction."

"No self-respecting person would get his images photoshopped and flashed the world over. So, what kind of politics is he practicing?"

Prodyut Bora, an IIM-A alumnus, who worked with the Bharatiya Janata Party for 11 years before resigning from its national executive, calling its national president Amit Shah 'arrogant' floated the Liberal Democratic Party in Assam, which contested 14 seats in the Assam assembly election.

Bora, (seen, below), who contested two seats from Jorhat and East Guwahati, spoke to Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com about the election scene in his home state.

How many seats will your party win this election?

I think we will open an account. We barely started our party a year ahead of the polls and we started from absolute scratch.

We are not a movement-based party like the Anna Hazare movement, which led to the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Why just 14 seats in a state that has 126 seats up for grabs?

These 14 seats are spread all across the state and why only 14? Because we had three filters that we wanted every candidate to pass through to be able to get the LDP's candidature.

The three Cs through which we filtered all the candidates are: Character, Capability and Commitment to social causes.

And we could find only 14 who could satisfy all the three Cs.

How much money did your party spend to contest your debut election in Assam?

The party is not funding anybody. All these 14 candidates are self-funded. We have requested all our candidates to run a very frugal campaign.

We strongly believe that throwing money to win elections doesn't bring out success and the elections in Bihar and Delhi has amply proved it.

Also, creating media hype does not translate into votes.

(Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji tried both these things in Bihar and Delhi, but failed to win the people's trust.

We told our candidates that the times are changing and not to depend on conventional ways of contesting elections using money and media hype.

We advised them to be frugal and all of them ran a very frugal contest.

We formed a dance group in Assam to spread the LDP's message, calling it 'Dance For Democracy.' This dance group really helped us connect with young voters in Assam.

A very young group of college students took our message for integrity and morality in politics across the state through the Dance For Democracy initiative.

How do you read the election scene in Assam? Who do you think will emerge the single largest party?

Let me tell you one thing: The BJP is not coming to power in Assam for sure.

Beyond that, this is an open question and all kinds of permutations and combinations will be thrown up after the election.

But the BJP with such an opportunistic alliance will be rejected by the people.

Who are you calling the opportunist here: The Bharatiya Janata Party or the Asom Gana Parishad?

At every given opportunity the AGP would criticise the BJP and still they go ahead and form an alliance with the BJP and then they (the AGP) call off the alliance saying they (the BJP) do not treat them with honour.

Then, just a week after that, they once again formalise their alliance.

If this is not opportunistic behaviour, then what is? All these games are going on in full public glare.

You saw what happened in Bihar. Narendra Modi tied up with (Upendra) Kushwaha (of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and is a minister of state in the Narendra Modi government) after breaking up with Nitish Kumar's JD-U (Janata Dal-United) in Bihar also in a clearly opportunistic way.

The BJP thought that Kushwaha will get all the OBC and SC votes into their kitty. But did that happen? And then they got in (Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlees-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) Owaisi from Hyderabad. These are all opportunistic games, but the electorate is not fools.

How many seats do you think the BJP and Congress will win in Assam?

Why do you want me to play the role of an astrologer?

I have read the election scene in Assam, but I would rather keep the numbers to myself.

But I can say this with confidence that the BJP is not coming to power. And, like in the past, the Congress will cobble together yet another opportunistic alliance (to stay in power).

Are you suggesting an alliance between the Congress and Badruddin Ajmal's All India United Democratic Front in case no party comes up the winner?

If a party like the BJP, which was formed to oppose Article 370 (which gives special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir) can sew an alliance with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's People's Democratic Party to share power in Jammu and Kashmir, what will stop either the Congress or the BJP to tie up with the AIUDF to share the spoils of power?

You are hinting at the BJP and AIUDF coming together in a post poll hung assembly scenario.

My goodness! Tell me one thing.

Dr Syama Prasad Mookherjee started the Jan Sangh on just one issue: Abrogation of Article 370 and opposing Nehru's special status to Kashmir via this Article. In all its 65 years of existence as the Jan Sangh and BJP they have opposed Article 370 tooth and nail. And now they are in an alliance with the PDP which is an open supporter of Article 370.

Will the BJP not show the same opportunism in Assam? You tell me!

A party which is formed in response to Article 370, which they still consider an article of faith, and they go ahead and tie up with the PDP in Kashmir.

So, nothing is sacrosanct when it comes to sharing power?

Everything was sacrosanct when the BJP was led by (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and (Lalchand Kishenchand) Advani. That was a different culture. But with Modi and Amit Shah nothing is sacrosanct.

How has this culture changed under Modi and Amit Shah?

Power hungry people do it all the time.

If you can photoshop your picture... Remember that picture of Narendra Modi taking stock of the flood situation in Chennai or the one which was in circulation where Modi was sweeping the floor that surfaced just before the May 2014 Lok Sabha election?

Any other self respecting politician would have fired his media head responsible for such photoshopped pictures but this man didn't utter a word, which means that the act had this man's sanction.

No self respecting person would get his images photoshopped and flashed the world over. So, what kind of politics is he practicing?

Do you see the AIUDF playing the role of a kingmaker as many in the Congress and BJP are now discussing in hushed tones?

Since you are asking me, let me tell you that the AIUDF is not really a political party.

The AIUDF is a cover to protect the business interests of a particular individual.

Badruddin Ajmal runs a perfume empire, which pretty much is a cash business. And this business needs the blessings of the party in power in Delhi.

He would have had a deal going with the Congress were they in power at the Centre.

Now, since the BJP is in power he will have a deal with the BJP.

Do you think the AIUDF will be the kingmakers in Assam?

I doubt it because Badruddin Ajmal is losing in stature. In the last three elections he has just created the fear of god within the immigrant Muslim community by making them feel insecure about their safety under the Congress or the BJP.

But didn't Amit Shah promise at rally after rally that if the BJP came to power in Assam, it will not even let a bird fly from across the border?

The more Amit Shah makes such kind of statements, he gives people like Ajmal a chance to go to immigrant Muslims and make them feel insecure and unsafe just so that he gets their votes.

Ajmal is already saying the BJP at the Centre is bad enough and if they come to power in Assam then these immigrants would have it.

You can win elections by communalising the atmosphere once, twice or thrice, but after that the law of diminishing returns catches up with you.

I think the AIUDF's strength in the Assam assembly would reduce instead of increasing.

Post the election results, whatever the number of seats you win, you will not ally with either the Congress or the BJP?

We don't want to (ally with either party).

You don't want to, but will you succumb to political compulsions after the election results are out and there emerges a chance for the LDP to be part of the government?

There is no political compulsion in front of us.

Nobody has grown by being part of the Congress or the BJP. We will be part of the Opposition and we will perform the role of a strong Opposition.

One day or the other people will accept us.

Through the '80s and '90s the BJP, before Atalji became prime minister, played the role of a strong Opposition in Parliament despite its small presence. Later, people wanted an alternative and voted it to power.

That's the role democracy plays: You prove your role in the Opposition first and then people do consider you for being in the government.
'People with vested interests in the BJP don't want the Patels to get reservation.'

'Only 30 per cent Patels are well to do; the rest are in a poor state. This fight is for the 70 per cent.'

A Jail Bharo Andolan call has been given by Lalji Patel, national president of the Sardar Patel Group, one of the prominent groups seeking Other Backward Class status for the Patel community.

The Patels seek reservation for their community and the immediate release of their young leader Hardik Patel, who is in jail since October 2015 on sedition charges.

As the andolan (movement) turned violent on Saturday, April 16, in Mehsana, Lalji Patel received head injuries in the police action that followed.

From his hospital bed, he spoke to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com

Reproduced in first person.

On Saturday, the Patel community decided to hold a march. Everything was going on peacefully. I don't know how the violence erupted. I feel some anti-social elements created a disturbance, I don't know who they were.

We had elders from the community leading the march. There were women and young boys present as well, so there was no question of them resorting to violence.

But it happened, and I have no idea who is behind it. The police reacted with a lathi-charge, and I got hit in the head.

Some leaders in the (Bharatiya Janata Party) government do not want this andolan to end, hence it is still going on.

The BJP has given reservation to Jats in Haryana, but not us.

People with vested interests in the BJP do not want the Patels to get reservation.

Only 30 per cent Patels are well to do; the rest are in a poor state. This fight is for the 70 per cent.

Patels don't get government jobs and there is no reservation for them in education either.

The agricultural farms owned by the Patels are not producing enough and it is a complete loss of business. Moreover, as our community has grown, there is no land left for individual Patels.

For example, if a Patel has two sons, then the land gets divided between them. Then those two sons have their children and the land gets divided further, so there is no land left for individual Patels.

We don't have any other option, but to get reservation in jobs.

We have been talking about this with the BJP government, but there is no result yet.

There are eight to nine states in India, for example Haryana and Tamil Nadu, where reservation is more than 50 per cent. So, we feel why shouldn't the Patels too have it?

It is sad that we have a Patel as the chief minister of Gujarat (Anandiben Patel), but she has forgotten about us after assuming office.

She has abandoned our cause. It is only during elections that every political party talks about reservation to the Patels and then forgets about it after they win the election.

The BJP will lose heavily in the next Gujarat election because they have neglected the Patels.

IMAGE: Police use force against members of the Patel ommunity during a 'jail bharo andolan' demanding Hardik Patel's release in Mehsana, Gujarat. Photograph: PTI Photo
Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Vijay Goel on Monday violated the odd-even scheme following which he was fined Rs 2,000 by the traffic police even as Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai visited his residence earlier requesting him to refrain from breaking rules by offering roses.

Goel was challaned near Raisina Road, on his way to Parliament. The BJP leader was also fined an additional Rs 1,500 for driving without licence and vehicle insurance.

On Friday, Goel had announced that he would violate odd-even rules on Monday in protest against "huge expenditure" incurred by the Aam Aadmi Party government on advertisements, regarding the scheme, for its "political posturing."

"I have been imposed the fine of 2,000 for violating odd-even rules. Besides, I have been slapped fine of Rs 1,500 for driving without licence and vehicle insurance," Goel said.

He later clarified that his driving licence and insurance papers were with his drivers.

"On my way to Parliament in an odd numbered car to expose #oddevencorruption of AAP. Successful protest against #oddevencorruption, a scheme wid Maximum publicity & minimum effect (sic)," Goel tweeted.

The Rajya Sabha MP asked the Delhi government to disclose the amount spent on advertisements. Goel said his protest was against "political posturing" by the AAP which he alleged is using odd-even scheme's advertising budget to "plaster Kejriwal's photo everywhere".

Noting that the BJP is "never" against any good scheme, he said, "I am for any endeavour that reduces pollution and congestion or brings relief to the people of Delhi."

Transport Minister Gopal Rai had gone to Goel's residence on Monday morning and offered roses to him urging not to violate the scheme.

Image: BJP MP Vijay Goel being presented a rose by Delhi Police official after he violated the odd-even rule as a mark of protest against the scheme during in New Delhi. Image: PTI
Amid thaw in Indo-Pak relations, Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said that the government was hopeful a team of National Investigation Agency will soon visit the neighbouring country to gather evidence in connection with the Pathankot terror attack.

"We are hopeful that a team of NIA will visit Pakistan soon," the Minister of State for Home told reporters in News Delhi.

Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit had indicated last fortnight that Indian investigators may not be allowed to visit Pakistan to pursue the probe in connection with the Pathankot attack.

However, India countered it by saying that before the visit of a Pakistani Joint Investigation Team in India last month, both sides had agreed that it would be on the basis of reciprocity.

Official sources said that Pakistan has backtracked from its promise to allow the Indian team's visit there to probe the January 2 Pathankot terror attack case apparently after finding that the NIA has enough evidence to nail ISI's links with terrorists involved in it.

Basit had also said that at present the peace process between India and Pakistan is "suspended".
Playing down Indias decision to sign a logistic agreement with the United States, the Chinese state media on Monday said the proposed deal is stalled because of distrust between the two as India wants to be the most beautiful woman wooed by all, especially Washington and Beijing.

Besides their traditional distrust, the speculation heralding a US-India alliance is also an obvious underestimation of Indias ambition for a role of swing-state between superpowers, an article in the state-run Global Times said as Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar started his first visit to Beijing today for talks with Chinese officials.

The basic idea is that India would like to continue to be the most beautiful woman wooed by all men, notably the two strongest in the house, US and China, the article titled Indo-US strategic distrust stalls LSA signing.

This is not an unfamiliar role to India. We can still recall how its diplomatic manoeuvring had earned itself a special role between the two competing blocs during the Cold War, it said.

Evidently enough, it needs to feel its way forward and try not to agitate China by crossing the bottom line and consequently it declines to discuss the prospect of joint patrols in the South China Sea, despite the obvious interest and much enthusiasm from its American counterpart, it said.

Last week, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter concluded his three-day visit to India and announced he and his Indian counterpart have agreed in-principle that all the issues regarding a Logistics Support Agreement are resolved and both sides would finalise the text in the coming weeks.

Highlighting Indias decision to sign the LSA, the report said: Despite a whole range of strategic issues being covered in the visit, the topic of the logistics agreement itself has triggered speculation among international media that both sides are boarding the same boat to contain China.

In essence, the LSAs purpose is to share military bases for logistical purposes, including refuelling and repair.

Therefore it is very much similar to the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement, a traditional agreement the US has with many of its NATO allies, the article said.

Thats why it has triggered speculation that both sides are moving toward a military alliance arrangement, it said.

In 2007, the US and Sri Lanka signed an ACSA to allow exchange of logistics supplies during peacekeeping missions, humanitarian operations, and joint exercises.

Another article, titled India seeks interests from geopolitical tension, in the daily, said the LSA is drawing the US and India into an undeclared military alliance.

Indias diplomatic manoeuvring risks dampening cooperation among the China-Russia-India triangle and the BRICS, it said but quickly added that tensions between the US and China and Russia in terms of geopolitics have provided India with admirable strategic opportunities.

Although Indian officials and scholars claim there is no change in Indias traditional non-alignment policy and that it will continue its strategic independence, the non-alignment policy under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has far transcended the spirit of non-alignment, it said.

The article claimed Indias foreign policy has entered an era of non-alignment 3.0, featured by three characteristics:

India, instead of maintaining a neutral position, takes sides with countries like the US and Japan in islands and maritime disputes concerning Asia-Pacific security at the risk of escalating confrontation and conflicts in the region, it said.

Second, India shirks its responsibilities and distances itself from China and Russia in dealing with some global problems such as the Middle East conflicts in order to avoid confrontations with the West, it alleged.

(And) finally, it takes advantage of geopolitical conflicts between the US, Japan and China, Russia to gain maximum interests for itself. We hope India wont go too far as a swing power, it said.

India joined the BRICS because it shares consistent interests with China and Russia in building a multi-polar world and a new international rule-making process, it said.

But with the slowdown of BRICS economic growth, some Indian scholars claimed BRICS brings few opportunities to India.

This years BRICS summit is to be held in India. The topics on the table mainly focus on economic and social development, lacking coordination over regional and global affairs.

Geopolitics matters a lot in Indias foreign policy, the article said.

India hopes to counterbalance China through strengthened strategic and security cooperation with countries including Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Its also reinforcing cooperation with the US, it said.
The legendary Kohinoor diamond may never return to India. The government on Monday told the Supreme Court that it cannot force the United Kingdom to return the famous jewel to India since it was neither stolen nor forcibly taken away, but gifted to the British.

As the ownership of the rare diamond continues to exercise Indians, here are some interesting facts about it.

IMAGE: The Kohinoor diamond in the crown on the coffin bearing the Queen Mother back in 2002. Photograph: Sion Touhig/Getty Images

1) The Kohinoor was mined from the Golconda region of Andhra Pradesh during the Kakatiya dynasty's reign.

2) Originally weighing 793 carats, its weight was subsequently reduced over the centuries after it was cut several times. It now weighs around 105 carats.

3) After the subjugation of Punjab in the Second Sikh War in 1849, Duleep Singh, the last Sikh ruler of Punjab, was ordered by the then governor general of India, Lord Dalhousie, to personally hand over the Kohinoor to the British Queen.

4) In 1852, Queen Victoria decided to reshape the diamond and it was cut down to 108.93 carats.

5) After Queen Victorias death, the Kohinoor was set in the crown of Queen Alexandra, the wife of Edward VII, that was used at their coronation in 1902. The diamond was transferred to Queen Mary's crown in 1911, and finally to Queen Elizabeth's crown in 1937. When the Queen Mother died in 2002, it was placed on top of her coffin for the lying-in-state and funeral.

6) The diamond is apparently cursed. A Hindu text dating back to 1306, when the Kohinoors appearance was first recorded, apparently stated that only a woman could wear the stone, and misfortunes would befall any male owner.

7) Its not just India which is demanding the return of the Kohinoor. Pakistan, where the diamond is said to have been surrendered last, too has asked for the possession of the precious stone
For the first time, Tamil Nadus voters have an option apart from voting for the DMK or AIADMK. Also for the first time, they have multiple contenders for the CMs post.

Senior journlist R Rajagopalan, who travelled through Tamil Nadu, says it will be an election of many firsts.

Will Tamil Nadu have a hung assembly?



Or will it have a coalition government, a first for the southern state?



Electioneering in Tamil Nadu has picked up but the voters are confused by the emergence of the third front which, for the first time, has given them a choice apart from Chief Minister Jayalalithas All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and rival M Karunanidhis DMK.

The real fight, as always, is between Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi.

Whatever one may speculate about the emergence of the third front with actor Vijayakanth projected as its CM candidate, the voters choice is either the DMK or AIADMK.



Needless to say, the third front will prove to be a spoiler for Karunanidhi, as it will help consolidate voters in favour of the AIADMK. By cutting into the DMKs votes, Vijayakanth will end up rendering indirect help to Chief Minister Jayalalitha.



Interestingly, the 2016 Tamil Nadu assembly polls have thrown up many firsts.



This reporter, having observed the electoral scene since 1967, and having toured some 35 assembly constituencies cutting across 10 districts over the last 10 days, could see

that election fever has clearly set in over the state.



Political analysts forecast that things will pick up further in the first week of May, the reason being that the entire state is now reeling under a heat wave. Even leaders of political parties are concerned about their cadres dying due to sunstroke. For the first time, Jayalalithas election rallies have seen four deaths from the heat wave.

A clever post-poll strategy adopted by the AIADMK general secretary is to contest all the 234 assembly constituencies on her partys two-leaves symbol, even getting her allies to do so.

But does this mean she foresees a hung house? Or does she apprehend her allies will switch sides after the poll results are out?Does she fear that in the Rajya Sabha her allies would

vote for other party candidates?



The DMK, for the first time, has played its political cards with caution. It stated categorically to its ally the Congress that the post-poll scenario would see a DMK government, no coalition. No berths will be given to the Congress, or to any other poll ally.



With this, the two major political parties have sent out a major message to Tamil Nadus five crore voters. If you want a single-party rule, vote for us.



For the first time, the states voters are faced with five to six chief ministerial candidates; in all the earlier polls they had only two, either Karunanidhi or Jayalalitha. But this time, the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam has put up its chief Vijayakanth, while the Pattali Makkal Katchi has named Anbumani Ramadoss. With a multiplicity of contenders, the voters have

clarity about their choice.



Another interesting development, for the first time, is the rural and urban divide which was never seen earlier in Tamil Nadu. In urban areas the DMKs Karunanidhi has been in a strong position but that theory was demolished by Jayalalitha in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the AIADMK won 37 out of 39 parliamentary seats. This landslide victory eliminated the DMK as a strong opposition party.

The AIADMK, however, is solid in rural areas, thanks to the strong foothold it gained from the pro-poor image of its founder and celluloid titan MGR. Video and audio clips of his films from the mid-1970s are still having a draw in 2016. That encashment of MGR voters continues, with Jayalalitha tapping some 10 to 20 percent of the old voters.



For the first time, too, the state-level parties have been reduced to district parties.



The PMK, a Vanniyar support-based political party which has influence over five districts with 40-45 assembly constituencies, may be termed not as a state party but a district party --

that represents the sentiments of the Vanniyar community.



Voters are certainly a confused lot, especially with the emergence of a third front headed by yesteryear superstar Vijayakanth who is affectionately called the "black MGR". He has 5.5 to 6 percent of the state votes, basically people who fans of his movies. But they are not that politically mature or savvy, just blind followers who think a superhero will do good for the common man.

Vijayakanth has six district-level parties with him in the Peoples Welfare Front. The Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi controls some select pockets, say, covering some 30-40 assembly segments. Similarly, G K Vasans outfit the Tamil Maanila Congress has state-wide cadre support but influence only in a few districts. The Marumalarchi DMK led by Vaiko is a formidable force, but again it does not have a pan-Tamil Nadu organisation but exists only in a few select areas. Vaiko, the architect of the third front, is dead against DMK, especially M K Stalin. But that would obviously benefit Jayalalitha, according to political observers.



The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress, two all-India political parties, for the first time have become irrelevant in Tamil Nadu politics, with the space occupied by them taken over by

the third front of Vijayakanth.



The DMK and AIADMK cadres have also for the first time become violent and restive due to intra-party factions.



For the first time Jayalalitha seems to have been taken back as her authority to select a candidate for a particular constituency was questioned by the cadres revolting against her choice.



Similarly, in the DMK, the MK Stalin group is dominant. The Karunanidhi familys internal problems between Stalin and Kanimozhi have also come out in the open after the DMK announced

its candidates, showing that Karunanidhi has lost control over the DMK organisation.



Both Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha have been addressing poll rallies while seated in a chair, the 68-year-old chief minister doing so for the first time in her political career.

Her rival, the 93-year-old Karunadhi, is confined to a wheelchair. Both the leaders use the ambulift to reach the dais from where they address rallies.



DMDK leader Vijayakanth addresses rallies the conventional way, standing on the podium. But his voice is not very clear and the common man cannot make out the theme and thrust of his speeches. It mostly consists of cheap jokes and one-liners. But he attracts huge crowds.



For the first time, the Sri Lankan Tamil issue is not part of the election campaign even though all parties have shed crocodile tears in their manifesto over the issue.



The young voters of Tamil Nadu, who are either first- or second-time voters, are enthused by the use of social media in the election campaign. Political jokes are flying thick and fast on WhatsApp and Facebook.

For the first time there are 28 news TV channels in Tamil beaming election programmes live. This includes channels owned by the AIADMK, DMK, PMK, DMDK and Congress all of which have their own TV channel.

Election 2016 is certain to throw a challenge to many of the district-based parties like PMK, MDMK and DMDK. Certainly it is a do-or-die situation for both the AIADMK and DMK which are facing a pushback for having ruled for more than 50 years between them.

However, looking at the total picture, it is clear Jayalalitha has an edge over other rivals, including Karunanidhi. Out of 234 assembly seats in the state, she might end up with three digits, say, around 110-120 seats, although she will need more seats to have a comfortable majority.

All other political parties in Tamil Nadu  the DMK, DMDK, MDMK, VKC and Congress -- will have a two-digit tally.

Image: A worker carries a cut-out of DMK chief M Karunanidhi next to that of other political leaders installed for display at Marina beach. Photograph: Babu/Reuters

Senior journalist R Rajagopalan is a keen Tamil Nadu watcher who has been covering the state assembly elections since 1967.
Rescue crews searched desperately through rubble Sunday for survivors of a magnitude-7.8 earthquake that struck coastal Ecuador.

IMAGE: Police uncover the body of a victim after an earthquake struck off Ecuador's Pacific coast, at Tarqui neighborhood in Manta. Photograph: Guillermo Granja/Reuters

The death toll has soared to 246, Ecuadors Vice President Jorge Glas said on Sunday evening on Ecuador TV. At least 2,527 people were injured, he said.

Ecuador President Rafael Correa rushed home from a trip to Italy to supervise the emergency. The immediate priority is to rescue people in the rubble, he said on Twitter.

Everything can be rebuilt but lives cannot be recovered and thats what hurts the most, Correa told state radio.

IMAGE: A fireman searches through debris after an earthquake struck off Ecuador's Pacific coast. Photograph: Guillermo Granja/Reuters

It was the worst experience of my life, survivor Jose Meregildo was quoted by CNN about the tremors that violently shook his house in Guayaquil, 300 miles away from the quakes epicenter. Everybody in my neighbourhood was screaming saying it was going to be the end of the world.

I found my house like this, Nely Intriago, standing in front of a pile of rubble, was quoted as saying, What am I going to do? Cry, thats what. Now we are on the street with nothing.

IMAGE: earthquake hit Saturday night, buckling overpasses, causing houses to collapse and knocking out power in Guayaquil, Ecuadors most populous city. Photograph: Henry Romero/Reuters

The earthquake hit Saturday night, buckling overpasses, causing houses to collapse and knocking out power in Guayaquil, Ecuadors most populous city, authorities said. People left their homes and wandered around, some sleeping in the streets.

In a race to help residents, Ecuador has deployed 10,000 soldiers and 4,600 police officers to the affected areas. The armed forces built mobile hospitals in Pedernales and Portoviejo and set up temporary shelters.

IMAGE: People react after an earthquake struck off Ecuador's Pacific coast. Photograph: Guillermo Granja/Reuters

The quake comes on the heels of two deadly earthquakes across the Pacific, in the southernmost of Japans four main islands.
Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde has come under fire from ruling ally Shiv Sena as well as the opposition for clicking selfies while on a visit to drought-hit Marathwada.

Munde took the selfies with the dried-up Manjara river as the backdrop, while on a visit to the parched region to review desilting work on the riverbed.

Maharashtra is facing severe drought. Women and even kids are going far away from their home for getting water. Shiv Sena is doing lot of work in those drought-hit areas. And in such a serious situation, the ministers are clicking selfies, Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande said.

This could have been avoided. It lessens the impact of such tours. Entire Maharashtra is reeling under serious drought. There was no need of selfie. It is mainly women who are suffering carrying water and a woman takes selfies. It is strange, she added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader was also trolled on Twitter after her selfies went viral on social media.

According to an official present at the site, Munde started clicking selfies with work going on in the background and then posted them on a social networking site.

'Selfie with trench of said barrage (in) Manjara (river).. relief to Latur,' she had tweeted.

Congress spokesperson Al-Nasser Zakaria termed the selfie moment as a shameful act by a cabinet minister.

"It is shameful that she has to post such selfies on social networking sites in a bid to show people that she is indeed concerned about the welfare of people," he said.

Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik said taking selfies instead of conducting review meetings is like making a mockery of farmers woes.

"This government is not serious about drought. There was no planning to tackle drought even where there was sufficient data available months ahead. She is the Guardian minister of Beed and Latur and yet never held a review meeting in the last one year. Now making this tour looks like a junket, she is mocking the farmers," he said.

Last week, revenue minister Eknath Khadse faced flak for deciding to take a chopper to a village in drought-hit Latur district, leading to wastage of nearly 10,000 litre water for a special helipad.

Photographs: @Pankajamunde/Twitter
India on Monday did some plain-speaking with China over its blocking of the Indian bid to get JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN and warned the global community of "serious consequences" if it continues to adopt "double standards" in dealing with terrorism.

During a bilateral meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also asked for a "review" of the Chinese action at the UN.

"I told him (Wang) that if we were to fulfil our intention of fighting terrorism together, then China should review the stand it had taken at the UN 1267 Committee," Swaraj told a joint press conference with Wang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The three ministers had earlier jointly chaired a Russia-India-China foreign ministers meet in Moscow.

In her meeting with Wang, Swaraj emphasised the need for bilateral cooperation to combat the challenge of terrorism. If India and China were to combat terrorism unitedly, then Beijing should change its position of opposing India's bid against Pathankot terror attack mastermind Azhar at the United Nations Sanctions Committee, Swaraj told Wang.

It was agreed during the Swaraj-Wang meeting that the two sides would remain in touch on the matter, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

Last month, China had vetoed India's bid to get Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN Sanctions Committee, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council. The Chinese action evoked a strong reaction in India which said that it was "incomprehensible" that while Jaish-e-Mohammad was banned by the UN, its chief was not.

This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the JeM in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping of sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

Earlier addressing RIC meet, Swaraj warned the international community of "serious consequences" if it continues to adopt "double standards" in dealing with terrorism.

"India believes that the foremost challenge to international security continues to be posed by international terrorism. The RIC countries must lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN," Swaraj said.

"We must not fail in this regard. If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole," she said.

Later, addressing a press conference along with Wang and her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Swaraj said there was a need to craft an effective global strategy to counter terrorism, including at the UN.

While talking about the roadmap for the RIC to tackle the issue of terrorism, Swaraj said there cannot be any difference between good terrorists and bad terrorists.

"It is important that we give up the distinction between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists. We will also need to give up the tendency to differentiate between 'my terrorists' and 'your terrorists'. A terrorist is a terrorist, one who commits crimes against humanity and not against any nation," she said.

Swaraj said India, China and Russia have been bearing the brunt of terror networks and that time has come for the three countries to play a leadership role in combating terror globally.

On the Swaraj-Wang meeting, Swarup said they assessed the implementation of decisions taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China last May. "They noted the significance of high level exchanges contemplated this year, including the ongoing visit of Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar)," he said

"The ministers appreciated the expanding trade and investment ties between India and China. They underscored the importance of strengthening people to people ties. In this context, Foreign Minister Wang Yi apprised External Affairs Minister of China's decision to increase the number of Indian pilgrims for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via Nathu La," Swarup said.

In her opening remarks during the meeting, Swaraj said the relations have seen significant improvement in the last one year and favoured frequent meetings between the two sides to step up engagement.

"We are meeting after a long gap and I think we should meet quite frequently. Because things are moving very fast in the world and if we meet frequently, we will be able to deliberate on those," Swaraj said.

Swaraj also met with her Russian counterpart counter partLavrov on the sidelines of the RIC meet here and raised issues of killing of an Indian and the death of two Indian girl students in a fire tragedy in this country besides discussing key bilateral matters.

"The EAM raised the cases of Indian nationals Yasir Jawed (who was killed in Kazan) and Puja Kallur and Karishma Udai Bhosle (who died during a fire at the SmolenskStateMedicalAcademy). FM Lavrov briefed on the progress of the investigations," Swarup said.

Later, she also had a meeting with Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitryi Rogozin.

The meeting provided opportunity for in depth review of the strategic partnership. Both sides discussed the progress in implementing the decisions taken during the summit-level meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Putin, in particular Russian participation in the defence sector under Make in India, officials said.

They also discussed the energy partnership between India and Russia and ways to strengthen it. Both sides looked forward to the next meeting of the India Russia Inter- Governmental Commission in India.

Image: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow. Photograph: MEA/PTI
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on met mother of a 23-year-old Russian woman who was attacked with acid in Varanasi in November last year and assured her of severe punishment to the guilty.

Swaraj told Antonina Prokina, the mother of the victim, that trial in the case has begun and that she was in touch with Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav in connection with the case so that the man behind the attack does not escape strong punishment.

The Russian national had suffered 46 per cent burn injuries after a local youth threw acid on her on November 13 in Nand Nagar area of Varanasi. "He (the accused) had applied for bail but a court has rejected it. The trial in the case has already begun. I am in touch with the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and told him that he must get harshest of the punishment," Swaraj told Antonina.

The mother of the girl met Swaraj -- who arrived in Moscow on Sunday on a two-day visit -- at the hotel where the minister is staying.

Antonina, accompanied by her elder daughter Yana, explained to Swaraj the trauma the family was undergoing following the incident. The family stays at the Moscow region.

Earlier, in her meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Swaraj expressed sadness and regret over the acid attack on the girl and apprised him about the investigation into the case.

The victim was first shifted to a Delhi hospital after initial treatment in Varanasi. On November 16, she came to Moscow. The Indian embassy has been helping the family in treatment of the girl.

The accused, identified as Siddharth Srivastava, had fled to Allahabad after the incident and was arrested later. Swaraj had sought a report from the Uttar Pradesh government following the attack on the girl and promised all possible help to her and the family.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday met her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow and raised issues of the killing of an Indian and the death of two Indian girl students in a fire tragedy besides discussing key bilateral matters.

During their meeting, Swaraj raised the issue of the killing of Yasir Javed, a businessman from Srinagar who died in Russia's Kazan city last month following an attack on him by a group of local goons, and enquired about the progress of investigation into the case.

Javed was attacked by unknown miscreants in Kazan city on March 3 and died later at a hospital there after remaining in coma for several days.

"I want to know about the status of the investigation. At least the guilty must be punished after the probe," Swaraj told Lavrov.

She also raised the issue of the death of two Indian girl students, who were killed in a fire at a medical university in western Russia.

Pooja Kallur and Krishma Bhonsle, both from Maharashtra, were studying at Smolensk Medical Academy in Russia and lost their lives in a fire accident in February.

Swaraj also expressed regret over an acid attack on a Russian girl in India recently and said India has ensured treatment for the girl in India as well as in Russia.

A 23-year-old Russian national was injured in the acid attack in November allegedly by her boyfriend following a quarrel between them.

Lavrov thanked Swaraj for dealing with the case effectively.

Lavrov, on his part, said both countries should continue to work closely to further expand bilateral ties.

Both sides should continuously review the agreements being signed at the highest level, he told Swaraj.

Lavrov also expressed gratitude to India for its support during Russia's chairmanship of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). He also ensured Swaraj of Russia's full support to India during its presidency of the grouping that began earlier this year.

They also discussed a range of issues, including furthering of trade and economic ties.

Swaraj arrived in Moscow on Sunday to attend the Russia-India-China trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.

Image: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with her counterparts from Russia and China. Photograph: MEA India/Twitter


External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday strongly raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi the issue of China blocking its bid to have Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the United Nations.

Swaraj took up the issue with Wang at a bilateral meeting in Moscow on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.

Official sources said the issue was raised by Swaraj besides deliberations on a range of issues.

Earlier this month, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case did not meet the requirements of the Security Council.

This is not the first time China has blocked Indias bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the Jaish-e-Mohammad in 2001 but Indias efforts for slapping sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.

Last July, China had similarly halted Indias move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying its stand was based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar last week had said in New Delhi that India has taken up at a fairly high level with China the issue of Beijing blocking its bid to have Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN but the issue will not overflow into other areas of bilateral ties.

China had defended its decision, saying that it acts on such issues based on facts and rules in an objective and just manner.

After the attack on the airbase in Pathankot on January 2, India had in February written to the UN calling for immediate action to list Azhar under the UN Sanctions Committee.

The Indian submission was considered by the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate for technical aspects of the evidence provided.

The technical team then with the support of the United States, the United Kingdom and France had sent it to all the members. All were told that if there are no objections, the designation will be announced after the expiry of the deadline but just hours before the deadline, China requested the UN committee to keep on hold the

designation.

Earlier this week, India had slammed the use of hidden veto and demanded accountability, saying the world bodys general members are never informed of the reason for not acceding to requests for sanctioning terrorists.

The procedures of unanimity and anonymity of the Al Qaeda, Taliban and the Islamic State Sanctions Committees need to be revisited. The procedures of unanimity and anonymity result in a lack of accountability, Indias Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had told the UN Security Council in an open debate on Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts on Thursday.

Swaraj also discussed a range of issues of mutual interest with Wang.

In her opening remarks, Swaraj said the relations have seen significant improvement in the last one year and favoured frequent meetings between the two sides to step up engagement.

We are meeting after a long gap and I think we should meet quite frequently. Because things are moving very fast in the world and if we meet frequently, we will be able to deliberate on those, she said.

The Chinese foreign minister said both the countries need to stay focused on expanding the ties and should align our strategies so as to contribute significantly to development of Asia and the world.

China and India are two major countries and two big neighbours. It is important for us to maintain very close cooperation. We are two developing countries and emerging

markets and we both face the challenging task of promoting economic development and realise national rejuvenation, he said.

He further said, We are strategic partners and as the worlds economic and political centre is shifting towards Asia-Pacific. It is all the more important for both the

countries to join hands because our cooperation will have far reaching and positive implications to the region and the world at large.

So we need to stay focus on growing our relationship, align our strategies and step up our partnership so that we can jointly contribute to Asia and worlds development, Wang said.

Swaraj and Wang are in Moscow to attend the Russia, India, China Foreign Ministers meeting.

The external affairs minister arrived from Tehran on Sunday night where she paid a two-day visit.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday kicked off his first visit to China by holding talks with Chinese counterpart Gen Chang Wanquan in Beijing, stating that India attaches highest priority to its relationship with China and is committed to further develop the ties.

"India attaches highest priority to relations with China and committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations," Parrikar told Chang in his opening remarks before the two delegations started the talks.

Parrikar was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the headquarters of the Chinese military in Beijing by a contingent of Peoples Liberation Army soldiers.

Welcoming Parrikar, Wang said, Hope your visit will improve strategic mutual trust between the two armed forces.

After his meeting with Wang, Parrikar will hold talks with Gen Fan Changlong, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.

In Chinese military hierarchy Gen Fan is ranked higher, as the CMC is overall head of the 2.3-million-strong PLA.

He is also due to call on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visit Chinas recently integrated western command military headquarters in Chengdu which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.

During Parrikars talks on Monday with top Chinese military officials, recurring incidents of incursions, implementation of an agreement to reduce tensions between border patrols and Sino-India strategic concerns are expected to figure.

While Indian officials said the talks were expected to review the whole gamut of bilateral ties, Indias concerns over aggressive patrolling by Chinese troops especially in the Ladakh sector remains high.

China denies any incursions, asserting its troops patrol areas within its territory along the 3,488-km disputed border.

The two militaries also have strategic concerns over each others military tie-ups with other countries.

Ahead of Parrikars visit, China hinted that it may take up the recent decision by India to open up military bases to the United States for logistics and efforts to conclude a pact to share aircraft sharing technologies.
The Election Commission has a fight on its hand as candidates use ingenious methods to smuggle in money to voters.

So far the EC has mopped up over Rs 53 crores from the poll-bound states, Tamil Nadu alone yielding Rs 21.45 crores!

Rashme Sehgal reports from New Delhi.

A cat and mouse game is being played out between the Election Commission and candidates fighting elections in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union territory of Puducherry.

Candidates from the better endowed parties are willing to distribute gold, laptops, television sets, grinders and mixers, electric fans, blankets, saris, gas stoves, food grains, liquor, drugs and cash to voters while the job of the Election Commission-appointed Election Expenditure Observers is to make sure that the candidates' expenditure remains within permissible limits.

These Election Expenditure Observers are officers from the income tax, customs and excise departments along with members of the Narcotics Bureau and members of the central paramilitary forces.

This multi-layered surveillance team has also been divided into teams of flying squads with vehicles fitted with Global Positioning System.

The Election Expenditure Observers have seized Rs 53 crores (Rs 530 million) from these states.

The largest amount has been confiscated from Tamil Nadu from where Rs 21.45 crores (Rs 214.5 million) was seized, followed by Kerala with Rs 9.65 crores (Rs 96.5 million) and West Bengal with Rs 9.61 crores (Rs 96.1 million). Puducherry recorded seizures of Rs 60.88 lakh (Rs 6.088 million).

The Election Commission knows the money confiscated so far is insignificant because the amount of illegal money being used in these elections is much higher.

The Reserve Bank of India rang a warning bell when it recently stated that there was a surge of Rs 60,000 crores (Rs 600 billion) in cash in the states going to the polls.

'Around election time, cash with the public does normally increase... You can guess as to the reasons why, we can also guess,' RBI Governor Dr Raghuram Rajan pointed out.

'You see some (cash surge) not just in the states going to elections, but also in the neighbouring states. There is something... we need to understand it better,' Dr Rajan said, adding that cash in people's hands has currently gone up by more than Rs 60,000 crores, which is 'not normal.'

This had Chief Election Commissioner Dr Nasim Zaidi shoot off a letter to Dr Rajan to go public with the details. "We have written to engage with the Reserve Bank of India," says Dr Zaidi. "We have requested them to provide inputs for us to take action."

While the CEC awaits the RBI governor's reply, former CEC V S Sampath sums up the current situation thus: "Rs 53 crores out of Rs 60,000 crores does not seem like a big amount of money seized, but ours is a mammoth task. We have only have two-and-a-half weeks time to lay our hands on this unaccounted money."

"We try and choke the supplies of this cash, which means we often have to resort to stringent measures and have therefore been accused at times of interfering with trade and commerce," Sampath says.

"During this period," Sampath adds when asked how exactly the Election Commission follows this money trail, "we look at candidates and parties who while campaigning are in excess of perceptible limits. We often stop cars being used by candidates because the money has to be physically carried to the voter."

"The money confiscated is largely black money," says Dr Zaidi. "We have to keep a tab on the movement of money, whether it be foreign currency or the hawala racket. Foreign currency is brought in from Bangladesh and the Gulf and income tax officials monitor this very closely."

Election Commission sources point out that with bank transactions, as also the physical movement of cash, being closely monitored by income tax officials, especially with its Air Intelligence Unit keeping an eye at airports and the police checking vehicular movement at borders, hawala remains the preferred means since this does involve the physical movement of cash.

"We try and make sure candidates follow expenditure limits. They need to maintain expenditure records which are monitored three times during the current elections," Dr Zaidi points out.

"In the past," the chief election commissioner adds, "we were able to contain muscle power. Now we are trying to contain money power by keeping an eye on money transactions, liquor, gifts and bullion recovery."

The expenditure limit in the 2013 Delhi assembly elections was Rs 14 lakhs (Rs 1.4 million). The expenditure limit per candidate in the 2015 Bihar assembly election was Rs 28 lakhs (Rs 2.8 million), which remains the same for the current round of elections. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Rs 70 lakhs (Rs 7 million) was the expenditure limit for a candidate.

State elections have become an expensive business. Apart from major expenses which include fuel, hiring of vehicles, loudspeakers, board and lodging, there is the tedious task of preparing and distributing voter slips, getting voters to polling booths and also hiring film stars to attract larger crowds.

Candidates continue to use all kinds of tricks to win over voters. Recently, more than a hundred pair of silver anklets, weighing a total of six kg and reportedly worth Rs 3 lakhs (Rs 300,000), were confiscated in Tamil Nadu when they were being distributed along with photographs of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders M Karunanidhi and his son M K Stalin.

"Very often the tipoff comes from a rival party which closely monitors what their political opponents are up to," says a senior Election Commission official. "Once we receive a tipoff, we send a team to investigate."

Will this extra surveillance change the situation on the ground?

The Bihar assembly election should give an indication as to how important the role of money power is in winning over voters.

In the 2015 polls, the Election Commission recovered more than Rs 20 crores (Rs 200 million) while it seized over Rs 4 crores (Rs 40 million) in unaccounted cash during the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

The Law Commission submitted a report to the government recently describing ingenious methods used by candidates which included putting currency notes in containers which were smuggled into trucks and cars from where they found their way into wholesale and small retail firms. These firms have staff who will stuff these notes into suitcases to distribute them to voters.

Former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi has written about black money being used to influence voters in his book, An Undocumented Wonder: The Making of the Great Indian Election , in which he describes a variety of methods being employed by politicians and political parties to get gifts and money to the voters' doorstep.

So rampant is this practice that a cable sent on May 13, 2009, which was revealed by WikiLeaks (external link here), saw an American diplomat Fredrick Kaplan spell out the role of black money.

'Bribes from political parties to voters, in the form of cash, goods, or services, are a regular feature of elections in South India,' the cable said. 'Poor voters expect bribes from political candidates, and candidates find various ways to satisfy voter expectations.'

'From paying to dig a community well to slipping cash into an envelope delivered inside the morning newspaper,' the cable added, 'politicians and their operatives admitted to violating election rules to influence voters.'

What happens to this confiscated money?

"The hawala money is handled by the Enforcement Directorate," says Dr Zaidi, "the other confiscated money is handled by income tax officials. It is all deposited in the treasury. If people from whom the cash is seized are able to provide the necessary documents, the money is released to them within 24 hours. The Narcotics Bureau looks after drugs seized. In all, there are one dozen government agencies involved in the process."

The amounts of money being seized is getting larger. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Rs 39 crore (Rs 390 million) was confiscated in Tamil Nadu. That went up to Rs 60.1 crores (Rs 601 million) in the 2011 assembly polls, and in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, nearly Rs 77 crores (Rs 770 million) was confiscated.

This rising curve is reflected across all states and the main reason for this is that the stakes in our elections are getting higher and higher.

Image published only for representational purposes.
State after state has imposed an alcohol ban, and has had to retreat, unable to address the financial and administrative fallout.

Are we set for more of this cycle, asks Aditi Phadnis.

IMAGE: In recent months, governments across India have woken up to the political allure of prohibition. Photograph: Reuters. Published only for representational purposes.

Bansi Lal, former chief minister of Haryana, was a spartan and inflexible politician. He formed the Haryana Vikas Party after parting ways from the Congress and, in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, won the 1996 Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the state. He won on the promise of making it illegal to buy, sell, consume or produce alcohol in the state if elected.

Bansi Lal made good his promise within six months of forming the government, even naming a minister for prohibition in his Cabinet. And, yet, when the minister, Ganeshi Lal, stepped into his office in March 1998 and announced with a smile, 'Aaj se sharab bandi khatam (Prohibition ends from today),' the people gathered there burst into applause.

Prohibition lasted 21 months. It cost the state government Rs 1,300 crore (Rs 13 billion) in excise revenue. For years after that, the administration grappled with nearly 100,000 alcohol-related cases in courts, a stock of 1.3 million seized bottles, and 16 hooch accidents, which left 60 dead.

When he announced prohibition, Bansi Lal declared: 'I would rather cut grass for a livelihood than lift prohibition.'

After succumbing to pressure from alliance partners and others, and lifting prohibition, he remarked: 'When the people don't want prohibition any longer, sacrificing a huge excise revenue is meaningless.'

Nor was Bansi Lal the first to do a U-turn on a policy that is sensitive for its political, economic and administrative ramifications.

In 1990, the women of Dubbagunta, a small village in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, began an anti-arrack agitation. They put pressure on men to swear that they would stop drinking, physically restrained habitual drinkers, attacked liquor shops and godowns and fought with the police, liquor mafia and those who frequented liquor shops.

The movement caught the imagination of rural Andhra Pradesh. N T Rama Rao of the Telugu Desam Party had not even touched on the subject of liquor during his first stint as CM.

Within minutes of taking the oath as CM for a second time on January 16, 1995, he announced total prohibition, describing the step as an obligation fulfilled towards his adapadachulu (sisters-in-law). During his first stint, the government itself was the main seller of arrack (marketed via a state agency).

The 'total' part of prohibition did not last long. Although NTR announced the closure of the state's four breweries and 24 distilleries producing potable liquor, besides 19 distilleries producing rectified spirit used in medicines and toiletries (and with it, the end of revenue flow amounting to Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) in distilleries and breweries, and another Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) in the related bottling, corking and packaging industries), the first compromise was to allow those who had a doctors certificate to buy alcohol.

A 'permit' -- that cost Rs 5,000 for individuals and Rs 50,000 for owners of bars or 'permit rooms' as they were called -- followed.

As the department of prohibition and excise struggled to manage liquor smuggling and illicit brew, then prohibition and excise commissioner Rachel Chatterjee was quoted by the local media as saying: 'Neo-literate women spearheaded this movement (prohibition) and they will help us enforce the laws.'

Finally, it was NTR's son-in-law, his backroom boy and ultimately the man to unseat him, N Chandrababu Naidu, who ended the pretence and called a halt to prohibition in Andhra Pradesh. He reintroduced liquor from April 1, 1997, restricting the dry law to arrack.

In his defence, Naidu said: 'Total prohibition is neither successful nor feasible because of the leakages within the state and from across the borders.' While promising to campaign for responsible drinking, he told reporters: 'Liquor sales fetch an income touching a peak of Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) per annum now, and this can be spent for improving the lot of the poor.'

The Congress said it would launch a social campaign against drinking, but in Andhra Pradesh, despite several stints in power, it has implemented prohibition only once.

In the past few months, governments across India have woken up to the political allure of prohibition.

Nitish Kumar, leading a coalition of the Janata Dal-United, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress stormed to victory -- anecdotally, it would appear, on the back of the vote of women -- in the assembly elections in October-November last year.

During the campaign, he promised partial prohibition, but scaled this promise up to full prohibition within months of forming the government. One reason for this could be the Bihar-wide local body elections currently underway that will end in May.

Sociologist Shiv Visvanathan says it is hard to see how a policy that is based largely on policing will work. He cites the "partial" prohibition in Kerala announced by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy just before the ongoing Kerala assembly elections: "It is a policing system with too many loopholes."

The Kerala government introduced graded prohibition, arguing for the eventual idea of a liquor-free state. It did so by restricting the provision of liquor to be served only in five-star hotels. Yet, one could not quite decide whether liquor was the cause of Kerala's social problems or a symptom of a wider social breakdown brought about by change.

The Supreme Court upheld the government's decision while contending that introducing prohibition was a difficult task. In fact, governments and politicians in the south present it like the new myth of Sisyphus, where prohibition is introduced with fanfare, to be quietly withdrawn once it begins to affect state revenues.

In fact, prohibition has an electoral seasonality where politicians, like eager boy scouts, make the promise only to abandon it later.

The latest entrant to the prohibition club is Tamil Nadu which has tried prohibition earlier, but had to abandon it. The election debate on right now is all about who enforced it and who did away with it.

In an interview to Business Standard, sociologist Ashis Nandy says the impulse for the ban has to come from below -- only then, can it sustain. 'We always like to believe that it's the politicians who impose such bans. People like Morarji Desai have insisted on this. But it's the womenfolk of Bihar who made Nitish Kumar enact the ban, so he was forced to implement it,' he said.

Ultimately, though, what is good politics becomes bad economics and a U-turn is justified for that reason.

Consider the Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac), a company owned by the government, has witnessed a steady growth in revenue. The state wholly took over private retail sales of alcohol in the early 2000s.

Revenue from this shot up from Rs 3,693 crore (Rs 36.93 billion) in 2003-2004 to Rs 21,680 crore (Rs 216.80 billion) in 2012-2013. Despite a price hike in 2014, the revenue for 2014-2015 touched Rs 26,188 crore (Rs 261.88 billion). For 2015-2016, Tasmac sales are estimated at Rs 29,672 crore (Rs 296.72 billion).

Says Dakshita Das, a civil servant and an expert on public finance: "As a percentage of the government's own revenue, Tamil Nadu's revenues accruing from its own taxes are estimated at 72 per cent this year. Of this, the total tax revenue from the liquor trade as a percentage of Tamil Nadu's own tax revenue is around 30 per cent of the 72 per cent."

Das notes that with this order of revenue, a state government can hardly ignore it if it dips suddenly. She cites a circular from the Uttar Pradesh government recently to all district magistrates, asking them to check declining liquor sales across the state and undertake corrective measures to prevent the decline.

There is a certain delicious irony in this.

Liquor is a low-hanging fruit from the taxation point of view. But, for every bottle that is sold, wreaking untold, usually unvoiced, havoc in homes from the point of view of domestic violence, the government gets that much more revenue to plough into the social and educational sector.

The story of Haryana's experiment with prohibition is a case in point. Bansi Lal did sweep the 1996 election on the strength of the promise of prohibition. But, to offset the loss of revenue, power rates were increased by 10 to 50 per cent, bus fares by 25 per cent, and the petrol sales tax by three per cent. New taxes were levied on businesses and self-employed people.

Almost overnight, illicit brewing and liquor smuggling became one of the biggest industries in the state. Haryana's tourism industry suffered badly, as tourists preferred to visit neighbouring states where there was no prohibition. Profits of most hotels and restaurants, including the state-owned Haryana tourism resorts, plummeted. And, a u-turn became inevitable.

Will this also happen in Bihar, Kerala and eventually in Tamil Nadu?

HISTORY OF PROHIBITION

Article 47 of the Constitution (Directive Principles of the State Policy) encourages the state to carry out prohibition.

Although directive principles are non-justiciable, it says 'the state shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption, except for medicinal purposes, of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health.'

Prohibition was implemented in Madras (present day Tamil Nadu) and Bombay (present day Maharashtra and Gujarat) between 1948 and 1950. In the early years after Independence, it was also enforced in Odisha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.

The Prohibition Enquiry Committee in 1954 had set April 1958 as the target to achieve national prohibition. However, the potential loss of revenue was a sufficient argument for most states to opt out.

Gujarat: Maharashtra and Gujarat were carved out of the state of Bombay in 1960. While Maharashtra discontinued prohibition, Gujarat, the home state of Mahatma Gandhi, has enforced prohibition ever since.

Manipur: Prohibition in the state was enforced in 1991, after demands by women's groups and insurgent groups. Some of these women groups have also become vigilante groups that disapprove of young unmarried couples hanging out together and raid restaurants and parks.

It was partially lifted in 2002. In 2015, the Congress government cited revenue loss to defend its attempt to completely lift prohibition.

Nagaland: Prohibition, under pressure from the influential Naga Mothers Association, was introduced in 1989. The Nagaland Baptist Church Council has been a strong votary of prohibition in the state.

Mizoram: Prohibition introduced with the passing of Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act in 1995, with the church playing an important role. In 2007, the state government made concessions to help production of wine for exports, with the purpose of creating job opportunities.

Andhra Pradesh: Then chief minister N T Rama Rao imposed prohibition in 1994, after an anti-liquor women's movement in both rural and urban areas. Eleven districts of Andhra had been under prohibition from 1958 to 1969.

In 1997, NTR's successor and son-in-law N Chandrababu Naidu lifted prohibition, claiming it was neither successful nor feasible because of smuggling from bordering states.

Haryana: The Bansi Lal-led Haryana Vikas Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party won the election on the promise of prohibition, and ordered it soon after forming the government in 1996. It continued for sometime, but had to be lifted by April 1998 because of large scale smuggling of and spawning of a liquor mafia.

It was estimated the state lost Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) in revenue.

Tamil Nadu: Prohibition was first imposed by the chief minister of Madras province, C Rajagopalachari, in 1937. It was reversed in 1971 by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government, only to reinstate it in 1973.

Its rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam lifted prohibition in 1977, but four years later allowed sale of only arrack and toddy. It banned arrack and toddy in 1987, lifted during the subsequent AIADMK government.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has promised prohibition if she returns to power.

Karnataka: There is no large scale prohibition, but arrack banned since 2007.

Kerala: The Congress government in the state announced phased prohibition in the state from April 2015. The Communist Party of India-Marxist has promised lifting the ban if it forms the government after the state polls.

Bihar: The state has enforced total prohibition from April this year.

Lakshadweep: The Lakshadweep Prohibition Regulation 1979 extends to the entire Union Territory. Being an international tourist centre, Bangaram is exempted.
2015 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Afghanistan

Publisher United States Department of State Publication Date 13 April 2016 Cite as United States Department of State, 2015 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Afghanistan, 13 April 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5711040d4.html [accessed 24 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Afghanistan is an Islamic republic with a strong, directly elected presidency, a bicameral legislative branch, and a judicial branch. Presidential and provincial elections held in 2014 were marred by allegations of fraud that led to an audit of all ballot boxes. Protracted political negotiations between the presidential candidates led to the creation of a national unity government headed by President Ashraf Ghani, with runner-up Abdullah Abdullah assuming the newly created post of chief executive officer. Constitutionally mandated parliamentary elections did not take place during the year. The most recent parliamentary elections took place in 2010 and were marred by high levels of fraud and violence, according to domestic observers, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and other international election-monitoring organizations. Civilian authorities generally maintained control over the security forces, although there were occasions when security forces acted independently.

The most significant human rights problems were widespread violence, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians by armed insurgent groups; armed insurgent groups' killings of persons affiliated with the government; torture and abuse of detainees by government forces; widespread disregard for the rule of law and little accountability for those who committed human rights abuses; and targeted violence of and endemic societal discrimination against women and girls.

Other human rights problems included extrajudicial killings by security forces; ineffective government investigations of abuse and torture by local security forces; poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention, including of women accused of so-called moral crimes; prolonged pretrial detention; judicial corruption and ineffectiveness; violations of privacy rights; restrictions on freedom of speech, press, religion, and movement; pervasive governmental corruption; underage and forced marriages; abuse of children, including sexual abuse; trafficking in persons; discrimination against persons with disabilities; discrimination and abuses against ethnic minorities; societal discrimination based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and HIV/AIDS status; and abuse of worker rights, including forced labor and child labor.

Widespread disregard for the rule of law and official impunity for those who committed human rights abuses were serious problems. The government did not consistently or effectively prosecute abuses by officials, including security forces.

The Taliban and other insurgents continued to kill civilians and security force personnel using indiscriminate tactics such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), car bombs, suicide attacks, rocket attacks, and armed attacks. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) attributed 94 percent of all civilian casualties to targeted killings by insurgents. The Taliban used children as suicide bombers. Other antigovernment elements threatened, robbed, and attacked villagers, foreigners, civil servants, and medical and nongovernmental organization (NGO) workers. Authorities did not investigate or prosecute most of these abuses. Taliban forces briefly occupied the provincial capital of Kunduz and seized several district centers in September. According to human rights organizations, for several days Taliban forces engaged in targeted searches for civil society activists and government officials, execution of civilians, looting and destruction of NGO and media facilities, and denial to residents of food, water, electricity, and other essential services.

Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from:

a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life

There were credible reports the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings. In July local media reported that in Siahgard District of Parwan Province, a commander of the Afghan Local Police (ALP), a government-sponsored self-defense force, beat to death a civilian suspected of involvement in a recent bomb attack.

A video posted to social media in August appeared to show several uniformed Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers executing a man they suspected of being a Taliban suicide bomber.

NGOs, UNAMA, and the media continued charge progovernment forces with extrajudicial killings. According to UNAMA, targeted and deliberate killings by ALP increased during the first half of the year, with eight deaths confirmed during the period. UNAMA also received credible reports of the killing of two detainees under age 18 by ALP members in Arghandab District of Kandahar Province. Although the government investigated and prosecuted some cases of extrajudicial killing, an overall lack of accountability for security force abuses remained a problem.

There were numerous reports of politically motivated killings, overwhelmingly by the Taliban and other insurgent groups. According to UNAMA civilian casualties rose by 1 percent through June, compared with the same period in 2014, primarily due to an increased number of casualties from suicide and complex attacks, as well as targeted killings. In this same period, 13 percent more children and 23 percent more women were casualties. The total number of civilian casualties through June was 4,921, consisting of 1,592 civilian deaths and 3,329 injuries. UNAMA attributed 16 percent of the civilian casualties to progovernment forces, primarily caused by ground engagements with antigovernment elements, and 70 percent to antigovernment elements. In its midyear report, UNAMA reported a 57 percent increase in civilian casualties resulting from targeted killings making this the leading cause of civilian deaths during the first half of the year. Of civilian casualties resulting from targeted killings through June, 94 percent (657) were attributed to antigovernment elements. Victims included tribal elders, civilian government officials, mullahs, and civilian justice officials.

On May 13, three Taliban operatives opened fire on foreigners and Afghans at the Park Palace guesthouse in Kabul. The attackers killed 14 persons before the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) shot and killed them.

In September Taliban forces attacked and occupied the provincial capital of Kunduz and surrounding areas. Human rights organizations reported that for several days Taliban forces conducted targeted searches for civil society activists, especially women's rights activists and government officials, and executed civilians. They looted and destroyed NGO offices and media outlets, and deprived residents of food, water, electricity and other essential services.

There were reports of summary justice by the Taliban and other antigovernment elements, including extrajudicial executions. In August a video appeared online depicting fighters from the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (known locally as Daesh) executing 10 men believed to be from Nangarhar Province by forcing them to kneel on explosives.

b. Disappearance

There continued to be reports of disappearances attributed to security forces, and insurgent groups were reportedly also responsible for disappearances and abductions (see section 1.g.).

In November unidentified gunmen abducted at least 14 Hazara men from buses traveling in Zabul Province. As of December the location of the hostages was unknown.

UNAMA received credible reports of the disappearance of at least 26 individuals taken into Afghan National Police (ANP) custody in Kandahar Province in 2013 and 2014. Their status remained unknown.

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Although the constitution prohibits such practices, there were reports government officials, security forces, detention center authorities, and police committed abuses. NGOs reported security forces continued to use excessive force, including torturing and beating civilians.

UNAMA reported the ANDSF, including the ALP, and progovernment armed groups committed acts of excessive force, including torture. In Sar-e Pul Province in April, 10 ALP members beat eight civilians, including two boys, as punishment because livestock from the victims' village had damaged crops in the ALP members' village.

In July local media reported that a provincial council member in Maidan Wardak Province alleged an ALP commander was torturing citizens in a private jail in Jalrez District. The commander reportedly imprisoned a local farmer named Habibullah, who was ordered beaten and tortured with a hot steel rod.

UNAMA reported that 35 percent of the 790 detainees it interviewed during the period from February 2013 through December 2014 reported torture or mistreatment by government authorities, a decrease of 14 percent from UNAMA's previous survey. UNAMA found "sufficiently credible and reliable accounts" of torture in detention facilities operated by the National Directorate of Security (NDS), ANP, and ALP. In Kandahar Province UNAMA documented 19 cases of torture by the ANP, which generally included the use of electric shocks, stressed positions, and beatings, with eight of those cases occurring in Zharay District.

The government created a committee to address allegations of torture mentioned in UNAMA's 2013 report on mistreatment of conflict-related detainees, and the committee conducted visits and interviews. The committee, however, did not make its findings public. The government did not hold the perpetrators accountable for torture by conducting credible investigations or prosecuting possible perpetrators in connection with these allegations.

According to some reports, security officials and persons connected to the ANP raped children with impunity. NGOs reported incidents of sexual abuse and exploitation of children by the ANDSF; however, cultural taboos against reporting such crimes made it difficult to determine the extent of the problem. In May the UN secretary-general's Annual Report on Children in Armed Conflict documented 40 instances of sexual violence against children and attributed the vast majority to the ANP and ALP. In December 2014 the United Nations reported two members of the ALP abducted and raped a 15-year-old girl in Kapisa Province.

There were reports of abuses of power by "arbakai" (untrained local militia) commanders and their followers. According to UNAMA many communities used the terms ALP and arbakai interchangeably, making it difficult to attribute reports of abuses to one group or the other. Nevertheless, credible accounts of killing, rape, assault, the forcible levy of informal taxes, and the traditional practice of "bad" (the transfer of a girl or woman to another family to settle a debt or grievance) were attributed to the ALP.

There were numerous reports of torture and other abuses by the Taliban and other insurgent groups. For example, in September in Sar-e Pul Province, the Taliban stoned to death a man and woman accused of committing adultery.

Prison and Detention Center Conditions

There were reports of harsh and sometimes life-threatening conditions and abuse in official detention centers. The General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Centers (GDPDC), part of the Ministry of Interior, has responsibility for all civilian-run prisons (for both men and women) and civilian detention centers, including the large national prison at Pul-e Charkhi. The Ministry of Justice's Juvenile Rehabilitation Directorate (JRD) is responsible for all juvenile rehabilitation centers. The ANP, which is under the Ministry of Interior, and the NDS also operates short-term detention facilities at the provincial and district levels, usually collocated with their headquarters facilities. The Ministry of Defense runs the Afghan National Detention Facilities at Parwan and Pul-e Charkhi.

There were reports of private prisons run by members of the ANDSF and used for abuse and torture of detainees. International human rights organizations alleged police, including specifically Kandahar Provincial Chief of Police Abdul Raziq, set up "secret" or undeclared detention facilities specifically to avoid international monitors.

Physical Conditions: The media and other sources continued to report common inadequacies in food and water and poor sanitation facilities in prisons. Some observers, however, found food and water to be sufficient throughout the GDPDC prisons. The GDPDC's nationwide program to feed prisoners faced a severely limited budget. Many prisoners' families provided food supplements and other necessary items.

Authorities generally lacked the facilities to separate pretrial and convicted inmates, or to separate juveniles according to the seriousness of the charges against them, with the exception of some juvenile facilities that separately housed juveniles imprisoned for national security reasons.

Overcrowding in prisons continued to be a serious, widespread problem; 28 of 34 provincial prisons for men were severely overcrowded based on standards recommended by the International Committee of the Red Cross. As of July men's facilities operated at approximately 190 percent of capacity across the country. The Kapisa provincial prison for men was the most overcrowded, housing 285 inmates, almost 10 times the 29 prisoners for which it was designed. The country's largest prison, Pul-e Charkhi, was designed to hold 4,978 prisoners but as of July held 8,154.

Prisoners in two prisons went on hunger strikes in March. In Parwan Province 20 female inmates launched a hunger strike on March 26, to protest perceived unfairness in the application of presidential pardon decrees. The strike ended two days later when local officials met with the protesters and convinced them to call it off.

In October 2014 President Ghani visited Pul-e Charkhi prison to meet with prisoners and review prison conditions, after which he spoke in favor of prison reform and an accelerated judicial process for prisoners awaiting sentencing. In January the President's Office announced that 1,658 prisoners awaiting trial had their cases sent to the courts, and rulings had been made on 622 of them. Another 1,374 prisoners, including 26 women, were released. As of September prison industries offered more jobs and vocational training to enhance employment opportunities after release.

Inmate deaths were infrequent and largely due to natural causes. Inmates killed two GDPDC officers and one ANP officer during a disturbance at Jawzjan prison in March. In June one inmate survived a stab wound to the chest during a fight among prisoners at Pul-e Charkhi prison, two detainees and one officer were killed in a transport accident at Herat prison, and three prison staff members were injured with homemade knives during a disturbance at Kunar prison. Five inmates sustained minor injuries during a disturbance at Baghlan prison in July.

By law children younger than age seven may live with their mothers in prison. This practice, however, became less prevalent after the GDPDC increasingly utilized children's support center programs. Reports indicated children placed in the support centers received a better level of education and health services than in prisons.

Administration: The law provides prisoners with the right to leave prison for up to 20 days for family visits. Most prisons did not implement this provision, and the law is unclear in its application to different classes of prisoners.

Provisions for alternatives to incarceration were rarely utilized. Regular presidential pardons on holidays were the only means to release inmates from prison prior to the end of their sentences. President Ghani issued five pardon decrees between January and September, resulting in the release of 4,709 male and 302 female prisoners.

Independent Monitoring: The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), UNAMA, and the NATO Resolute Support Mission generally had access to detention facilities of the NDS and the Ministries of Interior, Justice, and Defense. Security constraints and obstruction by authorities occasionally prevented visits to some places of detention. UNAMA and the AIHRC reported difficulty accessing NDS places of detention unannounced. While the Resolute Support Mission did not experience the same level of difficulty, authorities denied unannounced access on several occasions at NDS and ANP facilities. The AIHRC reported NDS officials usually required the AIHRC to submit a formal letter requesting access at least one to two days in advance of a visit. NDS officials continued to prohibit AIHRC and UNAMA monitors from bringing cameras, mobile phones, recording devices, or computers into NDS facilities, thereby preventing AIHRC monitors from properly documenting physical evidence of abuse, such as bruises, scars, and other injuries. The NDS assigned a colonel to monitor human rights conditions in its facilities. In February and May, members of parliament visited GDPDC prison facilities to conduct monitoring and oversight of prison conditions, with a focus on conditions for women. The JRD also produced an annual report in March on juvenile justice problems, drafted by the JRD's monitoring and evaluation office.

d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention

The law prohibits arbitrary arrest or detention, but both remained serious problems. Authorities detained many citizens without respecting essential procedural protections.

According to NGOs, law enforcement officers continued to detain citizens arbitrarily without clear legal authority or due process. Local law enforcement officials reportedly detained persons illegally on charges not provided for in the penal code. In 2012 the Attorney General's Office ordered a halt to the prosecution of women for "running away," which is not a crime under the law. Reports indicated that prosecutors instead charged women who had left home with "attempted zina" (extramarital sexual relations) for being outside the home in the presence of nonrelated men, which is also not a crime under the law. In some cases authorities wrongfully imprisoned women because they deemed it unsafe for the women to return home and there were no women's shelters available (see section 6, Women).

In August 2014 UNAMA received credible allegations of mass arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial executions of suspected Taliban members in Zharay District in Kandahar Province. ANA soldiers reportedly beat and shot dead 10 men travelling from Shah Wali Kot District to Zharay to visit a local mullah. One of the victims survived and alerted a local resident who reprimanded the soldiers for their conduct, only to be beaten and briefly detained himself. The soldiers allegedly then killed the one survivor.

Role of the Police and Security Apparatus

Three ministries have responsibility for providing security in the country, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Defense, and the NDS. The ANP, under the Ministry of Interior, has primary responsibility for internal order. The MOI also has responsibility for the ALP, a community-based self-defense force. The ANA, under the Ministry of Defense, is responsible for external security but its primary activity is fighting the insurgency internally. The NDS functions as an intelligence agency and also has responsibility for investigating criminal cases concerning national security. The investigative branch of the NDS operated a facility in Kabul, where it held national security prisoners awaiting trial until their cases were transferred to prosecutors. In some areas insurgents, rather than the ANP or ANA, maintained control.

There were reports of impunity and lack of accountability by security forces throughout the year. According to observers, ALP and ANP personnel were largely unaware of their responsibilities and defendants' rights under the law. Accountability of NDS and ANP officials for torture and abuse was weak, not transparent, and rarely enforced. Independent judicial or external oversight of the NDS and ANP in the investigation and prosecution of crimes or misconduct, including torture and abuse, was limited. There were no known prosecutions as following a 2013 government investigation into allegations of abuse and torture by ANDSF members.

There were some prosecutions. In October ANDSF personnel accused of sexual assault during a clearing operation were tried and convicted, and each was sentenced to six years in prison. In December 2014 the 203rd Corps Primary Court convicted four ANA soldiers of murdering and robbing three individuals in Ghazni Province and sentenced them to death.

Police corruption remained a serious problem (see section 4).

NGOs and human rights activists reported widespread societal violence, especially against women (see section 6). In many cases police did not prevent or respond to violence and, in some cases, arrested women who reported crimes committed against them, such as rape.

Arrest Procedures and Treatment of Detainees

UNAMA, the AIHRC, and other observers reported arbitrary and prolonged detention frequently occurred throughout the country. Authorities often did not inform detainees of the charges against them.

The law, including new procedures introduced by a June 2014 revision of the criminal procedure code, provides for access to legal counsel and the use of warrants, and it limits how long authorities may hold detainees without charge. Police have the right to detain a suspect for 72 hours to complete a preliminary investigation. If police decide to pursue a case, they transfer the file to the Attorney General's Office. With court approval the investigating prosecutor may continue to detain a suspect while continuing the investigation, with the length of continued detention depending on the severity of the offense. The investigating prosecutor may detain a suspect for up to a maximum of 10 additional days for a petty crime, 27 days for a misdemeanor, and 75 days for a felony. The prosecutor must file an indictment or release the suspect within those deadlines, and no further extensions of the investigatory period are permitted if the defendant is in detention. Prosecutors often ignored these limits.

Incommunicado imprisonment remained a problem, and prompt access to a lawyer was rare. Prisoners generally were allowed access to their families, but there were exceptions, and access was frequently delayed.

There was no bond system, although a rudimentary personal recognizance system existed in some areas where international observers monitored cases. Authorities at times continued to detain defendants who had been acquitted by the courts on the grounds that defendants who were released pending the prosecution's appeal often disappeared. In many cases authorities did not re-arrest defendants they released pending the outcome of an appeal even after the appellate court convicted them in absentia.

According to international monitors, prosecutors filed indictments in cases transferred to them by police even where there was a reasonable belief no crime was actually committed.

According to the juvenile code, the arrest of a child "should be a matter of last resort and should last for the shortest possible period." Reports indicated children in juvenile rehabilitation centers across the country lacked access to adequate food, health care, and education. Like adult detainees, detained children were frequently denied basic rights and many aspects of due process, including the presumption of innocence, the right to be informed of charges, access to defense lawyers, and the right not to be forced to confess. The law provides for the creation of special juvenile police, prosecution offices, and courts. Due to limited resources, special juvenile courts functioned in only six provinces (Kabul, Herat, Balkh, Kandahar, Nangarhar, and Kunduz). Elsewhere, children's cases fall under the ordinary courts. The law mandates that authorities handle children's cases confidentially and, as with all criminal cases, may involve three stages: primary, appeals, and the final stage at the Supreme Court.

Some children in the criminal justice system were victims rather than perpetrators of crime. In some instances authorities perceived victims as in need of punishment because they brought shame on the family by reporting an abuse. In others authorities imprisoned abused children because they could not be returned to their families and shelter elsewhere was unavailable. There were also allegations that authorities allegedly treated children related to a perpetrator as proxies and imprisoned them.

Police and legal officials often charged women with intent to commit zina (extramarital sexual relations) to justify their arrest and incarceration for social offenses, such as running away from home, rejecting a spouse chosen by her family, fleeing domestic violence or rape, or eloping. Article 130 of the constitution provides that in cases not explicitly covered by the provisions of the constitution or other laws, courts may, in accordance with Hanafi jurisprudence (a school of sharia or Islamic law) and within the limits set by the constitution, rule in a manner that best attains justice in the case. Although observers stated this provision was widely understood to apply only to civil cases, many judges and prosecutors applied Article 130 to criminal matters. Observers reported legal officials used this article to charge women and men with "immorality" or "running away from home." Police often detained women for zina at the request of family members.

Authorities imprisoned some women for reporting crimes perpetrated against them and detained some as proxies for a husband or male relative convicted of a crime on the assumption the suspect would turn himself in to free the family member.

Authorities placed some women in protective custody to prevent violence by family members. They also employed protective custody (including in a detention center) for women who had experienced domestic violence, if no shelters were available to protect them from further abuse. The Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) obliges police to arrest persons who abuse women. Implementation and awareness of the EVAW law was limited, however.

Arbitrary Arrest: Arbitrary arrest and detention remained a problem in most provinces. Observers reported some prosecutors and police detained individuals without charge for actions that were not crimes under the law, in part because the judicial system was inadequate to process detainees in a timely fashion. UNAMA reported police detained individuals for moral crimes, breach of contract, family disputes, and to extract confessions. Observers reported those detained for moral crimes were almost exclusively women.

Pretrial Detention: The law provides a defendant the right to object to his or her pretrial detention and receive a court hearing on the matter. Nevertheless, lengthy pretrial detention remained a problem.

Many detainees did not benefit from any or all of the provisions of the criminal procedure code, largely due to a lack of resources, limited numbers of defense attorneys, unskilled legal practitioners, and corruption. The law provides that, if the investigation cannot be completed, or an indictment is not filed, within the code's 10-, 27-, or 75-day deadlines, the defendant must be released. Many detainees, however, were held beyond those periods, despite the lack of an indictment.

Amnesty: The Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Program is a mechanism for bringing combatants off the battlefield and does not provide amnesty for criminal activity unrelated to the insurgency. The program document states the program "is not a framework for pardoning all crimes and providing blanket amnesty," and reintegration candidates are informed prior to enrollment that entry into the program does not amount to blanket immunity from prosecution.

In October 2014 President Ghani visited Pul-e Charkhi prison to meet with prisoners and review prison conditions, after which he spoke in favor of prison reform and an accelerated judicial process for prisoners awaiting sentencing. As of September prison industries offered more jobs and vocational training to enhance employment opportunities after release.

e. Denial of Fair Public Trial

The law provides for an independent judiciary, but the judiciary continued to be underfunded, understaffed, inadequately trained, ineffective, and subject to threats, bias, political influence, and pervasive corruption.

Bribery, corruption, and pressure from public officials, tribal leaders, families of accused persons, and individuals associated with the insurgency continued to impair judicial impartiality. Most courts administered justice unevenly, employing a mixture of codified law, sharia, and local custom. Traditional justice mechanisms remained the main recourse for many, especially in rural areas. There was varying adherence to codified law, with courts often disregarding applicable statutory law in favor of sharia or local custom. Corruption was common within the judiciary, and criminals paid bribes to obtain their release or a reduction in sentence (see section 4).

The formal justice system was relatively strong in urban centers, where the central government was strongest, and weaker in rural areas, where approximately 76 percent of the population lived. Courts and police forces continued to operate at less than full capacity nationwide. The judicial system continued to lack the capacity to absorb and implement the large volume of new and amended legislation. A lack of qualified judicial personnel hindered the courts. Some municipal and provincial authorities, including judges, had minimal training and often based their judgments on their personal understanding of sharia without appropriate reference to statutory law, tribal codes of honor, or local custom. The number of judges who were graduates of law school, many from universities with sharia faculties, continued to increase. Access to legal codes and statutes increased, but their limited availability continued to hinder some judges and prosecutors.

International human rights groups, the AIHRC, and domestic activists expressed concern about due process violations in the trial of a group of men accused of attacking and killing Farkhunda Malikzada on March 19, in Kabul. Most of the 49 defendants lacked legal representation during the four-day original trial, and four received death sentences. As of October an appeals court had reduced the death sentences to prison terms, and the Supreme Court was evaluating the case.

There was a widespread shortage of judges, primarily in insecure areas. The Taliban targeted judges and other justice officials, and UNAMA documented 11 separate attacks against legal professionals and courthouses that caused 114 civilian casualties during the first four months of the year.

In major cities courts continued to decide criminal cases as mandated by law. Civil cases continued to be frequently resolved using the informal system or, in some cases, through negotiations between the parties facilitated by judicial personnel or private lawyers. Because the formal legal system often was not present in rural areas, local elders and shuras (consultative gatherings, usually of men selected by the community) were the primary means of settling both criminal matters and civil disputes. They also imposed punishments without regard to the formal legal system.

In some areas the Taliban enforced a parallel judicial system based on strict interpretation of sharia. Punishments could include execution or mutilation. For example, in September in Helmand Province, the Taliban accused three civilians of spying and publicly executed them. In November the leader of a Taliban-controlled village in Ghor Province ordered a 19-year-old woman, Rokhshana, to be stoned to death for allegedly committing zina.

Trial Procedures

The constitution provides the right to a fair trial, but the judiciary rarely enforced this provision. The administration and implementation of justice varied in different areas of the country. The government formally uses an inquisitorial legal system. By law all citizens are entitled to a presumption of innocence, and those accused have the right to be present at trial and to appeal, although these rights were not always respected. In some provinces public trials were held, but this was not the norm. In May the trial of those suspected of killing Farkhunda Malikzada was televised nationally, due to widespread local and international interest in the case. Panels of three judges decide criminal trials; there is no right to a jury trial under the constitution. Prosecutors rarely informed defendants promptly and in detail of the charges brought against them. An indigent defendant has the right to consult with an advocate or counsel at public expense when resources allow. This right was applied inconsistently, in large part due to a severe shortage of defense lawyers. Citizens often were unaware of their constitutional rights. Defendants and attorneys were entitled to examine physical evidence and documents related to a case before trial, although observers noted court documents often were not available for review before cases went to trial, despite defense lawyers' requests.

Criminal defense attorneys reported justice system officials were slowly demonstrating increased respect and tolerance for the role of defense lawyers in criminal trials, but at times defendants' attorneys experienced abuse and threats from prosecutors and other law enforcement officials.

When the accused is kept in custody, the primary court must render a verdict within 30 days of the prosecutor filing the case with the court. The appellate court has 30 days to review such a case, and the Supreme Court has 60 days to issue its decision. Either side may appeal; if appealed, a decision is not final until review by higher courts is complete. An accused defendant who is acquitted by the primary court usually remains in detention until the appeals process is concluded, although a higher court can confirm the acquittal and order the defendant's release. The decision of the primary court becomes final if an appeal is not filed within 20 days. Any application to review the decision of the appellate court must be filed with the Supreme Court within 30 days. If the appellate deadlines are not met, the law requires the accused be released from custody. In many cases courts did not meet these deadlines, but detainees nevertheless remained in custody.

In cases where no clearly defined legal statute applied, or where judges, prosecutors, or elders were unaware of the statutory law, judges and informal shuras enforced customary law. This practice often resulted in outcomes that discriminated against women.

Political Prisoners and Detainees

There were no reports the government held political prisoners or detainees.

Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies

Citizens had limited access to justice for constitutional and human rights violations. The state judiciary did not play a significant or effective role in adjudicating civil matters due to corruption and lack of capacity, although the judiciary frequently adjudicated family law matters.

f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence

The law prohibits arbitrary interference in matters of privacy, but authorities did not always respect its provisions. The 2014 criminal procedure code contains additional safeguards for the privacy of the home, prohibiting night arrests and strengthening requirements for body searches. The government did not always respect these prohibitions.

Government officials continued to enter homes and businesses of civilians forcibly and without legal authorization, although UNAMA reported a reduction in such instances.

There were reports that government officials monitored private communications, including telephone calls and other digital communications, without legal authority or judicial warrant.

Authorities imprisoned relatives, male and female, of criminal suspects and escaped convicts in order to induce the persons being sought to surrender (see section 1.d.).

Insurgents continued to intimidate cell phone operators to shut down operations. Reports of destruction of mobile telephone towers, bribing of guards, and disconnecting of networks at night were particularly common in the southwestern, southern, and eastern provinces.

g. Use of Excessive Force and Other Abuses in Internal Conflicts

Continuing internal conflict resulted in civilian deaths, abductions, prisoner abuse, property damage, displacement of residents, and other abuses. The security situation remained a problem due to insurgent attacks. Civilians, particularly women and children, continued to bear the brunt of intensified armed conflict, according to UNAMA. Conflict-related civilian deaths decreased 6 percent between January and June compared with the same period in 2014, while the number of civilians injured rose 4 percent. Antigovernment elements caused the vast majority of civilian deaths.

Killings: For the first six months of the year, UNAMA documented 4,921 civilian casualties (1,592 civilian deaths and 3,329 injuries), a 1 percent increase compared with the first six months of 2014. UNAMA reported an increase in the percentage of civilian casualties attributed to progovernment forces during the period of 16 percent, up from 9 percent during the first six months of 2014, while it attributed 70 percent of all civilian casualties to antigovernment elements.

According to UNAMA ground engagements and crossfire incidents involving the parties to the conflict remained the largest cause of civilian casualties (dead and wounded), while targeted killings increased by 57 percent and became the largest cause of civilian deaths. UNAMA reported that the number of casualties among children and women, which in the first six months of the year increased by 13 and 23 percent respectively over the same period in 2014, was the highest in any recent comparable period. Antigovernment elements continued to use suicide and complex attacks to target civilians and government officials, and UNAMA documented a 78 percent increase in related civilian casualties compared with the same period in 2014.

Antigovernment elements continued to attack religious leaders whom they concluded spoke against the insurgency or the Taliban. Antigovernment elements also continued to target government officials. The majority of Taliban attacks targeted security forces, in particular ANP and ALP forces, notably in volatile areas. UNAMA reported antigovernment elements sometimes used civilian residences to launch attacks against progovernment forces, which prompted return fire and resulted in additional civilian casualties. In September, Daesh gunmen killed three police officers and wounded eight others in an attack in Achin District of Nangarhar Province.

The Taliban and antigovernment elements continued to engage in indiscriminate use of force, attacking and killing villagers, foreigners, and NGO workers in armed attacks and with car bombs and suicide bombs. Through the first six months of the year, UNAMA documented 1,108 civilian casualties (385 civilian deaths and 723 injuries) as a result of IEDs, a 21 percent decrease over the same period in 2014.

Abductions: The Ministry of Interior reported 113 abduction cases during 2014 and 151 abduction cases from January to September. The Taliban targeted government workers and citizens perceived to be cooperating with the international community (see section 1.b.). On February 24, insurgents kidnapped 31 Hazara men from a bus in Zabul Province. The abductors released 19 of the hostages in May and eight in November; four others remained missing as of November. In June a Dutch NGO worker was abducted and released 81 days later; no group claimed responsibility.

Physical Abuse, Punishment, and Torture: UNAMA reported on March 15, that ANA forces shot and killed a polio worker in Ghazni Province. On May 3, in Kandahar Province, an ALP member shot and injured a 15-year-old boy whom he accused of acting as a spy.

Antigovernment elements continued to target civilians. On January 12, the Taliban claimed responsibility for killing a religious leader and member of the Ulema council in Helmand Province. UNAMA reported that on June 28, antigovernment elements abducted and later killed the 17-year-old son of an ANP officer in Farah Province.

Land mines and unexploded ordnance continued to cause deaths and injuries, restrict areas available for farming, and impede the return of refugees. The Mine Action Coordination Center for Afghanistan reported the number of deaths and injuries from land mines and unexploded ordnance was lower than in previous years. During the 12 months ending in March, there were 370 reported casualties from explosive remnants of war and 30 casualties due to land mines. In addition to these casualties from traditional antitank and antipersonnel mines, there continued to be thousands of civilian casualties from IEDs. According to the Mine Action Coordination Center, land mines and unexploded ordnance imperiled 1,609 communities across 253 districts, covering approximately 200 square miles. The majority of remaining mine hazards involved a relatively small number of arbitrarily placed mines dispersed over a large area, which nonetheless denied full use of the land to communities. As of September demining efforts were 80 percent complete. The Ministry of Education and NGOs continued to conduct educational programs and mine awareness campaigns throughout the country.

Child Soldiers: The government, with international assistance, officially vetted all recruits into the armed forces and police, rejecting applicants under age 18. Nevertheless, there were reports the ANDSF and progovernment militias recruited and used children for military purposes. Under a government action plan, the ANP took steps that included training staff on age-assessment procedures, launching an awareness campaign on underage recruitment, investigating alleged cases of underage recruitment, and establishing centers in some provincial recruitment centers to document cases of attempted enlistment by children. All recruits undergo an identity check, including a requirement that at least two community elders vouch that a recruit is 18 years old and is eligible to join the ANDSF. The Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense also issued directives meant to prevent the recruitment and sexual abuse of children by the ANDSF. The media reported in some cases ANDSF units used children as personal servants or support staff, and for sexual purposes.

UNAMA also documented the recruitment of children by the Taliban and other antigovernment elements, although figures were unreliable and difficult to obtain. There were credible reports the Taliban used children during its attack on Kunduz city in September. In some cases the Taliban and other antigovernment elements used children as suicide bombers and human shields and in other cases to assist with their work, such as placing IEDs, particularly in southern provinces. The media, NGOs, and UN agencies reported the Taliban tricked children, promised them money, used false religious pretexts, or forced them to become suicide bombers. During the year the United Nations reported its country task force recorded 55 cases of child recruitment by armed opposition groups, five cases by the ANDSF, and two cases by a progovernment militia in Kunduz Province.

Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report.

Other Conflict-related Abuses: The security environment continued to have a negative effect on the ability of humanitarian organizations to operate freely in many parts of the country. Insurgents deliberately targeted government employees and aid workers.

Suspected Taliban members attacked NGO offices, vehicles, guesthouses, restaurants, and hotels frequented by NGO employees. Violence and instability hampered development, relief, and reconstruction efforts. NGOs reported insurgents, powerful local individuals, and militia leaders demanded bribes to allow groups to bring relief supplies into the country and distribute them. In June unidentified attackers abducted and later released several members of a mine removal team from HALO Trust, a mine clearance agency, in Logar Province. In September the UN World Food Program temporarily suspended operations in Badakhshan Province after unidentified attackers stopped five UN vehicles and burned them.

The Taliban continued to distribute threatening messages in attempts to curtail government and development activities. Insurgents used civilians, including children, as human shields, either by forcing them into the line of fire or by conducting operations in civilian settings.

In the south and east, the Taliban and other antigovernment elements frequently forced local residents to provide food and shelter for their fighters. The Taliban also continued to attack schools, radio stations, and government offices.

In May the Taliban claimed responsibility for a car bomb that exploded near the Ministry of Justice building, killing five civilians. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stated the attacks were in retaliation for justice officials mistreating Taliban prisoners.

Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

a. Freedom of Speech and Press

The constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press, but the government restricted these rights to varying degrees.

Freedom of Speech and Expression: While the law provides for freedom of speech, which was widely exercised, there were reports authorities at times used pressure, regulations, and threats to silence critics. Freedom of speech was also considerably more constrained at the provincial level, where local power brokers, such as former mujahedin-era military leaders, exerted significant influence and authority that they often used to intimidate or threaten their critics, both private citizens and journalists.

Press and Media Freedoms: While the media reported independently throughout the year, often openly criticizing the government, full press freedoms were lacking. At times authorities used pressure, regulations, and threats to silence critics. Politicians, security officials, and others in positions of power arrested, threatened, or harassed journalists as a result of their coverage. Freedom of speech and an independent media were even more constrained at the provincial level, where many media outlets had links to specific personalities or political parties, to include former mujahedin military leaders who owned many of the broadcasting stations and print media and influenced their content. In October the Taliban threatened journalists associated with two privately owned Afghan TV outlets, ToloNews TV, and 1TV. The Taliban's military commission designated both outlets as "military objectives" due to their perceived disrespectful coverage and claims that they broadcast propaganda, ridiculed religion, and injected the minds of youth with immorality. The Taliban was reportedly angered by ToloNews and 1TV's coverage of the Battle of Kunduz and considered the two outlets' offices, reporters, and dispatched teams to be valid targets.

Print media continued to publish independent magazines, newsletters, and newspapers. A wide range of editorials and dailies openly criticized the government. There were concerns, however, that media independence and safety remained at high risk in light of increased attacks. Due to high levels of illiteracy, television and radio were the preferred information source for most citizens. Radio remained more widespread due to its relative accessibility, with 75.7 percent radio penetration, compared with 61.6 percent for television. Internet use continued to grow, and 9.6 percent of Afghans said they used the internet for news and information.

The Ministry of Information and Culture has authority to regulate the press and media but by year's end had not created the Mass Media Commission required by law to exercise that authority. During the year the ministry dissolved the Media Violations Investigation Commission, whose evaluations of complaints against journalists were criticized as biased and not based on the law. Human Rights Watch reported the ministry routinely ignored officials who threatened, intimidated, or even physically attacked members of the press. While the ministry has legal responsibility for regulating the media, the council of religious scholars (the Ulema Council) had considerable influence over media affairs.

In December 2014 the president signed the Access to Information law providing journalists and citizens with increased access to information from the government (see section 4). Journalists and media professionals criticized Article 15 of the law, given its broad prohibition on content deemed to endanger "independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, national security, and national interest" Observers considered this broad-brush approach as limiting media's access to information and preventing reporting critical of the government.

Violence and Harassment: Authorities used threats, violence, and intimidation to silence opposition journalists, particularly those who spoke out about impunity, war crimes, government officials, and powerful local figures. Incidents of violence against journalists spiked in 2014 with 125 cases recorded. The Afghan Journalists' Safety Committee reported 39 cases of violence and verbal harassment in the first six months of the year, of which 28 they attributed to government officials. According to the International Federation of Journalists, two journalists were killed as of October. On March 29, Ahmad Wali Sarhadi, a Zabul journalist, reported several provincial police officers beat him on orders of Zabul Provincial Chief of Police Ghulam Sakhi Rogh-Lewani soon after he published an article critical of police mistreatment of a local merchant.

The satirical Kabul Taxi Facebook page was briefly shut down by Facebook in late August for unknown reasons. It was unclear whether the government requested that Facebook block the page. A post from Kabul Taxi shared commentary and publicly available information about the national security advisor's staff. In response the Office of the National Security Council released a statement warning against revealing confidential information that threatened national security. In August the NDS summoned at least six local journalists for questioning on suspicion they were responsible for the page.

Prevailing security conditions created a dangerous environment for journalists, even when they were not specific targets. Media organizations and journalists operating in remote areas were more vulnerable to violence and intimidation because of the increased level of insecurity and pronounced fear from insurgents, warlords, and organized criminals. They also reported local governmental authorities were less cooperative in facilitating access to information.

Nai, an NGO supporting media freedom, reported a decrease in incidents of violence and threats against journalists to 95 compared with 125 in 2014. Nai reported four journalists were killed during the year, down from eight killings reported for 2014. The Afghan Journalist Safety Committee stated government officials committed more than 70 percent of acts of aggression against journalists through the first half of the year. For example, on May 20, a Kabul police officer reportedly beat 1TV cameraman Kaliwal Niazi and broke his camera while he was filming the scene of a bombing at the Ministry of Justice.

In January unidentified attackers shot and killed Aqel Mohammad Waqar, a local journalist investigating corruption in Nangarhar Province. As of year's end police had not arrested any suspects, and there were no claims of responsibility for Waqar's killing.

An independent organization focused on the safety of journalists continued to operate a safe house for journalists facing threats. It reported law enforcement officials generally cooperated in assisting journalists who faced credible threats, although limited investigative capacity meant many cases remained unresolved. The Afghan Independent Bar Association established a media law committee to provide legal support, expertise, and services to media organizations.

Women constituted approximately 30 percent of media workers. Some women oversaw radio stations across the country, and some radio stations emphasized almost exclusively women's concerns. Nevertheless, female reporters found it difficult to practice their profession. Poor security, lack of access to training, and unsafe working conditions continued to limit the participation of women in the media. The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee reported media managers subjected female reporters to sexual abuse.

Censorship or Content Restrictions: The government reportedly sought to restrict reporting on topics deemed contrary to the government's messaging. In March Zabul journalist Ahmad Wali Sarhadi said he was beaten by police on orders of Provincial Chief of Police Ghulam Sakhi Rogh-Lewani for reporting police abuse of a local shopkeeper. In May a member of parliament from Baghlan Province, Ashuqullah Wafa, reportedly threatened the manager of Tanweer TV after the station reported Wafa was involved in the transfer of a popular chief of police.

Some media observers claimed journalists reporting on administrative corruption, land embezzlement, and local officials' involvement in narcotics trafficking engaged in self-censorship due to fear of violent retribution by provincial police officials and powerful families. For example, a journalist in Khost Province reported threats by members of parliament and a warning from the Provincial Council not to report on local corruption and protests. Because of such pressures, media outlets sometimes preferred to quote from foreign media reports on sensitive topics and in some cases fed stories to foreign journalists.

Libel Laws/National Security: The penal code and the mass media law prescribe jail sentences and fines for defamation. Authorities sometime used defamation as a pretext to suppress criticism of government officials. Journalists complained government officials frequently invoked the national interest exception in the Access to Information law to avoid disclosing certain information.

Nongovernmental Impact: Journalists continued to face threats from the Taliban and other insurgents. Some reporters acknowledged they avoided criticizing the insurgency and some neighboring countries in their reporting because they feared Taliban retribution. In June, 14 journalists and civil society leaders had their photographs displayed and were threatened on a Facebook page maintained by the Taliban. In October insurgents threatened to kill anyone working for two of the country's leading television channels and posted videos that scrolled through archive pictures of approximately 30 network staff members with death-threat voice-overs.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported local and foreign reporters continued to risk kidnapping.

Internet Freedom

The government did not restrict or disrupt access to the internet, and there were no credible reports that the government monitored private online communications without appropriate legal authority.

In August the NDS reportedly sought to shut down a Facebook page called Kabul Taxi and determine the identity of those maintaining it but apparently lacked the capability to do so.

Media outlets and activists routinely used social media to discuss political developments, and Facebook was widely used in urban areas. The Taliban used the internet and social media (e.g., Twitter) to spread its messages. Although internet coverage was high, usage remained relatively low due to high prices, inadequate local content, and illiteracy.

Academic Freedom and Cultural Events

There were no reports that the government imposed restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events during the year.

b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Freedom of Assembly

The government generally respected citizens' right to demonstrate peacefully. There were numerous public gatherings or protests related to a variety of causes, including civilian casualties, lack of government services, and violence against women. In March protesters demonstrated throughout the country urging the government to recover 31 Hazara hostages. Thousands of Kabul residents attended several protests during the year to condemn the March 19 murder of Farkhunda Malikzada and demand justice for female victims of violence. In November protests broke out in cities across the country after militants suspected to be linked to the Islamic State beheaded seven Hazaras, including two women and a nine-year-old girl, in Zabul Province. The demonstrations were an expression of public discontent at the government's inability to deal with the threat of militants and cast a spotlight on the grievances and unease of the Hazaras, who feared further attacks.

Freedom of Association

The right to freedom of association is provided in the constitution, and the government generally respected it. The 2009 law on political parties obliges them to register with the Ministry of Justice and to pursue objectives consistent with Islam. By law a party must have 10,000 registered members to register with the Ministry of Justice.

In 2012 the Council of Ministers approved a regulation requiring political parties to open offices in at least 20 provinces within one year of registration. The regulation provides for removal of parties failing to do so from the Ministry of Justice's official list. During the year the ministry conducted a nationwide review of provincial political party offices. It found 20 political parties not in compliance with the regulation and had deregistered 10 of them by September.

c. Freedom of Religion

See the Department of State's Report on International Religious Freedom.

d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of Refugees, and Stateless Persons

The law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation, but the government sometimes limited citizens' movement for security reasons.

The government continued to cooperate with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration, and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, returning refugees, and other persons of concern. Government ability to assist vulnerable persons, including returnees from Pakistan and Iran, remained limited, and it continued to rely on the international community for assistance.

In-country Movement: Taxi, truck, and bus drivers reported security forces operated illegal checkpoints and extorted money and goods from travelers.

The greatest barrier to movement in some parts of the country was the lack of security. In many areas insurgent violence, banditry, land mines, and IEDs made travel extremely dangerous, especially at night.

Armed insurgents operated illegal checkpoints and extorted money and goods. The Taliban imposed nightly curfews on the local populace in regions where it exercised authority, mostly in the southeast.

Social custom limited women's freedom of movement without male consent or a male chaperone.

Emigration and Repatriation: Through September a total of 53,881 documented refugees voluntarily repatriated with UNHCR assistance. The average number of returns per day reflected a nearly fourfold increase over the same period in 2014. The government's capacity to integrate returned refugees remained low. The number of refugees returning from Pakistan increased dramatically during in the first half of the year following the December 2014 attack on the Peshawar Army Public School, which led to increased Pakistani pressure on Afghans to return. Former refugees constituted 20 percent of the total population, yet the government lacked the capacity to integrate large numbers of new arrivals due to continuing insecurity, limited employment opportunities, poor development, and budgetary constraints.

UNHCR, in conjunction with the governments of Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, continued a strategy developed in 2012 aimed at preserving refugee status for those remaining in neighboring countries while assisting with the reintegration of returnees through targeted assistance, including educational, health, and employment assistance. Returnees ostensibly had equal access to health, education, and other services, although some community sites designated for returning refugees had limited means of transportation or lacked roads leading to larger, more established villages and urban centers, making access to such services and economic opportunities difficult.

Internally Displaced Persons

Internal population movements increased, mainly triggered by increasing armed conflict, notably in the Northeast. Natural disasters and variations in employment availability also increased population movement. As the conflict intensified, internal displacement surged, increasing by approximately 50 per cent compared with 18 months earlier. The number of IDPs reached 948,000 by midyear. An estimated 1.4 million IDPs returned to their areas of origin during the first half of the year, 200,000 fewer than the corresponding period in 2014. More than half of all IDPs resided in the five provinces of Herat, Helmand, Nangarhar, Faryab, and Kandahar, according to UNHCR.

Limited humanitarian access caused delays in identifying, assessing, and providing timely assistance to IDPs, and led to estimates of the total number of IDPs that were significantly larger than official figures. IDPs continued to lack access to basic protection, including personal and physical security and shelter. Many IDPs, especially in households with a female head, faced difficulty obtaining basic services because they did not have identity documents. Many IDPs in urban areas reportedly faced discrimination, lacked adequate sanitation and other basic services, and lived in constant risk of eviction from illegally occupied displacement sites, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. Women in IDP camps reported high levels of domestic violence. Limited opportunities to earn a livelihood following the initial displacement often led to secondary displacement, making tracking of vulnerable persons difficult. IDPs who had access to local social services sometimes had less access than their non-IDP neighbors due to distance and other factors. The government adopted a national IDP policy that, if implemented, would protect IDP rights and provide durable settlement solutions.

Protection of Refugees

Access to Asylum: Laws do not provide for granting asylum or refugee status, and the government has not established a system for providing protection to refugees. The government worked closely with the international community to protect and respond to the needs of Pakistani refugees who crossed into Khost and Paktika Provinces following Pakistani military June 2014 operations against insurgents. As of September, 35,781 Pakistgani families remained in the country -- 24,245 in Khost Province and 11,536 in Paktika Province -- representing a total of 221,432 individuals.

Section 3. Freedom to Participate in the Political Process

The constitution provides citizens the ability to choose their government in free and fair periodic elections based on universal and equal suffrage, and citizens exercised this ability in the 2014 presidential and provincial elections and the 2010 parliamentary elections. The Taliban attempted to use violence to intimidate voters from going to polling places during both rounds of the 2014 presidential elections. Allegations of serious widespread fraud and corruption also marred the elections. As a result of one of the candidates' accusations of massive fraud, the Independent Election Commission (IEC), with significant support from the United Nations and international observers, conducted an audit from July to September 2014 of all ballot boxes from the June presidential runoff elections. The two presidential candidates' camps signed a political agreement in September 2014 establishing a government of national unity, including the creation of the position of a chief executive officer.

Elections and Political Participation

Recent Elections: According to the IEC, more than 6.8 million voters cast votes in the first round of the April 2014 presidential election. Although security incidents occurred throughout the country, they apparently had only a modest impact on turnout, and there were no mass-casualty events. Of eight presidential candidates who competed in the first round, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai received the most votes, 45 percent and 31.6 percent, respectively. Neither achieved the majority necessary to avoid a runoff, however, and the runoff election between the two occurred in June 2014. There was an audit and vote recount for the runoff election in response to allegations of fraud. According to media reporting of leaked IEC data, the audit invalidated more than 850,000 fraudulent ballots of an estimated eight million. In September 2014 the IEC named Ghani the new president, after which Ghani created the position of chief executive officer for Abdullah by presidential decree, in accordance with the an agreement between the candidates to create national unity government.

Although mandated by the constitution, parliamentary elections did not take place during the year. As a result members of the Wolesi Jirga (lower house of parliament) remained in office past the June expiration of their five-year terms. The scheduling of new parliamentary elections was delayed pending the implementation of the recommendations of a Special Electoral Reform Commission created under the terms of the 2014 national unity government agreement.

Government and civil society institutions praised the participation of women and estimated more female voters participated in the 2014 election than in the 2009 presidential election. While there were reports of low voter participation among women in some rural areas, anecdotal reports from various sources suggested women's participation was robust overall, and the IEC estimated women made up approximately 36 percent of voters in the first round. The increase in women's participation was attributable in part to the IEC's Gender Unit, which for the first time drafted and implemented a strategy to support women's participation in the elections. Although election monitoring institutions viewed the voting for the first round as generally well run, ballot shortages reported across the country led to disenfranchisement of some voters, even after the IEC delivered emergency contingency ballots. A combination of higher-than-anticipated voter turnout, inaccurate population estimates, and fraud contributed to ballot shortages.

In the June 2014 runoff election the IEC estimated a turnout of nearly eight million voters, including 38 percent women. Although there were again reports of ballot shortages, the IEC more effectively dispatched contingency ballots where needed. The ANDSF was largely successful in providing security to most areas, and there was better coordination between the ANDSF and IEC staff than in the first round of voting. While insurgent attacks caused slightly more casualties than during the first round, there were a third fewer significant security incidents.

Allegations of fraud led to a dispute over the accuracy of the preliminary results announced by the IEC following the June 2014 runoff. Those results showed Ghani leading with 56.4 percent compared with Abdullah's 43.5 percent. Following a protracted standoff, the two candidates agreed to a 100 percent audit of the ballot boxes and committed to forming a national unity government with the runner-up being chief executive officer in the government. The IEC completed the election audit in September and named Ghani the winner in September 2014.

Political Parties and Political Participation: Negative past associations of political activity with violent militia groups and the former communist regime, as well as allegations of persistent corruption and inefficiency among political elites, led many citizens to view political parties with suspicion. The 2009 Party Law granted parties the right to exist as formal institutions for the first time in the country's history. The law requires parties to have at least 10,000 members from a minimum of 22 of the country's 34 provinces.

Parties were not always able to conduct activities throughout the country; in some regions antigovernment violence reduced security. As of October 68 political parties were registered with the Ministry of Justice. A Ministry of Justice review during the year determined that 20 political parties were not in compliance with the regulation and, as of September 10, had deregistered 10 of these parties. According to the ministry a deregistered party could meet and continue "informal" political activities, but candidates for political office could not run for office under the party's name.

Provincial party members continued to assert the ministry's monitoring process was inconsistent, with some parties reporting regular interactions with ministry officials and others having none at all. Political parties played a greater role in the 2014 presidential elections than in previous elections, and the organization, networks, and manpower of the parties that supported Abdullah and Ghani contributed to their success as presidential candidates.

Participation of Women and Minorities: The constitution specifies a minimum number of seats for women and minorities in the two houses of parliament. Women should occupy at least 25 percent of the 249 seats in the lower house. In 2010, voters elected 69 women, or 27 percent of the total. The constitution provides for at least 68 female members in the 249-member lower house. The constitution empowers the president to appoint one-third of the members of the upper house, and one-half of these must be women. Two seats are set aside in the lower house for members of the Kuchi minority, and the president's appointees to the upper house should include two Kuchis and two members with physical disabilities. One seat in the upper house is reserved for the appointment of a Sikh or Hindu representative. In 2013 then president Karzai issued a presidential decree reserving a seat in the lower house for a Sikh or Hindu in the 2015 parliamentary elections. The lower house rejected the decree in December 2013, the upper house approved it. It was sent to a joint committee for final resolution.

Traditional societal practices continued to limit women's participation in politics and activities outside the home and community, including the need to have a male escort or permission to work. These factors likely continued to influence the central government's male-dominated composition. The July 2013 electoral law reduced women's quotas on provincial councils from 25 percent to 20 percent and eliminated women's quotas entirely for district and village councils. Neither district nor village councils had been formed by year's end.

As did their male counterparts, women active in public life continued to face threats and violence and were the targets of attacks by the Taliban and other insurgent groups. In February a bomb killed Angiza Shinwari, a female provincial council member in Nangarhar Province. Most female parliamentarians reportedly experienced some kind of threat or intimidation, and many believed the state could not or would not protect them.

Individuals from the Pashtun ethnic group had more seats than any other ethnic group in both houses of parliament but did not have more than 50 percent of the seats. There was no evidence specific societal groups were excluded. There were no laws preventing minorities from participating in political life, although different ethnic groups complained they did not have equal access to local government jobs in provinces where they were a minority.

Section 4. Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government

The law provides criminal penalties for corruption by officials. The government did not implement the law effectively, and there were reports officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Some low-profile corruption cases were reportedly tried successfully at the provincial level. The government made several commitments to combat corruption, including a decree in 2012 by then president Karzai. In 2013 the Attorney General's Office created a monitoring department, as required by the decree, and it began accepting referred cases. No progress on the cases has been reported.

A 2013 law organizing the judiciary weakened the Control and Monitoring Department of the Supreme Court. The department had been considered effective in dealing with corruption within the judiciary in the districts and provinces. The new law eliminated some of the department's key positions and its authority to conduct investigations, make arrests, and prosecute violators.

Reports indicated corruption was endemic throughout society, and flows of money from the military, international donors, and the drug trade continued to exacerbate the problem. Reports indicated many citizens believed the government had not been effective in combating corruption. Corruption and uneven governance continued to play a significant role in allowing the Taliban to exert influence and control some areas in the southern, eastern, and some northern provinces, particularly in remote areas.

According to prisoners and local NGOs, corruption was widespread across the justice system, particularly in connection with the prosecution of criminal cases and arranging release from prison. There were also reports that officials were bribed were paid to reduce prison sentences, halt an investigation, or dismiss charges outright. The practice of filing criminal complaints in regard to civil matters was commonly used to settle business disputes or extort money from wealthy international investors.

During the year there were reports of "land grabbing" by both private and public actors. The most common type occurred when businesses illegally obtained property deeds from corrupt officials and sold the deeds to unsuspecting "homeowners," who would then be caught up in criminal prosecutions. Other reports indicated government officials grabbed land without compensation to exchange it for contracts or political favors. Occasionally provincial governments illegally confiscated land without due process or compensation to build public facilities.

Corruption: During the year there were significant developments in the case of Kabul Bank, which had been the country's largest private financial institution prior to its collapse in a bank-fraud scandal that began to unfold in 2010. Reportedly, nearly 57 billion Afghanis ($983 million) of misappropriated funds were disbursed to politicians, ministers, and politically well-connected shareholders of the bank.

In October 2014 President Ghani issued a decree ordering that the appellate court decide pending appeals by former Kabul Bank officials Sherkhan Farnood and Khalilullah Ferozi's embezzling cases, that police arrest those who were convicted in the case but had not been incarcerated, and that the Supreme Court review the case and determine whether the scope of the case should be expanded. The decree also outlined steps to pursue the return of fraudulently acquired funds sent abroad. The decree resulted in the indictment of 17 individuals, and in November 2014 the appellate court tripled Farnood and Ferozi's sentences to 15 years in prison. The Attorney General's Office subsequently froze the assets of 10 companies and eight individuals involved in the bank's collapse. In June President Ghani announced a one-week deadline for debtors to resolve unsettled debts or have their cases referred to the Attorney General's Office for prosecution. In July the Attorney General's Office announced a travel ban and asset freezes affecting 150 outstanding debtors. As of September the government stated that approximately $440 million of assets had been recovered.

In November, Ferozi was reportedly allowed to leave prison on a temporary basis and signed a contract with the government to invest in and develop the "Smart City" housing project in Kabul, despite his criminal conviction and incarceration. Observers stated such a transaction between the government and a convicted criminal was against the law. The deal was quickly annulled, and Ferozi was returned to prison.

There were widespread reports of corrupt begavuir in the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Urban Development. In June the Attorney General's Office announced investigations into three officials of the Ministry of Urban Development on suspicion of receiving bribes in exchange for development projects or housing assignments. In July President Ghani appointed a panel to investigate allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Education, including by officials accused of embezzling funds allocated to nonexistent schools.

There were reports the Attorney General's Office was unwilling or unable to pursue some corrupt officials and that high-level officials who were arrested on corruption-related charges and subsequently released due to political pressure. In addition there was anecdotal evidence that corrupt officials made accusations of corruption to undermine the reputations of their opponents or deflect attention from their own misdeeds. There were reports the Ministry of Finance sometimes compelled civil society organizations to pay fraudulent tax bills directly to corrupt officials.

Provincial police benefited financially from corruption at police checkpoints and from the narcotics industry. ANP officers reportedly paid higher-level Ministry of Interior officials for their positions and promotions. The justice system rarely pursued corruption cases, especially if they involved police, although authorities arrested and detained a provincial chief of police on drug-trafficking charges. The Ministry of Interior continued to be affected by widespread corruption, poor performance, and abuse of power by officers. Media reported in April that of nearly 2,000 complaints of misconduct to the Ministry of Interior's Inspector General's office, only nine were referred for legal action due to corruption within the ministry.

In addition to impunity, low salaries exacerbated corruption by officials. The international community worked with the national and provincial governance structures to address the problem of low salaries, but implementation of grade reform remained slow.

Credible sources reported local police in many areas extorted "taxes" at police checkpoints and behaved violently toward those who reluctant to pay. Truck drivers complained they had to bribe security forces, insurgents, and bandits to allow their trucks to pass.

Police reportedly demanded bribes from civilians to gain release from prison or avoid arrest. Citizens bribed corrections and detention officials to obtain release of prisoners who had not been discharged at the end of their sentences.

Governors with reported involvement in corruption, the drug trade, or records of human rights violations reportedly continued to receive executive appointments and served with relative impunity.

Financial Disclosure: The High Office of Oversight is responsible for collecting information from senior government officials on all sources and levels of personal income. The office verifies and publishes online and in mass media the personal asset declarations of the most senior officials (those covered under Article 154 of the constitution) when they assume office and when they leave. While collection and publication occurred, there was only limited progress on the verification of such declarations by independent domestic and international experts. The absence of legal penalties for omissions or misrepresentations tended to undermine a key tool for identifying wrongdoing.

In June the Ministry of Interior announced an 18-month extension of the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, a project that administers salary payments for the ANP in a more transparent and accountable process.

Public Access to Information: The constitution provides citizens the right to access government information, except when access might violate the rights of others. Access to information from official sources continued to be limited due to a lack of clarity regarding citizens' rights and a lack of transparency among government institutions. In December 2014 President Ghani signed the Access to Information Law, which provides an official mechanism to request previously unavailable information from the government. NGOs and human rights organizations said the law had not been fully implemented, and some government officials reportedly failed to disclose information of public interest in an adequate manner. Observers noted concern about some provisions of the law authorities can use to withhold information for national security reasons. Integrity Watch Afghanistan indicated that the lack of clear definitions for terms such as national security and national interest could seriously affect and limit access to information.

Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights

A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups generally operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. While government officials were somewhat cooperative and responsive to their views, there were cases in which government officials intimidated human rights groups. Human rights activists continued to express concern that war criminals and human rights abusers remained in positions of power within the government.

Government Human Rights Bodies: The constitutionally mandated AIHRC continued to address human rights problems, but it received minimal government funding and relied almost exclusively on international donor funds.

Three Wolesi Jirga (low parliamentary house) committees deal with human rights: the Gender, Civil Society, and Human Rights Committee; the Counternarcotics, Intoxicating Items, and Ethical Abuse Committee; and the Judicial, Administrative Reform, and Anticorruption Committee. In the Meshrano Jirga (the upper house of parliament), the Committee for Gender and Civil Society addresses human rights concerns.

Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons

While the constitution prohibits discrimination among citizens and provides for the equal rights of men and women, local customs and practices that discriminated against women prevailed in much of the country. The constitution does not explicitly address equal rights based on race, disability, or social status. There were reports of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and gender.

Women

Domestic and international gender experts considered the country very dangerous for women.

Rape and Domestic Violence: The EVAW law, which was put into effect by presidential decree in 2009, criminalizes violence against women, including rape, battery, or beating; forced marriage; humiliation; intimidation; and deprivation of inheritance; however, its implementation remained limited. The law provides for a sentence of 16 to 20 years in prison for rape. If the act results in the death of the victim, the law provides for the death sentence for the perpetrator. The law provides for imprisonment of up to seven years for the "violation of chastity of a woman ... that does not result in adultery (such as sexual touching)." Under the law rape does not include spousal rape. The law was not widely understood, and some in the public and the religious communities deemed the law un-Islamic. Many authorities lacked the political will to implement the law and failed to enforce it fully and successfully.

During the year the AIHRC released a report noting 92 cases of honor killings from March 2014 to March 2015, down 13 percent from the same period a year earlier. According to a separate AIHRC report, National Inquiry on Rape and Honor Killing, almost 50 percent of honor killings were committed because of suspected zina (extramarital sexual relations). The same report found 67 percent of perpetrators of rape and honor killing were arrested, and 60 percent were tried and ultimately punished.

In 2013 a female parliamentarian sought parliamentary approval of EVAW, to reinforce of women's rights. This was not technically necessary, since the presidential decree that brought it into force had the same legal power as a law passed through parliament. The parliamentary introduction inadvertently prompted the conservative male majority to argue against the law by saying the protections for women were un-Islamic. The speaker prevented the law from being repealed or weakened by promptly ending debate and forwarding the legislation to a parliamentary committee, where it remained as of October. The AIHRC, justice implementers, and civil society continued to try to increase awareness of the law, despite the controversy. Some supporters of women's rights believed revisions and improvements to the EVAW law were needed, while others focused primarily on implementation and enforcement. A 2010 presidential decree requires the criminal provisions of the EVAW law to be incorporated in the country's forthcoming consolidated penal code, which remained under development. Several women's rights groups advocated throughout the year to keep the EVAW law separate from the penal code due to concern that conservative elements might seek to weaken the law during the parliamentary process.

The Attorney General's Office established the first specialized EVAW prosecution unit in Kabul in 2010 and continued to expand the number of EVAW units until, as of September, EVAW units were operational in 20 provinces. In other provinces the Attorney General's Office assigned prosecutors to handle cases of violence against women on at least a part-time basis. In March the Attorney General's Office held its first national meeting of EVAW prosecutors to facilitate communication between different provincial EVAW units and identify common issues. An April UNAMA report documenting the individual experiences of 110 women seeking justice through the judicial system observed that although their effectiveness varied widely, the units were a contributing factor towards encouraging women who experienced violence to pursue their cases. Similarly, a 2013 UN report found provinces with dedicated EVAW units tried and convicted more cases than those without an EVAW unit.

From March 2013 to March 2014, the government reported 5,406 registered cases of violence against women, with 3,715 registered under the EVAW law. A significant number of complaints brought under the EVAW law were resolved through family mediation. In its April survey on justice for women, UNAMA noted 65 percent of sample cases of violence against women were resolved through mediation. Following a visit in November 2014, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women stated that women perceived the formal justice system as inaccessible and corrupt, especially on issues related to women's rights, and therefore they frequently opted for mediation. Of the cases evaluated by UNAMA, more than half were registered by provincial Departments of Women's Affairs and police. The remainder were registered by NGOs, human rights organizations, and prosecutors' offices.

Prosecutors and judges in some remote provinces were unaware of the EVAW law, and others were subject to community pressure to release defendants due to familial loyalties, threat of harm, or bribes. Reports indicated men accused of rape often claimed the victim agreed to consensual sex, leading to zina charges against the victim, or made false claims of marriage to the victim. For example, in February a court in Kabul suspended proceedings against a man accused of repeatedly raping his daughter over a 12-year period and contemplated charges against the victim after the man accused her of having extramarital relationships with other men. The man was later convicted and sentenced to death, the most severe sentence ever handed down under the EVAW law, when DNA evidence proved he had fathered his daughter's two children.

Rapes were difficult to document due to social stigma. Male victims seldom came forward due to fear of retribution or additional exploitation by authorities, but peer sexual abuse was reportedly common. Female victims faced stringent societal reprisal, ranging from being deemed unfit for marriage to being imprisoned or a victim of extrajudicial killing.

According to the Asia Foundation's Annual Survey of the Afghan People, 23.4 percent of women surveyed knew of an organization, institution, or authority in their area where women could go to have their problems resolved. Forced virginity testing remains legal, and police, prosecutors, and judges frequently ordered virginity tests in cases where women or girls were accused of "moral crimes" such as zina. Women who sought assistance in case of rape often became subjects of virginity tests and in some instances had their cases converted into adultery cases. Interpretations of sharia also impeded successful prosecution of rape cases.

In February media reported a group of armed kidnappers in Takhar Province held a 14-year-old married girl captive and gang-raped her before killing her. Local police arrested two suspects in connection with the crime. Also in Takhar Province in March, media reported a 13-year-old girl told authorities she was eight months' pregnant following an alleged rape by a local mullah, who threatened to kill the girl's family if she reported the crime. In March media reports indicated the mullah was arrested and confessed to raping the girl.

The penal code criminalizes assault, and courts convicted domestic abusers under this provision. According to NGO reports, hundreds of thousands of women continued to suffer abuse at the hands of their husbands, fathers, brothers, in-laws, armed individuals, parallel legal systems, and institutions of state, such as the police and justice systems. The AIHRC's 2013 national inquiry on rape and honor killing noted murders, assaults, and sexual violence against women commonly involved family members as suspects.

Police response to domestic violence was limited, in part due to low reporting, sympathy toward perpetrators, and limited protection for victims. Some police and judicial officials were unaware or unconvinced that rape was a serious criminal offense, and investigating rape cases was generally not a priority. Even in instances in which justice officials took rape seriously, some cases reportedly did not proceed due to bribery, family or tribal pressure, or other interference during the process. The AIHRC's 2013 report on rape and honor killing asserted only 64 percent of cases referred to the justice sector were prosecuted or adjudicated correctly. The AIHRC and NGOs contended that due to societal acceptance of the practice, most cases were unreported d and never reached prosecutors.

According to the AIHRC, more than 4,250 cases of violence against women were reported during the first nine months of the Afghan calendar year ending March 2015. The AIHRC noted that the majority of reports concerned physical violence and expressed concern over an apparent rise in cases of sexual violence including rape. The Ministry of Women's Affairs also reported that incidents of violence against women were increasing. During the first six months of the year, 815 incidents of violence against women were reported, compared with 764 incidents during the same period in the previous year. Accurate statistics on the extent of violence against women were difficult to obtain.

Most women did not seek legal assistance for domestic or sexual abuse because they did not know their rights or because they feared prosecution or return to their family or the perpetrator. Women sometimes practiced self-immolation, and the Ministry of Women's Affairs reported there continued to be cases of suicide as a result of domestic violence. The Ministry of Public Health reported more than 9,000 suicide attempts, more than half of which were by self-immolation, between March 2014 and June 2015; the majority of victims were women. Women increasingly turned to NGO-run shelters for assistance, and according to UNAMA's April report on women's access to justice, they particularly valued the physical protection afforded by shelters, which often represented the only safe refuge for women. According to NGOs that ran women's shelters countrywide, police continued to make up the most significant source of referrals, likely reflecting improved ANP training and awareness. Space at the 28 formal shelters across the country was sometimes insufficient, and shelters remained concentrated in the western, northern, and central regions of the country. Women who could not be reunited with their families or were unmarried were compelled to remain in shelters indefinitely, because "unaccompanied" women were not commonly accepted in society. The difficulty of finding durable solutions for women compelled to stay in shelters was compounded by societal attitudes toward shelters, the belief that "running away from home" was a serious violation of social mores, and the continued victimization of women who were raped but perceived by society as adulterers.

Women in need of shelter but who could not find it often ended up in prison, either due to a lack of shelter alternatives, for their own protection, or based on local interpretation of "running away" as a moral crime. Adultery, fornication, and kidnapping are crimes under the law. Women often were convicted of those crimes in situations of abuse, rape, or forced marriage, or on the basis of invalid evidence, including flawed virginity tests. Running away is not a crime under the law, but women and girls continued to be detained for running away from home or "attempted zina." As of July 31, approximately 51 percent of female prisoners were incarcerated for moral crimes, according to GDPDC records, a decrease from 58 percent in 2014 and 80.5 percent in 2013.

The Ministry of Women's Affairs, as well as nongovernmental entities, sometimes arranged marriages for women who could not return to their families.

Police units charged with addressing violence against women, children, and families, included female officers. Although trained to help victims of domestic violence, the officers were hindered by instructions to wait for victims to take the initiative and reach out to them. Women serving in civilian and ANP positions in the Ministry of Interior offered mediation and resources to prevent future domestic violence.

In June the government launched its National Action Plan to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security.

Other Harmful Traditional Practices: The EVAW law criminalizes forced, underage, and "bad" marriages (the practice of settling disputes in which the culprit's family trades a girl to the victim's family to settle a dispute), and interference with a woman's right to choose her spouse. According to the United Nations and Human Rights Watch, an estimated 70 percent of marriages were forced. Despite laws banning the practice, many brides continued to be younger than the legal marriage age of 16 (or 15 with a guardian's and a court's approval). A 2014 AIHRC survey found more than 7 percent of respondents reported their daughters were married before the age of 16. Very few marriages were registered, leaving forced marriages outside legal control. There were reports women who sought assistance under the EVAW law in cases of forced marriage or rape became subjects of virginity tests.

Local officials occasionally imprisoned women at the request of family members for opposing the family's choice of a marriage partner or on charges of zina or bigamy. There were also reports local officials imprisoned women in place of a family member who had committed a crime but could not be located. Some women remained in detention facilities because they had run away from home to escape domestic violence or the prospect of forced marriage.

The AIHRC released its national inquiry on rape and honor killing in 2013, after a multiyear investigation. According to the AIHRC, between March 2011 and April 2013 it recorded 406 reported cases of honor killing and sexual assault. A much larger number was believed to be unreported and to include cases of suicide and self-immolation. Under the penal code, a man convicted of honor killing after finding his wife committing adultery cannot be sentenced to more than two years' imprisonment. During the year honor killings continued, although accurate statistics were difficult to obtain. In August media reported a man in Parwan Province shot his three sisters, killing one and wounding two, reportedly for attending a wedding party without permission. In another case a woman in Takhar Province reported to the AIHRC that her daughter was killed by her daughter's father-in-law, mother-in-law, and husband. The husband reportedly fled to Iran, and the father-in-law was reportedly detained and later released, despite two petitions by the victim's mother to the Takhar Court of Appeals.

In March a crowd of dozens of men killed 27-year-old Farkhunda Malikzada outside a Kabul mosque reportedly after an amulet seller falsely accused her of burning a Quran. The mob beat her, dragged her behind a car, and set her body on fire while nearby police failed to intervene. The incident spurred large-scale public protests in Kabul by civil society and women's rights activists. A Kabul court sentenced four men to death for the murder, but the appeals court later reduced the sentences to prison terms of 10 to 20 years. A legal panel appointed by President Ghani conducted an investigation and found legal discrepancies starting from the investigation through the sentencing and appellate proceedings and recommended a retrial. Prosecutors referred the case to the Supreme Court for a review of the appellate court's decision.

There were reports of summary justice by the Taliban and other antigovernment elements that resulted in extrajudicial executions. In September the Taliban stoned to
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A new insect pest is likely to remain a problem in grain sorghum and forage sorghum fields this year due to early indications.

"The sugar cane aphid was horrible the past two years and we have already found it on Johnson grass shouts in Comanche County this spring," said Bob Whitney of Whitney Consulting Group.

Mike Berry, County Extension Agent for Comanche County, also reports overwintering aphids this year.

"Initially we thought the aphid could not winter in our area, but last year that was not the case," said Berry.

With many producers in the area growing forage sorghum to support the dairy and stocker industry a possible recurrence is of major concern.

Berry reports that the sugar cane aphid is a unique insect. They are all born as females, plus the fact they are born pregnant, giving birth to live young. One female will produce over 300 aphids in 3 weeks. The population builds up so quickly that they literally suck the life out of the host plant, according to Berry.

Also, this pest produces honeydew, a sticky sugar-like substance composed of plant sugars and water. A black sooty mold often grows from the honeydew on the leaves which inhibits light absorption needed for photosynthesis and may reduce the effectiveness of insecticides and herbicides.

The sugar cane aphid is very unpredictable. In 2015, some fields were devastated by this insect, while others were not touched.

Texas AgriLife Extension Services suggests that producers scout all their fields once a week and when they find colonies, then scout twice a week until a treatment threshold is reached.

Since the aphid can multiply so fast, action should be taken when 50 or more aphids per leaf average across the field. Berry recommends scouting across the field since the aphids will have hot spots. In scouting, check both lower and upper leaves.

Because of the increasing infestations of the sugar cane aphid, in 2015, the insecticide Transform from Dow Chemical was labeled under a Section 18 Emergency Exemption in Texas. Also Sivanto 200SL from Bayer Chemcial has been issued a Section 27(ee).

Control of the sugar cane aphid requires good coverage of the entire canopy including the lower leaves, which is difficult to achieve in forage sorghum due to the dense canopy. For this reason, early harvest or grazing may be the best option.

Both Whitney and Berry are recommending alternate forage crops which are resistance to sugar cane aphid damage in problem areas. Whitney said producers in the DeLeon area are looking at planting Pearl Millet, while Berry reports that producers are planting corn on acres they would normally plant sorghum on.

"We still have a lot to learn about the sugar cane aphid, but breeding programs are already underway to produce more tolerant varieties of sorghum," said Berry.
MONDAY

Square dance workshop

TYE  The Key City Squares will conduct a square dancing workshop at 6:30 p.m. at the Wagon Wheel.

Other ...

AARP, 10 a.m., Rose Park Senior Citizens Center Room B.

Blood drive, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Eula High School

Cancer Services Network's Auxiliary meeting, 10:30 a.m., 100 Chestnut St., Suite 100. 325-672-0040.

Overeaters Anonymous, noon, Hinds Square Building, 100 Chestnut St., Room 112.

Blood drive, noon to 3 p.m., Lueders-Avoca High School.

Schizophrenia Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Anorexics Bulimics Anonymous, 6 p.m., Shades of Hope, 402A Mulberry St., Buffalo Gap. 800-588-4673.

Central Texas Gem & Mineral Society of Abilene, 7 p.m., 7607 Highway 277 South. 325-692-0063.

Abilene Toastmaster's Club 1071, 7 p.m., Conference Center, Texas State Technical College, 650 E. Highway 80. 325-692-7325 or abilene.toastmastersclubs.org.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007.

Mid-City Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First Christian Church. 325-670-4304.

Memory Men (4-part a cappella singing), 7 p.m., Calvary Baptist Church, 1165 Minter Lane. Park on east side, enter through kitchen. 325-676-SING.

Those Left To Cope, 7-8:30 p.m., First Baptist Church Ministry of Counseling and Enrichment, 1502 N. First St.

Abilene Community Band rehearsal, 7:30 p.m., Bynum Band Hall, McMurry University. 325-232-7383.

South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave.

Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Avoca United Methodist Church. 325-773-2611.

Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Group. 325-676-1400.

TUESDAY

Taste of Abilene

The annual Taste of Abilene showcase will be presented from 6-8 p.m. at the Abilene Civic Center, 1100 N. Sixth St. Food from more than 40 restaurants and caterers will be featured. Tickets are $35. Proceeds will go to local nonprofit organizations. To register, go to www.tasteofabilene.com.

Business workshop

Texas Tech Small Business Development Center Abilene will conduct a workshop, "Managing Business Reports and Recordkeeping," from 6-8 p.m. in the Texas Tech Training Center, 749 Gateway St., Suite 301. To make a reservation, call 325-670-0300.

Square dance workshop

TYE  The Wagon Wheel Squares will conduct a square dancing workshop at 6:30 p.m. at the Wagon Wheel.

Trumpet recital

Dr. Karl Sievers will present a trumpet recital at 8 p.m. in Ryan Recital Hall at McMurry University.

Other ...

Mission on the Move Soup Kitchen, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Southwest Drive Community United Methodist Church, 3025 Southwest Dr.

Abilene Southwest Rotary Club, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St.

High Noon Al-Anon, noon, Southern Hills Church of Christ, 3666 Buffalo Gap Road (south end; follow the yellow signs).

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Brookshires, Cisco.

Stroke/Aphasia Recovery Program support group, 1:30-2:30 p.m. West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-3535.

Dystonia Support Group, 5:15-6:15 p.m., Not Without Us, 3301 N. First St. Suite 117.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS), 5:30 p.m., Brook Hollow Christian Church, 2310 S. Willis St. 325-232-7444.

Legacies Al-Anon Family Group, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-280-7584.

Family (of Mental Health Consumers) Support Group, 6-7 p.m., Mental Health Association in Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

MHAA Bipolar/Depression Peer Support Group, 6-8 p.m., Ministry of Counseling & Enrichment, 1502 N. First St. 325-673-2300.

Free certified nurturing parent class (pregnancy to toddler), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398.

Abilene Star Chorus, 6:15 p.m., First Baptist Church, 1333 N. Third St. 325-829-1470.

Overeaters Anonymous, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Exodus Metropolitan Community Church, 1933 S. 27th St.

Family Support Group for parents with special needs children, 6:30-7:30 p.m., West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-3500.

Alzheimer's Association  North Central Texas Chapter, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Chisholm Place, 1450 E. N. 10th St. 325-672-2907.

Al-Anon Parents Group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. Use Church Street entrance.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., Doug Meinzer Activity Center, Knox City. 940-658-3926.

Brigadier General John Sayles Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 366, 7 p.m., American Legion Building, 302 E.S. 11th St.

Abilene Society of Model Railroaders, 7-8:30 p.m., 2043 N. Second St.

Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St.

WEDNESDAY

Art film

A showing of the film "Chuck Close: A Portrait in Progress" will begin at noon at the Center for Contemporary Arts, 220 Cypress St. A discussion will follow.

Other ...

Overeaters Anonymous, 8 a.m., Hinds Square Building, Room 112, 100 Chestnut St.

Blood drive, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Hawley High School.

Abilene Cactus Lions Club, 11:45 a.m., Cotton Patch Cafe, 3302 S. Clack St.

Abilene Wednesday Rotary Club, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway. $12 for lunch. Jo Ann Wilson, 325-677-6815.

Kiwanis Club of Abilene, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway Blvd.

Clearly Speaking Toastmaster Club, noon, Westgate Church of Christ, 402 S. Pioneer Drive. 325-795-5570.

Alzheimer's Association Caregiver Support Group, 2-3 p.m., Western Hills Healthcare Residence, Comanche.

Alzheimer's disease support group, 5:15 p.m., Cedar Crest Care Center, 1901 W. Elliott, Breckenridge. Assists those who have a family member with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. 1-800-272-3900 or 254-559-3302.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Veterans Peer Support Group, 6 p.m., 765 Orange St. 325-670-4818.

Mid-week Al-Anon Family Group, 6-7 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-698-4995.

Advanced Square Dancing, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Wagon Wheel.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007.

DivorceCare support group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. 325-691-4200.

THURSDAY

Garage sale

DESDEMONA  An annual garage sale will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Desdemona Activity Center.

Writer speaks

As a part of the Knox-Bennett Writers Series, novelist Maggie Mitchell will speak about writing at 2:30 p.m. in the Jay-Rollins Library at McMurry University. She will read selections of her fiction at 7:30 p.m. in the Old Main Matthews Auditorium. Admission to both events is free.

Documentary showing

A free showing of a part of the PBS documentary series "Latino Americans" will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Mockingbird Branch of the Abilene Public Library, 1326 N. Mockingbird Lane.

Jazz concert

A jazz ensemble concert will be presented at 7:30 p.m. in Bynum Band Hall at McMurry University.

Other ...

Chronic Pain and Depression Group, 11 a.m. to noon, Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St., 325-673-2300.

Abilene Founder Lions Club, 11:30 a.m., Al's Mesquite Grill, 4801 Buffalo Gap Road.

Kiwanis Club of Greater Abilene, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St. 325-695-0092.

Retired Military Wives Club social meeting, 1 p.m., Rose Park Senior Activity Center, 2625 South Seventh St. 325-677-9656 or 325-793-1490.

Mental Illness Open Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

Abilene 42 Club, 6 p.m., Rose Park Senior Center.

Teen Recovery Group, 6-7 p.m., Mission Abilene, 3001 N. Third St.

Free certified nurturing parent class (all ages), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly, 6:30 p.m. Brook Hollow Christian Church. Weigh-in begins at 5:30 p.m. 325-665-5052.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 6:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Gambler's Anonymous, 6:30 p.m., Unity Spiritual Living Center, 2842 Barrow St. 325-338-2575.

Round Dancing, 7 p.m., Wagon Wheel. 325-829-1517.

South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave.

Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St.
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.
A Stamford woman is in the Jones County Jail Monday in lieu of a $250,000 bond on a first-degree felony murder charge related to an investigation led by the Texas Rangers.

Details about the death were not available. Department of Public Safety spokesman Trooper Frederick Biddle confirmed the arrest was made in connection with the death of a person Sunday in Jones County.

According to information from the Jones County Jail, authorities booked Brianna Lopez, 21, of Stamford at 2:07 a.m. Monday, and Rangers are investigating further to possibly add two more felony charges.

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Don Baber, the "boss of the volunteers," was doing more volunteering than bossing Monday morning as he and about a dozen others helped unload donations at a temporary drop-off location for Christian Service Center.

The empty building at 904 Walnut St. will serve as a drop-off location for donations to the ministry until a move is made to a new facility in November. The temporary move is due to an April 2 fire that destroyed most of Christian Service Center's buildings at North Ninth and Mesquite streets. Cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Even as workers continued to clear out the debris at the fire site, volunteers and employees cheerfully went about their business Monday morning, the first day that donation of goods had resumed since the fire.

"It's amazing what you can do with a lot of people," Baber said, gesturing to the group that he supposedly bosses. "We've got great volunteers."

Until further notice, donations can be dropped off at the Walnut Street building 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Beginning May 2, people may start coming to a temporary office at 949 Mesquite St. to request goods and services. Hours for the temporary office will be 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The temporary drop-off location and the temporary service office will be open until Christian Service Center moves into a single permanent new facility in the renovated Woodlawn Church of Christ, 3185 N. 10th St. in November. Until then, goods and services will be parceled out on a limited basis, said Jim Clark, director.

"If we can't help them here," he said, "we'll refer them" to other agencies or ministries.

The center already was renovating the church on North 10th Street with plans to move in November, when the fire occurred. Since 1968, Christian Service center has operated out of several buildings at 901 Mesquite St. Three of those buildings were barracks from Camp Barkeley, a World War II Army camp located southwest of Abilene. Two of the barracks burned to the ground in the April 2 fire. One remains but was so heavily damaged, it will be razed, said Jim Clark, director.

A metal building containing clothing and shoes was saved. It will be converted into a storage building for children's clothing when the center opens at its new location in November.

Clark said the community response has been amazing. Shortly after the temporary drop-off location opened Monday, pickup trucks and cars were pulling in, with volunteers hurrying out to unload boxes and bags of goods. Meals on Wheels donated the temporary office space on Mesquite Street and the Salvation Army brought over appliances for a volunteer breakroom, Clark said.

Bright and early Monday morning, Baber was on the job at the temporary drop-off location, getting the new shelving and tables ready to hold the outpouring of donations that is expected. Among those showing up to help was Julie Rich, who started working as a volunteer in October. Like the other volunteers, Rich won't let a little disruption interfere with her plans to continue to help out.

"I plan to be here when needed," she said.
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If you read the North Korean media over the last few weeks, you would have been surprised at how often the North Koreans have threatened an (allegedly preemptive) attack against South Korea and the United States.

In March, the North Korean authorities promised to hit the continental United States with nuclear weapons. Later that month, Pyongyang said its military was training to attack the Blue House, South Koreas presidential residence. Official media even showed footage of such a simulated attack.

All these Gothic threats have a clear reason behind them: For many decades, North Korean diplomacy has successfully employed the same trick. The North Koreans create a sense of tension before they move to extract political concessions for their willingness to calm the situation that they themselves first created deliberately. However, this time this strategy has not worked. The reason is simple: nobody listens to Pyongyangs threats anymore.

Indeed, in the early 1990s, when North Koreas official representatives promised to turn Seoul into a sea of fire, this statement was enough to result in panic buying amongst some older Koreans. Now, much stronger statements than this are either completely ignored, briefly mentioned in passing on the evening news as if they were bad jokes, or buried somewhere on page 25 of Seouls daily newspapers.

The reaction of the international community, though slower to catch on, has become similar. As recently as 2013, such outbursts of bellicosity from Pyongyang created an acute sense of crisis. Back then, dozens of top-tier journalists from network TV and the print media from across the Western world descended on Seoul. This time around though, similarly dramatic, picturesque and scary sounding words have fallen on deaf ears.

The reason for the change is clear. North Korea has cried preemptive nuclear strike just one too many times, and the wolf of disinterested apathy has eaten their news cycle. The a leader in this regard is the attitude of South Korea, which stopped caring about North Korean rhetoric quite a while ago.

Before the late 1980s, the South Korean people saw the North as a serious threat to be feared and taken seriously. Many still remembered the crushing defeats of 1950 when advancing North Korean forces nearly annihilated the South Korean army in just a few days.

Indifferent about North Korea

Things began to change after democratization, partially due to the rise of a younger generation that had been strongly influenced by left-wing Korean nationalism. For a couple of decades, the South Koreans had seen Pyongyang as both something to be afraid of, but also the object of pity, worthy of sympathy and assistance. This was the era of Kim Dae-jungs Sunshine Policy, when South Korea provided significant aid and preferential trade to the North.

In the last five years or so, things have again shifted. The young generation of today, and even their parents, who were the young back in the 1990s, are indifferent about the North. The former do not really see the North as a part of their national community, though they remain reluctant to admit this. Public opinion polls consistently indicate that the younger a South Korean is, the more likely he or she is to be anxious or even hostile to the idea of unification. People in the twenties are now usually skeptical rather than optimistic about unification.

North Korea is seen as an irrelevant, desperately poor foreign country whose population just happens to speak a dialect of the same language. South Koreans correctly assume that unification is going to be expensive and will require a lot of sacrifices. The older generation was, in the past at least, ready to pay, but the young are not prepared to do so.

Of course, this does not mean that South Koreans directly and openly oppose the idea of unification. This is psychologically and politically impossible because paeans to unification have been a part of mainstream education and ideology for decades. However, there is an increasingly widespread belief that there is certainly no rush to unify, or to be blunt: Unification should be put off for as long as practicable. It remains to be seen, though, how much such changes will come to influence politics in South Korea going forward. As time goes by, there is a growing suspicion towards the idea that the eventual unification of South and North should be seen as the only possible solution to the present-day situation.
A shed used to watch the Labak Khaun Water Falls , which local people confirmed was built by Laos on the old border pole left over from the French colonial era, is shown in this undated file photo.

Cambodian authorities have stepped up their efforts to block construction of a Lao military outpost along the two countries shared frontier as the dispute threatens to exacerbate an already tense border dispute between the two countries.

Border police told RFAs Khmer Service on April 17 that Cambodian authorities are stopping Laotian trucks carrying building materials on National Road 7 in an effort to prevent the bases construction.

We did not allow the materials, which are to be used for the construction, to be transported in, Ek Sivandorn, deputy police chief in charge of border affairs, told RFA.

Now its just like they dug the holes for nothing, he added. We have National Road 7, so they will have to stop trucking in the materials. National Road 7 is on our soil, so we can stop them.

Construction on the base in the poorly demarked frontier began around April 1, when the Lao military started trenching for a new base about 30 meters from an unmarked area of the border separating Stung Trengs Thala Barivat district from Laos Champasak province, according to local media.

Officials protest

The building sparked protests from officials in Stung Treng, who say the two countries have agreed to bar construction of new buildings in the area until the border is properly demarcated.

While efforts to demarcate the 540-km long border between Laos and Cambodia began in 2000, they remain incomplete.

The joint border committees of both countries have called for a sixth meeting on maintaining the border, but Steung Treng provincial authorities claim Laos is abusing the agreement.

Provincial authorities have written to the Ministry of Interior asking for help, and the ministry has written to the Cambodia Border Committee seeking an intervention, but their Laotian counterpart has yet to provide a response, they said.

Attempts to contact Va Kim Hong, the official in charge of the special mission of border affairs, were unsuccessful.

When Stung Treng officials visited their Laotian counterparts this week seeking a solution, Laotian officials refused to negotiate and threatened violence if they were prevented from continuing with the construction, provincial spokesman Men Kung said on Friday.

The stance of the provincial authorities is they must abide by the policies that the government has already set, he said. The authorities have to sub-delegate their tasks in the name of the provincial authorities. In the name of the provincial authorities, [we] must protect our integrity and sovereignty.

More border disputes

This isn't the only border dispute that is engaging Cambodia. In 2015, the government matched a map from France that was issued prior to Cambodian independence in 1953 and a set of 1964 maps from the United Nations delineating the border between Cambodia and Vietnam to its own official chart to dispel allegations that it was giving Vietnam land.

Afterwards, Hun Sen ordered police to arrest anyone who accused the government of using fake maps and ceding national territory amid an ongoing political dispute over the demarcation of the countrys border with Vietnam.



The move came after Cambodias parliament voted to strip opposition senator Hong Sok Hour of his immunity, prompting criticism from rights groups, after Hun Sen accused him of treason for posting a disputed diplomatic document online relating to the Cambodias border with Vietnam. Hong Sok Hour is awaiting trial on the charges.

Thailand and Cambodia have also been in a border spat centered on border temple of Preah Vihear.

The International Court of Justice in 2013 handed Cambodia a partial victory in that dispute when it ruled that Cambodia had sovereignty over the immediate area around the promontory on which the temple sits. The court left unresolved, however, who controls a larger disputed area, where Cambodian and Thai troops have clashed in recent years.

Reported by Chanthey Men for RFA's Khmer Service. Translated by Pagnawath Khun. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
Ethnic Mongolian residents of Ar-Hundelen township in Inner Mongolia's Zaruud Banner (Zaluteqi in Chinese) in an undated file photo.

Chinese authorities are stepping up a crackdown on rights activists and lawyers who are trying to help Inner Mongolian herders embroiled in a bitter protest over the contamination of their grazing lands, sources told RFA.

The moves come amid ever-tighter security in Ar-Hundelen township in the region's Zaruud Banner (Zaluteqi in Chinese), where local residents are demanding compensation for the damage to their health and their live stock that they blame on widespread industrial pollution caused by nearby alumni smelters.

"Four lawyers who were heading towards Zaruud to offer legal advice to Ar-Hundelen herders have been stopped by police," a local resident who declined to be named told RFA. "Two others are being followed, it seems, so they can't continue their journey here."

An ethnic Mongolian scholar was also detained briefly en route to offer help to protesters, local sources said.

In total, six protesters remain in police custody following mass protests outside an alumina smelting plant in neighboring Huuliin-gol earlier this month, they said.

Zaruud police last week detained herder Nasanulzei after he publicized video footage of piles of his sheep with deformed teeth as they lay dead and twitching, while hundreds of Ar-Hundelen residents have stepped up protests since the beginning of this month over pollution of their traditional grazing lands.

Germany-based ethnic Mongolian activist Xi Haiming said the lawyers had hoped to advise herders on how to use China's environmental laws to advance their dispute through the courts.

"It's a favorite slogan of President Xi Jinping's that China must be ruled by law, so that's why the lawyers were heading out there," Xi said.

"It was perfectly right and proper for the lawyers to do this, but the government just wants to put a lid on this protest," he said. "They don't want the herders to have any contact with the outside world."

"The fact that they have interfered with the lawyers just shows how hypocritical the [ruling] Chinese Communist Party is when it comes to the rule of law," Xi added.

Local authorities recently issued orders banning local people from posting accounts of the pollution protests online.

Cow the locals

"They are trying to cow the local population into submission, by forbidding them from posting things online," said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They are stopping them from speaking out."

Meanwhile, ethnic Mongolian rights activist Xinna, who recently gave interviews about the Zaruud protests, said she was threatened with imprisonment if she continued to highlight the herders plight to the outside world.

Under the terms of a previous suspended jail term, Xinna could face re-imprisonment for up to 20 months after for firing off social media posts defending her son Uiles, who has been targeted on alleged drug charges after his activist father Hada was jailed for subversion.

"At first they tried to use drug charges to threaten me, and tried to get me to do a drug test, but then they were shamed after I wrote about it online, and they came up with a new way [of giving me trouble]," she said. "Now they have cut off my communication links with the outside world, and I know the police are monitoring my phone line."

However, one of the herders Xinna has helped in the past sent her an anonymous message urging her to stay out of jail, she said.

"You are still able to act fairly freely at the moment, but if you lose that freedom, there are many things that you will be forced to give up," the message said. "It is a small compromise to take the hint [from the authorities]."

"It's already hard enough for the herders to make their voices heard, and their interests will receive limited protection if you are still able to exercise a limited amount of freedom," it said.

Wrong jurisdiction

Repeated calls to the Inner Mongolian regional politics and law committee, which administers China's "stability maintenance" program and state security police, rang unanswered on Saturday.

Local police and government officials in Ar-Hundelen have confirmed to RFA that there is a serious pollution problem in the area, but they say the smelting plants are located in a separate jurisdiction.

Rights activists say pollution from three alumina plants in an industrial zone in Huuliin-gol is posing a huge threat to human and animal health, causing higher-than-average cancer rates in the local population, and long-tooth deformities in sheep.

Nasanulzei's detention came after he released a cell phone video showing piles of dead or twitching ewes and lambs recently poisoned by soil and water pollution.

Local herders are calling for transparency, for compensation for lost livestock, and for free medical checks for themselves.

Security remains tight in the region, where police sealed off local roads to prevent local herders from traveling to the smelting plants to continue their protests, local sources said last week.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Si-lam for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Hong Kong's Airport Authority is to produce a report explaining how staff at the city's international airport delivered a piece of left-behind luggage to the daughter of chief executive Leung Chun-ying, amid accusations that he put pressure on them to skip full security procedures.



More than 1,000 people gathered at Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday in protest at allegations that Leung used his privilege to fast-track his daughter Leung Chung-yan's bag through security in her absence after she left it behind in the departure hall.



Some held placards calling for Leung's resignation, while others chanted "Keep Hong Kong Skies Safe!" during the three-hour sit-in the international arrivals hall.



Protest organizers the Hong Kong Cabin Crew Association said some 2,500 people took part over the three-hour period.



Carol Ng, secretary-general of the association, said they expect to wait no longer than a week for the report to be made public, and called on the city's civil aviation department (CAD) to give a full account of the incident.



"We are calling on the CAD to sit down for a meeting and a dialogue with the Cabin Crew Association," Ng said. "If they totally fail to respond, then we will continue our protests."



"I won't go as far as to say we'll escalate them."



'Special privileges'



A protester who gave only her surname Chan said she is sick of what she sees as the abuse of power by Leung.



"There was no reason to extend special privileges in this case," Chan said. "There are also security concerns, which will damage Hong Kong image internationally."



According to the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, Leung abused his political power to have the forgotten bag brought to his 23-year-old daughter as she waited to board a flight to the United States last month, a version of events that Leung has denied.



However, the accusations have continued to dog him, prompting even pro-Beijing politicians to call for clarification of the incident, dubbed "bag-gate" on social media.



"I think it will attract attention from all over the world about our governance, particularly the behaviour of the [Chief Executive] himself," New People's Party lawmaker, Michael Tien said on Monday, calling for more details.



Tien told government broadcaster RTHK it appeared there was ample time for Leung Chung-yan to fetch the bag herself and go back through security to catch her flight.



Politically embarrassing



The incident could be politically embarrassing for Leung, who was widely reviled in public during the 2014 Occupy Central protests, should he seek a second term in office next year.



While next year's election for chief executive will be decided by an electoral committee of just 1,200 members hand-picked by Beijing, Leung was elected with just 689 of those votes in 2012.



The Occupy Central movement campaigned for Beijing to withdraw an Aug, 31, 2014 electoral reform plan, which it rejected as "fake universal suffrage," and to allow publicly nominated candidates to run for chief executive in 2017.



The plan, which offered one-person, one-vote in 2017 elections for chief executive, but required candidates to be vetted by Beijing, was voted down on June 18, 2015 by 28 votes to eight in Hong Kong's Legislative Council, leaving the city with its existing voting arrangements still in place.



The Hong Kong government said initial inquiries showed that security hadn't been breached, as the bag was security-checked in its owner's absence.



"The Airport Authority Hong Kong will submit a report on the case to the government," it said in a statement on its official website.



"Upon reviewing the report, appropriate follow-up action will be taken as necessary," it said.



'Put under pressure'



Pro-Beijing politician David Chu said he still has suspicions of abuse of power.



"Somebody used special privilege to make a phone call, but why has everyone connected to the incident now ducked for cover?" Chu said.



"This makes me very suspicious that pressure has been brought to bear on them not to tell the truth about what really happened."



"I don't think that anyone in Hong Kong should be pressured into hiding the truth, nor do I want to see anyone in Hong Kong put under pressure by a phone call from high places."



Veteran media commentator Cai Yongmei said many in Hong Kong feel the city, which was promised the continuation of its existing freedoms under the terms of the 1997 handover, has become less democratic and transparent since then.



"Hong Kong may not have had a democratic system in the British era, but the last governor came from a democratic society, and there were checks and balances and rule of law, and he respected public opinion in Hong Kong," Cai said.



"Leung Chun-ying doesn't want to listen to the opinions of Hong Kong people; he just does whatever Beijing wants."



"Now that his wife and daughters are in a place of power, they have started to act just like high-ranking officials in mainland China," she said.



Reported by Wong Si-lam for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Gao Shan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.




State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday called for a constitutional amendment that would create a democratic federal union that includes all Myanmars ethnic groups in order to bring peace to the Southeast Asian nation wracked by decades of civil war.

Our policies and principles are to ensure national reconciliation, internal peace, the rule of law, amendments to the constitution and keeping the democratic system dynamic and well ingrained, she said in an address marking Myanmars New Year holiday, the full text of which appeared in English in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar.

The constitution needs to be one that will give birth to a genuine, federal democratic union, she said, adding that in its efforts to change the charter, the government led by her National League for Democracy (NLD) party wont resort to means which will affect national peace.

To end the secessionist civil wars that have plagued the country, she said Myanmars government will strive to include ethnic armed groups it deems appropriate for inclusion in the ceasefire accord which the previous government signed with eight rebel organizations.

Through peace conferences, well continue to be able to build up a genuine, federal democratic union aspired to by all our countrymen, Aung San Suu Kyi said.

The internal peace process and the establishment of a genuine, federal democratic union are closely intertwined, she said. Thats why we need a constitutional amendment.

Peace and reconciliation

The former military-backed government under Thein Sein, which held peace talks with some of the rebel groups and inked a nationwide peace agreement with eight of them last October, deliberately excluded others because of their ongoing hostilities with the national army.

The armed ethnic groups have called for a federal union that would give the ethnic groups autonomy over certain local affairs.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who is also NLD chairwoman and minister of foreign affairs and the Presidents Office, has made national peace and reconciliation the cornerstone of the new government that came into power at the beginning of the month.

Before her party won national elections last November, she spearheaded efforts to amend the constitution, written in 2008 by a former military junta that ruled the country at the time, so that she could become president.

Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by a provision that forbids anyone with foreign-born relatives from seeking the nations top office. Her two sons are British nationals, as was her late husband.

She also tried to push through a change that would reduce the power of military members of parliament, who are appointed to a quarter of the bodys seats and hold veto power over proposed constitutional changes.

Political prisoners freed

On Sunday, President Htin Kyaw granted a holiday amnesty to 65 political prisoners who were released from various prisons, although a pardon issued earlier said 83 prisoners in all would be freed, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a nonprofit human rights organization based in Mae Sot, Thailand, which lobbies for the release of remaining political prisoners in Myanmar.

AAPP secretary Taik Naing said his organization is keeping tabs on other political prisoners still in various jails.

There are about 40 political prisoners in different jails, as we had about 120 political prisoners on our list before, he told RFAs Myanmar Service. I think the rest of the political prisoners still need to be reviewed by the National Defense and Security Council.

The 11-member executive body, which is responsible for the country's security and defense affairs, has the authority to recommend people and prisoners to whom the president should grant amnesty.

On April 8, about 100 other political prisoners were freed and charges were dropped against roughly 70 students who had been jailed for more than a year while awaiting trial for participating in a March 2015 protest against national education policy.

The move came a day after Aung San Suu Kyi in her new role as state counselor said the release of political prisoners was a priority for the new government.

Before the releases, the AAPP put the number of activists and students facing trial on political charges at 400.

Reported by Zin Mar Win and Tin Aung Khine for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Vu Minh Khanh arrives at the airport in Los Angeles as she campaign to bring attention to her to her husband jailed Vietnamese dissident attorney Nguyen Van Dai.

About four months ago dozens of Vietnamese police arrested dissident lawyer Nguyen Van Dai as he was on his way to meet with representatives of the European Union, which had just held a bilateral dialogue with Vietnam in Hanoi on human rights. The arrest on charges of propaganda against the state came a week after masked assailants beat him in what he called a reprisal for educating members of the public about their human rights. Nguyen founded the Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam, which trains human rights attorneys and promotes legal education.

Since his imprisonment, his wife Vu Minh Khanh has been pushing authorities to remember her husband and his cause. While in the United States she is expected to meet with lawmakers, officials at the State Department and media outlets. She talked with RFAs Chan Nhu after she landed in Los Angeles on April 15.

RFA: What is going on with Nguyen Van Dais situation? Do you have any more information since his arrest last year?

Vu Minh Khanh: Hes been in isolation since his arrest, meaning he is not allowed to meet with his family or lawyer. We, therefore, do not know about his health. The situation has not improved at all, even though I know that many international organizations have demanded his release. They also demanded a stop to the isolation and to allow him to have access to the Bible, but things have not changed. We have not heard anything about him, and we still have not been able to send a Bible in for him.

RFA: In this trip you will have many opportunities to meet with human rights organizations and members of the U.S. Congress. What would you tell them, and what do you expect from this trip?

Vu Minh Khanh: I will try to call for their support to help free Dai. I will also meet with the media, radio, TV, newspapers and diplomats in different states and the U.S. Congress. I will also go to Canada, Australia and Europe to do the campaign. I wish that each and every one will contribute to this cause. Freeing Dai also means campaigning for an improvement in human rights in Vietnam because Dai is a symbol for generations who fight for human rights. Many organizations both inside and outside Vietnam have raised their voice about his case. I would like very much for everybody to help and support Dai, which also means support for human rights in Vietnam. I will try to campaign for that.

RFA: Did you have any difficulty in this trip?

Vu Minh Khanh: Coming here is a sensitive matter, and I had to think carefully. I cant describe it all. Maybe I will say it when I return to Vietnam.

RFA: I must be difficult with him in jail. Do you have any specific concerns about him?

I would like to call for more attention to Dais case because hes been in custody for four months. We have not heard anything about him. Before his arrest, he had been beaten brutally by the police and he had not fully recovered before the arrest. He has hepatitis B but his condition was stable and he did not have to use medication. We are wondering about his health in custody. We are very worried.

RFA: Is there a first step?

At the moment, Im very worried. Saying this, I would like to call for support from all people who care about this case, to raise their voice to call for his release. But first of all we have to fight to stop the isolation so we can see him and his lawyer can see him. That is what I want.
At least 30 people have been killed by flash floods in northern Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's National Disaster Management Authority told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that the flash floods struck the provinces of Takhar, Badghis, and Samangan.

Heavy rains have also hit the Kabul, with no major damage or casualties were reported.

In Takhar, 10 people were killed in two districts. Scores of houses were also damaged.

In Badghis Province, 15 people were killed. In Samangan Province, flash floods killed five people.

Remote, northern areas of Afghanistan often see flash floods triggered by heavy rains, which also cause landslides.

With reporting by AP


YEREVAN -- The head of Armenia's State Bailiffs Service has resigned after local news reports documented his alleged links to offshore companies.

Major General Migran Pogosian said on April 18 that he was stepping down in order to comment on the situation as a private person.

More than 11 million documents known as the Panama Papers have been the basis for dozens of news articles around the world detailing shady financial transactions involving officials around the world.

Armenian investigative website Hetq.am has published documents apparently showing that Pogosian was linked to three Panama-registered companies -- Sigtem Real Estates, Hopkinten Trading, and Bango Invest.
With less than six months to go before parliamentary elections, a new dispute has surfaced within the ruling Georgian Dream coalition over the optimum length of the election campaign.

That dispute threatens to derail the efforts made over the past four months by Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili to forge a harmonious working relationship with Georgia's president, Giorgi Margvelashvili, whose powers are largely ceremonial.

On April 14, Kvirikashvili told his cabinet he would not countersign an edict issued by Margvelashvili scheduling the vote for October 8 and the start of the election campaign for August 8. As the NGO Association of Young Jurists had already pointed out, the formal publication of the date of the election marks the start of the electoral campaign, so that Margvelashvili's assertion that his edict would take effect only on August 8 constituted a violation of the election law.

Noting that various political parties and NGOs had protested that a two-month election campaign is too short, Kvirikashvili asked the president to retract his edict and issue a new one in early July scheduling the ballot for October 8 following a three-month election campaign.

Margvelashvili, however, countered with the announcement that he will reissue the relevant edict in early May.

Margvelashvili explained the timing of his original edict in terms of the need to allow political parties to plan their election campaign. That statement is disingenuous, however, insofar as the Georgian Constitution specifies that parliamentary elections take place in October of the year in which the parliament's four-year term expires.

That means that the approximate time frame for electioneering can easily be calculated well in advance and adjusted once the precise date of the ballot is made known. Article 50.2 of the constitution also stipulates that the president must announce the election date no later than two months in advance.

Margvelashvili told journalists on April 14 that the wording of his edict had been coordinated with the government and was based on ministers' warnings that an election campaign of longer than two months would prove financially ruinous. He added that Kvirikashvili's statement that the election campaign should last three months shows that argument was spurious.

Margvelashvili also hinted that if necessary, he could cover part of the cost of the ballot from the presidential reserve fund.

Whether he is in fact empowered to do so is questionable, however: Georgian Dream parliament deputy Irakli Sesiashvili made the point that the reserve fund is intended to be drawn on only in exceptional circumstances, such as in the event of a natural catastrophe.

In short, Margvelashvili's initial pronouncement of the election date without apparently taking into account the legal implications and his subsequent attempts at rationalization threaten to encourage the perception of him as a stubborn, defiant, and dysfunctional dilettante.

Moreover, if he does indeed call Kvirikashvili's bluff by issuing in early May an analogous edict effectively announcing the start of a five-month election campaign, the prime minister will be under pressure to sign it against his better judgment, given that if he refuses to do so, Margvelashvili does not have the legal right to issue a third such edict for another six months, by which time the parliament's four-year term would be at an end.

At a meeting with journalists on April 15, Kvirikashvili said the election date will not be changed. At the same time, he sought to downplay the contretemps over the duration of the election campaign, stressing that relations between the government and the presidential office were "absolutely normal, [and] correspond to the principles of a democratic state."
Iranian authorities have launched a new undercover police unit that will be tasked with monitoring citizens' morality in the Iranian capital and reporting transgressions to authorities.



Tehran's police chief Hossein Sajedinia said that the male and female agents -- numbering around 7,000 -- will focus on issues such as "improper veiling and removal of veils inside cars," as well as noise pollution and reckless driving.



Sajedinia was quoted by the official news agency of Iran's judiciary, Mizan Online, as saying that the undercover agents will not have the right to directly confront people. Instead, agents will send police via text message the license plate numbers of the alleged violators and their crimes, for police to follow up.



The move is the latest initiative aimed at forcing Iranians to adhere to some of the strictures imposed after 1979 Islamic Revolution. Though not stated explicitly, the announcement appears aimed squarely at women, and enforcing laws that require wearing head veils and covering their bodies.



Iran's official news agency IRNA reported in recent days that a new campaign against immoral behavior and improper veiling had been launched in Tehran with morality police units stopping citizens at major highways and shopping centers.



Since the 1979 revolution, authorities have tried with varying degrees success to force Iranians to conform to conservative dress codes. Despite arrests, fines, and threats, though, many Iranian women, particularly in Tehran and other major cities, have pushed the boundaries, wearing small colorful scarfs, makeup, tight pants and short coats.



In June 2014, lawmakers in parliament held a public debate about what was perceived to the problem of excessively tight women's leggings.

The announcement by Sajedinia was met with criticism online and protest by many Iranians inside and outside the country who termed the new vice squad as yet another act of state interference in people's lives.



"Big Brother is watching you," one Twitter user said.





"Too much security can bring insecurity," another Iranian wrote on social media.



"If I decide to leave Iran for one reason that's the hijab," another woman from Tehran wrote on Twitter.



Mizan Online, the judiciary news agency, also posted online photographs of members of the new unit. That prompted some social media users to ridicule the authorities, saying that Iran was likely the only country in the world where photographs of its undercover agents were available online.

Some said that the move went against campaign promises of more freedom and less state interference in people's lives by President Hassan Rohani.
Hundreds of Shi'ite demonstrators have rallied in central Baghdad to call for reforms.

The demonstrators gathered outside the heavily fortified Green Zone where the government is headquartered.

The rally comes after powerful Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to call mass protests if lawmakers fail to vote in "a cabinet of independent technocrats" by April 19.

Last month, Sadr organized a two-week sit-in outside the Green Zone.

Iraq has been hit by weeks of political turmoil surrounding Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi's efforts to replace the cabinet of party-affiliated ministers with a government of technocrats.

Abadi has said the turmoil could threaten the campaign against the Islamic State group, which control large swaths of territory in the country's north and west.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP
Jordan says it is recalling its ambassador to Tehran for consultations, amid continued tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani said on April 18 that Amman took the step because of what he described as Iranian interference in the "internal affairs of neighboring countries, especially Gulf countries."

In comments published by state media, Momani said Iran has "not responded" to calls by Jordan and others to respect the sovereignty of Arab countries.

Jordan is the latest Sunni-ruled country to recall its envoy from Tehran since Saudi Arabia cut ties with the Islamic republic earlier this year.

The move came after angry demonstrators protesting Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP


U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in New York on April 19.

U.S. officials told the Reuters and AP news agencies that the two will meet before Kerry flies to Saudi Arabia to join President Barack Obama at a summit with Gulf Arab leaders.

The officials were not authorized to discuss Kerry's plans publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The meeting follows complaints from top Iranian leaders that Washington is not fulfilling its part of the nuclear deal, in which Iran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Washington insists it has met its obligations but is considering easing or clarifying financial regulations about legal trade with Iran.

Zarif, speaking in Tehran on April 16, said Iran would pressure the United States to ease restrictions on non-American banks doing business with the Islamic republic, saying it would help reassure Iranians over the nuclear deal.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters


Kyrgyzstan, at times, appears to grapple with its religious identity. Around lunchtime, say, on any given Friday.

A push is on by some lawmakers to force employers in the predominantly Muslim, but officially secular, Central Asian republic to allow employees extended lunch breaks to attend Friday Prayers, the main worship service for many Muslims around the globe.

The initiative comes three years after an abortive bill to reshape the work week from its current Monday-Friday to Sunday-Thursday, also in keeping with the practice in many states with Muslim majorities.

The latest debate accompanies years of broader discussion on the role of Islam in Kyrgyzstan, where the authorities have expressed alarm over the dangers of radical Islam but tended to look the other way as illegal practices like bridenapping and polygamy continue.

All state and private employees would have the right to be absent between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to attend Friday Prayers under the newly proposed changes to the Labor Code.

The length of lunch breaks on other days -- up to one hour -- would remain unchanged.

Religious Rights

Prayer five times a day, known as "salat," is one of the five so-called pillars of Islam, although some interpretations of Islam discourage women from attending prayers in mosques.

But supporters of the Friday lunch-hour extension argue that it simply defends the rights of employees, while critics insist religious norms should not steer labor practices in a secular country.

"It's only one hour a day, once a week, or the equivalent of two calendar days a year," says lawmaker Tazabek Ikramov, who supports the changes and adds that "many lawmakers support it."

He argues that "people are attending mosque prayers anyway, and it would continue that way even if we didn't change the law."

About three-quarters of Kyrgyzstan's nearly 6 million people are Muslims.

Deputy Mufti of Kyrgyzstan Akimzhan Ergeshev welcomed the bill, saying it would spare practicing Muslims from "having to break rules."

"Currently, our religious people have to break laws, facing warnings at work, and losing jobs and money to practice their faith," Ergeshev told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service.

Religions Equal?

Not everyone welcomes the proposal, including some practicing Muslims among the opponents of the bill. "I am a Muslim and I follow and respect Islamic religious rituals, but I think it's wrong to cut short working hours because of prayers," Bishkek-based journalist Bayana Kulova says.

Kulova suggests that practicing Muslims perform Friday Prayers in their offices instead. "Many workplaces have special rooms for prayers," she says. "Especially lawmakers each have their own offices, so they can pray there if they wish to pray."

Lawyer Nurdin Asanov warns that the bill might set an awkward precedent. "What if representatives of other faiths demand changes to the law to accommodate their religious norms, too?" he says. "After all, we have followers of the Orthodox Church and Catholics, and then Muslims are divided into Sunnis and Shi'a, and all have their different rules."

Parliament has not yet scheduled a date for the debate.

Former Kyrgyz rights ombudsman Tursunbai Bakir-uulu in 2013 unsuccessfully proposed that parliament change the legal work week to make Friday the first day of a two-day weekend, as is the case in many Muslim countries.

Kyrgyz authorities routinely detain alleged members of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned throughout the region, and have tried to crack down on the radicalization of young Muslims, including to fight in Syria or Iraq for groups with ties to extremist groups like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS).

A recent push threatened to revoke the teaching licenses of dozens of principals among the country's 100 or so Islamic schools, or madrasahs.

Written by Farangis Najibullah with reporting by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service correspondent Ilich Kulnazarov
CAF: April 17, 2016 - Mozambique are within touching distance of a place at the last four after a 4-1 win over Tunisia in their Group A Day Two clash on Sunday at the Ellis Park Indoor Arena in Johannesburg.

Mozambique are within touching distance of a place at the last four after a 4-1 win over Tunisia in their Group A Day Two clash on Sunday at the Ellis Park Indoor Arena in Johannesburg.

A brace from Amin Basilio and one each from captain Ricardo Mendes and Manuel Francisco was enough for Mozambique to move to the brink of a semis spot after a second successive win, and almost ruing the chances of Tunisia, who tasted defeat number two.

Interestingly, it was the Tunisians who broke the deadlock two minutes before the break courtesy Riadh Feker with a long shot into the yawning net after Tunisia goalie Amor Ahmed was dispossessed off the ball in his quest to launch an attack.



Mozambique responded immediately and Francisco finished off an assist by Mendes with a tap to even before the interval.



Prior to that, both teams had deployed a cautious approach with much of the action in the midfield.



Eight minutes after the break, Basilio put Mozambique ahead with a shot from close range after Tunisia goalie Ahmed had spilled a shot from Mendes his path.



On 33 minutes, the Francisco-Mendes combination was to haunt the Tunisians again and from a corner, Francisco squared Mendes, who shot into the net for the third goal.



On the stroke of time, Basilio completed the rout from a Mendes assist to take the Mambas within sight of a place at the last four.



Mozambique have six points, three more than host South Africa and Zambia with Tunisia at the bottom pointless.



On Tuesday, Mozambique will be up against Zambia whilst Tunisia and South Africa face-off in the ultimate matches of the group.

ResultsSouth Africa 3-0 ZambiaMozambique 4-1 Tunisia
Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev has signed into law a bill on keeping convicted terrorists separately from other inmates.

The law signed by Atambaev on April 18 had been approved by lawmakers in March and will come into force 10 days after it is first published by state media.

The bill has been proposed to prevent the recruitment of young inmates by Islamic extremists in penitentiaries across the Central Asian nation.

Kyrgyz authorities have said that more than 500 Kyrgyz nationals, a quarter of whom are women, have left the country for Syria and Iraq to join Islamic militant groups including the Islamic State terrorist organization.

Based on reporting by KyrTAG and Akipress
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
A Russian court has sentenced a poet to one year of community service on ethnic hatred charges.

The court in Moscow also ruled on April 18 that Nikolai Bogolyubov must pay 200,000 rubles ($3,000).

Bogolyubov, 42, was found guilty of inciting hatred toward people of Jewish background.

Bogolyubov, who positions himself as an Orthodox Christian poet, pleaded not guilty.

The case against him was launched after he distributed his four books at a public event in Moscow in November 2014.

Investigators have concluded that in his literary works Bogolyubov "expressed a hostile attitude to individuals of Jewish origin, suggesting that this group of people deserve to be treated with contempt."

Based on reporting by Rapsinews and TASS


Park Geun-hye is due to become the first South Korean president to visit Iran, according to her office.

Park's office said on April 18 that she and Iranian President Hassan Rohani will next month discuss ways to boost bilateral relations as well as regional issues such as tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Iran and North Korea have long been suspected of being partners in weapons technologies.

During Park's May 1-3 visit, Park is expected to push for corporate deals including chemical and power plants, infrastructure, and information technology.

The visit comes as Seoul seeks new markets to turn around a decline in export revenues, and follows Iran's agreement to curb nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

Tehran and Seoul established diplomatic ties in 1962.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP
ON MY MIND

At first glance, the things Investigative Committee head Aleksandr Bastrykin calls for in an article in today's issue of Kommersant Vlast look a bit crazy. He wants Chinese-style Internet censorship. He's calling for political education for the youth. He's calling for intrusive inspections of religious organizations. And he wants it to be a crime to call into question Crimea's 2014 referendum on joining Russia.

But here's the thing. Bastrykin has a strong track record of proposing things that seem outlandish -- but which later happen. Like, for example, when he proposed that the Investigative Committee be removed from the jurisdiction of the Prosecutor-General's Office. Bastrykin got that, and now the Investigative Committee is arguably Russia's most powerful law-enforcement body. It is Vladimir Putin's personal politics police.

Which means the things Bastrykin is proposing now could be a blueprint for the future.

IN THE NEWS

Ukraine is due to sentence two Russian soldiers captured in the Donbas. Prosecutors are asking for 15-year sentences.

Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko's dry hunger strike is entering its 12th day. Savchenko has reportedly slipped into critical condition.

The United States is reporting another close call with a Russian warplane over the Baltic Sea.

Oil prices tumble, ruble falls, as oil talks fail.

WHAT I'M READING

Rhetoric And Policy

Did the toned-down rhetoric of Vladimir Putin's call-in program reflect a change in foreign policy? The always insightful Vladimir Frolov offers his take in a piece for Slon.ru.

Ukraine's New Government

In his column for Bloomberg, political commentator Leonid Bershidsky takes a skeptical look at Ukraine's new cabinet.

Putin's Plans For Belarus

Writing in Newsweek, Chatham House scholar Kier Giles looks at relations between Moscow and Minsk.

All Power To The Investigative Committee!

Censorship and ideology and political education -- oh my! Writing in Kommersant, Investigative Committee Chairman Aleksandr Bastrykin lays out his proposals to fight "extremism and what he calls the West's "information war" against Russia.

Writing in BNE Intelinews, security analyst Mark Galeotti unpacks what he calls "Bastrykins manifesto for the 'North Koreanization' of Russia."

"Put together, this represents one of the sharpest recent expressions of a perspective that would lead Russia to deliberately withdraw itself from its connections with the outside world, in political, social, cultural and economic terms," Galeotti writes. "Yes, this is nothing like a real 'North Koreanization,' with its slave labor and starvation. But if one puts all the aspects of Bastrykins manifesto together -- demonizing opposition as acting as agents of the West, blocking information not scripted by the state, developing and enforcing a 'national ideology,' controlling financial flows -- then this would be a dramatic and unwelcome reversal of the integrative processes since 1991."

More On Russian Brinkmanship

Chatham House's Kier Giles has a piece on Russian brinkmanship on the high seas.

The Kremlin And Europe's Far Left

Russia's outreach to Europe's xenophobic far right has been well documented. A new paper by Peter Kreko, the director of the Budapest Political Capital Research and Consulting Institute, and Lorant Gyori, a social sciences graduate student at Hungary's Eotvos Lorand University, takes a close look at the Kremlin's efforts to court Europe's far left.

War Profiteering

Hackers in Ukraine have uncovered how Russia is pillaging coal from the separatist-controlled parts of the Donbas.
MINSK -- A Belarusian national accused of fighting alongside Ukraine's radical organization Right Sector went on trial in Minsk on April 18.

Taras Avatarau, a resident of the Belarusian eastern city of Navapolatsk, has been charged with trafficking weapons and explosive devices.

Avatarau was detained in November on his arrival by train from Ukraine to Minsk. Investigators confiscated a pistol and an explosive device from him.

According to the investigators, Avatarau has fought as a volunteer alongside Right Sector members against Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Right Sector played a key role in street protests in Kyiv that toppled former Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.

The group has been banned in Russia as terrorist.


A Ukrainian court has sentenced two Russian citizens to 14 years in prison each on charges of fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Shortly after the sentencing on April 18 of Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev, the Kremlin said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed by phone the "fate" of the two Russians as well as Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko, who Russia has imprisoned on murder charges.

While the Kremlin did not explicitly say so, many observers expect the Kyiv court's verdict against the Russians to open the door for a prisoner exchange.

Poroshenko has previously proposed swapping Savchenko -- who is a national hero and has denied the charges against her -- for the Russians.

The Kremlin said the two leaders agreed that Moscow would "soon" allow Ukraine's consul-general in Rostov-on-Don to visit Savchenko in prison.

Poroshenko's office afterward said the Ukrainian leader urged Moscow to "immediately" free Savchenko. Citing her deteriorating health, he also urged Putin to allow Ukrainian and German doctors to examine her.



Ukraine's Holosiiv district court found the two Russian men guilty of conducting terrorist acts and aggressive military activities and sentenced them the same day.



The two, who pleaded not guilty, retracted video confessions made earlier in which they admitted they were active-duty Russian military personnel when they were captured in Ukraine's Luhansk region in May 2015. Both said the statements were made under duress.



Russia has said neither Yerofeyev nor Aleksandrov were employed by the military when they were captured by a volunteer Ukrainian militia.



Moscow has repeatedly denied that it has provided weapons, training, and personnel to support separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine. Independent observers, journalists, and official monitors, however, have gathered a substantial body of evidence to the contrary.



The verdict by the Ukrainian court completes what the Kremlin has described as prerequisites before a prisoner exchange can take place, including official court verdicts against both the Russian prisoners and Savchenko.



A court in Russia's Rostov region last month found Savchenko complicit in the deaths of two Russian journalists covering fighting in eastern Ukraine in June 2014, and sentenced her to more than 20 years in prison.



Poroshenko has said several times that he would be willing to make a prisoner exchange with Russia to secure Savchenko's release, and the Kremlin has never rejected the possibility.



At least 11 other Ukrainians, including filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, have been prosecuted in Russian courts related to Russia's forcible annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Moscow has signaled that it might also consider releasing them as part of a possible prisoner swap.



An uneasy truce in the two-year-old conflict has held since a ceasefire was negotiated in February 2015, although international observers have recorded an uptick in fighting in recent months.



More than 9,100 people have been killed in the fighting, and some 21,000 wounded.

With reporting by Interfax, AP, Reuters.
The United Nations says Afghan schools and medical facilities have come under increasing threat, making it harder for children to get access to education and health care.

In a report released on April 18, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, say 257 conflict-related incidents were recorded last year, up from 130 in 2014.

Sixty-three medical personnel were killed or wounded in 2015, most of them in a U.S. air strike on a hospital in the northern city of Kunduz in October. The year before, 25 health workers were killed or wounded.

Sixty-six medical personnel were abducted in Afghanistan in 2015, compared with 31 the previous year, according to the report.

Deaths and injuries among education workers decreased to 26 in 2015 from 37 the year before, but abductions spiked to 49 from 14 in the same period.

The report says violence forced more than 369 schools to close last year, affecting more than 139,000 students and 600 teachers.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Khaama
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Norfolk Southern considered sending more than 400 high-paying office jobs cut in Roanoke last year to Atlanta but instead shifted 165 of those positions to Norfolk in return for a nearly $2 million state grant, a Virginia official said Monday.

Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones on Monday said he bid aggressively for the jobs because of fierce competition from Atlanta. Even though the state will give taxpayer money to a company thats shifting jobs between two Virginia cities, Jones said he had justification and complied with requirements to notify state lawmakers.

In a letter sent to the chairmen of the General Assemblys money committees on Aug. 28, 2015, Jones called the state grant a justifiable exception to Virginias policy against issuing state grants to help a private company that has cut jobs in one community while simultaneously expanding in another within the state.

Last week, a Senate Finance Committee co-chairman and a House Appropriations Committee staffer said they could not locate any copies of the justification letter, which would have been required under the state law governing the Commonwealths Opportunity Fund, a pool of money used by the governor to lure business to Virginia. A state lawmaker reacted to the apparent notification issue in comments published Sunday after Jones, contacted late Thursday and Friday, did not respond to messages from The Roanoke Times.

But on Monday the Virginia Economic Development Partnership provided the letter that Jones said he issued after the state and the railroad had reached an agreement.

Even at that point, with some former Roanoke railroad employees already reassigned to Norfolk, Jones said he thought Norfolk Southern still would have shifted all former Roanoke workers to Atlanta without Virginias promised grant, forcing those reassigned to move again. If Virginia had reneged on its offer, the risk of them not fulfilling their part of the offer was real, absolutely, he said.

The conversation started shortly before Jan. 27, 2015, when Norfolk Southern notified employees and the public of plans to close its Roanoke office tower, saying it planned to consolidate office functions in Norfolk and Atlanta.

Jones said he asked the railroad to reconsider.

No, that decision has been made, the railroad told Jones, he recollected.

The railroad said it was considering an offer from Atlanta to move all the jobs there, according to Jones.

The question is, what do you want to do? the railroad told Jones, according to his account. I said, I want to compete. I want all the jobs in Norfolk.

Last week, railroad spokeswoman Susan Terpay said the state and city of Norfolk offered incentives to choose Norfolk over Atlanta for those headquarters functions.

Seven months after the announcement, Jones notified members of the General Assembly that Virginia planned to give the railroad a $2.5 million state grant, later revised to $1.93 million, on the condition that the railroad invest $9 million in building improvements at its headquarters, later revised downward to $8.2 million. The city of Norfolk agreed to cut parking rates for the railroad for 10 years, an accommodation worth $2.2 million.

Asked about the size of the state grant relative to the companys investment, Jones said the railroad is a very important corporate citizen who already has 2,000 jobs in Atlanta. This is one where we believe that we needed to make sure we kept as many jobs in Virginia as we possibly could.

Ultimately, the railroad said it would pull 426 jobs out of Roanoke. Of that total, 135 workers left the company and nearly 300 agreed to move. The railroad agreed to situate 165 former Roanoke workers in Norfolk by June 1 and an undisclosed number in Atlanta.

Thinking longer term, Jones said he wanted to reduce the chance that railroad officials would later close the Norfolk headquarters and move it to Atlanta because they had already located so much in Atlanta that it just made good sense to move everything down there.

Jones said hes certain folks didnt want us to just sit back and allow the jobs to go to Georgia and not compete.

Members of Roanoke Valleys legislative delegation were scratching their heads over the weekend over whether Jones had notified the General Assembly of the deal and, if he had, why they hadnt heard about it.

I would have liked to have known about it, said Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, who said he heard about the deal in the newspaper.

His assessment: Id rather them stay in Virginia than go to Atlanta. Id rather they stay in Roanoke. Im not sure that was an option. That was the problem, Edwards said.

Del. Greg Habeeb, R-Salem, said he didnt hear about Jones notice when it came out. Even if he had, it would have been too late for him to get involved, he said. The General Assembly was not in the loop until after the fact, he said.

Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said the grant raises questions about whether more legislative notice or review should be required when weighing requests that shift jobs from one community to another. Even though he sits on a money committee, Newman said he wasnt told about the deal  nor, he said, did the law require it.

Situations like the Norfolk Southern grant are rare, Newman added, and take on a different color than a standard economic development incentive.

This is a case where there are winners and losers as opposed to a normal economic development grant where generally Virginia is the winner, he said, adding that the grant runs the risk of being perceived as a bit of a reverse Robin Hood.

The legislature is in the process of launching a review of the states economic development programs. Newman said it might be appropriate for that review to include a discussion about the states approach to this issue.

Staff writer Alicia Petska contributed to this report.
COVID-19 drove a dramatic increase in the number of women who died from pregnancy or childbirth complications in the U.S. last year, a crisis that has disproportionately claimed Black and Hispanic women as victims. A government report released Wednesday lays out grim trends across the country for expectant mothers and their newborn babies. It finds that pregnancy-related deaths have spiked nearly 80 percent since 2018, with COVID-19 being a factor in a quarter of the 1,178 deaths reported last year. The percentage of preterm and low birthweight babies also went up last year, after holding steady for years. And more pregnant or postpartum women are reporting symptoms of depression.
RICHMOND  Harold Wilson stood in front of TV cameras Monday at the state Capitol with a simple question for those who want to preserve the death penalty in Virginia.

Was it worth killing me? asked Wilson, who in 1989 was convicted of a triple murder in Philadelphia. DNA evidence introduced at a new trial 16 years later exonerated Wilson, freeing him up to speak out as a death penalty opponent.

Wilson, who called himself living proof that the system is broken beyond repair, joined a group of about a dozen religious leaders at a news conference Tuesday to urge the General Assembly to reject the death penalty when the body reconvenes Wednesday to take up Gov. Terry McAuliffes vetoes and amendments.

When you have to resort to secrecy or brutality to keep the machinery of death going, its a sure sign that what were doing is not right, said Bishop Carroll Baltimore, a past president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

A bill the General Assembly passed this year would allow the state to use the electric chair even when a prisoner has chosen to die via lethal injection. McAuliffe rejected the electric chair proposal, instead making a series of amendments that would allow the Department of Corrections to more easily obtain lethal drugs through contracts with pharmacies and outsourcing facilities that would be shielded from public view.

McAuliffe has warned that hell veto the electric chair bill if his proposals are rejected, which he said would effectively mean the end of the death penalty in Virginia.

Speakers at Mondays event, organized by D.C.-based nonprofit Faith in Public Life, said thats exactly what they want to see, citing the prospect of innocent people being put to death and racial disparities in the justice system.

Rich Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, said the governors compromise is no compromise.

This is a sleight of hand that should please neither conservatives nor liberals, said Cizik, of Fredericksburg.

Several participants said questions of life, death and vengeance should be left to God. Imprisonment without parole, they said, leaves room for hope and redemption.

Recently Pope Francis reminded us that the commandment you must not kill has absolute value and pertains to the innocent as well as the guilty, said Sister Ilaria Buonriposi of Richmonds Comboni Missionary Sisters.

McAuliffe, a Catholic who personally opposes the death penalty but has said he will carry out Virginias policy of capital punishment, characterized his proposal as a reasonable solution to a difficult issue.

Virginia gives death row inmates a choice between lethal injection and the electric chair, with lethal injection serving as the default if no choice is made. Since 1995, when prisoners were first given the choice, 80 inmates have been executed by injection. Seven picked the chair.

Several capital punishment states have had difficulty obtaining lethal drugs in recent years because of their controversial purpose. The governor has said the secrecy provision is necessary to enable the state to find willing partners to compound drugs.

Del. Jackson Miller, R-Manassas, the sponsor of the original bill, has said he will encourage colleagues to support the governors amendments to preserve the death penalty as a punishment for heinous crimes.

Some supporters of the governors proposal say opponents should not view the pending legislative action as a way to bring the death penalty to a halt.

You get a governor in there who can sign that bill, and were going back to the electric chair, Senate Minority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, said in an interview last week. Thats the gamble that theyre taking.